Thin Silver Lining
Post-Monetarists,
There is so much content in this post that I need to provide a brief overview this pregnant holiday weekend. A lot of mischief in the world can happen around Christmas and New Year’s. The Federal Reserve Act was passed and enacted December 23, 1913, after (much of) Congress went home for Christmas, for instance.
My core assertion is that western finance is over extended on bad investments, due to terminally-declining physical/real-economy, and the doubling-down bets to defeat Russia and expropriate Russian assets, which has succeeded only in losing Ukrainian assets.
EU institutions have been forced to back down instead of doubling-down on the complete confiscation of Russian national assets. This brings-forward the day of financial collapse in Europe, but does not precipitate it.
What may precipitate financial collapse in London, Frankfurt and Paris is the breakout of the price of silver, which has been suppressed by manipulation since 1981, after the Hunt brothers cornered the silver futures market on margin in 1980 and ran the price up to $50/oz, before margin raises broke their positions.
All of that manipulation was through “paper markets” of silver futures on margin/leverage. Now, there is a regime change to the control of silver price by industrial buyers and nation-states with deep pockets who need the physical silver and are not playing financial-manipulation games.
All western banks suppressed the price of silver since 1981, but mostly American banks, which have been gradually retiring their short positions for most of the year and are now a little net-long, so they do well if silver price rises, as do Russia and China, but not Europe. Europe is $16 billion net short on silver, and will have to deliver, but there is not enough silver to deliver on those positions, so the holders of those shorts are about to default, and drive the price of physical silver higher, while ruining their own reputations.
Also, Trump is meeting with Zelensky and Netanyahu in short-succession Sunday and Monday. Both need Trump more than he needs them right now, and maybe even more so by Monday, when silver markets react to higher margin requirements, which were just t=raised Thursday, but jumped the price of silver up, instead of down, since it is weak-handed shorts who need to cover margins more than strong-handed longs now...
Zelensky needs money and guns to keep running the war for European finance, and the EU has promised him the money, but that promise becomes suspect this weekend. Trump has deeper pockets. What will the “President Zelensky” cabal decide to do? “Place your bets!”
Does Netanyahu think he can get Trump to attack Iran for him without actually complying with the ceasefire deal he signed? Does Trump think that Netanyahu can survive politically if he does comply with the documant he signed? I don’t think so...
Absolutist Religious Zionist power factions will pull the plug upon any non-Jewish group owning any land in the lands they see “God” as having promised to them. They will die before they back down, but they will kill everybody else by doing so, the real “Samson Option”.
We human herds outgrow resources and are replaced by machines, so,,, Colin Todhunter, Land of Confusion: The Great Reset in Motion The global disruptions we have seen in recent years are frequently presented as a chaotic sequence of events: a ‘pandemic’, inflation, energy shortages and war. Little wonder that most people are confused. However, a structural analysis reveals a more deliberate controlled demolition of the 20th-century social contract.
We are witnessing a transition from a productive capitalist model, which required a healthy mass labour force, to what Yanis Varoufakis calls a techno-feudalist order.
The engine of this transition was a desperate financial stabilisation strategy carried out by means of a public health event. As identified by Professor Fabio Vighi, the global financial system reached a point of terminal instability in late 2019, evidenced by the collapse of the US repo market (where banks lend to each other).
By freezing the real economy through lockdowns, central banks performed massive liquidity injections to save the banking-finance tier. If that money had entered a functioning economy, it would have triggered hyper-inflation. By keeping the population at home, the elite performed a stealth bailout that preserved the dominance of the financial class by sacrificing the productive middle class... ..By accelerating the ‘offboarding’ of the non-productive elderly (whatever happened to the COVID era marketing slogan of ‘saving granny’?), the system wipes billions in future pension liabilities off the state balance sheet.
Moving forward, what can we expect? We will see the elite continue to rollout the narrative of permanent emergency under the guise of climate crisis and Russian threat to provide the ideological discipline required to justify a boosted austerity. Meanwhile, digital ID and central bank digital currencies will create a system of total surveillance. In this emerging system, the citizen is replaced by the ‘managed subject’, whose access to the economy is contingent upon a social credit score. https://off-guardian.org/2025/12/23/land-of-confusion-the-great-reset-in-motion/
Greenland may also be needed as a buffer from Europe, the new-enemy. Arctic Test Case: What Trump’s Greenland Threats Reveal About US Goals Greenland, as it so happens, holds vast reserves of rare earths, uranium, and critical minerals increasingly vital to advanced technologies and military systems. Its geographic position also anchors US missile defense architecture and Arctic surveillance. Venezuela, meanwhile, remains home to the world’s largest proven oil reserves.
