Links 1/1/2026

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1. The Rev Kev January 1, 2026 at 7:25 am

   “Russia is Treating the Latest Drone Attack on the Putin Residence as Something More Sinister Than Just Another Terrorist Attack”

   Ratcliffe’s CIA and the NSA is now coming out and trying to say that there never was an attack and Trump himself is going along with it. This will of course make things much worse. Putin would hardly ring Trump right after that attack and tell him about it if it did not actually happen and the Russians have the receipts to prove it. Trump could have put his foot down and told everyone that this will never happen again but as he flip-flopped in his opinion in 24 hours, it will be seen as a go-ahead for more attempts. Worse, there may now be a suspicion in the Kremlin that he was part of this attempt as he has done similar before. This will all end in tears.

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   1. Wukchumni January 1, 2026 at 7:40 am

      From the sound of his rasp, Putin was pissed off, a stab in the dark by drone, and then the invite to Moika Palace for tea & cakes…

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   2. Yves Smith Post authorJanuary 1, 2026 at 8:44 am

      Putin did not ring Trump. Trump and Putin had agreed to talk right after Trump met with Zelenksy.

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      1. Aurelien January 1, 2026 at 10:08 am

         Indeed. I suppose it’s just worth reminding ourselves that there is an international armed conflict under way in Ukraine, and the decision-makers about the war on both sides are therefore legitimate military targets. It’s the law of armed conflict that applies: attacking a political function where Putin was speaking, with many casualties, would be a crime under the laws of armed conflict, whereas (say) a drone attack on his car would not. That is, of course, an entirely different question from the politics of such an attack and its wider purpose. For what it’s worth, I don’t think it was an assassination attempt, but probably a high-profile political gambit designed to show that “nowhere is safe” or something similar. We may never get much in the way of proof either way: satellite photographs would only be of any value if damage had been caused to the buildings, and apparently that wasn’t the case. There’s probably little point in endless speculation about who was responsible: it’s quite likely we shall never know. I’d just caution against the reflexive dismissal of the Ukrainians (or a faction of them) as the main actors. There’s very much a tendency to underestimate them and to assume they can’t tie their shoelaces without “MI6” assistance. The GPS coordinates of the residence are hardly a secret.

         I wouldn’t take the nuclear point too seriously either. You wouldn’t install a nuclear command and control centre at Putin’s faraway residence. What is much more likely is that there is a secure communications facility there, to enable him to be in contact with the actual command centre in Moscow in the event of a crisis. This is normal for nuclear powers. I just hope people don’t start getting too excited again, and that we don’t have another round of “nuclear war is inevitable next month but take out a yearly subscription to my site anyway.”

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         1. Polar Socialist January 1, 2026 at 10:56 am

            While the locations of the three dachas at the Valdai residence are well known to anyone with access to Google maps, Ukrainians don’t have on their own enough information of the Russian air defenses to plot the route around them to ensure any kind of success.

            The Russian media is reporting that armed forces have successfully extracted the targeting and routing information from shot down drones and will deliver the proof to USA via “appropriate channels”, whatever that means.

            I’m still assuming the Russian will be using this as proof to the global community that they can’t negotiate with current regime in Kiev and that demilitarization of Ukraine is a minimalist negotiating position. Which in practice means free hands do deal with Ukraine.

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            1. Aurelien January 1, 2026 at 11:11 am

               I’ve no doubt that the Ukrainians know from various sources where the main Russian AD systems are, but whether they were using very up-to-date and detailed information to avoid every last one of them, we’ll just have to see. Clearly, if the Russians shot all the drones down, the defensive routing can’t have helped much. The Grauniad is reporting that the Russians claim to have recovered information that the dacha was indeed the final destination of one of the drones shot down, but whether there is other information (for example waypoints) isn’t clear at the moment. I suspect the “appropriate channels” will be between intelligence agencies, either directly or through an intermediary. The aim will not necessarily be publicity, but to affect the decision-making process in Washington.

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               1. Polar Socialist January 1, 2026 at 12:46 pm

                  It seems that the Russian armed forces just released a video of two Russian officers handing what seems to be a Mateksys flight controller (allegedly from an Ukrainian drone) over to two US military attaches for the US military to do it’s own due diligence. Accompanied with a file folder containing a few dozen pages.

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                  1. The Rev Kev January 1, 2026 at 5:50 pm

                     The Russians may have the receipts but will Trump even care? His own CIA and NSA have told him that the attack never happened and he will just take their word for it rather than wonder about their part in the attack

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                     1. hk January 1, 2026 at 9:28 pm

                        Even if he does know, does he “have the right to care”? The stories that sort of came out, via Judge Napolitano’s channel, suggests that CIA could very well have Trump thoroughly intimidated.

