Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

In my day, never was longer.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

Republicans don’t trust women.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

Their freedom requires your slavery.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

This blog will pay for itself.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

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

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, it’s door #2)

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Fourth of July Afternoon Open Thread

Reader Interactions

131Comments

  1. 1.

    piratedan

    turns out that the latest NYT OpEd is from a guy who states that

     

    1. he’s a non-voter
    2. voting doesn’t really change anything

    Turns out that this bit of voter suppression is coming from a guy who actually did vote in the last two elections.

     

    Like to thank the Times for their vigorous application of editorial process to give this guy a shine box.

  2. 2.

    Another Scott

    Just scanning my tabs before also getting to work.

    Let’s see… WhiteHouse.gov:

    JULY 04, 2024

    Statement from NSC Spokesperson Adrienne Watson Welcoming the Humanitarian Truce in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo

    The United States welcomes the two-week humanitarian truce committed to by the parties to the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The humanitarian situation in North Kivu is dire, with close to 3 million internally displaced people (IDP) in the province. The recent expansion of fighting in North Kivu has prevented humanitarian workers from reaching hundreds of thousands of IDPs in the area around Kanyabayonga and displaced more than 100,000 people from their homes.

    The two-week humanitarian truce, which will begin at midnight local time on July 5 and will continue through July 19, commits the parties to the conflict to silence their weapons, allow for the voluntary return of displaced people, and provide humanitarian personnel unfettered access to vulnerable populations. The truce covers areas of hostilities most affecting civilian populations.

    This development builds on the confidence building measures secured during Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Avril Haines’ travel to the DRC and Rwanda in November of last year, and her subsequent engagements with Presidents Felix Tshisekedi of the DRC and Paul Kagame of Rwanda. The United States remains fully in support of the Luanda process and the Government of Angola’s efforts to address the current and historic factors perpetuating this longstanding crisis.

    The Governments of the DRC and Rwanda have expressed support for this two-week humanitarian truce to ease the suffering of vulnerable populations and set conditions for broader de-escalation of tensions in eastern DRC. The U.S. Government calls on all parties to honor the spirit of the truce prior to it taking effect.

    The U.S. Government will continue to use its intelligence and diplomatic resources to monitor activities by armed forces and non-state armed groups during the humanitarian truce.

    ###

    Good, good. Fingers crossed that it leads to more.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  5. 5.

    Suzanne

    Went running this morning for an hour. Sweated my ass off. Then took the dog for a walk, and sweated some more. Then went to hot yoga. Yep: puddles on the floor. See what I am doing with my election-related anxiety?!

    In all seriousness, I have come to the conclusion that, looking at my project schedule over the next nine months, postcard-writing is likely the most I can do this cycle. But I talked SuzMom into doing it, too! So Postcards to Voters got two new volunteers today.

    In an hour, I will be heading to the airport to pick up Mr. Suzanne and the Spawns, who have been visiting Meemaw this week. I have missed them terribly. The hose is much cleaner, though.

    I will continue thinking only about the UK election today and the French election on Sunday.

  6. 6.

    geg6

    Helping my sister with last minute prep for a family Fourth.  Am looking forward to small children (2-5 yo) who I likely won’t have to deal with again until Labor Day.  They’re cute and funny but only in small doses.  There is a reason I don’t have kids.

  7. 7.

    raven

    Well, I’ll post the 1970 Champaign-Urbana “Freedom Celebration” video again.  

    I’d been home less than a year and was solid with the anti-war people in C-U. I don’t know how but the anti-war contingent got at the front of the parade and, when we got to Lincoln and Green, we were set upon by pro-Vietnam war people and it ended up a serious brawl.  I guess things are worse now and I can no longer go toe-to-toe with the fascists but I ain’t givin up either.

  8. 8.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I’m up to about a gallon an hour of sweat. 3″ of rain last night and the temp right now is pushing maximum sweat lodge. More torrential rains tonight from a cold front with highs in the low 80s tomorrow so we’ll get a little relief then.

  9. 9.

    Mousebumples

    Happy Fourth.

