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Links 12/25/2025

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Merry Christmas, to those of you who observe it! And a fun and festive day even if you don’t!

Voices of the First World War: The Christmas Truce Imperial War Museum (Kevin W)

Islam versus Judaism… How is Jesus Viewed? Larry Johnson

If Jesus Were Born Today, Would He Survive the American Police State? Counterpunch (resilc)

Dinosaur bones found almost on top of each other in Transylvania ScienceDaily (Kevin W)

Camus’ life without illusion Engelsberg Ideas

Weight-loss pill approval set to accelerate food industry product overhauls Reuters

#COVID-19/Pandemics

From what I can tell, not happening in Southeast Asia, which due to the effective response to SARS and cultural norms that see making as polite and/or normal as a pollution protection, had and I assume still has lower levels of Covid cases over time:

Climate/Environment

The Arctic Is Chemically Transforming, and It’s Speeding Up Climate Change SciTechDaily

Land, Climate, and Conflict: Unravelling the Nexus in Sudan, Syria, and Morocco E-International Relations

Southeast Asian floods set to threaten more wildlife due to climate change South China Morning Post

‘Borrowed time’: crop pests and food losses supercharged by climate crisis Guardian

Water

Who controls the Himalayas’ water? Observer

The Colorado River is on the verge of crisis. No one has a solution. Washington Post

Pakistan-Afghanistan border clash could turn into a wider water crisis Channel News Asia

Water crisis threatens food security in Barind region Dhaka Tribune

China?

China consumer shares hit record losing streak on weak demand Business Times

China to scrub small overdue debts from credit records to help spur lending Reuters. Note this is not forgiveness, just cleaning the record.

China blockades artificial diamonds, and the tools to make them Kevin Walmsley

Southeast Asia

How China Angles for Leverage Along the Thai-Myanmar Border Irawaddy

Cambodia sees mass displacement as conflict with Thailand escalates TRT World. Erm, some of this “displacement” is due to Cambodian encouraging establishment of Cambodian villages over the Thai border, which Thailand is now cleaning out.

Africa

The Catastrophic consequences of the Global War on Terror in Africa Propaganda in Focus

Algeria passes law declaring French colonisation a crime Guardian (resilc)

South of the Border

Pope Leo’s crack team of diplomats face war in Venezuela Responsible Statecraft

European Disunion

Rule of Law in EU Destroyed, ANYONE Can Be Next | MEP Michael v.d. Schulenburg Neutrality Studies, YouTube

German communists’ bank accounts terminated RT (Kevin W)

Greek Farmers Plan Christmas Week Blockades on Key Routes Tovima

Old Blighty

Britain is in the grip of a shoplifting epidemic with a record 810 offences going unsolved a day, figures show. Daily Mail

‘Bills keep going higher’: community ‘warm spaces’ on the rise in the UK Guardian

Campaign Against Antisemitism loses “vexatious” court case against Reginald D. Hunter Council Estate Media

New charges laid against comedian Russell Brand in UK 9News (Kevin W)

Israel v. The Resistance

14 countries condemn Israel’s expansion of West Bank settlements Arab News

Israel’s diamond industry is going extinct. That’s a billion-dollar problem for the IDF. Kevin Walmsley

Next war with Israel would not end in 12 days, Guards-linked daily warns Iran International

New Not-So-Cold War

The Reparations Loan is Dead Amerikanets. Has estimates of Ukraine spending for 2026 2nd 2027.

THE PUTIN-BUSH CONVERSATIONS – WHAT WAS LEFT UNSAID John Helmer

Poland & Hungary Are Threatened By Ukraine Yet Still Remain Divided By It Andrew Korybko

Imperial Collapse Watch

The curious liberalism of the ‘Axis of Evil’ Unherd

In defense of a King (sort of) America’s Undoing (resilc)

Trump 2.0

Trump’s Seizures of Oil Tankers Challenge Maritime Rules and Customs New York Times

The Heaviest American Surface Combatant Since WW2: How Capable is the Trump Class ‘Battleship’? Military Watch

Trump’s big, bad battleship will fail Responsible Statecraft (resilc)

‘Not a happy Trump supporter’: Cattle ranchers hit by push for lower beef prices Reuters (resilc)

Immigration

10 Companies Have Already Made $1 Million as ICE Bounty Hunters. We Found Them. Intercept

L’affaire Epstein

Officials discover a million more documents potentially related to Epstein case BBC. Lame.

Epstein files appear to show Andrew asking Ghislaine Maxwell for ‘inappropriate friends’ Guardian

Our No Longer Free Press

US Bars Five Europeans It Says Pressured Tech Firms To Censor American Viewpoints Online Associated Press

US Sanctions EU Officials for Free Speech Suppression in Major Widening of US-European Rift Simplicius

LEAKED: The Censored CBS Video Bari Weiss Does NOT Want You SEE Katie Halper, YouTube

Stephen Miller calls on CBS News to fire ‘60 Minutes’ producers over ‘revolt’ The Hill. Pass the popcorn. Looks like Miller never heard of the Streisand effect

Economy

Trump is close to naming the new Federal Reserve chief. His choice could raise the risk of stagflation The Conversation (Kevin W)

Mr. Market is Giddy

Stock Market Crash: The 1929 Warning That Looks Like 2026 Share Talk

AI

Adobe hit with proposed class-action, accused of misusing authors’ work in AI training TechCrunch (Kevin W)

Fears grow over AI bubble – and here are the pressure points that could burst it Sky

Guillotine Watch

How the ‘Epstein Class’ Fails to the Top Chris Hedges, YouTube (resilc)

Elon Musk, AI and the antichrist: the biggest tech stories of 2025 Guardian

Class Warfare

Sharp price increases make basic foodstuffs unaffordable for millions in Canada WSWS

American Reality from Chinese Perspective Karl Sanchez

Antidote du jour (via):

A bonus (singnet):

A second bonus:

And a different sort of bonus:

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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100 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    “Cambodia sees mass displacement as conflict with Thailand escalates TRT World”

    ‘Erm, some of this “displacement” is due to Cambodian encouraging establishment of Cambodian villages over the Thai border, which Thailand is now cleaning out.’

