Lemdro.id

cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/63261199

These are a zero proof tequila and gin alternative. Also available individually.

Continued US military support is further emboldening the Marcos Jr. regime and its fascist armed forces to continue committing war crimes against the Filipino people. Under the cover of “joint military exercises,” “security cooperation” and “humanitarian response,” and in pursuit of its oft-lapsed deadline to end the armed revolution, the US-Marcos regime has escalated bombings, forced evacuations, torture, and extrajudicial killings targeting peasants, workers, indigenous peoples, youth activists and entire rural communities.

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines denounces in the strongest terms the Toboso massacre, where many civilians and non-combatants were brutally killed in a bloody military operation that reflects the AFP’s utter disregard for international humanitarian law and human rights. The killing of civilians and the conduct of military operations with complete disregard for the principles of distinction, proportionality, and humane treatment reveal the criminal character of the reactionary state’s counterinsurgency campaign.

Even in the midst of war, there are rules that must be respected. IHL exists to protect civilians, the wounded, prisoners of war, and all those unable to take part in hostilities. It prohibits deliberate attacks on non-combatants, collective punishment, executions and the indiscriminate use of force. Marcos Jr. and the AFP continue to trample on these basic principles, proving their contempt not only for the struggling Filipino masses, but for universally recognized standards of humanity.

The AFP’s propaganda offensives following the Toboso massacre have been aimed at dehumanizing the victims and denying them dignity in death. By reducing the slain to labels and repeating claims that the armed revolutionary movement has been defeated, the regime seeks to justify its war crimes and conceal the political roots of the armed conflict.

But what the AFP says cannot be farther from the truth. The revolutionary struggle in the countryside remains alive and continues to draw strength from the fighting Filipino masses who continue to confront the unresolved crises of landlessness, poverty, exploitation and escalating repression. The blood of the Toboso martyrs will ignite a greater wave of resistance among Negrosanons and the entire Filipino people against a regime that is increasingly isolated from the masses.

No matter how the AFP lies to slander the slain martyrs of Toboso, the masses know the truth. They know that those who offered their lives in the struggle to liberate the people from oppression and exploitation are among the best sons and daughters of the motherland. Their names live in the memory, respect and unending gratitude of the people they selflessly served.

This recent atrocity in Negros is part of a broader pattern of massacres and grave violations carried out by the AFP under the command of Marcos Jr. and the guidance of his US imperialist master. Through military aid, intelligence cooperation, and diplomatic backing, US imperialism strengthens the fascist machinery used by Marcos Jr. against the Filipino people. The Philippines is set to receive up to $2.5 billion in Foreign Military Financing from 2026 to 2030, or $500 million annually, on top of previous and parallel security assistance packages. The ongoing Balikatan exercises is the largest in the history with over 17,000 personnel participating including 10,000 US soldiers, 1,400 from Japan, 400 from Australia, and many more from Canada, France and New Zealand.

These billions in military financing and relentless military drills are intended to expand the arsenal, surveillance capacity, and operational reach of the AFP. The ultimate objective of US imperialism is to use the country as a launchpad for war preparations against China which can only be made possible by defeating the armed revolution.

As early as 2023, Marcos Jr. has publicly declared the defeat of the New People’s Army in some areas of the country. When this declaration was utterly disproved, they moved the deadline to the end of 2024. They failed to meet this target once again leading to the current deadline to end the armed revolution by 2028. The US-Marcos regime’s repeated failure to meet its own deadline only shows that as long as the roots of the armed conflict remain unresolved, more and more of the Filipino people will realize the necessity of taking up arms against their oppressors.

Under the weight of their own failures and the intensifying contradictions of the ruling imperialist system today, the US and its puppet Marcos Jr. regime are bound to commit more war crimes in pursuit of their objective to quell revolutionary upsurge.

The Philippine revolutionary movement mourns the fallen of Toboso and extends deepest solidarity to their families, to their communities and their comrades. Let their memory serve as an inspiration to continue the struggle and advance the national democratic revolution to total victory.

Hold Marcos Jr and the AFP accountable for war crimes!
Justice for the victims of the Toboso massacre!
Down with US imperialism!
Support the Filipino people’s struggle for national and social liberation!

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Happens at about the 40 second mark.

