Free Republic

Republican Gov. John Kasich repeated his belief in the importance of the free press Wednesday as tensions between the media and the administration of President Donald Trump remain high. The former congressman and 2016 presidential contender declined to directly take on Trump, who he refused to endorse, campaign with or vote for last year, while speaking to editors and publishers convened by the Ohio Newspaper Association. But Kasich said he wanted to see the industry survive and thrive. “I’d like to stand for all of you, for all of you who have real content, for all of you who’ve decided...

Lawyers for Washington state and Minnesota have told a federal appellate court that restoring President Donald Trump’s ban on refugees and travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries would “unleash chaos again.” The filing with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco came early Monday after the White House said it expected the federal courts to reinstate the ban. Washington and Minnesota said their underlying lawsuit was strong and a nationwide temporary restraining order was appropriate. If the appellate court reinstated Trump’s ban, the states said the “ruling would reinstitute those harms, separating families, stranding our university students...

Thanks for indulging me. What is the chance Trump will begin "seeding" the fake news media in an effort to destroy their reputation and force them back to more legitimate and fair coverage? And Is it worth the WH holding a weekly presser to detail every fake news report aired by the media? This would serve a couple purposes. It would would continue to erode the credibility of the media AND it would sow doubt to the point they wouldn't know what story to run with.

A British parliamentary committee is launching an inquiry into the spreading “fake news” phenomenon. The Culture, Media and Sport Committee probe begins Monday. It will study “the widespread dissemination, through social media and the Internet” of phony news stories. Committee chairman Damian Collins says the trend is a “threat to democracy” that undermines public confidence in the media. He called on major tech companies to do more to prevent the spread of fake news on their platforms. …

In all the tumult over US President Donald Trump's signing of a memorandum in favor of the speedy resumption of building the Keystone XL pipeline, something important has been lost. It's that he also signed a memorandum that would make the pipeline way more expensive and in violation of international trade law.

A case of double bluff – this was the conclusion Swedish internet users reached after a Swedish website presenting itself as the next in a series of websites devoted to checking facts and challenging disinformation turned out to be doing the contrary of what it claimed – not checking but reinforcing disinformation. As we have reported, awareness of the disinformation problem is growing both globally, via e.g. the First Draft News project and self-help initiatives, and locally in many EU Member States, e.g. France, Denmark and Sweden, where e.g. theViralgranskaran project now counts more than 70,000 followers in Facebook.

My name is Elliott G. Holliday. I am a Physics major minoring in Mathematics at NC State University from Durham, NC and I am 20 years old. I am a College of Sciences Ambassador with a strong moral compass pointed towards selflessness and community service. I am a powerful African American man with the hopes of obtaining my PhD in a field of quantum physics, then pursing a career in research, renewable energy, and/or scientific outreach. I graduated from the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in 2014, the 12th best high school in the nation while making lifelong...

Donald Trump’s “running war” on the media is continuing into his presidency, with statements over the weekend calling into question the extent to which information from the White House can be trusted. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Monday will hold his first daily press briefing at which he could face questions about a statement Saturday night that included demonstrably false assertions about the crowd size at Friday’s inauguration and a promise by the new administration that “we’re going to hold the press accountable.” Some Trump supporters will no doubt cheer the continued antagonism toward the media that was...

Donald Trump enters the White House on Friday just as he entered the race for president: defiant, unfiltered, unbound by tradition and utterly confident in his chosen course. In the 10 weeks since his surprise election as the nation’s 45th president, Trump has violated decades of established diplomatic protocol, sent shockwaves through business boardrooms, tested long-standing ethics rules and continued his combative style of replying to any slight with a personal attack — on Twitter and in person. Past presidents have described walking into the Oval Office for the first time as a humbling experience, one that in an instant...

When President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency first took office as Oklahoma’s attorney general, he disbanded the unit responsible for protecting the state’s natural resources. Instead, Scott Pruitt reassigned his staff to focus on filing lawsuits against the federal agency he’s now selected to lead. Records also show that Pruitt, a Republican who faces a Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday, failed to push a legal challenge initiated by his predecessor to protect Oklahoma’s rivers from pollution caused by animal waste, after receiving tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from individuals connected to the poultry...

