Free Republic

Prior to the February 17, 2011, “Day of Rage,” Libya had a national budget surplus of 8.7 percent of GDP in 2010, with oil production at 1.8 million barrels per day, on track to reach its goal of 3 million barrels per day. Currently, oil production has decreased by over 80 percent. Following the revolution, the Libyan economy contracted by an estimated 41.8 percent, with a national deficit of 17.1 percent GDP in 2011. Before the revolution, Libya was a secure, prospering, secular Islamic country and a critical ally providing intelligence on terrorist activity post–September 11, 2001. Qaddafi was no...

Governor John Bel Edwards today announced that the federal government declared a major disaster for the State of Louisiana. Following a tour of several parishes, Governor Edwards requested that President Barack Obama make the declaration. The initial federal declaration is for Bossier, Claiborne, Grant, Morehouse, Ouachita, Richland, and Webster Parishes. Additional parish declarations may be made as further damage assessments are conducted.

The “Near Earth Asteroid” discovered in 2013, which was called 2013 TX68 before being renamed to “B2Bomber,” will make its close approach to Earth on March 10. Slooh will broadcast the asteroid’s approach from Canary Islands Observatory. The event will be followed by discussions by Slooh Astronomer, Eric Edelman, and scientist Dr. Mark Boslough, an expert on planetary science and global catastrophes. The experts are unable to pin down the asteroid’s orbit, though it is suggested that it may pass as close as 11,000 miles, maybe even colliding with Earth in September 2017. Video on Demand: http://www.ruptly.tv Contact: cd@ruptly.tv Twitter:...

National Radio Talk Show host Rush Limbaugh joins Chris Wallace for an exclusive interview discussing his take on the feud between Donald Trump and Mitt Romney, and Trump's prospects in the election going forward. "His dad did much the same thing against Barry Goldwater with a cabal of Republicans, establishment guys, back in 1964," Limbaugh said about Romney. "This is not new. The establishment not wanting outsiders, not wanting conservatives is not new... They were this way with Ronald Reagan before Reagan was elected. They tried to deny Reagan in '76 and they tried to deny Reagan in 1980. They're...

But Trump’s relative weakness doesn’t mean he’s vulnerable. While Trump isn’t as strong as previous front-runners, his coalition has a similar shape. Take Virginia, a varied state where Trump won with 34.7 percent of the vote. The Washington D.C. suburbs aside, Trump won every region of the state, from exurban Northern Virginia and the central region of the state, to the vote-rich, eastern Tidewater and the Richmond metropolitan area. More important than that, however, is the ideological and socio-economic shape of his coalition. Trump won “very conservative” and “somewhat conservative” voters in Virginia, and placed second with self-described Republican moderates....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVCpNWXKfXs Click the source link.

Few professional analysts seriously expected six months ago that Donald Trump could win the Republican nomination. But after Tuesday night, it is a clear possibility. How much of a possibility? To get that answer right, it is important to understand some things about the Trump phenomenon. Perhaps most important, Trump's campaign is not a Tea Party phenomenon. While there's been a tendency to try to lump Trump in with various G.O.P. insurgencies of the last few years, that role is best filled by Sen. Ted Cruz, who really occupies the "Tea Party lane" of the G.O.P. primary more cleanly. Instead,...

Allies to Hillary Clinton say her presidential campaign's problems boil down to a fundamental problem: messaging. On the heels of a devastating loss to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in New Hampshire on Tuesday night, Clinton supporters having nightmares about a repeat of her 2008 primary loss say it's time for a change. They say Clinton has to quickly find her way out of this messaging conundrum and provide voters with a reason why they should elect the former secretary of state and first lady to the Oval Office. "I love her but I still don't understand what her campaign is...

...In real life, expletives are often used as a form of aggression or cruelty. A co-worker who tells you to Trump yourself is usually being unpleasant. A co-worker who does this every day is often creating a hostile or demeaning work environment. Language suitable for decent company is a form of politeness, which is a species of respect, which is an expression of morality. And if I am the last holdout on this issue, so be it. I don't really give a damn. Win or lose, Trump has brought the language and sensibilities of cable TV to presidential politics...

