After 249 years, where are we with the ‘life, liberty and pursuit of happiness' thing?
'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.'
Let's see where we are with Sentence 1, on this July 4, the 249th anniversary of the founding of the United States.
Over those 249 years, this country has bumped along through a Civil War, two world wars, the Great Depression, several recessions and multiple struggles for civil rights.
There were also huge, undeniable triumphs.
We sent human beings to the moon and launched dozens of spacecraft that explored the solar system.
We built grand global alliances that defeated fascism — and maintained them for 80 years.
We came close to mending many of the wounds caused by the Civil War through the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. We made remarkable economic and social progress over decades of slow but steady effort.
The preamble notes that 'all men are created equal.'
Tell that to any given oppressed group in the United States now. Are you trans? You're not better off than you were just a year ago. You can't even serve your country now, thanks to President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
Trump and friends have made sure that any group that doesn't happen to be white is excluded from our national story. No diversity, equity and inclusion. History isn't being rewritten, it's being erased.
Is the concept of liberty stronger today?
Not seeing a lot of liberty, particularly if you're an individual seeking asylum in this country. No, you're looking at a Supreme Court that has, with a small asterisk, put birthright citizenship at risk.
If the Trump administration so determines, you can be swept off the street by masked, unidentifiable federal agents, and, if they get their way, the U.S. military. Then you could be offshored to some detention facility in El Salvador or South Sudan.
If you disagree with the Trump administration or even ask hard questions, you can be publicly humiliated by your president of the United States on social media. Sometimes he uses language that is implicitly violent, igniting the craziest of his followers to kill fellow Americans in the middle of the night, as happened last month in Minnesota.
In 2019, Trump said 'I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump — I have the tough people, but they don't play it tough until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad.'
It's difficult not to see this as inflammatory rhetoric.
The president himself is at liberty to sell off the reputation of the United States to the highest bidder, using his own name as a brand to sell junk products, like watches, basketball shoes and even cologne. There's even an online Trump store.
Is this country truly fulfilling its promise of the pursuit of happiness?
Well, you are at liberty to pursue Trump's happiness. We already know what makes him happy: constant adulation, junk food and idiotic external stimulation. His bad childhood is being passed on to us.
Your happiness, as well as your physical well-being, is secondary.
The Senate just passed legislation that will cut funding for rural hospitals, nursing homes and put you back to work to get Medicaid.
It will add $3.3 trillion of debt and further enrich the 400 wealthiest families in the country.
At least Sen. Lisa Murkowski will get those Alaskan fishing trawlers covered, though.
Trump called the bill 'beautiful.'
It is, if you're a billionaire. If you're not, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
The last sentence of the preamble from the Declaration of Independence reads:
'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.'
It's clear that we're riding a long train of abuses and usurpations now. Emoluments? Thpppt. Fourteenth Amendment? Meh. Systematic racism? Who cares? Intimidation of academic institutions and law firms? Whatevs. Random destruction of personal reputations? Yup. Science denial? The new normal is abnormal.
Is this 'absolute despotism'?
I don't wish to rain on your fireworks supply, but we are perilously close to that.
As we approach July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we will presumably have an election just a few months later.
Don't think about egg prices this time.
