Tag Archives: John McCain

THE GUILTY PLEAD THE FIFTH – THE INNOCENT TELL THE TRUTH

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In a Washington Post opinion piece, former Obama-era State Department official Jonathan Winer acknowledged he had regular contact with ex-British spy Christopher Steele, the author of the controversial anti-Trump dossier.

Winer said that Steele alerted him in the summer of 2016 about “disturbing information regarding possible ties between Donald Trump, his campaign and senior Russian officials.” The two met in Washington in September 2016 to discuss what is now known as the “dossier.”

After he reviewed the documents, Winer said, he shared a summary with Victoria Nuland, the former assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs.

In February, Nuland confirmed to CBS News’ “Face the Nation” that the Steele dossier came to the attention of the State Department in July 2016.

“He [Steele] passed two to four pages of short points of what he was finding, and our immediate reaction to that was, ‘This is not in our purview,'” Nuland said. “‘This needs to go to the FBI, if there is any concern here that one candidate or the election as a whole might be influenced by the Russian Federation. That’s something for the FBI to investigate.'”

Nuland went further, saying that “our reaction when we saw this [was] … we can’t evaluate this. And frankly, if every member of the campaign who the Russians tried to approach and tried to influence had gone to the FBI as well in real time, we might not be in the mess we’re in today.”

Another person caught up in the dossier handoff is David J. Kramer, a former State Department official and associate of the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. In November 2016, he traveled to Surrey, England, to meet with and be briefed by Steele on the dossier. According to British court records reviewed by Fox, Steele told the British court that an arrangement was made so that Fusion GPS’s Simpson would provide hard copies of the dossier to McCain via Kramer.

In January 2017 the late Senator’s office posted to their website: “Late last year, I received sensitive information that has since been made public. Upon examination of the contents, and unable to make a judgment about their accuracy, I delivered the information to the Director of the FBI. That has been the extent of my contact with the FBI or any other government agency regarding this issue.”

Earlier this year, in an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier, former FBI Director James Comey seemed vague about the dossier, when he learned about it as well as its political origins.

“Sometime in the fall (2016), I don’t remember exactly when,” Comey said, “I remember they briefed me on it, explained that it came from a reliable source I remember being given a copy of it I don’t know if it was September (sic) October some period in that time.”

Other information about Russian hacking was also provided to the FBI in 2016 by lawyer Michael Sussmann, whose firm, Perkins Coie, commissioned Simpson’s firm for the dossier. The FBI’s former general counsel, James Baker, recently confirmed that revelation during a closed-door deposition on Capitol Hill, say sources close to the congressional investigation.

A spokesman for Sussmann said in a recent statement: “Prior to joining Perkins Coie, Michael Sussmann served as a cybercrime prosecutor in the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice during both Republican and Democratic administrations. As a result, Sussmann is regularly retained by clients with complex cybersecurity matters.

“When Sussmann met with Mr. Baker on behalf of a client, it was not connected to the firm’s representation of the Hillary Clinton Campaign, the DNC or any Political Law Group client.”

Senate Oversight Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray on Friday requesting all documents about Sussmann’s contact with the FBI, as well as the memos that document allegations Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein considered secretly taping the president. Rosenstein and the House Judiciary panel failed to agree on terms for his Capitol Hill appearance this week.

Fox News asked Sussmann’s spokesperson for additional comment in light of the Senate letter, but there was no immediate response.

CHICAGO RAT CAN’T GET OVER TRUMP VICTORY

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The accolades came pouring in from all corners of the word. The eulogies were eloquent until they weren’t. Without any fanfare Obama could not help himself at McCain’s funeral. He took the opportunity to go down on his knee if at a football game. We are talking about a president worse than scum, a class divider, a chicken little, a killer of millions in Syria, a defender of the guilty, a president who lied through his teeth while paying homage to his Muslim Brotherhood aficionados. And what did this low life individual say?

“So much of our politics, our public life, our public discourse can seem small and mean and petty, trafficking in bombast and insults and phony controversies and manufactured outrage,” (CLICK) for disgusting comments by – Obama who said. “It is a politics that pretends to be brave, and tough, but in fact is born fear. John called on us to be bigger and better than that.”

Of course we know where Obama was coming from. Remember he defeated a “WAR HERO“.  Trump might have added a little hot sauce when he said “heroes don’t get captured.” That may have been going a little too far.  Having lost incredibly to Obama in 2008 set the stage for a more appropriate comment, one that would not have denigrated McCain’s service to the country; “McCain was a loser” got beat by a nobody by the name of Barack Hussein Obama. 

JUST FOR THE RECORD

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For years, McCain has been one of the most powerful voices in Congress advocating against torture; a position informed by his personal experiences at the hands of the North Vietnamese during 5 years as a prisoner of war.  And McCain has consistently spoken out against torture during his run for president.

“Anyone who knows what waterboarding is could not be unsure. It is a horrible torture technique used by Pol Pot and being used on Buddhist monks as we speak,” McCain said after a campaign stop in Iowa in October 2007.”