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   3. Pearl Rangefinder January 1, 2026 at 8:59 am

      Ahh so it’s an official denial now? lol. I mean, this is basically AmerIsreal’s M.O. at this point. The whole world saw what this administration did to Iran when they “”negotiated””. Anyone negotiating with the criminal enterprise known as America/Israel and it’s various lackey states is quite literally risking their life.

      How much longer will Putin and the Russians keeps going on with this charade?

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      1. barefoot charley January 1, 2026 at 12:56 pm

         Putin is unfailingly polite and legalistic. He’ll continue to play along with Trump’s tv shows with no expectation of results–since we’re not agreement-capable anyway–while grinding away what’s left of Ukraine. He’ll stop when he gets what he wants. Which Trump let alone Zelensky won’t give him. So he’ll keep going and take it, and Zelensky too. Then Trump gets his peace prize.

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   4. Carolinian January 1, 2026 at 9:51 am

      Larry Johnson lists the previous attempts to kill Putin. This one is simply more blatant or perhaps, as Johnson also says, deliberately blatant. On a podcast Alastair Crooke says Putin has been living in the Kremlin ever since the war started and indeed why would he not be doing that? Before Trump Biden wished out loud that Putin was dead as did our distinguished Lindsey.

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      1. Yves Smith Post authorJanuary 1, 2026 at 9:57 am

         Mercouris has pointed out that Putin has been living nearly entirely at the Kremlin since the start of the SMO because better security. There is no reason to think he was at his residence near Valdai. That is a more legitimate reason to regard the Russians as perhaps protesting too much, that this is more like the successful strike on Netanyahu’s summer home. Or it may be that this was indeed an attack on a nuclear bunker, which would be a grave event (even if, like the attempt to hit Russia’s nuclear bombers, not/not very successful) and the Russians wanted to stress its import while being not forthcoming about what really happened.

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      2. ArvidMartensen January 1, 2026 at 10:42 pm

         Travelling to an from work is a health hazard in a war, as a couple of Putin’s generals have found out.

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2. Randall Flagg January 1, 2026 at 7:33 am

   >Happy New Year! Wishing you a wonderful 2026!

   All of us here are very grateful for your readership, your comments, your links, and your support. We are honored to serve such a wonderful community.

   And the same to you and the commenters! Thank you all for every day providing me with an education in so many ways!

   We are blessed to have each other. Happy New Year! Stay positive.

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   1. .Tom January 1, 2026 at 8:59 am

      Indeed. Thank you, and Happy New Year to you too Yves, NC writers and commenters.

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3. LawnDart January 1, 2026 at 7:37 am

   Linked to the Leonardi post, the other covid must-read:

   The Covid Nonsense Tax

   The Actual Cost of the Great Barrington Declaration and RFK Jr

   It was commentators here who pointed-out the link between covid and cancer early on. Personally, because of very recent close-proximity related issues, the neurological aspects are scaring the f**k out of me: we’re not ready to recognize let alone deal with the amount of crazy that’s being unleashed, let alone what’s in the pipeline. The physical aspects are horrible enough, but toss in the second-hand effects of the psychological, that stuff is going to break us.

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   1. jsn January 1, 2026 at 9:36 pm

      Thanks for this link!

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4. Wukchumni January 1, 2026 at 7:39 am

   Goooooooood Mooooooorning Fiatnam!

   The platoon had been given 15 minutes to ready itself for the implication of the new & improved Nifty Nugget exercise, which most in the unit thought it to be just another gilt trip by the Chief Executive, or as some were calling him post Epstein revelations: Pussy Galore.

   Oh, as it turned out, we ran late and never made it to the exercise-not that it mattered as we were considered casualties of war game, and let go on our own recognizance in the barracks where we’d never left.

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5. The Rev Kev January 1, 2026 at 8:03 am

   “Macron vows to serve ‘until the last second’ of presidency”

   I think that when it comes time, that they will have to drag him out of the Élysée Palace while he is kicking and screaming and trying to hold onto doorways. Of course he may have another job waiting for him so he may go quietly and it has been suggested that he take over as President of the European Commission – Ursula von der Leyen’s job. At elite levels, no matter how badly you cock up things, they will always kick you up higher to a superior job with more responsibilities and more pay. As an example, that describes Ursula’s whole career to a tee.

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   1. Skip Intro January 1, 2026 at 12:02 pm

      He’ll cry Foreign Influence, and set a do-over election to buy himself another half year… at least once.

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6. Wukchumni January 1, 2026 at 8:03 am

   Argent Provocateurs?

   The 1979-80 Hunt Brothers silver bubble was something else altogether, as they and assorted Saudi princelings wanted physical delivery as was their right, except nobody had ever demanded pork bellies or frozen orange juice futures et al, and in so doing took the grey mare from $6 in April of ’79 to $48 in January of ’80.

