Psychologists Pinpoint Average Age Children Become Santa Sceptics Guardian
See the moon and Jupiter enjoy their final meet-up of 2023 tonight Space (furzy)
Vibrating Pill May Give Dieters a Feeling of Fullness, Study Suggests Guardian
Learning to sleep like a bear could save your life Washington Post
Risk of Penile Fractures Rises at Christmas, Doctors Find Guardian
#COVID-19
DOD to study whether COVID-19 vaccine helped or hurt troops Military Times (Kevin W)
New COVID variant JN.1 surges to 44% of cases, CDC estimates — even higher in New York, New Jersey CBS
Climate/Environment
Genomic evidence for West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapse during the Last Interglacial Science (guurst)
‘People are proud of this green spirit of ours’: how a small Spanish city rejected cars Guardian (Kevin W)
Biden Administration Unveils Hydrogen Tax Credit Plan To Jump-Start Industry NPR
Maine forced to delay vote on EV mandate amid widespread power outages Fox News (Kevin W)
China?
The U.S. and China at Year’s End Michael Klare TomDispatch
US alarmism over Taiwan and mainland China is truly alarming South China Morning Post (furzy)
Gaza
‘Operation Al Aqsa Flood’ Day 77: Palestinians in Gaza face famine, as political prisoner count in West Bank soars Mondoweiss. guurst: “Baby Jesus is getting starved.”
* * ZOMG, click through to read this tweet sent by Chuck L
This is by far the craziest story I have reported on in the 15 years I’ve been CEO of @gCaptain
BREAKING NEWS: Confirmation From Dr Sal on the news about @cmacgm and the French Navy I posted to my video this afternoon.
Next rumor to confirm is that @JakeSullivan46’s team at… https://t.co/lEz58vLkoF
— John Ʌ Konrad V (@johnkonrad) December 21, 2023
Red Sea attacks disrupt world trade, more ships vow to avoid waters Reuters
US pressures Saudi Arabia to postpone imminent peace deal with Yemen The Cradle. Kevin W:
The Biden White House is truly fucked in the head if they see this as a good idea. Yemen lets Saudi tankers go through the Red Sea unmolested and Saudi oil infrastructure is off limits to attack by them. If the Saudis joined that maritime force, that would change in an instant.
War on Gaza: Why the oil market isn’t freaking out about Houthi Red Sea attacks Middle East Eye (Kevin W)
* * The Golani Brigade has been broken by Gaza. Sit for a moment and think about how glorious this is. https://t.co/kXhjo4x1uW
— Ibn Riad – ابن رياض (@IbnRiad) December 22, 2023
* * Israel-Hamas war: UN Security Council passes Gaza resolution DW
Israel in the shadow of American decline Asia Times (Kevin W)
Russian diplomat warns against letting Israeli-Palestinian conflict spill over to Syria TASS (guurst)
* * Would Israel Be Any Different Without Netanyahu? Haaretz (Userfriendly)
New Not-So-Cold War
Zelenski For Sales Moon of Alabama (Kevin W)
How Putin’s Right-Hand Man Took Out Prigozhin Wall Street Journal. Will be interesting when the usual suspects weigh in on this story.
Exclusive: 150,000 Ukraine soldiers killed in action through October Asia Times (Kevin W)
Ukrainian military vows to boost numbers by any means RT
NORD STREAM AND GERMANY’S SHRINKING ECONOMY Seymour Hersh
CIA Veteran: Biden’s Proxy War in Ukraine Evokes Strong Memories of Vietnam Disaster Sputnik
Imperial Collapse Watch
The US is pushing for expropriation of frozen Russian central bank foreign exchange reserves to endow these in some form to Ukraine.
Under international customary law central bank reserves have diplomatic immunity from seizure, even in a declared war.
If they do this G7 ends FX… https://t.co/nEjJeKeFrN pic.twitter.com/E690tMggAH— Kathleen Tyson (@Kathleen_Tyson_) December 22, 2023
SCOTT RITTER AND LARRY JOHNSON JOIN ON UKRAINE’S WOES, ISRAEL OUT OF CONTROL, PLUS MORE! Danny Haiphong.Two key bits from Scott Ritter, one on Hezbollah starting at 119:20 and the Houthi at 123:55. The big takeaway from the latter is the Houthi attacks have exposed that the US cannot protect the Strait of Hormuz (I had long assumed that to be the case, I see a lot of people thought the reverse).
