In past years I posted excerpts from the Declaration of Independence on July 4. But I’m not feeling it this year.
I am old enough to remember the Bicentennial observations in 1976. There were celebrations and commemorative events around the country, not just in Washington. Most notable was the flotilla of tall ships sailing into New York’s harbor. There were historical programs, “Bicentennial minutes” on TV, and decorations on local public buildings and fixtures, right down to red-white-and-blue fire hydrants. At noon on July 4 we went out on the streets and rang bells.
The mood of the country is different now. There are fewer events for America’s 250th birthday and the crowds are smaller.
That’s not to say things were better in the United States 50 years ago. The divisions of the Vietnam War years had not healed. There were plenty of people who thought that some Americans should be second-class citizens based on the color of their skin or their gender. Gay, lesbian, and bisexual people could rarely live their lives publicly. Transsexuals (the term used at the time) were even more oppressed.
But in some important ways things are worse today. There are many who maintain that some Americans shouldn’t be Americans at all, based on where their ancestors came from, how they speak, or how they worship. The gains that racial minorities, women, and LGBT people have made since 1976 are uncertain and under threat. And there are still those who think their wealth buys them more privileges than everyone else.
When I quote from the Declaration, I have to omit the slur against the so-called savage Indians, which decries their cruelty in warfare, when in fact everyone is cruel in war. And I have to talk around the fact that many of the men who signed it were slaveholders and the rest condoned slavery. When they said that all men are created equal, they really meant free white men, primarily landowners. But they used broad, general terms for their stirring rhetoric. Later generations found inspiration in what they wrote that went beyond what they really thought at the time.
So this year I am quoting from a later and much shorter document, the Pledge of Allegiance. Its last line, “with liberty and justice for all,” has never been a true description of what we actually have in America. But it is a plainly stated, unqualified goal that we should strive for.
This Independence Day, I call you to join me in opposing anyone who wants to make liberty and justice available only to some.
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After the Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship, right-wing media proposed draconian policies to prevent travelers potentially giving
Right-wing media target pregnant and female travelers following SCOTUS birthright citizenship ruling
Pundits suggested refusing pregnant travelers visas, deporting “birthing-aged” women, and even sterilizing travelers entering the United States
Written by Reed McMaster & Torri Lonergan
Published 07/02/26 12:43 PM EDT
After the Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship, right-wing media proposed draconian policies to prevent travelers potentially giving birth in the United States. The policies demanded by right-wing media — which almost exclusively target female migrants — were often proposed under the guise of combating birth tourism, which the U.S. already has enforcement tools in place to prevent.
The president's comments were a little too "on the nose" given his massive windfall since returning to the White House.
Trump Mocked After ‘Thieves, Radicals And Lunatics’ Line Backfires Spectacularly
The president's comments were a little too "on the nose" given his massive windfall since returning to the White House.
By Ed Mazza
Jul 4, 2026, 12:56 AM EDT
President Donald Trump on Friday railed against communism during a bizarre speech at Mount Rushmore.
But as critics were quick to point out, his definition of what “communists” do sounds a lot like what he, his family and his associates have been accused of doing since he returned to the White House last year.
“Our American ancestors did not shed their blood at Concord and Trenton, Gettysburg and Shiloh, Midway and Normandy, just so that a band of thieves, radicals and lunatics could come in and loot, pillage our nation,” Trump said days after financial filings showed he earned more than $2 billion last year.
The Wall Street Journal editorial board this week accused Trump and his family of “profiting off the presidency in ways that demean the office.”
Trump’s windfall includes more than $1 billion from his crypto businesses ― money he pocketed, while The New York Times reported that some 764,000 other crypto wallets suffered massive losses.
Elon Musk, still alive at the quincentenary, sets the Guinness World Record for total number of children fathered, and total number of children estranged.
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Have seem some comments suggesting that birthright citizenship could become "The next roe v wade" which is a bit worrying, it is a classic political history point that abortion used not really to be a political issue except among catholics, who were few in number in the US, until some right-wing activists really went hard on in starting in the 70s and it became a central organizing issue on the right.
