Free Republic

Having now endured a more than two-year orgy of adoration for the Broadway hip-hop musical, Hamilton, the public surely deserves a historical corrective. Historian Brion McClanahan's latest work on the Revolutionary period, How Alexander Hamilton Screwed Up America, is being released Monday. Ron Paul, the Libertarian and Republican candidate for president and longtime U.S. Representative from Texas, has written the foreward, which he graciously shared in advance with Reason. The central government has always been the greatest threat to liberty in America, but most Americans don't understand how modern America became the warfare state. How did the president acquire so...

The Hamilton judge who wore a ‘Make America Great Again’ hat in court has been banned from trying casesJustice Bernd Zabel, who declared his support for Donald Trump in court, is no longer presiding in court, according to a spokeswoman for the Ontario Court of Justice.A Hamilton judge who wore a “Make America Great Again” hat to court the day after the U.S. election and declared his support for president-elect Donald Trump is no longer hearing cases. Justice Bernd Zabel, appointed to the bench in 1990, stopped being assigned new cases on Dec. 21, 2016, a spokeswoman for the Ontario...

A Canadian judge who wore a hat in court with Donald Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again” has been suspended without pay. The Ontario Judicial Council said Tuesday that the conduct of Justice Bernd Zabel warrants the most serious reprimand possible short of removing him from the bench. The council said the hat incident was an “inexplicable act of judicial misconduct” from an otherwise respected judge. …

The Library of Congress has put the papers of Alexander Hamilton online for the first time in their original format. The Library holds the world’s largest collection of Hamilton papers—approximately 12,000 items concentrated from 1777 until Hamilton’s death in 1804, including letters, legal papers and drafts of speeches and writings, among other items. Now, for the first time, these original documents—many in Hamilton’s own hand—will be available for researchers, students or the generally curious anywhere in the world to explore, zoom in and read at loc.gov/collections/alexander-hamilton-papers/.

Hillary Clinton received a reaction that Mike Pence was likely hoping for when he ventured out to see Hamilton shortly after the 2016 election. Instead of a lecture from the stage and boos from those in attendance, Clinton was given a standing ovation by the crowd that made it seem more like a political rally than a theater performance. The former Secretary of State and 2016 presidential candidate attended the Tony award-winning play Oslo on Sunday — telling the story of the Oslo Middle East Peace Accords that saw “back-channel” negotiations that eased tensions between Israel and Palestine in the...

Hamilton creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda released a politically-charged video this week for the song “Immigrants” from The Hamilton Mixtape, which is based on music from the popular Broadway show. The 6-minute dramatic visual opens with a group of immigrants listening to a radio report about the U.S. Congress’s legislative debate over border security and immigration reform. “It’s really astonishing that in a country founded by immigrants, ‘immigrant’ has somehow become a bad word,'” the reporter says. As each rapper recites their lyrics, scenes of refugees and immigrants doing various jobs are intermingled throughout. The video features contributions from Rogue...

After the Women's March, the Tax March, and the March for Science, progressives will march again this weekend for "truth," calling for an independent commission to investigate alleged ties between President Donald Trump's campaign and Russia. Marches are planned in Washington, D.C., and a 135 other cities Saturday, according to organizers, which include many of same groups that organized the previous anti-Trump rallies. Saturday's "March for Truth" will include speeches from Watergate prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks and Javier Muñoz, the star of Hamilton, among other actors and musicians. Members of Congress will address several rallies, including Texas Rep. Al Green, who...

There are plenty of nonmusical plays coming to Broadway this spring, but producers are fretting that few of them are selling. Three of those plays — “Sweat,” “Indecent” and “Significant Other” — moved to Broadway because of strong reviews from former New York Times critic Charles Isherwood. But he and the paper have since parted ways, and there’s no guarantee that Ben Brantley, or whoever else reviews them for the Times, will be as kind. First, the numbers. The only play with a decent advance is “The Glass Menagerie,” starring Sally Field. Sources say it’s sold close to $3 million...

NEW YORK (AP) Original cast members of the Tony Award-winning Broadway hit ''Hamilton: An American Musical,'' will sing ''America the Beautiful'' during pregame festivities at Super Bowl 51, the NFL and Fox announced Friday.

I don't think there's a slight bit of hyperbole or exaggeration involved when I say that Hamilton, the awful musical that millionaire New Yorkers are required by law to throw away thousands watching, represents everything that was wrong with America in 2016. Allow me to make the case. First, there's the music. I'm admittedly not much of a hip-hop aficionado, but I know shit from Shinola. From my perspective the art form has more or less been going downhill since Strictly Business (the EPMD record, not the Tommy Davidson vehicle), but there have been some highlights worth mentioning, mostly thanks...

