Links 10/23/2025

Subscribe to Post Comments

36 comments

1. The Rev Kev October 23, 2025 at 7:27 am

   “Ukraine-Russia war latest: Moscow says Trump’s oil sanctions are an ‘act of war’ against Russia”

   I have no idea why Trump pushed for a summit in Hungary with Putin. For literal years now the Russians have been saying that this war will only come to a close when root causes are dealt with. Trump, on the other hand, is listening to Kellogg/Zelensky with their demands for an immediate ceasefire in place. I can only imagine that Trump convinced himself that Putin would agree to a freeze in place if he met him in Hungary through force of character, found out that that this was never going to happen, canceled the summit in Hungary out of frustration, and then imposed more sanctions against Russia to make it look like he had the superior hand or something. But the long and the short of it is that Trump, after nine months in office, is still not listening what the Russians are consistently telling him but is listening to people like Keith Kellogg and Lyndsay Graham instead. And this will continue right up to when the Ukraine collapses.

   Reply ↓
   1. Stephen V October 23, 2025 at 8:42 am

      How will we know when Ukie collapses? Asking for a friend. Thanks Rev.

      Reply ↓
      1. The Rev Kev October 23, 2025 at 8:52 am

         When their fortified cities like Pokrovsk fall which is happening right now, the Ukrainian military are going to have to flee west as it is all flatlands with hardly any fortifications and no good place to set up another line of resistance. And the Russian military will be hammering those fleeing formations to wreck them all the way so that they can not simply be sent to another front. It’s like the Falklands Islands campaign where the Argentinians were putting up stiff resistance when suddenly they simply collapsed. You can’t predict when it will happen but you know that it will. The second half of that “EU Declares War On Its Own Members” article in today’s Links gives a good summary as to what is happening on this front.

         Reply ↓
         1. jefemt October 23, 2025 at 11:13 am

            Lest we forget, winter is coming… Here Comes Santa Claus, Here Comes Santa Claus…

            My photosensitive poop-tint spectacles have gone pimped -tinted Cadillac DARK. Anyone else see The Totality’s fragility as poised for any number of Black Swan feather-push economic catastrophes, sooner than later? How to time,” the sell”… ?

            As Mr. Leahy in Trailer Park Boys would say, “we are in for a sh*t hurricane, Randy….”

            8 minutes TPB Leahy brilliance https://youtu.be/hcQW04AQ_Ok

            Reply ↓
         2. schmoe October 23, 2025 at 11:17 am

            True, but Russian forces trying to advance will also run into large drone attacks. Besides fall and winter mud / mobility issues, a lack of foliage and the corresponding lack of cover might slow advances.

            Reply ↓
   2. Smurf October 23, 2025 at 8:52 am

      I have no idea why Trump pushed for a summit in Hungary with Putin.

      For the show. There’s no business like show business.

      Reply ↓
   3. Skip Intro October 23, 2025 at 10:58 am

      Trump pushed the peace summit to spank the NATO neocons for their Tomahawk wunderwaffe ploy. That’s why he went for Hungary. He is following what we might call the Nuland Doctrine.

      Reply ↓
2. Arby October 23, 2025 at 7:45 am

   Europe has 29 large scale LNG facilities. Russia has more than 29 Oreshniks. Next step is coordinated cruise missiles on Russian oil sector. Europe goes cold and dark very quickly. Except Spain which has African gas pipelines. US LNG could still be bought, just not delivered.

   Reply ↓
   1. Ignacio October 23, 2025 at 10:54 am

      Spain, and not only Spain, buys Russian LNG and US LNG alike. Algerian gas does not suffice. I don’t see any reason for Russia to kill this business. Apart from this, what would be the strategic interest for Russia to leave Europe in the dark?

      Reply ↓
      1. Polar Socialist October 23, 2025 at 11:07 am

         Especially now that EU is doing all can it to leave it’s members in the dark.

