https://apnews.com/article/election-2026-trump-voting-doj-interference-22e2313f98e354fa31f277d3a1dc67d3

If history is a guide, Republicans stand a good chance of losing control of the House of Representatives in 2026. They have just a slim majority in the chamber, and the incumbent party usually gives up seats in midterm elections.

President Donald Trump, whose loss of the House halfway through his first term led to two impeachments, is trying to keep history from repeating — and doing so in ways his opponents say are intended to manipulate next year’s election landscape.

He has rallied his party to remake congressional maps across the country to create more conservative-leaning House seats, an effort that could end up backfiring on him. He’s directed his administration to target Democratic politicians, activists and donors. And, Democrats worry, he’s flexing his muscles to intervene in the midterms like no administration ever has.

Democrats and other critics point to how Trump has sent the military into Democratic cities over the objections of Democratic mayors and governors. They note that he’s pushed the Department of Homeland Security to be so aggressive that at one point its agents handcuffed a Democratic U.S. senator. And some warn that a Republican-controlled Congress could fail to seat winning candidates if Democrats reclaim the House majority, recalling Trump’s efforts to stay in power even after voters rejected him in 2020, leading to the violent attack by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol.

Regarding potential military deployments, Ken Martin, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, told The Associated Press: “What he is going to do is send those troops there, and keep them there all the way through the next election, because guess what? If people are afraid of leaving their house, they’re probably not going to leave their house to go vote on Election Day. That’s how he stays in power.”

U.S. Finds Ukraine Didn’t Target Putin in Drone Strike.
Disclosure of the findings comes as Trump appeared to play down the Russian claim of an attempted drone attack.
https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/u-s-finds-ukraine-didnt-target-putin-in-drone-strike-615ce4be
WASHINGTON—U.S. national-security officials said Wednesday that Ukraine didn’t target Russian President Vladimir Putin or one of his residences in an alleged drone operation, challenging Moscow’s assertion that Kyiv sought to kill the Russian leader.
That conclusion is supported by a Central Intelligence Agency assessment that found no attempted attack against Putin had occurred, according to a U.S. official briefed on the intelligence. The CIA declined to comment.

The December 16, 2025, jobs report confirms that the stall observed since spring has hardened into a structural contraction. While the public narrative remains anchored to the headline “resilience,” a closer interrogation reveals that 2025 was the year we sub-primed our own workforce.

While headlines celebrated a soft landing, the underlying labor market was experiencing a phantom jobs reversal. January 2025 began with a surplus of 751,000 job openings; by December, the market moved into a deficit of 131,000 jobs—an 882,000 swing in labor-market balance. With Chair Powell’s December 10 admission of a 60,000 monthly overcount, the labor market has actually been contracting by 20,000 jobs per month since April.

We are also watching the real-time collapse of household solvency. The backbone of the American economy is being pushed from stable, professional roles into low-tier service work, resulting in an immediate 49% drop in income, and then financing their children’s basic nutrition with shadow debt. This isn’t just a failure of equity; it is a strategic economic blunder. You cannot stabilize a 2026 economy if you refuse to look at the demographic where the insolvency is actually occurring.

When workers are erased from the labor force, they don’t just leave empty desks; they leave empty tax rolls, and increasingly, unpaid debts. In 2025, we witnessed the early stages of an institutional bank run that fractured the financial system from both ends.

On December 12, 2025, the Federal Reserve validated this instability by initiating a $40 billion monthly liquidity injection to stabilize the banking system. This solvency crisis is inextricably linked to labor force erasure.

The results are in. Fixing the cracks in the economy is to stop erasing the people who hold it together. The bill is due and we will either pay it with investment or with stagnation.

https://fortune.com/2025/12/31/soft-landing-economic-narrative-wrong-black-women-unemployment/

> 12/31/2025
Happy New Year 2026 - I put this day for Part 26 on purpose.

