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Conservatives welcome. Libs & RINOs go away. It's all of you destroying the society and conservatives must no longer appease you!
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Can’t leftists take one day off from being complete assholes? Seriously, it’s Thanksgiving. A small group of illegal aliens attempted to disrupt the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City and yes, this was an anti-Trump/pro-amnesty demonstration. Nothing makes people sympathetic to a cause like attempting to sabotage a beloved holiday tradition, does it?
The NY Daily News reports:
Four people protesting President Trump’s immigration policies staged a sit-down protest and briefly blocked the Thanksgiving Day Parade route before cops removed them Thursday.
Four whole people? That sounds more like a Moms Demand Action protest than an anti-Trump rally.
The protesters are young people who came into the country undocumented…
That’s the liberal media way of saying the protesters are illegal aliens.
The protesters, dressed in red T-shirts, sat down in the middle of the road on Central Park West at 70th St. and were soon ushered off by police. They were not arrested…
Yeah, it would have been a shame if illegal aliens were arrested for breaking even more laws, wouldn’t it? Also, the irony is not lost on me that lawbreakers were trying to call attention to their lawlessness by breaking the law.
The reason stated for this massive show of civil disobedience is because these illegal aliens are so-called DREAMers who were given temporary deportation relief by former president Obama. Earlier this year President Trump stopped the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which shielded hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens from getting the boot.
“We want permanent protection for undocumented youth, and more focus on the fact that all undocumented youth are suffering, whether they’re DACA or not,” said protester Piash Ahamed.
As alluded to by that last guy, these protesters don’t just want protection for DACA recipients, they want amnesty for every single illegal alien in this country:
“It was scary at the beginning. I was scared of being arrested, I was scared of losing my job. But once there, I felt empowered, having them with me, and knowing it wasn’t just for me — it was for everyone, not just the Dreamers, but all 11 million,” said Barbara Hernandez who is an illegal alien teacher from California.
“What we’re trying to remind people is that they’re the ones who shape a Democracy, and it’s their voices that shape what the future is,” said yoga instructor Hector Martinez.
Well no, actually, illegal aliens don’t have a say in shaping our democracy. We are a nation of laws and they are breaking several of them. They definitely don’t get to change our laws to accommodate their complete lack of respect for those laws. To be honest, I’m a little leery about letting people who teach yoga for a living have a say in our democracy.
The participants of this 4-person protest think it was such a roaring success that they plan on taking it on the road:
“Today was successful in that we were able to remind the immigrant community that they don’t have to live in fear,” said Martinez.
Ahamed said they’re planning to protest in Washington, D.C., in December.
They got 4 people to show up to an anti-Trump protest in the biggest most liberal city in the country. If that’s a success, what do they think failure looks like? Did anyone even notice them?
via Downtrend.com
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On Thursday, Fox News host Sean Hannity wished his over three-million Twitter followers a Happy Thanksgiving.
“To all my Deplorable friends, I am extremely thankful to each and every one of you for just being who you are, Great Americans! Happy Thanksgiving to all!!”, tweeted Hannity.
To all my Deplorable friends, I am extremely thankful to each and every one of you for just being who you are, Great Americans! Happy Thanksgiving to all!!
— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 23, 2017
Hours later, the ratings juggernaut tweeted a series of behind-the-scenes video clips of him cooking his Thanksgiving turkey.
Happy Thanksgiving. Thx Masterbuilt! http://pic.twitter.com/OgBbnALdzA
— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 23, 2017
HANNITY: “See this? This is 14.5 lbs turkey. It will be done in one hour. Now, I’m going to show you how fun this is, and it tastes better than any turkey you’ve ever had. And by the way, to Laura Ingraham who said I’d never do this myself, pay very close attention. As I know begin the process, You’ve got to do it very slowly, and you drop it in — peanut oil is in there — in one hour from now it will be paradise.”
53 Minutes later!! http://pic.twitter.com/RICfn4h92r
— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 23, 2017
“After just 53 minutes, here is our 14.5 lbs Butterball turkey — Butterball turkey frier. How many of you slaved over a hot stove for hours and hours? And this turkey is the juiciest turkey you’d ever have in your life!”, added Hannity.
53 Minutes later!! http://pic.twitter.com/RICfn4h92r
— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 23, 2017
While taking an electric carver to his Turkey, Hannity explained, “Look how juicy this is, now, if you look here, look how juicy it is. So juicy — it melts in your mouth.”
Happy Thanksgiving!! http://pic.twitter.com/hIRADGyzy2
— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) November 23, 2017
Happy Thanksgiving, Sean. Thank-you for fighting for the truth.
via The Gateway Pundit
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The Center for Food Safety cites University of Manchester researchers’ claim that a turkey and all-the-trimmings meal for eight people produces 44 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions. And the life of the bird at the center of the table contributes about 60 percent of that planet-warming gas.
