Liberty and Prosperity

OCT 2, 2026 Brian Fitzherbert WOND Radio

College Sports and Gambling: The hosts discuss the shifting landscape of college athletics, expressing frustration that student athletes are treated and paid like professionals. They argue that universities participating in these commercialized sports should lose their tax-exempt status, while also criticizing state-promoted gambling, sin taxes, and the societal costs of subsidizing addictive behaviors.

Political Accountability and Universal School Choice: The conversation shifts to politics and legislation, focusing on why policies like universal school choice often stall. They criticize legislative leadership for avoiding floor votes on key bills out of concern for their members' political survival, and they advocate for term limits for politicians, staff, and career bureaucrats.

Civic Engagement and Technology: The speakers urge citizens to leverage AI tools to analyze local meeting minutes, track voting patterns, and see through political rhetoric. They also emphasize the need for elected officials to hold accessible forums—such as town halls and community barbecues—and express concern over low voter turnout in local and midterm elections.

Defense Production and Industry Expansion: In closing, they discuss commercial industries—particularly automotive manufacturers—stepping in to produce defense-related parts and equipment, noting that these non-traditional suppliers are improving supply chain efficiency and reducing lead times compared to traditional aerospace and defense contractors.

FROM SETH GROSSMAN INTERVIEW ON HARRY HURLEY RADIO PROGRAM:

WPG Talk Radio 95.5 FM and 1450AM near Atlantic City on September 30, 2026

Harry Hurley:  All right, citizen Seth Grossman is here, because while everybody's thinking that the flooding happens because of the ocean, there are those who believe it's happening at the back bay. So that the bulkheads, not the dunes, are your more rightful protection, if you will.

Seth Grossman:  People who say that sand dunes protected Atlantic City and Margate from more severe flooding during the storm last weekend remind me of my Dad telling me about when he was stationed in Atlantic City for a few weeks during the early days of World War II. He told me he had to guard the boiler room of the St. Charles Hotel at New Jersey Avenue and the Boardwalk with a wooden rifle. My Dad told me that in 1942, the army did not have enough real rifles to go around. So I said, "Dad, Why did they give you a wooden rifle? What good was it?" My Dad smiled and said, "It worked just fine! The Germans never came near the place!"

I think of my Dad's wooden rifle when people tell me how we needed sand dunes to protect beach towns like Atlantic City and Margate from ocean flooding last weekend.

Let's start by talking about how we those wooden bulkheads and concrete seawalls along the beach and Boardwalk from the Inlet in Atlantic City all the way down to Longport.

Above Image:  Margate, NJ Beach and Elephant Shortly After 1944 Hurricane.

In 1944, we had a devastating hurricane in Atlantic City. It wiped out the old Heinz Pier, the Margate Boardwalk, and it did a lot of damage all over the island.

Harry Hurley: Yep.

Seth Grossman: And in response to that, Atlantic City—with no federal aid, and no state aid other than money from a new local luxury tax--built those wooden bulkheads and concrete seawalls all along the Boardwalk. And of course, it wasn't just that Hurricane of 1944. Before that, the old-timers would talk about the northeaster of 1938, which knocked out the Brigantine Bridge. That is how a guy called Captain Starn made a fortune taking people back and forth from Brigantine. And that's how he got the money to do a lot of his improvements at the Captain Starn's Restaurant that a lot of us Boomers went to growing up.

Above Image: Margate NJ Beach and Elephant Shortly After "Superstorm Sandy" in 2012. There were no sand dunes at the time and little, if any flooding from the ocean.

We grew up with those wooden bulkheads all along the ocean; they were normal. And in some street ends, you actually had concrete seawalls. That wooden bulkhead stopped basically the water from coming up from the ocean in 1962. Almost all the flooding came from the back bay.

And we went through this with Hurricane Sandy in 2012. When you look at the photographs, you'll see right by the Margate elephant, that same wooden bulkhead that was built in Atlantic City by the Boardwalk was also built through Ventnor, Margate, and Longport. And that bulkhead, during Hurricane Sandy 2012, stopped the flooding.

Host: We went away from what worked, and we put something in that doesn't work.

Seth Grossman: Yes. And you don't have to be an expert in engineering to watch how waves break on the beach during ocean storms. When you had a wide, flat beach, you would see that the waves would break 50 yards away from where the bulkhead was, and just the water would come up, and the bulkhead would stop the water. If you look at the photographs of the Margate elephant, you'll see that the wooden bulkheads stopped the water, and the only flooding that took place during Sandy down in this area was from the back bay.

So why did we get in with this nonsense with the sand dunes? I was on City Council in Atlantic City during the 1980s when the nonsense started. Later, as a private lawyer, I represented the owner of one of the piers in Atlantic City. At that time, officials from Federal Emergency Management and the State Department of Environmental Protection were trying to get the owners of oceanfront properties into giving them easements. They wanted these beach front property owners to basically turn their rights to the beach over to the Army Corps of Engineers.  This was insanity. Who would want the government to block their view of the ocean and pleasant sea breezes with ugly piles of sand!

