Portraits by the Mysterious “Master I.S.”: An Art History Detective Story
counterpunch.org/2026/01/01/po…

"It’s often difficult to tell if a Dutch work of art from the 17th century is a portrait (conterfeytsels) or a tronie. Many pictures lack documentation, so we don’t know who, if anybody, was the subject of a given canvas or who may have commissioned it. As a rule, paintings of prosperous-looking people in

I remember working in IT during the Y2K panic and all the extra work and overtime it generated. Sometimes, the bad things we imagine might happen never come to pass.

The World can be a far better place. Let's hope 2026 is a better year.

Have a Guid New Year.

#Y2K
#NewYear
#2026

Bari Weiss Pulls 60 Minutes’ Report on Trump Outsourcing Torture to El Salvador’s CECOT Prison
counterpunch.org/2026/01/01/ba…

"According to the concept of “manufactured consent,” elaborated by Noam Chomsky and Ed Herman in the 1980s, the media carries out a propaganda function in support of the dominant political system. In the United States, this consent has favored particular governments

Time for PBS space time and probably some eep. God this stuff makes my brain hurt so good~ ❤

youtube.com/watch?v=v-aP1J-Bdv…


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Oligarchy XIV: Thoughts on the Anarchism of Dorothy Day
counterpunch.org/2026/01/01/ol…

"Remarking on the 1927 murder of Italian immigrants and anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Day noted that anarchism “is the word, or label, which confuses many of our readers (especially the bishops?)” Day saw anarchism, as a philosophy of mutual respect and voluntary cooperation, as a natural extension of Christian spiritual

This entry was edited (10 minutes ago)

Looking Beyond the 2026 Midterms: Slogans Are Not a Strategy
counterpunch.org/2026/01/01/lo…

"The current buzzword is affordability. “‘Affordability’ mantra helps Democrats turn tide” the New York Times headlined. “Democrats used ‘affordability’ to harness worries about the cost of living and sweep to victory in this November’s [2025] election. And once that happened, references to ‘affordability’ as a stand-alone term

The Russian Idée Fixe
counterpunch.org/2026/01/01/th…

"‘Russia’s defensive war against NATO expansion’ — a concept that has become almost axiomatic for many Western leftists. This concept conveniently serves both to rationalize Russia’s actions and to radicalize criticism of their own governments. But what role does Putin himself assign to the supposed NATO threat? A close reading of his key speeches reveals More
The post The Russian Idée Fixe appear"

The Abbey and the Airbase
counterpunch.org/2026/01/01/th…

"The first thing you notice when you exit London is the silence. The city’s noise becomes an abstract memory. “In silence there is eloquence,” wrote Rumi. “Stop weaving and see how the pattern improves.” Lying awake at night, there is utter silence. It is loud, almost physical, and revealing what is usually hidden, such as More
The post The Abbey and the Airbase appeared first on CounterPunch.org."

Deadly fire tears through bar in Swiss Alps ski resort Crans-Montana during New Year's celebrations
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fire-switzerland-crans-montana-ski-resort-bar-le-constellation-deaths-new-year/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Posted into World News @world-news-CBSNews

On Helsing’s loitering munition/drone, currently in tests with the Bundeswehr www.welt.de/wirtschaft/p...

Durchbruch für Helsing – die e...

LIVE: Israel’s ban on 37 aid groups kicks in, Gaza starts 2026 with despair
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2026/1/1/live-israels-ban-on-37-aid-groups-kicks-in-gaza-starts-2026-with-despair?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Posted into Middle East News @middle-east-news-AlJazeera

鳳蘭・尾上右近が出演、西神中央ホールのオリジナル朗読劇「私をドルシネアと呼んだ男」(ステージナタリー)
news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/551f…
#news_yahoo_media_natalies

Studio Weekly Log 02


Subscribe to studio.blender.org today and download the production files #b3d #animation #openmovie

Follow Blender Studio:
* Twitter: twitter.com/blenderstudio_
* Instagram: instagram.com/blender.studio.o…
* Facebook: facebook.com/BlenderStudioOffi…
* Mastodon: mastodon.social/@blender

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* Blog: code.blender.org
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#peertube #b3d #blender #blender3d


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PFLP Mourns the Leaders of Al-Qassam and Confirms That Their Blood is Fuel for the Continuation of Resistance abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/263…


PFLP Mourns the Leaders of Al-Qassam and Confirms That Their Blood is Fuel for the Continuation of Resistance


With all meanings of pride and pride, and with the majesty of heroes holding on to the principles, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine mourns to our people, our Arab nation, and the free people of the world, a group of great leaders from our brothers in Al-Qassam Brigades, who rose in the trenches of confrontation and engagement during the “Storm of Al-Aqsa” battle. They are:

• Muhammad Sanwar “Abu Ibrahim”, commander of Al-Qassam’s staff.

