Links 12/13/2025

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1. The Rev Kev December 13, 2025 at 7:13 am

   “Trump Is Already Discussing Preemptive Pardons For His Lawless Administration ”

   Sounds like a great way for Trump to keep the members of his Cabinet and his admin in line. He could simply wave around a packet of unsigned pardons in front of them and let them know that if they play ball with him and show absolute loyalty, then he will sign their get out of jail for free card when he leaves office. Of course it would be tough luck if he keeled over with a heart attack and never had a chance to sign any of those pardons.

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   1. vao December 13, 2025 at 7:35 am

      The existence of the autopen makes those calculations not as straightforward…

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2. Ignacio December 13, 2025 at 7:22 am

   UK stadiums swap beef burgers for wild venison to cut carbon emissions-

   And then, with articles like this, are we to believe that anything significant is being done to curb carbon emissions?

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   1. Wukchumni December 13, 2025 at 7:44 am

      Everything is so Namby-Bambi in the UK, oh dear.

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3. raspberry jam December 13, 2025 at 7:28 am

   Re Greek farmer protests, they have not yet blockaded Piraeus, El. Venezios Airport in Athens, or really much in the way of highways or roads around Athens. I have a flight through Venezios on Monday though, will share if there are any disruptions. In Athens the only real protest activity in the last few weeks has been around Omonia and Exarcheia over police brutality and the riot cops (with full armor and shields) have been out in big groups in Exarcheia most nights I have been here.

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4. Balan Aroxdale December 13, 2025 at 7:30 am

   Amid record trade surplus, China has a big worry — factory deflation is now in 38th month Firstpost

   I think this is part of a strategy by Xi to head off any US/EU efforts at either tariffs or currency devaluations. Either would be the natural response (if they had the competence) from the western states in an effort to shore up their industrial bases. Xi is heading them off at the pass, taking the trade war shock now on his terms rather than theirs later. Now to compete, they would need to cut even deeper, so the path of least resistance becomes the status quo.

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5. The Rev Kev December 13, 2025 at 7:36 am

   “It’s a real nightmare”— Spiders are becoming “more angry and aggressive” due to global warming”

   It’s not so much if they are getting more angry and aggressive but if they start to increase in size as well. Then we could have problems. ‘We’re going to need a bigger shoe’–

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXoq2e-Ots (4:25 mins)

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6. IM Doc December 13, 2025 at 7:43 am

   Type 5 DM is something that was never discussed when I was in school and residency. I do not recall it being mentioned in my presence until about 5 years ago. That was at a conference, and it was being discussed in the context of what happens in the third world.

   Essentially, although it is far more complex than what I am about to simplify it as, it is caused by mal-development of the pancreas in childhood and youth secondary to malnutrition. Like many other organs, the heart, brain, liver, muscles, and bones, the pancreas is somewhat sensitive to building materials as humans are turning into adults. If there is malnourishment on a severe chronic level, the pancreas does not form correctly. Unfortunately, once the human body reaches adult size in the teen years, there is no going back. What is done is done if there has been mal-development. The individual affected with this to varying degrees will never be able to make enough insulin and indeed digestive juices and enzymes to attain a fully functional body.

   These patients present in the third world with very small skinny body frames, very severe glucose elevation, and often have chronic low-burn ketosis and acidosis and all the complications thereof, but are kept from DKA because they are able to make just enough insulin. It is a very unpleasant experience. We in the developed world have a similar condition with the ridiculous name of Type 1.5 DM or Latent Autoimmune Diabetes of Adulthood ( LADA). In this case, the pancreas has been attacked by various autoimmune situations leaving the person able to make only a fraction of the insulin they need but not zero insulin like Type I DM. These LADA patients are older, usually skinny/athletic, and again until diagnosed correctly and more importantly TREATED correctly ( only responds to insulin) – they are pretty miserable.

   We really do not have Type 5 DM in the USA. Because of our abundance of crap food, we are presented with Type 2 DM – another hideous problem just in different ways. Type 5 DM will only really respond well to insulin – but it appears in some studies that the insulin dose in this condition can be moderated with other DM meds. But it is extremely challenging. These third worlders are often starving – and if they are not eating in a regular fashion, insulin dosing can very easily cause all kinds of problems up to death.

   Since the powers that be in the USA and the West have flaunted the desires and actions of the researchers who discovered insulin about a century ago ( Banting and Best of Canada) – God only knows how this can ever be handled on a global scale. Banting and Best literally gave the patent for insulin production to the world and for decades including the first 2/3 of my career, insulin was priced at cost of production only. There was no profit. That was of course before the MBA crowd and neoliberals invaded the realm. It is now costing patients or their insurers ( meaning the rest of us) – 500 dollars a month or so. Somehow, I cannot see that as viable in the third world.

