Dumb And Dumber

Stupid is as stupid does, Forrest Gump tells us.  This month stupid is on full display in the Democrat Party.  If you think Democrats couldn't get any dumber, thank Georgia Congressmen Hank Johnson for setting you straight.  He reportedly made some dumb comments yesterday comparing Israeli settlers – meaning Jews living in the West Bank or eastern Jerusalem – to termites,  Termites?  Jews have been likened to locusts, perhaps, but termites?  You may recall that back in 2010, during a congressional hearing, Johnson was worried that the Pacific island of Guam may capsize if the the US Navy was allowed to build up its base there.  "My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize," Johnson said.  Marvelous. 

And this right on the heels of Florida Democrat Congresswoman Corrine Brown's indictment earlier this month on multiple fraud charges and other federal offenses regrading her bogus charity slush fund. Mzz Brown, apparently realizing Mzz Clinton gets away with lawlessness, bribery and charitable slush funds, tries to elicit sympathy by playing the race card.  Clinton escapes indictment because she's white, you see, but Brown is black and therefore gets indicted for pretty much the same crimes.  So goes the democrat thinking, as it were.

This week Democrat Debbie Wasserman-Schultz allows discussing the details and plans of DNC's most nefarious activities to discredit both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump in email exchanges.  Not learning from Mzz Clinton's woes regarding errant emails, the DNC servers nevertheless get hacked, and WikiLeaks makes them public for all to see.  Exposed is not only the dirty tricks campaign, but the blatantly corrupt unholy alliance between the DNC and media giants New York Times and the Washington Post, as well.  This verifies what conservatives have known all along, and that's that media is nothing more than the propaganda arm of the Democrat party.  There's no denying it now.  Brilliant.

So with the revelations of the DNC's stupid dirty tricks,  Bernie Sanders supporters are now aware that the fix is in, and their guy never had a chance to be nominated. And they're letting their feelings show.  

The fix is in.  Mzz Clinton escapes; Bernie feels the burn; Debbie is castrated; media is outed; Bernie supporters riot against Kaine and Unable; and more.  And yet, the theme of this year's convention is "United Together".  They must mean the Democratic Party united, because the nation certainly isn't, and the dems aren't concerned about that.  In 61 speeches given on the first day of the convention, not one word of the nation's enemy ISIS, was mentioned.  And the news of more Muslim attacks continue.  Even more unsettling is that while a Palestinian flag and a Soviet Russian flag were displayed, not a single American flag could be found.  Not one in the entire arena.  Astounding.

As the Democrats eat their own, America watches.  We see not a scintilla of American pride, nor nationalism, nor of American exceptionalism in this convention.  None.  What we do see in this raucous corrupt spectacle is petty infighting over party political power, and absolute blatant corruption.  

And in an election year with barbarians literally at the city gates, even for democrats, that's pretty dumb.

Those Who Would Not Listen

The vote is in, and the Republican party has officially nominated Donald J. Trump as the party's candidate for president.  Unsurprising.  It was a long and arduous journey to get here, and the established elite, both candidates and pundits, showing their wisdom and maturity, haven't stopped whining and crying.  The anointed ones, namely Romney, Bush (all three), Kasich, Rubio, Bill Kristol and others are still in full pout mode and refused to attend their party's convention.  Standing on what they call principal, they merely demonstrated what poor losers they have become.  Earlier this week Jeb! submits his op-ed piece to the St, Petersburg Times, one of the most far left newspaper rags still in publishing, wherein he admonishes Trumpsters.  Poor baby.  Still pissed at being denied the oval office?  Your legacy won't be like brother's and dad's?

But to the republican base, there's little sympathy to be found for these manicured and coiffed snobs. After all, they were warned.  Years ago the base asked them politely to please get the country back on a constitutional keel and stop the insane, corrupt and oppressive Kenyan regime.  But there was money to be made, and well, you little people need to suck it up and just go along.  Maybe we can help you if we just controlled the house.  So the base gave them the house.   Then the base demanded that these established elitists start representing them, rather than the corrupt oligarchy that was so in-your-face.  Calm down and carry on was the reply, give us the senate and we can do wonders.  So the republican base gave them the senate, so this tyrannical train could be stopped.  In mid term landslides.

