THE OFFICIAL SPANISH PHOTO OF THE WINNERS OF THE WORLD CUP

 

Trump, the malignant narcissist, was photoshopped OUT of the official photo:

They took out the man who was mercilessly booed at the World Cup:

HOW YA GONNA KEEP 'EM DOWN ON THE FARM (and preggers) AFTER THEY'VE COMPETED IN SPORTS?

 

Heritage Foundation now targeting women’s sports after SCOTUS’ anti-trans sports ruling 

 Project 25 (formally known as Project 2025 by the Heritage Foundation) does not explicitly call for eliminating all women's sports, but its architects advocate for fundamentally restructuring Title IX to deemphasize equal funding and competitive parity. 

The blueprint specifically aims to curtail federal support for reproductive freedoms to prioritize family structure and fertility.

An analysis of these specific proposals reveals the following intentions:

Focus on Women's Sports & Title IX

De-emphasis on Competitive Equality: Key architects, such as Scott Yenor at the Heritage Foundation, argue that Title IX's push for engineered parity in competitive varsity sports harms men's programs. They recommend that the law be rewritten to remove requirements for strict numerical equality between men's and women's collegiate programs.

Re-evaluating the Purpose: Architects have expressed the view that sports promote aggression and independence. They argue that policies should instead cultivate more "feminine graces", prioritizing domestic focus and fertility over high-intensity, competitive athletics. 

Focus on "Feminine Graces": 

Heritage Foundation fellows and architects of the document, such as Scott Yenor, have criticized women’s sports for allegedly harming "feminine graces" and breeding "aggression," promoting the view that federal policies should instead foster traditional, family-centric gender roles.

Broader Reproductive Policies: While the text does not directly link athletics to fertility rates, Project 2025 does push for pronatalist policies focused on traditional nuclear families. It aims to reshape federal health policy away from broad reproductive rights, replacing them with "fertility awareness" and holistic medicine to encourage pregnancy.

NOTE:  "Feminine graces" is a cultural construct, not a natural one. While physical sex differences are biological, the specific behaviors, mannerisms, and aesthetic expectations labeled as "graceful" are shaped by historical, social, and ideological influences rather than hardwired genetics.

Nikki Morris on Facebook:

The argument goes something like this: “Many women enjoy the thrill of competition, as the joy on the faces of victorious female athletes shows. Women also benefit from activities that build health, good habits, vigor, bodily toughness, agility, confidence, social connection, teamwork, and beauty. 

Moderate exercise supports fertility and mental well-being far more reliably than does the high-intensity, elite model of sports, which, as science shows, produces...elevated rates of menstrual disruption in many top-notch female athletes." 

It gets better: "Feminism aimed to make women more independent and even dominant and less deferential and less oriented toward motherhood and traditional female graces,” and as a result, “Title IX evolved from a seemingly modest anti-discrimination statute into a powerful engine of feminist social engineering, complete with proportionality mandates.”

AI Overview:

The Heritage Foundation’s proposed changes to Title IX would significantly jeopardize athletic opportunities for women by eliminating the legal mandate that guarantees equal funding, scholarships, and team placement in collegiate and school sports.

Legal experts, civil rights organizations, and sports advocates warn that if these proposals are fully implemented, women’s sports would face severe structural vulnerabilities.

Loss of Athletic Scholarships: 

Title IX currently mandates that schools provide athletic scholarships proportional to the participation rates of male and female students. Removing "engineered parity" means universities could drastically cut funding for female scholarships to prioritize high-revenue male programs.

Reduction of Teams and Roster Spots: 

Under current rules, schools must maintain a fair balance of athletic opportunities. If the mandate for numerical equality is eliminated, universities would no longer be legally obligated to sustain non-revenue-generating varsity women's programs (such as softball, track, rowing, or gymnastics), leading to team cuts.

YOUR SUNDAY MOMENT OF ZEN

"All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts and made up of our thoughts."

SATURDAY NIGHT MUSIC

 

This is what a talented, skillful, and imaginative artist can create with the AI tool.   

