Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

We will not go back.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

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

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

All hail the time of the bunny!

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

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

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

Happy 4th of July

by | 108 Comments

This post is in: 

Balloon Juice commenter Booger forwards the following:

On This Occasion, Let Us Remember Those Who Have Fought, Sacrificed and Died For Our Freedoms:

A. Philip Randolph; Alex Odeh; Alice Paul; Amelia Boynton Robinson; Andrew Young Jr.; Barnett Slepian; Bayard Rustin; Bernard Lafayette; Betty Friedan; C.T. Vivian; Cesar Chavez; Charles Evers; Charles Morgan Jr.; Charles Sherrod; Clara Luper; Claude Black; Claudette Colvin; Coretta Scott King; Crystal Eastman; Daisy Bates; David Gunn; Diane Nash; Dolores Huerta; Don Bolles; Dorothy Cotton; Edgar Nixon; Eizabeth Peratrovich; Elijah P. Lovejoy; Elizabeth Cady Stanton; Ella Baker; Eugene Debs; Fannie Lou Hamer; Franklin Kameny; Fred Shuttlesworth; George Moscone; George Tiller; Gloria Steinem; Gordon Hirabayashi; Harvey Milk; Hosea Williams; Humberto Noe Corona; Ida B. Wells; Jack Herer; James Bevel; James Farmer; James Forman; James Lawson; James Orange; James T Meredith; Jo Ann Robinson; John Britton; John L. Lewis; Joseph Lowery; Judy Shepard; Julian Bond; Julius Wilson Hobson; June Jordan; Lola Hendricks; Lucy Burns; Lucy Stone; Madalyn Murray O’Hair; Malcolm X; Mamie Till Bradley Mobley; Marie Foster; Martin Luther King Jr.; Marvel Cooke; Medgar Evers; Myles Horton; Nellie Stone Johnson; Prathia Hall; Ralph Abernathy; Robert F. Williams; Robert Hill; Robert Moses; Roger Baldwin; Rosa Parks; Roy Wilkins; Ruby Hurley; Samuel Gompers; Susan B.Anthony; T.R.M. Howard; Thomas C. Wales; W. E. B. Du Bois; Walter Francis White; Walter Nelles; William S. McIntosh; Wyatt Tee Walker.

This is a brief and cursory list of those brave individuals, who without color of uniform, power of authority or compulsion of force, have placed themselves in harm’s way to expand the promise contained in our founding documents—The Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution.

It always has been, and always will be, individuals who risk everything to expand the scope of rights we enjoy. Civil Rights are not zero-sum; rights expanded for one are rights expanded for all.

We need to take a moment and think with awe, respect and gratitude about those brave people who stopped and turned among the teeming mob and said “Enough. This cannot stand; We must change.”

And while many are renowned for their efforts on behalf of a single cause, it is heartening to see how many worked across boundaries to expand the rights of all. Apparently “A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats” does not simply apply to ‘supply-side economics.’ This is how it should be.

We will remember what you have done and what you have sacrificed, with gratitude.

I didn’t check the whole list because I’m lazy, but his name is Booger so who knows what troll shit he might have slipped in there. Today has been uneventful, just the way we like it. Woke up and aggressively cuddled Lily, who really just wanted to go back to sleep:

Had a couple iced coffees, ran the sprinklers, watered the indoor plants as well, made an orzo salad (orzo, avocado, zuch, squash, mushrooms, green onions, feta, green pepper, cherry tomatoes from the garden), grilled a pork loin in a sriracha bbq sauce, and feasted:

Got some strawberries and Rainier cherries and some WV peaches to choose from for dessert. I’m feeling kinda like cherries is gonna be the winner. I’m now about to settle in and watch the WHITEST SHOW ON EARTH, the annual Capital Forth on PBS.

Reader Interactions

108Comments

  1. 1.

    Yarrow

    That meal looks delicious. If I’m feeling energetic I’ll make eggs for dinner. Otherwise it’ll be cereal. The ditch digging took it out of me.

