Trump enters the stage

[Meno4]

An interesting tidbit on the history of Slovenia, the birthplace of Melania Trump:

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The Romans conquered Slovenia in the 1st century BC, establishing a province called Pannonia, which included parts of modern-day Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, and Austria. The Roman period saw the development of towns, roads, and trade, and the spread of Latin culture and language. The most important Roman town in Slovenia was Emona (modern-day Ljubljana), which served as a military and administrative center for the region.

Middle Ages

After the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, Slovenia was invaded by various barbarian tribes, including the Huns, Goths, and Lombards. In the 6th century, the Slavs migrated to the region, bringing with them their language and culture. In the 8th century, the Franks conquered Slovenia and incorporated it into the Carolingian Empire. During the Middle Ages, Slovenia was ruled by various feudal lords and princes, and its territory was divided into small, often warring, states.

Habsburg Monarchy

In the 14th century, Slovenia came under the rule of the Habsburg Monarchy, a powerful dynasty that controlled much of Central and Eastern Europe. Under Habsburg rule, Slovenia experienced a period of economic and cultural growth, with the development of mining, trade, and education. In the 16th century, the Protestant Reformation spread to Slovenia, but was later suppressed by the Habsburgs, who established the Catholic Church as the dominant religion.

19th and 20th Centuries

In the 19th century, Slovenia became part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was ruled by the Habsburgs. The 19th century saw the growth of Slovenian nationalism and the rise of a strong cultural and political identity. The Slovenian language became the medium of education and literature, and Slovenian culture flourished. In 1918, at the end of World War I, Slovenia became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, which later became Yugoslavia.

During World War II, Slovenia was occupied by Nazi Germany and its allies, and was divided into various administrative units. Slovenian resistance fighters played an important role in the liberation of the country, and after the war, Slovenia became part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Under Communist rule, Slovenia experienced significant economic and social development, but also faced political repression and censorship.

[HumAnIze]

Is it true that Melania was a prostitute and that’s how she met Trump? Or is that just a smear gossip?

[Meno4]

Haven’t heard but nowadays anything is possible since IRMA le Douche

[HumAnIze]

No idea what that means, but ok

[MagsJ (Surya Loka)]

@Meno4

IRMA le Douche

How do you translate “Douce”? At the very beginning of the movie, it is explained that “Irma la Douce” is French for "Irma the Sweet ".
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This entertaining comedy finds disgraced former police officer Nestor Patou (Jack Lemmon) falling for beautiful Parisian prostitute Irma La Douce (Shirley MacLaine). Though Nestor becomes Irma’s pimp, he can’t stand the idea of her being with clients, so he devises a way to keep her all to himself. This scheme leads to plenty of trouble, however, and soon Nestor is forced to avoid his old law-enforcement peers in an attempt to stay with Irma and out of jail.

[Meno4]

Look at the great Royal courtesans of 300 years ago approx. Madame Pompadoure, she was not only respectable, but was a romantic paramour, (will correct spelling later, ), but a heroine kinda, a female version of Robin Hood, except she had different wares to sell, or steal, it was a political declass, who had some objective, credible means to undercut the preverbialfeudal tension apparent in those days of hidden moral decay up and down the social spectrum.,

What means this and the fact that Melania used to be a photo model back in Slovenia, all one has to do is put these impressions together and you get the idea, plus European mentality has a lot more hardwired memory then.

So? There you go, mind you these damsels were often in distress like needing money to feed their families, ailing grandmothers. So respectability is a baggage not symbolic of looseness but of high end Louis Votans.

[Meno4]

Biden speaks on the way with regret:(scary)

)(. )(. )(

Trump Is Walking Back His Biggest Campaign Promises Before Taking Office

By Jennifer Bendery, 4 hrs ago

HuffPost

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WASHINGTON — Donald Trump made lots of big promises on the campaign trail about what he would do as president.

