Voter ID laws have finally passed, but in Somalia. Somalia has taken a step this year toward a “one person, one vote” electoral system with mandatory voter identification to ensure that each individual can cast only one ballot. Federal authorities took it a step further and have now moved toward biometric voter IDs and registration that tie citizenship documentation to the right to vote. It is ironic, bordering on the absurd, that a nation once synonymous with conflict and corruption would implement a measure to strengthen the legitimacy of elections, while in the United States, voter ID is considered suppression.
In April 2025, Rep. Ilhan Omar criticized the Republican-backed Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, calling it a “voter suppression bill” that “will disenfranchise millions of voters, especially married women.” Yet, her home country, whose interests she represents while acting as a US Congresswoman, has these very laws in place.
Critics of Mogadishu are not decrying voter ID as racist or exclusionary. There is only recognition that ,without identification, votes cannot be tied to citizens in a trustworthy way.
Meanwhile, in Minnesota (the very district Omar represents), debates rage over whether a system that allows voters to “vouch” for others without standard ID verification undermines ballot security.
The hypocrisy emerges when public figures decry voter ID in the United States as suppression, while their country of origin demands identification as essential to participation. If voter ID is suppression in the US, what label should we give to nations that refuse identification and invite chaos?
In Mogadishu, citizens and officials alike seem to understand that without identification, elections are hollow and easily manipulated. That understanding is missing in the United States’ current discourse. Whether because of ideological reflexes or political calculus, there is a failure to reconcile the principles that are celebrated in the abstract “everybody should vote” with the practical mechanics that make every vote credible.
To build trust, you require verification; to maintain legitimacy, you enforce verification; to protect rights, you protect the process. Somalia’s move toward biometric voter IDs and universally recognized citizen ballots should be a wake-up call to American policymakers. If a nation emerging from decades of instability can adopt measures to secure its elections, then there is no principled reason why the US cannot do the same.
Discord will begin enforcing mandatory global age verification by requiring users to submit a face scan or government ID to access adult content and full platform features. Starting in March, every user account will be barred from age-restricted servers or live chat features until they comply with the system. The company will also deploy AI-driven “age inference” models to pre-screen users, reducing the need for direct ID checks in some cases. Once again, internet surveillance is being masked as protection.
Online safety for children is the new go-to line for increasing security measures. These measures are never limited to protecting children. Over the last year, governments around the world have enacted a wave of legal mandates that obligate platforms to verify ages, censor content, or restrict access. In places like the United Kingdom and Australia, age-verification laws have already compelled platforms to collect IDs and run facial scans just to remain compliant.
Anyone familiar with recent proposals, such as the French VPN ban, will recognize the same patterns emerging where safety and protection are used to justify sweeping surveillance and control over individuals’ digital lives. As I noted in my discussion of France’s VPN considerations, the move toward mandatory identity verification online is a omen of a surveillance mechanism that treats every user as a potential risk to be managed.
Once platforms begin requiring documented identity for access, the mechanisms of consent, data storage, and third-party verification become new levers of power. Discord, in particular, was once a domain for free speech. There is no room for anonymity on the internet. No matter how securely the company claims it deletes sensitive data, history has shown that trusting third parties with personal identification is a privacy nightmare waiting to happen.
Worse still, age verification systems can easily be repurposed for broader social control. Once governments have established that private companies can function as identity checkpoints, the next step becomes normalization of digital identity layers tied to every aspect of life: access to information, social interaction, even basic digital participation.
Age checks are not about content; they are about control points. Once the infrastructure of identity verification is established, anything becomes enforceable. The broader trend, seen from France’s VPN discussions to Discord’s corporate compliance with government expectations, is clear. The premise of protection leads to permission, which becomes power. Online platforms are rapidly transitioning from spaces of open interaction to gated systems requiring validated identity and behavioral compliance. This is being done in the name of safety for children, but the logical endpoint is a digital ecosystem in which every individual is known, categorized, and controlled.
The reality one would think that most governments are acutely aware of the risk of capital and talent will flee when designing regulatory policies and targeting the rich and corporations for excessive taxation. The dynamic seems to be one of ignorance, or denial that their marxist goals are simply against human nature. The only politicians to have publicly admitted this was Democratic President Grover Cleveland who was chastising his own party for the unsound finance of the 1890s that led to the Panic of 1893. He understood that capital can flee to other jurisdictions, and what is left is a poorer state for the average worker cannot put their labor offshore.
Cleveland also saw reality that when a state demand taxes more than what is necessary, it become “ruthless extortion.” Indeed, this undermines representative government and kills the very think of equal justice for all and the basic principles of a “free government.”
