Tag: Rudy Giuliani

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

Appeasing the Mighty Oz

CREDIT: REUTERS | Brian Snyder

Was it really just a week ago that I was sitting up late with politics editor Jackson Baker and Flyer art director Carrie Beasley (in our own homes) waiting to decide what cover to run for our issue covering the 2020 election results? It seems a month ago now. At least.

We had three covers mocked up and ready to go to the printer, each with an appropriate photo. One was called “Biden FTW!” which we thought would have been a great reversal of our now-infamous (and eBay gold) “WTF?” Trump cover from 2016.

REUTERS | Brian Snyder

And we had one we were hoping never to have to run called “Trump Again!” with a smiling, thumbs-up-waving Don the Con. The third possibility was the one we finally chose: “Too Close to Call!”

Jackson had three versions of the lead paragraphs to the cover story ready to go. And I’d written three versions of my column. My “too close to call” column was titled “The Waiting is the Hardest Part” because, well, I like Tom Petty and why not? It turned out to be one of the most prescient things I ever wrote. I shoulda bought a lottery ticket.

I said if the ballot counting went on for several days, President Trump would do his best to sow discord and divisiveness and doubt about the integrity of our electoral process. Right on all counts.

I added: “Trump will remain in office (win or lose) until January, so there will be at least a couple more months of chaos and drama, of tweeting and conspiracy theories, and who knows what other kinds of outrages.” Bingo.

There were lots of things I couldn’t have predicted, of course — like Rudy Giuliani and a “witness” who turned out to be a convicted sex offender holding a Philadelphia press conference on a parking lot at Four Seasons Total Landscaping — next to a dildo store. That was straight out of a jump-the-shark episode of Veep.

Another thing I didn’t predict but should have been able to, in hindsight, is that the majority of the GOP leadership — national, statewide, and locally — would go along with Trump’s antics, as would most of Trump’s media allies. As a result, there has been a week-long drumbeat of lies, exaggerations, and false discrediting of the nation’s election process.

We knew, at some level, this was part of the plan. All the pre-election polling had Trump losing, so blocking people from voting became Job 1. The U.S. Postal Service was enlisted to delay delivery of mail-in ballots. The number of voting sites and drop-off boxes were systematically cut in red states. Numerous last-minute lawsuits by GOP operatives were filed to try to disqualify various kinds of ballots not cast on Election Day.

Sowing doubt on the counting process was Job 2: GOP legislatures in key states (Michigan and Pennsylvania, to name two), passed laws requiring local election commissions to refrain from counting mail-in, drop-off, and absentee ballots until Election Day, thereby ensuring several days of drama as the mandated post-Election Day count played out around the country — days that could be used to spread conspiracy theories and further incite the most rabid of Trump’s supporters.

Imagine how much angst the country would have been spared if other swing states used Florida’s system, which allows counting of mail-in and absentee ballots as they arrive. Florida’s results were basically in on election night. How great would it have been for the country to have been able to go to bed Tuesday night knowing the results of the presidential election, instead of having to wait four days? Really great, is how.

Except that would have spoiled the plan to delegitimize the electoral process, one Trump had been setting up for weeks by refusing to say that he’d accept the results of the election. And now, the game continues. No concession from the president, no work getting done. He’s just firing people, tweeting, and playing golf.

Meanwhile, Biden is almost five million votes ahead in the popular vote and has an insurmountable lead in the Electoral College. If Trump had any integrity or respect for the election process — or a grown-up brain — he’d do the right thing and concede. We shouldn’t hold our breath. My prediction is that when I’m writing my next column a week from now, he still won’t have done it.

The only question is how long will other Republicans play along to appease the Mighty Butthurt Oz.

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Sacha Baron Cohen Returns to Skewer Us in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

In 1831, a French magistrate named Alexis de Tocqueville conned his government, known as the July Monarchy, into sending him on a trip to the United States, ostensibly to investigate the prison system. For nine months, he and a friend traveled through the young republic, making cursory visits to prisons while observing the people and institutions that had grown up in the four decades since the Constitution was adopted.

The French Revolution, which quickly followed the American one, had ended in terror and failure, reverting to a constitutional monarchy. De Tocqueville asked why the United States succeeded where the French had failed. What did it mean for a subject of a monarchy to become a citizen of a democracy? And how, the abolitionist Frenchman asked, did the country that so valued equality and human rights reconcile those views with the institution of slavery? In 1835, he published the first volume of Democracy in America. The book is considered one of the first works of modern sociology and political science, and is required reading for any student of American history.

