What Shall We Bake Today?

Food 1 Minute

Now that we’re approaching summertime, picnics and barbecues are not far behind!  This recipe is perfect for summer! Blueberry Bars!

Ingredients

For the Crust and Topping:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 cup granulated sugar

2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

For the Filling:

1/2 cup granulated sugar

4 tsp. cornstarch

3 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

1/2 cup blueberry jam

2 tsp. lemon zest

2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

Pinch of salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375° with the rack positioned in the lower third of the oven. Spray a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with cooking spray. Line the pan with parchment paper.

To make the crust and topping: Whisk together the flour, salt, cinnamon, and sugar in a medium bowl until combined. Add the butter. Using a pastry blender or your fingertips, work the butter into the flour mixture until well combined and the mixture is the texture of wet sand (the mixture should hold together when squeezed). Press half of the mixture into the prepared pan in an even layer. Bake until lightly browned, about 15 minutes.

To make the filling: Whisk together the sugar and cornstarch in a medium bowl. Add the blueberries, jam, lemon zest and juice, and salt, tossing to combine. Spread the filling in an even layer over the warm crust in the pan.

Sprinkle the remaining crust mixture over the top of the blueberry filling in an even layer, leaving some larger clumps. Bake until golden brown on top and the filling is bubbly around the edges and in the center, about 1 hour. Remove from the oven and let cool completely in the pan on a wire rack, about 3 hours. Cut into bars and serve.

ENJOY!

Unknown's avatar

Published by pat frederick

Published

86 thoughts on “What Shall We Bake Today?”

  1. Good Morning all

    70* and steamy here.

    what a disaster last night. While I was doing the dishes, I noticed the water pressure decreased tremendously every time i turned it on. called to hubby–he went down to check the water tank. meanwhile, even though i wasn’t running water, I could HEAR running water. I opened the cabinet beneath the sink and there was water everywhere. I started yanking things from that cabinet and yelled for hubby.

    Once it was emptied, hubby attempted to get underneath to see what was what but that wasn’t working so well. I could do it, but would have no idea what i was looking for!

    I grabbed my instruction/warranty book that I keep and found the faucet. (yep, 20 years ago we put it in and i still kept it. pat on the back there, lol) Anyway hubby skimmed it and found out that the sprayer gets held in place by a tiny blue clip and apparently somehow that popped off and the water wasn’t going thru the faucet or the sprayer–just on the floor of the cabinet.

    we got it all cleaned up. Hbby finally managed to get that little clip back on–then he zip tied it!

    Good thing it’s laundry day I got a load of old towels to do.

    see what today brings…

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Oh my goodness 😲 glad it was a relatively easy fix. I just looked under my sink to see how that sprayer is hooked on– but unable to see 😁 first will have to clean out under sink, but not now.

      Another warm day, maybe storms later. Take care 🙏

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      1. Good Morning Gina!

        I don’t think hubby would have fixed it so quickly if he haven’t had those installation instructions. then when he saw that it was just a small blue clip, he figured this will happen again, so he zip tied it.

        That was the one “good thing” …i’d been meaning to clean out that cabinet for a long time…lol

        May God Bless You!

        Liked by 2 people

        Reply

    2. Well, that sucked! No doubt the old heartbeat got a work-out! Glad you were able to get it fixed. Humid and steamy here this morning – 75 and cloudy, with thunder in the background and not a breath of wind. Wheezer was sleeping on the chair – I think his teeth are so bad that he can’t eat the tuna mixed with dry food any more. He tried then walked away so I took a can of plain tuna out and he was able to eat that.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  6. Political Observer

    July 2, 2026 12:28 am

    E. Jean Carroll asked Court to order POTUS to pay her $5,779,783 immediately 

    President Trump’s legal team contacted Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, to ask if she would delay requesting the disbursement of the funds awarded to her by the 2023 jury, they wanted more time to ask SCOTUS to reconsider its denial for a review.

