The Mad☧Mondays Annual #3
Is it too late to wish a happy New Year?
Well, if it is, that’s too bad, because the Mad☧Mondays year-in-review for 2024 is finally ready.
If our God’s mercies are new every morning, then in some ways, every day is a beginning, wouldn’t you say?
So, happy 2025!
I was scanning last year’s Annual and realized not a lot had changed. As much as 2024 felt like being a frog in a pot with its head on a swivel, so many of the same issues on 2023’s bingo card were still there. That probably serves to illustrate how long we’ve been under the sway of demonic ideologies.
An election year turned everything up to eleven which was perplexing, but it did crystallize what Americans care about, ending with a solid repudiation of progressive lies. After November’s election, I wrote:
“We were told it would take two weeks to flatten the curve, that mandates were unavoidable..that the vaccine would stop the spread, that religion was not essential, that the overflowing border was just seasonal migration, that the men beating women in sports are women, that inflation was transitory, that Joe Biden was sharp as a tack.”
It took a while for the lies to be seen for what they were: there was a very fine propaganda machine crushing dissent and manufacturing alternative facts. But the lies did not take root in the way the liars had hoped. The word games wore off and in many ways, it feels like we can finally call woke nonsense what it is – it’s just a banana taped to a wall.
Here’s my summary of 2024’s biggest winners and losers…
The “Idea” of America:
I will cautiously say that 2024 was a win for patriotism.
The discussion around national identity grew less sequestered and more animated as the year progressed. In a way some of 2024’s top issues – open borders, illegal immigration and even pro-Hamas campus protests – are cut from the same cloth – confusion over what America is and who it is for. It’s clear that America’s cultural heritage cannot stretch indefinitely to accomodate every belief and way of life. If it is to be something, it cannot be everything.
There has been a strong undercurrent, flowing especially from the academy and media, dragging us towards shame and resentment toward our nation and its history. A teen in Indiana was told that the Star-Spangled Banner on his truck was offensive. West Point replaced the phrase “duty, honor, country” in its mission statement with the nebulous “army values” while the Biden administration did its best to do away with national borders, letting in even more illegals. Donald Trump was ridiculed for accusing immigrants of eating the pets of Springfield, Ohio. But by the time JD Vance pushed back against a network anchor when she brushed aside news that Venezuelan gangs had taken control of apartment blocks in Colorado, the insanity of the reigning narrative was plain.
Leftists continued to see fascism and racism under every rock and staged lots of race-based hate crime hoaxes to prove their point. There may be no changing their minds, even now. But after some tragic murders by illegal immigrants shocked the nation, talk about patriotism, heritage and what it means to be American broke through the coastal elites’ ability to set the conversation. On Christmas Day, a raucous debate about H1-B visas involving Vivek Ramaswarmy, Elon Musk and plenty of right-wing anons broke out on X. All sides agreed that illegal immigration was damaging to the country and must stop immediately. But there was a divide between those who believe America still needs skilled immigration and those who say the nation needs to stop all incoming traffic for a while and consolidate who we are. If we fix our educational institutions, they argue, we won’t need workers from far away. The fact that such a conversation took place represents a change, I think for the better.
Signs in the Heavens:
The skies were certainly a winner in 2024 with comets, meteor showers, a solar eclipse and auroras. Not to mention the Pentagon’s much-anticipated UFO report (which said there aren’t any UFOs) and plagues of drones, which again, are apparently nothing to worry about. NASA got back in touch with Voyager 1 after losing the connection for a while and SpaceX impressed by catching its own rocket.
Amid the chaos, Rev Fisk launched the Starfall 2029 podcast. Placing 21st-century life against the backdrop of the coming Apophis asteroid makes it easier to see through spin and hype, discerning what is important in these interesting times.
AI
Another winner for 2024 was AI. (Maybe we are the losers here?) Open AI’s dominance of large language models has not been enough to convince skeptics of a decent use-case for its services, but millions of users were happy to jump on the bandwagon. AI-generators are more available than ever with robots whipping up images, video, and music; AI assistants can help with everything from personal shopping to travel tips to talking with Jesus. Teaching robots how to be human may end in tears, but as with most new tech, the early adopters set the tone. So, to Christians who want to keep an eye on that ball, we salute you!
