Wiretap: Frederick Douglass’s 1852 July 4th address does amazing job of offering hope

If you’re searching in vain for dignity on the Fourth of July in the time of Donald Trump, The New Yorker’s David Remnick advises that you read Frederick Douglass’s 1852 Independence Day address. Douglass, a former slave who Trump reminded us has done an “amazing job,” railed against the evils of slavery and asked how America could think well of itself while enslaving millions of its people. But Douglass ended his speech citing the “great principles” of the Declaration of Independence while saying, “I do not despair of this country.” If Douglass could find cause for optimism, perhaps we can, too.

On the other hand, where do you see any cause for optimism once you’ve seen Trump’s bewildering tweeted video of the president, back in his wrestle mania days, wrestling and punching a figure with a photoshopped logo of CNN as a head. This is what Trump calls modern-day presidential and what much of the world calls plain nuts. Via The New York Times.

Doyle McManus: Neither loved nor feared (especially in Congress), Trump, the master salesman, has done virtually nothing to sell a skeptical public on Trumpcare. And he’s done just as little to effect legislation. Via The Los Angeles Times.

It’s a parlor game among some liberals to name Trump’s worst cabinet appointee. An easy nomination would be Scott Pruitt, who is the greatest danger to the EPA in its 47 years of existence. Via Vox.

A Colorado Springs mother, whose twin sons were born with cerebral palsy, explains how Medicaid made her life possible and how cuts in Medicaid proposed by the Republicans would destroy others. Via NBC News.

Republicans are very close on Trumpcare. Unless they’re not. Talking to Republicans desperately trying to find some healthcare bill that can pass the Senate, it’s hard to get a straight answer, because maybe there isn’t one. Via Politico.

Forever young: A parent’s lament. The best thing Chief Justice Roberts wrote this term was not a Supreme Court opinion. It was a 9th-grade graduation address. Via The Washington Post.

From The National Review: George Will on a new Philadelphia museum dedicated to the Revolutionary War and the scars still seen from our nation’s violent birth.

How the left lost its mind: In the face of fake news and half-truth propaganda flowing constantly from the right-wing mediasphere, the left has its own worrisome alternative-news media that, while not nearly as prominent, is growing with every day Trump is in power. Via The Atlantic.

The real assault on free speech in America is not from the academic left, but from the Internet trolls who mistake criticism with censorship, as if by disagreeing with them (see: Trump, Donald), you’re seeking to silence them. Via The New York Times.

Photo via Wikipedia Commons