190 Comments
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Yuri Bezmenov's avatar

Happy Independence Day! Highly recommend Paine’s American Crisis. He rips on loyalist bootlickers the way we do with MSM today. Nothing is more American than telling tyrants to f*** off.

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carily myers's avatar

lol. LIKE

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Jeanne's avatar

Hell Yah Yuri! You’re my hero.

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Justin Svrcek's avatar

“Kings and Other Tossers” may be the best line you’ve ever written 😆

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Jeff Keener's avatar

Lest we forget... America.

Fuck Yeah!!

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Ollo Gorog's avatar

That's good, and I'm glad I know who Eddie Izzard is, but Paine's "apostate from the order of manhood"... I had to read that over a few times it was so good! Thanks, Matt!

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Joe's avatar

I would love to see Eddie Izzard do Thomas Paine.

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Curling Iron's avatar

Me too. Sometimes I need help sleeping.

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LibertyAffair's avatar

Happy Independence Day Matt.

Fortunately there are a growing number of Paine's around us today, many writing in Substack, who have a growing awareness of just how defective our supposed "elites" are and how dangerous their arrogance and sense of entitlement.

Lift one for our Constitutional Republic and lets have Liberty for all now and forever.

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Shelley's avatar

There are also a lot of Paines in prison (where Paine was for a time), bankrupt, low on advertisers, blacklisted, accidentally dead and so forth. Liberty is not cheap to come by.

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Selenti's avatar

Yeah, that's a good point. Our current "dissidents" are kind of pathetic in comparison. I understand no one wants to suffer, but the generation of the founders put it on the line, suffering prison and the threat of death. Some actually did die. Meanwhile it doesn't take much to push the current crop of commentators into line. Just saying some mean things about them is enough to make most submit.

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FN-2187's avatar

Freedom costs a buck .05

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Tardigrade's avatar

Too bad we don't have a recording of George Carlin reading Common Sense.

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Timothy G McKenna's avatar

AI?

Maybe Jessica Rabbity reading the Declaration of Independence after that…

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Curling Iron's avatar

Carlin would not do something so trite. Paine is boring and stupid. The only thing worse than someone referencing Paine is someone quoting Alexis de Tocqueville

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Tardigrade's avatar

OK, Dip Shit. Given how Matt pointed out the delightful sarcasm in the piece, and how Carlin was a master at sarcasm, it seemed a good match.

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DeborahR's avatar

You're BEST!! And that goes for Walter too!!

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jordan's avatar

Matt, you’re so damn good I’d read your grocery list!

Happy Independence Day!

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steven t koenig's avatar

Best compliment ever!

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Jeanne's avatar

😂😂😂😂😁

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carily myers's avatar

lol, LIKE

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DarkSkyBest's avatar

Me and my spouse are too old and decrepit to do our our pontoon boat anymore . The Fourth of July was big. Still is. But we are old. Time marches on.

So tonight, I am going to read the Declaration of Independence to my spouse. Who some months ago had a stroke.

I guarantee that my spouse will value the words of the DOI. That is our fireworks.

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craazyman's avatar

Sounds like a romantic evening. ;-)

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DarkSkyBest's avatar

It's the best! Smiling emoji

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ikester8's avatar

Our best wishes to you and your wife. A stroke is never easy to recover from.

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Michelle Dostie's avatar

It certainly is. I read it again today. Best work of literature ever written.

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Free Florida Female's avatar

Bless you! Your spouse is very fortunate:)

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David Cashion's avatar

We all hope to be old one day.

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Jeanne's avatar

That’s lovely I’m sure she’ll appreciate every moment. You’re a good man DarkSkyBest. Sorry to hear of your beautiful wife’s stroke. God bless you both in the autumn of your years. It’s like a renewed love story.

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Stxbuck's avatar

Best wishes to you and yours-some kind of iPhone issues has disabled my upvote ability on substack..

