Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that the United States military took out four more narco-trafficking boats through kinetic strikes in the Eastern Pacific, leaving 14 suspected drug traffickers dead.  Hegseth said that the strikes took place in international waters on Monday and were authorized by President Donald Trump. The boats were operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations (DTOs), Hegseth said.  “The four vessels were known by our intelligence apparatus, transiting along known narco-trafficking routes, and carrying narcotics,” Hegseth wrote on X. “A total of 14 narco-terrorists were killed during the three strikes, with one survivor. All strikes were in international waters with no U.S. forces harmed.” Yesterday, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out three lethal kinetic strikes on four vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations (DTO) trafficking narcotics in the Eastern Pacific. The four vessels were known by our intelligence… pic.twitter.com/UhoFlZ3jPG — Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) October 28, 2025 There were eight male “narco-terrorists” on board the first boat, four on the second, and three on the third, according to Hegseth. He added that Mexican search-and-rescue authorities had assumed responsibility for coordinating the rescue of the survivor from the third boat. It was not specified which DTOs were targeted.  “The Department has spent over TWO DECADES defending other homelands. Now, we’re defending our own,” Hegseth said. “These narco-terrorists have killed more Americans than Al-Qaeda, and they will be treated the same. We will track them, we will network them, and then, we will hunt and kill them.” Join us now during our exclusive Deal of the Decade. Get everything for $7 a month. Not as fans. As fighters. Go to DailyWire.com/Subscribe to join now. At Trump’s direction, the military has taken out dozens of suspected drug-runners throughout the Caribbean Sea and expanded strikes into the Pacific. Two survivors of previous strikes were repatriated to Colombia and Ecuador, where American authorities recommended they face prosecution for drug trafficking.  On Friday, Hegseth dispatched the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group toward South America to aid in efforts to fight drug trafficking in the region.  “The enhanced U.S. force presence … will bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere,” Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said. “These forces will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle TCOs [Transnational Criminal Organizations].” Some lawmakers in Washington, D.C., have expressed concern about Trump’s strikes on suspected drug runners, arguing that Congress must grant approval before the administration uses the military to target suspected narco-terrorists in international waters. Trump has said that he doesn’t need a declaration of war to target those he says are bringing drugs into the country.

Editor’s Note: This is the second installment in the five-part series “American Maoists: Warnings From The Cultural Revolution.” In Part I, Xi Van Fleet and Sasha Gong — both activists, scholars, and survivors of Mao’s communist uprising — explain how extremist movements plant the seeds for revolution by slowly acculturating ordinary citizens to political violence. In today’s installment, the authors explore something all too familiar to anyone who’s seen the American Left in action: the endless cycle of victimization, which fuels perpetual revolution. *** History is full of paradoxes. None is more striking than the revolutionary promise to rescue the downtrodden, only to end in destruction for all. From the French Revolution to Mao’s Cultural Revolution, the pattern is familiar: revolutionaries first elevate “the victims,” granting them moral superiority. Those newly anointed victims are then encouraged to victimize their designated enemies. What begins in the name of liberation almost always degenerates into tyranny. It is a story as old as revolution itself. The Jacobins invoked the poor and the persecuted, then set the guillotine to work on nobles, priests, and eventually their own comrades. Lenin vowed to free workers and peasants from Tsarist oppression, only to unleash the Red Terror that consumed millions, including many of his followers. Mao empowered the youths to denounce their teachers, parents, and neighbors. In those frenzied years, almost everyone alternated between being a victim and being a victimizer, and frequently embodied both roles simultaneously. As Georges Danton, himself a leading figure of the French Revolution, devoured by the machine he helped build, lamented: “Revolution devours its own children.” In China, we witnessed this cycle firsthand. The story of Bian Zhongyun, the first teacher beaten to death by her students in August 1966, illustrates it in all its cruelty. Bian had been a faithful revolutionary. She joined the Communist Party in 1941 and later helped carry out land reform in a village where she was involved in the stoning to death of four landlords — including a woman who once cared for her child. She was later rewarded with the post of principal at Beijing’s most prestigious girls’ high school, which primarily served the children of CCP elites. Yet her students, daughters of top Party leaders, killed her within hours in the first frenzy of the Cultural Revolution. They were fueled by Mao’s call to “rebel.” That month alone, thousands of teachers across China were killed. Millions more were publicly humiliated and beaten. What became of the new victimizers? After serving as Mao’s instruments, the rebelling youths were discarded: the girls were sent into exile in China’s remote regions for grueling labor. The cycle turned anew.  