This is appalling:
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., ripped President Barack Obama on Sunday over the administration’s response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s election victory.
“The president should get over it,” McCain said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “Get over it — get over your temper tantrum, Mr. President. It’s time we work together with our Israeli friends and try to stem this tide of ISIS and Iranian movement throughout the region.”
Last week, Obama said that he is concerned about Netanyahu’s comments during the campaign opposing the creation of a Palestinian state.
“We continue to believe that a two-state solution is the only way for the long-term security of Israel,” Obama told the Huffington Post Friday. “Given his statements prior to the election, it is going to be hard to find a path where people are seriously believing that negotiations are possible.
“We take him at his word when he said that it wouldn’t happen during his prime ministership,” the president continued. “So that’s why we’ve got to evaluate what other options are available to make sure that we don’t see a chaotic situation in the region.”
“The least of your problems are what Bibi Netanyahu said in a political campaign,” McCain said Sunday. “I think the president maybe shouldn’t like it, but thousands are being slaughtered by ISIS. The Iranians have taken over the major capitols of Lebanon, Syria, Beirut and Baghdad. It pales in significance to the situation which continues to erode throughout the Middle East, and it puts America at risk. … The president has his priorities so screwed up that it’s unbelievable.”
McCain said Obama is letting his personal problems with Netanyahu get in the way of policy.
“Either that or he’s delusional. I’m not sure which,” he said.
If you think that any member of Congress would EVER say this about any other President, you have lost your mind. This is as racist as it gets, and McCain should know it and probably does. Rather than acknowledge Bibi’s lies and the fact that it does create diplomatic problems, McCain chooses instead to infantalize the President, and the only reason he is doing so is because Obama is black. Period. End of story. The only thing he didn’t do was add “boy” to the end of the temper tantrum remark. And CNN’s Gloria Borger didn’t so much as flinch.
And for McCain, the man of legendary temper, to accuse anyone else of having a temper tantrum, is just priceless.
Seriously, fuck these republican scumbags.
D58826
Juan Cole has an amusing translation of Obama (or Spock) speak from the Huffington interview
http://www.juancole.com/2015/03/translating-comments-netanyahu.html
The part I liked best was
In addition McNuts needs a map ‘The Iranians have taken over the major capitols of Lebanon, Syria, Beirut and Baghdad.’ Beirut is the capital of Lebanon. Bush handed Bagdad to the Iranians with his ill conceived war. Syria and Iran have been allies for years.
muddy
Why do they hate Iran but love Saudi Arabia? Are the Republicans Sunni?
WereBear
I seem to remember Republicans screaming “respect the office.”
Yeah, right.
Bobby Thomson
Well, the president can probably tell ISIS and Iran apart.
And he hasn’t ever crashed one plane, let alone three. Or committed several documented acts of treason.
The sad thing is, the percentage of the voting public capable of understanding the Middle East in non-racist terms is probably no better in the USA than in Israel. There will be no negative repercussions to InSain from this.
seabe
I’m sure McCain’s “get the Sunni and Shia together and tell them to cut the bullshit” would work just fine, John.
Also, lol at McCain telling ANYONE to get over anything. This dude still holds a grudge about getting his ass kicked in 2008, and HE will not let it go.
Cliff in NH
Liar.
TaMara (BHF)
Seriously dodged a bullet with him and Palin. I’m not sure we’d still be here anymore if those two were anywhere near the nuclear button. And fuck these racist pigs.
In other news, I didn’t realize it until my brother posted on FB, but this weekend was the 10th anniversary of the day their convoy was ambushed. I know I’ve talked about it here a couple of times, so I wanted to share the link to the radio interview of the unit at Nebraska Public Radio
It still sounds harrowing 10 years later….
Rome Again
Dear Senator McCain: As your constituent, I believe I should point out that you still haven’t gotten over the defeat you suffered in 2008. Perhaps you should point that anger inward.
Gravenstone
Just remember, Johnny boy’s legacy will be two things 1) couldn’t keep an airplane in the air, and wouldn’t have been given the chance to crash a second one except for his daddy and grandad and 2) Sarah fucking Palin. He is of zero consequence, and knowing that eats at him every single day of his miserable existence.
JMG
Obama stopped paying attention to McCain as soon as the 2008 election was called. It’s almost seven years now. Everyone else should, too. It would be nice if some Democrats other than the President got out of their fetal protective crouch whenever Israel comes up and start saying “Netanyahu and the Republicans want war with Iran — a war Israel wouldn’t fight.” But that’s a pipe dream.
shelley
@Cliff in NH: Well, at least he didn’t claim they’d taken over Tehran.