The Baltimore Sun’s Meredith Cohn and Tim Wheeler wrote:
And [those figures don’t] include drinks.
Leave it to the Brits to rain on our traditions. But it was brought to my attention by the Washington-based Center for Food Safety, which wants Americans to lay off food produced by “industrial agriculture” for the sake of the planet, if not their health.
“Choosing the type of food we eat – organic versus conventional meats and veggies, makes a great difference in greenhouse gas emissions,” Debi Barker, the Center’s international director, said, adding that about 14 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions are connected to industrial agriculture methods, she contends.
“Our take on that is to empower ourselves,” Barker said. “If you’re buying organic, you’re really taking a bite out of climate [change].”
The Baltimore Sun also talked to Mike Tidwell, head of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network in Takoma Park, who said eating farm-raised meat, fish, or fowl — including turkeys — is “high-impact” when it comes to climate change.
Tidwell said he is a vegetarian because of his concerns about climate change — except on Thanksgiving.
“You caught me, with my one exception,” Tidwell said.
Meanwhile, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies reported that climate change could cause problems for another Thanksgiving stable, the pumpkin.
Yale Climate Connections reported:
There’s a good chance the pumpkin in your Thanksgiving pie came from Morton, Illinois. This pumpkin paradise produces most of the nation’s holiday squash. But dark skies may loom ahead.
Pumpkins are fair weather fruit; squash rots in squishy fields. And in 2015, record rainfall put a big dent in canned pumpkin production. It was not the first time America’s top squash crop got soaked. And Illinois State Climatologist Jim Angel says it will not be the last.
“Probably our biggest concern right now and into the future is that we’ve been trending toward wetter conditions,” Angel said.
Some 100,000 tons of pumpkins are processed in Morton each year, according to the article.
“There are still more good years than bad. But pumpkin shortages could become more common as the climate continues to change.”
via Breitbart News
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Just over a couple weeks from now, conservative Judge Roy Moore is expected to defeat radical Democrat Doug Jones in Alabama’s special election for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by now Attorney General Jeff Sessions—and that is just the beginning of a larger wave brewing against McConnell. After Jones goes down, as polls indicate he will, and Moore is elected to the Senate, McConnell faces a rash of electoral events coming up next year that are likely to further destabilize his power structure in the Senate—all while struggling this year to get anything done for President Trump’s agenda.
McConnell’s last-ditch effort to stop Moore in Alabama came over the past couple weeks after evidence-free allegations against Moore allege he engaged in sexual misconduct decades ago. Within minutes of the allegations first appearing in the Washington Post, McConnell and his legion of Senate GOP allies called for Moore to “step aside.” But, upon further review, the allegations have not held up under scrutiny and the stories of the accusers have begun crumbling with actual reporting into the details of them. Gloria Allred, the attorney for one of them, has refused in interviews on CNN and MSNBC to deny that the only piece of evidence she offered to back up her claims—a yearbook she and her client claim Moore signed years ago—is a forgery.
McConnell has gone all out to try to stop Moore.
“Senate Republicans are running out of options in their effort to replace Roy Moore as the party’s nominee in the Alabama Senate race,” Alex Bolton wrote in The Hill this past weekend describing McConnell’s failed efforts. “In the past week, they tried to pressure Moore to drop out by siding with the women who accused him of sexual misconduct. He refused. They tried to coax President Trump into calling for Moore’s ouster. Trump declined. They tried to convince the Alabama Republican Party to disqualify Moore as the nominee or to schedule a new election. Those officials said no. They tried to find a write-in candidate to challenge Moore, but their first choice, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, signaled through allies he wasn’t interested. Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), went so far as to call for a vote to expel Moore from the Senate should he win the Dec. 12 special election. Nothing has worked. Moore is still in the race.”
Instead of succeeding in ousting Moore from the race, the entire attack has backfired. Moore has shot back repeatedly at McConnell on the campaign trail, reiterating his call for McConnell to step aside as Senate Majority Leader.
“This is an effort by Mitch McConnell and his cronies to steal this election from the people of Alabama,” Moore said at a news conference in Birmingham, Alabama, last week.
Meanwhile, President Trump has come forward and called out liberal Democrat Jones’ record—and emphasized that Moore has denied the allegations against him.
Alabama is the least of McConnell’s worries now. McConnell has failed to repeal and replace Obamacare. He is already facing difficulty in passing tax cuts. Both of those agenda items his House counterparts passed with ease. More than 300 bills that have passed the House this year languish in the McConnell-run Senate. But as next year rolls around, passing agenda items may be the least of McConnell’s concerns.
