Happy Independence Day...Remember the Founders

Fifty years after the July 4, 1776, Declaration of Independence, the last of the Founders died on the same day, 4 July 1826 -- Thomas Jefferson, drafter of the Declaration and third President, and John Adams, first Vice President and second President. Remember them, and all the Founders today. We owe them everything. ~~~~~ Here is an excerpr of the text of the Declaration of Independence. ~~~~~ "IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America. When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the Powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Sa.fety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. 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, and to provide new Guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States....He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy of the Head of a civilized nation....In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free People. Nor have We been wanting in attention to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends. We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. 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." ~~~~~ Dear readers, what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence ? **Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured, but finally released in prisoner exchanges **Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. **One lost his son serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured. **Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War. ~~~~~ What kind of men were the Founders? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated, but they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured. So, take a moment while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and thank these patriots. It's not much in return for their daring to declare our liberty. Remember : freedom is never free. ~~~~~ "Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny." (Thomas Jefferson.) ~~~~~ "There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty." (John Adams.)

Gettysburg -- Learning from the Past Is Better than Trying to Erase It

Today, we commemmorate the Battle of Gettysburg, which ended with the decisive Union victory at Cemetery Ridge on 3 July 1863, quashing further Confederate attempts to march armies north into Pennsylvania. General Robert E. Lee commanded the Confederate troops at Gettysburg. Today, he remains internationally respected as a daring, brilliant tactician, a gentleman who never referred to Northern soldiers as "the enemy" and as a man who opposed secession but felt honor-bound to serve his native state of Virginia. Robert E. Lee was born January 19, 1807 at Stratford Hall, Virginia, and died on October 12, 1870 (aged 63) at Lexington, Virginia. He is buried in Lee Chapel at Washington and Lee University, where he served as president. Lee, of the iconic Virginia Lee family, graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he later served as Superintendent. He fought in the Mexican-American War. He rose to the rank of Colonel in the US Army before swearing allegiance to the Confederate States of America and taking command of the Army of Northern Virginia and then of the entire Confederate Army. ~~~~~ It may seem odd to remember the Battle of Gettysburg by talking about Robert E. Lee. We think of the Battle as it was immortalized in President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. The Battlefield itself is hallowed ground for all Americans. And the Civil War is one of America's fundamental collective memories. The Union suffered 365,000 total dead and 282,000 wounded. The Confederacy suffered 260,000 total dead and 137,000 wounded. The casualty numbers represented the loss of 10% of northern men between the ages of 18 and 25, and 30% of southern men between the ages of 18 and 40. So, the Civil War is an historical fact of major proportion, outstripping any other war America has fought. The Civil War is also unique in American history because brothers fought brothers, fathers, cousins and uncles. War prisoners were treated very badly on both sides and those who lived had horrific stories to tell that helped to intensify the north-south divisions. The Civil War also destroyed the South and its way of life. ~~~~~ Dear readers, I don't support the Antebellum Old South and its dependence on the odious practice of slavery and I have never owned a Confederate flag, But, changing the names of streets and parks and schools and tearing down statues of Confederate leaders and Generals -- like Robert E. Lee -- will only increase lingering southern resentments, driving them underground to fester as old wounds that have never completely healed. White Americans who identify with the Union accept this better than African Americans whose history as slaves is of a completely different nature, one that white Americans -- most of whom, I firmly believe, are not racist -- cannot appreciate. But the African Americans of Charleston forgave the racist killer who desecrated their church. They asked South Carolina to remove from Statehouse grounds the Confederate flag that reminds them of slavery's old evil. Their request should be quickly granted. And the South should stop re-fighting the Civil War, glorifying it through a patina of false nostalgia instead of recognizing it for what it was -- the defeat of their political system and the slavery that made it possible. But, neither the Civil War nor slavery -- nor Robert E. Lee -- can be erased from America's memory. That would be nihilistic revisionism at its worst. They must be accepted for what they were -- representatives of an evil that led to a bloody war in which 400,000 Americans and President Lincoln gave their lives to free slaves. Slavery is long over. America survived. The Civil War has much to say about why and how slavery ended. We need to learn what it teaches us about the past so that we can continue to move into the future together. That certainly was Abraham Lincoln's goal, and his eloquent advice is as much for us as it was for those at Gettysburg dedicating the Civil War National Cemetery on November 19, 1863 : "It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Sir Nicholas Winton Saved 669 Children from Nazi Death Camps

