Happy 247th, America

[buff2.0]

Another God-given year of living out this experiment.  Can't go easy on the celebrating.

Got brisket, burnt ends, pork butt, and beef dino ribs finished, with pork ribs still cooking. Neighbor just brought me a bucket of fresh corn on the cob, squash, and okra. As much as I want to deep fry all of those, I'm going to do them up healthier.

Might even lose a finger or two later on tonight in your mom while sending fireworks.

[TC]

That sounds like a helluva spread.

I'm changing the oil in the wife's car then taking the kids fishing this evening.

Happy 4th you degenerates.

[Barton Fink]

And remember BACK UP TERRY!!!!

[Corn Pop]

I just picked up a 12-pack of Yuengling Flight in the bottles, a watermelon, 2lbs of ground beef, 4 ears of fresh corn on the cob (still in the husks, 50 cents each), a big ripe tomato, a slab of hoop cheese (sharp cheddar), a head of lettuce, a red onion, some rock salt, and a deli-made apple pie. Gonna dust off the old wooden, hand-crank homemade ice cream maker this evening. Tomorrow I'll fire up the PK Grill and make cheeseburgers to go with all of that.

Happy 4th of July, Woopigers!🇺🇸

[Son of Spam]

Happy 247th! Bought our adopted dog some hemp calming pills for the fireworks in our neighborhood. She doesn't do well with them. After weeding the flower beds and lugging 25 bags of mulch around, I think I will relax today and tomorrow. I feel like I am 247 years old today. Everyone be safe and have fun.

[Texzilla]

Someone let me know if they find a decent fucking watermelon. Most taste like fucking cucumbers. I eat seeded ones. 

When I was a kid in the 60's in LR, during the summer would be a watermelon stand I believe off Asher though it might have been Fair Park.  It was kinda of a dirt lot with some gravel and some lights strung up over some picnic tables and tarps.  He must have been open late as I remember it was always dark.  You bought a melon as a whole, half or quarter, he had red and yellow ones, as well as cantaloupes.  If just mom and me she d buy a half, I'd dad with us a whole.  They kept them in these super chilled troughs of salted ice water so they were super ice cold.  There were salt shakers, knives chained to the tables, spoons.  Sugar packs.  One of my favorite memories as we plowed into that melon, which cut the heat and we're so sweet.  Have been on a quest to refund that.

[Hogworth Ballington III]

Working today and tomorrow (0 holiday pay) and probably won't even light up a firework, let alone have any time for grilling this year. Sucks

[Son of Spam]

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[CardHog]

Someone let me know if they find a decent fucking watermelon. Most taste like fucking cucumbers. I eat seeded ones. 

When I was a kid in the 60's in LR, during the summer would be a watermelon stand I believe off Asher though it might have been Fair Park.  It was kinda of a dirt lot with some gravel and some lights strung up over some picnic tables and tarps.  He must have been open late as I remember it was always dark.  You bought a melon as a whole, half or quarter, he had red and yellow ones, as well as cantaloupes.  If just mom and me she d buy a half, I'd dad with us a whole.  They kept them in these super chilled troughs of salted ice water so they were super ice cold.  There were salt shakers, knives chained to the tables, spoons.  Sugar packs.  One of my favorite memories as we plowed into that melon, which cut the heat and we're so sweet.  Have been on a quest to refund that.

My grandfather used to grow watermelon (among other things) and my cousin would drive up to Chicago and sale them for $2.50 each.  Black Diamonds were the best. 

There's usually a farmer set up in Cave Springs with black diamonds for $12.  I paid it and they're still just as good. 

I texted a picture of the price to my cousin and he said he'd have thrown it back at him. 

[buff2.0]

WE ARE now on this continent, to the astonishment of the world, three millions of souls united in one cause. We have large armies, well disciplined and appointed, with commanders inferior to none in military skill, and superior in activity and zeal. We are furnished with arsenals and stores beyond our most sanguine expectations, and foreign nations are waiting to crown our success by their alliances. There are instances of, I would say, an almost astonishing Providence in our favor; our success has staggered our enemies, and almost given faith to infidels; so we may truly say it is not our own arm which has saved us.

The hand of Heaven appears to have led us on to be, perhaps, humble instruments and means in the great providential dispensation, which is completing. We have fled from the political Sodom; let us not look back, lest we perish and become a monument of infamy and derision to the world. For can we ever expect more unanimity and a better preparation for defense; more infatuation of counsel among our enemies, and more valor and zeal among ourselves? The same force and resistance, which are sufficient to procure us our liberties will secure us a glorious independence and support us in the dignity of free, imperial states. We cannot suppose that our opposition has made a corrupt and dissipated nation more friendly to America, or created in them a greater respect for the rights of mankind. We can therefore expect a restoration and establishment of our privileges, and a compensation for the injuries we have received, from their want of power, from their fears, and not from their virtues. The unanimity and valor, which will effect an honorable peace, can render a future contest for our liberties unnecessary. He who has strength to chain down the wolf is a madman if he let him loose without drawing his teeth and paring his nails.

