Links 12/14/2025

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1. The Rev Kev December 14, 2025 at 7:23 am

   “Russia damages Turkish-owned vessels in attack on Ukrainian ports”

   ‘Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Russian attacks ‘had no … military purpose whatsoever’.’

   As the article states, this is Russia’s retaliation for the attack on those oil tankers. An interesting thing was that this attack occurred about an hour after Putin had a meeting with Erdogan so I guess that meeting didn’t go so well.
   1. DJG, Reality Czar December 14, 2025 at 7:30 am

      The Rev Kev: I will rely on you and other Australians for detail about the events at Bondi Beach. I watched a couple of news reports, but they are necessarily somewhat sketchy.
      1. The Rev Kev December 14, 2025 at 7:59 am

         Details are still coming out but there are at least twelve dead and about 29 wounded, including two police officers, who are in hospitals all around Sydney. There were two shooters who stationed themselves on a foot bridge where the target seemed to be a Hanukkah celebration which traditionally starts on 14th December. One of the shooters is dead and the other captured. One guy, named Ahmed al Ahmed, went all Rambo and managed to crash-tackle one shooter from behind and quickly wrestled his rifle away from him though he was shot twice in the attempt. As you can imagine, the video clip of him doing this has gone viral. There is a bit more detail in the following article-

         https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/crime/hero-bystander-tackles-bondi-beach-shooter/news-story/fc37324c807ffba71e212cd5c6915a18
         1. Alice X December 14, 2025 at 9:20 am

            Distressing but worthwhile footage! Thank you! Ahmed al Ahmed is bound to be a hero in more than one way.
         2. gk December 14, 2025 at 4:28 pm

            which traditionally starts on 14th December.

            I’ve no idea what Australia does. but it usually starts on the 25th of Kislev, which moves around on the Gregorian calendar.
         3. gk December 14, 2025 at 5:05 pm

            Netanyahu describing this as Jewish heroism.
   2. Donaldo December 14, 2025 at 9:55 am

      Geran-2 takes its time, so it must have been sent while the meeting was still on.
2. DJG, Reality Czar December 14, 2025 at 7:29 am

   This morning, I read an article in Fatto Quotidiano about the two soldiers killed in Syria overnight. I returned home as the story of the attack on Bondi Beach in Sydney was breaking on the Fatto Quotidiano web site, Australian news, and French news. Then I backed by accident into the attack in Providence at Brown University.

   For too many years, too many people believed that violence was something that they could control and use to their ends. In the case of the US of A, which is the source of much of the violence, there is further a qualitative difference in politics and culture before and after the so-called War on Terror and the Patriot Act.

   I am posting Yves Smith’s recent diagnosis here:
   https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2025/12/revulsion-la-grande-bouffe-and-the-spectacle-of-grotesque-elite-self-and-system-destruction.html

   Meanwhile, the Nobel Peace Prize just went to a dubious politician who showed up in Oslo to advocate more violence.

   The problem is that peace is the only viable path. War is sowing the wind and, for the last twenty-five years, reaping the whirlwind in the form of deaths of millions.

   So the elites are thoroughly violent and discredited. The policy of the US of A and U.K. has been to allow the Middle East to fester. The response is for people like Van Jones, Sarah Hurwitz, and HIllary Clinton to show up and engage in denialism. The Great Game — the proxy war in Ukraine, the strafing of boats off Venezuela — goes on, managed by people who don’t believe in consequences.

   What is to be done?
   1. HH December 14, 2025 at 8:25 am

      Nothing can be done about mentally ill people who suddenly become violent, but something can be done about large-scale, organized violence caused by pathological politicians. The key is to break down the propaganda systems that condition people to accept war as a noble and justified activity. Getting military recruitment out of schools and teaching history from a sane point of view would be an excellent start.
      1. Michaelmas December 14, 2025 at 10:31 am

         HH: The key is to break down the propaganda systems that condition people to accept war as a noble and justified activity.

         And yet nation-state formation back to Sumeria is based precisely on war-making and the booty — and, formerly, slaves — seized thereby.

         ‘War is the father of all things.’ — Heraclitus

         ““War is the health of the State. It automatically sets in motion throughout society these irresistible forces for uniformity, for passionate cooperation with the government in coercing into obedience the minority groups and individuals which lack the larger herd sense.” — Randall Bourne

         Consider the situation of a human predator preying on other humans. In a Paleolithic group of twenty to forty hunter-gatherers, that predator’s scope for predation was limited. Perhaps they could threaten the group’s members and even kill one or two to compel the others to comply with their demands. Yet those others might still combine against them or simply flee while they were sleeping.

         For that predator, therefore, a far more effective strategy was to point to some neighboring tribe as a threat, attack any dissenting members of their own group as cowardly and disloyal, and excite the rest with stories about seizing whatever the other tribe had—food, women, access to a body of land or water—that they themselves desired.

         Now consider that same sequence of events from the predator’s viewpoint. Whereas before your group were more or less egalitarian foragers, you have just had them successfully raid another group, thus creating a heirarchy—a system of inequality with yourself on top, your warriors below you as junior predators, the rest of your group below them, and however many of the other tribe you enslaved at the bottom. Most crucially, you now control all surpluses of food—and everything else, consequently—which your group acquires.
         1. Michaelmas December 14, 2025 at 10:39 am

            And it still works that way.
            
            NATO’s Rutte says Europe must prepare for ‘scale of war our grandparents’ endured
            https://www.politico.eu/article/nato-mark-rutte-says-europe-must-prepare-for-scale-of-war-our-grandparents-endured/

            “ Naturally the common people don’t want war neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.

            “Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”

            ― Hermann Goering
            1. Ignacio December 14, 2025 at 11:42 am

               Yesterday Mercouris was calling these people gamblers. They cannot admit having failed in their previous bets so the double down and drag everyone else to their mistakes. So far it looks this is what these individuals are trying to do doubling down on Russophobia and warmongering. As I see it, Rutte has the charm of a wet rat so if this idiocy is kept to the head of that useless international organization we can still breathe easily.
               1. Polar Socialist December 14, 2025 at 11:50 am

                  Conflict and peace researcher Jan Oberg think Rutte is transforming NATO from semi-rational to psycho-political.

