Fibrinogen (Factor I) is a vital liver-produced plasma protein (normal range–) that plays a key role in blood clotting (hemostasis) and wound healing. It is converted by thrombin into insoluble fibrin, creating a mesh network to stabilize platelet plugs and stop bleeding. Low levels (hypofibrinogenemia) can cause excessive bleeding, while high levels are linked to inflammation and thrombosis.
Key Fibrinogen Functions and Role
- Blood Clotting: Acts as the primary structural component of blood clots, providing strength to the initial platelet plug.
- Wound Healing: Mediates cell spreading and facilitates tissue repair.
- Inflammation Marker: Levels often rise in response to infection, inflammation, or tissue trauma
- Antithrombin Activity: Helps regulate clotting by binding to and limiting thrombin activity.
Normal Range and Clinical SignificanceNormal Levels: 200 to 400 mg/dL (adults).
Critical Low Levels: <100 mg/dl
High Levels (>400 mg/dl): Generally indicate inflammation, infection, pregnancy, or increased risk of cardiovascular disease/stroke.
Causes of Low Fibrinogen (Hypofibrinogenemia)
- Inherited/Congenital: Rare genetic disorders (afibrinogenemia).
- Acquired: Severe liver disease, malnutrition, DIC (disseminated intravascular coagulation), or severe bleeding/trauma (consumption of clotting factors).
Symptoms of Low FibrinogenDiagnostic Tests
- Prolonged or abnormal bleeding, particularly after trauma or surgery.
- Easy bruising.
- Mucous membrane bleeding (e.g., nosebleeds, gum bleeding).
- In severe, cases, risk of intracerebral hemorrhage.
Fibrinogen Activity Test (Clauss Method): Measures how well fibrinogen functions in creating a clot.
Antigen Test: Measures the total amount of fibrinogen present.
In December 2025, the Trump administration ordered the abrupt recall of nearly 30 career U.S. ambassadors worldwide, signaling a push to align foreign policy with "America First" priorities and bypassing traditional, nonpartisan diplomatic norms. This move was described as a "chilling signal" to foreign service, potentially undermining U.S. credibility.
Key details regarding the recall:The administration indicated this is part of a standard process to ensure ambassadors reflect the current administration's agenda
- The Signal: The action signals that political loyalty is being prioritized over career experience. It represents a swift change to remove appointees from the previous administration, affecting countries across Africa, Asia, and Europe.
- Scope: Approximately 30 career diplomats, including high-ranking officials in nations like Nigeria, the Philippines, Egypt, and others, were recalled without standard notice.
- Impact: The American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) stated this disrupts diplomatic continuity and reduces morale, as 98% of foreign service members reported poor morale in 2025.
- Context: While new presidents often replace political ambassadors, this targeted removal of career diplomats is considered unusual.
“Postcolonialism is the invention of rich Indian guys who wanted to make a good career in the west by playing on the guilt of white liberals”
― Slavoj Žižek
“There is no such thing as collective guilt or collective innocence; guilt and innocence make sense only if applied to individuals.”
DC Water may have “delivered equity” by filling a less diverse area with sewage.
After complaining about a water industry that was terrible because it “had too many white men at the top”, DC Water CEO David Gadis bragged that, “My executive team, you know, looks exactly like the community… people of color.”
7 out of 9 members of the DC Water leadership team are black. 5 are women.
This hasn’t done anything to get the sewage back in the pipe. Or decontaminate the Potomac.
The DC Water 2023 report was titled ‘Water Equity for All’ and had Gadis bragging that “in recent years, DC Water has established itself as the national gold standard when it comes to delivering water equity.”
DC Water is now at the epicenter of the massive Potomac sewage spill in which hundreds of millions of gallons of wastewater poured into the river in one of the worst sewage spills in American history. But at least the D.C. Water’s executive team “looks exactly like the community” whose lives they’re wrecking.
Or do they?
