Links 8/23/2025

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49 comments

1. The Rev Kev August 23, 2025 at 7:14 am

   “New images show a front-line NATO ally’s plan to blunt a Russian invasion at the border”

   If anything, Russia is saving the effort in fortifying their border as Lithuania is doing it for them. And at the same time Lithuania is raiding their diminishing budget to pay for all this and not Russia but there is still the problem of troop numbers. I heard today that the Lithuanian military is volunteering to send in troops to the Ukraine the minute that there is a ceasefire because that is what all the European countries agreed with each other to do. So how many troops will Lithuania send into the Ukraine. About a company of soldiers. That’s kinda sad.

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2. AG August 23, 2025 at 7:20 am

   re: Nordstream arrest

   German public and media reaction to this fake is most likely the most embarrassing story and worst act of cowardice, stupidity and dishonesty that I have ever encountered in this country.

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3. Trees&Trunks August 23, 2025 at 7:28 am

   The Armenian power-pedo-ring explains the way Armenia is destroyed by Pashinyan and nobody just shoots him. Now we are waiting for the results of the EU-power-pedo-ring explaining why they sell out Europe.

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4. .Tom August 23, 2025 at 7:33 am

   > “Trump ‘very angry’ at Ukraine hitting Russian pipeline feeding Orbán”

   Anyone can see that Orbán isn’t as slim as he used to be but this is a bit extreme. Hungary is a fertile country quite capable of producing enough to fatten up Viktor. A Russian feeding pipeline indeed!

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5. Wukchumni August 23, 2025 at 7:48 am

   Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus, in the guise of Ghislaine
   Trump and all his reindeer pulling on the reins
   The internet is ringing, hard right signaling, all is merry and bright
   So Ghislaine wear those fishnet stockings and say your prayers, ’cause Santa Claus comes tonight

   Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus, in the guise of Ghislaine
   She’s got a story about no malfeasance with young girls again
   Hear those lie detector bells jingle jangle, oh what a pitiful sight
   So jump in bed with her story, ’cause Santa Claus comes tonight

   Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus in the guise of Ghislaine
   She’ll come around when chimes ring out that it’s Christmastime in August again
   Peace on earth will come to all if we just follow the light
   So let’s give thanks to Saint Jeffrey above, ’cause Santa Claus comes tonight

   Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus, in the guise of Ghislaine
   Donald and all his reindeer pulling on the reins
   The internet is ringing, hard right signaling, all is merry and bright
   So jump in bed with her story, ’cause Santa Claus comes tonight

   She is a miracle come to all if we just follow the light
   So let’s give thanks to Saint Jeffrey above, ’cause Santa Claus comes tonight
   So let’s give thanks to Saint Jeffrey above, ’cause Santa Claus comes tonight

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6. Steve H. August 23, 2025 at 7:50 am

   > Barry Eisler on Political Thrillers, AOC, and how “The System” Justifies War Current Affairs (Anthony L)

   I’m only partially through the interview and it is ringing bells. Cordiality and rewards. They pinned a Precinct Captain on me for no other reason than I pulled votes as a third party.

   He mentions the amygdala. Intimidation works against the agenda, one aversive moment can permanently buttress a position against. When I was running, I was conversed by several of the successful politicians. Some of them looked funny, wacky clothes or odd haircuts. But they were extremely persuasive. That was their special sauce. You can’t get somebody in alignment if they’re bent out of shape.

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7. Trees&Trunks August 23, 2025 at 7:50 am

   The Baltic states are turning on themselves. Lithuanians hate Poles. Poles hate Ukrainians. This will be a sublime drama to watch.

   https://korybko.substack.com/p/the-lithuanian-language-chief-let

   Starting at 14:25
   https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-H1oQXRAqgI

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   1. The Rev Kev August 23, 2025 at 8:08 am

      But, but what about those EU values of respecting the minorities in each member State? Well, maybe not Russian minorities but it does apply to Polish minorities, right?

