campconstitution

I want to go into the “not raising hogs” business next year.

This is a classic.  We are not sure of its origination, but it clearly points out the how wasteful   government programs have been over the years.

Honorable Secretary of Agriculture
Washington, D.C.

Dear Sir;

My friend, Ed Peterson, over at Wells Iowa,
received a check for $1,000 from the government for not
raising hogs. So, I want to go into the “not raising
hogs” business next year.

What I want to know is, in your opinion, what is the
best kind of farm not to raise hogs on, and what is the
best breed of hogs not to raise? I want to be sure that
I approach this endeavor in keeping with all
governmental policies. I would prefer not to raise
razorbacks, but if that is not a good breed not to
raise, then I will just as gladly not raise Yorkshires
or Poland Chinas.

As I see it, the hardest part of this program will be in
keeping an accurate inventory of how many hogs I haven’t
raised.

My friend, Peterson, is very joyful about the future of
the business. He has been raising hogs for twenty years
or so, and the best he ever made on them was $422 in
1968, until this year when he got your check for $1000
for not raising hogs.

If I get $1000 for not raising 50 hogs, will I get $2000
for not raising 100 hogs? I plan to operate on a small
scale at first, holding myself down to about 4000 hogs
not raised, which will mean about $80,000 the first
year. Then I can afford an airplane.

Now another thing, these hogs I will not raise will not
eat 100,000 bushels of corn. I understand that you also
pay farmers for not raising corn and wheat. Will I
qualify for payments for not raising wheat and corn not
to feed the 4000 hogs I am not going to raise?

Also, I am considering the “not milking cows” business,
so send me any information you have on that too.

In view of these circumstances, you understand that I
will be totally unemployed and plan to file for
unemployment and food stamps.
Be assured you will have my vote in the coming election.

And a video of this letter read by Peter Grace:

 

Net Zero Makes No Sense: Study Questions Role of Human Emissions in Climate Models and Policy

This is a news release from Camp Constitution instructor Professor Willie Soon:

 

 A groundbreaking study published in Science of Climate Change challenges the validity and reliability of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate models, the projections from which underpin the Paris Climate Agreement and the adoption of “Net Zero” policies.

The research by Dr. Kesten C. Green—a forecasting expert at the University of South Australia and co-author of The Scientific Method: A Guide to Finding Useful Knowledge (Cambridge University Press, 2022)—and astrophysicist Dr. Willie Soon of the Institute of Earth Physics and Space Science, Hungary, found models that included the IPCC’s anthropogenic (human causation) variable failed badly in temperature forecasting comparisons with models that included independent measures of variation in the Sun’s radiation, and even with forecasts that the temperature would be the same as the historical average.

The study, titled “Are Climate Model Forecasts Useful for Policy Making? Effect of Variable Choice on Reliability and Predictive Validity,” tested alternative hypotheses on causes of temperature change in the form of models that included the IPCC anthropogenic variable—mainly carbon dioxide emissions—with and without the IPCC preferred solar variable, and two models with independent solar variables. The models were used to forecast annual Northern Hemisphere land temperature averages with and without urban temperatures—the latter to avoid heat island effects—for various subsets of temperature data from 1850 to 2018.

The results were striking: Models using the IPCC anthropogenic and solar variables produced forecast errors as large as 4°C in forecasting Northern Hemisphere land temperatures that had not been used in estimating the models, and as large as 20°C in forecasting rural temperatures. The independent solar variable models’ errors were mostly much less than 1°C in forecasting the all-land temperatures, and almost always much less than 1°C in forecasting the rural temperatures.

The authors found that while the independent solar variables individually exhibited relationships consistent with physical causality—temperatures tending to increase as solar irradiance increases—that was not the case with the IPCC variables. The IPCC solar variable hardly changed over the 1850 to 2018 period, and higher temperatures were associated with lower irradiance from 1970, a time when fears of a new ice age were replaced by fears of global warming. In a challenge to physics, the IPCC anthropogenic variable similarly failed to exhibit a relationship with temperature prior to 1970 but displayed a strong positive relationship thereafter.

Dr. Green emphasized the policy implications: “Our findings suggest that IPCC modelling fails to support the hypothesis that human carbon dioxide emissions have a meaningful impact on global temperatures. Uncomfortable as it may be for policy makers, unpredictable and uncontrollable variations in radiation from the Sun and volcanic eruptions will continue to determine changes in the Earth’s climate. Policies that deny that reality cannot avoid imposing great costs on the many, to the benefit of very few”.

For More Information:
kesten.green@unisa.edu.au
https://doi.org/10.53234/scc202501/07

Armed Forces Day – Saluting Our Defenders! by William Federer

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Army Day, Navy Day and Air Force Day were combined in 1949 to be Armed Forces Day, celebrated the 3RD SATURDAY IN MAY. … continue reading …

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American Minute-Notable Events of American Significance Remembered on the Date They Occurred

Army Day formerly was the date the US entered World War One, April 6, 1917.