CEO Gadis had pitched his focus on contracting with “minority and women-owned businesses”. The report promised that “infrastructure decisions” would be made “equitably” so that rather than just analyzing “the risks of infrastructure failures”, the Authority would be looking at them within the context of social and environmental vulnerabilities” and would “protect the needs of the most vulnerable communities from impacts such as flooding and sewage overflows.”
Did DC Water let the Potomac disaster happen because it prioritized sewage management around equity and the ‘Interceptor’ that dumped massive amounts of sewage may have been seen as a risk, but not a sufficient risk to a sufficiently diverse “vulnerable community”?
The areas affected by the sewage spill are primarily in Montgomery County which are less ‘diverse’ than D.C. itself with only a 18% black population and nearly half white population.
Did DC Water prioritize infrastructure risks to more properly ‘diverse’ areas leading to this disaster? Even with the disaster underway, DC Water has been accused of stonewalling and refusing to cooperate with other agencies, including the Potomac riverkeeper, trying to figure out the magnitude of the disaster. That is highly suspicious behavior for an innocent organization.
As federal investigators look for answers, they may want to consider starting with that question.
DC Water described its mission not as delivering water, but as “delivering equity”. Now DC Water may have “delivered equity” by filling a less diverse area with sewage.
But it’s not as if the DC Water leadership doesn’t have some experience with that sort of thing.
David Gadis, the first black CEO of a “major water utility”, had last been in the news during his tenure with Veolia Water. During that time, Veolia was accused of helping cover up the water disaster in Flint, Michigan in that city’s water crisis.
Veolia later paid out $78 million to tens of thousands of Flint residents.
“We are honored to support your community with our technical expertise so that together we can ensure water quality for the people of the city of Flint,” Gadis had promised Flint residents.
Gadis had assured Flint residents that the water was safe even as emails mentioned the presence of lead. Why, after that disaster, did D.C. Water choose him out of 100 candidates?
One might think that the priority would be picking a CEO who wasn’t at the center of the most notorious tainted urban water crisis (including one involving minorities) in the whole country.
But as the DC Water press release mentioned, Gadis “was the first African American CEO to lead a major utility in Indianapolis.” And really, who cares about anything else?
Perhaps taking a man who had a basketball scholarship to Southern Methodist and had been “entirely focused on the prospect of a basketball career” before losing the NCAA National Tournament and then being lucky “that the abilities he developed on the basketball court—such as leadership, responsibility, and preparation—also applied well to the… water industry” was not a great plan. Even if Gadis had the supreme virtue of looking “exactly like the community.”
DC Water, like many cities, had badly aged infrastructure. Instead of focusing on that, Gadis bragged about his commitment to meaningless buzzwords like “sustainability” and “equity”.
The ‘Authority’ would have done better to focus on functionality and safety instead.
While DC Water focused on its “first-ever appearances at the Capital Pride Block Party”, the “Women of Water” (WOW) program and celebrating “the many cultures, languages, and ethnicities represented at the Authority”, a disaster was approaching that could not be met with DEI, but with real-world hard work before the Potomac river was full of sewage.
Rather than discuss the magnitude of its actual tasks, DC Water’s reports redefined everything as equity. When DC Water described its water hookups, it rebranded this system as “one of the most direct ways DC Water delivers equity to customers is through the service lines that connect the water mains in the street to their homes and businesses.” This cultlike Marxist language fundamentally shifted away from its actual mission to a symbolic ideological one.
And ideology, as the Soviet Union could have told the DEIrs, is no substitute for results.
DC Water may have had “82% BIPOC representation”, but what it didn’t have was a plan to safely move around water and sewage through a badly aging system that needed thorough overhauls and close monitoring. And sadly enough it’s not at all unique in that regard.
Many government and private organizations have developed a leadership class that neglects its actual responsibilities and spends all of its time babbling about its commitments to environmental sustainability and equity to the exclusion of doing anything that might be useful.
Political virtue signaling is often a convenient cover for incompetence in failing organizations.
This politicization of everything is a systemic threat to the economy and to public safety and lives. Americans deserve organizations that prioritize their jobs, not their own politics.
