Ace: aceofspadeshq at gee mail.com
Buck: buck.throckmorton at protonmail.com
CBD: cbd at cutjibnewsletter.com
joe mannix: mannix2024 at proton.me
MisHum: petmorons at gee mail.com
J.J. Sefton: sefton at cutjibnewsletter.com
Jay Guevara 2025
Jim Sunk New Dawn 2025
Jewells45 2025 Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022 Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022 OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published.
Contact OrangeEnt for info: maildrop62 at proton dot me
Welcome to Club ONT! A collaboration of your Sunday through Wednesday ONT Crew - The Disco, The Doggo, and The Dino.
Welcome the the 5th of July, Club edition. We hope you were able to properly honor the USA yesterday, limited your sunburn, broke out an amazing Independence Day outfit, grilled and consumed plenty of protein, and can account for all your fingers (and appendages). No sparklers required this evening.
The Orange Crush cocktail was first crafted in 1995 at Harborside Bar & Grill in West Ocean City, Maryland. The cocktail is easy to make...
It is made with equal parts triple sec and orange vodka, a freshly squeezed orange, and a splash of Sprite.
Juicing your own oranges is imperative to making this a smashing drink, so get yourself one of these handy dandy citrus juices that aren’t only pretty, but totally functional and easy to use.
[Disco says: These are outstanding! Take it from a local guy who has had more of these than anyone could count -- the part about juicing your own oranges is VERY important!]
Bob created the 50-star flag by cutting up a 48-star flag his parents had received as a wedding present. "I'd watch my mom sew, but I had never sew...and since making the flag of our country, I've never sewn again." Bob's teacher was unimpressed and gave him a B- asking if he even knew how many states we had, and telling him, "If you don't like the grade, get it accepted in Washington then come back and see me."
Two years later his perseverance paid off when he received a call from President Dwight D. Eisenhower who invited him to Washington, D.C., for a ceremony adopting his 50-star flag. Bob's teacher also went back and changed his grade to an A.
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Club ONT Picnic Food
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Club ONT goes to the movies
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Are all Morons in the Palmetto State accounted for?
Police in South Carolina engaged in a not-so-hot pursuit as they chased a tractor excavator down a main highway for more than an hour at the speed an average adult walks.
The chase reached speeds of 3 mph early Sunday morning in North Charleston, police said.
Club ONT brought to you by: Being the rebel you know you are. Ignore the sign below - it is for decoration. Rules are not really a Club thing. Bring what you've got and try not to embarrass yourself too early this evening.
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Club ONT realizes that patrons may have strong opinions on the relevant issues of the day, but asks that differences be settled through cornhole competition. Last week's dispute over whether chicken wings should be served with bones or without bones got a little out of hand. Club ONT should have known trouble was brewing with the previous debate between ranch and blue cheese for wings. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
When movie trivia was fun this was a good one: what two films, produced in the 1960s, took a two-decade break before the sequel was made in the 1980s?
The answer: Psycho (1960) and The Hustler (1961), their sequels being Psycho II (1983) and The Color of Money (1986). It was a good trivia question because the practice of a follow up in which the actors reprised their roles, separated by two decades no less, was rare—if non existent.
How times have changed…
There have always been serial style movies (James Bond or The Thin Man franchise) and regular sequels (The Godfather II, a masterpiece; The French Connection II, pedestrian) and remakes or reimaginings (Ben Hur, The Invisible Man, Road House) and reboots (The Planet of the Apes or Halloween), but I’m not talking about those.
The focus of this post is the continuing of a tale some years later, but there’s a difference between what I mean and a straight up sequel. Sequels usually come fast and furious (yes, I meant to do that) upon the heels of the first chapter. So The Fast and The Furious or Superman or Rambo.
The characters may be the same but there is no nostalgic yearning to see what they have been up to after many years, a la Norman Bates or Eddie Felson.
Traditional sequels usually are plot-based. Ethan Hunt is assigned a new mission. Clark W. Griswold goes on his next vacation. We care less about how the characters have evolved or aged or where they find themselves than we do about them saving the day or finding a decent hotel.
Business-wise it makes perfect sense. Hollywood produces a popular film and wants to cash in on sequels, so we get Final Destination part LVIII (or whatever we are up to now) and will keep getting more as long as profit is to be had.
But somewhere along the line, in addition to the traditional sequel, we got the years-later-what-are-they-up-to film.
What changed? Why were the cases of Psycho II and The Color of Money as follow ups isolated?
As with most things that have destroyed peace and justice in the galaxy, I lay the blame at the feet of Star Wars.
The Phantom Menace (1999) is technically not a sequel (it’s a prequel!), but these terms do not matter. It was the idea of 25 years passing before we caught up with characters we yearned to know more about that captured the public’s imagination.
The Star Wars movies have all been pretty stupid, but they earned a lot of money and opened the floodgates for fan service and nostalgia films like we have not seen before.
A variant of this became the ‘what happened to so and so’ movie, and they were intriguing to say the least. There are too many to count, but some of the most notable are Top Gun: Maverick, Cobra Kai, Coming 2 America, and Bill and Ted Face the Music.
If you were a popular character in the 1980s or 1990s, you can assume, if your follow up film has not been made, it is surely being considered.
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To be honest, I don’t much like these films. It speaks to the dearth of originality in the 21st century movie business. Why take a chance on an interesting, new voice or fresh ideas when you can dust off Axel Foley? Hollywood has always been a bottom line business, but studios and large production companies used to take some chances. Even their bombs now (Snow White) are retreads.
Flops aside, the sequel/prequel/reboot/follow up movie has been immensely profitable, so, like the baseball team that finishes last but keeps its fan base, why would there be efforts at improvement if the people keep paying?
And to be even more honest: while I don’t like the practice of the follow up sequel, sometimes I can’t help but think of interesting takes on old material, and since one can’t exactly beat Hollywood, one might consider joining the party.
I’m not much involved with screenwriting any longer, but, when I was, taking a popular character or movie and picking up the saga was not a bad play to make as an aspiring scribe.
Legally, you could never proceed with that kind of story in terms of production, but, in the scriptwriting game, anything you can do to draw attention to yourself and show you have chops is something many writers consider. It’s called the ‘get noticed’ script, and you write it to land representation which will then take out your original ideas or try to find you work based on your potential.
I fell under this spell once and wrote a follow up to Caddyshack. In my telling of the sequel, which I titled Danny Noonan, the character became a professional caddie but could never land a big player’s bag so was down and out. But then he receives a message that Ty Webb has passed away and left him Bushwood (Webb was the secret owner of the club). Danny returns to Bushwood to find it in disrepair. He may have been bequeathed the club but does not have the funds to rehabilitate it. Another man does: Carl Spangler, the harelipped stoner and former Bushwood greenskeeper. Spangler became a cannabis millionaire when marijuana was legalized, and he funds the revival of Bushwood. That is until Judge Smails grandson, Spaulding (he a judge too), blocks the construction. Danny seeks out his old rival DeNunzio, who is a lawyer now, to represent him. Maggie is of course still in town and the ghosts of Webb, Czervik, and Smails get in on the act too. It was a pretty dumb story, but I had fun writing it.
I only queried one person with this, Michael O’Keefe, the actor who played Danny Noonan. He got back to me right away to say he had been making his own efforts with Warner Brothers to develop a sequel, but, surprisingly, they were not interested in any more Caddyshack movies. So it ended there, but it was an interesting exercise.
And now I invite you to give me your take on a follow up film. There is only rule: the actors who played the characters (at least most of them) must be still living. This is not a reboot or slipping in someone new to play Jack Ryan. No, this must be like Bill and Ted or Maverick or Axel Foley, the old performers still living and able to reprise their roles.
