I hope you can have a happy Independence Day. Our independence and rights and liberties are being challenged every day. We must remain resolute and never, ever accept as status quo the things we know are wrong.
I hope you noticed that yesterday Donald Trump addressed a rally in Des Moines that was billed as a non-partisan, nonpolitical event designed to warmly unite Americans of all persuasions at this special time, in celebration of our mutual pride in our country. Instantly, the president said he detests all Democrats.
He said Democrats wouldn’t vote for his “Big, Beautiful Bill” (the one that will cripple our economy and end medical care for millions of the country’s most vulnerable people, institutionalize bigotry and xenophobia, reverse decades of advances in environmental protection, etc.) “only because they hate Trump, but I hate them, too, you know?”
Trump paused. Was he reconsidering his harsh wording?
He went on: “I really do. I hate them. I cannot stand them, because I really believe they hate our country, if you want to know the truth.”
So.
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I’d like to encourage you to watch some or all of the 8-minute video, below, by Robert L. Arnold. Arnold is a writer and poet from Arkansas. You can find him on Substack. Somehow, he has fewer than 1,000 subscribers.
I know I have issued curmudgeonly rants against the pretension of unrhymed poetry, but I concede this is a fine poem and it does not rhyme. Mr. Arnold is a Southern Man who is fed up with the current state of Southern Men — he defines those men less by location than by attitude and priorities, and particularly by their support of the current American regime. And he sees this as symptomatic of the smallness and cruelty that is driving our national policy. It’s quite remarkable.
Here it is:
Let’s leave it there for today. Go forth and have a happy Fourth.
Today’s Gene Pool Gene Poll:
Mediocre poetry, excellent prose.
Here we are, "celebrating" the age of, I have rights, you don't. My lovely dog died two days ago from a cluster of seizures, which, it seems to me, is how our democracy is about to die. Or perhaps what is happening to our democracy could be better described as a cluster fuck of seizures.