Random News and Notes 2 July
We’re going to do something a bit different for today in history. We are going to discuss, briefly, the actual history of the Declaration of Independence. We all celebrate the 4th of July as the day the Declaration was signed, yet that just isn’t so. You see, the Declaration of Independence was signed on this date – 2 July – in 1776.
Founder John Adams believed that the nascent United States would celebrate the occasion on July 2nd. In a letter to his wife Adams wrote: “[Independence Day] will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival… It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade with shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this continent to the other from this Time forward forever more,”
Why do we celebrate on the 4th? Well, that was the day the Continental Congress officially adopted the Declaration. Once the Congress approved the actual Declaration of Independence document on July 4, it ordered that it be sent to a printer named John Dunlap. About 200 copies of the “Dunlap Broadside” version of the document were printed, with John Hancock’s name printed at the bottom. Today, 26 copies remain. That is why the Declaration has the words, “IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776,” at its top, because that is the day the approved version was signed in Philadelphia.
Historian Pauline Maier said in her 1997 book, American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence, that no member of Congress recalled in early July 1777 that it had been almost a year since they declared their freedom from the British. They finally remembered the event on July 3, 1777, and July 4 became the day that seemed to make sense for celebrating independence.
Remember though, the Country still wasn’t actually free. War was raging across the Colonies and it would not end for another 6 years.
The following also happened on 2 July:
- 1644 – Oliver Cromwell and his New Model Army crush the Royalists in battle at a place called Marston Moor. That battle was the bloodiest of the English Civil wars and ended Royalist control in large swathes of England.
- 1863 – The second day of the Battle of Gettysburg. The action at Little Round Top occurred near the close of the day.
- 1881 – Charles J. Guiteau shoots President James A. Garfield in the back while the President was waiting on a train in Washington, D.C. Garfield would hang on for a bit more than 2 months before dying of sepsis.
- 1926 – Congress establishes the US Army Air Corps
- 1937 – Aviatrix Amelia Earhart disappears
- 1964 – President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act into law.
We start with the story of an active duty Air Force Major throwing away his career. Major Jason Watson, a decorated veteran with deployments in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Kuwait, joined a bunch of retards outside the Capitol and accused the Trump-Vance administration of constitutional violations like unauthorized strikes on Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran. He violated military rules by demonstrating in uniform in a banned area, facing potential court-martial under articles prohibiting contempt toward officials and failure to obey orders.
He is going to be facing charges under UCMJ Article 133 which covers “Conduct Unbecoming an Officer and a Gentleman” and Article 88 which makes it a crime for any commissioned officer to use “contemptuous words” against the President, Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, or certain other top civilian government leaders at the very least. Then there are charges for disobeying DOD wide rules regarding attending protests like this in the first place.
Minnesota governor and failed VP candidate ‘Tampon’ Tim Walz just pardoned a convicted child sex predator. Tou Lue Vang, a Laotian refugee who arrived in the U.S. as a child, received the pardon on June 10 from Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Chief Justice Natalie Hudson. The board cited his rehabilitation, steady jobs, family life with six U.S.-born children. The move is supposed to shield him from deportation,
Time for Mr Chippy to make an appearance.
There was an attempted mass shooting in Las Vegas on Saturday, however the news didn’t break until yesterday. You”l know why it was hidden in a second.
Las Vegas cops busted a gunman who planned a casino massacre using a huge cache of weapons.
Allison Michael Howlett, 36, who was born a man but lives as a woman, was arrested Saturday on charges of making terroristic threats, assault with a deadly weapon, auto theft, gun theft and other offenses. The wild story unfolded shortly after 9:30 a.m. Saturday when Howlett’s former spouse, who is female, called police to report Howlett had stolen her car and the vehicle held numerous firearms, Henderson Police Chief Reggie Rader said.
She also said he planned to commit suicide by cop.
On a side note, that is one hell of a collection of firearms for a mentally unstable troon to have. There are several very high priced gats in the image in the tweet. I dunno what a transferable M-2 .50 is going for, but I do know the Accuracy International Arctic Warfare bolt rifle at the top runs $8k and the Steyr AUG A3 runs around $5k.
Full disclosure, I did not watch all 8 minutes of this next video. The first 2 were painful enough.
The Canadian Armed Forces gave a traditional 21 gun salute at noon at Queen’s Park in Toronto for Canada Day. Or attempted to anyway. Y’all know I talk smack about and to the soup sandwiches of the US military whenever they cannot march in step. Well, the Canucks here went above and beyond.
I just don’t know man. Am I getting old? I understand it’s Canada and maybe they have different standards, but what the actual f*ck is going on? Were I in charge of this detail we’d have at least practiced once or twice. It looks like they watched a potato-quality video of the Bangladeshi Army doing something similar, but not the same, one time, 6 months ago and are trying to recreate it by memory.
This next one is why I carry every time I leave the house.
A man in High Point NC was arrested when a church member spotted him in full body armor and camouflage sitting in his truck outside Wesley Memorial Church during services and called 911. An off-duty police officer working security confronted him, leading to his arrest without incident. Police found two flamethrowers, two crossbows, a handgun-like launcher, knives, duct tape, police scanners, and a notebook with addresses of churches and schools in his vehicle.
He has been identified as 44-year-old William S. Milliken III of Thomasville, NC. He faces charges including possession of a weapon of mass destruction and impersonating law enforcement.
A quick couple of MVAP sports notes. Team USA beat Bosnia and Herzegovina in the FIFA World Cup 2-0 last night. Team USA will face Belgium on Monday.
There was a scary incident in Minor League baseball yesterday. Athletics No. 18 prospect Ryan Lasko suffering a violent collision with a teammate while chasing a fly ball in center field during a game against the Frisco RoughRiders (Texas Rangers Double-A affiliate) in Frisco TX.
Lasko fractured his C6-C7 vertebra, underwent spinal decompression and stabilization surgery, and is stable but reported to have no feeling in his lower body post-operation. The surgery was performed at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Plano last night. Dr. Jonathan Poggi performed the surgery, and Ryan is in stable condition at this time.