   They could have taken silver to $100 or $200, but again, they were the only buyers and it wasn’t about a short squeeze, it was literally cornering the physical market.

   They were the only players and complete outsiders in terms of the CME (for once the public was right to sell into the bubble-very few end buyers among them) and at the time China didn’t have a pot to piss in, let alone invest in what has always been their traditional precious metal of choice.

   We are seeing a bifurcation of markets, the Asian PM market distancing itself from western market diktat. Thats never happened before.

   Things change

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   1. FreeMarketApologist January 1, 2026 at 10:13 am

      “Things change”: Or they don’t, they just show up in different outfits:

      Allium provocateurs Sam Siegel and Vincent Kosuga who gave us the Onion Futures Act of 1958.

      Argent provocateurs Jay Gould and James Fisk, whose attempts to corner the gold market gave us the Financial Panic of 1869.

      Who will be bringing us the _____ Panic/Crash of 2026? (sooooo many candidates)

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7. Wukchumni January 1, 2026 at 8:11 am

   I ought to not mention this, but George HW Bush named a Giant Sequoia after himself in 1992, kind of setting Presidential precedence.

   http://famousredwoods.com/george_bush/

   Heretofore individual Brobdingnagians and groves required a successful assassination to be so honored in the freshly christened Garfield & McKinley Groves & McKinley Tree, but that was then and this is now.

   Giant Forest Grove is where a bunch of the biggies are including the Sherman Tree, and with the stroke of an ego, er pen that is, Benedict Donald could add and subtract by renaming it Trump Giant Forest (love the double entendre) and Trump Tree.

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   1. The Rev Kev January 1, 2026 at 8:30 am

      I always thought George H.W. Bush worthy of having a memorial toilet block named after himself. It would be a win-win result. People would see his name immortalized whenever they went to the john and Bush would be finally providing a needed service for his fellow citizens.

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      1. Wukchumni January 1, 2026 at 8:50 am

         Lookie here, if anybody should have their name affixed to Big Wood… DJT makes more sense than JFK.

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8. Vicky Cookies January 1, 2026 at 8:27 am

   The New York Times piece on the Swedish Lundin trial is thought-provoking. One error, though: Hanah Arendt wasn’t writing “dispatches from the Nuremberg trials” when she wrote Eichmann in Jerusalem, she was covering and reflecting on the Israeli government kidnapping Eichmann from South America many years later. I believe it’s an error, rather than an obfuscation as, later in the article, the author mentions Francesca Albanese in the context of “the genocide in Gaza”, without quotes, simply accepting the claim.

   Power isn’t likely to hold itself to account, which is a problem when dealing with ‘war crimes’. What would justice look like in a case like this? Justice is a lofty word, but it basically means fairness, and unless governments mean to be redistributive mechanisms, fairness is a far-off hope with such an unequal distribution of power.

   I’d be interested in other interpretations of these events, other reasons people see for the case being brought; the author seems to take at face value that the Swedish self-identity as a “moral superpower” is key to the prosecution being held. It may be a part of it, but I’d want to look elsewhere. I’d also be interested to see if anyone knows about the Chiquita conviction in 2007 as well. The law is a tool of the powerful, so when it’s used against them, it’s reasonable to assume other powerful interests are at play.

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   1. Polar Socialist January 1, 2026 at 9:24 am

      Sweden is a Civil Law country, so when a bunch of NGO’s (ECOS) write a report (“Unpaid Debt”) accusing a Swedish company of war crimes and demanding an investigation, the Swedish prosecutors have no other option than to initiate one. It took them 11 years to investigate and finally prosecute.

      And as a Civil Law country, the Swedish system is not looking for “justice” or “punishment”, it’s trying to “restitute” the society by checking if any laws were broken and if so, ordering compensations, injunctions and even imprisonment (when deterrence is deemed necessary). Especially Scandinavian courts are much more akin to bureaucratic machines than playgrounds for politics and drama.

      I’m not saying they don’t have their issues and inequalities, just that if there are valid suspicions of a crime having been committed, the process will take over and there’s no plea bargaining, court shopping, picking of jurors or anything like that. The prosecutors don’t have much leeway, they need to follow the rules.

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      1. Vicky Cookies January 1, 2026 at 9:47 am

         Thank you! I think my own theories about law are subject to my common law common sense.

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      2. urdsama January 1, 2026 at 4:34 pm

         I don’t disagree with your overall point, but I think the Swedish court system by be more mailable than described. Or more accurately, it no longer functions the way it used to.

         https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50473792

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         1. Jonhoops January 1, 2026 at 8:26 pm

            As in the Julian Assange case, where they just did the bidding of the US & UK to smear and squash JK and Wikileaks.

