We the People – A force to turn the Democrats out and turn the Republicans inside out! Showing up for the hard work and to restore America —to the glory God!
The “New Deal” began things modestly enough by enacting The National Firearms Act of 1934 which regulated machine guns and the 1938Federal Firearms Act which prohibited gun sales to convicted violent felons.
At the end of his Presidency, President Johnson passed his gun control act to keep firearms out of the hands of “those not legally entitled to possess them because of age, criminal background, or incompetence.” That would be mental incompetence.
So, Federal gun control began in 1968. The control of firearms in the District of Columbia and other large cities began 37 to 40 years ago. Homicides and suicides went up for two and a half decades. Since the mid to late 1990s homicides have declined. But mass killing continue to mount.
According to Mother Jones, there have been 19 mass shootings just since President Obama took office. We will just name these six:
2009 – Carthage Nursing Home, Carthage, North Carolina where Robert Stewart killed eight and wounded three.
2009 – Fort Hood, TX where a Islamic terrorist attack, by certifiably insane jihadist Major Nidal Hason, killed Thirteen and wounded thirty. Insane? You should consider all planners and perpetrators of jihadist terrorism insane. The Obama Administration naturally blamed workplace violence.
2011 – Tucson shooting, Casas Adobes, Arizona where certifiably insane (O.K. mentally ill) Jared Laughner killed six and wounded thirteen—including his target then Congresswoman (D) Gabrielle Giffords. You may remember Democrats, led by President Obama, blamed Republicans—especially Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann.
2012 – Century Theater shooting, Aurora, CO where James Holmes Killed twelve and wounded fifty eight.
December 14, 2012 – Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Newtown, CT where Adam Lanza killed 28 including 20 children, six school staff, his mother then took his own life. President Obama mobilizing his political team, swung into gun control mode.
September 17, 2013 – Newport Naval Station, Washington DC where Aaron Alexis killed twelve and wounded eight before being killed by police. President Obama attacked Republicans.
Since every single one of these mass killings involves mental illness, the solution is clear.
This building in Jamestown, ND, my home state, was the “State Hospital” known by officials and citizens alike as the Insane Asylum.
If people had “mental problems,” they were institutionalized in “Jamestown.” This loose system was not abused and never more than one in 400 North Dakotans were hospitalized at Jamestown.
The evidence is in. The verdict: we must end mass shootings in America by institutionalizing the dangerous mentally ill.
Actually it was covered by Fox News and my local CBS station reposted an excellent page from the CBS 2011 10th anniversary feed to the local affiliates. This 12th anniversary of the cowardly attack on America must be marked and never forgotten. Here are selected images from CBS:
This video, taken from a New York couple from their apartment on September 11, 2001, was posted seven years ago after five years of healing by “Bob and Bri” who ask. “Please be respectful of the contents of this account and be aware some may find the scenes on this video very disturbing.”
This 10 minute video has footage edited from several sources including TV networks. A very useful edit:
But like you and me, the American people did not forget. The best example I found is many citizens went to Washington to remember in the Nation’s Capitol. They were perfectly represented by these bikers:
America was attacked September 11, 2001 by 19 al Qaeda jihad terrorists. What happened? All hell broke loose in Afghanistan and Iraq. Pakistan fell in line. Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi turned over his WMDs. Every single world dictator, strong man and leader knew not to trifle with America. Yes, with heads down, the Iranians stayed more or less on course. Yes, al Qaeda was recruiting younger jihad leaders. The Muslim Brotherhood and Turkey’s new Islamic leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, were on board with a Jihadist war against the west. But American power was respected. By June, 2009 that all changed. America’s enemies knew America was in a state of paralysis. August three years later, The American President drew a red line in Syria. Then on September 11, America was hit in Benghazi, Libya. America did nothing.
With the 2012 election, American people kept their national leadership in place. One year later the American Presidential red line has turned yellow and the President of third rate power Russia, Vladimir Putin, has stepped in to the roll of peacemaker. Rush Limbaugh thought Tuesday, Putin, not Obama, should address America Tuesday night. And Edward Snowden has been nominated to join President Barak Obama with a Nobel Peace Prize. Benghazi? Nothing has been done. This is a shameful time for America.
