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Cadaver Formosus is Already Spooky @cadaverformosus.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

New from me: Why is Communion so WEIRD? Why does the second half feel like a different book? Why does it get Catholicism 101 wrong? What’s with all the non sequiturs about spies and why did Ross Douthat quote a literal Nazi in the NYT last week? Well, Vance thinks we’re too stupid to ask…

lareviewofbooks.org

J. D. Vance’s Straussian Moment | Los Angeles Review of Books

The US vice president wrote his new book without citing his source—Peter Thiel.

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Cadaver Formosus is Already Spooky @cadaverformosus.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

The dogwhistles are everywhere. Here's a post on the state department's Substack from Vance's protégé, the 27 year old Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Democracy Human Rights, and Labor. Does it sound familiar? His previous job was at a nonprofit called American Moment. Huh.

Author: Samuel Samson
Senior Advisor for the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL)
The close relationship between the United States and Europe transcends geographic proximity and transactional politics. It represents a unique bond forged in common culture, faith, familial ties, mutual assistance in times of strife, and above all, a shared Western civilizational heritage. Our transatlantic partnership is underpinned by a rich Western tradition of natural law, virtue ethics, and national sovereignty. This tradition flows from Athens and Rome,
through medieval Christianity, to English common law, and ultimately into America's founding documents. The Declaration's revolutionary assertion that men "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights" echoes the thought of Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, and other European heavyweights who recognized that all men possess natural rights that no government can arbitrate or deny. America remains indebted to Europe for this intellectual and cultural legacy. This connection between Europe and the United States is also the reason we speak honestly when we disagree or have concerns-and is why the Trump Administration is sounding the alarm in Europe. When Vice President Vance addressed this year's Munich Security Conference, he made the reason clear, stating: "What I worry about is
the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values —values shared with the United States of America"

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