Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
November 16, 2025
The MoA Week In Review – OT 2025-266

Last week’s posts on Moon of Alabama:


Other issues:

Gaza:

Europe:

Economy:

China:

Syria:

  • Syria comes in from the coldIndian Punchline
  • > Syrian presidency dismissed reports that President al-Sharaa had cooperated with Western intelligence services since 2016 to eliminate al-Qaeda and ISIS. Al-Sharaa was Abu Mohammad al-Joulani — an ISIS emir who later became al-Qaeda’s Emir in the Levant. < – Elijah Magnier
  • > Hakan Fidan, the Turkish Foreign Minister (formerly the head of MİT intelligence) announced publicly about HTS as: “We’ve had excellent cooperation on sharing intelligence to fight against especially DAESH leadership. They helped us a lot, but because of the sensitivities…” < – Husaan Hamoud

Miscellaneous:

Use as open (not related to the wars in Ukraine and Palestine) thread …

Comments

On Syria:
 

Alleged Russian troop deployment plan in southern Syria: 
 
Nine Russian observation posts will be permanently deployed in Quneitra, Daraa, and the Damascus countryside. These posts will be responsible for informing the Syrian side of Israeli military operations to prevent casualties.
 
The giant Antonov AN-124 Ruslan transport plane arrived at Hmeimim Air Base this morning carrying Russian reinforcements for the newly established deployment points.
The deployment plan in the south must be completed within a week, after which work will begin immediately on the eastern Euphrates and the coast.
 
The Russian deployment across the entire country will be larger than it was under the previous regime.

Posted by: Hamburger | Nov 21 2025 16:41 utc | 401

Two of Peter’s recent stories (from this thread) have stuck with me. The first one is about ringing cattle. The whirlwind that is driven along the creek, directed from the air, in order to suck in some more further up … I think that is prove positive that we have to expect the presence of evil spirits lurking invisibly, and trying to manipulate us for whatever gains. Walter von Lucadou from the Freiburg institute of Parapsychology darkly hinted, in a personal conversation, that something like this is happening much more often than we use to believe.
 
The second one is about the pair of women at the airport, one dressed in a suit and the other tall and all pink. I have a strong recollection that I saw them too when I was in Bangkok. They probably even talked to my sister, because the story of them doing a questionnaire thing for their university rings a bell as well. Now this could just be a sympathetic false memory, but …

Posted by: persiflo | Nov 21 2025 17:29 utc | 402

Piecing together all the information and analysis I have from the Venezuela front, I think what we are seeing here is an asymmetrical act of war. It’s actually a full campaign, intended to bring the down the country. Those strikes at the boats are part of a strangulation that attempts to choke indistinct lines of communication. Infiltration teams bringing down electricity poles crosses the line to open warfare, and now the armed forces have been declared a terrorist organization. This is going to go on for a while, with increasing  pressure from all angles. I wonder what the contingency plans are for when Venezuela starts attacking the US fleet in retaliation …

Posted by: persiflo | Nov 21 2025 17:35 utc | 403

excellent information from Hamburger on Syria!

Posted by: persiflo | Nov 21 2025 17:36 utc | 404

Sean Foo: ‘Bloodbath’
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUpkjpzedGM
 
“US economic panic begins on severe $3 Trillion wipeout hits the stock market.”

Posted by: John Gilberts | Nov 21 2025 18:12 utc | 405

What is excellent about watching the Israelis complete their redistribution of sects they manipulate for millennia into a new administrative geography that please them? By the way, they stole the name from the original inhabitants of the northern kingdom…

Posted by: Minaa | Nov 21 2025 18:59 utc | 406

I meant that the information is good. I didn’t think that calling it excellent would imply its content as well.

Posted by: persiflo | Nov 21 2025 19:02 utc | 407

Update: Southcom War Posture Against Venezuela
 
https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1991663954494648719
 
“Roughly 20% of the entire deployed US Navy is sitting in the Caribbean under a mission the White House still insists is just ‘counter-drug operations…”
 
 
US Warship Cuts Path of Russian Tanker Headed To Venezuela
 
https://x.com/venanalysis/status/1991756929367212401
 
“We wondered about this possibility: That the US would use its warships to block tankers and strangle the Venezuelan oil industry even more. 
 
According to Bloomberg, a US missile destroyer blocked a Russian tanker en route to deliver naptha in Venezuela.”

Posted by: John Gilberts | Nov 21 2025 19:30 utc | 408

From another thread:

“Former CIA Officer John Kiriakou says, The CIA has developed the capability to take over your car remotely by hacking into the car’s computer system to drive you off a bridge or into a tree”
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Nov 21 2025 11:17 utc | 252

Austrian politician Jörg Haider, famous as the Hetman of Kärnten, died in his Volkswagen Phaeton, allegedly drunken on the way home from a night club. 