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9. Steve H. January 1, 2026 at 8:32 am

   > Incandescent anger aeon

   Another fascinating exercise in taking valid points and whiffing the conclusions. I’ll limit responses to three points:

   : Anosognosia much? Try reading the piece and substitute ‘identity politics’ for ‘grievance politics’.

   : ‘between what I call contingently negative and constitutively negative orientations.’

   These are time-frames. The author goes on about contingent goals and then wonders why the contingently driven struggle with ‘a willingness to endure’. ‘Constitutively’ translates to Consistently on the Traditional v Rational/Secular dimension. Fundamentalists have ‘constitutively negative orientations’ towards unbelievers and particularly heretics, and have for a very long time. And by the way, thinking they have ‘low self-worth’ is not supported by studies.

   : McRaney cites a study that people will sort into groups based on trivial distinctions. How did this get selected for? Turchin’s formulation of Price’s Equation in ‘Ultrasociety’ states that for cooperation to occur, the ratio of variances between the groups v within the groups must be greater than the ratio of costs to the individual over the group. Focus on differences increases the perceived variance between the groups and drives up the value of the left side of the equation. Increasing the perceived threat to the group increases the costs the individual will be willing to suffer, unto mortality. Nowak shows that cooperative structures are stronger with fewer nodes, and that takes us down to folie à deux. As Betz writes:

   > Attacks on the totems of a given people usually provokes them into an equal or greater reaction, which is useful in the beginning phases of a civil conflict when heightening tensions is crucial to solidifying the in-group bonding capital of one’s own side.

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   1. Ghost in the Machine January 1, 2026 at 2:04 pm

      I was thinking about identity politics too when I read this article. I’m increasingly convinced that a lot of the “grievance politics” mentioned in this article are actually psy-ops executed to distract us from pursuing the “goal oriented” movements like the ones mentioned. The people are being psychologically poisoned, and in a sense they’re falling for it, but I blame the elites. The article is disingenuous in this way.

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10. pjay January 1, 2026 at 8:43 am

    The Separation: Inside the Unraveling U.S.-Ukraine Partnership New York Times

    NY Times Expose: CIA Fights Russia – Trump’s Peace Deal Runs on Illusion Moon of Alabama (Kevin W)

    Always useful to get the CIA viewpoint on a particular issue, which I believe is the main function of Adam Entous.

    But seriously, this story is informative. It shows that it is wildly misleading to discuss the “separation” in terms of “the US” vs Europe, since so much of the neocon/neolib Atlanticist blob in the US is still all in on fighting to the last Ukrainian. Even if Trump really wanted too – which is itself questionable (I agree with Entous here that Trump has the strategic attention span of a fish) – he is still surrounded by the “resistance” which will act to sabotage any meaningful progress toward peace.

    If there was a critical mass within The Blob that really wanted to wind down the Ukraine conflict, we’d be seeing articles like “The Afghanistan Papers” on Ukraine instead of something like this piece of war propaganda. Trump is obviously capable of creating a lot of destructive chaos. But he is not in charge. He only succeeds where the Powers that Be allow it. Tax cuts for billionaires, deregulation, the Greater Israel Project, those types of things.

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    1. Carolinian January 1, 2026 at 9:59 am

       I thought that Moon was very interesting. Perhaps the CIA will try for another Bay of Pigs since Cuba still on the enemies list. However now they won’t have to sandbag the president. He’ll be all for it!

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11. The Rev Kev January 1, 2026 at 8:56 am

    “Sinkholes and Quake-Hit Roads Expose Japan’s Infrastructure Emergency”

    It may be that over time that whole sections of Japan will have to be abandoned and allowed to go back to the wilderness. Some people may choose to stay there but they will be essentially using their own resources to do so. With a shrinking population and consequently a shrinking tax basis what choice will there be? They will not be able to maintain the infrastructure so will be one day forced to do a sort of triage – what should be maintained, what could be maintained and what should just be let go.

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    1. Wukchumni January 1, 2026 at 9:54 am

       We have fewer young drivers i’d daresay, and a shrinking tax basis combined with a shrinking population of those capable of operating a motor vehicle.

       Before Pearl Harbor, the way to make the big bickies was in road construction, infrastructure, bridges, etc.

       A good many of the mountain roads I drive on were built in the 20’s and 30’s and have been maintained since.

       The winter of record for the southern Sierra in 2022-23 did so much damage to mountain roads, and one instance stands out.

       We had driven past the little town of Hartland which has Eshom Creek flowing by near the road, and it looks to have been higher at one point during the winter, but nothing too out of the ordinary, so we drive on a few miles and a log has been fallen across the 2 lane blacktop, impeding you further, as little Eshom Creek had caused a 60 foot stretch of empty across to the other side, and 30 feet deep!

       The fix had to be in the many millions for one part of a road that goes somewhere-yet hardly gets used… and damage from 2023 was everywhere, I showed the Superintendent here some video of the damage on Hwy 33 near Ojai, and he thought it might’ve been worse than here in Sequoia NP, which was boucoup severe!