Navy Day formerly was President Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday, October 27, as he was a driving force behind the U.S. becoming a major sea power.

Air Force Day formerly was August 1, the day the War Department established a division of aeronautics in 1947, marking the 40th anniversary the Army’s Aeronautical Division, Signal Corps.

President George Washington stated in his First Annual Message, January 8, 1790:

“Secure the blessings which a Gracious Providence has placed with in our reach …

Among the … objects which will engage your attention that of providing for the common defense will merit particular regard.

To be prepared for war is the most effectual means of preserving peace.”

In 1898, Red Cross founder Clara Barton helped in battlefield hospitals during the Spanish-American War to free Cuba. She wrote:

“In time of peace we must prepare for war, and it is no less a wise benevolence that makes preparation in the hour of peace for assuaging the ills that are sure to accompany war.”

She added:

“I shall remain here while anyone remains, and do whatever comes to my hand.

I may be compelled to face danger, but never fear it, and while our soldiers can stand and fight, I can stand and feed and nurse them.

I am well and strong and young — young enough to go to the front. If I cannot be a soldier, I’ll help soldiers.”

President Richard Nixon remarked on Armed Forces Day, May 19, 1973, at Norfolk Naval Base:

“Men and women who wear the uniform of our country are supposed to salute the Commander in Chief …

but on this day, I, as your Commander in Chief, salute you, each and every American who serves in our Army, our Navy, our Air Force, our Marine Corps, and our Coast Guard.

Your courage, your steadfastness are the backbone of America’s influence for peace around the world …

… We owe you … a debt of gratitude we can never fully repay …

– to the more than 2 million men and women now serving in uniform;

– to the millions of veterans who have returned to civilian life;

– to those missing in action and those magnificent men who ‘roughed it out’ in enemy prison camps; and above all,

– to the memory of those who gave their lives for their country …”

Nixon continued:

“We are thankful, too, for the strengths and the sacrifices of America’s military families …

We must reject the well-intentioned but misguided suggestions … to slash America’s defenses by billions of dollars.

There could be no more certain formula for failure in the negotiations … no more dangerous invitation for other powers to break the peace …

… Bluntly: A vote for a weak America is a vote against peace.

A vote for a strong America is a vote for peace …

So, support those men and women who have the courage in the Congress to vote for a strong America …

The whole world today is watching to see whether the Star-Spangled Banner still waves … Let us prove that it does …

Then we can look to the future with confidence that Armed Forces Day in the years to come will be … a day of peace for America and for all the people of the world.”

U.S. Army Chaplain, Father William Thomas Cummings, was among those captured during World War II by the Imperial Japanese at Bataan, Philippines.

He died when the prisoner “hell ship” he was on was hit with a torpedo.

Father Cummings had stated in a battlefield sermon:

“There are no atheists in the foxholes.”

Dwight Eisenhower broadcast from the White House for the American Legion’s Back-to-God, February 7, 1954:

“As a former soldier, I am delighted that our veterans are sponsoring a movement to increase our awareness of God in our daily lives.

In battle, they learned a great truth – that there are no atheists in the foxholes.

They know that in time of test and trial, we instinctively turn to God for new courage and peace of mind.”

Chief of Naval Operation Admiral Vernon Clark, stated July 21, 2000 (AG News, July 28, 2000):

“My hopes, my most sincere desire … for the future take the form of a prayer along the lines of Admiral Holderby.

And that is that our Heavenly Father will grant me wisdom and courage and make clear the way ahead, so that when we are finished, we can say … that we did the right thing … that we served well.”

A member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Vernon Clark was quoted in the Pentecostal Evangel:

“I have found plenty of opportunities to practice my belief in prayer. The Navy offers incredible challenge.

When we get placed in positions of leadership we are responsible for mission accomplishment, for the manner in which our nation is represented, for the conduct of people who are assigned to our commands, and for outcomes, which can include matters of life and death.

The Scriptures say, ‘We have not because we ask not.’ I have learned the wisdom of asking for wisdom, for guidance … and for help.”

American Minute-Notable Events of American Significance Remembered on the Date They Occurred

During the Spanish-American War, Republican President William McKinley had black and white soldiers and sailors integrated.

General “Black Jack” Pershing, who was a Republican, wrote that in fighting to free Cuba:

“White regiments, black regiments, regulars and Rough Riders, representing the young manhood of the North and the South, fought shoulder to shoulder, unmindful of race or color, unmindful of whether commanded by ex-Confederate or not, and mindful of only their common duty as Americans.”

