Free Republic

A second seated juror was dismissed on Thursday after they were sworn in by the judge presiding over the Stormy Daniels ‘hush money’ trial. One juror on Thursday was already excused from service after she admitted to concerns about her impartiality upon being officially sworn in by Judge Juan Merchan. “Yesterday alone, I had friends and family push things to me,” the first dismissed juror stated. “I don’t think at this point that I can be fair and unbiased.” A second juror was dismissed over his past arrest. Details of juror number 4’s criminal past were not disclosed. NBC News...

Police are searching for a man who violently attacked a woman and stole her purse as she was walking home in San Fernando earlier this week after buying flowers for her mother. The incident occurred at around 3 p.m. Monday in the 200 block of Park Avenue, according to Lt. Walter Dominguez, of the San Fernando Police Department. Juliana Murillo said she was walking to her apartment after buying flowers for her mother's birthday when she was suddenly pushed to the ground. “I was getting home and when I was about to go in, I got attacked by a man,”...

BIDEN: "Are you ready to choose freedom over democracy? Because that's America!"

In his first speech as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Mike Johnson sounded like a preacher in a pulpit: “I believe that Scripture, the Bible, is very clear that God is the one who raises up those in authority,” he began. “He raised up each of you, all of us. And I believe that God has ordained and allowed each one of us to be brought here for this specific moment and this time.” It was the kind of public piety and Baptist Bible-speak that folks in Johnson’s scarlet-red Louisiana district like to hear from those they send...

Newly released emails between a top colleague of Dr. Anthony Fauci and the president of a non-governmental organization being funded to conduct coronavirus research in Wuhan, China, said the group had over 700 identified but un-sequenced coronaviruses in its lab when its government grant was first pulled in 2020. On Tuesday, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., highlighted a series of email exchanges between Fauci's top adviser, Dr. David Morens, and EcoHealth Alliance President Dr. Peter Daszak that showed Daszak feared permanently losing government funding. An April 2020 email from Morens alleged that Fauci was "fully aware" and "involved in some sort...

As it stands, liberal Arizona voting laws have paved the way for non-citizens, whether they are legal or not, to register for and cast a ballot in the 2024 presidential election. U.S. Air Force master sergeant Nick Kupper, who is one of several state legislature candidates vying for a seat in the Arizona House of Representatives’ District 25. While the voting laws do not affect his run for office, he is gravely concerned about the upcoming presidential race. “In Arizona,” Kupper said, “even if the state can’t verify whether you’re a citizen, people can still assert that they are citizens.”...

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed a bill Thursday that will allow universities in the state to pay athletes directly for NIL endorsements. Before putting his signature on the bill, Youngkin said HB 1505, which won't take effect until July 1, helps Virginia schools be competitive in athletics and provides a level of added oversight: ESPN's Dan Murphy noted it's the first piece of legislation by a state that would nullify the NCAA's rules regarding how athletes are compensated for NIL deals. Rather than schools paying student-athletes NIL money directly, they've often leaned on independent collectives in which major boosters and...

@elonmusk Given the relentless attacks on free speech, I am going to fund a national signature campaign in support of the First Amendment

Allman Brothers guitarist Dickey Betts dies aged 80: Musician best known for group's hit song Ramblin' Man passed away 'peacefully' at Florida home. Guitarist Dickey Betts died at the age of 80 in his Florida home on Thursday. Betts wrote some of the bands most famous songs including Ramblin' Man. Betts is known for writing some of The Allman Brothers most famous songs including 'In Memory of Elizabeth Reed,' 'Blue Sky,' and their only Top Ten hit, 'Ramblin' Man.'

A Tory MP has been suspended after claims he made a late night call to ask for money to pay off "bad people". Mark Menzies "strongly" disputes the claims, but has had the whip removed amid allegations that he misused party funds and abused his position. The MP called an elderly party volunteer saying he was locked in a flat (apartment) and needed £5,000 as a matter of "life and death", the Times reports. An eventual sum of £6,500 was paid to secure his release, the paper says. The money is reported to have come out of local Conservative party...

U.S. officials say they will not pursue the death penalty against Julian Assange if he’s extradited from the UK to face charges related to his publication of documents highly embarrassing to the U.S. government, according to a report from Australia’s ABC News Tuesday. But that will be cold comfort to some in the British legal system who have argued U.S. prisons are so inherently cruel that sending Assange to America, even with such a guarantee, would still amount to an inhumane act.