       At some point the money gets scarce, and roads like that one near Hartland with sufficient damage close down for good, the outliers

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       1. ISL January 1, 2026 at 2:41 pm

          Hopefully the US 1 will open after several years in California soon, though, the ongoing storms have a veto. A beautiful drive that serves no economic purpose.

          Japan is trying to keep its megacity infrastructure up to date with China, and it’s not a surprise that rural areas sometimes get left behind. This is not novel – there is an entire Japanese literary concept – miyage no aware (from a philosophy course I took in the 80s) – the beauty in the decaying side of natural cycles, or the impermanence of being. But US pop culture don’t do melancholy.

          It’s an understanding that any civilization older than a century should have. But to the MSM, it’s a propaganda score about the failabilities of the rest of the world as it turns a blind eye inward – just drive cross country on backroads, or look at the homeless cities, or…

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    2. Knot Me January 2, 2026 at 3:13 pm

       Well in the lovely State of Maryland there has what appears a mismanagement of some $300,000,000 from the roads division. Maryland does have decent roads to drive on though 695 is never devoid of construction areas which slow traffic down considerably and add the fact the Key Bridge rebuilding is already off schedule as the Feds and the state haggle out the details. Anyway, the outrage about the mishandling of the roads budget was pushed into the backround by a flurry of other outrageous stories from other areas of the local government either by accident or design.

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12. KLG January 1, 2026 at 8:59 am

    Not your usual topic here, but this outrage has been percolating for a while. The Current Occupant has cancelled the 50-year lease the National Links Trust had to manage and renovate three public golf courses in Washington DC.

    As noted by Geoff Shackelford earlier this month “Three architects have signed up for the effort on a pro-bono basis: Gil Hanse at Rock Creek (where Phase I of a planned renovation just got underway), Beau Welling (Langston), and Tom Doak (East Potomac).” This is the equivalent of Frank Gehry or Frank Lloyd Wright in their primes agreeing to design your dream house for free and then supervise the construction.

    East Potomac in particular is a masterpiece only in need of recovery, which Doak (sometime commenter here) would do. Instead, the nation will now undoubtedly get overpriced, overcooked, gold-plated golf architecture slop plastered with TRUMP that the public golfer cannot afford. And so it continues.

    And with that I am going off to walk 18 holes in the cold with friends to ring in the new year.

    Happy New Year to all!

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13. DJG, Reality Czar January 1, 2026 at 9:05 am

    Two must-read long-form twixts:

    First, from StarBoySar:
    ‘So on one side you have the “United Pirates of America” staging a carrier cosplay tour under a National Security Strategy that literally bakes in “burden‑sharing and burden‑shifting”—a polite way of saying “allies, please die closer to China so Congress doesn’t have to explain the casualty list.” ‘

    Yep, instead of war as the continuation of politics by other means, we are seeing war as the health of the state and war as a limited-liability company. “Western” management techniques are bad enough when applied to grocery stores and agriculture. Now they extend to war.

    What we are also seeing is a replacement of the idea that “it’s turtles all the way down.” It’s cowards all the way down.

    Yanis Varoufakis points out the cowardice of immoralists like Rutte, von der Leyen, and Kallas. His long tweet is a must-read for understanding the crisis in the EU. The EU and NATO have a failed elite that cannot be cleared out, given that the failed elite still engages in austerity economics, lying, and outright repression. It’s cowards all the way down.

    Buon anno nuovo a tutti e tutte. As the Italians say, “Let’s have a good ending and a good beginning.”

    For my (mischievous) new year’s resolution, I propose bringing back face slapping.

    Bette Davis and face slapping, a meditation, with clips.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lc2smzPr84A

    Watch out, Mark Rutte.

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    1. ChrisRUEcon January 1, 2026 at 9:39 am

       DJGRealityCzar:

       Buon anno nuovo!

       I was about to give StarBoySar’s twiXt the #notAWordWasted award! It was a delicious read for all the reason you pointed out. I would only recall via paraphrase “fight to the last [insert-vassal-here]” as part of the cowardice paradigm, and further hope (nee predict) that 2026 will be the year of Vassal Bastilles™! May the people rise up against those selling them as hypersonic missile cannon fodder!

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       1. mrsyk January 1, 2026 at 7:56 pm

          A rather brief response from the Department of State, Response to China’s Military Exercise Near Taiwan,

          China’s military activities and rhetoric toward Taiwan and others in the region increase tensions unnecessarily. We urge Beijing to exercise restraint, cease its military pressure against Taiwan, and instead engage in meaningful dialogue. The United States supports peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and opposes unilateral changes to the status quo, including by force or coercion.

          Happy New Year all.

