An exciting post-Christmas patch series out on the Linux kernel mailing list this morning is proposing a new runtime standby ABI that is similar in nature to the "Modern Standby" functionality found with Microsoft Windows...
This year there was a lot of going on in the NVIDIA Linux world from their official driver stack seeing better Wayland support to a lot on the open-source scene from NVIDIA engineers contributing a lot directly to the Rust-based Nova open-source driver that continues taking shape, the Mesa NVK Vulkan driver becoming more performant and capable, and a lot of other happenings. Here is a look back at the most popular NVIDIA content of 2025 on Phoronix...
For those using Microsoft's exFAT file-system under Linux for the likes of flash drives and SD cards, a new patch series posted today aims to enhance the read performance. The new patches are shown to improve performance by about 10% while also having lower overhead...
Mary Ellen was down at Millennium Park today, walking by the parking lot for the canoe launch and river-side path when she noticed some eagle drama involving two birds perched on adjoining poles along the train tracks.
One was calling and flew to the other one but it gave the cold shoulder and took off.
A little hard to tell but this is the disappointed eagle pondering what just happened:
Mary Ellen reports that even though she wasn't close, she was using a zoom lens, she left to leave Sam alone.
Americans are pulling back—and the holidays are paying the price.
New polling showsthat growing economic anxiety under President Donald Trump is reshaping how people approach gift-giving this season. A series of polls conducted in the last two months of the year suggest that households are spending less, watching prices more closely, and trimming their expectations. And the shift isn’t subtle.
CNBC’s All-America Economic Survey, conducted in early December, finds that 41% of Americans plan to spend less on holiday gifts this year. That’s up 6 percentage points from 2024 and marks the biggest pullback since inflation spiked in 2022.
Among those cutting back, nearly half (46%) cite the high cost of goods, a 10-point increase from last year. Pricesremain stubbornly high, and for many families, the math no longer works the way it once did.
Only 16% say they plan to spend more. Even then, the motivation isn’t confidence. In a telling reversal, 36% of those increasing their budgets say higher prices are the reason. CNBC notes this is the first time inflation has meaningfully driven both higher and lower spending.
That contradiction speaks to the moment. Americans aren’t necessarily bracing for collapse—but they don’t feel secure either. They’re still buying gifts, just with more hesitation, more calculation, and more anxiety about what comes next.
About half of Americans say they’re spending more time hunting for deals and putting off big purchases. Nearly as many—48%—say they’re buying nonessential items less often, while just 13% report shopping more than usual. Worse, 4 in 10 say they’re leaning more heavily on savings.
What’s striking is how this compares with earlier inflation scares. More Americans say they’re tightening their belts nowthan they did in December 2021, when prices were just beginning to climb due to recent inflation troubles. And while supply-chain disruptions have seemingly faded as a concern,affordability has not.
The issue isn’t availability. It’s price—especially for lower- and middle-income households, which say the gap between what they want to give and what they can reasonably afford keeps widening.
That unease is evident in broader confidence measures. Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index slid sharply in November, reaching its lowest level since mid-2024. Just 21% of Americans now describe economic conditions as excellent or good, while 40% say the economy is in poor shape.
Optimism about the future is slipping as well. Only 27% tell Gallup the economy is improving. Meanwhile, 68% say it’s getting worse.
And those attitudes are reshaping holiday budgets. Americans now expect to spend an average of $778 on gifts this season,down sharply from October’s estimate of $1,007and well below last year’s November estimate of $1,102. Gallup notes that consumers often revise expectations downward as December approaches—but this year’s decline is the largest midseason drop the firm has ever recorded, surpassing even the pullback during the 2008 financial crisis.
The retrenchment isn’t confined to one corner of the economy. Gallup finds that households earning more than $100,000 have scaled back their holiday budgets by several hundred dollars since October. Lower-income Americans are pulling back even more sharply. Middle-income households, for now, appear to be holding steady—less a sign of confidence than of limited room to cut further.
Shoppers browse for deals in Atlanta in November.
What makes this moment politically fraught is not just inflation fatigue but also a broader sense of instability tied to Trump’s second term in the White House. For many voters, the concern isn’t tied to a single policy but to a broader sense of unpredictability. Economic debate has once again become volatile and personalized, with fewer clear signals about where things are headed.
The shift shows up in subtle ways. Americans aren’t scrapping the holidays—they’re downgrading them.
Think: fewer gifts, lower price points, more hesitation at checkout. Taken together, the polls suggest holiday spending has become less about celebration and more about minimizing risk.
In short, restraint—not abundance—is setting the tone this season. An October YouGov pollfound that most Americans (56%) planned to set spending limits, and a notable share (14%) said they would not shop at all this year, though the poll didn’t dive into whether that was by choice or necessity.
Taken together, the data point to an economy that feels fragile at the household level. Americans may still show up for the holidays—but they’re doing so with tighter budgets and a growing sense that even familiar rituals now require caution.
Holiday spending has long been a barometer of consumer confidence. This year, it’s measuring something else: how uneasy Americans feel living under Trump’s economy.
The second-highest official at the DOJ, Todd Blanche rose to prominence as Trump’s personal defense attorney. His actions violated the federal conflicts of interest law and his ethics agreement, experts told ProPublica.
To prevent possible violations of the federal conflicts of interest statute, Blanche promised to dump his digital assets no later than 90 days after his Senate confirmation in March, according tohis government ethics agreement. He also pledged not to participate in any matter that could have a “direct and predictable effect on my financial interests in the virtual currency” until his Bitcoin and other crypto-related products were sold.
But about a month into the job — before divesting —Blanche issued a memothat ordered an end to investigations into crypto companies, dealers and exchanges launched during President Joe Biden’s term. He also eliminated an enforcement team dedicated to looking for crypto-related fraud and money-laundering schemes. And his memo said the Justice Department would assist Trump’s crypto working group of experts and Cabinet members that went on to issue a list of recommendations aimed at making the United States the global leader in digital coins.
