Free Republic

Stung by court decisions limiting its ability to pressure and coerce social media companies to remove purported misinformation and facing an uncertain response at the Supreme Court, the Biden administration is finding workarounds. The State Department and National Science Foundation together awarded more than a dozen grants for misinformation-related programs with start dates this month or next, totaling about $4.4 million. The Department of Defense awarded a no-bid $2.5 million contract last week to an artificial intelligence company that scours social media, the "dark web" and audio transmissions, whose software will be used by a DOD component that neighbors the...

~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Redstone Arsenal, AlabamaRedstone Arsenal (RSA) is a United States Army post and a census-designated place adjacent to Huntsville in Madison County, Alabama, United States and is part of the Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area. The Arsenal is a garrison for various tenants across the Department of Defense, Department of Justice, and NASA.Redstone Arsenal remains the center of testing, development, and doctrine for the Army's missile programs. Besides the U.S. Army Materiel Command and the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Life Cycle Management Command, Redstone houses the Tactical UAV Project Office, Redstone Test Center (RTC),...

After the Ukrainian drone had apparently landed "safely" on the runway, officers from Russia's Air Force and its main intelligence service, the FSB, examined the device, RBC Ukraine reported on Monday. "When the delegation tried to examine the 'trophy' UAV, there was a detonation," a Ukrainian source told RBC, which said "air regiment leaders" were among the casualties. The outlet reported that among those killed or injured during the explosion were the commander of the 14th aviation regiment, one of his deputies, a group of aviation officers, an FSB officer, and other airfield personnel... The Russian military blogger Boris Rozhin...

Africans are responsible for 52 percent of crimes on public transport while making up just 3.2 percent of the population.. Last year, 69 percent of violent robberies and other violent crimes, including sexual assaults, on public transport in the greater Paris region of Île-de-France were perpetrated by foreign nationals, according to the annual figures of the SSMSI, the statistics bureau of the French Ministry of Interior. However, looking closer at the data, it is revealed that Africans alone are responsible for 52 percent of such crimes while only representing 3.2 percent of the population of France. Even for all of...

A large anti-grooming protest is sweeping across Canada as demonstrators speak out against transgender propaganda and gender identity ideology being taught to children in schools. “I am watching videos from across Canada. Amazing and inspiring,” prominent feminist Meghan Murphy wrote on X, along with the hashtag, “#1MillionMarch4Chidren.” Murphy explained that tens of thousands of Canadians are saying “no” to gender ideology being taught in schools, telling trans activists to “leave the kids alone,” as they peacefully protest in Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal, among other cities. “The sheer number of people here is unreal. We will get police...

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, known for his close ties to US President Joe Biden, published an op-ed on Saturday following Biden’s meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York this past week. Friedman asserted that, while appearing friendly toward Netanyahu, the President had "privately slip[ped] a homework assignment into Bibi's pocket." This assignment, according to Friedman, was for Netanyahu to decide whether to dismantle his coalition, or miss out on the chance to achieve normalization with Saudi Arabia. “It was a master class in how a US president puts a fateful decision to an Israeli leader —...

Long-awaited approval for DPICM rockets with ranges to just over 100 miles, Rice told Newsweek on Monday, appears imminent, as the White House edges closer to finally lifting its block on supplying the long-range MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System—known as the ATACMS—to Kyiv... "Getting approval this week for HIMARS DPICM will be a game changer," Rice said. "And with no training and change needed, it will likely be on the battlefield next week, making a huge difference. When those rockets launch, they break the sound barrier. To me, that's the sound of freedom."... Rice has been working with U.S. lawmakers...

Investigation raises serious questions about the harm-benefit balance of Rexulti Decision may reverse efforts to reduce use of antipsychotics in US care homes In trials, the antipsychotic drug brexpiprazole (Rexulti) failed to provide a clinically meaningful benefit and increased the risk of death. Yet the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has fast tracked its approval, making Rexulti the first antipsychotic for treating agitation in elderly patients with dementia. At a cost of around $1,400 a month Rexulti’s makers, Otsuka and Lundbeck, are forecasting an additional $1 billion in annual sales, but there are serious questions about the harm-benefit balance...

In a 58-2 vote, the Republican Party of Texas approved a resolution calling on Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan to resign. The resolution was approved during the State Republican Executive Committee meeting in Corpus Christi on Saturday, and cites Phelan’s embrace of the failed impeachment against Attorney General Ken Paxton as well as his appointment of Democrats to leadership positions: WHEREAS, Speaker Dade Phelan voted for the impeachment of Attorney General Warren Kenneth Paxton and through his leadership team pressured other House members to vote for the impeachment as well, and continues to defend this action....; WHEREAS, Speaker Dade Phelan...

City’s new landmarks are struggling office buildings and a shopping mall losing tenants.. As it rolls toward downtown San Francisco, the California Street cable car passes the gothic Grace Cathedral and an 8-foot tall statue of Tony Bennett. Then riders start to see the city’s newest landmarks. Among them is 650 California Street, a 34-story office building that has defaulted on its mortgage. Further on is 101 California, whose second-biggest tenant left last year and whose biggest is slashing staff and office space. Go around the corner, and Embarcadero Square is for sale for $90 million. Its owner bought it...

