I Dunno
Popular post by Republicans on Facebook.
I dunno. You might want to ask Genghis Khan about that.
Remember this morning when I said that Republicans have layers of crazy? They also have layers of stoopid.
Published in 2012, this article about the Great Wall seemed to be predicting Trump’s desire for another wall.
Considering the size and effort put into its construction over 2,000 years ago, the failure of the Great Wall of China is rather spectacular.
… the construction took hundreds of years and some people still mistakenly believe it’s visible from the Moon. However, as a defensive measure against invading forces, it has been about as useful to China as a Bible on a battlefield. It can give you comfort, but it just won’t stop the enemy.
also …
Another argument is that the Great Wall was nothing more than an ambitious project contrived by a vainglorious emperor. The Great Wall was supposed to show the world China’s superiority, making a clear distinction between civilized people and barbarians.
There ya go.
The problem with the Great Wall was, as I recall, the garrison commander. When enough power and money was applied, the Wall “fell”.
Is that what will mark the end of our democratic republic as well…
1The Great Wall, like the Berlin Wall was a failed attempt at keeping out corrupting foreign influences
2Thank you so much for publishing this info about The Great Wall. Now, now even stoopid repugs have an excuse…..
3trump would love to be visible from the moon
446 years gone by, and not a thing has changed:
https://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2014/05/21
5Now. I’m just spitballin’ here, but how much wall could we get if we took all of the bankrupt Trump Towers, former Trump Towers (letters pried off the front of the building and renamed), the deepest Trump golf course bunkers, then hauled the whole mess to the Mexican border, tilted the towers on their side, and lined up everything top to bottom?
Trump can send Mexico the bill, then the 30 day statement, 60 day statement, 90 day statement, statement overdue statement….
6Don’t forget the fence around the WH. Like that’s going keep the truly angry, hungry, homeless hordes out.
The fence around Versailles didn’t work either.
7Wall or no wall, Comrade Donnei and the Rethugs are betting that it’s still a winning issue with their MAGAots (who are all either zombified in a ‘persistent repubtative state’ or fully braindead cretins).
I saw Kellyanne Conjob on a Sunday show (This Week) partially answer a question by Martha Radatz with a very confident and deflective: ‘Trump will be President for five and a half more years’.
So the Democrats had better get on it with everything we got. I sure hope that Joe Biden will decide not to run, I luvs the guy, but his time is long past, and he’s waay too centrist for today’s environment.
8We need to shake the field out ASAP, then work like hell for whoever makes it.
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Fran @4, I’d luv it if tRump were -on- the moon (spacesuitless). Then we could also sponsor one-way homage trips for MAGAots too (wonder how the decomp process would work up there, probably a mummification of sorts, oh well).
Walls work! Just ask our ally Israel.
9Walls are a confession of failure and decline.
10Hadrians Wall, Great Wall of China, the Berlin Wall all spectacular failures and a symbol of decline.
Walls are a product of fear and bigotry.
The closing of borders is coupled with the closing of minds and stagnation of society.
Steinbeck addressed this failure and allusion to mythical “safety” in his Nobel acceptance speech ( There are No more Gibraltar’s)
We are definitely in the last days of this “noble experiment” and judging from the nihilism of this regime it appears that when they start to understand what a failure they are that they will pull down the entire temple (World) down with them so they can show their impotent power in the only way they are capable of – destruction.
I’m just picturing this couple, saving for the trip of a lifetime to the Great Wall of China, reduced now to a tourist attraction, but still….
11They get there from Podunk, Arkansas, and think, how cool would it be to pose for this picture?
Really!!!? You go half-way around the world to visit one of the wonders of the world and all you can think of is to pose for this dumb picture? What a waste of a trip.
Trumps wall is named Pelosi
12If on one side there is civilization and on the other barbarians, in the case of Trump’s wall (and the ad hoc ‘militia’ nearby) …..which side is which?
13OMG! Buffy and Biff! I wondered what happened to them after they bought our electric piano!
14Correction it waas Faulkner’s Nebel speech not Steinbecks.
Wait until this group of incompetents try’s one stunt to many of sanctions, trade wars, and mbargos and all the other nations realize that there is no downside in ignoring and flaunting the US.