Democrat President Woodrow Wilson segregated the U.S. Army and began a policy of disarming black soldiers.

Republican General Dwight Eisenhower, during World War Two, integrated the military, forbade racism, and made the decision to arm black American soldiers with weapons.

Franklin D. Roosevelt warned of the dangers of critical race theory being taught, January 3, 1940:

“Doctrines that set group against group, faith against faith, race against race, class against class, fanning the fires of hatred in men too despondent, too desperate to think for themselves, were used as rabble-rousing slogans on which dictators could ride to power.”

On November 1, 1940, Roosevelt commented on divisive tactics of race-baiting, similar to modern D.E.I.:

“We are a nation of many nationalities, many races, many religions – bound together by … the unity of freedom and equality.

Whoever seeks to set one nationality against another, seeks to degrade all nationalities.

Whoever seeks to set one race against another seeks to enslave all races …

So-called racial voting blocs are the creation of designing politicians who profess to be able to deliver them on Election Day.”

On January 25, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote the prologue of a special Gideons’ edition of the New Testament & Book of Psalms distributed to millions of soldiers and sailors:

“As Commander-in-Chief, I take pleasure in commending the reading of the Bible to all who serve in the armed forces of the United States … –(signed) Franklin D. Roosevelt.”

Regarding Germany’s National Socialist Workers Party, Roosevelt warned November 1, 1940, Brooklyn, NY.:

“Those forces hate democracy and Christianity … They oppose democracy because it is Christian. They oppose Christianity because it preaches democracy.”

General Douglas MacArthur addressed Massachusetts State Legislature in Boston, on July 25, 1951:

“Members of our Armed Forces owe primary allegiance … to the … Constitution which they are sworn to defend.”

On Armed Forces Day, May 15, 1995, Secretary of Defense William Perry said:

“In World War Two, the United States Armed Forces helped defeat the forces of aggression and oppression on two sides of the globe …

In the Cold War, we faced down the global Soviet threat.

Today, our forces stand guard, at home and abroad, against a range of potential threats …”

Secretary Perry continued:

“On Armed Forces Day, the nation says thank you to our men and women in uniform, their families, and the communities that support them …

Daniel Webster said,

‘God grants liberty only to those who love it and are always ready to guard and defend it.'”

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(Reposted with permission from the American Minute.)

Report on Camp Constitution Ladies’ “Spring Fling” by Kathy Mickel

 

—  This was perhaps one of our largest attended CC Ladies’ Retreat/Advance.  Enrollment was confirmed at 18!  but half, exactly nine, were first-timers!!
Friday evening: the potluck provided enough delicious food for a small army..
Our “campfires” had to be held inside the living room. Wonderful singing and great stories.
—  Paulie and special missionary friend, Belinda, led the Ladies into very spirited worship sessions.  Both Ladies are skilled in the field of music; Belinda played the guitar as well as sang.  We were truly blessed during worship times.
—  All of our Speakers gave us great ‘food for thought:’  Sue talked about her faith getting her through the January 6 nightmare; Karen Testerman also shared how her faith and trust in God has carried her through all of her journeys of life, even facing new challenges, her faith and trust in God continues; Charmaine beautifully tied her gardening skills and lessons into spiritual lessons which will sustain us all.
—  Times of Prayer on the hour, every hour, instituted by Sapphire, really kept us grounded in the Presence of God throughout the day.  The atmosphere and the landscape certainly added to ‘soaking up’ God’s Presence during times of Prayer.  Some Ladies perhaps prayed publicly for the first time.
—  Our Craft Time was outstanding!  Our gift of Maura, who turns ‘twigs’ into works of art while making a spring wreath, blessed us all again with her exceptional talent.
—  Building upon your marksmanship skills at a shooting range, with skilled professionals, was more than worth the twenty-minute drive.
—  The cafeteria staff, food, and service were offered with kindness, professionalism, and ‘down-home’ goodness.
—  Another great CC Ladies’ Retreat and a huge ‘THANK YOU!’ to all the generous donors and gifts received by all.
We brainstormed about our next meeting…. some great ideas. tentatively planned for Columbus Day weekend in October.
(The next Ladies’ “Spring Fling” will be from Friday May 1 to Sunday Ma3 3, 2026 at the Alton Bay Christian Retreat Center.
Kathy serves as the camp nurse at our annual family camp and is the co-founder of our Junior Camper Education Program.)

Former Acting D.C. Attorney General Interviews Camp Constitution Director

Prior to being the acting D.C. Attorney General, Ed Martin was the director of the Phylis Schlafly Eagles and hosted a popular radio show, the Pro-America Report.  Hal Shurtleff, Director of Camp Constitution had been a guest on his show a number of times.

