This article was originally published by Michael Snyder at The Economic Collapse Blog.  Hundreds of millions of people all over the Western world are enjoying the holiday season as if nothing has changed.  But meanwhile, the pounding of the war drums just continues to intensify.  If the world keeps going down this path, next year’s holiday season could look completely different. Unfortunately, most people seem to assume that everything will magically work out just fine somehow.  That greatly frustrates me, because ignoring the reality of the crisis that we are facing is not going to fix anything.  If ordinary citizens…

For the last week, we’ve written a lot about Australia and Bondi Beach. There’s no doubt that what happened was beyond awful, and there’s no doubt that an anti-gun nation would simply double down on gun control, which is precisely what happened. Even before the bodies were cold, the government called for more gun control. No one really knew all that much about what happened, where the guns came from, or anything else, but the calls came just the same.It wasn’t much different from what it is here after some tragedy, only lawmakers there have…

I’m lucky enough to have spent a lot of time running suppressed handguns. Although they’re often extremely simplified on both television and video game mediums, one component that almost always gets left out is the suppressor piston (also known as a muzzle booster, booster piston, booster, piston assembly, or historically as a Nielsen device). This one is a fairly simple part of the real secret to making most pistol suppressors work reliably on recoil-operated firearms. Suppressor pistons handle the extra weight of the added suppressor, so your gun cycles without a fuss, leading to a probably frustrating experience. In this…

The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division (and its Second Amendment Section) have filed a brand new lawsuit against the District of Columbia’s Metropolitan Police Department over D.C.’s ban on so-called assault weapons, asserting that the prohibition runs afoul of the right to keep and bear arms.  The DOJ has previously argued against Illinois’ ban on a vast swath of semi-automatic rifles, shotguns, and even some pistols; participating in oral arguments before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this year. Today’s lawsuit, however, is the first time that the DOJ has filed a complaint…

Joseph Henry Suina grew up in a Native American community in the 1940s, buried by his own people’s trauma while not yet realizing the baggage he carried.Suina, 81, is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who was born in 1944 and served two tours in Vietnam. He grew up in the federally recognized pueblo of Cochiti, in New Mexico, son of a father who was a World War II veteran. The “simple” way of life entrenched in the community nuzzled between Albuquerque and Santa Fe shaped his entire life—and still does.“Growing up here on the reservation back in the ‘50s, things were…

United States President JD Vance is warning that Western Europe is “Islamist-aligned.” Vance is a prominent Christian nationalist who is now fear-mongering over Europe’s immigration policies. Vance accused Europe of currently lacking a sense of national identity and warned that it could risk losing cultural links to America due to their immigration policies. JD Vance Doubles Down On Christian Nationalism “If they allow themselves to be overwhelmed with very destructive moral ideas, then you allow nuclear weapons to fall in the hands of people who can actually cause very, very serious harm to the United States,” Vance said. Vance added that…

Every ski season has a low-tide phase. Sometimes it’s those first few weeks; sometimes it’s a dry spell or a high-pressure system that just won’t pass. The snow gets hard, the rocks emerge. I’m left feeling lost — mid-width freeride skis or narrow carving skis? The former lackluster on the pistes, the latter downright sketchy in the steeps. I snapped into a pair of the ’25/’26 Volkl Revolt 101s last season and pointed them — perhaps recklessly — at the nastiest terrain the “meh” start to the season could muster. A firm edge, generous rockers, and a stiff character opened…

I’ve long argued that none of the “compromises” we’ve made historically on gun rights were ever compromises. They always boil down to the anti-gun side just taking a little less than they originally wanted. We’ve gotten nothing out of the deal beyond losing our rights, just maybe not as many as the other side originally intended…at least for the time being. They always come back for everything else.But we live now in turbulent times where bad things are happening far too often, including politically-motivated attacks such as the assassination of Charlie Kirk, attacks on ICE…

James Ransone, the actor best known for portraying Ziggy Sobotka on HBO’s The Wire and for his role in the military miniseries Generation Kill, has died. He was 46. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed in online records that Ransone died by suicide on Friday. No additional details were immediately released.Ransone built a wide-ranging career across television and film, often playing volatile, troubled, or emotionally complex characters. In addition to his work on The Wire, he appeared in HBO’s Generation Kill, which followed a U.S. Marine reconnaissance battalion during the early days of the Iraq War. The 2008 miniseries marked a turning…

Angry that he didn’t get enough support to actually call a special session of the legislature to try and pass more gun control restrictions, on December 16, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed two executive orders on guns. Fortunately, neither is likely to have much impact. Purported to address “gun violence,” gun-ban advocates’ name for criminal violence, the first executive order creates an “educational” campaign to promote the state’s “red-flag” laws, mandatory storage scheme and directs the Department of Commerce to collect data from insurance companies on the “costs of gun violence.” The second order creates a Statewide Safety Council with a…

The Trump administration hasn’t gone nearly as far as some Second Amendment activists would like, at least when it comes to dismantling the federal gun control regime. The administration appears to have backed off its attempt at merging ATF and the DEA, which was roundly criticized on both sides of the gun control debate, and there are no plans to shutter the agency altogether.  The DOJ, meanwhile, continues to defend federal prohibitions on gun possession for “unlawful” users of drugs and those convicted of crimes punishable by more than a year in prison, even when…

Last week, Senate Democrats reintroduced one of the most sweeping federal gun control proposals in years. U.S. Senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim brought back the Federal Firearm Licensing Act, a bill that would require Americans to obtain a federal firearm license before purchasing, receiving, or even possessing a firearm. We must reject division and hate. The ties that bind us are so much stronger than the lines that divide us. pic.twitter.com/93zzcmdIOa— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) December 19, 2025 Supporters are calling it “commonsense.” Gun owners will recognize it for what it is: a national permission slip system enforced by the…