Nanawagan ang Moro-Christian Peoples Alliance (MCPA) para sa independyenteng imbestigasyon sa walang pakundangang pagpatay ng Armed Forces of the Phlippines sa 10 Moro na inaakusan nitong mga myembro ng Dawlah Islamiya–Maute Group sa Barangay Banga, Pantar, Marantao, Lanao del Sur. Ayon sa kwento ng pulis, inihahain diumano nila, kasama ang militar, ang warrant of arrest laban kina Amerol Mangonraka at Benjie Amor Macabato noong Abril 17, nang magkaroon ng “mahabang putukan.” Pagkatapos diumano ng putukan, tumambad ang patay na katawan ng dalawa, kasama ang kanilang mga asawa, at anim pang inakusahan ng militar na mga “mandirigma.” Nakilala ang mga napatay na sina Nahara Khairiya S. Hamim, Jamail Ibrahim, Fahmi Aminodin, Sohaile Borud Bato, at Mohaimen Aragon. Isa sa kanila ay estudyante ng Mindanao State University sa Marawi City.

Pero ayon sa kwento ng mga residente, walang naganap na matagal na putukan sa lugar, at sa sinasabing oras ng mga pulis at sundalo. Ayon sa mga nakakakilala sa mga biktima, ilan sa mga pinatay ay dati nang sumuko sa gubyerno. May ebidensya ring pinatay sila habang nakahiga at natutulog.

Ayon kay Amirah Lidasan, pangkahalatang kalihim ng MCPA, nangangailagan ng malalim na imbestigasyon ang mga pagkakaiba ng ulat ng mga pulis at ng mga residente dahil usapin ito ng paglabag sa mga karapatan ng mga sibilyan.

“Dokumentado ang mga paglabag sa karapatang-tao at kawalang pakundangan ng mga institusyong ito (AFP at PNP),” ayon kay Lidasan. Marami rin ang naiulat na mga kaso ng “tanim bala” at “tanim baril” para palabasing armado ang mga sibilyang pinapatay nila, aniya.

Iniulat ng MCPA ang paglaganap ng takot dahil sa insidente. Maraming kabataang kalalakihan ang umalis na sa kani-kanilang mga bahay sa takot na mabansagang bahagi ng “grupong Maute” o “Dawlah Islamiya.”

Pinansin ni Lidasan na ang pinatinding presensya ng pulis at militar sa Lanao del Sur ay kasabay ng paghahanda para sa Balikatan 2026, na isang bahagi ay ginanap sa kalapit na syudad ng Cagayan de Oro.

The post Masaker ng AFP at PNP sa Lanao del Sur, pinaiimbestigahan ng alyansang Kristyano-Moro appeared first on PRWC | Philippine Revolution Web Central.

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Are they gonna send more assassins after Trump ? Asking for a friend. Im not a centrist but I cant deny they have a certain charm. Like those old Troll dolls. Remember Troll dolls ?

Kinundena ng Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP) at ng Liga ng Agham para sa Bayan (LAB), rebolusyonaryong organisasyon ng mga syentista at inhinyero, ang pagpasok ng tutang rehimeng Marcos sa Pax Silica at ang kaugnay nitong pagbubukas ng “economic security zone” para sa ekslusibong gamit ng mga Amerikano.

“Titiyakin ng Pax Silica ang pagmonopolyo ng mga korporasyong Amerikano sa likas na yaman…at murang lakas paggawa ng ating bansa,” ayon sa LAB. Batid nitong ang mga pabrika na diumano’y itatayo nito sa ngalan ng kasunduan ay dagdag lamang sa dumaraming pasilidad at pabrikang pagmamay-ari ng US na ang layunin ay magprodyus ng bala, armas at ibang gamit pandigma.

“Ang deklaradong layunin ng proyekto ay para matiyak ang suplay ng US ng mga kritikal na mineral at iba pang rekurso sa pamamagitan ng paglayo ng pagproseso nito sa China,,” ayon naman kay Marco Valbuena, punong upisyal sa impormasyon ng Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas. “Ang di deklaradong layunin…ay ang magkaroon ng eksklusibong kontrol sa Pilipinas.”

Idinugtong ng PKP ang Pax Silica sa balak itayo ng US na 1,600-ektaryang “economic security zone” sa Clark Airbase sa Pampanga. Anito, ang economic zone na ito ay magiging teritoryo ng US sa Luzon sa loob ng halos isang siglo. Ito ay dahil iginawad dito ng rehimeng Marcos ng “diplomatic immunity,” katulad ng iginagawad sa mga embahada ng mga dayuhang bansa sa Pilipinas. Ibig sabihin, hindi batas ng Pilipinas ang mamamayani dito kundi batas ng US. Tulad ng mga base militar nito, ligtas sa pananagutan at kaparusahan ang mga tauhan nito sa batas ng bansa, sakali mang may magawa silang krimen.

