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July 03, 2020 06:56 AM UTC

4th of July Weekend Open Thread

  • 102 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

We’re kicking off the weekend a day early, because freedom.

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102 thoughts on “4th of July Weekend Open Thread”

  1. Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeff Epstein's principal child procurer, has been indicted and arrested. In related news, Alan Dershowitz has lost all control of his bowels.

    1. My Cat and I were discussing that this morning. The arrest of Maxwell will have the same effect as a trainload of Ex-Lax. Rich, powerful, men all over the country and the world are pooping their pants this morning.

  3. Freedom …

    South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem (R) confirmed this week that social distancing will not be enforced and that the approximately 7,500 attendees will not be required to wear masks at the event, even as the United States on Thursday recorded the largest single-day total of new coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic.

    “We will have a large event on July 3. We told those folks that have concerns that they can stay home, but those who want to come and join us, we’ll be giving out free face masks, if they choose to wear one. But we won’t be social distancing,” Noem said Monday in an interview on Fox News. “We’re asking them to come — be ready to celebrate, to enjoy the freedoms and the liberties that we have in this country.”

    All attendees will be in two main areas WITHOUT any expectation of social distancing…  Road in opens at noon, programming starts at 4:00, security access shuts at 6 pm, fireworks start at 9:15 …. so,  being around the participants for at least 4 hours and possibly up to 10. 

    Ought to be just fine … after all, people are outdoors, amIright?

      2. "grossly irresponsible" — is that the name of the band playing at the next Trump rally? 

        And I just saw this minor little detail on the official South Dakota Travel site.  Zone 2 (I think I remember hearing it is for 35-40% of ticket winners).  It sounds nice.

        Portable toilets will be available in Zone 2.

        For those assigned to Zone 2, participants could be walking up to two miles uphill to reach their viewing area.

        1. I've been to Mt. Rushmore for the 4th.  Packed, and people are there all day (we got there around 10 am).  No way to socially distance.  Longtime duration.  Lots of asshats.  The only thing going for it is it being outdoors.  It's still a place I would avoid like, well, the plague.  

           

        2. I see another V oldies classic parody in the making. To the tune of “Simply Irresistible “

          Grossly Irresponsible 

          It should be just impossible 

          The line should be uncrossable, yeah
          You don’t think it’s plausible 

          That virus spread is cause of you

          To call it freedom when you’re killing your friends

          Grandparents, customers, where does it end..?
           

          Grossly irresponsible!
           

          Take it away, V…

          1. Never been to South Dakota; maybe someday. But, Robert Palmer is one of my all time favorites. His Greatest Hits CD has his four great rockers; everything else is a mellow ballad.

            1. Black Hills on the west are nice … well worth a 3 or 4 day visit, in my opinion.  The rest — some nice spots and really nice people, but not particularly distinct.  You know things are stretched a bit thin when the "sights" are a Corn Palace, a really big concrete quail, a little house on the prairie, a museum of musical instruments, and some dams.

      3. You can look at multiple photos of the thousands attending, and have a hard time finding one mask. Congrats, Trump! Between the Mt Rushmore event and Don Jr's girlfriend you're doing a great job spreading the coronavirus.

        1. I noticed, right off the bat, that his family wasn't there…not one of them that I could recognize. Quarantining, no doubt.

          We also were trying to spot our own Yosemite Samantha, Lauren Boebert. We thought we did, but not confidently. She was invited to meet the OD backstage. 

    2. He picks the best places.  Tulsa (riots), Mount Rushmore to celebrate our freedumbs, Axe Handle Saturday for the convention.  

      “He picked four presidents he thought represented major accomplishments in the American story,” said Gene A. Smith, a professor of U.S. history at Texas Christian University.

      Before he was recruited to create Mount Rushmore, Mr. Borglum had been involved with another project: an enormous bas-relief at Stone Mountain in Georgia that memorialized Confederate leaders.

      It was eventually completed without him, but Mr. Borglum formed strong bonds with leaders of the Ku Klux Klan and participated in their meetings, in part to secure funding for the Stone Mountain project. He also espoused white supremacist and anti-Semitic ideas, according to excerpts from his letters included in “Great White Fathers,” a book by the writer John Taliaferro about the history of Mount Rushmore.