    Kaplan denied and asked fo $5M in damages + $ 779,783 in interest=$5,779,783 immediately 

    gov.uscourts.nysd.590045.233.0.pdf

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  7. Political Observer

    July 2, 2026 12:31 am

    Germany filed Charges Against Ukrainian Serhii Kuznietsov (50) for blowing up North Stream II Gas Pipelines under the Baltic Sea in 9/22 

    Authorities allege he and a crew used forged documents to charter a sailing yacht, planted explosives on the pipelines iand detonated them. Following an arrest in Italy in 8/25, Serhii Kuznietsov was extradited to Germany in 9/25 and has been held in Hamburg in custody since. He and his defense team deny the allegations, claiming he was a member of the Ukrainian armed forces at the time. Kuznietsov faces accusations of unconstitutional sabotage, causing explosions, and attacking civilian energy infrastructure, which prosecutors classify as a war crime. 

    Authorized at the highest levels of Ukraine’s leadership, the mission was ostensibly unofficial and conducted with the utmost secrecy. 

    Speaking at a press conference in Dublin, President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was too soon to comment on the charging of Kuznietsov in detail. He also said Kyiv would communicate about the case with officials in Berlin.

    Germany charges Ukrainian suspect in Nord Stream sabotage case
    The Nord Stream Conspiracy: The Inside Story of the Explosions That Shook the World: Pancevski, Bojan: 9781250410436: Amazon.com: Books

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  8. M.A. Rothman
    @MichaelARothman
    𝐃𝐎𝐉: 𝐒𝐘𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐍𝐆𝐎 𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐄𝐅 𝐃𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐃 $𝟗 𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐈𝐍 𝐔𝐒𝐀𝐈𝐃 𝐇𝐔𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐀𝐈𝐃 𝐓𝐎 𝐀𝐋-𝐐𝐀𝐈𝐃𝐀-𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐑𝐎𝐑 𝐆𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐏

    Federal prosecutors indicted 𝐌𝐚𝐡𝐦𝐨𝐮𝐝 𝐀𝐥 𝐇𝐚𝐟𝐲𝐚𝐧, a Syrian national who ran the regional Syria office of a U.S.-funded humanitarian NGO, on a 12-count indictment charging him with diverting more than $𝟗 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 in USAID-funded aid to the 𝘈𝘭-𝘕𝘶𝘴𝘳𝘢𝘩 𝘍𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘵 — a terrorist organization affiliated with al-Qaida in Iraq.

    USAID’s inspector general called it one of the most significant diversions of USAID-funded humanitarian aid the agency has ever investigated.

    Prosecutors say Al Hafyan, who managed 160 employees at the NGO’s Syria office, directed food kits meant for conflict-affected Syrian refugees to Al-Nusrah Front commanders, then sold the aid on the black market for personal profit. USAID had awarded the NGO $𝟏𝟐𝟐 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧 between January 2015 and November 2018 specifically for those food kits.

    Al Hafyan is presumed innocent unless convicted, but the indictment itself is a reminder of exactly the oversight failure conservatives have been demanding USAID answer for — American tax dollars, meant for starving refugees, allegedly propping up the same terror networks we’re supposed to be fighting.

    𝐇𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐢𝐝, 𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐞𝐝𝐥𝐲 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐫.

    𝐃𝐎𝐉: 𝐒𝐘𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐍𝐆𝐎 𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐄𝐅 𝐃𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐃 $𝟗 𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐈𝐍 𝐔𝐒𝐀𝐈𝐃 𝐇𝐔𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐀𝐈𝐃 𝐓𝐎 𝐀𝐋-𝐐𝐀𝐈𝐃𝐀-𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐑𝐎𝐑 𝐆𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐏

    Federal prosecutors indicted 𝐌𝐚𝐡𝐦𝐨𝐮𝐝 𝐀𝐥 𝐇𝐚𝐟𝐲𝐚𝐧, a Syrian national who ran the…

    — M.A. Rothman (@MichaelARothman) July 2, 2026

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  9. Troublemaker10

    July 2, 2026 2:06 am

    Trans gunman caught in alleged casino terror plot with huge cache of weapons — as cops release chilling footage

    Excerpt:

    Las Vegas cops busted a transgender gunman who allegedly planned a casino massacre using a huge cache of weapons.