Areas whose organizations drown in political sewage will eventually drown in real sewage.
Based on reports from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in late 2025 and early 2026, officials estimated that approximately 1.6 million to 1.9 million illegal immigrants "voluntarily self-deported" during the first year of President Trump's second term (2025).Total Departures:Note on Data: These figures represent internal DHS estimates and have been questioned by outside organizations, such as the Center for Migration Studies, which characterized the high number of self-deportations as a "self-serving fantasy" rather than a precise statistic.
- By December 2025, the administration claimed that a total of 2.5 million illegal aliens had left the U.S., a figure that includes both formal deportations (over 600,000) and self-departures.
- Incentives: The administration encouraged this trend through "Project Homecoming," which included the use of the "CBP Home" app, offering free flights and a stipend ($1,000 to $2,600) for voluntarily returning to their home countries.
- Context: The administration described these actions as "self-deportations," resulting from a "hardline" approach to enforcement that created fear of detention or deportation among undocumented immigrants.
Trichophyton mentagrophytes genotype VII (TMVII) is an emerging, highly contagious, and sexually transmitted fungal infection causing severe, itchy, and persistent rashes on the genitals, buttocks, or face. Primarily reported in men who have sex with men, it often requires 6-12 weeks of oral terbinafine, as it is resistant to many common, shorter-duration treatments.
Key Aspects of TMVII (TM7) Infection:
- Symptoms: Presents as inflamed, reddish, scaling plaques or pustules that may be mistaken for eczema or other rashes.
- Transmission: Spreads through close skin-to-skin contact, particularly during sexual activity.
- Treatment: Requires long-term oral antifungal medication (e.g., terbinafine) often lasting several months.
- Precautions:Do not use steroid creams, as they can worsen the infection. Wash clothing, bedding, and towels in high heat. Avoid sexual contact until cleared by a healthcare provider.
- Diagnosis: Requires specialized, in-depth skin culture testing for accurate identification.
Cases have been reported in the U.S., prompting health officials to increase awareness regarding this emerging STI.
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Bahruz Samadov (Azerbaijani: Bəhruz Səmədov; 29 April 1995) is an Azerbaijani political scientist, researcher, peace activist and political prisoner. He was a regular author at OC Media. He is known for his critical writings about the Azerbaijani government and his peaceful position in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.[1]Go Viral!
He was detained by Azerbaijani authorities in August 2024 and arrested under Article 274 (treason) of the Criminal Code.[1] His arrest was strongly criticized by a number of local and international institutions.[2][3][4] He is currently being held in the detention center of the Azerbaijani State Security Service (SSS). In June 2025, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.[5]
Early life
Bahruz Valeh oghlu Samadov was born on 29 April 1995 in Baku, Azerbaijan. In 2001–2012, he studied at secondary school number 251 in Nizami District. In 2012, he was admitted to the Faculty of Philology of the Baku branch of Moscow State University [ru] named after M.V. Lomonosov and graduated with honors in 2016. In 2016–2018, he received a master's degree in philology at the same university, and in 2018–2019, he received a master's degree in international relations at the Central European University in Hungary.[6] Since 2019, he is a doctoral student of the political science department of the Prague Institute of Political Studies of Charles University, Czech Republic.[7]
In 2021–2022, he was an intern at the Institute of International Relations in Prague, and in 2023 he was a fellow at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena.[7]
Activism
Bahruz Samadov became a member of the Azerbaijani Popular Front Party in 2013, and during the presidential elections of that year, he actively participated in the campaign of the candidate of the National Council, Jamil Hasanli. In 2013–2020, he was a member of the NİDA Civic Movement, and in 2017–2018, he was represented in the Board of Directors of NİDA. On 1 November 2015, on the ballot paper used during the parliamentary elections, he wrote the names of political prisoners and "Freedom for political prisoners!". A day later, he was summoned to the Baku City General Police Department for writing the slogan. In the office, the police pressured Samadov to apologize for writing a slogan in the bulletin. He was released after being detained for almost 3 hours.[8]
Samadov has repeatedly participated in opposition rallies and civil society's protests. On 9 September 2020, he was detained by the police during the protests demanding for release of the political prisoner Tofig Yagublu.[9]
Research
Bahruz Samadov has been known as a researcher since 2016.[10] In his articles, Samadov criticized the power of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, which lasted for more than 20 years, and called his rule authoritarian.[11] His articles or translations are published in OC Media,[12] Eurasianet,[13] openDemocracy[14] independent news platforms,[13] Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR),[15] Baku Research Institute[16] and Institute for International Political Studies,[17] as well as International Journal of Politics,[18] New Eastern Europe[19] and Caucasus Edition journals. Samadov regularly appeared as a political commentator on Radio Liberty, BBC News, Nastoyashcheye vremya and TV Rain in Russia, and ČT24 in the Czech Republic.