Donald Trump on Sunday repeatedly slammed his chief presidential rival Sen. Ted Cruz as a "total liar" as the Texas senator and his allies have claimed in the final stretch to the Iowa caucuses that Trump favors government-run, universal health care. Cruz, meanwhile, pressed forward Sunday with the line of attack, proclaiming: "A vote for Donald Trump is a vote for Obamacare." "Look, Ted Cruz is a total liar. I am so against Obamacare. I've been saying it for two years in my speeches, I'm going to repeal and replace Obamacare," Trump said on ABC's "This Week." "I don't even...

When a devastating earthquake leveled Haiti in 2010, millions of people donated to the American Red Cross. The charity raised almost half a billion dollars. It was one of its most successful fundraising efforts ever. The American Red Cross vowed to help Haitians rebuild, but after five years the Red Cross' legacy in Haiti is not new roads, or schools, or hundreds of new homes. It's difficult to know where all the money went. NPR and ProPublica went in search of the nearly $500 million and found a string of poorly managed projects, questionable spending and dubious claims of success,...

Since joining the Trump campaign as a national spokeswoman in November, Katrina Pierson has served as an attack dog of sorts for Donald Trump, attempting to expose his critics and opponents as faux conservatives who are simply pulling the wool over the eyes of the American people. And yet, Ms. Pierson's own statements reveal she is a self-proclaimed devotee of Malcolm X (whom she has referred to as her "idol") and has a history of attacking conservatives as racists, sneering at Christians who are unable to "handle the truth" and mocking candidates who open up about their faith on the...

Politicians always end a speech by saying, “God bless America,” but God has blessed America but America has not blessed God If America’s cities are destroyed by Muslim terrorists, then it could be very ugly for a few months (or years) and you should prepare for the worst. Your children should be aware of the possibilities but get them ready without scaring them to death! After all, there is no doubt that their lives will change forever. Don’t let this hit them in the face tomorrow morning. Carefully get them ready. Let them know that this disaster is no surprise...

Le Bourget (France) (AFP) - Nobel laureate Al Gore said at the Paris climate summit on Thursday that humanity must change how it lives, travels and grows food in order to avert global warming catastrophe. "Do we really have to change the energy and transportation and agriculture and forestry systems in the world and shift to a low-carbon pattern?" the former US vice president asked in a speech. "The answer is 'Yes'... because now the answer is coming from nature itself," he said. Gore pointed to a string of extreme droughts, record-breaking downpours and high tides, along with melting Arctic...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Right here in the New York Times, even today. Paul Krugman -- who hates everything conservative, hates everything Republican, and despises personally Ronald Reagan -- has a piece called, "Despair, American Style." "A couple of weeks ago President Obama mocked Republicans who are 'down on America,' and reinforced his message by doing a pretty good Grumpy Cat impression. He had a point: With job growth at rates not seen since the 1990s, with the percentage of Americans covered by health insurance hitting record highs, the doom-and-gloom predictions of his political enemies look ever more at odds with...

**SNIP** The statement said "a subsequent NYDFS and CMS-led review of Health Republic's finances has found that the company's financial condition is substantially worse than the company previously reported in its filings to NYDFS." The statement provided no further details on the new discoveries regarding the co-op, which received the largest single federal loan under the Obamacare health reform law. In addition to its original $265 million, the co-op received another $90 million in an emergency solvency loan funds from federal officials in September 2014. The co-op previously reported it was burning through money at a disastrous rate. Its 2014...

The report said that as RCMP officers conducted these searches, one team stumbled upon 50 firearms found in a bedroom on the second floor of a home. Prior to that, the RCMP had no plan to secure firearms found in searches. It became apparent that residents had removed firearms from gun safes in basements and moved them to higher ground in their homes, meaning some weapons were now illegally stored and legally warranted seizure for safe keeping.

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 6m6 minutes ago .@JebBush, At the debate you said your brother kept us safe- I wanted to be nice & did not mention the WTC came down during his watch, 9/11.

"The U.S. Coast Guard said it called off its nearly weeklong search for the missing mariners of the El Faro at sunset Wednesday."

President Obama – who graduated Columbia University with a degree in political science – became an environmental and ecological expert Monday night in time to decry America’s contributions to global warming and the alleged melting of Arctic ice caps at this year’s GLACIER Conference, predicting a dire future for humanity. [Snip] Overall, the speech painted a fairly doom-and-gloom outlook for America and the rest of the world. So if you’re a Doomsday Prepper, here are a few excerpts from the president's speech explaining the climate-related disasters heading to a town near you: