Siberian tiger crosses 200-km stretch of Russian forest to meet former mate WION
A tiny organism is mysteriously repairing its DNA to defy death in Chernobyl India Today
Ancient inscription could rewrite history of Christianity north of Italy, archaeologists say CBS
Amb. Chas Freeman: The US Endgame in Syria and Ukraine (video) Dialogue Works, YouTube
Col. Larry Wilkerson: Will Israel’s Expansion Policies Trigger Catastrophic Consequences? (video) Dialogue Works, YouTube
Climate
Global warming can’t be ignored, Montana’s top court says, upholding landmark climate case AP
Carbon emissions from tourism are rising disproportionately fast The Economist
Syndemics
Biden administration places profits over lives, fueling the spread of H5N1 bird flu WSWS
Palestinians: Israel Demanding Release of 34 Hostages, 42-day Cease-fire in First Stage of Deal Haaretz
China?
China’s Benchmark Bond Yield Steadies After Central Bank Calls in ‘Aggressive’ Traders YiCai Global
Income of China’s rural residents soars over the past decade CGTN
Wang Zibo: China’s ‘wealth-flaunting’ influencer fined 13.3 million yuan for tax evasion Channel News Asia
New York man pleads guilty in Chinese ‘secret police station’ case Channel News Asia
A Chinese Internet Phrasebook Asterisk
Don’t Speak Chinese: Stigma and Fear in Cambodia’s Chinese Community The Diplomat
China and India agree on six-point consensus as they resume high-level border talks South China Morning Post
Myanmar
ASEAN Needs to Rethink Its Myanmar Strategy The Diplomat
The fighting peacock: Myanmar’s NLD on the front lines Frontier Myanmar
Yangon, Mandalay Deserted After Dark as Myanmar Junta Hunts for Conscripts The Irrawaddy
Africa
Macron lands in cyclone-hit Mayotte bringing food and health aid BBC
Syraqistan
Turkish FM denies Trump claim of ‘unfriendly takeover’ by Turkiye in Syria Al Jazeera
Turkey plans to run Syria through a parallel structure, according to secret plan Nordic Monitor
* * * Israeli curbs on Gaza water supplies are ‘acts of genocide’, rights agency says FT
* * * The Balkan Scenario New Left Review
Lebanon and Syria: My Interview for L’Indipendente Craig Murray
* * * Unplanned bank closures spark public outcry amid Iran’s gas crisis BNE Intellinews
New Not-So-Cold War
As Trump Turns Away From Ukraine, Even Supporters in Congress Rethink Aid NYT. The deck: “Reality has set in on Capitol Hill that with President-elect Donald J. Trump poised to take office, the era of U.S. military support for Ukraine is coming to an end.”
Zelenskyy: Ukraine lacks military strength to recover its Russian-occupied land VoA
NATO takes over coordination of military aid to Kyiv from US, source says Reuters
* * * Russian Strategic Forces Chief Details New Hypersonic Weapons Programs: Assesses Prospects Against Latest NATO Missile Defences Military Watch
Zelenskyy rejects Putin’s call to downsize Ukraine’s Armed Forces: Strong, large army is best Ukrainska Pravda
* * * Will Trump let Putin get Ukraine’s $26 trillion in gas and minerals? WaPo
South of the Border
Peru’s New Chinese Megaport Reveals a Refined Belt and Road Maritime Executive
Trump Transition
FT Person of the Year: Donald Trump FT
* * * Trump urges Republicans to sink government spending bill, puts federal offices at risk of shutting down Anadolu Agency
Trump brings chaos back to Washington by attempting to kill bipartisan budget deal with Musk’s help AP
DOGE Can’t Do It All. Here’s What It Can Do. Politico
* * * Trump demands renegotiations in bipartisan budget deal days before shutdown deadline PBS
GOP battle erupts over Social Security bill The Hill
A key Trump ally on immigration explains how mass deportations could work AP
Donald Trump’s pledges seep into Federal Reserve’s outlook FT
* * *
Realignment and Legitimacy
Political Investments (interview) Thomas Ferguson, Phenomenal World. Today’s must-read.
