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Sorry folks, but the days and days of his burial, and constant memorials is getting ridiculous. He was a Senator, not a king or president. Can we expect breaking news of his wife laying a wreath at Mt. Rushmore tomorrow? Laying a wreath at Jesse jackson's home on Monday? Laying a wreath at the DNC on Tuesday?
 
I do think it's extravagant, but I think it helps his family to see how loved he was and makes them feel that he was honored.
I've heard that Pence wasn't actually invited but that he came anyway and had to mention Trump (Megan McCain can be seen glaring at him during his speech). Not sure if the bit of Pence crashing it is true or not.
I also don't know if Palin wasn't invited or if she just didn't go.
 
There was just a recent documentary where McCain spoke of personally selecting Palin, saying "go big or go home", and when he did not get the presidency, he blamed only himself for the poor choice. He was hoping by adding a female to his ticket, his votes would increase substantially.
 
Sorry folks, but the days and days of his burial, and constant memorials is getting ridiculous. He was a Senator, not a king or president. Can we expect breaking news of his wife laying a wreath at Mt. Rushmore tomorrow? Laying a wreath at Jesse jackson's home on Monday? Laying a wreath at the DNC on Tuesday?
It's political. I wonder how many military "lifers" starting from boot camp and serving until retirement as generals get this kind of treatment. (none) Audie Murphy probably didn't get this.
Meghan McCain took time to take jabs at Trump at the funeral:
"The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great" That was tacky. This is a funeral service not a political *** session. No less tacky was McCain publicly telling Trump he wasn't being allowed to appear at his funeral. Plea for attention? I mean, why even bring that up?
He was a war veteran who served his country, endured tremendous pain and suffering during his long capture. None of the others who endured that same suffering and brutality get this kind of treatment and I'm sure some of those went on to some sort of greatness.
He was a great man, he served his country well, but this looks more like hav said, a king or president. Too bad he and Trump couldn't find some sort of peace. Both are stubborn and neither is willing to cave.
 
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There was just a recent documentary where McCain spoke of personally selecting Palin, saying "go big or go home", and when he did not get the presidency, he blamed only himself for the poor choice. He was hoping by adding a female to his ticket, his votes would increase substantially.
Made for a really fun election year tho. :D
 
Editorial credit: Gino Santa Maria / Shutterstock.com
John McCain was a far more interesting, colorful and controversial man than most Americans and no journalists know. If you saw the Sunday political shows you would think a saint had passed on. John McCain was a man driven by two ghosts: His father and grandfather. Both were four-star Admirals in the US Navy so John’s appointment to the US Naval Academy was his destiny, but John McCain graduated 894th in his class of 899 students. He was known for being wild, chasing young women. He was in a student group calling themselves “The Bad Bunch.”

John married Carol Shepp, a swimsuit model who had been married to one of his classmates with whom she had two children. She and McCain were parents of a daughter in that marriage. At heart a playboy, John was soon bored with domestic life and as advancement was more likely in the military services in combat he requested active duty in Vietnam. While there Carol faithfully stayed at home looking after the children.

His plane was shot down in 1967 when he ignored mission instructions to stay above 15,000 feet he went “down on the deck” and was shot down, survived and became a Prisoner Of War, POW.

On Christmas Eve 1969, Carol and slid head-on into a telephone pole taking gifts to friends. She was thrown from the car through the front window. Her legs, spine, and right arm were crushed and she was in the hospital for six months. Ross Perot was an advocate of POW’s and paid her extensive medical bills. She requested John not be told feeling he had enough to deal with.

McCain was released in 1973 and returned home to much fanfare. Carol’s several surgeries cost her five inches in height, and she gained weight. McCain told reporters he was overjoyed to see Carol again. But friends said he was appalled by the change in her appearance.

As a war hero, McCain moved in elevated circles. Reverting to his old ways he started “running around with women.” according to Robert Timberg, a retired Marine, journalist, and author of four books, including “John McCain: An American Odessy.”