Yet the train gained speed. The Republican elites didn't listen.  They didn't oppose the Kenyan.  They continued to sign off on his unconstitutional edicts and divisive lawlessness.  They didn't listen to the Tea Party six years ago, they didn't listen to the Boehner recall, and they didn't listen to the rise of the Outsiders.  So secure were they in their little single party fiefdom, that the people storming the city walls were ignored.  A voter tantrum, they said.  Not to worry, they'll get over it.  Status quo.

But who's laughing now?  The Republican base has disavowed the established entrenched insiders, and have thrown their support to a polar opposite of elitist thinking. Trump is a fighter.  Fearless.  Not beholden to special interests.  Not cowed by political correctness.  A man who expresses himself in street vernacular.  A man who seeks the reestablishment of the greatness of the American idea.  A man won't doesn't bow down and apologize to maniacal third world despots who are screwing up the world in the first place.  And - not to put too fine a point on it - a man who has a trophy wife, and knows the difference between a beautiful woman and a man in drag.  Finally, after eight rough years, we'll have a First Lady again.

So Donald Trump strongly appeals to the people who are in the trenches every day, trying to preserve what little they have left, and trying to make the economy work.  The tax payers.  The people whose efforts are redistributed to others.  And they at last have a candidate who speaks their language; who talks the talk and walks the walk.  An Everyman.  Mr. Smith goes to Washington.

So forgive us if we shed not a tear for your loss, those who would not listen.  You were warned.  You were granted a heavy moral responsibility to represent the people who put you in office, not the lobbyists and globalists.  But you lost your way.  And, as you're now learning, in the real world, those who fail are fired, not rewarded.  The people's job is given to those who can, and to those who do.

And that's the way it should be.

Three Steps To Applied Solutions

Another Muslim attack.  I dunno. It seems to me that effective and applied solutions are being overlooked - or deliberately ignored -  concerning this ongoing and ever present Muslim problem.  It's worldwide and growing.  Because of a seditious United States government and overtly politically correct European governments, the wanton slaughter of innocents by radical Islamofacists continues unabated.  They had a good day yesterday.  Over eighty people were mowed down by a box truck in Nice, France.  Oh, yeah, killed by a radical Muslim.  One guy.  Eighty dead.  In military terms it was not a bad use of expendable personnel.

Spokesmen from both CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood immediately went on world television to denounce the use of jihad to murder helpless and defenseless innocent people in an effort further Islam's goals.  Right.  Of course they didn't.  They actually celebrated the carnage. 

Solutions, anyone?  Over coffee this morning I asked the wifey, who is a trial attorney by the way, what would be her solution to this nonsense.  We debated several possible solutions, some radical, some ineffectual, and a few so meaningless as to be worthless.  How about walls?  Her, nope.  Me, hell yes.  Walls won't be effective, she says, as we're not dealing with barbarians at the gate.  Au contraire.  Walls work, says I, and are being constructed now in Israel and Hungary specifically to stop the invading Muslim hordes.  And centuries ago the Romans built them, as did the Chinese.  And those walls are still there.

Well, what about screening?  Dear God!  You mean profiling?  Yes, I do.  Stop all Muslims from entering the country.  All of them.  On this we agree.  Profiling is a logical, practical and effective way to identify and stop one's enemy.  Only political correctness can erode its effectiveness.  And we've all agreed that political correctness is censorship, and in and of itself is a major obstacle to the truth.   

Enforce the law.  Now there's a novel approach.  We agreed we could simply enforce existing immigration laws, which require a specified process for entering the Untied States.  Those laws are, and have been, on the books for years, but have been "vacated" by this traitorous administration.  Border agents and ICE agents have been told directly by the White House to stand down and allow any and all to cross the southern border unimpeded.  So we get all kinds of nice folks coming into the country, most carrying disease, some carrying weapons, some carrying drugs.  And the best and the brightest flowing into the US are generally uneducated -  illiterate even in their own language - and without marketable skills.  And many in poor health. And this border issue is separate and apart from the Kenyan's willful importation and resettlement of Muslim third world savages into respectable communities across the nation.  The solution is to simply stop the lawlessness conducted by this administration, and enforce the laws already in place.