Maria Bakalova joins the expedition as Borat’s daughter, Tutar.

Around 174 years later, in 2006, “Borat Sagdiyev” toured America in order to make a documentary he could take back to his native Kazakhstan, so the people of that brutal post-Soviet dictatorship could learn what it meant to be a citizen of a democracy in the 21st century. The resulting film, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, became something of a modern classic — for some people, anyway. Kazakhstan, and the plaintiffs behind seven lawsuits seeking millions of dollars in damages from the film’s producers, were less impressed. But Kazakh diplomat Yerlan Askerbekov wrote that the film allowed audiences to “get an outsider’s view of the U.S. and reveal the prejudices of the Americans who Borat interacts with, functioning as a sort of 21st century Alexis de Tocqueville.”

Borat is, of course, not really from Kazakhstan. He’s British-born comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. The character Borat first appeared on Da Ali G Show, the British comedy show where Baron Cohen would adopt different personae and do interviews with unsuspecting people in “real life” situations. Airing on HBO in the U.S., it was a game-changer, blending reality television with fairly high-minded pranks. At least, they were high-minded compared to the oodles of prank shows that now infest YouTube.

On the eve of the most important election in America in generations, Baron Cohen brought Borat out of retirement and once again sent him on a tour of America. What he found in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan was a country at once familiar and transformed. Since Borat is now a known prankster, he brought along his daughter Tutar (Maria Bakalova) to take point on some of the more delicate operations.

Borat’s mission, as it says in the title, is to bribe Vice President Michael Pence with the gift of a monkey. When the monkey doesn’t survive the trip from Central Asia, Borat decides to use his daughter as the bribe instead. The high point of Subsequent Moviefilm is when Baron Cohen walks into the Conservative Political Action Conference dressed in KKK robes, changes into a rather uncanny Donald Trump costume in the bathroom, and interrupts Pence’s speech with Tutar thrown over his shoulder.

The looks of horror and confusion in the room full of Republican activists are what you want out of a Borat movie. But what comes before is even more shocking. The conference was held at the end of February 2020, and Pence dutifully repeats the administration’s line that only 15 people have COVID, and that the coronavirus was no threat to Americans. As I write this, more than 225,000 Americans have died of the virus, more than any other country in the world. CPAC is suing, but not for that.

Baron Cohen adapted to the pandemic, which broke out while he was filming, by quarantining himself with a pair of alt-right QAnon fans. The scenes are equally funny and queasy. I am not a huge fan of cringe comedy (it makes me cringe), but I found Borat repeatedly wringing laughs from me. Borat is cluelessly retrograde in his social beliefs and mores. This time around, he makes himself the butt of the joke even more than usual, foregrounding Tutar’s arc into a kind of feminism. Bakalova is the star of the instantly infamous scene where she entraps Rudolph Giuliani into what he thinks is going to be a tryst with a naive young reporter in a hotel room. In context, it’s kind of anticlimactic. They’re probably going to get sued again.

One thing’s for sure: Baron Cohen and Bakalova have ice water in their veins. Sometimes their counterparts are not unwitting — scenes with a Black babysitter look more like a pro-am improv session. But when it works, it’s a sight to behold. Subsequent Moviefilm delivers queasy laughs for a queasy time in America. Watch it before or after you vote.

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm is streaming on Amazon Prime.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

No Mas! The Worst Campaign Ever is About to End.

CREDIT: Gary Cameron | reuters

Is it over yet? Somebody please make it stop. Like Popeye the Sailor Man used to say, “That’s all I can stands, and I can’t stands no more.” This is the vilest, most repugnant election in recent memory — maybe ever. And if you’re still one of those people who think both candidates are equally atrocious, you need to get your news from another source — maybe from one of those mainstream outlets that actually believe in responsible journalism. Hillary may be duplicitous and opportunistic, but Trump leaves a trail of slime behind him wherever he goes, like a garden snail. I know I’m not alone in wishing this ugly torrent of daily disgust would just go away.

Reputable sources have said that the new Facebook reality show, Trump Tower Live, is a stalking horse for a Trump TV network, in case he doesn’t get the presidentential gig. According to New York magazine, Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is building a database of 14 million email addresses and credit card numbers, so even when Trump loses the election, we can still enjoy his daily rants and midnight tweets 24/7 — or at least until the venture fails like so many other of Trump’s skeezy products.

