The British Embassy held a memorial service for Queen Elizabeth II Wednesday. All of the five living U.S. presidents were invited, to wit, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter and Donald Trump. Jimmy Carter was not expected to attend because he has mobility problems at age 96.

But what about the other four? It’s well known that the Obamas had a special relationship with the Queen. Obama tells a touching story about how the Queen gave his daughters a ride through the palace grounds in her golden carriage, the one that she used for jubilees. Be that as it may, he stayed home.

As to Dubya, he’s somebody that did his duty and attended state functions and there is no good reason why the Clintons wouldn’t have been happy to attend, either.

It’s pure speculation, admittedly, but I have to believe that if the other presidents had involved themselves, then Trump would have felt that he had to do so as well, and a solemn occasion might have turned into a shitshow. That’s because that’s who Trump is. He doesn’t know anything about solemnity.

Trump is monumentally tone deaf and any event at which he appears is all about him. That doesn’t tend to go over too well at funerals. Even at his own father’s funeral, Trump began talking about himself.

9/11 was all about him. Then a helicopter crash involving his executives became about him. The man’s self-absorption is phenomenal. It’s not the least bit irrational to expect that the Queen’s funeral would have been about him as well.

My theory — and again, pure speculation — is that the presidents got on the phone with one another and they decided not to risk it. They decided that the way in which they could best honor the Queen’s memory would be to stay away and allow the service to go on peacefully and with dignity.

Peace and dignity are not in the Trump lexicon.

Ironically, the memorial was held yesterday, a day which has been characterized by many as the “worst day in Trump’s life.” What kind of a mindset would he have rolled into the memorial with, having just come from “truthing” about “Peekaboo” Letitia James?

Maybe the former presidents were prescient and knew it would be an especially bad day or maybe they just didn’t want to risk it. I don’t believe it was coincidental that nobody showed. I think it was considered to be an all or nothing proposition (with the exception of Carter due to his age and infirmity) and they all decided to stay clear.

In doing so, they honored the Queen more than if they had been present and risked turning the ceremony into tabloid fodder. I believed she would have approved, and respected their judgement.

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16 COMMENTS

    • My only issue with that is if there is the usual state funeral for presidents, I won’t be able to stand it. Yes, he was duly elected president but I can’t see honoring him the way that George H.W. Bush or anybody in recent memory was honored. But it could happen. I guess a lot will depend upon what the resolution of all his legal issues turns out to be.

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      • He wasn’t “duly elected”. When his Russian agent campaign manager gives targeted voter lists in key states to Russian intelligence, and he scrapes by in those states, that’s collusion with our enemy to steal the election. He broke campaign laws by paying a porn star to keep quiet, an action that sent his attorney to jail while trump’s signature was on the checks. All kept quiet. Having the FBI director imply Hillary was under a serious investigation while not mentioning it was Trump under investigation, and breaking long standing department protocol was a thumb on the scales. Having the gop legislators gerrymandering everywhere they could was institutional cheating, including kicking black folks off the voter rolls, which helped tip the scales. In spite of all that, he lost the vote by three million. He was not legitimate from the jump. He wasn’t duly elected. Not at all.

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      • “Yes, he was duly elected president”. Then why are you posting articles on him filled with false statements by you. Are you a compulsive liar? Should I go back and post some of them? Hummm?

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        • Nothing I said was false asshole. Fuck you nazi. Rot in hell where you belong. Your boy is the compulsive liar. Fact. Not that it matters to child killers like you. Drink your goddamn cyanide like your idol on 4/30/45. A great day!!!!

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          • You sound like such a fine upstanding fella. I can tell you’re young and dumb. Enjoy the show. I’ll be reading and correcting with facts. Something I’ve noticed you don’t do. But I will. Your readers deserve that right? “Nothing I said was false asshole.”. Just like you said. Right?

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      • Hey Ursula, write this story next. OK?
        “Congress secures first Hunter Biden whistleblowers as memos unmask lucrative gas deals with China.”
        They have 2 whistleblowers so far and they expect more will show up before the new Congressional investigations next year into Hunter Biden and another hearing to impeach Joe Biden for selling out our country. And another hearing to impeachment of Mayorkas.

