Free Republic

[N]o elected official in the country has more aggressively sought to limit free speech rights than Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D., N.Y.). Now he will have to answer for it in court. ... In May this column described how Mr. Cuomo was using the state’s financial regulatory agency to intimidate insurance companies, banks and other firms into turning down business with the NRA. The gun-rights group sued Mr. Cuomo after he ordered the state’s Department of Financial Services to tell the firms it oversees “to review any relationships they may have with the National Rifle Association and other similar organizations. Upon...

OTTAWA — The Supreme Court of Canada agreed Thursday to hear the case of a woman who was ticketed and arrested after she refused instructions to hold onto an escalator handrail. Bela Kosoian was in a subway station in the Montreal suburb of Laval in 2009 when a police officer told her to respect a pictogram with the instruction, “hold the handrail.” She replied that she did not consider the image, which also featured the word “Careful,” to be an obligation. She refused to hold the handrail, and tensions mounted after she also refused to identity herself. She was “taken...

The 1946 Battle of Athens, Tennessee Investigations into Cantrell and Mansfield elections began when citizens noticed that many of the votes tallied included felons and deceased members of the county. As well as the returning veterans were routinely targeted by the Sheriff’s men as they made up roughly 10 percent of the county’s voting populous. An opposing non-partisan party to Cantrell and Mansfield was formed by the returning G.I.’s and thus the 1946 battle of Athens, Tennessee began.

The communications giant rejected a political ad from Tennessee Republican senate candidate Marsha Blackburn because “it shows Democrats in a bad light.” The ad shows Democrat mobs engaged in several incidents of violence and threats of violence. Google did not dispute the truth of the content. Google CEO Pichai Sundararajan explained that “truth is not a defense against bad manners. Pointing out some else’s faults is not the way to start a beneficial dialog. The criticized party is not usually motivated by criticism to modify his behavior in the direction desired. Rather than allow Ms. Blackburn to waste her money...

The number of babies born to unauthorized immigrant parents in the U.S. fell to 250,000 in 2016, the lowest figure since 2000, according to a new Pew Research Center report published Thursday afternoon. Such births have decreased 36 percent since hitting a peak of about 390,000 in 2007, the researchers said. The new data comes as President Trump is focusing new attention on the issue by vowing to eliminate birthright citizenship, the constitutional provision that children born in the U.S. are automatically American citizens. Children born to undocumented immigrants accounted for 6 percent of the 4 million births in the...

Steven Clifford, author and former CEO of the King Broadcasting Company and National Mobile Television, told PJM that the federal government should “prohibit straight white males from voting” in U.S. elections as a way to “save” democracy. “I think it’s the only hope for democracy in America and I will be leading a great movement to prohibit straight white males, who I believe supported Donald Trump by about 85 percent, from exercising the franchise and I think that will save our democracy,” Clifford said during an interview after speaking at the forum “Destroying the Myths of Market Fundamentalism,” which was...

In the 2000s, the Parkers thought they were buying their dream home. It was advertised at an excellent price and came with customizable options. The home was located in Peoria, Arizona, adjacent to Phoenix. The development was new, with an HOA managed by a management company. While the Parkers were viewing the house, they asked the salesperson if they would be able to expand their three-car garage to a four-car garage. The sales person said yes, that would be no problem.In 2016, the Parkers proudly put up a campaign sign in their front yard for Donald Trump, the only homeowners in...

San Francisco’s effort to get noncitizen parents to the ballot box is pretty much a bust the first time out, with only 49 signing up to vote in the Nov. 6 election. Back in July, the city began registering noncitizens — including undocumented immigrants — to vote in school board elections. The program is the first-of-its-kind in California and followed passage of a 2016 San Francisco ballot measure opening school elections to noncitizens who are over the age of 18, city residents and have children under age 19. The city spent about $310,000 setting up the new registration system and...

In the 1960s, an informed but naïve undergraduate, I was walking across the campus of the University of Pennsylvania with the Chairman of the Chemistry Department, Prof. Charles C. Price. He told me that he was president of the United World Federalists, and asked if I knew what that organization was. When I said that I did not, he replied that they believed in a one-world government that would grow out of the United Nations. I was nonplussed as I had never heard anyone suggest that idea before. To me, the United Nations was a benevolent organization dedicated to pressuring...

The European Union Parliament has voted to ban single-use plastics. Parliament, the EU’s legislative body comprised of 751 elected members (MEPs), voted 571-53 in favor of the bill. Banned items will include plastic plates, cutlery, and straws, and the proposal also calls for a reduction in the use of other single-use food and beverage containers such as plastic cups, according to the BBC. The European Commission, which proposes legislation to the EU Parliament, put forward the ban in May in response to ongoing public awareness of and outcry against plastic pollution, particularly in the world’s oceans. The MEP behind the...