Here are two examples I have come up with…
Title: Princeton Could Use a Guy Like Joel
Logline: 40 years after that Risky Business, Joel Goodson has his own kids and a picturesque, suburban McMansion. After the “time of his life” in high school, he played it safe. But does he have it in him one more time to say, “What the fuck” and make a move?
Title: Smith & Wesson & Me
Clint Eastwood has retied from movies, but where is he? Possibly in a retirement home. And what if Inspector Harry Callahan is also similarly situated? Can ‘Dirty’ Harry adjust to this kind of lifestyle, or will he still bend the rules to infuriate his bosses and get the bad guys?
Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread. We gave the Ace of Spades Wheel of Hobbies(TM) a spin and it came up with woodworking.
This is a Hobby thread, not a professional or commercial platform. Having said that, many people have turned their hobbies into a business. Often professionals are also enthusiasts. We all had to start somewhere.
We've done a woodcarving and whittling theme, but never a pure woodworking theme or a focus on working with a lathe. Fortunately for all of us, lurker watchin' sent some goodies to the official Hobby Thread emailbox that will provide excellent content for such a theme. As you'll see below, his work with a lathe is stunning. His wood comes from downed trees or reclaimed sources.
This story also helps illustrate the secondary theme - a hobby that works its way towards something that earn a little bit of income and offset the cost of hobbying.
Here's the background: watchin' was a carpenter at one point, so he was familiar with wood. However, his calling as a Pastor took him into the ministry for over two decades. He and his wife moved to Peru for a volunteer project helping abused, abandoned and neglected kids for over a decade before returning to the states in 2022.
When he returned, he essentially started over. It took over a year to get resettled and regrouped, but he started to accumulate woodworking tools during that year. Some were gifts and some were cheap bargain finds.
The family finally found a house. It came with an unfinished "guest house." Yep, you can see where this is going. The guest house turned into a shop.
He had never used a lathe before, but added one to the shop and set to teaching himself how to turn wood. A year later, here he is. After you see his work below, I think you'll agree that he's learned well.
At some point, you can only have so many bowls and vases sitting around the house and you've given your creations to everyone in your friend and family orbit as gifts. Those same friends and family start asking whether others would be interested. Is there a market to recoup some of the hobbying costs? Watchin' is thinking through that now. He has a website to reserve a piece of cyberspace but it isn't a online store (at least not yet). If you click, you'll see that he has no plans for large scale operations but instead will stick to making individual pieces as the wood and inspiration permit.
Hoping watchin' will de-lurk and do more postin' on today's thread.
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Surely there are other members of the Horde that work with wood, especially turning wood on lathes. Similarly, there are members of the Horde that have tinkered with turning their hobby into some form of commercial enterprise. Similarly, there are very talented members of the Horde that have explicitly decided against turning something fun into something that resembles work.
Come forth with your stories and wisdom.
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Made from recovered wood from Hurricane Helene and old oak pallet wood:
How did it come together? Here is the work in progress:
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Made from Florida mahogany:
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Made from olive wood:
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This is a bowl carved from an oak burl and sealed in resin:
At some point, I want to learn how to work with resin. No particular reason other than seeing it used in interesting applications. Seems like a good skill to have in the toolbelt. How hard can it be? (Ha!)
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Red cedar with some marvelous wood grain:
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Last one - this comes from an oak branch:
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Two more pieces from pecan wood:
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There are a bazillion videos on youtube involving turning wood. Many show the process of transforming a piece of plain wood or an ugly stump into something beautiful. ("You won't believe what I carved from this horribly ugly piece of trash wood!")
Some create a starting block such as building a cube of different colored woods or pouring resin around colored pencils. The end result shows off the stripes or colors when carved into a bowl or lamp. ("Everyone thought I was crazy to attempt carving such a wild piece!!")
Some just go for size, showing a project that starts with an enormous tree trunk. ("This huge piece of wood maxxed out my lathe!!!")
I'm not enamored of click-bait youtube titles, but I appreciate that lathe youtubers typically show without explaining verbally. They just show the process without talking their way through the video with words. I tried to pick a few that looked entertaining and educational and lower on the clickbait spectrum. Enjoy.
This video shows of an amazing display of skills, techniques, and homemade jigs en route to making a lamp on a lathe. If you're not inclined to watch the whole thing, at least watch from 5:50 to 11:43 to watch him make the spiral body of the lamp. Amazing.
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Pallet wood isn't the highest quality wood, but creative people have found a million uses for reclaimed pallets and pallet wood. Have you?
This started as a wood project but evolved into a 3D printing project for reasons:
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Hey look! A wooden lock from fd!
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Are you a lurker? Do you enjoy reading Ace of Spades content, but have been reluctant to post and participate in the comments? Have you been waiting for a good opportunity to jump in and say hello? This could be your day. Come on in. The water's fine. We don't bite (usually).
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In hobby related space news, the Big Beautiful Bill includes a provision to move the Space Shuttle Discovery from the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum near Dulles Airport to a new display in Houston. The move of space shuttle Discovery must be completed by Jan. 4, 2027.
``(F) $85,000,000 shall be obligated to carry out
subsection (b), of which not less than $5,000,000 shall
be obligated for the transportation of the space
vehicle described in that subsection, with the
remainder transferred not later than the date that is
18 months after the date of the enactment of this
section to the entity designated under that subsection,
for the purpose of construction of a facility to house
the space vehicle referred to in that subsection.
``(b) Space Vehicle Transfer.--
``(1) In general.--Not later than 30 days after the date of
the enactment of this section, the Administrator shall identify
a space vehicle described in paragraph (2) to be--
``(A) transferred to a field center of the
Administration that is involved in the administration
of the Commercial Crew Program (as described in section
302 of the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration Transition Authorization Act of 2017 (51
U.S.C. 50111 note; Public Law 115-10)); and
``(B) placed on public exhibition at an entity
within the Metropolitan Statistical Area where such
center is located.
``(2) Space vehicle described.--A space vehicle described
in this paragraph is a vessel that--
``(A) has flown into space;
``(B) has carried astronauts; and
``(C) is selected with the concurrence of an entity
designated by the Administrator.
``(3) Transfer.--Not later than 18 months after the date of
the enactment of this section, the space vehicle identified
under paragraph (1) shall be transferred to an entity
designated by the Administrator.
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Have you been hobbying over the holiday? Was it it July 4th themed? Share.
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Bonus Horde Hobbying from polynikes. TRex regrets not including a polynikes piece in support of the lighthouse theme. Posted previously in a Hobby Thread (August 2024) but good enough to make an encore appearance. Bodie Island Lighthouse:
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As per usual Hobby Thread etiquette, keep this thread limited to hobbying. Your participation does not need to limited to the theme. All hobbying is welcome. However, politics, current events and religious debates can live in threads elsewhere. Play nice. Do not be a troll and do not feed the trolls. Pants, as always, are optional.
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Did you miss the Hobby Thread last week? We talked lighthouses. The comments may be closed, but you can re-live the content.
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Notable comments from last week:
Honorable mention:
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Words of wisdom:
"Because despite all our troubles, when things are grim out in that wide round world of ours, that's when it's really important to have a good hobby." Posted by: tankascribe at June 22, 2024 07:41 PM (HWxAD).
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If you have trouble finding something in the content or comments that resonates with you, hijack the thread for your hobbying as you see fit. We will feature a different theme next time. What are you hobbying? We love showing off Horde hobbying. Send thoughts, suggestions and photos of your hobbying to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Do mighty things.
