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Links 12/20/2025

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Kangaroos fix their posture to save energy at high hopping speeds, study shows PhysOrg. An IgNobel candidate?

Pumas in Patagonia started feasting on penguins — but now they’re behaving strangely, a new study finds Live Science (resilc)

Drones detect deadly virus in Arctic whales’ breath BBC (resilc)

Most Top-Achieving Adults Weren’t Elite Specialists in Childhood, New Study Finds Wall Street Journal (resilc)

#COVID-19/Pandemics

A New H3N2 Influenza Strain Is Raising Concerns About This Flu Season JAMA

Climate/Environment

The problems with the word degrowth Rebelion via machine translation (Micael T). Lordie, the sanctimoniousness about negative connotations. There WILL be sacrifice, FFS. The question is whether it is somewhat orderly to minimize harm, or chaotic and therefore more destructive than necessary.

How climate breakdown is putting the world’s food in peril – in maps and charts Guardian

Warmer ocean currents significantly destabilize ice sheets, driving their retreat PhysOrg

Hydrogen emissions are ‘supercharging’ the warming impact of methane Carbon Brief

Drought and torrential rains are the biggest climate threat to birds in the Mediterranean CREAF

Poland “slams brakes” on green rollout to keep coal – analysts Montel News

China?

China Now Generates 2X More Electricity Than USA: How Will This Alter The Tech Race? CNA Insider, YouTube

China’s Growing Pile of Long-Term Debt to Deepen Pricing Stress Bloomberg

‘Decisive end’ to China’s property boom as residential construction hits 25-year low Macao News

China cuts US Treasury holdings to lowest level since 2008 amid debt ceiling fears South China Morning Post

China Satellite Obliterates Starlink Using a Dim 2-Watt Laser Fired from 36,000 KM in Space India Defence Review (resilc)

Africa

In Senegal, climate change is adding to historic tension between farmers and herders Independent

European Disunion

Angry farmers block Brussels roads with tractors over Mercosur trade deal Aljazeera

German government to borrow more than $600B next year Anadolu Agency

Old Blighty

Food production no longer profitable for English farms, says review Financial Times

Israel v. The Resistance

Palestinian prisoners speak out about how they were raped in Israeli jails Middle East Eye

New Not-So-Cold War

Disaster summit for Merz and von der Leyen Nachdenkseiten via machine translation. Micael T: “Not a desaster. It was a success. They got 90B more than they had before the summit and the cherry on top is the impoverishment of the EU population.”

An attempted robbery resulted in the humiliation of the European bureaucracy Vzgylad via machine translation. Micael T: “Russian disinformation. You can only be humiliated if you have some dignity and pride. Of which the EU-tards running this clownshow have none.”

Humiliation for Merz, UVLD and the EU Oliver Boyd-Barrett

NATO’s 1937 moment Andrew Mongaghan

Russia’s Oil Exports Face Delays as Tankers Take 70% Longer Route OilPrice

Merz is going to allow the BND to carry out sabotage operations outside Germany Top War (Micael T)

Putin vows no more wars if West treats Russia with respect BBC (resilc)

Vladimir Putin Leaves No Doubt About Russia’s Demands to End the War in Ukraine… Do Donald Trump and Steve Witkoff Understand? Larry Johnson

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

Imperial Collapse Watch

Future War? Julian Macfarlane

Trump’s Drone Strikes Are Wrong. Obama’s Were, Too New York Times

Trump 2.0

Saagar NEAR TEARS Over Trump’s White House DESECRATION Breaking Points, YouTube. Trust me, watch this.

Kennedy Center gets new signage bearing Trump’s name CNN

Nine of the largest pharma companies ink deals with Trump to lower drug prices CNBC (Kevin W)

Exclusive: Top lawyer for military joint chiefs told chairman that officers should retire if faced with an unlawful order CNN (resilc)

Immigration

Magaziner Dismantles Kristi Noem Over Deporting Veterans and Families Egberto Willies. The video clip is a wowser.

Noise machines installed by LA Home Depot ‘torture’ for day laborers, advocates say Guardian (resilc)

Trump Administration Tries to Stop Some Immigrants From Driving Trucks New York Times

Mamdani

Mamdani Appointee Resigns After Decade-Old Antisemitic Posts Re-emerge New York Times. The Gray Lady put this piece outside its paywall.

Our No Longer Free Press

RESURGENT EUROPEAN FASCISM. THE JACQUES BAUD CASE Michael Basta (resilc)

TikTok’s new boss Oligarch Watch< The Australian Israel Lobby Is Flat-Out Saying They Want A Ban On Criticism Of Israel Caitlin Johnstone (Kevin W)

Resolutions Introduced in Congress Challenge EU and UK Online Censorship Laws’ Influence on US Free Speech Reclaim the Net

U.S. Will Pay $450,000 to Wildfire Fighters With Cancer New York Times (resilc)

Revealed: how Toyota uses retro-style games and prizes to urge US workers to lobby politicians Guardian

CalPERS’ $60 billion investment in ‘climate solutions’ lacks environmental standards, transparency CalMatters (Joseph R)

L’affaire Epstein

Todd Blanche says DOJ won’t release full Esptein files to Congress by Friday deadline The Hill

Massie says DOJ’s Epstein release ‘grossly fails’ to meet legal obligations The Hill

Economy

‘A Singularly Turbulent Time’: Deeper Uncertainty in Store for Global Economy New York Times

Mr. Market is High

Look around: Bubbles are everywhere Bloomberg

As we have repeatedly said, QE was an asset swap designed to increase real estate and security prices and did so:

Budding G7 recession prompts hunt for real yields Reuters

AI

AI Hackers Are Coming Dangerously Close to Beating Humans Wall Street Journal (resilc)

Water levels across the Great Lakes are falling – just as US data centers move in Guardian

The Bezzle

Bitcoin Crashing Is Actually Awesome News for Regular People, Economist Says Futurism

Guillotine Watch

Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos are awarding $5 million to a leader in neurodiversity education Associated Press (resilc). This is ridiculous. If they were serious, they’d spend >$50 million for a research program or a couple of chairs.

