Free Republic

We have been discussing how Democratic leaders like Hillary Clinton called on foreign companies to pass censorship laws to prevent Elon Musk from restoring free speech protections on Twitter. The EU has responded aggressively to warn Musk not to allow greater free speech or face crippling fines and even potential criminal enforcement. After years of using censorship-by-surrogates in social media companies, Democratic leaders seem to have rediscovered good old-fashioned state censorship. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) declared Musk’s pledge to restore free speech values on social media as threatening Democracy itself. She has promised that “there are going to be...

Major job cuts are coming to Twitter whether or not Elon Musk acquires the social media company. Musk has told prospective investors that he plans to cut nearly 75% of staff at Twitter, The Washington Post reported Thursday. That would bring Twitter’s staff down from 7,500 employees to around 2,000. Over time, he would hire new people to increase the staff again, however. And even if he doesn’t close, Twitter’s existing management planned to cut the workforce by about a quarter, the Post reported. The company also plans to make cuts to infrastructure like data centers. Musk previously hinted at...

Today at 8:20 and 20 seconds PM, in military time it will be 20:20:20 2020. What are your plans?

The source of the hopes for a coronavirus cure should raise a lot of red flags. President Donald Trump’s daily press briefing on the coronavirus pandemic has been compared to many things: state propaganda, daily talk show, three-ring circus. It is somehow all of these things, but it is also something else: an infomercial. For the past two weeks, the president has been hawking a miracle cure: the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine. He has hailed it as “very encouraging,” a “phenomenal drug,” and “the biggest game changer in the history of medicine.” Trump has also portrayed it as a Hail Mary:...

MA Senate challenger Geoff Diehl (R) discusses new report that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) had faked and inflated tax deductions on her IRS tax returns. Video only, summary below: https://finance.yahoo.com/video/elizabeth-warren-tax-returns-may-231229689.html

...On the Democratic side, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum's victory was the most unexpected of the night, as he defeated centrist former Rep. Gwen Graham. His victory represents an upset for the progressive wing of the party in the final stretch of 2018 primaries... ...Gillum hadn't led in a single poll, but was able to harness the progressive energy to beat Graham, a famed political scion in the state whose father had served as governor and senator. Sen. Bernie Sanders campaigned for Gillum and drew more than 1,000 people to a rally in Tampa earlier this month. Gillum campaigned on repealing...

President Donald Trump's attorney, Rudolph Giuliani, asserted Monday that "collusion is not a crime." "I have been sitting here looking in the federal code trying to find collusion as a crime," Giuliani said in an interview on "Fox & Friends." "Collusion is not a crime." The president has repeatedly asserted that there was "no collusion" between his campaign and Russia during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. As recently as Sunday, the president took to Twitter to repeat the claim.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court says a program that lets the government take raisins away from farmers to help reduce supply and boost market prices is unconstitutional. The justice said Monday that forcing raisin growers to give up part of their annual crop without full payment is an illegal confiscation of private property.

‘The president has his priorities so screwed up that it’s unbelievable,’ senator says... “The least of your problems are what Bibi Netanyahu said in a political campaign,” McCain said Sunday. “I think the president maybe shouldn’t like it, but thousands are being slaughtered by ISIS. The Iranians have taken over the major capitols of Lebanon, Syria, Beirut and Baghdad. It pales in significance to the situation which continues to erode throughout the Middle East, and it puts America at risk. … The president has his priorities so screwed up that it’s unbelievable...Either that or he’s delusional. I’m not sure which,”...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Federal prosecutors have launched a crackdown on pot dispensaries in California, warning the stores that they must shut down in 45 days or face criminal charges and confiscation of their property even if they are operating legally under the state's 15-year-old medical marijuana law.

Bank of America plans to start charging customers a $5 monthly fee for using their debit card for purchases. The fee will be rolled out starting early next year. [snip]...Anne Pace, a Bank of America Corp. spokeswoman, said Thursday that customers will only be charged the fee if they use their debit cards for purchases in any given month. Customers won't be charged if they only use their cards at an ATM. The fee will apply to basic accounts and will be in addition to any monthly fees customers are already being charged. For example, one of the bank's basic...

