Author: admin

An era came to a close in Europe on the first day of 2025.

Russian gas exports via Soviet-era pipelines running through Ukraine came to a halt on New Year’s Day, marking the end of five decades of Moscow’s dominance over Europe’s energy markets, as well as cheap gas that kept Germany’s economy humming.

The gas had kept flowing despite nearly three years of war, but Russia’s gas firm Gazprom said it had stopped at 0500 GMT after Ukraine refused to renew a transit agreement as we previously noted.

According to Reuters, the widely expected stoppage is unlikely to impact prices for consumers in the European Union – unlike in 2022, when falling supplies from Russia sent prices to record highs, worsened a cost-of-living crisis and hit the bloc’s competitiveness – however, that is a rather naive statement since European nat gas prices have been rising all year and closed 2024 more than doubling from their February lows. They will only keep rising now.

The last few European buyers of Russian gas via Ukraine, such as Slovakia and Austria, had already arranged alternative (and far more expensive) supply, while Hungary will keep receiving Russian gas via the TurkStream pipeline under the Black Sea. But Transdniestria, a breakaway pro-Russian region of Ukraine’s neighbor Moldova also reliant on the transit flows, cut off heating and hot water supplies to households early on Wednesday. Local energy company Tirasteploenergo urged residents to dress warmly, hang blankets or thick curtains over windows and balcony doors, and use electric heaters.

The European Commission said the EU had prepared for the cut-off.

Russia and the former Soviet Union spent half a century building up a major share of the European gas market, which at its peak stood at around 35%.

But the EU has slashed its dependence on Russian energy since the start of the war in Ukraine by buying more piped gas from Norway and LNG from Qatar and the United States.

“The European gas infrastructure is flexible enough to provide gas of non-Russian origin,” a spokesperson for the Commission said. “It has been reinforced with significant new LNG (liquefied natural gas) import capacities since 2022.”

The biggest beneficiary of said LNG imports is, of course, the US which has seen its LNG exports to Europe soar since the Ukraine war and since the US blew up the Nordstream pipeline, making (expensive) US sourced LNG one of the few realistic alternatives for Europe. In other words, Europe has gone from relying entirely on cheap Russian gas to relying entirely on expensive US LNG.

Ukraine, which refused to extend the transit deal under pressure from the vegetable in the White House (whose son was recently pardoned for any crimes starting around the time Hunter Biden was appointed to the board of Ukraine’s energy giant Burisma), said Europe had already made the decision to abandon Russian gas.

Combined pipeline routes from Russia delivered a record high 201 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas to Europe in 2018. The number however ground to a halt after the Ukraine war; the Nord Stream route across the Baltic Sea to Germany was blown up by the US in 2022 and the Yamal-Europe pipeline via Belarus has also shut. Russia shipped about 15 bcm of gas via Ukraine in 2023, down from 65 bcm when the last five-year contract began in 2020.

“We stopped the transit of Russian gas. This is a historic event. Russia is losing its markets, it will suffer financial losses,” Ukraine’s Energy Minister German Galushchenko said in a statement.

While Ukraine’s propaganda is understandable – Russia long ago found alternative end markets – nobody will suffer as much as Germany.

As Bloomberg’s Stephen Stapczynski wrote, “Cheap Russian gas was the backbone of some European economies for essentially half a century. That’s now ending. And Europe is set to face higher-for-longer gas prices.” One needs only to look at the ongoing collapse of Germany’s economy to observe this in real time.

And some more context from the Bloomberg analyst who writes that Russia provided half of Germany’s gas in 2021. It’s now zero, and so “due in part to the loss of Russian energy and other factors, Germany’s economy is 5% smaller than it would have been if the pre-pandemic growth trend had been maintained.”

Ukraine, of course, is also a loser: the country that has become a deep state testing bed for World War 3, will lose up to $1 billion a year in transit fees from Russia. To help offset the impact, it will quadruple gas transmission tariffs for domestic consumers from Wednesday, which could cost the country’s industry more than 1.6 billion hryvnias ($38.2 million) a year.

The company halted supply to Austria’s OMV in mid-November over a contractual dispute but in recent weeks Russian gas has been reaching Austria via Slovakia at a rate of around 200 gigawatt hours (GWh) per day. For Jan. 1, only about 7 GWh per day is expected to flow from Slovakia to Austria, Austrian energy regulator E-Control said.

Slovakia’s main gas buyer SPP said it would supply its customers mainly via pipelines from Germany and also Hungary, but would face additional transit costs.

