Monthly Archives: November 2019

11/30/19

Celebrating the Birthday of Oliver Winchester

By: Alex | Ammo.com

Oliver Winchester was born in Boston, on November 30, 1810. He started his career with a clothing company based out of New York City and New Haven, Connecticut. After successfully running this aspect of his business, Winchester began to look for new opportunities. Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson (yes, that “Smith & Wesson” who later formed the Smith & Wesson Revolver Company) acquired and improved a rifle design with the help of shop foreman, Benjamin Tyler Henry. Talk about a genius cluster! In 1855, they began to manufacture what would be known as the “Volcanic” lever-action rifle. The company would become incorporated as the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company; its largest stockholder was Oliver Winchester.

After limited success with this new rifle, Winchester seized the opportunity to take control over the failing company and renamed it the New Haven Arms Company. Although initial returns were slow, Benjamin Henry, the company’s leading engineer, improved the Volcanic repeating rifle’s design by enlarging the frame and magazine to accommodate the all-new brass-cased .44 caliber cartridge. This ingenuity put the company on the map, and in 1860, the patent for the infamous Henry rifle was issued. The next six years of production produced over 12,000 Henry, many of which were used in the Civil War. In the following months, Benjamin Henry, who was angered over what he believed was inadequate compensation, filed a lawsuit for ownership of the company. Oliver Winchester hastily reorganized the company as the Winchester Repeating Arms Company to circumvent this issue.

The Model 1866 soon rolled out as the first Winchester rifle. Based on the Henry rifle, it came with an improved magazine and a wooden forend. In the following years, larger caliber rifles such as the infamous Model 1873, “The Gun That Won The West”, brought more notoriety and foundation to the company. Although Mr. Winchester would miss the opportunity to see his company’s greatest achievements; he passed away in December of 1880.

Winchester Repeating Arms Company’s collaboration with John Browning brought about much success with a host of shotguns, including the still produced Model 1885. The turn of the 20th century hosted a series of new arms developments, many from the top engineer at the time, T.C. Johnson. But it was the start of the First World War that set development and production requirements into full force. The company became a major producer of the .30-06 M1917 Enfield rifle for the United States military and worked once more with Browning to develop the .50 caliber BMG.

During the war, the company borrowed heavily to finance the expansion. In an attempt to pay down its debt following the war’s end, they used their surplus production capacity to manufacture consumer goods such as kitchen knives, roller skates, and refrigerators. The strategy was a failure, and the Great Depression sent the company into bankruptcy. John M. Olin’s Western Cartridge Company purchased the Winchester Repeating Arms Company at auction in 1931, with plans to restore the brand to its former glory. The Second World War helped this cause tremendously as Winchester produced the U.S. M1 Carbine and the M1 Garand rifle during this time period.

Over the following decades, the Olin Winchester-Western division struggled with rising labor costs and other companies’ cast-and-stamped production methods. By 1980, Olin decided to sell the company back to its employees, which re-incorporated as the U.S. Repeating Arms Company. Olin retained the Winchester ammunition business. U.S. Repeating Arms went bankrupt in 1989, and after a number of sellouts to foreign holdings companies, the New Haven plant closed its doors on January 16, 2006, after 140 years of producing rifles and shotguns.

In August of 2006, Olin Corporation, owner of Winchester trademarks, entered a new license deal with Browning to make Winchester brand rifles and shotguns once again. The Model 1885, Model 1892, and Model 1886 are all produced by Miroku Corporation of Japan, then imported to the U.S. by Browning. Currently, Fabrique Nationale d’Herstal (FN) makes the remainder of Winchester’s rifle and shotgun lineup in various locations around Europe.

Winchester-branded ammunition continues to be produced by the Olin Corporation. Some of the most successful cartridges ever invented have been under the Winchester name: the .44-40 WCF, the .30-30 WCF, the .32 Winchester Special, the .50 BMG, the .270 Winchester, the .308 Winchester (the commercial version of the 7.62x51mm NATO), the .243 Winchester, the .22 WMR (aka the .22 Magnum), and the .300 Winchester Magnum. In North America, the .30-30 and .308 Winchester are some of the best selling cartridges in firearm history.

Through its history, the Winchester name has experienced great successes and significant failures; but it’s truly an important story to know in the realm of firearms. Here’s to the man that started it all, happy birthday to Mr. Oliver Winchester.

11/30/19

Globalist Climate Candidate Michael Bloomberg and the Humanitarian Hoax of Climate Change

By: Linda Goudsmit | Pundicity

Michael Bloomberg became a multi-billionaire by understanding global markets. He analyzed the 2020 U.S. presidential political marketplace and concluded three things:

● None of the hysterical, radically leftist Democrat candidates can beat President Trump in 2020.

● Joe Biden’s political corruption exposed in Ukraine is irreversible and focuses unwelcome attention on the political corruption of the Clintons, the Pelosis, the Kerrys, and the Obamas.

● The single most successful humanitarian hoax and galvanizing political issue of our time is climate change.

So what does astute multi-billionaire globalist Michael Bloomberg do? He announces himself the climate candidate of the 2020 presidential election. In a November 26, 2019 article, Billionaire Buys Climate Change on Google, Brian Kahn reveals how Bloomberg plans to spend $1 billion of his personal fortune to buy Google ads that will reinforce his image as the climate candidate.

It is a brilliant political move by a brilliant market analyst because anyone opposing Bloomberg is seen as opposing climate change. The advertorial message is that Bloomberg will deliver the world from the catastrophic threat of climate change, so a vote for Bloomberg is a vote to save the planet.

Bloomberg is betting that the galvanizing message of climate change is powerful enough to overcome any anti-Semitic objections to his candidacy.

Let’s examine what it means in real terms, in real life, to the lives of real voters if this self-described climate candidate wins in 2020.

We begin by debunking the foundational premise of Bloomberg’s political ads: Climate change is the greatest challenge and threat to life in the 21st century.

I have written three articles on the humanitarian hoax of climate change:

The first, The Humanitarian Hoax of Climate Change, introduces the purpose of the con:

The Humanitarian Hoax of climate change is the whopper of the 21st century. It is a deliberate political scheme to transfer the wealth of industrialized nations (particularly the U.S.) to non-industrialized nations. It is globalized socialism where the assets of productive nations are transferred to non-productive nations. WHY?

The answer is found in understanding the nature of the hoax which has two parts. First, it is necessary to focus attention on the fabricated specter of catastrophic climate occurrences that will devastate the planet to deflect attention away from the actual threats to America from a nuclear Iran, the spread of Islamic terrorism, and the economic instability of an unsustainable trade deficit.