But now comes the real meat of solving this problem.  The goal is to win and end this 1,400 year long war with Islam.  There are three recognizable steps to putting an end to this war.  

First, recognize and identify the enemy.  The enemy is Islam, and its adherents from countries in the Middle East, North Africa and elsewhere have declared war on us.  Completely stop any more incoming Muslim or other  invaders by closing the border,  Enforce that closing  with Border Patrol and ICE agents.  Stop issuing any and all visas.  

Second, profile those already here to determine if they are simply a Chinese medical student, or a Syrian Muslim studying "air traffic safety." Believe in sharia law?   You're deported immediately and without further reservation.  Newt is right.  Vet everyone, one at a time.  Limit their mobility.  They are not yet American citizens, so this can be done without violating any constitutional protections.  Enforce the existing immigration laws and deport those who don't comply, and those who obviously seek to do us harm.  

And thirdly, do what the US government will not do.  The Constitutions requires the people to wrest control away from a tyrannical and unresponsive oppressive federal government, so this is our civic duty.  Form community militias to screen for and identify the enemy.  In every city, town and village in this country.  Fight this psychological war with like kind psychology: terror with terror.  Let them know we are after them, and will kill them with impunity.  They love to tell us who they are though Facebook, Twitter and other social media.  Easy.  Identify terror cells, radical mosques, belligerent mullahs who incite jihad.  And arrest them.  Detain them.  And if they resist, kill them.

A point lost on many Americans is that this is a real war.  To the enemy, it's deadly serious.  Many Americans, on the other hand, don't realize this is a fight for their very survival, and they tend to get squishy and wobbly when they read things like the paragraph above.  But make no mistake, this is a world war, and the enforcement of the fascist tenets of Islam and sharia law on all peoples and all nations is the enemy's goal.  

And that, dear readers, is something Americans will resist with extreme prejudice.

Odd Bits

The most intriguing thing about FBI Director Comey's rationale for not prosecuting HRC for her handling of classified information while Secretary of State is the clever way he did it.  In an unprecedented move, he held a global press conference in which he recites an exhaustive list of Hillary’s actions, leaving no doubt she is guilty of gross negligence in her handling of classified materials. But he recommends no prosecution, because the Bureau found no evidence she intended to do harm.  Clearly Comey knows that intent is not the legal issue; gross negligence is sufficient for prosecution, conviction, and sentencing.  He knows he'll be called before Congress and will be raked over the coals, and in the process he will reveal more clearly how Hillary had violated the law. Comey would continue to assert there was no need for prosecution, while at the same time demonstrating that the facts were sufficient for prosecution, and  that prosecution was exactly the proper path. And that’s what happened during Comey’s questioning by Trey Gowdy.  Comey revealed unquestionably that HRC lied.  Again and again and again.  But Comey, who was assigned the task to take the fall for the government team, was brilliant in his approach.  He did just that, but let America and the world know that HRC is as guilty as sin.  Politics at work - in spades.  To paraphrase a famous line by Al Pacino's character Tony Montana in the movie Scarface:  He told the truth, even when he lied.  Brilliant.

Everyone understands that the conversation over gun control is hotly debated.  But here are some interesting statistics that you'll never see in the MSM.  First, let's stipulate that there are some 30,000 gun related deaths annually in the US by firearms.  What is never shown, though, is a breakdown of those deaths.

65% of those deaths are by suicide, which would never be prevented by gun laws

15% are by law enforcement in the line of duty and mostly justified

17% are through criminal activity, gang and drug related or mentally ill persons

3% are accidental discharge deaths

So technically, "gun violence" does not cause 30,000 deaths annually, but only 5,100 (or 17% of 30,000).  Now where do these deaths predominantly occur?

480 homicides (9.4%) were in Chicago

344 homicides (6.7%) were in Baltimore
333 homicides (6.5%) were in Detroit
119 homicides (2.3%) were in Washington DC (a 54% increase over prior years)

So basically, 25% of all gun death happens in just four cities, all of which have draconian gun laws.  That puts to bed the notion that it's a lack of gun control laws causing these deaths.  This basically leaves 3,825 deaths for the entire rest of the nation, or about 75 per state. That is an average because some states have much higher rates than others.  For example, California had 1,169 gun related deaths, and Alabama had 1.  One might make a correlation between those cities listed above and designated sanctuary cities, and conclude that a high percentage of criminal element residing in those cities drives gun related crime more so than does just the fact of guns being present. 

