Free Republic

There was a bit of good news about the future of public discourse this week. The United States Supreme Court, even though stacked with right-wingers, sounded like it was ready to give the Biden administration the go-ahead to try to persuade social-media platforms not to put out content promoting nonsense about the presidential election, conspiracy theories about the pandemic and other assorted bilge and crackpottery... When other communications revolutions like the printing press, radio, and television came along, they were still largely controlled by the elites. But when the internet came along, regulatory bodies like Canada’s CRTC backed off. It...

For as much and as long as I have been hammering away at the fascist lunatics in Scotland, I have also been watching my other ancestral homeland in abject horror, descending into what can only be described as an authoritarian hellscape. Again, orchestrated by people voted into power by citizens, yes. Again - as with Scottish First Minister Yousaf - the son of an immigrant (Varadkar's father is Indian) who became a politician of globalist aspirations and vision who was elevated to the premier office in his small country. Varadkar has spent the past years of his time in office...

A Belgian court has sentenced an activist to one year in prison for running an organization that allegedly spreads “racist, hateful, Nazi and negationist speech.” According to POLITICO, a judge said 30-year-old Dries Van Langenhove “revelled in Nazi ideas that cause much suffering.” “Dries Van Langenhove, a political activist and leader of a Flemish-nationalist youth movement called Schild & Vrienden, was convicted of inciting violence and denying the Holocaust, the Ghent criminal court ruled Tuesday morning,” the outlet reports. “Former Flemish parliamentarian Dries Van Langenhove has just been sentenced to 1 year IN PRISON because supposedly ‘racist memes’ were shared...

The World Economic Forum’s president announced Tuesday at the group’s annual Davos summit that the world is moving toward a “new order.” WEF President Børge Brende made the remarks at the Davos 2024 conference in Switzerland in a discussion with Joe Biden’s White House Security Adviser Jake Sullivan about how the world is experiencing a transitional phase of global governance. The post-World War II international order “seems to be not that order anymore. We are on the way to a new order, so we are between orders,” Brende told Sullivan. “Do you agree with that? What are we able to...

World Economic Forum (WEF) founder and chairman Klaus Schwab has called for members of the general public to be excluded from election processes, arguing that voters could be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI).Schwab made the chilling calls during a WEF interview with Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

Update from Ukraine | Wagner will fight in Ruzzia | Civil War? Zelensky said that Army is ready. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CreSgYCKstM&t=193s The summary of the situation of Russian re-invasion to Ukraine covering the last 48 hours, as of 31st May 2023 – 22:00 (Kyiv time). https://militaryland.net/news/invasion-day-462-summary/ *** Greatly appreciate the viewer controlled Map magnification tool to use on each Front map! https://militaryland.net/news/invasion-day-462-summary/

Senior EU officials were furious on Friday after Twitter owner Elon Musk pulled the platform out of the bloc’s online censorship project. Elon Musk has pulled Twitter out of the EU’s “Code of Practice”, a pro-censorship project aimed at countering so-called “disinformation” online, prompting fury from those in Brussels. It comes after months of mixed messages from the billionaire, who had publicly stated that he wanted to support free speech on the platform while repeatedly insisting that he would support the European Union in its pro-censorship crusade. According to a report by POLITICO, it appears that the Big Tech entrepreneur...

ZDF, German public TV, suggests that Germans bathe once a week or less. Weeks ago, the Instagram site of WDR kugelzwei presented some tips that save heat and energy for citizens to consider: showering only once a week. WattsUpWithThat reports. The propaganda video suggests using a sink to wash in lieu of a shower and even taking common baths. The public baths were infamous in Greece and Rome for sexual decadence. VIDEO AT LINK................ The clip suggests you’d save time getting ready, and people would learn to be more tolerant of body odor. I don’t know about you, but I...

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is being accused of election interference after threatening to use “tools” if the wrong election result is achieved in Italy’s national elections, set to take place this Sunday, Sept. 25. She added that those same tools are already being used against Hungary and Poland. “We will see the result of the vote in Italy,” said von der Leyen. “If things go in a difficult direction — and I’ve spoken about Hungary and Poland — we have the tools.” Von der Leyen made the comment while responding to a journalist after a talk she...

The new film Bones and All starring Timothée Chalamet as a bone-crunching, bi-sexual cannibal was greeted with an 8.5-minute standing ovation at its premiere Friday night at the Venice Film Festival. The effort reunites the actor with his Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino and is reportedly as gruesome and gory as the name suggests — although that did nothing to dim the enthusiasm from the audience on the night, as Varity reports. The industry outlet records the film received a 8.5-minute standing ovation, the longest and most enthusiastic of the festival so far. The film puts Chalamet...

