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The holiday known as Patriots Day marks the anniversary of the Battle of Concord and Lexington.

While the Fourth of July celebrates the signing of the Declaration of Independence, marking the formal separation from England, Patriots Day commemorates the first battle of the Revolutionary War. And yet Patriots Day is only a state holiday, and a Monday holiday at that.

There were a great many Wilmington men who responded for the call to arms on the night of April 18-19, 1775. And while Concord and Lexington are not in Wilmingtons back yard, they are close neighbors. The Minute Men from Wilmington had only 17 miles to march that night.

Boston and the towns of Eastern Massachusetts were hotbeds of action in the period leading up to the Revolutionary War. The Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party are well-known events that occurred in the years before the actual fighting began.

The division between the colonists and the King began over the issue of taxation. About 1761, the British began an effort to be more efficient in collecting taxes on molasses on ships entering the port of Boston. Molasses might not seem like much of an issue, unless you consider that it was used to make rum, which meant that a lot of molasses went through the port.

Subsequently, more taxes were implemented. In 1765, the Stamp Act placed a tax on all documents. That same year, riots broke out. In one instance, a mob attacked the Boston home of the tax collector, doing considerable damage. Soon thereafter, the home of the lieutenant governor was targeted, with severe damage.

The Stamp Act was repealed on Feb. 22, 1766, which resulted in a wild celebration when word reached Boston three months later. But parliament soon replaced the Stamp Act with the Townshend Act, placing taxes on goods going through the port.

In 1768, the ship Liberty, owned by Hancock, arrived in Boston with a cargo of wine. The captain declared it to be of much less volume than was true, and when an inspector arrived aboard to check the amount, the crew seized him and nailed him in a cabin. He was held there until the excess wine was unloaded.

On Oct. 1, 1768, British troops arrived in Boston, initiating what became known as the Occupation.

Things continued to heat up, leading to the Boston Massacre, on March 5, 1770. A mob of Yankees had surrounded a British patrol, which had come to the rescue of a sentry. Although the patrol officer did not give an order to fire, a shot was fired, and the eight soldiers fired into the crowd. Five men were killed.

Probably the best-known event leading up to the Revolution came on Dec. 16, 1771. Hundreds of Yankees dressed as Mohawk Indians raided three tea ships at Griffins Wharf on the Boston waterfront. In three hours, they cleaned the ships of tea, dumping the tea and chests into the harbor. The event, known as the Boston Tea Party, came to symbolize the colonists despise for British taxes. The British, who do enjoy their tea, did not enjoy the tea party. There were demands for payment for the tea and for punishment of the ringleaders.

The matter of payment for the tea became quite a cause for the British, to the point where they closed the port of Boston as punishment. The Port Act took effect on June 1, 1774, and later that month, two more regiments of British troops arrived in Boston, swelling the military ranks to 4,000 in a town of only 17,000.

In the winter of 1775, the colonists in Massachusetts towns formed committees of men who would respond at a minutes notice, should a call to arms go out. They were known as the Minute Men.

On Feb. 25, 1775, the first such call came forth in Salem. General Gage, the British commander in Boston, ordered troops to seize 19 cannon which patriots had collected at Salem Forge. The British sailed to Marblehead, then marched to Salem.

The residents of Salem had been alerted by a rider, though, and set to work moving the cannon. When the British troops arrived, there was little they could do. The bridge they had to cross was drawn, and all boats had been taken to the opposite shore. The British were able to negotiate an arrangement where they were allowed to cross the bridge, but they could not go within 150 yards of the cannon.

Not a shot was fired, but the event was not without significance. The British had tipped their hand, and the patriots knew their alarm system worked. Another point was that the British believed that the Colonists would not shoot.

There were other British incursions into the countryside, seeking stores of powder, cannon and muskets.

But the raid that began on the evening of April 18 was different. British troops headed for Lexington in hopes of capturing two prominent leaders of the revolutionary movement, John Hancock and Samuel Adams.

Adams, a maltmeister, was a church deacon in Boston and unquestionably the strongest leader in the Sons of Liberty. Hancock was a well-known merchant, better described as a smuggler, and a very wealthy one at that.

The movement of British troops in Boston were closely watched, and riders were ready to alert the countryside should movement become imminent. On the evening of April 18, William Dawes set out on horseback by way of Boston Neck. Paul Revere, meanwhile, had a church deacon display two lanterns in the steeple of Old North Church, giving the famous One if by land, two if by sea signal. The British troops were crossing the Charles River. Revere also crossed the Charles, borrowed a horse, and set forth on his famous ride.

