The Weekly Sam: Argentina and Paper Money by Sam Blumenfeld

Published October 21, 2023 | By campconstitution

 

What the people of Argentina are going through is possible in any country that uses paper “money” as the basis of its economic activity. Today’s paper money has no backing and therefore is only worth what the government or central bank says it is worth. We call that kind of paper money “Legal Tender.” In other words, the government invests its faith and credit in the value stated on the paper note. Money is supposed to be a medium of exchange and a storage of wealth and we accept paper money because the government backs its stated value. But such a system can only work if the people have trust and confidence in their government and their government behaves responsibly. If we go back to the early days of economic activity, we find that barter was the earliest form of exchange.

A person could exchange a cow for sausages. In other words, one gave value for value. The medium of exchange was awkward and cumbersome, and the two individuals involved had to make value judgments about what they were getting for their commodity. But then it was found that gold would be accepted by many sellers in lieu of a perishable commodity as a medium of exchange, because of its scarcity and convenience. Gold also became an excellent storage for wealth. You could hold gold without its spoiling for as long as you wanted, and people would gladly exchange commodities for it. But then, as civilization ‘progressed, keeping gold became inconvenient. It could also easily be stolen. So, people began putting their gold for safekeeping in banks, and the banks issued gold certificates or banknotes. The banknotes were worth their weight in gold. But then the banks used the gold deposits as security for high-interest loans, which they made by issuing banknotes. But when the loans were not repaid, and the owners of gold cashed in their banknotes, the bank became insolvent, and their notes were no longer honored.

This was the case in early America, where the Farmer’s Almanack up to 1863 actually listed “Worthless and Uncurrent Bank Notes in New England.” Thirteen banks in Boston alone were listed as having worthless bank notes. None of today’s currencies have any backing at all except the faith and credit of the government behind it. In Argentina, the faith and credit of the government no longer exists. And so, its citizens hold paper money that has already lost half its value by government devaluation. The Argentine peso cannot be said to be a storage of wealth. Only those individuals who were smart enough to buy gold or U.S. dollars will come out ahead of the game, because they did not trust their government to maintain the value of Argentine currency. So, what is money today? The money that becomes figures in a computer must still be earned the old-fashioned way, by working for it, or earning it through prudent investment. That is, for most people. The expansion of government has made it possible to pay the needy in welfare checks and food stamps.

It is still possible to use gold as a storage of wealth. As long as paper money is susceptible to inflation, the dollar will continue to decrease in value. Thus, we have experienced exactly what the Argentines have experienced but over a much longer period of time. Those people in Argentina who owned gold came out ahead of everyone else, because the price of gold is set on the world market in London, and it is now worth as much as holders of the Argentine peso have to pay for it. Also, those who owned valuable real estate did well.

Once you understand the vulnerabilities of paper money, you have to invest your money and store it in ways that will maintain and hopefully increase its value. Putting it in the bank at today’s low interest will not increase its value. The stock market is still the best way to grow wealth. But you must buy stock in companies that you know will grow and prosper. Real estate is one of the best ways to store wealth, particularly in areas of increasing value. It makes sense to take advantage of today’s low mortgage rates to buy a house. Antiques and valuable works of art also make good investments. As for gold, it is a commodity. Its price is subject to periodic fluctuations caused by political and economic crises. There is no way of knowing for sure what the price of gold will be tomorrow. In other words, those who bought gold when it was $800 an ounce lost half its value as it declined to $350. It all depends at what price you buy it and at what price you sell it.

(The above article was written in the 1990s and is found among much of Sam’s work in the Sam Blumenfeld Archives:  https://campconstitution.net/sam-blumenfeld-archive/

George Floyd Was Not Murdered: Tucker Carlson Interview Vince Ellison, Producer of “Will You Go to Hell For Me” and an instructor at Camp Constitution

Published October 20, 2023 | By Hal Shurtleff

 

Tucker Carlson interviews Vince Ellison, producer of the documentary Will You Go to Hell For Me, author of 25 Lies Exposing the Democrats Most Seductive, Damnable and Destructive Lies and How to Refute Them, and instructor at Camp Constitution on the subject of Georg Floyd.   In this short interview, Vince explains how Floyd was a habitual criminal whose death was used to promote the Democrat’s Marxist agenda.

Camp Constitution will be sponsoring speaking engagements in the Spring of 2024 for Vince in the New England region.

General Cornwallis Surrenders at Yorktown October 19, 1781

Published October 19, 2023 | By campconstitution

 

On this day in 1781, British General Charles Cornwallis formally surrenders 8,000 British soldiers and seamen to a French and American force at Yorktown, Virginia, bringing the American Revolution to a close.

Previously, Cornwallis had driven General George Washington’s Patriot forces out of New Jersey in 1776, and led his Recoats in victory over General Horatio Gates and the Patriots at Camden, South Carolina, in 1780. His subsequent invasion of North Carolina was less successful, however, and in April 1781, he led his weary and battered troops toward the Virginia coast, where he could maintain seaborne lines of communication with the large British army of General Henry Clinton in New York City. After conducting a series of raids against towns and plantations in Virginia, Cornwallis settled in Yorktown in August. The British immediately began fortifying the town and the adjacent promontory of Gloucester Point across the York RiverWashington instructed the Marquis de Lafayette, who was in Virginia with an American army of around 5,000 men, to block Cornwallis’ escape from Yorktown by land. In the meantime, Washington’s 2,500 troops in New York were joined by a French army of 4,000 men under the Count de Rochambeau. Washington and Rochambeau made plans to attack Cornwallis with the assistance of a large French fleet under the Count de Grasse, and on August 21 they crossed the Hudson River to march south to Yorktown. Covering 200 miles in 15 days, the allied force reached the head of Chesapeake Bay in early September.Meanwhile, a British fleet under Admiral Thomas Graves failed to break French naval superiority at the Battle of Virginia Capes on September 5, denying Cornwallis his expected reinforcements. Beginning September 14, de Grasse transported Washington and de Rochambeau’s men down the Chesapeake to Virginia, where they joined Lafayette and completed the encirclement of Yorktown on September 28. De Grasse landed another 3,000 French troops carried by his fleet. During the first two weeks of October, the 14,000 Franco-American troops gradually overcame the fortified British positions with the aid of de Grasse’s warships. A large British fleet carrying 7,000 men set out to rescue Cornwallis, but it was too late.On October 19, General Cornwallis surrendered 7,087 officers and men, 900 seamen, 144 cannons, 15 galleys, a frigate and 30 transport ships. Pleading illness, he did not attend the surrender ceremony, but his second-in-command, General Charles O’Hara, carried Cornwallis’ sword to the American and French commanders. As the British and Hessian troops marched out to surrender, the British band played the song “The World Turned Upside Down.”Although the war persisted on the high seas and in other theaters, the Patriot victory at Yorktown effectively ended fighting in the American colonies. Peace negotiations began in 1782, and on September 3, 1783, the Treaty of Paris was signed, formally recognizing the United States as a free and independent nation after eight years of war.