Is America that weak? No. America is in a real economic mess but is still by far the strongest, healthiest economy on earth. America is the only nation that can project military power around the world in more than one place at once. If the American people elect a strong mature President in 2016, America can restore order within weeks with one act.
Will that happen? I don’t know. I do know TEA Parties across America are geared up with far more purpose, more people and more organization than four years ago. Pray for America, pray for freedom.
Wealth is never destroyed, it is merely transferred says Mike Maloney, owner of Gold and Silver and author of The Hidden Secrets of Money. The fastest way to learn what he has to teach is One hour with these videos. This first 26 minute video teaches the difference between currency and money. Maloney brings out the historical documentation why the current monetary system will be replaced in this decade. Watch:
In “The Seven Stages of Empire” Maloney gives us the history of the rise and fall of monetary systems. You must understand this lesson to be a winner in the coming worldwide economic implosion. Watch:
In the 1964 Presidential campaign, President Lyndon Johnson declared, “We are not about to send American boys 9 or 10 thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.” The Johnson campaign even painted his Republican challenger as a warmonger with this 1 minute TV ad:
Gulf of Tonkin—President Johnson lied
In August, 1964 President Johnson reported that the American destroyer, USS Maddox, while performing a signals intelligence patrol as part of DESOTO operations, engaged three North Vietnamese Navy torpedo boats of the 135th Torpedo Squadron. A sea battle resulted, in which the Maddox expended over two hundred and eighty 3-inch and 5-inch shells, and in which four USN F-8 Crusader jet fighter bombers strafed the torpedo boats. One US aircraft was damaged, one 14.5 mm round hit the destroyer, three North Vietnamese torpedo boats were damaged, and four North Vietnamese sailors were killed and six were wounded; there were no U.S. casualties.
But President Johnson lied. An internal National Security Agency historical study was declassified in 2005. It concluded that the Maddox had engaged the North Vietnamese Navy on August 2: Captain Herrick ordered Ogier’s gun crews to open fire if the boats approached within ten thousand yards. At about 1505 GMT, the Maddox fired three rounds to warn off the communist boats. This initial action was never reported by the Johnson administration, which insisted that the Vietnamese boats fired first. [emphasis mine] A persuasive case has been made that the Johnson Administration purposely created that incident to gain Congressional support for war.
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving the Johnson Administration (Executive Branch) broad war making power in Southeast Asia passed Congress August 7, 2004. The House vote was 414 to 0 and the Senate vote was 88 for and 2 against. Senator Ernest Gruening (D-AK) objected to “sending our American boys into combat in a war in which we have no business, which is not our war, into which we have been misguidedly drawn, which is steadily being escalated.”
The escalation that concerned Senator Gruening cost the United States Government $584 billion through 11 years ending in 1975. In today’s dollars that would approach $3.5 trillion. The cost in life and limb was 58,212 dead and 153,303 wounded.
Naval combat veteran John Kerry, on behalf of Viet Nam Veterans Against the War, appeared April 21, 1971 before the United States Senate Foreign Relations committee chaired by segregationist leader and Bill Clinton mentor Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright. In his two hour testimony, the future American Secretary of State declared:
We are asking here in Washington for some action. Action from the Congress of the United states of America which has the power to raise and maintain armies and which by the Constitution to declare war. We’ve come here, not to the President because we believe this body can be responsive to the will of the people. We believe the will of the people says we should be out of Viet Nam now.
We are here to ask vehemently, “Where are the leaders of our country? Where is the leadership?”
42 years later, those are perfect questions. They are worth repeating, “Where are the leaders of our country? Where is the leadership?” We are also compelled to ask, “What are America’s national security interests in the Middle East and Northern Africa?” These are profound questions. They have not been debated. They must be debated.
In my view, our national interest and national security interests in this region are simple:
Unconditional support for our ally Israel and conditional support for other states, like Jordan, that continue constructive relations with America.
The free flow of oil at market prices.
The free flow of international shipping in waters of the region.
Punish governments for Christian and Jewish persecution.
That last bullet is ignored by the anti-Christian Obama Regime.
Consider the Al Qaeda-linked Syrian rebels began September 4 waging a war against Christians in the village of Maaloula which continued through yesterday. No reaction from the Obama Regime. It isn’t that they (or, presumably Senators McCain and Graham) don’t know. It is that they don’t care!
There is mounting evidence that an al Qaeda group captured the weapons and used them on the Syrian civilians. This should give every American pause.
