Its the time of year where I kick myself for not renting a house in Rocky Point. Even if I lived in a universe where this didn’t happen I’d still be irritated by not going there. Sure its just as hot as Phoenix, and the Sea of Cortez is a shallow heat sink so its also 8x as humid…but shrimp tacos and drinking nothing but beer out of fear of the local water has its appeal.
This is my review of Sturgis Brewing Co Bon-A-Fide Freedom Lager:
Am I phoning it In because its a holiday? You decide. (TW: CNN) Some federal employees bristle at America’s 250th birthday festivities after year of agonizing government overhaul
Edward remembers the reek of smoke that settled into his dark blonde hair, combed neatly over the top of his head, from the sparklers he waved at his squealing cousins while firecrackers reflected across the lake next to their grandparent’s cabin. Wrapped in red, white and blue, and with fine-grain sand wedged between his wriggling toes, Edward didn’t want the night to end.
Fifty years later, his military haircut glistens with silver from a lifetime serving in fatigues. But this Fourth of July, Edward plans to stay home.
Across the country, a similar story is quietly unfolding beneath the fireworks and fanfare of America’s semiquincentennial.
Oh no! Don’t worry it gets better.
Jonas, a program analyst at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was on the job for five days before Hurricane Harvey flattened homes along the Texas coast in 2017. He said he couldn’t be prouder of his work for survivors during his deployment.
But after more than eight years of devout civil service, Jonas lost that fulfilling federal job. He was rehired six months later, but while his income was on hiatus, Jonas was forced to dip into savings and ask family for help to pay for doctors’ appointments to address his disability.
[…]
“My whole life until recently I was very proud of our country. Every federal worker, from the janitor on up the chain, swore an oath to defend and protect the Constitution,” said Edward. “Now, I don’t even want anything to do with the Fourth. I’m angry and ashamed.”
In case you were wondering exactly what a program analyst does…here you go. Seriously though, it gets better.
Now every reminder of America’s 250th birthday – a grocery store display, a banner hanging in Edward’s subdivision, a television commercial – makes the 30-year military veteran shudder, each one a reminder of the colleagues he says were wronged.
[…]
“I feel perfectly comfortable staying in,” he said. “There won’t be a flag out front, decorations on the mantel. It bothers me because I am so proud of (America’s) past, but I can’t be proud of our present.”
This man is a Patriot. If he is anything like his story suggests, he was eligible for 0% loans from multiple military friendly banks during the shutdown. I don’t understand why he had to get loans from friends to cover medical costs since he was still collecting military retirement and oh yeah—they never stopped paying for insurance for federal employees during the shutdowns. He loves America so much he can’t fathom celebrating today, because of how he was treated by the Orange Man. So he won’t.
PATRIOT
At one Social Security field office in South Texas, workers used to look forward to a festive lunch before the Fourth of July. Last year, they gathered together for a barbecue meal at the job.
But this year, many of the staffers aren’t in the mood to celebrate, one longtime employee, who asked that her name not be used for fear of retaliation, told CNN. Morale is low after the agency lost several thousand workers under the Trump administration, employees were reassigned to answer Social Security’s 800-number and the workload grew, she said.
Let it be known this person still has a job and is complaining about the it.
Within her agency, she has seen the administration attack union rights and diversity efforts, which she feels are taking steps backwards. She scoffed at the July 4th holiday baskets of pretzels Commissioner Frank Bisignano sent to employees thanking them for their work. (The pretzel company is owned by Bisignano’s daughter, according to The New Yorker.)
“It’s just hard and disheartening when you hit 250 years and all you give your government employees is just more work and stress and pretzels,” she said.
In five years working for the VA, not once did I get free snacks at work. I was the guy that brought donuts on Fridays paid for by my meager GS-11 salary. Leeches, the lot— wait, no that can’t be right because I was assured this was…
ANOTHER PATRIOT
Some Transportation Security Administration employees, who went without pay for weeks during a record-long partial government shutdown earlier this year, are feeling particularly bitter.
[…]
“We keep the place running, and we get nothing for it,” the Texas-based TSA officer said, asking that his name not be used for fear of retaliation.
Oh fuck off. For 25 years not once have I been able to entertain traveling by air without getting felt up by a uniformed retard in cargo shorts at the airport. The TSA is what happens when you let people vote.
