Is this the right place to gripe about the media coverage of John McCain? The fawning is really getting to me, esp. since most of these msm hypocritical assholes spent all of 2008 telling the country why he sucks. Also, I'm not entirely convinced he wouldn't have dragged us into yet another preemptive war with Iran, Russia, NK, or anyone else he determined to be a threat.
Ratings on a 1-10 scale for your pleasure:
Top Gun: Maverick - 8
Top Gun - 7
McCabe & Mrs. Miller - 8
Crimes of the Future - 8
Videodrome - 9
Valley Girl - 8
Summer of '42 - 7
In the Line of Fire - 8
Passenger 57 - 7
Everything Everywhere All at Once - 6
The bar for Republicans is really low right now. As a politician, McCain seems to be getting credit for being occasionally decent. He still gave us Sarah Palin, so it's hard for me to think too highly of his overall legacy.
Coming to America (Landis, 1988) **
The Beach Bum (Korine, 2019) *1/2
Us (Peele, 2019) ***1/2
Fugue (Smoczynska, 2018) ***1/2
Prisoners (Villeneuve, 2013) ***1/2
Shadow (Zhang, 2018) ***
Oslo, August 31st (J. Trier, 2011) ****
Climax (Noé, 2018) **1/2
Fighting With My Family (Merchant, 2019) **
Upstream Color (Carruth, 2013) ***
I was wondering the same. I don't follow US political media but I saw Chris fucking Rock post some heartfelt remembrance and it felt weird.
I agree, it must be Trump-related in the sense that McCain was a Republican yet not a buffoon.
Palin doesn't bother me because that likely wasn't his choice.
But McCain was a ridiculous party hack. Rove and company said the worst shit about him during the 2000 campaign and McCain went along, fell in line, tried to suck all the right dick because he thought he'd eventually get his due.
He was also a veteran and POW and so craven that he couldn't must the fortitude to contradict the Bush administration on torture.
Fuck him.
I can't wait till Trump dies and CNN gives him wall-to-wall coverage, telling us what a sage elder statesman he was and how much today's (meaning the future's) politicians could learn from his shining example.
Just because...
The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild
The last book I read was...
The Complete Short Stories by Mark Twain
The (New) World
Or end up with this:Quoting baby doll (view post)
I can't wait for 2028 when "Republican Candidate X" is LITERALLY HITLER. We really mean it this time, guys!
Ratings on a 1-10 scale for your pleasure:
Top Gun: Maverick - 8
Top Gun - 7
McCabe & Mrs. Miller - 8
Crimes of the Future - 8
Videodrome - 9
Valley Girl - 8
Summer of '42 - 7
In the Line of Fire - 8
Passenger 57 - 7
Everything Everywhere All at Once - 6
Obviously it will never happen now, but I would unironically vote for Trump over for McCain for this reason:
https://www.motherjones.com/politics...ack-map-syria/
Ratings on a 1-10 scale for your pleasure:
Top Gun: Maverick - 8
Top Gun - 7
McCabe & Mrs. Miller - 8
Crimes of the Future - 8
Videodrome - 9
Valley Girl - 8
Summer of '42 - 7
In the Line of Fire - 8
Passenger 57 - 7
Everything Everywhere All at Once - 6
Neil Simon will be missed. John McCain, nah.
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Those are pretty cool.
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And everybody wants to be special here
They call your name out loud and clear
Here comes a regular
Call out your name
Here comes a regular
Am I the only one here today?
Isn't the reaction I see to McCain passing here pretty much the reason America has such a partisan, dysfunctional approach to political discussion?
Some guy who does a mix of good and bad dies of brain cancer.
Messageboard posters: Fuck him and everything he stands for!
A Democrat politician says nice things about him.
Twitter users: Fuck you, you traitor!
A celebrity says something good about him.
Online hive mind: Actors don't know shit, the morons!
Last edited by transmogrifier; 08-28-2018 at 10:51 PM.
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Run (2020) 64
The Whistlers (2019) 55
Pawn (2020) 62
Matilda (1996) 37
The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976) 61
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Soul (2020) 64
Heroic Duo (2003) 55
A Moment of Romance (1990) 61
As Tears Go By (1988) 65
Stuff at Letterboxd
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Anonymous message boards are their own thing and seem to bring out the worst in people (obviously match cut being a true exception). I'm talking more about MSM news both TV and print (esp. CNN, ABC, MSNBC, WaPo, NYT, etc.) and also non-anonymous social media like facebook where virtue signalling reigns supreme. A lot of my liberal friends on facebook who spent most of 2008 trashing the guy are now going all out for him simply because he hated Trump and shut-down Trump's healthcare bill. I find it pretty hypocritical. I'll admit that McCain was decent on domestic issues for a Republican, and I would never take away his bonafides as a war hero (but there were many, including my uncle who nearly died in 'nam and still has pieces of shrapnel in his abs to this day). He also seemed like a genuinely nice guy as far as interpersonal communication was concerned. THAT SAID, he was still a huge warmonger who very well might have taken us to war with Iran, NK, and maybe even Russia if he won in 2008. The idea of McCain being commander-in-chief terrified me. Of course, this is all conjecture, since we'll never know for sure, but there was no bigger saber rattler in the US senate than John McCain.
Last edited by Pop Trash; 08-29-2018 at 09:16 AM.