As background the (Assad bickering) Russians gave the United Nations a 100 page report of a July al Qaeda gas attack against civilians in Syria. While there were gassed victims, the Russian evidence (like the Obama Administration’s) that al Qaeda did it is circumstantial.
There is expanding evidence that the August 21 attack was al Qaeda, not the Assad Government, including evidence that the Obama Regime knows. The most complete argument is this article by the respected scholar Yossef Bodansky. I rarely reprint 1700 words but it is important—no essential—to read the entire article:
There is a growing volume of new evidence from numerous sources in the Middle East — mostly affiliated with the Syrian opposition and its sponsors and supporters — which makes a very strong case, based on solid circumstantial evidence, that the August 21, 2013, chemical strike in the Damascus suburbs was indeed a pre-meditated provocation by the Syrian opposition.
The extent of US foreknowledge of this provocation needs further investigation because available data puts the “horror” of the Barack Obama White House in a different and disturbing light.
On August 13-14, 2013, Western-sponsored opposition forces in Turkey started advance preparations for a major and irregular military surge. Initial meetings between senior opposition military commanders and representatives of Qatari, Turkish, and US Intelligence [“Mukhabarat Amriki”] took place at the converted Turkish military garrison in Antakya, Hatay Province, used as the command center and headquarters of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and their foreign sponsors. Very senior opposition commanders who had arrived from Istanbul briefed the regional commanders of an imminent escalation in the fighting due to “a war-changing development” which would, in turn, lead to a US-led bombing of Syria.[emphasis mine]
The opposition forces had to quickly prepare their forces for exploiting the US-led bombing in order to march on Damascus and topple the Bashar al-Assad Government, the senior commanders explained. The Qatari and Turkish intelligence officials assured the Syrian regional commanders that they would be provided with plenty of weapons for the coming offensive.
Indeed, unprecedented weapons distribution started in all opposition camps in Hatay Province on August 21-23, 2013. In the Reyhanli area alone, opposition forces received well in excess of 400 tons of weapons, mainly anti-aircraft weaponry from shoulder-fired missiles to ammunition for light-guns and machineguns. The weapons were distributed from store-houses controlled by Qatari and Turkish Intelligence under the tight supervision of US Intelligence. [emphasis mine]
These weapons were loaded on more than 20 trailer-trucks which crossed into northern Syria and distributed the weapons to several depots. Follow-up weapon shipments, also several hundred tons, took place over the weekend of August 24-25, 2013, and included mainly sophisticated anti-tank guided missiles and rockets. Opposition officials in Hatay said that these weapon shipments were “the biggest” they had received “since the beginning of the turmoil more than two years ago”. The deliveries from Hatay went to all the rebel forces operating in the Idlib-to-Aleppo area, including the al-Qaida affiliated jihadists (who constitute the largest rebel forces in the area).
Several senior officials from both the Syrian opposition and sponsoring Arab states stressed that these weapon deliveries were specifically in anticipation for exploiting the impact of imminent bombing of Syria by the US and the Western allies. The latest strategy formulation and coordination meetings took place on August 26, 2013. The political coordination meeting took place in Istanbul and was attended by US Amb. Robert Ford.
More important were the military and operational coordination meetings at the Antakya garrison. Senior Turkish, Qatari, and US Intelligence officials attended in addition to the Syrian senior (opposition) commanders. The Syrians were informed that bombing would start in a few days.
“The opposition was told in clear terms that action to deter further use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime could come as early as in the next few days,” a Syrian participant in the meeting said. Another Syrian participant said that he was convinced US bombing was scheduled to begin on Thursday, August 29, 2013. Several participants — both Syrian and Arab — stressed that the assurances of forthcoming bombing were most explicit even as formally Obama is still undecided.
The descriptions of these meetings raise the question of the extent of foreknowledge of US Intelligence, and therefore, the Obama White House. All the sources consulted — both Syrian and Arab — stressed that officials of the “Mukhabarat Amriki” actively participated in the meetings and briefings in Turkey. Therefore, at the very least, they should have known that the opposition leaders were anticipating “a war-changing development”: that is, a dramatic event which would provoke a US-led military intervention.