                  The “red threat” is not a description of Russia’s actual power. NATO remains technologically superior, vastly richer, and more expansive than Russia. Yet Rutte insists NATO is fragile, vulnerable, at risk of annihilation. This inversion of reality is the hallmark of absurd theatre: the stronger actor plays the victim, the weaker is cast as omnipotent aggressor. The red threat is a stage device, a prop that sustains the liturgy of fear.
                  1. AG December 14, 2025 at 1:02 pm

                     Here I want to forcefully contradict the author if I may.

                     NATO is weaker. In fact Jacques Baud stressed that even if NATO in an official form conventionally had been involved directly since 2022 the outcome would have been the same.

                     But the reasons for and necessary consequences of NATO´s inferiority uttered by our Führers in Europe are completely made up and idiotic and incorrect. Which is the only real danger in all this. If you do not assess the military realities appropriately and instead carry on with those delusions of grandeur you can seriously fuck everything up.

                     (NATO´s core strategy however has always been to provoke a FUBAR sit in Europe. So that´s probably systemic.)

                     Have been trying to communicate this to the peace movement. But they kinda ignore it. Of course I can see that mobilizing is more diffiult if on the surface you agree with NATO that Russians are superior.

                     On the other hand NATO has been claiming that Russia is weak and incompetent and the soldiers will flee when a Leopoard comes into sight. (Just like they fled in 1941, 42, 43, 44 and 45!!!).

                     And that contradiction is too obvious to not notice but MSM have been hard trying to do just that.
                     1. Alice X December 14, 2025 at 2:25 pm

                        Per Mearsheimer NATO (1949) was to pacify Europe (and also as in keep Germany down, America in and Russia out).

                        Of course, later on it had other purposes.

                        Europe has the same problem it had pre-WWII, it does not have enough fossil fuel energy, except coal.
                        1. Polar Socialist December 14, 2025 at 3:06 pm

                           Well, the Allied agreement in Yalta and Potsdam was to together keep Germany down and undivided, but by the end of 1945 USA wanted to divide Germany in order rebuild West Germany as the European industrial powerhouse able to trade with USA so another depression could be avoided (as the military spending was winding down seriously fast).

                           To achieve this NATO was needed, because it was expected that Soviet Union would not just turn it’s cheek after this betrayal, but could try to keep Germany down and undivided by itself.

                           Of course, letting West Germany into NATO was another betrayal of the Allied victory, which ensured Cold War and the Soviet need for a buffer zone against NATO.
                           1. Alice X December 14, 2025 at 4:53 pm

                              There are points of contention here with me, but that the US started the Cold War I would agree. FDR and his programs were overthrown at the D’rats convention of 1944.
                     2. hk December 14, 2025 at 2:47 pm

                        NATO may be weaker, but it’s leaders are also loudly yawping about attacking Russia–not so much defending against it, but attacking “defensively” (Like their forefathers in 1941, I guess? I’m constantly surprised at how the lingo today is being recycled practically literally from SS recruitment posters back then in Dutch, French, Danish, and Norwegian.). If I were Russian leadership, the only way to respond is to prepare for war, ie become a real threat to Europe, and unlike Europeans, Russia can actually be ready for a real war soon.
                        1. bertl December 15, 2025 at 2:12 am

                           It seems that the European élite prefer Russian roulette to chess but, as always, they prefer to make up their own rules and they will ensure that every chamber is loaded.

                           I’ve no doubt that Russia has already prepared plans to meet any contingency and is ready to pre-empt any move made against it.

                           However, they do play chess and they have outplayed the EU with the barest number of moves, fully aware of what happens next.

                           First the euro sinks, Euroclear and Clearstream are wiped out and Russia takes the lead in wiping up European assets on it’s soil and Belgium’s assets in Belgium and overseas. And I’m sure that lots of countries in the Global South will consider this excellent precedent and begin to think carefully about all the lovely European assets in their countries they can freeze indefinitely as they sanction every EU country and Western institution until they obtain adequate reparations to fully compensate for past crimes including colonial exploitation and enslavement – inclusive of jailtime, post-colonial commercial exploitation, odious debt, and any deaths and injuries of sustained during the struggle for independence down to the humblest hangnail, and I am sure any government taking such action will be fully supported by the military alliances they may negotiate beforehand on their path to full membership of BRICS.
                        2. Procopius December 17, 2025 at 6:39 am

                           The problem is, Russia doesn’t have enough people to attack Europe. They are so superior to NATO’s forces that they would win if NATO attacked them, but they can barely occupy Ukraine, much less expand their occupation. And they have demographic problems approaching. There’s no way Russia is going to attack Europe as long as Putin is in command.
            2. AG December 14, 2025 at 1:18 pm

               Thanks for reminding of ol´ Hermann´s quote. I will send this to a couple of people.
               It should never be forgotten that in the history of our species never did a single war criminal not invoke justice, peace and security for abandoning those very same principles, including killing off the domestic population at some front.

               The alleged original source of the quote are the NUREMBERG DIARIES by the shrink Gilbert who inquired Göring. I think there is some movie about this right now.