KYP 2024 statewide special convention The Kentuckian
Mystery Drones
‘Nothing nefarious’: Biden seeks to reassure US over drone mystery BBC. Commentary:
NEW: Michael Shellenberger has obtained a recording of the White House’s drone briefing for New Jersey mayors which included the FBI, DHS and FAA.
“The mayors are livid. One of them got up there and said, ‘I had two automobile-sized drones hovering over my house.'” pic.twitter.com/N4NHk0wHcX
— UAP James (@UAPJames) December 17, 2024
Radiation levels in New York spike as mysterious drones terrorize the Northeast Daily Mail. Hmm.
“We Are Getting Lasered”: Nearly a Dozen Planes Lasered Last Night During New Jersey Drone Panic 404 Media
Spook Country
DHS Says China, Russia, Iran, and Israel Are Spying on People in US with SS7 404 Media
Supply Chain
Guardians of the Rails: A Deep Dive into Railroad Crossing Safety (Part 1) Frederick R. Smith Speaks (MT).
Imperial Collapse Watch
Class Warfare
Amazon workers to strike in US during busy Christmas season Al Jazeera
2024 in Review: Strikes and Organizing Score Gains, but Storm Clouds Loom Labor Notes
Expropriate Them All! 3 Quarks Daily
The Economy Has Failed the American People, But It’s Taboo To Say Why Charles Hugh Smith, Of Two Minds
An Optimist’s Guide to a Chaotic World Bloomberg
Antidote du jour (Stormbringer76):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Man In A White Van
(melody borrowed from Frosty The Snowman by Walter Rollins and Steve Nelson, as sung by Gene Autry and the Cass County Boys, 1950)
He drove a white van that would barely start or roll
He smelled pretty ripe in his tattered clothes and he loved his zydeco
A renaissance man from New Orleans he would say
He looked old and wise or a good disguise how could someone live this way?
To be homeless is so tragic but there’s lots of it around
You stand in line for soup and bread and you sleep right on the ground
Hey, there goes that old man with a tossed out Christmas tree
It’s so cold today, snow is on the way, but he’s happy and carefree
(musical interlude)
Lights in the white van parked beyond our slick driveway
When the pizzas come let’s go give him some ’cause this snow is gonna stay
Can’t shake the image of him sleeping in his van
It does not feel fair we’ve enough to share who can ignore that old man?
We brought him out some pizza with near everything on top
He had no heat inside his van just some blankets piled on top
That night the old man fell asleep and passed away
Then the cops came by for some frozen guy and they towed that van away
To be homeless is so tragic but there’s lots of it around
You stand in line for soup and bread and you sleep right on the ground
Farewell you old man, at the age of sixty three
Potter’s field they say where the nameless lay but you’re in my memories
Man in a white van, Man in a white van, you chose when to go
Man in a white van, Man in a white van, someone I used to know
I knew this guy. He lived in a graffiti covered white van on the block. He called me Flacco, I called him Papi and gave him drinkin’ money from time to time. He eventually lost his van to the city. Homeless in the era of Covid. I haven’t seen him in a couple of years now, so I’m not sure how his story plays out.
“Will Trump let Putin get Ukraine’s $26 trillion in gas and minerals?”
I thought by the tone of it that it was written by Lindsey Graham but no, it was written by Marc Thiessen. Who is he when he is at home? Why a former speechwriter for George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld and also a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He is basically saying that the Ukraine’s mineral wealth belongs to America but for that to be true, it would require a US occupation army in the Ukraine so this will happen. Trump has made clear that he is bailing out of the Ukraine and dumping the whole mess on the Europeans, even though Project Ukraine was an American plan from the get go. I am sure that the Russians would not care if the Ukrainians developed their mineral wealth so long as it was not spent on a massive army to once more attack Russia with but Thiessen wants all this wealth to be spent on buying weapons – American weapons – and have the whole country be a standing threat to Russia.