McCain seems to have a strange idea of the definition of ‘temper tantrum.’
Alison
Dear John McCain,
Fuck you, you whiny senile crusty racist old fuck. Guess what? YOU FUCKING LOST. You are not and never will be the president, and thank fucking God for that. Now why don’t you go have your old man temper tantrum and leave the rest of us alone.
Signed,
Decent Human Beings everywhere
Patrick
Disgusting stuff coming from McCain, whose party invited the Israeli PM to speak in Congress without first even notifying Obama.
Hey McCain, how did the 2008 election turn out for you?!
waldo
Ah, the irony. I suspect McCain wouldn’t be advising the president to “Get over it” if he could find a way to get over his own loss to the man 6-plus years ago.
kindness
But that is the conservative meme on any Democratic leader. Suggest them to be less than human. You know what comes after that step, right? Obama gets it worse ’cause the black thing though. It isn’t even a dog whistle anymore.
muddy
@shelley: No, but he says the capitols of Lebanon and Beirut. Beirut IS the capitol of Lebanon.
BGinCHI
Shorter McCain:
“Let me once again remind the American people how big a bullet they dodged in not electing me.”
Betty Cracker
McCain and his neocon playmates have done more to empower Iran than 10,000 ayatollahs ever could.
mellowjohn
holy crap! the Iranians have taken over the capital of Lebanon AND Beirut too?
raven
While ya’ll are talking about this schmuck, what the fuck is Obama doing with Patreus advising him about Iraq? He’s whining but the “Surge” being successful just like Walnuts.
chopper
wait, what?
Just Some Fuckhead
Obama asked Congress for authorization to fight ISIL but Republicans refuse to pass one, so apparently McCain is one of the people who, in his own estimation, is causing the erosion of the middle east and putting America at risk.
glasnost
I don’t have a problem imagining John McCain saying this to a white president, or Newt Gingrich saying this to Bill Clinton. Or George Bush III saying this to John Kerry. Etc.
Mike J
@muddy:
Wahhabi by another name.
Patrick
This coming from clown who advocated for the Iraq war in the first place. The same war that helped destabilize the ME. The Iranians wouldn’t be an issue if people like McCain had not been in power.
Baud
@Patrick:
And Tehran.
myiq2xu
Shorter John Cole:
“BLASPHEMER!!!”
Seriously, dude, put down the Koolaid and step away from the punch bowl.
Baud
BTW, after all this time, it’s not shocking, but it should be called shocking because for the sake of all the people who haven’t been paying attention all these years.
beltane
Maybe Sarah Palin was the brains of the McCain/Palin ticket after all.
Just Some Fuckhead
I actually like the idea of Iran exercising regional hegemony in the middle east. It could only be better if they changed their name back to Persia.
beltane
@Just Some Fuckhead: If Netanyahu can prattle on about Judea and Samaria, Iran can change its name back to Persia.
John M. Burt
The invitation for Netanyahu to speak was a prolonged and energetic temper tantrum.
Amir Khalid
Why worry about McCain’s rudeness to Obama? He is like a dog who’s afraid of the postman, but tries to hide it by barking at him. He’s not even a leader of the Congressional group that masterminded this ridiculous exercise avec Bibi. If anything, he’s chasing after them. He’s a has-been who can get on the teevees but can’t get hold of anyone important’s ear.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@
I think he knows from tantrums
I can’t find on-line the opening scene of the Game Change book, which depicts a different misogynistic stream of F-bombs directed at his wife
D58826
@Patrick: I was just reading the review of a book that will come out next week – ISIS:The state of terror. It was written by two ME experts – Jessica Stern and J.M. Berger. One the the points that the review highlights is according to jihadi leaders ‘the war in Iraq single-handedly rescued the movement’. Prior to that it was floundering after al Qaida lost its base in Afghanistan.
