Free Republic

A Cascade of Books by Frank Eliscu is a bronze sculptural screen that rises five stories above the main entrance to the James Madison Memorial Building of the Library of Congress. Measuring approximately 50 feet high by 35 feet wide, it consists of 98 open books, with some as large as five feet wide. Abraham Lincoln's bust was carved directly from the block of marble rather than creating a copy of a plaster cast made from a clay model. Sculpted by Gutzon Borglum, best known for his sculptures at Mount Rushmore, South Dakota. The statue of President Abraham Lincoln depicts...

On July 4, Ben & Jerry’s public relations division made headlines by tweeting, “It’s high time we recognize that the US exists on stolen Indigenous land and commit to returning it.” The tweet was widely criticized. But behind the grandstanding and virtue-signaling, there is a deadly serious movement within American and Canadian liberal circles that holds both of these countries to be illegitimate. ...[T]he cause is so popular on social media platforms such as Twitter and why people need to understand and arm themselves with counterarguments.

Thursday, Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) spoke about the Biden administration’s decision to close Mount Rushmore for the Fourth of July festivities, a contrast to a year earlier when then-President Donald Trump spoke before a fireworks display. The South Dakota Republican slammed the move, claiming it was part of the “radical left’s agenda.” “You know, the decision was really arbitrary,” she said. “That’s why we’ll be appealing this decision, and the fight isn’t over. There wasn’t specific reasons that had credibility, and we call this an unlawful act to not make sure that we can conduct our celebration on July 3...

EXCLUSIVE: South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem sued the Biden administration on Friday after it canceled the Independence Day fireworks celebration at Mount Rushmore, demanding the court "expeditiously" issue a permit for the event to take place.Noem, a Republican, filed a lawsuit Friday in U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota Central Division."Mount Rushmore is the very best place to celebrate America’s birthday and all that makes our country special," Noem wrote. "After telling us they’d ‘circle back,’ the Biden Administration has not responded to our request to uphold the Memorandum Agreement between the State of South Dakota and...

Last year South Dakota welcomed President Trump to Mount Rushmore on the 4th of July. The President shared a historic speech and then fireworks ended the day. This year the Democrats want none of it. Joe Biden is unable to make the trip and deliver a speech in his mental and physical state. Because of this, they will punish South Dakota for their patriotic display last year. The Washington Examiner reported yesterday: The National Park Service denied a request from South Dakota to host another July Fourth fireworks display at Mount Rushmore following a controversial Independence Day in 2020 attended...

Trump denied Sunday a report he seriously proposed he be added to Mount Rushmore, but indicated he thought it was a “good idea.” “This is Fake News by the failing New York Times and bad ratings CNN,” Trump wrote on social media. “Never suggested it although, based on all of the many things accomplished during the first 3 1/2 years, perhaps more than any other Presidency, sounds like a good idea to me!” The New York Times reported on Sunday the White House reached out to South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem in 2018 about adding additional presidents to Mount Rushmore....

Despite the spate of recent polls showing former Vice President Joe Biden with a commanding lead over President Donald Trump, a new shock poll reveals Americans aren’t quite as eager to hand over their freedom as some have said. According to RealClearPolitics’ latest aggregate of polls, Biden leads Trump by 8 points, 49.6 percent to 40.8. But a poll conducted for the Sunday Express by the Democracy Institute, a Washington-based think tank, reveals Americans aren’t buying the narrative the U.S. media are trying to advance. Contrary to what the media would have us believe, 77 percent of the 1,500 likely...

...Speaking of “changing” mountains, Mount Rushmore has been in the news. It is a place where presidents and would-be presidents have enjoyed visiting, along with hundreds of thousands of others each year. History records that on July 3, 1991 President George H.W. Bush visited Mount Rushmore to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the opening of the monument. Because of WWII, Mount Rushmore had never been officially dedicated. The Bush visit in 1991, kicked off a $40 million fund drive to refurbish the monument with actor Jimmy Stewart and several other celebrities in attendance. On July 6, 1999 President Clinton visited...

Despite the spate of recent polls showing former Vice President Joe Biden with a commanding lead over President Donald Trump, a new shock poll reveals Americans aren’t quite as eager to hand over their freedom as some have said.According to RealClearPolitics’ latest aggregate of polls, Biden leads Trump by 8 points, 49.6 percent to 40.8. But a poll conducted for the Sunday Express by the Democracy Institute, a Washington-based think tank, reveals Americans aren’t buying the narrative the U.S. media are trying to advance.Contrary to what the media would have us believe, 77 percent of the 1,500 likely voters surveyed...

In a recent article about Mount Rushmore, The New York Times said of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt that “each of these titans of American history has a complicated legacy.” Reporters Bryan Pietsch and Jacey Fortin casually summarized the woke herd’s litany of grievances: Washington and Jefferson owned slaves, Lincoln was “reluctant and late” to issue the Emancipation Proclamation and Roosevelt “actively sought to Christianize and uproot Native Americans.” Rushmore’s sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, didn’t escape unscathed. “Borglum had been involved with another project: an enormous bas-relief at Stone Mountain in Georgia that memorialized Confederate leaders,” the...

