"Independence Day"

"Independence Day"

Classic Thoughts Re-Written for the Modern Patriot

by Contemplations on the Tree of Woe

"Any man with any measure of heroism in his blood who actually reads the texts and speeches of our Founders cannot help but to feel the call to pick up his musket and fight Britain. Moreover, the tyrannies endured by our ancestors seem almost trivial in comparison to the daily villainies perpetrated on their descendants by those who purport to rule them; shouldn’t the urgency of action be all the greater? And yet…

Perhaps I should clarify: Any man or woman who can actually read the texts and speeches cannot but help to feel the call to action. But today almost no one can actually read them. The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level of Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” speech is 11th grade; of the Declaration of Independence, 12th grade; of the U.S. Constitution, 18th grade.

According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, 57% of Americans have a reading grade below 9th level, and 13% have a reading grade below 5th level. Only 13% can understand the Declaration or Patrick Henry’s speech, and virtually none can understand the Constitution. And that includes all Americans. Among Generation Z, it’s far worse. They are the least literate generation in American history.

Spend a few minutes on YouTube watching our young people be interviewed on the most basic matters of our history and values. They do not know anything of the good, the true, and the beautiful; and even if they wanted to, they could not learn it because the texts are inaccessible to them. Far too many have been cognitively crippled.

If we are to properly motivate the masses, we must speak the language of the masses. I am called to action. I have spent weeks immersing myself in the Gen Z gathering hall known as “TikTok.” Today, on the 4th of July, I present our finest patriotic texts in a style that will speak to the young men and women of today. Check ‘em out, fam.

"The Declaration of Independence"

"Aight, so check this, when peeps decide to dip from the squad and do their own thing, it's only fair they spit some facts about why they're peacing out. It's just how it is, you know? We all believe some truths are just straight-up, like we're all equal, and our Creator gave us some dope rights, like life, freedom, and chasing what makes us happy.

And if the government isn't vibing with that, then we've got the right to switch it up and set up something new that'll keep us secure. That's just keeping it real. But when a long list of whack stuff happens, it's not about being salty; it's just time to bounce and do what's gotta be done. And that's where we're at with the British Crown. So, here's the tea.

Like, we're not about to ghost without giving the full deets. Let's get into it, shall we? We've been super patient and chill, trying to work stuff out with the British king. But he's been on a total power trip, acting like a toxic friend that just won't quit.

He's put laws on us that are totally unfair, messed with our courts, and has been all up in our business, trying to control our lives and telling us what to do.

And it's not like we haven't tried to talk it out. We've been sending the king all these messages, trying to get him to understand our side of things. But he's been ghosting us, ignoring our probs, and acting like everything's all gucci when it's totally not. It's obvious he's just trying to flex and show his power, and we're over it.

So, we're taking a stand and cutting ties. We're saying 'bye, Felicia' to the king and declaring ourselves as free and independent states. We'll make our own alliances, trade with who we want, and fight our own battles. We're going to stand up for each other and do everything that free countries do because that's what we are.

We're fully aware that this is a major step, so we're not going to do it without some serious thought. We respect the connections we've had with Britain, and we're not looking to cut ties unless it's absolutely necessary. But they've forced our hand, and we need to do what's best for us.

With a clear conscience and with respect to the opinions of humanity, we're putting it all on the line. We're entrusting our cause to the universe and its divine law. We're ready to face the consequences and stand up for what we believe.

In other words, it's on, fam. We're doing this. We're declaring independence.

Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death

Do we really need all these troops and warships for a love and reconciliation gig? Haven't we been chill enough to make peace, or do they gotta flex their muscle to win back our vibe? Don't kid yourself, fam. This is all about power and control, the final say for those in the high castle.

I gotta ask, peeps, why all this military showoff if not to make us kneel? What else could it be for? Does Britain have any beef with anyone around here to justify all this military overkill? Nah, bro, there's none. It's all about us. They're prepping these chains the Brit government's been crafting for ages.

What's our move? Do we try to out-talk them? We've been doing that for a solid decade. Got any fresh takes? Nah, nothing. We've explored this from all angles, all for nothing. Do we beg and plead? What else can we say that hasn't been said already?

Please, fam, let's be real. We've done all we could to dodge this incoming storm. We've filed petitions, we've protested, we've pleaded, we've basically thrown ourselves at the king's feet, begging him to stop the savage acts of the government and Parliament. Our pleas have been ignored, our protests only made them more aggressive, our pleas fell on deaf ears, and we've been kicked aside with nothing but contempt. After all this, dreaming of peace and reconciliation is pointless. Hope has left the chat.

If we want freedom, if we intend to keep the valuable privileges we've been fighting for, if we don't plan on ditching this epic fight we've been in, and swore never to quit till we win, we gotta fight!

I say it again, we gotta fight! Calling on our weapons and the big guy upstairs is all we've got left!

They're saying we're weak; can't handle an enemy this tough. But when will we be stronger? Next week? Next year? When we've got no defenses left and a British soldier's snooping around every house? Does doing nothing and procrastinating make us stronger? Will we gain the power to resist by just lying down and hugging false hopes, till our enemies chain us up?

Nah, we're not weak if we use what nature's given us right. Three million folks, armed for the holy cause of freedom, in a country like ours, can't be defeated by whatever our enemies throw at us.

Plus, we won't be fighting alone. There's a just God looking over nations' fates; He'll bring allies to fight with us. The victory ain't just for the strong; it's for the vigilant, the active, the brave.

Plus, we've got no choice. Even if we were cowardly enough to want it, it's too late to back down now. There's no going back unless we surrender and become slaves! Our chains are ready! You can hear 'em in Boston! War's coming and let it come! I say it again, let it come.

We can't sugarcoat this, fam. Some may shout, "Peace, Peace" but there's no peace. War's already here! The next chill from the north will carry the sound of clashing arms! Our brothers are already out there!

Why are we just standing around? What do y'all want? What's the deal? Is life that precious, or peace that cool, that we'd buy it with chains and slavery? Nah, not on my watch, Almighty God! I don't know what others will do; but for me, it's either freedom or it's game over!"

- https://treeofwoe.substack.com/

"The Hottest 4th Of July Ever Could Set More Than 300 New Records And The U.S. Wheat Harvest Is Expected To Be The Smallest In 150 Years"

"The Hottest 4th Of July Ever Could Set More Than 300 New Records 

And The U.S. Wheat Harvest Is Expected To Be The Smallest In 150 Years"

by Michael Snyder

"It is supposed to be hot on the 4th of July, but it isn’t supposed to be this hot. Temperatures will be 20 to 30 degrees above average in much of the eastern half of the country. I warned a few days ago that we were going to experience a “4th of July furnace”, and meteorologists are telling us that hundreds of new records could be established. Unfortunately, this entire summer is going to be extremely hot. The “Godzilla El Niño” that has now begun is going to mean the we will experience unusually hot weather, epic storms and severe droughts in key agricultural areas throughout the second half of this year. And that is really bad news, because it is being projected that the amount of wheat produced in the U.S. this year will be the lowest since 1877.

