CURRENT EVENTS

  • Thread starter Thread starter nycfan
  • Start date Start date
  • Replies: 479
  • Views: 7K
  • Politics 
nycfan said:


Click to expand...

Is this Netanyahu’s response to getting snubbed by Trump on his Arabian Peninsula tour? Seems catastrophically stupid if it happens. I’m guessing Bibi wants to trade foregoing this attack for some favor from Trump.
 

World leaders have a huge new problem: Trump’s Oval Office smackdowns​



“It’s the new Hunger Games of world politics — the televised Oval Office take-down by President Donald Trump.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was the latest leader to become a MAGA prop Wednesday, as Trump lectured him on false claims that White South African farmers are the victims of a genocide.

… Trump’s dressings-down are a metaphor for a US foreign policy that is erratic, politicized and awash in conspiracy theories. As Ukraine and Jordan also found out, the more vulnerable a country, the more hostile a reception they tend to get.

… Ramaphosa knew what was coming. He was joined by his White agriculture minister in the new multiracial coalition government. Trump’s friends the South African major champion golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen were also drafted in. …

But that didn’t stop Trump dimming the lights and rolling out a multimedia show of right-wing propaganda about South Africa. “Death, death, death,” he said, as he displayed articles about the killings of White Afrikaners.

The question of more equitable land ownership is one of the most complex legacies of South Africa’s years of minority rule. But as Ramaphosa explained, there’s no systematic attempt to wipe out a community based on race or ethnicity — the definition of genocide. And most victims of violent crime are Black.…”
 
lawtig02 said:
Is this Netanyahu’s response to getting snubbed by Trump on his Arabian Peninsula tour? Seems catastrophically stupid if it happens. I’m guessing Bibi wants to trade foregoing this attack for some favor from Trump.
Click to expand...
Bibi wants to prevent a U.S./Trump deal with Iran if he can. He has been trying to derail it for some time, which is part of why he was not included in Trump’s ME trip.
 


“… The two enlisted Team 4 members are being punished for developing racist memes targeting a Black sailor in their platoon and circulating them in a group chat with other team members, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details of an ongoing investigation. The memes depicted the sailor as a slave, according to visuals viewed by The Associated Press.

…
According to the official, the sailor who was targeted reported the incidents this year, but they took place beginning in 2022 and the memes circulated for years. The sailor had been in one of the SEAL Team 4 platoons but had his qualifications and SEAL trident revoked last year. He alleged that his failure to remain a SEAL was due to the racist treatment.

Two officials said that as a result of the investigation, which was conducted by Naval Special Warfare Group 2, the sailor’s SEAL qualifications are being reinstated and he will get back pay. The group oversees SEAL Team 4 and the platoons that make up the team, located at Joint Base Little Creek-Fort Story in Hampton Roads, Virginia

The probe found that the platoon and SEAL Team 4 leaders did not adequately address the sailor’s concerns about racist behavior and that the decision to revoke his qualifications was flawed.

“This was a very shocking case of explicit and repeated racist memes directed at our client in a platoon-wide text thread,” said Timothy Parlatore, the sailor’s lawyer, referring to the memes shared over a Signal chat. “They modified his face in photos to look like a monkey and portrayed him as a chained slave on a slave ship, among others.” …”
 


“… China’s pronouncement in March that it will build a new Antarctic polar station coincided with Russia’s announced intention to build a new station, restore a long-closed one, and construct an airfield. Beijing’s newest station will be its sixth in Antarctica, along with the airfield it began constructing in 2018. Russia maintains six active stations, with five others currently closed; its recent announcement follows Russian President Vladimir Putin’s statement in January 2024 that Vostok station near the south pole had been successfully modernized.

The construction and modernization of Antarctic stations is not simply a matter of symbolic competition or national prestige.

On a continent whose climate makes permanent habitation impossible, research stations are the only way countries can maintain a presence, project territorial claims, and (despite the strict limitations imposed by the 1959 Antarctic Treaty) engage in military activities. The United States has long enjoyed the perks of a station at the south pole, providing unique access for scientific research but also cementing Washington’s leadership in upholding the Antarctic Treaty and the current benign regime governing the continent.

