"One cannot speak truth to power if power has no use for the truth.”
--- Line from the AMC television series Turn: Washington's Spies, a Revolutionary War drama based on the novel of the same name by Alexander Rose, American author and historian.
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Stephen Herman is an old friend, fellow memo reader, West Point Graduate and physician. He posted this on his Facebook page. He was responding to an op ed by a prominent Savannah doctor.I commented, what Stephen wrote was too logical for government bureaucrats to comprehend. "
"Doctor Mark Murphy wrote a long op ed for the paper today re the medical care mess. I do not dispute anything he says. I do question the complexity of the argument. I see the issue in stark and simple terms. First of all, good medical care is a necessity for all. So, "the devil is in the details?"' The Left wants to have Socialized Medicine. The Right wants Free Market Medicine. Here is a radical solution: do both simultaneously. Have a very ample Public Health Service provide medical care, directly or indirectly, to those who choose to enroll in a public system, where fees are based on financial need. Let others have the freedom to buy high deductible, lower premium catastrophic health insurance and invest in tax supported Health Savings Accounts. Will one system work better than the other? Why not try it to find out?"
At the end of his posting I have posted his own simple solution.
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This was sent to me by a dear friend and fellow memo reader who happens to be a dentist. (See 1 below.)
And
This was sent to me by another dear friend and fellow memo reader. It is very long, very meaningful and insightful. Therefore few will read it, maybe fewer will understand its deeper meanings and this is why America is perched on a perilous slope. (See 1a and 1b below.)
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A woman came home, screeching her car into the driveway, and ran into the house. She slammed the door and shouted at the top of her lungs, 'Honey, pack your bags. I won the lottery!'
The husband said, 'Oh my God! What should I pack, beach stuff or mountain stuff?'
'Doesn't matter,' she said. 'Just get out.'
Marriage is a relationship in which one person is always right, and the other is a husband.
Mother Superior called all the nuns together and said to them, 'I must tell you all something.
We have a case of gonorrhea in the convent.'
'Thank God,' said an elderly nun at the back.
'I'm so tired of Chardonnay.
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Dick
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1)
If we cut through the noise and doublespeak of the debate over the repeal of the Obamacare death care system that is emanating from the cesspool of corruption that is the District of Criminals, the fraud of the American political system comes into full view.
To hear the political class tell it, as they grandstand to the cameras and the crowds, their No. 1 concern is that all Americans have "healthcare," and they don't want Americans to die from lack of "healthcare." Republican and Democrat politicians alike have latched onto the dubious figure from the Congressional Budget Office that under the Republican Senate's "Better Care" plan, 22 million Americans will lose "healthcare," and under the Republican House's AHCA plan, 23 million Americans will lose "healthcare." This is specious argle-bargle of the highest sort, and it demonstrates the power that change agents have over our language and our thoughts. Neither Obamacare, nor Better Care nor the AHCA are about healthcare. They are socialist redistributionary insurance policies. And people can and do receive healthcare regardless of whether they participate in one of these schemes. Healthcare is about health and wellness and the freedom to take care of your body — or not — as you see fit, and seeing the doctor of your choice, and having access to proper supplements — or chemical "medicinal" agents, if you desire — that you want, not what fascist public/private insurance scheme government agents want to force upon you. Obamcare and the iterations proposed by Republicans to replace it are merely control schemes and fascist ploys designed to relieve Americans of their health, wealth and liberties and transfer money to crony insurance corporations and the medical-industrial complex. The only differences between the plans lie in which favored cronies get the choice cuts and which are saddled with leftovers. When the Barack Obama regime first proposed Obamacare as the misnamed Affordable Care Act (note that with all government programs the result is always the opposite of what the name implies), Republicans balked and Democrats hemmed and hawed. But Republicans wanted it as a campaign tool and Democrats used it to pry for themselves more largess from the U.S. Treasury to pass along to their favored constituencies. The two most prominent examples are called the New Louisiana Purchase and the Cornhusker Kickback, but they are hardly outliers. Now the tables are reversed. Democrats are opposing the GOP plans and Republicans are hemming and hawing, holding out for more money and special favors. Since politicians have a parasitic mentality, they are naturally attracted to creating class warfare, hence the created divide over Medicare funding and tax cuts. They manipulate the people against each other, causing political and social unrest as excuses for more suppression of the people. And make no mistake. If/when Republicans reach enough votes for passage; there will be billions of dollars in favors being traded back and forth among the elite, but Joe