Tag Archives: terrorist attack

What happened to Rudy?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I have been thinking of the tragedies that have emerged from Donald Trump’s term as president and I come up — so far — with just one tragic story.

It involves Rudy Giuliani, who’s now serving as Trump’s lead lawyer in the futile and feckless fight to overturn the results of the election Trump lost this month to President-elect Biden.

I mean, I have to collect myself a bit just to comprehend what has happened to the man who’s gone from hero to zero in the span of roughly two decades.

There he was, standing with President Bush after the 9/11 attacks on his city and the Pentagon. Giuliani served as NYC mayor. He became “America’s mayor.” Time magazine named him its person of the year in 2001 for the courage he demonstrated in helping his city  clean itself up after the wreckage that the terrorists delivered on that terrible day.

Before that the mayor served as a crime-fighting, mob-busting federal prosecutor.

I watch the videos of him from back in the post-9/11 era and wonder: What in the name of God in heaven happened to this guy?

He has devolved into a shill for Donald Trump. These days he is fomenting crazy and utterly stupid conspiracy theories about phony election fraud allegations. Did you saw him sweating during that presser this week, with hair dye dripping down both sides of his face? My goodness!

Rudy was ridiculous, citing a scene from “My Cousin Vinny” as evidence in a wacky conspiracy theory.

Well, you know all that. You know that America’s mayor has become America’s fool. I don’t know how you might feel about the deterioration of this once-stellar public servant. I will stand by my view that we are witnessing a tragedy in the making.

It saddens me beyond measure.

These young men are real heroes

france-terror

Heroes don’t come along very often.

Three young Americans, though, have become France’s national heroes for an amazing act of courage they performed while thwarting a would-be terrorist attacker.

Anthony Sadler, Alek Skarlatos and Spencer Stone? Take a bow, fellas. You’ve earned a huge helping of high praise.

Sadler was traveling with his pals, both members of the U.S. military, when they noticed a man with an assault rifle. They tackled him, fought with him, wrestled the gun away from him. The bad guy was heard yelling “Give me back my gun!”

Skarlatos, a member of the Oregon National Guard, had recently returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan.

The gunman was identified as a 26-year-old Moroccan man.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the group demonstrated “great bravery.”

“Without their cool-headed actions we could have been faced with a terrible incident,” he said.

Do you think?

The word “hero” gets tossed around way too generously. It surely describes the actions of three brave young men traveling through France.

Sadler said this: “I’m just a college student. I came to see my friends for my first trip to Europe and we stop a terrorist. It’s kind of crazy.”

It’s also kind of heroic.