Handing Off The American Century December 30, 2025 WE’RE #1 In the number of billionaires, certainly, and in obesity, gun ownership, gun deaths, incarceration, medically-related bankruptcies and military spending; but last among wealthy nations in health care, 23rd in happiness, 63rd in life expectancy, and — by some measures — 55th in freedom of the press. Will China Beat Us In The Race To Clean, Limitless Energy? It sure seems that way. Trump’s 2017 inauguration signaled the end of “the American Century” — more or less exactly on time, when you think about it: almost exactly a century after we entered World War I and became ever stronger and more globally dominant. We may now be in the early years of the Chinese century. If so, not only do we have to hope we and the Chinese find ways to get along well, but that we and all nations find ways to get along well with AI. That AI can somehow be designed to treat us humans more nicely than we have treated lesser species . . . or even some of our own. WHAT MATTERS TO AMERICANS An important chart from the Wall Street Journal, courtesy of Andrew Yang’s New Year’s message: But we’re America. We can come back. The first step will be the mid-terms less than a year from now, when, with your help, the blue wave will continue to flip pro-Trump seats back toward democracy, civility, science, and other things most Americans agree on. Like affordable health care, a woman’s right to control her own body, an end to the tariffs we’re forced to pay on imported goods, universal background checks, taxing income from wealth at the same rate as income from work, funding the IRS adequately to collect taxes due from large corporations and billionaires — and, let us not forget, the rule of law.