         Reply ↓
3. The Rev Kev October 23, 2025 at 7:53 am

   “Karine Jean-Pierre Writes History’s Most Incoherent Memoir”

   I’m starting to see a trend here. First Merkel, then Stoltenberg and now in the US Karine Jean-Pierre coming out with biographies to Cover Their A**** and say how nothing was their fault even though they were at the heart of things. She really expects people to believe that she saw no signs of dementia in old Joe right up until that debate with Trump? Seriously? There is only only place for people like Karine Jean-Pierre. Somebody get in contact with The View.

   Reply ↓
   1. griffen October 23, 2025 at 8:50 am

      Make way in the library, for books that matter by people who once upon not long ago mattered !! Kamala Harris book tour….a memoir hot off the press from KJP….\sarc

      Everyone needs something or some reason to laugh or to smile every week…so these will be the gifts that keep on offering such a reason.

      Reply ↓
   2. .Tom October 23, 2025 at 9:03 am

      RK > She really expects people to believe that she saw no signs of dementia in old Joe right up until that debate with Trump? Seriously?

      Yes. All of Team Blue did the same at the same time. They all expected us to believe that Biden was sharp as a tack, the best Biden ever, until that great debate surprise. Why would Jean-Pierre change the story now?

      Reply ↓
      1. Nat Wilson Turner October 23, 2025 at 10:05 am

         Well the smart ones have all changed their story. Starting with the authors of Original Sin, THE book on Biden’s dementia. Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson were both critical MSM enablers of the senility cover up. Poor Jean-Pierre is always the last rat off the boat. She couldn’t even land an MSNBC gig.

         Reply ↓
   3. tegnost October 23, 2025 at 10:18 am

      I’m starting to see a trend here. First Merkel, then Stoltenberg and now in the US Karine Jean-Pierre coming out with biographies to Cover Their A****

      Certainly these personal accounts will or rather have been used to train ai on orthodox views.
      Garbage in, garbage out…

      Reply ↓
   4. JMH October 23, 2025 at 10:31 am

      Why would anyone care what she saw or did not see? She like this Leavitt person are functionaries, tools of their bosses, to be used and discarded at will should they become inconvenient. Once they no longer occupy their position… poof they’re gone.

      Reply ↓
4. Luxo October 23, 2025 at 8:38 am

   American Farmers Slam Trump’s “Betrayal” With Argentina Beef Deal New Republic (resilc)

   Trump’s response:
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJZa4ryTjgY

   Reply ↓
5. AG October 23, 2025 at 8:51 am

   re: German state TV censorship over Ukraine reporting

   important since this kind of info is of course extremely rare

   Interview by FOCUS magazine (once intended as challenger of SPIEGEL but that didn’t work out – eventually maybe even to our benefit)

   After 17 years a TV journalist working for the major investigative frontal 21 news magazine of German state TV ZDF was forced to work for a different, non-political program, speaks out about the reason and censorship:

   “(…)
   I voiced internal criticism. I’ve been a journalist for 40 years and adhere to the basic rules of the trade: examine, question, doubt. I raised concerns about war reporting at “frontal”—specifically, about the verifiability of images from the Ukraine war. I also pointed out a personnel matter that, in my view, posed a security risk: a longtime and now deceased “frontal” colleague was exposed as a source for two intelligence agencies shortly after his retirement. I wanted to know if and how this connection might have influenced our editorial team.

   How did the editorial team react to this?

   With silence – and then with pressure. They demanded a declaration of loyalty and confidentiality from me. I didn’t sign it, but instead sent a formal complaint to the editor-in-chief and the director. Afterward, they said: Everything had been reviewed and there was no cause for criticism. To this day, I haven’t been given access to the documents. Shortly afterward, I was transferred to Mainz.
   (…)“

   entire interview

   machine-translation

   Alleged orders of silence
   “Frontal21” man denounces “internal censorship” at ZDF
   https://archive.is/yzH6S

   Reply ↓
6. DJG, Reality Czar October 23, 2025 at 8:53 am

   I suggest reading “Europe’s latest intelligence fakes” in tandem with “EU declares war on its own members” by Simplicius.

   The burning refineries in Romania and Hungary are not just blips. Consider also the Nord Stream sabotage.