• Muhammad Shibana “Abu Anas”, commander of Rafah Brigade.
• Raed Saad “Abu Muath”, commander of military manufacturing.
• Hakam Al-Eisa “Abu Omar”.

• Hudhayfah Al-Kahlout “Abu Ubaidah”, spokesperson for Al-Qassam Brigades and voice of resistance.

We in the Popular Front confirm that the rise of these leaders in the front lines proves that their blood is fuel for the continuation of resistance, and a curse that will burn the illusions and plans of the occupier. We emphasize that unity in blood and fate on the battlefield is a rock against which occupation plots are shattered; The absence of these figures will not weaken resistance, but will bequeath generations capable of carrying on and completing the path to liberation.

– We extend our sincerest condolences to our brothers in Hamas movement and its military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, as well as to families of martyrs. We pledge to them and to spirits of fighters that we remain loyal to their wills, that our guns continue firing side by side until victory is achieved, return accomplished, all Palestine liberated from river to sea with Jerusalem as its capital.

Glory and immortality to martyrs… Quick recovery to wounded… Freedom for prisoners… And we are certainly victorious

Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine
Central Information Department
December 30th 2025

abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=…#alAqsaFlood #gaza #palestine #pflp #westAsia


Mutual Aid General Fund Recipient – December 2025: Dandelion Seeds
radical-guide.com/mutual-aid-g…

"Dandelion Seeds receives $550 from the Mutual Aid General Fund to aid unhoused neighbors with essential winter supplies this December 2025.
The post Mutual Aid General Fund Recipient – December 2025: Dandelion Seeds appeared first on A Radical Guide. by Tara Ingram"

Why are some African countries banning US citizens from entry?
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/1/1/why-are-some-african-countries-banning-us-citizens-from-entry?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Posted into Africa News @africa-news-AlJazeera

Recommended article by @mariamlau.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy on the state of the Bavarian CSU, and a little bit about the state of the governing coalition and German politics more generally. 🎁🔗www.zeit.de/2026/01/csu-...

CSU: Der Feind steht rechts

Russia-China ties crucial for global stability: Putin at annual conference globaltimes.cn/page/202512/135…

'Bunnies' Cardboard Gingerbread House'


An acrylic painting of a white bunny making a cardboard gingerbread house and a brown bunny just chilling next to her.

Scattered about the scene are four pieces of cardboard which have had pieces cut out of it for the gingerbread house, two pieces of blue card stock for the roof, a piece of blue construction paper for the window, and a piece of red construction paper for the door, as well as red and green pompoms and white tinsel which has had pieces cut out of it to simulate snow, as well as a pair of scissors and a bottle of glue which has spilled out a bit. I also added some Duplos in the background that the bunnies had been playing with earlier.

This was photographed through a Lumix GF2 with a cheap, no-name manual 35mm f1.6 native-mount prime lens mounted to it.

#cute #cuteart #cuteanimals #bunnies #bunnyart #acrylic #acrylicpainting #traditionalart #lumixgf2 #microfourthirds

1/2 Heute bedeckt, dabei im Binnenland zunächst nur zeitweise leichte bis mäßige Niederschläge, im Verlauf dann landesweit von Nordwesten her zunehmend kräftigere Schauer, teils mit Graupel, im Bergland anfangs auch Schnee. Im Nordseeumfeld auch Gewitter möglich. Maxima um 3 Grad im Süden und bis 7 Grad auf den Inseln, im Oberharz um 1 Grad und noch stellenweise winterlich. Mäßiger bis frischer, an der See auch stürmischer Wind aus westlichen Richtungen, im Binnenland mehr Südwest.

The Regime-Change Playbook: From Syria to Venezuela abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/263…


The Regime-Change Playbook: From Syria to Venezuela


One Year After Syria’s Destruction, the Regime-Change Playbook Is Being Reused


In December 2024, the United States, Israel, NATO, and their European allies completed what they had pursued for more than a decade: the destruction of Syria as a sovereign, anti-imperialist state. This warmongering was marketed to Western audiences as a “liberation.” One year later, in December 2025, the results are undeniable.

Syria is not free.

Syria was dismantled.

What followed the fall of Damascus was not peace, democracy, or self-determination, but mass violence, sectarian fragmentation, economic plunder, and foreign domination. Syria today stands as a living case study of what regime change actually produces—and as a warning of what awaits Venezuela if the same imperial playbook is allowed to run its course again.

What Regime Change Really Is

Regime change is not a response to dictatorship. It is a long-term Western imperial strategy designed to destroy political sovereignty and force independent nations into submission.

The countries targeted for regime change share common characteristics:

  • They assert control over their natural resources
  • They pursue nationalization or socialist-oriented development
  • They reject U.S./European/NATO military alignment
  • They build multipolar relationships outside Western control
  • They resist Israel and Zionism

Syria and Venezuela were not targeted because they were uniquely authoritarian. They were targeted because they were independent.

Before December 2024, Syria was a central pillar of the global anti-imperialist camp and the Axis of Resistance. Venezuela remains one today.

Regime change exists to replace governments that serve their people with governments that serve Western capital, Western militarism, and Western geopolitical interests.

The Regime-Change Playbook: Syria and Venezuela


Syria did not fall overnight. It fell through a multi-stage imperial process—the same process now clearly being deployed against Venezuela.

Step One: Demonization of Leadership

In Syria, Bashar al-Assad was transformed into a singular embodiment of evil. Every social and economic hardship was reduced to his personal existence. Context, history, and imperial interference were erased.

In Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro is treated the same way: caricatured as a “narco-dictator,” stripped of political complexity, and framed as an illegitimate obstacle to progress.

This step is essential. Once a leader is dehumanized, anything done to the population becomes justifiable.

Step Two: Sanctions as Collective Punishment

After demonization comes economic warfare.

In Syria, sanctions devastated civilian life long before the state collapsed—destroying healthcare, food systems, infrastructure, and livelihoods. The suffering produced by sanctions was then blamed on the Syrian government itself.

Venezuela has endured the same strategy. Sweeping sanctions have strangled the economy, blocked trade and finance, weaponized shortages, and punished the working class. The misery they create is then cited as “evidence” that regime change is necessary.

Sanctions are not diplomacy.

They are siege warfare by economic means.

Step Three: Propaganda, Atrocity Narratives, and Psychological Warfare

Once sanctions weaken society, propaganda intensifies.

In Syria, years of atrocity narratives—many selective, exaggerated, or fabricated—created a permanent moral panic in Western consciousness. Complex realities are flattened into a simple story of good (white) people versus evil (Brown) people.

Venezuela is now subjected to the same information war. Every hardship is framed as internal failure. External sabotage and US economic warfare are erased. The purpose is to manufacture public consent.

Wars cannot proceed without it.

Step Four: Fake Opposition and Reactionaries

No regime-change operation succeeds without reactionary collaborators, especially within diaspora communities in the West.

The United States and Europe consistently uplift exiled elites—often from wealthy, Westernized, or comprador backgrounds—who lost power after anti-imperialist revolutions and now advocate sanctions, coups, and foreign intervention under the language of “freedom” and “human rights.”

In Syria, the so-called opposition was ultimately embodied by figures like Ahmad al-Sharaa (Jolani) and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)—former Al-Qaeda and ISIS leadership rebranded as legitimate rulers by the West.

In Venezuela, this role has been played by figures like Juan Guaidó and now María Corina Machado—unelected, Western-aligned actors whose politics reflect U.S. corporate and geopolitical priorities, not the will of the Venezuelan masses.

These figures function as US and Western imperial proxies, laundering regime-change narratives through cultural familiarity. Identity is weaponized to obscure politics. The Western left is targeted for confusion, fragmentation, and paralysis.

This is how Syria fell.

This is how Venezuela is being targeted.

Step Five: Escalation Toward Open War

Sanctions and propaganda are not the endpoint. They are preparation.

Syria’s regime-change war escalated over more than a decade—from information warfare to proxy conflict to full-scale destruction. The West waited patiently until conditions were favorable.

Venezuela is now facing that same trajectory.

Syria Before and After Regime Change


Before December 2024

Syria was a sovereign state aligned with the global Axis of Resistance. It supported Palestinian resistance factions, facilitated material support to Hezbollah, resisted Israeli occupation, rejected normalization with Zionism, and maintained national control over key sectors of its economy. It functioned as part of a broader anti-imperialist front against US imperialism and Zionism.