We have no other alternative than independence, or the most ignominious and galling servitude. The legions of our enemies thicken on our plains; desolation and death mark their bloody career; whilst the mangled corpses of our countrymen seem to cry out to us as a voice from Heaven.

Our union is now complete; our constitution composed, established, and approved. You are now the guardians of your own liberties. We may justly address you, as the decemviri did the Romans, and say: "Nothing that we propose can pass into a law without your consent. Be yourselves, O Americans, the authors of those laws on which your happiness depends."

You have now in the field armies sufficient to repel the whole force of your enemies and their base and mercenary auxiliaries. The hearts of your soldiers beat high with the spirit of freedom; they are animated with the justice of their cause, and while they grasp their swords can look up to Heaven for assistance. Your adversaries are composed of wretches who laugh at the rights of humanity, who turn religion into derision, and would, for higher wages, direct their swords against their leaders or their country. Go on, then, in your generous enterprise, with gratitude to Heaven for past, success, and confidence of it in the future. For my own part, I ask no greater blessing than to share with you the common danger and common glory. If I have a wish dearer to my soul than that my ashes may be mingled with those of a Warren and a Montgomery, it is that these American States may never cease to be free and independent.

- Sam Adams, August 1, 1776, a day before Congress signed the Declaration of Independence (It was adopted on July 4, 1776). 

The balls of our founding fathers were immense.  It pisses me off daily that we have so many freeloading worthless dipshits living in this country that hate the very convictions that we were founded on. 

[BASS]

Can I get a witness? Amen!

[DRYANKNPULL]

It will never cease to amaze me that those 56 men signed their own death warrants. I'm forever grateful they were successful in not having them served.

[buff2.0]

A lot of them lost everything short of their lives.  This is commonly spread and some of it is exaggerated for effect, but we have a lot of fact checkers and historians trying to portray it as all false.  Of course the British didn't target any of these men; in fact, the British had to hide from these terrorists.  Bullshit.

https://www.nhccs.org/Destiny.html

Five signers were captured by the British and brutally tortured as traitors. Nine fought in the War for Independence and died from wounds or from hardships they suffered. Two lost their sons in the Continental Army. Another two had sons captured. At least a dozen of the fifty-six had their homes pillaged and burned.

What kind of men were they? Twenty-five were lawyers or jurists. Eleven were merchants. Nine were farmers or large plantation owners. One was a teacher, one a musician, and one a printer. These were men of means and education, yet they signed the Declaration of Independence, knowing full well that the penalty could be death if they were captured.

In the face of the advancing British Army, the Continental Congress fled from Philadelphia to Baltimore on December 12, 1776. It was an especially anxious time for John Hancock, the President, as his wife had just given birth to a baby girl. Due to the complications stemming from the trip to Baltimore, the child lived only a few months.

William Ellery's signing at the risk of his fortune proved only too realistic. In December 1776, during three days of British occupation of Newport, Rhode Island, Ellery's house was burned, and all his property destroyed.

Richard Stockton, a New Jersey State Supreme Court Justice, had rushed back to his estate near Princeton after signing the Declaration of Independence to find that his wife and children were living like refugees with friends. They had been betrayed by a Tory sympathizer who also revealed Stockton's own whereabouts. British troops pulled him from his bed one night, beat him and threw him in jail where he almost starved to death. When he was finally released, he went home to find his estate had been looted, his possessions burned, and his horses stolen. Judge Stockton had been so badly treated in prison that his health was ruined and he died before the war's end. His surviving family had to live the remainder of their lives off charity.

Carter Braxton was a wealthy planter and trader. One by one his ships were captured by the British navy. He loaned a large sum of money to the American cause; it was never paid back. He was forced to sell his plantations and mortgage his other properties to pay his debts.

Thomas McKean was so hounded by the British that he had to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Continental Congress without pay, and kept his family in hiding.

Vandals or soldiers or both looted the properties of Clymer, Hall, Harrison, Hopkinson and Livingston. Seventeen lost everything they owned.

Thomas Heyward, Jr., Edward Rutledge and Arthur Middleton, all of South Carolina, were captured by the British during the Charleston Campaign in 1780. They were kept in dungeons at the St. Augustine Prison until exchanged a year later.