Second, Obama’s long term plan of an internationalized globalized world requires the de-industrialization of America. His crippling energy restrictions were designed to weaken America’s defenses by destroying America’s energy industry, making us more dependent on foreign energy, and increasing our trade deficit to unsustainable levels. Obama actively supported the punitive anti-American Paris Climate Agreement deceitfully presented as the premier humanitarian effort to save the planet from catastrophic climate change. Obama disguised his crippling rules and regulations to destroy U.S. energy as altruism and humanitarian concern for the planet.

In a laughable outburst, Big Footprint former Vice President Al Gore attacked President Donald Trump accusing him of “tearing down America’s standing in the world” by withdrawing from the Paris climate accord. Only in the eyes of a deceitful globalist can withdrawing from an anti-American agreement be considered destructive. Gore actually said with a straight face on NBC’s Today Show, “The climate crisis is by far the most serious challenge we face.” Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” is, in fact, a very “Convenient Lie.”

The second article, The Riddle of Climate Change, exposes the marketing of the convenient political lie:

More doomsday fear-mongering is featured in a Breitbart article discussing David Wallace-Wells’ new book The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming that predicts there will be 100 million climate refugees by 2050. SERIOUSLY? Wallace-Wells defends his cataclysmic predictions saying that he worked from the worst warming scenario presented by the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

A stunning Forbes article published 2.5.13 titled, In Their Own Words: Climate Alarmists Debunk Their “Science” quotes Kevin Trenberth, a lead author of 2001 and 2007 IPCC report chapters, who admits, ‘None of the models used by the IPCC are initialized to the observed state and none of the climate states in the models correspond even remotely to the current observed state.’

The same Forbes article quotes former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev who “emphasized the importance of using climate alarmism to advance Marxist objectives saying, ‘The threat of environmental crisis will be the international key to unlock the New World Order.'” Gorbachev was referring, of course, to the globalist New World Order of an internationalized world community administered under the auspices of the United Nations.

My third article, The Humanitarian Hoax of Climate Change II – Debunking the Bunk, reviews the material and explains the efficacy of the lie of manmade climate change:

The climate changes, but “manmade” climate change is the deliberately misleading narrative that human behavior is causing cataclysmic changes to the Earth’s climate. The Climategate scandal exposed the fraudulent “research” that supported its politically motivated claims and exposed the hoax.

The United Nations IPCC goals are unapologetically stated in United Nations Agenda 2030 – the manifesto for imposing the new world order of one-world government. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals reaffirm the United Nations globalist stance that planet Earth and its ecosystems are “our common home and that ‘Mother Earth’ is a common expression in a number of countries and regions.” This is all Orwellian doublespeak to rationalize the imposition of a New World Order of a one-world government under the auspices of the corrupt United Nations.

This article includes testimony by Greenpeace apostate Patrick Moore exposing the lie of “settled science.” He explains how environmental science has been completely co-opted by political science. There is not a shred of credible evidence that manmade climate change exists – but no matter. The truth never stops a determined huckster. Moore explains:

“When they talk about the 99 percent consensus [among scientists] on climate change, that’s a completely ridiculous and false number. But most of the scientists — put it in quotes, scientists — who are pushing this catastrophic theory are getting paid by public money, they are not being paid by General Electric or Dupont or 3M to do this research, where private companies expect to get something useful from their research that might produce a better product and make them a profit in the end because people want it — build a better mousetrap type of idea.

And so you’ve got the green movement creating stories that instill fear in the public. You’ve got the media echo-chamber — fake news — repeating it over and over and over again to everybody that they’re killing their children.”

Shaming is a powerful tool used and abused by humanitarian hucksters to promote their manmade climate change narrative and to silence any opposition to their false claims of “settled” climate science.

The manmade climate change hucksters continue to perpetrate their monstrous hoax through fear and guilt. Fear is a powerful motivator for behavior change. If parents can be convinced that catastrophe will strike their children unless they change their own behavior, their guilt will motivate parents to change and the big lie of manmade climate change becomes generational.

American democracy is the single greatest existential threat to a one-world government with President Donald Trump as America’s leader. The globalist elite are desperate to stop Trump because if Obama is exposed as a con man it leaves them without their primetime huckster to continue marching America toward anarchy and socialism with his “resistance” movement. The globalist elites who fund the leftist humanitarian hucksters are using them as useful idiots to facilitate climate alarmism and the great humanitarian hoax of climate change worldwide. It is a deliberate plan to create the overwhelming social chaos necessary to impose their own special brand of a New World Order.

Michael Bloomberg is a member of the globalist Trilateral Commission, the think tank founded by globalist David Rockefeller in 1973 to foster “cooperation” among nations. To fully understand the objective of a globalist one must understand the duplicitous language of a globalist. To a globalist, cooperation means cooperating in the implementation of an internationalized New World Order.

Michael Bloomberg is also a member of the globalist Council on Foreign Relations, another globalist think tank dedicated to the New World Order.

David Rockefeller, former chairman of the globalist Council on Foreign Relations from 1970-1985 stated unapologetically in his Memoirs:

Some even believe we [Rockefeller family] are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as “internationalists” and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure – One-World if you will. If that’s the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it – p.405

We are grateful to The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subject to the bright lights of publicity during those years. But, the work is now much more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a World Government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries – David Rockefeller to Trilateral Commission in 1991

English aristocrat Lord Bertrand Russell wrote a book titled The Impact of Science on Society in 1952 which unapologetically describes in chilling detail the intention of the few globalist elites in England and America, including the Rothschilds and the Rockefellers, to impose one-world government as the answer to the Malthusian problem of the earth’s resources being unable to sustain population growth. There is no national sovereignty, no middle class, no upward mobility, and no individual freedoms. The globalist elites envision a feudal binary socio-political system of masters and slaves where they are the ruling elite served by an enslaved population – everyone else is eliminated. “World population needs to be decreased by 50%”– Henry Kissinger.

Michael Bloomberg is a clear and present danger to American sovereignty. His philosophical positions reflect the same condescending aristocratic attitudes of Lord Bertrand Russell, David Rockefeller, and Henry Kissinger. Michael Bloomberg is the climate candidate huckster who champions bringing a one-world government to America disguised as altruism. Michael Bloomberg is the candidate of a one-world government and the political aristocracy who believe they are superior and entitled to be the masters of the world’s population of slaves.

Michael Bloomberg, the 2020 climate candidate, is the personification of the humanitarian hoax of climate change and the man attempting to impose globalism’s New World Order. He is the consummate humanitarian huckster presenting himself as America’s advocate when in fact he is America’s existential enemy. If Michael Bloomberg becomes the 2020 Democrat candidate, the election will be a clash of the titans that will determine the future course and structure of life on Earth.

President Donald Trump representing the American flag of freedom and national sovereignty VS. Michael Bloomberg representing the globalist flag of a one-world government and a return to the feudal totalitarian New World Order ruled by the globalist political elite.

11/30/19

If the blind are leading the blind, who is watching out for the potholes?