So how does the 30,000 total gun related death figures compare to other deaths?

40,000 die from a drug overdose

36,000 people die per year from the flu

34,000 people die per year in traffic fatalities

200,000 people die each year from medical malpractice.
710,000 people die per year from heart disease   

But you won't see that in the media.

Technological Slippery Slope

Will AT-ST Walker Be Next Weapon?

OK, we now have a new paradigm in crime fighting.  The Dallas Police Department created a technological precedent last Thursday by neutralizing the threat of an active shooter by using a robot.  The robot carried roughly a pound of C4 explosives to within a lethal range of the shooter, one Micah X. Johnson, and well, blew him up.  Good job Dallas.  Scratch one bad guy with no further good guy losses.

But wait.  Is this precedent a good thing?  Is using non-human methods to kill humans opening a  Pandora's Box that can never be closed back up?  Scenes of science fiction movies like The Terminator spring to mind as mindless, preprogramed weaponized robots aimlessly kill humans wantonly.  That image should give thinking folks a good deal of pause.  How long will it be before those robots cast off human control and go rogue?

The Dallas Bomb Carrying Robot

The vehicle that killed Johnson in Dallas is actually a remote controlled tracked vehicle, not what most folks consider a robotic with some degree of artificial intelligence.  Built by Northrup Grumman, the Andros F6B is a military grade, heavy duty remote controlled robotic vehicle.  And while this is the first time it - or any robotic vehicle - has been used in a civilian application, they're used in combat scenarios from time to time.  The appeal of use is that a machine can deliver lethality to an enemy without potential loss of life of friendlies.  I get it.

But some ethicists are worried.  “My initial reaction was that we have just got onto the slippery slope,” said Heather Roff, a senior research fellow at Oxford and a research scientist at Arizona State University’s Global Security Initiative. “This is going to be very hard to put back and that the militarization of police capabilities means that they may now feel that it is reasonable to use robotics in this way to ensure compliance.  If one doesn’t have to talk to a subject and can demand compliance, then this may mean more forceful or coercive demands are made.”

Yep, that's exactly what concerns me:  Demand compliance with impunity.  Think of armored robots rolling - or walking -  through the streets, armed with lasers or other advanced weaponry.  That's certainly a good way to control the populace, and now that we have a popular acceptance of using robots to kill civilians, as bad and radical as they may be, I think we're on a technological slippery slope.  Very steep and slippery.

I'm all for law and order, no doubt. But I also respect the constraints put on police.  And I think the current fad of militarizing the police isn't necessarily a good idea.   That said, I realize that certain people in this country are radicalized into an anti-American fervor and they're no longer content with peaceful protests.  And I think the Regressive left has fanned these anti-American flames to incite these kinds of attacks, and they're solely responsible for the divisive racist rhetoric.  The Kenyan and his administration has demonstrated this undeniably.

So instead of militarizing the police, lets add more cops on the beat with fewer bureaucrats to politicize them.  And let's counter the Regressive left's propaganda by teaching self respect and self reliance, not victimization, for all citizens.  

And if this is done, we won't need to dance on such a slippery technological slope.

The Kenyan's Legacy: Chaos

It just gets better and better.  

Can't Touch ME!

Yesterday Democrats lionized their presumptive leader, and are thrilled she won't face FBI charges for her treason as Secretary of State.  They didn't even place her under oath, so that the charge of perjury couldn't be made.  The fix is in.  The fate of the country doesn't matter to Democrats, as long as they can continue to maintain their stranglehold on political power, selling influence, and getting their thirty pieces of silver as well, even while in the minority.  Or maybe, they're fine folks at heart, but just don't want to wind up dead as some five dozen others who have gotten sideways with the Clintons have found themselves.  Including, perhaps, our mulatto Dear Leader, who found it expedient to fly HRC to her North Carolina campaign stop aboard Air Force One. Now that takes a heaping helping of chutzpah, my friends.

