Saturday, December 21, 2024

The 2025 Wyoming Legislative Session, Part 2. Early bills

Pre filed bills so far. Keep in mind that these are the ones that have made it through the last legislature. The new one hasn't been sworn in yet..

HB0002	Hunting license application fees increase.	Travel	Bill Number Assigned
HB0003	Animal abuse-predatory animals.	Travel	Bill Number Assigned
HB0004	Snowmobile registration and user fees.	Travel	Bill Number Assigned
HB0005	Fishing outfitters and guides-registration of fishing boats.	Travel	Bill Number Assigned
HB0006	Advance health care directives-dementia.	Larsen, L	Bill Number Assigned
HB0007	K-12 post secondary education options.	Harshman	Bill Number Assigned
HB0008	School finance-average daily membership.	Harshman	Bill Number Assigned
HB0009	Young entrepreneurs-limiting license requirements.	Harshman	Bill Number Assigned
HB0010	Limited mining operations-amendments.	Minerals	Bill Number Assigned
HB0011	Manufacturing sales and use tax exemption-amendments.	Minerals	Bill Number Assigned
HB0012	Industrial production equipment-deferral.	Minerals	Bill Number Assigned
HB0013	Integrated test center-governance.	Minerals	Bill Number Assigned
HB0014	Solid waste municipal cease and transfer funding.	Minerals	Bill Number Assigned
HB0015	Limited mining operations-bonding amendments.	Minerals	Bill Number Assigned
HB0016	Used nuclear fuel storage-amendments.	Minerals	Bill Number Assigned
HB0017	Career technical education equipment grants amendments.	Education	Bill Number Assigned
HB0018	Career technical education funding.	Education	Bill Number Assigned
HB0019	Social media-parental consent for minors required.	Harshman	Bill Number Assigned
HB0020	K-12 school facility leasing.	Sel Sch Fac	Bill Number Assigned
HB0021	School finance-routine maintenance worker calculation.	Sel Sch Fac	Bill Number Assigned
HB0022	Water and wastewater operator-emergency response.	Campbell, E	Bill Number Assigned
HB0023	Surrender driver's license-repeal.	Transportation	Bill Number Assigned
HB0024	Alternative fuel tax-electricity amendments.	Transportation	Bill Number Assigned
HB0025	Vehicle accident reporting-amendments.	Transportation	Bill Number Assigned
HB0026	Highway safety-child restraints.	Transportation	Bill Number Assigned
HB0027	Disabled parking windshield placards-revisions.	Transportation	Bill Number Assigned
HB0028	Commercial driver's licenses-revisions.	Transportation	Bill Number Assigned
HB0029	Severance tax distribution-highway fund.	Transportation	Bill Number Assigned
HB0030	Driver's licenses and IDs-revisions.	Transportation	Bill Number Assigned
HB0031	School safety and security.	Pendergraft	Bill Number Assigned
HB0032	What is a Woman Act.	Lien	Bill Number Assigned
HB0033	Vehicle sales and use tax distribution-highway fund.	Transportation	Bill Number Assigned
HB0034	Department of transportation-efficiency study.	Transportation	Bill Number Assigned
HB0035	Vacancies in elected office.	Harshman	Bill Number Assigned
HB0036	Hathaway scholarship-amendments.	Harshman	Bill Number Assigned
HB0037	Expulsion for possession of a deadly weapon.	Harshman	Bill Number Assigned
HB0038	Ad valorem taxation-payment and credit of penalties.	Revenue	Bill Number Assigned
HB0039	Property tax refund program-revisions.	Revenue	Bill Number Assigned
HB0040	Sales and use tax revisions.	Revenue	Bill Number Assigned
HB0041	Environmental quality-irrevocable letters of credit.	Lawley	Bill Number Assigned
HB0042	Regulation of surgical abortions.	Lawley	Bill Number Assigned
HB0043	Age verification for websites with harmful material.	Lawley	Bill Number Assigned
HB0044	Loren "Teense" Willford Memorial Highway.	Davis	Bill Number Assigned
HB0045	Removing otters as protected animals.	Byron	Bill Number Assigned
HB0046	Homeschool freedom act.	Strock	Bill Number Assigned
HB0047	Secretary of state-expedited filings.	BlockChain/Technology	Bill Number Assigned
HB0048	Department of family services-confidentiality amendments.	Judiciary	Bill Number Assigned
HB0049	Treatment courts-amendments.	Judiciary	Bill Number Assigned
HB0050	Disclosure of sensitive information-law enforcement.	Judiciary	Bill Number Assigned
HB0051	Municipal courts-maximum penalties.	Judiciary	Bill Number Assigned