  2. 2.

    khead

    Not a bad week in American history:

    Declaration of Independence – July 4, 1776
    Frederick Douglass Rochester speech – July 5, 1852
    Battle of Gettysburg – July 1-3, 1863
    Surrender of Vicksburg – July 4, 1863
    Invasion of Sicily – July 10, 1943
    LBJ signs Civil Rights Act – July 2, 1964

  3. 3.

    eemom

    a couple iced coffees

    Cole, in the spirit of the post, and your own considerable service to the preservation of our freedoms, I hereby forever renounce my lifelong dedication to the cause of the word “of”. Happy 4th. ?❤️?? #godbless

  4. 4.

    khead

    Not a bad week in American history:

    Declaration of Independence – July 4, 1776
    Frederick Douglass Rochester speech – July 5, 1852
    Battle of Gettysburg – July 1-3, 1863
    Surrender of Vicksburg – July 4, 1863
    Invasion of Sicily – July 10, 1943
    LBJ signs Civil Rights Act – July 2, 1964

  7. 7.

    Shell

    I made a shrimp and avocado roll. The original recipe called for lobster but,hey, like Im made of money?
    ******
    Hey, looks like Lilys fur is growing back.

  12. 12.

    Shell

    Hmm, raspberries or chocolate ice cream? With this heat the ice cream’s been winning out.

  15. 15.

    lamh36

    Wait…what…
    Somone said the victim on CNN said Jordan also took showers with them!!!

    Has anyone seen this interview?

    @lovealaska1105
    “Jim Jordan also took showers with us”, said, sexual victim Mike DiSabato ex-Ohio State Wrestler. WHAT????? OMG! @Jim_Jordan

    2:11 PM – Jul 4, 2018

  16. 16.

    Mnemosyne

    I was going to defend “A Capitol Fourth” since they seemed to have a fairly diverse list of performers, until I discovered that the Broadway cast of “Escape to Margaritaville” is one of the featured performances.

    Yep. Hopelessly, embarrassingly white.

  22. 22.

    Shell

    Put the raspberries on the chocolate ice cream. It’s a classic combination.

    Once again, BJ has proved invaluable.

  23. 23.

    khead

    So far, the only way that that “A Capital Fourth” could get any whiter would be to send out Up With People.

  29. 29.

    lamh36

    @Mnemosyne: did you see the article about how Chump co couldn’t find ANYONE to play the WH 4th celebration…lol.

    Just sad…at least Capitol 4th has somewhat big names to draw folks in

  30. 30.

    A Ghost To Most

    40 years ago, I was about to leave the service, getting my first look at RMNP, and about to meet my future wife.

    /old

  31. 31.

    Shell

    the annual Capital Forth on PBS.

    Im delighted to see you can stream it live on YouTube.

  32. 32.

    JPL

    Renee Fleming is sing You’ll never walk alone. Ever since the first time I heard that song, I said bullshit, and will continue doing so.

  34. 34.

    CarolDuhart2

    People are already setting fireworks off in my neighborhood, and the sun hasn’t set yet. What’s the point, neighbors? Just setting off any extra for the fun of it? In any event, spent the fourth in my airconditioned house, refusing even a family barbecue. Don’t need the grief or the heat.

    Kudos to the girl who climbed the Statue of Liberty today. And boos to the MAGAs. So she endangered her life. The Freedom Riders did so too, and three of them died. Liberty always has some risk to it, or at least some inconvience.

    Ceres, busy grooming herself, isn’t disturbed by the booms at all. She must know they are far away from her (and they are), and she certainly can’t see them.

  37. 37.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @cwmoss:
    If none will answer how will I ever know? I’m at work so I can’t look it up.

  39. 39.

    efgoldman

    I’m now about to settle in and watch the WHITEST SHOW ON EARTH, the annual Capital Forth on PBS.

    My kids are on the roof of her office building on I St NW. They can’t see the TV production, which sucks (not that they can’t see it – the production) but they have a view of the fireworks, straight toward the Washington Monument.

  40. 40.

    NotMax

    Probably just the picture quality, but the pork looks suspiciously on the pinkish side.

    Who to think of from that era? Crispus Attucks.

  42. 42.

    Gelfling 545

    About 1 day a year it gets hot enough for me to get in a swimming pool. Today was the day. It hit 97 here, hot enough to prod me to drive to my sister’s and get in the pool. She banished the grand kids for an hour so the olds could relax in comfort.

  43. 43.

    dmsilev

    Sitting on the Boston Esplanade, waiting for the fireworks. Concert just started, but it’s traditionally pretty bad so the fact I can barely hear it down near the Mass Ave bridge isn’t much of a loss. Pretty crowded already, and still two hours until the pretty lights.

    Guy on the blanket behind me brought his dog. I’m not sure I approve of that; I doubt the dog is going to have a good time once the loud noises start.