  This is from This Day in History:  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/cornwallis-surrenders-at-yorktown

 

Pro-Life Flag Flies in Billerica, Massachusetts

Published October 18, 2023 | By Hal Shurtleff

 

Fly the Pro-Life Flag is a group based in Billerica, MA, a town 25 miles Northwest of Boston.   Led by Mrs. Dee Dee Clark Dorrington,  the group successfully petitioned the town to fly the Pro-Life flag.

A hearing by the town selectmen was held on Monday September 11.   The group reached out to our friends at the Massachusetts Family Institute   https://www.mafamily.org/  and on the day of the meeting, the selectmen received a letter from the Institute’s attorney Sam Whiting citing   “Shurtleff v Boston  www.lc.org/flag 

Dear Members of the Select Board,

My name is Sam Whiting and I am an attorney with Massachusetts Family Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening the family in Massachusetts. I write on behalf of pro-life citizens of Billerica who recently submitted an application to fly the pro-life flag on a town flag pole located at the Billerica Public Library during the month of October. The purpose of this letter is to advise you of the legal implications of Billerica’s policies and practices in the context of this request.

As you know, the Supreme Court recently unanimously held in Shurtleff v. City of Boston that when a city allows a flagpole to be used as a public forum for expression by various groups, it cannot discriminate against any group’s flag based on the message it conveys.[1] A critical factor in the Court’s analysis in deciding whether Boston had turned its flagpole into a public forum was the extent to which the government had “actively shaped or controlled the expression” at issue.[2] Because Boston had allowed numerous other private groups to fly their flags on the city flagpole and had never turned away an applicant, it could not discriminate against a Christian applicant because of the religious content of the flag he requested to fly.[3]

It is our understanding that in the past, Billerica has approved the requests of a number of private groups to fly their flags on city flagpoles, including but not limited to:

 

  • The Italian flag, to celebrate Italian Heritage Month;
  • The Armenian Genocide Commemoration flag;
  • The Indian flag, to commemorate Indian Independence Day;
  • The LGBTQ Pride flag, to commemorate LGBTQ Pride month.

 

Some of these flags have been raised multiple times over multiple years at the request of private groups. An ordinary citizen observing private groups raising these flags would understand that the flags represent the groups’ private expression, and not the government speech of Billerica.[4] It should also be noted that some of these flags, such as the Armenian Genocide flag or the LGBTQ Pride flag, touch on sensitive and/or potentially contentious political issues over which Billerica residents may strongly disagree.

By engaging in a practice of allowing any and all private groups to use town flagpoles for private expression, Billerica has opened its flagpoles as a public forum, just as Boston did. This means that this Board may not deny the pro-life group’s request to fly its own flag based on the content of its message. To do so would violate their First Amendment right to free expression. While some may see the flag as controversial, it is no more controversial than other flags the Board has allowed to fly in the past and should be given equal treatment.

It is true that Billerica may close the forum it has opened by passing a policy stating that town flag poles are no longer forums for public expression but are instead forums for government speech. However, until such a policy is passed, the flagpoles remain a public forum. The fact that the Board is now moving to pass such a policy in apparent response to the request to fly the pro-life flag indicates that the Board is acting to discriminate against the pro-life group based on the content and viewpoint of their message. This is unfortunate. Should the Board deliberately and unnecessarily delay acting on the pro-life group’s request to fly their flag until it can pass a new flag policy, this would also violate the group’s First Amendment rights.

For the foregoing reasons, I would strongly advise the Board to approve the pro-life group’s request to fly the pro-life flag at some point during the month of October.

Very truly yours,         Samuel J. Whiting, Esq.

Staff Attorney

Massachusetts Family Institute

401 Edgewater Drive, Suite 580

Wakefield, MA 01880

Tel: 781.589.0400

Michael King of Mass Family Institute reached out to me the day of the hearing, and asked if I would Zoom and testify.  I was happy to do so and during my brief testimony, I reminded the selectmen that it cost the City of Boston more than $2.1 million in legal fees.  The selectmen voted 4-1 to let the group fly the Pro-Life flag for two weeks in October.  And, on Monday October 16, a brief flag raising ceremony took place in the center of Billerica.

 

After the flag raising, DeeDee made these remarks on the group’s Facebook page:

“Christina Marie and I are beyond overwhelmed and still flying high (pun intended) with the amount of support that the prolife community received tonight.
The flag raising ceremony went on without a hitch (well, maybe a brief tangle of the ropes🙃) and we feel truly blessed to have seen this initiative thorough.
We will share videos and pictures as we collect and prepare them, but for now it’s time for tacos and ice cream.
Thank you to everyone who attended tonight and showed your support for life.”
  Camp Constitution salutes the folks at Fly the Pro-Life Flag and hopes that this event inspires others around the nation.