And then I realized what the whole dune thing was about. It was like a marriage of convenience between some very crazy people and some very corrupt people. First, you had these woke environmentalists who didn't want humans, especially wealthy, successful humans to enjoy ocean views and sea breezes, and luxury lifestyles. They wanted nobody on the beach but nature.  If they had their way, the only creatures on the beach would be seagulls, piping plovers, greenheads, mosquitos and other natural wildlife. Of course, these woke environmentalists were also hypocrites.   They also wanted so-called "public access" so that homeless bums could go through beachfront private property any time they wanted.and the wildlife. They wanted to make the beaches unattractive and uninhabitable. They didn't want people enjoying ocean views.

So these woke environmentalists teamed up with the corrupt sand lobby.  The sand lobby was the Army Corps of Engineers and a bunch of big contractors who cared only about making millions of dollars pumping sand from one place to another.

And sea breezes and ocean views were never just for rich people. The whole Boardwalk was built in the first place so that people could walk on a boardwalk and enjoy a view of the ocean without tracking sand onto the trains that would take them back to Philadelphia. That's why Mr. Boardman invented the Boardwalk. And now you're walking on a boardwalk in Atlantic City, you can't even see the ocean, you can no longer feel the breezes.

And I remember screaming about all this when I saw this coming 30 years ago on City Council and as an attorney. This sand dune lobby was a combination of the Army Corps of Engineers—which I found out was a bunch of very political people, a bunch of big contractors and their unions, together with these woke environmentalists.

The Army Corps of Engineers never said that sand dunes were a more efficient or effective way to protect beachfront towns than wooden bulkheads or concrete seawalls.

They simply said, "If you woke politicians will give us all the funding we want if we build sand dunes instead of bulkheads and seawalls, we will build what you want and spend the money you way you want--as long as you give us all the money we want.

That's where this nonsense started. And one of the pure, insane things they did—so basically, as I see it, the whole thing is hokey, it's a racket, and we local people need to stand up and push back. We need to say, what we Atlantic City local people came up with after the hurricane of 1944 worked perfectly for more than 80 years, and that's all we need!

Host: Where we're visiting with citizen Seth Grossman, was it the Army Corps of Engineers—

Seth Grossman: No, it wasn't their idea. They just went along with it to get the funding.

Harry Hurley: Whose idea was it?

Seth Grossman: The idea was the woke environmental people who just hate cars—the same people who came up with the so-called "road diet," where you take a good road with two lanes in each direction, and then you say if you want to get federal money you have to turn it into one lane in each direction so you have a constant traffic jam, because those people hate cars.  They are the same people who said that if we built a natural gas pipeline under Route 49 to keep the electric power plant in Marmora going, we would destroy the Pinelands and no longer have drinking water. They want us all to go back to riding bicycles, freezing in the winter and dying of heat in the summer.

Yes, we had sand dunes when Atlantic City was created. And then in 1854, Jonathan Pitney and Sam Richards built their famous "railroad to nowhere" to an empty sand island, and they build a hotel there, and they say, "We're going to create a brand-new resort, and we're going to call it Atlantic City."

That first summer was a disaster for two reasons. Number one, of course, the people, as soon as they get off the train, they wanted to see the ocean, they walked on the beach, they tracked the sand into the fancy hotel, into the railroad cars. They were ruining the upholstery of the fancy furniture, ruining the carpeting.  Jonathan Pitney and Sam Richards said, "We got to do something about it."

That was when a small hotel owner named Jacob Keim and a railroad conductor named Alexander Boardman came up with the idea of building a wooden walkway over the sand.  That became the Boardwalk. It was built so people could enjoy ocean views and ocean breezes without tracking sand into the trains and the hotels.

Harry Hurley: Right.

Seth Grossman: The second problem were the greenheads. The greenheads and the bugs and the mosquitoes were so awful, it threatened to destroy the entire project. There were greenheads because there were natural sand dunes all over the island at the time. Those natural sand dunes stopped rain and tide water from draining.  There were puddles all over the island that were breeding grounds for greenheads and mosquitos.

So that winter, they completely leveled the dunes. And the following summer: no greenheads, no mosquitoes, no bugs, and Atlantic City thrived from that point on.

Above Image:  1882 Railroad Schedule Pamphlet Showing Atlantic City Beach Without Dunes.

Above Image:  1945 Railroad Poster Showing Atlantic City Beach Without Dunes.

So after that, every single resort that was built by the ocean, the first thing they did was level the dunes. And you could look at the photographs of Atlantic City from 1870, 1890, 1910, 1920, 1950, 1980: flat sand, everybody enjoying themselves, bulkheads protecting the hotels and the streets and the re

Brian Fitzherbert edited segment - WOND - 9-25-26

https://youtu.be/_n5dtHlJ2XY?si=UKw0Crdz0tqKRBku

We have a crisis with dangerous teenage criminals. And political leaders who don't even talk about it.

Republican Socialism in Atlantic City is as bad as "Democratic Socialism" in New York.

Crowded airports are a sign of success. Look how the government ruined trains and buses!

Jewish Harvest Holiday of Sukkoth (Tabernacles): Full Moon. High Tides. Bad Storm and Coastal Floods Today.

