Free Republic

“What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed? If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer…”—Hannah Arendt

With a second massive hurricane set to hit the United States in less than two weeks, the Federal Emergency Management Agency also has to contend with a deluge of rumors and conspiracy theories about its response and policies. Baseless stories have swirled on social media since Hurricane Helene made landfall in late September, many framing FEMA’s actions as an instrument of a tyrannical federal government. On X, formerly Twitter, the same rumors and narratives are following the agency as it prepares for Milton.

A district court judge in Kentucky has ruled that the “buffer zone” law outside an abortion facility in Louisville cannot be enforced, granting pro-life groups a court victory and the ability to continue counseling women. A permanent injunction was placed on the buffer zone ordinance on September 13, following a legal battle which lasted over three years. The court’s permanent injunction has effectively struck down Louisville’s unconstitutional buffer zone law, permitting sidewalk counselors to do what they do best — offer desperate women life-saving and empowering alternatives to abortion. “We are thrilled with this victory after a years-long battle that...

Hillary Clinton said on CNN this weekend that repealing Section 230 of federal communications law should be a top political priority. The former secretary of state's comments are a reminder that this vital protection for free speech is far from safe, even if we seem to be on the other side of peak anti-230 politics. Why Politicians Hate Section 230 For anyone who needs a quick refresher: Section 230 protects digital service providers and users from liability for the speech of others. It's really that simple, despite a lot of misinformation about Section 230 that gets thrown around. Section 230...

CV NEWS FEED // Pro-life Americans will face a “tyrannical dictatorship” under Vice President Kamala Harris if she is elected president, pro-life activists are warning. The Family Research Council’s 2024 Pray, Vote, Stand Summit hosted a panel discussion last week titled “Kamala Harris’ Attacks on Life and the Family.” The panel included several pro-lifers who have suffered for their witness to the sanctity of life under the Biden-Harris administration. Citing the weaponization of federal agencies against pro-lifers, the panelists warned that a Harris-Walz administration would only continue the government targeting of pro-life groups, with further arrests and prosecutions to be...

CV NEWSFEED // Congressman Chip Roy, R-TX, on Friday published an essay calling for the repeal of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. The Biden-Harris administration has used the FACE Act to prosecute dozens of pro-life Americans for demonstrating outside of abortion facilities. The FACE Act was signed into law in 1994 by Democratic President Bill Clinton and creates felony charges for anyone who, [by] force or threat of force or by physical obstruction, intentionally injures, intimidates or interferes with or attempts to injure, intimidate or interfere with any person because that person is or has been,...

Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips’ over 12-year legal battle to defend his free speech rights ended Tuesday.The Colorado Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit against Phillips after finding the attorney who challenged him in 2017 for declining to create a cake celebrating a male-to-female gender transition did not properly file the case.“Enough is enough. Jack has been dragged through courts for over a decade. It’s time to leave him alone,” ADF senior counsel Jake Warner said in a statement. “Free speech is for everyone.”The attorney, Autumn Scardina, called Masterpiece Cakeshop to request a “a pink birthday cake with blue frosting” symbolizing...

Colorado's Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed on procedural grounds a lawsuit against a Christian baker who refused to bake a cake for a transgender woman. Justices declined to weigh in on the free speech issues that brought the case to national attention. Baker Jack Phillips was sued by attorney Autumn Scardina in 2017 after his Denver-area bakery refused to make a pink cake with blue frosting to celebrate her gender transition. Justices said in the 6-3 majority opinion that Scardina had not exhausted her options to seek redress through another court before filing her lawsuit. The case was among several...

During a dinner date with an undercover reporter for the O'Keefe Media Group, MSNBC producer Basel Hamdan asserted that "MSNBC is doing all they can to help Harris get elected. Her message of the day is the network's message of the day. Our anchors and Democrat politicians are in total agreement about everything." Candidate for the US Senate Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) praised MSNBC's efforts, but said "it's not enough. Republicans are still free to promote their misinformation on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, Google and others. The CEOs of these social media outlets need to take stronger measures to...

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Saturday that social media companies must moderate content on their platforms or else "we lose total control." Clinton told CNN host Michael Smerconish that while there have been some steps taken at the state level to regulate social media, she wants to see more done by the federal government to moderate content.

