Miles O'Brien

I stopped being “Proud to be an American” when I started learning more than my Christian republican parents or Bible belt education system taught me.

While nothing that came before I was born was my fault, it’s certainly nothing to be proud of, and nothing that has been happening since has been much better.

Sure, we haven’t directly been carrying out genocide, but we sure support it! With the very arms used to carry it out, and intelligence support, and so on.

We haven’t been enslaving huge swatches of people for arbitrary traits, but we sure do enslave imprisoned people which also due to socioeconomic reasons and good old fashioned racism also happen to be a large percentage of people with aforementioned arbitrary trait.

We may not have been openly declaring war on everyone, but we sure do like to interfere with special military operations and sabotage. Yesterday’s supported insurgencies are tomorrow’s enemies who have every reason to hate us.

Saying you’re “Proud to be an American” today is a flashing neon sign that says “I’m a racist piece of shit who hates everyone who isn’t exactly like me”

Just a thought experiment, how sink-proof are these things?

If someone were to build a homemade submarine with a drill, how many holes would one have to theoretically drill to make a yatch sink?

Yeah, but so are 40%, by their own admission.

They’re going to come for FIFA’s club games, or they’re going to come for the World Cup, or they’re going to come for the Olympics, come and see sporting events

Nobody’s coming anymore, nobody wants to risk being thrown in a concentration camp because they aren’t white and rich and supporting Trump enough.

Getting ANYONE who isn’t already actively trying to reduce their own vehicle usage or doesn’t use primarily mass transit to pay attention to how much space has been given up for cars is like pulling teeth from a stone.

Even people who have never had a car seem to think cars are the only thing to use.

Getting anyone to even acknowledge the complete lack of travel infrastructure around my area is hard. There are few sidewalks outside the downtown area and a few surrounding residential areas. There are no sidewalks connecting downtown being 4 intersections.

There are two bike lanes that total about 1.5mi, marked on the shoulder of a street as an afterthought, and no penalties for parking in it.

Some of the roads around here don’t even have enough shoulder to allow two semi trucks to pass, let alone two cars and a bike.

I’m contemplating making a sign for my bike trailer that says “IF YOU ARE ANNOYED I’M HERE, TELL YOUR LOCAL COUNCIL TO BUILD A BIKE PATH”

I have started saying “bike path” instead of “bike lane” when talking to most people since they get offended at the mere thought of “losing a lane” to cyclists.

I’ve also thought about making a sign that says “rider is armed and carries a brick” since people literally throw things at me and some have even gotten out of their cars to scream at me.

Just for that, I’m going to NOT use my car when I was otherwise planning to.

I mean, I pretty much only drive now when my destination is too far to bike, but I’ve biked to other states before, I can do it again.

Less money on social programs

How dare you, they would never lower them even more than they have been!

They would maintain the status quo, and in 3 years open up an inquiry as to whether a committee could be established to contemplate on the possibility of maybe increasing their budgets by 0.00001% over the next 100 years (which can be canceled at any time for no reason)

Then sit back and pat themselves on the back for being such a man/woman of the people.

Why not just tattoo a number on their arm?

I’m sure there’s no possibility that subdermal trackers would ever be used in shitty ways.

At least my parents church has the decency to give first time visitors a free 6oz cup of coffee.

I decided a long time ago that if I ever walk in and don’t recognize anyone, and someone thinks I’m a visitor who didn’t grow up there, I’m going to start quoting Bible verses about how selling shit inside the church is wrong and I would be channeling the righteous anger of Jesus himself if I flipped all their tables and whipped them.

Unfortunately despite the fact that I have been there twice in 10 years, people still recognize me.

Look, if you didn’t want people watching you, then why run lines in a public place?

And will you not also be center of attention during the performance said lines are for?

I suppose a birthday is aa good a place as any to test your public speaking…

I have more in common with a homeless person in Somalia, India, or China than I do with the super rich.

No War Except Class War

It’s right up there with “if you stopped acting so gay you wouldn’t get bullied”

I will happily eat macaroni or soup with my hands for the rest of my life if that means everyone gets Healthcare.

that they released at the scene

An important inclusion

The majority of people I’ve brought this up with believe MKULTRA is just a Conspiracy theory and never happened, or have never even heard of it.

Like… This is stuff they are ADMITTING TO.

And then you bolt awake, with adrenaline now surging, only to be staring at your wall and it’s 4am so you definitely won’t be feeling rested when your alarm goes off.

Back in basic, almost every black person in my division got what was called a “shave chit” which was basically just a piece of paper saying “this recruit doesn’t have to shave every morning for medical reasons”

And having seen them try in the first week or so to shave with everyone else, yeah. Fuck shaving every day anyway, but why would you purposely force someone to essentially slice their face off little by little wherever hair grows???

I remember my mother taking me into a store when I was a child where people were striking.

I asked why they were yelling since I couldn’t read the signs. I was told “because they’re lazy and think they should be paid more than people like your father”

It was many years before I understood what they were mad about, and that they do NOT believe they should be paid more, they believe everyone should be paid more but they only have control over their own employment.

Nowadays whenever I see employees striking, I give them a little fist out the window and a meep meep and shop somewhere else.

Don’t cross picket lines, your nacho cheese or deodorant can be bought somewhere else. Bonus points if you call the employer to inform them that you are shopping elsewhere until their employees conditions have been met and they decide to end the strike.

I live on a property with multiple families and we just use one delivery box by the main driveway.

Since this past week was in the 90s, I started leaving out a cooler with ice and bottled water/a few colors of gatorade and a couple snacks in a small basket next to it.

So far, no driver has taken anything, even with a “PLEASE TAKE ONE!” sign on top.

It’s too hot to work outside without all the water you can drink, electrolyte flavor packs, and bare minimum a giant-ass fan. And no, having no doors doesn’t count as having a fan.

Well, at least in my state, we ALL own the road, since we all* pay taxes. YOU get 1/5000000th of the road, YOU get 1/5000000th of the road !

So yes, you partially own the road, but SO DO I MOTHERFUCKER. Me being on a bicycle changes nothing.

*inversely proportional to net worth

Local city is doing fireworks at 10pm.

I’m too old for this shit, just don’t wake me up.