The Declaration of Independence (with some minor edits)

Originally presented before Congress on July 4th, 1776:

“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 … Nature … 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 [people] 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 [people], deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —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 Safety 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 [American Government—Congress, Courts, and Executives, as well as their cohorts in various media, corporate, and banking industries] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over the [American people and those abroad]. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

[Government, corporate, and banking institutions and leadership have] refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

[They have] forbidden [the people] to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, (i.e. the US Congress) unless suspended in their operation till [their] Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, [they have] utterly neglected to attend to them.

[They have] has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, (i.e. voting rights, gerrymandering, etc.) a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

[They have] called together legislative bodies [that are incapable and unwilling to submit to the will of the people, except those American who hold enormous fortunes], for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with [their] measures.

[The Executives have ignored the] Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness [their] invasions on the rights of the people.

[They have] refused for a long time, after such [disregard for the rights of the people], to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within (i.e. money and corruption).

[They have] endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners [so corporations can continue to exploit the people]; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands (except to Exxon Mobile, TransCanada, Monsanto, etc).

[They have] obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing [their] Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

[They have] made Judges dependent on [their] Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

[They have] erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

[They have] kept […], in times of peace, Standing Armies [of our young men and women, in positions all over the world] without the Consent of our legislatures [or the people].

[They have] affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power [and use it to usurp civil powers of other free peoples abroad].

[They have] combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving [their] Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops [and police] among us [and keeping us under surveillance]: For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For [control and manipulating] our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses

For [disregarding] the free System of […] Laws in [the United States], establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and … [wielding unnecessary military power beyond its] Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these [states].

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For [corrupting and mismanaging] our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

[They have] abdicated Government here, by declaring us [under their] Protection and waging War against us [and in our name].

[They have] has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, [fracked] our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

[They are] at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries (see Academi, formerly Blackwater Worldwide and the exploitation, by government, of our own military abroad) to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

[They have] constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against [other peoples], to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

[They have] excited domestic insurrections amongst us. (deletion of racist characterization of Native Americans)

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. [Political and economic leadership] 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 attentions to our [wealthiest] brethren [and their congressional counterparts]. 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 [the people], therefore, solemnly publish and declare, That [we] are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent [people]; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to [illegitimate power], and that all political connection between [the people and the rule of the wealthiest Americans], is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent [people], [we] have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent [people] 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.”