    Establishing settlements in another country’s territory when there is still shooting going on? I thought that only Israel did that. : )

    Certainly settles the question of who the aggressor nation is here.

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  2. Wukchumni

    Camus believed that the essential purposelessness of existence didn’t mean acquiescing to nihilism. Instead, it was an opportunity to rebel against life’s absurdity, by living authentically and passionately. He believed in staring the world in the face, and appreciating it for all its strangeness and beauty, even, and especially, in the absence of some grand unifying purpose, deity or ideology.

    That’s where i’m at, a pantheist who sees staring me in the face, so many earthly delights that titillate my senses just so, and never demand that I kowtow to some all-encompassing God who is watching over my every move, so as to keep a scorecard where i’ll be judged in the afterlife after i’m pushing up Mariposa lilies…

    Heaven is right here on this good orb~

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    1. semper loquitur

      For a more interesting take on the nature of God than the “Sky-Daddy” straw man of the angry atheist, not that that describes you Wuk, check out The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss” by David Bentley Hart. He wields philosophical and historical arguments to make the case for an omniscient and immanent Deity while destroying the puerile fashions of the Dawkins crowd. Good but dense reading, he has me checking the dictionary every few pages..

      Happy Holidays everyone!

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      1. Wukchumni

        I’ve been to marriages and funerals in houses of worship, but never for a service, and i’d endeavor to keep my record clean if heavenly possible…

        Where is the graveyard of dead gods? What lingering mourner waters their mounds? There was a time when Jupiter was the king of the gods, and any man who doubted his puissance was ipso facto a barbarian and an ignoramus. But where in all the world is there a man who worships Jupiter today? And who of Huitzilopochtli? In one year – and it is no more than five hundred years ago – 50,000 youths and maidens were slain in sacrifice to him. Today, if he is remembered at all, it is only by some vagrant savage in the depths of the Mexican forest. Huitzilopochtli, like many other gods, had no human father; his mother was a virtuous widow; he was born of an apparently innocent flirtation that she carried out with the sun.

        https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/13677-where-is-the-graveyard-of-dead-gods-what-lingering-mourner

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            1. ambrit

              Also Fritz Leiber in his “Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser” stories. Lankhmar has a Street of the Gods, where attendance levels determine the “life level’ of deities.

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      2. Lefty Godot

        The Wakeful World by Emma Restall Orr is a panpsychist take on reality that shades over into pantheism, so it might be of interest to those of a pantheist bent. Mary Midgley also demolishes Dawkins et al. in several of her books, if you need to cheer up by hearing that crowd get thwacked (and Chris Hedges takes a run at them from a different angle in his I Don’t Believe in Atheists).

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    2. The Rev Kev

      Your comment reminded me of the old Rick O’Shay comics that I used to read in the Sunday newspaper comics as a kid. There was a gunslinger character featured named ‘Hipshot Percussion’ and there was one series of panels that I have never forgotten. You will find it on the following link and it is the cartoon right below the paragraph starting ‘This is another Easter Sunday strip that features Hipshot…’

      https://logosconcarne.com/2013/03/03/rick-oshay/

      Wrong season but right sentiment.

      Reply ↓
  3. ChrisRUEcon

    Merry Christmas!

    Thanks for providing links today, Yves!

    #NCStockingStuffer

    “Islam versus Judaism… How is Jesus Viewed?”

    Thanks for this article. Most people, especially people who are islamophobic, don’t know that Muslims see Jesus as a prophet etc. A gap to be sure, but not a chasmic gap as evidenced by places (beyond Iran) like the southern Caribbean where Muslim indentured workers from India brought their faith to the largely Christian (Catholic and Anglican) region.

    I woke up this morning with news of the world on my mind and was thinking that if Jesus were to be born today, he’d probably be born to a family fleeing Gaza, so little has changed. I was inspired by Yves’ “What World Was Jesus Born Into? A Historian Describes the Turbulent Times of the Real Nativity” post yesterday.

    However, a 21st century Jesus could also easily be Sudanese … or perhaps (though one hopes not, for the sake of not adding to the list of wars/conflicts), even Venezuelan (Chavista).

    I have remarked before about how NC articles posted either in links or across a number of days often weave into a cohesive fabric, and how much I love it when they do.

    I would stitch together one more piece here, and it’s Nat’s from yesterday – Coffee Break: Going Beyond the MSM Name-Calling Narrative at TPUSA.

    In it, he quotes a Vanity Fair article that in turn quotes a young couple beginning to reckon with the decidedly non-Christian and non-America-First nature of evangenlical support for #1sRa3L.

    I wish someone could find them and share the “Islam versus Judaism …” article with them.

    ¡Feliz Navidad!

    Reply ↓
    1. Wukchumni

      ¡Feliz Navidad!

      I’m presently in Mexico where a good many Jesus’s reside, and Xmas isn’t much of a holiday here compared to the USA, maybe 1 out of 30 stores and houses puts on a token display-nothing over the top.

      Easter is the bigger gig here-anybody can be born, but getting resurrected is more difficult…

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    2. Steve H.

      Wheels go round:

      Brzezinski: What is more important in world history? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some agitated Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?

