R.I.P. Senator John McCain

[ilovepaydays]

John McCain’s passing is front page news across Vietnam where he is greatly admired. It is a sign of what kind of man he was that his former enemies thinks the world of him.

Here’s what’s happening at the monument at the site of his plane crash in Hanoi, Vietnam.

 

[cygnus]

I have visited the Hanoi Hilton- it's a chilling place. It must have taken an extraordinary amount of courage to survive there for five years. I have a great deal of respect for the man and his legacy. RIP

 

[skatingfan5]

The irony is that Senator McCain died on the same day as Senator Kennedy in 2009. Both died of the same form of brain cancer.

It's a horrible disease that he fought valiantly. May he rest in peace.

 

[Simone411]

With deepest sympathy and respect, adding my condolences to his family and friends. RIP, Senator McCain. May God Bless.

 

[skatesindreams]

(And naming it after McCain certainly seems more fitting than after Richard Russell

Let's just say that Russell was no supporter of Civil Rights.
The change would be appropriate, and meaningful.

 

[caseyedwards]

Russell was a huge institutional power in the senate and helped create the modern senate! Yes he was a segregationist but Washington , Jefferson , etc owned slaves. Mccain was just a popular senator who helped to passed some bills or treaties. Maybe 10.

 

[skatesindreams]

International reaction:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/26/opinions/mccain-death-robertson-opinion/index.html

 

[DreamSkates]

He was a man of integrity.

 

[ballettmaus]

Russell was a huge institutional power in the senate and helped create the modern senate! Yes he was a segregationist but Washington , Jefferson , etc owned slaves. Mccain was just a popular senator who helped to passed some bills or treaties. Maybe 10.

Washington and Jefferson lived in the late 1700s/early 1800s, Russell in the mid 1900s. Two very, very different time periods and periods in history. Sure, no one kept Washington and Jefferson from opposing slavery but they had slaves when it was a common practice of their time. (It's a fact, not an excuse). Russell opposed desegregation during the Civil Rights movement after slaves had been freed and slavery had long been abolished.

McCain was a man of integrity and principles. He made mistakes, he owned them, he worked across the aisles, he opposed racism, he was viewed as an expert on foreign policy and well-liked and respected around the world. He may not have shaped the Senate in the way Russell did but he shaped it with honesty, integrity and humanity and in the way he did his job. He did it as it was intended and in a way that should serve as an example to everyone in Congress. I don't think the same can be said about Russell.

 

[ilovepaydays]

Also, wasn’t one reason that McCain lost the 2000 GOP primary in South Carolina (and therefore the party nomination and probably the presidency) because too many people didn’t like that McCain opposed the Confederate flag on public grounds?

I think McCain opposed it primarily because he believed that the Confederacy primarily represented treason against the U.S. I’ve always thought that reason alone made it completely inappropriate to be on public areas. People can have whatever stupid or crazy flag they want on their private property.

I can’t find the videos or articles, but I know I’ve heard this from reputable people.

 

[skatesindreams]

Funeral services planned:
http://time.com/5378461/john-mccain-funeral-plans/

 

[ballettmaus]

Also, wasn’t one reason that McCain lost the 2000 GOP primary in South Carolina (and therefore the party nomination and probably the presidency) because too many people didn’t like that McCain opposed the Confederate flag on public grounds?

This is what the WaPo writes about it

One of his regrets, he later said, was getting tangled up in South Carolina’s emotional debate over flying the Confederate flag at the capitol in Columbia. After describing the banner as “a symbol of racism and slavery,” Sen. McCain bowed to the pleas of his panicked strategists and issued a statement saying he could “understand both sides” of the question.

Later, he wrote that he regretted not having told the truth, which was that he believed “the flag should be lowered forever from the staff atop South Carolina’s capitol.”

“I had not been just dishonest. I had been a coward, and I had severed my own interests from my country’s. That was what made the lie unforgivable,” he recalled. “All my heroes, fictional and real, would have been ashamed of me.”

Bush handily defeated Sen. McCain in South Carolina, beginning the end of the senator’s insurgent campaign. In April, a month after he dropped out of the 2000 race, Sen. McCain returned to the state and publicly apologized for having chosen “to compromise my principles. I broke my promise to always tell the truth.”

Tim Kaine remembers McCain http://time.com/5378683/john-mccain-tim-kaine-senate/
The world is upside down. McCain gets booed at Republican (Trump) rallies and gets applause from Democrats.

 

[caseyedwards]

Washington and Jefferson lived in the late 1700s/early 1800s, Russell in the mid 1900s. Two very, very different time periods and periods in history. Sure, no one kept Washington and Jefferson from opposing slavery but they had slaves when it was a common practice of their time. (It's a fact, not an excuse). Russell opposed desegregation during the Civil Rights movement after slaves had been freed and slavery had long been abolished.

McCain was a man of integrity and principles. He made mistakes, he owned them, he worked across the aisles, he opposed racism, he was viewed as an expert on foreign policy and well-liked and respected around the world. He may not have shaped the Senate in the way Russell did but he shaped it with honesty, integrity and humanity and in the way he did his job. He did it as it was intended and in a way that should serve as an example to everyone in Congress. I don't think the same can be said about Russell.

