Free Republic

Democratic leaders in major cities nationwide have already moved forward with bans on natural gas stoves even as the Biden administration has pumped the brakes on similar regulations at the federal level. Cities including Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and New York City — which are collectively home to more than 10 million Americans — have enacted varying restrictions on natural gas hookups impacting gas-powered furnaces, ovens and stoves. Leaders of the Democrat-led cities have argued that transitioning away from natural gas would help achieve climate and net-zero ambitions. "New York City is proof that it’s possible to...

It took $44 billion of Elon Musk’s money to uncover how national-security agencies like the FBI and Homeland Security — as well as Adam Schiff — conducted censorship on Twitter. Those revelations are still continuing, even while not much else seems to be changing on that platform. But what about Facebook? Who’s got $100 billion or so to buy out Mark Zuckerberg and get a peek under Meta’s hood? Reason Magazine certainly doesn’t, but it turns out that all Robby Soave needed was a lawsuit and a court order or two. Internal documents show that Facebook essentially allowed the CDC...

The United States will soon follow Europe in implementing laws against so-called hate speech, a top Eurocrat claimed at the World Economic Forum’s meeting in Davos. The vice president for Values and Transparency for the European Commission, Věra Jourová predicted on Tuesday that hate speech laws will be imposed upon the American public, despite longstanding case law at the Supreme Court protecting such speech under the First Amendment. “Illegal hate speech, which you will have soon also in the U.S. I think that we have a strong reason why we have this in the criminal law,” Jourová said.

From the comments, Peter Sepall, "Great interview with Steve Kirsch. For anyone interested he has a channel here on rumble called Stkirsch. I knew from the start that they were lying about the vax being safe, not because I knew it was unsafe, but because I knew they couldn't know that it was. How could anyone know that a new medical procedure would have no long term consequences? Applying simple informal logic to life and not just going along with the crowd, whatever the crowd, can have profoundly liberating and health preserving results.

The FAA has very quietly tacitly admitted that the EKGs of pilots are no longer normal. We should be concerned. Very concerned.In the October 2022 version of the FAA Guide for Aviation Medical Examiners, the FAA quietly widened the EKG parameters beyond the normal range (from a PR max of .2 to unlimited). And they didn’t widen the range by a little. They widened it by a lot. It was done after the vaccine rollout.This is extraordinary. They did it hoping nobody would notice. It worked for a while. Nobody caught it.But you can’t hide these things for long.This is...

It may be MLK Day, but Democrats aren’t here for all that “content of character” stuff. Rep. Shelia Jackson Lee, long in the running for being the vapidest member of Congress (oops, did I just commit a crime?), has introduced legislation that could make political criticism by white people against minorities a federal crime. In what can only be called a convoluted mess, the bill proposes that a white person who “vilifies” any non-white person and has their words end up on social media, accessible by “persons who are predisposed to engaging in any action in furtherance of a white...

The downfall of capitalism will not come from the uprising of an impoverished working class but from the sabotage of a bored upper class. This was the view of the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter in 1942. Schumpeter believed that at some point in the future, an educated elite would have nothing left to struggle for and will instead start to struggle against the very system that they themselves live in. Nothing makes me think Schumpeter was right like the contemporary climate movement and its acolytes. The Green movement is not a reflection of planetary crisis as so many in media...

To seize further control of people’s lives, Globalists are pushing the false idea that these cities will “save the planet” and help all of humanity. Fifteen-minute cities are popping up everywhere, and the World Economic Forum is wildly enthusiastic about them. Last year it was announced that Paris, France, would become a 15-minute city, and now the British city of Oxford is next. However, outraged Brits are fighting back. As reported previously at RAIR Foundation USA, the city council has announced that it will divide Oxford into 15-minute neighborhoods or small 15-minute towns billed as “greener, cleaner and safer.” To...

It’s not every day you find a government document calling for Cato Institute employees to be charged with treason, but as a new article in The Dispatch details, here we are: "In March 2020, a maritime shipping advisory panel offered a simple suggestion to the government: Charge all past and current members of two libertarian think tanks with treason. "It is certainly not the first time a bunch of libertarians angered members of a bureaucratic panel. But this backlash stemmed from criticism of the Jones Act, a century‐​old law that imposes requirements for shipping between American ports." Haley Byrd Wilt’s...

Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) signed legislation Wednesday night banning commonly owned semiautomatic rifles and magazines which Democrats consider “high capacity.” The law took effect immediately with Pritzker’s signature. It allows those who already own the now-banned firearms to retain them, but requires that the owners register the guns with the Illinois State Police. Pritzker’s office released a statement upon his signing of the bill. It said, in part, “The new law also requires existing owners of semi-automatic rifles to register their ownership, ensuring that law enforcement knows the location of these weapons of war and who to hold accountable if...