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      1. Daniil Adamov August 23, 2025 at 8:27 am

         Ukraine’s nationalists had the foresight to get rid of most of their Polish minority back during WW2, so there’s no need to worry about that anymore…

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         1. The Rev Kev August 23, 2025 at 8:30 am

            They still have those Hungarian and Romanian minorities in their west though. The fact that Ukrainian ultra-nationalists are a form of white supremacists does not bode well for them which is probably why the Hungarians and Romanians were issuing passports to those minorities in the Ukraine.

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            1. Daniil Adamov August 23, 2025 at 9:17 am

               Yes. I think they survived back then because Hungary and Romania were still extant states allied with Germany during that rampage, while the Poles had absolutely no one willing to protect them. Otherwise they would’ve nipped this problem in the bud as well – the original Banderaists were nothing if not thorough in their approach to “nation-building”. Modern ones might be too, but they still have to avoid angering Ukraine’s western neighbours too much, too quickly, especially while locked in an actual struggle to the east. But of course those minorities aren’t quite safe.

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               1. The Rev Kev August 23, 2025 at 9:30 am

                  During the present war, the Ukrainians have taken as many able-bodied men as they can from the Romanian and Hungarian areas of the Ukraine to be sent to the meat grinder in the east. I guess their idea is to drain those areas of military-aged men so that after the war, it will be much easier to crack down on those areas and make them toe the Ukrainian line in regards language, culture, religion, etc.

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         2. hk August 23, 2025 at 9:52 am

            Ditto Lithuanians, no? Although their, eh, ethnic “adjustment” applied particularly to the Jews…

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   2. principle August 23, 2025 at 9:02 am

      Yea, but they hate Russians more. That’s the glue of NATO and the EU.

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   3. Neutrino August 23, 2025 at 9:29 am

      EU museum crumbling, angry docents most impacted.

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8. AG August 23, 2025 at 7:55 am

   re: abduction of Ukrainian children

   To my knowledge this is the first piece in a larger German print outlet that would question the Western version – magazine EMMA.

   (use google-translate)

   Is Russia kidnapping children?

   Were the children brought to Russia from contested Ukrainian territories “stolen”—or simply brought to safety? Helmut Scheben investigated the matter.
   https://www.emma.de/artikel/raubt-russland-kinder-341985

   The problem is that the author is not that well informed on the matter at hand. He does draw comparison e.g. to the US in Vietnam saving 50k children and no Western paper ever spoke about abduction at that time.

   But if he knew the internet well, he could quote non-Russian outlets as they have been quoted here on NC or elsewhere. Or be it as simple as a former British diplomat like Ian Proud.

   I am suggesting non-Russian sources because as below link shows that is regarded as a prerequisite for doing “real” investigation…Whether or not that is bullshit as a German author one should take truth within power structures into account and write and argue accordingly in today´s totalitarian media atmosphere. Otherwise no one will take you seriously.

   So he relies much on RU sources.

   Also he seems to not realize the beginnings of the “research” for this fairy-tale lay in the US with Yale. He does mention The Yale Humanitarian Research Lab but not their role in creating the fake “raw data” and in creating the ICC´s fake indictment and which should be at the heart of the matter.

   To understand that this is a grave deficiency in a place like Germany where Russian=lies, see this stupid TELEPOLIS “review” of the EMMA text by Philip Fess who is out of his depths obviously.

   (use google-translate)
   Emma report: Russian child abduction just propaganda?
   https://www.telepolis.de/features/Emma-Bericht-Russische-Kindesentfuehrung-nur-Propaganda-10590428.html

   The demise of TELEPOLIS is really a disaster in the history of German altern. online media (it is the oldest such news site. But that´s a different story.)

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   1. The Rev Kev August 23, 2025 at 8:16 am

      Alex Christoforou was talking about the subject of “kidnapped” children the other day. He was saying that the Ukraine claimed that Russia had taken a huge number of Ukrainian children. I think that it was about 19,000 children and this claim was repeated by the Neocons in DC. Russia demanded a list of this children so that they could find them and eventually the Ukrainians coughed up a list of these children. I think that there were about 319 names on that list.

