Links 12/27/2025

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1. The Rev Kev December 27, 2025 at 7:12 am

   “When Will My Pornographic Shrek Christmas Ornament Arrive?”

   Nice to see that some things never change – like Rule 34. And if the author was prepared to pay forty-four bucks for two of them, it just goes to show you that he has more dollars than sense.

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   1. Jessica December 27, 2025 at 7:49 am

      I’m hoping he made more than that for the article and can chalk it up as an expense.

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   2. Ras Tafari December 27, 2025 at 8:29 am

      The author got paid for the article. It’s business expense.

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2. PlutoniumKun December 27, 2025 at 8:01 am

   Re: Hainan

   The author of that tweet and substack doesn’t seem to understand that for the past 3 decades or so, every business that has sought to sell in China, manufactures in China. Importing has always been a fraught business for any company in China, there are just too many bureaucratic obstacles for anything except raw materials imports. The move to offshore to Vietnam, Indonesia, etc., has been driven by exporters from China, not companies wishing to sell in China. Since it’s just a customs free area for China, it will almost certainly only attract investments from companies already within China, and already selling within China. There may be good regional development reasons for this, but in terms of overall growth, its not likely to generate any real investment – this is why (for example), the Tories proposed Freeports around the UK went nowhere.

   Most likely, the justification is internal, specifically to complete the weakening of HK and Macau as economic powerhouses. Shanghai has already take up much of HK’s former financial role. There may also be a desire to create an alternative growth pole away from the traditional arc from the Yellow Sea to the Yangtze Delta. If it does indicate a strategic reset towards the western seaboard of China, then the Vietnamese in particular will be looking very closely at how to respond.

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   1. Polar Socialist December 27, 2025 at 12:52 pm

      Oddly enough, the best stats I could find from my neck of woods, only around 8% of the companies that export to China have a subsidiary there – the 92% manufacture somewhere else (mostly here). That is from 2023, so it indeed falls within the last three decades.

      Already over a decade ago I heard a comment by the CEO of Genelec that “one can’t compete with the Chinese in price, the secret is to make so good stuff the Chinese come and buy it regardless of the price”.

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3. Bugs December 27, 2025 at 8:14 am

   “Trump tempers Zelensky’s optimism on peace plan The Hill” links to an Axios article.

   Here’s the correct link: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5663887-trump-zelensky-peace-plan/

   From the Axios article:

   “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Axios on Friday that he hopes to agree on a framework with President Trump for ending the war when they meet on Sunday.

   Zelensky also revealed he’s willing to bring that plan up for a referendum if Russia agrees to a ceasefire of at least 60 days”

   They just keep playing the “ceasefire” broken record as if the Russians are somehow gonna fall for it if they repeat it long enough. I imagine now that they need a ceasefire to hold the referendum. True brain geniuses in the British government these days.

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   1. Yves Smith Post authorDecember 27, 2025 at 8:29 am

      Thanks, fixing. I had considered linking to the Axios piece but its headline claim was bogus. Mercouris has already picked apart Zelensky’s offer that Axios depicted as new (adding the “60 day” specifier does not change the basic idea).

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4. The Rev Kev December 27, 2025 at 8:15 am

   “Have Germans finally had enough of propaganda sold as expertise?”

   The answer is probably no as German media is all in on the propaganda effort and everything that Germans say online is being watched like a hawk with punishment meted out from time to time. Plus alternate views are banned in Germany and the EU such as the Russian RT & Sputnik. I mean here, you may as well ask ‘Have Americans finally had enough of propaganda sold as expertise?’ or ‘Have the British finally had enough of propaganda sold as expertise?’ The answers to both questions would also apply to the Germans.

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   1. Michaelmas December 27, 2025 at 8:49 am

      Rev Kev: ‘Have the British finally had enough of propaganda sold as expertise.’

      Actually, the majority have, I’d guess.

      The problem is the media and TPTB relentlessly keep shoveling the sh*t to allow no break in the narrative.

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   2. gk December 27, 2025 at 5:24 pm

      such as the Russian RT

      I’m typing this in a hotel room in Munich. No problem getting RT.

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      1. paul December 28, 2025 at 4:19 am

         You are blessed, channels such as press tv,russia today have been removed from circulation in my tiny and toney part of the collective west.

         When I’ve visited in Deutschland, MSNBC and Bloomberg are the only english language options.

         Their view of the world rarely chimes with my experience or understanding of it.

         Slop did not start with the AI con.

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      2. The Rev Kev December 28, 2025 at 4:38 am

         That’s an odd one that. Back in 2022 the EU banned RT & Sputnik for “disinformation”-

         https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-bans-rt-sputnik-banned-over-ukraine-disinformation-2022-03-02/

         And yet a 2024 article states that in many EU countries you can still get them. Then again the European parliament wants to ban them from its IT infrastructure as of a few months ago. So maybe a rule more honoured in the breach sort of situation?

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5. DJG, Reality Czar December 27, 2025 at 8:43 am

   Indi Samarajiva, at it again. They Corrupt and Call It Peace.

   Or, they are corrupt and what they deign to offer as peace is rotten.

   An observation well known in Europe (although not acknowledged by most of the media outlets): “Von der Leyen failed upwards by A) doing corrupt defense deals on her phone and deleting evidence in Germany B) doing corrupt vaccine deals on her phone and deleting evidence for the EU. What mere mortals would consider ruinous scandals are really just a successful job application within White Empire.”

   What Indi Samarajiva reports has been covered here at Naked Capitalism, but you should read the essay because it is compact, well argued, and spicy indeed.

