Free Republic

The Associated Press desperately tried to defend the self-proclaimed “Mary Poppins of disinformation” from her own words and ended up undercutting itself in the process. AP put out one of its so-called “fact-checks” headlined: “Old comments by disinformation board director misrepresented online.” The outlet took issue with users and outlets claiming Disinformation Governance Board (DGB) Executive Director Nina Jankowicz “said she wants verified Twitter users to be able to edit other users’ tweets” during a January 2021 video conference on “disinformation.” AP complained that such claims were “missing context.” According to the AP’s spin: “[Jankowicz] was explaining an existing program...

Layoffs are underway at Netflix today. About 150 positions out of the streamer’s workforce of 11,000 are being eliminated amid a slowdown in the company’s revenue growth. They are largely based in the U.S., with a significant portion in creative, across both film and TV, sources said. A number of those laid off are in the executive ranks, including in original content -snip- “As we explained on earnings, our slowing revenue growth means we are also having to slow our cost growth as a company. So sadly, we are letting around 150 employees go today, mostly US-based,” a Netflix spokesperson...

In what serves as a perfect encapsulation of politics in America today, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer presented unfounded, politically motivated opinion as fact in a letter he sent to Fox News that ultimately targets Tucker Carlson, the left’s greatest nemesis these days.Capitalizing on the unhinged rantings of a disturbed 18-year-old gunman who opened fire at a Buffalo, N.Y., supermarket, killing 10 people, Schumer sent a letter to Fox Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch, his son and Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch, Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott, and Fox News Media President Jay Wallace, urging them to stop amplifying the Great...

“Progressive Manias”: Powerful article by Archbishop AguerWhat is progressivism? I am referring to ecclesiastical progressivism, which, like secular progressivism, looks to the future as if the world and the Church were on the move, always evolving towards the best.We could consider evolutionism as a sort of eponym of religious progressivism. This constitutes a system of “advanced” ideas and attitudes, which proudly detaches itself from any adherence to Tradition. The so-called modernism of the early twentieth century was described and condemned by St. Pius X in the Encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis and the Decree Lamentabili sane exitu. It brought together...

Households can now order eight more free at-home coronavirus tests, the White House said Tuesday, giving Americans access to an additional supply of rapid tests ahead of possible summer and fall surges. “As the highly transmissible subvariants of Omicron drive a rise in cases in parts of the country, free and accessible tests will help slow the spread of the virus,” the White House said in a statement. The tests are available at covid.gov/tests. The Biden administration previously committed to making 1 billion at-home tests available to American households at no charge and has so far distributed 350 million tests.

The Biden administration on Tuesday sued hotelier Stephen Wynn to force him to register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The government claimed Mr. Wynn lobbied on behalf of officials of the People’s Republic of China during the Trump administration. The 13-page complaint filed in federal court in Washington said Mr. Wynn, former CEO of Wynn Resorts, acted on behalf of Sun Lijun, then-vice minister of public security for the PRC. Mr. Wynn allegedly had dinner and calls with former President Donald Trump in 2017 concerning canceling a visa of a businessperson who left China in...

Sorry for the vanity. My son is in Cobb County, GA (6th Cong. District), hasn't had time to research the candidates. Any recommendations, please.

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats unveiled a $28 million emergency spending bill Tuesday to address the shortage of infant formula in the United States. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the Democratic chair of the House Appropriations Committee, said the money would increase Food and Drug Administration staffing to boost inspections of domestic and international suppliers, prevent fraudulent products from getting onto store shelves and acquire better data on the marketplace. The shortage stems from a February recall by Abbott Nutrition that exacerbated ongoing supply chain disruptions among formula makers, leaving fewer options on stores shelves across much of the country. DeLauro has...

NEW YORK (AP) — Several mainstream Republican Senate candidates are drawing on the “great replacement” conspiracy theory once confined to the far-right fringes of U.S. politics to court voters this campaign season, promoting the baseless notion that there is a plot to diminish the influence of white people in America. In some cases, the comments have gone largely overlooked given the hard-line immigration rhetoric that has become commonplace among conservatives during the Trump era. But a weekend mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, that may have been inspired by the racist theory is drawing new attention to the GOP’s growing...

FORT WORTH, Texas — The advent of DNA test kits has helped millions of people discover intricate details of their heritage. They've also uncovered hundreds of thousands of family secrets that some parents preferred would have stayed hidden. But in Fort Worth, Michael Bennett has uncovered a world -- and a happy ending -- he never fully imagined. "My parents never hid the fact that I was adopted," Bennett, 70, told us from his Fort Worth home, where one room is filled with the memorabilia, commendations and photographs of a rewarding military career. And in one corner, a picture of...

