Among the almost infinite number of unforgivable sins committed by Donald Trump, he has taken away my ability to enjoy this moment, this moment of the death of Richard Bruce “Dick” Cheney, the 46th Vice President of the United States. A moment I had looked forward to for decades. And now? Nothing. Cheney was widely “credited” as the principal architect of the post-9-11 global war on terror including endless arbitrary detention at torture at the U.S. Naval Air Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Part of this, of course, is because of the antipathy and courageous opposition to said Donald Trump by now former Congress member Liz Cheney, daughter of you know whom, and of course, her open support of (and unfortunately) campaigning with the unsuccessful Kamala Harris, 49th Vice President of the United States. And part of it is just because of the Donald’s never ending firehose of political sewage (including an actual AI generated video of “king” Donald himself flying a fighter plane dumping literal excrement on a crowd of Americans protesting him).
I mean, FFS, here is the front page of the Grey Lady:
Can you believe this? Dick Cheney UNDER THE FOLD? I can’t… no. I fucking just can’t. The lead story is certainly a worthy one, the capture of the New York City Mayoral race by political neophyte Zohran Kwame Mamdani, of Muslim faith, Ugandan birth and “Democratic Socialist” politics, whose principal promises appear to be free city buses, a rent freeze on ALREADY affordable rent-regulated housing, the opening of city run grocery stores (because apparently the 1-2% margins that apply to most of this industry are just too much!), and somehow, universally available child care. And he will accomplish these things by… taxing the ̶w̶h̶i̶t̶e̶ ̶p̶e̶o̶p̶l̶e̶ rich. And he is a vocal opponent of Israel; not just its present military activities in Gaza, just… all of it. And he’s promised to arrest Israeli PM Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu should he set foot in New York on Mamdani’s watch.
What all of us have to reconcile ourselves with, (whether we voted for Mamdani or not or whether we live in New York City or not [and btw, Democrats scored huge-not-upset wins in the governor’s race in New Jersey, all state-wide races in Virginia, a ballot initiative to permit retaliatory Congressional gerrymandering in California, and a smattering of other states like PA and GA where Dems on the ballot did really well]) is that the new face of the Democratic party is popular because it is much younger than the toxic gerontocracy that is destroying what’s left of the party (and I’m looking right at you Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and Joe “J’Biden” Biden), and because younger Dems seem to be focusing on things like “affordability” and the fact that younger people really no longer have a chance to advance in a society where they are saddled with educational debt that doesn’t assure them of a good job, crippling if not killing medical costs should they actually ever get sick, housing that is largely unaffordable in many of the major cities that do have employment opportunities, and assorted other structural problems endemic to late stage crony capitalism that plague those not blessed with jobs in finance, tech, or the high end of entertainment. Oh… and one of the things that seems to animate such younger people besides focus on affordability is opposition to American support of Israel, certainly something Mamdani took to the electoral bank.
I have said it in other contexts, and whether I said it in this space or not, I’ll say it now, I have to say hats off to whoever created the psy op that convinced both staunch supporters of Israel and the good Arab voters of Dearborn, Michigan and environs that Genocide Joe Biden and Killer Kamala Harris were the antipathy to what they both held dear, and Donald Trump was the only answer. Yes, the Muslim voters of Michigan came out to support Donald “Muslim Ban” Trump. As did many religious and Zionist Jews, who decided to support a guy who read Hiltler’s speeches in the only book he ever kept on his bedside table (at least according to his ex-wife Ivana, a former competitive skier who entirely unsuspiciously died in a stairway fall at almost the same moment her non-disclosure agreement with the Donald expired). As I said… kudos to whoever came up with the psy op.
So New York, defiantly, has a new African born, Muslim, socialist mayor (thanks Obama… never mind, actually), and the Donald has promised to “de-fund” New York, as if he even could. But we’ll see how this “tension” plays out. All I can tell you is, well… BRING IT ON.
Which takes us back to the late Vice President Cheney… and if you want to know how I feel [CHEATED!], I’ll [CHEATED!] try to give you a little [CHEATED!] idea. I guess Dick would be proud that the detention/torture facility at Guantanamo is still open, holding 15 [all Muslim] men, and for the first time in GTMO’s history, the majority of those are at least charged with something (even if the dubious military commissions are unlikely to ever convict or even finish the trials of the alleged 9-11 plotters). So on that note… I will say my farewell to Richard Bruce Cheney, with an image from happier times (at least for him).
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