Wow…just wow. Could have been written and the article published circa 2006, just change the location from Ukraine to Iraq and make adjustments for all the finely determined , untapped stores of wealth within the country sovereign borders.
Adding onto his example of that $180 billion invested…by the bye didn’t the US “invest” trillions over the decades into the aforementioned Iraq? No wait those were funds that were “directed” largely on no bid contracts. The banking accounts for say Erik Prince had never looked better (not sarcasm it’s reality).
Need to find a vomit bag.
Can we stop buffing a shine on them “gas and minerals”, lol. Don’t look up.
95% of the gold deposits in California are still underfoot, and yeah finding it all could be tricky, but were gonna use it as collateral for a $5 trillion loan.
About 2/3rds of the gas and minerals are already in areas under the control of Russia, so its not much ‘letting’.
Thiessen wants all this wealth to be spent on buying weapons – American weapons – and have the whole country be a standing threat to Russia.
Everyone can dream.
Always nice to see the imperialists bare their fangs. The faction represented by Thiessen (neocons) believe the word belongs to Washington and its allies in London, Israel and a number of networked oligarchs around the world. Washington has seen itself as the new Rome and now the dream is threatened so these types are coming out of the closet. They hate Russia/China because they stand in the way of complete world domination. They honestly believe their own BS.
“…..even though Project Ukraine was an American plan from the get go.”
I wouldn’t let the EU off so easily. It was actually the proposed EU-UKR Association Agreement (or to be exact, UKR’s refusal to sign it in November 2013) that really started the ball rolling towards today’s mess. The USA’s pyromaniacs have added plenty of fuel to the fire, but the EU lit the fuse.
It will be ironic if (as I have long expected) the USA walks away and dumps the UKR fiasco back into the EU’s lap. “F**k the EU” indeed, as Vicky Cookies famously said in 2014.
You’re quite right. The Europeans were all in on this plan right from the start as they wanted a share of the spoils and I have read years ago accounts of where some UK/EU nations were selecting which parts of Russia they wanted for themselves. Twice now I have read accounts of EU criticizing Russian officials to their faces that their country was just too damn big. Not sure if they had a plan to secure Russia’s 5,580 nukes or not. Perhaps they just planned to wing it.
So the entire Ukraine project from, oh let’s say 2014 for convenience if not accuracy, … the entire Ukraine project had nothing to do with “Democracy and human rights”, but has always been nothing more than an attempted smash and grab robbery attempt?
Any thug can knock off a bank. It takes a certain style to knock off a Federation.
Is “fellow” the new word for cøcksŭcker?
It is in the nature of the Hegemon to act as a hegemon would, the scorpion that stung the turtle while riding on his back after promising not to acted in the nature of a scorpion. The world’s resources are the AngloAmerican’s elites to exploit.
>Musk’s claim of a 40% increase to Congress in the CR
Members of Congress currently earn $174,000 annually — more than 90 percent of American… “If enacted, this CR would allow for a 2025 adjustment of 3.8 percent, which would result in a Member salary increase of $6,600.”
Mr. Fact Checker chimes in with the above statement, countering Elon Musk’s Statement that Congress is sneaking in a 40% increase in the CR. Given that a sizeable portion of Congress are millionaires, not such a big deal apparently these days according to some, should they get any pay raise? I’m of a mixed mind. They certainly should not get any increase above ECI rate.
https://www.factcheck.org/2024/12/congress-not-proposing-to-give-themselves-40-raise/
I think it would be fair to give Congress cost of living increases that match those given to Social Security recipients.
>Political Investments (interview) Thomas Ferguson, Phenomenal World. Today’s must-read.
…voters [are] preoccupied with life and work are uninformed when it comes to the finer points of foreign trade; the federal budget; or the determinants of investment, unemployment, and inflation. If they must select among candidates and platforms decided elsewhere, how are those choices defined? …the complex of business corporations and their financiers—whose growth plans would be made or broken by changes to tax law, regulation, foreign policy, and exchange rates—significantly shape candidate nominations, electoral campaigns, and the careers of politicians. In a money-driven campaign and media system, these are the contributions that matter most.