His skilful political strategy peaked in 1999, when he secretly brokered a coalition deal with the Christian Democrat Party (ÖVP), whose leader, Wolfgang Schüssel, became chancellor in 2000 and forced the stunned Social Democrats into opposition.
 
European leaders, led by the French and Belgians, were horrified by Schüssel’s deal. Apparently afraid that right-wing parties in their own countries might also enter into local, regional or national governments, they threatened ‘sanctions’ against Austria. Such interference in the democrat elections of an EU member state was highly controversial. A ban on bilateral political contacts [reminiscent of the infamous Brandmauer against the AfD; p], introduced in February 2000, was dropped ignominiously in September.

More detail via VoA:

Investigators said the leader of the nationalist Alliance for Austria’s Future Party and governor of the country’s southern province of Carinthia, was driving his car early Saturday to attend the 90th birthday of his mother, when it veered off the road.
 
Police said the vehicle hit a concrete post, and rolled over several times before coming to a stop in the middle of the road, near the provincial capital Klagenfurt.
 
His death concluded two decades in which Haider became a politician well known far beyond the borders of this small alpine nation. He once praised German war-time leader Adolf Hitler’s employment policies, and visited former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
 
In 1999, Haider received 27 percent of the vote in national elections as leader of the Freedom Party. The party’s subsequent inclusion in the government led to months of European Union sanctions over Haider’s statements which were seen as anti-Semitic.

Posted by: persiflo | Nov 21 2025 22:41 utc | 409

@410 – Maybe Michael Hastings  will report on that.

Posted by: lex talionis | Nov 21 2025 22:54 utc | 410

🇺🇸🏴‍☠️⚡️🇻🇪🇷🇺 The American destroyer did not allow Russian oil to pass.A tanker carrying Russian fuel made three attempts to approach Venezuela, but the American destroyer obstructed it. The vessel is on the sanctions list and is claimed to belong to the “shadow fleet.”The Seahorse tanker under the Russian flag, sanctioned by the United Kingdom and the European Union, was transporting oil — fuel necessary for extracting heavy oil in Venezuela. Leaving Cuba on November 13, Seahorse headed towards Venezuelan waters when the American ship changed its position along its trajectory.To avoid confrontation, the tanker turned around and changed course back towards Cuba. Since then, it has twice unsuccessfully approached the shores of Venezuela before stopping in the Caribbean Sea. Besides it, there are two other sanctioned tankers near Venezuela — New Power and Azure Voyager.🔺Apparently, Russia will have to accompany its ships with warships.

  1. Z and v

Posted by: Jo | Nov 21 2025 23:36 utc | 411

Reuters-
“The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration warned major airlines on Friday of a “potentially hazardous situation” when flying over Venezuela and urged them to exercise caution.
 
The FAA notice the “worsening security situation and heightened military activity in or around Venezuela” and said threats could pose risks for aircraft at all altitudes.”
 
US recently declared the Venezuelan military a terrorist organization. Strikes on Venezuela will being very soon under the label of an anti terrorist operation.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 22 2025 1:55 utc | 412

From Reuters
 
MAGA favorite Marjorie Taylor Greene to resign after split with Trump

Saying she refused to be a “battered wife,” U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene announced on Friday she was resigning from the House of Representatives in the wake of a dramatic falling out with President Donald Trump.

 
Sounds a bit over the top but maybe stuff not clear to us not of faith behind this.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 22 2025 5:08 utc | 413

Another posting to take note of from Reuters
 
China takes spat with Japan over Taiwan to UN, vows to defend itself

China has taken its widening spat with Japan to the United Nations, accusing Tokyo of threatening “an armed intervention” over Taiwan and vowing to defend itself in its strongest language yet in the two-week-old dispute.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 22 2025 6:39 utc | 414

Just to add to my comment about China/Japan
 
Japan is having financial trouble and if China causes investors to shy away from Japan debt, Japan will fail, IMO

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 22 2025 6:43 utc | 415

Posted by: Jo | Nov 21 2025 23:36 utc | 412

… The American destroyer did not allow Russian oil to pass.A tanker carrying Russian fuel made three attempts to approach Venezuela, but the American destroyer obstructed it…

So we have entered the territory of maritime energy blockade. One would expect (or should I say hope) this major development would make the headlines in the West, but one has to actively search for it. Not a word on national radio.
 
Venezuela should be raising a storm about this. Make a scene at the UN, book interviews with Western media. Hell, buy some ad space on ytube. Just do something to get passed the wall of ignorance and apathy that Western belligerence absolutely depends on.
 