McCain admitted he started having many girlfriends and affairs during this time. On one trip to Hawaii, at a cocktail party. he met Anheuser Busch distributor heiress, Cindy Hensley. She was 17 years younger than McCain and worth $100 million dollars. He invited her to have drinks with him at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. He said by the end of the evening he was in love.

They had an affair for nine months, while he was still married to and living with his wife Carol. McCain wanted to marry Cindy but needed to get a divorce. He and Carol separated in January 1980. He requested a divorce in February; the divorce was sped along and granted in April. John and Cindy married five weeks after the divorce was final on May 17, 1980. Carol and their children were devastated. McCain callously left his first wife and children behind. He and Cindy moved to Arizona. Cindy’s father was well-connected and helped McCain move smoothly into Congress representing Arizona in Washington DC. John McCain has been in Congress since 1983.

McCain’s new wife and her family were extravagantly wealthy. Her father was one of the largest distributors of Anheuser Busch in the country and she an only child. The divorce settlement afforded Carol McCain full custody of their three children, alimony, child support, including college tuition, houses in Virginia and Florida, and lifelong financial support for her continuing medical treatment from the car accident.

Carol said the reason for the divorce was John turned 40 and he wanted to be 25 again. Carol was extremely hurt. She went to work as the press assistant for soon-to-be First Lady Nancy Reagan. She was respected in Washington and kept a dignified silence about the way John McCain had treated her.

Some of the McCain friends were less forgiving, however. They portray the politician as a self-centered womanizer who effectively abandoned his crippled wife to “play the field.” They accuse him of finally settling on Cindy, a former rodeo beauty queen with a barn full of money.

Ever the opportunist, John McCain ran as a Republican, but spoke, voted and collaborated as a Democrat. No wonder all the national television shows treated John McCain as a modern saint. He was not, but we can understand the “ants in his pants.” He lived haunted by his father and grandfather. Two bona fide war heroes.

Ross Perot paid her medical bills years ago, says both Carol McCain and the American people have been taken in by a man who is unusually slick and cruel, even by the standards of modern politics. Perot said, “McCain is the classic opportunist. He’s always reaching for attention and glory.”

Cindy has also had to learn the lessons about her husband the hard way. Even though she and McCain put on a perfect front for the public, especially when he is running for office, she is an invisible wife.

Tom Gosinski, who served as the Director of Cindy McCain’s nonprofit American Voluntary Medical Team, AVMT wrote in his journal of the McCain marriage: “During my short tenure at AVMT I have been surrounded by what on the surface appears to be the ultimate all-American family. In reality, I am working for a very sad, lonely woman. Her marriage of convenience to a U.S. Senator has driven her to distance herself from friends, cover feelings of despair with drugs, and replace lonely moments with self-indulgence. She became addicted to Percocet and had a doctor prescribing them for her illegally. When her parents learned she was taking them, they helped her stop.

Washington rumors were saying McCain had an inappropriate relationship with the young and lovely lobbyist, Vicki Iseman. Ms. Iseman began visiting McCain’s offices and campaign events so frequently in 2000 that his aides were “convinced the relationship had become romantic.” One staff member supposedly asked, “Why is she always around?”

His staff members began a campaign to “save McCain from himself” by restricting Iseman’s access to McCain during the year 2000 Presidential Primary. According to the Washington Post, McCain’s political advisor John Weaver met with Iseman at Washington’s Union Station to tell Iseman not to see McCain anymore.

It is not a real marriage between John and Cindy McCain. Real marriages involve living together. McCain and Cindy have not “lived” together for 20 years. To defend this, McCain brags the family takes two vacations together every year and Ms. McCain is the one who has always made that happen.”

Two vacations per year! Little of this man was real. He had no compassion or empathy for anyone except himself. The only real thing emotion he was capable of was anger. He is famous for his anger.

His father and grandfather were both decorated Navy Admirals. He was given special privileges and extreme preferential treatment while he served in the Navy. He was a pilot but according to his colleagues, he was a very bad pilot. He actually crashed three planes. There was a horrendous incident that happened on his aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Forrestal, that killed 134 men. There has been a rolling debate since the incident and some are convinced John McCain was responsible.