The short of it is the iron law of oligarchy is just that, an iron law. The few connected, economically powerful. and focused, groups are “what matter most.” All the bellowing on blogospheres andsocial media, amount to little. The “media system” will provide cover/distractions as the behind the scene forces, what some call the “cyrpto-acracy” are the ones that determine the form and content of legislation. No matter how morally abhorrent the genocide in Gaza is or how repugnant the likes of Lindsey Graham and other war-mongers are, or, how Congress gives a standing ovation to the likes of Netanyahu, my “political investment” is dwarfed by those that matter in the political sphere.
RE: An Optimist’s Guide to a Chaotic World
Or more accurately how Votlaire’s Candide and Panglossian positivism always works for the best.
I don’t agree that Pinker is a Dr. Pangloss–his figures are correct. Just look at the change in China and other Asian countries who have done amazing things to alleviate poverty. On the whole, the world has better health and life expectancy has gone up in most of the world with the stunning and staggering exception of the USA. What Pinker does not seem to recognize is spiritual and psychological health which, within the West (as far as I can see) is not good compared to former times. Certainly in the USA at least if you are working class you are by any measure worse off than you were a half-century ago but the rich and upper middle are doing very well from a material POV.
Leonard Bernstein ‘Best of All Possible Worlds’ (with a great cast):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3ANMTxGVIw&ab_channel=arnau884
“Trump demands renegotiations in bipartisan budget deal days before shutdown deadline”
Musk seems to be involved too and it looks like they will refuse to pass that 1,547-page bill until Trump is sworn in as President. Of course that will leave millions of US federal workers without paychecks but I do not think that Trump or Musk would really care. They probably want to fire most of them anyway. There is a way for the Democrats to spike this move. They could propose a “clean” bill that covers only the wages of those federal workers and leave the rest up for negotiation when Trump becomes President. Of course the Democrats will do not such thing as they will want to make Trump look bad so will not care if those federal workers are left without pay. So perhaps Trump can spike this by proposing his own “clean” bill that covers only the wages of those federal workers and dare the Democrats to vote it down.
How is it humanly possible to write a 1500+ page bill that simply extends funding for the government at current levels for 3 months, even with an extra $100B in disaster aid (with 10% cut for the big guy?)
I mean, that sounds like at best a 10-pager to silly old me. Even with the legalese, and a clause or two for farm aid.
There was this thing called “an election” a month or so ago. And Mike Johnson really has to go.
An RT article say that the bill-
‘includes a pay raise for lawmakers, $100 billion for disaster relief funding and $10 billion in economic assistance for farmers, numerous provisions including foreign investment restrictions and new health care policies, among other authorizations.’
https://www.rt.com/news/609581-musk-trump-spending-bill/
I believe that they are called riders.
E Z Riders!
Taj Mahal
I said see, D.C. rider
Oh, see what you have done (Yeah, yeah, yeah)
I said see (D.C rider) appropriations rider (D.C. rider)
Oh, see, (D.C. rider) what you have done
(Yeah, yeah, yeah)
Oh girl, you made me voluminous
Now, now, now, your porkulus has gone
(D.C. rider) Girl what’d I say (D.C. rider)
Well, I’m going away, baby
And I won’t be back till inauguration
(Yeah, yeah, yeah)
And I’m going away baby
And I won’t be back till inauguration
(Yeah, yeah, yeah)
Well, if there’s regular order
I won’t, I won’t, I won’t be back at all
Girl what’d I say
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlXzyY7gA4k
Aporkolypse now!
I believe you just wrote it on a cocktail napkin.
Watching the Fire Industrial Complex here during the Coffee Pot Fire milk the system was illuminating, although they had the excuse that a conflagration needed to be quelled.
The graft is in the tens of millions though, not the tens of billions.
