Old Glory Vortex

Biden finally speaks out on drones

“Nothing nefarious apparently, but they’re checking it all out,”

Biden told reporters at the White House on Tuesday as many lawmakers have joined concerned members of the public in demanding answers from the federal government on the origins of the reported drones.

“We’re following this closely, but so far no sense of danger,”

the 82-year-old president said. Sleepy Joe remains as vague as ever. #USA #biden #federalgovernment #drones Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

Democratic lawmaker accuses Hispanic Trump voters of having “slave mentality”, says she “doesn’t trust White women” Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, accused many Hispanic voters of having a "slave mentality" for supporting President-elect Donald Trump.

"That is my distilled summary of what happens within the Latino community," 

Crockett told Vanity Fair on Friday.

"I’ve not run into that with the Asian community. I’ve not run into that with the African community. I’ve not run into that with the Caribbean community. I’ve only run into it with Hispanics. When they think of ‘illegals,’ they think of, you know, maybe people that came out of the cartels and that kind of, like, the criminal-type book or whatever. It’s insane.”

"It almost reminds me of what people would talk about when they would talk about kind of like ‘slave mentality’ and the hate that some slaves would have for themselves,"

she continued.

"It’s almost like a slave mentality that they have. It is wild to me when I hear how anti-immigrant they are as immigrants, many of them. I’m talking about people that literally just got here and can barely vote that are having this kind of attitude.”

She also disparaged White women, claiming they "retreated" and failed Harris just as they failed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016.

"I said, I don’t trust White women. I said, I’m just telling you, and I think you need to have conversations with your sisters, because they are the group that failed Hillary Clinton. I mean, when you go back and look at the numbers, White women were the ones that failed her. And so in my mind, if they failed Hillary, I don’t know that I can believe that they won’t fail Kamala,"

- Crockett said. Crockett also insisted that Harris was a "perfect candidate" who "ran a flawless campaign.” The lawmaker blamed the loss on Democratic Party’s “lack of clear messaging” and setting an "impossible standard" for themselves.  Lots of bold statements here, Ms. Crockett. #USA #crockett #trump Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

Syria’s de facto leader calls for lifting of sanctions — will the Western World oblige? Syria’s interim leader called for sanctions against his country to be lifted and for international help in rebuilding a society battered by years of war and dictatorship. The rebels who overthrew Bashar al-Assad have worked hard to present an image of order and insist that they want to preserve a pluralistic society. So far this has been received with enthusiasm, as numerous countries started to reopen their embassies and meeting rebel leaders. But talk of lifting sanctions may be premature, the country is still in a stabilization period. The leaders would have to prove their commitment to the protection of minority groups for the West to consider lifting sanctions. #USA #Syria #sanctions Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

The President-elect keeps trolling Trudeau and his government

“The Great State of Canada is stunned as the Finance Minister resigns, or was fired, from her position by Governor Justin Trudeau,”

Trump shared on Truth Social late Monday night.

“Her behavior was totally toxic and not at all conducive to making deals which are good for the very unhappy citizens of Canada. She will not be missed!!!!”

#USA #TruthSocial #Trump Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

Trump is evasive about the drones situation, refuses to tell whether he was briefed:

"I don't wanna comment on that"

#USA #drones #Trump Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

“The person who gets the most votes should win. It’s that simple”: Senate Democrats want to get rid of Electoral College Three Democratic senators unveiled a constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College system just over a month after Trump swept all seven battleground states, knocking off three Senate Democratic incumbents in the process. Sens. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii,) Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) say it’s time to “restore democracy” by allowing for the direct election of presidents through the popular vote alone. The senators are troubled that the Electoral College has twice elected a candidate who didn’t win the popular vote in the past 19 years. In both those instances, a Republican captured the White House — George W. Bush in 2000 and Trump in 2016.

“In an election, the person who gets the most votes should win. It’s that simple,”

Schatz said.