So a big round of applause to Bush/Chaney/McCain and all of the other enablers of the biggest foreign policy disaster since the Battle of Hastings
Patrick
@Amir Khalid:
No, but he is part of the same party. He also signed the letter that went directly to the leaders of Iran without approval of President Obama.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
A few weeks ago, McCain made what I’m sure he thought was a drop-the-mike observation about the situation in Iraq reminding him of another war where the United States failed to fully commit to victory, “a war I know a great deal about”, or something like that. He wants to rewrite the history of Vietnam in Iraq. I don’t think it will work.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Patrick: and the common thread between the Cotton letter, the Netanyahu invitation and John McCain in general is, I’d bet a kidney, Bill Kristol. See also, Sarah Palin, Dan Quayle, the Iraq War, Marco Rubio’s conviction that Obama is being soft on ISIS to appease Iran, and probably a few more greatest hits I’m forgetting about.
JaneE
Calling Obama’s comments a temper tantrum is laughable. Look in the mirror if you want to see what a temper tantrum over an election looks like, John.
Amir Khalid
@Patrick:
Doesn’t affect my point. He’s not an influence on anyone now. He’s just along for the ride.
D58826
@Just Some Fuckhead: If the Iranians want to get bogged down in the fever swamp of Middle eastern politics/wars/rivalries and try and sort out 1500 years of Sunni/Shia bickering , then I say let them.
Mike J
@Just Some Fuckhead:
They could take over Greece and fix the economy.
PeakVT
Perhaps my bigotry meter is off today, but the quotes from McCain seems to me to rooted in McCain failing to “get over” losing the 2008 election. Also, too, being a giant fraidy-cat like his BFF Huckleberry Graham. Crazy bearded people are out to get us all, dontchaknow? Let’s not worry about things that are actually killing Americans by the thousands, like cars, or guns, or medical errors, or suicide among vets (and non-vets). No, lets worry about people thousands of miles away, because Repukes do better at the polls when we’re all worked up about foreigners. Party before country, John McCain!
Germy Shoemangler
I’m usually not a big fan of remote diagnoses, but does McCain suffer from an attention deficit disorder? Because although he’s promoted as a thoughtful statesman, it seems he makes snaps judgements and decisions. Palin, of course is an example. He had months and months to carefully consider his choices, but put it off, and then at the last minute said “OK, she’s good, let’s go.” He’s a compulsive gambler, but quick, not anything involving strategy or deliberation. The Iran letter, he admitted he quickly signed it on the way out the door (I wonder if he even had the patience to read it through before signing it). He drinks coffee by the boatload (self-medicating?)
Amir Khalid
@D58826:
It’s not been 15 centuries yet; it just feels like it.
D58826
@Mike J: Where are the 300 Spartans when you need them:-)
WaterGirl
@D58826: Oh my gosh, that Juan Cole article is like Luther, only 1000x better!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
This reads like McCain is still fuming about losing to Obama in 2008 and projecting his emotions on to Obama.
and the fact that McCain doesn’t see the difference between ISIS and Iran shows he doesn’t get it.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@muddy:
They love them that the Saudi donation money. As far as the Republicans and Iran go – see the Arms for Hostage Deal and the lead up to the Iraq War. Republicans are pretty much suckers for Iranian intelligence.
Ruckus
@Alison:
Nice.
@beltane:
Put together they don’t add up to one smart person but she is the smarter one?
Hard to believe isn’t it?
muddy
@Amir Khalid: Almost 14!
Heliopause
Nobody should care about these comments from the peanut gallery. The important questions are:
1. What concrete steps will Obama take his last couple of years in office? Telling the press that Neteyanhu is an asshole, either through his own measured rhetoric or through angry comments on background from his advisors, is intriguing, but tangible action is what’s needed.
2. How will President Hillary Clinton follow through on whatever course Obama sets from now to 2017?
There’s little Congress can do at this point but pull stunts like the ones we’ve been seeing, and the GOP’s increasing hysteria on the issue is not costing Hillary any votes.
Tree With Water
“Get over it — get over your temper tantrum, Mr. President”.
Hunter Thompson best described what happens to those handful of politicians that get so close to the presidency that they can taste it, and it’s not a pretty picture. McCain was unstable to begin with, and the first Tuesday in November 2008 pushed him beyond the point of no return. Well beyond, and for reasons made even more unendurable to McCain because- as Cole notes- Obama’s father was black. Or, more likely in that regard, because his mother was white. Recall he came of age in a segregated America where such unions were forbidden by law. McCain is a sad man, who must nonetheless be considered dangerous so long as he remains a senator, after which he’ll transform into a pathetic cipher in the political history of the country.
MattF
This makes me really want the negotiations with Iran to succeed. Downtown DC will be splattered with the brain tissue of exploded neocon crania, and it would be about time. The good news is that Iran would like to see that too.
