Empire in Decline

Apparently, the EU is working on a Sundaythis week (which is highly unusual) and they are looking at this document:
policy.trade.ec.europa.eu

Protecting against coercion

The Anti-Coercion Instrument for protecting the EU and its Member States from third countries’ economic coercion entered into force on 27 December 2023.
policy.trade.ec.europa.eu policy.trade.ec.europa.eu

We will see what next week brings.
 
The EU owns around $8T of US Debt. Essentially no entity on the planet could buy all that, and no one other than a close ally would want that much exposure to liability. The value of a dollar would plummet in a re-valuation, absent the backing of those assets by European powers.
I had one semester of economics and one semester of accounting 30 years ago. Donald Trump supposedly has an MBA from a theoretically prestigious college and seems to have no idea about any of this.

By the same token, he wants to replace the chair of the Federal Reserve with his own lackey, with the aim of increasing the supply of dollars available to markets (ie, he wants to print more money). That WILL decrease short term interest rates, but also causes longer term currency devaluation and considerable grief for those who currently hold US Debt, which right now means mostly US and European banks and whatever financial institutions China uses.

It seems that the administration sees value in devaluation of the US dollar, which doesn't make any sense at all to me.
 
Right now with what's going one cryptocurrency is looking better and better. Buy bitcoin or ethereum if you have any spare cash. Or even gold. I think gold will skyrocket soon past it's already lofty current price.

The markets are tanking today, which seems to happen every single time Trump mentions more tariffs. You would think he would have learned by now to just keep his mouth shut.
 
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jtr1962 said:
The markets are tanking today, which seems to happen every single time Trump mentions more tariffs. You would think he would have learned by now to just keep his mouth shut.
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I would not have too high hopes regarding his cognitive functions though, given the letter to Norway for not giving him the Nobel Peace Price.

On the other hand, I am sure he find ways to make money for him and his friends with these market movements.
 
Excerpts from this article – Trump Made Over $1.4 Billion Through Graft and Corruption:

One year ago, Donald Trump took an oath to serve the American people. Instead, he has focused on using the presidency to enrich himself.​

President Trump has never been a man to ask what he can do for his country. In his second term, as in his first, he is instead testing the limits of what his country can do for him.​

He has poured his energy and creativity into the exploitation of the presidency — into finding out just how much money people, corporations and other nations are willing to put into his pockets in hopes of bending the power of the government to the service of their interests.​

Numerous egregious examples are cited.
 
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I think we all know that ain't nothin' gonna happen over this. We didn't do anything about it last time he was in office and now everything is worse and checks and balances are thrown out the window when one party controls all branches of government.
 
Swedish pension fund Alecta exits U.S. treasuries. Total sale about $7bn.

Sounds reasonable given the speech or what we should call yesterdays performance at Davos.
 
Another cowardly, criminal gang-related murder today in Minneapolis. 🔫 :cry: 🪦

The victim: an ICU nurse at a Veterans' hospital, armed with a dangerous cell phone, possibly to record the evil gang's crimes.
 
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Gödel said:
Another cowardly, criminal gang-related murder today in Minneapolis. 🔫 :cry: 🪦

The victim: an ICU nurse at a Veterans' hospital, armed with a dangerous cell phone, possibly to record the evil gang's crimes.
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He was carrying concealed per his permit and Minnesota law. When you get into a scuffle with law enforcement and try and prevent someone being arrested and they see that concealed pistol you are now in grave danger of being shot, which is what seems to have happened.


1000055063.jpg



apnews.com

Man is shot and killed during Minneapolis immigration crackdown, National Guard activated

A federal immigration officer has shot and killed a man in Minneapolis, drawing hundreds of protesters onto the frigidly cold streets in a city already shaken by another fatal shooting weeks earlier.
apnews.com apnews.com

"Video shows officers, man who was shot
In a bystander video of Saturday’s shooting obtained by The Associated Press, protesters can be heard blowing whistles and shouting profanities at federal officers on Nicollet Avenue.

