(I am still busy with cleaning up issues related to recent move this blog had to make. Original output is thus low. Please bear with me.)

U.S. President Donald Trump has announced (announced some a new plan for Gaza which is, as Larry Johnson says, dead on arrival.

The whole plan, notably vague on details, is published here. It foresees that Hamas releases all hostages and dissolves itself and thereby gives up all leverage it has in exchange for a vague promise of future peace.

A new external government would be installed over Gaza. The people living there would have no say in it. MEE explains the structure of the bizarre proposal to ‘govern’ Gaza.

This plan will be going nowhere. Netanyahoo has already promised to break it. The genocide in Gaza is set to continue.

Sunday election in Moldova was probably the most manipulated one I have ever seen. And no, that is not because of the alleged Russian interference the BBC is sputtering about:

Moldova’s pro-EU party wins vote mired in claims of Russian interference

The pro-European party of Moldovan President Maia Sandu has claimed victory and a new majority in parliament in Sunday’s elections seen as critical for her country’s future path to the EU.

Sandu had warned of “massive Russian interference” after voting, saying the future of Moldova, flanked by Ukraine and Romania, was at stake.
…
With 99.9% of the 1.6 million votes counted, PAS had 50.17% of the vote – far ahead of the pro-Russian Patriotic Electoral Bloc on 24.18%, Moldova’s central electoral commission said.

Moldova is, similar to Ukraine, a former Soviet state in which a large part of the population speaks Russian and follows the Orthodox Church. The pro-Russian sentiment is thereby naturally strong.

biggerPresident Maia Sandu’s declared policy is to submit Moldova to the EU. Pre-election polls showed her PAS party losing by a wide margin. It was only through intervention from Brussels and outright manipulation of the expat-vote that her party was able to win.

As the Washington Post reported (archived) last Friday:

Cont. reading: Moldova’s Pro-EU Party Wins Vote Due To Manipulation And EU Interference

After Moon of Alabama had moved to a new server and software various problems occurred.

Thanks to helping hands most have been fixed:

• Commentator names on the right side of the main page are now linked to the appropriate comment.
• The comment entry field now has a ‘Preview’ replacement in form of a small what-you-see-is-what-you-get editor.
• The ‘line-height’ attribute of the typeface has been modified to give it a more consistent look.

Open issues:

• Someone yesterday mentioned problems with the ‘Search’ functionality. It is currently the standard function that comes with the software. I will have to look into that and, maybe, find a replacement.

Please let me know in the comments of any further problems with these or other features of the blog.

A note on Spam control.

The blog is, like before, using an automated Spam control feature:

• Obvious spam comments from know spamming sources are automatically moved to trash. I never get to see them.

There are additional criteria which move some comments to a ‘pending’ queue where I can review them. I do check this queue twice a day and decide on publishing or trashing the comments in question.

Criteria for a comment to get stuck in the ‘pending’ queue are:

• it includes a ‘bad word’ from a list I maintain. This is used to keep advertisements / discussions of certain topics away from the blog.
• it is coming from certain IP-addresses which I have manually blocked. This is used to keep certain trolls away from the blog.
• it contains more that 5 links.

If there are consistent problems with your comments not getting published please contact me via email.

Note: This week’s review is incomplete. Typepad, the old system MoA was running on, is so far failing to export MoA post’s from September 6 to September 23. If that failure continues I will add those posts ‘by hand’. But the comments to those posts would be lost forever.

Last week’s posts on Moon of Alabama:

• Sep 24 – Welcome At The New Home Of Moon of Alabama
  Related:
  – There is still some background work ongoing to clean-up the appearance and functionality of MoA at its new home. Please bear with me for another week or so.

• Sep 25 – Why Trump’s Alleged Shift On Ukraine Isn’t One
  Related:
  – Fixing the rot in Ukraine (archived) – Economist
  – Ukraine faces deepening military, political and economic problems (archived) – Economist
  – Why Ukraine is winning the war – Russia has failed to achieve its core aim – the destruction of the Ukrainian nation (archived) – FT <– For laughs

• Sep 26 – Another Crazy Idea On How To Steal Russia’s Assets: Make EU Taxpayers Pay For It
  Related:
  – Brussels eyes loophole to isolate Hungary, send billions in Russian assets to Ukraine – Politico
  – Europe’s boneheaded sanctions regime Moscow and Beijing are laughing at Brussels – Unherd
  – Crisis Escalation Becomes Euro-Cabal’s Final Meal Ticket – Simplicius
  – Escalation trap for Europe (in Russian) – Strana

—
Other issues:
Cont. reading: The MoA Week In Review – OT 2025-224

The war hawks have long tried to steal Russian assets held in West to then use the money to finance the proxy war against Russia. The sums involved are serious:

Nearly three years after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Belgium holds €258 billion in frozen or immobilised Russian assets.

