Calling McCain a bozo is an unfair insult to the clowns! Good on Rand for calling him out

John McCain has it in for President Trump.  He has in public consistently proclaimed his disdain for the president.  It is hard not to ask, "what's his problem?"

By any objective measure, Big Media has ganged up on Trump.  So The Donald has asked Congress to write laws outlawing the press.  Due to this flagrant anti-constitutional initiative, the ever heroic Senator McCain has come to the defense of our civic order.

"They get started by suppressing free press, in other words, a consolidation of power -- when you look at history, the first thing that dictators do is shut down the press," McCain said. "And I'm not saying that President Trump is trying to be a dictator. I'm just saying we need to learn the lessons of history."

The only problem is, Trump did not ask congress to suppress free press.  The sniveling MCCain was responding to Trump's tweet

1. Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump  Feb 17
   

   The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!
2. The Donald is stating an opinion and hardly smashing the presses.  The Arizona Senator was being cute.

Trump was not The Neutralist's candidate.  We preferred Rand Paul.  Actually, our heart will always be with his dad and Rand flipped the flop a bit before he exited the primary campaign.  One thing he has though, is John McCain's number.
 

Senator Paul said on a TV appearance we are “very lucky” that Trump is president and not McCain,

Heck, even though Obama turned out to be a drone warrior, we are lucky that McCain did not beat even him.

Rand says McCain has  a “personal dispute” with the president over foreign policy.

 “Everything that he says about the president is colored by his own personal dispute he’s got running with President Trump, and it should be taken with a grain of salt, because John McCain’s the guy who’s advocated for war everywhere,” Paul said on ABC’s “This Week.”

“He would bankrupt the nation. We’re very lucky John McCain’s not in charge, because I think we’d be in perpetual war,” Paul added.

(Love ya, Rand, but if you haven't noticed, we are in perpetual war)

 “I would say John McCain’s been wrong on just about everything over the last four decades. He advocated for the Iraq War, which I think destabilized the Middle East,” Rand, also said.

“If you look at the map, there’s probably at least six different countries where John McCain has advocated for us having boots on the ground,”

Go Rand, you could step into your dad’s shoes someday if you keep this up.

There is more to the McCain problem, however.  On Boston Herald Radio last week, Massachusetts Congressman Bill Keating said,

John McCain certainly is one of the most knowledgeable foreign affairs people and particularly when it comes to Russia.  And he’s advancing this to what extent he’ll be able to do it I don’t know but he seems to me on the senate side a person that’s clearly putting partisan issues aside and dealing with the issue directly. 

Now Mr. Keating, like the rest of the Bay State delegation have not a non-partisan bone in their bodies.  We can translate what he said into English as , “I hate Trump and am willing to ally with someone I am not too keen on to do our dirty work.”

The Neutralist may be getting the nuances a little bit wrong, but it is close enough.

The real question is what drives McCain?

Is he just crazy?

Is he getting some instructions from Neocon Central?

What is going on in that head?

If you have an answer, Please let the Neutralist know.

To finish off, we have always wondered why people who were for the Iraq war are listened to by anyone.

That goes double for McCain.

The drumbeat continues-piling on Russia continues

The media from top to bottom keeps up the anti-Putin Russia hate.  At the top, Frontline had a hit piece, Putin's Way.  Our Ministry of Information outdid itself.  Hey, at least they didn't accuse him of stealing from the poor boxes.

Crazy John McCain was warmongering for more pro-Ukie involvement.

Stratfor is sure on the case, the last two email updates were, RED ALERT: Rocket Fire Could Signal New Offensive on Mariupol and then RED ALERT UPDATE: At the Heart of the Mariupol Crisis.  Who knows, maybe it's all true and the Russkies are on the march. Too many outlets have cried wolf too often.  Maybe it's just that our clients are too inept to use the equipment and training.

Ilan Berman in Forbes also thinks the Russians are on the march.

It all smacks of the drumbeat before Iraq.  You remember all that.  The Neutralist remembers it in all aspects.  First, Iraq was mentioned as part of a fictitious Axis of Evil. Then, the WMD that never were.  There was no goofiness that was not referenced such as this little jewel,

One talk show host, Jay Severin was shilling for the war big time. One afternoon he breathlessly intoned that it was reported that the anthrax involved in the letters had the footprint of an Iraqi lab and that if it did have that footprint, then, "We are at war with Iraq." Cut to a break.

Plus ça, you know.  Different administration, same ragtime.  

The Neutralist does not have the resources to say definitively what Russia, or for that matter, Europe or the US is up to.  Really, for us Americans, how much does the Ukraine matter?  Why did La Nuland feel the need to push a coup?

Refreshingly, Forbes also publishes someone who addresses the question of Why the Ukraine?  Doug Bandow's U.S. Should Stay Out Of The Russo-Ukrainian Quarrel: Why The Conflict In Ukraine Isn't America's Business, Part I is good enough that he could rest on his laurels and skip Part II.

Bandow makes the points following:

1) Ukraine isn’t important geopolitically. 

2) Russia matters more than Ukraine to America. 

3) Blame is widely shared for Ukraine’s travails. 

4) Washington never guaranteed Ukraine’s security. 

5) Vladimir Putin is not Hitler and Russia is not Nazi Germany (or Stalin’s Soviet Union). 

6) There’s no genocide. 

He explains each one convincingly.  Please read the article.  The Neutralist certainly agrees.  If there is someone out there who has a cogent argument against Bandow's points, I'd love to hear it.

The Neutralist is not holding his breath.