      Pennington County (Mount Rushmore) is the meth capital of South Dakota…but not to worry, “They’re on it”. 

       

  4. Ttumpy is hell-bent on getting the pipeline for the Alberta Tar Sands Billionaire’s Carbon Bomb in place. The last gasps of an industry built on a house of cards; a project that could be easily displaced by a thriving, domestic, advanced biofuels industry. 

    Why does Ttumpy ignore American farmers? 

    Let’s emancipate ourselves from this oily teat and get on with 21st-century projects; our equivalent of an energy Apollo Mission. 

     

  5. Because so many slave owners were relatively obscure by today's standards, and because so much history of the African-American ancestry has been lost or deliberately obscured, these photos represent a direct connection that can be and has been independently confirmed.

    Thomas Jefferson and his sixth great-grandson:

     

     

      1. Thanks for sharing that kickshot.  I've crossed the Edmund Pettus bridge several times over the past 24 months in my work with their with the black farmers in Dallas County.  Not at all shocked that the guy hiding behind a white sheet was a rapist.  There is a movement now (in its infancy) to rename the bridge 'John Lewis Bridge".   BTW, Selma is the birthplace of Jefferson Beauregarde Sessions III.  

         You couldn't make this stuff up.  

        1. Michael: it can be hard to avoid areas of past racist history. Long time very close friends live a couple blocks from the former home of D. C. Stephenson, on the east side of Indianapolis. In the 1920s, he was the grand wizard of the Indiana KKK. I recall walking by the house many times as a kid as I had classmates who lived in the area. 

          1. One of the first KKK chapters in CO was reportedly in Wray.  Our Catholic church ‘mysteriously’ burned down at one time – it was always suspected to be the work of the klan.  There’s the lore of a black man being hung on the river bottom north of Idalia for being accused of relations with a white woman.  We still hold the annual ‘Battle of Beecher Island‘ re-enactment every September. 

            1. Here’s an interesting short  history of the Klan in northern Colorado. Loveland, Weld County and Greeley were among the most active chapters. 
               

              I lived in Brush for four years- rumor was that the old Legion Hall had been the Klan meeting place there. I definitely saw vestiges of its influence- kids who made the “White Power” salute, a boy who went on a rant about Jews taking over the world. When I would tell my classes that I was ethnically Jewish, they would stare as though I’d confessed to being a zombie alien. 

              Even though the population was 40% Hispanic, and they worked in the same meat and dairy industries alongside the European-ancestry folks, there were older folks who avoided socializing with anyone they weren’t distantly related to. It was an eye opener for this city kid.

        1. Don’t be surprised if You-Know-Who tries to issue an executive order decreeing that the Washington Redskins shall remain the name of the team in perpetuity.

          2016:  What about her e-mails?

          2020:   What about the statues and monuments?

          Did anyone else happen to catch where Trump mentioned the defacing of monuments to abolitionists along with defacing the statues of Confederate generals during his speech?

          1. I really want to see the Lamar Savages change their mascot and name. The logo, the name, the cheers – all deeply offensive and racist.

            From CPR, here are the Native American-themed mascots from three Colorado schools:

            Rep. Joe Salazar introduced a bill in 2015 to change these mascots, and the bill passed the House, but died in committee before it reached the Republican – controlled Senate. Hick had a committee to study the matter. So…..these racist names and images continue to be promoted in Colorado high school sports.

    1. "read" maybe

      Understand? nuh-uh

      It is  patriotic and all about an American experience.
      And the Federlist intern ripped a bunch from NPR a bunch of years back. I get it – writing it hard.

    1. What better way to celebrate the 4th than wrapping your Ttumpublican self up in your MAGA flag and honoring your modern party’s great red-white-blue-and-orange tradition of oblivious idiot Presidents and their great examples of reality denial?

      “America’s future rests in a thousand dreams inside our hearts,” Ronald Reagan said. “It rests in the message of hope in the songs of a man so many young Americans admire: New Jersey’s own Bruce Springsteen.”