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6. Michaelmas December 27, 2025 at 8:46 am

   Oreshniks to Belarus —

   https://www.armscontrolwonk.com/archive/1221212/possible-oreshnik-deployment-in-belarus/
   Not unexpected, of course. Of the two authors here, back when I was doing journalism I used Lewis as a source and my sense was, while he’d no technical knowledge (degrees in policy and philosophy bs) as long as he was backed up/fronting for a technical person) he was sort of okay. He has a technical person as a co-author here.

   The British tabloid press is soberly reporting on all this, of course–
   
   Russia moves terrifying hypersonic nuclear missiles closer to UK in WW3 terror

   https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/2150812/russia-moves-terrifying-hypersonic-nuclear-missiles

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   1. JohnA December 27, 2025 at 11:07 am

      TBF, the Daily Express also reported last week that Russian troops were forced to eat each other as they were not being supplied with food.

      https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/2148914/putins-desperate-troops-so-short

      The Express is probably the worst of the rabid right wing British tabloids. Take whatever they report and how they frame reporting with a bushel of salt rather than a pinch.

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   2. AG December 27, 2025 at 9:46 pm

      Pavel Podvig relating to Lewis´s post:
      Oreshnik in Belarus?
      There are reasons to be skeptical
      https://russianforces.substack.com/p/oreshnik-in-belarus

      Podvig posted the only comment under the Lewis post btw.

      p.s. However I am not sure any more what to think about Lewis…his proximity to Dems. is odd and out of place. Am always suspecting he downplays or overplays things depending on what may be fitting ideology best.

      Just like the last paragraph:

      “(…)
      impending deployment of Typhon to Germany, and possible future deployments of Dark Eagle
      (…)
      Although these systems are purely conventional, Putin has raised the prospect that they could be converted to nuclear-armed systems that could decapitate the Russian leadership in Moscow. This is precisely what he is now doing, by placing Oreshnik in Belarus.
      (…)”

      Right! Because Belarus is bordering to Virginia.
      I didnt´know that.

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7. The Rev Kev December 27, 2025 at 9:02 am

   “Why Does the West Hate Russia?”

   I’m not sure what is to be done here. This hatred goes back at least two centuries and is firmly embedded in the EU countries especially the Baltic States. It is even worse in the UK but mostly in the political elite who are rabid over the subject of Russia. And through emigration, these hatreds have made their may across the Atlantic and has found fertile ground in Washington DC. Victoria Nuland may be an example here. I’m not sure how you dig your way out of this hatred which right now is warping the policies of many western countries to the point that they are destroying their own country in a vague hope of destroying Russia.

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   1. Bugs December 27, 2025 at 10:10 am

      I don’t know if the Sachs essay that was linked there has been in the NC links but it’s a very good read. I learned a few things, especially about the machinations on German neutrality and eventual rearmament in the 1950s.

      https://consortiumnews.com/2025/12/24/jeffery-sachs-two-centuries-of-russophobia-rejection-of-peace/

      My view of Adenauer is diminished, not that I had any belief that he was a great statesman. It’s too bad that Sachs didn’t get into the Sino-Soviet split, De Gaulle recognizing the PRC, Nixon going to China, etc. I always wonder how much Russophobic treachery was involved in those events. Fascinating stuff.

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   2. neutrino23 December 27, 2025 at 11:18 am

      Hate is a strong word. I’d call it a healthy distrust. My ancestors have dealt with several Russian invasions. I do not doubt that Russia will try to invade Eastern Europe again someday.

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      1. lyman alpha blob December 27, 2025 at 11:34 am

         If the Baltics keep cozying up to the corrupt US and Western Europe and promoting warmongering crazies like Kaja Kallas, you prophecy will no doubt become true.

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      2. OIFVet December 27, 2025 at 11:40 am

         Yes, calling Russians “orcs” and Russia “Mordor” is healthy, humanizing and perfectly normal way to express distrust 🥲

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      3. pjay December 27, 2025 at 11:50 am

         And as Sachs points out, Russia has many reasons for holding a “healthy distrust” of Europe. But I’m curious. When you say you “do not doubt” that Russia will try to invade Eastern Europe again, on what is this certainty based? The past? Because I have seen no evidence whatsoever of this likelihood after the fall of the Soviet Union, and (as Sachs also points out) much evidence of Russia’s desire for European integration. On the other hand, Russian fears of invasion by the West were reinforced by US/NATO actions almost immediately after the Soviet collapse, and continue to be.

         I’m not naive. I’m not trying to whitewash past Russian actions, and I understand the effects on historical memory and prejudice. But I honestly cannot see the evidence for such fears of some new Russian imperialist expansion. I am honestly interested in what such evidence might be. Especially since, as I say, there is plenty of reason for Russia to fear the West.

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         1. hk December 27, 2025 at 5:09 pm

            “Invade” is a dodgy concept these days. Note that Kaja Kallas included, iirc, 1944 among her “Russian invasions.” I’m not so naive as to believe Russia does not “invade” in general, but they tend to be “defensive” in nature, afaict, such that potential invaders can generally avert by playing diplomacy carefully (see Cold War Finland, and, to a lesser degree, most of the Eastern Bloc–Of course, how much room the countries on the other hand might be quite limited and Russians might not give them too much leash–eg Czechoslovakia in 1968. But such interventions strike me as both more complex than mere “invasions” and not particularly unusual in Great Power-Small Power politics, unpleasant though they might be.)

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         2. Chris December 27, 2025 at 5:19 pm

            In the real world, attitudes toward Russia differ wildly across Eastern Europe. Usually, but not always, this follows the Orthodox/Western Christianity line of demarcation, but for instance in Slovakia national identity is historically bound up with pan-Slavism and hence Russia.

