I hadn’t read that article because I didn’t know or particularly care what “doordash culture” was, but you got me to read it just to find out what the heck a “poke bowl” could possibly be. (A bowl with spikes on the edges, maybe??) Done with the article, still have no clue what it is, but it doesn’t sound like I should care.

Posted by: Dalit | Dec 19 2025 9:06 utc | 3

I was interested in and for the most part understood the economics discussion. Still don’t know what the hell a “poke bowl” is and don’t care enough to look it up.

Posted by: Dalit | Dec 19 2025 9:24 utc | 5

 
 
I’ve posted a few light-hearted comments on Moon of Alabama, living my life in Dagenham, working in a car parts store in Poplar, trying to keep things simple, perhaps too simple. But last night, something happened. Something that tore apart the veneer of my normality and forced me to confront a truth I’d rather have left buried beneath the surface of my consciousness. It was a nightmare, yes, but a nightmare that felt more real than the waking world, and I know now that some truths are only revealed when the mind is forced to break.
 
It took me back, all the way back, to when I was no more than a little boy of four. I remember it vividly, an afternoon bathed in sunlight, the quiet hum of the neighborhood, and Richard, the boy next door, crouched on the ground with a sinister focus in his eyes. I remember the magnifying glass, the sun’s relentless glare, and the tiny ants scurrying in their frantic, oblivious chaos. It was a simple scene, yet etched into my mind with the sharpness of a knife. Richard, with a cruel glint, focusing the sunlight onto an ant, and watching it burn, consumed in a slow, agonizing death. I remember feeling the weight of it, an inexplicable, primal horror that I didn’t yet understand. I remember my mother pulling me away, her voice trembling as she called Richard “evil,” warning me to stay away from that boy, from that darkness. I didn’t understand then what evil really was, only that it had a face, a name, something to be feared.
 
That moment planted a seed in my mind, a seed of awareness that would grow slowly, painfully, into understanding. Evil was not just the stuff of stories, of villains in fairy tales. It was real, visceral, and it had a look. A burning glare behind the eyes. A cruel act. A moment of pure cruelty that could scorch the innocent with no remorse. But I didn’t know then how deep that darkness could run, how insidious it could become.
 
And now, in the depths of my sleep, that childhood scene reemerged. But it was no longer simple; it had mutated, entwined with horrors I could never have imagined. I found myself in a sterile, clinical theatre. An alien landscape of metal and shadow, surrounded by insectoid hybrids. Grotesque amalgams of ants and aliens, their eyes glinting with a cold, calculating intelligence. They had strange, magnet-like devices around my head, pulling at my thoughts, demanding I explain my indifference, my ignorance of evil. Their voices, if you could call them that, were a cacophony of whispers and insectile chittering, a symphony of the grotesque.
 
And then came the procedure. I was aware of a strange, metallic device, like a long, bristling colonoscopy tool, being brought close to me. The thing glistened with biosensors, tiny cameras, and vibrating filaments. I saw it, but I didn’t understand it. It was a medical instrument, I told myself, some kind of invasive exam, probing into the depths of my body, into my gut, my core. But the way they moved it. Slow, deliberate, almost sensual in its precision, made me feel something else entirely: a strange, involuntary flicker of arousal, confusion twisting inside me. I kept thinking: Is this some kind of perversion? Is this a pornographic act disguised as medicine? 
 
It wasn’t. Or at least, I told myself it wasn’t. But the images kept flashing, those strange sensors, the probing, the invasive insertion, like some grotesque parody of intimacy. I felt the device working its way deep into my colon, threading through my insides, interfacing with something primal, something guttural. It was as if they were examining my very core, interrogating my neural pathways, dissecting my biases, my morality, yet all I could focus on was the sensation. The sensation of being invaded, penetrated, watched. A part of me twisted. Was this what those ant-entities wanted? To see me exposed not just physically but psychologically, morally? 
 
My mind was a mess of confusion. I tried to think of it as a routine medical examination. Necessary, sterile, scientific. But the imagery kept drifting into the realm of something darker, something forbidden. Was it the act itself? Or was it the way my mind was trying to make sense of it, linking it to pornography, to desire, to the forbidden? I couldn’t tell anymore. All I knew was that I felt exposed, vulnerable. The probing was relentless, invasive, churning deep into my guts, into my very essence.
 
And then, just as I thought I might drown in that confusion, one of the insect-like entities, mantis perhaps, approached me with a grotesque, insectile mouth wide open. I saw the gaping maw, the mandibles trembling with anticipation, and my blood ran cold. I wanted to scream, to run, to wake up, anything to escape that horror. But I was trapped, caught in that nightmare, unable to wake. I kept telling myself: “Wake up! Wake up!” but the world around me refused to shift. I was suffocating in dread, my mind spiraling into chaos, trying to reconcile the reality of the nightmare with the strange, perverse sensations that had crept into my consciousness.
 
And then I woke, gasping, drenched in sweat, heart pounding like a bass drum in my chest. Relief washed over me. Deep, overwhelming, pure. I shouted out almost subconsciously: Jesus Christ! hoping that divine intervention might somehow erase what I had just experienced. But deep inside, I knew that the nightmare had revealed something essential: evil isn’t just a concept, a moral failing, or a villain’s act. It’s a living, breathing force, an invasive parasite that can embed itself within us, twist our perceptions, and turn us into something unrecognizable.
 
