Free Republic

Advertisers that are now boycotting Facebook to protest "hate speech" have spent years running ads and marketing campaigns on a Russian social media platform that bans gay-rights groups and is known as a haven for white supremacists. Over 100 companies announced a boycott of Facebook last week in protest of divisive political speech on the website. The boycott coincides with a public pressure campaign led by Joe Biden and other top Democrats to press Facebook to enforce stricter control over President Trump’s postings. But many of these companies—including Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Adidas, and Reebok—have been regular advertisers on VK, a popular...

Former CIA Director Michael Hayden downplayed on Tuesday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's dramatic presentation in which he accused Iran of "brazenly lying" over its nuclear ambitions. "To the best of my knowledge -- out of government, not getting the briefings -- I think this is fundamentally old news," Hayden told CNN's "New Day." On Monday, Netanyahu gave a presentation in English in which he claimed Israel has evidence that Iranian officials were "brazenly lying" when they said Iran wasn't pursuing nuclear weapons and that the Islamic Republic is keeping an "atomic archive" at a secret compound. Hayden told "New...

Germany is set to start enforcing a law that demands social media sites move quickly to remove hate speech, fake news and illegal material. Sites that do not remove “obviously illegal” posts could face fines of up to €50 million (£44.3 million; $60 million). The law gives the networks 24 hours to act after they have been told about lawbreaking material. Social networks and media sites with more than two million members will fall under the law’s provisions. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube will be the law’s main focus, but it is also likely to be applied to Reddit, Tumblr and...

blah, blah, blah ... "The executive at Vkontakte, or VK, Russia’s equivalent to Facebook, emailed Donald Trump Jr. and social media director Dan Scavino in January and again in November of last year, offering to help promote Trump’s campaign to its nearly 100 million users, according to people familiar with the messages...." Looks like Nellie Ohr was looking for Russian Social Media Users in 2014:

The allocation of culpability for the violence that resulted in the tragic death of Heather Heyer at a protest/counter-protest rally in Charlottesville, VA by the media last week really should not have come as a surprise. In the case of Republicans, the news-cycle will consisted of the following phases: If the violence is perpetrated by a hate group(s) whose members are racists, anti-Semites, and white supremacists, first, implicitly tie the Republican Party and its leaders (or if it is President Trump, explicitly) to the offending hate group; secondly, insist he or she publicly renounce the group; third, if the Republican...

This week, the media freak-out over nightly “bombshell” revelations regarding evidence of President Trump’s apparent malfeasance and general abject incompetence reached, perhaps prematurely, a 9.5 out of 10. It culminated with Friday’s story that Trump told a Russian spy, in the Oval Office, that he fired the FBI Director, who is a “real nut job,” because he was investigating their involvement in our election and that he had gotten rid of the problem. Within the last two weeks, there have been several stories about Trump which, in an era where the mainstream news media wasn’t coming off of eight years...

Bernie Sanders offers a real solution that the current condidates wont have. Bernie Sanders would first of all return tax levels to the way they were in the 1950s, tax the rich 90% and use the massive massive massive surplus from that tax to create jobs for the unemployed. One trillion should be paid for rebuilding infrastructure and bridges and creating jobs. Another trillion will be used to create new healthcare opertunety for workers to earn doctors degrees and to heal the sick and poor. Bernie sanders will also create government funded industries and factories that will create paying jobs...

On the rare occasion I find myself in agreement with President Obama, I get nervous. It just feels like a setup. Like someone's going to pull the rug out from under me at any moment. But right now, I have to admit, I was very pleased to hear the news that the U.S. and Cuba are moving to normalize relations.

(CNSNews.com) – Although no group has claimed responsibility for Monday’s deadly bomb blasts at the Boston Marathon, a leading al-Qaeda ideologue last year recommended that jihadists in America include sporting events in their list of prospective terror targets.

As the merry-go-round of the GOP primary continues, the present darling of fickle voters is Newt Gingrich, Like a phoenix he’s risen from the ashes to claim, with typical humility, “I’m going to be the nominee,” dismissing all other candidates as a trifling irrelevancy. Unfortunately the belated choice of Gingrich is no choice at all, for there can be little doubt how the questionably conservative and enormously polarizing Gingrich would fare against a personally popular Obama in the General Election. There is, at present only one real choice to make regarding the next president. It’s either Romney or Obama. A...

<p>I'm a whiny Romney retard who knows nothing about the First Amendment and even less about the Sixth. That's why my revised graphic got pulled by the mods, this post was inane and stupid enough without it.</p>

Wasn’t Sen. Obama against President Bush’s policies on “the war on terror” and enhanced interrogation techniques before, as President, he was for them and began to use those policies himself? By no means, I’m I condemning the decisions and actions that led to the death of Osama bin Laden. What I am is shocked. I’m shocked at the blatant hypocrisy of the Liberal Left. The Left excoriated president George W. Bush starting at the war on terror and going through to the Abu Ghraib prison photographs that showed the sophomoric antics of a few military prison guards engaged in largely...

I try to see what the dark side is doing, but I couldn't see anything there. What is going on?

"A week from Tuesday, when the Supreme Court returns from its midwinter break and hears arguments in two criminal cases, it will have been five years since Justice Clarence Thomas has spoken during a court argument." "If he is true to form, Justice Thomas will spend the arguments as he always does: leaning back in his chair, staring at the ceiling, rubbing his eyes, whispering to Justice Stephen G. Breyer, consulting papers and looking a little irritated and a little bored. He will ask no questions." "In the past 40 years, no other justice has gone an entire term, much...

One of the highlights of the state dinner was a performance by Lang Lang, a Chinese pianist who has been a sensation in music circles. Mr. Lang played a duet with the American jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, then a haunting traditional Chinese melody called “My Motherland.” In China, it turns out, “My Motherland” is better known as the theme from the film “Battle on Shangganling Mountain,” a 1956 Chinese classic about a Korean War battle in which a vastly outnumbered band of Chinese soldiers held off American and United Nations forces for 42 days. If, in retrospect, “My Motherland” might...

Fluorescent and compact fluorescent bulbs can reduce intelligence, impair mood, and otherwise damage your life by releasing mercury, a highly neurotoxic chemical. Why, then, did congressional dimbulbs vote to ban incandescent light bulbs, forcing us to substitute fluorescent ones?

As an experiment, I created a web page at sites.google.com. I uploaded a photo there and then posted that photo on the forums board at Ebay. Here's where the 'teaser' comes into play .. I am the only one that can see it!? I built the page and posted it using the Opera browser. Now if I use Chrome, Firefox or IE to view the same photo at the same forums .. I can't see it!? Even if I delete my cookies in Opera and sign out of my Ebay account .. I can Still see the photo but nobody...

As we reported yesterday, Republicans plan to read aloud the Constitution of the United States when the 112th Congress kicks off on January 6th, 2011.  Many find this to be a political tactic, a gimmick of sorts.  Republicans are attempting to hold support from the Tea Party and are howling for Congress to follow the Constitution word for word.  A firm skeptic of this Republican stratagem is Ezra Klein of the Washington Post, one of the most astute minds when it comes to procedure within Congress and fiscal concerns. Yesterday he appeared for an interview with MSNBC's Nora O'Donnell to discuss the matter:Returning To...