Free Republic

As November draws closer, President Trump has indeed adopted a more ominous tone about the election. In speeches and interviews, he complained about “voter fraud” and warns that Democrats will use millions of fraudulent mail-in ballots to steal his second term. A few days ago Bernie Sanders said that he fears President Donald Trump will refuse to leave office if he loses reelection and is calling on Congress and the media to take action to prepare for that scenario now, he said in an interview with POLITICO. “This is not just idle speculation,” said Sanders, pointing to comments the president...

Less than a year before John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln, Booth’s brother, Edwin Booth, saved Lincoln’s oldest son, Robert Todd Lincoln, from being injured and possibly killed by a train. Edwin Booth was regarded as one of the great Shakespearean actors of the 19th century. He was the manager of the Winter Garden Theatre in New York City, where many Shakespearean productions were made in 1862. Edwin was a supporter of Lincoln and a Unionist, and he was not close with his brother, who supported secession. In 1863 or 1864, the exact date is uncertain, Edwin Booth and Robert...

On September 1862, weeks before he issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, Abraham Lincoln wrestled with the enormous dilemma of whether to change the stakes of the Civil War…In a private document found after his death, the president struggled to understand what God expected of him and of the nation. “The will of God prevails,” Lincoln began. “In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong. God can not be for, and against the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is...

Mayor Brandon Johnson issued an executive order "banning Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers from entering any city property to enforce federal laws against illegal immigration. This includes streets and parking lots. Further, City Police are instructed to ignore any 911 calls from ICE personnel being attacked by protesters." Gov. JB Pritzker hailed this "strong response to the federal invasion of Chicago and our state. In support of Mayor Johnson I have filed a lawsuit seeking a court injunction to prevent Trump from using National Guard troops to fight crime in our state. We going to use every lever at...

The Civil War was undoubtedly a crisis for the soldiers, the nation, and the destiny of the American people. In many ways, that war made us, and continues to make us, the country and the people we are today. Shelby Foote famously described the Civil War as “the crossroads of our being.” It was a great personal and national crisis. However, it was also a theological crisis. Leading historian Mark Noll wrote a book called The Civil War as a Theological Crisis…The book documents and addresses the fact that Northerners and Southerners experienced the shock and horror of the Civil...

Chicago’s Democrat Mayor Brandon Johnson suggested on Tuesday that the Chicago Police should arrest ICE agents and other federal officers who he claims are breaking his new executive order aimed at hampering immigration enforcement. On Monday, Johnson signed a dubious executive order creating “ICE-Free Zones” to ban federal agents from using city-owned properties as staging areas for immigration enforcement. Johnson’s proclamation comes as President Donald Trump suggested that the anti-ICE actions by Chicago’s leaders are akin to an insurrection against the federal government. Now, the mayor is claiming that violations of his orders are a “crime” and those who break...

Trump is all about political theatre, or circus, and it often seems that even in resisting him, as decent citizens must do, we become part of the circus too. We are like the extras who splutter while he thrills the base by violating some heretofore inviolate human norm. So the show goes on. But why not put on our own show, our own form of political theatre, that leaves Trump out – or at least has a different focus? We could consider the kind of political theatre that Americans created from 1768 to 1776 to resist Britain’s growing crackdown. Instead...

I asked for recommendations of contemporaneous histories of the post-Civil war Reconstruction in the South years ago, but lost the bookmark to that thread. Had several great replies, but I can't remember the authors. Looking for balanced accounts, preferably pre-WW1. Thanks for any tips.

...Following President Abraham Lincoln's assassination on April 15, 1865, President Andrew Johnson rescinded Field Order 15 and returned to Confederate owners the 400,000 acres of land—“a strip of coastline stretching from Charleston, South Carolina to the St. John’s River in Florida, including Georgia’s Sea Islands and the mainland 30 miles in from the coast.” Roy L. Brooks, a distinguished professor of law at the University of San Diego School of Law, described Johnson as a segregationist “who wanted to basically return African Americans to a position of subordination.” Without land of their own to work, the 3.9 million members of...

TMZ founder Harvey Levin is facing massive backlash after his staff was caught on camera cheering the assassination of Charlie Kirk, a conservative leader gunned down on a college campus this week. The clip sparked outrage online, with YouTube users flooding Levin’s channel with thumbs-down reactions and angry comments. At first, Levin tried to deflect, claiming the cheers were about a “car chase” unrelated to Kirk. But now, with public pressure mounting, Levin is changing his tune—and issuing a grim warning. “I am not gonna mince words. I fear a civil war,” Levin said. “Charlie Kirk is different. This is...