WereBear
@Germy Shoemangler: I see him as suffering from Spoiled Child Syndrome.
Even now.
pluege
Amen to that!
Allan
@myiq=2: Stop dropping turds in the punch bowl.
Mike in NC
I hope the far right continues to try to primary Senator Sour Grapes (R-AZ). He probably is still holding grudges from his Annapolis days.
Hal
McCain just wants to move on from Netanyahu’s hypocrisy and blatant pandering. The only way to do that is to go after Obama, and claim that Obama is throwing a tantrum because he called Netanyahu out.
PS: I really, really, hate it when people call him Bibi. It makes it seem like he’s bff’s with whoever is calling him that, and I find that fake and insincere. No other world leader gets addressed by a nickname or first name by the press, or members of Congress. Conservatives in particular want to make it seem like they are oh so close to Bibi, they’re on a first name basis! bffs forever!
D58826
@Hal: Juan Cole is calling him Nutty-yahoo. Sounds good to me
WaterGirl
@Hal: Speaking for myself… Bibi is a lot easier to spell than Netanyahu.
Tree With Water
@Hal: Netanyahu and McCain realized too late that despite Rupert Murdoch’s best efforts, words still do matter. I guess they never saw the cartoon of a queen saying to her little son, “no, no, you silly goose, you can’t say ‘on with their heads’ after they’ve been chopped off”.
trollhattan
I’m sure McWalnuts blames each and every one of those five airplanes, too.
I blame his daddy. If he hadn’t pulled every goddamn string within reach to create little Johnny’s soft and pebble-free path to “success” McCain would have become Willy Loman, or been dratted into the infantry.
kc
Thank God Obama beat McCain.
Botsplainer
Personally, I’m rooting for the Iranians to develop nuclear weapons and decent IRBMs to deliver them a couple of thousand miles just so those hypocritical, nuke wielding jackoffs in Tel Aviv learn to shut the fuck up and quit threatening their neighbors. Or maybe, a destabilizing Pakistan could hand their stockpile to Tehran for security purposes.
Xjmueller
I think the big four capitals the R’s are pimping as lost are Baghdad, Beirut, Damascus, and Sana’a (Yemen). That dolt from Arkansas mentioned them recently to a reporter when scaring people about Iran. It’s apparently a thing now. These guys keep citing Munich and appeasement as reason for military action, but this reminds me much more of 1914.
trollhattan
@Botsplainer:
Yeah, let’s not go there.
West of the Cascades
@Mike J: “Why do they hate Iran but love Saudi Arabia? Are the Republicans Sunni?
Wahhabi by another name.”
Wahh-babies
azlib
@muddy:
Apparetnly not. ISIS is Sunni.
SatanicPanic
McCain is just embarrassing himself at this point. He should resign and move to Bermuda.
Elizabelle
@Germy Shoemangler:
I think both McCain and Palin suffer from ADHD. It’s one reason she exercises so much; suspect it helps focus her.
Neither of them belongs in the Oval Office. Ever. Not because of the ADHD, because of their lack of judgment and competence.
bemused
I’ve never heard a 78 year old coot, obnoxious and belligerent, called a punk but that’s what he is, imo.
Quaker in a Basement
Temper tantrum? If McCain wants to know about temper tantrums he can ask the most recent Mrs. McCain. I think she could tell him all about temper tantrums.
myiq2xu
@Allan: Those are ice cubes.
Germy Shoemangler
@Botsplainer: But would we ever have a democratic president again? The GOP would enjoy permanent residency in the white house, if IRAN HAS THE BOMB! THANKS OBAMA! was the lead story on every news show.
Germy Shoemangler
@Elizabelle: It’s the impulsivity that worries me. A president should deliberate, weigh all options, think deeply and carefully. A McCain would make hair-trigger decisions based on anger or whatever is waved in front of him at that moment.
Another Holocene Human
Getting my Mc’s confused, at first I thought it was Mitch McConnell and was going to rant about Turtleman, footsoldier of the 1%, but I see it’s special Navy aristocrat plane crasher Walnuts McCain. Eh.
I’ve learned at long last not to take a damn thing he says seriously.