Ipinagmamayabang ang proyekto bllang “industrial hub” pero wala itong kinalaman sa pagpapaunlad sa lokal na ekonomya.

“Lalo lamang nitong itatali ang bansa bilang tagasuplay ng hilaw na materyales at murang lakas-paggawa,” ayon kay Valbuena. Gayundin, muli lamang din nitong ibubukas ang Pampanga sa mapanirang presensya ng mga sundalo at tauhang Amerikano, na sa isang panahon ay naging rason ng laganap na prostitusyon, iligal na droga at iba pang anti-sosyal na aktibidad sa lugar.

“Mula sa ammunition factory sa Subic, hanggang sa oil depot sa Davao, kasama ng mga kumpanyang may kaugnayan sa militar ng US tulad ng Moog Controls Corporation sa Benguet, Collins Aerospace sa Batangas, at Valar Atomics sa Metro Manila, lumalaki ang presensya ng imperyalismong US sa Pilipinas habang niyuyurakan nito ang ating pambansang ekonomya at soberanya,” ayon sa LAB.

Nanawagan kapwa ang PKP at LAB sa mamamayang Pilipino na puspusang labanan ang Pax Silica at itakwil ang balak na itayong economic security zone para rito.

“Ang laban sa kunwa’y economic security zone ng US ay di maihihiwalay sa laban sa interbensyong militar ng US,” ayon kay Valbuena. “Dapat palakasin ng mamamayang Pilipino ang kanilang laban sa tumitinding presensyang militar ng US at palakasin ang kanilang pagggiit para lansagin ang lahat ng mga base at pasilidad militar ng US, at palayasin ang lahat ng mga Amerikanong tropa at nakalagak nilang mga armas sa bansa.”

“Dapat itakwil ang imperyalistang maniobra ng US ng mga propesyunal at estudyante ng STEM,” panawagan naman ng LAB.

The post Pax Silica at pagtatayo ng “economic security zone” ng US sa Clark, para sa gera appeared first on PRWC | Philippine Revolution Web Central.

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Cole Tomas Allen

I’m grateful to be able to get the truth out about shootings like these and to push back against the attempts to politicize or obscure them. But I can’t keep doing this without your support - please become paid subscriber

Cole Allen was never flagged by the FBI’s sprawling domestic counterterrorism apparatus, sources including a senior FBI official tell me. The 31-year-old alleged gunman who attempted to penetrate the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday was, by all appearances, a normal guy — until he wasn’t.

Allen himself was reportedly stunned by what he called the “insane” lack of security at the Washington Hilton — a venue that has hosted the dinner for decades (and was the site of the attempt on Ronald Reagan’s life in 1981). Video shows that after the guests were seated, the Secret Service agents and DC Metropolitan Police security people were just shooting the shit as Allen ran by.

Now, rumors are already swirling that Allen is some anti-Christian zealot aided by a network of left-wing compatriots. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche says the FBI is looking into whether Allen was operating alone. But who was he, exactly? And what does he represent?

The answer, drawn from a copy of his resume I obtained and interviews with people who knew him, is unsettling in its ordinariness.

Cole Allen Resume

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Allen graduated from Caltech in 2017— the Pasadena STEM powerhouse behind 24 Nobel laureates and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. With a Mechanical Engineering degree, he went to work for IJK Controls LLC, a small Southern California engineering firm, where he worked on the kind of precision hardware that keeps cameras and sensors stable on moving platforms — the technology used in drones, satellites, and military targeting systems — as well as software for beaming data between devices using laser beams instead of radio waves.

Before Caltech, he'd interned at a biomedical startup, designing 3D-printed casings for medical devices and building the specialized clamps and fixtures used to attach electrodes during manufacturing.

He also made video games — not modded existing ones, but built them from the ground up. His most notable project, Bohrdom, was entirely his own: the underlying physics system that governed how objects moved and collided, 750 original graphics, and a score he composed himself.

Former classmates say this feat wasn’t uncommon at tech-savvy Caltech, where seniors often build elaborate puzzle-games for underclassmen — a tradition called “Ditch Day Stack.” Allen, by all accounts, threw himself into that endeavor.

“He seemed proud of it,” one former classmate told me.

The Allen his classmates describe was studious, devout, and polite.

“He was pretty prominent at the Caltech Christian Fellowship,” one acquaintance and former classmate told me. “Pretty Christian and mellow.”

