America has engaged in a cold war with itself. It held a third-rate military parade to prove the point.

JULY 4TH, 2019. AMERICA HONORED GENERAL WASHINGTON FOR SECURING THE AIRPORTS.

Van Halen had it written in their tour rider contracts that venues hosting the band needed to supply their dressing room with a bowl of M&Ms, only there were to be no brown ones. The band wrote this clause into their rider not as a testament to elitism, but as a test. If the venue failed to provide the bowl of M&Ms sans brown ones, the venue might have misread some of the other, very-necessary stage and lighting directions in the rider. The band would refuse to play until the promoter and venue double-checked the whole setup, the lighting, electricity, etc.

Also posted at chrismaley.com.

History will look back at the previous Fourth of July weekend like this:

One side lacked the power to prevent the other side from blocking off DC to throw a military parade for itself, while this other side did not possess the necessary authority it needed to put on a true military parade that matched the levels of grandiosity they envisioned.

The result?

I wouldn’t liken it to the Fyre Festival, but I wouldn’t call it a success, either.

The parade still happened, yet it came off as so amateurish that it delivered the opposite of its intended purpose.

Instead of trumpeting to the world that America stood united and ready to lead the world, it looked like a cry for help.

Instead of honoring the men and women of its armed forces, the parade laid bare the fact that America’s military is nothing but the pawn of rich white chickenhawks who want working-class Americans to pay for the wars — with both tax dollars and their lives — which further enrich the nation’s moneyed class.

While this has always been the case, in recent years it has grown worse. MLK said it: “This country has socialism for the rich, and rugged individualism for the poor.” He spoke this wisdom back when America had a middle class.

Attention, Planet Earth: the United States of America has engaged in a cold war. With itself.

During the previous twenty to thirty years, billionaires stole more of the country but not enough of it. And working-class folks became more aware of their rights but at the same time decided to develop hatred for the idea of unionization.

So, we ended up here.

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