Last year saw many positive things happen in our country

January 20, 2026

Well, the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term has now been completed. Yes, the United States of America still has problems. It always has had, and it always will have. But some improvements have been recorded.

Let’s be clear, Trump is not perfect; he has his problems. But the same is true of Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Kamala Harris, Adam Schiff, Elizabeth Warren, Maxine Waters, Hakeem Jeffries, Hillary Clinton, Jasmine Crockett, Eric Swalwell, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and every other human being.

But Trump may be the most heavily criticized POTUS ever, or at least he is in recent memory. 

It truly appears that some people oppose what Trump does because of how much they dislike him, irrespective of what he is doing that may be is good for the country.

Michigan Republican Congresswoman Lisa McClain gave an example of just how wild and crazy the dislike of Trump is, saying, “President Trump could have the cure for cancer and the Democrats would still be upset."

But despite the fog that interferes with how some folks view things, the economy has some positive aspects, and some other factors will likely improve as time passes. The following information was provided by WhiteHouse.gov.

Egg prices are down 84 percent; gas is less than $3.00 per gallon for the first time in four years; the federal deficit is down 40 percent, the lowest since 2019; we have global contracts of $170 billion, which is 14 times as much as in the Biden administration.

Michael & Susan Dell donated $6.25 billion to fund Trump Accounts for 25 million children; Black Friday showed a record-breaking $11.8 billion in online spending; we have $12 billion in aid for American farmers; the trade deficit fell to $52.8 billion, down 35 percent, year-over-year; Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent projects 3 percent GDP growth this year, despite the shutdown.

Eli Lilly will build a $6.5 billion Texas plant; tariffs will bring Volvo XC60 production to the US.

On the foreign policy front, there has also been some positive movement. According to the U.S. State Department, “Under the first year of President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s leadership, the State Department has implemented a bold America First foreign policy focused on making America safer, stronger, and more prosperous.

“Since January, the State Department has helped stop the flow of deadly drugs into the United States, created American jobs by advancing commercial interests abroad, secured additional defense investments from our allies, streamlined foreign assistance programs, and ushered in a new era of peace through strength, all while slashing waste and reorganizing the agency to ensure that our government serves the American people as efficiently and as effectively as possible.”

The State Department has also done some house-cleaning. It “secured cost savings of $270,860,693 via 659 descoped contracts and 533 contracts that were terminated or not renewed, as reflected in the Federal Procurement Data System. The Department trimmed travel budgets, spending $100 million less on travel than last year.”

The Cato Institute reports that the number of federal employees has dropped from about 3,000,000 at the beginning of 2025 to less than 2,750,000, a reduction of approximately 250,000 as of early December. Fewer federal employees require less tax money for their salaries, lowering federal spending a bit.

One of the areas drawing the most anti-Trump opposition is the effort to remove illegal aliens from the country, focusing primarily on those with criminal records or criminal charges. Illegal entry is a misdemeanor, and illegal reentry is a felony.

Numbers from December show that more than 2.5 million illegal aliens have left the U.S. because of the administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, including an estimated 1.9 million self-deportations and more than 622,000 deportations, as reported on the DHS website.

Last year, between Jan. 20 and Dec. 11, about 595,000 illegal aliens had been arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The Department of Homeland Security reported that 70 percent, or approximately 416,000 illegals, had "criminal convictions or pending criminal charges" in the United States.

While so many Democrats/leftists/progressives condemn the actions of ICE to remove illegal and often criminal aliens from blue cities and states, the number of that group who have expressed sorrow or horror because of the many Americans who have been murdered or otherwise attack by illegal aliens remains quite small.

 The Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) posted a list of hundreds of Americans who were murdered by illegal aliens, or were died from actions such as vehicle wrecks.

In comments prior to the list of those killed, ALIPAC noted the following: “We did not include our thousands of documented cases of illegals raping, robbing, assaulting, and harming Americans in other ways to focus this section on those who lost their lives due to our government's failure to protect our states and citizens from invaders.”

The Trump administration has a long way to go to get things where Trump wants them to be, and where the 77 million Americans who voted for him want them to be. But many of these items take time to evolve, and things are moving in the right direction.

