Free Republic

Webinar, November 10, 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM Central Time on the National WWII Museum's Facebook page: Following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, nearly 20% of the Chinese American population signed up and served honorably in every branch of the US Armed Services and all four theaters of combat. During this panel discussion moderated by Tyler Bamford, the Sherry and Alan Leventhal Research Fellow in the Institute for the Study of War and Democracy, we will delve into the lives and service of these soldiers with E. Samantha Cheng, author of Honor and Duty: The...

There’s something strange about Wisconsin’s election results from last night and today that some people are picking up on. Kimberly Strassel will explain: 1) I am legitimately interested/confused by this. I checked, and the top number is indeed Wisconsin's active registered voter number as of Nov. 1. The bottom is approx. what has been counted. That is a (not feasible) 89% turnout. 2) The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is claiming a 71% state turnout. I'm not sure where it gets this, but that would make more sense, given even populous Milwaukee didn't exceed 83% turnout, and Dane lower. (Do math on...

I n the wake of the deaths of George Floyd and other people of color, America continues to undergo a reckoning with our nation’s original sin: racism and white supremacy. Recent events have laid bare the brutal truth that systemic inequalities and state-sanctioned violence have continued to oppress people of color in our country. In the midst of this national conversation, the history of the United States Army has come front and center, largely because of the Army’s experience in the American Civil War. By May 1861, sixty-five of eighty-six southern West Point cadets had followed their seceded home states...

Military retirees and families are getting new IDs for the first time in three decades. The Defense Department is replacing its 30-year-old identification cards for military families, retirees, and civilian workers in an effort to upgrade the cards and avoid security risks. The Defense Department began issuing the new IDs in July and some are already in circulation. But Michael Sorrento, director of the Defense Manpower Data Center, said cardholders don’t have to scramble for the new IDs. In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, he said he doesn’t want ID facilities jam-packed with people, so the old cards do...

San Francisco elects a D.A. [Chesa Boudin] rooted in the Weather Underground. On October 20, 1981, the guys and gals of the Weather Underground finally did it. They at last carried out a criminal act that not only led directly to deaths but also landed at least some of them in prison. Unlike Bill Ayers, one of several Weather Underground fugitives fleeing the FBI who would later boast, “Guilty as hell, free as a bird! America is a great country!,” the orchestrators of this incident didn’t get away with it. This time, the plotters, including Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert,...

An inspector general’s review of poor housing conditions in privatized Army homes paints a picture of widespread confusion about roles and responsibilities, poor inspection practices and fundamental oversight weaknesses as factors that led to substandard living conditions in family housing across the service. Some of the problems were caused by budget cuts over the last several years, but some are baked-in to how the Army has managed the Residential Communities Initiative (RCI) since its inception in the late 1990s, according to the IG report the Army released Thursday. In surveys and site visits to 49 different bases, each garrison commander...

Via Joel Pollak, a stumper from an event in South Carolina. What’s the politic answer to give here if you’re a modern right-thinking “kill ’em up to the moment of crowning” liberal? Clearly the answer Beto wants to give, the one that’s consonant with left-wing thinking, is “No, your life had no meaning until you were born.” But that’s a tough thing to say to someone’s face when he’s asking about his own life specifically. The less abstract and more concrete questions about abortion get, the more uncomfortable they are. So no, O’Rourke won’t say that. “Of course I don’t...

Is Ilhan Omar a Communist? The congresswoman invokes her idol and inspiration: Angela Davis. Now there’s a headline to make progressives light their hair on fire. Few things set off liberals quite like anti-communism. Pro-communism doesn’t bother them much, at least not enough to openly complain. But anti-communism? One whiff of it sends them hyperventilating into howls of McCarthyism. The same seems true nowadays for socialism, as evident when Donald Trump devoted a mere line or two to it in his State of the Union. Judging from liberal hysteria, one would think Trump had announced a resurrection of the House...

Byron York seems baffled by the discovery in the Mueller report that the FBI was after General Michael Flynn long before the intercepts of his telephone conversations with Russian officials during the post-2016 election transition. By that time, Obama Administration higher-ups in the intelligence community were warning Trump that Flynn had suspicious intimate contacts with the Russians, possibly in violation of the Logan Act. As Byron writes: "Mueller strongly suggests something else was up. Obama administration intelligence officials "were surprised by Russia's decision not to retaliate in response to the sanctions," the report said. "When analyzing Russia's response, they became...

Have you ever witnessed a miracle? Have you met a person who experienced one? Sure, I’ve experienced things that seem like they might have a supernatural component. Many to most of us probably have, at least at some point in a long lifetime. But I’m talking about the real deal. That is, something so extraordinary that you can’t quite explain it by normal physical means, nor can medical personnel. Something that is so stunning, that so defies rational-scientific explanation, that it actually gets taken up by, oh, the Vatican — which, in turn, takes the time to scrutinize it. I...