U.S. leadership in Antarctica, however, is increasingly precarious. The goal of the Antarctic Treaty, as summarized by then-U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles during its creation, was to prevent Cold War-era competition from spreading to the Antarctic.

In recent decades, China has sought to push, and in some cases exceed, the boundaries of the treaty. People’s Liberation Army (PLA) personnel have been notably active in China’s Antarctic program and, in direct violation of the treaty, Beijing failed to report their presence to its fellow signatories.

Similarly unreported, PLA personnel constructed a radar site at China’s Zhongshan station that could reportedly interfere with U.S. polar satellites. China’s newest station, Qinling, is located near the United States’ McMurdo station and equipped with advanced communications gear and satellite ground stations that could potentially provide signals intelligence collection and satellite launch monitoring.

Chinese strategists put an Antarctic twist on their well-known doctrine of “civil-military fusion,” with the 2020 edition of the Chinese military textbook Science of Military Strategy contending that “military-civilian mixing is the main way for great powers to achieve a polar military presence.” The PLA, in keeping with Beijing’s fond tradition of using cartography to signal strategic objectives, has adopted a map that more prominently positions Antarctica and helps elucidate Beijing’s view of the southern continent as a geopolitical pivot point.

President Xi Jinping himself has been clear on the Antarctic’s significance, stating in 2014 that Beijing would seek to “understand, protect, and exploit” Antarctica. Qu Tanzhou, the director of the Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration, has stated the international community needs time to “make a psychological adjustment” to accept China’s new strength in polar affairs; on Antarctica, he explained that “we are here about the potential of the resources and how to use these resources.” …”
 






This is an active volcano that has erupted several times already this year, this just appears to be a particularly violent eruption.
 
nycfan said:


“… The two enlisted Team 4 members are being punished for developing racist memes targeting a Black sailor in their platoon and circulating them in a group chat with other team members, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details of an ongoing investigation. The memes depicted the sailor as a slave, according to visuals viewed by The Associated Press.

…
According to the official, the sailor who was targeted reported the incidents this year, but they took place beginning in 2022 and the memes circulated for years. The sailor had been in one of the SEAL Team 4 platoons but had his qualifications and SEAL trident revoked last year. He alleged that his failure to remain a SEAL was due to the racist treatment.

Two officials said that as a result of the investigation, which was conducted by Naval Special Warfare Group 2, the sailor’s SEAL qualifications are being reinstated and he will get back pay. The group oversees SEAL Team 4 and the platoons that make up the team, located at Joint Base Little Creek-Fort Story in Hampton Roads, Virginia

The probe found that the platoon and SEAL Team 4 leaders did not adequately address the sailor’s concerns about racist behavior and that the decision to revoke his qualifications was flawed.

“This was a very shocking case of explicit and repeated racist memes directed at our client in a platoon-wide text thread,” said Timothy Parlatore, the sailor’s lawyer, referring to the memes shared over a Signal chat. “They modified his face in photos to look like a monkey and portrayed him as a chained slave on a slave ship, among others.” …”
Click to expand...

But DEI is the scourge of the military, right?
 

If Justice Dept. Can’t Prosecute Trump’s Foes, It Will ‘Shame’ Them, Official Says​

Prosecutors have long spoken only through court filings, to investigate crimes, not people. That’s changing as President Trump demands his administration target enemies, with little evidence of criminality.

🎁 —> https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/21/...e_code=1.JE8.3iO_.w4vIzjCciIsw&smid=url-share

“… In recent days, Ed Martin, the self-described “captain” of the Justice Department’s “weaponization” group, made a candid if unsurprising admission: He plans to use his authority to expose and discredit those he believes to be guilty, even if he cannot find sufficient evidence to prosecute them — weaponizing an institution he has been hired to de-weaponize, in the view of critics.

“If they can be charged, we’ll charge them,” Mr. Martin told reporters before stepping down as interim U.S. attorney in Washington. “But if they can’t be charged, we will name them. And we will name them, and in a culture that respects shame, they should be people that are ashamed.”

… Mr. Martin has virtually no investigative experience. Instead he has signaled he intends to subject the president’s accusers to humiliations and inconveniences comparable to what Mr. Trump endured, to right perceived wrongs.

