Free Republic

House Leadership buried $9 billion of aid to Gaza in the Israel aid bill. Hamas has repeatedly stolen aid designated for Gaza, and there's nothing to stop them from doing so again. We're funding both sides of a war.

@RonWyden As the longest serving member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I can say with confidence that this bill is the biggest expansion of the government's warrantless surveillance power since the PATRIOT Act. I'm still doing everything in my power to stop it passing the Senate.

A second seated juror was dismissed on Thursday after they were sworn in by the judge presiding over the Stormy Daniels ‘hush money’ trial. One juror on Thursday was already excused from service after she admitted to concerns about her impartiality upon being officially sworn in by Judge Juan Merchan. “Yesterday alone, I had friends and family push things to me,” the first dismissed juror stated. “I don’t think at this point that I can be fair and unbiased.” A second juror was dismissed over his past arrest. Details of juror number 4’s criminal past were not disclosed. NBC News...

As it stands, liberal Arizona voting laws have paved the way for non-citizens, whether they are legal or not, to register for and cast a ballot in the 2024 presidential election. U.S. Air Force master sergeant Nick Kupper, who is one of several state legislature candidates vying for a seat in the Arizona House of Representatives’ District 25. While the voting laws do not affect his run for office, he is gravely concerned about the upcoming presidential race. “In Arizona,” Kupper said, “even if the state can’t verify whether you’re a citizen, people can still assert that they are citizens.”...

An unpublished op-ed by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer discovered through a public records request reveals that he believes the First Amendment is “the biggest threat to elections and Democracy,” Americans ‘ opinions are “disturbing,” and that “it may be time to revisit our First Amendment jurisprudence.” The election official in Arizona’s largest county also refers to his constituents and Trump supporters who know that Joe Biden didn’t legitimately win 81 million votes as “gullible,” “crazies,” and “idiots.” He even suggests that suing citizens for defamation would be a remedy to his problems if it weren’t for the First Amendment....

WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) - Congressman Jake LaTurner, who represents Kansas’ second district in the U.S. House, said he will not run for re-election. The Republican lawmaker released the following statement on Thursday: “I will proudly serve the remainder of the 118th Congress, but after much prayer and consideration, I will not seek reelection this Fall. The people of Kansas who elected me to serve in the United States House of Representatives have given me the professional honor of my life, but it is time to pursue other opportunities and have the benefit of spending more time with my family. Suzanne...

In his first speech as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Mike Johnson sounded like a preacher in a pulpit: “I believe that Scripture, the Bible, is very clear that God is the one who raises up those in authority,” he began. “He raised up each of you, all of us. And I believe that God has ordained and allowed each one of us to be brought here for this specific moment and this time.” It was the kind of public piety and Baptist Bible-speak that folks in Johnson’s scarlet-red Louisiana district like to hear from those they send...

@elonmusk Given the relentless attacks on free speech, I am going to fund a national signature campaign in support of the First Amendment

The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) announced it has awarded $2 million to three different organizations to provide training that will increase access to safe, high-quality abortions across the state. The Abortion Provider Capacity Building Grant Program awarded grants to the Midwest Access Project (MAP), Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPIL), and the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) College of Nursing. The first-of-its-kind in Illinois, state-funded training effort follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization that eliminated the constitutional right to abortion in the United States and allowed states to restrict access to...

Congressional Spending Goes Full WeimarIt has become a speculative game in the blogosphere to predict what black swan calamities could lead to a breakdown in civil order and the imposition of some form of martial law. Wars and rumors of war abound. We have already seen a container ship mysteriously knocking down a bridge and closing a key port. Other such scenarios include massive cyber-attacks that shut down the grid and block communication and transportation networks nationwide. The speculation on the variations of such events is virtually endless.However, one crisis is no black swan and is entirely expected, already happening,...

"Our team re-reviewed the domain, the rating will not change as it continues to have anti-LGBTQI+ narratives… The site authors have been called out for being anti-trans. Kathleen Stock is acknowledged as a ‘prominent gender-critical’ feminist.” This was part of an email sent to UnHerd at the start of January from an organisation called the Global Disinformation Index. It was their justification, handed down after a series of requests, for placing UnHerd on a so-called “dynamic exclusion list” of publications that supposedly promote “disinformation” and should therefore be boycotted by all advertisers. They provided examples of the offending content: Kathleen...