   Note this paragraph in Simplicius: “The real attacks on Romania and Hungary came just days after Europe essentially gave carte blanche for terror attacks across the EU by way of several top European officials openly condoning not only the Nord Stream attacks, but even attacks against Hungarian oil pipelines. Here Polish Foreign Minister Sikorski addresses Hungary’s Peter Szijjarto” and Sikorski’s clueless, bullying tweet below it.

   For weeks and weeks, the esteemed Barbara Spinelli has been writing about the resentments of Poland (in particular) and the Baltic States (which have managed to place several people high up in the EU hierarchy like Kallas and Kubilius) and how said resentments are making a mess of Europe. Now, presumably, the Poles are sponsoring burning refineries in their neighbors — because they also don’t want to hand the suspected Nord Stream saboteurs to the Germans.

   Meanwhile: Fakery.
   The Floutist includes this observation from Swiss writer Helmut Scheben: ‘You will remember Yuri Andropov, general secretary of the USSR from 1982 until his death two years later, who once laughingly told Finnish President Mauno Koivisto: “Bomb them. It’s fine with us.”3 He was referring to the “Soviet submarines” spotted off the Swedish coast in 1984. Andropov knew they were not Russian submarines, but a false flag operation by Western intelligence agencies. These mysterious boats were never captured. The “Soviet threat” proved to be a perfect way to sabotage Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme’s policy of détente.’

   Unfortunately, Palme was then sabotaged personally, with a bullet.

   In short:
   In a play by Chekhov, some character puts the revolver on the table in Act I. Of course, it goes off.

   In short:
   Incorporating all of the Sauerkraut Republics into the EU, which benefited mainly Germany, and France less so, seems to be backfiring. We’ve gone from the ideals of Altiero Spinelli to the slop of Radoslaw Sikorski.

   Reply ↓
   1. AG October 23, 2025 at 10:11 am

      Thank you very much.

      p.s. The infamous Swedish submarine subterfuge inspired the final WALLANDER crime novel THE TROUBLED MAN (2009) by the late best-selling author Henning Mankell (he was part of the MV Mavi Marmara Gaza mission in 2010).

      By way of the novel Mankell suggests that the real-life false flag incident in 1984 was used to cover up a deep-sea naval operation to tap RU communication going through deep-sea cables. The experience of this most likely helped to pull off Nordstream which additionally happened not disimilar under the disguise of a major naval exercise.

      In the first months after Hersh had broken the story these parallels from the Cold War were openly discussed in some public spaces. By now this all disappeared. Soon it never even happened.

      Reply ↓
   2. OIFVet October 23, 2025 at 10:28 am

      One can’t possibly be anything other than a dour crank when subsisting on a diet heavy on saurecraut, meat, potatoes and viking aryan legends, all consumed amidst the grayness of the Baltic climes. It’s time for the grapes, olives and sunshine republics to free Europe from the shackles of that irredentist pestilence.

      Reply ↓
7. LawnDart October 23, 2025 at 9:08 am

   Re; China?

   Arnaud Bertrand: “This is easily the most suicidal idea the Trump administration has cooked up in its trade war, and that’s a high bar.”

   Team Trump’s idea isn’t very original, and who’s to say it won’t work again?

   Reply ↓
   1. The Rev Kev October 23, 2025 at 9:36 am

      It is an interesting prospect that Bertrand brings up. Countries would be forced to choose with going with the Chinese market or the American market based on what software that they are going with. The US has done this in the past when they have forbidden countries using assembled things like planes because they have parts in them that have a US origin. Those countries had to then purge their gear and replace it with non-American gear instead. With software, this is an extension of this idea. Not sure where the outputs of Linux-based system fit in as it is open source and not an American system.

      Reply ↓
8. lyman alpha blob October 23, 2025 at 9:36 am

   During the discussion about Graham Platner yesterday, one issue was his apology and whether it was beneficial for him or not. One take that I tend to agree with is that in politics, if you’re explaining, you’re losing. We’ll see how it works out for Platner, but I did like his explanation that a bunch of drunk Marines got tattoos and then they all moved on with their lives, implying that so should the rest of us on this topic.

