Free Republic

Following a series of sweeping actions to expand access to voting in recent years, a California lawmaker is pushing to require voters to cast a ballot in future elections. The proposal, introduced in the state Assembly on Tuesday, would be unprecedented and probably challenged in court should it ultimately become law. It would place the burden for determining the civil penalty and the ultimate punishment on the secretary of state, California’s chief elections officer.

President Donald Trump will be addressing the Country from the White House after the senate found him NOT GUILTY on both counts in the senate Impeachment Trial. The President has now been FULLY Acquitted https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyLbNJMiAvw 

**SNIP** “The drive to impeach President Trump did not begin with the allegations before us,” he said. “Here was reporting in April of 2016: ‘Donald Trump isn’t even the Republican nominee yet… [but] impeachment is already on the lips of pundits, newspaper editorials, constitutional scholars, and even a few members of Congress.” “Here was the Washington Post headline minutes after President Trump’s inauguration: ‘The campaign to impeach President Trump has begun.'” “The articles of impeachment before us were not even the first ones House Democrats introduced,” McConnell added. “This was go-around number seven. Those previously-alleged ‘High Crimes and Misdemeanors’ included...

Rep. Matt Gaetz said he will be working to get an investigation going into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi because she tore up a copy of President Trump’s State of the Union address. “I will be filing charges against Nancy Pelosi in the House Ethics Committee,” the Florida Republican told Laura Ingraham on Fox News. “She disgraced the House of Representatives, she embarrassed our country, and she destroyed official records." “The law does not allow the speaker of the House to destroy the records of the House, and the rules of the House do not permit some little temper tantrum just...

Trailing significantly in the New Hampshire Democratic Primary polls to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, former Vice President Joe Biden slammed the Vermont socialist’s health care plan in a speech at Girls Inc. in Nashua on Tuesday afternoon. Biden, who arrived 50 minutes late to his own event, mentioned only two other candidates who are running for president: Sanders and Donald Trump. With Sanders leading Biden 29 points to 14 points in New Hampshire in the latest Emerson College poll, Biden attempted to present himself as the more pragmatic candidate of the two to take on Trump. Biden spoke glowingly of...

Unhinged Pelosi.  A public disgrace to our country  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YysM020Sl9s&feature=emb_title

WASHINGTON - U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday invited President Donald Trump to deliver the annual State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Feb. 4. Pelosi extended the invitation in a letter that was posted to Twitter.

A landmark ruling has found that there is no right to question whether a transgender person is a man or a woman. The Central London Employment Tribunal case upheld the sacking of tax expert Maya Forstater, 45, on Wednesday over 'offensive' tweets questioning government plans to allow people to self-identify as another gender. Miss Forstater, who worked for the Centre for Global Development, was let go by the think tank after sharing her views on reforms to Gender Recognition Certificates..

The Supreme Court on Friday will consider whether to take up a prominent climatologist's defamation suit against a venerated conservative magazine, in a case that pits climate scientists against the free speech rights of global warming skeptics. The dispute between scientist Michael Mann and the National Review has drawn attention from lawmakers, interest groups, academics and media, as the court weighs adding a potentially blockbuster First Amendment showdown to an already politically charged docket. Scientists hail Mann’s lawsuit as a necessary defense against efforts to erode public confidence in the scientific consensus that climate change is an urgent threat, while...

A free-speech advocacy organization has sent Ohio University a letter urging the public institution to suspend rules imposed on fraternities and sororities following hazing allegations. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education reports that more than a dozen fraternities and sororities have been ordered not to "meet in any capacity, officially or unofficially," as well as to "reduce conversations to personal topics as opposed to sorority/fraternity operations and updates."FIRE says that affected groups were sent an “FAQ” about the ban, which conceded that there is "no magic number" when it comes to knowing how many students are allowed to convene...

When I was a journalist, I loved Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.’s assertion that the Constitution and the First Amendment are not just about protecting “free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.” But as a government official traveling around the world championing the virtues of free speech, I came to see how our First Amendment standard is an outlier. Even the most sophisticated Arab diplomats that I dealt with did not understand why the First Amendment allows someone to burn a Koran. Why, they asked me, would you ever want to...

A majority of Americans believe the First Amendment should be rewritten and are willing to crack down on free speech, as well as the press, according to a new poll. More than 60 percent of Americans agree on restricting speech in some way, while a slim majority, 51 percent, want to see the First Amendment rewritten to "reflect the cultural norms of today." The Campaign for Free Speech, which conducted the survey, said the results "indicate free speech is under more threat than previously believed." "The findings are frankly extraordinary," executive director Bob Lystad told the Washington Free Beacon. "Our...

It’s now against the law in New York City to threaten someone with a call to immigration authorities or refer to them as an “illegal alien” when motivated by hate. The restrictions — violations of which are punishable by fines of up to $250,000 per offense — are outlined in a 29-page directive released by City Hall’s Commission on Human Rights. “‘Alien’ — used in many laws to refer to a ‘noncitizen’ person — is a term that may carry negative connotations and dehumanize immigrants, marking them as ‘other,'” reads one passage of the memo. “The use of certain language,...

President Trump addresses the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) says the Bill of Rights in the Constitution “does more harm than good in today’s society. When I see how people are abusing the Second Amendment. No telling what they’d do with the First Amendment. I think there would be a strong support against the Bill of Rights. I run into people every day who would like to see so much of those guarantees uprooted.” The whip said he was “pleased to see such overwhelming support for severely restricting the right to bear arms from all of our Democratic presidential candidates. This unanimity stems...

Evidently two different recent appearances by the brilliant Candace Owens....one in which she mocks AOC and the other at the NRA convention.

A University of Illinois student was charged with a hate crime on Tuesday for allegedly placing a noose in a campus residence hall. Andrew Smith, a 19-year-old sophomore, was charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct and committing a hate crime, which is a felony, after students found a noose hanging inside an elevator over the weekend, according to university police. News of the finding began to make rounds on social media as students expressed their outrage. That's when a woman who said she was with Smith when he tied the noose reportedly called campus police to report him.

---- The question of what exactly we are meant to do now – other than get rich and have fun – was going to have to be answered by something. The answer that has presented itself in recent years has been to live in a permanent state of outrage. To find meaning by waging constant war against anybody who seems to be on the wrong side of a question to which the answer has only just been altered. ---- The interpretation of the world through the lens of ‘social justice’ and ‘identity group politics’ is probably the most audacious and...

Hello FReepers. Looking for recommendations on software or web app that transcribes from an audio file (MP3, WAV, etc.) and converts to text. All the ones that I'm finding convert from microphone only. Thanks in advance for your help!

Glen Burnie, Md. (WJLA) - A family says they are left heartbroken and saddened after they were asked to leave an Outback Steakhouse restaurant in Glen Burnie, Maryland on Saturday night because of their son who has neurological challenges. Amanda Braun's son, Killian, was born with a neurological disorder that affects his speech called Childhood Apraxia of Speech. The disorder affects Killian in many ways especially communication and behavior. Sometimes when he speaks, his words are unclear. However, Amanda says she's never had problems before the incident at Outback occurred and that Killian was not acting out of the ordinary....