Trump’s rhetoric is often dismissed as bombast, yet in this case it aligns with long-standing US strategic documents that treat access denial, resource security, and chokepoint control as existential matters. The Arctic, in particular, has quietly moved from peripheral concern to a central theater of the New Cold War. https://www.globalresearch.ca/trump-greenland-threats-reveal-about-us-goals/5910221
I personally think this piracy is against China, Cuba and South American independence. John Helmer: Beating Trump At The Bluffing Game For the time being the Trump Administration and its allies conduct their war against Russia on the high seas, outside defended territorial waters, against ship targets which are unarmed, threaten no resistance. This is piracy, effective if the sight of the skull-and-bones flag triggers fear, shock, immediate surrender.
In the Caribbean against Venezuela, President Donald Trump is displaying an enormous naval force: “the largest Armada ever assembled in the history of South America,” he tweeted on December 16. “It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before”.
Then the US Coast Guard announced that it lacks the men and firepower to board and seize the Bella-1 oil tanker, owned by China and heading to Venezuela to load crude oil for delivery to Chinese refineries. “The days-long pursuit [of the Bella-1] highlights the mismatch between the Trump administration’s desire to seize sanctioned oil tankers near [sic] Venezuela and the limited resources of the agency that is mainly carrying out operations, the Coast Guard,” a US official announced on December 23. https://johnhelmer.net/gorilla-radio-goes-to-war-at-sea-beating-trump-at-the-bluffing-game/#more-93146
Will Europeans repudiate their governments and “odious-debts” soon? Pepe Escobar: Europe’s Elites Pay For The Privilege of Losing Conflict Enter the latest European elite scam: the decision to hand over to the “criminal organization” in Kiev – President Putin’s terminology – a cool 90 billion euros joint loan for 2026-2027, at 0% interest rate. Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic officially refused to be part of the scam.
This joint EU borrowing – funds that they don’t have in the first place – automatically turns into EU debt. The onus will be on EU-wide taxpayers. Not only they will be stripped of 90 billion euros of their hard earned income coupled with high taxes; they will pay European banks for the “privilege”. Everyone in the corridors of the EC in Brussels knows that only in interest, EU member-states will have to pay over 3 billion euros a year.
The imperative corollary: funds for health services, education and social rights will go even more down the drain than at present. https://sputnikglobe.com/20251222/pepe-escobar-europes-elites-pay-for-the-privilege-of-losing-conflict--1123346002.html
Simplicius, US Sanctions EU Officials for Free Speech Suppression in Major Widening of US-European Rift The latest “assault on Europe” by the Trump administration has revealed or highlighted two key things. First, the fact that the rift between US and Europe is growing, as the Trump administration appears to understand that the Deep State has retreated to more defensible positions in the EU, after being at least somewhat thwarted and beaten back in the US. And so now, Trump’s admin sees that it must be pursued and cut off at the root in Europe itself, at least according to Richard Werner’s plausible hypothesis:
This erupting dispute is bringing the ongoing war between Trump and the Deep State out into the open, at least in Europe: Having had to concede territory in the US, the American Deep State retreated to it’s biggest fortress: Germany and the EU, where it has been entrenched, drawing its legal powers from the 1945 Occupation Statutes in Germany and its control over the dictatorial EU Commission ever since the CIA created these EU institutions in the first place (with Jean Monnet, Schuman, Spaak etc & the European Movement all CIA assets).
In this case, specifically, we can refer to the ‘Censorship Industrial Complex’—as coined by Mike Benz—which is a loose overlap of many globalist NGOs and other ‘special interests’ which have fashioned a kind of international web capable of both influencing and operating in any Western nation.
The elites have expressed their shock at this development, being beside themselves at the fact that the US could possibly dare to form a schism between the different arms of the global Deep State... ..But the second thing I mentioned which the latest developments have revealed is the utter hypocrisy of the performatively pearl-clutching Euro-elites. They shriek in outrage at the ‘assault’ on their so-called freedoms when the US dares to do the very thing these Euro-elites themselves have gleefully subjected many less-fortunate nations to, particularly Russia.
“Ships are afraid to go to ports”: Kyiv assesses damage to Odessa and Izmail from Russian Armed Forces attacks https://en.topcor.ru/67195-korabli-bojatsja-idti-porty-v-kieve-ocenili-uscherb-odessy-i-izmaila-ot-atak-vs-rf.html
Expect “frank discussions”: Peace Deal On Horizon? Trump & Zelensky To Meet Sunday https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/peace-deal-horizon-trump-zelensky-meet-sunday
Detailed: Netanyahu’s Mar-a-Lago visit “crucial” for future of Gaza deal Friction point: Trump’s top team has grown increasingly frustrated as Netanyahu has taken steps to undermine the fragile ceasefire and stall the peace process. https://www.axios.com/2025/12/26/trump-netanyahu-meeting-gaza-mar-a-lago
Alastair Crooke, Netanyahu’s New Slant To Lure Trump Into War With Iran The message that Netanyahu will take to Mar-a-Lago is that “Israel will not allow Iran to rebuild a missile and defense umbrella that will close the skies over sensitive sites.”