>The Economy Has Failed the American People, But It’s Taboo To Say Why Charles Hugh Smith, Of Two Minds
Tell me what’s taboo and I’ll tell you the truths that threaten the status quo. As in Kafka’s novel The Castle, the nobility’s power structure is obscured, and the castle is bustling with activity–but very little productive results of this 24/7 activity ever waft down to the impoverished residents of the village.
I agree with almost all the points Smith makes except for the last one above. The equivalent to modern day “nobility” is much more clever then times past. They have many more powerful tools at their disposal. As Michael Hoffman’s “revelation of the method” convincingly argues, it’s not by obscuring “taboos” but by making them public in various contexts that is the mechanism by which the “power structure” have chosen to operate. Put the truth or taboo subject in a the mouth of an Alex Jones or someone who is generally seen as a quack, conspiracy theorist, bigot, anti-Semite, etc…and they, the “nobility,” have deflected and defused the “impoverished residents” anger and threat.
They may not be as clever as they think they are and the name of Smith’s blog is “of two minds.”
“As I explained in All Three Pillars Holding Up the Economy Have Cracked, the three mechanisms used to fill this gap–government subsidies, cheap credit and asset bubbles–are all self-liquidating systems due to their inner dynamics. Simply put, debt eventually consumes all the seed corn, and all asset bubbles pop.”
Which if true (and surely it is) then the “neo feudalists” are going to have a much shorter reign than the previous edition. In fact we already see their edifice cracking with widespread scorn for their propaganda arm decadence in their MIC enforcement arm.
And while this may not give much comfort for the peasantry here’s suggesting that TINA is more about fooling themselves than everyone else.
re: Istanbul talks 2022
BERLINER ZEITUNG with comment on this interview by former Swiss ambassador Jean-Daniel Ruch via Arnaud Bertrand’s X:
https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1869270449030668620?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1869270449030668620%7Ctwgr%5E1dbe15a02f78415916e8cd1c7b3cfece0f7218de%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.berliner-zeitung.de%2Fpolitik-gesellschaft%2Fgeopolitik%2Fschweizer-ex-botschafter-zum-ukrainekrieg-usa-schuld-an-abbruch-der-istanbul-verhandlungen-li.2282801
German BERLINER ZEITUNG has a new short piece quoting statements by former Swiss ambassador Jean-Daniel Ruch who says the US/EU put high pressure on Kiev to not engage further in those talks.
Now NC forum knows this but the BZ text is accompanied by a nauseating tone of insinuating lies and allegations all by the RUs. As if any of this has still to be doubted – unless a Swiss dude says the opposite.
Ruch naturally fancies those fairy-tales of RU being in fact weakend, but also the EU while the US is not.
Wow, what expertise.
Ruch’s views while voiced in this new interview are not new in themselves. He already said this earlier this year.
Here the BZ text by – sigh – Nicolas Butylin (yeah! the name says it all)
Swiss ex-ambassador: USA is responsible for the breakdown of the Istanbul negotiations
There are many myths surrounding the failure of the Istanbul peace talks on the Ukraine war. The former Swiss ambassador to Turkey now comments on this in an interview.
https://archive.is/pipJQ
“A tiny organism is mysteriously repairing its DNA to defy death in Chernobyl”
Uhh, they’re worms. Could it be that living under several inches of dirt gave them protection from the worse effects of the radiation?
DOGE…article from Politico is a fairly balanced reading of the tea leaves. There is much that can’t be done, or highly unlikely without action from Congress. And if Elon Musk or his co chair Vivek have an inkling of what they aspire to cut or downsize, it is apparent focusing on bloat seems an easy target. Bloat can show itself in many forms, be it a vast bureaucracy headcount or paying large rent and tenant fees on office space. Federal employees perform valued services of course, I grant that much but honestly it’s as though Washington, DC real estate never suffers in the least but only goes upward. I’m sure that rhetorical billions flowed through all those ancient districts of Rome just the same.
Cutting two trillion seems a lofty goal, I’ll be somewhat amazed if they get to $100 billion overall. Lots of pearl clutching from Senators or Reps if or when those cuts start to impact the interests of the US citizens they appear to represent. Jokes at the expense of this DOGE initiative are pretty easy to write up..
