Friday, July 31, 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 headquarters of CalSTRS, the California teachers' pension fund at the center of The Lever's reporting. Photo: Coolcaesar / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Watchdog reporting examines a pension officer’s fossil fuel trades and a fire truck monopoly

The Lever's latest investigations trace a California retirement chief's oil and gas stock trading and a spreading set of antitrust suits over who builds America's fire engines.
A crowd at an immigration protest, one person holding a hand-lettered sign and another filming on a phone.

Advocates sue Trump administration over secret dossiers compiled on ‘ICE watchers’

The Electronic Privacy Information Center and three legal observers say the agencies used facial recognition, body cameras and license plate readers to identify people who lawfully record enforcement operations, in breach of the Privacy Act of 1974.
The Mississippi State Capitol building in Jackson

Mississippi pension fund sues Apollo Global Management over downplayed Epstein ties

The fund manages retirement savings for hundreds of thousands of Mississippi teachers, police officers and other public workers, and a shareholder case like it can force a company to hand over internal records.
Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory

U.N. Expert Francesca Albanese Slams U.S. “Complicity” as Trump Meets Netanyahu Despite ICC Warrant

We speak to Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, about Israel’s continued impunity from international law.
A view across Kryvyi Rih, the central Ukrainian city where six people were killed in a suburb during the overnight assault. Photo: Tiia Monto / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Russia escalates bombing campaign on Ukrainian cities amid missile defense shortages

Rescuers pulled a 93-year-old woman from a damaged Lviv apartment block as Kyiv pressed allies to speed delivery of anti-ballistic interceptors.