Pope Francis with Shiite leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani (Vatican Website)
We had an interesting week last week. The news was marked by several incidents of anti-Semitism in the U.S. And people like Sacha Baron Cohen, Bob Iger and the Pope made headlines.
An NBA player was put on leave by the Miami Heat and fined by the NBA for using the word Kike in a silly video. So what did Meyers Leonard say that was so offensive? The NBA player was filmed playing the video game “Call of Duty: Warzone” with friends. During the video he can be heard calling another player “Kike.” His exact words were, “F***ing cowards. Don’t f***ing snipe at me. You k*** b**ch.”
This does not really sound like such a big deal. But what was one was an incident which took place in Detroit that proved once again that the so called BDS is full of BS. An Arab Muslim who styles himself as a YouTube star openly harassed the Jewish patrons at a local Kosher market in Detroit Michigan in a brazen act of anti-Semitism. Just by sheer coincidence, the Detroit area happens to have a large Muslim immigrant community in addition to a strong Jewish one.
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But these incidents were tempered by the Pope’s visit to Iraq. The Pope’s plane flew through Israeli airspace while he was on route to Iraq. While flying above the Holy Land Pope Francis sent a personal greeting to Israel’s President Reuvin Rivlin. “To His Excellency Reuven Rivlin, President of the State of Israel. Entering Israeli airspace on my Apostolic journey to Iraq, I send warm greetings to you and the people of the nation,” said Pope Francis. “Praying that almighty God will bless you all with His gift of harmony and peace. Franciscus Papa.”
Sacha Baron Cohen Jimmy Kimmel (Jimmy Kimmel Live screen shot)
Well on the lighter side Sacha Baron Cohen was caught on camera selling Covid vaccinations to his fellow celebrities. In a live video interview on Jimmy Kimmel’s show the Borat star was caught red handed in the middle of one such drug deal. Apparently the people claiming that the Jews have special access to Covid vaccinations are onto something.
Now that was actually a funny bit, so kudos to Baron Cohen. His wife Isla Fisher also played along with the joke in a cameo appearance. But now for something really funny: Geraldo Rivera wants to run for the open Senate seat in Ohio.
If you stopped laughing yet you should know that this is no joke. Rivera is really talking about a run in his adopted state. Well if Donald Trump can get elected President of the United States then surely it is no stretch to see someone like Rivera get elected to the Senate.
And as for Donald Trump, well the former President is not happy with his still current son-in-law Jared Kushner. He blames Kushner for his election defeat. And Trump is also angry at his own Republican Party for using his image for fundraising. There is historical precedent here. Benito Mussolini’s own son-in-law was one of the people who deposed him from power in 1943.
As for Jared, the husband of model Ivanka Trump who has been successful in fashion by trading on her father’s name, and the son of a successful real estate tycoon and convicted felon, plans to write a book about his experience working at the White House. Political experts expect to learn from it how Kushner personally saved the world from the Coronavirus disaster and prevented an alien invasion too.
As for genuinely self-made people who really did earn their own successes in life, Bob Iger is planning on stepping down as Chairman of the Walt Disney Company at the end of the year. He had served previously as its chairman for fifteen years. Iger moved over to Disney from ABC where he worked his way up to company president after starting at the bottom.