— Bunsen, BEAKER, and Bernoulli🇨🇦 (@bunsenbernerbmd) July 3, 2025
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Happy Independence Day Weekend
This man sets free a majestic eagle after rehabilitation, & this magical moment makes the world beautiful for a moment. Happy Fourth of July! pic.twitter.com/GpUyBVQE3O
— Why you should have a cat (@ShouldHaveCat) July 4, 2025
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Meet The PetMorons
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Baby Conures Update:
Good day fellow Pet Morons.
Since my last post there are 2 more hatchings. All four eggs have now hatched.
Chick A and B are doing well and putting on weight. Chicks C and D are still in the red zone but are active and eating well. They have been moved to the brooding box. More on the red, yellow and green zones next week.
I'll talk about feeding today. From Day 0 to Day 2, the biggest threat to avian neonates is dehydration, not starvation. They still have residual yolk in their systems for nutrition. With that said, the water to food (Exact baby parrot formula) ratio is 6:1. After Day 2 you gradually increase the food content. Therefore, you don't see significant weight gain at first but quickly in the days that follow. See below, these are weights and days old as of 7/1.
Chick A - Day 9 19 grams
Chick B - Day 7 15 g
Chick C - Day 3 4 g
Chick D - Day 0 3 g
We are transitioning the 2 older chicks off of the baby spoon to a dental irrigation syringe. They now can hold their heads up and get quite noisy when its feeding time. We're still on a 3-4 hour feeding schedule (around the clock) for all of them as of now.
We may be able to get a video of an actual hatching from a previous brood. Here are pictures of Chicks A and B being fed and squabbling.
All is well here.
Regards, David
That's a lot of great information. What a lot of work! Thanks for the update.
Anybody feeling inspired to raise some baby birds of their own? Great mentor here.
Chicks A and B are lookiing stronger.
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Hi KT,
Here is the new puppy, my very own Doge, Saijo. He is settling in well, being pretty good with the kitties. Like most Shiba Inus, he is very smart and now that he realizes he has an actual home, he is letting his personality shine through. I think he will be glad to get the donut off soon, even if he is using it as a pillow.
Piper
Saijo looks like a great dog!
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The first picture was taken by the guy who delivered the dog food for my Golden Retriever, Whiskey. Thought it was cute that he got both "dogs" in the shot. Ordinarily Whiskey would be on the porch to greet the mailman and delivery people, but this was a stormy day, hence the sad puppy face.
The next picture is a friend of Whiskey's who is a Treeing Tennessee Brindle dog. Actually hails from Tennessee but currently lives in the land that maps forgot. Quite the dapper little chick magnet in his sportscar, no?!
Best Regards,
IrishEi
Love the information with these photos, and the great personalities reflected in them.
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Meet my son and daughter-in-law’s Potcake mutt Arthur. Year and a half old and is pretty good dog…aww, all dogs are pretty good, right?
“Are you allowed on the couch??”
“Who, me?”
Thanks for the Pet Parade every weekend!
Buzzy K
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We have one story left for next week. Thank you for sharing your pets with us.
If you would like to send pet and/or animal stories, links, etc. for the Ace of Spades Pet Thread, the address is:
petmorons at protonmail dot com
Remember to include the nic or name by which you wish to be known when you comment at AoSHQ, or let us know if you want to remain a lurker.
Hi, KT … It's good to see you back in the Captain's Chair again. Excellent column! Attached is a pic I found in files on the Venerable XHD - some spider lilies. These were in a 'kinda-sorta' garden next to what had once been JAX Brewery in the French Quarter.
It was about 0730, and the light was great. Equipment was a Bogen tripod, Olympus OM-4 (black) w/16mm Olympus macro lens. Exposure? Heh. A triple exposure on the same film frame. No easy task with the OM-4. It had a button that had to be depressed when 'advancing' the frame (which kept the film stationary in-camera) for each subsequent exposure. In reality, this was a 'hit 'n hope' shot, and I was quite the happy boy when the print was ready at Colorpix. It was also a good seller. Sometimes luck trumps skill, yes?
Oh. Filmstock? It was probably one of the stocks from Agfa, 'cos I really like its 'European' color balance from that time.
Dr_No
A great trip down memory lane. Timely, too. Great substitute for fireworks in the garden (especially around dogs - ask me how I know).
More potential fireworks substitutes. Gotta watch 'em:
I missed the peak, dangit. Thanks for what you do.
Bonecrusher
I think the buds are lovely. And the flowers, even if you miss the peak. Not as dangerous as fireworks (h/t NorCal Sierra Foothills Lurker). Terrible.
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Edible Gardening/Putting Things By
Hi KT,
NorCal Sierra Foothills Lurker here and so glad you are back and hoping you do well. I’m sending pictures of our first Armenian cucumbers and the huge leaves of our one zucchini plant. We already have too many zucchini from it! Be well and thank you so much for your work!
By the way, we have quite a few tomato plants but they’re just starting to make fruit.
The cucumbers look great!
Gardens of The Horde
What is the red and green plant? Made this tabletop waterfall, but don’t know what the red/green arrowhead leave plant is. Field Marshal Zhukov
Nice arrangement started there.
Well, Horde:
Name that plant . . . .
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Hope everyone has a nice weekend.
If you would like to send photos, stories, links, etc. for the Saturday Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, the address is:
ktinthegarden at g mail dot com
Remember to include the nic or name by which you wish to be known at AoSHQ, or let us know if you want to remain a lurker.
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A single bee can produce 1 tablespoon of honey in its lifetime.
683 bees fly roughly 32,550 miles to gather 5.93 lbs of nectar from about 1,185,000 flowers in order to make one 9.5 oz. jar of honey.pic.twitter.com/NOCQBXQu6c
Independence Day Weekend (with a little socialism)
—K.T.
Happy Independence Day Weekend! Along with the festivities, why not take the opportunity to make remembering some history fun for the kids? One of the keys to the popularity of the clearly incompetent socialist mayoral candidate in NYC seems to be that he smiles a lot.
We can do better than this with young people. And older people, for that matter.
Following are some pieces to read and share so we can keep things in perspective during these crazy times. Most of them were accessed through Powerline:
No institution has worked harder in recent years to destroy the narrative of America’s founding than the New York Times, whose 1619 Project reimagined the experiment in republican self-government as a grand scheme to institute and perpetuate slavery. James Piereson calls their bluff, and examines the contradictions of the destructive Left’s founding myth.
An organization supporting the history of Mount Vernon
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How to Celebrate the Past Claremont School Board President William B. Allen uses the Fourth of July as an occasion for reflection on the Founding principles of this nation.
Following a fading tradition, Claremont School Board President William B. Allen uses the Fourth of July as an occasion for reflection on the Founding principles of this nation. His address raises issues concerning the schools and civic education which the recent, well-publicized education studies have virtually ignored.
This contribution inaugurates a new section of the Review which will feature essays, interviews, and reviews of particular interest to students, professors, and other residents of Claremont.
For the more studious of your acquaintances, I guess. Did you know there was once a Forefathers Day?
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Resources from Wilfred M. McClay
We must work to understand the Declaration better and to grasp the various sources of its strength and enduring appeal.