    Allison 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.

    https://nypost.com/2026/07/01/us-news/trans-gunman-was-allegedly-plotting-vegas-mass-shooting/?utm_campaign=nypost&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  10. Byron Donalds…the congressman, who despite being in office for more than 5 years, has virtually no congressional record.
    FTA
    Yet somehow this microscopic record is packaged and sold to Republican voters as revolutionary leadership.

    It would almost be funny if it were not so insulting.

    Because this is what modern politics has become: consultants taking candidates with paper-thin accomplishments and inflating them into larger-than-life political products through repetition, branding, outrage clips, donor money, and carefully curated mythology.

    The politician becomes less of a public servant and more of a franchise character. And perhaps the most absurd part of all is that Donald Trump has endorsed him. Which raises an unavoidable question: What exactly is Trump endorsing? Seriously.

    What is the actual accomplishment being rewarded here?

    A man who missed 161 congressional votes? A congressman with virtually no meaningful legislative footprint? A politician whose public image appears exponentially larger than his measurable achievements? A candidate whose primary skill seems to be appearing on television while donors and operatives construct an illusion of significance around him?

    Americans were told the MAGA movement was supposed to disrupt the machine, not become another branch of it.

    They were told it was about results. Accountability. Courage. America First leadership. Draining the swamp. But endorsements like this increasingly feel less like anti-establishment rebellion and more like the same old political machinery repackaged in populist branding.

    Because voters are not stupid.

    They can see when marketing is being substituted for accomplishment. They can see when slogans are carrying the entire weight of a candidacy because the actual record cannot. They can see when consultants are attempting to create a conservative folk hero out of a man whose legislative footprint barely leaves a dent in the carpet.

    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/07/the-congressman-with-no-record-byron-donalds/

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  11. Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Just The News: “A Navy helicopter made an “emergency water landing” in the Arabian Sea on Wednesday morning. One of the four crewmen is missing, according to the U.S. military. 

      The twin-engine helicopter, an MH-60S Seahawk, is assigned to the USS George H.W. Bush, one of the two carriers operating in the U.S. Central Command theater. It can be used for search and rescue, combat support and other efforts, according to The Hill. 

      U.S. Naval Forces Central Command wrote on social media that there is “no indication the emergency was caused by hostile action.” 

      While a search is underway for the missing crewman, the other three were recovered and are back on the carrier in stable condition. The cause of the incident is under investigation.” 

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  12. EXCERPT: “….A reporter asked Vance to weigh in on the response to Amy Coney Barrett’s decision to side with the liberal justices. “Some conservatives are angry with Barrett. Are you one of them?” a reporter for The Daily Wire asked Vance.

    “Do I think she made a mistake in the ruling? I do!” Vance said, adding, “I don’t know how anybody can say that if a person who is an illegal alien or a person, for example, who’s pregnant and comes to the United States on a vacation, they have a baby and all of a sudden their entire family gets the benefits of American citizenship?”

    “I don’t think that’s what the framers of the 14th Amendment had in mind. I don’t think it’s the right case,” Vance said.

    “But look, it was 5-4. Sometimes the Supreme Court makes mistakes. We’re going to try to correct that mistake, but nobody’s perfect, including the Supreme Court,” Vance said.

    WATCH:

    https://rumble.com/v7c3xn4-vance-calls-out-amy-coney-barrett-for-striking-down-trumps-birthright-eo.html

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/07/vance-calls-amy-coney-barrett-striking-down-trumps/

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  15. Just The News: “President Donald Trump on Wednesday confirmed he had told acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte to speedily declassify materials from the office at his discretion.

    Pulte is holding the DNI position until the Senate confirms a replacement for Tulsi Gabbard, who stepped down after her husband’s cancer diagnosis. Trump has nominated former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton to replace her on a permanent basis.

    “While he’s there I said ‘you can declassify whatever you want!” Trump told reporters. “Bill Pulte is a very talented guy, but he’s just there temporarily.”

    “I think Bill will declassify,” he added.

    Trump’s appointment of Pulte, who currently leads the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), was met with alarm from Democrats, who feared his appointment signaled Trump’s intent to use the DNI post to persecute his political opponents.

