Funeral Quick Hits: McCain Eulogies, Bush Sharing Candy, and Ariana Grande Is Not a Taco Bell Food

[admin]

Funeral Quick Hits: McCain Eulogies, Bush Sharing Candy, and Ariana Grande Is Not a Taco Bell Food

Funerals were held for both JOHN MCCAIN and ARETHA FRANKLIN over Labor Day weekend.  Here are some highlights from both:

 

 

1.  President Trump wisely stayed away from John McCain's funeral . . . but our two previous presidents were there.  Both Obama and Bush gave speeches . . . and they both had a lot to say about him, although no one actually used his name.

 

 

Barack Obama said, "So much of our politics, our public life, our public discourse can seem small and mean and petty, trafficking in bombast and insult and phony controversies and manufactured outrage.  

 

 

"It's a politics that pretends to be brave and tough, but in fact is born of fear.  

 

 

"John called on us to be bigger than that.  He called on us to be better than that."

 

 

George W. Bush said, "He was honest, no matter whom it offended.  Presidents were not spared . . . John detested the abuse of power.  He could not abide bigots and swaggering despots."

 

 

Bush added that his disagreements with McCain "made him better," and Obama said they never lost respect and admiration for each other, despite their differences.

 

 

Obama also got a good laugh by saying, "What better way [for McCain] to get a last laugh, than to make George and I say nice things about him to a national audience."  And Bush was the person laughing the hardest, making it all the more humorous.

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, Meghan McCain didn't pull any punches at Trump in her own eulogy.

 

 

She said, "We gather here to mourn the passing of American greatness, the real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly, nor the opportunistic appropriation of those who live lives of comfort and privilege while he suffered and served."

 

 

Later in her 17-minute eulogy, she added, "America does not boast because she has no need to.  The America of John McCain has no need to be made 'great again' because America was always great."

 

 

 

 

 

 

(You can find McCain's entire service, here.)

 

 

(And here's an amusing moment when President George W. Bush shared his candy with Michelle Obama.)

 

 

 

 

 

2.  Ariana Grande sang at Aretha Franklin's funeral on Friday, but some people criticized her for wearing a skirt that was way too short for the occasion.   The bishop who introduced her also took some heat for joking that Ariana's name sounded like something you'd order from Taco Bell.  (Here's video.)

 

 

 

 

On a more serious note, that same bishop came under fire for seemingly touching Ariana's BREAST as he put his arm around her.  He denies intentionally doing anything inappropriate . . . but he did apologize if his hand inadvertently "crossed the border."

 

 

Ariana hasn't commented.

 

 

 

3.  Gladys Knight said she and Aretha Franklin suffered from "the same disease" . . . but she DIDN'T mean pancreatic cancer.  She meant cancer in general.  Gladys later clarified that she'd been diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer.  But thankfully, hers was caught early, and she's now cancer-free.  (Here's video.)

 

 

 

 

 

4.  And finally, Cicely Tyson paid tribute to Aretha while wearing a ridiculous hat, that's reminiscent of the one Aretha wore to Obama's inauguration.  In her speech Cicely said, quote, "[Aretha] spoke to us through her soul and everything she experienced . . . and that's why, no matter what she was singing, she moved every single person."  

 

 

(Here's another photo of Cicely's hat.  And here's video from her speech.  You can find dozens of videos from Aretha's funeral, here.  Including one featuring the "sea" of pink Cadillacs outside her service.)

 

 

(The News) - Meghan McCain Criticizes Trump at John McCain's Funeral