Lunatic Senator John McCain Goes Batshit Over Ukraine Peace Talks

A last ditch effort by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande to try to negotiate a cease fire in civil war torn Ukraine has sent Senator John McCain into orbit. After he and his butt-buddy, South Carolina Senator and possible presidential candidate Lindsey Graham had practically sealed the deal for a massive transfer of U.S. military weaponry to Kiev, Frau Merkel has dared to throw a monkey wrench into things. The two European leaders traveled to Moscow to meet with the hated Russian President Vladimir Putin in order to try to prevent what could be the beginning of World War III. Granted that Putin is a world class prick but when it comes to a pathological bloodlust and a burning white hot contempt for democracy, Senator McCain is right up there with him. The Ukraine situation is deteriorating badly after the still sketchy overthrow of sitting president Viktor Yanukovych sent the country spinning into sectarian chaos last year. 

Despite Emperor Obama and his moronic goon of a Secretary of State John Kerry’s best efforts to impose economic sanctions on Russia, Ukraine continues to be a war zone. Now the insane warmongers like McCain are on the cusp of sending lethal weaponry to Kiev which is only going to ignite an already dangerous situation. In case none of the best and the brightest geniuses who are running U.S. foreign policy these days have noticed, Russia is a nuclear power with thousands of long-range missiles, many of them ICBMs. This isn’t Iraq or Afghanistan and it is lunacy to escalate the situation in such a reckless manner.

Merkel understands this - Germany and Russia have a rather bloody history when it comes to global conflagrations - but the peace talks are destined for failure thanks to the likes of McCain and Graham. The dynamic duo are always afforded an inordinate amount of national media attention as they bray for the children of American mothers to be fed into the meat-grinder for the sake of higher profits for the arms merchants that they really work for.

As reported by Reuters in the story "Merkel defends Ukraine arms stance in face of U.S. criticism":

U.S. senators Lyndsey Graham and John McCain, both Republican hawks, were withering in their criticism of the German stance, which is supported by other big European countries like France.

"At the end of the day, to our European friends, this is not working," Graham said of Merkel's diplomatic efforts. "You can go to Moscow until you turn blue in the face. Stand up to what is clearly a lie and a danger."

McCain added: "The Ukrainians are being slaughtered and we're sending them blankets and meals. Blankets don't do well against Russian tanks."

Russia's annexation of the Crimean peninsula in March last year and evidence that it is supporting separatist forces in the east of the country, which the Kremlin denies, have driven Moscow's relations with the West to a post-Cold War low.

The EU and United States have imposed a series of sanctions against Moscow that have contributed to a sharp downturn in the Russian economy.

Merkel and her allies in Europe want to continue to punish Russia by tightening the economic screws. Obama faces pressure from members of Congress to do more.

In an emotional plea for support in Munich, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko listed the number of troops and civilians that had been killed since the crisis started and held up red passports of Russian soldiers he said had been found fighting in Ukraine.

The American media never once questions any of the claims of the corrupt oligarch Petro Poroshenko aka "The Chocolate King" by asking for proof when he whips out stage props like a few passports that he claims belonged to Russkie invaders. Hell, if every report of Russian tank columns entering Ukraine over the past year are indeed the truth then why doesn’t the flag of the Russian Federation currently fly from all government buildings in Kiev? 

Americans should be very careful to not swallow the poison bait of longtime con men like McCain and his ilk, especially when considering the far-reaching consequences of sending American weaponry and eventually troops to within a few hundred miles of Russia’s borders.

Not that I am a big fan of Putin, a man who earned the eternal hatred of Obama and the establishment after he punked them by thwarting their war plans on Syria, but our own “leaders” are not exactly the paragons of morality that they revel in presenting themselves as. They are just better at pretending not to be liars, killers, cheats and enemies of democracy than Putin is. If McCain wants war so badly someone should just give the old bastard a rifle along with a one way ticket to Donetsk.

Sunday Morning McCain: Fortress America Edition

This Sunday's all star lineup of war criminals, liars, charlatans, recycled political hacks and deranged fiends featured more than the usual gaggle trotted out to spew lies and engage in demagoguery but the one constant remains that mangy, deranged old bastard Senator John McCain. McCain - this week sans his little butt buddy Lindsey Graham, the Palmetto State princess - was in his usual dyspeptic and cranky form in pushing for increased US involvement in Iraq. The target of McCain's ire during his appearance on State of the Union with that annoying sow Candy Crowley was Senator Rand Paul, the most hated man (at least to the neocons and militarists) in the Republican party because he dares to speak of minding our own business and extricating ourselves from the money-sucking charnel house in the Middle East where American blood and treasure has been squandered for nothing.