By: Nelson Abdullah | Conscience of a Conservative

A few weeks ago word leaked out that one of the most popular Christian businesses in America, Chick-fil-A, had dropped three of their long time charities. To make matters worse, that news was followed by confirmation that the Chick-fil-A Foundation had decided to become more socially inclusive and had begun to support LGBT and anti-Christian groups. The entire list was discovered buried inside the organizations massive IRS form 990-PF list of charitable contributions. Right there on page 11, among hundreds of groups, the name of the arch-enemy of every Conservative was the $2500. donation to the SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER INC, 400 WASHINGTON AVENUE, MONTGOMERY, AL 36104.

Damn history always repeats itself when people ignore it. The Boy Scouts of America is on the verge of bankruptcy today because they capitulated to the demands to become inclusive. First they changed their policy and allowed homosexual scouts, then they changed their policy and allowed homosexual scout leaders, then the secretly covered up the abuses of the homosexual scout leaders, then they mortgaged their possessions to pay for the lawsuits.

Alexander’s Column on The Patriot Post

Memo to Chick-fil-A From the BSA

There is a lot to admire about Chick-fil-A, but good, faithful people can make poor decisions.

Mark Alexander · Nov. 26, 2019

 

I was a Boy Scouts of America leader for almost 15 years, my two sons are Eagle Scouts, and for the last 10 years, I have served on the Executive Board of a historic Council. It is with that background for context that I issue the following warning to our friends at Chick-fil-A.

I have watched the National BSA’s slow-motion slide from one of the nation’s leading character-building organizations for young men into the cultural abyss that inevitably follows the implementation of policies endeavoring to comport with the current gender devolution orthodoxy.

I was struck this week by a comment from Russell Ballard, a leader of the Mormon Church and member of its Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Ballard was explaining the upcoming divorce between the Boy Scouts of America (now “The Scouts”) and Scout Units associated with the Mormon Church.

Ballard claimed, “The reality is we didn’t really leave them; they kind of left us. The direction they were going was not consistent with what we feel our youth need to have … to survive in the world that lies ahead for them.”

That statement is grossly inaccurate because, in 2013, it was BSA President Wayne Perry, a Mormon, who led the charge to allow gender-confused youth — those who identify as “gay” — into the ranks of the Boy Scouts. Announcing that policy change in May of that year, Perry insisted that the “resolution reaffirms our core belief in doing one’s ‘duty to God,’” but insisted the BSA “would maintain the current membership policy for all adult leaders,” prohibiting homosexual leaders. But Perry was also quick to note: “Some have voiced concerns that this proposal could put children at risk of being abused. The BSA makes no connection between sexual abuse and homosexuality.”

Ahead of that national BSA board decision, I wrote an open letter to an Eagle Scout, knowing that after so much effort to obtain that rank, this decision would be demoralizing to many Eagle Scouts. I also warned that opening this capitulatory door would lead to demands for homosexual adult leaders.

Indeed, in July 2015, the BSA national board changed its policy to allow homosexual leaders. I responded with a critical analysis of that terrible decision: “The Boy Scouts’ ‘Gay Pride’ Merit Badge.”

In January 2017, the BSA national board capitulated to the next demand, allowing so-called “transgender youth.” For the record, there is no such thing as “transgender.” Regardless of what self-mutilation one undertakes, genetically they will be the same gender from birth to death. But I digress…

It is no small irony that, last year, the BSA announced it was facing the prospect of bankruptcy due to lawsuits in response to homosexual predation on boys — given that BSA leaders had attempted to conceal information about these predators for decades. (They have even mortgaged their crown jewel, Philmont Scout Ranch, reportedly for a line of credit to settle claims.)

In other words, the national BSA board already knew there was a history of adult predators, but still implemented policies that would expose more boys to predation. Despite the fact that virtually all BSA sexual assaults have been homosexual, recall Perry’s mindless assertion: “The BSA makes no connection between sexual abuse and homosexuality.”

As a result of the absurd BSA policy changes, from 2013 to 2018, scouting membership dropped from 2.7 million to 2 million. In January of next year, the BSA will lose an estimated 400,000 LDS Youth members, bringing national membership down to 1.6 million.

So what is the lesson here for Chick-fil-A and its recent policy changes regarding Christian organizations it supports?

First, one reason the BSA capitulated to homosexuals is that the national board is populated with wealthy corporate types — they are fundraisers who also have to be concerned that their association with the BSA might cause a boycott of their corporations. Thus it is a “Faustian Bargain” to invite wealthy corporate types as board members and trustees, thus the board pressure behind these changes.

But Chick-fil-A is a privately held company and its board is controlled by CEO Dan Cathy, son of company founder Truett Cathy, and his family. Thus they do not have the same public corporate motive to abide by leftist social orthodoxies. The primary question for the Cathy family is one of balancing principles with profits.

Second, I have met the Cathys, and many folks with Chick-fil-A, and I know well the extraordinary support they have provided to faith-based groups over the decades. But they have been under assault by homosexual advocacy groups since 2012 when Dan Cathy made clear his opposition to same-sex marriage based on clear Christian principles.

The recent decision to drop some Christian organizations from their support roster after their commitments expired, was arguably based on the company’s store expansion priorities — and not wanting to meet homosexual resistance in those markets. Chick-fil-A President Tim Tassopoulos commented on those priorities as they related to dropping some Christian ministries: “There’s no question we know that, as we go into new markets, we need to be clear about who we are. There are lots of articles and newscasts about Chick-fil-A, and we thought we needed to be clear about our message.”

But the decision to make those changes originated with Rodney D. Bullard, Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility for Chick-fil-A, which includes Community Affairs and Environmental Sustainability initiatives. Bullard is also executive director of Chick-fil-A Foundation, from where the company’s $10 million in annual charitable donations are awarded.

Bullard is an exceptional person. He grew up in Decatur, Georgia, the son of a minister and educator, in a faithful household with limited means. He struggled to read at an early age but overcame that struggle with the help of a teacher who took a special interest in his situation and tutored him. He says, “If not for Mrs. Adams, I might have lost faith in myself and never realized the power of my ability to learn.”

Bullard is a model of that “power and ability,” coming a long way uphill since he learned to read. From modest beginnings, he earned an appointment to the Air Force Academy. After graduating from USAFA, he achieved loftier goals, including being selected to serve as a White House Fellow under the Bush(43) administration. He earned a law degree from Duke University and worked for the Department of Justice prior to being hired by Chick-fil-A.

In a May interview, Bullard declared that Chick-fil-A Foundation was guided by a “higher calling than any political or cultural war.” But the political and cultural doors he has opened imply that “higher calling” is being unduly influenced by the “political or cultural war.”