Vote now! Request a ballot from the County Clerk.

Republicans are doing a great job of running Atlantic County. However, its Republican state legislators are as out of touch and socialist as any Democrat!

SETH GROSSMAN:  The Republican Party has great officials and candidates here in Atlantic County. Jeff Van Drew is one of the best member of Congress in the country. Joe O'Donoghue is doing a great job as sheriff, and Joe Giralo is the best county clerk we've had in years. Denny Levinson, and Republican commissioners, formerly freeholders like John Risley and June Byrnes are keeping taxes and spending under control in county government, however....

Last Wednesday, Atlantic County's Republican State Senator Vince Polistina spoke for a full hour during his monthly interview on the Harry Hurley radio program. (WPGTalkRadio 95.5FM). 

He didn't mention the four Atlantic City teenagers who stole an SUV in Longport and killed people in Mays Landing five weeks ago. Or how they had long criminal records and were arrested for stealing another car just two months before!

Five weeks ago, on Saturday, August 22, four teenagers from Atlantic City stole a Mercedes SUV G Wagon in Longport. They refused to stop for police and drove through Somers Point and Egg Harbor Township to Mays Landing.  They then drove at a high rate of speed in the wrong lane into oncoming traffic. They smashed head on into a car carrying  Robert Barr and Alice Stilwell of Egg Harbor Township and killed them instantly.

At least one of those teenagers had a long criminal record. He had also been arrested in connection with the theft of another car several months before. However, he was released to commit further crimes--including one that caused two people to die.

That story was posted on our website last September 5. Click this link:  9.5.26 Seth Grossman WPG Radio - Liberty and Prosperity

And it now looks like nobody will be punished for causing those deaths. Police are now saying they don't know which of the four teenagers was behind the wheel when the fatal collision took place. One was 18 years old, and the others were younger.  It seems likely that a juvenile under the age of 18 will be blamed. That way, nobody will be punished as an adult for killing two people. 

This is a crisis. Dozens of dangerous teenage criminals in Atlantic County are roaming free because there is only one juvenile jail in Atlantic County, and it holds only 26 inmates. Also, New Jersey laws do not require that dangerous teenage criminals be kept in jail until they are no longer dangerous. 

Laws must be changed. New juvenile jails must be built. And we must also develop long term solutions.  We need to change welfare programs and public schools that enable and promote a culture of crime and violence.  We should even consider raising these children in orphanages instead of fatherless homes. However, nothing will change if our state legislators won't talk about solutions.

Above Image: Republicans and Democrats unite to bail out the failed Sheraton Hotel in Atlantic City--a perfect example of Republican Socialism.

Republican Socialism in Atlantic City is as bad as Democratic Socialism in New York!

State Senator Vince Polistina instead spoke of bringing "collective" development and government "partnerships" to Atlantic City.

Polistina said that Atlantic City's future depends on getting AtlantiCare to build a bigger hospital and for Stockton to run a bigger college. And to pay for all this, we need New Jersey government, through its EDA or Economic Development Authority, to borrow and spend a lot more money.  How is this different from Zohran Mamdani's "Democratic Socialism" in New York?

As with all socialism, this "Republican Socialism" also fails when it runs out of other people's money!

The latest example is that Sheraton Hotel in the middle of Atlantic City.  That hotel is a failure. So now all the politicians, Republicans and Democrats are talking about how they can have us pay more in taxes to save it.

Why is the Sheraton Hotel in Atlantic City going out of business?  As realtors love to say, the three most important things in real estate are #1 location. #2 location, and #3 location.  The Sheraton Hotel by the Convention Center in Atlantic City is a failure because was built in an awful location in the middle of nowhere.  Yet because it is still inside Atlantic City, its hotel and restaurant customers still have to pay all of the extra Atlantic City "luxury" taxes that are charged in the casinos.  Why?

Back in the 1980s, Republican State Senator Bill Gormley got a federal government grant to build a $5 million train station there.  That is why we built a new train station in the middle of nowhere. Gormley So the government built this train station in the middle of nowhere, and that was a failure. Then Gormly got the state to borrow about $268 million to build a new convention center in the middle of nowhere in addition to the mostly empty Convention Hall on the Boardwalk.

Another part of that deal was the new Sheraton Hotel. It was built right next to the new train station and convention center in the middle of nowhere.

Senator Bill Gormley and other state politicians then tried to fix the problem by building a new "corridor.".  They said, "We have to somehow connect this failing  train station and the convention center, and the Sheraton Hotel to the Boardwalk and the casinos.  What can we do?"

First they spend lots of money on free jitneys to take people to and from other parts of town. Then they said, "Let's borrow and spend a few hundred million dollars , give out a bunch of tax breaks and build a "Corridor "to connect them.  And so they then built the Tangier Outlets and a bunch of restaurants.  Of course that was another big failure, and most of them are now closed.

And how did we pay for them?  Well, Bill Gormley came up with something absolutely brilliant.  At that time, all of the Atlantic City casinos were giving absolute free parking to anyone who parked in their garages.  And this was a big boom to dozens of stores and restaurants all over Atlantic City.