You Had One Job
One of the biggest losers this year was competence. Not so much the little people doing the work, but the leadership, the bosses and the elites who are calling the shots for those under them.
Boeing is a good example, starting the year with a door panel blowing out of an Air Alaska aircraft mid-flight. Things didn’t really get better from there, with two dead whistleblowers, multiple lawsuits, and strikes. Boeing’s year of unfortunate events ended with two Starliner astronauts left stranded on the Space Station until someone can bring them back to earth.
A large ship demolished the Francis Scott Key Bridge in what investigators say was an entirely avoidable accident. The Department of Justice’s lawsuit against the shipping company claims that the vessel was unseaworthy.
Presidents at elite schools were hauled into the spotlight for their failure to address protests on their campuses, eventually leading to some high-profile resignations. After surviving calls to step down for a half-hearted condemnation of anti-semitism, Harvard’s president Claudine Gay could not survive her own unimpressive academic record, which was quite thin and peppered with plagiarism.
The nation watched helplessly as North Carolina and Florida were battered by Hurricane Helene. A patchy federal response to the emergency and agencies that were found to be distributing help according to political affiliation gave us another reason not to put too much faith in government.
If public health thought it couldn’t lose any more face on the back of the pandemic, it was sorely mistaken. Hearings last year found that social distancing was made up and closing schools down did not stop the spread of the virus. Separate reports found that covid death tallies were inflated and that faulty data was used to impose lockdowns, which proved “even more destructive than the havoc wreaked by the public health crisis itself.”
The top brass at US intelligence and military agencies also took a beating to their credibility. Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin was hospitalized in January without letting the White House know he was AWOL. The US Secret Service has scrambled to rehabilitate its image after two attempts on Donald Trump’s life, while he was campaigning to be president.
The New Newspeak
Another casualty of 2024 was truth.
When it came to public trust and credible reporting, the corporate/imperial/ accomplice media dug a deeper hole for themselves. With public trust already on the slide, mainstream journalists did not cover themselves in glory. Networks made a controversy out of Justice Alito’s Appeal to Heaven flag, pretended not to know what a border czar was, said Project 2025 would ruin America, lied for President Biden and downplayed Donald Trump’s near-assassinations all the while continuing to paint MAGA as fascism reincarnated. As November’s election drew ever closer, newsrooms and editorial boards joined with pollsters to try to convince America that Vice President Kamala Harris was a shoo-in for president. The public was assured that she was articulate, capable, experienced and “brat”, so don’t believe your lying eyes.
The misinformation boogeyman was trundled out as a an evergreen reason for censorship and shadow bans. There’s no bias in online censorship, we were told – it’s just that conservatives happen to share more “misinformation” from “low-quality” news sources. While in other nations, saying anything against elite policy can get you in serious trouble (Canada and the UK), the humorless scolds did their best to bring such a regime here, with California trying hard to outlaw satire. Jokes were a danger to democracy.
But the worst lies were tied to President Biden’s clear cognitive decline. While the White House, the media and the man himself denied there was an issue, even the Easter bunny at the White House egg roll last year had to steer a “confused” President back to where he was supposed to be. The White House had people walk beside the President to obscure his shuffling gait from cameras. Videos of the President wandering off at a D-Day commemoration were branded by accomplice media as “cheapfakes”. Special Counsel Robert Hur came under fire from the President’s enablers when he dared to suggest that it was no use prosecuting the president for his foreign entanglements since a jury would likely treat Mr Biden favorably on account of his poor mental acuity. Not until a disastrous performance at a campaign debate in June did it become legit to wonder out loud about who was running the White House.
Male and female created He them:
Godly sexuality and the protection of life took some hits in 2024 but also scored some wins.
Kamala Harris was celebrated as the first Vice President to visit an abortion clinic and several pro-life measures failed in state ballots. Lawmakers enabled American women and teens “to purchase contraceptive medication as easily as they buy aspirin.” Retailers began selling the abortion pill, mifepristone.
