Links 8/12/2025

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42 comments

1. Colonel Smithers August 12, 2025 at 7:11 am

   Thank you, Yves.

   Further to the Politico article about unrest at EU HQ over the EU’s stance on Palestine, the discontent is also about the presence of an Israeli diplomatic mission, including a military attaché, at the Berlaymont, EU HQ. Yes. That’s right. Israel has an office in the EU HQ. The Zionist owned Politico failed to mention that.

   Season’s greetings. The grouse shooting season starts today.

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   1. The Rev Kev August 12, 2025 at 7:22 am

      Thank you, Colonel. Maybe Israel wants to get into NATO and having a military attaché there is their foot in the door. That way if the Palestinians attack them, they can call an Article 5 and have all those NATO troops fighting for them. :)

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   2. Neutrino August 12, 2025 at 8:49 am

      Enjoy a glass of Famous Grouse after the hunt!

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   3. JohnA August 12, 2025 at 8:51 am

      Happy Glorious 12th Colonel, I don’t personnally go shooting but I do like eating game. I guess it is too hot at the moment to spend the day outside in thick tweeds?

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2. The Rev Kev August 12, 2025 at 7:18 am

   ‘New York Post
   @nypost
   Aug 8
   A foreign investor has quietly spent $65M for Malibu real estate charred by January’s wildfires trib.al/DB7UTHh’

   (hat tip Alex Christoforou) ‘Ehh, Podaliak, I buy myself many beautiful blocks in Malibu. When I move there, I build magnificent mansion.’

   ‘Yes, Mr. President.’

   ‘Better start packing money bags now. Is only right to bring that money back to America.’

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   1. griffen August 12, 2025 at 9:21 am

      I like to think of such internal dialogue amongst a highly suspicious crew of individuals in government in a known hotbed of corruption and white collar thievery…I will quantify that I do not mean DC (!). Okay, not in this instance.

      Leave it to the Babylon Bee with this classic zinger from late 2024. ( sarc ). I think towns and families continue to struggle in western NC some 11 ish months after the catastrophic hurricane.

      https://babylonbee.com/news/north-carolina-asks-zelensky-for-100-billion-in-us-funding

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3. OIFVet August 12, 2025 at 7:41 am

   File under European Disunion: Germans’ assessment of Merz’s first 100 days is exceedingly damning. 59% disapprove and only 30% approve of Merz, in part due to him being seen as a ‘foreign affairs chancellor’ and unfocused/ineffective on addressing the deepening economic and social problems. “Foreign affairs” being polite euphemism for Merz’s preoccupation with Ukraine.

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   1. The Rev Kev August 12, 2025 at 7:49 am

      Sooo, what you are saying is that Germany’s Merz and the UK’s Starmer are brothers from different mothers? Both are totally obsessed with the Ukraine and they don’t really care what is happening in their own countries. Luckily for Trump he doesn’t have that problem. Not since he put Lindsay Graham in charge of America’s foreign affairs.

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4. ex-PFC Chuck August 12, 2025 at 8:08 am

   Working link for “Mexico’s $4 billion gamble: The Interoceanic Corridor reshaping global trade:”
   https://interestingengineering.com/culture/mexico-billion-gamble-interoceanic-corridor

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5. mrsyk August 12, 2025 at 8:09 am

   “Final Plan” sure sounds like “final solution”.
   Musical Interlude, Waiting for the Worms, Pink Floyd

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   1. Wukchumni August 12, 2025 at 9:18 am

      It’s a world of slaughter
      A world of tears
      It’s a world of dashed hopes
      And a world of fears
      There’s so much that we’d rather not share
      That it’s time we’re aware
      It’s a small country after all

      It’s a small country after all
      It’s a small country after all
      It’s a small country after all
      It’s a small, small country

      There is just one chosen people who loom
      They need more living room
      And a bulldozer means
      Foreclosure to everyone
      Through the Zionist divide
      And to think we could live by the tide
      Instead of side by side
      It’s a small country after all

      It’s a small country after all
      It’s a small country after all
      It’s a small country after all
      It’s a small, small country

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   2. The Rev Kev August 12, 2025 at 9:57 am

      My understanding is that when the Israelis push the Palestinians into that new zone, that they stand ready to provide clean showers to them for free.

