Free Republic

Special Counsel Jack Smith’s targeting of Kash Patel and numerous congressional Republicans as part of his lawfare against Donald Trump was worse than originally thought, new records show. Released Tuesday by Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, the new documents demonstrate that Smith and his team’s efforts to acquire Patel’s phone records during his time as a private citizen were far more extensive than previously reported. The bid to acquire such information came as part of Smith’s Arctic Frost investigation, which ultimately became his elector lawfare against Trump. Now-FBI Director Patel originally told Reuters last...

The Thurston County Board of County Commissioners passed an ordinance requiring home sellers to conduct Home Energy Score assessments when listing a house for sale. The decision makes the county the first in the nation to mandate such a program, said Ashley Arai, Director of the county’s Community Planning and Economic Development Department. The board voted 4-0-1 to pass the ordinance on Tuesday, March 17, with Commissioner Wayne Fournier abstaining due to concerns about the county's legal authority to implement the program. A Home Energy Score is a U.S. Department of Energy standardized rating system that evaluates a home's energy...

Millions of Americans depend on medical devices — pacemakers, infusion pumps and patient monitors — to stay alive. But some of that equipment is made in China and it may be spying on us – or worse. In January 2025, the Food and Drug Administration and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a stark joint warning: patient monitors made by Contec Medical Systems, a Chinese company based in Qinhuangdao, contain a hidden backdoor. These devices, used in hospitals across the United States, can transmit sensitive patient data to a hard-coded IP address in China. Even more troubling, the backdoor...

Your next car purchase comes with an unwelcome passenger: a federal mandate requiring surveillance technology that monitors your every blink, glance, and head nod. Thanks to Section 24220 of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, NHTSA must finalize rules forcing all new passenger vehicles to include “advanced impaired driving prevention technology”—essentially turning your dashboard into a judgment-free zone that’s anything but judgment-free. The Technology That’s Watching Infrared cameras and sensors create a constant biometric assessment of driver alertness and sobriety. The tech involves infrared cameras mounted on steering columns or A-pillars, tracking eye movement, pupil dilation, and drowsiness patterns....

Spain will launch a tool to measure hate speech on digital ‌platforms as part of a broader strategy ‌to increase oversight of social media companies, Prime Minister Pedro ​Sanchez said on Wednesday. The country announced a wider plan last month to regulate social media, including a ban on its use for younger teenagers and ‌measures to hold ⁠platform executives accountable for illegal or hateful content hosted on their services. The new ⁠tool, called HODIO — an acronym in Spanish for Footprint of Hatred and Polarisation — will allow the ​government to ​systematically track the presence, ​amplification and impact of ‌hate...

The bipartisan push to remove anonymity from the internet is ushering in an era of unprecedented mass surveillance and censorship.

An under-the-radar regulatory change during the Biden years quietly expanded what amounts to a federal warehouse of private information tied to nearly every firearms transaction in America. Now, President Trump has the opportunity to reverse that rule — and put an end to yet another facet of the Biden administration’s assault on the Second Amendment and the privacy rights of law-abiding gun owners. Any American citizen who has ever legally purchased a firearm has experience with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Form 4473. As a purchaser, you must fill out personal questions that are often confusingly...

Planning to tie the knot in Spain? It’s highly expensive wherever you wed. But, if you are, you had better take it into account Hacienda (the tax agency). Newlyweds across Spain now face unexpected tax demands as Hacienda intensifies scrutiny on wedding gifts. Authorities now actively remind couples that cash and presents from guests qualify as taxable donations, potentially adding thousands to post-wedding bills. The idea behind this move is to close loopholes in revenue collection with digital transfers becoming more prevalent. Average weddings in Spain exceed €24,000, everything taken into consideration, including wedding meals alone consuming €13,000 to €14,000,...

Large language models aren’t good at lots of stuff, like counting fingers or suggesting pizza recipes. But one thing that “AI” is quite good at is analyzing massive amounts of data and finding possible connections that aren’t immediately obvious. That makes it perfect for unmasking anonymous internet posts, according to a new research paper. Researchers at ETH Zurich and the MATS research fellowship associated with Berkeley ran a program [PDF], collecting data from sources with generally anonymous usernames, like Reddit. By collecting users’ posts across related but distinct movie subreddits, then feeding the LLM data from a Netflix data leak,...

