by William Skink

The power of corporate media has been on full display with the passing of John McCain. Nothing as crass as McCain’s use of the word gook or his gleeful championing of interventionist wars will stop outlets, like NPR, from framing John McCain as a lionized war hero and benevolent Senator who represents the good old days of bipartisanship, when buddies like Joe and John could sit together on the floor of the Senate:

Biden lamented the decline of bipartisanship in the Senate. He pinned the decline back to a moment in 1996. Up until then, he said, he and McCain would often sit next to each other during floor fights while issues were debated, either Biden going over to the Republican side or McCain venturing over to him.

One day, though, Biden said, McCain and Biden were each approached separately by leaders of their respective caucuses, who told them to stop sitting with each other because “it didn’t look good.”

Biden said that kind of attitude makes it “impossible to reach consensus.” He added that today, people in both parties are busy attacking each other’s motives rather than the the substance of their arguments.

NPR even interviewed Mikheil Saakashvili, the man responsible for instigating a military conflict with Russia in 2008 after his country, Georgia, attacked South Ossetia, killing Russian peace keepers. This “liberal” media outlet allows Saakachvili to fondly reminisce about McCain’s involvement in Georgia before his stupid decision to attack South Ossetia:

GREENE: Well, you say there are a lot of memories. Can you tell me about one that maybe speaks to John McCain the man and not necessarily the politician?

SAAKASHVILI: Yes. Well, in 2006 he came to see us in Georgia, and he went to a separatist enclave. And when he was leaving from there on a helicopter, they actually shot from a grenade launcher at his helicopter. And it was a narrow miss. And people from the embassy were insisting to stop the visit instantly and go back to the capital. Instead, he persevered to fly all the way to remote mountains. We met locals there. Basically – he danced with them despite the stress he had just endured. And then we went all the way to the Black Sea. That’s another one-hour helicopter ride. And he went into a very big waves of Black Sea with the jet ski. And so we ended up at, like, 3 a.m. on a Ferris wheel on the boulevard there. And then he told me a story on that Ferris wheel which I will always remember. He told me, look, I would rather be living now in the ’20s and ’30s being together with Scott Fitzgerald and Hemingway in Paris. And he told me that they had such a great life.

GREENE: So this is all on the same day, he almost…

SAAKASHVILI: Yes.

GREENE: …His helicopter’s getting shot at, and then he’s dancing to folk music within hours and then on a Ferris wheel with you on the Black Sea coast telling you how he wishes he lived in Paris in the ’20s.

SAAKASHVILI: Yes.

GREENE: What does that say about John McCain?

SAAKASHVILI: That says that he was anything but a regular guy. He was genuine. He was real.

The world is a better place with John McCain dead. The victims of his warmongering are more deserving of being remembered than he is.