Free Republic

Presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) continues to rack up the endorsements, picking up four more in the past 24 hours. They include Dr. Chuck Harding and Pastor Michael Creed, leaders of a Christian ministry committed to the education, engagement and encouragement of the nation, particularly among Independent Baptists. Also, he's been endorsed by U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and Eddie Calvo, the governor of Guam....

Hary Tinkler is dead, it seems. Tink, fat, smart, fast, un beatable fist fighter, tough a nail. Rab can't say as how I will miss or not miss this real hard case, first class human. Pray only, lord forgive, caress. Raben

Anybody concur? The guy loves to goof on people and it seems to me he likes the Don. Let him goof on the media for a few years.

After the Fox News-Google debate Megyn Kelly interviewed Ted Cruz. [7:40 Video begins with a 1:00 clip of the earlier debate] Kelly continued to pursue the "amnesty" angle that she'd begun during the debate [starting at 3:41] - about his history on illegals, immigration and amnesty, but concedes: Kelly: "I look at your record, a lot, to see: Did Ted Cruz really want legalization, or didn't he?" "I think the record supports you - that you did not want it; it does." "It really was a poison pill amendment." Then there is back and forth where Kelly states that Cruz...

Only a few days out from the Iowa Caucuses, we still don’t know what to expect. The polls look more like darts tossed by a drunk than a discernible pattern. Worse still, we don’t really even know what they are measuring. There is one critical factor in a caucus system that makes it different from a primary. Unlike a primary that may have early voting and absentee voting and where the voters straggle in over the course of a 12-hour day, in a caucus you actually have to get your voters to a caucus site within a relatively small envelop...

Losing a pet is heart-wrenching. Anyone who denies this either never had a pet or never had a heart to wrench. We had plenty of time to prepare for our girl's passing, and I mistakenly believed that this would make it easier or somehow a relief when she died. It was not easy and it definitely was not a relief. Zoey was a salty old broad to the end, and the departure of her larger-than-life presence has left us with a huge hole in our world; I can't believe how much I miss her. Of course in thinking about her...

"Why is this not in breaking news? All the BN sidebars stories are about TRUMP except for 1. I understand he's headline news and but should boot all the REAL issues to make room every time Trump farts?" Post to me from "DrewsMum" on FR 1/28/2016 "Grant County Commissioner Boyd Britton said he planned to attend tonight's meeting 'with an open mind' but said he didn't know who would be there or what it would be about. He wouldn't speculate about whether the Bundys or other militants would be there. 'I'm trying to think positive about this whole thing,' Britton...

About 15 years ago, I said something nasty on CNN about Donald Trump’s hair. I can’t now remember the context, assuming there was one. In any case, Trump saw it and left a message the next day. “It’s true you have better hair than I do," Trump said matter-of-factly. “But I get more pussy than you do." Click. At the time, I’d never met Trump and I remember feeling amused but also surprised he’d say something like that. Now the pattern seems entirely familiar. The message had all the hallmarks of a Trump attack: shocking, vulgar and indisputably true. Not...

No one ever really doubted that Donald Trump could pull off a major counter-programing feat -- even when competing with a GOP debate that was expected to draw millions of viewers. He did it Thursday night, dazzling a crowd of hundreds of enthusiastic supporters by announcing that he had raised more than $6 million for veterans in one day -- $1 million of it from his own checkbook. "We love our vets," he said.

A massive luxury yacht owned by Microsoft Corp co-founder Paul Allen destroyed most of a protected coral reef during a visit to the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean earlier this month, media reported. An anchor chain from the vessel damaged nearly 14,000 square feet (1,300 square meters), or about 80 percent, of reef near two scuba diving sites in the West Bay, the islands' environment department said, according to the Cayman News Service. Allen's Seattle-based Vulcan Inc organization, which manages his fortune, said on Wednesday that the M/V Tatoosh was moored on Jan. 14 in a "position explicitly directed" by...

Since no such thread has started yet tonight, I'm starting one. This text is copied from the last thread: "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." The most recent voting thread: Free Republic Caucus 2016 01/29 If you intend to vote, please follow the instructions given there. Thanks!