Old Blood and Guts used his appearance to chime in on a range of topics, all wrapped in the dripping contempt towards that horrible black man who whipped his ass in the 2008 election - Obama may be a catastrophe but there is something very pathological in how McCain deals with it that makes one inclined to suspect that he just may be a racist. The race card is definitely overplayed in defending Obama and his reign of errors but it is difficult to explain the animosity that some have towards him and it's more than just a matter of policy. The cranky one opined on how much he admired the "restraint" that the equally deranged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has shown in his latest kill crazy rampage in Gaza - to a guy like McCain anything short of Hiroshima level destruction passes for "restraint". He also chimed in on the illegal migrant crisis where hordes of children have been showing up in the USA! USA! USA! - largely a result of decades of a murderous foreign policy in Latin America that was based on the use of death squads trained in torture techniques at the former School of the Americas to prop up corporate friendly despots. Then of course there was his attack on Rand Paul and his shilling for a return to Iraq.

According to a story in the "Inside Baseball" of the beltway circle jerk Politico (the SOTU official transcript was not available as of this writing) in a story entitled "McCain: Paul's 'fortress America' comes at 'heavy price'" the Senator from Arizona who was censured by his own state's Republican Party for being "too liberal" - that would be liberal in the sense of the word when it comes to the "improve or we'll kill you" foreign policy doctrine. I excerpt the following from Politico:

“Senator Paul is part of a wing of the [Republican] party that’s been there ever since prior to World War I … and that is a withdrawal to fortress America,” The Republican senator from Arizona said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “The things we’re seeing in the world today, in greater turmoil than at any time in my lifetime, is a direct result of an absence of American leadership, and we are paying a very, very heavy price.”

What McCain and the warmongers, the neocon policy wizards and the rest of the blood-suckers drunk off of their asses on American exceptionalism never mention when conjuring up their blessed world wars to make their points is that IF the United States wasn't sold out by then President Woodrow Wilson into entering World War I then the world that we live in would be a far different and arguably better place today. There would have been no crushing of Germany nor the subsequent humilation and that embittered little corporal and failed artist likely never would have found such a receptive audience with the rabble that gathered in the beer halls. Rand Paul should be saluted by all Americans for his willingness to question the very horrific direction that this country has been led by scum like John McCain and his absolute hard on to send others to die for his own political expedience. 

I don't know why John McCain continues to receive the amount of airtime and false credibility that he does, it is not like he won the election in 2008 and should have just retired with dignity instead of continuing to float around in the media bitching and whining and in foreign countries stirring up trouble - like palling around with neo-Nazis in Kiev and helping the snake that is Saudi Prince Bandar in arming jihadists - some of which ended up with ISIS. But dignity is beneath McCain, this is after all a man who according to many when he was a guest of the Viet Cong at the Hanoi Hilton after being shot down during his bombing of civilians made propaganda videos for the communists, it is a sad sign of our ongoing national moral deterioration that he is treated as some sort of honored figure but that is why we are lurching towards collapse now isn't it?

Forked-Tongue McCain Calls for Congressional Investigation of NSA

Surfacing again on the Sunday morning state propaganda circuit, blood-thirsty Arizona Senator John McCain, the politician best loved by the corrupt media made an appearance where he routinely calls for U.S. military action. On CNN's State of the Union with Candy Crowley 'flipper' shockingly commented that there has been "overreach" by the NSA and suggested that a select committee be formed for Congress to investigate the agency. It was a rare moment of rationality for "bomb, bomb Iran" McCain and should be taken with the necessary grain of salt. Firstly, any sort of select committee culled from the ranks of this corrupt and lamentable legislative body would be inexorably tainted and more likely than not to provide a nice coat of whitewash on the unconstitutional surveillance programs. Let's face it, we aren't exactly talking about the second coming of the Church Committee here, especially given the ongoing defense of the programs by the likes of Mike Rogers, Di Fi, Dutch Reppersberger and McCain's little buddy Lindsay Graham. Even Obama's vaunted, insider packed panel of which El Presidente is to speak on Friday as to recommendations for reform was filled with half-measures that fail to do what truly is necessary which is to dismantle the NSA and put those responsible for its actions, such as former General Michael Hayden on trial and send them to prison. McCain will probably change his mind again by lunchtime today like when he suggested that NSA boss General Keith Alexander should resign in an interview with Der Spiegel and then rapidly denied it.

