John McCain and Lindsey Graham: Politicised Integrity and Delusion

http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-germany-security-usa-idUKKBN15W1JI

Trump's team is definitely in disarray and yet it seems to me that in the past if someone spoke this way about a president they would be severely criticised.

If they spoke this way overseas to a foreign audience their allegiance would be called into question. McCain has always been part of the faction that makes such accusations.

I don't wish to defend Trump in any way shape or form but once again John McCain flaunts his hypocrisy, utter lack of integrity as well as the double-standard that is deeply rooted in the political party that tries to portray itself as the bastion of morality and traditional values. The McCain faction has decided that Trump is not their man. They've disowned him and now they're out to destroy him. The rules they would apply to others don't seem to apply to them.

They would be the first to say that you don't talk bad about your president to people 'outside the family'... in another country. Such speech undermines the power and authority of the office and denigrates the status and respect duly accorded to the United States.

For a US senator to portray his president as a fool in such a venue hardly exhibits the kind of respect for the office and the institutions of US government.

Or is it all just a game?

As someone who does not hold the person, office or institutions in high regard it matters little to me personally, and yet I take great umbrage when these people try to speak as if they had moral authority. And of all the people on Capitol Hill, John McCain should be rated near the bottom.

McCain has also been attacking Trump's comments regarding the press, that they're liars and enemies of the people. The Arizona senator warns of the threat of dictatorship. Such criticisms of free speech and the free press embark the state upon a dangerous road he warns.

It's very true and yet this is coming from John McCain? Is he so foolish as to not realise that militarism, the very lifeblood of McCain, the cause and purpose of his whole adult life is what leads to dictatorship? The militarism championed by the Vietnam era war criminal leads to the militarisation of society. Enmeshed in plots and secrecy the path of militarism necessarily leads to a suppression of free speech, assembly, petition and certainly the press. Investigative journalism becomes an enemy in a militarised society. The destruction of privacy and due process soon follow.

Is John McCain going to have the audacity to suggest that if he had become president in 2008 and prosecuted his desired wars with Russia, China and Iran that he would just happily put up with newspapers publishing leaks, journalists probing his administration's secrets, and news reports criticising his administration's policies?

This person is obviously some sort of psychopath or lunatic. Or perhaps we should say that these labels apply to anyone who takes him seriously.

Clearly John McCain is a fool who has not yet grasped how the state works or what an empire is. We know is. This is after all the man who brought Sarah Palin to national prominence. I think that just about says it all with regard to his judgment.

His life's labours have all been focused toward one end... military dictatorship.

McCain is not usually someone associated with the Deep State though I think it's safe to say he's deeply connected with the Pentagon and its interests. One of the Keating Five, McCain has managed to flush his connections to the famous banking scandal down the Memory Hole. Though it must be admitted that of the various corrupt senators associated with that debacle, McCain's role seems to have been minimal. At that point he was so new to the senate that it seems unlikely he wielded a great deal of power and influence. The episode though points to a much bigger story, one McCain would not care to revisit.

In many ways McCain has continued the legacy of his Arizona forebear, Barry Goldwater. Their role vis-à-vis the Congress and even the Deep State are similar. They have limited connections but are not fully integrated into the apparatus.

In this case it's not a matter of McCain going rogue as much as just being dumb... and certainly manipulative and malicious.

Finally his toady-compatriot in this little escapade, the Evangelical warmonger, South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham has exposed himself as something of a sociopath. Berating Russia for its alleged interference in democracies, this lunatic has chosen to ignore his own country's record when it comes to this topic, one which he has heartily supported. He loathes Trump and what he has done to the integrity and dignity of the presidency, but then sits in front of an international audience and talks about 'kicking Russia's ass'? This is not a serious person. This is a clown.

He warned France and Germany that Russia was coming for them too as they both are hosting elections in 2017. What is particularly ironic about his statement is that one can easily point to past episodes when the United States on multiple occasions meddled in the elections of both France and Germany and directly schemed to assassinate their leaders. The proof is far more compelling than the evidence offered thus far that points to Moscow's interference in the US 2016 presidential election. Israel in the role of spy, manipulator and assassin could also be mentioned at this point as well, but that opens another can of worms.

Lindsey Graham's own sins and hypocrisies will find him out. It is a shame that the Church (broadly speaking) and in particular the SBC of which he is apparently a member doesn't denounce his warmongering and idolatry but alas, he is all too often their champion and voice.