The Weekly Sam: Should Christians Support Education Without God

Published October 13, 2023 | By campconstitution

Back in 1849, when the organized Protestants of Massachusetts debated whether or not to support the public-school movement, which was then being heavily promoted by the Unitarians, they decided in favor of support, but with well-expressed conditions. They wrote:

The benefits of this system, in offering instruction to all, are so many and so great that its religious deficiencies, –especially since they can be otherwise supplied, do not seem to be a sufficient reason for abandoning it, and adopting in place of it, a system of denominational parochial schools …. It is however a great evil to withdraw from the established system of common schools, the interest and influence of the religious part of the community. On the whole, it seems to be the wisest course, at least for the present, to do all in our power to perfect as far as it can be done, not only its intellectual, but also its moral and religious character. If after a full and faithful experiment, it should at last be seen that fidelity to the religious interests of our children forbids a further patronage of the system, we can unite with the Evangelical Christians in the establishment of private schools, in which more full doctrinal religious instruction may be possible. But, until we are forced to this result, it seems to us desirable that the religious community do all in their power to give an opportunity for a full and fair experiment of the existing system, including not only the common schools, but also the Normal Schools and the Board of Education.

I do not believe that any Christian can doubt that there has been a “full and fair experiment” of public education for the last 150 years and that its fidelity to the religious interests of Christian children has been proven to be decidedly negative. In fact, thousands of Christian parents, without knowledge of what was written in 1849, have already taken their children out of the public schools and either decided to homeschool them or place them in Christian schools. Their responsibilities as Christian parents have led them to make the necessary decision for the sake of their children’s spiritual wellbeing. But what is disturbing is that most Christians still patronize a system that is undermining the religious beliefs of their children.

One wonders what must happen before these parents realize the harm, they are doing to their children by keeping them in public schools. The simple fact is that the present government education system has as its foundation an anti-Christian philosophy known as secular humanism. All one has to do is read the Humanist Manifestos I and II to confirm the truth of this assertion. Humanist Manifesto I was written in 1933 by young Unitarian ministers who believed that the spiritual power of orthodox religion was in decline and should be replaced by a rational, man-centered, nontheistic religion. They wrote:

Humanism asserts that the nature of the universe depicted by modern science makes unacceptable any supernatural or cosmic guarantees of human values …. Religious humanism considers the complete realization of human personality to be the end of man’s life and seeks its development and fulfillment in the here and now. . . Religious humanism maintains that all associations and institutions exist for the fulfillment of human life. The intelligent evaluation, transformation, control, and direction of such associations and institutions with a view to the enhancement of human life is the purpose and program of humanism. Certainly, religious institutions, their ritualistic forms, ecclesiastical methods, and communal activities must be reconstituted as rapidly as experience allows, in order to function effectively in the modern world.

Humanism is the only religion in America that has as its purpose and program the reconstitution of the institutions, rituals, and ecclesiastical methods of other religions. This is an overt declaration of war against Biblical religion. Forty years later, Humanist Manifesto II states:

As non-theists, we begin with humans not God, nature not deity. [We]e can discover no divine purpose or providence for the human species …. No deity will save us; we must save ourselves.

In the January/February 1983 issue of The Humanist magazine, a young scholar by the name of John J. Dunphy expressed exactly what the aim of humanists is in education:

I am convinced that the battle for humankind’s future must be waged and won in the public-school classroom by teachers who correctly perceive their role as the proselytizers of a new faith: a religion of humanity that recognizes and respects the spark of what theologians call divinity in every human being. These teachers must embody the same selfless dedication as the most rabid fundamentalist preachers, for they will be ministers of another sort, utilizing a classroom instead of a pulpit to convey. So humanist values in whatever subject they teach, regardless of educational level-­ preschool day care or large state university. The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and the new–the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with its adjacent evils and misery, and the new faith of humanism, resplendent in its promise of a world in which the never-realized Christian ideal of “love thy neighbor” will finally be achieved.

The humanist war against Christianity is going on everyday in the classrooms of America. But the real battle is being fought in the courtrooms of the nation. In March 1987, U.S. District Judge W. Brevard Hand ruled in Smith v. Board of School Commissioners of Mobile County. Alabama that the public-school curriculum was based on the tenets of secular humanism, and he thereby ordered that humanist textbooks to be removed from the schools. Five months later this ruling was overturned by the Eleventh Circuit Court which stated that “none of these books convey a message of government approval of secular humanism.” In other words, humanists are free to teach their dogma in the public schools as long as the government does not convey a message of approval. But that is the argument used to keep Christianity out. It is said that the mere inclusion of anything Christian in a public-school curriculum automatically implies government approval.

The notion that public schools are neutral when it comes to religion is belied by the strong prejudice against Christianity as openly expressed by such humanists as John Dunphy. What we have is not neutrality but warfare. Until Christians recognize that the government schools are establishments of religion, and that education is fundamentally a religious activity, we shall not be able to deal realistically with our educational crisis. The message for Christian parents must be loud and clear: putting a child in a public school violates God’s commandment as given in Deuteronomy 6 to educate a child in the love and admonition of the Lord.