Blanche’s directives, while he still owned significant crypto investments, violated the conflicts of interest law and his ethics agreement, legal experts and former federal ethics officials told ProPublica.
“If you are invested in that industry and now making a decision that could affect whether or not the DOJ is gonna pursue prosecutions, that’s an obvious conflict of interest,” said Virginia Canter, who served as an ethics lawyer at the White House, Treasury Department and Securities and Exchange Commission during the presidencies of George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
Even when he did ultimately divest his crypto interests, Blanche’s ethics records show he did so by transferring them to his adult children and a grandchild, a move the experts said is technically legal but at odds with the spirit and intent of the law.
Blanche’s actions illustrate the ethical problems posed as the Trump administration relaxes regulation of digital money to make good on thepresident’s vowto make the U.S. “the crypto capital of the world.” In less than a year, Trump has nominated at least 216 political appointees who owned — either by themselves or with their spouses — cryptocurrency investments worth between $175 million and $340 million at the time of their nomination, a ProPublica review of federal financial disclosure records found. By contrast, in the first two years of his presidency, Biden appointed about two dozen people who, combined, held less than $7 million in crypto investments.
Donald Trump speaks at the Bitcoin 2024 Conference in July 2024 in Nashville, Tenn.
Trump’s crypto-friendly appointees include several who head agencies with regulatory authority over the industry.
Among them is Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Until this year, Lutnick was CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, a financial services firm with billions in crypto investments. The firm is also the primary banker for Tether, among the world’s largest issuers of stablecoins — a type of crypto pegged to the dollar or another asset to avoid wild swings in value.
After signingan ethics agreement, Lutnick transferred his stake in Cantor Fitzgerald to his children, including his two adult sons who now run the firm. The transfer was completed in October. By then, Lutnick had taken several pro-crypto steps — announcing that Trump would create a bitcoin strategic reserve, having his department take part in the president’s crypto working group and publishing economic data on nine key blockchains, a move designed to foster more trust in the digital market. (The blockchain is a digital ledger that underlies cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.)
A Commerce Department spokesperson noted that Lutnick was given a limited waiver from the White House allowing him to work on general issues that could affect Cantor Fitzgerald while the transfer of his stake in the firm was pending.The waiverwas dated July 8, nearly five months after he was sworn in. The spokesperson said Lutnick “fully complied with the terms of his ethics agreement” and did not have any “economic gains or losses associated” with the transfer of his stake in the firm.
Another crypto-friendly appointee is Paul Atkins, chair of the SEC, whose ethics records show he owned stakes of up to $6 million in crypto-related businesses before his confirmation in April. Since Trump took office, Atkins’ agency has dropped or settled enforcement cases with crypto companies.
Atkins signed an ethics agreement promising to sell a crypto investment fund and equity in two crypto companies. He has since filed paperwork saying he complied with the agreement and listed millions of dollars worth of investments he sold, but those do not mention any crypto-related sales. An SEC spokesman said Atkins complied with his ethics obligations but would not say when he sold his crypto-related assets.
A staffer for Blanche said he and the Justice Department would not comment.
Trump has led the way on ethical conflicts connected to crypto. During last year’s election campaign, he pledged to the crypto industry he would end Biden’s strict approach toward regulation. In turn, the industry heavily bet on Trump, spending millions to support his election and those of other Republican candidates.
On the eve of the election, Trump promised he would be America’s “crypto president” if he won a second term. He and his sonslaunched their own cryptocurrencybusiness, World Liberty Financial, and after his election victory, Trump and his wife, Melania, issued a pair of meme coins, allowing anyone to use crypto to enrich the incoming president. Within days of taking office in January,Trump signed a presidential actionpromoting the growth of digital assets and started nominating government officials to fulfill his goal.
James Thurber, a former congressional staffer who worked on federal ethics reforms and is now professor emeritus at American University, characterized the Trump administration’s disregard of traditional government ethics as unprecedented. He contrasted Trump’s sale of crypto coins to the example set by President Jimmy Carter, who announced he was putting his peanut farm into a blind trust when he took office.
“The conflicts of interest in this administration are blatant and hugely against the public interest.” Thurber said.
Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said in a statement to ProPublica that the “administration is fulfilling the President’s promise to make the United States the crypto capital of the world by driving innovation and economic opportunity for all Americans.”
“Neither the President nor his family have ever engaged, or will ever engage, in conflicts of interest,” she added.
Tonya Evans, a former professor at Penn State Dickinson Law who now consults on the digital economy, said the increase in crypto investors serving in the executive branch under Trump is a measure of the industry’s success in taking over regulatory bodies that were previously hostile to them. She compared the industry’s newfound power to how Goldman Sachs alums — such as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin during Trump’s first term or Biden’s SEC chair, Gary Gensler — held prominent government positions and were able to exert outsized influence on shaping financial policy.
“My concern is not so much that people who understand crypto are in leadership positions,” she wrote in an email to ProPublica, “but that ethics frameworks may not yet meet this critical fork in the road of development, especially if ‘divestiture’ takes the form of passing to family. We are a long way from President Carter’s peanut farm!”
Crypto Conflicts
Blanche rose to prominence in recent years as Trump’s main defender in criminal court.
A former federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, Blanche, 51, was his lead attorney in the Manhattan trial that resulted inTrump being convicted of 34 feloniesstemming fromhis hush-money paymentto a pornographic actress, Stormy Daniels. Blanche also defended Trump against criminal charges accusing him ofconspiring to subvertthe 2020 election andretaining highly classifieddocuments. (Those two cases were dropped after Trump was elected president.)
Sincegaining Senate confirmationon March 5, Blanche has helped lead a massive remaking of the Department of Justice, shifting the emphasis from long-standing priorities, like the protection of civil rights. Thousands of employees have been terminated or resigned as the new administration ended police misconduct prosecutions, environmental abuse lawsuits and abortion access cases. Blanche has pushed for tougher border control enforcement and the use of fraud statutes to prosecute institutions with diversity-and-inclusion-related policies. As news of Trump’s ties to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein gained momentum this year, it wasBlanche who personally interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime confidante now serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping him sexually abuse underage girls.
