Just some random thoughts. Like, don’t put flags on sneakers. Shoes wear out, the flag’s supposed to endure, man. And what the hell are they spending all this money on flying planes over stuff, like it’s some trick. Planes are supposed to fly. Jump a motorcycle over the Lincoln Memorial if you want to impress me (would cost less, too).
They just spent weeks on emergency funding to (hopefully) improve conditions (Republicans said no to actually requiring them to, which is already part of the law and part of the Flores agreement and part of our treaty obligations), and now let’s just waste a bunch of money on a stupid pep rally for the president’s ego.
And now they’re trying to save the citizenship question on the census. If they had done it properly from the start, doing the required study period and all that, we could maybe have a question, but you can’t just break the law to suit a bunch of partisan donors who want to feel like they can buy our governments (state and federal). Not at all how it works.
“And on your way home from Japan, honey, could you cross into enemy territory for a political stunt for me?” Why in the hell did the president go to North Korea? And did he have a visa or did he visit illegally?
The conservatives are usually the ones that oppose messing with the flag. They always call for amendments against flag burning. But putting flags on sneakers is so patriotic, I guess. In other countries they think shoes are insulting, like that guy who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush. Somehow the corporations made Americans believe shoes are cars for your feet and should be flashy and expensive and have sound systems and hydraulics.
Anyway, only 69 weeks until the 2020 election. Just enough time to have a bunch of primary debates, a bunch of primaries, two conventions, some general election debates, some (probably, unfortunately) Russian government disinformation about how. . . who knows? They want it to be a surprise, I guess. “Surprise, we aren’t busy enough making miserable the Russian people, so we want to spread the misery around you see.”
But still deserving of compassion. Dictators are the saddest people. They can trust nobody. They can help nobody without the person thinking they now owe a favor to the dictator. I mean, if they see a person trying to open a jar of pickles and they help, now that person thinks they might have to go infiltrate the NRA because of the pickle jar thing.
They are utterly trapped because if they give up power they will be killed by the next dictator or the people whose families they murdered. Best case scenario for a dictator is a long life in prison, and outside of a few countries most have awful prisons, especially the dictatorships. It is a very sad thing, dictators.
The question is, naturally, whether it is that set of circumstances that makes dictators so awful, or whether the dictators are awful to begin with. Nature or nurture? The answer is obviously a combination, like with everything else.
But maybe we should have a dictator awareness day where we recognize how shitty it must be to be a dictator, so that nobody in the future will make the mistake of being one. “Just say no thank you to being a dictator.”
And in some ways, in the USA, we do. It’s Independence Day, where we remember that it’s worth it to tell dictators to fuck right off. It’s not easy, but it can be done. We’re living proof that they stay away, at least awhile.
Anyway, happy belated Independence Day.