Some good old protest songs that helped change the country:
Bob Dylan “The Times They Are A-changing” (3:15)
Woody Guthrie “This land Is Your Land” (2:20)
You have to love what is on his guitar
Joan Baez sang many a song, but we all recognize this one (3:50)
At this point I hope most of you can still sit up and make a fist. You have 6 months to get back in shape by the Christmas / New Years bout with reality.
Maybe next years we can quit shooting off the fireworks and instead have our cities purchase drones that can be charged up and then sent into the sky to create lovely images. After the drone has spent, charge it back up, pack it up and store it away to be used again next year. Or for that matter, maybe use them during the winter holidays.
Here is a quick example. No bangs, no booms, no fires, no scared veterans, no scared pets. Stored, repacked and then brought out and used again next year.
I may be wrong but it feels like we are getting overrun with authoritarians again!
A) Wow, what an upside down week in the US. Our current president spent much effort trying to prove crowds were going to what despite all sorts of visual proof that they were poorly attended?
B) The current president took a side trip Friday to South Dakota where he is quietly lobbying to get his head a place in what monument?
C) The current president took a spin on his new ride Wednesday. Where did he get his new ride?
D) It’s a holiday – let’s have some fun. Many folks know what happened in the Revolution and in the Civil War, but not much in between. What was our country’s first attempt at a constitution?
E) And who was our first leader (president) under that constitution?
F) Bucking the trend that is doubling down on AI, what car company hired back a slew of engineers recently?
G) Your income may be stagnant or sliding, but Trump’s isn’t. How much did Trump make last year outside of his day job as president?
H) Who were the first father – son presidents?
I) What foreign country invaded Washington, DC and burnt much of it to the ground?
J) It was quite a week for the SCOTUS. What issue did they agree is constitutional by a vote of 6-3, because the words are literally in the constitution?
K) You would think somebody would take notice. Lockheed-Martin has been delivering new F-35s without what usually vital system?
L) Here we go again – What state has once again mandated Bible reading in their public schools?
M) The Trump Administration is looking to end our trade pact with Canada and Mexico called the USMCA pact. Who negotiated that pact for the US
N) The USDOJ and 17 states reached a settlement with three producers of what food staple over allegations of price collusion over several years to raise prices?
O) Who was the first president not born in Virginia or Massachusetts?
P) New jobs in the US economy came in at 57,000. Is that considered a good or bad number?
Q) The FBI has unleashed their full power to investigate what in Georgia?
R) As the US lurched to the Civil War, what SCOTUS decision exacerbated the break between free and slave states and territories?
S) Hey! What Republican showed up for work after missing since March 5th?
T) People were able to march in the gay pride parade in Budapest again after the ouster of what authoritarian last May?
Kyle Kulinski on America 250: “What the f–k is there to celebrate? They are looting this country. They are protecting Epstein pedophiles. Am I supposed to celebrate ICE rounding up innocent people and destroying their lives and sending them to concentration camps? We didn’t make it 250 years. This is a f–king funeral for this country”
How about this sample from Philadelphia Thursday?
Answers:
A) his Great American State Fair
B) Mount Rushmore
C) It was a grift – mean gift – It was a bribe from Qatar
D) The Articles of Confederation
E) John Hanson of Maryland
F) Ford hired back 350 human engineers
G) over $2 Billion
H) the Adamses John and John Quincy
I) Britain invaded Washington in August of 1814 burning much of the city including the White House
J) Birthright citizenship.
K) Radar. Says they are on backorder
L) Texas
M) It was done at the insistance of Trump in 2020
N) Eggs
O) Andrew Jackson
P) lousy
Q) the 2020 election and ridiculos stories of vote fraud
R) The Dred Scott decision
S) Tom Kean from New Jersey. If you are in New Jersey, he is running again
T) Victor Orban. Freedom – it is good.
tip of the hat to all-hat-no-cattle.com
tip of the hat to democraticunderground.com
Just a small reminder as we celebrate our existence as a democracy that such existence is seriously threatened by leadership that is totally focused on robbing us blind while at the same time suppressing our rights and impoverishing all but the very elite while turning us into an autocracy. In this mission they are being aided by extreme right wing congress members and extremists on the nation’s supreme court.
The list of crimes and breaches by the administration and the president is long. Senator Chris Murphy detailed a list earlier this month that Trish Nelson posted on this site. I shall repost it here to emphasize how bad it is:
This past week America was assaulted with more bribery and scandal as more and more “emoluments” to the president were revealed. Here is MSNOW’s Ali Velshi discussing some of the recent grift that is making the president vastly wealthy with our money:
That plane should be dubbed “The Flying Bribe.”