Meet Kelly Boesch:

Jim Wright explains Trump’s speech last night.

Highest inflation in the G7. Explosive diarrhea. Can't afford meat. Can't afford gas. Can't afford rent and sure as hell can't afford to buy a house. The country is at war, again, still, whatever the term is for this shitshow. Farms in foreclosure because farmers can't sell their crops, can't afford seeds, can't even get fertilizer. Government goons kicking in doors without a warrant, detaining people without due process, murdering citizens in the street. Rich getting rich and the poor getting poorer. 

And Trump goes on TV to complain about imaginary fraud in an election six years ago where the only provable fraud was Trump himself attempting to extort a state into "finding" him enough votes to win. 

That's where we're at. 

Highlights include:

- Trump thinks mail-in ballots are totally corrupt. But he himself along with his family vote by mail-in ballot every year. 

- Trump says the 2016 election and the 2024 elections that put him in office were fine, but the 2020 election where he lost was corrupt. Obama was president in 2016, Biden was president in 2024, TRUMP was president for the alleged corrupt 2020 election. Trump is literally saying the only corrupt elections were under his watch.

- Trump says he ordered certain intelligence documents to be declassified and uploaded online to prove his claims. Literally NONE of those documents prove ... well, anything. Not a single bit of the "evidence" would stand up in a court of law, even under a judge appointed by Trump. He might as well have referenced YouTube conspiracy videos.

- Trump says because of "the Deep State" his own intelligence service hid from him the fact that China was trying to influence our elections. Except Trump's own national security expert, Miles Taylor, who served as DHS Chief of Staff in Trump's first term went online last night after Trump's speech to remind Trump that the Intelligence Community, including Taylor personally, briefed Trump EXTENSIVELY on that very threat not once but repeatedly over several years beginning in 2018 in the lead-up to the 2020 elections. There are records of those meetings. And, ironically, one of the documents released by Trump has a section that specifically notes China targeted Biden's campaign, not Trump's.

- Trump claims there are 250,000 non-citizens on voter rolls. Given that many states, including red states, refused to cooperate with Trump's various election investigation by refusing to hand over their voter rolls, it's hard to determine where Trump got that number from other than the obvious "out of his ass." And in fact, Trump's own government's sources categorically refute that number. There is no record of any non-citizen voting in our elections, certainly not in any significant volume. Those few that attempted to do so were caught and prosecuted. 

Even Fox News wasn't buying it. 

Again, this is a president who has confused "political asylum" with "insane asylum" and who just this week confused "transistors" for "transgenders" when ranting about the manufacture of microchips. This is a guy who thinks windmills cause cancer and who once gave a bizarre unhinged speech about electric boats and sharks. This is a guy who just last week claimed he actually spoke to Teddy Roosevelt and joked about having a "threesome" with his sons. 

What I'm saying here is that maybe this guy is nuts. 

Maybe he's a self-involved narcissist who is suffering from increasing dementia who spends all day imagining persecution to make himself feel better about being such an insecure louse of a human being and his utter humiliation at being defeated by someone he considers inferior. 

I'll say this though: Remember all those QAnon people who were absolutely convinced JFK Jr. staged his own death in 1999 by faking being an inexperienced pilot who should never have been flying over water at night, and how he was going to miraculously return as Trump's VP in 2021 and when he didn't they still show up every year in Dallas all glassy-eyed and expectant to await the return of Republican Jesus?

I'll bet they loved every word of Trump's speech last night. 

Tonight

  

As you watch the President’s address tonight, keep this in mind: Trump was the guy badgering the Republican Secretary of State to “find” 11,760 votes in the 2020 election that did not exist — but would have been just enough to defeat Biden in that state. 

 He was lying then, and he will be lying now. Both to continue to contest the last election he lost, and to set the stage to contest the midterm elections to come.

 

HORRENDOUS!

 

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-ME, 1st district)  has stated that the 26-year-old Columbian man who was shot by ICE agents in Biddeford, Maine, yesterday morning was not the person ICE was ordered to pick up.

