The Olympic Games are getting underway in Paris on Friday, a reminder of what once was a glorious sporting event now corrupted beyond measure by corporate sponsorships, cheating athletes, and cloying network coverage.
Fifty years ago, there were no professionals competing for the United States. Today, they're all professionals, paid top dollar so they can train full-time for the glory of the country. They are sponsored by Coke, Pepsi, GM, and dozens of the largest corporations in the world.
Even the USA Canoe Slalom Olympic Team has sponsors.
The preparations for the games have taken seven years, so naturally, France is on edge, hoping everything goes off without a hitch.
Is a sabotage of the French rail network considered a "hitch"?
France’s high-speed train lines were targeted by multiple “malicious” acts including arson on Friday, in what has been described as “an attack on France” and “coordinated sabotage” to disrupt travel ahead of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics.
The French state railway company SNCF said in a post on X that “a large number of trains were diverted or canceled,” and asked “all travelers who can to postpone their trip and not go to the station.”
Who's behind it? The French government and the rail company don't say. For a list of suspects, see "telephone book."
An intelligence source told CNN that French intelligence services are “fully mobilized” to find those responsible. The source added that “these methods have been used by the far-left in the past” but “there is no evidence to tie today’s actions to them.”
It would have been nice if they had headed off the attack before it happened. I smell a state-sponsored attack given the fact that the intel services never got a whiff of it.
It appears that Pollyanna snuck into a security briefing.
Gérald Darmanin, France’s interior minister, said at a meeting about Olympics security that, setting aside the arson attacks, “things were perfectly positive” in Paris, where authorities had not identified “any particular problem” ahead of the opening ceremony. “All that is left is to hope for good weather,” he quipped.
"All's well! Remain calm!"
One rail company said its train service would be disrupted until Monday due to "a fire near the tracks in Courtalain, northern France impacting services to Paris."
SNCF (the French National Railway) CEO Jean-Pierre Farandou explained they have to pull the damaged cables that are used to protect the train drivers out one by one, reconnect them, and test them. “It’s a question of security,” he said. “We have to make sure we test them so when trains are back up and running, they are safe.”
The French Minister of Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Amélie Oudéa-Castera said the disruption to the train lines are “a sort of coordinated sabotage.”
Speaking to BFMTV, Oudéa-Castera condemned the attacks in the “strongest possible terms,” and said it is “truly appalling.”
“We will assess the impacts on travelers, athletes, and ensure the proper transport of all delegations to the competition sites,” she said.
Other French officials agreed that the attacks were intentional. Attal said the incidents were “prepared and organized” in a way that “shows a kind of knowledge of the network in order to know where to strike,” while the SNCF called the disruption an “attack on France.”
Is this a bad time to mention the bomb threat at an airport on the French-Swiss border causing an evacuation?
EuroAirport, located on the French-German-Swiss border, was evacuated and flights suspended Friday morning following a bomb threat.
Located near Basel (Switzerland), Mulhouse (France), and Freiburg (Germany), the airport was cleared after a bomb threat, EuroAirport confirmed to POLITICO.
Alarm had been raised over an Air France flight headed to Paris, Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera reported.
This was not exactly the start of the Paris Olympics that the French were hoping for. Looking on the bright side, things can only get better, right?
Right?
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