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6. The Rev Kev August 12, 2025 at 8:13 am

   “Trump Rages at Nobel-Winning ‘Deranged Bum’ in Late-Night Meltdown”

   Trump seems to have really thin skin and pays far too much attention to what different people say about him. Frankly, it’s not “Presidential” behaviour and only serves to make him look bad. But here is the thing. Trump is going off on these people because they criticism his policy ideas and he don’t like that. But if we stop to think about it, a year ago Biden and his team were saying how the American economy was going great when any American going into a supermarket could see the lie there and many people here on NC were noting the same. So what happens when the wheels fall off the Trump economy because of all the things that he is doing such as all these tariffs. No doubt the government departments will get in line to agree with Trump that the economy is booming but when the discontent gets really loud because of worsening conditions, how will he react to all that? I’m not sure that he will be able to handle it. Will it make him try to crack down on free speech to stop the criticism for example?

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   1. JohnA August 12, 2025 at 8:53 am

      The Norwegian Nobel Committee was so burned by awarding the prize to Obama, I very much doubt they would dare to give it to Donald. But who knows, the Swedes gave the literature prize to Dylan.

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7. Stephen V August 12, 2025 at 8:16 am

   Maybe this will help reverse the current auto crappification trend. Made in USA:
   https://www.slate.auto/en

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   1. The Rev Kev August 12, 2025 at 8:59 am

      Many Americans are finding that they may have to settle for more basic cars because of costs-

      https://flintstones.fandom.com/wiki/Cavemobiles

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8. AG August 12, 2025 at 8:22 am

   re: Ukraine Civil War

   NEUTRALITY STUDIES YT CHANNEL

   I found this very good.

   Conversation with former OSCE observer Benoît Paré who was there 2015-2022.
   He has a lot to tell…

   78 min.
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCG8Xpm3APw

   Paré has a book on his experience where all this is written down in detail.
   It sounds as if it should be mandatory reading

   “What I Saw in Ukraine: 2015-2022 – Diary of an International Observer”
   https://www.amazon.com/what-saw-ukraine-2015-2022-international/dp/295986011x

   He is writing another one among other things on Bucha.
   I would love to see all this explode into media´s face.

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9. DJG, Reality Czar August 12, 2025 at 8:27 am

   Larry Johnson, Expectations for 15 August Summit.

   Important observation: “Putin has the advantage in this meeting. The Russian military’s offensive against Ukraine is accelerating and Ukraine is unable to slow it down; Russia’s economy is under control, with inflation projected to fall to 12% by years end; … and Putin continues to enjoy enormous public support in Russia.”

   First, let’s not personalize this. The Russians control the battlefield. The Russians have annexed four oblasts and Crimea, which are not going back to the tender mercies of the beyond-corrupt Ukraine central government. Funny how people don’t trust a government that was letting rightwing militias run torture chambers… Meanwhile, in the US of A, the feds are endearing themselves to the populace with ICE and DOGE.

   So this isn’t about whether Trump and Putin raid the minibars at the resort, engage in “bromance” (we should be so lucky), and shake hands often. Armies, geographies, and spacetime are in play here.

   Meanwhile, the EU has no standing. Protests about territorial integrity don’t go far — and the EU bears some guilt in the breakup of Yugoslavia, the breakup of Libya, tacit support for illegal settlements in the West Bank, and the continuing mess that is Syria. Starmer, Macron, and Merz are the Three Stooges, but without the many redeeming qualities of the originals. Ahh, Larry Fine… now there was a diplomat.

   According, supposedly, to the disastrous English politician Winston Church, jaw jaw is better than war war.

