Saw the movie "Vice". Spoiler Alert. Dick Cheney is a raging asshole.

[Yavin4]

A brilliant, yet very depressing movie about Vice President Dick Cheney. Now, don't go looking for total accuracy. This is fiction based on history. Think Oliver Stone and Michael Moore worked together on a film. Director Adam McKay has made a career satirizing the false masculinity of the Bush era from Anchorman to Talladega Nights to Eastbound & Down to The Big Short and now Vice. and yes, Christian Bale is astounding. At times, you completely forget that it's him.

But what's truly depressing about this movie is that for all of the evil that was Cheney and all that he did, what we have now in the White House is an order of magnitude far worse than Cheney.

[Girard442]

1. Reminds me of a comment a blogger made about "The Big Short."

He said the good news is that they were quite successful in telling the story within the limitations of the movie format. He said that the bad news is now he's pissed off all over again.

[Pacifist Patriot]

2. Sums up my experience of "The Big Short."

[Eliot Rosewater]

3. Have not seen it yet, and my take on Cheney is a bit different than most here.

But that isnt important right now, what is important is you are right, as bad as Cheney is and was, compared to our situation now he would not just be better but would save our country.

He would save it for rich people to get richer at the expense of all of us, but he would not literally sell it to Putin, Turkey and the Saudis.

What people in America still dont understand is if Putin or SA or whoever said to rump:

"If you nuke Iran and kill 4 million men, women and children, we will guarantee you Mueller wont get to you and you will make a profit doing it"

He would do it without hesitation, without thinking. And he would be dumbfounded how you could imagine he wouldnt.

Cheney would not do that.

[Yavin4]

4. Gun to my head, if I had to choose Cheney over Trump. I would pick Cheney.

Only because Trump is completely unstable. Cheney is evil, but he's stable.

[TSheehan]

7. If there were no Bush-Cheney, there'd no Trump. And Cheney's evil was competent.

Let’s not lose sight of that just because the present (Republican) President is so fuckinh shit.

In many ways Trump is an unprecedented danger, but almost every individual thing about his Presidency or even parts of his personality has some precedent in the Bush-Cheney, Reagan-Bush, Nixon-Agnew-Wallace eras - or indeed, that of Newt Gingrich’s Contract on America House caucus, or all of the far-right media outlets that have cultivated anti-intellectual, irrational, and bigoted Republican Outrage Politics (TM) ie. FOX, talk radio, Murdoch’s tabloids, and so forth. And then there are the overt white supremacists...

Trump has assimilated all the above tendencies into his own particular BRAND (emphasis) of politics. All of this plus the Russian shit and other brazen instances of corruption and criminality - not to mention, consistently shamelessly lying, cruelty, and contempt for democracy, all of which have long histories among the political Right - pretty much sum up Trump.

[underpants]

10. Great post. A must read.

[TSheehan]

12. Thanks. I'll make it an OP.

[MFM008]

8. Yes

Greedy evil genius
But a total by the gop book sort.

[ProfessorGAC]

13. On That Point, Yav

Cheney was a bad man, but he wasn't bad and irretrievably stupid.

Now we have the twofer in the White House!

[TSheehan]

5. Cheney wanted to attack Iran regardless.

[Eliot Rosewater]

6. Not the same thing, big differences.

[Paladin]

9. Remember the days when we thought Cheney was the worst executive officer ever?

I can't bring myself to say that trump makes Cheney look good by comparison. But trump does make Cheney more acceptable, in retrospect; same for GW Bush and even Nixon. At least those other guys gave some evidence of functioning intellects, an ability and willingness to learn, and some passing acquaintance with mental stability. I just pray to God that we're never burdened with a leader that makes us nostalgic for a scumbag like trump.

[dlk]

11. Who Knew?

[haele]

14. Met Cheney in person in the '80's. Spoiler Alert. Dick Cheney is a raging asshole.

His sense of entitlement was overwhelming even then, and drove his awareness of what was going on around him. He honestly thought he was the smartest guy, the best leader in any room he walked into, and everyone else was just there for him to use and discard.

Haele