SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:48 P.M.. ET:

THE WAY THINGS ARE – From London's Daily Mail:  Panic spread across the German city of Munich just an hour before revellers celebrated the New Year, after police warned of a 'serious imminent threat' of an ISIS terror attack as crowds of people flocked to the city centre to welcome in the New Year.  A foreign intelligence service had warned German police that between five and seven suicide bombers from the terror group had been planning on attacking the southern German city.  Two railway stations - the city's main station and the Pasing station - were evacuated after indications of a planned attack which would target party-goers in the city.  Across Europe, capital cities were on high security alert, with Brussels and Paris both scrapping fireworks for New Year's celebrations.  At least they're taking it seriously.  Nothing has happened in Munich so far, but attacks usually don't happen in cities that are on high alert, and where residents have been warned.  We can speculate that the attack planners back off and start planning to attack somewhere else.

AND MORE APPEASEMENT – HAPPY NEW YEAR – From Breitbart:   The White House has delayed plans to slap new sanctions on Iran over its test-firing of ballistic missiles, a US news report said Thursday, amid fears it could jeopardize a hard-won nuclear deal with Tehran.  The Wall Street Journal, quoting unnamed US officials, said that financial sanctions being developed by the US Treasury Department remain on the table, after the decision to delay them.  At one point they were scheduled to be announced Wednesday in Washington, the newspaper said, citing a notification the White House sent to Congress.  The officials gave no definitive timeline for when the sanctions would be imposed, it said.  Disgraceful.  Everything is done for the greater glory of Obama's "legacy."  American security seems a secondary consideration.

ECONOMIC DECLINE – From The Wall Street Journal:  U.S. stocks had their worst annual performance since 2008, closing out a rocky year that tempered investors’ expectations for gains in 2016.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average, a basket of 30 stocks, lost 2.2% in 2015, while the broader S&P 500 fell 0.7%.  The S&P’s loss ended three years of double-digit gains for the index, but was far from the nearly 40% dive it took in 2008, a year of financial crisis...But broadly, the market struggled. While an extended slump in commodity prices helped drag the stock market into negative territory this year, six of the 10 sectors in the S&P 500 posted losses.    Obama, the economic genius.

December 31, 2015