Farewell 2025: A Requiem for Resilience Amid Ruin

𝘍𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭 2025: 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘱'𝘴 𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘴 𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴; 𝘉𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘪'𝘴 𝘏𝘢𝘯𝘶𝘬𝘬𝘢𝘩 𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘳 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘮𝘴 15; 𝘕𝘡 𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘶𝘯𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵; 𝘊𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘥𝘢/𝘜𝘒 𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘱 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘧𝘰𝘨𝘴.

𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀 By Bruce Alpine..

A

s the sun dips low on December 31, 2025, casting long shadows over a world weary from its own weight, we bid adieu to a year that clawed at the soul of humanity. 

From the gilded halls of power to blood-soaked sands, 2025 was no gentle epilogue but a furious overture—Trump's triumphant re-election in November 2024, ushering in "MAGA 2.0" with tariffs that scorched allies and budgets slashed by DOGE's $2 trillion blade. 

His Gaza ceasefire brokered fragile peace, yet proxy flames licked Ukraine's borders and Iran's shadows, while domestic shutdowns—45 days of gridlock—fractured GOP dreams of untrammeled rule.

New Year (time to press reset) music video. Bruce Alpine

The crescendo of cruelty peaked on Hanukkah's eve at Sydney's Bondi Beach, where December 14's seaside revelry—1,000 souls aglow under festival lights—dissolved into nightmare. 

Two gunmen, their motives shrouded in probes linking to overseas bomb drills, felled 15 innocents: a child guardian, a rabbi in prayer, diaspora dreams shattered in five merciless minutes. 

Drone-captured chaos painted the esplanade in crimson, festival relics amid the fallen, Australia's deadliest echo of Port Arthur. 

PM Anthony Albanese's multicultural lament rang true, but vigils' flickering menorahs could not erase the digital venom fueling such voids. 

Mourning at Bondi after the December 14 terror attack that took 15 victims. file: BSS

Economic echoes reverberated farther: New Zealand's National coalition, stitched in 2023's pragmatic haste, unraveled under austerity's lash. 

Unemployment crested 5.8%—a 1994 specter—as 41,000 jobs vanished, GDP inched at 1.2%, and debt's 43% GDP maw swallowed $9 billion in interest, bloating jobseeker lines 15% against 7% cost spikes. 

Luxon's "growth party" soured into skilled exodus and 52% public scorn, RMA reform rifts heralding 2026's ballot backlash. 

Canada staggered under Trump's trade thunder, growth limping to 1.2% as 7.3% unemployment gripped ports in paralysis and affordability riots. 

Justin Trudeau's immigration reins tightened amid export hemorrhages, a modest 2026 rebound the sole solace. 

Across the Atlantic, the UK's Labour under Keir Starmer weathered fiscal gales: October's 0.1% GDP dip tempered a 1.3% annual crawl, inflation at 2% unlocking BoE easings, yet 4.5% borrowing strained welfare as Europe outpaced with envy. 

Forecasts whispered 1.5% revival via consumer sparks, but global tempests loomed. 

Farewell, 2025—you forge of fire and fracture, where AI's productivity soared 12-56% yet inequality yawned wider, crypto's PolitiFi frenzy minted meme fortunes amid CRE's $1.9T maturity abyss. 

You tested truces in Seoul's impeachments and Gabon's backslides, Gen Z's protests a thunder against corruption's throne. 

In your wake, we carry scars as signposts: Adapt, ally, awaken. For 2026 beckons not as blank slate, but battlefield—will we build bridges from the breach, or burn them in blind reprisal? The choice, as ever, is ours.

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