      How’s that working out for ya? The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan started in 1979. Twenty two years later the twin towers came down. Twenty two years after that began the *enocyde. Implicit agreement with it lost the Democrats the White House, the Senate, and the House. And now the Reagan coalition has fissured. Remember when Fox fired Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson? How’s that working out for ya?

      Let us celebrate the prophets of peace.

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      1. hk

        Emperor Heraclius might have said something like that in 7th century: what’s more important, collapse of the Persian Empire or some desert nomads being riled up by some Christian heretic? Well, that turned out a bit different from what he expected.

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    3. hk

      21st century Jesus could very easily be from Bethlehem, like the original. For bonus points, his (nominal) father could be Yussuf and mother Maryam, and he could even be of the (real) tribe of Daoud. (I had a Palestinian acquaintance, a member of my old parish, whose family was from Bethlehem, who often described his people (presumably, the Christians of Bethlehem, rather than the whole Palestinian people, but you never know) as descendants of Daoud–that is, King David.)

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  4. amfortas

    ugly american anecdote: friends son, home from navy…been deployed somewhere in the baltics and incommunicado for a year..also spent a lot of time in spain(all this is gleaned from things he says, since hes not supposed to talk about it).
    he says that the whole world hates us,lol.
    much worse than it was before, when usaians were a nuisance.
    now, its active hatred…want nothing to do with us.
    wish we’d go away.
    says this sentiment is out in the open, now…not couched behind subtlety.
    im far from well traveled enough to know…but i thought it was interesting.
    happy jesus day, peeps.

    Reply ↓
    1. vao

      Wait a minute: he was “incommunicado” and “not supposed to talk about it”, but interacted with locals to such an extent he could experience their hatred? Or was he reporting about what colleagues from foreign navies think about the USA?

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      1. The Rev Kev

        Might be like the guy that lets rip a big one in a crowded elevator. The other people may not say anything in words but the feelings of them are on full display.

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      2. DJG, Reality Czar

        vao: amfortas mentions that the young man is a family friend. In cases like this, what happens is that the young man “in the service” will not say exactly where he was stationed and what his duties involved. Yet the clues tend to pop out because of anecdotes about being in, here, Spain and the Baltic States.

        I recall, years back, being on a long-distance train from Chicago to San Francisco, when two young men were seated at my table at lunch. We started talking — and what astounds me is how much people will reveal on long train rides — and one of the young men talked about spending a couple of his high-school years in Lithuania. And not in Vilnius or Kaunus, but in a smaller city like Šiauliai.

        It wasn’t too hard to figure out that his dad was CIA or military intelligence. There must be a listening post there.

        As to “hating” Americans — I’m finding too much use of the word “hate” and “hatred” these days. What Americans overseas may be experiencing is a certain distancing and mistrust. (Here in Italy, “hatred” of Americans is pretty much non-existent — but a thorough distrust of U.S. intentions is swiftly growing.)

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        1. TimH

          “hate” is an angry word, and doesn’t articulate reasoning. So many overly-strong terms are used in discussions that bias me away from the communicator. For example, the slogan “Help us end world hunger” for a food charity is just nonsense unless targetted at Mr Musk.

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        3. lyman alpha blob

          I’ve had a similar experience with my brother in law who joined the military after high school and did three tours in Iraq. I’ve never heard him say exactly what he did while he was there, but shortly after getting out of the military he did get a job transporting hospital biowaste (ie human body parts). I could be overthinking it and maybe he got the job based on his general military service, but if there were specific qualifications required for that job, I probably don’t really want to know what wartime experience gave him the necessary skills.

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      3. amfortas

        wouldnt say a word about where he was or what they were up to.
        but the dad sussed the where out.
        kids was apparently interacting with locals, whether really local or military idk.
        his entire military career has been just as murky.
        i dont know enough active military to judge if this is normal or not.

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    2. Ignacio

      Being a navy man in his uniform he represents, wherever he is deployed, US imperialism to the eyes of many if not most people. It does not surprise me very much if, during his stay in Spain, many didn’t show sympathy. Trump has almost certainly accelerated this trend.

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      1. Wukchumni

        My French friends who lived in the Central Valley for 15 years before going back on a permanent basis, related to me recently how strident many French people are against this administration in particular, and as always the citizenry get lumped in as an added bonus.

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        1. Acacia

          As a former French landlord said on the day I moved out: “Je n’aime pas du tout les Américains, mais vous… ça va.”

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    3. John

      I’m the child of a diplomat, and I can tell you that resentment was always there, often simmering under the surface, but obvious if you cared to look. This was many decades ago, during the halcyon days of American imperialism, but it was certainly there, invisible perhaps to the official apparatus, but there nevertheless. It’s out in the open now, and I for one am completely supportive. We did a lot of harm in those years.

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      1. LifelongLib

        You don’t say which nations resent U.S. imperialism, but if it’s (say) Britain, France, or Spain it would be a bit rich. No need to worry though. In a few years we’ll all be resenting China…

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  5. J Johnston

    On the higher incidence of flu and other illness since Covid. I see this in my own health and it the folks I know. I do not doubt it at all. I just wish that these X reference included citations on these graphs and and other claims. It would be so much easier to share with those that do not or refuse to confront this reality with real data. Also, with AI it makes it easier to manipulate these facts. Merry X-mas to all and may the new year bring health and happiness.