and Jane Citizen will be left holding the bag with limited access to care and higher taxes. Lost in all the jibber-jabber is any talk about whether the Constitution grants government the authority to control health insurance or healthcare or steal money from one group or another to give to one group or another so that they have government-sponsored health insurance. The only discussion is over how much money is redistributed, not whether it is lawful under the Constitution in the first place. There was a time when the political class — Republicans especially — at least gave lip service to the Constitution. That time is long gone. The Constitution is not considered, and whether the Republicrats or the Demopublicans control government, government grows and our liberties and wealth are stolen. There is an axiom of geometry that applies to the masquerade of politics, to wit: "Things that are equal to the same thing are equal to each other." This is incredibly easy to see once the political party labels are removed. But this is a difficult or impossible task for the crowd. They love deception and delusion. Politics and propaganda tickles their ears and so it will always be as it always has been. Isn't it time for us to stop believing in the Santa Claus of the two party system? Does it matter what labels devils wear? Washington is a cesspool of corrupt politicians. With very few exceptions, the "elected" politicians are completely amoral. They have a completely different mindset from the people they are supposed to represent. They have absolutely no concept of right or wrong. To them "right" is self-aggrandizement and how to stay in office. Unless and until we can view them as Machiavellians, we will be deceived about every political event. Most politicians have one purpose; to milk the system for all it's worth. They have total and complete contempt for the U.S. Constitution and the American people. Politicians have no value system and the rule of law is a joke to them. What in the world would it take to believe what is written here, after taking one look at the special privileges and benefits they have voted themselves? We should study the socialist profiles of Elizabeth Warren, Nancy Pelosi, Bernie Sanders, Mitch McConnell, John McCain and Paul Ryan. They are the politicians' politician. Their actions and general demeanor indicate that they believe as Alexander Hamilton did, that the American people are a "great beast." To these humanoids, there is nothing sacred and being right is what they think is right. As Thomas Jefferson wrote about Alexander Hamilton in a letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush:
Believing in the necessity of either force or corruption to govern men is the mantra of the politician and government bureaucrat, and they believe that, by the high and lofty positions they've obtained, they and only they are capable of governing the American "great beasts." It is no secret that the two party political system in America is essentially one. It is a lesser known fact, because it is so utterly unacceptable to most of us, that the two parties have conspired to destroy the Constitution and bring the United States into a totalitarian New World Order. Yours for the truth,  Bob Livingston Editor, The Bob Livingston Letter™ Herman's solution! " I do question the complexity of Murphy's argument. I also see the issue in stark and simple terms. First of all, good medical care is a necessity for all. So, "the devil is in the details?"' The Left wants to have Socialized Medicine. The Right wants Free Market Medicine. Here is a radical solution: do both simultaneously. Have a very ample Public Health Service provide medical care, directly or indirectly, to those who choose to enroll in a public system, where fees are based on financial need. Let others have the freedom to buy high deductible, lower premium catastrophic health insurance and invest in tax supported Health Savings Accounts. Will one system work better than the other? Why not try it to find out? 1a)Independence Forever: Why America Celebrates the Fourth of July
By Matthew Spalding: Visiting Research Fellow
The Fourth of July is a great opportunity to renew our dedication to the
principles of liberty and equality enshrined in what Thomas Jefferson called
"the declaratory charter of our rights."
As a practical matter, the Declaration of Independence publicly announced to
the world the unanimous decision of the American colonies to declare
themselves free and independent states, absolved from any allegiance to
Great Britain. But its greater meaning-then as well as now-is as a statement
of the conditions of legitimate political authority and the proper ends of
government, and its proclamation of a new ground of political rule in the
sovereignty of the people. "If the American Revolution had produced nothing
but the Declaration of Independence," wrote the great historian Samuel Eliot
Morrison, "it would have been worthwhile."
Although Congress had appointed a distinguished committee-including John
Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston-the
Declaration of Independence is chiefly the work of Thomas Jefferson. By his
own account, Jefferson was neither aiming at originality nor taking from any
particular writings but was expressing the "harmonizing sentiments of the
day," as expressed in conversation, letters, essays, or "the elementary
books of public right, as Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, Sidney, etc." Jefferson
intended the Declaration to be "an expression of the American mind," and
wrote so as to "place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in
terms so plain and firm as to command their assent."
