Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

This fight is for everything.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Infrastructure week. at last.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Happy 4th

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73Comments

  1. 1.

    Doug

    Every 4th of July, I like to reread the Declaration of Independence. This helps me remember what the Founders had in mind when they set forth on their insurgency against King George, and it reminds me of what lies at the root of all that makes this country great. As you may recall, the Declaration begins:

    IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776 The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

    When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

    We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. –That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. –Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

    It’s this breaking of bonds, and the reasons therefore, that make the 4th of July important. It’s not just thanking the military or our forefathers. It’s not just the flag. It’s not just the fireworks. These are all part and parcel of the larger idea.

    The larger idea is that individuals are self-determining beings. Liberty is their natural right and their natural condition. Authority should not be suffered solely for it’s own sake. Proper government is designed and maintained by the citizenry, it is not revealed and handed down from on high.

    I am thankful that the founding fathers were products of the political culture of the Enlightenment and not of our own day. I cannot imagine that our current Representatives would pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their honor to boldly break from Authority that no longer serves its purpose: to secure the rights of the citizens.

    So, when we are at the parades and the picnics, we should revel in the patriotism, thank the troops, love our country, but we should also think about the Declaration and the principles that are more important than any of those things.

    The full text available here.

  5. 5.

    Jerzy Russian

    The news was too depressing for me, so I watched World War Z for the first time, and after that,  the War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise.   Getting ready for the fireworks noise.  The official shows around here start in about 90 minutes, the asshole shows much sooner.

  6. 6.

    Jerry

    Started watching The Bear on Hulu/FX. 3 episodes in and it’s great. I have restaurant kitchen experience, so it hits

  7. 7.

    dmsilev

    My parents had a first-birthday party for their puppy today; he got a nice big dog cookie, and the people got a cake. Dogs apparently don’t understand ‘make a wish and blow out the candle’; clearly a deficit in the standard puppy-class curriculum.

  8. 8.

    steve g

    I am making a mini poster from an online pic, with some editing, so it reads

    Russian Warship Supreme Court

    Go Fuck Yourself

    Blue on top, yellow on bottom, with the Ukrainian postage stamp of the soldier giving the finger.

    That’s my mood.

  10. 10.

    scav

    @PaulWartenberg:  I’m not sure about many Anglophone countries right now. Ireland maybe — is New Zealand still sane? But another vote for not the theoretically still united K. Maybe Greenland could buy us?

  11. 11.

    mrmoshpotato

    @dmsilev:

    Dogs apparently don’t understand ‘make a wish and blow out the candle’; clearly a deficit in the standard puppy-class curriculum. 

    I blame the parents.

  12. 12.

    West of the Cascades

    Just moved to a small town in southern New Mexico – went to an anti-Dobbs rally/protest adjacent to the 4th of July “Freedom Fest” (which was far nicer and less, um, “false freedom-ey” than expected). About 200 people carrying signs, chanting, and marching through and around the main event. Felt really good. Gave me some hope that we can flip at least one house seat back to the Democrats come November (and get rid of the execrable Yvette Herrell).

  13. 13.

    stinger

    Not Britain. Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, Australia. Scotland, once they’ve broken away. (If English-speaking is a requirement, although so much of the world studies English from earliest grades on up.)

  14. 14.

    NotMax

    ‘@scav

    <Maybe Greenland could buy us?

    Modern iteration of something rotten in the state of Denmark?

    //

  15. 15.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Not in much of a celebratory mood and being part of England looks good right about now.

    It’s an interesting premise: What would have happened if the British North American colonies had never left the Empire? I’ve seen it assumed in Alternate History forums that an Alternate US would’ve turned out much like the other Core Commonwealth nations under British influence and that slavery in the Alt US would’ve been abolished much sooner than in OTL.

    I’m skeptical, mostly because of the Butterfly Effect. Plus, it’s difficult to imagine/predict how the present day would look, considering how influential an independent United States ended up being for the past 200 years. Hell, who knows, the world could be in even worse shape than OTL

  20. 20.

    Timill

    I had a nice menu planned, but it got abandoned to collecting an abandoned cat from a local park and taking him to the local ER for assessment…

     

    ER: (estimating age of cat): “How long have you had this cat?”

    Us: “About an hour”

    ER: “oh”

  25. 25.

