Daily Verse | Exodus 1:8
Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph,
came to power in Egypt.

Friday. Did you realize you lived through a moment of a rare parallel alignment yesterday? At 9:21:21 PM last night, it was (using military time) 21:21:21 on the 21st day of the 21st year of the 21st century.

What’s that you say? You blinked? No worries, the next time it occurs is January 22, 2122. If you’re hardy (and young) enough, you might just be there.

I read a few reports on yesterday’s inauguration. One in particular was British reporter Katie Hopkins’ first hand report in Frontpage Mag.

There is no one here … What I mean is that there is literally no one here. Even pressed up to the gates within sight of the Capitol Building there is barely a handful of Biden supporters — alongside a small gaggle of media, scratching about, trying to find something to film.

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This should be an historical moment for the country. Instead it feels like an illusion, fabricated for the TV, right down to the made-for-TV flags and columns of light on the mall.

Not only is the city completely abandoned by ordinary Americans, but it feels like a military garrison, courtesy of 25,000 National Guard troops, police, and Secret Service posted at every intersection.

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D.C. now feels like one giant stage built entirely for a drama of the Democrats’ own creation. I’d argue the troops are being used as bit-part actors, for crowd scenes and effect. If you wanted to create the illusion that the Trump administration turned America into a war zone, what better way than to make D.C. a green zone, build ramparts and blockades, and fill it with troops, trucks, and men with weapons?

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It feels numb here, like watching surgery on your own hand when you are anesthetized against the pain, but can still see the knife cutting flesh and watch your own blood flow. That’s exactly what it is like in D.C. Without people, there is no emotion. And without emotion, no one can feel anything. And just like surgery, it feels unreal.

It is emotion that makes these events matter. And there is none to be had here. This is a sterilized inauguration in a city sanitized by a garrison of troops. All you can feel is numb.

In other words, the inauguration was a hollow spectacle. The illusionary nature of our republic has been developing for a long time and the Chinese Lung Pox just shook loose the final pretensions.

Oh, it still looks like the real thing. We have our pageantry and symbols and a world-class military. But with increasingly rare exceptions, they are devoid of the historic nobility and meaning they originally carried.

That’s what Donald J. Trump was trying to return to us.

Some time ago David Burge tweeted:

He might have been talking about the University of Iowa at the time. Everything looks the same on the outside—the buildings, the campus, the school song—but what’s being taught on the inside has changed beyond recognition. And not in a good way.

Something similar has happened in the U.S. Cultural Marxists have identified respected institutions—schools, churches, the military, legislatures—and have killed and gutted them through progressive policies and activism, and now wear them as “skin suits” while demanding the respect such institutions used to provide.

A perfect example is Joe Biden attending mass before the inauguration but once sitting in the Oval Office will reverse the Mexico City Policy that blocks federal funding for non-governmental organizations providing support for abortion. When asked about Biden’s policy, press secretary Jen Psaki said she would have more information in the coming days, and noted that Biden is “a devout Catholic, and somebody who attends church regularly.”

I am wearing the religious skin suit. Respect it!

Same with the inauguration. It looks the same—west side of the U.S. Capitol, dignitaries and former presidents in attendance, the big family Bible, the same oath—but those are now merely accessories, like a purse or a belt. Morally bankrupt imposters like Biden and Harris wrap themselves in patriotic accoutrements, but possess neither the character nor the honor to live out the creed our cherished traditions represent.

It’s a charade. And it’s also a disgrace.