Yeah, overt hatred of the "foreign-born" is becoming really important in the Trump administration and the Republicans are embracing it to a worrying degree.
The Trump family invested almost nothing in their collective crypto scams, and has raked in $2.3 billion on them. Investors lost everywhere.
You can steal a man's money, but you can't make him admit he's been conned by Donald Trump.
Surely there has never been a better time to be a grifter in American history than the current moment. When we think of a flim-flam man, we tend to picture some slick, Harold Hill type running a door-to-door scam in rural America in an earlier, "simpler" time period, back when folks "trusted each other" and were thus supposedly more gullible. But at least the rubes of such a theoretical, hokey setting of Americana would have the decency to be incensed or rueful after realizing that their life savings had been stolen by the con man. In modern America, rampant, tribal partisanship has robbed the average MAGA mark of even that ability: You can be the President of the United States and steal every penny they possess in a disgustingly blatant crypto rug pull, and they won't even blame you for it once the money is irrecoverably gone. They'll just go on blaming the other side of the partisan divide while their own leader shamelessly counts his profits in full view of everyone, not even bothering to hide the naked profiteering.
For those of you who aren't familiar, I live in an exceptionally flammable part of the United States, and despite the fact that every goddamn year multiple parts of my state catch fire, destroy homes and kill people, the local assholes insist on getting drunk and setting fire to a bunch of illegal explosives anyway.
In 2023, God granted me a Miracle that prevented my house from burning down.
Last year, I had to resort to Psychological and Chemical Warfare to keep the patriotic arsonists at bay.
This year is apparently An Important Birthday for the clusterfuck we have the nerve to call a nation, so despite the fact there is so much smoke in the air that the sun has literally been blood red for the last week, the pyrotechnic fetishists are out in force.
Last year, I hit upon the concept that if my neighbors were going to act like problem animals, it would make sense to use the management techniques on them that you might use on say, a Bear that was doing serious property damage. Thusly, I created The Stench, a nontoxic but FOUL smelling concoction that I could discretely spray around the flammable gatherings and render the area extremely uncomfortable to occupy for the rest of the night, forcing them to give up or move on.
If this seems harsh:
There is no story from 2024 because a grass fire was started by fireworks less than 12 miles from me and the high winds put me in the evacuation zone in under an hour.
Over fifty people lost their homes.
Errant fireworks burning my house down is a very real possibility, and I pay the price in anxiety and insurance premiums.
The Stench is noxious but harmless, and also very effective at building a buffer zone around my home. But sneaking up to parties on foot in this heat is both exhausting and nerve-wracking. There have to be more effective ways to do this
-And there is!
It involves Weeds and Business Cards :)
All of this spring, I've been battling Bindweed and my City Code Enforcement Officers.
The city code people have been professional, but the truth is that one of my neighbors is calling them on use because one of my housemates is transgender. It's extremely grating to get these notices, having to explain repeatedly that I *AM* working on the weed situation, I just have a heart condition and No Money. It's also deeply paranoia-inducing to know that the city is regularly coming by and photographing my house.
The Solution to the Bindweed is 1 gallon of high-concentration vinegar, half a cup of Borax, a quarter cup of salt, and a couple tablespoons of dish soap. Get one of those weed sprayers from a hardware store and mix it up in there. Spray it on your thistles, bindweed, kudzu, garlic mustard or whatever your local herbaceous invasive is on a day with bright sunlight, and in a few hours the entire part of the plant above the soil is Deceased. It's non-toxic to insects, pets and wildlife (just wait a few months before trying to plant anything in the area for the traces to wash out).
The only real downside to this stuff is that it smells HEINOUS.
Sure, The Stench is nauseating, but WeedFucker 5000 is genuinely painful to inhale. Again, it wont hurt people- even my asthmatic housemates can use the stuff- but boy howdy it sure smells toxic. I've got the ingredients for about 40 gallons of WeedFucker 5000 prepared and ready to go.