In elections across the country, McConnell-aligned forces are dropping like flies. McConnell spent more than $30 million attempting to prop up appointed incumbent Sen. Luther Strange (R-AL) in the Alabama special election only to have Moore smoke him on Sept. 26 by nearly double digits. That same day, McConnell ally Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN)—the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee—announced his intent to retire next year. That cleared the way for conservative Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) to step up as the clear frontrunner for the U.S. Senate in Tennessee.
A couple weeks later, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) announced his intent to retire as well—clearing the way for former state senator Dr. Kelli Ward in Arizona. Blackburn and Ward are unlikely to just be handed their respective nominations—McConnell’s establishment forces are desperate to find alternatives to both of them—but are both likely to win.
Meanwhile, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) is likely to retire in Utah—setting the stage for a battle for control of that Senate seat between conservatives and the anti-Republican Party base potential candidate Mitt Romney. Romney, the failed GOP nominee for president in 2012, is a former governor of Massachusetts. After he lost the 2012 election, he turned on the GOP and pushed his former party to support amnesty for illegal aliens and back corporatist policies that would severely harm GOP voters. If Romney were to carpetbag into Utah to try to run for Senate there, it would spark a severe war inside the party—and lay all of Romney’s deep, dark financial history out to bare for the whole world to see.
Over in Mississippi, state Sen. Chris McDaniel—from whom McConnell allies stole the 2014 GOP nomination for Senate when McDaniel ran against Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) using underhanded tactics that backfired in 2016’s presidential primaries—is plotting a potential bid against Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS). McDaniel would be a formidable candidate against Wicker, and establishment forces close to McConnell in Washington, D.C., tell Breitbart News that the Senate Majority Leader is very worried about that race.
That then brings up Wyoming, where Blackwater founder Erik Prince is mulling a bid against incumbent Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY)—something that would likely be an easy win for Prince as Wyoming voters are some of the most conservative in the country. Then, of course, there is Nevada—where Danny Tarkanian is running against incumbent Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) in a state Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton won in 2016—causing even more worry for McConnell.
That’s not to mention other states like Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, where voters and GOP forces are aligning against McConnell en masse. Not one Senate candidate in 2018 is openly supporting McConnell remaining Majority Leader, as even top National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) recruits like Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, Ohio treasurer Josh Mandel, and Rep. Lou Barletta (R-PA) understand the toxicity McConnell brings upon the party.
In Wisconsin, the clear frontrunner businessman Kevin Nicholson—who is running far ahead of the establishment-backed state Sen. Leah Vukmir—has openly called for new leadership in the GOP-led Senate. Vukmir, who has fallen behind Nicholson, has rebuked calls from her own party’s voters for fresh leadership different than McConnell.
That all doesn’t even begin to get into the issues McConnell faces as two of his more senior members, Cochran in Mississippi and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) in Arizona, have serious health issues that could imperil their long-term service prospects. With establishment members under fire in both states–Flake has already stepped aside, and Wicker is likely to face a brutal primary challenge with little chance of victory–that presents an opportunity for conservatives who want fresh, new GOP leadership other than McConnell in the U.S. Senate to flip four seats instead of just two.
If McConnell fails to pass tax cuts this year, he is likely to face an even more unforgiving electorate next year. But even if he does pass tax cuts, the voters across America are unlikely to give him any breaks at the polls when his allies face the fire and Republicans pushing for fresh leadership win in landslides.
via Breitbart News
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Kate McClure, a 27-year-old from New Jersey, told the Inquirer that as she was traveling to Philadelphia to visit a friend, her car suddenly ran out of gasoline. McClure said she was nervous and scared, as the neighborhood where her car stopped was sketchy.
“My heart was beating out of my chest,” McClure said. “I didn’t know what the heck to do.”
After calling her boyfriend, 38-year-old Mark D’Amico, who promised to come get her, McClure said a homeless man named Johnny approached her car to help.
The Inquirer notes:
They learned he is Johnny Bobbitt Jr., 34, from the Raleigh, N.C., area. He was an ammunition technician in the Marines. His Facebook page includes photos and posts that trace a romantic relationship from its happier days to its 2014 breakup. He studied hard while training to be a paramedic and then worked long shifts, according to his Facebook posts, where a smiling Johnny stands tall in front of a medical rescue helicopter. In August 2014, Johnny posted that he aspired to be a flight nurse.
According to McClure, Johnny — who takes care of two other men under a bridge in the area — told her to lock her car doors and that he would return.
Johnny told her to sit tight and that he would spend his last $20 to buy gas a few blocks away. “He said, ‘I’ll be back. Trust me,’” McClure told the Inquirer.
Ten minutes after speaking with McClure, Johnny returned with a gallon of gas that he had bought with his last $20.
