Free Republic

Under a policy being likened to something out of George Orwell’s iconic novel “1984,” a town in Arizona is paying out more than a million dollars in salaries to employ spies to monitor private social media posts of town employees for anything that aligns with conservative views. Although the Gilbert Office of Digital Government (ODG) has urged town workers to support LGBTQ+ and Black Lives Matter (BLM) causes, it reprimanded a local firefighter for posting a picture of himself on Facebook posing with a life-sized cutout of former President Donald Trump. The department even sent a warning notice to the...

Senior Biden administration aides summoned Amazon officials to the White House during the height of the pandemic to discuss “propaganda and misinformation” in books for sale on the retail giant’s website that questioned the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines. White House officials “spent a week berating Amazon” in March 2021 over books related to “vaccine misinformation” and asked what steps company officials could take “to reduce the visibility of these titles,” according to Amazon emails released Monday by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican. The Amazon pressure campaign overseen by Andy Slavitt, who was Mr. Biden’s senior...

(Reclaim The Net)—More reports are emerging about the various forms in which the Big Tech/government collusion is taking place in the US. It’s not just directly pressuring, or “communicating with” – as current White House officials like to put it, social sites; reports are now emerging about companies getting hired to make massive databases of supposedly unlawful speech that are compiled thanks to users effectively spying and reporting on each other on messaging platforms like WhatsApp. Former State Department official, now executive director of Foundation For Freedom Online, Mike Benz, calls this “a snitch network of citizen informants.” Information thus...

The federal trial of six defendants – Chet Gallagher, Heather Idoni, Cal Zastrow, Coleman Boyd, Paul Vaughn, and Dennis Green – began on Wednesday, January 24, in Nashville. All are facing felony conspiracy charges as well as felony FACE Act charges for their participation in a reportedly peaceful protest at an abortion facility in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, in March of 2021. This is the fourth recent high-profile federal trial of pro-lifers charged with conspiracy and FACE Act violations for their peaceful activism at abortion facilities. The first group of five defendants, one of whom (Heather Idoni) is currently being tried...

Six pro-life activists were found guilty on Tuesday for “conspiracy against rights” and violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) in relation to a peaceful protest outside of a Tennessee abortion facility in 2021.President Joe Biden’s pro-abortion administration announced in October 2022 that it had charged 11 activists involved in the March 5, 2021, “blockade” of the Carafem Health Center Clinic in Mount Juliet. Attorneys for the activists said they were conducting a “rescue” and had gathered on the second floor of the office building where the clinic is located to pray, sing hymns, and urge women not...

Priscilla Villarreal, also known as "Lagordiloca," has sparked a debate about free speech and who, exactly, is a journalist.A journalist asked the police a few questions and was arrested by that same agency for publishing the answers. That this happened not in China or Russia but in the U.S. may raise some eyebrows. Yet that's the conduct a federal court greenlit last week when it ruled that law enforcement in Laredo, Texas, did not obviously violate the Constitution when officers allegedly misled a magistrate judge and arrested Priscilla Villarreal for doing basic reporting, adding another twist to a case that...

Trump must pay $ 83.3 MILLION to E. Jean Carroll for defamation, a federal jury has ruled

Attorneys for a journalist threatened with prosecution for being at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, are challenging federal prosecutors to try his case outside the District of Columbia, suggesting prosecutors are seeking retribution for his recent reporting on possible Capitol Police perjury and the Jan. 6 pipe bombs. Six attorneys who said they volunteered to represent Stephen Baker of Raleigh, N.C., released a statement on Jan. 22 expressing belief that the DOJ is seeking even more serious Jan. 6 charges as retaliation. Mr. Baker, a former independent journalist, now writes for Blaze Media. “We now have information that...

The White House has banned children from decorating Easter Eggs with religious messages.The Biden Administration had invited the children of National Guard families to submit artwork for a competition that is part of the annual Easter Egg Roll.“Children of National Guard families across the United States are encouraged to submit artwork inspired by the theme ‘Celebrating our Military Families.’ Children should depict on an egg template a snapshot of their life – a favorite activity, scenery in your state, your military family, a day-in-your life,” read a pamphlet promoting the contest.

MSNBC and CNN refused to air former President Donald Trump’s Republican Iowa caucus victory speech Monday evening, while airing fellow candidates’ speeches. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow announced on-air that Trump had just began giving his speech but that the network decided not to air it because it did not want to knowingly broadcast “untrue things.” She said: At this point in the evening, the projected winner of the Iowa caucuses has just started giving his victory speech. We will keep an eye on that as it happens. We will let you know if there’s any news made in that speech if...