Anyways. It is on the 4th of July that I ask you all to remember the real reason for the season. No its not Jesus…its about honoring real American Heroes like Joey Chestnut, in spite of having to manhandle a protestor trying to upstage him, still winning the 2022 Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest:
Pilsner fan rejoice! This being from Sturgis is not an indicator of watered down tourist trap level quality you might expect from that town. Nah, this one is actually pretty good. I’m glad I’m downing one right but maybe I’ll try to do Labor Day in Mexico instead. I’ll leave you with another Real American Hero: Ray Charles.
Happy 4th of July. Sturgis Brewing Co Bon-A-Fide Freedom Lager: 3.5/5
Happy Fourth of July! Thank you for the posting! I ignore sour grapers like those you described everyone.
It is 100 C plus here in Eastern PA. I’m inside in AC so I’m OK, but STF out of the sun if you can.
🥵
That’s 212 in freedom units.
Only at sea level!
Thanks to
global warmingthe Climate Crisis™ it’s a high of 80 today here in SoCal instead of the usual 90-100 at this time of year.Happy Independence Day, STWI! I’m with you – haters gonna hate.
It’s only 89 Freedom Degrees (“feels like 97”) out here at Tranq Base, but the pedestal fan is falling behind in its ability to keep it comfortable out here, even in the shade. I may also be packing up to go back in to where the climate is at least somewhat controlled.
Happy Fourth of July!
I don’t know the current temperature in southern NH. I’m in the AC.
Yesterday I was outside near the end of the day helping put together an Independence Day parade float. Temps were in the upper 90s. But there was some shade a little breeze.
But after more than eight years of devout civil service
He’s better than you and me.
Truly a peer of the noble journalismist at CNN.
I forgot just how awesome that Ray Charles video is. His response to the crowd at the end is magical.
I got to see him years after his prime at the NC state fair. The venue was terrible – a huge barn with bleachers for rodeo in the round. His equipment was terrible – a small portable amplifier and an electric piano. And ge was terrible. Grumpy, perfunctory and ready to get the hell out of there.
Colors my view of him. I was so excited to see him – a legend – and he was terrible and not even excited for me to see him. At the end he got the perfunctory standing ovation. I looked at my fellow concert attendees in shock. They were unenthusiastic – they clearly felt as I did. But, lifetime achievement applause.
This being from Sturgis is not an indicator of watered down tourist trap level quality you might expect from that town. Nah, this one is actually pretty good
I was at the other brewery in Sturgis when I was there. That one was OK. Maybe I should have stopped in Sturgis Brewing instead.
There was one in Deadwood I rather liked but its been a while I can’t remember the name.
Cocksucker Brewing?
I remember the human filth who said the George Floyd Mostly Peaceful Protests™ saved lives, while the Sturgis bike rally caused 250K cases of covid.
The burning shops killed the virus in the air, and stolen TVs immunized the looters. And as for Sturgis, all those people had jobs, and obviously since our elite medical specialists shut down workplaces to stop the virus, jobs make you sick.
“We keep the place running, and we get nothing for it,”
Wear your victimhood proudly. One day your name will appear on the vast roll call of Trump survivors.
Dynamite all those losers off Mount Rushmore and carve a pair of groping hands instead.
That asshole gets my fucking taxes.
He should be down on his knees thanking me.
Rant brought forward from prior discussion. Question was, what did Mamdani sacrifice to make America free?
Posting rant because I am feeling exceptionally ranty and I need for you guys to scroll past it and roll your eyes so I dont have to rant in front of friends and family on the 4th
He’s sacrificing all the other good he could be doing to save the idiots of New York from the horrors of terrible, terrible freedom.
How about we treat him to the “get what you want” package – confiscate his wealth, all opf his family’s wealth, line them up, force them to dig a ditch, then bury them in it and say “That wasn’t true communism.”
He and all of his friends were born with a silver spoon in their mouths, typically were raised to hate the US by their socialist/communist immigrant parents, and have not lifted a finger or done an honest day’s work in their lives. But he is brown and mouths the correct platitudes so shut up.
I think he references the wonderful intersection anti-racist construction that says that this country was built by slaves. And immigrants. In that order.
So all good things were done by those people.
Even the founding… which was immigrants.
But not the oppression of the natives. Those were not immigrants. Those were white people.