“She called me and said the guy brought her gas,” said D’Amico.
Though McClure and D’Amico continued passing through to see Johnny in Philadelphia, they still felt they could do more. That is when they decided to fundraise to help change Johnny’s life, setting up a GoFundMe page that has far exceeded the $10,000 goal the couple originally set.
Johnny told McClure that he is interested in working at the Robbinsville, New Jersey, Amazon warehouse so he can get health benefits and make a decent living.
“He knows where he’s at and he knows what he has to do to dig himself out,” D’Amico told the Inquirer. “It’s almost impossible to dig himself out if he has nobody and nothing. If we can raise enough money to set him up for a few months, where he doesn’t have to worry about where he’s going to sleep and what he’s going to eat, then he can get a job and go about his life.”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
via Breitbart News
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The increasingly politicized NFL has been increasingly less watched. Sure, the sliding ratings aren’t all because of the divisive #TakeAKnee saga — cord-cutting is certainly the biggest factor in declining numbers — but many former fans have made clear that the anthem protests have played a key role in their decision to tune out the “Social Justice League.” The NFL’s losses worsened in Week 11.
The NFL’s numbers throughout the season have followed a relatively consistent trend, falling an average of around 6 percent from the previous year. The New York Post notes that Week 11 saw a slight steepening of that decline, pushing the total average losses to 6.3 percent behind 2016. In total, the league has lost about 1 million viewers on average compared to last year, down to 14.9 million from 15.9 million.
The Post notes that “only two games had audience gains”: the Sunday Night Football game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys (up 12%) and the single-header on Fox between the New Orleans Saints and the Washington Redskins (up 10%).
One of the reasons for the slight downturn in viewers in Week 11 might be some of the continued on-and-off-the-field turmoil, including President Trump once again condemning the protests by slamming the Oakland Raiders’ Marshawn Lynch for sitting for most of the national anthem and then standing for the Mexican national anthem before the game against the New England Patriots in Azteca Stadium in Mexico City on Sunday.
“Marshawn Lynch of the NFL’s Oakland Raiders stands for the Mexican Anthem and sits down to boos for our National Anthem,” Trump tweeted Monday morning. “Great disrespect! Next time NFL should suspend him for remainder of season. Attendance and ratings way down.”
A J.D. Power poll conducted over the summer found that the number one reason fans gave for turning the channel were the national anthem protests, which escalated significantly this year after Trump called on team owners to suspend or fire “son of a b****” players who continued to kneel.
Another league controversy last week revolved around the power struggle between NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who also landed in headlines due to a 2013 video that surfaced in which Jones cracked a racial joke.
“Jennifer, congratulations on the wedding,” Jones told a bride-to-be at the Warwick Melrose Hotel in Dallas. “Now you know he’s with a black girl tonight, don’t you?”
Jones apologized Friday for the joke. “That comment was inappropriate. It’s not who I am, and I’m sorry,” he said in a statement.
H/T NY Post.
via Daily Wire
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In the name of God, amen. We whose names are under-written…Having undertaken, for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith and honor of our King and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic…constitute and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony…the 11th of November…Anno Domini 1620.
John Carver, who had chartered the Mayflower, was chosen as the first governor of the colony. His was the first signature on the Mayflower Compact. William Bradford would soon replace Carver as governor and would serve in that capacity for 31 years. On December 21, 1620, the Pilgrims settled at what would become known as Plymouth.
A replica model of the Mayflower. Created by Norbert Schnitzler.
Though their efforts were “for the glory of God,” the Pilgrims were not immune to the many hardships of an untamed America. Before long, many started dying. William Bradford’s wife Dorothy was among the casualties as she fell overboard and drowned. (Initially, while dwellings were being built, the Pilgrims lived mostly aboard the Mayflower.) Due in part to a brutal winter, dozens would die in those first few months, including 13 of 18 wives. In spite of hardships, the Pilgrims were undeterred and drew ever closer to God.
The months turned into years and saw the Pilgrims develop good relations with the local natives including Massasoit, a wise and welcoming chief of the local tribes, Samoset, and especially Tisquantum, or Squanto.
In the middle of March 1621, just as the Pilgrims were coming out of the devastatingly harsh winter, a guard alerted his comrades with the cry of “Indian coming!” Wearing only a loincloth as he walked into the Pilgrims’ camp, Samoset astonished the English onlookers with a hearty “Welcome!” Then speaking surprisingly clear English, he followed his friendly greeting with a request, “Have you got any beer?”
The Pilgrims informed their friendly guest that they were out of beer, and offered him brandy instead. After a hearty snack of brandy, biscuit, butter, cheese, pudding, and roast duck, Samoset was ready to answer questions. In spite of their difficult and deadly plight, Samoset’s words gave the Pilgrims great cause to thank God.