Megatrends: The Collapse of Global Democracy The Issue (Randy K). They need a fainting couch. Curious lack of interest in loss of freedom due to spying tech.
The Mainstream Against Democracy American Conservative (fk)
Trump
Trump recorded pressuring Wayne Co. canvassers not to certify 2020 vote Detroit News (furzy)
Supreme Court rejects Jack Smith’s request for justices to quickly hear Trump immunity dispute CNN. Your humble blogger called this one.
Times Editorial Board Member Paints Opponents to Trump’s Disqualification as Modern Day Confederates Jonathan Turley. Lambert and your humble blogger have also discussed that way too many are trying to foment a civil war. But there’s not enough cohesion for a sufficient-scale organized effort. Instead the likely outcome is more violence.
Newsom pans efforts to block Trump from California ballot Politico
Biden
Biden kept at distance from McConnell on border deal talks The Hill
Biden emailed son’s business associate 54 times – Republicans RT
Biden pardons thousands convicted of marijuana charges Associated Press (furzy). He can only pardon Federal convictions….
GOP Clown Car
Former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani files for bankruptcy protection CNBC (furzy). A top tax expert said this is a strategic bankruptcy filing. Even though Giuliani almost certainly can get the amount of the judgement way down, and would still probably be balance sheet negative, the court decision is highly irregular in attempting to get Giullani to pony up immediately. That would put these plaintiffs ahead of all Giuliani’s other creditors, including his lawyers to whom he also owes a lot of money. So this is to make sure all creditors get a piece of the pie.
The 2023 House by the Numbers: 724 Votes, Only 26 Laws Enacted New York Times (furzy). Accident or design?
California, New York in danger of seeing House delegations shrink further The Hill
Angry About Your Kid’s After-School Satan Club? Blame Clarence Thomas. New Republic (furzy)
NC bans investing, contracting with Ben & Jerry’s ice cream over its stance on Israel News & Observer (MWB)
Immigration
Migrant crisis: Bus from El Paso, Texas, drops off migrants at Kankakee gas station, police say ABC7 Chicago (furzy)
“If it outlives Khan and her allies, it will have this strange alliance to thank: a faction of hard-right conservatives, far-left progressives, and the local pizza guy, all dragging the Washington bureaucrats along with them.” https://t.co/iTmryRvazt
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) December 22, 2023
Our No Longer Free Press
Doing own research leads to ‘misinformation’ – political scientists RT (Kevin W)
Why Harvard’s Claudine Gay Should Go New York Times (furzy). I got a missive from Harvard, even though I try not to be on those lists, which said they were supporting her, and it was not in the kiss of death “She has our full confidence” style. But that was before the latest billionaire defection.
AI
Artificial intelligence is a liability The Register
New AI Transistor Works Just Like the Human Brain StudyFinds
The Bezzle
Cummins pickup truck engines systematically tricked air pollution controls, feds say USA Today
Class Warfare
The University of Phoenixification of Elite Education Maureen Tkacik. American Prospect. (David in Friday Harbor). I know Moe personally and agree with Dave’s sentiments:
Hoo-boy! And you think your alma mater Harvard has an oligarch problem. Just gotta love Apollo. Marc Rowan makes Leon Black look like Gandhi. Milken, Black, Rowan, Ressler — They’re running the country using the Drexel high-yield alumni philosophy of Heads I win, Tails you lose.
This woman does terrific reporting and is a fabulous writer, IMNSO.
Also worth a read in the spirit of babies born in the Holy Land with targets on their heads:
Americans Are Signing Up for Obamacare in Record Numbers New York Times. Userfriendly: “I clicked on this going “what’s the catch?” They got kicked off Medicaid.”
Cancer Patients Face Frightening Delays in Treatment Approvals KFF Health News
America sends Israel more money than any other country in the world.
How are your student debt payments coming along? https://t.co/rvXAwP5GpY
— Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) December 21, 2023
Antidote du jour. Tom D:
Local photgrapher Eric Sherman got this amazing shot last weekend (Sat. 12/16).
From his Facebook post: “I was able to sneak out to the woods for a couple hours this afternoon and once again I was in the right place at the right time. This beautiful Canada Lynx is my 12th of the year.”
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
