BANGKOK, Thailand -- By seizing power, Myanmar's new coup leader Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing has protected his murky financial investments and the military's domination, but some of his incoming international cash flow might now be up for grabs.

Sr. Gen. Min spent much of his military career as a quiet, publicity-shy officer steadily promoted to higher positions before grabbing absolute power at dawn on February 1, six months before his mandatory retirement on his 65th birthday July 3.

Among other goals, Sr. Gen. Min apparently hopes he has protected himself, his family, and military colleagues from possible investigation over their extensive, lucrative financial deals.

"His financial interests must be considered as a motive for his coup," the Justice for Myanmar campaign group of activists said.

"Senior General Min Aung Hlaing has ultimate authority over Myanmar’s two military conglomerates -- Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC) and Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL)," the group said.

Saturday, February 6, 2021 4:00 PM - 6:30 PM

The Trans AND virtual performance festival brings together trans and gender nonconforming artists from across the country for a weekend of genre-blending, gender-defying acts and dialogues exploring the intersections of art, identity, activism and community. The festival is a two-day event. Day one, sponsored by the Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute (TRI), consists of two hour-long webinar panels.

Each panel will be made up of three artists and a moderator. In the first panel at 4:00 pm, Azure D. Osborne-Lee, Penny Sterling, and Siri Gurudev will discuss how their work creates space for stories that explore the intersections of trans identity with queerness, racial identity, parenthood, and migration. In the second panel at 5:30 pm, Dillon Yrugeas and Rebecca Kling will discuss the overlap of their work in theatre and performance with their activism to build more equitable and inclusive spaces through performance from the black box theatre to state congressional hearings.

It wasn’t a big ask, thought Michael Doody who runs the endangered Kossuth Street Garden. Can the City of Columbus facilitate a meeting with the Salvation Army, which held the land’s deed, so it can understand his vision for the garden?

He wanted to present his plan to the Salvation Army but was not getting a response, so he asked the City of Columbus to help get that meeting.

But city development employees scoffed, telling him, “The city does not get involved in the sale of private land.”

“I said, ‘Really?’” recalls Doody, a southside activist who since 2007 has turned the garden into an anchor for the Southern Orchards neighborhood on the southside of Columbus. “I bet I could come up with a dozen cases if I speak to zoning reform advocates in this city. The city was involved in private land in the Short North. They gave private owners tax abatements to build in the Short North.”

All Doody wanted to do was make an offer to the Salvation Army so to show them his plans.

“It is long past time for . . . a sea change in the United States’ approach to national and human security . . .”

Yes, yes, yes. These words cut to the soul. Can we create a grown-up America? This is how it begins.

The quote is from a letter to President Biden, put forward in early February by the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Center for Victims of Torture and signed by 111 organizations, demanding that the new president shut down, at long last, the prison hellhole at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Lawyers galore have fled the prospect of representing Donald Trump at his upcoming Impeachment Trial (the sequel).

So his pardoned consigliere Steve Bannon (who knows his Nazi history) wants The Donald to testify in person. It’s a serious Hitlerian scenario.

In 1923, Adolf tried to overthrow Bavaria’s state government. His violent rant at a Munich beerhall sparked an armed conflict that killed eight (Adolf dislocated his shoulder, then hid at a friend’s house).

His high-profile trial jump-started Hitler’s quest for fascist power.

Trump’s own “beerhall putsch” left five dead, plus two police suicides. He pledged to “be there with you” but hid like Hitler.

Trump’s paramilitary Death Squad meant to murder the likes of Mike Pence, Nancy Pelosi, AOC, Bernie Sanders. They crushed the skull of one cop and gleefully assaulted others. Many were professionally trained and heavily armed.

Trump is currently hiding in a Floridian Elba, barely seen or heard.