It feels really hard to celebrate my country right now.

[colo_lee@mstdn.social]

@RickiTarr I love my local community. The country left me when it chose fascism. As it turns out, we're out of the country for the event that I do not want to be party of. Which was a good decision. We'll be back soon enough ...

[gilliancarole@mastodon.social]

@RickiTarr My American friend lives here in the UK (English mother), with family in California (her dad's American). She worries about visiting due to Trump rhetoric & passport control checking phones/social media. My view, the USA let in 1000s of British football fans not shy about flapping their mouths, who welcome a fist fight with anyone up for it. Cue anti-Trump/Epstein chants. Bullet-headed UK fans do like Tommy Robinson (friends with the Trump administration), but they hate paedophiles.

[npars01@mstdn.social]

@RickiTarr

Focus on The Moneyed who made this world ...

1. Spending millions to get corrupt Republicans entrenched in the Courts, Congress & Presidency

https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-oil-industry-donations

2. Spending millions to get legislation that favors themselves. Climate denial. Predatory finance. Economic immiseration. Mass layoffs. Wage suppression. Wars. High gas prices. Public corruption. Fossil fuel subsidies. Lax pollution rules

https://mstdn.social/@Npars01/116819681970264434

https://mstdn.social/@Npars01/116819751048956637

https://mstdn.social/@Npars01/116817720953235336

[pttp@mastodon.social]

@RickiTarr I'll add my voice to the chorus of those who share the feelings you expressed so well. Told my wife a few days ago I see no reason to "celebrate" the vicious, evil, genocidal, ecocidal monstrosity engulfing the land where I was born.
A commemoration in the form of grieving would be more apt. Or maybe rage...
All the best. Be well.

[jomama87@mastodon.social]

@realtegan @RickiTarr I stopped celebrating when Roe was reversed. It's hard enough to live under patriarchy but now we're 2nd class citizens. SMH
#freedomofchoice

[ggmcbg@mstdn.plus]

@RickiTarr
Nothing can follow us forward but the mistakes we can never make again.

Otherwise it blurs together and you end-up nurturing Nazi scum once again.

Who gets a divorce from a drunk abuser but still dates their ex on weekends? Shit.

[pomegranatepirate@kolektiva.social]

@pri @RickiTarr any US flags are to be flying upsidedown!

[rickitarr@beige.party]

@KrajciTom Thank you

[bellegraylane@universeodon.com]

@RickiTarr you still have friends? Lol. Jokes. I feel your comment in my bones. Every day is a Black Mirror episode or something, yet the fact that we here are not dieing in a camp or dead yet is something, but not much of an inspiration either. Stay cool out there people. It’s too hot for this shit.

[jay@beige.party]

@RickiTarr honestly at this point I assume anyone celebrating this day is legitimately a Nazi

[owop@mastodon.world]

@RickiTarr
Paths that you walk may wander, roads cross and diverge. What goals and tasks you are given will change. Open your heart to love and let it guide you.

*When we sail into the harbor with sabers waving and the cannon thundering. Singing the Pirate songs to begin festivities the now does not exist only the adventure and potential of a new country long ago rings loud and clear. When we set anchor and row ashore to be surrounded by kids the adventure of the then becomes now.

[kanamauna@sauropods.win]

@RickiTarr

A regime is not the same as a country. I for one refuse to cede this country to a bunch of crypto-Confederates. They want us to give up, to take anything we can rally around.

The regime is like that abusive relative that acts like you’re not really part of the family when it is the other way around. They are the outlier and you are surrounded by amazing family members.

[sevardin@tech.lgbt]

@RickiTarr Democracy is a flawed political system, just the best we’ve come up with so far. Sadly, as we’ve seen since Hair Führer was installed, it can be suborned **really easily** by evil. Having lived through Ronny Raygun, Bush the Lesser, Dumbya, et al., it does seem like things are progressively more repressive with each Republican administration… but there is still hope for change!

Self-care is important. When the world is going to hell in a hand basket, it’s okay (good, even) to step off the bicycle, click your heels three times, and check out for a while.

[stevensaus@faithcollapsing.com]

@RickiTarr

It can be both better than it was while still being far from how good it could be for most people.

[meadow@lgbtqia.space]

@RickiTarr
I'm not celebrating for similar reasons. Why celebrate a country which wants so many people I care about to die?

I did put up a new flag, but that's just because I didn't have the money when the old one wore out and it's a great way to keep Jehovah's Witnesses away.

But no, I'm definitely not happy or excited. In the last decade, American citizens have had so many rights stolen from them. The damage won't be corrected until long after I am dead.

Worked my whole life for a better future, and that's not remotely what any of us got.

[simon_brooke@mastodon.scot]

@RickiTarr if it's any comfort, I have been ashamed to be British for a long time, and am determined I shall never travel again using a #UK passport. Which probably means I will never travel again...

Both of our soi disante 'democratic' countries are very much captured by power elites. Your 'Democrat' party is funded by precisely the same #Oligarch #Kleptocrat class as your 'Republican' party; neither of them are at all interested in the wellbeing of ordinary people.

/Continued

[simon_brooke@mastodon.scot]

@RickiTarr and guess what? Our main parties here, #UKLabour and the #Tories, are funded by the exact same class and very often the exact same individuals. The only difference for Scotland is that our #SNP is not yet funded by the #Kleptocrat class — but is nevertheless sucking up to them in the hopes that it will soon be.

When the rich can buy politicians, #democracy is broken, and voting is more or less useless.

#Corruption
#UKPol
#ScotPol

[celestiallavendar@icedoatmilk.coffee]

@RickiTarr@beige.party I think that's totally valid, and Ive been feeling a lot of the same. For my part I'm trying to do my best to extend the gratitude and support I have to the people still fighting the good fight. Feel like they need it now more than ever.

[happycrow13@mastodon.social]

@RickiTarr You're much more generous than I am. Fuck this place and fuck the celebrations. The US was built on blood. We continue to murder and destroy everything that isn't "right". I ain't celebrating shit
I know folks are fighting for the better. I am too, we have to keep fighting. I'm tired and refuse to waste my energy celebrating terror and genocide

And I really hate fireworks. Any loud noise like that set my nerves on edge. (Not just the 4th any celebration with booms)

[simonzerafa@infosec.exchange]

@meadow @RickiTarr

I do wonder how many Americans fully understand how deeply their government (and the vast majority of its military) is mistrusted and unreliable it appears to be?

There has been more than one instance of MAGA loving tourists being told these realities and being shocked at their poor receptiion.

🥺‍️