The same was said about Russell. The senate building was named for him because liberals conservatives everyone agreed he was worthy.

This is what the WaPo writes about it




Tim Kaine remembers McCain http://time.com/5378683/john-mccain-tim-kaine-senate/
The world is upside down. McCain gets booed at Republican (Trump) rallies and gets applause from Democrats.

That’s because he campaigned stridently on repealing Obamacare but then flip flopped! The main republican goal of 8 years destroyed by mccain.

 

[Vash01]

Also, wasn’t one reason that McCain lost the 2000 GOP primary in South Carolina (and therefore the party nomination and probably the presidency) because too many people didn’t like that McCain opposed the Confederate flag on public grounds?

I think McCain opposed it primarily because he believed that the Confederacy primarily represented treason against the U.S. I’ve always thought that reason alone made it completely inappropriate to be on public areas. People can have whatever stupid or crazy flag they want on their private property.

I can’t find the videos or articles, but I know I’ve heard this from reputable people.

The South Carolina primary was dirty. Bush campaign spread false rumors that McCain had an illegitimate colored child, even though it was well kniwn that John and Cindy had adopted a girl from Bangladesh. It cost him the state and stopped his momentum.

 

[Vash01]

CNN is showing the HBO documentary ' For whom the bell tolls'. I am recording it.

 

[skatingguy]

I can't imagine enduring five days of funeral services. My dad died in 2006, and we did the wake and funeral in one day, about 3 hours, plus a reception, and a family dinner at my parent's house. I was exhausted by that evening, and didn't really do anything the next day.

Funeral plans for John McCain take shape

Wednesday
McCain will lie in state in the Arizona State Capitol on Wednesday — the day on which he would have turned 82.


Thursday
A funeral will be conducted at North Phoenix Baptist Church in Arizona, and former Vice President Joe Biden is expected to speak.


Friday

McCain will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington. There will be a formal ceremony and time for the public to pay respects.


Saturday
The procession will pass the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and head to a funeral at Washington National Cathedral.


Sunday
A private funeral is planned at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/po...tml?s_campaign=bostonglobe:socialflow:twitter

 

[ballettmaus]

I can't imagine enduring five days of funeral services. My dad died in 2006, and we did the wake and funeral in one day, about 3 hours, plus a reception, and a family dinner at my parent's house. I was exhausted by that evening, and didn't really do anything the next day.

Does his family have to be present each day?

 

[skatingguy]

Does his family have to be present each day?

I suppose not for the two days where he'll be lying in state in Arizona and Washington, but I imagine that the family will be there for some part of that time in each of those settings.

 

[skatesindreams]

An appreciation, by one of the reporters who covered him:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/27/politics/dana-bash-reporters-notebook-john-mccain/index.html

 

[Vash01]

The WH has raised the flag to full, after just one full day at half staff.

 

[skatesindreams]

How terrible!

 

[skatingfan5]

The WH has raised the flag to full, after just one full day at half staff.

How terrible!

Yes, and how petty, too.

 

[merrywidow]

A true American hero, respected & revered by millions.

 

[ballettmaus]

The WH has raised the flag to full, after just one full day at half staff.

Someone should just lower it anyway and tell Trump the mechanism to raise it is broken. Who freaking is that clown and especially, who is he compared to McCain? He isn't even a quarter of the man McCain was!

 

[skatesindreams]

Yes, and how petty, too.

Another example of Trump as he truly is.

Those reporting this are very upset; saying it is "despicable", on CNN.

 

[VALuvsMKwan]

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam has ordered the lowering of the Virginia state flag to half-staff through September 2. I am witnessing the result of his order through my office window with flags at the Virginia Capitol Building and other state buildings at which that flag is flown.

http://www.nbc12.com/story/38969421/northam-orders-flags-at-half-staff-in-memory-of-mccain

 

[ballettmaus]

Jim Sciutto from CNN tweeted that the WH flag has been lowered to half staff again. Looks like someone inside that building found their decency and spine (someone referring to the someone who either defied Trump or wore him down until he agreed)

 

[skatingfan5]

Jim Sciutto from CNN tweeted that the WH flag has been lowered to half staff again. Looks like someone inside that building found their decency and spine (someone referring to the someone who either defied Trump or wore him down until he agreed)

Perhaps the various veterans groups urging the WH to do so had some effect. Or maybe seeing the Capitol flags still at half-staff in stark contrast to the WH?

 

[ballettmaus]

Perhaps the various veterans groups urging the WH to do so had some effect. Or maybe seeing the Capitol flags still at half-staff in stark contrast to the WH?

I'm reading that it was at the urging of GOP and Dem congressional leaders and the American Legion. It definitely seems to have been outside pressure.

 

[Vash01]

Jim Sciutto from CNN tweeted that the WH flag has been lowered to half staff again. Looks like someone inside that building found their decency and spine (someone referring to the someone who either defied Trump or wore him down until he agreed)

I'm reading that it was at the urging of GOP and Dem congressional leaders and the American Legion. It definitely seems to have been outside pressure.

The WH has also issued a statement praising McCain for his service, undoubtably due to the criticism he received.

Coward in Chief!