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          1. The Rev Kev January 1, 2026 at 8:44 pm

             You know, it would not be hard to reword that as a statement from China-

             ‘The US’s military activities and rhetoric toward Venezuela and others in the region increase tensions unnecessarily. We urge Washington to exercise restraint, cease its military pressure against Venezuela, and instead engage in meaningful dialogue. China supports peace and stability across the Caribbean and opposes unilateral changes to the status quo, including by force or coercion.’

             Hope you had a Happy New Years.

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14. LawnDart January 1, 2026 at 9:07 am

    Kinda important with regards to “social” media, so I’m tossing this out here: basically this series illustrates how Meta (Facebook, Instagram) actively facilitate fraud and online scams, because these fatten the bottom-line.

    So it’s not bad, evil enough, to shred the social fabric and pit people one against another just for melodrama, hype, and ad-dollars… I don’t know how they justify this in their minds, but by my calculations these threats should be actively reduced to zero– with or without the support of our current legal framework– especially in light of their current machinations utilizing AI, which to me is the societal equivalent of a neutron bomb.

    Meta created ‘playbook’ to fend off pressure to crack down on scammers, documents show

    As regulators press Meta to crack down on rogue advertisers on Facebook and Instagram, the social media giant has drafted a “playbook” to stall them. Internal documents seen by Reuters reveal its tactics, including efforts to make scam ads “not findable” when authorities search for them.

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    1. ChrisRUEcon January 1, 2026 at 9:28 am

       I’m hoping 2026 brings the demise of the #Zuckpire … ugh!

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       1. ArvidMartensen January 1, 2026 at 10:38 pm

          The Zuckpyre

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          1. ChrisRUEcon January 2, 2026 at 1:31 am

             #OMGLuvIt

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15. LadyXoc January 1, 2026 at 9:19 am

    Just tried to read the terribly long nyt piece on Ukraine but kept getting stuck on ideological phrases like “Russia’s maximalist aims” and the war’s root causes being “Kremlin shorthand for Mr. Putin’s bitterness over his country’s diminished post-Soviet world stature.” Danny Haiphong had Alexander Mercouris on his show last week and made the insightful observation that Trump wants to position himself as the mediator in the resolution in this war, which is IMPOSSIBLE because he is a direct party to this war. You cannot have it both ways: US supplying weapons, intelligence, satellite targeting coordinates, and officers in Kiev makes you a belligerent, not a third-party mediator.

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    1. wilroncanada January 1, 2026 at 5:00 pm

       To LadyXoc at 9:19 am
       Trump has positioned himself as mediator in the Hamas v Israel non-agreement on Israel’s part (the only adhering party was Hamas). He has also positioned himself as mediator in Pakistan v Afghanistan, Somalia v rebels & Somaliland and other breakpoints. All of those are celebrated by millions of USians who can’t find any of these countries on a wall-size globes with the names printed on them. So, his position depends partly on the ignorance of many millions of USians and the bullying of subordinate countries to support his B.S.

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       1. ChrisRUEcon January 2, 2026 at 1:42 am

          Your conclusion would have been true nine to twelve months ago and past. It is no longer universally true.

          1. The wars are no longer celebrated in large swaths of Trump’s base
          2. His base may be geographically ignorant, but they don’t need to be able to find any of those places on a map. All they need to know is that wars cost money, and they’re no longer happy with money spent on foreign wars before USians at home.

          Trump and his warmongering cabinet are killing the MAGA coalition. We’re lucky. The donkey Dems were never gonna do it.

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16. The Rev Kev January 1, 2026 at 9:19 am

    ‘mrredpillz jokaqarmy
    @JOKAQARMY1
    Hundreds of billionaires are on the same island 🏝 for new years eve 🤔’

    So I suppose that it is too late to set up a GoFundMe page to buy a second hand missile then? Frankly I think that it would be fun to set off an EM pulse over that island. All those billionaire with no working planes, mobiles, internet, cars, fridges, freezers – anything electronic. Give it three days and you would have Lord of the Flies and after a week the first instance of cannibalism would break out.

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    1. gk January 1, 2026 at 2:42 pm

       Which billionaire is Piggy?

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    2. Emma January 2, 2026 at 2:20 pm

       Now that’s a movie script that really needs to be made!

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17. ChrisRUEcon January 1, 2026 at 9:26 am

    #HappyNewYear

    Wishing Yves & The Entire NC Team, And Our Esteemed Commentariat A Happy, Healthy & Prosperous New Year!

