Free Republic

Opinion Main Street About Those Loser ‘Trumpkins’ What is it that the much-vilified Trump voters are trying to tell us? By William McGurn Aug. 15, 2016 In the land of NeverTrump, it turns out one American is more reviled than Donald Trump. This would be the Donald Trump voter. Lincoln famously described government as of, by, and for the people. Even so, the people are now getting a hard lesson about what happens when they reject the advice of their betters and go with a nominee of their own choosing. What happens is an outpouring of condescension and contempt. This...

It is the end of an era in Las Vegas as one of the most famed hotels and casinos on the Strip was demolished in the early morning hours of Tuesday. The final tower of the Riviera was reduced to little more than rubble a little over a year after the city's first high-end casino shut its doors in May of last year. Long known as a classic mob joint featured in films such as Oceans 11 and Diamonds are Forever, the Riviera also hosted the residences of famed Vegas performances including Liberace and Dean Martin during its heyday.

Are you dumber than a doper? (With manifest apologies to Jeff Foxworthy)

High schooler Sydney McLaughlin makes her Olympic debut Sydney McLaughlin, who just celebrated her 17th birthday eight days ago, made her Olympic debut, finishing fifth in her heat of the 400m hurdles. McLaughlin made it through to the semifinals on time.

“There is nothing more dangerous than a government of the many controlled by the few.”—Lawrence Lessig, Harvard law professor The U.S. government remains the greatest threat to our freedoms. The systemic violence being perpetrated by agents of the government has done more collective harm to the American people and our liberties than any single act of terror. More than terrorism, more than domestic extremism, more than gun violence and organized crime, the U.S. government has become a greater menace to the life, liberty and property of its citizens than any of the so-called dangers from which the government claims to...

Former studies have found that radiation exposure increases cancer risk. It has also been found that the average lifespan of survivors from the atomic bombing was only reduced by a few months. Such findings refute any popular conception about health risks caused by exposure to radiation. Scientists have not found health effects or any radiation-associated mutations on children of the survivors. Jordan suggested it would be possible to find subtle effects through more detailed tests on survivors’ genomes. Even then, the biologist believes that the children of survivors will face small health risks linked to atomic bombs. “Most people, including...

In this 1969 documentary of a seditious meeting of communists with the notorious communist and terrorist Walter T Howard CCCP of New York City, we see Bernie Sanders attending a meeting and a filming of a North Vietnamese communist film that portrays the communist viet cong as freedom fighters and the Americans as torturers and barbarians. This and other films were shown by student radicals and marxists as Americans were being killed by the North Vietnamese army and the VietCong and as Vietnamese civilians were being murdered, tortured, buried alive and extorted by the communists and their gangster protection schemes...

A (mostly) daily posting for those interested in history and the day to day news, politics and culture of a bygone world; the full edition of the New York Tribune from today's date in 1896 (digitized).

Life came to ice-free Canadian corridor too late to sustain migrations of Clovis and pre-Clovis people. Archaeologists need a new theory for the colonization of the Americas. Plant and animal DNA buried under two Canadian lakes squashes the idea that the first Americans travelled through an ice-free corridor that extended from Alaska to Montana.The analysis, published online in Nature on 10 August and led by palaeo­geneticist Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen, suggests that the passageway became habitable 12,600 years ago1. That’s nearly 1,000 years after the formation of the Clovis culture — once thought to be the first Americans — and...

Can we imagine a scenario in which two titans of World War II, the German battleship Bismarck and the Japanese battleship Yamato, would come into conflict? Difficult, but not impossible. Had the Battle of the Marne gone the other way, Germany might have forced France from the World War I in the early fall of 1914, just as it did in the spring of 1940.

When Israel declared independence from British colonial rule in May 1948, it immediately went to war with the neighboring Arab states. One of the first weapons Israel acquired was a fighter plane designed by a country that had sought the extinction of the Jewish people. The German Messerschmitt Bf.109 — later re-designated Me.109 — was the most advanced fighter plane of its time when it first saw combat in 1937 in the Spanish Civil War. Flown by German pilots in support of General Franco’s Nationalists, Bf. 109s secured air superiority over Spain and allowed Fascist bombers to terror bomb cities nearly unopposed.

Don’t tell them theirs is the Forgotten War. “I sure as hell haven’t forgotten it,” said Jean White, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel from Oceanside who fought in the Korean War 66 years ago and was at its most-storied battle, Chosin Reservoir, where outnumbered and surrounded U.S. troops fought their way out of a snowy death trap. White’s feet froze. Now he has to wrap them in something warm at night to sleep, a constant reminder of “where we were and what we did.” What they did is so revered it’s taught in the Marines’ officer candidates school, right alongside...

A (mostly) daily posting for those interested in history and the day to day news, politics and culture of a bygone world; the full edition of the New York Tribune from today's date in 1896 (digitized).

In the People’s Republic of China, archives do not belong to the people, they belong to the Communist Party. They are often housed in a special building on the local party committee premises, which are generally set among lush and lovingly manicured grounds guarded by military personnel. Access would have been unthinkable until a decade or so ago, but over the past few years a quiet revolution has been taking place, as increasing quantities of documents older than 30 years have become available for consultation to professional historians armed with a letter of recommendation. The extent and quality of the...

Early in his career, Alfred Hitchcock began making small appearances in his own films. The cameos sometimes lasted just a few brief seconds, and sometimes a little while longer. Either way, they became a signature of Hitchcock’s filmmaking, and fans made a sport of seeing whether they could spot the elusive director. From 1927 to 1976, Hitchcock made 37 appearances in total, and they’re all nicely catalogued by Hitchcock.TV and the clip above. If you’re hungry for a good film over the long Labor Day weekend, then don’t miss our collection 22 Free Hitchcock Films Online, which includes The 39 Steps, The...

The ambitious Snake kings used force and diplomacy to create the most powerful alliance in their culture’s history. The ancient city of Holmul isn’t much to look at. To the casual observer it’s just a series of steep, forested hills in the middle of the jungle in northern Guatemala, near the Mexican border. The jungle here in the Petén Basin is thick and warm but drier than you might expect. And silent, except for the drum of cicadas and the occasional calls of howler monkeys. Take a closer look, and you may notice that most of these hills are arranged...

A (mostly) daily posting for those interested in history and the day to day news, politics and culture of a bygone world; the full edition of the New York Tribune from today's date in 1896 (digitized).

Twenty-five years after the release of “The Black Album,” Metallica are still struggling to recapture lightning in a bottle. For the first seven years of their career, Metallica’s main objective was to be the loudest, heaviest, fastest, and most mind-blowing band on the planet. They had no commercial aspirations and sought to rail against what they perceived as the vacuous, frivolous mainstream radio rock poisoning the airwaves. Then, after touring for their fourth album, 1988’s …And Justice for All, Metallica had a change of heart and underwent a striking, abrupt transformation. The disc that followed, which featured a jet-black cover,...

... Of Caesar, Machiavelli notes that he was “able to so blind the multitude that it saw not the yoke under which it was to lay its neck.” ... In the 24th chapter of the “Discourses,” Machiavelli wrote: “When it is absolutely a question of the safety of one’s country, there must be no question of just or unjust, of merciful or cruel, of praiseworthy or disgraceful; instead, setting aside every scruple one must follow to the utmost any plan that will save her life and keep her liberty.” His stringent view of human nature combined with his originality and...

A (mostly) daily posting for those interested in history and the day to day news, politics and culture of a bygone world; the full edition of the New York Tribune from today's date in 1896 (digitized).