But Bill Gormley put an end to all that.  He came up with a $2 tax on free parking!  That killed dozens of stores and restaurants all along Atlantic and Pacific Avenues.

This is a classic description of socialism. This is where the economy is run by politicians. This where failures get rich if they are backed by politicians and where people who succeed are taxed out of business to pay for the failures.

So its hard for Republicans to complain about Zoran Mamdani and his Democratic Socialism when they give us the mess of corruption and incompetence called Republican Socialism!

So what should we do with the Sheraton Hotel in Atlantic City?  At some point, you can't tax successful businesses to bail out failures without causing real damage to the economy.  You can't expect government to do the things its supposed to do if it has to pay for so many things it has no business doing!

As former astronaut and former Eastern Airlines CEO Frank Borman said, "Capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without Hell!"

We need to let failures fail, so that successes can succeed.  If you put all this stuff up for auction, somebody will buy it and somebody will do something with it.  Years ago, somebody actually made money with the Margate Elephant!

Or here's an idea.  Let's set up museums demonstrating the failure of socialism.  Or monuments to failed socialism so these failures can at least teach some lessons.  We can use Atlantic City's failed baseball stadium, the train station, two failed convention centers and the Sheraton Hotel!

Seth Grossman at Atlantic City International Airport (ACY) Last May. After Spirit Shut Down. Before Most Breeze and Allegiant Flights Began.

Crowded airports are a sign of success! Don't ask government to fix them! Use ACY and other smaller airports.

I understand the stress and inconvenience John DeMasi went through flying from Philadelphia to Nashville last week.  First his charter flight from Philadelphia was delayed three hours.  Then, on the way back, his flight got diverted when the air traffic control equipment failed in Philadelphia.

However, overcrowded airports are a sign of success. It is a sign that airplane flights are cheap and convenient and more people than ever are flying where they want to go. We don't want the government to mess it up.

First, remember that there are usually easy work-arounds. Avoid big, overcrowded airports like Philadelphia, Newark, and Chicago. Fly out of smaller airports. Use the Breeze flights to West Palm Beach or the Allegiant flights to Punta Gorda. Or use Frontier Airlines and fly out of Bordentown.

Remember how people the government ruined trains and buses.  Just over a hundred years ago, America had the fastest, cheapest and most comfortable railroad service in the world.

We also used to have fast and convenient bus service in New Jersey.  Now, hardly anyone uses them.

That's because the federal government started taking over and controlling the railroads in the early 1900s with so-called Progressive Democrats like Woodrow Wilson.  And then state government ruined most bus service here in New Jersey during the 1960s.

Above Image: Old City Hall and Public Service Bus Station Near Tennessee Avenue in Atlantic City around 1968. Before then,...

BRIAN FITZHERBERT - TALKING WITH ANNE. WOND Radio.

9-18-26

Brian doesn’t enter broadcast until about the 43 minute mark. It is preceded by Robert Kennedy speech the other night at midterm convention. Brian rightly comments on RFK’s speech so we left the speech in for context, and to help give it some more reach. It was a heckuva speech.

Brian Fitzherbert, President of Liberty and Prosperity responds to RFK speech at Republican convention.

Image: Photograph of a traditional Jew sounding the shofar during the 1930s. A shofar is a ram's horn used as a trumpet to warn of danger or to announce an assembly.

This recorded message was played on the John DeMasi program, Talk with a Purpose on Saturday, September 12, 2026 instead of the regular interview with Seth Grossman at 9:10am.

John DeMasi's program is heard on WPG Talk Radio from 9am to Noon Saturdays, and 5pm to 8pm Sundays on 95.5 FM and 1450AM radio near Atlantic City, New Jersey and on wpgtalkradiocom online.

I’m Seth Grossman, speaking for Liberty and Prosperity. I am recording this message because this weekend, starting on sundown of Friday, September 11, is the two-day Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

I am Jewish and I observe the "high holiday." That is why I will not be at the Liberty and Prosperity breakfast or on the radio this weekend. I instead will be in synagogue with my family.

The Rosh Hashanah holiday is described in the books of Leviticus and Numbers in the Old Testament of the Bible. However, there it is not called Rosh Hashanah, which means new year. It is instead described as Yom Teruah, the day for the sounding of the Shofar. When the Temple was standing in Jerusalem, it was a day when a ram's horn was sounded calling on all Jews to assemble around the Temple. There they gave animals to the priests to be slaughtered and sacrificed at the Temple. They also sang psalms and praised God.

The ram's horn was also traditionally sounded to warn Jews of approaching danger or to assemble for war.

Rosh Hashanah, together with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement that comes ten days later, were also days when Jews also confessed their sins and prayed to God for forgiveness.

Of course, God can only forgive sins we commit against God. He cannot forgive sins we commit against other people or against ourselves.

The Jewish "high holidays" of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are days of reflection. We think of how we hurt others during the past year. We ask them for forgiveness and think of ways we can behave better next year.

We also think of the mistakes we made that caused harm to ourselves . We think of how we can grow and improve ourselves to avoid those mistakes in the year ahead.

