AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD:

We knew the nation was in for rough times ahead, when early in Biden’s time as a presidential figurehead, the White House that nominally bore his name released a photo that appeared to make Joe and Jill tower over Jimmy and Rosalynn:

The New York Times and other DNC house organs attempted to craft explainers about the weird photo: Wide-Angle Oddity: Giant Bidens Meet Tiny Carters.

In a thread on Reddit that was full of Hobbit jokes, others countered that perhaps age had shrunk the former president to three feet. Or maybe, some wondered, there was something going on with the lens.

So which is it?

Reached by phone Adam Schultz, the chief official White House photographer, confirmed that he took the photo but declined to explain. “It’s for people to figure out and think about,” he said.

Everybody else in the Biden White House gaslit voters with haughty derision, apparently their photographer thought he should get in on the act as well.

Related: The memorial for Jimmy Carter should definitely do this, to give just a taste of the many ignominies of life in the Carter era:

“If you owned a car this May 9th in 1979, you were no doubt preoccupied with what number your license plate ended in. Because gas rationing was being enforced and was strictly limited to odd numbered or Personalized license plates on this day.”

IT’S MERELY THE SICKEST PUFF PIECE THE AP HAS WRITTEN SO FAR: Is This the Sickest Puff Piece The Associated Press Has Ever Written? “McBride is about to be one of the most celebrated congressmen in Washington — not because of anything he may accomplish, but because he is mentally ill.”

PUNCH BACK TWICE AS HARD:

Having been called a liar by Anthony Fauci for stating that "not one of the 72 vaccines mandated for children has ever been safety tested*", RFK Jr. sued Fauci.

After a year of legal stalling, Fauci's lawyers finally admitted that RFK Jr. had been correct all along.

"There's no… pic.twitter.com/0pLNe93yAh

— Wide Awake Media (@wideawake_media) December 30, 2024

DALE FRANKS: From Legacy to History: The End of the Post-WWII Era.

America’s appetite for debt has ballooned dramatically, leaving us with $36 trillion in national debt, and an additional $55 trillion (at least) in unfunded Social Security obligations. Interest on the national debt now takes up $1 trillion annually. At this point, Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, and debt service cost more than all the tax revenues the US government collects every year. Every penny we spend on the departments of Defense, Commerce, Treasury, Justice, etc. is borrowed. This unsustainable level of debt is pushing us ever closer to a default on our debt.

If that happens, the US will almost certainly lose its status as the world’s reserve currency, which would cause trillions of dollars in cash, currently held in foreign hands, to come flooding back into the US. This could spark massive inflation, perhaps hyperinflation. The inevitable resulting cuts to, among other things, defense spending, means that the US guarantee of global freedom of the seas and trade will have to end, because we’ll be incapable of providing it. But, even if we avoid that, the only option open to do so is massive cuts in government spending, which again, will have to fall greatly on defense, since it’s the largest portion of discretionary spending, by far. Either way, we aren’t going to have a Reagan-era 600-ship navy to patrol the seas and secure global trade routes.

Nor is there any immediate prospect of anyone stepping into fill our shoes. There’s no globe-spanning Royal Navy, for instance. Without the threat of military retaliation, chances are high that other states, or even non-state actors, will move to make global trade less secure.

In very short order we’ve moved from the bipolar order of the Cold War to a unipolar order (circa 1991-2009) to a multipolar order — and it looks like we’re headed toward nonpolar disorder.

2024 WASHINGTON FREE BEACON MAN OF THE YEAR: The Squatter Hunter.

After watching, waiting, and studying the squatters’ daily routines, the Squatter Hunter (as [“Flash”] Shelton is known) goes into action: He’ll change the locks, install ring cameras, and film the squatters while threatening to embarrass them on the internet. If that doesn’t work, he will move in with five or six other friends and, in his words, “turn it into a reality show.” He’ll even do “renovations” involving chainsaws. (Our strategy would have involved several cans of baked beans.)

Shelton, an ex-bouncer, is quick to remind homeowners to document encounters and never go alone. He carries a Glock and is experienced with deescalation tactics (he also wears a baseball cap that says “Get Out”). As Shelton told John Stossel, “They are not homeless people. They’re criminals. They’re people that are taking advantage of the system.”

Until now. Earlier this year, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law a bill ending squatters’ rights in Florida. Standing behind the governor was Flash Shelton, the Squatter Hunter himself and, now, a 2024 Washington Free Beacon Man of the Year.

