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Links 1/1/2026

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Dear patient readers,

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 let us not forget:

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What is Nifty Nugget? NDAA revives 47-year-old military exercise Military Times (Kevin W)

New images reveal what really happens when stars explode ScienceDaily (Kevin W)

Incandescent anger aeon

#COVID-19/Pandemics

Emerging SARS-CoV-2 Variant RE.1.1 On Track to Dominate and Spark New COVID-19 Surges Thailand Medical News

Climate/Environment

‘There’s no water any more’: How palm oil plantations drained a Guatemalan rainforest community Irish Times (resilc)

China?

Today’s must read:

Xi Jinping vows to reunify China and Taiwan in New Year’s Eve speech Guardian

US or China: Whose bubbles will loom larger in 2026? Asia Times (Kevin W)

Condom tax and cheaper childcare: China’s plan to boost birth rates BBC

No Winter is Insuperable – A New Year’s Message Pekinology

China calls on Netherlands to correct ‘mistake’ over chipmaker Nexperia Aljazeera (Kevin W)

Behind Oklahoma Cannabis Farms, New Yorkers With Ties to Beijing New York Times (resilc)

Japan

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

South of the Border

China Signals It Won’t Give an Inch to the U.S. in Latin America Wall Street Journal. No archived version yet.

Trump Can’t Keep Quiet About the CIA Attack in Venezuela Daniel Larison

Oil Tanker Fleeing the Coast Guard Now Listed in Russian Ship Database New York Times (resilc)

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

European Disunion

Macron vows to serve ‘until the last second’ of presidency Le Monde

Authorities investigating damage to undersea telecom cables between Finland and Estonia Euronews

Israel v. The Resistance

How the Return of Piped Water to Gaza Poses New Risks for Disease and Pollution – Which Could Flood Into Israel Haaretz

Neocons Premature Celebration Over Protests in Iran Larry Johnson

The Precursors for War are in Place. Iran is the Peg to Intense Political Jockeying to define the Post-Trump Future Alastair Crooke (Chuck L)

Saudis v. UAE

Saudi Arabia and UAE bank on different military strengths in Yemen rivalry Middle East Eye (resilc)

US, UAE confer on regional security amid calls for Yemen restraint Middle East Online

New Not-So-Cold War

2025 End of Year Wrap-Up and Battlefield Projections for 2026 Simplicius

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)

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US finds Ukraine did not target Putin in drone strike: Report Anadolu Agency. The Russian footage really does not prove anything but Russia would not publish satellite info if such existed due to not wanting to expose their capabilities and limits. However, John Helmer and Dmitri Liscaris have pointed out “fog of propaganda” details, such as the oddly long time it took for Lavrov (and why Lavrov being the spokesperson on this issue being unusual) to accuse Ukraine, the fact that Putin’s residence is much closer to Latvia and Estonia than Ukraine, and that former Ukraine official Alexi Arestovich has claimed the target was a nuclear command center/bunker, which if so, would in Russia’s nuclear doctrine call for a nuclear response. Helmer stressed that only Arestovich made this claim.

Did the West try to kill Putin Julian Macfarlane. Larry Johnson has a parsimonious explanation, that the point was to (further) poison the negotiations, and Ukraine (or rather official Ukraine) may not have been involved.

Russia is Treating the Latest Drone Attack on the Putin Residence as Something More Sinister Than Just Another Terrorist Attack Larry Johnson. This is a newer post where he has an aside that Zelensky personally may not have been involved.

That does not mean the implications are not serious. Scott Ritter likes to paint in bright colors but that does not mean that he is directionally incorrect: Some thoughts regarding the Ukrainian drone attack that targeted President Putin

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10 moments that defined the Ukraine war in 2025 Ian Proud

2025: Battles and numbers Events in Ukraine

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A Two-Century Failure: European Russophobia and Europe’s Rejection of Peace Jeffrey Sachs. From last week. Apologies for not linking to this sooner.

Discussing Georgia with John Mearsheimer Ian Proud

Why’d Putin Only Lament The Loss Of Some Former Soviet Republics In His First Meeting With Bush? Andrew Korybko

It’s 2026 in Most of the World: Putin Greets it in Russia Karl Sanchez

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

State Sup Ct Says You Waive 4th Amendment Rights When Using Google YouTube

Newborn babies could be given Digital ID in ‘deeply sinister’ expansion of controversial Labour policy discussed in secret by ministers Daily Mail

Imperial Collapse Watch

The Price of American Authoritarianism Foreign Affairs. Robin K:

Be warned! They are keen on how bad Trump is, but (still) think Democrats are a cure. Lump together Hungary, Poland, Turkey (sic), and Venezuela. Nevermind that the first three are historically conservative societies, and that, by contrast, Chavez et al are left–and that they’ve had to govern under constant US sanctions and political pressures.

