Timothy Mellon, a reclusive billionaire and a major financial backer of President Trump, is the anonymous private donor who gave $130 million to the U.S. government to help pay troops during the shutdown, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Donor Who Gave $130 Million to Pay Troops Is Reclusive Heir to Mellon Fortune (archived)
Tag: abuse of power
The Balkans are heating up: two anti-Serb military alliances have formed . In response, Serbia has united with Hungary.
“If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law”
Due Process on Trial: The Duterte Arrest, the Rule of Law and Sovereignty + More
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
State Department To Use AI To Revoke Visas of Students Who ‘Appear Pro-Hamas’
The effort will comb through social media accounts using AI in a major crackdown on the speech of foreign students
State Department To Use AI To Revoke Visas of Students Who ‘Appear Pro-Hamas’
(Primer) A Decade of EDCA: US military bases and its expanding war games in the Philippines
The outright re-establishment of US military bases in the country and its relentless and escalating war games on land, sea, and air are flagrant manifestations of US imperialist domination of the Philippines. This further tightens the grip of US imperialism on the Philippine neocolonial state, especially on the puppet Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
(Primer) A Decade of EDCA: US military bases and its expanding war games in the Philippines
Purge at the Pentagon!
Purge at the Pentagon! Reuters reports that the incoming Trump administration is drawing up a list of generals to be fired. These are generals associated with former Chairman of the JCS Mark Milley and anyone else branded with a scarlet “W” for woke. The current Chairman, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, may also be fired, as some within the Trump camp suspect he may have been a DEI hire.
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As Army officer Paul Yingling famously wrote (“A Failure in Generalship”), a private is severely punished for losing a rifle but generals get promoted for losing wars. I doubt this is going to change. Instead, under Trump it appears the firing of generals is another leg of his vengeance tour, a purge of those who are perceived as disloyal.
H/T: Der Friedensstifter
A brief, weird history of brainwashing
On an early spring day in 1959, Edward Hunter testified before a US Senate subcommittee investigating “the effect of Red China Communes on the United States.” It was the kind of opportunity he relished. A war correspondent who had spent considerable time in Asia, Hunter had achieved brief media stardom in 1951 after his book Brain-Washing in Red China introduced a new concept to the American public: a supposedly scientific system for changing people’s minds, even making them love things they once hated.
But Hunter wasn’t just a reporter, objectively chronicling conditions in China. As he told the assembled senators, he was also an anticommunist activist who served as a propagandist for the OSS, or Office of Strategic Services — something that was considered normal and patriotic at the time. His reporting blurred the line between fact and political mythology.
Related:
Read More »House Votes To Extend Warrantless Spying Powers
David Villamar interviewed about Ecuador’s violent crime disaster
Despite the ongoing genocide in Gaza, Ecuador’s violent crime problem is such an incredible disaster that it manages to attract international attention. Criminals have recently taken over live newscasts. Supporters of the rightwing governments that created the disaster (for example, The Economist) have declared Ecuador to be the deadliest country in the Americas. It’s difficult for Ecuador to get international news coverage. In recent years, it generally has to be something very bad (or sports-related).
David Villamar interviewed about Ecuador’s violent crime disaster
Related:
How Did Ecuador Spiral into This Nightmare? It Was the Neoliberal Dismantling of the State
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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