John McCain RIP

past caring

There's a time-honored way of demonstrating that you don't care about something, and you are terrible at it.

the i-dont-mind boggles

Thinking about that story about how Nixon probably beat his wife and everyone was too embarrassed to report it out for decades, and also about a recently deceased politician with a history of shockingly misogynist comments and public verbal abuse of his clinically depressed wife

— Italian Alex Pareene (@pareene) September 2, 2018

i *do* care about the minimal standards the next Dem president will be expected to meet, ie that dude's.

and God I hate this place

Between the Lines, Obama's "Start 'em or Sit 'em: Week 1" Fantasy Column Is a Stirring Rebuke to Trump

— Italian Alex Pareene (@pareene) September 2, 2018

Nixon put his wife in the hospital? How is that not better known?

You know why

two years ago it was right wingers flinging spittle about how Obama wouldn’t say “radical Islam” after Pulse; in 2018 it’s the left vomiting about how Obama wouldn’t say “McCain was a warmonger and a womanizing misogynist” after McCain just died

What could be the common thread here

Sorry that was reductive. Basically Obama’s never been angry enough for a lot of people. Also, too brown, but I’m sure nobody on ILX has ever been dismissive of somebody based on their skin tone.

What would be interesting would be a discussion of some of the rampant paternalistic sexism on display at Aretha’s funeral but I take it almost nobody here watched any of that

personally I don't care about Obama's remarks and it's silly (not only based on his ex-prez status but also on literally everything he's ever said and done in public) to expect any different. it's the totally uncritical veneration among the media class that bothers me and I expect to extend well beyond the mourning period. (there's no reason to be surprised by this, either, but unlike O they don't have a good excuse.)

I mean, really, ffs:

The angels were crying. Here at CNN - just a few blocks away - no rain. Just there. https://t.co/0Pw2xWb90R

— Dana Bash (@DanaBashCNN) August 31, 2018

lol'd at that fantasy football one, also a funny shot at Matthew Berry of ESPN

Sometimes it starts pouring rain right when I am about to leave the house. I wonder what it all means...

McCain made the strategic move of positioning himself as the icon for bipartisanship and traditional Senatorial precedent and decorum by making those 'issues' the centerpiece of his 'nay" vote on Obamacare repeal and the theme of his self-aggrandizing Farewell Letter (as if he were the new Geo. Washinngton or some such figure). This was extra-strength catnip to the DC 'centrists' and mainstream journalists who now can idolize him to the hilt as a way of expressing passive-aggression toward Trump. Bcz real aggression might be bad for their careers.

As a way of surfing a political wave right into the grave, it was moderately brilliant. His place in history is far less certain than his place in MSM anti-Trump agitprop for the next week or two.

anyone on "the left" (ie not Democrats) expected nothing more of Obama than the other war criminals in that Club

it simply needs to be pointed out before ppl wonder why he's not endorsing social democrats

Been having a good time driving McCain worshippers nuts by asking them "Once you take away the marketing/branding, what did McCain actually do all this time he was in office?"

mccain-feingold got pwned by citizens united, and he did the thumbs down thing for obamacare, thats about it right?

as far as possibly good things, that is

he liked barbeque

for real? fuck that guy

he liked barbecuing people in southeast asia and the middle east

he liked charles keating

His favorite Fleetwood Mac album is Penguin

I mean, yeah. It certainly wasn't Bare Trees.

https://i.imgur.com/hCAXKnh.jpg

30 years of being in the Senate and he never got to Mystery To Me? Fuck that guy...

good mourning!

Its mourning somewhere *drinks*

late entrant for the 'worst mccain take'

Just as 9/11/01 galvanized a generation of young people perhaps 9/1/18 (the date of McCain’s funeral) will be the inspiration for another generation of Americans to eschew tribalism and seek common ground in defense of overarching values. https://t.co/bFYb7UZqMU

— Jennifer Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) September 3, 2018

is the sentiment really that galling tbh

I think my biggest takeaway over the past week has been that McCain's talent as an accidental cult leader went sadly unrecognized in his lifetime. It's really been something to behold.

is the sentiment really that galling tbh

...

yes?

oh well carry on so

*doffs cap, continues posting*

Just as 9/11/01 galvanized a generation

U outta touch lady, the leader describes that as “a tiny period of time with a bullhorn.”

Perhaps she’s right tho and it’s better to remember it as “the battle of little bullhorn” in which we rode hard for george custer bush.

this is never gonna end huh

As McCain (R-Ariz.) ascends to heaven on an updraft of praise, Trump’s political hell on Earth will burn hotter. Through the wall-to-wall coverage of McCain’s life, and his memorial and burial that will take place over the next few days, Trump will become a bystander as our nation is given a reminder of the best of what it stands for, and the best of what it can be. The president and the rest of America are about to look in the mirror and see Trump’s opposite.

McCain lived a life of service to country; Trump lives in service of self. McCain exemplified sacrifice; Trump, indulgence. McCain played down his heroism; Trump boasts of imagined rescues into school buildings to save children from gunfire. McCain sought reconciliation with his enemies; Trump thrives on creating new ones. McCain was, in the words of his longtime aide and collaborator Mark Salter, a “romantic about his causes and a cynic about the world.” Trump is a cynic about both.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2018/08/26/in-death-mccain-shows-an-alternative-to-trump/?utm_term=.ee7b2449341b

McCain sought reconciliation with his enemies

*ahem*

https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Feehard.files.wordpress.com%2F2008%2F09%2F5052a31b1f.jpg&f=1

I mean, look, if we're all in agreement that this ridiculous overpraise of McCain and his 'legacy' is all for the sake of trolling Trump, then I'm happy to play along. Just wish y'all had sent me the memo a little earlier, is all.

We might want to pull the reins back just a touch on going too full-bore Kelly cartoon, though. I think even Trump will start to see through the purple prose at some point.

We’ll go through this all again when we try to square Jimmy Carter, the good Christian peanut farmer, with Jimmy Carter, the nuclear submarine engineer and Admiral Rickover acolyte who changed the US nuclear policy to first strike is his belief that a nuclear war was winnable.

*in* his

there are, famously, no good us presidents but carter at least has spent the last four decades working with habitat for humanity rather than endlessly urging war like mccain did

tbh i'd be shocked if the media gave carter the mccain/reagan/etc great hero treatment when he dies.

elvis t -- do you have a link or a book recommendation w/ more info on carter changing nuclear strike policy? embarrassed to say i had no idea about that

Carter

I’m not at home (and typing this on my phone) so I can’t consult my library, but this is a good overview:
https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/nukevault/ebb390/

Worth noting that much of these changes were occurring during the false alarms of 1979-1980
https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/nukevault/ebb371/

Honestly this is better suited to the Cold War thread because there was more going on politically and technically in a short period of time (the accuracy of the MX, the B-1 cluaterfuck, stealth bombers, cruise missiles, neutron bombs, Afghanistan)

Anyway, fuck McCain.

While I respect Bernie, I disagree with him strongly on this. John McCain was a war hawk who sent American youth to fight and die and never met a problem he didn't think could be solved through invasion or intervention. The real heroes are those who fought for PEACE.#GravelGang https://t.co/a3l6700Vo4

— Mike Gravel (@MikeGravel) March 21, 2019

yup.

there are impressive number of tulsi gabbard trolls.

(i mean i keep seeing them in the responses to tweets that have nothing to do w/ her.)