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‘An Orgy of Psychodrama’
January 5, 2022, was the day my respect for lefty journalist Glenn Greenwald surpassed my respect for former Vice President Dick Cheney. He did so by authoring an absolutely spot-on, painfully honest assessment of the spectacle the Democrats staged.
Indeed, when it comes to melodrama, histrionics, and exploitation of fear levels from the 1/6 riot, there has never been any apparent limit. And today — the one-year anniversary of that three-hour riot — there is no apparent end in sight. Too many political and media elites are far too vested in this maximalist narrative for them to relinquish it voluntarily.
The orgy of psychodrama today was so much worse and more pathetic than I expected — and I expected it to be extremely bad and pathetic.
Just to show what somber and solemn remembrance was called for on this day, Nancy Pelosi invited the cast of Hamilton to perform show tunes on the floor of the House. Short of squirting each other with seltzer bottles and placing whoopie cushions on every chair in the House chamber, it is impossible to imagine a more fitting commemoration of this historic day.
And, as Greenwald notes, the man the left used to call “Darth Cheney” was also on the floor of the House helping the Democrats promote their narrative. (The other erstwhile villain of the Bush Administration, Karl Rove, published an editorial behind the Wall Street Journal’s paywall, demanding that Republicans also join the Democrat narrative that the events of January 6th, 2021 were as dire and consequential as Pearl Harbor and 9/11; ) Dick Cheney, the “war criminal,” the “torturer” and, of course, the National Socialist. The man who has once called a New York Times reporter “a major league a-hole” and told a Democratic Senator to “Go [expletive] yourself,” back when Bush Republicans weren’t so fussy about “attacks on the sacred democratic institution of the press” or “presidential demeanor.” And there were Democrats, running up to shake his hand, because he was on their side now and participating in their theater.
Wait a minute… theater… You don’t suppose… No, it couldn’t be. Could it?
Could all that acrimony between Cheney and the Democrats back in Bush’s term have all been an act? Something to trick and distract voters, while the Democrats and their Bush-Republican allies collaborated. ‘Cos when you think about it, both sides pretty much got everything they wanted when Bush was president. Bush got his land war in Asia. Notably, not against the country where the 9-11 terrorists originated (Saudi Arabia), the countries that were funding global terrorism (Iran and Saudi Arabia), or the country where Osama Bin Laden was being harbored (Pakistan), but against a peripheral player in Middle East politics the Bush family happened to have a grudge with. Meanwhile, the Democrats got massive amounts of domestic spending, expanded government including vastly expanded Departments of Education, EPA, and a Medicare prescription drug entitlement. And of course, a wide-open southwestern border. They also got John Roberts out of the deal.
Maybe all of that acrimony was also theatrical psychodrama. Do you think?
Greenwald ends on a note I would only quibble with as too specific. The false narrative goes far beyond January 6th, but encompasses really everything the political class and the corporate media want us to believe.
Published in GeneralFar too many centers of political and economic power benefit from an exaggerated and even false narrative about January 6 to expect it ever to end.
I sense the Kavanaugh affair was the same.
I think the Cheney family might be the greatest family of traitors this country has had. The Dick lied us into a $6T war for personal thrills and profit and the Liz is trying to lie us into a civil war. Sorry Rosenbergs your commie betrayal was surpassed by the evil Cheney’s.
Saw this earlier. Worthwhile.
More and more I see these lefties as better ‘allies’ than most Republicans. Interesting.
No kidding.
It’s possible, I suppose, that the likes of Greenwald are better allies than some Republicans, but it does not make them truly allies. Greenwald remains a hard core leftist who is enjoying his moment in the sun because of justifiable dissatisfaction with our institutions.
Well, they all spent time in Madison, Wisconsin.
Concur. I’m pleased Greenwald is working with us. It’s a temporary community of interests.
My new understanding is there are only temporary allies. But my first loyalty, or priority, is freedom. You can’t have freedom without truth or accurate – even trying to be accurate – reporting. Here Greenwald is stellar. I don’t care if my doctor is a commie if he’s a good doctor and adheres to the Hippocratic oath, and Greenwald as a reporter is better, by far, than these frauds whatever their views are.
Furthermore I am developing certain agreements with the left. Not the left of Nancy Pelosi, but the anti-war, anti corporatist, anti-totalitarian left. Their solutions are as wrong, but not much worse than Dick Cheneys or Romney s solutions – which are not helping, and it’s a fools game. My enemy is falsehood first, and those who engage in promoting falsehoods either deliberately or stupidly, can never be my allies. First we must diagnose and label the threats. Then we can embark on a path to deal with them.
For these Republicans to make statements about “insurrection” and terrorism re J6 tells me they either have no clue or have nefarious purposes.
Greenwald is right about Pharma as well IMO.
This left at least sees what I’m seeing with my own eyes and reason. They also are better at attacking these horrific Democrats than just about everyone in ‘our’ side. I still bristle at some things they say, but I’d rather have sanity that I agree with than insanity that may better align with my ultimate goals. However, that’s not entirely accurate. I’d rather Tulsi Gabbard be my President or a Ron Paul type than a Romney type. But also because I think this type of Republican does more damage to my ultimate goals.
This is not the country I grew up in, and it requires a different approach today. Reagan is dead, the idea of America as world savior and policeman is a deadly and costly joke, these are not your father’s corporations, and not our fathers Intel agencies defending America from real enemies. Our criminal justice system is now perverted and increasingly politicized. As you say our institutions are failing – or corrupt. I can’t whistle past the graveyard with this type of GOPer like Boehner or Ryan or McCain or Romney. No more.
On another thread, someone was arguing how the Democrats and Republicans were so different, had different agendas, that I couldn’t possibly lump them together. Which I had, for purposes of the discussion, and essentially your many conclusions above.
Garbage, I said, in dat thread. Budgets go up, annually, as does the scope and size of gov’t. They *are* all in it together, and the rest is posturing for the media and the media consumers, on either side of the aisle.