This Fourth of July is more than just the 243rd celebration of America’s Independence Day, that singularity in world history which marked the emergence of an entirely new form of Mankind’s social organization and government. “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” is a good way to indicate the nature of that revolutionary change—as the Founding Fathers understood those concepts as developed by Gottfried Leibniz.
“Wisdom is the science of felicity, and is what must be studied above all other things,” Leibniz wrote in his 1694 essay Felicity. “One must hold as certain that the more a mind desires to know order, reason, the beauty of things which God has produced, and the more he is moved to imitate this order in the things which God has left to his direction, the happier he will be… One even advances one’s own good in working for that of others… Thus the sovereign wisdom has so well regulated all things that our duty must also be our happiness, that all virtue produces its own reward, and that all crime punishes itself, sooner or later.”
A Note To Readers
Celebrate Independence Day by reading the Declaration of Independence with your family, your friends, at the barbecue, or even just by yourself.
It is a unique document, one that set the world on the path of a new era of history; one that for the first time established the principle that governments are only legitimate when they have the consent of the governed. Or, as the Chinese phrase puts it, only when the ruler has the “mandate of heaven.”
Here is the text of that Declaration:
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/bdsdcc:@field(DOCID+@lit(bdsdcc02101))
In This Week’s Report
This being a day of celebration of our Revolution against the British Empire, this week’s report shall, like that Declaration of Independence, hopefully stir up some controversy.
But, first, we must note the end of the water year on June 30. A year that did set some records in the amount of precipitation the state received.
Infrastructure can only be seen as a fundamental part of a healthy economy. That the Congress, and, unfortunately, President Trump are ignoring the reality of a new financial break-down crisis, perhaps to be worse than that of 2008, is more than worrisome. Ironically, perhaps, it is by returning to the principles of economy established by Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, that is required to avoid such a disaster.
Several articles on the financial system and the last months’ figures showing a virtual standstill or decline in manufacturing, industry and trade follow.
Then we have an article on California labor leaders rejecting the so-called “Green New Deal.”
Leading into the climate change issue, I quote Helga Zepp-LaRouche from her remarks on a petition by prominent Italian scientists on the topic, to the effect that attempting to lower CO2 emissions will not do a thing to affect the climate. That is followed by Italian scientists’ statement.
As always, I welcome comments and feedback.
