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Independence Day 2021: America is a all right place - Now Featuring Fireworks!


Parliament

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25 minutes ago, Parliament said:

We definitely have serious problems to fix, but I'm glad I live here, and I plan to continue to help make our Nation better.

Happy Birthday, United States of America!

-signed

A real Yankee doodle dandy.

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Happy 4th!

What's the saying?  The United States is so great/free even those who hate it still won't leave.  It isn't a perfect country and it never will be as it reflects those that dwell and govern it.  Be/live/fight with your words and actions for the change you want it to be.

I may agree or disagree with many of you, those you elect and our government but i still choose to respect you.  May we take some time today, and more often, to reflect on what we have in common over what divides us.  

Imo, there are foreign governments who everyday are actively choosing to undermine/supplant our country and way of life.  I often think that we are too busy fighting amongst ourselves, on more trivial matters imo, rather than those larger matters that could more seriously alter our way of life.  

May we get our heads out of our collective asses and do what is necessary to hold our foreign frenemies more accountable.        

Again, happy hot dog day.

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John Adams' July 2, 1776 letter to his wife, Abigail:

"I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. 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.

You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. -- I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. -- Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not."


Use your tongue Prettier than a $2 whore
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Guest Lobo

I don't understand why we're so mean to immigrants and people of color when there are so many English people around that we can just beat-hate the ever living shit out of on an a regular basis.  Seriously, this country would be so less divided if we just pummeled Brits on the reg.  

Having said that, I love this place and look forward to working with y'all on making it even better.  Have a safe holiday everybody, 245 years later...we're still here and just absolutely swimming in hot ass.  

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57 minutes ago, Armybrat said:

Neighborhood fox getting ready this morning for his 4th of July feast.

 

4C0049A3-1D2B-4977-9E6C-0D1A3B2CA807.jpeg

What sort of suburban hellscape are you living in, Brat?

Youngest and I went to our neighborhood 4th parade. It's always fun watching the little ones scootering and biking along with their red, white, and blue ribbons and streamers. We haven't seen it in 2 years since we were gone on vacation in 19 and Covid last year. There used to be a WW2 veteran who would walk the parade route but has since passed on. It was always great to see him and thank him for his service. 

It's still a damn great country, warts and all. It's worth fighting over and fighting for. Happy 4th!

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21 minutes ago, mdmost said:

What sort of suburban hellscape are you living in, Brat?

Youngest and I went to our neighborhood 4th parade. It's always fun watching the little ones scootering and biking along with their red, white, and blue ribbons and streamers. We haven't seen it in 2 years since we were gone on vacation in 19 and Covid last year. There used to be a WW2 veteran who would walk the parade route but has since passed on. It was always great to see him and thank him for his service. 

It's still a damn great country, warts and all. It's worth fighting over and fighting for. Happy 4th!

The ugly lot is the last vacant one in that section of the neighborhood.There will be a 4,000 sq/ft house on it by Christmas.

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4 hours ago, HouTex said:

John Adams' July 2, 1776 letter to his wife, Abigail:

"I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. 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.

You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. -- I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. -- Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not."

With all the random capitalizations he would fit right in with the boomers on social media

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With all the random capitalizations he would fit right in with the boomers on social media

Not exactly your point, but those seemingly random caps were probably acceptable at the time. The Declaration of Independence also had some random caps that you would not see in modern English. Adams was well educated and he probably would not have written his wife using improper English.
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3 hours ago, Lobo said:

I don't understand why we're so mean to immigrants and people of color when there are so many English people around that we can just beat-hate the ever living shit out of on an a regular basis.  Seriously, this country would be so less divided if we just pummeled Brits on the reg.  

You're confusing the English with the Irish.  The English are descended from Homo sapiens.  The Irish are the ones you want to take your anger out on.

That and the fucking Hessians.  Thankfully, we paid Hesse-Kassel and Hesse-Hanau back (albeit over 150 years later), with the cities of Hanau being nearly 90% destroyed by aerial bombings, and Kassell being 90% destroyed in WWII.  Unfortunately we had to build part of Hanau back as it was a part of the Fulda Gap and pretty fucking important to us during the Cold War.  But they were still paid back for their transgressions against us in the 1770s.

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2 minutes ago, HouTex said:

Not exactly your point, but those seemingly random caps were probably acceptable at the time. The Declaration of Independence also had some random caps that you would not see in modern English. Adams was well educated and he probably would not have written his wife using improper English.

Yeah, it's pretty confusing when you read all of those letters where he talked about procuring a dick. It was slang for a male sexual partner back then, but Adams could have been familiar with Roma/Romani slang (he was widely read), and instead he was actually looking for a private detective (albeit the Roma/Romani slang is "dek" or "dik").

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These were the 28 grievances in the Declaration of Independence that were laid out against England and it's King.