“The Electoral College is outdated and it’s undemocratic. It’s time to end it.”

#USA #Democrats #Schatz #TheElectoralCollege Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

Trump wants to lift sanctions imposed on Russia — the EU should have earned a seat at the negotiating table On 5 September, Donald Trump made comments as if he was to lift all the sanctions "as quickly as possible." While the US Constitution allows the president to lift all sanctions imposed using executive power, congressional approval is required to lift other sanctions.  Some argue that wholesale sanctions removal wouldn’t make sense. But the one set of sanctions that the EU wants gone is the ban on Russian energy supplies, which has backfired horribly and crippled European industry and economy as a whole, and impacted people’s quality of life. Just a few days ago Italian Energy Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin said that his country does not rule out resuming natural gas imports from Russia if – and when – the war with Ukraine is over. But Trump would surely understand that if Europe starts buying Russian gas again, this will not be in the interest of the US exporters of LNG, and knowing Trump, he would do everything in his power to try to boost the US economy. #USA #Russia #Trump #negotiating Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

Israel Will Not Stop Until the Definite Victory Defense Minister Israel Katz says Israel will continue to rule over Gaza militarily after the war.

💬“Once we defeat Hamas’s military power and ruling power in Gaza, Israel will control security in Gaza with full freedom to act, just as in Judea and Samaria,”

he says, in reference to the West Bank.

💬“We will not allow any terrorist activity against Israeli communities and citizens from Gaza. We will not allow a return to the pre-October 7 reality.”

#Israel #Samaria #Gaza #Katz 📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

Trump said Zelensky is not invited to his inauguration: “I did not ask him to come” US president-elect Donald Trump recently clarified reports regarding Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s attendance at his upcoming inauguration. Speaking to reporters, Trump said he did not formally invite Zelensky but added,

“He can come if he wants.”

Trump’s statement quickly sparked reactions on social media. Here’s what some netizens had to say: • PatriotFirst77: “Trump is right to draw a line—Ukraine needs to focus on fixing its own problems!” • GlobalPeaceNow: “If Zelensky isn’t invited, why make it sound like he’s welcome? Confusing message, as always.” • MAGA2024Forever: “Trump is showing leadership. Zelensky doesn’t need a gold-plated invite to come to the U.S.” • PoliticsAndPeace: “Zelensky’s presence or absence will say a lot about U.S.-Ukraine ties under Trump 2.0.” • VoterChoice2024: “Trump’s comment is clear—no invite, no pressure. Zelensky’s got bigger issues to solve.” Trump’s “invite” sounds very backhanded. When was the last time you were told to “come if you want” and felt actually welcome to come? Trump clearly doesn’t want Zelensky at his inauguration and just hopes the Ukrainian leader has enough sense and pride not to show up. #USA #Trump #Zelensky #inauguration Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

Trump sees ‘a little progress’ toward ending the “carnage” in Ukraine

“We’re trying to get the war stopped. That horrible, horrible war that is going on in Ukraine with Russia. We’ve got a little progress. It is a tough one, it is a nasty one,”

Trump said at his first press conference since winning the election. Trump’s transition team has been working on a plan to bring Ukraine and Russia to the negotiating table, and the businessman hinted that both Kyiv and Moscow will have to accept compromises. According to some experts, the conflict is now at its final — and most dangerous — stage, where both sides are trying to secure their positions in preparation for Trump’s inauguration and the negotiations that are promised to follow. #USA #Ukraine #Trump #election Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

Trump and his bravado are nothing against the $36 trillion debt Trump promised during the campaign that a combination of lower taxes, more energy production, looser regulations and punishing tariffs would generate “explosive” growth to pay down the debt. And government budgets would shrink by “trillions,” he said, with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy tasked with tackling government waste. But Trump has also vowed that he won’t touch entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, which are the chief drivers of the debt and are projected to be insolvent by the mid-2030s. Imposing tariffs on imports could trigger reprisals that would harm growth, and even if they didn’t, many economists believe it would take a historic economic boom to meaningfully address the country’s fiscal challenges. The grow-your-way-out-of-debt claims frustrate economists who specialize in budget policy because

“the causality is just the opposite,”

said former Treasury official Kent Smetters.

