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It is now July, time once again to celebrate the start of this webpage in 2010 with my annual July fund-raising campaign.

 

This year I celebrate the fifteenth anniversary since I began Behind the Black. During that time I have done more than 33,000 posts, mostly covering the global space industry and the related planetary and astronomical science that comes from it. Along the way I have also felt compelled as a free American citizen to regularly post my thoughts on the politics and culture of the time, partly because I think it is important for free Americans to do so, and partly because those politics and that culture have a direct impact on the future of our civilization and its on-going efforts to explore and eventually colonize the solar system.

 

You can’t understand one without understanding the other.

 

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A nation founded on the idea of allowing people to pursue happiness

I first posted this essay on July 4th in 2022 and reposted it in 2023 and 2024. It needs to be reposted again and again, because Americans both outside and inside the government need to be reminded that the ordinary citizen in this nation is sovereign, not the government. Until the most recent election, our elected officials (including Trump 45) as well as the public did not yet understand this, and so the election hopes I outlined for 2022 did not come true. Instead, my prediction that during a Biden presidency the Democrats would work to destroy this free nation instead proved correct.

Fortunately, things changed in 2024, and it now appears the public and Trump 47 finally realize this fact entirely, and are doing what should have been done three decades ago. Trump is cleaning house, making it clear to everyone that just because you work in the government does not make you some form of privileged royalty. And the public is agreeing, whole-heartedly.

Let freedom ring!

—————-
Why we really celebrate the Fourth of July

The Declaration of Independence

If you really want to know why the Fourth of July has been the quintessential American holiday since the founding our this country, you need only return to the words of the document that became public to the world on that day.

Below the fold is the full text of the Declaration. Read it. It isn’t hard to understand, even if the style comes from the late 1700s. Its point however is clear. Governments that abuse the rights of the citizenry don’t deserve to be in power. The most important quote of course is right near the beginning:

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. [emphasis mine]

What a radical concept — a nation founded on the principle of allowing its citizens to pursue happiness.

Right now, however, we have a federal government in America that more fits the description of King George III’s Great Britain in 1776 in the Declaration. The corrupt elitist uni-Party of federal elected officials and the federal bureaucracy in Washington has for too long run roughshod over the general population. If you take the time to read the full text of the Declaration, you will be astonished at the remarkable conceptual similarity between the abuses that Jefferson describes coming from Great Britain and the many abuses of power that are now legion and common by the uni-Party in Washington.

When November comes the American public will likely have its last chance to overthrow the political wing of the uni-Party, led by the Democratic Party. The Republicans are no saints, but at least that party contains within it many decent politicians who honor the Constitution, the rule of law, and the Bill of Rights. Many are right now campaigning on those ideals. Based on the past six years, we now know that no one in the Democratic Party honors those values. What they honor is blacklisting, racism, segregation, anti-American hate, and above all power. If they are not removed from office, they will ramp up that power, in league with quislings like Romney and Cornyn in the Republican Party, to further corrupt our Constitutional government.

These people do not like losing power. The longer they hold it, the more they will work to undermine the election system to make sure they do not lose. The corruption and election fraud in 2020 election was merely a dress rehearsal of what these goons will do if they have the chance next year.

In fact, November 2022 might very well be the last election that has any chance of producing legitimate results. Americans had better not waste this last chance.

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.

The Constitution is being targeted
The Constitution: targeted by the power-hungry for destruction.

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 harrass 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 benefits 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 Brittish 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.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

13 comments

  • In its alleged sophistication, society has forgotten the significance of the term “unalienable”.

    An unalienable right can’t be denied you, except to secure the unalienable rights of others – and even then, only by due process of law.

    NOT on the basis of belief, wish, prejudice or preference.
    NOT to further some other “greater good” or “common good”.
    NOT by a regulatory rule, executive order, legislated statute, or even judicial ruling.

    NOT EVEN BY A MAJORITY VOTE, whether that be for the election of officials to administer the above actions, or a direct vote to impose the denial by one’s fellow citizens.

    If unalienable rights do not have this respect, we inevitably end up with a few lording it over everyone else. That is not a stable condition for a society.

    “Our Democracy” is a misnomer … for democracy is only a method to make national decisions, Decisions that MUST respect unalienable rights, as described above. It is a method within – not the objective of – legitimate governance.

    THAT TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their JUST POWERS from the consent of the governed.”

    Not just any powers, but JUST POWERS that do not undermine THE OBJECTIVE: TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS.

  • Jeff Wright

    It was almost life liberty and property–I am glad that pursuit of happiness won out.

