Can Bibliotherapy Heal the Pain of the World? Lit Hub
The Psychedelic Scientist Nautilus. “High on ayahuasca, Bruce Damer saw how life on Earth began. He may very well be right.”
A Thousand and One Nights in Italy Public Domain Review. “In mid-19th century Italy, two eccentric aristocrats set forth on parallel projects: constructing ostentatious castles in a Moorish Revival style. Iván Moure Pazos tours the psychedelic chambers of Rochetta Mattei, optimised for electrohomeopathic healing, and Castello di Sammezzano, an immersive, orientalist fever dream.”
Climate/Environment
Arctic endured year of record heat as climate scientists warn of ‘winter being redefined’ The Guardian
From Climate Reports to Security Planning New Climate Reality
TCB quick hit: How climate change broke the Pacific Northwest’s plumbing The Climate Brink
#BREAKING: New drone video from Pacific, WA, on Tuesday morning following a levee failure on the White River at Pacific City Park. Whole neighborhoods are underwater as water continues flowing out of the failed levee. #wawx #flood #drone pic.twitter.com/QEkcG5QygR
— Matthew Pfab (@The_Weatherman2) December 16, 2025
Wildfire smoke lofted miles high could have an unexpected effect on Earth’s climate Space.com
Water
‘No water, no life’: Iraq’s Tigris River in danger of disappearing The Guardian
From Tehran to Chennai, a city without water is a harbinger of a thirsty planet Economic Times
Pandemics
We can save disabled people’s lives if we listen to the recommendations of the Covid inquiry Big Issue
The Outbreaks Are the Point Pandemic Accountability Index
China?
Sanctions and Economic Warfare in the US–China Contest: The “Renmin School” Playbook Sinification
Where Is the China-GCC Free Trade Agreement? The Asia Cable
Why China isn’t rushing to buy Nvidia’s H200 AI chip ThinkChina
India
India and China in deep water over Himalayan hydropower East Asia Forum
Leveraging Taiwan: India’s strategic counterbalance to China Lowy Institute
Syraqistan
A Trump Associate Wants a U.S. Military Base in Israel. Government Officials Are Playing Along Haaretz
Israel’s ‘Algorithmic War’ & ‘Algorithmic Assassinations’ in Lebanon continue unabated Conflicts Forum
***
Plurality of Republicans say end US aid to Israel: poll Responsible Statecraft
🇺🇸🕎 This clip from tonight’s White House Hanukkah dinner is wild, and deeply revealing.
Donald Trump once again openly boasts that Miriam Adelson gave his campaign “directly and indirectly” $250 million, then jokes that it “is not what it used to be.” That alone is a remarkable… pic.twitter.com/7Soq3zfvPY
— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) December 17, 2025
Paper owned by Adelson (Full article):
The largest online media outlet in Israel is now calling for a global Jewish security architecture that will connect Israeli security forces with local law enforcement— “especially in the U.S.”— to identify instances of antisemitism and take action against them.
They are now… pic.twitter.com/ptLt462FBm
— Dane (@UltraDane) December 16, 2025
O Canada
Canadian military intelligence officer allegedly shared classified information with Ukraine Globe and Mail
Canada has given up on its “Victims of Communism” monument after hundreds of the names were shown to be affiliated with Nazi or Fascist groups. pic.twitter.com/FqB1HD0pdr
— Orikron 🇵🇹 骆培思 (@orikron) December 15, 2025
Old Blighty
Hunger Strikes and Court Cases Craig Murray
Downing Street insists negotiations over US-UK tech deal still live BBC
European Disunion
‘Discriminatory’: US threatens EU companies over tech fines Euractiv
Frontline states want EU cash as Russian threat intensifies Politico
Volkswagen Closes a Plant in Germany for the First Time in 88 Years TeleSUR
The EU’s problem isn’t Belgium — it’s Trump Politico. Key section on Russian asset omnishambles:
“The flagging negotiations on Tuesday saw EU officials and leaders increasingly raise the nuclear option: ramming the reparations loan through with qualified majority voting ― in other words, ignoring some countries’ objections and plowing ahead anyway. But some officials said this would rip open an already fractured bloc and likely plunge it into into real crisis. Another alternative is for some countries simply to offer limited bilateral loans.”