Hancock and Adams were at Clarkes Tavern in Lexington, and that is where the British hoped to find them. And once Revere had warned them, Hancock and Adams at first said they would not flee. Before long, however, they were convinced that they were more valuable to the cause if they were kept alive. They left in a carriage for Woburn. Later they went to Billerica.

Wilmington had two groups that responded, although not everyone was from Wilmington. The Militia, under Capt. Timothy Walker, had about 50 men. The Minute Men, commanded by Capt. Cadwallader Ford, Jr. consisted of 27 men.

In the wee hours of April 19, a rider alerted residents that the British were on the march. The Minute Men gathered at their training ground, a field at the corner of Federal Street and Middlesex Avenue. The town had no common at that time. From there they marched to Bedford, joining along the way with other Minute Men.

The British troops, meanwhile, had arrived at Lexington, where a skirmish ensued and eight Minute Men were killed. The British then proceeded to Concord, where they took positions on two bridges. By that time, hundreds of Minute Men were swarming to the battle. At Old North Bridge, the British troops were backed up to the bridge by hundreds of Minute Men. No order was given to fire, but the British fired, killing two Yankees, and wounding a drummer. The Yankees returned the fire, killing three soldiers and wounding four. The British then started their march back to Boston.

At Bedford, the Minute Men from Wilmington learned of the skirmish at Lexington, and were told that the British had proceeded to Concord. Col. Ebenezer Bridge of Billerica took command of the several groups of Minutemen, and ordered them to Meriams Farm in Concord, at a point where the road crossed a bridge.

Shortly after noon, the British came marching down the road. At Meriams Corner, they had to form a narrow column to cross a bridge. The Minute Men took advantage of this formation and opened fire. From then on, it was virtually a shooting gallery for the Minute Men, firing from positions alongside the road.

The British troops, whose uniforms and equipment were more for show than for battle, dropped their packs and ran.

The British finally reached Lexington, where they were able to regroup and await reinforcements. But those reinforcements were delayed through a series of snafus.

The reinforcements were hardly enough to stop the carnage for the British. They limped back into Cambridge, where they were at last under the protection of the guns of the warship Samoset.

The Minute Men also had a case of delayed troops that day. The Minute Men from Salem and Marblehead stood and waited, while their captain awaited orders that never came. They arrived a half hour after the British reached Cambridge.

The Americans suffered heavy casualties that day, but the British fared much worse. There were 49 Americans killed, and 39 were wounded. The British lost 73 men, and 174 were wounded.

One of the Minute Men who responded from Wilmington that day was Daniel Gowing, who lived on what is now Park Street. His house still stands, and has for many years been the home of the Andersens. Gowing, as he departed his house early that morning on horseback, pulled a sapling as a switch. When he returned home that night, the switch was still in the saddle of his horse. He planted the sapling near his house, and it became known as the Lexington Elm. It lived for nearly 150 years, and was finally cut down about the time of World War I.

Capt. Cadwallader Ford, Jr. became a courier in the Revolutionary War, replacing Paul Revere, who had become too well-known to the British.

The Minute Men companies were soon disbanded, and many of the men then fought in the Continental Army.

Many of Wilmingtons Minute Men are buried in Wildwood Cemetery, in the lot next to the old Town Hall. The late William Meyer, a longtime member of the re-created Wilmington Company of Minute Men, did an exhaustive study of the grave sites.

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History: Wilmington men responded to 1775 Concord alarm | News - Tewksbury town crier

He has somehow hit a new level of instability. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Most weeks,New YorkMagazine writer-at-largeFrank Richspeaks with contributorAlex Carpabout the biggest stories in politics and culture. Today, the multistate coronavirus recovery plans, and Trumps decision to put his name on stimulus checks.

After weeks of disappointment with the White Houses pandemic response,a group of governors in the Northeast and one on the West Coasthave announced plans to coordinate the reopening of businesses and schools regionally. Could this bring an escape from Trumps policy shortcomings, or will it simply escalate his attempts to grab power?

Nothing will stop Trumps attempts to grab power. His novel theory of presidential governance, as he himself has defined it, is to seize total authority while bearing no responsibility. He will throw any power move against the wall to see if it sticks. When the coastal coalitions of governors chose to flatly ignore or, in Andrew Cuomos case, mock his bid to set himself up as a king, he pivoted in a blink to his dead-on-arrival push to adjourn Congress so he could staff governmental vacancies with a new round of C-list hacks who wouldnt be subject to Senate approval. Every day a new tantrum, a new search for scapegoats for his catastrophic mismanagement of Americas public-health catastrophe, and a new attempted end run around the rule of law. The daily Trump show is the most predictable daytime television series since Romper Room.