HB0052	State's right of appeal in criminal cases.	Judiciary	Bill Number Assigned
HB0053	Governmental claims-negligent investigations.	Judiciary	Bill Number Assigned
HB0054	Chancery court judges-district and circuit court assistance.	Judiciary	Bill Number Assigned
HB0055	Court automation fee-amendments.	Judiciary	Bill Number Assigned
HB0056	Cities and towns notice for zoning changes-amendments.	Filer	Bill Number Assigned
HJ0001	Amending Wyoming's act of admission for earnings.	Cap Fin & Inv	Bill Number Assigned
SF0002	Hunting licenses-weighted bonus points system.	Travel	Bill Number Assigned
SF0003	Mule and whitetail deer-separate hunting seasons.	Travel	Bill Number Assigned
SF0004	State park peace officers-definition and scope of authority.	Travel	Bill Number Assigned
SF0005	School district vehicles-flashing lights authorized.	Cooper	Bill Number Assigned
SF0006	Residential property-removal of unlawful occupant.	Judiciary	Bill Number Assigned
SF0007	Protection order amendments.	Judiciary	Bill Number Assigned
SF0008	Protection orders-effective during appeal or review.	Judiciary	Bill Number Assigned
SF0009	Restoration of rights amendments.	Judiciary	Bill Number Assigned
SF0010	Settlement agreements for minors-parental authorization.	Judiciary	Bill Number Assigned
SF0011	Use of fraudulent documents to wrongfully possess property.	Judiciary	Bill Number Assigned
SF0012	Permanent protection orders.	Judiciary	Bill Number Assigned
SF0013	Reading assessment and intervention amendments.	Education	Bill Number Assigned
SF0014	Wyoming imagination library program.	Education	Bill Number Assigned
SF0015	Oil and gas conservation commission-regulation of pits.	Minerals	Bill Number Assigned
SF0016	Industrial siting-tribal notification.	Minerals	Bill Number Assigned
SF0017	Carbon dioxide-enhanced oil recovery stimulus.	Minerals	Bill Number Assigned
SF0018	Enhanced oil recovery-severance tax exemption.	Minerals	Bill Number Assigned
SF0019	Impact assistance payments-maximum percentages and review.	Minerals	Bill Number Assigned
SF0020	Oil and gas bonding-options and bonding pools.	Minerals	Bill Number Assigned
SF0021	Ban on cell phone use in schools.	Schuler	Bill Number Assigned
SF0022	Ground for termination of parental rights-guardianship.	Schuler	Bill Number Assigned
SF0023	Handicap placards-health care providers' approval.	Labor	Bill Number Assigned
SF0024	Special license plates for multipurpose vehicles.	Barlow	Bill Number Assigned
SF0025	Electronic lien and title system.	Transportation	Bill Number Assigned
SF0026	Protection of military equipment.	Transportation	Bill Number Assigned
SF0027	Wyoming national guard member referral-amendments.	Transportation	Bill Number Assigned
SF0028	ROTC endowment program.	Transportation	Bill Number Assigned
SF0029	Firearm hold agreement-limited liability.	Transportation	Bill Number Assigned
SF0030	Wyoming's investment in veteran's mental health.	Transportation	Bill Number Assigned
SF0031	Boards and commissions veteran ex officio members.	Transportation	Bill Number Assigned
SF0032	Unpaved roads speed limits-amendments.	Transportation	Bill Number Assigned
SF0033	Noncitizen driver's license and ID card-revisions.	Transportation	Bill Number Assigned
SF0034	School finance-routine and major maintenance calculations.	Sel Sch Fac	Bill Number Assigned
SF0035	Governmental claims-maximum liability amounts.	Judiciary	Bill Number Assigned
SF0036	Music therapy-use of title.	Labor	Bill Number Assigned
SF0037	Enhanced concealed carry in school zones.	Cooper	Bill Number Assigned
SF0038	Performance compensation-investment performance amendment.	Appropriations	Bill Number Assigned
SF0039	Automatic transfer of automobile title upon death.	Olsen	Bill Number Assigned
SF0040	Zoning protest petition-amendments.	Appropriations	Bill Number Assigned
SF0041	Federal acts-legal actions authorized.	Agriculture	Bill Number Assigned
SF0042	Resort hotel liquor licenses.	Gierau	Bill Number Assigned
SF0043	Temporary water use agreements amendments.	Agriculture	Bill Number Assigned
SF0044	Fairness in sports-intercollegiate athletics.	Schuler	Bill Number Assigned
SF0045	Wyoming state guard-amendments.	Laursen, D	Bill Number Assigned

