Free Republic

Alphabet Inc.'s Google this year moved to tighten control over its scientists' papers by launching a "sensitive topics" review, and in at least three cases requested authors refrain from casting its technology in a negative light, according to internal communications and interviews with researchers involved in the work. Google's new review procedure asks that researchers consult with legal, policy and public relations teams before pursuing topics such as face and sentiment analysis and categorizations of race, gender or political affiliation, according to internal webpages explaining the policy. "Advances in technology and the growing complexity of our external environment are increasingly...

So it turns out that, like clean elections, mass vaccination campaigns is just another thing America can no longer do. Across the pond, my old editor Boris Johnson is a complete arse busily destroying those few remnants of British Conservatism that managed to escape Theresa May and David Cameron. But, granted all that, he knew enough to ensure that the first person on the planet to receive the vaccine was an actual member of the public - an appealing nonagenarian lady ("Patient 1A") - and that the second or thereabouts was some old coot from Warwickshire who chanced to bear...

"Our Constitution created a republic designed to protect the “natural rights” of individuals. The rights precede even the will of majorities. The Progressive movement, old and new, harnesses majoritarianism to expert administration to achieve its positivist goals. Individual rights are often a hindrance. The difference is essential. The gridlock we see today does not reflect a failing Constitution but one performing as designed. The Progressive agenda is grinding against inalienable rights. We hear the rumbling in the pillars of our system; why should North Dakota get two senators? Why shouldn’t the District of Columbia be a state? The Electoral College...

After 50 years of submerged at the bottom of a reservoir, a 5,000-year-old monument has reappeared in Spain. The megalithic site has 144 granite blocks, which are stand over six feet tall and are known as ‘Spanish Stonehenge.’ Its similarity to the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Wiltshire is striking, but the Iberian version is made of smaller rocks. In the 1960s, it was thought to be condemned to the history books when a Spanish general ordered the construction of a hydroelectric dam in Peraleda de la Mata, near Cáceres in Extremadura.

Hawaii Democrat Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has submitted legislation (HR 1267) that would force corporations such as Amazon, Facebook, Walmart, and Google that have seen their profits soar during the pandemic pay a tax that would fund aid to their small business competitors that were economically harmed by government lockdown orders. Since the start of the pandemic an estimated 50% of the nation’s small businesses have been forced to close. Meanwhile, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has increased his wealth by more than $70 billion and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has increased his by more than $25 billion. Big box retailers like...

This latest “stimulus” bill coming out of Congress is a total POS. This country has waited nine damn months so Pakistan could get $10 million for gender programs. The list is nauseating$169,739,000 to Vietnam, including $19 million to remediate dioxins (page 1476).Unspecified funds to “continue support for not-for-profit institutions of higher education in Kabul, Afghanistan that are accessible to both women and men in a coeducational environment” (page 1477).$198,323,000 to Bangladesh, including $23.5 million to support Burmese refugees and $23.3 million for “democracy programs” (page 1485).$130,265,000 to Nepal for “development and democracy programs” (page 1485).Pakistan: $15 million for “democracy programs”...

A new report by Barclays cites the expanding market around the alternative protein source and predicts the edible bug industry could be worth $8 billion by 2030, up from a little under $1 billion last year. The product is already found in experimental cuisines and boasts an “eco-friendly” reputation. But it has yet to go mainstream as Americans still prefer meat over bugs. Well, our government seems to be in doubt about that as they spend $1,327,781.72 of your tax dollars to see if you’ll eat ground-up bugs. Below you can see a partial list of where your taxpayer money...

I just want to personally thank you. We’ve been through some stuff. We’ve gone through some of the most complex military operations this country has ever conducted…

Actor Kirk Cameron hosted yet another Christmas caroling event in California — attended by mostly non-mask-wearing revelers — less than a week after he took heat for a similar gathering, according to a new report. About 75 to 100 carolers — ranging in age from children to senior citizens — gathered outside The Oaks mall in Thousand Oaks, right next to a COVID-19 testing center, Tuesday night, KABC-TV reported.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger says he will not tolerate people living outside of Georgia voting in the Georgia elections. Election watchdog group True the Vote is working with the Georgia Republican Party to challenge the eligibility of more than 350,000 Georgia voters ahead of the state's two Senate runoff elections in January. Focusing on questions about voters who have filed change of address forms with the U.S. Postal Service, the group is encouraging Republicans in counties across the state to file voter challenges with their local election boards. In several counties, including Floyd, Athens-Clarke, Cobb and Gwinnett, complaints have...