Class Warfare

How Jane Austen revealed the economic basis of society Economist (Dr. Kevin)

British playwright, screenwriter Tom Stoppard (1937-2025): Dazzling, erudite, damaged by history WSWS

Antidote du jour (via):

And a bonus:

A second bonus:

And a bonus of sorts from resilc in Nice:

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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116 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    “Kennedy Center gets new signage bearing Trump’s name”

    I suppose that it is only a matter of time until the new address of the White House will be 1600 Donald J. Trump Avenue, Washington, DC. The man seems to have an urgent need to have his name everywhere and to shape the governments and its buildings in his image. Sad, when you think about it.

    Reply ↓
        1. Randall Flagg

          I gladly stand corrected.
          Actually all suggestions below are included in the realms of possibility. Thanks for the laugh this am all of you

          Reply ↓
      3. The Rev Kev

        Course I can. It will the biggest, hugest one in the cemetery with a giant gold “T” over the top of it and it will be flashing neon gold lights at night time. On top of it will be a holographic Donald J. Trump reciting his best Truth Social posts with a card swipe next to him so that people can donate money to his favourite cause still – himself. Of course they might have to clear out an entire section of Arlington Cemetery to make way for all this but this will just be another sacrifice to be made.

        Reply ↓
      5. Michael Fiorillo

        “My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings,
        Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
        Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
        Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare,
        The lone and levels sands stretch far away.

        Reply ↓
          1. neutrino23

            Do you really think he will last that long? It sure seems like he is declining month-to-month at an accelerating rate.

            Reply ↓
            1. vao

              They managed to prop up Biden till the very end (thanks to the autopen, among other gimmicks) — and his state of mind was arguably worse and visibly decaying by the month too.

              Reply ↓
    2. Carolinian

      Gulf of Trump? Trumpland once Denmark turns over the keys? The Trump Canal?

      Clearly only modesty has been holding him back so far.

      However his Kennedy Center ploy is apparently contrary to a Congressional law that declared the center a DC monument to JFK.

      Reply ↓
      1. SufferinSuccotash

        Before long you can visit the National Archives and see the Declaration of Trump, the Constitution of Trump and the Trump of Rights.
        +

        Reply ↓
    3. Louis Fyne

      not defending Trump.. this is the logical, counter-revolutionary reaction to smelting Robert E Lee statues (instead saying, hey our country had dark times, we should learn from it….and Lee’s saving grace was that he was magnaminous in defeat…remembering something is not necessarily the same as celebrating it) and moving Jefferson statues to the °Ark of the Covenant” secret warehouse.

      common that “revolutionaries” act like they will never lose power and that their toolkit will never be used against them

      Reply ↓
      2. Michael Fiorillo

        Saying that those statues were about “learn(ing) from it (history),” when they were in fact physical manifestations of the triumph of Jim Crow (with which their erection coincided), is missing everything about them. Lee’s “magnamity” (and shouldn’t one be humble in defeat?) could have been acknowledged in one location, not sprayed over the entire region in honor of some often shady characters, and in service of continuing oppression.

        Reply ↓
        1. steppenwolf fetchit

          I have read that Lee advised all soldiers under his command to go home, consider themselves out of the Confederate Army, plant their crops, get on with their lives, etc. As against advising them to take all possible weapons and ammo home with them and wage guerilla war throughout the countryside, etc.

          So that is what he is considered magnanimous-in-defeat for.

          Reply ↓
          1. Edgar Allen Joe

            The point is not that Lee was not an interesting and multifaceted man (despite fighting for a cause which must be considered one of the worst for which a people ever fought); but that the statues of confederate generals and the like were not, contrary to popular imagination, put up in the aftermath of the civil war as a symbol of national unity and remembrance or what have you, but decades later in the era of Jim Crow by a resurgent reactionary movement who wanted to revise history completely.

            Reply ↓
    4. Jeff W

      Law professor Paul Finkelman over at Slate notes

      On Thursday, the board of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts voted to rename the center “the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” Weirdly, the board of the center, mostly picked by President Donald Trump, does not seem to understand that a “memorial” center is named for someone who is deceased, and thus the new name implies that Trump is dead.

      How do you miss something like that? It seems a bit obvious to me. (Maybe the second “the” in the name is intended to signal some parsing like “the Donald J. Trump Center and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center” but that seems like a stretch.)

      The page name in the URL, incidentally, is trump-kennedy-center-dictators-stalin-franco-yikes.html.

      Reply ↓
    1. tegnost

      Kraft reportedly has 11 billion so it seems he’s barely rich but the franchise value of the patriots is 9 billion so who knows how many kajillions he really has. Anecdotally I have a pilot friend who was working around the planes after some big football game somewhere and she said kraft was handing out 100’s to whoever as he headed to the plane so she loves him.