There is no substitute for a godly education. In place of God, the public schools offer evolution, sex education, death education, multiculturalism, transcendental meditation, situational ethics, drug education, and other forms of humanist teachings. These are the programs that are creating the new nihilist, amoral barbarians that are devastating the lives of thousands of parents. There is hardly a Christian family that has not lost a child to the satanic culture that grows in the public-school environment. If Christians wish to restore America as a nation under God, they shall have to educate their children in schools that revere Him. •

Camp Constitution’s Third Quarter Report for 2023

Published October 9, 2023 | By Hal Shurtleff
 

 Camp Constitution in the News:

We continue to be mentioned in the media as local Christians petition to have the Chrisitan or Pro-Life flags fly on town or city halls. 1819 News in Alabama as Christian activists interviewed us are in the process of having Montgomery declare Christian Heritage Month and have the Christian fly in front of City Hall for a month:

https://1819news.com/news/item/montgomery-city-council-delays-american-christian-heritage-month-resolution-again

Christians in Torrington, CT raised the Christian flag on their city hall with over two hundred people including the mayor on hand:

And in Billerica, MA,  Deedee Clark Dorrington and members of her group Fly the Pro-Life Flag with the help from our friends at the Massachusetts Family Institute were able to get the town selectmen vote 4-1 in favor of flying the Pro-Life flag for two weeks in October:  MFI’s Advocacy Leads Billerica to Raise Pro-Life Flag on Town Property – MFI | Massachusetts Family Institute (mafamily.org)

The Claremont, NH Eagle Tribute did a story on our annual family camp:  https://www.eagletimes.com/news/camp-takes-on-swimming-and-the-bill-of-rights/article_e3f74b08-0d14-545d-b9a0-876343786082.html  The reporter asked us how we teach the Constitution to five year olds, we sent him a link to this video of our Junior Campers led by Mrs. Edith Craft singing a song about the Constitution

https://youtu.be/_Tw6Lz2QoOk?si=wVvNeZ2EayAtzSiX

We received some national media attention from NBC and Fox News with the appearance of presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswami at our annual family camp.

Special Projects: 

We had a float in the annual Old Home Week Parade in Alton, NH, and we presented their salute to America event held at Alton Bay. We had info tables at numerous events including the Crown of Maine Balloon Festival, the Mid-Atlantic Reformation Society’s Future of Christendom forum, the National Heritage, and the Mass HOPE homeschool convention where we also conducted a workshop on the Sam Blumenfeld Archive. We co-sponsored a Patriot Day Camp in Maine led by Mrs. Jessica Whitworth.

In April, Camp Constitution donated 1,500 pocket copies of the U.S. Constitution to the Alton-Barnstead, NH School District, and in January, we donated 1,100 copies to the Laconia Junior and High School, Laconia, NH Junior High, and High Schools. This has opened up the doors to other donations to schools in the region.

We hosted a group of homeschoolers at the Lane House for a field trip overnight to take in the Midnight Night Ride and Battle of Lexington Reenactments.

We hosted the Hillside College’s Constitutional Study Course in Alton, NH and Lebanon, ME.

Camp Constitution Media:

We videotaped all of the classes and some of the activity at our annual family camp and at our second weekend retreat the Lexington Reenactment, Alton, NH’s Memorial Day Parade, speeches as our 3rd Annual Memorial Day Weekend Barbecue in Lexington, the classes and activities at our annual family camp, and speeches of our speakers Julie Wilkinson, Pastor William Levi, and Charl van Wyk.

YouTube, Rumble Channels and Bitchute Channels

We have received 90,000 thousand views on our YouTube Channel this year with new subscribers giving us close to 8,000 subscribers overall. Our Rumble channel has received 6,388 views this year with seven likes, and our Bitchute channel has 2,3126 views this year.

The Sam Blumenfeld Archive:

552,168 hits

3,592 Marlow-Shakespeare Book

3,288 Alpha Phonics Workbooks

2,543 Alpha Phonics Manuals

Our friend Godknows Matizirofa principal of Nottingham School in Harare, Zimbabwe, is building a new school and will name it in honor of Sam Blumenfeld. We have been donating copies of Sam’s Alpha Phonics to the school.

We reached out to Mrs. Joyce Burges of National Black Home Educators and donated a case of Sam’s Alpha-Phonics, and plan to interview her on our radio show.

If you haven’t already, please visit and subscribe to the archives: https://campconstitution.net/sam-blumenfeld-archive/ 

Camp Constitution Radio on Podomatic:

We remain in the top ten for the conservative category with 7,614 downloads, and 862 plays   https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/shurtleffhal 

 Facebook Page:

We continue to average fifty likes per month. We also admin about eight groups including Friend of the Constitution in ME, NH, MA, CT, RI. PA, VT, and Stop the Constitutional Convention.

Speaker’s Bureau:

For the first nine months, we had over thirty speaking engagements. We recently held six engagements for Charl van Wyk author of Shooting Back in MA, NH, and ME. In September, we spoke to the Mid Atlantic Reformation Society, and we were one of the featured speakers at the Norfolk County (MA) Second Amendment Rally and Constitutional Day Celebration. We spoke at the Michigan Republican Party’s Mackinac Island event where we shared a podium with the likes of Alan Keyes and Jim Caviezel. We had speaking engagements in Maine including being the featured speaker at the Homeschoolers of Maine Annual State House Day, and presentations in New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Loudon, NH. We hosted four engagements for Juli Wilkinson who played the abortion nurse in the movie Unplanned. And we hosted Mrs. Bau Chau Kelly at the Lane House. Mrs. Kelly described life in Communist Vietnam:

 

(Rev. Craft ans Charl van Wyk at the Lane House)

Camp Constitution’s Website:

We had 27.000 views for this period, and posted 147 blogs:  https://www.campconstitution.net

Camp Constitution Book Sales:                           

We have raised close to $3.500 from donated books from our Amazon, Facebook page, and on-line bookstore. https://campconstitution.net/shop/

  Article V Convention: 

We worked with legislatures to have an Article V rescission resolution introduced in the New Hampshire House in 2024. Despite the onslaught of Article V resolutions all over the U.S. not a single one passed. We helped defeat two Article V resolutions in New Hampshire, several in Maine, and authored articles on the subject in on-line and print media and participated in a national conference call hosted by Tamara Scott who hosts a show on Frank Speech. One article we published was an expose on the leadership of the Convention of States. https://granitegrok.com/mg_lakesregion/2023/04/poisoning-the-well-is-not-working-in-new-hampshire-but-we-cant-help-ourselves  We worked with legislatures to have an Article V rescission resolution introduced in the New Hampshire House in 2024.