Bar the shouting, the war in Libya virtually ended Thursday morning, July 14, when US President Barack Obama called Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to hand Moscow the lead role in negotiations with Muammar Qaddafi for ending the conflict - provided only that the Libyan ruler steps down in favor of a transitional administration. The US president thus accepted the Russian-Libyan formula for ending the war over the heads of the NATO chiefs who rejected it when they met Russian leaders at the Black Sea resort of Sochi last week... ...By the time Obama had decided to call Medvedev, individual governments...

Consumers who illegally download copyrighted films, music or television shows might see their Internet speed slowed or access restricted under an industry anti-piracy effort announced on Thursday. U.S. Internet service providers, including Verizon Communications Inc, Comcast Corp, Time Warner Cable Inc, Cablevision Systems Corp and AT&T Inc agreed to alert customers, up to six times, when it appears their account is used for illegal downloading. Warnings will come as e-mails or pop-up messages. Read the rest here: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/07/us-internet-piracy-idUSTRE7667FL20110707

Despite a significant drop in Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel in the past two days, the IDF kept the pressure on Hamas on Saturday, striking at least 25 targets in overnight sorties, including the home of senior Hamas commander Abu Zacharia Al-Jamal. Following the air strikes, a Hamas spokesman announced that al-Jamal was killed in the attack. He was the third senior operative in the group to be targeted in the past three days...

While preparing Shabbat dinner for a couple of close friends and their acquaintances, my long-time girlfriend sliced straight down the middle of this cabbage. She was surprised and amused to find that this particular cabbage had taken the form of the Star of David. She thought it particularly remarkable that this occurred while preparing a Shabbat dinner. No, she wasn't making borscht, the intent was to make a cabbage salad but after cutting it open we decided this cabbage was symbolic and, so, refused to eat it. She in particular recalled the news of the image of Mary appearing on...

A Song, a Psalm of Asaph. O G-d, keep not Thou silence; hold not Thy peace, and be not still, O G-d. For, lo, Thine enemies are in an uproar; and they that hate Thee have lifted up the head. They hold crafty converse against Thy people, and take counsel against Thy treasured ones. They have said: 'Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.' For they have consulted together with one consent; against Thee do they make a covenant; The tents of Edom and the...

Workers repairing a sewage pipe in the Old City of Jerusalem have discovered the biblical Pool of Siloam, a freshwater reservoir that was a major gathering place [a mikvah, where Jews do a ritual cleansing] for ancient Jews making religious pilgrimages to the city and the reputed site where Jesus cured a man blind from birth, according to the Gospel of John. "Scholars have said that there wasn't a Pool of Siloam and that John was using a religious conceit" to illustrate a point, said New Testament scholar James H. Charlesworth of the Princeton Theological Seminary. "Now we have found...

Comedian Chong Sentenced on Drug Charges By DAN NEPHIN, Associated Press Writer PITTSBURGH - Tommy Chong (news), who played one half of the dope-smoking duo in the Cheech and Chong movies, was sentenced to nine months in federal prison and fined $20,000 Thursday for selling bongs and other drug paraphernalia over the Internet. The 65-year-old was allowed to remain free until federal prison officials tell him in a few weeks where he must report to prison. Chong also forfeited about $100,000 for his arrest on federal drug paraphernalia charges. He'll spend a year on probation after he's released from prison....

Histadrut Planning To Strike The Histadrut Labor Union, under the leadership of MK Amir Peretz, is threatening an economy-wide strike in the coming days, in protest against the new economic program to be adopted by the government. Peretz and Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met today but did not come to a meeting of the minds, and the strike threat is still on. "We refuse to allow the entire burden of the current economic crisis to fall upon the working class," Peretz said. The new economic program was attacked from another angle as well. Jewish Agency Chairman Sallai Meridor, addressing a...

Amnesty International has called on Britain and other signatories to the Geneva conventions to put on trial Israeli soldiers "responsible for war crimes" in Jenin and Nablus earlier this year. In a report published today, Amnesty says Israeli forces were guilty of unlawful killings, torture and the use of Palestinian civilians as human shields. It says that among other "grave breaches" of international law were ill-treatment of prisoners, wanton destruction of hundreds of homes, sometimes with the residents still inside, and the blocking of medical help to the wounded. Amnesty says the months-long investigation is the most thorough to date...