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   2. .Tom August 23, 2025 at 8:23 am

      Regardless of the validity of the allegations supporting the ICC’s arrest warrant, I have another question. How do the recent and highly publicized entreaties from Melania Trump to Putin and from UvdL to Donald Trump to think about the children relate to arguments about what should happen next in Ukraine? Is the proposal that war should be fought to liberate kidnapped children? What exactly is being asked for and how would the existence of kidnapped children justify it?

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      1. Yves Smith Post authorAugust 23, 2025 at 8:53 am

         The letter from Melania was NOT about the ICC warrant issue. Lindsey Graham abjectly misrepresented that and the press ran with his spin. Her letter was more of the “Mr. Putin, war is bad for children” sort.

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   3. Polar Socialist August 23, 2025 at 9:37 am

      I did read a translated version on Patrick Lawrence’s The Floutist. At least I think it’s the same article.

      I think Scheben does well to point out that the International Red Cross, government of Qatar and several UN organisations are collaborating with Russians to return children to where they should be. And none of these non-Russian actors involved and aware of the actual situation has raised any doubts or suspicions regarding “abduction” or “deportation” of children.

      And that ICC arrest warrants are possible only because Ukraine joined in 2024, and yet Ukraine does not accept ICC’s jurisdiction over Ukrainian military or paramilitary organizations. And that they are based on unproven claims by government funded “non-governmental” organisations.

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9. The Rev Kev August 23, 2025 at 7:59 am

   “Israel Expanding Tank and APC Production to Rebuild After Major Losses in Gaza and Against Hezbollah’

   Just as well that it takes some time to build those tanks and heavy APCs. They will need the time to train the new crews to replace those that have been killed, wounded or crippled in Gaza and Lebanon. How many would be a closely kept secret in Israel as is the amount of equipment that has been lost.

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   1. hk August 23, 2025 at 9:57 am

      They must be counting on the ex Ukrainians to join them after Ukraine goes kaput, like the former Nazi foreign legionnaires in SE Asia, circa 1950s. After all, these guys are already practiced in IDF MO.

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10. Wukchumni August 23, 2025 at 8:02 am

    If it said: ‘Contains Soylent Green’

    Instead of Contains Bioengineered Ingredients… would anybody even notice?

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    1. Neutrino August 23, 2025 at 9:32 am

       Available soon at that restaurant where the motto is To Serve Man.

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       1. The Rev Kev August 23, 2025 at 9:44 am

          I understand that they do great finger food before the main course of long pig and all washed down with a great Chianti.

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          1. Wukchumni August 23, 2025 at 9:49 am

             Then: Taking out an ARM loan

             Now: Taking out an arm loan

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             1. The Rev Kev August 23, 2025 at 10:08 am

                Have you ever seen the Donnor Party Memorial?

                https://www.reddit.com/r/TheFarSide/comments/1hj7nyy/donner_party_memorial/

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       2. hk August 23, 2025 at 9:59 am

          Young adult lit is already normalizing it, no? (Ref to the literal cannibal heroines in fiction lately, per yesterday’s links.)

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11. QABubba August 23, 2025 at 8:15 am

    Re: Raid on Bolton/Mar a Lago. While it is true that this is not the way things are normally done (vis a vis Mar a Lago), normally, people cooperate, do not have their lawyers lie, and do not use their chauffer to shuffle the boxes of confidential papers around the property.

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12. Munchausen August 23, 2025 at 8:16 am

    The new alliance strategy German Foreign Policy. Micael T:

    Becoming ‘a pole of its own’

    A Pole sounds like a cheap knockoff of The Axis.

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    1. Trees&Trunks August 23, 2025 at 9:21 am

       A Pole of its own? Like the Churchillian hyena?

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       1. Wukchumni August 23, 2025 at 9:39 am

          Chihuahuan hyena?

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13. MicaT August 23, 2025 at 8:52 am

    Define safe.
    Alcohol kills hundreds of thousands every year, close to 20k in driving accidents. How many fights and other things? Cigarettes, how many there?

