Nordstahl @Nordstahl@qoto.org

“But before I could worry about it too much, a senior military officer from a major (non-American) allied nation drove a stake right through the heart of the matter.

America has blown 80 years of accumulated goodwill and trust among its allies, our American moderator was told. A rock-steady assumption of allied defence and security planning for literally generations has been that America would act in its own interests, sure, but that those interests would be rational, and would still generally value the institutions that America itself worked so hard to build after the Second World War. America’s recent actions have destroyed the ability of any ally to continue to have faith in America to act even within its own strategic self-interest, let alone that of any ally.

The officer then said that even a swift return of America to its former role won’t matter.

Because “we will never fucking trust you again.”
https://www.readtheline.ca/p/matt-gurney-we-will-never-fucking

Congressmen Rep. Swalwell reports, Congress has confirmed that Trump appears in the #Epstein files 1,500 times.

Trump appears in the Epstein files 1,500 times.

Trump appears in the Epstein files 1,500 times.

Trump appears in the Epstein files 1,500 times.

One thousand five hundred times.

#epsteinFiles #coverup #news #usa

Trump is at his lowest point of popularity. His sycophants and enablers are losing election after election. Some of his staunchest supporters are abandoning ship. The momentum is on our side and the regime knows it.

Please pitch in if you can to power the nationwide organizing it will take to win the midterms: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/2025-eoy?refcode=mastodon20251226directpost&source=mastodon

Made a cherry pie cat bed for Xmas (the crust is from a boughten pet bed and i basted together the crust and pie filling from spoonflower fabric) #CatsOfMastodon happy Christmas @danny 💗

Schönen Guten Morgen. Heute gibt es wieder ein bisserl Alltag. Um acht Uhr kommt die Fußpflege zu Mama. #Caturday

Oh, for fuck's sake. It's Christmas. Who the hell is shooting off fireworks for fucking Christmas?!?!

My 92 year old aunt: You do the Leenux thing, right? You need to come over sometime and install it for me, because f#ck all I ain't gonna update to Windows 11.

Me: .... ?!#!?

I explain what the change-over entails and that I generally don't recommend it just because...

Aunt: No, f#ck that, f#ck capitalism, my laptop is still fine, so come over and set me up with that Leenux thing.

#Linux #christmas

RE: https://newsie.social/@ProPublica/115782569336405607

My monthly donations to @ProPublica are honestly some of the best money I've ever spent. If you're able, please support them: https://give.propublica.org/campaign/748664/donate

Took a break from the news for 8 hours. Came back to see Trump spent the day posting on Truth Social - over 200 posts - and apparently ordering bombing in Nigeria. He never ceases to disgust me.

@heidilifeldman There is no bottom. 😡

Another fedi friend - @alice - has fallen victim to the whims of payment processors :(

I wish that there was a good solution to this, as I have seen this happen to so many people here.

(lgbtqia.space blocks UK IP ranges, because of the Online Safety Act, so people here might not see Alice's toots.)

8 years out of school, my anxiety dreams have finally graduated too!

Now, instead of missing exams and classes, I had a dream where I was supposed to give a workshop at a conference. Except I didn't remember the time or venue for it, and it was on a topic I know nothing about.

Progress...?

#dreams #anxiety

The United States has no justice system. Its legal system is a pay-to-win game.

As such, this violent empire and all its elite institutions will betray its every professed value, and then it will die, with a memory to be spat on for the rest of human history.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/07/paramount-cbs-settlement-trump-media/

I brined and spatchcocked a duck and then grilled it. My partner is vegetarian (she bought the duck as a surprise). My kids will barely eat chicken and pick at only white meat of the turkey. So I knew it was all mine.

And y’all…holy fuck.

The salted skin on this thing was like duck bacon. Holy shit. I told my kids they should taste it but it was okay they wouldn’t like it.

My two pickiest eaters fucking destroyed that bird!

They were like fucking werewolves I swear to god! My autistic child who only eats plain pasta and doesn’t let food touch was DIPPING food into the duck juices!

I don’t even know what the hell just happened.

Trump and Musk fired 9 percent of the federal workforce, and yet the Trump regime has increased federal spending by 6 percent.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/elon-musks-doge-tally-the-federal-workforce-is-down-while-government-spending-is-up-192850019.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly90LmNvLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALR4wjlPjHY1oBPVFhV3tpRyP7DuJ7FbmIpLR2qNURyxc2rBxkwte0cX3cDRYty8TnVdENBc2uYz1g9nrQ6K9Xyo_AwZ5Sl68iRoM1QDfbfNZoFMkvYnvrmbHlBCjHFl8wGRa9RxE5Z21hKEeVQREGssq9dnKUvZG3-ogOCqTG6X

GOP operatives Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman, convicted election fraudsters,
were paid $960,000 in the second quarter to secure a pardon for a former nursing-home operator who defrauded the government of $38 million.

Trump pardoned the man, Joseph Schwartz, last month.
https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-presidential-pardon-process-dda97c15?st=cjezHF&reflink=article_copyURL_share

26 December 1911 | A Czech Jewish woman, Zděnka Roubičková, was born in Prague.

She was deported to #Auschwitz from #Theresienstadt ghetto on 1 October 1944. She did not survive.
---

The history of deportations of Jews from the Theresienstadt ghetto to Auschwitz & the so-called family camp created in Birkenau by the SS: https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/z-getta-w-theresienstadt-do-obozu-auschwitz-ii-birkenau/gQiyl0Ei?hl=en

My youngest son, a high school history teacher up yonder here in northern Wisconsin, had this book on the dining room table when I got to his house to do the Christmas visit/dinner thing today. I told him I’d like to read it when he was through reading it; I’ve heard good things about it.
#ThatsMyBoy