As they say, you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink. The same is sadly true about politicians. Gavin Newsom and the Democrats are completely destroying California all for their Marxist beliefs and sheer stupidity. Now Zuckerberg is moving to Florida. California’s total taxable wealth from billionaires has now plummeted to well under $1T from over $2T just a few weeks ago. No matter how many times you can show them what happens, they refuse to listen. We are watching the same stupidity taking over NYC. They are always in denial and want to believe in their Marxist dreams of Utopia. The refuse to comprehend that this is why China and Russia discovered the hard way that these philosophies do not work.
These were all people that were paying 13%+ in state income tax every year WITH NO COMPLAINTS UNTIL A FEW WEEKS AGO. Imposing a one-time 5% wealth tax would force then to liquidate assets for their wealth is not cash. Having to sell stock of that magnitude could even cause them to lose control of their companies. Here are just some major companies that have left California and where they went:
McKesson (Texas),
Chevron (Texas),
Oracle (Texas),
Tesla (Texas),
Playboy (Florida)
In-N-Out Burger (Tennessee)
John Paul Mitchell (Texas)
Realtor.com (Texas)
After 50 years, the Anheuser-Busch, the world’s largest brewery, is also closing its facility ending production in California. That will layoff nearly 240 employees.
California’s debt position has deteriorated from concerning to genuinely dangerous, representing one of the most significant sub-sovereign credit risks in the developed world. The state’s total debt obligations—when properly accounting for unfunded pension and healthcare liabilities—now exceed $1.5 trillion against a state economy of approximately $3.9 trillion. This debt-to-GDP ratio of nearly 40% would be alarming for a national government; for a state without monetary sovereignty, meaning it cannot print its way out of debt, it is approaching crisis territory.
California’s official general obligation bond debt stands at roughly $80-85 billion, which appears manageable against the state’s $300+ billion annual budget. However, this figure is deliberately misleading, representing only the tip of a massive fiscal iceberg. Chasing out companies and now billionaires, it is becoming only a question when will the debt crisis hit not if.
You certainly do not want to own California debt. Face reality, and move on. And Gavin Newsom want to leave the country?
The Commerce Department’s advance retail sales report for December revealed that total US retail receipts were essentially unchanged from November, coming in flat after a 0.6 percent increase in November and well below economists’ expectations for a 0.4 percent rise in December. Core retail sales, or the measure that excludes volatile categories like autos, gasoline, building materials, and food services, and which feeds directly into GDP calculations, actually slipped about 0.1 percent in December following a downward revision to November’s core gain to just 0.2 percent from 0.4 percent previously reported. For the full year of 2025, total retail sales still registered a nominal gain of roughly 3.7 percent compared to 2024.
From the outset, the numbers tell a story that echoes the longer, unavoidable economic cycle rather than the distorted confidence many policymakers still cling to. Retail sales are the largest component of household consumption and by far the biggest driver of GDP. So, when retail sales fail to post any real growth in December, at a time when spending should be concentrated and elevated, it reflects more than seasonal adjustments. Core consumption, which excludes the big ticket and volatile segments, is arguably more telling than the headline, and it turned negative at precisely the point in the calendar when it should have remained positive if households were truly confident about their spending capacity.
Even when you look at the annual figures, a 3.7% advance relative to 2024, those gains are heavily influenced by price effects, tariff-driven cost pass-throughs, and earlier quarters’ momentum rather than rising volumes of goods moved off shelves. Nominal increases can mask real consumption stagnation because they do not strip out inflation or show whether households are actually purchasing more items versus paying more for the same baskets. The flat December reading underscores that the consumer’s grip on spending is loosening at the margins. Retail categories traditionally dependent on discretionary income, such as electronics, furniture, and clothing, struggled, while the modest nominal gains in the annual totals often reflect spending in necessity or inflation-catch-up categories.
This pattern has implications that extend beyond a single monthly release. For much of the past year, robust consumer spending masked underlying weaknesses elsewhere in the economy. Households used savings, leaned on credit, and when forced to spend, focused on the essentials. Real incomes lag behind cost increases in essentials like housing, insurance, food, and healthcare. Wages are rising but they are mismatched with the price of living.
It is now increasingly apparent that the robust GDP prints from mid-year, often cited as evidence of economic resilience, were driven by transient factors and delayed data rather than sustainable consumer strength. The late-year softness puts at risk the projections for fourth-quarter GDP growth and may dampen expectations for early 2026 monetary easing if the Federal Reserve interprets slowing demand as disinflationary pressure.
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