A freshman legislature is introducing a bill that will ban sanctuary towns and counties in Wyoming, of which there are none.

Some interesting bills:

HOUSE BILL NO. HB0019

Social media-parental consent for minors required.

Sponsored by: Representative(s) Harshman, Lawley, Washut and Wharff and Senator(s) Barlow and Olsen

A BILL

for

AN ACT relating to trade and commerce; requiring parental consent for minors under age eighteen (18) to use a social media platform; providing definitions; requiring rulemaking; and providing for effective dates.

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:

Section 1. W.S. 40‑32‑101 and 40‑32‑102 are created to read:

CHAPTER 32

SOCIAL MEDIA REGULATION

40‑32‑101. Definitions.

(a) As used in this chapter:

(i) "Account holder" means a person who has or who creates or opens an account or profile to use a social media platform;

(ii) "Minor" means a person who is a resident of Wyoming, who is under the age of eighteen (18) and who is not married or has not become emancipated as provided in W.S. 14‑1‑201 through 14‑1‑206;

(iii) "Social media company" means a person that is an interactive computer service that provides a social media platform for use;

(iv) "Social media platform" means an online forum that a social media company makes available for an account holder to create a profile, upload posts, view the posts of other account holders or interact with other account holders or users.

40‑32‑102. Social media platforms; parental consent required; remedies.

(a) No social media company shall allow a minor to be an account holder on the social media company's social media platform unless the social media company obtains the express consent of the minor's parent or guardian.

(b) Each social media company shall deny access to its social media platform for each account holder who fails to meet the verification requirements specified in subsection (a) of this section until the social media company receives the express parental or guardian consent required under subsection (a) of this section.

(i) The process by which a social media company can obtain parental consent for a minor seeking to open or create an account and be an account holder on a social media platform;

(ii) The method by which a parent or guardian of a minor can provide consent for a minor to open or create an account and be an account holder on a social media platform;

(iii) The methods by which social media companies shall verify the authenticity of the parental or guardian consent provided for a minor to open or create an account and be an account holder on a social media platform;

(iv) The methods by which a social media company shall allow parents or guardians to revoke or withdraw consent previously given for a minor to open or create an account and be an account holder on a social media platform and for parents or guardians to revoke or withdraw nonconsent previously expressed and thereafter consent for a minor to open or create an account and be an account holder on a social media platform.

(d) The attorney general may pursue any remedy authorized under the Wyoming Consumer Protection Act against a social media company that fails to comply with this article.

Section 2. The attorney general shall promulgate all rules necessary to implement this act.

Section 3.

(a) Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, this act is effective immediately upon completion of all acts necessary for a bill to become law as provided by Article 4, Section 8 of the Wyoming Constitution.

(b) Section 1 of this act is effective July 1, 2025.

SENATE FILE NO. SF0021

Ban on cell phone use in schools.

Sponsored by: Senator(s) Schuler and Representative(s) Brown, L, Clouston and Larson, JT

A BILL

for

AN ACT relating to education; requiring school districts to adopt policies prohibiting students from using cell phones and smart watches in schools as specified; providing exceptions; providing a definition; specifying applicability; and providing for effective dates.