From N.C. Bar & Tavern Ass'n v. Cooper, decided yesterday by the N.C. Court of Appeals, in an opinion by Judge April Wood, joined by Judges Donna Stroud and Jefferson Griffin: Plaintiffs appeal from the trial court's order granting summary judgment for Defendant and dismissing all their claims arising out of Defendant's Executive Order No. 141 issued in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 17 March 2020, Defendant issued Executive Order No. 118 closing all bars including those in restaurants. On 20 May 2020, Defendant issued Executive Order No. 141 letting some types of bars reopen with specific safety precautions...

Joe Biden, Democrats, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and the RINOs are colluding on an aid package for Ukraine, which may upset plans by some Republican lawmakers to remove Johnson from the Speaker’s chair. The $95 billion package provides an additional “$60.84 billion to address the conflict in Ukraine and assist our regional partners as they counter Russia, $23.2 billion of which will be used for replenishment of U.S. weapons, stocks, and facilities.” It also provides aid to both Israel and, reportedly, Palestine. “I will sign this into law immediately to send a message to the world,” said Joe Biden in...

On XApr 17, 2024 TRANSCRIPT:Katherine Maher: The number one challenge here that we see is, of course, the First Amendment in the United States... is a fairly robust protection of rights, and that is a protection of rights, both for platforms, which I actually think is very important. The platforms have those rights to regulate what kind of content they want on their sites, but it also means it is a little bit tricky to really address some of the real challenges of 'where does bad information come from?' and some of the influence peddlers who have made a real...

The inside story of how House Speaker Mike Johnson was flip-flopped on Ukraine aid starts with his top policy adviser, a former lobbyist whose clients include a number of major companies who have issued corporate statements indicating some kind of interest in the war. The Speaker intends to set up a Saturday evening vote in the House of Representatives on the plan that completely abandons border security and instead pushes to funnel tens of billions of more U.S. tax dollars to foreign countries like Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. In a string of recent betrayals by the Speaker–the recent government funding...

Both articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas were deemed unconstitutional by the Senate on Wednesday in a party-line vote. The first of two articles of impeachment alleged Mayorkas engaged in the "willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law" regarding the southern border in his capacity as DHS secretary. The second claimed Mayorkas had breached public trust.

Senate Democrats voted unanimously to shut down the Senate trial of President Joe Biden’s impeached homeland security chief Alejandro Mayorkas. The first vote of 51 Democrats to 48 Republicans, with one non-voting Republican senator, was reported at 3:18 p.m. on Wednesday. The vote, initiated by Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), declared that the first article of impeachment was “unconstitutional” because the charges against Mayorkas did not rise to the impeachable level of “high crimes.”

Under a legal theory endorsed by the 5th Circuit, Martin Luther King Jr. could have been liable for other people’s violence.In his last protest march, Martin Luther King Jr. led a parade of demonstrators down Beale Street in Memphis, lending his support to striking sanitation workers. After a few young black men started breaking storefront windows, the indiscriminate police response killed one suspected looter and injured dozens of protesters. Under a legal theory blessed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, King could have been held liable for the unanticipated harm that ensued from that March 1968...

SEDITION? DC National Guard Whistleblowers Reveal PENTAGON Under Direction of Mark Milley REFUSED to Deploy Guard Until After 5 PM – And Liz Cheney’s Committee Never Called Them to Testify By Jim Hoft Apr. 17, 2024 12:20 pmOn Wednesday morning the House Subcommittee on Oversight held a hearing with National Guard whistleblowers who stepped forward to correct the media lies and dishonest narrative on the January 6 protests and riots. Four members of the National Guard testified on Wednesday that ey were ready to be deployed on January 6 but THE PENTAGON held them back! This directly brings General Milley’s...

Former Attorney General Bill Barr said Wednesday on Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom” that he will support Donald Trump in November. Barr said, “The real threat to liberty, the real threat to our system, are the excesses of the progressive left. They are perverting the system of justice and that’s where the danger lies. The corruption and subversion of our institutions by the left.” Co-host Bill Hemmer said, “I heard you call this hush money case outrageous. I also know you’ve been asked many times and had disagreements with the former president. He is the presumptive nominee and we assume...