nternal data show that at least 197 of the 238 Venezuelan men deported to El Salvador had no U.S. criminal convictions; only six had violent offenses. Nearly half—118 men—were removed while in the middle of their immigration cases, some just days from hearings. Authorities heavily relied on tattoos to link men to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, despite law enforcement experts saying tattoos aren’t reliable indicators of gang membership.
The men were aged 18 to 46, and the incarceration had ripple effects on their families, who faced financial and medical hardships. ProPublica, The Texas Tribune, and Venezuelan journalists compiled a detailed case-by-case database from government records, court documents, and interviews with relatives to document these findings. The White House and DHS did not provide substantive responses, continuing to frame the deportations as targeting dangerous criminals.
https://projects.propublica.org/venezuelan-immigrants-trump-deported-cecot/
The men were aged 18 to 46, and the incarceration had ripple effects on their families, who faced financial and medical hardships. ProPublica, The Texas Tribune, and Venezuelan journalists compiled a detailed case-by-case database from government records, court documents, and interviews with relatives to document these findings. The White House and DHS did not provide substantive responses, continuing to frame the deportations as targeting dangerous criminals.
https://projects.propublica.org/venezuelan-immigrants-trump-deported-cecot/
ProPublica
The Men Trump Deported to a Salvadoran Prison
On March 15, President Donald Trump’s administration sent more than 230 Venezuelan immigrants to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. Last week, the men were released as suddenly as they’d been taken away. These are their stories.
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Pentagon Document: U.S. Wants to “Suppress Dissenting Arguments” Using AI Propaganda
The U.S. is interested in acquiring machine-learning technology to carry out AI-generated propaganda campaigns overseas.
Sam Biddle
August 25 2025, 12:08 p.m.
The Pentagon, the headquarters for the U.S. Department of Defense, is seen from the air, Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025, in Arlington, Va.
The Pentagon, headquarters for the Defense Department, seen from the air on Aug. 20, 2025, in Arlington, Va. Photo: Alex Brandon/AP
The United States hopes to use machine learning to create and distribute propaganda overseas in a bid to “influence foreign target audiences” and “suppress dissenting arguments,” according to a U.S. Special Operations Command document reviewed by The Intercept.
The document, a sort of special operations wishlist of near-future military technology, reveals new details about a broad variety of capabilities that SOCOM hopes to purchase within the next five to seven years, including state-of-the-art cameras, sensors, directed energy weapons, and other gadgets to help operators find and kill their quarry. Among the tech it wants to procure is machine-learning software that can be used for information warfare.
The Pentagon is paying especially close attention to those who might call out its propaganda efforts.
“This program should also be able to access profiles, networks, and systems of individuals or groups that are attempting to counter or discredit our messages,” the document notes. “The capability should utilize information gained to create a more targeted message to influence that specific individual or group.”
https://theintercept.com/2025/08/25/pentagon-military-ai-propaganda-influence/
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© THE INTERCEPT
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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Pentagon Document: U.S. Wants to “Suppress Dissenting Arguments” Using AI Propaganda
The U.S. is interested in acquiring machine-learning technology to carry out AI-generated propaganda campaigns overseas.
Sam Biddle
August 25 2025, 12:08 p.m.
The Pentagon, the headquarters for the U.S. Department of Defense, is seen from the air, Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025, in Arlington, Va.
The Pentagon, headquarters for the Defense Department, seen from the air on Aug. 20, 2025, in Arlington, Va. Photo: Alex Brandon/AP
The United States hopes to use machine learning to create and distribute propaganda overseas in a bid to “influence foreign target audiences” and “suppress dissenting arguments,” according to a U.S. Special Operations Command document reviewed by The Intercept.
The document, a sort of special operations wishlist of near-future military technology, reveals new details about a broad variety of capabilities that SOCOM hopes to purchase within the next five to seven years, including state-of-the-art cameras, sensors, directed energy weapons, and other gadgets to help operators find and kill their quarry. Among the tech it wants to procure is machine-learning software that can be used for information warfare.
The Pentagon is paying especially close attention to those who might call out its propaganda efforts.
“This program should also be able to access profiles, networks, and systems of individuals or groups that are attempting to counter or discredit our messages,” the document notes. “The capability should utilize information gained to create a more targeted message to influence that specific individual or group.”
https://theintercept.com/2025/08/25/pentagon-military-ai-propaganda-influence/
The Intercept
Pentagon Document: U.S. Wants to “Suppress Dissenting Arguments” Using AI Propaganda
The U.S. is interested in acquiring machine-learning technology to carry out AI-generated propaganda campaigns overseas.
Poverty fell but is still sky high. The fall was not do to ´healthy´ increases in employment and production but to a price windfall. Argentina is not doing well at the moment.
https://rwer.wordpress.com/2025/08/19/is-poverty-in-argentina-falling/
https://rwer.wordpress.com/2025/08/19/is-poverty-in-argentina-falling/
Real-World Economics Review Blog
Is poverty in Argentina falling?
