Free Republic

. President-elect Donald Trump’s role in securing a hostage deal in Gaza before even taking office drew parallels with Iran’s release of American hostages in 1981. On Wednesday, mediators announced a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, with one of the stipulations involving the release of 33 hostages. If conditions are met, all remaining hostages will be released in the planned second and third stages of the ceasefire, which would culminate in an end to hostilities. Trump’s role in securing their release before even entering office drew parallels to Iran’s release of hostages minutes after the inauguration of President Ronald Reagan...

‘The true scale of the number of hotels which have been secretly opened hasn’t been exposed…’ Conservative MP Sir Gavin Williamson reacts to outrage over the number of hotels being used to house illegal migrants, and the economic effect on local communities. Transcript linked below

The year was 1860. The nation was coming apart and yet, its political parties made plans to come together - to gather in convention despite deep-seated and festering sectional issues, each to nominate a candidate and approve platforms that, as it turned out, united regions but not a nation. That meant dark consequences, ensuring this country would reap a cataclysmic whirlwind. With today’s polarization as a historical backdrop, this is the story of the most divisive presidential election in the history of this nation - the election of 1860.

As the sun set on a shattered Europe in the aftermath of the First World War, the birth pangs of a nightmarish reality were felt across Germany. From these turbulent times emerged the National Socialist German Workers' Party, colloquially known as the Nazis. Rising to full power in 1933 under the malevolent leadership of Adolf Hitler and his cadre of ruthless lieutenants like Heinrich Himmler and Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Germany erected an edifice of tyranny, intolerance, and unparalleled cruelty. Picture this: the year is 1939, and you are a resident of Berlin. Kristallnacht, the infamous "Night of Broken Glass," occurred...

Alexander Lukashenko (born August 30, 1954, Kopys, Vitebsk oblast, Belorussia, U.S.S.R. [now in Belarus]) Belarusian politician who espoused communist principles and who became president of the country in 1994.

It’s all eyes on Scotland this week, after First Minister Nicola Sturgeon's surprising decision to stand down. And with a TikTok ban and a Tory tax row, it’s far from a quiet week on the rocket. Liam thinks Sturgeon's determination to have her own way on gender identity issues ultimately led to her downfall. Allison believes she ran out of road on Scottish independence, and predicts Labour could be the biggest benefactors of her shock exit. Also stepping into the sanctuary of sweet reason is author and journalist Peter Hitchens, who joins our co-pilots to discuss his latest book ‘A...

[Featured Sermon] on today's sermonaudio.com.

I've noticed there are some rather interesting parallels happening in this election cycle with the 1860 election. First, the election came at a time of deep political division. The Dems were led by a weak President, James Buchanan, but they held Congress. The newly formed Republican Party were becoming popular, and were considered radical socially. Then, during the nomination process, the Democrats split three ways into factions, and eventually nominated two rivals, Stephan Douglas (the Dem Establishment choice) and John Breckinridge (the hard-core Southerner choice). Not satisfied with these choices, another faction split from the Dems and ran as a...

People are beginning to compare Barack Obama's administration to the failed administration of Jimmy Carter, but a better comparison is to the Roosevelt administration of the 1930s and '40s. Let's look at it with the help of a publication from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and the Foundation for Economic Education titled "Great Myths of the Great Depression," by Dr. Lawrence Reed. During the first year of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, he called for increasing federal spending to $10 billion while revenues were only $3 billion. Between 1933 and 1936, government expenditures rose by more than 83...

...All this got me wondering how Hitler’s death would have been covered under the rules of engagement which govern our modern-day media circus ..."This is the BBC Home Service. Here is the news for today, May 1st, 1945, read by Alvar Liddell. Confusion continues to surround the last moments of Adolf Hitler, who died yesterday in his bunker in Berlin. Incredibly, the world’s most-wanted man had been living in the heart of the capital of the Third Reich, in plain sight of millions of Germans who maintain they were not supporters of the Nazis and had no knowledge of the Fuhrer’s...

It's been said that history does not always repeat itself, but it does rhyme. It's also been said that those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. How is this for historic irony, the first leg of the Great Depression reduced the Dow Jones ... by 48%. The subsequent rally lifted the Dow by over 40%. Fast forward and you will find that the first leg of this recession melted the Dow Jones ... S&P 500 ... and Nasdaq ... by just over 50%, while the rally from the March lows - reminiscent of the 1930s rally...

...t is hard for most of my friends and family to understand why I have been so negative on the Detroit autos for years. Unlike the mass media, I don't think the product they produce was the main problem at the end. I told people these companies would eventually go bankrupt / or something along those lines for several reasons. Why? Well for the following reasons and after each point I follow with a parallel to the United States. 1. GM had massive pension / post retirement liabilities which made it almost impossible to stay in the black and service...

SACRAMENTO, Nov. 18, 2008 – For California National Guardsmen, the annual fire season has rendered moot the question of whether natural disasters will strike the state. No longer do they ask “if,” but only “when” and “where.” Maj. Gen. Vasyl Kvashuk, director of the Ukrainian army's civil protection department, addresses key leaders at the California National Guard’s joint force headquarters in Sacramento, Calif., Nov. 12, 2008. Kvashuk led a Ukrainian team that was in California to participate in Vigilant Guard '09, the National Guard's weeklong disaster-response exercise. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech Sgt. Dave Loeffler  (Click photo for screen-resolution...

Excerpt - The lines between the Mac OS and Windows are starting to blur. And that portends major changes going forward in the world of PCs. At MacWorld, a little company called Parallels won awards for the latest version of its hit product, which enables you to run both operating systems at the same time on a Macintosh. It's a major breakthrough. While the last version of Parallels allowed you to run both operating systems at once, it still required you to switch back and forth between the two. Now, however, Parallels' Coherence product, which the company says will ship...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6, 2006 -- Sixty-five years ago tomorrow, the United States endured an attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, that for the next 60 years -- until Sept. 11, 2001 -- stood as the most devastating enemy attack on U.S. soil. Like the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor has been called a defining moment in U.S. history. It caught the country by surprise, rallied its people against their attackers and thrust the nation into a long, difficult war against tyranny. On the 65th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attacks, they present more parallels,...

How do you measure the value of life? Is it quality, quantity or something else? Right now the nation is once again split over the taking of human life. I am obviously talking about the life and death struggle surrounding Terri Schiavo. This is a subject that strikes a particularly strong and personal cord with me. I have always believed in the sanctity of human life. This belief applies equally in situations like the one facing Terri as well as those related to the unborn. For example, back in October my little girl was diagnosed in utero with Down's syndrome....