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   1. CanCyn December 13, 2025 at 8:45 am

      “ Banting and Best literally gave the patent for insulin production to the world and for decades including the first 2/3 of my career, insulin was priced at cost of production only. There was no profit. That was of course before the MBA crowd and neoliberals invaded the realm. It is now costing patients or their insurers ( meaning the rest of us) – 500 dollars a month or so.” Well, doesn’t this statement describe the horrors of neoliberalism in a nutshell?

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7. Valiant Johnson December 13, 2025 at 7:48 am

   The Lies Americans Tell Themselves to Justify State Violence Against Migrants
   Where I live (less than a mile from the Iron Curtain) the Border Patrol has never bothered to cover up this kind of behavior. It’s only when these guys operate outside of the Constitution Free Zone that people actually notice.

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8. Steve H. December 13, 2025 at 7:50 am

   > Stanford Medicine study shows why mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines can cause myocarditis

   Problem:

   >> Elevated inflammatory cytokine signaling could be a class effect of mRNA vaccines. Notably, IFN-gamma signaling is a fundamental defense mechanism against foreign DNA and RNA molecules, including viral nucleic acids, Wu said.

   How big a problem:

   >> Vaccine-associated myocarditis occurs in about one in every 140,000 vaccinees after a first dose and rises to one in 32,000 after a second dose.

   Potential solution:

   >> pre-treating cells, cardiac spheres and mice (the latter by oral administration of large quantities) with genistein. Doing this prevented much of the deleterious effects of mRNA vaccines or the CXCL10/IFN-gamma combo to heart cells and tissue.

   Can we call this good news?

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9. Wukchumni December 13, 2025 at 7:54 am

   Goooooood Moooooorning Fiatnam!

   Life behind the Irony Curtain was never all that certain for those on the inside looking out, defections becoming all the more communist looking~

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10. Ignacio December 13, 2025 at 7:58 am

    OpenAI Researcher Quits, Saying Company Is Hiding the Truth Futurism

    What i found in that article is this “pearl” ” by Scam Altman claiming that these days is nearly impossible to raise children without a chatbot. There, there is the truth!

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11. The Rev Kev December 13, 2025 at 8:00 am

    “Thai PM Tells Trump: Cambodia Must Halt Aggression First for Border Ceasefire to Hold”

    This dispute goes back to French colonial days when they stuffed up the demarcation of that border-

    ‘The border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand originates from ambiguities in the boundary demarcations established under the 1904 and 1907 agreements, which sought to define the frontier between the Kingdom of Siam (modern Thailand) and the French Third Republic in French Indochina, which included Cambodia. These treaty maps and survey documents produced by French colonial authorities were often imprecise, leading to overlapping claims over several highland areas and strategic passes.

    Following Cambodia’s independence from France in 1953, the sovereignty of the Preah Vihear temple complex became a focal point of the dispute. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a ruling in 1962 awarding the temple itself to Cambodia, citing historical maps and French survey documentation. However, the court did not clearly delineate the surrounding territory, leaving the adjacent highlands, cliffs, and approaches to the temple in a state of legal and military uncertainty.’

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Cambodia%E2%80%92Thailand_conflict

    So I had an idea. I asked myself how Trump would solve this problem and the answer came straight away. The disputed area would become a DeMilitarized Zone just like in Korea and soon it would be turned into an economic zone which Trump and his buddies would run for fun and profit. And the Preah Vihear temple complex? Why Trump would turn it into a casino of course. See how easy that was?

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12. mrsyk December 13, 2025 at 8:02 am

    That fox antidote is working!

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    1. The Rev Kev December 13, 2025 at 8:13 am

       I can imagine what the local residents had to say-

       ‘Wake up, Martha. They’re back again. And they are running their mother ragged just like our own kids did to us.’

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13. IM Doc December 13, 2025 at 8:08 am

    About PCP burnout – I am not meaning this as a rant. But I think it is important for people to understand the time pressure and world their general internists are facing.

