That whiny, divisive, Trump Deranged video re-hashing familiar progressive, “No Kings” talking points while attacking the elected President of the United States is as good a symbol as any of the despicable efforts the Angry Left…now in the process of morphing into the Communist Left, made to undermine our 250th Anniversary celebration.
What a collection of Hollywood has-beens and hysterics! Then, for good measure, they had to include Margaret Atwood, because everyone knows President Trump wants to force American women to be baby machines. Then there was Chuck Todd, by far the worst, dimmest, most biased an partisan host “Meet the Press ” ever had, whining on his podcast,
Trump’s doing all of us a favor by selfishly trying to steal this anniversary from us. We now see who he really is. So no, it’s not the celebration we deserve. It’s not the one we could could have had. But we get a mirror, and the mirror is telling us something. The country is a lot bigger than Donald Trump. It is bigger than any president and it’s obviously bigger than any political party. And there’s no one definition of patriotism. But it still needs leaders who understand that. It still needs citizens who insist on it. And it still needs people willing to say that the national story belongs to all of us, not just whoever happens to hold power at any one moment. America at 250 may be a lost opportunity. Donald Trump has absolutely sullied the brand of America, doesn’t have to be at 275 Donald Trump has absolutely sullied the brand of America. But America 275 does not have to be…For some people the central text in their lives is religious and I respect that. For me the constitution has always carried that kind of weight. So that’s why I’m so angry and feel betrayed. I do. I feel betrayed as an American by him on this. The Constitution is not perfect, but it gives us a way to keep going. It gives us structure for disagreement. It gives us a method for repair. It gives us the possibility of becoming better without pretending we were always good.May it makes some of the same promises that some religious texts do for people.And this is why I’m so pissed off. Not because I love the country less, but because I love the idea of America enough to resent seeing it cheapened by this man.America deserved better at 250. Someday, I believe it will get better, but it’s in your hands.”
Ethics Alarms 
Yet another humdinger. This blog has a very high batting average.
To what do you object, specifically?
Dictionary. A reference book of words that can be found online. 2. Baseball statistic. A measure of a batter’s success rate — the higher the better. 3. Asinine. Take a guess.
No need for the sarcasm. You said the post was ‘another humdinger’ I asked why you thought so.
I think he was puzzled, as was I, by your question. “Humdinger” means something spectacular or remarkable. Saying a post is a humdinger does not suggest an objection.
I’m sorry! I have more experience with ‘humdinger’ as a negative. I misread the post, I humbly apologize!
Good man. You’re a humdinger now! And now you have a response if anyone uses humdinger as an invective.
I’m fascinated! I have never heard “Humdinger” used as anything but a superlative. It used to be used as in baseball broadcasts, but it’s a colorful archaic term. When have you encountered it as a negative?
As sarcasm, my mother and grandmother. Bad test scores, you broke something…
This may double post, but, a sarcastic mother and grandmother, used for bad test scores, when you broke china.
I also have almost exclusively heard humdinger used negatively, usually in terms of an action taken by someone that was negative.
As before, fascinating. Every definition I have seen, including in a book of English idioms and sayings, is positive as in…
“a person, thing, action, or statement of remarkable excellence or effect.”
For example: “I’m not much into sports but the half-time show was a humdinger!”
Humdinger first appeared in a North American publication in 1883 in the Daily Enterprise of Livingston, Montana. The newspaper article referred to Livingston’s forthcoming “Golden Jubilee” celebration as a humdinger. Humdinger is a portmanteau–one word created by mashing two words together. At the turn of the century, “hum” or “hummer” referred to something that moved fast, like a passenger train. A “dinger” was something that carried force — literally, the force that would make a ding. Together, they became a humdinger.”
Not that it matters much, but as an interesting aside, the name of the bad guy in the kid’s show Paw Patrol is Mayor Humdinger, who always has bad ideas. This was hardly my first experience seeing the word used negatively, but definitely ended any doubt I may have still had that the word was meant negatively.
I don’t usually get my information from cartoons, after growing up hearing Wile E (my favorite cartoon of all time) continually mispronounce coyote, so I probably should have considered that it was an incorrect usage of the word, except for how I had heard it used.
My local news had an article about the people overcome by heat who hsd to be hospitalized while attending the Great American State Fair. There were actually laughing emoji reactions to the article! These are horrible, horrible people.
