Epiphany?

Nancy Reagan says she sometimes
sees Ronnie’s ghost wandering
in the halls of her home.

I think I had an epiphany today, but perhaps I just realized something that many other people already know. I am kind of slow when it comes to some things. Anyway, I have been wondering for a long time what it is that Dick Cheney thinks he is doing. He keeps going on TV and radio and saying the same outrageous lies over and over again. As it is now eminently clear they are lies, and as most others, including those who certainly should know, have repeatedly repudiated them, why does he continue? I mean, we know that torture is a crime in spite of his disclaimer, we know that he was largely responsible for it, we know it doesn’t work, although he keeps insisting that it does, and we also realize that even if it did work, it wouldn’t matter because it would still be torture, and torture is illegal whether it works or not. As all of this is obvious to all but the deaf and blind, why does he keep on day after day pursuing this same line? But think about it. He only does it in the context of criticizing Obama, never just on its own. He claims always that Obama has made us less safe by giving up these “enhanced interrogation techniques,” that have worked to keep us safe for the past eight years (another lie). He even boasts about his role in this clearly illegal business, as if daring Obama to challenge him. And so far Obama has very carefully not challenged him. This has been a great mystery to me, as well as a source of anguish because it all seems to me to be so clear-cut and obvious. Cheney committed heinous war crimes that he admits to, war crimes that are against the law, and yet Obama and Holder do nothing to hold him accountable.

Today, while I was energetically employing my Norwegian bulldozer on a new garden plot, it came to me. I suddenly realized what Cheney was doing. Maybe others have known this all along, but to me it was an epiphany. Dick Cheney is a slimy old guy, more evil even than sin, but he also is a clever evil old guy. He is gambling on the fact that as long as he keeps criticizing Obama, Obama will most probably not arrest and prosecute him. The reason for this is pretty obvious once you think about it. If Obama were to try to arrest him now, he and the immoral and lawless crowd that support him would insist that his arrest was political, and here in the U.S. we do not arrest people for political reasons. The fact that Cheney is a vicious and sadistic war criminal would be overrun by the ridiculous claims of a political arrest. If Cheney were making his absurd claims about torture and how it works and so on, without the context of criticizing Obama’s politics, he would be much more vulnerable to arrest and being held accountable for his many crimes. Like all such moments, once you see it, it seems perfectly obvious. I don’t know what took me so long. I cannot think of any other reason for his continuing to make such outrageous claims that we all know to be false.

Well, the right-wing radio hatemongers finally scored. They managed to goad some nutcase into killing an abortion doctor. Their constant references to Dr. Tiller as “Tiller the baby killer,” and so on finally did it. Of course they disclaim any responsibility at all for this despicable act, but there is no doubt they have blood on their hands. Abortion is legal. You may not like it, but it is the law of the land. You cannot just go around killing people who do not agree with you and who do things you do not like. Indeed, if you could, we would be in constant chaos, killing each other for disagreements every day. These domestic terrorists say that Dr. Tiller was a mass murderer. He was not. Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld are mass murderers. These anti-choice fanatics seem unconcerned with that.

I cannot understand the necessity or desirability of having loaded guns in the National Parks. I just assume this is another absolutely nutty idea of the NRA. But what makes me wonder even more is the fact that some members of Congress seem to fear this new rule won’t go into effect fast enough. As I can’t understand why the guns in the first place, I certainly can’t understand the urgency. Is there something going on the Parks I don’t know about? Are the animals all going berserk and starting a revolution? Or are those people in the black helicopters all landing in the Parks to plan their theft of our lawn chairs? Years ago, if you had a gun and wanted to go through the park, they would run a kind of little cable through the barrel with a lock on it which they would undo when you exited. This always seemed to me to be eminently reasonable. Have the Parks really changed so much we need to be fully armed to enjoy them? I do not view this new law as outrageous, merely silly, but, then, we are dealing with the NRA, they seem to have cornered the market on silly.

LKBIQ:
The discovery of America was the occasion of the greatest outburst of cruelty and reckless greed known in history.
Joseph Conrad

TILT: Twenty percent of the people in the U.S. own 55% of the estimated 200 million guns.