Free Republic

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) on Friday was dinged on social media after saying that the 4.8-magnitude earthquake that shook New York hit “west of Manhattan” rather than mentioning New Jersey. “A 4.8 magnitude earthquake hit west of Manhattan and has been felt throughout New York,” Hochul said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “My team is assessing impacts and any damage that may have occurred, and we will update the public throughout the day,” she continued. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the epicenter of the quake was near Lebanon, N.J, a description...

A proposed law in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Canada will reportedly allow judges to throw adults in jail for life if they advocate for genocide online.Fox News reported Thursday that the Online Harms Act (Bill C-63) would permit life sentences. The article also said, “The law would also allow a provincial judge to impose house arrest and a fine if there were reasonable grounds to believe a defendant ‘will commit’ an offense.”After Justice Minister Arif Virani introduced the bill, he said that in his role as a father, he was frightened of the dangers children might encounter online.Virani also said...

President Joe Biden’s response to Sesame Street Muppet Elmo’s viral online wellness check backfired as Americans blamed the 46th president for their depression. “Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing?” Elmo asked in a Monday X/Twitter post. Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing? — Elmo (@elmo) January 29, 2024 The comment section of Elmo’s post received thousands of replies from X/Twitter users who expressed dread and despair while living under the Biden administration. Biden himself also replied to the Sesame Street Muppet, writing, “I know how hard it is some days to sweep the clouds...

Online spending during the 2023 holiday season hit a new record, according to a recent report from data firm Adobe Analytics. The numbers, released Thursday, showed online spending between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31 spiked by nearly 5 percent to a record high of $222.1 billion on retailer websites and apps. This is an increase of 10.4 billion from the previous year, Adobe noted. Mobile shopping also had a breakthrough this past holiday season, surpassing desktop for the first time and accounting for 51.1 percent of online sales, according to the report. This is up from 47 percent in 2022...

@TPostMillennial Tucker Carlson calls out DeSantis' campaign: “The people who represent him online are the nastiest, the stupidest, and the most zero-sum people I’ve ever seen in my life.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) announced Tuesday that New York’s government is stepping up its fight against online hate amid an uptick in anti-Muslim and antisemitic rhetoric since the start of the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas. “Across our state New Yorkers are afraid, if they have family or friends in Israel, Gaza, other places, they’re afraid for their safety,” Hochul said during a press conference. “At home, many people are wrestling with the fear for the first time ever sometimes in their lives being victim of a hate crime.”

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has taken to X to criticize Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Sunday. Musk called the federal government’s approach to online streaming regulations “shameful.” Musk’s comments were in response to a post by journalist Glenn Greenwald, who described Canada’s new regulations as “one of the world’s most repressive online censorship schemes.” The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced a series of measures aimed at modernizing Canada’s broadcasting framework on Friday. Among these, online streaming services operating in Canada with annual revenues exceeding $10 million are required to register with the commission by November...

A Virginia Democratic candidate running for the commonwealth’s House of Delegates is being accused of performing sex acts with her husband in front of an online audience and encouraging viewers to send them "tip" money. Nurse practitioner Susanna Gibson, who is running in a competitive race in suburban Richmond for the House of Delegates in the 57th district, reportedly used a platform called Chaturbate to stream sex acts with her husband. Gibson, a 40-year-old mother of two, is said to have posted more than a dozen videos that were archived on a site called Recurbate in September 2022, which is...

Thousands of West African migrants are pouring into the US after social media helped spread the word about a lesser-known, low-stakes path through Nicaragua. Mauritanians are using WhatsApp, Instagram and other channels to guide fellow migrants along the route, which makes stops in Turkey, Colombia, El Salvador and Managua, Nicaragua, where they are whisked onto a bus by smugglers to cross the US-Mexican border, according to the Associated Press.

It’s finally happening…America’s most broken industry is being disrupted.I’ve been writing about the disruption of college since 2019.Back then, it was one of my most controversial ideas. Today? It’s becoming more and more of a reality…Many kids are finally realizing college is a waste of money.College is hot off the heels of a 60-year bull market.The number of kids signing up for U.S. universities jumped 4X since 1960.But did you know enrollments have now fallen 12 years in a row?And the future looks bleak.A decade ago, if you told fellow parents you weren’t pushing your kids to attend college, you’d...

