Wrote Albert Camus, in my favorite of the 8 responses I got when I asked Grok "List similar quotes to 'He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.'" (The quote is something Trump put up, without context, on Truth Social.)
Is that a "similar" quote? Eh. "Similar" is a weak word. What's not "similar"? And what does it mean to "save" your country?
Here are the other 7 quotes:
1. “The law is the public conscience." - Thomas Hobbes
2. “Necessity knows no law.” - Publilius Syrus
3. “Laws are silent in times of war.” - Cicero (Silent enim leges inter arma)
4. “The safety of the people shall be the highest law." - Cicero (Salus populi suprema lex esto)
5. “Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been, and ever will be pursued, until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit.” - Alexander Hamilton
6. “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” - Martin Luther King Jr.
7. “To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.” - Ella Wheeler Wilcox
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“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!”
― Barry Goldwater
THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
For this little controversy to have any resonance for me, I'll first have to see if Trump breaks any laws, and then see if he invokes "saving the country" as his justification.
"Epstein Didn't Kill Himself"
The past few weeks reminds me of when East Germans heard that they could cross to the West and piled onto trains bound for the border.
"When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk." - Tuco
"Every Arizona swing voter in our latest Engagious/Sago focus groups said they approve of President Trump's actions since taking office — and most also support Elon Musk's efforts to slash government." - Axios
I am not sure that Trump is all that worried. I think as a strategist, he might be in Napoleon's league. One of our trolls recently said that an IQ test of Trump was found in a military recruiting center that showed an IQ of "87", well, big, if true, but my bet is that it might have had an "87" in it, you know, 187.
Your velvet words of purple tint
In France they would be famous
Like all the belly button lint
From Kierkegaard and Camus
You want to talk about taking away freedom. There is a psychologist on YouTube who claims that research shows that Erica Jong's "zipless fork" is probably the commonest sexual fantasy women have, but since the persecution of Trump over E. Jean Carrolls' unsupported accusation, it will be long time before women get to enjoy that one again.
Joe Biden and his family are above the law.
He pardoned them.
There are clues - but even loyalist hivemind democratic cultists refuse to see.
“Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice" should have made the list.
One of our trolls recently said that an IQ test of Trump was found in a military recruiting center that showed an IQ of "87"
I know there are military aptitude tests like asvab but I don’t recall ever hearing the military routinely administered a Weschler test or anything that would create an IQ score in a file somewhere. It sounds fabricated.
"The law is nothing but the expression of the will of the ruling class." - Lenin
Replace "The Law" with "the federal judiciary" and you have the truth in the USA in 2025.
One problem with the Right is we have these old fogies who are in love with principles and disregard reality. They plead with Left to obey "the rule of law" and pat themselves on the back when they say the same thing to Right.
But the Left doesn't give a damn, and has no intention of obeying the rule of law when it hurts them. So, their constant finger wagging and scolding just sets up situation whereby the Right plays by the rules even when it hurts them, and the Left breaks the rules whenever it feels like it.
You see this on the SCOTUS. The Republican justices have principles and will vote against the "Conservative position" when they are violated. The Leftwing justices just vote their politics. Period. On case after case, they vote as a bloc to support the Left. Meanwhile the Republican justices cant be counted on do anything conservative.
The real question isn't "why are the Left hypocrites?" "Why can't the left obey the rule of law" - its "What are we going to do about it?" How do we force the Left to play by the same rules as everyone else?
"For this little controversy to have any resonance for me, I'll first have to see if Trump breaks any laws, and then see if he invokes "saving the country" as his justification."
How will you know he's broken any laws? He will be making the legal argument that because what I did was necessary to save the country the law ought to be interpreted to permit it. If the Court agrees with that interpretation, then the official last word will be that he did not break the law.
This post reminds of a comment that I wanted to make back on the discussion regarding birthright citizenship.
We can say we are a nation of laws, but I am starting to doubt that. We have laws, and those laws are applied at convenience by police and prosecutor discretion. On bigger laws we have courts who can apply it differently based on the philosophy of the jurist, and we argue about supreme court cases that might go one way or the other depending on the makeup of the court. How can we argue that we are a nation of laws?
Now we toss in that the law ultimately is what the winner says it is.
Maybe Dick the Butcher had it right: "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers"
So, Trump is in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations now. In there with Lincoln's "four score and seven," FDR's "date which will live in infamy," and Biden's " I've got hairy legs that turn — that — that — that turn — um, blonde in the sun."
Trump's quote, or something similar, is supposed to have come from Napoleon, who actually was an autocrat. That's catnip for the anti-Trump media: "Trump Quotes Autocrat Napoleon!" I don't think the public takes the connection seriously, but it's something your grandchildren and their grandchildren will come home from school repeating.
It's interesting that the next generation of French thinkers rejected the idea that freedom and individuality were even possible at all. If Camus had lived another 20-30 years, how would he have dealt with that?
Camus didn’t kill himself
Oh brother. The only people who actually have any possibility of living that freely would be tenured university professors, tech bro billionaires (to include all the very wealthy), and semi-feral homeless people but them only bc they're crazy and DGAF. I, for one, am not sure I'd even want to try to. And even then look at the FTX guy or P. Diddy. But I guess a man can dream.
‘How will you know he's broken any laws? He will be making the legal argument that because what I did was necessary to save the country the law ought to be interpreted to permit it. If the Court agrees with that interpretation, then the official last word will be that he did not break the law.“
Your last sentence is universal. The law does not exist unless a court agrees with it. The law does not exist on an aetherial plane of philosophy remote from humanity.
The quote you’re looking for is “It became necessary to destroy the village in order to save it.”
If you watch FDR's date of infamy speech, modern sensibility is that FDR provoked the Japanese deliberately to attack, as a way of getting the pacifist US into WWII. Which was always a theory but the speech seems to confirm it by being obviously fake.
Sturdy patriotism: a man is native where he walks.
Yeah, right, Al. And the only way to talk to a cow is to say, "Ca-MUUUUUUUS!".
-FDR: Sorry no more oil and steel for your genocidal war agains the Chinese.
-Imperial jap Government - OK then. We'll launch a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, kill 2500 Americans. Kill 10,000 more when we conquer the philippines. Mostly POWs who will starve to death or let die of disease.
Modern Sensiblity: Guess it was all FDR's fault.
Modern Sensibility: -Damn those Nazis the most evil people ever ever.
Me: Uh, didn't stalin and Mao murder millions more? And aren't people killing innocents right now in 2025? Why aren't we talking about them?
Modern Sensibility: ...Stalin, Mao..who were they? Like I said, Nazis and HItler = the ultimate evil. They killed Jews. Don't you understand?! They were racist. They were EVIL and the EVIL is still here - Somewhere! That's why we must talk about them and keep looking for Nazis - forever.
“Why do you cite laws to men with swords?” - Pompey the Great
I think this quote by Charles Evan Hughes is apt given current circumstances: "Publicity is a great purifier because it sets in action the forces of public opinion, and in this country public opinion controls the courses of the nation."
Also Charles Evans Hughes: "It has been said that the constitution marches. That is, there are constantly new applications of unchanged powers, and it is ascertained that in novel and complex situations, the old grants contain, in their general words and true significance, needed and adequate authority. So, also, we have a fighting constitution."
Total killed during WW2 52 million. Total Mao killed by starvation 62 million est.
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