    Went to a parade this am (in a WOW county, in Wisconsin). Wore my RBG shirt (with VOTE and DISSENT on it). Definitely in the minority, as there were lots of cars/trailers in the parade for Republicans running for office.

    I did see Democrats walking, though! It included a woman in a Women for Biden shirt. She gave me a list of localish candidates for Dems with their websites. I thought that was smart! Not helpful for me since I’m not local, but great to have that at the ready to share who’s running for State Assembly and Senate!

    Anyhow, I don’t expect Dems to win this locale. But even a 40/60 split is better vs 25/75, right? (and hopefully help some squishy Dem curious voters feel they’re not alone)

  10. 10.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    We were looking at the weather.  We figure the Osage along Bonnots is flooded.  Always a question of how far up the underpass for the RR tracks the water comes.

    If it happened suddenly, it’s always a hoot to watch everybody pull their trailers out in a panic at the last minute. Nearest thing to a traffic jam the town sees.

    One year we walked down the tracks and helped the turtles who stranded themselves trying to get over the tracks when fleeing the floodwaters.

  12. 12.

    BR

    I haven’t seen much “so what” about the “so old” question in the media. What are the actual consequences that really really matter? (I know there are some, but the idea that the president is doing deals with world leaders by arm wrestling is a bad hollywood version of reality.)

    One way Biden himself or other older Dems can frame it is to say — “People are saying I’m too old. Are they saying I’m so old that I’ll send a mob to the capitol to try to stage a coup to overturn the election? That I’m so old that I’ll drool on myself while sleeping through my own felony trial? That I’m so old that I’ll spend time during meetings with congress talking about sharks and electricity? That I’m so old that I’ll roll over for Putin in Helsinki?”

  13. 13.

    Suzanne

    @Mousebumples: Those candidate lists and “voters’ guides” are fantastic. Especially for things like judges, where it is really difficult to be informed enough about each judge to make a meaningful selection. Even for those of us who follow this inside baseball, it can be really great to communicate about the whole party slate.

  14. 14.

    Mousebumples

    @Suzanne: Great news! Glad to have you both.

    If anyone else is thinking about postcarding, email Join AT TonyTheDemocrat.org to get started.

    (personally, I use slack to get new addresses, but email works too!)

    They have addresses for Stephanie Vanos, running for school board in Florida right now, if anyone has time or interest. 😊

  16. 16.

    frosty

    @Mousebumples: ​In PA, moving the split to 40/60 in the rural “T” counties wins the state. It’s how Fetterman did it: “Every County. Every vote.” I hope Wisconsin is the same.

    ETA My NY brother is going to be postcarding this year.

  17. 17.

    Mousebumples

    @Suzanne: absolutely! None of these people will be on my ballot, but definitely something I look for at my local Dem website.

    One thing I’d love to see movement on, locally, is getting Dems to run for DA, Judge, etc. So many non-leg races are GOP running unopposed, which is frustrating.

    But I’m not wanting to run, but someone else that’s a Dem should so I can vote for them.

  19. 19.

    Mousebumples

    @frosty: I’m hoping we’ll get there. We’ll see!

    WisDems have a candidate for all 16 State Senate seats that are up this year, and in 97 of 99 Assembly districts. With maps being set in like March (for an August primary – so signatures probably had to be in by June?) that feels pretty good!

    ETA – yay more postcards!

    I have a very active friend who just hurt her ankle. Might need to see if she needs an activity while she’s off the ankle for 2 months…

  20. 20.

    RedDirtGirl

    I’ve been in a funk since the debate, but trying to keep it to myself. Am writing postcards and giving money on BJ and staying away from the MSM, but have found that I am even needing to limit my time on the outer reaches of the inter webs as well. Just feel too raw right now.

  21. 21.

    Jeffg166

    @Suzanne: Voting mail in ballot at home I get to look the judges up. The republicans usually don’t list their party affiliation. Then I look up their ruling. Those are a giveaway. I know not to vote for them.

  22. 22.

    Ben Cisco

    Bringin this up from Down Below:

    Happy Fifteenth Day Since Juneteenth for all who celebrate.

