@Walter Hinteler,
"The country of Georgia is a small wonder.”
"It's one of the really amazing places in the world right now.”
Words spoken by United States President-elect Donald Trump back in 2012.
The Trump Tower in Batumi was scheduled to begin in 2013, but as far as I know it hasn't started but has been officially cancelled.
Obviously, this Trump supporter wants it to get build.
@blatham,
blatham wrote:
Hey Frank... happy new year.
Happy New Year back atcha, Bernie.
Hope all is well.
Heads up -
Watch for news about Pompeo’s speech at 1pm EST. He is banning domestic media from covering it, but broadcasting it worldwide. Might be something shady.
@revelette3,
Quote:Re: blatham (Post 7099264)
You might find this interesting. I know I do, anyway.
The fantasy-industrial complex gave us the Capitol Hill insurrection
Yes. Sean Illing is always worth following on this subject. He gets everything right here including this...
Quote:I don’t know what comes next and won’t hazard a prediction, but I know this much: Without some kind of reckoning in right-wing media, there is no sustainable path forward for the country.
So much for thinking we could retire this thread once Biden won back in November. It feels long ago. The end of his term is as chaotic as he has been since he first came on political scene.
Trump faces mounting demands to leave office or face impeachment for inciting Capitol mob attack
One of the comments accompanying
Maureen Dowd's column today brought up an interesting point. If candidates were
required to release their tax records we would have avoided all the ugliness and disgrace of the past four years.
@revelette3,
Quote:So much for thinking we could retire this thread once Biden won back in November.
I think it should run until Biden takes office. Then close it and we can open one about the Biden administration. No doubt Trump will figure in various news stories and draw comments in other threads but this record of his disastrous presidency will be over. If the volume of Trump-oriented news merits it, we could start a thread about "Trump, the Festering Sore" or something.
@snood,
Quote:
Watch for news about Pompeo’s speech at 1pm EST.
I wonder what will happen to VOA now that it's been turned into a propaganda outlet? Can Biden get rid of the Trump appointees? And what about the Postmaster General — can De Joy be replaced? Anyone know?
First Lady Melania Trump focused on getting a photo shoot completed as a mob of Trump supporters ransacked the US Capitol, report says
Quote:First Lady Melania Trump was focused on finished a photo project for her coffee table book as a mob of Trump supporters broke into the US Capitol on Wednesday, according to a CNN report.
A White House source told the news outlet that Melania — who has not yet commented on the events — is mentally "checked out" and doesn't want to "get involved" anymore.
The first lady and Trump's adult children have been avoiding the spotlight since the violent events unfolded this week.
When has she not been mentally checked out? Should have known by her "I don't care do U" jacket.
@hightor,
You’re talking about voice of America, right?
@Region Philbis,
Thanks...I was afraid of that.
Moving right along, Albuquerque put this up on another thread:
Trump's Fear of Prison...
On Friday, polling from HuffPost and PBS NewsHour was released how Americans viewed the events of last Wednesday.
Predictably, a majority sees the actions of the mob as mostly wrong, as opposed to either mostly right or having gone too far.
However, the HuffPost polling shows that fully a third of Trump supporters think those who stormed the Capitol represent people like them or represent Trump supporters broadly.
Most Americans reject the attack on the Capitol — but millions empathize with the mob
Political appointees do not get to keep their jobs unless the new President wants them to stay on. We watched Trump fire career employees all the time and replace them with loyalists. I think it's going to be a blood bath for the Trumpists.
@hightor,
Quote:I wonder what will happen to VOA now that it's been turned into a propaganda outlet?
Why Trump might have directed any attention whatsoever to VOA...
Quote:So when Trump and his aides began attacking VOA earlier this month, stirring up anger on the right, the broadcaster and its leader seemed like another shrewdly chosen foil for rallying his populist base against Washington elites. But since then, a deeper motive has emerged: Trump is using the dispute to demand the confirmation of conservative activist and filmmaker Michael Pack, a close associate of Steve Bannon, to head the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees VOA.