D58826
This really is bigger than Obama or McNuts or Nutty-Yahoo. The real question is where is American foreign policy made – Washington or Tel Aviv? It is entirely proper for Bibi (R-Israel) to push Israel’s interests to the max but US interests and Israeli interests do not line up exactly. POTUS has to defend Americas interests just as vigorously as Bibi does Israels. Presumably the US Congress understands that and does not undercut American interests at the behest of a foreign leader. Which of course is exactly what they are doing. The GOP has gone way past the line of loyal opposition when they compare Bibi to Churchill and Obama to Hitler. Or propose legislation that could have been written by Lekud. During the early days of W’s first term he and Sharon got along famously. Of course more than a few folks noticed that Bush’s speech’s on the Middle East could well have been written by Sharon’s speechwriters.
Another Holocene Human
@TaMara (BHF): What McCain will never understand is that there are some people in this country who REGISTERED TO VOTE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THEIR LIVES to vote for Obama on the understanding that he would bring the troops home.
I heard quite a bit of anger during Obama’s first term that HE WASN’T BRINGING THEM HOME FAST ENOUGH.
Fuck yeah Obama isn’t sending ground troops. Go play war in your bathtub with Admiral Sulu.
Renie
I guess there was no pushback on the show after he said this? Did anyone say anything about what he said or did they just go on to another topic?
Another Holocene Human
@Just Some Fuckhead: All that ethnic cleansing in Baghdad was no joke.
We never should have invaded Iraq. And we definitely shouldn’t have done it incompetently.
raven
@Renie: Aw who gives a fuck what he says. All it does is give people a chance to pull out that old, tired “he crashed planes” bullshit. Who cares?
Another Holocene Human
@D58826:
5 bucks says it’s something as low as revenge for what happened in the 1980s.
MattF
@raven: Well, yeah. But then why is he appearing on Sunday talk shows as the Republican sage on foreign policy? Maybe it’s time to burn all the Rolodexes.
SFAW
@Amir Khalid:
Maybe not, but I bet there are more than a couple of clouds what wish he’d stop yelling at them. And let’s not forget those hooligans on his lawn.
chopper
someday when we build a museum celebrating irony, walnuts quote demanding someone else “get over it” will be up on the wall.
Another Holocene Human
@PeakVT:
Why can’t it be both? I don’t think he’d talk down to a white rival the way he’s talking down to “that one” in this screed.
Tree With Water
@Renie: What country do you hail from? Because democrats don’t “do” counter-attack in this country. Not effectual counter-attack, anyway. Obama himself admitted as much. A few months into his first administration he told a gathering of bankers that he was the only thing that stood between them and the mob, and he was right. Many people- myself included- wish he’d taken another tack altogether with the bastards. But again, this generation of democratic leadership don’t launch counter-attacks on that scale, for reasons I do not approve.
Another Holocene Human
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Mossad fumes in the corner.
Cain
@WereBear:
It used to be a conservative ideal to respect the office of the president, to respect the old ways. I guess not so much when it is Obama who is President. The GOP behavior is despicable.
jonas
Someone’s having a tantrum here, and it isn’t Obama. I can’t believe McCain and his ilk are still laboring under the delusion that if we just nuked Tehran and Damascus, our ME problems would be solved. Because reasons. And toughness. I thank FSM everyday this idiot never became president.
Another Holocene Human
@MattF: Hm, hate the idea it’s being held up by France. I hope they can come to terms. Chirac’s not even president anymore* but his dick-wangling lives on?
*-wow, that was, quoi, two presidents ago
Betty Cracker
Remember McCain’s cruel, homophobic “joke” about Chelsea Clinton, who was a kid at the time? He’s always been a hateful prick.
TaMara (BHF)
@Betty Cracker: Wow. I wasn’t aware of that. Creepy.
Patrick
@Cain:
It will change back the second a Republican becomes President again. Just like they are so hypocritically now whining about the Dem’s use of the filibuster.
beltane
@D58826: That is the only real issue here as far as I am concerned. For too many years, the leadership of both parties has outsourced our Mideast policy to small, ideologically driven client state. If not reason, this constitutes a dereliction of duty of the worst sort.
Bobby B.
Those old turds will never die, and they are running the country. I guess they’re a pantheon because they’re immortal.
Elie
People like McCain just hate how this President is able to rise above truly unprecedented disrespect for a sitting President. They keep upping the ante to beat him down because they are NOT successful in doing so. What they ARE successful in doing is damaging citizen engagement with their behavior. They just make it repugnant to follow the political process. I don’t think their low life shtick is lost on most Americans however. We sat up here and let the scum bags gerrymander congressional districts but they can’t change the dynamics of the Presidency. They are shameless shit balls and I do think that there will be karma eventually.