The Orange Blossom Special took time out from campaigning last week to drag the press to the grand opening of his new Washington, D.C., hotel, where room prices have been slashed by half because no one wants the name Trump appearing on their credit cards. His malignant campaign remarks have damaged his brand so badly that a new hotel chain to open next year will not be called Trump anything, but Scion, which means, “a person born into a rich, famous, or important family.” I guess it gives the kids something to do.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton has to be the luckiest candidate of all time. Anyone barely sane on the Republican side would have had an excellent chance of winning the White House, but Donnie keeps stepping on his dick. Can I say that the number of women accusing Trump of grabbing them by the pussy has risen to 12? The latest is the former Miss Finland, who was publicly humiliated by Trump and has a YouTube video to prove it.

Trump also traveled to the Gettysburg battlefield to attempt a Lincolnesque address. But where Lincoln pledged to unite a divided country, Trump promised to file lawsuits against his female accusers after the election.

And nobody has a seedier bunch of surrogates than Trump. Chris Christie has exited stage right and will likely be summoned to appear in court to defend himself of charges of lying and abuse of power for Bridgegate. His closest former staffers have outed him. But Don still has Rudy Giuliani and Newt Gingrich, all serial adulterers with nine wives between them. Trump was being advised by former Fox News head, Roger Ailes, himself the target of multiple lawsuits claiming sexual misconduct before he was bounced from the network, but even Ailes decided to quit the campaign over Trump’s inability to accept anyone’s advice but his own.

Gary Cameron | reuters

James Comey

Hillary’s “October surprise” came in a letter to Congress by FBI Director James Comey, stating that new emails had surfaced from a laptop shared by Clinton aide, Huma Abedin, and her estranged husband, former congressman Anthony Weiner, aka “Carlos Danger: Private Dick.” Weiner had a separate account for his fetishistic behavior which resulted in an investigation of his allegedly sexting with a 15-year-old girl, but Comey, “in an abundance of caution,” said that he had not seen the new emails and that they may, or may not, have any significance to Secretary Clinton.

Trump gleefully pounced, saying that the FBI had “reopened” the case against Clinton and that this was “the biggest political scandal since Watergate.” It’s worth pointing out that Comey was a Bush appointee picked by Obama to head the FBI in a gesture of bipartisanship. Big mistake. Comey was the second-highest official in Dubya’s justice department, former head council for Lockheed Martin — the country’s largest defense contractor — a hedge-fund millionaire, and the lawyer who put away Martha Stewart. Last July, in a breach of protocol, after Comey had absolved Clinton of any criminality in the investigation of her emails, he openly castigated her for “carelessness.” It was the first time that the FBI publicly disclosed its recommendations to the Justice Department, which advised Comey against sending his letter to Congress. Eleven days before the election, Comey sent the letter anyway, which said, in part, “Given that we don’t know the significance (of the emails), I don’t want to create a misleading impression.”

Along with the Clinton campaign calling foul, dozens of former federal prosecutors signed an open letter critical of Comey. Minority Leader Harry Reid accused him of violating the Hatch Act, which bans the use of a federal government position to influence an election. If I were Obama, I’d fire his ass tomorrow if it wouldn’t rile up the renegades. As it is, Comey should be gone on the 9th of November.

So, what else can happen in this brutal election where the rough beast slouches toward Bethlehem to be born? You have an Australian, Julian Assange, holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London with a Wikileaks vendetta against Mrs. Clinton; widespread agreement among cybersecurity experts that Russian government hackers are behind the theft of DNC communications; a candidate that constantly cozies up to Vladimir Putin; and an FBI Director who, purposefully or not, has gravely interfered in a close presidential election. Who does James Comey think he is, J. Edgar Hoover?

Randy Haspel writes the “Recycled Hippies” blog, where a version of this column first appeared.

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said (March 5, 2015) …

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Joe Boone’s cover story, “All About That Uptown Funk” …

In Greymouth, New Zealand, in a pub housed in a structure that leaned with age, I witnessed local men stop their drinking and their conversations to dance and sing uninhibitedly to “Uptown Funk.” They had no idea where the song was recorded. Memphis travels everywhere, with influence!

David Rainey

About Toby Sells’ cover story, “The Coliseum” …

Save the Coliseum. It can still be a vital use to the city. I can’t imagine that it would cost more to upgrade/repair the Coliseum than to tear it down and build this sports complex that no one seems to want except Wharton and Lipscomb. I don’t trust Robert Lipscomb’s or Kevin Kane’s assessment of the building since they both want to tear it down. And that no-compete clause with FedExForum was the most stupid business decision this city has ever made.

