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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 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

38 comments

  • John

    Hear! Hear!

    Happy Independence Day.

  • BtB’s Original Mark

    Good Morning BtB Patriots and Thank You Mr. Z. for this post.
    ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident.’ is what this day is all about.
    But as Eric Lendrum points out on American Greatness: “A new poll from Gallup indicates that pride in the United States of America among its citizens has reached an all-time low ahead of the July 4th weekend.”
    So reading the Declaration is an excellent antidote to our currently tattered flag,
    I also recommend listening to Steve Deace Read & Comment on The Declaration of Independence in this Podcast.
    https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-glenn-beck-program/id620967489?i=1000568296951

    Deace also has a ‘conversation’ with founding father John Adams which you can see here:
    https://youtu.be/gtNLyKVlr_o

  • Ian C.

    Beautiful. And timeless.

    Happy 4th, American friends. And at least some of that spirit for the rest of us.

  • Steve Richter

    The most important right being canceled today in the US is the right to protest, the right of the people to make their voice heard.

    “… Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. …”

    Numerous working class republicans are in prison or pre trial detention because they participated in the Jan 6 protest on Capitol Hill. The fact that the protest got out of hand and unruly does not matter. It was still a protest. Laws which restrict the access to government property conflict with the right of the people to protest, make noise, get the attention of the government and the public to their cause.

  • Steve, the right to protest is alive and well if you are a Leftist. They have broken into the Capitol and protested with little or no consequences. Conservatives on the other hand are punished to the full extent of the law and beyond as shown by the imprisonment for over a year without hearings or trials by persons who committed only minor trespass on January 6th.

    This fall’s Elections are the make or break point in this civil war. If The Powers That Be pervert the process this fall, if it even happens, I think events may go kinetic.

  • Steve Richter

    “… This fall’s Elections are the make or break point in this civil war. If The Powers That Be pervert the process this fall, if it even happens, I think events may go kinetic. …”

    Bill,

    I fear we have lost already. Apparently there are no constitutional lawyers on the right willing to defend these terribly mistreated protesters on 1st amendment, right to protest grounds. Are any republicans who are running for Congress demanding that the protesters be freed? How is it there are no cases pending before the Supreme Court which make the case that protesting is protected activity? That trespassing laws, even damage to public property laws do not apply to protesters. ( not that a protester can do as the wish. But that the statutes must be narrowly written to apply to protest activity. )

    -Steve

  • Cotour

    The reality about the Jan 6th protesters and rioters?

    Good bad or otherwise they are in real terms political prisoners and will have to wait for a change in administrations for any resolution to their situation for most of them. Their lives are on hold.

    They are being symbolically used as “Dangerous” “Domestic Terrorists”, political pawns by the ever-growing existentially desperate Democrat party machine, plain and simple.

    And that’s the facts.

  • Phil Berardelli

    “Our lives our fortunes and our sacred honor.” Where are the equivalent patriots today? One of them was our 45th president who, unlike his predecessor and successor, and that disgraceful human being who occupied the White House at the end of the 20th century, forfeited much of his wealth to accept and hold an office for which he donated his salary. And there is no doubt he risked his life as well. This is truly another time that tries men’s souls and which calls for something becoming inevitable: a Second American Revolution. What is now required can no longer be achieved solely by the electoral process.

  • Andi

    Minor edit in third paragraph after quote: “last chance to overthrow”

    Thank you for including the full text of the Declaration.. It, and the Constitution, should be required reading every July 4th.

  • milt

    Sadly, there is now a sizable minority of people in this country, particularly in the blue states and cities, who simply do not “want” the Constitution, The Bill of Rights, or The Rule of Law. In their hearts, they would prefer to live in a society like that of Cuba, Communist China, or even North Korea where they can be told what to think, what they can say, and what they are allowed to do, all in the name of “security” and the sense that they belong to something that is “better” (so they are told) than they are. This is, of course, anathema to the idea of personal freedom, representative government, and the responsibilities of citizenship, but these people DO NOT WANT to be citizens. God, no. They want, rather, to be taken care of and to “feel good.”