In 2020, Bahruz Samadov spoke out against the military operations that took place during the Second Nagorno-Karabakh war, post-war period, Armenia–Azerbaijan border crisis and 2023 Azerbaijani offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh.[20] Samadov stated that he saw the solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in peace,[21] and criticized the war crimes that took place during the military operations. Samadov's articles on war and peace were repeatedly "targeted" by the pro-government media, and Samadov was insulted by being called a "traitor" and "pro-Armenian".[22]
In April 2021, in the article titled "Azerbaijani authoritarianism and Baku's Military Trophy Park" published on the Eurasianet independent news platform, Samadov called the display of helmets of dead Armenian soldiers in the Military Trophy Park as dehumanizing, criticizing the presentation of Armenians as enemies by the Azerbaijani authorities for decades. Also, he was framed by the pro-government news sites as a "traitor" and "pro-Armenian" because[23][24][25] he wrote that "Armenians receive a close attitude to fascism in Azerbaijan" in his 2023 article titled "Azerbaijan needs an alternative to nationalistic militarism" published in OC Media.[26]
In an interview with OC Media in April 2023, Samadov called what happened in the Lachin corridor "a siege" and stated that the main goal of this was to clear Nagorno-Karabakh of Armenians. Bahruz Samadov is a researcher on hegemony and political discourses in Azerbaijan, as well as issues of identity, political stability and populism based on post-structuralist and psychoanalytical theories.
Imprisonment
Samadov was arrested in August 2024.[27] On 21 August, his friends reported in the social network that they could not hear anything from Bahruz Samadov for more than six hours. His friend, Aykhan Zayedzadeh, said that at around 16:25 (UTC+04:00), Samadov sent him a message on Telegram that he would be arrested.[28][29][30] After this message, nothing could be heard from him.[31] According to his grandmother, Zibeyda Osmanova, on 21 August, around 16:00, Samadov left the house to meet a friend of his.[32] About half an hour later, 5–6 people came to their house, introduced themselves as employees of the State Security Service (SSS) and said that there was a complaint about Samadov's illegal drug dealing.[32] During the search, they took Samadov's computer, documents, diplomas, and a book with Samadov's article written in English.[32][33] Later, a public defender named Vafa called Osmanova and said that Samadov was suspected of "high treason" because of his correspondence with Armenians and his articles written "with the order of Armenians".[32] Neither his family nor the lawyer Zibeyda Sadigova, hired by his family to protect his rights, were informed about Bahruz Samadov for 2 days.[34] On 23 August, Samadov was charged with Article 274 (treason) of the Criminal Code, and by the decision of the Sabail District Court, a preventive measure of 4 months was chosen.[35][36] Samadov denied the allegations against him and claimed that he was being subjected to psychological and physical abuse by the SSS.[37] Samadov was remanded to detention while awaiting sentencing.[38]
Samadov’s arrest was severely criticized by a number of local and international institutions. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic stated that it was concerned about his arrest and was closely monitoring the situation.[39] European Union Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Peter Stano expressed concern about Samadov’s detention and called on Azerbaijan to stop targeting dissidents with unjust arrests.