See?
So immigrant = black and brown POC and immigrants built this country so if you are not white you built this country, even if, like Mamdani, your people were not in this hemisphere for any of it.
It is a great two-step.
Barbary Pirates selling slaves were white people, not Muslims. And selling millions of slaves to the Ottoman Empire doesnt count, even though that is many times more than the almost 400k slaves transported to the US. Because the US is uniquely evil because white people.
Bonus…. both sides of Mamdani’s lineage hail from the upper castes in Indias rigid caste system. You know, the one that is *actually* discriminatory and does not allow for people to move economically?
So, bonus historical illiteracy.
Bonus. His father’s family is from Tanzania. Where Indians of the merchant caste were heavily involved in the slave trade.
You know, that caste that his fathers family was a part of.
There is garden-variety hypocrisy everywhere… but the hypocrisy coming from the entire “DSA” set is just breathtaking. Every one of them seems to have something similar in their background.
Haven’t you heard? Mamdani is actually Epstein’s biological son.
https://x.com/DanielGilr44222/status/2073240169298227553
lolwut
Its now my favorite conspiracy now that I don’t need to hear about Trudeau anymore.
It’s hard to imagine slaves building anything while they were being incessantly starved and beaten. And raped.
Slaves built little, which is why the North won. And while winning and ‘reconstructing’ the little the slaves built was destroyed.
So much retardation about who “owns” the Declaration of Independence. Summary: Orange Man VERY Bad.
Retarded link.
Nicholas Cage owns it. Everyone knows that.
I thought he gave it to Harvey Keitel.
Why would he do that? He can’t fit it in his 1995 Acura NSX. Especially if he’s driving around with that hot chick. There’s just no room.
I know who owns my copy of the Declaration!
@Cyto from last thread,
Great rant.
… and I see you have continued it here.
It is a pathology l.
The pope has opinions on america and our 250th
https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/letters/2026/documents/20260625-lettera-anniversario-usa.html
Balanced letter. Pro life. Pro immigration. Implies that kicking out illegals is against God.
From the Vatican. Where you cannot immigrate at all.
Words fail.
Deport them all.
I’ll “welcome” the ones who follow the rules, support themselves, and keep their fingers out of my wallet. But somehow I suspect he is not talking about them. Either way, I have no responsibility whatsoever to “protect” them or “assist” them so if that makes me a bad Catholic… oh wellz.
The ones who follow the rules aren’t illegals.
Even then, I’d deport the curry commies. Make the subcontinent more of a shithole, if that’s possible, not here.
Leo, I would like to direct your attention to the teachings of Urban when it comes to being swarmed by infidels and heathens.
You should be encouraging men to take up the cross and drive them back to whatever pit of hell they came from.
Are leftists screeching about separation of church and state and demanding the Catholic Church lose tax exempt status over this or nah?
who “owns” the Declaration of Independence
Good lord what a tedious windbag.
Despite the heat, we wandered over to Rice’s market this am to see what was going on.
https://www.ricesmarket.com/
Between the holiday and the heat, not a lot of vendors showed.
Sad. Saw some cool uranium glassware, but kept my wallet in my shorts.
Ribs are smokin, blackberry bbq sauce made.
Happy Independence Day
I’ve been observing the 250th by bouncing through the various C-SPANs for background noise. They’re providing “unprecedented coverage” of the 250th, which includes the governor of Maryland grousing about how America doesn’t live up to its ideals, and the annual oration at Faneuil Hall, featuring Te Nahisi Coates and a bunch of other hacks grousing about how America doesn’t live up to its ideals. Not one day can go by without narrative reinforcement, I guess. The live coverage of parades from various cities was pretty wholesome, and, refreshingly, Ken Burns said some sensible things. Curiously, there was live coverage of the dedication of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in North Dakota. Seems a little late, and I guess Teddy’s people aren’t hip or with it enough to dump a billion-dollar brutalist skyscraper in the middle of a large U.S. city.
Nothing says Happy Fourth like shoving the divisive garbage from America’s preeminent race baiter down our throats. Stay classy, Boston.
Crazy some of the things that leftists protested before October 7, 2023 laser-focused their energies on one specific target and kept it there ever since.
Spectacular. The new anime season started. Part of my fun with that is hate reading the regular crew who do season reviews at Anime News Network.
