Mr. McDowell: No, I didn't.
Akeem: Oh, it was a most amazing game. The Giants of New York took on the Packers of Green Bay. The Giants triumphed by kicking a pigskin ball through a big "H" It was a most ripping victory.
Mr. McDowell: Son... I'm just going to tell you this one time. If you want to keep working here, stay off the drugs.
~From Coming To America.
Seriously?
Donald Trump has now secured the coveted Bin Laden endorsement.
Just tell me one thing, Burke...
Who in the ever-living FUCK thought this was a good idea?
I'm now officially working off of the assumption that Trump and his campaign are basically seeing how far they can get so-called "Conservatives" to debase themselves. No, not to "Own The Libs" or whatever you want to call it...but simply to show their alleged power and to see just how far they can push things and still keep the fealty of the howling mob.
At this point, don't be surprised if there's a campaign ad before this is over that simply features Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell each having to lick the runny fast-food shits out of Trump's orange ass crack.
I mean, what's next? Are they going to dig up a coterie of moldy old Red Army Generals, complete with their moth-eaten Soviet-era uniforms, and have them seated at a table and all endorsing Trump in subtitled Russian in some kind of odd reflection of that one cabinet meeting from 2017 where Trump forced everyone to praise him?
I'm fucking serious, what is even the purpose of this silly bullshit?! I mean for fuck's sake who in their right mind gives a damn what Noor Bin Laden thinks?
As of now she's one of dozens of other people I'd never have heard of without Donald Trump.
Who's going to go for the coveted "Family Members Of Radovan Karadzic" endorsement? Hangers on of the House of Habsburg? Robert Mugabe? Descendants Of Saddam Hussein? Sirhan Sirhan? That crazy dude who shot Ronald Reagan? Mehmet Ali Agca? Members of the Gaddafi family? Raul Castro? Come on, Who's next? I mean, I'm fairly sure Timothy McVeigh has surviving relatives. Why not just go all-out with the Anti-American bullshit or the offensive stomping all over the alleged beliefs of your own followers if you're gonna do it, Trump?
Of course these are the same fucking people who now seem to think it's a good idea to run campaign ads that are explicit threats towards their fellow Americans, toward likely future colleagues, and aimed at people whose literal job it's supposed to be to get along with...or at least put aside petty bullshit now and again...for the good of the country.
It's not that Trump wants those people for his base, for his followers that bothers me...it's that he doesn't seem to want anybody else...and now, when his political fortunes are already in doubt he's basically throwing down the gauntlet and demanding that Republicans abandon whatever remaining beliefs, principles or self-respect they had left and lick his dirty asshole.
And the scary part is, a good percentage of remaining Republicans...especially elected officials...will express concern and disappointment, furrow their brows, make disapproving noises...and then turn around and do exactly that, for no better reason than Trump is allegedly a Republican and (by job title at least) supposed to be the President.
And more to the point, what Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Greene and all these idiots calling Kyle Rittenhouse a hero are trying to tell you is...in their idea of America, YOU TOO must have that level of "loyalty." Lick Trump's dirty asshole, and we must all join hands against the scary Brown and Foreign hordes...or you might get shot.
This last week or so has literally been the master class in Republican Asshole Virtue Signaling and trying to demand that those Republicans endorsing or supporting Biden return to the fold...and that they do so as supplicants rather than applicants, as probationary faction members rather than equal members of the sect.
...Or they might get shot.
Because anything that is not hard-right Republican asshole-ism is "Socialism" or something something Gazpacho. Meanwhile, even Radical Islam...even Radical Islamic Terrorism...is acceptable if the people who are part of it support Trump.
And Socialists get shot.
Say the people beholden to one Lt. Colonel Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, KGB, yes, late of the "Sword And Shield Of The Party." That is, of course, the Communist Party.
There's stupid, there's evil, and then there's these motherfuckers.
They can't even go five minutes without contradicting themselves.
Mind you, this drops a couple days after it came out that Trump disrespected American war dead and veterans and said an American military cemetery was "Full of Losers" back in 2018.
Not just any American military cemetery either, but the one at Belleau Wood, the site of a major battle between the Imperial German Army and the United States Marine Corps during World War I. According to legend, this is the very place where the term "Devil Dog" originated, that being the nickname given to the Marines by the German Army troops they were fighting.
