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.
Among the tens of thousands of Jeffrey Epstein files released so far by the Justice Department are documents that provide new details on one of the most discussed aspects of the case — his death in federal custody in 2019
Epstein, who was indicted in July 2019 on federal sex-trafficking charges, had been locked up in the now-closed Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York for five weeks when, on Aug. 10, at roughly 6:30 a.m., he was found dead in his cell.
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.
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From CinEmma:
From Strange, Stupid, or Silly Signs:
From Ginger K.: a happy cookie.
From Masih: an Iranian woman violates the law, big time:
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.
Reposted by J. K. Rowling (aka Satan). Remember, the Taliban said they would not curtail women’s education when they took over Afghanistan.
From Malcolm: TAKE HIS ORDER!
One from my feed. Sound up, of course:
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
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