Where’s the outrage? ‘Trump World Inc.’s’ many conflicts of interest

 

In 2018, President Trump’s infamous former chief strategist Steve Bannon said that “Democrats don’t matter; the real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with s—.”

Trump’s “flood-the-zone” strategy is working right now about as well as Bannon could have ever imagined. A media so flooded with breaking news faces the prospect of something like reporting on a game of Whack-a-Mole. By design, many of Trump’s significant pronouncements and questionable activities are drowning under layers of excrement, whereas traditionally they would have generated headlines.

Trump’s extreme conflicts of interest are one such story. It is completely lost on the public that Trump is enriching himself daily with millions — potentially even billions — of dollars through his vast, diverse, growing domestic and international business empire.

And the 47th president is only just getting started.

Trump is the first president to own a controlling stake in a publicly traded company. Trump Media and Technology Group (symbol DJT) debuted on NASDAQ in March. Its home page exclaims, “A Uniting Force For Freedom of Expression — No Political Discrimination, Canceling Cancel Culture, Standing Up to Big Tech and Follow the TRUTH.”

Barron’s, a respected financial news source, reported on Inauguration Day that this company “is largely a cipher with scant disclosures, hardly any revenue, and no coverage on Wall Street. The stock has meme-like qualities, trading on presidential utterances and spikes in volume that vanish as quickly as they arise.”

Not only is Trump Media a shaky investment, but it represents a political-financial alternative universe that has become “normalized.” Consider that the president owns approximately 53 percent of the company’s stock, and that its communication platform, Truth Social, is the president’s mouthpiece.

Trump utilizes Truth Social 24/7 to make official government announcements, inject controversy, spew misinformation, hurl insults and rant against his enemies. As of January 2025, Truth Social had only 6.3 million active users, but media amplification keeps it top of mind. Truth’s home page reads, “Your Voice — Your Freedom,” language that could have been ripped from George Orwell’s classic “1984.”

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Warren Buffett sounds warning to Washington as Berkshire reports record profit, cash

 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Berkshire Hathaway on Saturday reported record annual profits and boosting its cash stake to $334.2 billion, as Warren Buffett used his annual shareholder letter to caution Washington to spend money wisely and take care of those who get the "short straws in life."

Buffett's admonition came as many investors worry U.S. lawmakers won't rein in soaring fiscal deficits, and could make them worse by extending tax cuts backed by President Donald Trump.

The 94-year-old Buffett, the world's sixth-richest person and arguably its most famous investor, also acknowledged his advanced age, telling shareholders he uses a cane and will spend less time fielding their questions at Berkshire's annual meeting on May 3.

He nonetheless assured shareholders they would be in good hands after he turns over the conglomerate's reins to Vice Chairman Greg Abel, saying the 62-year-old Abel has "vividly shown his ability" to deploy capital.

"It won't be long" before Abel takes over, Buffett said.

Buffett's letter was accompanied by Berkshire's annual report, where it reported a third straight record annual operating profit, rising 27% to $47.44 billion.

Quarterly operating profit rose 71% to $14.53 billion, also a record, and which analysts viewed as solid..

Berlin Stabbing Extends Chain of Attacks Ahead of German Election

 

BERLIN—German authorities said a Syrian suspect was intending “to kill Jews” when he stabbed a tourist in Berlin on Friday, the latest in a string of attacks by refugees and asylum seekers that have increased in frequency ahead of a crucial election on Sunday. 

The suspect, a 19-year-old refugee, was detained shortly after the attack Friday night on a Spanish tourist inside the city’s sprawling Holocaust Memorial opposite the U.S. Embassy, the Berlin police and general prosecutor said in a statement.

“A plan had matured in him over several weeks to kill Jews, which determined his choice of a place to strike,” the police and prosecutors said, based on statements the suspect had made after his arrest. 

The 30-year-old victim suffered life-threatening wounds to the throat but was out of danger on Saturday after undergoing an emergency operation, authorities said.

The litany of attacks has punctuated an electoral campaign that was initially focused on economic issues, and has forced candidates to spar over immigration and crime instead. The ballot on Sunday will elect a new parliament and determine who will lead the country for the next four years.