Politico
And why is that significant?
Quote:March 9, 2018
MILAN — Stephen K. Bannon leaned back in an armchair opposite a copy of a painting by an Italian old master and explained his modest efforts to build a vast network of European populists to demolish the Continent’s political establishment.
“All I’m trying to be,” he said, “is the infrastructure, globally, for the global populist movement.” ... Mr. Bannon said that a common message he had received from populists throughout Europe was a desire to establish a media outlet for their views.
More Here on Bannon's connections with far right, authoritarian leaders in Europe and elsewhere
Do read this twitter thread from Dec 21
Arieh Kovler
@ariehkovler
On January 6, armed Trumpist militias will be rallying in DC, at Trump's orders. It's highly likely that they'll try to storm the Capitol after it certifies Joe Biden's win. I don't think this has sunk in yet.
5:43 AM · Dec 21, 2020·Twitter Web App
·
Dec 21, 2020
Replying to
@ariehkovler
These people are angry at the Democrats. They're angry at the GOP for not suspending democracy. They hate the media, and many consider police to be the enemy even as they fly the "blue lives" flag instead of the Stars and Stripes.
Arieh Kovler
@ariehkovler
·
Dec 21, 2020
They are convinced that Congress will, somehow, declare Trump the winner on Jan 6. Maybe Pence will just refuse to count the Electoral Votes from states Biden won? Or the Senate will throw those votes out? Or Justice Thomas? Alternatively...
Arieh Kovler
@ariehkovler
·
Dec 21, 2020
...some think Trump will win because *they* will ensure it. Maybe by forcing Congress to certify him as the winner at gunpoint. Maybe as backup forces to Trump's supposed military coup.
Arieh Kovler
@ariehkovler
· Dec 19, 2020
Pro-Trump forums are very excited about Trump's call for a mass DC protest on the day Congress counts the Electoral College votes. Many see it as the mobilisation call they've been waiting for.
·
Dec 21, 2020
When Congress certifies Biden, these people will be shocked. Their worlds will collapse. And it'll happen while they're (illegally) armed and gathered in DC. It's the nitroglycerine of explosive mixtures.
Arieh Kovler
@ariehkovler
·
Dec 21, 2020
How will January 6 be policed? We've already seen that the White House can effectively commandeer the DC police, and construct ad-hoc paramilitary forces out of prison officers and CBP. Will Congress get the protection it needs?
@Walter Hinteler,
Another guy who was walking around the Senate floor with zip-tie handcuffs — not to mention the combat helmet, body armor and tactical gear — turned out to be an Air Force combat veteran. :-/
An Air Force Combat Veteran Breached the Senate
The excuses he came up with, some of them easily falsifiable, while furiously peddling back his involvement would be somewhat hilarious in less troubling circumstances. He just picked those zip ties from the floor, you see, because he wanted to hand them over to the authorities... which he conveniently "forgot" soon after.
He's also "a fifty-three-year-old father of three who lives in an affluent suburb of Dallas" and graduated from the Air Force Academy "with a major in international relations and affairs". As tempting as it is to pretend for some on the one side that the mob (and Trump supporters in general) is all ignorant backward hillbillies, and for supporters of the other side to pretend it's all salt of the earth working folk raging against the elites, there's a serious rich-white-people element to the Trumpist right.
Ex-FBI chap here wishing to see a healthy democracy.
Quote:Right Wing Watch
@RightWingWatch
· Jan 8
Radical right-wing activist John Guandolo says "screw you" to anyone criticizing MAGA activists for storming the Capitol, praising them for showing incredible "restraint" by not summarily executing lawmakers.
https://bit.ly/2XpepKk
Richard Dawkins:
"Is Twitter’s ban of Trump a worrying Free Speech issue? On reflection I think not because
(a) Trump went far beyond expression of opinion (which should be protected) to outright lies, demonstrable falsehoods. Falsehoods, moreover which were calculated to
(b) incite violence."
