Free Republic

NEW YORK (AP) — Are the female voices behind Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa amplifying gender bias around the world? The United Nations thinks so. A report released Wednesday by the UN's culture and science organization raises concerns about what it describes as the "hardwired subservience" built into default female-voiced assistants operated by Apple, Amazon, Google and Microsoft. The report is called "I'd Blush If I Could." It's a reference to an answer Apple's Siri gives after hearing sexist insults from users. It says it's a problem that millions of people are getting accustomed to commanding female-voiced assistants that are...

When you get a gun, that firearm is meant for you and only you, and no one should be able to come into your house and take it. If it is stolen in a burglary, not only is this lost property but it can be used for an awful crime and you are in danger of being framed. Even worse, if your gun is taken during a home invasion before you have the chance to get it, then the tool you bought to protect you and your family is suddenly being used to hurt you. Whatever the scenario, having your...

How a “post-Stalin Stalinist” suppressed slave revolt history. Anthony Flood, Herbert Aptheker: Studies in Willful Blindness, 91 pages, 2019. After U.S. recognition of the USSR in 1933, the Communist Party USA made significant gains in America. Many left the Party after Stalin’s show-trials and purges of the mid-1930s, and many others after the Stalin-Hitler Pact of 1939. By contrast, the American Herbert Aptheker joined the Communist Party “virtually because of it,” explains his former research assistant, friend, and comrade Anthony Flood. Four years before the Nazi-Soviet Pact, Aptheker approved when Stalin shipped oil to Mussolini to aid the fascist dictator’s...

OCONEE CO., SC (WSPA) - Deputies in Oconee County are asking people to be vigilant after a threat was made against churches in the county. According to the Oconee County Sheriff's Office, a juvenile made a threat to "harm a nonspecific church by the use of a firearm" on social media. Investigators say the social media post was made last week and deputies were made aware on Tuesday. The Oconee County Sheriff's Office, Westminster Police Department, SLED, and the FBI are investigating the threat. Investigators say they believe the threat is for a certain area but no specific people or...

The property overcome by the encampments near Edinger Avenue belongs to the Union Pacific Railroad and has long been a place where the homeless camp, officials say. Early Wednesday morning, 16 people were kicked out of their tents. One resident says he has lived at the encampment for a year with his rabbit and cat. The men and women staying at the encampment were offered a place at a local shelter but they reportedly refused. Complaints from business owners and the community prompted Santa Ana leaders to secure a warrant to remove the nuisance.

Women’s March leader Linda Sarsour is not happy with Georgia’s “heartbeat bill” — or the percentage of “white women” who made it possible. The activist who describes herself as “every Islamophobe’s worst nightmare” told her nearly 300,000 Twitter followers this week that white women are to blame for the election of Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, the pro-life legislation he signed into law May 7, and feminists’ ongoing struggle with “the patriarchy.” “While folks are debating tactics to respond to Georgia’s heartbeat bill, let’s remember that 76% of the white Women electorate in GA (more than white men) voted for...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is calling on the Christian right to “uphold their principles” on one key issue: interest rates. The freshman lawmaker and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have introduced a bill to cap interest rates at 15 percent. It would cut rates ― often dramatically ― on credit cards, and hit the payday loan industry and other predatory lenders. On Thursday, Ocasio-Cortez challenged the religious right to support the bill, pointing out that usury is “explicitly denounced” in the Bible. Then, she knocked them for using religion to take rights away from people... but not when it helps them:...

These creepy-crawlies are eight-legged, mostly transparent and microscopic in size, measuring about 0.01 inches (0.3 millimeters) apiece, according to an NPR article accompanying the new video. They live near the roots of facial hair follicles on both men and women, hidden away inside your pores. Given their dietary preferences, face mites are attracted to the greasiest pores on your body, including those around the cheeks, nose and forehead. According to a study published in 1992 in the journal Clinical and Experimental Dermatology, infested follicles can hold a half-dozen mites at once, with room for many more. Each mite can live...

As Democratic congressional leaders Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Steny Hoyer (D-MD) rush to defend Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) for inventing a bigoted, alternative, antisemitic history of the Holocaust, it is important to consider Tlaib’s actions in the context of anti-Jewish bigotry on the one hand, and the galloping transformation of the Democratic Party into an anti-Jewish party on the other. But first, it is important to make clear just how mendacious Tlaib’s fake history of the Holocaust is. Tlaib made three key claims in her podcast with Yahoo! News. First, she claimed that Israel was established because of the Holocaust....