   I am eagerly awaiting all of the comments from liberals in a lather: But, but, Give War a Chance.

   Topped off by some late-stage Demo Party buncombe from former President Obama and Future President Pete Buttigieg.

   Pass the vitello tonnato.

   PS: Italians keep noting that the Alaska Tryst falls on the major double holiday of summer here — Ferragosto and the Assumption of Mary Mother of God. Hmm. Prophecy? Probably not. Christo-fanato-zionists don’t care much for Mother of God talk, let alone Saint Joseph, Father of God, talk. Which is pretty much what Italian religion is based on.

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   1. ilsm August 12, 2025 at 8:59 am

      Trump feared to give away land inside of Stalin’s administrative borders now held sacred by the US and associated warring factions.

      Reuters headline: Kiev “should be free to take back the land….”

      Kiev’s freedom is nothing, has been nothing, without all the weapons gifted by the US and associate war mongers.

      Trump needs to be free of Kiev to go out and separate Taiwan from China…….

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      1. mrsyk August 12, 2025 at 9:42 am

         …..or maybe separate Mexico from its natural resources.
         Great rant DJG. I often use the phrase “give war a chance” when engaging with the true believers.

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      2. The Rev Kev August 12, 2025 at 9:47 am

         Zelensky has stated that he is ready to give up claims on territory that the Russians occupy – in exchange for weapons deliveries from the West and a clear path to NATO membership. Needless to say ‘The report also claims that the EU had decided to support Ukraine’s vision for peace in an effort to boost its diplomatic position in dealing with both Trump and Russia.’

         https://www.rt.com/russia/622783-zelensky-softens-stance-land-concessions/

         And of course this will guarantee that the war will start up again in two or three years time but that is kinda the point.

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10. Polar Socialist August 12, 2025 at 8:31 am

    Russian Kommersant newspaper says the the new Syrian regime has asked Russians to take over patrolling the southern parts of Syria, currently occupied by Israel. Russian have already resumed patrolling in areas of Kurdistan. So basically areas that are not under control of the jihadists new democracy.

    The speculation is that this is attempt to use Russians to convince IDF to withdraw from recently occupied areas. Israel did vouch for Russian military bases to remain in Syria as a counter force to Turkey, and as they need the troops for the ongoing genocide, it’s possible they’ll come an agreement with the Russians.

    In principle, already during Assad’s regime, the Russian patrols along the Lebanese border were supposed to stop the supplies to Hezbollah from Iran, but as Russians said already then that it’s really hard to tell the pro-Iranian smugglers from regular ones (so the patrols achieved very little in this regard).

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11. Adam1 August 12, 2025 at 8:56 am

    – Biochar from human waste

    Now this is something we should be investing in. The world is running out of mineable phosphorus and you can’t farm anything without phosphorus as all living life needs it. The use of human and animal excrement as fertilizer has been around for millennia, however modern human waste is often not much more than a hazardous waste pile because of all the stuff that goes along with it including forever chemicals. If turning it into biochar also reduces its hazardous waste load then it might be an important solution for multiple problems.

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    1. Charger01 August 12, 2025 at 9:42 am

       The concentration of unpleasant chemicals, micro plastics and heavy metals will likely scotch any beneficial reuse of biochar from human waste. Only increased costs for municipal waste water plants as they find landfill or incinerator as the only option for the final end use. Biochar from wood waste is much more viable, syngas or steam as a primary electrical generation source would likely be an optimal use.

