Cheney, Cheney, Cheney, Cheney, Huh

Carmina Burana is an opera I can sing along with. One of the few happy memories I have of the four-year sentence I survived at a Chicago Public High School is my experience in the symphonic choir. In my senior year, we went on a Christmas field trip to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra where we performed Carmina Burana accompanied by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. (Goosebumps.)

I am not a singer and I honestly think I survived the four years in the choir because I mouthed the words when the director walked past my group of second-altos. It helped that I stood next to Dawn, who had a reverberating, powerful voice and hated me.

Brief info on Carmina Burana- it comprises over 250 poems, many of them medieval, bawdy, and satirical. I can also tell you one poem’s author was Greek philosopher Epicurus, who was an advocate for living a life of bliss. (Not me.)

I know you would recognize the first song in the opera because it has been used in many movies of a certain genre, like “The Omen” and “Rosemary’s Baby.”

Bear with meet me while I tie my random thoughts together— horror film soundtracks and the Cheneys.

Dick Cheney is not a good man. He was George W’s puppet master, behind the oil war that started after 9/11 under the pretext that Sadam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction. A United States coalition led the invasion of Iraq and subsequent war, spanning 2003-2011. So many American and allied soldiers and civilians died after enlisting under the pretext that somehow Iraq had something to do with 9/11. It did not. Then-Vice President Dick Cheney’s company, Haliburton, killed it, so to speak, obtaining a $7 billion government contract.

The movie “Vice” nails it.

Anyway, so Dick started a war to steal oil, shot someone while hunting, and had a couple of drunk driving incidents. Nobody is perfect.

Satan’s spawn, Liz Cheney, is a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives, from Wyoming. Since her tenure began in 2017, she has been an outspoken opponent of democratic causes, fighting against things like universal healthcare, voting rights, human rights for the LGBTQ community, civil treatment of immigrants, raising the minimum wage, making the wealthiest 1% and corporations pay their fair share in taxes. She voted against Trump’s first impeachment and voted along party lines until the 1/6/2021 insurrection.

The insurrection was where she drew the line. She has since made it her mission to speak out against Trump and “the big lie.”

In response, Republican House Minority Leader, Kevin McCarthy, one of Trump’s fawning parasites, petitioned for the ousting of Cheney as Chair of the Republican Conference and replaced her with Elise Stefanik.

Since her removal as chair, Cheney has been on a media tour speaking out against Trump and the dangerous direction the GOP has taken.

https://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/video/rep-liz-cheney-interview-week-ouster-house-gop-77721700

In an interview aired on Sunday, Liz Cheney spoke with Jonathan Karl for “This Week,” making a few noteworthy comments. She said the continued refusal of Trump to concede his loss in the election is akin to the Chinese Communist Party. She also said she believes the members of the Republican party who really believe the “big lie” is small, a handful of people, despite their refusal to admit that.

She said: “If you look at the vote to impeach, for example, there were members who told me that they were afraid for their own security — afraid, in some instances, for their lives, and that tells you something about where we are as a country.” Hmm. She wasn’t afraid. 🤔 No Democrats were afraid.

Cheney said she regrets having voted for Trump in 2020, but she also said she “was never going to support Joe Biden.” There has been some notification that she is posturing for a presidential run in 2024.

In another interview, she called for a criminal investigation into Trump. He’s been under criminal investigation since— forever. (But you still get a participation trophy. 🙄)

So what’s the deal with Liz Cheney? I’ve felt sucked in, like a hostage suffering Stockholm Syndrome. She is unafraid to stand up against Trump, willing to risk her reelection in a state in which 70% voted for Trump, all in the name of saving our democracy. I feel guilty for liking what I hear her say.

Then I remember the story of the Trojan Horse:

After 10-years of fighting the Trojan War, with no end in sight, Odysseus directed the Greeks to construct a giant wooden horse. A select force of warriors, including Odysseus, hid inside the construction which was pushed to the gates of Troy. Trojans watched the Greeks sail away and then pulled the horse into their city. Under a veil of darkness, Greek warriors climbed out of the horse and opened the city gates for the rest of their troops, who had returned. The Greeks destroyed the city of Troy ending the war.

(My Greek ancestry demands I mention Greek history in every tenth post.)

Is Liz the Republican Party’s Trojan Horse? She is pulling us into her vortex by virtue of her prodigious fearlessness. We have to remember she is Dick Cheney’s daughter. Dick Cheney trumps Trump in power of the abyss. What does she have to be afraid of?

Damn, this is a long post. If you’re still with me, I hope you’re hydrated.

After deep contemplation, I have decided that I don’t trust Liz. The fact that when I see her I hear ominous music doesn’t help. She wants to be the party’s post-Trump leader, either in McCarthy’s position or as president. She knows Trump’s demise is on the horizon.

So, I suggest that when you start to feel yourself drawn in by her words, play Carmina Burana, consider the Trojan Horse, and remember her voting record.