Source: TomDispatch
by William D Hartung

“Earlier this month, the Trump administration released its new National Security Strategy, or NSS. Normally, such documents are poor predictors of what’s likely to happen in the real world. They are more like branding tools that communicate the attitudes of a given administration while rarely offering a detailed or accurate picture of its likely policies. The reason documents like the NSS are of limited import is simple enough: foreign and military policies aren’t set by documents but by power and ideology. Typically enough, the current U.S. approach to the world flows from struggles among representatives of contending interest groups, some of which, like the military-industrial complex (MIC), have a significant advantage in the fight.” (12/21/25)

https://tomdispatch.com/the-president-of-peace-prepares-for-war/

Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob

“A Chinese billionaire tried. Give him that. But do we have to like what he was up to? The trier in question is fantasy video-game mogul Xu Bo, and The Wall Street Journal reports that he is trying to gain a foothold in the United States in a somewhat novel way … for a rich man, anyway. He’s fathering children in America. Many children. And by non-wives who are under surrogacy contracts to bear his children for him. … it’s a trend that the Chinese super-wealthy are taking advantage of. What advantage? Birthright citizenship: ‘Babies born via surrogacy in the U.S. are U.S. citizens by virtue of the 14th Amendment.'” (12/22/25)

https://thisiscommonsense.org/2025/12/22/billionaire-baby-ploy/

Source: Brownstone Institute
by Joseph Varon

“Social media has radically transformed not only the means of communication but also the very fabric of our daily lives. It has reshaped how we think, how we evaluate information, and whom we choose to trust. Instead of fostering informed dialogue, it has turned medical science into a contentious battleground where opinions clash and algorithms amplify the most extreme and polarizing voices, often sidelining more measured perspectives. Yet, amid the cacophony, there are invaluable elements that have emerged. Like medicine itself, social media encompasses a spectrum of experiences: the good, the bad, and the ugly.” (12/22/25)

https://brownstone.org/articles/how-social-media-has-distorted-medical-judgment/

Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone

“The dumbest thing we are being asked to believe today is that pro-Palestinian protests caused the Bondi shooting. It’s self-evidently moronic. No one sincerely believes it. They’re just pretending to believe it to get protests banned and criticism of Israel outlawed. Nobody actually believes pro-Palestine protests caused the Bondi shooting. They’re just pretending to believe that to promote the interests of a genocidal apartheid state. Nobody actually believes ‘globalize the intifada’ means ‘kill all Jews.’ They’re just pretending to believe that to promote the interests of a genocidal apartheid state. Nobody actually believes pro-Palestine demonstrations are ‘hate marches’ or that pro-Palestine speech is ‘hate speech.’ They’re just pretending to believe that to promote the interests of a genocidal apartheid state.” (12/22/25)

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2025/12/22/notes-on-bondi-beach-and-free-speech/

Source: Washington Post
by US Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) & US Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

“In the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Biden administration gave Congress its assessment of Ukraine’s ability to hold back Russian forces. The projection was bleak. Kyiv, they said, would fall in weeks, if not sooner. … Instead, Ukraine successfully confined Russia’s troops to the far east of their country, where Russia has tried to steal territory since 2015. After almost four years of fighting, Russia has lost about a third of its strategic bombers, and it continues to lose equipment at significantly higher rates than Ukraine. It is Russia that has borne more than 1 million casualties, dead and wounded, in grinding battles of its own making. Pundits who predicted a quick Ukrainian defeat were wrong in 2022, and they are wrong today.” (12/22/25)

https://archive.is/gy307