President Joe Biden stumbled over the AANHPI term on Tuesday during a White House event celebrating Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Biden spoke about the AANHPI (Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander) community but stumbled over the inclusive term by referring to the “A-A-N-I-N-H-A-P-I community in the United States” even though he was reading from a teleprompter.

The West, Western nations face existential threats. From the outside, America looks more divided than at any time since the Civil War. Mass stupidity called lockdowns has created levels of debt from which quick recovery seems impossible. Some individuals show strength and character that gives me hope. Pat Buchanan. Ron Paul. Donald Trump. Tulsi Gabbard. And in Australia, libertarian Rebekah Spelman is new to politics. She might help drain the swamp here.

MSNBC contributor Donny Deutsch said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that Democrats need to make “MAGA maniacs” and Fox News Tucker Carlson the face of the Republican Party for the midterms. Deutsch said, “We’re not going to win the next — between now and the midterms or between now and 2024 solve the social media problem. I want to go back to your question. Do we call people out? You do call out Tucker Carlson. He is heinous. He is vulgar. Make him the face of the Republican Party, the same way I said make replacement theory the brand image, the...

At least half of President Biden’s 22.2 million Twitter followers are bogus, a new audit revealed. The audit, which was done for the social media giant by software firm SparkToro, found that 49.3% of the president’s followers are “fake followers,” according to Newsweek. SparkToro has defined “fake followers” as “accounts that are unreachable and will not see the account’s tweets (either because they’re spam, bots, propaganda, etc. or because they’re no longer active on Twitter).” Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is currently attempting to buy Twitter, has expressed concern over the growing number of fake accounts and proposed a potential...

Explanation: Astronomers turn detectives when trying to figure out the cause of startling sights like NGC 1316. Investigations indicate that NGC 1316 is an enormous elliptical galaxy that started, about 100 million years ago, to devour a smaller spiral galaxy neighbor, NGC 1317, just on the upper right. Supporting evidence includes the dark dust lanes characteristic of a spiral galaxy, and faint swirls and shells of stars and gas visible in this wide and deep image. One thing that >remains unexplained is the unusually small globular star clusters, seen as faint dots on the image. Most elliptical galaxies have more...

Authorities in South Carolina have recovered the long-missing remains of Brittanee Drexel, the 17-year-old New York girl who vanished while on a 2009 spring break trip to Myrtle Beach. Georgetown County Sheriff Carter Weaver announced during a Monday press conference that Drexel's body was found on May 11 — and that police have charged 62-year-old Raymond Moody with murder. Drexel's parents were present for Monday's announcement. "This is truly a mother's worst nightmare," Dawn Drexel told reporters. "I am mourning my beautiful daughter today, as I have for the last 13 years. We are much closer to the peace that...

As Time reported on Saturday, despite the well-known losses and failures suffered by the Russian invaders since the war started, “Ukraine is in far worse shape (militarily) than is commonly believed.” Moscow still has close to 150,000 troops on Ukrainian soil and relentlessly launches missile attacks throughout the country, even as it prosecutes a plodding offensive in the Donbas. The Ukrainian military is fully engaged in an existential fight in the Donbas and smaller (but fierce) fights in Kharkiv and the Kherson/Mykolaiv region. Western supplies of weapons, tanks, and artillery pieces to Kyiv alone don’t translate into offensive capacity. To...

Up to this point, Ukraine has fought a purely defensive effort. They have done so with more success than any, including myself, expected. British intelligence reported on Sunday that up to one-third of the Russian forces that entered Ukraine have been destroyed. Ukrainian troops thwarted and then repulsed a Russian drive on Kyiv. They have mostly held the line in the Battle of Donbas so far, inflicting egregious losses on the Russian Army. An army on the defensive, however, cannot win back territory. It has to transition to the offense. How to Win the War If Kyiv has hopes of...

ransomnote: I included an excerpt of a Twitter video below - see the link for full video NATO JFC Naples @JFC_Naples The @USSHARRYSTRUMAN is under the command and control of @NATO and will interact with 19 Allies at sea, in the air, and on land, all while utilizing space and cyber capabilities. Neptune Shield 2022 has begun. Read the full story here: http://ow.ly/bvqT50JaqZk12:37 PM · May 17, 2022·Twitter for iPad

Almost half of President Joe Biden's current 22.2 million followers on Twitter are fake accounts, according to an audit tool provided by software company SparkToro. SparkToro's tool found that 49.3 percent of accounts following the official @POTUS Twitter account are "fake followers" based on analysis of a number of factors, including location issues, default profile images and new users. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is currently trying to buy Twitter, has expressed concerns about the number of fake accounts and a potential crack down could see users such as Biden lose a huge number of followers.