Today we Americans wake up to the news that cops have been killed and critically wounded in a massacred in Dallas.  As of this writing, 6 dead, 12 wounded.  By snipers.  This attack was orchestrated, planned and executed with paramilitary precision.  And timed to a "peaceful" Black Lives Matter Protest.  Our Dear Leader takes a few seconds from his NATO speech in Poland to condemn . . .  guns.   So far, Dallas police have not yet identified the shooters, but I'll go out on a limb here:  They will be shown to be black extremists:  Black Panthers or other Muslim jihadists with an allegiance to ISIS.  The Kenyan will lay blame on Trump, guns, cops and white America in general. 

Meanwhile, we learn that censorship is alive and well in social media.  Facebook, notorious for assuming it has become the world's sole arbiter of fairness, morality and justice, is blocking stories from Breitbart News. Amazon's Fire browser, Silk, also blocks Breitbart from inclusion in viewers' "Most Viewed" page.  Silk tried that with the Drudge Report as well, but finally relented.  Reddit censors all Muslim rape and crime news stories.  And American media simply won't report the overwhelming disaster forced Muslim migration has been, both here and abroad.  In Germany, you will be arrested for criticizing the Muslim invasion - on Facebook.   To witness the truth about the global Muslim invasion fiasco for yourself, only one site carries it all: Bare Naked Islam.

Of Course He's A Muslim

From whence does this chaos come?  There's an answer to that.  It comes from the deliberate actions of this President.  The suppression of freedoms.  The enactment of censorship.  The total corruption of government.  The aiding and abetting of Muslim jihad, both foreign and domestic.  The incitement and fueling of racial tensions.  The undermining of law and order.  The forced denial of Christian morality.  And there's no one who will stop him as he goes about destroying America.  The intimidation is complete: because he hides behind his race - half of it, anyway - people are afraid to be called racist, or a Islamophobe or a homophobe if they criticize him.  And with good reason.  Because given the in-your-face corruption exhibited by both the Clintons and this regime, any criticism could lead to one's untimely and uninvestigated demise.

Yep, in the final days and weeks of this corrupt and ungodly administration, the chaos just gets better and better.

Corruption Is A Scorpion

It's Just The Nature Of The Beast

There's an old parable that goes like this:  A frog and a scorpion are on a river bank, each seeking to get to the other side.  The scorpion begs the frog to carry him on his back across, but the frog declines, telling the scorpion that he fears the scorpion would sting him to death once across.  The scorpion assures the frog that no such thing would happen, that if he did that, he would die too.  Further,  he'd be grateful  and indebted to the frog for carrying him across the river.  Finally the frog is persuaded to carry the scorpion across.  Once on the other bank, however, the scorpion stings the frog fatally and jumps off onto dry land.  The frog, betrayed and dismayed, asks the scorpion in his dying breath why he would so blatantly lie to him and fatally sting him after assuring him he would not do so.  The scorpion shrugged and told the frog, "You knew I'm a scorpion.  It is my nature.  What else did you expect?"

So it is with corruption.  We know it when we see it, yet it assures us we'll all be fine.  And every time, we buy into that lie.  And every time, corruption immediately taints, and then destroys, whatever it touches.  The Chinese have an epithet, "May you live in interesting times."  On its face it sounds like a wish for good fortune.  But in reality it's a wish for toil and trouble.  A curse.  Interesting times, indeed.  

That's what we have today in a perfect storm of political corruption.  It's a meeting of two seemingly unstoppable corrupt influences:  One from Arkansas, the other from Chicago.  This corruption is embodied by two perfect psychopaths, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barry Soetoro, a.k.a Barrack Hussein Obama.  Because they are clinically psychopathic, their evil is unhidden, it's on full public display.  How is it these two reprobates came onto the public scene?   The answer is they've always been there, groomed and guided by puppet masters whose hands are unseen.  But now that they're in power, we have to deal with their destructive perversions, and it seems nothing can be done to rid us of these perfect manifestations of corruption and evil.  So who will rid us of this corrupt beast?

