Before I begin complaining, I want to say something nice to the current president: Thank you for pardoning Ross Ulbricht, who sat in a U.S. jail for 10 years for the crime of conducting a business that transacted in bitcoin.
The nicer, gentler me would say thank you and move on. The cynical me feels the need to stick around and make a point.
I think freeing Ross was a PR stunt that cost the president nothing; and now, with the president’s open support of bitcoin, he’s turned it into a money-making business, with his own meme coin. Talk about taking advantage of your situation. I, personally, will stick to bitcoin. I have more to say on the subject of presidents starting their own meme coin, but instead, I’m going to stick it in my “Conspiratorial Fiction” file for now. I’ve got complaints to get to.
Where to start?
Politicians — you tawdry ones who turn your political careers into multimillionaire enterprises. And then you have the hutzpah to talk to the homeless and tell them you’ll help. Excuse me, but aren’t you the ones who created the problem in the first place? Does it not occur to you that the trickle-down largesse you have benefited from never trickled down far enough to that guy on the street?
Remember that George Carlin schtick about the small group of wealthy and powerful: “It’s a big club and you ain’t in it.”
Civil discourse — I lament the lack of civil discourse in the public arena. I’m all for a firebrand to come along and stir the loins, but there’s plenty to be said for a civil tongue in the heat of disagreement. “My good sir,” I respectfully submit” and so on. Such good taste. Mind you, back in the days when that actually constituted civil exchange, when arguments got way out of hand, they would head out and settle their differences with a duel to the death.
Maybe the moral of that story is that it doesn’t matter how civil your discourse is, they’re going to shoot you anyways.
For our musical interlude this morning, Emmylou Harris …
Leave a Reply