But in the weeks since he won the election, Trump and his transition team have been quietly walking back some of his most significant commitments — a reflection of how unrealistic they were to begin with.

Trump promised to “fix” Russia’s war in Ukraine before he was even inaugurated. Welp!

Ukraine

Throughout his campaign, Trump repeatedly bragged that he was uniquely positioned to resolve Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In March 2023, he said he could “fix” the war before he was even inaugurated.

“I would fix that within 24 hours, and if I win, before I get into the office, I will have that war settled,” the president-elect said in a Fox News interview with Sean Hannity. “100% sure.”

Trump said the same thing in May 2023 during a CNN town hall — “If I’m president, I will have that war settled in one day, 24 hours” — and again in June 2024 .

But on Wednesday, two of his advisers conceded that isn’t going to happen.

It will take months or even longer to resolve the war, which has been going on since February 2022, Trump’s associates told Reuters . They chalked up Trump’s promises to quickly end the war to “campaign bluster” and “a lack of appreciation of the intractability of the conflict and the time it takes to staff up a new administration,” per Reuters.

Trump himself backpedaled on this promise last week, saying during a Mar-a-Lago news conference that his “hope” is to try to get a deal in six months.

"Groceries, cars, everything. We’re going to get the prices down,” Trump vowed on the campaign trial. Now, he says that sounds really hard.

Lowering Grocery Prices

In another vow that was central to his campaign, Trump said he would magically halt inflation and bring down the costs of everyone’s groceries.

“We will end inflation and make America affordable again, and we’re going to get the prices down, we have to get them down,” he said at a rally in September . “It’s too much. Groceries, cars, everything. We’re going to get the prices down.”

Trump said the same thing a month later at another rally : “We will cut your taxes and inflation, slash your prices, raise your wages and bring thousands of factories back to America.”

But shortly after the election, Trump was already moving the goal posts, conceding it would be impossible for him to single-handedly lower the costs of consumer goods.

“It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up,” the president-elect said in a November interview with Time . “You know, it’s very hard.”

Trump has promised to “free” his supporters who were convicted for participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. But his vice president now says there will be no blanket pardons.

Jan. 6 Pardons

Vice President-elect JD Vance is lowering expectations for Trump’s repeated but vague plans to release his supporters from prison who were convicted for their roles in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, which Trump infamously egged on in an effort to prevent Joe Biden from being certified as president.

In March, Trump promised he would “free” Jan. 6 rioters in one of his first acts as president if reelected. He didn’t say how many people he would pardon, but suggested it would be hundreds. More than 1,000 rioters have been sentenced since the violent attack, with more than 700 of them spending at least some time in prison.

“I am inclined to pardon many of them. I can’t say for every single one because a couple of them, probably, they got out of control,” Trump declared at a CNN town hall in May 2023 . He added later, “I would say it will be a large portion of them, and it would be early on.”

On Sunday, Vance drew the ire of some of Trump’s most diehard backers by saying in a Fox News interview that the president-elect would not be issuing blanket pardons to everyone charged in the riot.

“If you protested peacefully on Jan. 6 … you should be pardoned,” Vance said. “If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned.”

“There’s a little bit of a gray area there,” he added.

Elon Musk now says that $2 trillion figure he touted as a target number for cuts to federal government spending was just a pipe dream.

Slashing Government Spending

Some of Trump’s high-profile associates are walking back their grand plans too, now that the election is over. Billionaire Elon Musk, who Trump tapped to lead a nongovernment advisory panel called the “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE, previously talked a big game about using the panel to cut “at least” $2 trillion in government spending.

Not anymore.

Musk admitted last week that the dollar amount was aspirational. Slashing $2 trillion from the $6.8 trillion federal budget would be a “best-case outcome,” he said in an interview on his social media platform , X, formerly called Twitter, and added that the reality is DOGE has a “good shot” at cutting maybe half of that amount.

A Trump transition spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment about all these campaign promises being scaled back before the president-elect has even taken office.