The General Administration of Treasury at the Ministry of Finance confirmed the figures on Wednesday to La Libre and De Tijd.

Some of these assets belong to institutions not sanctioned by the European Union. Frozen assets amount to €65 billion, with an additional €193 billion in immobilised transactions, primarily from the Central Bank of Russia.

The money is not really held by Belgium but by the Belgium company Euroclear which acts as depository for  international central bank assets denominated in Euros.

Currently the EU is confiscating the interest, not the principal, of that money to distribute it to Ukraine. That step is likely already illegal and Russia will certainly use the courts to get it back.

There were also talks to invest the Russian assets in junk bonds with aim of achieving a higher yield:

Euroclear chief executive Valérie Urbain told the Financial Times that European Union plans to raise additional revenue from frozen Russian assets by investing them in higher-risk securities would amount to “expropriation.”

Urbain also warned that such a move could prompt “Russian retaliation in all sorts of forms,” as well as damage Euroclear’s reputation.

The majority of Russian assets frozen after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine are currently held at Euroclear.

The E.U. has reportedly been discussing the possibility of transferring these assets to a special E.U.-administered fund that would make higher-risk investments. The goal is to generate greater returns to support Ukraine.

That move was blocked as no one was ready to accept the potential liability for it. Not only Belgium, but also Germany and other fiscal conservative states, have warned that such a move would endanger their own assets. Russia has announced that it will retaliate against any confiscation of its money. It threatens to confiscate whatever European companies own or hold in Russia. Those companies would then have to sue their own governments for cover of their losses.

Now a new idea has crept up. How it is supposed to work is not clear to me but it seems to have the support of the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

In a Financial Times op-ed Merz claims (archived):
Cont. reading: Another Crazy Idea On How To Steal Russia’s Assets: Make EU Taxpayers Pay For It

Two days ago, while I was moving this website, President Donald Trump made some rather ridiculous comment (emphasis added):

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump – Sep 23, 2025, 18:55 utc

After getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia Military and Economic situation and, after seeing the Economic trouble it is causing Russia, I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form. With time, patience, and the financial support of Europe and, in particular, NATO, the original Borders from where this War started, is very much an option. Why not? Russia has been fighting aimlessly for three and a half years a War that should have taken a Real Military Power less than a week to win. This is not distinguishing Russia. In fact, it is very much making them look like “a paper tiger.” When the people living in Moscow, and all of the Great Cities, Towns, and Districts all throughout Russia, find out what is really going on with this War, the fact that it’s almost impossible for them to get Gasoline through the long lines that are being formed, and all of the other things that are taking place in their War Economy, where most of their money is being spent on fighting Ukraine, which has Great Spirit, and only getting better, Ukraine would be able to take back their Country in its original form and, who knows, maybe even go further than that! Putin and Russia are in BIG Economic trouble, and this is the time for Ukraine to act. In any event, I wish both Countries well. We will continue to supply weapons to NATO for NATO to do what they want with them. Good luck to all!

DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Some people claimed that this uttering showed that Trump had changed his mind over Ukraine.

It was far from that. Trump was in fact mocking the delusional assessments General Keith Kellogg and General Dan Caine had given him:

Cont. reading: Why Trump’s Alleged Shift On Ukraine Isn’t One

News & views related to the war in Palestine …

News & views related to the war in Ukraine …

News & views not related to the wars in Ukraine and Palestine …

You have reached the new server home for Moon of Alabama.

MoA posts and comments published between September 6 and September 23 have not yet been uploaded here. (I depend on Typepad to do be able to do that.)

There are also still some minor design issues.

Please let me know of any problems with this web-site or the blog’s functionality.

Typepad, the system and hosting service this blog is running on, will soon close down.

This week the Moon of Alabama blog will, hopefully, move onto a new blogging system and a new hosting service.

I have tried to prepare for the move to be as smooth as possible. However – experience says that any such move hardly ever happens without severe hick-ups.

This will take all the time I have and, until the move is done, there will be few if any new posts.

