The Politics Thread

[Juliajms]

Yes.  I love that Trump is besieged by gadflies on all sides.  He is being dogged on so many issues. It has to be driving him nuts.

[Khan]

 

I actually had forgotten that incident.  Which shows to go you that mass shootings are becoming entirely too common in this country.

[DRW50]

 

It seems to be more of the media's McCain goggles (which has gone on for 20 or more years now). It doesn't matter that they know what a horrible man our Resident is - this was supposed to be different. The sad part is if he had made a token effort, we would have had days of gushing coverage about how he was now "Presidential."

[Vee]

Oh man:

 

 

As for my thoughts on McCain: He was a deeply flawed human being born to privilege, with a lot of old fashioned or outright bigoted ideas, who also simultaneously believed in hard work, personal honor and caring for veterans. His anger against Obama was very personal and petty - it fueled him in going along with the GOP post-08. Which is why I was more than a bit surprised he wanted Obama to give a eulogy.

 

I think McCain and the press' vision of McCain often drove his own sense of self, more than his own actions in later years. It was a convenient vision of himself that wasn't always very true to his actual choices. But he still was a decent if very complicated man, who made both poor and decent choices. His resentments and weaknesses drove him to a lot of bad places, but he also owned up to a number of his mistakes eventually (Keating Five, Palin). Maybe not as much as I would have wanted, especially per his rancor towards Obama or his obsession with "the surge" - but reducing any one man to a barrage of wikipedia facts or ancient clips of a punchdrunk candidate on the campaign trail riffing on the Beach Boys is not really a fair summation. I thought he was a doddering, out of touch old man by the end of '08, and I disapproved of a lot of his  behavior with the GOP Congress for years after. But I never, ever doubted McCain had a core of personal honor and integrity, no matter how much I disagreed with his choices or often found his political calculus inconsistent with that core.

 

Most of us are more than one thing, and a lot of those things are messy and contradictory. It is the unfortunate polarization and absolutism of our times that has led to an us vs. them mentality and a need to fly one's banners for Side X or Y, and in online circles that often leads to a certain impulse to cull for moral and ideological imperatives anyone deemed insufficiently pristine. But we're all dirty. We're all damaged. We're all wrong somehow. McCain just did it in public for most of his adult life.

 

He was a decent, honorable man who sometimes said or did indecent things, who believed in America and its ideals and wanted to serve the country more than himself. And he was a lot more decent than most of the GOP he left behind, and he had honor and morality. For all the shít I talked about McCain over many years I will not forget his giving Mitch McConnell a thumbs down. I never saw it coming. So I hope he rests well.

Edited August 28, 2018 by Vee

[Juliajms]

Yes. I'm not one to idealize people simply because they are ill or even dead.  I was planning to keep my mouth shut on McCain, but I will say that he sacrificed more than I ever have (or ever hope to) for this country.

 

My favorite story is how his wife brought their baby daughter home from an orphanage in Bangladesh.  She never even discussed adopting her and told him it was happening at the airport with the baby in her arms. She had a developmental problem (maybe cleft palate) and they got her treatment and he acted like a new father right from the start. That's a real man and that's honor. I won't even bother to make the obvious comparison to that monster we have in the white house.

Edited August 28, 2018 by Juliajms

[Vee]

[Vee]

[Vee]

[DRW50]

Who are these vets who were fine with Trump belittling McCain for being tortured but now have had enough? 

 

The vets I know either never liked Trump, or always did and still do. 

[marceline]

 

There are still too many people in and out of the media who keep thinking his voters will see the light and admit they were wrong but that's not human nature. They will double down and make excuses because otherwise they have to admit they were conned *and* that they want to be just like him.

[DramatistDreamer]

Oh quelle surprise at Kushner and Cohen falsifying documents to try to push tenants out of rent-regulated apartments.

 

Kushner Companies and Michael Cohen Accused of Falsifying Building Permits to Push Out Tenants

[Khan]

 

I think some will admit they've been conned and still not care.  "At least we had a real American in there for a change," they'll say, "and not that atheist pinko commie peso Hillary Clinton (and her Perry husband), or that Muslim who wasn't even BORN in these United States!"

Edited August 28, 2018 by Khan

[DramatistDreamer]

Speaking of Kenya, after assailing Obama's Kenyan connections and referring to African countries as sh*tholes, apparently the Trump W.H. wants to strengthen "ties" with Kenya.

Is this the new colonizer language?

 

[Wendy]

 

Pretty much this. I realize he was not a saint even as it seems some are canonizing him now. And I had raged against him regarding some of his more disappointing decisions. But next to what's left of the GOP, McCain does stand much taller with more integrity.

 

One thing I did not know is his mother is still living at 106. My God. I'm so sad she has to bury her child, but she is quoted as saying she was "incredibly proud" of her son. As well she should.

[DramatistDreamer]

ICYMI.