Fitch Places Euroclear Bank on Rating Watch Negative Fitch Ratings
New Not-So-Cold War
Russia rules out any concessions at all on Ukrainian territory – Ryabkov Intellinews
If You’re Talking to Yourself, It Ain’t a Conversation… Trump’s Failed Diplomacy in Ukraine Larry Johnson
US elite split Events in Ukraine
***
Ukraine Claims World’s First Underwater Drone Attack On Russian Submarine The War Zone
I deliberately didn’t post anything about the security incident in Novorossiysk yesterday, waiting for the satellite images.
As we can see, the drone hit the corner of the pier, and the sub is still there, confirming Russian MOD claim.
The fact that Ukraine was able to slip… https://t.co/EweaVvbxCi pic.twitter.com/9rAFJolYXt
— Olga Bazova (@OlgaBazova) December 16, 2025
Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant switches to single external power line after fire Anadolu Agency
***
NATO-Ukraine war on Russia spreads to commercial vessels in the Black Sea WSWS
Russia deploys all eight nuclear icebreakers to keep Arctic export routes open
Russia has, for the first time, deployed its entire fleet of eight nuclear-powered icebreakers simultaneously to maintain winter navigation in the Gulf of Ob and the Yenisei Gulf. #MarineTraffic data… pic.twitter.com/mjBE03RKYl
— MarineTraffic (@MarineTraffic) December 16, 2025
South of the Border
Trump Declares ‘Total and Complete Blockade’ of ‘Sanctioned Oil Tankers’ in and Out of Venezuela Antiwar
It is international law 101 that a military blockade is not just a violation of the UN Charter, but a crime of aggression.
Unless that blockade is in response to an ‘armed attack.’
None of President’s Trump’s list of complaints come close to an armed attack.
— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) December 17, 2025
US officially labels Colombia’s EGC group a ‘terrorist organization’ Al Jazeera
Why Is Trump Giving Nicaragua’s Ortega a Free Pass? World Politics Review
Operation Condor: Transnational Murder Syndicate Kit Klarenberg
Trump 2.0
Susie Wiles Talks Epstein Files, Pete Hegseth’s War Tactics, Retribution, and More (Part 2 of 2) Vanity Fair
White House launches damage control over unfiltered Wiles interviews Axios. Some other tidbits:
US strategy in Venezuela is to keep intimidating in the hope that Maduro just surrenders without a war, Trump’s Chief of Staff said to Vanity Fair.
Venezuela isn’t going to surrender. Trump never had a plan and Maduro was right to call his bluff on that. https://t.co/nCvbQVs6Mx pic.twitter.com/RlpYhl8QXz
— Ollie Vargas (@Ollie_Vargas_) December 17, 2025
Susie Wiles confirms in today’s Vanity Fair interview what we all knew about Liberation Day and tariffs. They were thinking out loud and had no clear path on how to move forward.
American consumers and workers are worse off for it. pic.twitter.com/X8hYfVXZ0P
— Tahra Hoops (@TahraHoops) December 16, 2025
Susie Wiles told NYT she didn’t call Elon Musk “an avowed ketamine” in one of her ELEVEN interviews with Vanity Fair.
“That’s ridiculous. I wouldn’t have said it and I wouldn’t know.”
Vanity Fair: Cool here’s a recording of you saying that. https://t.co/SblJJHmh58
— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) December 16, 2025
***
DESIGNATING FENTANYL AS A WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION The White House
When everything is a WMD and everyone is a terrorist or a traitor, there are no limits to executive power.