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        • Despite your hero’s China rhetoric (bashing) during his campaign and ever since (not that there isn’t plenty to be critical of but picking the right issues and offering criticism in a measured way that coordinates to a long-term strategy matters. Unlike other Presidents Trump shoots off his mouth in the heat of the moment and often created more messes with China than any improvements) he and his kids were working the Chinese govt. for stuff. Wannabe Princess Ivanka got a boatload of trademarks at the drop of a hat. Hmmmm. Then there was the matter of her and her hubby (with some help from her brother Uday and Qusay) selling permanent residency cards for 500k a pop to those who bought condos in Trump’s NYC properties. But let me get to the real point of why I’m writing. The whole “Hunter’s” laptop is a “there was never anything there” thing. Even Trump’s DOJ (and especially once Barr was handed the reins it WAS Trump’s DOJ!) they couldn’t make a case. Here’s what it boils down to: A legally blind repair shop owner thinks (so he said) Hunter Biden dropped off that infamous laptop for repair and never picked it up. So he considered it abandoned which I’m sure owners of such places can do after a certain amount of time. But even if not abandoned, if a tech finds evidence of a crime while working on something it’s proper to alert authorities so they can take possession and initiate chain-of-custody so it can be used as evidence in court. Instead, the purported hard drive of this laptop purported to be Hunter Biden’s got passed to Team Rudy. And passed around like a joint at some stoner party. Who the fuck knows the provenance of that hard drive or the laptop folks like you claim it came from? There was never any “there” there and while it makes for good political theater and Biden bashing (both father and son) to speak of it now and then the points I’ve noted have slipped into actual reporting on that hard drive. Barr had ample time to get a prosecution in the works, and even had his Special Prosecutor Durham looking into finding something, ANYTHING regarding the origins of the Russia investigation that we now know Rod Rosenstein torpedoed by telling Mueller the FBI was handling it and telling FBI Director Wray that Mueller was. But there was enough of a connection that for damned sure Durham dug and dug into that whole laptop thing as Russia left behind plenty of operatives in Ukraine when Putin’s puppet fled back to Russia. So a steady, orchestrated effort has been going on to shift the “Hunter Biden Scandal” from the laptop to China.

          Here’s what I think. Hunter, like his brother Beau (who died of brain cancer, likely in part from time served as a JAG officer and in proximity to those burn pits) were critically injured when very young in the car crash that killed their mother (Biden’s first wife) and sister. Both healed physically but it doesn’t take someone with mental health training to see Beau grew up with more ability to process and move past that childhood trauma than Hunter. I’ll be the first to admit Hunter Biden has struggled. His addictions have been documented. Yes, he built a life and legal career but he’s had issues. Many a person has had those same issues, including from rich and/or powerful families. The damage, the psychological damage from that accident have never fully healed and at times in his life the wounds have ripped open.

          Again, it’s not a secret. Anyone that looks at it will reasonably conclude Hunter still is damaged by what happened all those decades ago. Tragicaly, and from a VILE, SICK and HATEFUL group of people (of which you seem to be one) there is a despicable thought that developed. It goes like this:
          Joe Biden was devasted by his oldest son’s death of cancer. Truly devastated. He was done with public life after that and knowing his son would die well before he did it’s well known Biden wasn’t going to try and move up from VP to President. Unlike Trump, he actually loves and cares about his family and friends. So, if SICK ASSHOLES like YOU can keep dragging Hunter Biden, who unlike his older brother didn’t aspire to one day hold high political office to commit suicide then Joe Biden will lose it. Resign. And you and your white power crowd will rip this country to fucking shreds stoking worse racism inspired violence than I saw on TV screens during the evening news fifty years ago. THAT is you (and your cohorts) disgusting, despicable goal! It’s again one of those things that make me wish I hadn’t lost faith and become agnostic (a couple of decades ago) because I wish there WAS a heaven and a hell. Because sick assholes like YOU would find God and Jesus themselves waiting for you at the Pearly Gates – God and Jesus would flip a coin to determine which punches you in the face and which crotch-punts your evil ass off the ledge to fall down into HELL!

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  1. I have no difficulty believing the brits contacting Presidents Obama, Bush, Clinton, and Carter and asking if it’d be Ok if only President and First Lady Biden came to pay respects to Liz. It’s no stretch of the imagination to think they all said “hell yeah we’ll stay here to avoid yet another trump shit-show”. This one is a pretty easy one to believe.

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    • FYI, I think you’re confusing Queen Elizabeth’s funeral at Westminster (in the UK) with the Memorial Service held here in the United States. Our country, like quite a few others held a memorial of its own after the Queen’s burial. As was the case with other countries not part of those that make up the UK foreign delegations were limited to the sitting head of state and their spouse. In our case that meant President Biden and the First Lady. It was the Memorial Service here in the U.S. that all Presidents, both sitting and former were invited to attend. And that is the one discussed in the article. One final point, neither Interpol or the International Criminal Court (the Hague) have any outstanding warrants for Bush 43, or even for his VP Dick Cheney. I can’t say for certain but I’m pretty sure the ICC doesn’t have an arrest warrant for any U.S. citizen.

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