Imagine if you will, being a young Marine, first time away from home much less first time out of the country and you're low-down ass-in-the-grass with bullets zipping over your head. The Botches have turned that forest into a fortress, they've got machine guns in the trees, for fuck's sake. All you want to do in that moment is not die. And the Sgt. Major stands up, he's a big dude, he's risking his life by doing this, and he shouts right in the faces of his platoon members "Come on you sons of bitches, you want to live forever?!" the challenge hangs there for a second before he turns and charges toward the enemy, and you follow, because it's your duty, because you don't want to face your bros having not followed, and because at the end of the day, you have to control your fear so that you can face yourself in the mirror when you shave in the morning.
The Marines charged across that field and they took that position, and many of them died. The living and the dead became literal heroes in a way that too many of those who throw around such terms these days will never...can never understand.
America in those days was no major power, no sure thing.
Our most-watched conflict on a global scale had been against ourselves and the last of those who had fought in that war were just then dying off. We were seen far more as a nation of industrialists and a place to make money than as a nation of citizen soldiers who would defend democracy. In point of fact, democracy in America was then far from as universal as it is now, especially for people of Color, or women...for whom the vote itself was still a couple of years away and we ourselves were still mired in the absolute nadir of race-relations. In point of fact, World War I was where that began to turn around, when the Harlem Hellfighters and other Black troops saw that they were treated better serving under French command than under White Americans.
Belleau Wood was one of the places that defined what it even is to be a Marine, or to be an American on the world stage. That French forest...and more broadly other major battles of World War I...is one of those places where we, as a people, paid the entrance fee for our Great Power status and we paid that fee in blood because right or wrong, that's the only currency that the Universe accepts for such things.
Like it or not, one doesn't really get to be a hero, that guy, or earn any sort of moral authority by bankrupting casinos, doing shitty real estate deals, getting on TV a lot and publicly failing at marriage. Despite centuries of trying, the wealthy have never managed to get most people to believe that wealth can or should replace courage or morality as a thing we humans revere.
There's a reason for that.
Respect. Is. Earned. It's earned by every action, every day. It's earned by being that guy that when you shout at your men "Come on, you want to live forever?!" The answer is "No" because your people don't want to debase themselves in front of That Guy.
Not just that. You don't want to live being the guy who didn't stand up.
You don't have to have served in the military to understand that. I'm serious. That's where I got this understanding of life but it's far from the only way to pick it up. You just have to have faced some kind of adversity or challenge in your life, or maybe even just had a leader or two that was worth following. Ask a cancer patient, a domestic violence survivor, an immigrant or refugee who crossed deserts or seas to get here, or an old person that doesn't have a fuck-ton of money.
But one thing is certain, if you don't understand it, I can't explain it to you.
You want to live in a better country? Do you really want to "Make America Great?" Be a better citizen. Maybe we can make America be a country where nobody gets left behind, and where people don't turn to hating their neighbors and to shitty ideology to find comfort.
Make America a country where nobody seeks the political endorsements of our enemies, Again.
Otherwise, what the fuck are we even doing here?
Part Two.
Seriously?
Donald Trump has now secured the coveted Bin Laden endorsement.
Just tell me one thing, Burke...
Who in the ever-living FUCK thought this was a good idea?
I'm now officially working off of the assumption that Trump and his campaign are basically seeing how far they can get so-called "Conservatives" to debase themselves. No, not to "Own The Libs" or whatever you want to call it...but simply to show their alleged power and to see just how far they can push things and still keep the fealty of the howling mob.
At this point, don't be surprised if there's a campaign ad before this is over that simply features Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell each having to lick the runny fast-food shits out of Trump's orange ass crack.
I'm fucking serious, what is even the purpose of this silly bullshit?! I mean for fuck's sake who in their right mind gives a damn what Noor Bin Laden thinks?
As of now she's one of dozens of other people I'd never have heard of without Donald Trump.
Who's going to go for the coveted "Family Members Of Radovan Karadzic" endorsement? Hangers on of the House of Habsburg? Robert Mugabe? Descendants Of Saddam Hussein? Sirhan Sirhan? That crazy dude who shot Ronald Reagan? Mehmet Ali Agca? Members of the Gaddafi family? Raul Castro? Come on, Who's next? I mean, I'm fairly sure Timothy McVeigh has surviving relatives. Why not just go all-out with the Anti-American bullshit or the offensive stomping all over the alleged beliefs of your own followers if you're gonna do it, Trump?
It's not that Trump wants those people for his base, for his followers that bothers me...it's that he doesn't seem to want anybody else...and now, when his political fortunes are already in doubt he's basically throwing down the gauntlet and demanding that Republicans abandon whatever remaining beliefs, principles or self-respect they had left and lick his dirty asshole.
And the scary part is, a good percentage of remaining Republicans...especially elected officials...will express concern and disappointment, furrow their brows, make disapproving noises...and then turn around and do exactly that, for no better reason than Trump is allegedly a Republican and (by job title at least) supposed to be the President.
