1/. How do you change a hidebound institution like our Military colossus?
Every weapon we have, ships, tanks, incredibly expensive planes are vulnerable and basically obsolete because of AI and drones.
E.G. Russian tanks....
Most interesting analysis by the Times.....
PRESIDENT XI JINPING of China has ordered his armed forces to be ready to seize Taiwan by 2027. Though the United States maintains a policy of strategic ambiguity on how it would respond to an invasion, Republican and Democratic presidents alike have said that America would defend the island nation. The Pentagon has produced a classified, multiyear assessment that shows how such a conflict would play out: the Overmatch brief.
The report is a comprehensive review of U.S. military power prepared by the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment and delivered most recently to top White House officials in the last year. It catalogs China’s ability to destroy American fighter planes, large ships and satellites, and identifies the U.S. military’s supply chain choke points. Its details have not been previously reported.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/12/08/opinion/us-china-taiwan-military.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
2/. Our media cycle......over and over and over.....
3/. Affordability - our new crisis. Bob Lefsetz looks at the issue and how it's playing out......
This is something we can all relate to.
Not everybody was concerned when abortion rights were diminished. Males, those outside the reproductive window… Birth control and abortions are critical to women of childbearing age, but everybody? No.
Immigration… Some people are concerned that illegal immigrants are taking away jobs. Then again, there are those living in states with many illegal immigrants who do the jobs citizens don’t want to. They are not that concerned with illegal immigration.
But high prices? Those affect us all!
Unless you’re rich. But the rich have taken an image hit. Look at Elon Musk and DOGE… Musk has been revealed to a myopic narcissist, someone hard to believe in.
https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2025/12/13/the-affordability-crisis/
4/. Pardon me Mr. President!
5/. 'A Speech Or A Breakdown"......next stop, Amendment 25....
Let me take off my psychotherapist hat and simply speak as a parent, an adult, a businessman, a citizen, and a human being.
There is something deeply and fundamentally wrong with Donald Trump,
Last night’s speech demonstrated it. He didn’t need to trash-talk Joe Biden, or try to claim that the country was “dead” when he came into office, or exaggerate his accomplishments, or lie about the state of things. None of that was necessary.
He didn’t need to put depreciating comments under the pictures of prior presidents in the White House, or replace Joe Biden’s picture with a autopen.
These are the kind of things junior high school boys do. And not even most junior high school boys; just the really dysfunctional ones. The bullies. The ones who are desperate to be part of the in crowd, but always on the outside looking in. The ones no one wants as friends
6/. Love the title of this one - How The Phone Ban Saved High School".....well written, should be permanent.
When New York State banned phones in public schools from bell to bell this past September, the goal — according to the ban’s champion, Governor Hochul — was undistracted learning. But within weeks of the Great Phone Lockup, teachers began to notice an incidental (and arguably even more compelling) benefit: The teens were talking to one another as if they were in a Brat Pack movie. Sure, there’s been grumbling and some burner phones and scrolling in the bathroom. At one high school, an entrepreneurial senior even bought a pouch-unlocking magnet on Amazon and tried to charge classmates a dollar per jailbreak. But generally, with phones off-limits, the atmosphere feels different. There’s a pleasant buzz in the lunchroom, chatter in the hallways, and an alphabet of new analog hobbies popping up just about everywhere. “We’ve had a lot more school spirit,” says Rosalmi, a senior at New Heights Academy Charter School in Harlem. “People are more willing to do stuff.”
7/. Interesting video - what being really rich actually feels like.......watch and weep! 36 minutes...
8/. I would hate, HATE to be looking for a job right now......
This is written by a young man in the UK, but it's the same here......
As I apply for yet another job, I look at the company’s website for context. I’ve now read their “what we do” section four or five times, and I have a problem – I can’t figure out what they do. There are two possibilities here. One: they don’t know what they do. Two: what they do is so pointless and embarrassing that they dare not spell it out in plain English. “We forge marketing systems at the forefront of the online wellness space” translates to something like “we use ChatGPT to sell dodgy supplements”.