Violent protests quite frequently produce terrible results

January 13, 2026

The chaos that developed last year in opposition to the efforts of the Trump administration to remove illegal aliens from the country, especially the dangerous ones, has recently increased substantially. A woman who recently had been obstructing ICE agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota was shot and killed, and in another incident, two illegal aliens were shot by ICE agents when they resisted them.

It is perplexing that so many Americans vigorously oppose the removal of people who are in the country illegally, many of whom are murderers, rapists, drug/child/female traffickers, etc.

And, whatever natural dislike for this action one may have, this anti-law enforcement attitude has been intensified by the actions and vile messages of many prominent Democrats. Some serve in Congress, others are state governors, city or town mayors, political candidates, or celebrities.

The Babylon Bee, a mostly satirical and humorous website, posted an article about this. This situation is not funny. Particularly when people — either protesters or law enforcement personnel — are injured or killed. However, part of the article is not funny, and actually describes how some on the political left view this situation.

“Following recent ICE-related shootings, Democrat leaders stepped forward to remind the nation that everything would be much safer if law enforcement would just stop enforcing the law.

“According to Democrat lawmakers, the recent spate of violence and rioting could all have been avoided if law enforcement agents had just avoided conflict and sought peaceful resolutions by not preventing criminals from continuing to break the law.”

In their effort to end the valid removal of persons in the country illegally — a crime — protesters have well exceeded the U.S. Constitution’s protection of the people “peaceably to assemble,” leaving behind the idea of peaceful assembly. These protests are more appropriately labeled “riots.” They focus on interfering with law enforcement personnel, and often physical contact with them is part of trying to stop them from carrying out their duties.

There have been other such activities in our past, like those of the late 60s and early 70s brought on by the Vietnam War, and other things. Those gatherings started as peaceful protests but degenerated into riots with violence. However, these events started with inappropriate and illegal behavior.

In addition to the physical efforts to prevent law enforcement personnel from doing their job, these supporters of illegal aliens are threatening the agents, physically attacking them, doxing and vilifying them, and threatening their families, forcing them to wear masks.

As law enforcement tries to remove illegal aliens from the country to make it safer, these radical people are making things less safe and secure in an effort to stop them.

The woman who died was 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good. Those who support blocking efforts to deport illegal aliens described her as a terrified mother and poet who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Evidence suggests that description is inaccurate.

She was driving with her wife — her lesbian partner, identified as Becca Good — in the Minneapolis neighborhood where the active ICE operation was being conducted. She stopped her SUV diagonally across the road, deliberately blocking traffic. 

In a video, ICE agents are shown approaching Good’s SUV and issuing lawful orders for her to exit the car. She remained in the driver’s seat.

The video shows that her expression was not one of fear, but one resembling defiance. At the same time, Becca Good taunted the officers from behind the vehicle, saying, “You want to come at us? I say go get yourself some lunch, big boy.”

The officer who ultimately fired the fatal shot was wearing a video camera. The video shows Good backing the SUV up a little bit. She briefly made direct eye contact with the agent, who was then standing in front of the SUV, and then gunned the engine, and moved forward. Shots were then fired.

There have been opinions offered that the agent is alive and not seriously injured because of how he reacted. He was in danger and acted to protect himself, they say.

Renee and Becca Good, and others, were there specifically to interfer with ICE agents who were doing their job. They were there to create confrontation with law enforcement. And that is exactly what happened.

Becca Good, near the SUV where her spouse died, blamed herself for her having been killed. Speaking to a bystander who came to see what the commotion was, she replied, “I made her come down here, it’s my fault,” she said. “They just shot my wife.”

Most people do not want to see law enforcement personnel or protesters be injured or die. It is sad that Renee Good died. 

However, it is not difficult to prevent things like this from happening. If people want to protest what law enforcement is doing, they should do that peacefully, like carrying signs or chanting. But do not be involved in illegally interfering with law enforcement personnel performing their legal duties.

This woman’s tragic death and the injury to the ICE agent should be a lesson and a warning to those who may want to criminally interfere with law enforcement in the future.