               Nuremberg Diary – by Gustave Gilbert
               Interview with Herman Goering
               https://www.mit.edu/people/fuller/peace/war_goering.html
      2. Kouros December 14, 2025 at 2:12 pm

         Easily said, but one can get to jail for that…

         https://www.rt.com/news/629427-estonia-jails-anti-nato-politicians/
         1. AG December 14, 2025 at 4:57 pm

            ain´t that cool
            Jacques Baud mockingly quoted an FT article which used the term “Estonianization” to describe Europe and NATO today. Which is doubly noteworthy due to its minuscule size.
      3. Hickory December 14, 2025 at 7:57 pm

         The biggest propaganda trick is to convince wage slaves that they are free while simultaneously preventing them from ever learning what free societies are actually like, where there is no ruling class and everyone is expected to stand for what’s right instead of submissively obey the laws they’re given.
         1. bertl December 15, 2025 at 2:24 am

            There is always a ruling class which may be permanent or temporary. The most important question is, simply, do the institutions of government ensure that governments representing the interests of all of the people, including vulnerable minorities, most of the time by developing policies which are supported by the broadest possible consensus?
   2. Earl December 14, 2025 at 9:17 am

      The circumstances of the killing of two U.S. soldiers and an America translator in Palmyra Syria are unclear. A concern is that the Trump administration is risking the lives of American servicemen by using them for joint operations to support the rebranded al-Qaeda regime headed by Ahmed al-Sharaa aka al–Julani. Palmyra is in central Syria which is not in the U.S. occupied northeast Syria. The Syrian regime has denied that the shooter was a member of its military. The U.S. has a long history of support of the finally successful jihadists in Syria, including its attempt to transfer Libyan arms to them from Benghazi. The press reports are misleading, using photos and comments that imply that that U.S. troops were working with NE Syria Kurdish forces not the new jihadist regime. Congress needs to look into this and hopefully will hold hearings similar to those on the Benghazi disaster.
      1. The Rev Kev December 14, 2025 at 9:31 am

         As I mentioned in a comment below, the shooter is supposed to be the bodyguard of Palmyra’s security chief so almost certainly not Syria Kurdish forces but one of the Jihadist regime forces.
   3. .Tom December 14, 2025 at 11:27 am

      What’s to be done? Revolution! And when it comes those elites you mention will be first against the wall. /joke

      As the legitimacy of the ruling class declines, its reliance on force to maintain social organization and control increases, leading to less legitimacy, and so the system moves towards instability and a mixed transition (Cy Canterel YouTube 10min).

      Honestly, Idk what’s to be done. The anarchist’s theory of change is the most tricky theory of all. The best I can suggest is preparation, education, organization. In his book If We Burn about moments of revolutionary potential in recent times, Vincent Bevins suggested a pattern in which it was the political groupings with best prior preparation and organization that were able to capture the narrative and use the popular power to their advantage in those highly dynamic situations. It worries me that in politics in the countries I know a bit about, US, UK, Germany, Hungary, it is precisely in ideological and practical organization where the left is weakest.

      See the above Linked Europe’s center is barely holding in Politico. The practical and ideological organization of the nationalist non-cartel parties is consistent and they are popular. How will they do in the mixed transition relative to the leftist non-cartel parties? I’m only aware of one, BSW, and in the last election it did much worse than AfD. Elsewhere such parties are, for whatever reasons, tragically unable to really form. This has to change or our options will be limited to those two kinds of right wing political leadership, either of which will be acceptable to the plutocrats.
      1. Jonathan Holland Becnel December 14, 2025 at 11:11 pm

         We fucking advocate for a 2nd American 🇺🇸 Revolution uniting the working class against the Rich Israeli supporting Pedos.

         We extract the blood 🩸 sucking vampire squids from our economy and let a thousand local political parties bloom.

         We do a deal with China and have them teach us how to build a better society.

         We do a deal with Russia that Unites West & East once and for all.

         And we shoot for the stars. Manifest Destiny Space!

         We should all embed in our local neighborhoods and learn from the workers and the society built around that. And then teach them how to take power.

         I plan on starting some America 250 groups down here and advocating for a real revolution.

         Plenty of workers out there with nothing better to do as technology and finance slowly eats our lunch.
         1. geode December 15, 2025 at 7:39 am

            In order to have 2nd revolution of the american working class, first you need to have the 1st one.

            Also, working class should not want to fix the rotten empire, but to drive a wooden stake into its chest. You would need a new flag for that.
3. Deb Schultz December 14, 2025 at 8:05 am

   I had to laugh out loud at the Vox article headline: We’re running out of good ideas; AI may help us find them. Pretty sure *that’s * not a good idea!
   1. mrsyk December 14, 2025 at 8:21 am

      Me too, lol. Perhaps the author is “projecting”.
      1. Vodkatom December 14, 2025 at 8:40 am

         Perhaps AI wrote that headline? A little self promotion to drum up business.
         1. t December 14, 2025 at 1:20 pm

            That would be peak VOX.

            How can we drown out ideas most people like? Bad ideas that haven’t failed yet! New ideas.
   2. ilsm December 14, 2025 at 9:35 am

      When they have no use cases you make things up!

      I get ads for an AI who wants to train free of charge(!) me on ‘data engineering…….’ with their new wave data engineering running through supercomputing…….

      Too expensive, amateur bots!
   3. Eric Anderson December 14, 2025 at 1:47 pm

      Irony is lost on the vacuous.
   4. Glen December 14, 2025 at 5:17 pm

      Yeah, about those “new ideas”:

      I Asked ChatGPT What Would Happen If Billionaires Paid Taxes at the Same Rate as the Middle Class
      https://finance.yahoo.com/news/asked-chatgpt-happen-billionaires-paid-170130161.html

      ChatGPT ran the numbers on what would happen if billionaires paid taxes at the same rate middle-class families do — around 15%-22%.

      Using the ProPublica data, if those top 25 billionaires had been taxed at a 20% rate on their wealth growth, they would have paid around $80 billion instead of $13.6 billion.

      “Extrapolate that across approximately 1,000 billionaires?” the AI asked. “You’re talking hundreds of billions in added revenue annually.”

      Where That Money Could Go

      The AI outlined several ways this massive revenue increase could transform government services:

      Healthcare: We could expand Medicare and Medicaid, potentially moving toward universal coverage.

      Education: Fund universal pre-K or make community college free for everyone.

      Infrastructure and climate: Invest seriously in clean energy projects and fix our crumbling roads and bridges.

      Debt reduction: Actually pay down the national debt instead of adding to it every year.

      ChatGPT noted that this extra revenue could “stabilize the economy by boosting the spending power of everyday Americans.” Basically, reducing inequality in a way that helps everyone, not just those at the bottom.

