#july fourth

[riodeoof]

Happy fourth of July to my cat who loves fireworks and literally nobody else

[sunder-the-gold]

Some people love to say that empires last only 250 years, and America is now 250 years old and thus doomed to fall. These people are liars or fools.

The United States of America began as thirteen colonies struggling to survive on one coast of the north American continent.

The USA did not begin as anything resembling an empire.

The USA began as a true republic.

Rome was (EDIT: a kingdom for nearly 250 years, before it was) a republic for 482 years before it became an empire.

Even after it became an empire, Rome lasted for another 500 years in Western Europe and nearly 1,500 years in Eastern Europe (Byzantium).

The USA isn't dying. We're only getting started.

Our best years are still ahead of us.

[magnetothemagnificent]

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

[floridaboiler]

[official-buckybarnes]

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY

“Found this buried in the archives. It’s a message from Steve. Seemed like an appropriate time to share it with you all.”

[nocternalrandomness]

"Happy Fourth of July"

[temp-war-profiteer]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

@h4v0c-st4rz

“O-Oh, goodness. Thank you, dear. You… Did I tell you my birthday?… Or are you thinking about the birthday of America, still?”

*He chuckled. He didn’t think he’d even told Hermes that his birthday was coming up.*

- The War Profiteer

[sweaterkittensahoy]

One of my favorite facts about US History: We invented the Ferris Wheel to outdo the French building the Eiffel Tower.

You see, the Eiffel Tower was built as part of Paris hosting the World Fair in 1889. And it was a huge achievement in architectural engineering. A perfect sort of thing for the hosting country of the World Fair.

Then the next World's Fair went to Chicago, and Europeans and even Americans in other cities turned up their noses because Chicago wasn't nearly as fancy as Paris and also, it's just a hog slaughtering city. It wasn't FANCY.

So, the organizers spent a LOT of time trying to figure out what they could possibly do to 1) show they were a real city fuck you New York and 2) show the French that American ingenuity was better than theirs.

After many, many rejected exhibits, George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. (what a fucking name) won the day by going "Hey, what if we made a giant wheel with carriages for people to stand in while it spins."

And boom. Classic American entertainment at every carnival, fun fair, and deeply questionable local amusement parks.

Also, Ferris was living in Pittsburgh when it happened, so once again Pittsburgh did serious American History shit that no one thinks of Pittsburgh for because the actual thing that is historic first showed up in another city.