Dr. Samuel Johnson (1755) :
Patriotism, n. The last refuge of a scoundrel.
-Dictionary of the English Language
Ambrose Bierce (1911):
Patriotism, n. Combustible rubbish ready to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name.
In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last refuge of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first.
-The Devil's Dictionary
Let us now praise famous snowflakes...well, actually just one extra, most special and one and only notable special snowflake. Let us praise him "Bigly".
The American neo-Fascist right wing through its wholly owned mouth organ, Fox News, has peddled the idea that Liberals (in Fox's definition anyone a millimeter or more to the left of Mussolini or Francisco Franco) are "special snowflakes" (i.e. unique and delicate, easily destroyed by a breath of warm air) when violence, racism, bullying or unreasoning attacks evoke a counter-response in the individual or a group.
Now I give you the star in his own mind, Mr. Donald J. Trump who styles himself President of the United States of America and wraps himself around any nearby flag. This Orange Snowflake seems to invoke patriotism with every other breath while avoiding any patriotic actions himself. President Bone Spurs wants the U. S. Military to parade through Washington, D. C. for him solely because he thinks he personally deserves a military parade. What has he done to deserve such a parade? Well, let's see...he's allowed military personnel to keep their pay increase while withholding all pay increases for civilian government employees. He's appointed military personnel to several cabinet positions and so far only one of them had been forced to resign for criminal acts. He also says nice things about the military at every rally he conducts. Oh! I almost forgot; he saw a military parade on Bastille Day, 2017 while visiting Paris and thought that he should have one too.
Vladimir Putin's favorite American asset regularly rails against news outlets - other than Fox, of course - as "the enemy of the people". The Great Patriotic President has a problem with the idea of a free press. Under his view of democracy any organization that opposes him and/or publishes criticism of him is "the enemy of the people". Truth itself is "the enemy of the people" if it isn't the fictional "truth" that he and his Ministry of Truth cobbles up to aggrandize the Republiscum's Fearless Leader. Yet there's a glitch that Mr. Putin's asset forgets(?), ignores(?), edits out(?) of the First Amendment to our Constitution to wit: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Those six injunctions were so important to our founders that they became the first items specified for protection in our Constitution. Nestled in there is freedom of the press. Therefore, The Great Patriotic President is railing against one of the foremost protections for our rights. Not especially patriotic and definitely the act of a scoundrel I think.
Yet we should ask why he feels that the press is "the enemy of the people"? In every case that raises Mr. Putin's asset's ire, the material to which he objects is criticism of himself personally or of the government and/or political party he heads. The press is not "the enemy of the people". Rather to him it is an enemy of The Great Patriotic President himself. The press isn't criticizing Americans generally or any specific group except by implication those foolish enough to vote for and continuing to support The Great Patriotic President. They are criticizing The Great Patriotic President and his acts either direct or indirect through his government and party. I reject the idea that the press is the enemy of anyone. The press is, if anything, the enemy of lies, corruption, despotism and injury to the people. That is exactly why the first Congress decided to protect the press in that First Amendment. What The Great Patriotic President purposefully confuses is criticism of himself and attacks on the American people.
Between 1933 and 1945 no German pledged support to the German state. The salute was not "Heil Deutschland!" The salute was "Heil Hitler!". Our democracy from the outset was one of laws and not of individuals. We had just, after all, fought an eight year war against a government of individuals, in that case a king. We are a representative government meaning that we elect people from among the ranks of the people to represent our interests in the government. Our Constitution begins with the words, "We, the People...." Notably it does not begin I, George Washington... or James Madison... or Alexander Hamilton... or Benjamin Franklin.... The Constitution does not begin with the name of any individual person because government of, by and for an individual person was one of the primary ideas we were against when trying to bring into the world a nation new to a world rife with kings, emperors and other dictatorial individuals. Herr Drumpf seems unaware that he is not the nation. If there are anythings antithetical to a government "of the people, by the people and for the people" they are an autocrat (one who governs for himself alone) or an aristocrat (one whose social rank makes him superior to all others). Those terms, derived from the French, are the diametrical opposite of a democrat. I would suggest that The Great Patriotic President has raised himself to the aristocratic status of the most special of special snowflakes.
In the few days preceding this writing this Orange Snowflake has suggested that a book criticizing his government and an op-ed piece in the New York Times are acts of "Treason?". The only way in which those publications could be "Treason?" is if President Putin's Puppet is the government and the nation. So far we have managed to retain the concept that the only treason we recognize is betrayal of our Constitution and laws. The Great Patriotic President now claims that he must know who penned the anonymous op-ed piece as a matter of national security. I have many reservations about that anonymous author but the only security endangered by the op-ed piece is the security of the Orange Snowflake himself. The only threat to the nation is The Great Patriotic President himself.
