SocraticGadfly: McCain-Palin campaign
Showing posts with label McCain-Palin campaign. Show all posts
Showing posts with label McCain-Palin campaign. Show all posts

September 01, 2018

John McCain, de-hagiographied on Twitter

Now that the embalmed carcass of John McCain, the Schmuck Talk Express, is most of the way through a posthumous Roman triumph that would have made Marius, Julius Caesar and Pompey blush, with #TheResistance participating fiercely in what one non-member Twitterer called nothing more than a subtweet to Trump, let us indeed turn to Twitter to remember our Wrecker of Airplanes, Monger of Wars, Bomber of Civilians, Hater of Gays in Wedlock (despite his own lack of marital sanctity), Racist toward Middle Easterners and various other things.

First, though, let me remind that #TheResistance team of one thing — that John McCain earned indeed every one of those titles. And yet, in my friends of friends circles and observations, has been Twitter-deified more than anybody since ActualFlatticus.

And with that, off to Twitter! In no particular order, but mainly focused on the DC divinizing demagoguery, here we go, while noting I have a related poll, in case it doesn't embed:

Second, and having Tweeted along these lines more than once, the inside-the-Beltway stenos are responsible for much of this:
Speaking of, this is probably being eyed as a gravy train by said stenos, #TheResistance, or both:
And, let's throw a particular member of said group under the bus. I've seen her retweeted a lot. Especially after actually looking through her feed, gad she's overrated:
It's disgusting enough #TheResistance is turd-polishing John Sidney McCain III. Even worse is the butt-kissing of George Shrub Bush. The necromancing of the Prince of the Living Undead, though, by #TheResistance is simply beyond the pale:
Of course, some members of that team have been long-time professional Democrats:
That said, shouldn't John Sidney prove, at least to his heiress widow Cindy, that he is in fact now divine, ruling with the other Caesars?
Don't forget that the DC hagiography had a warm-up act back in Phoenix.

I didn't forget on Twitter, after all, using the chance to throw others under the bus. Like JoePa Biden:
And Westboro Baptist Church:
And, yes, that is throwing them under the bus, for apparently being too chicken to extend their level of tasteless out here. After all, Sidney did eventually mellow enough on his anti-gay marriage stance that he should have been a target.

Even before the funeral, of course, the Schmuck Talk Express was lauded as a human rights advocate. Setting aside all the ways I listed up top that he was not a human rights advocate within the US of A, let's look elsewhere.

Like India:
Famous literati needed to be reminded of this, of course:
And lover of the human rights of Ukrainian neo-Nazis he was pictured with:
And remembering further his valiant support for domestic human rights:
In which Dear Leader, #TheResistance popular vote president emeritus, ultimately joined:
And with that, let's just tack back to throwing #TheResistance further underneath the wheels of the Schmuck Talk Express:
And here, via retweet, as I had nothing to add:
And back to the Beltway stenos for good measure:
Had enough? Well, you should be sick of #TheResistance and #TheBeltwayStenos, not me. Besides, I didn't even mention Meghan McCain or Sarah Palin, among others.

If you haven't had enough, follow my blog, follow me on Twitter, or both.
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at Saturday, September 01, 2018 0 comments Posted by Gadfly

August 25, 2018

RIP John McCain


John McCain first freely exercised his great American democracy freedom at birth, when he freely chose to be born the son and grandson of US Navy admirals.

John McCain later chose his freedom to prove he was not a copycat clone of his father and grandfather as a military man by freelywrecking multiple US Navy aircraft. Part of exercising that freedom was not learning how to fly better as the son and grandson of admirals, knowing that he didn’t have to fly better, and take "fly better," "fly straight," and "fly right" however you want.

As for his serving his country, the flyboy playboy freely chose to stay in the military, as he didn't have the courage to leave before he got shot down, even though he didn't want to stay in. Resign your commission.

John McCain later exercised his democratic freedom by freely choosing to leave Hanoi, North Vietnam ahead of his Navy comrades, despite being the son and grandson of admirals.

John McCain then exercised his great American freedom to choose his personal life as a heterosexual straight male by freely divorcing his wife.

John McCain continued to exercise this freedom throughout an illustrious democratic Congressional career.

