Free Republic

In October 1789, President George Washington issued a thanksgiving proclamation “to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor….” This proclamation was thus not merely self-congratulation whereby the President and others applauded themselves for creating a new government provided by our Constitution. At that point we were transitioning from the Articles of Confederation which had neither three distinct branches of government nor the idea of federalism embodied in its organization. Would the new Constitution work? Would the misgivings of some leaders prove to be...

A record number of U.S. consumers shopped over Thanksgiving weekend this year, surpassing analysts’ initial expectations and topping 200 million shoppers for the first time ever. The five-day shopping period saw 200.4 million consumers shop this weekend, according to an annual survey released Tuesday by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Prosper Insights & Analytics. In 2022, the same period set a record of 196.7 million shoppers.

Three Palestinian Arab men were shot and injured in Burlington, Vermont, on Saturday in what authorities suspect could be a hate-related crime, The Hill reports. The Burlington Police Department (BPD) said in a press release on Sunday that two of the three victims are in stable condition while the third sustained “much more serious injuries.” The three men, who are each 20 years old and of Palestinian Arab descent, were visiting the home of one victim’s relatives in Burlington for the Thanksgiving weekend and were walking along a street when they were confronted by a white man with a handgun....

Animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) was fact-checked by Community Notes, a service on X, after PETA claimed in a viral post that turkeys would never eat humans at Thanksgiving. "We’re lucky turkeys would never do this to us - you don’t have to do it to them, either," PETA wrote in a caption to a post that has received over 26.7 million views online. The picture attached to the post depicts a family of turkeys sitting around a human turkey at the center of the table. "Turkeys are not vegetarians," according to the Community...

A brawl broke out at a family-favorite restaurant in Massachusetts the night before Thanksgiving after lines to get into the building spread all the way down the street. Kowloon, a popular restaurant in Saugus, Massachusetts, attracts families looking to dine out, with many attending as an annual tradition on Thanksgiving Eve. This year - a dramatic fight broke out on Wednesday night as unruly guests began scrapping, with a number of patrons throwing punches in the middle of the restaurant. Saugus Police Chief Michael Ricciardelli slammed the disorder, labelling the fight 'unacceptable and disgusting'. He said in a statement: 'The...

Conservatives regard Thanksgiving as a Pilgrim achievement but the Marxists in our midst see it differently. To them, Thanksgiving is a stain, a stigma, an opportunity for Marxist exploitation of racial differences to advance a communist revolution.The “progressive” strategist Steve Phillips, author of Barack Hussein Obama’s “Permanent Revolution” strategy of political power, refers to the practice of “land acknowledgment,” or recognizing the indigenous land owners, but he quickly adds the following important note: this “simply doesn’t go far enough in addressing and bringing about justice and reparations for the murder, genocide, and brutality that Native peoples faced at the hands...

Did you know that Thanksgiving is a Catholic holiday? True, it’s not on the Church calendar. And it is celebrated only in America, whereas Church holidays are universal. (snip) But any time a nation does anything in unison that involves families getting together and counting their blessings, it is a good thing. “Thanks,” says G.K. Chesterton, “is the highest form of thought.” And he mentions the fact that the worst moment for an atheist is when he is thankful and suddenly realizes he has no one to thank. (snip) What most people believe is a variation on what I was...

What would Thanksgiving be without the Left instructing you to start fights with your family over politics? And what happened to Biden's promise to united the country? Guess that promise had an expiration date. Anyway, here's a thread full of, well, lies about how wonderful things are under a Biden presidency: Your handy guide for responding to crazy MAGA nonsense this Thanksgiving A thread pic.twitter.com/rf0hFRXa80 — Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) November 23, 2023 Really gonna hammer home the MAGA thing, aren't they? The economy pic.twitter.com/NcT8OhFunc — Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) November 23, 2023 Happy to see this one is going to get...

Residents of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) were shocked early this week when illegal aliens who got in line before they did for free Thanksgiving dinners given away by local food banks left many low-income citizens without a holiday meal this year. Reports say that residents of the NYCHA were told when to line up for their turkey dinner and fixings delivery, but when they arrived at the appointed time, they found hundreds of illegals already at the head of the line, according to WNYW-TV.