Authored by Michael Snyder via TheMostImportantNews.com,

The U.S. government is currently constructing the most colossal monument in the history of the world.  It is a monument of debt, and we will forever be remembered as the nation that piled up far more debt than anyone else ever did.  For decades, this generation has been recklessly spending the money of future generations of Americans.  Most people seem to think that we are totally getting away with this swindle, but the truth is that the party is almost over.  Our national debt has already surpassed the 36 trillion dollar mark, and according to usdebtclock.org at our current rate of spending our national debt will surpass the 51 trillion dollar mark four years from now.

We are a spoiled, bloated, greedy nation that has run up a debt so big that words simply do not do it justice.

We have got to stop spending so much money, but we just can’t help ourselves.

In January, Donald Trump will be faced with some very difficult decisions regarding our debt as soon as he is inaugurated…

It’s going to be an urgent issue for Trump as soon as he takes office. The federal government will resume the cap on its borrowing authority on Jan. 1, as the U.S. sits on a national debt of more than $36 trillion, though the Treasury Department can buy time for a number of months with so-called extraordinary measures. The fiscal time bomb illustrates the struggle Trump and Republican leaders face heading into 2025, as they consider whether to court Democrats who will want concessions or their own conservatives who are known for rigidly sticking to their demands to cut funding.

If Trump decides that it is time to cut spending, that will make our short-term economic problems even worse.

But if he decides to keep spending money at current levels that would be suicidal.

Most Americans have no idea how difficult it is to spend a trillion dollars.

If you spend one dollar every single second, you could spend a million dollars in just twelve days.

If you spend one dollar every single second, you could spend a billion dollars in 32 years.

But at that same rate, it would  take you more than 31,000 years to spend a trillion dollars.

Let me give you another illustration.

If you were alive 2000 years ago and you started spending one million dollars every single day when Christ was born, you still would not have spent one trillion dollars by now.

That is how large one trillion dollars is.

But the United States is not one trillion dollars in debt.

The United States is 36 trillion dollars in debt.

And as I discussed the other day, we will never pay that debt off.

A trillion $10 bills, if they were taped end to end, would wrap around the globe more than 380 times.  That amount of money would still not be enough to pay off one-third of the U.S. national debt.

But if you are determined to do something, the government wants you to know that you can help.

If you can believe it, the government is actually taking online donations that will be used to help pay off the national debt.

Or at least that is what they are claiming.

If you were able to donate one dollar every single second to help pay off the national debt, it would take you hundreds of thousands of years to come up with enough money to pay it off.

Are you starting to get the picture?

We are in so much trouble.

We could have lived within our means and left America in tremendous shape for the generations that follow us.

But that is not what we did.

Instead, we have saddled our children and grandchildren with the greatest mountain of debt in the history of the world.

What we have done to future generations of Americans is beyond criminal.  One day, if they get the chance, they will look back and curse this generation for what we have done to them.  We spent tens of trillions of dollars that belonged to them, and we have stuck them with the bill for our wild excesses.  We have taken the greatest economic machine that humanity has ever seen and we have driven it straight off a cliff.

And yet we are so proud of ourselves.

We think that we are so special and that we have all the answers.

Of course the truth is that we should be deeply ashamed of ourselves.  Over and over again we kept sending the same clowns back to Washington D.C. and they just kept on spending our money like they were playing a really twisted game of Monopoly.

So now we are going to pay the price.

All of us.

Apparently the Chinese wanted to see how much of a joke the U.S. Treasury has become, because they hacked into it a few weeks ago…

A state-sponsored actor in China hacked the U.S. Treasury Department, gaining access to the workstations of government employees and unclassified documents, the Biden administration said on Monday.

The announcement comes after revelations in recent months that China had penetrated deep into U.S. telecommunications systems, gaining access to the phone conversations and text messages of U.S. officials and others.

According to Reuters, this was a “major incident”…

The hackers compromised a third-party cybersecurity service provider and were able to access unclassified documents, the letter said, calling it a “major incident.”

According to the letter, hackers “gained access to a key used by the vendor to secure a cloud-based service used to remotely provide technical support for Treasury Departmental Offices (DO) end users. With access to the stolen key, the threat actor was able override the service’s security, remotely access certain Treasury DO user workstations, and access certain unclassified documents maintained by those users.”

Of course you don’t have to be a hacker to find out the big secret that the U.S. Treasury is trying to hide.

The big secret is that we are broke.

We are drowning in an ocean of red ink, and we can barely pay our bills.

Something has got to change, because if we stay on the path that we are currently on we will be 51 trillion dollars in debt four years from today.

*  *  *

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

Over the last year, the future strength of the global economy has been a mixed picture amid rising protectionism and geopolitical conflict.