On March 22, 1621, Samoset returned to the Pilgrims with Squanto, who spoke even better English. Squanto’s life is an amazing tale of God’s provision that very closely resembles the account of Joseph from Genesis, chapter 37. Soon after Samoset introduced Squanto to the Pilgrims, a meeting with Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoag people, was arranged. Massasoit, Samoset, Squanto, and dozens of Wampanoag warriors traveled to Plymouth to meet the Pilgrims. With Samoset serving as the interpreter for Massasoit, the meeting was extremely fruitful. A peace treaty and a treaty of mutual aid were struck with Massasoit that would last for decades.
Massasoit and his party returned home, but Squanto remained with the Pilgrims. Personally witnessing the desperation of the Pilgrims and already having adopted their faith, Squanto took pity upon his new-found English friends and wanted to help them succeed in their New World. He taught them how to fish for eels and alewives, plant corn and pumpkins, refine maple syrup, trap beavers, hunt deer, and other skills essential to their survival.
Squanto was instrumental to the survival of the Pilgrims — so much so that, according to William Bradford, the Pilgrims considered Squanto “a special instrument sent of God for their good, beyond their expectation.” Massasoit also was an amazing example of God’s providential care for the Pilgrims.
In early April of 1621, with supplies running dangerously low, the captain of the Mayflower, Christopher Jones, decided he could remain in America no longer. On April 5, 1621, the Mayflower returned to England. As the ship disappeared over the horizon, almost certainly a nervous uneasiness came upon more than a few Pilgrims who remained in the New World. Their last ties to their former home were gone. They, perhaps, felt more alone than at any point of their amazing journey.
The summer of 1621 was beautiful and, thanks in no small measure to the help of Squanto, bountiful. Governor Bradford declared a day of public Thanksgiving to be held in October. Massasoit was invited. Surprising the Pilgrims, he showed up a day early with 90 of his tribe. To feed such a crowd, the Pilgrims would have to go deep into their food supply. However, Massasoit did not show up empty handed. He had instructed his braves to hunt for the occasion, and they came with several dressed dear and fat turkeys. The Thanksgiving turned into a three-day celebration filled with feasting and games.
The First Thanksgiving, by Jean-Léon Gérôme.
A few weeks after the first Thanksgiving and about a year after the Pilgrims arrived in the New World, the Fortune sailed into Plymouth on its way to Virginia. The main cargo was an additional 35 colonists and a charter granted from the New England Company. There was tremendous celebration over the new charter; however, unlike the Indians, the new colonists arrived virtually emptyhanded. They had no extra clothing, food, or tools. The Pilgrims would have to adjust their winter food rationing plan severely.
The winter of 1621-1622 was as difficult as feared. The Pilgrims entered what has been described as their “starving time.” Some reports reveal that at times, food rations for each person were a mere five kernels of corn per day. Miraculously, that winter not one Pilgrim died of starvation.
There was no Thanksgiving celebration in 1622. When the spring planting season of 1623 rolled around, the Pilgrims realized that to fend off further hunger and rationing, a corn harvest at least twice as large as last season was necessary. However, a lackluster work ethic prevailed among them. This was mainly because the contract entered into with their merchant sponsors in London required everything the Pilgrims produced was to go into a common store and be shared. As Rush Limbaugh has often pointed out on his radio broadcast that celebrates Thanksgiving Day, the Pilgrims were languishing under socialism.
The leaders of the colony then decreed that for the additional planting, individual plots of land would be split, and the yield could be used at the planters’ discretion. Thus, as the concept of private property was introduced, the Pilgrims seemed infused and invigorated with new hope and purpose. As Marshall and Manuel point out, “The yield that year was so abundant that the Pilgrims ended up with a surplus of corn, which they were able to use in trading that winter with northern Indians, who had not had a good growing season.”
On November 29, 1623, two years after the first Thanksgiving, Governor William Bradford made an official proclamation for a second day of Thanksgiving. In it Governor Bradford thanked God for their abundant harvest, bountiful game, protection from “the ravages of savages…and disease,” and for the “freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience.” Well over a hundred natives attended, bringing plenty of turkey and venison along with them.
The Pilgrims, and the Puritans who followed them, had the proper perspective. As Bradford would so discernibly note, “As one small candle may light a thousand, so the light kindled here has shown unto many, yea in some sort to our whole nation… We have noted these things so that you might see their worth and not negligently lose what your fathers have obtained with so much hardship.”
May the light of those first Thanksgivings never be extinguished.
Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
Trevor is the author of The Miracle and Magnificence of America
The Pilgrims (dubbed “Separatists” by the Church of England), and the Puritans who followed them, believed that the America was their spiritual destiny.
