Free Republic

When Olivia Alsip travelled to the capital to protest against the inauguration of right-wing US President Donald Trump, she didn't imagine she would end the day behind bars and later face up to 80 years in prison. Thousands of people journeyed from across the US to Washington, DC, to protest on the first day of Trump's presidency, January 20. During the swearing-in, Alsip was among the more than 230 protesters arrested when officers from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) blocked off a large area and hauled off nearly everyone. "I am wondering if my 24th birthday next week will be...

Gold Star father Khizr Khan has canceled a scheduled speech in Toronto after being told his “travel privileges are being reviewed,” according to the event organizer. Khan, who has lived in the U.S. since 1980 and is a naturalized U.S. citizen, was scheduled to speak Tuesday at a luncheon hosted by the Toronto-based organization Ramsay Talks. The two-hour event was scheduled to include a presentation and question-and-answer session on “what we can do about the appalling turn of events in Washington – so that we don’t all end up sacrificing everything,” according to the organizer. In a statement posted on...

Two JetBlue passengers were kicked off a flight Thursday after one reportedly harassed Ivanka Trump. The daughter of President-elect Donald Trump was traveling with her three children when a male passenger "expressed displeasure" about having her on the plane, the Associated Press reports....

Last Tuesday evening at the Canton Public Library, a group of concerned local citizens, united by their shared values and a deep and abiding terror over a Donald Trump-led White House, gathered to discuss ways that they could support their fellow residents and help ensure that the Canton community remains “safe for diversity.” “We’re a group dedicated to making every family in Canton feel safe,” explained the promotional flyer prepared by the group’s founder, Kathleen “KK” Howley, a former senior reporter for Bloomberg News. “We want to know if our neighbors need help, and we want to stand with them.A...

The Attorney General of Massachusetts, Maura Healy, has decided that she can dictate law without recourse to the legislature or the courts.  She has decided to unilaterally change the definition of what is and is not an “assault weapon” in the law.Crimes committed with all rifles are exeedingly rare in Massachusetts.  2014, is the lastest year we have records for in the FBI Uniform Crime Report. In 2014, no murders with rifles of any kind, let alone “assault weapons” were recorded in Massachusetts. Yes, you read correctly.  Zero.  Ziltch. Nada.  If there had been a single crime committed in...

<p>The Padres have a PR problem on their hands after a mixup during the national anthem for Saturday night's game against the Dodgers.</p> <p>There were 100 members of the San Diego Gay Men's Chorus on the field to sing the anthem, but a woman's voice — believed to be that of Friday's anthem singer — was played over the PA system while the men stood on the field.</p>

Manny Pacquiao is not backing down from his stance against homosexuality. Less than a day after the Filipino boxer and politician lost his sponsorship deal with Nike because he compared gay people to animals, Pacquiao took to Instagram early Thursday morning and posted some Bible verses that support his views. One of them, Leviticus 20:13, states in no uncertain terms that homosexuals should be killed: "If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on...

The 2016 presidential race is already shaping up as one of the strangest in history. Every day, an army of pundits dissects its bewildering dynamics. But none thus far have addressed the crisis facing millions of American parents: What to do when your young child brings up Donald Trump. This is why we have prepared this easy-to-follow, six-step guide. 1. Confront the Inevitable Face it, you cannot insulate your child from Donald Trump. Even if you could somehow convert your home into a no-Trump zone (by disabling every single electronic device, blacking out the windows, and hustling everyone into the...

For marriage-equality activists, Friday's U.S. Supreme Court decision guaranteeing marriage rights for LGBT couples was an occasion for good cheer. But even as the pink-label Champagne flowed and the sounds of a long-sought victory throbbed inside New York's historic Stonewall Inn, their transgender brothers and sisters marched on, chanting in the sun just blocks away. Marriage equality is all well and good, Elliott Fukui said, but it was no time to party for dozens of trans activists. Not even close, he said. "The battle for trans rights has been neglected by the mainstream LGB movement," said Fukui, program co-ordinator for...