Every New Year offers many opportunities for improvement

January 6, 2026

As we begin 2026, the 250th year of our country’s existence, and we look at the current state of affairs, we realize how far the country has moved away from our original values and traditions. Many wonder if the country can possibly move back to the traditions and values that made it great. And will it? 

Quite a few troubling things have happened in recent years. One of the most recent is the election of Zohran Mamdani as the Mayor of New York City. He identifies as a Shia Muslim and a democratic socialist. And he took the oath of office on the Islamic Quran when he was sworn in early on January 1, not on the Bible, as is customary.

He is not the first Muslim to serve in public office, of course, but is the first one to serve as New York’s mayor. He ran on and was elected on a radical, non-traditional platform of socialist/communist concepts. Yet he had wide support in the election, showing that lots of New Yorkers are fully behind his heavy socialist/communist beliefs and intentions, which run contrary to the traditions of America.

We have seen this attitude of moving away from traditions creep into education, resulting in many students graduating from high school underprepared for college or life in general. School systems and teachers improperly made changes in curricula and grading standards, and that has produced students with lower abilities, and non-traditional, and often inaccurate, beliefs.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in 2025 showed some of the worst scores ever. As reported in Newsmax magazine, some of those results are: 

* High school seniors reading comprehension is the worst since the early 1990s.

*More high school seniors were deficient in math and reading than in any previous NAEP assessment.

* High School seniors recorded their lowest scores ever.

* Only one in three U.S. high school seniors is adequately prepared for college math.

Perhaps as a result of these less well-prepared graduating seniors, many colleges and universities dropped using SAT or ACT scores for undergraduate admissions. Because so many students’ scores were below the acceptable level, admission requirements had to be eased, or students would not be admitted. Students were then admitted based on elements other than their academic abilities and learning level, such as the much loved, but dangerously foolish DEI concept — diversity, equity and inclusion.

Speaking to the change in the educational culture over recent years, Brian Mueller, president of Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona, noted that “It’s very dangerous when we have 20- and 21-year-olds in our country who don’t understand 20th-century Western civilization and its history.”

And, there is a generation gap where younger generations have different ideas about such things as work ethic, moral values, the respect they show others, political views, religious beliefs, free speech, and marriage and having children.

Where crime is concerned, people’s attitudes towards dealing with criminals is somewhat troublesome. A poll in 2025 asking about the best way to fight crime showed that only 25 percent of respondents thought tougher sentencing was the most effective way to reduce crime. More mental health and addiction services were preferred by 28 percent, 22 percent liked a greater police presence as the best approach, and 16 percent thought more community programs were best. Harsh punishment for serious crimes is a better support for law and order.

The high number of violent crimes — such as murder, rape, and assault — committed by persons previously convicted of crimes, but given light sentences, or no sentences, ought to be a wake-up call to the soft-on-crime prosecutors and judges in office, of which there are far too many. Hopefully, it will be.

During the Biden administration the Justice Department indicted Venezuelan “President” Maduro and his wife for crimes against America, offered a huge reward for his capture, but nothing happened. Last weekend, the Trump administration sent military and law enforcement personnel there and arrested the Maduros after those crimes continued in Trump’s first year of office, despite warnings and actions to stop the drug boats smuggling drugs into the U.S. 

Venezuelans in Venezuela, America and all over the world, are thrilled and celebrating that the man who ruined their country and their lives has been arrested. But American leftists are outraged, either not knowing or not caring that similar actions have been legally and constitutionally taken by former presidents Biden, Obama, Clinton and both George Bushes.

There are some signs of returning to the better days. In higher education, for example, civics and traditional American values are showing up, again. Harvard, Brown and Princeton universities are tightening up acceptance requirements. 

Law professor Jonathon Turley commented that those changes to lower standards was an “ill-conceived and poorly supported movement to achieve greater equity and diversity by eliminating standardized testing in higher education.” “In other words, test scores remain the best indicator for continued performance in college,” Turley added.

If our country is to remain strong and the leader of the world in individual freedom and sensible, productive ways of doing things, we must restore the traditional values that built the nation and successfully sustained it for more than 200 years.