    Reply ↓
18. Anonymous January 1, 2026 at 9:45 am

    msn.com has republished the WSJ article about China in Latin America:

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/china-signals-it-won-t-give-an-inch-to-the-us-in-latin-america/ar-AA1TnG9f

    I am not able to archive WSJ articles anymore, but can often use the headline to find them a few hours late on msn.com

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19. The Rev Kev January 1, 2026 at 10:08 am

    ‘Lord Bebo
    @MyLordBebo
    🇺🇦🇷🇺 24 people died as a result of a Ukrainian drone strike on a cafe in the Kherson region on New Year’s Eve
    Civilians hit celebrating new years:
    “Three Ukranian drones hit a cafe and a hotel on the Black Sea coast in Kherson region.’

    As Trump would say, there is going to be hell to pay. It wasn’t enough that the Ukrainians targeted a bunch of civilians celebrating New Year’s Eve but they used incendiaries to burn them to death. After the attack on Putin, the attack on Moscow as Putin was giving his New Year’s speech and now this massacre you can bet that the Russians will be hardening their attitudes here and I am not talking about the elite or the military but the ordinary people themselves.

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20. flora January 1, 2026 at 10:14 am

    From Due Dissidence guys, utube, ~24+ minutes.

    Nick Shirley PSY OP Takes Hold as Israel PUTS MOVES On Somaliland

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

    This starts slow but gets into something important, imo.

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21. pjay January 1, 2026 at 10:25 am

    – ’25 Worst Villains of the Trump Admin’ – MEDIAS+ (resilc). Sadly the list is marred by the writer having a bad case of Putin Derangement Syndrome, but hopefully you can filter that out.

    Reading this I have the same reaction I always do when reading critical exposes of the Trump administration by the liberal media. On the one hand, I agree with most of the criticisms, and the overall evilness ascribed to most of these individuals. On the other hand, I have a very hard time filtering out the oblivious bias of the author, since (as has been said here many times), Trump is not the ultimate cause, but the result of decades of bipartisan disintegration in the US political process.

    This bias is demonstrated in the Russia/Putin derangement of the author, as Yves notes. His primary criticisms of Gabbard, Colby, and Witkoff (at least) were that they are insufficiently warmongering toward Russia – “in Putin’s pocket” as he says about Witkoff. But even more telling was who he left off the list completely: Little Marco Rubio, the neocons’ neocon. Recall that when many of these officials requiring Congressional approval were undergoing partisan interrogation, Rubio sailed through confirmation unanimously. I guess one person’s “villain” is another’s patriotic resistance hero.

    That said, I have no objection to putting Stephen Miller at #1. So there’s that.

    Reply ↓
    1. Screwball January 1, 2026 at 11:52 am

       You are correct about Rubio; 99-0 he sailed through. Perhaps the worse pick Trump made, and it sets him up to run in 2028. Oh goody! Makes me wonder how much of what’s going on in SA is because of this monumental creep.

       Reply ↓
22. AG January 1, 2026 at 10:39 am

    re: Hollywood

    The Billionaires’ Brawl: Hollywood’s Top Dealmakers of 2025

    David Zaslav sparks a bidding war to sell Warner Bros., Lachlan Murdoch is rebuilding the Fox empire and Bob Iger is getting Disney into the AI gold rush. Inside the year that reshaped the industry.
    https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/hollywood-top-dealmakers-2025/a-massive-nbcuniversal-poach/

    Of course, single years never reshape anything.

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23. AG January 1, 2026 at 10:57 am

    re: Ukraine Civil War and post

    recommended

    I mentioned frm OSCE Benoît Paré and Patrik Baab before.

    But I urge everyone to listen to the interview in English.
    It is the second best thing to reading Paré´s book which is 600 pages long.
    And among the most important testimonies this year, including Paré´s earlier appearances on NEUTRALITY STUDIES and GLENN DIESEN.

    I am curious about what Paré will come up with in his planned Bucha study.

    On that note also I am waiting eagerly for James´s Carden´s book about the Democtratic Party planned for 2026.

    The truth from Donbass – What Western media are hiding
    97 min.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-BEwZnyZUQ

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24. diptherio January 1, 2026 at 11:08 am

    Re: Varoufakis and AI fakes
    The same thing is happening to Mearsheimer, and I’m sure others as well. And the fakes are pretty good. Anyone who has done a lot of zoom interviews is easy fodder for whoever is doing this.

    Reply ↓
    1. AG January 1, 2026 at 1:41 pm

       I only saw one Varoufakis fake. I felt it was off after 1 minute.
       Especially for the content. So expertise and real sense cannot be really fabricated.
       Those are based on decades of building knowledge.
       That is actually a very interesting aesthetic truism.
       Using existing work and turning parts of it into your own with success is very very difficult and rare.
       E.g. when you use parts from another novel for your own or story constructions from other films for your own piece.
       In 99 out of 100 cases it will not work.
       Gus van Sant elaborated on this phenomenon which must be a deeper epistemic truth in his mainstream but excellent “Finding Forrester” (2000).