Let me repeat: ICE killed an innocent man. ICE killed him in front of his partner and his 3-year-old child.

This isn't being reported in some third world country, this is your country, America, where this is the second killing in a week of an immigrant by Trump's ICE thugs.

BTW, Joan Sebastian Guerrero was here legally. He was doing everything correctly and LEGALLY, and Trump is responsible for what his murderous thugs did to him, his widow, and his 3-year-old baby, who saw ICE kill her father.

Congratulations, America! 

Elect a convicted criminal and get a lawless administration that kills people in American streets.

"Daniel Boucher, a witness to the aftermath of Monday's fatal ICE shooting in Maine says he heard 26-year-old Joan Sebastian Guerrero tell agents, "I tried to stop," after he was shot and pulled from his vehicle. DHS said that ICE agents had been monitoring what they believed to be the residence of someone who was in the country illegally and for whom they had a removal order, adding that “The vehicle attempted to flee the scene and, fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon.” 

Sen. Angus King of Maine said Guerrero was not the target of the operation and that ICE agents had been given a final order for another man. 

According to two immigration advocacy groups, Guerrero was authorized to work in the United States and had a Social Security number."

 

From Feminist News: 

Joan was a 26‑year‑old father, shot in his car with his three‑year‑old daughter present, during a raid where he wasn’t even the target. 

Lorenzo was a 52‑year‑old worker on his way to his job in Houston’s East End when ICE agents opened fire and left him bleeding in the street. Both are now being posthumously smeared as “illegal” while immigrant rights groups, their families, and eyewitnesses tell a very different story about who they were and what happened. 

Let’s be absolutely clear: immigration status is not a crime, and the punishment is never death. These men contributed to their families and communities as much as anyone, and their only “offense” was existing in a system that has decided Latino lives are disposable. 

We are living in pure barbarism under a government that has turned immigration enforcement into a paramilitary project, directed by a deranged dictator who has openly promised mass deportations and whose crackdowns have already produced a record spike in deaths in ICE custody and during enforcement. And it’s not just these two. 

Lorenzo’s killing came amid an intensified campaign that has produced at least eight deaths in enforcement sweeps, while dozens more have died in ICE cages in just the past year and a half. Every one of those deaths is a policy choice, not an accident. 

ICE chose to ram Joan’s car and approach with guns drawn. ICE chose to “weaponize” Lorenzo’s vehicle in their narrative to justify shooting him. If we let this become normal, we are complicit. 

There is no “reforming” an agency that keeps killing people and then burying the truth; immigrant advocates are already saying the quiet part out loud: it must be dismantled. 

Joan Sebastian Guerrero and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo should be alive with their families right now. Instead, their names join a growing list of people killed for the crime of simply being here.

BREAKING

Another one of Trump's scams to bite the dust. Does he ever do anything within the law as POTUS?

 

New York Times: 

"A federal judge on Monday ruled that President Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service was an improper exercise in self-dealing and barred him from claiming that the extraordinary tax protections he received were part of a legitimate settlement agreement. 

In the order, the judge, Kathleen M. Williams, also referred the lawyer who brought Mr. Trump’s case against the I.R.S. to the Florida bar for potential disciplinary proceedings. 

Judge Williams added that she would forward her decision to the New York bar, which is already investigating the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche. 

The decision by the Judge Williams did not explicitly kill the deal that Mr. Trump had worked out with his own government to receive what amounted to amnesty from investigations into tax returns that he, his family and their businesses have already filed. But Judge Williams’s scathing ruling exposed the negotiations between Mr. Trump’s personal lawyers and senior officials at the Justice Department he controls for what she says they were: backroom dealings that did not arise from a legitimate legal process.

The agreement with the I.R.S. included a provision that gave President Trump, his family and his businesses potentially lucrative protection from agency investigations. In June, the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, said the Justice Department stood by the provision."

HUNTER BIDEN ON THE PASSING OF SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM

 

This is apt and tragic:

Class act:

 Remember? 