    Pulte previously made criminal referrals to the DOJ against top Trump political opponents over alleged mortgage fraud.”

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  17. Just The News: “Two people climbed to the very top of the Empire State Building in New York City on Wednesday. The individuals were later taken into custody and charges are pending. The couple later revealed themselves as Russian free climbers Ivan Beerkus and Angela Nikolau, who were featured in the 2024 Netflix documentary “Skywalkers: A love story.” 

    The couple is known for climbing skyscrapers without ropes or harnesses, according to Variety. They attached a banner to the antenna that extends from the top of the Empire State Building. The banner read, “When the power of love beats the love of power the world knows peace.”

    After police responded, the pair appeared to take the banner down and climb down from the antenna to a lower platform. Then, one of them appeared to remove an engagement ring from a backpack, get down on one knee, and propose, according to Fox News. 

    It’s not immediately clear how they were able to get to the top of the building.” 

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. ok…i was mad till i got to the proposal part…then I went awwww. but I went back to being mad quickly…LOL

      how did they get up there without someone saying something or pointing it out? they could have been jihadists planting explosives.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  18. Very disappointing, I must say!!!

    EXCERPT: “The Department of Government Efficiency will not issue a closing report when it officially ends July 4, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought said. The $5,000 rebate checks it once floated for taxpayers never came.

    “We have no plans to do kind of a closing DOGE report,” Vought told Rep. David Joyce, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, during a Tuesday hearing.

    DOGE’s own website reports $215 billion in total savings, or $1,335.40 per taxpayer using an estimate of 161 million federal taxpayers. That $215 billion figure has not moved since Jan. 1. It’s also just over a tenth of the $2 trillion target set at launch.

    “There is too little reliable information available for taxpayers to verify” DOGE’s cost-savings claims, said Edward López, senior fellow at the Independent Institute, a nonpartisan public policy research organization.

    López compared DOGE to past reform efforts, including the Grace Commission under President Ronald Reagan and the National Performance Review under President Bill Clinton. Both operated under statutory authority and produced final reports subject to oversight. DOGE, by contrast, was a non-statutory operational unit with no such requirement, he said.

    López said DOGE was a political success for Trump, but not for taxpayers. “Certainly in terms of verifiable, line-item savings that make a significant dent that taxpayers will feel, DOGE did not actually work,” he told The Center Square.

    In February 2025, Trump and then-adviser Elon Musk floated sending taxpayers 20% of DOGE’s savings, an idea that originated from Azoria co-founder James Fishback. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., broke with Trump and Musk on the idea at the time, telling a crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference he’d rather “pay down the credit card,” a reference to the nation’s $39 trillion debt…..”

    https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/trumps-doge-effort-ends-july-4-no-final-tally-no-rebates

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  19. Russiagate Prosecutor Calls Audible On ‘Grand Conspiracy’
    By Paul Sperry, Real Clear Investigations

    EXCERPT: “Although Donald Trump’s defenders describe the Russia hoax and other efforts to frame the president as a “grand conspiracy,” Real Clear Investigations has learned that the man now leading the probe of that scandal is pursuing multiple conspiracy prosecutions that are smaller and more manageable, according to several sources with direct knowledge of the probe.

    Since taking over the Justice Department’s far-flung investigation in April, veteran prosecutor Joseph diGenova and his team quickly concluded that combining all of the alleged wrongdoing, which ranges from falsifying evidence and committing perjury to leaking classified information and obstructing justice, into one unified plot and trying them together as a single case would be unmanageable.

    “You’d have 50 defendants in the courtroom,” said a well-placed source familiar with diGenova’s thinking. Before diGenova took over the investigation two months ago, its contours were ill-defined as it lurched ahead in fits and starts for more than a year. But according to the sources, diGenova is tackling the case with a new, disciplined focus and in so doing is giving it the direction it’s lacked.

