“Since Charlie Kirk’s assassination, podcaster and influencer Candace Owens has floated a succession of conspiracy theories implicating everyone in the murder, from the Israeli government to Kirk’s own organization, Turning Point USA. This week, her speculation reached its apogee when she suggested that Donald Trump himself was involved. In a recent broadcast, Owens linked the commemorations of Kirk’s death to a supposed plot, remarking that ‘when they give you a holiday and a boulevard … they definitely killed you.’ Owens’[s] wild theorizing isn’t an anomaly; it’s part of something older and darker. There’s a distinctly medieval quality to much of the conspiratorial right — a world animated by unseen cabals, moral corruption, and divine punishment disguised as politics.” (10/27/25)
“Last week, Donald Trump dropped virtual ‘bombs’ on American citizens, demolished a prized symbol of American democracy and leadership, and demanded $230 million in reparations from taxpayers for what he calls unlawful attacks on him. Contrary to conventional wisdom, Trump does not wish to rule as a king or impose an authoritarian regime. People around him very much want the latter. He may think that this is his aim. But it is not. Some have suggested that the MAGA movement is creating a civil war between the red and blue states. But not Trump. The president is at war with the United States — the entire country — all of us. He seeks not to rule but to destroy.” (10/27/25)
“My heart swells as I think of the more than 7 million people who poured into the streets for No Kings rallies last Sunday. In every corner of our country, in more than 2,500 communities, people showed up to say they will not let authoritarians decide our fate or our future. From the tens of thousands who marched in New York and Chicago to the lone woman who stood on her streetcorner in Beckley, West Virginia with handmade signs and a broad smile for all to see, people are saying loud and clear we will not give in to tyrants or masked goons. ‘I think you need to show your face to your actual neighbors,’ said the West Virginian, Kendra Sullivan. ‘We’re just like everybody else: We are America.’ Like Kendra, these protesters share what People’s Action calls the spirit of Joyous Rebellion.” (10/26/25)
“Bryan Caplan is right about one big thing: the collapse of intercountry adoption is tragic, given that there remain hundreds of thousands of children in need of families – and there are plenty of families open to adopting them. The demographics of who is being placed for intercountry adoption have changed in recent years (trending older, most have medically complex special needs) as infants are no longer available, but as Caplan’s post made clear, the big change has been the 95+% decline in the overall number of adoptions. That is not a rounding error — it is a policy failure that has left children waiting and families in limbo. … He proposes we ‘drastically curtail or abolish the welfare state’ so that more women would place infants for adoption. Against the backdrop of our research, it’s not clear that this would have such an effect.” (10/27/25)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“At some point capitalism lost the ability to give us new things that we need and started giving us new things we don’t need, and now it’s giving us new things we never needed and don’t even really want. Nobody needs all this generative AI crap. We were doing fine with online search functions and the ability to write and make art for ourselves. Only the most shallow and vapid of individuals find any appeal in the idea of talking to a chatbot like a companion, consuming ‘art’ generated by a computer program, or letting the technology of some plutocratic megacorporation do their thinking, researching and expressing for them.” [editor’s note: At least AI can probably write better poetry than Johnstone – TLK] (10/26/25)
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Lipton Matthews
“Lawrence Mead’s Political Breakdown (2025) is not a book of partisan skirmishing or quick diagnoses. It is instead a cultural meditation on why the United States, a society that once seemed uniquely dynamic, confident, and cohesive, now struggles to maintain the very norms that powered its rise. For Mead, the story of American decline is not simply about inequality, polarization, or stagnant wages, though these are real enough. It is about the erosion of the ethic of individualism that once held the society together. The United States — unlike many other nations — thrived because it demanded that its citizens take responsibility for themselves. … The problem today, Mead insists, is that these norms no longer command the same authority. What was once a shared cultural foundation has fractured, and the resulting void has left Americans unable to sustain progress or govern themselves effectively.” (10/27/25)
Source: Common Dreams
Medea Benjamin & Nicolas JS Davies
“On October 4th, 2025, in an interview with Axios, President Donal Trump stressed that one of the main goals behind his Gaza plan was to restore Israel’s international standing. ‘Bibi took it very far and Israel lost a lot of support in the world,’ Trump said. ‘Now I am gonna get all that support back.’ Under Trump’ s plan, a supposed ceasefire took effect on October 10th. But Israel only withdrew from less than half of the Gaza strip, and killed at least 93 people in the next two weeks, after killing at least that many per day for the previous two years. Israel has only allowed 15% of the humanitarian aid called for in the plan to enter Gaza, and has kept the critical Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza closed.” (10/27/25)
“The Trump administration’s apparent pivot toward the Western Hemisphere — most vividly displayed in the massive military buildup and maritime strikes around Latin America — represents a rare moment of strategic clarity in contemporary U.S. foreign policy, even if the specific bellicose actions getting attention are misguided. Whether intentional or not, this reorientation aligns with basic geopolitical logic that should have guided U.S. policy all along. The Western Hemisphere, after all, is where America’s genuine strategic interests lie. This isn’t jingoism or imperial nostalgia — it’s simple geography and economics.” [editor’s note: The simple geography extends to a brownstone in New York and a private island; the economics to their wealthy owner; both those things, added to Donald Trump’s desire to distract from his long, close, personal relationship with that owner, the late Jeffrey Epstein, they explain the entire theatrical production – TLK] (10/27/25)
“There are still two months left in 2025 but unless something intergalactically stupid happens soon, the collapse of First Brands Group Holdings will take home the prize of 2025’s most embarrassing moment of the year for Wall Street. First Brands, an owner of 24 auto-supply companies, including Fram oil filters, Anco windshield wipers, Autolite spark plugs, and Centric brakes, managed to create a financial disaster that might exceed $10 billion in losses. Major players in commercial bank lending, private credit lending, investment banking, fund management, credit insurance and public accounting have taken a bite of the rotten apple.” (10/27/25)
“In the past few weeks, the US military has killed around thirty people in cold blood. The murders occurred on boats traveling in waters on both sides of Latin America and were undertaken without any warning to the crews on the boats. The rulers in Washington DC claim that those in the boats were involved in drug smuggling; they make this claim without showing any proof …. The former president of the Philippines Jose Duterte is currently in prison in the Hague after being charged with being an ‘indirect co-perpetrator’ in the murders of hundreds of alleged drug dealers by Philippine military and law enforcement during his time in office. If we apply this same reasoning to the aforementioned murders by the US military, then Donald Trump, Marc Rubio, Pete Hegseth and others should be arrested on similar charges.” (10/27/25)