Were McCain serious which is doubtful then it would at least show some sort of pushback from a Congress that is being spied on by the NSA and seeks to reestablish some oversight but it is such a collection of liars, charlatans and self-serving asses it is only window dressing. As anyone who watches the ongoing train wreck of American democracy can clearly see the Congress only functions in a unified bipartisan manner when it comes to matters of war, threats of war, undermining diplomacy in the interests of more war and mass police state spying to compile a massive database containing the names and information of all who would dare to oppose war. There will be absolutely nothing done to restrain the NSA Stasi with the exception of cosmetic changes that will appease the public and you can rest assured that the agency is going to be very damned careful in limiting access to information after it was burned by former government contractor turned whistleblower Edward Snowden. McCain also made a remark during his appearance that  "when one guy who works for a contractor is able to reveal all this information -- and supposedly there's much more that he hasn't -- then there's something wrong with the system right there." He is absolutely correct on that one but there is not one damned thing to be done about it because the millions of "contractors" that have been hired by the government at extravagant rates being bilked out of the American taxpayer should not exist, these should be government jobs if they are deemed necessary so that there can be some control implemented over the massive costs associated. However, guys like John McCain are so dependent on the campaign financing provided by the military-security industrial complex that they are not about to kill the goose that laid the golden egg.

While the investigate the NSA comments got the headlines the rest of the interview was vintage Sunday morning McCain as he once again used the forum to present himself as a foremost expert on U.S. foreign policy and take pot shots at Obama (the man still can't get over losing to the black guy in 2008) as well as engage in his standard pandering. Doing his part to advance the ball with the "stabbed in the back" narrative of Fallujah falling to al Qaeda (an overhyped term for all Islamic militants rather than a unified force) and doubled-down on the vaunted General Petraeus led "Surge":

The president of the United States said the surge wouldn't succeed, and it did. And he wanted out of Iraq. We're out. And now you've seen increasing Iranian influence. You're seeing Maliki being very -- persecuting the Sunni minority. The Iraq/Syrian border is now becoming a haven for al Qaeda. And now, of course Fallujah.

You know, the battle of Fallujah -- the second battle of Fallujah, Candy, we lost 95 American soldiers and Marines, and 600 wounded, the bloodiest battle of the war. Now we see Fallujah, vehicles driving down the main street with al Qaeda flags.

It's very distressing to those veterans who fought so hard.

And this president wanted out. We got out. They would never say the number of troops that they wanted to have there, so Maliki decided to go his own way. And we are now seeing dramatically increased Iranian influence there in Iraq.

You would think that he was talking about the battle of Iwo Jima rather than a savage Lidice style revenge attack to avenge the gruesome murders of four Blackwater mercenaries where the U.S. used chemical weapons on civilians. John McCain is a career flip-flopper who is utterly devoid of scruples, loyalty and the basic level of morality that should keep politicians from sending off American servicemen and women off to die and be maimed in unnecessary battles that take place in illegal wars in lands where the only national interest is the plunder of resources for corporations. The whole of America should shun this man like he were a leper - the Maricopa County Republican party just censured the bastard and this country would be a far better place were others to do likewise. 

Sunday Morning McCain: Poke the Bear Edition

It was to be expected that the nation’s preeminent warmonger Senator John McCain would turn up on the Sunday morning propaganda circuit this week. With the ugly outbreak of unrest in Kiev over the Ukranian President Viktor Yanukovych’s shunning of the European Union in favor of a rapprochement with Russia it was prime territory for a career vulture like McCain to dip his beak into. During his appearance on CNN's "State of the Union" with the blathering sow Candy Crowley, yet another piss poor excuse for a journalist in the state-corporate media the bloodthirsty, corrupt old bastard used the forum to deliver a provocative shot at Russian President Vladimir Putin. The neocons of which McCain happens to be one have one flaming desire that is more deeply entrenched in their world conquering brains that even trumps turning the Middle East into a blazing inferno on behalf of the right-wing Israeli regime and that is a festering hatred for anything Russian. 

The warmongers have been furious ever since this summer when Putin punked Barry and the boys by providing temporary asylum to former government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton employee Edward Snowden after he absconded with the evidence that the NSA is far worse than either the East German Stasi or Stalin's dreaded NKVD. Not only the neocons but the entire Obama administration has been apoplectic over that one with El Presidente himself embarrassing the nation by acting as a petulant child in boycotting a meeting with the Russian president during the G20 gathering and threatening to boycott the upcoming winter Olympics. But then Putin upped the ante by forcing Obama and his regime, the rancid and traitor infested congress and even John Wayne's blessed America.

In what was the ultimate indignity on the most hallowed of days  that is September 11th, the anniversary of "the day that everything changed"  Putin served up a triple-decker borscht and shit sandwich with a vodka chaser by contributing an op ed piece to the New York Times. It was here where he dared to blaspheme the concept of American Exceptionalism from which I excerpt the part that embedded a bug up the puckering assholes of the neocons and the masses of asses whose reflexive flag-waving provides cover for the endless wars that have us on the brink of collapse:

My working and personal relationship with President Obama is marked by growing trust. I appreciate this. I carefully studied his address to the nation on Tuesday. And I would rather disagree with a case he made on American exceptionalism, stating that the United States’ policy is “what makes America different. It’s what makes us exceptional.” It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.