Apple is launching new tools to comply with the growing number of age-verification laws both in the U.S. and abroad. As part of the changes, Apple will block the downloads of apps rated 18+ in Brazil, Australia, and Singapore, while also rolling out other features to comply with laws in Utah and Louisiana in the U.S. The company informed developers on Tuesday that it’s expanding its set of “age assurance” tools, including an updated Declared Age Range API now available for beta testing. These tools allow developers to obtain a user’s age range without gaining access to the user’s personal...

"Age Attestation on Computing Devices" (Colorado State Bill 26-051) would require age verification on all Operating Systems (both Open Source and proprietary), with fines for violations.

EU Europe is increasingly abandoning a civilized approach to dissenting opinions. The raid on the Paris offices of Elon Musk’s company X appears to be just the tip of the iceberg. Today, those who resist are being attacked on multiple levels, while those who submit are largely spared. It is time to increase pressure on Brussels. Elon Musk’s communications platform X has become caught between systemic fronts. On one side stands the American understanding of free speech, which has experienced a political revival under Donald Trump’s new presidency. On the other, an increasingly repressive EU control regime is eroding the...

More than two dozen privacy and advocacy organizations are calling on California Gov. Gavin Newsom to remove a network of covert license plate readers deployed across Southern California that the groups believe feed data into a controversial U.S. Border Patrol predictive domestic intelligence program that scans the country’s roadways for suspicious travel patterns.“We ask that your administration investigate and release the relevant permits, revoke them, and initiate the removal of these devices,” read the letter sent Tuesday by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Imperial Valley Equity and Justice and other nonprofits. An Associated Press investigation published in November revealed that the...

Discord has announced a major change coming to the service as part of its aim to improve teen safety features. Starting in March, all users globally will be required to submit age verification via a face scan or submitted ID, or be given teen-level access restrictions. Age verification across apps and social platforms has been an increased focus of legislative bodies around the world in the last couple years. In response, Discord has announced a major initiative to ensure that only adults see adult-designated content, while teens are restricted to age-appropriate access. To do this, Discord says all users worldwide...

This piece is premised on the book American Stasi, available free at AmericanStasi.com, and at all major booksellers. The book attempts to show that the nations of the West have all deployed East German Stasi-like ground surveillance in their communities, to monitor all the citizens, and make sure none can ever rise high enough in government to see the rampant fraud and abuse. The surveillance is most notable through its vehicular units, which follow established procedures, and which you can even see on Google Streetview, as they perform surveillance on the Google car as it moves through communities. Here we...

Oct 2, 2024 Which company is the premiere surveillance Big tech company that really seeks to know you well for their AI? The answer to this question will often be tainted by the marketing moves of these companies and guaranteed that for the normie, the answer will be wrong. The reason is that people don't understand the motives of each of these companies? Why do they need to know each of us so well? What's in it for them? If you really understand this, you will be surprised at the answer.

The UK government has pledged to introduce a digital ID system for all UK citizens and legal residents by the end of the current Parliament (so no later than 2029). The integration of digital ID into government services, though already under way, has hitherto been largely voluntary. However, it is becoming steadily less optional, as the government has said it will now be required as a precondition for work in the UK, and a version of it (GOV.UK One Login) is already being imposed unilaterally upon company directors throughout the UK. Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones has...

They’re tracking what you do, who you talk to, and where you go. Your every move is being scored—and once the system locks in, there’s no way out. Palantir’s CEO said the quiet part out loud—and no one blinked. He claims his software “single-handedly” stopped the rise of the “far right” in Europe. Read that again. This isn’t a conspiracy theory. It’s called algorithmic electioneering—where unelected tech elites shape political outcomes with code, not votes. Now add shadowbans, blacklists, real-time emotional profiling, AI-driven behavior scoring…. And ask yourself: are you still the one making the decisions? This isn’t just about...

Why is my doctor worried about my mortgage payments? So I found myself wondering as I filled out a questionnaire before a recent primary-care visit. Along with the usual prompts about my health, I encountered a series of questions related to my financial situation. The form asked whether in the last 12 months I was unable to pay my mortgage or rent on time, and if I was “worried that my food would run out before I got the money to buy more.” These questions weren’t an attempt to gauge whether I would pay my medical bill; they were part...

LG Electronics’ Australian operation has declined to disclose the extent of the downturn in its local television business, following comments from its South Korean parent at CES that weak consumer demand — particularly for TVs — was a major factor behind an expected quarterly loss. The company is reportedly set to post a loss of approximately A$169 million for the most recent quarter, traditionally one of the strongest periods for consumer electronics manufacturers. LG has been steadily losing ground to arch rival Samsung in the OLED TV segment and continues to struggle to remain competitive in the LED market. While...