In the U.S., growth was resilient – but higher prices, despite cooling inflation, continued to squeeze consumer wallets. European economies faced slower growth, with Germany facing a two-year downturn. In China, property market troubles weighed on consumer confidence and economic growth.

Given this backdrop, how confident are people around the world in the global economy looking ahead to 2025?

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld, shows global economic sentiment by country, based on survey data from Ipsos that asked respondents whether they felt the global economy would be stronger or weaker in 2025 compared to 2024.

Rising Optimism for the Global Economy in 2025

Below, we show how consumers view the global economy across 33 different countries, drawn from a survey of 23,721 adults between October 25th and November 8th, 2024:

Overall, consumers are slightly more optimistic about the global economy going into 2025, with 51% agreeing it will be stronger than in 2024, on average.

This is a one percentage point increase from last year’s survey results which were an even 50/50 split.

Going into 2025, the most optimistic countries are in Asia, particularly emerging markets like Indonesia, Malaysia, and India that have benefited from shifting global supply chains and demographic factors. Moreover, Indonesia and India are forecast to see among the fastest real GDP growth across major economies over the next decade.

When it comes to China, 78% of consumers have optimistic views on the global economy while Japan and South Korea are the two countries in Asia with a notably pessimistic outlook for the global economy next year.

In South America, the most optimistic countries include Argentina, Peru, and Brazil. Under President Milei, Argentina has seen its first fiscal surplus in 12 years driven by sweeping budget cuts and reforms. As inflation has plummeted, global economic confidence has significantly improved among Argentinians since last year.

For U.S. consumers, expectations rose by nine percentage points from last year’s survey, resulting in an optimistic majority of 54%. While tariffs stand to add new price pressures, Trump’s proposed tax cuts could help support economic growth.

By contrast, European countries have the most pessimistic views on the global economy. Amid looming trade wars and sustained energy price shocks from the Russia-Ukraine war, seven of the 10 most pessimistic countries were found on the continent.

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

Foreign jihadists have been appointed in senior positions in the new Syrian military, which is now led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an offshoot of al-Qaeda that led the offensive that ousted former President Bashar al-Assad.

Syrian sources told Reuters that the foreign fighters appointed to the military include Uyghurs, a Jordanian, a Turk, and an Albanian. “This is a small token of recognition for the sacrifices Islamist jihadists gave to our struggle for freedom from Assad’s oppression,” an HTS source told the media outlet.

Among the Uyghurs is Abdulaziz Dawood Khudaberdi, the commander of the Turkistan Islamic Party’s (TIP) forces in Syria. The TIP’s stated goal is to create an Islamic State in China’s western Xinjiang region.

Khudaberdi was named a brigadier general in the Syrian military, and two other Uyghur fighters were appointed colonels.

Sources told Reuters that Turkish citizen Omar Mohammed Jaftashi and Jordanian citizen Abdul Rahman Hussein al-Khatib were also made brigadier-generals.

Abdul Jashari, an Albanian fighter who was designated a terrorist by the US Treasury Department, was made a colonel.

HTS is still designated by the US as a foreign terrorist organization, but the Biden administration has celebrated its takeover of Syria. The US has also made clear it’s willing to work with the new government and its de facto leader, Abu Mohammad al-Julani, who has been going by his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Earlier this month, Barbara Leaf, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs, met with Julani and announced the US was removing a $10 million bounty on his head.

The same US national security state that took away our rights and sent its soldiers to die for a “war on terror” is hailing the takeover of Syria by transnational jihadist rabble as a great triumph. And when the blowback comes again, they’ll find even more rights to take away. https://t.co/DrDh62gUXy

— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) December 30, 2024

Julani, a former al-Qaeda leader, appointed other HTS members in senior positions of the “transitional government” and has said elections in Syria probably won’t happen for at least four years.

President Vladimir Putin has issued a traditional New Year’s Eve speech on Tuesday, which marks exactly 25 years of the Russian leader in power. There was a brief few year period when he was Prime Minister under President Dmitry Medvedev based on constitutional term limits.

He said that Russians should be “proud” of what Russia had done during his quarter century ruling the country. He issued the expected well wishes for the year ahead, but interestingly did not expressly mention the ongoing Ukraine war, which has resulted in far-reaching US and European sanctions on Moscow.

“Dear friends, in just a few minutes 2025 will be ushered in, completing the first quarter of the 21st century,” Putin began in the televised remarks.

“Yes, we still have a lot to decide but we can be rightfully proud of what has already been done,” he added, saying his 25 years as president led to the “further development” of the country and its economy and defense.