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No Use For a Band/Name's avatar

*Common Sense* - fuck yeah! Here’s to assholes in what remains of the forest. Have a good one Matt. 🍻

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Mrs. McFarland's avatar

Listening to the vain attempts of the media to assuage the panic of the madding crowd reminds me of Scarlett O Hara “ tomorrow is another day.” Well, yes it is but this “ problem” is not going away. Biden is not going to wake up bright eyed and bushy tailed tomorrow and suddenly be sharp as this oft mentioned tack. And maybe the media, just maybe, will start doing their job and acknowledge that the POTUS has dementia, is physically failing and cannot continue with this charade!!

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taraonlido's avatar

Miss O'Hara was also known for saying, "I'll think about it tomorrow," when faced with a painful reality. "Tomorrow" has finally come for Mr. Biden and his legions of accomplices and enablers.

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Mrs. McFarland's avatar

Well, “ fiddle Dee Dee!”😝ive just been so amused by all this “ he just had a bad day” nonsense. And of course one must not mention that FOX news has been covering Biden’s mental and physical slip ups since the Basement Summer but that was just so very very mean of them. And no they were not cheap fakes, so it was all the other news outlets decision to not cover Joe’s many faux pas… and here we are. “ He just had a bad day”…. My ass.

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Biff's avatar
Jul 5Edited

It bothers me to no end to hear celebrities, elites, whom I have a very strong feeling have never read Fox Digital News reporting, and have seen very little of their televised programming, dismiss Fox News out of pocket, as merely a right wing biased republican supporting news network, not to be trusted as a source of honest news. Akin to how they dismiss Trump, they never look any deeper than their own visceral disgust, they never even try to consider why Fox News has such viewership and ratings, and why it is that half of the voters prefer Trump. Personally I never watch Fox News but read their reporting daily and I find their reporting to be fair and honest.

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Mrs. McFarland's avatar

There are other conservative outlets but I have not checked them out…. Newsmax? It will be interesting to see if in Biden’s attempts to be more accessible if he agrees to appear on FOX. I think liberals obvious distain for FOX is being exposed as pretty lame. I watch CNN, MSNBC and the network nightly news regularly to see what they are saying… which usually is pretty distorted. Listen to Lester Holt with your eyes closed. It’s nuts it so incendiary

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Free Florida Female's avatar

And, “he had a COLD!”

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Mrs. McFarland's avatar

And Commander ate his prep notes……I keep “hearing” my Dear Old Dad admonishing me “ Stop lying. You know you’re lying. I recommend you stop lying now.”

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Free Florida Female's avatar

Almost forgot - he had jet lag from his trip to Europe 12 days before the debate!!

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Mrs. McFarland's avatar

I know… the comments are hysterical, but it’s really not funny. Hopefully people will pay more attention… he just delivered remarks at the White House picnic for Veterans and referenced the WW ONE Cemetery he just visited in France

“ the one the other guy would not go to… oh well, I better not”…..he was back to yelling peppering his words with “ LOOK”…..

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steven t koenig's avatar

Happy 4th Matt. We are all enriched by your 21st century common sense and writing skills

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Carlos Marighella's avatar

Happy Independence Day, Matt.

I'm sitting at home, listening to the Ramones and Hanoi Rocks while wearing my Carlos the Jackal t-shirt. Quite honestly, the events of recent years have left me feeling considerably less patriotic, to the point where I don't even give a shit about the fireworks, but your piece cheered me up, especially that part about how royal bloodlines are started, i.e. by some asshole surrounded by other assholes who bullied the peasants into accepting their rule.

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Spiderbaby's avatar

When I was a teenager I finally asked my dad, a WW2 combat veteran who was in WW2 from Pearl Harbor until surrender, why he never watched fireworks with us. He said, "I have seen enough real explosions in my life, I don't need to see any fake ones."

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Roger Kimber, MD's avatar

Libby, my wife & I were talking last night about all the vets (through all the years) with PTSD who have had to suffer through fireworks displays that have gotten increasingly common and over the top.

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Spiderbaby's avatar

I didn't figure that part of the story out until much later.

