In which Traitorfish presages Trump's failure to understand American values.

[Zkribbler]

This emperor-as-god thing would have stopped after Christianity became the official religion, I should think.

The royal house of Egypt were gods. As a result, the princes and princesses could only marry each other. What could possibly go wrong?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

The royal house of Egypt were gods. As a result, the princes and princesses could only marry each other. What could possibly go wrong?

The Julio-Claudians did cousin marriages and begat Caligula and Nero, not to mention some of the other iffy ones (if even half of what Tacitus and Suetonius said about Agrippina the Younger was true, she was a nasty piece of work).

 

[Lexicus]

(if even half of what Tacitus and Suetonius said about Agrippina the Younger was true

Permit me to doubt it, though

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Permit me to doubt it, though

I'll admit that it makes a fun miniseries, some of it was purely dramatic license for storyline purposes, and the actress who played her in I, Claudius did a suitably evil portrayal. But anyone who would marry her uncle and scheme to bypass the legitimate heir (Britannicus) and put her own teenage son in the Emperor's chair isn't a candidate for "Mother of the Year" as we would define the concept.

 

[inthesomeday]

In San Diego the coast is ripe with shipyards, churning out ship after ship. I won't pretend to be a boat expert but they definitely look like military warships. San Diego is known as a navy/marine city, and there are forts and bases all around.

In poor parts of every city I've been to, however, the police are obnoxiously present in every corner, and though they leave the heavy gear back at the precinct, everyone knows what the PD packs.

A military parade has two functions: to embolden the "patriots" of a country, and to scare the downtrodden of a country. These functions are largely served by civilian gun shows, air shows, and fireworks shows throughout much of the country, and what zealous citizens don't do the police are more than happy to make up for. Then the actual military (which is mostly abroad, generating profit) is present in the actual States mostly as a benevolent job-creator, with industrial projects and recruitment/administrative centers where there are lots of people.

In America we don't need the military to show off the strength of the government in our city streets because we'll do it ourselves.

 

[Dachs]

Why have an entire ceremony set aside for the US military when it generally gets itself inserted into most major gatherings anyway?

This emperor-as-god thing would have stopped after Christianity became the official religion, I should think.

Perhaps literally. The ideology, however, still worked quite well. If there were only one God, and the Emperor were the leader of His chosen world empire, that would make the Emperor as near to God as made very little difference.

The Julio-Claudians did cousin marriages and begat Caligula and Nero, not to mention some of the other iffy ones (if even half of what Tacitus and Suetonius said about Agrippina the Younger was true, she was a nasty piece of work).

"Half" might be about right, given the nature of the sources.

Of course, there's no need to blame incest-induced insanity for Julio-Claudian viciousness. (There probably wasn't enough of a genetic overlap to cause it, in Agrippina's case.) They were rich and powerful Romans of their time, and while that on its own doesn't quite get one all the way to "horrible monster" it accounts for most of the way.

 

[Broken_Erika]

The royal house of Egypt were gods. As a result, the princes and princesses could only marry each other. What could possibly go wrong?

Could you imagine what a few generations of inbreeding would do to the Trump bloodline?

 

[FriendlyFire]

I'm fairly confident in saying that any of the American presidents before Lincoln who tried this would have been assassinated, and likely would have kicked off a large scale insurrection. It never even would have occurred to Washington or Jefferson. Lincoln could only have gotten away with it once, as a victory celebration, a one off event.

Cant we just have carrier landing and giant "mission accomplished" banners instead ?

 

[Berzerker]

The royal house of Egypt were gods. As a result, the princes and princesses could only marry each other. What could possibly go wrong?

The Sumerians had hierarchy laws based on keeping it in the family, marrying a half sister produced heirs of greater importance. Abraham married his half sister I think...

 

[Gori the Grey]

Could you imagine what a few generations of inbreeding would do to the Trump bloodline?

If Trump gets his way with his daughter, we might get to find out.

 

[Broken_Erika]

Forest Trump.

 

[Kozmos]

Not even unprecedented.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Not even unprecedented.

 

[Zkribbler]

Forest Trump.

"Stupid is as stupid does."