Free Republic

AUSTIN –– Transportation Security Administration chief David Pekoske said the agency wants to use technology to reduce the number of screening officers in checkpoints and speed up travel processes as passenger volumes increase. At Tuesday’s panel at South by Southwest, which focused on accelerating aviation security, he boasted about the agency’s computed tomography technology and biometrics. Despite struggling with staffing a year ago, Pekoske said that nearly 2.4 million people are screened on a given day by TSA. Pekoske said that TSA’s purpose is to make sure it maintains its security and transportation system at the same time, while staying...

Why the Left Is Pro-MaskUnderstand the Left's support for mask-wearing and you will understand the Left.The world’s most trusted evaluator of medical studies, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, has just released as close to a conclusive report on the effectiveness of masks against respiratory viruses such as COVID-19 as we are likely to have for the foreseeable future. The report assessed data from 78 different studies, including 11 new randomized controlled trials involving 610,872 participants.Cochrane concluded, in the words of one of the authors, Dr. Tom Jefferson of Oxford University, “There is just no evidence that they (masks) make...

After the Alameda County Board of Supervisors stonewalled then-Sheriff Gregory Ahern’s requests to acquire two unmanned drones for his agency amid public outrage, the county’s top cop quietly dipped into his own $236 million annual budget and purchased them anyway. Ahern scooped up a pair of AirCover Integrated Solutions’ QuadRotor QR425s for $97,000, using a federal Homeland Security grant and county taxpayer money — almost two years after community members testified for hours against the acquisition. In the process, his office in 2014 became the first California law enforcement agency to publicly acquire a sophisticated surveillance drone. “There’s nothing secret...

It is not a secret that over the past decade, hundreds of large U.S. corporations have adopted woke policies, regularly injecting left-wing ideals into their products, services and employment practices. But some of these businesses have recently gone much further than merely promoting social justice causes; they have chosen to target conservative customers and employees, coercing or forcing Americans to abandon their deeply held beliefs in order to receive important goods or services or to stay employed. Although many conservatives have heard stories about corporate discrimination in recent years, they have often struggled to keep track of which businesses have...

"Trader Joe's will continue to hire on-site staff as the company believes its employees are more important than the glitz and the glamour of self-checkout. “The bottom line here is that our people remain our most valued resource," Tara Miller, Trader Joe's vice president of marketing, said on the Inside Trader Joe's podcast. “While other retailers were cutting staff and adding things like self-checkout, curbside pickup, and outsourcing delivery options, we were hiring more crew, and we continue to do that.” She added: "Our crew will be in our stores to help you find your next favorite product, just as...

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney (D) addressed the shooting death of Temple University police officer Christopher Fitzgerald and made clear his view that one cannot claim to back the blue if they do not back gun control. Breitbart News reported that Fitzgerald was shot and killed while investigating a carjacking Saturday night. The alleged cop killer, 18-year-old Miles Pfeffer, was arrested Sunday morning without incident. The Philadelphia Inquirer quoted Kenney reacting to the slaying, saying, “There’s too many [guns] and they’re too easy to get.”

MSNBC anchor Joy Reid said Thursday on her show “The ReidOut” that Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is implementing “literal government thought control.” Discussing DeSantis, Reid said, “What do you make of the fact he seems to be putting the whole weight of his appeal on attacking black people and brown immigrants and gay people and trans people?” Political panelist David Jolly said, “Ron DeSantis is tapping into the bloodstream of a party that wants to take America back 50 years.”

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is receiving $400 million for employee pay raises, $61 million more to hire employees, and expanded collective bargaining rights, which could lead to future pay increases, according to reports. OpenTheBooks and Reason reported that the TSA will receive $400 million as part of the 4,000-plus-page, $1.7 trillion omnibus bill passed with the aid of 18 Republicans in the Senate and signed into law in December.

After the three public shootings over the last two weekends in California, Democrats are again clamoring for even more gun control laws. To California Gov. Gavin Newsom, the solution is to ban more places where people can carry permitted concealed handguns. Unfortunately, the proposal has nothing to do with stopping these attacks, and more gun-free zones only encourage these attacks. Other heavily Democratic states such as New York, New Jersey, and Maryland are making similar pushes. Concealed handgun permit holders didn’t commit those or other mass public shootings. Permit holders are also extremely law-abiding, being convicted of firearms-related violations at...

Vice President Kamala Harris is traveling to California on Wednesday in the wake of several mass shootings that have shocked the state and the nation — but which defy talking points about gun control or extremism. The Los Angeles Times reports: Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Monterey Park on Wednesday to honor the victims of one of the three mass shootings that have left her home state reeling this week. Harris will lay a wreath at a memorial in honor of the 11 people killed by a gunman at a dance studio during a Lunar New Year celebration...

