"I think Bowe Bergdahl, if he deserted, that was a heroic thing to do. I think throughout history, we should build monuments to the unknown deserters, the people who look at the craziness they’re asked to participate in and say, I’m not part of this.” Bill Ayers, Kelly Files, July 1, 2014
July 9, 2014
By: Linda Case Gibbons
The feudal barons were sick of it: King John’s excessive and arbitrary exploitation of his feudal rights, his ruthless abuse of the justice system.
They let it ride for a while, but there came the time when he pushed the envelope too far, all the way to tyranny.
That was against Feudal Law, and the barons had had enough.
They staged a show-down at Runnymede and made King John affix his Seal on the dotted line. The Magna Carta.
It spelled out, on parchment with quill, detailed limits on royal authority and the basic rights and freedoms Englishmen insisted they be guaranteed.
These were principles later used by America’s Founding Fathers and doctrines incorporated into America’s Bill of Rights.
This document made it clear for the first time that the king was subject to the law, not above it. That he had to respect the rule of law.
And he did -- for a while.
But in 1775, another group of people were forced to challenge yet another English king.
As was true in 1215, conditions between a king and his subjects had reached a tipping point.
The colonists had reasoned and petitioned for redress, but found, like the barons in 1215 England, that they had to prevent the king from exploiting his power in arbitrary ways. He was out of control and they could no longer allow him to continue in this way.
King George III had used the colonies as a Cash Cow, taxing and regulating them until they had no autonomy over their daily lives.
Every time they brewed a pot of tea, they had to pay a tax. Add a lump of sugar and add another tax. Conduct business? Pay a tax.
He was also useless when it came to foreign affairs and lost every bloody war he waged. And then taxed them to pay for it all!
And when they resisted, he plotted to take away their muskets.
He threatened to increase the authority of the Anglican Church in America jeopardizing the very reason they had settled in the New World in the first place: freedom of religion.
The king trampled on their rights, tampered with naturalization laws, obstructed the administration of justice, influenced judges, and created a multitude of new offices with swarms of officers to harass the people with impunity!
It was too expensive in every way to live with a king like that, an arrogant, disconnected monarch, who gave no thought to the peoples’ Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.
It was clear, they had no choice but to dissolve the "political bands which connected them with another,” -- to the king and to England.
"When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism,” the colonists wrote in the Declaration of Independence, "it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government.”
Now, 239 years later, it is the same thing once again, but this time with an imperial president.
All of the liberties codified in our Constitution are in jeopardy.
The right to bear arms is under attack.
Religious freedom has been relegated to second place, behind contraceptive rights, under the guise of the "War on Women.”
The Environmental Protection Agency actively violates private property rights and resurrects obscure laws that make it possible to garnish the wages of American citizens for "perceived” violations of environmental laws without the approval of any court, any judge.
The people are reluctant to speak freely for fear of being targeted by the Internal Revenue Service for their political views, or prosecuted by the Department of Justice.
The media is controlled and so the news is unreliable. No longer is the Fourth Estate the watchdog for truth. Instead news and court decisions are deliberately misinterpreted to enflame and mislead.
Books are being "burned.” Politically motivated book sellers are removing books from sale in their stores, entertainment groups are picketing books and movies because they disagree and dislike the content of the book and the movie, and seek to silence that author and that book’s voice.
Our military has been downsized, placing our country’s safety at risk. Our veterans have been abandoned.
Our borders are being erased. Our laws ignored, our Supreme Court and Congress circumvented by presidential fiat.
The people are once again cash cows to an imperial government and citizens are persecuted and ridiculed for holding views counter to the government’s.
The march is on toward a global community, a new America against the will of the people.
So, on an average day in America today, a young woman who posts a photo of herself on Facebook holding a Chick-fil-A cup, wearing a "Pro Life” t-shirt, and standing in front of a Hobby Lobby store, gets death threats.
A group of nuns who minister to the sick and dying elderly are included in the "Dirty 100” list by the National Organization of Women because these nuns refused to bow to a healthcare law which would make them compromise their religious beliefs. The list cites organizations who have filed suit against the Health and Human Services Contraception Mandate.
Immigration laws are not enforced, then middle class citizens are told they must financially support immigrants who cross our borders illegally.
American citizens are expected to submit to unconstitutional searches in airports to keep our country secure, while undocumented illegal immigrants are allowed to fly commercial airlines without I.D.
Nonsensical propaganda is spread by the government and its minions.
The president’s wife says: "We have to keep fighting as hard as we can on immigration,” and, "As my husband has said, he’s going to do whatever administrative action he can to fix this broken system.”
The president himself says "the borders are safer than ever.”
He tells American citizens to pay $3.7 billion so that sick, poverty stricken, and uneducated immigrants who entered our country illegally can stay, characterizing them as the "best and the brightest” while American citizens stand on unemployment lines.
As with the kings before him, useless at foreign affairs and indifferent in the performance of his duties, Threats and Tomfoolery are all we receive from an imperial president who wages war on his own citizens.
Once again in history, it is too expensive in every way to live with a president like that, an arrogant, disconnected president, who gives no thought to the peoples’ Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.
So, here we go again. It’s 1215 again. It’s 1775 again. But this time there’s a difference.
This time we don’t have to fight to create a Constitution and an exceptional country. We just have to fight to keep them.
As U2’s Bono said in Dinesh D’Souza’s "America,” America is an Idea.
"America’s consistently been on the side of what’s right. Because when it comes down to it, this is about keeping faith with the Idea of America.
"Ireland’s a great country, but it’s not an idea. Great Britain’s a great country, but it’s not an idea.
"That’s how we see you around the world, as one of the greatest Ideas in human history.
