House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) released a new 55-page report following months of investigative work by Committee Democrats exposing how Donald Trump hijacked what was supposed to be a unifying, non-political celebration of our country’s 250th birthday and made it all about him – his vanity projects, his political and religious agenda, his business ventures, and his cronies who gorged on public funds under cover of a shadow corporation shielded from public scrutiny. Watch (and share!) the video below. Read the full report: How The Whitehouse Cheated the American People out of their 250th Birthday
| ‘The parallels are eerie’: Historians compare America at 200 and 250As the United States marks its 250th anniversary, historians see echoes of the political turmoil, economic anxiety and cultural conflict of 1976 Substitute Richard Nixon for Donald Trump, Vietnam for Iran and Watergate for using the Justice Department to reward friends and punish enemies and you can see a pretty fair resemblance between 1976 and 2026. When Nixon became president, he appointed “political cronies and longtime supporters” to the commission, wrote M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska, an American University historian and author, in an essay on the bicentennial. Before long, she wrote, critics said Nixon was framing the bicentennial in ways that centered on himself and his 1972 campaign. Some said the committee was “corrupt and unwieldy.” Others, including the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement, said the effort was paying scant attention to the history of racial and ethnic minorities. Alternative bicentennial organizing committees emerged. |
| Here in Utah, Governor Cox issued a ban on personal fireworks because of our ongoing drought and fires. Washington County’s risk of fire is 97% higher than other counties in the state, and St. George’s risk of fire is higher than 92% of towns in the nation. Given the opportunity to impose a fireworks ban for the city, St George Mayor Jimmy Hughes declined, saying “I feel very strongly that America was built by rugged individualists, and that the freedoms we enjoy were paid for in blood and sacrifice.” “The mayor has no experience with practical patriotism…he thinks it is all about bunting and parades. And fireworks, despite this headline from The Salt Lake Tribune of June 27th: “MULTIPLE HOMES ON FIRE IN ST. GEORGE NEIGHBORHOOD,” Lionel Atwill, Born on the Fourth of July |