      Reply ↓
    3. raspberry jam

      I recall seeing buildings in Tel Aviv with his name on them so perhaps Texas flood victims just aren’t the right cause

      Reply ↓
      1. JMH

        Flood victims in Trump world are losers for not being quicker on their feet. Donnie, you are going to feel the weight of bad karma.

        Reply ↓
  3. Louis Fyne

    if anyone asks you about “AI”…. a 59 min. primer/roundtable on generative AI and its impact on pop. culture from the folks at movie review channel, Redlettermedia

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPitD1eYLiM&amp;

    For a more academic take, a 10-min. op-ed on generative AI and its impact on history as a field of study, using the “Biggs Star Wars cut” as an allegory, from the Feral Historian channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A7Leaq1R-s

    Reply ↓
  4. das monde

    “Thousands of Lithuanians have flooded the streets around parliament and government buildings…”

    These are protests for EU “values”, not against. The current government – of nominally social democrats, plus some boorish populists – is not quite the right one for European prosperity (or even anti-Russian boasting). Demonstrative protests of cultural intelligentsia are going on for months, starting from wrong appointments to the Ministry of Culture. This is closer to a color revolution (preemption of a Hungarian/Slovakian turn?) than to populist discontent.

    Reply ↓
  5. Wukchumni

    Most Top-Achieving Adults Weren’t Elite Specialists in Childhood, New Study Finds Wall Street Journal
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    I was a childhood prodigy, and had all the right things going for me, quite near sided (I got my eyes checked about a decade ago and the optometrist related that with my orbits, they would have had me do fine detail work on manuscripts in the middle ages or something like that, he was amazed that I had essentially magnifying glasses for eyes-and when I told him what I did for a living, he said it was the perfect thing, for the object of my desire was seldom more than a few inches wide) with a photographic memory for things that interested me, a love of history and Daddy-o, whose business life centered around arbitrage, like father-like son.

    I burned out by my early 40’s and maybe part of it was I stopped collecting coins when I was 14, and strictly became a numismatic mercenary of sorts, and tired of the pursuit eventually. (I haven’t bought or sold a coin in over 20 years-no interest whatsoever)

    The only thing left in the debris field of my mind is all the recollections of the past in a monetary sense, which I dredge up on occasion here.

    Reply ↓
    2. das monde

      “It should be clearly understood that thought is nothing but the organic function of the brain; and it has to obey the same laws in regard to exertion and repose as any other organic function. The brain can be ruined by overstrain, just like the eyes […] Through neglect of this rule, many men of genius and great scholars have become weak-minded and childish, or even gone quite mad, as they grew old. To take no other instances, there can be no doubt that the celebrated English poets […] Scott, Wordsworth, Southey, became intellectually dull and incapable towards the end of their days, nay, soon after passing their sixtieth year; and that their imbecility can be traced to the fact that, at that period of life, they were all led on by the promise of high pay, to treat literature as a trade and to write for money. This seduced them into an unnatural abuse of their intellectual powers…”

      — Arthur Schopenhauer, “Councels and Maxims”, §20.

      Reply ↓
    3. Offtrail

      You sound like Mark Twain, who became a Mississippi River pilot because he loved the river, only to see it turn into a collection of sand bars and snags.

      Reply ↓
    4. Cat Burglar

      What the development model for kids’ sports is in the US now, I don’t know.

      But it used to be: put them into mandatory (nobody was allowed out) competitive ball sports (with a little track and field), assume they had instruction from their parents, provide minimal or no skill training, identify the talents, and let the rest bumble along until they quit. It sounds as if the part about identifying the talents and leaving the rest on the reject pile still holds. No wonder the activity most associated with “sports” in the US is sitting — the system produces a negative relation to physical activity as if that were the design.

      The competitive cross-country ski world in the US has already figured out what this research shows. They couldn’t figure out how the Norwegians could dominate skiing until they figured out the youth sports programs in Norway.

      And the number one rule in Norwegian youth ski programs is HAVE FUN. The non-profit clubs provide real instruction at age-appropriate levels for all kids at low cost (or for free if you say you can’t pay), clubs don’t travel until after age 13, and competitive ranking is forbidden until after age 13. The explicit goals are to HAVE FUN, get in good shape, learn skills, be with friends, and make new friends. As one coach has put it “It’s about creating an environment where kids master things, have fun, and stay in sports longer.”

      When kids are some years older, that leads to a gigantic pool of active people who ski…and so Norway has more Winter Olympic medals than anyone else. In one interview, a US journalist asked a Norwegian youth club teacher if prohibiting child competition wasn’t sheltering kids from the hard competitive realities of life, and he said, “For the sake of Norway’s future world ski success, I hope Americans keep that attitude.” Our system is not only produces unhappy kids and miserable adults, it is a loser. You have to wonder who this benefits.

      Reply ↓
  6. 123abceng

    https://indiandefencereview.com/china-satellite-obliterates-starlink-using-a-dim-2-watt-laser-fired-from-36000-km-in-space/
    this link just steals the idea, expressed 6 month ago here:
    https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/china-satellite-laser-communication

    Also, IDR in this text:
    >>To address this, researchers from Peking University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed a combined approach, called AO-MDR synergy, which dynamically corrects distorted laser beams in real time. Using an array of 357 micro-mirrors inside a 1.8-meter telescope at the Lijiang Observatory, the system reshaped incoming light, then split the corrected signal into eight separate channels via a multi-plane light converter. A real-time algorithm selected the three strongest for decoding.