            “Eastern Europeans all hate and fear Russia” is just propaganda. Usually the people who say this are from the Baltics, Romania, or Western Ukraine, where it is coupled with an idea that “we are defending Europe from the Asians,” which I suspect (I 100% know in the case of WU) is linked to their past as allies of Germany in WW2.

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            1. Kouros December 27, 2025 at 7:50 pm

               Ally of Germany carries a lot of water for a Romanian. The first to snatch a piece from the territory of Greater Romania was Germany, to pay upfront Hungary as a future ally. Then it allowed USSR to take Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina in 1940. Romania joined Germany in order to recover those territories lost because of Germany. And then it changed sides and regained Northern Transylvania… With allies like Germany…

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            2. Yves Smith Post authorDecember 28, 2025 at 7:43 am

               n=1 but….A very good friend, Polish, opened Dun & Bradstreet’s office in Moscow in 1994. She got on swimmingly with the Russians. But she was not a typical Pole. Among other things, her family harbored Jews during WWII.

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      4. Caps Lock December 27, 2025 at 11:56 am

         Russia is the biggest part of Eastern Europe (and used to be much bigger), so your prophecy is true by default. As a matter of fact they are invading Eastern Europe as we speak. Nostradamus stuff indeed. Also. it’s funny that you fail to give any deatils of your ancestors, and their dealings with all those unprovoked full-scale invasions. Reminds me of a recently erect memorial in Canada, that had to blank the names of the “victims”.

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      5. upstater December 27, 2025 at 12:31 pm

         My Lithuanian ancestors invaded Russia and occupied some of it for almost 2 centuries. I have no doubt the Balts, Poles, Germans along with their western European allies aspire to control Russia again. My deceased elders and Lithuanian relatives HATE Russia and Russians; nothing healthy about that. They have a KKK and Nazi mentality. This goes back to the schism.

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         1. OIFVet December 27, 2025 at 12:45 pm

            In Bulgaria (Eastern Orthodox) there is a distinct subset of people with Russia Derangement Syndrome that borders on clinical pathology. There’s no informed argument to be had with them, everyone who exhibits even a mild doubt as to the immaculate blamelessness of the West for the war is automatically labeled a Putinist. Which is kind of funny, considering that they bring up historical grievances going even further back in history than Putin.

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            1. Polar Socialist December 27, 2025 at 1:03 pm

               That is kind of odd, given that it was largely the Russian army that created the independent (in practice, at least) Bulgaria.

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               1. OIFVet December 27, 2025 at 1:19 pm

                  Well, their answer for that is that Russia didn’t do it out of pure altruism. Which is at least partly the case, but these are creatures wedded to moral absolutism towards others, if only rarely willing to acknowledge their own failings in the morality department.

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                  1. Skippy December 27, 2025 at 9:36 pm

                     People seem to forget – social networks – especial the haves at a given moment in time “that perceive” a loss of status – ???? [waves@Ayn Rand sorts] – be it power too shape reality or material wealth … don’t go poof when one age cohort expires … its passed down as environmental bias e.g. this whole world is full of peoples[tm] that at one time were BSD and then poof …

                     I think Toynbee was correct about the basic 3 levels of any society. In saying that I had some fun with my Samsung TV a few years ago as it had a Samsung channel that depicted early European/Asia&Minor history. Used to speed it up and the contracts made and broken between ruling classes was Epic … so much cannon fodder …

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                     1. OIFVet December 28, 2025 at 2:16 am

                        Yes, partly it’s the perceived loss of status by the “landed gentry” (given Ottoman rule, they became landed and propertied by way of scammery, thievery and thuggery after independence, often legitimizing their gains by supporting the anti-Russian governments after Reunification). It’s little wonder that that the most vociferous russophobia one encounters is from members of the so-called “restitute class”, whose restored properties in choice locations in and around Sofia make them a genuine rentier class exuding a sense of superiority that’s backed by little else other than having inherited said properties.

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            2. Kouros December 27, 2025 at 7:53 pm

               Oh, yeah, Russians invaded Bulgaria in 1877, who can forget that unprovoked invasion…

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               1. OIFVet December 28, 2025 at 2:27 am

                  It’s a bit more complicated than that, going back to revolutionary activities prior to the war and some less than helpful Russian imperial meddling in the revolutionary organizing. That’s what empires do, but these fine “history truthers” conveniently turn blind eye to anti-Bulgarian German, Austrian, British and French meddling at that period, as it would force them to enter the realm of Realism. They prefer to inhabit the much more gratifying realm of hypocritical morality posturing on the so-called “European values,” which would be great if they were ever actually applied in practice…

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         2. Henry Moon Pie December 27, 2025 at 12:57 pm

            Old Sam Huntington and his Clash of Civilizations. The map in the linked page shows that fault line.

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            1. hk December 27, 2025 at 6:03 pm

               Huntington really lost marbles with the Clash of Civilizations, IMHO. For the great powers, there is something there, although not quite for the reasons that he thinks. For the lesser powers, he’s completely off–countries like South Korea and Vietnam might belong to the same “civilization” as China, but that actually furthers the ambiguity, not lessens it (Taiwan, which is actually “Chinese” illustrates the problem better, in fact. For that matter, why is Japan of a different “civilization” from China?).

