I think a lot about that grotesque video of Donald Trump hugging and kissing a flag. It's the act of an insincere buffoon putting on a show for other morons. Of the 30,000 things he did that should have been a red flag to anyone considering where to place their vote, that image surely could have summarized exactly why this half-assed con-artist should have been left dealing with lawsuits and trying to sell his shitty products and run out of a presidential race on a rail.
That's the same flag people say they would "die" for (I am aware that's a symbolic statement, as much as the flag is a symbol). But it's also the same piece of cloth that I recall people having serious discussions about creating prison time for anyone burning or desecrating (missing that whole First Amendment business, but, then, when haven't we?).
The United States is on fire enough that as other countries have flattened the curve, they've watched the US's nightmare of a response and put us on lists that suggest it may be years before Americans go abroad. And I'm not sure that decision is just about COVID.
Twitter and social media have changed the world. The carefully polished image of America that the post WWII planet received in exports of movies and television has been stripped away to show cops murdering and beating our citizens. Lipitor customers stalk their front stoops with guns and their faces full of an insane combination of utterly unwarranted fear and rage as Black people walk by. Our President gives increasingly unhinged interviews and speeches, and refuses to do a single goddamn thing to slow the course of a pandemic that is going to bury this country for years, or longer if he wins the November election. And all of that flows outward to nations who had their own dalliances with similar maniacs who seemed like a good idea at the time.
But, yeah.
