one last kick from the dying mule

John McCain is about to release a supposedly "no holds barred" memoir that will be, unsurprisingly, highly critical of President Donald Trump. McCain has wasted a lot of time, in his twilight year [sic], being obstructionist instead of helping to forward Trump's agenda; personally, I'll be relieved when he and fellow thorns-in-the-side Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell finally quit the scene. McCain was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, the same cancer my mother had, around the middle of last year, so I'm fairly sure the old hoss won't be around come Christmas. This book is his final kick at a president who, during the campaign, insulted McCain by saying his POW status did not make him a war hero. I can see that particular issue both ways: on one hand, Trump has a right to his opinion, and McCain had probably gotten used to being fawned over for something that happened in the long-ago past; on the other hand, Trump's dig against a veteran who had bravely served his country while suffering years of excruciating torture was, to put it politely, a very low blow, not to mention a heads-up as to Trump's attitude toward other POWs.

It's a shame, though, that McCain has become so obsessively against Donald Trump during his final year of life. I can understand the urge, after being deeply and publicly insulted, to want to take down the insulter, but surely there are better, more constructive ways for the old senator to spend his final functional months on this plane of existence. Then again, when I listen to people like Styx, I sense no compassion for McCain: "good fucking riddance" is the attitude, mainly because Styx and people of a similar bent see McCain as a warmongering neocon (you'll recall McCain's joking "Bomb-bomb-bomb, bomb-bomb Iran" in 2007, which lines up with Hillary Clinton's own stated willingness to attack that country) in the pocket of corporate interests, and not the "maverick" that McCain makes himself out to be. Be that is it may, it's still a shame to see the dying John McCain so obsessively focused on Donald Trump instead of concentrating more on his duties as a senator.