“2026” is definitely a science-fiction year.
“The reason so many of yesterday’s free-speech champions transitioned so easily into today’s pro-Trump censors is that their definition of free speech never included the right of others to talk back. They were not defending a universal right to freedom of speech; they were defending a right to monologue. They could say what they want, and you could shut up and like it.”
“But what’s been missing from the articles I’ve read about these works is the recognition of Dickens’s central accomplishment: He prodded (and entertained) millions of readers into caring about the poor. Instead of seeing the poor, as Malthus did, as some abstract, seething mass of “surplus population,” Dickens saw them as individuals, engaging enough to merit novels of 700, 800, and 900 pages. He made his readers see them that way too. And that was a revolutionary accomplishment.”
“Experts who once backed ‘shaken baby’ science now fight to free imprisoned caregivers”.
“Without pennies, should retailers round up or down? States offer their 2 cents.”
RIP, Melanie Watson, actor and activist for people with disabilities, best known for a recurring role on Diff’rent Strokes.
Here are your 2025 Golden Dukes winners.
“Baltimore Drove Down Gun Deaths. Now Trump Has Slashed Funding for That Work.”
“Two more artistic groups announced that they have canceled upcoming performances at the Kennedy Center, adding to a growing list of acts that have chosen not to perform at the storied institution after its board of directors announced earlier this month that it would add President Donald Trump’s name to the venue.”
“AI INVENTED A SHITLOAD OF CATS I DON’T OWN”.
RIP, Tatiana Schlossberg, environmental journalist, daughter of Caroline Kennedy, granddaughter of President John F. Kennedy, who recently wrote about the rare and aggressive blood cancer that was discovered while she was giving birth to her second child and which did eventually kill her.
“The Most Scathing Book Reviews of 2025″. The reviews themselves have a lot of good writing in them. There are links at the end to the lists from previous years, if this wasn’t enough for you.
“Your holiday gift returns might go to a landfill. Here’s what you can do about it”.
Let Bishop Marian Budde be one of our guides for 2026.
“The numbers don’t lie: American viewers like their old TV favorites, and they really like TV they can watch for the nice price of free.”
“I don’t want Katie Miller, who is, again, in the financial position to not have to work for the rest of her life, to have this podcast just to make feminists like me happy. I am okay! I don’t need her to do anything for me. As a long-time feminist, I am thrilled to release her of this burden, and if the thing that would make her happiest would be to stay at home and raise her children, I think that’s exactly what she should do.”
“A team of researchers at Epoch AI, a non-profit research institute, are using open-source intelligence to map the growth of America’s datacenters. The team pores over satellite imagery, building permits, and other local legal documents to build a map of the massive computer filled buildings springing up across the United States. They take that data and turn it into an interactive map that lists their costs, power output, and owners.”
RIP, Ben Nighthorse Campbell, former US Senator from Colorado.
“From high up in the mountains to the deep sea, take a tour across the world to meet five new species discovered in 2025.”
“They say aspirin is good for thinning out the blood, and I don’t want thick blood pouring through my heart.”
RIP, Victoria Jones, actor and daughter of Tommy Lee Jones.
“In Trump’s mind he owns the country and its power. He won it fair and square in the 2024 election. Everything that stands in the way of that basic premise is an obstacle to be overturned.”
RIP, Diane Crump, first female jockey to ride in the Kentucky Derby.
There is speculation in several corners of the web that Trump is being treated with the dementia drug Kisunla, an antibody drug that is given by IV infusion once a month (hand bruising). It causes brain swelling, requiring monitoring via scans (MRI). Patient response is likely to be monitored also by cognitive tests. If so, and I believe it, then this situation and its coverup is even bigger than Epstein.
This guy says it is Frontotemporal Dementia, not Alzheimer’s. The evidence of foot dragging, slurred pronunciation, and odd posture is pretty damning-
https://frankgeorge8675309.substack.com/p/dammit-its-not-alzheimers-heres-why-c9f?triedRedirect=true