The Oil Company Drilled. The Government Slaughtered. Who Is Guilty? New York Times (resilc). This sort of thing should be routine as opposed to exceptional

Trump 2.0

Five restraint successes — and five absolute fails — in 2025 Responsible Statecraft

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.

Trump ends effort to bring National Guard to Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland Washington Post

Trump Delays New Tariff Hike on Furniture, Kitchen Cabinets Bloomberg. More TACO.

7 takeaways from Jack Smith’s congressional testimony Politico

U.S. removal of panels honoring Black soldiers at WWII cemetery in the Netherlands draws backlash NBC (resilc)

Lauren Boebert claims Trump’s veto of safe drinking water bill is retaliation Guardian (Kevin W)

Trump rips Colorado governor, DA over Tina Peters incarceration: ‘May they rot in hell’ The Hill

US federal agents investigate Minneapolis childcare centres BBC (Kevin W)

GOP Clown Car

Megyn Kelly BRUTALIZES Mark Levin!! Young Turks, YouTube

Supremes

Roberts avoids clashes with Trump in end-of-year judiciary report The Hill

Mamdani

Zohran Mamdani becomes first New York mayor sworn in using Koran Telegraph

Mamdani wants to change the tax code. Here’s what that could look like. Gothamist

Zohran Mamdani to press ahead with tax rises for New York City millionaires Financial Times. No archived version yet.

How California built one of the world’s biggest public-sector IT systems The Register. Too soon to tell if this goes under The Bezzle. Paul R notes: “I hadn’t heard about this before. Based on Peoplesoft, not a good sign these days.”

Our No Longer Free Press

The demise of Bari Weiss has already begun The Grayzone, YouTube. I hate to second-guess the great Max Blumenthal, but Bari Weiss floundering does not mean she is likely to be ousted all that soon. Look at the leadership of major governments all over the West. Serial screwups with low popular support stay in their post and do not seem to be going anywhere. Weiss was not hired to be competent at running a network. She was hired for abject loyalty to Israel and her willingness to take marching orders from the Ellisons, which means not caring about journalistic integrity.

The West has found a way to end free speech Ricky Hale and Council Estate Media. Fine long-form treatment of the disgraceful and alarming Jacques Baud case.

DOJ Sent Letters to Medical Journals. Then What Happened? MedPage Today

Mr. Market is Schizoid

A reader sent this tweet:

Veteran trader and MMT authority Warren Mosler was so gracious as to comment:

It’s limited to a few metals?

Not in currencies, rates, equities, lumber, grains, etc. etc?
Economic data softening post tariff and ev credit etc. front running but no dramatic collapse.
Even crypto vol is down after the large sell off?
Am I missing something?

When they raised margins on silver in 1980 with price hitting a high of maybe 60 it ended the rally.
Maybe they’re thinking same this time?
In any case, it’s a way to maybe cool some speculation.
But from the headlines from the last few days, seems maybe a ‘producer’ was hedging output with sales of
futures, and had margin calls large enough to force a short covering liquidation, causing the spike to 80.

Even though a producer or holder of physical silver has physical silver that was equally up in market value, lenders still limit how much they’ll lend against it which can force liquidation.

AI

Pax Silica and the weaponization of AI supply chains: The new front in US global economic warfare The Cradle

Yanis Varoufakis: Deepfakes of me are taking over YouTube YouTube

The Bezzle

Crackdown on crypto tax evasion comes into force Financial Times

Guillotine Watch

Chuck L: “Where are the Oreshniks when you need them?”

Billionaires added record $2.2tn in wealth in 2025 Guardian

Class Warfare

Over 6 million Americans on Medicare will now need to get prior authorization from AI for these 17 procedures MarketWatch (resilc)

The Deaths of Despair Crisis Was Underway Before Opioids Arrived SciTech Daily (Chuck L)

Investors are buying close to half the empty lots in LA burn zones, report says LAist (Paul R)

Antidote du jour (via):

A New Year’s bonus:

A second bonus:

And a third:

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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10 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    “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

      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…

      Reply ↓
  2. Randall Flagg

    >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.

    Reply ↓
  3. LawnDart

    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.

    Reply ↓
  4. Wukchumni

    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.

    Reply ↓
  5. The Rev Kev

    “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.

    Reply ↓
  6. Wukchumni

    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

    Reply ↓
  7. Wukchumni

    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.

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      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.

      Reply ↓
  8. Vicky Cookies

    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.

    Reply ↓

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