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“Don’t worry. The story will end well. Evil people eventually turn inward and devour each other.”—Dr. Ruth C. May, author of How Putin’s Oligarchs Funneled Millions Into GOP Campaigns
In 2019, I tracked down the author of the Dallas Morning News report, Putin’s Proxies, published 15 December 2017. The title was later changed to How Putin’s Oligarchs Funneled Millions Into GOP Campaigns, which is what the report was about.
It was the first comprehensive investigation that followed the money that flowed from Moscow to Washington, and its author, Dr. Ruth C. May, was a business professor at the University of Dallas specializing in the economies of Russia and Ukraine.
I read her brilliant report when it first came out, and then located her for an interview after an investigation I produced on Robert Mercer, the hedge fund billionaire who funded Trump’s 2016 campaign, Cambridge Analytica, Breitbart, Steve Bannon, Parler, and Citizens United, led me to Moscow from myriad directions.
I knew Ruth was the person who could help me unknot the curious parallels between the information and electronic warfare waged against the US by the Russian military, and the Robert Mercer-financed data and media operations.
I published a Q&A with her on Twitter on 20 August 2019 titled Slouching Toward Tyranny.
I recall two key things she told me:
“I’ve always regretted that our current securities laws do not require more transparency of hedge funds.”
“Now that I look back on the writing I’ve done for Dallas Morning News, I feel now more than ever that Citizens United represents a strategic threat to our democracy… This dark money eats away at us every day from the inside out.”
And it was Ruth who told me something that gave me comfort during the darkest days of the Trumpocene, a quote I have used often as I do this work. After cautioning me to stay away from banisters, she said: “Don’t worry. The story will end well. Evil people eventually turn inward and devour each other.”
Every so often I would think, is this the moment when the evil people turn inward and devour each other?
And as I watch Pete Hegseth try to give himself cover by saying he was just following orders, and as I watch Marco Rubio say he was just following orders, I smile and think, it didn’t work for Eichmann and it won't work for them.
Perhaps, the moment is finally here when the evil people turn inward and devour each other.
There’s a reason it might be occurring now. And it’s not only the pending political transition in Washington. It’s the fact that despite Trump’s attempts to kill international law, justice keeps on happening.
I have repeatedly recommended this community keep an eye on Trump and Hegseth’s boat killings, because the extrajudicial murders parallel what Rodrigo Duterte is on trial for in The Hague.
Here is the latest from the International Criminal Court on the former president of the Philippines’ trial:
On 30 November 2026 at 10:00 (The Hague local time), the trial in the case The Prosecutor v. Rodrigo Roa Duterte will open before Trial Chamber III of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the crimes against humanity of murder and attempted murder pursuant to article 7(1)(a) of the Rome Statute. These crimes were allegedly committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack against a civilian population on the territory of the Republic of the Philippines between 1 November 2011 and 16 March 2019.
Specifically, Mr Duterte is charged with murder as a crime against humanity in Davao City during the Mayoral period, between 2013 and around June 2016 (Count 1); murder as a crime against humanity of ‘High-Value Targets’ in locations across the Philippines during the Presidential period between around July 2016 and July 2017 (Count 2); and murder and attempted murder as crimes against humanity in barangay clearance operations in locations across the Philippines during the Presidential period between around July 2016 and September 2018 (Count 3). The hearings are scheduled from 30 November 2026 onwards.
More than 500 victims to take part in the trial.
Trump and Hegseth’s so-called war on drugs is back above the fold, as an attempt to impeach US defense secretary Hegseth was just blocked following a vote in the House of Representatives on Tuesday. Republican congressman Thomas Massie brought eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth on Monday, accusing him of high crimes and misdemeanors relating to US military boat killings in Venezuela, among other alleged crimes.
PBS reporter Geoff Bennett spoke with military law expert Eugene Fidel, who said: “The government has argued, the administration has argued that these were deaths in the context of an armed conflict. That’s a ridiculous claim. And, in fact, these are extrajudicial killings - that’s French for murder - committed on the high seas in a totally botched law enforcement effort.”
Shockingly, Fidel said that the number of boat strike victims have soared “way over 200” and he reminded Bennett that they “were never convicted by any court of law, were never sentenced to death, and were basically executed.”
On Tuesday morning, Hegseth said: “Iran, the cartels, Maduro, Yemen — every one was a lawful operation ordered by the commander-in-chief, then ordered by myself, notified to Congress, and executed by American warriors who did their jobs.”
Fidel skewered him for that. “The claim that Hegseth was only following orders doesn’t get him anywhere, because those orders were illegal… That’s the thing about a system of law and that includes accountability. You cannot invoke somebody else as the giver of orders and say, well, I wash my hands of this. I’m just doing what I was told. That was the problem in, for example, the case of Lieutenant Calley in the My Lai massacre. That was the problem during World War II, and that’s the problem that we’re facing now.”
Remarkably, just after Hegseth used the “following orders” defense, Secretary of State Marco Rubio deployed the same line. While talking to reporters in Paris about the Iran war, Rubio said: “Our job is to execute on the president’s orders.”
Chomp chomp.
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