To understand the outcome of the next four years (and beyond), it is important to begin with the same information.  One key not discussed anywhere else is outlined below.

Consider this a baseline for future context in the world of the USA and President Trump politics.

♦ Summarized it looks like this: In late summer 2023 not only myself, but several insightful analysts in the world of high finance, had come to the conclusion that Musk’s financial effort with the purchase of Twitter was unsustainable, unless something changed.

Something did change.

In early August of 2023, understanding the dynamic at stake, and also having a strategy for his own interests, Oracle’s Larry Ellison said, ‘he would not let Elon Musk fail with Twitter’.

Billionaire Larry Ellison, a Tesla Board member, already had invested money in place, but that wasn’t the motive on this move. In hindsight, Ellison was brilliant and intensely strategic.  It is important to understand what exactly ‘board members’ are recruited for, and the stability/security reasons for why they are recruited.

(more…)

Dan Scavino Jr is as close a confidant as you can get to President Trump, without being a member of the family.  According to a recent Tweet sent by Scavino, President Trump has never considered former HPSCI Chairman Mike Rogers for the position of FBI Director.

[Source]

Dan Scavino would never send this Tweet, without the explicit direction of President Trump telling him to do so.  Essentially, this is the soft way for President Trump to tell Mike Rogers and his supporters he is not in the planning.

As stated before, current FBI Director Chris Wray has not resigned, and he has two years left on his term.  President Trump cannot fire Chris Wray until he takes office after the inauguration.  Therefore, all of the discussion about a new FBI director is essentially moot.

We likely will not know anything about the retention or removal of Christopher Wray, until after President Trump takes office.

(more…)

A very energetic Donald Trump Jr., outlines with Tucker Carlson how he was able to expend “10,000 percent of his political capital” to get JD Vance selected as Vice-President. WATCH:

🚨Watch @DonaldJTrumpJr recount to @TuckerCarlson how he used all of his political capital to help @JDVance get chosen as President Trump’s Vice President. This was one of the most important moments of the 2024 campaign and will ensure the America First movement has an amazing… pic.twitter.com/Ys8B056csb

— Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) November 21, 2024

.

Elon Musk confirmed immediately.

(more…)

To say the person inside the opaque glass enclosure was stunned, physically flummoxed and surprised in the moment just before the security officers arrived to escort me to the guarded holding area, would be an understatement. And trust me, there’s been some stunned moments visible in the eyes of people who encountered me.

“You need to come with us,” was the end result of a brief conversation at passport control. Followed by “We need to ask you some questions.”  A few hours later I exited onto the streets of the forbidden zone, with an ear-to-ear grin that would only be understood by those in my family who saw how it started as a child.  However, before getting to that part of the story, let me begin with the end in mind.

This journey is not for those of worried disposition, and I do not recommend it for anyone who does not carry a strong stable constitution of snarky and pragmatically humorous outlook.  In many ways this journey is exactly what you would expect, in other ways it is so completely the opposite it’s bizarre.

(more…)

The NTSB gives an update on the Francis Scott Key bridge collapse in Baltimore, Maryland, following the impact of a Singaporean-flagged cargo ship, the Dali.

According to the update, 56 containers of hazardous materials were on board, including corrosive flammable cells, lithium ion batteries, and other hazardous materials.  Some of the HAZMAT containers were compromised and some fell into the water.  The briefing also gives a preliminary outline as an outcome of an initial review of the voyage data recorder (VDR) for six hours 00:00 to 06:00 on the morning of the impact. The timeline discussion occurs at 11:00 of the video below.  WATCH:

(Via Fox News) -[…] Homendy said the investigation would be a “massive undertaking” that is expected two take one to two years. She added that the NTSB will not hesitate to issue urgent safety recommendations during that time frame. A preliminary report is expected in only two to four weeks.

Part of the investigation will be determining what caused the ship to lose power before hitting the bridge. The source of that outage remained unknown as of Wednesday, Homendy said.