When Blanche issued the sweeping memo ending the department’s Biden-era crypto enforcement approach, he effectively ended a three-year effort aimed at penetrating the shadowy world of transnational criminals.
The team also assisted a multiagency probe of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. The investigation found, among other things, that Binance failed to report and prevent suspicious financial transactions for Hamas, al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations. Federal prosecutors charged the company’s founder, Changpeng Zhao, with violating U.S. anti-money-laundering laws, and to settle the case, Zhao pleaded guilty, resigned as company chief executive and served a four-month prison sentence. He also agreed to pay the U.S. $4.3 billion in penalties. (Trump pardoned Zhaoin October. Months earlier,Binance had used a stablecoindeveloped by the Trump-owned World Liberty Financial to fund a $2 billion deal.)
In his April 7 memo titled “Ending Regulation by Prosecution,” Blanche scoffed at the Biden Justice Department’s approach toward crypto, calling it “a reckless strategy of regulation by prosecution, which was ill conceived and poorly executed.” He said the agency would now target only the terrorists and drug traffickers who illicitly used crypto, not the platforms that hosted them. He announced the disbanding of the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team.
“The digital assets industry is critical to the Nation’s economic development and innovation,” Blanche wrote. “President Trump has also made clear that ‘[w]e are going to end the regulatory weaponization against digital assets.’”
The market reacted favorably; crypto trading spiked.
Todd Blanche speaks during an event in the Oval Office at the White House on Oct. 15.
At the time, Blanche hadn’t relinquished his Bitcoin worth between $100,000 and $250,000, nor his investments in the cryptocurrencies Solana and Ethereum or his stock holdings in Coinbase. Blanche should have recused himself from the decision, experts told ProPublica.
Under thefederal conflicts of interest statute, government officials are forbidden from taking part in a “particular matter” that can financially benefit them or their immediate family, unless they have a special waiver from the government. Thepenalties range fromup to one year in jail or a civil fine of up to $50,000 all the way to as much as five years in prison if someone willfully violates the law.
Blanche’s wide-ranging memo benefited the industry broadly, including his own investments, ethics experts said.
Inan ethics filing he electronically signedin June, Blanche said his Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency investments — including Solana, Cardano and Ethereum — “were gifted in their entirety to my grandchild and adult children.” Financial disclosure records don’t provide exact amounts but instead a broad range for the worth of a government official’s investment. At that point, Blanche’s records show his transfers to his family members were worth between $116,000 and $315,000. He said he sold additional crypto-related investments worth between $5,000 and $75,000. The divestment took place in late May and early June, the ethics filing said.
Legal experts noted that the federal conflict-of-interest law prohibits government officials from using their position in a way that would financially benefit a spouse or a minor child; it does not mention adult children or grandchildren.
Still, even if legal, giving assets like these to a relative doesn’t satisfy the ethical concern that a government official could act in a way that helps their family financially, they said.
“The purpose of the law is to eliminate even the appearance that an official’s decisions are influenced by their financial interests,” said Kedric Payne, a former deputy chief counsel for the Office of Congressional Ethics who is senior ethics director at theCampaign Legal Center. “That purpose is defeated when an official simply gives conflicted assets to adult children.”
Republicans have control over all three branches of government, but that doesn’t mean that Democrats haven’t been fighting back. Whether in media appearances or committee meetings, Democrats consistently highlighted the insidiousness—and incompetence—of the Trump administration in 2025.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio lied up a storm while being confronted by DemocraticSen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Van Hollen slammed Rubio for his role indismantling the United States Agency for International Development—harming vulnerable populations abroad—and enabling President Donald Trump's inhumane andunconstitutional deportations.
According to the Trump administration, Supreme Court decisions hold no power—at least when Trump doesn’t like them.
Testifying before Congress, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem argued that the Trump administration does not have to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland resident who waswrongly deported to El Salvador—even though the Supreme Courtruled 9-0 that it does.
Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware was forced to give Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth a history and foreign policy lesson during a Senate budget subcommittee hearing. Coons got into it with the wobbly defense secretary when Hegseth dismissively downplayed the contributions of European allies in past wars, using Afghanistan—wherehe served.
Democratic Rep. Jahana Hayes of Connecticut leveled Education Secretary Linda McMahon during a tense exchange at theHouse Education and Workforce Committee. Hayes slammed McMahon’s attempts to separate Holocaust education from African American studies within what she considers to be diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
Appearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee, FBI Director Kash Patel was unable to provide a timeline for when his department’s budget—which was required by law to be submitted more than a week earlier—would finally be delivered to Congress.
Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse of Colorado laid into GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio during a House Rules Committee hearing on the GOP’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill.”
Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois posted a video titled, “A Special Announcement from Governor JB Pritzker,” in which he mocked some of Trump’s more comically egregious proclamations in the few weeks following his inauguration.
During a heated exchange with Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Sen. Cory Booker argued that advancing a policing bill without proper scrutiny amounted to complicity in Trump’s anti-constitutional agenda.
When Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California wasforcibly removed and tackled during one of Noem’s press conferences in Los Angeles, Democrats across the country immediately came to his defense.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing onartificial intelligence got interesting when Democrats moved to subpoena Elon Musk, catching the handful of Republicans present off guard. The move forced Chair Nancy Mace to suspend proceedings while the GOP scrambled to block it.
Republicans showed their intolerance for dissenting viewpoints during Trump’s primetime speech, where House Speaker Mike Johnson had Democratic Rep. Al Green of Texas removed after he dared to object to Trump.
Democratic Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota didn’t mince words at the Democratic National Convention’ssummer meeting in Minneapolis, taking aim at the deterioration of the country under Trump.
It took House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries just one explosive minute to spotlight the stunning hypocrisy of the administration’sfailure to deliver on any of Trump’s campaign promises while branding critics of his heinous deportation policies as “insurrectionists.”
