Free Republic

Facebook’s oversight board decided Wednesday to uphold former President Donald Trump’s ban from the platform. The responses were split along party lines. The House Judiciary Committee GOP issued one word in response—”pathetic”—while Pennsylvania’s Democratic Representative Mary Gay Scanlon called it “a small act of accountability.” She says more needs to be done.

To ensure a global perspective, the Oversight Board includes members from a variety of cultural and professional backgrounds, reflecting the diversity of the Facebook community itself. These members were chosen because they are experienced at deliberating thoughtfully and collegially, skilled at making and explaining decisions based on a set of policies or principles, and familiar with digital content and governance. Special consideration was given to people who have demonstrated a proficiency in questions of online content moderation and a history of working with others on difficult problems towards a common goal.

The US Department of Justice has reviewed details that "raise concerns" about the integrity of the Republican-led audit in Maricopa County, telling the president of Arizona's state senate that the effort may violate federal law. The audit, taking place at a sports arena in Phoenix, is being conducted by a private firm, Cyber Ninjas, that has no experience in elections and is led by a man who promoted conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. The firm was chosen to lead the effort by state Sen. Karen Fann, over the objections of Maricopa County's local Republican officials — and after two...

May 4, 2021 Saints Paraskevi Greek Orthodox Shrine Church Greenlawn, New York Dear Irene, devoted spouse of our fallen hero, Beloved Children: Jenny and Stavro, Bereaved Parents: Anna and Stavros, Family, Friends, and his Comrades in Arms, Χριστὸς Ἀνέστη. Christ is Risen. In the face of the overwhelming grief and sorrow of this moment, the Church speaks to us with the name of the man we are here to remember and honor today, for Anastasios means “Resurrection.” We proclaim the fundamental truth of our Faith with every mention of his name, a name that we will repeat for all the...

The U.S. Space Command is tracking uncontrolled debris from a Chinese rocket that sent part of a planned space station into orbit last week, the White House said on May 5. The debris comes from the Long March 5B rocket launched on April 29 to deliver a new 22.5-tonne module for China’s Tianhe space station. The debris has since reached orbital velocity, meaning it is circling the planet instead of falling back to Earth within a predetermined area as usually happens with the debris from U.S. launches.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) sat down to have dinner with former President Donald Trump at his Florida resort Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday and discussed the Republican Party’s intent of regaining control of Congress, the senator said. “Had a great dinner tonight with President Trump at Mar-a-Lago,” Cruz wrote on Twitter.

Was the California pension system addressed?

Professional journalists have, at least in theory, devoted their lives to the noble art of speaking truth to power, of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable, of saving democracy from certain death in darkness. In practice, however, this devotion tends to waver depending on which political party controls the White House. When Democrats are in charge, for example, our noble journalists can't help but be consumed by "The Awkward Feeling of Rooting for the White House Press Secretary." So reads the headline of a Jen Psaki profile published in Washingtonian magazine. Members of the White House press corps, writes...

House Democrats introduced a bill to erect a permanent “Attack On The Capitol” exhibit on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol. The bill specifies that the project must be installed in a “prominent location” and retain a “permanent” status. Property “damaged during the attack,” photographs, and a plaque honoring the “sacrifice of heroes, including United States Capitol Police Officers Brian Sicknick” are among the exhibit requirements. Officer Sicknick, however, died of natural causes according to D.C.’s Chief Medical Examiner. “The Architect may include artwork created to depict the attack on the Capitol,” the bill adds. The legislation adds to the...

Denmark will not use the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the Danish Health Authority announced on Monday, saying in a statement that the country could make adequate progress using other vaccines and did not need to run the risk of a rare, dangerous blood clotting condition that may be linked to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The country has halted administering the AstraZeneca vaccine for similar reasons, after two people died of blood clots after being given that vaccine. Denmark had been planning to use the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine before reports emerged about a possible link to the clotting...

The Christian world, Rev. Alexander Garth said, “needs the Catholic identity, because it would be a great loss for Christendom if the Catholic color of Faith lost it's intensity. May 4, 2021 VATICAN CITY — The Protestant Pastor of the German church where Martin Luther preached and is known as the “mother church of the Reformation” has warned that the German Church’s Synodal Path is “the wrong path” that is “forcing the Protestantization of the Catholic Church.” In a letter sent over Easter to the German monthly Vatican Magazin, Lutheran Rev. Alexander Garth of St. Mary’s church in Wittenberg said...