       Reply ↓
25. Mikel January 1, 2026 at 12:05 pm

    “…But I have NEVER seen the CME raise margins on a major commodity by 30% overnight…”
    NoLimit (@NoLimitGains)

    I understand that the poster is pointing out potential problems with that action.
    But…
    My mind wanders to why the particular players on a limb think they are entitled to easy margin in the casino?
    Seems to be the origin of the potential problem.

    Reply ↓
26. Mikel January 1, 2026 at 12:28 pm

    “Hundreds of billionaires are on the same island 🏝 for new years eve” 🤔 pic.twitter.com/6eZ5EeZeq7

    For the most part, it’s not the big toys and extravagant spending that people will begrudge.
    (The cheerleaders of the econimic order like to wave away the concerns as “envy”).
    People are just fuming about the number of silly and/or destructive ideas they could be gathering to discuss.

    Nice touch for the poster to show the proximity to that other famous island.

    Reply ↓
    1. Wukchumni January 1, 2026 at 12:35 pm

       It all went great for the hundreds of Illionaires on the island-with Elon in charge of coconut derivatives, and then they all starved to death as there were no coconuts on the island.

       Reply ↓
27. Jason Boxman January 1, 2026 at 12:53 pm

    My first run in with PeopleSoft was when UF ditched their home grown stuff, as many universities must have been at that time, and moved to off the shelf trash. In 2003-05. It was bad. Around this time everyone moved to Microsoft or Google for campus email.

    It should have been open source.

    And I was just a very rare user for my time card or something.

    Reply ↓
28. Michael Fiorillo January 1, 2026 at 1:04 pm

    Those YouTube deepfakes referred to by Varoufakis seem to be customized: my video feed recently received clips “by” him and Prof. Richard Wolff on a topic I occasionally follow (silver/precious metals markets) in ways that neither of them would address in their actual videos, if at all, i.e. as if they were silver bugs. Though the videos are immediately recognizable as AI, it’s still impressive, in a sinister way.

    YouTube has almost overnight become an AI wasteland.

    Reply ↓
    1. semper loquitur January 1, 2026 at 1:44 pm

       As you probably know I’m on Youtube all the time. It’s suddenly become filled with videos advertising “Classical Music” or “Classical Indian Music”, some clocking in at 3 plus hours. All of them have AI “artwork”. I’m pretty sure it’s all AI “music”.

       Reply ↓
    2. ISL January 1, 2026 at 2:47 pm

       I always look at the channel name, and immediately indicate I do not want anything from that channel. I think less are appearing on my feed.

       Reply ↓
    3. The Rev Kev January 1, 2026 at 6:05 pm

       I think that at the moment that about 20% of YouTube videos are AI slop and that number would be increasing. But as far as YouTube would be concerned, it’s all money.

       Reply ↓
29. Mikel January 1, 2026 at 1:37 pm

    John Helmer and Dmitri Liscaris discussion: juicy.

    Reply ↓
30. Mikel January 1, 2026 at 2:02 pm

    Saudis v. UAE…

    Looking at this flare up, something was mentioned in an article in links yesterday:
    Saudi Arabia bombs UAE shipment in Yemen and calls out Emirati role – Middle East Eye

    “Saudi state media said there were no casualties from the air strike, and that the raid was conducted in accordance with international humanitarian law.
    An STC representative told Middle East Eye that they disagreed with this assessment, and said the attack targeted “civilian infrastructure”.
    “It’s a clear violation of human rights and places civilians in danger,” Mohamed Alsahimi, head of the STC’s UK office, told MEE…”

    I don’t know how many global offices they have, but that little note flashes like a neon light.

    Reply ↓
31. Es s Ce Tera January 1, 2026 at 4:06 pm

    re: US forces strike 3 alleged narco-trafficking vessels in international waters Anadolu Agency

    What will the admin say and do when in a few years a vaccine is approved which blocks fentanyl addiction (perhaps opioid addiction)? As in, solving the drug problem overnight without killing anyone?

    Reply ↓
32. ISL January 1, 2026 at 6:59 pm

    Five fails and five successes of the Trump foreign policy on Resp SCraft was a reach (and why?), relying heavily on the NSS for a positive (other commentators have asked whether a NSS has ever had any effect on policy, and conclude nope), talking at Russians (but not listening and thus not communicating is a big positive)? And 5 on the positive (congressional alignment to take on war powers) is canceled by 5 on the negative (congress failing on war powers).

    Again, one wonders why such a tortured effort by the Quincy Institute – with Trump you either are singing superlatives or you are the enemy.

    Reply ↓
33. Acacia January 1, 2026 at 7:32 pm

    Re: New images reveal what really happens when stars explode

    It seems that many of these articles about “new images” of distant phenomena don’t actually include the images, but are mainly reporting what astronomers say about them, why they are so impressive, etc. We do get an “artist’s impression” but why not the actual images in question?

    Reply ↓