Free Republic

The prospect of running for re-election with Donald Trump at the top of the Republican ticket was worrying some party lawmakers as they huddled for an annual retreat, where a few forecast trouble if Trump becomes the party's presidential nominee. "Heaven help us," Representative Peter Roskam said when asked about it by a reporter. But the Illinois Republican quickly added, "I'm not going to comment on the presidential candidates at this point." That reticence was shared by many lawmakers asked about running on Trump's coattails during an event in Baltimore where Senate and House of Representatives Republicans gathered to talk...

Bernie Sanders is no one's idea of a camera-ready presidential candidate. He's a "democratic socialist" running against an icon of the Democratic establishment. (And as satisfying as anti-establishment sentiment may feel for some right now -- the establishment is still pretty damn important.) His white hair is kind of wild, he's awkward, doesn't smile much, he hunches over and waves his arms when he speaks. He campaigns in rolled-up shirtsleeves and has pens in his shirt pocket. When it comes down to it, his radical policy positions and general cranky-grandpa vibe don't exactly scream "President of the United States."

I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God. And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host. And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. And...

In a stunning display of moral arrogance and effete pique, David Brooks recently savaged Ted Cruz as a purveyor of “pagan brutalism” unfit to call himself a Christian, let alone lead a nation. Mr. Brooks, whose career rests on his role as liberal elites’ arbiter of conservative conduct, lost his well-coiffed cool as he descended into attack mode against the only enemies he appears to recognize: conservatives. He began with a willful distortion of a legal case in which Senator Cruz, while Texas Solicitor General, sought to uphold Texas’ interpretation of its own laws in relation to the sentencing of...

Oil prices were sharply lower in early Asian trade, extending a brutal sell-off fueled by fears of a glut from Iran, after international sanctions against the country were lifted at the weekend. U.S. WTI light sweet crude oil prices were recently trading 1.5 percent lower at $28.99 a barrel, after falling 3.6 percent to hit the session's low of $28.36 barrel, while European Brent crude was last 1.6 percent down at $28.47 a barrel after falling 4.4 percent to $27.67 a barrel. Both grades were moving in the range of prices not seen since late 2003 after falling about 6...

Mr. Trump’s strength is strange. It is reminiscent not so much of the classic American strongman as it is of the conjectural German Superman. Could it be that Donald Trump is an incarnation of Nietzschean social philosophy? A man who has surpassed the common man? A fantasy icon of power, fame, riches, confidence, mass influence, and moral indifference? Is “The Donald” the Übermensch? Mr. Trump’s force-of-will, come-what-may, shoot-from-the-hip, couldn’t-care-less attitude is in keeping with the self-willed assertion of Nietzsche when it comes to the rejection of accepted moral and political norms. Breaking with custom was central to Nietzsche’s philosophy of...

Microsoft made this totally stupid change to its Windows support policy. With no notice, older versions of Windows lose support on the latest PC hardware. Yep, that's right: You can't run Windows 7 or 8.1 on Skylake CPUs (or later). There's a woolly, limited get-out-of-jail-free card for a short while, but this is just the latest irritating Microsoft scheme to get everyone onto Windows 10. The way it's always been in the past is that enterprises could buy today's hardware, but put their current image on it, only upgrading when it made sense. But with this move, Microsoft changes everything...

Seeing as how Glocktalk.com is still down after 3 days, I have made guest posting possible on my forum for the members of the Political Issues forum over there. http://internetwhispers.com/forums/politics.2/

I do not just observe and write about politics. I got elected to office and prior to that managed and consulted on campaigns. I have read just about every campaign book out there. I have gone to campaign management school. I have interviewed campaign strategists. I have helped shape polling, advertising, opposition research, etc. What Ted Cruz has just started doing to Donald Trump is a master class campaign performance. It is the model textbook example of when and how to attack. Cruz, for six months, said nothing but kind words about Donald Trump. Every time Trump even offhandedly suggested...

Things are looking good for Donald Trump in Illinois, where he leads Marco Rubio by 20 points among likely primary voters. Rubio and Cruz are within 1% of each other, but things fall off substantially from there. 4 candidates received 5% of the vote each, and 2 tied for 8th place with 3% each.