    Also, remembering Papa Cisco on his birthday.

  24. 24.

    JoyceH

    I’m just going to get Indian takeout and loll around with the pets today. But let me tell you something I find satisfying, and you might too if you’re as mean-spirited as I am. I learned recently that Steve Bannon was spending hours every day ranting into his podcast. Hours. That’s not a business, that’s a compulsion. So I like to imagine Bannon sitting on his bunk talking into his hairbrush, playing podcaster like a little girl pretending to be a rock star.

  25. 25.

    VFX Lurker

    I celebrated the Fourth of July by throwing $100 towards the latest Balloon-Juice fundraiser for Four Directions in Wisconsin. Going to go exercise, then I’ll bake a cherry pie and visit good friends for the holiday. Will also see if I can scribble five Postcards to Voters somewhere in-between.

    I also posted this on Facebook: Democracy is not a spectator sport. Vote. Donate. Volunteer.

  26. 26.

    Almost Retired

    Met my adult sons for breakfast and to watch the annual Hermosa Beach Ironman – run a mile, swim a mile and then chug six beers.  It’s in its 51st year.  It is every bit as stupid as it sounds.

  27. 27.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    I’m having a fellow Denver jackal and spouse over this afternoon!  Dunno if they’ll stay around for the neighborhood Terror Boom Bomb Time.

    Heh heh, if not, we get on our bikes and ride around to see who’s shooting off a thousand dollars worth of Terror Booms at any given intersection.

  28. 28.

    Mousebumples

    @RedDirtGirl: take care of you. I find doing something every day to help Democrats win helps me. (and it might be as little as ordering stamps!) I hope you can find the right mental health hack for you. Glad to have you on the postcarding team!

  31. 31.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: There are flood warnings all up and down the Missouri and the Mississippi. They’ve been having a lot of rain up in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and iirc the southern part of Minnesota. Shades of ’93.

    For us here in the hills and hollers, if we get anything like 3″ again tonight, Indian Creek will jump it’s banks and probably put Hwy A under water, which will be a first in our 14+ years here.

  33. 33.

    Almost Retired

    @Raven:  At Good Stuff a half block away.  Check you out with your knowledge of South Bay trivia!!

  38. 38.

    Trivia Man

    Bike ride around the lake, about 12 miles i think. Then way laid by an ice cream shop. Cloudy, cool, a very few raindrops.

  40. 40.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Baud:

    Polls close at 10pm their time, so 5pm Eastern. They should have exit polls almost immediately; dunno how long until actual votes are counted and announced.

  42. 42.

    Ben Cisco

    I’m at home with Mama Cisco, taking an extended weekend to relax.

    She’s heard all the sturm und drang* regarding Joe, and she’s not particularly concerned. She said that Joe has a TEAM, and if anything had arisen before now, MVP is there because it is literally her job. Gotta love someone who’s so dialed in that she made me watch the Watergate hearings as a child. She’s older than Joe, and wouldn’t want the job herself, but says he’s fine, and markedly prefereable to the alternative.

    *Used b/c parallels to the late thirties and a certain Eurpoean country. Speaking of that reich, guess where they got their playbook from? Forty quatloos to the first person to guess correctly…

  43. 43.

    Pink Tie

    I’m apparently one of the few out here who absolutely loves fireworks and am excited every time, especially when they are well done (ie professional/municipal display vs gas-station packs set off in a redneck’s backyard, although that can be a weird thing of beauty). One of the most beautiful, moving fireworks displays I’ve ever seen was in Norfolk, Virigina, during OpSail 2000. All of these incredible tall ships crewed by sailors from all over the world, with a velvety dark sky and each ship’s sailors singing in their native languages. I get that fireworks can be upsetting, but it’s just the one night a year, for less than an hour. I’m upset and triggered by many things too, but I don’t fully understand why people get so worked up about fireworks that they call for bans.

  45. 45.

    Trivia Man

    @Mousebumples: And city clerks particularly. Many years ago, as a young man, i was so outraged my congressman was running unopposed i decided to run myself. Only got 26% but it cost me little and i like to think helped show my deep red WI county that democrats DID exist. I cant recall for sure but i may have been the only D on the ballot besides president and senator.