That vision, the insect-hybrid, the probing, the grotesque mouth, etched itself into my mind with brutal clarity. Evil is real. It’s lurking in the shadows of our lives, waiting patiently behind facades of normality. It thrives in silence, in indifference, in the unexamined parts of ourselves. I don’t claim to understand it fully, far from it. But I know this: the darkness is not some distant myth. It’s here. It’s inside us all, and unless we wake up, unless we see with eyes unclouded by comfort or denial, it will consume us.
 
I’m still haunted by the vision of that mantis-hybrid alian encounter. My God, what a horror!
 
https://i.postimg.cc/bJxmKT91/Mantis-Hybrid.jpg
 

Posted by: lachaussette | Dec 19 2025 9:56 utc | 7

My latest The Coming Collapse In Chinese Imports From the West, the slow moving change where China becomes less and less needing of anything from the West while the West continues to be dependent upon China for things that they need.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Dec 19 2025 10:05 utc | 9

Posted by: lachaussette | Dec 19 2025 9:56 utc | 7
[…]
I read your piece. In full. That means it was some good piece of writing.

Posted by: Johan Kaspar | Dec 19 2025 10:15 utc | 11

Venez-Wally’s . 
 
Plus ca change !
reposting from couple weeks ago  
 
Now: 

@DD_Geopolitics
17h
Venezuela is under virtual naval blockade. Is this the most retarded war ever?
G7RUqPrbsAA2YPO.jpg.webp
Dec 3, 2025 · 8:20 PM UTC

 
 
Then:
 
 

Maracaibo on 24 December 1902
 
 
European warships involved on the blockade and Venezuelan fortifications.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mapa_del_bloqueo_naval_a_Venezuela_de_1902-1903.png
 

History repeating  
Will the Eurocrazies send their navies? Will they come to support their natzio overlords oin the re-reconquest of the Bolivarian revolutionaries?
 
As they did so fulsomely back then. Read the whole Wikipedia entry. 
 
Will they impose the Trump Corrollary which was the Roosevelt one first, a hundred at the begining of the last century? 
 
Of course they will! They already are. Every single regime change since Milei are the dominoes being lined up across South America.
 
Just the Brazilian piece required and they can sweep into Venezuela from the Amazon! East-West-South!
 
 
With Mexico the North is secured too and Venezuela and Cuba get invaded! 
 
Yes a dystopian nightmare – but when the Ziolords set out to get by hook or crook they always succeed .
 
 
Syria and it’s bought miltary who stood down for blood money is the prime lates example. 
 
 
 

Posted by: DunGroanin | Dec 19 2025 11:03 utc | 13

A very good article by Henry Johnston on what I call the senescence of Western capitalism (vis-a-vis the young vitality of Chinese and Russian capitalism). It all starts by explaining why young people earning subsistence wages in the gig economy spend 30 bucks on a poke bowl.
Posted by: Johan Kaspar | Dec 19 2025 8:13 utc | 1

China is a communist country with a Marxist party at the helm managing a socialist economy. China is not capitalist. Neither you nor Roger Boyd get to claim China’s socialist achievements for your fascist projects.
 
Why selectively ignore all the articles from Global Times, an outlet whose existence you’re aware of since you just linked an article from it, celebrating communism in China?

1. ‘Marxist parties like ours can draw from the CPC’s experience’, Nov 25, 2025
    
   GT: The CPC is the world’s largest Marxist ruling party, with over 100 million members. In light of the eight-point decision, what do you believe is the key advantage of the CPC’s leadership?
    
   Molina: How does the CPC organize nearly 100 million members to steer society? The answer lies in its inseparable bond with the people. This is the cornerstone. With such a staggering size of the party, one might expect chaos. Yet, the CPC defies this logic: its vast scale brings not less, but more organizational direction. The Party achieves what is unattainable in disorganized capitalist systems with broken institutions and parties detached from the people. It shatters the myth that a larger size inevitably means greater disorganization, proving instead that its growth has fueled greater cohesion and effectiveness.
2. Evandro Carvalho: ‘It’s time to talk about socialism’, Aug 11, 2025
    
   During an interview with the program Good Night 247, Professor Evandro Carvalho, an expert in international law and scholar of China, defended that Brazil needs to resume the debate on socialism in the face of the transformations in the world order led by the rise of China.
3. Socialism holds its ground and grows stronger with China’s contribution, Nov 26, 2024
    
   Martinez has been trying to help Western people better understand China’s development in its different phases and aspects. In a recent interview with Global Times (GT) reporters Xia Wenxin and Xu Jiatong, Martinez shared his view on China’s marvelous successes over the past 75 years, as well as its contributions to the world, including to the socialist movement.

 
Strange that you’re so quick to praise Russia’s capitalism, when just a few months back you were saying that the fall of socialism and the adoption of capitalism in Russia is responsible for the widespread looting of Russia. Isn’t the 1990s in Russia the very face of fresh, vigorous capitalism that you so desperately crave for?

[1] In the 90s, national resources were looted in Russia but the looting was done by Russians (many of Jewish heritage), giving rise to the class of Russian oligarchs. Western actors played a facilitating but secondary role [[1]]. The most important role of Western actors was to provide safe haven to ill-gotten gains of Russian oligarchs.
[[1]] Believing that Russia was raped by the West in the 90s, a very common belief among leftists, is in itself a narcissistic Western idea. Like the greatest evil can only be done by Western evildoers. Surprise. The Russians were perfectly capable of raping their own nation.
Posted by: Johan Kaspar | Sep 14 2025 17:53 utc | 28

 
Naturally, I disagree vehemently with your conclusion that it wasn’t Western capital led by America that plundered the former Soviet Union countries, including Russia, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. You so-called “senescent” capitalism in actuality has even more strength than its younger version when it comes to raping entire nations. Lenin had good reason to identify Imperialism as the Highest Stage of Capitalism.
 
Death to America
Marg bar Âmrikâ
Marg bar Âmrikâ
Marg bar Âmrikâ

Posted by: All Under Heaven | Dec 19 2025 11:28 utc | 15

@Posted by: All Under Heaven | Dec 19 2025 11:28 utc | 15
 
WTF are you talking about? I have always identified China as a socialist state with a socialist market economy, and utilize a Gramscian socialist lens for analysis. You are far too careless in throwing around your insults.

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Dec 19 2025 13:06 utc | 17

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Dec 19 2025 10:05 utc | 9
Thanks, much appreciated! Very informative overview!

Posted by: Hamburger | Dec 19 2025 13:27 utc | 19

There is severe doubt that Trump will complete his current term of 4 years. Posted by: WMG | Dec 19 2025 12:57 utc | 16 — Trump will be removed from office after his party’s faction loses control of Congress in the 2026 midterms.  President Vance will not be an improvement.  
Posted by: too scents | Dec 19 2025 13:10 utc | 18
=============================================================
Recently there were 2 “incidents” that have (severely ???) “weakened” Trump’s position as president:
— The release of the Epstein files.
— Trump’s rant against Rob Reiner when Reiner died earlier this month.
 
Will this be enough to remove Trump from the White House in the coming months or with the mid term elections in 2026 ? I don’t know. Only time will tell. But there is no doubt that Trump’s position has (been) weakened.
Agree, JD Vance won’t be an improvement over Trump. JD Vance is backed by a “Sugar Daddy” called Peter Thiel and a number of other “Tech Bros”. Although with JD Vance finding a long lasting peace deal with Russia could be shifted to the highest gear. JD Vance has said – more than once – that he is willing to talk to the russians. Again, only time will tell.

Posted by: WMG | Dec 19 2025 13:55 utc | 21

Rob Reiner Was a hate filled disgusting racist. One can only imagine what sick behaviors drove his son‘s act. 

Posted by: Exile | Dec 19 2025 14:09 utc | 23

WTF are you talking about? I have always identified China as a socialist state with a socialist market economy, and utilize a Gramscian socialist lens for analysis. You are far too careless in throwing around your insults.
Posted by: Roger Boyd | Dec 19 2025 13:06 utc | 17

I wasn’t being careless. I know exactly who Roger Boyd is—a fascist. Nazis claims to be socialist to dupe people into supporting them. Roger Boyd does pretty much the same thing. Roger Boyd claims to be a socialist and uses China as an example for why socialism is good. However, the version of China as portrayed by Boyd differs starkly from the China that exists in reality.
 
The neat thing about MoA is that comments cannot be edited once posted and they are archived for a long time.

Mass immigration is known to transfer wealth from the poorest to the richest as it depresses wages and also drives up property prices and rents, especially when the state has walked away from building new homes. We should be copying China not the utterly failed policies of the Anglo-Saxon world. There is no “free market” in these nations for the monopolistic and oligopolistic corporations and the oligarchy and there is also no such thing as a free labour market, the “free market” is a creation of the state and its nature is controlled by the state. In the West, that state serves the oligarchs and prefers masses of immigrants to drive down wages and keep the population in check. The best time to be a (non-Black) US citizen was during the time of the New Deal and strict limitations on immigration.
Posted by: Roger Boyd | Aug 28 2025 21:14 utc | 122

 
The exploitation and the devastation of the periphery/Global South through all forms of warfare (kinetic, economic, information etc) conducted by America is what drives immigration into the core/Global North. In other words, imperialism—the highest stage of capitalism—is the driver behind immigration into the core.
 
Immigration itself, mass or not, is not responsible for the transference of wealth from the poor to the rich. The blame lies solely on the shoulders of capitalists and the labor aristocrats who support them. China is a Marxist-Leninist state, and Lenin himself did not blame immigrants. Instead, Lenin had only bile for the labor aristocrats:

In the United States, immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe are engaged in the most poorly paid jobs, while American workers provide the highest percentage of overseers or of the better-paid workers.[12] Imperialism has the tendency to create privileged sections also among the workers, and to detach them from the broad masses of the proletariat.
…
For example, on October 7, 1858, Engels wrote to Marx: “The English proletariat is actually becoming more and more bourgeois, so that this most bourgeois of all nations is apparently aiming ultimately at the possession of a bourgeois aristocracy and a bourgeois proletariat alongside the bourgeoisie. For a nation which exploits the whole world this is of course to a certain extent justifiable.”

 
Labor aristocrats in the core such as the workers in Canada and America benefit immensely from the transfer of wealth from the exploited workers in the periphery. In a study on The Political Economy of the U.S.-China Technology War, the author found that “In 2015, the United States exported 9.7 million person-years (the U.S. labor time embodied in foreign final demand) and imported 72.7 million person-years (the foreign labor time embodied in the U.S. final demand), with the latter being 7.5 times as large as the former.” This is the reason why people flock to countries in the core.
 
Yet, instead of attacking the bourgeoisie and the labor aristocrats which Roger Boyd is himself a member of, the self-proclaimed socialist Roger Boyd blames the immigrants, just like the Nazis claim that all of Germany’s woes all the fault of the Slavs for occupying prime Lebensraum. Roger Boyd is deliberately silent on the matter of the exploitation of the proletariat located in the periphery by the labor aristocrats located in the core and how that exploitation drives immigration in the first place. 
 
Imagine someone running around with a flamethrower setting fire to other people’s houses, then crying and whining and complaining about people running to seek refuge in the only house untouched by flames, the house of the person wielding the flamethrower. The person with the flamethrower even has the audacity to claim that he’s not responsible for burning down other people’s houses. It was the flames that did it, not him and not his flamethrower. Your honor, it was gravity that killed the man, not me who pushed him down the stairs! That is who Roger Boyd is as a person in essence.
 
There is a very good reason why Roger Boyd went around MoA calling others as suffering from TDS early in Trump’s presidency, and it’s because Roger Boyd identifies strongly with Trump’s fascist policies.
 
Death to America
Marg bar Âmrikâ
Marg bar Âmrikâ
Marg bar Âmrikâ

Posted by: All Under Heaven | Dec 19 2025 14:22 utc | 25

here is the link to BZ interview, sorry for not including it in the previous comment
https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/politik-gesellschaft/geopolitik/eu-sanktioniert-jacques-baud-wie-ein-blitz-aus-heiterem-himmel-li.10010959
 

Posted by: fanto | Dec 19 2025 14:23 utc | 27

Posted by: fanto | Dec 19 2025 14:22 utc | 26
I see this “affair” may end up in similar way as the Dreyfus affair. He is too well known to be eliminated in the media. The effects of this oligarchic overreach will be massive. 
 

I certainly hope so.
Meanwhile, we can buy his books.
If Baud was specifically selected by helmet-hairdo, bimbo Kallas and that dark-skinned decorative Portuguese I-forget-his-name, then Baud must be a truly good and intelligent writer with an independent mind.

Posted by: Johan Kaspar | Dec 19 2025 14:31 utc | 29

@ fanto | Dec 19 2025 14:39 utc | 30
 
I wouldn’t bother…

Posted by: malenkov | Dec 19 2025 14:46 utc | 31

Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiDr6z8EU1s
 
Trump gets $1 Trillion military budget, US bombs Somalia four more times, massive US arms deals with Taiwan, and more…

Posted by: John Gilberts | Dec 19 2025 14:55 utc | 33

I think someone pointed this out before, but I had not heard of it until then and not since:
https://x.com/hussedogru
Also sanctioned by the EU, before Baud. More people will be put on that list. More censorship will swallow up dissent.

Posted by: Hamburger | Dec 19 2025 15:08 utc | 35

I just found the new thread, after posting to the old one – giving me a chance to edit and re-post my comment, which I will gladly do. // – 
 
Thanks, juliania, for your musings about the high road to hell, and back out again with the guiding of christ, or whatever else may help.
 
I’ve stared into the abyss. For a while I was living on Steindamm near the central station, which I affectionately call our Little Istanbul, but it’s also an area of absolute human devastation  – as a local barkeeper stated, the station is the final destination for people [Dt. Leute; Russian lyudi]. Countless drug users are about. Most are homeless, and many are prostituting themselves there in every waking hour of their lifes. Then they’ll carry their earnings to groups of other wretched individuals hoping to get a little bit of crack cocaine, heroine, and other related stuff. Fentanyl, which is even worse because the addiction does not plateau, has not really arrived at our shores yet; though I suspect it is beginning to be visible. I walk around that place every now and then, to keep a sense of the vibe.
 
As sickening as it is, it is darkly attracting to me. I do not know why, or if would know, the answer would likely make not much sense. In any case, it is nearly impossible to truly meet these people. When I first moved there in 2011, I quickly realized the familiar faces who were there day in, day out. They saw me too, and in a weird way they accepted me into the streetside community without any words. It was summer, and I saw a young girl who was a total loner, rather pretty if a bit acerb. Autumn came. First light still was early when a light but freezing rain fell as I was walking home – then a whisper reached my ear from of the doorways I was passing: Hey … do you have a moment? – the customary introduction of the courtesans. She was wearing a light summery dress and was visibly freezing in the weather, stunningly beautiful in her fragility. I replied truthfully – yes, I do have a moment for you, but no money to pay — 
 
Ten Euros? 
 
