“The Trump administration on Tuesday designated another Latin American drug cartel as a foreign terrorist organization, increasing financial pressure on its members and opening the door to potential military action against them. The U.S. State Department said Clan del Golfo, which is based in Colombia, has been listed both as a foreign and a global terrorist group, calling it a ‘violent and powerful criminal organization’ that uses cocaine trafficking to fund violent activities. ‘Clan del Golfo is responsible for terrorist attacks against public officials, law enforcement and military personnel, and civilians in Colombia’, the statement said. The designation comes after the Trump administration in September added Colombia to a list of nations failing to cooperate in the drug war for the first time in almost 30 years.” (12/16/25)
“The Grinch is stealing hundreds of billions of dollars of welfare benefits from America’s needy, and Democrats couldn’t care less. The broadening scandal in Minnesota, where Somali criminals allegedly stole more than a billion dollars in taxpayer funds under the indulgent eyes of Democrat Governor Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison and other state officials, is the tip of the iceberg. All around the country, there is growing evidence that programs meant to serve the poor, the hungry and the homeless have been scammed; rather than investigate the frauds and prosecute those responsible, Democrats denounce efforts by those trying to stop the theft.” (12/16/25)
“Canada will now extend automatic citizenship to children born or adopted abroad to a Canadian parent also born outside the country. There are conditions to the ‘Lost Canadian’ rules that came into effect on Monday – the Canadian parent must show a substantial connection’ to the country by having spent at least three years there prior to their child’s birth or adoption. ‘Lost Canadians’ refers to people who lost or never acquired citizenship because of what Ottawa deemed ‘outdated provisions’ of its citizenship laws. The changes on Monday stem from a 2023 Ontario court decision that ruled parts of the law limiting citizenship by descent were unconstitutional. The court ruling came after the federal government under former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper passed a law in 2009 that removed the automatic right to citizenship for descendants of Canadians born abroad.” (12/16/25)
“The U.S. Capitol on Tuesday began displaying a statue of a teenaged Barbara Rose Johns as she protested poor conditions at her segregated Virginia high school, a pointed replacement for a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that was removed several years ago. An unveiling ceremony of the statue representing Virginia in the Capitol was taking place in Emancipation Hall, featuring Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Virginia’s congressional delegation. Johnson said more than 200 members of Johns’ family were on hand, listening on as the ceremony opened with a rendition of ‘How Great Thou Art’ performed by the Eastern Senior High School choir in Washington.” (12/16/25)
“Kathryn Bigelow’s gripping film A House of Dynamite vividly depicts the contradictions and failings of U.S. nuclear weapons strategy in 2025. In the film, no one knows where a single intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) aimed at Chicago is coming from. No one can shoot it down. Senior civilian bureaucrats and military officers race around in search of an impossible solution. The clock keeps ticking to 19 minutes before impact. The U.S. president, the man with his finger on the button, is torn by conflicting options. Do we retaliate? Against whom? How can we avoid escalating to apocalyptic nuclear war? Ten million people are condemned to die from the detonation of this mystery missile.” (12/16/25)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Two shooters attacked a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach on Sunday, killing fifteen people and injuring dozens of others. Police report that the shooters were a father and his son; the father was killed by police, and the son was captured. The shooters appear to have been Muslim, but, much to the inconvenience of those who would like to use this incident to fan the flames of western Islamophobic hysteria, the man who selflessly risked his life to disarm one of them was also a Muslim father of two named Ahmed al-Ahmed. As usual we’re seeing a lot of speculation about false flags and psyops regarding this incident, but I prefer to hang back from such commentary until I’ve seen some solid evidence. I do have some thoughts about the public discourse we are seeing about the shooting right now, though.” (12/15/25)
Source: Brennan Center for Justice
by Michael Waldman
“The 2026 election will take place in a political system that is divided, discordant, flagrantly gerrymandered, and marked by widening racial discrimination. Thank Chief Justice John Roberts and his colleagues on the Supreme Court. And the supermajority of highly activist justices seems poised, even eager, to make things appreciably worse. In 2019, in Rucho v. Common Cause, the Court refused to adopt any standard to police partisan gerrymandering, and it even prevented federal courts from hearing that claim. Fast-forward through a census, six years of line-drawing, and a flurry of lawsuits, and predictably, our democracy has become much less fair. Redistricting is supposed to take place once a decade, after the census. In fact, that’s why the census is written into the Constitution. But earlier this year, Texas abruptly drew new congressional maps in a gambit to squeeze out five extra seats for Republicans.” (12/15/25)
“California used to be the place where people went to chase dreams. Today, it’s the place where fiscal discipline goes to die. The Golden State, which is home to Hollywood glitz, Silicon Valley billionaires and the highest state taxes in America, is broke again. It’s staring down another multibillion-dollar deficit that exposes just how unstable and dysfunctional its financial model has become. In short, the Golden State isn’t so golden anymore. For years, politicians like Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom have insisted that California is the shining example of fiscal sensibility that America should follow. But when you peel back the layers, what you really find is a state government that can’t stop spending, can’t plan for the future and is now caught in a structural budget crisis of its own making.” (12/15/25)
“Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi was taken to hospital after being beaten when she was arrested last week, her family says. The 53-year-old human rights activist told them in a phone call on Sunday that she was brought to an emergency department twice after being ‘attacked by plain clothed agents with severe and repeated baton blows to the head and neck’, according to the Narges Foundation. There was no comment from Iranian authorities, but they have said she was detained for making ‘provocative remarks’ at a memorial ceremony in the city of Mashhad on Friday. The Nobel Committee and award-winning film-maker Jafar Panahi are among those calling for her release. Ms Mohammadi, the vice-president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran, was awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize for her activism against female oppression in Iran and promoting human rights.” (12/15/25)
“I write this from the front of a Columbia classroom in which about 60 first-year college students are taking the final exam for Frontiers of Science. Yes, it’s a Sunday, but the class is required of all Columbia College students and so having the exam on the weekend ensures that there won’t be conflicts with the exams for other courses they are taking. The 60 students in my classroom are a fraction of the nearly 740 taking the course this semester. The exam began at 2 pm, less than 24 hours after the shooting at Brown University, and just hours after many of us learned about the shooting in Sydney, Australia. Given these devastating events, I offered this morning that anyone who was adversely affected could take the exam later in the week …” (12/15/25)