 Radio and Cable TV: 

We were a first time guest on several radio shows including the Chris Arn Show based in Carliyle,  and returned to the  the Duke Pesta Show:  https://www.freedomproject.com/2023/05/30/dds53023/ and earlier  in the year, we were guests on “Chattin with Janine: a popular Cable TV Show hosted by NH State Rep and long-tine friend Janine Notter. And  appeared as a guest on Tamara Scott’s show on Frank Speech, https://frankspeech.com/video/tamara-scott-show-joined-hal-shurtleff-camp-constitution and an appearance on the Ed Martin Radio Show which is nationally syndicated:  https://www.phyllisschlafly.com/constitution/wynk-back-to-basics-with-hal-shurtleff/

      Camp Constitution Ladies Group:

The Third Annual Spring Fling took place May 5-7 at the Singing Hills Christian Camp. Speakers include Valerie McDonnell, the youngest elected official in the United States and former abortion nurse turned Pro-Life activist Julie Wilkinson. Julie played a role in the movie “Unplanned.”  

                                           

Julie Wilkinson                                                       Valerie McDonnell

 

Our friend and Camp Constitution camp parent Steve Wanager has relocated to Maine and donated one of his replica cannons to Camp Constitution. We are now the proud owners of a replica Revolutionary War howitzer. Contrary to the view of Mr. Biden, the 2nd Amendment does not prevent us from owning a cannon.

Camp Constitution’s 15th Annual Family Camp

We had another successful family camp with new guest speakers’ author and documentary producer Vince Ellison. And, for the first time in our history, a presidential candidate visited us. Mr. Vivek Ramaswamy spoke to the campers and took their questions.

   

Second Annual Family Retreat:

We just completed o our 2nd Annual Weekend Family Retreat which ran from Friday September 29 to Sunday October 1. Guest instructors were Jim Perloff and former Gubernatorial candidate Karen Testerman. Returning instructors included Catherine White, and Rev. Steve Craft. Jessica Whitworth conducted the program for the junior campers.

 

How you can help Camp Constitution grow:

* Keep Camp Constitution and our nation in your prayers.

* Become a donor. Monthly and/or one-time donations can be made via our PayPal account accessed from our website https://www.campconstitution.net

* Host one of our speakers

Host a Constitutional Study Course

*  Introduce Camp Constitution to family and friends.

*Author an article for our camp blog.

Thank you for all you did in the freedom movement, and for helping to make Camp Constitution possible.

 

Hal Shurtleff, Director
Camp Constitution

 

 

American Minute with Bill Federer Four Voyages of Columbus to the New World – and Hurricanes in the Caribbean

Published October 6, 2023 | By campconstitution

 

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American Minute with Bill Federer
Four Voyages of Columbus to the New World – and Hurricanes in the Caribbean

Mehmet II succeeded his father, Murad II, to rule the Muslim Ottoman Empire.

After killing his brothers, he later formalized this practice into law, stating:

“Whichever of my sons inherits the sultan’s throne, it behooves him to kill his brothers in the interest of the world order” … continue reading American Minute here …