The crowds were phenomenal. Pews always filled to capacity on Easter, but no one had ever seen anything like April 16, 1865… Shot on Good Friday and dead on Saturday: The timing of the assassination made Easter Sunday 1865 a particularly important—and confusing—occasion, as shocked mourners came to church for what should have been a day of rejoicing over both the resurrection of Christ and military victory. The reversal of fortunes was manifested materially, as churchwomen rearranged the colorful springtime displays they had readied. Easter decoration had become something of a commercial enterprise by the mid nineteenth century…As a congregant...

(Warning: long rant) My liberal friends are completely oblivious about how radicalizing the last week has been for tens of millions of normal Americans. Zero clue. I’m not talking about people who are “online”; I mean regular, everyday Americans. “Normies.” People who scroll through Facebook posts and Instagram reels from the Dutch Bros drive thru line. Political moderates who have water cooler chats about Mahomes touchdowns and Bon Jovi concerts, not Twitter threads or Rachel Maddow monologues. Millions of them. Tens of millions. They’re logging on, they’re engaging, and they’re furious. And I’ll be candid: They blame you guys. They...

To ponder such a scenario is to delve into the realm of historical conjecture. However, by examining the political landscape of the time and Lincoln's own aspirations, it is possible to glean insight into what might have transpired had his life not been cut short by events. Firstly, it's essential to consider Lincoln's vision for post-Civil War America. He was deeply committed to the principles of reconciliation and reconstruction, aiming to heal the nation's wounds and forge a path towards unity. In the aftermath of the Civil War, Lincoln sought to reintegrate the Southern states into the Union with leniency...

Yesterday, I published The Geometry of Blindsides, my small-picture take on the death of Charlie Kirk. Today, I want to do what I didn’t do then. This is my big-picture take on Charlie Kirk’s death. I have two points to make. The first point is for those on the right declaring, in their grief, that this means war. Whether or not war is the correct answer to “What is the current state of things?” is above my pay grade. But I do need to point out something almost nobody is taking seriously enough.

“When I think about the trip today, I wouldn’t do it again – it was so dangerous. What I remember is that many people died, they drowned … there were too many people on that boat.” Anas Modamani, who as a teenager fled Syria’s brutal civil war for the safety of Europe in 2015, is one of many who ended up in Germany, where he still lives and now holds a passport. Sitting in a Syrian cafe in Neukölln, a culturally diverse district of the German capital, Modamani is smiling and well-groomed. He works in IT and in his own...

Soros-sponsored Larry Krasner radically responds with threats against ICE. A George Soros-backed district attorney is vowing to wage a prosecutorial war against US Immigration and Customs (ICE) enforcement agents and any National Guard troops who may be deployed to his city. Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner has pledged to go after “people who commit crimes wearing a uniform,” likening them to ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is serving a 22 ½-year prison sentence for murder in the death of George Floyd in 2020.Krasner’s eye-opening interview with MSNBC, posted Aug. 31, provided a disturbing look into an urban progressive mindset....

A painting of Gen. Robert E. Lee dressed in his Confederate uniform is back on display in the West Point's library, several years after the storied academy removed honors to the Civil War military leader. There also are plans to restore a bust of Lee that had been removed from a plaza at the U.S. Military Academy, and a quote from Lee about honor that was removed from a separate plaza is now on display beneath the portrait, an Army spokesperson said Tuesday.

Jonah Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and longtime Never-Trumper, suggested that the Democrats could send the military to confiscate firearms from law-abiding Americans. Goldberg framed his comments during a panel discussion on violent crime in major Democrat-run cities, comparing it to Donald Trump’s efforts to use federal resources to restore order in places like Chicago. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order last month, titled the “Protecting Chicago Initiative,” aimed at preventing the potential deployment of the National Guard by President Donald Trump to address the city’s rampant crime issues. Johnson, a far-left Democrat, claims the order is necessary...

Trump can’t use National Guard, military in California to enforce laws, Judge Breyer rules

Benny Johnson @bennyjohnson 🚨BREAKING: The 9th Circuit has blocked the Trump administration from ending legal status for 600,000 Venezuelans. The judicial coup goes on. From Nick Sortor 1:30 PM · Aug 29, 2025