All that is demoralizing and proves we have a lot of work to do to make killing the unborn unthinkable. But thanks to election posturing and the Democrat’s dedication to abortion-all-the-time, late term abortion was in the headlines, making more Americans aware of the ghoulish practice. Also, lesser-known pro-life frontiers were brought to public attention – IVF and surrogacy. While California set the agenda for other blue states, redefining infertility to ensure homosexuals can have access and funding for fertility services, Alabama ruled that embryos are children, endowed with rights by the Creator in a landmark IVF decision.
President Biden put aside his Catholicism any time the church’s teachings clashed with his politics. He took time out to praise America’s most celebrated minorities, with debauched displays on the White House lawn during the Transgender Day of Visibility. The day clashed with Easter this year, and the President showed his priorities by acknowledging Jesus’ great victory over sin (my words, not his) as an afterthought. Then again, Pope Francis himself continued his capitulation to rainbow tyranny by declaring that priests may bless same sex unions.
The Paris Olympics also seemed intent on provoking the wrath of God. (No, not Raygun’s breakdancing.) The opening ceremony featured a provocative drag queen recreation of the Last Supper. Women’s medals were awarded to male athletes.
But the Games were also scattered with instances of Christians giving glory to God. This shot of Brazil’s Gabriel Medina acknowledging Jesus' providence was nominated as one of the year’s best.
Despite all this grist for the propaganda mills, the transgender juggernaut started running out of steam as Americans began to get sick of boys walloping their daughters at sports, peverts in gym bathrooms and people losing their livelihoods for refusing to use invented pronouns. The impact of the UK’s Cass report – which found no good reason to allow children to access transgender procedures – was felt in America. A number of states said they would not comply with President Biden’s new Title IX rules which would allow confused boys into girls’ spaces.
None of These Candidates:
It’s safe to say politics was a loser last year. The fatigue of keeping up with it all was more than a lot of people could handle. While DC can often be fairly compared to a circus, when you tell your grandchildren about last year, they might find it hard to believe you. Donald Trump beat not one, but two, presidential candidates and two attempts on his life. He became the first “former president to be convicted of a felony”, as the liberal media kept reminding us. Hunter Biden became the first “child of a sitting president convicted of a felony”. Vice President Harris became the first to be modeled after an AI, it would seem. And Joe Biden became the first human Roomba to occupy the White House. Activist judges tried to keep Trump and RFK off the ballot, then made Bobby stay when he wanted out. The President ignored the Supreme Court’s ruling that he could not cancel student debt. It went on and on. Americans were so disillusioned with politics in an election year, that Nikki Haley lost her Nevada primary to “None Of These Candidates”. We feel that.
But the memes belonged to Donald Trump. From frying fries to fight, fight, fight, Trump’s ability to speak normie was unmatched by any politician. Whether he’s a scumbag, shrewd marketer or visionary, Americans decided he is one of the most relatable billionaires.


Just Stop Activists:
I’m gonna say climate alarmism was one of the year’s losers. And that’s a good thing. Climate activists threw soup at the Mona Lisa and sprayed part of the Stonehenge monument orange, apparently to make a scene about the UK’s use of fossil fuels. Two elderly women took it upon themselves to smash the glass cabinet where the original Magna Carta is displayed. These hissy fits are claimed to be necessary to draw attention to their cause, but the targets of their campaigns reveal the open disdain for the history and patrimony of the West. All up, the climate change conversation continued to move down the rankings of things that matter to middle America – sorry, greenies, nihilism is not in vogue right now.
A World on Fire:
Global peace took a pounding.
Some conflicts spilled over from 2023, but many governments have been exposed as no more than tangled coalitions of interest groups with no cohesive conviction to keep them together for any length of time. France, German and Netherlands struggled to keep their governments in tact. Ruling parties in many countries were flipped. South Africa’s African National Congress lost after 30 years in power. The UK’s long-governing Conservative Party got a shellacking at the ballot box, while student protests in Bangladesh eventually chased its long-term leader out of the country. Canada’s Justin Trudeau tendered his resignation. The leader of Japan’s entrenched Liberal Democratic Party stood down. The Assad regime was overthrown in Syria. Some nations entered unknown territory: Some 642 million Indians voted in the nation’s general election, Mexico elected its first female president and South Korea ended the year with martial law and a president holed up in his palace.