      Seems like AI thinks some of the old ideas are pretty good.
4. Wukchumni December 14, 2025 at 8:11 am

   You never give me your money
   You only give us your funny Trump crypto coins
   And in the middle of Epstein investigations
   You break down

   I never give you much consideration
   I only wonder about the situation
   And in the middle of your indignation
   Things break down

   Out of college, loans spent
   See no future, pay high rent
   All the money’s gone, nowhere to go
   Any Federal employee got the sack
   Monday morning quarterback
   Job market slow, nowhere to go
   But oh, that tragic feeling, nowhere to go
   Oh, that tragic feeling
   Nowhere to go

   Our sweet DOGE dream
   Pick up the bags and get in the limousine
   Soon we’ll be away from here
   Step on the gas and wipe that tear away
   One sweet dream came true today
   Came true today
   Came true today (yes it did)

   One two three four five six seven eight
   Nine ten twelve thirteen fourteen eleven
   All good Elon children go to Heaven

   Ahhhh
   Here comes the Sum King
   Here comes the Sum King
   Everybody’s laughing
   Everybody’s happy
   Here come the Sum King
   Quando para mucho moolah mi amore de felice corazon
   Mundo paparazzi mi amore chica ferdi parasol
   Questo obrigado tanta mucho que can eat it carousel

   Mean Mister Musk works in the dark
   Shaves jobs in the National Parks trying to save paper
   Sleeps in a Cybertruck off the road
   Saving up to have some more kids
   Keeps the economy on the skids
   Such a mean old man
   Such a mean old man

   Attorney General Pam works in the Trump shop
   She never stops, she’s a go-getter
   Takes him out to look at the Qatari plane op
   Only gift horse in the mouth that has ever been
   Always shouts out something obscene
   Such a dirty old man
   Dirty old man

   Well, you should see AG Pam
   She’s so good-looking but she looks like a bottle blonde hag
   Well, you should see her in a fake tan, that’s her bag
   Yes, you should see AG Pam
   Yeah, yeah, yeah

   Get a dose of her in crucifix and silk
   She’s killer-diller when she took plastic surgery to the hilt
   She’s the kind of a girl that makes a mockery of the law
   Yes, you could say she was artificially built
   Yeah, yeah, yeah

   She came in through the administration window
   Protected by a silver spoon
   But now she sucks her thumb and wonders
   By the banks of her own lagoon

   Didn’t anybody tell her?
   Didn’t anybody see?
   Rubio’s on the road to ruin
   Floridians on the make to me

   She said she’d always been an attorney
   She worked on his first impeachment trial back in the day
   And though she thought she knew the answer
   Well, I knew what she could not say

   And so after Gaetz quit the politics department
   And got himself a WH press reporter job
   And though she tried her best to help him
   He could steal kisses, but he could not rob

   Didn’t anybody tell her?
   Didn’t anybody see?
   Donald’s on the phone to Stephen Miller
   Kristi is on the phone too you see, oh yeah

   Once, there was a way
   To get back homeward
   Once, there was a way
   To get back home
   Sleep, pretty darling, do not cry
   And I will sing a lullaby

   Golden bumblers fill your eyes
   Smiles lie to you, to get a rise
   Sleep, pretty darling, do not cry
   And I will sing a lullaby

   Once, there was a way
   To get back homeward
   Once, there was a way
   To get back home
   Sleep, pretty darling, do not cry
   And I will sing a lullaby

   Boy, you’re gonna carry that weight,
   Carry that weight a long time
   Boy, you’re gonna carry that weight
   Carry that weight a long time

   I never give you much consideration
   I only send you my lyrical vocation
   And in the middle of mock celebration
   I break down

   Boy, you’re gonna carry that weight
   Carry that weight a long time
   Boy, you’re gonna carry that weight
   Carry that weight a long time

   Oh yeah, all right
   Are you going to be in my nightmares
   Tonight?

   And in the end
   The power you take
   Is equal to the loss
   You make

   ICE Barbie is a pretty nice girl
   But she doesn’t have a lot to say
   ICE Barbie is a pretty nice girl
   But she changes wardrobes throughout the day

   I wanna tell her that I loathe her a lot
   But I gotta get a belly full of whine
   ICE Barbie is a pretty nice girl
   Someday she’s gonna make it as a mime, oh yeah
   Someday she’s gonna make it as a mime

   Medley from Abbey Road, by the Beatles

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CVsBOjeDzk
   1. Stephen V December 14, 2025 at 9:33 am

      Thank you Wuk! An instant classic.
   2. jonboinAR December 14, 2025 at 7:30 pm

      That was awesome!
5. Wukchumni December 14, 2025 at 8:32 am

   The crazy thing about a car worth $143 million and my humble Tacoma with 232,731 miles on the speedometer and sporting a long gouge on the left hand panel from when I almost missed a cement-filled steel post at the gas station next to the pumps-killing concours d’elegance considerations, is that my truck has had so much more fun than the Gullwing will ever have, with their commonality being that both have manual transmissions, which is mostly useful as a theft deterrent on my ride.

   Speed isn’t a consideration, the highest speed limit in these not so united states I’ve seen is in Utah @ 80 mph. Any modern car can attain and maintain that speed.

   If the ‘ol 55 gets mired in stop and go traffic on an LA freeway, its a stuck pig like the rest of them.
   1. Louis Fyne December 14, 2025 at 9:06 am

      No different than owning a DaVinci “worth” 1 billion USD.

      A good allegory is the Star Trek TNG episode, “The Most Toys” (IIRC without resorting to Google).

      And secondary, it’s a rather excellent store of value….non-counterfeitable, will retain value as long as the world is awash in liquidity (unless civilization goes all “Mad Max” —- then I want that Tacoma and the Tacoma will be worth infinite dollars, lmao)
   2. Martin Oline December 14, 2025 at 9:25 am

      Old ’55 by the Eagles:

      Well my time went so quickly
      I went lickety-splickly out to my old ’55
      As I drove away slowly, feeling so holy
      God knows, I was feeling alive.
      1. bradford December 14, 2025 at 12:21 pm

         The Eagles version is a cover, it’s Tom Waits from his 1973 album “Closing Time”.