(more…)

Dramatic footage shows the Francis Scott Key bridge in the Port of Baltimore being hit by a containership that plowed directly into a bridge support. The span is part of I-695 and goes over some of the waterway leading into the Port of Baltimore. The port, officially known as the Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore, handles trucks, tractors, trailers and container offloading.

Thankfully the incident happened at 01:30am and traffic across the bridge was light.

(Via MSM) – […] The Singapore-flagged 948 ft. Dali vessel crashed into a column supporting the Francis Scott Key Bridge at around 1:30 a.m. local time in Baltimore, causing part of the bridge to collapse and catch fire before sinking.

At around 1:40 a.m., the Baltimore City Fire Department received an emergency services call to respond to a water rescue in the Patapsco River, according to fire chief Wallace. Several vehicles were on the bridge at the time of impact.

(more…)

This is somewhat of a predictably tragic outcome all things considered. I remember a previous conversation on these pages when GM moved massive investment into China to build their mid-size SUV brand, Encore.

Continuing the U.S. decline of the brand, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that approximately half of all Buick dealership in the U.S. have opted to take a buyout from GM, as opposed to spending millions in retooling, restructuring and retraining their staff to accommodate the EV influx.

Most of the EV’s shoved onto the dealer lots sit idle without customers to purchase them.

Wall Street Journal – General Motors (GM) has bought out about half of its 2,000 Buick dealers nationwide, based on their decision to not sell electric vehicles, according to a company spokesman Wednesday.

Dealers who are taking the buyout would give up the Buick franchise and no longer sell the brand, he said. The dealer can continue to sell other GM models, such as Chevrolet or GMC, that often account for a higher percentage of sales.

(more…)

There has been increasingly visible media promotion of various municipalities reinstituting mask recommendations to battle a new BA.2.86 covid variant.

Today, the New York City Dept of Health became the latest large metropolitan area to recommend the return to face masks; however, no government mandates yet.

[…] Staying up to date with COVID-19 vaccines, along with other proven prevention tools – like masking, testing, and staying home when sick – continue to be our best defense against COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses. (link)

[Source]

QUESTION: Are you starting to see increased emphasis on mask wearing in/around your local area?

(more…)

The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) released an urgent consumer notification that Citgo fuel services from the Port of Tampa accidentally mixed Diesel Fuel into gasoline tanker trucks that offloaded product at gas pumps in Tampa, Fort Myers, Cape Coral and other areas.  [FDACS Notice HERE]

Customers who purchased Citgo gas at the affected areas after August 26th are at risk.  Those fuel stations pumped diesel instead of unleaded gasoline.

[SOURCE]

(AP) – […] The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services said late Sunday that gasoline purchased after 10 a.m. Saturday at some Citgo-supplied stations had a strong likelihood of being contaminated with diesel fuel. Citgo identified 29 affected stations — sold at chains like 7-Eleven, BJ’s Wholesale and other convenience stores — in cities including Tampa, Fort Myers, Sarasota and more. 

(more…)

Apparently, Dept of Energy Nuclear Waste official Sam Brinton is facing grand larceny charges from Las Vegas in connection to another luggage theft incident.

Following a previous case in Missouri, it appears non-binary Ms/Mr. Brinton is a serial thief of women’s garments from airports.

(New York Post) – The rainbow atomic symbol T-shirt should have been a clue.

Sam Brinton, the allegedly sticky-fingered Biden administration nuclear official, was captured on security footage making off with a woman’s bag worth more than $3,670 from a Las Vegas airport on July 6, KLAS News reported.

A surveillance snap from Harry Reid International Airport shows a stern-faced Brinton wearing the white T-shirt with the colorful symbol, a black backpack, and black jeans, rolling the suitcase in question through the airport.

The distinctive tee — which Brinton sported in a selfie posted to Instagram that same day — led the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department to issue a warrant for Brinton’s arrest on grand larceny charges, according to a detective’s declaration.

(more…)