Welcome to Friday, December 26, 2025, known in the British Commonwealth as Boxing Day, a name whose origin is unclear. But for cats, it is clear, as this picture shows:
It’s also the Second Day of Koynezaa, which extends until December 30. This picture was made by reader Stacy:
Finally, it’s also National Candy Candy Cane Day and National Whiner’s Day. Which reminds me of a Jewish joke:
Sol visits Abe and sees a dog in the house.
“So what kind of dog is this?” asks Sol.
“It’s a Jewish dog. His name is Irving,” says Abe. “Watch this,”continues Abe as he points to the dog. “Irving, Fetch!”
Irving walks slowly to the door, then turns around and says, “So why are you talking to me like that? You always order me around like I’m nothing. And then you make me sleep on the floor, with my arthritis…You give me this fahkahkta food with all the salt and fat, and you tell me it’s a special diet…It tastes like dreck! YOU should eat it yourself…And do you ever take me for a decent walk? NO, it’s out of the house, a short piss, and right back home. Maybe if I could stretch out a little, the sciatica wouldn’t kill me so much!”
Sol, amazed, tells Abe how remarkable this is, to which Abe replies, “I don’t know, I think this dog has a hearing problem. I said fetch, and he thought I said KVETCH!……..
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the December 26 Wikipedia page.
Note that the dialogue will be truncated for a few days as I get up to speed after Christmas.
Da Nooz:
*Trump, angered because he heard that ISIS was attacking Christians in Nigeria, ordered US strikes on the terrorists.
The United States launched a number of strikes against the Islamic State in northwestern Nigeria, President Trump announced on Thursday, the latest American military campaign against a nonstate adversary — in this case, Islamic jihadis who the president asserts have been slaughtering Christians.
Mr. Trump said in a post on Truth Social that “the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!”
The strike involved more than a dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles fired off a Navy ship in the Gulf of Guinea, hitting insurgents in two ISIS camps in northwest Nigeria’s Sokoto State, according to a U.S. military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters. The operation was done in coordination with the Nigerian military, the official said.
In a statement, U.S. Africa Command said its initial assessment concluded that “multiple” ISIS terrorists were killed in the strik
“U.S. Africa Command is working with our Nigerian and regional partners to increase counter terrorism cooperation efforts related to ongoing violence and threats against innocent lives,” Gen. Dagvin Anderson, the commander of U.S. Africa Command, said in a statement. “Our goal is to protect Americans and disrupt violent extremist organizations wherever they are.”
Well, I guess we’re the world Christian Police, and these sudden strikes in different countries worry me. Would Trump be striking ISIS if it were attacking some other group? Is this some way that Trump is trying to get the Nobel Peace Prize? Because believe me, he wants that more than anything else.
*Again, nothing new in the Epstein files, of which a million more have been found. But they have dispelled the rumor that he was killed in custody.
He had been denied bail and, at age 66, was facing a potential 45-year sentence if convicted on all charges. The day before his death, federal judges in a separate civil lawsuit had unsealed 2,000 pages of records containing allegations of his sexual abuse of girls and young women.
Six days after his death, New York City’s chief medical examiner, Barbara Sampson, whose office had conducted an autopsy of Epstein’s body, issued a finding that he had hanged himself.
Ever since, a wide range of people, including members of Congress and some prominent supporters of President Donald Trump, have challenged that conclusion, asserting with no evidence that Epstein was killed and proffering theories about who might have done it.
Nope.
. . . The documents released so far provide no support for those theories. They do offer additional evidence for the conclusion reached by previous investigations — both by the Justice Department and media organizations — that jail officials failed to properly monitor Epstein even though they had previously put him on suicide watch.
Two jail staff members were charged after Epstein’s death with failing to watch him. Prosecutors said they slept through part of their shift, whiled away time shopping online and falsified log books to conceal their failure to conduct rounds every 30 minutes. They ultimately reached a deal to avoid trial. Jail officials also left Epstein alone in his cell, despite strict instructions not to do so.
. . . After struggling to stand him up, staff members put Epstein in hand and leg restraints and carried him out on a gurney, the report said. A medical assessment found redness and abrasions around his neck. Photos in the report, time-stamped 1:45 a.m. and labeled “possible suicide attempt,” show a disheveled Epstein in a blue anti-suicide smock, his skin faintly red above the collarbone.
Another conspiracy theory down the tubes. Epstein had the time and certainly the motive. The most parsimonious theory is suicide.
*The U.S. Coast Guard is still chasing that big empty (but sanctioned) oil tanker fleeing in the Caribbean. So far it hasn’t caught it, which is a puzzle.
A Coast Guard vessel was slicing through the Atlantic Ocean, with its target in sight just a half mile away, when a realization set in. The crew was going to need backup, U.S. officials said.
The Bella 1, an oil tanker far larger than any Coast Guard ship, has been fleeing the U.S. blockade of sanctioned vessels heading in and out of Venezuela. Sanctioned for allegedly shipping oil to U.S.-designated terrorist organizations, the Bella 1 made an unusual move last weekend, executing a U-turn, refusing to be boarded and racing away from Venezuela at full speed.
Now, more than five days into the pursuit, the Coast Guard and U.S. military are assembling more manpower and weapons to forcibly board the vessel, the U.S. officials said. Among the units they are moving to the area is a Maritime Special Response Team, an elite force trained to board hostile ships, the officials said.
The hunt for the Bella 1 marks potentially the most dangerous moment yet for the U.S. in its nascent quarantine of the Venezuelan oil industry, part of a campaign to squeeze the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, whom the Trump administration accuses of flooding the U.S. with drugs. Maduro denies the charges and accuses Washington of naval piracy and trying to steal his country’s natural resources.
It isn’t publicly known why the Bella 1 is refusing the Coast Guard’s demands. The Bella 1’s owner, Turkey-based Louis Marine Shipholding Enterprises, didn’t return calls seeking comment.
Most commercial seafaring vessels, even those carrying illicit products, are staffed by crews with little incentive to disobey the orders of the U.S. armed forces.
The U.S. has sanctioned it for allegedly carrying black-market Iranian oil on behalf of U.S.-designated terrorist organizations aligned with Tehran—the Lebanese militia Hezbollah and the Houthis, the rebels who have controlled swaths of Yemen for more than a decade. The U.S. Treasury Department says the Bella 1 has links to the Quds Force, the foreign arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a powerful paramilitary and business entity.
“They are probably getting orders from somewhere,” retired Rear Adm. William Baumgartner, a former judge-advocate general in the Coast Guard, said of the unusual behavior of the ship’s crew. “These are owned by very bad people trying to make money in a particular manner.”
The U.S. will get it, though. Is it carrying some other prohibited cargo?:
. . . . There is no rush to conduct an operation against the Bella 1, a slow-moving vessel that can’t outrun U.S. forces now that its location is known, U.S. officials said. That has given the U.S. time to deploy the appropriate units, explaining why the chase has stretched over several days.
In addition to relocating elite forces, Baumgartner said, the Coast Guard might also be bringing in a captain qualified to pilot a ship of such vast size—about three football fields long and almost 20 stories tall.
Once everything is in place, he said, the U.S. would have the right under international law to use force to board the Bella 1, beginning with a graduated series of warnings that could include warning shots.
“They will have multiple helicopters, they will fast-rope into the tanker, and they’ll go up to the bridge, and they’ll take control of the vessel,” he said about a likely scenario.
I’m amazed that they can just fly in a captain, unfamiliar with the ship, and he or she can simply take over the ship, bringing it to the U.S. It may be a nasty fight when the Coast Guard finally boards the vessel.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili has gone quiet (sort of):
Andrzej: You’ve been silent recently.
Hili: True, but it’s a very expressive silence.
In Polish:
Ja: Milczysz ostatnio.
Hili: Tak, ale to jest wyraziste milczenie.
*******************
From CinEmma:
From Strange, Stupid, or Silly Signs:
From Ginger K.: a happy cookie.