       

       Ivanka Trump, 38, who has a history of saying or doing things that constantly get a ton of backlash, continued with that tradition in her latest tweet posted on Friday, July 3. “Please be safe & responsible this holiday weekend,” she began. “As we celebrate this 4th of July, follow state & local guidelines to keep you & your loved ones safe. Practice proper hygiene, social distancing & wear a mask when in close proximity to others.

      https://mobile.twitter.com/IvankaTrump/status/1279239739980181504

       

  10. Excellent read from the New York Review of Books via The Bulwark

    ‘The Most Ignorant and Unfit’: What Made America’s Worst Ever Leader?

    Acknowledging that Donald Trump is very likely the worst president American democracy has ever produced and that we, as citizens in that democracy, must accept a general responsibility for choosing such a man, is only the first, and perhaps easiest, step we can take in remedying the situation. If the worst presidents are produced by their historical moment, enabled by their parties, and reflective of deep divides and flaws in American life, simply voting them out is insufficient. We must address the root causes that enabled a man as profoundly flawed and corrupt as Trump to win high office. 

    Ending Trump’s misrule and restoring confidence in the presidency demands the undoing of impediments to free and fair elections. That will entail root-and-branch campaign finance reform, an end to voter suppression, new defenses against foreign interference in elections, and reining in the digital disinformation engines. These are perhaps only the minimum demands for restoring American democracy.

  11. Trump just said that anyone caught damaging or defacing a statue will get a minimum of 10 years in prison. Is that even possible for him to make that happen via executive order? 
     

    I remember a similar EO about burning flags during Vietnam War. I think SCOTUS upheld flag burning as valid protest, but don’t feel like researching it at the moment. Anyone know for sure?

    1. No, but I think you are right. I think a state or congress would have to make that law.

      We watched our expensive, tax-payer funded Trump rally from start to finish. I don't think I will ever do that again.

    2. The executive branch has absolutely no power to create law.  That is solely a Congressional perogative.

      And, yes, SCOTUS struck down the flag burning law passed by Congress, not executive order. To his credit, Scalia wrote that opinion.

    3. I think SCOTUS upheld flag burning as valid protest, but don’t feel like researching it at the moment. Anyone know for sure?

      SCOTUS twice held that flag burning was a form of expressive conduct protected by the Speech Clause of the First Amendment. In Texas v. Johnson a 5-4 majority invalidated a state law criminalizing flag desecration, and in United States v. Eichman the same majority shot down a federal criminal statute. The late, great William Brennan authored the majority opinion in each case.

      As Eichman shows, the Speech Clause won't save anyone from prosecution on a destruction of public property charge.

      Finally, Trump is an idiot. A stanky idiot.

      1. …With delusions of having dictatorial powers.  Billy Barr, as hard as he's trying, can't even keep up with feeding Trump's dreams of becoming the next Nero, or was it Caligula who was, like, the greatest Roman Imperator in all of History?

  12. We finally saw Hamilton last night on Disney streaming.  Truly awesome and perfect for the holiday weekend. 

    The Revolution continues!

    1. CNN had a segment highlighting #Hamilton release and the *resident's speech at Mount Rushmore.  Analyst said "the speech won't make sense except to those who have watched hundreds of hours of Fox"….

  13. Boebert sketches out her campaign appeal

    Lauren Boebert for Congress (R-CO3)
    @laurenboebert
    ·
    Jul 3
    Sadly, we already know the results.

    They want to keep pretending he’s a viable candidate.
    Quote Tweet
    Donald Trump Jr.
    @DonaldJTrumpJr
    · Jul 3
    Why isn’t the mainstream media calling for Joe Biden to release the results of his cognitive test? https://thehill.com/opinion/cam

    1. I bet she has quite a few skeletons in her gun packed closet.  What is her maiden name?  Where did she go to high school and college?

  14. I'd like to think we hit peak #MAGA yesterday in SD but I'm afraid it's just the warm-up act for what's to come between now and November: 

    1. Must be the same teabag crew who’ve been demanding that Washington, “Keap yer gubmint hans off’n mah Medeekair!”

      Einsteins, one and all.

        1. Only in America do we think that someone who excels in one thing (building a real estate empire, writing and performing hit rap songs) somehow will be good at governance. 
           

          I like this Tweet in response:

           

          Can’t wait to see R&R’s response on this one.

