Happy holidays, fediverse! I got you a megathrust earthquake, soil liquefaction, spine-tingling papers about the way our networks confound knowledge, and a PDF in a pear tree. It's my wrap on a year of trying to make sense of how we make sense of what's happening to us […]

Putin claimed to have conquered Kupyansk

“Trump’s presidency is enabled, normalized, and protected by a wide class of political, legal, media, and economic elites who chose caution, self-interest, or fear over civic responsibility… The most conspicuous retreat came from Republicans in Congress.” open.substack.com/pub/marcfrie...

Two Russian officers accused of torturing Ukrainians die in a Moscow explosion united24media.com/latest-news/...

A planned Christmas Eve jazz concert at the #kennedycenter, a holiday tradition dating back >20 years, has been canceled. The show’s host, musician Chuck Redd, called off the performance after #trump’s name was added to the facility. “When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website & […]

💙 Season’s greetings to all the Fediverse moderators, admins, and community builders. Thank you for the time, care, and emotional labour you give to keeping online spaces safer, fairer, and more humane. Your work often goes unseen, but it truly matters […] [Original post on mastodon.iftas.org]

The Dunning-Kruger Effect and the Streisand Effect, when merged, become the Bari Weiss Effect

SPORTICO: “Riley Gaines received $474,313 in compensation last year from the Leadership Institute, according to the conservative organization’s most recent tax filing… a staggering $420,155 (89%) classified as bonus or incentive compensation…” www.sportico.com/business/med...

Federal judge says #trump admin must restore #disaster money to #democratic #states A federal judge has blocked the Trump admin’s attempt to reallocate federal #homelandsecurity #funding away from states that refuse to cooperate with certain federal #immigration enforcement. #law #judiciary […]

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What's endlessly frustrating is that Trump has done nothing in the last year that he didn't openly campaign on doing if he regained the presidency, but checked-out voters didn't bother paying attention, and lots of politically informed voters refused to believe him. So much rotten ignorance.

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19 #states Sue to Block White House Plan to End Gender-Related Care for Minors The coalition of states seeks to stop a #trump admin effort to cut off #federal #funding to #hospitals that provide such care. #law #civilrights #humanrights #transrights #discrimination #bigotry […]

Read Rayne on the human cost of having a conspiracist crank as HHS Secretary. www.emptywheel.net/2025/12/23/n...

American social media platforms are banned in Russia. Have you noticed Donald isn't sanctioning anyone over that?

EC issues a statement strongly condemning the US decision to impose travel restrictions on five Europeans, including former Commissioner Thierry Breton. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/statement_25_3160

French President Macron slams a decision by the US to impose visa bans on a former EU commissioner and other anti-disinformation campaigners. https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/french-president-macron-slams-us-visa-ban-thierry-breton-others-2025-12-24/

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As many have been saying was the Bibi/Smotrich/Ben Gvir plan all along… www.wsj.com/world/middle...

ICYMI — Our thin-skinned president’s latest fascist late night ramblings, threatening the broadcast licenses of those who criticize him and using violent rhetoric towards Colbert

#josephineballon & #annalenavonhodenberg said in a statement, “We will not be intimidated by a government that uses accusations of censorship to silence those who stand up for human rights & freedom of expression.” #trump #law #freespeech #hate #disinformation #propaganda #immigration #tech […]

They Seek to Curb #online #hate. The US Accused Them of “Censorship”. The #trump admin said 5 regulators & researchers who work to tackle #disinformation & #abuse on the #internet had been barred from entering the #unitedstates. #law #democracy #freespeech #propaganda #immigration #tech […]

With that smug smile on the interviewer’s face, you’d barely know that this is about the kidnapping, torture, and sexual assault of innocent people.

Don't make bets on Elon's hype (unless you're betting against him) #TeslaTakedown guessingheadlights.com/dutch-tesla-...

“Pull over! You need to yield to the police, I don’t care who you think you are.” FULL VIDEO of Speaker Sexton’s TN Highway Patrol detail speeding though NASHVILLE (30mph over) and refusing to pull over for MNPD — then popping off when he did (From Jerry Barlar: www.facebook.com/share/v/1LhB...)