         The wikipedia article for Ol’ 55 has an amusing anecdote about the question of which version is better.
   3. TimH December 14, 2025 at 9:31 am

      The gorgeous Ferraris of the 50′ and 60’s were also open road cars only. Plugs fouled easily in stop-start conditions.
   4. .human December 14, 2025 at 9:46 am

      It’s not even a particularly good looking car and the interior is spartan with little elegance.

      But, that’s just me. Give me an E Type Jaguar anyday!
      1. JP December 14, 2025 at 1:14 pm

         Had to shed a tear when I gave up my 2+2. But it was such a project.
   5. hazelbee December 14, 2025 at 4:48 pm

      I’d find it far more interesting to see a Gullwing that has 232,731 miles or more on it… with a few dents here and there and continuous use for decades.

      That would be a far more interesting car!

      with some stories like this:
      like the TVR chimaera and the pub2pub journey.
      “this dent is from Norway”, “this scratch from argentina”,
   6. juno mas December 14, 2025 at 9:30 pm

      You can also do 80mph on the ‘Loneliest Road in America’. (Hwy 50 through Nevada.) I got busted doing 85 traveling back to the Capitol from Ely, NV in a state vehicle. The fine is $1K. The Trooper gave me a warning after I displayed the signed contracts the governor (Miller) wanted to see in the office by the next morning. (The collision danger is not the rare oncoming car, but cows wandering on to the roadway along the Loneliest Road.) Nevada is open range.
   7. sharron2 December 15, 2025 at 4:10 am

      My cousin had a 55 Gullwing he picked up in 1970 from a widow for $11,000. It even had the custom luggage still with it. He collected TBirds normally and his mechanic was afraid to work on it. So, he sold it. I remember looking through it as a kid in high school and drooling. As he is dead now, I am sure his kids lament that he didn’t hold on to it. A few years later they all had Mercedes and I am sure a mechanic that understood European cars.
6. The Rev Kev December 14, 2025 at 8:46 am

   Working link for “US soldiers, civilian interpreter killed during ambush in Syria by apparent ISIS gunman: Officials” article at-

   https://abcnews.go.com/International/us-soldiers-civilian-interpreter-killed-ambush-syria-apparent/story?id=128376036

   Apparently the shooter was the bodyguard of Palmyra’s security chief Abu Jaber “Sufyan” so was able to in real close before he opened fire. Other local security forces then managed to shoot him. Active terrorists in Syria? Who coulda known.
   1. ilsm December 14, 2025 at 9:38 am

      Whoooda thunk! ISIS guys who don’t like CIA money, anymore?

      Or a false flag.
      1. Polar Socialist December 14, 2025 at 10:17 am

         One should remember that Syria has thousands of sheikhs representing hundreds of tribes divided into tens of clans. About 80% of Syrians belong to or have ties with a tribe. In a current power vacuum the allegiances and alliances are volatile and unpredictable.

         Yesterday for the “government”, today for ISIS, tomorrow for CIA… Today it’s peaceful, tomorrow two 100k strong regional militias are called to arms and fight for 48 hours, only to disappear as quickly as they appeared. In a few months time it will happen again, but with a different configuration of the opposing militias.
         1. Maxwell Johnston December 14, 2025 at 2:12 pm

            The Assads somehow managed to keep all of them under control. As did Saddam in Iraq and Gaddafi in Libya. All three countries were secular, middle-income and steadily modernizing…..

            Sigh.
7. AG December 14, 2025 at 8:55 am

   re: Gaza genocide figures

   This is exactly the issue I was raising past autumn: Why have the figures of Palestinians killed been so much reduced this passing year.

   JONATHAN COOK on CONSORTIUM NEWS

   Israel’s Biggest Con
   Israel has created a false death toll debate that relates only to those who were killed directly by its bombs and gunfire — not the genocide it is waging by other means.
   https://consortiumnews.com/2025/12/12/jonathan-cook-israels-biggest-con/

   “(…)the biggest con trick is that Israel has successfully penned us all into a “debate,” one entirely divorced from reality, that relates only to those killed directly by its bombs and gunfire.

   The truth is that far, far larger numbers of people in Gaza have been actively killed by Israel not through these direct means but through what statisticians refer to as “indirect” methods.”
   …
   “None of these kinds of deaths are included in the figure of 70,000. And all precedents show that many, many times more people are killed through these indirect methods than directly through fatal injuries from bombs and bullets.

   According to a letter from experts in this field to The Lancet, studies of other wars — most of them far less destructive than Israel’s on the tiny enclave — indicate that between three and 15 times more people are killed by indirect, rather than direct, methods of warfare.

   The authors conservatively estimate an indirect death toll four times greater than the direct death toll. That would mean, at a minimum, 280,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza through Israel’s actions.

   The reality is likely to be even worse. That is without even mentioning the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have been left with horrific injuries and psychological trauma.

   Israel’s war planners know exactly how this direct-to-indirect ratio works.(…)”

   p.s. I would suggest to use the 280k figure (even if it´s probably higher). Simply to make it stick in public. “300.000” is something people are reacting to.
   Too many have settled with those lower fake numbers (all the while spreading bullshit about Holodomor and what not.)
8. Kypck December 14, 2025 at 9:17 am

   Seizure of rogue oil tanker off Venezuela signals new U.S. crackdown on shadow fleet PBS

   A rogue oil tanker, and its location transponder showed it starting to zigzag. A seemingly improbable maneuver and the latest digital clue that the ship, the Skipper, was trying to obscure its whereabouts and the valuable cargo stored inside its hull: tens of millions of dollars’ worth of illicit crude oil. Another crime solved by the world police.

