Free Republic

Just realized missed my 20th

For the first time in two decades Sunday, Tom Wibberley set foot on the vessel where his son, Seaman Craig Bryan Wibberley, lost his life. Tom Wibberley said the last time he stepped on the USS Cole was the day before it left port, and while he has had an opportunity to tour it again since, Sunday was the first time he did. He and his wife joined other Gold Star families over the weekend who were able to tour the USS Cole ahead of the Navy's Monday remembrance on the 20th anniversary of an attack that took the lives...

How the time flys 20 years ago TODAY I was introduced to Free Republic by a friend and have been checking in every day since. From Sore-Loserman to the current Deplorables.Only site where you find the REAL news .Keep up the good work. MAGA!!

A slogan dismissing the devastation of 9/11 in order to promote the Black Lives Matter movement went viral on the 19th anniversary of the terror attacks Friday — with #AllBuildingsMatter trending in Twitter. The phrase was first picked up after Saturday Night Live cast member Michael Che used it in a 2016 Netflix comedy special to highlight anger at people saying “all lives matter” in response to the BLM movement. Che — whose brother is an NYPD cop — questioned why black people have to get over slavery, segregation and police shootings while everyone is told to “never forget” the...

This week marks the 157th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. As it happened, Union victory in Pennsylvania on July 3, and the surrender of Confederate forces at Vicksburg, Mississippi, on July 4, portended a gradual death for the Southern rebellion. When the Confederacy collapsed in 1865, so, too, did the foundation of its apartheid society: institutionalized racial slavery. Yet the ultimate success of Union arms was hardly a foregone conclusion in 1863. Emboldened by its victory at Chancellorsville, Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia crossed the Potomac River, passed through Maryland, and raided south-central Pennsylvania. It plundered farms,...

I cannot believe I missed my own anniversary. I joined FR 22 years ago, during the height of the Clinton Impeachment. So many great memories. Met Henry Hyde with some local Illinois Freepers, protested Clinton when he was here in Chicago (He turned around and looked at us when I yelled "How's Monica's throat?") and so much more. Hoping some fellow Class of '98'ers chime in and let me know they're still here.

The American people reflect on the courage and optimism of the hundreds of thousands of Chinese citizens who gathered peacefully 31 years ago in Beijing and throughout China to protest widespread official corruption and demand a greater say in the governance of their country.  The Chinese Communist Party’s slaughter of unarmed Chinese civilians was a tragedy that will not be forgotten.  The United States calls on China to honor the memory of those who lost their lives and to provide a full accounting of those who were killed, detained, or remain missing in connection with the events surrounding the...

Friday 8 May is the 75th anniversary of VE day- the end of the Second World War in Europe. Few people realised that a British theatre actor and manager, turned soldier, drafted the historic document of surrender which ended the conflict. For years, John Counsell’s twin daughters had no idea about the role he played. Jenny and Elizabeth Counsell, who are now 77, have spoken of their pride at his part in helping to bring the Second World War to an end.

Up to a million and a half Armenians perished at the hands of Ottoman and Turkish military and paramilitary forces and through atrocities intentionally inflicted to eliminate the Armenian demographic presence in Turkey. In April 1915 the Ottoman government embarked upon the systematic decimation of its civilian Armenian population. The persecutions continued with varying intensity until 1923 when the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist and was replaced by the Republic of Turkey. The Armenian population of the Ottoman state was reported at about two million in 1915. An estimated one million had perished by 1918, while hundreds of thousands had...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was absent from a national celebration dedicated to the nation’s founder and Kim’s grandfather, Kim Il Sung, on Friday, raising questions about the state of his health. According to reports from KCNA, the country’s state-run media, North Korean leaders paid tribute to Kim Il Sung’s preserved body at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun but did not mention Kim Jong Un’s presence, according to Reuters. Kim was also not present in official photos of the celebration. This was the first time in decades that the country's leader has not made an appearance during the...