While the overall reaction to Caitlyn Jenner's introduction has been overwhelmingly positive, restoring our faith in the world and making Caitlyn herself feel 'humbled' and extremely happy, there are some who haven't reacted quite so well. In fact, a shocking petition has now been started urging the International Olympic Committee to actually REVOKE her incredible 1976 Olympic gold medal, as they claim she was "in violation of committee rules." Yes, really. The 65-year-old won the medal for the decathlon in the 1976 Montreal Olympics, but now some are suggesting that she should give back the medal. And by some, we...

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said this week that he was prepared to sign a measure banning abortion at 20 weeks without an exception for rape or incest because it’s only “in the initial months” that victims are “most concerned” about access to care. Walker, who is expected to announce his run for president at the end of the month, said that such an exception didn’t matter and that he would sign the bill regardless. “I mean, I think for most people who are concerned about that, it’s in the initial months where they’re most concerned about it,” Walker said. “In...

MICHAEL BROWN SR. AND THE AGONY OF THE BLACK FATHER IN AMERICA Thanksgiving at the Brown house, with family, friends, ham hocks, a little football, and an empty chair.

After the Washington Post reported that House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) spoke at a 2002 event hosted by a white nationalist group, RedState editor Erick Erickson knocked Scalise's supposed ignorance about the organization. According to the Post's Robert Costa, Scalise appeared at an event for the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, a group founded by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, but didn't know at the time that the organization was a hate group. Erickson was not willing to give Scalise the benefit of the doubt. "How do you not know? How do you not investigate?" Erickson wrote...

As a transgender woman who began her transition about a year ago, Kylie Jack is still figuring out her fashion style, but she wanted one thing right away: well-fitting bras. Friends recommended Petticoat Fair in Austin, Texas, where she lives. The lingerie shop is known for one-on-one fittings, but Jack was denied access to the area where professionals work privately with customers after being asked if she was an anatomical female. […] A gender binary exists in fashion, and that’s a challenge for those who don’t conform. Masculine-presenting women are often destined for boys’ departments or bad fits, while people...

The family that George Zimmerman rescued from an overturned SUV in Florida last week is white ... this according to the police report obtained by TMZ. According to the Seminole County Sheriff's Office, the two adults who were pulled out of their overturned SUV on July 17 were described as a white male and a white female. The report states that the SUV was traveling toward an off-ramp on State Road 417 when the driver lost control ... causing the vehicle to "go off road and roll over." As we previously reported, two men responded to the accident and helped...

USA Today (link only) http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2013/07/13/celebs-react-to-george-zimmerman-verdit/2515113/

So for those of you who don’t know me I posted at Free Republic as Dengar01 from September 15th 2001 till I opused and 2 months later after questioning the finances of Free Republic my account was zotted. When I first came up with the idea of this thread I emailed TBL, NOTA and a close friend here for their opinions. I then expanded to email some ex-FReepers who were run off the site by some of the most vile creatures on the planet. Some who made up handle’s at TBL to continue their cult like obsession. I was stalked...

(CNSNews.com) - At a White House reception held Friday evening in honor of Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Pride month, President Barack Obama celebrated a 1969 anti-police riot that started in what the New York Times reports was an illegal Mafia-owned bar for transvestites. “Now, each June since I took office, we have gathered to pay tribute to the generations of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans who devoted their lives to our most basic of ideals--equality not just for some, but for all,” Obama said. “Together we’ve marked major milestones like the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, when...

So far, neither of the two alleged complainants from Herman Cain’s tenure at the National Restaurant Association have come forward publicly, although it appears at least one would like NRA to release her from her confidentiality agreement to do so. However, a pollster who worked for NRA at the time told KTOK in Oklahoma that he witnessed both incidents — and that if the women talk, Cain’s candidacy would be over: Interviewed today on KTOK’s Mullins in the Morning, [Chris] Wilson, of Wilson-Perkins-Allen Opinion Research headquartered in Washington, D.C. explained he was a witness to the incident. “I was the...

decora writes "Crypto-mathematician Bill Binney worked in the Signals Intelligence Automation Research Center at the NSA. There, he worked on NSA's ThinThread program; a way to monitor the flood of internet data from outside the US while protecting the privacy of US citizens. In a new interview with Jane Mayer, he says his program 'got twisted. ... I should apologize to the American people. It's violated everyone's rights. It can be used to eavesdrop on the whole world. ... my people were brought in, and they told me, "Can you believe they're doing this? They're getting billing records on US...