Yesterday Trump again threatened to use his power to wreak vengeance against states who dont do his bidding: If were not happy, well take very strong action against a state or a governor As you know we have very strong action we can take, including a close down. What a close down means is unclear; perhaps Trump will ask Bill Barr for authorization to put Cuomo under house arrest in Albany. But many governors and not exclusively those in the coastal coalitions will refuse to obey Trumps much-hyped decision to open America by May 1. (For the first time, May Day may prove synonymous with Mayday.) Already, some of the Wall Street tycoons he strong-armed into White House conference calls yesterday told him that most Americans wont return to work without a wholesale testing regimen to assure them their lives are not at risk. Since Trump continues to claim that America now has the most expansive testing system anywhere, a desperately needed federal testing initiative will continue not to happen and much of the country will continue not to reopen.

But while Trump doesnt have the power to close down states that defy him or to force private businesses to open with a big bang, he does have one kind of power political power. And he will wield it. Not with the goal of defeating the coronavirus hes convinced himself that war is won but with the goal of arousing his base to a red-hot pitch of rage that will guarantee its massive turnout in November. As we have seen in recent days, this strategy has a strong ideological and cultural component that in form and content is redolent of the tea party movement of 2009, which in turn led to the shellacking (Barack Obamas term) of the Democrats in the 2010 midterms.

You see it in the internet fever swamps, where Anthony Fauci is a deep state traitor and #FireFauci is a battle cry that Trump retweeted for a reason, despite his subsequent claim that he wont fire Fauci. You see it in the pronouncements of Republican politicians like the Texas lieutenant governor Dan Patrick, the Indiana congressman Trey Hollingsworth, and the Louisiana senator John Kennedy, who have prioritized a reopened economy over the lives of their constituents. The shutdown did not stop the spread of the virus, Kennedy explained yesterday. I wish it had, but its too late for that. You see it in the protest at the state capitol in Lansing, Michigan, where demonstrators decried Governor Gretchen Whitmer for stomping on their freedom with stringent anti-corona restrictions. (Predictably enough, this tea partyesque circus is underwritten by a group linked to the right-wing billionaire DeVos family.) And of course you see it on Fox News, where the prime-time lineup is trying to foment this street theater into a national phenomenon, social distancing be damned. The American spirit is too strong and Americans are not going to take it, declared Jeanine Pirro, attempting to portray Howard Beale in drag. And what happened in Lansing today, God bless them, its going to happen all over the country.

Where will this lead? Theres no way to predict what will happen on Election Day. But unless you choose to ignore whats already happening in other nations that lifted restrictions too early, there will be new waves of the virus, including in rural America, among religious congregations that abandon social distancing, and at MAGA venues where Trump hopes to rekindle his rallies. Even now, we are seeing a rise in hot spots in states like Florida, governed by mini-Trumps who were tardy in shutting down as the virus hit and are, in Trumps language, chomping at the bit to reopen. The No. 1 hot spot in the country is in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where the mini-Trump governor, Kristi Noem, remains steadfast in her refusal to impose tough public-health measure even as a Smithfield food-processing plant has shut down in the wake of a cluster of more than 600 infections.

Its been clear this week that Trump has hit a new level of berserk since last weekends epic Times report documenting in meticulous detail that he squandered at least six weeks to inaction, as the virus cut its lethal swath across America. He even used a coronavirus press briefing to unveil a Goebbels-esque propaganda video (produced at taxpayers expense) to try to rewrite that history. Wait until he sees the sequel coming from the fake news: The timeline of how he squandered the weeks between May 1 and the arrival this summer or fall of the next wave of infection, panic, re-shutdowns, and mass death.

Trump hasordered that his own name appear on the Treasurys stimulus checks, an addition that will likely delaypayment for many recipients who need it most. Is there a benefit for him in putting his name on this crisis?

Wait are you really saying it was Trumps idea to put his name on these $1,200 checks? He has told us it was all a surprise to him! In any event, the notion that a plague could be another beneficial branding opportunity for Trump makes sense only if you think it was Herbert Hoovers own brainchild to coin the name Hooverville for the impoverished shanty towns that sprang up during the Great Depression. At least we can be grateful that though Trumps name is printed on the checks, he didnt, in the end, insist on signing them. Under the law, only a civil servant, not the president, can sign IRS disbursements. Had Trump insisted on his signature, these checks would have bounced like those in his preWhite House business career.