   It’s not that this insults IQ of the reader, but that millions will still buy it. Slava Americanina!
9. The Rev Kev December 14, 2025 at 9:21 am

   “Seizure of rogue oil tanker off Venezuela signals new U.S. crackdown on shadow fleet”

   And in a case of tit for tat, Iran has seized a tanker in the Gulf of Oman accusing that tanker of smuggling 6 million liters of diesel. Wait, are they allowed to do that?
10. Carolinian December 14, 2025 at 9:23 am

    Yesterday was Dick Van Dyke’s 100th birthday which seems worth mentioning for we the Boomertariat. Friday night PBS offered a good 2 hr career overview with clips of his amazing physical comedy. In his latter years he has written books explaining his longevity as a result of “Keep Moving.”

    Or maybe attitude is the thing. He did have a spell of alcoholism but if there’s a mean bone in his body it has been carefully hidden. Not all the good die young.
    1. B Flat December 14, 2025 at 2:10 pm

       Good on him! And apparently no diminution of his faculties. Van Dyke is not a “boomer” though, nearly 20 years older. Besides his genes, I suspect a chemical pesticide free upbringing contributed to his rude good health. My mother will be 90 soon, quite healthy too.
       1. Carolinian December 14, 2025 at 4:12 pm

          No but I’m a Boomer who watched him first time out on the Van Dyke Show and didn’t realize that he was already pushing 40. The PBS show, which I believe can be watched on Prime, talks about his varied career before that.

          He really belonged to us more than the WW2 gen of his youth. If the American Masters ep not available there’s a music video appearance with Coldplay–directed by Spike Jonze- that he did at his Malibu home and I’m sure that one is on Youtube. He was then 99.
    2. flora December 14, 2025 at 4:06 pm

       An excellent reason to keep on dancing. / :)
    3. The Rev Kev December 14, 2025 at 6:00 pm

       Jeez. I grew up watching him on the Dick Van Dyke show along with Mary Tyler Moore as Rob and Laura Petrie-

       https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dick_Van_Dyke_Show
    4. LifelongLib December 14, 2025 at 7:27 pm

       My first memory of him is from “Mary Poppins” (1964). Back then I probably wouldn’t have watched his show; besides cartoons, “Sea Hunt” and “Highway Patrol” were more my speed. Seems a bit twisted now that I look at it…
       1. Jonathan Holland Becnel December 14, 2025 at 11:20 pm

          That’s where I saw him first too – Mary Poppins.

          Happy Hundo to the MAN – DvD!
11. Ricardo1 December 14, 2025 at 9:23 am

    Only one ship guards Falklands as Argentina rebuilds military The Telegraph

    Defence analysts said Britain needed to “ramp up military capabilities in the region” now, saying efforts by Javier Milei, the president of Argentina, to lift a weapons ban “could soon pose a serious threat”.

    A defence analyst (me) says that Milei is more likely to shoot at his own people than the Brits.
    1. begob December 14, 2025 at 1:21 pm

       I imagine a typical Milei voter would cheer on a Falklands conquest. And it might fit in to the USA’s renewed emphasis on western hemisphere dominance.
12. The Rev Kev December 14, 2025 at 10:00 am

    “Can India trust the West? UK must answer”

    The article is much better than the title would suggest and gives a good roundup of India’s position. But then there is Trump and his buddies hammering on their door. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was giving an interview to Bloomberg on Friday and was saying-

    ‘India doesn’t want to open their market. Stop buying Russian oil. And stop being a part of BRICS. If you want to be the vowel between Russia and China…go be it! But either support the dollar, support the United States of America…support your biggest client…or pay 50% tariffs. And let’s see how long this lasts’

    And then thinking that the tariffs would make India buckle, went to to say-

    ‘I think, yes, in a month or two months… India is going to be at the table, and they’re going to say they’re sorry, and they’re going to try to make a deal with Donald Trump. And it will be on Donald Trump’s desk how he wants to deal with (PM Narendra) Modi. And we leave that to him.’

    He is demanding that India become a vassal state and wreck their economy so that they can’t compete with the US. That’s going to go down well in India-

    https://www.financialexpress.com/world-news/us-news/trump-will-decide-how-to-deal-with-modi-lutnick-predicts-india-will-soon-say-sorry-seek-trade-agreement/3968465/
    1. ChrisFromGA December 14, 2025 at 11:35 am

       An admission against interest:

       India doesn’t want to open their market. Stop buying Russian oil.

       So he’s admitting that India is still buying Russian oil, and by way of inference, Taco lied back in November when he claimed Modi promised to stop (notably, the Modi government issued a diplomatic denial.)

       Progress?
13. Ignacio December 14, 2025 at 11:21 am

    Antidote’s large beak (Ramphastus sulphuratus, keel-billed toucan).

    It works as a heat sink,helping toucans stay cool according to studies.
    1. Donaldo December 14, 2025 at 11:33 am

       I thought it attracts the ladies.
14. XXYY December 14, 2025 at 11:35 am

    A woman in China tried to hog a parking spot for her husband. So the driver just got out of the car and walked away and let his car finish the job.

    Okay, now suppose the self-parking car ran over the woman. Who would be at fault? The woman? The car manufacturer? The owner of the car? The driver of the car? The parking lot operator? These kinds of lawsuits are going to be coming up constantly with self-driving cars.

    I don’t think our legal system is built for inanimate actors.
    1. tegnost December 14, 2025 at 12:35 pm

       The use case is that ai absolves the user from responsibility. That should be good for social cohesion…
    2. show_me December 14, 2025 at 4:31 pm

       I always find these questions a bit odd.

       Isn’t the person responsible for controlling the car (or manufacturer if it malfunctions) always the guilty party if things go wrong? Including if you wilfully left it to its own devices ?

       If you elected to abandon control then you would still be responsible as in if you walked away from a 1965 vehicle parked on a slope that then rolled down and caused damage.

       In this case it’s possible that the driver only triggered the continued backup after the woman had left the parking spot. Or possibly he was confident the car would detect any object behind and would not proceed. If the second and the car had continued and run her over then the argument would be between the driver and the manufacturer as with any malfunction.