The mere fact that weapon storage sites under the tight supervision of US Intelligence were opened up and about a thousand tons of high-quality weapons were distributed to the opposition indicates that US Intelligence anticipated such a provocation and the opportunity for the Syrian opposition to exploit the impact of the ensuing US and allied bombing. Hence, even if the Obama White House did not know in advance of the chemical provocation, they should have concluded, or at the very least suspected, that the chemical attack was most likely the “war-changing development” anticipated by the opposition leaders as provocation of US-led bombing. Under such circumstances, the Obama White House should have refrained from rushing head-on to accuse Assad’s Damascus and threaten retaliation, thus making the Obama White House at the very least complicit after the act.
Meanwhile, additional data from Damascus about the actual chemical attack increases the doubts about Washington’s version of events. Immediately after the attack, three hospitals of Doctors Without Borders (MSF: médecins sans frontières) in the greater Damascus area treated more than 3,600 Syrians affected by the chemical attack, and 355 of them died. MSF performed tests on the vast majority of those treated.
MSF director of operations Bart Janssens summed up the findings: “MSF can neither scientifically confirm the cause of these symptoms nor establish who is responsible for the attack. However, the reported symptoms of the patients, in addition to the epidemiological pattern of the events — characterized by the massive influx of patients in a short period of time, the origin of the patients, and the contamination of medical and first aid workers — strongly indicate mass exposure to a neurotoxic agent.” Simply put, even after testing some 3,600 patients, MSF failed to confirm that sarin was the cause of the injuries. According to MSF, the cause could have been nerve agents like sarin, concentrated riot control gas, or even high-concentration pesticides. Moreover, opposition reports that there was distinct stench during the attack suggest that it could have come from the “kitchen sarin” used by jihadist groups (as distinct from the odorless military-type sarin) or improvised agents like pesticides.
Some of the evidence touted by the Obama White House is questionable at best.
A small incident in Beirut raises big questions. A day after the chemical attack, Lebanese fixers working for the “Mukhabarat Amriki” succeeded to convince a Syrian male who claimed to have been injured in the chemical attack to seek medical aid in Beirut in return for a hefty sum that would effectively settle him for life. The man was put into an ambulance and transferred overnight to the Farhat Hospital in Jib Janine, Beirut. The Obama White House immediately leaked friendly media that “the Lebanese Red Cross announced that test results found traces of sarin gas in his blood.” However, this was news to Lebanese intelligence and Red Cross officials.
According to senior intelligence officials, “Red Cross Operations Director George Kettaneh told [them] that the injured Syrian fled the hospital before doctors were able to test for traces of toxic gas in his blood.” Apparently, the patient declared that he had recovered from his nausea and no longer needed medical treatment. The Lebanese security forces are still searching for the Syrian patient and his honorarium.
On August 24, 2013, Syrian Commando forces acted on intelligence about the possible perpetrators of the chemical attack and raided a cluster of rebel tunnels in the Damascus suburb of Jobar. Canisters of toxic material were hit in the fierce fire-fight as several Syrian soldiers suffered from suffocation and “some of the injured are in a critical condition”.
The Commando eventually seized an opposition warehouse containing barrels full of chemicals required for mixing “kitchen sarin”, laboratory equipment, as well as a large number of protective masks. The Syrian Commando also captured several improvised explosive devices, RPG rounds, and mortar shells. The same day, at least four HizbAllah fighters operating in Damascus near Ghouta were hit by chemical agents at the very same time the Syrian Commando unit was hit while searching a group of rebel tunnels in Jobar. Both the Syrian and the HizbAllah forces were acting on intelligence information about the real perpetrators of the chemical attack. Damascus told Moscow the Syrian troops were hit by some form of a nerve agent and sent samples (blood, tissues, and soil) and captured equipment to Russia.
Several Syrian leaders, many of whom are not Bashar al-Assad supporters and are even his sworn enemies, are now convinced that the Syrian opposition is responsible for the August 21, 2013, chemical attack in the Damascus area in order to provoke the US and the allies into bombing Assad’s Syria. Most explicit and eloquent is Saleh Muslim, the head of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) which has been fighting the Syrian Government. Muslim doubts Assad would have used chemical weapons when he was winning the civil war.
