Free Republic

After a few heady conversations with Google’s new chatbot, LaMDA, an eccentric “AI ethicist” just hit the big time as the latest Google whistleblower. Basking in the spotlight of a major Washington Post exposé, Blake Lemoine claims this chatbot exhibits the first stirrings of consciousness. Contrary to Luddite paranoia, Lemoine isn’t warning that a vicious superintelligence is about to go rogue and wipe out humanity. Quite the opposite. He’s imploring humanity to be more sensitive to his poor computer’s feelings—which is even worse. “LaMDA is a sweet kid who just wants to help the world be a better place for...

Statistics Norway wants to receive several million daily receipts from food stores, signalling a new era in state data collection. Privacy advocates and the supermarkets themselves are unhappy. People living in Norway are used to big government. But the latest news coming out of Oslo is a surprising new step down the road of data collection that not everyone is happy with. Statistics Norway (SSB) is the state-owned entity responsible for collecting, producing and communicating statistics related to the economy, population and society at national, regional and local levels. Because everything about an individual living in Norway is linked to...

An “economic hurricane” is coming. That ominous warning comes from Jamie Dimon, CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase. “I said there were storm clouds. But I’m going to change it. It’s a hurricane. Right now it’s kind of sunny, things are doing fine, and everyone thinks the Fed can handle it. That hurricane is right out there down the road coming our way. We don’t know if it’s a minor one or Superstorm Sandy. You better brace yourself.” Of course, he isn’t the only CEO feeling this way. The most recent CEO Confidence Index suggests that most leaders are concerned about...

The largest newspaper chain in the US has told its editors to modify their op ed publication policy. CEO Mike Reed cited reader complaints for the policy shift, saying “our effort to fit in with the unity theme of the Biden Administration has not set well among our readers. They don’t want our papers to tell them how to think. They suggest that we hire writers who are not left-wing activists.” “The big problem is that the number of subscribers is declining,” Reed continued. “While 80% of our readers who are Democrats express trust and confidence, only 35% of our...

In the first quarter of 2022, the number of Russians living below the poverty line increased by 69%. This follows from the publication of Rosstat. According to Rosstat estimates, in the first quarter of 2022, the population with incomes below the poverty line was 20.9 million people. At the same time, at the end of 2021, the department reported 12.4 million Russians below the poverty line. Thus, over the three months of 2022, the number of poor people in Russia increased by 8.5 million, or 68.5%. In the first quarter of 2022, Rosstat proceeded from the bar of 12,916 rubles...

Long before they called Ron DeSantis “America’s Governor,” New Jersey’s Chris Christie cut a singular figure of his own. Christie, currently out of elected office, has not ruled out a run in 2024, a play that could put him on a collision course with DeSantis if both men run. Christie already derailed one Floridian’s presidential hopes, with a bruising takedown of Sen. Marco Rubio during the Primary debates of 2016. On the edition of the Ruthless Podcast released Tuesday, Christie suggested devising a strategy for dispatching DeSantis may be a bit tougher than handling Rubio was. “It’s going to take...

Women protesters looking for attention - secret service remove her from middle of road - she whopps the agent with her megaphone. The rest is sheer entertainment! Glad she was shown the pavement! https://twitter.com/HaileyBWinslow

The use of red flag laws when it comes to firearms has been brought back to the forefront of the national conversation in the aftermath of the mass shootings in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas. Both shooters had histories of law enforcement being known to them for disturbing or criminal acts, though the Buffalo shooter was able to avoid New York red flag laws. Criticisms of such laws is that it is ripe for abuse since due process goes to the wayside and language of laws can often be too broad. PolitiFact attempted to debunk gun owners concerns about...

Some 80 pro-abortion protesters descended on Washington on June 13 to block streets and make known their opposition to the court’s looming decision on Roe v. Wade. “Whose courts? Our courts!” some of the protesters chanted, as they held a sign saying “Our Home Is On Fire.” “We are not your incubator. [expletive] the court and the legislature,” another chant went. Metropolitan Police Department officers and U.S. Capitol Police officers were standing on Monday outside the Supreme Court, which is situated near the U.S. Capitol, and walls were erected around the building in May. Protesters blocked several streets outside the...

'We will deal very big strikes in the war, but we will warn the residents and allow them to leave the areas' Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi on Sunday warned that overwhelming force would be used in Lebanon during the next potential war with Hezbollah. Speaking at the first National Conference on the Home Front, Kochavi detailed the IDF's strategy for responding to an attack from the radical Shiite terrorist group. "We will deal very big strikes in the war, but we will warn the residents and allow them to leave the areas. I say to...