In California, the Squatter Hunter is increasingly necessary to take back legal property, and at the start of the year, the Daily Caller noted that: Crime Has Gotten So Bad In Oakland That Companies Are Now Paying For Security Escorts To Protect Employees.

As Glenn has written, “the breakdown of law and order won’t go as [leftists] hope. Ultimately, the police are there to protect criminals from the populace, not the other way around. Get rid of the police, and armed vigilantism is what you’ll get. And what you’ll deserve.”

See also, the rise of private security forces in Detroit, over a decade ago:

RAZIB KHAN: We were selected: tracing what humans were made for: Counting down 2024’s three biggest ancient DNA findings: number 3.

DEROY MURDOCK: Tonight, we’re gonna party like it’s 2019!

Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, and the new Department of Government Efficiency should help President re-elect Donald J. Trump implement a straightforward reform: Return federal spending to 2019 levels.

Americans lived large just before COVID-19. On New Year’s Eve 2019 — nearly five years ago — the US economy boomed. Real annual GDP grew 2.5%. Unemployment was just 3.5% and at or near record depths for blacks, Hispanics, and Americans of Asian descent. Female joblessness was at its lowest point since Eisenhower!

The economy blossomed amid robust federal spending that totaled $5.46 trillion. Uncle Sam was no aloof skinflint back then. Paring Washington’s activities to that pace will not starve babies or steer seniors into the streets.

So, as 2025 beckons, America should restore the budget threshold that prevailed before the China virus ruined everything. It sandbagged the US economy, sickened seemingly everyone, and — the Centers for Disease Control report — between January 11, 2020 and December 14, 2024, it killed 1,213,622 Americans.

These microbes (most likely from the Chinese Communist Party’s Wuhan Institute of Virology) also triggered some $2.48 trillion in emergency spending to relieve a totally quarantined national workforce, support padlocked employers, underwrite medical assistance, finance vaccine research, and otherwise shake the disease that gripped America and pounded the globe.

This once-in-a-century calamity guaranteed Big Government. Especially after it crippled the private sector, such federal activity and expenditures were unsurprising and not entirely unjustified.

* * * * * * * * *

Pruning Big Government to pre-COVID-19 dimensions and challenging every subsequent dollar will give America a fighting chance to deserve our 250th birthday in 2026 and survive until our tricentennial in 2076.

It seems like a simple benchmark to reach, but then, the amount of waste that could be cut out of the 21^st-century federal government is bottomless.

SAD: Ellen Page Still Looks Miserable After Succumbing to the Trans Cult

CONGRATS JOE, I ALWAYS KNEW YOU HAD IT IN YOU:

Biden Finally Claims Title Of Worst Living President https://t.co/JCvRMZht2H pic.twitter.com/yEbN0SNEl7

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) December 30, 2024

LIMITED TIME DEAL: TurboTax Deluxe 2024 Tax Software, Federal & State Tax Return. #CommissionEarned

UGH: Documented norovirus cases rising but might not tell full story on total infections.

IT WILL BE SO NICE IN THREE WEEKS WHEN THE SO-CALLED GROWN-UPS ARE NO LONGER IN CHARGE:

Israel rejected an American request to transfer weapons to the Palestinian Authority.

The Biden administration's request follows the PA's operation in the Jenin refugee camp. Senior security officials say that in light of past experience, Israel fears a "reverse-fire" scenario…

— Cheryl E 🇮🇱🇮🇱🇮🇱🎗️ (@CherylWroteIt) December 30, 2024

This reply nailed it: “Am I reading this right? Biden wanted Israel to agree to hand over weapons to the people they’re at war with and whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel?”

I’M PRETTY SURE THE MEN IN BLACK MEMORY ERASER TOOL WASN’T MEANT TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY: Labour urged to drop ‘Western-centric’ science in school curriculum.

Royal societies are urging the Government to make science less “Western” in an overhaul of the school curriculum.

Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, announced an overhaul of the curriculum that explicitly aims to make subjects better reflect the “diversities of our society”.

A committee leading the Department for Education’s curriculum review is currently considering the proposals of Royal societies, teaching unions, and other experts.

Prestigious scientific institutions have supported the call for diversity, and proposed the teaching of more “non-Western” discoveries.

The Royal Society of Biology has advised the committee that children should be taught about “non-Western contributions to the sciences”.