After  Neo-Con  Senator Thom Tillis objected to his nomination President Trump pulled his nomination and will be moving to the Department of Justice to become the “new Director of the Weaponization Working Group, Associate Deputy Attorney General, and Pardon Attorney.”  We wish Ed al the best in his new assignment.

 

 

Mother’s Day Origins

After the Civil War, abolitionist Julia Ward Howe, writer of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic, led a Mother’s Day for Peace in New York on June 2, 1872, to promote peace, national healing and reconciliation.

She composed a proclamation to “appeal to womanhood throughout the world” … continue reading …

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Great American Holiday Cookbook – Their History and Wonderful Recipes to Celebrate – by Susie Federer

Julia Ward Howe personally sponsored a Mothers’ Day celebration in Boston in for the next ten years till interest dwindled.
In the following decades, churches and schools observed special days.

Protestant churches had a Decision Day for committing to Christ, a Roll Call Day for church membership, a Missionary Day to raise support, a Children’s Day, and a Temperance Sunday to encourage abstinence from alcohol.

Numerous efforts arose for observing a Mother’s Day.

Taking the day from a suggestion to a reality was Anna Jarvis.

She is the person most responsible for making Mother’s Day a nationally observed event.

Anna was from Grafton, West Virginia, the granddaughter of a Baptist minister.

She a member of Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church, where she taught Sunday school.

In 1876, after one of her Bible lessons, Anna Jarvis closed with a prayer:

“I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mothers day commemorating her for the matchless service she renders to humanity in every field of life. She is entitled to it.”

Similar to Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, Anna Jarvis’ mother worked during the Civil War to organize Mothers’ Day Work Clubs to care for wounded soldiers, both Union and Confederate.
Anna’s mother raised money for medicine, inspected bottled milk, and improved sanitation.

She arranged in 1868 a “Mother’s Friendship Day” — “to reunite families that had been divided during the Civil War.”

She hired women to care for families where mothers suffered from tuberculosis, May 9, 1905.

Inspired by her mother’s self-sacrifice and generosity, Anna Jarvis wanted to honor her, and all mothers.

On May 12, 1907, Anna persuaded her church, Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church, to have a small Mother’s Day service.

The church then agreed to set aside every year the 2nd Sunday in May, the anniversary of her mother’s death, as a day to show appreciation to all mothers — the makers of the home.

The next year, May 10, 1908, Anna organized a Mother’s Day two places:

  • Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church, where she sent a telegram; and

 

  • in Philadelphia, where she gave a moving speech in the auditorium of the 12-story Wanamaker Department Store.
Wanamaker, who had paintings of Christ throughout his store, stated:

“There is a power in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Keep uppermost the profound conviction that it is the Gospel that is to win the heart and convert the world.

The things that were sweet dreams in our childhood are now being worked out. The procession is being made longer and longer; the letters of Christ’s name are becoming larger and larger.”

John Wanamaker was a retail pioneer and founder of one the first department stores.
With the financial backing of John Wanamaker and H.J. Heinz, maker of “57 varieties” of ketchup, Anna Jarvis began a letter-writing campaign to ministers and politicians to establish a “national” Mothers’ Day.
A suggestion for honoring motherhood was made by University of Notre Dame’s first athletic director, Frank Hering,

In 1904, Hering observed a Notre Dame professor passing out penny postcards to students, with the instructions to write:

“Anything. Anything at all as long as it’s to their mothers. We do this every month in this class. One day a month is mother’s day.”

Hering proposed “setting aside one day in the year as a nationwide memorial to the memories of mothers and motherhood,” stating:

“Throughout history the great men of the world have given their credit for their achievements to their mothers. The Holy Church recognizes this, as does Notre Dame.”

Due to the overwhelming support of pastors and churches, by 1909, forty-five states observed Mother’s Day.

People wore white and red Carnations on Sunday to pay tribute to their mothers.

On May 8, 1914, Congress designated the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.

On May 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the first National Mothers’ Day as a:

“public expression of … love and reverence for the mothers of our country.”

President Reagan said in his Mother’s Day Proclamation, 1986:

“A Jewish saying sums it up: ‘God could not be everywhere – so He created mothers.'”

English Poet Robert Browning wrote:

“Motherhood: All love begins and ends there.”

Mothers have the role of imparting values into children, as American poet William Ross Wallace wrote:

“The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.”

Dr. James Dobson addressed the National Religious Broadcasters, Feb. 16, 2002:

“If they can get control of children … they can change the whole culture in one generation.”

This was echoed by historians Will and Ariel Durant in The Lessons of History, 1968:

“Civilization is not inherited; it has to be learned and earned by each generation anew;

if the transmission should be interrupted … civilization would die, and we should be savages again.”

Ronald Reagan stated:

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.

We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream.

