… on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing

Tag: Washington

  • Venezuelan youth train to “defend the Homeland and construct the future” amid US escalation

    Spread the love

    Original article by Pablo Meriguet republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

    Youth of the PSUV carried out a week of training, culminating in a 10k night march led by Diosdado Cabello. Photo: Con el Mazo Dando

    As the US escalates its threats against Venezuela, youth of the PSUV engaged in a week-long “Basic Revolutionary Resistance Training”

    The youth wing of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) carried out “Basic Revolutionary Resistance Training” over the past week in the Venezuelan state La Guaira. On the evening of August 28, the youth participated in a 10 kilometer night march led by Secretary General of PSUV, Diosdado Cabello.

    The training took place amid rising tensions between Washington and Caracas. The situation flared up when the administration of US President Donald Trump reiterated accusations that the Venezuelan government plays a major role in drug trafficking, increasing the bounty on the head of President Nicolás Maduro, and at the same time deploying troops to the Caribbean to support the US “war on drugs”.

    Read more: Trump’s smokescreen on Venezuela: Exposing the “narco-state” accusation

    “The socialist youth, with its morale and rebelliousness, is ready for the defense of the Homeland and the construction of the future,” said Cabello who also serves in the administration of the Bolivarian Republic. 

    The Chavista leader expressed that these trainings seek to build a combative youth in view of recent events that increased pressures on the South American country: “Chávez dreamed it and we are making it a reality, a combatant corps of the youth of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela.”

    The activities are taking place after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, called on all branches of the Armed Forces, including the militia, and the PSUV to be on high alert and prepared for a potential US attack.

    Read more: Venezuela mobilizes 4.5 million militia members as US deploys troops to the Caribbean

    Meanwhile, the military enlistment days organized by Chavismo continue to advance throughout Venezuela. According to Venezuelan authorities, “thousands of people have responded to the government’s call to join the ranks of the national defense.”

    Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said in this regard: ‘’The workers are highly conscious of what it means to defend our homeland; today we heed the call of President Nicolás Maduro to defend our nation…We are ready to defend the social happiness of our people, to defend the future, to defend Venezuela’s right to exploit and develop its productive capacities.”

    The United States continues to reinforce military and diplomatic positions.

    On August 14, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the deployment of several military vessels in the southern Caribbean Sea after declaring that Maduro is the alleged leader of the so-called Cartel de los Soles.

    This organization has already been designated as a terrorist organization by Washington, which many analysts have seen as a tactic to attack Venezuela and thus overthrow the Chavista government.

    In addition, several US allies in South America, Ecuador, Paraguay and Argentina, have also declared the Cartel de los Soles as an international terrorist organization, which can be interpreted as a form of alignment behind Washington’s geopolitical pretensions.

    However, other countries in the region such as Colombia and Mexico, led by progressive presidents Gustavo Petro and Claudia Sheinbaum respectively, have expressed that they will not support a military intervention on Latin American soil as they consider that it goes against the principle of non-intervention that characterizes the foreign policy of several countries in the region.

    “We will never be in favor of intervention by a foreign country.”

    🇲🇽In her daily morning press conference, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum responded to a question by a journalist about a possible US military intervention in Venezuela. pic.twitter.com/XJ3DUJCmJF

    — Peoples Dispatch (@peoplesdispatch) August 27, 2025

    Washington continues to reinforce its military positions in the Caribbean, specifically in Curacao and Guyana, countries that have granted permission to the US military to dock in their coasts.

    Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, has begun a tour of Latin America and the Caribbean to seek greater support for the Trump administration’s position on Venezuela and to rally more support for his regional strategy. Mexico and Ecuador will be part of Rubio’s tour. 

    Original article by Pablo Meriguet republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

    Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn't bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.
    Donald Fuhrump says that Amerikkka doesn’t bother with crimes or charges anymore, not being 100% Amerikkkan and opposing his real estate intentions is enough.
    Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
    Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.

  • Residents Revolt as ‘Free DC’ Protests Target Trump’s National Guard Deployment

    Spread the love

    Original article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

    Thousands march through Washington D.C. in protest of Donald Trump’s use of federal agents and the National Guardsmen to conduct policing actions throughout the city. August 16, 2025 (Photo by Dominic Gwinn / Middle East Images via AFP) (Photo by DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

    “We’ve got the FBI patrolling the streets.” said one protester. “We’ve got National Guard set up as a show of force. What’s scarier is if we allow this.”