He heaped praise on Russian soldiers defending the nation, at a time that Ukrainian forces still occupy hundreds of square kilometers of the southern border region of Kursk.

“On this New Year’s Eve, the thoughts, hopes of relatives and friends, millions of people across Russia are together with our fighters and commanders,” Putin said. “Now, on the threshold of a new year, we are thinking about the future. We are sure that everything will be all right. We will only go forward.”

Putin first took power after having been named acting president on New Year’s Eve in 1999 when predecessor Boris Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned amid post-Soviet economic collapse and turmoil.

Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev started the tradition of a New Year’s Eve speech, and is watched by millions of Russian households. It typically involves a summary of major events of the past year, and general well wishes for the year to come.

“Now, on the threshold of a new year, we are thinking about the future. We are sure that everything will be all right. We will only go forward,” Putin said.

AFP noted that the address “aired on state TV just before midnight in each of Russia’s 11 time zones” – and it was also likely closely watched by analysts at Western intelligence agencies and the Pentagon.

The Trump administration enters the White House in less than three weeks, and all eyes will be on the question of how quickly Trump will push Kiev toward the negotiating table.

After 3 years of war, isolation, and economic stagnation, #Putin tells Russians: ‘Everything will be fine, we will move forward!’
● In his 2025 New Year’s address, he hails Russia’s ‘strength’ and ties the year to WWII’s 80th anniversary, dubbing it the ‘Year of the Defender’ pic.twitter.com/D8uqKLZ0UJ

— Jason Corcoran (@jason_corcoran) December 31, 2024

The Kremlin has been cautiously optimistic, but feels in control of the war in the Donbas. President Zelensky has meanwhile balked at the possibility of ceding territory, though the Crimea question has remained open from the Ukrainians’ perspective.

Russia is going to settle on nothing less than total and permanent control over the four territories in the east, and a permanent ban on Ukraine ever joining NATO. Trump is reportedly mulling a minimum 20-year waiting period for Ukraine, however. Moscow says even this long delay is not acceptable.

Authored by Darren Taylor via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The Mexican organized crime group accused of fueling the United States’ fentanyl crisis is now making the deadly drug in Africa, according to local and international law enforcement agencies.

The Sinaloa cartel has chosen South Africa as a major operational base, they said, largely because of its strong trade links to China, which produces the chemicals used to make the synthetic opioid.

“At this stage, there isn’t a big market for fentanyl in Africa, so much of this drug that’s being made in underground labs on the continent is being smuggled into the United States, the biggest fentanyl market in the world,” said Lt. Gen. Godfrey Lebeya, chief of The Hawks, South Africa’s top police investigative unit.

Drug overdoses have killed an estimated 400,000 Americans since 2021, with the majority linked to fentanyl, according to statistics compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In its legal prescription form, fentanyl is a highly effective painkiller.

Criminals, however, copy its chemical makeup in labs and illegally sell it as a powder, dropped onto blotter paper, put in eyedroppers and nasal sprays, or made into pills that look like legitimate prescription opioids, according to a report by the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse.

A few milligrams of fentanyl can kill, as it is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine.

Lebeya told The Epoch Times that South African “drug traffickers and gangs linked to the Sinaloa cartel” are testing local narcotics markets.

“Fentanyl has definitely entered our trafficking conveyor belts,” he said. “We know that because we’re arresting suspects who are in possession of it and they tell us, ‘We want to see if South Africans get a taste for fentanyl.’

“This is very concerning because we’ve seen the scale of America’s crisis and we don’t want our country to go the same way.

“But we must be realistic and admit that it’s possible that we end up with a tragedy of our own because fentanyl is much cheaper than the other drugs circulating in South Africa, like cocaine and heroin, and the Mexicans who are driving fentanyl use in America are now on our soil.”

In July, The Hawks raided what they later described as a “drugs superlab” in South Africa’s northern Limpopo province, seizing large quantities of methamphetamine, a small quantity of fentanyl, and about 500 pounds of chemicals used to manufacture both drugs.

South African farmer Roelof Botha, 57, and three Mexican citizens—Gonzales Jorge Partida, 51, Gutierrez Lopes, 43, and Ruben Vidal Rodriguez, 44—are awaiting trial for alleged manufacturing, dealing, and possession of illicit drugs, as well as money laundering.

“We’re still questioning the Mexican guys,” Lebeya said. “They’re not saying much. But international partners have given us information that these men are working for the Sinaloa cartel.”

Lufuno Sadiki, senior lecturer in criminology at the University of Cape Town, told The Epoch Times that it’s “easy for Mexicans to blend in with locals” because they look very similar to mixed-race South Africans.

