Free Republic

Sparks will fly in Washington as activists torch an American flag to protest President Trump's July Fourth "Salute to America," which Trump claims will be one of the largest events in city history. Longtime flag-burning activist Gregory "Joey" Johnson of the Revolutionary Communist Party told the Washington Examiner, "I'm going to be there in D.C.," and "that rag of empire and oppression is going to burn." Johnson is well known for winning a 1989 Supreme Court case that invalidated state laws against flag burning. He declined to share the time and location of next week's protest or say how many...

Lonnie Walker IV made a different kind of fireworks on his Fourth of July. The Spurs rookie drew a lot of attention when he tweeted Wednesday that he did not celebrate the holiday. Walker’s implication, it seems, is the holiday does not observe independence for all Americans. “Will never celebrate the 4th of July,” he wrote. “Know your history and stay woke.”

McCain is celebrating at his home in Arizona while he continues physical therapy to combat a deadly form of brain cancer. “One of the greatest privileges of my life has been marking Independence Day with America’s service members and diplomats selflessly serving overseas,” McCain said. “As I spend this Fourth of July at home in Arizona, my thoughts are with these courageous men and women fighting terrorism and tyranny around the world.” The 81-year-old was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a rare and aggressive form of brain cancer, in July 2017. Following his diagnosis, McCain left Washington and returned to his home...

True American hero Joey "Jaws" Chestnut is your Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest champion once again. As if there was ever a doubt. The 34-year-old took home his third straight title -- his 11th in the last 12 years -- on Wednesday afternoon in Coney Island. Chestnut celebrated the Fourth of July by slamming a record-breaking 74 hot dogs into his face and earning the $10,000 prize.

CLEVELAND - The FBI says it has made an arrest in connection with a Fourth of July terror plot that would have targeted downtown Cleveland. Here are the latest updates: Update 7:01 a.m. EDT July 2: According to news release from the FBI’s Cleveland Division, the suspect, whose name has not been released, is “being charged with attempted material support of a foreign terrorist organization.”

•President Calvin Coolidge was born in Plymouth, Vt., on July 4, 1872. He is the only president born on July 4; however, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe all died on the Fourth of July. •One lucky Philadelphian purchased a $4 picture at a flea market. Behind the picture was an original 1776 printing of the Declaration of Independence. It was sold to TV producer Norman Lear for $8.1 million. •After the war, King George III rationalized that Washington would become a dictator and make the Americans yearn for royal rule. When he was told that Washington planned to...

It's such a shame to see a magazine that claims to be "The Root", be so willing to ignore "the roots" of what you would think would be their own history. Recently, The Root engaged in gross historical malpractice by giving voice to people who would benefit greatly from learning their own true history. They created a short video titled "No Country for Me." This is (among many reasons) one of the reasons why I recorded William Cooper Nell's 1855 book The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution as an audiobook. There are many outlets out there, even outlets such...

Colin Kaepernick spent his Independence Day in a place where many people lost theirs. The former 49ers quarterback posted on social media yesterday about his trip to Ghana, where he visited former slave trading sites as well as touring local villages and a hospital. He posted a short video of the trip, along with the Frederick Douglass quote: “What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence?”

I live in a Blue Dog area. Most folks here are Democrats. But that's only because their grandfathers and fathers were Democrats. Their grandfathers voted for JFK, and their fathers voted for Reagan. And in 2016 they voted for Trump. Yep, my blue state went for Trump. So why am I disappointed? It's the Fourth of July, and maybe one house out of ten here has a flag out front. Why is that?

At Food City, we honor those people that serve and protect our country, and we know that without the men and women who watch out for us, we would not have any of the luxuries we do. We are the land of the free because of the brave and we salute you!

Gersh Kuntzman of the Daily News is calling for Major League baseball to permanently ban the playing of “God Bless America.” While conceding some of its virtues, Kuntzman laments that the classic jingle “embodies” some of “our worst things,” vices like “self-righteousness, forced piety,” and “earnest self-reverence.” Kuntzman approvingly alludes to a 2013 poll conducted by the author of a book on “God Bless America.” The poll found that 61 percent or so of those asked share Kuntzman’s judgment that the song should go the way of the dinosaur. The real story here, though, is to be found in how...

