Day: March 29, 2025

DOJ Proposes Merging ATF with DEA in Major Shakeup: What It Means for Gun Owners

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
Liberty Doll

Reuters.com reports that, in line with President Trump’s plan to streamline the federal government, the Justice Department is weighing a historic merger between two of its most controversial agencies: the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

DOJ Proposes Merging ATF with DEA in Major Shakeup: What It Means for Gun Owners

A Permanent Arms Economy

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The background to the article reprinted here is the “long boom” of western capitalism during the 1950s and 1960s. It first appeared in International Socialism journal in Spring 1967. On the surface it appeared that the capitalist system had stabilised itself, had broken out of the boom-slump cycle and was now able to offer the workers of Western Europe and North America a steady increase in living standards.

This was a frustrating world for Marxists, who found themselves subject to two temptations. One was to surrender to the claims poured out by the system’s apologists that capitalism had solved its problems and that the path of gradual reform offered a sure road to socialism. The other was to deny the obvious signs of stability and prosperity and assert that capitalism was on the verge of imminent, catastrophic collapse. If these temptations were to be avoided, and Marx’s analysis of capitalism’s contradictions was to hold, then the long boom must be explained.

A Permanent Arms Economy

Due Process on Trial: The Duterte Arrest, the Rule of Law and Sovereignty + More

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The recent release of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations’ preliminary report on the arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte has sent ripples through the Philippine legal and political landscape. Chaired by Senator Imee Marcos, the report outlines what it calls “glaring violations” of constitutional rights, procedural lapses, and questionable coordination between the Philippine government and the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Due Process on Trial: The Duterte Arrest, the Rule of Law and Sovereignty

Related:

Can Philippine President Marcos Survive the Wrath of the Dutertes? by Mong Palatino

As for President Marcos, he may have a solid plan to neutralize the Dutertes but it is the anguish of ordinary citizens reeling from high prices and low wages that he should be worried about. Even Vice President Sara Duterte is aware that the concern of the average voter is the economic crisis, which is why her arrival statement at The Hague when she visited her father focused on the need to address poverty, hunger, and joblessness in the Philippines. In other words, the most serious threat to the Marcos presidency is its own failure to fulfill the campaign promise of bringing down the price of rice and other goods, uplift the conditions of working families, and provide adequate and affordable services to the people.

Document: Arrest of Rodrigo Duterte