America at 247: the rot is palpable

Americans are celebrating the 247th birthday of their republic with the usual block parties and mass shootings. Makes you wonder how long the shit-show can possibly go on. My hunch, and bear in mind I have a pretty poor record making predictions, especially about the future, but I’m thinking not that much longer. Look around. The democracy theatre is scraping bottom when the guy in the White House is a senile crook, and his likely rival in the next election is… Donald Trump? This is the best they can do? This is the exemplar we hold up for the rest of the world to follow? Ya gotta be kidding me! One reason Uncle Sam keeps losing cred on the world stage is because the rest of the world isn’t as stupid as we’ve long assumed. For a long time America was able to silence the skeptics by pointing to “the best fighting forces in the history of warfare.” The fact that America hasn’t won a war since 1945 is something the rest of the world notices even though the beltway boffins pretend Vietnam and Afghanistan never happened. They couldn’t win there, but they’re walking into war with Russia and China? Perhaps the debacle in Ukraine will be a wake-up call to the Exceptionalists in DC, and they will hit the brakes before it’s too late, but I’m not optimistic. While things look ominous on the world stage, they’re not any better on the home front. I’ve been a fan of Team America since I found radio stations from New York and Chicago on my bedside tube radio in the ‘60s, and frankly, the USA has never been as fucked up as it is today. Life expectancy on the down-tick. Infant mortality on the rise. Homelessness exploding. Opioid deaths at epidemic levels… and while all that is marinating in the pressure-cooker, the most pressing issue for the ruling elite and their cheerleaders in media is… gender equality for all 57 genders? Yup, our best and brightest devote their energies and your tax dollars to endless debates over whether men can have babies or women with wieners belong in the girls’ locker room. That’s America at 247. Sooner or later that pressure-cooker’s gonna blow.