Sunday, July 19, 2015

Maybe Trump is right?

I don't particularly like Donald Trump's style. Enough has been said about that topic and there's no need to rehash it here.

However, I don't particularly like John McCain's views, attitudes, opinion, or character either. He's a corrupt, warmongering, politician from a well-connected family who has grown tremendously wealthy from his time in office. We can debate his intelligence, but the fatal evidence of his low IQ is that he doomed his 2008 ticket by choosing Sarah Palin to be his running mate.

Back in 2008, I ran across this article written about John McCain's record. I was shocked that a Google search turned it up again. You do have to be impressed by the fortitude he showed while imprisoned by the North Vietnamese, but that shouldn't mean criticizing his record, actions, and positions should be off limits. Focusing on Trump's inelegant manner distracts from the core issue: McCain lives in a glass house and shouldn't be throwing stones at Donald Trump or anyone else.

THE TRUE MILITARY RECORD OF JOHN MCCAIN WRITTEN BY AN ACTIVE MARINE.
9/03/08
McCain has never really earned anything. He is from a wealth pampered background and not fit to lead this nation. 
A “war hero” doesn’t finished 894th out of 899 and still get stationed at a Navy champagne unit and promoted ahead of all but two of his 898 other classmates. 
A “war hero” doesn’t crash three U.S. Navy jets out of sheer incompetence and ineptitude, including two during non-combat training sessions. 
A “war hero” doesn’t get written up on drunk-and-disorderly, fraternization, disobeying orders, and insubordination charges more than two dozen times in less than three years.
A “war hero” doesn’t get promoted to squadron commander of the air field named after his own grandfather immediately after crashing his third airplane. A “war hero” doesn’t have all the military records that cover his time in Vietnam and all disciplinary actions against him censored and sealed “as a matte r of national security.” A “war hero” doesn’t get 28 medals awarded all after-the-fact “for bravery” for no other reason than being shot down and captured and then go on a celebrity public relations tour because he’s the son of two acclaimed Navy admirals. A “war hero” doesn’t repeatedly cheat on the wife who’s back in the states waiting for him, and then cheat on her more when he returns to the states, and then divorce and abandon her.
A “war hero” doesn’t systematically vote against every single pay and benefit increase for military and veterans throughout his entire political career, all the while claiming to be “the soldier’s Congressman,” and then take credit for the passage of a G.I. benefits bill he that voted AGAINST. A “war hero” McCain III lost jet number one in 1958 when he plunged into Corpus Christi Bay while practicing landings. He was knocked unconscious by the impact coming to as the plane settled to the bottom. McCain’s second crash occurred while he was deployed in the Mediterranean. “Flying too low over the Iberian Peninsula,” Timberg wrote, “he took out some power lines [reminiscent of the 1998 incident in which a Marine Corps jet sliced through the cables of a gondola at an Italian ski resort, killing 20] which led to a spate of newspaper stories in which he was predictably identified as the son of an admiral.”
McCain’s third crash three occurred when he was returning from flying a Navy trainer solo to Philadelphia for an Army-Navy football game. Timberg reported that McCain radioed, “I’ve got a flameout” and went through standard relight procedures three times before ejecting at one thousand feet. McCain landed on a deserted beach moments before the plane slammed into a clump of trees. McCain’s fifth loss happened during his 23rd mission over North Vietnam on Oct. 26, 1967, when McCain’s A-4 Skyhawk was shot down by a surface-to-air missile. McCain ejected from the plane breaking both arms an d a leg in the process and subsequently parachuted into Truc Bach Lake near Hanoi. For 23 combat missions (an estimated 20 hours over enemy territory), the U.S. Navy awarded McCain a Silver Star, a Legion of Merit for Valor, a Distinguished Flying Cross, three Bronze Stars, two Commendation medals plus two Purple Hearts and a dozen service medals. “McCain had roughly 20 hours in combat,” explains Bill Bell, a veteran of Vietnam and former chief of the U.S. Office for POW/MIA Affairs — the first official U.S. representative in Vietnam since the 1973 fall of Saigon. “Since McCain got 28 medals,” Bell continues, “that equals out to about a medal-and-a-half for each hour he spent in combat. There were infantry guys — grunts on the ground — who had more than 7,000 hours in combat and I can tell you that there were times and situations where I’m sure a prison cell would have looked pretty good to them by comparison.
The question really is how many guys got that number of medals for not being shot down.” For years, McCain has been an unchecked master at manipulating an overly friendly and biased news media. The former POW turned Congressman, turned U.S. Senator, has managed to gloss over his failures as a pilot by exaggerating his military service and lying about his feats of heroism. McCain has sprouted a halo and wings to become America’s POW-hero presidential candidate.
This article was written by an active, unnamed Marine. It was published by Gale Toensing founder of the Corner Report.com and she sent it to me. It is a true account of McCain’s real war record and evidence of his lack of fitness for the office of President.

