Last Year (Winds of Winter)  —  The last post from the Lost Post, and the one you've all been waiting for.  —  Back when this was one long long long post, before Live Journal sent it to the cornfield, I mentioned opening with Dickens' line, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

The Middle East Couldn't Possibly Get Worse.  Could It?  —  The Sunni-Shia schism goes back more than a millenium and has been a more or less constant feature of geopolitics in the Middle East for a long time.  The closest the balance has come to being upset within recent memory was the Iran-Iraq war …

For Donald Trump, Lessons From a Brother's Suffering  —  One evening in the 1960s, Donald J. Trump, still in college but eager to make it big, met his older brother, Freddy, for dinner in a Queens apartment complex built by their father.  —  Things went bad fast.

Al-Shabaab recruit video with Trump excerpt: U.S. is racist, anti-Muslim  — Trump has called for a ban on all Muslims traveling to the U.S. and surveillance on Muslim communities  — Hillary Clinton claimed earlier that Trump's anti-Muslim rhetoric was being used by ISIS to recruit fighters

Elevator hero wished woman ‘Happy New Year’ before being crushed to death  —  A 25-year-old man wished “Happy New Year” to a woman just before he saved her life by shoving her from a faulty elevator that suddenly took a plunge — but the brave act cost him his own life, witnesses said.

Coroner leaves scene where missing Allentown boy's tablet may have been found  —  The search continues Saturday morning in East Allentown for Jayliel Vega Batista, a missing 5-year-old autistic boy who wandered off from a New Year's Eve party on Thursday night.  —  Of The Morning Call

RADICAL IDEA: Maybe Obama Admin Should Try Prosecuting Gun Crimes  —  Barack Obama talks tough to Press Corps cameras about “gun violence” when the mood strikes him (which it never seems to do when the perpetrators and victims are black) and cries crocodile tears about how “something needs to change.”

Meet the man behind the “Trump is disgusting” skywriting  —  PASADENA — A millionaire real estate developer — who also happens to be a donor to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's presidential campaign - is behind the aerial messages at the Rose Bowl calling GOP front-runner Donald Trump “disgusting” and he says that there's more to come.

Texans Celebrate Open Carry with ‘Uncovering’ of Handguns at Capitol  —  AUSTIN, Texas - Nearly two hundred open carry advocates gathered on the south steps of the Texas State Capitol to celebrate “uncovering day” for gun owners who are licensed to carry.  —  The rally, sponsored …

How Jeb Bush Hopes to Save His Candidacy  —  HIALEAH, Fla. — Jeb Bush and his supporters still have a pile of money to spend — remnants of $100 million raised when he seemed early this year to be a sure bet.  They have an expansive ground operation in New Hampshire.  And allies have just began a new ad campaign in Iowa.

Thirty days to Iowa: Candidates make final sprint  —  Presidential candidates are in an all-out sprint in Iowa with the caucuses only 30 days away.  —  Campaigns are sharpening their attacks, doubling down on time and resources spent in the state, and placing their final bets on the ad buys …