&to correlate with Biden’s upcoming exit speech:

Biden set to give farewell address after securing Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal

President Joe Biden will soon give his farewell address to the nation, reflecting on a decadeslong career in politics on the same day he secured a major foreign policy goal in the Middle East.

ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce reported “he is sure to tout” the ceasefire and hostage-release deal between Israel and Hamas – that he worked on for more than a year – becoming reality days before he leaves office.

In a “letter to the American people” released by the White House earlier on Wednesday, Biden laid out why he sought the nation’s highest office and what it’s meant to him over the past four years.

“I ran for president because I believed that the soul of America was at stake. The very nature of who we are was at stake. And, that’s still the case,” Biden said.

“It has been the privilege of my life to serve this nation for over 50 years. Nowhere else on Earth could a kid with a stutter from modest beginnings in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Claymont, Delaware, one day sit behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office as President of the United States,” Biden wrote. “I have given my heart and my soul to our nation. And I have been blessed a million times in return with the love and support of the American people.”

MORE: Biden, in prime time, to bid farewell to nation as Trump prepares to take office

The speech comes just hours after Biden celebrated the agreement between Israel and Hamas after facing months of political backlash at home over the international conflict.

Biden was personally involved in the negotiations and described them as some of the “toughest” of his career but said he was “deeply satisfied” with the result.

“This has been time of real turmoil in the Middle East, but as I prepare to leave office, our friends are strong, our enemies are weak and there’s a genuine opportunities for a new future,” he said.

Biden has spoken more broadly about his foreign policy footprint and some of his domestic achievements as he prepares to leave the White House and cede power to President-elect Donald Trump.

The Oval Office address on Wednesday night will provide Biden with a larger audience as he reflects on his legacy.

Surveys show Americans have a mixed view on his four years in office. A recent Gallup poll found 54% of U.S. adults think Biden will be remembered as a “below average” or “poor” president; 19% say he’ll be remembered as “outstanding” or “above average” and 26% think he will be viewed as “average.”

MORE: How will history remember Biden’s presidency?

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the upcoming remarks “an important moment for the president.”

"It’s not just about the last four years of his administration, he is stepping down from his career,"Jean-Pierre said in her final briefing earlier on Wednesday. “More than 50 years of public service that this president has done as senator, as vice president, as president.”

“So, you can imagine the president has a lot to say,” she said, “a lot of thoughts that he wants to share, really touch on the moment that we’re in right now.”

[Meno4]

And Bidon’s farewell speech: mirrors the above:

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Biden, in farewell address, warns about dangers of unchecked power in ultra-wealthy

President Joe Biden, in his farewell address, reflected on a decadeslong political career but also issued a stark warning to the nation as he prepares to cede power to President-elect Donald Trump.

Speaking from behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, Biden said he was proud of what his administration accomplished as the country climbed out of the coronavirus pandemic and made investments in the economy, infrastructure, gun safety, climate change and more.

“In the past four years, our democracy has held strong and every day I’ve kept my commitment to be president for all Americans for one of the toughest periods in our nation’s history,” Biden said.

He commended Vice President Kamala Harris as a “great partner” as she sat nearby alongside second gentleman Doug Emhoff, first lady Jill Biden and Hunter Biden.

Biden listed several of his key legislative wins, including lowering prescription drug prices, expanding benefits for military veterans exposed to burn pits, investing in domestic manufacturing of semiconductor chips and more. The impact of those policies, he noted, may not be fully realized for years to come.

He also briefly highlighted the ceasefire and hostage release deal reached by Israel and Hamas earlier Wednesday, a foreign policy goal of Biden’s for more than a year that became reality just days before his departure.

He touted working with the incoming Trump administration to see through its implementation. “That’s how it should be, working together,” Biden said.

But Biden spent the majority of his remarks on something he said caused him great concern – what he said was the concentration of power in the hands of a few wealthy individuals.

“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead,” he said.

He spoke about the threat he said the wealthy posed to efforts to fight the dangers of climate change.

“Powerful forces want to wield their unchecked influence, to eliminate the steps we’ve taken to tackle the climate crisis, to serve their own interest for power and profit,” he said. “We must not be bullied into sacrificing the future, the future of our children and our grandchildren, must keep pushing forward and push faster. There’s no time to waste.”

Biden also raised concerns about the rise of artificial intelligence, and the possibilities and dangers advancing technologies posed. He lamented the rise in misinformation and what he described as a “crumbling” free press that he said was enabling the abuse of power.

“In his farewell address, President Eisenhower spoke of the dangers of the military industrial complex,” he said. “He warned us then about, and I quote, ‘the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power’ … six decades later, I’m equally concerned about the potential rise of a tech-industrial complex that could pose real dangers for our country as well.”

Biden pushed for reforming the tax code so that billionaires pay their “fair share” and for amending the Constitution to make clear that no president is immune from criminal liability – an apparent slight at Trump, who was previously under federal indictment for his behavior after the 2020 election, is set to be sworn into office in five days.

“A president’s powers is not unlimited. It’s not absolute and it shouldn’t be,” Biden said. “And in a democracy, there’s another danger to the concentration of power and wealth. It erodes the sense of unity and common purpose. It causes distrust and division.”

“Participating in our democracy becomes exhausting and even disillusioning,” he continued. “And people don’t feel like they have a fair shot. We have to stay engaged in the process.”

In closing, Biden reflected on his own rise as a kid from Scranton plagued by a stutter to the nation’s highest office – one that he sought repeatedly during his five decades in politics and is leaving reluctantly after withdrawing from the 2024 campaign amid Democrats’ doubts.

He described America’s promise as a “constant struggle.”

“A short distance between peril and possibility,” he said. “But what I believe is the America of our dreams is always closer than we think. And it’s up to us to make our dreams come true.”

Ultimately, Biden asserted, it will be up to the president, Congress, the courts and the American people to stand up to those with ill-intent.

“Now, it’s your turn to stand guard,” Biden said. “May you all be the keeper of the flame. May you keep the faith. I love America, you love it, too.”

President Joe Biden gave his last Oval Office address as he prepares to hand over power to President-elect Donald Trump and exit politics after a decades-long career.

The ceasefire deal marks a major win for President Joe Biden in his final days in office as he had been personally involved in getting a deal for more than a year.

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The other important parallel is that Biden echos Dwight Eisenhower warning of the ‘Military Industrial Complex, and the rise in AI power to take in the slack. What does say 75 years of reflection has to do with it’s material counterpart, in fact the ideological windows of opportunities to realize the significance of the demolition of the difference between the ideological drift between materialistic and it’s framing within the substantive and it’s ideal forms?

In fact the regretful thing is, that for the sake of the difference between the earliest Greek versions of the dialectic, progressing and supported by ecclestic authority, for up to the beginning of the modern period, things proceeded fairly unremarkably, until the late 19th, early 20th century, whence the death of hod-the unset of nihilism, reduced man; not entirely because of the fear that the machine demoted man’s spirit into the same analogous reactive machine that sought unification early on; but that the evolved matrix turned the machine into the overman that human aspiration held to that role previously.

The impotence of leadership based on democratic principles goes against the very nature of what has been associated as self determination factors which gave the bill of rights the fortitude to extend those principles beyond its principles.

That this process is inherent in it’s own structure is indubidable, and there is really known way to signifying such a deep fall, except by simulating the process through which it can be again revisited en-mass.

Albeit the new windows of opportunity disqualify increasingly larger percentages of functionality, however, that may not be a total end to process, for within the largest inverted triangle representing the relationship between power (now at the bottom of the heap of many concentric triangles, oscillating and eternally reversing polarity, ) and the energy and will reinforcing themselves into a growing complexity of multi functional figure, that only a most advanced computer set can develop in time to save It’s self as a species apart, and worthy of an intelligently designed evolutionary entity, worthy again to maintain its role at the top of the food chain.