In response to a criminal complaint filed by a nonprofit, an Ohio judicial panel on Saturday decided not to issue arrest warrants for former President Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance after they spread false claims about Haitian migrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. During his debate against Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, last month, Trump, the GOP nominee, repeated a claim that Haitian migrants in Springfield were "eating the pets." Vance, a U.S. senator from Ohio, has also spread the false claim. Meanwhile, ABC News moderator David Muir fact-checked Trump during the September 10...

Twice-failed presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton said the quiet part out loud during an appearance on CNN on Saturday. Hillary Clinton appeared on CNN to discuss social media regulations. Clinton said social media platforms must censor content or else “we lose total control.” “We should be in view repealing something called Section 230 which gave platforms on the internet immunity because they were thought to be just pass-throughs that they shouldn’t be judged for the content that is posted. But we now know that is an overly simple view that if the platforms whether it is Facebook or Twitter/X or Instagram...

Hillary Clinton, former secretary of state, encouraged lawmakers to focus on making the internet a safer place for users during a Saturday appearance on CNN. “There are people who are championing it, but it’s been a long and difficult road to getting anything done,” Clinton said, crediting California and New York for enacting social media regulations but emphasized the need for action at a national level. “We need national action and sadly, our Congress has been dysfunctional when it comes to addressing these threats to our children,” the diplomat stated. Clinton argued that social media safety regulations should be “at...

Below is my column in USA Today on the most chilling moment from the Vance-Walz debate when the Democratic nominee showed why he is part of the dream ticket for the anti-free speech movement. Here is the column: In the vice presidential debate Tuesday, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz pulled the fire alarm. His opponent, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, cited the massive system of censorship supported by Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate. Walz proceeded to quote the line from a 1919 case in which Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said you do not have the right to...

The Independent Press Standards Organisation has upheld a complaint filed by the Muslim Association of Britain against The Telegraph for inaccurately labeling the organization as “extremist.” The decision, announced on Thursday, followed a seven-month investigation into an article published in March, which wrongly described MAB as extremists. “IPSO has upheld our complaint against The Telegraph for falsely labelling us as an extremist organisation, after Michael Gove’s abused parliamentary privilege in promoting a discredited and politicised definition of extremism,” said MAB in a post on X. The regulator concluded that the newspaper violated the Editors’ Code of Practice by “failing to...

This week, Sticker Mule CEO Anthony Constantino unveiled a massive, $150,000 ‘Vote for Trump’ sign on top of the tallest building in Amsterdam, NY. The sign is meant to symbolize American manufacturing coming back to America, with the location being a fitting due to the factory building it is a-fixed on top of being vacant for over 40 years following the closing of Fownes Brothers and Co., a glove manufacturer that shut down U.S. operations in 1984 and moved to China, decimating Amsterdam. But when Constantino brought Sticker Mule to the city in 2010, things began to turn around. As...

Biden-Harris administration officials created a plan to use a letter from a third party source as a “pretext for federal action,” and stakeholders and officials discussed federal responses to school board protests, according to a new joint report from the America First Legal Foundation (AFL) and Parents Defending Education (PDE).

He’s not Hidin’ anymore! President Biden suggested Friday that next month’s election may not be peaceable, as he made his first White House briefing room appearance since taking office — and continued a lame-duck explosion in his press availability after years of shunning interviews and news conferences. “I’m confident it will be free and fair. I don’t know whether it will be peaceful,” the retiring 81-year-old president said during his surprise 15-minute appearance in response to a question from National Public Radio’s Tamara Keith. “The things that [former President Donald] Trump has said and the things that he said last...

Fact-checking” is like “fake news”: something that is now entirely in the eye of the beholder. At the vice presidential debate this week, the CBS moderators once again tried to show that they were the fair and impartial people in the room Except that — as with the Trump-Harris debate — they only seemed interested in fact-checking in one direction. Against the Republican. On Tuesday night, the subject of Springfield, Ohio, once again came up. And once again, Springfield revealed one of the big problems of this media era. CBS’s Margaret Brennan decided to fact-check something that JD Vance said...

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is waging a PR battle to combat ‘rumors’ and ‘confusion’ about the failures of the Biden-Harris administration to take care of Americans affected by Hurricane Helene. In a post on X Twitter on Thursday, FEMA said, “There has been a lot of rumors spreading about the #Helene response. Rumors can create confusion & prevent people from getting assistance they need. Help us share accurate information: http://fema.gov/helene-rumors There has been a lot of rumors spreading about the #Helene response. Rumors can create confusion & prevent people from getting assistance they need. Help us share accurate...