Trump may be more preoccupied with creating a new regional order without being dragged into a war with no clear end. Netanyahu likely will claim nonetheless (as he has been doing for over 25 years) that the “window” in which Iran can rebuild its defense umbrella is fast closing, and will likely gently remind the President that Trump was placed in power, not just to promote Israel’s image, but for the Realpolitik purpose of expanding Israel’s real-world power in the region and control over territory. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/netanyahus-new-slant-lure-trump-war-iran
The crux: Netanyahu to meet Trump in US on Monday Netanyahu could be attempting to shift attention from Gaza onto Iran.
With Israel entering an election year, Mekelberg said with regards to the Trump meeting, Netanyahu would be “taking a defensive approach, to minimise what can be difficult for him coming back home”. “Everything is connected to staying in power,” he said of the long-time Israeli premier. https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2025/12/netanyahu-meet-trump-us-monday
Gold Surges As Central Banks Brace For Global Debt Storm https://www.zerohedge.com/precious-metals/gold-surges-central-banks-brace-global-debt-storm
Gold & Geopolitics, Western PM exchanges running on fumes - LBMA empty, COMEX coming next My thesis in short:
Industrial users can’t delay production. These buyers are price-insensitive. They need metal or their factories stop.
Silver ETFs absorbed 95 million ounces in the first half of 2025 alone. That’s metal locked away. Not available for delivery.
Mine production is inelastic - 70-80% of silver comes as a byproduct of other metal mining. New mines take a decade to bring online.
Which points to the inescapable fact: Nobody trusts paper silver contracts anymore.
The market is repricing. Not gradually. Fast. Because that’s what happens when decades of price suppression meet actual physical shortage.
“This Is The Finale Of The Great Financial Reset”; ‘Dr.Gold’ Warns They’re Gobbling Up All The Physical Supply What is “breaking” is the extremely leveraged futures markets with not enough physical silver to deliver.
Fast forward to the end of the month, and new record highs in gold and silver are happening every day. Mr. Gold says,
“They are gobbling up all the supply available because they understand this is the end of the fiat currency experiment that started August 15 of 1971. Fiats are collapsing.
This is the Hunt brothers on steroids because you have the entire world buying physical. The Hunt brothers got into trouble because they were buying paper contracts, and COMEX changed the rules. COMEX can change any rules they want . . . it won’t matter because the rest of the world is buying cash and carry . . . they will not accept paper contracts. They want real physical metal.”
Here is where it gets both interesting and dangerous. What happens if the short sellers cannot deliver the silver promised? Mr. Gold says,
“People say if they can’t deliver, and I am going to tell you at some point they will not be able to deliver, when that moment happens, it’s game over for the entire financial system. Silver, and I believe it will be silver that fails to deliver, silver is the blasting cap to the gold nuclear bomb. When silver fails to deliver, then immediately there will be a pile into COMEX gold, and they will not be able to deliver the gold. Once that happens, you have failures of contracts that are proven fraudulent. They are zeroed out and cannot perform. Then it spreads to cattle, pork bellies, grains and you name it. This is not to mention the financials of stocks and bonds. Once you prove fraud in silver, that’s going to spread to all the derivatives, and we will have a derivative meltdown. . .. The world wants gold and silver because those are the only two monies that cannot default.” https://www.zerohedge.com/precious-metals/finale-great-financial-reset-drgold-warns-theyre-gobbling-all-physical-supply
Gold & Geopolitics, Third time’s the charm, right? CME hikes margins. AGAIN! This is about power. Plain and simple power. It’s about which banking families will survive and which ones get sacrificed. The CME announced on Friday that silver futures margin requirements are going up again. Effective Monday, December 29th. Third hike in a month. Western silver is trading around $77, up 169% year-to-date, and the exchange that’s supposed to facilitate price discovery just keeps making it more expensive to play.
Now normally, margin hikes are used to crush the longs. That’s the playbook. That’s what happened to the Hunt Brothers in 1980. That’s what happened in 2011 when silver touched $49 and the CME raised margins five times in nine days. You jack up the cost of leverage until the speculators capitulate and the price collapses. But here’s what’s different this time™. The shorts are the ones who are fucked... ..US banks are now net LONG silver for the first time anyone can remember. Not short. Long. They’re sitting on 18,611 long contracts against 17,838 shorts. Net position: positive 773 contracts.
Meanwhile, Non-US banks (I am going to assume they’re European) are holding the bag. They’re net short 42,311 contracts. At current prices - call it $77 per ounce times 5,000 ounces per contract - that’s a paper loss exceeding $16 billion. And that’s before Monday’s margin hike forces them to post more collateral on those underwater positions.