Watching the way the narrative front is defended is not encouraging. Sigh. Syria2, here we come.

Posted by: robin | Nov 22 2025 8:23 utc | 416

Isle of Man. Living life on the edge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMjzLgUP8uk
 
I was ever much good as a bike rider, but betting your skill at what you do best, against your life…. the ultimate in life. The only judge is life or death.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 22 2025 8:50 utc | 417

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UVDixQDNo7Q?feature=share
 
My mate is a bike rider. He was/is into dirt bikes. One day he asked if I wanted to go to the Fink with him. I knew he had not been on a bike for 19 years or so. I said yeah thinking it must be months away as he would have to get back into it first, and said when. He said two weeks. Crazy buggers those bike riders. Riding in the veterans class at that point. We went up five years running. Toby price at that time riding for KTM was far above anything else. 
 
 

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 22 2025 9:11 utc | 418

That video I linked at 419. Does anyone know who sang that version of the Sound of Silence. I would like to find it.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 22 2025 9:24 utc | 419

Have finally found it.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3ZDJMvLYvQ
 
Needs to be dedicated to the Russian fighters who have died or been maimed defeating the hegemon and the corruption termed Nato.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 22 2025 9:33 utc | 420

Irish Don. Your country puts out good music. I am anglo Australian. I have no time for our pom monarch. Liam clancy you linked. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFCekeoSTwg
…………………….
 
Persiflo. We live in an odd world here in the west. We have moved into a world divorced from reality.
 
Its an odd thing to me, just a shitkicker from the bush. What b has set up here. I guess I am an oddball in that although I do not have spiritual beliefs, I get annoyed when some here are attacked for their spiritual beliefs.
 
b has often pulled his old gestapo hat of the wall and disciplined me. That old term, an officer and a gentleman.
Apart from b, so many good people here. From all walks of life.
Putin, betting his life against his ability. Somebody I can connect with.
This is an odd world persiflo.
 

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 22 2025 10:35 utc | 421

To bet your life against your skill. How many have actually done that? 

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 22 2025 10:46 utc | 422

That video I linked at 419. Does anyone know who sang that version of the Sound of Silence. I would like to find it.
 
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 22 2025 9:24 utc | 420
 
_______
 
It’s some Zionazi creep. Ignore.

Posted by: malenkov | Nov 22 2025 11:47 utc | 423

malenkov | Nov 22 2025 11:47 utc | 424
 
No. I found it. There will be aspects we hold different views. You are homosexual, I am not. I dont say that disparangingly ( yandex spell checker is hopeless).  Apart  from my ability to spell; big bad words, al;thugh we may disagree on some things, I respect you for your honesty.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 22 2025 13:01 utc | 424

@ Peter AU1 | Nov 22 2025 13:01 utc | 425
 
I’m not sure what David Draiman’s Zionazism — its his cover of the song in the video you linked, and he’s made a show of autographing bombs subsequently used on Gazans — has to do with homosexuality…

Posted by: malenkov | Nov 22 2025 13:41 utc | 425

*it’s

Posted by: malenkov | Nov 22 2025 13:41 utc | 426

lex talionis@22:54 
What’s that phrase lex – oh yea “six ways to Sunday”

Posted by: will moon | Nov 22 2025 18:03 utc | 427

malenkov | Nov 22 2025 13:41 utc | 426
 
Thanks.  So much of that sort of music I have liked in the past in still do – but then I see a transcript of the lyrics, or as you pointed out who was behind that version I liked.  I guess it was only with the downing of MH17, I began studying the grand chessboard. Due to chronic illness having set in, it gave me time to do so.
 
Friends, family, all apart from one friend have married the blob. Lira’s system pigs.
 
I’ll try this one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P273o0m1AFw
 
 

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 22 2025 21:56 utc | 428

I was going to post this on the new discussion tomorrow, but my schedule has changed, so I’ll post it now.
 
China (PBOC) is very effectively issuing USD and Euro-denominated debt, with massive foreign demand. The issuances are usually out of Hong Kong, and in my opinion, demonstrate how successfully China has captured the global financial markets.
 
RMB (Renminbi) debt demand is also high, guaranteeing the Chinese room to accumulate capital rapidly.
 
This sort of debt is typically held by institutions like central banks and massive funds.
 
It is getting harder and harder for Treasury Secretary Bessent to conduct US treasury sales, hence why Stablecoin has been so much in discussion lately. Without increasing access to debt, the US will collapse. Compound interest is the most powerful force in finance.
 
I personally love the way the Chinese do strategy. They don’t hit 5 or 10 vectors in succession, but dozens all at once with increasing pressure on each. Similar to a “flood the zone” approach. Competitors are hemorrhaging from multiple wounds simultaneously, unable to focus on one.
 