Witnesses reported McCain attempted a “wet start.” When a pilot wants to be a show-off, with a “wet start” his engine start creates a large startling flame and lots of surprise noise from the rear of a jet engine on startup. McCain did the “Wet Start.” The flames torched the launch of a Zuni rocket on the plane behind him. Zuni rockets were notorious for problems. It shot across the carrier’s deck hitting other parked planes that were packing 1,000 high-explosive pound bombs which exploded. Destruction and fire went several decks below and nearly sunk this major 82,000 ton U.S. aircraft carrier.

This stunt caused the death of 134 sailors and blew off arms, legs, and caused blindness and burns to another 161 sailors. McCain jumped from his plane, rolled across the flames, and escaped. He watched the men dying and the burning from a closed circuit television on the ship.

The ship off line for two years in port for $76 million dollars of major repairs, not including the cost of the airplanes or ammunition. Any other Navy pilots causing this type of death and destruction would have been arrested and still be in prison, but not John McCain III. McCain was not even reprimanded. When there is a cover-up, the soldier is usually simply assigned to another ship. McCain was quietly assigned to another ship. There is an ongoing debate about the incident to this day.

John McCain’s lack of character was further demonstrated when he voted not to repeal Obamacare. He ran his 2016 Senatorial race under the banner he would lead the fight to repeal Obamacare! But, he hates Donald Trump so very much he gleefully held his thumb down for his vote rather than give a thumb up. He laughed afterward saying, “Let’s see Donald Trump save America now!”

John McCain there stabbed his constituents and the citizens of America in the back. John McCain, Liberal Socialist Hero!
 
Here you go Hav ..:D
john.jpg
 
I didn't watch all of the footage, just snippets.
I admit, I don't think jabs at Trump were necessary. They made quite a few toward him at Aretha Franklin's funeral. But, it wasn't my family member's funeral so I'm not going to judge. I personally wouldn't have used the remembrance of a loved one as an opportunity to snipe at people. I would want it to be about my loved one & not people who dissed him. I also really hate funerals and have told my family I do not want one when I die.
As for McCain not wanting Trump there, I can't really blame him considering some of the crap Trump said about him and how he wouldn't even allow the White House to officially say something nice about him. I also don't blame McCain's family for not liking Trump.
I do think the criticism of Trump for going golfing during the funeral was not needed. It's not like it's unusual for him to golf on weekends. He was golfing when Melania was in the hospital (which is probably what she wanted). At least it stopped him from rage-tweeting.
I personally thought they made too much of a hullabaloo over Lindsey Graham's father when he died & he never served the country and didn't do anything heroic to justify it.
Back to the McCain funeral, one thing I thought was nice was when Bush Jr got a piece of Candy from Laura and handed it to Michelle Obama. It was just a small moment, but it was sweet. Despite whatever mistakes he made in his presidency, Bush genuinely seems like a nice and caring person.
I could never really tell if Sarah Palin was really that dumb or if the media put a spin to make it look like she was. I mean, I know she said some dumb things, but a lot of people say dumb things at some point. I remember when people thought Dan Quayle was the stupidest man in the US (but he still beat Al Gore in the debates). Then Bush Jr came along and they said he was so dumb & didn't know what he was talking about-- but there were times when it was obvious he was joking.
 
President Trump’s 2019 budget proposes to cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps) by more than $213 billion over the next ten years — nearly a 30 percent cut — through radically restructuring how benefits are delivered, cutting eligibility for at least 4 million people, and reducing benefits for many others. (See Table 1.)[1] The unemployed, the elderly, and low-income working families with children would bear the brunt of the cuts. These proposals come on the heels of a tax law the President championed that will mainly benefit the wealthy and corporations and that’s expected to add $1.5 trillion to deficits over ten years.