               The problem with Huntington’s glib thinking is that “civilization” as a political identity is a mushy concept, semi-artificially created and maintained. That countries X and Y are of the same “civilization,” or even historical affinity, doesn’t mean that they would be automatically drawn to each other without a lot of “propaganda” that people would find credible under circumstances where they are relevant. (Japanese imperial propaganda in Korea between 1910 and 1945 provide lots of examples that both work, fall flat on their face, and were the former but are officially remembered today as the latter–and these are countries with a lot of historical baggage both positive and negative, notwithstanding Huntington’s ignorance.). It goes a lot deeper than the simpleminded “civilizations.” (Unless you have discovered the Republic and Gunpowder?)

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               1. AG December 27, 2025 at 9:40 pm

                  “really lost marbles”
                  is putting it midly.
                  Sorry for being not very sophisticated but studying political science is like studying BS.
                  And on top of that his life reads like piling even more of that cluelessness: Brzezinski, National Security Council, Trilateral Commission?
                  The fact that he made this career and is still known sheds no good light on the intellectual culture.
                  At.all.

                  “That countries X and Y are of the same “civilization,” or even historical affinity, doesn’t mean that they would be automatically drawn to each other without a lot of “propaganda” that people would find credible under circumstances where they are relevant.”

                  Exactly. I thought this would be self-evident today.
                  But hell was I wrong.

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               2. Henry Moon Pie December 27, 2025 at 10:41 pm

                  It’s been 30 years since I read Huntington and more than 50 since he read me, but I’ll undertake a partial defense.

                  The book came out in the 90s as the Soviet Union collapsed and Fukuyama was ready to declare “game over.” Huntington steps up and says, “No, there will not be a Pax Americana or even a Pax Neoliberal. Instead, the old pattern of rivalries. along the fracture lines of language, religion and culture, will resume. One group that certainly took this seriously are the neocons, who have spent the last 30 years trying to exploit these fissures, especially in the Balkans and the Caucasus, and they’ve been pretty successful at making trouble.

                  I know Huntington had been thinking along these lines since the mid-70s not because I had read anything of his or taken a course from him, but because he turned up as a surprise reader of my senior thesis. The subject matter was how would the arrival of lots of suburban, Republican voters in formerly Dixiecrat rural counties affect the level of political activity and participation, in other words, a mild clash of civilizations. So I think he deserves credit for having a more accurate idea of where we were headed than those who thought the end of the Cold War would end or at least greatly decrease international violence.

                  You may be right that the “civilization” concept is mushy, and that Huntington’s analysis of the Far East is weak, but he sure seems to have gotten a lot of things right as upstater confirms with his assertion that the acrimony between Poland and the Baltics on the the one side and Russia on the other goes back to the Great Schism.

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                  1. AG December 28, 2025 at 9:30 am

                     Thanks for this account.

                     I don´t want to disregard any scholar´s insight just because I do not concur with the politics behind it.

                     But it frankly appears to me that what you did was analyze after the fact and come to a conclusion. Just what science does.

                     Huntington on the other hand got invovled into creating a situation first which only caused the crisis. And then he was doing scholarly work about that very crisis as if it had already been in place – without any interference and assistance from his own “people” and his own ideas (“inspired” by your work in this example).

                     I am not the expert so please forgive my superficial take:

                     In the Arab world I often understood that, again simplified, radical Islam of the 1980s was the response to the demise of left/Communist/nationalist movements.

                     So latter had to be destroyed first as they withstood Western imperial interests. And only when in the wake of the destruction of civil society the “healthy” fabric disintegrated would former – radical Islam – find the fertile ground and the space to take over (with a lot of help from us.)

                     And eventually after supporting those circles of the US that had been responsible for this shift in the Middle East would Huntington come up and present his “scholarship”. It almost sounds as if he turned things upside down.

                     (I know this is a bit exaggerated. But I hope the essence of my simple point comes across. And I assume that he probably didn´t even realize his hand in all this to some extent.)

                     p.s. Maybe some remember the Danish caricature scandal:

                     20 years ago Jyllands-Posten published provocative caricatures about Muhammad. Expecting outrage.

                     However initially there was no such reaction by the Muslim communities at all. So the editors actually sent the pictures to Muslim communities explicitly.

                     But those again responded very relaxed and stated it didn´t really bother them.

                     Only after these disappointing reactions did the paper force it and other papers took it up, I believe French outlets in particular. I don´t exactly remember the chronology then but I do know that almost nobody was interested in how this affair had actually started.

                     So what happened the paper had created a scandal to sell its product. Plain and simple. And then swapped cause and effect.

                     Oh, and nonetheless this once huge scandal has been completely forgotten.
                     I do not believe that people hate. And elites work really really hard to bring about this hatred. And people like Huntington are part of that. In whatever twisted ways.

                     But classic, clear-minded, honest scholarship – IMHO – never gets invovled with the politcs of the subjects it researches.

                     Sorry for the length.

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         3. ДжММ December 28, 2025 at 1:33 am

            The Lithuanians I actually know express opinions on the full range as regards our neighbor-to-the-west-and-east. Not ten years ago, we were the only of the three Baltics not to have an organic anti-russian movement of any significance whatsoever. The intervening decade of influence operations against us is starting to show results, sadly.

            Latvians and Estonians are indeed kind of psychos. Locally, and in our drinks, it is theorized the same might have become of us if we had also allowed ourselves to be colonized and ruled by the Crusader orders. That kind of influence has to leave a mark. But “Baltics” is (weirdly) an overbroad category…

            The “Lithuanians” cultivated for decades in the US, UK, and Canada as weapons against Teh Commiez, on the other hand? Nazis to the core.

