I. Schedule
- Saturday 9 pm eastern: Movie July 4th Theme
- Sunday 6 pm eastern: Viva & Barnes Law for the People
II. Art of the Day
A pickup truck. By the beach. Our flag flowing in the wind. The center of summer. The celebration of American independence. The spirit of the 4th.The simplest joys partake, in backyard barbecues & flowing fireworks into the night sky. All for the liberty, freedom, and individuality unleashed by the American spirit that sentinel 4th of July, birthing a revolution of spirit around the world. America's Independence Day.
III. Wisdom of the Day
"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." Declaration of Independence, 1776.
IV. Book Recommendation
Declaration: The Nine Tumultous Weeks details the inside story of how the American revolution was anything but inevitable, birthed by the struggles of men and women willing to risk it all for a new cry for freedom and self-governance that will replace the royalists forever more.
V. News of the Week
- Big Beautiful Bill Passes
- Medicaid Cut Debate
- Socialist Rises
- Jobs Jump
- Democratic Disarray
*Bonus: Proud to be an American
VI. Topic of the Week: American Independence
*Bonus: Webster
VII. Cases of the Week
- Judicial Coup Continues
- Diddy Verdict
- Big Beautiful Bill
- SCOTUS: Trans & Speech
- Wisconsin: Politics & Judges
*Bonus: Coercion defense
VIII. Closing Argument: Our Eternal Oath
- The American Revolution. The Declaration of Independence. July 4th, 1776.
- A new doctrine of legitimacy for the exercise of state power. Henceforth, legitimate government depended upon the consent of the governed. This was because each individual held “the separate and equal station” by the logic of natural law — “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them.” This thus further entitled them “to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth” whenever made necessary by the conditions of their government.
- The eternal truths of the ends of government remained the same truths as God ordained, reason entitled, and nature spoke: the “self-evident truths” included that “all men are created equal” and as such endowed by their Creator “with certain unalienable Rights” of the right to life, the right to liberty, and the right to the pursuit of happiness. This, and this alone, is the reason for government — “to secure these rights.” Security wasn't for physical safety but rather for liberty -- security measured by respect for the right to liberty, the right to life, and the right to the pursuit of happiness. Thereby, wherever and whenever government “becomes destructive” toward the right to life, the right to liberty, and the right to the pursuit of happiness, then the self-evident right endowed by the Creator, and his creations in nature and reason, entitles “the people” to alter such government, abolish such government, and to, in their place, “institute new Government.”
- The conservative counter to the radicalism inherent in the right of revolution was to temper such revolutionary spirit that “long established” forms of government only be changed for causes neither “light” nor “transient.” It is only upon a “long train of abuses and usurpations” that would reduce them to despotism that it becomes their “duty” to “throw off such Government” and provide better “Guards for their future security.”
- The founders then laid out the evidentiary pleadings for their right to revolt, noting the dilution of the people’s right to pass laws on its behalf, the corruption of the judiciary from enforcing the laws impartially, and the rogue executive ignoring the invasion from within and without. This breach of forms bred results undesired and insecure to the people, including standing armies invading homes without cause, bureaucratic expansion that “sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance”, subject Americans to “a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws”, with “mock Trials” held by partial jurors away from the community of the judged, taxes without consent, unwarranted drafts into forced military service against their own people, and leaving borders unprotected from merciless dangers, while all petitions for redress of these grievances went unanswered and unaddressed. This left no choice but to declare our independence, rooting our government in both conservative claims and radical revolutionary aims, restoring power to the people our Creator endowed with inalienable rights which appeal to nature and reason — the archives of nature and the rights of man as God’s forensic fingerprint on the nature of man and earth alike.
- It is thus we must again renew the oath — “for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