At some point I will close the comments on the old side and open them on the new one. I will then change the name-server entries to direct all requests for moonofalabama.org to the new physical server. This changeover will take some time to proliferate throughout the distributed global Domain Name Service (DNS).

If you are experiencing problems reaching Moon of Alabama just wait a while, maybe even a day, and try again.

Since Typepad announced its close down its service has deteriorated. Some blog functions have stopped working and the help desk has become unresponsive. It may therefore take some time to put the complete archives onto the new server. The last two or three weeks of posts and comments will, at first, likely be missing. I will try to correct that as soon as possible but will depend on Typepad to be able to do this.

I'll see you at the new site …

News & views related to the war in Palestine …

News & views related to the war in Ukraine …

News & views not related to the wars in Ukraine and Palestine …

A way over detailed essay looks at the rise of U.S. electricity prices:

What’s Happening to Wholesale Electricity Prices? – Construction Physics

Mark Ames delivers a short, not-AI driven, summary of the problem:

Mark Ames @MarkAmesExiled – 21:53 utc · Sep 20, 2025

AI tithe on all Americans, so that a handful of billionaires can become trillionaires

bigger

Given that most of the current 'Artificial Intelligence' Large Language Models (LLMs) are Garbage In, Garbage Out systems I find it difficult to justify their social costs.

News & views related to the war in Palestine …

News & views related to the war in Ukraine …

Last week's posts on Moon of Alabama:

• Sep 15 – Ukraine – As 'Security Guarantees' Get Buried Other Stupid Ideas Emerge
  Related:
  – UKRAINIAN NEOFASCISM – War Time Developments: Part 1 ‘Azov’ and Part 2 ‘Right Sector’ – Gordon Hahn
  – Ukraine’s Supply Runs Turn to Nightmares as Drones Menace Roads Far Beyond the Front – WSJ via MSN
  – Security guarantees for Ukraine require readiness to fight Russia, says Finland’s president – Guardian

• Sep 16 – On Free Speech Hypocrisy – by JD Vance
  Related:
  – The Pendulum Swings: Free Speech Falls Under Tread of Prophecy – Simplicius
  – Billionaire Bill Ackman convened stormy Israel ‘intervention’ with Charlie Kirk, sources say – Grayzone
  – I went to a Charlie Kirk memorial event – Michael Tracey
  – “The Kirk narrative doesn’t hold.” – The Floutist

• Sep 17 – The Obvious Is Now Official – Israel Commits Genocide
  Related:
  – List of experts and organisations describing Israel’s attack on Gaza as genocide – Ian Sinclair
  – Israel “falsifying” Palestinian rapes to further Gaza genocide – Electronic Intifada
  – Israel's Gaza City demolitions fan fears of permanent removal[?!?] of Palestinians – Reuters

  – Wounds and Weapons: Israel as Unhealed Trauma – Joseph Dana
  – Israel is waging a holocaust in Gaza. Denazification is our only remedy – 972mag
  – Israel’s Intelligence Service Mossad: The Myth of “Long Arms” and the Reality of Failure – Elijah Magnier
  – Netanyahu Depicts Grim Economic Future for Israel, Need to Become an Autarky, “Super Sparta” Due to Isolation; Are There More Meanings? – Naked Capitalism

• Sep 18 – Saudi Arabia's Defense Pact With Pakistan Is A Strategic Loss For The U.S. of A.
  Related:
  – Pakistan says its nuclear program can be made available to Saudi Arabia under defense pact – AP
  – Petrodollars and the ‘Islamic bomb’: how a Saudi-Pakistan pact was forged (archived) – Financial Times
  – India’s influence in the Middle East: balancing energy, workers, and Saudi-Pakistan defense pact – Jerusalem Post

• Sep 19 – Poland's Attempt To Blackmail China Will Hurt Itself Most
  Related:
  – Poland border closure choking China-EU rail trade – Asia Times

• Sep 20 – Media Disguise Airspace Violation Claims
  Related:
  – Estonian scenario of the Third World War. What is the danger of the incident with Russian aircraft? (in Russian) – Strana

Suresh Nirody – snirody.eth @snirody – 15:22 utc · Sep 20, 2025

Hmm, it might have been helpful if the Estonian MOD had labeled the purple line on their map. They imply that it is "Estonian airspace" since that shows the "violation" but they don't actually say if it shows their 𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 or their 𝐄𝐄𝐙.
map

—
Other issues:

Cont. reading: The MoA Week In Review – OT 2025-215