From Masih: an Iranian woman violates the law, big time:
Taraneh Alidoosti is a globally recognized, Oscar-associated Iranian actress
For years, she worked within the Islamic Republic’s strict rules, wearing the mandatory hijab and surviving a system built to control women.In a new documentary, she speaks plainly: even for her,… pic.twitter.com/Ou76scX6Jh
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) December 25, 2025
From Luana, who says “F**k: another one!” We’ve met Beans Velocci before, pushing this same dumb idea. You can read about Beans (they/them) here.
Duke University Press: Sex Isn’t Real
“Sorting of bodies into male and female persists not despite but because of sex’s incoherence… it is not c*s people who fit the categories; it’s the categories that flex to make them fit.”
Right. pic.twitter.com/vq4zCzZ637
— Rona Dinur (@RonaDinur) December 22, 2025
Reposted by J. K. Rowling (aka Satan). Remember, the Taliban said they would not curtail women’s education when they took over Afghanistan.
These girls graduated 6th grade in Afghanistan. With tearful eyes, they said goodbye, knowing they may never sit in a classroom again. The Taliban’s cruel ban on girls’ education beyond 6th grade has stolen their dreams and futures. 💔 pic.twitter.com/HX7V8vz3E0
— WDI.Afghanistan (@WDIAfghanistan1) December 18, 2025
From Malcolm: TAKE HIS ORDER!
«Bartender, a bottle of milk, please!» 🍼pic.twitter.com/KF4N6yruzB
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) November 21, 2025
One from my feed. Sound up, of course:
I am genuinely obsessed with the sounds coming out of this bird. What a little legend 🐦 pic.twitter.com/Bvivz3GAOr
— Curiosity (@MAstronomers) December 25, 2025
One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:
This French Jewish boy was killed with cyanide gas as soon as he arrived in Auschwitz. He was three years old. He would be 87 today had he lived.
— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2025-12-26T12:38:48.949Z
Two from Dr. Cobb. This first one seems eminently possible to me: a predator deterrent:
Today I have something really special for you guys! Not too far from the caiman I posted recently, I found something MIND BLOWINGThis is a butterfly pupa, and it mimics the head of a snake. And not just any snake, but specifically the head of a boa snake!!! Probably Opsiphanes, an owlet butterfly.
— Gil Wizen (@wizentrop.bsky.social) 2025-12-24T16:17:38.294Z
Matthew tells me that he simply doesn’t know how to take selfies:
This is *exactly* my expression whenever I take a selfie.
— Matthew Cobb (@matthewcobb.bsky.social) 2025-12-24T17:04:27.776Z
If you pray for rain long enough, it eventually does fall. If you pray for floodwaters to abate, they eventually do. The same happens in the absence of prayers. -Steve Allen, television host, musician, actor, comedian, and writer (26 Dec 1921-2000)
Talks of us whacking terrorists in Nigeria. 25 years ago I was against muscular American kinetics in other countries.
But here’s the rub: THAT was a different time.
Times change and we must move our opinions with the facts.
Nigeria is being ruined by Islamists.
My enemies’ lives have negative moral value to me. The point of this is what moral positions we take should change with the geopolitical circumstances.
D.A.
NYC
ps – Happy Boxing Day to other Brit Commonwealth origin blokes. Mainly named Bruce. 😉
I have trouble working up sympathy for terrorists too.
As for the oil tanker, these shadow tankers are a scourge. They fund Iran and Russia.
But there are an awful lot of them and I wonder if Trump can realistically make inroads on the problem. I guess if he persists. A real test: will he go after a tanker carrying Russian oil? I doubt it.
I also don’t see why the US should strike islamists, just because they mainly attack Christians in Nigeria.
Christians are not lesser beings that should not be defended. I am an agnostic, but of all the big faiths, I sympathize with Christianity the most – probably because I was a Christian as a child before I quit that particular club.
I also think that there is some worthwhile role for religion to play, since not all people are mentally equipped to construct their own morality. But that’s a potential essay that I will probably never write….