“People who have worn the uniform and had the experience know that this is a terrible and odious practice and should never be condoned in the U.S. We are a better nation than that.”

“America must be a model citizen if we want others to look to us as a model,” McCain said. “How we behave at home affects how we are perceived abroad. We must fight the terrorists and at the same time defend the rights that are the foundation of our society. We can’t torture or treat inhumanely suspected terrorists we have captured.”

John McCain did not plan the Vietnam War. He didn’t lie to the Americ an people about the nature of the conflict, the atrocities it entailed, or the probability of its success. He merely trusted the civilian leadership that did. There is no reason to doubt that McCain believed he was in Vietnam to risk his life — and then, to endure a living hell — in defense of our nation’s highest ideals. His willingness to sacrifice his own well-being to what he believed to be America’s interests deserves our awe-struck admiration. As the senator is laid to rest, one can reasonably argue that respect for his family, and legacy, compels us to isolate his act of transcendent patriotism from the indefensible war that produced it.

Daily Intelligencer

John McCain’s Service in Vietnam Was a Tragedy

By @EricLevitz

FROM THE DAILY INTELLIGENCER

In 1971…a remarkable 58% of the public told pollsters that they thought the conflict was “immoral,” a word that most Americans had never applied to their country’s wars.

How quickly times change. Jump ahead a decade and Americans had already found an appealing formula for commemorating the war. It turned out to be surprisingly simple: focus on us, not them, and agree that the war was primarily an American tragedy. Stop worrying about the damage Americans had inflicted on Vietnam and focus on what we had done to ourselves.

… Americans began to treat those who served the country as heroic by definition, no matter what they had actually done … You no longer had to believe that the missions American “heroes” fought were noble and just; you could simply agree that anyone who “served America” in whatever capacity automatically deserved acclaim.

In 2012, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes voiced a similar concern on a Memorial Day episode of his weekend talk show. “It is very difficult to talk about the war dead and the fallen without invoking valor, without invoking the words ‘heroes,’” Hayes observed. “Why do I feel so [uncomfortable] about the word ‘hero’? I feel comfortable — uncomfortable — about the word because it seems to me that it is so rhetorically proximate to justifications for more war.”

This sentiment was not well-received. Hayes quickly issued an apology. And yet, the idea that invoking the heroism of the war dead is “rhetorically proximate to justifications for more war” isn’t a radical one. In fact, it’s a notion tacitly endorsed by President Trump’s own speechwriters.

Last year, when the commander-in-chief made his argument for prolonging the longest war in American history — a conflict in which the U.S. has neither a credible strategy for victory, nor significant national interest — he devoted much of his remarks to celebrating the sacrifices of fallen soldiers.

American patriots from every generation have given their last breath on the battlefield for our nation and for our freedom. Through their lives — and though their lives were cut short, in their deeds they achieved total immortality.

By following the heroic example of those who fought to preserve our republic, we can find the inspiration our country needs to unify, to heal, and to remain one nation under God. The men and women of our military operate as one team, with one shared mission, and one shared sense of purpose.

… Our nation must seek an honorable and enduring outcome worthy of the tremendous sacrifices that have been made, especially the sacrifices of lives. The men and women who serve our nation in combat deserve a plan for victory. They deserve the tools they need, and the trust they have earned, to fight and to win.

But what the “men and women who serve our nation in combat” truly deserve is a country that reveres their lives more than their suffering — and, therefore, that only asks them to endure the latter in wars that are just, winnable, and necessary.

If we wish to honor McCain’s wartime sacrifice, we must remember it less as an example of the kind of heroism we wish to emulate, than of the kind of tragedy that our nation is duty-bound to avoid repeating.

FROM FACT CHECK – THE FORRESTAL FIRE
FROM THE LIBERATION –

WAS JOHN McCAIN A WAR CRIMINAL

FROM

Doug’s Darkworld

War, Science, and Philosophy in a Fractured World.

Who Did McCain Bomb?

Proof that the Vietnamese were barbarians? Not really. If someone attacked the USA and started bombing us I doubt we would treat the captured any better. One has to remember that it is the USA who attacked Vietnam, this wasn’t like the Korean War where the north invaded the south. Though amazingly enough lots of Americans believe exactly that, I suppose I should have put it in my Ten American Myths post. No, the North was supporting insurgents in the south, so the USA picked a fight with North Vietnam thinking that a bombing campaign in North Vietnam and American troops in South Vietnam would prop up the unpopular South Vietnamese government. We all know how well that ended up, despite dropping more bombs in Vietnam than were dropped by all of the participants in all of World War Two, Saigon is now Ho Chi Minh City.

RATZ: JOHN McCAIN, SUSAN COLLINS, LISA MURKOWSKI

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The (click here for the latest) three sewer RATZ sit in the Senate under a Republican banner, but for all intents and purposes, these three are part of the Republican lunatic fringe who carry water for the Democrats. McCain still has not gotten over his presidential defeat including Trump’s remark concerning his time in Viet Nam. Therefore he has held Trump hostage regarding the rollback of Obama Care. Susan Collins, listen to her for a moment, if you can, will cause you immediate pain. Murkowski, she should not be there. Ted Stevens was the Senior Senator until trumped up charges by Democratic partisans caused him to be arrested and convicted. These charges were later dismissed under appeal, but too late as he lost the Senate seat. Murkowski is now an Alaskan Senator because of that.