An absolutely gigantic heat dome is going to relentlessly bake half of the nation over the next few days, and CBS News is reporting that “more than 300 records are expected to be set by Saturday”… This July Fourth could be the hottest on record for millions of Americans as a massive heat wave traps more than half of the United States under a heat dome through the holiday weekend. Dangerously high temperatures continued to ramp up Thursday from the Midwest to the East Coast, forecasters said. Between daily high temperatures and warm overnight lows — which won’t be low enough to offer much relief — more than 300 records are expected to be set by Saturday.

That is nuts. When is the last time that we saw over 300 records get set on the 4th of July? The latest National Weather Service forecast says that in some areas high temperatures will go as high as 105 degrees and the heat index will go as high as 115 degrees…

Click image for larger size.

If you live on the east coast, please take this heat wave very seriously. It is going to be a monster. Washington D.C., Philadelphia, New York City and Boston are all expected to hit triple digits… Washington, D.C., is expected to experience its hottest Fourth of July on record, with temperatures reaching 101 degrees. From Thursday through Saturday, the city is forecast to endure its hottest three-day stretch of the year. Philadelphia could reach 104 degrees on Friday, while New York and Boston are also expected to hit 100 degrees.

I think that it is noteworthy that this will be happening at the exact moment when America’s 250th birthday will be celebrated in our nation’s capital. According to the Washington Post, Washington D.C. will be among “the top 1.1 percent of the planet’s hottest places on Friday”… What does D.C. have in common with desolate stretches of Africa’s Sahara, deserts in the Middle East and China’s Gobi Desert? It has lots of hot air, of course. So much hot air, in fact, that D.C. will find itself in the top 1.1 percent of the planet’s hottest places on Friday, when high temperatures will soar toward 105 degrees.

That is certainly not normal. In New York, mobile medical vans that contain nurses and paramedics will be roaming the city looking for people to help… For the first time, New York City is deploying vans staffed with nurses and paramedics who will hand out water, electrolytes and sunscreen, CBS News New York reported. They will also perform wellness checks, transport people to cooling centers and make in-home visits to vulnerable residents. The city is also opening cooling centers throughout the five boroughs.

This crisis will be a real test for Mayor Zohran Mamdani. He is encouraging New Yorkers to set their air conditioning at 78 degrees to help conserve power…"Socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani has ignited a GOP firestorm after urging residents to set their air conditioners to a certain temperature to help prevent strain on the city’s power grid.

It comes as New York City braces for a sweltering Fourth of July weekend with temperatures expected to soar into the triple digits. In a post on X, Mamdani encouraged New Yorkers and business owners to conserve electricity as demand for cooling surges. ‘New York: it’s hot out there, and the power grid is working overtime to keep us cool. Set your AC to 78 degrees, turn off lights/electronics you’re not using, and unplug what you can.’

Needless to say, this suggestion is not going over very well, and a lot of New Yorkers plan to ignore it entirely. But without a doubt there is going to be enormous stress on our power grids, and an emergency has already been declared for the largest power grid in the country…"With 160 million people in 30 states under alert for extreme temperatures, the U.S. Department of Energy has declared an emergency as a heat wave bears down on a huge part of the nation’s electrical grid.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright issued an Energy Emergency Alert, directing officials of the biggest electrical grid, PJM Interconnections in the Mid-Atlantic region, to take action to prevent blackouts and ensure essential operations like hospitals are fully functioning during the heat wave. “Maintaining affordable, reliable, and secure power in the PJM service territory is non-negotiable,” Wright said in a statement on Tuesday.

When the 4th of July weekend is finally over, the focus will shift to the western half of the nation. A new heat dome is coming, and it will afflict areas that are already being ravaged by drought and wildfires…"A new heat dome will build between the Rockies and the Pacific coast. As the jet stream bulges northward in the West, an area of high pressure will build over the region. The setup will allow temperatures to trend upward initially from several degrees Fahrenheit next week to 10-20 degrees above the 30-year average by the middle of July. The heat dome will bring the highest temperatures of the season so far — even eclipsing the extreme marks set during the spring heat waves in Phoenix, Las Vegas and Palm Springs, California."

When conditions are unusually hot, ticks love it. And we are being told that this tick season “is expected to be worse than usual”…This summer tick season is expected to be worse than usual. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports the highest rate of emergency room visits from tick bites since 2017 across most of the country. “It’s definitely concerning to see new ticks in new areas and then diseases that follow,” said Rebecca Osborn, an epidemiologist for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. In a previous article, I discussed the fact that serious diseases that are carried by ticks are spreading like wildfire in many areas of the country.

This year, authorities are particularly concerned about alpha-gal syndrome and the Powassan virus…“So, warmer temperatures can bring ticks into new areas,” Osborn said. One type of tick health officials are keeping an eye out for is the lone star tick. It can carry alpha-gal, which can create a red meat allergy in infected people. They’re also tracking Powassan, a virus that attacks the central nervous system and can lead to memory loss, difficulty speaking and seizures.

Meanwhile, the heat is also having a huge impact on America’s farmers. Earlier today, I was astounded to learn that the amount of wheat that will be harvested in the United States this year is expected to be the lowest since 1877…"America is expected to harvest its lowest acreage of wheat since 1877, due to drought, scorched crops, high input costs and uncertainty in export markets. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service released estimates on June 30 that the total area of all wheat planted was 42.7 million acres in 2026, down six percent from the previous year. This was also 1 million acres below the agency’s March forecasts."

In 1877, there were 40 million people living in the United States. Today, there are 342 million people living in the United States. We are supposed to be one of the breadbaskets of the world, but the past 12 months have been extremely warm and exceedingly dry…"Over the past year, the U.S. has experienced unusually warm conditions—May 2025 to April 2026 marked the warmest 12-month period on record for America, according to NOAA, and many of the country’s largest wheat farming states were hit with severe drought. Droughts are known to significantly reduce crop yields as the heat and lack of water can damage crops and stunt their growth.

Romulo Lollato, a wheat specialist at Kansas State University, told news outlet High Plains Journal that a lot of the wheat in Kansas—one of the state’s largest wheat producers, alongside Oklahoma and Texas—was “very short,” which he said was a “sign of drought stress.”