(h/t John4.11)From the Desk of Donald J. Trump | Donald J. Trump (donaldjtrump.com)Q is the result of the sacrifices and commitment of countless patriots to win back our captured country from the Deep State and achieve the transformation President Trump promised in this campaign video. President Trump has said the awakening of the public is key to this transformation.Q describes this awakening as follows: "The Great Awakening ('Freedom of Thought’), was designed and created not only as a backchannel to the public (away from the longstanding 'mind’ control of the corrupt & heavily biased media) to endure future events through...

After a lengthy lawsuit that saw the Democrats achieve few victories in their goal of stopping the audit of the 2020 ballots in Maricopa County, Arizona, they have reached a settlement with the firm involved in the audit and the Senate Republicans that will see the firm, Cyber Ninjas, cease verifying the signatures on early voting envelopes with the signatures on file from the voter.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says unlike other states trying to defund their police departments, he is offering bonuses to every police officer, firefighter, paramedic, and emergency medical technician (EMT) in the state. During a press conference on Wednesday, DeSantis announced that as part of the state’s budget that he will sign into law, police officers, firefighters, paramedics, and EMTs in Florida will each receive a $1,000 bonus following a year of unrest spurred by the Chinese coronavirus and anti-law enforcement riots. “Some want to defund the police. We’re funding the police and then some,” DeSantis said: The other thing that...

The same organization that manufactured and ran the Russia collusion hoax and allowed for the 2020 election fraud is going to interfere with the Arizona audit!According to Garrett Archer at ABC15 in Phoenix, Arizona the Biden Department of Justice is going to “get involved in some capacity” with the ongoing forensic audit.Source at the county says DOJ is going to get involved in some capacity with the #azaudit. #azauditpool— The AZ – abc15 – Data Guru (@Garrett_Archer) May 6, 2021As we have been reporting for weeks now, Democrats are REALLY, REALLY worried about the Maricopa County audit.EXCLUSIVE: The Democrats are...

A federal judge Wednesday vacated a nationwide freeze on evictions that was handed down by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help some renters remain in their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. The moratorium had been implemented as millions of people lost work due to lockdowns caused by the pandemic. The move, which was first implemented in the March 2020 CARES Act, was seen as a temporary fix for renters who were at risk of going homeless. U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich ruled on the side of the plaintiffs, saying that the CDC exceeded its authority...

Honeywell was fined $13 million for allegedly exporting sensitive data to several countries, including China, without obtaining proper authorization, the Department of State announced on May 3.The State Department’s spokesperson said in a statement that it concluded a settlement with Honeywell International to resolve alleged violations of export rules when the company exported and retransferred technical information about U.S. fighter jets and other military systems without authorization to Canada, China, Ireland, Mexico, and Taiwan.The exported data “contained engineering prints showing dimensions, geometries, and layouts for manufacturing castings and finished parts for multiple aircraft, gas turbine engines, and military electronics,” a...

NEW YORK—Many Broadway productions are scrambling to resume ticket sales in the coming days to welcome theater-goers this fall after city and state leaders have green-lit a reopening of the Great White Way at full capacity by mid-September. “We remain cautiously optimistic about Broadway’s ability to resume performances this fall and are happy that fans can start buying tickets again,” Charlotte St. Martin, president of the Broadway League, said in a statement Wednesday. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Broadway theaters can reopen Sept. 14 and will be allowed to decide their own entry requirements, like whether people must prove...

~ The FReeper Canteen Presents ~ ~ Remembering Our Troops!! ~ Dude, You’re Not Going To Fit! U.S. Army Paratroopers assigned to 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division receive instructions for cold load training from a member of the flight crew from the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade on Fort Bragg, NC, April 28, 2021. The training taught them how to safely load a UH-60 Blackhawk with their equipment, offload quickly and provide security. The training is in preparation for their participation in Exercise Swift Response 21, a multinational airborne exercise involving 7,000 Paratroopers from 10 nations, which begins...

To use the cliche of the moment, these are deeply polarized times. But there are some issues so urgent that we must find common ground. At the top of that list is preventing police-citizen interactions from resulting in the deaths of either innocent civilians or dedicated police officers. Unsurprisingly, Joe Biden’s Justice Department is now signaling its intent to address this problem in the time-honored Democrat way — by “investigating” local police departments, so it can then announce the foregone conclusion that “systemic racism” abounds. The next step in that playbook is a “Consent Decree,” where local police departments, under...