Trump on the passing of Robert Mueller, Bronze Star and Purple Heart recipient:

There are people in this country who voted for and admire Trump. IMO, a miserable failure of a human being.

YOUR SUNDAY MOMENT OF ZEN

 

Busy this weekend with watching the World Cup (Yay England!). And the Tall Ships celebration here in Boston Hahbah!

But this cartoon was too funny and too true to pass up:

This is wholly unAmerican and dangerous.

 

What is it about our Constitution that these maniacs do not understand? This is not Constitutional -- it's illegal under our laws, and yet this Christian Nationalist fanatic feels comfortable advocating for something completely illegal and unAmerican 

(BTW, to all those who get hysterical over Mayor Mamdani and Senator Bernie Sanders supporting some form of socialism, neither are advocating breaking the law nor changing the Constitution. It is not illegal to support socialism. It IS against our Constitution for the government to favor one religion over all others.): 

"Pete Hegseth’s pastor just told NPR he wants to strip all American women of the right to vote. Asked why, he answered: 'Because it's a good idea.'

And Pete Hegseth invited him to preach at the Pentagon.

Doug Wilson leads Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho. In a sit-down interview, he said he wants the 19th Amendment gone and replaced with 'household voting,' where women only cast a ballot if they are the head of their household. He was blunt about who does the voting in his own home. The man.

He didn't stop at women. Wilson said non-Christians would not be allowed to hold public office in the America he wants. Asked whether they could at least vote, he said, "Yes, probably," then described restrictions on public spaces for non-Christian worship. Church bells, yes. Minarets, no.

Wilson has defended slavery in the American South as a relationship "based upon mutual affection." He believes homosexuality should be a crime. He calls himself a Christian nationalist and says his goal is to turn the United States into a Christian theocracy over the course of several generations, roughly 250 years, one school and one church plant at a time.

And this is the man Hegseth chose to put in front of the U.S. military. In February, the Secretary of Defense invited Wilson to deliver a sermon at the Pentagon, carried on internal Pentagon television, as part of a monthly Christian worship service Hegseth started at the building in 2025. About 300 people attended.

Wilson says he and Hegseth have "met a few times" and "texted some." He opened a Washington church because of how many people in the Trump administration follow his teachings. A Pentagon spokesperson has confirmed Hegseth is a member of Wilson's church network and "very much appreciates" his writings.

Wilson told NPR his vision is "closer to getting a hearing" than at any point in the 40 years he has preached it. He credits the reach he now has to the men who invited him inside the walls of American power. One of them runs the largest military on earth."

THE JOKES ARE WRITING THEMSELVES

 

Note:  I'm glad Platner is out. I'm also glad to see the galloping hypocrisy and non-self-awareness of the Party of Deplorables out in the open.

Platner is as unsavory and disreputable a candidate as ever ran for office, but he has yet to be indicted, put on trial, and convicted of his alleged sexual assault/rape. Unlike Trump, who IS a convicted SA/rapist, AND a convicted felon.

The Republican Party is so insane that it doesn't see that their condemnation of Platner shows them to be the worst, most immoral pandering sycophants on the planet.

The world is laughing at them!

"There's something deeply wrong with him."

 

I'm a fan of Tom Nichols. He's often featured as a guest on our local NPR station in Boston, WGBH, "The Jim and Marjorie Show."

Nichols is also from Chicopee, Mass., a city that produces great thinkers (I'm looking at one of our own commenters!) 

"Nichols registered in 1979 with the Republican Party. 

"In 2016, he described himself as a Never Trump conservative. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Nichols argued that conservatives should vote for Hillary Clinton, whom he detested, because Trump was "too mentally unstable" to serve as commander-in-chief. 

Nichols continued that type of argument for the 2018 midterm elections and advocated that Republicans could save the party by electing as many Democrats as possible in that election.

This observation by him is spot on:

Tom Nichols:  It’s almost like we have a relative in the room, and there’s something deeply wrong with him. And we’ve all agreed not to talk about it. But there is something deeply wrong with him.

