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What kind of crazy, fucked-up world do we live in where Liz Cheney stands up for truth, justice and the American Way?

"'People in the (Republican) party are mistaken. They believe that BLM and Antifa were behind what happened here at the Capitol, that’s just simply not the case. It’s not true. And we’re going to have a lot of work we have to do. People have been lied to,' the congresswoman said."

One in which groupthink and fear have come to dominate the American way of life. America used to stand for the rugged individual, now it's for the cowering lemming afraid they'll be excommunicated for displaying thoughts that are not concomitant with what the group thinks. And god forbid you make a mistake, then you're canceled. Who came up with this policy? One strike and you're out, imagine if that applied to you, and we all make mistakes.

It's bigger than political parties. Say something negative about a pop act and that act's fans will inundate you with hate. Kinda funny how with all this talk about bullying it happens online constantly. And you're supposed to appeal to some theoretical referee to right the wrong but one doesn't exist, what you need to do is stand your ground and speak your truth, but too many were brought up in a world where their parents complained to the authorities to quash behavior, and this just doesn't work in the real world. In the real world you either have to remain silent or fight back, neither of which get any cred in society at large. In America you're supposed to accept the punches as punishment, for violating the policies of the the group, and if you fight back, no one comes to your rescue. Come on, you can't find a single man to weigh in when one of their brethren is canceled, when it comes to a discussion of women's rights. And there can't be a reasonable result without a conversation, so they're afraid. And true discussion, if there is any, goes underground.

I am not condoning heinous behavior. I am not condoning sexual abuse. But too often today if someone wants to get into the nuances, analyze the issues, they're booted off stage by a plethora of heckling, they're supposed to get back down in the hole they came from.

And too often the baby boomers are responsible. Believing their parents raised them improperly, they did their best to coddle their children, the millennials, going to bat for them AGAINST the teacher, complaining to the administration whenever Mallory or Phineas got in trouble. Furthermore, millennials' strongest desire is to be a member of the group. That is paramount. They all got trophies, no one is better than another, hogwash. We are not all alike, isn't that one of the great features of America, that you can be different and be accepted? At least that's the way it used to be.

"'The extent to which the president, President Trump, for months leading up to January 6th, spread the notion that the election had been stolen or that the election was rigged was a lie.'"

Truth. It's gone out the window. If it doesn't fit your agenda, ignore it, or deny it. The big story these past three months is how Fox has moved rightward because its audience was being stolen by Newsmax. So let me get this straight... If ignorant lemmings listen to the false spewings of ignoramuses you're supposed to abandon truth and get on board? In what world does this work? But ratings and money are everything. And even Fox is a team. Shephard Smith was hassled to the point where he jumped ship. But at least give him credit for standing up for truth for all those years before he did. It's hard to resist the mob, it's hard to be a party of one. But, once again, this is what America was based upon.

I really don't understand this. When I grew up it was clear who were the winners and losers. In sports, in school... But now under the aegis of togetherness, we've thrown out the statistics, competition is eviscerated in the name of harmony. In what era of history has this worked? There are superior people in all walks of life. Some are better athletically, some are better intellectually, and as Bob Dylan so famously sang:

"Now, each of us has his own special gift
And you know this was meant to be true
And if you don't underestimate me
I won't underestimate you"

Truly, no one is better than anybody else. The key is to find out what you're good at and pursue that, not to try to convince yourself that you're good at everything, equal to others in that pursuit.

But the truth is we now revere cash. And life is so hard that people who might have pursued their dream do not.

A good example of this is Amor Towles. Who has written the lauded and successful books "Rules of Civility" and "A Gentleman in Moscow." Even though his teachers told him he should pursue a career in writing, he worked for decades in banking, because you know mazuma is the highest calling in America. But it's the arts that give us insight and direction. But now all the artists are in pursuit of cash so that's history. And since everybody was brought up believing they could do everything they believe they can become a famous rapper or pop star, why not? Forget paying your dues, forget practicing. You were told from a young age you were special and you could do anything so...WHY NOT?

And people are confronted with this day in and day out. Work at the corporation and the number one criterion is getting along, it's more important than the work you do. Don't hang out, spend your time at your desk trying to push the envelope and chances are you'll be ostracized and excised. This is another reason old corporations fail... Once they've become established they're taken over by MBAs and bean counters, there's no American exceptionalism left, only the running of a machine until it sputters, usually as a result of a third party disrupter. You've got to deliver quarterly profits, that's more important than innovation, more important than the future. And isn't it funny how the biggest tech corporations in America haven't run that way. They brought in a manger at Google, Eric Schmidt, AND THEN THEY KICKED HIM OUT! Turns out so many of these techies don't need adult supervision. Case in point, Mark Zuckerberg. You may hate him, but you can't argue with his success, talk about making the stock rise... Zuckerberg has always pivoted and invested, unlike staid American companies. Yes, Zuckerberg paid zillions for WhatsApp and Instagram, do you think a conventional manager would have signed off on those purchases? No way! And Zuckerberg knew where the ball was going and went there while most people were ignorant.