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:

Section 1. W.S. 21‑3‑110(a) by creating a new paragraph (xliv) is amended to read:

21‑3‑110. Duties of boards of trustees.

(a) The board of trustees in each school district shall:

(xliv) Adopt policies to prohibit students from using cellular telephones and smart watches during instructional time. For purposes of this paragraph, "smart watch" means a wearable computing device that closely resembles a wristwatch or other time keeping device with the capacity to act in place of or as an extension of a person's cellular telephone. "Smart watch" does not include a wearable device that can only tell time, monitor a person's health information or track a person's location. Policies adopted under this paragraph shall not prohibit students from using cellular telephones and smart watches under any of the following circumstances:

(A) In the case of an emergency or in response to a perceived threat of danger;

(B) When an employee of the school district authorizes a student to use a cellular telephone or a smart watch;

(C) When using a cellular telephone or a smart watch is included in a student's individualized education plan or plan developed under section 504 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended;

(D) When a health care provider determines that the use of a cellular telephone or a smart watch is necessary to manage a student's health care.

Section 2. Not later than July 1, 2025, each school district board of trustees shall establish policies in accordance with this act.

Section 3.

(a) Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, this act is effective July 1, 2025.

(b) Sections 2 and 3 of this act are effective immediately upon completion of all acts necessary for a bill to become law as provided by Article 4, Section 8 of the Wyoming Constitution.

(END)

December 21, 2024

Chuck Gray is backing proof residency and ballot box banning efforts again this session.

It's ironic in the Trumpiest state in the union the paranoia about people illegally casting votes remains. If they are doing that, they'd be ironically illegally voting, for the most part, for Trump.

Last edition:

The 2025 Wyoming Legislative Session, Part 1. And we've already started. . .

Labels: 2020s, 2024, 2025, 2025 Wyoming Legislative Session, Democratic Party, Electrical Power, Highways, Petroleum, Populism, Republican Party, Wyoming, Wyoming Freedom Caucus

Subsidiarity Economics 2024. The Times more or less locally, Part 4. A return to Pre Covid status

US incomes have returned to their 2019 level, adjusted for inflation.

The adjusted rate of inflation was 2.9%.

While people will continue to complain, this is pretty close to being back to the economic status of 2019.

Oil dropped yesterday to $69/bbl.

September 25, 2024

Delta To Pull Out Of Casper Airport, Last Flight Is Dec. 3

November 17, 2024

Boeing is commencing layoffs.

November 26, 2024

In a monumentally bad idea, President-elect Donald Trump said Monday he will issue executive orders imposing new tariffs on all imported goods from China, Mexico and Canada. with the rates being 25 percent tariffs would be imposed on Mexican and Canadian merchandise and 10 percent on Chinese goods. This was tied, oddly, to his immigration goals.

December 2, 2024

President Elect Trump threatened 100% tariffs against Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia if they act to block the US Dollar ast he global reserve currency.

December 3, 2024

From a Fox News broadcast:

We are told that when Trudeau told President-elect Trump that new tariffs would kill the Canadian economy, Trump joked to him that if Canada can't survive without ripping off the U.S. the tune of one hundred billion dollars a year, then maybe Canada should become the 51st state and Trudeau could become its governor.

Apparently this was said by Trump in jest by our boorish embarrassment of a President Elect.

December 11, 2024

$24B merger between grocery giants Kroger, Albertsons blocked by federal judge

Continuous arabica coffee futures on the ICE rose 4.1% to $3.44 a pound beating a record set in 1977 even before it is adjusted for inflation.

December 12, 2024

An Ontario message to Donald Trump from Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

We need to be ready to fight [on] January the 20th. We will go to the extent of cutting off their energy, going down to Michigan, going down to New York State and over to Wisconsin. I don't want this to happen, but my number one job is to protect Ontario, Ontarians and Canadians as a whole since we're the largest province. Let's see what happens as we move forward. But we'll use every tool in our toolbox, including cutting them off energy that we're sending down there.

