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ALISO VIEJO - An Orange County Sheriff's Department patrol deputy lost an AR-15 rifle late Tuesday night after placing it on the trunk of a patrol vehicle before becoming distracted and driving away. It was seven hours later when he realized the gun was gone. It has yet to be found. Around 7 p.m. the deputy was preparing to start a shift at the Aliso Viejo station, at 11 Journey. While doing so, he placed the AR-15 rifle -- stored in a black nylon bag with three loaded magazines, each of which can hold up to 30 rounds of ammunition...

Libyan former intelligence official Ahmad Qadhaf Al-Dam recently said that the Islamic State (ISIS) and other terrorist groups had gotten hold of the chemical weapons that had remained in Libya from the regime of former dictator Muammar Qaddafi. The comments by Al-Dam, who is a cousin of Qaddafi, were made in an interview with the Egyptian Dream TV network on January 18. They were translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). Video “You said that ISIS has gained control of poisonous gases, such as the lethal sarin gas. Where did you get that information from?” the interviewer asked....

Guinness is attempting to become more popular in Indonesia, where alcohol is mostly frowned up by the predominantly Muslim population. The company has developed non-alcoholic Guinness in a bid to win over those who shun alcoholic beverages. [...] The new non-alcoholic beer is called Guinness Zero and is said to be selling very well. There are no plans, however, to sell it anywhere else. The Guinness move comes after after the Indonesian government banned the sale of beer in convenience stores from April 2015 and other small stores. Guinness will continue to sell its regular brew in large supermarkets and...

... The world is becoming increasingly chaotic and the American people are seeking a leader who can bring order, make tough decisions, and capture the zeitgeist of this moment in history. They are in search of a prophet generation (Boomer) Grey Champion, whose arrival marks the moment of darkness, adversity and peril as the Fourth Turning careens towards its climax. The Grey Champion doesn't necessarily have to be a good person, but they must lead and display tremendous confidence in their cause and path. Franklin, Lincoln, and FDR have many detractors, but during their Fourth Turnings, they most certainly led,...

FOX News debate anchors knew they would have a record audience tune in to their Republican debate because of Donald Trump. So, in November, they purposely planned several zingers to get under his skin. They are shameless. The anchors didn't even ask a question on the Obama economy, the worst recovery since the Great Depression, until 73 minutes into the debate. The FOX moderators won over Media Matters, who said, "The Fox News moderators appeared reasonable, effective, and pointed in their questions to the candidates." They must be very proud. They didn't want to appear conservative - so they unloaded...

Vietnam's re-elected leader, a 71-year-old Communist Party ideologue, made it clear Wednesday that one-party rule was here to stay, insisting that the collective leadership he heads is a far better alternative to what he called authoritarianism disguised as democracy. General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong (pronounced Noo-yen Foo Chong) was re-elected Wednesday as head of the party and the leader of a 19-member Politburo that will govern Vietnam for the next five years. The decisions were made at the end of a week-long congress of the 4.5-million-member party, which rules the lives of 93 million Vietnamese. "Vietnam's Communist Party is one-party...

Stuart Goldenberg Let's get this out of the way first: Despite what you may have heard, the iPhone is not dying. Neither, by extension, is Apple. It's true that in an earnings report on Tuesday, after weeks of speculation by Wall Street that iPhone sales would finally hit a peak, Apple confirmed the news: IPhone sales grew at their lowest-ever rate in the last quarter. And the company projected total sales of as much as $53 billion in the current quarter that ends in March, which would be a decline of 8.6 percent from last year and Apple's first revenue...

A 28-year-old man has been arrested after authorities say he threw two tomatoes at Donald Trump during a campaign stop Tuesday night. "Andrew Joseph Alemao, 28, was arrested by University of Iowa Police for Disorderly Conduct after he was observed throwing two tomatoes at Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump during a speech," according to a news release from the University of Iowa.

DO NOT VOTE ON THIS THREAD. This is the nightly DISCUSSION thread for the ongoing 2016 Free Republic Caucus. Per caucus rules, no comments are allowed on the caucus thread itself - hence this open chat thread. If you'd like to vote in the caucus, please look in the sidebar for the link, or check downthread here. Thanks, and let 'er rip! Windy

2016: Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders said Monday his parents would never have thought their son would end up in the Senate and running for president. No kidding. He was a ne’er-do-well into his late 30s. “It’s certainly something that I don’t think they ever believed would’ve happened,” the unabashed socialist remarked during CNN’s Democratic town hall forum, as polls show him taking the lead in Iowa and New Hampshire. He explained his family couldn’t imagine his “success,” because “my brother and I and Mom and Dad grew up in a three-and-a-half-room rent-controlled apartment in Brooklyn, and we never had...