A detailed list of the destroyed and captured vehicles and equipment of both sides can be seen below. This list is constantly updated as additional footage becomes available

Every day, there are examples of Americans pushing back against the agenda of the radical left. And every day, there are more signs that there could be a major political reaction against the leftist agenda in the midterm elections. But even with the best possible electoral outcome, without sweeping revival in the church, America could still collapse. That's because America's greatest problems are spiritual and moral first, leading to the larger societal, political, and economic challenges we face. But unless the heart is cured, the body will die. One of my colleagues is an astute Christian attorney who has been...

Russian gas giant Gazprom has announced a 40% reduction in natural gas deliveries to Europe via the Nord Stream pipeline, blaming German engineering giant Siemens for failing to return key turbines “on time”. The Nord Stream pipeline running across the Baltic Sea to Germany is the largest remaining route for carrying Russian gas to Europe, as volumes being sent via the Ukraine transit pipeline network have been reduced greatly since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February. The reduction in Nord Stream flows comes less than a month before operations are scheduled to halt completely on 11 July for the pipeline’s...

aterpillar (CAT) - Get Caterpillar Inc. Report said Tuesday it will begin moving its corporate headquarters to the Dallas-Fort Worth area later this year, marking the second major multi-national to exit the greater Chicago area over the past two months. Caterpillar said it will start the transition of its global headquarters later this year to the group's existing site in Irving, Texas. Caterpillar moved last moved its corporate headquarters from Peoria, Illinois to the Chicago suburb of Deerfield in 2017.

In early 2020, the Global Elite launched its long-planned coup to capture control of the human population by killing off a substantial proportion and technologically imprisoning those left alive as transhuman slaves. A primary intended outcome of this agenda is to enable the Elite to own and completely control use of the Earth’s remaining resources. Using the World Economic Forum (WEF) as its primary agent, and with the complicity of key international organizations and all national governments (after some hiccoughs requiring the assassination of five national presidents), the Global Elite has gone about progressively implementing the many components of its...

Vladimir Putin's legs have buckled during a speech in Moscow, adding to the growing rumours of the Russian leader's health woes. The president was attending an awards ceremony at the Kremlin on Sunday when he appeared unsteady on his feet. The 69-year-old swayed back and forth before his speech as Russian filmmaker Nikita Mikhalkov acepted a prize. Then Putin stood behind the podium as he appeared to shake before both legs buckled and he gripped the stand for support. Putin has been plagued by health rumours in recent years amid claims he is suffering from cancer or Parkinson's, and it...

Hunter Biden reportedly suggested in December of 2018 that President Joe Biden is politically influenced by “anything that I want.” “He’ll talk about anything that I want him to, that he believes in,” Hunter said about his father’s political “platform” in a 77-minute recording the Washington Examiner obtained from Hunter’s “laptop from hell.” Hunter also said Joe Biden will amend his political platform and “work” to make his desires comes true because “my dad respects me more than he respects anyone in the world.”

Common cold now putting people in the hospital.. Children are turning up at doctors’ clinics infected with as many as three different viruses due to their immune systems being weakened by lockdown, it has been revealed. According to Thomas Murray, an infection-control expert and associate professor of pediatrics at Yale, his team is seeing cases of children with combinations of seven common viruses, including adenovirus, rhinovirus, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), human metapneumovirus, influenza and parainfluenza, as well as COVID-19. “That’s not typical for any time of year and certainly not typical in May and June,” said Murray. Such viruses are...

Critics of Illinois’ aggressive effort to shift to renewable sources for making electricity have long said it’s like flying an airplane while trying to build it. That airplane crashed faster than even they expected. Electricity bills and the risk of brownouts are jumping quickly in Illinois, and it’s not just green energy skeptics saying so. The most significant warning came recently from the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, or MISO, which oversees the power grid for Illinois and much of the Midwest. Their warning was contained in a recent forecast by the North American Electric Reliability Corp., a regulatory authority that...

A survey of monkeypox cases by the UK Health Agency has found that 151 out of 152 participants are men who “identify as gay, bisexual or men who have sex with men.” The survey found that 311 (99% of 314) cases were men, with just 3 confirmed female cases. “One hundred and fifty-two cases participated in more detailed questionnaires, implemented from 26 May 2022, and used retrospectively,” the survey found. “In this data, 151 of the 152 men interviewed identified as gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM), or reported same sex contact, and the remaining...