Weird July 4 for me. Three things stick out in terms of the ‘celebratory’ mood this day is supposed to make me feel:

• Six hundred thousand fewer ‘Muricans around to celebrate from a year ago. Thank COVID19 and the Trump mismanagement for those who left us.
• Speaking of Herr Drumpf, we’re seven months from the first insurrection in US History. And the chief fomenter of this nightmare still walks a free man. By contrast, the Brits have a party to celebrate the death-by-torture of Guy Fawkes. Not that I’m recommending either for or against…
• The newsreaders of the New Nighted Snakes are not quite getting around to admitting we just lost a big war to a backward country called Afghanistan. It’s almost as bad as the US military with all its prowess being humiliated by nineteen guys with boxcutters. But that was so 20 years ago.

And those who discount American technical prowess, be proud today. ‘Muricans managed to set an OCEAN on FIRE through incompetence unmatched since the days of Nixon when we set the Cuyahoga River ablaze in 1969. The just-extinguished conflagration in the Gulf of Mexico should be an avatar of what America can do when we aren’t paying attention. As writer James Howard Kunstler suggested, we need to change our motto from ‘Land of the Free’ to ‘it’s the thought that counts’.

Looking for cheap edibles. Have a nice day.