I've also got a disposable hazmat suit, rubber boots and gloves, respirator, goggles and a shitty little golf cart from the free section of craigslist to haul my shit around in.
I also have Business Cards!
See, the very nice officers from the City Code department left some Very Nice business cards so that I may contact them about "the fucking bindweed is gone, get off my back".
So I scanned the business card into my computer, fired up Clip Studio, and made my own business cards. I've turned my City's Abstract Triangle Logo into an Eye of Providence and the slogan of "E Pluribus Unum" to "E Plurbis Anus", Changed my city's name to a dumb pun, and stated the card originates from "The Department Of Public Nuisances".
Crucially, where the name and contact information of the real city employee has been replaced with the name and business email of the neighbor who has been bragging on facebook about calling the city code department on my home because he hates my housemate :)
It looks, at a glance, very much like the business cards of city employees. If you look at it for like 5 seconds though, there's no way it could be mistaken for the real thing.
I've printed out 500 of these bad boys and will have them on hand as I, a put-upon employee, am forced to work overtime on a national holiday doing weed mitigation, because my boss can't manage deadlines for shit.
You're mad about it? I've been out here since 5 AM! But if we don't finish by the deadline we lose the contract and I could get fired. You know what the economy is.
Here, this is my Boss's Business card- how about you send him an email about how this has ruined your barbecue?
It's golden hour now, so I'm Suiting Up and preparing to embark on some civil service in the form of Noxious Weed Eradication, and by coincidence, Fire Mitigation.
I'll report back later Tonight🫡
(If you'd like to support your local disabled storyteller in their Acts Of Public Service, please consider donating to my Ko-Fi or supporting me on Patreon)
Well.
It's not quite an hour into July 5th.
I am very tired, may have destroyed my sense of smell, and am not sure if I'm proud of or VERY disappointed in my fellow citizens.
On one hand: FAR fewer fireworks parties this year!
- Only nine to last year's thirteen
- three of them had the good sense to be firing their recreational explosives out over the local reservoir
- That's far from foolproof
- and really bad for the fish
- also y'all are RIGHT NEXT to where the Bald Eagles are nesting
- but congratulations on at least attempting some risk mitigation!
On the other hand.
Absolutely NOBODY questioned why the hell I was out spraying weeds.
- In a Hazmat Suit (technically it's a coverall for painting rooms, which is much more breathable, but looks the part)
- In a Residential Area
- After Dark
- On a Federal Holiday
Like I'm glad I didn't get into a fight or something, but like.
I was Ready.
I had that conversation locked and loaded.
I MADE BUSINESS CARDS.
...But instead of Very Reasonably asking What The Fuck I Was Doing, the crowds at these parties saw me (5'0" flat, potato-shaped, sweating profusely) trundling up on the slowest and least-intimidating motor vehicle in the county*, hanging a bit out the side to spray thistles and bindweed on the streets and sidewalks**, and instead of raising a rival stink, I was instead greeted by some derisive muttering and a couple of "OH COME ON!"s, but the groups dispersed and retreated indoors or at least away from the general direction of my home.
*Like genuinely, I think Barbie's Dream Car has more horsepower than this golf cart. This thing doesn't have horsepower. It doesn't even have ponypower. It's running on duckpower. It waddles, something I didn't know a wheeled vehicle could do.
**Actually completely legal and a welcome community service in my city. Thank you Neighbor Barbara for telling me the exact part of city code that details what civilians are allowed to do about weeds on public roads, which is apparently "LOTS". Theoretically I could bill the city for my time tonight.
Do people not know how to Make A Scene anymore?
