1. The Devil’s Advocate
Time Stamp: 11:00
- Satanic Independence
- Can an individual have real independence?
- What is independence to a Satanist?
- Financial
- Social
- Intellect
- Safety
- Health
- What is true individual Autonomy in a society?
2. Infernal Informant
Time Stamp: 30:15
- Frederick Douglass’ descendants recite his famous speech about July 4th
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/04/us/frederick-douglass-fourth-july-trnd/index.html- Douglass, an abolitionist who fought for social reform in the 1800s, delivered the speech on July 5, 1852 at an Independence Day celebration, pointing out the hypocrisy in the holiday and in the Founding Fathers’ ideals.
- On Saturday, five of Douglass’ descendants — Douglass Washington Morris II, 20, Isidore Dharma Douglass Skinner, 15, Zoë Douglass Skinner, 12, Alexa Anne Watson, 19 and Haley Rose Watson, 17 — recited the speech in a short film for NPR.
- “The U.S. celebrates this Independence Day amid nationwide protests and calls for systemic reforms,” NPR stated in the description of the film. “In this short film, five young descendants of Frederick Douglass read and respond to excerpts of his famous speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” which asks all of us to consider America’s long history of denying equal rights to Black Americans.”
- In his speech, Douglass says: “The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.”
- “What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy.”
- After reciting excerpts, his descendants responded to what they’d read.
- “This speech was written almost 170 years ago, but this part of it is still extremely relevant, especially with today’s protests,” said Douglass Washington Morris II.
- “While the Fourth of July probably does not feel the same to me as it does to others, I wouldn’t say that it has no meaning because it is the time when America as a country became free from another country,” said Alexa Anne Watson. “But I would say it’s not the time in which I gained my freedom.”
- Isidore Dharma Douglass Skinner closes out the video on an optimistic note, saying: “I think in many ways we are still slaves to the notion that it will never get better, but I think that there is hope and I think that it’s important that we celebrate Black joy and Black life and we remember that change is possible, change is probable and that there’s hope.”
- Trump Claims Journalists ‘Slander’ All Veterans by Calling Out Racism in Independence Day Address
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-claims-journalists-slander-all-veterans-by-calling-out-racism-in-independence-day-address- Fresh off an astonishingly incendiary speech at Mount Rushmore on Friday night, President Trump picked up where he left off on Saturday and took aim at the media—bizarrely claiming that journalists who call out racism somehow “slander” the entire country and all U.S. military veterans.
- “To those in the media, who falsely and consistently label their opponents as racists, who condemn patriotic citizens…When you level these false charges, you not only slander me, you not only slander the American people, but you slander generations of heroes who gave their lives for America,” he told the crowd gathered for the White House’s Salute to America celebration.
- While he did not name names on Saturday, Trump repeatedly claimed protesters were seeking to erase the legacy of “great heroes.”
- “We will not throw away our heroes. We will honor them, and we will prove worthy of their sacrifice,” he said.
- But he seemed to save most of his ire for the journalists reporting on the current reckoning over the country’s history of racism.
- By leveling the “false” accusation of racism, he said, “You slander people much braver and principled than you. You’re slandering the young man who raised the flag at Iwo Jima. And those who perished fighting for freedom in the Civil War. You slander them.”
- He did not elaborate on which accusation in particular was false, who it was made against, or if he was flat-out dismissing the existence of racism in general.
- “We will not let the legacy of these heroes be tarnished by you. … The patriots who built our country were not villains,” he said.
- He also gave details of his newly announced garden of monuments, enumerating figures whose statues would be erected there. He said George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, both of whom owned slaves, had been “unfairly mistreated” in the recent reframing of their legacies.
3. Creature Feature
Time Stamp: 45:41
- Robert the Bruce
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_the_Bruce_(film)- 2019 American historical fiction war film directed by Richard Gray
- A character-driven ensemble piece
- it portrays Bruce’s relationship with a peasant family as a galvanizing influence on his struggle for independence and his ensuing reign.
- Following a series of military losses, with his army in tatters and the success of his rebellion in doubt, Robert retreats from the battlefield.
- Alone, injured, and pursued by fortune-seekers intent on collecting a bounty placed on his head by King Edward of England, he finds refuge in the croft of a peasant woman and the three children in her care
- They care for him, forging a powerful bond, even though their clan is aligned with England.
- This connection inspires Robert with a deeper understanding of the patriotism of ordinary Scots, which drives his passionate return to the national stage and, ultimately, to victory and independence.
- Cast
- Angus Macfadyen as Robert the Bruce
- Jared Harris as John Comyn
- Anna Hutchison as Morag
- Zach McGowan as Brandubh