In case you were wondering, Jack Smith's testimony was the *opposite* of "total exoneration."

The final Calvin and Hobbes, which appeared in papers 30 years ago today.

New Year Special #webcomic #krita #miniFantasyTheater

Timezones are so weird. Australia is in 2026, Canada is in 2025, and the United States is in 1939.

The cargo ship, FITBURG, traveling from Russia to Israel, was boarded and seized by Finnish authorities after its anchor chain was found deployed in the water, dragging it from Estonia to Finland. The vessel is suspected of sabotaging the Elisa submarine telecommunications cable

BREAKING NEWS: Actual facts appear for the first time on "Truth" Social.

Boebert suggests that Trump vetoed a water project in her district because she voted to release the Epstein files.

Hubris

Gift link for a fascinating & characteristically problematic NYTimes article: What's problematic is the wholesale importation (pun intended) of the empty-headed zero-sum Trumpian view of trade. China sells & finances African solar, which is bad because...Africa won't build solar factories? C'mon

Are there openings for intermediarys, experts in unspace travel?

Feeling nostalgic. Almost time to take the tree down!

The US Oligarchs Who Built the Surveillance State Now Run It

🗣️ LET’S MAKE CURIOSITY COOL IN 2026

Truly Universal Outlet xkcd.com/3186/

Witnesses Assumed Charlie Kirk Shooter Was Just Ordinary Gunman On School Campus https://theonion.com/witnesses-assumed-charlie-kirk-shooter-was-just-ordinary-gunman-on-school-campus/

Everyone’s talking about the backgrounder on the rift between Marjorie Taylor Greene and Donald Trump, published yesterday by the NYT. But not enough people are focused on two bombshell revelations buried in that piece. My write-up is in the replies.

Nothing about this quote about a “ballroom” suggests “peaceful transfer of power.”

“You want to have some bright people work through scenarios of how [AMOC collapse] could interact & cascade across society... we’re only just starting to, with minimal trust foundation kind of financial support, no public money... which is a bit odd.” - Prof. Tim Lenton @gsiexeter.bsky.social

In America, where irony is dead, a hotel chain uses a policy denying shelter to local people, for fear of accidentally housing homeless persons… To deny a reservation to the author of a much-lauded book on how American economic unfairness forces working people into homelessness.

A US friend was worried about vCJD in Europe, and I had to remind her that in spite of the huge media publicity, between 1996 and 2023, 233 vCJD deaths were reported worldwide. In 2023, there were 46728 gun-related deaths in the United States, with 58% being suicides and 38% being murders.

There’s a reason the political right wants to keep people dumb.

Pope Leo XIV: ‘There Couldn’t Be A Better Time To Get The Fuck Out Of America Forever’

More young people are turning to AI chatbots for flirting, late-night talks, and “perfect” partners who never leave them on read. Cute trend or red flag? @armarshwriter.bsky.social weighs in on the risks, realities, and safer alternatives to AI chatbots here: www.scarleteen.com/read/relat...

check out the expression on Zelenskyy's face as Trump claims the war wouldn't have happened if the 2020 election hadn't been "rigged and stolen"

Grok dot com claims: My best estimate is that the AI bubble will burst in mid-to-late 2026, as massive capital expenditures planned for that year fail to deliver proportional returns on investment, leading to a sharp correction in overvalued AI-related stocks similar to historical tech bubbles.

A long way to say, “He lied to the voters.”

It drives me nuts when a terrible person dies, and we are all supposed to pretend they were great, like telling the truth is somehow uncouth. Brigette Bardot was a truly despicable racist, homophobe, bigot, and lifelong supporter of fascists. Acknowledge her work, I guess, but don't celebrate her.

America's richest 10% now hold 60% of the nation's wealth. The bottom half of America? It holds just 6%. Wealth inequality is eating this country alive.

👇👇

So how are you enjoying your new ultraviolet-range vision enhancement? I've tested that with the acrylic replacements my range goes down to 360 nm which is invisible with organic lenses. A side effect is that in natural light UV-blocking materials like polycarbonate lenses take on a yellowish tint.

Anyone paying even the slightest bit of attention could see that was happening.

You don't just happen to "find" a million documents. www.cnn.com/2025/12/24/p...

You know how Americans are surprised to learn that gun deaths are rare in most other countries, pedestrian-centered cities are normal, or everybody else uses metric? That, but discovering that the rest of the world moved to EVs.

“Like prime, but with human beings”

One thing 2025 made clear: Durable progress on climate in the US will require structural reform to our corrupted political systems. Otherwise, steps forward will always be vulnerable to the bloody clawbacks we saw this year. A political strategy that doesn't center system reform is not "pragmatic."

world inequality report 2025 update- www.theguardian.com/inequality/2...

US judge blocks detention of British social media campaigner

It may not be the explanation, but it is an explanation. COMIC ◆ www.smbc-comics.com/comic/butter... PATREON ◆ www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersm... STORE ◆ smbc-store.myshopify.com

Cartoon by Kevin KAL Kallaugher

Just catching up on the latest in the Unspeakable Vault of Doom today, and this caught my eye: www.goominet.com/unspeakable-...

An old thread is making the rounds again, so here's an updated version. Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is one of the most enduring and adapted works of literature in history. But did you know that he wrote 22 sequels? Some are great! Some are trash! Some are bizarrely fascinating.