Freedom House called on the Azerbaijani government to end the criminal prosecution of Samadov, and to release him and other dissidents from prison.[40]
The administration of Charles University, where Samadov studied, expressed concern about his arrest and stated that it was monitoring the proceedings.[41]
Azerbaijani historian Altay Goyushov [az] stated that Samadov's arrest was part of a wider wave of repression aimed at "supporters of peace and good-neighborly relations during the conflict" between Azerbaijan and Armenia.[42]
On 23 June 2025, Samadov was sentenced to 15 years in prison.[43]
Reactions to the arrest and sentencing
International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) issued a statement condemning the imprisonment of both Igbal Abilov and Bahruz Samadov "in retaliation for their academic work and activism."[44] Other human rights and academic organisations also issued statements condemning the arrest and sentencing and calling for his release.[45][46]
Amnesty International issued a call to action describing his arrest and sentencing under “false charges" and "apparently part of a campaign to suppress criticism”, calling for his release.[47][48]
A joint statement was issued by European Parliament instances condemning the "harsh prison sentences" in "politically motivated cases".[49]
Friedrich Naumann Foundation described Bahruz as a prisoner of conscience.[50]
Human Rights Watch condemned the imprisonment and sentencing "on bogus high treason charges" in what it described as Azerbaijani authorities' "relentless crackdown on critics".[51]
United Nations experts called for his release, expressing deep concerns that "the arrests and trial of Abilov and Samadov have equated academic research, advocacy for peace and the promotion of a minority’s cultural identity with high treason,”[52]
Slavoj Žižek called on Ilham Aliyev to reconsider Samadov's sentence on 26 January 2026.[53]
Maryland legislation cracking down on police cooperation with immigration officials will put violent aliens back on the streets, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) captured sex offenders, a murderer and an MS-13 gang member in Maryland while ICE partnerships were active, a DHS spokesperson said in a Monday statement. Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed his party’s bill on Tuesday, banning contracts known as 287(g) agreements, a once-obscure tool that the Trump administration used to build law enforcement alliances across the country. The change could make future ICE arrests of dangerous people harder, the department said.
“This legislation will make Maryland less safe,” the spokesperson said. “When politicians bar local law enforcement from working with DHS, our law enforcement officers have to have a more visible presence so that we can find and apprehend the criminals let out of jails and back into communities.”
Illegal immigrants arrested in Maryland include a Salvadoran convicted of homicide and larceny, another Salvadoran convicted of assault and lewd or lascivious acts with a minor, a third convicted of incest with a minor and other sex offenses and a fourth linked to MS-13 and convicted on a weapon possession charge, the DHS said. A fifth arrestee was a Peruvian illegal immigrant with strongarm rape, rape with a weapon, sexual assault and sex offense convictions, according to the department.
In January, Prince George’s County also released a migrant convicted of stabbing someone in the back with a suspended sentence after ICE requested to retrieve him, the DCNF previously reported.
Nine Maryland law enforcement agencies signed 287(g) agreements with the first and second Trump administrations, allowing jails and other agencies to arrest, interrogate or transfer migrants to ICE custody depending on the specific contract, federal records show. Activists and Democratic politicians are catching on to ICE’s strategy, filing lawsuits or passing policies against the contracts despite some local support, even in liberal states, the DCNF previously reported.
“In Maryland, we defend Constitutional rights and Constitutional policing—and we will not allow untrained, unqualified, and unaccountable ICE agents to deputize our law enforcement officers,” Gov. Moore said in a statement about his ban. “This bill draws a clear line: we will continue to work with federal partners to hold violent offenders accountable, but we refuse to blur the lines between state and federal authority in ways that undermine the trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve.”
“Maryland is a community of immigrants, and that’s one of our greatest strengths because this country is incomplete without each and every one of us,” Moore said.
Moore’s office claimed that the law does not require “the release of criminals” or harm federal partnerships focused on “the removal of violent criminals who pose a risk to public safety.” The DHS disagrees.