    >>That technique lifted the usable signal rate to 91.1%, significantly improving upon the 72% baseline reported in earlier systems, as documented in the peer-reviewed study published in Acta Optica Sinica.
    Both links are the same, and the page doesn’t exist:
    https://www.opticsjournal.net/Articles/OJ5555f34246a59820.html

    Reply ↓
        1. 123abceng

          Oh, they are working long time on this. Actually what project does, they are trying to map atmospheric fluctuations (mostly, temperature deviations) and use some sort of prediction upon which those 350 mirrors will be aligned. The goal of the project is not to use 2 watt in production, but determine physical limits.
          2 watt, I believe it’s: night, dry weather, no clouds. Impressive anyway, outstanding. All what they actually need for bad weather is to use temporary balloons as re-translators, 10-15 km high. The technology works 2 ways: any space station can send and receive signal through billions of miles. The task the same, but the nature of fluctuations is different.

          Reply ↓
        2. cfraenkel

          FWIW, for comparison, the military comsats in the ’80s used ~100 watt TWTAs (SHF) or power transistors (UHF) for global geosynch coverage.

          Reply ↓
    1. Yves Smith Post author

      Yes, I don’t understand it either. Why is it NOT a story that Epstein had lots of friends among the very rich and powerful after he was a convicted sex offender?!?! Who else gets to do that?

      Reply ↓
      1. Norton

        Maybe some Epstein counter-programming?
        Imagine him telling those fat cats about how their photos and videos were safely tucked away and could remain so with a nominal security contribution. Then nod at Wexner.
        Shame if those got out.

        Reply ↓
      2. jefemt

        Watched the Friday Night PBS newshour, where they gave David Brooks a few seconds to ‘splain his 2011 photos in Epstein’s company.
        All I could muster afterward is the nature of double-standards on slippery slopes.
        Many Blind Eyes.

        FBI had complaints filed in 1996, FFS. There must be such depth and breadth to this thing, from predatory sexual action against minors, to blackmail, influence peddling, money and ‘power’.
        I will go out on a rotten limb with a saw and say it: “…and Israel…”

        But really all of it stemming – apparently— from gross old men with eff’d up values and a complete absence of a moral compass.

        Leaders of the Free World. Criminy, leaders of the world, free or not.

        Reply ↓
      3. none

        Why is it NOT a story that Epstein had lots of friends among the very rich and powerful after he was a convicted sex offender?!?! Who else gets to do that?

        1) I thought the original conviction was on relatively minor charges (because of the prosecutor whitewash) compared to the later ones.

        2) Epstein after that conviction was still rich and glamorous and seeking redemption by funding academic research types. His association with them brought him some respectability.

        3) He was managing money for a bunch of other rich pedophiles and passing himself off as a financial genius, and he did make money for them, so they may have talked him up to their other rich friends. Apparently he was really simply putting the money in index funds, which did pretty well since the whole stock market was going up, which makes everyone a genius. Of course money at that level is a powerful enough drug that it overshadows any other concerns.

        He was also still(?) visibly dating Maxwell, who was age appropriate for him. So maybe the pedo stuff wasn’t so obvious to non-participants.

        Reply ↓
    2. MaryLand

      I gave up on Taibbi months ago. He seems to go whichever way the wind blows, so to speak. His sidekick’s schtick got old too.

      Reply ↓
    3. pjay

      To continue to write the Epstein saga off as another Russiagate or “me too” scam requires considerable effort at shutting one’s “journalistic” eyes and ears. Taibbi has literally become the mirror image of the “woke” liberals he has criticized in recent years. It is true that he was “me tooed” by the liberal mob as soon as he began to voice the mildest doubts about Russiagate, so I get why he is touchy. But he has now gone so far the other way that he has lost all credibility. And don’t get me started on Michael Tracey; I see a lot of Taibbi’s reaction as emotional confirmation bias. In my view Tracey has been very consciously dishonest. Of course the Dems do want to use this for partisan “gotcha” purposes only – as does the Trump administration (I’m sure all those pictures of Clinton in yesterday’s release was just a coincidence).

      Taibbi is right, however, about the nature of most of these “bombshell” pictures; they are mainly harmless and without context. And although there is considerably more evidence for organized sexual misconduct than Taibbi suggests, media focus on this element distracts from the other aspects of this case which involves Epstein as middle-man and money man for various private and government interests. I doubt there will be any obvious “smoking guns” in these file releases.

      Reply ↓
      1. Michael Fiorillo

        I’m not going to defend Taibbi, who took a shabby turn a while ago, but there is a connection between Russiagate and the Epstein files: they both share Democrats’/#McResistance magical thinking that all they need do is harp on Trump – pee tapes, Russian Facebook ads and their poisoning our Precious Bodily Fluids, Stormy Daniels, etc., and now Epstein – and not offer anything of value themselves. Half of them still think Putin put Trump in office in 2016, and that Brunch will resume when the rest of us become as morally developed as they are.

        Reply ↓
    4. AG

      I haven´t followed Epstein in recent weeks enough to be able to verify or falsify Taibbi.

      But merely based on Taibbi´s piece, this time I have to defend him. His point being (my emph.):

      “there’s no meaning to any of it unless one or more of these figures is tied to the sex crimes. Otherwise it’s just two lists, powerful friends and repulsive acts, not shown to overlap.”

      If one takes into account Taibbi´s near to trial-investigation-level of proof-seeking, I would argue very cautiously, that he was doing the same thing with his other stories before.