    Similarly, many of the elites in this country also don’t have much stake in the future of this Republic, believing that because of their wealth and connections they do not really “need” a government that is responsible to its citizenry and, because of that, is more of an impediment to their agendas than a blessing. Unless, of course, they can successfully co-opt it into Fascism. Like their cousins in Communist China — or the Russian oligarchs — other than their apparent commitment to the Davos Great Reset, they don’t really care about politics (virtue signaling aside) so long as it doesn’t interfere with their own bottom line of wealth, power, and control. And being thought of as the “good” people and the “progressives” as opposed to all of the deplorable “little” people that they look down on.

    The American middle class was and is the great beneficiary of this kind of responsible government, and — naturally — it has been under increasingly open attack for the last two and a half years, and the radical left shows no sign that it is willing to back down or to curtail its desire to destroy it and thus topple the last pillar of support for what the Founders bequeathed to us in 1776. Going into the November midterm elections, those of us who accept the role of free citizens are probably still in the majority — and even an activated majority at this point — but there is no guarantee that these elections will actually be held. Just as Mr. Putin seemed to believe that carving up the Ukraine to suit his purposes would be be a walk in the park, so, too, do The Powers That Be behind the Biden-Ho Administration seem to think that they now hold so many trump cards that there is *nothing* that the rest of us can do — including holding normal elections in November — that can possibly remove them from power.

    Indeed, given all of the polling data, why don’t they seem to be more “worried” about the looming elections? And what do they know — or think that they know — that we don’t that gives them so much confidence?

  • Andi: Thank you. Fixed.

    As for the Constitution, it is available here for anyone to read or reference:

    Constitution of the United States

  • Let us keep in mind, that the Declaration of Independence is WHY government exists at all – TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS.

    The Constitution codifies HOW it is to be done.

    Without the coupling of HOW to the WHY, it is quite evident that it is easy for demagogues and busybodies to fold/spindle/mutilate the HOW to establish their vision for the world, without regard to those unalienable rights … rights that are not to be subordinated to even a majority vote.

    If they are truly unalienable, those rights are to be restricted only when their exercise poses a clear, present and significant threat to the unalienable rights of others … not because someone is offended or afraid, or because it does not conform to a popular (or profitable) belief.

    After the Apollo I fire, NASA’s flight-control teams were ordered to write the words “Tough and Competent” on their office blackboards, never to be erased, to remind themselves what America expects of them. I think it would be quite appropriate for all our government operatives to place, at the top of their blackboards, whiteboards, forms, screen wallpaper and even their PowerPoints, these four words:

    TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS

  • wayne

    King George’s response to the Olive Branch Petition
    October 26, 1775
    https://youtu.be/5JTxVHQAp8w
    3:08

    (The question is no longer whether there shall be independence, but when.)

  • wayne

    John Adams’ & Thomas Jefferson’s Death
    July 4th, 1826
    https://youtu.be/nSQ3kiHeDsE

  • D. Messier

    If a mob stormed the Supreme Court, overpowered law enforcement and roamed around inside the building threating to hang Chief Justice John Roberts and other members over their abortion ruling, would anyone here consider them to be political prisoners? Or would you want them prosecuted to the full extent of the law?

    The answer would be no on 1, yes on 2. You wouldn’t want them let off scot free. The arguments you’re making don’t make any sense.

  • And D. Messier, that is not what occurred on January 6th, 2021. No one overpowered law enforcement. The Capitol Police held the doors open for them. No one was threatening to harm any person. Most people that came into the Capitol building walked peacefully through.
    There is evidence, messages, that Antifa and BLM impersonated conservatives and tried to encourage violence. Also, there is some tenuous evidence that certain Government agencies were complicit in removing the barriers with the no trespassing signage. So your scenario is a non-sequitur.

  • Steve Richter

    “… If a mob stormed the Supreme Court, overpowered law enforcement and roamed around inside the building threating to hang Chief Justice John Roberts and other members over their abortion ruling, would anyone here consider them to be political prisoners? …”

    I assume the threat to hang the chief justice was in the form of rhetoric. As in, we want to hang him because he ruled against our cause. All of this activity, breaking in, roaming around, posting videos, expressing that they are so upset they want the government officials subjected to violence – all of that is protected protest and grievance petitioning activity. Not that there should be no punishment. Just that the punishment is in the context of a protest. Not people breaking into the court building to steal things. Or kidnap or intimidate a judge.

