There was a mass shooting at an Independence Day parade in Highland Park, IL today. The shooter managed to flee. Everybody was freaking out. While the police were trying to apprehend the bastard, Darren Bailey, the GOP candidate for Governor, decided it was necessary to record a video, asking everybody to “move on and celebrate.”

The shooter had been filmed at Trump rallies, so we can all imagine how “move on and celebrate” will be interpreted.

Illinois is a big, important state. Why can’t we get anybody who isn’t a complete moron run on either side? If I had to guess whether Bailey or Pritzker is more intellectually impotent, I wouldn’t be able to say.

The shooter has been apprehended, at least. The police know what they are doing, even if politicians don’t.

Russian Twitter hates Kamil Galeev and his long threads explaining Russian dysfunction. What’s really funny is the argument that is invariably used to discredit Galeev. “He’s Tatar!” Galeev’s Russian detractors exclaim as if it were a really convincing argument of why Galeev’s insights are useless.

The Russian Federation holds many territories with people who differ ethnically, religiously, culturally, and linguistically. Within Russia, people you’d call “ethnic Russians” consider themselves to be “the title nation.” That’s an official term. I learned it from N who uses it completely seriously. In Ukraine we have different ethnicities but nobody is “the title nation.”

The Russian “title nation” deeply despises everybody who isn’t part of it. There’s absolutely no chance that Galeev hasn’t experienced endless manifestations of contempt from the representatives of the “title nation.” I have, even though unlike Galeev I don’t look different from “ethnic Russians.”

Taking all this into account, can anybody explain why it’s so unrealistic to give all these abused, despised and mistreated ethnic groups a possibility to seek sovereignty outside of the cruel and contemptuous rule by the inept and corrupt “title nation”?

The last remaining old empire should go, ceding place to nations. This is particularly important to remember today when we celebrate the very idea of nationhood.

The history of the nation-state begins with the United States. It is the first and the most successful nation-state in history. Today, as 246 years ago, people are willing to die for this imperfect yet wonderful form of statehood.

Today let’s celebrate this great nation and every nation inspired by its example to seek and defend sovereignty.