“Instead of working with us, the Maryland Legislature is choosing to RELEASE violent criminals from jails directly into our communities to perpetrate more crimes and create more victims,” the DHS spokesperson told the DCNF.
“The Maryland Legislature is unfortunately following [a] dangerous path — already started by Governor [Kathy] Hochul in New York and Governor [Abigail] Spanberger in Virginia — of putting criminal illegal aliens over American citizens,” the spokesperson said.
"The Declining Significance of Race" is an article by William Julius Wilson, (reprinted from Society Jan./Feb. 1978) written in 1978. In this article he stresses that the economic sphere, class has become more important than race. He acknowledges that the traditional forms of racial segregation and discrimination still exist in contemporary America and that when the article was written blacks still were not welcomed into some private institutions and social arrangements like residential areas or private social clubs. Therefore, the black underclass still had the same problems, but privileged blacks came into a zone were the rules of economy were stronger than the rules of class.
Wilson therefore defines three stages of American class relations to explain how this was made possible. In those three stages the relationship of whites and blacks in America changed due to historical, political and economical events: The three stages of American class relations in short:
- 1, The Preindustrial Stage: This is the period of plantation economy and racial-caste oppression; it coincides with antebellum slavery and the early postbellum era.
- 2. The Industrial Stage: This is the period of industrial expansion, class conflict, and racial oppression. It begins in the last quarter of the 19th century and lasts roughly until the New Deal Era.
- 3. The Modern Industrial Stage: This is the period of progressive transition from race inequalities to class inequalities. It lasts during the modern, industrial, post–World War II era and really begins to crystallize during the 1960s and 1970s.[22]
Criticism: According to Darryl Pinckney, this thesis that in the modern industrial system the economic position had much more influence on a black person's life than his race was not well received by black critics: it failed to address institutional racism and systemic inequality. The season of extreme black rhetoric may have coincided with the doubling of the size of white middle class, because of new laws mandating equal employment. Still in order to be considered middle class, black families needed two incomes compared to whites with one. Black women could enter white-collar jobs like secretarial and clerical work, since they were also jobs exclusively for women. A black man, to earn a comparable income to a white man, needed more education and needed also to be in a higher occupation than a white man.[4
Notice how much of the criticism is out of date... like 1 vs 2 incomes and the systemic racism of DEI policies
In Lacanian psychoanalysis, das Ding (The Thing) represents an absolute, pre-symbolic, and lost object that constitutes a central, structural lack (manque) around which human subjectivity is organized. It is the "Real" that cannot be symbolized, often associated with the primordial, lost mother-object, acting as a "lethal abyss".
Das Ding (The Thing): Introduced via Freud and developed by Lacan, it is the void or the unrepresentable object that lies beyond the symbolic order. It is the goal of desire that can never be reached, only orbited.Manque (Lack/Loss): The subject is constituted by this fundamental lack. The objet petit a (object-cause of desire) is what remains of das Ding after it has undergone symbolization, representing the "lost object" in everyday life.Relationship: Das Ding is the ultimate, unattainable object, while manque is the experience of its absence, driving desire as a "metonymy" or "want-to-be" (manque-à-être).
Das Ding is often described as the "beyond-of-the-signified". It is the primordial outside of the subject, serving as the "structural a priori condition for memory
An antimeme is an idea with self-censoring properties; an idea which, by its intrinsic nature, discourages or prevents people from spreading it.