    But this is a change in tactics, not the theory of the case. The sources say his operating assumption is that Trump’s enemies in the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign, the Obama and Biden administration, some Democrats in Congress, and their like-minded accomplices across several government agencies – including the CIA and the FBI – joined in one continuous conspiracy over almost a decade to deny Trump his civil rights, derail his political campaigns, and undermine his presidency……”

    https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2026/06/25/russiagate_prosecutor_calls_audible_on_grand_conspiracy_probe_1190728.html

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  20. Dang…now how to chase a danged chipmunk from the feeder.

    chased it all the way to the corner under the satellite dish and it refused to jump–just stared at me. i took a step towards the little rat and it went down the back of post and ran on the deck.

    gonna stop the jelly feeding tomorrow,

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      1. no…lol.

        gonna add jelly today till this evening, then gonna stop while i figure out the best way to convert an old feeder into a hanging version and put it on one of the hooks I use for the hummers. The hummers currently have 4, so I’ll use one of those hooks.

        The orioles go to those feeders too sometimes so it’ll be the grosbeaks who may have some trouble finding it initially.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

  21. Treasure Hunters Recover $100K Silver Bar From Legendary 1622 Shipwreck

    “Treasure hunters searching the waters off the Florida Keys have uncovered a 22-pound silver bar believed to have come from the wreck of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha, according to a new report from SlashGear.

    The artifact, estimated to be worth about $100,000, is the first silver bar recovered from the legendary wreck site in nearly three decades. It was discovered by divers working with Mel Fisher’s Shipwreck Expeditions during a routine recovery mission.

    The Atocha was part of a Spanish treasure fleet that was destroyed by a powerful hurricane in September 1622 while returning to Europe. Loaded with silver, gold, and other valuables collected from Spain’s colonies in the Americas, the ship went down in relatively shallow water, taking nearly its entire crew with it and scattering its cargo across the ocean floor.

    The report says that the wreck remained one of history’s great lost treasures until famed salvager Mel Fisher finally located its main debris field in 1985 after a 16-year search. That breakthrough yielded hundreds of millions of dollars in treasure, but archaeologists and recovery teams have continued to uncover new artifacts from the sprawling debris field ever since.”

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  25. Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  28. “The Crossing Isn’t Finished”

    Michael T. Flynn LTG USA (RET), Jul 02, 2026

    EXCERPT: “I have spent thirty-three years in uniform and a good deal more than that studying how nations are born and how they endure. This Fourth of July marks two hundred and fifty years since fifty-six men sat in a sweltering room in Philadelphia and signed their names to the Declaration of Independence. I want to take you back into that room, and then I want to take you two hundred and fifty years in the other direction, because a milestone this size demands that we look both ways down the road.

    Picture Philadelphia in the summer of 1776. The city sat low along the Delaware River, and by July the heat settled over it like a wet wool blanket that never lifted, day or night.

    The windows of the Pennsylvania State House were shut tight against spies and eavesdroppers despite the heat, so the men inside debated in heavy wool coats, sweat running down their backs and soaking through their linen shirts. Horseflies drawn by the stables nearby got in anyway and buzzed the room all afternoon. There was no air conditioning, no ventilation, no relief of any kind, only candlelight after dusk, the scratch of quill on parchment, and the low murmur of fifty-six men arguing, sentence by sentence, over the future of a country that did not yet legally exist.

    Some of them had ridden for days on horseback to reach that room. Some had left wives managing farms alone and children they would not see again for months. When they finally put their names to that parchment, they were signing a document the British Crown would call a confession of treason, and in 1776, treason carried one sentence. There was no institutional safety net waiting to catch any of them if the Revolution failed. There was a rope, a trial before a Crown court, and a family left behind to answer for it.

    They signed anyway.

    Richard Stockton of New Jersey, a respected judge who had given up a quiet legal career for that room, would later be dragged from his bed in the middle of the night by loyalist raiders, marched through the cold in restraints, and thrown into a New York prison. He was eventually released, but his health never recovered. He died a broken man only a few years after the war ended. Thomas Jefferson’s estate at Monticello was raided by British forces before the fighting was through, his fields stripped and his household scattered.