The video shows an officer shoving a person who is wearing a brown jacket, skirt and black tights and carrying a water bottle. That person reaches out for a man and the two link up, embracing. The man, wearing a brown jacket and black hat, seems to be holding his phone up toward the officer.

The same officer shoves the man in his chest and the two, still embracing, fall back.

The video then shifts to a different part of the street and then comes back to the two individuals unlinking from each other. The video shifts focus again and then shows three officers surrounding the man.

Soon at least seven officers surround the man. One is on the man’s back and another who appears to have a canister in his hand strikes a blow to the man’s chest. Several officers try to bring the man’s arms behind his back as he appears to resist. As they pull his arms, his face is briefly visible on camera. The officer with the canister strikes the man near his head several times.

A shot rings out, but with officers surrounding the man, it’s not clear from where the shot came. Multiple officers back off the man after the shot. More shots are heard. Officers back away and the man lies motionless on the street."
 
I know this is woke media, but they put together a timeline of what happened (free article).
www.nytimes.com

Timeline: A Moment-by-Moment Look at the Shooting of Alex Pretti

A moment-by-moment analysis of videos from the scene shows that Mr. Pretti was already restrained when shots were fired. The footage contradicts the federal government’s account of the fatal shooting.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

Seems like the shots were fired after he was disarmed. But that does perhaps not matter.

Luckily there are plenty of videos online from different angles.

My prediction: No one will get convicted - and more people will get killed in more blue states.This is only the beginning.
 
fb said:
I know this is woke media, but they put together a timeline of what happened (free article).
www.nytimes.com

Timeline: A Moment-by-Moment Look at the Shooting of Alex Pretti

A moment-by-moment analysis of videos from the scene shows that Mr. Pretti was already restrained when shots were fired. The footage contradicts the federal government’s account of the fatal shooting.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

Seems like the shots were fired after he was disarmed. But that does perhaps not matter.

Luckily there are plenty of videos online from different angles.

My prediction: No one will get convicted - and more people will get killed in more blue states.This is only the beginning.
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Maybe he went for one of the agents guns.

This shows potential differences in approaches between sanctuary cities and states and those that work in conjunction with the feds:
Screenshot_20260125_102543_DuckDuckGo.jpg
 
He didn't even try to reach his own gun.

What happened seem to be "unerwarteter Nahschuss in das Hinterhaupt" (unexpected shot in the back of the head) as it was called in the DDR.
 
DrunkenBastard2 said:
View attachment 1849
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That man was murdered. No one's life was endangered by Pretti's actions; how dare he try to use his nursing skills to help someone in physical distress. I'm aware you're the most gun-nutty of gun nuts, but Pretti was in lawful possession of a firearm, something that you should fully support. Now, I don't think anyone outside the military should be allowed to carry firearms because they are inherently dangerous, but this argument is essentially the "She was asking for it"-school of rape prevention. It is a terrible argument made in bad faith and it should be particularly surprising given that IIRC you are yourself an immigrant to the US and also someone who seems to appreciate his 2A rights.
 
Mercutio said:
That man was murdered. No one's life was endangered by Pretti's actions; how dare he try to use his nursing skills to help someone in physical distress. I'm aware you're the most gun-nutty of gun nuts, but Pretti was in lawful possession of a firearm, something that you should fully support. Now, I don't think anyone outside the military should be allowed to carry firearms because they are inherently dangerous, but this argument is essentially the "She was asking for it"-school of rape prevention. It is a terrible argument made in bad faith and it should be particularly surprising given that IIRC you are yourself an immigrant to the US and also someone who seems to appreciate his 2A rights.
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Fundamentally, carrying a firearm in public is a huge responsibility, whether open carry or concealed. Every single concealed carry class (which Pretti would have had to have taken as part of Minnesota carry permit application process) will emphasize the need to de-escalate a situation that may come up. Under no circumstances should you engage/escalate unless you believe yourself or someone else is in mortal danger. Turn around, walk away. Seeing someone pushed in the back, or being sprayed with an irritant doesnt rise to that level. The courses also covers encounters with law enforcement, to avoid any misunderstandings where law enforcement may think you a threat.