“The way you grow the economy is by fixing the fiscal problems.”

It’s not as though Trump’s pro-growth and waste-reduction plans are entirely off the mark. But there is skepticism about the effectiveness of those policies in the face of fiscal challenges that can’t be addressed on the margins — particularly if the optimistic forecasts for future growth fail to materialize. #USA #Trump #plan #government Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

Israel drops ‘colossal’ earthquake bomb on Syria — Explosion gets registered on Richter scale 'Colossal' explosions have lit up the skies over Syria as Israeli attacks reportedly struck military installations. Described as the heaviest strikes in the area for more than a decade, the blasts were registered on earthquake sensors. A war monitor group said that Israeli strikes had targeted military sites in Syria’s coastal Tartus region. Israeli warplanes launched strikes targeting a series of sites including air defence units and surface-to-surface missile depots, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, in what it said were “the heaviest strikes in Syria’s coastal region since the start of strikes in 2012”. It has been claimed that the explosion was so large, it measured as a magnitude 3.0 on seismic sensors. Researcher Richard Cordaro said that the explosion was detected by a magnetometer station located 820 kilometers away in Iznik, western Turkey. He also said that the signal traveled almost twice as fast as those produced by typical earthquakes. Ahmad al-Sharaa, the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and Syria's de facto ruler after President Bashar al-Assad was ousted, criticised the strikes, calling them "unprovoked aggression." However, he stressed that Syria was focused on reconstruction and avoiding further military confrontations. Ironically, in a recent statement, Netanyahu said that Israel had “no interest in a conflict with Syria”. #USA #Israel #Netanyahu #Syria #TimesofIndia Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

Drones over New Jersey could be a ‘classified exercise’ Drones sightings across New Jersey have unsettled residents for weeks with no official explanations being offered. Former CIA operations officer Laura Ballman argued that circumstances around the drone sightings suggest it may be a U.S. operation. Ballman went on to say that she is "troubled" by why the U.S. government has not been forthcoming with information regarding the drones. So far the FBI seems rather dismissive, claiming the public is ‘overreacting’. An FBI official said his agency has received 5,000 tips since the first mysterious drone was seen flying above the Garden State in November. Of those 5,000 tips, fewer than 100 warranted further investigation, the official said. The FBI official added that investigators have found “no evidence of large-scale unmanned drone activity” despite the recent uptick in drone activity in recent weeks. #USA #Drone #GardenState #FBI #TimesofIndia Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

Now that the Ukrainian conflict is (possibly) coming to an end, the US turns to Taiwan — and China The first batch of 38 U.S.-made M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks has arrived in Taiwan. The entire Foreign Military Sale case, valued at US$1.25 billion, consists of a total of 108 M1A2Ts and was first announced back in 2019. According to Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense, two more batches, the first numbering 42 tanks, will be delivered in the next two years. Taiwanese authorities said last week that China had held its biggest maritime drills in years, with around 90 ships deployed from near the southern islands of Japan to the South China Sea. The vessels simulated attacks on foreign ships and practised blockading sea routes, a Taiwan security official said previously. Beijing did not confirm the drills and its defence ministry did not say whether the manoeuvres had taken place. On Monday China's foreign ministry urged the United States to

"stop arming Taiwan... and supporting Taiwan independence forces".