The Putin column also came at the critical time when Obama, Kerry and the rest of those who always are willing to send some poor unfortunate serviceman or servicewoman off to die in idiotic wars of their own creation based on lies (see Seymour Hersh's London Review of Books piece "Whose Sarin") when the pope of hope was making the case for yet another war. The wound was still raw when Putin broke out the rock salt and started rubbing it in by taking advantage of a gaffe of exactly the type that a man with chronic diarrhea of the mouth like Secretary of Skull and Bones John Kerry is bound to make. When Kerry slipped up and inadvertently offered Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad could avoid the looming U.S. attack by voluntarily giving up his chemical weapons stockpiles Putin brilliantly came to the rescue and prevented what could have been a historical catastrophe that would ignite World War III. That never sat well with the neocons nor their caterwauling benefactors in Riyadh and Tel Aviv, it especially pissed off McCain and his toady Senator Lindsey Graham but it stopped a war.

Now McCain and the war freaks see an opportunity to get another bite at the apple by intervening in the Ukraine in the same meddlesome way that the U.S. war machine always has done since the end of the second world war. It truly speaks volumes (or maybe not) as to the sheer depth of the thorough corruption of the media when someone as unstable as the self-proclaimed "maverick" is allowed to appear on national television and declare that the U.S. could take "concrete action" if the Ukranian regime threw in with Russia rather than the E.U. I mean this guy lost the freaking election when he ran in 2008 but regularly makes deranged and bellicose statements on national policy in matters where he has zero business speaking for anyone let alone a bankrupt country that is so fragile at this time that just about anything of major consequence could trigger the collapse that has been so far been avoided only by smoke and mirrors and the ongoing government support of the rigged six ways from Sunday financial markets.

I have long admired the work of former Reagan administration official Paul Craig Roberts who did the right thing morally and broke with his party during the worst years of the Bush-Cheney regime. A straight shooter who calls it like it is Mr. Roberts latest column entitled "Washington Drives the World Toward War" warns of the dangers of lunatics like McCain and his ilk pushing for a conflict that would eventually draw in Russia and China and I excerpt the following:

As costly and destructive as these wars have been, they are far below the level of a world war, much less a world war against nuclear armed opponents.

The fatal war for humanity is the war with Russia and China toward which Washington is driving the US and Washington’s NATO and Asian puppet states. There are a number of factors contributing to Washington’s drive toward the final war, but the overarching one is the doctrine of American exceptionalism.

According to this self-righteous doctrine, America is the indispensable country. What this means is that the US has been chosen by history to establish the hegemony of secular “democratic capitalism” over the world. The primacy of this goal places the US government above traditional morality and above all law, both its own and international.

Thus, no one in the US government has been held accountable for unprovoked aggression against other countries and for attacking civilian populations, unambiguous war crimes under international law and the Nuremberg standard. Neither has anyone in the US government been held accountable for torture, a prohibited crime under US law and the Geneva Conventions. Neither has anyone been held accountable for numerous violations of constitutional rights–spying without warrants, warrantless searches, violations of habeas corpus, murder of citizens without due process, denial of legal representation, conviction on secret evidence. The list is long.

A person might wonder what is exceptional and indispensable about a government that is a reincarnation of Nazi Germany in every respect. People propagandized into the belief that they are the world’s special people inevitably lose their humanity. Thus, as the US military video released by Bradley Manning reveals, US troops get their jollies by mowing down innocent people as they walk along a city street.

With the exception of the ACLU, constitutional rights groups and independent Internet voices, the American people including the Christian churches have accepted their government’s criminality and immorality with scant protest.

The absence of moral denunciation emboldens Washington which is now pushing hard against Russia and China, the current governments of which stand in the way of Washington’s world hegemony.

The push will continue, the warmongers are relentless, the media is their battlefield and the American mind is one that has been indoctrinated into the glorious national narrative of war. As CNN's hapless Crowley lobbed the obligatory softball to McCain on his tried and true invocation of Der Fuehrer and by proxy the heroic and godlike Sir Winston for comparing Obama to Neville Chamberlain when the U.S. leader shook the hand of Cuba's Raul Castro at Nelson Mandela's funeral this week the vile old man only snickered. It is fitting because the joke is on all of us because  the neocons have flogged the Neville Chamberlain horse to death and it should have been sent to the glue factory long ago along with Senator McCain. 

But as long as Americans view the world through their exceptional blinders where the flag waves eternally over The Homeland and every war is a continuation of "the good war" our tickets with historical infamy will very soon be punched.