Tim Donner

In many ways, it seems Joe Biden has all but abdicated the presidency. As Donald Trump seizes the spotlight and takes center stage as the most active president-elect in memory, cutting deals with tech moguls and foreign leaders, Biden is nowhere to be seen or heard. That is, unless it's to pardon his son – an act roundly condemned by the American people and even many of his allies. Oh, and then there was his appearance at Washington's Kennedy Center to receive a standing ovation from perhaps the only audience in the nation that would even consider such a tribute in the dying days of his failed presidency.

other sports are not only allowing but actively encouraging and even sponsoring legalized gambling. To say times have changed when it

It is the most malignant foundation of progressive ideology. Elon Musk, among others, calls it a mind virus. And it appears the American people who were bullied into accepting it have finally had enough. It is the gospel of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), which was given birth by Barack Obama and then overwhelmed the country with remarkable ease and haste following the George Floyd affair in 2020 when liberals and conservatives alike were riven with anger.

With the onset of the year 2025, a general sense of growing optimism seems to have become the order of the day across the land. Considering where things stood just four years ago, few could have predicted what has transpired. But those of us who have lived long enough to witness our nation consistently alternate between left and right, old and new, darkness and light, realize that the worm always turns. It is just a matter of time. And as we enter a second Trump era, it is fair to say that the nation has been turned upside down — again.

January 6. This date symbolizes all that went wrong in Donald Trump's first administration and the multi-pronged effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Voting laws had been altered in the middle of the presidential campaign, with a record number of unsolicited mail-in ballots significantly boosting the prospects of challenger Joe Biden. Enraged Trump supporters reacted by inciting the infamous Capitol riot that led to more than a thousand arrests. Memories of that day are still ripe, especially among Democrats who unsuccessfully attempted to make it the foundation of their efforts to deny Trump a second term four years later.

as the Never-Trump movement. But then it became something more serious. Longtime conservatives in the throes of deep-seated hatred

While most people focused on politics often debate the comparative merits of ideologies on the left and right, rarely have the direct consequences of on-the-ground governance come into such instantly sharp relief as in fire-ravaged California. Progressives Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who prioritized DEI, climate change, and other quixotic initiatives, evidently believed they would not be forced to pay a price for subjugating the safety of their citizens in the here and now. But the bill has come due, and the bell has tolled for their political futures.

Function in disaster, finish in style. It's one of the mottoes of the prestigious Madeira School for Girls in Virginia. But as the Oval Office door prepares to hit Joe Biden on his way out of the White House, it summarizes all that he was unable to accomplish in his four dismal years as the nation's chief executive. While we could spill endless verbiage cataloging his well-documented failures and his denial of such, Biden's primetime speech from the Oval Office on Wednesday effectively encapsulated most of it.

In his second bite at the presidential apple, Donald Trump is undoubtedly far better positioned to execute his far-reaching agenda.