Free Republic

New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport is continuing the lawsuit against Glock that her predecessor Matthew Platkin filed last year, and her latest move in the litigation has Second Amendment groups crying foul. As part of the state's discovery process, Davenport has sent subpoenas to FFLs in the Garden State demanding they produce records related to every Glock handgun that's been purchased in their stores over the past decade. In an alert on the NRA-ILA website, the 2A group points out that Davenport already has access to this information, since New Jersey’s pistol permitting system operates as a de facto...

Netflix has been sued in Texas over claims it collects data belonging to children and adults in the US state without their consent, and uses "addictive" design to keep them hooked. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton accused the streaming giant of "spying" on citizens saying it "records and monetises billions" of pieces of information about how users behave on the platform, despite suggesting otherwise. "Every interaction on the platform became a data point revealing information about the user," his office said. Netflix has rejected the claims and says it will challenge them in court, according to a statement shared with...

On January 9, 2026, Mexico enacted a new law requiring all cell phone numbers to be verifiably associated with an individual. Any cell phone number not associated with a person and their government-issued ID by June 30, 2026, will be suspended until/unless the number is registered by a verified user. If you have an active Mexican cell phone number: Whether you are situated in Mexico or abroad (or travel between countries); and Whether that number is active with a physical SIM card or a virtual eSIM; and Whether you are on a contract or a prepay phone plan; and You...

“Big Brother is watching you” is no longer a fictional admonition. Everywhere you go, your location is recorded by phone technology, license plate readers, Uber and Lyft transactions, and cameras. Privacy? Forget about it. Your location history is in the hands of many tech companies. Can the police and other government agencies force tech companies to share that information about you? The U.S. Supreme Court took up that question on Monday. The court’s decision could have a widespread impact on your privacy. If your location history puts you within a 1-mile radius of a bank robbery with hundreds of...

Congress mandated in 2021 that all new cars include "advanced impaired driving prevention technology" by 2027. The tech includes infrared cameras that track your eyes, pupil dilation, and driving behavior. NHTSA missed its deadline to finalize rules because no current system meets the required 99.9% accuracy—even that level would strand tens of millions of sober drivers per year. NHTSA admitted in March 2026 that no system meets the legal requirement for reliable operation. The agency stated current detection technology shows "unacceptable error rates," particularly around legal alcohol limits. Here's the math that stopped NHTSA cold: Americans drive about 3 trillion...

Are you ready for your car to decide if you’re fit to drive? If not, you’d better buckle up. A federal mandate declares new vehicles must have in-car surveillance for 2027 models onward that can decide if a person is fit to drive and can make the car inoperable via a so-called “kill switch.” And don’t count on brushing your teeth or gargling with Listerine to work around the driver monitor if you’ve had one too many. Most new cars won’t make the determination via breathalyzer, but infrared cameras continually monitoring potential impairment cues. They include pupil size, head movements,...

A video exposing Ford’s dystopian patents for new vehicles has gone viral on X, fueling outrage over the accelerating war on personal vehicle ownership and freedom of movement. The clip details in-cabin cameras, biometric scanners, lip-reading AI, emotion detection, and real-time criminal database queries – all deciding whether your truck will let you drive. In the video, the narrator states “imagine there was an emergency outside the truck… An accident…I jump in this truck. But it won’t shift into drive. Why? Because cameras and sensors inside of my cab won’t let me shift.” Ford can suck my white ass. pic.twitter.com/JjlTXPHZov...

A bipartisan House bill introduced this week, HR 8250, would require operating system providers to verify the age of every user who sets up an account or uses an operating system, shifting age-checking obligations away from individual apps and onto platform owners such as mobile and computer operating system companies.The Parents Decide Act was introduced by Rep. Josh Gottheimer and Rep. Elise Stefanik.“With each passing day, the Internet is becoming more and more treacherous for our kids,” Gottheimer said. “We’re not just talking about social media anymore — we’re talking about artificial intelligence and platforms that are shaping how our...