    JaySinWA

    @scav: is New Zealand still sane?

    I understand that the ultra rich are trying to establish NZ as the place to retreat to when the SHTF. So maybe, maybe not.

  26. 26.

    Scout211

    We had a nice day today. It was a low key 4th and we were feeling good. Then after dinner we headed out for our evening walk and I looked at the sky and said, “Oh God!”  A huge plume of smoke was in the sky toward the northeast that wasn’t there at 3:00 pm.

    Another wildfire here in NorCal.  This one is in Amador County (about 30 miles away from us) and it’s burning at a “dangerous rate of spread.”  It’s 0% contained and now at almost 1,000 acres.

  27. 27.

    Vixen Strangely

    Happy fourth. One of my internet friends is gone to what I skeptically hope is some good reward and there’s an active shooter in my hometown. I don’t know how to respond to the world right now and believe one answer is, just don’t. But that isn’t my way. I want to fight all the things. But I don’t know where to land the punch that makes the difference to me. And I will still feel like swinging tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. And I guess also–fuck Republicans. Yeah. That. Always.

  28. 28.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Well, it can be fun. I enjoy reading about timelines where the Space Race didn’t end so early and continued on, such as Eyes Turned Skywards on AlternateHistory.com and Stephen Baxter’s novel, Voyage.

    Voyage

    Voyage is a 1996 Alternate History novel by British science fiction writer Stephen Baxter. It is set in a timeline with a simple divergence from our history: Lee Harvey Oswald didn’t manage to assassinate US president John F. Kennedy and, by accident, shot his wife instead.

    The alternate 1960s pass mostly in a vein similar to our own history, but subtle little divergences keep popping up. The final, major divergence of the timeline occurs after the first Moon landing in 1969. The now-retired president Kennedy is allowed a few moments of radio contact, in order to do a little congratulatory speech to the Apollo 11 crew. To everyone’s surprise, Kennedy very blatantly hints at the need to focus on making a similar landing on Mars in the coming decade. This eventually forces NASA to cave in to popular pressure from people that were moved by Kennedy’s speech. In about two years after the first Moon landing, the history of American astronautics starts taking a rather different route than the one we know…

    The US lands astronauts on Mars in 1986 using modified Saturn-Apollo hardware. Baxter makes a very convincing case that the technology of the time was more than capable, though the increased focus on a Mars landing led to the cancelation of several robotic space probe missions, so we never learn much about the wider Solar System with no Voyager missions.

    Eyes Turned Skywards

    Eyes Turned Skywards is an alternate spaceflight history timeline found on the alternatehistory.com forums. The difference from our timeline is that after the 1969 Moon landings, NASA doesn’t choose to develop the Space Shuttle, but instead continues to use hardware based on the Apollo spacecraft and Saturn rockets.

  30. 30.

    The Moar You Know

    Ah, the Fourth of July, know as the “day of doom from the skies” to my dog and to the dog we are babysitting.  Got gabapentin and trazadone from the vet and they are stone-cold unconscious.  Hate doing it but far worse for them to spend six hours in terror. I hate fucking fireworks.

  31. 31.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Poe Larity:

    Vauld is exploring a possible restructuring after becoming the latest crypto platform to freeze services 

    “restructuring”

  32. 32.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Ken:

    That’s actually pretty funny lol. Spoilers. In the The Man in the High Castle Amazon series, the Nazis actually travel to our world (or at least one very much like it), set in 1964. They’re collecting info on the US and USSR and sabotaging key strategic research in both countries to undermine them in preparations for an invasion (or so they want; they’re unable to just roll tanks through the portal they’ve created). There’s a scene where some Nazi is discussing US involvement in Vietnam, and says that the “obviously superior Americans” should easily triumph over the “inferior” North Vietnamese. It’s a perfect illustration of both BS Nazi racial superiority theories as well as the general fascist tendency to underestimate their enemies, buying into their own propaganda (“the enemy is both weak and strong”)

  33. 33.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Ohio Mom:

    From what I read, it’s mainly the fault of WW2-era wage controls that made companies compensate employees with health insurance. From Wiki:

    Some of the first evidence of compulsory health insurance in the United States was in 1915, through the progressive reform protecting workers against medical costs and sicknesses in industrial America. Prior to this, within the Socialist and Progressive parties, health insurance and coverage was framed as not only an economic right for workers health, but also as an employer’s responsibility and liability- healthcare was in this context centered on working-class Americans and labor unions.