RUN THEM OUT OF TOWN

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Republican wimps (RINOs) continue their lying to the American people. They gave lip service time and time again during their campaigns, but when the chips were down they went Yellow Pants. Lisa Murkowski (click here) our number one target, number two is Susan Collins (she is no Ms. America-click here), number three is John McCain(click here).  

FROM RIGHTWINGNEWS.COM

In the past, McCain has repeatedly called for the repeal of Obamacare. But when do or die came, he gave the thumb’s down in this deadly Game of Thrones. It may also be that he hates President Trump so much, he just wants to screw with his agenda. Whatever the reasoning was, it was treacherous. There were literally gasps from the Senate floor when he pulled this. Ted Cruz is right when he says there will be a reckoning and no party can remain in power by lying to those who gave them that power.

From Young Conservatives:

“From the beginning, I have believed that Obamacare should be repealed and replaced with a solution that increases competition, lowers costs, and improves care for the American people. The so-called ‘skinny repeal’ amendment the Senate voted on today would not accomplish those goals. While the amendment would have repealed some of Obamacare’s most burdensome regulations, it offered no replacement to actually reform our health care system and deliver affordable, quality health care to our citizens. The Speaker’s statement that the House would be ‘willing’ to go to conference does not ease my concern that this shell of a bill could be taken up and passed at any time.

“I’ve stated time and time again that one of the major failures of Obamacare was that it was rammed through Congress by Democrats on a strict-party line basis without a single Republican vote. We should not make the mistakes of the past that has led to Obamacare’s collapse, including in my home state of Arizona where premiums are skyrocketing and health care providers are fleeing the marketplace. We must now return to the correct way of legislating and send the bill back to committee, hold hearings, receive input from both sides of aisle, heed the recommendations of nation’s governors, and produce a bill that finally delivers affordable health care for the American people. We must do the hard work our citizens expect of us and deserve.”

Given, the so-called ‘Skinny Repeal’ was awful. But McCain didn’t vote for it because it did not offer a replacement. It shouldn’t have. The reason I didn’t like it was that it would still cause premiums to go up 20 percent. If they had just done Ted Cruz’s actual repeal, we wouldn’t be in this mess. But there are Republicans who want the pork it offers and the kickbacks from the insurance companies after they get their bailout. In other words, corruption.

 

THE JAMES COMEDY HOUR

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Fortunately for us Trump gave him the bounce. For Pete’s sake, this guy is every which way but loose. Does he know what his job (ex job) was. For some reason he is conflicted. He is in need of some truth serum. By the looks of it John McCain has trumped them all. Click here for McCain’s questioning of Comedy; time to go Senator, join Hillary in the Alzheimer’s ward. 

This was Mr. FBI beeping his horn, dancing to the music, parsing out words slower than molasses on a cold day. A political liberal hack who could not find the intestinal fortitude to do what was right – drop dead. Now that the Comedy hour is over we can get back to business. But as Yogi said it ain’t over till its over.

That’s right – the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations admits to being the leaker-in-chief – taking it upon himself to do what others are being prosecuted for – leaking information in order to damage the President and the Trump Administration.  It was revenge – pure and simple.

 

JOHN McCAIN’S LAST WAR

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War is tough, Senator John McCain knows first hand how tough it was in Viet Nam; a prisoner in the Hanoi Hilton for a half dozen years. But now McCain is fighting a different kind of war, not one for his life, but for his political life. McCain, a natural born RINO, is being challenged from within the Republican Party and from the outside too. McCain’s tepid endorsement of Trump has given an opponent from the other side the ammunition needed to bring him down. Also, challengers have arose in the Party itself.

One of his opponents, Alex Meluskey, a businessman cited an internal campaign poll showing most respondents would be more likely to vote for a businessman who never ran for office over a career politician.

McCain also is facing opposition from Kelli Ward, a doctor who resigned her state Senate seat last year to run full time for the U.S. Senate, she is pushing a campaign theme of “bold, fresh and fearless,” to contrast McCain’s status as a longtime Washington insider.

The Republican primary is Aug. 30, just one day after McCain turns 80.

STIRRING THE DRINK

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“The Donald” not only stirred the drink this past week, but in so doing he crushed the ice. Somethings are better said in private provided no open mike is nearby; a lesson that escaped Trump. But telling the truth exposes those who are politically correct. By coming down on Senator John McCain like a cheap suit, Trump has basically imploded his fledging campaign.

“Give them hell, Harry”, referring to Harry Truman who did give them hell.  “The Donald” is bringing it to them by exposing their hypocrisy. However, you can only carry on for so long before it blows back in your face. Trump has no other way but to confront his faux pas’s, but to keep going full steam ahead. After all that is the paradigm that the Clinton’s have utilized over the years. Move on, ignore the flames at your back and go to the next major target. Time will tell if it works for “The Donald.”

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