"This country was the first to claw its way out of darkness and put that on paper. And God love you for it, because these aren’t just American ideas anymore. There’s no copyright on them. You’ve brought them into the world.”
Hold the line, America.
July 9, 2014
By: Linda Case Gibbons
The feudal barons were sick of it: King John’s excessive and arbitrary exploitation of his feudal rights, his ruthless abuse of the justice system.
They let it ride for a while, but there came the time when he pushed the envelope too far, all the way to tyranny.
That was against Feudal Law, and the barons had had enough.
They staged a show-down at Runnymede and made King John affix his Seal on the dotted line. The Magna Carta.
It spelled out, on parchment with quill, detailed limits on royal authority and the basic rights and freedoms Englishmen insisted they be guaranteed.
These were principles later used by America’s Founding Fathers and doctrines incorporated into America’s Bill of Rights.
This document made it clear for the first time that the king was subject to the law, not above it. That he had to respect the rule of law.
And he did -- for a while.
But in 1775, another group of people were forced to challenge yet another English king.
As was true in 1215, conditions between a king and his subjects had reached a tipping point.
The colonists had reasoned and petitioned for redress, but found, like the barons in 1215 England, that they had to prevent the king from exploiting his power in arbitrary ways. He was out of control and they could no longer allow him to continue in this way.
King George III had used the colonies as a Cash Cow, taxing and regulating them until they had no autonomy over their daily lives.
Every time they brewed a pot of tea, they had to pay a tax. Add a lump of sugar and add another tax. Conduct business? Pay a tax.
He was also useless when it came to foreign affairs and lost every bloody war he waged. And then taxed them to pay for it all!
And when they resisted, he plotted to take away their muskets.
He threatened to increase the authority of the Anglican Church in America jeopardizing the very reason they had settled in the New World in the first place: freedom of religion.
The king trampled on their rights, tampered with naturalization laws, obstructed the administration of justice, influenced judges, and created a multitude of new offices with swarms of officers to harass the people with impunity!
It was too expensive in every way to live with a king like that, an arrogant, disconnected monarch, who gave no thought to the peoples’ Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.
It was clear, they had no choice but to dissolve the "political bands which connected them with another,” -- to the king and to England.
"When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism,” the colonists wrote in the Declaration of Independence, "it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government.”
Now, 239 years later, it is the same thing once again, but this time with an imperial president.
All of the liberties codified in our Constitution are in jeopardy.
The right to bear arms is under attack.
Religious freedom has been relegated to second place, behind contraceptive rights, under the guise of the "War on Women.”
The Environmental Protection Agency actively violates private property rights and resurrects obscure laws that make it possible to garnish the wages of American citizens for "perceived” violations of environmental laws without the approval of any court, any judge.
The people are reluctant to speak freely for fear of being targeted by the Internal Revenue Service for their political views, or prosecuted by the Department of Justice.
The media is controlled and so the news is unreliable. No longer is the Fourth Estate the watchdog for truth. Instead news and court decisions are deliberately misinterpreted to enflame and mislead.
Books are being "burned.” Politically motivated book sellers are removing books from sale in their stores, entertainment groups are picketing books and movies because they disagree and dislike the content of the book and the movie, and seek to silence that author and that book’s voice.
Our military has been downsized, placing our country’s safety at risk. Our veterans have been abandoned.
Our borders are being erased. Our laws ignored, our Supreme Court and Congress circumvented by presidential fiat.
The people are once again cash cows to an imperial government and citizens are persecuted and ridiculed for holding views counter to the government’s.
The march is on toward a global community, a new America against the will of the people.
So, on an average day in America today, a young woman who posts a photo of herself on Facebook holding a Chick-fil-A cup, wearing a "Pro Life” t-shirt, and standing in front of a Hobby Lobby store, gets death threats.
A group of nuns who minister to the sick and dying elderly are included in the "Dirty 100” list by the National Organization of Women because these nuns refused to bow to a healthcare law which would make them compromise their religious beliefs. The list cites organizations who have filed suit against the Health and Human Services Contraception Mandate.
Immigration laws are not enforced, then middle class citizens are told they must financially support immigrants who cross our borders illegally.
American citizens are expected to submit to unconstitutional searches in airports to keep our country secure, while undocumented illegal immigrants are allowed to fly commercial airlines without I.D.
Nonsensical propaganda is spread by the government and its minions.
The president’s wife says: "We have to keep fighting as hard as we can on immigration,” and, "As my husband has said, he’s going to do whatever administrative action he can to fix this broken system.”
The president himself says "the borders are safer than ever.”
He tells American citizens to pay $3.7 billion so that sick, poverty stricken, and uneducated immigrants who entered our country illegally can stay, characterizing them as the "best and the brightest” while American citizens stand on unemployment lines.
As with the kings before him, useless at foreign affairs and indifferent in the performance of his duties, Threats and Tomfoolery are all we receive from an imperial president who wages war on his own citizens.
Once again in history, it is too expensive in every way to live with a president like that, an arrogant, disconnected president, who gives no thought to the peoples’ Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.
So, here we go again. It’s 1215 again. It’s 1775 again. But this time there’s a difference.
This time we don’t have to fight to create a Constitution and an exceptional country. We just have to fight to keep them.
As U2’s Bono said in Dinesh D’Souza’s "America,” America is an Idea.
"America’s consistently been on the side of what’s right. Because when it comes down to it, this is about keeping faith with the Idea of America.
"Ireland’s a great country, but it’s not an idea. Great Britain’s a great country, but it’s not an idea.
"That’s how we see you around the world, as one of the greatest Ideas in human history.
"This country was the first to claw its way out of darkness and put that on paper. And God love you for it, because these aren’t just American ideas anymore. There’s no copyright on them. You’ve brought them into the world.”
Hold the line, America.