DESIGNATING FENTANYL AS A WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION https://t.co/p6aCfRHiP6
— Ben Hunt (@EpsilonTheory) December 16, 2025
Pentagon plan calls for major power shifts within U.S. military WaPo
Imperial Collapse Watch
How Capitalism Replaced America Murtaza Hussain
Higher US Profits Are WHY The US Can’t Compete (American won’t re-industrialize) Ian Welsh
Trump targets defense giants’ shareholder payouts as cost overruns mount, sources say Reuters
GOP Funhouse
House Republicans block vote on extending insurance subsidies Regular Order by Jamie Dupree
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
Russia expands biometric ID system (again) Edward Slavsquat
Police State Watch
DHS Denies That ICE Agents Pulled Over Ilhan Omar’s Son NOTUS
Posting this again because can’t stop thinking about how incredibly clueless Kash Patel’s FBI agents are looking out there in Providence kicking around snow 🤣pic.twitter.com/6AUNufBA9T
— Wu Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) December 16, 2025
Meanwhile…
To be fair, Katie Miller added this note at the beginning of her podcast with FBI Director Kash Patel & his girlfriend Alexis Wilkins, but thus far, that hasn’t helped the negative ratio it’s receiving (see bottom of screenshots)… pic.twitter.com/d7dJ5vLG8k
— Jimmy Simmons (@ArticulateTHGHT) December 17, 2025
Feds say antigovernment group plotted New Year’s Eve bombings in Southern California LA Times
LONGTIME PAID FBI INFORMANT WAS INSTRUMENTAL IN TERROR CASE AGAINST “TURTLE ISLAND LIBERATION FRONT” The Intercept
American Exceptionalism
Executions nearly double in 2025 due to dramatic rise in Florida NPR
Immigration
Ghost Trucks Working Class Storytelling
Economy
US added 64,000 jobs in November as unemployment hits 4-year high USA Today
AI
Why Sam Altman is getting into the pornography business Oligarch Watch
King of Cannibal Island London Review of Books
Casino Nation
The Bezzle
Meta tolerates rampant ad fraud from China to safeguard billions in revenue Reuters
Rogue states using crypto gaps to finance weapon programs Asia Times
Class Warfare
Greg Bovino of the U.S. Border Patrol showed up at the picket line of Teamsters Local 705 in Chicago today. The workers have been on strike against manufacturer Mauser since June. When workers are intimidated by federal agents, it chills worker organizing! https://t.co/If9kKAQlyP pic.twitter.com/7V9X2SzGdg
— Luis Feliz Leon (@Lfelizleon) December 16, 2025
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Oh, the situation outside Caracas is frightful
But the blockade not so delightful
And since we’ve no place to go
Let it snowball, let it snowball, let it snowball
Man it doesn’t show signs of stopping
And I’ve brought some corn for popping
The expectations are turned way down low
Let it snowball, let it snowball
When we finally get our comeuppance
How I’ll hate losing our hegemony to a dalliance
But if you really hold onto greenbacks tight
All the way home you’ll be in for a fright
And our democracy is slowly dying
And my dear we’re still continually lying
But as long as it must be so
Let it snowball, let it snowball and snowball
When we finally kiss off and piss off the world
How I’ll hate going out this way
But if you just sit here in a ball all curled
Back at home in a lack of passion play
Oh, the economy is slowly dying
And my dear we’re still online good buying
But as long as it must be so
Let it snowball, let it snowball and snowball
“DESIGNATING FENTANYL AS A WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION”
All this is so that it gives the Trump regime future justification for attacking various countries. I heard that Greenland is a notorious source of fentanyl as an example. If Trump had been really serious, then in his first term he could have designated OxyContin as a weapon of mass destruction which killed tens of thousands of Americans each and every year and there would have been the receipts for that. The Sackler family could have been fitted with orange jumpsuits and it would have made his reputation. But of course he never did.
It’s crazy how the war on drugs is just such a political ploy. In today’s world the worst drugs all require some pharma grade ingredients to be made. When was the last time you heard about quaaludes? Well back in the 1980’s an international treaty was signed so that the production of those pharma grade ingredients are highly regulated and tracked. No more quaaludes on the streets. Meth, Fentanyl, etc… they too could go the way of quaaludes if the politicians really wanted them too. But there’s too much money to be made and who wants to give up all that comes with needing a war on drugs like Fentanyl.
Fentanyl seems tailor-made for a city to rid themselves of those that will take more than they will give, in terms of cost to the municipality.
I mean you could mail out nooses instead with directions to the nearest rafter-but you’d be so obvious, and aren’t fent deaths always the most peaceful, perfect for an open casket funeral!
When my aged and somewhat dementia plagued mother was in the hospital all the doctors could think of to do was to recommend a fetanyl patch. Their solution to her old age was to dope her up.
Meanwhile in Canada they are cutting to the chase and suggesting that elderly people accept assisted suicide for the good of society apparently. Funny how “liberals” are so much more inventive at creating excuses for their cruelty.
Meanwhile up over in the Gulag Hockeypelago*…
…how many Chuks could a Canuck chuck if a Canuck could chuck Chuks?
* with apologies to Terry Sawchuk
“Russia rules out any concessions at all on Ukrainian territory – Ryabkov”
I’m sure that what Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov originally said was Russia rules out any concessions at all on Russian territory. And on that note I see that Huliaipole has almost being taken. The pace is being picked up.
