Of course I just applied for White House press credentials.
I'll go back to D.C.
Thanks to everyone who sent me the story & thought that I'd either be interested in applying, or that I'd ask some good questions for @American_Media_
Curious to see how this develops.
In 458 BC, Rome was on the brink of collapse.
An invading army had trapped the Roman consul and his legion in a mountain pass. Panic spread through the city. The Senate did the only thing they could think of:
They sent messengers to find a 60-year-old farmer plowing his field.
His name was Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus. He had once been a senator, then lost his fortune paying his son's bail. Now he worked his own four-acre plot just to feed his family.
When the Senate's envoys arrived, they found him sweating behind a plow. They asked him to put on his toga so they could deliver an official message.
The message: Rome was making him dictator. Absolute power. Total command of the army. No checks. No oversight. No term limit.
He accepted.
Within 16 days, Cincinnatus had raised an army, marched out, surrounded the enemy, and forced their surrender. The republic was saved.
He had legal authority to rule for six months. He could have stayed. He could have expanded his power. He could have done what every other ruler in human history did when handed unlimited control.
Instead, he resigned on day 16.
He took off the toga, walked back to his farm, and finished plowing the field he'd left half-done.
Twenty years later, when Rome faced another crisis, they called him back. He was 80 years old. He took command, crushed the conspiracy, and resigned again, this time after just 21 days.
He died poor. On his farm.
2,200 years later, when George Washington was offered a kingship after winning the American Revolution, he refused and went home to Mount Vernon. The reason he was hailed as "the American Cincinnatus" is because Europeans literally could not believe a man who had won would willingly give up power.
King George III, on hearing Washington would resign rather than rule, said: "If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world."
The lesson isn't that Cincinnatus was humble.
The lesson is that for most of human history, the people most qualified to lead were the ones who didn't want to. And the moment a society starts rewarding those who chase power instead of those who flee from it is the moment the republic begins to die.
Cincinnati, Ohio is named after him.
Most people who live there have no idea why.
CNN reports that Former FBI Director James Comey’s new indictment is in relation to his allegedly posting a photo of sea shells forming the shape of the letters “86 47.”
“Cool shell formation on my beach walk,” Comey allegedly wrote.
In Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979), the “Biggus Dickus” scene used unaware extras, swapped last minute by Terry Jones so they wouldn’t know the lines, making the Roman soldiers’ laughter completely genuine as they broke character.
Isn’t that interesting….
Chris Cornell and Chester Bennington sang “HUNGER STRIKE”
TOGETHER!!!
They’re FARMING BABIES while the SLAVES ARE ALL WORKING
The BLOOD is on the table, mouths are choking!
But I’m going hungry…..
WOW. 🤯
Ron Paul is 90 years old, he will not be with us much longer. I never really got the hype for a long time, I read some of his writing and heard what people had to say about him, of course, but I didn’t really appreciate him until much later.
I now have a kind of shame that I didn’t pay more attention to him, like I wasted time when I could have been appreciating the life of one of the very few truly moral men on the planet, let alone politics. Do not do what I did, listen to what he has to say now while you can still hear it directly from him.
🚨BREAKING🚨
@RepBenCline just pressed @AGPamBondi on her inexplicable defense of gun registration in a GOA lawsuit.
Last year, Congress invalidated NFA requirements for suppressors & short-barreled firearms, reducing the tax from $200 to $0 (i.e. NOT A TAX).
32 years ago tonight, February 12, 1994, the “Meet the Crew” sketch aired on Saturday Night Live.
The barroom skirt packed in a who’s‑who of the mid‑’90s cast: Jay Mohr, Chris Farley, Rob Schneider, Phil Hartman, Norm Macdonald, Kevin Nealon, Ellen Cleghorne, Julia Sweeney, David Spade, Tim Meadows, Mike Myers, and Adam Sandler. Rounding out the Goodfellas‑spoof crew were Kim Basinger and that night’s host, Alec Baldwin.
Office Space (1999) somehow gets more accurate every year. Funnier knowing it flopped in theaters and only became a classic after exploding on DVD, with people quietly realizing it was just a little too real.