Villago Delenda Est
The vile McCain needs to SHUT THE FUCK UP.
Obama’s comments were very diplomatic and realistic. Meanwhile, shitstain here talks about sitting these people around a table and berating them for having opposing positions.
I Say Again: Gramps McCain needs to SHUT THE FUCK UP.
Villago Delenda Est
@Patrick: DING DING DING DING
Rethuglicans, all of them, are utter scum.
(apologies to scum)
Elie
I will also say this: I truly believe that these idiots masterminded a permanent change in the US Israeli relationship that will not be changed to what it was no matter who is in office. If Netanyahu accepted republican guidance on this, he may rue this time as pivotal to the change of Israel as we know it. Scales fell off of eyes not just here, but in Israel and all over the world. Even as their disrespect has cost the US standing and prestige in the world that used to respect the stability of our government, their disruption may eventually help in re-ordering what needs to change for the better.
Elie
We must remember this also: they WANT us to hate them. They WANT a highly divided citizenry who will spend more time exercising our hatred than in paying attention to what is going on behind the curtain that prevents us from moving forward in a progressive direction. We must not be distracted by the misdirection… In fact, this comment from McCain is just an attempt to distract from the damage that the Republicans and their minions have done to Israel…. But they have actually probably helped our foreign policy options.
max
@muddy: Why do they hate Iran but love Saudi Arabia? Are the Republicans Sunni?
To a first approximation, yes.
The Sunnis have oil and lots of it which makes them honorary Texans in R eyes, even if they’re a bunch of ‘ragheads’.
max
[‘Plus: the Saudis are friends with the Bush family and you know what that means.’]
Betty
@beltane: My Iranian friend always refers to it as Persia. I’ll ask her what the usage is among her country people.
gogol's wife
I find that the New York Times does something similar, if in a more polite way. It’s always about the “White House’s anger at Netanyahu,” as if it were some visceral emotional reaction rather than a rational analysis of U.S. interests.
debbie
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Let’s not forget his posing for pictures with members of the Northern Storm Brigade, now merged with ISIS. If we’d sent them arms like McCain demanded, would he be defending his words?
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@Betty:
Here in Southern California, most people whose families left during or after the revolution in Iran call themselves Persians to differentiate themselves from the Iranians who participated in the revolution. They’ve also traditionally been strong Republicans because Reagan “saved” them, but that changed a bit after 9/11.
Tree With Water
@Mnemosyne (tablet): On my one and only trip to the real Disneyland circa 2000, I asked a shuttle driver how far and in what direction Nixon’s library in Whittier was to be found. My tone of voice undoubtedly betrayed my political sympathies, as it often will. She pointedly answered, MISTER Nixon’s library is that-a-way and so many miles. I’d been told off in no uncertain manner, and I respected her for it. Didn’t tell her that, though.
Another Holocene Human
@Mnemosyne (tablet): Weird. I have yet to meet a right wing Persian here on the East Coast. I find every Iranian I meet is very proud in a nationalistic way of their Zoroastrian past and there is definitely a tension, including within Iran, where the Islamic government cannot be seen as too pro-Arab-supremacist even as they marginalize and persecute non Muslims, especially Zoroastrians, within the country.
A good friend who is a bit older and has family still in Iran does not care for the current government but still tells Shah jokes. (Shah jokes generally end with the Shah and his family being killed, just so you know.)
Iranians tend to blame Britain for the installation of the Shah, casting the US/CIA as dupes, but tend to blame the US for everything since them, with the Brits as the US’s do-boy. (CIA in the 50s was staffed with British-educated Anglo-Americans so it’s not far off the mark.)
Iran has a shitty gov’t with a shitty foreign policy but great people, just like the US. I hope this deal goes through, and I hope the GOP does not win the presidency for a very long time.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@Another Holocene Human:
It is not unusual in Persian-dominated areas of Los Angeles to see women wearing a chador with a veil that completely covers both their face and head. So, yes, Persians in this part of the country are conservative both religiously and politically.
Renie
@Tree With Water: Unfortunately you are correct. We never hear or see any senior Democrats say anything about all the rhetoric from the Republicans. Once in awhile you see Reid say something. I’m very disappointed my Senators Schumer and GIllibrand don’t say anything. Both of them are high profile.