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  6. The Rev Kev

    ‘I’lkka Rauvola
    @jukka235
    In fact, we’re seeing exponential growth in patient numbers across all disease and age groups in Finland. The trend is strikingly linear on a log scale, with no sign of any slowdown since 2020.
    No health system can take this for long. It’s just a matter of time. 8/x’

    In one of the replies to this tweet is the following nugget-

    ‘Mike Hoerger, PhD MSCR MBA
    @michael_hoerger
    The European Union announced this week it will take the lead on the future of wastewater surveillance.
    The new approach will unify strategy, improve standardization and rigor, and better summarize transmission with metrics that matter to people.’

    Yeah, doesn’t fill me with confidence that. It means that Ursula would be able to fiddle with the data if she thought that it was making the EU look unhealthy. It would be like centralizing wastewater surveillance in the US meaning that Trump would be able to put his fat thumb on any bad figures.

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    1. Michaelmas

      Thanks for running the link to the account of the 1914 Christmas truce, which I encourage everyone to look at and shows broadly how the mass of humanity operates when the psychopath class is removed from the picture.

      https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/voices-of-the-first-world-war-the-christmas-truce

      Of course —

      ‘The high commands on both sides ordered an end to the truce when they heard of it. George Ashurst described how unpopular this made them.

      ‘”We got orders come down the trench, ‘Get back in your trenches every man,’ by word of mouth down each trench; ‘Everybody back in your trenches,’ shouting. The generals behind must’ve seen it and got a bit suspicious so what they did, they gave orders for a battery of guns behind us to fire, and a machine gun to open out and officers to fire their revolvers at the Jerries. ‘Course that started the war again. Ooh we were cursing them to hell, cursing the generals and that, you want to get up here in this stuff never mind your giving orders, in your big chateaux and driving about in your big cars. We hated the sight of the bloody generals.'”

      Merry Christmas

      Reply ↓
      1. CanCyn

        A good alternative history novel would be imagining what the world would look like if those soldiers had refused to get ‘get back to work’.

        Happy Christmas Day to the NC community, however you choose to celebrate, or not. My day will include a walk in the woods (it is cold and sunny here) and the cooking and eating of good food. No presents, no tree, just a show of gratitude for life.

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    2. Polar Socialist

      Ilkka Rauvola is an example of a data scientist which has caused me to recent them to some extent. They don’t do any explanatory data analysis before they throw the data against the wall and see what sticks…

      In other words, he’s getting his data from a data collection system that has been activated stepwise since 2019. It currently records about 30-40% of health care “events”. What his graphs show is actually the rate of adoption of the reporting system among the health care providers in Finland, not the prevalence of any ICD10 diseases.

      That is not to say that there isn’t a rise in cases, or that he’s a charlatan, just that this specific graph is not showing what he thinks it’s is showing. And it took me under 5 minutes to figure that out, just because his numbers did not make any sense to me – I happen to work on the biggest hospital campus in the Nordics, and I would know if the all cases were rising exponentially (a.k.a. zombie-like epidemic).

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      1. Revenant

        One good tern had a chart the other day that just did not say what she thought it said because there were no historic comparators or absolute incidences to assess the “unprecedented for this week of the year” flu etc cases. This is not chart crime; for a scientist it is misrepresentation….

        I am convinced of Leonardi’s argument that Covid19 causes immune dysregulation. But sloppy overstatement undermines the argument. :-(

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  7. The Rev Kev

    “Trump’s big, bad battleship will fail”

    It could happen that a coupla of billionaire techies might go to Trump and tell him that they can put an AI together that will design that whole ship in only days instead of years. And that way, he would be able to christen the launching of the first ship of the Trump class ships while still President. he would love it and after all, what could possibly go wrong? Of course there would still be the matter of the weapons systems. There are supposed to be hypersonic missiles aboard but they don’t have them yet. The Russians and the Chinese and maybe the Iranians do but not the US. It is suppose to have rail guns and lasers as well but does the US have either class of weapon developed to the point that they can be deployed in the next few years? Will that ship be nuclear powered to provide all the energy necessary to power up all the planned systems? And this ship is supposed to weigh 35,00 tons. What is the bet that more and more systems and redesigns will be done until it weighs about 50,000 tons. Bad moon rising here.

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    1. scott s.

      The USN CPS program is being managed by the SSP office, which has cog over USN ballistic missile systems. I view this as a positive, in that SSP has a system of close-loop detailing of its officers: once brought in, an officer spends the rest of his/her career within the program. This in contrast to other program offices. While there now is an “acquisition professional” designation for the most part these officers, at least in key positions, have extensive fleet experience.

      It remains to be seen how this program compares to the ill-fated CG(X). Meanwhile I guess we will be using the USCG NSC as a frigate basis rather than FREMM. I would like to see a detailed analysis of how the Constellation detailed design came about; my guess is assumptions made about the actual deliverables from the FREMM proved wrong after being received in house. I suppose we can blame Gibbs & Cox, but again the devil is in the details. Not sure we will ever see an honest assessment.

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    2. rowlf

      Sounds ominous, like the film The Great War of Archimedes (2019)

      …Afterwards, Hirayama tells Kai the real reason for the new battleship. Hirayama believes that Japanese militarism makes war inevitable, and that Japan will destroy itself fighting this unwinnable war. Hirayama intends the battleship to embody Japan’s collective spirit to make its loss so traumatizing that Japan will surrender before being invaded. Kai, a pacifist, reluctantly agrees to perfect the battleship design, which becomes the Yamato-class battleship.

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    3. ilsm

      Consider; the Ticonderoga class cruiser is just under 10,000 tons as is the just enlarged Arleigh Burke Flt III both Aegis combat system air defense boats*. Both boats have Mk 41 vertical launchers as will golden Trump’s 30,000 ton displacement boats!

      The operational question for Trump’s beautiful big boats (BBG) is why not two and a half Arleigh Burke Flt III’s that are being delivered for each of the 30 of so BBG??

