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Independence Weekend
It’s not just hot dogs and fireworks, friends. We’re actually celebrating something here. We’re celebrating the revolutionary idea that tyranny could and should be replaced with representative self-governance. Would be kind of cool if the jackasses in DC could remember that they’re not our imperious leaders. They’re supposed to work for us.
The Declaration
The important consequences to the American States from this Declaration of Independence, considered as the ground and foundation of a future government, naturally suggest the propriety of proclaiming it in such a manner as that the people may be universally informed of it. ~John Hancock
The 13 Colonies were effectively independent already. Separated by an ocean that took about six weeks to cross, we were already a standalone operation.
Even so, we considered ourselves British until the corruption back home led to intolerable conditions here. Oppressive taxes, unwarranted searches and seizures, forced housing of military personnel and a complete lack of representation in Parliament led the Founders to cut ties and establish ourselves as a nation with no further reliance on England.
It’s funny how a distant, out of touch tyranny can run roughshod over people they don’t see.
Unfortunately, so many members of the political class are behaving like the leadership who led to our break from England.
Back then, they had the benefit of a wide ocean and a relatively stable local culture. It was easier to identify with our neighbors up and down the East Coast than it was to the folks back in the British Isles.
Now, we have the benefit of regularly scheduled elections. Don’t like who’s running the show? Get out and vote so you can change the cast.
Fortunately, we don’t need to have a violent revolution to help steer the ship of state. We need a little patience and some decent people with a basic grasp of American civics to serve a term or two in office, representing us and honoring their oaths of office.
Unfortunately, there are way too many in office who don’t get it. It’s just a power play for these clowns. They’re getting ridiculously wealthy for not apparently doing anything productive for anyone but themselves.
We need to seriously think about term limits for Congress. The 22nd Amendment put an end to runaway presidential terms. It’s well past time we had a 28th Amendment to cap Congressional terms.
Some of the people doing the most heinous things in government today have been in office since the 70s and 80s. Enough is enough already! I think it’s past time we recognize that the legislators should be required to go home and live under the laws they’ve passed. I believe we’d find that the legislators started repealing more laws than they enact if they knew they’d have to go home and live like the rest of us.
Two terms for Senators and 6 terms for Representatives would provide a dozen years each in civil service. That’s plenty long enough. If they were of a mind to switch chambers, a person could serve up to 24 years in the legislature and possibly an additional 16 in the executive branch.
Hopefully, if it became normal for there to be high turnover in Congress, nobody would actually qualify for such a tour of service. I also wouldn’t mind seeing a requirement to lay fallow between branches of government. A Representative could run for Senate after their term limits were up, but they’d have to cool off for a few years and, as I said, live like the rest of us.
In short, go home and get a fucking job. These career barnacles wouldn’t be so hot to pass all kinds of laws and taxes if they weren’t living in an exclusionary bubble. Rules for thee but not for me? Not anymore, jackass. You’d have to go home and live under what you’ve created like the rest of us.
Want a full career in politics? Start local and work your way up. Township, County, State, Federal. A couple terms of each and a person could go their entire life in public service without the perks of being permanent fixtures. If it was a given that you had to take time off between offices, you might see more representation and less taxation. Government might become more streamlined and efficient since any member would know they had a limited time to enact their pet policies.
It’s a dream I have.
Unfortunately, my nightmare is that we’ll just continue on as we are and devolve into socialist despotism. Sadly, that seems the more likely course at this point. Unless we can wrest control from the vested interests, we’re going to continue to watch our freedom and our rights erode.
I sure hope not.
America the Story of Us: Declaration of Independence | History
Independence Day
Independence Day (4/5) Movie CLIP – The President’s Speech (1996) HD
Here’s an all-time classic.
This movie had all the stock characters you could want from an alien invasion movie with all the natural consequences.
The deluded peaceniks dancing on the rooftops when the alien countdown concludes getting ruthlessly vaporized.
The gritty, determined military types fighting valiantly but fruitlessly against technologically superior weaponry.
The beleaguered civilians fleeing the carnage in search of a safe place to hunker down and weather the calamity.
The polar opposites on a daring mission to infiltrate the alien fleet and take down their defense systems.
The intrepid fighter pilot President personally leading the squadron to take down the alien threat.
The crazy guy who wanted payback for the alien abduction he’d suffered before the movie began finally delivering the coup de gras.
All memorable characters doing remarkable things in the midst of a special effects extravaganza. Now that’s my idea of fireworks.
Independence Day- Spaceship alien explosion scene
Action Heroes
Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you. ~Thomas Jefferson
That’s what makes a hero, isn’t it?
In fairness, it’s also what makes a villain.
It depends on the action.
Are you acting for the benefit of your fellow man? You’re a hero.
Are you acting for the benefit of yourself at the expense of your fellow man? You’re a villain.
That’s it in a nutshell.
Of course, cracking the nutshell a bit helps us break out into genres.
In my case, I’m starting with The Sentinels which is in the superhero genre.
The Boys: All Super Powers Ranked By Strength
The thing about my titular heroes is that, unlike the comics they were inspired by, they actually have source material to pattern themselves against.