“The regime in Syria … has chemical weapons, but they wouldn’t use them around Damascus, five km from the [UN] committee which is investigating chemical weapons. Of course they are not so stupid as to do so,” Muslim told Reuters on August 27, 2013. He believes the attack was “aimed at framing Assad and provoking an international reaction”. Muslim is convinced that “some other sides who want to blame the Syrian regime, who want to show them as guilty and then see action” is responsible for the chemical attack. The US was exploiting the attack to further its own anti-Assad policies and should the UN inspectors find evidence that the rebels were behind the attack, then “everybody would forget it”, Muslim shrugged. “Who is the side who would be punished? Are they are going to punish the Emir of Qatar or the King of Saudi Arabia, or Mr Erdogan of Turkey?”
And there remain the questions: Given the extent of the involvement of the “Mukhabarat Amriki” in opposition activities, how is that US Intelligence did not know in advance about the opposition’s planned use of chemical weapons in Damascus?
It is a colossal failure.
And if they did know and warned the Obama White House, why then the sanctimonious rush to blame the Assad Administration?
Moreover, how can the Obama Administration continue to support and seek to empower the opposition which had just intentionally killed some 1,300 innocent civilians in order to provoke a US military intervention?
There will be much more fallout from the disastrous foreign policy of this Regime but as of today, here is a representation of the fallout:
If you have committed to pray, now would be the time.
You must meet Ann Barnhardt. I met her two short years ago. Like so many of us, Ann has been called to bring light into this present darkness. Some do work so hard few of us could survive and prevail. Their work is so hard it would break the spirit of all save those who live their lives for an audience of One. Like Doug Hagmann, Ann Barnhardt is one of those.
Ms. Barnhardt’s life and perspective changed in December 2011 when the commodities brokerage firm MF Global Holdings Ltd. and its finance subsidiary MF Global Finance USA Inc. “imploded.” The company and its political and financial establishment Chairman and CEO, Jon Corzine, “discovered” $1.6 billion missing. A major creditor of MFG, J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, would be last in line—only ahead of MFG shareholders—stood to lose hundreds of millions. But MFG used $700 million of its customer’s money for the J.P. Morgan debt. Incredibly the Obama administration and bankruptcy court took no action leaving the MFG customers defrauded. (As an aside, days ago, Corzine, while facing civil charges, was found to be guilty of no crime.)
Barnhardt, who had her own commodities brokerage firm, reacted radically. She liquidated her company and, among other actions, became an expert on money and banking and a century of international fraud that is quickly coming to a head in our time.
You must study this
Barnhardt has a 2 hour 37 minute video presentation on economic and banking fundamentals, how they are purposely and purposefully being violated, how, in her view, we have passed the point of any possible recovery; the world economy must crash. Ignore whatever you think of her style and prejudices. You must understand the fundamental facts she presents to be able to sort through the events and information that is coming—indeed is at hand. Titled The Economy Is Going To Implode, the full 2:27 presentation is directly below. Or you can get it 20 minutes at a time in 8 parts: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7; Part 8.
We will be bringing deep knowledge from Mr. Hagmann and others. Learn your lessons well. Like everyone living on the planet, you will be tested.
Stretching over several weeks Douglas J. Hagmann is revealing the deep reasons for the imminent international financial collapse that will bring the world’s economy (and yours) to its knees. Mr. Hagmann is the founder and director of the Northeast Intelligence Network and CEO of a multi-state licensed private investigative agency serving many Fortune 500 clients. He is 23 year veteran of conducting investigations in the private sector, he has logged over 40,000 hours of covert surveillance in his career and is the author of Tactical Surveillance. He is a member of the International Counter- Terrorism Officers Association and possesses many law enforcement related training certifications. He has been used as an operational asset by federal law enforcement and various police departments, and has performed over 5,000 civil and criminal investigations throughout the United States. Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, Hagmann began using his investigative skills and training to fight terrorism and increase public awareness by establishing the Northeast Intelligence Network. Doug Hagmann is also the Terrorism and Crime Editor for the indispensible Canada Free Press.
Imminent international financial collapse? Bring the world’s economy (and mine) to its knees? You might reasonably look around and say, I have money in the bank, room on my credit cards(s), equity in the house and there is gas at the station and food on every corner. How can it be that bad? Most will look at those circumstances and conclude we are not in any emergency at all, perhaps thinking, “We are a good people. Didn’t we elect and reelect a black President?”