The front-runner is the center-right Christian Democratic Union, led by would-be chancellor Friedrich Merz and credited with about 30% of votes in recent polls, followed by the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, with around 20% of the voters.

Both parties have called for a crackdown on immigration and want the country to largely close its borders to asylum seekers, but immigration is more central to the AfD’s pitch whereas Merz has put a bigger emphasis on the economy.

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The Unabashedly Provocative Youth Driving Germany’s Far Right

 

The Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, with its anti-immigrant and nationalist platform, has long been the pariah of German politics. Its members have been fined for Nazi slogans and labeled extremist by the government.

Ahead of Sunday’s national parliamentary election, a new band of influencers has found a voice among voters by bringing a more youthful edge to the party known for its provocations and controversies. They welcome the scorn of protesters, journalists and the mainstream political parties. Some of them still trade jokes about Hitler and Jews, along with the occasional Sig Heil salute.

Their party’s energy and ethos has won approving nods from Elon Musk, an adviser to President Trump, and from Vice President JD Vance. And they have helped elevate the party to second in the polls, even as the political establishment has kept the AfD out of government as part of a longstanding commitment to sideline parties deemed extreme.

They are the changing face of the AfD.

When Marie-Thérèse Kaiser, 28, first went to an AfD event in 2017, she was surrounded by retirees. “They could have been my grandparents,” she said. Things have changed. Young people who might have been punks or hippies in a different time are now finding the AfD, she said — and posting about it.

Ms. Kaiser is a parliamentary candidate and a personal assistant in the office of Alice Weidel, the leader of the AfD. She canvassed for the party on a frigid Saturday morning in Sittensen, a small town outside Hamburg. She picked the spot because she had been uninvited from a panel discussion there because of lingering controversy over a social media post that violated a law against hate speech.

In 2021, Ms. Kaiser on Facebook criticized Germany’s acceptance of immigrants from Afghanistan. In the post, she asked Hamburg’s mayor whether he was creating a “welcome culture for gang rapes?” The government fined her 6,000 euros ($6,275) and convicted her of inciting racial hatred. Her online following grew.

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Requiem For The West - The Weekly Dish

 

 “The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next. It was the deep knowledge — and pray God we have not lost it — that there is a profound, moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest … The strength of America’s allies is vital to the United States, and the American security guarantee is essential to the continued freedom of Europe’s democracies. We were with you then; we are with you now. Your hopes are our hopes, and your destiny is our destiny,” - Ronald Reagan at Pointe du Hoc, France on June 6, 1984.

It is a fascinating moment, isn’t it, when Reagan’s vision of the West is finally swept into the dustbin of history by a Republican president.

And that is the only solid conclusion one can make after this week of astonishing incompetence and madness. We only saw Donald Trump’s foreign policy darkly in his first term — constrained, as he was, by a handful of white-knuckled Republicans in the executive branch. Now we see it face to face. It’s a vision where international law disappears, great powers divide up the planet into spheres of influence, and the strong always control the weak. It’s Trump’s vision of domestic politics as well. And of life.

And to give the madman his due, something had to happen. Neoconservatism is long since dead — by suicide, of course, in Iraq and Afghanistan. And the global position of the US after 1945, and then after 1989, is over and never coming back. There is simply no threat in the world that is equivalent to the totalitarian regimes of Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, and Maoist China. Islamism was never going to replace them.

And so a retrenchment of the US position was inevitable at some point: a more judicious approach to interventionism, a greater balance with the allies, a pivot toward Asia and away from Europe and the Middle East: responsible, realist re-positioning. In fact, failure to do so when our debt payments now exceed our military budget would be asking for trouble. 

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Finalmente, o Correio da Manhã esclarece o que são "indivíduos de nacionalidade estrangeira"

 

Pela primeira vez, o Correio da Manhã identifica a nacionalidade de um indivíduo, de 37 anos de idade, que invadiu uma escola, abordou uma jovem de 16 anos e propôs-lhe fazer sexo. A menor refugiou-se casa de banho e pediu ajuda pelo telemóvel. O indivíduo foi detido pela PSP. Segunda esta força policial, o homem apresentava um "discurso incoerente" e revelava "dificuldades em falar português sendo de nacionalidade indiana", escreve o Correio da Manhã, num artigo intitulado "Invade escola para fazer sexo com aluna". Outros jornais começam a utilizar o termo "indostânico. Aposto que no próximo relatório sobre a criminalidade em Portugal, haverá um novo dado: os crimes praticados por imigrantes do Indostão, vulgo Paquistão, Índia, Bangladesh e Nepal...