  46. 46.

    Mnemosyne

    @JPL:

    Also, CeCe Wynans, Chita Rivera, and some other names that did not stick in my head when I glanced at the page. But they can’t escape the bright white light cast by “Escape to Margaritaville.” ?

    @lamh36:

    Like Kay keeps saying, they want to be able to insult and belittle us and yet still demand our love and respect. I’m very glad that even right-wing performers have realized how toxic the current White House is. They’re more afraid of us than they are of the deplorables who make up their actual fan base! ?

  50. 50.

    efgoldman

    @dmsilev:

    Sitting on the Boston Esplanade, waiting for the fireworks

    I broadcast from around 200pm to the concert for about ten years, tent behind the shell.
    Got so blase i left at the start of the concert to beat the traffic.
    Better than the year we took the T, and by the time we got out of the Alewife garage, it was three ayem.

  51. 51.

    dmsilev

    Oh Lord. A couple of people right next to me are earnestly discussing how cool Rand Paul is and how people like him are the saviors of the Republican Party, and that Social Justice Warriors are evil.

    Would it be wrong of me to shove them into the river? It’d be easy; we’re right on the bank. Probably would be wrong. Sigh.

  52. 52.

    efgoldman

    @dmsilev:

    Would it be wrong of me to shove them into the river?

    Stick them in front of the howitzers.
    Concert has gone to hell since Mugar gave it up.

  53. 53.

    dmsilev

    @efgoldman: Once they started national tv broadcasts, it became filled with the same sort of white bread anodyne pop music mentioned upthread. They still do the 1812 though.

  54. 54.

    dmsilev

    @efgoldman: I’m pretty sure those are shooting blanks. Mostly sure, anyway, there’s always the chance that Boston will mount a surprise bombardment of Cambridge as a prelude to invasion.

  55. 55.

    NotMax

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Let’s put it this way: the whole schmear (pseudo-wholesomeness, blatant jingoism, transparent marketing created by monied interests) was troweled on so thick it made the Osmonds look like the Manson family in comparison.

    Bleargh, I say.

  56. 56.

    efgoldman

    @dmsilev:

    They still do the 1812 though.

    We celebrate our independence day with music marking the victory of one European Imperial country over another, quoting their national anthems.
    Always made sense to me.

  57. 57.

    NotMax

    @dmsilev

    Point directly at them and laugh. Loudly. An extended bwahhahahahaha. Repeat each time they open their yaps about it.

  61. 61.

    efgoldman

    I clicked over to PBS to see the fireworks… and found some klowns pretending to be the ghosts of the Beach Boys. Blargh indeed. Mute button time.

  63. 63.

    NotMax

    @Yarrow

    Well, <em.somebody other than varsity tennis players and cricketers has to keep the V-neck sweater makers in the black.

    ;)

  65. 65.

    Suzanne

    @Mnemosyne:

    they want to be able to insult and belittle us and yet still demand our love and respect

    Yes. They realize that they are no longer central to American life and instead seek to humiliate us because they’re bitter AF.

    Kinda wish I was British right now, not going to lie.

    However, I have a nice story to share. My third-grade teacher is now retired, and is now the chair of my local Dem LD. She has also been a candidate for local office herself. She is just awesome. One of my favorite people in the entire world. Anyway, she lost her husband two years ago, and her kids and grandson are the light of her life. Last week, her daughter and her son-in-law welcomed a new baby girl, and her son-in-law is being naturalized today.

    It’s been such a shitty couple of years, and these kinds of things are all that make it bearable.

  67. 67.

    Shell

    and found some klowns pretending to be the ghosts of the Beach Boys.

    They do look a little brittle.

  69. 69.

    raven

    The Crisis
    by Thomas Paine
    December 23, 1776
    THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rate

  73. 73.

    Amir Khalid

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    I think Greta Garbo’s actual words were, “I don’t want your botheration! Get away, leave me be!” Or something to that effect.

  76. 76.

    EBT

    Spent my afternoon dunking on a transphobe with 20 times my followers (after judicious use of block chain on his followers). Enjoyment was had by all.

  77. 77.

    eemom

    You’ll never walk alone

    Isn’t that the thing Jerry Lewis sang tearily at the end of the Labor Day telethon for like a thousand years?

  80. 80.

    eemom

    @raven:

    I’ve belatedly been watching Ken Burns’ Vietnam miniseries. Understand why you hate LBJ, despite the good that he did.

