Free Republic

How, working in the shadows of the internet, researchers developed a passive monitoring system that might soon make Big Tech companies accountable to the public — and even save democracy. What if, early in the morning on Election Day in 2016, Mark Zuckerberg had used Facebook to broadcast “go-out-and-vote” reminders just to supporters of Hillary Clinton? Extrapolating from Facebook’s own published data, that might have given Mrs. Clinton a boost of 450,000 votes or more, with no one but Mr. Zuckerberg and a few cronies knowing about the manipulation. Because, like most Democrats, Mr. Zuckerberg was overconfident that day, I don’t believe...

"Your candidate might be better on, I don't know, health care, than Joe is, but you've got to look at who's going to win this election," she said. "And maybe you have to swallow a little bit and say, 'OK, I personally like so and so better,' but your bottom line has to be that we have to beat Trump."

"Greenland referendum finds that 90% of the local population voted to join the US" https://twitter.com/zerohedge/status/1163962972919742466

President Trump will move Wednesday to cancel the family “loophole” that’s allowed illegal immigrant parents and children to pour into the U.S., proposing new rules that would replace the 2015 Flores Settlement court order that created a de facto catch-and-release policy for the families. According to details provided by an administration official, migrant families could be held in detention together while their cases are heard by immigration judges. That would supersede the 20-day limit imposed by the federal judge in Flores. If the families can be held in detention, they can be deported, security experts say, and once people in...

This could help set up an underwater Internet of Things, according to MIT, which would allow for real-time sea temperature and marine life monitoring, without requiring regular equipment and power swaps to make it work. Without that requirement, it would even be possible to set up networks of underwater sensors in the seas of distant planets. The system, devised by MIT researchers, uses a transmitter that sends out sound waves underwater, which then hit sensors with embedded receivers, transmitting a tiny amount of energy in the process. The sensor then either uses that energy to answer back — or doesn’t,...

— Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, tweeted that a "big rock" is going to hit Earth, and that we "currently have no defense." But NASA, seems to disagree. Musk's tweet was a response to another by comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan, who shared an article reporting that NASA has begun preparations for the 1,100-foot-wide asteroid Apophis, which is scheduled to pass by Earth on April 13, 2029. Apophis named after an Egyptian god of death. Musk isn't wrong when he tweeted "Wouldn't worry about this particular one," though. Apophis is going to miss us by 19,000 miles. It's...

President Trump knows a bad deal when he sees one. He extricated the United States from President Barack Obama’s disastrous nuclear accord with Iran. He pulled us out of an arms-control agreement with Russia that Vladimir Putin repeatedly violated. But if news reports are accurate, the State Department is about to capitulate to the Taliban, al-Qaeda’s longtime ally, as U.S. forces are withdrawn from Afghanistan. The president should reject this deal.

NEW YORK (AP) — Planned Parenthood said Monday it’s pulling out of the federal family planning program rather than abide by a new Trump administration rule prohibiting clinics from referring women for abortions.

Speaking at the White House, Trump lamented that US involvement in the country for 18 years, which he described as more of a "police force," is "ridiculous," and repeated a claim that the US "could win that war in a week if we wanted to" but that he does not "want to kill 10 million people, 10 million Afghans ... because that's what would have to happen and I'm not looking to do that." Trump said the US is "bringing some of our troops back but we have to have a presence." The area "does seem to be the Harvard...

[Catholic Caucus] The synod and the sex scandal: two time bombs threatening Pope Francis’s moral authority This week’s Holy Smoke podcast discusses two looming disasters for Pope Francis. The first is the ‘Amazon Synod’ in October, at which the world’s bishops will discuss a bizarre plan to ordain Amazon ‘village elders’ as priests. The framework for the synod has already been published; my guest Dr Ed Condon uses the word ‘Orwellian’ to describe the language it employs.  The second threat to Francis is more personal. When he became Pope he lost no time making his friend Gustavo Zanchetta a bishop in...