As 2025 ends, we should be thrilled that it isn’t like 2024

December 30, 2025

President Donald Trump’s critics are complaining that the world is ending because not everything he campaigned on has been completed. And his popularity is suffering.

But the facts say otherwise: inflation is down significantly, the markets are up, GDP is growing, borders are far more secure, and trade is booming.

Another of the good things that Trump worked on was to end or reduce conflicts between countries. And agreements have been achieved between Israel and Gaza; Israel and Iran; the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda; Armenia and Azerbaijan; India and Pakistan; Thailand and Cambodia; and Egypt and Ethiopia.

Trump has had a varying degree of involvement with resolving these conflicts, being more involved in some than with others. But he has done quite a lot to broker peace among nations in conflict. And, he has been credited for his role by nearly all of these nations.

Crime analyst Jeff Asher has said the United States is on track for the largest one-year drop in murders ever recorded. He cited year-over-year data from the Real Time Crime index showing that the murder rate has decreased nationally from 2024 to 2025 by almost 20 percent.

The growth rate of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the fourth quarter of calendar year 2024 was just slightly higher than recessionary levels, a pitiful 2.4 percent. However, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis tells us that by the third quarter of 2025 — the last complete quarter — the rate was 4.2 percent. This shows that the economic policies of the Trump administration have increased the growth rate of GDP by 79 percent over the last year of the pathetic Biden administration. 

This was accomplished in less than a full year, and the Trump team calls this an historic economic achievement.

The Washington Examiner reported that since Trump took office about 595,000 illegal aliens have been arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) between Jan. 20 and Dec. 11, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

According to ICE, 70 percent, or approximately 416,000 illegals, had "criminal convictions or pending criminal charges" in the United States. This supports Trump’s promise to focus on getting the "worst of the worst.”

ICE officials also noted that even those without criminal records in the U.S. can still pose threats to public safety, saying that many are wanted for violent crimes in other countries, or are tied to gangs, terrorism and serious crimes.

And, illegal border crossings are at the lowest level ever recorded, according to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem.

“In President Trump’s first year back in office, more than 2.5 million illegal aliens have left the U.S. because of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, including an estimated 1.9 million self-deportations and more than 622,000 deportations,” as reported on the DHS website.

As deportations — both voluntary and by government — continue, and border security virtually stops illegal entry, the country is much safer. Murders, rapes, drug and child trafficking and other crimes caused by illegal aliens are much less common now.

Gas prices in 2024 were averaging around $3 per gallon for regular. Today, that per gallon average price is $2.85, but some much lower prices are available. Prices are as low as $2.25 in some places.

It should be recognized that reducing prices is much more difficult and takes longer than raising prices. Prices can be raised at any time, and for no reason at all. Lowering prices, however, depends on other factors, such as the price of components used in producing products, transportation costs, and economic conditions, and can take a fairly long time.

Some good things have happened in 2025.

And now for something completely different.

One of the bright spots for many people is following the comments of Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana. He has a way with words that is certainly entertaining.

Some examples:

“For my first eight years I lived in a small, overpriced one-bedroom apartment. … I would describe the design aesthetic as ‘early Salvation Army.’” 

“Either way, I have to dodge reporters, who are like stray dogs — once you feed them, you can’t get rid of them. … Reporters are also like hyenas. They hunt in packs.”

“This amendment is all Henry and no Kissinger.”

“But it’s undeniable that many Americans believe that the brain is an amazing organ — it starts working in the mother’s womb and doesn’t stop until you get elected to Congress.”

“For as long as I can remember, one thing has been true about me: I have the right to remain silent, but not the ability.”

“Welfare, I believe, was meant to be a bridge, not a parking lot.”

“Most nights, when I come home to my little Capitol Hill apartment, I’ve got two wheels down and my axle dragging.”

“Put another way, you don’t have to be crazy to serve in the Senate; they will happily train you.”

“I observed to a reporter one time that you can lead a person to Congress but you can’t make him think.”

“Maybe it’s because we both understand that you can’t make everyone happy unless you are alcohol.”

Happy New Year!