Others—perhaps you—will not be so quick to dismiss the warnings. Are there additional, less apparent, facts? If so, what are they? Those facts are available and will be presented here today and tomorrow. Today’s lessons are quick, easy and presented in cute ways. The first is to clearly understand the essence of global banking in two minutes:
Yes. In the past 100 years, we have become slaves to debt. What are the unintended consequences? Or perhaps they are intended by the apostles of Saul Alinsky who are in charge today. You decide. This 2010 video explains the fact that a world financial collapse is imminent and unavoidable in three minutes:
Of course we now know when you “Sell everything immediately—quickly!” you will receive some worthless currency or another. These two videos focused on a German bank and European countries drowning in debt. Take a look at the public debt American citizens face—as of 10:00 am CDT September 2, 2013:
Tomorrow we’ll have a two and a half hour presentation of the basic economic laws and banking principles we need to know to follow the work of patriots like Doug Hagmann and survive the imminent economic implosion. (You can take it in bites that fit your schedule.”)
Let us set a new course this Labor Day, September 2, 2013—a course to fully restore every American’s right to work. Let the new course effectively encourage every able bodied man, woman and teen in America to, upon rising (six days a week), set upon a day of productive work. Let us begin today.
An America that honors productive work and the men and women who build for themselves through their honest labor. They are the makers of our country. It is all who work that help us sing,
Let this be our new Labor Day motto:
“What is obtained by labor will of right be the property of him by whose labor it is gained.”
Let us establish a New Labor Day in America—a day to promote individual labor.
If we honor America when we honor labor, let us promote labor. There may be no better way than studying Booker T. Washington (Up From Slavery):
“I . . . learned to love labour . . . for the independence and self-reliance which the ability to do something which the world wants done brings.”
“. . . at Hampton, for the first time, I learned what education was expected to do for an individual. Before going there I had a good deal of the then rather prevalent idea among our people that to secure an education meant to have a good, easy time, free from all necessity for manual labour. At Hampton I not only learned that it was not a disgrace to labour, but learned to love labour, not alone for its financial value, but for labour’s own sake and for the independence and self-reliance which the ability to do something which the world wants done brings. At that institution I got my first taste of what it meant to live a life of unselfishness, my first knowledge of the fact that the happiest individuals are those who do the most to make others useful and happy.”
Let us, with a New Labor Day, tomorrow, September 2, 2013, set a course to develop happy Americans. Let us celebrate the right of every American to work.
The Declaration of Independence identifies three of the “unalienable rights” (life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness) that God has endowed us with. Is work one of the others? We can say this, we are commanded to work.
“Six days shall thou labor and do all thy work,” —Exodus 20:9b.
So the right to work does not come from government, it is given—no—commanded by God.
When we hear of the 22 Right to Work States, it is about states without “closed union shops.” The U.S. Department of Labor enforces more than 180 Federal labor laws and thousands of regulations on business.
U.S. Department of Justice (OSC) offers this help, “If you have a legal right to work in the United States, Don’t let anyone take it away there are laws to protect you against discrimination in the workplace.” I know the reference is to “documented workers” and “undocumented workers.” The DOJ Office of Special Counsel is there to stand up for “documented workers” not, presumably, “undocumented workers.” Still, the wording seems to confirm that the Natural right to work in the United States of America has been diminished by law.
The right to work (and to employ) freely is diminished by federal and State law. Hundreds of the laws that diminish the right to work, including Federal closed shop laws must be repealed.
Let us, with this New Labor Day, September 2, 2013, set a course to fully restore every American’s right to work.
In the meantime, we must effectively encourage every able bodied man, woman and teen in America to, upon rising (six days per week), set upon a day of productive work. Let us begin. And let this be our new Labor Day motto:
“What is obtained by labor will of right be the property of him by whose labor it is gained.”
Is the purpose of Labor Day to honor those who work to produce America’s bounty? Yes, it should; I believe it can and must. Labor Day, however, was not adopted for that reason. Labor Day was adopted as a National Holiday in 1894 to mollify labor unions that had from time to time rioted since 1865. The Haymarket riot in Chicago in 1886 is often credited with the political push to enact a Federal Holiday to promote unions.
It started as a orderly demonstration. The police were called and tensions escalated. There is no doubt demons entered into some demonstrators and the rioters became a mob; a bomb was thrown. Terror ensued and police fired weapons for a reported 2 minutes. Seven police and four strikers were killed, hundreds wounded. It did not work out as planned.
