The Struggle Continues

 Happy Fourth of July!

Today we are celebrating the Revolutionary War, the one that gave us our Independence from the United Kingdom.  We won because of American ingenuity, luck, and a lot of help from France.  Many people believe we did it by ourselves.  Not true.  We had help.

Interestingly enough, upon being granted our independence, a number of Americans want to switch their allegiance from King George III to King George Washington, creating the first partisan divide in American history.  You see, back in 1776 there very few duly elected presidents.  There were, however, lots of kings, and queens, and czars, and the occasional emperor (a nod to the rulers of Asia).  The idea of being governed by a president was a little too alien for certain individuals.  They wanted a ruler, a single person who was in charge, an authoritarian.  

Democracy survived these individuals, though over time they have remained a minority group always looking for a strong individual who would take the reins of the country in his hands.  Reagan's landslide win gave them hope.  They believed a single man had united the country proving that America was a deeply conservative country.  Wrong.  As Reagonomics failed and the corruption of the Iran / Contra affair surfaced his popularity faded for many; all except the social conservatives who prayed daily for another Reagan.

The fact that this minority group believes they had finally found their savior with Donald Trump indicates just how desperate they have become.  They want an authoritarian government which will not only give them what they want but will also force their will upon the rest of the nation.   After all of these years, they still want their king, or their emperor, or their dictator.  For them Make America Great Again means bowing to royalty.  They desperately want to return to the days of King George III.

And so, the struggle continues.  As we celebrate July 4th, we all need to remember that the fight has not yet been won and, I do not doubt, it may continue for decades to come.  "Where there's a will, there's a way," is a double-edged sword.

For the Vampires of Wall Street

 Well, let's all say hello to a slow, holiday Sunday morning.  One of the dogs is still in bed.  The other, Lily, has relocated down to the sofa, which is pretty much the same thing.  Oh, wait, Biggie just got up, time to get him outside for his morning pee, and then it will be med time.  He's taken to liking his gabapentin smothered in ketchup.  Yummy.

If you were betting, we were going to get rain yesterday, you'd have lost.  All of the storms were way to our south.  Temp wise, if we hit 90 (F) we were lucky, and today's temps are predicted to be a few degrees lower.  0% chance of rain.  We have pretty much the same forecast for tomorrow as well, of course tomorrow I work so I'm neither celebrating, nor concerned.

As for working on the 4th of July?  Foot traffic will be mild in the morning and early afternoon; customers showing up because they believe we're going to having big sales.  Wrong.  That'll never happen, except for our appliances.  We're having a Red, White, and Blue sale, though I suspect the end result is going to be leaving corporate bluer than anything else.  Prices are constantly being changed upward.  The prices are not being cause by any supply chain issues either.  Nope.  They are all based on corporate's need to hit a 5% growth this year in order to satisfy the vampires of Wall Street.  Will prices go back down?  Possibly, but not much.  You see Americans are slowly getting used to paying more and being victimized by Big Business.

For a change, I thought I'd post a picture of Mercury.  This is the most complete shot we have our tiny brother spinning so closely to the sun.

Of course, there are lots of whispers saying Trump is going to announce his plan to run for president in 2024 this weekend... though others say it won't happen until the beginning of August.  I'm betting he'll try to grab the spotlight sooner rather than later.  Some say he's doing this so soon because he believes the DOJ will not indict a running candidate.  He's wrong, though I'm sure his sycophantic advisors are telling him otherwise.  Anyway, I say more power to him.  DeSantis also has his eye on that prize, as does Mike Pence, who's too dumb to know better.  Hold onto your hats, we're going to have ring side seats to a MAGA slugfest, just make sure you don't sit too closely, though if you do wear rain gear to protect yourself from the blood splatters.