Yesterday, our executive staff reminded me that Paradigm Press is a classy outfit. We don’t dance on anyone’s grave… no matter how tempting it may be.

Fine. Here goes.

Most of the time, we’re sad because people are taken from us too soon. Sometimes we’re sad because people weren’t taken from us soon enough. Dick Cheney’s passing belongs to the latter.

What damage he wrought! It’s somewhat fitting he died on the day New York City elected an avowed socialist for its mayor, New Jersey elected a left-wing governor, and Virginia did the same, but added a lunatic left-wing attorney general to their mix.

Under the rotunda in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, there’s an inscription on the marble floor Sir Christopher Wren, its architect, left. Among other things, it reads, “If you seek my monument, look around you.”

Well, if you seek Dick Cheney’s sordid legacy, look around you.

The Baghdad Butcher

Dick Cheney was the most powerful - and destructive - vice president in U.S. history. Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1941, Cheney worked his way up from Gerald Ford’s chief of staff to defense secretary under George H. W. Bush before becoming his idiot son’s de facto boss in 2001.

In this clip, Jeffrey Sachs explains how, as defense secretary, Cheney wasn’t content with the dismantling of the Soviet Union. Cheney wanted to see Russia dismembered and broken up into small countries. No wonder neocons like Victoria Nuland latched onto the idea.

Once in power, Cheney redefined the role of vice president—transforming it from a ceremonial funeral attender to a shadow president. His fingerprints were on everything from the “war on terror” to the doctrine of preemptive strikes.

The illegal, immoral, and unethical 2003 Iraq invasion was built on Cheney’s wrongheaded insistence that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and harbored Al-Qaeda. It’s the most catastrophic foreign policy error in modern history. It left hundreds of thousands dead, displaced millions, empowered Iran, and gave birth to ISIS.

The war in Afghanistan fared little better—Cheney’s decades-long conflict ended where it began, with the Taliban in charge. Add to that his defense of torture and mass surveillance, and you have a man who helped transform America’s global image from moral leader to mob enforcer.

Cheney’s legacy is how bad intelligence weaponizes hubris that begets bad wars. His unrestrained power led to a bill America is still paying in blood and treasure, not to mention the exorbitant interest. Witness yesterday. It was a direct result of the last 25 years of poor USG decision-making he started.

The American Left is Far From Dead

The American left had a night to remember.

Today’s New York Post cover

Progressives and moderates alike racked up wins from coast to coast—proof that, for now at least, the political wind is blowing leftward. The biggest shock came from New York City, where Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani toppled Andrew Cuomo (running as an independent) to become mayor. Mamdani’s campaign—equal parts affordability crusade and social media spectacle—rode a wave of youthful enthusiasm and anti-establishment anger.

Meanwhile, Democrats flipped or held key governorships: Mikie Sherrill took New Jersey, and Abigail Spanberger became Virginia’s first female governor, both selling themselves as practical reformers fighting Trumpism’s long tail.

Ballot initiatives also broke blue—California’s Proposition 50 handed Democrats new gerrymandering power that could tilt the House map their way. Party strategists called the night a “repudiation of Trumpism,” but the real story is subtler: the left is learning to win both with slogans and spreadsheets. 

Whether that momentum holds through the 2026 midterms is another question—but for now, they’ve seized the initiative, and the right is on its heels.

Midterms: Trump Trouble, Unless…

Vegas lawyer Robert Barnes put it well on X. I’ll paraphrase his post for easier reading.

The Democrat gambit of keeping the government shut down paid off. The loss of food support, including SNAP, on the eve of the elections, hurt the Republicans. It seems Republican voters don’t come out to vote when The Donald isn’t on the ballot.

Trump is too focused on foreign trips and foreign money for Israel, Ukraine, and Argentina. That, combined with a new White House ballroom and Gatsby-style parties at Mar-a-Lago, created the perfect storm.

Another X post noted the following:

A) Don’t arrest people from the Deep State

B) Cover up Epstein and tell us it’s a hoax

C) Stoke up WW3

D) Send endless $$ to Ukraine and Israel

E) Keep the Covid Vaccines on the shelf

E) Carry out an Israel First, America LAST Presidency…

If “Stoke Up WW3” meant “You haven’t made peace with Russia yet,” I agree.

@Rothbard1776 wrote:

You mean Republicans aren’t motivated to get out there and vote for a party that’s protecting Epstein’s clients, gives infinity aid to foreign countries, increased government spending, has embarrassing deportation numbers and attacks the most conservative members in the party?

@Cernovich wrote:

Trump spent all year on the Middle East, his big donors loved this, the voters did not. Virginia is going to be under a Democrat super majority now. Keep listening to Mark Levin, Mr President, and you’ll be back to impeachment trials in 2026.

I saved the best for last. @RAMZPAUL summed it up best:

Bloodbath for the GOP. Trump embracing the neocons has been a disaster. 

Advice to Trump - 

1. Stop involving America in these pointless wars. Americans are sick of Ukraine and Israel.
   
   
2. Work on that healthcare plan you promised 10 years ago. Until that is ready, fund ACA.
   
   
3. Eliminate all H1B visas. There are no good jobs for young people. 
   
   
4. Quit changing the tariffs every week. Develop an economic policy and stick with it.
   
   
5. Accelerate the deportations. We cannot have a country filled with Third World savages.
   
   
6. Fire Rubio for lying about the situation in Ukraine.
   
   
7. Work with JD Vance to get a non-Boomer perspective about the reality of the situation.
   
   
8. Stop posting emotional drivel on Truth Social like you are an emotional teenage girl. You are President. Have some gravitas.

One more important note: The Donald still hasn’t gotten his Executive Orders codified in Congress. If he loses the midterms, that will never happen. A Democrat like Gavin Newsom can walk into the White House and erase all of Trump’s orders with the stroke of a pen.

And finally, I’m going to take all this to mean the U.S. shouldn’t start a war in Venezuela, either, no matter what their most recent Nobel “Peace” Prize winner says.

Wrap Up

Dick Cheney may be dead, but unfortunately, his legacy lives on.

The Donald picked up some of his awful habits. No more meaningless foreign wars. Deficits do, in fact, matter; no more blowing out the budget.

Make Pam Bondi and Kash Patel useful and bring some perpetrators to justice.

Either fund SNAP and ACA or come up with workable alternatives.

There’s plenty to do at home, as the electorate has so coldly reminded Trump. He discounts this as a “one-off” at his political peril.

Mr. President, you have 364 days. Use them well.