9 comments:

  1. But you didn't say anything about Trump.

    I am glad he is running for the GOP ticket instead of as an independent "spoiler" like Ross Perot in 1992.

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    1. I didn't go into Trump because there is already enough ink being wasted on him. I do appreciate that he is brave enough to broach issues that nobody in either establishment party wants to touch. I personally don't think he has the disposition to be President. I wish a more serious candidate would attack these issues in a more constructive way instead of Trump's divisive manner. At one time I thought Rand Paul might be that person. Right now, there isn't anyone I would ever vote for. Both parties and all of their candidates are souless and intellectually bankrupt. They are beholden to essentially the same monied interests. We as a country will go with the flow and elect a Clinton, Bush or Walker and absolutely nothing will change (except for the worse).

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    2. I don't disagree with your assessment of the current lot of candidates. Since you brought it up, if you had your druthers, who would be your ideal presidential candidate?

      Chris

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    3. That's a really interesting question. The answer could cover a multi-page blog post. Unfortunately, I don't think any individual can make a big impact as President (and certainly no one who is currently running). The power structure as it exists (the two big party machines, powerful lobbying cartels, and ,01% billionaire puppeteers) controls what happens. The Presidency is diminished. I drank the Koolaid in 2008 and really believed that Obama would be his own man and actually make good on his campaign talking points (silly me). If we had a President who didn't care about being a one-termer, then we might get somewhere. What needs to be done would infuriate the right and the left, the billionaires, the corpporate interests, and every other identity political group. It would be someone who is willing to be honest with the American people about the economic pain we'll have to endure to climb out of the financial hole we've dug. It have to be somebody who could inspire the population to endure some suffering while we go through the process. It would have to be someone who doesn't get distracted by low importance social and politically correct bandwagons (or use them to distract). It would have to be someone who is in no way beholden to any of the powerful interest groups I noted above. The existing power structure would not allow a person like this to be elected. More than half of this country would see a person like this as a threat to their "livelihood". A system where there is no such thing as a career politician might get us closer to the real change needed. Maybe term limits of six years for all politicians would do it. Fat chance of that ever happening. In summary, it's going to take a terrible crisis for anything to really change. By the time that crisis hits, the changes will be forced upon us and the fallout will be terrible and beyond our control. I suspect the country will stumble forward like a zombie on low growth, stagnant wages, with an ever growing debt bomb, and a populace hypnotized by the bread and circuses thrown their way by the government, media, and the monied interests. I suspect that five years from now President Hillary Clinton will be running for her second term and the Federal debt will be hitting $24 trillion dollars. We've heard the debt is a disaster ever since it hit $2 trillion under Reagan. Some economists now peg $24 trillion as the tipping point. The point when we lose reserve currency status and the dollar collapses. Historically, these things are never that predictable to the exact year.

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    4. You make good points about which characteristics and qualifications a president should have. The closest one in modern history to those definitions would be Jimmy Carter and we all know how that turned out. Interestingly, looking at this list of Ralph Nader positions over the recent years, I find many if not most appeal to me and perhaps also lean toward your political proclivities. However, despite Nader’s idyllic views, he lacked the charisma to really succeed in politics. http://www.ontheissues.org/Ralph_Nader.htm

      Chris

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  2. I agree. You seemed to be focused on McCain. But your title is Maybe Trump is Right. Besides the fact that he IS right, albeit outlandish in delivery, unless I missed something, you failed to explain why Trump might be right. But I do agree with most of what you described about John McCain. I'm a Vietnam combat veteran and a Republican and I would never vote for him. But I DO like Sarah Palin. :)

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    1. I actually like Sarah Palin, but I wouldn't have wanted her a heartbeat away from the Presidency. She just wasn't ready and she did nothing to help the ticket. McCain should have shown better judgement there. It's true that Trump is raising a lot of valid points. The fact that he is setting the establishment elements of both parties hair on fire is a sure sign he's on to something. It's a shame his communication skills and personality aren't better suited to get his points across to a larger segment of the population. There are a lot of Vietnam veterans up here in Northern Idaho. We haven't run into one yet who is a McCain fan.

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  3. If you want real change Bernie Sanders is it. He will take the billionaires out of politics and return our country to the people.

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  4. It's amazing how much the rhetoric of Sanders and Trump overlap. Of course, when they are compared to eachother, both camps go nuts trying to deny the similarities. One issue with Sanders is that he has been a party to the problem during a long career as a politician. Even so, he's one of the truth tellers. If Trump and Sanders were to team up on an independent ticket, that would be must see TV for the year.

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