Independence Day

Today, ironically, we celebrate our independence. Two hundred and forty years ago we cast off a totalitarian government for a long chain of abuses. I’d like to show you how far we’ve come.

Independence Day

Declaration of IndependenceBut first, it’s important to understand what Independence Day is, and what it is not. On the Fourth of July, 1776, we did not create the United States of America. We did not create the behemoth that has become the most corrupt and indefensible nation on the planet. The Declaration  did not grant extraordinary authority to an exclusive few while the rest had their liberty, privacy and individuality revoked. It did not preserve the horrors  of  slavery, religious persecution, and war. These things cannot exist without government, and this Declaration effectively dissolved ours.

It’s really telling  that last  week the UK dissolved their membership with the European Union. Forty years ago fewer than the population of Florida within the UK decided they needed a new master, and two thirds of the population chose the federalism of the EU.  After Federalism didn’t work, about the same number of people that voted them in, voted them back out again. For now, at least.

Home again, home again. Back here, back then, in the Americas, where we had thrown off our foreign masters and united for our own defense, things were tough for a few years, yet. The ensuing war lasted seven years and took the lives of as many as 75,000 colonials and up to 100,000 others. But that’s a different story. What we’re talking about here is the Declaration. The moment we chose to throw off the chains of imperialism.

flagBelow you’ll find the text of the Declaration of Independence, with links throughout to current events demonstrating that while we may have had a brief, 240-year hiatus, we’re in the position Franklin knew was the inevitable result of all Republics in known history.

One final note: I’m sick of hearing those who signed the Declaration lumped in with the  “Founders”. They didn’t “found” anything, they dissolved their  bond with a government that bore them nothing but disrespect, malice and ill will.


IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

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, – That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. – Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the  public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. – And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

 

CISA Is Coming

By the end of the week CISA will be passed into law. Have you read it? There’s really not much to it, as it’s designed like Obamacare — granting a  government department  the ability to develop its own policies, procedures, rules and exceptions, as long as they follow  rather generic rules about collection and disclosure.

CISA provides businesses immunity from  all liability and antitrust laws if they share “automated” data — even if doing so is in direct violation of their own terms of service or contracts.

The “immunity” is written rather interestingly. Not only does it immunize businesses that share information about their customers, but it also provides immunity to any individual hacker that actually performs attacks against any US individual or business as long as they share “some” of their results with the government. The government essentially provides free reign for the creation of a new class of American trespasser/digital B&E, as long as they tithe the State.

CISA allows the federal government to collect  all digital data, permanently, to “fight terrorism.”

It allows this data to be used to “regulate” the  lawful activities of ordinary Americans, as long as the data isn’t collected “only” for that purpose (and since it’s collected to “fight terror”, it gets an immediate green light). This means they can create a database collecting every email relationship to ferret out personal details. For example, collecting political leanings and use that information to create lists of gun owners, gays, and foodies. The information can then be used to target them the same way the IRS targeted conservatives or Hitler targeted Jews.

One of my main concerns is that this will eventually lead to a US-based equivalent of the Great Firewall of China. The last thing the US needs as we head to war with Russia, and inevitably China, is any real or perceived  cap on our ability to obtain legitimate news from the rest of the world. We’re sure not going to get it at home.

The most terrifying aspect of the law is that it only requires the new government department to report to congress every two years, while the security implications of pretty much all digital activity changes, literally, from minute  to minute. Most tech security automation today is designed to auto-expire attack and hack filters within 24 hours. This means that by the time congress is able to act on specific implementations or changes, years may have passed.

Just remember: when Rand and Bernie agree, something is very wrong.

Confederate Battle

There comes a point where you have to say wait a big, fat minute.  Have we all forgotten history? I love this Facebook post by  Leonard J. Siebert.

“Interesting take on the Confederate flag but first we need to address your headline claim of ignorance and racism.

In 1860, northern and western electoral votes ...

In 1860, northern and western electoral votes (shown in red) put Lincoln into the White House.

The United States began its first Civil War on April 12th 1861, by all historic and documented accounts; Abraham Lincoln issued the ‘presidential order’, the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. So your premise that the Civil War was started over slavery, is not supported by the chronological timeline.

When we address cause and effect attempting to pigeon hole a cause can cause erroneous conclusions. Why in your article you claim ‘slavery’ as the cause of the Civil War, the actual historic cause is cited as the secession by seven states in the south, whose economies were all based on cotton. While I cannot deny that there were slaves in those states and slavery in any form is wrong; we need to know what caused the secession of these states as that has been cited as the cause of the Civil war.