  51. 51.

    narya

    Went for a run this morning, did a little consulting work. I’m thawing out some cod for dinner; I want to make lettuce wraps with it, but I’m not sure what else I want to throw in with it. I’ll probably make a yogurt-lime dressing of some kind (because I have yogurt that needs using, and limes), maybe shred some carrots, quick-pickle some onions, chop some tomatoes that are sitting around. And I should make a dessert, but haven’t decided what, yet. Maybe walk up along the lake to see the Evanston fireworks later tonight.

  55. 55.

    Geminid

    Turkish President R.T. Erdogan will attend the Euro football semi-final in Berlin Saturday, between the Netherlands and Turkiye.

    This follows a controversy over a Turkish player flashing the “Grey Wolf” sign after his team beat Austria a couple days ago. The sign is associated with violent Turkish ultra-nationalist groups, it’s banned in a few European countries (but not Germany). The European football authority opened an investigation of the incident and the Turkish Foreign Ministry called Germany’s Ambassador in to receive a protest.

    Aside from the political statement made, Erdogan probably just wants to see the game. Erdogan was a baller in his younger days, and might have gone pro if his father, a Coast Guardsman, had not insisted he go to college.

  56. 56.

    H.E.Wolf

    Thank you to all the new and continuing GOTV postcard writers.

    Stamp prices are a bargain this coming week! …because they go up on July 14th*.

    *Yes, on Bastille Day… fichez le camp, Monsieur Ministre des Postes Louis DeJoy!

  57. 57.

    RedDirtGirl

    Thanks for the kind words everyone. I think I’m struggling so much because I had actually been feeling cautiously optimistic about the election prior to the debate, but now just feel a constant low level anxiety.

  59. 59.

    Josie

    I have recently discovered that roasted grapes are delicious. Made a roasted grape crostata. Yum. Then today I found a recipe for apple grape cobbler. I can’t wait to try it. I love the internet. There is always something new to cook.

  61. 61.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @The Truffle:

    FTFNYT is simply the NY Post with a thesaurus.  CNN is basically the National Enquirer with better photos.

  62. 62.

    xephyr

    I think things started going downhill when the Star Spangled Banner was picked over America the Beautiful for our national anthem. Think about it… we wouldn’t have bombs literally bursting in air for several days over the 4th of July and we wouldn’t have all these morons believing that worshipping the flag makes them patriots – all the while being clueless about what it actually stands for. Who makes these freaking decisions anyway? I wasn’t consulted dammit! Anyway, I dread this holiday because I know how disruptive it is to the wildlife around here, including my cats. It can’t be over soon enough.

  63. 63.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Just passed a table of guys in the cafe downstairs talking about how Biden should drop out. They assured one another that political parties are private organizations and they could just change their own rules and do it. If I had to guess, I’d guess these guys were Rs.

    I’m really amazed at all the people confidently expressing their understanding of what the Ds should do and how they can do it.

  64. 64.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Ben Cisco: ​Gotta love someone who’s so dialed in that she made me watch the Watergate hearings as a child.

     We were haled out of French class (by the elderly Parisienne who was the head of the French dept.) to watch one of the very earliest Watergate hearings – McCord was the witness that afternoon.

    The teacher who insisted we watch the hearings was the same teacher who once stood at the front of our classroom and – very martially – sang “La Marseillaise” to us. She would have been old enough to remember Les Boches occupying her beloved Paris during WWII.

    In her memory, our household watched “Casablanca” last weekend, with special attention to the defiant “Marseillaise” scene.

  66. 66.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @H.E.Wolf: I always use “Casablanca” as my example when I talk about delaying the delivery of backstory. In the movie, we find out what happened in Paris exactly halfway through, by which time, we’re dying to know

  67. 67.

    twbrandt

    @piratedan: I’m thinking of resubscribing to the NYT just so I can cancel again. Hopefully that dude is getting roasted in the comments (assuming there are comments).