But understanding what so many businesses actually do is the least of my worries. I’m currently among the 5% of Brits who are unemployed. In my six months of job hunting, my total lack of success has begun to make me question my own existence. Just like when you repeat a word over and over until it loses all meaning, when you apply repeatedly for jobs in a similar field, the semantics of the entire situation begin to fall apart like a snotty tissue. About one in five of my job applications elicit a rejection email, usually bemoaning the sheer number of “quality applicants” for the position. For the most part, though – nothing. It’s almost like the job never existed in the first place, and it’s possible that it didn’t.
10/. The viral Karoline Leavitt [The MAGA White House Press Secretary] photo in Vanity Fair
that clearly shows the injection marks on her upper lip....
11/. Andrew Sullivan on the wanton cruelty of Hegseth and Trump.....both should be prosecuted for murder......
"Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth seems to be a war criminal. Without a war. An interesting achievement,“ - George Will.
It is not easy to be newly sickened in the “moral slum” of this era in American history, but Megyn Kelly pulled off something special the other day. She was talking to Mark Halperin about President Trump’s undeclared “special military operation” — is that what we call this kind of thing now? — in the Caribbean. A boat allegedly carrying cocaine was struck by the US military under orders to “Destroy the drugs, kill all 11 people on board.” When two men on board survived the strike, a second one was ordered 41 minutes later to finish the job. Kelly was mad that the murder was ... too swift:
I really do kind of not only wanna see them killed in the water, whether they’re on the boat or in the water, but I’d really like to see them suffer. I would like Trump and Hegseth to make it last a long time so they lose a limb and bleed out.
At first I thought it was AI. No one, especially a lawyer like Kelly, would seriously air such a barbarous abandonment of the basic laws of war in America, would they? Russia? Sure. Iran? You bet. But the West? And then I reminded myself of who Donald Trump is, why he chose Pete Hegseth to lead the Department of Defense (no, I’m not acquiescing to the new name), and what increasingly drives the post-liberal reactionism of MAGA.
12/. Time for this again - "The Gunfighter".......really clever and funny....9 minutes.....
13/. Let's hope this is true.......it won't be long for Trump, especially aftr his angry performance last night.......
Whelp, we seem to be getting closer to figuring out what the fuck is wrong with Trump. And it’s bad. Really bad. Even Trump knows that it is bad cuz he’s now ranting that discussions about his health are treason. Come on, if he were in perfect health, he wouldn’t care who said what. He would just sue. But now he is threatening the media any time they bring up the topic of his health. It’s one of his tells.
14/. Awww.....a Christmas story video....amazing zingers! Most amusing....2 minutes.....
15/. AI layoffs are happening right now, and entire job categories are being eliminated.
You are absolutely right to be concerned......
Nowadays there seems to be nonstop discussion about AI, with much of the conversation focused on whether there’s a speculative bubble or whether the chipmaker Nvidia is really worth $5tn or whether OpenAI will beat its rivals in developing new generations of artificial intelligence. But the vast majority of Americans – just like the vast majority of Europeans and Asians – couldn’t care less about those things.
Their big concern is whether AI is going to cause huge layoffs and create a disastrous job market, especially for younger workers. Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, a leading AI company, fed those fears when he said that AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs in the next one to five years and increase unemployment in the US to 10% to 20%. In October, Bernie Sanders, the top Democrat on the Senate education and labor committee, issued a report saying AI and automation could replace up to 97m jobs in the US over the next decade.
16/. First they came for the brown immigrants, and I said nothing......
How our homegrown SS works......
ICE cut off her wedding ring. Sue Tincher is a 55 year old white Minneapolis grandmother who walked out into the cold because her phone lit up with alerts that ICE was
raiding her block and her neighbors might be disappeared before sunrise. She stood on a public sidewalk, asked an officer if they were ICE, refused to slink back, and within seconds agents slammed her into the snow, cuffed her, and dragged her to an unmarked truck like she was the criminal. Her husband spent hours not knowing where his wife was while federal officials refused to tell him a thing.
Inside federal custody they stripped her of more than her freedom. Agents took her personal belongings, shackled her legs, and used cutters to remove her wedding ring, citing vague safety and processing rules while she sat in a cell at the Whipple Federal Building for around 5 hours. There was no medical emergency, just the cold choice to sever a sentimental band from a woman they claimed was dangerous for watching and asking questions.
ICE now claims she assaulted an agent and crossed some invisible line, the same script they roll out whenever anyone challenges their power. The images and accounts show a small woman on a sidewalk surrounded by armored men and then processed like a threat, right down to cutting off her ring. If they can do that to a white citizen grandma in Minnesota in front of cameras, it is a brutal reminder of what that machinery does in the dark to the communities it actually targets.
17/. Clever......a nice little song......2 minutes
18/. The Times lists the best movies on Amazon Prime......
As Netflix pours more of its resources into original content, Amazon Prime Video is picking up the slack, adding new movies for its subscribers each month. Its catalog has grown so impressive, in fact, that it’s a bit overwhelming — and at the same time, movies that are included with a Prime subscription regularly change status, becoming available only for rental or purchase. It’s a lot to sift through, so we’ve plucked out 100 of the absolute best movies included with a Prime subscription right now, to be updated as new information is made available. https://www.nytimes.com/article/best-movies-amazon-prime.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
19/. Love her or hate her, Taylor Swift is a major force in the music business, and this documentary or her last tour sounds fascinating.
Taylor being a human? Naaaa.....
Swifties had long guessed that there would be a documentary going behind the scenes of Taylor Swift’s blockbuster Eras tour. The 2023 Eras Tour concert movie didn’t show any of the inner workings of this three-and-a-half-hour behemoth, which ran for 149 dates from 2023-24. Fans put some bits together, such as how Swift arrived on stage being pushed inside a cleaning cart. Plus, given the two albums she wrote during and about the Eras tour – 2024’s The Tortured Poets Department and this year’s The Life of a Showgirl – it wouldn’t be Swiftian to overlook another lucrative IP extension.
What fans could never have imagined was that Disney was set to start filming as the Eras tour was due to hit Vienna on 8 August 2023 – the first of three shows in the Austrian capital that were cancelled owing to an Islamic State terrorist plot. We learn this in episode one of the six-part docuseries The End of an Era, when Swift and her longtime friend Ed Sheeran are backstage at Wembley, hours before he guests at her first concert after the thwarted attack. “I didn’t even get to go,” Swift tells him of Vienna. “I was on the plane headed there. I just need to do this show and re-remember the joy of it because I’m a little bit just like …” She can’t find the words .https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/dec/12/taylor-swift-the-end-of-an-era-review-disney?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
20/. Have you ever been divorced?
If so, "The Revenge Club" might be a show for you......or not!
Sometimes three-in-one type things are good. Phone chargers with lots of leads for all your devices that have stupidly different ports. Those woolly hats that cover your neck and lower face, so you look daft but are impregnable to winter cold. The Nars blusher stick that is also a lipstick and eyeshadow.
When it comes to dramas, however, it’s best to stick to one field of endeavour. The Revenge Club is a gallimaufry of tones, styles and performances. Watching it is like looking through a kaleidoscope that someone twists for you every few minutes; it’s fun but quite disorienting after a while.
The club of the title begins as a divorce therapy group, comprising six pained souls. First among grieving equals is Emily (Aimee-Ffion Edwards), a happy and successful thirtysomething until she found her husband in bed with her best friend. The treacherous pair now have a baby, live in Emily’s beloved former home and bought her business for peanuts when she became unable to work in the wake of the disaster. We meet Emily in a now-standard flash-forward scene being interviewed by the police because “people are dead”. Dum-dum-dah!
21/. Like horror movies? Rolling Stone lists the best of the last year......
You wouldn’t call 2025 an “off” year for horror — more like an odd one. Both A24 and Neon continued to back several scary-movie auteurs (the prolific Osgood Perkins, the brothers Danny and Michael Philippou) with mixed results. Shudder continued to mine the four corners of the globe for the weirdest, eeriest, and most outré the genre had to offer. It was a good time to be a Stephen King — sorry, “Richard Bachman” — fan, provided you loved his more dystopian work as opposed to his traditional things-that-go-bump-in-the-night offerings; as for the It-related series Welcome to Derry that dropped on HBO, let’s just say mileage may vary. Sequels and spin-offs, some decent and others detestable, came and went. We have to admit that going into 2025, we did not have Warners dominating the field for the preceding 12 months on our bingo card. And yet… well, see below. https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-lists/best-horror-movies-2025-1235440231/
Today's dwarf joke....