There is a lot to admire about Rodney Bullard, the Cathy family, and Chick-fil-A. This is a good company run by good people who do a lot of good things for their employees, customers and the communities they serve. But good people of faith can make poor decisions and, in my estimation, the recent decision to drop Christian organizations that support the timeless traditional definition of marriage and family hints at a trend toward placing profits over principles. Moreover, it may foretell a slide toward simultaneously being “in the world” and “of the world,” rather than in the world, but not of the world. That is a faith and culture bridge that Truett Cathy would never have attempted to cross.

All said, the primary lesson from the BSA for Chick-fil-A is this: Similar to the BSA, Chick-fil-A’s corporate model and customer base have been built on a foundation of strong Christian principles.

Devaluing those principles devalues their customer base. And opening the door to such devaluation has already invited more efforts to silence the principles upon which this good company was founded.

My name is Nelson Abdullah and I am Oldironsides

11/29/19

First Lady Dissed by Wimpy Snowflakes

By: Lloyd Marcus

First Lady Melania Trump was booed by students when she spoke at an opioid awareness summit in Baltimore. Snowflake adults said the students were justified because Melania’s husband hurt their feelings by saying bad things about their city.

Folks, this infuriated me. I am so sick of snowflake adults who create dumbed-down, brain-dead, wimpy snowflake youths. Taught to believe they are entitled, snowflakes are unable to submit to authority or deal with the normal pressures of life; living in their parent’s basements playing video games at age 30.

Liberal Democrats have controlled Baltimore for the past 50 years, transforming it into a hellhole of poverty, fatherless households, failing schools, economic decline, and record-breaking black-on-black homicides.

As a child, I lived in the Baltimore projects. I don’t remember any neighborhood so horribly out-of-control that no one dared to venture after dark. And yet, that is the ridiculous situation in Baltimore today.

Visiting Baltimore for my dad’s funeral, it was shocking to see endless blocks of empty rundown row-houses, rats, and trash. What the heck happened to my beloved hometown once renowned as “Charm City”?

In the 1980s, Baltimore’s first black mayor, Kurt Schmoke ordered that my song “Hello Baltimore” be placed into the city’s time capsule. To illustrate Charm City’s shocking transformation, I made a music video of my song using footage of the recent Baltimore riots.

Back in the day, the neighborhood around Pimlico Racetrack where the Preakness Race is held was safe and upscale. Today, the Pimlico neighborhood has dramatically declined, infested with drugs and crime.

In the 1990s, I saw the beginning of the end for Baltimore because of stupid liberal Democrat policies. Park Avenue was the place to enjoy dinner at an upscale restaurant. Smelly, dirty vagrants began sleeping on the sidewalks and aggressively pestering patrons outside the beautiful restaurants. Due to the city’s commitment to political correctness, restaurant owners could do nothing to save their business. Finally, every restaurant closed or moved away.

Living in the projects as a child, I loved exploring Park Avenue downtown. “The lights are much brighter there. You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares. Downtown, things’ll be great when you’re downtown. Everything’s waiting for you.” Park Avenue has become another depressed section of the city unsafe after dark.

Incredibly, liberal Democrats who run Baltimore still have not learned to be friendly to businesses. During the recent Baltimore riots, the mayor ordered the police to stand down and allow thugs to destroy businesses to express their frustrations regarding racial injustice. Unbelievable.

The late Democratic congressman Elijah Cummings received billions in federal grants to clean up his rat and crime-infested district. The money was wasted or stolen. By the way, idiot black relatives of mine who live in Baltimore still praise Cummings for his wonderful service to the black community. Sorry, I had to get that off my chest.

Cummings’ wife also emits a putrid odor of corruption; using the suffering of her fellow blacks to get rich.

White liberals in fake news media claim to be advocates for black empowerment. The liberal Congressional Black Caucus and the NAACP also lie about their commitment to black empowerment. These black and white liberals viciously attack anyone who dares to address problems that plague blacks in cities controlled by Democrats.

Thank God President Trump cares enough to address the problems of blacks suffering in Democrat urban plantations. Therefore, I don’t give a rat’s derriere about the hurt feelings of spoiled-brat snowflake youths, upset because Trump told the truth about their cesspool city run by corrupt Democrats. Adults who defended the students for booing our first lady are a part of our nation’s morally bankrupt and wimpy culture. They should be ashamed of themselves.

This hypersensitivity to “hurt feelings” turns my stomach. For crying out loud, adults need to start instructing wimpy youths to grow a spine.

World War II-era Americans are turning over in their graves in disgust concerning this new generation of snowflake Americans. My black dad passed away at age 90. When my brother was a teen, he quit his summer job because his boss hurt his feelings by yelling at him.

Dad could hardly believe his ears. Annoyed at my brother, Dad said, “He hurt your feelings? Boy, you had better go back and get your job!” Dad was teaching my brother to be a man!

As a black civil rights pioneer in the Merchant Marines and Baltimore City Fire Department, Dad endured all kinds of humiliation and hurt feelings. But Dad knew a man has to do what a man has to do. He had a wife and five kids to feed. His hurt feelings were irrelevant.

To restore our youths, we need to have zero tolerance for all this hypersensitivity, wimpiness, and entitlement that liberals have instilled in our youths.

A snowflake reading this article will probably say, “Lloyd, you sound angry. I feel triggered. Your toxic masculinity makes me feel unsafe. You should be silenced and jailed.”

Can you imagine what a nightmare it would be if a snowflake ever became president?

Thank God President Trump is a real man.

Lloyd Marcus, The Unhyphenated American
Help Lloyd spread the Truth
http://LloydMarcus.com

11/29/19

15 Photos From the #IranProtests You Will Never See in Our Deranged, Anti-Trump Media (CAUTION: GRAPHIC CONTENT)

Doug Ross @ Journal

You wouldn’t know it to read and listen to our singularly focused media — who have devoted their entire energies over the last three years to removing President Trump from office — but Iran is exploding as its youth have finally had enough. An entire generation, without economic opportunity, is now rising up against its oppressors.

Please note, some graphic content is below the fold. Also, some translations are from Farsi. Original names have been largely omitted in order to shield individuals from the Iranian terror regime.

At least 4 detainees have been tortured in Rajaii Shahr Prison at least # detainees. The detainees are beaten every morning and evening in the prison with batons and whips. A group of them were told during the interrogation by IRGC officers that they would be “executed”…

The hashtag #IranLightsOff is being used to try to draw attention to this significant set of events in Iran by legacy media, who can’t stop attacking Trump to report the actual news.

Here, IRGC terrorists appear to be publicly removing hands and feet from protesters:

A body recovered after being tortured and killed by the IRGC:

More than a quarter of those who attempted to break the siege and deliver food to nearby towns were killed. One of the dead who was most influential was Hamza al-Khatib, a 5-year-old who was arrested in Deraa. His body was marked by the effects of torture, burns, and bullets, and his penis was severed.