The Fourth of July, for most Americans, is a day filled with the comforts that a youthful summer eagerly supplies in golden hues and generous heat. New flags flash proudly with crisp red and white stripes--beaming stars on a field of blue; an undulating, living object caught and writhing between the playful fingers of summer's capricious breeze. Kids bound outdoors filled with the giggling beams of the sun's boiling disc and tantalized by the sizzling, uniquely American delicacies cooking on dad's carefully stoked charcoal grill. But, all of this summer glee exists because of ancient parchment dry as an autumn...

NOTE: This is a once-in-a-while reprise of a column first written in 2009.If you've ever watched PBS on July 4th, you know that, since 1981your local affiliate has probably broadcast the "Capitol Fourth" program which is the concert on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol followed by the fireworks which are beyond the Washington Monument on the far end of the Smithsonian Mall. Our first Fourth of July in Washington, DC was in 1978. The woman who would become the Mullings Director of Standards & Practices and I took our son, Reed, then a little over two-years-old, to the...

Great Britain’s vote last month to exit the European Union has been widely described as the country's most consequential decision in decades. But its significance is paltry compared to that of history's original "Leave" resolution, the 240th anniversary of which Americans commemorate this Fourth of July.The unanimous vote in the Second Continental Congress, which affirmed that "these united colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states ... absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown," was the most far-reaching political event of the 18th century. John Adams, writing from Philadelphia to his wife Abigail, called the vote not...

This July 4, let's not mince words: American independence in 1776 was a monumental mistake. We should be mourning the fact that we left the United Kingdom, not cheering it. Of course, evaluating the wisdom of the American Revolution means dealing with counterfactuals. As any historian would tell you, this is a messy business. We obviously can't be entirely sure how America would have fared if it had stayed in the British Empire longer, perhaps gaining independence a century or so later, along with Canada. But I'm reasonably confident a world in which the revolution never happened would be better...

The Drudge Report is highlighting Free Republic in the top-rated website's Fourth of July weekend format change to a red, white and blue page layout from the Drudge Report's traditional black and white. While most of the typeface is in blue, a select five conservative news/author sites out of over one hundred sites linked at the Drudge Report are highlighted in red:Free Republic, Breitbart, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and Mark Steyn.The Drudge Report and Free Republic have ties going back to the dawn of the political age on the Internet in the late 1990s. Happy Fourth, Matt!

Former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to meet Saturday with the FBI, a source close to the investigation into her private email server tells The Daily Caller. The source went on to suggest the interview may take place at her Washington, D.C. home. The bureau’s interview with the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is believed to be the final step in its investigation into the potential mishandling of classified information on Clinton’s private email server. Hundreds of now-classified documents — some of them “Top Secret” — were sent and received through Clinton’s private server, which she housed at her...

So, no, since you ask, I didn't have that Glorious a Fourth. I almost wrote about it yesterday, but was too sad to find the appropriate tone. I'm still very sad, so if you want to cut to the chase and get on with your day, the takeaway is America might as well hang a sign on its door saying, "Final Three Days! Everything Must Go!!! Ultimate Storewide Blowout!!!!!" As readers may know, the Steyn worldwide corporate headquarters is located in Woodsville, which is part of the township of Haverhill, New Hampshire. Actually, the only reason readers would have any...

Freedom, both the incandescent whisper of revolution and the reduced triviality of commercialism, is the seed from which the most opulent columns of civilization have sprung and the hammer from which the most prolific empires have fallen. If history has taught us anything, other than man’s propensity for the most transcendent achievements and the most grotesque atrocities, it’s that you cannot fight or defeat an idea, even long after its armies are vanquished. It endures as long as man endures and believes in its undying premise. What is liberty’s most quintessential definition? Is it merely a politician’s word, wrapped around...

This time of year, there are always warnings about the risks and hazards involved with shooting off fireworks. Many listen to those warnings. Some do not. Jason Pierre-Paul did not, and it cost him, dearly. Pierre-Paul, the Giants’ 26-year-old star defensive end, suffered a serious but apparently not career-threatening hand injury Saturday night setting off Fourth of July fireworks at his South Florida home. While the full extent of the damage is not yet known, it is believed Pierre-Paul’s suffered significant burns on his palm and several fingers, and one finger may have sustained nerve damage, according to a source...