The benefits of this stunt will be short-lived in any case. The Washington Post reports today that the IRSs first distribution of these payments, by direct deposit, is another major screwup that has affected millions of Americans. Whenever the cash arrives, with or without Trumps signature, it wont last long for the struggling recipients. Trumps refusal to endorse any emergency aid for an already challenged postal system as of last weekend 19 employees had died, and roughly 1,000 had tested positive or were presumed positive for the virus could further slow the checks arrival even as it achieves his goal of shutting off voting by mail in November. (The postal service is projected to run out of money in late September.) As an added insult, the federal relief program to shore up small businesses that retain their employees has now run out of money altogether.

But like that proverbial rooster who would take credit for the sunrise, Trump can always be counted on to take credit for any good news, even if he had little or nothing to do with it. And to blame everything that goes wrong on someone else. If Americans dont get their $1,200 promptly, that will be Nancy Pelosis fault. The immediate crisis for Trump is that the failures are rapidly outpacing the list of handy scapegoats as this pandemic marches on. Hes run through China, Obama, the Democrats, the media, and the World Health Organization, among others. Whos next? Hillary, Hunter Biden, Robert Mueller, and James Comey, of course. Jeff Sessions? New caravans on the march from Latin America? NFL players? Shifty Schiff? Pocahontas? Its truly only a matter of time before we learn that it was John McCain who brought the coronavirus back from Vietnam.

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Frank Rich: Trumps War on the States - New York Magazine

Normally the organisers send out packs for us to host a tea party and raise money for a designated charity.

This year because were all socially isolating the idea is to have on line tea parties.

Tea is often the focal point of our social gatherings. No wedding, baptism or funeral would be complete without tea. No matter how bad things are this hot elixir will provide comfort. Like the majority of the population here, I was brought up in a house where the kettle was never cool.

Tea refers to the fermented leaves of the plant Camelia Sinensis and originated in south west China centuries ago during the Shang dynasty. It was initially used as a medicinal ingredient. Tea drinking dates back to the third century. During the Tang dynasty it became a popular drink and its reputation spread to other countries. Portuguese priests introduced it in Europe in the sixteenth century. It became fashionable in Britain in the seventeenth century and the British started large scale production of the plant in India. Now India and China supply over 60 per cent of the worlds tea.

Ireland is the second biggest, per capita, consumer of tea in the world. Most people here consider themselves experts in the brewing of a perfect cuppa. To master the perfect brew you should use tealeaves and not a bag. Leaf to water ratio should be 2-3g of tea leaves to 150ml of water. The water temperature for tea is vital 80oc for black tea or 90oc for tea with milk. The hotter the water, the more tannic the tea. Boiling water is not ideal for tea if you dont have a temperature controlled kettle, add a little cold water to the pot. How long you leave the tea to stew is entirely up to you 1 minute for a light infusion, 2 for strong and 3 for very strong.

Tea isnt just for drinking, it also makes a flavoursome ingredient. My first recipe uses tea leaves to smoke beetroot. Mix tealeaves with Demerara sugar and rice to make a smoking medium. Ive paired the smoked beetroot with whipped goats cheese and grilled steak. Once youve mastered the smoking technique you can apply it to fish, chicken, vegetables, even fruit.

Tea and cake go together like strawberries and cream. My other recipe this week uses Earl Grey tea in a cake with lemon. The tea itself is infused with bergamot lemon so it has a deliciously citrusy flavour to start off with. The cake is topped with a lemon icing and served with a prosecco syllabub. This is an old English recipe where cream was thickened with an acid and then sweetened. You can leave out the Prosecco or just use white wine.

You can support National Tea Day and its chosen charity by going to nationalteaday.co.uk.

If youre interested in more recipes, with cooking videos to accompany them, go to tastecauseway.com

I think I can hear the kettle whistling...

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Is that the kettle whistling? Its time to celebrate our national treasure - Farming Life

America will learn hard lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic, but when the fear subsides most of them will be social and political, rather than medical. If while reading this column you find yourself getting dismissive, consider this: If three months ago some public figure had predicted that much of the U.S. economy would soon be shut down, and that most Americans would in effect be under house arrest, you would have laughed at them.

The first lesson is that virtually any crisis or tragedy, whether an act of God or man, will be weaponized by the Democrat Party against its partisan foes. And any such event will also always be used as leverage to enact Democrat agenda items that lack the popular support needed for normal passage through the law-making process. Thus we have false accusations regularly leveled against the current administration, such as the debunked charges that President Trump gutted the CDC budget and disbanded the federal pandemic task force. We also have the Democrat-led House refusing to pass worker aid packages unless large chunks of cash are also directed to their favored groups and causes, such as Planned Parenthood and elimination of student debt.