Aboard the Mayflower were 102 passengers, fewer than half of whom were of Pastor John Robinson’s Separatist flock. On November 11, 1620, after a grueling two-month voyage, they dropped anchor at Cape Cod, and heeding the advice and wisdom of their pastor, the Pilgrims drafted a compact that would embody the same principles of government upon which American democracy would rest. It read,
In the name of God, amen. We whose names are under-written…Having undertaken, for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith and honor of our King and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic…constitute and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony…the 11th of November…Anno Domini 1620.
John Carver, who had chartered the Mayflower, was chosen as the first governor of the colony. His was the first signature on the Mayflower Compact. William Bradford would soon replace Carver as governor and would serve in that capacity for 31 years. On December 21, 1620, the Pilgrims settled at what would become known as Plymouth.
A replica model of the Mayflower. Created by Norbert Schnitzler.
Though their efforts were “for the glory of God,” the Pilgrims were not immune to the many hardships of an untamed America. Before long, many started dying. William Bradford’s wife Dorothy was among the casualties as she fell overboard and drowned. (Initially, while dwellings were being built, the Pilgrims lived mostly aboard the Mayflower.) Due in part to a brutal winter, dozens would die in those first few months, including 13 of 18 wives. In spite of hardships, the Pilgrims were undeterred and drew ever closer to God.
The months turned into years and saw the Pilgrims develop good relations with the local natives including Massasoit, a wise and welcoming chief of the local tribes, Samoset, and especially Tisquantum, or Squanto.
In the middle of March 1621, just as the Pilgrims were coming out of the devastatingly harsh winter, a guard alerted his comrades with the cry of “Indian coming!” Wearing only a loincloth as he walked into the Pilgrims’ camp, Samoset astonished the English onlookers with a hearty “Welcome!” Then speaking surprisingly clear English, he followed his friendly greeting with a request, “Have you got any beer?”
The Pilgrims informed their friendly guest that they were out of beer, and offered him brandy instead. After a hearty snack of brandy, biscuit, butter, cheese, pudding, and roast duck, Samoset was ready to answer questions. In spite of their difficult and deadly plight, Samoset’s words gave the Pilgrims great cause to thank God.
On March 22, 1621, Samoset returned to the Pilgrims with Squanto, who spoke even better English. Squanto’s life is an amazing tale of God’s provision that very closely resembles the account of Joseph from Genesis, chapter 37. Soon after Samoset introduced Squanto to the Pilgrims, a meeting with Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoag people, was arranged. Massasoit, Samoset, Squanto, and dozens of Wampanoag warriors traveled to Plymouth to meet the Pilgrims. With Samoset serving as the interpreter for Massasoit, the meeting was extremely fruitful. A peace treaty and a treaty of mutual aid were struck with Massasoit that would last for decades.
Massasoit and his party returned home, but Squanto remained with the Pilgrims. Personally witnessing the desperation of the Pilgrims and already having adopted their faith, Squanto took pity upon his new-found English friends and wanted to help them succeed in their New World. He taught them how to fish for eels and alewives, plant corn and pumpkins, refine maple syrup, trap beavers, hunt deer, and other skills essential to their survival.
Squanto was instrumental to the survival of the Pilgrims — so much so that, according to William Bradford, the Pilgrims considered Squanto “a special instrument sent of God for their good, beyond their expectation.” Massasoit also was an amazing example of God’s providential care for the Pilgrims.
In early April of 1621, with supplies running dangerously low, the captain of the Mayflower, Christopher Jones, decided he could remain in America no longer. On April 5, 1621, the Mayflower returned to England. As the ship disappeared over the horizon, almost certainly a nervous uneasiness came upon more than a few Pilgrims who remained in the New World. Their last ties to their former home were gone. They, perhaps, felt more alone than at any point of their amazing journey.
The summer of 1621 was beautiful and, thanks in no small measure to the help of Squanto, bountiful. Governor Bradford declared a day of public Thanksgiving to be held in October. Massasoit was invited. Surprising the Pilgrims, he showed up a day early with 90 of his tribe. To feed such a crowd, the Pilgrims would have to go deep into their food supply. However, Massasoit did not show up empty handed. He had instructed his braves to hunt for the occasion, and they came with several dressed dear and fat turkeys. The Thanksgiving turned into a three-day celebration filled with feasting and games.
The First Thanksgiving, by Jean-Léon Gérôme.
A few weeks after the first Thanksgiving and about a year after the Pilgrims arrived in the New World, the Fortune sailed into Plymouth on its way to Virginia. The main cargo was an additional 35 colonists and a charter granted from the New England Company. There was tremendous celebration over the new charter; however, unlike the Indians, the new colonists arrived virtually emptyhanded. They had no extra clothing, food, or tools. The Pilgrims would have to adjust their winter food rationing plan severely.
The winter of 1621-1622 was as difficult as feared. The Pilgrims entered what has been described as their “starving time.” Some reports reveal that at times, food rations for each person were a mere five kernels of corn per day. Miraculously, that winter not one Pilgrim died of starvation.
There was no Thanksgiving celebration in 1622. When the spring planting season of 1623 rolled around, the Pilgrims realized that to fend off further hunger and rationing, a corn harvest at least twice as large as last season was necessary. However, a lackluster work ethic prevailed among them. This was mainly because the contract entered into with their merchant sponsors in London required everything the Pilgrims produced was to go into a common store and be shared. As Rush Limbaugh has often pointed out on his radio broadcast that celebrates Thanksgiving Day, the Pilgrims were languishing under socialism.
The leaders of the colony then decreed that for the additional planting, individual plots of land would be split, and the yield could be used at the planters’ discretion. Thus, as the concept of private property was introduced, the Pilgrims seemed infused and invigorated with new hope and purpose. As Marshall and Manuel point out, “The yield that year was so abundant that the Pilgrims ended up with a surplus of corn, which they were able to use in trading that winter with northern Indians, who had not had a good growing season.”
On November 29, 1623, two years after the first Thanksgiving, Governor William Bradford made an official proclamation for a second day of Thanksgiving. In it Governor Bradford thanked God for their abundant harvest, bountiful game, protection from “the ravages of savages…and disease,” and for the “freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience.” Well over a hundred natives attended, bringing plenty of turkey and venison along with them.
The Pilgrims, and the Puritans who followed them, had the proper perspective. As Bradford would so discernibly note, “As one small candle may light a thousand, so the light kindled here has shown unto many, yea in some sort to our whole nation… We have noted these things so that you might see their worth and not negligently lose what your fathers have obtained with so much hardship.”
May the light of those first Thanksgivings never be extinguished.
Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
Trevor is the author of The Miracle and Magnificence of America
via American Thinker
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Four protesters, including illegal alien adults with temporary DACA protection against deportation, briefly blocked the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City Thursday morning. Police quickly removed the four red-shirt wearing protesters right after they sat down in the middle of the street. The protesters were detained but not arrested. Supporters on the sidewalk chanted, “Undocumented and unafraid!” in protest of President Donald Trump reversing the unconstitutional DACA program for illegal aliens who entered the U.S. as children enacted by former President Barack Obama after Congress refused to grant them amnesty.
The protest was organized by the pro-amnesty for illegal aliens group the Seed Project, which posted photos and statements about the protest.
A Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade marching band, dressed in black and holding a banner, is blocked by illegal alien protesters.
Why did Dreamers interrupt the #MacysParade? “I am doing this to bring dignity to our undocumented community, without fear. I want to bring awareness that while some families are together, others are being torn apart.” #OurDream http://pic.twitter.com/ntqFveYold
— The Seed Project (@seedproj) November 23, 2017
“I want to see a change, all the million have permanent protection. The only way for me to see that is by taking action.” – Barbara Hernandez, disrupting #MacysParade to fight for #OurDream http://pic.twitter.com/iUTBJ5lYBW
— The Seed Project (@seedproj) November 23, 2017
Video of the protest:
Video posted by @CosechaMovement of #DACA recipients and allies disrupting #MacysThanksgvingDayParade this morning in NYC. #OurDream http://pic.twitter.com/PBEkvut8oB
— Latino Rebels (@latinorebels) November 23, 2017
Toward the end of the video as the protesters are being led away by police, supporters can be heard chanting in Spanish about ‘revolution.’
The Seed Project posted propaganda graphics about the protesters:
We are your classmates, your coworkers, and your neighbors. We are the backbones of our schools, workplaces, and communities. And right now, we need your help. https://t.co/SYSPOYdKVZ http://pic.twitter.com/E5U2yMSywk
— The Seed Project (@seedproj) November 23, 2017
“I can’t chose between my self interest and the wellbeing of my parents: it’s impossible to negate that our struggles are braided into resilience that our ancestors have had for centuries.” #OurDream http://pic.twitter.com/Ety1f0OvC9
— The Seed Project (@seedproj) November 23, 2017
“I am doing this to bring dignity to our undocumented community, without fear. I want to bring awareness that while some families are together, others are being torn apart.” #MacysParade #OurDream http://pic.twitter.com/PQmBfklbOM
— The Seed Project (@seedproj) November 23, 2017
A press release was issued about the protest.
Undocumented Youth and Allies Disrupt New York City’s Macy’s Day Parade while Calling for Permanent Protection for all Young Undocumented Immigrants in the Country
With their lives in limbo and with congressional inaction, undocumented youth take part in civil disobedience to call on community to take fight to their districts and to Capitol Hill.