   Here’s a contrast to all that. I’ve mentioned before that it would be nice if people could discuss the Zionist entity without the obligatory condemnation of Hamas first. Ryan Grim has an interview with the likely new president of Ireland, Catherine Connolly, here. He notes that when she was asked to do the condemnation thing, she outright refused to do so. She is currently leading in the pools by a wide margin and is expected to win the election handily today. An excellent example to follow.

   Reply ↓
   1. The Rev Kev October 23, 2025 at 9:42 am

      ‘but I did like his explanation that a bunch of drunk Marines got tattoos and then they all moved on with their lives’

      He had a point. I worked with this guy from Cyprus who was in the British army at the end off WW2. At the time he ended up getting a tattoo of a topless dancing girl on his arm. Some fifty years later he had emigrated to Oz, married, had a coupla kids, owned his home but still had that tat. All it was was just a faded memory of a much earlier time in his life when he was training for the invasion of Japan and wanted a tat like his mates.

      Reply ↓
      1. ambrit October 23, 2025 at 10:13 am

         Now he would be training for the invasion of Brixton.

         Reply ↓
9. Samuel Conner October 23, 2025 at 9:59 am

   Aurelien’s item on “the unconscious” helps me a bit to make sense of the resistance I find among so many to employing NPIs to delay the next CV infection. If, to the unconscious mind, it is always “now”, present inconvenience could outweigh future consequences of infection. I have encountered few people who offered “rational, conscious” justifications for their refusal of my offers of N95s (there have been a couple of instances of “I find it very difficult to breathe through them”); typically it’s a matter of fact “I don’t use them” or “I don’t need them” or “I’m not worried about it”, or simply “Covid is no worse than a cold.”

   We are not rational animals. We are animals that rationalise.

   Reply ↓
   1. The Rev Kev October 23, 2025 at 10:26 am

      I do take issue where Aurelian wrote-

      ‘So Britain and France, among the greatest alarmists, have had reasonable relations with Russia for a long time.’

      There has been books written of the enmity that the British elites had for the Russians going back at least two centuries. Nothing rational about it but between events like the Crimean war and the Great Game, it has always been there. The British elite could not be even bothered saving the Russian royal family even though they and the British royals were cousins. The fact that the UK elite are destroying their country right now in order to get at the Russians shows how deep and irrational this hatred is. What sort of country signs an agreement with another country to give them billions of pounds a year for the next one hundred years? And yet here we are.

      Reply ↓
   2. hardscrabble October 23, 2025 at 10:39 am

      just want to add a phrase…

      We are animals that rationalise .. rather than learn

      Reply ↓
      1. The Rev Kev October 23, 2025 at 10:42 am

         Or as scifi author Robert Heinlein once put it, ‘Man is not a rational animal; he is a rationalizing animal’. He had a point.

         Reply ↓
10. ChrisFromGA October 23, 2025 at 10:17 am

    Buckle up, this one is a real headspinner:

    https://x.com/mumbaichadon/status/1981277314018398387?s=46

    US deliberately ‘planted’ news that Bharat-US Trade deal will be announced in Modi-Trump meet. Modi Ji definitely didn’t want to rush through any announcements till deal on Bharat’s terms is not fully finalised & have, now, cancelled the Malaysia Tour.

    (File under “rumors” as we have no way of knowing whether the facts from that X/tweet are accurate. I do recall hearing the same rumor from a different source: Modi had to wait in Putin’s limo for 45 minutes; a possible assassination attempt was foiled. The extra bit of evidence about a US special forces officer killed in Bangladesh is new.)

    Background: There seems to be a massive propaganda attack against India from the White House. Trump got caught telling a fib; namely, that India was going to reduce its imports of Russian crude. The Modi government issued a delicate denial in a diplomatic manner.

    Now Modi has announced that he won’t be going to the ASEAN summit in Malaysia.

    https://archive.ph/AC7X3

    This accomplishes two objectives:

    1. Denies Trump a photo op and the ability to “dump truck” Modi in public, by lying again about the crude oil imports situation and forcing Modi to either shut up and pretend it’s true, or risk humiliating Taco in public.