“It appears as if the Mexicans, mostly from the Sinaloa cartel, are linking up with the local gangs and showing them the ropes, so to speak, [with regard to] fentanyl,” she said.

“In exchange, the South Africans introduce the cartel guys to trusted contacts in the criminal underground and to corrupt officials.”

Organized crime groups are attracted to South Africa for several reasons, according to Professor Anthony Minnaar, a security risk management expert at the University of Limpopo.

“It’s the continent’s wealthiest economy with a banking system that’s linked internationally but is flawed,” he told The Epoch Times. “The country has well-established drug markets of its own and a plethora of drug-trafficking gangs.

“South Africa also offers regular flight connections to Central and South America, with its ports visited daily by vessels registered in Mexico.

“Then it has high volume trade traffic from China, and criminals are hiding chemicals used to make crystal meth and fentanyl in containers coming from China.

“South Africa also has a high level of official corruption.”

Professor Francois Steyn, head of the Department of Criminology at the University of the Free State, told The Epoch Times that the Sinaloa cartel had “probably been in South Africa for longer than we think,” maybe for more than a decade.

“We’re picking up evidence of this only now because our systems have improved over the past five years or so and so has our cooperation with American law enforcement,” he said.

In September 2022, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Louisville, Kentucky, intercepted a package sent from South Africa containing enough cocaine and fentanyl to kill 220,000 people.

“That fentanyl must have been made in South Africa or somewhere else in Africa,” Steyn said. “If that wasn’t the case, it’s still clear that South Africa is being used as a conduit to get fentanyl and other narcotics into the American market and other markets.”

In January 2024, police found crystal meth and fentanyl worth 37 million rands (about $1.98 million) hidden in ornaments in a cargo shed at O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg.

The shipment was headed to New Zealand.

“It’s really sad to know that our territory is being used to play a role in America’s fentanyl pandemic,” Lebeya said.

“But I’d like Americans to know we are cooperating with the relevant agencies in the United States and doing our best [to prevent fentanyl manufacturing and distribution].”

An indictment in a U.S. court case relating to fentanyl production described it as the “single deadliest drug threat” ever encountered in the country.

Read the rest here…

Now France is getting in on the Syria action in the wake of President Bashar al-Assad’s overthrow on December 8. Currently the hardline Islamist movement Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham (HTS) holds Damascus and major cities across southern, central, and coastal Syria.

The Turks hold parts of the north near the border (and Turkey’s proxies, particularly the the Syrian National Army, or SNA), while the United States still occupies the northeast (also through its proxy the Kurkish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF). The Israeli military holds an expanse out of the Golan Heights in the south.

France’s defense ministry announced Tuesday that its warplanes launched airstrikes against Islamic State (ISIS) over the weekend.

This marks the first such French strikes in Syria since HTS took over Damascus:

“On Sunday, French air assets carried out targeted strikes against Daesh sites on Syrian soil,” the minister said in a statement on social platform X, using an Arab acronym for ISIS. He also published a video showing the military operation. “Our armies remain engaged in the fight against terrorism” in the region, Lecornu said.

French Rafale fighter jets and American Reaper drones “dropped a total of seven bombs on two military targets belonging to Daesh in central Syria,” the statement specified.

The ‘ISIS threat’ has also been cited by the Pentagon as ongoing justification for keeping some 2,000 or more American troops in Syria. The rationale for occupying Syria’s oil and gas fields has also been the ‘counter Iran’ mission, according to US officials.

But we should note the fact that ISIS has been relatively quiet since the HTS Jolani takeover of the country. Where are the big ISIS terror bombings of prior years when Assad held the country?

The reality is that ISIS terrorists are actually embedded with HTS and its foreign fighter affiliates, as recent American television footage has demonstrated.

The French government released footage of preparations for its weekend strikes on ISIS targets:

France says it carried out missile strikes against ISIS in Syria last weekendpic.twitter.com/iSECAEaz3Z

— Guy Elster (@guyelster) December 31, 2024

ISIS is the threat that keeps on giving: Western allies will stay in Syria for the time being while continually claiming that the coalition (Operation Inherent Resolve) must battle terrorists, even while giving tacit support to HTS in Damascus.

US-designated terrorist Abu Mohammad al-Julani of course began his jihadist career in Syria as a high-ranking member of ISIS and later al-Nusra Front (Al-Qaeda in Syria). As we highlighted previously, this is putting lipstick on a pig.

Watch Live:

 

*   *   * 

Update (0700ET):

The New Orleans Police Department told ABC News that “the strike appeared to be intentional” and “the driver has not been taken into custody.”

In other words, it was a vehicle ramming attack.