Frankly, a lot of New York will freeze in the dark without Canadian hydroelectric.

On groceries, the item that a lot of Trump voters naively believed Trump could make the price of "go down":

It's hard to bring things down once they're up. You know, it's very hard.

Donald Trump.

D'uh.

There was no earthly way that Trump was ever going to be able to get the price of groceries to go down and a person would have had to have been bereft of economic knowledge to have believed that. Unfortunately, a lot of Americans are in fact bereft of economic knowledge. As we've noted here before, that would require deflation, and deflation if prolonged, causes a Depression.

Trump back on November 4, 2024: “A vote for Trump means your groceries will be cheaper.”

Nope, they won't be.

So, now that he's been elected, this promise joins the one to end the war in Ukraine 24 hours after he's elected. I.e., it'll be broken.

December 13, 2024

Pope Francis.

Forgive us our trespasses: grant us your peace

I. Listening to the plea of an endangered humanity

1. At the dawn of this New Year given to us by our heavenly Father, a year of Jubilee in the spirit of hope, I offer heartfelt good wishes of peace to every man and woman. I think especially of those who feel downtrodden, burdened by their past mistakes, oppressed by the judgment of others and incapable of perceiving even a glimmer of hope for their own lives. Upon everyone I invoke hope and peace, for this is a Year of Grace born of the Heart of the Redeemer!

2. Throughout this year, the Catholic Church celebrates the Jubilee, an event that fills hearts with hope. The “jubilee” recalls an ancient Jewish practice, when, every forty-ninth year, the sound of a ram’s horn (in Hebrew, jobel) would proclaim a year of forgiveness and freedom for the entire people (cf. Lev 25:10). This solemn proclamation was meant to echo throughout the land (cf. Lev 25:9) and to restore God’s justice in every aspect of life: in the use of the land, in the possession of goods and in relationships with others, above all the poor and the dispossessed. The blowing of the horn reminded the entire people, rich and poor alike, that no one comes into this world doomed to oppression: all of us are brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of the same Father, born to live in freedom, in accordance with the Lord’s will (cf. Lev 25:17, 25, 43, 46, 55).

3. In our day too, the Jubilee is an event that inspires us to seek to establish the liberating justice of God in our world. In place of the ram’s horn, at the start of this Year of Grace we wish to hear the “desperate plea for help” [1] that, like the cry of the blood of Abel (cf. Gen 4:10), rises up from so many parts of our world – a plea that God never fails to hear. We for our part feel bound to cry out and denounce the many situations in which the earth is exploited and our neighbours oppressed. [2] These injustices can appear at times in the form of what Saint John Paul II called “structures of sin”, [3] that arise not only from injustice on the part of some but are also consolidated and maintained by a network of complicity.

4. Each of us must feel in some way responsible for the devastation to which the earth, our common home, has been subjected, beginning with those actions that, albeit only indirectly, fuel the conflicts that presently plague our human family. Systemic challenges, distinct yet interconnected, are thus created and together cause havoc in our world. [4] I think, in particular, of all manner of disparities, the inhuman treatment meted out to migrants, environmental decay, the confusion willfully created by disinformation, the refusal to engage in any form of dialogue and the immense resources spent on the industry of war. All these, taken together, represent a threat to the existence of humanity as a whole. At the beginning of this year, then, we desire to heed the plea of suffering humankind in order to feel called, together and as individuals, to break the bonds of injustice and to proclaim God’s justice. Sporadic acts of philanthropy are not enough. Cultural and structural changes are necessary, so that enduring change may come about. [5]

II. A cultural change: all of us are debtors

5. The celebration of the Jubilee spurs us to make a number of changes in order to confront the present state of injustice and inequality by reminding ourselves that the goods of the earth are meant not for a privileged few, but for everyone. [6] We do well to recall the words of Saint Basil of Caesarea: “Tell me, what things belong to you? Where did you find them to make them part of your life? … Did you not come forth naked from the womb of your mother? Will you not return naked to the ground? Where did your property come from? If you say that it comes to you naturally by luck, you would deny God by not recognizing the Creator and being grateful to the Giver”. [7] Without gratitude, we are unable to recognize God’s gifts. Yet in his infinite mercy the Lord does not abandon sinful humanity, but instead reaffirms his gift of life by the saving forgiveness offered to all through Jesus Christ. That is why, in teaching us the “Our Father”, Jesus told us to pray: “Forgive us our trespasses” ( Mt 6:12).

