Source: Antiwar.com
by Ted Galen Carpenter
“It is increasingly apparent that the new political leaders in both Taiwan and Japan are adopting more assertive, even explicitly confrontational, policies toward the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Their moves are stoking geostrategic tensions throughout the western Pacific. Washington has long regarded Taipei and Tokyo as important U.S. strategic partners. However, the Trump administration also wants to discourage any new military crises in the region. Achieving such a balance may prove to be challenging.” (12/24/25)
https://original.antiwar.com/ted_galen_carpenter/2025/12/23/the-increasingly-assertive-japan-taiwan-axis
Source: The Hill
by Sheldon H Jacobson
“Recall the firing of the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics by the president this summer when a labor report did not shine a favorable light on the job market. Then the Environmental Protection Agency stopped collecting data in the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program. Now, even economic reports are being cancelled. … Anytime data and statistics are ignored or compromised, the underpinnings of a well-functioning society are at risk of manipulation. Statistics permit the condition of a society to be measured, providing transparency and the ability to draw conclusions. If an activity is not measured, then it is difficult to assess its strengths and limitations. Without statistics, unlawful activities can be hidden and obfuscated. ” (12/24/25)
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/5661319-politicizing-data-threatens-democracy/
Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
“A man protecting his girlfriend and three children fatally shot an man trying to break into their apartment as police were nearly on the scene, the Fort Smith Police Department reported. The suspect, later identified as Wayne Nance, died of one gunshot wound …. The caller was inside the apartment with his girlfriend and three children and told dispatchers the intruder, later identified as Nance, attempted to force his way into the apartment through the door, according to Restine. … Officers arrived at the scene at 8:54 p.m. and, as they were trying to access the property through secured gates and fencing, the caller contacted dispatchers again to report Nance had opened a window and tried to get into the apartment, yelling at the occupants, Restine said. The caller fired one shot and Nance left from the window area …. Emergency responders arrived and pronounced Nance dead at the scene, according to police.” (12/24/25)
https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2025/dec/24/police-man-protecting-girlfriend-and-children/
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“Scott interviews USS Liberty survivor, author and spokesperson Phil Tourney. They talk about what really happened the day of the attack, the infuriating lengths the US government went to ensure nobody would find out about it and the continued effort by figures and groups in the conservative movement to shut down discussion about this heinous chapter of US-Israeli relations.” (12/24/25)
https://scotthorton.org/interviews/12-23-25-phil-tourney-on-the-barbarity-and-relevance-of-the-uss-liberty-attack/
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by William L Anderson
“Our plane landed at JFK at 10:30 p.m. after a nine-hour flight from Istanbul. … While in line, I had given my fanny pack to my wife, as it held our money and credit cards, and she handed it back to me as we were leaving the building. Instead of snapping it around my waist, I held it in my hand, placing my passport back into the pack. Because of my having to wait for two hours, the last shuttle to our motel had already gone, which meant we had to catch a taxi. … As I began to check into the motel, I realized I didn’t have my pack with me. After checking to see if I had dropped it on the ground, it hit me that it was on the floor of the cab, which was long gone.” (12/24/25)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/not-christmas-story-maybe-it-should-be
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“The Ukrainian military says its forces have withdrawn from the battle-scarred town of Siversk in the [seceded] Donetsk region after heavy fighting with Russian forces. In a statement on Telegram on Tuesday, Ukraine’s General Staff said that Russian troops had a ‘significant advantage’ in manpower and equipment and had exerted constant pressure on the defending Ukrainian troops by staging small-unit assaults in difficult weather conditions. … Ukraine’s DeepState military monitoring site reported late on Tuesday that Russian forces had occupied Siversk as well as Hrabovske, a village in Ukraine’s Sumy region close to the border with Russia. Russian Lieutenant General Sergei Medvedev had told Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 11 that troops had taken Siversk, where fighting has been fierce in recent months, but Ukrainian officials denied the Russian reports at the time.” (12/24/25)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/24/russian-forces-seize-embattled-siversk-town-as-ukrainian-troops-withdraw
Source: Washington Post
by Dominic Pino
“Here’s how Claus gains an illicit advantage and creates a trade deficit. Claus is not an American, and he brings his gifts from the North Pole (which is suspiciously close to Canada, a country that threatens U.S. national security). The gifts are produced by elves who don’t have the protections of U.S. labor laws in workshops that aren’t subject to U.S. environmental or safety standards. Claus has stolen jobs from American workers with his industrial policy, which uses Yuletide magic to subsidize the manufacturing and transportation of his exports. This unfair competition allows Claus to flood our country with toys priced lower than anyone else can produce them: $0. American children have been trained not merely to accept but to celebrate the dumping of foreign goods …. The gleeful acceptance of low-priced imports is only one of many symptoms of the failed neoliberal mindset wrecking this great nation.” (12/23/25)
https://archive.is/6u4wq
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“The Stultification of Conscience.” (12/23/25)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7-LaJZrUc8
Source: SCOTUSblog
“The Supreme Court on Tuesday left in place a ruling by a federal judge in Chicago that bars the Trump administration from deploying National Guard troops in Illinois. In a three-page unsigned order, the justices turned down the government’s request to put the temporary restraining order issued by U.S. District Judge April Perry on Oct. 9 on hold while litigation continues in the lower courts. ‘At this preliminary stage,’ the court said, ‘the Government has failed to identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois.’ … Although the dispute came to the Supreme Court in its preliminary stages, the case was an important test of the president’s power to send National Guard troops, who are normally controlled by the states, into U.S. cities.” (12/23/25)
https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/12/supreme-court-rejects-trumps-effort-to-deploy-national-guard-in-illinois/
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“It’s just sitting there minding its own business trying to do a little genocide in peace while aggressively lobbying your government to crush your freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, and you’re OBSESSING about it for NO REASON. You just hate Jews. That’s the only possible reason you could spend so much time obsessing about this one tiny little harmless country: you’ve got a crazy, irrational fixation on a small abrahamic religion, because you’re a weirdo. Stop saying it’s actually about all the wars and atrocities and apartheid and starving children and lobbying and propaganda and nonstop assaults on your civil rights and your government’s complicity in genocidal abuses …. No. That’s not it. It’s because you get freakishly enraged by small hats. Don’t you know there was a shooting on Bondi Beach?” (12/23/25)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/12/23/stop-picking-on-poor-little-israel/