As Congress uses $600 stimulus checks to front a $900 billion Christmas Tree of kickback-prone political spending, an unexpected critic of the paltry size of those checks for Americans has emerged. Michelle Obama said, "You’re getting $600. What can you do with that? Not to be ungrateful or anything, but maybe it pays down a bill, but it doesn’t pay down every bill every month. The short-term quick fix kinda stuff sounds good, and it may even feel good when you get that check, and then you go out and you buy a pair of earrings." Missus Obama said this...

These wonderful themes of liberty have disappeared from today’s politically correct holiday fluff.

It should be no surprise as 2020 comes to an end that corporate media covered a horrific year as horrifically as expected. From its laudatory coverage of the presidential impeachment it encouraged to the blatant gaslighting about this year’s riotous protests, the nation’s least accountable institution performed as usual, only escalating its protection of Democrats and leftism, and shameless manipulation of the facts while demanding total power to determine them. Here are 20 top mortifying moments of the media in 2020.20: Iranian Terrorist Was A War HeroThe Trump administration rang in the pre-pandemic new year with the execution of Iranian...

After months of lobbying, news of Congress passing a $900 billion stimulus bill was met with great relief from Hollywood’s guilds and trade organizations, who expressed hope that the aid would signal the beginning of the end of one of the hardest challenges the entertainment industry has ever faced. “With multiple vaccines beginning to roll out, we see a bright light at the end of a very dark tunnel,” John Fithian, President/CEO of the National Association of Theater Owners said in a statement. “There is a very real chance that our business can begin to return to normal in the...

New weekly jobless claims fell by 89,000 to 803,000 in the week that ended December 19, the Department of Labor said Wednesday. The prior week’s initial claims number was revised up to 892,000 from the initial estimate of 885,000.

Take-out from expensive restaurant in the most expensive part of Tokyo hurts the wallet, thrills the taste buds. Though most restaurants in Japan remain open for eat-in dining, a lot of us are choosing to get our meals to-go during the pandemic. So when he found his stomach growling, our Japanese-language reporter Mr. Sato decided the best thing to do was to just go pick up a sandwich and bring it back home to eat. Ordinarily, we’d call that a casual lunch…except that the sandwich he picked up from a restaurant in downtown Tokyo cost him 8,650 yen (US$82).

After more than nine months of empty stages, live music venues and theaters in the United States—along with independent movie houses—appear to be headed toward much-needed relief to the tune of $15 billion. That help, dubbed the Save Our Stages Act, is part of Congress’s $900 billion COVID-19 relief package announced Sunday. As of midday Monday, lawmakers were racing to finalize the legislative text to send it to President Trump’s desk before government funding lapses at midnight. The money set aside for the Save Our Stages Act would assist live music and theater venues, independent movie theaters, and other cultural...

Christmas is the most wondrous day of our calendar in any year of our lives. The bright lights, smells, and smiles discernible even to an infant quickly grow into a sense of hope, awe, and mystery as young boys and girls crane their necks on the car ride back from papa’s house to look out the window for a sign of that bright red nose in the sky. As time moves on, our hopes turn to the company of friends and family, and our awe to the sacred mysteries of God made man for our sake. Our experience of Christmas...

I saw this on twitter but it looks like its been taken down and now some liberal nut (makes me sick) has tweaked it against PDJT.

WELLSTON, Oklahoma—One day in the early fall of 2018, while scrutinizing the finances of his thriving Colorado garden supply business, Chip Baker noticed a curious development: transportation costs had spiked fivefold. The surge, he quickly determined, was due to huge shipments of cultivation supplies—potting soil, grow lights, dehumidifiers, fertilizer, water filters—to Oklahoma. Baker, who has been growing weed since he was 13 in Georgia, has cultivated crops in some of the world’s most notorious marijuana hotspots, from the forests of Northern California’s Emerald Triangle to the lake region of Switzerland to the mountains of Colorado. Oklahoma was not exactly on...