Happy Independence Day

The founder we should talk more about is Thomas Paine, who will fuck your shit up every time. Here he is in The Rights of Man just ripping into any ideas of "originalism" and that kind of garbage.

SKULL OF THOMAS AQUINAS: TAKE A LEFT NOW PRIEST: No, the GPS says we have to keep going— SKULL: I KNOW A SHORTCUT PRIEST: Do you remember the last ti— SKULL: FOR THOSE WITH FAITH, NO EVIDENCE IS NECESSARY; FOR THOSE WITHOUT IT, NO EVIDENCE WILL SUFFICE

glad congress isn’t alive to see this

I saw a video where someone said the things that she was proud of about the USA. It included: 1. The genesis of the modern tax-supported, free public library 2. The progenitors of modern tax supported free public schools. 3. The oldest and longest-standing written national constitution in force.

That feed is now showing ice melting...

what a bunch of

Genuinely pisses me off to even see them in there. That museum is a special place and they don’t deserve it

"and another thing: i haven't lost the Mandate of Heaven. please don't put in the newspaper that i lost the Mandate of Heaven."

this guy is the co-founder of Airbnb

The security guard at the door:

Focus on the Family tried to get a prayer circle goin to have Obama's acceptance speech for the first nomination get rained on www.thetimes.com/travel/advic...

You know they’re asking if there’s a nearby white history museum they can shelter under instead

This is so fucking funny

A second-generation right-wing agitator, as her mom cofounded the Tea Party movement!

Sorry to lib out but I guess my thought on the Fourth is that if it wasn’t possible for this country to really be an egalitarian multiracial democracy someday, the most disgusting people alive wouldn’t be trying so hard to foreclose that possibility

The weather on Juneteeth was incredible. Make of that what you will.

I went to X to make sure this tweet was real. Not only is it real (and in fact it’s about the heat yesterday, not even the storm tonight), it’s not the only one from her on the subject.

Having a baby means I’ve gone from “amateur fireworks are annoying and dangerous, but whatever, as long as it’s just on the actual 4th” to “if you bastards wake up my baby with your boom booms I will drive my car into your house”

A federal agent fired a pepper ball launcher from the vehicle he was driving, striking a protester in the stomach. This was outside the ICE detention facility in Broadview this afternoon. 📸 Evan Stone www.instagram.com/evan_stone_p...

Sometimes if people want to get hit by lightning you just let them

So what happens if, hypothetically, lightning strikes a stockpile of 850,000 or so fireworks

A. People in DC did not know those fascists were planning to march. B. They marched for 15 minutes and then turned tail. C. People in DC would have been out there had they known they would be there. D. Do people know how people in DC (who actually live in the city) roll?

DC is, flatly, owed statehood after what they have been through under this man to make sure this shit never happens again

lol. Lmao

You know what, if this man thinks “liberals in the weather service” are making up the incoming storm you can see, hear, and feel…well, he gets what he gets

“can we talk, one 10 to another?” “I’m an 11, professor, but continue”

my founding fathers

And because we have no autonomy over our own decisions and no official voice in Congress to defend ourselves because we are not a statehood. This all makes so clear the urgency of autonomy and statehood - for us in DC but also for the nation.

And DC can’t “defend” itself bc it exists at the whims of the federal government. Another reason for statehood.

the Douglass Commonwealth is not without natural defenses

I’m not in the danger zone this time, but it reminds me viscerally of knowing a lot of the J6 rioters, including Proud Boys and other open white nationalists, were staying at hotels in my neighborhood of Alexandria on the day of the insurrection. And they’re here by invitation of the same man

not sure why Patriot Front today are ditching the UHauls for public transit (heat wave? maximizing terror opportunities?) but this is grotesque. maybe they feel like they fit in better now with the other masked men who’ve been patrolling DC for a year.

100 years ago.

The whole internet loves Larry the Truffle Cat, a lovely cat that digs for truffles! *5 seconds later* We regret to inform you Larry is AI generated

I actually enjoy watching a sport on Telemundo more, despite not speaking much Spanish, because sports commentators so rarely say anything worth hearing anyway. I can just look up when they sound excited, and i know I’m not going to miss a goal

to sum up

Thinking of the most romantic places to get married. Madison Square Garden, of course, Bank of America, one of those cable company storefronts that’s totally empty except for an iPad on a podium that’s bolted to the floor, the streaming service Fubu

Ugh I’m tired of fun little animal stories now being AI 90% of the time. What good is the internet if not as a fount of cute little animal stories??

The Left(s) should get onboard with a massive expansion of public libraries across the country over the next 25 years. This is an affirmative project.

AI apologists: “‘AI’ tools will finally allow us to break past the gatekeepers preventing us from making art!” James Hampton: “gimme that scrap of aluminum foil”

I think it's funny as hell how people have to say "your honor, may I approach?" when they're walking up to a judge. I think everyone should have to do that before they can talk to me

I am not exaggerating when I say that turning the corner and coming face to face with this masterpiece made me tear up. The sheer scale of it in person is something to behold

Cannot stress enough that DC is getting sonic boomed all weekend because Trump and Hegseth think watching the USS Nimitz, 100 warships and scores of tall sailing ships sailing past Liberty Island will give them gay Democrat cooties.

“The question comes in the tradition of the abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who in 1852 famously asked, ‘What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?’ (His answer included ‘mere bombast, fraud, deception and hypocrisy.’)”

Ok I’ve solved the Bluesky US flag argument this is what we’re gonna fly from now on so you know We Don’t Mean It That Way

For the people saying critics of Democrats on immigration from the left don’t have an alternative, I always say “go look at the Statue of Liberty, that’s our immigration policy.”

‘Along with codefendant Savanna Batten, the trio ran the Emma Goldman Book Club, where members shared anarchist and socialist literature in the form of zines or homemade booklets. The Sotos were also accused of operating an account on X for “DFW Antifa.”’ A book club.