Maybe McCain and cancer are the push needed for improvement on the cannabis front. I know that's kind of a bleak outlook but...
He chose Palin because Hillary had just lost to Obama in the primaries. It was a ploy to capture the "disgruntled women" vote. I saw it immediately for what it was, and so did everyone else. He could've tried for the Condi Rice two-fer instead, but that late into W's presidency her 9/11 baggage was extra heavy. The real counter was Colin Powell.
I keep picturing Hillary's SS detail backing away slowly from the sounds coming out of her office. What a gut punch.
John McCain could have run an absolutely perfect campaign with a far better VP and he still would have lost. Obama had everything going for him. Fatigue after Bush, first black President, young hip guy vs old crusty man, great campaign speeches and slogans, etc. It wouldnt have mattered. As far as his illness, its a shame that partisan politics have clouded a sense of common decency, at least as far as social media is concerned. Whatever his views, John McCain sacrificed more for this country than most people ever will and then dedicated his life to public service after that. He should be respected by everyone. Its crazy that although its a rare disease, its the one that also claimed Ted Kennedy and Beau Biden.
Hating fucktards is not the same as hating women. Palin is just a prime example of how horrible women can get. If they had vetted Palin properly they could have avoided such embarrassment. They didn't even have to pry, they could have asked her simple questions like: "Do you believe in magic?" "Do you believe in evil spirit possession?" "What does your husband do in his spare time?" "Do you believe in wholesome, traditional values while using your baby to disguise the fact your teen daughter is knocked up?" "Are you an idiot, liar, and fraud?"
Yup Obama's first candidacy was something completely different than we were used to seeing. I think they were trying to blunt some of the energy he had going but it was just too short term of a tactic to overcome his momentum.
No one beats GBM. GBM is up there with pancreatic cancer in terms of lethality. You just don't beat it, at best you keep it at bay but sooner or later it wins. My best friends dad had GBM, my brothers cancer survivor friend had GBM. She was able to stay afloat way longer than the statistics predicted, but even then, it took her. GBM is a terrible terrible thing. If you look at the MRIs of it, its just a black hole where brain tissue should be.
The guy has no understanding, at all, of a lot of things... just platitudes and general, non-specific, shallow talking points.
I feel awful for McCain. He was truly a credit to the American people, and God knows few have ever matched his sacrifice or service. That truly sucks. The ramifications of that will be even worse. He was one of the few voices for the Republican party back when it actually functioned (Maybe 1992?). I agree that in 2008 he had no real shot, the fallout from Bush was too bad (funny, the same could be said of Obama, but Trump was such a buffoon people thought it wasn't just politics as usual). But he soldiered on and did his job for damned near a decade. Is it safe to presume the Republican party isn't working because it's essentially splintered into sub-parties that can't be coerced into working together. I see factions of: Tea Partiers that hate the government they work for (still struggling to understand that one) Libertarians who are...anarchist cowboys? They simply don't want any semblance of modern government and are Republican in name alone, as far as I can tell. Republicans who are definitively on the bubble in 2018 trying to placate legions of angry voters Moderate Republicans, like McCain who I think of as Indiana Republicans: fiscally conservative, reasonable, and they are too practical for the religious wharrgarbl Folks like Lindsey Graham who are Republican because that's all their states will elect, but are so unsure of themselves they won't really do anything like...their jobs Trump followers that hope to grovel enough to be rewarded with spoils Trump, McConnell, Ryan and Pence can't corral this crowd into cohesion...and I'm wondering why I am supposed to be surprised by this.
The same can be said for the dems too though. You have the wealthy elites who sip champagne and ponder over the ills of the world while Cody and Madison go to a black people-free daycare. Then you have the angry minority groups who side with Bernie because he's the only who spoke truth to them, but even he has like 3 houses. You have some blue collar types that are pro union but are culturally the same as southern GOP. And that group went solid for Trump last election. You have college kids who attended one poly sci class and think they know everything. This group is as close to communism as it gets.