Now a “Super El Niño” is here, and the outlook for the months ahead is not promising at all. For more than a decade I have been warning about so many of the things that are playing out right in front of our eyes right now. We are witnessing a simultaneous confluence of catastrophic events that is unprecedented in our history. A “perfect storm” is now upon us, and it is only going to intensify throughout the remainder of this year and beyond."

- https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com

"Will America Survive As The Nation Crumbles Economically And Spiritually?"

Jeremiah Babe, 7/3/26

"Will America Survive As The Nation

Crumbles Economically And Spiritually?"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: 2002, "Kindred Spirits"

Full screen recommended.

2002, "Kindred Spirits"

"Once we sailed upon the seas. Now we sail among the stars. This song was composed as a tribute to our friend, harpist Hilary Stagg, who left us far too soon. Hilary loved the sea and he loved the stars."

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Massive stars, abrasive winds, mountains of dust, and energetic light sculpt one of the largest and most picturesque regions of star formation in the Local Group of Galaxies. Known as N11, the region is visible on the upper right of many images of its home galaxy, the Milky Way neighbor known as the Large Magellanic Clouds (LMC).

The above image was taken for scientific purposes by the Hubble Space Telescope and reprocessed for artistry by an amateur to win the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures competition. Although the section imaged above is known as NGC 1763, the entire N11 emission nebula is second in LMC size only to 30 Doradus. Studying the stars in N11 has shown that it actually houses three successive generations of star formation. Compact globules of dark dust housing emerging young stars are also visible around the image.”

- http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130211.html

"If You Want To SEe..."

"If you want to see how far we have not come from the cave and the woods, from the lonely and dangerous days of the prairie or the plain, witness the reaction of a modern suburban family, nearly ready for bed, when the doorbell rings or the door is rattled. They will stop where they stand, or sit bolt upright in their beds, as if a streak of pure lightning has passed through the house. Eyes wide, voices fearful, they will whisper to each other, "There's someone at the door," in a way that might make you believe they have always feared and anticipated this moment  - that they have spent their lives being stalked."

- Alice McDermott

"You Don't Realize How Bad It Will Get"

Full screen recommended.

Finance Economist, 7/3/26

"You Don't Realize How Bad It Will Get"

"This winter’s heating bill up 9.2%, averaging $995 is the cheapest one you will ever pay again. Job growth has collapsed to 17,000 a month, a level Brookings says historically signals a labor market already in crisis. ACA health premiums rose 114% on average this year, and health economists are using the phrase “death spiral” without irony. A congressional committee just used the words “full-scale financial crisis” to describe what's happening to home insurance. The Fed chair whose independence protects your mortgage rate loses his job in May 2026. And the government's own fiscal watchdog published a paper called “Break Glass,” admitting in writing that if another shock hits, there is no more room to borrow only cuts. None of this was designed to arrive separately. Lay the dates side by side and you’ll see it: every one of these crises converges in the same six-month window."

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o

Ask these people how it is...

Full screen recommended.

"40 Minutes Of People Lining Up At Food Banks All Across America"

by Epic Economist

"Epic Economist examines the growing reliance on food pantries across the United States. 40 minutes of people lining up at food banks all across America, from drive-through pantries to families showing exactly what ends up in the trunk. You'll hear from a mom whose $10 struggle meal keeps climbing, a mid-career professional laid off with a master's degree, and a worker with a steady job who still can't cover groceries. The USDA counted 47.9 million people in food-insecure households, and this video puts faces to that number.What the video covers:

• Real people describing why they turn to food banks despite steady jobs

• Drive-through pantry lines with closed streets and redirected traffic

• Full hauls showing produce, canned goods, meat, milk, and eggs

• How food bank ID cards and check-in lots actually work

• A laid-off professional walking through the shame and stigma of asking for help

• Families stretching pantry food across kids' plates and neighbors.

If this reflects something you or your family are going through, drop a comment and share your go-to struggle meal or your local pantry experience. Subscribe to follow more of these firsthand accounts, and share this video with anyone who thinks food bank lines only reach the bottom of the economy.This compilation covers food insecurity in America, food bank lines, drive-through food pantries, struggle meals, inflation and grocery costs, laid-off workers, food pantry hauls, and families relying on charitable food to get through the month. Epic Economist examines the growing reliance on food pantries across the United States."

Comments here:

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"Everyone Can See How Strange America Is Becoming... And It’s Not Getting Better"

Full screen recommended.

The Unfolded States, 7/3/26

"Everyone Can See How Strange America Is Becoming... 

And It’s Not Getting Better"

"Something feels different in America, and most people can feel it even if they cannot fully explain why. From AI traffic cameras and smart TVs tracking behavior to shrinking human interaction and the growing loss of ownership, everyday life is changing in ways that feel subtle, unsettling, and impossible to ignore. This video explores why America feels increasingly strange, and why many believe it is not getting better. We break down the deeper forces driving these changes: the rise of the surveillance state, the expansion of artificial intelligence, the erosion of data privacy, the automation of daily life, and the quiet shift from ownership to permission. This is not about conspiracy theories or fearmongering. It is about understanding how modern systems are reshaping freedom, privacy, and human connection in America, often through convenience rather than force. Is America becoming more dystopian, or are people simply noticing what has been building for years? 

Watch until the end and let us know your thoughts in the comments. Which trend concerns you the most: surveillance, AI, automation, or the loss of privacy? Disclaimer: This content is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or investment advice. The views expressed are based on publicly available information and personal opinions, and may not be accurate or up to date. You should conduct your own research and consult a qualified professional before making any decisions."

Comments here:

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Judge Napolitano, "INTEL Roundtable: Weekly Wrap - 3 July - America's 250th Birthday"

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom, 7/3/26

"INTEL Roundtable: Weekly Wrap - 

3 July - America's 250th Birthday"

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The Daily "Near You?"

Hattiesburg, Mississippi, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

The Poet: Mary Oliver, "I Worried"

 

"Time To Move On..."

“How do the geese know when to fly to the sun? Who tells them the seasons? How do we, humans, know when it is time to move on? As with the migrant birds, so surely with us; there is a voice within, if only we would listen to it, that tells us so certainly when to go forth into the unknown.”

- Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

"The Class Reunion, 50 Years Later: Do They Even Remember Each Other?"

Full screen recommended.

Three-Quarter Town,

"The Class Reunion, 50 Years Later: 

Do They Even Remember Each Other?"