Not the Congress of the United States; which has been blackmailed, extorted, coerced, arm twisted and bribed into submission to the corrupt god of plutocratic globalism. 

Not the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court; a once honorable man who tramped on justice to rewrite a clearly unconstitutional, and illegal, forced dictate from our Dear Leader.

Not the Attorney General, the nation's top cop; who personally met with a private citizen and subsequently found no inclination to prosecute nefarious Hillary's high crimes and treason.

Not the FBI; who, like the Chief Justice, rewrote current criminal law to facilitate and excuse the wrongdoings of the Secretary of State.

Not the United States military; whose patriotic top generals have been "retired" in favor of bureaucratic sycophants to the corrupt administration.

Not the watch dog media; which has replaced its apolitical reporting with biased "journalists" who are ideologically in league with the powerful and corrupt.

Not the alternative media; the so called conservative patriot pajama media who recognize the threat, and blog to the high heavens, and whose voices are censored and silenced by the Scorpion.

Not the voters; half of whom were blinded by the promises being made, by the utopia that was guaranteed, and who lacked the sophistication to see through the lies being told.

And not the people themselves; who have been harassed and oppressed into submission by the manipulated and imposed economic depression, and who are compelled to meekly go along with the Scorpion just to keep their families fed and sheltered.

So why are we surprised when the FBI can't find evidence to convict HRC of treason in selling US influence as Secretary of State?  Why are we surprised that private citizen Bill Clinton met with Attorney General Loretta Lynch to "work things out" with Hillary?  And why are we surprised that no charges are brought as the Kenyan, working together with HRC's active direction, result from the Benghazi murders of four United States citizens? And why are we surprised that jihadist Muslims by the tens of thousands are being imported into the US, and then trained and abetted rather than deported with extreme prejudice?

The answer is simple, and painfully obvious.  We live in interesting times, and we knew corruption was a Scorpion all along.  But we voted it in anyway.  

This is just its nature.  What else did we expect?

The Crime of Dissent

The fourth is over, and the cardboard canisters of expended fireworks still bear evidence of celebration in the streets of many neighborhoods.  Today, however, we return to the disheartening task of reviewing the news of the day, and the realization that our freedoms - those that we celebrated just yesterday - are being eroded, erased and forgotten.

In Georgia a newspaper publisher and his attorney are charged and jailed for the crime of requesting public information through the Open Records Act.  He was investigating the use of public monies to pay the judge's legal bills. Normal stuff, right?  Not anymore.  The judge had them arrested, jailed, and the long list of ridiculous conditions of their bail was nothing more than  punitive.  You may recall that the press's job is to act as the public's watchdog over government policies and activities.  Sadly, in recent years, the press, actually the media in general, is nothing more than the propaganda arm of the Democrat Party.  They protect their own, while attempting to destroy any opposition.  Ten years ago, this would have been thought the tactics of Soviet Russia or Nazi SS.  But in the Kenyan's divisive America, officials don't fear public reprisal anymore - they simply do what they can get away with.

Hello Racist, a new website, has been set up seeking to shame online "racists" through public internet exposure. It is designed to “expose racism, fight ignorance and be the place where people of all races, religion, and political beliefs can share their stories.”  Right.  But only if you're a tolerant, enlightened, left wing snowflake.  Guess what, cupcake?  The Constitution doesn't protect your delicate sensitivities from offense.  You have no right not to be offended.  The Constitution does, however, protect others' right to their own views, beliefs, speech and religion.  Oh yeah, and hate.  Some folks hate other folks for a myriad of reasons.  Get over it, it's human nature.  I'm a white, Southern conservative, and you hate me, right?  So who's the racist?  But now anyone is subject to internet humiliation by virtue of someone else anonymously posting their views on a hate site.  It's a classic example of political correctness embedded in the very nature of the popular mindset.  Well, that's what libel and slander laws are for.  The founder said they wished to remain anonymous due to credible threats of violence and the threatening legal action.  No kidding.  So knock yourself out, little snowflake.