  • Steve Richter

    “… No one overpowered law enforcement. …”

    the protesters clearly did overpower the barriers, trampling capitol police in some cases. Which is something that happens sometimes at street protests. In NYC, during the pandemic, the police had anti Trump protesters in their face, subjecting them to covid-2 virus.

    Street protesters are rarely prosecuted for assaulting the police when they try to breech the security line. Obviously, pushing a police officer at a protest is not the same as doing that when the officer is walking a foot patrol.

    The difference is the constitution. And common sense. When people protest, crowds can get unruly. Then, by the end of the day the crowd disperses and everyone moves on.

  • BtB’s Original Mark

    Wayne – thank you for the history clips.

  • D. Messier

    I don’t know what attack on the Capitol you all saw. The idea it was a peaceful protest is alternative facts not based on any understanding of what happened. It was a violent attack on Congress as it was fulfilling a Constitutional responsibility. They were threatening to hang Mike Pence. They were shouting it. Violence did take place. And it was the president of the United States desperate to hold onto power that riled up an armed mob and sent them down to the Capitol knowing full well what could happen.

    Antifa. BLM. Political prisoners? Good lord. Post 1/6 rationalizations for what Trump supporters did. They don’t want to take responsibility for what they did, or suffer the consequences.

  • D. Messier

    Oh, the peaceful protest claim….BS…..

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVZvp-Dv0gg

  • If they are armed, where are the guns and bombs? Instead it looks a lot like what was happening in the summer of 2020.

    Then, it was the opponents of the President of the United States, desperate to hold onto THEIR power, that riled up armed mobs and turned them loose to threaten private property and government facilities – including the White House – knowing full well what could happen.

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11752998/trump-secure-bunker-friday-george-floyd-protests-white-house/

    And as a by-product, establish “autonomous zones” on American soil. Smells like insurrection to me.

    John Brown was hung for attacking a government facility. THAT was considered “insurrection”.

    The double standard is glaringly obvious. J6 was a tempest in a teapot compared to the riots of the Summer of Mostly Peaceful Love.

    These protesters had a VP candidate raising bail for them, and a timely day in court – not held without trial for months, let alone facing Federal LEOs for mere association with J6 protesters.

    Where are the actual charges of “insurrection”? What I see is the same fact-free kangaroo court activities used to push the Russian Collusion nothingburger.

    And let us not forget what Trump’s opponents followed up that unrest with … multiple compromises in the election process. The driving condition for the J6 protests.

    We are onto the Inquisition going on in the Capitol these days …. this is all about keeping those condescending busybodies in power, and a President who actually respects individual liberty – and will thwart their attempts to lord it over us – out of power.

    By any means necessary. Because the more their social technocracy policies fail us, the more they know Trump can be re-elected and thwart their neo-feudalist dreams.

  • Tmitsss

    Are there any political bands that connect us left?

  • wayne

    BtB’s Original Mark-
    You are welcome. (Although as Mr. Z. has often reminded me about Hollywood’s Version of Reality.)

    D. Messier-
    Excuse my language, but, W-T-F, dude?
    What, January 6th was “7 Days in May?” Come on.

    Jordan Peterson / Akira The Don
    “Tell the Truth, or At Least Don’t Lie”
    (Feb, 2018)
    https://youtu.be/iA8n9JTTM38
    4:38

  • D. Messier

    JESTER:

    There were plenty of arrests and prosecutions of rioters stemming from the unrest in summer 2020.

    https://apnews.com/article/records-rebut-claims-jan-6-rioters-55adf4d46aff57b91af2fdd3345dace8

    From the story:

    It’s a common refrain from some of those charged in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and their Republican allies: The Justice Department is treating them harshly because of their political views while those arrested during last year’s protests over racial injustice were given leniency.

    Court records tell a different story.

    An Associated Press review of court documents in more than 300 federal cases stemming from the protests sparked by George Floyd’s death last year shows that dozens of people charged have been convicted of serious crimes and sent to prison.

    The dissonance between the rhetoric of Capitol rioters and their supporters and the record established by courts highlights both the racial tension inherent in their arguments — the pro-Donald Trump rioters were largely white and last summer’s protesters were more diverse — and the flawed assessment at the heart of their claims.

    “The property damage or accusations of arson and looting from last year, those were serious and they were dealt with seriously, but they weren’t an attack on the very core constitutional processes that we rely on in a democracy, nor were they an attack on the United States Congress,” said Kent Greenfield, a professor at Boston College Law School….