      Putting a few percent more Mk 41’s on 20000 more tons…….? So much displacement for more diesel power generators!

      All that said, one reason Navy goes for smaller boats is congress had been insisting bigger boats be nuclear powered. Idk if congress is so disposed today.

      Nuclear makes sense. In WW II Japan had two super battleships which rarely got to sea because they burned so much fuel. Neither survived US naval air and submarines.

      * I am an AF vet, calling the navy’s big beautiful surface targets boats makes me happy and navy guys not so.

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  8. mrsyk

    Good morning and happy Christmas. Thanks for the antidotes.

    “The next El Niño peak will be very informative for the rate of global warming,”. Word, because learning the hard way is how we roll.

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  10. AG

    re: obituary for Victor Grossman (1928 – Dec. 17th 2025)

    An American Communist Like No Other

    By Mario Kessler
    Translation by Julia Damphouse

    Victor Grossman died in Berlin, aged 97, last Wednesday. An American communist, his life was forever shaped by his defection to the Eastern Bloc at the height of the Cold War.
    https://jacobin.com/2025/12/victor-grossman-obit

    Reply ↓
  11. DJG, Reality Czar

    Camus, Life without Illusions, by William Fear.

    Fear is skimming the surface. Yet the photo up top is a reminder of how charismatic Albert Camus was as a person, as a kind of physical presence.

    The business about not being an existentialist has much to do with French intellectual debates of the time. In a strong sense, Camus is an existentialist because always wrote about how our actions, our morality, shape us.

    When Covid broke out, I re-read The Plague in the original French. In part, it is because Camus also was a great stylist — his writing in French is well-paced, economical, insightful, measured. (The other great and charismatic stylist of the 1900s in France is Colette, who I also think of as required reading.)

    The description of the death of the young son of Judge Othon is deeply moving, horrifying, definitive in describing our helplessness against needless suffering. But does that make Camus’s world somehow absurd and purposeless? Not exactly. There is the steadiness and devotion of Dr. Rieux and the odd yet noble sacrifices of Tarrou. Camus’s thinking is not teleological.

    So as people take their breaks for the holidays and the coming new year’s weekend, it may be a good idea to seek out something more than Fear’s essay. I have two books of Camus’ essays and occasional pieces. Camus, like Colette, is a pagan. And pagans were / are much concerned with ethos, rather than with the big ideas of someone like Sartre.

    The wonderfully well-observed world of Camus (and Colette) and their skepticism and doubt about the efficacy of human action are worth considering.

    As a writer, I am sometimes taken aback that both of them had a great deal of anxiety about their work and its reception. But that shock of not knowing comes with being a writer and trying to hold to one’s craft.

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    1. Bugs

      What a coincidence that Camus and Collette are also my two 20th century favorites. Never much cared for Proust for some reason. I guess because he just runs on and on and I want to be entertained. Give me something juicy!

      The Claudine series made me fall in love with the language and culture. The Fall and The Stranger made me angry about it! Now I’m sort of trapped in it, lol. I’d also say that that old Jew hater Céline was a true master of French prose. Hard to put down.

      When I first started learning the language, Hergé charmed me to no end. Now I’m an unconditional fan of that odd low country, Belgium. Perhaps someday I should write something. When I have time.

      Buon Natale a te.

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  12. The Rev Kev

    “Next war with Israel would not end in 12 days, Guards-linked daily warns”

    Quite true this. In the 12 day war, the Israelis were on the verge of defeat as they had only about two weeks supply of aerial defense missiles left. After that, The Iranians could have hit any place they wanted to at their own leisure. In that war they had shut down Israel’s two main port as well as the main international airport. The Israelis had to run to Uncle Donny to make the Iranians stop. Next time they may not be so receptive. More so since they have strengthened their own defenses with the help of the Russians and the Chinese so who knows what the IDF will run into next time. And if this new war happens like Bibi wants it to, there will be an Israeli defeat that this time they will never be able to cover up.

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    1. MicaT

      There will be no Israeli defeat not in a military sense. Could be in other ways
      I keep hearing this, no way no how.

      If it were to be even close to being defeated or even getting towards a lot of damage, they would send nuclear bombs towards Iran and regardless if Israel was the one that started it which it will be.

      And I’m not so sure that isn’t the actual goal.

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      1. ambrit

        If Israel does resort to their Samson Option, then one or more smaller nuclear powers, the names Pakistan and North Korea come to mind, might well incinerate the so called ‘Holy Land.’
        The world in general might be a better place with a radioactive Jerusalem in it.
        That would be the Mother of All Diasporas.

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    2. Mikel

      Have you read Helmer’s latest post about the releases of info about the Bush Administration and Putin Administration meetings?

      As much as things may have changed in some aspects, Israel is chugging along with territorial gains.

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  14. DJG, Reality Czar

    Required reading? Not exactly Xmassy, but it will sharpen your perspective: John Helmer’s report on Vladimir Putin’s conversations with W Bush, from some twenty years ago.

    Putin is remarkably consistent over time. He is also highly rational and careful with his judgments. In contrast, W comes across as competent (surprise) but not a deep thinker.

    What we are seeing in these documents is Russian consistency against U.S. sloppiness — which is now deteriorated into the shambles of a poorly run empire. No wonder Lavrov and Putin keep pointing out that they want a Ukraine agreement to be in writing and to adhere to standards like those of OSCE.

    I note more than once that Putin has better powers of observation than Bush does. Putin mentions being “surprised” when confronted with new ideas and new facts. Bush always came off as being too sure of himself, even within his limited range.

    Imagine what Putin must think when faced by ambitious dopes like Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden (a dope who lost his mind), and Trump, none of whom can even keep the facts straight, for all of their lying.