Seven years later, the country was in the throes of the 1893 (economic) panic. The Pullman Company was forced to cut back. They apparently decided to cut wages instead of payroll. The unionized Pullman workforce reacted strongly. Demonstrations turned to riots. Riots turned to destruction. Hundreds of railroad cars were burned.
Democrat President Grover Cleveland sent in Federal troops. The Pullman Strike became the first national strike in United States history. Before coming to an end, it involved over 150,000 persons and twenty-seven states and territories and would paralyze America’s railway system. The entire rail labor force of the nation would walk away from their jobs.
In 1894, Congress established the first Monday in September would be observed as Labor Day. (Federal holidays apply to all federal Government installations and territories.)
Noah Webster says this about labor:
1. Exertion of muscular strength, or bodily exertion which occasions weariness; particularly, the exertion of the limbs in occupations by which subsistence is obtained, as in agriculture and manufactures, in distinction from exertions of strength in play or amusements, which are denominated exercise, rather than labor. Toilsome work; pains; travail; any bodily exertion which is attended with fatigue. After the labors of the day, the farmer retires, and rest is sweet. Moderate labor contributes to health.
What is obtained by labor will of right be the property of him by whose labor it is gained.
From the start Labor Day was not about work and work done but about Labor Unions and the furtherance of their power. They sought and seek, not productivity and reward but, guaranteed benefits regardless of productivity.
This is the way David Raikes, a man with a union mentality, sees Labor Day 2013:
I would like to wish all working class families and citizens in the Illinois Valley a happy and safe Labor Day weekend.
Labor Day was made a national holiday to celebrate the American worker. The first Labor Day celebration in America was held Sept. 5, 1882, with a parade in New York City. More than 20,000 working-class people marched in the parade to demand an eight-hour work day. …
I would like to point out the contributions that unions have made on behalf of every working man and working woman today. Every piece of legislation and labor laws that protects all workers — both union and nonunion — were won by organized labor.
Union members in the past 100 years paid a deep and costly price for these laws. They paid with their lives, their blood and hard-earned money to win worker protection laws. So, if anyone is unsure on what to celebrate and honor on Labor Day, here are a few examples of what unions have won for all working families: Worker compensation, health benefits, pension plans, Social Security, safe job sites, 40-hour work week, eight-hour work days, public education, overtime pay and the minimum wage, just to name a few.
Still today our fight for justice continues. These hard-fought victories are under attack by well-funded anti-labor organizations who want to take away all workers’ rights and drive down wages. Unions and organized labor who fight every day to protect these victories. They do this to protect all American workers, not just their members. …
There is evidence Unions in a 70 year period, from the 1860s to World War II, made a tremendous difference in factory safety and working conditions. But those benefits Mr. Raikes lists were delivered at the cost of the working man’s wage. Individual laborers would make different decisions in each area.
Social Security is a perfect example. It is not your property, it is a program. President Roosevelt wanted it to be individual property accounts but his Socialist—dare I say Communist—advisors and Union backers would have none of it. Had Social Security (and similar programs that followed) been a system of private investment, our Federal debt might be no more than $4 or 5 billion and working individuals would have substantial individual wealth. There is no way to estimate the increase in happiness in an America the land of the truly free.
Mr. Raikes, who is from Illinois, also credited Unions with “public education.” Well, he is wrong. Unions did not create public education and had nothing to do with its general effectiveness through to the 1960’s when it went into decline coincidentally with the rise of thug teachers unions. By the mid-1980s U.S. Secretary of Education, Dr. Bill Bennett wrote to the Chicago Superintendent of Schools (CEO) charging that he was running the worst school system in America. The indignant CEO fired a letter back denying that the Chicago schools are the worst in America. “The Detroit system is worse than ours,” he defended.
If unions and the Federal Government had stayed out of public education as they should, the nation’s schools would surely not be hopeless as they are.
America’s public schools may be hopeless but we American Patriots and TEA Partiers can and must reset Labor day to honor honest work done and the men and women who move America forward with their work. That tomorrow.
To do all I can each day for as long as I can to help ensure that my grandchildren’s children have the same opportunity and Liberty my generation has enjoyed, to the glory of God.
The Patriot's Trumpet 