6. Once we lose sight of our relationship to the Father, we begin to cherish the illusion that our relationships with others can be governed by a logic of exploitation and oppression, where might makes right. [8] Like the elites at the time of Jesus, who profited from the suffering of the poor, so today, in our interconnected global village, [9] the international system, unless it is inspired by a spirit of solidarity and interdependence, gives rise to injustices, aggravated by corruption, which leave the poorer countries trapped. A mentality that exploits the indebted can serve as a shorthand description of the present “debt crisis” that weighs upon a number of countries, above all in the global South.

7. I have repeatedly stated that foreign debt has become a means of control whereby certain governments and private financial institutions of the richer countries unscrupulously and indiscriminately exploit the human and natural resources of poorer countries, simply to satisfy the demands of their own markets. [10] In addition, different peoples, already burdened by international debt, find themselves also forced to bear the burden of the “ecological debt” incurred by the more developed countries. [11] Foreign debt and ecological debt are two sides of the same coin, namely the mindset of exploitation that has culminated in the debt crisis. [12] In the spirit of this Jubilee Year, I urge the international community to work towards forgiving foreign debt in recognition of the ecological debt existing between the North and the South of this world. This is an appeal for solidarity, but above all for justice. [13]

8. The cultural and structural change needed to surmount this crisis will come about when we finally recognize that we are all sons and daughters of the one Father, that we are all in his debt but also that we need one another, in a spirit of shared and diversified responsibility. We will be able to “rediscover once for all that we need one another” and are indebted one to another. [14]

III. A journey of hope: three proposals

9. If we take to heart these much-needed changes, the Jubilee Year of Grace can serve to set each of us on a renewed journey of hope, born of the experience of God’s unlimited mercy. [15]

God owes nothing to anyone, yet he constantly bestows his grace and mercy upon all. As Isaac of Nineveh, a seventh-century Father of the Eastern Church, put it in one of his prayers: “Your love, Lord, is greater than my trespasses. The waves of the sea are nothing with respect to the multitude of my sins, but placed on a scale and weighed against your love, they vanish like a speck of dust”. [16] God does not weigh up the evils we commit; rather, he is immensely “rich in mercy, for the great love with which he loved us” ( Eph 2:4). Yet he also hears the plea of the poor and the cry of the earth. We would do well simply to stop for a moment, at the beginning of this year, to think of the mercy with which he constantly forgives our sins and forgives our every debt, so that our hearts may overflow with hope and peace.

10. In teaching us to pray the “Our Father”, Jesus begins by asking the Father to forgive our trespasses, but passes immediately to the challenging words: “as we forgive those who trespass against us” (cf. Mt 6:12). In order to forgive others their trespasses and to offer them hope, we need for our own lives to be filled with that same hope, the fruit of our experience of God’s mercy. Hope overflows in generosity; it is free of calculation, makes no hidden demands, is unconcerned with gain, but aims at one thing alone: to raise up those who have fallen, to heal hearts that are broken and to set us free from every kind of bondage.

11. Consequently, at the beginning of this Year of Grace, I would like to offer three proposals capable of restoring dignity to the lives of entire peoples and enabling them to set them out anew on the journey of hope. In this way, the debt crisis can be overcome and all of us can once more realize that we are debtors whose debts have been forgiven.

First, I renew the appeal launched by Saint John Paul II on the occasion of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 to consider “reducing substantially, if not cancelling outright, the international debt which seriously threatens the future of many nations”. [17] In recognition of their ecological debt, the more prosperous countries ought to feel called to do everything possible to forgive the debts of those countries that are in no condition to repay the amount they owe. Naturally, lest this prove merely an isolated act of charity that simply reboots the vicious cycle of financing and indebtedness, a new financial framework must be devised, leading to the creation of a global financial Charter based on solidarity and harmony between peoples.