    George Washington went eight full years without drawing a salary while commanding an army that was starving, freezing, and shrinking by the week, an army held together by nothing but discipline, faith, and a stubborn belief in the cause they had signed onto. On Christmas night in 1776, with morale collapsing and enlistments about to expire within days, Washington loaded his remaining men into flat-bottomed Durham boats and crossed the ice-choked Delaware River under cover of darkness and a driving sleet storm, then marched them nine miles through the snow to strike the Hessian garrison at Trenton before dawn. He understood plainly that retreat meant the death of everything he had already staked his life on. Men froze standing up in those open boats that night. Two soldiers died of exposure before they ever reached the far shore. Others marched on feet wrapped in rags because their boots had worn through to nothing, leaving bloody footprints in the snow behind them the whole way to Trenton.

    These were not reckless men chasing glory but serious men who had studied history before they went out and made it. John Adams defended British soldiers after the Boston Massacre because he believed every man, even a soldier wearing the uniform of an occupying army, deserved a fair trial under the law. He took that case fully aware it could end his standing in Boston overnight.

    James Madison spent years poring over the collapse of ancient confederacies, tracing failures all the way back to Greece and Rome, before he ever wrote a single clause of what would become the Constitution. He refused to guess at a system of government when history had already run the experiment and recorded the results in painstaking detail. The Founders read Cicero and Polybius by candlelight so they would not repeat the mistakes that buried the Roman Republic centuries earlier. They deliberately built a constitutional Republic rather than a pure democracy. They understood that unchecked majority rule eventually turns on itself and eats its own. Power was divided deliberately across three branches and two levels of government, so that no single man, no single office, and no single mob could ever gather all of it into one fist.

    That structure has now survived two hundred and fifty years of war, depression, and civil conflict that by any reasonable measure should have broken it more than once. It survived because it was built by men willing to trade comfort, wealth, and personal safety for a principle they believed came from God and was worth dying to secure. It survived in every generation since because ordinary Americans kept showing up to defend it, in courtrooms and town halls and frozen river crossings of their own, long before any of those fights ever reached the national stage or made the history books.

    Now look two hundred and fifty years ahead, to a Fourth of July in 2276 that none of us will live to see. It exists only as a set of choices that still await people who are not yet born. Everything Stockton, Jefferson, Adams, Madison, and Washington paid for in blood, imprisonment, and ruin only reaches that future if enough Americans between now and then are willing to defend it the way that first generation did. History does not glide forward on its own momentum. It moves because somebody in every generation decides the cost of holding the line is worth paying, the same way it moved because fifty-six men in a hot room decided a rope was an acceptable risk……”

    https://genflynn.substack.com/p/the-crossing-isnt-finished

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  31. As an employer, I understand everyone gets sick and deserves time off to recuperate. what is inexcusable and grounds for termination is a two week separation from work without any explanation. It appears to be dereliction of duty. McConnell and others who have disappeared for weeks at a time, missing votes, not providing the public (their employers) with any explanation, deserve to lose their jobs, their privileges (including their pensions). They are not the BOSSES…WE ARE! and this is beyond rude.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  32. HELLS BELLS!

    the zip tie came off the clamp…water in the cabinet again, although I caught this one very quickly. We will making a trip to Lowes this weekend to see if we can get replacement clips, a better fix or a new faucet.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      1. lol…yankee ingenuity. we used 4 popsicle sticks and 3 zip ties this time.

        so far so good. lol

        still need a trip to Lowes i think.

        and it only leaks when you run the water so if i have to i will wash dishes in the shower till we get a replacement part or new faucet.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

  35. NO A/C FOR YOU!

    Eric Daugherty
    @EricLDaugh
    UPDATE: Mayor Zohran Mamdani is getting EATEN ALIVE for calling on New Yorkers to surge their thermostat up to 78 degrees because the city is having a hard time keeping up with energy needs

    “Spencer Pratt…COMMUNISM always goes the same way. First they promised you the world, free this, free that, abundance for all. How? Don’t ask. And they get into power and the rationing begins — first a smiley ask, then a demand, then a bullet. You use too much energy, comrade!”

    Never gonna happen!