He freely chose to accept money from Charles Keating under the notion it would increase his freedom.

He used his freedom to freely support lies in the name of Greater Democracy as it sought to destroy people resisting its bounteous good, even at the point of war.

He used his freedom to freely support leaving the heartbroken country of Georgia at the altar of NATO bridehood after promising he would respect its democratic valor against the Great Satan of Russia.

He then, in 2008, used his freedom to engage in tokenist faux-feminism by naming Sarah Palin his vice-presidential candidate.

After that, he unselfishly loved Ukrainian neo-Nazis.

He finally accepted the Normalization Freedom Prize from Fred Hiatt for services above and beyond the call of duty.

Fortunately, I had accumulated notes on a Word document for a few months for most the material above.

But, many members of #TheResistance will say, but he was such a decent man. 

Bullshit.

Beyond all the above, he supported government shutdowns, supported not voting on an Obama Supreme Court nominee and other things. The Straight Talk Express of the 2000 campaign was a schtick; already then, he was the Schmuck Talk Express™ and looked "straight" only because he was running against Shrub Bush.

Don't forget that in 2008, he didn't want to deal with the financial crisis. And, he said we should never talk diplomatically with countries that are alleged terrorist supporters. He never would have negotiated Obama's Iran deal. Nor would he, despite his famous visit to Vietnam, have been likely to loosen things up with Cuba.

And, no, he was NOT the "maverick of the Senate." I don't think the Senate has had a real maverick since Wayne Morse. Hell, the Arizona Republic, in its news obit, said, re his Senate time, that he "never was an outsider."

Some people might point to the McCain-Feingold campaign finance legislation as an example of something good that he did. Yeah, but ... did McCain ever utter a word against Citizens United after it gutted what the Supreme Court hadn't previously directly gutted?

Bottom line is that, above all else, McCain was a warmonger. Never forget.

As for his cancer, he didn't vote to save Obamacare; he just voted to delay its execution to try to do it in a more orderly fashion. He never uttered a peep as Trump undercut parts of it (and showed why we need a single-payer system).

Also, let's not forget that he was not enlightened on racial issues. Contra one centrist type on Twitter, if he DID evolve, he evolved from a LOW starting point. And, any evolution was very late, given he was making racist comments just five years ago. (Add in his part in the ACORN scandal, and finding out that Obama could be pushed around on this.) Putting him in the same breath on this as Abraham Lincoln is Grade-A horseshit.

Otherwise, look at his stances on other issues, per Wiki. Patriot Act supporter. Snooping on America supporter. Gun nut. Opposed most gay rights. War on Drugs cold warrior. He did support immigration rights, but, as part of a lever of not making many jobs that immigrants take both safer and better-paying for American citizens.

As for McCain's media fellators, the inside-the-Beltway stenos who have now made themselves even less trustworthy than before? If you didn't write your dreck, people like me might not write this.

And, I tackled the whole McCain funeral deification with a stream of tweets, put into a blog post here.

Update: The Schmuck Talk also had a hand in spreading elements of the Steele dossier. New releases from a lawsuit against Buzzfeed over the dossier, which make clear this was a bipartisan Never Trumper effect, are here.

==

Per DeSmog Blog, as for "service to his country," his attempt to pass a climate bill nearly 20 years ago was of more service than bombing Vietnam or mongering other wars.
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at Saturday, August 25, 2018 0 comments Posted by Gadfly

January 28, 2015

Andrew Sullivan quits blogging; I shall cry no rivers for Sully's #hypocrisy

So Andrew Sullivan is giving up blogging? Boo hoo.

Because, Sully, I'm going to deconstruct your farewell post just like I was PolitiFact.

Let's start here:
(W)e experienced 9/11 together in real time – and all the fraught months and years after; and then the Iraq War; and the gay marriage struggles of the last fifteen historic years. We endured the Bush re-election together

A funny statement to make, as I just Tweeted Sully. Yes, per Wiki, he "repented" in time to vote for John Kerry in 2004. However, he was dumb enough to support a moral conservative in the first place in 2000.

Beyond that, his "four cardinal sins" on supporting the Iraq War in the first place show someone shockingly ignorant of geopolitics in general and the Arab world in particular, thus invoking some sort of Peter Principle issues.