James Madison Drinks, and Writes an ArticlePhilip Freneau had set the deadline for the December 22nd edition of the National Gazette, and James Madison found himself racing the hourglass. Freneau published the newspaper, dedicated to the positions of Thomas Jefferson’s faction within the Congress and the council around His Excellency, while working for the red-haired Secretary of State as a translator. Mr. Jefferson saw neither difficulty nor conflict with this arrangement. Freneau had labeled the men of Alexander Hamilton’s faction as Monarchists, Tories, and Anti-Republicans, claiming their role was to reverse the results of 1776. The Secretary of the Treasury...

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Police on Sunday were searching for a woman they said pickpocketed multiple people who were outside waiting to see the performers from the Broadway smash “Hamilton” in Midtown. Between May 25 and Nov. 6, six people reported having their property removed as they waited for the stars of “Hamilton” outside the Richard Rodgers Theatre, 226 W. 46th St. The suspect used the victims’ credit cards to buy about $2,200 worth of merchandise at Macy’s, Junior’s Restaurant, Rite Aid, Target, Designer Shoe Warehouse, Burlington Coat Factory, and Duane Reade, police said. “That’s very surprising. I wouldn’t expect...

Michelle Obama's bold exclamation that her husband was going to "change our traditions, our history," is perhaps what helped the Broadway musical Hamilton ring such happy notes into the ears of audiences and critics alike. I mean, does it really matter that in real life Aaron Burr wasn't dark-skinned, or that Alexander Hamilton wasn't Puerto Rican, or that other "old white guys" weren't really white? And now, with the musical's tremendous success, what if the trend to play against type and to turn history and truth on its ear were to continue? Three ideas are being offered here (and perhaps...

The creator of Hamilton has said Donald Trump is welcome to attend his musical, the cast of which Trump attacked this week for "harassing" his running mate. "We welcome anyone," Lin-Manuel Miranda told the BBC, adding that the American president-elect's daughter had seen the show and written "wonderful things". Mr Trump demanded the cast of Hamilton apologise for addressing Mike Pence from the stage after Friday's show. Miranda, however, insisted Mr Pence had been spoken to in a "respectful" way. Later, as he prepared to leave, he was asked by cast member Brandon Dixon to stay in the auditorium and...

But Dixon was guilty of a very bizarre comment himself involving St. Patrick's Day. The tweet from 2012 sprang back into prominence on Sunday because of the "Hamilton" furor with many commentators claiming it refers to blacks raping drunken girls on St. Patrick’s Day.

Regarding Hamilton: What would Saul Alinsky do? He probably would not suggest boycotting the show. He would likely propose something he would find far more entertaining. First, a little background:  In 1964, Saul Alinsky arrived in Rochester, New York to organize the black ghetto against the establishment -- the city government and the city's major employer, Eastman Kodak. Riots had recently occurred because among other things, blacks who had migrated from the south during the first part of the century were limited to 1.] menial jobs at Kodak and 2.] confined to living in a ten block-square area of the city...

President-elect Donald Trump took to social media this weekend to demand an apology from the cast of “Hamilton” after star Brandon Victor Dixon read a statement from the stage about the recent election to Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who was in attendance. Dixon said Monday morning he had "nothing to apologize for," but now he may be saying sorry for something entirely different, namely some tweets (and retweets) he made years ago, before “Hamilton” (and President-elect Donald Trump, for that matter) were even a thing. In one, Dixon wrote this: St. Patty's day weekend is like Christmas for black dudes...

The “Hamilton” actor who drew fire from Donald Trump for addressing Vice President-elect Mike Pence from the stage said Monday he’s not apologizing — and invited the president-elect to come see the Broadway smash himself. Brandon Victor Dixon said he spoke to Pence on behalf of the cast at the request of show producer Jeffrey Seller and has no regrets for being the face of Friday night’s controversial monologue. “There’s nothing to apologize for,” the actor told “CBS This Morning.” “When you have a platform, art is meant to bring people together and meant to raise consciousness. And when you...

Hamilton actor, Brandon Victor Dixon, has made headlines recently after he called out audience member and transitioning Vice President Mike Pence. You can read more about the incident here: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/19/us/mike-pence-hamilton.html Now we have these past tweets that were sent out by Brandon Victor Dixon that seem to paint a picture of resentment and suggestive actions to his twitter followers. Some of the suggestive actions state that white women can be taken advantage of on St. Patrick’s Day due to the holiday being known in some circles to involve a lot of alcohol consumption.

Recently, “Love Trumps Hate” bullies, afflicted with a perverted sense of self-righteousness participated in a weighted battle by luring in, and then ambushing, Mike Pence. It happened when the unsuspecting Vice President-elect decided to take in a leisurely performance of the highly acclaimed musical production of Hamilton. In addition to incorporating rap, hip-hop, R&B, and pop into the Tony-award winning score, by pretending our founding fathers weren’t white, Hamilton embraces a revisionist version of ethnic and racial history. In fact, choosing to cast white historical figures with non-white actors may be the reason our racially divisive president is such a...