China doesn’t need to replace the dollar. Increasingly, they de facto control it, where America owns all of the downside (inflation, for example).

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Nov 22 2025 21:56 utc | 429

LoveDonbass | Nov 22 2025 21:56 utc | 430
 
That comment – very similar to the Russia Nato conflict in Ukraine. Russia China. Russia China Iran. Very much a tag team, each fighting in their own way according to their strengths in various spheres. Add NK to that tag team.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 22 2025 22:03 utc | 430

Another. Very apt for the self destruction of the west. Just a few lyrics need changing, The protest era, most are system pigs. Rodger waters from Pink Floyd though is an exception to the rule.
 
I guess for the self destruction the western world is going through, this is apt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfZVu0alU0I Barry Maguire and the eve of destruction.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 22 2025 22:17 utc | 431

Below is a ZH posting title but I refuse to provide the link because nowhere in the article do they say that Trump called MTG treasonous which is a major part of the reason she left…….a total misrepresentation of the MTG situation which you get from ZH on a regular basis and need to be wary of
 
‘I Refuse To Be A Battered Wife’ – Marjorie Taylor Green Abandoning House Seat

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 22 2025 22:18 utc | 432

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 22 2025 22:03 utc | 431
 
#####
 
Venezuela too. There are more waiting but that is most of the major players.
 
I have said for decades that when America (the West) shows weakness, all of the wolves will come out.
 
The Colonizers are very lucky that their opponents don’t think like them. The Axis doesn’t want to destroy the West; they want to subdue it and welcome it into a new, more equitable, and meritocratic order.
 
But we’ve seen before, it is not easy to reform Nazis. I doubt Zionists can be reformed because they believe wholeheartedly that they are right and everyone else is an enemy no matter what.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Nov 22 2025 22:44 utc | 433

I have said for decades that when America (the West) shows weakness, all of the wolves will come out. Posted by: LoveDonbass | Nov 22 2025 22:44 utc | 434
 
I guess I would simply term it as, the eastern world rising at the same time the western world is sinking. They have the vision for a new era in this constantly changing world. The western world is mired in the post WWII era.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 22 2025 22:53 utc | 434

I guess I would simply term it as, the eastern world rising at the same time the western world is sinking. They have the vision for a new era in this constantly changing world.
 
Peter AU1  435

 
! ! ! 

Posted by: persiflo | Nov 22 2025 23:01 utc | 435

The Grayzone Live: ‘I Spy’
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vZqlBZUSus
 
Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate analyze and discuss current events.
 
Recommended.

Posted by: John Gilberts | Nov 22 2025 23:17 utc | 436

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 22 2025 22:53 utc | 435
 
#####
 
The Chinese have learned that the arc of history is long; the West tends to believe that the arc of history bends to its will.
 
One rises, one falls. If the world exists in 1,000 years, many of the countries today are likely to be historical footnotes.
 
A sword can cut the wielder with both sides of the blade. Dangerous to wield, but there is something in our primal nature to pick one up and wield it despite the dangers.
 
Permanency is fragile and unnatural.
 
We’re reverting to the mean, IMO. 

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Nov 22 2025 23:48 utc | 437

 This video goes nicely with Emmanuel Todd’s analysis of the western decline, for some bitter lulz

Posted by: persiflo | Nov 23 2025 0:05 utc | 438

Permanency is fragile and unnatural. 
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Nov 22 2025 23:48 utc | 438
 
My mother died when she was young. I was eighteen at the time. I did not expect to live till now. That flying I did, living on the edge of life. I guess all I can say is that the gods must be crazy to keep me alive.
 
The mate who came round, sat me on a chair and got me some water. Had been a solid mate for life. He is afraid of death. In a number of ways, rough as they come yet afraid of death. He is gone. The mate that sticks with me is I guess somewhat like me. A more diplomatic version of me. He raced bikes and has lived to an extent on the edge of life.
 
Life. A bloody odd thing.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 23 2025 0:09 utc | 439

persiflo | Nov 23 2025 0:05 utc | 439
 
So much of American culture is a culture of destruction. The assorted doctrines right up to full spectrum dominance. That video. there is big bucks bucks to be extracted from American and Americanised audiences for destruction of big dollar vehicles.
That hill race in Iceland the same. The early ones I saw were good. But then they morphed to destruction. Courses set were not tough courses. They were designed to pull in big bucks from viewers and ‘competitors’ paid big dollars to destroy their vehicles. Trump wrestling.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 23 2025 0:22 utc | 440

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 23 2025 0:09 utc | 440
 
#####
 
I won’t bore or annoy you with my thoughts on death, but I will offer another perspective.
 
Perhaps, you’re still alive because you have much yet to do. Things that only you can do, you with your mind, your experiences, your biases, your insight.
 
I do not believe in coincidences or accidents. IMO, everything has purpose, and it is up to us to glean what that purpose is.
 
I refuse to believe we’re all experiencing a random, chaotic episode. Even if it were true, I would struggle to accept that.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Nov 23 2025 0:40 utc | 441

I wrote something about the cossacks and Chechen’s in the current thread. There is something about Russian history. When not under attack, it relaxes in those icy lands. The Russian bear. Slow to saddle. But something happens when the bear is poked. It goes back through history.
 
Trump playing poker with the bear through the night…. He will leave next morning having lost everything including his clothes.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 23 2025 0:48 utc | 442

I’ve got a story about that Icelandic spleen. I went over there in 1992 I think, me and my sister and my dad in a Fiat 900. We had to catch a ferry in Denmark, but that thing broke down for the first time before we had reached Mainz at 100k. My dad was unfazed. We made the boat and had an unforgettable journey, including the transverse of the inlands – the only road connecting the ring road to itself. Sometimes the 25kW engine overheated, so we cooled it with glacier ice or snow along the way. Dirt from fordings was over the windshield. When we reached again in the south, my dad (who speaks no word in any foreign language) had me ask at the petrol station “which way to Reykjavik?” and the lady on the counter wouldn’t believe it.  Then, upon reaching Akureyri, the starter failed. It was dusk, and we had to catch the ferry home in a couple of days in the next town, several 100k away. I don’t know how, but we ended up in repair shop where the mechanic was lucky enough to have the starter from a 600 lying around and fitted it overnight. He accepted no payment, but wanted us to come to a race where he was working as a mechanic the next day … so we did, and guess where we ended up.
 
It was insane. I remember the guy who won that day had a huge pirate flag dangling from his vehicle, which ran on Nitromethanol for a bit of extra power. The monstrous tires once dug up a big stone and launched it 50m high up in the air towards the crowd. The mechanics sometimes rightened gear train or suspension failure after the cars went aloft from climbing 70 meters of steep slope[?!? – I may be mistaken on that], with the bit straight upright, and then came tumbling down again.This video looks a lot like it was back then, perhaps the editing choices convey a different feel. They really want to go up there.

Posted by: persiflo | Nov 23 2025 1:24 utc | 443

Motor sports. That Iceland hill climbing was a rough and tumble event. But in the last few years, the organisers released it was the tumble people wanted to see. People from sterile padded cells paying to see safe disaster.
 
My mate was around just before and I asked him if he would race the Isle of Man. He said he would like to, not to try and get on the podium. He would be happy amongst the midfielders or even the tail enders who ride that. I guess when young he would have been intent on being in there with the best. The dirt endurance riding he did, plenty got busted but few died. The Fink, the Alice Springs hospital sets aside a ward each year for that event.
 
That sort of riding, with body armour and helmet and whatever is living on the edge of injury. Toby price, if you x rayed him the skeleton would look like a Frankenstein. One year there he had busted his foot in practice several days before the race. That year was I think the 50th anniversary for the race. The early days were shotgun start. The bikes were parked and when the shotgun went off, they had to run to their bikes, start them and take off. For the fifty year event,. they had got in all the old veteran winners for a run around the prolog track with a shotgun start.
 
Toby began hobbling to his bike before the gun went off and was told to go back to the line. When the gun went off, the others had all disappeared by the time  Toby got to his bike. It was just a fun event so he puts it on its back wheel and hoons off. Several minutes out of sight around the track then Toby pulls up before the finish line and waits for the other blokes so they could ride across the line together.
 
The actual race. Broken bones did not phase him. He cruised through in his normal style.  I always camped at the 80k fuel stop with a rowdy mob of blokes from Geelong. Toby rode for KTM and their fuel stop was a k down the track. One year he came through with a flat back tire. That made no difference either. He was always the front runner and as far as I could make out, backing off the throttle was not an option. Hearing him coming through the bends before our camp, going past us like he was just cruising down a straight bitumen road, his throttle would only wind back when close to the KTM fuel stop.  
 
My mate talked to him for a bit. He was no Tom Cruise Ferrari formula one driver. Just an ordinary bloke. A good bloke to talk to if you are into bikes. I’m not into bikes.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 23 2025 2:41 utc | 444

LoveDonbass | Nov 23 2025 0:40 utc | 442
 
I don’t know about that. The only rational answer I can think of is ‘The gods must be crazy’. 

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 23 2025 2:56 utc | 445

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 23 2025 2:56 utc | 446
The more you complain, the longer God makes you live.

Posted by: lex talionis | Nov 23 2025 2:58 utc | 446

 lex talionis | Nov 23 2025 2:58 utc | 447
 
🙂 I have always told the bullshitters to go eff themselves. Sometimes in diplomatic terms, sometimes in blunt terms.
 
You come through as a bit of a weirdo.  At the moment, I am not sure if I should put you in the bin for landfill or in the recycling bin.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 23 2025 3:14 utc | 447

My uncle raced bikes. I remember endless conversations around the family table whether he should go with a japanese or a german brand. He was a freelancer. During his first season in the pro circus he crashed with severe injuries. The best thing that came from it was a joke he made last time I saw him – he picked me up at the station, and before seeing aunt Käthe we stopped at the pastry shop in a rundown town of the Ruhr valley. Gently parking out under grey skies, he mocked another driver who was fumbling and blocked our way: “He must have gotten his license from Amazon!” (that would be Neckermann, but you get the drift).

Posted by: persiflo | Nov 23 2025 3:18 utc | 448

“He must have gotten his license from Amazon!”
 
I like that one persiflo. The oddities of life. My one mate that has stuck with me – he has lived lived on the edge to a small extent. I asked him if he would race at the Isle of Man and that got conversation going. We talked about engineering and he talked about the ancient building of old Europe still standing. The older roman stuff still standing.
He wondered how they dun it. I said nous. He has it. He is even worse than me with maths. Those ancient builders. Maths combined with nous. China the infrastructure superpower comes to mind in that regard.
 
Numerical machining. Learning G code. Very much out of my comfort zone. My mate bought that CNC thinking I was the god of know it all, so then I had to learn numerical machining. For that we needed a workshop computer. He sent me off to buy one, and then I had to build a fold top desk to house it. 
I like a pic on the screen and knew I was going down. A Jolliffs saltbush Bill cartoon of Jacky with the caption ‘gone walk about’. I have not been able to find that now. 
 
Some saltbush bill.
https://www.morgansrarebooks.com/products/jolliffe-s-outback-by-eric-jolliffe

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 23 2025 4:14 utc | 449

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 23 2025 3:14 utc | 448
I am a harmless weirdo headed for the bin, although I might be recycled via my daughter.  Personally, landfill is cool with me.  
I guess I still get to stick around because I pay my dues to the barkeep.  Cheer to b!
 

Posted by: lex talionis | Nov 23 2025 4:27 utc | 450

Peter AU!:
 

The Russian bear. Slow to saddle. But something happens when the bear is poked. It goes back through history. Trump playing poker with the bear through the night…. He will leave next morning having lost everything including his clothes.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 23 2025 0:48 utc | 443

Peter, I like that first line (Don’t have a clue how I managed to put that line up there- disregard!
 
Disagree with the second one.   This is not a game, if it ever was.   I think Putin knows that Trump has been a victim of  Root Causes.   He’s trying to help.    We need his help.  I don’t think karlof1  is seeing that, much as I appreciate his dedication.  
 
 
 

Posted by: juliania | Nov 23 2025 4:40 utc | 451

Rats, I got spacing wrong.
 
First part I agree with ends with the word ‘history’.
 
Second part I don’t agree begins with ‘Trump’ and ends with ‘clothes’.

Posted by: juliania | Nov 23 2025 4:43 utc | 452

@  juliania | Nov 23 2025 4:43 utc | 453
 
i am curious what your position is juliania and i am unable to unravel it in your 2 posts here! what is it that you think and what is it that you think karl is not seeing?? curious.. thanks..

Posted by: james | Nov 23 2025 4:52 utc | 453

@ juliania | Nov 23 2025 4:40 utc | 452 who continues to present a confusing support of Trump to this barfly.
 
I do not get where you find a shred of humanistic intention in anything Trump has done in this or his 1.0.
 
The only credit I might give him, yet to be proven given his bluster, is that he might not go the nuke route but still try and maintain private finance hegemony.
 
What are you going to say when it comes out that Trump diddled underage women?

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 23 2025 4:57 utc | 454

juliania | Nov 23 2025 4:40 utc | 452
 
The game. the great game of life and death. When the bear is poked, it is a master of that dark art. That flying I did. Fools died. All I knew in that game died. Putin is no fool.
 
This world of estrogen and testosterone and puberty blockers….  puberty blockers and sex change. A mushroom trip into debauchery.
 
But those two basics of men and women. The mindsets – the bond between mother and child. The father who will work his ringer off and fight to protect them.  It all goes down the gurgler with this woke stuff. This mass propaganda we see in the media. Very sophisticated, it preys on the estrogen mind.
 
Together, man and woman, there is strength. divided they are weak. We live in a western world of divide and conquer.
 

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 23 2025 5:31 utc | 455

With wisdom alcohol cannot drown

Together, man and woman, there is strength. divided they are weak. We live in a western world of divide and conquer. 
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 23 2025 5:31 utc | 456

 
I have long thought myself as a lone wolf here with my rants against patriarchy and am encouraged to read your words, thanks.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 23 2025 5:38 utc | 456

lex talionis | Nov 23 2025 4:27 utc | 451
 
You got a laugh out of me with that reply.  Keep on keeping on lex.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 23 2025 5:48 utc | 457

Posted by: lex talionis | Nov 23 2025 2:58 utc | 447
 
#####
 
You’re a good egg, IMO.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Nov 23 2025 5:53 utc | 458

From ZH
 

The United States plans on Monday to designate the Cartel de los Soles a foreign terrorist organization for its alleged role in importing illegal drugs into the United States, officials said. The Trump administration has accused Maduro of leading Cartel de los Soles, which he denies.
Washington in August doubled its reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest to $50 million. But U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week that the terrorist designation “brings a whole bunch of new options to the United States.”
Trump has said the upcoming designation would allow the United States to strike Maduro’s assets and infrastructure in Venezuela, but he also has indicated a willingness to potentially pursue talks in hopes of a diplomatic solution.
Maduro said earlier this week that the countries’ differences should be resolved through diplomacy and that he is willing to hold face-to-face talks with anyone interested. Two U.S. officials acknowledged conversations between Caracas and Washington. It was unclear whether those conversations could impact the timing or scale of potential U.S. operations.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 23 2025 5:54 utc | 459

 psychohistorian | Nov 23 2025 5:38 utc | 457
 
That old saying. It takes two to tango. Two men or two women cannot tango. So few women have the strength to sit in this bar. Those that do I have the highest respect for. Jan the Librarian from Sydney. She was like a walking encyclopedia. 
 
This walk of life. We reach the peak then go into the downhill run on the other side.
She made a couple of what she considered mistakes apologized and disappeared. We are all mere mortals and have to live with who we are.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 23 2025 6:16 utc | 460

james | Nov 23 2025 4:52 utc | 454
 
juliania’s comment was in reference to my comment. 453 had nothing to do with Karl.. I guess juliania will correct me if I am wrong on that.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 23 2025 6:28 utc | 461

That Iceland hill climbing was a rough and tumble event. But in the last few years, the organisers released it was the tumble people wanted to see. People from sterile padded cells paying to see safe disaster.

What audience? Akureyri, as Iceland’s second city, had only 40k inhabitants back then, the whole island 280k. It’s 350k now, by the way. They must have started to export it. Anyway, it wasn’t exactly sterile in 92. There was also no entrance fee. They did it for reasons.

Posted by: persiflo | Nov 23 2025 12:14 utc | 462

A British scumbag commenting on the Russian bikers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TifQYCPmeBQ
 
Perhaps he is not a scumbag.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 23 2025 12:17 utc | 463

persiflo | Nov 23 2025 12:14 utc | 463
 
The television audience. The youtube audience. Big bucks from from advertising scum if you can pull in the views.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 23 2025 12:31 utc | 464

from from… whatever.
 
 

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 23 2025 12:43 utc | 465

Venezuela has recorded eighteen consecutive quarters of economic expansion, a milestone President Nicolás Maduro attributes to the nation’s Bolivarian Economic Agenda and its strategic pivot toward food sovereignty, industrial diversification, and regional integration. According to official data and international projections, Venezuela economic growth is not only real—it is accelerating, defying years of external pressure and widespread skepticism.
 
The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) now forecasts a 6% increase in Venezuela’s GDP for 2025, following a remarkable 9% growth in 2024. This positions Venezuela as the fastest-growing economy in South America—more than doubling the regional average of 2.4%. Far from a statistical anomaly, this sustained recovery reflects structural shifts in production, trade, and fiscal management that are reshaping the country’s economic trajecto
 
https://www.telesurenglish.net/venezuela-economic-growth/

Posted by: arby | Nov 23 2025 12:50 utc | 466

And them in the South American country the US gave billions to a chainsaw wielding lunatic—
Argentina Moves to Roll Back Glacier Protections Amid Mining Push
Argentina’s push to weaken glacier protections would expose strategic water reserves to mining, undermining human rights and climate resilience despite scientific warnings.

 
 

Posted by: arby | Nov 23 2025 12:56 utc | 467

Yves Engler For NDP Leader
 
https://mailchi.mp/4156d84a07fc/please-help-improve-canadian-foreign-policy-by-holding-government-to-account-17665700?e=abec92a290
 
“Yves has been excluded from the NDP leadership debate in Montreal, but his voice will not be silenced. You can watch tomorrow’s debate live, with commentary from Yves Engler and friends.
 