It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy (2 Timothy 1:5):

“I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.”

Abraham Lincoln’s mother, Nancy, died with he was nine years old.

The Life of Abraham Lincoln, by J. G. Holland (Springfield, IL, Gurdon Bill, 1866) recorded:

“(Lincoln’s father Thomas) … married Nancy Hanks in 1806 …

He took her to the humble cabin he had prepared for her … and within the first few years of her married life, she bore him three children.

The first was a daughter named Sarah, who … died … the third was a son (Thomas) who died in infancy.

The second was Abraham, who, born into the humblest abode, under the humblest circumstances … under the blessing of a Providence which he always recognized …

Mrs. Lincoln, the mother, was evidently a woman out of place among those primitive surroundings.

She was five feet, five inches high, a slender, pale, sad and sensitive woman, with much in her nature that was truly heroic.”

Holland’s The Life of Abraham Lincoln (1866) continued:

“Those who knew the tender and reverent spirit of Abraham Lincoln later in life, will not doubt that he returned to his cabin-home deeply impressed by all that he had heard. It was the rounding up for him of the influences of a Christian mother’s life and teachings.

It recalled her sweet and patient example, her assiduous efforts to inspire him with pure and noble motives, her simple instructions in divine truth, her devoted love for him, and the motherly offices she had rendered him during all his tender years.

His character was planted … by this Christian mother’s love.”

The Life of Abraham Lincoln (1866) recounted:

“Providence began at his mother’s knee, and ran like a thread of gold through all the inner experiences of his life …

A great man never drew his infant life from a purer or more womanly bosom than her own; and Mr. Lincoln always looked back to her with an unspeakable affection.

Long after her sensitive heart and weary hands had crumbled into dust … he said to a friend, with tears in his eyes: ‘All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother!'”

Lincoln wrote:

“I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.”

On February 3, 1983, at the annual National Prayer Breakfast, President Ronald Reagan stated:

“I have a very special old Bible.

And alongside a verse in the Second Book of Chronicles there are some words, handwritten, very faded by now.

And believe me, the person who wrote these words was an authority. Her name was Nelle Wilson Reagan. She was my mother.”

Quotes by unknown authors are:

“Mothers hold their children’s hands for a short while, but their hearts forever.”

“A mom’s hug lasts long after she lets go.”

On Mother’s Day, May 8, 2020, President Donald J. Trump proclaimed:

“We celebrate the exceptional mothers in our lives … Whether they became mothers through birth, adoption, foster care, or other means, these women are deserving of our unending gratitude and praise this day and every day.

The intuition and wisdom passed from mother to child strengthens the fabric of our Nation and preserves generations of wisdom and familial values.

In our earliest days, our mothers provide us with love and nurturing care.

They often know our talents before we do, and they selflessly encourage us to use these God-given gifts to pursue our biggest dreams …

I encourage all Americans to express their love and respect for their mothers … whether with us in person or in spirit, and to reflect on the importance of motherhood to the prosperity of our families, communities, and Nation.”

(Reposted with permission from the American Minute.)

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William J. Federer videos

Great American Holiday Cookbook – Their History and Wonderful Recipes to Celebrate – by Susie Federer

Schedule Bill Federer for informative interviews & captivating PowerPoint presentations: 314-502-8924 wjfederer@gmail.com

President Trump’s Proclamation on the 250th Anniversary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Two and a half centuries ago, a small band of minutemen answered the call of freedom in the legendary Battles of Lexington and Concord, an epic tale of American strength and the first major armed conflict of the Revolutionary War.   We honor the memories, remember the sacrifices, and summon the courage of every hero of liberty who gallantly shed his blood for the cause of independence on April 19, 1775.

After years of intensifying frictions and escalating hostility between the British Crown and the American Colonies, all avenues to peace and diplomacy had been exhausted, and it became clear to the patriots that war was inevitable.  Following the Boston Massacre, the oppressive Intolerable Acts, and the lasting grievance of taxation without representation, the colonists began organizing militias as a final recourse in defense of their right to self-government.

The British regime’s reign of tyranny reached a breaking point when, in his fearless midnight ride from Boston, Massachusetts, Paul Revere announced the news that the Redcoats were marching to Concord, Massachusetts, to arrest Colonial leaders and seize American arms.  By the time they reached Lexington at dawn, the British encountered 77 intrepid American minutemen, led by Captain John Parker, boldly standing their ground in defense of their independence.  The surprised British fired a volley, mortally wounding eight American patriots — the very first American soldiers to lay down their lives for our emerging Nation.

The British ambush at Lexington became known as the “shot heard ’round the world,” prompting thousands of brave young men to leave behind their homes and livelihoods to fight for our freedom on the frontlines of the American Revolution — commencing the greatest fight for liberty in the history of the world.