His friends know it, his critics know it. His staff, I’m sure, knows it. The world knows it. World leaders know it. And most importantly, our enemies know it, which is why they don’t take him seriously.

Nobody hangs on his words. They kind of do, but mostly out of freakish curiosity to see what kind of wild thing he’s going to say next, not because his words have any inherent meaning or reflect policy.

You know, I spent years teaching students that when the president speaks, it’s policy, and you must pay attention when the president speaks because nobody can contradict him.

Now, you know, are we really cutting off all trade with Spain? Who knows? Maybe. Maybe not. It might have just been a stray electron, you know, careening around inside his brainpan. Who knows?

But this is really dangerous because in the middle of all this stuff—and we can laugh about, you know, the Islamic Republic of Japan and all of that—but he made several statements about an ongoing war that the United States is losing. And no one’s even trying to pretend that they can make any sense of it.

And I’ll just add one last thing that you just brought up.

If this were any other president, this would be a national crisis. I mean, Joe Biden got somebody’s name wrong, and it was headlines. The president gets all kinds of things wrong, completely, you know, is out to lunch at an important NATO summit, and, you know, it’s Wednesday.

The Parties Are NOT The Same

 

Platner vs. Trump

Democrats heard credible allegations and said, “Drop out.” Republicans heard 34 felonies, rape liability, and Epstein files and said, "Best president ever."

Maine Democratic Party Says Platner Will Have ‘No Role’ in Picking Next Nominee 

A top state party official said that Graham Platner’s team had “repeatedly” tried to “put their thumb on the scale,” but he would not influence how the party chose a new Senate candidate.

With Trump’s Backing, Paxton Routs Cornyn in Texas Senate G.O.P. Runoff

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has faced multiple scandals, including indictments for first-degree felony securities fraud in 2015 and a 2023 impeachment by the Texas House for bribery and abuse of office.

From AI:

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton: Paxton won the Republican Senate primary and has maintained strong party backing despite a history of scandals, including a 2023 impeachment trial by the Texas House on charges of abuse of office and bribery. He was ultimately acquitted by the state Senate, and his supporters view these allegations as politically motivated attacks by an entrenched establishment.

Maine Senate Candidate Graham Platner: Platner lost his backing from top Democrats following a report detailing serious allegations of sexual assault. In response to the bombshell story, Senate leadership and prominent national Democrats actively called for him to step down from the race.

Why the approaches differ:

Party Response to Allegations: Democrats moved swiftly to distance themselves from Platner to avoid damaging a critical and competitive seat in the U.S. Senate.

The Incumbency Factor: In Texas, Paxton successfully galvanized the hard-right and MAGA base, leading national Republicans to rally behind him—and focus their resources on beating his Democratic opponent, James Talarico—even if it caused internal handwringing.

HE RUINS EVERTHING HE TOUCHES

 

#ETTD

"The US men's national team was eliminated from the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the Round of 16 following a 4-1 defeat by Belgium at Lumen Field in Seattle.

Belgium dominated the match, fueled by two first-half goals from Charles De Ketelaere, a capitalizing strike from Hans Vanaken following an error by U.S. goalkeeper Matt Freese, and a stoppage-time goal by Romelu Lukaku. 

The lone goal for the Americans was a deflected free kick by Malik Tillman. 

The match was preceded by controversy surrounding the status of U.S. striker Folarin Balogun, who was cleared to play after his red-card suspension was lifted following an unusual intervention from President Donald Trump, a decision that players on the Belgian side admitted gave them extra motivation.

With the defeat, the U.S. joins co-hosts Canada and Mexico as eliminated teams, while Belgium advances to play Spain in the quarterfinals."

MEIDAS TOUCH:

THE TRUMP EFFECT: The USA just lost to Belgium in the World Cup Round of 16 by a score of 4-1, right after Trump personally called FIFA to clear star striker Balogun to play. Sports fans are calling it the Trump curse. He attended the Super Bowl and predicted a Chiefs win, but the Eagles blew them out. He was there when the Commanders hosted the Lions and lost at home. He watched from a suite as Miami fell in the College Football National Championship. He sat in the owner’s suite when the Knicks snapped their huge playoff streak in NBA Finals Game 3. And he attended the Ryder Cup where Europe topped the US team.