Grab your popcorn. Tune in to watch the live stream on Nov 27, 7pm EST at:
 
https://www.youtube.com/@yvesengler2180
 
yvesforndpleader.ca

Posted by: John Gilberts | Nov 27 2025 4:16 utc | 468

@ Peter AU1 | Nov 23 2025 6:16 utc | 461
 
The Aussie librarian Jen  is still contributing here.
 
After her nick was appropriated and exploited some time ago she began tuning in with her astute posts as Refinnejenna.
 
— or at least that is my understanding … 
 
~~
 i agree with you that the Aussie Dr. Clancy interview with Dr. J Campbell is important.  I saw it when it first came out.  How can this continue unremarked? Besides extreme corruption.

Posted by: suzan | Nov 27 2025 4:38 utc | 469

@  juliania | Nov 23 2025 4:43 utc | 453 i am curious what your position is juliania and i am unable to unravel it in your 2 posts here! what is it that you think and what is it that you think karl is not seeing?? curious.. thanks..
Posted by: james | Nov 23 2025 4:52 utc | 454

@ juliania | Nov 23 2025 4:40 utc | 452 who continues to present a confusing support of Trump to this barfly. I do not get where you find a shred of humanistic intention in anything Trump has done in this or his 1.0. The only credit I might give him, yet to be proven given his bluster, is that he might not go the nuke route but still try and maintain private finance hegemony. What are you going to say when it comes out that Trump diddled underage women?
Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 23 2025 4:57 utc | 455

Apologies guys,  I think I might have missed these questions to me.  And it is a double apology because I realized in the days since that I could not make sense of the situation at all — first the questionable 28 point plan, and then Putin’s reception of same.   I still don’t understand Trump at all; apologize for my preliminary attempt here.  I don’t think it was accurate at all.
 
There seem to be a big chunk of our discussions since the 23rd that have disappeared.    Some of us had returned  to literary subjects , which was a relief to me.  And I gave a couple of long Platonic references to the discussion about hate and anger that everyone was  analyzing.  Is all of that somewhere else now, or gone forever?  Very strange that.

Posted by: juliania | Nov 27 2025 4:55 utc | 470

@ juliania
 
no problem.. thanks for picking it up.. off to read and go to bed…

Posted by: james | Nov 27 2025 5:30 utc | 471

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 23 2025 5:48 utc | 458
Thank you, Sir!  I will keep continuing.  MoA has a grip on me as bad as a few other vices.  I am just a bin liner, though.  Much respect!
And shout out to suzan and refininjenna, two of my favs.  
Respect to LD as well.
I guess this post is a bit of a role call on my part, so…
karorof1.  – Charles Beard
Psychohistorian –  my copy of The Dawn of Everything just arrived!
Ornot, Michaelj72 ( and others ) – the Palestine thread is too painful at times.  
We are graced by Herr b to have this place to poke through the entrails of this disaster called life in the modern world.  
In Hawthorne California, home of the Beach Boys, there is a bar called The Greatest. It is a total dive where one can still smoke cigarettes inside.  It is what I imagine MoA to be were it to exist. 
Shoutout to Caveman, featherless, Denk, Jon in AU, Ahenobarbarus, Norwegian, wayinnorway, canuk, william moon, and of course, our hot b. 
And all the others from whom I have learned so much.  
Much respect to persiflo.  I miss Scorpion. 
james – Thanks for Carol Kaye.  My daughter is a musician.
Sorry for forgetting everyone else here who have taught me so very, very much.
Respect to all of y’all!
I could go on and I won’t.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in USA.  It’s my favorite holiday here in Pindostan.  No gifts. Just cook, eat, and share time with friends and family.
God help us all.
 

Posted by: lex talionis | Nov 27 2025 5:34 utc | 472

I forgot miss juliania.
Matrona Nikonova

Posted by: lex talionis | Nov 27 2025 5:36 utc | 473

off to read and go to bed…
Posted by: james | Nov 27 2025 5:30 utc | 472
 
I found the book, Breath : the new science of a lost art, recommended here by you and psychohistorian to be a good read.  Thanks!
 
~~
 
Also, juliania, your commentary on Socrates i did not miss, i.e. it exists or existed for me.  I appreciate your thoughtfulness.  Happy Thanksgiving.

Posted by: suzan | Nov 27 2025 5:46 utc | 474

Since the John Gilberts comment about 1.5 hours ago all the MoA Week in Review OT commenters have been coming here (last week) instead of this weeks https://www.moonofalabama.org/2025/11/the-moa-week-in-review-ot-2025-269.html/comment-page-5#comment-1233768

Posted by: psychohistorian | Nov 27 2025 5:54 utc | 475