  1. "He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good."
  2. "He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them."
  3. "He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only."
  4. "He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures."
  5. "He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people."
  6. "He has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining, in the mean Time, exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and Convulsions within."
  7. "He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands."
  8. "He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers."
  9. "He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries."
  10. "He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance."
  11. "He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures."
  12. "He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power."
  13. "He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:"
  14. "For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:"
  15. "For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:"
  16. "For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world".
  17. "For imposing taxes on us without our consent:"
  18. "For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Jury trial:"
  19. "For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses:"
  20. For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:"[3]
  21. "For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:"
  22. "For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever".
  23. "He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us."
  24. "He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people."
  25. "He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and unworthy the Head of a civilized nation."
  26. "He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands."
  27. "He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions."
  28. "He has proposed the creation of an agricultural and mechanical university in the Spanish lands, whose students will focus on animal husbandry, that is mating with animals, and spoiling perfectly good pitchers of ale with finger rings."
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1 hour ago, Sawbonz said:

With all the random capitalizations he would fit right in with the boomers on social media

 

20 minutes ago, HouTex said:


Not exactly your point, but those seemingly random caps were probably acceptable at the time. The Declaration of Independence also had some random caps that you would not see in modern English. Adams was well educated and he probably would not have written his wife using improper English.

 

11 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Yeah, it's pretty confusing when you read all of those letters where he talked about procuring a dick. It was slang for a male sexual partner back then, but Adams could have been familiar with Roma/Romani slang (he was widely read), and instead he was actually looking for a private detective (albeit the Roma/Romani slang is "dek" or "dik").

Pretty sure the capitalization thing was likely a product of English being (partly) a Germanic language. You'll note that he was only capitalizing nouns and pronouns. German grammar, even today, requires that all nouns be capitalized in sentences.

You might have noticed something odd about many of the German words you’ve seen—many of them start with capital letters. 

That’s because in German, all nouns are capitalized. Yep, every person, place, and thing is capitalized. So not only do you have to remember to capitalize every sentence and "proper" noun like we do in English, you have to capitalize every other thing as well.

https://www.thegermanproject.com/german-lessons/nouns

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY! 

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My favorite part. John Adams’s speech at the church in the first episode of the HBO miniseries hits it as well. Our rights are not granted by the state. They are inherent in our being, or if you believe in the Almighty, they are God-given:

We 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 . . .

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5 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

These were the 28 grievances in the Declaration of Independence that were laid out against England and it's King.

  1. "He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good."
  2. "He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them."
  3. "He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only."
  4. "He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures."
  5. "He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people."
  6. "He has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining, in the mean Time, exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and Convulsions within."
  7. "He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands."
  8. "He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers."
  9. "He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries."
  10. "He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance."
  11. "He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures."
  12. "He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power."
  13. "He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:"
  14. "For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:"
  15. "For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:"
  16. "For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world".
  17. "For imposing taxes on us without our consent:"
  18. "For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Jury trial:"
  19. "For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses:"
  20. For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:"[3]
  21. "For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:"
  22. "For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever".
  23. "He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us."
  24. "He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people."
  25. "He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and unworthy the Head of a civilized nation."
  26. "He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands."
  27. "He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions."
  28. "He has proposed the creation of an agricultural and mechanical university in the Spanish lands, whose students will focus on animal husbandry, that is mating with animals, and spoiling perfectly good pitchers of ale with finger rings."

Speak Amercan your in America:

The Declaration of Independence
in American

by H. L. Mencken

1921

 

WHEN THINGS get so balled up that the people of a country got to cut loose from some other country, and go it on their own hook, without asking no permission from nobody, excepting maybe God Almighty, then they ought to let everybody know why they done it, so that everybody can see they are not trying to put nothing over on nobody.

All we got to say on this proposition is this: first, me and you is as good as anybody else, and maybe a damn sight better; second, nobody ain't got no right to take away none of our rights; third, every man has got a right to live, to come and go as he pleases, and to have a good time whichever way he likes, so long as he don't interfere with nobody else. That any government that don't give a man them rights ain't worth a damn; also, people ought to choose the kind of government they want themselves, and nobody else ought to have no say in the matter. That whenever any government don't do this, then the people have got a right to give it the bum's rush and put in one that will take care of their interests. Of course, that don't mean having a revolution every day like them South American yellow-bellies, or every time some jobholder goes to work and does something he ain't got no business to do. It is better to stand a little graft, etc., than to have revolutions all the time, like them coons, and any man that wasn't a anarchist or one of them I.W.W.'s would say the same. But when things get so bad that a man ain't hardly got no rights at all no more, but you might almost call him a slave, then everybody ought to get together and throw the grafters out, and put in new ones who won't carry on so high and steal so much, and then watch them. This is the proposition the people of these Colonies is up against, and they have got tired of it, and won't stand it no more. The administration of the present King, George III, has been rotten from the start, and when anybody kicked about it he always tried to get away with it by strong-arm work. Here is some of the rough stuff he has pulled:

He vetoed bills in the Legislature that everybody was in favor of, and hardly nobody was against.