I was absolutely sure I was going to get filmed and shit thrown at me, or someone would call the cops. My beloved was terrified I was going to get shot. I at least had ONE woman shout "YOU'RE RUINING EVERYTHING!" at me, which isn't quite as good as being told I'm ruining Christmas, but she said it with a genuinely heartwarming anguish while gesturing to a homemade "HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!" banner, with an attempt at rendering The Evil Orange that as so enthusiastically yet talentlessly executed I almost stopped to get a picture of it. He looked like he'd been put in a wafflemaker.
I promised my beloved that I would turn around and come home at midnight, and I did, having eliminated every fireworks party and Scottish thistle in a five-block radius despite the lackadaisical maximum speed of my Steel Steed.
The complete lack of protest is honestly shocking to me. My flabbers are completely gasted. I waddled home on the golf cart in a sort of stunned silence that this HAS worked so well. The whole world is almost eerily quiet, and reeking of vinegar.
...Which is maybe why I didn't notice the cop pulling up beside me at a red light until he rolled down his window and leaned out at me.
"WHAT'RE YOU DOIN'?" He asked, in a voice that could be used as a foghorn in emergencies.
I probably would have jumped were I not currently melting into a semblance of the Chernobyl Elephant's Foot in the heat, which was the first thing that saved me.
The second was the voice of my Grandfather, coming to my aid through decades of generational memory, to tell me his words of wisdom, usually spoken right before doing something wildly inadvisable:
The Age Of Miracles Is Not Yet Over.
"Weed Mitigation!" I called back.
"CHRIST ON A BIKE, THEY GOT YOU GUYS WORKING THE HOLIDAY TOO?" He said, in the same fontissimo as before. Apparently Officer Foghorn just talks like this.
"Yep." I nodded.
"SHIT." He blared in solidarity. "WHEN DO YOU GET OFF?"
"Just finished."
"MOTHERFUCKER. THEY GOT ME OUT HERE UNTIL GODDAMN 5 AM." Officer Foghorn whined in THX.
"Shit." I commiserated.
The light turned green.
"ALRIGHT YOU GET HOME SAFE! GOD BLESS!" He waved, and drove off at something significantly above the speed limit, and I trundled on home.
I must have still looked shocked when I came in, because My Beloved immediately got up to hug me and ask if I was alright.
"The Age Of Miracles Is Not Yet Over." I nodded slowly as the animals all battered me about the legs for attention. "...For real though, absolutely nothing happened."
"What?" he squints, wobbling slightly as Charlie tries to shove him aside for better access to me. "That's... Is it weird to say I'm almost disappointed?"
"I mean, I confirmed that I inherited my Grandfather's supernatural ability to get out of trouble for no good reason, but we knew that from the code enforcement people." I shrugged. Selene finally noticed the smell of vinegar and retched in disapproval.
"How about a shower and some Ice cream?" My Beloved suggests.
So now it is July the 5th.
- My house is not ablaze
- There are four medium-sized carnivores sleeping on me
- I am freshly bathed
- and I have a pint of Americone Dream all to myself
Here's to you, your health and your happiness, and a reminder to go make good trouble. Goodnight all.
---
(If you enjoy reading about my adventures (and the occasional curious non-adventure) I'd appreciate it if you could tip me on Ko-Fi. Apparently my Patreon link is fucked but it's basically 1 in the morning and I can't be arsed.)
I have a good friend who is younger than I am. She has mentioned more than once that she has never had a true choice in an election because someone is always completely unqualified. Will we ever see an Obama-McCain matchup again, where you can be confident either candidate will not be morally bankrupt? It makes me sad that people her age have never really had an ethical choice in voting, or seen a country where people could disagree politically and not let it carry over into their personal lives and the disrespectful people were a small ignored minority not an entire political party and multiple "news" channels.
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So what is the oldest country, and why? These are obviously questions historians enjoy fighting over. “We wouldn’t have so many books and articles and disputes about this if it weren’t about definition and concept,” [history professor Charles] Maier said. As it turns out, America’s track record isn’t as long as some, but the nature of its longevity is much simpler to define than most. In the end, 250 years is “a long time for a constitutionally defined nation-state to exist, but it isn’t a long time for a national community to exist,” Maier said. At this point, we will take what we can get.