Think about what a margin call means when you’re short. When you’re long and profitable, more margin is annoying but manageable. You’re sitting on gains. You can meet the call. But when you’re short and the market has moved $47 against you since January?... You’re about to learn what “unlimited losses” actually means in practice... ..The December 12th hike didn’t stop anything. Silver dipped for about 15 minutes, then blasted through to new highs. The market absorbed 67 million ounces of paper selling and asked for more. Because the physical buyers don’t care about paper games anymore... Today’s physical demand is coming from sovereign nations, from industrial users who can’t afford supply disruptions, from central banks quietly rotating out of dollars. They’re not using leverage. They’re using cash. And when the COMEX creates a dip, they buy... ..US banks started aggressively covering their shorts and flipping long over the summer. By early December, they’d completely reversed a position they’d held for literally decades. They went from being the primary suppressors of silver prices to being net long... European banks didn’t get the memo. Or maybe they got it and couldn’t execute. Either way, they’re still massively short... ..So when the CME announces another margin hike - ostensibly to “manage volatility” - who does it hurt? The European banks sitting on enormous underwater shorts. Who does it help? The US banks sitting on profitable longs and the physical buyers who’ll scoop up whatever paper gets panic-liquidated... ..If you’re a European bank holding 49,689 short contracts, you need to find an additional $248 million in cash. Not to close your position. Not to reduce your exposure. Just to keep the trade on.
And this is happening as we roll into year-end. When balance sheets get scrutinized. When auditors ask uncomfortable questions about marked-to-market losses on your commodity derivatives book. When explaining a $16 billion hole in your precious metals trading operation becomes politically awkward. The shorts have three options: post more capital, cover at these astronomical prices, or default. If they post more capital, they’re throwing good money after bad. Silver has no ceiling when the physical market is this tight. Industrial buyers will pay whatever it costs. Central banks aren’t selling. The Chinese government just ordered 400 million ounces through state entities. That’s half of annual global mine production. In one order.
If they cover, they drive the price even higher through their own buying. A short squeeze feeding on itself. We saw a preview on Thu/Fri when silver jumped $6 in a matter of hours. Now imagine systematic covering of 42,311 contracts. That’s 211 million ounces. There isn’t that much registered silver available on the COMEX. You’d blow straight through $100.
If they default... well, then we find out what happens when major European financial institutions can’t meet their obligations on a commodity exchange. I suspect the answer involves bailouts and liquidity facilities and all the usual central bank magic. But it also involves reputational destruction... ..Monday’s margin hike is interesting for what it reveals about who has power and who doesn’t. The CME didn’t make this decision in a vacuum. They’re seeing something in their clearing data. They’re watching which banks are posting collateral and which ones are struggling. They’re calculating counterparty risk.
And they’re protecting the clearing house.
The CME Group doesn’t care if European banks get crushed. They care about their own exposure. If a major short holder blows up and can’t cover, the clearing house is on the hook. So you raise margins. You force the weak hands to either post more cash or get out... ..When this unwinds, the losses won’t be confined to some European banks’ derivatives desk. Because those banks borrowed physical silver to create the paper shorts. They leased metal from central banks, from sovereign wealth funds, from pension funds looking for a return on their bullion holdings. That silver is now gone - delivered to India, melted in China, sitting in private vaults in Singapore. ... It’s not coming back. So the entities that leased their silver are going to get cash-settled. At these prices. And they’re going to realize their strategic reserve just got converted to euros at exactly the wrong moment. Right as the dollar loses its monopoly on international settlement. Right as gold and silver reassert their role as the only money that can’t be printed.
The United States banking system appears to have seen this coming. They covered their shorts. They went long. They positioned themselves on the right side of what’s about to happen. The European banks... didn’t... ..When powerful families fight for survival, they don’t send polite memos. They change the rules. They force liquidations. They make sure someone else pays the price for the transition to the next monetary system.
This time, it looks like the bill is going to Europe.
Martin Armstrong discusses various hedges against various risks, and history, Why the Theory of the Dollar Will Crash is Sophistry The hedge against government is distinctly different from inflation. When there is war involved, capital flees from the region where there is war and under this condition the capital will convert to another currency and flee. That is when immovable assets like real estate are not the hedge for they may be destroyed and at best you are left with title to the raw land if your country wins. If your nation-state loses, those assets are gone to the victor. https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/uncategorized/why-the-theory-of-the-dollar-will-crash-is-sophistry/
Bitcoin only exists if somebody is “mining” it actively. Why mine it if you will lose money? What if Bitcoin was one big mining company? Bitcoin Mining Co., at current production cost of $100,830 versus spot price of $87,753, is operating at a 13% loss per unit produced. This isn’t a premium operator. This isn’t even a marginal operator barely breaking even. This is a business burning roughly $13,000 on every single coin it produces. For a traditional commodity producer, that would trigger immediate strategic action. Cut production. Suspend operations. Hedge forward. Something. But Bitcoin Mining Co. can’t do any of that. The protocol just keeps running, churning out coins at a loss, with no ability to throttle back or wait for better prices.
Blame the victims: Israel Accuses Hamas of Violating Gaza Truce, Says It Will Respond https://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5222793-israel-accuses-hamas-violating-gaza-truce-says-it-will-respond
Israeli forces kill, wound Palestinians as Netanyahu issues Hamas threat
Israeli forces breach Gaza ceasefire, killing a Palestinian and wounding six, including a child, in multiple attacks. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/24/israeli-forces-kill-wound-palestinians-as-netanyahu-issues-hamas-threat
Israel ‘will never leave’ Gaza Strip, defense minister says
Israel Katz renews vows to allow settlement building in northern Gaza, establish wide security zone around territory https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/israel-will-never-leave-gaza-strip-defense-minister-says/3780939
Kushner and Witkoff pitching ‘Project Sunrise’ — $112B plan to rebuild Gaza into a luxury destination https://endtimeheadlines.org/2025/12/kushner-and-witkoff-pitching-project-sunrise-112b-plan-to-rebuild-gaza-into-a-luxury-destination/
Israel’s defense minister vows continued offensives in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, Yemen
‘Israel will not withdraw from Mount Hermon (Jabal al-Sheikh) and the security zone,’ says Katz https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/israel-s-defense-minister-vows-continued-offensives-in-lebanon-syria-gaza-yemen/3780216
Ex-Netanyahu Aide Says 1st Post-Oct 7 Tasking From ‘Panicked’ PM Was Helping Him Dodge Responsibility https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ex-netanyahu-aide-says-1st-post-oct-7-tasking-panicked-pm-was-helping-him-dodge
Netanyahu appears in court for 65th time in ongoing corruption trial https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/12/23/761155/Palestine-Israel-Netanyahu-court-respond-corruption-charges-bribery-Shaul-Elovitch-prosecutors-
“Hateful” to not lick the boot: Israeli newspaper Jerusalem Post accuses US Vice President JD Vance of hostility The Jerusalem Post, known for its alignment with the Israeli government, has accused US Vice President JD Vance of enabling anti-Israel sentiment and overlooking antisemitism. The editorial criticizes Vance for staying silent on critical media rhetoric and for breaking precedent by not visiting the Western Wall during his Israel trip. https://en.yenisafak.com/world/israeli-newspaper-accuses-us-vice-president-of-hostility-3712330
Tucker Carlson named ‘Antisemite of the Year’ for opposing Israel’s genocide in Gaza
Pro-Israeli group uses public shaming to punish Israel’s critics and claims to have caused 400 people to lose jobs https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/tucker-carlson-named-antisemite-year-opposing-israels-genocide-gaza
6 second clip of Israeli guy running over a praying Palestinian, backing up, shouting at him and driving away: Settler reservist rams ATV into praying Palestinian in West Bank, is detained Perpetrator earlier fired gun inside village, has been sent to house arrest; five Israelis arrested for throwing stones at Palestinian house, wounding eight-month-old baby https://www.timesofisrael.com/settler-reservist-rams-atv-into-praying-palestinian-in-west-bank-idf-launches-probe/
Palestinian baby injured, olive trees destroyed in illegal settler attacks in occupied West Bank
Illegal Israeli settlers attack Palestinian homes, property in a series of attacks in West Bank https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/palestinian-baby-injured-olive-trees-destroyed-in-illegal-settler-attacks-in-occupied-west-bank/3780768
“I can’t hear you!” 14 states condemn Israeli approval of new West Bank settlements Joint statement warns move violates international law, risks regional stability, undermines prospects for a 2-state solution https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/14-states-condemn-israeli-approval-of-new-west-bank-settlements/3780219
Israeli forces launch smoke grenades on Syrian women, children in Quneitra countryside
Israeli drone drops several bombs near Mantara Dam in northern Quneitra countryside, local media says https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/israeli-forces-launch-smoke-grenades-on-syrian-women-children-in-quneitra-countryside/3779806
Crushing the humanity out of them: Prisoner organizations: 9,300 Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails face “colonial erasure” https://english.palinfo.com/news/2025/12/25/354430/
Higher residential tax on non-Jews to move them out: Arnona tax: An Israeli tool in an economic war to empty Jerusalem, displace its people https://english.palinfo.com/jerusalem/2025/12/22/354161/
Gaza patients facing death as Israel continues to block medical supplies
The head of Gaza’s Health Ministry tells Al Jazeera that situation of hospitals is ‘horrific’ due to lack of medical supplies. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/23/gaza-patients-facing-death-as-israel-continues-to-block-medical-supplies
Israeli scams children with cancer out of millions fundraised for their treatment, BBC finds https://israelpalestinenews.org/israeli-scams-children-with-cancer-out-of-millions-fundraised-for-their-treatment-bbc-finds/
More rage will fix her! ADL Goes Ballistic After Megyn Kelly Says Bari Weiss, Ben Shapiro Are ‘Making Antisemites’ https://www.zerohedge.com/political/adl-goes-ballistic-after-megyn-kelly-says-bari-weiss-ben-shapiro-are-making-antisemites
‘Israel’ kills two in Lebanon in new ceasefire breach https://en.mehrnews.com/news/240157/Israel-kills-two-in-Lebanon-in-new-ceasefire-breach
Greta Thunberg released from custody after arrest at UK pro-Palestinian protest Thunberg was earlier arrested under the Terrorism Act for holding a sign that said “I support the Palestine Action prisoners. I oppose genocide.” The British government has proscribed Palestine Action as a terrorist group. City of London Police said Thunberg had been bailed until March. https://www.arabnews.com/node/2627263/world
This doesn’t appear to pertain to Greta’s crime: “Common Sense” Is Back: UK Finally Scraps Non-Crime Hate Incident Laws Nationwide The Telegraph reports that police leaders have decided that NCHIs are no longer “fit for purpose” after warnings that recording them undermines freedom of speech and diverts officers away from fighting crime.
