January 1

NIGHTY NIGHT TO THE BEKNIGHTEDS

Rudy Giuliani hardly has any reason to welcome the rollover into 2024. After a devastating 2023 where he was thrashed about by the courts for his collusion with former President ‘Stinky,’ losing badly in Georgia to the suits filed by poll workers Moss and Freeman for whom he will have to labor until the end of time to pay the damages awarded…bankruptcy notwithstanding. Now, Robert Harrington in his Palmer Report post reminds us that a 2002 honorary knighthood, bestowed upon ‘America’s Mayor’ by Queen Elizabeth II, for his ‘heroism’ following the events on 9/11 is in jeopardy. The queen would be beside herself as she reexamines the ceremonial sword for sharpness…if she were still with us…for being duped following a few emotional speeches by the attention-seeking mayor of NYC. Being a Knight of the British Empire is a distinguished honorific, but because he isn’t a British citizen, he can’t be addressed as ‘Sir Rudy.’ Can we imagine how the judges in our courts system might be expected to kowtow to his KBE title? Sir Rudy, indeed! We can only be thankful that Trump was never so honored since QEII quietly hated his guts! Harrington says, “So what? When people revert to Rudy Giuliani as ‘America’s Mayor’ they do so with a certain acid sarcasm anyway. A dumpster by any other name would smell as foul.”

Harrington goes on, “So who cares? Well, I do for one. I want to strip him of all honors. I want to hurt and humiliate him further, because he’s evil, and because he’s unseemly in his boastfulness about 9/11. As President Biden once so famously put it, everything about Rudy boils down to three things, ‘A noun, a verb, and 9/11.'” Robert wants the British government to take away his KBE “before he dies in the infamy, penury, and universal contempt he so richly deserves.” Since the British have a committee for everything, in this case, the ‘forfeiture committee,’ a procedure for relieving Mr. G of his shiny trinket exists. If a person is convicted of a crime for which he is sentenced to three or more years in prison…POOF!…no KBE! Should Rudy expire before this can be accomplished…double POOF!…no more Rudy, no more KBE. As a former resident of New York City, now residing in England, Harrington continues, and concludes, his vindictiveness with, “So, for what it’s worth, for next Christmas, among other things, I’d like to see Rudy in prison and stripped of his KBE. It’s a small thing, I know, but after having to endure vicarious abuse for years at the hands of this toxic, hateful, psychotic little bastard, it is a thing much to be desired.” Tell us what you REALLY think, Mr. Harrington!

Soon to be awarded the Melania Trump ‘I really don’t care. Do U?’ jacket is Nikki Haley…to cover her Stars and Bars t-shirt, of course. Her molasses-coated ‘surge’ in the presidential polls headed in the opposite direction after her ill-conceived answer about the origins of the American Civil War during a recent town hall event in Berlin, NH. Turning her back on the questioner to collect her thoughts, while feeling she had been broadsided with an unfair query, she came back with a mouthful of ‘states rights and freedoms’ gobbledygook which at least satisfied some of the MAGAts in attendance. But the final blow came when she was given the coup de grace…“Why did you not mention slavery?” The deer-caught-in-the-headlights expression told it all, when she could only respond with a question, “What do you want me to say about slavery?” The questioner, removing his sword, reposted, “You’ve answered my question.” The barrage of criticisms began immediately, and after an all-nighter of reading some history books, Haley tried to salvage her faux pas by saying essentially, “Everybody knows it was about slavery…that’s a given.” Unless you’re trying to rewrite an ugly history, Nikki! Say ‘hello’ to Ron DeSantis on your way down…he’s in the Campaign Deathwatch Lobby! Next?