Of course, that same general lack of brilliance led him to name his own personal "journalism" awards after Brat Pack "journalists" Matt Yglesias and Ezra Klein.

Of course, as Wiki also reminds, and I do too, only more bluntly, that's due to Sully's "Bell Curve" infatuation, which I must say is high-grade racialism and nothing less.

And, that led to some blog spoofing by me, here, for the blog post where my Photoshopping above first appeared.

That in turn was part of his general work for a racist magazine, which is what The New Republic was. Hell, maybe he was having gay sex with Marty Peretz (who is far more nutty than painted at that link) for all I know.

Speaking of, and back to that part of his farewell.

He wasn't fighting the struggles for gay marriage 15 years ago. As Wiki reminds, per this Salon piece, 12 years ago he was fighting the fight on the down low for bearback gay sex at a time when AIDS concerns in the gay community were still pretty damned high. (Showing the weirdness of Salon at times, two years earlier, another writer defended him.)

Yeah, he eventually got married. But, not until three years after Massachusetts legalized gay marriage. So, again, Sully, not in front on that fight.

It's all part of Sully's seeming hypocrisy, the hypocrisy that makes him at least as much a "cafeteria Catholic" as a John Kerry.

Next?

This:
You were there when I couldn’t believe Palin’s fantasies.
What about your own fantasies, namely that Bristol Palin was Trigg Palin's mom? I eventually repented of following you and the "Palin Deception" website down that rabbithole, finding more reasonable possible explanations for Sarah's nuttery around Trigg's birth. But you, apparently, never did. 

Then this:
You were there when … we live-blogged the Green Revolution for an entire month.
Ahh, yes, when Twitter was supposedly the force overturning Iran, then the whole non-democratic world.

That was a conceit that was being refuted even as Sully mouthed it. I tackled some of that nonsense here.

It's all part of Sully's seeming hypocrisy, the hypocrisy that makes him at least as much a "cafeteria Catholic" as a John Kerry.

I don't begrudge at all his personal reasons for leaving. But, per the hypocrisy, he probably was about to fracture his spine figuring out new ways to triangulate himself.

Also, I don't get some liberals who think he's the bees' knees.

 Was money the reason to quit?

 I am not sure.
His last post says he was making $1 million revenue/year. Now, deducting for assistance (staff of about 10 at peak, perhaps; 7 non-Sully plus one intern listed now) ... overhead, etc., could he afford all this? Assume Sully paid himself $150K. The seven others, on average, about $80K. That’s $700K; whatever he paid the intern and overhead... yea, he was making money. Maybe not as rich as whatever Atlantic paid him before, but I don’t think he was going broke.

On the other hand, a WaPost story says he took no salary in the first year. And, it's not clear how well he maintained his renewal rate. Matthew Ingram talked about some of this early on.

On the third hand, he doesn't mention finances as a reason to throw in the towel.

Beyond that, I don't get why he had so many followers.

Half of what he posted was too short for even a Tumblr. That's why, beyond not agreeing with much of what he said, I don't get why that many people would pay to read him. In that way, he reminded me of Duncan Black, aka Atrios, running the blog Eschaton, which, while more liberal than Sully, years ago became just as short if not shorter on a regular basis.

The only sidebar to this is that it shows his vaunted tip jar/self-subscription model for blogging may not be such a model. Here is my original thoughts on his setting up his subscription model riff on a tip jar. I didn't think about it at the time, but, on the model he proposed, it's "interesting" that he missed the whole "tragedy of the commons" angle.

Actually, it's not "interesting" — it's really a "no duh." Libertarian types in general refuse to acknowledge such a thing even exist. I love the sound of petards hoisting in the morning!
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at Wednesday, January 28, 2015 0 comments Posted by Gadfly

September 23, 2008

NYT makes it ‘official’ that McCain is race-baiter as well as liar

Starting by calling out Georgia Congressman Lynn Westmoreland’s “uppity” comment about Barack Obama, the Times editorial page rolls the ball forward, starting with calling out McCain for his Obama is “disrespectful” to Palin commercial.

