Socialism wins in Great Britain in a mega-landslide, maybe the biggest ever. How much more left can Britain go? 100 percent taxation (elites and politicians excluded)? White slavery? Mandatory Muslim practices for all citizens? Socialized everything? Immediate outlawing of fossil fuels? Collective farming? The King — a paleo Communist who thinks he’s enlightened — seems delighted. Maybe they can take 100 percent of the Royal family’s wealth to pay for it all. This will be interesting — and tragic — to watch. Britain was once the epicenter of civilization. The Mother Country is going down. It will not survive 5 years of this.

***************

Biden and Trump, ironically, will soon be in the same situation. The elites and the oligarchs who control America apparently want Biden out — Soros, the media, the government dominated corporations. He served his purpose. When THEY say he’s gone, he will be gone. It doesn’t matter if Biden wants to stay. He’s not the boss, and never was. Neither will his replacement. Kamala is just fine with that, just so she gets to be President, a now meaningless figurehead of a ruined republic. Michelle is greedy: She wants to be a real dictator. They still might get her in. Or Gavin. It really doesn’t matter. Without an actual revolution, we’re screwed. Yes, I will vote for Trump, assuming there’s even an election. But I am realistic.

Speculation aside: It’s no fun to watch America fall. But it is fun to watch the DemComs turn on each other — like the sociopathic savages they are!

Follow Dr. Hurd on Facebook. Search under “Michael Hurd” (Charleston SC). Get up-to-the-minute postings, recommended articles and links, and engage in back-and-forth discussion with Dr. Hurd on topics of interest. Also follow Dr. Hurd on Twitter at @MichaelJHurd1, drmichaelhurd on Instagram, Michael Hurd Ph.D. on LinkedIn, @DrHurd on TruthSocial

Richard Ruggiero asks a great question: “How is it, on Independence Day, the most sacred day of the year for me, so many people celebrate “the 4th of July” with barbecues and fireworks and at few of those parties do people actually read the Declaration of Independence and discuss the ideas of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Is it too intellectual an undertaking to understand the ideas which have made our lives possible and to transmit them to a younger generation?”

Sadly, the widespread cluelessness about the ideas and values required to sustain a free society are eventually what killed America. To me, the final proof came during the mass submission seen during COVID. Most think that freedom (and its magnificent side-effect, prosperity) will just go on, as if on automatic. They think it will go on despite the wrecking ball applied to our freedom daily by a wildly insane, out of control government — a government that millions of them will continue to support and vote for.

Boy, won’t most of them be surprised to wake up one day, especially under hyperinflation, and realize all that they lost. They still won’t understand why they lost it; and they will blame things like capitalism, Trump, “too few” taxes/regulations, Republicans and “climate change.” You can’t fix cluelessness of this magnitude.

Follow Dr. Hurd on Facebook. Search under “Michael Hurd” (Charleston SC). Get up-to-the-minute postings, recommended articles and links, and engage in back-and-forth discussion with Dr. Hurd on topics of interest. Also follow Dr. Hurd on Twitter at @MichaelJHurd1, drmichaelhurd on Instagram, Michael Hurd Ph.D. on LinkedIn, @DrHurd on TruthSocial

[The following was posted on Facebook, and the original source is unknown.]

What’s your favorite line from Star Trek?

There are two different lines from the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Drumhead” which I have always really loved. Not because they are particularly brilliant rhetorically, but because of the underlying message they convey.

To quickly set it up for those who haven’t seen the episode, there is an explosion aboard the Enterprise and an investigation begins, headed by Admiral Norah Satie, a very well regarded Starfleet officer who has uncovered many conspiracies in her career.

She determines that a visiting Klingon officer was, in fact, a spy, and suspects that he — helped by members of the crew — was responsible for the explosion. Her investigation grows more paranoid and she starts to see conspirators everywhere, including a junior enlisted crewman who had lied about his supposedly Vulcan grandfather on his applications to Starfleet, in order to hide the fact that he was in fact Romulan.