No, not even that, I‘m sorry, but you can still come with me — Okay, she whispered. It was a shared appartement, I skulked her to my small room – it was higher than long or broad, I remember. There was only a bed and a small shelve, not even a chair inside.  I can’t come there with you, she whispered, I’m stinking! – Do you want to shower? – Yes, but … not alone, please come with me – and so I did. I sat on the toilet seat while she enjoyed the warm water, then interferred to pick up the soap and gently wash her from head to toe. Then we went over, cuddled in closely, where she fell asleep instantly. A deep, unresponsive slumber of 12hrs straight, during which she peed into my bed. Then she awoke in a disturbed franzy: Ich bin affig! (I’m on turkey) — I gave her some clothes, and straight out she went, to get her first fix of the day.
 
Ever since then we became friends. I might say it was actually a romance. My roommates forbade me to bring her in – no crack whores in our appartement! – but I still snuck her in on some days. She used to stand just outside our entrance, and even got into an altercation when the Bulgarian mafia (these girls are recognized by a broken tooth) tried to evict her from the prime spot – her opponent yelled at her, I hope you will get raped! and she replied by thrashing her with her handbag. She won.
 
I used to come down and bring her a cup of tea, or some figs. One night she made me aware of a guy who had been standing at the corner for three days, and asked me to help him. So I went over, and found out he was a Romanian who had come with a promise of work, but then was not picked up. He had no money for the return trip, spoke no word of German, and knew not anybody. I walked him to the charity asylum, where they took care of him.
 
Her name was Raida, her family hailed from Syria. My nickname for her was mountain goat. We never had sex, and I never gave her any money. She also didn’t ask for it, but instead invited me to the local oriental eatery where she ordered some speciality for us, with lots of parsil … delicious stuff. One night, she also invited to her “home”, apparently proud to share it with me. It was a concrete floor behind a garbage can in a backyard. We snuggled up, and while asleep someone stole a hard drive from my bag. It was at this point that I realized I could only ever do so much, because the abyss will stare back at you, big time. Raida was good-hearted, but a bit dim. Everyone hated her, but she didn’t care. For nothing. She fixed herself on the playground in broad daylight. I took her out to the Golden Pudel Club one night on two rent bikes, driving along the harbour panorama. Her eyes became giant in wonderous amazement – whoa! – as if she had never seen it before. She was too shy to order a drink (soft only), so I bought it for her, while she insisted to pay for herself. Aftzer an hour she wanted to go back to her street.
 
I moved away from there after one and a half years, but every now and then returned to walk the place and look for her. We always hugged closely and talked for a bit, but she never stayed for long – constantly needing her fix, and my presence was detrimental to her luring the customers. Years passed. The last time I saw her, she was lying on the sidewalk, sleeping, just at a busy traffic light in scorching sun. Her hair had turned grey. I sat beside her and just waited until she woke up, completely disoriented. She didn’t recognize me.

Posted by: persiflo | Dec 19 2025 15:23 utc | 37

MarcusAurelius@36…..agreed….but there is an upside, trading with the Aparthied State provides income both ways, China selling to the Squatters in Occupied Palestine provides the nessessary income to lift millions of poor Chinese from poverty, and at the same time providing the Squatters with more than enough money to buy bombs to kill Palestinian children, and kill just about any Houthi politician they wish…..bit of  win win for China and the Regime Occupying Palestine……
 
Cheers M 

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Dec 19 2025 15:32 utc | 39

“New York Times BOMBSHELL REPORTING on TRUMP / EPSTEIN Friendship”  (????????????????)
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOZwZSWmSKA  (length: 14 minutes, dated: december 18, 2025)
 
It seems there is certainly a concerted effort to remove Trump from the White House and now even the New York Times seem to have joined this campaign. The NYT also knew A LOT OF details when Bill Gates of Microsoft had “an affair” with one of Epstein’s “girls” (as leaked by Melinda Gates ???). This is simply “another brick in the wall” for Trump. It only confirms my hunch that releasing the “Epstein’s files” is meant to get Trump “deeper into trouble” (to put it friendly). Have/had no time to search for the original article.

Posted by: WMG | Dec 19 2025 16:02 utc | 41

Timeline of Venezuela’s oil industry and quest for its sovereignty:
https://www.telesurenglish.net/venezuela-reclaims-its-sovereign-control-over-energy-resources/

Posted by: Keme | Dec 19 2025 16:10 utc | 43

Regarding Taiwan , it seems the actual president is facing an impeachment procedure. I don’t know if it’s likely to succeed or not , it seems there are a lot to do to impeach a president …

Posted by: Savonarole | Dec 19 2025 16:30 utc | 45

Monetary metals:  Platinum breaks $2000.
 
https://finviz.com/futures_charts.ashx?t=METALS&p=i30
 
Although today’s CPI is missing inflation has still spoken.  Loudly.
 

Posted by: too scents | Dec 19 2025 16:31 utc | 47

Johan Kaspar | Dec 19 2025 8:13 utc | 1
 
Many ‘poor’ ppl in the US don’t have the time, facilities, capabilities  — need a basic kitchen, fridge, equipment, have to shop, someone not working all the time has to do it — to cook at home.
 