      From that perspective he has a strong point in drawing comparison to Russiagate – “Innocent unless proven otherwise”:

      “This is just what the Times did in April, 2019, when in the absence of proof of conspiracy with Russia they began chronicling “contacts” between Trump figures and “Russian nationals and Wikileaks, or their intermediaries.” In a literal sense, it was “connecting the dots,” as the Times put out schematic diagrams of Trump figures and their relationships to Russians, color-coding types of “contact” had by each.
      (…)
      it was the same excercise in compiling unrelated lists.”

      In fact: If this is about a demand for defintive proof a negative example to Taibbi´s own standard would be the lab leak theory and his championing it.

      But lets get back again to his comparing Epstein and Russiagate:

      “unless the men were involved in Epstein’s crimes, publishing photos of “prominent men” in the files is the same thing the Times did with “connections” after the Mueller report.
      (…)
      We have an allegation about a complaint from a 14-year-old starting the case, and if I were looking for pedophilia, I’d hunt there. But asking to get to the “core of the Epstein sex ring” is like Maxine Waters in 2017 saying about collusion proof, “we just have to do the investigation and find it.” Then and now, find what? What “ring” do you mean?”

      Is Taibbi playing dumb or is this exaggerated caution hiding bias or is this rather indeed the way he should be conducting this?

      Demanding same burden of proof like in Russiagate and Twitter Files?

      This doesn´t mean I would necessarily agree with his approach personally but that would be beside the point as I am not the reporter here and not onto investigating these stories.

      (I´ll leave Israel out for sake of simplicity because latter I believe is a political issue that goes way beyond these methodical questions to his personal income and business model and thus self-censorship to survive as a reporter.)

      p.s. I would even invoke Lippman´s by now cliché quote, “when everyone says the same thing no one says anything”. In a media world as ours there is logic and legitimacy to go against the current – until the evidence is indeed 100%.

      Reply ↓
      1. Carolinian

        The difference is that Russiagate–the notion that Trump was a long standing Manchurian Candidate ready to perform Putin’s will–was absurd whereas Epsteingate is entirely plausible. Of course the conclusions people reach are entirely inferential but they too–Netanyahu has a blackmail hold on Trump–are entirely plausible.

        And of course the reason we don’t have trial proof is that for some reason Epstein either committed suicide or was murdered in prison. Odd that.

        Taibbi is a real reporter and a talented writer whereas Tracey is a clickbait gadfly. How the mighty Matt has fallen?

        Reply ↓
  8. The Rev Kev

    “Saagar NEAR TEARS Over Trump’s White House DESECRATION”

    Not hard to understand why Sagaar feels this way. Every President that has lived in the White House has been a sort of custodian of that historical building. Sure, they were allowed to put in new carpets, change the paintings, drapes and decorations to suit the taste of the serving President but that was essentially it. An exception is made when renovation work has to be done on those buildings like when Eisenhower had to virtually gut those buildings and rebuild them before they collapsed of old age but the basic design was still mostly adhered to. Trump seems to regard those building as his own and is radically changed the outlay for them. That ballroom for example will be bigger than the actual White House building itself. There is gold trim everywhere and it is only a matter of time until there is a gold toilet installed. When he is gone, laws are going to have to be made to ensure this never happens again.

    Reply ↓
    1. Dr. John Carpenter

      Assuming “they” don’t want it to happen again. Seems like we’ve had a long history of public agastitude and private to do lists being written for whoever is next in office.

      Reply ↓
      1. The Rev Kev

        My first though was a special historical commission to stop this happening again but either party might seek to stack that commission with their own people which would defeat the purpose of having one. Maybe a more direct approach is needed. So if you have a future President that want to tear apart parts of the White House, arrange it so the next time he goes to the Oval Office, he finds a unspent bullet on his desk.

        Reply ↓
        1. JMH

          Note the gold whatchamacallits above the presidential portraits, the Auto pen for Biden … that degree of childishly vindictive “humor” would embarrass a child … His word “portrait” of Obama … payback for that dinner in, what was it? 2011. I hope to live to their removal on the first day of a successor’s presidency. And one more thing. the brick by brick razing of the “ball room.” You don’t own it Donnie and if congress were not infested with gutless wonders with no class and less sense of history… Here’s looking at you Mike Johnson, toady in chief … you would have had the entire congress, both parties knocking on the door,showing you the articles of impeachment and the votes for conviction and removal. But that would require a backbone. Alas, finding political courage, perhaps generic courage, requires Diogenes with his lantern.

          Reply ↓
    2. Carolinian

      It was Truman who gutted the White House right out to the walls (there are pictures) and did it with Congressional approval.

      Reply ↓
      1. marym

        “…with Congressional approval” and also with entirely different reasons, objectives, and oversight.

        “Engineers discovered that the White House was in danger of collapse due to weakened wooden beams, outdated plumbing, and electrical systems.”

        “Some argued to simply tear down the White House and build a new executive mansion, but the Trumans fought to preserve the historic building in every way they could. The renovation plan was designed to maintain the outer walls but rebuild the interior…”

        “Working with the House and Senate, Mr. Truman appointed a bipartisan, six-person commission to oversee the project. He consulted the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Commission of Fine Arts, which approved sketches made by Lorenzo S. Winslow, the White House architect, as well as smaller details like fabric samples and color schemes.”

        https://www.whitehousehistory.org/an-ever-changing-white-house
        https://www.trumanlibraryinstitute.org/saving-white-house-trumans-extreme-makeover/
        https://web.archive.org/web/20251024184635/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/23/us/politics/white-house-renovations-trump-ballroom.html

        Reply ↓
    4. Victor Sciamarelli

      I think it’s much simpler in that Trump is not capable of understanding the intent when the WH was designed and built. The WH was to be elegant but austere, a symbol of a people’s republic not a monarchy.
      I remember reading that, in its Louis XIV heyday, Versailles required 10,000 candles per day. The WH stands for the opposite of the likes of Buckingham Palace and Versailles.
      Meanwhile, Trump scratches his head and can only wish he had a big palace too.