WASHINGTON — In one way at least, President-elect Donald J. Trump has already surpassed all of his recent predecessors. It took Barack Obama 18 months in the White House for his approval rating to slip to 44 percent in Gallup polling, and it took George W. Bush 4½ years to fall that far. Mr. Trump got there before even being sworn in.Indeed, Mr. Trump will take office on Friday with less popular support than any new president in modern times, according to an array of surveys, a sign that he has failed to rally Americans behind him, beyond the base...

More than half of Americans view President Barack Obama favorably as he leaves office, a new poll shows, but Americans remain deeply divided over his legacy. Fewer than half of Americans say they’re better off eight years after his election or that Obama brought the country together.An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted after the 2016 election illuminates one of the key contradictions of Obama’s presidency. By and large, Americans like him. Yet Obama has been unable to translate that approval to many of his policies, or to parlay his popularity into fulfillment of his goals. Fifty-seven...

The horrific beating of a mentally disabled white man in Chicago by four black assailants broadcast on social media is highlighting anti-white hate crimes at a time of increased racial strife in the United States. But federal statistics and experts say anti-white incidents remain a smaller percentage of overall hate crimes. Anti-black hate crimes are still the largest number of cases. According to the 2015 FBI hate crime statistics, the latest available, there were 613 anti-white-related crimes out of 5,850 total cases. That’s around 10.5 percent of all reported hate crimes, and within the yearly average, federal numbers show. By...

The nation's top intelligence official said Thursday Russia undoubtedly interfered in America's 2016 presidential election but stopped short of the explosive description of "an act of war," telling lawmakers such a call isn't within the purview of the U.S. intelligence community. In a joint report that roiled the presidential campaign last fall, the Homeland Security Department and the intelligence community said the U.S. was confident of foreign meddling, including Russian government hacking of Democratic emails. In its assessment, the intelligence community has said Moscow interfered in the election to help Republican Donald Trump win.

A Republican-run House panel created to investigate Planned Parenthood and the world of fetal tissue research urged Congress on Wednesday to halt federal payments to the women’s health organization. Democrats said the GOP probe had unearthed no wrongdoing and wasted taxpayers’ money in an abusive investigation reminiscent of the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy. The Republican recommendation was included in the special committee’s final report and was no surprise. The GOP released the 471-page document just 16 days before Donald Trump becomes president, at the start of a year in which many Republicans hope Congress will finally cut off federal funds...

He entered the White House a living symbol, breaking a color line that stood for 220 years. Barack Obama took office, and race immediately became a focal point in a way that was unprecedented in American history. No matter his accomplishments, he seemed destined to be remembered foremost as the first black man to lead the world’s most powerful nation. But eight years later, Obama’s racial legacy is as complicated as the president himself. […] Perhaps most strikingly, the president’s successor, Donald Trump, is seen by many as the antithesis of a colorblind society, a one-time leader of the “birther”...

As Barack Obama began preparing to leave office, the first smartphone-toting U.S. president ordered his team to upgrade the White House’s aging technology for his successor. New computers were purchased and faster internet was installed. Not included in the modernization plans? A courier service. But that delivery method of a bygone era may be in for a comeback under Donald Trump. Despite his voracious use of Twitter, the president-elect appears to be leaning toward old tech to ensure the security of sensitive messages. “It’s very important, if you have something really important, write it out and have it delivered by...

Abdul Yusuf and Jamal Abdulahi hadn’t seen the need before, but a few weeks after the November election the two men went to a gun store and started the paperwork for permits to carry. They are among the Muslims and members of other minority groups who are joining the ranks of Minnesotans who applied to become gun owners in 2016. For Abdulahi, it’s a natural response to an uptick in hate crimes since the election of Donald Trump. “Donald Trump has directly pointed fingers at the Somali community,” Abdulahi said, referring to the president-elect’s statements before the election that Somalis...

In a few short weeks, President Barack Obama’s tenure in the White House will officially come to an end and Donald Trump will begin his terrifying reign as the leader of the free world. For many, this is a very scary reality, one that I’m still grappling to come to terms with myself. Nevertheless, as we prepare for Obama’s exit, let’s remember what his administration as president has done for the American people. 1. Health insurance for millions One of Obama’s primary goals as president was to tackle the country’s broken healthcare system. Although we still have a long way...

The Obama administration announced sanctions on Thursday against Russia and released a report that stated that the Russian government deployed computer hackers to attack the Democratic Party’s computers. Follow Link to diagram