       It always makes me laugh when people blame ‘the software’ for problems. It’s never the software. It’s always the responsibility of people who created/implemented it. Even if they used an ai bot. The software being installed in a ‘self driving’ car doesn’t get anyone off the hook.
       1. tegnost December 14, 2025 at 6:34 pm

          It always makes me laugh when someone says “it’s not the software”
          If you know any software engineers, they’re never finished, your problems with z.10 will be solved in version z.11 of course. Never done, always over promising, and never at fault.
          Time to start carrying a roll of tape to cover up the sensors.
          1. Polar Socialist December 14, 2025 at 6:49 pm

             Software is a tool. If you do stupid with a tool, it’s not the tool’s fault.

             That said, I’ve been in software business, and I’m very familiar with the quip: we’ve been writing computer programs since 1940’s and yet no one knows of a finished program. Although some commands in the unix/linux world are pretty close to that milestone.
15. Lee December 14, 2025 at 11:47 am

    “This ruthless cover-up leaves Trump’s most alarming ambitions exposed Raw Story”
    Article sans paywall: https://archive.ph/lVgL6

    “Clean, Limitless Energy Exists. China Is Going Big in the Race to Harness It. NY Times”

    The clean I like, the limitless, given its potential application toward increased extraction and consumption of other finite resources, I’m not so sure about. The specific application that the Times article mentions is, wait for it, AI data centers.
16. tegnost December 14, 2025 at 12:00 pm

    Vox
    AI as the invisible infrastructure that helps scientists find good ideas faster, restart productivity growth, and quietly make key parts of life cheaper and better instead of weirder and scarier.

    One passage of many in the piece that completely ignores upward redistribution of productivity gains.
    Maybe the reason there are supposedly fewer good ideas is that the idea generators all live in the same silo. I don’t want to see the kool aid stains all over this writers shirt as they have clearly been over imbibing. Overlay the content of this article over promulgation of monopsonies in which we actually exist and these ideas are untethered and floating in a nebulous and dreamlike space. Show me an ai that will address inequality and I will show you an ai that will be killed with fire. AI is purely extractive which is indeed why the extractors are so excited about it. That and having something other than themselves to blame in the inevitable denouement.
    1. ilsm December 14, 2025 at 1:24 pm

       Use our sledgehammer to drive your carpet tack!

       The infrastructure is not so invisible, it is huge investment, huge drain on clean electric energy (until we have “reverse computing” with no energy waste) and huge need for cooling infrastructure.

       These are the latest innovation is chained super computing, realizing dreams of such titans of 20th century science as Markov, von Neuman and Feynman reaching back to Manhattan project and simulating neutrons busting up atomic nuclei, for example.

       Applying massive data to everyday work is over computing.

       NVDA can sell chips at great margin bc start up AI and data center entrepreneurs can borrow money using NVDA chips as collateral and whiz bang projections.

       The entrepreneurs need propaganda about AI to keep the bonds coming!

       I listened to a manager from Amazon, who do data centers already using their own chips, say ‘you don’t need all that compute and all the fancy models. IOW the marginal gain from super computers is for science doing mass simulation over massive data…….

       Use cases have to show profit.

       NVDA is not ENRON and OpenAI is not Nortel!
17. .Tom December 14, 2025 at 12:28 pm

    Norman Finkelstein EXPOSES Israel’s DARKEST SECRET (Double Down News on YouTube)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyYl6_N1FZw (24 min)

    Very interesting as Finkelstein suggests talking in terms of Jewish supremacy instead of Zionism, attempts to be realistic about Jews in America without reinforcing the tropes, and mentions his appearance on Candace, among much else.
    1. Jonathan Holland Becnel December 14, 2025 at 10:30 pm

       I don’t like that strategy.

       Just keep the identity politics out altogether if you ask me.

       Focus on the class aspects of Zionism.
18. ChrisFromGA December 14, 2025 at 1:14 pm

    Re: Purdue University/AI requirement

    What a disappointing move by some of these colleges to turn themselves into vo-tech colleges rather than places where free thought and critical thinking are encouraged.

    It seems very much like chasing fashion. What’s en vogue in 2025 probably won’t be in 2030, and unless you are a comp sci major trying to get deeply involved in the artificial intelligence industry, this seems like a waste of your tuition.

    Anyone with a basic junior high school education can type a prompt like “Alexa, what is the difference between igneous and metamorphic rock?” A mind is a terrible thing to waste!
19. ISL December 14, 2025 at 1:31 pm

    I do not have time to dive into teh covid saves toddlers, but I started to smell a concern when the control group eliminated anyone with influenza that perhaps the dozens of authors (most with conflcits of interest with vaccine and drug manufacturers) were trying not to determine if the real benefit arose from the influenza shot that these kids may or maynot have received – I didnt see mention in my admittedly curt and brief read.

    There may not be a fire where there is smoke, but… I have a proposal and my Sunday morning lazy readtime is over.
20. Richard Childers December 14, 2025 at 1:45 pm

    Violent people are angry people.

    What are they angry about? Society doesn’t care enough to ask. Responsible officials are more likely than not to intervene into any attempt to actually find out the roots of someone’s anger and block it, using the usual rhetorical devices – think of the children, we must respect the family’s privacy, etc.

    Instead of (or as well as) prosecuting people we should also be trying to understand what went wrong so that we can fix it.

    I would argue that medicine needs to have, not precedence, but equality, to law. Too often, lawyers arrogate to themselves the powers that are reserved for doctors, deploying loaded language (“psychotic behavior”) and diagnosing freely (“schizophrenic behavior”). Judges, too. This must stop if we wish to see anything change.

    Lawyers only care about motive. Therapists care about motivation. They are different.