A bus was completely full, every seat was taken, when a dwarf got on.
He looked around and saw that every seat was taken so he stood. The bus pulled away.
A mother told her little girl who was sitting next to her to get up and offer her seat to the dwarf.
So the little girl went up to him and said “excuse me, I wonder if you would like my seat, it’s yours if you want it”
The dwarf looked at her and said in a very loud voice so that everyone on the bus could hear; “Why would you offer me your seat? Is it because I’m a dwarf and you feel sorry for me?
Well let me tell you I’ve lived my whole life as a dwarf and I don’t want your pity, or your seat”.
So the little girl, obviously upset, went back and sat with her mum.
At the next stop a woman got off, but made a point of speaking to the dwarf as she was getting off.
“I’m getting off here, so my seats free”
Again the dwarf said in a very loud voice; “You’re another one, just because I’m a dwarf you think you should feel sorry for me ….
” The woman interrupted him and said in a similarly loud voice “No sir it’s not because you are a dwarf, it’s because you are a human being, the same as everyone on this bus.
Also you should apologise to the little girl you upset when she offered you her seat.
You were very rude and do you know what?”
“What?” Said the dwarf.
“I hope when you get home Snow White kicks your arse”
Today's blonde joke
Two sisters, one blonde and one brunette, inherit the family ranch.
Unfortunately, after just a few years, they are in financial trouble..
In order to keep the bank from repossessing the ranch, they need to purchase a bull so that they can breed their own stock.
Upon leaving, the brunette tells her sister, 'When I get there, if I decide to buy the bull, I'll contact you to drive out after me and haul it home.'
The brunette arrives at the man's ranch, inspects the bull, and decides she wants to buy it. The man tells her that he will sell it for $599, no less.
After paying him, she drives to the nearest town to send her sister a telegram to tell her the news..
She walks into the telegraph office, and says, 'I want to send a telegram to my sister telling her that I've bought a bull for our ranch.
I need her to hitch the trailer to our pickup truck and drive out here so we can haul it home.'
The telegraph operator explains that he'll be glad to help her, then adds, it will cost 99 cents a word.
Well, after paying for the bull, the brunette realizes that she'll only be able to send her sister one word.
After a few minutes of thinking, she nods and says, 'I want you to send her the word 'comfortable.'
The operator shakes his head. 'How is she ever going to know that you want her to hitch the trailer to your pickup truck and drive out here to haul that bull back to your ranch if you send her just the word 'comfortable?'
The brunette explains, 'My sister's blonde. The word is big.
She'll read it very slowly... 'com-for-da-bul.'
Today's marital bliss joke
A police officer pulls over a speeding car.
Officer: “I clocked you at 80 miles per hour, sir.”
Driver: “Oh no, officer, I had the cruise control set at 60. Must be your radar gun.”
Not looking up from her knitting, the wife says:
“Don’t be silly, dear — this car doesn’t have cruise control.”
The officer starts writing the ticket. The driver glares at his wife:
“Can’t you please keep your mouth shut for once?!”
The wife smiles sweetly and says:
“Well, dear… you should be thankful your radar detector went off or you’d have been going even faster.”
The officer pauses… then writes a second ticket for the illegal radar detector.
The driver, now furious, growls: “WOMAN! Must you talk?!”
The officer frowns.
“And I notice you’re not wearing a seat belt, sir. That’s an automatic $75 fine.”
Driver: “I had it on, but took it off to get my wallet when you pulled me over.”
Wife: “Now dear… You know you never ever wear your seat belt when you drive.”
The officer begins writing out ticket number three.
The driver explodes: “WHY DON’T YOU PLEASE JUST SHUT UP?!”
The officer turns to the wife and asks gently,
“Ma’am, does your husband always talk to you this mean way?”
Wife: “Only when he’s had a skinful of booze, officer.”
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