Download as PDF …
On May 29, 1453, at the age of 21, Mehmet II conquered the Byzantine city of Constantinople, the largest and richest city in Europe.
Located on the Bosporus, where the East and West met, it largely served as the capital of Christendom for over a thousand years.
Mehmet had stated:
“The ghaza (holy war) is our basic duty, as it was in the case of our fathers … The conquest of (Constantinople) is … essential to the future and the safety of the Ottoman state.”
The fall of Constantinople ended the Byzantine Empire and permanently altered trade routes from Europe to Asia, which had been traveled for centuries by merchants, such as Marco Polo.
Detractors of Columbus should turn one chapter back in the history books and lay blame for his voyages on the expansionist policies of Sultan Mehmet II, who blocked Western access to the land trade routes to India and China.
Even socialist historian Howard Zinn admitted in A People’s History of the United States (1980):
“Now that the Turks had conquered Constantinople and the eastern Mediterranean, and controlled the land routes to Asia, a sea route was needed.
Portuguese sailors were working their way around the southern tip of Africa.
Spain decided to gamble on a long sail across an unknown ocean.”
William Lawson Grant, Professor of Colonial History at Queens University, Kingston, Ontario, wrote in the introduction to Voyages and Explorations (Toronto, The Courier Press, Limited, 1911, A.S. Barnes Company):
“The history of Western Civilization begins in a conflict with the Orient, a conflict of which it may be the end is not yet.
… The routes between East and West have been trodden by the caravans of trade more often even than by the feet of armies.
… The treasures of the East were long brought overland to Alexandria, or Constantinople, or the cities of the Levant, and thence distributed to Europe by the galleys of Genoa or of Venice.
… But when the Turk placed himself astride the Bosporus, and made Egypt his feudatory, new routes had to be found.”
Grant continued in Voyages and Explorations:
“In the search for these were made the three greatest voyages in history, those
of Columbus,
of Vasco da Gama, and
greatest of all of Magellan …
… In his search for the riches of Cipangu (Japan), Columbus stumbled upon America.
The great Genoese lived and died under the illusion that he had reached the outmost verge of Asia.”
In 1498, Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama successfully sailed around South Africa to India.
But six years earlier, Columbus proposed another westward SEA route.
Beginning in 1492, Christopher Columbus took FOUR VOYAGES to the New World:
1ST VOYAGE (1492-1493), he DISCOVERED land;
2ND VOYAGE (1493-1496), he encountered a hurricane, malaria, and CANNIBALS;
3RD VOYAGE (1498-1500), he faced doldrums, rebellion, and was ARRESTED;
4TH VOYAGE (1502-1504), he survived another hurricane, explored Panama, and was SHIPWRECKED on Jamaica for a year.
1ST VOYAGE (1492-1493) was truly historic.
Columbus used his knowledge of the “trade winds” to make the longest voyage ever out of the sight of land.
Thinking he had made it to India, he referred to the inhabitants as “Indians,” and the name stuck.
It is interesting to consider that native Americans might never have been called “Indians” had it not been for Islamic jihad cutting off the land trade routes to India.
These first inhabitants were peaceful Taino Arawak natives.
Columbus thought that Cuba was the tip of China and that Hispaniola (Dominican Republican/Haiti) was Japan.
Returning to Europe, Columbus’ ship, Santa Maria, hit a reef off the coast of Hispaniola and wrecked on December 24, 1492. He left 39 sailors in a make-shift fort named La Navidad.
2ND VOYAGE (1493-1496), Columbus was frustratingly saddled with 17 ships and 1,500 mostly get-rich-quick Spanish opportunists.
This was the doings of the jealous Spanish Bishop Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca, who continually undermined Columbus at the royal court.
Fonseca thought it was a mistake that the Spanish Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, gave so much authority to a “non-Spaniard” — Columbus being just a low-class Genoese, from the rival Italian city-state of Genoa.
In this sense, Columbus was the victim of racial discrimination.
Bishop Fonseca is to be blamed for altering Columbus’ goal from finding India and China to managing hundreds of ambitious settlers. Columbus was an amazingly gifted explorer, but unfortunately failed miserably as a governor.
Looking for a location for a settlement, Columbus explored Puerto Rico and Jamaica.
Arriving at La Navidad, Hispaniola, they were shocked to find that the sailors Columbus had left the previous year were all killed by natives.
Reality set it.
Instead of finding a paradise, Spaniards were shocked to discover the existence of aggressive Carib natives.
Caribs would land on an island inhabited by the peaceful Taino Arawak natives and proceed to emasculated, sodomized and cannibalized them.
Columbus had them establish the settlement of La Isabella on Hispaniola, but shortly after it was destroyed in a hurricane, a storm of unbelievable intensity which none of them had experienced before.
They abandoned La Isabella and founded a new settlement named Santo Domingo, presumably in honor of Columbus’ father Domenico.
After the hurricane, followed by malaria, together with the fear of cannibals, the Spanish settlers began to feel Columbus misrepresented this new world “paradise.”
They began to grow impatient at having to obey Columbus, who, after all, was not even Spanish, but rather an Italian of low birth from Genoa.
Columbus unfortunately yielded to their greedy demands and allowed them set up European-style feudal plantations, called “mayorazgos.”
This tragically set a precedent for generations of mistreatment of native populations.
Columbus sailed back to Spain, leaving his two younger brothers Bartholomew and Diego (Giacomo) in charge of Santo Domingo.
3RD VOYAGE (1498-1500), Columbus sailed across the Atlantic further south, closer to the equator.
This brought him through a stretch of sea called “the horse latitudes” and “the doldrums,” where there is no wind for weeks at a time.
Parched in the windless heat of the blazing sun, Columbus prayed that if the winds returned, he would name the first land he saw after the Trinity.
When the winds picked up, Columbus named the first land he saw “Trinidad.”
Columbus then set foot and planted the Spanish flag on the Paria Peninsula of present-day Venezuela, August 1, 1498, making him the first European to set foot on South America.
He explored the beautiful Orinoco River, speculating that it could be the outer regions of the Garden of Eden.
When Columbus arrived back at his settlement of Santo Domingo, he found that the greedy Spanish settlers had rebelled against his brothers, Bartholomew and Diego.
In despair, Columbus sent a letter to the King, pleading for help.
The plea was intercepted by the ambitious Bishop Fonseca, who convinced the King that, instead of sending help, he should replace Columbus as governor.
The King sent a replacement governor named Bobadillo in 1500.
Bobadillo arrested Columbus and his brothers, and sent them back to Spain in chains.
Columbus wrote to a friend and confidante of the Queen, Dona Juana de Torres:
“I undertook a new voyage to the New World which hitherto had been hidden …
They judge me there as a governor who had gone to Sicily or to a city or town under a regular government …
I should be judged as a captain who went from Spain to the Indies.”
4TH VOYAGE (1502-1504).
After a two year delay, Ferdinand and Isabella finally permitted Columbus to sail on May 12, 1502, from Cadiz, Spain, on his last voyage.
Columbus was forbidden to visit his settlement of Santo Domingo, but upon reaching the Caribbean, he was alarmed to see another hurricane brewing, similar to the one experienced at La Isabella.
Weighing the risk, he entered the harbor of Santo Domingo to warn them of the approaching danger and to seek shelter for his ships.
He anchored and rowed ashore.
A second replacement governor had arrived named Orvando.
He ignored Columbus.
Orvando was preoccupied in preparing to send back to Spain the previous governor, Bobadillo, along with a treasure fleet of 30 ships filled with gold and native slaves.
Unwittingly, the ships would be heading directly into the path of the hurricane. Columbus’ warning was completely spurned, as he was considered an unwelcome persona-non-grata.
Orvando ordered Columbus to immediately leave the harbor.
With the hurricane now fast approaching, Columbus did not even take the time to pull aboard his row boat.
He sailed as fast as he could to seek shelter from the wind on the far side of the island.
The hurricane hit around July 1, 1502, with such fury that it almost completely destroyed Santo Domingo.
Of the treasure fleet, 4 ships returned to Santo Domingo, and 25 sank, with the loss of approximately 500 lives, including Bobadillo.
The one ship that survived and made it to Spain was the Aguja. It was so old and slow that it had not yet cleared the island mangroves when the hurricane hit.
When the ship arrived in Spain, to everyone’s amazement, it was found to be the one carrying Columbus’ portion of the gold, per his initial agreement with Ferdinand and Isabella.
The providential nature of this incident vindicated Columbus’ reputation, though he did not find out about it for over a year, as he was blown around the Caribbean.
Describing the violent weather, Columbus recorded:
“The tempest arose and wearied me so that I knew not where to turn, my old wound opened up, and for 9 days I was lost without hope of life; eyes never beheld the sea so angry and covered with foam …”
He continued:
“The wind not only prevented our progress, but offered no opportunity to run behind any headland for shelter; hence we were forced to keep out in this bloody ocean, seething like a pot on a hot fire. The people were so worn out that they longed for death.”
After a day and a half of continuous lightning, Columbus’ 15-year-old son, Ferdinand, recorded that on December 13, 1502, a waterspout passed between the ships:
“… the which had they not dissolved by reciting the Gospel according to St. John, it would have swamped whatever it struck … for it draws water up to the clouds in a column thicker than a waterbutt, twisting it about like a whirlwind.”
Columbus’ biographer, Samuel Eliot Morrison described Admiral Columbus:
“It was the Admiral who exorcised the waterspout. From his Bible he read of that famous tempest off Capernaum, concluding, ‘Fear not, it is I!’
Then clasping the Bible in his left hand, with drawn sword he traced a cross in the sky and a circle around his whole fleet.”
Columbus explored the coasts of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.
He briefly landed in Panama, but was too ill and too suspicious of the natives to cross the 50 mile-wide isthmus on foot to the Pacific side, where he could have seen the real route to India and China.
As it was, they were attacked by Indians, and barely made it out of a shallow Belen River at low tide with 3 of his 4 ships. Another ship was lost in a storm off Cuba.
With his last two ships worm-eaten and taking on water, he beached them on the Island of Jamaica at St. Anne’s Bay, on June 25, 1503, marooned for the next year.
Natives at first accommodated them, but the situation deteriorated when some sailors began an unruly mutiny.
Fearing an attack, Columbus had to act fast.
An accomplished explorer, Columbus had been diligent to keep track of the position of the moon and stars in the night sky of the Western Hemisphere, something that had never been observed before.
Using astronomic tables made by Rabbi Abraham Zacuto of Spain, Columbus summoned the chiefs to his marooned ships on the specific night of February 29, 1504.
When he correctly predicted a lunar eclipse, the natives became afraid and convinced Columbus had divine favor.
They abandoned their plans of attack and continued to provide for them.
Finally, Columbus’ captain, Diego Méndez de Segura, purchased a canoe from the natives and set off with several of them from Jamaica toward Hispaniola (Haiti), crossing 450 miles of open sea.
Arriving there, Méndez found Governor Ovando in the jungle, subduing the Taino Arawak natives.
Ovando was not thrilled to hear that Columbus was still alive and waited months to send help.
Being rescued at last, Columbus returned to Santo Domingo for a final visit, then to Spain, arriving on November 7, 1504.
Three weeks later, his chief patron, Queen Isabella, died.
Columbus died a year and a half later at the age of 55.
Though unsuccessful as a governor, Columbus was nevertheless one of the world’s most accomplished sailors and explorers, and though he did not reach India or China, he did change history.
Back during his fourth and final voyage, when he was in Panama, trapped on the Belen River at low tide, he was incapacitated with physical pain.
On July 7, 1503, not knowing if anyone would ever read it, he wrote his Lettera Rarissima:
“The Indians were many and united and attacked … I was outside very much alone, on this rude coast, with a high fever and very fatigued.
There was no hope of escape. In this state, I climbed painfully to the highest part of the ship and cried out for help with a fearful voice …
… At length, groaning with exhaustion, I fell asleep, and heard a compassionate voice saying,