Also, schedules, how can 7 ppl sit down at the same time to eat a maybe partially home cooked meal? 
So —> Take-out and Delivery.  Delivery also provides, or did some time ago, a kind of ‘superior’ feel – someone else does the cooking chores, and brings the food to you. 
 
It is all ‘individualistic’ – order yr favorites and get ripped off.
 
A ‘cantina’ at local spots type system would be better socially, healthwise, etc. But who am I, and won’t happen… 
 
persiflo, good story 

Posted by: Noirette | Dec 19 2025 16:50 utc | 49

@Posted by: All Under Heaven | Dec 19 2025 14:22 utc | 25
 
I will leave you with the wonders of your internal dialogue.
 
@Posted by: Johan Kaspar | Dec 19 2025 14:14 utc | 24
 
Yes, the Western corporations are making rational decisions for the short-medium term which are horrendous for the long term of their nations. Just like Audi becoming AUDI in China with what amounts to SAIC built cars which will end up being sold everywhere outside North America. Many German corporations are increasing investments in China, reinforcing the dominance of the Chinese manufacturing supply chains. Many of the Chinese exports that the West will continue to need will be coming from Western corporation operations in China, although Chinese brands will continue to take market share away from their Western competitors.
 
@Posted by: oldhippie | Dec 19 2025 14:50 utc | 32
 
Absolutely agreed on JD Vance.
 
 
 

Posted by: Roger Boyd | Dec 19 2025 17:00 utc | 51

Yet another alien found to have committed a horrendous act in the US, a double assassination in Rhode Island and in Boston………more evidence of the insane open border policies of senile and demented Joey Boy Biden and Alejandro Mayorkas.  Biden without a doubt the worst President in US history bare none.
Over 20 million aliens flooded the US under his misrule as POTUS, cartel soldiers, drug mules, drug smugglers, human trafficers, burglars, armed robbers, rapists, welfare fraudsters, scammers, and general criminals of all sorts and types.
This is and was exactly the Obama/Biden/Soros game plan, flood the US with aliens, then convert them into US citizens.
Its was the takeover plan……..and still is……
Ireland are you watching ?  You be duped the same way Biden duped the US. Wake up for gosh sakes.

Posted by: tobias cole | Dec 19 2025 17:06 utc | 53

DOJ “misses” deadline to release Epstein files.
 

Posted by: too scents | Dec 19 2025 17:20 utc | 55

https://interpret.csis.org/translations/an-analysis-of-the-united-states-deterrence-by-denial-strategy-against-china/
 
This is a 1 hour read, translated from Chinese, and about how the US has lost its “deterrence” capability 

Posted by: Hot Carl | Dec 19 2025 17:25 utc | 57

Posted by: tobias cole | Dec 19 2025 17:06 utc | 53
 
#####
 
What about those illegal aliens in Palestine?
 
Europeans, Russians, and Americans.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 19 2025 17:30 utc | 59

Interview with Jaques Baud about the current situation. Its in german. He has gotten zero support so far from Switzerland. Right now he is in Belgium and his bank accounts are frozen, he has but the money in his pocket and isnt even allowed to buy a loaf of bread. And in the manner of the middle ages, if somebody helps him, they might get sanctioned too. Since Baud is used to doing things by the book, the absurdity of situation and the will to not do it worse by breaking the law, led to him being quite touched by all the support he is being shown by people all over the world. He is covinced that the EU made a mistake. Or that they are seeking defamation. He believes the situation will be resolved as he is in touch with his lawyers. He suspects, without any concret basis, that the French might be behind the whole thing. The sanction is signed by Katja Kallas, the EU Propagandaminister. https://weltwoche.ch/daily/schlimmer-als-gefaengnis-der-schweizer-generalstabsoberst-jacques-baud-ueber-die-skandal-sanktionen-aus-bruessel-und-die-nicht-reaktion-der-offiziellen-schweiz/

Posted by: calixtus | Dec 19 2025 17:43 utc | 61

Why I kept my [Z]ee-[H]aych news feed instead of ditching it during covid’s mockingbird-media-war:
 

“Shellenberger make[s] a provocative observation:
“The EU is now in direct violation of the NATO Treaty,” which “requires member states to have free speech and free and fair elections. France and Germany are actively and illegally preventing political candidates from running for office for ideological reasons, namely their opposition to mass migration. And the Romanian high court, with the support of the European Commission, nullified election results under the thin and unproven pretext of Russian interference, after a nationalist and populist presidential candidate won.”
The EU betray[ed] its own constitution:
“Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority.”
Vance explicitly warned European elites
“you do not have shared values if you’re jailing people for saying we should close down our border” or canceling “elections because you don’t like the result — and that happened in Romania. You do not have shared values if you’re so afraid of your own people that you silence them and shut them up.“
 

It gets better:
 

“The European Commission is threatening to sell $2.34 trillion in U.S. Treasury holdings should the American government impose an “unsatisfactory” peace settlement or withdraw support from Ukraine. Such economic warfare against the United States could trigger a financial crash more severe than what occurred in 2008.
The fact that European powers would destabilize the global economy in order to prolong war…says a great deal about priorities. While tens of millions of illegal immigrants erase Western civilization and insane “green energy” policies doom the economies of Europe, the aristocratic elites insist on censorship, government-approved propaganda, and perpetual war”

The EU/EU-officials is today’s equivalent of the Palace in Versailles and it’s courtiers…before the deluge.  I’d link but [Z]ee-[H]aych links get comments deleted.  Story under the banner Why Should Americans Die For European Tyranny?

Posted by: S Brennan | Dec 19 2025 17:51 utc | 63

Dead men tell no tales – Brown’s Uni revealed just how much American’s give to Israel – which is a staggering amount of cash.
 
“The Brown & MIT suspected shooter has been found DEAD via a self inflicted gunshot wound. – Fox News.”

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Dec 19 2025 18:01 utc | 65

This reminds me of Merrill Lynch – telling then POTUS Ronald Reagan to hurry up and finish – Reagan was addressing an audience at the time.
 
Monitor𝕏 (@MonitorX99800): “What can this guy possibly have on Trump to manhandle him like that” | nitter.poast.org

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Dec 19 2025 18:03 utc | 67

Posted by: M | Dec 19 2025 17:41 utc | 60
 
####
 
He’s not a racist. He’s an American.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 19 2025 18:07 utc | 69

Posted by: M | Dec 19 2025 17:41 utc | 60 #### He’s not a racist. He’s an American.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 19 2025 18:07 utc | 68
 
The language that MUST used in these conversations has been weaponized. Even people who have known me as a NON racist my whole life, will/have called me a racist pig when trying to discuss immigration. Take Canada for instance. Fact is in Canada if immigration continues the way it is now within 2-3 generations it will be a Muslim/Hindu/Sikh majority country. That seeing and saying this makes me a racist is complete rubbish, yet here we are. I know lots of people of those cultures (Muslim/Sikh/Hindu). Great people. That doesn’t mean I wanna live in a Country dominated by them. Also insinuating that racism/american is the same is total nonsense.  Interesting how hate is ok with you as long as its not about race eh?

Posted by: Tannenhouser | Dec 19 2025 18:34 utc | 71

@ Tannenhouser | Dec 19 2025 18:34 utc | 70
 
i share your viewpoint.. thanks…
 
many interesting comments today… it makes moa a fascinating place… 

Posted by: james | Dec 19 2025 18:39 utc | 73

National Post
Three men accused of hunting women and Jews on Toronto streets as part of hate plot
See more headlines & perspectives
BBC
Trump officials will release only some Epstein files as deadline looms
See more
 
… ⚔⚖ Seen enough.
 

Posted by: Laurence | Dec 19 2025 18:41 utc | 75

 LoveDonbass (40).
 
Yes I agree, but its good to see someone expose the UAE and MBZ etc for what they really, the UAE also funds and arms the RSF – which is committing war crimes in Sudan.

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Dec 19 2025 18:47 utc | 77

This is happening again in Perfidious Albion with folk in prison on hunger strike – and the English government doing its utmost to ignore it.
 
WearThePeace (@WearThePeaceCo): “In 1981, the British state chose to let ten Irish republican prisoners die in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh rather than acknowledge the political reality of its colonial rule in the North of Ireland. They were jailed for political resistance, not for ordinary crimes; they were products of colonialism marked by discrimination, military occupation, and the denial of Irish self-determination. When political status was stripped from prisoners in an attempt to criminalize resistance, the hunger strikers responded with the only weapon left to them: their own bodies. Despite knowing the outcome, the Thatcher government refused to intervene, forcing the world to watch as men like Bobby Sands and Martin Hurson slowly starved to death. Today, there are eight Palestine Action protesters who are currently on hunger strike for their immoral and wrongful imprisonment for intervening against a genocide. Britain is letting them die slowly. Source: CAIN” | nitter.poast.org
 
 

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Dec 19 2025 18:50 utc | 79

Boycott anything to do with these Z-listers.
 
WearThePeace (@WearThePeaceCo): “Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS hosted an event for daughters of IOF soldiers in LA where they got a free shopping spree right after announcing that SKIMS will open 15 stores in Israel” | nitter.poast.org

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Dec 19 2025 18:57 utc | 81

Netanyahu will order his war criminal minion Starmer to do something about this.
 
Manchester City is owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan
 
 
Ounka (@OunkaOnX): “⚡JUST IN – Pep Guardiola is the sole professional football coach to Call for Protest for Palestine, Against Israel’s Genocide in Gaza” | nitter.poast.org

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Dec 19 2025 19:04 utc | 83

I know lots of people of those cultures (Muslim/Sikh/Hindu). Great people. That doesn’t mean I wanna live in a Country dominated by them. Also insinuating that racism/american is the same is total nonsense. Interesting how hate is ok with you as long as its not about race eh?
 
Posted by: Tannenhouser | Dec 19 2025 18:34 utc | 70
 
#######
 
You do know that Islam, Sikhism, and Hinduism are ideologies, not racial, right?
 