    Residents of Washington, DC over the weekend demonstrated against US President Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in their city.

    As reported by NBC Washington, demonstrators gathered on Saturday at DuPont Circle and then marched to the White House to direct their anger at Trump for sending the National Guard to Washington DC, and for his efforts to take over the Metropolitan Police Department.

    In an interview with NBC Washington, one protester said that it was important for the administration to see that residents weren’t intimidated by the presence of military personnel roaming their streets.

    “I know a lot of people are scared,” the protester said. “We’ve got the FBI patrolling the streets. We’ve got National Guard set up as a show of force. What’s scarier is if we allow this.”

    Saturday protests against the presence of the National Guard are expected to be a weekly occurrence, organizers told NBC Washington.

    Hours after the march to the White House, other demonstrators began to gather at Union Station to protest the presence of the National Guard units there. Audio obtained by freelance journalist Andrew Leyden reveals that the National Guard decided to move their forces out of the area in reaction to what dispatchers called “growing demonstrations.”

    Even residents who didn’t take part in formal demonstrations over the weekend managed to express their displeasure with the National Guard patrolling the city. According to The Washington Post, locals who spent a night on the town in the U Street neighborhood on Friday night made their unhappiness with law enforcement in the city very well known.

    “At the sight of local and federal law enforcement throughout the night, people pooled on the sidewalk—watching, filming, booing,” wrote the Post. “Such interactions played out again and again as the night drew on. Onlookers heckled the police as they did their job and applauded as officers left.”

    Trump last week ordered the National Guard into Washington, DC and tried to take control the Metropolitan Police, purportedly in order to reduce crime in the city. Statistics released earlier this year, however, showed a significant drop in crime in the nation’s capital.

    Original article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

    Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
    Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
    Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
    Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.

  • Trump’s Military Occupation of DC Egged On by Corporate Lobbyists: Report

    Spread the love

    Original article by Stephen Prager republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

    National Guard troops are deployed to the Washington Monument as part of President Trump’s mobilization of law enforcement on August 12, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Photo: Andrew Leyden/Getty Images)

    In some cases, corporate groups have posed as small business owners besieged by rising crime rates.

    U.S. President Donald Trump’s military occupation of Washington, D.C. has been egged on for months by corporate lobbyists. In some cases, they have posed as small business owners besieged by rising crime rates.

    According to a report Tuesday in The Lever:

    Last February, the American Investment Council, private equity’s $24 million lobbying shop, penned a letter to D.C. city leaders demanding “immediate action” to address an “alarming increase” in crime.

    That letter was published as an exclusive by Axios with the headline: “Downtown D.C. Business Leaders Demand Crime Solutions.”

    But far from a group of beleaguered mom-and-pops, the letter’s signatories “included some of the biggest trade groups on K Street,” The Lever observed:

    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which boasts its status as the largest business organization in the world; the National Retail Federation, a powerful retail alliance representing giants like Walmart and Target; and Airlines for America, which represents the major U.S. airlines, among others. These lobbying juggernauts spend tens of millions of dollars every year lobbying federal lawmakers to get their way in Washington.”

    It was one of many efforts by right-wing groups to agitate for a more fearsome police crackdown in the city and oppose criminal justice reforms.

    On multiple occasions, business groups and police unions have helped to thwart efforts by the D.C. city council to rewrite the city’s criminal code, which has not been updated in over a century, to eliminate many mandatory minimum sentences and reduce sentences for some nonviolent offenses.

    The reforms were vetoed by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser in 2023. After the veto was overridden by the city council, Democrats helped Republicans pass a law squashing the reforms, which was signed by then-President Joe Biden.

    In 2024, groups like the Chamber of Commerce pushed the “Secure D.C.” bill in the city council, which expanded pre-trial detention, weakened restrictions on chokeholds, and limited public access to police disciplinary records.

    At the time, business groups lauded these changes as necessary to fight the post-pandemic crime spike D.C. was experiencing.

    But crime rates in D.C. have fallen precipitously, to a 30-year low over the course of 2024. As a press release from the U.S. attorney’s office released on January 3, 2025 stated: “homicides are down 32%; robberies are down 39%; armed carjackings are down 53%; assaults with a dangerous weapon are down 27% when compared with 2023 levels.”

    Nevertheless, as Trump sends federal troops into D.C., many in the corporate world are still cheering.