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      6. Kouros December 27, 2025 at 7:44 pm

         Russian invasions? Most likely the arc of Russian invasions, in an active way, moved mostly east and south. In the west was in fact a scramble between empires. I.e. Bulgarians, Romanians cannot claim of being invaded by Russians, when the fights were just on their territories btw Russians and Ottomans or Austrians, Swedes, etc…

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      7. bertl December 28, 2025 at 7:43 am

         There’s a pretty fundamental difference between invasion and liberation.

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   3. LifelongLib December 27, 2025 at 1:48 pm

      FWIW, growing up in the U.S. during the Cold War, I and most people I met didn’t hate the Russians/Soviets. The usual take was “They’re good people with a bad government”. When later I met some people from the Soviet Union, that was their take on the U.S. This may have just been naive why-can’t-we-all-get-along-ism but I never encountered the kind of poisonous hatred other commenters are describing.

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      1. OIFVet December 27, 2025 at 1:54 pm

         The dehumanizing rhetoric in Europe must be witnessed to be believed. What we in the US would call ‘hate speech’ is fully normalized with respect to Russia and Russians, especially in former Axis allies.

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      2. AG December 27, 2025 at 9:28 pm

         It was funny when my Dad who grew up in Hungary met a US Vietnam Veteran Dad, in the US. I had to translate but both had been raised with stories about how evil the other army had been. Fun memory: “thwarting Cold War fairy-tales with a lot of beer.” Dad found it really odd that you weren´t allowed to buy booze on Sundays in the bible belt. So the first time he went to the cashier and filled the cart with the finest bottles you can imagine. Until he was denied the purchase. I had to interfere and calm him down since he caused a ruckus and cursing – fortunately – in Hungarian. Which is quite bad. But few understand it.

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         1. Jessica December 28, 2025 at 2:33 am

            Travelled from one end of Russia to the other in the late 90s. Folks were always friendly to Americans. “You’ve never killed us.” Many of my companions were Germans and on rare occasions bitterness toward Germany from the 1940s did come up.
            Just absorbing what one does in general media and education, I always thought of Lithuania as one of the three Baltic tinies. I was surprised to find out that it is a former great power.

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8. ambrit December 27, 2025 at 9:12 am

   Re. “Both of these influencers…”
   The “precious metals” sphere has had the emergence of an AI oriental looking “presenter” giving a series of very slick programs highlighting the “doomed” nature of the metals markets as presently constituted. On the “original” metals vlogs this “character” is jokingly referred to as AI Man, and yet the information “he” presents is seriously debated. The ultimate agenda of whoever is behind AI Man is still murky at best.
   This highlights what is possibly the greatest danger from this AI People phenomenon, the very effective value of well made AI programing as propaganda. When everybody accepts “unreality” as the new normal…
   I am now waiting for the emergence of AI Politicos. We call Politicos ‘fakes’ already. What’s to stop the power elites from taking that idea to its logical extreme?
   Stay safe. Practice your pattern recognition skills.

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   1. The Rev Kev December 27, 2025 at 9:22 am

      God forbid that this does not eventually lead to a whole bunch of AI Ben Shapiros, each tailor made to a specific audience but combined creating a political movement.

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   2. Henry Moon Pie December 27, 2025 at 9:24 am

      My initial defense to this is to stick to Youtube channels I know. This is becoming increasingly difficult as the feed is filling up with these AI fakes. The other day, I made the mistake of clicking on what I thought was Mercouris. After a minute or so, I knew it wasn’t Alexander because there was no nose-picking and no stuttering.

      I’ve seen fake Wilkersons, MacGregors and lots of Mearsheimers. Usually, these fakes are making outrageous claims, discrediting these commentators to people who aren’t cautious. Crazy world.

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      1. Louis Fyne December 27, 2025 at 9:55 am

         We’re getting to the point where your assumption has to be any channel created after 2026-01-01 has a >50% chance of being fake or some form of astroturf.

         The fake-AI Bob Barker insult comedy videos make me laugh though, lmao

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

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      2. The Rev Kev December 27, 2025 at 9:59 am

         Having the same experiences that you have had. It’s bad enough when YouTube keeps on shoving adds into those videos and you can see that the “presenter” is actually an AI. Hint – it’s hard for a human to talk and have a big smile on their face at the same time but that is how you pick an AI person. Best to stick to their official channels I guess.

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      3. ChrisFromGA December 27, 2025 at 11:34 am

         It seems that the real Mercouris, MacGregor, and Mearsheimer could file complaints with YouTube and report these channels. And per YT policy they should be taken down, just like YT took down channels spreading COVID “misinformation.”

         I won’t hold my breath, though. Especially because all of the real McCoys are engaged in truth telling that inconveniences the narrative that narrative makers want us to buy. Perhaps this is a deliberate move from the narrative makers to discredit alt-media and make it more difficult for them to get their message out.

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         1. Henry Moon Pie December 27, 2025 at 1:01 pm

            For one thing, it could easily affect traffic and revenue. Surely these commentators are aware this is happening. I’d like to hear them address how they’re trying to deal with this and the extent to which Youtube is cooperating.

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         2. hk December 27, 2025 at 6:06 pm

            Mercouris has talked about doing that fair bit, but it seems that YT has not been as responsive as he’d have liked. (Although fake Mercouris seems rarer than others)

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         3. ISL December 27, 2025 at 10:14 pm

            I actively report such channels – at this point easy to spot, and block them from my feed. Hopefully if a large number of viewers do so, also, they will disappear (for the time being).

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   3. IM Doc December 27, 2025 at 12:44 pm

      We had friends and neighbors over for dinner during the Holidays. One of these families has a 22 year old young man who is quite frankly movie star handsome and is very bright. There were other kids his age here at the same time.

