So last week SouthOC4Democracy, our local protest group in Mission Viejo,CA, was holding its monthly "seance" when who shows up but Thomas Jefferson, or rather his spirit, and boy was he pissed. 

   "Geez, guys! " he told us. "You know, me and the boys worked our asses off to give this country a viable framework for democracy, and you go and elect this Bozo? I mean, WTF!!! So they come to me and say 'Tom, America needs your help again. You need to rewrite a new Declaration of Independence for these troubled times or these guys are gonna blow it.' So I says to them why not get ol' Al Hamilton to do it. He's always sticking his 2 cents in. They say, no, ever since that play came out, all he wants to do is rap! So I said okay.

   So here is my updated version. Please spread it far and wide. Try posting it on this social media that I hear Tom Paine always ranting about. More importantly, print out copies, get signatures, and present them to your Members of Congress. If you could get every group in the country to do this, maybe you can still fix this before it's too late. Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their country."

   We had so many questions we wanted to ask him, but he said he had to run. Apparently Sam Adams has developed a bit of a drinking problem, and they had to get his butt home, and Paul Revere took the only horse.

   So being the 250th anniversary of this country's founding, we're sharing this and hoping everyone will help to spread the word and use it to try to save our democracy.

  

           Our Declaration of Interdependence

                  In Solidarity on July 4th, 2026, 

Do We Hereby Declare Our Interdependence As Free People Of These Disunited States And Our Abhorrence Of Fascism 

   When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for the citizens of a once great nation to expel the political leaders who have betrayed that nation and the principles upon which it was founded, and to assume among the powers of the earth, to replace that station to which the Laws of Nature and their Constitution 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 human beings are created equal, that they are endowed by their shared humanity with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, Health Care, and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Regime of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to replace it, and to institute new Government or new leadership, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

    Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments so 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 altering the forms or leaders 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 despots, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these people of the United States; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their present heads of Government. The history of the current President of this country is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States and its inhabitants, as well as military threats to other sovereign nations, and an existential danger to the entire planet. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has instigated and directed an insurrection to take over the Capitol Building, endangering the lives of Police, Congress members, Staff, and in particular his Vice President, who carried out his Constitutional duties to certify the election, despite entreaties from the President to do the opposite, resulting in an Obstruction of Justice charge.

He has consistently undermined voting integrity by refusing to accept the results of free and fair elections while simultaneously issuing executive orders to restrict voting.

He has defied court rulings in pursuit of his tyrannical agenda and colluded with the Senate Majority Leader to stack the Supreme Court in his favor.

He has bypassed Congress to tax the American people through illegal tariffs, as calls of Taxation Without Representation fall on deaf ears.

He has vilified, threatened, and attacked the free Press with calls for violence and decertification and banned "unfriendly" news outlets from press briefings.

He has utilized ICE and other federal agents to harass immigrant communities, separate families, kidnap and detain both legal and undocumented immigrants, asylum seekers, and even American Citizens in squalid conditions without adequate food, water, or medical care or access to legal representation and deported many without due process to countries regardless of origin.

He has defunded or eliminated Federal Agencies authorized by Congress and appointed agency or department heads whose agendas are antithetical to the operation of their functions so as to render said agencies impotent or ineffective.

He and his sycophants in the Cabinet and Congress have eliminated or decimated healthcare, food assistance, and other social programs for millions of Americans in need.

He has made disaster relief contingent on support for his agenda, effectively blackmailing states to do his will. 

He has compromised the independence of the Department of Justice by using the Attorney General as his personal lawyer to prosecute perceived political enemies.

He has purged and decimated employee rolls from vital federal agencies in defiance of negotiated union contracts and Congress to eliminate those he considers "disloyal" or antithetical to his personal vision of an America we do not recognize and cannot abide.

He has abandoned science and rejected current and long-standing consensus on medical and environmental issues, endangering our health and our ability to combat the ravages of climate change that his misguided energy policies are dangerously exacerbating.

He has violated the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution and profited, often through his family businesses, from his policies, executive orders, and foreign dealings, making a travesty of long-standing ethical rules for conflicts of interest.

He has rewritten historical fact and censored schools and universities, national parks and museums, including the Smithsonian, eroding and further marginalizing the contextualized lived experience of minorities and LGBTQ+ groups even as he decimates their rights and protections.

He has waged war without Congressional approval and threatened the sovereignty of nations, ignoring or openly defying not only our own laws, but International Law, Treaties, and Conventions, committing War Crimes with impunity.

He refuses to recognize the Separation of Powers delineated in our Constitution or any limits on His perceived powers as President, ruling, in his own words, as a dictator "only on day one", and yet ignoring that self-imposed time limit to his fictional entitlements.

He has demeaned the dignity of the Office of the Presidency through his outrageous lies, unhinged rants, racist and misogynistic statements, foul language, threats, and insults, lowering if not obliterating standards of ethical and acceptable behavior and poisoning the public square.

He has irrevocably damaged our standing in the eyes of the world through his threats, military bullying, shameful rhetoric, economic blackmail, disrespect for International Law, disparagement of allies, and embrace of dictators abroad and fascism here at home, forever tarnishing our image as that "shining city on a hill".

   In every stage of these Oppressions, we have Petitioned for Redress. Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A President, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

   We, therefore, the People of the United States of America, appealing to the Interdependence which that Shared Humanity affords in the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority as Citizens of these United States and of Our Better Angels, solemnly publish and declare, That these States and inhabitants therein are and of Right ought to be Free and Independent from this encroaching fascism; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to Donald J. Trump, and that all political connection between them and said Tyrant, is and ought to be totally dissolved and that He and His Party Henchmen be removed from Office and Power; and that Free and Interdependent States must have full Power to follow the Constitution as intended, and to do all other Acts and Things which Interdependent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of that Collected Interdependence that we enjoy locally as brethren, nationally as fellow patriots, and worldwide as free peoples, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.