December 30, 2024
Dear Patriot,
As we go into a new year, we are full of hope and relief. However, we are not going into this year wearing rose colored glasses.
The election was a big win. But, it is just the start of the battles that need to be fought on many fronts.
We are already seeing efforts by the left and by the losing side of the Republican Party to divide the MAGA movement. Please be savvy to these attempts.
There is talk now of big ideas….buying Greenland, making Canada a U.S. state, reclaiming the Panama Canal. These are far-flung and complicated notions but, honestly, they are fun to think about and debate. American history is replete with wild proposals that did eventually happen.
It looks as though we are going to have a real national debate over many aspects of immigration, including the controversial H-1B Visa Program. This is a good thing for us to do. Sparring over this issue will hopefully expose the flaws so that it can be made better.
This next year is going to be a wild and crazy ride and we are here for it all.
Thank you for joining us. Thank you for your unwavering support over the last three years.
We wish you great joy, happiness, prosperity and contentment in 2025.
Enjoy this as you celebrate the end of a remarkable year.
Sissel Kyrkjebø - Auld Lang Syne
Watch a recent interview with Sidney on Cowboy Logic.
Sidney on Rumble
Our next newsletter will be Monday, January 6, 2025.
Here are just a few longer pieces to read over this weekend. As always, read more in-depth at the links.
1- It is good to review the major decisions made by the Supreme Court in 2024 and the many implications of those decisions.
A Year of Blockbuster Supreme Court Decisions
QUOTE: The Supreme Court issued a series of consequential decisions in 2024 that could impact American law and hot-button issues for decades to come.
President-Elect Donald Trump Trump and Jan. 6 saw a slew of cases in the lower courts, with at least three major ones reaching the justices in the 2023-2024 term. Outside of those cases, the court also issued game-changing decisions on administrative law, helped clarify its view of the First Amendment in social media regulation, and engaged in debates over the nature of originalism in judges’ decision-making.
In Trump v. United States, the court heard Trump’s appeal of a lower court decision that held he and presidents more generally didn’t enjoy immunity from criminal prosecution. A majority, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, held instead that presidents have different levels of immunity—specifically for their official acts.
2- We have collectively lived through a hard era. But now, we have many reasons to be hopeful.
A Time of Hope
QUOTE: Over the past four years, trust in all the systems that were supposed to make modern life run smoothly has been steadily eroded, even to the point of utter collapse. At the same time, we find ourselves strangely optimistic about the future.
We have been amazed as we watched basically the entire medical profession buy into some nutty things (masking as protection against viruses, which they know doesn’t work, as well as the completely arbitrary 6-foot social distancing rules). In fact, the medical profession as a whole seems to have bought into the nonsense at a degree nearly impossible to fathom.
Same with many religious institutions. Many Catholics never thought they would see the day when the Catholic Church leadership (for the most part) decided to hide inside their own homes and rectories during a “pandemic,” rather than heroically going out and providing the sacraments, help, and care to those affected.
….
We have a few very hard things that will be difficult to correct. One of the most concerning is the massive national debt, inflation, and slow economic growth. We are perhaps not the worst, as many of our allies are in even worse shape, but that doesn’t remove the huge risk we face for economic collapse.
We can hope that a rise in domestic industry will be encouraged by the new administration, including an increase in the use of sensible small nuclear energy reactors, negotiating with trading partners with all the tools we have available, including tariffs, and more use of our own natural resources by sensible regulation. However, we are really on the precipice.
We don’t expect that we’re in for all things glorious the moment the new leaders take office. It took lifetimes to build up all this lovely bureaucracy, so it will take a good bit of time to knock at least some of it off. However, with the enthusiasm we see among the new appointees, the sheer brain power and guts among them, and the huge potential for future greatness, we cannot help but hope things will be better.
There is at last a case for hope. Maybe. Regardless, there is proof at last that our voices matter, that our loss of faith can turn toward rebuilding, that the public mind does matter after all, that perhaps the people can take back power and get their lives back. That’s a high hope but it seems possible after all.
3- Restoring trust in the health care system is going to be a massive effort, but President Trump has chosen people who may pull it off. One such person is Dr. Jay Bhattacharya.
Wilk Wilkerson at RealClearPolicy
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya Will Rebuild Trust in Public Health
QUOTE: Just weeks before President-elect Trump announced that Dr. Jay Bhattacharya would be his nominee to lead the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Dr. Bhattacharya and I were together at Stanford University for a bold, first-of-its-kind symposium on public health decision making during the COVID-19 crisis. The idea behind the symposium was to shatter the public health echo chamber and bring diverse perspectives together in respectful dialogue. Dr. Bhattacharya and I are close friends, but our backgrounds are quite different. He is firmly at home at Stanford, having gone there as an undergraduate, and then going on to get a medical degree and a Ph.D. there before joining the faculty as a Professor of Health Policy. I, on the other hand, am a blue-collar Midwesterner who enlisted the in U.S. Navy after high school. I carry no titles of academic distinction and was likely the only participant at the symposium without a medical degree or PhD.
As I look to the future of public health under Dr. Bhattacharya, I am hopeful about what we can achieve. Dr. Bhattacharya demonstrated great professional courage and clarity during and after the pandemic, and he is a forceful advocate for a more localized and balanced response to the pandemic crisis. In The Great Barrington Declaration, which he co-authored, Dr. Bhattacharya underscored the importance of protecting the most vulnerable while minimizing societal disruptions like children’s learning loss, which the nation feels acutely as a result of pandemic school closures. Dr. Bhattacharya has argued that the federal government must focus on better equipping local health systems with tools and data rather than imposing rigid, top-down mandates. His vision is a public health system that is responsive, equitable, and grounded in trust – I could imagine no one better positioned to lead the NIH than him.
As President Trump’s nominee, Dr. Bhattacharya will bring the principle of subsidiarity to life on a national scale.
Subsidiarity is about more than governance; it is about relationships, empowerment, and shared responsibility, too. Whether in public health, education, or any other area of American life, the principle reminds us that the solutions we seek are often closer to us than we realize. I know Dr. Bhattacharya well. I am confident that he will not only help us restore trust in public health as director of NIH but will demonstrate how the principle of subsidiarity can be help America rebuild trust in other areas of our democracy where it is deficient today.
THANK God for His help and guidance.
PRAY for His divine intervention in all matters.
PRAY for the protection and wisdom of all leaders.
PRAY for peace and the end of all wars.
Hold Fast,
Defending The Republic
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Read the five part series truthfully explaining the unprecedented lawfare used by the left to remove Sidney Powell’s right to free speech.
This will be permanently available for all at Defending The Republic.
