Zelensky *cannot* withdraw his troops and cede territory. His army won't do it. The public won't accept it.

If the Mercosur agreement w/ EU fails then the EU is not really serious about economic security. And the terms of the global economy will be dictated by the US or China.

“commissioning babies” 😩

All In The Family Spinal Tap A Few Good Men When Harry Met Sally Princess Bride Stand By Me That’s just the start… And without Castle Rock (Rob’s company) you wouldn’t have Seinfeld among many other iconic tv shows and films.

My son watched his mom in an interview/conversation with Bill O'Reilly, and just commented "he's trying to mansplain capitalism to an economist." www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yi6H...

WSJ editorial board thrashes DHS for arresting a Chinese human rights hero, Guan Heng, and says he must be granted asylum.

This Is Spinal Tap The Sure Thing Stand by Me The Princess Bride When Harry Met Sally... Misery A Few Good Men The American President May his memory forever be a blessing.

Dr. @angierasmussen.bsky.social strikes again: Commissioner Makary Brings the Quackery open.substack.com/pub/rasmusse...

I’ve been speechless & despondent about all of the horrors this weekend that has been visited upon people & communities. The gun violence, the antisemitism, everything else. All I can really say is that I’m so sorry & I truly hope to live to see the day when we decide to do right by one another.

Australia is an actual democracy. We could be, too: bsky.app/profile/mcop...

QOTD: “There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew.” - Buckminster Fuller

ICE sprayed a one-year-old in the face with pepper spray. The child and parents are US citizens, but that doesn't even matter. These monsters pepper-sprayed a baby. We cannot allow ICE to continue this behavior, and they aren't going to reform themselves. www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

We put the bar in Hell (literally just say that Somalis aren’t garbage?) and people in positions of public trust still can’t meet it. www.startribune.com/opinion-trum...

Please read this interview - if you haven't yet. It is truly useful :)

The life of fossil fuels is being pushed out in the United States--thanks to Trump and oil executives like Hamm. Yes, part of it is AI demand for more electricity. But it is also industry execs like Hamm who gave millions to get Trump back to the White House and now are cashing in on that win.

EV charger funding. Tax incentives to buy EVs. Permits for wind energy projects. All gone. But tax incentives to extract more oil and gas were expanded by Trump and GOP-controlled Congress. There has been victory after victory for Hamm and his group, Domestic Energy Producers, in Trump's second term

Rebecca Elliott and I were meanwhile busy interviewing oil industry folks and digging up government documents detailing how Hamm has repeatedly used his clout, along with other oil-industry execs, to radically reshape policies, often in concert with Trump. Started in Trump's first term.

I have been working on and off on this story, along with my colleague Rebecca Elliott, since January when I was at Hamm’s Inauguration Day party for Trump at the Hay Adams in DC. It was a crazy event celebrating the return of big oil to power in DC. Yes, Nigel Farage was there.

Our NYT piece examines Hamm's determined, 15-year campaign to reshape US energy policy. Why? He wanted to extend out the life of fossil fuels to allow his family-controlled company to keep drilling. He argued this is essential to US. energy security. A free link: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/12/b...

Chag Chanukkah sameach kol Israel.

Founded as a Christian Nation? Gimme a break.

José Antonio Kast, a former lawmaker who wants to build a barrier on Chile’s northern border and deport undocumented migrants, will be the country’s most rightwing president in 35 years of democracy on.ft.com/3XUmp5q

Less “masculinity” discourse. More risking your life for your neighbors discourse. www.bbc.com/news/article...

This is a unifying theme in human health: Many chronic conditions arise from common roots but express in different ways. Mental health diagnoses are often linked: people with schizophrenia are much more likely to have bipolar disorder. There's a *spectrum* of psychopathology.

Few days ago I wrote about my Great-Uncle Morrie, a former boxer who beat to death a Nazi POW. I know why he did it, had I been him I fear I might have done it, the Nazi deserved it, and still: murder=murder. No, I'm not talking about war or self-defense. I'm talking about murder.

Every movie, book, murder ballad villain: "Somebody else *made* me do it." Too many decent people, when confronted w/ murderers murdering claiming it's for a good cause: "Somebody else made them do it." Murder=murder=murder. Don't think you're gonna "own" me w/ a "what-about"; murder=murder.

With alt text

To be fair this would explain his increasingly insect-like thorax

Struggling to see the “America First” angle of the Secretary of State’s fantastical quest for regime change in Havana via regime change in Caracas. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/12/u...

Sunday Taquitos #6: “Your papers, please.” Art by Ivan Ehlers.

This bit from Smith is crucial. The people most surprised & dismayed by the behavior of Republican senators? Democratic senators. No one understands the contemporary right *less* than Dems embedded in DC institutions.

"I managed bots replacing my team until they replaced me." A former support lead's warning. This piece details AI erasing copywriters, with customer support and software development next in line. While 'good enough' automation takes over, many in tech remain sadly in denial about the coming shift.

This story came out in Verge last week that touches on some of it — and on how badly the institutions collapsed instead of defending themselves. The algorithmic titles all miss the point, but holding that aside, it at least explains some of what happened. www.theverge.com/features/839...

what trump is doing to the somali-american community is deplorable.

Best news I have heard today

Masked men wearing ICE vests—but who refused to present a warrant or identify themselves—roped off a construction site, trapping two men on a roof for hours in subzero temps. Protesters gathered. Masked men eventually left, and one man on the roof was taken away by ambulance kstp.com/kstp-news/to...

This is at least the third incident I'm aware of where immigration agents attacked workers on a private residential construction site. Here is one I covered in October, in Chicago. bsky.app/profile/cram...

Here's another, just outside of New Orleans. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Female reporters fall into two categories for Trump: *"Ugly," "stupid," "aggressive,""piggy" *What a beautiful lady, just like my daughter, can you stand up and turn around so we can all take a good look

Windchills were like 30 or more below, National Weather Service danger warnings in effect.

Not sure if Netanyahu is so inhuman that there exists for him no humanity beyond political calculus or if he just doesn't care about diaspora families like mine bc if we were "real Jews" we'd be either in Israel or supporting it financially.

Under Kash Patel, the FBI's counterintelligence capacity is being systematically deconstructed and downgraded. There must be a reason for that. But here two real experts take a deep look at where things stand and where they're going.

Cathy Young looks at Putin (errr, Trump's) National Security Strategy: "At least as outlined in this document, the administration’s agendas for Europe seem to be 'Make Europe white again' and 'Make Russia great again.'"

what a day

Bondi Beach hero Ahmed al Ahmed, who disarmed one of the shooters, was shot twice by a second gunman who was on a nearby bridge.

Sen. Jack Reed: "I must remind everyone that we follow the law of war, and because of that, we expect other countries. So that when our service members are in distress, they're not shot up in the water or if they're wounded, left to die. If we don't do it, then we can't expect other countries."

Of course it’s a startup run by a 26 year old bro with all the moral sense and wisdom of a 26 year old bro www.technologyreview.com/2025/12/05/1...

👉 bsky.app/profile/gtco...

It's utterly insane, but statistically probably unsurprising, that there was more than one Brown student who had previously experienced a mass school shooting, including one who was actually shot, @miatretta.bsky.social. It doesn't have to be this way.

And of course there’s zero problem with the factuality of the claim that “iq is 50% genetic” as opposed to “intelligence is a polygenic trait and there is dispute about what exactly an IQ score measures” which would admittedly be less catchy