‘O fool, and slow to believe and serve thy God, the God of every man! … From thy birth He hath ever held thee in special charge …

Of those barriers of the Ocean Sea, which were closed with such mighty chains, He hath given thee the keys …

Turn thou to Him and acknowledge thy faults; His mercy is infinite; thine old age shall not hinder thee from performing mighty deeds … Whatever He promises He fulfills with interest; that is His way.”

(Published with permission from the American Minute.)

—

Has the Sun’s true role in global warming been miscalculated?

Published October 3, 2023 | By campconstitution

This news release was sent to us by Camp Constitution instructor Professor Willie Soon:
 
A new international study published in the scientific peer-reviewed journal, Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics, by 20 climate researchers from 12 countries suggests that the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) might have substantially underestimated the role of the Sun in global warming.

The article began as a response to a 2022 commentary on an extensive review of the causes of climate change published in 2021. The original review (Connolly and colleagues, 2021) had suggested that the IPCC reports had inadequately accounted for two major scientific concerns when they were evaluating the causes of global warming since the 1850s:

The global temperature estimates used in the IPCC reports are contaminated by urban warming biases.

The estimates of solar activity changes since the 1850s considered by the IPCC substantially downplayed a possible large role for the Sun.

On this basis, the 2021 review had concluded that it was not scientifically valid for the IPCC to rule out the possibility that global warming might be mostly natural.

The findings of that 2021 review were disputed in a 2022 article by two climate researchers (Dr. Mark Richardson and Dr. Rasmus Benestad) for two main reasons:

  1. Richardson and Benestad (2022) argued that the mathematical techniques used by Connolly and colleagues (2021) were inappropriate and that a different set of mathematical techniques should have been used instead.

  2. They also argued that many of the solar activity records considered by Connolly and colleagues (2021) were not up-to-date.

They suggested that these were the reasons why Connolly and colleagues (2021) had come to a different conclusion from the IPCC.

This new 2023 article by the authors of the 2021 review, has addressed both of these concerns and shown even more compelling evidence that the IPCC’s statements on the causes of global warming since 1850 are scientifically premature and may need to be revisited.

The authors showed that the urban component of the IPCC’s global temperature data shows a strong warming bias relative to the 98% of the planet that is unaffected by urbanization. However, they also showed that urbanized data represented most of the weather station records used.

While the IPCC only considered one estimate of solar activity for their most recent (2021) evaluation of the causes of global warming, Connolly and colleagues compiled and updated 27 different estimates that were used by the scientific community.

Several of these different solar activity estimates suggest that most of the warming observed outside urban areas (in rural areas, oceans, and glaciers) could be explained in terms of the Sun. Some estimates suggest that global warming is a mixture of human and natural factors. Other estimates agreed with the IPCC’s findings.

