Free Republic

It’s a new era of American politics. With regard to campaign finance, the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling — and the arguably worse McCutcheon v. FEC ruling — opened the doors to unrestricted corporate funding of our national elections. The primary mechanism in place facilitating this flood of private money is the super PAC. You’ve probably heard of super PACs and how they’ve essentially taken over the role traditionally filled by individual campaign donors in Political Action Committees (PACs). But super PACs aren’t the end of it. There are puppet political non-profits, business associations, and now, single-candidate “dark money” outfits...

After several years of shopping there, it looks like my days and evenings roaming the aisles of Costco are over. It’s a shame really. The closest Costco, the one in Bedford Park, takes longer to drive to than the local Sam’s Club. The extra travel time was almost always worth it. Costco has a larger variety of items. It’s well managed and rarely are there long lines as there often are at Sam’s. The store has an excellent electronics department and its spiral ham is out of this world. Holiday times are particularly good as you can always count on...