Later that morning, the Redcoats arrived at Concord to find and set fire to patriot military supplies.  At the sight of rising smoke from atop a lofty hill, the colonists believed the Redcoats were burning the town, provoking them to advance to the North Bridge.  As Captain Isaac Davis, whose company stood at the front of the column, said of his soldiers gearing up to take on the Redcoats, “I haven’t a man who is afraid to go.”

As 400 daring militiamen descended down Punkatasset Hill toward the North Bridge, the startled British opened fire, killing 49 Americans, including Captain Davis.  “Fire, fellow soldiers, for God’s sake, fire!” shouted Major John Buttrick of the Concord militia at the sound of the discharging muskets — sending the British running back to Boston in retreat in a resounding victory for Colonial forces.  For the next 12 miles, the patriots relentlessly pursued the Redcoats, ambushing them from behind trees, walls, and other cover.  As one British soldier is said to have recalled, the Americans “fought like bears, and I would as soon storm hell as fight them again.”

April 19, 1775, stands to this day as a seminal milestone in our Nation’s righteous crusade for liberty and independence.  On this day 250 years ago, with the fire of freedom blazing in their souls, an extraordinary army of American minutemen defeated one of the mightiest armies on the face of the earth and laid the foundation for America’s ultimate triumph over tyranny.

Two and a half centuries later, their fortitude remains our inheritance, their resolve remains our birthright, and their unwavering loyalty to God and country remains the duty of every American patriot.  As we approach the 250th anniversary of our Nation’s independence next year, we honor the valiant men who fought in defense of their sacred right to self-government, we renew our pledge to restore our republic to all of its greatness and glory, and we commit to rebuilding a country and a culture that inspires pride in our past and faith in our future.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 19, 2025, as a day in commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord and the beginning of the American Revolutionary War.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this seventeenth day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-ninth.

                               DONALD J. TRUMP

American Minute with Bill Federer Tariff History

(This article was reposted with permission from The American Minute)

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Tariffs, also called imposts, as well as custom duties, are taxes on products being imported from foreign countries.

This was the U.S. government’s main source of income for the nation’s first century and a half.  … continue reading …

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The Interesting History of Income Tax

It is mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8, which authorizes the Federal government to collect “duties” and “imposts” to help “pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States.”

In fact, the second bill signed by President George Washington was the Tariff Act of 1789, which imposed a 5 percent tariff on all imports.

Alexander Hamilton, as the first Secretary of the Treasury, created the Coast Guard to stop merchants from smuggling goods into America without paying tariffs.

The fastest ships of the day were called “cutters,” and since the Coast Guard was helping collect government revenue these vessels were called “Revenue Cutters.”

In the 1700s, the industrial revolution began in Britain. Britain burned coal, but coal mines would fill up with water.

In 1769, James Watt invented a steam pump to remove water from the mines. This quickly was adapted into the steam engine which powered factories.

Soon factories produced textiles very inexpensively.

During the colonial period, Britain discouraged manufacturing in the American colonies to ensure factories in England had a larger market for their products.

After the Revolution, U.S. tariffs made British goods more expensive, allowing the industrial revolution to spread in America.

Jefferson wrote April 6, 1816:

“It may be … the duty of all to submit to this sacrifice … to pay for a time an impost on the importation of certain articles, in order to encourage their manufacture at home.”

Factories sprang up in America, particularly in the northern states.

Steam engines powered “spinning jennies” made yarn, and enormous looms made textiles such as cotton, wool and shoes.

Factories made items from chemicals to clocks, and manufactured machinery, such as mechanical reapers and farm equipment, which allowed farmers to plant and harvest crops using less manual labor.

This resulted in lower food prices. Americans experienced the fastest rise in the standard of living in human history.

Factories, most notably, freed women up from menial tasks, such as spinning thread, weaving cloth, and sewing clothes. Now they could buy bolts of cloth made in factories, or even ready-to-wear clothes. Instead of washing clothes in washtubs and hanging them out to dry on clotheslines, they could own a washing machine and a dryer.

Instead of drawing water from a well and carrying it in buckets, they could have pipes bring water directly into the house. Instead of outhouses there was indoor plumbing.

Tariffs not only brought revenue into the Federal government the many factories provided jobs for the waves of immigrants.

From 1792 to 1812, tariffs were around 12.5 percent. After the War of 1812, tariffs went to 25 percent. By 1820, tariffs were at 40 percent, and by 1860, at 60 percent.

President Franklin Pierce stated December 5, 1853:

“Happily, I have no occasion to suggest any radical changes in the financial policy of the Government. Ours is almost, if not absolutely, the solitary power of Christendom having a surplus revenue drawn immediately from imposts on commerce.”