    Reply ↓
    1. Kouros

      I was dissapointed on Putin so easily characterizing the Iranians and N. Koreans as nutters with just a bit sympathy for N Korean stress over the USA and S Korea’s continuous provocations. It seems to me that some of the consistency in Putin’s opinions and mostly from Russian behaviour come through the adjustment of Lavrov’s ministry and the strategists from the military…

      Reply ↓
      1. The heretic

        Russia was in an abject state back in 2001, and Putin was only recently president of Russia via agreement with Yeltsin. In the extremely ‘piranha world’ of post communist Russia 1990’s & 2000’s, he must be a man who can read people and situations with a high degree of acuity in order to survive and rise in power. Furthermore he knows that his position is precarious, Russia is weak relative to the USA, and George Bush and his staff (ie Cheney), would not deal with an overly intelligent and assertive Russian president; hence it is better to say things in a manner that would be ‘pleasing’ to George Bush, even if it is not accurate and indeed slanderous to others…
        I do not have facts, but I believe that Russia and North Korea never had any bad relations or incidents with each other, so some off putting words are just that, mere words…

        Reply ↓
        1. Ras Tafari

          Yep, Putin was just “reading the room”. I thought it is obvious to everyone by now that Putin is not in a position to say what he really thinks. And he’s not the only one. It’s diplomacy 101.

          Reply ↓
  15. AG

    re: low birth rate

    German JACOBIN interview unfortunately only paywalled – with sociologist Anna Rotkirch from Helsinki University

    “She heads the research department of the Finnish family organization Väestöliitto, and develops concrete family policy recommendations for the Finnish government”

    https://www.jacobin.de/artikel/kinderlosigkeit-familienpolitik-anna-rotkirch

    the free excerpt machine-translated:

    “(…)
    Declining birth rates have become a politically contentious issue in recent years. While right-wing figures like Elon Musk see it as “the greatest risk to the West” and demand that women’s reproductive rights be rolled back, many on the left ignore the issue or underestimate the complexity of the problem.For a long time, the Scandinavian countries were considered role models in family support, but even there, birth rates are now declining dramatically. Anna Rotkirch has been researching this paradox for years. The sociologist teaches at the University of Helsinki, heads the research department of the Finnish family organization Väestöliitto, and develops concrete family policy recommendations for the Finnish government. Her research shows why even exemplary social systems don’t automatically solve the demographic problem – and what policymakers should do instead to enable people to start the families they want.

    Ms. Rotkirch, in Germany the birth rate has now fallen to 1.38 children per woman, which is significantly below the actually necessary figure of 2.1. Should we be worried?

    First, it’s important to understand how rapidly this change is happening. In Finland, the birth rate has decreased by about a third since 2010. My research group and I are investigating not only birth rates but also how many children people actually want to have. And the problem seems to lie primarily in the increasing rate of involuntary childlessness. People aren’t managing to start the families they desire. And this is also linked to social inequality.

    In what way?

    Take Finland, for example: those least likely to have children or a long-term relationship are men with low levels of education. We’re talking about truly dramatic figures here: currently, almost four out of ten middle-aged men with low levels of education have no children – compared to two out of ten men with high levels of education. And most of them want children.

    As far as society as a whole is concerned: Schools will close, state budgets will come under pressure, and young adults will be much lonelier if they lack partners and children. For me, however, the more pressing problem is that people who would like to have children cannot fulfill this desire.
    (…)”

    Reply ↓
  16. AG

    re: history of capitalism

    JACOBIN review:

    Review of Capitalism: A Global History, by Sven Beckert (Penguin Press, 2025)

    Sven Beckert’s Chronicle of Capitalism’s Long Rise
    By Nelson Lichtenstein

    Capitalism is a global economic system, so a proper chronicle of its rise to dominance has to examine the entire world, as historian Sven Beckert does in his massive new book, Capitalism: A Global History.

    Dec. 4th 2025
    https://jacobin.com/2025/12/beckert-capitalism-global-history-review

    Reply ↓
  17. AG

    re: Europe vs. MAGA´s USA

    I am always willing to share a piece by Almut Rochowanski – although mostly I am disagreeing with many parts of her pieces. It´s no different with this in part ironic article.

    machine-translated

    MAGA wants a fascist Disneyland-Europe
    According to Trump’s new National Security Strategy, the US intends to treat Europe in the future the way the West has always treated the East and the South: interfering in our elections and undermining our laws in order to teach us “civilization”.
    https://archive.is/iX5YE

    Rochowanski from what I hear/read from her in general seems to not entirely grasp the underlying problem: EU elites want war. If you are missing this vital detail everything else that you are building on your assumption will be flawed.

    I am sometimes puzzled by her. On the one hand she appears to be the only JACOBIN-Germany writer who does have a limited understanding of the geopolitical military aspect. But that takes you only so far.

    This was already obvious in the first podcast by Lily Lynch a month ago where she spoke with Rochowanski. I linked to that last week I think. It´s worth it even if some oddities are exchanged. But at least they are willing to discuss matters openly.

    However in the very end in this piece Rochowanski does make a point at least worth to discuss:

    “A Europe of self-reliant small states would be even more at the mercy of the oligarchs and ruthless capitalists from Silicon Valley, with whom Trump quite openly makes deals.”

    Of course the question is, can we have a unified Europe without the insanity?
    So far the answer is no, it´s almost systemic.
    After more than a century of war against Russia Russians certainly have an opinion on this. (Something Rochowanski acknowledges.)
    And I don´t see why this should be any different with China or India if any of those get into EU´s crosshairs. At some point EU´s snipe gun won´t be worth much though.