*   *   * 

Update (0640ET):

The City of New Orleans has confirmed ten dead and 30 injured after a vehicle plowed into a large crowd on Canal and Bourbon Street.

The New Orleans Police Department has yet to confirm whether the mass casualty incident was intentional. No details about the driver have been released. 

Governor of Louisiana Jeff Landry writes on X: 

A horrific act of violence took place on Bourbon Street earlier this morning.

Please join Sharon and I in praying for all the victims and first responders on scene.

I urge all near the scene to avoid the area.

— Governor Jeff Landry (@LAGovJeffLandry) January 1, 2025

A press conference is expected shortly.

*   *   * 

The New Orleans Police Department told local media outlet WGNO that multiple people are dead after a vehicle plowed into a crowd on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter. The area, a bar and restaurant district popular with tourists, was still very active just hours after New Year’s Eve celebrations.

BREAKING UPDATE FROM NEW ORLEANS: Witnesses told @CBSNews reporter Kati Weis that a truck crashed into a crowd on Bourbon Street at high speed, and then the driver got out and started firing a weapon, with police returning fire. @WWLTV reports “at least 10 dead.” pic.twitter.com/Aj7ZAjxgM8

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) January 1, 2025

NOPD said the vehicle struck a group of people around 3:15 a.m. local time at the intersection of Bourbon Street and Iberville

Witnesses told CBS News reporter Kati Weis that a truck crashed into the crowd at “high speeds,” adding that the driver exited the vehicle and started discharging a weapon, prompting police officers to return fire.

NOLAREADY: There has been a mass casualty incident on Canal and Bourbon Street. Get yourself away from the area. Visit https://t.co/AyuRn38guC for details.

— NOLA Ready (@nolaready) January 1, 2025

Unconfirmed video. 

Video obtained of the mass shooting in New Orleans, Bourbon Street. pic.twitter.com/sVIDSwpRhO

— F̳̿͟͞l̳̿͟͞i̳̿͟͞c̳̿͟͞k̳̿͟͞ (@Flick1_) January 1, 2025

Weis reported that multiple people were on the ground with serious injuries.

BREAKING NEWS: GRAPHIC WARNING: Mass casualties as car rams into crown in New Orleans. Several dead… Bourbon Street shut down … I knew this would happen somewhere #terroristattack #ThanksBiden pic.twitter.com/oVroB6wdyU

— Mighty_Marsha (@Mighty_Marsha) January 1, 2025

NOPD told CBS News that “initial reports show a car may have plowed into a group of people. Injuries are unknown but there are reported fatalities.”

*Developing… 

Authored by John & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

“Everyday the future looks a little bit darker.”

– Alan Moore, Watchmen

We have become a nation adrift in a sea of government overreach, abuse and corruption.

The following is a sobering account of the challenges we faced in 2024, which were marked by the government’s never-ending power grabs and relentless assaults on our civil liberties.

2024 saw a continued rise in government overreach and abuse of power. The militarization of police forces continued unabated, with local departments increasingly resembling extensions of the military. Schools, meant to be places of learning and growth, became more prison-like with the implementation of “safety” measures that criminalize minor infractions and create an environment of fear. The right to private property was further eroded, with the government increasingly empowered to seize assets under various pretexts. The plight of the homeless worsened, with cities criminalizing homelessness and implementing policies designed to make their lives even more difficult. Military veterans, once hailed as heroes, were increasingly treated with suspicion and subjected to surveillance.

On almost every front this year, the government overreached and abused its powers.

With every new law enacted by federal and state legislatures, every new ruling handed down by government courts, and every new military weapon, invasive tactic and egregious protocol employed by government agents, we were reminded that in the eyes of the government and its corporate accomplices, “we the people” possess no rights except for that which the Deep State grants on an as-needed basis.

Surveillance eroded what little privacy we have left. The Surveillance State grew even more pervasive. Facial recognition technology expanded into new areas of our lives, with vast amounts of our biometric data collected, often without our knowledge or consent, eroding our anonymity and enabling unprecedented tracking of our movements. Data breaches continued to expose the vulnerability of our personal information.

Free speech continued to be under attack. Protest laws, free speech zones, and other restrictions made it more difficult for citizens to exercise their First Amendment rights. Social media companies, often in collusion with the government, engaged in censorship of viewpoints they deemed unacceptable. This online censorship creates an echo chamber and limits the free flow of information.

The influence of the Deep State and the military-industrial complex continued to grow. Endless wars abroad drained the nation’s resources while doing little to make Americans safer. The military-industrial complex’s grip on almost every aspect of American life tightened.