Like Daniel Ek, who single-handedly save the recorded music business and has gotten shit for it ever since. Talk to the labels, they LOVE Spotify! But artists and ignorant writers and politicians don't stop excoriating Spotify and Ek, they won't be happy until the company is busted, gives all the cash to performers, especially the ones without listens. Who said you were entitled to be an artist? Who said you were entitled to make money at it? Those boomer parents once again? Hell, when I was brought up it was instilled in me that you had to be great to make it in show business. Artists went their own way, they were always different, not only in music. Then again, that's when you could make a living in so many artistic pursuits that you cannot now. Then again, the winds of change blow and if your goal is to calcify the landscape, freeze institutions, paralyze progress, you're heading for death. It always makes my head spin when people rail against streaming music when they can make their work for free on a laptop, promote it for free online and distribute it almost for free on streaming services. Don't they get it? In the old world they wouldn't even have gotten a chance to play, the doors would have been closed, costs would have been prohibitive. Then again, no one knows history anymore. And you're proud of your ignorance. Yes, Trump paid fealty to you and the elites are the problem. Elites do cause problems, but the day we denigrate education is the day our nation becomes a second class citizen in the world. Then again, that has happened! After Trump European countries are wary of the U.S., looking to it for leadership, falling in line behind America.

"'We will not forget what happened on January 6th. And that the single greatest threat to our republic is a president who would put his own self-interest above the Constitution, above the national interest.'"

Liz Cheney might have said this, but this ethos left the planet after the sixties. Now it's all about self-interest, even if it causes problems for others. As a matter of fact, it's the lower classes who are the most charitable, that's been statistically proven. So some billionaire gives away a micron of his fortune, why doesn't he pay more taxes! Oh, that's right, because the government will waste it and government is bad. So, let me see...you want a nation without roads and dams where the rich get even richer? That's been one of the pandemic stories, how the wealth of the super-rich has skyrocketed. Not only Jeff Bezos, but those invested in the stock market. Meanwhile, most people own no stock. As for the Redditors and GameStop...they may have been ignorant, they may have ultimately lost, but one thing they knew for sure was Wall Street is rigged, against them, and that's true.

"'We’ve had a situation where President Trump claimed for months that the election was stolen and then apparently set about to do everything he could to steal it himself.."

Even high-ranking Democrats don't put it so directly, for fear of Republican blowback. Yes, Trump tried to steal the election himself. But since nearly half of the country doesn't believe this, you can't say it. This is how far we've fallen, we must adjust the game to play to morons, or the woefully uninformed. As for the educated like Cruz playing to these people...his own party doesn't call out this behavior, because it aligns with the team, and it's all hogwash anyway, it's not about Trump, it's about laying the groundwork so he can ultimately become president, god forbid, self-interest rearing its ugly head once again.

But Rand Paul comes out and says there's no way Trump will be convicted in the Senate. But that begs the question...what does a president have to do to be impeached and convicted? Trump tries to steal an election and foments an insurrection and that's okay? And if some Democrats had fallen in the process, that would have been fine too, as long as the Republicans remained intact. But, the mob was going after Pence...isn't this akin to what Martin Niemoller said?

"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."

The team doesn't need you, everybody is expendable. You think you're integral, that you count, but the truth is you don't, everybody can be sacrificed to achieve the team's goal. And Liz Cheney realizes this and draws a line in the sand, says she won't take it anymore.

This all was said in conversation with Chris Wallace on Fox News today. But go to foxnews.com and you have to scroll down deeply to find it. Fox is burying its own story. Because it doesn't align with what its viewers think. Maybe you do that in entertainment, but not news.

But the truth is playing to the audience permeates all walks of life. In music, acts give people more of what they've already consumed. Go to a major label and tell them you're different and it will take time to develop and spread the word and they're not interested. Same deal with the film business, so busy making movies that will play around the world that it left real life stories, smaller stories, to television, which is eating the movie business's lunch. And streaming outlets don't control the artists like they do on networks and conventional channels. Netflix makes a rich deal with Shonda Rhimes, essentially giving her a blank check to do it her way. And her first project, "Bridgerton," is a raging success. The artist always know best. They don't always get it right, but they're the ones who hit the home runs. And it turns out the people are only interested in home runs, this philosophy has changed the fabric of baseball, and everyone is afraid to undercut it for fear fans will abandon the game, meanwhile the game gets further and further away from its essence, almost becomes a caricature of itself. Used to be Home Run Derby was once a year, just before the All Star Game, now it's 162 games a year, never mind the playoffs and World Series.

So, confronted with slings and arrows, from not only her party in Wyoming, but the national party in Congress, Cheney not only stood her ground, she barked back. She's not worried about her individual future, she's worried about what's right, about the nation at large. Therefore, she's a beacon, she evidences a spirit this country hasn't had since 1969, truly. We used to count on artists for this. But today if you've got a profile, artists are afraid to stand up and take a side for fear they might alienate a potential customer. But play to all and you ultimately play to none. You shave off all the edges such that your creation is ephemeral, it does not have deep impact and it disappears.

We are looking for people to stand up and speak to our hearts and minds with truth. We've gotten so far from that mantra as to live in scary times. And of course the internet is at fault, but the only way we get out of this mess is through us, people. Yes, the machines are not going to save us, only we can save us. But we need leaders. Forward movement, putting a dent in the universe, is not a popularity contest. Come on, ever notice someone is hated until they are loved? That's because most people can't understand what they're doing. But that was also when people were confident enough in their identities and beliefs to put it all on the line. Liz Cheney might lose her next election. Or, it might turn out there are a lot more silent believers than vocal nitwits. But she is willing to sacrifice her own personal interests for the greater good. What a concept! We need more of this.

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