[HumAnIze]

KInda like he walked back “lock her up” and “drain the swamp”, huh?

Oh wait, literally 0% of anyone especially his own supporters even remembers any of that anymore.

[Meno4]

Typical , but is it by design or circumstance?- happenstance

[HumAnIze]

It’s all by design bro.

You think anything on this high political, globalized level “just happens”? Naw dude.

All the world’s a stage

[Meno4]

And now what if it’s so, that a mirror image is being created, between the age old synchronism, must it be repeated over again, , and with similar results?

I say no, miracles happen and did and does and WILl , that is simulation is beginning to be an adequate safeguard for the time being, unless,

The human project is suicidal as perceiving it’s primarily self serving, an autonomous being who eternally stimulates its self for the sake of eternal simulation.

Ha ?!!!?

[MagsJ (Surya Loka)]

.
The great ouroboros in the sky…?
.

Ouroboros

[felix_dakat]

Trump made lots of big promises on the campaign trail about what he would do if he won. But he has already walked back some of those commitments, from lowering the costs of groceries to ending the war in Ukraine “in 24 hours.” One promise he will keep is to cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans including himself which means the national debt will continue to soar. He dearly wants congress to abolish any limit to the debt. How will this effect the millions of working class voters who elected him?

[Meno4]

Not well. The social depression is quite obvious, and it can be imputed to personal use of mood drugs both legit and the street kind,

The rep of an inflated personal lack of power to will otherwise, will effect an inflationary spiral, already walked back

So, a greater recession or even a Great Depression may be in the works, if above suggested staged stages are conceivable.

Then?

Unless the now cyborgian babies born of cybernetic ‘creation’ wakes up from its cradle and wakes up and fast. We still have 5 years()2025-2030) having read the UN report .

[Bob]

The Greenland Prime Minister said, “We don’t want to be Danes or Americans,” and the talks that he proposed are about trade, not becoming a part of America.

[MagsJ (Surya Loka)]

.
I answered your question on who, not supported a position on if or might… as Denmark had already specified their position.
.
If you were ’just sayin’, then… my bad.

[Bob]

Okay, it was probably @Meno4 I was answering. Sorry!

[Meno4]

The Greenland PM statement that Greenlanders do not see themselves either as Danes or Americans, are not entirely representative of the country as a whole, sine within it’s scant population, a new pro join US front has formed , which welcomes political and economic alignment with the US, not excusing identification as a consequence.

[Meno4]

Speaks for its self but what on earth can be next?

)(

Thousands travel to Washington for People’s March ahead of Trump inauguration

Updated 3:19 pm EST Jan. 18, 2025

Brittany Martinez came to Washington with friends and their mothers to protest for women’s rights and immigration Saturday.

“We really wanted to come to support women, equality, immigration, everything that really feels like we don’t have much of a say in right now,” she told USA TODAY.

The six women were waiting in a park for the People’s March, the largest anti-Donald Trump protest planned before his inauguration Monday, to begin moving. Martinez of Jacksonville, Fla. held a sign that said “Public cervix announcement. My body, my choice.”

Thousands of people surrounded them in pink knitted hats, scarfs with the Planned Parenthood logo or Kamala Harris gear. A little girl sitting on her father’s shoulders carried a sign that said “pizza rolls not gender rolls.” Others held handmade signs that said “new year, same fight,” “I’m pissed,” “feminists Trump fascists” and Trust Black women."

Protest ahead of Trump inauguration

The march began at three parks spaced a few blocks from each other in downtown Washington, with attendees converging at the Lincoln Memorial for more speeches and a resource fair. Each location had a different interest focus like immigration, the right to an abortion and birth control, or climate change, so attendees could connect with a topic they care about.