      Reply ↓
      1. Alex Cox

        Eisenhower commissioned the original anti-nuke bunker beneath the WH. This ballroom redevelopment is surely cover for the construction of a deeper, goldener, bunker.

        (Cue final scene of Dr Stangelove…)

        Reply ↓
        1. ambrit

          Sadly, I read that the water table there is close to the surface. A “Superbunker” would need quite the pumping system. Where to get the power to run that after the bomb drops?

          Reply ↓
  9. Wukchumni

    … Hey Vilnius oh Vilnius
    … Vilnius, if you will
    Please send a little RSVP to Brussels to seal the deal
    An organization who heeds my wishes and supplies my arms
    A Belgian waffle with all the charms of you
    (Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh) (Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh)

    … Vilnius, make the deal fair
    A lovely arrangement to get the Russians out of my hair
    And take the brightest EU weapons up in the skies
    And place them in Putin’s eyes for me
    (Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh) (Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh)

    … Vilnius, capital of Lithuania that you are
    Surely the things I ask
    Can’t be too great a task
    … Vilnius, if you do
    I promise that I always will be true
    I’ll give them all I have to give
    As long as we both shall live
    (Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh) (Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh)

    … Vilnius, capital of Lithuania that you are
    Surely the things I ask
    Can’t be too great a task
    … Vilnius, if you do
    I promise that I always will be true
    I’ll give them all I have to give
    As long as we both shall live
    (Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh) (Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh)

    … Hey, Vilnius, oh, Vilnius
    Make my wish come true
    (Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh) (Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh)
    (Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh) (Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh)

    Venus, by Frankie Avalon

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mA1k-b9UNw&list=RD_mA1k-b9UNw

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  10. jonboinAR

    Sorry to be off-topic slightly from today’s links. This is from links a couple of days ago. I just got around to reading “Epstein, Israel, and the CIA: How the…”, about Epstein’s connections with Iran Contra and other stuff, mainly, maybe, about his connection to Wexner’s acquiring and moving to Ohio the seeming arms smuggling airline SAT. It’s very good reporting synopsis and exposure of otherwise occulted kind of very high-level smuggling operations, except not new to those who read around a little. Whitney Webb and that fellow she’s accused of ripping off, Dudley Dawson(?), I think they several seasons back reported all of this. So, it’s great to repeat it to a larger audience, just don’t think it’s completely new.

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  11. MartyH

    Before getting very far down Links a word of appreciation for our intrepid Yves. Her comment about the article on “Degrowth” is the perfect example of why I donate and read daily, FFS!

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    1. The Rev Kev

      Maybe not so much ‘Degrowth’ as a ‘Fighting Retreat.’ It is my belief that as time goes on in a world dominated by climate change, we are all going to have to learn to do with less electricity for a start. But we cannot forget that it is electricity that makes our modern life possible – as people discover in a blackout. So maybe we will have to learn to get by with the amount of electricity that people used in the 70s or 40s or even the 20s for that matter. The amount of electricity that we will have will determine at what level of technology that we will be living in. And that is one aspect of what degrowth will look like-

      https://www.aceee.org/files/proceedings/1992/data/papers/SS92_Panel10_Paper17.pdf

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      1. Wukchumni

        Human beans did ok without electricity for about 69,800 years of our 70,000 year existence on this good orb, but weaning ourselves off is gonna be quite the task, as there is nobody whose life hasn’t been affected by it, including your parents, grandparents, great grandparents and great great grandparents.

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      2. none

        There’s stupendous amounts of renewable electricity if it weren’t for the bottomless appetites of AI data centers and bitcoin miners. China has well over 1 terawatt of solar installed and keeps increasing it, thorium/molten-salt nuclear is becoming a thing, etc. If anything people are moving towards using more electricity instead of fossil fuels (cooking, home heating, EV’s) and that’s a good thing if the electricity is carbon-free. I see tons of rooftop solar here in California now and would certainly get most of my electricity that way if my living situation allowed for it.

        Reply ↓
      3. Ben Panga

        >It is my belief that as time goes on in a world dominated by climate change, we are all going to have to learn to do with less electricity for a start.

        You’re more positive than me Rev.

        My 2c: The elites will continue to use electricity at the same rate. Us poors can (continue to) die. I see zero possibility of elites getting over their addiction to dominance, and only slight possibilities of the elites being overthrown. It is antithetical to them to be moderate or prudent. They will still see power advantages from electricity use.

        I guess when jackpot gets really chaotic things might change. Tbh I hope I’m not here to see it.

        Degrowth is attractive, but I think the tragedy of the commons applies here.

        Reply ↓
        1. hk

          I keep saying this, but whenever I hear “degrowth,” I see the elites degrowthing us peons while continuing as they have. It’s too convenient a cudgel for use against the masses imho and we should never get too comfy with the concept.

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  12. The Rev Kev

    “NATO’s 1937 moment”

    It’s actually not. It could be the 1990s moment. Back then the USSR had collapsed and NATO could have wound down and a solid peace with Russia negotiated. A true peace dividend. There was a choice. Instead NATO ramped up and charged east in its expansion and here we are with war in the Ukraine. They chose poorly. They could choose peace right now but instead seem determined to fight Russia in 2030. Idjuts.