    The catalysts for the riot and the demonstrations for racial justice were also fundamentally different.

    The mob of Trump supporters whipped up by the former president’s lies about the election descended on the Capitol and pushed past police barriers, assaulted officers, smashed windows and sent lawmakers running in a stunning attempt to overturn the presidential election.

    The demonstrations after Floyd’s death were largely peaceful calls to address racial inequality and police brutality that occasionally turned violent. In some cities, protests descended into chaos after dark, with people smashing windows, looting stores, setting fires and assaulting officers.

    WAYNE:

    Yes. The. Eff.

    The attack on the Capitol was just one part of Trump’s effort to stay in power. Pence was pressured to not certify the vote, which would have been illegal. A mob then descended on the Capitol threatening to hang him. The President stood by for hours letting the attack continue without authorizing reinforcements or telling the rioters to go home. There was pressure on Georgia officials to find Trump enough votes to win the state. Fake slates of state delegates were proposed.

  • sippin_bourbon

    Mr Messier ignores the WEEKS that a Federal Court House was shut down (actual interference of the law) in Portland, as antifa tried to burn it to the ground, injuring, blinding, and assaulting LEOs.

    How many of these antifa insurgents were held without bail? How many were released without bail, or bail set so low, that they were released within hours? How many had their bail paid for by funds that were, in part, solicitated by the current Vice-President?

    If someone in DC did something illegal, fine. Charge them. Give them bail. Holding them without bail, and (in some cases) some were held for weeks without charges, is unconstitutional.

    Yes, Anitfa HAS been treated with extreme leniency compared to those in DC. The court records referenced do not address the dramatic differences in pre-trial confinement, nor the limitations to access for discovery that has plagued the defense lawyers for the 1/6 protestors. Mr Messier is being deliberately obtuse, or he is unable to look beyond his current news providers to other sources.

    There have been threats to break into SCOTUS, and actual threats of assassination. In reality, they do not have to storm the SCOTUS building. They have been at their houses in violation of US Code, laws being deliberately and selectively deferred by the the current admin. This is tacit approval by the Biden DOJ to break the law.

    Mr Messier ignores Trumps calls for peaceful protests that day, and makes an accusation anyway, just as the one sided congressional hearings do. Anyone accepting the 1/6 committee as legit is naïve. The fact that they allow extensive and uncorroborated hearsay, and then defend it as sworn testimony is the clearest illustration that it is rigged.

    But I actually think he rants about this topic more out of impotent rage. The voting public does not care. They are not following the hearings, nor waiting on the latest information. The voters are too busy watching their savings become worthless, their cost of living increase daily, the education of their children be corrupted, and the current “leadership” in office makes fools of themselves on the public stage here and abroad.

  • D. Messier:

    The catalysts for the riot and the demonstrations for racial justice were also fundamentally different.

    Yes, the catalysts ARE fundamentally different.

    J6 catalyst: multiple fundamental compromises in the election process … never acknowledged by election officials and Congress, out of fear they would have to do their jobs and engage the Constitutional processes for an inconclusive election, that in turn would have led to a Trump re-election.

    2020 race riots catalyst: a false narrative of systemic racism based upon theories that are now being rejected across the country, led by a group who is now known as Buy Large Mansions, that fostered grievance and entitlement instead of civility and respect.

    “Everyone beware. They’re not gonna stop before election day in November, and they’re not gonna stop after election day … They’re not gonna let up, and they should not.” Kamala Harris, June 2020.

    “If you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd, and you push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.” Maxine Waters, June 2020.

    Other quotes from 2020

    “I just don’t even know why there aren’t uprisings all over the country. Maybe there will be,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

    “We got to be ready to throw a punch,” Pelosi again,.

    “There needs to be unrest in the streets for as long as there is unrest in our lives,” Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D.-Mass.).

    “Donald Trump—I think you need to go back and punch him in the face,” Sen. Jon Tester (D.-Montana).

    “I feel like punching him,” Sen. Cory Booker (D.-N.J.)

    “If we were in high school, I’d take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him,” Joe Biden.

    “I will go and take Trump out tonight,” Rep. Maxine Waters (D.-Calif.), again.

    And as far as “hanging Mike Pence” … remember Kathy Griffin’s full-color artwork featuring Trump’s severed head? Where was your call for charges of inciting insurrection?

