Dean Martin, born Dino Paul Crocetti, son of Italian immigrant Gaetano Crocetti Frank Sinatra, son of Italian immigrants Antonino Sinatra and Natalina Garavanta Merry Christmas to everyone except Stephen Miller and his enablers and handlers

It took courage by 'strong man' Pete Hegseth to mobilise the mighty power of the US ofA and bomb Nigeria..when no one was looking.

We are so close to the 10k signatures we need for the Government to respond to our @climatemajority.bsky.social petition calling for a funded National Climate Resilience Plan. Please sign now. It's a simple and easy thing you can do to make a difference. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73...

💉 💉 #VaccinationMatters

165,370 customers are out of power in CA. Now's a good time to thank everyone working today i.e. first responders (including dispatchers) hospital staff, public works, utility workers. If you're feeling really generous, include the local news outlets that keep you updated yubanet.com/featured/now/

We've always had these dead-eyed socipaths around. It's just a few years ago they were ignored and now they're "senior fellow" at places funded by evil millionaires + going on podcasts with a brain-rotted ex-PM.

He and his people have decimated our ability to adequately defend this country. One well-placed strike and our country, possibly the whole world, is over in a couple of hours.

Is it the job of #BBCr4today +indeed the #BBC, to allow a #DonaldTrump media champion in effect almost a party political broadcast, without rigorous journalistic challenge of claims? Please judge for yourself. Would this ‘Trump whisperer’ approach apply to our UK government? 7.49 am.

For my friends in Beijing, this evening we're putting on an especially good show in our weekly series, with performance by Yan Yulong, Yan Jun and Zhang Shouwang, three of the best-known experimental musicians in China.

From Snape, Suffolk with the solstice sun beaming down on the Alde river... I wish you, my valued followers, peace, joy and love this festive season.

The UK will celebrate net emigration and depopulation come 2027. And by 2028 it will start to realise, with an ageing society and low growth, what a really silly thing it has done. The right will go "pro-natalist", the centre-left will be completely stuck.

Denmark’s annual intelligence outlook has for the first time named the United States a potential security risk, a shift that comes after a year of Greenland disputes and uncertainty about Washington’s role in Europe’s defense. theintellectualistofficial.substack.com/p/historic-b...

Livestream now with Michael Hudson about the history of Debt and David Graeber's work youtu.be/0qaHTTQAVEE

No comment on this from FT : "Michelle Mone-linked medical supplier PPE Medpro wound up.. UK govt seeks at least £122mn owed by company that supplied substandard equipment during Covid pandemic". www.ft.com/content/8954... Thanks for 'ennobling' her, David Cameron (candidate for worst PM ever)

Thank heavens for wiser external members of BoE's Monetary Policy Committee, Swati Dhin­gra & Alan Taylor who have for some time understood UK economy's weakness. Ultra-conservative BoE Chief Economist, Huw Pill, was one of 4 voting not to cut rates as recession bites www.ft.com/content/717c...

How Did a City of 10 Million People Nearly Run Out of Water? www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/o...

I loved what @annpettifor.bsky.social said at the end of the talk about education being the only way we can actually change our society. 1/

interesting observation from @annpettifor.bsky.social underscoring why state of the art climate litigation is targeting finance: "The fossil fuel sector would not be where it is today without the finance sector. So I regard the finance sector as more powerful" greencentralbanking.com/2025/12/15/c...

I met Melissa Hortman in October of 2024. She was smart and kind. I heard about her murder in a LA hotel room and it dropped me to my knees. So I went to Minnesota and talked to her kids, parents, and friends. This is not true crime, this is Melissa in real life. www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

The rest of the west is our only bet ft.trib.al/OtOJKiP

It's always a scam with Trump. Announce a merger, bounce the stock, sell the stock, in either or both companies. It's his core competence.

Bumper Christmas for air travel as 300mn take to the skies .... giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

A media company backed by President Trump’s family, forged after his Twitter ban, now is venturing into electrical plants for artificial intelligence

Whatever his private struggles, Stokes should now abandon all the talk of mentality and start talking about management, governance and money in the English game. Stand Hegel on his head.

Violent protests have erupted in Bangladesh, after the killing of youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi. Protesters burnt down buildings and vandalised offices, including the HQ of the largest daily newspaper. Hadi was standing as a candidate in elections scheduled for early next year.