For this reason, the authors concluded that the scientific community is not yet in a position to establish whether the global warming since the 1850s is mostly human-caused, mostly natural or some combination of both.

The lead author of the study, Dr. Ronan Connolly, of the Center for Environmental Research and Earth Sciences (CERES-Science.com) described the implications of their findings,

“In scientific investigations, it is important to avoid beginning your analysis with your conclusions decided in advance. Otherwise you might end up with a false sense of confidence in your findings. It seems that the IPCC was too quick to jump to their conclusions.”

Another author of the study, Dr. Willie Soon, also of the Center for Environmental Research and Earth Sciences, explained:

“If the IPCC had paid more attention to open-minded scientific inquiry than trying to force a premature ‘scientific consensus’, then the scientific community would be a lot closer to having genuinely resolved the causes of climate change. Hopefully, our new analysis and datasets can help other scientists to get back to doing real climate science.”

This study reaches similar conclusions to another study that was recently published in a separate scientific peer-reviewed journal, Climate. This other study involved many of the same co-authors (led by Dr. Soon) and focused on a detailed case study of two solar activity estimates and two temperature estimates. It took a different approach to analyzing the problem but confirmed that varying the choice of solar activity and temperature estimates can lead to very different conclusions on the causes of global warming.

For media inquiries, please contact Dr. Ronan Connolly (Center for Environmental Research and Earth Sciences) at ronan@ceres-science.com or Dr. Willie Soon (Center for Environmental Research and Earth Sciences) at willie@ceres-science.com.
Link to the study:

  • R. Connolly, W. Soon, M. Connolly, S. Baliunas, J. Berglund, C.J. Butler, R.G. Cionco, A.G. Elias, V. Fedorov, H. Harde, G.W. Henry, D.V. Hoyt, O. Humlum, D.R. Legates, N. Scafetta, J.-E. Solheim, L. Szarka, V.M. Velasco Herrera, H. Yan and W.J. Zhang (2023). “Challenges in the detection and attribution of Northern Hemisphere surface temperature trends since 1850”. Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics, 23(10), 105015. https://doi.org/10.1088/1674-4527/acf18e. (Open access).

  • Link to accompanying datasets.

Links to other studies mentioned:

  1. R. Connolly, W. Soon, M. Connolly, S. Baliunas, J. Berglund, C. J. Butler, R. G. Cionco, A. G. Elias, V. M. Fedorov, H. Harde, G. W. Henry, D. V. Hoyt, O. Humlum, D. R. Legates, S. Lüning, N. Scafetta, J.-E. Solheim, L. Szarka, H. van Loon, V. M. Velasco Herrera, R. C. Willson, H. Yan and W. Zhang (2021). How much has the Sun influenced Northern Hemisphere temperature trends? An ongoing debate. Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics, 21, 131. https://doi.org/10.1088/1674-4527/21/6/131. Supplementary Materials available at: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7088728.

  2. M.T. Richardson and R.E. Benestad (2022). “Erroneous use of Statistics behind Claims of a Major Solar Role in Recent Warming”. Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics, 22(12), 125008. https://doi.org/10.1088/1674-4527/ac981c. (pdf available here).

  3. W. Soon, R. Connolly, M. Connolly, S.-I. Akasofu, S. Baliunas, J. Berglund, A. Bianchini, W.M. Briggs, C.J. Butler, R.G. Cionco, M. Crok, A.G. Elias, V.M. Fedorov, F. Gervais, H. Harde, G.W. Henry, D.V. Hoyt, O. Humlum, D.R. Legates, A.R. Lupo, S. Maruyama, P. Moore, M. Ogurtsov, C. ÓhAiseadha, M.J. Oliveira, S.-S. Park, S. Qiu, G. Quinn, N. Scafetta, J.-E. Solheim, J. Steele, L. Szarka, H.L. Tanaka, M.K. Taylor, F. Vahrenholt, V.M. Velasco Herrera and W. Zhang (2023). “The Detection and Attribution of Northern Hemisphere Land Surface Warming (1850–2018) in Terms of Human and Natural Factors: Challenges of Inadequate Data”, Climate, 11(9), 179. https://doi.org/10.3390/cli11090179. (Open access).

  4. IPCC (2021). “Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change”. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. https://ipcc.ch

The Weekly Sam: The Gospel at War With the Yellow School Bus

Published October 3, 2023 | By Hal Shurtleff

This is a short and powerful presentation not just urging parents to get their children out of government schools but the evil ideology promoted in the government schools making the acceptance of abortion, gender mutilation and the destruction of the morals of a nation.

Sam Blumenfeld’s  work is well known to the folks at the Mid Atlantic Reformation Society, the organization that hosted this event https://www.midatlanticreformation.org/

 

Second Amendment Rally Newton, MA

Published September 27, 2023 | By Hal Shurtleff

Camp Constitution is having a busy and productive September with speaking engagements in PA, MA, NH, ME and MI and in a few days, our 2nd annual family weekend retreat.  This video is from the Sunday September 17 Constitution Day and 2nd Amendment forum sponsored by the Norfolk County Republican Committee.  I was one of the speakers and we also had a information table at the event.

Norfolk County Republican Committee’s 2nd Amendment and Constitution Day Forum held of Sunday September 17, 2023 at the American Legion in Newton, MA. Hal Shurtleff of Camp Constitution, Toby Leary of Cape Cod Gun Works, Mike HARRIS Gun Owner’s Action League (GOAL) – Charlie COOK “Riding Shotgun with Charlie” – Committeewoman Lynne ROBERTS 2nd Amendment Sisters – Hal SHURTLEFF from Camp Constitution – Moderator Bob HISS – Toby LEARY of Cape Gun Works – Kerri Ann AUCLAIR from the DC Project – Jim WALLACE from GOAL

 

 

Designed by Eric Conover.