Will the 4th of July Have Any Meaning for You This Year?

Your former president is a free man, running around our country spreading lies and conspiracy theories, although there is irrefutable evidence he organized, planned, and executed the attempt to overthrow our government on January 6, 2021, making him the greatest traitor in our nation’s 246-year history. Corporations, which made record profits during the height of the pandemic, are price gouging the American people, calling it “inflation,” and our government is looking the other way.

Only one man is making efforts to lessen the pain of those like myself and my wife who are seniors on a fixed income, President Joe Biden. Last Friday, the last hope of the American people revealed the degree to which it is biased and prejudiced, and its willingness to violate the Constitution with intentional misinterpretation.

A basic human right of women, to make choices about her mental and physical health, has been taken away from them. The government of the United States is the most corrupt in the world. The majority of our nation’s people are of little importance, and in most cases none at all. Climate change will make the surface of our planet uninhabitable before my granddaughter’s children grow to maturity. Special interests control everything which happens in America today.

When I was a young man, I loved celebrating the 4th of July. This holiday is near my birthday, and I always considered the fireworks we watched in the park to be a celebration of my big day. This, combined with a big picnic, and the feelings of patriotism I felt which were instilled in me by my uncles, who had served in WWII, and my grandfather, made it a great day. I wish I felt any of that today.

I loved my country and felt loyalty to it until it began to morph into a nation led by a government that has completely failed the majority. And there is no cure without drastic change.

The truth is, there is no reason to celebrate the history of a nation that does not exist in the 21st century.

Courtesy of Dan Gaken (Flickr CC0)

I will celebrate my birthday, after all, I will have awakened to face another year. As a septuagenarian, that’s worth celebrating. But I will be a little sad as well. I fear for the generations to come. I can’t help but wonder if they will face a dying world and suffer under the rule of a fascist dictator. Will the United States of America even exist after I am gone? All the signs point to “no.”

As long as the idiots who spread lies and conspiracy theories are allowed to have their disgusting and baseless claims appear in the mainstream media, hiding the truth, there is little hope for a “United States.”

VA-7 Republican nominee Yesli Vega has been caught on tape voicing the (completely false) view that it’s more difficult for a woman to become pregnant as the result of rape. Shades of Todd Akin! Really? I can’t make this s**t up.

A recording by Axios revealed Vega claiming that during her time in law enforcement only once did a rape result in a pregnancy. Records show that she served about nine years in law enforcement, some of which were spent in the Manassas Parks Police.

When asked where she received her information, she replied:

“Well, maybe because there’s so much going on in the body. I don’t know. I haven’t, you know, seen any studies. But if I’m processing what you’re saying, it wouldn’t surprise me. Because it’s not something that’s happening organically. You’re forcing it. The individual, the male, is doing it as quickly — it’s not like, you know — and so I can see why there is truth to that. It’s unfortunate.”

Either Vega failed basic biology, or her high school diploma was purchased by her daddy, much like Trump’s “degrees.”

Sadly, this is what we hear from the right-wing in the 21st century, pure gibberish.

It is impossible to celebrate the birth of a country that no longer exists. There is no doubt that America needs and deserves an entirely new government to replace our current failed system.

The dates I remember most today are related to our nation’s greatest tragedies: the cowardly attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the senseless slaughter of innocent Americans on September 11, 2001, the illegitimate win in the Electoral College by the worst man in the world on November 8, 2016, the attack on our democracy on January 6, 2021, and the shredding of Constitutional rights on June 24, 2022.

Op-ed by James Turnage
Edited by Sheena Robertson

Sources:

Daily Kos: Rape not as likely to cause pregnancy because “not organic” (says Spanberger rival CAUGHT ON TAPE)
Daily Kos: This year, I’m canceling the 4th of July

Top and Featured Image Courtesy of Andy Morffew’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Courtesy of Dan Gaken’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License