  69. 69.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: ​ One of my aunts, outwardly a very businesslike person, once mentioned to me that she watched “Casablanca” every year (back in the era when that meant haunting the late-night channels on TV).

    She and her family fled the Nazis and came to the USA when she was a child. I suspect that she could relate to the emigrées in “Casablanca”.

    (The 19-year-old woman who played Yvonne in the film was a French emigrée. She’s front and center in the “Marseillaise” scene.)​

  70. 70.

    different-church-lady

    @xephyr: ​

    we wouldn’t have bombs literally bursting in air for several days over the 4th of July

    Oh you sweet summer child…

  73. 73.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @JoyceH:

    So I like to imagine Bannon sitting on his bunk talking into his hairbrush, playing podcaster like a little girl pretending to be a rock star.

    Personally I like to imagine Brannon in the beginning throes of the DTs. Why yes, I am that petty.

  74. 74.

    Phylllis

    Watching 1776 as I do every year on this day. It’s the director’s cut available for rental from Amazon. Especially poignant this year.

  75. 75.

    JWR

    Just now on NBC TV: Biden is “conflicted” and “privately torn” about continuing his campaign. He keeps going back and forth between staying or going, which makes him seem indecisive. None of this from named sources, so F them.

    They’ve also reported on a few mega-donors who they say have already thrown in the towel. I’d rather read what they actually said before believing what these “insiders” want me to believe, but if they’re gone, so be it, they’re not good Dems anyway. Also, last night Lloyd Doggett was on, I think it was PBS News Hour, opining on whether Joe should stay or go. Just STFU, Lloyd! You’re not helping at all.

  78. 78.

    dexwood

    @zhena gogolia: Truly. Assholes began using fireworks last Friday in my neighborhood. Maybe they’ll stop after Sunday. I hate having to drug Maggie Dog during this time, but she’s terrified. Here in the desert Southwest there is a real danger of fire associated with fireworks. Last year, my son lost half the small trees and large bushes in his front yard thanks to an asshole neighbor. The giant yucca he loved was a victim.

  79. 79.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @H.E.Wolf: FWIW, the entire supporting/secondary cast of “Casablanca” (including the Nazi characters) were refugees from the Nazis. One reason the “Marseillaise” scenes has so much power. It was personal to them.

  80. 80.

    E.

    @JWR: It’s like they are trying to turn it into O.J. fleeing the cops, with the entire world watching, wondering all together, “what will happen next?” I hate these people. Report the god damned news.

  81. 81.

    Eyeroller

    @H.E.Wolf: ​”Yvonne” in Casablanca was Madeleine Lebeau. She was married to the croupier played by her husband Marcel Dalio, though they were in the process of divorcing. He was Jewish and lost his entire family to the Nazis. Of course quite a few of the secondary and bit players were Jewish refugees, something that gives the atmosphere of authenticity to the acting. Madeleine was the last surviving credited cast member at the time of her death in 2016.​

  82. 82.

    Michael Bersin

    @xephyr:

    The tune for the national anthem is taken from a drinking/eating song written for and used by an English gentlemen’s social club – “The Anachreon in Heaven”. As was the practice in the period popular tunes would be appropriated and set to different texts. One of the early settings for this tune was “Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty”. Hence the original alcohol theme appears to hold. In modern usage Kansas City fans sing the ending of the national anthem with the modification “…and the home of the chiefs”. Suffice to say alcohol is present, but not linked to that textual modification.

    However, we can blame John Adams for the annual fireworks excesses (even with torrential rains some of my neighbors persist in trying to burn the neighborhood down – starting last night):

    “…It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more…” – John Adams – July 3, 1776

    It had been an annual custom to post fireworks images on Show Me Progress on this day – along with John Adams’ quote. I can’t find it in myself to do so, unless, maybe, I post the image upside down.

  84. 84.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @JWR: NBC translated: “Let’s ignore Biden’s explicit statement that he’s in it to win it when we can spread those delicious, delicious anonymous (that wedidn’t make them up, really) rumors.”

  85. 85.

    Eyeroller

    @JWR: NBC must be at the tail end of the rumor chain since Biden has pretty definitively said he’s staying in.  Those rumors (denied from the beginning) started circulating a couple of days ago.