    All this in the context of riots that threatened courthouses and even the White House. Looks like Trump, if we accept the premise that he had the mind to incite insurrection, is in good company. Of course we do not accept the premise.

    All this unrest was catalyzed in large part because of a man, who is neither a bigot nor a tyrant, getting in the way of these self-righteous speakers’ grand dreams of an Utopia that in practice is actually a neo-feudal dystopia,

    It is condescending bigotry to deem people as victims lacking moral agency in a free society simply because of their skin color … or turn them into serfs because they are not part of a Pedestaled Elite.

  • wayne

    Jester-
    Good stuff.

    —–

    Noted Prof Matt Harris* (PhD) from UCLA
    “Touchdown, On paper, Unbreaded”
    https://youtu.be/jB3lh_qrrJY
    0:49

    (* he’s currently in Federal lock-up for his terroristic threats)

  • sippin_bourbon

    Jester, your wasting your breath.

    Mr Messier was here defending the Burn, Loot, Murder riots as they were happening.

    He quotes an AP article almost a year old, with old data, in which the AP refers to itself as a source. He ignores the data where most BLM rioters charges were down graded from felonies to misdemeanors, or dropped completely. In some instances liberal prosecutors dropped everything.

    Remember the two NY lawyers (officers of the court) that went on a joy ride with Molotov cocktails( a destructive device) . They were planning on distributing them, and used one themselves.

    They got bail, have been allowed to travel to see family for holidays, still employed. Got a sweet plea deal dropping most of the charges by Biden’s DOJ, and have yet to actually complete the plea deal, and be sentenced. They are quietly negotiating to get the now 2 year max sentence reduced (they initially had enough charges to be locked away for life).

    So yeah, distributing and using destructive devices but “illegal parading” is so much worse. They threatened to burn a police station with police in it, but that is nothing compared to unarmed red necks treating the hang someone… Without even having a rope, or a gun, or a knife. What weapons were siezed? I think it was a can of bear spray.

  • D. Messier

    Someone isn’t sipping boubon they’re guzzling it. People here have internalized two of Trump’s most blatant lies. One is victimization. The other is voter fraud. MAGA people are the most victimized group in the world. Just ask them. But they’re not.

    I haven’t ignored anything. Prosecutors have to decide how serious an offense is and proceed accordingly. I can’t say whether those decisions on dropping or reducing charges in cases is justified or not. Neither can you. I know there was a policy in some locations of mass arrests as a method of crowd control.

    The attack on the US Capitol and the threat to kill the vice president was much more serious than anything that happened elsewhere in the country. The mob was riled up by the president did nothing for hours while the attack went on and lives were at stake.

  • Edward

    D. Messier,
    You wrote: “Someone isn’t sipping boubon they’re guzzling it. People here have internalized two of Trump’s most blatant lies. One is victimization. The other is voter fraud. MAGA people are the most victimized group in the world. Just ask them. But they’re not.

    Of course, Doug, you think it was OK for the Democrats to think that they were victims in the 2016 and 2000 elections, right?

    I really have to stop reading your news reports. If your research is as poor as your opinions here then your reports are very poor. We watched as the number of votes for Trump suddenly decreased and the votes for Biden suddenly increased by a similar amount. We saw people counting votes after sending away the poll watchers and news media (there is only one reason to count unobserved), and we heard of three additional examples of this happening. We also saw people literally stuffing ballot boxes. And here you are saying that we saw no such things. There were many additional reports of election fraud, but the courts kept ruling that no one had standing to contest the results. (Why did the Democrats have standing in 2000, but the Republicans don’t have standing now?)

    We also know that the January 6th (Only Selected) Black Lives Matter (But Not Chicagoans) and AntiF(irst)A(mendment) attack on Congress was a terrible thing, but worse is the Capitol police inviting and escorting innocents into the building so that they could be later accused, arrested, and persecuted for what (OS)BLM and AnitFirstAmendment did. We also know that the FBI is uninterested in finding and arresting instigator Ray Epps, but we don’t know why that one person is not a person of interest to them. We are also aware that the only violence was the Capitol police taking shots at innocent unarmed invitees, just for fun (no investigation into that murder). We are fully aware that Trump did not want such a thing to happen, having authorized 20,000 National Guardsmen for protection (who undoubtedly would not have allowed the Capitol police to entrap a bunch of innocents, like the FBI tried to do in Michigan), and that the Democrats refused that protection.

