RIP John McCain

John McCain was a patriot in the truest sense of the word. He was classy and demonstrated unquestionable integrity in a business where that is rare. Though I didn't agree with all his positions, he adds always had what he believed was the nation's best interests in mind.
 
Guys who are wounded or taken prisoner in the course of serving their country will always have a special respect from me. He wasn't perfect, but in the aggregate, he was a great man and a great Senator. He'll be missed. Hopefully Trump can resist bashing him for a few days.
 
Good. Vox at least was honest about their feelings.

I see a whole bunch of people from the left side of the political aisle offering sentiments similar to Seattle's. Fair enough. The man just passed and his family deserves the salve of kind words during their time of grief.

Yet, what I remember is how viciously and savagely many of those same people tore into McCain's character the very moment he became the Republican nominee for POTUS. It makes it very difficult to believe the sincerity of the condolences. Vox simply failed to put on the sad mask. They were tasteless, but they were honest.
 
Sangre Naranjada said:
Good. Vox at least was honest about their feelings.

I see a whole bunch of people from the left side of the political aisle offering sentiments similar to Seattle's. Fair enough. The man just passed and his family deserves the salve of kind words during their time of grief.

Yet, what I remember is how viciously and savagely many of those same people tore into McCain's character the very moment he became the Republican nominee for POTUS. It makes it very difficult to believe the sincerity of the condolences. Vox simply failed to put on the sad mask. They were tasteless, but they were honest.
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Over the course of McCains career, the right has been just as savage, if not more, than the left.

Now is not the time to dredge up those stories. He was a war hero for how he endured his time as a POW without breaking. He spent a lifetime serving his country honorably and should be celebrated.
 
Now is precisely the time to remember how the phonies in the liberal media savaged him, because this is the time their hypocrisy and blatant political bias is seen at its most naked.
 
A bit too war mongery for me. "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran." But I absolutely can't criticize how much he suffered in the military. Maybe the two are related.
 
ProdigalHorn said:
That tweet is absolutely insane.
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That facebook thread was Kelli Ward's staff then Ward later jumped in. It was then deleted and she's now claiming "Fake News" and that the "media is pushing their own narrative". That's the get out of jail free card for the conservative base. Scream "fake news" and the base ignores the facts.
 
Mr. Deez said:
She is pissing away a Republican Senate seat like Sharon Angle and Christine O'Donnell.
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I was in Vegas for the Sharon Angle debacle. Talk about rimming a layup. The GOP had two guys who would have walked into the seat. People in Nevada viscerally hated Harry Reed. Everyone knew he was a scumbag. And the GOP nominates the former housewife who recited talking points really well and said all the things the base wanted to hear, but had zero charisma, political sense, or electability.
 
Yeah, yeah, yeah, thanks for your service and all that, but I'm not giving McCain a pass for all the times he ran over Republicans to "cross the aisle" and help Democrats. He really lost me when he blamed Sarah Palin for losing the 2008 election.
 
Normally I just peruse these boards without commenting because I really enjoy the (for the most part) respectful, robust debate that goes on, but don't always feel like I've done enough studying of the issues at play to inject my 2 cents.

But Trump's pettiness with regards to McCain's passing is really pretty and deserves some contempt, even if it's par for the course with him. And McCain getting sucked into that maelstrom and becoming petty himself upsets me as well.

The entire political climate is so disturbingly toxic now and it saddens me to see how it has infected areas where politics has rarely touched in the past. I am really worried that we are ripping apart areas that used to bring us together solely because of politics.

Then again, the climate that existed in the 60s was, in my opinion, an order of magnitude (OK, multiple orders of magnitude) worse than it is currently and we managed to extricate ourselves from that. Or this could all just be a slow burn from a fire I thought was more or less extinguished that's come roaring back to burn down everything. I'm praying for the former
 
I admit I haven't followed any stories of McCain's passing, aside from noting the fact of it happening.

So please tell me, how was Trump petty?
 
The whole "we'll only lower the flag for a couple of days" thing bothers me. Hell, maybe that makes me petty, but it just seems a bit sophomoric.
 
I took time to look it up and it follows the Flag Code to the letter.