Frankly only an idiot would engage/interfere in a law enforcement operation while armed, and then continue to fight/wrestle while they try to restrain you. He made terrible choices that run completely against the training he would have sat through. Just an embarassment to responsible law abiding firearm owners.
 
Someone was in mortal danger. Pretti was attempting to help a person having a seizure at the time he was murdered. He was not in that moment threatening anyone. His firearm was not drawn nor did he make any attempt to draw it in the moments leading up to his murder.
I need to be very clear about this: This man was killed for having a lawfully carried firearm on his person. There was no attempt to determine the legal status of that firearm. There was no immediate threat of harm to the agents of the state. He was shot repeatedly and allowed to die even as another bystander identifying herself as a physician was prevented from rendering aid. As someone in favor of second amendment rights, you should be absolutely mortified by all of this. This man did nothing wrong in either a moral or legal sense. If you are going to tell us all to disbelieve the evidence of our eyes and ears, you are not contributing anything meaningful to this discussion.
 
Mercutio said:
Someone was in mortal danger. Pretti was attempting to help a person having a seizure at the time he was murdered. He was not in that moment threatening anyone. His firearm was not drawn nor did he make any attempt to draw it in the moments leading up to his murder.
I need to be very clear about this: This man was killed for having a lawfully carried firearm on his person. There was no attempt to determine the legal status of that firearm. There was no immediate threat of harm to the agents of the state. He was shot repeatedly and allowed to die even as another bystander identifying herself as a physician was prevented from rendering aid. As someone in favor of second amendment rights, you should be absolutely mortified by all of this. This man did nothing wrong in either a moral or legal sense. If you are going to tell us all to disbelieve the evidence of our eyes and ears, you are not contributing anything meaningful to this discussion.
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Innocent Pretti on January 13th....


Guy was a violent nutjob.
 
fb said:
So in your view, based on this footage, it was allright to put a bullet in his head?
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That video just goes against the narrative that he was just an innocent peaceful ICU nurse helping people.

If the agents are found to have acted illegally they should face the full weight of the justice system. We know now that his pistol was taken from him seconds before the shooting, hopefully bodycams will show what happened in the melee after that.

www.nbcnews.com

In a battle over how to carry out Trump's immigration agenda, one faction has triumphed — for now

The president’s decision to replace the leadership of his immigration enforcement efforts marks a triumph, at least temporarily, for a faction of administration officials that had been sidelined by some of his advisers.
www.nbcnews.com www.nbcnews.com

Some positive news, the idiot Bovino has been sent back to where he came from and maybe total bullshit artists Noem and Miller will be sidelined at least.
 
DrunkenBastard2 said:
That video just goes against the narrative that he was just an innocent peaceful ICU nurse helping people.
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You don't see any possible justification for being physically demonstrative over the actions of Immigration Enforcement? None at all? If he was acting in an unacceptable fashion in the moment, why was he not detained in that moment?

DrunkenBastard2 said:
If the agents are found to have acted illegally they should face the full weight of the justice system. We know now that his pistol was taken from him seconds before the shooting, hopefully bodycams will show what happened in the melee after that.
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That's complete and utter bullshit and you know it. Cops turn off bodycams all the time with zero repercussions. Recordings "get lost" and this administration in particular has gone out of its way to protect ICE Agents. Hate-Gargoyle Stephen Miller has even publicly claimed that everything they do is legally protected. The administration won't even tell the state of Minnesota which officers fired on Mr. Pretti.

Now let's take a step back for a second:
Alex Pretti was carrying a firearm lawfully, in line with his second amendment right. The firearm was removed from his person during an altercation with ICE, who are neither police nor military agents but apparently have some other ill-defined power over US Citizens. He was visibly not brandishing the firearm and he was shot in the head and then nine more times after he was relieved of the weapon. You have indicated that he was a violent person who deserved to be summarily murdered for merely having a lawfully-carried gun at a protest, as is his right guaranteed by the US Constitution. You might argue that in the chaos of the moment, the ICE agents thought there was a threat to their safety, but by the point they were shooting, he was already defenseless. This is if nothing else a lack of training, discipline and and observation among a purported law enforcement entity. It suggests to me that these officers should not, broadly speaking, be armed in the normal conduct of their duties.

