Free Republic

Our Founders’ textbook to revolution was Algernon Sidney’s Discourses Concerning Government. Alongside John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government, these famous works were refutations of another influential 17th century book, Patriarcha by Sir Robert Filmer. In Patriarcha, Filmer invoked the Bible to defend the English monarchs’ divine right to rule. Among his arguments, he painted dire consequences to the established order if the people ever attempted to limit kingly prerogatives. In the background to these works was the 1649 execution of King Charles I. Monarchists could point to the subsequent short-lived English commonwealth, a volatile republic with a written constitution and...

While researching the Battle of Cape Gloucester, I came across this photo of the 7th Marine Regiment's commanders in January 1944. Granted, any group of officers that includes Chesty Puller (second from the left) has an epic advantage over the enemy, but when you consider these officers' service records, it really shows how stacked this unit was, and perhaps why the 7th Marines were called the "fightingest outfit in the world." One Marine officer enlisted during World War I and served as a drill instructor (Frisbie)... two fought in Nicaragua (Puller and Frisbie)... Frisbie also faced rebels in the Dominican...

As part of her continuing effort to convince everyone she is a loon, former Secretary of State and failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton charged that current contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard "is a Russian agent." Clinton's remarks came during her interview on former President Obama aide David Plouffe's "Campaign HQ" podcast. Clinton cited Gabbard's behavior at the debates as evidence for her charge. "If you listen carefully you will see that she repeatedly criticizes some of the other contenders. She calls their ideas impractical. Accuses them of hypocrisy or dishonesty. This kind of internal...

[LINK]: : “Absolute power does not corrupt absolutely, absolute power attracts the corruptible.” --Frank Herbert The American left is used to being in power, even when they are not. This is true because Republicans have generally embraced the role of being the minority, even when they are not. Republicans tend to be deferential; they don't like to ruffle anyone's feathers. They have never sought absolute power. That power-seeking trait is certainly evident now as the Democrats let Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi behave like the KGB in the old Soviet Union in their quest to see President Trump impeached and...

Boris Johnson's bid to push through a new "deal" with the European Union called the second worst deal since former Prime Minister Theresa May's one and "Brexit In Name Only" among other things is coming to the decisive moment in the hours ahead. A massive Remain rally planned before the decision on the "deal"in a special House of Commons session today. Leave forces led by Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage got their say outside Parliament last night saying among other things: "this sell out from the British prime minister....

Murderers with poisonous ideologies have taken the lives of innocents once again. And the response is the same as it always is: Politicians turn to the proven solution of creating yet more felonies to criminalize law-abiding gun owners. Won’t it be fun to imprison an elderly widow who transfers her husband’s old shotgun to a neighbor without a background check? Or give a felony record to a young worker who has a rifle the bureaucracy classifies an “assault weapon” because it has one of those deadly adjustable stocks? Almost all guns are sold by licensed dealers, who are required to...

On the evening of 15 October 1956 a Pan American Airlines Stratocruiser named Clipper Sovereign of the Skies lifted off from Honolulu, headed to San Francisco on a 2,000-mile flight. 24 passengers and seven crew were flying the final leg of their around-the-world flight, but still had 2,000 miles of open ocean to cross. 4 hours, 38 minutes into the nine-hour flight Capt. Richard Ogg climbed from 13,000 feet to 21,000. After leveling off, Clipper‘s Number 1 engine started spinning out of control. The cockpit suddenly jolts and the high-pitched noise of the runaway engine can be heard inside the...

Today’s post is in honor of three 716th Military Police Battalion soldiers killed during a firefight in Karbala, Iraq on this date in 2003. Killed were Lt. Col. Kim S. Orlando (43, of Tennessee), SSgt. Joseph P. Bellavia (28, Wakefield, Mass.), and Cpl. Sean R. Grilley (24, San Bernardino, Calif.) Orlando was battalion commander and had served in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Seven U.S. soldiers were wounded in the attack. 1821: The schooner USS Enterprise (the third of 12 so-named Continental and U.S. Naval vessels) intercepts a flotilla of four ships led by the infamous Capt. Charles Gibbs as...

8chan owner Jim Watkins says the new site (named 8kun) should be up around Oct. 17. "Our Favorite Anon" hung out at 8chan. Fire away.

Quick bit of breaking news just dropped. About a month ago, IG Horowitz announced he had finished his report dealing with the Trump-Russia investigation, which most assumed would only cover possible FISA abuse. Now we are getting word it’s coming out this Friday. 🚨 BREAKING 🚨 The DOJ IG Report will be out this Friday and covers 'MORE than just FISA abuse' "It’s as thick as a telephone book." –@MariaBartiromo pic.twitter.com/rr3kfyZhpZ — Benny (@bennyjohnson) October 13, 2019 Per the Washington Examiner. “I’m hearing the IG report will be out this upcoming Friday, Oct. 18, and my sources say it’s as...

