Free Republic

by el gato maloIf ever there were a contest to find the living avatar of the phrase “the clothes have no emperor,” I’d pick John Kerry and pit him against all comers. I’m not sure there is an emptier suit in all the Beltway. It’s like someone did a gain-of-function experiment on patrician stupidity and entitlement, slapped a politician haircut on top, jolted the neck bolts to life, and sent it tottering down the hill towards some unsuspecting heiress. But such people are often useful, as they go to forums like the WEF and dazzle the Davos devotees with endless...

Tyranny results, and there are too many indicators out there of a totalitarian police state in our midst. It's an unfortunate reality that millions of Americans lack convictions founded in logic, reason, and history, instead relying on feelings as their primary touchstone. They seek out misinformation sources that aligns with their emotional needs, codifying deep divisions in their political leanings. The Kamaa Harris campaign's minimal information tactic reveals another divide we have glossed over too much: how to make sense of the information available. The Harris campaign is mining a vein they call 'joy,' which I call disinformation, curated especially...

In the years before the Civil War, slaveholders were the greatest threat to free speech in the United States. White Southerners used state laws, a congressional gag rule, suppression of the mail, and physical violence to silence abolitionist speech because they believed it was dangerous. In 1830, for example, Louisiana penalized anyone using “language in any public discourse, from the bar, the bench, the stage, the pulpit, or in any place whatsoever,” as well as “in private discourses or conversations,” that had “a tendency to produce discontent among the free colored population of this State, or to incite insubordination among...

Democrats have been ramping up the rhetoric, not just about eliminating Donald Trump and MAGA, but about getting rid of the Constitution itself. The first two Amendments of the Constitution are constantly attacked by the left, followed closely by the Electoral College. Your right to speak, to defend yourself, and for people outside New York, California, and deep Blue urban areas to be represented are all under attack. The latest example of this fact is John Kerry, Special Envoy for the President for the Climate (yes, John Kerry is the Earth's representative according to the Biden/Harris administration), bemoaning the fact...

During the Sustainable Development Impact Meeting held by the World Economic Forum (WEF), John Kerry brazenly admitted that first amendment is a threat to government power. During the discussion, Kerry stated that free speech, particularly on social media, threatens ‘democracies’ by inhibiting the government’s ability to manufacture a consensus through the control of information. ”…I think the dislike like of and anguish over social media is just growing and growing and growing, and that’s part of our problem particularly in democracies — in terms of building consensus around any issue, its really hard to govern today.” He goes on to...

The “real weapon against tyranny is free speech,” actor, comedian, and author of the new book You Can Do It!: Speak Your Mind, America, Rob Schneider, said during an interview on Breitbart News Saturday. “The idea … really, is there seems to be a contraction of free speech, and it’s happening, whereas even the government has been proved that they’re violating Americans’ First Amendment rights, you know. Thank God for Elon Musk, who exposed what happened to Twitter,” he said, touching on the collusion between tech companies and the U.S. government. They were working, he continued, to “silence Americans who...

Joe Rogan shared an ominous prediction about the state of free speech if Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz win the November election, arguing the Democratic ticket poses a grave threat to the First Amendment. Rogan offered his thoughts on the troubling trend of censorship in the US in a conversation with former Navy Seal, ex-CIA contractor and podcaster Shawn Ryan in an episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” released Thursday. “I don’t think it turns around if Kamala Harris gets into office,” Rogan said of the censorship trend, “I think they clamp down more.” “I...

Below is my column in the Wall Street Journal on the growing counter-constitutional movement in the United States. This assault on the Constitution is being led by law professors who have lost their faith in the defining principles and institutions of our Republic. Here is the column: Kamala Harris declared in Tuesday’s debate that a vote for her is a vote “to end the approach that is about attacking the foundations of our democracy ’cause you don’t like the outcome.” She was alluding to the 2021 Capitol riot, but she and her party are also attacking the foundations of our...

Millions of dollars were spent to weaponize the public against all of usStory at a Glance:•There has been a coordinated campaign to attack and defame anyone who has spoken out against the COVID-19 response. This has primarily been restricted to social media (e.g., getting people deplatformed) but it has also been weaponized in real life (e.g., getting medical licenses revoked).•This coordinated campaign was the result of a “non-profit” known as The Public Good Project (PGP), which was actually directly linked to the pharmaceutical industry. The PGP used the industry funding it received to defend industry interests.•Vaccine safety advocates were able...

CV NEWS FEED // Legislation establishing 200-meter “protected zones” around abortion clinics in Scotland has officially gone into effect, banning activities such as prayer and protests in these areas as of September 24, according to a report from Glasgow Times. The Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Bill was passed in June, and is “designed to protect women from harassment” according to the Times. It will affect 30 abortion facilities across the country. The bill, introduced by Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) Gillian Mackay, makes it officially “an offence for a person in a safe access zone to act...