Right Wing demonstrators who arrive at protests with firearms never seem to be met with violence. They're often given rather favorable treatment by law enforcement, something that I have observed in person during BLM protests in 2020. Kyle Rittenhouse is a poster child for this, as were the many violent protestors at the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville in 2018 and the many January 6th Insurrectionists.

So my question is, is the Second Amendment only applicable when Racists and Fascists do it? Is the great wrong here that Human- or Civil Rights are not sufficiently important to protest in the first place? Gun rights advocates as a whole don't seem terribly interested in protecting their fellow citizens from clear evidence of a tyrannical government. Why is that?
 
Mercutio said:
That's complete and utter bullshit and you know it. Cops turn off bodycams all the time with zero repercussions. Recordings "get lost" and this administration in particular has gone out of its way to protect ICE Agents.
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Thats not what seems to be happening in this instance.

"Investigators are reviewing body-camera videos from immigration agents in the fatal shooting of Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed to NBC News.

Homeland Security investigators have videos recorded by cameras worn by multiple agents, department spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said."

www.nbcnews.com

Alex Pretti's killing was recorded on body-camera videos, DHS says

Investigators are reviewing videos of the shooting from multiple angles, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told NBC News.
www.nbcnews.com www.nbcnews.com

As for right wing protectors getting special treatment, they didn't seem to be looting and burning during the "mostly peaceful" protests like the left. If they started interfering in law enforcement acrivity and wrestling/resisting on the ground they would be getting shot as well. Just common sense, not everyone has it. Pretti got a darwin award.
 
Mercutio said:
You don't see any possible justification for being physically demonstrative over the actions of Immigration Enforcement? None at all? If he was acting in an unacceptable fashion in the moment, why was he not detained in that moment?
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In an ideal scenario local police would have taken him into custody for criminal damage or whatever the appropriate charges were. But that doesnt happen in sanctuary cities. The local police are specifically forbidden to get involved due to pandering politicians.

In any case it would have been a slap on the wrist and released in time for dinner if the criminal justice system there works anything like it does in NY. Catch and release, the criminals have more rights than the law abiding.

Spitting and kicking, just more innocent peaceful behaviour....
 
DrunkenBastard2 said:
Thats not what seems to be happening in this instance.
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The administration has not released even the names of agents involved in the shooting to the public, nor to law enforcement organizations in Minnesota. Supremacy clause or no, there are a number of ICE Agents who should at the very least be subject to city and state level legal processes.

DrunkenBastard2 said:
As for right wing protectors getting special treatment, they didn't seem to be looting and burning during the "mostly peaceful" protests like the left.
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Is this the same looting and burning that Donald Trump thinks is a daily occurrence in Chicago and Portland? While we're at it, do you feel that property rights exceed the rights of human beings and fellow citizens? Finally, do you have any way to prove that there is any specific political motivation that can be ascribed to individuals who might be engaged in said activities? Or are you refusing to distinguish people engaging in protest from criminal individuals because it is convenient to your argument?

DrunkenBastard2 said:
Spitting and kicking, just more innocent peaceful behaviour....
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Oh my god. He kicked a car. How dare he do such a thing! Did the beating he caught in any way make up for it? Or do you think that kick should've been imprisoned as well? Where's the thin blue line of justice for Pradeep?
 
Mercutio said:
The administration has not released even the names of agents involved in the shooting to the public, nor to law enforcement organizations in Minnesota. Supremacy clause or no, there are a number of ICE Agents who should at the very least be subject to city and state level legal processes.



Is this the same looting and burning that Donald Trump thinks is a daily occurrence in Chicago and Portland? While we're at it, do you feel that property rights exceed the rights of human beings and fellow citizens? Finally, do you have any way to prove that there is any specific political motivation that can be ascribed to individuals who might be engaged in said activities? Or are you refusing to distinguish people engaging in protest from criminal individuals because it is convenient to your argument?