When couples struggling to conceive approach an infertility clinic for help, they’re not just patients seeing a doctor: they’re also healthcare consumers navigating a billion-dollar industry. All too often, they’re also sucked onto a moving sidewalk designed to effortlessly take them from one intervention to another, without stopping to heal their spirits, discern their options, or possibly close their wallets. That’s what happened to me. I should be clear: I feel that most of the doctors we talked to were sincerely trying to help. This was especially the case with the reproductive endocrinologists who worked with nonprofit hospitals. They are...

What is the "Name of the Game? We are told the troops need to come home but it looks like they're going "home" to Saudi Arabia..... Raging rants against the ruler Assad of Syria, Iran and Russia coming out of Washington in recent years including President Trump's mouth.... Ukraine has been getting Russian energy but its needs to get good US energy like our liquid natural gas. So yes that friend of Texas energy interests Rick Perry Secretary of Energy in the game asking the POTUS to talk to the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky... I say let Zelensky testify to...

You might want to sit down for this one. If you thought the IRS was just a necessary yet uncomfortable part of American life, here’s some more evidence that it’s simply an arm of the United States government that deserves to be excised. The IRS just admitted that it audits the working poor at about the same rate as the wealthiest 1 percent. Here’s why, according to ProPublica: "…the IRS said, auditing poor taxpayers is a lot easier: The agency uses relatively low-level employees to audit returns for low-income taxpayers who claim the earned income tax credit. The audits —...

I was 16 when I saw the news. Matthew Shepard’s murder taught me and many in this country that homophobia kills. Let us honor his life by channeling pain into purpose and striving to build a country where all belong. https://twitter.com/MattShepardFDN/status/1183008667672698881

This week, the National Basketball Association (NBA) took steps to try to distance itself from a tweet by the Houston Rockets’ general manager Daryl Morey. In his tweet, Morey urged “Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver publicly apologized for the “insensitive remarks made by Mr. Morey. We understand that members of our organization are entitled to their political opinions. We have stood behind teams’ refusals to visit the White House while Trump is president. We sympathize with players who are insulted by the racism of the National Anthem. However, the financial consequences of disrespecting the...

Former vice president Joe Biden faces increased scrutiny on his son Hunter’s shady business deals in the Ukraine and China, but it’s not the first time the Bidens’ conflict of interest has caused problems in a presidential campaign. More than a decade ago, Tom Brokaw asked Biden to his face about a different arrangement with a Delaware credit company called MBNA, which hired Hunter on a six-figure salary and paid then Sen. Joe Biden hundreds of thousands more in campaign contributions to win his favor. Tom Brokaw calling out Joe-Hunter Biden’s corruption in 2008: “Wasn’t it inappropriate for someone like...

Tippmann Armory makes a modern take on the famous Gatling Gun - The Gatling gun played a major role in Kitchener's defeat of the Mahdist forces. If General with them, Khartoum would not have fallen at the start of that war. As late as the Boxer Rebellion in China, a relief column rushing to try to rescue a British outpost with little hope of finding them alive was surprised to find that a very busy Gatling gun had preserved the lot of them. Gatling guns continued in service in the U.S. and U.K. until 1911, when they were declared obsolete....

The founding era of the United States was no less divided and conflicted than the Washington we find so frustrating today. During the revolutionary years, people loyal to Great Britain made up as much as 20 percent of the population. Colonies were reluctant to contribute money and supplies to the war effort. Citizens were willing to serve in the continental army only for a short time or when the fighting was near their “country,” their state. After the war, though political parties as we know them today had not yet formed fully, partisan politics was rampant. The Federalists and the...

This is the full post, minus the photos and some formatting. If you don't know who Jimmy Lai is, how the NED is funded through the CIA, and what John Bolton is all about, this article is for you. Here, in this article, we look at the United States involvement with HK. We [1] study how the United States uses Hong Kong to exert pressure on China for trade and geopolitical advantage. We also [2] take a look at the various people “behind the scenes” that are pushing for American involvement, for their own personal gain. Finally, [3] we study...

The Anger of the Blinded Cyclops By now, knowledge of the persons and timeline involved in the Russia Hoax (to choose Gregg Jarrett’s phrase among many others) has seeped into the public’s admittedly shallow consciousness. Although they are at opposite poles of seriousness, the Russia Hoax is similar in some ways to the cast and events of The Bachelor. We don’t necessarily want or care to know who the Bachelor is and who he’s chosen but the PR engine, aided and abetted by a bored, cynical media, blasts the news far and wide until it’s nearly impossible not to know....