That is why Jews don’t say "Happy New Year" for Rosh Hashanah. We usually say "L’Shanah Tova", which is short for the Hebrew words for "May you be written for a good year."

The Books of Exodus and Deuteronomy in the Old Testament of the Bible call Jews the “Chosen People.”  But we were not chosen to be superior to anyone. God did not choose us to rule over anyone else. We were chosen to live by a set of 613 laws and rules that are written in the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament of the Bible.

At Mount Sinai, the freed Hebrew slaves made a covenant, or contract with God. According to that contract, Jews agreed to live by God’s laws, and God agreed to let us live safe and comfortable lives in a "Promised Land" of Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Last year I wrote a book called 1676 Project, How New Jersey Shaped America. In it, I explain how New Jersey established in 1676 in much the same way.

Quakers, who were persecuted in England, came to Salem and Burlington here in South Jersey to create their own commonwealth. It was also based on the rules and values set forth in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. The most fundamental law was the Christian Golden Rule of "Our Blessed Savior":  "Do unto others as you would have others do and to you." The Jewish Rabbi Hillel, who studied and taught in Judea a few years earlier summarized Jewish law in a similar way.

Jews and Israel thrived when they kept their covenant and followed those laws. They suffered when they did not.  The same can be said about America.

There is an old Jewish saying that goes, “What happens to the world, happens to the Jews first.”

Jews are going through difficult times right now. Not all, but many of our problems were created by our own sins.

There are 8 billion people in the world. There are 2.6 billion Christians, 2 billion Muslims, and 1 billion Hindus.   There are only 15 million Jews. We are only 0.2% of the world's population. About 7 million Jews in Israel and about 6 million in America.

However, Jews are rapidly disappearing in America. You see that here in Atlantic City.  When I grew up here in the 1960s, we had about 11 vibrant Synagogues. We had Beth El, Beth Israel, and Beth Jacob in the Inlet, We had Rodef Sholem and a Sephardic (Spanish and Hebrew language) synagogue for Jews from Syria and Lebanon on Pacific Avenue in midtown.  We had the Chelsea Synagogue, in Chelsea, Beth Judah in Ventnor, and three synagogues in Margate. All of these synagogues had Hebrew schools and Sunday schools with lots of kids.

Now we have only a handful of synagogues. There are hardly any kids in Hebrew schools. Most of their members are aging Boomers like me.  Most struggle to get a minyon of ten people at most services—even by counting women.

This is all a direct result of ignoring many important Bible commandments, starting with Commandment Number One:  Get married and have children.

And of course, there is the vital commandment that parents "diligently" teach their children of the laws our ancestors were given at Mount Sinai and of God's miracles that brought them there.

Sadly, most churches in the area are having the same problems.  That is why America is also in decline.

However, the situation is not hopeless. There is still time to teach ourselves the Jewish and Christian values that our parents and grandparents lived by.

There is still time to understand that these values are based on eternal truths that made lives better for millions of people for thousands of years.

The Ten Commandments. Love your neighbor as yourself. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

These values are what led to the American idea that we are all created equal and are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

These values brought 300 years of liberty and prosperity to America starting in 1676.

It is not too late. But we must understand them and use the years we have left to start teaching them to our children and grandchildren now.

LibertyAndProsperity.com is a tax-exempt, non-political education organization of roughly 200 citizens who mostly live near Atlantic City, New Jersey.  We formed this group in 2003. We volunteer our time and money to maintain this website. We do our best to post accurate information. However, we admit we make mistakes from time to time.  If you see any mistakes or inaccurate, misleading, outdated, or incomplete information in this or any of our posts, please let us know. We will do our best to correct the problem as soon as possible. Please email us at [email protected] or telephone (609) 927-7333.

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"Brian Fitzherbert, president of Liberty and Prosperity, joins Anne Baker on the radio for 'Fitzherbert Friday. Today, Brian and Anne discuss the financial drain of illegal immigration on average NJ citizens and the unaffordable cost of state government which continues to pile up. They are also joined by NJ assemblyman Paul Kanitra, who's been very vocal about the crazy legislation coming out of Trenton from Democrats."

Seth Grossman Interview with Harry Hurley on September 2, 2026. WPGTalkRadio 95.5FM and 1450AM.

Se

Above Image: Monument to Richard Somers near Shore Road and New Jersey Avenue in Somers Point, New Jersey. An identical monument stands in Somers, New York, a town named after Richard Somers.

HARRY HURLEY: We visit with Seth Grossman this morning. Seth, I believe that you have done more to keep the Richard Somers flame alive than anyone I can think of.

SETH GROSSMAN: Thank you very much. And all this stuff, of course, is posted at libertyandprosperity.com.  And if you want to get our emails about this and the other topics, just contact us - at [email protected].

As you pointed out, the story - of Richard Somers is remarkable. I first heard it in 2004, 200 years after Richard Somers and the entire crew of his ship Intrepid were killed in Tripoli on September 4, 1804.