Oh my god. He kicked a car. How dare he do such a thing! Did the beating he caught in any way make up for it? Or do you think that kick should've been imprisoned as well? Where's the thin blue line of justice for Pradeep?
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If spitting and damaging property is just normal peaceful behaviour for you I guess we"ll have to agree to disagree. Just an innocent icu nurse going about caring for his community right?

He was a violent deranged man, and he decided to fight and wrestle with violent potentially deranged law enforcement. That's not an encounter that's going to end in a happy ending.

If you get pulled over by the police, do you start fighting them if they give you a ticket? Or do you remain calm and fight it out in front of a judge instead?

In NY at least, which is a very antigun state and where the 2nd amendment is treated like garbage, he would prob have been in violation of the law, which lists multiple "sensitive locations" where concealed carry is unlawful.


Screenshot_20260129_163523_Chrome.jpgScreenshot_20260129_163542_Chrome.jpg

Perhaps Minnesota/Minneapolis is less strict. In NY the judge who signed off on that permit would probably revoke it.
 
DrunkenBastard2 said:
property
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I find it extremely hard to understand why you care more about property rights than human rights. Even if he actually managed to physically damage a vehicle, that in no way rises to the level of state-sanctioned violence in response. I'm not even talking about American law here. Agents of the State are engaged in sanctioned violence. Does this not trouble you?
 
Should also be very troubling that the information shared via press briefings that comes out of this administration for this event were lies. The details they reported were wrong and done in complete disregard to the people involved.

Sub concerns as part of this:
- no time taken to investigate all the details before making accusations
- no effort to deescalate the ongoing violence and careless behaviors of ice agents
- no effort to choose their words carefully to promote cooling off these situations
- no efforts to admit concerns for the well-being of citizens and no communicated efforts to show good will to improve the situations going forward
- no efforts to reinforce that all citizens have the right to peacefully protest
- there's zero reason ice agents should even be armed or allowed to be masked and hide identity
- zero effort to promote and show accountability of ice agents behaviors

Why the hell aren't ice targeting all their efforts in Texas? There's significantly more concerns there for their objectives. I think we all know the reason.
 
ICE is being sent into places where they are meant to experience 'resistance' (aka, people not cheerfully giving up their friends and neighbors to the modern equivalent of the Gestapo) specifically to stir up enough trouble to justify a further crackdown and potential declaration of martial law, which will give those in power (Trump is the face of it, Hate-Gargoyle Stephen Miller I suspect is the brain) the pretext to cancel or at minimum heavily meddle in the conduction of midterm elections.

Warrantless raids on homes in particular I expect are meant to actually get someone on their team actually gravely injured and/or killed while executing their 'duty' as folks have no way of telling ICE home invaders apart from regular garden-variety ones they're allowed if not encouraged to shoot, apart from verbal identification. From the photos I've seen of these guys, there's no strict dress code being followed other than, curiously, covering their face, as though they might be ashamed of their actions or be afraid of them coming back to haunt them... like criminals. If they were doing something they're proud of, they ought to act like they're proud of it, no? Not to mention these are mostly the same people who were bitching about being asked to wear masks in public to slow the spread of COVID.

In other, vaguely related news, I've been telling everyone who I think might possibly have a TikTok to get rid of it, like, yesterday in the wake of the finalization of its acquisition (at least in part) by the Oracle ghoul himself, Larry Ellison. Watch metrics are very powerful data and are frightfully easy to connect to an individual identity. From this data they can extrapolate points such as religious affiliation (or lack thereof), identification with LGBTQ or adjacent groups, political leanings more generally, not to mention the goldmine of advertising data they were already collecting.
 
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In other news that should have people concerned, the Administration arrested several journalists who covered ICE Raids on a Minneapolis Church last week; it also had the FBI raid the Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney's office, looking for evidence of election tampering from the 2020 election. Finally, the Trump Administration made an oddly specific demand that Canada purchase 88 F35 fighters or risk termination of mutual defense pacts.

