Rudy Giuliani is an idiot and he doesn't love America

“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 this country.” - Rudy Giuliani speaking at a political fund-raiser this week.

Rudy "Noun/Verb 9/11" Giuliani is off his leash again and making the same kind of stupid remarks that we've come to expect from him.

So here he is again making the point of all dyed-in-the-wool right-wingers that Barack Obama is "different" from "us." He wasn't brought up the same way we were. Giuliani later doubled down on these remarks and defended them to The New York Times, saying that they couldn't possibly be racist because, after all, Obama was raised by white people.

His mother was white. His maternal grandparents, who were responsible for much of his raising, were white. They were Kansans from the heart of America, the "real America" in conservative theology. His grandfather served in the U.S. Army, joining after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was deployed to Europe during World War II where he rose to the rank of sergeant. So, obviously, these were radical and unpatriotic people who would have raised their son and grandson to hate America - very different from my parents and yours.

(Incidentally, if you care to, you can read about Giuliani's family history here, where you will see that his father spent time as an inmate in Sing Sing Prison on a robbery conviction and that the father and his five brothers found ways to avoid military service in World War II.)

I would agree with Rudy Giuliani on one point. Barack Obama was evidently not brought up as Rudy was if we are to judge his raising by the twisted, narrow-minded, egotistical person he has become. Obama was brought up to have a more balanced and open-minded view of the world and of people. He is not given to knee-jerk reactions. He measures his words and his actions carefully before sending them into the world.

Paul Krugman addresses this latest Giuliani-engendered kerfuffle in his blog today, where he writes about what he calls Obama's "chastened exceptionalism," and he makes the point that it isn't, as Jamelle Bouie had written in Slate, a "black thing." He writes that "there are many Americans who love their country in pretty much the way the president does - seeing it as special, often an enormous force for good in the world, but also fallible and with some stains on its record. I'm one of them. So you don't have to be black to see things that way." To which I can only add, "Amen!"

Krugman also quotes one of his heroes, Ulysses S. Grant, about one particular American war, the Mexican-American War. Grant called it "the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation." No doubt chickenhawk Rudy Giuliani would say that Grant didn't love America and was not brought up through love of country as you and I were.

You have to wonder when our media will stop giving space to Rudy Giuliani. He's long past his sell-by date. Another of his brilliant statements this week was that President Obama "didn't live through 9/11, I did." Of course, you knew that he would find a way to bring 9/11 into it sooner or later. Apparently he's under the impression that unless you were in New York on 9/11/01, you didn't live through it; you didn't experience it. There are millions of us who know better.

One can only hope that there will come a time when the false belligerency of the "9/11 patriots" will take its place in the dustbin of history and this country can move on without these periodic screeds. Krugman thinks it may be happening. He sees a change in the attitude of the country:

Maybe it’s just that we are becoming, despite everything, a more sophisticated country, a place where many people do understand that you can be a patriot without always shouting “USA! USA!” — maybe even a country where people are starting to realize that the shouters are often less patriotic than the people they’re trying to shout down.

All of this doesn’t change the fact that we really are an exceptional country — a country that has played a special role in the world, that despite its flaws has always stood for some of humanity’s highest ideals. We are not, in other words, just about tribalism — which is what makes all the shouting about American exceptionalism so ironic, because it is, in fact, an attempt to tribalize our self-image.

Make it so - the sooner the better.

Poetry Sunday: Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver

How about we share another Mary Oliver poem? After all, you can never have too many of those. In this one, the poet seems to acknowledge that it is often hard to simply live in and enjoy the moment, perhaps because we are afraid it can't last. She urges us to give in to that moment and fully experience the joy. Although "much can never be redeemed, still, life has some possibility left." Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is no...

Poetry Sunday: Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney

My mother was a farm wife and a prodigious canner. She canned fruit and vegetables from the garden, even occasionally meat. But the best thing that she canned, in my opinion, was blackberry jam. Even as I type those words my mouth waters! Of course, before she could make that jam, somebody had to pick the blackberries. And that somebody was quite often named Dorothy. I think Seamus Heaney might have spent some time among the briars plucking those delicious black fruits as well, so he would have known that "Once off the bush the fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour." They don't keep; you have to get that jam made in a hurry! Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust ...

Poetry Sunday: Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman

You probably remember poet Amanda Gorman from her appearance at the inauguration of President Biden. She read her poem "The Hill We Climb" on that occasion. After the senseless slaughter in Uvalde this week, she was inspired to write another poem which was published in The New York Times. It seemed perfect for the occasion and so I stole it in order to feature it here, just in case you didn't get a chance to read it in the Times . Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman Everything hurts, Our hearts shadowed and strange, Minds made muddied and mute. We carry tragedy, terrifying and true. And yet none of it is new; We knew it as home, As horror, As heritage. Even our children Cannot be children, Cannot be. Everything hurts. It’s a hard time to be alive, And even harder to stay that way. We’re burdened to live out these days, While at the same time, blessed to outlive them. This alarm is how we know We must be altered — That we must differ or die, That we must triumph or try. ...

The Nature of Things

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