The largest SNAP savings in the budget would come from cutting household benefits by more than $260 billion over ten years. The largest SNAP savings in the budget would come from cutting household benefits by more than $260 billion over ten years — some 40 percent — and using about half these funds to provide households a government-purchased non-perishable food box in lieu of food that households would otherwise purchase at the grocery store. In addition to the enormous benefit cut, the proposal would radically restructure how SNAP benefits are provided for the vast majority of recipients, upending SNAP’s successful and efficient public-private partnership with some 260,000 retail stores around the country in favor a new government-driven approach to procuring food for SNAP households. Such a system would be a significant cost shift to states and nonprofit food distributors, and would be disruptive and costly for current SNAP participants.

The President’s budget would also expand the reach of a stringent three-month time limit under the existing program. Currently, SNAP participants age 18 to 49 who are not raising minor children cannot receive benefits for more than three months in a 36-month period unless they work 20 hours a week. States can exempt particularly vulnerable individuals, such as those in high-unemployment areas. But the President’s budget would make qualifying for those exemptions much harder. It also would raise the maximum age for those facing the time limit to 62 beginning in 2021, exposing 2 million more individuals to the limits, including older Americans who face additional obstacles to work.

Other harmful effects of the SNAP provisions in the budget include eliminating a state option that supports working families by addressing a benefit cliff that would otherwise cause working families to lose benefits as their earnings rise; cutting benefits for people with disabilities and for the elderly; penalizing large families; and cutting benefits for many households that pay for utilities out of pocket.


TABLE 1
SNAP Cuts in the President’s 2019 Budget
Proposal
Ten-Year Federal Savings from SNAP Cuts
Cut SNAP benefits and shift a portion to food boxes
-$131.7 billion
State administrative costs for distributing food boxes $2.5 billion
Restrict categorical eligibility -$30.6 billion
Limit time-limit waivers -$17.8 billion
Apply time limit through age 62, and change “elderly” definition to begin at age 63 -$5.9 billion
Eliminate “15% exemptions” from time limit -$3.2 billion
Eliminate minimum benefit -$2.7 billion
Cap large households’ benefit -$1.7 billion
Eliminate Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)/Terminate the SNAP-LIHEAP Connection -$13.1 billion
Impose standardized utility allowances across states -$10.2 billion
Cap state administrative expenses -$9.8 billion
Eliminate SNAP nutrition education -$4.7 billion
Mandate the National Accuracy Clearinghouse -$1.1 billion
Eliminate state performance bonuses -$480 million
Interactions/effect of other budget proposals on SNAP* about $17 billion
Total -$213.5 billion

Take food out of the mouths of the poor so your rich friends can get richer .. Can't wait for Muller to bust you trump..
 
"SNAP nutrition education"
I can see that one going.
Teaching people that it's not healthy to eat ice cream and cookies?
Teaching people that vegetables are good for you?
Teaching people that it's good to exercise?
That program is a waste of 4.7 billion.
 
A couple of problems. Healthy food costs more than stuff like pasta and beans. In many inner city areas, fresh produce is almost impossible to find and many of the people don't have transportation to go get it. Some have to spend their SNAP at convenience stores and pay the higher prices, because those are the only stores in their area. I worked in downtown KC and you could go for many blocks without seeing a grocery store.
 
The problem is not that people are lazy and/or not working. The problem is that people are not making living wages, many employees got laid off so the companies can avoid being "high on labor", or the employees are given much shorter hours, and there are people who should be on unemployment but who got denied & can't even appeal (My brother never got any sort of hearing or chance to give his side, was rejected, appealed, and never got a reply & can't do another appeal until they process the first one- which I'm pretty sure they just tossed in the garbage). Around here it is almost impossible to get Unemployment.

If someone gets injured on the job or becomes disabled, it takes months to file & get approval-- and often times people get denied even if they truly need it and are not being lazy or faking.