The FBI revealed how the bureau uses the CIA and National Security Agency to probe the private lives of Americans without a warrant in its updated rulebook, which is the first version made public since the Obama administration. The handbook, rewritten in 2021, confirms a decade-old leak showcasing the bureau’s collaboration with the CIA and NSA for FBI probes that may involve surveillance without court orders against people not accused of any crimes. Such probes are known as “assessments” at the FBI. The revelations will fuel critics who have long accused the FBI of abusing its national security surveillance powers.

Yesterday we looked at the federal government’s suggestion that they may either ban all gas stoves in the country or require expensive emission control modifications. This is supposedly being done as a public health measure, but under the covers, it seems like yet another covert attempt to eliminate fossil fuel use in America. That move, if it happens, clearly won’t be enough for the state of New York, where Governor Kathy Hochul will always try to bring her green energy one-upmanship game to the table. During her State of the State speech yesterday, Hochul pledged to not only do away...

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Hundreds of Haitians are flocking daily to the sole immigration office in Port-au-Prince, pressing against the bright blue gate as they strain to hear whether their name is called, hoping they will soon be chosen to live legally in the U.S. under a new immigration plan. The crowd has swelled ever since U.S. President Joe Biden announced Thursday 5 that the U.S. will accept 30,000 people a month from Haiti, Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela. Those selected will be entitled to work for two years if they have eligible sponsors and pass background checks. Those selected also...

Former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani has been subpoenaed in connection with a probe into fundraising efforts following the 2020 election, according to multiple reports. The subpoena, which was sent in November and first reported by CNN, seeks documents from Giuliani about payments he received during the period when he was filing post-election lawsuits on behalf of the Trump campaign. The subpoena was signed by an attorney in the D.C. U.S. attorney office and predated the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) appointment of special counsel Jack Smith, though the special counsel’s office has likewise been investigating the inner workings of Save America...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is moving forward with a proposal that would lower student debt payments for millions of Americans now and in the future, offering a new route to repay federal loans under far more generous terms. If it’s finalized, the proposal would give a major overhaul to income-driven repayment plans — one of several payment options offered by the federal government. The resulting plan would have lower monthly payments, an easier path to forgiveness and a promise that unpaid interest will not be added to a borrower’s loan balance. Under existing plans, monthly payments are capped...

A federal agency says a ban on gas stoves is on the table amid rising concern about harmful indoor air pollutants emitted by the appliances. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission plans to take action to address the pollution, which can cause health and respiratory problems. “This is a hidden hazard,” Richard Trumka Jr., an agency commissioner, said in an interview. “Any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned.” Natural gas stoves, which are used in about 40% of homes in the U.S., emit air pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and...

The plans of the authoritarian left should be clear to anyone who's paying attention. The question becomes, what do we do about it? Anti-liberty authoritarians of the fascist far left want to destroy the U.S. as founded, replacing it with a national socialist state in the model of red China. Anyone paying attention should know all of this by now. They should go read some books, and learn some facts, before they project their 80-year-old lies. The intentions of the left are quite obvious by now. Despite the propaganda smokescreen of the nation's socialist media continually carping about a four-hour...

President Biden is unleashing a tidal wave of red tape, nearly tripling the number of the most costly regulations from the Trump era, as he imposes a government wide approach to climate change and social justice policies. The administration’s newly released Unified Regulatory Agenda includes 332 “economically significant” proposed rules, each of which would cost the economy at least $100 million per year. In President Trump’s final year in office, he proposed 199 such rules, and 20 were aimed at deregulation. Mr. Biden’s regulatory push appears likely to exceed President Obama’s, said Wayne Crews, a regulatory analyst at the Competitive...

Is it really the worst political environment ever in the history of the United States -- or even the worst "in the modern era" (let's define that as "1900+")? Not even close. On January 2nd, 1920, thousands of Americans -- by some measures ten thousand Americans -- were detained and many arrested in the so-called "Palmer Raids" nationwide. Woodrow Wilson's AG orchestrated those raids against purported communists and anarchists, along with anyone they believed supported either. My writing here on these pages over the last 15 years would have certainly landed me on that list -- and behind bars. This...

Last week Congress passed a $1.7 trillion yearlong federal government spending bill – clearing its path to Biden’s desk. This legislation will give millions to the anti-gun movement. Helping Biden spread his legislation. Now we break down what that means for the second amendment headed into 2023. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) is set to receive a massive 14.1% budget increase as they will receive nearly $2 billion. This money is what they are saying is necessary to run their day-to-day operations, though it will include $14 million to be used to modernize their illegal gun...