RAPID CITY, S.D. — A leader of a Rapid City-based indigenous rights advocacy organization who was arrested during a protest near Mount Rushmore on Friday, July 3, has been released from jail after posting bail, according to court documents. Nick Tilsen, CEO of the NDN Collective, posted a $2,000 cash bond on Monday, July 6, after being held in custody at the Pennington County Jail in Rapid City. Tilsen, 38, is facing one count of second degree robbery for allegedly taking personal property from a law enforcement officer. The felony charge carries a penalty of up to 10 years in...

Skip the first 2 minutes to avoid his commercials. Nice piece from Dr Steve Hurley. Highlights. 1. New Express poll has Trump tied with Biden at 47% each. 2. In case you think it's an outlier, Zogby also had a poll June 30th with Trump and Biden tied at 46% each. (Not to mention the Harris poll which had the gap between Biden and Trump down to just 4%). 3. The Express poll had Trump on course to win the crucial swing states including Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin where Trump outpolls Biden by 48 percent to 44...

Don Lemon told fellow CNN anchor Chris Cuomo that the key to resolving the ongoing controversy about American monuments and racism is to put Barack Obama “front and center” on Mount Rushmore. nd he was serious. “I think, listen … if they are going to put someone on Mount Rushmore, considering the history of this country, the first black president should be front and center.” Cuomo partially agreed. “Add to Mount Rushmore. I think that’s, first of all, it’s a more salable idea than the idea of taking away Founding Fathers.” Lemon further added to his point by saying, “So...

What happens if COVID death rates plummet to the point of no longer being a pandemic threat? The media will turn it on Trump.> Legacy media became predictably hysterical after President Donald Trump’s speech Friday defending American exceptionalism at one of the nation’s most iconic monuments, Mount Rushmore. “We will state the truth in full, without apology: We declare that the United States of America is the most just and exceptional nation ever to exist on Earth,” Trump proclaimed from the South Dakota Black Hills. “We are proud of the face that our country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, and...

President Trump’s 4th of July remarks at Mount Rushmore, drew sharp criticism for what some deemed to be “divisive.” Companies have changed their logos, sports teams like the Washington Redskins are seriously considering name changes, and monuments and flags dedicated to Confederate leaders are being removed. Trump accused those demanding change of trying to wipe away history and criticized the media for labeling their opponents as “racist.” Former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci blasted Trump’s rhetoric. Trump is “doubling and tripling down on full-on racism,” Scaramucci said “Just go read transcripts of the speeches he gave over the weekend....

That much news coverage is biased against President Trump goes without saying. But every now and then there comes an episode of bias so egregious that it deserves attention. The coverage of the president's July 3 speech at Mount Rushmore is one of those episodes. The Wall Street Journal editorial page called it "one of the best speeches" of Trump's time in office. Conservative intellectual Roger Kimball called it "perhaps his most forceful and eloquent to date." The message, Kimball said, was an "invitation to unity in the midst of conflict." Indeed, Trump's theme was a call for Americans to...

Video at link. President Donald Trump's 4th of July speech at Mt. Rushmore Friday night focused on the United States' history and legacy in the world. He also addressed the issue with cancel culture advocates trying to completely shatter American history by pulling down monuments and statues. But, according to Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), the president's speech should have focused on the 130,000 Americans who died as a result of the Wuhan coronavirus and the bogus story about Russia putting a bounty on American troops' heads. "Where does it end? Should statues, for example, of George Washington, come down?" CNN's...

His vow was that the American people “will not allow our country, and all of its values, history, and culture, to be taken from them.” At this point the audience was chanting “USA!” Mr. Trump then laced into “cancel culture,” which he called “driving people from their jobs, shaming dissenters, and demanding total submission from anyone who disagrees.” He called it “completely alien to our culture and our values.” It would be one thing were any of the major Democrats saying such things. The cat, though, has got their tongues. Not a peep of support from, say, Vice President Biden...

Friday’s celebration at Mount Rushmore reminded me of Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain” where after a wild witches’ sabbath, church bells ring, the sun comes out and the witches vanish. For weeks now we’ve watched the Antifa-BLM-just plain thugs and looters’ witches’ sabbath -- rampaging through our streets, defacing and destroying treasured memorials, looting, shooting, beating innocents and murdering them. Not a single Democrat leader has condemned these things, choosing instead to pretend these are peaceful protests against police brutality. Every four years they gin up some incident to create the impression that this is a racist society that requires...

With a rousing Independence Day speech at Mount Rushmore, President Trump certainly laid down the principles on which he will now go to the hustings. His choice of a setting put him before the famed monument to four presidents — each of which is a target of the movement that has been seeking to besmirch or destroy statues of our national leaders. Mr. Trump left no doubt in respect of which side he is on. Snip . . .