Latino organizers sensed an opportunity when they heard Donald Trump was bringing his presidential campaign to Marshalltown, a small farm city that is home to an increasing number of Latino immigrants and their children. So they organized protests at the high school gymnasium where Trump spoke Tuesday, with about 50 young Latinos marching silently outside as a smattering of Trump supporters hurled insults and laughed at them. But the protest was only the beginning. Down the street, advocates held a drive to register voters and educate immigrants on the complexities of next week's Iowa caucuses, the kickoff for the presidential...

The Trump Campaign announced Tuesday Donald Trump will skip the FOX News GOP debate--. trump debate skip Donald Trump told CNN that when FOX News put out its snarky press release today, he said, "Bye,bye!" Instead Donald Trump will hold a fundraiser for wounded veterans on CNN at the same time. It was a smart decision. Look at what Donald Trump is going to miss- FOX News invited a radical Muslim activist, a Bernie Sanders supporter, a Black Lives Matter supporter and a Mexican illegal immigrant to the debate to confront Donald Trump.

What we are seeing now is a split. The Republican Party establishment is anxiously embracing Trump. The conservative ideological establishment is angrily rejecting Trump and promoting Cruz. What’s the difference? Republican Party leaders see Trump as more flexible and pragmatic. “We’ve got to make deals,” Trump said at a campaign rally last week. “We don’t want to sign executive orders. We want to make good deals.” Deal making is something professional politicians understand.

Farfield, Iowa (CNN)The stakes for Ted Cruz heading into the Iowa caucus are getting higher. Donald Trump's decision to skip Thursday's Fox News Channel Republican debate puts Cruz in the spotlight -- for better or worse. Should Cruz do well and end up winning Iowa, he'll have momentum heading into contests past New Hampshire. But should he lose, he may never be able to break through as GOP voters look elsewhere for an anti-Trump candidate. A growing number of Cruz's campaign donors, allies and associates are considering what the road ahead would look like should the Texas senator lose to...

January 28, 2016 Memorial of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Priest and Doctor of the Church Reading 1 2 Sm 7:18-19, 24-29 After Nathan had spoken to King David, the king went in and sat before the LORD and said, "Who am I, Lord GOD, and who are the members of my house, that you have brought me to this point?Yet even this you see as too little, Lord GOD; you have also spoken of the house of your servant for a long time to come: this too you have shown to man, Lord GOD! "You have established for yourself your...

Let it not be said that we fail to follow through. Outlined below is part of the video from a 19 minute segment Megyn Kelly ran on her show allowing Glenn Beck to launch an attack against Donald Trump without any push-back. The entire “interview” (actually a one-way diatribe) was targeted to a Fox audience that has not, and does not, pay attention to political comings and goings 24/7/365; in essence, the casual political follower. There is a lot of misinformation in that entire exposition; but one very specific part of the misinformation that needs to be showcased, and, as...

Welcome to the Free Republic CaucusPlease read the rules, and participate according to the guidelines provided.  Thank you. REMEMBER:  To find the Caucus thread for the day, Search "Caucus". Only vote on this thread on: 01/28/2016  another thread will pop up five minutes before: 01/29/2016Wait to vote until 12:00 midnight EST, and don't vote after 12:00 midnight EST at the at the end of the day.  Look for the new thread. Votes outside the 24 hour period, will not be counted.  Give it five minutes or so on each end, so you are sure to get your vote counted. If...

From the moon landings being an elaborate hoax, to climate change deniers, there are many conspiracy theories that are believed by a large number of people worldwide. But the amount of people who would have been involved in keeping such large-scale secrets suggests that if they were true, they would have been exposed by someone by now. With this in mind, a physicist has calculated how many people would have potentially worked on some of the most popular theories, and what is the likelihood of them all keeping a secret. Using this model, the truth about the moon landings being...

Even with all the drama of the 2016 Republican contest for the presidential nomination, it is impossible not to notice the slow-motion train wreck that is the Hillary Clinton campaign. The campaign is beset by four woes that don’t seem to have any quick remedy. The only way forward for the Democratic front-runner is to hunker down, slog it out and win ugly. Since “malaise” is an overused word in politics, I’ll categorize Clinton’s campaign as “desultory” – or, “lacking a plan or enthusiasm.”

Hillary Clinton's campaign is pushing Bernie Sanders to participate in a newly proposed Democratic debate – one not sanctioned by the Democratic National Committee – to be held just days before the New Hampshire primary. But Sanders, who has surged ahead of Clinton in New Hampshire polls, has no plans to do so, his campaign said. 'The DNC has said this would be an unsanctioned debate so we would not want to jeopardize our ability to participate in future debates,' Sanders' campaign manager Jeff Weaver said. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3418414/Clinton-Sanders-odds-newly-proposed-NH-debate.html#ixzz3yVjXQ9FY Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook