Does Morality Do Us Any Good? The New Yorker (Anthony L). Sure, it typically makes selections simpler. And also you additionally usually create fewer enemies.
Areas between the Stars London Evaluation of Books (Anthony L). On Kubrick.
The torture of an unphilosophical life Unherd
FDA Rethinks Phenylephrine Chilly Treatments Effectiveness Naveen Sankar
Milan, from January 1st absolute ban on smoking open air L’Unione Sarda
#COVID/Pandemics
Covid Pregnancies Might Have Boosted Autism Threat, Examine Reveals Bloomberg (ma)
Local weather/Setting
Hochul Indicators Regulation That Penalizes Firms for Greenhouse Gasoline Emissions New York Instances. Lambert ran the same story yesterday. Over my pay grade, however I don’t see how this survives a authorized problem. Making an attempt to say that is just like the Superfund regulation, of discrete actions that triggered injury that may very well be traced to a specific perp, doesn’t make it so.
China?
China pushes forward with enormous — and controversial — dam in Tibet Washington Publish
Will China let the yuan go in 2025? Asia Instances (Kevin W)
Trump asks Supreme Courtroom to pause TikTok ban, whereas Biden admin says app poses ‘grave’ menace CNN (Kevin W)
Temu’s Takeover Is Now Full Wired (Kevin W)
India
India: It’s Worse Than You Assume American Renaissance (Li). Hoo boy. I’m sure numerous readers will take situation.
Israel v. The Resistance
We informed ya… The true purpose is extra land seize.
“We can’t allow them to rebuild [Gaza]… Nothing strikes, and what strikes – dies. That is all. And is attacked and annihilated”
Israel’s Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich pic.twitter.com/cMKpXKuT6C
— Abier (@abierkhatib) December 26, 2024
Kids are freezing to demise in Gaza Mondoweiss (guurst)
Troopers and tanks surrounding the final barely functioning medical facility in northern Gaza, readying to empty it after focusing on it for greater than two months.
— Nicola Perugini (@PeruginiNic) December 27, 2024
WHO chief says he was at Yemen airport which Israeli strikes focused CNN (Kevin W)
Houthis declare to have focused Ben Gurion airport after Israel hits Sana’a Guardian (Kevin W). FWIW, Ben Gurion repeatedly takes navy flights, so it’s a reliable goal.
New Not-So-Chilly Conflict
NO NATO, NEVER NATO👇
For us, it does not matter whether or not it is one yr or ten years.
❗️Biden as soon as proposed to easily postpone Ukraine’s NATO membership, if that can be Trump’s plan, it can additionally not be acceptable — Putin pic.twitter.com/1IUdIgrzrJ
— Ignorance, the foundation and stem of all evil (@ivan_8848) December 26, 2024
Taras Chmut: We have now chaos within the navy command Ukrainska Pravda
EU state threatens Ukraine with energy cuts RT (Kevin W)
Aircraft crash in Kazakhstan was on account of ‘bodily, technical exterior interference’: Azerbaijan Airways early findings Anadolu Company
Leaderless Rebellion in Georgia? Sopo Japardze
Syraqistan
Syria won’t ever be unified Edward Luttwak, Unherd
A Requiem For Ba’athism (Half 1 of two) Niccolo Soldo
Turkish analyst taken off air after calling for killing Syrian Kurdish militants on BBC Turkish Minute
Behind Afghanistan’s Fall, U.S.-Backed Militias Worse Than the Taliban New York Instances (Kevin W)
Chuck L:”Haven’t seen any affirmation as but however it’s one thing to observe.” Moi: Massive if true.
Nuclear assault in Tartus (Syria):Radioactive fingerprint of nuke (Tartus) measured in Cyprus inside ~16 hours after the assault.[Note that the dose rate peak cannot be ascribed to precipitation as higher precipitation occurred on Dec 5 with no discernible radiation increase] pic.twitter.com/HPWDNn96gW
— Hans-Benjamin Braun (@Ben68638515) December 23, 2024
Massive Brother is Watching You Watch
Former NSA cyberspy’s not-so-secret pastime: Hacking Christmas lights The Register
The Paper Passport Is Dying Wired
Imperial Collapse Watch
The West Dismantles Itself: Liberalism in Idea and Observe György Varga, Nachdenkseiten by way of machine translation (Micael T)
Why world’s financial powers may discover 2025 a yr of nice battle South China Morning Publish
1/6
Inside how the Capitol Police has modified since Jan. 6, 2021 Politico (Kevin W)
Trump 2.0
TRUMP REDUX New Left Evaluation
From Panama Canal to Greenland, Trump defines a ‘new geography’ for American safety Simply the Information. Sure, Trump needs his pony, simply the best way Biden needed his pony of regime-changing Russia.
Trump’s Tariff Threats Are Setting Off a International Provide Chain ‘Freakout’ Bloomberg
Trump’s Plans to Scrap Local weather Insurance policies Has Unnerved Inexperienced Power Traders New York Instances (Kevin W)
Democrats en déshabillé
DNC powerhouse fundraiser proclaims exit from Democratic Get together following assaults: ‘It’s like leaving a cult’ Fox (ma)
Immigration
Shortsighted tech bros search to go away American STEM expertise even additional behind. Jordan Schacthel (Micael T). Lambert says the Twitterverse combat of the MAGA sorts v. the Musk/Vivek followers is spectacular and the MAGA crowd is making excellent arguments….together with ones that come very near the commodification of labor.
1. I led the drafting of laws within the Trump ‘45 White Home to create a brand new authorized immigration framework. I noticed firsthand what occurs when ANY visa reform is proposed: executives from the most important multinationals and lobbyists from all types of industries are banging on the…
— Theo Wold (@RealTheoWold) December 26, 2024
Our No Longer Free Press
CNN Loses Chunks of Viewership as Rankings Dive Into Dying Spiral Sputnik
Kari Lake sparks issues at Voice of America The Hill. As if there isn’t “partisan meddling” now?
Sports activities Desk
Why school soccer is changing into tougher to like Seattle Instances (Robin Ok)
Mr. Market is Moody
Credit score markets’ calm veneer will crack in 2025 Reuters
Antitrust
Microsoft Bundling Practices Focus of Federal Antitrust Probe ProPublica
AI
Microsoft Is Forcing Its AI Assistant on Individuals – And Making Them Pay Wall Road Journal. BWAHAHA. Because of this I purchased my Microsoft moderately than subscribing over the objections of my tech lady.
Nothing Is Sacred: AI Generated Slop Has Come for Christmas Music 404 Media (Micael T)
Chinese language Agency Trains Huge AI Mannequin for Simply $5.5 Million TechCrunch
The way to repair computing’s AI power drawback: run every thing backwards New Scientist (Dr. Kevin)
The Bezzle
Even Apple Wasn’t Ready To Make VR Headsets Mainstream in 2024 ProPublica
Guillotine Watch
The Sport Idea of Giving Up Personal Justice or Ending The State Monopoly On Violence Ian Welsh (Micael T)
What’s life like within the Brooklyn jail the place Mangione awaits trial? Actually dangerous, consultants say. Gothamist. MDC is famously horrible.
Class Warfare
The irony of Vivek’s publish is that his incorrect evaluation of how American tradition is damaged illustrates in itself how American tradition is damaged.
I imply, how out-of-touch should one be to assume folks will embrace a imaginative and prescient the place childhood have to be optimized for company success, with…
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) December 27, 2024
The International Fertility Commerce: A Story of Extraction, Exploitation and Alternative Bloomberg (ma)
‘Dwelling proof that you could spend cash on the poor’: Utopia involves Mexico Metropolis Guardian (Allen Ok)
US homelessness up 18% as inexpensive housing stays out of attain for many individuals Related Press
Flying Was Already the Worst. Then America Stopped Utilizing Headphones. Wall Road Journal
When you have time for leisure viewing: Sandel and Piketty Components 1-3, YouTube. Robin Ok:
Half 1:
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Half 2:
Half 3:
Piketty’s ethereal imaginative and prescient of globalism–a u.s. of the world with progressive taxation–and Sandel’s identitarianism make for an oddly attention-grabbing trade. Sandel comes off higher when he simply asks questions. When he tries to expound, he blathers, repetitive and incoherent. Piketty stays on observe with a transparent protection of leftist political financial system.
Main takeaway: massive cash is all about globalism with free motion of capital and, um, free commerce, whereas counting on those that get left behind to combat each other at borders over free motion of labor, i.e., both by being emigrants or anti-immigration nationalists. Buffet nailed: there may be class warfare and his class is profitable.
Antidote du jour (Tim H):
And a bonus (Chuck L):
A uncommon African black leopard beneath the celebrities – a photograph that took the photographer 6 months to seize Credit score: Will Burrard-Lucas pic.twitter.com/LYDt7viwBo
— Nature is Wonderful ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) December 25, 2024
See yesterday’s Hyperlinks and Antidote du Jour right here.