Nearly two-thirds of Americans conceal their political opinions on contentious issues in public, according to a new Populace Research/YouGov survey. Most Americans, 58%, said they cannot express their private opinions publicly, and 61% admit to “self-silencing” their political views, according to the survey. At the same time, Americans publicly claim to have higher trust in our institutions than they do in private. Only 36% of Democrats publicly said that they trust the government to tell the truth, but only 5% agreed with the statement in private, according to the survey. Similarly, 42% of Democrats publicly report that they trust the...

A New York woman is seeking $2 million in damages from the New York Mets after she claims that she was barred from entering Citi Field while wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat, the New York Post reported Saturday. Aura Moody filed a lawsuit earlier this month after she told the outlet that she had been denied entry into Citi Field on August 14 after a staff member had said she was not allowed in with the hat which had the slogan of former President Donald Trump’s campaign. "This country is supposed to be the beacon of freedom for...

The X account of Elon Musk in seen blocked on a mobile screen in this illustration after Brazil's telecommunications regulator suspended access to Elon Musk's X social network in the country. Can’t stop the signal,” a famous line from the movie “Serenity”, has become something of a catchphase among geeks — meaning that messages of truth cannot be contained. But stopping the signal is exactly what a lot of governments are trying to do these days, with mixed but depressing results. Under Article 19 of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion...

Sometimes people can take the entire idea of complying with ridiculous government mandates several bridges too far. That appears to have been the case during a recent sporting event held in New Hampshire. A girls' soccer game was scheduled between Plymouth Regional High School and their rival Bow High School. Bow High School was fielding a boy who "identifies" as a girl to compete, but when the Plymouth Regional parents heard about this, they asked the Bow High athletic director to withdraw the boy from the roster. He refused, saying that "his hands were tied" by a federal ruling allowing...

The Irish government has abandoned plans to implement controversial new hate speech laws following widespread backlash from free speech advocates. Justice Minister Helen McEntee confirmed on Saturday that Dublin will drop new hate speech provisions in the proposed Criminal Justice Bill, admitting that the “incitement to hatred” section of the legislation did “not have a consensus,” the Irish Times reports. Critics of the speech restrictions have noted that the government failed to actually define what constitutes “hate” and therefore the law would have given broad powers to the state to crush dissent. The scope of the draconian powers would have...

Collusion between Big Tech and Western governments is a growing threat. It’s the First Amendment for a reason: free speech is a fundamental prerequisite for liberal democracy. But The Guardian, with logic that Stalin would have appreciated, insists the concern over free speech has been “concocted” by the Right. This is one example of many that shows the assault on free speech today primarily comes from the very people—the legacy media, academia, and progressives—who once championed unencumbered dialogue. Given the increasing likelihood of a Kamala Harris presidency, the outlook for free speech could turn even more dismal. As California’s attorney...

NewsGuard, a service that rates adherence to basic principles of good journalism, gives this website its highest possible score. Yet the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), a British organization that aims to steer advertisers away from disreputable websites, claims Reason is one of the 10 "riskiest" online news sources in the United States. The stark contrast between those two assessments illustrates the challenge of defining "disinformation," an increasingly nebulous concept that invites subjective judgments driven by political allegiances and policy preferences. That problem is especially acute when the government demands that websites take steps to curtail "disinformation," portraying it as a...

California Governor Gavin Newsom threatened legal action against Elon Musk for sharing a funny meme on X. Newsom this week signed into law a bill that makes it illegal to ‘knowingly distribute an ad or other election communications that contain materially deceptive content, including deepfakes.’ Who determines what is ‘materially deceptive?” Gavin Newsom? Of course, this law will only be used to criminally charge Trump supporters for exercising their First Amendment rights. -- snip -- Elon Musk trolled Gavin Newsom and encouraged X users to share a Kamala Harris parody campaign ad. -- snip -- “The governor of California just...

Elon Musk is encouraging a hilarious parody ad mocking Kamala Harris to go viral on X after California governor Gavin Newson signed a law to eliminate deepfake and other AI generated content in the lead up to the election. The law was sparked by a series of parody videos created by AI and using deepfakes to mock Kamala Harris on social media.

Hillary Clinton has long been one of the most anti-free speech figures in American politics, including calling upon European officials to force Elon Musk to censor American citizens under the infamous Digital Services Act (DSA). She is now suggesting the arrest of Americans who spread what she considers disinformation. It is a crushingly ironic moment since it was her campaign that funded the infamous Steele dossier and spread false stories of Russian collusion during her presidential campaign. Presumably, that disinformation would not be treated as criminal viewpoints. Speaking on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show this week, Clinton was asked about...