Manipulating stock markets; soliciting and accepting bribes; cutting government aid to the poor; cutting health care. Folks, the number one issue in the in this campaign must be the corruption of the president, the executive branch and the Supreme Court that is carving out avenues for the prsident to rob us blind.
This may be our last chance to vote in a free election, if it is. Expect Trump to do all he can to sabotage this election. So when you vote this year, vote as if YOU are the one whose vote will save the Republic. You may not get another chance.
The holiday wherein we celebrate our independence from what was seen as an oppressive government that suppressed the rights of those living in the American colonies. Yet, even as Americans opposed tyranny for themselves, they in turn imposed tyranny on others through slavery.
An even more celebration of liberty for all should be held on Juneteenth. On that day even the most remote of slaves learned that they had been freed from the shackles of slavery. But this declaration of universal freedom would also be illusory for people of color in the US as Jim Crow laws limited freedom for them.
While great strides were made in the 1950s to the early 2000s we have never seen the full equality that the Declaration of Independence promised. Now with avowed supemacists holding power in our nations capitol and in many states we see a retrenchment of liberties not only for people of color but also for women and immigrants.
With that beief synopsis, let us once again view the Fourth of July speech by Frederick Douglass in 1852 to the Rochester, New York Ladies anti-Slavery society. 1852 was nearly a decade before the Civil War to help give some context to Douglass’ speech. This version is introduced by Amy Goodman and Howard Zinn:
We all jumped last night when an explosion went off somewhere nearby in our neighorhood. Oh joy, 4th of July celebratory blasts right outside our front door! Or so it seemed. We couldn’t tell where it came from but it was close. I wouldn’t mind so much for myself, but the suffering these high grade fireworks cause many dogs and veterans with PTSD seems senseless, even cruel. And for what?
Blowing things up in neighborhoods at any hour of the day disturbing everyone in a 1-mile radius just so you personally can enjoy making something go boom? And why should everyone’s holiday have to be ruined by the desire of some to shoot off random explosions. Even if I knew where it was coming from I can’t ask them to stop. They apparently have more rights than I do.
In 2017 I wrote this in a post here on BFIA:
All you have to do is go on Facebook for the horror stories. Next door neighbors launching fireworks that sound like cannons, terrified, shaking dogs hiding in closets, people leaving town to get away from the noise, families unable to put the kids to bed, pillows stuffed in windows, “duds” and debris from explosives on sidewalks, in parks, on your roof. Shut the doors and windows, close yourself in the house, don’t take your dog for a walk. 4th of July week has changed in Iowa from a pleasant family holiday with a few fireworks, to a pseudo-war zone..”
It seems like everyone has forgotten how to enjoy a nice, quiet day of fun on the 4th of July. Really, wouldn’t most of us be content enjoying the holiday without all of that? Wasn’t it fun enough before all of this? What was wrong with attending the community municipal fireworks show to celebrate? You at least know when the booms are going to start and when they are going to stop. Have you ever stayed up late waiting for the noise to stop and just when you give a sigh of relief because you haven’t heard one in the last 15-20 minutes, and you think it’s over, it starts up again and that happens over and over until 3 am?
I don’t think most people were begging and pleading for the situation we have now. I don’t think anyone was suffering because they had no personal fireworks or because they had to drive to Missouri to get them. And what about the annual reports of kids with fireworks injuries?
As a nation, we seem to have lost our ability to say no to stupid.
How about we put this one on the un-do list for when Democrats have some say in what happens.
As long as we’re on the topic of Be Kind to Animals, here is some happy news. A good thing came out of the Iowa legislature. If you get a chance, thank Rep. Dave Jacoby for this.
This recently happened to our vet where we have taken our pets for years.
Click on the image to donate to Nate Willems natewillems.com/
“I’m a labor lawyer in Cedar Rapids and I’m running for Attorney General to defeat Brenna Bird.” – Nate Willems
Marc Elias reviews the SCOTUS decision below.
Iowans should be aware. Laura Belin over at Bleeding Heartland posted on Blue Sky,
“This decision doesn’t affect Iowa, because Republicans changed state law to prohibit counting any ballots that arrive after 8 pm on election day.
(For decades Iowa did count late-arriving ballots, if postmarked by the day before election day).”
So Iowa voters if you plan to vote by mail send in your ballot as early as the law allows.
“… a related federal statute—the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA)—confirms that while federal law dictates when ballots must be cast, state law governs when they must be received.” – SCOTUS, Watson, Mississippi Secretary of State v. Republican National Committee et al., June 29, 2026
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