And what about censorship by media giants that control free speech?  If they arbitrarily shut down sites or "pages" with which they disagree, is that not censorship?  Of course it is.  If you espouse a view or activity that's in contravention with the left wing media apparatchiks that force government group think on users, that's dissent by definition.  A case in point is a gun range in Texas that offers free concealed handgun classes for the homosexual-and-sexual-identity-confused community, responding to concerns of homosexuals about Muslims following the Orlando Islamic terrorist attack.  That should have been welcomed with open arms by Facebook and lovers of all things homosexual, right?  Not so much.  You see, it's got to do with guns!  We can't advocate self reliance and self defense.  That's too American.  So Facebook took down both Shiloh Shooting's pages, and as of yet has not restored either account. 

The irony here is that the day after Independence Day, we get stories like these shaming dissent.  Yet what was Independence Day?  It was the day the colonies declared independence from Britain, essentially the United States' birthday.  Yet, sadly, those in the newly formed federal government either learned nothing from, or had forgotten, King George's heavy hand, and 73 years later a new revolution had to be fought.  And today, 156 years after that last revolution, we find ourselves in yet another revolution:  the return of a tyrannical, bloated, over bearing federal government to the citizens who own it.  The Kenyan's administration has apparently learned little from the last two American revolutions, and they forget at their peril.

Dissent is as American as apple pie.  It's who we are, it's what we do.  And that's the way it should be.

Why We Celebrate Independence Day

Ever Vigilant,Ever Ready

Today is the Fourth of July, Independence Day, the day the 13 American colonies declared independence from Britain.  Most folks know this is a national holiday, but many don't know what or why we celebrate.  There was a time in this country when learning about the Revolutionary War and independence from Britain was required.  Today, sadly, it's not.  In fact, most of the top colleges don't require any more than three or four credit hours of American history for history majors.  And a recent poll shows that many people on the street haven't any idea of what we're celebrating on this day.  "It's about burgers and beer and fireworks, man."  Right.  So because the man on the street is ignorant of his birthright of freedom, it's easy for a tyrannical government to flourish. 

So to help folks understand the events leading up to the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and thereafter to the adaptation of the American Constitution in 1787, that magnificent document that recognizes and guarantees freedom for all men from government oppression, I've provided a timeline of events below.  Thanks to the British Library for this concise and informative timeline.

