Free Republic

Ernesto Davila Marin was in elementary school when rebellion interrupted class. As he left the schoolhouse that October day, black smoke rose from the town center where nationalists had set Jayuya ablaze, shooting police officers and declaring the independent republic of Puerto Rico from a rooftop. In the struggle for sovereignty from American colonial rule, Puerto Rican independence fighters staged uprisings in nearly a dozen cities that day in 1950 and later attempted to assassinate President Harry S. Truman. They held the central mountain city for three days until U.S. Air Force bombers buzzed over the emerald peaks packed with...

By a narrow margin, more voters think Puerto Rico should become a state than think it should stay a territory. According to the latest Fox News Poll, 41 percent say Puerto Rico should become the 51st star on the flag. That’s an 11-point increase since the last time the question was asked in June 2007, when 30 percent opted for statehood.

Weeks after Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, the island remains in crisis. Eighty three percent of people in Puerto Rico don’t have power and thirty five percent don’t have access to clean water. The death toll currently stands at 48 but is likely to keep rising in the coming weeks. Washington has responded to this crisis with billions in immediate disaster assistance, helping the cash-strapped island afford its basic expenses after tax revenue has all but dried up. This financial commitment isn’t going to end anytime soon: Experts suggest the final cost could exceed $100 billion.

Press Statement Michael R. Pompeo Secretary of State Washington, DC August 24, 2018 On behalf of President Trump and the American people, congratulations to all Ukrainians on your national day. The United States steadfastly supports Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression. We pay tribute to those who have fought and sacrificed for freedom in Ukraine, and we stand behind Ukraine as it adopts transformational reforms to increase prosperity, security, and rule of law. The friendship between our countries runs deep, and we are committed to the success of a stable, prosperous, democratic, and free Ukraine. We look forward to...

A pro-independence Hong Kong politician whose party is under threat of a ban lashed out at China in a closely watched Tuesday speech, drawing immediate criticism from local authorities. Andy Chan Ho-tin, a member of the Hong Kong National Party, has been at the center of controversy over free speech and Hong Kong's autonomy. The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Hong Kong, which invited him, came under pressure itself from the central government in Beijing as well as local authorities to cancel the event. Dozens of protesters gathered outside the club in central Hong Kong amid heavy police presence as what...

Op-Ed: Independence Day is not an act of Congress By William Haupt III | Watchdog.org 23 hrs ago “You’ll never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve ‘your’ freedom.” – John Adams If you’ve paid attention to the U.S. calendar of official holidays, then you’ve noticed some holidays are fixed like Christmas, which is always Dec 25. You are also aware others are flexible as to which date they fall upon. Memorial Day falls on the last Monday in May and Labor Day falls on the first Monday in September. And it’s no coincidence Washington’s birthday and...

When the time arrived to put independence into writing, our Founders embraced the principles of John Locke (1632-1704). Given the simplicity of Locke’s fundamentals and the popularity of his works as 18th century events cascaded into our Revolution, one doesn’t need a PhD in philosophy to grasp the elements of his theory. America would do well to relearn the precepts of the man who so influenced our revolutionary era, for within his framework is the salvation of the American experiment in free government. In his Two Treatises of Government, Locke’s starting point was not seriously questioned in America until recent...

Harry Truman just went home. After his presidency ended in January,1953 he caught a train and went back to Independence, Missouri to live in his mother-in law's house. Always a man of modest means, Truman didn't even own a house

WASHINGTON DC (Kurdistan 24) - Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) spoke with Kurdistan 24 late on Thursday, following the Senate’s confirmation of Mike Pompeo as the new US Secretary of State. The Kurdistan independence referendum, King said, “should have been honored,” as he noted that 92 percent of voters had chosen independence. “The Kurdish people have earned their independence,” he continued, “by defending themselves and by defending others who needed their defense,” in both Iraq and Syria. “They have a unique language, unique culture” and are a “people tied together” by a common bond. Kurdistan “was the only” area in Iraq,...

Greenland votes Tuesday in a local parliament election, with full independence a key issue for the self-ruled Danish territory threatened by global warming and struggling with youth suicides and sex abuse among its indigenous people. Rich in unexploited natural resources, Greenland gained autonomy from Denmark in 1979 and was granted self-rule in 2009, though Copenhagen retains control of foreign and defense affairs. The vast island between the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans, mostly covered in ice and home to just 55,000 people, also receives some 3.6 billion kroner (€483 million, $591 million) in subsidies each year from its former colonial...

