Cowards, Cretins, and Fools (Repost)

Diogenes is on TDY. In his absence we're reposting some of his more popular pieces.

 

435 Representatives
100 Senators
15 Cabinet members
1 Vice-president

And not a scruple of conscience among them. Not a whiff of courage to call out dishonesty and injustice. Not a shred of evidence that each one of them once swore to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic."

Every day these 551 individuals plus a host of staff watch the alleged leader of the free world lie, scheme, cheat and swindle his bumbling way through life and not one raises their voice to call him out.

Only the press, in their Constitutional position as government watchdog, call him out regularly. The 551 should be listening. There was a time when the editorial boards of major newspapers had the ear of Congress. Now the portion of Congress that isn't deaf listens only to its own voice crying for attention in a masturbatory maelstrom of fear and self-loathing.

Donald John Trump is not special. He is a man, not a superbeing. He is not unstoppable. He puts his pants on one leg at a time. He belches, farts, and picks his nose. He is nobody's Chosen One. He has such little self respect that when he cannot gain praise from others he invents it himself.

His Twitter handle is @realDonaldTrump, but there is nothing real about him. He is a creature of his own imagining, cobbled together from whole cloth into a simulacrum of a leader, but lacking any knowledge or talent for the role. He is material but lacks substance. He is false from the hair on his head and the complexion of his face to the emptiness of his heart. He is the living embodiment of the emperor's new clothes.

The 551 know this but cannot admit it. They are politicians, hacks, and wonks so entrapped by the system they have built for themselves to ensure a continuing spot at the trough of public money that they can understand nothing else. They are cowards, cretins, and fools who will continue to be accomplices to the crimes and misdeeds of the Poser-in-Chief who squats atop the house of cards they have built. They disagree superficially but know they are totally interdependent, so not one will say "Enough! Stop!" Not one. Not. one. They are beyond shame.

Meanwhile the Traitor-in-Chief who has not betrayed his oath because he never intended to follow it attacks genuine patriots. He defends murderers and domestic terrorists like Kyle Rittenhouse, and the mouth-breathing, tattooed lowlifes who drove into peaceful demonstrators in Portland, Oregon.

Speaking to the National Republican Club in February 1938, Vermont Governor George Aiken said Abraham Lincoln "would be ashamed of his party's leadership today."¹ A plaque with that quote should hang in every Congressional Republican's office to remind them of their responsibility to be a check on executive actions.

Government functionaries don't fear the Bully-in-Chief; they fear the power he wields. That is a small but significant distinction. There is nothing to be feared from Trump the man. He is a small, insignificant entity whose personal power over others is limited to insults and epithets. But he holds the presidency, and with that can cause irreparable damage, if not destruction, of careers. He holds it over his minions like Damocles' sword, threatening them with the worst possible fate: expulsion from a government job and the loss of their place at the trough.

Elected officials are beyond his reach, but cower nonetheless because even after four years he remains a phenomenon foreign to their culture. They fear the unknown and therefore bow before it.

There are 551 of them and not one will stand up. The refusal of every one of them to stand and announce their opposition to the Cretin-in-Chief is disgraceful and cowardly. Bullies respond to being pushed back, but we Americans and our Constitution have no one to push for us.

In a post several weeks ago I said I would not condone assassination as a means of removing Tyrant Trump.

I have reconsidered that position.


--- Diogenes, 9/1/2020    Reposted 10/10/2020


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¹ D. Gregory Sanford, "You Can't Get There From Here: The Presidential Boomlet for Governor George D. Aiken, 1937-1939," Vermont History, Vol. 49, No. 4 (Fall, 1981), p. 204.


 

Putting The Hate On Trump (Repost)

(Diogenes is temporarily involved in other pursuits. In his absence we will be reposting some of his more popular pieces.) ---RB

 

I hate Donald Trump because he makes me want to do violence.

I have held to a nonviolent philosophy for my entire adult life. I have never aimed a weapon at anything more threatening than a field target; I was last drawn into a fistfight when I was 17; I have no wish to harm anyone.

And I want to punch Trump's lights out.

