Free Republic

The day has finally come: NVIDIA IS PUBLISHING THEIR LINUX GPU KERNEL MODULES AS OPEN-SOURCE! To much excitement and a sign of the times, the embargo has just expired on this super-exciting milestone that many of us have been hoping to see for many years. Over the past two decades NVIDIA has offered great Linux driver support with their proprietary driver stack, but with the success of AMD's open-source driver effort going on for more than a decade, many have been calling for NVIDIA to open up their drivers. Their user-space software is remaining closed-source but as of today they...

The European Commission (“EC”) published a draft law yesterday that gives lawmakers the ability to monitor and scan EU citizens’ text messages and images to “combat child sex abuse” – the so-called “chat control” regulation. But instead of going after actual sex offenders, the EU will now treat all its citizens as possible sex offenders and scan all their chats and emails to confirm they’re not.A majority of the Members of the European Parliament (“MEPs”) adopted an earlier version of the “chat control” regulation on 6 July 2021 allowing providers to scan communications voluntarily. But only some unencrypted US services...

<p>RANDY Weaver, the survivalist known for his role in the Ruby Ridge standoff with the FBI, has died at the age of 74.</p><p>His daughter Sara confirmed the news on Facebook on Thursday.</p><p>Weaver's wife Vicki and 14-year-old son Samuel were killed by an FBI sniper during an 11-day standoff in the mountains of Idaho in 1992.</p>

President Joe Biden will meet with manufacturers today to discuss the baby formula shortage, but it’s closed to the press. So much for democracy dies in darkness: Correction – @JoeBiden WILL hold a @whitehouse event on the baby formula shortage. There will be NO COVERAGE of the event. Press corps will get a read out in a press call after the event. — John Roberts (@johnrobertsFox) May 12, 2022 “Sorry moms, the president doesn’t feel like talking to you about the baby formula shortage today”: Sorry moms, the president doesn't feel like talking to you about the baby formula shortage...

Two Starbucks stores in Santa Cruz, California, voted to unionize, becoming the first two Starbucks store in California to do so. A third Santa Cruz store will vote to unionize in June. By a vote of 15 to two the Starbucks store located at Mission and Dufour Street has voted to unionize. A second Starbucks located on Ocean and Water Street voted 13 to one to unionize. These are the first two stores in the state to do so, and among the first 50 in the country. At least 51% of the store’s employees needed to vote in favor of...

President Biden warned Democratic donors at a Chicago fundraiser late Wednesday that decades-high inflation will “scare the living hell out of everybody” as the party faces the prospect of big defeats in November’s midterm elections. “We can’t let this happen, guys,” Biden said. “So, we have to — we have to — and it’s going to be hard. It’s going to be hard, because inflation is going to scare the living hell out of everybody.” The president went on to suggest that his administration has done a poor job touting Democrats’ accomplishments to voters and vowed to be more vocal...

Bryan Ruiz moved his family into a newly built home in this Central Valley farming center seven months ago and almost immediately found they were under assault. Mosquitoes bit and harassed them in broad daylight. He looked around, trying to find a water source where they were breeding, and noticed a freshly dug pipe, meant to drain water from the backyard to the front. He lifted its cap and inside found a small puddle in the drainage line, which didn’t have enough slope to fully empty. He grabbed a turkey baster and drew water, already knowing what he would find:...

Tuesday, it became evident that the Russian Army was abandoning territory in Ukraine that it seized shortly after Putin’s War began on February 24 (Russian Troops Retreat From Ukraine to Russia: Planned Redeployment or the Beginning of Collapse?). That withdrawal opened the way for Ukrainian forces to recover previously occupied territory from north of Kharkiv to the border with Russia.What a difference a week makes. Russian positions a week ago on the left; from yesterday on the right. h/t @Militarylandnet pic.twitter.com/5gVye2hQra— streiff (@streiffredstate) May 10, 2022Unconfirmed but solid reports that Ukrainian troops have reached the Russian border to the North-East...

Dictator Mary Poppins and head of the “Disinformation Governance Board,” Nina Jankowicz, has proven herself to be something of a nutcase and the more that comes out about her, the worse she looks.As posted by the Post Millennial, a clip of Jankowicz was released where she spoke about her power as a verified person on Twitter and how she should be able to use that as a way to edit the tweets of the non-verified peasantry.Jancowikz starts off by telling her fellows in a Zoom call she’s in that she’s verified and while others are verified they shouldn’t be, not...

An 18-year-old Naperville has become the youngest American woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Lucy Westlake posted on her Instagram Thursday morning to say she successfully reached the summit of Mount Everest at 5:40 a.m. Nepali time. Before embarking on her climb, Lucy told ABC7 she hoped to inspire other young girls to pursue their own adventures. Lucy Westlake is 18-years-old. She's aiming to be the youngest American woman to make the climb. "I started climbing because my family is very adventurous. My life's mantra is 'limits are perceived,' so I love pushing myself to my very limit...