Antimemes are real. Think of any piece of information which you wouldn't share with anybody, like passwords, taboos and dirty secrets. Or any piece of information which would be difficult to share even if you tried: complex equations, very boring passages of text, large blocks of random numbers, and dreams…
As a result of the Spanish-American War (1898) and the subsequent Treaty of Paris, the United States acquired control over the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico. Spain relinquished sovereignty over these territories, marking the U.S.'s rise as a global power with overseas possessions. While Cuba gained independence, it was under U.S. influence.The U.S. Senate approved the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in 1952 to grant the island greater local autonomy—including the right to draft its own constitution—while maintaining U.S. sovereignty, aiming to neutralize rising independence movements and deflect international criticism of American "colonialism". This new status served to provide self-government by consent while keeping the island under the territorial clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Key reasons for the creation of the Commonwealth (Estado Libre Asociado) included:Political Self-Determination: Championed by Puerto Rico's first elected governor, Luis Muñoz Marín, the arrangement allowed for a local constitution, a popularly elected governor, and a legislative assembly, fulfilling demands for self-rule without full statehood.International Image & Communism: The move provided a "convincing answer" to charges of imperialism and colonialism, bolstering the U.S. position in the United Nations during the Cold War by showing a, "non-self-governing territory" achieving self-government.Economic Strategy: It helped manage the economic situation and allowed for continued, stable, and close economic relations with the United States.
Legal "Compact": Congress enacted Public Law 600 in 1950, which authorized the process, establishing a "compact" between the U.S. and the people of Puerto Rico.While it granted a "full measure of self-government" in internal matters, it maintained the ultimate authority of Congress over the island.In 1952, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico adopted the flag officially, changing the triangle's color from azul celeste (sky blue) to a dark navy blue to match the United States flag. This political move was intended to align the flag with the U.S. and strip it of its original association with revolutionary, pro-independence movements.
Key Reasons for the 1952 Puerto Rico Flag Color Change:Political Alignment with the U.S.: The change to dark blue was designed to make the flag "resemble the U.S. flag," signaling a closer relationship with the United States.Removing Radical Symbolism: The original flag, featuring a light blue triangle, was designed in 1895 and associated with pro-independence, anti-colonialist sentiment, and was once illegal to fly.
Distancing from Past Conflict: By adopting a navy blue, the newly established Commonwealth government aimed to distance the flag from its rebellious history.
Flag Normalization: The 1952 adoption allowed the public to display the flag legally after decades of it being forbidden by the U.S. colonial government, but with the modified, darker color.The original azul celeste (light blue) color, representing independence, continued to be used by pro-independence advocates, while the navy blue version was used by the government and those favoring statehood. In 1995, the Commonwealth government officially returned to a lighter shade of blue, though not as light as the original revolutionary, for official use.
Lacan’s phrase "the desire of the Other" (le désir de l’Autre) posits that human desire is not innate or personal but is constructed, mediated, and directed by external, societal, and linguistic structures. It implies that humans desire what they believe others—specifically the "Big Other" (language, culture, society)—desire, and they crave recognition from another.
Key Aspects of "Desire of the Other"
Desire of the Other's Desire: Human, conscious desire is focused on being desired, loved, or recognized by another person, often modeled after the Hegel-Kojève master/slave dialectic.Desire from the Other: Desire is shaped by the symbolic order (language and culture) into which a subject is born. The subject's desires are "inmixed" with these social, external, and legal structures, making it "the" desire, rather than "my" desire.Desire for what the Other lacks: The subject attempts to become the object that the Other lacks (e.g., the child trying to be the "phallus for the mother" in the Oedipal stage).Che vuoi? (What do you want?): The subject constantly questions what the Big Other desires from them, leading to a perpetual, unsatisfied search for validation, according to No Subject and YouTube.Anxiety and Proximity: Anxiety arises when this "Other" is too close, or when the subject is unsure what the Other wants, causing the symbolic structure of their desire to break down, say YouTube users.
Ultimately, for Lacan, because desire is always aimed at the elusive, symbolic "Other," it is fundamentally a "metonymy of being" that is never fully satisfied.
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As Helen of Troy is about to be portrayed as black in Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey, the latest episode in the war for the soul of the West questions our very fundamentals. You see, Greek history marks the beginning of the West, so the Trojan War is the first great Western story. And in the Bronze Age, Greeks were white. Same as all Europeans ever. In fact, the Western civilisation, in all its glory and tragedy throughout the millennia, has been a predominantly white affair. Beyond good or bad, this is a fact.