They marched...shouting triumphantly slogans like “Si se pudo!” or “Yes, we could!”...Olivin Castellanos, 58,...said. “We knocked down the door and we continue walking.”...“I can do this,” he said, pointing to the asphalt under his feet. “I’ve made highways.”...Sairy Bueso...clutched her 2-year-old daughter Dayani, who had recently had a heart operation, as she got off a raft...Some tore open a fence on the Guatemala side of the bridge and threw two young children, perhaps age 6 or 7, and their mother into the muddy waters about 40 feet below.

We have a choice: Govern ourselves or allow legislators and judges in our federal and state capitals to rule over us. I much prefer the former. Give me a republic in which important individual rights have been constitutionally secured and democratic elections established. In reality, that democracy part is as imperiled as our rights. Those fair elections, whereby we staff government and correct its course, too often prove hard to come by. On Friday, the Arkansas Supreme Court struck Issue 3, a citizen-initiated measure to restore legislative term limits, from Arkansas’ November ballot. In a 4-3 ruling, the court declared...

The 44-minute documentary, Not in Vein, which begins on Arizona’s “super-highway for drug smuggling,” is narrated by investigator Sara Carter, who travels from the U.S.-Mexican border all the way to Ohio to learn about the harsh realities surrounding the opioid crisis that has been plaguing the U.S. for decades...Robert Arce, Breitbart Border And Cartel Chronicles Team reporter, has worked for both federal and local law enforcement, and spent three years in Mexico dealing with the international narcotics trade...“More than 72,000 people died last year from overdoses,” Carter told Breitbart News,...

Paul Manafort, back in federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia. Manafort was wheeled in to court in a wheelchair clothed in the court mandated, “guilty prisoner (stripless but colorful) costume” emblazoned "Alexandria Inmate, courtesy of Alexandria Detention Center. Paul told the judge that they were eager to expedite the sentencing process, citing confinement and "significant issues" with his health. Judge T.S. Ellis (sorta master of the rocket docket) figured a more better next year, (yuppy torture) sentencing date. A mistrial declared on the ten (of the eighteen) charges brought by “special counsel” who, won’t retry Manafort on those...

Sen. Claire McCaskill’s (D-MO) staff already admitted she is open to a semiautomatic rifle ban, and on Thursday night, McCaskill made clear that she, too, is coming after gun shows. She also called for other gun controls and maligned the NRA for standing against infringement of Second Amendment rights.

In an interview with Politico, Pelosi detailed her plans...every Senate Democrat has signed onto Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) proposal that would abolish and end all immigration and border enforcement across the U.S.,...The Senate Democrat plan would also likely ban any and all federal arrests of illegal aliens...it allows illegal alien smugglers to freely traffic children into the U.S. without the fear of arrest.

In a move to combat what it calls an “obesity epidemic,” Public Health England (PHE) is crafting rules to limit the size and number of toppings on pizzas. Dr Alison Tedstone, PHE chief nutritionist, promised that “our efforts will go beyond merely requiring restaurants to add healthier options to their menus. The real problem in our view is that customers could still choose unwisely. If we strictly control what can be offered we can eliminate unhealthy choices so that the consumer cannot make an unwise choice.” Public Health Minister Steve Brine said the Government was “willing to do whatever it...

One campaign worker admits McCaskill would go as far as supporting a ban on semiautomatic rifles. Campaign worker Glen Winfrey describes how McCaskill intends to explain to voters why she flip-flopped on the issue of impeaching President Trump. He says she will tell Missourians, “Get over it. It was a national security question.” He adds that hiding her intent to vote for Trump’s impeachment will be explained as patriotic.

MCCARTHY: Just think the three individuals who are funding the Democratic Party, George Soros, you’ve got Michael Bloomberg, it’s not just $80 million into the House, he put another $20 million to try to win the Senate, then Tom Steyer, more than a $120 million he’s spent trying to win. His win goal is to try to impeach President Trump. He brags that his impeachment list is bigger than the NRA list. Those three individuals are trying to buy our government in this process.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has refused to answer a list of questions from U.S. lawmakers about the company’s secretive plan for a censored search engine in China. In a letter newly obtained by The Intercept, Pichai told a bipartisan group of six senators that Google could have “broad benefits inside and outside of China,” but said he could not share details about the censored search engine because it “remains unclear” whether the company “would or could release a search service” in the country. Pichai’s letter contradicts the company’s search engine chief, Ben Gomes, who informed staff during a private meeting...