Parroting Putin. Telling lies about allies. Blaming democracies for invasions by murderous dictatorships. Dumping global aid and efforts at building soft power. The world order being (perhaps irrevocably) altered by a guy with his own mug shot framed on the Oval Office wall. History can change in the blink of an eye and it may have just done so. Anne Applebaum in The Atlantic (Gift Article): The End of the Postwar World. "For eight decades, America’s alliances with other democracies have been the bedrock of American foreign policy, trade policy, and cultural influence. American investments in allies’ security helped keep the peace in formerly unstable parts of the world, allowing democratic societies from Germany to Japan to prosper, by preventing predatory autocracies from destroying them. We prospered too. Thanks to its allies, the U.S. obtained unprecedented political and economic influence in Europe and Asia, and unprecedented power everywhere else. The Trump administration is now bringing the post–World War II era to an end." And this: "Perhaps we might also someday find out who or what, exactly, changed his mind, why he chose to follow a policy that seems designed to encourage not just Russia but Russia’s allies in China, Iran, North Korea, Belarus, Cuba, and Venezuela. But now is not the moment to speculate, or to imagine alternate storylines. Now is the moment to recognize the scale of the seismic change unfolding, and to find new ways to live in the world that a very different kind of America is beginning to create."

+ George Packer in The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Trump World Order.

+ "It is a striking turn for Republicans, who for decades defined themselves as the party of a strong defense and argued that the United States had a pivotal role to play as a beacon of freedom and defender of democracies around the globe." NYT (Gift Article): As Trump Turns Toward Russia and Against Ukraine, Republicans Are Mum. (Laurence Tribe: "These cowardly puppets would’ve stayed mute if their guy had blamed Poland for Germany’s 1939 invasion — something not even Adolf Hitler dared to do.")

+ None of this is happening in a vacuum. It's happening at a time when European liberal democracy needs defending and strengthening. Bloomberg (Gift Article): Far-Right Pushes Germany’s Political System to the Breaking Point. "The nationalist party would close borders, unwind European integration and steer Germany away from western principles of open societies and closer to authoritarian regimes, especially Russia."

2

Kash is King

"'I cannot imagine a worse choice,' Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told colleagues before the 51-49 vote by the GOP-controlled Senate. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska were the lone Republican holdouts." We are in the age of the worst being first. The folks not standing up for the world order aren't going to stand up for the domestic rule of law either. Hence, Trump loyalist Kash Patel is confirmed as FBI director.

3

Self(ie) Incrimination

"They ditched the cars as needed, along with the burner phones they used to coordinate with one another. They would hide in woods while monitoring the patterns of security guards, then break into the homes of wealthy athletes by breaking small windows or prying open sliding doors before converting jewel-encrusted watches, designer bags, gold chains and rings into cash, using loot launderers far from their victims. Their booty had an estimated value of about $3 million, taken from some of America's best-known athletes." So what ended the away game crime spree that targeted people like Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Joe Burrow? It's 2025. So the answer may not surprise you. FBI: Selfies helped nab gang allegedly targeting pro athletes.

4

For Prime Eyes Only

In the grand the scheme of today's news, with the White House being occupied by a Golden I, for whom The World is Not Enough, our government agencies being hit with a Thunderball, our international posture toward allies turning into Live and Let Day, leaving many of them to Never Say Never Again, our talking points coming From Russia with Love, and a bunch of Octopussies from DOGE gaining access to personal data that used to be For Your Eyes Only and being given Licence to Killany program, the fate of the 007 franchise hardly seems like Skyfalling news. But the new controller of the James Bond market is indicative a broader trend. A very few mega-companies owning everything. WSJ (Gift Article): Amazon MGM Studios Gains Creative Control of James Bond Franchise From Broccoli Family. (They'll probably want to acquire me next. After all, I'm the Man with the Golden Pun.)

+ John Gruber: "The villains in Bond stories are often bald billionaire industrialists who either build rockets or own media companies, with lasciviously-dressed women on their arms. It’s hard to imagine how we could come closer to a real-life Bond villain taking control of the franchise. (At least it wasn’t Musk.)"

5

Extra, Extra

Scratching a Mitch: "Sen. Mitch McConnell has announced he will not seek reelection next year, ending a 40-year career in Congress that saw the Kentucky Republican serve as the longest-serving Senate party leader in U.S. history." Perhaps no person is more responsible for GOP power than McConnell. And yet, he's way too moderate for the group he enabled.

+ Parading Coffins: "Crowds of Palestinians gathered near the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis to watch the theatrical handoff staged by Hamas: four coffins placed on a stage in front of a cartoonish, vampiric picture of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister. Triumphant music thumped in the background. One casket bore a picture of Kfir Bibas, who was less than nine months old when he was kidnapped. A few yards away, a poster threatened that if Israel went back to war against Hamas, even more hostages would return in coffins." NYT: With Coffins and Taunts, Hamas Hands Dead Hostages to Israel. And from NPR: Hamas releases the bodies of four Israeli hostages, including mother and young sons. Between the scenes and quotes in these articles, peace seems as far as ever.

+ Internal Conflict: "The layoffs are expected to total 6,700, according to a person familiar with the matter, and largely target workers at the agency hired as part of an expansion under Democratic President Joe Biden, who had sought to expand enforcement efforts on wealthy taxpayers." IRS fires 6,000 employees as Trump slashes government.

+ Weaponized: "A lawyer at advertising conglomerate Interpublic Group fielded a phone call in December from a lawyer at X. The message was clear, according to several people with knowledge of the conversation: Get your clients to spend more on Elon Musk’s social-media platform, or else. " (In December, things were still comparatively subtle.) WSJ (Gift Article): X Hinted at Possible Deal Trouble in Talks With Ad Giant to Increase Spending. This is all part of a trend. DOGE reportedly fired the FDA employees who were reviewing clinical trials for Elon Musk’s Neuralink.

+ Drug Tested: "Many see illicit fentanyl, said to be about 50 times as powerful as heroin and 100 times as powerful as morphine, as the worst drug epidemic the country has ever seen. At the same time, experts have reached a consensus: Medication-for-addiction treatment, or M.A.T. — using medicine like buprenorphine or methadone to help patients recover from their opioid-use disorder rather than trying to get them to quit cold turkey — is the best course of treatment. Merely starting people on buprenorphine, research suggests, can cut their chances of dying from overdose by between 50 and 80 percent, compared with patients receiving talk therapy and other nondrug interventions. Yet the drug remains drastically underprescribed." NYT Magazine (Gift Article): An Effective Treatment for Opioid Addiction Exists. Why Isn’t It Used More?

+ Tomb Raiders: "Egyptologists have discovered the first tomb of a pharaoh since Tutankhamun's was uncovered over a century ago." (No word on whether they've located any framed mug shot photos.)

6

Bottom of the News

"The German sandal maker had sought a ruling that its footwear, known for its cork and latex soles, could be classified as art and thus afforded strong copyright protections. The company, whose sandals have over the years transformed from unglamorous footwear to coveted fashion items, wanted to stop three of its competitors from selling similar products." Birkenstocks are not works of art, top German court rules in copyright case.