"To find where the boys and the girls hid away..." Welcome back to 3/4 Town. Today, the cobblestone streets are filled with the heavy steps of old friends. It’s been half a century, and the class is finally gathering again. Put on your best coat, adjust your collar, and walk with the elders to a reunion 50 years in the making. Watch as they pull out faded photographs of youth, share the longest of embraces, and try to find the boys and girls they used to be beneath the deep wrinkles and gray hair. As they sit around the long table, raising their teacups to the memories and to those who are no longer here, time seems to stop in our miniature village. Through highly detailed claymation and a deeply touching original folk song, this is a story about the beauty of growing old together. The lantern is blown out, the reunion is over, and now... we can sleep."

"How to Find Peace When Everything You Built Starts to Fade"

Full screen recommended.

Native Elder,

"How to Find Peace When 

Everything You Built Starts to Fade"

"Time Don't Give A Damn"

Full screen recomended.

Delta King's Blues, 

"Time Don't Give A Damn"

"Time keeps movin’… don’t care who you are, what you lost, or what you’re still holdin’ onto. “Time Don’t Give a Damn” is a raw, hard-truth Delta King’s Blues tune about life moving on, scars that stay, and the cold fact that time waits for nobody. A dark, steady acoustic guitar drags the groove like boots walkin’ through years they can’t get back. The harmonica moans deep and restless, sounding like memories chasing a man who can’t outrun the clock. The rhythm rolls slow and unforgiving, built for late-night thoughts and truths that hit harder with age. This is blues about facing time head-on. For those who’ve learned that time heals some things… and leaves the rest behind. Time don’t stop, don’t care, and sure don’t ask permission."

"How It Really Is"

For those few who haven't been layed off yet...

Dan, I Allegedly, "The 'Triple Threat' Nobody Warns You About"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, I Allegedly, 7/3/26

"The 'Triple Threat' Nobody Warns You About"

"Gold just hit $4,100 an ounce - and Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and Bank of America are all forecasting it could climb even higher heading into 2027. In this episode of I Allegedly, Dan sits down with Jack Hanney, CEO of Patriot Gold Group, to break down the eerie parallels between today's economy and the 1970s: an oil supply shock (the Strait of Hormuz vs. the 1973 Arab oil embargo), a disappointing June jobs report, rising inflation, and a stock market some economists say is echoing the dot-com bubble. They dig into why the Schiller P/E index is flashing warning signs, why Microsoft just had its worst month since 2000, and what it means for your 401(k) or IRA. Dan and Jack also unpack the "retiree triple threat" - a growing problem where retirees are forced to over-withdraw from retirement accounts just to keep up with the real cost of living, only to get hit with a bigger tax bill the following year. They explain why summer, historically a quiet season for precious metals, may actually be the smartest time to buy gold and silver before the Q4 and Q1 rush. 

Whether you're planning for retirement, watching your 401(k) with concern, or just trying to make sense of the headlines, this conversation covers what everyday investors need to know right now about protecting their savings.. Be sure to subscribe to i Allegedly for daily updates on business, finance, the economy, and the biggest stories impacting your money."

Comments here:

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Jim Kunstler, "Burning Down The House"

DSA on the March shoulder to shoulder with the Pride Brigade

"Burning Down The House"

by Jim Kunstler

"I forgot to get napkins. I just wiped my hand on the American flag behind me." 

- Darializa Avila-Chevalier, primary election winner, 

New York’s 13th Congressional District

"Who are all these Democratic Socialists of America, anyway? “We are Westerners fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization,” one of their spoxes declared on Instagram in 2024. Hmmmm... I wonder if you can be a little more specific. Like, including democracy and socialism, two western civ constructs? Kind of looks like a baby / bathwater situation, followed by burning down the house where the baby lived. Do we get a chance to debate this proposition in the midterm election?

Likewise, a St. Paul, Minnesota, school board member, one Chauntyll Allen offered the following policy recommendation on the We Love Our Dog Park Facebook page:

Click image for larger size.

A bad moon is rising on our nation’s 250th birthday. The country is in a rancid mood. You begin to see what happens when political ideas are carried to their last limits. Question is: does all this add up to a winning party platform? You must suppose that higher-ups in the Democratic Party are asking themselves the question now. What do Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer think when they see these Angels of Death on the march (or in flight) over the midterm battlefield?

Darializa Avila Chevalier, Claire Valdez, and Melat Kiros are going to Congress to link arms with “The Squad” - AOC, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley - and they will bring their cargo of DSA policy ideas with them: racial, gender, and social justice; abolish ICE (no more deporting anybody); defund the police; end incarceration (no more jails); free housing and medical care; green this-n-that; government ownership of business; abolish the Senate and the electoral college; pack the SCOTUS. . . .

The platform apparently has a lot of appeal to a certain demographic —- which, I suspect, includes the many young recent graduates of the diploma mills who are pissed-off that Mr. Trump & Company are methodically shutting down the NGOs that were supposed to furnish these young race-and-gender studies majors with cushy, six-figure jobs doing “activism.” Alas, that pathway is increasingly blocked and the country only needs so many baristas. What to do then? Take it to the limit! Be communists... with all that entails. What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine, too.

This new gen of Democratic Socialists is arguably worse than the Confederates of 1861. Those Rebs only wanted to secede from USA and go their own way in one corner of the land. They didn’t want to piss on Johann Sebastian Bach, Leonardo DaVinci, Jane Austen, Margaret Fuller, and Ralph Waldo Emerson as they walked out. The Democratic Socialists of our day are fully aligned with their avatars: Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Pol Pot, who operated human meat-grinders at scale to tamp down the opposition. Not a great look to align with the great mass-murderers of history.

It must be agony for Schumer and Jeffries. Eradicate Western Civ...? Piss on white people’s corpses...? Are they really going to get behind that? No-o-o-o-o. But they will try to wriggle around this steaming pile for some weeks to come until it is obvious that the Democratic Party has blown itself up, hoisted itself on that old petard. It may be too late for the party’s old guard. No matter how many rain-dances Elizabeth Warren does, nothing will put out this dumpster fire.

Another question for the months ahead: can that party control its increasingly maniacal street warriors, the Antifas, the Pink Pistols, the Transgender Armed Defense forces, and whatever remains of BLM. There is still a lot of money in circulation for public demonstrations and disruptions from George Soros and other sponsors. And apart from that are the forces of jihad, with their own foreign patrons. Gawd knows how many jihadis came into the country during “Joe Biden’s” orchestrated alien invasion. Not just a few, you can be sure.

