Liz Cheney Holds 2024 in Her Hands, 'To the Moon!'
Trump had so much fun burying Cheney, when, really...
Sometimes better format here.
LIZ CHENEY COULD KEEP THE GOP OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE
Perhaps the best way to appreciate just how much Trumpism recklessly tossed the nation into bizarro world is that liberals find themselves proudly aligned with the highly conservative Liz Cheney and Liz Cheney stumped for Democrats. With respect to “classic conservatism,” meaning small government, low taxes, fewer regulations, free trade, and a small social safety net, she remains one of the most conservative people in government. And yet conservatism also adheres to the Constitution, to slow change, to democracy, and long-held American values. It is that last one, the Constitution and democracy, that both sets her apart and proves there is nothing conservative about the America First movement. Only Donald Trump could have done this.
But many more can keep it going and plan on so doing.
Trump took quite the victory lap when Cheney was easily defeated in her primary in Wyoming, which is different than perhaps what might’ve happened in Utah, where true conservatives are more appreciated, MAGAs less so.
Of course, Trump enjoyed it. Trump’s entire life has been a zero-sum game. If someone defeats him, he must get revenge. There is an old story on the record about a Trump lunch with Richard Branson (they had not known each other), where Trump talked almost exclusively about five guys that “screwed him” and that he was getting his revenge. Trump said he loves getting cold-blooded revenge at least as much as winning. Branson says that he told Trump that it sounds like a very unhealthy way to live. Trump probably thought that Branson - the guy that jumps out of planes and sails - is a pu**y.
Despite Trump’s initial “revenge,” Liz Cheney isn’t done with Trump. In fact, there is a way that she could claim the ultimate victory. Today is a great day to note it, given that Trump announced his candidacy last night.
Cheney has been asked whether she would consider running for president in 2024. (I looked for the citation, I might’ve seen it on television). She said she didn’t know and would examine it down the road. She has vowed to do “whatever it takes” to keep Trump out of the White House in 2024.
I have not heard this idea tossed around yet by anyone, nor have I heard her address it at all. But if she wants to keep Trump and “Trumpism,” or “America Firstism,” the autocratic movement, “Out of the White House…
How about a very conservative run for president as an independent? Of course, independents don’t win in the United States. Liz wouldn’t be running to be president. She would be running to keep someone else from being president while also spreading her message about the importance of democracy.
If Cheney, as a conservative, took even 5-10% of the vote from the right, it’s effectively a death knell to GOP 2024 hopes. The 5-10% is intentionally low. If one factors in the 2022 midterm results as voter disgust with “America First” Trumpism, Cheney could realistically take 15-20%, almost all of it from the Right. Not a single candidate from the GOP/Trump party would have a chance if that many “right-sided” votes were sucked up out of circulation.
Liz Cheney has a far more complex understanding of the undercurrents in Washington than I, so she certainly knows that she gains nothing by having a Ron DeSantis run in 2024 rather than Trump. If an “election-denier,” anti-democracy “type” runs, Cheney might still run, seeing the danger.
She says she will do what it takes. There is an option that almost guarantees that Trump himself and the “autocratic movement” will not see the White House again. Cheney might get the last laugh; only her revenge won’t feel like a “cold-blooded personal victory” so much as relief at having done the right thing for the country and succeeded.
I haven’t heard the idea mentioned once. I hope I start hearing it everywhere now that Trump has announced…
MOON SHOT
ARTEMIS IS OFF!
After delays due to “leaks” (which is as deep as any of us can understand) in the engines and then two untimely tropical storms, NASA found a launch window and lit a controlled bomb under the biggest rocket it has launched since the Saturn V’s in the late 60s. True, NASA (and the military) launches stuff all of the time, so why would this be front-page news? Because this launch is a test to ready NASA to do something it hasn’t done since the early 1970s, take astronauts outside of low-earth orbit.
Indeed, it would be news if the mission were to just lift astronauts to geosynchronous orbit (About ten times higher than the shuttle, out where our weather satellites hang out). To repeat, we “humans” haven’t even left low-earth orbit in fifty years.
And that is what makes this mission so exciting. It is not a simple path:
NASA’s current plan is to put people, including women and POC, on the moon in 2025. There will be several more increasingly complex non-human missions prior to that launch. These missions aren’t to take pictures and pick up rocks. (No offense to the Apollo astronauts.) These will be missions that test how we can build some kind of permanent station on the moon (or more than one). NASA plans on using the moon as the “jumping off point” for all future missions to deep space, whether it is to Mars, various asteroids, or blocking a comet screaming toward Earth, all those missions that have been contemplated since the early 1970s.
This matters beyond scientific discovery and developments in computing/engineering. More than half the country believes we are “off track” in some way. I believe that a big part of it is due to the fact that the United States used to lead the world in doing “big things.” Right now, we seem small and very very petty.
Yes, much of it was a race in the Cold War, and not just in space, but other military applications. Despite the fact that we can all acknowledge that we spend far too much money on the military-industrial complex, the price comes down a little when one realizes that just about every function your phone can carry out was first used as a military application, from satellite communications, text, to GPS, to the net itself.
If the United States started doing “big things” again, starting with Build Back Better,” and perhaps in a “friendlier” space race with China, we could regain some national pride. Perhaps that national pride in one’s country will decrease tensions between the polarized politics of the day.
That is the hope.
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Your annual reminder (This was part of last year’s edition at this time of year). There is no law that says you must make a turkey on Thanksgiving. It is our most important secular holiday, and it is based primarily on the meal. Make your absolute dream meal if you want. Maybe you are a traditionalist, and turkey is what you want - great! Maybe your dream meal is fresh Copper River Salmon cooked on a cedar plank - great! Thanksgiving is the holiday that I believe remains truest to its theme (not roots, as we’ll see below), giving thanks for what we have. So give thanks in the way YOU want. And please remember, not everyone is happy on these holidays. Many are lonely. If you have a chance, invite someone who might otherwise be alone. It will make it that much more meaningful.
No one had their iPhone ready to take pictures and videos of the first Thanksgiving. The history that we “know” has been passed down through the dominant white culture. Perhaps it was as wonderful as we were taught in grade school, and the Native Americans ate alongside pilgrims, and TURKEY and venison were had by all in a joyful celebration. Perhaps it wasn’t quite that way. In fact, it was almost surely not quite that way.
As I said above, Thanksgiving is probably the holiday that remains most true to its meaning and message (not “roots” because no one had their IPhone…). When it comes to kids and such, it is every bit as important to talk about the subjugation of Native Americans and the later decimation… but not on Thanksgiving. There are 364 other days of the year to teach real history. On Thanksgiving in our home, we don’t focus at all on pilgrims or any other history. We focus on this year and only what my daughter and I have to be thankful for right now, this year, and it always seems to be a lot, no matter how “little” we have. That should be the focus.
There will be several more issues prior to Thanksgiving but people are planning now, so… and as always, until all kinks are worked through, this remains free, but donations are accepted on Venmo @Jason-Miciak
It’s not cold everywhere. Seychelles
I might do Turkey or I might do Salmon. (Salmon is worth giving thanks for!)