    This week – Monday the 8th of Dec through Friday the 12th of Dec – in my office hours of 9:30-5:30 PM every day, I saw a total of 108 patients myself. The MAs and PAs and RNs who work under me saw an additional 57. In the AM before the office, I have had an average of 3 people in the hospital whom I try to see every day at lunchtime. Because life since COVID has become so overwhelming, I now have hospitalists doing all the work, but I do all I can to see the patients. I have 11 people in nursing home care. So all 11 are seen once a week at various times where they can be fit. My office staff typically fields about 200-250 phone calls a day. I have very good staff but they are also involved with other MDs in my office. Of those calls, I have about 30-50 that I must deal with every day mostly by telling the staff what to do. There are all kinds of patients who demand to speak with me only about test results, etc…….and there are several who because of the severe nature of their results, I need to speak to. I typically try to do this 1 patient at a time in between visits. Despite how obviously crazy medicine has become, so many patients think when I call them it is time to have a visit – and these calls can often become very involved. I am looking at my leftover calls that I need to make from the week on this Sat AM – and the number totals 34. There is simply not enough time in the day to do this. When people do not get immediate feedback some of them can become explosively anger and yell at the staff – causing very high turnover at times. The staffing in modern internist offices has been cut to a third or so of what it was when I started – at the same time the admin bloat in the hospitals and the insurance companies I would guess is 5 times as high. I am plagued with an EMR that is simply tedious in every aspect. Bring back the paper charts and I would save an hour or two of clicks every day. My staff and I have to field every day about 10-12 insurance denials, almost all of which are very involved and are regarding critical meds and tests, etc. In all of this chaos throughout the day, 3-4 times daily I have to take 10-15 minutes to do peer-to-peer discussions with insurance companies about meds or tests. About 90% of the time they just prima facie approve stuff – demonstrating what a waste of time the entire process is – the other 10% are often heated battles that leave me absolutely drained and angry. At any given time, I have about a dozen fully-insured patients who have been denied care and testing with whom I have to spitball all kinds of ideas to keep them going. All the while, almost every day there is a curveball or two that no one sees coming that are often very time-intense. For example, a patient was sent to the NH for terminal hospice care on Friday. The hospital doctors forgot to turn off their ICD – defibrillator – so even though the patient was passed, their heat was not allowed to pass until I left my busy practice, ran to the NH, and turned it off myself. Critical mistakes like this in modern hospitals are just every day now. It is hard not to make them when there is a different physician every day on the case.

    So, this AM on Saturday, I will do my best to work through as many phone calls as I can – knowing I will not get them all – and knowing that people will be screaming next week. I understand how expensive the insurance premiums are and I understand exactly how people feel they are due Cadillac service. But there is nowhere in the USA that is staffing their MD offices for this service. The 24 million dollar/year CEOs though and all the million dollar year C suite people in Big Hospital and Big Insurance have all the help they can dream up – coffee-pourers, armies of Ad people, Marketing, etc.

    The students that come through this mess tell me that actually my office is one of the best run that they have seen- again – read the paragraph above and really think about that – but these students all see what a complete disaster this is and don’t just walk away – they run. Dermatology is becoming quite the draw. The best minds in medicine are literally wasted on Dermatology and there are so many of them.

    People really do wonder why MDs are so burned out. And even a little psycho. I do not wonder at all. My goal every day is no longer to do the best I can do – it is literally not to let anyone die. And to do everything I can to minimize the anger and vitriol knowing there is nothing I can do to eliminate these bad feelings. The entire leadership of the profession knows all about these problems – I cannot think of a thing they have done about it in decades.

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14. mrsyk December 13, 2025 at 8:10 am

    Bon Jovi was never my favorite band, but this morning Jon Bon Jovi is my favorite rock star.

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    1. johnh December 13, 2025 at 8:31 am

       He also apparently talked a woman out of a suicide attempt on a bridge in Nashville a year or two back.

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    2. Lina December 13, 2025 at 8:39 am

       100%. I just shared that link with my friends and family.

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15. southern appalachian December 13, 2025 at 8:18 am

    On the War Habit- “War is an important and necessary institution of our present civilization. War is not just an ugly excrescence, or superficial illness, or occasional maladjustment, or temporary personal mistake of a few leaders of an otherwise fair and healthy society; war is an inherent, inevitable, essential element of the kind of civilization in which we live.”
    Richard Gregg wrote- he spent time with Gandhi. This was from an essay published in 1939.

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16. DJG, Reality Czar December 13, 2025 at 8:33 am

    Happy Festa di Santa Lucia to all who celebrate.

    In the Julian calendar, Santa Lucia was the solstice, the shortest day of the year. The Gregorian reform moved the solstice more or less to the 21st day of December.

    Yet Saint Lucy’s day still marks the first of the twelve days to Christmas, sometimes called the First Yule. The Twelve Days of Christmas (in the famous, too-long song) follow, ending on the Epiphany (the manifestation of divinity) and Twelfth Night.

    So: The veil between the two worlds parts for twelve and twelve days.

    John Donne’s poem “A Nocturnal upon Saint Lucy’s Day, Being the Shortest Day,” is as prophetic as ever.

    https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44122/a-nocturnal-upon-st-lucys-day

    With incomparable lines like:

    Oft a flood
    Have we two wept, and so
    Drown’d the whole world, us two; oft did we grow
    To be two chaoses, when we did show
    Care to aught else; and often absences
    Withdrew our souls, and made us carcasses.

    And tonight, I will head to a theatrical performance that takes a skeptical yet respectful look at Dante, one canto at a time. Today’s performance will be Purgatorio, canto IX, the Too Proud.

    PS Saint Lucy, famous Sicilian, is also the protector of your eyeballs, so don’t go too skeptical on me.

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17. gf December 13, 2025 at 8:38 am

    Oracle one company I would like to see go belly up.

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