After December 2024

Today, Syria is engulfed in chaos.

Under HTS and al-Sharaa:

  • Sectarian massacres and ethnic cleansing have devastated minority communities
  • Women from religious and ethnic minorities have been kidnapped, raped, and trafficked
  • Entire populations have been forcibly displaced
  • National institutions have been hollowed out
  • Economic assets have been seized and privatized
  • Israeli forces have expanded their occupation unopposed

Al-Sharaa has openly aligned himself with the United States, Europe and Israel, holding meetings with Western officials and negotiating Syria’s future as a subordinate client state. He expelled Palestinian resistance organizations, dismantled their political and military infrastructure, and blocked weapons flows to Hezbollah and Palestinian resistance fighters.

Syria has been forcibly removed from the Axis of Resistance.

This is not organic chaos.

This is the outcome regime change was designed to produce.

Venezuela Today: Resistance, Not Collapse

Venezuela now stands where Syria once stood—but with one critical difference: the outcome is not yet decided.

Despite years of sanctions, coup attempts, sabotage, and military threats, Venezuelan society has not collapsed. Workers, communes, unions, and popular militias are organized. Large majorities of Venezuelans openly reject foreign intervention and have expressed readiness to defend their country with arms if necessary.

President Nicolás Maduro is not merely surviving imperial pressure—he is coordinating national resistance, strengthening alliances with other sanctioned nations, defending sovereignty, and preparing the population for collective defense.

This is precisely why Venezuela is being targeted now.

Regime change does not attack weak societies.

It attacks resistant ones.

How the United States Is Attacking Venezuela Right Now


When we say that Venezuela is under attack, we are not speaking metaphorically. The United States is actively waging a multi-front campaign of economic, political, psychological, and military aggression against the Venezuelan people.

Economic Warfare Through Sanctions

The primary weapon being used against Venezuela is economic siege.

U.S. sanctions are designed to:

  • Block Venezuela’s access to international banking and credit
  • Prevent the sale of Venezuelan oil on global markets
  • Seize Venezuelan state assets abroad
  • Criminalize third-country trade with Venezuela
  • Collapse public revenue used for food, healthcare, housing, and wages

These sanctions have deliberately deprived Venezuela of tens of billions of dollars, restricting access to medicine, spare parts, food imports, and infrastructure maintenance. This is collective punishment, not diplomacy.

The humanitarian suffering produced by sanctions is then cynically blamed on the Venezuelan government itself—exactly as it was in Syria.

Extrajudicial Killings and Militarization of the Caribbean

U.S. aggression has also taken a directly lethal form.

Under the pretext of “counter-narcotics” operations, the United States has expanded its military presence in Caribbean and South American waters, carrying out airstrikes and lethal airstrikes that have resulted in extrajudicial killings of civilians, including fisherfolk and maritime workers, without evidence, trial, or accountability.

These operations are not about drugs. They are about:

  • Militarizing the region surrounding Venezuela
  • Controlling strategic shipping routes
  • Normalizing U.S. military violence near Venezuelan territory
  • Creating regional instability and fear

This mirrors the early military pressure applied to Syria before its collapse.

Open Threats and Resource Seizure

U.S. officials—including Donald Trump—have openly threatened Venezuela and asserted imperial entitlement over its resources. Trump has repeatedly stated that Venezuela’s oil “belongs” to the United States, making clear that regime change is about resource theft, not democracy.

When an imperial power publicly claims ownership of another nation’s resources, that is colonialism in plain language.

Political Sabotage and Parallel Governments

The United States has repeatedly attempted to overthrow Venezuela’s government outside any electoral process by:

  • Recognizing unelected figures as “president”
  • Freezing and stealing Venezuelan state assets
  • Encouraging military defections
  • Supporting coup attempts
  • Funding destabilization campaigns

These efforts failed because they were rejected by the Venezuelan people—not because U.S. hostility ended.

Psychological Warfare and Information Operations

Alongside sanctions and threats, the U.S. wages continuous psychological warfare:

  • Saturation media campaigns portraying Venezuela as a “failed state”
  • Atrocity narratives stripped of context
  • Erasure of US sanctions from public discourse
  • Promotion of regime-change messaging through diaspora elites

This is designed to demoralize Venezuelans, fracture international solidarity, and prepare Western audiences to accept escalation.

Taken together, these actions constitute a state of undeclared war.

Reactionaries, Collaborators, and the Weaponization of “Human Rights”

Every regime-change operation depends on internal collaborators.