Ratings on a 1-10 scale for your pleasure:
Top Gun: Maverick - 8
Top Gun - 7
McCabe & Mrs. Miller - 8
Crimes of the Future - 8
Videodrome - 9
Valley Girl - 8
Summer of '42 - 7
In the Line of Fire - 8
Passenger 57 - 7
Everything Everywhere All at Once - 6
I guess to me, I see that as the core problem. It should never be hypocritical to disagree with someone on their specific political views (even heatedly) and then act decently towards them in other situations or with regards to other issues. This idea of a binary "you are either with them or against them" rule is so prevalent that it even has someone like yourself, who seems pretty level-headed regarding McCain given the rest of your post, disliking others expressing admiration for him upon his death. I mean, if you are not allowed to say nice things about dead people because you disagreed with them on a few political issues, then there is something very wrong, I think.
Last 10 Movies Seen
(90+ = canonical, 80-89 = brilliant, 70-79 = strongly recommended, 60-69 = good, 50-59 = mixed, 40-49 = below average with some good points, 30-39 = poor, 20-29 = bad, 10-19 = terrible, 0-9 = soul-crushingly inept in every way)
Run (2020) 64
The Whistlers (2019) 55
Pawn (2020) 62
Matilda (1996) 37
The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976) 61
Moby Dick (2011) 50
Soul (2020) 64
Heroic Duo (2003) 55
A Moment of Romance (1990) 61
As Tears Go By (1988) 65
Stuff at Letterboxd
Listening Habits at LastFM
It's not that McCain didn't have decent qualities. It's that these qualities should not be considered exceptional when it comes to a United States Senator. So he told a woman that Obama was not an Arab and that he was a decent man that he just happened to disagree with. This should be our baseline expectation. This, to me, is not something akin to heroism. (I am focusing here specifically on his political career, not his military service.) In my mind, he looks good only in comparison to the black hole of amorality that is the rest of the Republican party.
It's fine to acknowledge the positive qualities. But the full story also includes a man that casually joked about bombing Iran to the tune of a Beach Boys song.
Coming to America (Landis, 1988) **
The Beach Bum (Korine, 2019) *1/2
Us (Peele, 2019) ***1/2
Fugue (Smoczynska, 2018) ***1/2
Prisoners (Villeneuve, 2013) ***1/2
Shadow (Zhang, 2018) ***
Oslo, August 31st (J. Trier, 2011) ****
Climax (Noé, 2018) **1/2
Fighting With My Family (Merchant, 2019) **
Upstream Color (Carruth, 2013) ***
Another, arguably thornier issue related to McCain is how we assess the actions of American soldiers who participated, whether willingly or unwillingly, in the US war in Vietnam. Does the fact that he was tortured as a POW mitigate, or even cancel out, his participation in US imperialism in Southeast Asia? And does it matter if he was drafted or enlisted willingly when there were conscientious objectors, genuine heroes, who went to prison rather than fight in Vietnam?
Just because...
The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild
The last book I read was...
The Complete Short Stories by Mark Twain
The (New) World
Yeah, exactly. It's like people criticizing Trump for being a coward for saying he had "bone spurs" to get out of going to 'nam, when that strikes me as the rich white guy version of Muhommad Ali being arrested for dodging the draft. My mom has a friend that vehemently hated the Vietnam War and told the US Army he was a homosexual (he's straight) to get out of being drafted. I guess in many people's eyes he is a "coward" but in my eyes he was a smart guy avoiding being cannon fodder for a remarkably stupid war.
Ratings on a 1-10 scale for your pleasure:
Top Gun: Maverick - 8
Top Gun - 7
McCabe & Mrs. Miller - 8
Crimes of the Future - 8
Videodrome - 9
Valley Girl - 8
Summer of '42 - 7
In the Line of Fire - 8
Passenger 57 - 7
Everything Everywhere All at Once - 6
This is too big a question to lay at the feet of one person.
Ali didn't dodge the draft. He refused it. Big difference. His choice cost him the title , ~5 years of his career, and a helluva lot of money. The guy walked the walk.
Meanwhile Clinton, Bush, Trump, et al., used familial connections to avoid being sent to Vietnam.
Ali stood by his values and sacrificed for them. The other guys were flat out cowards. Not because they were afraid of dying in South Asia --- I can't blame anyone for that --- but because their refusal was self-serving, and they didn't have the courage of their convictions, or, really, any convictions at all.
I was thinking the same thing.
Bush opted in to the National Guard and basically waited out his time there w/o doing much of anything. I can't remember what Clinton did. I think he got deferred because of college. Trump used the "bone spurs" thing from his doctor. Honestly, knowing what I know now about the Vietnam War, I probably would have done the same thing, or did what my mom's friend did and tell the draft board I'm a homo. If anyone had a problem with that, I'd tell them to go fuck themselves.
Ratings on a 1-10 scale for your pleasure:
Top Gun: Maverick - 8
Top Gun - 7
McCabe & Mrs. Miller - 8
Crimes of the Future - 8
Videodrome - 9
Valley Girl - 8
Summer of '42 - 7
In the Line of Fire - 8
Passenger 57 - 7
Everything Everywhere All at Once - 6
John McCain sucked. I don't care what party he was from. That is my own opinion. Less fawning over war mongers, please.
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And everybody wants to be special here
They call your name out loud and clear
Here comes a regular
Call out your name
Here comes a regular
Am I the only one here today?
I'd probably try to find some way of weaselling out of it myself, but I still don't think we should conflate draft dodgers who either suffered no consequences or had to run to Canada with conscientious objectors who straight up refused on moral grounds and went to prison for it.
Just because...
The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild
The last book I read was...
The Complete Short Stories by Mark Twain
The (New) World
Burt Reynolds, 82.
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