Spare me

Just returned from a long weekend camping in Independence, California.

For those not familiar with the geography, it sits on the eastern side of the Sierras, in the Owens Valley. Which is traversed by Route 395, perhaps the most scenic highway in this great beautiful land we call America.

It also happens to be in the heart of Trump country.

Before we embarked on the journey north I told my wife I expected to see at least seven, perhaps more, MAGA caps. To my great dismay, we saw none.

But, while restocking our supply of beer and rum, I did run into some clueless clod wearing the T-shirt pictured above. To be completely honest, I'm not sure that's the exact replica, it could have been some other happy horseshit with the same Neanderthal sentiment.

Which brings me to today's pet peeve, in your face patriotism and the infantile fetishism of the flag.

We are less than a 100 years removed from the fascism of 1930's Germany. And yet we are witnessing the same militant jingoism characterized by excessive flag waving, nativism, white supremacy and angry mob rule ("Send Her Back.")

It's ugly.

It's frightening.

But it's also laughable.

Because it's cheap, paper thin and hypocritical. In the same shabby way that evangelicals tried to lay claim to morality and family values. All, while goose-stepping in time behind their new divinely chosen leader who grabs pussy, bangs porn stars, pals around with rapists, separates brown skinned (same as Jesus) children from their mothers, and openly condones murder.

I'm not familiar with Two Corinthinians. Is there a passage that reads, "And the Lord commandeth thee to smite thine enemies with a rusty bone saw."

In any case, I'm not impressed with the flag waving, the flag wearing or the disgusting flag hugging.

Not impressed in the least.

It'd be great if these testosterone-fueled know nothings paid less attention to the red, white and blue printed on a piece of cloth and paid more attention to the black quill ink printed on our Constitution.

Because it's those words, those beliefs and those aspirations, that makes America great.