Today's News, December 13-15, 2025
Trump’s team is framing California’s collapsing economy and infrastructure as a national security issue, Republicans keep quietly winning on voter registration (with Arizona looking like the next Florida), trust in government is at rock bottom, and federal control over AI, energy, and data centers is being positioned as strategic necessity—not a state fight. Terror threats are rising at home and abroad, yet enforcement actions are accelerating, cultural trends like trans identification and demographic “replacement” narratives are reversing, and economic signals—from a lower trade deficit and rising mortgage demand to massive data-center land grabs—point to growth bottlenecked by energy and water. Internationally, anti-socialist movements are gaining ground, Europe’s leadership looks weak by its own voters’ admission, China’s export “records” mask real decline, EV dogma is cracking, and even gas engines are evolving—while the culture closes with a reminder that books, like history, matter most when you actually keep them close and read them.
Today's News with Larry Schweikart
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Show Notes
IN POLITICAL NEWS
1) I'm seeing a pattern here. More and more of the Trump cabinet are calling Kollylfornia's economy a "national security threat." The latest? Interior Sec Doug "Bring Back Real Conservation" Burgum. This may be a prelude for various types of federal involvement.
2) This column shows in six charts how Trump 2.0 is significantly different from the first administration.
3) We continue to see steady outperformance by Rs over Ds in voter registration. Indies are doing better than either, but in KS, Rs net gained about 200 on Ds. Meanwhile, Seth Keshel argues that AZ could become the new FL in terms of voter registration and GOP dominance. First we have to get rid of Moonman Kelly and El Pollo Gallego.
4) Several U.S. cities are under a terror alert after the Australia shootings. There was already a shooting at Brown University in RI that left 2 dead and several wounded. The FBI used its phone geolocation unit to identify a "person of interest," but no one has been arrested. Of course, reptilian DemoKKKrat Senator Chris Murphy (Spooge: CT) has blamed Trump for the shooting.
5) The moronic mayor of New Mogadishu (Minneapolis) tried to show solidarity with the Somalis by masticating on some of their food. It nearly made him gag. But hey, they don't eat the dogs. That's the Hatians. Don't Haitianize my Somalia.
6) Politico is trying to make it look like there is a split between President Trump and states over data centers. I say, "Nyet!: there is none. Trump is looking at federal regulation over AI in order to ensure national security. He isn't going to be concerned with the state issues of how they get power and water.
7) From Pew, trust in gubment has hit a new low. Good. Maybe people will start acting like free adults again. But how did it get to this? It all began when Newt Gingrich caved in the 1995 shutdown, which badly damaged the power of the House, especially over budgets. Since then, the House has been mostly irrelevant, simply rolling over Continuing Resolutions. Meanwhile the Senate, with its partisan minorities, consistently blocks nominees and legislation. .
8) Over 60% of security clearance data may be unreliable according to the GAO.
9) The FBI stopped a New Year's Eve terror attack in New Azteca (LA) by a pro-Pale group
IN ILLEGAL CRIMINAL ALIEN NEWS
10) Muy bueno. DemoKKKrats are embracing "abolish ICE."
IN CULTURAL NEWS
11) Good chart here by Ryan Girdusky, showing black births in the South have plummeted; whites remain a majority of births in most states, and Hispanic births are falling in the southwest due to deportations. Imagine that. No mo "replacement."
IN TRANSOID NEWS
12) From the great Ryan Burge, transoid identification peaked in 2020 and has fallen sharply, by 5 points, as of today. And it has fallen among all age groups.
IN ECONOMIC NEWS
13) In recent decades so-called "conservatives" have been screaming to lower the trade deficit (but don't do it with actual industry or products, but by convincing Americans they don't need material goods). Now the trade deficit under Trump has fallen to a five year low. Not a peep out of the sawdustnibblers at NRO. Meanwhile the Wall Street Urinal got tariffs wrong.
