Tag: Atlas Network

Trump Admin Is Misleading Public About Venezuelans at Guantánamo, Attorneys Say

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

After Kristi Noem, the newly confirmed secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), traveled to Guantánamo Bay earlier this week, she told CNN the Venezuelan migrants being transferred to the notorious U.S. naval base and military prison are “the worst of the worst that we’ve pulled off our streets.”

Immigration attorneys say the facts on the ground do not support Noem’s official narrative about what’s going on at Guantánamo Bay, where President Donald Trump has ordered the construction of a tent city in order to detain up to 30,000 migrants, regardless of the site’s capacity, including asylum seekers fleeing violence and poverty. For civil rights groups, the transfer is only the latest in a series of legally dubious efforts by the federal government to dodge constitutional requirements by incarcerating people at the notorious offshore facility.

Trump Admin Is Misleading Public About Venezuelans at Guantánamo, Attorneys Say

Nothing about the previous attempts by the US government to overthrow the Venezuelan government.

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Support for Truthout comes from assorted left-leaning foundations and individual contributors. Major foundation donors include the Schumann Media Center, the Lannan Foundation, and the Cloud Mountain Foundation. Other donors include former militant extremist and academic William Ayers. Another donor is the Park Foundation, an environmentalist grantmaking group focused on opposing fracking, or drilling for natural gas. 

Previously:

Venezuelan president blames opponent for post-election violence + More

As predicted: violence by the far-right Venezuelan opposition breaks out across Caracas

How the U.S. Drove Venezuelans North

When they request asylum in the United States, migrants have to say something against their government. But everyone in the Venezuelan community knows that it’s a lie. Venezuelan comedians in Florida, like George Harris, joke about the Venezuelans lying to the migration people just in order to receive asylum.

Tag: 2024 Venezuelan Presidential election

María Corina Machado is the female Javier Milei (aka US Puppet)

Leopoldo López (Venezuela)

Pentagon Appointee Opposes ‘Belligerent Military Initiatives’ Aimed at China

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The Pentagon official tasked with overseeing U.S. defense policy toward Southeast Asia recently advised against pursuing hawkish defense policies and a major trade war against China, a marked contrast with top Trump appointees.

John Andrew Byers, a longtime history professor who oversaw the Charles Koch philanthropic network’s grants promoting libertarian foreign policy stances at universities, was sworn in this week as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for South and Southeast Asia — a role that immediately thrusts him to the center of America’s response to China’s ongoing military pressure campaign targeting the Philippines, with which Washington holds a mutual defense treaty.

Pentagon Appointee Opposes ‘Belligerent Military Initiatives’ Aimed at China

Related:

Lowy Institute: Trump’s grand bargain? The Philippines caught between US and China by Richard Heydarian

CGS non-resident fellow Andrew Byers co-authors article with The American Conservative

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia: Andrew Byers

2 new Chinese warplanes could mean the end of US air superiority

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

As if not enough is going on in the world, the Chinese military has flown two new stealthy jets. Some military observers consider them a tangible threat to the U.S. One is a bomber and one is a fighter. Lexington Institute military analyst Rebecca Grant joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin to discuss what it all means.

2 new Chinese warplanes could mean the end of US air superiority

Related:

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What’s in Store for VA Disability Benefits with New Office of Management and Budget Chief?

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

What’s in Store for VA Disability Benefits with New Office of Management and Budget Chief?

Vought, confirmed Thursday in a 53-47 Senate vote, spearheaded a 2023 report by the Center for Renewing America think tank that called for reducing VA disability compensation for veterans who reach Social Security retirement age and eliminating unemployability benefits for these veterans as well.

The report also proposed cutting disability compensation to veterans with ratings lower than 30% and dropping disability compensation for veterans whose health conditions aren’t directly related to military duty.

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Rant 02-10-2025: Doveryai, No Proveryai

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Pascal did it again! He keeps bringing on David Pyne, without disclosing that he’s a member of the hawkish group, Committee on the Present Danger: China. Pyne is far from neutral on the issue of China!

Related:

The US Scare Campaign Against China (History of the Committee on the Present Danger)

The following statistics are from the Cato Institute, which is affiliated with the Atlas Network via the Koch Network.

Cato Scholar Debunks Trump’s Fentanyl Figures amid Tariff Talk

Decades of drug war tactics have failed, merely shifting production of fentanyl precursors from China to India, Myanmar, other parts of Southeast Asia, and even Canada. Canadian authorities report “superlabs” are shipping fentanyl to drug dealers in Australia and New Zealand and, to a lesser amount, to the US.

Canadian-made fentanyl is an international problem, RCMP says

Fentanyl Trafficking 2023

86.4% were United States citizens

U.S. Citizens Were 89% of Convicted Fentanyl Traffickers in 2022

Fentanyl Is Smuggled for U.S. Citizens By U.S. Citizens, Not Asylum Seekers

The Dark Alliance (PDF)

The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia (PDF)

Internet Archive: Barry & ‘the boys’ : the CIA, the Mob and America’s secret history

Trump 2.0: The further dumbing down of America officially begins

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Donald Trump School Choice Executive Order: Here’s Who’s Impacted

President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order to expand school choice across the country. While this policy could allow more students access to alternatives outside of public schooling, critics warn it might divert essential funding from public schools and exacerbate educational inequalities.

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which provides a comprehensive measure of students’ academic achievement across the country, overall student achievement has not returned to pre-pandemic levels. The percentage of eighth-graders reading below NAEP Basic is the highest in the assessment’s history, and the percentage of fourth-graders scoring below NAEP Basic is the largest in 20 years.

…

Recent audits revealed that private school parents, and now voucher recipients, have used the funds for a slew of, at best, questionable expenses, including kayak lessons, horseback riding lessons, home gyms, televisions, and more. Earlier audits conducted prior to the most recent expansion revealed similarly questionable uses.”

Related:

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DOGE’s Ties to the Military-Industrial Complex

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

DOGE’s Ties to the Military-Industrial Complex

Defense contractors: General Atomics, General Dynamics, Honeywell

n.b.: Phil Cox, was formerly with Americans For Prosperity and the Republican Governors Association. Both are affiliated with the Atlas Network through the Koch brothers.

Related:

Palantir and Anduril join forces with tech groups to bid for Pentagon contracts

Consortium likely to include Elon Musk’s SpaceX in move to grab a bigger slice of $850bn US defence budget