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) described the Second Amendment as a “suicide pact” in the wake of Saturday’s Monterey Park dance hall attack and made clear he and California lawmakers will continue to work on passing more gun control. Newsom told CBS News, “The Second Amendment’s becoming a suicide pact, it feels like.” He then pivoted and said, “What about our kids, when they’re going to school, what more can we do?”

Ideas that start on the progressive fringes have a way of becoming government policy these days, as President Biden’s $400 billion student loan cancellation shows. Lo, Democrats in Congress are now pressing the President to impose rent control nationwide. The White House is considering a series of executive actions that are ostensibly intended to protect tenants. Rents on average increased 17.6% in 2021 and another 3.8% last year. One culprit was near-zero interest rates while they lasted, which inflated housing prices and made it harder for young people to buy a home. The result: More demand for rental housing. Landlords...

Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr took part in a Biden White House gun control roundtable on Tuesday. Deadline reported that the roundtable was “with senior White House staffers, and that Warriors players Klay Thompson, Moses Moody, and Stephen Curry attended as well. Kerr spoke at Tuesday’s White House Secretary Karin Jean-Pierre’s press conference, saying, “We learned a lot about what this administration is doing to help create a safer environment in our country. That is something that is very close to my heart.”

When historian, author, and conservative commentator Victor Davis Hanson talks, I listen. VDH is one of a select few for whom I have complete respect — as opposed to the political hacks of CNN, Fox News, or anywhere in between, who covet viewers who tune in religiously to be told what they already believe.In a January 5 column, titled The Coup We Never Knew, VDH wrote in the subhead: “We are beginning to wake up from a nightmare to a country we no longer recognize, and from a coup we never knew.”Hanson constructed the column primarily with uncomfortable questions for...

Ahmed says the COVID-19 pandemic showed plenty of young people how quickly their “normal” can be stolen away — so she has prioritized making up for those missed years with exciting experiences and good memories. With all the economic uncertainty going on right now, many young folks may be seeking some sort of control, says Lauryn Williams, a certified financial planner and founder of Worth Winning, a company that helps young professionals organize their finances. She points to stubborn inflation — the consumer price index was a distressing 7.1% in November — and stock market volatility. Americans are facing financial...

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday predicted that Democrats will keep holding on to the Senate through the 2024 presidential elections. “I absolutely do, if we stick to our North Star, which is, help people with things that they need help with,” Schumer told NBC News. Democrats fended off the Republicans’ hoped-for “red wave” during this year’s midterms and bucked the historical precedent of a sitting party losing big in the off-year elections. The party kept the Republicans’ takeover of the House to a minimum and then expanded their majority in the Senate, bumping up their upper chamber...

Less than 1 in 5 Americans in a new poll said they believe GOP control of the House next Congress will change Washington for the better. Eighteen percent of respondents in a Monmouth University Poll released on Wednesday said that Republicans — who are set to take control of the House next month after securing a majority in November’s midterm elections — will produce a positive change in the lower chamber. Another 21 percent said they expect Washington to change for the worse under Republican leadership in the House, and about half — 51 percent — said they don’t expect...

Last month, a Wisconsin jury convicted Darrell Brooks of first-degree intentional homicide while using a dangerous weapon for driving an SUV into the crowd gathered at a Christmas parade last year in Waukesha, Wisconsin. He was found guilty of 70 other counts. He was sentenced to life in prison, as mandated under under Wisconsin law.So a court of law has determined that a car or SUV is a dangerous weapon. It certainly can be, and this is not the first incident of a vehicle being used as a weapon.Earlier this year, a German man drove a car into a group...

On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “All In,” Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Democrats want to pass an omnibus spending bill to cover government spending for the whole next year so that way, they can “avoid the problem” of a House Republican majority under Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) “having any control” over spending legislation and Democrats are helped in their push for an omnibus spending bill by the fact that “Republican hawks on military stuff realize that if we had a CR, a continuing resolution, that would really hurt our troops, our military readiness, etc.” Schumer stated, “Well,...

What is it about a social media app that allows short video sharing that would constitute a national security risk? The answer is not about dog and cat videos, or dancing diatribes or funny, weird or goofy content; nor is the national security risk attached to any data of the app users or content providers. The national security risk is found in the ability to influence public opinion that is not under the control of the United States government, or more specifically the Dept of Homeland Security (DHS). The need for control is a reaction to fear. TikTok, as a...