Hearing that story three years after the attacks on September 11 2001, had a profound impact on me. I realized then that if Americans had remembered the story of Richard Somers, and the 12 other Americans on his ship who died in 1804, and who they fought and why they had to fight them, 3,000 Americans would not have been murdered on September 11, 2001, and we would not need ceremonies to remember them.

I learned a lot at that ceremony to remember Richard Somers in 2004. I assumed it would be a yearly event. But to my surprise, nothing was planned for September of 2005. 

And so I got together with Sally Hastings, the president of the Somers Point Historical Society. We then put together programs to remember Richard Somers every September 4 for many years.

Then, I realized that Richard Somers was not just a forgotten local hero who should be remembered. I realized then that a whole lot more was going on.

Richard Somers was probably the most significant national American hero who came from this area. He should be remembered.  And for a long time I could not understand why our community had forgotten him.

Then I realized that you cannot remember Richard Somers without telling his story. And that story can no longer be told in America.

HARRY HURLEY:  There you go. It was purposeful.

SETH GROSSMAN:  Yes it was purposeful. Richard Somers was one of the first great Americans to be cancelled.

HARRY HURLEY: Wow.

SETH GROSSMAN: And When I realized that, I was determined to do whatever I could to make sure that Richard Somers was remembered, and that his story would be told.

The Richard Somers story reminds us that America was at war with Islam more than 200 years ago. Actually, America was not at war with Islam. Islam was at war with us.

And when we told the story of Richard Somers, and how Islam justified attacks on peaceful Americans and how we had to fight a war to stop them, cities like Somers Point and schools, and colleges and business association knew that it was bad for business if they were in any way involved in telling the story of Richard Somers.

HARRY HURLEY: Pay the tribute, keep quiet, and we'll leave you alone.

SETH GROSSMAN: Yes. We learned nothing. And I'd like to take this a step further. The Richard Somers story leads us to understand the people who murdered 3,000 Americans on September 11, 2001 and why they did it.

The details of that story and what happened afterwards explain what led to the murder of  3,000 Americans on September 11, 2001.

So let's tell that story.  First, I'd like to thank Bob and Cindy Fertsch for publishing that story in last week's (August 27, 2026) edition of Shore Local Magazine. It's distributed free throughout the shore towns of South Jersey.  Last week's edition had the picture of the blue and yellow beach umbrella on the front cover. The Richard Somers story is on Page 8.

Click below link: Magazine 8/27/2026 edition:

Use this week's Shore Local to share the story of Richard Somers. - Liberty and Prosperity

  The story begins on the night of September 4, 1804. A small merchant ship sails alone into the harbor of Tripoli in North Africa. It carries no cargo. It is instead loaded with bombs and explosives. Its captain is 26-year-old Richard Somers from Somers Point, New Jersey. He and all 12 members of his crew know they have very little chance of coming back alive. Yet they all volunteered for this mission.

For three years, they had been at war with fanatic sea fighters who were called Barbary pirates. However, these Barbary sea-fighters were not pirates at all.  Pirates were criminals. These Barbary sea-fighters were legally at war with America. They were what we call privateers in English - or corsairs in French. - They were protected by letters of marque and reprisal. They were legally allowed to attack and rob ships and coastal towns of any enemy nation--as long as they share the booty with - the ruler or government that hired them. Pirates were tried and executed as criminals when they were captured. Privateers, or corsairs in French, were supposed to be held as prisoners of war, and released at the end of the war. 

When privateers came back to their home port with their booty, the government would be put everything that was taken up for sale at a public auction. The government would get its share. The owners of the ship, the captain, and the crew would get the rest. 

For privateers from the Barbary cities of  North Africa, the cities of Tangier, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli, the most valuable booty to be auctioned off were people. The passengers and crew of the captured ships, the people who lived in coastal villages were auctioned off and sold as slaves.

The whole economy of North Africa at that time was based on slavery. The city of Algiers in what is now Algeria had a population of a 100,000 - people, and 25,000 of them were slaves. 

This started long before The United States existed. It began more than 1200 years ago, during the 800s. That was when Arabs conquered the Roman cities of Tangier, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli in North Africa. Those cities became known as the Barbary Kingdoms. They would attack and rob as many coastal towns and villages in Christian Europe they could--and every ship or fishing boat from there that they could catch. 

After a few hundred years, French and Italian Crusaders stopped them for a while. But then, during the 1500s, the Ottoman Turks came in. They made the so-called Barbary Pirates a lot stronger. The raids and attacks got worse. They attacked ships and coastal towns as far away as Iceland and Ireland. During this time, They captured more than a million Europeans and sold them as slaves in North Africa. 

Above Image: Pope Pius V

Then, in 1560, Pope Pius V formed a "Holy League" of European Christian nations to fight back.

Now, as I'm telling you this story of Richards Somers, and explaining these events that came before, I need to ask you.  Do you remember learning any of this in high school?  Or in college?

HARRY HURLEY: This was not in our curriculum. It ignored that history. As far as I know, you know, you - had the Greeks, you had the Romans. Yeah. - Bill Gussie taught about the Barbary pirates. but not those details.