That's a first sentence that we should continue to celebrate.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox News
35 minutes ago
- Fox News
SCOTT BESSENT: President Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' will unleash parallel prosperity
The same issues that drove the Founders to declare independence from the Crown in 1776 drove 77 million Americans to the polls in 2024: heavy taxes, weak leadership, and an overreaching government numb to the needs of its citizens. President Trump won in a landslide victory by offering powerful solutions to each of these problems. He is the American people's declaration of independence from business as usual in Washington. The president seeks to serve "the forgotten men and women of America." And the One Big, Beautiful Bill, which he signs into law today, is central to that mission. This historic legislation will make life more affordable for all Americans by unleashing parallel prosperity—the idea that Main Street and Wall Street can grow together. The One Big, Beautiful Bill represents the priorities of the new Republican Party, which includes millions of working-class Americans who once called themselves Democrats. This bill builds on the blue-collar renaissance started by President Trump. Since President Trump took office in January, blue-collar wages have increased 1.7%. This represents the largest increase in working-class wages to start a presidency in more than 50 years. For comparison, working-class wages decreased during the same period under every single president since Richard Nixon with only one exception—President Trump in his first term. Key to sparking the president's second blue-collar boom has been his efforts to end illegal immigration. The open-border policy of previous administrations accelerated our nation's affordability crisis. The influx of millions of illegal aliens put an unsustainable strain on healthcare, housing, education and welfare. It also supported a black market in labor that artificially suppressed working-class wages for decades. But that ends with the One Big Beautiful Bill. The One Big Beautiful Bill is more than just a tax bill. It works to ensure that illegal immigrants are not taking advantage of the safety net created for Americans. The bill also funds the completion of the border wall and provides resources to hire thousands of additional federal agents to protect our country against future illegal immigration. The goal is to redirect the estimated $249 billion in annual wages paid to illegal workers to lawful workers and American citizens. Ending the black market of undocumented labor by funding enforcement of our existing immigration laws will result in a massive pay raise for the working class. We have seen American workers benefit from the president's economic approach before. Under President Trump's 2017 tax cuts, the net worth of the bottom 50% of households increased faster than the net worth of the top 10% of households. That will happen again under the One Big Beautiful Bill. The bill prevents a $4.5 trillion tax hike on the American people. This will allow the average worker to keep an additional $4,000 to $7,200 in annual real wages and allow the average family of four to keep an additional $7,600 to $10,900 in take-home pay. Add to this the president's ambitious deregulation agenda, which could save the average family of four an additional $10,000. For millions of Americans, these savings are the difference between being able to make a mortgage payment, buy a car, or send a child to college. The president is delivering on his promise to seniors as well. The bill provides an additional $6,000 deduction for seniors, which will mean that 88% of seniors receiving Social Security income will pay no tax on their Social Security benefits. The One Big Beautiful Bill also codifies no tax on tips and no tax on overtime pay—both policies designed to provide financial relief to America's working class. These tax breaks will ensure Main Street workers keep more of their hard-earned income. And they will bolster productivity by rewarding Americans who work extra hours. All Americans can learn how President Trump's tax cuts will impact their lives for the better with a new White House calculator. These productivity-enhancing measures dovetail with the second booster in the blue-collar boom: providing 100% expensing for new factories and existing factories that expand operations, plus car loan interest deductibility to support Made-in-America. Economic security is national security. This became especially clear during COVID, which exposed glaring vulnerabilities in our critical supply chains. By providing 100% expensing for factories—in addition to rebalancing trade to encourage greater domestic production—President Trump is fortifying our supply chains and reawakening the might of America's industrial base. To help fuel this effort, the president is unleashing American energy by removing onerous regulations, increasing oil and gas lease sales, eliminating the perverse subsidies of the Green New Scam, and refilling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. These measures will make life more affordable for American families by bringing down the costs of gas and electricity across the country. Through the One Big Beautiful Bill, President Trump is taking a bottom-up approach to restoring the economy. To that end, the bill makes the 2017 tax cuts permanent to give businesses of all sizes the certainty they need to grow, hire, and plan for the long term. It also provides targeted relief for small businesses by more than doubling the cap on overall small business expensing. These tax provisions will put billions of dollars back in the hands of America's small business owners, which they can then use to expand their workforce and reinvigorate Main Street. The intent of all these policies—be it tax cuts for the working class, full expensing for manufacturers, or new deductions for small businesses—is the same: to improve the lives of Americans on every rung of the economic ladder. With visionary leadership, President Trump is laying the foundation for the Golden Age he promised through tax deals, trade deals, peace deals, and deregulation. The One Big Beautiful Bill will Make America Affordable Again. It will cement the blue-collar boom, reignite U.S. manufacturing, and unleash the commercial potential of the greatest economy in the world. Today marks the passage of the largest tax cut in history for our nation's workers. It is a tribute to the Founders who demanded lower taxes themselves and is the perfect way to begin America's 250th anniversary celebration.
Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Yahoo
BRICS Aspires to Occupy Ground Vacated by US Under Trump
(Bloomberg) -- Ever since BRICS was founded more than a decade ago, the group of emerging-market nations has struggled to identify a common purpose. President Donald Trump's tariffs may have solved that problem. Foreign Buyers Swoop on Cape Town Homes, Pricing Out Locals Massachusetts to Follow NYC in Making Landlords Pay Broker Fees NYC Commutes Resume After Midtown Bus Terminal Crash Chaos Struggling Downtowns Are Looking to Lure New Crowds What Gothenburg Got Out of Congestion Pricing BRICS leaders meeting in Rio de Janeiro this weekend for a summit hosted by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are expected to sign up to a joint statement decrying 'the rise of unjustified unilateral protectionist measures' and the 'indiscriminate raising' of tariffs. That's what foreign ministers from the bloc named for oldest members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa agreed to in April, and several officials said the text would remain in the communique. The concluding language is unlikely to directly cite the US. But the group is sending an unmistakable signal to the Trump administration on the eve of the July 9 deadline for his levies to take effect. BRICS members all agree that 'these tariffs are not productive,' Ambassador Xolisa Mabhongo, South Africa's lead negotiator, or sherpa, said in an interview. 'They are not good for the world economy. They are not good for development.' As Trump alienates traditional allies and pursues his America First agenda, BRICS is seeking to occupy the ground the US leader has ceded. The upshot is that the group long presumed to be forging an alternative to the US-led world order is now projecting itself as defender of those same core values, including free trade and multilateralism. 'Multilateralism is going through its worst moment since the World War II,' Lula said Friday during a meeting of the New Development Bank, the financing arm of the BRICS. China will work with member states to 'strengthen the BRICS strategic partnership and safeguard multilateralism,' Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said in a briefing in Beijing on Wednesday. Even with Trump providing some elements of a unity of purpose, the BRICS grouping is still likely to fall far short of wielding the global influence its members have long sought. Chinese President Xi Jinping, who held a state visit to Brasilia in November and is expected to attend the COP30 climate summit in Brazil later this year, is skipping the BRICS meeting. Vladimir Putin of Russia will stay away to avoid putting Brazil's government in the uncomfortable position of having to arrest a president wanted for war crimes in Ukraine. Founded in 2009, the original BRICS group has long suffered from a lack of shared values among members who have little in common beyond their status as large, emerging economies that wanted a voice in global affairs dominated by Washington and the West. Its rapid expansion to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates bolstered its representation — the new BRICS accounts for about 40% of global GDP and roughly half the planet's population — but threatens to make it even less coherent. What Bloomberg Economics Says The group is held together primarily by a shared sense that emerging markets should have a louder voice in the global order and a desire to build a multipolar world. In the absence of a clearer shared agenda, though, the group's geopolitical gravitas will probably continue to increase only gradually, in line with its economic heft or, potentially, its further expansion. —Jimena Zuniga, Latin America geoeconomics analyst Read the full report here. Notably, the bloc is divided on references to war, with Russia and China against any significant mention, according to several delegations. Egypt is pushing for a mention of peace and security in the Middle East, by which it mainly means resolving the war on its border in Gaza, according to a person familiar with the matter. Trump's aggression offers the bloc something of a dilemma. While his tariffs push gives it a degree of shared resolve, some members are keen to maintain balanced relations with both the US and China. Paradoxically, Trump's threat to slap 100% levies on the bloc if it ditches the dollar in bilateral trade has spurred interest in developing local payment systems and other instruments that can facilitate commerce and investment between the nations. The idea of abandoning the dollar isn't under discussion, according to Brazilian officials. Trade among the five original BRICS nations grew 40% between 2021 and 2024 to $740 billion a year, according to International Monetary Fund data. Lula's government is optimistic that leaders will make progress on collective alternatives, in part because Trump's trade threats have given countries incentives to forge consensus and new partnerships, according to two Brazilian officials familiar with the discussions. The BRICS group is also discussing mechanisms to boost climate finance among members for the first time, the officials said, an issue that has taken on greater importance after Trump pulled the US out of the Paris agreement. China continues to engage with other BRICS nations on climate, also as a way to show it is a friendlier and more reliable ally than the US. Along with Indonesia, Beijing has held discussions with Brazil about the agenda for the UN's annual climate summit. For its part, India sees no major hurdles to a joint declaration from the summit, according to a government official familiar with the preparations, who asked not to be named discussing ongoing diplomacy. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is undertaking a state visit in Brazil after the Rio gathering ends. Lula will also welcome Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in back to back pageantry. Yet divisions among BRICS members — and especially between its old guard and new arrivals — could still surface. Egypt and Ethiopia had balked at supporting South Africa for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, something that had been one of the bloc's few unifying themes. There are also simmering tensions between the group's two largest economies. China and India both vie to lead the BRICS and the Global South as a whole. Modi will stake his claim as leader when he takes over the BRICS presidency for 2026, just three years after Xi skipped India's G-20 summit. At a time when BRICS is trying to prove it's more than just a catchy acronym, another snub from Xi wouldn't be a good look. --With assistance from Mirette Magdy, Sudhi Ranjan Sen and Jing Li. (Updates with comment from Lula in sixth paragraph.) SNAP Cuts in Big Tax Bill Will Hit a Lot of Trump Voters Too America's Top Consumer-Sentiment Economist Is Worried For Brazil's Criminals, Coffee Beans Are the Target How to Steal a House Sperm Freezing Is a New Hot Market for Startups ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
41 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump: I'll spare undocumented farm workers if bosses can vouch for them
Donald Trump said he will spare undocumented farm workers from deportation if their bosses can vouch for them. The US president floated the idea for the exemptions, which could also apply to hotel and restaurant workers, during a visit to Iowa. Legislation is already being drafted for the carve-out how to deal with undocumented agricultural workers with Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary. 'You know, they've had people working for them for years. And we're going to do something … we're going to sort of put the farmers in charge,' he said on Thursday night. 'If a farmer has been with one of these people that worked so hard – they bend over all day, we don't have too many people that can do that, but they work very hard, and they know him very well, and some of the farmers are literally, you know, they cry when they see this happen. 'If a farmer is willing to vouch for these people, in some way, Kristi, I think we're going to have to just say that's going to be good, right?' Mr Trump was repeating remarks he made earlier in the week. Underpinning the proposed exemptions is a dispute within the administration, with Brooke Rollins, the agriculture secretary, pushing for concessions for farmers and their workers, while immigration hardliner and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller strongly opposes any concessions. At one point, raids on farms, meatpacking plants and restaurants were paused. But they were resumed again after immigration hawks, including Mr Miller and Ms Noem, leaned on the president. Mr Trump's remarks this week suggest that he could be leaning towards backing his agriculture secretary after all. According to the Centre for Migration Studies, there are around 283,000 undocumented farm workers in the US, with nearly half being employed in California; other estimates put the figure even higher. More than 80 per cent come from Mexico, with the remainder hailing from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua. The Trump deportation drive has wrought havoc on the agriculture industry. Fearful of being picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as many as 70 per cent of farm workers in some parts of the country have been staying away. This has led to crops rotting in fields and labour shortages at meat-packing facilities. 'We do not have enough workforce in the United States to do manual work, to do those jobs that other people are not qualified to do and do not want to do,' Alexandra Sossa, chief executive of Farmworker and Landscaper Advocacy Project, told Newsweek. 'For example, we are running into a problem where we do not have enough farm workers to grow the food we eat every day.' According to Farmonaut, an agriculture technology company, the stricter immigration polices are creating a labour shortage, which is putting up food prices. There is similar pressure on the hospitality industry, with hotels and restaurants heavily dependent on immigrant labour. Even Mr Trump's Mar-a-Lago has imported foreign workers, with Department of Labour statistics showing that it applied for 136 H-2B visas for non-agricultural workers in 2023. 'We are encouraged that the president recognises the valuable contributions farmworkers play in America's food security,' John Walt Boatright, director of Government Affairs for the American Farm Bureau Federation told The Telegraph 'Farmers support a secure border and safe communities, and they also understand that without a stable workforce, it's not possible to get food from the farm to the tables of America's families.' 'We have not seen specifics on President Trump's plans, but we urge him and Congress to address long-term agriculture labour issues by revising overreaching regulations, modernising current guestworker programmes to allow for year-round access to employees, and fixing outdated wage rate calculations that put help out of reach for many farmers.' While the administration is willing to make concessions for these key groups of workers, there will be no let-up in ICE's activities. Within days of the announcement of an 'Alligator Alcatraz' to house deportees in Florida, Alaska, albeit tongue in cheek, suggested its large bear population could do a similar job in the frozen north. The state has the option of bidding for a slice of the $5 billion earmarked in the Big Beautiful Bill for the construction and renovation of ICE's detention facilities.