    We are also fully aware that the Democratic Party, with their Republican allies, are trying to use it like the German government used the Reichstag fire: for propaganda to discredit the other side. They were completely successful with gullible people, like you, Doug. We are also aware that the investigation into the Reichstag — er — Capitol invasion is fully one-sided and completely unfair, which is also unfair to We the People, who deserve to know the truth, especially why the Capitol police encouraged it to happen. But the commission is not even checking the veracity of the one-sided testimony and evidence presented to it.

    Yes, we know exactly how bad that invasion was, we knew it at the time, and we are pretty sure who proposed an attack on Republicans in the building and in the room. The same side that shot up Republican congressmen practicing a baseball game, and the same side that attacked a senator while he mowed his lawn. The Left side. One side is violent, the other side had to be tricked into looking violent.

    The attack and the threat on the VP is more serious than the other massive, widespread, national, months-long, destructive, deadly violence, but it was committed by the same groups (but, Doug, that does not mean that the national violence is OK, it just means that it went unpunished). Perhaps the attack on the Capitol was committed because the same Democrats who encouraged the nationwide violence (bail, anyone?) did nothing to stop or prevent it, thus empowering those same violent groups to go after Republican Senators and a Vice President. Or maybe the Democrats encouraged both the national violence and the Capitol Building attack. It would certainly explain why the Democrats refused the protection of the national guard. It would also explain why the congressional investigation is one-sided: the perpetrators are investigating themselves, but leaving themselves looking clean and innocent, and leaving their enemies looking violent and guilty.

    Obama’s instructions to his fellow Democrats was to reward friends (OSBLM and ANTIFA), and to punish enemies (conservatives and Trump’s followers). This is now being performed by the overwhelming power of the national government.

  • sippin_bourbon

    Mr Messier

    Internalized? I have not claimed to be the victim of anything.

    However, there were riots in DC in 2017, during the inauguration of Trump. Many of them claiming the election was stolen.
    Victimization?
    Do you concede that Bush rightly carried the state of Florida in 2000, or did “SCOTUS award it to him” as many liberal claim?

    If someone threatened the Veep, arrest them. But then also arrest the hollywood activist that showed a bloodied head of trump.
    Or those that have threatened members of SCOTUS.
    In other words, apply this principle evenly to all. Failure to do so does not make me a victim. The victim in the concept of the Rule of Law that is being ignored in favor of politics.

    A threat to a justice is just as real outside their house as it is in the halls of a government building. Arrest people. Some have been finally, thankfully. But not enough. If they can spend years of man hours scouring the 1/6 video, then they can find these people too.

    If you noticed I have no problem with people being prosecuted and sentenced for 1/6, as appropriate. But I disagree with the way it is being handled. They are being treated far different:
    Sentences do not match the crime.
    Bail does not match the crime.
    Claiming ignorance of the internal proceedings is an excuse on your part to cover your very biased opinion.
    There is no reason that these people should be kept in solitary confinement for a year and half, pre-trail.
    —–
    Election fraud happens every election cycle. If and when it actually effects an outcome is another story. Liberals claim fraud just as often as conservatives, when they lose.

    Proof of Fraud:
    https://www.projectveritas.com/news/texas-ballot-chaser-pressures-voter-to-change-vote-from-cornyn-to-hegar/
    This person says they put in over 1800 ballots. In local races, that is more than enough to change an outcome. Maybe even some state level races.
    She talks about another person directing her to do this. This implies a network of people. It is the legal definition of conspiracy.
    If that level of activity is happening in multiple places across a state, the resulting influence can change the results of a national election. It should be investigated. Tell me, why do Democrat party leaders want to stop such investigations? Why do they want to prevent basic steps to secure voting, when evidence clearly shows no one is being stopped from legally voting (Voter ID laws resulting in MORE votes in GA!)

    But go on, and turn a blind eye, and accept the conclusion given to you by the MSM. But don’t come pointing the finger at us with your bias and ignorance.

  • sippin_bourbon

    “The attack on the US Capitol and the threat to kill the vice president was much more serious than anything that happened elsewhere in the country.”

    It was how long? a few hours at best.