    I am not at all happy about China owning farmland here. We took laissez faire and ran it off a cliff. A pursuit of happiness is encroached upon by Gavin and Greens forcing poor people to buy catalytic converters worth more than their work car.

    If “common good” meant preventing an asteroid strike–that has to come first.

  • M. Murcek

    A crucial element is belief in God. Most True Believers(tm) found their fervent cause precisely to fill the place where their lack of fervent faith in The Lord caused a vacuum. As the old saw goes, “People who don’t believe in God will believe almost anything.” From there, it’s a short hop to Orwell’s observation that “some ideas are so stupid only an intellectual can believe them.” And finally, remember what Hoffer said: The True Believer’s cause does not need a god, but a devil is mandatory. ”

    So, when on the lookout for those who hate freedom and “the right to pursue happiness,” be on the lookout for those signs and portents.

  • pzatchok

    I believe we were founded on a version of natural law. Natures laws.

    Guided by our Judeo/Christian influence.

    Written by the hands of true philosophers. Men who understood mankind as a whole.

    They wrote a simple system that when followed self corrects over time. we only need to follow it as best we can.

  • pzatchok

    It doesn’t require a belief in God but at least a belief that we (and nature) were created by a greater power to continue life and all its forms..

    To prosper as best we can. and in order to do this that creator gave up power and ability to use our environment and its resources.

    All life does this.

  • JULY 4TH: TIRED OF WINNING YET AMERICA?

    “Just about 6 months into the D.J. Trump Big Beautiful Second Presidency, and there are 3 and a half more years to go!

    Let’s review: First and foremost, Trump and his MAGA patriot enforcers have stopped and in fact reversed the invasion of millions of illegals into the country. Ushered into the country by the desperate, Globalist Democrat party’s anti-American leadership. The Democrat party leadership opened the borders to all un vetted from all over the world friend, criminal and enemy alike. And made the American people pay for their housing, healthcare, food, schooling and “Trans” formations. They ushered the millions of invaders into the country without any health records or health requirements, identity verification or terror association checks. And they flew them into the country for “FREE” in the dark of night in many instances while you, an American, had to wait online and produce your I.D. to get on a plane and prove you were vaccinated with an experimental drug. That is OVER!

    Trump straightened out for the time being the Iranian nuke threat situation with a 37 hour long B2 raid from the other side of the planet and precisely within about three feet dropped 14, 30-thousand-pound bombs on their nuclear facilities, in total secrecy. If any Democrat was involved in this essential national security operation the entire plan would have been revealed and telegraphed to the Iranians (See: Obama and Biden) have no doubt. Make of that fact what you will, I know what I call that. Trump has transmitted in one essential secret military operation to Americas enemies what the real capability and potential of the U.S. military actually is. No need to wonder about it, right in your face. This serves many of America’s interests.

    https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/tell-me-what-are-americas-enemies-thinking-today

    President Trump has also instituted an aggressive tariff policy that has had the desired effects in the world and has put America back on the proper track to domination. Instead of subjugation which was the stated intent of the Democrat party agenda in serving up America to the Globalist / WEF CCP style model of planet wide Socialism where America is just one more country out of many. I again call that something that starts with “T” and ends with “Eason”.

    Inflation is down, the stock market is up, American employment is up, egg prices are down and energy and prices at the gas pumps are down.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-tariffs-economy-outsmarted-america-b2778504.html

    Academics, economists and government bureaucrats know nothing about doing business and making things happen in the real world. And those who do are few and far between.

    President Trump and the Congress has delivered his administrations “BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL” and will sign it into law today in the White House on the 4th of July! This is an unheard-of in American politics accomplishment, the symbolism is strong and undeniable.

    The “BBB” is the coup de grace and the final death nell for today’s chaotic and clearly anti-American now “progressive” Socialist Democrat party. President Trumps leadership and the MAGA agenda has gutted the decades old CIA / USAID run Amazon River of cash flow to every NGO organization and enemy on the planet that the American taxpayer has funded. Managed and run primarily by Democrat aligned permanent bureaucrat contagion within our own government.

    If you are an American but do not consider yourself a patriot, what are you then?

    “The poll showed a near-identical schism among 2024 voters, with 90% of those who backed President Trump identifying as patriots compared to 55% of former Vice President Kamala Harris supporters.”

    I will stop here; it’s a long and growing America first list. The strong and competently run leadership and the America first agenda is what’s best for both America and the world as a general rule.