Democratic Rep. Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico is theranking Democrat on the House’s new Delivering on Government Efficiency subcommittee. During the made-up committee’s first hearing, she excoriated Republicans for theirfealty to billionaires like Musk.
During an immigration hearing, GOP Rep. Brandon Gill of Texas pivoted into a bizarre attack on transgender rights. But Pritzker, who was testifying at the time, quickly castigated him for engaging in a political stunt.
The Arch Linux based CachyOS has been quite popular with Linux gamers and enthusiasts for offering leading out-of-the-box performance, especially following the shutdown of Intel's Clear Linux. CachyOS has developed quite a following on the Linux desktop while looking ahead to 2026 they will be working on a server edition...
As a wonderful Christmas gift to open-source fans, NVIDIA dropped their proprietary license on the CUDA Tile intermediate representation and has now made the IR open-source software...
My long-held belief us that Waymo has been obscuring how much human intervention they use, and this task is funny example of that.
Adkins had witnessed an Achilles’ heel of the Waymo robotaxis that ferry thousands of riders in Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities each week. The vehicles can navigate city streets and compete with taxi drivers without anyone behind the wheel — but become stranded if a human doesn’t close the door behind them at the end of a ride.
Because riders and passersby can be unreliable, Waymo pays workers in Los Angeles $20 or more for rescuing a robotaxi by closing a door, summoning help through an app called Honk that is like an Uber for towing companies.
The Trump administration never misses an opportunity to tout its deep commitment to religious freedom.
Why, just look at the Religious Liberty Commission that President Donald Trump established in May. Or the White House Faith Office that he launched in February. Or his executive order eradicating anti-Christian bias.
So, given that the Trump team has such an excellent track record of protecting religious freedom, why is it that religious groups keep suing them?
Televangelist Paula White runs President Donald Trump’s new White House Faith Office
Well, to start, the Religious Liberty Commission is stuffed with conservative Christians like Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who declared, “The Declaration of Independence is consistent with the Bible, and the Bible is consistent with the Declaration of Independence.”
Hmm, that sounds less like religious liberty and more like Christian nationalism.
And the White House Faith Office? It’s run by Paula White, a televangelist who believes that anyone who opposes Trump is part of a “demonic network.” She said that she took the gig because “to say no to President Trump would be saying no to God.”
Hmm, that sounds less like religious liberty and more like a cult.
Well, surely Trump’s efforts to eradicate anti-Christian bias are going swimmingly. In his executive order, Trump waxed rhapsodic about how his administration will protect peaceful Christian protesters after the Biden administration “engaged in an egregious pattern of targeting peaceful Christians, while ignoring violent, anti-Christian offenses.”
To right Biden’s wrongs, Trump pardoned “nearly two dozen peaceful pro-life Christians for praying and demonstrating outside abortion facilities,” including a Catholic priest.
Things are no doubt much better now, what with all of this religious freedom floating around, right?
Not so much.
Instead, the administration’s wholesale commitment to violence against immigrants has resulted in a sustained attack on religious freedom—actual religious freedom, not the ginned-up culture war stuff that Trump loves.
What could be more of an attack against religious freedom than refusing to allow Catholic nuns and priests to administer communion to detainees at a detention facility?
This isn’t something that some rogue progressive Catholics whipped up as a way to try to get into an ICE detention center. Those nuns and priests had been visiting the facility every Friday for more than a decade, providing pastoral care, prayer services, and communion. But beginning in October, ICE started refusing to let them in.
ICE agents spray Rev. David Black during a demonstration outside of the ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 19.
After about two months of absolutely fruitless negotiations over this, an ecumenical group, the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership, along with several Catholic priests, sued the administration.
As the lawsuit explains, Catholics are literally compelled by scripture to minister to “the prisoner and foreigner.”
The complaint also references Pope Benedict’s biblical quote when ministering to detainees in Rome’s Rebibbia District Prison: “I was in prison, and you came to me.”
“Wherever there is someone hungry, a foreigner, a sick person, a prisoner, there is Christ himself, who is waiting for our visit and our help,” Benedict said.
Refusing to allow Catholic nuns and priests inside an ICE facility violates not just their religious freedom, but also that of the detainees who wish to receive communion, attend Mass, or pray with spiritual leaders.
This lawsuit is different from the October lawsuit brought by journalists and protesters, including David Black, a Presbyterian pastor who ICE shot in the head with pepper balls. A few minutes later, they blasted him with tear gas.
It isn’t just the brutality at this one ICE facility that has spurred lawsuits.
In July, a large coalition of faith groups sued over the removal of “sensitive locations” guidance, which had largely barred ICE from invading places such as hospitals, schools, and churches.
You’d think that the religious freedom administration would honor the fact that many churches and synagogues believe that providing sanctuary for immigrants is part of their religious mission, but you would be extremely wrong.
There’s also a lawsuit that was filed by more than two dozen Christian and Jewish groups in February, saying that the threat of immigration officers entering churches is lowering attendance, which, you guessed it, infringes on their religious freedom.
Also in February, hundreds of Quaker congregations also sued over the removal of sensitive locations, explaining that they are spiritually called to minister to immigrants. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a network of more than 1,400 congregations, joined the suit.
A cartoon by Mike Luckovich.
“In the faces of immigrants and refugees who are fleeing political or religious persecution, or who are seeking sanctuary from tyrants, Baptists see nothing less than the face of Jesus,” the suit said.
Another plaintiff, Sikh Temple Sacramento, noted that communal in-person worship is critical to their religious practice.
Making houses of worship vulnerable to ICE raids burdens the religious practices of these groups, particularly because the entirely legitimate fear of ICE has led to a drop in attendance.
Somehow, the religious freedom organization didn’t really see that as a big deal and tried to handwave that away, saying that immigration authority rests with the Department of Homeland Security, which gets to do whatever it wants.
