Source: ABC News
“A Russian missile strike killed one person and wounded nine others early on Friday morning, Ukrainian officials said …. First responders were battling fires in the streets, and several high-rise buildings were damaged. Debris had fallen in at least four districts in the city, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app. More than 600 buildings, including more than a dozen medical sites, were without heat after the strike damaged a heating main in the city’s southwestern Holosiivskyi District, he said.” (12/20/24)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/russian-missile-strike-targets-kyiv-killing-1-injuring/story?id=116976605
Source: JimBovard.com
by James Bovard
“I have spent decades trying to turn political dirt into philosophic gold. I have yet to discover the alchemist’s trick, but I still have fun with the dirt.” (12/19/24)
https://jimbovard.com/blog/2024/12/19/forty-years-sniping-at-leviathan/
Source: Reason
“Guillaume Verdon: Should We Have a ‘Second Amendment for AI?'” (12/19/24)
https://reason.com/podcast/2024/12/19/guillaume-verdon-should-we-have-a-second-amendment-for-ai/
Source: Reuters
“A Republican spending bill backed by President-elect Donald Trump failed in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday, leaving Congress with no clear plan to avert a fast-approaching government shutdown that could disrupt Christmas travel. By a vote of 174-235, the House rejected the spending package, which was hastily assembled by Republican leaders after Trump and billionaire Elon Musk scuttled a prior bipartisan deal. Despite Trump’s support, 38 Republicans voted against the package along with all but three Democrats. Government funding is due to expire at midnight on Friday. If lawmakers fail to extend that deadline, the U.S. government will begin a partial shutdown that would interrupt funding for everything from border enforcement to national parks and cut off paychecks for more than 2 million federal workers.” (12/19/24)
https://archive.is/2fDo1
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“On December 18, the Federal Aviation Administration issued an alert banning drone flights over parts of New Jersey through next January 17 for unspecified ‘Special Security Reasons.’ The unspecified actual reason is lots of people getting creeped out because they believe they’re seeing lots of drones hovering over the state at night. There’s an element of panic here, and panic tends to spread and get silly.” (12/19/24)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/19238
Source: Time
“Embattled Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will shuffle his Cabinet Friday. The prime minister’s office confirmed late Thursday that Trudeau will participate in the swearing-in ceremony and chair a meeting with his new Cabinet later Friday. Trudeau is facing rising discontent over his leadership, and the abrupt departure of his finance minister on Monday could be something he can’t recover from. A rising number of Liberal lawmakers are calling on Trudeau to resign but new Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Thursday Trudeau has the ‘full support of his Cabinet.'” (12/20/24)
https://time.com/7203539/canada-trudeau-cabinet-shuffle-resignation-calls/
Source: RealClearPolitics
by Froma Harrop
“The older he gets, the bigger the baby. Donald Trump has turned the U.S. government into one giant pacifier to calm his fear of seeming less than all-powerful. Consider those billionaires now dropping bags of gold at his feet, concerned that he would use his presidential powers to hurt them. … Reputable political analysts say this executive behavior reflects alarm that Trump might try to sabotage their business and hurt their investors. Anyway, the commentators add, paying a million or two in tribute is ‘just a rounding error’ to these guys. The analysts are not wrong. More amazing is that they would calmly portray threats toward leading American enterprises — engines of the economy, creators of jobs — as something a normal president would do. Another word for this is extortion. It’s the mobster message: ‘If you don’t want trouble, you know what to do.'” (12/19/24)
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2024/12/19/the_herculean_effort_to_keep_trump_happy_152111.html
Source: ABC News
“U.S. immigration authorities in 2024 removed the largest number of people in the country illegally [sic] in a decade, according to a new report. In fiscal year 2024, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) removed 271,484 noncitizens — the highest number since 2014, according to the agency’s year-end report, released Thursday. … The deportation numbers showed a 90% increase from the past two fiscal years, according to ICE data.” [editor’s note: These people seem to be as punctilious as Hitler’s SS was at documenting their own crimes; hopefully they’ll eventually face justice as well – TLK] (12/19/24)
https://abcnews.go.com/US/ice-removed-largest-number-people-us-illegally-2014/story?id=116965110
Source: EconLog
by Kevin Corcoran
“Many years ago, shortly after joining the Marines, I signed up for a bone marrow donor registry. … [The process] seemed very daunting. In the end, I decided I’d go ahead and do it. … This stage of being right at the line, right at the tipping point of moving from one option to an alternative, is what economists have in mind when we talk about ‘the margin.’ When making that decision, I was the marginal donor – the person who was just over the cusp of being willing to go through with it. The costs were all the complications described above, the benefits were the fulfillment of a general desire to help someone in need. For me, at that time, the benefits just narrowly outweighed the costs. But suppose it hadn’t.” (12/19/24)
https://www.econlib.org/donating-on-the-margins/
Source: Wired
“Craig Wright, the computer scientist ruled to have lied ‘extensively and repeatedly’ about being the inventor of Bitcoin, has been given a one-year prison sentence by a UK judge after being found in contempt of court. The sentence is suspended for two years, meaning that Wright will only face prison if he reoffends during that period. At a hearing Thursday in the UK High Court, Justice James Edward Mellor ruled that Wright — in bringing a $1.15 trillion lawsuit in October against Bitcoin developers and payments firm Square — had violated an earlier court order. The order required that Wright refrain from claiming publicly to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, and taking legal action on that basis, among other things.” (12/19/24)
https://archive.is/dmdKM