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       1. amfortas August 12, 2025 at 10:20 am

          cousin has buddies who are in the human waste bidness(MUD’s around Houston…lucrative privatisation that began decades ago)…and they use a great big digester to cook the effluent, then sell it to cities and golf courses for non-food plants(like the flowers in the median of the boulevard) he has spoken about quality control….but idk if they even look for the heavy metals, pharmaceutical traces, etc. i dont think microplastics are even on their radar.

          we talk about such poop related things a lot,lol…because of my composting toilets vs his buddy’s subdivision sized plants…
          mine all go to the pastures…and, now that i dont have a chemo patient contributing, to places where i hope to expand the gardens in a few years time.
          when i was searching for an alternative to an ordinary septic system(not enough room on my side of place=$8k for variances and extra system)…i toyed with a methane digester, but didnt trust my gashandling skillset…also toyed with a charcoal retort, similar to what these folks are talking about…but the barrel based dry composting system ended up being the simplest…as well as cheapest(county rules didnt contemplate it, so it went to state rules, which i am in compliance with-no permit required). the retort i ended up building is for all the brush and woody weeds i generate every year=> charcoal/tierra prieta for the beds, to mitigate the persistent herbicides)

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    2. Plutoniumkun August 12, 2025 at 10:10 am

       The article (and the linked paper) are very vague about what they are proposing – it seems all theoretical (in other words, the authors aren’t really sure if it can be done economically).

       Biochar is basically charcoal, but to produce it from anything other than wood you need to use pyrolysis, which is basically burning it under pressure in the absence of oxygen. This usually produces a dry charcoal like byproduct (or sometimes a black goo) as well as methane, which can be used as a fuel. The quality of the outputs depends on many variables, and so far as I’m aware, most of the products on the market have struggled to produce good quality biochar from mixed inputs (i.e. something more than clean wood).

       Theoretically, the heat and pressure from pyrolysis could break down and destroy many of the microcontaminants that plague the use of human and animal sewage as fertiliser – the problem may be that it produces other problematic by-products. Whether this matters or not depends on other factors, such as how its introduced to soil (just randomly ploughed in? used to create a subsoil level?) and the biochemical properties of the soil itself. In other words, its complicated.

       It is the sort of medium tech solution we desperately need, and we need fast. Unfortunately, as there isn’t a lot of profit potentially in it, and for whatever reason its largely been overlooked by government funding agencies, it will take a lot of research to know if it is practical without causing some form of unexpected problem.

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12. The Rev Kev August 12, 2025 at 8:57 am

    “Is the Royal Navy at breaking point or a turning point?”

    Definitely a breaking point as the same incompetents are still running things. So if the Royal Navy ever came knocking on my door for an idea, I have one – cancel the nuclear Trident program. Give it the axe. That program costs tens of billions of pounds and only serves to make the UK a nuclear target. So you chop that program and use the money to raise wages to keep sailors in the Navy while you build the ships vitally needed so that once more you have more combat ships than admirals, unlike the present situation. There is only one problem with that idea. If it ever happened, Starmer would immediately grab all that money saved so that he could send it to the Ukraine.

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13. Wukchumni August 12, 2025 at 8:58 am

    Driving that interest rate train high on debt pain
    Jay you better watch your speed
    Trouble ahead, trouble behind
    And you know that notion just crossed my mind

    This old hegemony is marking time
    Leaves of grass notwithstanding
    The march of Dimes
    Hits inflation and mortgages too
    At the supermarkets when
    You know it’s goin’ up again

    Driving that interest rate train high on debt pain
    Jay you better watch your speed
    Trouble ahead, trouble behind
    And you know that notion just crossed my mind

    Trouble ahead; a country $37 trillion in red
    Take my advice, you’d be better writing off the debt
    Switchman sleeping
    SWIFT train is on the wrong track
    And hubris is headed for you

    Driving that interest rate train high on debt pain
    Jay you better watch your speed
    Trouble ahead, trouble behind
    And you know that notion just crossed my mind

    Trouble with you is the trouble with me
    Got two good eyes but we still don’t see
    Come round the bend, you know it’s our hegemony end
    The proletariat screams, and the edifice just gleams

    Driving that interest rate train high on debt pain
    Jay you better watch your speed
    Trouble ahead, trouble behind
    And you know that notion just crossed my mind

    Casey Jones, by the Grateful Dead

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x2m6i4KFqg&list=RD_x2m6i4KFqg

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14. Jason Boxman August 12, 2025 at 9:00 am

    The tariffs have landed

    CPI report reveals inflation held steady in July as tariffs threatened wider impact

    Inflation held steady in July as President Donald Trump’s sweeping import tariffs took a widening toll on U.S. consumer prices.