By the way, can somebody at the Office of Management and Budget do an audit of the $370-billion that “Joe Biden” handed over to John Podesta in the fall of 2024 to administer “climate-related provisions” of the Inflation Reduction Act, and figure out how much of it bounced right back into Democratic Party-adjacent NGOs and down to party capos like Stacey Abrams in Georgia, Brandon Johnson in Chicago, and Karen Bass in LA?

Meanwhile, the big celebration of America’s 250th is only hours away. There will be a lot of bangs and flashes the next couple of days. Let’s hope they are not really big ones. Stay alert and safe out there. And happy 250th birthday to you, America - if you can keep yourself."

- https://www.kunstler.com/

"Early Draft Of The Declaration Of Dependence Found"

"Early Draft Of The Declaration Of Dependence Found"

by John Wilder

"Euripides Schumer wrote 86 draft versions of the Declaration of Dependence before being fired and replaced by Thomas Jefferson who changed the title to the Declaration of Independence and fixed...a lot of other things. Schumer’s first version that was turned in looked something like this:

"At THE ANTIFA® CLUBHOUSE, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the GloboLeft Soviets of America:

When in the Course of decolonizing human events, it becomes necessary for one intersectionally oppressed people to dissolve the toxic political bands which have connected them with the racist, cis-heteronormative, colonialist, capitalist patriarchy, and to assume among the powers of the Earth the separate and equitable station to which the Laws of Social Justice and Intersectional Gender Theory entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of the legacy media and AOC’s Bluesky® feed requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident (after running them through the Ministry of Equity and a mandatory diversity audit), that all humans (and non-binary persons, and in some interpretations certain animals, who are allowed to consent to sex) are created unequal in their capacity for victimhood, that they are endowed by their lived experiences with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Equity, Safe Spaces, Pronoun Affirmation, Climate Reparations, Open Borders, Mental Therapy, two years of maternity leave, access to women’s changing spaces, and the pursuit of Happiness. This is, of course, provided that happiness does not trigger anyone. That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Persons, deriving their just powers from the consent of the most marginalized,

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends by clinging to reality, merit, borders, tradition, or color-blind laws, it is the Right of the Oppressed to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on DEI principles and Organizing its Powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety, Happiness, and Lazy Girl Jobs.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes, unless the change involves dismantling Western civilization, in which case it is always urgent. And, accordingly, all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer under the patriarchy while Evils are Sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are Accustomed, like the nuclear family, free speech, or the concept of objective truth. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations by the privileged, pursuing invariably the same Object of maintaining power structures, evinces a design to reduce the marginalized under absolute Despotism of Whiteness, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government and to provide new Guards for their future security in the form of endless bureaucracy, pointless degrees and certifications, free college, re-education camps, poetry readings, and corporate HR departments.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these Oppressed; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present evil white Christian man, or whichever legacy figure is convenient this Week, is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny of Merit and Tradition over these Safe Spaces. To prove this, let Facts (as curated by our narrative) be submitted to a candid (but properly biased) world.

Whenever you see “he”, it is about the patriarchy, and not at all my father who I have gone no contact with. Don’t even.

He has refused his Assent to Laws the most wholesome and necessary for unlimited immigration and population replacement.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate importance for equity unless suspended until approved by the proper diversity officers.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people unless those people would relinquish the right of actual representation in favor of proportional equity.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population replacement of the white people of these States by obstructing the naturalization of and free housing of foreigners.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by insisting on color-blind laws instead of equity-based outcomes.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices for border security and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people (the recent arrivals) and eat out their substance by enforcing actual laws and totally ignoring our sanctuary cities designations.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, ideas of meritocracy and individual responsibility without the consent of the Universities.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power of transexual rights and pronoun PowerPoints®.

He has combined with others (fossil fuel companies, reactionaries, traditionalists, and parents who notice things) to subject us to a jurisdiction of reality foreign to Our Lived Truth.

For imposing Taxes on the rich without giving enough of it away in reparations.

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of equity by allowing free speech and due process.

For transporting us beyond Seas (metaphorically) to uncomfortable truths about biology and history.

For not allowing the abolition of the free System of English-derived Laws in favor of feelings-based jurisprudence.

For not allowing permanent bureaucratic rule by an unelected elite.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us by allowing parents to object to school curricula and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless ideas of Western Civilization, whose known rule is an undistinguished destruction of all safe spaces, genders, and feelings.

In every stage of these Oppressions, We have Petitioned for Redress in the loudest and most emotional terms while screeching and doxxing and canceling anyone who disagreed. Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury and being called names like “commie” or “limp-wristed sissy-boy.” A System whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant of Whiteness is unfit to be the ruler of an equitable people.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the GloboLeft, in our AntiFa® meetings, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Goddess of Equity for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Safe Spaces, solemnly publish and declare, That these AntFa© Clubs are, and of Right ought to be given money and saved from Whiteness, Capitalism, Patriarchy, Borders, Merit, and Objective Reality; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the Constitution and any founding principles that aren’t intersectional, and that all political connection between them and the legacy of the West is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States they have full Power to levy Taxes for equity programs, conclude Alliances with the UN®, WEF™, and open-border NGOs, establish Commerce in feelings and carbon credits, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do, including mandatory pronoun training and the abolition of due process when it conflicts with equity. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Intersectionality, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Safe Spaces."

"I can see why they fired Euripides Schumer. It was hate!"

- https://wilderwealthywise.com/

Billl Bonner, "Interventionist Bedfellows"

A hybrid plug in car from China’s BYD.

Interventionist Bedfellows"

by Bill Bonner

"A much more interventionist position is very hard to avoid."

- Paul Krugman

Youghal, Ireland - "Paul Krugman says his longstanding faith in free trade and globalization has been shaken. The reason is parked right outside our house - a Chinese-made car.

What we’ve been looking at this week - through a glass darkly! - is the future. Retracing our steps...Now that the politicians have tasted the forbidden fruit - forbidden by the Constitution - they will no more give it up than a gambling addict surrenders a lottery ticket. In many cases, the powers Trump grabbed had also been snatched by previous presidents, but rarely so openly or on such a large scale.

And now, the Democrats are making a list and checking it twice. It includes naughty people on whom they might sic the Department of Justice, nice people who will be fired, or hired...and the vast new programs they might put in place without Congressional authority. And now, from neither side - left or right - can we expect a return to ‘normal,’ politics. The gravity of ‘middle-of-the-road’ has no pull. There’s nothing to keep voters’ feet on the ground.

Modern democracies were built on a fraud - the sweet fantasy that people would be better off as the feds bossed them around and spent more and more of their money. Banning, bombing, subsidizing, taxing, seizing, licensing, regulating - all the black arts practiced by the ruling classes...are put to service. But ‘the People’ are no better off. They are worse off as they have to pay for decades of failed policies.

