Two Quick Hits

OP: ‘Dick Cheney died today.’

And only on his third heart transplant. I suspected he might make it to his fourth.

Cheney’s death triggered me to go to some of the old, Shit-Lib media I used to read until they all became insufferable war-hawks and Neolib Economics pushers and once HRC lost, Russiagate Crybabyies. (When there was a real scandal there, ZioGate.)

I went to Eschaton/Atrios first as he was the least insufferable, it was just the commentariat there that was insufferable, they would harass & berate you if you weren’t mindlessly pro-war and faux/performative woke and smug and stupid . . . He did a pithy 2 sentences. And it looks like there are no comments on that site anymore? Maybe it just got too toxic under Trumpy?

Raw Story next: Nothing on Cheney as of 6:30 am Mountain time. But a bunch of anti-Trump Dog-Bites-Man, Captain Obvious smug performative and meaningless rage and fury. One article I clicked on said a “YouGov poll” of ‘Murica’s stupidest Shit Libs put Trump on a list of the “17 worst, most authoritarian” leaders in the world, along with Vlad Putin of course!! Yes, you slave rats in your Skinner boxes pressing the Dimmie lever and getting warmed-over shit pellets, Vlad Putin is the reason you have medical debt, SNAP benefits cut in half for the truly unfortunate, and are a paycheck away from homelessness . . . Lesser Evilism is Great!!

Salon.com– Paywalled!! Would I pay to eat that warmed-over bullshit? Obviously not. It was started by David Talbot, an actual Lefty, whose book on SF CA politics I once reviewed and praised here, Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror, and Deliverance in the City of Love. Then sucked dry by mindless, PMC vampire-slaves.

As to those frigging sky death-machines to “celebrate” Freedumb and mindless “patriotism,” I’m with you, Ian. When I lived in the Bay Area, those would fly over the Oakland and South area (had to leave Oakland c. 2006, rents too high) during “Fleet Week”, obnoxious, terrified my roommate’s dog and my cat(s). Only heard them one other time annually, as best as I recall. When I moved to Duluth, MN, a blue state, those goddamned curses on life and humanity flew over at least four times annually, sometimes (July 4) I knew why, other times no clue– to celebrate the day Bush Sr. shot down an Iranian passenger plane maybe, or when Hillary proved ‘Murican greatness by having Qadafi sodomized with a sword and murdered? American greatness, indeed, a jet bombing and strafing civilians for ever . . . Cheney would be proud, were he not rotting in Hell, or being reincarnated as a Honey Badger.

Yeah, I just caught that, thanks for the post. I went to the other sites first this a.m. before Ian, coz I assumed he might not even cover it, so thanks for doing so. Another thing we have in common, hating death-machines.

Posted here before breakfast or morning tea. I speculated Killer Dick might reincarnate as a honey badger, ‘coz I like to watch Nature pieces on YTube at times (humans are gross, animals are at least themselves, as Brion Gysin once observed, “Man is a bad animal.”) Honey badgers are small but incredibly vicious, can fight a lion or a bear and win, can probably fight anything apart from an elephant and do okay. “Honey” badgers coz they can raid beehives and no stings hurt them . . . that’s what Cheney would’ve wanted to be. But if reincarnation is real he’s just as likely to be a slime mold, lamprey, syphilis strain, or something similar & disgusting.

And the “Don’t speak ill of the dead” is fair enough for normal, functional human beings, but for massive historical Monsters and Psychopaths I don’t think it applies. For Hitler, Ed Gein, Mussolini, Christopher Hitchens (started well, broke very, very bad and racist) and when he goes for Netanyahu, I think.

Let’s not forget the Dimmies worked very hard to “rehabilitate” both Dick and his daughter Liz, they appeared at the last couple of Dimmie Conventions. They supposedly hated Trump so all their evil (Liz was homophobic, even Dick slightly better there) was fine with the PMC idiots. And the Obamas worked super-hard to rehabilitate Bush Jr. who polled recently with Dem voters as 65% positive!! After deploying a Great War of Terror across the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and Africa that killed tens of millions, a failed Iraq War based entirely on lies, using black-sites and torture, normalized– and to boot a gibbering moron and oafish slob, youthful boozer and cokehead. “Politics is Hollywood for ugly people.” In the case of the US since WW II it’s mostly at the presidential level for murderous goons as well.

i was in SG having zichar with my folks and their local friends (yanqui husband, SG chinese wife). the wife and i had a nice discussion about water rights for the city state – as of course all their water comes from MY – and i asked what they’d do if the malaysians turned off the tap. she proudly quipped that that was what the national day military exercises were for – a reminder to the neighbors.

lovely little city-state if you don’t mind the one party thing and the indentured tamil labor thing. KL’s more fun, and the food’s much better in jakarta. but i digress.

Cheney was only 84? I thought he was 95 and dead already.

I’m sure it’s a sad day today for Bill Kristolnacht and the fine folks at The Bulwark.

What is the point of that warship? What country is Singapore going to fight anyway?

Hm… China?

Singapore may look strong today, but its medium- to long-term future is precarious. It is heavily dependent on the U.S. and the dollar, with nearly all its reserves and assets in USD. It has no viable path to diversify, as it is effectively blocked from joining BRICS. If the U.S. or the dollar collapses, Singapore’s fortunes would crash along with them.

Key points:

• Singapore aligns with the West in sanctioning Russia over the Ukraine war, making it an outlier in Asia and the Global South. It was the only Southeast Asian country to impose unilateral sanctions on Russia after its 2022 invasion. In retaliation, Russia added Singapore to its list of “unfriendly countries,” effectively blocking any possibility of Singapore joining BRICS.

• Singapore is one of the very few countries in Asia and the Global South that has not recognized the State of Palestine.

• Singapore is also among the few Asian countries that have not condemned Israel for the Gaza genocide, yet it promptly condemned Hamas for the October 7 attack.

• Singapore consistently votes with the U.S. and Western bloc in international forums (UN, IMF, G20) on sanctions, human rights, and conflicts — often against other Asian or Global South countries.

• Singapore’s state media, like CNA, frequently criticizes China and spreads anti-China narratives, while rarely, if ever, criticizing the U.S. The reporting adopts Western tones, framing, and priorities, effectively reinforcing pro-U.S. perspectives. (You can watch their videos on YouTube.)

Has Singapore ever acted against or said “no” to the U.S. on any major policy issue?

In Asia, only two other countries fit all these patterns: Japan and South Korea — both clear U.S. vassals. Even the Philippines and India do not meet all these criteria.

If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it is a duck.

Singapore likes to pretend it is neutral between the U.S. and China. It is not. It is a U.S. vassal.

A couple more:

• All of Singapore’s Prime Ministers since Lee Kuan Yew are Ivy League alumni, mostly Harvard. Many U.S. client states or “puppet regimes” tend to have leaderships educated in the U.S. or at elite Western institutions.

• Because Singapore is heavily invested in the U.S. and cannot join BRICS nor diversify / pivot away from the U.S., it is effectively locked into protecting U.S. interests. Its economic survival and stability depend on the continuation of the U.S. hegemony.

More intuitive inference:

Jews will use Singapore as a foothold to gain influence and power in the rising ASEAN, although the Muslim-majority countries of Malaysia and Indonesia will likely keep that influence in check. The irony is stark: they are leaving Israel, where they are surrounded by hostile Muslims, only to take root in Singapore, where they will once again be surrounded by hostile Muslims.