Links 10/23/2025

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

      How will we know when Ukie collapses? Asking for a friend. Thanks Rev.
      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.
         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
         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.
            1. Polar Socialist October 23, 2025 at 12:54 pm

               According to the Ukrainians, the Russians now have loitering drones with RF detectors for the sole purpose of locating the Ukrainian drone teams during the launching – to avoid detection these teams use very weak signal when their drone is still close by, and these detectors are lookiing for specifically weak signals.

               On the other hand, during the recent Russian advances they have allegedly used huge amount of anti-drone drone tems to gain local air-superiority over the battlefield. Correspondents actually tell about “air battles” overhead during the attacks.
   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.
      1. ChrisPacific October 23, 2025 at 8:15 pm

         This was more evident than usual when we heard the Russian proposal for a tunnel to Alaska. Trump said it was ‘interesting’ and then turned to Zelensky to ask his reaction. It might have been lifted straight from ‘The Apprentice’.
         1. Smurf October 24, 2025 at 6:51 am

            Exactly! At the end of the previous episode of the show (where Zelensky got “you have no cards” treatment), Trump actually said that it’s good television. That is how his brain operates. In the next episode he should put Zelensky in the ring and shave his head for losing. :)
   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.
      1. jsn October 23, 2025 at 1:23 pm

         Per WSJ last night, now he’s daring the Europeans to use their missiles the way Ukraine wants.

         Let’s play “who wants to secure an Oreshnik impact site”!

         Keir? Em? Friedi? Any takers?
   4. Mike October 23, 2025 at 12:01 pm

      I have said it before, so, once again – the US has been at war with Russia, together with Britain and now the EU, since 1917. Low level or high, this war is now seen as having nothing to do with Communism. Rather, it is the same old resource jealousy and power grab that the “West” cannot hide under spewage about democracy.

      Under Trump, the quest is for colonies. Russia was enticed by relaxation of tariffs, trade deals to make the oligarchs happy, and possible the undercutting of the EU warmongers, thus entertaining Trump’s plan. None of Trump’s “offers” were sincere, none were meant to do anything but ignore the root cause and make a fake peace, just like Gaza. The tragedy? Most Americans swallow such offers whole as legitimate, and still curse the Russians for starting a war, both Right and Left. Sigh…
   5. Victor Sciamarelli October 23, 2025 at 3:15 pm

      @The Rev Kev: I’ve listened to a number of people with military experience like Col. Macgregor or Larry Johnson who have predicted the UA army will soon collapse. However, nobody talks about whether this is a good idea. The only person who, I have a feeling, doesn’t want a total collapse is Putin.
      It’s difficult to forecast what life will be like in UA with such a collapse because the Ukraine military, or whatever is left of it, might be needed for domestic political reasons.
      I’m not sure how much of the Ukrainian police are still intact, and if Zelensky et al., jump ship, who’s available to run the government and/or maintain order and security in the interim? One certainly doesn’t want to create more chaos.
      1. Ricardo October 23, 2025 at 4:25 pm

         Larry Johnson does not have military experience (he was CIA), and Macgregor’s one is limited to Sandbox tanking, and terror bombings.
         1. Victor Sciamarelli October 24, 2025 at 3:38 am

            Larry Johnson worked as a CIA analyst which among other things he provided “military analysis” to his superiors.
            Col. Macgregor was once a senior adviser to the US Secretary of Defense.
            I’m not sure what you’re trying to say but perhaps you prefer General Kellogg as a source of information.
            1. Ricardo October 24, 2025 at 6:42 am

               “Military experience” literally means serving in the military. I have been following both for years (and have military experience).

               I’m trying to say that the recommended grain of salt should be taken (and would like to add “not taking things personally”, too). If “senior adviser to the US Secretary of Defense” is where it’s at, then Hegseth should be the man, and preferred as a source of information. ,-)
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.
   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?
      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.
   2. Alena Shahadat October 23, 2025 at 4:07 pm

      I am stocking on popcorn.
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.
   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.
   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?
      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.
   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…
      1. Michael Fiorillo October 23, 2025 at 11:53 am

         Wait, I thought it was the Karine Jean-Pierres of the world who were trained by AI!

         Now I’m so confused!
         1. tegnost October 23, 2025 at 4:55 pm

            It’s the kids in school today who are trained by ai not geezers like karine.
            Karine according to her extensive google list went to new york institute of technology and masters at columbia U. Apparently she started politics under the great barack obama with a focus on corporate accountability.
   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.
      1. Jason Boxman October 23, 2025 at 11:40 am

         All I remember is isn’t this briefing-book lady? I dunno, I never pay attention. The WH spokesperson is always a serial liar anymore.
   5. ThirtyOne October 23, 2025 at 12:49 pm

      Maybe she’ll try out for the starring role in the Broadway musical “Little Brownie Kuzya”.

      https://peopletalk.ru/article/vyshel-pervyj-tizer-filma-domovenok-kuzya/
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
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
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.
   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.
      1. Ignacio October 23, 2025 at 1:37 pm

         Mankell was too, a few weeks ago, in the fleet to Gaza and detained by the Israelites.
         1. Martin Oline October 23, 2025 at 2:20 pm

            I really like Henning Mankell and have read nearly all his books, but WikiTree says he died 5 October 2015.
            1. Ignacio October 23, 2025 at 3:02 pm

               My bad, sorry this was in the 2010 flotilla as AG states. I had forgotten he had already passed away!
               1. AG October 23, 2025 at 4:22 pm

                  Lately I am constantly declaring people dead in conversations who later turn out to be still alive.
                  Is this an age thing I wonder.
                  Mankell: Yes, dead too early, unfortunately, even more so considering how insane the Swedes today are.
   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.
      1. Ignacio October 23, 2025 at 1:32 pm

         Is the (possibly mutual) resentment in the Baltics/Russia something that has come to be collectively unconscious (as per Aurelien today), and then nothing that can be rationally challenged but treated in the sofa plus tranquillizers?
         Idiotic question of the day.
         1. OIFVet October 23, 2025 at 2:51 pm

            I think that the only effective sofa treatment is the “love” part in “make love, not war.” I look at EU politicians and I see the wretchedness of the undersexed, their sex drive having been sublimated by their quest for obtaining status in a colonial periphery and keeping it. It would be irresponsible not to speculate, as Lamber used to say 🤭
            1. lyman alpha blob October 23, 2025 at 3:53 pm

               Well Keir Starmer did have some Ukrainian rent boys in his orbit not long ago, but they seemed more interested in blowing up his stuff. That story sure went away fast.
      2. mary jensen October 23, 2025 at 5:57 pm

         “Cabbage and turnips have driven me away; had my mother cooked meat, I’d have opted to stay,” is a verse from a quodlibet J.S. Bach added to his “Goldberg Variations”.
   3. bertl October 23, 2025 at 2:24 pm

      I think the crucial arguments against the 2004 expansion of the EU were the sheer cost of integrating members from the former Sovet bloc and the likelihood that conflicts over borders and ethnic displacement, water and imagined pasts would become causes of conflict between the various member states. One solution proposed was a two speed or even a multi-speed Europe. Instead the chosen aim was to move to a one-speed Europe and so, quite naturally, we have ended with a disintegrating fraudulent multi-speed European economy in decline which, to make up for its economic failure, by making rapid moves toward a de facto rulebound federal state ruled by unelected tenth-raters based in Brussels with the will and capacity to intervene freely in democratic elections threatening their hold on power unimpeded by a European Council of third and fourth raters behaving as if it is as toothless as the purely performative European Parliament populated by party list jobs(un)worthies.

      Equally, the 2004 expansion of NATO to include members of the former Soviet bloc with nothing to offer but a easier land, air and sea routes to the Russian Federation, oodles of land for US bases, and NATO trained bodies to hurl against the Russian military in order to reduce Russia’s capacity to fight against NATO forces of the US and Western Europe by leveling down its stock of weapons, reducing the Russian economy’s ability to support a long-term war against the industrial, multi-collateralised paper and tech might of the combined US and West European economies, and enabking them to waste as many Russian soldiers as possible in between blowing up Russian cities, ports, energy sources and civilians and, to demonstrate their evenhandedness, member countires are equally at home with attacking other member countries not in good odour with the NATO top brass if there should happen to be even the slightest disagreement.

      No wonder the Russians – and particularly President Putin and his biker sidekick Dmitry Medvedev – gaze trembling in awe when faced with such forces against them. The horror, the sheer horror of watching the two greatest of the West’s best financed Cold War institutions crumble before them must be devastating to the Russians and their leaders as they think back to the Russia of the 1990s and the journey they have made facing every imaginable obstacle to create a great power comfortable in well armed autarky and in full control of the greatest resource base and the well-bloodied military ro defend it on Mother Earth. Truly, the horror of seeing the creatures of the Enlightenment driven to madness and collapse by the feckless and suicidal monsters they have created is the culmination of the Boomers’ hippy dream moment.
      1. Mikel October 23, 2025 at 4:45 pm

         Except the actual hippies didn’t think all the wars were the best way to spend money.
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?
   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.
      1. converger October 23, 2025 at 6:21 pm

         There’s a silver lining here: Trump could unwittingly reverse ongoing enshittification by US tech companies while simultaneously obliterating a formerly dominant economic sector, as the rest of the world realizes that US software isn’t as great as it used to be and resets the international software ecosystem to open source, forcing non-US tech companies to actually compete if they expect to thrive.
         1. raspberry jam October 23, 2025 at 6:59 pm

            It’s a nice thought but I think more national/regional bloc champions are the more likely result. Today we have a few sectors where there are distinct software ‘clades’ based on location, like CAD – Autodesk products in North America, Dassault in Western Europe, I don’t know what Asia skews towards – and I think it will be more like that but more options. The problem with open source being heavily used by corporations or big entities is they want features and you can’t really rely on OSS contributors to meet a roadmap schedule for free. It isn’t a far step from hiring a few maintainers for internal needs to productizing a fork/variant and from there only a few more to selling the product.
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.
   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.
      1. ambrit October 23, 2025 at 10:13 am

         Now he would be training for the invasion of Brixton.
   2. Jen October 23, 2025 at 2:06 pm

      New UNH poll has Platner at 58% vs 24% for Mills. Whoopsie!

      https://x.com/USA_Polling/status/1981384919864528929
      1. hunkerdown October 23, 2025 at 2:49 pm

         It’s just a Ukraine solidarity patch. VBNMW!
      2. lyman alpha blob October 23, 2025 at 4:00 pm

         Heh. Reading the room has not been one of the Democrat party’s strong points.
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.
   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.
   2. hardscrabble October 23, 2025 at 10:39 am

      just want to add a phrase…

      We are animals that rationalise .. rather than learn
      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.
         1. pjay October 23, 2025 at 11:59 am

            There is much of value in Aurelian’s discussion of our “unconscious” motivations in politics and elsewhere, though I’d probably prefer the term ‘non-rational.’ We are certainly capable of “rational” choices on particular decisions – within the limits of our own relevant knowledge. But limited knowledge itself can lead to disastrously “irrational” decisions that may have made “rational” sense from the individual’s perspective. When these are made by powerful people in positions of authority then many may suffer the costs.

            However, the larger subject of Aurelian’s essay concerns the sources of non-rational preference and decision-making. He uses “unconscious” to refer both to the Freudian psychological concept and what I’d consider a more sociological usage in his discussion of Lacan, the latter meaning something like ‘dominant ideology’ or ‘hegemonic ‘culture’ or Lebenswelt’ – with the recognition that these are usually internalized “unconsciously” or at least semi-consciously. As psychoanalysts recognize, these are usually most powerful in shaping beliefs and behavior when they remain unrecognized – “unconscious,” if you will. It is indeed the analyst’s task to bring such hidden motives to consciousness so that we can recognize their effects and therefore make more, um, “rational” decisions on how they control us.

            But there is another necessary layer in this discussion. Without it we completely miss its relevance for politics and history. It is this. Those in power have long understood these facts about the unconscious or emotional or non-rational motives behind human behavior. Machiavelli certainly understood them. As did Plato. Edward Bernays certainly understood them, as do those in our massive advertising industries that have built on his work. Political propagandists throughout history have understood these principles as well. And all have used them to manipulate human belief and behavior and to maximize the support and/or obedience of their subjects. I would insist that we must distinguish between those feckless leaders – in Europe, the US, or elsewhere – who are driven to their obviously dangerous actions by their “unconscious” impulses, from those who know what they are doing in manipulating the beliefs, emotions, and information available to those whose interests they are supposed to represent.

            The paradox is that these leaders and their mandarins who manipulate the emotions and ideology of their own subjects for their own ends are themselves motivated by ideological or material interests that might shape their actions “unconsciously.” So there is a lot to unravel.
            1. Samuel Conner October 23, 2025 at 12:37 pm

               > “unconscious” motivations in politics and elsewhere, though I’d probably prefer the term ‘non-rational.’

               I agree that motivations are not consistently rational, but I think that Aurelien’s point in using the term “unconscious” is to emphasize that people tend to not be consciously aware of what moves them to decide as they do. I think that’s valid. The “why” behind what we do is typically not clearly present to conscious awareness, and the explanations that we offer for what we do are typically after-the-fact rationalisations we have constructed in order to self-justify.

               I agree about the manipulation of people.

               In recent years I’ve gained appreciation for the value of “epistemic humility”, a more tentative sense of the validity of what one thinks is true, and curiosity about the bases for believing what one believes. I suspect that that is a useful posture for self-understanding, as well.
               1. LifelongLib October 23, 2025 at 1:27 pm

                  I’m not knowledgeable enough to evaluate Aurelien’s arguments, but it seems to me that blanket explanations that apply to all humans all the time aren’t much help in making sense of particular situations or courses of action. It all comes out in the wash and we’re back to figuring out whatever we can about the problem in front of us.
            2. skippy October 24, 2025 at 2:04 am

               Ha … I remember a Austrian/Libertarian Junket to the U.K./EU pre the GFC and all in attendance were high placed politicians, market people, military, PMC, etc. So garish/amway’ish in the narrative forwarded by the speakers. Basically said to the attendees that the reason all of them were there was due to ***each individuals*** apparent[tm] success in life – natch.

               I mean its not like libertarians/AET [Von Mises] sorts have always had a strong view on heraldic factors – all reversed engineered BTW. Yet here they were telling these people that they should cast aside any notion of social altruism [waves at Hayek]. And embrace their superiority over the unwashed. Clear case of deity providing them with superior DNA and with it the Right too Determinate the lives of the unwashed.
   3. Jason Boxman October 23, 2025 at 11:41 am

      Given how few people care about others, there are respirators that have an exhaust valve, and it’s as easy to breathe in these as not wearing one. So it isn’t like these people couldn’t, if aware, buy a respirator that just protects them and no one else.
   4. Ignacio October 23, 2025 at 1:16 pm

      Thank You Samuel. This was indeed an interesting essay by Aurelien, as usual the type of material that leaves one thinking and thinking and thinking. For me the most interesting part was about the importance of language and the Lacanian symbolic order. As I understand, how the words we use and how we chose to use them have a lot of symbolic importance and “say” a lot more about us that the mere meaning of the words themselves and even what we want to communicate (if I have interpreted correctly Aurelien). There was a Spanish writer which i like a lot (Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio) whose essays and analyses relied very much on the analysis of the words and phrases written and he, apparently, followed Karl Buhler’s Theory of Language who was mentioned in at least one of Lacan seminars. Being an impractical idiot i get distracted by this kind of stuff.
   5. Jason Boxman October 23, 2025 at 5:15 pm

      I thought this is interesting as a genesis stuff like “unhoused”

      But more importantly, there’s a modern political tendency to change the signifier to something which actively distorts or disguises what the signified actually is. So “unhoused” sounds as though a homeless person is just temporarily short of a house, “undocumented” suggests that an illegal immigrant simply hasn’t been given documents yet through some error, “job seeker” disguises the fact that the person concerned may just have been made redundant, and puts responsibility upon them for finding employment. More seriously, perhaps, signifying Gaza as a “war” brings with it a whole series of assumptions and norms, many naturally unconscious, which have the practical effect of changing what we think about events on the ground—the signified.

      I always find discussions about whether we even have free will fascinating, in a kind of dystopian way.

      Did I order a jumbo pretzel today because I really wanted a pretzel, was it going to happen anyway? Did I even really want it? And I avoid these due to the calories, so it has been probably a couple of years of no-pretzel life.

      This fascinating, as well, because people self organize

      The second concept I want to discuss is the Grand Autre, somewhat inelegantly translated into English as the Big Other. By this, Lacan means not formal authorities like government, but rather a kind of social authority whose dictates we follow and which structures our lives, and indeed enables us to make sense of the world and to communicate with each (little) other. However, and again in contradiction to the Structuralists, Lacan is very clear that the Big Other has no objective existence. It is a collective human construct, made up of rules and customs we create for ourselves (if this sounds unlikely, just consider a school playground.) We reify the Big Other, we seek its approval and recognition and we take our symbolic identity from it. But because it doesn’t actually exist, we can never satisfy it, and because it is a collective construct of our devising, it cannot provide us with useful guidance.

      I suppose one could study for decades about how this self organization comes about, what influences it, how it is enforced, and so on.

      I try to remember that people are just animals burdened by consciousness.
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.
    1. jsn October 23, 2025 at 2:03 pm

       “We know that Trump has no qualms about killing innocents in the Caribbean” nor principles in the Levant: Human al-Hayya; Jihad Labad; Hassan Nasrallah; Qasem Soleimani. With attempted hits apparently all the up way to Ayatollah Khamenei.

       It’s embarrassing to read supposed journalists talk about Xi, Putin or even Modi or Erdogan as Mafioso Thugs. Yes, to lead an empire, as each does to some extent, is to be sociopathic as required, but at least these men all have some idea of what the implications of their actions are, as would a surviving Mafioso.

       What we have an executive hermetically sealed at his own demand inside his own thought bubble, with a multinational simulacrum industry doing all it can to not puncture it.
       1. Nat Wilson Turner October 23, 2025 at 3:09 pm

          I gotta quote you!
          1. jsn October 23, 2025 at 3:55 pm

             well… put “is” in where, in my dander, I missed it..

             I’m greatly enjoying your impressions of our “overly dynamic environment”!
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?
    1. ocypode October 23, 2025 at 1:48 pm

       Been seeing some chatter on twitter that war is imminent (i.e. in the next few hours). Hope this is wrong, but given all the signs I think it’s going to happen (and if not today, then in the next few days). It’s going to be a mess.
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!
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.
    1. Mikel October 23, 2025 at 12:26 pm

       Turn anywhere and countries are blowing themselves up rather than do anything worthy of the people that live in them. And establishment figures have a BS religion that there is something called “creative destruction”.
    2. Martin Oline October 23, 2025 at 2:27 pm

       Before I read the Simplicius article I thought that this sabotage was the work of Ukraine. Now I believe it is more likely another overreach by Britain. They seem more desperate at time goes by. I wonder why the European leaders, with approval ratings as high as twenty percent, are trying to create a war in their own backyard. They may be trying to create an situation where they can declare a state of emergency and stay in power for years to come.
       1. Nat Wilson Turner October 23, 2025 at 2:56 pm

          I tend to think it’s elements of the UK establishment that never really gave up power, who manipulated the US and other “allies” with their superior spycraft honed over centuries of empire and are now in a death rattle. I’m hoping it’s just a few Oxbridge Old Boys in MI6 who will eventually hang themselves.
    3. Acacia October 23, 2025 at 6:31 pm

       …whatever remains of the Ukraine to join the EU after the war.
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.
    1. Maxwell Johnston October 23, 2025 at 12:46 pm

       A key insight that Macfarlane touches on briefly: in Russia, the oligarchs despise one other. Their fear of Putin is exceeded only by their mutual dislike and their envy of the others’ wealth. The idea that sanctions will hurt the oligarchs and thereby spur them on to join forces and overthrow Putin is a bit silly, to put it mildly.
       1. Polar Socialist October 23, 2025 at 1:05 pm

          There was a claim that Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation was under the hood specialised in hit jobs against lesser oligarchs. Somebody wanting to get rid of a potential competition just dug up some dirt on them and gave it to Navalny who then proceeded to expose the competition’s corruption which then led to official proceedings and often a corporate take over for cheap.

          Obviously he had somebody with access to powers to look after him, as he was allowed to leave Russia during the covid close-up while being on parole.
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
    1. Jen October 23, 2025 at 2:25 pm

       The Hill did quite the job of airbrushing the entire debate. Mamdani on Cuomo’s experience:

       https://x.com/ZohranKMamdani/status/1981156579757224387

       And boy howdy did he let it rip on Cuomo’s harrassment charges:

       https://x.com/ZohranKMamdani/status/1981153982782591163
       1. Jonathan Holland Becnel October 23, 2025 at 11:01 pm

          Wow.

          Zohran cleaned Cuomos clock!

          Cuomos face when Zohran slapped him in the face with “what do you say to these women you sexually harassed?”

          Nailed it.
          1. Jeff W October 24, 2025 at 5:15 am

             “What I don’t have in experience, I make up for in integrity, and what you don’t have in integrity, you could never make up for in experience.”

             I have no idea who is coming up with those lines for Zohran Mamdani but he manages to deliver them flawlessly every time.
             1. griffen October 24, 2025 at 8:31 am

                Pair him with Pete Buttigieg for national elections in 2028 ! Pete and “Z” for you and for me….\sarc

                Zingers are the easy part in running…. actual governing may be quite another. Cuomo is an American original a$hole….of course that much is painfully obvious
16. Jon Cloke October 23, 2025 at 12:39 pm

    ‘AI Assistants Misrepresent News Content 45% of the Time’ says the BBC, which only misrepresents news content 60-70% of the time (copyright: Murdoch, Rothermers, Marshall, etc.)
    1. gf October 24, 2025 at 1:24 am

       Maybe AI is good after all.
17. farmboy October 23, 2025 at 12:51 pm

    sports gambling has infected America all the way to the top
    1. farmboy October 23, 2025 at 3:24 pm

       NBACentral

       @TheDunkCentral
       LeBron James was reportedly the player Damon Jones used inside info about before a Feb. 2023 Bucks–Lakers game, per
       @TheAthletic

       Jones allegedly told others to bet on Milwaukee after learning LeBron would sit out with ankle soreness — before it was on the injury report.
18. ciroc October 23, 2025 at 1:04 pm

    >Pop-Up Database Siphoned Crypto From Conservatives to Doxx Charlie Kirk Critics, Then Went Dark

    As we all know, MAGA supporters are naive and easily deceived. Scammers weren’t about to pass up the golden opportunity presented by Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
    1. doug October 23, 2025 at 1:54 pm

       I would go with humans are naive. The trait is not limited to one group. But yes, any event might become a fund raiser for a scammer.
19. Jacktish October 23, 2025 at 1:58 pm

    Harper’s is one of my favorite magazines and I’ve been subscribing to it for several decades. However, I received an email today about their anniversary gala. Part of it said:

    At a moment when free expression and the press are under fierce attack, Harper’s Magazine is proud to inaugurate the James C. Goodale First Amendment Award. Named for legendary First Amendment attorney James C. Goodale, who led the New York Times to victory in the landmark 1971 Pentagon Papers case, this new award honors those who exemplify courage, integrity, and a steadfast commitment to the free exchange of ideas. Goodale will personally present the inaugural award to A. G. Sulzberger, the publisher of the New York Times, in recognition of his leadership in defending the freedom of the press and championing the truth in an era of misinformation and polarization.

    So the New York Times is a champion of truth in an ear of misinformation and polarization? Does anyone else have issues with this? Is this just the New York literati and press kissing each others butts?
    1. lyman alpha blob October 23, 2025 at 4:06 pm

       I do, and I’ve also subscribed for decades. You may be on to something with that last question. Wouldn’t be surprised to find MacArthur and Sulzberger are pals.
20. Wukchumni October 23, 2025 at 1:58 pm

    Welcome to the casino economy Unherd
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Major gambling scandal breaking in the NBA, the tip of the iceberg~

    Every pro mope sees the same tv commercials offering 40 to 60 to 1 on your initial $5 wager, and even though none of them really need the money-they’re just as easily sucked in as oh so many young men.

    The advertising is seductive, often using former pro athletes to legitimize their service.

    Casino gambling was only first legalized in 1931 in Nevada, bet we see all forms banned across the country by 2031.
    1. Mikel October 23, 2025 at 2:38 pm

       There was a saying that there is no “I” in team. Gambling puts the “I” in team.
       The bans will come or all the sports will go the way of pro boxing and WWE – or even more debates about what is real.
       1. wol October 23, 2025 at 3:53 pm

          I don’t gamble on sports. Nothing will take away my joy at watching Oleksandr Usyk, the greatest cruiserweight/heavyweight of this era https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvYmCX9jyFU

          Joy- Usyk dancing (7:30). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4QlRm3GLpk
    2. Mikel October 23, 2025 at 2:48 pm

       But check out this head-spinning spin 🤣:
       https://sports.yahoo.com/article/nba-betting-scandal-shows-legalized-180010314.html/
       NBA Betting Scandal Shows How Legalized Gambling Actually Helps Root Out Corruption
    3. griffen October 23, 2025 at 4:03 pm

       Heck no. Too many rice bowls to channel our former host, LS. It’s remarkable to think, contrary to that era that late in my high school years it was the iconic “hustle guy” Pete Rose that was the poster child of gambling on sports! We’ve come a long way since then (!)

       the 1919 Black Sox look like mere pikers, but hey it’s progress. Those professional athletes just can’t be trusted, or can they…I just recall from my childhood years, one example , when Larry Bird just wanted to stuff it in your face to those Lakers teams. Today….hey look a jersey swap among what may eventually amount to $500 million, and higher on professional athlete career earnings. ” but I love this game….sure…”
21. Wukchumni October 23, 2025 at 2:26 pm

    If you’re not going to San Francisco
    Be sure to send ICE & the National Guard elsewhere
    If you’re not going to San Francisco
    You’re never gonna meet some gentle people there

    For those Federales who never come to San Francisco
    Some other time, but you’ve got jobs to do elsewhere
    In the streets of San Francisco
    Gentle people getting the fuzz out of their hair

    All across the nation
    Such a strange vibration
    Massed masked troops in motion

    There’s a whole generation
    With a new administration
    People in motion
    People in motion

    For those troops who never come to San Francisco
    Be sure to wear a mask elsewhere
    If you’re not going to come to San Francisco
    You’re gonna miss the be-in there

    If you don’t come to San Francisco
    You’re gonna miss the be-in there

    San Francisco, by Scott McKenzie

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQHb4z0prjo&list=RDPQHb4z0prjo
22. steppenwolf fetchit October 23, 2025 at 3:08 pm

    Here is a video of some snow leopards which the NaCap community might like. It is titled:
    ” 🔥 Happy International Snow Leopards Day 2025 from Ladakh, India ”

    https://www.reddit.com/r/NatureIsFuckingLit/comments/1oe2ycq/happy_international_snow_leopards_day_2025_from/
23. Mikel October 23, 2025 at 3:13 pm

    ‘The Era of International Mediation is Over’ — Israel & US attempt to Impose a New ‘Reality’ on Gaza, Syria & Lebanon – Conflicts Forum

    For all the scrambling and resourceful little militias, they are still negotiating in isolation with occupation forces and various imperial apparatchiks – a glaring disconnect. It’s too much like how the native American tribes tried isolated negotiations during the westward creep of empire.
24. neutrino23 October 23, 2025 at 3:17 pm

    The instant it was announced that Trump won the election last year I knew things would get bad. I didn’t think they would get this bad this fast. I didn’t imagine that our country was so fragile that one man could destroy it so easily. Instead of building up our nation a huge swath of the population is cheering Trump on as tears down the institutions that help support us. Trump demolishing the White House is the apt metaphor for life in the US today. There are so many movies about the White House being destroyed or taken over by enemies. No one imagined the threat would come from a corrupt man inside the White House.
    1. Wukchumni October 23, 2025 at 3:20 pm

       It’s bad enough watching Trump intentionally drive the country into the ditch, but to listen to him you’d think he won the Indy 500.
       1. AG October 24, 2025 at 10:02 am

          😂👍
          But only Adam McKay style

          Talladega Nights, I piss excellence
          28 sec.
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Rbt1TnQVwI
    2. griffen October 23, 2025 at 4:47 pm

       And….it was just so great a mere 12 to 24 months ago…\sarc

       Darn shame that Democrats could only run on their policy successes….like Ukraine, or the Israel and Hamas conflict ( re, well genocide isn’t popular ), or how inflation had continued to rip a new one into many American wallets and budgets. Sweet tap dancing Moses. Opinions may vary.
       1. hk October 23, 2025 at 8:44 pm

          I think this really is the problem: it’s worse than just “whataboutism” because we sort of know that many people who voted for Trump, basically the people who pushed him over the top, did so knowing whom they were voting for and the risks involved–and I think many of them would still do it again even if they have less delusions about Trump–if only because they see the ever worsening delusion of the anti Trumpers.

          This seems like a fundamental crisis of “democracy” to me, far larger than Trump.
25. farmboy October 23, 2025 at 3:49 pm

    Rumor Has It: Lifting wheat was a rumor that spread around the market that China was looking into purchasing U.S. wheat shipments. While the rumor was enough to move wheat futures, analysts question the validity of the story that China was in the market for one lot of U.S. white wheat. No confirmation of a purchase by China was confirmed Thursday, although the USDA is currently not publishing notices of large-volume flash sales due to the government shutdown. dow jones newswire, wheat up 10
26. Balan Aroxdale October 23, 2025 at 3:59 pm

    European leaders are unable to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia yet unwilling to face the political consequences of peace in Ukraine Ian Proud

    European leaders just backed a live-streamed genocide for over two years. How would letting Ukraine go to the wall present worse political consequences than that? I’m not being rhetorical. I don’t see how the present regimes would be anything more than inconvenienced if they declared the war in Ukraine lost.
27. Jason Boxman October 23, 2025 at 4:12 pm

    COVID, is that you?

    Kim Kardashian Says She Was Diagnosed With a Brain Aneurysm (NY Times; paywalled)

    About one in every 50 people has an unruptured brain aneurysm. It was not clear whether Ms. Kardashian had experienced symptoms.

    But

    Ms. Kardashian can be heard suggesting the aneurysm stems from stress. Footage in the teaser also appears to show Ms. Kardashian undergoing a brain scan.

    Brain aneurysms are relatively common: about one in every 50 people has an unruptured brain aneurysm. Many people who have them are not aware of it, because unruptured aneurysms typically do not cause symptoms.

    Not everything is COVID, of course, but it is a vascular disease.

    Looks like NY Times might have re-allowed archive.ph, link (NY Times)
28. Jason Boxman October 23, 2025 at 4:23 pm

    From Beef producers hit back after Trump rips high prices

    I love this, because it’s basically a request for public health investment by the federal government for animals.

    The $750 million facility, set to be built in Edinburg, Texas, is slated to produce 300 million sterile flies per week to help combat the New World screwworm parasite, which threatens livestock in North and Central America. The project was first announced in August.

    In addition to accelerating the development of the facility, ranchers are calling on Trump to invest in protections for domestic cattle herds with a focus on tackling animal diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease and addressing regulatory burdens.

    Why wouldn’t we want public health for our own children? It boggles the mind.

    Conversely, if it’s good for people to get sick because it makes you healthy, why are humans alone apart from other animals, which we protect from illness?

    Mind bending.
    1. hamstak October 23, 2025 at 6:49 pm

       “Why wouldn’t we want public health for our own children?”

       From the standpoint of the “we” who makes the policy:

       1) It is other people’s children
       2) It is not currently legal to sell those children
29. Jason Boxman October 23, 2025 at 5:32 pm

    What a sick country America is

    Is Your Medication Made in a Contaminated Factory? The FDA Won’t Tell You.

    There’s no specific requirement that the FDA block out drug names on inspection reports about foreign facilities. Still, the agency preemptively kept that information hidden, invoking a cautious interpretation of a law that requires the government to protect trade secrets.

    It’s part of a decades-long pattern of discounting the interests of consumers who want to make informed choices about the drugs they take — even as 9 out of 10 prescriptions in the United States are filled with generics, many from India and China.

    American citizens certainly have a right to know if a drug is manufactured at a facility that puts profits over people. Full stop.

    I think Woodcock gets most repugnant human being aware for the month

    Dr. Janet Woodcock, the longtime head of drug safety at the FDA, said in an interview with ProPublica that she favors releasing drug names but also shrugged off the usefulness of inspection reports for members of the public.

    “You guys think you are like citizen scientists and you can figure out what this means and it’s just not the case,” said Woodcock, who spent nearly four decades at the FDA before retiring early last year.

    Why do we even have an FDA? lolz

    For years, the FDA resisted calls from pharmacists, lawmakers and others to require that manufacturers disclose more details on labels. Woodcock said the agency didn’t want to police thousands of companies to ensure they were providing accurate information.
30. griffen October 23, 2025 at 9:44 pm

    Trump Derangement. This man is so evil and horrible. He is making it so that we no longer find acceptable or rational the aspects of American life that were just very recently worth tolerating. See…the Democrats tussling with their own primary for 2020 or even 2024.

    Higher rates of inflation aren’t a new phenomenon. Neither is realizing the rule of law doesn’t actually apply to the very, or most high, class leadership or elite classes. So…we’re gonna gripe 100% about Trump, etc al but the Pelosi’s or Schumer’s, the Graham or a McConnell get to easily skate past our virtue signaling? Oh, come on. Rules for thee,, it is just now new.

    IdK. But this country seems royally screwed. And it is much more than this singular celebrity turned politician.

Comments are closed.