The administration even managed to get itself sued in February by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops over cutting off refugee resettlement aid, which is quite a feat since those bishops have generally enthusiastically tilted right.
Vice President JD Vance, who never fails to tout his tradcath views and ostensible commitment to religious freedom, said that the bishops were just in it for the money.
The Trump team only cares about religious freedom when it’s used to force a very narrow, very conservative version of Christianity on everyone else. Actual religious freedom—the right to freely practice your faith, whether that may be—is utterly foreign to this administration.
Or maybe the train that got to Assembly decided to perform the beginning of "A Visit from St. Nicholas," where not a creature was stirring, shortly after 10 a.m.
Good thing Santa doesn't ride the Red Line - or maybe it's on his naughty list for some reason, because at 9:46 a.m., the MBTA announced delays on the Red Line due to a lifeless train at Ashmont.
I get that there is a certain romantic appeal to manned space exploration, but if there are jobs perfectly suited for the AI robots we are supposedly building, they are whatever the fuck Altman imagines the space jobs are.
OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman says in 10 years’ time college graduates will be working ‘some completely new, exciting, super well-paid’ job in space
Their consistent vision of "the computers should do the fun creative jobs while humans should do dangerous drudgery" is very weird!
One of the pleasant surprises this year was AMD ending the AMDVLK driver development with AMD dropping their proprietary OpenGL and Vulkan driver components on Linux at long last for their Radeon Software for Linux packages. This was arguably long overdue with enthusiasts and Linux gamers long preferring the RadeonSI+RADV Mesa drivers and those drivers even doing very well in recent years for workstation graphics workloads. One of the areas where AMDVLK formerly delivered better performance than RADV was with Vulkan ray-tracing. But RADV ray-tracing improved a lot in 2025 as shown in recent benchmarks. So for this Christmas 2025 benchmarking is a final look at how RADV is going up against the now-defunct AMDVLK driver.
Daily Kos has always been more than a news site. From the beginning, it’s been a place where people show up not just to read, but to think together, argue, teach, learn, and yes—sometimes vent.
The community has shaped this site at every step, turning Daily Kos into a living, breathing conversation about politics, culture, and what it means to fight for a better country. Long before “user-generated content” became a buzzword, the Daily Kos community was already doing the work: writing diaries, digging into data, calling out bullshit, and connecting the dots in ways that mainstream media routinely missed.
What continues to amaze me, even after all these years, is the depth of insight and care that comes from this community. These aren’t hot takes tossed into the void (not always, anyway). They’re thoughtful, researched, often deeply personal pieces written by people who care about getting it right and helping others understand what’s really happening. I read these stories every day, and I still find myself learning something new, seeing an issue from a different angle, or feeling a little less alone in the fight.
This list is a small way to celebrate that work—to recognize the writers who make Daily Kos stronger, smarter, and more human, one story at a time.
This story is a somber, quietly unsettling meditation on a failed corn season in northern Ohio, using spare, observant imagery to convey a sense of loss, unease, and deep respect for the land and the people who depend on it.
A rare, deeply human look at how people actually leave MAGA—not through shaming or slogans, but through lived experience, moral reckoning, and the painful work of unlearning beliefs that once felt absolute.
Taken together, these stories are a reminder of why the Daily Kos community matters so much. They’re sharp when they need to be, funny when it helps, furious when it’s warranted, and human when that’s what the moment demands. They reflect curiosity, skepticism, compassion, and a refusal to accept easy answers or lazy narratives.
This is what happens when people are given the space to think out loud, share what they know, and learn from each other—and it’s why this community remains one of the smartest, most engaged, and most resilient places on the internet. If you want to understand where we are, where we’re headed, and why the fight still matters, you could do a lot worse than starting right here.
Christmasis a Christian holiday that observes the birth of Jesus. But did you know that the earliest followers of Jesus did not annually commemorate his birth? Or that Santa Claus is inspired by the acts of kindness of a fourth-century Christian saint? And have you heard about the modern-day Japanese tradition of eating Kentucky Fried Chicken on Christmas?
Since the early 20th century, Christmas has evolved from a religious holiday to a hugely popular cultural holiday observed by Christian and secular people across the globe who gather with families, exchange gifts and cards and decorateChristmas trees.
Here’s a look at the history, beliefs and the evolution of Christmas:
Origins and early history of Christmas
A Nativity scene is illuminated by a Christmas tree on Payrow Plaza in Bethlehem, Pa., known as "Christmas City, USA," in Dec. 2024.
Early followers of Jesus did not annually commemorate his birth but instead focused on commemorating their belief in his resurrection at Easter.
The story of the birth of Jesus appears only in two of the four Gospels of the New Testament: Matthew and Luke. They provide different details, though both say Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
The exact day, month and even year of Jesus’s birth are unknown, said Christine Shepardson, a professor at the University of Tennessee who studies early Christianity.
The tradition of celebrating Jesus’ birth on Dec. 25, she said, only emerged in the fourth century.
“It’s hard to overemphasize how important the fourth century is for constructing Christianity as we experience it in our world today,” Shepardson said. It was then, underEmperor Constantine, that Christians began the practice of gathering at churches instead of meeting at homes.
Some theories say the date coincides with existing pagan winter solstice festivals, including the Roman celebration of Sol Invictus, or the “Unconquered Sun,” on Dec 25.
While most Christians celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25, some Eastern Orthodox traditionscelebrate the holy day on Jan. 7. That’s because they follow the ancient Julian calendar, which runs 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar, used by Catholic and Protestant churches as well as by much of the secular world.
Rowdy medieval celebrations
Decked in a Santa outfit and holiday lights, a child bolts from the starting line of the annual Christmas run in Vilnius, Lithuania, on Dec. 6.
For centuries, especially during the Middle Ages, Christmas was associated with rowdy street celebrations of feasting and drinking, and for many Christians, it “was not in good standing as a holiday,” saidThomas Ruys Smith, a professor of American literature and culture at the University of East Anglia in England.
“Puritans,” he said, “were not fond of Christmas.”