“If I didn’t see his face eating carpet, I would’ve never believed it,” he added, referring to the photo of Allen on the ground after police officers finally subdued him.

That detail — his faith — flies in the face of how President Trump has characterized the attack.

“When you read his manifesto, he hates Christians,” Trump told Fox News. “He hates Christians, a hatred.”

A blizzard of unnamed “administration officials” echoed this Trump claim in major media outlets.

But that’s not what the manifesto says. And if anything, it appears that Trump’s portrayal of himself as Jesus Christ (you know, the AI-generated image of a robed Trump healing the sick) might have provoked Allen. Also, an alleged copy of his manifesto reported by the New York Post shows Allen invoking Christian theology to defend the shooting, working through Gospel passages one by one like someone who had spent real time with the Bible.

In a section of the manifesto titled “Rebuttals to objections,” the first rebuttal addresses the Gospel injunction to turn the other cheek — a teaching from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:38-39, where Jesus instructs his followers not to retaliate against personal wrongs done to them. Allen reframes it as inapplicable when others are the ones suffering:

Objection 1: As a Christian, you should turn the other cheek.

Rebuttal: Turning the other cheek is for when you yourself are oppressed. I’m not the person raped in a detention camp. I’m not the fisherman executed without trial. I’m not a schoolkid blown up or a child starved or a teenage girl abused by the many criminals in this administration.

Turning the other cheek when *someone else* is oppressed is not Christian behavior; it is complicity in the oppressor’s crimes.

Then he addresses “Render unto Caesar” — a phrase from the synoptic Gospels (Matthew 22:21, Mark 12:17, Luke 20:25) in which Jesus, when asked whether Jews should pay taxes to Rome, replies that one should give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. The passage has been cited for centuries to argue for deference to political authority. Allen disputes that framing on constitutional grounds:

Objection 5: Yield unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.

Rebuttal: The United States of America are ruled by the law, not by any one or several people. In so far as representatives and judges do not follow the law, no one is required to yield them anything so unlawfully ordered.

A third reference to religion appears in a brief thank you to his church:

“Thank you to my family, both personal and church, for your love over these 31 years.”

Allen’s reported Bluesky social media account also contains repeated reference to Christianity, including one from earlier this month in which he identifies “as a Protestant,” and repeated comparisons of Trump to the Antichrist.

On April 13, in response to the Trump-as-Jesus image, Allen replied quoting a verse from Revelations about the antichrist that now reads like a foreshadowing:

“There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.”

Perhaps the sharpest irony comes from a story former classmates shared with me.

Allen was once president of Caltech's Nerf club — a role he apparently took seriously enough to butt heads with the club's own culture. He pushed back against what he saw as the militarization of the toy guns — members modifying them to be more powerful and painting them to look more like real weapons — worked closely with campus security, and by former classmates' accounts, de-escalated conflicts with a deftness that genuinely impressed people.

In other words, the same person who once fought to keep Nerf guns from looking too much like real weapons allegedly drove cross-country with a sawed-off shotgun and handguns (per NBC), intending to kill the President.

“This is a shock,” someone else who knew him said. “He seems extremely smart from the small conversations I’ve had with him.”

So what happened?

From Luigi Mangione to Cole Allen, these shooters aren’t the antisocial loners of media imagination. They’re smart, well-liked, often idealistic. They have no prior criminal record. They take pains to avoid bystander casualties, as Allen reportedly did. But they share one conviction: that the political system has failed completely, and someone has to act.

“I don’t see anyone else picking up the slack,” Allen’s manifesto reads.

Trump’s comments on Allen’s hatred of Christianity, however inaccurate, echoes the language of his national security directive NSPM-7, which labels “anti-Christianity” as an indicator of domestic terrorism. That view will triumph, regardless of the facts, and the FBI and the intelligence agencies will be tasked to find out more about the supposed anti-Christian threat. The law enforcement agencies will request more money for security screening and for surveillance and they will get it.

The only question is if anyone will ask why increasingly normal people feel the political system is so unresponsive to their concerns that they resort to violence.

Subscribe if you think we’ve got bigger problems than “anti-Christianity” (and to help me continue doing this work)

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— Edited by William M. Arkin

From Ken Klippenstein via This RSS Feed.