    Employer-sponsored health insurance plans dramatically expanded as a direct result of wage controls imposed by the federal government during World War II. The labor market was tight because of the increased demand for goods and decreased supply of workers during the war. Federally imposed wage and price controls prohibited manufacturers and other employers from raising wages enough to attract workers. When the War Labor Board declared that fringe benefits, such as sick leave and health insurance, did not count as wages for the purpose of wage controls, employers responded with significantly increased offers of fringe benefits, especially health care coverage, to attract workers. The tax deduction was later codified in the Revenue Act of 1954.

  34. 34.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @NotMax:

    More evidence that absolutely NOBODY wants these things. When will corporations learn this and stop trying to force them on all of us?

  35. 35.

    Ohio Mom

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I think alternative time lines are sometimes all around us. Take Covid, there is such a range of responses taken by different countries.

    The timeline of the US vs the time line of China, two very different trajectories. China locks itself up while we go on our merry ways. It is also a medical experiment in real time, we just don’t have the results yet.

    On a micro level, in families, there are alternative time lines among siblings. They may have very similar upbringings but end up with very different lives. And individuals may stop midlife to change significant things about how they are living and create an alternative timeline for themselves.

  36. 36.

    CaseyL

    I like alt.history, the really good ones, because I’m interested in world-building.  The best alt.histories do try to grapple with chaos theory, have done quite a bit of research into the events, nations, and populations they’re changing.  They’re not just wish-fulfillment fantasies.

    My faves: Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson, and the Lady Astronaut series by Mary Robinette Kowal.

  37. 37.

    opiejeanne

    @Jerzy Russian: I watched Gettysburg, all 4 1/2 hours of it, the extended version. Pretty much straight through with a pause to get a snack and a bathroom break.

    Somewhat cathartic.

  38. 38.

    Mnemosyne

    Any interest I had in seeing fireworks was totally wrecked by this morning’s news. I’m sitting in my home office getting ready to continue working on a story set in an alternative universe where people aren’t selfish assholes when it comes to firearms. You know, like Australia, or New Zealand, or the vast majority of Europe.

  39. 39.

    Mnemosyne

    @scav:

    At least Ireland saw the story about Savita Halappanavar, a woman who died because doctors were afraid to give her an abortion, and said, “Shit, let’s make sure that never happens again.”

    American pro-lifers looked at the same story and thought, “Goals!”

  41. 41.

    opiejeanne

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): IMNSHO, Baxter sucks. He suckered Terry Pratchett into “writing” part of a ridiculous trilogy with him, I read one of them (because Terry Pratchett!) but it was very dull and stupid. Earth is almost completely covered with water that comes from… someplace in the core of the earth. Right. And children begin to evolve and grow gills in a single generation.

  43. 43.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Mnemosyne:

    “Pikers. The Irish just aren’t as righteous as we are! Let’s force a 10 year old rape victim to carry a pregnancy to term. Wouldn’t want to compound one tragedy with another, after all!”

    That last sentence, paraphrased here, was uttered by Kristie Noem, aka Dollar Store Sarah Palin

  45. 45.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @opiejeanne:

    Oh I agree he’s not the best writer, especially for dialogue and characterization. It drove me up a wall when characters would use the same word choices several times over the course of the Voyage. It was very noticeable. I mostly enjoyed the premise and plot itself, rather than the characters

  46. 46.

    JaySinWA

    @opiejeanne:

    Truckinbroke has been spamming all open posts. Adam has hit at least some of them. 37 was one of his

    ETA this is an issue with the comment numbering. They change with additions or deletions. They really should be static

  49. 49.

    Matt McIrvin

    @scav: New Zealand is the best of them, politics-wise. Not saying it’s a perfect society but the government basically has their heads screwed on right.

  51. 51.

    Matt McIrvin

    @opiejeanne: A lot of Stephen Baxter’s other work kind of reminds me of Larry Niven if he were clinically depressed and British. And a huge Beatles fan. But with absolutely no sense of humor.

  52. 52.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Mnemosyne:

    Since you’re around, I’ve been meaning to ask you, as a writer, what your opinion on GRRM, if you have one, is.

