Saturday, August 8, 2026

Tag: Independence Day

What July 5th taught me that July 4th never did

Real freedom doesn’t come wrapped in patriotic speeches or military parades, it comes through struggle, sacrifice, and the refusal to bow to empire, no matter what form it takes.

The patriotism of killing and being killed

Why are patriotism and war so intertwined in U.S. media and politics?

Real patriotism on this July 4th

Real patriotism means sacrificing to keep America going.

‘What to the American slave is your 4th of July?:’ James...

July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, he gave one of his most famous speeches, “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro.”

Trump’s Fourth of July

We must share these ideals if we are to have a functioning society. Without them, there is no America.

Independence Day Delusions

However we interpret the concept, we may not be as "free" as we're led to believe.

‘What, to the American Slave, Is Your 4th of July?’

Frederick Douglass told a crowd gathered in Rochester, N.Y., on July 5, 1852 that to slaves the white man's celebration of the Fourth of July is a "sham." And today, the gross injustice and cruelty he was talking about are still existent.

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The E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse in Washington, home of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, where Judge Amit Mehta issued the order. Photo: AgnosticPreachersKid (public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Judge dismisses the last January 6 case, writing that absolving the Oath Keepers is...

The Justice Department told the court a retrial would harass eight men whose sentences Trump had already commuted. Two Oath Keepers who pleaded guilty and cooperated keep their convictions.
The entrance to the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, where Elvis Brooks was imprisoned for 42 years. Photo: kccornell from Lafayette, LA / CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

He’s Eligible for Up to $480,000 After Being Wrongly Imprisoned for 42 Years. The...

Elvis Brooks’ case was an egregious example of a wrongful conviction, civil rights attorneys said. But Louisiana’s attorney general maintains that Brooks and other exonerees are guilty — and therefore don’t qualify for any money from the state.
The west front of the U.S. Capitol. The Protected Time Off Act, pending in Congress, would guarantee full-time workers two weeks of paid annual leave. Photo: Architect of the Capitol (public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

US workers average 10 paid vacation days a year, and 33 million get none

Twenty-five OECD countries require employers to provide at least 20 days. The US legal minimum is zero, and 57 percent of the lowest-paid tenth of workers get no vacation at all.
A pier on Lake Corpus Christi, a reservoir in the region's water supply. Photo: Larry D. Moore / CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Greg Abbott Blasted Corpus Christi for Its Water Crisis. A River Authority He Has...

The Nueces River Authority is working on a project that could expand the Corpus Christi region’s water supply. But the Texas governor has done little to address the agency’s financial problems, despite appointing every member of its board.
A young Jeffrey pine on a slope in the eastern Sierra Nevada. Photo: Dcrjsr / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A Gnarly Situation: High-Elevation Discovery Raises New Questions About Which California Trees Will Survive...

Birds may have been burying Jeffrey pine seeds up high for thousands of years. But now that they’re sprouting, this new species of subalpine tree may change the playing field.