It was always a mammoth Ponzi scheme, funded by funny money and debt. The early birds feasted. Those who come later find the larder depleted. They want change. Even, apparently, government-run grocery stores. And now, the mainstream political parties struggle to meet new voter demands.

Last year, the Wall Street Journal noted the fracture between red and blue: "America Is Fracturing Into Red and Blue Nations, Redistricting Fight Shows." Less than 20% of Americans live in a state where the minority party has a meaningful voice in governance

But now the WSJ highlights the fracture happening within the two parties: "Midterm splits on the right and left." While the Socialists are splitting away from mainstream Democrats, the schism on the ‘right’ has traditional ‘conservatives’ - such as Marjorie Taylor Greene and Tucker Carlson - backing away from Trump’s activist agenda. The Hill: "Former GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) said she is contemplating creating a new political party following her public split with the Republican Party. “I think there’s a group of us that if we decide to align, we could launch a true America-focused party that doesn’t fall into the traps of Democrats or Republicans, but could align some serious players from the right and the left,” Greene said during a Tuesday interview on “Piers Morgan Uncensored.”

But what comes apart, comes together. Paul Krugman is a former New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize-winning economist. He’s now joining forces with Trump on an issue that straddles domestic and foreign policies...intervening at home and abroad with a single jackass policy. Tariffs!

Our son-in-law rented a car at the airport in Dublin. The best deal he could find was a Chinese car - a hybrid - made by BYD. The company hadn’t produced a single car until 2005. Now it is the biggest auto manufacturer in China, and the third biggest globally. And last year, it overtook Tesla to be the world’s largest electric carmaker. China’s automakers are so efficient, operating at such large scale, they make it hard for other carmakers to compete. Which is why Krugman, Trump and many others think they shouldn’t be able to. “I don’t think the Europeans can allow their auto industry to be totally hollowed out,” says Krugman in the jargon of central planners everywhere.”

But ‘the Europeans’ don’t have an auto industry. Autos are made by companies...who do so where and how they can make money. As long as they are making money, they add to their owners’ wealth - and consumers’ wealth too. When they stop making money - because, for example, consumers prefer cheaper, better Chinese cars...they become a drain on the whole world’s wealth - using the same resources, but turning out inferior products. To this obvious objection, Krugman comes out with the magic words: ‘national security.’ But can a nation become more secure by forcing its consumers to pay more for an inferior set of wheels? “It’s a great car,” says our son-in-law."

- https://www.bonnerprivateresearch.com/

"Requiem for America on the Fourth of July"

"Requiem for America on the Fourth of July"

by Chris Hedges

"Neoliberalism, better understood by its less sanitized term cutthroat capitalism, is the poison that destroyed our democracy. It gave the billionaire class and corporations the ideological cover to impoverish the working class, impose crippling austerity, hollow out democratic institutions, buy off our two ruling political parties and deform our courts into appendages of corporations and the rich.

Neoliberalism drove tens of millions of disenfranchised, desperate people into the arms of Christian fascists, who preyed on their despair and sold them the fantasy of magic Jesus. It drove them into the arms of conspiracy theorists and right-wing charlatans. It drove them down the self-destructive rabbit holes of alcoholism and opioid addiction, compulsive gambling, domestic and sexual violence. These were the inevitable consequences of personal stagnation, disempowerment and feelings of worthlessness, frustration and profound despair.

Neoliberalism ignores the cries of its victims. It dismisses their suffering and rage as irrational, ignorant and racist. It neuters liberal reforms, rendering them cosmetic and useless. Liberal apologists for neoliberalism, no longer concerned with economic justice, retreat into boutique activism. They mouth empty slogans about diversity and political correctness while pretending the relentless class war, unleashed globally since the 1970s, does not exist. The victims of neoliberal deindustrialization, 30 million of whom lost their jobs in the U.S. in mass layoffs, understand that the precarity of their existence does not concern their neoliberal masters.

Right-wing pundits and politicians, such as Donald Trump, who issue crude, vulgar and expletive-laden insults against the traditional neoliberal establishment are celebrated by the disenfranchised for exposing the political charade. These demagogues promise moral and economic renewal for the betrayed, albeit grounded in magical thinking.

Neoliberals peddle their own form of magical thinking. Neoliberalism is as absurd and infantile as the Christian Rapture and Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement. Trump lies like he breathes, but so did previous presidents including Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. Trump embraces fantasies, but so did they. Trump, like his Democratic predecessors, enriches himself and his family, although with far more ostentation and greed. He, like them, facilitates the ongoing pillage by the billionaire class. Trump is the fascist iteration of the neoliberal con.

Concentrating wealth in the hands of a global oligarchic elite — the twelve richest billionaires own more wealth than the poorest half of the world — is designed to create massive income inequality and monopoly power. It is the antithesis of democratic equality. It is designed to fuel political extremism and foster social and cultural divisions. It is designed to hollow out democratic institutions. Economic rationality is not the point. David Harvey calls neoliberalism “accumulation by dispossession.”

As a ruling ideology, neoliberalism is a brilliant success. Starting in the 1970s, its Keynesian mainstream critics were marginalized or pushed out of academia, state institutions and financial organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. The same is true of the media. Compliant courtiers and intellectual poseurs such as Milton Friedman or New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman were given prominent platforms and lavish corporate funding. They slavishly disseminated the official mantra of fringe, discredited economic theories popularized by Friedrich Hayek and the third-rate writer Ayn Rand.

Once the country was forced to kneel before the dictates of the marketplace, once government regulations were abolished, once taxes on the rich were slashed, once money was permitted to flow across borders, once unions were crushed and once trade deals were signed that sent jobs to sweatshops in Mexico and China, the world, these poseurs assured us, would be happier, freer and wealthier. It was a scam. But it worked. And it fueled the rival con game of the demagogues and fascists who were vomited up out of the moral and political morass.

The media bears much of the blame. In the name of objectivity, better understood as neutrality, it absented itself from the class war. It did not investigate the mounting abuses of the rich, corporations or its bought-and-paid-for political class. It did not expose the absurdity of neoliberalism. It rendered the victims invisible. By shutting themselves out of the debate, the media, a vital pillar of any democracy, neutered itself. It too became despised.