    How many driving deaths by pot, zero. Going to slow ok. Too fast, nope.
    Ive never seen anyone get in a fight just stoned. As far as I know there has never been an OD on pot.

    Ive seen kids be almost cured of seizures by pot/cbd cocktails. As well as adults.

    It’s a drug and yes someone is going to have some kind of adverse reaction.

    I guess we are back to just say no.

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    1. Wukchumni August 23, 2025 at 9:04 am

       I’m of two minds on the subject in that its really too easy to obtain now, and back in the days of illegality, typically your connection would have 1 varietal and that was it. Was in a pot shoppe yesterday and its more akin to a Baskin & Robbins-but with 310 flavors now.

       One thing it can be is a motivation killer for many (segues into the tale of a prominent numismatist who would ‘drug test’ potential hires, as he was looking for stoners with a work ethic-like him) and you don’t want to have a bunch of young adults with the munchies sofa surfing on the next, not that it doesn’t happen all the time sans sensimilla.

       Also, the price of admission is so on the down low now, yours truly paid 8x the current going rate per ounce around the turn of the century, so most anybody can indulge-that ain’t no bueno.

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       1. MicaT August 23, 2025 at 9:39 am

          But many states have very stringent testing standards for molds and chemicals, pesticides etc which is really good. While not necessarily organic much safer.
          Also many are now required to have thc concentrations marked. Certainly for eatables.
          All of which does improve safety.
          As to the often discussed higher concentrations, yeah well just use less. To me I just go to sleep if I use to much, which sort of defeats the purpose. Doesn’t take long to find the middle ground. Way easier than 1 too many drinks.

          To me a bunch of stoners on the couch is way better than drunks out driving.

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14. Otto Reply August 23, 2025 at 8:59 am

    Re:Aldi video. I, too, have noticed the bioengineered ingredients label. But look at the products: all highly processed, i.e. stuff I don’t buy. Another Aldi video could show the range of organic + non-GMO items available at very reasonable prices. I used to consider Aldi a “scratch and dent” type of retailer until friends convinced me to look at all the OG products. It’s now one of my favorite grocery stores. Bonus: in the world of self-checkout, they still have humans at the cash register and one can actually build a casual/cordial relationship with them.

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15. Carolinian August 23, 2025 at 9:02 am

    Hedges: Gaza is not just about genocide of people. The Israelis are flattening Gaza City and destroying history going back centuries.

    https://scheerpost.com/2025/08/23/chris-hedges-israels-assassination-of-memory/

    So presumably by destroying history they can kill not just the living but the long dead as well. But to what purpose? Will they ever find enough “Jews only” inhabitants to fill all that Lebensraum? This hatred of another culture bodes ill for those who claim to be building one of their own. Sociopathy is a poor foundation for a society.

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    1. Daniil Adamov August 23, 2025 at 9:20 am

       I don’t think finding enough Jews will be a problem – those Orthodox families really are big. It would be their greatest virtue from a purely Lebensraum perspective, they may not take or hold the land themselves but they can certainly populate it.

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       1. Wukchumni August 23, 2025 at 9:29 am

          Think of all the surfing possibilities for Orthodox Jews if the deal goes down…

          Hang Ten!

          Hava Nagila, by Dick Dale and the Del Tones

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RCeaTjD4pg&list=RD4RCeaTjD4pg

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          1. nycTerrierist August 23, 2025 at 9:49 am

             Malibu-born ‘Shifty’ Shifrin, a.k.a. the ‘surf ‘n soul’ rabbi,
             teaches kabbalah via surfing:

             https://surfandsoul.org/my-story/

             very kool and limber rebbe

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    2. hk August 23, 2025 at 10:09 am

       Nazis systematically destroyed Jewish cemetaries in Europe.

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16. The Rev Kev August 23, 2025 at 9:06 am

    “An article by: Tobias Riegel”

    ‘US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently spoke out in outrageous detail about the vassal status of “allies” towards the US: As a result of agreements like the EU deal with the US, foreign assets could soon be indirectly treated like a US “sovereign wealth fund,” according to Bessent, and at the discretion of the US president.’