Re: Canada’s victims of Communism monument: Oops!
Here’s the story:
https://ottawacitizen.com/public-service/defence-watch/victims-of-communism-memorial-names-nazis
If you want to push it, you can definitely say that Adolf was a victim of Communism. :)
Today’s antidote reminds me of the Dr Seuss bird who grew her tail too long and couldn’t fly anymore.
Gertrude McFuzz I think it was…
Heads-up:
Re; Israel’s ‘Algorithmic War’ & ‘Algorithmic Assassinations’ in Lebanon continue unabated
Signals collected by drones are combined with metadata, AI analysis, ground informants, and environmental profiling. From this mesh, a detailed map of the target’s presence emerges. And then comes the kill map…
Within a year or two, AI-enabled drones will be patrolling USA borders, launching automatically, swapping their own batteries, with no need for human presence. This will be brought to you by an American company via the Department of Homeland Security… sort of…
Ondas continues Israel defense-tech buying spree
In 2025, the pace was stepped up considerably. Within five months, Ondas acquired seven more Israeli companies, each of which added a different capability to the array…
We can expect an enormous increase in the use of drones by law enforcement very shortly. And you thought license-plate scanners were bad…
About Jacques Baud in swiss MSM media:
On Monday, the EU sanctioned a Russian military unit, a propaganda group, and twelve private individuals for destabilizing activities. Among those sanctioned is Swiss citizen Jacques Baud, who resides in Belgium.
He is accused of acting as a mouthpiece for pro-Russian propaganda and spreading conspiracy theories. As an example, it is cited that he accused Ukraine of orchestrating its own invasion in order to join NATO.
Baud has also made public appearances in Switzerland. According to the newspaper “24 Heures,” his speeches there, which are said to resemble Moscow propaganda, have made him popular on pro-Russian and conspiracy websites such as Agoravox TV, Omerta, and Le Média en 4-4-2, as well as on Russian state television, Russia Today.
https://www.bluewin.ch/de/news/international/ehemaliger-oberst-der-schweizer-armee-steht-auf-eu-sanktionsliste-3010764.html
The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) in Bern has stated that it is aware of the EU decision and thus also of the sanction against Baud. However, Switzerland will not adopt the latest sanctions list, as SECO informed the Keystone-SDA news agency upon request.
https://www.bluewin.ch/de/news/international/ehemaliger-oberst-der-schweizer-armee-steht-auf-eu-sanktionsliste-3010764.html
His statements sound like Russian propaganda – and this resonates well with pro-Russian or conspiracy-theory media outlets such as Agoravox TV, Omerta, and the Russian state broadcaster Russia Today.
As recently as Friday, Jacques Baud stated in response to an inquiry that he knew nothing about potential sanctions and had not received any advance warning. The EU generally avoids confirming sanctions in advance to prevent those affected from transferring their assets before the measures take effect.
The EU sanctions against individuals involved in destabilizing activities – which includes the dissemination of Russian propaganda – were introduced in October 2024. These include freezing assets and banning entry into the EU. They are also prohibited from accessing financial resources within the EU. These measures could severely impact Jacques Baud: The retired Swiss businessman now lives in Brussels, and his current main publisher, Max Milo, is French. The sanctions prohibit him from asserting his copyrights in the EU. Switzerland, however, does not apply the EU measures against “destabilizing activities“.
https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/jacques-baud-eu-setzt-ex-oberst-auf-sanktionsliste-765014946113
Add this to Climate/Environment… one picture is worth a thousand words:
Arctic Warming Is Turning Alaska’s Rivers Red With Toxic Runoff NYT archive
Some highways around Fairbanks have moguls from melting permafrost. It is hugely expensive to rebuild the roads in the short construction season.
About: “How climate change broke the Pacific Northwest’s plumbing”. No, it’s not climate change. It was a disaster waiting to happen. The Northwest and California were settled by people who didn´t understand the ecology. Something like this was bound to happen. And this one was still mild. Take a look at the flood of 1862. Here a wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Flood_of_1862 Maybe there are other areas in the world with such incredible recurring floods but I am not aware of one. According to projections climate change will make thing worse. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARkStorm But 1862 was already a disaster of biblical proportions and – as was since found out – a recurring one. The truth of the matter is most likely that the way of the Pacific West – storing water behind dams for the dry season – cannot continue on this scale as these dams should be used much more for flood control. But then today’s way of farming in CA is over. Good riddance…