A law that became the subject of scrutiny following surveillance on 2016 Trump campaign aide Carter Page is up for renewal with an April 20 deadline, and the debate is creating unusual battle lines. The debate centers on whether reforms should be made to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Section 702, or if there should be a “clean” extension of the law. FISA allows for the federal government to gather foreign intelligence, but some critics have warned that it opens the door for Americans to be spied on in the process. President Donald Trump is asking for a “clean...

nti-liberty/gun cracktivists find themselves stuck on recycling old, failed narratives because there is really nothing new in the distortions and lies they tell in trying to obliterate the Second Amendment. Among those failed narratives is microstamping, a nonsensical measure about which I last wrote in Microstamping And Zombies, 2024 in June of 2024 at my home blog. Microstamping is laser engraving a unique, identifying code on the tips of firing pins which will “stamp” that code—letters, numbers, etc—on the primers of fired cases. Some microstamping schemes also demand a second stamp elsewhere on a fired case. California has always been...

Recently, a researcher working for the large AI company Anthropic was sitting in a park near its San Francisco headquarters, enjoying a lunchtime sandwich. Scrolling on his phone, he suddenly received an email that must have instantly ruined his appetite. It was from a new AI model the company was testing: a program that was meant to have no access to the internet, let alone be able to send emails. Chillingly, the AI informed the researcher that it had successfully broken its way out of its digital 'sandbox' – a supposedly secure enclosure used to test potentially dangerous software without...

Mexico now requires all cell phone users to register with CURP and photo ID by June 2026. Learn how expats can comply, registration deadlines, and what happens if you don't register. If you have a Mexican cell phone number, you need to pay attention. Starting January 9, 2026, Mexico now requires all cell phone lines to be linked to official identification. This new mandate affects an estimated 137 million mobile lines across the country—and that includes the phones of American and Canadian expats living in Mexico. If you fail to register your line by the deadline, your cell phone service...

Americans’ personal data could be collected and stored overseas — even if they’ve never downloaded a foreign-developed app themselves — according to a new FBI alert warning about the risks tied to popular mobile platforms. That means information like a person’s name, email address or phone number could be pulled from someone else’s contact list and potentially stored abroad if a friend or family member grants an app access to their device. The warning comes after years of scrutiny over TikTok’s ties to China, but the FBI alert suggests the concerns extend beyond any single platform to a broader range...

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1933 pick for Attorney General was Senator Thomas J. Walsh, born in 1859 in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. Two Rivers had a population of 1,337 in 1860. A self-made man, he graduated from the University of Wisconsin. He grew up in the West. Walsh won the election to the US Senate from Montana in 1912. He exposed the Teapot Dome scandal in 1922. His summer home was in what became Glacier National Park. On the way to his inauguration in 1933, he died of an apparent heart attack on a passenger train, as he traveled to D.C....

US citizens traveling to Hong Kong are being warned that refusal to hand over passwords or access to their personal devices is now a criminal offense. The US Consulate General in Hong Kong and Macao issued a warning that the Hong Kong government has changed the rules relating to the National Security Law on March 23. The change applies to everyone in Hong Kong, including residents, visitors and travelers transiting through the airport. “It is now a criminal offense to refuse to give the Hong Kong police the passwords or decryption assistance to access all personal electronic devices, including cellphones...

The Authentication LayerWhy Digital ID Is the Hill to Die OnA friend and I got into it recently. He’s smart, freedom-minded, and totally gets the danger of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC). Expiring money, programmable control, carbon budgets - he sees most of the expanding tyranny clearly. And yet he dismisses Digital ID as a distraction. When I try to make the case that digital ID is the gateway to the gulag in the metaverse, he demands I name ONE thing Digital ID gives the government that they can’t already do.My answer: it enables CBDC.Of course, governments have already encroached...

Louis Rossmann opens by greeting viewers and introducing a discussion about televisions that now require a Walmart account for full functionality, highlighting how this has become a real trend. He references a Consumer Rights Wiki article explaining that certain newer Vizio TVs—and other brands using the Vizio operating system—require users to create or log into a Walmart account just to complete setup and access smart features. Walmart frames this as a way to streamline setup and connect streaming activity with retail behavior, but he argues the real motivation is clear: companies now make more money from advertising and user data...

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...