The government failed to protect our lives, liberty and happiness. The predators of the police state wreaked havoc on our freedoms, our communities, and our lives. The government didn’t listen to the citizenry, refused to abide by the Constitution, and treated the citizenry as a source of funding and little else. Police officers shot unarmed citizens and their household pets. Government agents—including local police—were armed to the teeth and encouraged to act like soldiers on a battlefield. Bloated government agencies were allowed to fleece taxpayers. Government technicians spied on our emails and phone calls. And government contractors made a killing by waging endless wars abroad.

The president became more imperial. Although the Constitution invests the President with very specific, limited powers, in recent years, American presidents have claimed the power to completely and almost unilaterally alter the landscape of this country for good or for ill. The powers amassed by each successive president through the negligence of Congress and the courts—powers which add up to a toolbox of terror for an imperial ruler—empower whoever occupies the Oval Office to act as a dictator, above the law and beyond any real accountability. The presidency itself has become an imperial one with permanent powers.

The cost of endless wars drove the nation deeper into debt. Policing the globe and waging endless wars abroad hasn’t made America—or the rest of the world—any safer, but it has made the military industrial complex rich at taxpayer expense.

The courts failed to uphold justice. Time and time again, the Supreme Court failed to right the wrongs being meted out by the American police state. A review of critical court rulings over the past decade or so, including some ominous ones by the U.S. Supreme Court, reveals a startling and steady trend towards pro-police state rulings by an institution concerned more with establishing order and protecting the ruling class and government agents than with upholding the rights enshrined in the Constitution.

Mass shootings claimed more lives. Mass shootings have taken place at churches, in nightclubs, on college campuses, on military bases, in elementary schools, in government offices, and at concerts. In almost every instance, you can connect the dots back to the military-industrial complex, which continues to dominate, dictate and shape almost every aspect of our lives.

The rich got richer, and the poor went to jail. Not content to expand the police state’s power to search, strip, seize, raid, steal from, arrest and jail Americans for any infraction, no matter how insignificant, the courts continued their practice of jailing individuals who are unable to pay the hefty fines imposed by the American police state. These debtors’ prisons play right into the hands of those who make a profit by jailing Americans.  This is no longer a government “of the people, by the people, for the people.” It is fast becoming a government “of the rich, by the elite, for the corporations,” and its rise to power is predicated on shackling the American taxpayer to a debtors’ prison guarded by a phalanx of politicians, bureaucrats and militarized police with no hope of parole and no chance for escape.

Police became even more militarized and weaponized. Despite concerns about the government’s steady transformation of local police into a standing military army, local police agencies continued to acquire weaponry, training and equipment suited for the battlefield. There are now reportedly more bureaucratic (non-military) government civilians armed with high-tech, deadly weapons than U.S. Marines.

Schools turned into prisons. So-called school “safety” policies, which run the gamut from zero tolerance policies that punish all infractions harshly to surveillance cameras, metal detectors, random searches, drug-sniffing dogs, school-wide lockdowns, active-shooter drills and militarized police officers, turned schools into prisons and young people into prisoners.

The government waged a renewed war on private property. The battle to protect our private property has become the final constitutional frontier, the last holdout against our freedoms being usurped. We no longer have any real property rights. That house you live in, the car you drive, the small (or not so small) acreage of land that has been passed down through your family or that you scrimped and saved to acquire, whatever money you manage to keep in your bank account after the government and its cronies have taken their first and second and third cut…none of it is safe from the government’s greedy grasp. At no point do you ever have any real ownership in anything other than the clothes on your back. Everything else can be seized by the government under one pretext or another (civil asset forfeiture, unpaid taxes, eminent domain, public interest, etc.).

The plight of the nation’s homeless worsened. In communities across the country, legislators adopted a variety of methods (parking meters, zoning regulations, tickets, and even robots) to discourage the homeless from squatting, loitering and panhandling. One of the most common—and least discussed—practices: homeless relocation programs that bus the homeless outside city limits.

The government waged war on military veterans. The government has done a pitiful job of respecting the freedoms of military veterans and caring for their needs once out of uniform. The plight of veterans today is America’s badge of shame, with large numbers of veterans impoverished, unemployed, traumatized mentally and physically, struggling with depression, suicide, and marital stress, homeless, subjected to sub-par treatment at clinics and hospitals, left to molder while their paperwork piles up within Veterans Administration offices, and increasingly treated like criminals— targeted for surveillance, censorship, threatened with incarceration or involuntary commitment, labeled as extremists and/or mentally ill, and stripped of their Second Amendment rights—for daring to speak out against government misconduct.

In sum, 2024 was a disheartening year for those who cherish freedom.