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Roger Kimber, MD's avatar

Yeah, it was not part of common vocabulary when we were growing up, that came after the Viet Nam vets were back & we started to figure out why so many of them were such a mess. They were treated shamefully.

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Stxbuck's avatar

My grandfather was a greatest generation member from Ukraine, who escaped with his family in the middle of WWII. He obviously hated the commies, but was never worried about a nuclear war-he knew the Soviets had lived through WW2 on their home turf and weren’t about to put themselves or the nation through that again.

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Lia's avatar

My Dad was also a vet who could not abide fireworks. My mother took us to see the fireworks alone. Finally she told me that the lights in the sky I adored brought back painful memories for him.

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Spiderbaby's avatar

Every year we'd return from fireworks to find my Dad on the couch, cigarettes, beer & a shot of whiskey near by and my dog hiding under one of the chairs.

Talking about WW2 was something my Dad never did.

I recently saw a WEF video that made me think of my Dad. In the video one of my betters was talking about how people have just assumed air & water are human rights and how that needs to change. Both need to put on the balance sheet.

Whenever my Dad got pissed at the PTB he would say, "if those bastards could figure out how to bottle all the air they would charge us for every breath."

Tip of the hat to you Dad. You saw the future.

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Carlos Marighella's avatar

That’s sad:(

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Sandra Pinches's avatar

That is deeply moving and painful.

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Spiderbaby's avatar

I also saw this:

"Rep. Wesley Hunt went on the Sage Steele show and told his favorite Donald Trump story of when Trump met with Taliban leaders.

"Trump told the Taliban “if you harm a hair on a single American, I’m going to kill you.”

"Trump then reached in his pocket, pulled out a satellite photo of the leader of the Taliban’s home, handed it to him, got up and walked out the room.”"

Happy Independence Day to one & all.

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MG's avatar

He is super bright and funny - he definitely has a future in the Republican party. He was on the Ruthless podcast a while back with a couple of stories. 1. He was at a wedding and a white guy approached him and said thank goodness there's at least one other Democrat here (Rep Hunt is Black). 2. The fellas asked him what he would do if he was out on a walk and a (wild animal) approached him. He said I would tell my wife to get her gun out of her purse.

West Point grad and Army vet.

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carily myers's avatar

lol, good one

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Bob Reynolds's avatar

Sorry, it’s getting more difficult to celebrate independence when the imprisonment of the masses is in full swing. When we’re complicit in our own decline, the irony is painful…

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John Kirsch's avatar

"some of us have started to wonder how much longer this thing will last."

Now that's a phrase pregnant with meaning. I'd love to see Matt expand on that.

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Noam Deplume, Jr. (look,at,me)'s avatar

Despite our declaration of independence from England, she gave us an extraordinary and powerful language, as effective as a chain saw and sometimes as tricky. My flag is flying outside and it says, without words, I am blessed to be an American. I can only be as proud as I am vigilant to preserve the American ways. They're pretty cool if you ask me!

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MG's avatar

Our local paper just had an editorial on how we should listen to each other, especially people who have a problem with people flying the flag.

Yeah, right.

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Spiderbaby's avatar

There are a few interesting liberal Twixter streams where the participants are turning on their favorite liberal news media.

Not because they lied to them about Joe's mental state or because Joe is actually feeble witted but, to these Einsteins, they think CNN & MSNBC, etc., are "compromised by The Heritage Foundation" and engaged in one big GOP led conspiracy to unseat a great president.

i don't think these folk think Joe has a problem.

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steven t koenig's avatar

People with an IQ under that of a sloth are sure Joe is okay

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George the Zeroth's avatar

Not really a matter of intelligence: more like an overdose of hopium.

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steven t koenig's avatar

God I miss that drug. The side effects were a bitch but the high was rad

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George the Zeroth's avatar

LIKE (my button doesn't work)

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Artemus Gordon's avatar

Yep, Once something is believed, it becomes hard to un-believe. It's not that they are stupid, it's that the are trying to believe in something which is being disproved. Eventually they will come around. Or not...

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Shelley's avatar

Very interesting but certainly not unusual. Same ole . . .

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