Source: The American Conservative
by Giorgio Cafiero

“Siniša Karan’s victory in the November 23 snap presidential election for Republika Srpska, one of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s constituent polities, reinforces the enduring grip of the former President Milorad Dodik. Declaring that his opponents had merely ‘got two Dodiks’ this time, Dodik made clear that his influence remains undiminished. Dodik stepped down, following a court decision that required Dodik to pay a fine that spared him a prison sentence for actions undermining Bosnia and Herzegovina’s delicate order; yet the former president of Republika Srpska continues to loom large over the Bosnian-Serb entity’s political landscape despite being officially out of office. Karan’s win came less than a month after U.S. President Donald J. Trump suddenly and surprisingly lifted U.S. sanctions on Dodik, which had been in place since early 2017.” [editor’s note: Why should the US regime be sanctioning politicians in other countries in the first place? – TLK] (12/11/25)

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-trump-administrations-policies-are-disrupting-the-balkans/

Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Andrzej Strojny

“To American observers, Poland can appear to be an example of successful political transformation. A country that threw off the yoke of communism in 1989, shifted towards a market system, and this year ranked 20th among the world’s largest economies. However, more than 30 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain, the demons of state tyranny are reawakening on the Vistula River. This time, the threat to freedom does not come from Moscow, but from local town halls. In selected cities, bans on the sale of alcohol by shops at night are being introduced. Under the guise of health concerns, regulations are being introduced that, in fact, restrict consumer freedom and harm small businesses.” (12/11/25)

https://fee.org/articles/the-specter-of-al-capone-is-haunting-poland/

Source: Los Angeles Times
by Jackie Calmes

“The confluence of two seemingly unrelated news events in recent days — the first one roiling Hollywood and media from coast to coast, the other playing out before the Supreme Court — was nothing short of uncanny. And disturbing. The first news was the one-two punch of Friday’s bombshell that Netflix planned to swallow up Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming business to create an entertainment industry behemoth, and then Monday’s competing hostile bid from jilted suitor Paramount Skydance for all of Warner. And in between, on Sunday, President Trump — tuxedoed and speaking on a red carpet, appropriately enough — proclaimed matter-of-factly ‘I’ll be involved’ in deciding the winner.” (12/11/25)

https://archive.is/UGBck

Source: The Crucial Years
by Bill Mckibben

“I don’t know enough maritime law to tell you exactly why it’s wrong for America to be dropping troops onto tankers to seize them—just to say that, no matter what legalistic excuse the administration cooks up, it looks exactly like being a pirate. (It’s worth remembering that the US Navy was founded largely to take on piracy, and thanks to the Barbary corsairs, the early Americans had a lot to say about the subject. George Washington, for instance: Pirates are ‘enemies to mankind’.) But I can tell you this. In the ever-shrinking mind of our current president, the reason why it’s good to seize a tanker is because it carries oil, and oil is the source of all strength, his contemporary equivalent to pieces of his eight.” (12/11/25)

https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/pirates-of-the-anthropocene