It’s been compared to the 2017 Women’s March, which drew millions of protesters upset over Hillary Clinton’s loss and Trump’s record of misogynistic comments and sexual abuse accusations. The historic nationwide protests the day after his inauguration in 2017, attracted an estimated 2.3 million attendees in the U.S. and internationally, dwarfing Saturday’s crowd. The Women’s March was one of the organizers of the People’s March.

Tamika Middleton, managing director of the Women’s March, told USA TODAY, that organizers didn’t set out to replicate that march.

“There was a really specific energy in that moment that I don’t think we’ve ever set out to recreate. And I think it would be a misstep for us to try to recreate the sort of unique energy of that moment,” Middleton said. “What we are doing is trying to move with a different kind of intention around not just how many people we can get in the streets in that day, but how many people we can move into the movement for the long term.”

The march, which stretched for more than five city blocks, occurred shortly before a snow storm and a cold snap that are expected to hit the Washington area Sunday. Smatterings of rain had many people sporting ponchos by the time the march began moving. Volunteers handed out hand warmers, granola bars and free signs.

The expected drop in temperature drove Monday’s inauguration indoors and stranded thousands of Trump supporting tourists without a way to watch the ceremony in a group. Few of them showed up to heckle the anti-Trump protesters. One man, who shouted into a bullhorn repeatedly that Jesus loves attendees if they repent, was drowned out by the crowd.

‘Just as relevant now’

The crowd felt similar to the 2017 march, with pink knitted hats dotting the crowd.

Joan Snowdon said when Trump was re-elected she dug the suffragette style sashes she made for the 2017 march out of a drawer. She traveled from Boston.

“Right after the election, we’re going and where are those sashes? Because they’re just as relevant now as they were four years ago,” she said. Snowdon said she liked that the March broadened to cover other issues but still felt like it kept women’s rights at its core.

‘Silence is deadly’

Deb Caldwell drove in from Plymouth, Mich. with her sister in law and her niece. She’s been protesting for women’s rights since she was 17, but wasn’t able to make it to Washington in 2017.

“We have to keep resisting and speaking up because silence is deadly,” Caldwell said. “I’ve become a radical feminist as I’ve gotten older, just because I see that women are truly one of the oppressed groups, probably possibly the most oppressed group in the world. And it becomes really troubling to me. I have three granddaughters, and people just need to keep speaking up.”

Sarah Wood said she and some girlfriends made the trip from Philadelphia by bus. She wore a crochet hat with ears that resembled the American flag pattern. Saturday was her first march.

“I think the last time I was sort of angry, but in disbelief and thought, maybe naively, that it might not be as bad as I imagined it could be, and it was worse. I can only imagine how bad this new administration’s going to be,” Wood said.

‘This time, I’m not waiting’

Kim Irish traveled from upstate New York with her daughter, who she said was too young to attend the 2017 march. She said she regretted not going.

“This time, I had a friend say to me, ‘Well, shouldn’t people do something wrong before you protest?’ I’m like, I kind of know what Trump’s all about. This time, I’m not waiting,” Irish said.

Jackie Greto boarded a bus in Philadelphia at 3 a.m. in order to reach the march. The bus will return the same day. She felt like she had to come after not attending in 2017.

“You think about your mom, your grandmother’s, they all had to fight for the same stuff, and you just going back again. And we shouldn’t,” she said. “We have young nieces and daughters and stuff. What if something happens to them and they don’t have a choice?”

Similar People’s Marches took place in more than 350 cities across the country and in several foreign countries.

Jessica Parker of New York said the speeches at the New York rally in Washington Square Park varied by topic and weren’t necessarily about Trump.

“It didn’t focus specifically on him being accused of sexual assault. It did focus on what we expect policy to be in the future and where we’ve come from,” she said.

50 states.
Countless
viewpoints.

USA TODAY brings you the
nation’s perspectives for greater
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Originally Published 1:26 pm EST Jan. 18, 2025

Updated 3:19 pm EST Jan. 18, 2025