      It came up in conversation that ANY and ALL texts, emails, etc he receives with any possible dating partner are sent through AI services to a) have a full profile of the possible partner’s mental health and motivations and b) to assess their compatibility with him. Again, in my day, this would not have been a young man who would have had any problems attracting women and furthermore all of the above issues he is sending to AI would have been talked out with his closest friends. Now we ditch the friends, the locker rooms, the bar, the basketball court and hand everything over to Grok or chat GPT.

      What really concerned me is that every person in my house between 18-30 or so that evening informed us all that they do exactly the same thing. AI screening of all potential dates, partners, etc.

      This was new to me and I could scarcely believe what I was hearing.

      We are removing humanity from every single interaction we have. I fear for these kids when they are 50.

      But the other very concerning issue is that all texts, emails, any correspondence at all that has our individual names, email addresses, phone numbers, whatever are being sent to AI companies to be analyzed. And we have zero idea this is even being done. You can avoid it all you want in your life, but it is becoming increasingly clear that AI has no intention at all of avoiding you.

      Please, anyone, help me find a bright spot here.

      Reply ↓
      1. AG December 27, 2025 at 1:30 pm

         Do you think this is a truly representative experience for the US or rather fringe?

         Bright spot?

         Not bright: But maybe things happening later in their lives which will render this new way of connecting less attractive.
         Life has a way of messing things up, doesn´t it?

         As they say in German: “Mensch denkt, Gott lenkt”/”Man proposes, God disposes.”

         (I assume the idea of a “ghost in the machine” too is related to the chaos-oriented hope that not all can be planned and manipulated incessently in an AI-controlled society.)

         Reply ↓
         1. Carolinian December 27, 2025 at 6:32 pm

            Sometimes you have to dodge people walking down the street who are staring at their phones. Re Doc’s tale presumably any kid who is off the electronic grid never gets a date–the new definition of a wallflower.

            Filmmaker John Hughes would have made much of this.

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      2. ambrit December 27, 2025 at 2:00 pm

         Ned Ludd would not have been on any social media.
         The “moderne” habits of social media use are quite understandable if viewed through the lens of conformism as a social organizing strategy. Being in the world but not of it is very hard. I try and generally fail in that endeavour. However, I continue trying.
         The main point about any of the so called AIs we encounter is that they are simple tools for others. A computer program has no agency. As the Late Lamented Lambert remarked, code is law. Learn who or what lies behind an AI and you are half way to mastering said AI.
         As for the use of AIs in general; I have noticed that many people are prone to searching out the “easy way” to accomplish difficult tasks. Thinking is hard. It takes will power to ‘buckle down’ and do the hard work when a supposedly “easy” fix is available.
         I too fear for the younger cohorts. They will eventually encounter problems that AIs cannot fix for them. Then the lack of skills and training will cripple them in the face of their problems.
         I fear I am becoming trite, but this is nothing really new. The problems of laziness and lack of skill acquisition are perennial. Today, with the “help” of high tech, those problems have become automated, at scale. As the “adults” in the room, so to speak, our task is the difficult one of finding those of the younger cohorts who can be helped and are willing to try.
         We are now entering a period of Social Triage.
         Stay safe, strong and resilient.

         Reply ↓
      3. Acacia December 28, 2025 at 4:13 am

         A friend who has a Gen Z co-worker reported the following…

         Gen Z co-worker wanted to use ChatGPT to resolve a customer issue. Friend: “no, we shouldn’t do that.”

         Co-worker admitted to probably relying on ChatGT too much, but at least wasn’t as bad as co-worker’s partner, who evidently wears ear buds and has an AI app listen to all conversations with other humans.

         In conversation with others, this person just waits, listens to the earbuds to be told what to say by the AI, and then responds.

         Reply ↓
9. Mikel December 27, 2025 at 10:45 am

   3 tomahawks failed to explode out of 12?

   That’s pretty bad pic.twitter.com/OivQCQ70DD

   — Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) December 27, 2025

   Who’s cleaning the mess up? Are those only going to lay there to be photographed?

   And another speculation crossed my mind that may be wild to mention.

   Reply ↓
   1. sarmaT December 27, 2025 at 12:02 pm

      Those two lying on flat ground have been put there gently, so someone is already doing some cleaning.

      Reply ↓
10. Sub-Boreal December 27, 2025 at 10:46 am

    We were overdue for a feral hog story. Excellent timing!

    Reply ↓
11. Historicality December 27, 2025 at 10:57 am

    For a shorter summary of the Epstein history, see the Doug Ross item.

    Reply ↓
    1. Martin Oline December 27, 2025 at 12:20 pm

       Thank you for the link which I have bookmarked. I am three hours through the four hour Mike Benz broadcast that was in today’s links. Except for an explanation of Epstein’s entre into Bear Stearns, that link can be skipped up to about the 50 minute part (Yadda-yadda).

       Reply ↓
    2. pjay December 27, 2025 at 12:46 pm

       As this outline suggests, Benz highlights many points at which Epstein’s life intersects with some very interesting characters involved in some very significant “deep history” events. At minimum he provides reasons to take the Epstein case seriously rather than write it off as simply the sensationalized actions of a “lone pervert” or (as with the NY Times) just a con-man ripping off poor unsuspecting billionaires.

       A lot of this is being covered in the on-going work of Ryan Grim and Drop Site News. And almost all of it has been covered earlier by Whitney Webb, who continues to be ignored by the mainstream press but also gets shafted by a lot of the alt media. I’ve been very cautious about Benz. He was a sketchy anonymous right-wing “influencer” before he suddenly exploded all over the internet as a former State Department employee and supposed intelligence expert. But much of what he says does ring true and correspond with other sources.