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Agri-Business; End to Sex Slavery; Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (1 John 5:14) Forum threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind.

United States bases and troops in Iraq and Syria were attacked with mortars and armed drones on Thanksgiving Day, according to several reports. According to Sky News Arabia, U.S. and international forces were attacked four times in Iraq and Syria, but there were no casualties or damage to infrastructure. In Iraq, several suicide drones were launched at the Ain al-Asad air base west of Baghdad, as well as one at the Harir base near Erbil Airport in northern Iraq where U.S. troops are stationed, according to the report. A group calling itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed responsibility for...

Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you’re going to eat yourself silly today and slowly digest while enjoying time with family or friends and maybe even a Detroit Lions victory (which only a year ago was a punchline since the 1950s). But before you slip off into your tryptophan coma, take a moment and be thankful. Be thankful for whatever – you know your life, I don’t. If, however, you’re having difficulty finding something to be thankful for, or just want a slightly longer list, this column is for you. No. 5: Be thankful you aren’t Joe Biden. Yes, he’s rich, but...

Although perhaps not as beloved as its predecessors, A Charlie Brown Christmas and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, the 1973 TV special A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving nevertheless is a holiday staple. In fact, except for not airing for a few years in the 1980s, it has become a Thanksgiving rite for generations -- so much so that there was outcry in 2020 after Apple TV+ acquired the exclusive rights to classic Peanuts animated specials and new series. Fans want their Charlie Brown holiday traditions.

By the President of the United States of America. a Proclamation. Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor—and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me “to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government...

It was only three years ago when Governor Gavin Newsom defied his own idiotic COVID edicts as he partied at the French Laundry restaurant in Napa, one of the few restaurants he failed to force out of business. Shortly after the governor’s hypocritical idiocy, he issued a stay-home order for Thanksgiving 2020. Gov. Newsom claimed to be following science when he and his Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly issued tyrannical orders to the 40 million residents of California for Thanksgiving to stay home, no singing, no shouting, no music, no parties, eat outside and keep a mask...

The annual joyful Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in Manhattan was paused when a group of about 30 anti-Israel protestors ran into the parade route and some of them glued themselves to the street. The protestors lay down and glued their hands to the street. The floats and performers had to be rerouted while the disruption was dealt with. Some of the protestors wore white clothes with red marks to symbolize the people they claimed have been killed in Gaza in the war between Israel and the Hamas terrorist organization. They also held a banner that read 'Genocide then, genocide now,'...

Thanksgiving “could soon become another victim of climate change,” a recent report by ABC News warned. The report said rising temperatures “threaten the abundance and quality” of ingredients that make up a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. “As a result, these essential food items could become increasingly scarce and more expensive, potentially forcing families to omit or make substitutions in key recipes on their Thanksgiving menus,” the report said.

Biden’s team is bragging about how “they” are making Thanksgiving more affordable! But remember, every little thing Biden says is gibberish. Or an outright lie. Even other Democrats are taking Sting and The Police’s advice of not standing too close to Biden. Yes, prices of turkey (that we eat) and gasoline (used to drive to family/friends) have declined a little recently. BUT turkey prices are still up by 235% since Biden was sworn in as President. And gasoline prices are still up 47%. One of Biden’s “economists” came out and said gasoline is now lower than it was in 2020....

The Nation is honoring this year’s Thanksgiving by featuring a debate over whether America should keep celebrating the national holiday or not. One side is claiming it is “steeped in colonialism, violence, and misrepresentation” and needs to be “decolonized,” while the other goes further, describing Thanksgiving as a “lie” that should be completely abolished and replaced with a “Truthsgiving,” where Americans can “give thanks by… giving land back.”

Another Thanksgiving, and we remember President Reagan. Like most two-term presidents, Reagan gave many holiday messages. They were memorable and full of Reagan's optimism and religious convictions. There were even a couple of "turkeys" who stole the show over the years. In 1988, Pres. Reagan delivered his last message. It was a few weeks after VP Bush carried 41 states. This is what Pres. Reagan said Thanksgiving 1988: "In this year when we as a people enjoy the fruits of economic growth and international cooperation, let us take time both to remember the sacrifices that have made this harvest possible...