    Reply ↓
    1. Bugs

      My thought is that the problem with the EU is that the treaties take as a first principal, in nearly every case, the liberal and neoliberal assumption of comparative advantage and expansion of private markets. Because that’s how it began. If the EU had been based instead on harmonizing laws as a method of achieving peaceful political relations and cooperative civil exchange, including eventually abolishing borders and even sharing representation among the members, we might have an entirely different institution. It could have even included the communist east. Instead we have an economic bloc with an unelected elite that now is resorting to militarism to save itself from spinning apart. It was called the “democratic deficit” in the 90s and now it’s democratic bankruptcy.

      Reply ↓
    2. gf

      Agree with Rochowanski more than I do you.

      The Trump admin clearly has a fascist agenda.
      They just want Muslims out of the more non-white non-Christian areas of Europe first, then they will go after Russia.

      Will it work is another matter.

      Reply ↓
      1. AG

        I prefer that to you finding the article worthless 😉

        p.s. in case: Rochowanski´s Substack
        https://discomfortzone.substack.com/

        Lily Lynch & Rochowanski
        https://www.lilyslynch.com/cp/180487828

        Where I discovered Rochowanski:

        A People-Centered View of Russia-Ukraine (Robert Wright & Almut Rochowanski)
        Sept. 12th 2023
        61 min.
        https://www.nonzero.org/p/a-people-centered-view-of-russia?utm_source=publication-search

        Not yet watched: Rochowanski´s second talk with Wright

        Authoritarianism in the US and Abroad (Robert Wright & Almut Rochowanski)
        April 2nd 2025
        42 min.
        https://www.nonzero.org/p/authoritarianism-in-the-us-and-abroad?utm_source=publication-search

        Reply ↓
  18. Es s Ce Tera

    re: Trump’s Seizures of Oil Tankers Challenge Maritime Rules and Customs New York Times

    What do the NC commentariat make of this:

    “The American authorities did not have a warrant to take possession of Centuries, a U.S. official told The New York Times. It was also not on a public list of vessels under U.S. sanctions. “

    Reply ↓
    1. vao

      The ends justify the means.

      Might makes right.

      The mighty endeavour what they can, the weak endure what they must.

      Power comes out from the barrel of a gun.

      Do not talk to us about laws, for we are bearers of arms.

      To the victor, the spoils.

      History is written by the victors.

      Now, there is one counteracting principle to that accumulated cynical wisdom that should make those gung-ho ship-raiders think twice:

      What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

      And all that is normal, because:

      We learn from history that we learn nothing whatsoever.

      Reply ↓
      1. hk

        Might makes right works only if you have the might, just sayin’.

        I honestly wonder if the US has the necessary might to pull stuff like these off for even the medium term.

        Reply ↓
    1. AG

      Thanks.

      It´s secondary but this shows again how nonsensical it is for “Hollywood” to be cheering for Paramount to buy WB?!

      Reply ↓
      1. flora

        Interest groups. Here’s a long compilation of Max Blumenthal segments on the Judge Napolitano show. utube, ~4 hrs. of compiled segments. Gives a good idea of an interest group in the us. Watching a short segment of the whole show gives a good idea of the interests in politics and media, imo.

        [SPECIAL] – Best Of Edition… The MaXathon – w/ Max Blumenthal- PART ONE (replay)

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDJn9DePLH8

        Also, T’s former entertainment and casino business could have been a common interest, before it went out of business. / ;)

        Reply ↓
  20. castilleja

    Cattle and cattle food crops are the major villain in the water crisis in the Colorado system. Until these are curtailed, and the insanity of growing cow food in arid lands, and grazing cows in arid lands (including across pub lic lands in the headwaters of the Colorado is ended), there won’t be a solution. https://www.hcn.org/articles/cattle-are-drinking-the-colorado-river-dry/

    Regarding the Sahel and conflict: Here again we have an arid landscape – and livestock are a major driver of underlying desertification and conflict.

    Until this reality is grappled with, water crises (and conflicts) will only get worse.

    Reply ↓
    1. Wukchumni

      Its early in the winter, but the Rockies haven’t got much snow going on as of yet, not that it matters as the water is woefully over-allocated, so as to almost seem like fractional banking practices.

      Reply ↓
  21. IM Doc

    Merry Christmas to all. However you celebrate.

    Christmas, Yule, Saturnalia, all of them celebrate concepts of the darkness becoming light.

    I cannot think of a place that has been more dark than Palestine. And yet, the light can even be seen there.

    This came over my feed today and I thought I would share it on this Christmas morning.

    https://x.com/kbalian90/status/2003885601675002027

    This is on twitter. I do not get the idea this is AI. This was filmed in Manger Square in Bethlehem. It is unclear if this was on Christmas Eve morning or earlier today – they have parades through there for days around Christmas.

    The Scottish pipe and drum corps approach is absolutely fascinating to watch among Palestinians, Lebanese and Syrians. Very discordant and Scotland has never heard that kind of music. My understanding, and this may not be correct – that is a song from the Tunisia/Morocco area. Those people literally took the bagpipes and ran with them. There is a story there, but that is a story for another day.

    From my background that is said today – Χριστὸς γεννᾶται, δοξάσατε.

    Reply ↓
  22. flora

    James Li on utube talking about Ericka Kirk’s family history.
    utube, ~12+ minutes.
    The video’s embedded clip is of Ken Burns, noted American documentary film maker talking about his documentary “Baseball” and the 1919 Black Sox (aka the White Sox) baseball scandal.

