Nov 5, 2025

Let’s talk about…Dick Cheney’s Posthumous Glazing

...oh and there's some elections happening

This was going to be a discussion thread for the on-going elections — and we will get to that — but then Dick Cheney died and distracted me.

Or, rather, the people praising and whitewashing his “patriotism” and “service” distracted me.

It’s not surprising but it is nauseating…

Jennifer and I send our condolences to the Cheney family on the passing of former Vice President Dick Cheney. Our thoughts are with his loved ones. https://t.co/QYTsrXfR5J

— Governor Gavin Newsom (@CAgovernor) November 4, 2025

Dick Cheney: “In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump. He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him” pic.twitter.com/cEPBinl0tF

— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) November 4, 2025

Dick Cheney was a patriotic American who loved his country.

While we strongly disagreed on most policy issues, his patriotism was clear when he returned to the House Floor to commemorate the first anniversary of January 6th. We all saw then how proud Vice President Cheney was to…

— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) November 4, 2025

These are the same people who claim to be so worried about civil rights and “the future of the American democracy”, mourning the author of the Patriot Act, Gitmo and “advanced interrogation”.

The same people weeping crocodile tears for the war-dead in Gaza and Ukraine, praising Cheney’s “assertive foreign policy” and the millions of bodies strewn across the Middle East as a result.

The same people so performatively appalled by terrorism glazing one of the architects of 9/11.

It’s the naked hypocrisy that enrages me, I think, and the fact so many are blind to it.

I’m not glad Cheney’s dead. Practically speaking he’s an outdated part in the grand machine, of no real use or power for years, and karmically speaking it never sits well to dance around a funeral pyre.

…but I’m sure he’s looking up at all of us right now and wishing maybe he’d been a bit nicer.

In other discussion-worthy news, the first general election of Trump 2.0 kicks off today, with the governorships of Virginia and New Jersey up for grabs, along with the mayoralty of New York City and other sundries.

They will be rigged, irrelevant or both of course, in the grand scheme of things. Existing as narrative weather vanes rather than real expressions of popular will.

In those terms, the one most interesting to watch is the one with by far the most coverage: The NYC Mayoral race and the “Muslim socialist” that has been miles ahead in the polls for months.

They’re trying to paint Zohran Mamdani as some kind of anti-establishment figure, but generally speaking anti-establishment figures don’t get flattering stories on the front cover of TIME.

Trump is doing his part, naturally, by threatening to withdraw federal funding should Mamdani win. The most basic form of briar patch reverse psychology, but it works.

Whether or not he wins, by how much, and how the rest of the Democratic Party reacts could tell us a lot about the future of American *ahem* “democracy”.

But what do you think?

Discuss in the comments below.