This one did not disappoint.
It’s a mediocre anime about a guy dumped into a group of nomadic people. One good observation that the reviewer can’t come to terms with is that the work makes explicit is that the women of such a society are going to most attracted to men who can provide and that they will by size and nature be subservient to men in many but not all ways.
All of the female reviewers on the site review every anime through politics and liberal standards. I’d love to know how they go through cognitive dissonance on current religions and societies that do much worse than this anime in the Middle East.
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/preview-guide/2026/summer/the-frontier-lord-begins-with-zero-subjects/.237682
I limit myself to 10 shows or so a season so this is unlikely to make my cut, but I generally watch the first episode of probably 50% of the new shows.
All of the female reviewers on the site review every anime through politics and liberal standards.
Let me guess: they also get pissed if anyone used non-leftist politics to review a show.
I can’t actually say. They review the show itself independently. But if the author had a previous work they felt misogynistic they will absolutely point that out even if it is not relevant to the current work.
Nomadic people were egalitarian matriarchies before the evil of patriarchy
Dear CNN,
Go fuck yourself sideways.
Yours &c
I don’t even know how that shit gets past an editor as “journalism.” In a country of 340 million, the writer found some unhappy people? Neat. Oh wait, writers — It took two of them whip up that batch of nonsense.
In the era of articles that consist of copying a tweet and writing 800 words explaining what the tweet said, actually speaking to a human being is above and beyond.
Here’s another “article” by one of the authors…
https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/30/us/dhs-shutdown-employees
“Are you a DHS employee worried about getting future paychecks? Tell us about it”
OH
MY
GOD
Spencer Pratt showing he gets how to communicate stuff in retail politics. This in response to NY Mayor Mamdani calling for New Yorkers to raise thermostats and ration electricity.
https://x.com/i/status/2073013701129777504
The communist doesn’t think to increase the quality of the grid. The communist demands that you decrease the quality of your life.
They make you ration the things that every other American gets to enjoy. Every single time.
Nice one in the replies:
Policy matters. NY shut down its Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant in 2021. Since then they’ve gone from 68% reliance on fossil fuels to 94% reliance on fossil fuel.
When they closed it they promised to be moving towards 100% renewables. It was always a grift.
Maybe they were hoping for mass die-off but it never came. 😥
Seems like they were on track for that with Cuomo, but I’m sure mamdami can pick up the slack
Cheer up
So at least for today, let’s remember:
There’s no better place on Earth to start a business, take a risk, dream big — doing what you chose to do, where you chose to do it.
We’re the widest, deepest, richest, most transparent economy anywhere — the engine behind phenomenal growth and wealth.
We’re the greatest meritocracy on earth, unshackled from limits of age or pedigree. We’re wired for risk.
We can think, say and worship as we please without fear of imprisonment. Faith may be fading, but the freedom to practice is unfettered.
We stir and enjoy a magical cocktail of democracy, capitalism and individual freedom that produces history-bending ideas like AI.
We’re protected by the world’s strongest military — at once the most feared and the most sought after by other nations for help.
We’ve got two protective oceans on our shoulders, friendly neighbors to our north and south, and abundant energy beneath us.
We’ve racked up four straight years of record energy production on our soil.
We’ve created history’s longest-surviving democracy, with a rare ability to evolve and meet the craziest challenges.
We’re still young — and learning.
The bottom line: Most people are NORMAL. They’re good, hardworking, generous. They volunteer, help you shovel in a storm and don’t dunk on strangers online.
A ittle reminder from Axios.
When I see those surveys where they claim Americans don’t think this is the best place to live, I am at a complete loss as to what country would be better.
Romania
Switzerland
Argentina in 10 years
Happy 4th, everyone!
https://ibb.co/ynY8cNJy
Faaake – Washington didn’t cook.
26″ and full of charcoal, he’ll save the burnt ends but not the British children.
He’s grilling
He’s grilling
He’s grilling for you!
Ben Franklin the second president invented grilling the first president could not have grilled
Canadia is loosing does that make the 4th of july sadder?
I have had half a bottle of wine and 3.5 beers. Goddamnit i need to drink less
Impressive!
I will have an Old Fashioned here, then maybe a whiskey. I shall watch fireworks from the balcony tonight.
I’ll see your Ray Charles and raise you Huey Lewis and the News.