Under the plans, NCHIs will be replaced with a new “common sense” system, where only a fraction of such incidents will be recorded under the most serious category of anti-social behaviour. https://www.zerohedge.com/political/common-sense-back-uk-finally-scraps-non-crime-hate-incident-laws-nationwide
Recognize “Somaliland” (a first), then forcibly deport Palestinians there: Somalia demands Israel withdraw Somaliland recognition Somalia’s state minister for foreign affairs tells Al Jazeera that Israel’s move aims to forcibly displace Palestinians from Gaza. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/27/state-aggression-somalia-demands-israel-withdraw-somaliland-recognition
Nigeria is an OPEC member: “New Phase Of An Old Conflict”: Nigeria Open To More Joint U.S. Strikes On Terrorists Hours after the U.S. Christmas Day strikes on ISIS-linked targets in Nigeria, Nigerian officials signaled openness to continued American military involvement to counter what President Trump called “terrorist scum.” The new campaign follows attacks in which radical Islamists had killed Christians. “I believe this is an ongoing thing and we’re working with the US,” Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar told Channels Television on Friday. “It’s a new phase of an old conflict.” Tuggar said Nigeria provided intelligence to the U.S. for the strikes. He noted that he was actively speaking with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-launches-strikes-against-terrorist-scum-nigeria
It’s not “brutal”. It is constitutional protection of American citizens. Supreme Court Hands Trump White House Brutal Defeat on National Guard Deployments https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2025/12/23/supreme-court-hands-trump-white-house-brutal-defeat-on-national-guard-deployments-n2668407
Seymour Hersh has a tidbit here. Thanks Christine: A COMPLICATED SETTLEMENT FOR UKRAINE? Recent negotiations offer glimmers of hope The breakthroughs in the talks have stemmed not from President Donald Trump, who is more and more detached in his second term, but from hard work by the policy planning staff at the State Department, buttressed by the brains and sophistication of little known Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, a Yale Law School graduate who has emerged as a rock star in the recent talks. Driscoll is said to be a shoo-in to replace the incompetent Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth sometime early next year, after Congressional candidates have formally filed for the November elections. The political goal is to minimize the political chaos among Republicans that has come with the Trump presidency.
More like “pirate”: Tense UN Meeting Sees Russia, China Blast US ‘Cowboy Behavior’ Against Venezuela https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/tense-un-meeting-sees-russia-china-blast-us-cowboy-behavior-against-venezuela
Not invade or bomb, but blockade: White House orders U.S. forces focus on ‘quarantine’ of Venezuela https://archive.is/2025.12.24-193925/https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/white-house-orders-us-forces-focus-quarantine-venezuela-2025-12-24/
Venezuela thanks Russia for its “unwavering support”
Zakharova: “An attack on Venezuela would be an attack on regional stability” “Latin America and the Caribbean must remain a Zone of Peace, as proclaimed in 2014. An attack on Venezuela would be an attack on regional stability,” the spokesperson stated, warning of the geopolitical effects that such an intervention would have across the continent.
Venezuela and Russia are strengthening their actions in forums such as the United Nations (UN), the Security Council and the Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the United Nations, among others, in order to guarantee respect for the sovereignty of peoples in the global arena. https://www.telesurenglish.net/venezuela-thanks-russia-for-its-unwavering-support/
Country by country strategic summary. Good work: The New Battle for the Americas: Why the Western Hemisphere Is Becoming a Global Flashpoint https://internationalman.com/articles/the-new-battle-for-the-americas-why-the-western-hemisphere-is-becoming-a-global-flashpoint/
Chinese Military Simulates Caribbean War Scenario Amid Trump’s Gunboat Diplomacy https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/chinese-military-simulates-caribbean-war-scenario-amid-trumps-gunboat-diplomacy
Suicide-hypersonic-guided-missile-cruiser: Chinese Cargo Ship Converted Into Concealable Missile Destroyer https://www.zerohedge.com/military/chinese-cargo-ship-converted-concealable-missile-destroyer
Andrew Korybko points out that India ain’t as stupid as some people might presume: The US’ National Security Strategy Sends Mixed Signals To India
India’s largest refinery has resumed purchasing Russian oil. https://en.topcor.ru/67216-krupnejshij-npz-indii-vozobnovil-zakupku-rossijskoj-nefti.html
If 1:3 works it cost 3X as much: Pentagon watchdog criticizes Lockheed Martin for US F-35 maintenance failures - Bloomberg Known as the most sophisticated stealth fighter jet in the world, the F-35 US fleet could only fly for half of the expected time due to poor maintenance. https://www.jpost.com/international/article-881405
Autonomous machine-gun robo-snipers for border with China: India Enters AI-Driven Infantry Warfare With 40,000 Indigenous Negev NG7 LMGs From 2026 https://www.thedefensenews.com/news-details/India-Enters-AI-Driven-Infantry-Warfare-With-40000-Indigenous-Negev-NG7-LMGs-From-2026/#google_vignette