“They tried to bankrupt him, they tried to put him in prison for life for non-crimes, they tried to get him off the ballot,” said Mike Davis, a Republican and former Senate Judiciary Committee aide with close ties to the Trump White House. “They must be held accountable for this criminal conspiracy.”

A spokesman for Mr. Martin did not immediately respond to a request for comment, though Mr. Trump and his team have said they are rebuilding, not destroying, the department.…”
 
nycfan said:

If Justice Dept. Can’t Prosecute Trump’s Foes, It Will ‘Shame’ Them, Official Says​

Prosecutors have long spoken only through court filings, to investigate crimes, not people. That’s changing as President Trump demands his administration target enemies, with little evidence of criminality.

🎁 —> https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/21/...e_code=1.JE8.3iO_.w4vIzjCciIsw&smid=url-share

“… In recent days, Ed Martin, the self-described “captain” of the Justice Department’s “weaponization” group, made a candid if unsurprising admission: He plans to use his authority to expose and discredit those he believes to be guilty, even if he cannot find sufficient evidence to prosecute them — weaponizing an institution he has been hired to de-weaponize, in the view of critics.

“If they can be charged, we’ll charge them,” Mr. Martin told reporters before stepping down as interim U.S. attorney in Washington. “But if they can’t be charged, we will name them. And we will name them, and in a culture that respects shame, they should be people that are ashamed.”

… Mr. Martin has virtually no investigative experience. Instead he has signaled he intends to subject the president’s accusers to humiliations and inconveniences comparable to what Mr. Trump endured, to right perceived wrongs.

“They tried to bankrupt him, they tried to put him in prison for life for non-crimes, they tried to get him off the ballot,” said Mike Davis, a Republican and former Senate Judiciary Committee aide with close ties to the Trump White House. “They must be held accountable for this criminal conspiracy.”

A spokesman for Mr. Martin did not immediately respond to a request for comment, though Mr. Trump and his team have said they are rebuilding, not destroying, the department.…”
Click to expand...

Judge blasts ‘embarrassing retraction’ of charge against Newark mayor​

The Justice Department charged Newark Mayor Ras Baraka with trespassing during a visit to an ICE facility in the city, but days later has now dropped the case.


“… “An arrest of a public figure is not a preliminary investigative tool. It is a severe action,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Andre M. Espinosa told Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Demanovich during a virtual court hearing. “It should only be undertaken after a thorough, dispassionate investigation of credible evidence.

“The apparent rush in this case, culminating today in the embarrassing retraction of charges, suggests a failure to adequately investigate,” Espinosa continued. “... Your office must operate with a higher standard than that.”

… Interim U.S. attorney Alina Habba has offered no explanation for her decision to drop the misdemeanor trespassing charge her office filed against Baraka (D) following his controversial arrest this month outside the Delaney Hall immigration detention facility in Newark.

Habba, a former personal lawyer to President Donald Trump, has also charged Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-New Jersey) with assaulting two ICE agents during the heated clash that erupted May 9 as agents swooped in to detain the mayor. The congresswoman and other Democrats in Washington have decried her prosecution as an attempt at “political intimidation.”

At Baraka’s hearing Wednesday, Demanovich sidestepped the judge’s demands to explain how prosecutors could have said last week they were fully prepared to take Baraka’s case to trial, only to move to drop the charges days later.…”
 
altmin said:
not on my bingo card

www.thedailybeast.com

Tucker Carlson Rips Trump’s Middle East Moves: ‘Seems Like Corruption’

The Trump Organization has undertaken huge real estate development projects in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.
www.thedailybeast.com www.thedailybeast.com
Click to expand...
The fall from influential Fox News superstar to forgotten and ignored podcast host is a big one. I suspect he's trying to get back into the public eye by saying some things about Trump that will raise eyebrows on both sides and get his name in the news again. I doubt it will work long-term, but that's probably his strategy here. It is amazing at how quickly O'Reilly, Carlson, Beck, Megyn Kelly, etc. all more or less fell from right-wing grace not long after they were booted from Fox, and how easily other talking heads were able to replace them. It seems clear that it doesn't really matter who fills the 8 PM to midnight time slot on Fox, as they're just replaceable cogs in a vast right-wing propaganda network. The individual hosts, like O'Reilly or Carlson, are simply expendable.
 
Last edited:
“…MEANWHILE IN THE WHITE HOUSE

COINING IT IN: As jaw-dropping presidential activity goes, this one takes some beating.

Tonight, Trump will host more than 200 wealthy crypto bros for a private “dinner with the president” as a special reward for their $400 million investment in his personal memecoin. Trump will head to his D.C.-area golf club at 7 p.m. as the star guest at what the distressingly garish official website describes as “the most exclusive invitation in the world.” Black tie is preferred, the invite says, but not obligatory. Good to know.

And there’s more: The 25 biggest investors will also be invited to a small VIP reception with the president ahead of tonight’s gala dinner. A quick glance at the website leaves no doubt that these events have been explicitly designed to sell as much $TRUMP crypto as possible. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) described “the Trump coin scam” as “the most brazenly corrupt thing a president has ever done.” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) has called itan “unprecedented pay-to-play scheme to provide access to the presidency to the highest bidder.”

But to be clear: These memecoins are sold on exchange markets; that money does not go to Trump directly. And the invitations for the dinner state Trump is “appearing as a guest and not soliciting any funds for it.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt — who, helpfully, has a press briefing at 1 p.m. today — has said Trump is “abiding by all conflict-of-interest laws.” So … that’s alright then?

Erm, no: About 80 percent of $TRUMP coins are held by Trump Organization affiliates, and so in theory if their value soars those holdings should become more valuable. And per NBC News, the 220 “winning” investors at tonight’s dinner have collectively spent an extraordinary $394 million between them, with several spending more than $10 million a head. Bloomberg reckons many of them are likely based overseas. POLITICO’s Declan Harty has more detail on who’ll be there.

Needless to say … It’s hard to think of anything remotely comparable in the annals of recent presidential history. Bill Clinton letting political donors sleep in the Lincoln Bedroom? Hunter Biden trying to sell his paintings? None if it comes close to a $400 million personal crypto scheme with the president’s face slapped on it.…”

IMG_7036.jpeg




gettrumpmemes.com

Dinner

Join the Trump Community. Own a Piece of Trump. This is History in the Making!
gettrumpmemes.com gettrumpmemes.com
 
nycfan said:
“…MEANWHILE IN THE WHITE HOUSE

COINING IT IN: As jaw-dropping presidential activity goes, this one takes some beating.

Tonight, Trump will host more than 200 wealthy crypto bros for a private “dinner with the president” as a special reward for their $400 million investment in his personal memecoin. Trump will head to his D.C.-area golf club at 7 p.m. as the star guest at what the distressingly garish official website describes as “the most exclusive invitation in the world.” Black tie is preferred, the invite says, but not obligatory. Good to know.

And there’s more: The 25 biggest investors will also be invited to a small VIP reception with the president ahead of tonight’s gala dinner. A quick glance at the website leaves no doubt that these events have been explicitly designed to sell as much $TRUMP crypto as possible. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) described “the Trump coin scam” as “the most brazenly corrupt thing a president has ever done.” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) has called itan “unprecedented pay-to-play scheme to provide access to the presidency to the highest bidder.”

But to be clear: These memecoins are sold on exchange markets; that money does not go to Trump directly. And the invitations for the dinner state Trump is “appearing as a guest and not soliciting any funds for it.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt — who, helpfully, has a press briefing at 1 p.m. today — has said Trump is “abiding by all conflict-of-interest laws.” So … that’s alright then?

Erm, no: About 80 percent of $TRUMP coins are held by Trump Organization affiliates, and so in theory if their value soars those holdings should become more valuable. And per NBC News, the 220 “winning” investors at tonight’s dinner have collectively spent an extraordinary $394 million between them, with several spending more than $10 million a head. Bloomberg reckons many of them are likely based overseas. POLITICO’s Declan Harty has more detail on who’ll be there.

Needless to say … It’s hard to think of anything remotely comparable in the annals of recent presidential history. Bill Clinton letting political donors sleep in the Lincoln Bedroom? Hunter Biden trying to sell his paintings? None if it comes close to a $400 million personal crypto scheme with the president’s face slapped on it.…”

IMG_7036.jpeg




gettrumpmemes.com

Dinner

Join the Trump Community. Own a Piece of Trump. This is History in the Making!
gettrumpmemes.com gettrumpmemes.com
Click to expand...


So far …
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top