And more to the point, what Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Greene and all these idiots calling Kyle Rittenhouse a hero are trying to tell you is...in their idea of America, YOU TOO must have that level of "loyalty." Lick Trump's dirty asshole, and we must all join hands against the scary Brown and Foreign hordes...or you might get shot.
This last week or so has literally been the master class in Republican Asshole Virtue Signaling and trying to demand that those Republicans endorsing or supporting Biden return to the fold...and that they do so as supplicants rather than applicants, as probationary faction members rather than equal members of the sect.
...Or they might get shot.
Because anything that is not hard-right Republican asshole-ism is "Socialism" or something something Gazpacho. Meanwhile, even Radical Islam...even Radical Islamic Terrorism...is acceptable if the people who are part of it support Trump.
And Socialists get shot.Say the people beholden to one Lt. Colonel Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, KGB, yes, late of the "Sword And Shield Of The Party." That is, of course, the Communist Party.
There's stupid, there's evil, and then there's these motherfuckers.
They can't even go five minutes without contradicting themselves.
Mind you, this drops a couple days after it came out that Trump disrespected American war dead and veterans and said an American military cemetery was "Full of Losers" back in 2018.
Not just any American military cemetery either, but the one at Belleau Wood, the site of a major battle between the Imperial German Army and the United States Marine Corps during World War I. According to legend, this is the very place where the term "Devil Dog" originated, that being the nickname given to the Marines by the German Army troops they were fighting.
Imagine if you will, being a young Marine, first time away from home much less first time out of the country and you're low-down ass-in-the-grass with bullets zipping over your head. The Botches have turned that forest into a fortress, they've got machine guns in the trees, for fuck's sake. All you want to do in that moment is not die. And the Sgt. Major stands up, he's a big dude, he's risking his life by doing this, and he shouts right in the faces of his platoon members "Come on you sons of bitches, you want to live forever?!" the challenge hangs there for a second before he turns and charges toward the enemy, and you follow, because it's your duty, because you don't want to face your bros having not followed, and because at the end of the day, you have to control your fear so that you can face yourself in the mirror when you shave in the morning.
The Marines charged across that field and they took that position, and many of them died. The living and the dead became literal heroes in a way that too many of those who throw around such terms these days will never...can never understand.America in those days was no major power, no sure thing.
Our most-watched conflict on a global scale had been against ourselves and the last of those who had fought in that war were just then dying off. We were seen far more as a nation of industrialists and a place to make money than as a nation of citizen soldiers who would defend democracy. In point of fact, democracy in America was then far from as universal as it is now, especially for people of Color, or women...for whom the vote itself was still a couple of years away and we ourselves were still mired in the absolute nadir of race-relations. In point of fact, World War I was where that began to turn around, when the Harlem Hellfighters and other Black troops saw that they were treated better serving under French command than under White Americans.
Belleau Wood was one of the places that defined what it even is to be a Marine, or to be an American on the world stage. That French forest...and more broadly other major battles of World War I...is one of those places where we, as a people, paid the entrance fee for our Great Power status and we paid that fee in blood because right or wrong, that's the only currency that the Universe accepts for such things.
Like it or not, one doesn't really get to be a hero, that guy, or earn any sort of moral authority by bankrupting casinos, doing shitty real estate deals, getting on TV a lot and publicly failing at marriage. Despite centuries of trying, the wealthy have never managed to get most people to believe that wealth can or should replace courage or morality as a thing we humans revere.
There's a reason for that.Respect. Is. Earned. It's earned by every action, every day. It's earned by being that guy that when you shout at your men "Come on, you want to live forever?!" The answer is "No" because your people don't want to debase themselves in front of That Guy.
Not just that. You don't want to live being the guy who didn't stand up.
You don't have to have served in the military to understand that. I'm serious. That's where I got this understanding of life but it's far from the only way to pick it up. You just have to have faced some kind of adversity or challenge in your life, or maybe even just had a leader or two that was worth following. Ask a cancer patient, a domestic violence survivor, an immigrant or refugee who crossed deserts or seas to get here, or an old person that doesn't have a fuck-ton of money.
But one thing is certain, if you don't understand it, I can't explain it to you.
You want to live in a better country? Do you really want to "Make America Great?" Be a better citizen. Maybe we can make America be a country where nobody gets left behind, and where people don't turn to hating their neighbors and to shitty ideology to find comfort.
Make America a country where nobody seeks the political endorsements of our enemies, Again.
Otherwise, what the fuck are we even doing here?
Part Two.
Excellent!
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