Sub-launched nuclear ICBM: India Successfully Tests 3,500-km Range K-4 Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missile From INS Arihant https://www.thedefensenews.com/news-details/India-Successfully-Tests-3500-km-Range-K-4-Submarine-Launched-Ballistic-Missile-From-INS-Arihant/
North Korea reveals 8,700-ton nuclear submarine as Kim Jong Un warns South Korea
Photos of a largely completed 8,700-ton submarine suggest key systems may already be installed, raising regional security concerns. https://interestingengineering.com/military/north-korea-reveals-images-nuclear-submarine
Hypersonic carrier-killers: China’s Newly Combat Tested J-10C Fighters Integrate Anti-Ship Ballistic Missiles For Expanded Mission Scope https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/china-j10c-anti-ship-ballistic-missile
Fusion power race for Helium-3; forget the rest: Trump Reignites Space Race to the Moon The main goal of this new space race is to collect materials like rare earth elements and lithium, but mainly the Helium-3 isotope, which is essential for nuclear fusion. Gathering these materials differs from the objectives of the first human space missions, which focused primarily on demonstrating technological superiority over other powers during the Cold War. https://www.globalresearch.ca/trump-reignites-space-race-moon/5910315
Russia to build nuclear plant on Moon to power rovers, labs during 336-hour long nights - The plant is intended to supply energy for a joint Russia–China lunar research station. https://interestingengineering.com/energy/russia-to-build-nuclear-plant-on-moon
Naval Reactors For AI Data Centers HGP Intelligent Energy, a Texas power developer, is proposing to use reactors from US Navy submarines and aircraft carriers to power a data center project in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The company claims redirecting two retired naval reactors could produce about 450-520 MW of power in what would be the fastest way to add new baseload power to the grid while the commercial nuclear industry struggles to get back on its feet. https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/naval-reactors-ai-data-centers
AI is potentially most useful to control billions of people. Push the “ON” button: The Real War of the Century: Artificial Intelligence Determinism is no longer merely a theory about how the universe works. It is becoming an operating principle for modern institutions. And that changes everything.
AI systems are deterministic by construction. They operate through statistical inference, optimization, and probability. Even when their outputs surprise us, they remain bound by mathematical constraints. Nothing in these systems resembles judgment, interpretation, or understanding in the human sense.
AI does not deliberate. - It does not reflect. - It does not bear responsibility for outcomes.
Yet increasingly, its outputs are treated not as tools, but as decisions... ..Human decision-making has never been purely computational. It is interpretive by nature. People weigh context, meaning, consequence, and moral intuition. They draw on memory, experience, and a sense—however imperfect—of responsibility for what follows. This is precisely what institutions find inconvenient.
Human judgment introduces friction. It requires explanation. It exposes decision-makers to blame. Deterministic systems, by contrast, offer something far more attractive: decisions without decision-makers.
When an algorithm denies a loan, flags a citizen, deprioritizes a patient, or suppresses speech, no one appears responsible. The system did it. The data spoke. The model decided... ..Systems designed to predict are now positioned to decide. Probabilities harden into policies. Risk scores become verdicts. Recommendations quietly turn into mandates. Once embedded, these systems are difficult to challenge. After all, who argues with “The science?”... ..Classical determinism was a claim about causality: given enough information, the future could be predicted. Today, determinism is turning into a governance philosophy. If outcomes can be predicted well enough, institutions ask, why allow discretion at all?
Non-determinism is often caricatured as chaos. But properly understood, it is neither randomness nor irrationality. It is the space where interpretation occurs, where values are weighed, and where responsibility attaches to a person rather than a process.
Remove that space, and decision-making does not become more rational. It becomes unaccountable. The real danger of AI is not runaway intelligence or sentient machines. It is the slow erosion of human responsibility under the banner of efficiency.
The defining conflict of the 21st century will not be between humans and machines. It will be between two visions of intelligence: deterministic optimization versus meaning-making under uncertainty.
One is scalable.
The other is accountable. https://brownstone.org/articles/the-real-war-of-the-century-artificial-intelligence/
Escape Key (heavily edited) Velocity Two weeks ago, Skynet and The Predictive State mapped a pattern: infrastructure being built in the background while policy was debated in public. Since then announcements became procurement, executive orders became contracts, ‘future capability’ became operational. The gap between what’s argued about and what’s quietly built — that’s where governance actually happens.
The pattern is no longer emerging. It’s here... ..This essay’s insight is that streamlined process is the new governance — accreditation regimes, vendor lists, and platform permissions don’t precede power, they constitute it...