Israeli attacks in Gaza killed at least 19 Palestinians and wounded 43 over the past three days, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, as the IDF continues its constant violations of the US-backed ceasefire. Israeli attacks have also significantly increased in Gaza since the US and Israel halted attacks on Iran under a very fragile ceasefire. […]

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Post by an choby
Socials: Danbooru, Pixiv, Twitter

When he drives through his neighborhood now, Brian Page passes rows of police cars and AI‑powered cameras that track nearly every movement. For most of his life, Page, who goes by “Scapegoat Jones,” felt safest in the community that Atlanta officials have since flooded with officers and surveillance technology in the name of “public safety.” He bought a house six minutes from the one he grew…

Source

From Truthout via This RSS Feed.

The head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society said Saturday that his organization has submitted evidence of U.S.-Israeli war crimes to the International Criminal Court and other global bodies, seeking accountability for massive attacks on civilian infrastructure and other violations. “The ICC prosecutor announced that the documents provided by the IRCS are accepted as official evidence…

Source

From Truthout via This RSS Feed.

The State Department said in a statement last week that the US is in conflict with Iran “at the request” of Israel, an acknowledgment of Israel’s role in steering the US into the war, which the US has dubbed “Operation Epic Fury.” The statement was issued by the State Department’s legal adviser, Reed D. Rubinstein, […]

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"We’re getting closer to the premiere of The Big Bang Theory spinoff Stuart Fails To Save Universe. The Original comedy debuts this July, streaming on HBO Max, it was revealed Sunday during the show’s panel at CCXP Mexico City. We also learned that the original theme music for the series will be created by Emmy, Grammy winner and Oscar-nominee Danny Elfman. Several first-look photos also were unveiled. You can see above and below.

The spinoff revolves around comic book store owner Stuart Bloom (Kevin Sussman) who is sked with restoring reality after he breaks a device built by Sheldon and Leonard, accidentally bringing about a multiverse Armageddon. Stuart is aided in this quest by his girlfriend Denise, geologist friend Bert, and quantum physicist/all-around pain in the ass Barry Kripke. Along the way, they meet alternate-universe versions of characters we’ve come to know and love from The Big Bang Theory. As the title implies, things don’t go well."

"Cast also includes Lauren Lapkus as Stuart’s girlfriend Denise, Brian Posehn as Bert and John Ross Bowie as Barry. "

Finished another batch of cartoons and was curious if there's some I really need to get around to.

You can recommend pretty much anything besides anime. I have a separate list for that. If there's something in "Plan to watch" you think is a must see, say so and I'll move it way up the list.

The shows that are ongoing are how I currently feel about them. Simpsons and South Park are how I feel about them based on their first 8 seasons since I'm still watching through them.

US President Donald Trump on Friday quietly fired every member of the independent board that governs the National Science Foundation, a move seen as an escalation of the administration's destructive war on science.

Members of the National Science Board (NSB) were notified in a brief email "on behalf of President Donald J. Trump" that their "position as a member of the National Science Board is terminated, effective immediately." One fired board member, chemist Willie May, told The New York Times that he was "disappointed" but not "entirely surprised," adding, "I have watched the systematic dismantling of the scientific advisory infrastructure of this government with growing alarm, and the National Science Board is simply the latest casualty."

The NSB sets the policies of the US National Science Foundation (NSF), approves major funding decisions for NSF, and advises Congress and the president on "policy matters related to science and engineering."

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, said in a statement Saturday that "this is the latest stupid move made by a president who continues to harm science and American innovation."

“The NSB is apolitical," said Lofgren. "It advises the president on the future of NSF. It unfortunately is no surprise a president who has attacked NSF from day one would seek to destroy the board that helps guide the foundation. Will the president fill the NSB with MAGA loyalists who won't stand up to him as he hands over our leadership in science to our adversaries? A real bozo the clown move."

Alondra Nelson, an academic who resigned from the NSB last May over concerns of political interference, wrote on social media that "history will not look kindly on this administration for many reasons, but the systematic silencing of independent expertise is particularly troubling."

Since the start of his second term, Trump and his deputies have assailed science across the federal government, including by eliminating the Environmental Protection Agency's scientific research arm and firing experts en masse.

In the coming fiscal year, Trump has proposed cutting NSF's budget by nearly 55%. Additionally, the president's budget would "eliminate funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research," Scientific American reported. The White House plan, if approved by Congress, would also slash NASA's budget by nearly 25%.

"This is how the US loses its scientific leadership—with a reckless budget line," Leigh Stearns, a glaciologist at the University of Pennsylvania, told Scientific American.

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

What's everyone eating today?

Brian George character's accents are like a box of chocolate: you never know what you're gonna get