Torture of citizens detained in Shiraz by IRGC…

“Confessions” recorded by the Iranian terror regime; this individual’s “confession” reportedly occurred after threats and torture; “Many of those who were killed or arrested were one like this guy. A youth from the lower class who has no future for himself and is not making a living.”

Fashafuyeh Prison is the largest prison in Tehran. Thousands of those arrested are reportedly being held in the prison. Two days ago, there was urgent news that the prisoners had begged for help. It is said that there is a lot of torture here.

Thinking for a moment at # Intelligence Ministry’s secret detention centers under torture How many girls and boys are screaming and waking up? It was their crime to knit their fists because of a bankrupt economy and a ruined youth!

Security guards in the suburb of Hamid Sheikhani, one of the detainees, handed over his recent protests to his family. Married and with a 5-year-old son, he was healthy at the time of his arrest, and his death means he died of torture.

At least 1 killed, 1 injured and 4 arrested during Iran’s #russels … Those arrested are now at risk of torture … The UN Security Council should send investigative missions to the dead and injured and prisoners to Iran.

With the devotees of the Road to Freedom in November. Greetings to the martyrs, the ransom of the rebellious cities of Iran for the angel of freedom. Greetings to hearts full of passion and love that stopped moving until the heart of the uprising for freedom continued to beat.

Funeral for the Liberals of the Road to Freedom in Nasiriyah, Iraq. Yesterday, more than 5 people were killed by the Revolutionary Guards in Nasiriyah, but gunmen took to the streets and captured the city less than six hours ago.

A protester being detained and shipped off to parts unknown.

A newly acquired video from Khorramshahr shows the horrific moments when state security forces shot and killed 16-year-old Khaled Ghazlawi during #IranProtests #Iran

And this is the same regime that President Obama allowed $150 billion to flow to, including sending a palette of $1.5 billion in cash, without Congressional approval or authorization.

Hat tip: BadBlue News, my 24 x 7 replacement for Drudge.

11/28/19

250 Arrested Due to Fake University

By: Denise Simon | Founders Code

The University of Farmington in Michigan is fake. The sting operation was called Paper-Chase. We have all kinds of channels on this one. Recruiters from India, visa fraud and lots of money and no classes to attend. The school had an estimated 600 students, where are the rest of them? All the enrolled students were foreign. The federal government concocted the school.

Federal agents used a fake university in Farmington Hills to lure alleged phony foreign students who were trying to stay in the United States illegally.

The University of Farmington had no staff, no instructors, no curriculum and no classes but was utilized by undercover Homeland Security agents to identify people involved in immigration fraud, according to federal grand jury indictments unsealed Wednesday.

The University of Farmington's headquarters was in this office building on Northwestern Highway north of Inkster Road in Farmington Hills.

The University of Farmington’s headquarters was in this office building on Northwestern Highway north of Inkster Road in Farmington Hills. (Photo: Google Maps)

Eight student recruiters were charged with participating in a conspiracy to help at least 600 foreign citizens stay in the U.S. illegally, according to the indictments, which describe a novel investigation that dates to 2015 but intensified one month into President Donald Trump’s tenure as part of a broader crackdown on illegal immigration.

Most of the recruiters and students involved are originally from India, according to prosecutors.

“It’s creative and it’s not entrapment,” said Peter Henning, a Wayne State University law professor and former federal prosecutor. “The government can put out the bait but it’s up to the defendants to fall for it.”

Those charged include:

• Bharath Kakireddy, 29, of Lake Mary, Florida.
• Aswanth Nune, 26, of Atlanta.
• Suresh Reddy Kandala, 31, of Culpeper, Virginia.
• Phanideep Karnati, 35, of Louisville, Kentucky.
• Prem Kumar Rampeesa, 26, of Charlotte, North Carolina.
• Santosh Reddy Sama, 28, of Fremont, California.
• Avinash Thakkallapally, 28, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
• Naveen Prathipati, 29, of Dallas.

“These suspects aided hundreds of foreign nationals to remain in the United States illegally by helping to portray them as students, which they most certainly were not,” said Steve Francis, special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations office in Detroit.

The eight defendants have all been arrested.

Starting in 2015, the university was part of an undercover operation dubbed “Paper Chase” and designed to identify recruiters and entities engaged in immigration fraud, according to the indictment. Homeland Security agents started posing as university officials in February 2017.

Immigration crimes alleged in the indictment continued until this month and involved Homeland Security agents posing as owners and employees of the university. The university had a professional website, a red-and-blue coat of arms, a Latin slogan meaning “knowledge and work” and a physical location at a commercial building on Northwestern Highway.

“… the university was being used by foreign citizens as a ‘pay to stay’ scheme which allowed these individuals to stay in the United States as a result of foreign citizens falsely asserting that they were enrolled as full-time students in an approved educational program and that they were making normal progress toward completion of the course of study,” the indictment reads.

The recruiters helped foreign citizens fraudulently obtain immigration documents from the university and helped create phony student records, including transcripts, according to the government.

“We are all aware that international students can be a valuable asset to our country, but as this case shows, the well-intended international student visa program can also be exploited and abused,” U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider said in a statement Wednesday.

The recruiters didn’t know the university was fake, however, and operated by federal agents.

The recruiters helped hundreds of foreign citizens fraudulently maintain non-immigrant status as students and stay in the U.S. illegally, prosecutors allege.

In February 2017, Sama called the university and inquired about enrolling as a student “without attending classes in order to fraudulently maintain his immigration status,” according to the indictment. During the phone call with an undercover agent, Sama also requested a tuition reduction for bringing students to the university.

Within weeks, Kandala, Kakireddy and Thakkallapally contacted undercover agents with identical requests, according to the government.

In late 2017, the recruiters started getting paid for recruiting the phony students.

Sama and Kandala met with an undercover agent at the university in January 2018 to collect $20,000 for recruiting students, prosecutors allege.

Sama collected another $20,000 in June 2018, according to the indictment.

The fake university is a new chapter in a long history of federal agents creating phony entities to thwart crime.

In the late 1970s, the FBI ran an investigation code-named ABSCAM that utilized a phony company in Long Island to crack down on public corruption and organized crime. And the 2012 film “Argo” was inspired by the work of a Central Intelligence Agency operative and involved a phony science-fiction movie.

The Farmington case isn’t the first time federal agents have used a phony university.

In 2016, Homeland Security agents used the fake University of Northern New Jersey to charge 21 people with student and work visa fraud.

Federal agents deployed several tactics to make the University of Farmington appear to be a legitimate school.

The main photo of University of Farmington students on the school’s website is nearly identical to a commercially available picture on the stock photograph website Shutterstock.

The University of Farmington has its own Facebook page, too, with a calendar of events, including one scheduled for next week with non-existent university officials.

But after The Detroit News revealed the indictment Wednesday, the university’s Facebook page started featuring memes, including one of Admiral Ackbar from “Return of the Jedi” shouting “It’s a trap.”

As part of the alleged Farmington scheme, recruiters intended to help shield and hide the students from immigration authorities, according to the indictment.

Those charged included recruiters who collectively received $250,000 in cash and kickbacks to find students to attend the university, the government alleges.

The University of Farmington operated out of the basement of the North Valley office complex on Northwestern Highway, north of Inkster Road.

The office is across the hall from a café for people who worked in the complex.

The entrance to the University of Farmington.

The entrance to the University of Farmington. (Photo: Matt Friedman)

Matt Friedman, co-founder of the Tanner Friedman strategic communications firm, works in an adjoining building and was puzzled by the university’s name and office.

There were no classrooms and the university’s name seemed peculiar, he said.

“I was like ‘what is this?’” Friedman said Wednesday. “I’d never heard of it before and never saw anybody there. The whole thing was just odd.”

He posted a joke on Facebook in April 2017 with a snapshot of the entrance to the university’s office suite.

“Just because I’m now in the same office complex, it doesn’t mean I can suddenly get you tickets to the rivalry games against West Bloomfield Tech or Southfield State,” Friedman wrote.

11/27/19

Illegal? 50 US Leftists Get Political With Communists in Cuba

By: Trevor Loudon | New Zeal

View of the 685 Neptuno street taken on Nov. 12, 2019, in Havana. (Adalberto Roque/AFP via Getty Images)

In early November, 50 U.S. leftists traveled to Cuba for meetings with communist organizations on the island.

The delegation, which included known members of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization and its satellite group LeftRoots, met with officials of a major international communist front organization, an auxiliary of the Cuban government, and several “non-governmental organizations.”

There should be major questions raised over the legality of this visit.

In June, the Trump administration announced new restrictions on U.S. citizens traveling to Cuba. Until then, Americans could travel to the island only under specific categories, which included organized group travel known as “group people-to-people travel.” That loophole—long exploited by U.S. communist groups—is now technically closed.

According to CNN:

“Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the statement that the restrictions are a result of Cuba continuing ‘to play a destabilizing role in the Western Hemisphere, providing a communist foothold in the region and propping up US adversaries in places like Venezuela and Nicaragua by fomenting instability, undermining the rule of law, and suppressing democratic processes.’

“The State Department announced that ‘going forward, the United States will prohibit US travelers from going to Cuba under the previous ‘group people-to-people educational’ travel authorization.’”

The 50 U.S. delegates arrived in Cuba on Oct. 30 to attend the “Anti-imperialist Meeting of Solidarity, for Democracy and Against Neoliberalism,” which took place in Havana from Nov. 1 to 3.

The conference was organized by the government-controlled Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, the Central Organization of Cuban Trade Unions, the Cuban Chapter of Social Movements, and the Continental Convergence for Democracy and against Neoliberalism.

According to the communist-controlled World Peace Council, the event was designed to build international opposition to the U.S. government’s attempts to isolate the Cuban communist regime:

“The meeting in Havana expresses the Cuban Revolution’s decision to respond to the demand of the political, social left-wing and the Solidarity Movement with Cuba that our country continues to be a meeting point of the people’s struggles in our continent.

“We have proposed the event to be a real contribution to confronting the current counterrevolutionary offensive of US imperialism, to the search for the widest possible unity of the leftist forces in the region and to strengthening militant solidarity with the just causes defended by the peoples. In the current political situation, marked by the aggressiveness of the Trump administration, new ways will be sought to reinforce solidarity with these causes in the world, mainly in our region. …

“The growing hostility against Cuba and other countries in the region, the judicial persecution of progressive leaders, the imposition of recycled neoliberalism, are distinctive features of the current North American policy towards Latin America and the Caribbean that awaken the fighting capacity of Latin American and Caribbean peoples.

“In the same way, the mobilization for the occasion of hundreds of social fighters, political leaders, intellectuals, peasants, women, indigenous people, solidarity activists, among others; will constitute a formidable encouragement to the heroic resistance of the Cuban people, determined to defeat … the blockade and to carry forward the updating of its economic and social development model.”

Does this sound political to you? Does it sound like the conference was designed to unite the broadest possible coalition of forces against current U.S.–Cuba policy?

The delegation traveled under the name of an umbrella group called “It Takes Roots,” an alliance of the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, Right to the City Alliance, the Indigenous Environmental Network, and the Climate Justice Alliance. All of these organizations are closely linked to the pro-China communist group Liberation Road (until April known as Freedom Road Socialist Organization or FRSO) and LeftRoots.

The delegate’s explicit purpose was to “build deeper relationships, to affirm the principles of solidarity and grassroots internationalism, and to continue to fight for a systemic transformation against capitalism, patriarchy, colonialism, and racism,” according to a Facebook post.

Before and after the conference, It Takes Roots delegates held meetings with several Cuban organizations.

First up was a meeting at the innocuously named Martin Luther King Jr. Center in Havana—one of the conference organizers. The center was founded on April 25, 1987, as “an initiative aimed at promoting values such as solidarity and justice,” according to a Climate Justice Alliance Facebook post. The center works with religious leftists “from a critical and liberalizing theology”—otherwise known as Marxist “Liberation Theology.”

Also on the visiting list were a Cuban childcare center and Casa Tomada MirArte, a community project that is “using popular education and art to explore issues of race, gender, and sexuality.” The group met with Norma Rita Guillard Limonta, “social psychologist, investigator of gender, sexuality, race, and identity, and co-founder of Grupo Oremi, a lesbian discussion group in Cuba,” according to an It Takes Roots Facebook post.

More obviously political was a visit to the so-called Puerto Rican mission in Havana for “a conversation about the fight for the independence of the Puerto Rican people, the historical relationship between Cuba and Puerto Rico, Indigenous peoples in both countries, [and] the US embargo,” according to another Facebook post.

Cuba has long supported Puerto Rican communist groups, including violent revolutionaries, in their quest for independence from the United States.

Also on the itinerary was a meeting with the Federation of Cuban Women. A state-sponsored body, the federation was founded in the earliest days of the Cuban revolution under the leadership of Vilma Espin—who fought in the Sierra Maestras with communist leader Fidel Castro and Raul Castro. Espin married Raul Castro in 1959 and remained president of the federation until her death in 2007.

Even more disturbing was the delegation’s meeting with the Cuban Movement for Peace and Sovereignty of the Peoples (MOVPAZ) to “discuss antimilitarism efforts.”

“MOVPAZ shared insightful information and taught the delegation about its powerful workaround efforts to close the Guantanamo prison, push for nuclear disarmament, fight for climate justice, and more,” It Takes Roots wrote in a Facebook post.

