Posted: July 16, 2023 --- by Post Quartermaster Carl "Chris" Christophersen
FIRST PRINCIPLES - (U) CONSTITUTION FAIT ACCOMPLI
[This is added here because there are reports that Gouverneur Morris (not Governor ---that is his accrual first name) was, more so than James Madison, the actual original author of the U.S. Constitution.]
Gouverneur Morris (January 31, 1752 – November 6, 1816) was an American statesman, a Founding Father of the United States, and a signatory to the Articles of Confederation and the United States Constitution. He wrote the Preamble to the United States Constitution and has been called the "Penman of the Constitution". While most Americans still thought of themselves as citizens of their respective States, Morris advanced the idea of being a citizen of a single Union of States.
He was also one of the most outspoken opponents of slavery among those who were present at the Constitutional Congress. He represented New York in the United States Senate from 1800 to 1803. Morris was born into a wealthy landowning family in what is now New York City. He served on the committee that wrote the final draft of the United States Constitution.
Morris made 173 speeches during the Constitutional Convention, more than anyone else, considered to be the most powerful of any speech, a fact that interestingly has been ignored in our history books.
One profound excerpt from one of his speeches was "The rich will strive to establish their dominion and enslave the rest. They always did, they always will.”
This is interesting when one becomes aware that one of James Madison’s goals was to "Protect the minority on the opulent”, of which he was one, "against the majority”.
===========================
Posted: June 21, 2023 --- by Post Quartermaster Carl "Chris" Christophersen
Later today, 3-Year Trustee Thom Fermstad and is wife (Connie) leave WA State for their 4-month hiatus to their cabin in Iowa. Thom and Connie are both guardians for Thom's disabled younger brother, who lives a few miles away from that Iowa cabin, in a special home in Minneapolis. Thom has suspended our Post newsletter until he returns in September 2023. He has given me all the Birthday cards to mail out on a timely basis while he is in Iowa.
Thom is the unofficial Assistant Quartermaster. We have spent hours on bringing me up to speed on the dozens of aspects of being our Post Quartermaster. It goes without saying that Thom had to jump through many hoops to learn what he knows about being our Post Quartermaster mainly because his predecessor (Al Brede) was a criminal who refused to adequately train Thom. It is a sad state of affairs that AB betrayed his fellow veterans and fellow VFW Post 3348 members.
AB promoted a bogus rationale to sell our building (Blackburn Hall) in 2000 without authorization from Post members, reportedly making hush payoffs to gullible key Post executives, reportedly pilfering from Blackburn Hall rentals and reportedly stealing over $100,000 from the $1.2 million in sale proceeds from the two 1/2 acres we had owned that included Blackburn Hall. He then hid any records of it by creating a legally separate Foundation that gave away our money to children of veterans for college while hanging around as our Post Quartermaster for another 10 years to run out the clock on the statute of limitations.
Thom and I came into office in 2010 and soon came to grasp what AB had done to our Post. It was very difficult to gather proof of these charges since AB destroyed all records and receipts except for the 2010 Ledger that he gave to Thom which was the minimal thing he could get away with. And yet, as criminals are bent to do, AB left evidence in that 2010 Ledger regarding his "personal" 800 line to his house and his "Travel Expenses" that he charged to our Post. Thom immediately cancelled the 800 line; The Quartermaster needs no travel expenses to do the QM job.
When AB setup that Foundation, he arranged for his 2 personal lawyers (who then were friends, until they found out he had ripped off $100,000 from the Foundation) to be on the 5-member Foundation Board along with AB and 2 others, who then were former Post VFW 3348 executives. One such former Post executive was the now deceased Past Post Commander (Al Campbell) and the other, also a Past Post Commander and then the Sr. Vice Commander, refuses to talk to Thom and me about the Foundation.
The 2 Foundation lawyers claimed they were a separate legal entity and that Thom, and I, had no right to ask for anything from them. After Al Campbell had died, and after suing AB in court for ripping them off as well (they had stupidly put AB in charge of Foundation expenses), and while that court judge found AB guilty, she only awarded the Foundation lawyers $15,000 vis-a-vis the $100,000 that they had asked for since AB had stolen that much, the Judge said the lack of diligence of the 2 Foundation Lawyer was astonishing. The judge also said directly to Brede "you are a thief" but she was restricted since the statute of limitations had run out.
Shortly after that, the 2 lawyers kicked AB off the Foundation Board. Then they sent me, as Post Commander, a letter asking for 2 other names to fill the 2 empty positions on the Foundation Board. Soon after we responded by naming Thom Fermstad and me as those 2 replacements, these 2 lawyers then removed any connection to VFW Post 3348 by sending us a letter that the Foundation no longer existed as a legal entity and gave us a check for $5,000 --- what they said was all that was left over.
# # #
Posted: June 17, 2023 --- by Post Commander Carl "Chris" Christophersen
Later today, at the VFW State Convention in Spokane, after the 2023-2024 VFW State Commander is elected and installed, Tiffany Bothell will officially become the Post Commander VFW Post 3348 for 2023-2024. At the same instant, I will officially become the Post Quartermaster VFW Post 3348.
On the other hand, due to having been Post Commander for 13 years, Tiffany has asked me to work with her to mentor her, which I will do of course. Tiffany is very excited about her opportunity and wants to help VFW Post 3348 grow.
# # #