    2. Saves him from another possible assassination attempt (see first link above.)

    There is a huge pressure campaign against Modi, and he seems to be standing firm. That they might try to kill him doesn’t surprise me. We know that Trump has no qualms about killing innocents in the Caribbean. We also know that Bloomberg and other media have surprisingly “done their jobs” in pointing out that New Delhi has not confirmed they will comply with Taco’s demands. So, he must be furious.

    Reply ↓
11. The Rev Kev October 23, 2025 at 10:33 am

    “Trump, Colombia leader trade threats as US strikes boats in Pacific”

    Trump is expanding this war as Venezuela does not have a Pacific coastline. But Columbia does. Were those attacks launched from the Panama? Will this mean that the US will stop Colombian fishing boats going out to sea to fish? So now Trump has declared de facto war against both country and wants regime change in both of them. Will that mean that if he tries to go into Venezuela that he will find the Colombian military helping out Venezuela?

    Reply ↓
12. upstater October 23, 2025 at 10:49 am

    More Micron chip fab corporate welfare

    Micron’s tax deal in Clay would save chipmaker $2 billion in local and NY taxes syracuse.com archive

    Micron Technology and Onondaga County are moving forward with a deal that will save the company $2 billion in local and state taxes on a giant semiconductor plant planned for the Syracuse suburb of Clay.

    Most of the $2 billion in savings for Micron would come in the form of an exemption from state and county sales taxes on construction materials. That exemption alone would be worth $1.76 billion.
    The rest would consist of $283.9 million in school and property tax savings for the Idaho-based company.
    Micron would pay $84.5 million in school and property taxes over 49 years. Without the tax deal, that tax bill would come to $368.4 million during the same period.
    It means the North Syracuse school district would be paid a total of $63.4 million over 49 years. That’s a school tax payment of $1.3 million, on average, a year.
    Micron made $8.54 billion in profits in its fiscal 2025 year, which ended Aug. 28.
    …
    As big as the county tax breaks are, they are a small portion of the government assistance Micron is receiving for the project.
    Micron is slated to receive $22.6 billion in federal and state funding [emphasis added; this does not include public infrastructure improvements] , according to its application with the industrial development agency. The list includes $3.4 billion via the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act, $17 billion in federal investment tax credits and $2.24 billion from New York’s Green Chips Act.

    It keeps getting worser and worser. Can’t wait to see what happens to residential and commercial electricity rates. Hochul has directed the NY Power Authority to begin planning for nuclear power plants.

    Popping of the AI/data Center bubble cannot happen soon enough!

    Reply ↓
13. The Rev Kev October 23, 2025 at 10:56 am

    “EU Declares War On Its Own Members”

    ‘Hungary’s Peter Szijjarto revealed the malign conduct of the EU after the Druzhba pipeline was attacked by Ukrainian drones and caused Hungary’s oil reserves to drop to record lows. He states Hungary was very close to being forced to tap its final emergency strategic reserves, because the EU had deliberately stonewalled them’

    If Ursula tries to get the Ukraine into the EU after the war and overrides the requirement to have every single member State agree, then it could be the breakup of the EU. There is not enough money in all the EU to get the Ukraine back on its feet. They are broke already. That being the case, some countries might decide to leave the EU rather than be on the hook for all the mandatory ‘contributions’ that the EU will demand for the Ukraine.

    Reply ↓
14. Mikel October 23, 2025 at 11:01 am

    Oligarchs West vs East – Julian Macfarlane

    The writer mentions Helmer’s interview on Dialog Works from a couple of days ago. It is definitely a good one – especially when Nima’s question led to discussion about the oligarchs.

    I think a couple of guests, like Laith and Helmer, have him asking questions off the usual click bait path.

    Reply ↓
15. griffen October 23, 2025 at 11:17 am

    NYC mayoral race…is appearing from my very cheap seats in SC as a possible landslide win for the Mamdani …but polls have been known to tell untruths and whoppers in the not too distant past. I know nothing of the local politics at play, aside from the inundation on offer. Former governor Cuomo is a known quantity for good or ill.

    I will add…Really like 8 million citizens and these are the pejorative brightest on offer….\sarc

    Reply ↓