But in the 19th century, he said, Christmas became “respectable” with “the domestic celebration that we understand today — one centered around the home, the family, children, gift-giving.”
The roots of modern-day Christmas can be traced back to Germany. In the late 19th century, there are accounts of Christmas trees and gift-giving that, according to Smith, later spread to Britain and America, helping to revitalize Christmas on both sides of the Atlantic.
Christmas became further popularized with the publication of“A Christmas Carol”by Charles Dickens in 1843, and the writings ofWashington Irving,who was a fan of St. Nicholas and helped popularize the celebration of Christmas in America.
The firstRockefeller Center Christmas treewas put up by workers in 1931 to raise spirits during the Great Depression. The tradition stuck as the first tree-lighting ceremony was held in 1933 and remains one of New York City’s most popular holiday attractions.
America’s secular Santa is inspired by a Christian saint
St. Nicholaswas a fourth-century Christian bishop from the Mediterranean port city of Myra (in modern-day Turkey). His acts of generosity inspired the secular Santa Claus legend.
The legends surrounding jolly old St. Nicholas — celebrated annually on Dec. 6 — go way beyond delivering candy and toys to children. He is believed to have interceded on behalf of wrongly condemned prisoners and miraculously saved sailors from storms.
Devotion to St. Nicholas spread during the Middle Ages across Europe and he became a favorite subject for medieval artists and liturgical plays. He is the patron saint of sailors and children, as well as of Greece, Russia and New York.
Devotion to St. Nicholas seems to have faded after the 16th century Protestant Reformation, except in the Netherlands, where his legend remained as Sinterklaas. In the 17th century, Dutch Protestants who settled in New York brought the Sinterklaas tradition with them.
Eventually, St. Nicholas morphed into the secular Santa Claus.
It’s not just Santa who delivers the gifts
The 90th annual Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting ceremony in New York in Nov. 2022.
In the U.K., it’s Father Christmas; in Greece and Cyprus, St. Basil (who arrives on New Year’s Eve). In some parts of Italy, it’s St. Lucy (earlier in December) and in other Italian regions, Befana, a witch-like figure, who brings presents on theEpiphanyon Jan. 6.
Instead of a friendly Santa Claus, children in Iceland enjoy favors from13 mischievous troll brothers, called the Yule Lads. They come down from their mountain cave 13 days before Christmas, according to folklore.
Christian traditions of Christmas
A woman walks across a bridge decorated prior to Christmas and New Year festivities in St. Petersburg, Russia on Dec. 11.
One of the oldest traditions around Christmas is bringing greenery — holly, ivy or evergreen trees — into homes. But determining whether it’s a Christian tradition is harder. “For many people, the evergreen can symbolize Christ’s promise of eternal life and his return from death,” Smith said. “So, you can interpret that evergreen tradition within the Christian concept.”
The decorating of evergreen trees is a German custom that began in the 16th century, said Maria Kennedy, a professor at Rutgers University—New Brunswick’sDepartment of American Studies. It was later popularized in England and America.
“Mistletoe, an evergreen shrub, was used in celebrations dating back to the ancient Druids — Celtic religious leaders — some 2,000 years ago,” Kennedy writes inThe Surprising History of Christmas Traditions.
“Mistletoe represented immortality because it continued to grow in the darkest time of the year and bore white berries when everything else had died.”
Other traditions include Christmas services andNativity scenes at homes and churches. More recently, Nativity scenes — when erected on public property in the U.S. — havetriggered legal battlesover the question of the separation of church and state.
Christmas caroling, Kennedy writes, can also be traced back to European traditions, where people would go from home to home during the darkest time of the year to renew relationships within their communities and give wishes for good luck, health and wealth for the forthcoming year.
“They would recite poetry, sing and sometimes perform a skit. The idea was that these acts would bring about good fortune to influence a future harvest,” Kennedy writes.
Kentucky Fried Chicken for Christmas in Japan
People visit the Christmas Market at Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse on Dec. 12 in Yokohama near Tokyo.
Among the many Christmas traditions that have been adopted and localized globally, there’s one that involves KFC.
In 1974, KFC launched a Christmas campaign where they began to sell fried chicken with a bottle of wine so it could be used for a Christmas party.
KFC saysthe idea for the campaign came from an employee who overheard a foreign customer at one of its Tokyo restaurants saying that since he couldn’t get turkey in Japan, he’d have to celebrate Christmas with Kentucky Fried Chicken.
“That really stuck,” Smith said. “And still today, you have to order your KFC months in advance to make sure that you’re going to get it at Christmas Day.”
Cambridge Police report officers responding to calls about a fight on Howard Street near River Street found two people shot around 3:20 a.m.
Preliminary investigation shows that the altercation took place at a gathering inside of a residence, this is an isolated incident and there is no broader threat to public safety.
One of the victims was shot in the leg. Both victims were taken to local hospitals and are expected to survive, police say.
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When it came to the most viewed AMD Linux/open-source news of 2025 there were a lot of accomplishments for the company this year both on the CPU and graphics side of the house and from consumer to server hardware. Today is a look back at the most popular Intel open-source/Linux news of the year, which unfortunately, their layoffs and other cuts to their software engineering were attracting a lot of interest...
Google's Propeller is a profile-guided, reflinking optimizer for large codebases. Propeller is built atop LLVM and can allow for whole-program optimizations. Google compiler engineers are now hoping to bring the Propeller tool into the upstream LLVM codebase...
The mainline Linux kernel already supports several different Mobileye SoCs for that company focused on self-driving tech and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). Consulting firm Bootlin has been working on bringing their latest SoC, the Mobileye Eyeq6Lplus, to the mainline Linux kernel...
The past several years we have seen new releases of the Ruby programming language implementation for Christmas (25 December). This year is no different with Ruby 4.0 having been released this morning...
