December 29, 2025

Max Bearak, et al., of the New York Times: “Watching from the shore on Nov. 6, Erika Palacio Fernández whipped out her phone, she said, unwittingly recording the only verified and independent video known to date of the aftermath of an airstrike in the Trump administration’s campaign against what it calls 'narco-terrorists.' Two days later, on that same shore, a scorched 30-foot-long boat itself would wash up. Then, two mangled bodies. Then charred jerrycans, life jackets and dozens of packets that were observed by The New York Times and were similar to others that have been found after anti-narcotics operations in the region. Most packets were empty, though traces of a substance that looked and smelled like marijuana were found in the lining of a few.” This story reads like the beginning of a murder mystery. But we know whodunit. The link is a gift link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If the people Trump killed on November 6 were drug traffickers, the drug they may have been trafficking was marijuana. Six weeks after blowing up the boat on Nov. 6, Trump signed an executive order reclassifying marijuana from a Schedule I drug (dangerous) to Schedule III -- "the same group as some common prescription painkillers such as Tylenol with codeine."

Neil MacFarquhar & Ivan Nechepurenko of the New York Times: “With talks on ending the Ukraine war making little progress on the toughest issues, Russia issued a dramatic threat on Monday to harden its stance, linking the potential change to what the Kremlin called a failed Ukrainian drone attack overnight targeting a rural residence of President Vladimir V. Putin. Ukraine immediately denied any such attack, accusing the Kremlin of inventing a pretext to undermine the peace talks being orchestrated by the Trump administration. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who met with ... [Donald] Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida on Sunday to discuss a possible deal, called the Russian allegation a 'complete fabrication.'... Mr. Trump said that he heard about the alleged attack from Mr. Putin himself during a previously scheduled phone call early Monday to discuss the peace talks. 'I was very angry about it,' he told reporters at Mar-a-Lago, though he conceded that he had no independent confirmation that it had occurred.” The Guardian's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oddly, I don't recall Trump's saying he was "very angry about" Russia's extensive & deadly strike on Kiev Saturday. The Hill report linked next makes clear, as the Times report does not, that when a reporter told him of Zelensky's denial, Trump still seemed to be convinced of Putin's veracity. This is hardly surprising. Trump has often said, "I believe President Putin." He's even taken Putin's side against U.S. intel agencies. ~~~

     ~~~ Ellen Mitchell of the Hill: “But Trump later on Monday appeared to take Russia’s side. 'I don’t like it, it’s not good. I heard about it this morning. You know who told me about it? President Putin told me about it. Early in the morning he said he was attacked. That’s no good, it’s no good,' Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., of the claimed strike.... Asked if there’s evidence of the attack, Trump replied: 'Well, we’ll find out. You’re saying maybe the attack didn’t take place? That’s possible, I guess, but President Putin told me this morning.'... Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) later criticized Trump for appearing to side with Russia.... 'President Trump and his team should get the facts first before assuming blame. Putin is a well known boldface liar,' Bacon wrote on X.” Also, Trump talks like a three-year old. ~~~

~~~ President Zelensky is a former comic actor. He's quite good at effecting a poker face. But sometimes too much is too much. Watch his reaction when Trump says, "Russia wants to see Ukraine succeed":

~~~ Phillips O'Brien contrasts Trump's remark above with "... this quote from Trump’s chief of staff and intimate, Suzie Wiles, in her extraordinary Vanity Fair interview.... 'The experts think that if he (Putin) could get the rest of Donetsk, then he would be happy,' Wiles told me in August. But privately, Trump wasn’t buying it — he didn’t believe Putin wanted peace. "Donald Trump thinks he wants the whole country," Wiles told me.' Both of these statements cannot be true. Indeed they cancel each other out. There is one that is far more likely to be true (Wiles estimation) and one that was almost certainly a lie (what Trump said yesterday)." Emphasis original. MB: I've linked O'Brien's Substack post, but I went through a lot of folderol to try to "claim my free post," and I couldn't do it. My attempt devolved into a loop that brought me back to the same "claim your free post" prompt. Perhaps you'll do better.

Andrew Egger of the Bulwark goes home to Iowa for Christmas and finds out Republicans are scamming his grandma. 

Ron Draper of the New York Times Magazine interviews Marjorie Taylor Greene. Mildly interesting. Looks like a gift link.

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Aishvarya Kavi & Katie Rogers of the New York Times: Donald “Trump met with [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida to discuss a revised 20-point peace plan. Mr. Zelensky said that the latest proposal developed by Ukraine and the United States was nearly complete, and both leaders stressed that the lengthy peace talks would continue. Significant obstacles remain, chief among them the willingness of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to sign on to the peace framework pushed by Kyiv and Mr. Trump’s top negotiators. 'He wants to see it happen, he wants to see it,' Mr. Trump said Mr. Putin told him about his interest in reaching an agreement. The U.S. president said that before greeting Mr. Zelensky he had spoken with the Russian leader for more than two hours. 'He told me very strongly,' Mr. Trump said. 'I believe him.'” The AP story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: “He told me very strongly” is not a sentence a native American speaker would utter. It's grammatically correct, but it's not idiomatic. I've never heard anyone but Trump use that construction. Maybe he's some version of one of the boys from Brazil. ~~~

     ~~~ According to the AP report, Trump said, “Russia wants to see Ukraine succeed.” What kind of ridiculous pronouncement is that? Russia invades Ukraine -- more than once -- conducts a devastating, bloody war killing perhaps hundreds of thousands of people, Russian and Ukraininan -- so Ukraine can succeed? I blame European leaders for allowing Trump to get in the middle of “peace negotiations.” It's okay to stroke Trump's fragile ego (although I wouldn't do it) as he pursues a Nobel prize, but not to the point it permanently harms some of the oldest & most stable democracies in the world. The real Trump Derangement Syndrome is characterized by a belief that normal life can continue despite Trump, that there exist unobtrusive workarounds. And yet. And yet. Here we are. ~~~

     ~~~ Constant Méheut of the New York Times: “A new round of peace talks between President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and ... [Donald] Trump seem to have produced little beyond a promise to meet again next month and a reminder of how distant a peace deal remains. Yet for Mr. Zelensky, even a stalemate in the discussions counts as progress. After setbacks in U.S. support for Ukraine this year, one of Mr. Zelensky’s main priorities when meeting Mr. Trump would have been to prevent talks from derailing. After the meeting on Sunday, Mr. Trump signaled that he would remain engaged in the negotiations — a win for Ukraine given his repeated threats to walk away.” ~~~

     ~~~ Constant Méheut of the New York Times: “Here’s what we know about the 20 [point peace plan]. ~~~ 

     ~~~ After watching a movie yesterday evening, I switched to MS NOW to see if there was any breaking news, and there was Donald Trump standing at a podium next to President Zelensky, and Trump was saying there never would have been a Ukraine/ Russia war if the 2020 election hadn't been stolen, and he also that he got along very well with Putin "despite the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax." And then I turned off the teevee. ~~~

     ~~~ Sarah Fortinsky of the Hill: “Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) said on Sunday that Russia’s strikes on civilian homes — including on Christmas — are a reminder to Americans that the war against Ukraine is at odds with America’s values. In an interview on ABC News’s 'This Week,' the former House Intelligence Committee chair pointed to images of the destruction in Ukrainian cities and neighborhoods and said Russian President Vladimir Putin is 'continuing to remind us that this is a war of aggression.'... 'America, when we address the issue of whose side we’re on, you can’t be America first and be pro-Russia,' Turner said. 'Russia is a self-declared adversary of the United States. And, you know, here they are, mercilessly killing Ukrainians and trying to take Ukrainian land.'... The interview comes just hours before ... [Donald] Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky [were] set to meet in Florida....”

~~~ MEANWHILE, on another front, here's what the Pretender to the Nobel Peace Prize is doing: ~~~

Tyler Pager & Julian Barnes of the New York Times: Donald “Trump said in a radio interview that the United States had knocked out 'a big facility' last week as part of his administration’s campaign against Venezuela, an apparent reference to an American attack on a drug trafficking site. American officials said that Mr. Trump was referring to a drug facility in Venezuela and that it was eliminated, but provided no details.... Mr. Trump made his statement on Friday during an interview with John Catsimatidis, the Republican billionaire and supporter of the president who owns the WABC radio station in New York. If Mr. Trump’s suggestion that the United States had struck a site in the region proves accurate, it would be the first known attack on land since he began his military campaign against Venezuela.... There has been no public report of an attack from the Venezuelan government or any other authorities in the region.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: IOW, Trump casually remarked that the U.S. had attacked another country on its soil, and it may be a lie. A mad man is driving the Western world to ruin, and everybody is just humming along, looking the other way.  

Lydia DePillis & Campbell Robertson of the New York Times: The United States “... is closing its doors to the world, sealing the border, squeezing the legal avenues to entry and sending new arrivals and longtime residents to the exits.... Whether or not restrictions will restore some of what [Stephen] Miller views as a midcentury idyll, there’s little doubt that major changes are in store. Immigration has woven itself so tightly through the country’s fabric — in classrooms and hospital wards, city parks and concert halls, corporate boardrooms and factory floors — that walling off the country now will profoundly alter daily life for millions of Americans.” ~~~

~~~ Ron Filipkowski of Meidas Touch lists, in ascending order, the 25 worst villains of the Trump administration. MB: I might quibble with Filipkowski's ranking order (though not with his No. 1 choice), but his all his villains are definitely villains. Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~

~~~ Speaking of Stephen Miller, the New York Times brought back this December 23 story by Hamed Aleaziz, in case you missed it. I did. “Mr. Miller’s belief that seven decades of immigration has produced millions of people who take more than they give — an assertion that has been refuted by years of economic data — is at the heart of the Trump administration’s campaign to restrict immigration and deport immigrants already in the country.” Seven decades? That takes us back to 1955, which would clear Trump & Miller of falling into the “immigrant riffraff” category, because their forebears came in the first half of the 20th century. Marco Rubio? Not so much. 

This story by Elizabeth Dwoskin & others of the Washington Post about how JayDee brokered a truce between Elon & Donald is, at 6:30 am ET, the paper's most-read story. Marie: But not by me. However, in case you care about the egos & quirks & tantrums of these obnoxious, hateful prima donnas, here's a gift link. 

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Don Moynihan on Substack: "The takeover of New College in Florida by Ron DeSantis and his appointees has been viewed, within higher education, as a failure. The goal was to convert what was seen as a liberal institution into a conservative one using government money and purges. Most reporting on New College give the impression of a fuck-around-and-find-out example about what happens when right-wing ideologues actually run things, and then run them into the ground. But the New York Times is determined to throw New College a lifeline.Reporter Anemona Hartocollis visited, and offers an impression of a college making progress in offering fair-and-balanced conservative-liberal environment." Read on. Moynihan's link to the NYT article appears to be a gift link.

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “The Virginia man arrested this month on charges of placing two pipe bombs in Washington on the night before a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has given a detailed confession, according to court papers released on Sunday night. In the public first hint at a motive in the case, the documents said that the man, Brian J. Cole Jr., felt he needed to 'speak up' after he began to suspect that the 2020 election, in which ... [Donald] Trump was defeated, had been 'tampered with.' The papers, filed by the Justice Department in Federal District Court in Washington, gave an extensive description of Mr. Cole’s initial interview with the F.B.I. after his arrest. At first, the government’s filing said, Mr. Cole denied planting the bombs.... The interviewing agents reminded the defendant that lying to them was an additional criminal offense and asked the defendant again whether he was the individual on the surveillance video,' prosecutors said in the filing. 'This time, the defendant paused for approximately 15 seconds..., and answered, “yes.”’” ~~~

     ~~~ Jacob Wendler of Politico: “...  in a Sunday filing — ahead of his detention hearing, scheduled for Tuesday — the DOJ said suspect Brian Cole Jr. told investigators he 'was going to a protest in support of [then President] Trump' on the day of the attack.” ~~~

     ~~~ The government's filing, via the courts, is here.  

Ariana Cha & Sabrina Malhi of the Washington Post: A “University of Pennsylvania ... analysis of more than 10,500 children across 21 U.S. sites found that those who received phones at age 12, compared with age 13, had a more than 60 percent higher risk of poor sleep and a more than 40 percent higher risk of obesity.... A wave of large-scale studies is quantifying how early smartphone access and heavy screen use can harm adolescent minds — and the findings are aligning in a way earlier research rarely did. The numbers suggest screens are taking a broader, deeper toll on teens than many expected. Across multiple studies, high levels of screen use are linked to measurable declines in cognitive performance — slower processing speed, reduced attention and weaker memory. Rates of depression and anxiety climb steadily with heavier social media engagement.”

News You Can Use -- Sooner or Later. Adeel Hassan of the New York Times: “In recent days..., Google has quietly started to roll out a way for users to change their Gmail addresses ending with @gmail.com, and keep all their emails — no matter how old their account.... So far, the new feature is reflected only on the Hindi-language version of Google’s support page but it looks like it will be coming to other languages and regions. 'The ability to change your Google Account email address is gradually rolling out to all users, so this option may not be available to you right now,' according to an English translation of Gmail’s support Hindi language support page.... On Sunday, the support page in English still read: 'If your account’s email address ends in @gmail.com, you usually can’t change it.'”