  90. 90.

    cmorenc

    @BR:

    One way Biden himself or other older Dems can frame it is to say — “People are saying I’m too old. Are they saying I’m so old that I’ll send a mob to the capitol to try to stage a coup to overturn the election? That I’m so old that I’ll drool on myself while sleeping through my own felony trial?

    Those would have been great lines to have actually heard from Biden a week ago at the debate.  In fact, we were expecting he would say something just like that – it’s the sort of sharp zinger we heard from him back in 2012 when he chopped Paul Ryan into smoldering sawdust at the VP debate.  Wish he could have summoned those sort of razor-sharp chops a week ago.

  91. 91.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    Thanks everyone for the sympathy this morning for my dog. We have a basement that has a finished part but it has a basement level landing with full size windows. She usually holes up in a cubby in my mother in laws bedroom closet during fireworks and T storms but last night my wife and I tried to get her to go back downstairs but she didn’t want to. Our upstairs bedroom is a wood framed finished attic space but our downstairs is 9 inch thick masonry walls with good Marvin windows so we may sleep on the living room sofas tonight and put some ocean wave sounds on the stereo to drown things out. She went for a short walk today (about a mile total) and wallowed in our local creek. Chilled in the sunshine on the deck for a while.

    She still seems comfortable and is eating well and even begging for people food still. So we’re hoping it stays that way until Saturday and say goodbye.

    Damn I love this dog.

  93. 93.

    Eyeroller

    @Sister Golden Bear: Conrad Veidt (Major Strasser) was not Jewish, but he was a leftist and his third wife was Jewish.  He hated the Nazis and hated that most of the parts he was offered in the US during WWII were Nazis.  He got out of that by dying of a heart attack in 1943.

  94. 94.

    trollhattan

    @H.E.Wolf:

    We have fireworks and a sunrise flag, they have throat-slit sons, impure blood watering fields, mercenary phalanxes, bloodthirsty despots, and a casket.

    Guessing little French kids learning La Marseillaise are a bit perplexed by it all.

  99. 99.

    Elizabelle

    This time a year from now, we will know what happened in the election. And I am betting on Team Joe and Democrats.

    WRT the coordinated “kill him now” attack by the FTF NY Times:  starting to wonder at its timing.  Yes, they seized (and seized and seized) on Biden’s poor showing in the first 20 minutes of the debate.  Where his opponent stood there and lied throughout the whole thing.

    Why this timing?  They’ve been gearing up for weeks and months, yes.  But think about the Supremes finally delivering their horrifying late rulings, particularly on immunity and regulatory law.

    This is a diversional tactic too, isn’t it?  Keep the focus on Biden’s fallibilities, and not on the GOP-created Supreme Court, and its decisions that will harm us for years and years to come.

    What else are they diverting us from?

    Also, not to sound like a conspiracy nut, but just about everyone we know is cancelling their NY subscriptions.  If they did not years and years ago.

    Where does the NY Times get its money?  Real estate holdings?  Who else is funding this?

    This is the paper that spoon fed us Judith Miller’s reported lies to get the US into an unneeded war and destabilizing Iraq.  They are hardly immune to whitewashing bad sources.

  100. 100.

    xephyr

    @Michael Bersin: Thanks for the origin story. I always pray for rain, but as you say, it makes little difference to the level of enthusiasm. Oh well, it will be over after tonight, and after all the critters around here have been traumatized. Lovers of fireworks seem oblivious to all that of course.

  101. 101.

    Eyeroller

    @piratedan: ​Oh hey, turns out that dude with the extremely punchable face is a tradcath graduate of Hillsdale College and a hardcore MAGAt. And yes, he voted in 2020 and 2022. Wonder why he’s being platformed in the “paper of record.”

  104. 104.

    xephyr

    @BlueGuitarist: Yeah, Marvin Gaye could make anything sound good. Also I love that lyric – Til selfish gain no longer stain… As you say, This Land is your Land – also a good choice.

  106. 106.