Israel did the world a favor by taking out some of the US’ worst enemies, even as the reality of Islamic terrorism is dawning on the West, likely tied to discussions of immigration and national identity.
Russian activist Alexei Navalny (Putin’s most prominent critic) died under suspicious circumstances in a remote prison colony, while Moscow released American journalist, Evan Gershkovich.
America called time on its extradition efforts against Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, who returned to Australia.
Men with Death Wishes:
I know there is a lot of good stuff happening in the “manosphere”. There has been some much-needed correction to society’s denigration of men. More men are speaking like men (no, like, vocal fry, okaaay?), loving marriage, embracing fatherhood and leadership and being strong; all signs of healthy manhood making a comeback.
But that energy has not spread everywhere. It was hard not to notice the amount of hopeless young men last year with seemingly nothing to live for. There were too many headlines of young men committing attention-grabbing acts of horror. A young airman self-immolated in protest over Israel’s campaign in Gaza, the second to do so in the space of six months. The end of the year saw a former Green Beret take his life in an exploding cybertruck, reportedly after the breakdown of his marriage and despair at his country. Luigi Mangione, a young man with plenty of privilege threw his life away in frustration at feeling like a cog in a machine. Although not much is known (still) about Thomas Crooks, his attempt to assassinate Donald Trump was not the action of a well-adjusted or hopeful young man. It is something that a man does when he is confused, desperate or consumed with hatred.
The terrible trickery of the deceivers has let men believe they are useless unless they are feminized, castrated or dead. There is great need to reflect the light of purpose, worth and dignity to those men still flailing in the despair. Those with no role models, no true fathers worth imitating, need to be taught how to create agency for themselves in a system that tells them how they should be. Auron McIntyre’s insight into what each side of politics is offering young men is salient: the Right is handing out opportunity, but the Left is handing out patronage. As a guest on his show said, we need to be grooming a new ruling class, young men who know what they believe, why they believe it and aren’t ashamed to stand strong for the sake of those below them.
So dear readers, 2024 is history and there is, dare I say it? a “vibe shift”.
God is always working His purposes out. As an honorable mention, interest in spiritual things was also a winner last year. When confronted with the inexplicability of human sin, I have heard more than a few people realize there are some things that can only be described as “demonic” or “evil“. The idols of science and rationality, government, wealth and status cannot protect anyone from the consequences of The Fall and a planet in the throes of it. Jesus knows that manmade gods soon fail any who put their hope in them and he put us here for just such a time.
The rise of “great man” politics that seems to have engulfed the US in recent years could bode ill for our future. It is certainly a reflection that competing visions for what America should be will continue to toss our nation to and fro, unless we on the ground are taking every opportunity to build good things where we are. Yes, there are no permanent political victories in this age, but times of peace and refreshing are given by our merciful Father that we are not consumed by sorrow. If we can’t build now, any good coming out of Washington will be washed away in short order. As one commentator said:
There's a lot riding on [Trump’s victory], one way or another…Are we going to press the advantage while we have air cover [from the federal government]? Can we do that?..The only way that we're going to accomplish what needs to be accomplished in this country is taking to heart “no I'm not relying on that guy over there to do it… I'm going to do what I can do right now.”
God’s peace,
Frisby
Some great stuff from last year’s Tank archive:
Some of our most-clicked click bait:
🚏 One photographer documents remote Soviet bus stops
🛻 A little guy wishing he was smaller
🏀 Every basketball court in America
🎸 Where the term “heavy metal” came from
🐋 Airbus Beluga lands at Heathrow airport
⚱️ Valuable relics that were used as doorstops
🇯🇵 Retro-futurism, Japan-style
🍺 Now that’s product placement!
🪦 Why there aren’t any human remains on the Titanic
🌵 What’s with the barcode in the Mojave Desert?
⌚ When your very expensive timepiece is mistaken for a kids watch
🎼 The progression of Mozart’s music as he grew up
And your favorite links:
What advice would you like to have known at 20? This list has some gems.
People probably like you more than you think
“Life by Drowning”, an essay by Bo Giertz
Gandalf's 5-step method for releasing a friend who is bedevilled.
Some of the great pieces from Rev Fisk:
Pastor Fisk’s list of the Book of the Twelve minor prophets in chronological order