SETH GROSSMAN: It was the same with me. We learned about the Greeks and the Roman Empire. We were taught that German barbarians from Europe invaded from the North and destroyed the Roman Empire. Then we had Middle Ages and the Crusades.

But they never told us how half of the Romand Empire became Muslim. They never explained how all of the Middle East, Egypt and North Africa changed from being lands of Greek and Latin-speaking Christians to Arabic speaking Muslims. We didn't learn any of that stuff.

But - anyway, Europe fought back. And for two hundred - years, the Christians of Europe and the Turks and Arabs of the Middle East and North Africa reached a standoff.  They all got tired of fighting endless wars against each other.

In Europe, Catholics and Protestants were starting to fight each other. There were wars between England and Spain. The Barbary Kingdoms were losing money in their wars against Europeans.

So they all worked out a deal. The Barbary Kingdoms told European Christians, we will stop raiding your villages - and your ships. We will stop enslaving Europeans.  Just pay us money and we'll leave you alone.

By the way, at this time, the Barbary Kingdoms were already finding that it was much easier and cheaper to cross the Sahara Desert and capture and buy Black Africans as slaves than to fight wars with Europeans.

So for the next two hundred years, during the 1600s and 1700s, Spain, Portugal, England, and France, all paid money to the Barbary Kingdoms.  And they were all left alone. 

And because we Americans were part of the British Empire, Americans could sail anywhere in the world without being attacked because we were protected by the British bribes, which they called tribute. 

And then on July 4, 1776, we Americans declare our independence.  After seven years of war, in 1783, the world recognizes the United States as an independent nation. Our ships continue to sail all over the world. However, now our ships fly a new flag. They fly the stars and stripes instead of the British flag, the Union Jack. - And instantly, we find out that the Barbary Kingdoms read the newspaper. They immediately started, attacking our ships, robbing our people, and selling them into slavery.  Brian Kilmeade described this in detail in his book Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates.

And so when we asked the Europeans, "Well, - what should we do? We've got to get together and fight back!" But we were instead told "Do what we're doing. - Just pay them, and they'll leave you alone."

We Americans did that for about ten years. About 10% of the federal budget of the United States was spent on tribute and bribes to these Barbary Kingdoms.

However, we had a problem. Because America was such a peaceful nation, we had no navy, and the Barbary Kingdoms knew it. So,...

9.5.26 Seth Grossman WPG Radio.

Trump careless talk is destroying Republican Party.

Richard Somers and 1801 Barbary War led to the September 11 attacks.

Both Democrats and Republicans are ignoring violent crime.

Socialists are the worst antisemites.

SETH GROSSMAN:  I prefer not talking about President Trump or any national issues that are all over Fox news and  national TV. I'd rather use this time to talk about the important state and local issues that nobody else is talking about.

However, you talked a lot about President Trump in your monologue, so I have to respond. Yes, Donald Trump hurts a lot of people when he does stuff like this, and there is no reason for it.

When Trump posts on social media that he is the greatest President in American history. When he says "I'm thinking about running for a third term." or "I'm going to rename Lake Ontario, and call it "Lake America.", Trump hurts a lot of people besides himself. He does this all the time and there is absolutely no reason for it.

There was no reason for Trump to start a tariff war with Canada and say he would make it the 51st state just before their election last year. He did that just before their elections last year. There were good conservatives in Canada who like American and want to be our friends. They had a good chance of winning their elections last year. But Trump destroyed them.  There was no reason for Trump to say he would take Greenland and to bully a tiny country like Denmark.

Why is Trump going to war with the Kennedy family over the Kennedy entertainment center. Why is a making such a big deal over his new ballroom at the White House.  This stuff hurts Trump and it hurts everyone in the Republican Party. In fact it is destroying the Republican Party.

Because if you or I say anything even slightly critical of President Trump, Trump supporters, who are roughly two thirds of the Republican Party will be so angry, they will never consider voting for us.  They will make sure we never get elected to anything.

And this gets the one third of the Republican Party who do not like Trump just as angry at those other Republicans as they are as Trump.

This makes it impossible for Republicans to win elections against Democrats. And as bad as Republicans can be at times, they are the only people who can defeat Democrats and block their agenda.

So you have to ask yourself, "Why is Trump doing this?"  Does Trump believe what he is saying? Does he think he is clever and cute when he does that?  Does he think he is winning when two thirds of Republicans say they support what he is doing, even though those two thirds of Republicans are only about one third of the whole country?

To me, this is absolutely baffling as to why Trump does this. He is making it very difficult for any Republican to win an election anywhere in the country. 

And since most members of our Liberty and Prosperity group support President Trump, you just got me in a lot of trouble!

JOHN DEMASI:  My pleasure. I love setting your agenda.

SETH GROSSMAN:  Thanks. When I call in next week, I might call in saying "Good morning, this is Seth Grossman, the former Executive Director of Liberty and Prosperity.  Actually, I won't be calling in next Saturday. That will be Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year holiday.

Anyway, let me thank everyone who gave so much help and support for the ceremony we had yesterday to remember Richard Somers in Somers Point yesterday. He was the hero of the Barbary Wars who died in Tripoli in 1804. He was once a well-known national hero.