15then our demotion to a third world country will be complete thanks to these wannabe banana republic tyrants.
Duvailie in haiti, Somoza in Nicuarga, Batista in cuba and Kim in N. korea are the heros of these idiots.
Jefferson, Washington, Ghandi, and Bolivar are viewed as nothing more then foolish suckers who weren’t smart enough to engage in “branding” and oppression.
K @10,
16Hadrian’s Wall was actually quite effective at controlling the northern border of Roman Britannia against some of my barbarian ancestors, the Celtic Britons/Picts or Caledonians. It was kept in service for almost 300 years after construction began in AD 122, mostly holding the hordes at bay.
The Antonine Wall, built a couple decades later about 100 miles north wasn’t as effective or cost-efficient, it was only maintained for less than a decade before getting handed over to Briton Roman allies in the Scottish Lowlands.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrian%27s_Wall
Hadrians wall did fail in the end
17Not to mention the very construction of the wall was an acknowledgement that your ancestors had defeated the Roman Empire and forced it onto the defensive.
As I stated walls reflect the weakness of the builders. They are simply physical manifestations of fear and self perceived weakness.
K @17,
Your Britannia history is way off.
Hadrian’s Wall was quite effective as long as the Romans manned it with troops (they did unman it several times). BTW, always manned with auxiliaries, crack Roman Legions were only used in its’ construction and earliest use. The wall was seldom breached by hostile forces over it’s ~300 year active period.
The Caledonians were decisively defeated ~AD 83 (before the wall) at Mons Graupius (losing ~10,000 to Roman losses of less than 400). The Caledonians never again mounted anything but guerrilla actions as they mostly stayed north of the wall.
Hadrian’s Wall merely represented the limit of Rome’s carefully calculated military and political reach in Britannia, due mostly to their cost-benefit analysis of advancing further north into Caledonia/Scotland. The Romans basically decided that it wasn’t worth the effort to subjugate the Picts any further (hint- Scotland had/has few natural resources).
The Romans were not driven out of Britain or defeated there. They basically just left Britain in the late 300-early 400’s because of the slow dissolution of the entire Roman Empire and the expense of maintaining the province of Britannia. Mostly this was due to internecine strife closer to Rome, pressures from Germanic tribes and others in northern and eastern provinces, corruption, and misgovernment by increasingly incompetent leadership (hmmm, starting to sound a bit familiar, eh?).
It gets complicated, read this and follow more links from there:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_of_Roman_rule_in_Britain
18So out of the generosity of spirit the romans decided to leave those north of the wall free?
19Yes the romans withdrew from the wall in the same manner that the US withdrew from Vietnam Nam. But like the domino theory that withdrawal wasn’t a sign of failure oh no just a “strategic” withdrawal.
Empires never surrender or give up territories just out of good will.
So continue to praise the romans generous withdrawal in the same manner you defend thuglican cuellar as a d.
But in the end their wall failed to maintain their hold on conquered territory.
Which was the whole purpose of the wall.
K @19, I’ve concluded that conversing with you is as pointless as when I engaged in political discussion with a few proto-teabagger/MAGAots starting more than 20 years ago, your mildly leftist mostly illogical reasoning is roughly equivalent to their RW stuff was; I beat my head against it for years just trying to make a dent in the abyssal ———, utterly failed.
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I wrote nothing about the Roman’s “generosity of spirit”, “good will”, or “generous withdrawal” regarding Hadrian’s Wall, the Britons and Picts/Caledonians.
In the case of the Caledonians/Scots, the Romans continued to view them as ‘untameable’ and with as much hostility as any given situation required. They never reached any permanent entente with those Caledonians (except for a few short-lived treaties). Hence the Romans keeping –the Wall active for almost 300 years–.
The general Roman approach to conquering territories was to offer a peaceable agreement of conquest, then wage a brutal war if necessary; and upon winning, to impose a fairly benign rule over the conquered people.
This included improving (in many cases) their standard of living, providing education and welfare (for some), and setting up sub-governments that included many of the conquered in important positions.
The conquest of Britannia followed the same plan, and many Britons became willing partners of the Empire, rising in both military, political, and economic ranks.