Thomas Jefferson was not a particularly modest man. Few great and world-changing public figures are. But in a famous letter of 1825 to Henry Lee, he insisted upon taking a modest approach to his role as the principal draftsman of the document that has come to characterize the heart and soul of the American Revolution: the Declaration of Independence. He could have claimed brilliant originality for himself. He could have complained, as he had on other occasions, about the fact that the drafting committee altered his brilliant original draft in ways of which he disapproved. But he chose not to do so in this instance. The passage in question deserves to be quoted at length, as the best account we have of his considered view of the matter:
…with respect to our rights and the acts of the British government contravening those rights, there was but one opinion on this side of the water. all American whigs thought alike on these subjects. when forced therefore to resort to arms for redress, an appeal to the tribunal of the world was deemed proper for our justification. this was the object of the Declaration of Independance. not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of, not merely to say things which had never been said before; but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject; [. . .] terms so plain and firm, as to command their assent, and to justify ourselves in the independant stand we [. . .] compelled to take. neither aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any particular and previous writing, it was intended to be an expression of the american mind, and to give to that expression the proper tone and spirit called for by the occasion. all it’s authority rests then on the harmonising sentiments of the day, whether expressed, in conversns in letters, printed essays or in the elementary books of public right, as Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, Sidney Etc. the historical documents which you mention as in your possession, ought all to be found, and I am persuaded you will find, to be corroborative of the facts and principles advanced in that Declaration. (my emphasis added)
There is much more. Perhaps the story is not as simple as we thought it was.
On July 9, 1858, Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas gave a campaign speech to a raucous throng from the balcony of the Tremont Hotel in Chicago. Abraham Lincoln was in the audience as Douglas prepared to speak. Douglas graciously invited Lincoln to join him on the balcony to listen to the speech. . .
President Calvin Coolidge celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1926, with a speech providing a magisterial review of the history and thought underlying the Declaration. His speech on the occasion deserves to be read and studied in its entirety. The following paragraph, however, is particularly relevant to the challenge that confronts us in the variants of the progressive dogma that pass themselves off today as the higher wisdom:
About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.
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NYC Democrats have chosen an interesting candidate for mayor
. . . in the end we have to face the fact that the present front-runner for mayor is the most woefully inadequate candidate possible.
Promising the most woefully impossible agenda.
On Mamdani’s qualifications the facts speak for themselves.
Mamdani may be presenting himself as the representative of struggling New Yorkers, but he himself is anything but.
Privately schooled at the Bank Street school, he went on to study at Bowdoin College in Maine.
From there he loafed around for a bit, trying to make it as a rapper before deciding to become a political activist.
Truly a story of American struggle.
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The young hipsters who are his biggest supporters are thrilled to have a declared socialist (one who has used old-fashioned Marxist rhetoric about seizing the means of production) as their candidate. He is downplaying the Marxist language right now, but the internet is forever. Let's just go with his current campaign, never mind the goof-ups already noted by Murray above:
I blame the universities, in large part, for the appeal of this guy. The current dust-up over his identifying himself as African-American stemmed from an internet sleuth trying to keep tabs on Columbia's racist policies, for example. The project was not aimed at individual students. This guy just happened to come up in the data.
There are three posts by different authors and commenters this week at Chicago Boyz with lots of food for thought on where the universities have let us down.
(Check out the recent posts on the Fourth of July, too.)
From commenter "Mike" at the last link above:
Mike, June 29, 2025 at 7:47 pm -
I think the overproduction of worthless college degrees is and the resentment it generates among their holders is one problem. It provides a degree of anger for people who feel their ambitions, whether material or emotional are not being filled
I think there’s another problem which is, the what? The Zeitgeist? A problem with the higher education system and the hatred it preaches to students is that not only does it make students at best indifferent to their culture and past but makes them openly hostile to it. A rejection of the past means a rejection not only a rejection of its collective wisdom and prudence but the elevation of individual will as the highest virtue
If that sounds a little too high-minded think of it this way – we have a large, seething mass of resentful college-educated young people who think they are the smartest and most virtuous people the world has ever produced and that they are only being held back from immanentizing the eschaton by corrupt forces. They are on the cutting-edge of History and the past has nothing to teach them . .
Btw… as Bruce Abbott commented in the previous thread if you want to look at the decline of the American higher ed system look no further than Bowdoin College which has gone from producing Joshua Chamberlain to Zohran Momdani. Somehow it seems totally appropriate to their respective given times.
Bowdoin was a different school in his day. An impressive man.
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Let's think about why a mayoral candidate has a foreign policy. Peter W. Wood has written a piece on his education, but much of the piece is is about his father. Even though Wood wrote an exhaustive review of education at Bowdoin in 2013, when our mayoral candidate was at school there.
His father was a settler colonialist in Uganda, and his parents were conflicted about this issue. Their son's middle name honors a famous Black African revolutionary.
Teaching African Studies at Columbia, it must be interesting for Dad to teach about Idi Amin, who kicked him out of the country with other Indians established in Uganda.
There is a joke about macaroni and cheese being the most popular vegetable in the South. Another says that in the South macaroni and cheese is a food group unto itself. So, how did the remarkable and beloved dish become such an important feature of Southern cuisine? For history lovers, the answer is fascinating.
Thomas Jefferson was, among many other things, an epicure and a Francophile. When he learned in May 1784 that he had been appointed American Minister to France, Jefferson recognized the opportunity to realize one his ambitions. He sent immediately for James Hemings.
Elizabeth Hemings and her twelve children (including James and his famous half-sister Sally) had been slaves of Martha Jefferson’s father, John Wayles, and Martha had inherited them when her father died. The Hemings family was afforded special privileges by the Jeffersons, one being that, although still legally slaves, Elizabeth’s sons were allowed to work for wages and keep the money they earned. At the time he was summoned to join Jefferson on his voyage to Paris, 20-year-old James was working as a riding valet in Richmond. Jefferson thought highly of James’ abilities and knew him to be intelligent and trustworthy. Jefferson had long wanted to have a French-trained chef at Monticello, and he chose James to be that man.
In July 1784 Jefferson and James Hemings sailed for France, with Jefferson’s daughter Martha traveling with them. For three years James studied French cuisine in Paris, eventually becoming the head chef at Jefferson’s Paris residence the Hôtel de Langeac, which functioned also as the American embassy. James used some of his wages to hire a French tutor, gaining a good command of the language while there.
Jefferson and James Hemings returned to America in 1789, Jefferson having been appointed Secretary of State. Slavery was illegal in France at the time, so James could have stayed behind, a free man in Paris. Why he returned, while still technically a slave, is unknown. Tradition in the Hemings family is that James negotiated the conditions of his return, which may well be true. But the details are lost to history for now. What we do know is that James Hemings went with Jefferson to Philadelphia, where he served as the chief chef for the Secretary of State, earning the same wages as the other staff.
Under Pennsylvania law at the time, any enslaved person who remained in the state for more than six months became free. Because he lived in Philadelphia longer than that, James Hemings was entitled to his freedom. But as in France, he did not elect to claim it immediately. Instead he and Jefferson negotiated an agreement.
Jefferson did not want James to leave until he had trained a replacement, and for reasons we do not know, James agreed to stay on for that purpose. On the eve of his retirement to Monticello, Jefferson drew up an agreement with James that read:
“Having been at great expense in having James Hemings taught the art of cookery, desiring to befriend him, and to require from him as little in return as possible, I do hereby promise and declare, that if the said James shall go with me to Monticello in the course of the ensuing winter, when I go to reside there myself, and shall there continue until he shall have taught such person as I shall place under him for that purpose to be a good cook, this previous condition being performed, he shall be thereupon made free, and I will thereupon execute all proper instruments to make him free. Given under my hand and seal in the county of Philadelphia and state of Pennsylvania this 15th day of September one thousand seven hundred and ninety three.”
Back in Monticello, James Hemings trained the man chosen by Jefferson to be his replacement—James’s 23-year-old brother Peter Hemings. About two years later, once he had imparted to Peter all of the culinary skills he had learned in France, James was officially and legally manumitted by Jefferson.