Individual freedom, which neoliberalism holds up as the highest good, and social justice are not compatible. Social justice, Harvey writes in “A Brief History of Neoliberalism,” requires social solidarity and “a willingness to submerge individual wants, needs, and desires in the cause of some more general struggle for, say, social equality and environmental justice.” Neoliberal rhetoric is able to “split off libertarianism, identity politics, multiculturalism, and eventually narcissistic consumerism from the social forces ranged in pursuit of social justice through the conquest of state power.”

Neoliberalism, as Ece Temelkuran writes in “How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps From Democracy to Fascism,” exiles morality from public life. It isolates it in the private space of the individual. It corrals it into “the holding pen of religion” while religion is “clipped and cropped into market-friendly ‘spiritualities.’” Justice and mercy are no longer shared concepts. Personal and public morality are severed. How, she asks, “can we convince people not to commit evil in those realms of public life from which law enforcement is absent?”

“Humans,” she writes, “are incapable of functioning and living together without a good story to bind them and keep a certain set of values intact. That’s why the lack of a story in neoliberalism, the lack of meaning and cause, can be unbearable for the human mind. Since humans are forced to live in a state of mild antipathy — an acceptable amount of antipathy that is crucial to the neoliberal system — they are forever in dire need of a cause, a central triangulation point that they can use to orient themselves in relation to what’s good and what’s bad. The ethical vacuum of neoliberalism, its dismissal of the fact that human nature needs meaning and desperately seeks reasons to live, creates fertile ground for the invention of causes, and sometimes the most groundless or shallowest ones.”

Karl Polanyi in “The Great Transformation” distinguishes between bad freedoms and good freedoms. Bad freedoms are sacrosanct under neoliberalism. They permit the powerful to exploit workers and the natural world until exhaustion or collapse. Pharmaceutical and health care corporations, for example, jeopardize the lives of those who cannot afford their exorbitant prices. The fossil fuel industry is driving us towards extinction.

Good freedoms — freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, freedom of meeting, freedom of association, freedom to choose one’s job — are snuffed out by bad freedoms. The freedom of the many is transformed into the freedom of the few. The result is fascism.

Fascism uses the blunt instruments of fear, intimidation and violence to curb the mounting disquiet. It divides the country into warring factions — the patriots vs. the enemies of the state. It obliterates shared values. It champions the cruelty of hypermasculinity. Those who dissent are branded domestic terrorists. Civil liberties are abolished in the name of national security.

The 30- to 100-year sentences meted out to eight anti-ICE protesters in Texas, who were portrayed in court as an “antifa terror cell,” are being normalized. A ninth defendant, David Rolando Sanchez Estrada, was not present at the protest, but was sentenced to 30 years after being convicted of concealing documents when he moved a box of political zines and other materials. A second group of defendants in the broader Prairieland case were sentenced on July 1. Six who accepted plea agreements received prison terms ranging from nearly two years to 15 years, while Ines Soto, who rejected a plea agreement and went to trial, received 50 years.

The equation of civil disobedience with terrorism is routine in countries such as Turkey, Russia and India. It is being cemented into place in Europe. A British judge, in a ruling that mirrors what took place in Texas, recently sentenced four members of Palestine Action as terrorists, sending them to prison for five to nine years, even though they were neither charged nor convicted of terrorism offenses.

It does not matter if Donald Trump, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Narendra Modi, Vladimir Putin or Nigel Farage disappear. The tens in of millions of people “fired up by their message will still be there, and will still be ready to act upon the orders of a similar figure,” Temelkuran writes. “And unfortunately, as we experienced in Turkey in a very destructive way, even if you are determined to stay away from the world of politics, the minions will find you, even in your own personal space, armed with their own set of values and ready to hunt down anybody who doesn’t resemble themselves.”

Our country, as we once knew it, no longer exists. It was methodically destroyed by neoliberal con artists. The institutions and legal protections that once shielded us from tyranny no longer function. Those who champion an open society are orphans, smeared as traitors, excoriated as the “radical left.” I mourn what we have lost. I mourn what we are about to lose. This social isolation will soon be physical isolation. We will be criminalized or driven into exile.

Trump and his fascistic cabal, epitomized by billionaires such as Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, are constructing a mafia state. A nation of gangsters and marks. A nation where they alone have unlimited freedom to pillage and exploit. A nation where the government is privatized. A nation where we are enslaved to corporate technology. A nation where we have no place. We must name our enemies this Fourth of July. They are the fascists who have seized power. And they are those who, selling us the con of neoliberalism, put them there."

- https://chrishedges.substack.com/

Joel Bowman, "We’re All Americans Now"

"We’re All Americans Now"

by Joel Bowman

“Unknown to those born in the United States, there exists a curious momentum in America apparent only to her visitors. In the widened eyes of these newcomers, the country appears to be hurtling forward in time at blistering, maniacal pace, her citizens unconsciously bound to a collective destiny of grand, mythological proportions, a mishmash of waiters and engineers and hookers and playwrights and teachers, of slick and desperate criminals and late night T.V. evangelists, of frat boys and southern belles and Marlborough men and block-jawed G.I.s, of cowboys and surfers and poets and junkies, all marching arm in arm along a great concrete road that hasn’t quite set.”

~ From "Morris, Alive" - A novel by Joel Bowman

Buenos Aires, Argentina - “It’s still the greatest show on earth,” a friend explained recently, describing his fond attachment to the ground beneath his feet. “Whatever its faults, and there are many to be sure, there’s nothing else quite like it. The greatest [expletive] show on earth.”

That our enthusiastic interlocutor is an aspiring actor and movie director, and that the ground beneath his feet is composed mostly of Venice Beach sand and the lapping Pacific tide, only underscores his point. Like Hollywood itself, as seen on the glimmering silver screen, the “Idea of America” is part mythology, part super-sized reality.... its setting part period drama, part futuristic sci-fi... its caricatured characters part supervillains, part superheroes.

As the flood of viral videos from World Cup football fans currently on wide-eyed tour across the United States attests, there is a “curious momentum in America apparent only to her visitors.” Perhaps you’ve seen the clips circulating online? Incredulous Brits wandering around Big Box stores like they’re national museums… spellbound Norwegians entranced by America’s small town hospitality… misty-eyed Italians wondering where free refills have been all their lives… to say nothing of the modern miracle that blows the collective European mind like no other: air conditioning.

But let us come back to the genesis of this vast abundance, the kind that causes Germans to convulse in raw pleasure over the godsend that is Texas barbecue, that teleports thunderstruck Aussies into joyful conniptions in the aisles of Buc-ee's gas stations, that moves grown Scotsmen to tears while sampling breakfast at all-American diners. That is, let us come back to the Idea of America…

E Pluribus Unum: Paradoxical and unique, this “Idea,” boldly written - nay, declared - into existence 250 years ago tomorrow, concerns both notions of individual sovereignty and collective destiny, the multitude and the singular, e pluribus unum. And unlike other, comparatively modest experiments concurrently underway around the world, this particular enterprise in human action concerns both citizens at home and “aliens” abroad, making it global on a scale that even the most aspirational empires on history’s grand stage tremble, cower, and occasionally blush.