I heard about this a week or two ago. I've watched the movie countless times, but for some strange reason that I can't remember I never saw it on the big screen. That's going to change on June 2, bought my tickets yesterday. Really looking forward to it, even though the wife is dreading it.....she hates blood and guts war movies.

Today’s Campaign Update (Because The Campaign Never Ends) The Creepy Porn Lawyer is in the news again, and boy, is it rich. – This time, Michael Avenatti, is in trouble for stealing $300,000 from – guess who? – his former client, Porn star Stormy Daniels. I swear I don’t make this stuff up. Who could? Before we go any further, it’s important to remember how the fake news media – mainly CNN and MSNBC, but also many others – turned this very despicable man into a national celebrity, even to the point of treating him seriously as someone who could...

China scrapped 30% of draft trade deal, sources say Pages went from 150 to 105 after Chinese leadership objected to 'unequal treaty' -- TOKYO -- The U.S.-China trade talks broke down after the Chinese government returned to Washington a significantly reduced version of the U.S. draft, angering President Donald Trump, Nikkei has learned. Sources say the original 150-page document, compiled through five months of painstaking negotiations, was cut up and reduced to 105 pages. The editing was revealed in early May and led the U.S. to raise import tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods. China has retaliated with tariff...

Hope this works. Overwhelming construction - must have taken millions of workers.

In his so-called “maiden speech,” delivered on the floor of the Senate on May 15, Hawley spoke with the coiled energy of a reformer, the intense passion of a muckraker, and the Trumanesque bluntness of a Show-Me Stater. In his address, he offered no defense of the status quo and nary a word about his fellow Republicans—no ode to President Donald Trump nor paean to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. He didn’t insult them; he simply didn’t mention them. Instead, Hawley used his quick 14 minutes to strike a stark tone on other topics. He used the word “despair”—as in...

immigration plan meant to reshape how and which people are allowed into the United States. The plan would prioritize merit-based immigration and high-skilled labor over those who already have family here. Far from comprehensive or sufficient, it's a modest improvement over the administration's previous restrictive pushes. The plan's centerpiece is a shift toward a "merit" system very similar to those in place in Australia and Canada. The reform would boost skill-based immigration from 12% to 57%, while decreasing family-based and lottery-based immigration by 50%. This is great news for employers in the market for high-skilled workers. Indeed, the cap for...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Defense is considering a U.S. military request to send about 5,000 additional troops to the Middle East amid increasing tensions with Iran, two U.S. officials told Reuters on Wednesday. Tehran and Washington have this month been escalating rhetoric against each other, following U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to try to cut Iran’s oil exports to zero and beef up the U.S. military presence in the Gulf in response to what he said were Iranian threats. The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the request had been made by U.S. Central Command,...

I have yet to figure out why the Russians would help Trump get elected. The Mueller report says that a Russian businessman with "close ties" to Putin ran some ads on social media to help Trump get elected. Thus "the Russians" interfered with our election. The report is silent about any foreign ads to help Hillary. Did those happen too? If so, what was the scale compared to the Trump ads? Nothing in the report. If the Clintons can be bought, why wouldn't the Russians want Hillary to get elected?

The U.S.-China trade war could take a big chunk out of Apple’s bottom line if China retaliates by banning its products, according to an analyst at Goldman Sachs. Analyst Rod Hall said in a note to clients that Apple’s earnings could drop by 29% if the company’s products were banned in mainland China. The analyst cut his price target on Apple to $178 per share from $184, representing a 4.6% downside from Tuesday’s close of $186.60.

Best-selling author and talk radio star Mark Levin has another terrific new book that debuted at No. 1 on the charts. The media habitually ignore Levin's books -- no New York Times reviews, no TV interviews, nothing -- and it must drive them insane that he still sells millions of copies. But this one's called "Unfreedom of the Press," and it's a direct shot at them, so some may find it impossible to resist a response. One has already responded and in so doing explains why Levin chose to unload on his profession. Book critic Annalisa Quinn took to National...

There was a time when health care technology meant expensive new machines that only hospitals could afford. The costs were so enormous that only insurance companies could pay for their use and insurance bureaucrats only grudgingly allowed people to get needed tests and treatment. Today, however, tech is putting health care tools in the hands of individual Americans at amazingly reasonable costs. The transformation brought about by the new technology will fundamentally disrupt every aspect of the health care industry. One simple example is the monitor I use to check my blood sugar on a regular basis. A generation or...