He never had a Steven Spielberg film honor his work, but Sir Nicholas Winton, who died peacefully in his sleep yesterday at the age of 106, organised the rescue of 669 children destined for Nazi concentration camps. Sir Nicholas managed to bring Czech children, mostly Jewish, on eight trains from occupied Prague to Britain through Germany in 1939. The ninth train with 250 children never left Prague because the war broke out. None of the 250 children on board was ever seen again. Fittingly, Sir Nicholas died on the anniversary of the departure of the 1939 train carrying the largest number of children -- 241. Along with the trains from Prague, he also organized other forms of transport set up from Vienna. Often called the British Schindler, Sir Nicholas brought the children to Britain, battling bureaucracy at both ends to save them from almost certain death, and then kept quiet about his exploits for a half-century, until his wife Greta found a detailed scrapbook in their attic in 1988. He had not even told her of his role. "You can't come up to somebody and say : 'by the way do you want to know what I did in '39?' People don't talk about what they did in the war," he told Reuters Television in 2009. Sir Nicholas, born Nicholas Wertheimer in 1909 to Jewish parents, was a young stockbroker in London, but he left his London job in 1938 to go to Prague to help with welfare work for Czech refugees fleeing Nazi occupation. He was 29 when he masterminded the rescue of the children. Sir Nicholas also organised foster families for Jewish children in Britain, placing advertisements in newspapers. The achievements of Sir Nicholas Winton were often compared with those of Oskar Schindler, the ethnic German industrialist who saved the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust and who was the subject of the 1993 Spielberg film "Schindler's List." ~~~~~ Prime Minister David Cameron described Sir Nicholas as a "great man" and the British Chief Rabbi commented on his "exceptional courage." Over the years, Sir Nicholas's work had been recognized with awards and with a small planet discovered by Czech astronomers named in his honor. He was also commended by the US House of Representatives, which said it "urges men and women everywhere to recognize in Winton's remarkable humanitarian effort the difference that one devoted, principled individual can make in changing and improving the lives of others." ~~~~~ Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today mourned the death of Sir Nicholas Winton : "The Jewish people and the State of Israel owe an eternal debt of gratitude to Nicholas Winton, who saved hundreds of Jewish children from the Nazis. In a world plagued by evil and indifference, Winton dedicated himself to saving the innocent and the helpless." Prime Minister Netanyahu added : "His extraordinary moral leadership serves as an example to all of humanity." Netanyahu sent his condolences to Winton's surviving family. ~~~~~ Dear readers, Oskar Schindler, who was coincidentally Czech, once explained his action by saying : "I had to help them. There was no choice." Sir Nicholas Winton expressed the same impetus with other words. The Rotary Club, in honoring him,quoted from a 1939 letter in which Sir Nicholas wrote : "There is a difference between passive goodness and active goodness, which is, in my opinion, the giving of one's time and energy in the alleviation of pain and suffering. It entails going out, finding and helping those in suffering and danger and not merely in leading an exemplary life in a purely passive way of doing no wrong." And, dear readers, we might add, with one of America's Founders, that active goodness is a charactertistic of the Jewish people. John Adams wrote : "The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations." ~~ Rest in peace, Sir Nicholas.