The structure of the Declaration of Independence is that of a common law
legal document. The ringing phrases of the document's famous second
paragraph are a powerful synthesis of American constitutional and republican
government theories. All men have a right to liberty only in so far as they
are by nature equal, which is to say none are naturally superior, and
deserve to rule, or inferior, and deserve to be ruled. Because men are
endowed with these rights, the rights are unalienable, which means that they
cannot be given up or taken away. And because individuals equally possess
these rights, governments derive their just powers from the consent of those
governed. The purpose of government is to secure these fundamental rights
and, although prudence tells us that governments should not be changed for
trivial reasons, the people retain the right to alter or abolish government
when it becomes destructive of these ends.
The remainder of the document is a bill of indictment accusing King George
III of some 30 offenses, some constitutional, some legal, and some matters
of policy. The combined charges against the king were intended to
demonstrate a history of repeated injuries, all having the object of
establishing "an absolute tyranny" over America. Although the colonists were
"disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable," the time had come to end
the relationship: "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."
One charge that Jefferson had included, but Congress removed, was that the
king had "waged cruel war against human nature" by introducing slavery and
allowing the slave trade into the American colonies. A few delegates were
unwilling to acknowledge that slavery violated the "most sacred rights of
life and liberty," and the passage was dropped for the sake of unanimity.
Thus was foreshadowed the central debate of the American Civil War, which
Abraham Lincoln saw as a test to determine whether a nation "conceived in
liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal"
could long endure.
The Declaration of Independence and the liberties recognized in it are
grounded in a higher law to which all human laws are answerable. This higher
law can be understood to derive from reason-the truths of the Declaration
are held to be "self-evident"-but also revelation. There are four references
to God in the document: to "the laws of nature and nature's God"; to all men
being "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights"; to "the
Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions"; and to "the
protection of Divine Providence." The first term suggests a deity that is
knowable by human reason, but the others-God as creator, as judge, and as
providence-are more biblical, and add a theological context to the document.
"And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed
their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these
liberties are a gift of God?" Jefferson asked in his Notes on the State of
Virginia.
The true significance of the Declaration lies in its trans-historical
meaning. Its appeal was not to any conventional law or political contract
but to the equal rights possessed by all men and "the separate and equal
station to which the Laws of Nature and nature's God" entitled them. What is
revolutionary about the Declaration of Independence is not that a particular
group of Americans declared their independence under particular
circumstances but that they did so by appealing to-and promising to base
their particular government on-a universal standard of justice. It is in
this sense that Abraham Lincoln praised "the man who, in the concrete
pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single people, had the
coolness, forecast, and capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary
document, an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times."
The ringing phrases of the Declaration of Independence speak to all those
who strive for liberty and seek to vindicate the principles of
self-government. But it was an aged John Adams who, when he was asked to
prepare a statement on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of
Independence, delivered two words that still convey our great hope every
Fourth of July: "Independence Forever."
Matthew Spalding, Ph.D. is Director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies at The Heritage Foundation.
QUOTATIONS ON THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
I am well aware of the toil, and blood, and treasure, that it will cost us
to maintain this declaration, and support and defend these states. Yet,
through all the gloom, I can see the rays of light and glory; I can see that
the end is more than worth all the means, and that posterity will triumph.
John Adams, letter to Abigail Adams, July 3, 1776
There! His Majesty can now read my name without glasses. And he can double
the reward on my head!
John Hancock (attributed), upon signing the Declaration of Independence,
July 4, 1776
We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.
Benjamin Franklin (attributed), at the signing of the Declaration of
Independence, July 4, 1776
The flames kindled on the 4th of July 1776, have spread over too much of the
globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the
contrary, they will consume these engines and all who work them.
Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, September 12, 1821.
With respect to our rights, and the acts of the British government
contravening those rights, there was but one opinion on this side of the
water. All American whigs thought alike on these subjects. When forced,
therefore, to resort to arms for redress, an appeal to the tribunal of the
world was deemed proper for our justification. This was the object of the
Declaration of Independence. Not to find out new principles, or new
arguments, never before thought of, not merely to say things which had never
been said before; but to place before mankind the common sense of the
subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent, and to
justify ourselves in the independent stand we are compelled to take. Neither
aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any
particular and previous writing, it was intended to be an expression of the
American mind, and to give to that expression the proper tone and spirit
called for by the occasion. All its authority rests then on the harmonizing
sentiments of the day, whether expressed in conversation, in letters,
printed essays, or in the elementary books of public right, as Aristotle,
Cicero, Locke, Sidney.
