John McCain speaks out against Donald Trump without ever actually mentioning his name.

Courtesy of The Hill:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) blasted “half-baked, spurious nationalism” in the United States in an emotional speech Monday night after receiving the National Constitution Center’s Liberty Medal. 

“To fear the world we have organized and led for three-quarters of a century, to abandon the ideals we have advanced around the globe, to refuse the obligations of international leadership and our duty to remain 'the last best hope of earth' for the sake of some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems is as unpatriotic as an attachment to any other tired dogma of the past that Americans consigned to the ash heap of history,” McCain said in the speech. 

The Arizona senator said “we live in a land made of ideals, not blood and soil” and said Americans “are the custodians of those ideals at home, and their champion abroad.” 

“We have done great good in the world. That leadership has had its costs, but we have become incomparably powerful and wealthy as we did,” McCain said. 

“We have a moral obligation to continue in our just cause, and we would bring more than shame on ourselves if we don’t. We will not thrive in a world where our leadership and ideals are absent.”

As you all know I am loathe to give John McCain too much credit.

After all it was his decision to pluck Sarah Palin out of the worlds of Wasilla and plop her onto the national stage that led to much of what is happening to our country today. 

However having said that it should be noted that McCain seems to be determined to repair at least some of the damage caused by his unfortunate choices.

Maye its the brain cancer, and his impending mortality, but he is finally starting to sound like the guy everybody loved during his days on the Straight Talk Express.

Even though the tweets have stopped apparently SNL is still getting under Donald Trump's skin. Good to know.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

Staffers buzz privately about who is up and who is down, with many eagerly gossiping about which poor colleague gets an unflattering portrayal on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.” For the past two weeks, it has been White House press secretary Sean Spicer. But aides said Trump was especially upset by a sketch that cast White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon as the Grim Reaper manipulating the president — who was ultimately relegated to a miniature desk, playing dolefully with an expandable toy.

Well good for SNL. They are doing an amazing job of rattling Trump's cage.

However in Bannon's case they may actually be underselling the evil.

Take a look at this profile from Vox:


Bannon, it should be noted, fits the stereotype of the sinister political adviser to a T —and even seems to revel in it. “Darkness is good,” he told Wolff. “Dick Cheney. Darth Vader. Satan. That's power.” Note that Bannon said this after the election and his appointment to a top White House job. (These comments are why Saturday Night Live portrayed him as the Grim Reaper in its recent skit.) 

But as chief strategist, Bannon is more than just a political adviser. He’s taken on a major role in policy and is, by most accounts, the leading force in crafting the Trump administration’s agenda — especially the series of White House–issued executive orders with which Trump began his presidency. “Mr. Bannon has rushed into the vacuum, telling allies that he and Mr. Miller have a brief window in which to push through their vision of Mr. Trump’s economic nationalism,” the New York Times’s Glenn Thrush and Maggie Haberman report.

Yeah like I said, that Grim Reaper parody may be a little too deferential.

The guy is in fact far more terrifying than simple death. He embodies the kind of chaos and nationalism that destroys nations.

Just something to keep in mind.

Something to keep in mind on the day after all that red, white, and blue 4th of July celebrating.