The unemployment rates in my area are very high but Unemployment dismissed them and won't even let them apply/appeal. These people are actively seeking work but they can't afford gas, there's no public transportation, no bike lanes (bikes get stolen all the time), no sidewalks to walk on to get to grocery stores, and it becomes increasingly difficult for them to travel bc they don't have $. Yet they are expected to meet with people in another town an hour away (sometimes 2 hrs) to qualify for benefits or to get benefits renewed (and that is if they even get approved).

My working friends are hurting because they the $ from food stamps to buy food but they just got their benefits cut. My friend's fiance (who can't work until she gets her heart surgery and recovers from it) is currently trying to get SNAP. She was told she will have to wait a few months to find out if she qualifies for any assistance until she can get well enough to return to work.

There are also people who are fulltime caregivers who have to take care of either children or adults that can not take care of themselves. Sometimes the parents wasted their $ and don't have anything to subsist off of. Some of them never earned enough in the first place but now they are being supported by their children. Their SS is not enough to survive on.

I know people who are working but who are still going hungry even though they are working.

My biggest beef with the tax reform was the huge tax cuts for the top 1%. It hurts the rest of the economy and those people did not need the cuts. They are not starving. Some of them don't even work and are just trust fund/hedge fund babies. I don't have any hostility toward people for being born privileged, but I do have an issue with people who think they are better than others just because they were born rich. That sense of entitlement is not good from anyone.

People who are born into families with more $ just have more opportunities. They can afford better education, have college paid for by trust funds or parents so they don't have to worry about student loans and going in to debt-- or don't have to worry about working while in school to pay tuition or expenses. That makes their resumes look better so they can get better jobs-- of course, that is in areas where better jobs exist. But they can afford to travel to find better jobs. IF they even bother to work. They can also generally afford better medical care. People who have to struggle for everything can't even afford toilet paper or food so they go hungry and they get sick but they can't afford medical care so it is harder for them to work. They can't afford schooling so they can't get degrees to get better jobs. People used to be able to work part time to go to college-- not so anymore. With the tuition inflation rates compared to minimum wage, people would have to work something like 80+ hours a week to pay for a good college. Even if they get a degree and end up not being in debt with student loans, they still might not find good jobs.

Ask yourselves: Why give these huge cuts to large corporations and top 1%ers when they have admitted that they won't use it to pay their employees more, did not plan to hire more people, and basically just put it in stocks or bank accounts to make themselves richer without any benefit to the rest of the country? And the needy starving people are the ones being blamed for the deficit?

As for the paying more taxes: People in my state are already paying more taxes. The tax bill made our state taxes go up in response. They lowered the amount people could earn to get Medicaid. Sales tax is 11%. And the state tax cannot be deducted from Federal anymore so people got double-taxed.

The supposed tax cuts for the middle class and lower income people is only temporary and does not do much compared to the huge tax cuts the rich got.

Middle class and upper middle class people in general have been able to take the hits a bit better, but lower income people got hit hard.
 
Hating the rich doesn't make sense. Taxing them more won't do anything because there aren't enough of them compared to the working class. (working class meaning under $1 million per year)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danbig...ax-the-rich-the-rich-dont-have-enough-really/
"Progressives claim an increase in tax rates won’t stop producers from producing. But they presumably understand that people don’t work for free. When the top marginal rate was 90 percent, actor Ronald Reagan worked just half the year. As soon as he made enough money such that every additional dollar was taxed at 90 percent, he stopped working and went off to ride horses. Reagan later said that woke him up to the damage that high taxes impose."

And Reagan certainly wasn't the only person that understood this. Everyone with the financial equivalent of Reagan would do the same thing if they had 1/2 a brain. Why work if the government is going to take almost everything you earn?
If they get taxed too much, they won't invest money in new businesses or new products. (Investments are not loop holes) They won't buy nice cars or a boat, a second or third home. ....and by the way, they to pay taxes on those homes boats and cars, and insurance and groundskeepers and upkeep and security. Also , how about the contractors that build the homes, the architects, the plumbers, electricians, roofers............ The positive effects are endless.
How many of us know how much the super rich pay in taxes each year?
 
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