    For instance, what are the connections between the Sydney shooters and the events in occupied Palestine? The question needs to be asked. And answered. Neutrally – just the facts.
    1. Jonathan Holland Becnel December 14, 2025 at 10:28 pm

       Facts
21. Tom Stone December 14, 2025 at 1:45 pm

    A concerning development is the recent spate of pedestrians deliberately waiting until the light turns against them before crossing the street, sometimes with a defiant glare and sometimes seemingly oblivious.
    This has become something I see once or twice a week rather than being a rarity.
    1. The Rev Kev December 14, 2025 at 6:05 pm

       Put’s that phrase ‘I’m walking here!’ into a new light.
22. Alice X December 14, 2025 at 2:46 pm

    Chile, the Fascist versus the Communist:

    Far-right José Antonio Kast favored to win as Chile votes in presidential runoff

    I lived for Chile for awhile in ’71. It is hard to imagine that they would go for a Pinochet wannabe. But stranger things have happened. We learn little and forget a lot.
23. Hepativore December 14, 2025 at 3:05 pm

    By the way, has anybody been paying attention to what Congress has been doing with the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)? This would basically destroy what little remains of the 1st and 4th Amendments when it comes to the internet. Call your Congressman in the off chance that they will listen and vote against it in the Senate in the small chance they won’t just blow you off.

    R.I.P Your Privacy (Clownfish TV)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGYRcZ0uvv4

    Congress is About to Break the Internet (Taylor Lorenz)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LfPVEXvKwU

    We Will Lose Privacy Next Year and Be Censored…Unless…(SomeOrdinaryGamers)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poXak0mvnBE
    1. Alice X December 14, 2025 at 4:46 pm

       Thank you!
24. AG December 14, 2025 at 5:05 pm

    re: US vs. China electric power policies

    Arnaud Bertrand for Le Monde Diplomatique, however paywalled
    (I assume it will be free in a few months.)

    For Europe, no better time than the present than to buy Chinese renewable tech?
    China’s great green leap forward

    Both superpowers put sovereignty ahead of emissions cuts. While the US is still backing fossil fuels, China is pushing ahead with renewables – and building a vast export engine in the process.
    https://mondediplo.com/2025/12/10china

    full German version here!
    https://monde-diplomatique.de/artikel/!6127143
25. upstater December 14, 2025 at 5:57 pm

    Accidents are unforeseeable. This was a foreseeable potential wreck:

    JetBlue flight near Venezuela avoids ‘midair collision’ with US Air Force tanker AP

    A JetBlue flight from the small Caribbean nation of Curaçao halted its ascent to avoid colliding with a U.S. Air Force refueling tanker on Friday, and the pilot blamed the military plane for crossing his path.

    “We almost had a midair collision up here,” the JetBlue pilot said, according to a recording of his conversation with air traffic control. “They passed directly in our flight path. … They don’t have their transponder turned on, it’s outrageous.”
26. Jason Boxman December 14, 2025 at 7:43 pm

    I’ll believe it when I see it

    Inside the Clintons’ Fight to Avoid Testifying in the House Epstein Inquiry (NY Times)

    Bill and Hillary Clinton have repeatedly offered to provide sworn statements, but Representative James R. Comer has threatened to hold them in contempt of Congress if they fail to appear.

    Rare is it that Congress holds anyone in contempt that ought to be for failure to testify. May it be so in this case.
    1. Jonathan Holland Becnel December 14, 2025 at 9:45 pm

       Inshallah
27. Alice X December 14, 2025 at 8:02 pm

    Tariq Ali – Gaza and the Demise of International Law and Order

    YouTube

    Contemporaneous to start in the discussion.

    At 39:00 he describes speech a of his before millionaires/billionaires, and a discussion with one afterwards. He replies to the assertion that China has no democracy. I am presently capable of doing him disservice in his response.

    Capitalism does not need democracy to survive.
    1. The Rev Kev December 14, 2025 at 8:57 pm

       I would go so far as to say that as far as capitalism is concerned, democracy is a hindrance in their aims. That is why in so many countries, voters have been completely sidelined by donors instead.
       1. Alice X December 14, 2025 at 9:26 pm

          Indeed. Ali’s response has more to say.

          My long held position is that capital and those held captive by it are at opposite ends of a big stick.

          Teddy Roosevelt that arch progressive said something about that.

          They no longer walk softly, they still have a big stick.
          1. The Rev Kev December 14, 2025 at 9:47 pm

             Indeed. Flora posted a link to John Kerry talking at the WEF worth re-watching and he seems to have a big problem with the First Amendment-

             https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qp3Ka7dMVmk (2:07 mins)
             1. Alice X December 14, 2025 at 10:36 pm

                There are words and phrases that masses hear, but cannot fathom the hidden meanings.

                There are trajectories that are difficult to discern, but an intuitive response would be: to see a downdraft, not the first but I demand it be the last.
    2. ISL December 15, 2025 at 1:22 am

       Literally, he said, There is no democracy as you (the West) know it (I had to listen twice). That is true, as the West does not have democracy as it even knows it – IMO, it is where leadership addresses the interests of the majority as long as they are not at the expense of the minority. Based on outcomes, it is manifest where the spirit of democracy lives.
    3. AG December 15, 2025 at 11:39 am

       Thanks!

       p.s. latest Chris Hedges:

       Rebranding Genocide
       The Genocide in Gaza has not stopped. It has been rebranded. And that is enough of a linguistic subterfuge to get the world to ignore it.
       https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/rebranding-genocide
28. kjinfl December 14, 2025 at 8:21 pm

    Regarding the tragic state of the the world & what is to be done

    For what it is worth, a month ago as an act of hope & resistance, a few of us launched

    http://www.pray4peace.world

    I hope that I do not violate any of the rules here & am thankful for the wisdom & encouragement & reality presented here

    Thanks & keep up the good work
29. Jason Boxman December 14, 2025 at 11:01 pm

    Our mandatory company training this year uses AI art. It looks lazy and boring. Previously it was stock photos or photos of company employees.

    Welcome to hell.
30. sharron2 December 15, 2025 at 4:36 am

    My cousin had a 55 Gullwing he picked up in 1970 from a widow for $11,000. It even had the custom luggage still with it. He collected TBirds normally and his mechanic was afraid to work on it. So, he sold it. I remember looking through it as a kid in high school and drooling. As he is dead now, I am sure his kids lament that he didn’t hold on to it. A few years later they all had Mercedes and I am sure a mechanic that understood European cars.

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