Does Morality Do Us Any Good? The New Yorker (Anthony L). Sure, it typically makes selections simpler. And also you additionally sometimes create fewer enemies.
Areas between the Stars London Evaluate 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 outside L’Unione Sarda
#COVID/Pandemics
Covid Pregnancies Might Have Boosted Autism Danger, Research Reveals Bloomberg (ma)
Local weather/Setting
Hochul Indicators Legislation That Penalizes Firms for Greenhouse Gasoline Emissions New York Occasions. Lambert ran an identical story yesterday. Over my pay grade, however I don’t see how this survives a authorized problem. Attempting to say that is just like the Superfund legislation, of discrete actions that prompted harm 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 Occasions (Kevin W)
Trump asks Supreme Court docket 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 a number of readers will take challenge.
Israel v. The Resistance
We informed ya… The true purpose is extra land seize.
“We cannot 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
Youngsters are freezing to loss of life 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. https://t.co/xqq4wEOfFl
— 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 usually takes army flights, so it’s a respectable goal.
New Not-So-Chilly Conflict
NO NATO, NEVER NATO👇
For us, it would 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 would 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 army command Ukrainska Pravda
EU state threatens Ukraine with energy cuts RT (Kevin W)
Airplane crash in Kazakhstan was as a consequence 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 Occasions (Kevin W)
Chuck L:”Haven’t seen any affirmation as but but it surely’s one thing to observe.” Moi: Huge 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
Huge 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 Apply György Varga, Nachdenkseiten through machine translation (Micael T)
Why world’s financial powers might 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 Evaluate
From Panama Canal to Greenland, Trump defines a ‘new geography’ for American safety Simply the Information. Sure, Trump desires his pony, simply the way in which Biden wished 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 Buyers New York Occasions (Kevin W)
Democrats en déshabillé
DNC powerhouse fundraiser publicizes exit from Democratic Celebration 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 struggle of the MAGA sorts v. the Musk/Vivek followers is spectacular and the MAGA crowd is making superb 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 largest multinationals and lobbyists from all types of industries are banging on the… https://t.co/5M4B1pyzn0
— Theo Wold (@RealTheoWold) December 26, 2024
Our No Longer Free Press
CNN Loses Chunks of Viewership as Scores Dive Into Dying Spiral Sputnik
Kari Lake sparks considerations at Voice of America The Hill. As if there isn’t “partisan meddling” now?
Sports activities Desk
Why faculty soccer is changing into more durable to like Seattle Occasions (Robin Okay)
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 Folks – And Making Them Pay Wall Avenue 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 Large AI Mannequin for Simply $5.5 Million TechCrunch
Tips on how to repair computing’s AI vitality 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 Recreation 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 unhealthy, specialists say. Gothamist. MDC is famously horrible.
Class Warfare
The irony of Vivek’s submit is that his mistaken 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 individuals will embrace a imaginative and prescient the place childhood have to be optimized for company success, with… https://t.co/faegwIztXi
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) December 27, 2024
The International Fertility Commerce: A Story of Extraction, Exploitation and Alternative Bloomberg (ma)
‘Dwelling proof which you could spend cash on the poor’: Utopia involves Mexico Metropolis Guardian (Allen Okay)
US homelessness up 18% as reasonably priced housing stays out of attain for many individuals Related Press
Flying Was Already the Worst. Then America Stopped Utilizing Headphones. Wall Avenue Journal
If in case you have time for leisure viewing: Sandel and Piketty Elements 1-3, YouTube. Robin Okay:
Half 1:
a href=”https://youtu.be/WTW1Eoec4Ew?si=U-sSwZ4Rx8J7rYKn”>https://youtu.be/WTW1Eoec4Ew?si=U-sSwZ4Rx8J7rYKn
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 fascinating trade. Sandel comes off higher when he simply asks questions. When he tries to expound, he blathers, repetitive and incoherent. Piketty stays on monitor with a transparent protection of leftist political economic system.
Main takeaway: huge cash is all about globalism with free motion of capital and, um, free commerce, whereas counting on those that get left behind to struggle 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 successful.
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 Superb ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) December 25, 2024
See yesterday’s Hyperlinks and Antidote du Jour right here.