But the proposal also hinted at the significant gaps that remain between #ukraine & #russia. Zelensky’s offer of a #dmz came with a condition — Russia would have to pull its forces from an equivalent stretch of land in #donetsk. So far, the Kremlin has given no indication that it is willing to […]

#ohio governor 'reluctantly' signs bill eliminating grace period for late #ballots The number of #states that will accept late-arriving #mailinballots during next year’s critical #midterm #elections continues to dwindle, as Ohio Gov Mike DeWine “reluctantly” signed new restrictions into law […]

Here's a particularly juicy nugget I found in my reporting . . .

It's a weird world when dutifully regurgitating a bunch of carefully curated information that the world's richest man gave you is "fearless journalism," but reporting on how the government is kidnapping innocent people and sending them overseas to be tortured is "not moving the ball forward."

I mean, it's quite something to wallow in self-pity about how much privilege you've been denied... IN THE PAGES OF THE ATLANTIC. The Atlantic has never published anything I've written and well... good for them. That's on me, not some cabal plotting against me.

Attorney General Bonta Files Lawsuit Challenging Trump Administration’s Declaration Attempting to Limit Access to Gender-Affirming Care https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-files-lawsuit-challenging-trump-administration%E2%80%99s

Nieman Reports - The swift loss of US funding for global media since President Trump took office a year ago has devastated journalism in many countries where the independent press was already on precarious footing […]

In Private Letters, #harvard & #Trump Admin Escalate Duel It is the latest twist in the marquee battle of the administration’s campaign to rein in #colleges & #universities it views as too liberal. #law #constitution #firstamendment #academicfreedom #education #sevenmountainmandate […]

This is pretty egregious when you look at the actual context of the quote. And people are praising that book?

Judge blocks #trump effort to strip #security clearance from #attorney who represented #whistleblowers A federal judge has blocked the Trump admin from enforcing a March presidential memo to revoke the security clearance of prominent Washington atty #markzaid, ruling that the order — which also […]

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.

The 2 sentences in this paragraph are not consistent with each other

WaPo - ICE plans to speed up deportations by funneling new detainees to large-scale warehouses holding 5,000 to 10,000 people each, located in Virginia, Texas, Louisiana, Arizona, Georgia and Missouri. Sixteen smaller warehouses would hold up to 1,500 people each […] [Original post on journa.host]

So I have the cover story in next month's TNR. I interviewed the heads of police groups; immigration defense attorneys, ex-judges and ex-prosecutors; former DOJ and DHS officials, and the former head of Border Patrol. They're all horrified at what we've seen, and they all fear what's coming.

“I voted once for Trump in 2016 — I’ve learned right wing media is just a propaganda machine… ask yourself if the principles of this administration are actually in line with the teachings of Jesus. All they’re doing is exploiting the poor for the benefit of the billionaires.”

“The Administration will absolutely appeal this decision and I am far off from having my clearance restored, but the rule of law is a little bit stronger today,” says attorney Mark Zaid.

A federal judge has ruled the Trump administration’s stripping of an attorney’s security clearance for representing a whistleblower pivotal to the president’s first impeachment was a form of retribution and unconstitutional […]

The condescension and moral preening are getting all the glory in this email, but don’t sleep on the new head of CBS News declaring that the last 7 days were a “slow news week.”

"If you don't fund the State Department fully, then I need to buy more ammunition.” -James Mattis as Secretary of Defense testifying before Congress in 2017. Succeeding with soft power is greatly preferable—and a lot cheaper—than having to address something with hard power.

The “What Would Putin Do?” theory of the American presidency remains undefeated www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/u...

With its standard credulous, stenographic political coverage style, the NY Times reports with a straight face that Trump's "Justice" Department just "found" a million more Epstein documents. On some days, the Paper of Record struggles to be merely pathetic.

TRUMP: “What would you like Santa to bring?” LITTLE GIRL: “Not coal.” TRUMP: “You mean clean, beautiful coal.” *laughs because he knows he’s lying to a child on Christmas Eve on behalf of his fossil fuel billionaire donors*🫤 🎄

RE: https://mas.to/@angiebaby/115766199565379387 CECOT VIDEO torrent file from Internet Archive for faster download: https://archive.org/download/60minutes-cecotsegment/60minutes-cecotsegment_archive.torrent #cbs #cecot #60minutes #uspol from: https://archive.org/details/60minutes-cecotsegment

It would be another #warcrime, if the #us were at #war. As it isn’t, it’s another #trump / #hegseth #murder. US #military strikes vessel allegedly trafficking drugs in the eastern #pacific, killing one person, US SOUTHCOM says At least 105 people have now been murdered in strikes on suspected […]