    An underlying inflation measure accelerated more than expected.

    Prices overall increased 2.7% from a year earlier, similar to June, according to the Labor Department’s consumer price index, a measure of average changes in goods and services costs.

    On a monthly basis, costs increased 0.2% after rising 0.3% the previous month.

    …

    By year’s end, Barclays expects overall inflation to reach 3.4% while the core reading hits 3.7%.

    It was always gonna take time for this to seep into prices, and we don’t seem to be entirely there yet. But eventually producers are going to run out of stockpile and runway to avoid price increases, and then we’re off to the races.

    The Market is happy, though, futures are ripping higher pre-market.

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    1. griffen August 12, 2025 at 10:21 am

       I’m still and likewise expecting a sustained level of inflation no matter the tariff delays but also those tariffs going into goods and services during these summer months. I’m still awaiting this unicorn level of prices on an average gallon of simple 87 octane, by example. Locally I see the range staying about $2.75 to $2.99 with some occasional pricing below $2.75.

       Dear Leader has already taken to the megaphone this morning , to advertise once again that Chair Powell is “too late baby it’s too late”…\sarc…The Federal Reserve does not have as part of it’s dual mandate to obsess on the government interest expenses of carrying this level of the US deficits. Seems like people in Congress own some responsibility for that, and instead they broadly project a sheer inability to do math.

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15. eric bowman August 12, 2025 at 9:03 am

    We(US) bought Alaska from Russia…….Trump has a Real Estate deal in mind?

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    1. Wukchumni August 12, 2025 at 9:08 am

       John Sutter bought Fort Ross from the Russians in 1841 and then apparently stiffed the proto-commies on the payment, possibilities loom…

       The Russian-American Company consequently offered the settlement to various potential purchasers, and in 1841 it was sold to John Sutter, a Mexican citizen of Swiss origin, soon to be renowned for the discovery of gold at his lumber mill in the Sacramento valley. Although the settlement was sold for $30,000 to Sutter, some Russian historians assert the sum was never paid; therefore legal title of the settlement was never transferred to Sutter and the area still belongs to the Russian people.

       https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Ross,_California

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    2. The Rev Kev August 12, 2025 at 9:09 am

       He might have thought about asking Russia if they would like to sell him the Kamchatka Peninsula. But after those earthquakes and volcano going off there, thought better of it and dropped the whole idea.

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16. Carolinian August 12, 2025 at 9:26 am

    Re BBC on “bad is good” movies. I’ll pass. Some of us would argue that Wes Anderson has made an entire career out of the smarty pants version of this (latest The Phoenician Scheme). The arch gets old.

    However here’s arguing that almost any Nicholas Cage movie–and he’s made so very many–would be worth a look. Talent transcends all.

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17. The Rev Kev August 12, 2025 at 9:30 am

    “So bad they’re good – why do we love terrible films?”

    I heard a bit about that new film “War of the Worlds”‘ mentioned but had not gotten into checking it out. Jee-zuz. Here is a review by YouTube video critic Dav Cullen and he rips them a new one-

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ4Xk64r-Bk (8:08 mins)

    Yeah, we all like to laugh at films that are so bad that in some sort of way, they actually become good. This film is not one of them.

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    1. wol August 12, 2025 at 10:00 am

       Antidote: The Great Martian War (3:33) https://vimeo.com/107454954

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18. Wukchumni August 12, 2025 at 9:36 am

    Gooooooooood Moooooorning Fiatnam!

    Everybody in the platoon was on pins and needles in anticipation of patrolling a metropolis near you…

    Many had anticipated what we dealt to other countries coming back to haunt us, and it was go time.