The witch hunt completely spins out of control, and Captain Picard, who was at one time working well with her, decides to actively fight against her increasingly irrational investigation. After this, Satie calls him into her hearing and ends up accusing him of treason with no evidence.

Her outburst at the trial humiliates her in front of the Chief of Starfleet Security, who walks out of the hearing. She eventually leaves the ship in disgrace, and the Enterprise returns to normal.

The title of the episode comes from the concept of a “drumhead trial” where soldiers would dispense summary justice on the head of a drum, with no due process or respect for the rights of the accused. Satie, in this episode, was attempting to do the same thing.

Now that I’ve set this up, my first, and probably most favorite line comes from the end of the episode when Worf is talking to Captain Picard in the aftermath of the trial.

Worf: I believed her. I, I helped her. I did not see what she was.

Picard: Mister Worf, villains who twirl their moustaches are easy to spot. Those who clothe themselves in good deeds are well camouflaged.

Worf: I think… after yesterday, people will not be so ready to trust her.

Picard: Maybe. But she, or someone like her, will always be with us, waiting for the right climate in which to flourish, spreading fear in the name of righteousness. Vigilance, Mister Worf – that is the price we have to continually pay.

Not only is that statement true, but what a wonderful way of putting it. And of course, the delightful Patrick Stewart’s Shakespearian delivery of the lines makes the whole thing all the better.

My second favorite line from this episode, and with it the franchise, is Picard’s speech at the trial itself.

After Satie says that she “questions [Picard’s] loyalties,” he calmly and quietly responds:

“You know, there are some words I’ve known since I was a schoolboy: With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably.” Those words were uttered by Judge Aaron Satie, as wisdom and warning. The first time any man’s freedom is trodden on, we’re all damaged.”

After which she goes absolutely bonkers and starts ranting and raving about her father (who spoke the words Picard recited) and how she has “brought down bigger men than you, Picard!”

In this speech, Picard delivers a broadside against the disregard for personal liberty and human freedom, directly challenging the idea that society can tolerate abridgments in that freedom in the name of security.

And, might I say that both of these remarks, spoken in the early 1990s, proved to be eerily prescient about the coming societal debates we would be having less than a decade later, and beyond. Really top quality stuff, there.

Michael J. Hurd

There was no difference between July 3, 1776, and July 5. By all outward appearances, the American colonies were no more free and no more independent. Practically speaking, the governing structures were not different.

So what makes the Fourth of July so special?

Think about it. We do not celebrate October 19, 1781, the date the war for American independence ended. There are no parades commemorating September 3, 1783, when the Treaty of Paris formally concluded the war.

No, we celebrate July 4, 1776. That is the day when our Founding Fathers firmly, finally, and officially committed themselves—their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor—to the cause of American liberty.

Now, make no mistake: many of them had done so personally and individually weeks, months, even years earlier. They already had an army, and blood had already been shed.

Yet, the Fourth of July is celebrated because that is when they formally, out loud, with one voice, declared their independence. They acknowledged to each other and a candid world that they were dissolving their political ties with England.

We celebrate their commitment to the fight. It is a recognition that, in the most important ways, by choosing to declare their independence, they had already achieved it.

Nearly all of our Founding Fathers were men of faith; they understood that the struggle upon which they were to engage may or may not be successful in the eyes of the world. That didn’t matter; they achieved freedom in their choice, declared on the Fourth of July, and the fight ahead was merely the necessary consequence.

On Independence Day, we celebrate our Founding Fathers’ commitment to the ideals of self-governance. On Independence Day, we celebrate their willingness to exercise their convictions for themselves and for us.

On this Independence Day, let us recommit ourselves to their founding convictions. Let us recognize that refusing to accept the yoke of tyranny is the highest expression of liberty.

As it was in 1776, so it is today. The real difference between July 3rd and July 5th is what we commit ourselves to on the Fourth of July.