Pamela Cate

About Chris Shaw’s story “Music Fest Mayhem” …

Don’t miss Savoy Brown, old school, heavy metal English rock at its finest. Some of their members were in town last year for the Blues Foundation awards, and they after-partied at Earnestine & Hazel’s and put on a killer show with some other old English rockers.

MemphisTigers

The indie/folk/Americana genre is particularly strong this year with Avetts, Wilco, Jenny Lewis, Shovels and Rope, Alejandro Escovedo, Bela, and Ryan Adams. Very excited.

Priceless109

About Jackson Baker’s story, “MPA’s Mike Williams Promises Viable Campaign” …

We sure don’t need a union boss running the city.

Clyde

Union boss or not, Mike has shown his love and concern for the city of Memphis. He stood up to the mayor and city clowns to let them know they are hurting the proud city employees. Yes, there are slackers, thugs, and clowns mixed in, but at the heart of all of it, there are more good employees than bad. The good ones are leaving because this has harmed our families. Voters, you get what you paid for. Put in someone who’s looking out for Memphis, not themselves. Look at the whole picture, not just pieces. And make a choice you will not regret after a year.

Misery

About Randy Haspel’s Rant on Rudy Giuliani …

I’ve never cared for Rudy. Somehow, he thought New Yorkers couldn’t be trusted exercising their inherent constitutional rights, unlike citizens in other cities and states. Of course, the NYC elitists enjoyed their rights, but it was taboo for everyone else. But Rudy’s spot-on about Obama, and only a simpleton who has been living in a leftist progressive hole for the past seven years would not know it.

As for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, what he forgot about executive administrative performance, creating budget surpluses, and putting the people’s money taken from them by corrupt public unions back in their pockets, Obama will never know. If the timid and passive Republicans decide to back him for president in 2016, he just might win. At this stage, they’re not gonna win the White House with anyone else.

Nightcrawler

About Toby Sells’ post, “Allegiant Brings Low-Cost Air Service to Memphis” …

As long as travelers watch their baggage plans, Allegiant is going to be a great addition to Memphis’ airport. Just don’t get caught without prepaid luggage and measure carefully, and take advantage of their aggressive prices!

Flights to all three destinations look to be only on Fridays and Mondays. Which is a good start, but not ideal for cruisers, as you’ll likely have to spend a night on at least one end of the cruise. Still, a great start!

better by design

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

The Rant (February 26, 2015)

CREDIT: Randy Miramontez | Dreamstime.com

Just when I was convinced that Rudy Giuliani was the most despicable primate drawing breath, along comes Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker to play “What, me worry?” over Rudy’s abominable remarks. Just in case you missed it, the former “America’s mayor,” was speaking at a GOP fundraiser for the Wisconsin governor’s fledgling presidential campaign and made some stunningly ugly accusations about the president. Just so there’s no question about context, here’s the full quote: “I do not believe — and I know this is a horrible thing to say — but I do not believe that the president loves America. He doesn’t love you. And he doesn’t love me. He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of country.”

Randy Miramontez | Dreamstime.com

Rudy Giuliani

Considering the room was filled with right-wing business executives and conservative media whores, the statement about who Obama loves has a ring of truth to it. But never in history has a president been questioned about his love of country. When Rudy’s ignorant opinion was roundly criticized as stone-cold racism, he was forced to backtrack in a damage control appearance on “Fox & Friends.” But he only trumpeted his lack of self-awareness saying, “Some people thought (the comment) was racist. I thought that was a joke since he was brought up, by the way, by a white mother, a white grandfather, went to white schools, and most of this he learned from white people.” Well Rudy, that’s mighty white of you to say. This sinks Rudy to the bottom of the extremist scum-bucket with Glenn Beck, who famously said on Republican National Television, “This president, I think, has exposed himself as a guy, over and over and over again, who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture.” When did the GOP adopt the Ku Klux Klan’s playbook? And to think this fool ran for president until he was sliced and diced by Joe Biden who said Rudy only needed three things to make a sentence: “a noun, a verb, and 9/11.” Rudy recently made race-baiting comments concerning Ferguson, Missouri, and accused Obama of smearing the NYPD after the choke-hold murder of Eric Garner. And yet, the GOP still respects his judgment. Remember Bernie Kerick? He was the commissioner of the NYPD during the 9/11 attacks and was subsequently recommended by Giuliani to President Dubya as the head of the Department of Homeland Security. His nomination was withdrawn when it was discovered that he employed an illegal-immigrant nanny, took “escorts” for love trysts in an apartment overlooking Ground Zero ostensibly reserved for first responders, and lied under oath about how a civil servant making $30,000 a year could afford $255,000 in home renovations. This was Rudy’s right-hand man who, after a three-year stint in prison, is searching for a job as a counter-terrorism expert. Even conservative firebrand Darrell Issa said that Rudy never got the dust from 9/11 out of his lungs. More than one doctor publicly speculated that Rudy was showing early symptoms of Asperger’s Syndrome.

