By Manifesto Joe
Most of you are, no doubt, familiar with the holiday classic "It's a Wonderful Life." In this endearing cinematic piece of Frank Capra-corn, there's a villain, played by Lionel Barrymore, a banking mogul of the town of Bedford Falls, Pa., Mr. Potter. In the vision of George Bailey (James Stewart) in which he literally was never born, the town isn't even called that anymore. It's called Pottersville, named after the loathsome Mr. Potter.
I nominate former Vice President Dick Cheney for mayor of Pottersville.
I always figured Cheney for a prize-winning SOB. That perpetual snear, the deliberate lying during debates, the hypocrisy of the $6 million man begrudging little people medical care while he gets a transplanted heart on the taxpayers' dime, etc., etc., etc.
But until recently, I don't think I'd ever grasped the full inhumanity of this man, the completely self-centered depravity that lurks in that demented brain.
In this link, Cheney voices an almost complete unconcern about the unfortunate person who was his heart donor. "It's my new heart, not someone else's old heart." He's not even curious about how this person died, or about the family. He told mummified interviewer Larry King that he doesn't even know the identity of the person who gave him a new heart. What complete, utter trash.
And yet this man lives on, with Secret Service protection and taxpayer pensions and subsidies of all kinds. I'm not sure there is a hell, but if there isn't, there sure as hell ought to be one, in light of what this wicked little asshole is like. Problem is, he might mastermind a coup to topple Satan and take over the place.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
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7 comments:
One of my favorite Cheney quotes concerned his time as CEO of Halliburton. He claimed that "the government had nothing to do" with Halliburton's profits. (This, despite the billions of dollars in government contracts that were awarded to Halliburton on Cheney's watch).
And then, of course, there was the famous quote where Cheney said that, if John Kerry was elected, "the danger is that we'll get hit again" by terrorists.
This is the most amoral piece of pond scum who ever held office that high.
Joe -
Your analysis of what keeps smirky out of the christians' hell is classic.
Thanks!
Dick Cheney is one of the many reasons the United States won't be around when I'm 60...
-WageslaveZ-
Aw 'Z' -
We'll be around for a while longer. Progressives are too damn stubborn to capitulate and too determined to quit. Quitting is a republi-can't trait; so is compromising with terrorists. We may talk with them on the topic of their surrender, but not with their survival - as terrorists.
Thanks to initiatives like PPACA, Social Security and Medicare & Medicade, our social fabric will occasionally be stretched, folded and rent, but it will never be destroyed.
Thanks, Joe.
Unfortunately, I think there is going to be an awful lot of violence in coming decades. The corporations have made clear that property will be, to them, always more important than people, and they will increasingly get by with as few people as they can, especially full-time employees with "benefits." As they keep whittling away at the social fabric, it will be, for a while, like a frog that is slowly boiled by degrees. But when people reach a point when they just aren't able to make it anymore, they will simply start TAKING what they need. That's when the violence will start. I think we're talking about something that will happen around 2030 or 2040. My wife and I are unlikely to be around to have to witness it.
re:
>>and Medicare & Medicade, our
>>social fabric will occasionally
>>be stretched, folded and rent,
>>but it will never be destroyed
I don't think we can take Medicare for granted at all. In this past election we came within around 5 million votes of electing the Romney/Ryan ticket.
If he'd become VP, Ryan had plans to essentially destroy Medicare as we know it. He would have converted it into a voucher system. Instead of the Medicare we have now, we would have had a system where people get essentially worthless coupons to pay for their medical bills. (In other words, older people would have to pay for everything out of pocket and deal with these ripoff private insurance companies the way the rest of us do now).
This scheme came very close to passing last year.
No, Medicare is not safe at all. In fact, I'd bet money it will essentially cease to exist within the next 20 years. (And the crucial votes to make this happen will come from TeaBaggers who ironically support Medicare, but just don't grasp that it's a government program).
No, I'm not being a pessimist. Just a realist.
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