Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“An old post by Steve Landsburg offered three examples of actions by one person that another objected to but that did no physical damage. He asked whether the psychic cost to the objector should be considered relevant to public policy, whether the answer was the same for all three and, if not, why not. The first of the three was someone reading pornography and someone else being upset by the knowledge that pornography was being read. The third was someone raping an unconscious victim in a way that did no physical harm. Why, Steve asked, do we have different reactions to those cases and is the difference justified? Discussing reactions to the post with my daughter, I commented that the people who were angry about it, mostly online, struck me as either stupid or evil.” (10/17/25)
“Remember the kids of Generation Z? You know — that notorious cohort of entitled, lazy, and apathetic people that Boomers so love to mock? Over the past two years, members of Gen Z across Asia, Africa, and Latin America have been taking to the streets, covertly organizing revolutions and dethroning entrenched rulers. Quite a few of those involved in the uprisings have paid with their lives — another indicator that these events are worth taking seriously. … Some observers might dismiss this new wave of activism as irrelevant to the future of established democracies. But such complacency might be ill-advised. If this new revolutionary movement has demonstrated anything, it’s that no one should underestimate its infectiousness.” (10/17/25)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Last year I banged out an angry rant about the way Israel supporters would yell ‘release the hostages!’ at anyone who talked about the latest massacre of Palestinian civilians, saying Hamas was to blame for the killing because of their refusal to release the Israeli captives, and that it would all stop once the hostages are free. I’m remembering that essay today because the hostages are free, but the massacres are continuing. On Friday Israel reportedly blew up a vehicle carrying a Palestinian family of eleven people, including seven children. The IDF gave its usual excuse for the massacre: the civilians were deemed to have crossed an invisible line into a forbidden zone which made the Israeli soldiers feel unsafe. They did this exact same thing constantly during the last ‘ceasefire’ as well.” (10/18/25)
“In the early 20th century, America was buzzing with Progressive Era reforms aimed at taming the excesses of industrialization. One landmark was the Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906, hailed as a victory for consumer safety. It banned poisonous ingredients in food and drink, required accurate labeling, and cracked down on imitations. But when it came to whiskey, was it truly about protecting the public from deadly adulterants? Or was it a classic case of dirty politics, where special interests use government power to disadvantage competitors?” (10/17/25)
“John Bolton has pleaded ‘not guilty’ on 18 counts of illegally hoarding or sending sensitive national-security information, charges that could bring decades in prison — and if the feds have the evidence they claim, the case seems open-and-shut. Figuring out where justice lies is a bit tougher. … Bolton, a former UN ambassador and national security adviser, has long been a friend of these pages. Yet if he truly used his AOL account to email classified info to his wife and daughter, they seemingly have him dead to rights. Thing is, the public doesn’t get to know what’s beneath ‘classified’ and ‘top secret’ labels — and over-classification is a notorious problem in Washington, as Jim Bovard noted in these pages when it was President Donald Trump in Team Biden’s crosshairs.” (10/17/25)
“A sound of morning silence is coming to Atlanta. The sound of newspapers landing on sidewalks in residential neighborhoods will vanish when, at year’s end, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, joining a national trend, stops publishing print editions. Turning trees into paper, marking it with ink, trucking it to people who deliver it to readers — soon this laboriousness might be as forgotten as men with tongs lugging large slabs of ice for home iceboxes. The waning of the 400-year era of newspapers is, however, about cultural changes more momentous than the efficiency and convenience of written words presented digitally.” (10/17/25)
“When President Donald Trump announced that he had helped broker an end to Israel’s onslaught in Gaza, it marked the achievement of a goal many anti-war activists had been struggling toward for two years. Few were bothered by the fact that it was Trump who ultimately presided over the cessation of violence; the goal was always to end the bombing, by any means possible. Whether this deal amounts to a lasting end to violence in the region is all but certain; already, Israel has attacked and killed Palestinians in an apparent breach of the agreement’s terms. But, with a hostage swap underway, there is some reason to believe that this merciless, apocalyptic phase of the genocide in Gaza is coming to an end. As this fragile ‘ceasefire’ takes hold, it is worth considering what this apparent diplomatic success means for Trump, his foreign policy going forward, and for his opposition.” (10/18/25)
“Assume it is true that fentanyl is exported from Venezuela to America, even if experts deny it. Assume that blowing up suspected smugglers on small boats in international waters is legal, and that the soldiers who do it will not, in 5, 10, or 15 years, be prosecuted (we know since the Nuremberg trials that ‘obeying orders’ is not a legal justification for crimes, and it is also true in American law). Ignore that the higher-ups, if they escape prosecution, will not be roasting in hell for all eternity for disobeying the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ if traditional Christian beliefs are true. There still remains a big question — in fact, a whole set of related one[s] — about the very justification for these operations, which is to ‘stop the poison, and keep America safe,’ to borrow the words of the Secretary of Defense.” (10/17/25)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Jake Scott
“When President Trump announced a new 100% tariff on Chinese imports, in retaliation for Beijing’s latest export controls on rare earth elements, markets saw only the headline risk. But the real story lies beyond the ticker: a structural reordering of global trade. The world’s supply chains, long anchored to the Chinese mainland, are splintering. Capital is scattering across Asia’s periphery, and shipping routes that once followed predictable trans-Pacific lines are being redrawn into a new web of uncertainty and opportunity. Alongside an eastward turn worth $100 billion in investment, the trends of the last 30 years of global financial flows are being upended.” (10/17/25)