We were on a cruise ship on the 4th. Holland America did a great job of decorating, acknowledging and celebrating. So many passengers decorated their cabin doors, so many were wearing red white and blue, so many were proudly patriotic. Lots of flags flying in Alaska, too. It was encouraging.
Have any of these Trump critics explained exactly how he spoiled everything? I haven’t read a single specific, other than that he injected politics into his speech by lamenting the danger the radical left communists pose. The coverage I saw was pretty spectacular, and all the events seemed to be well attended, despite the weather.
Well, did you see – and could you believe – that gauche display of Trumpian Narcissism on the National Mall?
I mean, who plans and effectuates a salute to soldiers from past wars, dragging them ouot of their homes for a shameless display of idolizing that man? And who plans and effectuates musical salute to plenty of current hits sung by those clueless losers in the US military prancing and preening about on stage singing such awful, pedestrian songs as “YMCA”.
Oh, and those horrid fireworks! The gall of that man to sit there with his illegal alien wife and watch that despicable display! It was straight out of Mosco . . . wait, that’s not it. Beijing, maybe? Hmmm, probably not. Oh, you get the point: Who could possibly celebrate more than 45 minutes of ear-shattering and eye-damaging rockets destroying our environment, showering the place with a wife variety of colors and explosions? It serves those people who suffered – I mean, it was so hot because that Orange Man Evil Bad refuses to address climate change and global warming! IMPEACH HIM NOW!!!
jvb
I forgot about all of those warmongering military plane flyovers. They terrified our little Mitsy who simply can’t abide loud noises. We had to put an extra stress blanket and give a bit more camomile tea to help calm her poor, shattered nerves. Roscoe, our domestically challenged son’s six-fingered cat couldn’t have been less bothered by the whole unfortunate affair. He would vote for Trump anyway, stupid Republicat that he is.
jvb
I was out there in NY harbor watching the tall ships and planes. I haven’t seen a more spectacular (or admittedly noisy) flypast in all my life. While the Navy had the bigger formations, (10 planes from Carrier Air Wing 8) you can’t argue with the USAF’s strategic triad/heritage flight of the B-52, the B-1 and the B-2. The fact is that those who didn’t want to celebrate didn’t have to, so stop complaining. BTW, Jack, Carter was elected in 1976, but he didn’t take office until 1977. Ford presided over the bicentennial, and it’s no wonder he stayed out of sight, given the media’s poor treatment of him.
Yes, the Tall Ships flotilla was spectacular. We in Houston simply sat around and complained about the heat and humidity. Well, I did anyway. My long-suffering wife thought I was nuts trying to weed the flowerbeds when it was 800 degrees F and 6,000% humidity. She might be right.
jvb
The left is definitely the No Fun Club. It’s guilt, guilt, guilt all the time. Whatever happened to “If it feels good, do it?” And “Express yourself?” Or even, “Have a nice day?”
Rudely questioning someone else’s words when you don’t actually know them, didn’t bother to look them up, and don’t care that you didn’t—even when challenged—is an unfortunate example of evolutionary reversal. To take some advantage of the evolutionary progression going on around you, buy a dictionary, think before you speak, and try to forgive people for being sarcastic when you don’t.
I read ‘Yet another humdinger’ as negative. I apologize. I next asked, ‘To what do you object?’ meaning, what about the post did you not like (operating on my mistaken interpretation). I was hoping for a discussion of the post, I was not attacking your words. In your reply, ‘asinine’ was one of your choices. From my point of view, I was asking what you disliked about the post. That was my only intent. I wasn’t even talking about the batting average phrase.
PS: that was for mamingazetto in hopes that he will at least find his way to dictionary.com if he can’t afford a hard copy
I’m sorry!
You’re alright pal. No need to worry. You were admirably protecting a very good post and blogger from what you thought was an unwarranted attack (albeit an attack of praise). I appreciate your protective instincts in this instance. Not sarcastic — your instincts were correct.
Rest assured, Mamingazetto, yoru contributions here are wonderful. In fact, the whole thread/stream about the definition of “humdinger” has been most enjoyable. I love when these comments go off in tangents because they usually end up in a very amusing place. I was going to post a reference to a JJ Cale song called “Humdinger” but the lyrics are a bit ribald in the best JJ Cale sense of the word with double entendres galore. I did think that there was a Meat Loaf song with a “humdinger” reference but I can’t find it. “Pressure cooker” is featured in “Paradise by the Dashboard Lights” though.
As an aside, my grandather used to use “humdinger” as sacrasm, too. So, I get the reference.
jvb