          1. This bullshit could not be more transparent. As I understand this, Kanye would run as an independent. If that is true, the most notable result would be to draw a few million black voters away from Biden.

            What a cynical thing to do.

            1. Can Kanye even still get on the ballot? Shouldn’t he have registered to run last January? 
              I think that laws vary by state .

              I think you’re right about intent as far as the GOP is concerned- they’ll probably leave Kanye alone after some “token” protests and comparing his health unfavorably to Biden’s. 
               

              But as far as West is  concerned, his “run” will be pure ego, a chance to promote his own  albums and projects. He is indeed a man after Trump’s own heart, or lack thereof.

              Obama had it right in ‘09:

                1. MADCO, you could just look it up by clicking on the ballotpedia link I’ve posted twice now.

                  But I’m not pissed at you today, yet, so here they are:

                  To run as an Independent, West would need:

                  PA 5000 signatures by August 3

                  MI 30,000 by July 16 (gonna miss that one)

                  WI 2,000 by August 4

                  AZ 3% of registered voters in AZ – by my calculations, about 118,000 sigs will be required by September 4

                  Some have enormous signature requirements – NY and California, for instance – but Trump wouldn’t win those states no matter what Yeezy does.

                  West could damage Biden in CA, West’s home state, though, if that’s what he wants to do.

                  North Carolina is surprisingly tough – 70,000 . Deadline was last May.

                  Texas wants 89,000. But the deadline’s passed.

                  Florida 132,000 by 7/15, so no way.

                  Colorado is only 5,000 but again, no way Trump wins Colorado even if Ye peels off some Dems.

                  So a billionaire like West could buy the signature gathering pretty easily – but that would mean taking this seriously. Just going by his music, (Rap Lite), his mercurial personality, I don’t think he’ll make a serious effort.

                  Like I said, I think he’ll use it to boost his name recognition and music / concert sales. Then fade away.

                   

                   

            2. You mean he would be a spoiler?

              Wouldn't you rather cry voter suppression or Russian interference instead of complaining about a spoiler siphoning off votes from the Democratic nominee?

              Otherwise you risk sounding like me complaining about Jill Stein in 2016.

              1. Who cares if I sound like you?  The situation is what it is…my preference is always to try to see it realistically. 

                I’d rather Kanye were not running, as I happen to agree with Duke about the probable effect of his candidacy, and why Trump won’t be seriously attacking him. 
                 

                On the bright side, maybe West will  drop out once he realizes how difficult it’s going to be to get on the ballot in some states. Or once the publicity has had the desired effect on his fame and fortune. Or maybe Michael is right, and the #Vision2020 will dissipate with the next change in West’s brain chemistry.
                 

                Or perhaps he’ll run as a write -in candidate and have little to no effect at all. Time will tell.

                1. My four favorite words in the English language: "I told you so."

                  This is why I kept ranting about Jill Stein. And Ralph Nader. Because it would end up happening again.

                  And here we go again, Pomps.

                  1. Fine, you enjoy that “I told you so” feeling.  As long as you also admit that voter suppression efforts are real and ongoing (for, example, claiming that mail ballots are fraudulent and instead, voters should be made to stand in lines for hours at their suddenly – diminished polling sites).

                    My opinion is that voter suppression will have a greater numerical effect than whatever Mr. West does or doesn’t do. But we’ll see.
                    And we live in a democracy. People are free to make terrible choices, including voting for unelectable third party candidates.

                    Don’t make me bring the links. 

                    1. "My opinion is that voter suppression will have a greater numerical effect than whatever Mr. West does or doesn't do."

                      The nice thing about an opinion like that is that it is based on non-quantifiable information. Can you tell me how many people do not vote because of voter suppression?

                    2. Reply to R&R: 

                      In fact, voter suppression is quantifiable. Ari Bergman of The Nation wrote:

                      While states with no change to voter identification laws witnessed an average increased turnout of +1.3% from 2012 to 2016, Wisconsin’s turnout (where voter ID laws changed to strict) dropped by -3.3%. If turnout had instead increased by the national no-change average, we estimate that over 200,000 more voters would have voted in Wisconsin in 2016.

