Free Republic

Together with a few other tech and media corporations, Microsoft has formed a coalition focused on fighting “disinformation” and fake news. The other founding members of the coalition are Truepic, Intel, BBC, Adobe, and Arm. Disinformation and fake news have become prevalent buzzwords to create a justification to censor in this digital age. It’s now very easy for people to formulate and spread falsehoods, according to the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity. “There’s a critical need to address widespread deception in online content — now supercharged by advances in AI and graphics and diffused rapidly via the internet. Our...

Date of first SOTU -Nixon 1970 - Jan 22 -Carter 1978 - Jan 19 -Regan 1982 - Jan 26 -Bush, HW 1990 - Jan 31 -Clinton 1994 - Jan 25 -Bush 2002 - Jan 29 -Obama 2010 - Jan 27 -Trump 2018 - Jan 30

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on Monday that he discussed the 2022 elections during a weekend meeting with former President Trump that he had billed as part of an effort to unite a fractured party. Graham, returning to the Capitol on Monday evening, said they "just talked about the 2022 cycle." "He’s very involved in helping the team win," Graham added, noting that Trump "made a bunch of phone calls" and is "trying to get the best team on the field." An adviser to the former president didn't immediately respond to a question about the meeting and what, if any,...

~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: MacDill Air Force Base, FloridaMacDill Air Force Base (MacDill AFB) is a United States Air Force installation located 4 miles south-southwest of downtown Tampa, Florida. The "host wing" for MacDill AFB is the 6th Air Refueling Wing (6 ARW), assigned to the Eighteenth Air Force (18AF) of the Air Mobility Command (AMC). MacDill became an Air Mobility Command installation in 1996 and home to the 6th Air Refueling Wing, its 310th Airlift Squadron flying the C-37A, and its 50th Air Refueling Squadron and 91st Air Refueling Squadron flying the KC-135. The 6 ARW...

A man who had a large chunk of his tongue bitten off by a female thug was left horrified when a seagull swooped down and ate it.James McKenzie spat out a piece of his tongue onto the street after Bethaney Ryan, 27, had ripped it off with her teeth during an incident in Edinburgh. The gull then flew down and grabbed the muscle, making off before the injured man could retrieve it. Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told about the grisly incident - which left the victim maimed for life - when Ryan appeared in the dock to plead guilty to...

The Year: 2052 The Place: A 5th Grade Classroom Little Johnny raises his hand and asks his teacher, "My Grandpa is always talking about ‘President Trump.' When was he the president?" Johnny's teacher responds, "There never was a ‘President Trump', Johnny. That's a mass psychosis that afflicts some very sick people like your grandfather. Look in your history book. Look in Arlington Cemetery. You won't find any ‘President Trump' there. Your Grandpa needs help, Johnny. If any of your parents or grandparents talk about a ‘President Trump', be sure to tell someone in authority so we can get them the...

The percentage of blue-collar workers who said they identify with the Republican Party greatly rose during former President Donald Trump’s time in office according to the latest poll from NBC News. The survey, released on Sunday by NBC’s “Meet the Press,” shows that the number of blue-collar workers who identify as members of the GOP grew by 12 percentage points since 2010, while the number who identify as Democrats fell by eight percentage points. White-collar workers slightly shifted towards the Democratic Party by one percentage point. The number of Hispanic blue-collar workers who indicate support for the GOP rose from...

Former president Donald Trump will claim he is the leader of the Republican party and its "presumptive 2024 nominee" when he makes his first public appearance since leaving office during the Conservative Political Action Conference next weekend in Orlando, according to a report. A longtime Trump adviser told Axios his CPAC speech will be a "show of force," and said the message will be: "I may not have Twitter or the Oval Office, but I'm still in charge." The source reportedly added that "payback is his chief obsession." According to Axios, Trump is expected to go after the ​10 House...

A dad-to-be in upstate New York was killed when a device he was building for a gender reveal party exploded, state police said Monday. Christopher Pekny, 28, was working on the device for his child’s gender reveal party in the Catskills town of Liberty when it blew up just before noon on Sunday, cops said. The blast killed Pekny and injured his brother, 27-year-old Michael Pekny, who was treated for his injuries at the Garnet Medical Center in Middletown, according to police.