    Montanareddog

    @Timill: according to an article in The Grauniad, the vast majority of UK constituencies will have declared by about 1am Eastern.

    But the exit polls have been reliable to within about 5 or 10 seats in the last 20 years so we should have a good idea of the size of the Tory rout by just after 5 pm.

  107. 107.

    NotMax

    @Pink Tie

    it’s just the one night a year, for less than an hour

    ::snort:: Do you offer package tours to your planet?

  110. 110.

    NotMax

    Post-morning catnap fix.

    @Pink Tie

    it’s just the one night a year, for less than an hour

    ::snort:: Do you offer package tours to your planet?

  111. 111.

    frosty

    @Michael Bersin: In modern usage Kansas City fans sing the ending of the national anthem with the modification “…and the home of the chiefs”.

    In modern usage in Baltimore, Orioles fans shout “O” … say can you see. It has now morphed over to Ravens games.

    I’ve never understood why Atlanta doesn’t sing “… home of the BRAVES??” Or do they and I don’t know about it?

  113. 113.

    Michael Bersin

    @xephyr:

    For over ten years the orchestra I play in did an outdoor two hour 4th of July concert preceding an extensive fireworks show at a metro area botanical garden in a rural area. The orchestra played under a large tent and the audience could number around 6,000. In this season the orchestra would contend with the heat and high humidity (I’d use a “marching” cello, rather than my own) and the acrid smell of insects burning as they contacted the incandescent spots under and around the tent (the last few years they switched to LED spots, thereby ruining the sense of time and place). We’d liberally spray our shoes and pant legs with DEET because there’s not a hell of a lot you can do when something is crawling up your leg in the middle of the 1812 Overture.

    The production cost to the botanical garden was significant. And, in what is an ironic tribute to American capitalism, a neighboring operation decided to put a 6,000 head cattle CAFO on 400 acres upwind from the botanical garden. There were lawsuits. Expensive lawsuits. I don’t know if it was cause and effect, but the orchestra hasn’t played the concert since.

  114. 114.

    stinger

    @Pink Tie: ​
     

    it’s just the one night a year, for less than an hour.

    You’re lucky. Here we get the eve of the holiday as well as the holiday, and sometimes using up leftovers the day after. And by “holiday” I mean July 4, Memorial Day, Labor Day, New Year’s Eve/Day, and other random days that must be dad’s birthday, kid’s graduation, whatever.
    Sure, they can be pretty to look at, especially with big budgets, tall ships, and international sailors. We don’t have that here, just irregular loud booms and bangs starting mid afternoon until after dark from various people’s yards all around us. It stresses my dogs. And I get to think about injuries and accidentally set fires.

  116. 116.

    Neal

    Remember, it is the dew point that makes it uncomfortable in the summer and not the relative humidity reading.

    Dew points between 60 to 65F are getting a tad uncomfortable. A dew point of 65 to 70F is uncomfortable. 70 to 75 very uncomfortable and anything over 75 is just dripping wet and oppressive.

    I had to keep a close eye on dew points in my career and remember a reading of 80 in Alabama one evening. That was seriously miserable.

    Interestingly, the dangerous dew points can be in Midwest cornfields. You can barely breath at that point.

    Anyway, forget humidity and add in a check of the dew point to determine how uncomfortable it is going to be,.

  118. 118.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @VFX Lurker: I’d love a piece of cherry pie, I’ll send you my coordinates, if I can just get my teleporter machine to fire up. I might be missing a part.

    So inconvenient

  119. 119.

    Soprano2

    I think I’m going to cook cheddar brats for supper and watch “A Capitol 4th”, then drive up the street to a parking lot overlooking the ballpark and watch the fireworks if it doesn’t rain.

    Turns out my cat has a heart problem. His chest cavity was full of fluid! He’d lost 2 lbs, and that was before the vet drained the fluid. He’s on enalapril daily and Lasix as needed. He’s started eating and cleaning himself again. It never occurred to me that a 3 year old cat would have a heart problem. The vet said it had probably been coming on for awhile, and the stress from the dog could have made it worse, but it would have happened regardless.

  120. 120.