    So, let me ask you: Have you had enough winning yet America? And there are still three and a half years to go. Then two more 8-year presidential terms dominated by Vance and Rubio.

    Are You Paying Attention Yet America? JGL 7/4/25

    https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e691e8_dd53eaa89db44b9ab1ba6793727754be~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_925,h_1388,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/e691e8_dd53eaa89db44b9ab1ba6793727754be~mv2.jpg

  • Jeff, preventing a high-probability asteroid strike is not just the “greater good” – it is directly protecting the unalienable right to live.

    Therefore it is legit for government to intervene and even restrict our rights to prevent that – but only to the minimum extent necessary, always keeping in mind that their primary mission is “to secure these rights” … similar to the way that the Apollo-era controllers used “”Tough and Competent” to maintain their focus on their primary mission.

    And the same goes for spending our resources scanning the sky to determine if there are others likely to hit us.

    OTOH, spending billions and restricting our activities … in a manner reminiscent of windmill-tilting … to remove the threat of low-probability asteroid strikes – or AGW, or COVID, or any number of “greater good” issues – is not necessarily justified..

    The threat, whatever it is, needs to be clear, present and significant in order to justify restricting our rights.

    The above assessment can also, and should be, applied to every other imposition our leaders want us to accept.

  • Jeff Wright

    Now RFK wants us all to have wearables–no thanks.

  • Ian C.

    Happy 4th of July, dear American friends and friends of Liberty everywhere.

  • Milt

    Let freedom ring, even in the (former) Peoples Republic of Palm Coast.

    https://flaglerlive.com/palm-coast-scraps-paint-restrictions/

    “The restrictions date back to when Palm Coast was an ITT subdivision and ITT ran an Architectural Review Committee. The Palm Coast Community Service Corporation formed in 1993 continued the color restrictions, which were codified into the city’s ordinances in 2005, six years after incorporation.” Under this rule, you could paint your house any color you wanted, so long as it was taupe, gray, or approved oyster.

    Hot Dawg! A summer “color revolution” in the Free State of Florida. Sometimes it’s the smallest of things that remind you of what freedom and self government mean.

    Happy Independence Day.

  • Where did that turn of phrase “All men are created equal” in the Declaration of Independence come from? Contrary to popular myth, it did not originate with Christianity, but rather in the minds and judicial decisions of Stoicism-steeped ancient Roman jurists.

  • Edward

    Robert wrote: “These people do not like losing power. The longer they hold it, the more they will work to undermine the election system to make sure they do not lose.

    This is what happened to California. Notice how California is going downhill very fast, with Americans fleeing the state, taking their businesses with them.

    Jeff Wright wrote: “It was almost life liberty and property–I am glad that pursuit of happiness won out.

    Pursuit of happiness won, because the Founding Fathers were adamant about finding ways to eliminate the institution of slavery, which has been accepted throughout the world during all of recorded history. This was no small task but a major goal, first established in areas that already did not have much active slavery — and even then, it took decades to achieve. Abolitionism began in in earnest during the 1750s, and the first place in the world in all of history to achieve the illegalization of slavery was Vermont in 1777.

    The fear was that if property had won — and “life liberty and property” was the popular saying at the time — then that would have justified humans as property, AKA slaves.

    If ‘common good’ meant preventing an asteroid strike–that has to come first.

    We are smart enough to prevent an asteroid strike without giving up our rights. It is thinking like this that results in our losing our rights to the morons who try to protect us from Wuhan flus by doing the exact opposite of what works, learned over centuries of disease prevention, or to the idiots who demand that we prevent climates from changing or that we overpower natural global warming or the coming next ice age.

    Should we ever allow even a clear, present and significant threat to justify restricting our rights, then our fearful leaders will use that allowance to declare lesser and lesser threats as significant enough to restrict our rights. At no point can a threat be thought of as so significant that we should or could give up our natural rights for security, for then we would have neither.

    I thought we learned that lesson just five years ago, from the Wuhan flu tyranny, but here we are, with people who routinely read and comment on BTB thinking that our unalienable rights can be alienated.

  • Jeff Wright

    I really do believe that was a Green plot at its core.
    I can just hear the white coats tell the environmentalists “folks don’t any more care about polar bears on ice flows than deficit spending—but the fear of contagion? That’s how you shut a country down.”

    Even my local talk radio station Talk 99.5 (helped by Matt Murphy then) didn’t push back early enough.

    Now they are trying to spread vaccines and other substances in the wild.

    Atomic power never scared me like DNA splicing.

    Where many thought the Beast represented Rome or whatever-they probably could make an actual composite clone chimera.

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