                      In states where the voter identification laws did not change between ’12 and ’16, turnout was up +1.3%. In states where ID laws changed to non-strict (AL, NH, RI) turnout increased less, and was only up by +0.7%. In states where ID laws changed to strict (MS, VA, WI) turnout actually decreased by – 1.7%.

                      You’re just jerking my chain, presumably because you enjoy that almost as much as that glorious “I told you so” feeling. But facts is facts.
                       

                      Kanye probably won’t even run– just keep teasing it as a PR stunt. Others will, and you’re free to be just as mad about it as you like. Shaming and scolding 3rd party voters won’t make them vote for your candidate, but it may make you feel vindicated, so go for it. 

  16. This is one of the most interesting historical reviews of the Founding Fathers on the interwebs today: 

    1. So the exceptions were good old Ben Franklin, and the Irish-born Secretary, Charles Thomson (himself a former indentured servant, standing at the desk next to John Hancock).

      I’d like to reverse engineer that scene, and imagine those fine Founding Fathers realizing,”By God, this Document is the Offal of Cattle! Forsooth, we have Neglected to Include in our Assay of Rights those who Work Our Fields and Bear Our Progeny! We left out the Original Inhabitants from whom we copied the idea of a Government of Equal States!”

      They return to their task of drafting their snarky response to King George’s Tyranny, this time including representatives of Bondservants, Slaves, Women, Native People, and every human in North America at that time. 
       

      King George still is put on notice that the ‘Mericans were Over his Offal – but he now has an idea how strong those ‘Mericans really are.

      I like it as a thought experiment – how different would our country be today if only citizenship and the vote had included every human from the founding of the country. 

      2. At the time of the Declaration, of course, the Founders should have included everyone willing to fight against the King & his forces….

         * Crispus Attucks (of Natick and African descent) was already the first killed in the war.

         * Some Native American nations allied with the rebellious colonists, and individuals from an even wider set of nations joined, too. 

         * There were some slaves who joined with the Brits (after they were promised freedom), but one estimate says around 9,000 African Americans became Black Patriots — something like 5% of the rebel forces.

         * Founding Mothers, by Cokie Roberts is an entire book of involved women.

        What a different world if these Founders looked around and realized all of those willing to be part of a revolution, part of the "We the People" who

        hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

          1. There is a public high school in Indianapolis named for Crispus Attucks. I learned who he was when I was in school. He was killed in the Boston Massacre in 1770.

  17. True to form, everything Trump touches in service to his own fragile ego turns to sh*t, leaving his financial backers holding the bag (of flaming poop)

    The abrupt uprooting of the Republican National Convention from Charlotte, N.C., to Jacksonville, Fla., has created a tangled financial predicament for party officials as they effectively try to pay for two big events instead of one.

    Tens of millions of dollars have been spent in a city that will now host little more than a GOP business meeting, and donors are wary of opening their wallets again to bankroll a Jacksonville gathering thrown into uncertainty by a surge in coronavirus cases.

    Organizers are trying to assuage vexed Republicans who collectively gave millions of dollars for a Charlotte event that mostly has been scrapped. The host committee there has spent virtually all of the $38 million it raised before the convention was moved, leaving almost nothing to return to donors or to pass on to the new host city.

    Organizers in Jacksonville are expecting — hoping — that 15,000 people attend, enough to fill the Vy-Star Veterans Memorial Arena. Still, many delegates remain noncommittal about attending, potentially diminishing the economic boost Jacksonville was counting on.

    Keep up the great work squandering Republican donor money!

    1. Great song, JiD. I’m hoping we get some celebrity ballads for Biden p, as we did for Obama in 08. Will I Am ‘s Yes We Can and Dave Stewart‘s  American Prayer come to mind.

      Biden is not that inspiring and uniting a figure, but come on celebrities. Your country calls you. At least a stirring plea to vote out Trump. 

      1. Until they do, this might work as a GOTV theme…

        But come on, come on down Sweet Virginia
        Come on, honey child, beg you
        Come on, come on down, you got it in ya
        Got to scrape the shit right off your shoes

        I don’t think the Stones would mind.

  19. Dr. Fauci's boss at NIH, Dr. Collins,  has some semi –  hopeful news about possible covid19 vaccines – and tries to be diplomatic about the idiot child president making covid remediation into a bizarro political game.

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