First they came for our plastic grocery bags. Then they came for our plastic straws. Now they’ve come for our plastic water bottles at SFO. Yes, you read that right. Starting Tuesday, the sale of plastic water bottles will be banned at San Francisco International Airport, one of the few places they actually make sense. California has many dumb laws and statutes and bans, but this one is especially brainless—spurred by futile self-righteousness. After running late for your flight after a 30-minute security line only to have TSA confiscate your Fiji water bottle, you’ll now have to stop at a...

Miss Nevada says she was banned from competing in the upcoming Ms. America beauty contest because of her refusal to hide her support for President Trump. “I was officially disqualified from competing in the Ms. America pageant for 2019,” said Katie Jo Williams in an Instagram video. She says organizers told her she was “too political” to be involved.

Behind the scenes, some major events were set in motion last autumn that could soon change the tenor in Washington, at least as it relates to the debunked Russia collusion narrative that distracted America for nearly three years. It was in September 2018 that President Trump told my Hill.TV colleague Buck Sexton and me that he would order the release of all classified documents showing what the FBI, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and other U.S. intelligence agencies may have done wrong in the Russia probe. About the same time, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, under then-Chairman Devin...

It is 9am Australian Eastern Standard Time on the 21st August 2019. In approximately 30 minutes, the Victorian Court of Appeal will hand down its verdict in the appeal of Catholic Cardinal George Pell against his conviction for historical child sexual abuse. There has been considerable discussion on this on FR and elsewhere as a significant number of people believe there has been a miscarriage of justice in this case for various reasons. I will be monitoring various Australian media as the verdict is delivered and thought I would post here to keep people informed and updated.

PORTLAND, OR—In a press release earlier this week, Portland police chief Danielle Outlaw (her actual name), appearing somber and exhausted, said she just wishes there were some kind of group with the firepower and authority to fight back against Antifa. In a candid moment, Outlaw (seriously, her actual name) said there was just nothing the police could do, as they'd need to have some kind of organized, armed force specifically created to protect and serve the people. "Like, what if we took money from everyone to fund a force that could then defend them in a time of need?" she...

Energy recommendations from a government-backed program have gone viral after suggesting that people should keep their home thermostats at least at 78 degrees for cooling. Energy Star, which works with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Energy Department to set efficiency benchmarks for appliances, electronics, building materials, lighting and other products, recommends that Americans program their thermostats to at least 78 degrees from 6 a.m. The program then recommends temperatures be raised to at least 85 degrees from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., at which point it recommends again setting temperatures to at least 78 degrees. Thermostats should be then...

President Trump called National Rifle Association (NRA) CEO Wayne LaPierre on Tuesday to tell him that universal background checks for gun purchases are off the table, The Atlantic reported. The decision to oppose an initiative that has strong support in public polling signals an apparent backtracking by the president from initial comments he made following two mass shootings earlier this month in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, that left 31 dead. Trump at the time indicated support for legislation on “meaningful background checks,” saying the issue was not a question of the NRA or political partisanship. “On background checks,...

Leader Of Jihadi Military Contractor Malhama Tactical (MT) Killed In Syria; August 20, 2019 The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here. On August 16, 2019, jihadi military contractor Malhama Tactical (MT) posted a Russian-language statement on Telegram announcing that the group's leader, Abu Salman Al-Belarusi, had been killed at the front south of Idlib, and was succeeded by Chechen jihadi 'Ali Al-Shishani. MT operates in Syria and has worked with Jabhat Fath Al-Sham (formerly Jabhat Al-Nusra, the Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria), as well as Ahrar...

Walmart on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against Tesla, accusing the company's solar-energy subsidiary of gross negligence after multiple stores experienced fires they say stemmed from solar panels on their roofs.

When Attorney General William Barr said he was "appalled" and "angry" after Jeffrey Epstein's apparent suicide at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, you'd almost have thought Barr himself bore no responsibility. He spoke of "serious irregularities" and "demanded" an investigation -- as if he were some outside observer incapable of simply ordering an investigation himself. Listening to him pour fire and brimstone on the rank-and-file who run the jail, you almost have to wonder: Has Barr taken a look at his org chart recently? Because the Metropolitan Correctional Center is part of the Bureau of Prisons, which is part...