Valentine's Day is the first that will pass without notice at Bruce Vento Elementary. Celebrations of Valentine’s Day and the other “dominant holidays” are ending at one St. Paul elementary school, according to a letter from the principal addressed to families. Principal Scott Masini of Bruce Vento Elementary School, whose student body is overwhelmingly nonwhite, explained in the letter that “my personal feeling is we need to find a way to honor and engage in holidays that are inclusive of our student population.” With Valentine’s Day a little more than two weeks away, Masini noted, “I have come to the...

Greetings to all of you from Boston. Just last night, we had reports of a 'thaw' in Israel's relations with the 'most pro-Israel administration evah.' William Daroff ✔ @Daroff Obama speaks at the #Israel Embassy amid a thaw in relations between U.S. and Israel http://cnn.it/23u6OGJ  (@Kevinliptakcnn in @CNN) 6:30 PM - 27 Jan 2016 Obama speaks at Israeli embassy amid thaw in relations - CNNPolitics.com President Barack Obama will mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Israeli Embassy as relations between the U.S. and Israel have shown new signs of improvement. I'm sorry to report that the 'thaw' has...

A Louisiana judge sided with abortion advocates Tuesday and ruled against a state law that would ensure abortion clinics are meeting basic health and safety requirements. Baton Rouge District Judge John deGravelles blocked the law from taking effect and declared it “unconstitutional” in a Tuesday ruling, ABC News reports. DeGravelles scheduled a conference Friday to consider whether the injunction should be made permanent, according to the report. The pro-life law would protect women by ensuring that abortionists have admitting privileges at a local hospital, that informed consent protections apply to all abortions, and that facilities that perform more than five...

Oregon protest leader Ammon Bundy and seven others were arrested Tuesday night. Protester LaVoy Finicum was killed in the confrontation with police and the FBI.  Follow Breaking911 @Breaking911 Unconfirmed Reports Suggest Militia Leader LaVoy Finicum Killed In Firefight With Police - http://breaking911.com/highways-closed-hospital-on-lockdown-near-scene-of-burns-ore-militia-standoff-after-reports-of-shots-fired/ â€¦ 7:22 PM - 26 Jan 2016 On Wednesday Cliven Bundy, father of Ammon Bundy, told reporters his son told him the FBI murdered militia spokesman LaVoy Finicum with his hands up. “LaVoy Finicum was murdered. Cold-blooded murder. They shot him with his hands up.”

In the middle of tonight's debate, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush and Rand Paul spent about ten minutes trading accusations of inconsistency on immigration reform. It felt like the last ten minutes of The Departed, where almost every major character suffered a grievous injury.

African American Conservatives interviews conservative icon Michelle Malkin on her latest book, "Sold Out: How High-Tech Billionaires & Bipartisan Beltway Crapweasels Are Screwing America's Best & Brightest Workers" and National Review writer Kevin Williamson on his book "The Case Against Trump."

While Thursday night's GOP debate was still on-going, NBC's Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd appeared on MSNBC's The Last Word and hyped that Donald Trump events like the one he held instead of attending the debate have a "sort of like this rock concert feel" while the latest Republican presidential debate felt like it was "low energy" instead. After joking that Rick Santorum was desperately trying to not stand directly behind the Trump campaign podium at the so-called event for veterans, Todd mentioned that he was there for awhile before coming back to the debate site and noticed that...

ELLSWORTH, Maine —Maine police said they have discovered the dangerous drug Flakka for the first time. Flakka, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, is a synthetic drug similar to bath salts. It has been found commonly in the southern U.S. Ellsworth police said a test of a brown powder they seized from a man in August 2015 came back positive for Flakka. Police said, Ryan Miller, 33, of Southwest Harbor, Maine, was issued a summons for unlawful possession of a schedule W drug.

The Bank of Japan is stepping up its efforts to kick-start the country's struggling economy by taking interest rates into negative territory. The central bank announced Friday that it will introduce an interest rate of minus 0.1% and will go even lower if needed. In theory, negative rates encourage consumers to save less and spend more. They can also weaken a country's currency, helping exporters. ...