Michael Quinn Sullivan

https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/historic-document-library/detail/the-declaration-of-independence?psafe_param=1&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwkJm0BhBxEiwAwT1AXIOeChb3hlLFiYNaOF6_ABhjr2WNncVqbF5carsevpZ7X5CYbZEtNRoCfXEQAvD_BwE

I can’t remember the last time Americans were truly united. Maybe Sept. 12, 2001, but I was too young to remember. 

Now the only thing tethering us to one another is our complacency. It’s the one thing we all share. We’ve been fed — and willingly consume — distractions, mostly petty grievances stoked by politicians who thrive on division and chaos, on social media and television. Who has time to care about government overreach or lawfare when our favorite TV show starts in an hour?

We’ve ceded too much power to the government because generation after generation slowly let their foot off the pedal and became willingly complacent via distractions. It’s why we ended up with an administrative state that lets unelected bureaucrats write their own laws. It’s why private citizens were — up until the Supreme Court stepped in this week — allowed to be tried in certain criminal cases without a jury of their peers. We were told government experts know best. We traded political power for expediency, and in doing so we’ve forfeited the “common cause” that was responsible for the inception of this nation.

The American Revolution didn’t begin on July 4, 1776. It began in the decades prior when the British began creating an untenable position for the colonists. There was the Sugar Act of 1764, The Stamp Act of 1765, and The Townshend Acts of 1767; all of which raised taxes on the colonists in various forms to subsidize the British war machine. Colonists resented the notion that they should be taxed without representation. They also rejected corruption and big government. Their rights could not be reconciled with Britain’s long-standing position of total control.

The culmination of British efforts to subdue their subjects perhaps reached a pivotal turning point when Parliament passed The Tea Act of 1773. The act gave the East India Company a tax break which lowered tea prices for colonists but also allowed the East India Company to create a virtual monopoly. It was a gotcha-moment. Colonists still had to pay the Townshend tax that they had decried just six years earlier and saw The Tea Act for the farce it was — a ploy for the king to flex his muscle — “You have no choice but to buy the tea we sell you.”

The move revived colonial resentment toward the British.

Following the passage of The Tea Act, most tea ships that arrived at ports in New York and Philadelphia could not unload their cargo due to swarms of angry colonists. But in Massachusetts, loyalist governor Thomas Hutchinson forbade the ships to leave without unloading their cargo. 

After years of attempts at reconciliation, it was clear that diplomatic efforts had failed.

At least 5,000 colonists gathered in Old South Church to deliberate how they would respond to the situation. On Dec. 16, 1773, dozens of men in disguises boarded the ships and dumped chests of tea into Boston Harbor. 

In response, Parliament passed the so-called Intolerable Acts, restricting trade into Boston, ordering colonists to house British soldiers and removing the local elected government and replacing them with a council appointed by the king, among other measures. 

As John Dickinson later noted, “the insanity of Parliament has operated like inspiration in America. The Colonists now know what is designed against them.”

And suddenly, the phrase “the common cause” began appearing in pamphlets up and down the East Coast. The “common cause” was a call to all colonists to stand with their oppressed brethren in Boston against tyrannical overreach by the government. 

To be clear, the Southern colonies had little in common with their Northern counterparts. For example, their economies were vastly different and dependent on different goods. Georgians could have ignored the plight of their fellow colonists in Massachusetts, but they knew should the same fate befall them, they too would have to face it alone. And so, the colonists moved forward under a united front.

“The die is now cast, the [American] colonies must now either submit or triumph,” King George III infamously said in Sept. 1774. 

Colonists owed no obedience to unjust laws. There would be no such submission. They would take death or liberty. 

Their sacrifices, willpower, and commitment to the “common cause” are why we celebrate the Fourth of July, Independence Day. 

But it is a lack of that “common cause” that has put us in the position we are in today. Government has become too big, and Americans are — just as our forefathers — treated as piggy banks for bureaucrats who spend uncontrollably to finance their partisan agenda. There can be no better tomorrow under these circumstances, but who would know? We’re all too busy endlessly scrolling on social media to realize what’s happening around us. We’re willingly distracted.