I have dreams of throttling him, my hands around his neck, beating his head against the wall while he sings The Beatles' song "I'm A Loser." I want to rip that orange obscenity from his head and shred it with my teeth. I want to throw him into a pool full of crocodiles. I want to wash his lying, profane mouth out with lye soap. I want to tie him to a chair, tape his eyes open, and force him to watch a video loop of President Obama scolding, "Donny, you've been a bad boy." I want the Statue of Liberty to spank him, and the ghosts of Lincoln and Jefferson to haunt him forever. I want a personification of the COVID-19 virus to chase him naked through the streets of Manhattan. I want him to know himself for the fraud and freak show he is, no more worthy to sit in the Oval Office than slime mold. I want him reincarnated to a place where he is the only white person and the rulers are violent, misanthropic women. I want him to know the bone-chilling, knee-collapsing, bladder-emptying fear of authority felt by the oppressed, the disenfranchised, and the marginalized. I want a hundred afarit to drag him into the earth. I want him to know exactly what Putin, Xi Jinping, and Erdoğan actually say about him. I want him tarred and feathered and ridden out of DC on a rail.  I want to tattoo 666 on his ass. I want him to know his biography is full of blank pages. I want him afflicted with boils and unscratchable itches. I want the unspeakable beasts of Chthulu to find him. I want the Holy Bible to burn his blaspheming hands. I want his libelous tongue to cleave to the roof of his mouth. I want him placed among the traitors in the mouth of Satan in the deepest pit of Hell. I want him mute. I want his image expunged from every public place and his portrait never placed in the Gallery of Presidents. I want him forgotten. I want his legacy to be shame. I want him to know just how much he is hated. I want him to be bullied and intimidated. I want him ostracized. I want him humiliated. I want him to cry.

During the Thug-in-Chief's first campaign I sometimes asked rhetorically, "Will someone take this bastard out and shoot him?" I was advised by cooler heads to tone it down, and I did. No more. There are not enough denunciatory, damning, condemnatory, insulting, judgmental, censorious, reproaching, disparaging, derogatory words in all the English language sufficiently to describe him, nor any punishment he does not deserve.

He has defiled, flouted, soiled, profaned, fouled, besmirched, sullied and dishonored the office of President, the laws of this country, the Constitution, the legacy of the Framers, and the idea of democracy itself.

He is a cancer and a plague on freedom and on our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

He must be stopped, deposed, and extirpated.


--- Diogenes, 7/6/2020   Reposted 10/9/2020

 

Knowing

"Know your enemy."

Almost everyone has heard that maxim from Sun-Tzū's The Art Of War. But it's only half the equation. Here's the rest:"“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles."

For Sun-Tzū self-knowledge was as important as knowing the enemy. You may know down to the last bullet the magnitude of the enemy's arms and the number of his soldiers; but unless you know your own strengths, weaknesses and abilities you will always be at risk of defeat.

So who do we think we are, and who do we think the enemy is? The following unscientific profiles are based on information drawn from several sources and opinions, and refer to "foot soldier" types--not party or government workers or high-level professionals. 

That said, let's consider how both sides might react to certain words and phrases:

(First paragraph is "us," second is "them")

Liberal:

How we define ourselves politically, holding to the classic Liberal tenets: liberty, consent of the governed, and equality before the law. We champion democracy, universal human and civil rights, and equality. We defend the Constitution, believing it has helped America accomplish the Founders' intent "to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity."

Usually prefaced with "ultra," as if there's no such thing as just a plain liberal, and almost always coupled with "agenda," providing a sinister aspect. Liberals are suspect because they want to change the established order and make everyone serve them. They believe they are better than everyone else. They belong to secret elite societies that shut out common people. Their worldwide conspiracy would do away with religion and gun rights. They believe in birth control, abortion, and human engineering.

Conservative:

People of limited imagination who are stuck in the past. They resist change of any kind, preferring the status quo. Many are hostile to people who are different from them; racism and xenophobia are not uncommon in their ranks. They resist universal rights and equality. They believe the Second Amendment allows universal and untrammeled gun ownership. Their social philosophy tends to be patriarchal with Old Testament overtones. They believe that women should be subordinate to men.

Conservatives believe that change should be evolutionary, developing naturally over a period of time according to what they think of as "the natural order of things." They believe in personal freedom and strict property rights. They would support a confederacy with primary authority resting with individual states. They favor immigration quotas and trade tariffs.

The Constitution:

The founding document and framework of the American system of government.

A set of rules that doesn't allow the president to rule like he should be able to. It says we can speak our minds, attend the church of our choice, and own guns. The rest is just so many words.

Law and Order:

The normal condition of a civil and well governed society. Order occurs naturally when all are equal. A police force should be maintained for community defense and to control those who break the law.

Using all available force to keep troublemakers, i.e. anyone who disagrees with us, in line.

Education:

Most of us have graduated from high school and have one or two years of college. A significant number have graduate degrees. We tend to pursue professional careers.

Trump followers typically have only a high school education and tend to work in "blue collar" jobs. A high percentage are active or ex-military. They believe foreigners have taken all the good jobs.

Science: 

Because we are educated and curious we accept the work of our scientist peers. We acknowledge that scientific research and exploration reveal the truth about our world and the universe. 

Disinformation meant to frighten the population about things like "climate change."

Protest:

Speaking out and demonstrating against the government, exercising our rights to speak openly, assemble peacefully, and seek redress of wrongs.

Using outside groups to incite crowds to demonstrate violently against the government. A criminal act that has to be beaten down by any means necessary.

The president:

A person elected by the people to lead the country for a maximum of two four-year terms.

Donald Trump.

 

--- Diogenes, 10/4/2020