TRUMP'S AMERICA

The Patriot Front white supremacists represented the dark side of America on July 4th

 

July 4, 1776 - July 4, 2026

 In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

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, --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. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

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 so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

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.

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.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

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.

He has endeavoured 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.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

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:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

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.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured 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.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

---

Georgia

Button Gwinnett

Lyman Hall

George Walton

 

North Carolina

William Hooper

Joseph Hewes

John Penn

 

South Carolina

Edward Rutledge

Thomas Heyward, Jr.

Thomas Lynch, Jr.

Arthur Middleton

 

Massachusetts

John Hancock

Samuel Adams

John Adams

Elbridge Gerry

Robert Treat Paine

Maryland

Samuel Chase

William Paca

Thomas Stone

Charles Carroll of Carrollton

 

Virginia

George Wythe

Richard Henry Lee

Thomas Jefferson

Benjamin Harrison

Thomas Nelson, Jr.

Francis Lightfoot Lee

Carter Braxton

 

Pennsylvania

Robert Morris

Benjamin Rush

Benjamin Franklin

John Morton

George Clymer

James Smith

George Taylor

James Wilson

George Ross

Delaware

Caesar Rodney

George Read

Thomas McKean

 

New York

William Floyd

Philip Livingston

Francis Lewis

Lewis Morris

 

New Jersey

Richard Stockton

John Witherspoon

Francis Hopkinson

John Hart

Abraham Clark

 

New Hampshire

Josiah Bartlett

William Whipple

 

Massachusetts

Samuel Adams

John Adams

Robert Treat Paine

Elbridge Gerry

 

Rhode Island

Stephen Hopkins

William Ellery

 

Connecticut

Roger Sherman

Samuel Huntington

William Williams

Oliver Wolcott

 

New Hampshire

Matthew Thornton

 

July 3, 2026

 

From Dave Miller:

These words, from President Ford, were delivered to a crowd of immigrants at a citizenship ceremony on July 5, 1976. They are words we would expect, you know, from a sitting president of the entire United States: 

 "I am very proud to welcome all of you as fellow citizens of the United States of America. I invite you to join fully in the American adventure and to share our common goal and our common glory. . . . You have given us a birthday present beyond price—yourselves, your faith, your loyalty, and your love. We thank you with full and friendly hearts. 

The patriots of 1776 . . . wanted to build in this beautiful land a home for equal freedom and opportunity, a haven of safety and happiness, not for themselves alone, but for all who would come to us through centuries. How well they built is told by millions upon millions who came and are still coming. Immigrants came from almost everywhere, singly and in waves. . . . 

Such transfusions of traditions and cultures, as well as of blood, have made America unique among nations and Americans a new kind of people. . . . 

We offered citizenship to all, and we have been richly rewarded."

Are we closer to the ideals of the Declaration of Independence today than we were 50 years ago? Or farther away?

The Trump crime syndicate wants you to agonize over drag queens reading to children and trans people dealing with their issues, instead of looking at Trump's galloping corruption:

Trump’s wealth skyrocketed via crypto, filing shows, while investors got hammered with losses 

 NEW YORK — President Donald Trump took in nearly $1.2 billion from his crypto businesses last year, a federal filing released Tuesday shows, locking in profits while his investors were socked with losses. 

Mere startups when he took the oath of office, the new ventures have now eclipsed in revenue much of his vast property portfolio that took him decades to accumulate. Fueling their rise were billionaire investors and Trump’s own move to quash a federal crackdown on the industry. 

Trump got more than $500 million from his World Liberty Financial business selling new crypto products, including “governance tokens,” according to the required annual disclosure report with the Office of Government Ethics. It also showed another crypto business, CIC Digital LLC, took in more than $600 million from sales of souvenir-type “meme” coins stamped with his face. 