We have also learned that we cannot trust the science to be accurate or to provide acceptable solutions. It now appears that Covid-19 mortality may be not much worse than that of a moderate flu 60,000 in the U.S., rather than the 2.4 million recently predicted. Scientists, like news reporters, present themselves as objective but both have agendas and priorities. Even the best often cant see beyond their fields of expertise. A medical doctor who is highly trained to save lives may be totally ignorant about economics. Ironically, healthy economies save lives consider how chronic rural unemployment fueled the opioid epidemic and raised suicide rates.

The third lesson is that usually cynical Americans become pliant and unquestioning if they can be frightened enough. Enough of them will then readily trade liberty for security, leaving it easy for federal, state and local authorities to crush the few who dare question policies or refuse to follow orders. Thus in Kentucky drive-in church services were banned while drive-in restaurants were allowed to operate. That order was overturned by a judge, but worshippers collectively celebrating Easter inside their cars in a church parking lot in Mississippi were issued $500 fines, and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Witmers draconian prohibition against buying many innocuous items, like seeds and gardening supplies, provoked a large protest in Lansing.

The fourth lesson is that the nation, both as an economic unit and as individual citizens, needs more self-reliance. Our necessities must not depend on Chinas good will. Its not hard to imagine a more deadly pandemic scenario that could completely break the supply chain. It may not be just toilet paper next time, but completely empty grocery shelves. We cannot count on Washington to feed us under those circumstances.

The fifth lesson is that the liberal dream of jamming the populace into urban centers to make the world a greener place will likely make the world a sicker place. New York Citys population density and heavy reliance on mass transit were likely major factors in the astonishing spread of the virus there.

Martin Fey is a member of the Quiet Corner Tea Party Patriots.

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America learning hard lessons from Covid-19 - Opinion - The Bulletin - Norwich Bulletin

Make up your mind! The New York Times, which has criticized Donald Trump for playing dictator during the coronavirus pandemic, is now criticizing him for ceding any semblance of national leadership on the pandemic on Saturdays front page: Right-Wing Protests Find Megaphone in Trump. Michael Shear and Sarah Mervoshs highly partisan report began:

President Trump on Friday openly encouraged right-wing protests of social distancing restrictions in states with stay-at-home orders, a day after announcing guidelines for how the nations governors should carry out an orderly reopening of their communities on their own timetables.

In a series of all-caps tweets that started two minutes after a Fox News report on the protesters, the president declared, LIBERATE MICHIGAN! and LIBERATE MINNESOTA! -- two states whose Democratic governors have imposed strict social distancing restrictions....

These are not so much protests against standing six feet apart than they are against heavy-handed moves like Michigans arbitrary bans on buying gardening and home improvement items, which barely gets mentioned.

His stark departure from the more bipartisan tone of his announcement on Thursday night suggested Mr. Trump was ceding any semblance of national leadership on the pandemic, and choosing instead to divide the country by playing to his political base.

Echoed across the internet and on cable television by conservative pundits and ultraright conspiracy theorists, his tweets were a remarkable example of a president egging on demonstrators and helping to stoke an angry fervor that in its anti-government rhetoric was eerily reminiscent of the birth of the Tea Party movement a decade ago.

"Eerily reminiscent"? How biased can you get?

Then the Times berated Fox News for...covering news events:

Shaping their views has been Fox News, which has devoted extensive coverage to the protests that took place this week, reminiscent of the way it provided a platform for Tea Party activists early in the Obama administration. For the past several days, the network has shown videos of the crowds gathered outside State Capitols and aired interviews with organizers who fumed at their governors.

The story concluded with another far-right label:

Mr. Trump is also providing support to some of the darkest corners of the internet, where far-right activists have encouraged the protesters to defy Democratic governors...

A Poll Watch by Giovanni Russonello also denigrated conservative protests on behalf of the suffering and unemployed by comparing them to the Tea Party : Small but Angry Protests Reveal Crack in the Quarantine Consensus. The online headline: Whats Driving the Right-Wing Protesters Fighting the Quarantine? Left-wing protesters are never called angry or left-wing in the Times.

....polling shows that these right-wing activists probably speak for only a small minority of Americans -- or even of all Republicans....in states with an already intense partisan divide -- like Michigan, Ohio and North Carolina -- a small, vociferous protest movement is arising...The Tea Party -- which, like some of this weeks anti-restriction protests, was backed by well-funded interest groups ....

The left has no "well-funded interest groups"?

Originally posted here:
NY Times Now Whining Trump Won't Play Dictator: 'Ceding...National Leadership' on Virus - NewsBusters