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Reports of protests are overblown. A few incidents around the country, but nothing major.

5 (45.5%)

A few major incidents in capitals, but nothing much in DC.

5 (45.5%)

A major incident in DC, but nothing much around the country.

0 (0%)

More than 10 capitals have major upheavals, but nothing much in DC.

0 (0%)

A major incident in DC plus more than 10 capitals with significant upheavals.

1 (9.1%)

More than half the capitals around the country have problems with protesters, but DC is quiet.

0 (0%)

DC has major problems, while more than half the capitals around the country also have considerable trouble with protesters.

0 (0%)

Huge disruption to the day.

0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 9

Voting closed: January 19, 2021, 10:49:21 PM

[josh]

https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/02/politics/bernie-sanders-polls/index.html

The way-too-early polls suggest that Bernie may be get to celebrate his own independence from the presidency on July 4, 2020.

[josh]

https://www.thenation.com/article/eric-foner-supreme-court-john-roberts

The Supreme Court Is in Danger of Again Becoming ‘the Grave of Liberty’
Supreme Court decisions have practical consequences, which justices too often blithely ignore.

“Jackson V. Giles, president of the Alabama Negro Suffrage Association, sued to overturn voting requirements in Alabama openly designed to disfranchise black voters after the end of Reconstruction. The Alabama constitution of 1901 allowed registrars to bar from voting those who lacked “good character” or did not understand “the duties and obligations of citizenship.” The result was that almost all black voters were eliminated. This despite the fact that the 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, prohibited states from denying the right to vote because of race. To try to work around that amendment, Alabama’s requirements did not explicitly mention race. But it was clear, as Giles’s complaint argued, that the state’s entire registration system was racially biased.”
...
“Oliver Wendell Holmes, recently appointed to the Court by Theodore Roosevelt, wrote the opinion for a 6-3 majority. Like Chief Justice Roberts today, Holmes threw up his hands and described the Supreme Court as impotent. If “the great mass of the white population intends to keep the blacks from voting,” he wrote, there was nothing the justices could do. The courts could not get involved in politics. “Relief from a great political wrong” could only come from the “people of a state” through their elected officials, or from Congress. Holmes ignored the fact that the definition of the “people” of Alabama was precisely the point at issue. Holmes would go on to a distinguished judicial career. Giles v. Harris, one scholar has written, “is—or should be—the most prominent stain” on his reputation. Chief Justice Roberts, take note.”

Emphasis added.

[facilitatorn]

The last president to run tanks through DC lost his re-election the following year to a Democrat. It’s a lesson worth repeating.

Happy 4th.

Be careful of the treads.

[REDSTATEWARD]

News Item


Supreme Court justice and liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Tuesday praised newly-confirmed Justice Brett Kavanugh for appointing an entirely female staff. Ginsburg spoke about her own history in the fight for gender equality to a packed auditorium at Georgetown Law School.

Ginsburg praised Kavanaugh — whose controversial confirmation was marked by allegations of sexual assault — and remarked that the court's upcoming fall term will be the first time in history that more women will be clerking than men. There is a very important first on the Supreme Court this term and it's thanks to our new justice, Justice Kavanaugh," Ginsburg said.

CBS News.

[kiidcarter8]

I want to wish the USA a very happy Birthday. On July 4th in 1776 our forefathers declared our independence and declared that all men are created equal with unalienable rights.

Salute,

Tony V.

-------------

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 harass 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 benefit 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 British 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.

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, 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 York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

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

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

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Thanks, Tony

You're a great American.

[LarryBnDC]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/forget-the-tanks-trumps-violation-of-the-lincoln-memorial-is-the-real-offense/2019/07/03/23c0894c-9da9-11e9-9ed4-c9089972ad5a_story.html?utm_term=.a410258c6855

[kiidcarter8]

https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/03/us/kaepernick-nike-betsy-ross-flag-t-shirt-trnd/index.html

[kiidcarter8]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/forget-the-tanks-trumps-violation-of-the-lincoln-memorial-is-the-real-offense/2019/07/03/23c0894c-9da9-11e9-9ed4-c9089972ad5a_story.html?utm_term=.a410258c6855

pay site

[HamiltonIII]

I have no issues with anyone going after any POTUS at any time, as long as they are on American soil when they do so.