GOVCHRIS1988
I smile………….because really the comments from the senior senator of Arizona don’t matter. Yes, he’s a sitting senator, but so are 99 other senators. Every utterance John McCain has had for the past six years since his concession speech on November 4th, 2008, has been the curmudgeonly rantings of a man who is passed it. In the next presidential election, John Sidney McCain will be an 80 year old man. A man, whose dreams upon being 80 years old would have been as an ex-President that revitalized America. Someone who will forever be in the history books as the 44th President of the United States. Someone who after his years in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate, would then triumph as the President to get Bin Laden through strong war and policies and command respect from the world. Ooh, don’t you hear Lee Greenwood play as you imagine that. And it was DASHED by THAT ONE!!! That black man, that calm, tall, young, thoughtful, handsome, intelligent, man. You know, the type he would bully back at his high school. HE beat him that night.
John McCain is nothing. He’s nothing. No matter how much the media pretends it, he’s nothing. His McCain/Feingold Bill is dead and his Party despises him so he won’t become Ted Kennedy.
He’s not heralded as a future cabinet Secretary ala John Kerry. He won’t produce an Oscar winning Documentary ala Al Gore. He won’t even be able to say, “I’ve had sex after 70” ala Bob Dole. He’ll be in the history books alright. As an ex-presidential candidate who will be mentioned in the C-Span documentary series “The Contenders”
So, I won’t even get angry at this. I’ll just do what I did when I saw this on twitter, I’ll chuckle then move on. THAT would be the best insult ever to John McCain. Just scoff and eyeroll anything he says.
Tripod
Both McCain’s father and grandfather were admirals. After Vietnam he hung around until it was clear he wasn’t getting stars and retired as a captain in ’81.
When it mattered, both the USN, and the American public, took note of his complete lack of leadership skills.
David Koch
Who?
Chris
@D58826:
That little concern is particularly idiotic, given that since the rise of Daesh, Iran probably has less influence in Syria now than it’s had in the entire history of the Islamic Republic.
Chris
@Bobby Thomson:
I’ll go you one further and say it’s probably actually better in Israel than in the U.S, given that simple proximity would at least make a lot more people aware of the distinctions in the region. (I’ve long thought that one of the major reasons for Islamophobia after 9/11 and the insistence that “we are at war with Islam,” is due to the fact that most Americans simply can’t be bothered to narrow down the identity of their enemy any further than “Muslim” – “Sunni” and “Shi’a” remain fuzzy, vaguely understood concepts for most people, let alone when you start narrowing it down to words like “takfiri” or “Salafi.”)
Chris
@chopper:
I think he meant to say something like “Beirut and Baghdad, the capitals of Lebanon and Syria, respectively,” or something like that. Unfortunately, Baghdad isn’t the capital of Syria, either.
Chris
@Elie:
I wish I could believe that, but the polls I’ve seen show no effect on Americans’ opinion on Israel or even Bibi.
Shazza
@Hal:
I feel the same way when I hear folks called the President ‘Barry’. Reminds me of when Black people had to call White people Miss, Mr. and Mrs. but the Black folks were always called by their first names, no matter what age they were. I see Charlie Sheen tried that on Twitter the other day.
Chris
@Mnemosyne (tablet):
Yeah, my admittedly limited experience with the Persian-American community in DC has very much not been a Rethug-friendly one.
Keep in mind two things:
1) Republicans have gone absolutely all-out since 9/11 to make it clear that as far as they’re concerned, they’re ALL Filthy Stinking Hajjis. I don’t even mean politicians – I mean Republicans. The average voter. Bush can say all the platitudes he wants about how “we’re not at war with Islam,” but when every preacher, pundit, an ordinary voter they can see is screaming back “OH YES WE ARE!” and then calls for profiling or whatever just to clarify that “Islam” means “anyone we think looks like a hajji,” the President’s platitudes aren’t gonna save the brand.
2) The catastrophes that were the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Before 9/11, Persian-Americans could safely fantasize about how “oh, I wish these milquetoasts in Washington would nut up and go liberate Iran!” Now that they’ve seen the results of two American “liberations” in a row, they can’t fantasize anymore. Even those who hate the regime in Tehran the most don’t want to see Iran sink into a Yugoslavia-level ethnic/sectarian war or undergo a complete collapse of governance and return to rule-by-warlord/militia.
Most of the Arabs and Afghans I knew in DC are the same way, too.
