A (French) vegetarian Christmas

Why misunderstood wolf from a supermarket ad is moving viewers worldwide

It's never too late to become a vegetarian :)

Bondi Beach

Bondi Beach, Australia - terror attack leaves ten dead including a Rabbi after terrorists open fire on a 1000+ people Chanukkah celebration.

We have no words. pic.twitter.com/s4TKSw33oO

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) December 14, 2025

The Intifada Comes to Bondi Beach

By David Frum

It’s long past time to stop saying “Anti-Semitic violence has no place in our society.” Outrage upon outrage confirms that anti-Semitic violence has a large and expanding place in Western societies—that it is supported by many, that it is tolerated by many more, and that it is often appeased or even enabled by governments fearful of confronting large and militant factions within their populations.

For months before today’s mass killing on Sydney’s Bondi Beach, Australia has been afflicted by repeated incidents of anti-Jewish harassment and intimidation. The outrages began just two days after the October 7 Hamas terror attacks in Israel, with a demonstration at the Sydney Opera House that included a chant of “Fuck the Jews.” Dozens more such demonstrations followed across the country. Curses soon escalated into crimes ...

This is why Mamdani refusing to reject "globalize the intifada" has been seen as so problematic.

It's time that we Democrats stop pretending that spreading hate and disinformation about Israel doesn't feed antisemitism, and it's time we were honest with ourselves about the influence Middle Eastern immigrant populations have, both here and in Europe, on our politics.

If you don't think that latter point is true, think back to when Arab American voters in Michigan decided to vote for Trump in the last election because they were mad at Biden for helping Israel after Oct 7 ...

The Epstein photos

Depressing how many famous, wealthy, and powerful men were friends with Epstein. I find it incredible, as in unbelievable, that they didn't know that Epstein was a sex trafficker. It does seem that when people have the ability to do whatever they want, they prey on those who can't. Thucydides: The powerful do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.

Pirates of the Caribbean

Trump: We just seized a tanker off the coast of Venezuela. Large tanker. Very large. Largest one ever seized, actually.



In case anybody's unsure, we are now the bad guys :(

Is Gavin Newsom The One?

Ezra Klein, a Califotrnian like me, talks to Gavin Newsom about the chances of someone from California becomming president in 2028. ...



Klein and Newsom talked about how the Republicans saw an opportunity to gain voters in the last election through the way young men felt abandoned by society, unable to buy a home, make as much money as theur parents, etc.

Oh cry me a river. Young women had the same financial concerns as men, but they didn't become nihilists, didn't decide to vote for a horrible person just because things weren't going their way.

Forever Man

Forever Man, Eric Clapton, official music video, 1985.

Drip, drip, drip

Each day it seems a new bit of information drips out about that first US strike on a boat of supposed "narco-terrorists" last September. Wasn't it just yesterday that Admiral Bradley told lawmakers that Hegseth did not tell him to kill everybody on the boat?

Well, here's today's drip ...

Admiral told lawmakers everyone on alleged drug boat was on a list of military targets

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the U.S. military on Sept. 2 to kill all 11 people on a suspected drug-smuggling boat in the Caribbean Sea because they were on an internal list of narco-terrorists who U.S. intelligence and military officials determined could be lethally targeted, the commander overseeing the operation told lawmakers in briefings this past week, according to two U.S. officials and one person familiar with the congressional briefings ....

The question remains, can this administration turn civilian criminals, drug traffickers, into terrorists (valid military targets) just by asserting that they are ... can wishing make it so?

Not according to those at Just Security in an article from September ...

Using Labels, Not Law, to Justify Lethal Force: Inside the Venezuelan Boat Strike

President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the U.S. military had attacked an alleged drug vessel in international waters, killing what he described as 11 “terrorists” who he claimed were members of the Tren de Aragua gang from Venezuela. The strike, which appears to be unlawful under international and domestic law, marks a sweeping escalation and departure from the U.S. military’s approach to drug interdiction. Borrowing language from the post-9/11 “Global War on Terror,” the Trump administration is attempting to turn counternarcotics missions into counterterrorism operations. But applying a new label to an old problem does not transform the problem itself – nor does it grant the U.S. president or the U.S. military expanded legal authority to kill civilians.

The Trump administration’s description of the boat is not much different from any number of drug vessels and fast boats that attempt to evade U.S. authorities. As a former naval line officer and JAG who has both advised on the law of naval operations and witnessed firsthand how the Navy works with the Coast Guard to interdict suspected drug vessels, I can attest that the United States has longstanding law enforcement rules to deal with these situations. These rules have been in place for decades. Typically, such a boat would be intercepted and boarded, the drugs confiscated, and the people on board arrested and prosecuted. Longstanding law enforcement statutes and rules dictate that the Coast Guard takes the lead in maritime law enforcement operations, using well-established procedures to halt any suspected drug vessel. If the vessel refuses to comply, the Coast Guard may resort to firing warning shots and disabling fire. None of these escalation of force procedures were followed here—why? ....

The whole article is worth a read, and there are several more recent articles at Just Security on these boat strikes.

The other question that remains is why are they really destroying these boats/people?

Snuff films

As General McCaffrey said, as disturbing as the killing of the two helpless shipwrecked "narco-terrorists" is, no one will face repercussions for it. In fact, these snuff films have become a source of entertainment ...

And the real fun will begin when the actual land war for Venezuela's oil reserves starts. Just think of the videos they'll have for us then.

Just a thought, though, about those doing the killing ... muder and war crimes have no statutes of limitation.

The Silk Road and Bitcoin

In the news today ...

White House defends pardon of ex-Honduran president convicted of drug trafficking

[...] During a White House press briefing, Leavitt justified the administration’s lifeline to Hernández, arguing the two-term president’s charges had been mired by a corrupt “over-prosecution” under former President Joe Biden’s administration ...

This explanation seems disingenuous at best, in part because it was Trump's personal lawyer and now federal judge, Emil Bove, who was one of those who built a case against and prosecuted the brother of the ex-president of Honduras ...

Trump formally pardons former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández

[...] Though the Trump administration is blaming the Biden administration, Hernández’s brother was actually prosecuted by Emil Bove during Trump’s first term in office. Bove then served as Trump’s personal attorney before becoming a federal judge nominated by Trump ...

This is not the first time Trump has pardoned a drug trafficker ...

Trump pardons Silk Road dark web market creator Ross Ulbricht

US President Donald Trump says he has signed a full and unconditional pardon for Ross Ulbricht, who operated Silk Road, the dark web marketplace where illegal drugs were sold. Ulbricht was convicted in 2015 in New York in a narcotics and money-laundering conspiracy and sentenced to life in prison ...

War crime

A Washington Post article alleged that the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, ordered the military to kill survivors from a strike on a "drug boat" in the Caribbean.

It is a war crime to kill enemy combatants who are no longer a threat.

It should be mentioned that it was Hegseth who lobbied Trump to pardon some in the military who had committed war crimes during Trump's first term in office (Pete Hegseth’s Role in Trump’s Controversial Pardons of Men Accused of War Crimes).