The Kenyan Lupita Nyong’o may be the most beautiful and talented actress on planet earth. Still, she cannot be Helen of Troy. The same way that Matt Damon cannot be Shaka, the Zulu king, and Leonardo DiCaprio could not dare imagine playing Martin Luther King. Because all the film-watching ignorants, children and teenagers out there must know that African warriors and US civil rights movement leaders were black u just as Helen of Troy was white. Elsewise, we produce uneducated fools.
Fortunately, the rumor that Nyong’o will portray the “face that launched a thousand ships” has ignited a firestorm that got people to talk about it. On one side, we have Elon Musk, who brought the subject up. On the other, Christopher Nolan – a director we once trusted with the gravity of history. Musk’s verdict was characteristically blunt: “Nolan has lost his integrity”. But this is not just a dispute over casting. It is a diagnostic check of civilisational disease.
We should start with the source material. Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey are not vague suggestions. They are the bedrock of European literature, referring to an actual war which took place around 1200 BC. In Book 3 of the Iliad, Helen is described as leukōlenos, which means “white-armed”. In the Odyssey, she is xanthê, “golden-haired” or “fair-skinned”. Homer portrays her as the daughter of Zeus, the ultimate archetype of Achaean beauty. She was white, exactly because the world that gave birth to her was the cradle of the European identity.
Pretending otherwise is not “creative interpretation”. It is a deliberate, ideological falsification of our shared heritage. This progressive trend of “race-swapping” historical and fictional figures – from Anne Boleyn and Cleopatra to the Little Mermaid and now, potentially, Helen of Troy – is creating a context where facts simply do not matter. When a Netflix documentary depicts the Greek-Macedonian Queen Cleopatra as a Sub-Saharan African, it is not “representation”. It is an admission that the narrative is more important than the truth.
This phenomenon is dangerous because it treats history as a toy for social engineering. If we can delete the physical reality of Helen of Troy today, we can delete the historical reality of the Battle of Marathon, the clash at Tours, or the Normandy landings tomorrow. When facts become negotiable, the progressive elites of Davos and Hollywood gain total control over our collective memory.
Moreover, let us be direct: This trend is, in its essence, a manifestation of a new, systemic racism against white people. Under the disguise of “equity”, the cultural establishment is engaged in a project of erasure. You will never see a white actor cast as Nelson Mandela or Mansa Musa – and quite rightly so, for that would be an insult to the history of South Africa, Mali, if not blacks in general. Yet, the history and mythology of the West are treated as fair game for dismantling.
By replacing white archetypes with black actors in stories that belong to the European tradition, the woke culture is signalling that white identity has no right to its own symbols. It tells white European children that their ancestors and their legends are fluid, irrelevant, or, worse, something to be corrected. In the 8th century, the iconoclasts broke the icons of the saints. In the 21st, the woke bureaucrats are breaking the images of our heroes.
We have seen this script before. Whether it was the Black Queen Charlotte in Bridgerton or the multi-ethnic Viking courts in Vikings: Valhalla, the goal is the same: Uprooting the cultural foundations and values of the West. This is the ultimate target: A world without roots, without borders, and without a past that can be recognised as ours. If Helen can be anyone, then she is no one. If the “face that launched a thousand ships” is stripped of its specific, Greek and European identity, then the ships themselves have no home to return to.
The lesson for Europeans should be clear. We cannot defend the identity, sovereignty and borders of our continent and Union of nations if we do not first defend the truth of their culture. We cannot allow our past and legends to be colonised by an ideology that hates the people who created them. History is not a diversity seminar, and the daughter of Zeus does not need a modern makeover. She needs her face back.
In Greek mythology, Europa was a Phoenician princess abducted by Zeus, who disguised himself as a gentle white bull to charm her on the shore. He carried her across the sea to Crete, where he revealed his identity and she became the first queen of the island, bearing sons who ruled the land. Her story represents the naming of the continent of Europe, symbolizing a connection between the East and West.
...because the East was Endogamous!
Giambologna, "Abduction of a Sabine Woman"