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky discussed with UN Secretary-General António Guterres the issue of the release of Ukrainian military personnel and medics from Russian captivity, grain exports, Russia's nuclear blackmail at the Zaporizhzhia NPP and forced deportation of Ukrainians. The meeting took place at the Potocki Palace in Lviv, Ukrinform reports with reference to the president’s Telegram channel. “I had a meeting with UN Secretary-General António Guterres in Lviv. We agreed to continue the coordination of the grain initiative implementation. We also discussed the possible directions of its development, the issue of illegal and forced deportation of Ukrainians, the release...

With Russia’s war in her home country continuing to rage, Ukraine's first lady, Olena Zelenska, the wife of President Volodymyr Zelensky, addressed a bipartisan group of lawmakers on Capitol Hill Wednesday, the third day of her high-profile Washington, D.C., trip. "I know this is the first time when the wife of the president of a foreign country has the honor to address you within these walls,"...Zelenska presented images of young girls and boys killed by Russian missile strikes, including 4-year-old Lisa, whom she had met around Christmas. "I remember her just like she is here, a cheerful, playful little rascal,"...

The U.S. men’s national soccer team joined the current wave of sports figures advocating for more control through an open letter addressed to the U.S. Congress. Echoing talking points espoused by Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, the letter asks congress when they will enact change to curtail gun violence. “We are writing to join the millions of people around the country who are asking a simple question: When are we going to do something about gun violence in America?” the letter starts. “With legislation being considered in the coming days in the House and Senate, we implore you to...

The arrival of a USS Georgia submarine in the port of Gibraltar has sparked a diplomatic row between Spain and the US. The Spanish Foreign Ministry has confirmed that it has lodged an official protest with the US. The Spanish authorities wanted the submarine to anchor at the Rota naval base instead, where the US Georgia had already been based in August 2020. The reasons and the duration for the stopover of the submarine remain unknown.

The latest request by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, who was elected after a 2014 Leftist revolution there and supported by a media oligarch billionaire, is for $50 billion in new funding from the West and a personal visit by Joe Biden. The White House responded “no,” but only to the part about Biden visiting. Biden and Congress have already granted the liberal Ukrainian politicians 13.6 billion American dollars. But Zelensky is back, asking for more than three times that much this week in the form of grants or loan guarantees by the United States, with no end in sight for...

Madonna took to Instagram on Monday with a series of shots with her son David Banda, as well of pics from an art event featuring work from her son Rocco Ritchie. 'Today isn't Monday……..It's Son Day!!!' Madonna, 63, said in the caption of the post to more than 17.6 million followers, with a pair of sun emojis. 'David at his curtain call And Art by Rhed!' The Material Girl donned a long black coat over a white lace dress, accessorizing with multiple necklaces, bracelets and heart-shaped black sunglasses, topping things off with a textured cap over her trademark blonde locks....

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle want Joe Biden to become the next President of the United States. They haven't actually said that in so many words. But it's very obvious from a video message they released last night via Time magazine which way they want the result of the election to go and it's not in Donald Trump's direction. Meghan, a US citizen and well-known Trump-hater (she's called him 'divisive' and a 'misogynist' and once told me herself how much she loathed him) said: 'We're just six weeks out from Election Day and today is National Voter Registration Day. Every...

Modernists are trying to reverse trends in cultural-heritage preservation by subtle interventions in several key conservation standards of the European Union. Writing from Norway, Audun Engh of the International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture & Urbanism (INTBAU) warned me today that the modernists plan to “introduce recommendations that modernism (‘contemporary design’) should be a required style for new construction at EU-funded cultural-heritage sites.”

The eurozone's stagnating economy has suffered its worst performance for six years with uncertainty over Brexit partly to blame, economists said today. The forecast mirrors the gloom also predicted by the European Central Bank, which downgraded growth in the eurozone for next year to a feeble 1.1 per cent.

France rejects a U.S. proposal this week that would let companies opt out of a proposed international tax reform, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Friday, urging Washington to negotiate in good faith. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin raised serious questions about OECD international tax reform proposals in a letter made public on Wednesday, jarring international officials by floating the idea of a "safe harbor regime". Le Maire said that would mean U.S. companies could opt in or out as they pleased, which he said would be unacceptable to France and other OECD countries. He urged Washington therefore to...