    How many weeks was the Federal Court House in Portland under assault and siege?

    No.. That was much worse. That group, mainly antifa, actively and vocally call to subvert the US Constitution. They are the bigger threat. 1/6 was an unruly mob that got stupid. But antifa is an organized domestic terrorist group.

    But they are working on a revolt that starts outside the DC bubble, and the media likes them, so they do not get the coverage in the MSM.

  • Edward

    There is such an amazing amount of hypocrisy from the left. Rather than be consistent, that laws apply to all (as was the intent of the Founding Fathers), the left wants laws to apply only to their enemies, not their friends. This is why leftists don’t mind that the nation was under a state of violence throughout the summer of 2020 but are so concerned about the conservatives who were invited into the Capitol Building on January 6th (but don’t mind that the invading (OS)BLM and AntiFirstAmendment people were the violent instigators of their invasion of the building). That summer, the country was the enemy, but on January sixth only the invitees were the enemy, and the invaders were the leftists friends.

    Then the leftists complain that we are the victims of the left’s actions. They manage to entrap hundreds, then they just can’t help but rub our noses in it. They behave like three-year-olds, but that is because they think like three-year-olds, needing to win every time and throwing temper tantrums (destroying cities, attacking legislators and Supreme Court justices) when they lose. Plus, they are sore winners. Too bad they didn’t learn anything in kindergarten.

    They are proud hypocrites, because they believe not in a nation of laws (applied to all) but in a nation of men (laws are used to punish enemies and are ignored or broken to reward friends). It also explains why they foolishly demand that we at once have equity and diversity. How can we have diversity when everyone is required to be the same?

  • Edward

    What is it with these leftists that not only are they sore losers but also sore winners?

    Perhaps it is that they are never satisfied with anything. When they win something, they just want more. Too much is never enough. They are never happy with what they have. It is a form of greed.

    When gay rights was the issue, we first had to acknowledge them. Then we had to accept them. Then we had to participate (bakers had to do more than just bake the cake but participate in the wedding). Then we had to be advocates. Now the schools are transmogrifying our children before they are ten years old — we have to be gay, or trans, or whatever LGBTQWERTY+ alphabet soup flavor of the day (how can there possibly be 57 genders?). Whatever happened to liberty, our freedom to choose?

    The same happened with the Roe v. Wade decision half a century ago. The ruling had limitations, but the individual states kept crossing over the line of those limitations until a New Jersey governor suggested that if a failed during-birth abortion failed to die on the way out, then the doctors would keep him comfortable while they decided what to do, as in kill him post-birth. Roe was effectively overturned decades ago when the leftists violated it and changed the terms of when an abortion was legal, moral, or rationalized. The very people that our babies depend upon to protect them have turned upon them and have themselves become the danger to the babies. Whatever happened to our right to life?

    For decades, leftists have insisted that our healthcare system did not work. They kept making changes, and each change just made things worse, justifying even more changes that made things even worse, and so on and so forth. Eventually we were stuck with Obamacare, which gave government — not the patient or the doctor or both — the ability to direct the care that would be given by the doctor and received by the patient. Then we had a minor epidemic that government quickly grew into a pandemic (it was racist to not go to Chinatown to celebrate Chinese New Year), and government directed us as to how to behave (social distancing), where to go (lockdowns and job furloughs for the non-essential (were you essential or non-essential?)), what to wear (masks as a fashion statement), and experimental medication mandates (how can mandating an experimental drug be a good idea?). Telling us what to do, where to go, what to wear, and what healthcare to have. Whatever happened to the pursuit of happiness?

    Each time that they win, the leftists demand more. There is no satiating their greed. There is no making them happy, no matter how much of what they pursue we give to them. They only suck the happiness out of everybody else.

    This is not what this country is founded on, but it is what they are fundamentally transforming the country into.

    Welcome to Obama’s Amerika, land of the formerly free and formerly happy. What is left for them to take from us?

  • Edward asked, “Welcome to Obama’s Amerika, land of the formerly free and formerly happy. What is left for them to take from us?”

    You might want to reread my essay, Genocide is coming to America. The title answers your question, and the essay explains how it has become possible.

  • wayne

    “Discovering Reichsfuhrer Smiths Plans”
    Man in the High Castle Se4 Ep10
    https://youtu.be/3orUZvsSYJI
    3:03

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