Free Republic

Karma is knocking on the door at the Democratic National Committee’s Washington, DC headquarters. The party of the plutocracy masquerading as the savior of the underclass, a coalition of grievance-fueled identity groups not completely comfortable with each other, may finally face the reckoning it so richly deserves. The only thing that unites eco-fanatics with the blue-collar labor unions, blacks with gays and Jews, or socialists with Wall Street financiers is the quest to harness the power of the state to their own interests. The optimistic take on the current fiasco rendering Democrats incapable of announcing the results of the Iowa...

[snip] We estimate that Sanders’s chances of a majority would have shot up to from 31 percent to 58 percent with an Iowa win, Warren’s from 5 percent to 32 percent, and Buttigieg’s from 4 percent to 22 percent. [snip] To be even more blunt: The Iowa Democratic Party’s colossal screw-up in reporting results will potentially have direct effects on the outcome of the nomination process. The failure to report results will almost certainly help Biden, assuming that indications that he performed poorly in Iowa are correct, as they won’t get nearly as much media coverage. And they’ll hurt whichever...

Freshly made pasta is drying on the wooden bannisters lining the hall of a beautiful home in Denver, Colorado. Fox-hunting photos decorate the walls in a room full of books. A fire is burning. And downstairs, a group of liberal white women have gathered around a long wooden table to admit how racist they are. “Recently, I have been driving around, seeing a black person, and having an assumption that they are up to no good,” says Alison Gubser. “Immediately after I am like, that’s no good! This is a human, just doing their thing. Why do I think that?”...

Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by Donald Trump. Click puzzle (or click here) for full size rendition, then use your browser's print command to print puzzle. President Donald Trump is giving the State of the Union Speech tonight. The Democrats will do anything to try to usurp the speech, presumably by announcing a new development in his impeachment farce. All hints, along with the answer, are provided in the first reply comment below, using filtered font to prevent accidental spoilers. Please refrain from disclosing the full answer in comments to prevent spoilers.To solve the puzzle: Enter the letters in the top...

DES MOINES, Iowa — The Iowa Democratic Party will release results from its first-in-the-nation caucus at some point on Tuesday after technical snafus and reporting concerns led to major delays in voting. Troy Price, the chairman of the state Democratic Party, said on a brief call with reporters late in the night that the errors that led to the long delay were a result of reporting problems, as precinct chairmen around the state said they had waited on hold for hours to get through to a hotline that was supposed to be in place as an emergency backup. "The integrity...

NEW statement from @iowademocrats -- "While the app was recording data accurately, it was reporting out only partial data. We have determined that this was due to a coding issue in the reporting system."

Today’s doozy CG is from The Arkansas Gazette. DMAL CGAE EZZSO IDZ CAFHEPZO GRI GW IDZ BFHL MHL OSFAFI. —DZPZHM ARVFHOIZFH You can find this little fun word game, to combat early dementia and senility in us baby boomers, in several daily publications. The way it works is a letter stands for another letter. For example: AXYDLBAAXR is LONGFELLOW (does not apply to today's cryptogram). Beware, the game is very addictive. If this is your first time, don't be intimidated. PLEASE DO NOT post the answer in general comments, but DO post your time and any tips you might give...

A Virginia man who went missing while kayaking in the Florida Everglades was found alive Monday afternoon, according to the Collier County Sheriff’s Office. Mark Miele, 67, embarked on a solo kayaking trip in the Everglades National Park on Jan. 22. He was due back on Jan. 29 but did not return. His belongings, including his cellphone and wallet, were discovered Sunday night after they washed ashore.

As Americans wake up to learn the Iowa caucus yielded "inconsistencies" and no results have been released, questions emerge about the party's ability to get things done. _____________________________________________________________________ The week ahead of the Iowa caucus should have been a warning sign. Dissension in the ranks, questionable changes to the debate requirements, shadows of how they treated Bernie Sanders in 2016, and the “gold standard” poll derailed by a single phone call caused concern that the Democratic National Committee may not have all of their ducks in a row ahead of the first month of caucuses and primaries. But a confident...

The father of Streatham terrorist Sudesh Amman has told Sky News he spoke to his son a day before the attack and told him "not to be naughty". Faraz Khan, who left the UK three months ago, said he learned about his son's death from a cousin who messaged him. Amman was under police surveillance when he stabbed two people in south London while wearing a fake suicide vest before he was shot dead by officers. "I spoke to Sudesh one day before he passed away. I didn't know he had become radicalised," said Mr Khan. He said his son...