New York, NY – Immigrant youth from across the country converged in New York City on Thanksgiving Day to participate in a civil disobedience action and pledge their commitment to winning permanent protection for Young Undocumented Immigrants in the Country. Four DACA recipients and allies were removed from the parade, blocking traffic by the Macy’s Day Parade.
On September 5th, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) was repealed by President Donald Trump in one of the cruelest attacks on the immigrant community. Starting on March, 5th 2018, 800,000 undocumented youth will begin to lose protection from deportation and their right to work. After years of commitment and sacrifice to gain their education, support and start their families, and become key contributors to their communities politicians are standing by while they will broken apart from their families, livelihood, and community.
“The White House & establishment politicians are responsible for this decision. They are negotiating away the power and dignity of our immigrant community. The community is being pitted against each other — children against parents” said Catalina Santiago, one of the Undocumented Youth who was arrested at the Macy’s Day Parade. “Their aim is to make undocumented youth bargaining chips for driving our parents and our community deeper into the shadows”
“Undocumented youth are refusing to put our destiny in the hands of establishment politicians. We are choosing to fight for the dignity of our entire immigrant community, and that begins with us. We are your classmates, your coworkers, and your neighbors” said Hector-Jario Martinez, one of the Undocumented Youth who was arrested at the Macy’s Day Parade. “We are not just the future of this country, but we are also the present workers that it depends on. We are millions of young undocumented students and workers who are the backbones of our schools, industries, and communities. We are calling on our community members to stand up and fight for our right to work and live in this country.”
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via The Gateway Pundit
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Read the full text of the proclamation below:
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
On Thanksgiving Day, as we have for nearly four centuries, Americans give thanks to Almighty God for our abundant blessings. We gather with the people we love to show gratitude for our freedom, for our friends and families, and for the prosperous Nation we call home.
In July 1620, more than 100 Pilgrims boarded the Mayflower, fleeing religious persecution and seeking freedom and opportunity in a new and unfamiliar place. These dauntless souls arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in the freezing cold of December 1620. They were greeted by sickness and severe weather, and quickly lost 46 of their fellow travelers. Those who endured the incredible hardship of their first year in America, however, had many reasons for gratitude. They had survived. They were free. And, with the help of the Wampanoag tribe, and a bountiful harvest, they were regaining their health and strength. In thanks to God for these blessings, the new governor of the Plymouth Colony, William Bradford, proclaimed a day of thanksgiving and gathered with the Wampanoag tribe for three days of celebration.
For the next two centuries, many individual colonies and states, primarily in the Northeast, carried on the tradition of fall Thanksgiving festivities. But each state celebrated it on a different day, and sometime on an occasional basis. It was not until 1863 that the holiday was celebrated on one day, nationwide. In the aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg, of one of the bloodiest battles of our Nation’s Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed that the country would set aside one day to remember its many blessings. “In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity,” President Lincoln proclaimed, we recall the “bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come.” As President Lincoln recognized: “No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.”
Today, we continue to celebrate Thanksgiving with a grateful and charitable spirit. When we open our hearts and extend our hands to those in need, we show humility for the bountiful gifts we have received. In the aftermath of a succession of tragedies that have stunned and shocked our Nation — Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria; the wildfires that ravaged the West; and, the horrific acts of violence and terror in Las Vegas, New York City, and Sutherland Springs — we have witnessed the generous nature of the American people. In the midst of heartache and turmoil, we are grateful for the swift action of the first responders, law enforcement personnel, military and medical professionals, volunteers, and everyday heroes who embodied our infinite capacity to extend compassion and humanity to our fellow man. As we mourn these painful events, we are ever confident that the perseverance and optimism of the American people will prevail.
We can see, in the courageous Pilgrims who stood on Plymouth Rock in new land, the intrepidness that lies at the core of our American spirit. Just as the Pilgrims did, today Americans stand strong, willing to fight for their families and their futures, to uphold our values, and to confront any challenge.
This Thanksgiving, in addition to rejoicing in precious time spent with loved ones, let us find ways to serve and encourage each other in both word and deed. We also offer a special word of thanks for the brave men and women of our Armed Forces, many of whom must celebrate this holiday separated from the ones for whom they are most thankful. As one people, we seek God’s protection, guidance, and wisdom, as we stand humbled by the abundance of our great Nation and the blessings of freedom, family, and faith.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Thursday, November 23, 2017, as a National Day of Thanksgiving. I encourage all Americans to gather, in homes and places of worship, to offer a prayer of thanks to God for our many blessings.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this seventeenth day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand seventeen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-second.
DONALD J. TRUMP
via Breitbart News
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