He wouldn't allow no law to be passed without it was first put up to him, and then he stuck it in his pocket and let on he forgot about it, and didn't pay no attention to no kicks.

When people went to work and gone to him and asked him to put through a law about this or that, he give them their choice: either they had to shut down the Legislature and let him pass it all by himself, or they couldn't have it at all.

He made the Legislature meet at one-horse tank-towns, so that hardly nobody could get there and most of the leaders would stay home and let him go to work and do things like he wanted.

He give the Legislature the air, and sent the members home every time they stood up to him and give him a call-down or bawled him out.

When a Legislature was busted up he wouldn't allow no new one to be elected, so that there wasn't nobody left to run things, but anybody could walk in and do whatever they pleased.

He tried to scare people outen moving into these States, and made it so hard for a wop or one of these here kikes to get his papers that he would rather stay home and not try it, and then, when he come in, he wouldn't let him have no land, and so he either went home again or never come.

He monkeyed with the courts, and didn't hire enough judges to do the work, and so a person had to wait so long for his case to come up that he got sick of waiting, and went home, and so never got what was coming to him.

He got the judges under his thumb by turning them out when they done anything he didn't like, or by holding up their salaries, so that they had to knuckle down or not get no money.

He made a lot of new jobs, and give them to loafers that nobody knowed nothing about, and the poor people had to pay the bill, whether they could or not.

Without no war going on, he kept an army loafing around the country, no matter how much people kicked about it.

He let the army run things to suit theirself and never paid no attention whatsoever to nobody which didn't wear no uniform.

He let grafters run loose, from God knows where, and give them the say in everything, and let them put over such things as the following:

Making poor people board and lodge a lot of soldiers they ain't got no use for, and don't want to see loafing around.

When the soldiers kill a man, framing it up so that they would get off.

Interfering with business.

Making us pay taxes without asking us whether we thought the things we had to pay taxes for was something that was worth paying taxes for or not.

When a man was arrested and asked for a jury trial, not letting him have no jury trial.

Chasing men out of the country, without being guilty of nothing, and trying them somewheres else for what they done here.

In countries that border on us, he put in bum governments, and then tried to spread them out, so that by and by they would take in this country too, or make our own government as bum as they was.

He never paid no attention whatever to the Constitution, but he went to work and repealed laws that everybody was satisfied with and hardly nobody was against, and tried to fix the government so that he could do whatever he pleased.

He busted up the Legislatures and let on he could do all the work better by himself.

Now he washes his hands of us and even goes to work and declares war on us, so we don't owe him nothing, and whatever authority he ever had he ain't got no more.

He has burned down towns, shot down people like dogs, and raised hell against us out on the ocean.

He hired whole regiments of Dutch, etc., to fight us, and told them they could have anything they wanted if they could take it away from us, and sicked these Dutch, etc., on us.

He grabbed our own people when he found them in ships on the ocean, and shoved guns into their hands, and made them fight against us, no matter how much they didn't want to.

He stirred up the Indians, and give them arms and ammunition, and told them to go to it, and they have killed men, women and children, and don't care which.

Every time he has went to work and pulled any of these things, we have went to work and put in a kick, but every time we have went to work and put in a kick he has went to work and did it again. When a man keeps on handing out such rough stuff all the time, all you can say is that he ain't got no class and ain't fitten to have no authority over people who have got any rights, and he ought to be kicked out.

When we complained to the English we didn't get no more satisfaction. Almost every day we give them plenty of warning that the politicians over there was doing things to us that they didn't have no right to do. We kept on reminding them who we was, and what we was doing here, and how we come to come here. We asked them to get us a square deal, and told them that if this thing kept on we'd have to do something about it and maybe they wouldn't like it. But the more we talked, the more they didn't pay no attention to us. Therefore, if they ain't for us they must be agin us, and we are ready to give them the fight of their lives, or to shake hands when it is over.

Therefore be it resolved, That we, the representatives of the people of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, hereby declare as follows: That the United States, which was the United Colonies in former times, is now a free country, and ought to be; that we have throwed out the English King and don't want to have nothing to do with him no more, and are not taking no more English orders no more; and that, being as we are now a free country, we can do anything that free countries can do, especially declare war, make peace, sign treaties, go into business, etc. And we swear on the Bible on this proposition, one and all, and agree to stick to it no matter what happens, whether we win or we lose, and whether we get away with it or get the worst of it, no matter whether we lose all our property by it or even get hung for it.

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We send men to the Moon, and bring them back safely.  We defeated the Nazis, nuked the Japanese AT THE SAME TIME.  For like 4 years after WW2, we were the only nation on Earth who was a nuclear superpower.  We were literal gods.  And what did we do with it?  Not much.  Didn't threaten anyone who didn't deserve it, and didn't use any of your nukes.  

All of this was done by the same nation populated by men like this:

How is that possible?

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