The thing about the Winter Solstice is that if you're in the northern hemisphere, it doesn't much matter what you believe because a solstice just is, no matter how you were raised, and that means that in December the days are short, the nights are long, and the weather is chilly no matter how you were raised. Why wouldn't you want to see pretty lights and spend time with friends, possibly drinking eggnog or mulled wine? It's kind of nice that from a week or so before Thanksgiving until right up to Twelfthnight, you have an excuse to wish people happy holidays and even smile at strangers. (I've always thought the southern hemisphere should make their own holidays to go with their winter solistice, too.) It's fun. It's friendly. And Bill O'Reilly was always a meanie for trying to spoil it. I've always maintained that he, and people like him, were the ones who were making war on Christmas, so f'm. I wish you warmth and light and fellowship.
In case the holidays leave you short of things to read, a few reminders:
When I want the details, The American Prospect is good at clarifying things. If it's important, it will surely be there somewhere.
Or Radley Balko at The Watch, especially on the subject of off-the-leash policing. (Link fixed.)
The folks at Drop Site News have been doing some amazing coverage of big stories, especially that huge one it's so dangerous to talk about.
When I just want the headlines and a basic story without too much deep-diving, I find Common Dreams a comfortable read, reasonably sane, sort of like I used to think The Washington Post was before I realized it wasn't at all like that. (And that was well before Bezos bought it.)
I was watching an old Tom Baker episode of Doctor Who and noticed the planet they landed on was called "Atrios". Fancy that.
There’s never been a president—or a presidential family—so hyped to slap their name on products. It’s just our luck that besides being the most monstrous president of our lifetime, President Donald Trump is also the tackiest, so all of this stuff is hot, wet garbage.
There is also so, so much of it at so, so many different places, that we’re going to have to break this down by store.
Prepare to feel very un-merry.
Official Trump Store
The official Trump store is supposed to be for the nonpresidential things in Trump’s “brand,” but you will be unsurprised to learn that there is still a ton of Dear Leader merch. Also, in case you were wondering, the tagline for the site is: “Infuse the elegance of Trump in your next event,” which actually makes it sound like Trump, the person, could somehow be distilled and pumped into your holiday party—a genuinely horrifying thought.
Or perhaps imagine walking into your family holiday and seeing your little cousin snuggled under this? Such a bargain at $200!
Imagine snuggling up under this blanket.
Or maybe a little something for the ladies? A lovely little handbag, clocking in at $550 a pop: It’s theBling Clutch, studded with Swarovski crystals.
This clutch probably isn’t big enough to stuff cash bribes in.
Have you been thinking, “Hey, I wonder what it would look like if my sleep paralysis demon assumed physical form?” If so, we bring you the $65DJT Driver Cover, which goes on your golf clubs, apparently? Keep your bag out in the garage so this thing can’t attack you in your sleep.
You can’t make this stuff up.
The Trumps have no qualms about cross-promotion, which is why you can get anUnder Siege Hat, so you can sport the title of Eric Trump’s latest book on your cranium for a mere $50. One small problem: People will definitely start edging away from anyone wearing a hat like this at the holiday party.
The poor, aggrieved Trump family is always under siege, apparently.
Trump Winery
Eric Trump must be in charge of the family’s terrible wines these days, because there really isn’t any other reason that his “Under Siege” book is available over in the merchandise section there. Nothing says “fine wines” like a book from one of Trump’s large adult sons whining about how hard he has it.
But perhaps if you want something actually wine-related, you’d pick up thisPresidential Reserve + 2 Complimentary Flutes for $245.47. A small price to pay for whatever fake-ass seal got slapped on these glasses, right?
The price for this is $245.47. Get it? 45 and 47? Sigh.
If that’s too rich for your blood, you can drop $30 on aT-shirt emblazoned with a U.S. flag made out of wine bottles. Honestly, this is pretty low-key for the Trump family.
A restrained offering from the Trump family.
God Bless The USA Bible
Get excited about the “buy more, save more” deal on Trump Bibles that is happening right now! There are … nine different versions? You probably want to spring for the$99.99 version that commemorates both of Trump’s presidential terms, because that is definitely a thing that is appropriate for the family Bible.
Much biblical. Very gold.
Trump Guitars
Is Donald Trump known for his love of guitars somehow? Who, exactly, is the market for these? Sure, you might want to keep it relatively normal and get aplain old black guitarwhile still lining the pockets of the president, but why would you do that when you could get theAmerican Eagle Electric Guitar? The version autographed by Trump will set you back a mere $11,500 and immediately become the ugliest thing in your house.
Do you hear that screeching sound of freedom?
Trump Sneakers
The Trump Sneakerssite sells sneakers and slides, but it is also, inexplicably, where you can buy Trump fragrances. The showstopper here, sure to please the sneakerhead in your life, is theTrump 2028 Gold High Tops, which will run you $799, unless you want a pair for yourself as well, in which case you can get two pairs for $999. Bargain!
A grim confirmation that the Trumps plan to keep the grift going into 2028.
If you want something a little softer for the lady in your life and the lady in your life happens to love sneakers that look vaguely orthopedic, first lady Melania’s got herown sneaksas well, for a mere $299.
Proof that Melania Trump really is the most fashionable first lady in history.
Melania Trump
Melania’ssite is doing heavy promotion for her movie and book, as if she’s some sort of auteur, but it isn’t like she was going to skip out on selling some tacky shit just like the rest of the fam. $600 gets you thisVote Freedom pendant that looks like something you’d get out of a gum machine at a fourth-rate patriotic theme park. It’ll look great with the sneakers.
For anyone who’s always wanted the look of currency around their neck.
Don Jr.
Oh no. Someone forgot to tell Don Jr. that his daddy loves Big Tech now, so he’s still awkwardly hawking this$29.99 tee-shirtover on his honestly kinda sadwebsite where he’s still also trying to hawk his book about “turning the tables” on Joe Biden. Buddy, your dad is president. You’re incredibly rich. You and your ilk run everything and own everything. Let it go. Oh, but also you might want to get rid of this shirt before dad sees it.
