Reader’s Links for January 9th, 2025

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Each day at just after midnight Eastern, a post like this one is created for contributors and readers of this site to upload news links and video links on the issues that concern this site. Most notably, Islam and its effects on Classical Civilization, and various forms of leftism from Soviet era communism, to postmodernism and all the flavours of galloping statism and totalitarianism such as Nazism and Fascism which are increasingly snuffing out the classical liberalism which created our near, miraculous civilization the West has been building since the time of Socrates.

This document was written around the time this site was created, for those who wish to understand what this site is about. And while our understanding of the world and events has grown since then, the basic ideas remain sound and true to the purpose.

So please post all links, thoughts and ideas that you feel will benefit the readers of this site to the comments under this post each day. And thank you all for your contributions.

This is the new Samizdat. We must use it while we can.

For those interested, please check out https://vladtepesblog.substack.com/ as an another avenue of expression. The Substack is a different project in a sense. It is older videos that in the light of subsequent events, look different or of increased importance, Check it out now and again if you like.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

27 Replies to “Reader’s Links for January 9th, 2025”

  2. If you sit out local elections or think they don’t matter, just watch this clip of LA’s mayor:
    End Wokeness – January 8, 2025
    https://x.com/EndWokeness/status/1877151300019945826

    This is who the REAL Karen Bass is, are we actually surprised? No wonder she didn’t bother to offer an empathetic response to her constituents. She needs to be fully investigated!!
    Michelle Maxwell – January 8, 2025
    https://x.com/MichelleMaxwell/status/1877164442367975919

  3. For those who dismiss PT’s statements as mere gamesmanship, such as Viva Frei, a quick understanding of what is at stake clarifies the matter. Military Summary. BTW the 40 million inhabitants of Canada are incidental to the broader picture:

    • I was just going to post this!

      Would Russia, which holds the largest stake in the Arctic, buddy up with the USA, which holds one of the smallest?
      Maybe.
      • Because CHY-na is already encroaching on Russian territory in the Caucasus and its far west.

      • And Canada, with its huge stake in the Arctic is falling like a ripe fruit into the Dragon’s maw.

      • The USA has prioritized far away places with strange-sounding names. We’ve seen Latin America as more of a nuisance than anything else. The door has been left opened for CHY-na.

      Our foreign policy mandarins continue to be led by old Rhodes Scholar types, adopting their centuries-old rivalries. Imperial Russia, USSR, the current Russian Federation – it didn’t start or end with godless communism. British newspapers during the Crimean War featured tropes identical to those used today.

      China has seduced our business and political elites. “Elite capture” on a scale unprecedented in history. We won’t survive by fighting the last war; we must reverse suicidal policies both domestically and within our immediate sphere of influence.

      China and Russia are NOT natural allies. For decades we’ve temporized with the former while demonizing the latter. They’re BOTH our rivals, enmity between our countries runs too deep to ensure any trust whatsoever.

      But we stand to lose everything if we keep seeing them in the same “Evil Empire” box.

      • Strategy : the logic of war and peace
        by Luttwak, Edward
        https://archive.org/details/strategylogicofw0000lutt

        Read the Summary:
        Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace, Revised and Enlarged
        https://www.amazon.com/Strategy-Logic-Peace-Revised-Enlarged/dp/0674007034
        ………
        Luttvak comes at things from a direction academe hates. Practical.

        He’s known Vladimir Putin since early St. Petersburg days, spent time getting to know China. He’s lived everywhere, advised POTUS[s] as well as business and political leaders around the world.

        In an earlier incarnation I worked as a petroleum economist/engineer on the International Petroleum Exchange Model and State Petroleum Enterprises. He helped straighten me out.

        • Seriously, once you see that Military Summary map you can’t un-see it. You guys must take action.

          • I think that you can trust Trump and Vance to both see the need for us to control a lot of land bordering the Arctic. I hope the union will be achieved by a large percentage of Canadians standing up and asking to join the US.

            I doubt if you will become just one state, it is more likely that each province will become a new state with Quebec having a lot of internal problems about joining the US or becoming its own nation. As you say once you see the map you can’t unsee it, that map shows the necessity of the US and Canada becoming one nation.

            • Actually Quebec in many ways has more of an American culture than does English Canada.

              Although things change, and I think awake English Canada would support being part of the USA at this point.

              I do like the meme that says:

              “Leftists: -If Trump wins, we will move to Canada”

              Donland Trump: “I’m gonna make Canada the 51st state”

              Too good. Too good.

              • I hope they do because it looks like world events are pushing both nations in that direction. The crazyness is just starting and both of us need all of the people we can get to defend North America and freedom.

      • Most of the people are stuck in yesterdays world and yesterdays sources of minerals, Trump and Musk have their eyes on the future and are thinking about how to ensure the US remains a free nation.

        Will Russia ally with the US over the arctic? Probably, Putin and his people know what China is like and as you point out have a long historical hatred for the Chinese. While they dislike the US because of our fighting them in the Cold War before that we were allies of the Russians in both World Wars and purchases Alaska when the Czars decided that it was too far from Moscow for the Czars to maintain control of the people put in charge of that region.

      • China helping Houthis obtain weapons for unmolested Red Sea passage

        A secret collaboration between Beijing and the Houthis has been uncovered, revealing a vast network of supply of sophisticated armaments that threatens the stability of the Red Sea.

        According to American intelligence sources…the Iran-backed Yemeni terror group is using Chinese-made weapons in their attacks, in exchange for immunity for ships flying the Chinese flag.

        US intelligence services have identified a complex supply chain set up by the Houthis in China since the beginning of the attacks in the Red Sea. This network allows them to acquire advanced components and guidance equipment for their ballistic and cruise missiles.

        Even more worrying, Houthi leaders are reportedly planning to manufacture hundreds of cruise missiles capable of striking Persian Gulf states, using these same Chinese components.

        https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/middle-east/artc-china-helping-houthis-obtain-advanced-weapons-for-free-passage

  6. Fall, 9-27-2024:
    How Russian Surveillance Tech is Reshaping Latin America

    EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
    Over the past decade, Russian-based companies have provided sophisticated surveillance technology to several Latin American countries. These technologies are critical to the survival of the repressive regimes in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba, and possibly criminal nonstate actors that weaken democracy and threaten U.S. national security.

    The transfer of surveillance technologies and other cyber activities, often run by Russian intelligence officials directly tied to Russia’s state cyber structures, goes beyond traditionally understood gray zone activities. While these technologies empower the region’s most repressive regimes and criminal threat networks, they also give Russia access to key military, law enforcement, and financial data in multiple countries in the Western Hemisphere.

    Multiple platforms in Latin America now operate the most sophisticated of these malicious cyber activities under direct Russian state security supervision. These include a high-security military complex in Cerro Mokorón, Nicaragua; the Maduro regime fortress of Fuerte Tiuna, Venezuela; and corporate spaces in Chile. Transnational criminal organizations are also acquiring Russian surveillance technology, some of which are advertised on Russian state websites.

    The heart of the systems provided by the Russians for surveillance activities is the System for Operative-Investigative Activities (SORM-3), capable of gathering information and data from all communications media and creating mobile block points to immediately intercept and record the operator’s digital traffic and monitor credit card transactions.

    Our research identified three primary ways Russia is expanding its digital presence in the hemisphere:
    (1) direct placement and control of technology on the ground,
    (2) through state and parastate groups that present themselves as private partnerships affiliated with Russian cyber defense, and
    (3) through companies less visibly linked to the Russian state but led by longtime senior intelligence operatives from the days of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

    The first step in countering Russian cyber networks and outreach in Latin America is to make understanding the scope and methodologies of the adversary a higher policy priority. With a baseline understanding, the United States, through its embassies and selected outreach, should develop an outreach and education program to blunt the progress of Russia’s cyber actors.

    The lack of understanding of Russian strategic interests in this sphere is compounded by the lack of Russian-language speakers. An important step to counter Russian strategic advances would be to have a small group of Russian-language experts with cyber experience available to allied governments seeking to address these vulnerabilities within their administrations.

    Finally, the U.S. government should help form public-private partnerships with groups of trusted U.S. cyber experts with knowledge of Russia who could help the business communities and local IT providers understand and address the strategic challenges raised by Russia’s actions.

    https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1066&context=jgi_research

  7. Jan. 2023:
    China’s Network of Ports Grows in Latin America

    According to a late 2022 study by the U.S.-based national security and defense think tank Center for a Secure Free Society (SFS), the number of Chinese-owned or operated ports worldwide has increased considerably. 

    China’s foothold in some 40 ports in Latin America from Peru to Mexico, combined with 11 satellite ground stations in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, and Venezuela, allows the country to have strategic locations in the Western Hemisphere…

    Many of the Chinese state-owned companies involved in these infrastructure investment and development projects have ties to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA)…. China’s military force, in support of Chinese companies’ economic expansion, has been cautiously moving forward for a long time…
    …
    “China cajoles [Latin America] and welcomes places where there is little capital flowing […] to have a monopoly of certain maritime routes; and that, in itself, is an advantage in military strategic terms,” Pou concluded.

    https://dialogo-americas.com/?s=China+panama
    ………
    Panama: China’s Strategic Hub
    —–4m video, can’t embed
    https://dialogo-americas.com/articles/panama-chinas-strategic-hub-2/era

  8. China’s Growing Influence in Latin America

    For more than two decades, China has developed close economic and security ties with many Latin American countries, including Brazil and Venezuela. But Beijing’s growing sway in the region has raised concerns in Washington and beyond.

    • What is China’s history with Latin America?
    • How have economic relations developed?
    • What are China’s political interests in the region?
    • What security ties do they have?
    • What are other major areas of bilateral cooperation?
    • How has the United States responded?

    https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/china-influence-latin-america-argentina-brazil-venezuela-security-energy-bri

  12. Former Mossad Official: The Americans Know How to Dismantle the Iranian Nuclear Threat in Eight Hours

    Iran still does not have nuclear weapons, which means someone is doing something right.

    What the Israeli Air Force and CENTCOM accomplished during the Iranian attack in April was incredible. When the U.S. understood that an Iranian attack was imminent, the Americans called all the Middle East leaders and told them, “Friends, listen – starting in two hours, there will be no civilian flights in the entire Middle East.”

    Then, no “good guys” were in the air, only “bad guys.” This made it much easier to identify targets.

    The double-edged sword of the Iranians’ use of their Ground to Ground Missiles (GGM) is that they “forced us” to attack in Iran. Now, this psychological barrier no longer exists. We have already done it twice.

    We don’t know if the Americans will commit to this, but even on a bad day, the Americans know how to dismantle the Iranian nuclear threat in eight hours.

    The Americans have capabilities that no other power in the world possesses in this regard. They just need to make the right decision.

    In the early 2000s, what we call the “axis of evil” began to form. But there is no longer such an axis.

    Assad has fallen, Hizbullah is not in the same state as last year, and Iran has wasted many of its GGMs. And it lost some important defense systems lately.

    Iran spent tens of billions of dollars over 40 years to build up Hizbullah as a force that essentially disappeared within six weeks.

    https://x.com/udschachter/status/1876634241229848817

  13. What About Ammo for the FGC-9? 3-D Printed Improvised Ammo
    Ammoland Inc. Posted on January 9, 2025 by Dean Weingarten
    But What About Ammo? by Ivan the Troll
    But What About Ammo? by Ivan the Troll

    Ivan the Troll has published an instruction set on making 9x19mm ammunition. The ammunition is designed for the FGC-9 hybrid 3D-printed semi-automatic pistol/carbine in Europe. The ammunition is shown in video as functioning in an FGC-9, Browning-style tilt-barrel locking pistols and a straight blowback pistol.

    The instructions were published in 2020 before Stark1809’s untimely death. They are titled But-What-About-Ammo Version 1.0.
    The instructions are detailed and fairly easy to follow. They use 3D printing and several well-understood improvised loading techniques to load fired 9mm cases and primers to produce usable ammunition. 9mm ammunition is difficult to purchase in most of Europe unless the purchaser has a firearms license. Even then, a firearms license often only applies to purchasing certain kinds of ammunition. Deactivated (fired) 9mm cases and projectiles appear to be fairly easy to obtain.

    The downloaded guide contains detailed specifications, a video of testing, velocities obtained, and a shopping list of what materials to purchase.

    The most interesting part of the video is how Hilti nail driver ammunition is used as a source for priming compound and gunpowder. Much of the value of the directions consists of Ivan the Troll’s experimental work to determine the proper amount of powder to use from the Hilti power drivers to obtain usable velocity out of the reloaded 9mm cartridges.
    For those interested in such techniques, one of the most dangerous and resource-eating tasks is calibrating the amount of scavenged gunpowder needed for a functioning reload. Ivan the Troll has done this time and resource-consuming work. He makes the results available to the world. 3.5 grains of red Hilti gunpowder produces about 750 feet per second loads with 124-grain jacketed bullets. 4.1 grains of Hilti gunpowder produces about 1000 feet per second.

    If it is difficult to legally obtain 9mm ammunition, it is almost as difficult to test improvised ammunition.
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    SCROLL DOWN TO CONTINUE READING

    Ivan the Troll does a good job of showing how to make ammunition with his methods.
    For those who desire the next level of reloading ammunition in restricted circumstances, this correspondent recommends Modern Handloading by Maj. George C. Nonte, Jr. Nonte’s book was published in 1972. It has an entire chapter on making your own tools. Many of the tools can easily be made by hand. A case resizer made of steel or even of low melting alloys would be much easier and more durable than the method used in ButWhatAboutAmmo. The 3D-printed plastic resizer only works well for about 20 rounds. If a person has access to a small lathe, the work becomes almost trivial.

    Of particular interest in Ivan the Troll’s work was his description of how well the ammunition functioned in the FGC-9. The FGC-9 is a direct blowback design. The somewhat weaker versions of the reloaded 9mm ammunition are said to have performed well:

    The FGC-9 will run even the underpowered loads (because it is simple blowback), the handguns all need the ‘recommended’ loads in order to cycle – they still fire with the underpowered loads, but won’t cycle the slide fully.

    Note: I did experience some failures to extract on the FGC-9 tests when using the recommended loads as they are higher pressure, which makes blowback extraction more haphazard. The barrel I had in my FGC-9 for these tests isn’t perfectly formed, which is probably the reason for the failures – but it’s worth noting that if you have issues with extraction of this ammo when other ammo works fine, you might want to load a little less powder.

    This correspondent has reloaded ammunition for about six decades, using everything from simple handmade tools to sophisticated progressive machines. The hardest part of reloading, if the authorities do not want you to do it, is the information and knowledge of how to do so. Mass-manufactured tools are very nice and make the job much, much easier. If you desperately need a few rounds of ammunition, and have some time, you can usually figure out how to get or make a few rounds. It is the knowledge that is key.

    Defense Distributed and Ivan the Troll are making the knowledge available to the world.

    https://www.ammoland.com/2025/01/what-about-ammo-for-the-fgc-9-3-d-printed-improvised-ammo/