    Gloria DryGarden

    Denver had a drone show. First time! The pix are great, friends who went loved it.

    The local horrible fireworks in the hood stopped after 11 or 12, I think because it got super windy. No loud startles at 2 And 3 am, wonderful. A sort of normal night. Hope tonight is equally peaceful.

    (even If it’s  because people feel sober and less festive about the possibility it could be our last Independence Day. A friend wrote that her bus driver spoke of it, in Portland, saying to her, as she got off the bus yesterday, happy last Independence Day.)

  121. 121.

    Soprano2

    @OzarkHillbilly: 1993 *shudder* That was a terrible year for flooding. That how my job became a regular job instead of temporary. We had a big overflow at our large treatment plant in September 1993; part of the settlement with DNR/EPA was to fix our sewer system so it wouldn’t overflow so much, and the permanent infiltration/inflow abatement program was born. We have one of the oldest I/I programs in the U.S. because of that.

    We’re supposed to get rain here tonight. I hope we do because it’s pretty dry.

  122. 122.

    Soprano2

    OMG, literally just heard the following on All Things Considered  – “Biden isn’t dropping out, but we’ll talk about a list of possible replacements just in case he does.” At this point it’s masturbation on the part of the press.

  126. 126.

    Michael Bersin

    @xephyr:

    Heh. My stories are similar to those of almost every musician who has played an outdoor concert during this season.

    Decades ago I spent a summer at a music festival in the lower peninsula of Michigan. One of the outdoor venues had an ancient stage and a vast covered open to the air audience area. In temperate weather spiders would take residence in the fly space above the stage – and rapidly descend on filament from above on to the orchestra below.

    During rehearsals you’d hear the call “spider” from someone behind you – in the string sections anyone who observed the descent would stand up and swing their bow to cut the filament to drop the spider to the floor (hopefully, not on someone’s head). It was an almost mesmerizing ballet…

  129. 129.

    SomeRandomGuy

    a

    @Elizabelle: Well, here are a few things I think I’m starting to ponder, things they might want to hide.

    They said private notes and advisers were strictly off limits, which means the entire chain of command is hidden from law enforcement. If news media get proof that a particular advisor did something wrong, it sounds like criminal investigators couldn’t introduce into evidence who was involved, nor even (e.g.) whether the President was informed it was blatantly illegal.

    Trump’s tweets are public and his attorneys are going to do their absolute best to make it seem like this is where they’re overreaching, because they want the SCOTUS to give a “win” like “Trump’s tweets  are public, not private,” and people think the rule of law is restored.

    But, here’s the big point: RIGHT NOW, NO ONE CARES ABOUT WHAT A SITTING PRESIDENT CAN DO, see? They’re focusing on what it did for an *ex-president*. SCOTUS wants that decision to stand as binding precedent, waiting for a Republican fox to guard the America henhouse. The OLC can declare anything lawful, including the destruction of evidence, and possible “accidental” killings during arrests and misunderstandings.

    Who’s the OLC?

    The OLC gets to decide what’s legal, unless/until the courts review it. All the OLC would have to do is find justification to call any action an act of the president’s official powers, and then, they would get immunity. I think. I’m not a lawyer, but this *sounds* like the sort of legal stuff I already know. The SCOTUS said the President was *immune* to prosecution for official acts, and I saw how that’s more than just “can’t be indicted.” (IIRC, immune means the law just doesn’t exist for you. Want to cut the tops off a bunch of parking meters? They can’t even yell at you for littering, for fear of defaming HRHoarson that bloated toad that lost a fight with a Cheeto bag with mold growing in it.)

    Private records (like, all the stuff in HRHoarson’s boxes, they’re all *private* now, bet on it) can’t be introduced in court.

    Advisors can’t be forced to give testimony in court, so, subpoenas only exist for a Republican Congress to investigate a Democratic President.

    Sorry – not a lawyer, just a person with a nasty imagination.

  130. 130.

    SomeRandomGuy

    @Soprano2: to be brutally fair, they weren’t going to introduce it with “look, we only have this segment to play right now, *OKAY*? I’d prefer a last minute fluff piece too!”

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