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Declaration of Independence


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2022 Jun 30, 5:40pm   1,484 views  18 comments

by GreaterNYCDude   ➕follow (2)   💰tip   ignore  

In Congress, July 4, 1776

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to 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.

Georgia
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton

North Carolina
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn

South Carolina
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton

Massachusetts
John Hancock

Maryland
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton

Pennsylvania
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross

Delaware
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean

New York
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris

New Jersey
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark

New Hampshire
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple

Massachusetts
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery

Connecticut
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott

New Hampshire
Matthew Thornton

Comments 1 - 18 of 18        Search these comments

1   GreaterNYCDude   2022 Jun 30, 7:13pm  

Sorry for the long post, but given that it's almost independence day, seemed fitting. Despite the many challanges in front of us, we're not under "absolute despotism". We can still elect our leaders at all levels of government. Is the system perfect? No. Do corporations have too much influence? Yes. Does that mean we tear the whole system down and start over? I don't think we're to that point yet. In 246 years we've managed to keep this constitutional republic (mostly) united. Do throw out the baby with the bath water.
2   Patrick   2022 Jun 30, 7:37pm  

Thanks @GreaterNYCDude I enjoy reading it.

Ever since I realized that everyone who signed it would have been hanged if America had lost the war, I have been impressed by their bravery.
3   richwicks   2022 Jun 30, 7:37pm  

GreaterNYCDude says

We can still elect our leaders at all levels of government.


No we can't.
5   stereotomy   2022 Jul 1, 1:52pm  

One definite set of real tits (leftmost). One possible real set in the middle and the far left. The rest are fake.

I guess the good news is the women sporting probably real tits are facially the best looking (although they all look like they could use a good fatty steak to eat).
7   Onvacation   2022 Jul 3, 1:00pm  

stereotomy says

The rest are fake.

So?
8   stereotomy   2022 Jul 3, 1:11pm  

Onvacation says

stereotomy says


The rest are fake.

So?


Fake food kills. Fake tits - well, there are so many things you can do with real tits that you can't do with fake tits - it's an appearance versus a performance critique. It deliberately muddies up sexual fitness - can the mother adequately suckle the children? This is a big issue. If you're going to breed, choose a woman who is fit for the task.
9   Blue   2022 Jul 3, 1:36pm  

Fake means, I guess silicone breast implants. Poor babies who get fed by fake breasts.
10   Patrick   2022 Jul 3, 3:05pm  

Patrick says








They are all very well formed imho.
11   GreaterNYCDude   2022 Jul 4, 12:13pm  

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes...

...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,


I feel like the little kid in the bak of the car asking "Are we there yet?"

Absolute despotism? Not yet.. but they past several years has shown the amount of power the government has consolidated unto itself.

For me personally my interaction with government at all levels, for better or ill, is limited. I pay my taxes. I have my LLC andy professional licenses. I know one or two of my town board members, but that's about it.

As my good friend astutely pointed out twenty years ago... we don't live in the land of the free.. we live in the land of the regulated.

At what point do we transition from "light and transient causes" and minor inconveniences to true tyranny? I still belive that the system is self correcting and we are not too far gone. The constitution has proven a solid framework for almost a quarter of a millennium. The virtues of the declaration are timeless, even if we don't always live up to them.

But we are not the great superpower we once were. If anything we are an oligarchy wrapped in the facade of democracy. We have rested on our laurels. China has taken our technology and our manufacturing. We have regulated our way into stagnation. Our world is more expenisve and less peaceful than it was 18 months ago. And for the first time in a long time our future looks just a bit bleaker than it did this time last year.

Still I am hopeful. Today reminds me that America, though by no means perfect, is a work in progress. So grill your steak, drink that beer, and raise a toast to our founding fathers and all of those who have helped keep this experiment in self rule going both in good times and in bad.
12   Onvacation   2022 Jul 4, 12:26pm  

stereotomy says

you can't do with fake tits

It has been my experience that women who get plastic surgery are insecure. It starts with a nose job. Then their tits aren't right and their lips are too small. Then it becomes a thing. By the time of the second boob job the woman is caught up in the game and is probably working at a strip club or doing porn where she is appreciated.

14   Patrick   2022 Jul 4, 1:03pm  

GreaterNYCDude says


China has taken our technology and our manufacturing.


To be fair, they didn't take it so much as accept and encourage the corruption of America by the US oligarchy.

https://patrick.net/post/1344557/2022-04-12-inflation-beyond-the-stars-thread-for?start=92#comment-1856553
15   Patrick   2022 Jul 4, 1:23pm  

https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/a-great-endeavor/


This birthday of the republic we are on track to going medieval, or something that at least rhymes with it. I’m regretful as anyone to leave so much baggage behind, but frankly it’s been a long time since all the Fun, Fun, Fun was over and Daddy took the T-bird away. Daddy himself is gone, along with all representations of him. Donald Trump tried to play the role in a movie called The Years before Covid-19 but the critics savaged him. Anyone who dares to try to be Daddy in America now will be Me-tooed and J-Sixed to a fare-thee-well, we’ve been warned. In your New World Order of Bill Gates and the Schwabenklaus’s Great Re-set, we are all expected to be a hot mess (so the exterminations can proceed without resistance).

I, for one, refuse to comply with all that insolent wickedness and urge you to join with me in making something decent, honorable, and workable in the vast salvage yard that America will be when we expel the degenerate maniacs who broke it to pieces. You do not have to be a hot mess. You can, for instance, be a man. Or, another instance, be a woman. These binaries of human reproduction can produce new humans. A man, a woman, and children will comprise a family, a good start in rebuilding the organism called a society.

The chief duty of men and women in this future will be doing everything possible to ensure that their children do not become hot messes. Their duties beyond that entail the search for purpose, meaning, and happiness, and building institutions to support those ends. We can start with the language we use amongst ourselves to make sense of who we are and where we are. Our language must have a rigorous correlation with reality, which makes it possible to determine what things are true and what are not true. The time will soon be at hand when it is possible to tell who is speaking the truth and who is not. A battle may ensue over this and those on the side of the truth will prevail. Consider these propositions as you flip your burgers and hoist your malty brews today. Think of the men who gathered at Independence Hall two hundred and forty-six years ago and the trepidation they felt facing the unknown as they signed their names, pledged their fortunes, and committed their sacred honor to a great endeavor.

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