Deep sea explorers found the USS Hornet in the South Pacific earlier this year, but the Hornet was not the only ship located on that expedition. In the latest update for the American Naval history books, the research vessel Petrel revealed it also found the World War II aircraft carrier USS Wasp. We're 2.5 miles down, peering inside the cockpit of an avenger torpedo bomber from the sunken World War II aircraft carrier, USS Wasp. The plane is not just a relic, it's a clue, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips. Can the Wasp itself be far away? The Wasp...

Dream comes true for the man who honoured his heroes: Pensioner weeps as thousands join him to watch fly-past to honour WWII airmen whose memorial he tended for decades - and BBC presenter Dan Walker who helped organise event even cries too. Thousands of people at Endcliffe Park in Sheffield to watch planes pay tribute to B-17 Flying Fortress crew Tony Foulds was eight in February 1944 when he witnessed the Mi Amigo crash and explode in the park. Pilot apparently tried to avoid him and his friends - and memorial has now been organised 75 years on. He has...

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Adrian Cronauer, the man whose military radio antics inspired a character played by Robin Williams in the film “Good Morning, Vietnam,” has died. He was 79. Mary Muse, the wife of his stepson Michael Muse, said Thursday that Cronauer died Wednesday from an age-related illness. He had lived in Troutville, Virginia, and died at a local nursing home, she said. During his service as a U.S. Air Force sergeant in Vietnam in 1965 and 1966, Cronauer opened his Armed Forces Radio show with the phrase, “Goooooood morning, Vietnam!”

Fifty years after his death, his deep conservative beliefs continue to define him. It was 50 years ago, June 5, 1968, that Robert F. Kennedy was shot by a 24-year-old Palestinian-Jordanian immigrant looking to exact revenge upon the New York senator for his support of Israel a year earlier in the Six Day War. “My determination to eliminate R.F.K. is becoming more and more of an unshakable obsession,” Sirhan Sirhan had raged in his diary on May 18, 1968. “R.F.K. must die. R.F.K. must be killed. R.F.K. must be assassinated.” ...on a historic night when he had just won the...

The week of May 8 to 15 closed a chapter in my life whose first pages were written in France before I made my 1947 debut, in New York City. My father’s first cousin, William Friedman, authored those pages by deed. Bill enlisted in the Army in 1938 and made the first of his three first-day World War II landings Nov. 8, 1942, in Oran, Algeria, with the First Division, (snip) Italy (snip) the invasion of Normandy. Like most veterans Bill rarely spoke of his war days. He opened up to me a few times, once showing me letters he...

America loses its greatest scholar of Russia and communism. The most respected academic authority on the Russian Revolution, 20thcentury communism, and the Cold War has died. He was Richard Pipes, longtime professor of Russian history at Harvard, and a remarkable man. Where to start with an adequate tribute to Professor Pipes? I’ll start with some biographical observations and then finish with personal reflections. Richard Pipes was born in Poland on July 11, 1923. As a 16-year-old Jew at the time of Hitler’s invasion, Pipes mercifully escaped, thanks to a clever and shrewd father. He credited not only his father but...

Legendary WWII bomber that survived 25 missions over occupied Europe is lovingly restored and put on display B-17 'Flying Fortress' known as Memphis Belle is introduced this morning at National Museum of USAF in Ohio Plane was celebrated for being first bomber to survive 25 missions over Europe before returning to US in 1943 It had been kept in Memphis, Tennessee for years but had been subject to vandalism before being refurbished

He hasn’t changed a lick in 47 years. I’ve been asked a number of times about John Kerry’s unauthorized actions with Iran compared to Ted Kennedy’s unauthorized actions with the Kremlin. Kerry, this spring 2018, sought to undermine President Trump’s policies, whereas Kennedy, spring 1983, sought to undermine President Reagan’s policies. Many people — including the president of the United States — want to know if Kerry’s actions constitute a violation of the Logan Act. It’s a question I’m frequently asked about Kennedy. The short answer, in both cases, is that I’m not the source to provide the answer. Congress...

"Obama’s CIA director would sooner vacation in North Korea than at Mar-a-Lago." Obama CIA director John Brennan, a subject of ongoing analysis at The American Spectator, recently uncorked an epic Twitter rant. Enraged by President Trump’s words aimed at FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, Brennan steamed at the president: “When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but you will not destroy America … America will triumph over you.” More than one faithful reader...

Channel 4 TV news opened its 5 pm news stating that bombs were found on 6 military installations the Washington DC Area. The first was at Ft. McNair in Washington, DC this morning. The reporter also stated at a possible bomb with an unknown liquid was found at Joint Base Bolling-Anacostia. Other apparent bombs were found at Ft. Belvoir, VA; Dahlgren Naval Station, VA; and at a secret service mail facility. The Ft. McNair package tested positive for black powder, but nother