MOVPAZ is the Cuban affiliate of the World Peace Council—once the Soviet Union’s largest international front organization. Now run largely by Greek and Cuban communists, the Peace Council is still one of the most influential communist coordinating bodies on the planet. It has affiliates all over the world, including the U.S. Peace Council, Canadian Peace Congress, and the Movimiento Mexicano por la Paz y el Desarollo, plus two “friendly” organizations, the Chinese People’s Association for Peace and Disarmament and the Russian-based International Federation for Peace and Conciliation.

Many U.S. Peace Council affiliates are active in the anti-Trump protest movement, and others work with Congress members to promote U.S. deindustrialization, disarmament, and the slashing of the U.S. military budget—long goals of Russia, China, and Cuba.

In January, It Takes Roots and Climate Justice Alliance leaders went to Congress where they were “excited to share our vision for a Just Transition and the Green New Deal with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,” according to a Climate Justice Alliance Facebook post.

In June, It Takes Roots and Climate Justice Alliance leaders met with presidential candidate Bernie Sanders “to discuss how we can move the Just Transition to a Regenerative Economy and push for Climate Justice,” according to another post.

Clearly, It Takes Roots is an intensely political organization. It’s also obvious that members of the recent delegation are sympathetic to Cuban communist organizations working to further Havana’s agenda against the U.S. government.

This is legally problematic on multiple fronts. The delegation may have been breaking U.S. law by meeting with Cuban government bodies on clearly political matters. Are any of the delegates registered with the U.S. Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA)?

While I understand that the U.S. Justice Department has been busy protecting America from Russian collusion and Ukrainian corruption, maybe it could spare a little time to focus on Cuban collaboration?

American leftists appear to be working with Cuban organizations against U.S. government policy. Maybe the Justice Department could comment on the legality of the It Takes Roots Cuba delegation and its related actions?

Trevor Loudon is an author, filmmaker, and public speaker from New Zealand. For more than 30 years, he has researched radical left, Marxist, and terrorist movements and their covert influence on mainstream politics.

11/27/19

Echoes of Pol Pot: Bernie Movement’s Close Ties to Norwegian Communists

By: Trevor Loudon | The Epoch Times

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks at the Frank LaMere Native American Presidential Forum in Sioux City, Iowa, on Aug. 20, 2019. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

“Our Revolution” and “People for Bernie,” two key elements of the Bernie Sanders for President movement, have developed a close relationship with a militant Norwegian communist party.

The party in question, Rodt (Red Party), was formerly known as the Arbeidernes Kommunistparti (AKP or Workers’ Communist Party) and was notorious in Norway for its open support of Cambodian communist leader and mass murderer Pol Pot.

The Sanders movement’s ties to one of the most extreme communist parties of Europe gives the lie to Sanders’ often-repeated claim that his “democratic socialism” has nothing to do with communism.

The AKP was founded in 1973 as a Maoist competitor to the pro-Soviet Norwegian Communist Party. The AKP, in common with many other Maoist parties of the era, openly supported mass-murderers Joseph Stalin and Pol Pot.

According to the “Black Book of Communism,” Pol Pot’s Beijing-backed Communist Party of Kampuchea,  or “Khmer Rouge,” was responsible for the deaths of approximately 2 million of Cambodia’s 6 million people in its bloody three-year reign. Approximately 1.3 million of these victims were deliberately executed by the regime and buried in about 23,000 mass graves.

The AKP openly endorsed the Khmer Rouge. When Pol Pot’s Maoist forces conquered Cambodian capital Phnom Penh in April 1975, AKP’s newspaper Klassekampen (Class Struggle) emblazoned “Long live the free Cambodia” as their front-page headline. The AKP dismissed reports of massacres under the Khmer Rouge rule as anti-communist propaganda and continued to send delegations to Cambodia until Vietnamese troops expelled the Khmer Rouge from Phnom Penh in January 1979.

The AKP openly called for armed revolution before 1990 and kept the possibility of having to “defend the revolution with arms” open for some time after.

In 2007, the AKP re-branded itself as “Rodt” and turned its focus more toward electoral politics. The party claims to no longer support violence but does state that its goal is still a “classless society” or “what Karl Marx called communism.”

The AKP maintained close ties to foreign Maoist parties including the New Zealand Workers Communist League and especially the United States’ Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO). In recent years, Rodt has broadened its Maoist base to admit Trotskyists and “democratic socialists.”

This has been mirrored in the United States by the backbone of the Sanders movement, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which includes in its rank Trotskyists from “Solidarity” and Maoists from Liberation Road, the new name for FRSO.

Rodt’s broadened base has given it a little more traction in Norwegian politics. Rodt now has 20 county council representatives and 190 municipal and city council representatives. The party made a small breakthrough in the 2017 election, winning 2.4 percent of the vote and its first seat in the Norwegian Parliament.

Sanders Movement

After developing deep ties with FRSO over several years, Rodt began to build links with the wider Sanders movement during the 2016 election cycle. In October 2016, the New York City branch of FRSO sponsored a small get-together of “local labor activists, Sandernistas and other lefties” to meet Reidar Strisland—former youth leader of the Oslo section of Rodt. Strisland was in the United States for two months gathering material for a book on the Sanders movement.

Strisland visited comrades in Detroit and Lansing, Michigan, and Toledo, Ohio, as well as in Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and at the Dakota Access Pipeline protests in South Dakota. Strisland was back during the 2018 U.S. midterm elections, scoring photo-ops with several DSA-supported candidates, including Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke in Texas and congressional candidate James Thompson in Kansas.

A delegation of Norwegian activists, including Strisland, attended the Sanders movement’s People’s Summit in Chicago in June 2017. A few days later, three American activists, Winnie Wong, Claire Sandberg, and Moumita Ahmed, accepted Strisland’s invitation to travel Oslo to see “Nordic social democracy” firsthand.

Wong was a leader of People for Bernie and a newly minted DSA member at the time. Sandberg was an organizing director for Bernie 2016 and a founder of the FRSO-linked electoral organization We Will Replace You. Ahmed was a leader of People for Bernie and Millennials for Revolution and a member of the DSA.

In Oslo, the three Americans socialists addressed a Rodt-run political and cultural festival “Popvenstre,” met with Rodt leaders and even trained grassroots comrades in U.S. election campaigning techniques in the party’s downtown Oslo office.

According to Wong and Sandberg: “We spent hours in trainings and breakout strategy sessions with Rodt party organizers digging into the nuts and bolts of digital and social media best practices, barnstorms, peer-to-peer text messaging, dank memes, and more.”

The training seems to have worked. In the 2017 elections, Rodt leader Bjornar Moxnes was elected as the sole representative of the party in the Norwegian Parliament.

In a play on the Sanders slogan “Feel the Bern,” Rodt campaigners wore “Feel the Bjorn” T-shirts as they campaigned in Oslo.

Is it legal for American Marxists to involve themselves in Norwegian elections?

In February 2018, Larry Cohen, chairman of the Sanders support network Our Revolution, traveled to Oslo to address a special Rodt strategy conference.