I think Trump sees it as a way to keep his Christian base appeased (it’s one of the few coalitions that still blindly support him and he needs them bigly). If they were another Muslim sect, Buddhists, Hindus or Cthulu worshippers, there would be no military intervention.
” Barbara Sampson, whose office had conducted an autopsy of Epstein’s body, issued a finding that he had hanged himself.
Ever since, a wide range of people, including members of Congress and some prominent supporters of President Donald Trump, have challenged that conclusion, asserting with no evidence that Epstein was killed…”
No evidence?
Look for yourself.
Barbara Sampson says Epstein killed himself by hanging himself => with a sheet <=. A sheet WAS found around his neck, but here is a photo of his neck post mortem. Hard to imagine that a sheet could do that – qualified people say that is evidence that a wire garrote was used.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/96198796@N05/55006265763/in/album-72157709097457498
Add to that that Epstein, likely the highest-profile prisoner in the history of the prison, was for some unexplained reason, in a cell block he was not supposed to be in, a cell block which uniquely could be accessed easily. And then we have two prison employees who I believe are now in the wind, who didn’t do their jobs to protect him. And, you have the failure of the observation cameras, which inexplicably were off at the exact time Epstein died. I don’t think we have heard the last about this supposed conspiracy theory.
Yeah. It wouldn’t have mattered, though. If a video of his death the quality of a major motion picture was obtained with him staring into the camera shouting “I’m killing myself”, we’d STILL never hear the end of the conspiracies. This is never going away. It’s like the fake moon landing and the flat earth. No amount of evidence will matter.
I don’t personally buy into any of the conspiracy talking points. That a sheet could / could not cause those abrasions needs empirical testing. I don’t personally see why a sheet wouldn’t do that, but I don’t know. I expected a garret should do more focused damage — but again, I don’t really know.
On the other hand, the video footage part is hard to sort out. There is now doubt that one could even see his cell from the video: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jeffrey-epstein-jail-video-investigation/ .
I don’t know what to make about the “missing minute”.
Those are not “abrasions”. That is a narrow furrow ligature mark which broke the skin and caused bleeding. There was no blood on the sheet cloth noose from Epstein’s cell.
That ligature mark is not consistent with the noose. Who says so? The Board-Certified forensic pathologist hired by the Epstein family, who did an independent autopsy and a segment on 60 Minutes, linked below. His name is Dr. Michael Badan. Who is Dr. Michael Badan?
He is the former Chief Medical Examiner of New York City. He is currently the Co-director of the New York State Police Medico-Legal Investigations Unit.
He has been an expert witness and consultant in the O.J. Simpson, Claus Von Bulow, and Christian Brando murder trials. His investigations have covered deaths including those of John Belushi and Medgar Evers, as well as the TWA Flight 800 victims and the remains of Tsar Nicholas II and his family. He chaired the Forensic Pathology Panel for the U.S. Congress Select Committee on Assassinations.
Dr. Badan also points out that:
1) The position of Epstein’s ligature mark is atypical of a jailhouse suicide, where the noose slips up to just under the jaw, but is consistent in position and appearance to homicidal strangulation using a wire or rope
2) Epstein’s ligature mark was half-way down the neck, and broke the hyoid bone and thyroid cartilage on both sides of the larynx, for a total of three breaks. Dr. Badan said while a break of any of these tissues in jailhouse suicide hanging can happen, having two breaks is exceedingly rare. In the thousands of NY state jailhouse suicide hangings he reviewed, there was never a case involving three breaks.
Sorry, but this so-called “conspiracy theory” is not nutty at all.
https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/xfr0cj/jeffrey_epstein_autopsy_explained/
The largest group of Christians killed this year is in Ukraine—very likely more than 200k casualties (killed and wounded)—and it’s Trump’s fault because he could have stopped the war simply by enforcing the sanctions, implementing the secondary ones, and selling Ukraine a few hundred tomahawks.
But the Ukrainians have the misfortune of being killed by Vladimir Putin, Trump’s good buddy.
They weren’t killed because they were Christian.
Are you sure ISIS attacks in Nigeria primarily because they hate Christians in particular and not because they expand their power at the expense of non-Muslims?
Because it seems like you condone conquest for the sake of land and power….
“and it’s Trump’s fault because he could have stopped the war simply by enforcing the sanctions, implementing the secondary ones, and selling Ukraine a few hundred tomahawks.”
Gee, why didn’t the guy in office before Trump think of that?
I have commented before that the Tomahawk is a complex weapon system integrated with US air, land, sea, and—crucially—space assets. It is not simply a rocket and a launch tube that you can sell to an ally like you can rifles or WWI-era artillery and wish them good luck. The system requires extensive US involvement; barring that, please tell me how you plan to target those missiles. Then let me know how you plan to evict the Russian troops already in Ukraine.
Since your recipe for successful war against Russia is as easy as economic sanctions and a few hundred Tomahawks, I fail to see why Europe should be concerned about Putin or any other Russian leader. Surely, all they need to do is have sanctions in their pocket, pool their resources either to buy or develop a few hundred Tomahawks, and deterrence is assured. Simple as that. Perhaps you can inform them so they stop whining about the “existential threat” they think they face.
The very thought of Tomahawks on Ukraine’s side of the fence made Putin poo his pants, it’s why he turned up in Alaska. To make more time by deferring Trump’s decision and taking steam out of that suggestion. It worked.
The Europeans aren’t whinging they’ve just woken up to the fact the US can’t be trusted anymore and they had better get on with shoring up their defenses. Japan has also come to this conclusion and just allocated $52 billion for defense. Canada also is retreating from the US and looking at buying military kit from European sources.
There seems to be, due to US current policy, a realignment going on. Probably a good thing.
Japan just bought 400 Tomahawks from the U.S. The reason we haven’t sent Tomahawks to Ukraine is for fear of escalation (that was Biden’s fear). Trump admires Putin and since Putin doesn’t want Ukraine to have any, Trump won’t allow it (plus I’m sure he also fears escalation). As far as I can tell, it has nothing to do with the complexity of the system.
The Pentagon gave the green light to provide Ukraine with Tomahawks in October. I suppose they know how they can be used. Lindsey Graham said this week that Trump should consider Tomahawks for Ukraine if Putin refuses the peace deal. Again, I suppose Graham is well informed. But maybe you have a better idea to stop the war—I’d like to hear it.
The guy before didn’t do it because he was a senile coward? Is your current guy that as well?
The advisors of the senile guy favored a stalemate that bleed the Russians as dry as possible. That’s still better than the policy of the current guy.
Never heard that joke, love it! 😆
Excellent Jewish joke! The very definition of Ashkenazi humor, straight from the Shtetl.
Regarding the U.S. mission to destroy Islamic State terrorists in Nigeria—and the moves against tankers off the coast of Venezuela, and the attacks on Iranian nuclear sites. It seems that President Trump has discovered what U.S. military power can do—and he likes it!
That post on sex/gender shows the incoherence of the gender squad. “Cis” is not a gender. I have never heard it claimed the gay or lesbian were genders. So why would sex relate to sexual orientation?
I was pleased to see that the title of Velocci’s book is Sex Isn’t Real. I keep running into sophisticated apologists for gender ideology who insist that “NOBODY here is denying that sex is real.” Now I can point them to this book.
Yes that’s a good use of the book. Maybe the only good use.
“I’m a historian of sex, science, and classification, and an Assistant Professor in History and Sociology of Science and Core Faculty in Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.”
https://www.beansvelocci.com
It’s fun to think about where Beans will be as a scholar in 20 or 30 years. My prediction: the trans madness will have faded in the popular imagination in some ways, but trans university professors will still be pumping out nonsense like Sex Isn’t Real for consumption by the same kind of niche audience that reads and nods along with Kevin Lala(nd) and the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis.
My interpretation is that in both cases the point is not the scholarship it’s the safe university job, the guaranteed salary increases, the gold-plated medical insurance, the pension. And the best metaphor is the “watcher at the gate” joke that our host told a couple days ago. “It’s steady work.”