This wheel of misfortune follows a grim logic. Authorities pick assumed “victims” and designate enemies. The chosen victims are given power beyond the law, while enemies are stripped of any protection. Victimhood becomes not a misfortune but a privilege. People scramble to claim it — often by victimizing others. The scope of enemies then expands endlessly. Eventually, the beast devours everything. We would be foolish to believe this tragic dynamic cannot repeat here. In recent years, America has seen smaller but chilling echoes: the #MeToo movement, Black Lives Matter, pro-Hamas and anti-ICE protests, and so on. Who are the victims? Those once deemed “victimizers” — men, White people, and law enforcement personnel. Though our democracy tempers the scale, the revolutionary zeal is real, and has already produced a vast number of victims.  Virginia gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger recently exhorted her supporters: “Let your rage fuel you.” Rage justifies escalation: exaggerated allegations, destruction of reputations, looting, even violence. We saw the consequences in the murder of Charlie Kirk. The other fuel is thrill. Lenin once called revolution the “festival of the masses.” It is intoxicating to watch hierarchies topple, reputations destroyed, enemies dragged into the public square. Today, whole groups are urged to define themselves by grievances, while the list of oppressors grows without limit. Yesterday’s ally becomes today’s enemy; yesterday’s victim becomes today’s victimizer. Unfortunately, a society built on grievance politics collapses under its own contradictions. China paid dearly: Mao’s Cultural Revolution killed tens of millions of people, including revolutionaries themselves, and brought the country to its knees. In America, Leftist ideology has condemned inner-city communities to crime, drugs, and welfare dependency that deepens poverty rather than relieves it. The paradox endures: revolutions that begin in the name of justice often end in greater injustice. Movements that elevate victims often produce mass victimization. Ideologies that promise to heal history’s wounds often end up deepening its scars. The lesson is clear. A healthy society must recognize suffering without weaponizing it, redress injustice without creating new ones, and honor dignity rather than grievance. If we fail, the cycle will repeat — as it has so many times before. And once again, revolution will devour everyone, including those who started the revolution. READ MORE: American Maoists, Part I: License To Kill: What Turns Normal People To Political Violence? Xi Van Fleet is a survivor of Mao’s Cultural Revolution, activist, and author of “Mao’s America: A Survivor’s Warning.” Sasha Gong is a writer, scholar, journalist, and filmmaker. A dissident in Mao’s China, she holds a PhD from Harvard University and was previously Director of the China Branch at Voice of America. The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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Books Front Lines and Frontiers An Imperfect Crime: The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester A brilliant blending of science fiction and detective story. By Alan Brown | Published on October 28, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share In this bi-weekly series reviewing classic science fiction and fantasy books, Alan Brown looks at the front lines and frontiers of the field; books about soldiers and spacers, scientists and engineers, explorers and adventurers. Stories full of what Shakespeare used to refer to as “alarums and excursions”: battles, chases, clashes, and the stuff of excitement. Today, I’m looking at one of the most influential books by one of the most influential authors in the history of science fiction: The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester. It imagines a world where telepathic powers, while not ubiquitous, are present in a portion of the population, and tells the story of a man’s improbable quest to get away with murder when surrounded by people who can read his mind. Like all Bester’s work, it is full of lurid and flawed characters, snappy dialogue, and evocative settings. It is satirical, cynical, and as dark as the classic revenge stories that Rafael Sabatini used to write. The text is full of narrative and textual tricks, and Bester’s prose has a rhythm that almost feels like poetry at times, although it is the rat-a-tat rhythm of an advertising pitch rather than the dreamy musicality of a literary poem. Once you start reading, the book is difficult to put down. When I first read The Demolished Man as a young teenager, I found it disturbing. I was probably a bit too young to understand a lot of it, especially the