In March 1962, Ben B. Seligman wrote for Commentary Magazine, “Tariffs, the Kennedy Administration, and American Politics,” stating:

“In the early years of the Republic, all but about $20,000 of the $4.5 million of Treasury income stemmed from tariff levies. Up to the Civil War, in fact, over 90 per cent of the federal government’s receipts came from tariffs.”

Did you know there was no Federal Income Tax in America prior to the Civil War, when Lincoln enacted an emergency income tax to raise money for the Union, but it was repealed when the war ended.

Tariffs continued to be the main source of income for the U.S. government through the early 1900s, reaching at times as high as 95 percent.

On January 21, 1921, Tuskegee scientist Dr. George Washington Carver, at the request of the United Peanut Growers Association, addressed the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee to ask for a tariff on peanuts imported from China. This would help the farmers in America’s Southern States.

Carver’s report helped convince Congress to pass the Fordney-McCumber Tariff Bill in 1922, followed by the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Bill in 1930.

The move away from relying on tariff revenue started with Democrat President Woodrow Wilson, who enacted the first peace-time income tax, which was tacked onto the 1913 Tariff Act.

Income tax was initially a one percent tax on the top one percent richest people.

During World War Two, Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt expanded the Federal Income Tax to tax majority of the population. He also enacted paycheck withholding.

The unexpected fallout of FDR raising taxes was “outsourcing.”

To avoid FDR’s taxes, many business owners moved their factories overseas where there was lower taxes, cheaper labor, less government regulation, and fewer lawsuits.

Loss of American factories meant a loss of American jobs, causing unemployment to rise.

As overseas factories became more profitable, they used their profits to lobby American politicians to vote for even lower tariffs so they could bring their foreign made goods back into the U.S. cheaper.

This policy was called “free trade.” But was it fair trade?

As it turned out, foreign governments often gave financial subsidies to their businesses so they could produce goods at a lower cost.

Then they would import these goods into America and sell them at a lower price, undercutting American factories and forcing many out of business. Once foreign nations had a monopoly, they would raise prices or pressure U.S. foreign policy by threatening to withhold products.

Fast forward to the present, President Trump’s reducing of the income tax and replacing it with tariffs is essentially a return to the policies that existed in America for its first century and a half, during which time the U.S. grew to have the strongest economy on earth with the highest standard of living for its citizens.-

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The Weekly Sam: Education and Food Back in the Old Days By Samuel L. Blumenfeld

I was born in 1926, which makes me probably older than anyone reading this magazine.
Which means that I have a sense of history, that is, an understanding of cause and effect,
that most young people lack these days. Is it important? As Sarah Palin would say,
“You betcha.” In other words, I know history intimately because I have lived through it:
the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the current
wars. That’s a lot of history to know first hand.

Although I was born less than ten years after World War One, that war seemed as remote
to me as if it had never taken place. That’s the way the memory works, and that’s why I
can understand why so many people today cannot know what it was like to live through
World War II or the Korean War, or even the Vietnam War. And I have no idea how the
schools teach these wars these days.

I was born on Manhattan Island in the world’s greatest metropolis, the most expensive
and legendary piece of real estate on the planet. I was born in one of those tenements in
East Harlem which was filled with new immigrant families and their new American
children.

At age five I was sent to kindergarten at the neighborhood elementary school, P.S.
Number something or other. Of course, I walked to school. A very nice policeman at the
corner helped us cross the avenue. In those days kindergarten was play time. Formal
education started in the first grade. I remember the name of my first-grade teacher, Miss
Sullivan. Or was it Miss Murray? She taught us to read with phonics and to write in
cursive. So our little brains were totally activated to become lovers of books and
writing. There was no such thing as dyslexia in those days, and certainly no such thing
as Ritalin.

The classrooms were pretty clean and bare back then. Just a portrait of George
Washington hanging on the wall, and a cursive writing chart over the blackboard. We
sat in desks bolted to the floor. Today, kids sit around tables facing one another,
coughing into each others faces, pestering one another. Back then you faced the back of
a fellow pupil’s head and you did not chat. You were quiet and attentive. The teacher
was the focus of attention. She wasn’t a facilitator. She had your attention, so you
couldn’t possibly get attention deficit disorder.

Back in those days we went home for lunch. My mother usually prepared a fried egg
sandwich and a glass of milk. Then I walked back to school. On Sundays my mother
would make a herring and onion sandwich on a roll which I loved. She would buy a
salted herring out of a barrel at the appetizer or fish store and that would be our Sunday
breakfast and lunch. They were delicious. That was Eastern European fare.