The leader of a Sanders support organization claiming more than 200,000 members and 600 groups across the United States gave a keynote speech at a high-level planning conference with one of Europe’s most militant communist parties—with zero media scrutiny.

Key operatives in the movement to elect Sanders to the U.S. presidency are working with a European communist party that once openly supported Pol Pot. Senior American Sanders supporters seem to have played a role in electing a revolutionary Marxist to the Norwegian parliament.

Does the Sanders movement really support Scandinavian “social democracy,” or does it really favor flat-out Norwegian communism?

Nothing to see here, folks.

Trevor Loudon is an author, filmmaker, and public speaker from New Zealand. For more than 30 years, he has researched radical left, Marxist, and terrorist movements and their covert influence on mainstream politics.

11/27/19

Thanksgiving: The Forgotten History of America’s Thanksgiving and What It Commemorates

Ammo.com

Thanksgiving: The Forgotten History of America's Thanksgiving and What It CommemoratesThanksgiving is the oldest national holiday in the United States. However, it’s observation is not a continuous presence in American history. While the celebration of Thanksgiving predates even the founding of the nation, it was proclaimed by George Washington, then ignored by Thomas Jefferson. From then on, it was sporadically observed until Abraham Lincoln, who once again introduced a National Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving to the United States.

Indeed, it was Lincoln who set the day as the last Thursday in November. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt changed the day between 1939 and 1941, which was highly controversial. The days were called “Franksgiving.” Roosevelt changed the date because retailers communicated to him through the Retail Dry Goods Association and the Secretary of Commerce, that the late date of Thanksgiving that year (the last day of November) might negatively impact retail sales. It was considered bad form to put up Christmas decorations or put on Christmas sales before Thanksgiving.

If only we still lived in such times.

In 1942, Congress set Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday of the month, and here it has stood since then.

The Early Days of Thanksgiving

Harvest feasts date back centuries, with the earliest “thanksgiving” celebrations in the New World dating to the 16th Century with the French and the Spanish. The Commonwealth of Virginia had regular celebrations of this type dating back to 1607. The first permanent settlement, Jamestown, Virginia, had a thanksgiving celebration in the year of its founding, 1610.

Of course, anytime someone says “Thanksgiving,” one immediately thinks of the Pilgrims. “Thanksgiving” as we know it is generally dated back to when the Pilgrims first celebrated it in 1621. This was in response to a successful harvest, however, it was not the first of a consistent celebration. The Pilgrims celebrated this only sporadically.

No one is entirely sure when the Thanksgiving celebration took place. There was a three-day celebration following their harvest, sometime between September 21 and November 11, with the Feast of Michaelmas (September 29) being the most likely date. We do, however, know that all 50 surviving Mayflower passengers were there, as well as 90 Native Americans. The feast was cooked primarily by four women, all of whom were on the Mayflower. Two years later, in 1623, following another boat of colonists arriving, the first civil (not religious) Thanksgiving took place in July.

The Revolution to the Civil War

The day of national Thanksgiving jumped around until the founding of the nation. During the late Colonial period, the Continental Congress merely recommended the day be celebrated by the various colonies. Samuel Adams drafted the first national proclamation, issued in 1777 – something to remember when you tip back one of his beers while watching the game. Revolutionary Commander General George Washington set the date in December of that year to celebrate early revolutionary victories.

In 1789, President George Washington would proclaim November 26, 1789, to be a National Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving. This day also provides the roots for America’s National Day of Prayer. In 1795, Thanksgiving was celebrated, again by presidential proclamation, on February 19. President John Adams continued the tradition in 1798 and 1799. The tradition was undone by deist and skeptic President Thomas Jefferson. President James Madison revived the tradition in 1814, but it remained sporadic until the Civil War. Many governors proclaimed celebrations statewide.

In November 1863, however, President Lincoln made the celebration national again. He was inspired by an editorial series written by “Mary Had a Little Lamb” author Sarah Josepha Hale. Secretary of State William H. Seward wrote the proclamation. During this period, traditions were regional and some of the food is decidedly not what we would consider to be traditional Thanksgiving fare today (pigeon pie, for example).

Franksgiving

Franksgiving is one of those things like the court-packing plan that made FDR’s opponents squeal with laughter. FDR’s moving of the date of Thanksgiving caused his opponent in the previous election, Alf Landon, to compare him to Hitler. James Frasier, chairman of the Plymouth, Massachusetts board of selectmen heartily disapproved of the change.

The change caused a number of problems, not least of all holiday travel plans. Football teams around the nation played before empty stadiums because they couldn’t change their schedule. Many games were canceled. In what is a familiar scenario to anyone who has followed 21st-century politics, Democrats narrowly supported Franksgiving (52 to 48), Republicans widely despised it (79 to 21) and most of America didn’t like it (62 to 38).

All told, 23 states and the District of Columbia recognized the new date, while 22 preferred the traditional date. The remaining three (Colorado, Texas, and Mississippi) went with both dates, meaning there was plenty of time off for everyone. In 1940, 32 states and the nation’s capital went with Franksgiving, while the remaining 16 opted for what was called “Republican Thanksgiving.”

A report from the Department of Commerce issued in 1941, found that there was no difference in retail sales due to the day of the month. Indeed, barely more than a third of all retailers even observed Franksgiving. What’s more, only two out of every seven Thanksgivings would fall on a fifth Thursday rather than a fourth. Still, a joint resolution of Congress, signed into law by President Roosevelt, permanently moved the date to the fourth Thursday, where it has stood ever since. Most states concurred, and while revelry was on the back burner thanks to the war, Thanksgiving in its final form took root by 1945.

If you ever find yourself watching the Merrie Melodies cartoon Holiday Highlights, you’ll notice a reference to two different Thanksgivings – one for Republicans and one for Democrats – that will now make sense to you.

Texas was the last state to observe the traditional “last Thursday” Thanksgiving in 1956.

Thanksgiving Haters

While it has its roots in European harvest festivals, there is perhaps no more quintessentially American holiday than Thanksgiving. Americans eat more food this day than they will any other day of the year, including the Fourth of July and Christmas Day. Unsurprisingly, there are people who think that the celebration of Thanksgiving is shameful and should be abandoned.

Both liberal college professors and some Native American activists believe the traditional story of Thanksgiving has been whitewashed by conquerors. They believe in replacing the day with a National Day of Atonement and fasting. Other prominent Native Americans such as Tim Giago, who founded the Native American Journalists Organization, believe that the celebration of Thanksgiving is a synthesis of both European and Native American traditions and is, as such, uniquely American.

The rest of us, however, will enjoy stuffing ourselves with turkey, slipping into a tryptophan coma, and waking up just in time to catch the big game or the parade. Real Americans, as it turns out, would much rather enjoy a day off than complain.