psychological traumas that are portrayed. The copy I read for this review is an undated Signet paperback edition, which I think I bought in the late Sixties or early Seventies. And because it made me uncomfortable, I’m pretty sure this re-read is only the second time I have read it. This time, I was ready, and I found the book compelling from beginning to end. About the Author Alfred Bester (1913-1987) was an American author, script writer, comic book writer, and editor. He lived nearly his whole life in New York City, except for attending the University of Pennsylvania, a period of over a year when he lived in Europe, and a move to rural Pennsylvania after he retired. His wife, Rolly, was an actor, primarily in radio, television, and theater. His first science fiction publication appeared in Thrilling Wonder Stories in 1939 after winning a prize competition. (This was the same competition that Robert Heinlein had withdrawn a story from because he found the payment from Astounding Science Fiction would be higher than the prize.) In addition to Thrilling Wonder Stories, Bester’s work also appeared in Startling Stories and Astounding. Bester began socializing with leading science fiction authors in the New York area. In 1942, he began to write for DC comics; in 1946 he started writing scripts for radio dramas, and in 1948 began writing for television (with one of the shows being Tom Corbett: Space Cadet). In 1950, he returned to writing science fiction (with much of his short fiction during this period appearing in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction), and soon produced his most influential novels, The Stars My Destination and The Demolished Man. The Demolished Man went on to win the very first Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1953. Bester continued writing science fiction, while writing mainstream fiction and non-fiction as well—and for a time, he wrote for and then edited the travel magazine Holiday. He then went back to focusing on science fiction writing, although his health began to limit his productivity. In 1988, he was recognized by the Science Fiction Writers of America with the Grand Master Award (and was told of the impending award just before his death). In 2001, he was posthumously inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. There are a few of Bester’s early works available to read for free on Project Gutenberg. The Days of Mad Men A few years ago, my wife and I decided to dive into the show Mad Men… and we found ourselves enthralled. The writing was snappy, and the cast was excellent. But what drew me in was the detailed portrayal of an advertising agency in the New York City of the 1960s. My father grew up on Long Island, and we went to the city many times during the 1950s and 1960s when visiting my grandparents. In 1964, Ford Motor Company assigned my uncle to work at their pavilion at the New York World’s Fair, and I spent even more time in the city visiting my uncle and cousins. So, when I watched Mad Men, and saw the costumes, the sets, and the streets, it brought back a flood of memories. Now, you might ask, what does this have to do with science fiction? Because, when I read the works of Alfred Bester, with his many stories set in New York City, and many written in the 1950s and 1960s, it immediately triggers the same memories that came back to me when watching Mad Men. My mind would fill in the descriptions and settings of the stories with my own memories. It’s a reminder that, no matter how fantastic the settings or how far the stories are set in the future, both authors and readers are rooted in their own experience. And Bester’s work is indelibly rooted in the city where he spent most of his life: New York City in the midst of the 20th century. The city and the culture he describes are as much a part of his stories as the characters who inhabit them, and his characters and their actions reflect the diverse population of the city during that period. The Demolished Man Rich and powerful industrialist Ben Reich is plagued by nightmares about a Man With No Face. He lives in a world where people jet between the planets of the Solar System the way we fly between cities today. He goes to his Esper (Extra-Sensory Perception) Medical Doctor 2 for help in getting to the bottom of his nightmares, but even with his mental powers, the psychiatrist is not able to help. As Reich leaves, he realizes it is not this mysterious faceless entity who plagues him—his true enemy is his business rival, D’Courtney, who he wants to murder. But first, he decides to make an offer of partnership to D’Courtney. The narrative pauses to give the reader a list of code words and phrases from a commercial cipher. We follow Reich through his day, and discover that he has surrounded himself with Espers so that they can anticipate his every whim. He receives a reply from D’Courtney that refusing his partnership, which infuriates him. But a careful reader, who goes back to the table of code words, will find that the reply is actually an acceptance of Reich’s offer… which raises the question of how Reich could make such an obvious mistake. Reich reaches out to Augustus Tate, a level 1 Esper, whose services can be bought with an obscene amount of money. If he is going to commit