No, the cowardly politicians who enabled foolish and unprecedented lockdowns do not deserve to blame the results on anything but themselves.In Joe Biden’s painful and inaccurate speech about inflation on Tuesday, he finally shifted from blaming racism for everything to blaming Covid for everything to now blaming “the supply chain” and “Mr. Putin’s war in Ukraine” (that Biden baited Putin into) for everything.These “supply chain disruptions,” as everyone is painfully aware, are doing everything from starving babies to shooting up the price of everything, as Wednesday’s 8.3 percent annual inflation number affirmed again. They are also not random, and they’re...

For the Left, Children Are Either Obstacles or ToolsIn the aftermath of a leaked Supreme Court draft majority decision prospectively overruling Roe v. Wade, the Left in the United States has gone into full-fledged panic mode. That outsized panic has manifested as a variety of unconvincing or blatantly immoral arguments: the argument that abortion is a necessary adjunct to women’s freedom — as though contraception doesn’t exist, and as though women are never responsible for their own sexual decisions and the consequences thereof; the argument that unless society provides for any number of government programs, abortion should not be prohibited...

Manhattan rents just hit an all-time high -- again. For the third straight month, rents have reached new record highs. The monthly rent paid by a tenant for a condo or coop in Manhattan was $3,870 in April, up 39% from a year earlier, according to a report from the brokerage firm Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel Real Estate Appraisers and Consultants. Last year, the net effective median rent -- or the amount tenants pay after factoring in incentives from landlords -- was $2,791. "There was a significant acceleration in rental prices in April, jumping nearly 40%," said Jonathan Miller,...

As Vladimir Putin’s health reportedly declines, body doubles have been put on alert to stand in for the Russian not-so-strongman when he undergoes surgery, according to a report. Putin will be out of commission for up to 10 days and the body doubles will be used to make it seem like he’s still in control of the country, the anti-Putin Telegram channel “General SVR” reported. The mysterious Telegram account also claimed that pre-recorded footage will be released of Putin attending meetings and signing laws to make it seem like he is still working. The channel — which is purportedly run...

California’s water use jumped dramatically in March, state officials said Tuesday, as one of the driest stretches on record prompted a wave of homeowners to start watering their lawns earlier than usual in defiance of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s pleas for conservation amid a severe drought. Newsom last summer asked residents to voluntarily cut water use by 15% compared to 2020 as climate change intensified a drought that threatened to drain the state’s reservoirs to dangerously low levels. Water conservation increased gradually through December, aided by some intense fall and early winter storms that reduced water demand. But the first three...

Police said the alleged incident happened more than six months agoA San Jose police officer has been placed on leave over an allegation that he traded a meth pipe to a woman in exchange for information, according to authorities. San Jose Police Department Sgt. Christian Camarillo confirmed the incident is under investigation. He didn’t reveal the officer’s name or any details about the allegation, citing a personnel matter, but said the alleged incident occurred more than six months ago. The officer has been on administrative leave since December. The news comes as the department continues to grapple with a series...

Life should never be reduced to economics.Yet, in the wake of the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion that could overturn Roe v. Wade, abortion supporters have resorted to shocking claims that limiting abortions will hurt the economy.During a Senate Banking Committee hearing on May 10, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., asked Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen about the “real-world economic consequences” for American women if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Yellen said this “would have very damaging effects on the economy and would set women back decades.”She went on to argue that “abortion helped lead to increased labor force participation....

An Arizona man convicted of killing a college student in 1978 has become the first person to be executed in the state after a nearly eight-year hiatus in its use of the death penalty. Clarence Dixon, 66, was put to death by lethal injection at the state prison in Florence for his murder conviction in the killing of 21-year-old Arizona State University student Deana Bowdoin. He is the sixth inmate to be put to death in the United States this year.

In 1983, the last effort by pro-life forces to pass federal legislation providing full protection for the unborn failed on the floor of the U.S. Senate. Stunned by this defeat after a decade of grassroots mobilization, the pro-life movement turned in new directions. The most momentous of these was a campaign of support for mothers and babies, led by pregnancy care services and policymakers allied with them.An argument can be made that, in terms of services and policies, America was not ready for the reversal of Roe v. Wade in 1983. Today, on the threshold of the Supreme Court itself...

Americans are now entering uncharted, revolutionary territory. They may witness things over the next five months that once would have seemed unimaginable. Until the Ukrainian conflict, we had never witnessed a major land war inside Europe directly involving a nuclear power. In desperation, Russia’s impaired and unhinged leader, Russian President Vladimir Putin, now talks trash about the likelihood of nuclear war. A 79-year-old President Joe Biden bellows back that his war-losing nuclear adversary is a murderer, a war criminal, and a butcher who should be removed from power. After a year of politicizing the U.S. military and its self-induced catastrophe...