       Reply ↓
12. Victor Sciamarelli December 27, 2025 at 11:19 am

    On the name change to the Trump-Kennedy Center, it’s worth noting that the original name is The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center. A “Memorial” refers to how a society honors someone who is already dead. I doubt Trump realizes adding his name makes no sense.
    Second, Trump is not adding his name or building monuments to himself because he has a big ego. Rather, he knows deep down how incompetent and weak he truly is. And he spends enormous energy hiding that fact. For this reason, he realizes that when he dies nobody is going to build anything in honor to him.

    Reply ↓
    1. Carolinian December 27, 2025 at 6:24 pm

       Or he’s just messing with people. It used to be hard to guess which part of Trump was shtick. Nowadays he seems genuinely gaga.

       Reply ↓
    2. bertl December 28, 2025 at 7:50 am

       A headstone?

       Reply ↓
13. Henry Moon Pie December 27, 2025 at 11:42 am

    Caput apri defero
    Reddens laudes Domino

    (The Boar’s head in hand bear I,
    singing praises to the LORD>)

    The Boar’s Head Carol

    Reply ↓
14. Mikel December 27, 2025 at 11:55 am

    Iran Captures American Ship To Avenge Venezuela Piracy? IRGC Drops Dramatic Visuals Of Oil Tanker – Times of India

    Iran stops illegal export of Iranian oil.

    A bit different than what the USA is doing in the Caribbean…

    Reply ↓
15. ciroc December 27, 2025 at 1:08 pm

    >Palantir’s Palestine: How AI Gods Are Building Our Extinction

    Alex Karp’s mother devoted her art to documenting the suffering of Black children murdered in Atlanta. His father spent his career caring for the sick. They taught him to march against injustice.

    And he built a machine that decides, in twenty seconds, which children in Gaza will die today.

    Becoming a billionaire rarely involves doing what’s right.

    Reply ↓
16. AG December 27, 2025 at 1:17 pm

    Forgive me for asking again but what are the best alternatives for using YT?

    I have no YT account but some channels like Pascal Lottaz are only on YT and sometimes I can´t click away the ads since I am not at my desk which makes it in part impossible to listen. So I stopped watching.

    There were ad-free YT-alternatives but those disappeared and the most recent comments about the existing YT alternatives mentioned on NC recently I forgot to bookmark.

    Reply ↓
    1. Alice X December 27, 2025 at 3:04 pm

       I can´t click away the ads since I am not at my desk which makes it in part impossible to listen.

       A wireless mouse could be one solution?

       Reply ↓
    2. dandyandy December 27, 2025 at 3:32 pm

       I download everything I want to watch. Then watch at my own leisure, including fast forwarding and rewinding. No ads. Works on 90% of stuff out there. Then, delete to free the disk space.

       Reply ↓
       1. Alice X December 27, 2025 at 4:22 pm

          How do you download things? I had WonderShare for years but the algorithm changes and now I need to upgrade. Which I haven’t been able to do.

          Reply ↓
          1. TimH December 27, 2025 at 5:44 pm

             media-downloader

             https://github.com/mhogomchungu/media-downloader

             Reply ↓
          2. dandyandy December 27, 2025 at 5:45 pm

             I use Any Video Converter Ultimate. Free download. You just have to get a slightly older version, some 2-3 years old. Works with w10 and w11.

             Reply ↓
          3. Carolinian December 27, 2025 at 6:20 pm

             Video Download Helper extension on Firefox works well but those more savvy than me can discuss whether the permissions make it a spybot. Firefox does offer tracking protections that may block.

             I never use Chrome or Safari.

             Reply ↓
    3. fjallstrom December 27, 2025 at 4:41 pm

       If you want to watch YouTube on your phone, I have heard good things about Newpipe, though I haven’t tried it myself yet.

       If you want an alternative site, some youtubers cross-post to Rumble, so depending on what channels you want to watch, they may already be there. Rumble is newer, so not as enshittifide yet.

       Reply ↓
       1. Ben Panga December 27, 2025 at 8:07 pm

          I use Newpipe on Android with excellent results. No ads. Download features available

          On desktop I use Firefox browser with the YouTube ad block extension. Also works excellently. Can’t download, but no ads. It also works with a YT account without issues.

          Both the above work without a YT account.

          Reply ↓
    4. gf December 27, 2025 at 6:17 pm

       If i am understanding the problem correctly.

       You can use the FireFox browser to watch programs like “Neutrality Studies” ad free once
       you install an ad blocker like “ublock Orgin” .

       Setting -> Extentions and Themes
       Then search ublock under addons

       Reply ↓
    5. OldBuilder December 27, 2025 at 8:08 pm

       Brave browser blocks utube ads by default and allows background play on android.

       Reply ↓
    6. Jorge December 28, 2025 at 12:28 am

       I’m a hard-core IT nerd so I use a technique not available to most: I use the ‘yt-dlp’ program to download videos, mostly from video-game playthroughs, and watch those on a flash drive plugged into my TV. I also download long music videos for video game soundtracks, turn those into MP3 files, and play them on my phone.

       As part of the soundtrack project I use a program that I wrote 30 years ago and made open-source. So… not a normal responder.

       Youtube has lately been playing ‘arms race’ with the downloader apps, and I don’t know if they still work.

       Cheers, and good luck!

       Reply ↓
       1. Caps Lock December 28, 2025 at 7:52 am

          As a medium-hardness-core IT nerd, I use 9xbuddy.com, savefrom.net, and invidio.us. The first one works on bunch of sites.