But back to macaroni and cheese. While in France James Hemings learned to prepare, among other things, French fries and ice cream—both of which were popularized in America after being served at the Jefferson residence. Likewise “macaroni pie,” which we would now call macaroni and cheese. The dish had become popular in Europe after 1769 and James Hemings learned to make it while in France, bringing his own recipe back to America with him. In 1802 Jefferson served “macaroni pie” at a state dinner, using James Hemings’s recipe. In 1824, Jefferson’s cousin Mary Randolph published “The Virginia Housewife,” which would become the most influential cookbook of the 19th century. Included in it was the recipe for “macaroni and cheese.” The rest is history.
Unfortunately, however, there is no happy ending to the James Hemings story. After being granted his freedom James became a traveler, returning to France for a while and possibly visiting other places in Europe. By 1801 he was working as a chef in Baltimore, and by then had become a chronic alcoholic. We don’t know whether it was his alcoholism or something else that drove him to such despair, but in 1801, at age 36, James Hemings took his own life.
Thomas Jefferson, his daughter Martha, and James Hemings sailed for France on July 5, 1784, two hundred forty-one years ago today.
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Music
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Hope you have something nice planned for this Independence Day weekend.
The Classical Saturday Morning Coffee Break & Prayer Revival
—Misanthropic Humanitarian (ONT Cob Emeritus)
Good morning boys and girls and everything in between. I certainly hope you have all of your fingers and toes this morning. Too late to pray for you not to blow those digits off.
Before we enter the Prayer Revival just a few housekeeping matters to go over. (Rulz for those of you in Plover)
1) This is an open thread. Feel free to lurk, opine and/or bloviate.
2) Be kind be nice. Even the trolls have warped feelings.
3) No running with sharp objects.
4) Have a great weekend!
Please submit any prayer requests to me, “Annie’s Stew” at apaslo atsign hotmail dot com. Prayer requests are generally removed after four weeks unless we receive an update.
Prayer Requests:
5/3 – D asked for prayers for his wife, Susan, who has been having some issues. They went to the hospital on 5/1, and all the signs are pointing to pancreatic cancer. They meet with other doctors on 5/5. Any prayers would be a blessing.
6/5 Update – The doctors have confirmed it is cancer, but they have not yet determined if it can be removed, or if chemotherapy will be needed first, to shrink the mass. They are so thankful for all the prayers and ask for them to continue.
7/3 Update – D asked for everyone’s prayers. At Susan’s appointment on 7/1, the doctor didn’t like what he saw. Susan has been in a lot of pain and was admitted to the hospital for a few days. They send their thanks for the love and prayers.
5/10 – Cosda asked for prayers for his wife, who recently had a mole removed that came back as melanoma cancer. She is scheduled for surgery next week, and it looks like that should remove it completely.
6/20 Update – The PET and brain scans showed no active cancer cells, which is great. But since it’s melanoma, and cancer was found in a lymph node, she is going to receive immunotherapy for the next year. Thanks to all. The prayers are working!
5/17 – neverenoughcaffiene asked for prayers for her sister-in-law, Jackie, who is looking at dialysis. Her kidneys have been failing for several years is she is getting close based on her numbers. Hopefully new meds will help.
6/28 Update – Jackie is stabilized and is working on exercising to make her last vacation to Italy in October. Thank you for the prayers; they definitely helped.
5/24 – Captain Obvious requested prayers for his friend J, who will be having surgery on 6/9 to try and relieve her chronic pain. She also has concerns because she is on blood thinners and nearly bled out after her hip replacement. Please pray for the best possible outcome and also to relieve her anxiety.
6/12 Update – J had her surgery on 6/9 and it went very well; the surgeon had to do less work than he originally thought. J is already experiencing relief from the chronic pain she had. Thanks to all for the prayers.
5/29 – Teresa in Fort Worth sent an update and her thanks for all the prayers and words of encouragement. They have sustained her and her family as she continues to battle cancer. She continues to receive good news: her oncologist is quite pleased with her response to the current medication protocol; they are decreasing the lab work frequency to every other week instead of weekly; the side effects from chemo have been barely noticeable; she can just take 4 tiny pills for chemo instead of spending one day a week at the cancer center. It’s been 7 months so far, and she expects that at some point the tumors will start growing again, but for now, they are encouraged.
6/6 Update – Teresa has a side effect from the chemo – her fingernails and toenails are starting to loosen and “lift” off their nail beds. It is painful, and also carries a risk of infection.
6/4 – Grumpy and Recalcitrant asked for prayers for his mother (Lynda), asking to give her strength and healing. Also, for the medical staff to be prompted to do a complete and thorough job diagnosing her.
6/7 Update – Lynda has been diagnosed with aortic stenosis. This is a correctable medical issue using surgery where they go in endoscopically via the leg, up to the heart, to fix the lower heart valve that is leaking.
6/6 – tbodie Lurker requested prayers for his son, tbodie Jr, who is in his mid-30s and was just diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Please pray for healing for tbodie Jr and for peace for his family.
6/11 – Legally Sufficient asks the Horde’s prayers for her friend, Bubba, who was in a bad auto wreck on 6/8. Prayers for comfort, healing, and strength are needed for Bubba and his family. He is in ICU and will be there for a couple more weeks. Thank you!
6/18 Update – Legally Sufficient asks for continued prayers for healing, strength, and comfort for Bubba. God is great! Bubba is recovering from pneumonia (on top of the other injuries from his vehicle accident) but he is fully participating in PT, walking 25 steps a day with assistance, his breathing is improving, and he is finally eating solid food! Prayers for Bubba, his wife and family, and Bubba’s many friends are very much appreciated.
6/14 – MkY sent an update on his wife Judy’s battle with kidney cancer. Like Teresa in Ft. Worth, her tumors are shrinking. The shrinkage is so dramatic, they are discussing removing the cancerous kidney. Since that is the original source, that would make it easier to attack and perhaps kill the other tumors. Thank you so much for the prayers.
6/14 – Our Country is Screwed sent prayers of thanksgiving for all the thoughts and prayers as chemo continues. It has really been uplifting. The side effects have been minimal as well, thankfully, and there are 8 weekly treatments to go.
6/14 – Inspector Cussword requested prayers for Brother Tim. He has had a horrible time, living in his car and has just been handed a cancer diagnosis. Please pray for God’s Provision to be clear and comforting to him, and for his healing.
6/28 Update (from Brother Tim himself) - On 6/23, Brother Tim had surgery to remove the cancerous mass and some nearby lymph nodes. He has been in the hospital since then. He has trouble walking already, and is concerned about how much mobility he has lost after all this. He is hopeful that PT will be able to get him properly mobile before he is discharged, or at least that a rehab facility could be arranged. He should know by 7/4 if the cancer has spread. He still has long-term housing and income issues. Prayers are appreciated.
6/14 – Inogame asked for prayers for his wife and family. It’s very early, but they may have baby #5 on the way. They appreciate the support and prayers of the Horde.
6/24 – Fenelon Spoke asked for prayers on behalf of Sock Money and family, at the death of his brother, and for AOP who has PVC and spent hours in the hospital on 6/23. Also, Pawn could use prayers due to work issues; people are being laid off. Please pray for Israel as well as our country, and for Donald Trump, JD Vance, their families, and all of the Trump administration.
6/28 – Dave R requested prayers for healing, strength, recovery, and curing, as he was recently diagnosed with non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. He is 62 and a long-time AoSHQ reader.
6/28 – H asked for prayers for a mom of two elementary aged boys who lost her mother 3 weeks ago, and her husband on 6/28, both to cancer.
6/28 – Ben Had requested prayers for Jay Guevara, as he was seriously ill.