Make the upcoming 250th Anniversary of America about our duties to the Constitution and the world rather than loyalty to Trump or nativist bullshit.
Trump and his sycophants want to make the 250th about loyalty to Trump and to white Christian nationalism.
Don’t let them. Say it loudly and clearly: America’s challenge isn’t that we’re losing our whiteness or dominant religion or that too many foreigners are coming here. Our real challenge is preserving the ideals of democracy, the rule of law, equal justice, voting rights and civil rights, and social justice.
Kamala Harris, who never really stopped her presidential campaign after losing in 2024, has taken note of the wins by anti-Israel candidates in NYC and now Colorado. In true politician style, Harris, who has long supported Israel, seems to have chucked her previous positions in the recycling bin and is now test driving a switch to the other side. Her actions suggest that her thinking is something along the lines of, "Well, if that's what the voters want me to believe, it behooves me to believe it."
Kamala Harris has always been for a two state solution. She had a stronger stance against Isreal than the administration she was part of. I am tired of ppl saying she didn't support Gaza when she was the only running asking for a ceasefire. She was also the only offering really solution to the affordability problem. Real solution to the voting rights act Healthcare education housings and a lot of other stuff that has gone to shit now. But y'all continue the bs with her. @iamaffscandallover @glendathegoodone @serena1276 these ppl r truly getting on my nerves. They continue to beat her down on a stance she didn't even have yet they sit quietly by while real stuff is happening to black ppl over here. A genocide of our black voting rights Healthcare education housings representation is being taken away. In the last 7 months over 12 black bodies in different parts of the South have been found hung from trees yet nobody says nothing. But yet what r ppl stance on that genocide happening. A black boy shot and killed by a Asian store owner found not guilty. A young black defending himself against bullies gets 35 years. A young 1 yr old shot dead by cops in Mississippi nothing but genocide but they still want to go against her because they can't get her to do something she has already done and say genocide against Palestine is wrong and they need a two state solution. It boggles my mind how Democrats will make our elections abt stuff happening across the world and not stuff happening here to their own citizens. U can't clean up someone else's house and leave urs a mess it doesn't make sense.
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The president’s two eldest sons are linked to investments in at least 10 defense firms that have drawn some $3.7 billion in federal funds si
The president’s two eldest sons are linked to investments in at least 10 defense firms that have drawn some $3.7 billion in federal funds since he took office — and no law requires them to step back.
Jul. 2, 2026, 5:00 AM EDT
By Akayla Gardner
Just over a week after U.S. and Israeli forces struck Iran in late February, a publicly traded Florida golf course company announced an unusual plan: a reverse merger to take a barely year-old drone startup public. Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump were part owners of the golf course company; now, they are backers of the drone startup. Seven weeks later, after a demonstration in Arizona, the Air Force placed a limited order for the startup’s interceptor drones.
It was not an isolated move.
Since their father won a second term, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump — President Donald Trump’s two eldest sons, neither of whom hold official roles in the administration — have become linked to investments in at least 10 companies with military applications. Those firms have collectively received about $3.7 billion in federal funds since the start of the second Trump administration, according to an MS NOW review of public records. Three hit record levels of Defense Department funding within the last year.
Hey, I just wanted to say how much I support you and empathize with how you feel about people just randomly attacking Americans for simply existing.
As someone whose been surrounded by people who work in government and politics and has even interacted and worked with government agencies (can't really go into detail unfortunately) your blog really speaks volumes to what I feel.
I don't hate the people I know who work for the government, or people who are patriotic for the country, it's frustrating that whenever I mention what I do people attack me even though I have no part in the chaos that's in the news. I'm doing my job because I want a better future for everyone around me.
Well the country needs your help, your colleagues help, and the help of the patriotic now more than ever. Thank you for keeping up the fight even when it sucks and it gets publicly shit on, I appreciate it.