The editorial correctly notes the history of the use of the word “disrespectful” in black male-white female relationships in the South.

To put it even more bluntly than the Times, being “disrespectful” was a lynching offense.

Schmuck Talk, you’ve got more than ’splaining to do. You’ve got some disavowing and repudiating to do.
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at Tuesday, September 23, 2008 0 comments Posted by Gadfly

September 21, 2008

McCain-Palin campaign-debate watch

Palin-McCain is right; McCain ‘friends watch’; Mad Jack at debates?

Gail Collins has this great get:
The Republicans have discovered that McCain can’t draw a crowd without Palin, and the dangers of letting her float off by herself are apparent. So the two are manacled together these days like Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier in that old escape-from-a-chain-gang movie.

And, every day she remains on ice, undergoing forced cramming for her Veep debate or whatever, is another day Schmuck Talk Express™ is out there on an island.

And, given McCain’s own growing propensity to shoot from the hip, it must be bad if Steve Schmidt thinks Palin needs to be put on ice.

SnowJob SquareGlasses — I like it. It’s going in my Palin nickname lexicon.

Friends watch: Uhh, Big John? If you’re going to be this close with mentally unstable Gordon Liddy, you have zero business commenting on ANY friends of Obama’s this side of Joe Stalin.

Friends watch part 2: John McCain and Jim Inhofe — Buddies in alt-fuel opposition.

Which John McCain will show up for the debates? Unfortunately, Obama doesn’t strike me as a button-pusher, so a mid-debate explosion from Mad Jack is (sadly) highly unlikely.
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at Sunday, September 21, 2008 0 comments Posted by Gadfly

September 18, 2008

Obama walks a fine line on financial regulation

After all, he’s gotten 50 percent more in campaign contributions from the financial sector than McCain has, a whole $3 billion difference.

And Goldman Sachs, lucky enough to still be standing, is Obama’s single top source of campaign cash; three executives from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. have raised at least half a million dollars for Obama.

I’m sure that, as we blog, McCain’s camp is combing through his past statements to find, if nothing else, silence from him on the issue of calls for tightened regulation of the sector.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson (a Goldman Sachs alum, as was Robert Rubin, Clinton’s last Treasury Secretary) proposed giving the Federal Reserve more power over investment banks.

But the Fed has powers NOW that it hasn’t been using. And, given the Fed’s record over the past few years, wouldn’t that be the fox consorting at the henhouse door?

Beyond that, why should we expect real reform? Also don’t forget that Rubin was a prime driver behind passage of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which broke down the Glass-Steagall Act and eliminated the wall between commercial and investment banking.

Has Obama or McCain ever called for reinstituting Glass-Steagall protections?

The silence is deafening.
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at Thursday, September 18, 2008 0 comments Posted by Gadfly

September 13, 2008

What WON’T McCain lie about?

Or Palin?

Lying about crowd size is an old and honorable political tradition, as long as claims aren’t stretched too much, buut lying about where you got your numbers?

It’s ridiculous, immature, and stupid.

Plus, it’s one more potential voter you risk pissing off.

And, while McCain is certainly the leader in this, Obama isn’t St. Francis, either.
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at Saturday, September 13, 2008 0 comments Posted by Gadfly

September 12, 2008

Josh Marshall has free passes for Georgia

Well, actually, they’re for the Obama-Biden campaign on Georgia, as Josh claims it has a significant difference with McCain-Palin.

Here’s Josh:
It's true that Obama and Biden both favor Georgia's accession into NATO -- a very bad policy position, as I've argued before. However, I do not think that their positions and McCain's positions are equal. The best analogy I can point to is the nominal agreement on Iraq policy (embodied in the Iraq Liberation Act) between the Clinton administration and the most radical neocons in the late 1990s. Nominally, they shared a policy. In practice, however, it was one group that was completely nuts and gung-ho in favor of a reckless idea and another that was sort of dabbling in and passively favoring the same policy. Not that that is saying much in the latter's favor. But there's a big difference.

And, here’s my response:
Given the ultimate reason WHY both political campaigns of the “bipartisan foreign policy establishment” want Georgia in NATO — a three-letter word called “oil” — I think your “Clinton ain’t a neocon” analogy doesn’t carry the freight, Josh.