    For the Trump regime, it is a twofer. Not only are they shaking down those EU countries for their money to invest in the US (in dodgy AI investments perhaps?) but in doing so, those EU countries no longer have the money to invest in their own countries anymore. Add in the 5% they are supposed to cough up for NATO annually along with having their goods being tariffed if sent to the US, then by the end of this decade you may very well see “Fire Sale Europe” – everything must go!

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17. Wukchumni August 23, 2025 at 9:18 am

    Dan Hollis: You monster, you. You dirty little monster. You murderer. You think about me. Go ahead, Anthony. You think bad thoughts about me. And maybe some man in this room, some man with guts, somebody who’s so sick to death of living in a place like this, and is willing to take a chance, will sneak up behind you and lay something heavy across your skull, and end this once and for all…

    Anthony Fremont: You’re a bad man! You’re a very bad man!

    Dan Hollis: You think that. Go ahead, Anthony. I’m a very bad man! Keep thinking that! Somebody sneak up behind him! Somebody end this now while he’s thinking about me! Won’t somebody take a lamp or a bottle or something and END THIS?

    Wish it into the cornfield

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVwxyHGVppE

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    How much longer before hair furor goes after regular Joes and Janes who slighted him by not voting for him, hello LA DC, SF, Chicago.

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18. MicaT August 23, 2025 at 9:43 am

    A good article on EROEI.
    Finally one that explains well the important improvements with renewables vs predominantly oil and gas.

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19. Wukchumni August 23, 2025 at 9:45 am

    We’ve been in this Long Emergency for quite some time now, and if you were a neo-Rip Van Winkle who had slept for 5 years, you’d be shocked by how everything appears-not that present company isn’t hep to what’s what, but it being so gradual-the changes all for the worse-not better.

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    1. The Rev Kev August 23, 2025 at 10:03 am

       Can you imagine going back 5 years in time and explaining what has been happening since then to your earlier self? Too many news stories that you would tell them would sound like they are straight from The Onion or the Babylon Bee.

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20. The Rev Kev August 23, 2025 at 9:58 am

    “US begins icebreaker race with Russia”

    Wellll, kinda? I mean that the US wants Finland to build a lot of those icebreakers as the US hasn’t built one in decades and you can’t build them like they are old Liberty ships or anything You have to get the design right. Certainly it is not easy building nuclear-powered ones either as they are a different sort of challenge altogether. But based on Trump’s actions and the problems that Oz is having getting those nuke boats, I would not be surprised to read that the Trump will demand that Finland and Canada hand over most of their ice breakers to the US as part of their contribution to NATO or something. It’s all part of that old saying – ‘What’s yours is mine and what’s mine is me own.’

    And in other icebreaker news-

    ‘Russia has appointed the world’s first-ever female captain of a nuclear-powered icebreaker, state operator Atomflot announced on Wednesday. Marina Starovoytova will take command of the icebreaker Yamal, where she previously served as chief mate. Equipped with two nuclear reactors, the Yamal has helped transport researchers to floating ice and in 2000 made a voyage to the North Pole. The vessel is also recognizable by the distinctive shark jaw painted on its hull.’

    https://www.rt.com/russia/623345-first-female-icebreaker-captain/

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21. mrsyk August 23, 2025 at 10:03 am

    I see the Times describing Bolton as “a prominent Trump critic”, and I’m wondering if this is indeed the case.

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22. Sub-Boreal August 23, 2025 at 10:13 am

    Feral Hog Watch:

    I was a sucker for the headline: Wild Pigs Are Turning Neon Blue in California

    Click to Edit – 

    

    Feral Hog Watch: I was a sucker for the headline: <a href="https://www.discovermagazine.com/wild-pigs-are-turning-bright-blue-in-california-and-authorities-say-to-stay-away-47946" rel="nofollow ugc">Wild Pigs Are Turning Neon Blue in California</a>

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