America is in need of a “common cause” now more than ever. Too much is at stake.

Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist.

It’s hard to celebrate July 4th in 2024 because it’s supposed to be a celebration of freedom. America might not yet seem like a totalitarian dictatorship. But free countries do NOT throw the primary political opposition (the more popular candidate) in jail. Free countries do not redistribute wealth (student loan forgiveness only the latest example). Free countries do not suspend due process for years on end over misdemeanor charges, as with January 6 prisoners. Free countries do not devalue the currency, in the process eroding the middle class for the sake of a wealthy, politically connected elite who will control everything we do. Call it what you will. NONE of this is freedom.

I will celebrate freedom today. I will celebrate America for what it might and ought to be, but not for what we have let ourselves become.

Follow Dr. Hurd on Facebook. Search under “Michael Hurd” (Charleston SC). Get up-to-the-minute postings, recommended articles and links, and engage in back-and-forth discussion with Dr. Hurd on topics of interest. Also follow Dr. Hurd on Twitter at @MichaelJHurd1, drmichaelhurd on Instagram, Michael Hurd Ph.D. on LinkedIn, @DrHurd on TruthSocial

President Biden’s duty to the American people is to “faithfully execute” his office. As a public trustee, Biden took an oath to do what is right. He is a trustee of powers bestowed upon him by the Constitution in return for his promise to be dutiful.

Like every agent and trustee, Biden owes fiduciary duties to those who are served by his decisions. He owes them two duties: the duty of always acting with due care; and the duty of giving them his absolute loyalty, always putting their interests above his own.

A president’s failure to use due care or be loyal is ground for impeachment. Under our Constitution, impeachment for “high crimes and misdemeanors” is not a criminal proceeding. Rather, it is a civil proceeding to discharge from office one who has failed in his or her trusteeship.

John Locke put it this way:

Who shall be judge, whether the prince or legislative act contrary to their trust? … To this I reply, The people shall be judge; for who shall be judge whether his trustee or deputy acts well, and according to the trust reposed in him, but he who deputes him, and must, by having deputed him, have still a power to discard him, when he fails in his trust? If this be reasonable in particular cases of private men, why should it be otherwise in that of the greatest moment, where the welfare of millions is concerned, and also where the evil, if not prevented, is greater, and the redress very difficult, dear, and dangerous?

More than 50 years ago, when the impeachment of Richard Nixon was under consideration in the House of Representatives, I researched the English parliamentary practice of impeaching high officers for “high crimes and misdemeanors.” The lead special counsel in the impeachment proceeding, John Doar, incorporated my conclusions into the articles of impeachment of Richard Nixon in these words:

In all of this, Richard M. Nixon has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.

Wherefore Richard M. Nixon, by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office.

The same standard of abuse of fiduciary duties was later included in the articles of impeachment of Donald Trump:

In all of this, President Trump has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.

As we saw last Thursday, President Biden is no longer capable of acting with due care as steward of the best interest of the American people. He appeared physically and cognitively inept. His answers to simple questions were nonsensical. Even Nancy Pelosi wondered aloud, “Is this an episode or is this a condition?”

For Biden to remain in office, he will not be faithfully executing it. Rather, he will be using the powers of the office for self-serving ends, depriving the American people of a vigorous defender of our rights and privileges. If Biden does not resign immediately, he has committed an impeachable offense by causing “manifest injury of the people of the United States.”

Should Biden attempt to have his cake and eat it too, he might withdraw his candidacy for this year’s presidential election but not resign as president. If he affirms that he would not be qualified to execute the office of president in January 2025, then why is he qualified to serve in that office today? To withdraw from the presidential race but continue in office would be a violation of his duty of loyalty to the American people.

Joe Biden made a choice when he took the oath of office to serve as our president. If he can no longer be loyal or serve with due care, then he must resign his office or be impeached.

Stephen B. Young is global director of the Caux Round Table for Moral Capitalism. He was an assistant dean at the Harvard Law School and later dean and professor of law at the Hamline University School of Law.