    In a statement Monday, the D.C. Chamber of Commerce described itself as a “strong supporter” of the Home Rule Act, which Trump used to enact his federal crackdown.

    The Washington Business Journal quoted multiple consultancy executives—including Yaman Coskum, who exclaimed that “It is about time somebody did something to make D.C. great again,” and Kirk McLaren who said, “If local leaders won’t protect residents and businesses, let’s see if the federal government will step in and do what’s necessary to create a safe and prosperous city.”

    Despite crime also being on the decline in every other city he has singled out—Los Angeles, Baltimore, Oakland, New York, and Chicago—Trump has said his deployment of federal troops “will go further.”

    Original article by Stephen Prager republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

    Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
    Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
    Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
    Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
    Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an insane, xenophobic Fascist.
    Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an insane, xenophobic Fascist.

  • Trump White House Says Military Occupation of Nation’s Capital Set to Expand

    Spread the love

    Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

    A National Guard member guides an armored vehicle in Washington, D.C. on August 12, 2025. (Photo: Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)

    One critic accused the president of “testing the limits of his power, hoping to intimidate other cities into submission to his every vengeful whim.”

    The Trump administration’s military occupation of Washington, D.C. is expected to expand, a White House official said Wednesday, with President Donald Trump also saying he will ask Congress to approve a “long-term” extension of federal control over local police in the nation’s capital.

    The unnamed Trump official told CNN that a “significantly higher” number of National Guard troops are expected on the ground in Washington later Wednesday to support law enforcement patrols in the city.

    “The National Guard is not arresting people,” the official said, adding that troops are tasked with creating “a safe environment” for the hundreds of federal officers and agents from over a dozen agencies who are fanning out across the city over the strong objection of local officials.

    Trump dubiously declared a public safety emergency Monday in order to take control of Washington police under Section 740 of the District of Columbia Self-Government and Governmental Reorganization Act. The president said Wednesday that he would ask the Republican-controlled Congress to authorize an extension of his federal takeover of local police beyond the 30 days allowed under Section 740.

    “Already they’re saying, ‘He’s a dictator,’” Trump said of his critics during remarks at the Kennedy Center in Washington. “The place is going to hell. We’ve got to stop it. So instead of saying, ‘He’s a dictator,’ they should say, ‘We’re going to join him and make Washington safe.’”

    According to official statistics, violent crime in Washington is down 26% from a year ago, when it was at its second-lowest level since 1966,

    House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) have both expressed support for Trump’s actions. However, any legislation authorizing an extension of federal control over local police would face an uphill battle in the Senate, where Democratic lawmakers can employ procedural rules to block the majority’s effort.

    Trump also said any congressional authorization could open the door to targeting other cities in his crosshairs, including Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Oakland. Official statistics show violent crime trending downward in all of those cities—with some registering historically low levels.

    While some critics have called Trump’s actions in Washington a distraction from his administration’s mishandling of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, others say his occupation of the nation’s capital is a test case to see what he can get away with in other cities.

    Kat Abughazaleh, a Democratic candidate for Congress in Illinois, said Monday that the president’s D.C. takeover “is another telltale sign of his authoritarian ambitions.”

    Some opponents also said Trump’s actions are intended to intimidate Democrat-controlled cities, pointing to his June order to deploy thousands of National Guard troops to Los Angeles in response to protests against his administration’s mass deportation campaign.

    Testifying Wednesday at a San Francisco trial to determine whether Trump violated the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878—which generally prohibits use of the military for domestic law enforcement—by sending troops to Los Angeles, California Deputy Attorney General Meghan Strong argued that the president wanted to “strike fear into the hearts of Californians.”

    Roosevelt University political science professor and Newsweek contributor David Faris wrote Wednesday that “deploying the National Guard to Washington, D.C. is an unconscionable abuse of federal power and another worrisome signpost on our road to autocracy.”

    “Using the military to bring big, blue cities to heel, exactly as ‘alarmists’ predicted during the 2024 campaign, isn’t about a crisis in D.C.—violent crime is actually at a 30-year low,” he added. “President Trump is, once again, testing the limits of his power, hoping to intimidate other cities into submission to his every vengeful whim by making the once unimaginable—an American tyrant ordering a military occupation of our own capital—a terrifying reality.”

    Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

    Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
    Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
    Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes' concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country's economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy.
    Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes’ concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country’s economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy.
    Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
    Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.