That's fucked up.

It was wrong of Trump when he did it to Pelosi.

It was wrong of Rapinoe.

Bitch, please.

STFU, 'Bama.

[HamiltonIII]

Observation from today’s Wall Street Journal editorial page:

If the President wins re-election, perhaps he should write a thank-you note to Colin Kaepernick and Nike. 

No one will give two shits in a week except for the professional right wing rage machine which is all in on Trump anyway.

The other great line from the same editorial was

Nike folded faster than the New York Giant offensive line.

You should read the WSJ article about what actually happened. They did not fold. Kaepernick told them about the secondary meaning that flag had acquired. Nike, informed of the issue, decided to withdraw the shoes from the market. No demand, no pressure, no fold.

LOL!

I find it very telling that people like you direct their disdain to the likes of.Colin Kaepernick for pointing out that the flag symbol had been usurped by white nationalists but are perfectly fine with the white nationalists desecrating the flag to begin with.

"People like you" are just willfully ignorant of those stubborn little things called facts: The “Betsy Ross” flag is not part of a database maintained by the Anti-Defamation League of more than 150 so-called hate symbols, including the Confederate flag, a noose, Pepe the Frog and Sadistic Souls, said Mark Pitcavage, senior research fellow at ADL’s Center on Extremism.

“The Betsy Ross flag is a common historical flag,” said Pitcavage. He noted that while the flag has been used used by white supremacists “from time to time,” he has “never once thought about” adding the Betsy Ross flag to the list.

---source, NBC News.

[HamiltonIII]

It's the Fourth of July in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where Betsy Ross lived. She helped design and make the first real American flag.

A political statement of unity against a tyrannical King.

Today, we celebrate breaking away from that King in a war the Bostonians started, but could not finish, the New Yorkers tried to avoid, and the New Jerseyans and Carolinians, with the help of the French, won.

Vive la France! Vive la USA!

You are now free to argue among yourselves, thanks to people like Betsy Ross, who took action, as opposed to just sitting on her ass pointing fingers at "the other side".

I'll be sitting here in NJ, just steps away from where Washington and his armies fought and beat the Brits.

And when I go back to France, later this summer, I'll be sure to thank them, again, as I'll be near where Lafayette hailed from.

Joyeux Jour de l'Indépendance!!!

[luee]

The last president to run tanks through DC lost his re-election the following year to a Democrat. It’s a lesson worth repeating.

Happy 4th.

Be careful of the treads.

LBJ had tanks and troops all over the place. He could not understand why they were burning down his cities. Why Vietnam. He wisely decided not to rerun. If Trump wins in 2020 he should write a letter of thanks to Ted Kennedy followers and the liberal elite. All the wise centrist voices in the democratic party have been replaced by rowdy socialists.

[barton]

It does seem a legitimate debate question: to what degree can white supremacists usurp the original meaning of the Ross flag, and should we credit that usurping in any way?   I can see both sides of the debate here.   With some symbols, the situation is more clear-cut:  no one frets about what the swastika meant to early Aryan peoples, as a symbol of health, luck, and prosperity.   It was permanently and irrevocably stained when the Nazis co-opted the ancient symbol.   With the Ross flag, it's less clear to me that the stain Kaepernick has perceived is irrevocable.   I don't think ignoring this newer attempt to co-opt a classic  symbol of independence and unity makes someone a racist.
I am really not sure, myself, that I want to let the extremist groups rule our perceptions.

[Yankguy1]

 The Nazi swastika was different than the ancient, historical swastika.

[REDSTATEWARD]

Regarding:

Like Chief Justice Roberts today, Holmes threw up his hands and described the Supreme Court as impotent. If “the great mass of the white population intends to keep the blacks from voting,” he wrote, there was nothing the justices could do. The courts could not get involved in politics[/b]
Jackson versus Giles was dealt with by the USCongress and the Voting Rights Act.
Partisan Gerrymandering, if a problem, can be changed by Congress, State Legislatures, or the residents of the states through such vehicles as initiative petition.