As is well known, Javier Milei, president of Argentina, tries to kick start the economy by slashing rules, government spending and bureaucracy, and to get inflation down. To do this, he is pursuing…
Every branch of the military operates its own grocery system, a network known as the Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA). With 236 stores worldwide, DeCA is a retail behemoth, generating over $4.6 billion in annual revenue. If it were a private corporation, it would rank among the top 50 chains in the nation. In 2023 alone, U.S. military families, veterans, and other eligible shoppers saved an estimated $1.6 billion on their grocery bills.
The model is simple and effective. Commissaries are not profit centers; they are cost centers. By law, they operate on a cost-plus model, selling goods at what they pay for them, plus a 5 percent surcharge that covers the cost of store construction and modernization. DeCA leverages the immense, centralized buying power of the entire Department of Defense to negotiate rock-bottom prices from suppliers.
Furthermore, commissary workers are federal employees, often unionized, with stable pay and benefits. This removes labor costs from the individual stores’ balance sheets and ensures that the mission of providing affordable food isn’t compromised by the downward pressure on wages that defines the private retail industry. The result is a system that delivers low prices and high-quality service and is immensely popular with service members, demonstrating that a government-run, nonprofit grocery model can thrive at scale.
https://civileats.com/2025/08/20/op-ed-public-grocery-stores-already-exist-and-work-well-we-need-more/
The model is simple and effective. Commissaries are not profit centers; they are cost centers. By law, they operate on a cost-plus model, selling goods at what they pay for them, plus a 5 percent surcharge that covers the cost of store construction and modernization. DeCA leverages the immense, centralized buying power of the entire Department of Defense to negotiate rock-bottom prices from suppliers.
Furthermore, commissary workers are federal employees, often unionized, with stable pay and benefits. This removes labor costs from the individual stores’ balance sheets and ensures that the mission of providing affordable food isn’t compromised by the downward pressure on wages that defines the private retail industry. The result is a system that delivers low prices and high-quality service and is immensely popular with service members, demonstrating that a government-run, nonprofit grocery model can thrive at scale.
https://civileats.com/2025/08/20/op-ed-public-grocery-stores-already-exist-and-work-well-we-need-more/
Civil Eats
Op-ed: Public Grocery Stores Already Exist and Work Well. We Need More.
Government-run, nonprofit grocery systems can better respond to food-price inflation, corporate consolidation, and inequality.
Despite the efforts of a small group of FBI agents to pursue the case, it was eventually closed by the bureau. The civil lawsuit nearly died in 2016, when President Barack Obama vetoed legislation to carve out an exception to the sovereign immunity of foreign governments and permit the families to sue the Saudi kingdom. Congress overrode that veto, however, allowing the suit to go forward.
President Donald Trump later blocked the families from obtaining classified government documents on the 9/11 investigations, claiming they were state secrets. President Joe Biden later reversed that stance and declassified documents that included reporting confirming that Bayoumi was a part-time agent of the Saudi intelligence service.
Daniels said the plaintiffs’ evidence created “a high probability as to Bayoumi and Thumairy’s roles in the hijackers’ plans, and the related role of their employer,” the Saudi government. “In many instances,” he added, “it even appeared that Bayoumi actively injected himself” into the hijackers’ illicit activities.
Eagleson, the families’ spokesperson, noted that during the long pretrial litigation, the plaintiffs had been allowed to pursue only limited discovery about Bayoumi, Thumairy and a handful of other Saudis.
“We did all of this with our hands tied behind our backs,” he said, “and even with the FBI pushing back and President Trump invoking state secrets, we created an overwhelming picture of Saudi Arabia’s role in supporting the 9/11 hijackers.”
https://www.propublica.org/article/saudi-arabia-september-11-lawsuit-trial-qaida
President Donald Trump later blocked the families from obtaining classified government documents on the 9/11 investigations, claiming they were state secrets. President Joe Biden later reversed that stance and declassified documents that included reporting confirming that Bayoumi was a part-time agent of the Saudi intelligence service.
Daniels said the plaintiffs’ evidence created “a high probability as to Bayoumi and Thumairy’s roles in the hijackers’ plans, and the related role of their employer,” the Saudi government. “In many instances,” he added, “it even appeared that Bayoumi actively injected himself” into the hijackers’ illicit activities.
Eagleson, the families’ spokesperson, noted that during the long pretrial litigation, the plaintiffs had been allowed to pursue only limited discovery about Bayoumi, Thumairy and a handful of other Saudis.
“We did all of this with our hands tied behind our backs,” he said, “and even with the FBI pushing back and President Trump invoking state secrets, we created an overwhelming picture of Saudi Arabia’s role in supporting the 9/11 hijackers.”
https://www.propublica.org/article/saudi-arabia-september-11-lawsuit-trial-qaida
ProPublica
Sept. 11 Victims’ Lawsuit Against Saudi Government Can Go to Trial, Judge Rules
Information uncovered by plaintiffs has already undermined the FBI’s conclusion that two U.S.-based Saudi officials “unwittingly” helped al-Qaida hijackers after they arrived in America.