    His MC performance at the 2020 Hugos was abysmal. He completely butchered the names of several POC award winners, made inappropriate jokes, praised the infamous John W. Campbell a year after a critical essay on him won an award, and told boring stories about past Hugos.

    There’s really no excuse for mispronouncing names, especially when the segment was prerecorded. He could’ve done as many takes as he wanted, but he and the crew didn’t give a damn. Perfect illustration of his laziness. If I were the MC, I would’ve made damn sure I knew the proper pronunciations. And his apology was half-assed.

  54. 54.

    Alison Rose

    My cat is hiding under my nightstand because stupid dipshits have to make things go boom. This crap goes on until usually 1 or 2 in the damn morning, too.

  55. 55.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Alison Rose :

    Some dipshits spend thousands of dollars on fireworks. As much as like fireworks, there’s better things I prefer to spend that kind of money on, that I can enjoy more than once

  58. 58.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @JaySinWA:

    True, I didn’t think of that angle. Though, a coworker of mine has a cousin who owns a flooring business who spent over $2000 in fireworks and still owns a lot of guns

  60. 60.

    sab

    Too hot to open the windows, so the booms in the neighborhood aren’t so loud. Pitbull therefore is asleep, and the cats are all downstairs mildly perturbed. Helped that I reloaded all the Feliways this morning.

    Apparently the city hasn’t blown up. Husband’s friend since high school has a son who is currently a cop. He is kind of amazed that the Black Panthers came into town and successfully kept the police and the protesters separated, and talked various people out of doing stupid things. ” Stop that. There are children in this crowd.”

  62. 62.

    scav

    @sab: Many games of grocery charades seems a small price to pay to my mind.  (Besides, their anglo is often more grammatically phonic than ours).

  64. 64.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @sab:

    I hope things stay safe in Akron. What did you think of the State Attorney General, Yost, who promised a through investigation into the shootings, but cautioned, paraphrasing, “That body cam footage doesn’t always tell the whole story.”

    Like, what the hell is that supposed to mean? Does it sound Yost is trying to carry water for those police officers to you, or is it just me?

  65. 65.

    Jackie

    Thank dogs for the rain we had and way lower than the usual 100 degrees we usually have in eastern WA. It’s a fireworks war zone in our neighborhood. Both doggies are in thunder coats (the juries are out on if they’re any help.) The grandkiddos are terrified as the breeze – or deliberate aiming – are causing floating embers to land on our thankfully aluminum roof. It’s the worst 4th I can recall.  I think the Trumpies have declared war.

  66. 66.

    sab

    @scav: My younger sister decided to learn Danish in college, and has found it surprisingly useful in the German speaking part of Switzerland. ( She works in the US for a Swiss company.)

    ETA edited to correct serious typos.

  67. 67.

    sab

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I am terrified that Yost will deliberately blow things up right before the election.  Republicans have been in charge in Columbus for so long that I do not trust the state AG to be running a professional non-political office. But that is just speculation on my part.

    I am very impressed with the local handling of the whole situation on all sides.

    Turns out my stepson’s girlfriend casually knew the young man. He was a very nice kid from a very nice family. The whole thing is just so sad, and his family has handled  their tragedy with a lot of grace. We are so lucky.

  68. 68.

    Tony Jay

    Not in much of a celebratory mood and being part of England looks good right about now.

    You. Are having. A fucking. Laugh.

    What was in that pork rub?

  69. 69.

    Sloane Ranger

    Late to comment. We have Bozo the Clown and the latest scandal de jour, “Pincher by name, pincher by nature”.

    I try to comfort myself by thinking that at least women can still get abortions and nobody shot up the crowds in the Mall or any of the street parties during the Platinum Jubilee.

  71. 71.

    Skepticat

    Brits in 1783—Oh, god, we lost the American colonies.

    Brits in 2020—Oh, thank god we lost the American colonies.

  72. 72.

    The Lodger

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): In The Two Georges, the Revolutionary War was averted by an agreement between George III and George Washington. The authors were Harry Turtledove, who has probably written 90 percent of the world’s readable alternate history, and Richard Dreyfuss, who was in Jaws and still got first billing on the cover because Oscar winners apparently have more prestige than Hugo winners.

  73. 73.

    Sherparick

    @The Truffle: yea, I get that we don’t seem ready for self-government, but being ruled by Boris Johnson & the Tories would cause a new war of independence.

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