Golden Age and even early Silver Age heroes were, in-universe, the first of their kind and were basically making up the rules as they went. Later heroes in these fictional settings had earlier heroes as mentors and role models.
In the Sentinelsverse, comics predated the existence of actual superheroes. Lucius “Lucky” Deagle, one of the founding members, grew up as a comics nerd. When Tim Wisler got his super powers in the 70s, there were already decades of comics for him to refer to as an inspiration for the kind of hero he ought to be. The partnership between Lucky and Tim to form the Sentinels was based on their appreciation of comics such as the Justice League, the Avengers and the Justice Society of America. They wanted to see if they could form such an organization in the “real world” and have it work.
In The Boys, the supers are a corporate product. Vought International is reminiscent of Omni Consumer Products from Robocop. They’re a monolithic megacorporation with their fingers in every possible pie known to humankind. Their broad reach ensures that they can place super powered individuals in highly visible teams such as The Seven or as menial as token celebrities for theme parks and retail promotions.
In this very jaundiced view of the superhero genre, a bunch of manufactured supers with deeply flawed personalities are commoditized by Vought for every purpose imaginable. Even the flagship hero group, The Seven, are largely used in fictional movies and other pointless, nonheroic roles to distract from the more nefarious clandestine actions that various supes have participated in throughout the history of that dystopian world.
it’s interesting, but sad. There are no real heroes. Everybody is a jerk. It’s just a matter of degrees and agendas.
THE BOYS Season 3 Episode 7 Breakdown & Ending Explained | Review, Easter Eggs, Theories And More
In the Sentinelsverse, the heroes actually intend to do good. They mean well and act accordingly. Lucky and Tim, having been reared on Silver and Bronze Age comics, are more idealistic and well-meaning in their formation of the superhero team.
At the beginning of the series, they’ve only got three actual superheroes. Tim “Foxfire” Wisler has powers like the Human Torch. Matthew “Captain Freedom” Freeman has super strength and rapid healing. Meirhe “Mary Christmas” Kryzthnyz is an alien with seemingly magical powers. They spend their time performing public service messages at school assemblies throughout the Eight Boroughs of Empire City and aiding the ECPD’s Tactical Division when requested to do so.
Tanda “Blue Banshee” Cohen had a lifelong ambition to join them, but she didn’t have powers. She had been inspired by the Sentinels’ school assemblies, their branding and press releases and by the manga series, The Angel and the Elf, drawn and written by Meirhe’s friend, Angelica Wright. With all of that source material and the presence of actual superheroes in her home town, Tanda aspired to join them but didn’t feel that she’d fit in without powers.
While I don’t want to have a dystopian crapsaccharine world like the one depicted by Vought’s media outlets in The Boys, I do want to examine what the repercussions of superpowers would be in a realistic world. The thing with comics is that putting pen and ink to paper allows the artists a great deal of leeway. Plot holes abound. Logic often steps aside in service to the writer’s plot. I’d like the Sentinelsverse to be more realistic.
Not in the sense of having everything explained and justified as one does in “Hard Science Fiction”, but rather that the kind of mayhem you usually see on the pages of comic books or in the spectacle of MCU, DCEU, Arrowverse and the world of Vought would have a more human toll.
I’ve mentioned before that in the Fantastic Four, there’s a kind of throwaway gag when the team is fighting Dr. Doom. The Thing says to some old ladies that he needs to borrow their car. One lady says that the transmission sticks. He says it’s not a problem and then lobs the car at Dr. Doom. Very funny. Very cute. Very comic booky.
Problem is, if you look at it from the ladies’ point of view, you’re saying WTF? What if they had groceries in the car? What if they couldn’t afford to pay for a new one? What if somebody just took your car and lobbed it at a physically invulnerable villain? It would kind of wreck your day, right?
That’s the kind of dilemma I’d like to examine in my series.
Even in more grounded works of fiction, you’ve got action heroes doing spectacular things to drive the movie along in nerve-wracking fashion. High speed chases in which cars are run off the road, random collisions, absolute chaos. It’s cool if you’re invested in the doings of the cop, secret agent or aggrieved vigilante, but what about the poor guy who spun out and crashed into a median? What about the people who had a head-on collision as the hero whizzed between them, leaving them as a barrier for the bad guys who are pursuing him? They’re kinda screwed.
That’s the kind of thing I’d like to examine more. Action heroes in the movies are rarely held responsible for the wake of destruction they leave in their efforts to thwart the bad guys.
Well, when your superhero team is founded by a lawyer who grew up reading comics and seeing the obvious plot holes, he’s going to have a more grounded approach to the conduct of superheroes in the real world. It stands to reason that, in a world with actual superheroes, the kind of calamity they can cause is something a lawyer will have to litigate.
Maybe that’s too tame or too meta, but that’s the angle for the Sentinelsverse. What happens to the average Joe when supers start fighting? Life happens and Lucky is trying to plan for the eventualities.
What The MCU Phase 5 Will Look Like
That’s it for this first weekend of the Third Quarter. Time is just racing by. I’m almost caught up at work and I’ll be making maximum use of the extended weekend to get as caught up as possible. Maybe then, i can actually get back to my writing…