    Who is the REAL Erika Kirk?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT0i27YmIBY

    Reply ↓
  23. AG

    re: EU/Germany arms

    BERLINER ZEITUNG

    machine-translation

    For the EU, weapons are sustainable: How “green” funds channel billions into arms deals
    Nearly 50 billion euros from “sustainable” funds are flowing into arms companies. This is made possible by a flexible EU regulatory framework that allows arms investments under the green label.
    https://archive.is/xV1ap

    Reply ↓
  24. Sam Culotte

    >Britain is in the grip of a shoplifting epidemic with a record 810 offences going unsolved a day, figures show. Daily Mail

    Get used to it, folks, whatever city you happen to live in, and expect it to get worse. Here in the downtown of my mid-sized Canadian city, both (yes, both) 7-11’s were shuttered a couple of years ago due to aggressive and brazen STEALING (as opposed to regular, sneaky shoplifting), with threats directed toward any hapless clerk who happened to challenge them. The only Circle K in my area is still open but will only admit customers one at a time and keeps the door locked otherwise. So, if you happen to visit this city and go downtown, your options for an early-morning coffee or late-night snack have become somewhat limited.

    When I talk about shoplifting, I am including the other so-called “nuisance” crimes such as disorderly conduct, minor assaults, and vandalism. One example of many of senseless vandalism: Our downtown library had its large, expensive windows smashed not once, not twice, but three times in a month. The Downtown Businessman’s Association, also victims of smashed windows, plead with city council and the police for help but none appears to be forthcoming.

    Because…these are only “nuisance” crimes. See? So the police respond by doing nothing and not caring anyway. 25% of the force is on paid leave of one sort or another and it gets budget increases every year with no questions asked about this chronic absenteeism. Why should they care? Businesses, on the other hand, sensibly respond by leaving the downtown area (see the aforementioned 7-11’s).

    Sorry, no Christmas cheer here. If you live in a city almost anywhere, get used to it and expect it to get worse. I moved into my apartment building ten years ago. It was fine. Now, currently, today, the entrance/exit to my apartment building is surrounded and occupied by 8-10 drug addicts and has been all morning. I’ve been able to get in and out okay and they are polite but still, it is rather daunting. And this is polite, peaceful Canada! I can only imagine what is going on and is in store for American inner-cities.

    Reply ↓
    1. Mikel

      In the article:
      ‘That’s why we’re calling for a mass CCTV rollout, to give the businesses the tools they need to protect themselves and tackle this crime once and for all.’

      I thought the country already had a mass CCTV rollout.

      Reply ↓
    2. albrt

      Most of the street people in Phoenix are remarkably polite in my experience, and even kind when possible. There are occasional outbursts of anger and then there are the floridly mentally ill people yelling at the voices in their heads.

      They are hard to count because the city no longer allows encampments. I would say the street population is about quadruple what it was ten years ago, and very close to what it was at the peak of Covid evictions. Then you could see people living in the street with all their furniture, and ladies in tent encampments putting on their makeup to go to work. The 2020 population had a lot of first-timers but the 2025 population has several years of experience.

      Right now bike thefts are insane but store robberies don’t seem to be particularly out of hand.

      I do expect it to get much worse, and soon.

      Reply ↓
  25. Sam Culotte

    Re: TikTok video of dogs choosing their new owners

    Why did every, single, one, of those dogs (five?) choose a woman?

    Male animal-lover here. Asking for my dog.

    Reply ↓
    1. Archie Shemp

      Maybe because it’s AI, and whoever prompt engineered it told the plagiarism machine they used to make it that way?

      Reply ↓
    2. The Rev Kev

      Seen other video clips the past few days showing other sessions and guys get picked by dogs too. No idea why each dog chooses the person that they do.

      Reply ↓
  26. Sam Culotte

    >Sharp price increases make basic foodstuffs unaffordable for millions in Canada WSWS

    Let me fill in the inflation picture in Canada with regards to food. Selected examples, these reflect my personal food choices only, your shopping experience may vary:

    1. Adam’s Peanut Butter: $6 a year ago, now $8. Inflation: 33%. And this is to ignore the many other brands of purported natural peanut butter which have so crappified their product by the addition of gobs of peanut oil that it literally comes out of the jar like syrup.

    2. Hellman’s Mayonnaise: $4 five years ago, now $6. Up 50% in five years. Back of the envelope calculation, 7% inflation. At least, to the best of my limited consumer knowledge, they haven’t crappified it. Yet.

    3. Loblaw’s President’s Choice two-year-old aged white cheddar. Best cheddar ever. Only available in Canada as far as I know. I refuse to buy it anymore. Because, its price went from $11 to $17.50 in the matter of year. Inflation rate? Oh, about 60%(!).

    4. All produce items, approximately double in five years. Therefore inflation of 14%.

    5. I don’t eat a lot of meat but the one pre-cooked frozen beef roast I used to buy has gone from $11 to $22 in ten years. Mmm, let’s see. A doubling of price in ten years. That’s 7% inflation.

    All this is to ignore the many tricks that producers use to extract profits from consumers. I speak here, among other things, of “shrink-flation”, the seemingly endless downsizing of containers, especially to odd quantities like, for instance, 860ml. Where the hell did 860ml come from, except from some MBA’s demented mind?

    And then there’s the matter of water being added to canned goods. There was a time when one could reasonably count on what was in one’s canned goods. No longer. Just talk to the man who wondered why his pumpkin pie hadn’t turned out as usual. ED Smith had, unbeknownst to him, added extra water to its filling. He got screwed. ED Smith had discovered the miracle of water. More water=more profit. Therefore we have canned beans that pour out of the can like soup and “jams” which no longer dare to call themselves jams. but rather, “Jam-Type Spreads”.

    Reply ↓

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