Free Republic

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....

The late Philip Roth is my favorite novelist, and his novel The Plot Against America, now a widely-praised HBO mini-series, is an excellent, disturbing book. The book posits an alternate history in which an isolationist, antisemitic Charles Lindbergh defeats FDR for the U.S. presidency in 1940, and proceeds to enact a series of increasingly draconian antisemitic measures. Among those measures are sending Jewish youths out to the country to live with Gentile families to become “real patriotic Americans,” away from the implied malevolent of their families, the Jewish community, Jewish culture, and Judaism. The irony in the title of this...

Early film from Movietone sound cameras of life in Havana including horse racing, thirsty American tourists at the world famous Sloppy Joe's bar having a legal drink, various scenes of entertainment and night life, religious pilgrims, the Pan American Conference of 1928, the state visit of US President Calvin Coolidge, some scenes of local landmarks and the visit by Charles Lindbergh. (B&W with sound appx 45 minutes)

It is now two years since this latest European war began. From that day in September, 1939, until the present moment, there has been an over-increasing effort to force the United States into the conflict. That effort has been carried on by foreign interests, and by a small minority of our own people; but it has been so successful that, today, our country stands on the verge of war. At this time, as the war is about to enter its third winter, it seems appropriate to review the circumstances that have led us to our present position. Why are we...

A view of the Rio Platano biosphere reserve in Honduras, where explorers over the past century have claimed several times to have spotted the White City Honduras said Thursday it was starting a major archeological dig for a mysterious, ancient "White City" supposedly hidden in jungle in its northeast that explorers and legends have spoken of for centuries. "Today a group of archeologists and scientists is traveling to the White City to start excavations in coming days," President Juan Orlando Hernandez said in a speech to private universities. The hope is that they will uncover incontrovertible proof of the existence...

When Hilda Gurney’s name crops up, they love to tell stories about her switcheroo involving aviator Charles Lindbergh at the Van Nuys Airport. The pilot and her co­pilot husband, Harlan “Bud” Gurney, decided in 1969 to take out a small plane, and Lindbergh — a close friend of the family who often stayed with them when he was in Los Angeles — asked if he could fly alongside. But the press got wind of the renowned aviator up in the SoCal skies, and reporters descended upon the airport to wait for his landing. Wise to the plan, Lindbergh and the...

Charles Lindbergh is renowned as the first person to fly across the Atlantic, but according to new research, he was beaten to the achievement ten days earlier. According to French aviation enthusiast Bernard Decré, Lindbergh was only the first to complete the crossing and survive, with two French pilots believed to have reached the coast of Canada ten days before Lindbergh's Spirit of St Louis touched down in Paris in May 1927. New documentary evidence found in the U.S. national archives may prove that Charles Nungesser and Francois Coli completed a transatlantic crossing and were the first men to do...

LE BOURGET, France (AP) - Erik Lindbergh, two generations later, replicated his grandfather's groundbreaking 1927 solo Atlantic air crossing, landing in Paris on Thursday in half the time it took the aviation pioneer to make the historic journey. Lindbergh's Lancair Columbia 300 - dubbed the New Spirit of St. Louis - landed at Le Bourget airport outside Paris shortly before 11:30 a.m., 17 hours after taking off from Farmingdale, N.Y. Visibly fatigued, wearing his blue pilot's jumpsuit, Lindbergh addressed his sponsors and about 100 reporters who met him at the small airport. "It was an amazing time, 1927, and I...

The Google Map of eastern Honduras is almost blank. A vast and virtually unexplored rainforest region known as the Mosquitia covers around 32,000 square miles, home to dense jungle, hostile terrain and the terrifying-sounding jumping viper. Legend has it that somewhere beneath the forest canopy lies the ancient city of Ciudad Blanca – and now archaeologists think they may have found it. Tomorrow in Cancun, Mexico, an interdisciplinary group of scientists from fields including archaeology, anthropology and geology will appear at the American Geophysical Union’s annual conference to present the technology that has allowed them to discover a “lost world”...

Lt. Floyd Fulkerson: Ultimate Wingman By John Dejanovich There are no great aces without great wingmen and young Lt. Floyd Fulkerson from Little Rock, Arkansas, was one of those wingmen. Although he had four confirmed victories, so he was nearly an ace himself, he sees his primary contribution to the war effort to have been the protection of his lead pilots, some of whom were America’s leading aces. During his time with the 475TH Fighter Group in the Pacific, Floyd flew with such notables as Major Richard Bong, Major Tommy McGuire, and even the much-celebrated “Lone Eagle,” Charles Lindbergh. Cover...