The society has recommended a “no more heroes” approach which avoids “prescriptive lists of historic figures in biology” in favour of “diverse historic and contemporary figures”.

This builds on the society’s previous work on the curriculum, which claimed: “Science is universal, has been and is carried out in all cultures at all ages, creating a diverse scientific global community.”

‘Wokerati’

Richard Tice, the Reform UK deputy leader, told The Telegraph that he thought the plans were “a ludicrous proposal from the wokerati”.

He added: “We need more historic British heroes and achievements to be taught to our children, not less.”

Laura Trott MP, the shadow education secretary, said: “Labour’s curriculum changes will drive down educational standards.

“Instead of continuing with a rich, knowledge-based curriculum which has led to our children being the best readers and mathematicians in the Western world, they are tearing it all up.

“Pure education vandalism once again.”

In the 1980s, Tom Wolfe proposed that the 21^st century be the era of “The Great Relearning.” Instead, because the left knows it can’t compete with the great men of the past, the great unlearning marches on.

KNOWING THE ANSWER BEFORE KNOWING THE QUESTION: Legacy Media: Trump MUST Be Wrong.

EVEN THE TRANSITION IS MUCH SMOOTHER THAN IT WAS EIGHT YEARS AGO: Here’s A Great Sign That the New Trump Admin Will Be a Well-Oiled Machine.

SOMETIMES YOU NEED TO BE YOUR OWN FIRST RESPONDER: Wider Civilian Firearm Ownership After 10/7 Has Been an Adjustment for Many Israelis.

GOOD RIDDANCE: Obama’s ‘Censorship’ Office Goes Bankrupt. “The Global Engagement Center, an office housed within the State Department and aiming to thwart disinformation and misinformation, has been forced by Congress to close up shop. It’s no mystery why; the taxpayer-backed GEC violated its mandate to work only overseas and devolved into a partisan enabler of speech suppression in the United States.”

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: China Hacks the U.S. Treasury. “According to the report, this was a state-sponsored attack, and the hacker was affiliated with the Chinese government.”

PJ MANAGING EDITOR TAKES A KNEE: Paula Bolyard, our long-suffering Managing Editor at PJ Media, is having a knee replaced tomorrow. (Make that Thursday. What day is it anyway.) Being both a writer and a CrossFit devotee, she will of course be writing about it at her Substack Paula Bolyard—CrossFit, Conservatism, and Christianity.

Catch her there. Is should be easy, she won’t be able to run very fast.

As long as I’m here, I’m sure she’d like me to let you know there is a 60 percent off special through tomorrow for VIP membership at PJ Media, which among other things entitles you to our paid VIP content like my Sky Candy series. Use promo code FIGHT. Make Paula happy.

READER FAVORITE: MMA Gear Boxing Ball – Boxing Reflex Ball with Adjustable Strap. #CommissionEarned

OLD AND COLD: Schumer mocks GOP: ‘Nobody is taking away your gas stove.’

The New Hotness: CA Gov. Newsom is Banning Gas Cars, Gas Stoves, Gas Furnaces, Gas Water Heaters.

Rather, that’s the new hotness, assuming the sun is shining or the wind is blowing, and your household battery pack didn’t catch fire. Otherwise, Newsom is happy to let you shiver in the dark.

THE KEY WORD HERE IS “YET.”

One week ago, Biden committed his most evil, inexcusable abuse of power yet. See what one heartbroken dad had to say in response.https://t.co/BpQGZvLpj5

— NTB Takes (@NTBTakes) December 30, 2024

12 YEARS WORTH OF CHICKENS FINALLY COMING HOME TO ROOST: Obama and Biden Just Achieved the Impossible.

RATS, SINKING SHIP, ETC: ATF Director Dettelbach Reportedly Resigning Before Being Fired by the New Trump Administration.

JEFFREY CARTER: If people want to immigrate to the United States, make them pay. “However, to understand the meaning behind charging for immigration, there has to be background. Here goes. I do think that you have to separate immigration from other issues that have risen to the top in the fiery X debate on immigration. For example, American culture used to have a higher tolerance for failure. Our educational system used to be great and now it stinks. Those tie into arguments around human capital but are separate from immigration. For example, if America had 0 immigrants, our public educational system would still stink. . . . By charging for immigration, there would be a psychological difference in the kind of immigrant. They would pay the price to immigrate, and a psychological construct would be created, they would become ‘American’ by paying that price. That means assimilation happens faster.”