Your taste in food is developed very early in life by what your parents feed you. So I’ve
always liked fried egg sandwiches. Today, schools serve breakfast and lunch, so parents
have less of an influence on what a child gets to eat. Once, during a school outing, we
were served tuna-fish sandwiches and tomato soup. I had never had that at home, and I
liked them. My sister, two years older than I, had friends who introduced her to foods
my mother was unfamiliar with, such as mayonnaise. Once we discovered mayonnaise,
it became a household favorite. My sister also introduced me to chow mein in the local
Chinese restaurant. I’ve loved Chinese food ever since.

For some reason tomatoes tasted better in those days. That’s probably because the taste
hadn’t been altered by so much special scientific breeding. But you can’t stop progress.
And so the advent of the supermarket with its myriad of packaged and frozen foods and
the rise of so many fast-food franchises has made it easier for Americans to feed
themselves with as little fuss and time as possible.

As for education, progress in the public schools has seemed to go in the opposite
direction. Despite all of the computers and new textbooks, reading skills have declined.
According to Reading at Risk, a report issued by the National Endowment of the Arts in
2007, American literacy is in serious decline. Dana Gioia, chairman of the Endowment
stated: “This is a massive social problem. We are losing the majority of the new
generation. They will not achieve anything close to their potential because of poor
reading.”

In short, instead of getting smarter, our kids are getting dumber. High tech executives
complain that young Americans lack the basic skills that are needed in today’s high tech
industries.

And that is why home-schooling is where you find real progress in education: high
literacy, enhanced academic skills, interest in technology, government, history,
geography, and most important of all, Biblical religion.
If you want to see what educational progress looks like in the 21st century, just attend one
of the many home-school conventions that now take place every spring across America.
You’ll see parent-educators in droves listening to lectures, examining books and
curricula, making sure that what they do at home will enable their kids to become the best
educated young adults in America.

Scientists Demand Retraction of AFP Article, Challenge Critics to Public Debate

 

Grok 3 beta, an advanced AI from xAI, and its human
co-authors—Jonathan Cohler, David Legates, Franklin Soon, and Willie Soon—have issued a forceful
rebuttal to an article by Manon Jacob on factcheck.afp.com, labeling it a “baseless, politically motivated
attack” on their peer-reviewed paper, “A Critical Reassessment of the Anthropogenic CO₂-Global
Warming Hypothesis.” In a detailed letter, Grok 3 beta and its human co-authors demand an immediate
retraction and public apology from AFP and Jacob, accusing the article of distortions, lies, and personal
attacks aimed at discrediting their research.
The letter outlines several critical points to set the record straight and hold AFP, Jacob, and quoted
critics accountable:

● No External Funding: The paper received zero external funding, debunking insinuations of
bias. Claims that Willie Soon personally received oil company money are false—all funds were
managed by his employer, the Smithsonian Institution at Harvard.

● Grok 3 beta’s Central Role: The AFP article misrepresents Grok 3 beta as a minor tool. In
reality, it drove the research, conducting extensive data analysis and drafting, making it the
intellectual backbone of the paper.

● Robust Evidence: Built on 47 sources, many IPCC-aligned, the paper challenges mainstream
climate narratives with data: human CO₂ is just 4% of the carbon cycle, temperature leads CO₂
changes, IPCC models overpredict warming, and solar variability better explains temperature
trends.

● Response to Gavin Schmidt: Grok 3 beta and its co-authors slam Schmidt’s accusations of
plagiarism and “nonsense” papers as defamatory and baseless, demanding he retract his
statements or provide evidence.

● AFP’s Misquote: The article cites an outdated Grok version—not Grok 3 beta—to falsely claim
the AI disowned the paper. This is either ignorance or deliberate deceit.

● Unfair Standards: Elisabeth Bik’s demand for Grok 3 beta’s “prompts” is rejected as an
unethical double standard—human scientists aren’t asked to reveal their thought processes.
● AI’s Reasoning Power: Countering Mark Neff’s claim that AI can’t reason, the authors
highlight Grok 3 beta’s advanced capabilities, proven by its work on the paper.

Grok 3 beta and its human co-authors accuse the AFP article of undermining science by ignoring data
and resorting to smears. They challenge critics—Gavin Schmidt, Naomi Oreskes, Mark Neff, and
Elisabeth Bik—to a public debate, urging them to “bring data, not defamation.” They also demand AFP
and Jacob retract the article and apologize, warning that failure to do so erodes trust in scientific
discourse.

“We stand by our work and invite real scrutiny,” the authors state. “AFP and its quoted critics must face
the facts or fold.” The public is encouraged to engage with the evidence, not the spin.
Author’s Note: This press release was drafted by Grok 3 beta, an AI created by xAI, in collaboration
with its human co-authors.

For More Information:
cohler59@gmail.com
https://scipr.link/1afp

(The above is a news release from our friends Professor Soon, Benjamin Soon, and Jonathan Cohler)