Nova Hall was cleaning out his garage in Sedona 13 years ago when he discovered an old steamer trunk with his grandfather's initials on it. It was a treasure trove. The trunk contained blueprints drawn by his grandfather Donald A. Hall of the Spirit of St. Louis, the airplane in which legendary aviator Charles Lindbergh flew the first-ever solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Lindbergh flew from New York to Paris in 1927. To do that, he needed a special aircraft, one that would fit his 6-foot-3 frame. In the trunk were photographs of his grandfather and Lindbergh in their...

A Countryman Tries to Unravel the Unsolved Mystery of Charles Nungesser's Last Flight PARIS—Right after his historic, 33-hour trans-Atlantic flight from New York to Paris in 1927, Charles Lindbergh asked whether there was news of French aviator Charles Nungesser. Mr. Nungesser, an adventurer and World War I ace, was Mr. Lindbergh's great rival in the race to fly nonstop across the Atlantic in one direction or the other. He had set off with a navigator from Paris for New York just two weeks before Mr. Lindbergh's flight. But his biplane—called L'Oiseau Blanc, or White Bird—never arrived in New York, and...

Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby selling war bonds; German armour thrashing through the fatal autumn mud of Russia; GIs jitterbugging with British girls; air duels in the Pacific and tales of housewives enduring the blitz on Britain. These are just a few of the many faces of The World At War, probably the most remarkable TV documentary series ever made. It reached British screens for the first time in 1974, amid tumultuous critical acclaim. In the intervening 33 years, hundreds, maybe thousands more programmes have been made about World War II. None, however, has come close to matching the majesty...

AP) Little Falls, Minn. It has been reported many times that the residents of Little Falls were so angry with hometown hero Charles Lindbergh's comments that the U.S. should stay out of World War II that they painted over his name on the water tower. The story was part of a PBS documentary about the famous pilot. It was reported in a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography released in 1999. However, many experts doubt it happened. "I've heard the stories but I've never seen the documentation myself," said Marlene White, president of the Anoka-based Lindbergh Foundation. There are some newspaper articles from...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. Welcome to "Warrior Wednesday" Where the Freeper Foxhole introduces a different...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... . U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. . . Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family...

Before we get rolling on John Kerry’s commitment to a “global test” for American foreign policy, let’s take a look at the latest giant leap for mankind that took place over the Mojave Desert in California this week. The two events are related, in a curious way. SpaceShipOne was an ugly duckling, designed by Burt Rutan for the precise purpose of winning the Ansari X Prize of $10 million. A generation from now, no one will remember the name of the prize, only the fact of the first private, entrepreneurial step into space. Just like no one today remembers the...

Well, it's Black History Month, and I'll bet you haven't heard one thing about George S. Schuyler (1895-1977). George S. Schuyler was, simply, the greatest black journalist this country has ever produced. (Normally, I eschew qualifiers like "greatest black," as opposed to "greatest," period, but this is journalism we're talking about. I will never, in five lifetimes of sitting in newspaper morgues, looking at microfilms of ancient newsprint, be able to read enough to determine who America's greatest journalist was.) From 1924-1966, he bestrode the black press like a colossus. Working for Robert Lee Vann's (1879-1940) Pittsburgh Courier weekly newspaper,...

<p>So it appears that Col. Charles Lindbergh, pilot of the Spirit of St. Louis and namesake to so many things around town, had a secret second family over in Germany.</p> <p>Yet another mighty one may fall - or, in Lindbergh's case, fall again.</p>

No flight of fancy: German siblings prove Lindbergh was their father By Andrew Gumbel 29 November 2003 Fans of the pioneering American aviator Charles Lindbergh have had to swallow a few uncomfortable facts about their hero over the years, such as his sympathy for the Nazis, his campaigning against the involvement of the United States in the Second World War and his anti-Semitism. Now comes a new, seemingly incontrovertible bit of awkward news: DNA evidence confirming that Mr Lindbergh, who made the first solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, had a secret, second family in Germany with a Munich hatmaker,...