**This astute and practical approach allowed them to nominally control a much larger Empire than would have otherwise been possible.**
Your comparisons with Vietnam and defeat are way off. Hadrians Wall had little to do with the Roman withdrawal from Britain, I previously explained that process, it was hardly a “domino”, “strategic”, or “generous”. It just happened due to the slow implosion of the entire Roman Empire at that time (AD 400 on).
“But in the end their wall failed to maintain their hold on conquered territory.”… sheesh, as I explained, the wall did not fail, it was an effective demarcation of the Roman’s desired extent of their province of Britannia nothing more, nothing less, for 300 years.
**What, in your opinion, would be an ‘effectively conquered territory’, a reign lasting 500 years, a 1000 jahr reich? **
Their calculated tactical and strategic choice to delineate that territorial limit, and leave the barbarian Caledonians to their own, very weakened, devices on the north side of that wall for 300 years, was because the Romans deemed them not worth the bother to conquer; not because they were “defeated”.
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As far as your fixation on US Rep. Henry Cuellar, why don’t you just move to Laredo and set up a primary challenge against him, beat him, and then beat a Rethug in the general (it wouldn’t have to be yourself, just try to find somebody to do this…I’ll wait…and wait…and wait…).
Oh, wait… I know why: Cuellar has a district that it’s type is probably completely alien to you, who probably lives in a densely populated urban Anglo area. I’m in one of the far-flung distant rural predominately Hispanic counties of Cuellar’s fairly solid Democratic empire (he has about 17-19 TX counties, all probably as big as your own state). The major population center in that whole district is Webb County, TX, a very large space indeed. But almost all the population of Webb, and all the other counties too, lives in Laredo; and those wiley Laredoans just luvs Henry Cuellar (bigtime local lawyer and old well-connected family).
So, ace Democratic political genius, how would you unseat Mr. Cuellar? Eh? I can’t hear you…
20Starting a conversation by demeaning insults does sound like a proto maga nutcase.
211) “the Romans continued to view them as ‘untamable’ and with as much hostility as any given situation required. They never reached any permanent entente with those Caledonians” so you admit that the wall was sign of roman failure to extend their reach. Just as the Persian empire limited their reach and the Teutonic tribes stopped them. With hadrians wall they manifested their failure with a monument to futility.
2)”it was hardly a “domino”, “strategic”, or “generous”. It just happened due to the slow implosion of the entire Roman Empire at that time (AD 400 on).” ah and that is different from the viet nam withdrawal how? Or the russians retreat from Afghanistan?
3) first step in defeating thuglicrats such as lipinski, cuellar and graham is to strip them of their political mask of being a d. Allowing them to hide behind the title while advancing thuglican policies does nothing but bring shame down upon their supporters, who by their support, must also endorse those thuglican policies.
As for your arguments for cuellar (“big time local lawyer and old well-connected family”) could be used for roy moore, lee of nevada, and all so many of the “well connected” establishment shills.
Take Tom Harkins advice when he took on perjurer poppa, when he had a 60% + approval rating, point out he has feet of clay and start pounding.
Your idea that any thuglican fool or liar can just adopt a D title and automatically should receive D support and protection from primary challenges ( DCCC policy of black balling any challengers advisors) is a formula for certain defeat.
But I guess that your policies and ideas make you more comfortable with thuglicans then progressive.
Oh yeah lets not forget your theory that things are just “different” in his district and cannot be held to the same standards as others. First all districts have their differences. two that is a remarkable echo of S. Africa’s defense of apartheid ( our africans are different then those in other democratic nations so we need to offend human sensibilities, or the souths defense of jim crow laws – our society is different so no one may criticize our racism)
Obviously, to you, if some one disgrees with this abomination they just don’t understand the culture in south texas like condemnation of Bahrains stoning of gays is a failure to understand bahrains culture or opposition to FGM is just a lack of cultural understanding.
Nice circular logic if one does not support him it is because of ignorance of the cultural milleau and no other reason because if one understood that they would obviously support these candinates and practices and failure to do so can be brushed aside because failure to support is just an acknowledgement of failure to “understand” special circumstabces.