This is full on Fascist behavior. Trump is going to pursue the claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him and use it as a pretense to at least attempt to nationalize elections. For those outside the US, our elections are controlled at the state rather than federal level and every state has different rules regarding vote counting and retention of records, with most states only requiring a year or two of past physical records after an election. Trump was recorded in the days following the 2020 election, in a conversation with the Georgia state AG, begging for him to "find" another 20,000 votes, the margin by which he lost the state. Even if evidence can't be manufactured that tampering occurred isn't going to stop the administration from claiming that Trump's political opponents already destroyed the evidence.

Do I even need to explain why attempting to imprison journalists critical of the administration is a bad idea, or why our allies should never trust an American administration again on matters of trade or defense given Trump's behavior?
 
Isn't it incredible that tRump is still trying to steal the 2020 election, 5 years later?

After his January 6 instigated attack on the U. S. Capitol failed.​

"Luckily", he has pardoned all the thug rioters he sent to blitzkrieg congress, and offered them honorary memberships in ICE 1769792888362.png.
 
I don't want to know what goes through Trump's head sometimes, but the toddler dummy spits are getting old.

For example he wants to de-certify all Canadian aircraft in the US, as Canada hasn't certified the latest Gulfstream aircraft to operate in Canadian air space. Hint, Bombardier ( a huge Canadian air craft maker) makes heaps of aircraft from twin seats planes up to light cargo turboprop and light jet aircraft (IIRC someone on reddit said a quick lookup shows over 3000 Bombardier aircraft (of all types) registered in the US), many used by regional airlines and cargo air-freight, especially in Alaska (due to few aircraft designs actually being able to operate in the Arctic), but Gulfstream's main products are the luxury private jets used by the elite and top businesses.

Edit: He wants the FAA to not certify new Canadian built aircraft, unsure if that will affect existing models though.
Edit 2: The reason for the lack of certification of the Gulf Stream are related to fuel additives required to operate in cold weather which Canada is looking at banning for health/environmental reasons. (Basically the Gulf Stream fuel tanks are not insulated enough leading to fuel freezing which requires a fuel additive to stop from happening).
 
This link has some commentary on DOJ Attorney Julia Le's testimony before Judge Jerry Blackwell on the ongoing debacle in Minneapolis. Everyone above Le and in the employ of ICE is in the process of resigning their posts, so this VERY junior attorney who was only given credentials to see internal ICE documents during the same week in which she stood in Blackwell's court. She spoke with a great deal of candor, which is not normally a good thing for any attorney put before a federal judge, and it's an interesting read.

I realize probably no one would listen to an hour of audio, but here's a Transcript of today's episode of It Could Happen Here where journalist Robert Evans give a keynote on combating authoritarianism at a conference held at the Japanese-American National Museum.

Both of these things are well worth everyone's time.
 
As people pour over the latest round of Epstein files, some of the documents included email credentials (email, username, password, provider, etc) used by Epstein.
Some of the accounts were still active and still accessible with aforementioned credentials. Individuals have accessed and downloaded all those emails. Unknown if they will release them in whole, but I suspect certain emails that have already been released redacted by the DOJ, will now have the non-redacted version released side-by-side, showing who the true sender/receivers are.

 
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Happy SBS 🎉 Celebrating America's Highest Holy Holiday, Super Bowl Sunday 🏈 ‼️

But perhaps you have heard about the controversial halftime show, featuring recent multi-Grammy-Award winner Bad Bunny.

The selection of this Latino star by the NFL created such a raging reactionary reaction in AmeriKKKa that "Turning Point USA" has created a True American counter-halftime show.

This reminded me of another major political statement at a significant sports event: the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.

Adolph Hitler temporarily suppressed his regime's anti-semitic and racist propaganda to try to promote the myth of Aryan Superiority.

But to his dismay, (black Ohio State University student) Jesse Owens won 4 gold medals, and by the end of his wonderful performance, people in the stands were chanting his name.

Unfortunately, the racist reaction to this milestone in Black History was that it was about as ignored by leadership in America as it was in Germany.
 
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