:-)

Dozens of Muslims are outraged after a Wisconsin power plant threatened to fire them if they took two five minute breaks daily in order to pray. The policy change affects 53 workers. Ten of those employees have indicated they wish to stay in their current positions under the new policy but the rest have either chosen to leave or are planning to. The Brillion-based company changed the rule on Thursday. Until then, Muslim employees were allowed to leave the production line twice a shift to pray. But Ariens is now asking employees to pray during scheduled breaks. A company representative...

http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/2016/01/15/prosecutors-gun-charges-dont-matter-much-convictions/78428440/

National borders are being superseded by the ancient battleground of al-Jazira. ___ Policymakers and media people—as well as anyone interested in the Middle East, Islam, terrorism, and related issues—need to be talking about al-Jazira. I am not talking here about the Qatar-based media operation that we usually call al-Jazeera. Rather, I am referring to those regions of Eastern Syria and Northern Iraq that have been in the news so much recently because they are the main stamping grounds of ISIL, and the core of the Islamic State, the Daesh. This is not just a question of applying a handy geographical...

RAMADI, Iraq - So complete was the destruction of Ramadi that a local reporter who had visited the city many times hardly recognized it. "Honestly, this is the main street," Amaj Hamid, a member of Iraq's elite counterterrorism forces, told the TV crew as they entered from the southwest. He swerved to avoid the aftermath of months of fighting: rubble, overturned cars and piles of twisted metal. Airstrikes and homemade bombs laid by the Islamic State group had shredded the poured-concrete walls and ceilings of the houses and shops along the road.

The Trouble with Hillary is that… She’s a lying, criminally incompetent, arrogant, delusional, left-wing national security nightmare. Here’s a laundry list of some of the more well-known lies and crimes Madame Secretary has been involved in since the 1990’s and up to the current email scandal. Oh what a web we weave, when we practice to deceive… Travelgate – The first Clinton scandal after Bill became president started in May 1993, when Chief of Staff Mack McLarty fired the seven employees in the White House office that arranges travel for the press corps. The White House cited gross financial mismanagement....

Hillary Clinton called out "systemic racism" in the criminal justice system, during the Democratic debate in Charleston, South Carolina, on Sunday night. And when NBC Nightly News Anchor Lester Holt asked, "are black lives being cheap a reality or just perception?" Clinton answered: "Sadly, it's reality." Police brutality, and how to combat it, was a large topic at the debate, which took place not far from where Scott -- a black man from North Charleston -- was shot and killed as he ran away from a police officer. "It has been heartbreaking, and incredibly outraging, to see the constant stories...

OLYMPIA-The Washington State Patrol is investigating threats against Rep. Matt Shea. Kyle Moore, a spokesman for the patrol, confirmed Friday the agency's Spokane District has 'an open and active case' involving threats against the Spokane Valley Republican, but he could not give further details because of procedural rules...... Shea declined to comment to the newspaper. "Rep. Shea received a very threatening voice mail this week. It's being taken very seriously," according to his legislative spokesman, who said he couldn't comment further. On Facebook posts, Shea said he received a death threat Jan. 12 after articles were published in The Spokesman-Review...

Donald Trump unloaded on Sen. Ted Cruz, saying, "I'd do the public a big favor" by suing Cruz over his eligibility to be president. Appearing on ABC's "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos in an interview airing on Sunday, Trump also slammed Cruz over not disclosing loans from Goldman Sachs and Citibank, arguing, "He has a personal financial disclosure form where he didn't put down the banks and yet he criticizes the banks and he's gonna be Robin Hood and he's gonna take care of the banks." Regarding Cruz's eligibility to be president, Trump said that there are "legal scholars that...

Markets in Asia remained mostly in the red on Monday, extending losses on the back of another Wall Street sell-off Friday. Chinese markets, however, wavered between gains and losses in a volatile session. The Shanghai composite was trading up 0.08 percent after see-sawing between gains of as much as 0.59 percent and losses of as much as 1.84 percent. The Shenzhen composite was up 1.13 percent after opening down 2 percent and the CSI300 index traded 0.2 percent higher.