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19. griffen August 12, 2025 at 9:48 am

    Article above on the scarcity of employment roles for new and recent computer science, programming and data science undergrads. Those heady headlines from 10 to 15 years ago have all changed, I believe in the past 4 to 6 years. And to me it also seems like the good economic days of 2019 into early 2020 are a very distant memory. Low unemployment combined with fairly tame rates of inflation on most goods and services.

    Back to the “youts” for a second. It’s 30 years hence from May of 1995 I graduated with a basic undergrad in computer science, primarily that was in mainframe languages which by then the transition to client server was firmly underway. I didn’t cut it as a programmer and instead pivoted to finance and investment finance, which aligned better to my skills and my accounting minor. My humble opinion you need a plan B at some point in life. Added, I could’ve somehow used my mediocre Cobol coding skills again but that was far much later in life.

    Technology and IT have always been a fast moving industry. These CEO clowns and presidential candidates should never have promised a bottomless bucket of pay and stock options but instead point out rightly this country needs more STEM college grads. Which might also mean spending a few initial years filing dull TPS reports but that may fly in the face of what you’ve been told. Best of luck on searching to this younger generation.

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20. Mikel August 12, 2025 at 10:06 am

    “I did the research: there are very few examples – if any – in Europe’s millennia-old history of a military defeat against an external power where it wasn’t even at the table to negotiate the conditions for its future.

    You’d probably need to go all the way back to the fall of Constantinople in 1453 to find Europeans having zero say in their own fate…”@Arnaud Bertrand

    Sorry, but that is all on the Europe.
    Since it would probably have to be an EU thing, Russia and EU can have agreements together.
    Pick up the phone today and negotiate your future…
    And make it an EU thing because this is where Brexit works as a huge favor.
    UK maybe will need to soul search and work out their objections.

    I’m 100% that Europe could secure its future – right now – no matter what the USA does. It’s just may cost more financially to do it.

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    1. Mikel August 12, 2025 at 10:25 am

       To continue (had to switch devices):
       If it’s not going to happen, it’s for the same reason it’s always so difficult to end wars, proxy conflicts, etc: people not wanting to give up making some money from the mess and a good deal of other grifting. Add to this: political reasons such as using conflict to consolidate power.

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21. Carolinian August 12, 2025 at 10:12 am

    Re The Brainrot of a Nazified Society–this article is laying it on the line and its hard to argue with its contention that Nazi attitudes are still around and perhaps part of all of us in the right circumstances. Therefore the essential premise of colonialism–that one group or race of people is superior and needed to civilize other groups of people–is scientifically bogus if philosophically useful. Recall that even those big thinkers back in ancient Greece thought of foreigners as “barbarians.” Nothing new under the sun.

    Perhaps our choice then, during this shaky time, is whether we are going to be smart or tribal. For the Israelis and the Trumpies who share their brainrot it’s tribal all the way. Just don’t pretend it’s smart or “most moral.” The excuses merely insult those who choose differently.

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22. The Rev Kev August 12, 2025 at 10:20 am

    “Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth promotes repealing women’s right to vote”

    ‘Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who oversees about 3 million military service members and civilian employees, reposted a video last week advocating repealing the 19th Amendment, which guarantees women the right to vote.’

    Boy, Trump can sure pick them. Thinking of an article in yesterday’s Link, Hegseth is the sort of guy who would throw a dildo on a basketball court with women players. Well if women can’t be entrusted with the ballot, then for sure they cannot be trusted in the military either. Let’s look at some numbers-

    ‘In 2021, women made up 17.3% of the active-duty force, totaling 231,741 members; and 21.4% of the National Guard and reserves at 171,000 members.’

    Anybody think that Hegseth can find about 230,000 men to replace all those women without resorting to the draft? Where does Trump find all these clowns for his appointees. Oh, that’s right. Fox News-

    https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3246268/department-of-defense-releases-annual-demographics-report-upward-trend-in-numbe/

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