250...

The big Happy Birthday America parade in DC was cancelled due to oppression.

Oh wait, no because the country is too heated right now.

No, let's try that again, due to oppressive heat. The heat dome did its work and the parade was cancelled.

Didn't stop a group of neo-Nazis from parading around the Capitol this morning, but where there's a white hood there's a way? Just disgusting. And fucking cowardly. Show your faces if you're so proud of what you are doing.

I almost got to feeling optimistic earlier this week. I was so close. I even made notes for a fairly optimistic Fourth of July post and then... well I read the news and that was that. But let's see if I can recapture it a bit shall we?

Watching the World Cup and reading about fans' experiences here in the United States and one of the things you see over and over is how surprised they are at how nice everyone has been. Like the people that live here. And I have to say that as a general rule that's true. People as a whole are nice. The people at World Cup matches are generally kind. People in host cities are usually excited to learn about the fan bases from other countries. That's where the "we're more alike than we are different" stuff takes hold. The can't we all just get along part of the country. And yeah, people in general are decent.

But our government sucks.

There have been encounters with Border Patrol and regular police and government VISA shenanigans and all of it has been gross. And as someone who didn't vote for all of that I can take a step away from it. But even people who did vote for it will seem really nice when you see them in public. As long as you don't talk politics. Or equality. Or climate change. Or...

Oh wait, nope, not the optimism I was hoping for.

Everytime I read something new about what has been done it saddens me. Or angers me. Or both. The systems we have relied on have been dismantled. The country is being stripped for parts. Trump is busy slapping his name all over everything and it will all crumble like his casinos, and steak business, and wine, and university, and marriages and...

Covered in gilt and slime. That's DC right now. And too oppressive to be outside.

But I really do want to be optimistic about the country. And it is our anniversary. And 250 years is a big one.

It makes me sad to think about what today could have been if people hadn't decided that racism and rape were cool with them as long as the Black lady didn't win. Can you even imagine how optimistic we would all feel? Or half of us at least. But even his supporters aren't really feeling all that optimistic. The ones that are sticking with him seem more resigned to it all than excited about it. And of course the technocrats and the Christian Nationalists are cheering on the destruction so maybe that's optimism?

And that's really the issue I guess. The whole more alike than different is all well and good but those areas where we are different are REALLY different and I'm not willing to compromise on them so...

Happy 250th to the USA. I'm not sure how much longer we have, or what we will look like when it's all said and done but for now...well... I'm trying to be optimistic today.

At least the burger will taste good.