Trump also took in millions last year from selling Trump-branded Bibles, sneakers and other small items in another unprecedented move for the presidency. 

The sale of Trump-branded watches alone brought in $4.7 million. The 927-page disclosure form paints a stark, if incomplete picture of the massive growth of the president’s wealth since taking office last January through a web of business interests — many of which have benefited from the policy moves of Trump’s own government. Trump has insisted that his sons direct his finances but the arrangement rejects the conflict of interest protections that his recent predecessors in office had instituted. 

Forbes estimates Trump’s net worth at $6 billion, up from $2.3 billion in 2024. 

The Trump business is growing abroad The rise of crypto relative to Trump’s property is especially noteworthy because he first rode to office boasting of his property wins. It’s also remarkable because that mainstay business also boomed last year. 

Trump took in tens of millions in fees from a flurry of new hotel, resort and condo deals overseas that amounts to the biggest property expansion ever in the century since the family business was founded. Many of those countries were negotiating with the US over tariffs, military aid and other important matters while the family business was striking the deals. 

 A property in the United Arab Emirates generated $10.4 million for the Trump business last year. One in Saudi Arabia being built by a real estate developer close to the ruling family sent the president’s company $9 million. And one in Bucharest, Romania, and another in Qatar sent him $5 million each. 

One of his prominent domestic properties, Mar-a-Lago in Florida, notched big growth last year, too. Trump took in $77 million from the property, a 50 percent jump from the year earlier when he was just another citizen, as heads of state and business people flocked to it in his new term. 

The disclosure report doesn’t give profit figures, just revenue, so it’s impossible to know how much he is earning."

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Trump called the Bidens a "crime family" for trading on Biden's name. How much has Trump's family pulled in trading on his name? We know it's in the billions. 

Why is this allowed? 

Why is it not considered illegal and punishable by the government? 

Why does Trump's MAGA cultists and other supporters not scream bloody murder as he rips off the country in broad daylight? They sit back and watch healthcare get hammered, food assistance shrink, the environment destroyed, and are complicit in all of these immoral endeavors and policies. They defend or downplay January 6th, ignore or deny the Epstein scandals, and watch the majority of people in this country struggle as Trump builds a Golden Ballroom, Arch de Trump and hold tasteless and crass cage fighting on the White House lawn, all while steering huge tax breaks to his oligarch buddies and corporations who are lining Trump's pockets. It's so bad that even Trump's Iran War has taken a back seat to the chaos and criminality that now defines this country on its 250th birthday. 

IMO, on the 250th anniversary of the birth of this nation, we are farther away from the ideals set out in the Declaration of Independence than we were, say 50 years ago.

I asked AI about this opinion, and here's what it provided:

On our 250th anniversary, Americans are divided: polls indicate a clear majority feel the country has strayed from its founding principles, while still acknowledging the historic progress made toward expanding civil rights and democratic inclusion since 1776. [1, 2, 3]

Perspectives on the Current Trajectory:

• Feeling "Farther Away": Extensive surveys, including the PBS News/NPR/Marist Poll, reveal that \(83\%\) of U.S. adults believe America has moved away from its founding ideals. Discontent cuts evenly across demographics, with a notable sentiment that current institutions are failing to uphold the concepts of universal equality, free speech, and civic unity. [1, 2, 3]
• Mixed Views on Progress: On platforms like r/Askpolitics, opinions are highly mixed. Many cite democratic declines and hyper-partisanship as evidence of regression, while others view the 250-year endurance of the American experiment and ongoing social movements as evidence of continuous progress. [1, 2, 3]
• Historical Milestones: Polling by UMass Amherst highlights that while \(57\%\) of Americans believe the country has achieved its founding ideals to a "great or moderate amount," over \(40\%\) feel the principles of the Declaration are largely disconnected from today's reality. [1]

Ultimately, the 250th anniversary highlights a dual reality: a realization of how far the nation has come in fulfilling the "all men are created equal" promise, and broad concern regarding the current health of U.S. democracy. [1, 2, 3, 4]