          Reply ↓
    7. Acacia December 28, 2025 at 4:16 am

       FreeTube app. All ads defeated.

       Reply ↓
    8. AG December 28, 2025 at 8:53 am

       Excellent.
       Thanks for the help to everyone!!!
       I guess I figure out the best solution.
       And I will bookmark this now.

       Reply ↓
17. marku52 December 27, 2025 at 3:40 pm

    Pardon selling……Does no one remember Marc Rich?
    https://www.brookings.edu/articles/bill-clintons-last-outrage-the-presidents-defenders-feel-betrayed-by-his-pardon-of-marc-rich/

    Reply ↓
18. rowlf December 27, 2025 at 3:42 pm

    The Dhammacetiya Buddhist group is having their Walk for Peace from Fort Worth Texas to Washington DC. The group of monks has recently entered LaGrange, Georgia.

    Their website has a daily map, and their Facebook page has a live map. Local news stations along the path have had stories of the monks.

    Reply ↓
19. The Rev Kev December 27, 2025 at 6:12 pm

    “Photos show California slammed with heavy rain, mudslides from storm”

    Between the floods, the fires and the earthquakes, you sometimes wonder if California hates people and is trying to kill them off.

    Reply ↓
    1. JBird4049 December 28, 2025 at 1:36 am

       Nah, since half the state doesn’t have seasons, earthquakes, fires, floods, and riots become our seasons.

       Reply ↓
20. Carolinian December 27, 2025 at 6:13 pm

    Apropos of nothing this is interesting.

    https://www.openculture.com/2025/12/what-pompeii-looked-like-hours-before-its-destruction-a-reconstruction.html

    Reply ↓
    1. Jorge December 28, 2025 at 12:33 am

       The Pompeii/Herculaneum archaeology have been really useful because the high-class Romans who wrote all of the scrolls did not care about how everyday life worked. For example, they dug up a two-story-high wooden wheel that they used to do construction work. We had no idea!

       Also, the wine shops had murals that look exactly like 1970s Napa wine country graphic design. I grew up in Northern California in the 70s, marinated in that stuff.

       Reply ↓
21. flora December 27, 2025 at 7:15 pm

    re: In 2026, Will Americans Finally Turn Against Oligarchs? -Matt Stoller

    Thanks for the link. A must read, imo.

    Reply ↓
22. Jason Boxman December 27, 2025 at 7:16 pm

    Lol the so called left would never even consider withholding voters

    It began when Cuban American lawmakers pressed Mr. Trump early this year to end Chevron’s Biden-era confidential license. After Mr. Trump and Mr. Rubio announced in late February that they would do so, Mr. Maduro stopped accepting deportation flights of Venezuelans. Mr. Maduro had agreed to them on Jan. 31 with Richard Grenell, a special envoy for Mr. Trump.
    Chevron’s chief executive, Mike Wirth, lobbied the administration for a license extension, speaking to Mr. Trump several times over the coming months.
    The Cuban American lawmakers got wind that the license could be extended, and they threatened to withhold their votes for Mr. Trump’s signature legislation, “the One Big Beautiful Bill.”
    At the Oval Office meeting in late May, Mr. Trump told Mr. Rubio and Mr. Miller that he needed to get the bill passed. But he said he had heard about the downsides of ending the license, including that Chinese companies would take over Chevron’s stakes, said an official.
    The president demanded options. That was when Mr. Miller offered to help. He had been nurturing his ideas for mass deportations and boat strikes.
    Mr. Trump did not renew Chevron’s license when it expired on May 27. His domestic policy bill passed Congress five weeks later.

    https://archive.ph/pnWpI

    How Oil, Drugs and Immigration Fueled Trump’s Venezuela Campaign

    Reply ↓
23. AG December 27, 2025 at 7:49 pm

    re: Zionism as cult

    10 min. with Katie Halper and Russell Dobular
    https://scheerpost.com/2025/12/27/zionism-scientology-and-the-cult-mentality-no-one-talks-about/

    Reply ↓
24. flora December 27, 2025 at 9:00 pm

    This story from the London Times, Sunday edition in 2023 sheds some new light for me on what’s happened to the UK Labour Party and the rise of Starmer.

    The real power behind Starmer — who would rather stay in the shadows

    Morgan McSweeney is a softly spoken Irishman who has enjoyed an almost traceless rise from West Cork to Westminster. His three-step plan to transform Labour (and Britain) is building momentum

    https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/morgan-mcsweeney-the-real-power-behind-starmer-who-would-rather-stay-in-the-shadows-sdx2dzqxw

    Reply ↓
25. 123abceng December 27, 2025 at 10:23 pm

    watched this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7Y-fynYsgE&list=TLPQMjYxMjIwMjUEepz9GFD1jw
    which was referenced by https://bettbeat.substack.com/p/palantirs-palestine-how-ai-gods-are

    Noted how little leaked from corporate predictions and expectations of 2025. 2 hours of reiterations about well-known bullet points sold in 2022 to general auditory. The whole podcast seems to be quite expensive to produce. If it’s the best what bulls can do to keep market growing, then something is deeply missing in CEO’s heads: Prediction model, that allows us to reach AGI, step by step wasn’t articulated at all.
    Got another bit of thoughts today:
    If any form of laying is required to reach social success, then our training data is jeopardized. If it’s cultural, then AGI is not achievable in those countries where extortion of truth widely used in science, planning and problem solving.

    Reply ↓
26. paul December 28, 2025 at 6:19 am

    Patric Boyle at his jesuit best, whatevever that is,he reminds of a relation

    Reply ↓