At the Battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr. noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the family home for his headquarters. Nelson urged General George Washington to open fire on his own home. (This was shown in the series TURN: Washington's Spies, although it does not portray him as a signer.  Snopes of course says this isn't true because his house is still standing with only one face destroyed by cannon fire). This was done, and the home was destroyed. Nelson later died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis also had his home and properties destroyed. The British jailed his wife for two months, and that and other hardships from the war so affected her health that she died only two years later.

"Honest John" Hart, a New Jersey farmer, was driven from his wife's bedside when she was near death. Their thirteen children fled for their lives. Hart's fields and his grist mill were laid waste. For over a year he eluded capture by hiding in nearby forests. He never knew where his bed would be the next night and often slept in caves. When he finally returned home, he found that his wife had died, his children disappeared, and his farm and stock were completely destroyed. Hart himself died in 1779 without ever seeing any of his family again.

Such were the stories and sacrifices typical of those who risked everything to sign the Declaration of Independence. These men were not wild-eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men of means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more. Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged:

"For the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the
protection of the Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each
other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

[Third_down_draw]

I go heavy on the mustard vs mayo he has but the seasoning on the baking sheet technique is on point and it's about the best easy tater salad I've come across

https://www.seriouseats.com/classic-potato-salad-recipe

[buff2.0]

That stuff looks good.

[Corn Pop]

WE ARE now on this continent, to the astonishment of the world, three millions of souls united in one cause. We have large armies, well disciplined and appointed, with commanders inferior to none in military skill, and superior in activity and zeal. We are furnished with arsenals and stores beyond our most sanguine expectations, and foreign nations are waiting to crown our success by their alliances. There are instances of, I would say, an almost astonishing Providence in our favor; our success has staggered our enemies, and almost given faith to infidels; so we may truly say it is not our own arm which has saved us.

The hand of Heaven appears to have led us on to be, perhaps, humble instruments and means in the great providential dispensation, which is completing. We have fled from the political Sodom; let us not look back, lest we perish and become a monument of infamy and derision to the world. For can we ever expect more unanimity and a better preparation for defense; more infatuation of counsel among our enemies, and more valor and zeal among ourselves? The same force and resistance, which are sufficient to procure us our liberties will secure us a glorious independence and support us in the dignity of free, imperial states. We cannot suppose that our opposition has made a corrupt and dissipated nation more friendly to America, or created in them a greater respect for the rights of mankind. We can therefore expect a restoration and establishment of our privileges, and a compensation for the injuries we have received, from their want of power, from their fears, and not from their virtues. The unanimity and valor, which will effect an honorable peace, can render a future contest for our liberties unnecessary. He who has strength to chain down the wolf is a madman if he let him loose without drawing his teeth and paring his nails.

We have no other alternative than independence, or the most ignominious and galling servitude. The legions of our enemies thicken on our plains; desolation and death mark their bloody career; whilst the mangled corpses of our countrymen seem to cry out to us as a voice from Heaven.

Our union is now complete; our constitution composed, established, and approved. You are now the guardians of your own liberties. We may justly address you, as the decemviri did the Romans, and say: "Nothing that we propose can pass into a law without your consent. Be yourselves, O Americans, the authors of those laws on which your happiness depends."

You have now in the field armies sufficient to repel the whole force of your enemies and their base and mercenary auxiliaries. The hearts of your soldiers beat high with the spirit of freedom; they are animated with the justice of their cause, and while they grasp their swords can look up to Heaven for assistance. Your adversaries are composed of wretches who laugh at the rights of humanity, who turn religion into derision, and would, for higher wages, direct their swords against their leaders or their country. Go on, then, in your generous enterprise, with gratitude to Heaven for past, success, and confidence of it in the future. For my own part, I ask no greater blessing than to share with you the common danger and common glory. If I have a wish dearer to my soul than that my ashes may be mingled with those of a Warren and a Montgomery, it is that these American States may never cease to be free and independent.

- Sam Adams, August 1, 1776, a day before Congress signed the Declaration of Independence (It was adopted on July 4, 1776). 

The balls of our founding fathers were immense.  It pisses me off daily that we have so many freeloading worthless dipshits living in this country that hate the very convictions that we were founded on. 

He who has the strength to chain down the wolf is a madman if he let him loose without drawing his teeth and paring his nails.

Be yourselves, O Americans, the authors of these laws on which your happiness depends.

Your adversaries are composed of wretches who laugh at the rights of humanity, who turn religion into derision, and would, for higher wages, direct their swords against their leaders or their country.

* Still rings true today. There's nothing new under the sun. Are you listening, America?

[buff2.0]

the last good democrat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHAksb4gSIM

[Snorts]

I am going to be one of the luckiest people to ever exist on the planet.

I was born into freedom, and will die free.  God Bless America.

[buff2.0]

https://youtu.be/u2HMsgH1_H0

[Son of Spam]

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