BOTH campaigns favor the same thing — NATO membership. Neither has proposed NATO observer status or some other “NATO lite.”

Both campaigns, in essence, we’re willing to back Georgia in a war against Russia.

(Either that, or they’re lying through their teeth.)

And, that’s another reason I’m voting Green, or planning on it.

As I’ve said before, this is almost a mirror image of Iraq, which Obama criticized.

Update: A Talking Points Memo reader points out that Obama-Biden (like Bush himself), only wants to put Georgia on the “ Membership Action Plan ,” otherwise known as the slow-boat-to-China way of joining NATO.

But, it’s still a plan for Georgia to join NATO. And, the ultimate reasons why the Bipartisan Foreign Policy Establishment want Georgia in NATO still stand. Namely, o-I-l.

Also, the distinction is one, vis-à-vis McCain-Palin, that Obama-Biden aren’t making.

So, I still think it’s a fair critique.
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at Friday, September 12, 2008 0 comments Posted by Gadfly

September 05, 2008

Palin follies, Day 7 — Eagleton 2 now ‘on ice’

McCain staff keeps Palin on ice for “education and training”; ex b-I-l Wooten breaks ice; Troopergate subpoenas issued, but not to Palin

Palin on ice — if Sarah Palin is such a great Veep, then why is McCain putting her on ice up in the frozen tundra?
The campaign will “also use the plane time and time on the ground to begin the education of Sarah Palin,” Fineman said. “They want to take that pause to train.”

More here at the local level from the Alaska blogosphere.

“Hole up”? We’re past the traditional Labor Day start to the election calendar with two months left and counting until Nov. 4.

At the same time, what if wingers and the Religious Right start howling for more Palin appearances? Sounds like Schmuck Talk Express™ will be in a pickle over having a long-distance Veepship relationship with his “partner and soulmate.” (Funny way to show she’s your soulmate, too.)

Palin and the media — A slim majority of poll respondents think media coverage of Palin has been fair (For poll details, go here [PDF] — see page 5 and following.) Other tidbits from the poll show Palin and Joe Biden get the same support among independents, despite Palin theoretically having a “bounce” from the RNC. Meanwhile, Palin actually is more a dead weight on POTUS-Veep ticket support than Biden (graph, page 2). A plurality of respondents on Palin think the lacks Veep-level experience (page 3).

Troopergate — The stall tactics grow, and the Anchorage Daily News takes Palin to the editorial woodshed.

Meanwhile, the investigation speeds up. State Sen. Hollis French is subpoenaing seven witnesses, although not Palin herself, in the polite, courteous and totally deluded conceit that she will voluntarily cooperated.

On that count, with the French committee being bipartisan, GOP Rep Jay Ramras says Palin’s, ahem, “unique political circumstances” should rule that out.

What bullshit. Did Bill Clinton’s “unique political circumstances” stop the Gingrich-DeLay-Armey drive a decade ago? No.

But, at the same time, have Beltway Congressional Democrats signed off on that bullshit with Bush-Cheney, with non-sworn testimony on 9/11, etc.? Yes.

When will Dems wake up?

Consider this another reason to vote Green.

And, we’re getting some pushback hardball. French is advancing the timetable on the release date of his investigation, from Oct. 31 to early October. Just in time to have plenty of political traction.


And, ex-brother-in-law Mike Wooten talks to the media. (Video on webpage.)

Details:
1. He admits using the Taser on his stepson, while saying it was not maliciously done;
2. He denies drinking and driving on duty;
3. He says McCain’s choice of Palin is “wonderful for the state of Alaska.”

Nothing new on the Trig front to report, other than noting that the “third option” on Trig’s parentage was nothing more than a red herring.
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at Friday, September 05, 2008 0 comments Posted by Gadfly

It’s the economy, stupid

If Obama can pin6 percent unemployment, along with opposition to additional “stimulus” economic help, on the shoulders of McCain, as touting four more years of economic McSame, the election is his in a cakewalk.

Meanwhile, expect no more help from the Fed, even as it is likely economic conditions will worsen before improving, with trouble lasting into 2009.
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at Friday, September 05, 2008 0 comments Posted by Gadfly
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