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    1. Maxwell Johnston

      An interesting read which ends abruptly and without any conclusion; somewhat puzzled, I even scrolled down to find the remainder of the article, and was surprised to see that I had reached the end. So I will pick up where the author left off:

      If Russia does someday attack NATO, it will not be a ground-based invasion with conquest as its aim. It will be a long-range missile and drone attack aimed at NATO’s offensive military capabilities (including the ability to produce offensive armaments or export such; i.e., military bases, factories, ports, airfields, transport nodes), supplemented by EW disruption and sabotage operations conducted by agents pre-stationed inside NATO countries. The idea of a Russian ground invasion (tanks, mechanized infantry, paratroopers dropping from the sky, MiG and Sukhoi jets zooming around bombing things) is a bit silly.

      NATO countries (if they were serious–but they probably aren’t) should skip renewing conscription and buying tanks and F35s, and focus instead on their anti-missile and anti-drone defenses, along with better EW capabilities, and linking all of these together into a comprehensive layered network.

      (Of course NATO countries should mainly be concerned with improving relations with their Russian neighbor next door, but that is purely my thought and probably not that of the author…..)

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      1. ilsm

        Strategic bombing intended toward a mix of counter-force and counter-value is a dicey investment with scary prospects to return objectives.

        Strategic defense is even less appealing.

        The logic calls for detente.

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      2. Aurelien

        I’ve been saying this for several years now, but I’m no more optimistic now that western governments will wake up to the problem. Above all, they don’t understand that long range high-precision missiles naturally favour the offense rather than the defence, and that against certain types there may be no practicable defence. So they are falling back on what they know, or, if you prefer, what they have been told about.

        The point about Singapore in 1937 is true, but more generally both the British and French had begun rearmament programmes by then, and the arms they were developing were actually those that would be needed in the next war. That’s not the case here, but the problem is that any realistic interpretation of the military situation post-Ukraine is so depressing it’s better not to think about it.

        Reply ↓
        1. AG

          “but the problem is that any realistic interpretation of the military situation post-Ukraine is so depressing it’s better not to think about it.”
          Perhaps you could expand on that…

          Reply ↓
    2. hk

      It could easily be an alternate 1938: they are just not the side they think they are: The Czechs decided to fight back against NA**s and the Adolfine has to decide what to do.

      Reply ↓
      1. Wukchumni

        Czechs of my father’s age never forgave the English & French for selling them down the river in Munich, but Prague would have been as wrecked as Warsaw, and it barely got touched, a backwater in the action of the war.

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        1. ambrit

          Yeah, but you ended up suffering the ‘tender ministrations’ of Heydrich. Not to mention all those Byzantine machinations during the Austrian Empire Period. (We won’t even get into the subject of Galicia.)

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        2. The Rev Kev

          I wouldn’t either. The British and the French were negotiating with Adolf while the Czech President was left outside cooling his heels. They could have made a fight of it as they had forty or fifty divisions and were behind a chain of mountains but then got no support from the big powers.

          Reply ↓
          1. upstater

            And don’t forget the USSR offered to defend Czechesolvakia. It was vetoed by the Poles, British and French. The Red Army would had to have crossed Poland.

            Reply ↓
        3. hk

          Yes, I read AJP Taylor making that obs. My view here, though, is a bit different: Natoists basically demanded their own Sudetenland–Eastern Ukraine; Russia, unlike Czechoslovakia, bit back, and, as would have been the likely case in 1938-9, there’s trouble and turmoil in Berlin and elsewhere (the first generals’ plot to overthrow Hitler was triggered by the Sudeten crisis, one might note.)

          Reply ↓
    3. AG

      Something tells me a rollback of NATO for purpose of literal peace dividend was never seriously in the cards – ever.

      NATO was founded to, if not really destroy (despite the countless plans in the drawers), so to keep USSR/Russia under comfortable control. The fact that the CIA/RAND expected Russians to crack the nuke problem anyhow – just a few years later than it really happened – is one tiny hint at how the long-shot set up really looked like.

      As George Kennan put it pointedly:
      “Were the Soviet Union to sink tomorrow under the waters of the ocean, the American military-industrial establishment would have to go on, substantially unchanged, until some other adversary could be invented. Anything else would be an unacceptable shock to the American economy.”
      (see foreword to ‘The Pathology of Power’ by Norman Cousins in 1987. “At a Century’s Ending: Reflections 1982-1995”. Book by George F. Kennan, p. 118, 1996. )

      After all the US never issued a single normative national security outline that would abandon the mother of all outlines, NSC-68 from 1950. And in essence nothing has changed since those dark days of the utter crazy Anti-Communism frenzy.

      If this incompetent Commedia dell´arte now won´t blow up then it will serve well for the elites to prepare the historic pivot of “capital” – not US military power – to Asia. For a peaceful resolution to a new era.

      Sorry for spitballing here.

      Reply ↓
  13. Nikkikat

    Remember, his deal with chief of staff Susie Wiles was that he could only seek retribution for 90 days. So he had to act quickly! Snark snark.
    Turns my stomach to think about anything with his name on it, it looks like he had a lot of time to work out his retribution. Apparently he has spent the last 4 years planning!

    Reply ↓
  14. ACPAL

    “officers should retire if faced with an unlawful order”

    IIRC it is Congress’ responsibility to reign in the President when he obviously breaks the law. I don’t see Congress as performing such oversight. The SCOTUS has a responsibility to make determinations relating to the constitution and handing down opinions but has no authority or power to force the President to obey. The only organization within the US Government that has the actual power to reign in the President is the military.