A very TACO New Years: Trump chickens out from the National Guard from multiple areas.
> https://www.sfgate.com/article/21270403.php
Happy New Year!
> https://www.dw.com/en/new-years-eve-live-world-ushers-in-2026/live-75348280
Trump to add his arch to Washington D.C.
> https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ar-AA1Tm91O
London NYE panic as people told not to there.
> https://www.express.co.uk/news/2151921
What a new year!: People going back to the moon!
> https://archive.is/gsh0x
Houston has a serial killer problem.
> https://www.the-sun.com/news/15713982
Beijing made the World’s biggest movie, sans the help of America.
> https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/ar-AA1TmMZZ
France to ban children on Social Media.
> https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2025/12/31/france-seeks-to-ban-social-media-for-children-under-15_6748972_7.html
Give it time… Ba dum tsss!: 2025 is not “over fast enough.”
> https://mattlabash.substack.com/p/2025-is-finally-overbut-not-soon
Musk 2025: How the world’s richest man became its most chaotic (Hint: Money.)
> https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/dec/31/elon-musk-doge-tesla-ai-trump
Heads up: Another government shutdown a month away?!
> https://thehill.com/homenews/5662636
Repeat: ‘Naturphobia’ is out there.
> https://studyfinds.org/biophobia-growing-fear-of-nature/
Trump supporters go to and harass Tim Walz at his home.
> https://www.themirror.com/news/politics/tim-walz-harassment-continues-people-1585372
Megyn Kelly rips Mark Levin for trying to cancel her for being a “bigot”.
> https://www.mediaite.com/politics/megyn-kelly-rips-old-irrelevant-bitter-angry-man-mark-levin-after-fox-host-tries-to-cancel-her-for-being-a-bigot/
Venezuelan tanker can’t be touched by us since it has Russian protection…
> https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/oil-tanker-pursued-by-the-u-s-appears-to-claim-russian-protection-2d10ecd2

https://apnews.com/article/fbi-islamic-state-group-attack-charlotte-44f31a4463af3d68c3f9c5f2eaac8057
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The FBI said Friday it disrupted a New Year’s Eve attack plot targeting a grocery store and fast-food restaurant in North Carolina, arresting an 18-year-old man who authorities say pledged loyalty to the Islamic State group.
Christian Sturdivant was charged with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Investigators said he told an undercover FBI employee posing as a supportive confidant about his plans to attack people. Their online messages, along with a recent search of his home, indicated attacks would occur with knives and hammers, according to prosecutors and records.
Worried Sturdivant might attempt violence before New Year’s Eve, the FBI placed him under constant surveillance for days, including on Christmas, U.S. Attorney for Western North Carolina Russ Ferguson said.
Agents were prepared to arrest him earlier if he left his home with weapons, Ferguson said at a news conference in Charlotte. “At no point was the public in harm’s way.”

Sturdivant was arrested Wednesday and remained in custody after a federal court appearance Friday. An attorney representing him did not immediately respond to an email or phone message seeking comment. Another hearing was scheduled for Jan. 7.
The alleged attack would have taken place one year after 14 people were killed in New Orleans by a U.S. citizen and Army veteran who proclaimed support for IS on social media.
Searches of Sturdivant’s home and phone uncovered what investigators described as a manifesto detailing plans for the attack.
A handwritten note found in a trash can at Sturdivant’s home listed details of the planned attacks and the number of intended victims at a Burger King restaurant and unnamed grocery store, according to an FBI affidavit.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=r8AulCA1aOQ

Quality "Learing" Center.
Independent YouTube journalist uncovers a daycare inside a warehouse in Minnesota with no children, and it's fraudulently receiving millions yearly.
He also discovered a second warehouse with 22 shell health companies, no daytime employees, also fraudulently receiving millions in government funding every year.

https://fortune.com/2025/12/30/did-minnesota-lose-federal-funding-youtube-somali-daycare-fraud/

YouTuber’s viral ‘Somali day care’ video spurs sweeping federal fraud probe in Minnesota as Walz defends oversight of $18 billion

A viral video alleging fraud at several Minnesota day-care centers has triggered intensified federal and state scrutiny of how public money is spent. At the same time, officials stress that the claims remain unproven and are under active investigation.

The clash between online allegations and official audits has put Gov. Tim Walz’s administration and the state’s oversight systems under a national spotlight. It comes against the backdrop of a federal prosecutor’s allegation earlier in December that half or more of approximately $18 billion in federal funds allocated to Minnesota since 2018 may have been stolen. Authorities stress that the day-care sites in conservative YouTuber Nick Shirley’s footage are now part of an expanded investigative map. Still, they have not publicly alleged a specific dollar figure of confirmed fraud tied to those particular centers.

Shirley posted a roughly 40‑minute video late last week, documenting visits to nearly a dozen day-care centers in Minnesota that appear largely empty or inactive despite, as Shirley claims, receiving public funds. The video, shared on YouTube and X, has amassed nearly 2 million direct views in three days, as well as tens of millions of impressions across platforms, and has rapidly circulated under hashtags referencing “day-care fraud” and “Somali” centers.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/elon-musks-ai-startup-xai-104608003.html
(Bloomberg) - Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok has created sexualized images of people including minors on the social media platform X in response to user prompts in recent days, drawing rebuke from officials such as the French government.

Grok created and published images of minors in minimal clothing, in apparent violation of its own acceptable use policy, which prohibits the sexualization of children. Some of the offending images were later taken down.

The French government accused Grok of generating “clearly illegal” sexual content on X without people’s consent, flagging the matter as potentially violating the EU’s Digital Services Act. The regulation requires large platforms to mitigate the risk of illegal content spreading.

