Independence Day

It's July 4th, Independence Day in the good old US of A.  It is a terrible tragedy that there are many people who do not know the history of our country at all.  There is unfortunately an ever more terrible tragedy in that there are a lot of people that THINK they know the history of this country.
Before you go out and watch the fireworks perhaps you should take a moment to consider the history of this nation and the nature of the founding and the founding fathers of this "republic".
First there is the Declaration of Independence.  Basically it is an indictment of King George III and his failure to address the grievances of the people who wrote and signed the document.  This purported to represent the will of the people.  They had no authority to do this.  In any event this nation purports to be a nation that allows it's people a redress of it's grievances but in fact it does not allow for this at all.  In the Medicare slashing of Paul Ryan we have seen a total disregard for the constituency as here:

and here:

One could easily write up a list of grievances very similar to that which is in the Declaration, but against our supposed great government of, by and for the people.

The constitution is meaningless as a document because the government, supposedly constrained by it, routinely ignores it and have done so since this country was supposedly founded.   Today we have a manifest disregard for the 4th Amendment with the TSA searching people with no probable cause as here:

and here:

Little girls are presumed to be carrying bombs in their Underoos.  Guilty until groped.

The fact of the matter is that the "founding fathers" were rich white men that owned land.  There was a strong impulse for rich landowners to protect their interests but to do so with some cover.  The "we the people" and reference to "us" and "our" are only for the rich and powerful but because they also have another meaning people think those provisions apply to them.  They do not and never did.

The Whiskey Rebellion was a perfect and early example of the ignorance of grievances by the government just barely born.

Hey how about this.  I am a colony of a hated tyrannical King.  I declare independence from that kingdom.  So in setting up my country I want to have a distinctive flag to show my new status.  I am not going to use any of the devices of the hated tyrannical kingdom I just fought with for independence?  Right?

First US Flag:

"Betsy Ross" supposed flag:

British flag:

Variant:

One of the chief corporate oligarchical controllers of the British Empire was the East India Company and this was it's flag:

Seems like there was no desire to draw a clear distinction from the tyranny by the "blessed" founding fathers, which should be rather telling, no?

Food for thought on the idea of independence and whether or not we ever had it at all.

My 4th of July video for 2011:

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