Syed Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik used semi-automatic rifles to gun down more than a dozen people at a Christmas party for San Bernardino County employees on Dec. 2, 2015, prosecutors say. Police later confronted and killed the two attackers. Enrique Marquez - a former neighbor and friend of Farook - allegedly bought the two rifles for Farook in 2011 and 2012, and the two planned to launch bomb and shooting attacks at Riverside City College, where they attended classes, and a notoriously gridlocked section of highway without exits. The two never carried out those plans.

Apart from the Charge of the Light Brigade (the actual charge, but also the poem), the Crimean War (1853-1856) is best known as the first “modern” war, in that it was during the Crimean War when later military staples like rail, telegraphs, trenches, and rifled firearms and artillery first got tested on a major battlefield. Oh, and it also led to the development of modern professional nursing, triage, and anesthetics, but who’s counting? The 1853 Battle of Sinop is perhaps most noteworthy for the way it helped pioneer another development in military technology, although it’s also important in that it...

Gettysburg Address as recited by Jeff Daniels. Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

Twenty-five years ago this month, President Ronald Reagan told the nation he’d been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. “I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life,” he wrote in a letter addressed to his “Fellow Americans,” dated November 5, 1994. Reagan wrote that he and his wife, Nancy, decided to disclose his condition in hopes it would increase attention for the disease that slowly, but surely, robs the mind of its memories. “In opening our hearts, we hope this might promote greater awareness of this condition,” he wrote. “Perhaps it will encourage a clearer...

ARLINGTON, VA (WCMH) — Nineteen years ago today, 17 American sailors were killed and 37 sailors were injured when the USS Cole was attacked by terrorists in a small boat laden with explosives in Yemen on Oct. 12, 2000.

It's one thing to engage in diplomacy. It's another to praise evil.This week, Donald Trump tweeted, "Congratulations to President Xi and the Chinese people on the 70th Anniversary of the People's Republic of China!" For diplomatic reasons, it's become customary for American presidents to praise and commend this depraved totalitarian regime. In a just world, the president would be sending his sympathies to the Chinese people, who have endured inconceivable sufferings under the communist regime since 1949.As Helen Raleigh, whose family experienced Maoist-driven deprivations, aptly noted, the 70th anniversary of the People's Republic of China marks one of the...

Since 2012, I've been a frequent visitor to the People's Republic of China. With 52 red stamps on my passport to prove it, I'm still mystified by the incongruities that jump out at me as a Westerner. IÂ’ve come to accept that plenty of contradictions about China will never make sense to the Western mindset. Yet China, whose Communist Party government turns 70 today, marches on, contradictions and all. The same China thatÂ’s famous for its human rights violations is the China that lifted more than 800 million people out of poverty as per capita GDP rose from $89 in...

Today is the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the People's Republic of China, which marks the occasion when the Communist Party seized power in the world's most populous nation. The regime established then remains in power today, and is holding a massive celebration. But today is more properly an occasion for mourning. It is an appropriate time to remember the horrific injustices of the government that committed the biggest mass murder in the history of the world, and numerous other injustices and atrocities.Though it gets nowhere near the level of attention it deserves, Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward...

Mark Kramer is a huge Beatles fan. Just hours after stepping off his overnight flight from Florida to London, he is not bleary-eyed but brimming with energy as he savors his time at the world's best-known pedestrian crossing. Beside the streaks of white paint that mark the zebra crossing on Abbey Road -- a site protected since 2010 for its cultural and historical importance -- he rattles off Beatles facts, talks about the band's musical journey and grows ever more excited. Kramer, 40, is here because of "Abbey Road," the seminal album the band released on September 26, 1969 --...

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The Latest on the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II (all times local): 7:00 p.m. Russian President Vladimir Putin wasn’t invited to attend ceremonies for the 80th anniversary of the day World War II started in Poland. But his Foreign Ministry tried to make sure the Soviet Union’s role in ending the war got acknowledged at least. The ministry tweeted on Sunday: “One may have varying opinions on Soviet policy during the initial period of World War II, but it is impossible to deny the fact that it was the Soviet Union that...