    UPDATE: Mayor Zohran Mamdani is getting EATEN ALIVE for calling on New Yorkers to surge their thermostat up to 78 degrees because the city is having a hard time keeping up with energy needs

    “Spencer Pratt…COMMUNISM always goes the same way. First they promised you the… pic.twitter.com/kVdq5UD6v0

    — Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) July 2, 2026

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  38. 🌎 Why Was the Sky Red?

    Following Venezuela’s devastating earthquakes, residents watched the evening sky turn an eerie crimson.

    Scientists point to atmospheric scattering, dust and smoke interacting with the setting Sun. The internet blamed secret weapons. As usual.

    🔗 Source:

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/caracas-sky-red-venezuela-earthquake-b3007321.html

    🏺 Somebody Saved for Retirement

    Archaeologists in France uncovered a ceramic jar containing tens of thousands of Roman coins buried nearly 1,800 years ago.

    Someone hid an enormous fortune. And never came back. History is full of unfinished stories.

    🔗 Source: https://www.zmescience.com/science/archaeology/1800-year-old-roman-coins-france-archaeology/

    🏆 Best Story of the Day🌌 One Planet Is Orbiting Backwards

    Astronomers discovered a Neptune-sized world orbiting its star almost completely backwards. They suspect an unseen giant planet quietly reshaped the entire system over millions of years. Somewhere out there…Gravity is still writing stories we haven’t learned to read.

    🔗 Source: https://sciencex.com/news/2026-06-neptune-sized-world-orbits-hinting.html

    ❤️ Most Wholesome Story of the Day🐻 The Bear in the Hole

    California hikers heard faint cries coming from a deep pit. At the bottom…A young black bear. After several days trapped underground, rescuers finally pulled it to safety.

    Group of hikers in California discovered and rescued a young black bear that was believed to have been stuck in the hole for several days.
    byu/sco-go inAmazing

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  39. “Olympian David Hearn indicted by grand jury for alleged property destruction of Reflecting Pool. The incident took place June 19, where Hearn was arrested by U.S. Park Police”

    Just The News, Ian Maile, July 2, 2026 3:31pm

    “District of Columbia U.S. Attorney Judge Jeanine Pirro formally announced charges against former Olympian David Hearn Thursday afternoon.

    “Today a grand jury has returned a felony indictment against a defendant, David Hearn, for felony destruction of property for which he faces 10 years in prison,” Pirro stated. “These landmarks and monuments belong to all of us, and they must be protected for generations to come.”

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  43. “Enduring Flame of Freedom”

    Newsletter | July 2, 2026

    “Imagine the realization that swept through the colonies on July 2, 1776 — the very day, 250 years ago, when the Continental Congress voted to declare the thirteen colonies “free and independent states.” Two days later, our Founding Fathers would adopt Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence, proclaiming truths that would light the world for generations to come:

    “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

    With these words, the torch of freedom was lit, and a new nation was born.

    Yet the struggle for liberty was hardly over. General George Washington led the Continental Army through six long years of war until the final victory at Yorktown in 1781. Even in triumph, the Founders knew that declaring independence was only the beginning. In 1787, they gathered once more in Philadelphia to create a Constitution — a lasting framework that would allow a free people to govern themselves under the rule of law. Ratified in 1788, it remains the enduring blueprint for ordered liberty.

    As the poet Robert Frost so profoundly reminded us at President Kennedy’s inauguration more than half a century ago, “The deed of gift was many deeds of war.” Time and again, Americans have answered the call — through the Civil War, two world wars, and the long Cold War — to keep that flame of freedom burning bright at home and around the world.

    Today, we who inherit this extraordinary legacy stand in gratitude for the privilege to be Americans. We are thankful to our Creator for this blessed land. We are deeply indebted to our ancestors who fought and built here so that we might live free. And we’re proud to stand with you, neighbors and countrymen, to celebrate July 4th, a glorious day — the 250th anniversary of the greatest nation in history. May God always bless America. And may our Almighty Maker continue to bless all of us as we honor those who came before us, cherish the blessings we enjoy today, and stand united to shape the future.”

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a comment