A blind man before a dartboard could locate bloat with each toss.
We refer to the local Dollar General as DOGE.
When a DOGE shows up-typically on the outskirts of town, you know your community has been targeted as downscale and worthy of a store that has the feel of a 7-11 that wanted to be a Wal*Mart, but only had 4,600 sq feet to work with.
Man bites Doge.
The Amur Tiger love story is the ultimate antidote and a must read. How did Svetlaya call Boris? And the photo. They look so satisfied.
It must have been a helluva scene when those two tigers met up again finally face to face. Maybe the last part of the journey was guided by them roaring to each other over a distance.
Feds quietly ban liability for vax makers through Trump’s full term as FDA exposes RSV trial harm
https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/feds-quietly-ban-liability-vax-makers-through-trumps-full-term-fda
Go, tell it on the mountain
Over the hills and everywhere
Go, tell it on the mountain
That Elon Musk is bored
While SpaceX engineers kept watching
O’er silent flocks by night
Behold throughout the heavens
There shone a Starlink light
Go, tell it on the mountain
Over the hills and everywhere
Go, tell it on the mountain
That Elon Musk is bored
The astronomers feared and trembled
When, lo! Above the Earth
Rang out the satellite chorus
That hailed our savior’s berth
Go, tell it on the mountain
Over the hills and everywhere
Go, tell it on the mountain
That Elon Musk is bored
Down in a lowly DC manger
Our humble Elon was bored
And brought us all salvation
That blessed January 20th morn
Go, tell it on the mountain
Over the hills and everywhere
Go, tell it on the mountain
That Elon Musk is bored
…that Elon Musk is bored
Our rocket man seems to be raising the specter of taking the Beltway Bandits private. Kind of like how corporate raiders will takeover the board of a public company, slash the dividend, and demand that they give up control or else they’ll be bankruptcy court by Sunday evening.
It would be kind of amusing to see House Speaker Elon Musk. Imagine seeing Nancy holding a box full of her office knick-knacks, looking forlorn on the steps of the Capitol. Or just imagine Mike Johnson having to go back home and manage a Popeye’s off of I-10 in Louisiana.
I used to think Johnson wasn’t long for the world, but he’s got staying power, an ersatz Clark Kent in search of a phone booth* to turn into a caped crusader for Christ.
* whatever happened to Superman’s civilian clothes after donning the uniform?
p.s.
I’m still holding out for potentially the return of Kev y Dev to Humordor. Devin’s gonna be in charge of national intelligence, while my ex would take just about any old cabinet position to be back with the gang, and a player.
Maybe if the Gaetz imbroglio is salacious enough, the Donald invites him back in the fold?
No chance that your Kev could be seen as Governor material one day?
We’re about due for a Governor who ain’t blue, but Kev would never do.
Never mix the practical with the magical. It confuses each sphere.
Tourism is done, and not just because of the carbon emissions. Turns out it doesn’t scale endlessly.
I chose Craig Murray for blogger of the year on my year end list. From today’s Link:
I don’t know what kind of reach L’Independent has but saying stuff like that can get you in trouble in some countries. He’s been very busy this year and seems to be using his time, resources and platform effectively and courageously. I am grateful.
—
I am ofc also grateful to Yves, Lambert and the whole NC team. You got my award every year so far.
I think people shining lasers at airplanes because of frothing drone hysteria is a good case for how severe Long COVID brain damage is affecting the general public.
And it’ll just keep getting better :)
Drones and lasers oh my, article here:
https://archive.ph/BIdF3
Trump, FT (and Time’s) “Person of the Year”. Why not I guess. My vote was for the Adjuster.
Looking for odds on Trump getting the Nobel for peace.
There is only one Trump. There can be many Adjustors. Just sayin’.
“How The U.S. Navy’s Cruiser Modernization Failed”
Soooo, I guess the whole plan of sending the US Navy to confront China off their waters is on hold for the moment?
Panay et Circenses?