Chris
@Another Holocene Human:
I’m pretty sure the Pahlavis are seen as weak sauce puppets who needed foreigners to hand them their thrones on a silver platter, so… yeah. The 1979 revolution wasn’t an islamists-only thing – left-wing socialists and communists, the merchant middle class, and religious conservatives might not have agreed on what they wanted to replace the Shah with, but they ALL wanted him gone. So I’m not surprised that the sentiment would’ve carried over to Persian-Americans.
(Though of course, Persian-Americans will also include a fair amount of Pahlavi loyalists as well. One of the students in my Persian class was the daughter of one of his F-14 pilots).
vhh
@Gravenstone: in fact, mccain lost 4 or 5 airplanes b4 the Navy finally grounded him. He tendednit to follow established procedures.
SFAW
@David Koch:
Some ex-POW (didn’t know that, did you?), perennial beneficiary of whatever happens in US politics. As in, it’s good news for him.
SFAW
@vhh:
Hey, the ones he set on fire on the Forrestal don’t count.
Cervantes
@Betty Cracker:
That the “joke” you’re thinking of?
McCain should never be allowed to forget he uttered those words — about an eighteen-year-old girl.
SFAW
@Cervantes:
If you hadn’t told me/us, I would have thought that one was vomited out by Limbaugh. Nice to know that the senior Senator from AZ is so classy. (Not that there was any doubt, of course.)
Cain
@Chris:
That’s because they were expecting something like World War 2 and how we treated Japan. But see, those were pragmatic people and were generally good people. That changed after the world war and the cold war started. Now it’s more about enabling companies rather than anything like freedom or any such nonsense like that. That’s also why they couldn’t do a real job of conquering like they wanted because tehy know that nobody would stomach that at home. So it was all wrapped up in freedom and other bullshit.
Terry Ott
I agree with the criticism of McCain, up to the point where people start saying he is racist, and especially: “Republicans are racists by nature, McCain is a Republican, and ergo, McCain is a racist.” And then to interpret his criticism of Obama as being race-driven?
What other evidence is there of McCain’s bigotry? Did he say something like: “…..you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”
JWR
@JMG:
“..whenever Israel comes up and start saying “Netanyahu and the Republicans want war with Iran — a war Israel wouldn’t fight.”
Word.
David Koch
Voted against MLK holiday (the vote was 338-90) (I know this will shock you, but 77 of the 90 votes were republican, the other 13 were southern dixiecrat seats that became red seats).
In 1987 he said the assassination of MLK wasn’t “meaningful”.
In 2000 he supported flying the Confederate flag on capitol grounds.
In 2008, he told his idiot running mate to paint Obama as a “terrorist” (like those other brown people).
In 2015 he declined to attend the 50th anniversary of the Selma march.
Loves carpet bombing brown people with freedom bombs.
But, on the other side of the ledger, he attacked Obama for saying he would go into Pakistan to get bin Laden. So atleast there’s one brown person McCain stood up for.
BobS
@David Koch: To be fair to McCain, he’s not only in favor of the slaughter of brown people. He supported Clinton’s slaughter of fairer-skinned people in the Balkans and is also buddying up with Lindsey Graham to encourage the Obama administration to increase the bloodshed in Ukraine.
low-tech cyclist
I can’t wait for the D.C. pundit class to jump all over McCain, demanding ‘civility’ of him.
Yeah, that’ll happen. Ever.
‘Civility’ is only required of libruls and stuff.
Cervantes
@SFAW:
Right, that one was not Limbaugh’s.
It was U. S. Senator John McCain speaking at a Republican fund-raiser. Again:
SFAW
@JWR:
You sure? I was under the impression that Israel held back (in years past) from attacking Iran because their US support (in the UN) would evaporate, as would support from whatever other allies they have. (That said, I’m an adherent of Tom Lehrer’s philosophy re: “the Jews.”) I realize a bombing campaign does not necessarily equate to a full-fledged war, but there’s not a ton of difference.
Chris
@Terry Ott:
Wait, the fact that there’s racial bigotry among Democrats proves that McCain and Republicans can’t be racist?
I love this line of argument. Seems to pop up whenever a conservative does anything wrong.
@SFAW:
IIRC, they actually can’t attack Iran without U.S. support. Something about needing U.S. permission to fly through Iraqi airspace, and U.S. support for refueling their planes because it’s too far away.
I suppose they could always nuke it, but hopefully that’s still a bridge too far even for lunatics like Bibi.
Howlin Wolfe
@muddy: Good point!