A Haitian migrant, reportedly released into the United States via President Joe Biden’s parole pipeline, is now accused of double homicide in Orange County, New York. Kenol Baptiste, a 30-year-old Haitian migrant, was indicted in Orange County on two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder. On April 1, prosecutors allege that Baptiste stabbed his two roommates — who were also from Haiti — to death using a knife. Baptiste then allegedly sought to hide the knife he used and fled the scene. A report reveals that Baptiste had been released into the U.S. interior less than...

The inside story of how House Speaker Mike Johnson was flip-flopped on Ukraine aid starts with his top policy adviser...SNIP>>>> Johnson’s policy director, Dan Ziegler, was–until he joined the Speaker’s office as his top policy aide when Johnson won the Speakership last year–a lobbyist with the firm Williams & Jensen. He had previously worked for Johnson in other capacities, but left Johnson to become a lobbyist and accumulated a client list that included several top companies–some of which seem to have a financial interest in seeing Congress pass Ukraine aid. The lobbying firm for which he worked represents a number...

Except for Ukraine and Israel He Kept His Pledge to Reduce the Chance of War https://vimeo.com/showcase/10565484/video/936352798 Say Hello to Oyster Bunnies https://vimeo.com/showcase/10566896/video/936352855 Just Read the Teleprompter Joe https://vimeo.com/showcase/10566896/video/936352758 Believes He Prevented Israelis from Attacking Themselves https://vimeo.com/showcase/10566920/video/936358834

The global security system will be destroyed if Russia is allowed to prevail in Ukraine, leading to “many” new conflicts and a Third World War, that country warns while calling the U.S. to pass a major aid package. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal visited Washington D.C. to drum up support for the forthcoming votes on the “$100 billion foreign aid package” , and brought a message of looming disaster if it isn’t passed. Speaking to British state broadcaster the BBC in Washington, Shmyhal cautioned that allowing Russia to win would signal the multilateral international rules based order had collapsed which...

TACOMA, Wash. — The trial for a woman facing first and second-degree murder charges and 17 counts of arson will begin with opening statements on Monday in Tacoma. The defendant, identified in court documents as Sarah Jane Ramey, is accused of setting a string of fires in Tacoma and Ruston between late December of 2021 and late January of 2022. A fire, which Ramey is accused of setting on New Year’s Eve in 2021, resulted in the death of James Elliott. Elliott died of smoke inhalation after a fire ignited at his home on Rosemount Way in North Tacoma. The...

“Not to have a correct political orientation is like not having a soul.” -Mao Zedong.Mao Zedong took over China with a strategy that will sadly feel unsettlingly familiar to us. Because he was able to mobilize hundreds of millions of people to comply, often enthusiastically, with his catastrophic programs, an adequate name for that strategy would be the politics of compliance. Understanding the basic premises and mechanisms of the politics of compliance is necessary for us today because these same methods are being used maliciously on us, thus require resisting, and because familiarity with these tactics at least partially inoculates...

New video was resurfaced showing NPR’s new CEO Katherine Maher complaining about the first amendment on a panel hosted by the Atlantic Council. According to the Daily Mail: Maher called the First Amendment the “number one challenge” in American journalism during a panel discussion. Maher noted the First Amendment provides a “fairly robust protection of rights,” making it “a little tricky to address some of the real challenges of where bad information comes from.”

An unpublished op-ed by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer discovered through a public records request reveals that he believes the First Amendment is “the biggest threat to elections and Democracy,” Americans ‘ opinions are “disturbing,” and that “it may be time to revisit our First Amendment jurisprudence.” The election official in Arizona’s largest county also refers to his constituents and Trump supporters who know that Joe Biden didn’t legitimately win 81 million votes as “gullible,” “crazies,” and “idiots.” He even suggests that suing citizens for defamation would be a remedy to his problems if it weren’t for the First Amendment....

Two jurors in the Donald Trump hush money trial were excused Thursday, one after telling the court she was too scared and intimidated to serve, as prosecutors renewed their request to hold Trump in criminal contempt over alleged gag order violations. The first juror, one of seven initially chosen to serve on the case, told Merchan that she was too scared to proceed after her friends, family, and colleagues guessed that she had been chosen. Merchan has ruled that the panel will be anonymous to protect their safety and privacy. The second juror was excused after prosecutors raised questions about...