6/30 Update – IrishEi posted that Jay Guevara has passed away, and offered prayers for peaceful repose in God’s hands and for comfort for his loved ones.
7/3 – 469 requested prayers for some medical tests he has coming up.
For submission guidelines and other relevant info, please contact Annie's Stew, who is managing the prayer list. You can contact her at apaslo at-sign hotmail dot com. If you see a prayer request posted in a thread comment, feel free to copy and paste it and e-mail it to Annie's Stew. She tries to keep up with the requests in the threads, but she's not here all of the time, so she may not see it unless you e-mail it to her. Please note: Prayer requests are generally removed after four weeks or so unless we receive an update.
2 Corinthians 4:8-9
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.
Some of the rumours around Zen 6 - expected next year - appear to be solid: It will have 12 CPU cores per chiplet, up from 8 in all earlier models, and L3 cache will likewise scale by 50%.
Speed is expected to pass the 6GHz mark, which seems reasonable. Intel has already done that with its fastest models, and AMD is planning to move from TSMC's 4nm node to 2nm, which is notably faster.
The one new rumour here is to do with the X3D models. The X3D cache chips are also rumoured to be 50% larger, and it is possible to stack two of them on one CPU for up to 240MB of L3 cache on a single chiplet - up from 96MB currently.
Also rumoured are the speeds for the smaller, slower Zen 6c cores: Up to 4.5GHz. Since these have exactly the same performance per clock as full-size Zen 6, they will be quite respectable performers.
Zen 6 will launch on the current-generation AM5 socket, so you can easily upgrade existing Zen 4 and Zen 5 systems. Intel already abandoned Socket 1700 which supported its 12th, 13th, and 14th generation chips (which were basically all the same), and is expected to abandon its current Socket 1851 for yet another platform when it launches Nova Lake next year. So forget any upgrades on that side.
Zero surprise there; neither can last year's AMD cards, which is what the PS5 Pro basically is. FSR 4 relies on eight-bit floating point hardware found only in the 9000-series cards.
Olga Korbut's perfect (well, 9.8) parallel bars performance at the 1972 Olympics. The "dead loop" maneuver which was later banned for safety reasons is when she comes to a dead stop on the high bar and then stands on it.
So now that I look at this more closely, this seems to be an Italian team, but just pretend that green is blue. Pavrati is singing Nessun Dorma, which is one of Trump's favorites. He plays it at all of his events. So this is almost a Fourth of July display.
Animals are known to give presents to each other, but the crow is one of the only animals (apart from dogs and cats) to give "gifts" to humans they like.
Supreme Court Declines to Hear Case Addressing Whether “Reverse Discrimination” is also Prohibited by Civil Rights Act of 1964
—Buck Throckmorton
On this blessed Independence Day, I have a disappointing update on a legal case I’ve been covering. Had “B.W. [Brooks Warden] vs Austin Independent School District” been accepted by the Supreme Court, there might finally be clarity as to whether Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits racial discrimination against whites. For now, entities such as the AISD are free to continue engaging in racial animus based on a student’s skin color, so long as the student is white.
As I’ve written, Brooks’ parents, Brandi and Monte Warden, are personal friends of my wife and mine. When they notified me earlier this week that SCOTUS had denied certiorari, they were obviously disappointed, but their disappointment was also mixed with an equal and offsetting pronouncement of patriotism and faith. They stressed that ultimately all of this is in the hands of a higher power, and they also know that Brooks’ ordeal, and the legal path they pursued, will help chip away at the ugly 21st century version of state-sanctioned racism.
Our sacred Declaration of Independence acknowledges that we’re an imperfect Union, but we strive to to form a more perfect Union. Brooks’ and the Wardens’ legal battle will indeed help make this a more perfect Union. There are plenty of landmark cases for which there were preceding writs that were denied certiorari, but the pressure mounted until SCOTUS couldn't hide from the issue any longer. Brooks' case has paved the path for other cases to follow.
Among the abuses claimed by Brooks were a teacher calling him a racial slur; the Principal mocking Brooks and accusing him of listening to Dixie while wearing a headset; the Student Council President circulating a picture of Brooks as a Klansman; another student promising to kill Brooks and all Trump supporters; and a student beating Brooks up in a classroom while the teacher watched. That student is later alleged to have boasted about assaulting Brooks because of his race. As Brooks’ father documented, the Austin Independent School District never disputed or refuted any of this, they just chose to ignore the Wardens’ pleas to make it stop.
Aside from me, The Federalist has also been giving this case good coverage in conservative media, with articles published in February and in June.
The Austin Independent School District said Warden failed to show the alleged hostility was based on race, rather than his political views.
Isn’t it charming that a public school district is arguing that the persecution of one of its students is allowable so long as it’s because the student has the wrong political views, rather than because he has the wrong skin color. But the AISD seems to also understand that acknowledging the hostility Brooks endured with the school district’s acquiescence would get them into Title VI territory, thus their claim that racial slurs directed at Brooks were “political.”
But because the Supreme Court punted, there is still no clarity as to whether Title VI applies to non-minorities, meaning that the “right kind” of government-sponsored racial oppression is still not currently prohibited. We can therefore expect more awful stories like this one from earlier this week:
The incident was the culmination of anti-Semitic harassment the student, referred to in the complaint as M.K.L., had endured for months, leaving the now-15-year-old with "terrifying nightmares and flashbacks," the June 12 suit her parents filed against Seattle Public Schools alleges. School officials repeatedly failed to address the harassment and refused to turn over surveillance footage, according to the complaint.
By refusing to hear “B.W. vs A.I.S.D.,” the Supreme Court has given its acquiescence for Seattle Public Schools to allow a teenage Jewish girl to be terrorized on school property, and to allow Jewish and white children around the country to be similarly terrorized.
However, I believe that with more of these cases getting media attention, and with more lawsuits working their way through the legal system, the day will come when the Supreme Court finally puts a stop to reverseall racial discrimination, stating in effect, “Not on our watch. Not under our Constitution.” Brooks Warden has brought us closer to that day. God bless you, Brooks.
*****
Despite all this, you cannot talk to the Wardens without them constantly reminding you of their many blessings, and one of them is that Monte Warden has been invited to perform at The Grand Ole Opry on Saturday August 16. To make it even more cool, Brooks is going to join him on stage to sing bass on a song or two.
Mrs. Throckmorton and I will be at the Opry that night cheering them on. If you’re in Nashville and happen to attend the Opry that night, I’ll be easy to find. Just look for the prettiest Yellow Rose in the Opry House. I’ll be the lucky guy sitting next to her.
*****
Now, on to some Independence Day fun. Given today’s subject matter, I can’t think of a better way to celebrate our country than to re-post Monte Warden’s own birthday card to the USA that he sent to all of fans and followers:
The United States of America is the greatest nation in the history of the world. In our 249 years, no country has spread more liberty, prosperity, charity, ingenuity, opportunity, and dreams than this great and good nation. Of the individuals listed below, virtually every one of them were completely self-made and succeeded because of their talent, not their station. We are the most diverse, assimilated, multi-cultural, multi-religious, inclusive, interwoven, compassionate, tolerant, self-improving, and self-correcting nation in world history. Our Melting Pot is unique to mankind. No other nation has unceasingly sought to be ‘a more perfect union’.
