“Authority had taken up this plan and enlarged it at the moment of its failure. ‘Naked I was sent back . . . until my task is done,’ said Gandalf.”
–Letter 156 of J.R.R. Tolkien about the death of Gandalf the Grey and his return as Gandalf the White
I won’t compare the events of last Saturday afternoon in rural Pennsylvania to the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. I have a weakness for melodrama, but that’s a bridge too far even for me.
But the renewing effect of a near-death experience is old and powerful in literature and life – perhaps especially when the near-death is out of the blue. There’s no anticipation, no nervousness, no preparation.
The entire reaction occurs after the event is already over. Then, safe and sound, the person whose corporeal self was nearly extinguished is completely and intensely alive. The only evidence that he nearly departed is his shaking head and trembling hands.
OK, maybe his ear is bleeding, too, just to remind him how very, very close to his cranium was the Grim Reaper’s scythe.
Since he never saw it coming, he knows that he escaped not by strength, not by work, not by cunning. He escaped by luck.
Some call it Providence.
Gandalf the Grey (spoiler alert!) dies a horrible death in the course of Tolkien’s tale. The Ring-Bearer and his crew are thusly dealt a severe blow in their quest to save Middle Earth. Without a wizard on the team, they’re a rag-tag band of kids, an elf, a dwarf and a mere man.
But – Holy Smokes! – in the nick of time Gandalf reappears to help save the day and Middle Earth. In his reappearance, he is no longer Grey, but White.
Tolkien explains in the books and his letters (this explanation didn’t make it into the movies – they were quite long enough without it) that Gandalf did indeed “die” in the manner that wizards die, but an authority renewed him – stronger and wiser.
It happens.
Donald Trump will give a speech tonight accepting a nomination to save today’s approximation of Middle Earth from goblins, orks, pedophiles, fallen wizards, ballot harvesters, identity politicians, dragons, idiots, malevolence, vagrants, Antifa, dementia, wokesters, BLM, and sundry other Democrats.
On the first three days of the Convention, Trump seemed different. He seemed more calm, more at peace. Fire no longer spews from his mouth. Rather, a radiance shines from his eyes.
He’s becoming a leader. Not the “FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!” type, although those were his words as his fists pounded the air when he rose from the stage floor last Saturday afternoon.
That was then, when he’d been cowardly ambushed by another messed-up product of our messed-up culture. Trump’s defiance and fight were the natural and right reaction.
But bravado now is unnecessary and unhelpful. Now, he knows he’s been tasked with something big, and so do the people. Now, he and they know that he’s fully capable of performing this task. Now, he and they know his orange head has a purpose more noble than being exploded by a bullet, and more graceful than spouting inflammatory rhetoric.
His old opponents in the Republican Party have gathered round him. He has the endorsement of virtually all of them and many who are new to the Party – from Silicon Valley moguls, to one of the world’s richest men, to each of his vanquished rivals, to an ever-increasing share of Black America, to most Hispanic Americans.
What they see is what I see: A quiet confidence, an unexpected patience, a deep resolve to complete – or at least resume – a task much bigger than he.
The running mate Trump has chosen grew up as a self-described hillbilly in Appalachia, to become a Marine, an Editor of the Yale Law Review, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, and a young Senator. This guy is accustomed to being the smartest person in the room, the hardest working, and the one who has come the farthest.
Trump sees him not as a threat, but an asset. A person to whom he might someday pass the torch.
Trump is no longer a man, you see, but a movement. A mission. We’re witnessing something historic.
the Aspen beat 
“We’re witnessing something historic” is a vast understatement; mankind is witnessing the beginning of the end of human history as it is understood and a new beginning with Yeshua as Moshiach in 2026 Jerusalem.
The failed assassination was a genuine miracle but not a black swan…that is yet to come.
The God of Abraham/Sinai, Yeshua and 1776 has empirically evidenced existence for a cynical world with the Convergence Matrix; a God that has made His presence known with the miraculous protection of Israel under attack by Iran and now Trump. He will do so again and again in no uncertain terms to protect the two men, Trump and Netanyahu, He has chosen to lead and protect America and Israel unto the end of human history just 715 days hence as of July 18, 2024.
The Convergence Matrix holds that history should be looked upon as an equation fusing history and wagering Blaise Pascal’s probabilities mathematics with Judaic scripture e.g. the miracle election of Trump in 2016 has only one analog in history; the Battle of Midway that witnessed all the right assets and all the right people in all the right places at exactly the right time for exactly the same reason…to purchase Americans time to rise and defeat fascism.
US border policy: NONE SHALL PASS!!!!!
This is the party most Americans have wanted for over 50 years… better late than never.
Payback. Jail Time or worse for the guilty democrats. Nothing less.
I BELIEVE BUT NOT A DEEPLY RELIGIOUS PERSON–AMERICAS FATE
HANGS IN THE BALANCE–IT WAS ANSWERED
As they say, first rate people hire first rate people and second rate people hire third rate people.
What does it say about Biden that he chose Harris?
I would only say this … and I am not trying to be the proverbial skunk at the picnic either. I agree 110% with Glenn’s descriptions of DJT and his analogies to Tolkien’s LOTR epic. The references to Tolkien’s characters just reinforces the late great Andrew Breitbart’s keen observation that politics is downstream of culture. And yes, DJT’s MAGA at the RNC is a bona fide movement.
But … and here is the skunk, do not expect the Democrat Party to just roll over and give up. I fully expect that they will double down, even triple down, on whatever Machiavellian ploy they can resort to in order to win at all costs.
The Democrats no longer care about representative “democracy” or representing their constituents. They have become a movement of raw political power, proto-fascist if you like a label, in which the DNC co-opts other institutions throughout society to implement its agenda. This includes the Deep State, public employees’ and teachers’ unions, Big Tech, the MSM, Wall Street, corporate green, the Davos globalists, Antifa, BLM, Hollywood, academia, etc., etc., … you know all the other players.
All these aspects throughout our society seem to operate in tandem with each other … talking points generated by the DNC or Biden’s press secretary go out instantly to their minions at MSNBC, WaPo, NYT, et al, to be regurgitated and dumped like sewage upon an American populace. Any deviation from this propaganda and it’s attacked as “misinformation” and you are labeled as a racist, fascist, and/or mega MAGA super duper conspiracy theorist, and thusly targeted for cancel culture destruction.
I suppose the point I am making is that we should not feel comfortable or secure in knowing that DJT has just had a sort of political “rebirth” after his very close assassination attempt. The Democrats are relentless in their desire to hold power, because so many of them feel that without that power, all they have is the abyss.
Why else would somebody like Joe Biden stay in political power for over 50 years? Because deep down, he knows that he is a real POS and he could never successfully grow a business into a prosperous enterprise, nor could he ever cut it in the private sector where results matter, and there is always a bottom line to everything. Joe Biden has never had nor uttered an original thought. Even his bad ideas are typically plagiarized from other political mediocrities throughout political history.
The conservative movement, especially after the attempted assassination and the now concluded and very inspirational and successful RNC in Milwaukee, cannot rest on these laurels and expect to coast to victory in November. The conservative movement needs to also double-down and triple-down its efforts to counter the trench warfare tactics that the Democrats will engage in during the next 100+ days to the November election.
Mabuhay from Camarines Sur in The Philippines … wishing you all Godspeed and, g’day!