In the light of world confusion and upcoming events, let me fill you in on just some of the whacky future in 2025.

In an article by Adam Taylor, with Kelsey Baker in the Washington Post they wrote:

Data shows global conflict 

surged in 2024

"The world saw a staggering surge in conflicts over the past year. At least 233,000 people are estimated to have been killed in conflicts in 2024, according to new data released Thursday by a prominent nonprofit analysis and crisis mapping project.

The data, released by Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), shows in raw numbers how the level of conflict around the world has doubled over the past five years, amid wars in Ukraine, Gaza, Myanmar and elsewhere.

Among the data for this year, ACLED found that the number of people killed in conflicts in 2024 had grown by 30 percent since the preceding year, from 179,099 deaths in 2023 to 233,597 in 2024."

California declared an emergency over bird flu. How serious is the situation?

AP writer Jonel Aleccia wrote last week:

"California officials have declared a state of emergency over the spread of bird flu, which is tearing through dairy cows in that state and causing sporadic illnesses in people in the U.S.

That raises new questions about the virus, which has spread for years in wild birds, commercial poultry and many mammal species.

The virus, also known as Type A H5N1, was detected for the first time in U.S. dairy cattle in March. Since then, bird flu has been confirmed in at least 866 herds in 16 states.

More than 60 people in eight states have been infected, with mostly mild illnesses, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One person in Louisiana has been hospitalized with the nation’s first known severe illness caused by the virus, health officials said..."

Oh,and that bird flu everybody is talking about will play pure havoc with egg prices, something Republicans blamed on the Biden administrations lack of controlling food prices. It confirms people vote with their stomachs, even though common sense kis flusshed down the toilet.

Get rid of the Country’s debt limit?

President-elect Donald Trump would like nothing more. Getting rid of the country’s debt limit would be the “smartest thing it [Congress] could do. I would support that entirely,” Trump told NBC News last week.

The debt ceiling is the limit placed by Congress on the amount of debt the government can accrue. In order to pay its bills to those it borrowed from and dole out money for everything from Medicare benefits to military salaries, the government needs more money, so the raising of it allows the federal government to go hog wild on spending.

Created in 1917, the legislative cap has to be raised by a majority vote in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. That vote does not pledge any additional spending. It merely raises the limit on the amount of money the government can borrow to pay back commitments already agreed upon by Congress.

However, over the years both parties have tied it to government spending and used the debt ceiling as a cudgel to force the hand of the president.

But wait, Trump, along with his MAGA worshipers promised fiscal conservatism. How can this be?

Take back the Panama Canal?

Yup, this past Sunday in Phoenix, Arizona at a Turning Point USA gathering of conservative activists, Trump said he would consider retaking control of the Panama Canal, which he referred to as a “vital national asset.” 

So, pretty much screw history, screw international law and treaties.

At the same conference, he echoed the rhetoric he used on the campaign trail — including lies about widespread fraud in the 2020 election — but were tempered with his satisfaction at having won.

“We had no riots. We had no anything. It was a beautiful thing to watch,” Trump said, noting Democrats’ concession of the 2024 election. “They just said, ‘We lost.’ And we want to try bringing everybody together.” 

I guess he forgot about the January 6th ‘get-together’ where thousand of MAGAs stormed the Capital building.

The country is ripe for massive deportation of immigrants and how it will effect human lives and the economy.

The war in Ukraine will magically disappear, along probably Ukraine itself.

Populism, nationalism 

are the new playbook

European countries and U.S. allies are witnessing the far right pendulum swing in the favor of ultra-socialism, as nations fearing migration and the changes it brings  to the social fabric to the forefront.

"Dig, baby, dig"

Years of fear of climate change may be going out the window. 

The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act stands as the single largest piece of legislation to address climate change in United States history.

The IRA contains nearly $370 billion for programs like tax credits for more efficient appliances, building new battery plants, and subsidies for renewable energy. 

And it triggered a boom in new construction and manufacturing for things like solar panels. It also created hundreds of thousands of new jobs.

Trump has promised to do away with climate changing response by voiding any and all prior attempts. It follows the MAGA response denying any such thing as human contribution to rising water levels, new and more violent storm patterns and pollution.

Meanwhile coastal states seem to be preparing for rising sea levels. 

Trump has already threatened press freedoms and promises to free the government of thousands of deadbeat employees, judges and programs.

Yes, plans are underway to replace them with MAGA loyalists and prosecute anybody who persecuted those in the way of party dominance. Hopefully, like denying a rise in the debt limit, there are true Americans on both sides of the aisle with a conscious.

2025 is going to be one hell of a bumpy ride.

In the "gosh, people can be so dumb" category

On Tuesday (12/24) Ashley J. White, age 32, of Queen Street in Lyons called to inform the Times that we had our facts wrong.

The original story published on  12/22 read:

"A neighbor call 911 on Wednesday (12/18) after seeing a two year-old boy sitting on the second story roof of a residence on Queen Street in Lyons at 12:28 p.m.

State Troopers out of Lyons reported  that child’s mother, Ashley J. White, age 32, was subsequently arrested for Endangering the Welfare of a Child.

White was released on an appearance ticket for Lyons Town Court on January 7th.

Child Protective Services was notified of the incident."

She informed us that the child was her four year-old girl, not her 2 year-old boy. She then threatened to call her lawyer if we failed to correct the story.

We were given the information that it was her two year-old son, but what the hey, we will correct that story here

White’s charges have not changed, just which child was on the roof.

After threatening the Editor (Me) with the lawyer threat, like similar stupid threats in the past, Ashley received the ‘Wrath of Ron’ in an outburst of language.

Moving on

Wife Patti who handles the ‘Meetings’ coverage in the paper needs more people willing to cover meetings either in the flesh, or online. We simply do not have the time in the Times schedule to write up those meeting reports.

If you are indeed willing to write and make some extra money, please call Wife Patti at 315 986-4300 to indicate which meeting(s) you might be interested in attending and reporting on.

Just a wee bit pissed off

This past week current President Biden  said he was commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 prisoners on federal death row to life without parole, taking the unprecedented step ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, whose incoming administration is widely expected to restart executions.

Biden kept death sentences in place for three federal prisoners, who he said were involved in cases of “terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.”

I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level,” he added. 

“In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.”

“But guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Vice President, and now President, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level,” he added.

But Biden’s wishy-washy personality showed through when he kept death sentences in place for those other  three federal prisoners.

Apparently his conscience only goes as far as the death penalty and perhaps public scrutiny will allow.

I guess that is a whole lot better than the Republican ‘Hang em’ High’ death penalty stance goes, even though there are numerous cases of wrongful death penalty convictions.

A spokesman for Trump, Steven Cheung, said those whose sentences were commuted were “among the worst in the world” and called the decision to take them off death row “a slap in the face to the victims, their families, and their loved ones.” You know, the same policy that proclaims the "Right to Life" and  All Life is Sacred",  and overturned a woman’s right to abortion.

Capital punishment has been completely abolished in all European countries except for Belarus and Russia, the latter of which has a moratorium and has not carried out an execution since September 1996. The complete ban on capital punishment is enshrined in both the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (EU) and two widely adopted protocols of the European Convention on Human Rights of the Council of Europe, and is thus considered a central value. 

Our really civilized U.S. balance has a long way to go before our righteous indignation and Mamacho Americanism allows us to join the rest of the world western allies in understanding the meaning to life.