And who can forget Governor Ron’s claim that “some enslaved people developed skills that ‘could be applied for their personal benefit'”? Haley’s attempt to court independent and moderate voters in her campaign resulted in outrageous fallout after her ‘slavery’ mishap. The GOP Big Three leaders in the presidential campaign have distorted our history and the racial question in such provocative and polarizing fashion, all of which have stoked outrage with some; but their rhetoric has appeal to conservatives who resent the liberal point of view that we should atone for past sins, especially as we see cultural shifts due to immigration. The rest of the world has moved on, but the GOP find the changes unnerving. A biracial Colin Kaepernick taking a knee to protest police brutality as the national anthem plays? Or NASCAR doing away with the Confederate Stars and Bars flag, flown prominently at their races for years? And what about Governor Nikki Haley removing the Confederate flag from the South Carolina State House in 2015, following the racist massacre at a Black church Bible study? What is this world coming to? Which of you are still watching a black and white TV, receiving less than ten channels, with aluminum foil on the rabbit ears antenna?

During her campaigning in Iowa, Haley mentioned the flag removal event, as she described her role in understanding both sides of the issue as she sought consensus. She explained that 50% in her state saw the Stars and Bars as heritage and tradition, with 50% seeing only slavery and hate. Her job was not in judging either side. “Leaders aren’t supposed to decide who’s right or wrong or good or bad…what a leader does is know where people are, and communicate their way forward to get to a better place,” she says. However, she began her campaign with a speech declaring, “America is not a racist country,” emphasizing her caution and her tendency to stay on script for the GOP…and perhaps some MAGAts. “She’s a fear-driven candidate. She’s so afraid of offending somebody in the base that she goes to the word-salad thing,” says Republican strategist Mike Murphy. A search of her past comments drew parallels to the present, where in a 2010 statement she described the Civil War as a fight between “tradition” and “change.” Opponent Chris Christie attacked this comment as a warning to voters to avoid candidates who are “afraid of offending people who support Donald Trump. The Civil War was not a choice between change and tradition. It was a choice between right and wrong and that’s it. And we’ve got to stand on the side of right”

Haley’s state of South Carolina was the first state to secede from the US in 1860, and the first to take up arms against the North. Haley can’t write that out of the history books, nor can she be unaware that preservation of slavery was paramount in that history. The November 3, 1860 issue of the Charleston Mercury printed: “The issue before the country is the extinction of slavery. No man of common sense, who has observed the progress of events, and who is not prepared to surrender the institution, with the safety and independence of the South, can doubt that the time for action has come – now or never. The Southern States are now in crisis fo their fate; and, if we read aright the signs of the times, nothing is needed for our deliverance, but that the ball of revolution be set in motion. The existence of slavery is at stake. The evils of submission are too terrible for us to risk them, from vague fears of failure, or a jealous distrust of our sister Cotton States.”  Then, the dominoes start to fall.

It’s a relief to see the Holidays disappear for another year, and certainly we were all buoyed by Trump’s inspiring Christmas message rants calling out “Crooked Joe Biden” and “Deranged Jack Smith” and others who are “looking to destroy our once great USA. MAY THEY ROT IN HELL, AGAIN, MERRY CHRISTMAS!” Of course, his verbiage was more extensive than the above, but who needs it? Quite a contest to Biden’s “Today, may the light of the first Christmas illuminate your homes, warm your hearts, and kindle your hopes for the years to come. From the Biden family, we wish you and your family a peaceful and healthy holiday.” And, rightfully, #Trumpsmells is proliferating. Jingle bells, Donald smells, Melania laid an egg…or something like that.

Recently, Home Alone 2 director, Chris Columbus, divulged that Trump forced his way into a cameo in his movie, as a bribe to allow use of Trump Tower as one of the film’s locations. Trump responded to Chris by saying he was “very busy, and didn’t want to do” a cameo, but that his appearance led to the movie’s success. Done laughing? Bill Palmer, in his The Palmer Report, writes, “In reality, decent people everywhere are trying to distance themselves from Donald Trump more thoroughly than ever. He’s a domestic terrorist who tried to overthrow the US government and stole classified documents, and he’s awaiting criminal trial for all of it. Of course the director of Home Alone 2 wants nothing to do with him. Macaulay Culkin, star of Home Alone and Home Alone 2, has previously called for Trump’s cameo to be removed.” Alright, Mac! Get those paint cans and Hot Wheels ready! Almost as satisfying as watching Rudy lose a KBE!

Happy New Year!