Tsipras Stands by Democratic Referendum, Defying Merkel's EU

According to unpublished documents compiled by its three main creditors - the so-called troika of lenders (European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF) - Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is right when he says that Greece needs substantial debt relief for a lasting economic recovery. The UK Guardian says analyses show that, even after 15 years of sustained strong growth, the country would face a level of debt that the International Monetary Fund deems unsustainable. The IMF’s baseline estimate - the most likely outcome - is that Greece’s debt would still be 118% of GDP in 2030, even if it signs up to the complete package of tax and spending reforms demanded. That is well above the 110% regarded by the IMF as sustainable given Greece’s debt profile, currently 175% of GDP and likely to go higher because of its recent austerity-induced slide back into recession. The documents admit that under the baseline scenario “significant concessions” are necessary to improve Greece’s chances of ridding itself permanently of its debt financing woes. Even under the best case scenario, which includes growth of 4% a year for the next five years -- note that the EU growth rate, including Germany, is now at 1.8% rising to 2.1% next year -- Greece’s debt levels will drop to only 124%, by 2022. The best case also anticipates €15 billion in proceeds from privatisations, five times the estimate in the most likely scenario. But under all the scenarios - all assume a third bailout program - looked at by the troika, Greece has no chance of meeting the target of reducing its debt to “well below 110% of GDP by 2022” set by the Eurogroup of finance ministers in November 2012. In the troika's own words : “It is clear that the policy slippages and uncertainties of the last months have made the achievement of the 2012 targets impossible under any scenario.” ~~~~~ These projections are in the report Preliminary Debt Sustainability Analysis for Greece, one of six documents that are part of the full set of materials that comprise the “final” proposal sent to Greece by its creditors last Friday. They were sent to all German MPs with the expectation that the deal would need to be approved by the country’s parliament. A Bundestag vote never took place because Tsipras rejected the plans and called a referendum on whether to accept the troika’s demands. The analysis shows that while Greece has already benefitted from a number of debt-reducing measures -- maturities have been extended, interest payments are similar to those of less indebted nations and the 2012 cut debt by about €100 billion -- the document also admits that under the baseline scenario Greece cannot succeed without debt relief. The documents provide no advice about what such a package should look like, nor does it provide any detail about the third bailout program, although the troika documents assume one would exist. They promise only a more detailed debt sustainability analysis in the future. ~~~~~ The documents also throw light on the €35 billion investment package that was offered to Greece last week. The second document in the pack of six, titled Reforms for the Completion of the Current Programme and Beyond, shows there was less to this offer than indicated by EC President Jean-Claude Juncker and Germany’s vice-chancellor Sigmar Gabriel -- the cash offered is not an investment but is actually an EU grant that is regularly available to all member states, but accessing the cash requires a 15% co-financing thzt Greece cannot afford. Because of this, Greece has unspent amounts from its €38bn 2007 to 2013 pot of available grants. ~~~~~ A third document outlines the “financing needs and draft disbursement schedule linked to the completion of the fifth review,” spelling out how Greece would have received €15bn to meet its obligations until the end of November. The cash would have been handed over in five tranches starting in June (as soon as the Greek parliament approved the proposals) to cover Greece’s financing needs. However, 93% of the funds would have gone directly to cover the cost of maturing debt for the duration of the extension. With the remaining €1.05 billion, Greece could not even pay its €2 billion per month pension obligation. ~~~~~ The remaining documents cover the actions that were expected to be taken by Greece in consultation with the EC/ECB/IMF. One of these papers was also published by the EC last weekend. The plan is premised on a primary surplus target of 1%, 2%, 3%, and 3.5% of GDP in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively (both sides agree on these largely unachievable targets). It also depends on VAT changes producing additional revenue of 1% of GDP and a reform of the pension system that leads to savings of 1% of GDP in 2016. The proposal broadens the VAT tax base at a standard rate of 23%, and would include restaurants, and catering. There will be a reduced rate of 13% to cover a limited set of goods, that includes energy, basic foods, hotels and water (excluding sewage). There was also to be a super-reduced rate of 6% on pharmaceuticals, books and theatres, an increase on tax on insurance and the elimination of tax exemptions on certain islands. The creditors had originally wanted only a two-tier VAT system. In terms of pensions, which have been the sticking point in the negotiations, the plan demands reforms to : create strong disincentives to early retirement, including changes to early retirement penalties; adopt legislation so that withdrawals from the social insurance fund will incur an annual penalty, for those affected by the extension of the retirement age period, equivalent to 10% on top of the current penalty of 6%; ensure that all supplementary pension funds are only financed by self-contributions; gradually phase out the solidarity grant (EKAS) for all pensioners by December 2019, starting immediately for the top 20% of beneficiaries with the details of the phase-out to be agreed with the institutions; freeze monthly guaranteed contributory pension limits in nominal terms until 2022; provide to people retiring after 30 June 2015 the basic, guaranteed contributory, and means-tested pensions only at statutory normal retirement age, currently 67 years; and, increase the relatively low health contributions for pensioners from 4% to 6% on average and extend it to supplementary pensions. Clearly, on Monday, EC President Juncker lied when he insisted that these measures did not amount to a cut in pensions. However, the creditors were correct in saying that they had compromised and the plans had some flexibility. They also suggested that Greece could provide alternative proposals as long as they are “sufficiently concrete and quantifiable.” ~~~~~ Dear readers, that is a lot of detail, but it shows how desperate Greece's position is while it continues to try to satisfy EC/ECB/IMF troika demands. As I said last week, Greece would be a bankrupt pauper for the next 45 years if it is forced to accept the troika demands. There would be no money for infrastructure, job development programs or anything else except feeding the troika's coffers. The situation in Greece has been a humanitarian crisis for some time. It is against this austerity-induced death spiral that Juncker said he has always supported the Greek people. It is against this death spiral that Chancellor Merkel spoke to the Bundestag today, telling Greece that she leads an EU of "law and responsibility" which can, she offered, get along very nicely without Greece but will talk - on her terms and after a referendum that all analysts agree she hopes will drive Tsipras from office and provide her with a weaker, more pliable Greek leader who has less love for democracy. The northern core of the EU has coalesced against its southern tier. Greece is to be destroyed. Spain and its Podemus party should take note before they defy Merkel's self-righteous undemocratic EU. The boot will come down hard on them - and on Portugal. And -- although its politicians seem oblivious -- on Italy. There is no room for economic or cultural variety. EU member states will become northern technocrats and rationalists. Only France in the southern tier is to be saved, because it is France that continues to give Germany respectability. Does Alexis Tsipras - do the Greeks - really want to deliver themselves into the gaping maw of the EU monster? Tsipras has just answered 'No,' saying that he will push on with the referendum and asking Greeks to vote no to EU austerity, telling them it will not mean exclusion from the Euro. The Greek people must now answer -- democracy or destruction. But we must also ask where is America, the supposed defender of humanity and its higher values? Nowhere near Athens. Obama's America is too busy trying to figure out how to pay Iran to build a nuclear arsenal and opening a Cuban embassy in Washington. Has America's real voice been silenced forever?