It’s that time again.High Holy Day.Today is the 253rd anniversary of the “shot heard ‘round the world” at Lexington and Concord. The British regulars who started the fracas were following an age old government tradition of seizing powder, munitions and property for a pretentious King who had assumed such wide distribution of the tools of resistance should be available only to the government approved groups such as soldiers despite the danger on the frontier. We celebrate that time of defiance against tyranny when for sixteen years (1775-1791), all thirteen colonial provinces and the thousands of rural polities that exited outside...

Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather. We have no elected government, nor are we likely to have one, so I address you with no greater authority than that with which liberty itself always speaks. I declare the global social space we are building to be naturally independent of the tyrannies you seek to impose on us. You...

Apparently Trump's recent letter to the Energy Department, which included very pointed questions about climate change research, and/or his appointment of former Texas Governor Rick Perry to lead that department going forward (a department that Perry proposed shutting down back in 2012 for those who may have forgotten), "triggered" California's head snowflake, Governor Jerry Brown, into an epic climate change rant before a gathering of scientists at the American Geophysical Union's national conference in San Francisco. Vowing to defy Trump's efforts to undermine the "progress" made by California on climate change regulations, Brown promised that his state is "ready to...

On Wednesday December 6, Finland celebrates one hundred years of independence. Major festivities will make note of Finland's journey since 1917 – when the Finnish parliament proclaimed independence amid the Bolshevik revolution in Russia – from a poor provincial backwater to a global leader in technology, education and design, and a "social demographic triumph"as The Guardian put it.

Breaking with the stance of other Western countries, Israel decided on Monday not to express an official opinion on the issue of Catalan independence in the meantime, NRG reported. According to the report, Spain asked Israel over the weekend to publicly declare that it does not support Catalan independence, as part of Spain’s efforts to garner international consensus on the matter. Israel’s ambivalence is a departure from the opposition to Catalan independence declared by the EU and US. On Friday, US State Dept. spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement that “Catalonia is an integral part of Spain, and the...

Catalonia's regional Parliament voted overwhelmingly Friday in favor of independence from Spain, taking the country's political crisis into uncharted territory. The vote came as the Spanish Senate debated the Madrid government's unprecedented plans to seize control of the autonomous region in a bid to quash its independence bid. Lawmakers voted in secret in the Catalan Parliament chamber after a heated debate on a motion "to form the Catalan Republic as an independent and sovereign state." The outcome: 70 votes in favor, 10 against and two blanks.

The Catalan regional parliament has voted to declare independence from Spain, just as the Spanish government appears set to impose direct rule. The move was backed 70-10 in a ballot boycotted by opposition MPs. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy earlier told senators direct rule was needed to return "law, democracy and stability" to Catalonia. The crisis began when Catalans backed independence in a disputed vote earlier this month. What powers does Catalonia have?The case for and against independenceReality Check: Police violence in Catalonia The Catalan government said that of the 43% of potential voters who took part in the...

Spain is to start suspending Catalan autonomy on Saturday.... The PM's office said ministers would meet to activate Article 155 of the constitution..... Catalonia's leader said earlier the region's parliament would vote on independence, backed in a disputed referendum on October 1st, if Spain "continues repression". Some fear the moves could spark unrest......

MADRID — Spain’s prime minister on Wednesday asked the head of the secession-minded Catalonia region the question that no one can seem to answer: Did he declare independence or not? The query reflected more than just confusion. Clarity on Catalonia’s position is critical for Spain to map out its next move — including possible harsh measures against Catalonia if it proclaims itself a sovereign nation. The uncertainty comes after the region’s president, Carles Puigdemont, told the Catalan parliament in Barcelona on Tuesday that Catalonia had the right to be an independent country, citing a disputed referendum last week that showed...

The United States was born when the Founding Fathers seceded from England. So why do so many people now see secession as a terrible thing? Recently, people in Catalonia voted to break away from Spain -- not to declare war on Spain or refuse to trade with Spain, just to control their own affairs. The Spanish government said they must not even vote. They sent police to shut down polling places and beat protestors into staying off the streets. Governments never want to give up power. The European Union was offended and American politicians shocked when the United Kingdom voted...