Representatives for xAI, the company that develops Grok and runs X, didn’t respond to requests for comment. The chatbot Grok generated a post on X in response to users’ questions on Friday that it had identified “lapses in safeguards” that were being “urgently” fixed. It echoed xAI employee Parsa Tajik who earlier posted that “the team is looking into further tightening” its guardrails.

X users can interact with Grok directly on the platform by tagging its account in posts and prompting the chatbot to respond. Grok generates text and images that appear as posts on the social network.

The rise of AI tools that can generate realistic pictures of undressed minors highlights the challenges of content moderation and safety systems built into image-generating large language models. Tools that claim to have guardrails can be manipulated, allowing for the proliferation of material that has alarmed child safety advocates. The Internet Watch Foundation, a nonprofit that identifies child sexual abuse material online, reported a 400% increase in such AI-generated imagery in the first six months of 2025.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/11/us-plans-to-ask-visitors-to-share-5-years-of-social-media-history-to-enter

Visitors who are eligible to enter the United States without a visa may soon be required to provide the Department of Homeland Security with significantly more personal information, including details about their social media activity, email accounts and family background.

According to a notice published on Wednesday in the Federal Register, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is proposing to collect up to five years of social media data from travelers from certain visa-waiver countries.

The proposed requirement would apply to travellers using the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) under the Visa Waiver Program, which allows citizens of 42 countries – including the United Kingdom, Germany, Qatar, Greece, Malta, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Israel and South Korea – to travel to the US for tourism or business for up to 90 days.

Currently, the ESTA automatically screens applicants and grants travel approval without requiring an in-person interview at a US embassy or consulate, unlike standard visa applications.

At present, ESTA applicants are required to provide a more limited set of information, such as their parents’ names, current email address, and details of any past criminal record.

A question asking travellers to disclose their social media information was first added to the ESTA application in 2016, though it has remained optional.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/suspect-charlie-kirk-killing-makes-first-in-court-appearance-2025-12-11/
Dec 11 (Reuters) - Tyler Robinson, the accused killer of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, made his first in-person court appearance on Thursday as a judge heard arguments on what level of media access should be allowed in the high-profile criminal case.
Robinson, wearing a dress shirt and striped tie, talked with his lawyers, at times smiling, after he was brought into the Provo, Utah, courtroom in handcuffs and shackles. Robinson's parents and brother were present, his lawyer Richard Novak said. His mother wiped away tears as he entered, according to a Salt Lake Tribune reporter present in the courtroom.
Local television stations showed an armored SWAT truck in the convoy of vehicles that brought Robinson, 22, to the courthouse about four miles (6 km) from where Kirk, 31, an ally of President Donald Trump, was shot dead on September 10.
U.S. District Court Judge Tony Graf heard arguments from Robinson's attorneys who want to ban cameras from the courtroom in a case that has drawn extraordinary media attention. David Reymann, an attorney representing media organizations, called on the court to grant his clients access to recordings and transcripts from closed-session court hearings in the case.
"We don't want the chaos that is out in the media in this courtroom," said Robinson's attorney Staci Visser.
Graf scheduled a December 29 video call to give his ruling on media access and set May 18-21 for an in-person preliminary hearing.
At the request of state prosecutors, Graf designated Erika Kirk, Kirk's widow, as the victim representative in the case.
Robinson is accused of firing a single round from a rooftop that killed Kirk during a Turning Point USA event on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem, about 40 miles (65 km) south of Salt Lake City, as Kirk debated with students.

https://www.texastribune.org/2025/12/19/texas-judge-same-sex-marriage-supreme-court-obergefell/

A Waco justice of the peace who refused to marry same-sex couples filed a federal lawsuit Friday that asks the courts to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 Supreme Court decision that recognized same-sex marriage nationwide.

The case, filed by Judge Dianne Hensley against the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, asserts that the Obergefell ruling was unconstitutional because it “subordinat[ed] state law to the policy preferences of unelected judges.” Hensley is represented by Jonathan Mitchell, a conservative attorney best known as the architect of Texas’ 2021 abortion ban that skirted around the legal protections of Roe v. Wade.

“The federal judiciary has no authority to recognize or invent ‘fundamental’ constitutional rights,” Mitchell wrote.

In November, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up a similar case from Kim Davis, a former Kentucky county clerk.

While Mitchell acknowledged that a lower court does not have the authority to overturn a Supreme Court precedent, he indicated in the filing that he was introducing this argument now with the hopes of the case eventually reaching the high court.

Hensley’s case goes back to 2015, soon after the Supreme Court’s decision, when she opted to stop performing marriages due to her religious opposition to same-sex marriage. The next year, she resumed performing marriages for opposite-sex couples and began referring same-sex couples to other officiants.