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.”

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

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.

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.

Global outcry after Saudi Arabia executes Shi'ite cleric, 46 others  —  Shi'ite Muslims and others around the world are outraged after Saudi Arabia executed a prominent Shi'ite cleric as part of a mass execution of 47 prisoners Saturday.  —  Nimr al-Nimr was an outspoken critic …

Dale Bumpers, Defender of Clinton in Impeachment, Dies at 90  —  Dale Bumpers, the former U.S. senator from Arkansas who capped an almost 30-year political career by delivering the closing statement in President Bill Clinton's impeachment defense in 1999, has died.

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.

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 …

Kim Jong Un says he's ready for war in New Year speech  —  In his annual New Year's speech Friday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he is ready for war if provoked by “invasive” outsiders.  —  In the address, his fourth since taking power in 2011, Kim spoke of the need to increase the …

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 …