By order of the President, the flag shall be flown at half-staff upon the death of principal figures of the United States Government and the Governor of a State, territory, or possession, as a mark of respect to their memory. In the event of the death of other officials or foreign dignitaries, the flag is to be displayed at half-staff according to Presidential instructions or orders, or in accordance with recognized customs or practices not inconsistent with law. In the event of the death of a present or former official of the government of any State, territory, or possession of the United States, the Governor of that State, territory, or possession may proclaim that the National flag shall be flown at half-staff. The flag shall be flown at half-staff thirty days from the death of the President or a former President; ten days from the day of death of the Vice President, the Chief Justice or a retired Chief Justice of the United States, or the Speaker of the House of Representatives; from the day of death until interment of an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, a Secretary of an executive or military department, a former Vice President, or the Governor of a State, territory, or possession; and on the day of death and the following day for a Member of Congress.

That doesn't sound petty to me.
 
What does sound petty to me is all the unbelievably whiny headlines on my google search in which every one of the usual suspects wrote a story to darkly imply Trump committed some horrible sin against McCain by following the flag code. I'd have to say it's the media leading the pettiness charge in this particular case.

It only took me about two minutes to find the relevant link to the flag code, yet I'm willing to bet none of the media bothered.
 
I understand that, but the general tradition has been to keep the flags at half-staff until the burial when it's a sitting senator. There is a definite precedent for that.
 
Sangre Naranjada said:
What does sound petty to me is all the unbelievably whiny headlines on my google search in which every one of the usual suspects wrote a story as if Trump committed some horrible sin against McCain by following the flag code. I'd have to say it's the media leading the pettiness charge in this particular case.
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Oh, you will get ZERO argument from me about the media and their abject bias and pettiness.
 
TxnByBirth said:
The whole "we'll only lower the flag for a couple of days" thing bothers me. Hell, maybe that makes me petty, but it just seems a bit sophomoric.
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I've looked more into it, and Trump has been less than dignified (though somewhat passively) about McCain. He and McCain have been fighting for a few years - a fight that Trump picked when he took a piss on his service. McCain has punched back rhetorically and with the decisive vote to keep Obamacare. I would never have insulted McCain the way Trump did, but if I had, I would have tried to patch things up with him after the election.

At this point, there's not much Trump can do, but he can keep from making it worse. He can't attend the funeral since McCain didn't want him to. However, he could have made a stronger statement and more extensive honors.
 
TxnByBirth said:
I understand that, but the general tradition has been to keep the flags at half-staff until the burial when it's a sitting senator. There is a definite precedent for that.
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Yes, section 178 of the code does say the President can alter, modify, or repeal any of the other sections by proclamation. So Trump chose not to do that, but instead chose to follow the text to the letter. Is that decision petty? I can concede the decision could have been prompted in part by that motivation. Does it warrant the predictably overwrought reaction it got? I doubt it.
 
"Does it warrant the predictably overwrought reaction it got? I doubt it."

I can't argue with that. Looking at the majority of the media diatribes about this you'd think it was the biggest Trump scandal since...well, since the last thing they decided was the biggest Trump scandal. And the hypocrisy is just off the charts. They savaged McCain when he was running for president. Now they love McCain because he hated Trump. That's become the barometer now.

I feel like my personal reaction to this whole Trump-McCain thing is more one of disappointment than anything else. The other things I commented on my post were more verbal vomit on the political climate overall that I felt compelled to throw into my post.
 
Can we all agree Trump is an *******?

And that his assholishness works very well for the country at times, yet at other times comes across as far less than pleasant?

If we can agree to that, then I fail to see why every time his assholishness is on display it warrants such an overreaction from everybody else. (and this statement is definitely not directed at you personally)
 
This flag at half-mast is much ado about nothing. Trump is following the code, the absolute minimum. Trump is an ******* and petty but we all knew that. It seems the feeling is mutual from McCain given he directly asked for Trump not to attend his funeral while asking Obama and Bush to speak.

In comparison, Obama directed the staff to keep the flags at half-mast for 5 days for Ted Kennedy. McCain deserves at least the same honor if not more but timing is everything. If he had held out another 2 years then maybe he'd get his honor.
 
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