    The President has not helped his standing by threatening to court martial a retired officer for repeating the official military code and threatening all officers who refuse to carry out unlawful orders. Most of those officers remember that in 1937 (IIRC) Hitler required his military to swear allegiance to him and not the German constitution. We know how that worked out.

    While I don’t propose such action, since it usually ends badly, perhaps it’s time to think of it as a real possibility, at least so we might influence such a decision. And if it does come to that we won’t be blindsided.

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  15. Norton

    Pharma prices coming down to most-favored nation levels. Yay!

    Next, push transparency about legitimate randomized control trials not funded by, or attested to, by those pharmaceutical companies.

    Then a VAERS program with teeth, publishing and holding miscreants accountable.

    /end broken record :)

    Reply ↓
  16. ciroc

    >Exclusive: Top lawyer for military joint chiefs told chairman that officers should retire if faced with an unlawful order

    This is utterly ridiculous. Military personnel should not be at risk of losing their jobs for refusing to obey illegal orders. Instead, they should be fired for obeying illegal orders.

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  17. Hepativore

    So, Congress is reasserting the US right to free speech in the face of UK and EU internet censorship laws…

    Yet it has no problem coming up with KOSA and the SCREEN act which are making their way through Congress as we speak and they are just as anti-privacy and censorious as anything in the EU or UK.

    Censorship and surveillance is a global phenomenon at this point.

    Reply ↓
  18. Mikel

    Bitcoin Crashing Is Actually Awesome News for Regular People, Economist Says – Futurism

    “After a year of record gains for the crypto industry, recent forces have sent itinto a tailspin. Bitcoin, for example, reached dazzling heights of more than $120,000 in October — before crashing back down to around $88,000 today, about 12 percent down from where it was a year ago.”

    This opening paragraph is another reminder of the loss of perspective caused by asset bubbles.
    Not only with crypto, but all kinds of dips in asset prices get labeled with the hyperventilating claims of “crash”. Somewhere, I remember reading that it takes a fall of about 20% – 25% for an asset dip to rate as a “correction”. “Crash” was supposed to mean something more extreme and sustained.

    Reply ↓
    1. Wukchumni

      As a small time investor in the mid single digits, its been interesting to watch Bitcoin’s ride…

      Bought in at $56k, watched it go to $14k, and you really thought the death knell was near, and then it goes to $123k, ha ha.

      Reply ↓
      1. ambrit

        Then they put new batteries in and it goes up to $200K. {Number go up!} What if many of those AI Data Centres are dual use? If the AI bubble pops, (if??? hahahaha!) the already built-out computer infrastructure can be pivoted to “mining” bitcoin. Someone is planning ahead.
        Yes, I’m a bit cynical.
        Stay safe, and encrypted.

        Reply ↓
  19. XXYY

    Vladimir Putin Leaves No Doubt About Russia’s Demands to End the War in Ukraine… Do Donald Trump and Steve Witkoff Understand? Larry Johnson

    Reading this summary, it sounds like Putin is playing Trump like a violin, understanding that he responds like a pavlovian dog to personal flattery.

    Evidently Putin is taking this opportunity to drive a wedge between Europe and the US, and doing it with great energy. Not saying this is good or bad, but it is surprising how obvious it is.

    Reply ↓
    1. Jason Boxman

      There’s hilariously no mention at all of why this might be happening. None whatsoever. It’s just how sad it is, what a struggle, it wasn’t like this before, oh noes.

      What a joke.

      This country is trash.

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  24. chuck roast

    Magaziner Dismantles Kristi Noem…

    And here we have Seth Magaziner (D) RI, surface from the swamp to devour a lesser swamp creature. Seth, son of Ira, himself very long time ancient Rhody hack and plutocrat/Epstein/Hillary adjacent suck-up. Seth, whose closest brush with camo was driving by the RI national Guard HQ in Warwick while on his way to his gated digs on exclusive Poppasquash Rd. in Bristol, here defends our valiant vets with the best of the chicken hawks. Seth is another entitled Brown/Yale grad who was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple. Amazing how they groom the country club Dems around here, and the working-class shulbs fall for it.

    Ira, by the way, was Hillary’s primary advisor on health care when Bubba turned that portfolio over to her in 1993. He held the stake to the heart of universal health-care while Hillary applied the hammer. A charming family. Ira made his bones in RI with what he in the ’80s called “The GreenHouse Compact”. This was an early neo-liberal project in support of elite thievery of the public purse in the guise of super-charged economic growth. The locals may have all been as poor as church mice, but they were smart enough to see through that bunch of baloney.

    Enough spleen for one day…summer unofficially kicks off at 10:03 a.m. EST tomorrow. Yaaay!

    Reply ↓
  25. Windall

    Mr. Market is High

    Look around: Bubbles are everywhere Bloomberg

    As we have repeatedly said, QE was an asset swap designed to increase real estate and security prices and did so:

    The federal reserve is going to be buying around $40 billion in treasuries a month till April next year and after April around $20 billion a month in treasuries.

    I was wondering if this is just QE under another name and will this policy have any positive results for any of us or only the 1%?

    https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/fed-says-will-start-reserve-management-treasury-bill-buying-2025-12-10/

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  26. Kontrary Kansan

    Germany’s plan to to issue billions in bonds makes clear that F. “Black Rock” Merz is accomplishing exactly what he was put there to do. He’s finishing the task of taking advantage of Germany’s continuing deindustrialization to make it even more financialized.

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