Share your worst gift ideas in the comments below, and Merry Christmas to all—except the Trumps.
On Tuesday, McIver joined Democratic Reps. Rob Menendez and Yvette Clarke for another tour of Delaney Hall, the privately run Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Newark that has become a flashpoint in the national debate over immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump.
The visit came days after ICEconfirmed that Jean Wilson Brutus, a 41-year-old man from Haiti, died one day after being detained there, believed to be the first death linked to the center,according to The New York Times.
Supporters of Rep. LaMonica Mclver hold signs outside a federal court on June 25 in Newark, New Jersey.
For McIver, the return carried real personal risk. The last time she tried to conduct oversight at Delaney Hall, it spiraled into a spectacle. During a May visit, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested before prosecutorsultimately dropped the charges. McIver was accused of “forcibly impeding and interfering” with law enforcement officers, chargesshe has denied while calling the case an act of “political intimidation” by the Trump administration.The matter is still unresolved.
This week’s return unfolded very differently. According to the Times, lawmakers spent more than three hours inside Delaney Hall and emerged describing what they said were grim conditions.
“There is not adequate food,” McIver said at a news conference afterward. “There is not adequate medical care. Women are not having access to OB-GYN or female products.”
According to Politico, McIveralso told reporters she believes she was the one assaulted during the earlier incident and reiterated her call for Delaney Hall to be shut down. She described returning to the facility as “traumatic,” but said she intends to keep showing up.
“We’re going to continue to say that this facility should not be open,” she said. “When we left out of there, a detainee told us, ‘This is not the America that we dreamed of.’”
Delaney Halloccupies a prominent place in President Donald Trump’s second-term immigration strategy. It was the first detention center opened under his new administration and is run by GEO Group, which holds a $1 billion federal contract to detain up to 1,000 people at the site.
More than 950 detaineesare currently being held there, according to Menendez, who said the facility is nearing capacity without sufficient staffing. He described what detainees told lawmakers during the visit in stark terms, including one person who referred to the center as a “slaughterhouse.”
Menendez said detainees told him they weren’t getting proper medical care and that food remained a persistent problem—complaints he noted have been coming up for months. Earlier this year, those concerns escalated afterunrest at the facility led tofour detainees escaping, raising fresh doubts about how safely the center is being run and who’s actually in charge.
The visit also comes as immigration enforcement has ramped up nationwide. NPRreported that more than 1.6 million immigrants have lost legal status in the first 11 months of Trump’s second term, including people previously authorized to remain in the country under asylum, parole, visa, and temporary protected status programs.
Datatracked by NBC News using ICE and Customs and Border Protection figures shows that nearly 60,000 migrants were in ICE detention as of Sept. 25. While Trump administration officialssay they are prioritizing arrests of people with serious criminal histories, NBC found that only 28.7% of detainees identified in custody had criminal convictions.
Lawmakers said many of the people held at Delaney Hall do not have criminal records and were arrested while attending court hearings or legal appointments related to their immigration cases. Others are in the country legally on student visas. One detainee, they said, is married to a U.S. military service member.
Federal officials dispute claims of neglect. In a statement to Politico, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said allegations that the facility is understaffed are “false,” adding that detainees receive health screenings within 12 hours of arrival, follow-up care, and access to emergency services.
“This is the best healthcare that many aliens have received in their entire lives,” McLaughlin said.
ICE has said Brutus, the immigrant from Haiti, died from “suspected natural causes” and that an investigation is ongoing. Menendez said lawmakers pressed officials for answers during Tuesday’s visit.
“It should enrage every American that we’ve allowed this administration to take advantage of a broken immigration system—and that’s what they are doing, for profit,” he said.
Incoming New Jersey Gov.Mikie Sherrill echoed Democratic criticism of the facility, saying she has “long opposed—and continue[s] to oppose—the use of Delaney Hall and similar for-profit detention centers because they do not make us safer.”
Despite the legal case still hanging over her, McIver said she plans to continue oversight visits until Delaney Hall is shuttered. In a political climate where immigration enforcement has become both a policy weapon and a profit center, she appears intent on making the facility—and the system behind it—impossible to ignore.
WBZ reports some people in Haverhill are being overwhelmed by the overpowering smell of donuts from a Dunkin' bakery. "My house smells like donuts all the time, all the time for the last two months," one resident, sick of it all, told the City Council recently.
The Trump administration will officially begin garnishing wages from people who default on their student loans, the Department of Education announced on Tuesday—a move that could impact millions of Americans.
According to a report from CNN, the Department of Education will direct employers in January to begin withholding employees' income if they have not made payments on their federal student loans for 270 days. The garnishment will begin with 1,000 borrowers in default, and will gradually increase, the Department of Education told CNN in a statement.
The DOE first announced in April that it planned to resume student loan collection, ending the pause that was started in March 2020 during the pandemic and extended by former President Joe Biden.
That means the Trump administration, ahead of the holidays, just told as many as 9 million people—who are already struggling with the high cost of living that Trump has failed to address—that their lives are about to get even harder.
This is just the latest way the Trump administration is screwing over student loan borrowers.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced it is ending the Saving on a Valuable Education program, which lowered student loan payments and ultimately forgave loans of less than $12,000 after a decade. In November, Trump also modified the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program to arbitrarily decide who is no longer eligible for loan forgiveness.
Of course, Biden had worked to bring relief to the millions of student loan borrowers, but was blocked by the conservative justices on the Supreme Court from doing so.
During the 2024 election, then Vice President Kamala Harris had warned voters that student loan debt relief initiatives would be in danger if Trump was elected. But millions of young voters ignored the warning and voted for Trump anyway.
Now that he’s in office, Harris’ warnings are coming true.
It's no wonder that Trump's approval with younger voters is plummeting. An Economist/YouGov poll released Tuesday found just 26% of Americans aged 18 to 29 approve of the way Trump is handling his job. Among Americans aged 30 to 44, his approval is not much better at a dismal 36%.
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princessofgeeks - Heated Rivalry recs