American Exceptionalism? You bet your sweet ass: Rock 'n' Roll. Jazz. Sinatra. Chicken Fried Steak. Edison. Elvis. Ali. Special Olympics. Ray Charles. Martin, Gibson, and Fender Guitars. Ford. Chevy. Walt (Disney and Whitman). Alcoholics Anonymous. Mahalia. The Opry. Jonathan Winters. Carson. Skyscrapers. Gershwin. Sun, Motown, and Stax Records. Mattress Mack. Phonographs. Brando. Groucho. Movies. Marvel and DC Comics. Prince. Colt. Rankin-Bass. Muddy. Winchester. Red Cross. Cash. James Dean. Simpsons. Mingus. Warhol. Martin (Dean and Steve). Cole (Nat and Porter). Spielberg. Hemingway (Ernest and Mollie). Rockwell. Jackie Robinson. Brubeck. Airplanes. Thoreau. Dorsey (Thomas and Tommy). St. Jude’s. Three Stooges. Brown (Charlie and Clifford). Monroe (Marilyn and Bill). Muppets. Dylan. Dr. Seuss. Pryor (Richard and Cactus). Staubach. Bugs Bunny. Eastwood. Babe Ruth. BB. NASA. Patsy. Billie. Buddy (The Elf and Holly). Salk. Twain. Air Conditioners(!). Emmylou. Miles. Mercer. Baseball. I Love Lucy. Hendrix. Little Richard. Mr. Rogers. Mel Brooks. Jobs. Thanksgiving. Armstrong (Louis and Neil). Crosby (Bing and Franny). Woody (Guthrie and Sheriff). Berlin. Cooke. Cohan. Bluegrass. Blues. Star Wars. Everly Bros. Bukowski. Coltrane. Seinfeld. Aretha. Duke (Ellington and Wayne). Hank. Ella. Loretta. Willie. Waylon. Willie and Waylon...and that's just the very short list.
It’s quite simple: What separates America from all other nations in human history are not our sins, but our virtues.
After WWII, for four years, this nation was the SOLE possessor of the most powerful weapon in man’s history. What did we do with that power and dominance? We KEPT the peace. We did not seize a single acre, demand submission, or empty another’s treasury. Name one other empire since the dawn of time – Roman, Greek, Persian, British, French, USSR, Third Reich, China - that does not choose to conquer, ransom, pillage, and loot with such an advantage. God Bless The USA. I and mine choose to show gratitude for this great and good land. Happy Birthday America - 249 looks GREAT on you!
Put On Love,
Montgomery
What a great line, “What separates America from all other nations in human history are not our sins, but our virtues.”
Good morning kids, and let me wish all of you a happy Independence Day and God bless America on its 249th birthday.
Of course the top story of the day is the passage of this so-called Big Beautiful Bill by the House. And President Trump is set to sign it into law some time today. Regardless of my personal feelings about government spending, the President is boasting that in the end, passage will supercharge an already recovering economy,
“There could be no better birthday present for America than the phenomenal victory we achieved just hours ago when Congress passed the One Big, Beautiful Bill to Make America Great Again,” said Trump. “In the last election, the people gave us a historic mandate to cut taxes, raise take-home pay, bring back jobs, stop the invasion … deport the illegals, and slash hundreds of billions of dollars of waste and fraud, and that’s what we’re doing.”
“With this bill, every major promise I made to the people of Iowa in 2024 became a promise kept,” he added.
Obviously, it remains to be seen what real, tangible positive effects will be to the average citizen. And those will shake out over the long term. Of course, the reactions on Wall Street and Main Street will be quicker as they make moves to adjust and adapt to undergird their bottom lines to government regulations and (even better, deregulation) that could affect their ability to invest, create jobs and make a profit.
With all that said, the real tell are the reactions from both the Democrats and their propagandists in the media. The hyperbole, has been completely off the charts, and these are the people (on paper) that created the disgusting and puerile agitprop porn of Paul Ryan shoving granny in a wheelchair off of a cliff.
President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill will cause people to die.
Wait, Democrats for decades have been taxing and spending us into oblivion. So on the one hand they're suddenly fiscal hawks while at the same time claiming that a massive spending bill will cause people to die?
CNN analyst Paul Begala said Thursday on “Anderson Cooper 360” that the “Big, Beautiful Bill” was a “political death warrant” that will cause the Republican Party to lose the majority in the 2026 midterm elections. Begala said, “Hakeem Jeffries gave the Democrats a voice today. He set the new record for a speech in the House. They don’t have filibusters in the House, but they have this rule that allows the leader to speak pretty much unlimited. So he went on for hours, and he focused on Medicaid, focused on health care.”
Is it just me, or did you read "CNN analyst" as CNN Anal-Cyst.
If Big Beautiful Bill Passes, a ‘Deportation Machine Will Be Unleashed on Steroids’
Uh, if Hakeem Jeffries is right then guess what, the Democrats will be wiped out electorally for the foreseeable future! Please God let Hakeem be right. The GOP base will be energized and millions of illegal aliens gone not only improves society and our economy, it protects future elections and perhaps will prevent Texas' 38 electoral votes from shifting to the communists forever.
The dissonance between Jeffries and Begala is quite stunning. And that Jeffries would be stupid enough to articulate a position that is music to the ears of the vast majority of Americans is amazing. I think they need to show MAGA-hat wearing Ron DeSantis with a swastika armband throwing little brown babies into a pond of alligators. The Paul Ryan as Tommy Udo schtick is getting stale.
“I didn’t vote for him and I’m not always aligned with his approach, but his success on the domestic and international front in such a compressed period of time is nothing short of remarkable and it’s all due to his impressive use of political and executive power,” Michael LaRosa, a former Biden White House spokesman, told The Post. “The last two weeks of his presidency are a throwback to the strong leadership styles reminiscent of LBJ or Reagan, both of whom engendered such personal and political loyalty within their parties, that they could muscle through historic success out of sheer goodwill.” A different Biden White House official, who served all four years in the Democratic administration, said Trump has “hit a stride” and marveled at his ability to pressure holdout Republicans into voting for the major legislation despite centrist reluctance over Medicaid and SNAP cuts and conservative demands for deeper spending reductions. . .
. . . “You voted for it because you’re scared of the guy. And frankly, that’s impressive, given that Biden never invoked fear in anyone,” the former Biden aide said of the GOP holdouts, all but two of whom eventually backed the bill.
“Successful campaigns and successful operations excel when they are provided clarity in mission from their leader — in this case President Trump,” said Chris LaCivita, who ran Trump’s 2024 campaign alongside current White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.
“Elections matter because you now have one of the greatest realignments in political history happening and being backed up by policy. If you work, pay taxes and aspire for a better tomorrow, you are voting Republican,” LaCivita said, describing the working-class reforms encompassed in the bill, which also made permanent Trump’s 2017 tax cuts to all brackets.
When even two Sponge-Brain Shits-Pants stooges praise Trump, with the faintest of damnation, that kind of says something.
Finally, You'll be shocked to know that rising Democrat Superstar Mamdani lied about being an abeed, as my Syrian friends from Brooklyn would refer to him, in order to get into Columbia. Jeez, Obama 2.0 in more ways than one! Lord forbid.
On a bit of a positive note, SCOTUS has smacked down the lower courts' overreach and ruled the President can deport criminal illegals to places like Sudan.
And lastly, a quick shout-out and thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.
Have a happy, safe and enjoyable Fourth of July weekend.
ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
Lloyd Billingsley: Let it begin this July 4. . . In 2025 the president has grounds to withdraw the USA from the United Nations and evict the globalist talk-shop from American soil. That long overdue move would be great preparation for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence next year. 2026. American Independence Movement
Trump’s ceasefire with Iran may have halted bombs—but it handed Tehran the pause it needed to reload, regroup, and reignite its apocalyptic war on the West. President Donald J. Trump’s Forever War (In reality it's Islam's forever war - jjs)
The UN agency has been inciting and facilitating violence through Hamas-linked affiliates in Gaza. Holding UNRWA Accountable
The case stems from a June 1 terror attack, where Soliman allegedly threw Molotov cocktails and used homemade flamethrowers against elderly participants in a “Run for Their Lives” event supporting Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023. The attack injured 29 people, eight of whom were hospitalized with burns. Karen Diamond, an 82-year-old victim, died from her injuries this week.Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty called the attack a “horrific act of terror” that took the life of a beloved community member, vowing to seek justice for the victims. Following Diamond’s death, prosecutors upgraded two of Soliman’s charges from attempted murder to first-degree murder, which carries a mandatory life sentence without parole if convicted. Federal Judge Rules Trump Can Deport Boulder Terror Suspect’s Family.
Though the Supreme Court cleared the path June 23 for the administration to quickly deport illegal migrants to countries not specified in their removal orders, Biden-appointed District Court Judge Brian Murphy claimed hours later that one of his orders preventing the deportation of eight migrants to South Sudan remained in effect. SCOTUS Smacks Down Biden Judge’s Bid To Defy Order Allowing Deportations
Addressing a capability gap in waterways along the Southwest border, CBP has identified the need for waterborne barriers to combat drug smuggling, human trafficking, and other illegal activities. These barriers are also intended to create safer conditions for patrolling agents and deter illegal crossings through hazardous waterways. Trump Admin Moves to Build Waterborne Barrier in Rio Grande Swiftly.
Emma Lazarus’s poem may tug at heartstrings, but it never captured the spirit, ambition, or reality of most immigrants—or of the American Dream. Bye, Bye Emma Lazarus
CIVIL WAR 2.0: J-6 FBI FALSE FLAG "RIOT" & AFTERMATH, LEFTIST PERSECUTIONS, DEMOCRAT PUTSCH, AMERICAN DISSOLUTION
I had my own run-in with a Democrat politician who was acting in a way that no politician has acted before in America. Democrats Gone Wild
Rather than a civil war, we're more likely to see something like a geographic estrangement, with blue states getting bluer, and red states getting redder. We are already seeing this play out. Conservatives have been fleeing California and New York in droves for years. The irreconcilable differences between the Right and Left are going to get a lot more people voting with their feet in the next couple of years. We're not going to end up being separate nations. We'll be more like eccentric wealthy married people who maintain separate residences; ultimately staying together because a divorce would simply be too expensive. The Second American Civil War Will Be Fought Mostly by U-Hauls
U.S. District Judge Randolph Daniel Moss sided with the left-wing ACLU and several other activists organizations when he ruled that President Donald Trump exceeded his authority when he issued an executive order on Jan. 20 prohibiting illegal aliens who “engaged in the invasion across the southern border” from seeking asylum or a withholding of removal. Moss claimed Trump lacked “the inherent constitutional authority.” Judge Blocks Another Trump Order, Proving Alito Was Right About Loopholes In SCOTUS Injunction Ruling
June’s job gains came after the U.S. economy added slightly more jobs than expected in May, the BLS reported. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate changed little in June at 4.1%, from 4.2% in May, according to the BLS. US Job Growth Beat Expectations In June
Employment showed little change over the month in other major industries, including mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction; construction; manufacturing; wholesale trade; retail trade; transportation and warehousing; information; financial activities; professional and business services; leisure and hospitality; and other services. June Job Growth and Unemployment Rate Best Expectations; Jobs Added to April, May
WE-ALL-SLAM-FOR-I-SLAM
A violent attack has occurred on a packed train in Germany, where a 20-year-old man, believed to be a Syrian migrant and identified by the authorities as Mohammed A., injured at least four passengers. The train was an intercity express (ICE) heading to Vienna.The suspect, believed to be a Syrian national, was carrying both an axe and a hammer during the attack. Early reports suggest train passengers ended the attack by taking on the Syrian, with one managing to grab away one of his weapons and use it against him. Now in custody, the migrant is reported to be seriously injured. Syrian Migrant Goes on Axe Rampage on Train.
A new report by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) into “multi-offender child sexual exploitation” — child rape grooming gangs — states Greater Manchester Police is now investigating historic and current cases and has identified ” 714 victims and survivors, and 1,099 suspects”. Greater Manchester Police Investigating 1,000 Child Rape Grooming Gang Suspects, Identify 714 Victims
FIRST AMENDMENT ISSUES, CENSORSHIP, FAKE NEWS, MEDIA, BIG BROTHER TECH
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is entering a legal battle challenging an alliance between establishment media outlets and technology corporations accused of stifling independent journalism. According to the lead plaintiff, the Children’s Health Defense (CHD), the Trusted News Initiative (TNI)—a BBC-led international consortium that includes the likes of Reuters, The Associated Press (AP), and The Washington Post—unlawfully coordinated with technology companies to throttle independent media competitors by labeling their reporting as “misinformation” or “disinformation.” Trump DOJ Targets Media-Tech Alliance in Antitrust Lawsuit.
The university’s annual operating budget was $6.4 billion in fiscal year 2024, and with the Trump administration cutting more than $2 billion from the Ivy League institution over its failure to reach an agreement to tackle antisemitism on campus, Harvard may find itself unable to sustain itself long term, according to a WSJ analysis. Harvard’s Battle With Trump Admin May Break It
Clearly, the Democrats are more than a wee bit triggered by the One Big Beautiful Bill. And that alone should tell you just how much they fear real change—change that puts American citizens first, rewards hard work, and restores sanity to the halls of Congress. If this is what progressives sound like when they lose, maybe we need a few more “beautiful” bills just like it. HILARIOUS: Bro-FO Omar and Titty-Caca AOC Melt Down Over the One Big Beautiful Bill
The Danish Armed Forces described the inclusion of women as a “historic change” and warned Danes to “get used to the fact that every citizen capable of bearing arms, and not just men, is obligated to contribute to the defense of the fatherland.” Additionally, chronic health conditions such as diabetes and asthma no longer automatically disqualify individuals, with assessments now tailored to specific roles within the military. This European NATO Member Just Started Drafting Women.
I once again feel compelled to rant against the shallow ignorance of too many people in both the journalism field as well as academia about the most recent data we now have of Mars. Two articles today once again show this ignorance, assuming blandly that Mars is a dry planet with little water on it anywhere, when orbital data over the past decade has unequivocally shown that, except for its equatorial regions, the planet is covered with a LOT of near-surface ice. Mars is not dry!
Robert Zimmerman: "They certainly have the right to disagree with Trump’s policies. They do not however have the right to remain employees of the federal government under Trump and act to defy him. He is the elected president, not them, and it is his decision what the EPA does." EPA employees who publicly signed letter opposing Trump’s agenda have now been put on leave
Podcast: The shit sandwich of a spending bill that the Senate wants us to eat, NYC is screwed, the military rebounds, Iran may be stuck in its Mullah nightmare, and much more!
Forgotten 80s Mystery Click, I Can't Believe It's Not Night Ranger Edition If you would just be sensible
You'd find me indispensable
I pray deep down to destiny
That it places you with me
Whoa, wanting you here in the sheets
Wandering around incomplete
Waiting so long
I'm pretty sure I've linked this before but it's a banger.
Kari Lake, just when I think you couldn't get any dumber, you pull a stunt like this, and totally redeem yourself!!! I think the Democrat is arguing that the political appointees should exercise no control over their rabidly communist VOA employees. This is what they're always arguing -- they stock the bureaucracy with literal communists and then claim that the voters should have no control over these unfirable radicals. Lake offers a for-instance that will appeal to this Democrat of allegedly-suspect bedroom guests.
