Free Republic

The chairman of the Senate antitrust subcommittee used to be one of Google’s chief Republican antagonists. What changed? When Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman, appeared before the Senate antitrust subcommittee in September 2011, one of his toughest questioners was Sen. Mike Lee. “You've cooked it so that you're always third,” the Utah Republican snapped at Schmidt, pressing him about a Google price comparison tool that, the senator said, often yielded results that were good for Google. “Senator, I can assure you we have not cooked anything,” Schmidt retorted. It was the nearest the hearing had to a standout moment, and...

President Donald Trump criticized Democrats on Tuesday after Rep. Ilhan Omar suggested that the United States should cut aid to Israel after officials blocked her and Rep. Rashida Tlaib from visiting the country. Trump indicated that the suggestion was ridiculous. “Five years ago, the concept of even talking about this … cutting off aid to Israel because of two people that hate Israel and hate Jewish people — I can’t believe we’re even having this conversation,” he said. The president commented to reporters about Tlaib in the Oval Office, speaking during a visit with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis. He condemned...

Of all the tiresome falsehoods from the so-called “resistance,” the narrative that Democrats lose elections because they are just too decent and fair is among the most ridiculous. If only they would put aside their genteel political ways, this self-serving theory goes, and do what is necessary instead of what is civil, they would force the American people to finally see the truth of Donald Trump’s evil. Columnist Juan Williams (who, it should be noted, does have a reputation for civility) is the latest to propagate this assessment of Democrats as being too fair to their opponents in the Trump...

The priorities of Iceland’s political leaders are all messed up. The small European nation recently drew international scrutiny for its nearly 100-percent abortion rate for unborn babies diagnosed with Down syndrome. The deadly discriminatory practice drew massive outrage from across the world, but Iceland lawmakers did not react by passing protections for unborn babies. Quite the opposite, earlier this year, they voted to expand abortions. Then, on Sunday, Prime Minister Katrin Jokobsdottier joined other political leaders, scientists and environmental activists to hold a “funeral” for a melting glacier, The Connect News reports. The Okjökull, or Ok, glacier in Borgarfjörður, Iceland,...

The Masterpiece by Jon McNaughton Artist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wghCecS7vD0&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR39_0S63qm-OMkkwrA6ruKpELSkzAPCMoV-nd200Z72l_VSW3hKCVH5wKw

On August 7, the day after Tucker Carlson called America’s white-supremacy problem “a hoax,” the Fox News host announced a weeklong trip “to the wilderness” to fish with his son. Unlike other hosts on the network who’ve come back from vacation to find their airtime filled, Carlson eased back into his routine on Monday with more pedestrian fare, including segments on Joe Biden’s fitness for the presidency and Elizabeth Warren’s Native American misstep. But not all his pre-holiday advertisers joined him upon his return. According to the watchdog group Media Matters for America, in the past 11 days, Tucker Carlson...

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China is flexing its muscles. As the second richest economy in the world, its businessmen and politicians are involved just about everywhere in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Now, though, China is taking a big interest in a very different part of the world: the Arctic. It has started calling itself a "near-Arctic" power, even though Beijing is almost 3,000km (1,800 miles) from the Arctic Circle. It has bought or commissioned several ice-breakers - including nuclear-powered ones - to carve out new routes for its goods through the Arctic ice. And it is eyeing Greenland as a particularly useful way-station...

A woman who put her recycling in the wrong coloured bags was arrested and locked in a cell by police. Officers detained Lindsey Webb after she failed to appear at Suffolk Magistrates' Court. The 34-year-old was due to attend in April after she was accused of breaching the Environmental Protection Act four times the previous month by putting out her rubbish in the street.

Denmark is a very special country with incredible people, but based on Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s comments, that she would have no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland, I will be postponing our meeting scheduled in two weeks for another time.... ....The Prime Minister was able to save a great deal of expense and effort for both the United States and Denmark by being so direct. I thank her for that and look forward to rescheduling sometime in the future!

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...