Our Troops Rock! Thank you for all you do! For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces. Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today! ~ Hall of Heroes ~ Clyde E. Lassen Info from here. CDR Clyde Everett Lassen(1942 - 1994)As the UH-2 Seasprite helicopter hovered over the water, its crew listened intently on their earphones for a message from the coastline. Somewhere beyond the pitch-dark horizon were two naval aviators whose plane had been shot down deep in North Vietnamese territory. Their exact position...

The Canadian parliament, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have been reported to have given a standing ovation to a reported former member of a Nazi military division. Following addresses to the parliament in Ottowa on Friday from both Trudeau and Zelensky, the Speaker of the House of Commons Anthony Rota prompted a standing ovation as he honoured a “veteran from the Second World War who fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians and continues to support the troops today even at his age of 98.”

ON PRAYER The Sacred Scriptures urge us to pray always. That seems impossible at first sight; you can't spend your life on your knees. But people pray in many ways. Physical positions and movements, the lotus position for Buddhists, kneeling and folding hands for many Christian faith groups are prayer. Any attention paid to God is prayer. Whether or not any words are spoken, the actions themselves express awareness of, and communication with, God. As St. Teresa of Avila put it, way back in the 16th century, "For though we are always in the presence of God, it seems...

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the spokesman for the Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas, slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, promising that there will be no peace or stability until the "Palestinian nation's" demands are met. In his speech, Netanyahu said, "Many decades of efforts to make peace with Arab Nations have failed because they were based on one false assumption - that the Palestinians must be appeased as a precondition to peace. The Palestinians have much to gain from new peace agreements. They should be part of these agreements, but they should not...

Social media videos, chats lead police to 2nd suspect, documents say LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Documents the 8 News Now Investigators obtained reveal how Las Vegas police tracked down two teenagers accused of intentionally hitting and killing a bicyclist and recording it on video. Both Jesus Ayala, 18; and Jzamir Keys, 16, are accused of killing Andreas “Andy” Probst, 64, a retired California police chief. Probst was riding a bicycle in a marked lane on Aug. 14 near Tenaya Way and Centennial Parkway in the northwest Las Vegas valley when Ayala intentionally crashed into him, documents said. The now-viral video...

It’s not the first time that U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez has determined that California’s ban on “large capacity” magazines violates the Second Amendment, but hopefully this time the decision will stick. Benitez issued his first ruling before the Bruen decision was released last year, but the Ninth pulled its typical move and overruled him in an en banc review, sending the case to the Supreme Court. After Bruen, the Supreme Court granted cert and remanded the case back to the Ninth Circuit with instructions to reconsider in light of the text, history, and tradition test it laid out, but...

When Ibram X. Kendi’s preposterous thesis that “the only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination” becomes mainstream practice, you know things are upside down. Kendi is the author of the poorly reasoned 2019 leftist propaganda book, “How to Be an Antiracist,” which became not only a bestseller, but a clarion call for progressives. In a speech at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Kendi put his anti-reasoning skills on display, according to the New York Post. “When I see racial disparities, I see racism,” Kendi said. If that isn’t a blanket generalization, the logical fallacy of that name has no meaning....

Retirees have lost their appetite for Cracker Barrel and Olive Garden since the pandemic — and it’s not clear when they’ll come back, according to the chains’ top brass. No amount of biscuits and gravy or unlimited pasta refills seems to be enough to entice the 65-and-older crowd as they continue to pinch pennies amid high inflation and duck the coronavirus, according to Rick Cardenas, chief executive of Darden Restaurants, which owns Olive Garden. “I do believe that they were a little bit more spooked on the COVID side,” Cardenas told analysts on a Thursday conference call. “We’d love to...

Attorney General Ken Paxton has returned to work following more than three months of leave after being impeached by the Texas House. He was acquitted on all charges by a majority of state senators, with only two Republicans—Kelly Hancock (North Richland Hills) and Robert Nichols (Jacksonville)—voting to convict. Now, Paxton told Texas Scorecard, he’s excited to continue serving Texans. "It’s been hard to sit on the sidelines for four months and watch things happen and not have the ability to go impact them. That’s what I ran for." He said that ultimately, the blame rests with House Speaker Dade Phelan...

***** Tunes For Our Troops ~ The Freeper Canteen Music Dedication Presents: Music Potpourri! *****~ Support The Artists You Hear Throughout The Canteen ! ~ ***** Warning: Not all music may be appropriate for children! Please click with caution. Thank you! Tunes For The Troops This music is provided for the entertainment of our Troops, Veterans, Allies & their families! Enjoy the variety of musical selections that the Canteen DJs provide throughout the thread. Please ping any DJ with your requests for the Troops! All music is removed on Monday.Thanks to all the DJs for their time & effort...