But who are we, you may be wondering, an Australian-born scribbler, writing from Argentina’s distant capital, to weigh in on what constitutes the “Idea of America?” What right have we to opine on such matters? To trespass on, much less occupy, such hallowed philosophical territory? Excellent point, Dear Patriot! Allow us, if you would kindly holster your sidearm, a moment to plead our case... or rather, to stake our humble claim.

Unique among such historical notions, the “Idea of America” to which we refer is assuredly that... an Idea. As such, it is not to be confined by any map, the imagined political borders of which ebb and flow with the vicissitudes of time. Nor is it bound up in flags, anthems, official emblems or state seals; assorted simulacra, the outward insignia of nationhood, mere representations of the real McCoy. Nor does it reside in the halls of Congress or the White House ballroom, neither at the bottom of a ballot box or even in the earnest hearts and minds of any prevailing group calling itself “the majority.”

Remember that an Idea, as Austrian-American economist, Ludwig von Mises, described it, is more powerful than all that. From "Human Action" (which he wrote and published in New York City in 1949, after emigrating to the the States at the beginning of the decade in order to escape some decidedly bad ideas back on the Continent): “All changes in the realm of human affairs are brought about by ideas. Ideas and only ideas can light the darkness. They are the main weapons in man’s struggle for survival and advancement.” And here we come to the point...

Old World, New World: Perhaps you have noticed (or not) the curious tendency of Americans to hyphenate their demonym; this teacher is an Irish-American; that nurse an African-American; this policeman is an Italian-American; that artist a Chinese-American... and so on down the line... Jewish-Americans, Japanese-Americans, Canadian-Americans, et al.

If you call yourself American (whether hyphenated or not), this may not seem anything strange. But to those of us who live, work and play in any of the other ~200 nation states on the planet, it’s more than a quirky peculiarity. It is a one-way oddity!

To borrow the phrasing of another foreign-born member of the chattering class, the late English-American essayist, Christopher Hitchens, America is unique to the extent that it is “internally international,” brimming with hyphenated patriots from sea to shining sea. She is sui generis (as the Canadian-Jewish-American author, Saul Bellow, was fond of saying) in a manner that no other nation, Old World or New, can quite claim to be.

Indeed, there are single school districts in Texas that teach and test in more languages than are spoken in many countries. All of which makes, in the end, the question of “what is American?” the more difficult to pin down.

In fact, much of what we might consider “quintessentially American” is not really of America at all. From the exuberance pouring forth in what Susan Sontag (the daughter of Lithuanian and Polish Jews) called the “spirit of Philadelphia,” to practically everything that came afterward.

Founders Alexander Hamilton and James Wilson were foreign born (Nevis and England, respectively), as were a third of George Washington’s appointees to the nation’s original Supreme Court. Thomas Paine, without whose provocative pamphlets, "Common Sense" and "The American Crisis," one could scarcely imagine the American Revolution in the same light, had not even set foot in the colonies until he was almost two score years old.

“America,” writes (our Irish-American friend) Bill Bonner in the foreword to his aptly-titled compendium of essential essays, The Idea of America, “is a nation of people who chose to become Americans. Even the oldest family tree in the New World has immigrants at its root.” Bill might well have been echoing the sentiments of another Irish-American, President John F. Kennedy, who observed that, “Every American who has ever lived, with the exception of one group, was either an immigrant himself or a descendant of immigrants.”

American Icons: From her most prominently “American” musicians... Joni Mitchell hails from Canada, so too does Neil Young; Eddie Van Haalen was born in the Netherlands; Irving Berlin, composer of such Broadway classics as "There’s No Business Like Show Business," "White Christmas", and "God Bless America," was born in the Russian Empire...

To the visionary architects who cut her emblematic city skylines... Ludwig Mies van der Rohe hyphenates as German-American; Ieoh Ming Pei as Chinese-American; César Pelli was born just down the road, here in Argentina...

From her leading entrepreneurs and inventors... Nikolai Tesla was Serbian-American while Tesla CEO and on-again, off-again trillionaire, Elon Musk, is South African-American. One half of Google, Sergey Brin, was born in Moscow, Russia, while the inventor of the original blue jeans, Levi Strauss, was raised in Bavaria, Germany...

To the stars of her glittering silver screen... Bob Hope was born in England, so too Cary Grant... Audrey Hepburn comes from Belgium... Bruce Willis from Germany... and Arnie, the former California “Governator,” from Austria...

Plenty are those who were swept along with the “Idea of America,” though they began their journey elsewhere. “I am as American as April in Arizona,” joked Russian-American émigré, Vladimir Nabokov, who also claimed he was “one-fifth American,” on account of his having gained some 40 lbs after adopting an all-American diet.

From buildings to blue jeans to bake sales, even the phrase “as American as apple pie” rests on dubious etymological grounds. The original recipe hails from England, with heavy influences from the French and the Dutch. In fact, apples themselves weren’t even native to North America, arriving as they did in the arms of European settlers. While we’re at it, wheat comes from the Middle East... cinnamon from Sri Lanka... nutmeg from Indonesia...

Where Goes the Republic: “There is a whole world in America,” observed the American-British author, Henry James (one of the few writers to journey across The Pond in the other direction, proving himself the exception to the rule). And yet, later in James’s life, in a private letter, he would confess, “If I were to live my life over again, I would be an American. I would steep myself in America, I would know no other land.”

As many and varied are the pathways to the Idea of America, of equal importance is what that Idea - and its future - portends for the rest of the world, whether her destiny ends with the proverbial whimper or a bang. For whether one cares to notice or not, where goes America... so too goes the rest of the world, economically... culturally... socially... politically...

Just as there are American greenbacks changing hands from the broad avenidas of Buenos Aires to the back streets of Harare, so too do her movies and protests, fashion trends and fast food, technological marvels and social media fads reach across the globe, for better and worse.

What does this portend for the next 25… 100… 250 years? And why should the rest of us take notice? It was the Greek statesman, Pericles, who once said, “Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn’t mean politics won’t take an interest in you.” So goes for America and her noble experiment. Whether Democrat or Republican, man or woman, black or white, citizen or alien... for better and for worse, we’re all Americans now. Happy birthday, USA!"

- https://joelbowman.substack.com/