I also ask for a firm commitment to respect for the dignity of human life from conception to natural death, so that each person can cherish his or her own life and all may look with hope to a future of prosperity and happiness for themselves and for their children. Without hope for the future, it becomes hard for the young to look forward to bringing new lives into the world. Here I would like once more to propose a concrete gesture that can help foster the culture of life, namely the elimination of the death penalty in all nations. This penalty not only compromises the inviolability of life but eliminates every human hope of forgiveness and rehabilitation. [18]

In addition, following in the footsteps of Saint Paul VI and Benedict XVI, [19] I do not hesitate to make yet another appeal, for the sake of future generations. In this time marked by wars, let us use at least a fixed percentage of the money earmarked for armaments to establish a global Fund to eradicate hunger and facilitate in the poorer countries educational activities aimed at promoting sustainable development and combating climate change. [20] We need to work at eliminating every pretext that encourages young people to regard their future as hopeless or dominated by the thirst to avenge the blood of their dear ones. The future is a gift meant to enable us to go beyond past failures and to pave new paths of peace.

IV. The goal of peace

12. Those who take up these proposals and set out on the journey of hope will surely glimpse the dawn of the greatly desired goal of peace. The Psalmist promises us that “steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss” ( Ps 85:10). When I divest myself of the weapon of credit and restore the path of hope to one of my brothers or sisters, I contribute to the restoration of God’s justice on this earth and, with that person, I advance towards the goal of peace. As Saint John XXIII observed, true peace can be born only from a heart “disarmed” of anxiety and the fear of war. [21]

13. May 2025 be a year in which peace flourishes! A true and lasting peace that goes beyond quibbling over the details of agreements and human compromises. [22] May we seek the true peace that is granted by God to hearts disarmed: hearts not set on calculating what is mine and what is yours; hearts that turn selfishness into readiness to reach out to others; hearts that see themselves as indebted to God and thus prepared to forgive the debts that oppress others; hearts that replace anxiety about the future with the hope that every individual can be a resource for the building of a better world.

14. Disarming hearts is a job for everyone, great and small, rich and poor alike. At times, something quite simple will do, such as “a smile, a small gesture of friendship, a kind look, a ready ear, a good deed”. [23] With such gestures, we progress towards the goal of peace. We will arrive all the more quickly if, in the course of journeying alongside our brothers and sisters, we discover that we have changed from the time we first set out. Peace does not only come with the end of wars but with the dawn of a new world, a world in which we realize that we are different, closer and more fraternal than we ever thought possible.

15. Lord, grant us your peace! This is my prayer to God as I now offer my cordial good wishes for the New Year to the Heads of State and Government, to the leaders of International Organizations, to the leaders of the various religions and to every person of good will.

Forgive us our trespasses, Lord,

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

In this cycle of forgiveness, grant us your peace,

the peace that you alone can give

to those who let themselves be disarmed in heart,

to those who choose in hope to forgive the debts of their brothers and sisters,

to those who are unafraid to confess their debt to you,

and to those who do not close their ears to the cry of the poor.

From the Vatican, 8 December 2024

December 17, 2024

Canada's Finance Minister resigned.

This of course gave the chance for our bratty twelve year old president elect to make another one of his snotty tweets.

The Great State of Canada is stunned as the Finance Minister resigns, or was fired, from her position by Governor Justin Trudeau. Her behavior was totally toxic, and not at all conducive to making deals which are good for the very unhappy citizens of Canada. She will not be missed!!!

Where this conduct comes from, and why its tolerated is another question.

December 18, 2024

Elon Musk is campaigning against the bill that would provide stop gap funding until the next Congress convenes.

December 19, 2024

The Fed is cutting interests rates.

December 20, 2024

After tanking one continuing budget resolution, following his super wealthy "DOGE" appointees, Trump supported a second, which tanked last night.

And here we enter interesting territory. In spite of widespread public belief to the contrary, Trump was set to inherit a strong economy. Now he's tanking it.