  83. 83.

    efgoldman

    @Ben Cisco:

    Fireworks going off (even though they’re illegal here).

    The neighbors who try to blow their hands off every year are apparently away for the holiday.

  84. 84.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Saw “Ocean’s 8” and then went to a BBQ at a neighbor’s house. Moving truck comes early tomorrow. I expect I’ll be out of touch for a couple of days.

  89. 89.

    Anne Laurie

    @efgoldman:

    Concert has gone to hell since Mugar gave it up.

    In his defense, Keith Lockhart said Rachel Platten was the headliner because “This Is My Fight Song” was his daughter’s favorite song in the world. Given how you feel about your own daughter, I thought that might be slightly mitigating…

  90. 90.

    geg6

    I want to extend a big thank you to Adam for his inspiration today. At my family gathering, we took turns reading parts of the Declaration. We all agreed that we are firmly committed to fighting, however we may be forced to, the ideals and sentiments first declared by our founders 242 years ago. It was quite emotional for all of us. A lovely reminder on a holiday we have usually considered a summer party day that we must be prepared to live up to our vision of a righteous nation.

  91. 91.

    Bill Arnold

    For the Facebook haters, this is quite good, and rather funny if one likes their funny dark.
    Cory Doctorow: Zuck’s Empire of Oily Rags

    It’s fashionable to treat the dysfunctions of social media as the result of the naivete of early technologists, who failed to foresee these outcomes. The truth is that the ability to build Facebook-like services is relatively common. What was rare was the moral recklessness necessary to go through with it.

    …But it was also obvious from the start that amassing huge dossiers on everyone who used the internet could create real problems for all of society that would dwarf the minute gains these dossiers would realize for advertisers.

    …A decade later, everything is on fire and we’re trying to tell Zuck and his friends that they’re going to need to pay for the damage and install the kinds of fire-suppression gear that anyone storing oily rags should have invested in from the beginning, and the commercial surveillance industry is absolutely unwilling to contemplate anything of the sort.

  92. 92.

    debbie

    My town’s fireworks just started, about a block from my apartment. They don’t sound like they used to when I was a kid. Louder and crasser. Maybe it’s more about explosions than colors.

  93. 93.

    efgoldman

    @Anne Laurie:

    Given how you feel about your own daughter, I thought that might be slightly mitigating…

    Used to ba a sort of classical Pops concert with a pop or country act thrown in.
    I know, lawn get off it, swing my onion….

  98. 98.

    Achrachno

    @lamh36: This is more than I’d heard. The media are not yet covering this very well — more protection of Republican hypocrites? Went searching and found this on Yahoo news sports:

    “Dr Strauss was one of those that took a lot of showers and soaped himself a lot,” DiSabato said. “So, when you look at the definition of sexual abuse and sexual assault — and Jim Jordan just went on record saying he knew about the facilities — he took showers with us. He saw Dr. Strauss and others perform these kinds of acts in front of us.”

    Still some clarification and detail needed, but this is not looking good for Jordan. I wonder if these reports are coming from Republican circles opposed to Jordan’s reported efforts to become House Speaker.

  100. 100.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Yarrow:

    Apparently Up with People is still a thing. I googled it. There are tour dates.

    Jesus Christ. We have trump AND them?

    @Omnes Omnibus: how was that not in your dossier, fellow Gooner?

  101. 101.

    J R in WV

    Fried up some hot Italian sausage with a sweet onion and peppers, and cole slaw with horseradish in. Gin and Tonic before dinner, lager with. Chillin now. Dawgs are in and a little restless, we can hear booms in the distance, which is at least 15 miles away.

    Could be neighbors, I guess. We can’t ever see the pretty flashes in the sky for being in the little cove, dark hollow in the woods. But the booms, There was one just now that I felt instead of hearing.

    Have some champagne for later in the week, saving some good stuff for a special occasion… leave that to your imagination…!

  102. 102.

    mad citizen

    In recent years it always sounds like a war is going on in my neighborhood during these couple of hours. I need to move to the country away from people. They’re the worst.

  104. 104.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Steve in the ATL: I was an artillery officer. Gunner?

    ETA: The posh-ish are always Arsenal or Chelsea. And even with Joe Strummer’s support, I can’t do Chelsea.

  107. 107.

    Drunkenhausfrau

    My 13 year old pug is freaking out. Why does celebrating indepence have to sound like war?

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