Western governments deliberately elevate reactionary Syrians and Venezuelans in the diaspora—often from elite backgrounds—who advocate sanctions and intervention while claiming to speak for “their people.” These figures whitewash imperial crimes, legitimize collective punishment, and translate U.S. propaganda into the language of identity and humanitarianism.

Women’s rights, minority protection, and queer liberation are selectively weaponized—not to help oppressed people, but to justify sanctions, destabilization, and war. This is not solidarity. It is psychological warfare.

The people most harmed by sanctions—women, children, the poor, and marginalized communities—are always the ones the West claims it wants to “save.”

The Responsibility of Anti-Imperialists in the West

Syria fell not because the truth was unknowable, but because too many people in the imperial core accepted imperial narratives—or treated the destruction of a sovereign nation as distant or inevitable.

Anti-imperialism cannot be outsourced solely to the Global South.

Venezuela is already resisting. The responsibility now lies with those of us living inside the imperial core: to oppose sanctions, reject propaganda, expose regime-change lies, and resist our own governments’ war projects.

The US Wants to do to Venezuela What it did to Syria


Syria was not the first victim of regime change, and it will not be the last.

But Syria shows, with brutal clarity, what happens when this imperial strategy succeeds.

Venezuela now stands at the same threshold.

The playbook is the same.

The sequence is the same.

Only the target has changed.

If Syria teaches us anything, it is that silence, confusion, and misplaced neutrality are forms of complicity.

Venezuela will not fall because it failed to resist.

It will fall only if people inside the imperial core fail to resist their own empire.

And that is the lesson we cannot afford to ignore.

source: Bronx Anti War

abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=…#bronxAntiWar #imperialism #iran #venezuela



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Israel escalates West Bank demolitions amid illegal settlement expansion
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/1/1/israel-escalates-west-bank-demolitions-amid-illegal-settlement-expansion?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Posted into Global News @global-news-AlJazeera

Gaza’s new year begins with a struggle for survival and dignity
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2026/1/1/gazas-new-year-begins-with-a-struggle-for-survival-and-dignity?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Posted into Global News @global-news-AlJazeera

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I wish all of my friends a great 2026!

Here is our NYE Dinner, made by my husband and me.
**Starter:** Cauliflower, Parmesan, and Västerbotten cheese soup with a herb oil.

**Main: **Oxcheek, braised in red wine with truffle mash, wild mushroom jus and Hispi cabbage.
Amarone Wine.
**Dessert: **Key lime pie and dessert wine.

This entry was edited (11 hours ago)

Can you guess 6-7 words that have made the 50th annual "Banished Words List"?
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/6-7-viral-trend-tops-50th-annual-banished-words-list/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Posted into Latest Headlines @latest-headlines-CBSNews

Hamas: Israel’s crimes against journalists will not silence the voice of truth #Palestine english.palinfo.com/news/2025/…

Cities around the world welcome 2026 with thunderous fireworks and heightened security
https://www.oregonlive.com/nation/2026/01/cities-around-the-world-welcome-2026-with-thunderous-fireworks-and-heightened-security.html?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Posted into Oregon News from The Oregonian @oregon-news-from-the-oregonian-TheOregonian

Gamespot just posted:

New Lego Star Wars BB-8 Droid Building Set Is Available Now

Lego Star Wars: BB-8 Astromech Droid (569 Pieces) $90 See at Amazon See at Lego Store Lego has kicked off 2026 by adding several notable Star Wars models to its ever-expanding catalog. The lineup of January 2026 Lego Star Wars sets features notable starships and transport vehicles like the Venator-Class Attack Cruiser and AT-AT Walker as well as the ...

gamespot.com/articles/lego-sta…

#gamingNews

長澤まさみが映画監督の福永壮志と結婚、「これからの人生を一歩一歩丁寧に」(ステージナタリー)
news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/163c…
#news_yahoo_media_natalies

#chatmail #fosdem #deltachat #cryptographic #interoperability


Delta Chat (39c3) - 2025-02-09 10:22:30 GMT

The #chatmail #fosdem talk from @compl4xx is public. It goes into topics such as- why chatmail servers?
- how to setup a server with your child
- (avoiding) spam filtering
- metadata and guaranteed end to end encryption in #deltachat
- #cryptographic #interoperability for email message routing

Thanks to attendees for the great energy even if was the last talk on the day and also for questions and conversations afterwards!

ftp.fau.de/fosdem/2025/k4601/f…

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