Bernie actually did horribly with minorities. It was one of many, many inexplicable outcomes during the last election. I honestly think the dems have a lot greater chance at getting their shit together and unifying their disparate groups. The thing with the republicans is that whenever anyone breaks off it's always into something super nutty. The libertarians are just plain idiots and have a world view that is so nonsensical and impractical it's breath taking that anyone could be stupid enough to believe it would work. These are people who actually think that without the government roads and bridges will just build themselves. There's no reasoning with groups like the tea party because there's so much crazy religious baggage and for the most part you're talking about people who seem to have no idea what policies are actually happening, nor care. When Obama cut their taxes they protested that he raised their taxes. They're complete idiots and utterly impossible to work with. The democrats have some pretty cringe worthy groups under their umbrella, but if a feminist wants to pretend that women are systematically oppressed what does it really matter? I know I bitch about the SJWs a fair bit, but it's more that I'm just in awe at their whiny idiocy than I actually care all that much. Granted, these are often the people that want to spend obscene amounts of money on unfathomably stupid shit, but they're never going to get what they want at the federal level and I'm not sure it matters all that much. I will say though that I think at this point the democrats have enough (albeit less dangerous) stupidity within that the days of being able to claim that the liberals are the smart ones are long past. Considering how many political movements and 3rd party start ups we've had in this country you would think at least one or two of them wouldn't suck so hard, but for whatever reason they almost always do. The only one I can get a teensy bit excited about are the justice democrats, but unfortunately the SJW stupidity is firmly rooted, and they want things like free university for all with total disregard to cost, and completely impractical minimum wages. They're not quite communists, but they're so wishy washy I doubt they actually accomplish much of anything.
Not inexplicable at all. Minority groups know how hard fought progress is, and not to go for the whole hog all at once and then pout and whine when you don't get it. They have a cultural memory of what "worse" looks like, and as a result aren't at all in favor of destroying the good when you don't get the perfect.
Yeah the good but not perfect ended up losing to Donald fucking Trump. I think trump was a symptom of the republicans pulling the same shit with their supporters.
So with the latest news of Trump trying to undercut the Russia investigation and exploring the use of pardons, I have a question. How real does the Russia stuff look now to y'all who have been skeptica throughout? (this is a genuine question)
It's really interesting how Corallo, Trump's very highly paid legal spokesman, who just quit rather unexpectedly, had told others he couldn't believe how the White House operated and had never seen anything like it. I said it before, and I'll say it again... this house of cards falls down in under a year because Trump is still doing business the way he's used to doing business, but doesn't get that the rules are different when you're the highest elected official. He's still playing like he's a big fish in a small pond, when really he's just a stupid fish in an ocean of sharks. Meuller is so much smarter than him... and with Deutche Bank providing information on previous Trump deals (because Trump tried to fuck them over previously)... again... it's going to be very interesting.
Fairly real at this point. I was skeptical because there were a few eyebrow raising things that occurred, but nothing that was concrete. Trump had been associated with politicians that had questionable ties to foreign governments, but so did Hillary and so do a lot of our politicians, and that by itself wasn't really proof. A lot of the other 'evidence' that emerged really didn't amount to anything. What happened with Comey moved the needle, but the Trump Jr meeting is in my opinion the first real compelling evidence. Three months ago I was maybe 10-20% that Trump colluded with the Russians. At this point I'm more like 70-80% that he did. Part of the reason why I was skeptical other than why I couldn't see Trump taking such a risk (and I know this is almost going to sound contradictory) is that he's so careless I really couldn't envision him hiding it for so long. I think Bill Burr said it well. Hillary hides the bodies in the basement. Trump just tosses them out on the front lawn.
It also turns out that Meuller is working with the NY AG, so could be preparing for State charges (RICO?) which would be immune from a Presidential pardon... Presidential pardons apply to federal crimes only, not state crimes.
I'm still a little amazed myself. As someone who hated Trump from the jump, who fully believed that Russia was working to get him elected through any means they could, who understood that the Trump campaign was definitely leaning into the Russian assistance, even I wouldn't have been willing to bet that the campaign openly and deliberately colluded with a hostile power. So much for that morsel of benefit of the doubt.