murder, he will need the assistance of a very powerful telepath to cover his tracks, and someone who is willing to violate the strict ethical code of the Esper Guild. Tate knows that D’Courtney’s physician will be at a party at the house of Lincoln Powell, and decides to do some reconnaissance. This is a risk, because Powell is an Esper 1 and Prefect of the Police Psychotic Division. Like many high-level Espers, Powell is wealthy, and likes to host parties. He is also prone to telling tall tales, and refers to his urge to do so as “Honest Abe” episodes. His friend Mary Noyes is helping him host the party. She would like a closer relationship, but Lincoln has not yet found a woman he finds attractive. At the party, Powell picks up a hint from Tate that he is now working in some capacity for Reich, and warns Tate that Reich is trouble. Bester uses a lattice of words to try to display the multi-dimensional nature of the conversation between a group of Espers. Reich finds that D’Courtney will be visiting leading socialite Maria Beaumont soon, and gives Maria a book of party games, with all pages damaged except for the page describing the “sardine game,” which crowds an entire party into a single room. And he buys an old-fashioned slug-firing gun, with the slugs removed from the cartridges. He goes to Duffy Wyg& (Bester plays with typography throughout the book, and uses punctuation marks in names, like this one, which is Wygand, and also for another character @kins, or Atkins). Duffy Wygand is a jingle writer, and teaches him a jingle, a strong earworm that he can sing to himself to mask his thoughts when he’s around Espers. This jingle will punctuate the narrative many times as the tale unfolds. Reich and Tate attend a party at Beaumont’s house. Things immediately go awry because there is an uninvited guest who is another telepath. Reich’s suggestion of the sardine game pays off; they play it, and all the partygoers begin to move to one place. He goes and finds D’Courtney, who is suffering from throat cancer, which makes talking difficult, but who shows Reich affection and says he accepted his offer. Reich cannot understand this, puts his gun in D’Courtney’s mouth, and fires. But then D’Courtney’s daughter Barbara shows up, and when Reich tries to kill her as well, she runs grabs his gun and disappears into the streets in a nightgown. Powell arrives to lead the investigation, and proves to be an expert at manipulating a crowd. He also tricks Reich into giving up information about Barbara that no one could know except the murderer. So now the struggle begins. Powell knows Reich is the murderer, but doesn’t have sufficient evidence to prove it to the Prosecution Computer—a device designed to make totally logical and totally impartial judgements in criminal cases where the punishment is Demolition of the perpetrator. Reich knows Powell has his number, and he will do everything in his power to destroy or discredit his case, or bribe anyone who can block it. While something blew a hole in D’Courtney’s head, there is no bullet to be found. Both Powell and Reich are engaged in a mad scramble to find Barbara, who is the key to everything. The chase leads through both high society and the sleazy underside of the city, and it will take them through the tortured mind of Reich and to the ultimate mystery of the Man With No Face, whose presence drove him to madness. Powell, normally in control of his cases, will be pushed to the brink of madness himself, as Reich’s psychosis threatens to spread to others. The central plot of the book is as simple as a fairy tale, with a noble hero striving to rescue a damsel in distress from an evil villain. But the warrior is flawed, the damsel is not helpless, and the villain might not be as evil as he first appears, and the surrealistic world of a futuristic New York is anything but a fairy tale setting. The chase to the resolution is absolutely fascinating, and in the end, utterly satisfying. Final Thoughts The Demolished Man is Alfred Bester at his best; and it is easy to see why he is held in such high regard by the science fiction community. He is credited with influencing many of the literary movements that came after him, including the New Wave and Cyberpunk. He is frequently referenced by other authors, either by use of ideas he pioneered, or in obvious tributes, as in the case of J. Michael Straczynski, who named the telepathic police officer from the PSI Corps in the show Babylon 5 after Alfred Bester. At 13 or 14, I was a bit too young for the novel, but reading it again as an adult gave me a chance to fully appreciate it. As with all older science fiction, some elements feel a bit dated, but it is a compelling story that I would recommend to anyone above the age of 16. Re-reading the book reminded me of how much I liked Alfred Bester’s writing, and those of you who read this column regularly should not be surprised to see his other works featured in coming months. And now I look forward to hearing your comments, whether they be about The Demolished Man in particular, about Bester’s work in general, or even about other favorite works that feature speculation on telepathic powers.[end-mark] The post An Imperfect Crime: <i>The Demolished Man</i> by Alfred Bester appeared first on Reactor.