1760s

1763 10 February	Signing of the Treaty of Paris Ending the Seven Year’s War, also known as the French and Indian War in North America.  France ceded all mainland North American territories, except New Orleans, in order to retain her Caribbean sugar islands. Britain gained all territory east of the Mississippi River; Spain kept territory west of the Mississippi, but exchanged East and West Florida for Cuba.
1763 7 October	Proclamation of 1763 Wary of the cost of defending the colonies, George III prohibited all settlement west of the Appalachian mountains without guarantees of security from local Native American nations. The intervention in colonial affairs offended the thirteen colonies' claim to the exclusive right to govern lands to their west.
1764 5 April	Sugar Act The first attempt to finance the defense of the colonies by the British Government. In order to deter smuggling and to encourage the production of British rum, taxes on molasses were dropped; a levy was placed on foreign Madeira wine and colonial exports of iron, lumber and other goods had to pass first through Britain and British customs. The Act established a Vice-Admiralty Court in Halifax, Nova Scotia to hear smuggling cases without jury and with the presumption of guilt. These measures led to widespread protest.
1765 22 March	Stamp Act Seeking to defray some of the costs of garrisoning the colonies, Parliament required all legal documents, newspapers and pamphlets required to use watermarked, or 'stamped' paper on which a levy was placed.
1765 15 May	Quartering Act Colonial assemblies required to pay for supplies to British garrisons. The New York assembly argued that it could not be forced to comply.
1765 30 May	Virginian Resolution The Virginian assembly refused to comply with the Stamp Act.
1765 7-25 October	Stamp Act Congress Representatives from nine of the thirteen colonies declare the Stamp Act unconstitutional as it was a tax levied without their consent.
1766 18 March	Declaratory Act Parliament finalises the repeal of the Stamp Act, but declares that it has the right to tax colonies
1767 29 June	Townshend Revenue Act (Townshend Duties) Duties on tea, glass, lead, paper and paint to help pay for the administration of the colonies, named after Charles Townshend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. John Dickinson publishes Letter from a Philadelphian Farmer in protest. Colonial assemblies condemn taxation without representation.
1768 1 October	British troops arrive in Boston in response to political unrest.
1770s
1770 5 March	Boston Massacre Angered by the presence of troops and Britain's colonial policy, a crowd began harassing a group of soldiers guarding the customs house; a soldier was knocked down by a snowball and discharged his musket, sparking a volley into the crowd which kills five civilians.
1770 12 April	Repeal of the Townshend Revenue Act
1772 10 June	Burning of the Gaspee The revenue schooner Gaspee ran aground near Providence, Rhode Island and was burnt by locals angered by the enforcement of trade legislation.
1773 July	Publication of Thomas Hutchinson letters In these letters, Hutchinson, the Massachusetts governor, advocated a 'great restraint of natural liberty', convincing many colonists of a planned British clamp-down on their freedoms.
1773 10 May	Tea Act In an effort to support the ailing East India Company, Parliament exempted its tea from import duties and allowed the Company to sell its tea directly to the colonies. Americans resented what they saw as an indirect tax subsidizing a British company.
1773 16 December	Boston Tea Party Angered by the Tea Acts, American patriots disguised as Mohawk Indians dump £9,000 of East India Company tea into the Boston harbour.
1774 May to June	Intolerable Acts Four measures which stripped Massachusetts of self-government and judicial independence following the Boston Tea Party. The colonies responded with a general boycott of British goods.
1774 September	Continental Congress Colonial delegates meet to organize opposition to the Intolerable Acts.
1775 19 April	Battles of Lexington and Concord First engagements of the Revolutionary War between British troops and the Minutemen, who had been warned of the attack by Paul Revere.
1775 16 June	Continental Congress appoints George Washington commander-in-chief of Continental Army; issued $2 million bills of credit to fund the army.
1775 17 June	Battle of Bunker Hill The first major battle of the War of Independence. Sir William Howe dislodged William Prescott's forces overlooking Boston at a cost of 1054 British casualties to the Americans' 367.
1775 5 July	Olive-Branch Petition Congress endorses a proposal asking for recognition of American rights, the ending of the Intolerable Acts in exchange for a cease fire. George III rejected the proposal and on 23 August 1775 declared the colonies to be in open rebellion.
1776 9 January	Thomas Paine's Common Sense published anonymously in Philadelphia
1776 2 May	France provides covert aid to the Americans
1776 4 July	Continental Congress issues the Declaration of Independence
1775-1776 Winter	Invasion of Canada by Benedict Arnold
1776 August - December	Battles of Long Island and White Plains British forces occupy New York after American defeats.
1776 26 December	Battle of Trenton, New Jersey, providing a boast to American morale.
1777 2-3 January	Battle of Princeton, New Jersey. General Washington broke camp at Trenton to avoid a British advance, attacking the British rearguard and train near Princeton and then withdrawing to Morristown.
1777 13 October	British surrender of 5,700 troops at Saratoga. Lacking supplies, 5,700 British, German and loyalist forces under Major General John Burgoyne surrender to Major General Horatio Gates in a turning point in the Revolutionary War.
1778 6 February	France recognizes US Independence.
1780s
1780 16 August	US Defeat at battle of Camden
1781 1 March	Ratification of the Articles of Confederation
1781 5 September	Battle of the Capes, denying British reinforcements or evacuation.
1781 18 October	Surrender of British forces under Cornwallis at Yorktown.
1782 5 March	British Government authorizes peace negotiations.
1783 3 September	Treaty of Paris, formally ending the Revolutionary War
1786-1787	Shays’s Rebellion Massachusetts rebellion led by the Revolutionary War veteran Daniel Shays against high taxes.
1787 25 May	Constitutional Convention
1787	Adoption of the American Constitution

Astute readers will recognize many similarities in the events above with current events taking place today. Most notable are the oppressive tactics of tyrannical governments concerning confiscatory taxes, unreasonable invasion of privacy, and dictatorial and arbitrary repressive edicts.

It gives one pause:  perhaps events from 2008 through 2016 and beyond are the lead in to another declaration of independence.  Perhaps.  We'll know by January.  Maybe we'll have the fortitude to do what our forebears did at considerable cost:  Take our country and our freedom back.