In a campaign rally in Montana The Great Patriotic President opined that the op-ed piece was a cowardly act. I would tend to agree with the charge of cowardice. At times I have said and written things that I would rather not have done on further reflection but regardless of my second thoughts I have always owned up to my mistakes as well as my successes. I think that the anonymous writer should own up to his article. Be that as it may, the Orange Snowflake pronounced that the article was "very unfair". Unfair? To whom? Unfair to poor widdle Donnie, The Great Patriotic President? The Orange Snowflake that cannot endure the faintest breath of criticism? Poor widdle Donnie! How sad he must be to be triggered by such a mean, vile blizzard of truth.
I long for the day when he is no longer protected by the craven Republiscum in Congress, when the faintest breath of truth will dissolve this Orange Snowflake and send him to the oblivion of a prison that he has so richly deserved. Until that day I would amend a venerable warning and urge my fellow countrymen, "Don't eat the yellow or the Orange snow!"
Vladimir Putin's favorite American asset regularly rails against news outlets - other than Fox, of course - as "the enemy of the people". The Great Patriotic President has a problem with the idea of a free press. Under his view of democracy any organization that opposes him and/or publishes criticism of him is "the enemy of the people". Truth itself is "the enemy of the people" if it isn't the fictional "truth" that he and his Ministry of Truth cobbles up to aggrandize the Republiscum's Fearless Leader. Yet there's a glitch that Mr. Putin's asset forgets(?), ignores(?), edits out(?) of the First Amendment to our Constitution to wit: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Those six injunctions were so important to our founders that they became the first items specified for protection in our Constitution. Nestled in there is freedom of the press. Therefore, The Great Patriotic President is railing against one of the foremost protections for our rights. Not especially patriotic and definitely the act of a scoundrel I think.
Yet we should ask why he feels that the press is "the enemy of the people"? In every case that raises Mr. Putin's asset's ire, the material to which he objects is criticism of himself personally or of the government and/or political party he heads. The press is not "the enemy of the people". Rather to him it is an enemy of The Great Patriotic President himself. The press isn't criticizing Americans generally or any specific group except by implication those foolish enough to vote for and continuing to support The Great Patriotic President. They are criticizing The Great Patriotic President and his acts either direct or indirect through his government and party. I reject the idea that the press is the enemy of anyone. The press is, if anything, the enemy of lies, corruption, despotism and injury to the people. That is exactly why the first Congress decided to protect the press in that First Amendment. What The Great Patriotic President purposefully confuses is criticism of himself and attacks on the American people.
Between 1933 and 1945 no German pledged support to the German state. The salute was not "Heil Deutschland!" The salute was "Heil Hitler!". Our democracy from the outset was one of laws and not of individuals. We had just, after all, fought an eight year war against a government of individuals, in that case a king. We are a representative government meaning that we elect people from among the ranks of the people to represent our interests in the government. Our Constitution begins with the words, "We, the People...." Notably it does not begin I, George Washington... or James Madison... or Alexander Hamilton... or Benjamin Franklin.... The Constitution does not begin with the name of any individual person because government of, by and for an individual person was one of the primary ideas we were against when trying to bring into the world a nation new to a world rife with kings, emperors and other dictatorial individuals. Herr Drumpf seems unaware that he is not the nation. If there are anythings antithetical to a government "of the people, by the people and for the people" they are an autocrat (one who governs for himself alone) or an aristocrat (one whose social rank makes him superior to all others). Those terms, derived from the French, are the diametrical opposite of a democrat. I would suggest that The Great Patriotic President has raised himself to the aristocratic status of the most special of special snowflakes.
In the few days preceding this writing this Orange Snowflake has suggested that a book criticizing his government and an op-ed piece in the New York Times are acts of "Treason?". The only way in which those publications could be "Treason?" is if President Putin's Puppet is the government and the nation. So far we have managed to retain the concept that the only treason we recognize is betrayal of our Constitution and laws. The Great Patriotic President now claims that he must know who penned the anonymous op-ed piece as a matter of national security. I have many reservations about that anonymous author but the only security endangered by the op-ed piece is the security of the Orange Snowflake himself. The only threat to the nation is The Great Patriotic President himself.
In a campaign rally in Montana The Great Patriotic President opined that the op-ed piece was a cowardly act. I would tend to agree with the charge of cowardice. At times I have said and written things that I would rather not have done on further reflection but regardless of my second thoughts I have always owned up to my mistakes as well as my successes. I think that the anonymous writer should own up to his article. Be that as it may, the Orange Snowflake pronounced that the article was "very unfair". Unfair? To whom? Unfair to poor widdle Donnie, The Great Patriotic President? The Orange Snowflake that cannot endure the faintest breath of criticism? Poor widdle Donnie! How sad he must be to be triggered by such a mean, vile blizzard of truth.
I long for the day when he is no longer protected by the craven Republiscum in Congress, when the faintest breath of truth will dissolve this Orange Snowflake and send him to the oblivion of a prison that he has so richly deserved. Until that day I would amend a venerable warning and urge my fellow countrymen, "Don't eat the yellow or the Orange snow!"
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