..The belief that information flow is the supreme good, that societies are data-processing systems, that algorithms will inevitably outperform human judgment — this is the philosophy the architecture runs on. But dataism remains a theory of history, a claim about where things are heading. This essay shows dataism not as prediction but as deployment: the contracts signed, the platforms accredited, the loops closing. The question is no longer whether to trust the algorithm over human intuition. The question is which humans set the parameters before the algorithm runs... ..What’s missing in each framework is the loop itself — the perception-prediction-actuation-learning cycle that connects sensing to intervention. The loop explains what we’re seeing: decisions speed up because data goes stale fast... ..The architecture has four layers: perception (global surveillance, satellite tracking, real-time data streams, cross-domain sensing), prediction (Digital Twins and AI platforms for modelling and forward projection, identity resolution across datasets), actuation (clearance granted or denied at chokepoints — transactions, shipments, applications, access), and learning (outcomes refine models, exceptions become categories, parameters tighten). Connected through shared infrastructure — cloud platforms, accreditation regimes, procurement frameworks — these layers form a closed loop. The fourth layer is what makes it adaptive — and what absorbs human judgment into the loop. Enforcement doesn’t feel like a ban — it’s experienced as hassle: delays, failed transfers, queues, and extra checks.
The pace is the decisive factor. In fourteen days between December 9 and December 23, 2025, GenAI.mil launched and expanded, Genesis Mission moved from executive order to $320 million investment to 24 vendor partnerships, federal-state preemption battles began, and two major geopolitical settlements advanced through a two-person team working outside normal diplomatic channels. Infrastructure deploys daily; oversight runs on legislative and judicial timescales... ..The endpoint isn’t the removal of human judgment — it’s absorption. Humans handle exceptions, but those exceptions become categories, and categories become protocols. The system learns from what humans usually approve: oversight becomes feedback, feedback becomes training, training becomes policy. Once the settings are fixed, the system decides. At that point, humans no longer decide; they’re removed from the decision loop.
These batteries are 3 times as storage dense and less explosive. They require a lot of silver: Samsung’s Silver Solid State Batteries: Revolutionising EV Technology https://discoveryalert.com.au/samsung-silver-solid-battery-technology-2025/
Maybe they wanted this trick to be discovered; maybe not: Amateur Sleuths Beat Bondi with Copy-Paste and Expose Epstein’s Entire Client List The cover-up is falling apart and the DOJ is too stupid to stop it.
Jessica Rose presents 2 guys interviewing people for 1 day and finding $110 million in fraud [Read or watch]: Fraudulent businesses paid the equivalent of the GDP of Somalia - Nick and David saw by simply looking If you haven’t heard about this recent news uncovered by Nick Shirley and David, you need to. You can watch the full video documentary by clicking on the photo below. It’s beenwatched by more than 13 million peoplewhich dwarfs the amount ofcapital from American tax payers being fraudulently taken by fake businesses - like day care centers - “run” by Somali people. This isn’t racist - it’s fact.
Trump’s cash for health care scheme faces tough road in Congress as insurance costs set to skyrocket
Republicans face uphill battle in passing what would be a party-line proposal for cash handouts instead of extending tax credits that lowered premiums for millions https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-obamacare-tariff-cash-payments-b2890212.html
Not just Round-Up, but that yoga-mat-bounce chemical is in your sandwich: Big Farma: How the American Bread Industry is Knowingly Poisoning Millions
Weird healthy food experiment: Can a Revolutionary School Lunch Program in a Small Florida Town Change the Way Children Eat Across America?
Federal Judge Rules California Can’t Hide Child Gender Swaps From Parents https://www.zerohedge.com/political/federal-judge-rules-california-cant-hide-child-gender-swaps-parents
Peter McCullough MD notes better outcomes with fewer shots and more discussions, Comparing US CDC ACIP and Denmark Childhood Vaccine Schedules Policy shift may lessen burden of vaccines on American children
Look up lead and cadmium levels online first: Enjoy Chocolate for Christmas - Scientific support for health benefits makes this gift extra sweet
Costco has 4# of low lead, low cadmium 70% dark chocolate for $55 + shipping (Search separately for heavy metal content. I did.) https://www.costco.com/p/-/bouchard-belgian-napolitains-premium-dark-chocolate-32-oz-2-pack/100661366?langId=-1
Like copper, silver, lithium, barium and neodymium: Increasing demand for minerals used in renewables could further worsen mining-related deforestation in future: Study recommends that promoting forest-smart mining policies is critical in low-income countries https://www.downtoearth.org.in/forests/increasing-demand-for-minerals-used-in-renewables-could-further-worsen-mining-related-deforestation-in-future-study
Healthy Without Medicines (pictured with cabbage family row early this warm winter morning)
Colin Todhunter, Land of Confusion: The Great Reset in Motion
This is the best summary of the biggest crime of the 21st century... for the time being... for a time I thought it was because the US elections fraud. But this is much more conclusive. And still. They could never have done it without China overreacting. They probably perceived, rightfully, they were under a chemical bacteriological attack...
Hi John,
Too few hours in the day and information to process ... just wanted to wish you an Akemashite Omedeto!