Eleven Republican senators and 64 Republican House members are urging President Joe Biden to withdraw his nomination of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to serve as the next Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). The members of Congress, led by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), sent a letter (pdf) to Biden on Monday to express “grave concerns” over the nomination, arguing that Becerra was not qualified for the role given his record in public service revealing “extremism and contempt for those who take a different view.” “Mr. Becerra’s lack of healthcare experience, enthusiasm for replacing private health insurance with government-run...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Brussels’ cavernous basilica is one of the largest churches in the world but COVID-19 rules allow only 15 people at a time to attend mass there, the same limit applied to much smaller religious venues in Belgium. Dozens of worshippers of different religions and clergy demonstrated in the centre of the Belgian capital on Sunday calling for a change to the rules. “Here, more than in any other building in Belgium, this law is an incredible absurdity,” said the Catholic basilica’s priest Marc Leroy who joined the protests on Sunday. Together with members of other faith groups...

Denver Newsroom, Feb 20, 2021 / 02:39 am MT (CNA).- Ahead of a significant Supreme Court case that could determine whether Catholic adoption agencies can stay open in the U.S., a religious freedom attorney has criticized an article arguing against religious freedom protections. “To the extent that this article proves anything, it’s that all creative professionals feel freer to exercise their constitutional rights, which is a good thing for every American,” Jake Warner, legal counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, said Feb. 17. Warner was responding to a Feb. 6 article in The Atlantic by law professor Netta Barak-Corren. The article...

Mark Levin remembers Rush Limbaugh saying, "he would want us all to carry on and fight for this great country." #FoxNews​ #RushLimbaugh

Russian society has become too accustomed to legalized abortions, but including abortions in national mortality statistics could help change public perception, believes Maria Studenikina, the head of the Maternity Protection Division of the Russian Church’s Synodal Department for Social Service and Charity. Studenikina, who also serves as director of the Orthodox Mercy service’s Home for Mothers, agreed that abortions should be officially recognized as the death of a person. The inclusion of abortion data in mortality statistics could also help Russia come out of its demographic crisis, she said, reports RIA-Novosti. The idea was first expressed by the head of...

Disney and Lucasfilm canceled Gina Carano (who played Cara Dune in "The Mandalorian") for an Instagram post in which she claimed that people shouldn't spread hate over politics (because convincing people to hate their neighbors is the first step in convincing them to kill their neighbors). Following Gina being fired, #CancelDisneyPlus​ trended on Twitter, and today, Gina is trending as the most popular celebrity on the planet, according to IMDB. Let's see how Disney reacts to the news.

The Federal Reserve warned of significant risks of business bankruptcies and steep drops in commercial real estate prices in a report published on Friday. “Business leverage now stands near historical highs,” the central bank said in its semiannual Monetary Policy Report to Congress. “Insolvency risks at small and medium-sized firms, as well as at some large firms, remain considerable.” In part encouraged by government and Fed programs, businesses have taken on more debt over the past year as they’ve struggled to deal with the economic and financial fallout from COVID-19, including in some cases forced shutdowns. The Fed report, which...

A member of a far-right militia who stormed the US Capitol building has petitioned to be released from jail due to safety concerns relating to her being transgender, according to BuzzFeed News.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon M. Scott has decided to follow the advice of his black outreach activist Tyree Moorehead's advise and hire murderers to not murder. When asked about the program, US AG nominee Merrick Garland thought it was a great idea and that he might implement it at the national level once ensconced as US AG, The murders would be placed on the city's payroll and paid not to murder. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is planning to organizing the new government employees. SEIU has stated that they will enforce all union rules and requirements upon the city as...

The state that has the worst record for two shots given is Illinois at 4.2%. At least Illinois matches the national average of 13.0% for at least one shot given to its adult population. However, it ranks poorly by another measure. A total of 2,924,725 doses have been delivered to the state. Of those "shots given" stand at 2,261,482, or 77%. Illinois state government has been criticized for the pace at which it has vaccinated its population. According to The Chicago Tribune: Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s team announced last week it will enlist federal Disaster Survivor Assistance teams to help at...

Gunmaker Sig Sauer is facing a new lawsuit from a U.S. federal agent who claims his holstered P320 pistol discharged without him pulling the trigger and struck him in his upper right hip.According to a Thursday press release by Saltz Mongeluzzi & Bendesky P.C., former U.S. Marine and Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agent Keith Slatowski was preparing to discharge his service pistol at a government firing range on Sept. 21, 2020, without him touching or even pulling the trigger.The accidental discharge resulted in “substantial injury, maceration of tissue, blood loss, and nerve damage” according to the press release. The...