Até agora, os jornais bem-comportadinhos e muito "woke" (inclusivé o CM, porque no melhor pano cai a nódoa) limitavam-se a usar o termo grupo de indivíduos estrangeiros, quando noticiavam crimes praticados por grupos de imigrantes indostânicos.

 

36% dos migrantes da Mouraria partilha casa com não familiares, 2% vive com mais de 25 pessoas

 

De vez em quando a Mouraria entra nas notícias e nem sempre pelas melhores razões, como aconteceu recentemente com o incêndio que vitimou duas pessoas.

Mas este território de muitas cores, sabores e línguas, onde o Bangladesh, o Nepal, o Paquistão e a Índia se encontram nos cheiros do Martim Moniz e do Intendente tem muitas históras para contar. Quem são estas pessoas? Que histórias são estas que chegam a Lisboa? De onde vieram, para onde pensam ir? E que desafios encontram nesta nova terra a que agora chamam casa?

Faltavam dados para contar as histórias da Mouraria. Foi por isso que o Centro Nacional de Apoio à Integração de Migrantes (CNAIM) propôs à associação Renovar a Mouraria um estudo no âmbito do projeto ALI – Atendimento Local para a Inclusão.

Liderado pelo técnico Ivan Bustillo, o estudo passou pelas mãos de duas estagiárias da associação, Maria Mascarenhas e Astrid Hardeel, e de um grupo de mediadoras culturais que levaram o inquérito para o terreno (Larib Mujahid, Farhana Akter, Sabee Shrestha, Shari). O estudo foi apresentado num workshop participativo no Centro de Inovação da Mouraria.
Quem faz parte desta comunidade migrante?

A amostra deste estudo foi de 302 pessoas, o que corresponde a cerca de 10% da população da Mouraria. Aqui, abordaram-se quatro tópicos principais: as nacionalidades do bairro, a composição dos agregados familiares, as profissões e os tipos de habitação.

A maioria destes migrantes chega à Mouraria vinda do estrangeiro ou de outra zona do país (89% são imigrantes, 11% são migrantes internos).

Nepal, Bangladesh e Paquistão são os países de origem mais comuns e as principais línguas maternas o português, o bengalês e o nepalês. Entre os migrantes inquiridos, falam-se 40 línguas maternas
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Facadas na Mouraria

 

As autoridades receberam relatos de um "indivíduo esfaqueado, com bastantes cortes nos braços, cara e tronco".
Notícia

De acordo com a mesma fonte, o incidente ocorreu cerca das 08h20, tendo as autoridades recebido informação de um "indivíduo esfaqueado, com bastantes cortes nos braços, cara e tronco".

A vítima foi transportada ao hospital, consciente, segundo a mesma fonte, que avançou ainda ter sito detida uma suspeita que "poderá não ter estar envolvida no esfaqueamento, porém foi detida por posse de armas brancas".

Entretanto, num comunicado enviado às redações, pelas 15:00, o Comando Metropolitano de Lisboa da PSP esclareceu que os policias da 1.ª Divisão Policial foram alertados para uma ocorrência de ofensas à integridade física na freguesia de Santa Maria Maior.

Ao chegar ao local, os agentes deram conta de um homem com ferimentos de arma branca, tendo solicitado a presença dos meios de emergência médica, que levaram a vítima para o hospital.

O homem ferido adiantou às autoridades que o agressor era seu conhecido, "compatriota, e já não se encontrava no local".

Entretanto, os polícias foram ainda informados por uma pessoa no local de que uma mulher estaria a percorrer a rua "também na posse de armas brancas".

Posteriormente, ao abordarem a mulher verificaram que esta tinha na sua posse "três facas de cozinha de grandes dimensões -- uma na mão e duas no interior da mochila" -, daí a sua detenção.