  • Microsoft’s Role in Gaza Goes Way Beyond the ICC Email Lockout

    Spread the love

    Original article by Robert Inlakesh republished from MPN under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 International License.

    Last week, headlines lit up with a staggering development: Microsoft locked the world’s top war crimes prosecutor out of his email. Karim Khan, chief of the International Criminal Court (ICC), had dared to go after Israeli officials for war crimes and was instantly digitally silenced. His accounts were frozen. His name smeared. His power stripped.

    It looked like petty revenge. But it wasn’t just that. It was the latest move in a coordinated campaign, backed by Washington, Tel Aviv, and Silicon Valley, to destroy the one court willing to challenge Israeli impunity.

    And Microsoft is at the center of it.

    While the press obsessed over the email lockout, few paid attention to what came before: a U.S.-Israeli information war against the ICC.

    After the court announced arrest warrants against both Hamas and Israeli officials for war crimes in Gaza, U.S. officials went into overdrive. Biden called the decision “outrageous.” Lawmakers threatened sanctions. Netanyahu smeared the court as “antisemitic.”

    Despite the outrage, the warrants reflected a 3-to-2 ratio: Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, and Mohammed al-Deif of Hamas; Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Prime Minister Netanyahu.

    All three Palestinian leaders have since been killed. The Israeli officials remain untouched.

    Then came the kicker: the U.S. government sanctioned Khan himself. His bank accounts were frozen, and his allies were warned: help him and face criminal charges.

    It wasn’t the first time, either. In 2002, Congress passed the American Service-Members’ Protection Act, better known as the Hague Invasion Act. It authorizes the president to send troops into the Netherlands if any American or allied official is detained by the court.

    But while the U.S. handled the threats and the muscle, Microsoft played a more subtle role. According to Khan, the company blocked him from his official ICC email account just as he was formalizing charges against top Israeli leaders. The timing, to many, wasn’t a coincidence—it was a message.

    Following October 7, Microsoft signed $10 million in new contracts with the Israeli military. Through a secretive program called “Project Azure,” the company provided infrastructure for Israeli intelligence and air force units, including Unit 8200 and Unit 81. These are the same units compiling “kill lists” in Gaza.

    The company stayed quiet until recently, when it admitted to providing “emergency support” to Israel. But insisted that there was “no evidence” its tech harmed civilians.

    That’s not all. Microsoft previously poured $78 million into the Israeli surveillance firm AnyVision, whose facial recognition tech was deployed across the West Bank. It also powered an app developed by the Israeli military—“Al Munaseq”—which spies on Palestinian permit-holders. Its cloud systems processed their private phone data.

    Worse still, Microsoft has been stacking its upper ranks with veterans of Israel’s Unit 8200, effectively embedding a foreign intelligence agency into the core of one of America’s most powerful corporations and building its next data centers in Israel.

    While the ICC is being sabotaged from the top, resistance is brewing from within. On April 4, two Microsoft employees, one a whistleblower, disrupted the company’s 50th anniversary celebration, accusing it of complicity in genocide. Both were fired.

    Then, at the Build 2025 conference, Palestinian engineer Joe Lopez interrupted CEO Satya Nadella mid-speech: “My people are suffering!” Security dragged him out. A day later, another protester shouted down a separate keynote: “No Azure for Apartheid!” Protesters outside waved Palestinian flags and demanded answers.

    These demonstrations were organized by the group No Azure for Apartheid, which has been documenting how Microsoft’s tools are helping Israel wage war. Inside the company, those who speak out face retaliation.

    Meanwhile, Netanyahu is gloating. “The prosecutor should be worried about his status,” he said after the warrants were announced. That threat has aged well.

    Many critics of Microsoft’s outsized role in Israel’s war argue that when a foreign state and its allies in Silicon Valley can paralyze an international court with the click of a button, it’s not just Gaza under siege, it’s in our institutions, our tech, and our sovereignty.

    Feature photo | An Israeli officer wears Microsoft’s HoloLens headset during military testing in Ramat Gan, Israel. Stefanie J’rkel | AP

    Original article by Robert Inlakesh republished from MPN under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 International License.

    Revealed: The Former Israeli Spies Working in Top Jobs at Google, Facebook and Microsoft

    Israeli Occupation: How Microsoft, IBM, Cisco and Dell Enable Surveillance and Control in Palestine

    Microsoft Bans the Word “Palestine” in Internal Emails