Which brings us to Governor Walker, the unlettered executive. Walker is so spineless, he may as well be a Democrat. When asked on CSNBC if he agreed with the former mayor’s malicious remarks, Walker said, “I’m not going to comment on what the president thinks or not … I tell you I love America. … I think we should talk about the ways in which we love this country.”

Answering a question from the Washington Post about the president’s faith, Walker said, “I don’t know,” if Obama is a Christian. “I’ve actually never talked about it or I haven’t read about that,” adding, “At the end of the day, God is in control.” A spokeswoman for the Governor immediately followed up with a press release emphasizing, “Of course the governor thinks the President is a Christian.”

Wasn’t there something in the Constitution about religious tests for public office? It doesn’t really matter. A recent Pew Poll found that 34 percent of Republicans believe the president is a Muslim. Scott Walker’s recent trip to London was a bust when he said he would “punt” on a question regarding evolution, sending the British press into spasms of laughter. Sooner or later, Walker will have to take a stand on something other than union busting or doing the bidding of his telephone pal, David Koch.

Now that Fox News has declared that “the Holy War is here,” and ISIS is burning captives alive, who cares about useless prattle over the president’s patriotism or whether he sufficiently loves America enough to suit the Tea Party. Giuliani has been accused by Republican operators of being a draft dodger with six separate deferments from the Vietnam War, yet he is a major critic of Obama’s foreign policy and a cheerleader for wars that involve other people’s children. Rudy recently publicly gushed with praise over Vladimir Putin’s decisive leadership. Governor Walker, after surviving a recall election, leaves the state of Wisconsin with a $283 million budget shortfall, due to the $541 million he doled out in tax cuts. He is a failed and delusional governor who thinks heavy Republican donors can elect him president.

Why do we continue to give these irrelevant hate-mongers a platform from which to spew their divisive garbage? In truth, its not the president, but the Republican Party that doesn’t love America. If they did, they wouldn’t have been sitting on their asses obstructing progress for six years while praying for America to fail.

Categories
Opinion

The “Get Motivated” Lollapalooza

get_motivated-3211.jpg

Went to the “Get Motivated” lollapalooza at FedEx Forum Monday. Sat through eight hours of speeches. These guys are good. Full house, close to 18,000. Touches of wrestlemania, church, infomercials, Republican national conventions, and a Michael Jackson concert. Cost $1.95 and was worth every penny.

All the big guns advertised on billboards and newspaper ads showed up: Laura Bush, Colin Powell, Lou Holtz, Terry Bradshaw, and Rudy Giuliani plus Leigh Anne Touhy of “The Blind Side,” John Walsh of “America’s Most Wanted,” a ranting religious financial adviser named James Smith, former presidential candidate Steve Forbes, and a linguistic gymnast named Krish Dhanam who may have been the best of the lot.

They spoke from a platform the size of a boxing ring in the center of the floor. Each one talked for a half an hour or so and was greeted with a burst of smoke and sparks at the corners of the stage. At the end of the day, the overall effect was like eating too much at a buffet.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

“Rudy, Call Me.” Giuliani Hires Ad Firm That Created Infamous Corker Ad

The Huffington Post’s Grant Perry opines on Rudy Giuliani’s hiring of infamous Republican media firm, Scott Howell & Co:

“Clearly, Howell’s greatest achievement came in the victory of Bob Corker over Rep. Harold Ford, Jr. in the Kentucky U.S. Senate race. That’s the one, you’ll recall, where the Republican National Committee contributed to the public discourse by financing a particularly effective Howell ad. It showed a perky blonde saying she met Ford at a Playboy party, winking at him and whispering, ‘Harold – call me.'”

“How do Howell and his colleagues do it? For some insight, I recommend taking a look at the eight “rules of engagement” outlined under “Our Philosophy” on the Howell & Co. Web site. I’ve added some clarifying comments in italics.”

Aside from the fact that it was the Tennessee senate race, not Kentucky, Perry has some interesting points.
Read the rest of Perry’s column.