Please if you wish to defend this lackey of demented donnie base it on some policy he has promoted rather the oh well he is a connected good ole boy and we can’t disturb him, or one doesn’t understand the situation.
Your usual problems with reading comprehension, massive false assumptions, faulty logic, and misperceptions at the fore again.
BTW, FYI, South Texas [bounds Corpus-maybeVictoria-San Antonio-Del Rio+ElP?-Laredo-Mission/McAllen-Brownsville, really is different, culturally and many other ways [that border thing], than any other place in the US, or was until very recently [the Houston area is not ‘S TX’]; quite different from CA/FL/the South/etc [have worked/dwelled in many places].
As far as my not being a ‘progressive’, or ‘Democratic’ enough to suit you, I’ve been a staunch Dem since the 1960’s [in effort and money]. In my early work career belonged to 3 major unions [my granddad and dad were active from the 1920&1950’s]. After a gung-ho hitch turned against the VN war, supported civil rights issues when that could get you hurt. So stuff it, continue to wallow in your smug ‘purity’ liberal fantasyland of delusion and righteousness; which looks a lot like MAGAville. With the usual hordes of other flighty picky sunshine D’s, the fascists will possibly complete their takeover and it will be irreversible [and I’ve warned D’s, here and elsewhere for nearly two decades, that this is their ultimate goal, they are fanatics who only want ‘libs’ crushed, gone, or dead; a few have finally awakened, maybe it’ll be enough in 2020…I’m a pessimist, usually underestimate the better D efforts like 2018, but historically the D’s rarely sustain the effort before losing focus and diffusing into minor peripheral distractions […2010, 2012, 2014, 2016]. The R’s move in lockstep, all the time. If only the D’s could stick with the core irregardless, instead of imagining a land of purity and conformity.
22PS: Don’t know what your fixation on Rep. Cuellar is, but have an objective look at what Cuellar’s election history is. He rarely faces even a primary challenge, and the Rethugs seldom bother [but as you assert, that could be partially a reciprocity thing, although R’s are a little scarce anyway].
He has one of the most impregnable seats in the US, he’s not going away, he’s there as long as he wants; might as well go along, that “D” goes beyond the one seat.
I’ve been in other similar S TX districts [look up Kika de la Garza, Solomon Ortiz, ’83-’10, Ciro Rodriguez], once in they can almost stay forever, basically ‘caudillos’ for life [not Ciro though, complicated gerrymander issues] [Ortiz screwed up and got sandbagged by PJman Blake Farenthold].
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Cuellar#Elections
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kika_de_la_Garza
23It would be pleasant if you could address issues without using insults for lack of substance a truly magazine like tactic.
24Purity is not one of my sins. By your logic of protecting thuglicart dinosaurs like cuellar, lipinski, your old hero Phil graham and liarman we would not have any progressives. AOC would still be tending bar and the defeatist liberals could continue to sell out their constituents with no fear of challenge or being held responsible.
Why try to make the opposition behave better when we are encouraged to ignore the support for the thuglican policies.
Again your hollow defense of cuellar’s district as being so “different” that normal standards do not apply is nothing more then repeating the excuse of south africa’s apartied or Jim Crow laws after all one has to understand how things are so different that it would excuse slavery, mutialation, oppression and racial profiling because “things are different”.
As long as people continue to excuse quislings are welcomed and protect bogus d’s such as your hero and his fellow travelers such as southern d’s from the 40’s 50’s and those dark times nothing will improve.
Your position would have supported Stromboli’s Thurmond attempt to silence the boy mayor of Minneapolis in the 48 democratic convention.
Or advised FDR against denouncing the klan.
As for “purity” it has always been the refusal of the so called moderates to support any forward looking candinates not the progressives who have sabotaged democratic candidates.
So it is with false labeled d’s such as your hero, lipinski and fellow right wing d’s who run only as a matter of convience.
So please address issues and step away from the whack job strategy of insulting the messenger rather then dealing honestly with issues.
Particularly since you know nothing of me and your comments only reflect your diseased imagination of one of the “others” who can’t accept your excuse of special circumstances.
All districts are different. None of those differences excuse an over 70% of demented donnies obscene policies, as cuellar does.