Free Republic

There’s no way to sugarcoat it: On Thursday, the Supreme Court’s six conservative justices dismantled what remains of the Voting Rights Act, all but ensuring that every voter suppression law passed in the wake of the 2020 election will survive judicial scrutiny. Thursday’s 6–3 decision in Brnovich v. DNC feigns moderation. Justice Sam Alito’s opinion for the court purports to leave the VRA’s most crucial remaining provision intact. Don’t believe it. Alito transformed a sweeping, historic law—one intended to bar voting restrictions with a racially discriminatory impact—into an empty promise. In theory, the VRA still stands. In reality, it has...

For a while now, photos of a very unusual AK-style rifle using an AR gas system have been making the rounds on social media sites, and we now know it’s real, courtesy of Polenar Tactical. A prototype design by Tinck Arms, the rifle doesn’t use a true direct impingement gas system, but a hybrid system using a remote short-stroke gas piston. What Tinck Arms achieved with the combined gas systems is a free-floating barrel, to make an AK shoot without the characteristic barrel whip. And because the piston system is separated from the bolt carrier, it also produces noticeably reduced...

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced Thursday that a group of 130 nations has agreed to a global minimum tax on corporations, part of a broader agreement to overhaul international tax rules.If widely enacted, the GMT would effectively end the practice of global corporations seeking out low-tax jurisdictions like Ireland and the British Virgin Islands to move their headquarters to, even though their customers, operations and executives are located elsewhere.“For decades, the United States has participated in a self-defeating international tax competition, lowering our corporate tax rates only to watch other nations lower theirs in response. The result was a global...

Florida's Gov. Ron DeSantis is as impressive as they come and his record to show for it continues. According to an op-ed in the Tampa Bay Times by Scott Gerber, he's now targeting the leftist university monolith. Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis recently signed a bill to protect against indoctrination in the state’s colleges and universities. The new law, which went into effect on July 1, requires Florida’s public colleges and universities to conduct an annual survey measuring “intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity” on their campuses. The law’s goal is to assess “the extent to which competing ideas and perspectives...

CHICAGO - Four people were killed and 28 others were wounded in shootings Thursday in Chicago, including a man who was killed in a drive-by in West Garfield Park. The 25-year-old was standing on the porch about 4:15 p.m. in the 4000 block of West Van Buren Street when a car drove by and someone from inside fired shots, Chicago police said. He was shot in the head and was pronounced dead at the scene. He hasn’t been identified. A man was killed in a shooting in South Shore. He was found unresponsive with a gunshot wound to his forehead...

I suppose it was not entirely his fault. The Distinguished Visitor was only delivering a message, you see. While he was part of the faction that had created the message, he had not actually formulated what he was going to say. That, it became obvious, had been done by someone else. The occasion was a joint Physics–Social Sciences colloquium at one of the campuses of the University of California. Ronald Reagan was president. The president had recently established his Strategic Defense Initiative, also somewhat derisively called his Star Wars Program. The topic of this day was defense against ballistic missiles...

Power corrupts, and absolute power will make you nuts. We've all heard the phrase "power corrupts," by Lord Acton, a 19th-century British historian. The full quote — "Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts absolutely" — referred to the absolute power of kings. Research from 2012 by Katherine A. DeCelles, a University of Toronto professor, concluded that wealth and power don't affect everyone equally — they just allow existing personality traits to emerge to excess. There are many stories of wealthy people setting up foundations that help millions of people. But there is a dark side as well. People with...

If someone inside the American media elite were tapped to deliver a State of the Media address in front of a distinguished audience, they would not be able to claim that their position is strong, stronger than ever. Sadly, a new survey by the Reuters Institute found the United States ranks last in media trust -- at 29% -- among 92,000 news consumers surveyed in 46 countries. There are several easy answers for why this is true. But the most obvious one is the media's dramatic tilt to one side of the political argument. For many years, the Republicans attempted...

The American Left today rejoices greatly as it seeks diligently and aggressively its "lawless revolution" against our Founding Father's vision of America. Today the Left celebrates the establishment of a new nation to replace our old one, which was founded on the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God. Almighty God and His moral absolutes for this physical world have been finally ousted from our schools, public squares, lives, and three branches of government. Godlessness, secularism, technological tyranny, lawlessness, moral relativism, and Big Government are now the new gods of America and as we look back at what once was...