It’s no joke. Humorous and quirky messages on electronic signs will soon disappear from highways and freeways across the country. The U.S. Federal Highway Administration has given states two years to implement all the changes outlined in its new 1,100-page manual released last month, including rules that spells out how signs and other traffic control devices are regulated. Administration officials said overhead electronic signs with obscure meanings, references to pop culture or those intended to be funny will be banned in 2026 because they can be misunderstood or distracting to drivers. The agency, which is part of the U.S. Department...

The Biden administration has pledged to continue to pursue and convict all people who broke the law in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol incident, including those who never entered the building or who weren’t even present at the U.S. Capitol that day.Prosecutors have, to date, charged over 1,250 people with various crimes related to Jan. 6, ranging from being present on Capitol grounds without authorization, to assault of a police officer, to seditious conspiracy.Former President Donald Trump has said on several occasions that he thinks Jan. 6 detainees are being mistreated by the Biden administration and has vowed to...

CNN — New York City has banned the term “illegal alien” when used “with intent to demean, humiliate or harass a person,” the city said. The city’s new guidelines, announced last week, also ban discrimination against someone based on their English proficiency and threats to call immigration authorities on someone “based on a discriminatory motive.” These violations can result in fines up to $250,000. The guidance is for all public accommodations, employment and housing, the city’s Commission on Human Rights said.

A Maryland county claims under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, it can create a school board seat that only illegal immigrants can vote for, according to reports. The Washington Times reported that Howard County officials appeared before a federal court of appeals last month and defended its current process of having a school board seat occupied by a student, in which only public school students are allowed to vote for. Some Howard County residents are challenging the practice on the basis of it being unconstitutional discrimination in voting, particularly against the county general electorate and students at religious...

President Trump on Wednesday afternoon responded to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s latest court filing and attempt to take away his First Amendment right. Jack Smith wants to prevent President Trump from blaming provocateurs and undercover agents for the January 6 Capitol riot. “Through public statements, filings and argument in hearings before the court, the defense has attempted to inject into this case partisan political attacks and irrelevant and prejudicial issues that have no place in a jury trial,” Jack Smith’s 20-page filing said. ...... Snip...... “Evidence about undercover actors holds no probative value here,” Smith wrote. Trump’s trial date for...

A federal judge rejected Project Veritas’s First Amendment argument in a case that involves Ashley Biden’s abandoned diary. Last year the two individuals who found Ashley Biden’s diary at a halfway house pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property. The guilty plea of Florida pair Robert Kurlander, 59, and Aimee Harris, 41, were used to turn the screws on James O’Keefe. Harris found Ashley Biden’s diary at a halfway house in Palm Beach in 2020 and sold it to Project Veritas for $40,000. Ashely Biden, Joe Biden’s youngest daughter, left her diary under a mattress at...

A right-wing group specializing in hidden-camera investigations will not be able to use the First Amendment to stop the federal government from accessing documents and communications related to the group’s apparent acquisition of a stolen diary belonging to President Joe Biden’s daughter.As Law&Crime previously reported, the FBI executed a search warrant in 2021 at the property of Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe, as well as from Project Veritas staffers Spencer Meads and Eric Cochran. The search warrants were granted in connection with the theft and sale of the personal journal belonging to Ashley Biden, the president’s daughter. Two people, Aimee...

Criminal prosecutors may soon get to see over 900 documents pertaining to the alleged theft of a diary belonging to President Joe Biden’s daughter after a judge rejected the conservative group Project Veritas’ First Amendment claim. Attorney Jeffrey Lichtman said on behalf of the nonprofit Monday that attorneys are considering appealing last Thursday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres in Manhattan. In the written decision, the judge said the documents can be given to investigators by Jan. 5. The documents were produced from raids that were authorized in November 2021. Electronic devices were also seized from the residences of...

A three-judge panel in the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has vacated the New York law banning the carry of firearms in church, citing the First Amendment.After the June 22, 2022, publishing of the Bruen decision on the Second Amendment, several states took active measures to defy the Supreme Court. The foremost of these was New York. Governor Kathy Hochul took the extreme measure of convening an extraordinary session dedicated to circumventing the Bruen decision, which she called “reckless and reprehensible.” From ny.gov:“The Supreme Court’s reckless and reprehensible decision to strike down New York’s century-old concealed carry law...

Greg Kelly weighs in on Colorado eliminating former President Donald Trump from the presidential election ballot, reads the ruling from the case in Colorado, rips apart NYC Mayor Eric Adams, and more on NEWSMAX.