Calling all economists! Want to work with us in the Department of Economics, Justice, and Policy Studies at Mount Royal University. We are hiring a tenure track position in economics. Here is the ad mtroyalca.hua.hrsmart.com/hr/ats/Posti...

Europe has the power. But does it have the spine? www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Central bank independence may need rethinking in the face of climate change, argue economists @geoffmann.bsky.social & @annpettifor.bsky.social. “Central bankers need to understand that they are political actors, not technical actors.” https://greencb.co/4rZg9H5 #CentralBank #ClimateFinance

"The newspaper industry served as a feeder for our entire news media ecosystem. So when we lose those newspapers, we've lost that journalism. In the early 2000s, we had 40 journalists per 100,000 people. We're now down to 8 journalists per 100,000 people," says @victorpickard.bsky.social.

See if you can spot Liberation Day. @usapolling.bsky.social

Good appointment. This will resolve any doubts about OpenAI’s ethical credentials.

In my latest piece for the FT, I argue that conditions that make European manufacturing inefficient are not the same as conditions that make European manufacturing globally uncompetitive. As an aside, this is an especially relevant distinction for Germany. www.ft.com/content/da6d...

Someday he will be gone. But we will never forgive or forget the people who supported him.

Xinhua: "In the January-November period, the number of railway passenger trips reached 4.28 billion across the country, up 6.6 percent from the same period last year, according to China State Railway Group." english.news.cn/20251216/455...

Central bank independence may need rethinking in the face of climate change, argue economists @geoffmann.bsky.social & @annpettifor.bsky.social. “Central bankers need to understand that they are political actors, not technical actors.” https://greencb.co/4rZg9H5 #CentralBank #ClimateFinance

No. No. No advertising on the BBC. I write as someone who once tried to watch Wimbledon on an American ad-heavy TV station... It destroyed the game.

I'm glad Keir Starmer has listened to our calls for this inquiry following the Reform Russian bribery scandal. Nigel Farage should be the first to give evidence.

It’s the media’s job to hold power to account. This year, too many got into bed with it instead The lines between advertising, public relations and journalism have become dangerously blurred Støt de uafhængige medier!

Very sad that I felt I had no choice but to resign from The Infinite Monkey Cage - a victory for the transphobes and other bigots - I did it because so much of the media has chosen to believe the kind and empathetic people are a fiction - they are real and so often unrepresented.

Good to see The Observer keeping up with the real intent of the Trump project... clearly and repeatedly signalled for a year now.

"This is his life’s work: a madman whose ideas can cause a tremendous quantity of completely pointless illness and death." prospect.org/2025/12/15/k...

The (intellectually and morally corrupt) Republican majority of the Roberts Supreme Court is guilty of creating death, destruction, disorder and illegitimate disturbance not just in the US but across many parts of the world. They are ultimately co-responsible for many crimes against humanity.

all of us will forever remember where we were when we heard that the UK-US Tech Prosperity Deal had been suspended. The shock on everyone's faces. People in the street, simply numb. Staring at their phones in disbelief. Our stoutest most reliable ally. How on earth. www.ft.com/content/afd4...

Together with Geoff Mann I argue here against technocratic 'independence' of central bankers. We were both speaking to delegates at the Finance Watch conference in Brussels. @financewatch.bsky.social greencentralbanking.com/2025/12/15/c...

Merriam-Webster’s human editors have chosen ‘slop’ as the 2025 Word of the Year.

Warnock: "Any nation that tolerates this kind of violence year after year, decade after decade in random places, on our college and school campuses, without doing all that we can to stop it is broken and in need of moral repair."

Rob Reiner: “Silence in the face of authoritarianism is complicity. Speaking out is a patriotic act. Democracy doesn’t defend itself. It requires participation, vigilance, and courage from ordinary people."

A guy I know said that his Episcopal pastor spoke after Sandy Hook about the story of Abraham and Issaac and said that it taught this lesson: "Your god is whomever or whatever to which you will sacrifice your children." Let that sink in.

"The virus can lead to brain swelling, which can cause lasting damage, including blindness, deafness and intellectual disabilities..." www.nytimes.com/2025/12/11/w...

“…USA is a place that people fear… don’t trust … it’s no longer a destination… it’s a place to be AVOIDED.”