Are America's best days yet ahead? Well, millions of Americans in both parties would believe to optimistically think and perceive so (Jer.7:4-7; 17:9-10, Prov. 16:25; Matt. 7:13-14, Luke 12:16-21; 2 Cor. 4:2-4; Eph. 2:1-2). Two different American political parties, world views, and utopian visions with one common denominator, which seeks to exclude this world's ETERNAL RIGHTEOUS Creator from our national square. One party; would seek the total eradication of the Almighty and His Divinely established moral absolutes (Psalm 14; Rom. 1:18-32; 3); while the other party; loves to - throw His Name around - while rejecting His ETERNAL RIGHTEOUS Character...

BOCA GRANDE, FL—Fox News host Tucker Carlson has been going back and forth with the NSA, with the television commentator insisting the NSA is spying on him. The agency, however, has denied the claim, saying, "We at the NSA are not spying on you and have never spied on you" in a tinny, muffled voice coming from his toaster this morning.

Some Facebook users have recently reported being sent warning messages from the social media giant relating to “extremists” or “extremist content.”...others reported getting a warning that they may have been “exposed to harmful extremist content recently.”...that “violent groups try to manipulate your anger and disappointment,”... Facebook spokesperson confirmed to The Epoch Times on July 1 that the company is currently running the warnings as a test...The messages come after lawmakers have repeatedly targeted and pressured CEOs of big tech firms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Microsoft, essentially accusing them of allowing “extremism,” misinformation, and cyberbullying on their platforms. Such...

The crisis at the nation's southern border has grown exponentially. Some states are beginning to take an approach to this crisis that would appear to be more in line with the Founding Fathers' vision of America than what America has evolved (or devolved, depending on one's perspective) into. Instead of waiting on the federal government to act, states are taking matters into their own hands. Texas is transferring $250 million from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to a disaster fund to build its own wall along the border with Mexico. While technically this is the federal government's responsibility, if...

I must confess something: Socialism poses a grave threat to the U.S. I, a first-generation American born to socialism survivors, take no pleasure in admitting this. I’m not an alarmist nor do I want to stoke fear. But I must be honest about the precarious situation we find ourselves in today. By now, socialism should have gone into the ash heap of history. Sadly, its pernicious ideas still linger and have clung onto many of our institutions. Yesterday marked the centennial of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s creation. Largely absent from the coverage here stateside, unsurprisingly, was highlighting the millions...

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Kenyell Wilson, an outreach worker with the Safe Streets program, was shot and killed Thursday in Baltimore, police said. Wilson walked into Harbor Hospital with gunshot wounds at 4:41 p.m. and died a short time later, police said. Police have not determined where in the city the shooting occurred.Mayor Brandon Scott released a statement on Thursday evening following the news: “Safe Streets has a special place in my heart and I consider the Violence Interrupters who bravely serve this program as a part of my family. Tonight, our brother Kenyell Wilson became a victim of the gun...

VARX: VFEV TFAKF REG AN EJTEMN VDMAGY VQ LAJJ, WZV TFAKF XGON AG LAJJAGY FAR. —FXDWXDV NCXGKXD

The November 3, 2020, Presidential election data from California sets off alarm bells. Election data generated by the natural voting process will closely match Benford’s Law predictions. (Benford’s Law, or the rule of leading digits, is used as an indicator of fraud in numerical data.) Of course, there can be exceptions, but Benford’s Law points to areas to investigate. Benford’s Law predicts that for real, natural data, the frequency of leading digits (1 through 9) will occur at or near the following percentages of the transactions or tallies. Deviations from these predicted percentages should be investigated. Here are the official...

Some Facebook users have recently reported being sent warning messages from the social media giant relating to “extremists” or “extremist content.” “Are you concerned that someone you know is becoming an extremist?” one message reads. “We care about preventing extremism on Facebook. Others in your situation have received confidential support.” The message also provides a button to “Get Support,” which leads to another Facebook page about extremism. Redstate editor Kira Davis, who said was sent a screenshot of the message from a friend, wrote: “Hey has anyone had this message pop up on their FB? My friend (who is not...

President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is weighing a plan to release 100,000 more migrants into the United States interior annually, in addition to the thousands released monthly from DHS custody. The proposed DHS plan, first reported by Axios, would expand on the Biden administration’s massive Catch and Release operation where border crossers are routinely put into DHS facilities or migrant hotels for a few days before being bused or flown into the U.S. interior. About 100,000 migrant family units and border crossers between 18 to 21-years-old would benefit from the proposed plan, getting released into the U.S....

If I were leading President Joe Biden's central committee and my goal were to destroy America as founded and ensure that it lose its distinction as the world's freest and most powerful nation, I doubt I could concoct a superior strategy than adopting the Biden administration's message and policy agenda. The administration is creating total societal chaos, fomenting disorder and undermining the rule of law at every turn. As the first duty of government is to protect and defend its citizens, we might be alarmed to consider that the administration is engaged in a multi-pronged strategy to do the opposite....