14) President Trump has instructed Transpo Secretary Sean Duffy to remove regulations preventing the production of "microcars" such as they have in Japan. Oh, and speaking of cars, I am in love. Toyota has an incredible new super sports car.
15) Mortgage demand increased 4.8% last week.
17) From the Rush Limbaugh of Energy, David Blackmon, Texas is seeing high numbers of data center requests (220 gigawatts of new projects) One of my TX sources in the Dallas/Ft. Worth region says the land purchases by these data companies is off the charts and they are paying "too good to refuse" money. But they are soaking up the water table too. As I've been saying, the next decade's economic growth will come down to energy and water.
IN INTERNATIONAL NEWS
18) At least 16 dead and 38 injured in Australia in a mass shooting labeled a "targeted attack on Jews" in a nation that has very strict gun control. A father-son team struck a beach celebration on Hannakuh A beachgoer tackled one of the gunmen from behind and disarmed him---not the police.
19) A poll in France, Mediocre Britain, and Germany shows large majorities of their voters think President Trump is stronger and more decisive than their own, er, "leaders."
20) Norway has flipped the bird to the greens, accelerating its oil and gas licensing. Good job, Rolands! Now about those Thompson Guns . . . .
21) One by one the patriots who challenge socialism are winning in South America. The latest is Chile's Jose Kast, who, now along with Jaiver Milei of Argentina and Nyeb Bukele of El Salvador. If the socialist government in Brazil can be un-elected, most of the continent will be more or less MSAGA.
22) Meanwhile, in Bulgaria, hundreds of thousands rallied in the streets and forced the pro-war/pro-EU government there to resign. Irena Slav is not sanguine that a true Trumpian-type revolution to MBGA will occur soon, but the bleeding is temporarily stopped and the people soundly opposed to the EU.
23) Indeed it appears there is a major anti-socialist/commie movement everywhere, as Poland has just banned the Communist Party there. Good. Take a lesson America and ban the DemoKKKrat Terror Party.
24) The ChiComs hit a trade export record. Good for them, right? Except the data shows they are slowly sinking, down 30% from last year and down 11% in the latest period, knocking them back to 2024 levels. More bad news for the ChiComs? The President of Bolivia is now looking to terminate all ChiCom lithium deals. Folks, if we lock the ChiComs out of more lithium, one of their few levers of control over the Euros---very cheap electric cars---will be kaput.
25) Oh, and just when you thought EVs were the wave of the future, Ferrari introduced new oval pistons that may completely revolutionize gas powered engines.
26) Forget the Bermuda Triangle. Apparently there is some large structure lurking beneath the waters off Bermuda. Wait, is Lizzo snorkeling again?
IN ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
27) Director and former "All in the Family" actor Rob Reiner and his wife Michele were found dead in their home. Per the New York Post, the Reiners' son was arrested. He had been homeless and in rehab 17 times. Reiner was a nut anti-Trumper, but they guy could make movies. "A Few Good Men" comes to mind.
28) Carl Carleton , soul singer famous for "Everlasting Love" and "She's a Bad Mamma Jamma" dead at age 72.
AND FINALLY . . .
29) There is a case for keeping unread piles of books. You just might read them! When we moved from OH to AZ, between my home office and my office at the University, I probably had 2,000 books. The cost of moving prohibited me from taking all, as did my limited office space in my new home, but I moved what I deemed essential to whatever else I was doing. Honestly, I did not think at that time that I would write six more books and have a "blog," which was not a thing for me in 2016. I gave away anything I could, and when no one took, I threw away hundreds of wonderful books. Yes a few were outdated; some were bad; and later, I realized I hadn't read some because they were almost unreadable. But more often than not I found I could have used the majority of those books, and even had to repurchase them for research. Having books around is a great temptation to . . . read them! For a lark, prior to one of our Wild World of History shoots, I posed with a copy of everything I'd written. You can add three more books to that stack now.
Larry Schweikart
Rock drummer, Film maker, NYTimes #1 bestselling author
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