Abraham Lincoln with Allan Pinkerton and Major...

Abraham Lincoln with Allan Pinkerton and Major General John Alexander McClernand at the Battle of Antietam.

Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 presidential election without being on the ballot in ten of the southern states. His victory triggered declarations of secession by those states.

In general Economic and social differences between the North and the South is cited as the top factor contributing to the actual war with State’s rights versus Federal rights (an interesting parallel, playing out currently) and finally the fight between abolitionists and slave owners, is cited as the third contributing cause with varied degrees and schools of thought as to whom and what was involved.

While Massachusetts was one of the first states to rule slavery unconstitutional, a decision of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts based on that states Constitution of 1780. It was in 1780 that Pennsylvania passed the ‘Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery’ that freed the future children of slaves. Those born prior to the Act remain enslaved for life. The Act becomes a model for other Northern states. Last of that states slaves were freed 1847.

The cotton gin was invented by Eli Whitney on March 14, 1794 and could be cited as a point of conversion of America’s society from agrarian culture into an industrial one although most historians cite 1760 as the transition year, due to labor going from hand production methods to machines, new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes, improved efficiency of water power, the increasing use of steam power, and the development of machine tools.

I however bring up the cotton gin as the South had long relied on hand labor and agriculture, economically they could not compete with the North and as machines became more efficient and autonomous, slavery was already headed the way of the dinosaur in most industrialized countries; save for the Middle East, that still boast a rather booming and active slave trade.

The key points to take from this is; Slavery was not the chief cause of the Civil War but it was a cause and even us ignorant Southern Okies, have a better grasp of history than you do.

Let me take this a step further with your comment:

“Defenders of the flag need to realize that after the Civil War, nobody was flying this thing, including Robert E. Lee. It is funny how “heritage” didn’t suddenly become important until the descendants of the people who used to be slaves suddenly started to get the same rights they had.”

Did you bother to read this for how contradictory this statement is to the heart of your angst against the Confederate flag? If nobody was flying it; not even Robert E. Lee, than your representation of it being a symbol, like that of the Nazi flag, being one of hate; suddenly becomes negated.

However you were accusing Southerners of ignorance and this is about me highlighting you own or are you just lying. The South had many flags during the Civil War and this caused a great deal of confusion during combat as many resembled ‘Old Glory’. That was what flags and banners are for, you know, identification and communication of combat units, at a distance, during battle, before ‘radio’ existed. Yet addressing your erroneous point more directly:

“On November 28, 1861, Confederate soldiers in General Robert E. Lee’s newly reorganized Army of Northern Virginia received the new battle flags in ceremonies at Centreville and Manassas, Virginia, and carried them throughout the Civil War. Beauregard gave a speech encouraging the soldiers to treat this new flag with honor and that it must never be surrendered.

Many soldiers wrote home about the ceremony and the impression the flag had upon them, the “fighting colors” boosting morale after the confusion at the Battle of First Manassas. From that point on, the battle flag only grew in its identification with the Confederacy and the South in general. Later, a 13th star was added for Kentucky.”

So, what does the above factual history about the Confederate Battle Square or ‘Stars and Bars’, mean in context to your article. It means that you and your editors are either very ignorant of the Civil War, very stupid or lying and using a hate filled rant full of erroneous propaganda to incite more hate against a symbol that will forever be etched in American history; like it or not.

So where was all your righteous indignation over the Confederate flag for the last 154 other years of history or did you only just learn to write? Perhaps you need to devote more time to reading before you start spouting off about history or any other subject.

Basically I have proven the subject matter you used to make your points erroneous; as such the entire headline you maintain is equally erroneous. I am not denying that racism exists, it does but the Confederate Battle Square is not the representation of it, as you are trying so desperately to claim. It is rather a reminder of a tragic point in our history, one that should not be forgotten, ever.

After all, those who do not remember the sins of the past; are doomed to repeat them.  Based on the your article; I’d say your more than half-way there.”

– By Leonard J. Siebert

Thank you Mr. Siebert for setting people straight.  I couldn’t have said it better myself.

This post was written in response to this article: “Dirt Ignorant, Flag Waving Bigots Out in Force Across the South“.

Note: The graphics I added.