Ron DeSantis has signed a law banning automakers from selling cars direct to consumers in Florida – but it contains a carve-out that will benefit his political backer Elon Musk and his Tesla company.House Bill 637 requires most automakers to sell to Floridians through third-party car dealers, who sometimes add exorbitant markups to vehicles’ sales tags.Drafted by lobbyists for dealers, who have made substantial donations to DeSantis, the law could have been a big blow to Tesla owner Elon Musk, who hosted his glitchy presidential campaign launch on Twitter.Tesla cuts out the middleman by operating its own dealerships. Forcing it...

An ex-cybercriminal has warned of the dangers children face online after getting tangled up in scams himself at the age of 12. The man in his 20s, referred to only as 'Harry', has expressed regrets over previous offences, having tricked computer gamers out of thousands during his younger years. These harmful scams took off at a time when Harry was keen to make pocket money, with no option to get a job of his own. But with children now increasingly fixated on the virtual world, he says that protections are vital to ensure they are sheltered from dark practices. 'As...

Have any of you found your comments on public site being deliberately blocked or removed? I think that my comments about the LBTQwerty general attack on all things civilized and that started the ball rolling and then Real Clear Politics removed everything.On another occasion, the Wall Street Journal wouldn't even accent a post that said "A man in a dress is still a man". Apparently their bots block any attempt to comment if it's anti -trans. Your thoughts/war stories?

As minors are increasingly struggling with exposure to pornography, legislation has been filed a bill to make it harder for children to access. House Bill 3570 by State Rep. Nate Schatzline (R–Ft Worth) introduces requirements that force websites with pornographic content to implement age verification using state-issued identification and gives parents the ability to sue websites if their child is exposed to online pornography. If passed, the legislation would take effect September 1. As described in the bill, the requirement for age verification could affect social media websites and other websites where one-third of the content is sexually explicit. An...

Literally named the “Stop Online Ammunition Sales Act of 2023,” the measure was filed last month in Congress by U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, a New Jersey Democrat. Coleman was endorsed for office last fall by national anti-gun groups including billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown organization. “The Stop Online Ammunition Sales Act is one step in the right direction to slowing the proliferation of guns and ammunition,” said Watson Coleman in a statement. The proposal would establish the licensing of ammunition dealers who then would be required to confirm the identity of customers seeking to purchase ammo by verifying a valid...

A Texas elementary school teacher who was found dead in her backyard reportedly met her alleged killer on a dating app just a week before she was shot to death, it was revealed on Friday. Wendy Duan’s boyfriend Charvas Thompson was arrested Wednesday in Louisiana, over 260 miles from where he allegedly shot her multiple times in her Sugar Land backyard last week. The two had only been dating for a week before Thompson took Duan’s life, the victim’s mother, who did want to be identified, told KHOU 11. They had met on the “MeetMe” dating app, which made Duan’s...

Reaching out here because I haven't had any luck with search engines like google. I can no longer go to the free clinic thats near me to get my medications and the walkin clinics are ridiculously expensive. All I need is a doc to look at my medical history and medications and approve a refill. The meds are really cheap and I can handle the $15/mo cost but they want $165 just to acknowledge my existence at the walk-in clinic here. Appreciate any suggestions. Thank you.

More than half of Americans say they’ve seen social media posts calling for violence against someone based on their race, gender or sexuality, according to results of a new poll, and women and LGBTQ+ people report higher rates of online harassment compared with other groups. The survey — commissioned by UltraViolet, GLAAD, Kairos, and Women’s March — included a sample of over 1000 social media users, with oversamples of people of color, women, and LGBTQ+ respondents. “The alarming poll results reinforce just how badly social media companies are failing when it comes to protecting LGBTQ and other marginalized communities online,”...

Consumers spent a record amount of money on online purchases on Black Friday, surpassing $9 billion, according to Adobe Analytics data. Adobe found that $9.12 billion was spent on Friday, marking a 2.3 percent rise year over year. Electronics sales were a large driver of the increase, with such online sales up 221 percent from the average day in October. Items such as audio equipment, toys and exercise equipment also sold well, with sales of each up more than 200 percent from an average day last month.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) used a Wednesday press conference to highlight new state gun controls and emphasized that talking to a would-be gun buyer’s “neighbors online” is now part of a background check. Hochul’s comments to reporters and others gathered for the conference were wide-ranging, focusing broadly on New York’s Interstate Task Force on Illegal Guns.