Yet no matter who sits in the White House, politics won’t fix a system that is broken beyond repair.

As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, we are at our most vulnerable right now: the gravest threat facing us as a nation in 2025 is not extremism but despotism, exercised by a ruling class whose only allegiance is to power and money.

Authored by Jack Miller & Michael Poliakoff via RealClearEducation,

The study of American history and government is undergoing an unprecedented renewal, akin to the phoenix – a mythical bird that is reborn by rising from the ashes of its predecessor.

Major universities have recently launched independent institutes, sometimes called “schools of civic thought,” dedicated to the in-depth exploration of an American political tradition that goes beyond partisan politics. These institutes have independent hiring authority and significant state funding.

So far about a dozen civic institutes have sprung up, from Arizona, Texas, and Florida to Tennessee, North Carolina, and Ohio – and others will be founded soon. They not only serve college students, but many also help K-12 teachers learn how to teach American history and government more effectively. Their mission is broad, with wide public programming.

In America, we have the privilege of living in a democratic republic, arguably the greatest the world has known. Citizens can engage in politics, persuade their fellow citizens, and effect real change. Our history offers many such examples.

It is all the more tragic and dangerous, then, that many students know so little about our history and institutions. They feel powerless and disaffected.

Too often, instead of engaging with America’s founding principles and history, students hear about the supposed oppressiveness of Western civilization and the American “slavocracy,” with dogmatic teaching of oppressor-oppressed ideas. Our students are frequently taught to believe the worst of our nation and its people.

By contrast, these new institutes endeavor to tell the complete American story – its warts but also its promise to give freedom and opportunity to all. They highlight our long and torturous journey to get ever closer to achieving the vision in our Declaration of Independence – that all men are created equal and are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

This phoenix-like story has been long in preparation at the Jack Miller Center for Teaching America’s Founding Principles and History (JMC). Over 1,200 professors working in the academy today have been a part of the JMC network, writing and teaching about the American political tradition. This network has transformed a struggling subfield into a strong, competitive discipline and created a talent pool of faculty to support this movement’s rapid growth.

The pipeline for a new generation of classroom leaders was started 20 years ago when JMC began its program of summer institutes for young postdocs and professors. Now these professors operate at institutions of all types. Seven of the eight Ivy League schools have partnered with JMC, as have 18 state universities, along with many liberal arts and religious colleges.

Over 300 JMC-supported programs enrich the academic lives of students, providing guest speakers, fellowships, courses, and a chance to interact with dedicated faculty who are outside of the stale, progressive academic mainstream.

The Center for American Studies at Christopher Newport University is an example of this transformational work. Begun in 2007 with JMC’s assistance, it has grown to be a major force on campus. Co-directed by Professors Elizabeth and Nathan Busch, it has a full-time faculty of six who mentor many undergraduate students. The Center has brought to campus distinguished scholars and public officials, including the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Jonathan Turley, John Yoo, and William J. Perry, for presentations to the university community.

The American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) works alongside JMC to promote the formation of new independent institutes. ACTA has redoubled its efforts to ensure that all undergraduates pass a required course that covers core American founding principles.

For 30 years, ACTA has warned of the cost of higher education’s malfeasance. In 2000, its extensive survey of students at the 50 most elite colleges and universities revealed a shocking level of historical and civic ignorance. ACTA’s survey report, “Losing America’s Memory,” led to a joint, unanimous resolution passed by Congress that called for improving the civic knowledge of college students.

ACTA’s 2024 survey that polled 3,000 college students shows that we must redouble our efforts.

Our work so far has helped South Carolina adopt the REACH Act. Since 2021, all of the state’s public universities require a course in which students study the key documents and moments in our nation’s story.

The new institutes of civic education, which began at Arizona State University in 2017, have now expanded into eight states on 13 campuses. Most recently, Ohio passed legislation that has already led to new institutes being set up at its five public universities. The goal is to expand civic education programs into many more states.

ACTA’s National Commission on American History and Civic Education is convening 24 of America’s most distinguished scholars, thought leaders, and educators to produce a white paper on the urgency of restoring the undergraduate requirement in American history and government at every college and university in the nation. The white paper will provide guidance on the scope of that course and how trustees and legislators can make America’s civic rebirth a reality. An anthology of essays, “American History and Government: What Every College Student Should Know,” will enhance the national conversation.

The new civic institutes will re-engage students with America’s story of freedom and opportunity for all. The joint contribution of JMC and ACTA, made alongside other civic-minded organizations, private and public, will renew students’ understanding of our nation as the land of the free. This is how Americans can mend our flaws and face the challenges of the future together.