Thomas Jefferson, letter to Henry Lee, May 8, 1825
Independence Forever.
John Adams, toast for the 50th Anniversary of the Declaration of
Independence, July 4, 1826
I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the
chain of your nation's destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. The principles
contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those
principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all
foes, and at whatever cost.
Frederick Douglass, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" July 5, 1852.
The assertion that "all men are created equal" was of no practical use in
effecting our separation from Great Britain; and it was placed in the
Declaration, not for that, but for future use. Its authors meant it to be,
thank God, it is now proving itself, a stumbling block to those who in after
times might seek to turn a free people back into the hateful paths of
despotism. They knew the proneness of prosperity to breed tyrants, and they
meant when such should re-appear in this fair land and commence their
vocation they should find left for them at least one hard nut to crack.
Abraham Lincoln, speech on the Dred Scott Decision, June 26, 1857
.
We have besides these men-descended by blood from our ancestors-among us
perhaps half our people who are not descendants at all of these men, they
are men who have come from Europe-German, Irish, French and Scandinavian-men
that have come from Europe themselves, or whose ancestors have come hither
and settled here, finding themselves our equals in all things. If they look
back through this history to trace their connection with those days by
blood, they find they have none, they cannot carry themselves back into that
glorious epoch and make themselves feel that they are part of us, but when
they look through that old Declaration of Independence they find that those
old men say that "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal," and then they feel that that moral sentiment taught in that
day evidences their relation to those men, that it is the father of all
moral principle in them, and that they have a right to claim it as though
they were blood of the blood, and flesh of the flesh of the men who wrote
that Declaration, and so they are. That is the electric cord in that
Declaration that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men
together, that will link those patriotic hearts as long as the love of
freedom exists in the minds of men throughout the world.
Abraham Lincoln, speech at Chicago, Illinois, July 10, 1858.
We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material
things. These did not create our Declaration. Our Declaration created them.
The things of the spirit come first. Unless we cling to that, all our
material prosperity, overwhelming though it may appear, will turn to a
barren sceptre in our grasp. If we are to maintain the great heritage which
has been bequeathed to us, we must be like-minded as the fathers who created
it. We must not sink into a pagan materialism. We must cultivate the
reverence which they had for the things that are holy. We must follow the
spiritual and moral leadership which they showed. We must keep replenished,
that they may glow with a more compelling flame, the altar fires before
which they worshiped.
Calvin Coolidge, speech on the 150th Anniversary of the Declaration of
Independence, July 5, 1926.
Today, 150 years later, that Declaration whose yellowing parchment and
fading, almost illegible lines I saw in the past week in the National
Archives in Washington is still a revolutionary document. To read it today
is to hear a trumpet call. For that Declaration unleashed not merely a
revolution against the British, but a revolution in human affairs. . . . The
theory of independence is as old as man himself, and it was not invented in
this hall. But it was in this hall that the theory became a practice; that
the word went out to all, in Thomas Jefferson's phrase, that "the God who
gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time." And today this
Nation-conceived in revolution, nurtured in liberty, maturing in
independence-has no intention of abdicating its leadership in that worldwide
movement for independence to any nation or society committed to systematic
human oppression.
John F. Kennedy, address at Independence Hall, July 4, 1962.
When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the
Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a
promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a
promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. . . . I have a dream that one day
this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We
hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
Martin Luther King, "I Have A Dream," August 28, 1963
Our Declaration of Independence has been copied by emerging nations around
the globe, its themes adopted in places many of us have never heard of. Here
in this land, for the first time, it was decided that man is born with
certain God-given rights. We the people declared that government is created
by the people for their own convenience. Government has no power except
those voluntarily granted it by the people. There have been revolutions
before and since ours, revolutions that simply exchanged one set of rulers
for another. Ours was a philosophical revolution that changed the very
concept of government.
Ronald Reagan, address at Yorktown, October 19, 1981
1b)
A NOTE ON THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
"...we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred
Honor."
(Each year information about those who signed the Declaration of
Independence is circulated, not all of which is accurate. The following note
is based on research in several established sources, which are noted below.)
