President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump attend the annual New Year celebration at the Trump Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Melania Trump looked spectacular in silver.

President Trump answered a few quick questions saying, ‘Peace. Peace on earth,’ when answering a question about his New Year’s resolution. When asked whether he would send U.S. troops to Ukraine as part of a security guarantee, something Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Tuesday was on the table, President Trump shrugged it off.

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2025!  Wow.

As the year winds down, and as we are given to considering everything that has taken place, a revisit to the spiritual core of our association is appropriate.

For me, this year provided many memorable gifts, and almost all were driven by a purposeful God reminding me to keep poking my head into the human mechanics of common presumptions.

Nothing is more empowering than praying, listening for His message, being completely lost – yet acting on faith alone, and then finding out why it was necessary to put prayer in front of the fear. Yup, as 2026 approaches we are all walking toward entirely new challenges.

Perhaps we are not prepared, perhaps we will all test our faith, perhaps we will discover new limits to our exhaustion, or, well, perhaps we will discover we are much stronger than we realize.  One of the reasons for my optimism is that I think the latter is assured.

I believe we are stronger than we think.  I believe YOU are stronger, more purposeful, smarter, more strategic, more influential, more necessary and far more loved than you can ever imagine.

Yes, I am optimistic; more so today on this last day of 2025 than I was on the first day.

The knowledge we possess is powerful – far more powerful than the pretenses we fight against.  Many more people have stopped pretending.  The reality of our challenges is now easier to discuss.  The solutions are also straight forward, do not accept division.

Regardless of how we exit this year, excited or slightly nervous, we admit it can be challenging to retain a joyful ‘best life’ while everything around us is so unpredictable and a little unnerving.

However, if we accept that a loving God is the source of the purest truth, we can create something stronger within ourselves just by making a choice to focus on what really matters. Do that, choose that, follow that and we will have accomplished a great deal.

Regardless of what tomorrow brings, we always have choices.  A new year’s perspective:

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A recent article in Politico quoting several cabinet members of Prime Minister Mark Carney reflects a particular reality of the problem their economy will face in 2026.

It appears that Canadian government officials have finally recognized the Trump administration plans to dissolve the USMCA or what Canada calls CUSMA next year.  With that reality they have a big problem.

Mexico has been working throughout the year to initiate economic policies in alignment with the United States.  However, structurally and politically this is an alignment that is impossible for Canada to do.  Like many contracting European countries, the economic policies of Canada are centered around their climate change agenda and green energy goals.

For the past few decades Canada bought into the carbon scam and enacted climate change goals into law for carbon pricing, alternative energy production, industry and manufacturing costs.  These mechanisms to control “climate change” are nuts in the big picture.

In order for Canada to position their economy to be in alignment with the rest of North America (USA and Mexico), Carney would have to reverse years of legislated rules and regulations.  That is not going to happen, and Canada will always be at a disadvantage because of it.

(Politico) – […] It’s a moment of existential crisis for Canada, a senior Carney government official told POLITICO. Waiting out the Trump administration isn’t an option, the official said, arguing that what’s happening in the United States reflects a generational shift — not a temporary disruption — and that returning to a policy of closer integration with America would be foolish. (more)

With three quarters of their economic production tied to exports into the USA, and with the USMCA likely to be dissolved in favor of a bilateral trade agreement, Canada now has to find other markets for its products or lower all the trade barriers currently in place.  Prime Minister Mark Carney is trying to find alternative markets.

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

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Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

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The federal dept of Health and Human Services has announced the suspension of all childcare service payments to the state of Minnesota, pending investigative review and compliance audits.

The announcement follows several grassroots reports showing extensive fraud and corruption stemming mostly from the Somali immigrant community.  Several taxpayer-funded assistance programs have been exploited. From daycares to nonprofits, immigrant communities in Minnesota now face multiple accusations of fraud, where they allegedly used state policies to take what some estimate to be about $9 billion in taxpayer dollars.

There are numerous indications the Minnesota fraud is only the tip of the iceberg.  Several states with large migrant population are also suspected of similar activity.  The Dept of Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Investigation and HHS are now doing compliance audits to determine the scale and scope of the overall theft.

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A few context points on this: #1) Mark Levin has a direct and personal line to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Levin can and does talk to ‘Bibi’ all the time. #2) If Levin was confident in the position of President Trump toward Israel, this would not be needed.  #3) This same level of toxicity is also being directed toward Trump’s vice-president, JD Vance.

This is the current state of mind of Mark Levin:

Toward Megyn Kelly (3.6 million followers]

[SOURCE]

Toward Jack Posobiec (3.2 million followers):

[SOURCE]

What’s going on?

It is exactly what I said was happening – SEE HERE.

The use of Alinsky tactics is a left-wing approach.

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Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appears on Fox News for an interview with Bret Baier.  Within the interview Zelenskyy gives some context and details to the 20-point plan organized between him and the EU Leaders, currently being reviewed and modified by President Trump, Steve Witkoff, Marco Rubio and Jared Kushner.

The two remaining issues as described by Zelenskyy are the (1) security guarantees and (2) the territorial issue, Donbas control.

(1) Within the security guarantee proposal there are troubling signs.  Zelenskyy describes it as a bilateral agreement between the USA and Ukraine, with similar constructs to the NATO alignment.  A non-NATO pact between the U.S. and Ukraine that commits us to his defense if Russia would advance another attack.  A 15-year guarantee committed in U.S. law through the U.S. House and Senate. This sounds troubling.

(2) On the territorial issue, regional control of the Donbas, Zelenskyy appears to be willing to cede territory but only under very limited circumstances.  Zelenskyy wants a demilitarized zone under the term “a free economic zone” with specific rules.

Zelenskyy admits Ukraine cannot win the conflict against Russia without the United States involvement.  Essentially without America, Russia would own the skies and be able to crush the Ukrainian army. WATCH:

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

(more…)

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

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