You don’t want to live among certain others, if only your ancestors had extended the same grace to the North American natives. But they weren’t asked, so they were murdered and dispossessed.
 
I don’t believe in karma, but it is poetic that you and James don’t like victims of colonialism colonizing you.
 
What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 19 2025 19:12 utc | 85

Rob Reiner Was a hate filled disgusting racist. One can only imagine what sick behaviors drove his son‘s act. 
Posted by: Exile | Dec 19 2025 14:09 utc | 23
========================================================
One can here replace the words “Rob Reiner” with “Charlie Kirk”.

Posted by: WMG | Dec 19 2025 19:25 utc | 87

DH: Greg Stoker & Elina Xenophontos
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZAYew3FLU0
 
“Trump stunned as Venezuela’s Navy calls his war bluff.”

Posted by: John Gilberts | Dec 19 2025 19:31 utc | 89

WMG @ 16 and elsewhere:
There has been discussion in a recent comments thread at MoA of John Gartner’s posturing over Donald Trump’s mental health, done from afar and very likely based on selective cherry-picking of incidents and examples (detached from their contexts) as “evidence” of Trump’s failing mental state. As far as I am aware, Gartner has not actually interviewed Trump or people close to him about his health, nor has he observed Trump on a long-term basis at close quarters to get a feel for the context in which Trump operates, to see what might be influencing his impulsive decision-making, his apparent changes in direction in policies and his aggressive behaviour.
 
I would be very cautious in relying on Gartner as a credible source of information about Trump’s mental health if what Gartner has been doing so far is considered unethical conduct by most psychologists and psychiatrists. Gartner may be an expert in psychology but that is not an excuse for him to pursue what I suspect is his own political and personal agenda in seeking media attention.

Posted by: Refinnejenna | Dec 19 2025 19:47 utc | 91

Posted by: The Painter | Dec 19 2025 19:55 utc | 91
 
When did Cyprus and Greece become bootlickers for the Anglos and Zios?!!

Posted by: MarcusAurelius | Dec 19 2025 20:11 utc | 93

I agree with Refinnejenna | 90 on the Trump psychologizing. I’m guilty of doing that myself, but there is a difference: I do not claim to be a trained medical expert, and do not propose an actionable opinion/diagnosis aired on the media with an urgent sense of importance bordering on agitprop.
 
For comparison, my buddy Max who is an actual professional told me about a recent (bit back by now) trend of articles featured in subject periodicals where this or that expert exclaims that belief in “conspiracy theories” has pathologic relevance. I countered this with the simple argument from a coffee mug: just because you’re paranoid don’t means they’re not after you. –
 
Psychology is a fragile science. Just yesterday I heard that the famous Stanford Prison Experiment was in fact tweaked; it seems that people were handed instructions beforehand. The empirical method is of very limited use in this field; to properly apply it needs deep understanding of the intricacies involved with mathematical modelling. Many academics rely on it simply because they feel no one would trust them if they didn’t use accepted “scientific” methodology.  That the field suffers from a “reproduction crisis” is long and well known, and not all that surprising against this background. Oh, it’s worse than that: ADHD as a clinical syndrome has been called a made-up contraption by its own inventor on his death bed, apparently. Peter Sloterdijk, in his work on Rage and Time, refused to consider the angle, stating that psychology is a “weapon”. My young Russian friend Ася told me that she completely distrusts all of clinical psychiatry in Russia, after it was politically mishandled to get rid of dissidents there during communism. Make no mistake, isolated cases like that which became public scandals have happened in Germany as well. 
 
But still, psychology is an extremely important and worthwhile field of study. I could have never made sense of some people around me without reading up on personality disorders, for example. The basic issue extends all the way into the political sphere, which we are questioning here all day.  Schizophrenia is for real. ADHS, whatever its origins, as a symptom is real. Autism is real. The subconscious is real. 

Posted by: persiflo | Dec 19 2025 20:28 utc | 95

Thanks Roger, Kasper and even you, All Under Heaven. (Great insights, but tone down on the personal attacks please). As well as others. 
 
RepofScotland mentioned Venezuelan navy breaking the blockade. That’s a very big deal that most seem to have missed. 
 
Brown Uni, suicide victim very conveniently blamed for shooting, very “Syrian passports” vibe about the whole thing. 
 
Immigration, I am sure sometime back in time there were some Cree or Blackfoot elders around a campfire arguing about the Paleface immigrants ruining their hunting grounds and warning that eventually they would be outnumbered.
 
Karma, bitches.

Posted by: Suresh | Dec 19 2025 20:32 utc | 97

Republic of Scotland in additional sends:  Totally with you on the actual evils imposed upon the Irish and the Scots, actually quite recently by historical standards.  The entire Establishment, centering around City of London, deserve to be deported to places like the Falkland/Malvinas islands, St Helena and similar British colonial dots on the map of the world…but probably not to the more comfy holds in the Carribean and the Soouth Seas of the Pacific.  They deserve to exist in out of the way exile, with their new homes being paid for by a portion of their many ill-gotten gains.
 
The British Empire needs to be dissolved and thus resolved.

Posted by: aristodemos | Dec 19 2025 20:41 utc | 99