Fifty-six individuals from each of the original 13 colonies participated in
the Second Continental Congress and signed the Declaration of Independence.
Pennsylvania sent nine delegates to the congress, followed by Virginia with
seven and Massachusetts and New Jersey with five. Connecticut, Maryland, New
York, and South Carolina each sent four delegates. Delaware, Georgia, New
Hampshire, and North Carolina each sent three. Rhode Island, the smallest
colony, sent only two delegates to Philadelphia.
Eight of the signers were immigrants, two were brothers, two were cousins,
and one was an orphan. The average age of a signer was 45. The oldest
delegate was Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, who was 70 when he signed
the Declaration. The youngest was Thomas Lynch, Jr., of South Carolina, who
was 27.
Eighteen of the signers were merchants or businessmen, 14 were farmers, and
four were doctors. Forty-two signers had served in their colonial
legislatures. Twenty-two were lawyers-although William Hooper of North
Carolina was "disbarred" when he spoke out against the Crown-and nine were
judges. Stephen Hopkins had been Governor of Rhode Island.
Although two others had been clergy previously, John Witherspoon of New
Jersey was the only active clergyman to attend-he wore his pontificals to
the sessions. Almost all were Protestant Christians; Charles Carroll of
Maryland was the only Roman Catholic signer.
Seven of the signers were educated at Harvard, four each at Yale and William
& Mary, and three at Princeton. John Witherspoon was the president of
Princeton and George Wythe was a professor at William & Mary, where his
students included the author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas
Jefferson.
Seventeen of the signers served in the military during the American
Revolution. Thomas Nelson was a colonel in the Second Virginia Regiment and
then commanded Virginia military forces at the Battle of Yorktown. William
Whipple served with the New Hampshire militia and was one of the commanding
officers in the decisive Saratoga campaign. Oliver Wolcott led the
Connecticut regiments sent for the defense of New York and commanded a
brigade of militia that took part in the defeat of General Burgoyne. Caesar
Rodney was a Major General in the Delaware militia and John Hancock was the
same in the Massachusetts militia.
Five of the signers were captured by the British during the war. Captains
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, and Arthur Middleton (South Carolina) were
all captured at the Battle of Charleston in 1780; Colonel George Walton was
wounded and captured at the Battle of Savannah. Richard Stockton of New
Jersey never recovered from his incarceration at the hands of British
Loyalists and died in 1781.
Colonel Thomas McKean of Delaware wrote John Adams that he was "hunted like
a fox by the enemy-compelled to remove my family five times in a few months,
and at last fixed them in a little log house on the banks of the Susquehanna
. . . and they were soon obliged to move again on account of the incursions
of the Indians." Abraham Clark of New Jersey had two of his sons captured by
the British during the war. The son of John Witherspoon, a major in the New
Jersey Brigade, was killed at the Battle of Germantown.
Eleven signers had their homes and property destroyed. Francis Lewis's New
York home was destroyed and his wife was taken prisoner. John Hart's farm
and mills were destroyed when the British invaded New Jersey and he died
while fleeing capture. Carter Braxton and Thomas Nelson (both of Virginia)
lent large sums of their personal fortunes to support the war effort, but
were never repaid.
Fifteen of the signers participated in their states' constitutional
conventions, and six-Roger Sherman, Robert Morris, Benjamin Franklin, George
Clymer, James Wilson, and George Reed-signed the United States Constitution.
Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts attended the federal convention and, though
he later supported the document, refused to sign the Constitution.
After the Revolution, 13 of the signers went on to become governors, and 18
served in their state legislatures. Sixteen became state and federal judges.
Seven became members of the United States House of Representatives, and six
became United States Senators. James Wilson and Samuel Chase became Justices
of the United States Supreme Court.
Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Elbridge Gerry each became Vice President,
and John Adams and Thomas Jefferson became President. The sons of signers
John Adams and Benjamin Harrison also became Presidents.
Five signers played major roles in the establishment of colleges and
universities: Benjamin Franklin and the University of Pennsylvania; Thomas
Jefferson and the University of Virginia; Benjamin Rush and Dickinson
College; Lewis Morris and New York University; and George Walton and the
University of Georgia.
John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Charles Carroll were the longest surviving
signers. Adams and Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary
of the Declaration of Independence. Charles Carroll of Maryland was the last
signer to die-in 1832 at the age of 95.
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