ORDbot image from commons.wikimedia.org On 23 January 2020, state Attorneys General from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington, as well as the District of Columbia, filed a lawsuit against various officials in the State Department and the Commerce Department to prevent transfer of some items now under State Department regulation and the International Transfer in Arms Regulations (ITAR) to the Commerce Department.The case was filed in the United States District Court in the Western District of Washington at Seattle. Most of...

Meanwhile, in Iowa:…and apparently the “deciders” are still counting the caucus votes in Iowa so we won’t know who they’ve “decided” on just yet. But stay tuned! We know it will be someone completely capable of running the country.Or we can have some fun and fill in the results ourselves – closest without going over wins!Otherwise just hold tight and wait for President Trump’s State of the Union address tonight. Can’t wait to hear him rap wrap up the events of the past year.Posted from: MOTUS A.D.

The deadly new coronavirus continued to spread apace on Tuesday, with more than 20,500 cases confirmed worldwide and at least 427 deaths. The vast majority of the infections, and all but two of the deaths, were in mainland China. Chinese officials have agreed to let American experts into the country as part of a World Health Organization team in the coming days, and senior members of the Communist Party have admitted "shortcomings and deficiencies" in the country's response. President Xi Jinping declared "a people's war of prevention" against the epidemic Tuesday, threatening punishment for anyone deemed to be neglecting their...

If you drive an expensive luxury car, this might make you squirm: A new study out of Finland finds not only that drivers of expensive cars are more likely to break traffic laws, but they’re more likely to be self-absorbed jerks — and overwhelmingly male. “The answers were unambiguous: self-centered men who are argumentative, stubborn, disagreeable and unempathetic are much more likely to own a high-status car such as an Audi, BMW or Mercedes,” the researchers at the University of Helsinki wrote in a press release. To put a finer point on it, the study was published in the Journal...

It has been a bad few days for the establishment, really bad. In a 51-49 vote, the Senate refused to call witnesses in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump and agreed to end the trial Wednesday, with a near-certain majority vote to acquit the president of all charges. As weekend polls show socialist Bernie Sanders surging into the lead for the nomination in the states of Iowa, New Hampshire and California, the sense of panic among Democratic Party elites is palpable. Former Secretary of State and Joe Biden surrogate John Kerry was overheard Sunday at a Des Moines hotel talking...

Kicking pension problems into the future is popular with politicians, enabling them to make promises and let voters worry later about borrowing costs. But large, unfunded state pension liabilities are a costly problem—and the cost is already reflected in current bond prices, research by Chicago Booth PhD candidate Chuck Boyer suggests. “The public pension funding crisis is not merely about future insolvency,” he writes. “Future obligations are having an effect on debt spreads right now.” To many Americans, it may seem unimaginable that states would fail to fully pay pensions promised to teachers, firefighters, and other public-service workers. It has...

Barely a week old, these lovable lambs are already worth a small fortune. Thanks to their rarity – and adorable looks – they are in demand as pets. The Valais blacknose breed, seldom seen outside their native Switzerland and often called the world’s cutest sheep, are worth up to £10,000 each – 40 times the value of an ordinary lamb. These three are the latest additions to the flock on a farm in north Devon, where the lambing season is in full swing.

Joe Biden's campaign manager, Greg Schultz, expressed confidence overnight that the Iowa caucuses showed "a tight race with bunched up candidates," adding it was “a great night for us.” "We are thrilled with our performance across the state," he said. "We have known for months that this contest was going to be extremely close — and that is confirmed by tonight’s caucuses," Schultz added. "There is no official Iowa Democratic Party data at this time — and any data being shared are from campaign internal metrics or head counts. The campaign's own model showed Biden "overperformed in key districts we...

DES MOINES — The app that the Iowa Democratic Party commissioned to tabulate and report results from the caucuses on Monday was not properly tested at a statewide scale, said people who were briefed on the app by the state party. It was quickly put together in just the past two months, said the people, some of whom asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak publicly. And the party decided to use the app only after another proposal for reporting votes — which entailed having caucus participants call in their votes over the phone — was...

The Iowa caucuses reveal not only a Democratic Party deliriously incompetent at handling a vote tally — this from the folks who have been screaming about voting fraud and irregularities for years — but at war with itself in a way that could lead to political disorder that will make the counting disaster look like a garden party. What little we can glean from entrance polls reveals the way in which the schematics of the intra-Democratic conflict in 2020 are very stark.