There are two details or nuances in that story that explain a lot of what is going on today.

In 1801, America went to war against the same Islamic terror that we are fighting today. That was when Thomas Jefferson was President.  However, we were losing that war for the first two years. We were losing that war for the same reason America has been losing so many wars lately.  The original navy commanders did not understand the enemy they were fighting, or the job they had to do.

It was only in the third year that President Jefferson appointed a commander whoknew how to win the war.  His name was Ed Preble. He respected and listened to his young officers like Stephen Decatur, Charles Stewart and Richard Somers who were actually in combat and who understood our enemy.  As a result, in the American navy almost won a war in just ten months that it had been losing for nearly two years.

And if you study American military history, you see that America was often losing wars at the beginning for a lot of reasons. In almost every war, America did not start winning until the President fired the commanders and the generals he had started with. There are many reasons for this. Sometimes, generals who are good civil servants  who know how to run a bureaucracy  during peacetime don't know how to lead soldiers into battle during a war. If the President doesn't fire them quickly, we lose the war.

And there are other important lessons we can learn today from the Richard Somers story.  Richard Somers and those other brave Americans won the respect and admiration of the entire world back in 1804.  They won respect in Europe, but they also won respect throughout the Islamic world.

At that time, the Sultans of the Ottoman Turkish Empire ruled the entire Islamic world. They were more than just the Sultans or rulers of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. They were also like the Pope. They were the Kalifs or Caliphs--spiritual leaders of almost every Muslim in the entire world. 

So after the Barbary Wars, the Turkish sultans as caliphs and leaders of the Islamic world began to respect and work with Americans, and Christians and other Europeans.   They began sending their kids to study in Europe, they began wearing western clothes, and they began tolerating and living peacefully with Christians.   These were Turks, not Arabs.

And this triggered an angry reaction from radical and traditional Arab leaders in Arabia.  They accused the Turks of betraying Muhammad and betraying Islam.  They said we have to go back to doing what Muhammad did in Arabia during the Dark Ages.  We need constant holy wars against non-Muslims. We need to cover up our women. We need to stop enjoying music.

Those Arabs were called Wahhabees or Salafis, and for years they on the fringe of the Islamic world. They had very little influence over most Muslims.  However, all that changed in 1938.  What was that?  In 1938, oil was discovered in Arabia.   Suddenly, this extreme, lunatic fringe was getting billions of dollars every year.  The rest is history.  What used to be a fringe cult of extremists now controls billions of dollars from oil each year.  They use that money to make themselves the mainstream of Islam.

Late Saturday night two weeks ago, four teenagers from Atlantic City stole a big SUV in Longport, and then drove away from police towards Somers Point and Egg Harbor Township.  A few hours later, they killed two people in Mays Landing.  From the video, it looks they were driving at least 40 or 50 miles an hour on the wrong side of Route 50.  They crashed head on into a car with two people from Egg Harbor Township and killed them instantly.

For the past two weeks, I was busy with our Richard Somers event. Did you or any of your listeners learn anything new about this?  If police in Longport see four kids from Atlantic City stealing a car in Longport at 3:30 in the morning, how did that car get away?  How did that stolen car get to Mays Landing five hours later with nobody chasing it?

Were the Longport police told not to chase the car?  If so, who gave that order?  Have any political people said anything about this?

Is anyone saying we need to change the way we deal with teenagers who are already hardened, dangerous, violent criminals?

Has anyone talked about the fact that we have the dozens, if not hundreds of very dangerous, hardened criminals who are teenagers in Atlantic County.  However, we have only one county jail for juveniles.  And that juvenile jail holds only 27 inmates. I have not heard of any. And we're in the middle of an election campaign.

If nobody is going to talk about important issues during an election campaign, when are they going to talk about them?

Of course, the Cape May County sheriff, - Republican Robert Nolan, made a speech about getting tough on juvenile crime. However, he was talking about rowdy teens on the Wildwood Boardwalk.  What I'm talking about now is completely different.

Just look at these random little crime stories in today's Press of Atlantic City.  Anta Johnson of Gloucester County - got three years in prison for kicking someone in the face at the Tropicana Casino on March 1.  So if she gets a three year prison sentence, she'll probably be out in about a year. - What's she going to be like when she gets - out? Is she going to be a reformed person, - or is she going to just do the - same stuff she was doing before? - And can we possibly hire enough police to follow all these people and protect us when people like that are wandering around everywhere.

Another random article:  Charles Summers, a 21 year old from Atlantic City,  was sentenced to seven years in prisonfor shooting a victim in both legs in Atlantic City on July 4, two years ago.  So if he's sentenced to seven years, will he be out with the rest of us in two or three years? Will he learn anything? Will he be any less dangerous when he gets out?

Melissa Tucaram, a 30-year-old, from New York.  She got fifteen years for luring a victim into an armed robbery where he was killed. This was in Atlantic City in January of 2024.  There was a time - when, - people who committed these kind of crimes were in for life, or close to it.

In fact, in Old England, they used - to execute people for all felonies, including  robberies like this. Last Tuesday,...