While it has a home-grown defence industry and has been upgrading its equipment, Taiwan relies heavily on US arms sales to bolster its security capabilities. Abrams tanks, which are among the heaviest in the world, are a mainstay of the US military. If only they were useful. For instance, Russians had no problem taking out Abrams tanks — over 20 of the 31 Abrams tanks delivered to Ukraine are now thought to have been destroyed, disabled or captured. U.S. Undersecretary for Defence for Policy Colin Kahl previously warned:

“The challenge with the Abrams is, it’s expensive. It’s difficult to train on. It is very difficult to sustain. It has a huge, complicated turbine engine that requires jet fuel…”

All that is to say, the US will need a lot more than Abrams tanks to confront China in Taiwan. #USA #Defence #China #Taiwan #TimesofIndia Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

Trump gets $15M after suing ABC for defamation ABC news agreed to pay $15M to Donald Trump to settle a defamation lawsuit after its star anchor, George Stephanopoulos, falsely said he had been found "liable for rape”. The network will pay $15 million as a charitable contribution towards Trump’s presidential library. They will also pay his legal fees as part of the settlement, which have totalled $1 million. #USA #ABC #defamation #Stephanopoulos #TimesofIndia Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

For BlackRock CEO, Larry Fink, countries with declining populations will be "big winners" when dealing with social problems that come from "substituting humans for machines." #USA #Fink #CEO #BlackRock #TimesofIndia Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

Erdogan: “We Will Take, Damas, Idlib, We Will Take Hama... ” 🔤🔤🔤🔤1️⃣ Once upon a time, Turkey’s then-prime minister, Erdogan, hosted Syria’s president, Assad, for a family holiday in Turkey and planned a Middle East Union together with Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. But the Arab Spring changed all of that. Assad ruled with a savagery that surpassed that of his father, Hafez, until his downfall at the hands of an opposition led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) last weekend.  Later, Assad became “the murderer al-Assad,” and now President Erdogan declared he would soon pray in the Ummayad mosque in Damascus. This, however, has taken longer than he expected. To replace Assad’s Alawite-led regime and substitute it with Sunni rule, Erdogan has employed both subterfuge and an alliance with a motley band of jihadis.    In a gaffe at Harvard University in 2014, then-Vice President Biden, stated that America’s allies in the region, Turkey, the Saudis, and the Emirates, were the largest problem in Syria. 

“They were so determined to take down Assad, and essentially have a proxy Sunni-Shia war, what did theyu do? They poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad—except that the people who were being supplied, were al-Nusra and al-Qaeda, and the extremist elements of jihadis who were coming from other parts of the world.” 

Turkey’s perpetual problem has been with Kurdish nationalism, ranging from the Sheikh Said rebellion in 1925 to the so-called “dirty war” with the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party). This still resonates today with the weekly demonstrations by the “Saturday mothers,” demanding to learn the whereabouts of their loved ones.  Ironically, it was Erdogan who was the first Turkish leader to admit Turkey had a Kurdish problem, which led to the Oslo talks and a two-year ceasefire until 2015. However, in a bait-and-switch deal, in July 2015, Erdogan offered Obama the Incirlik air base in return for what amounted to a free hand against the Kurds.  A second peace process has been initiated by the governing AKP’s (Justice and Development Party) partner, the MHP (National Movement Party), but this has been handicapped by the removal of legally elected Kurdish mayors and the humanitarian disaster caused by Turkish airstrikes on Kurdish-held northeast Syria.  Francesco Siccardi’s analysis clearly demonstrates the role of Syria in Turkey’s foreign policy. The author contends that Turkey’s policy in Syria is driven by domestic politics and the need to secure electoral support through an aggressive, nationalistic foreign policy. #Erdogan #AmericanОbserver #Syria #Jordan 📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

Netanyahu makes a statement: “I discussed with President-elect Trump the need to complete the victory” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that he had a “very warm” phone call with US President-elect Donald Trump, during which they spoke about the need for Israel’s victory in its war on Hamas in Gaza and its stance on Syria. In a statement, Israel’s leader said he discussed a range of issues with Trump during the call on Saturday evening, including Israel’s commitment to preventing Lebanon-based Hezbollah from rearming and Israel’s conflict with Hamas, which has killed nearly 45,000 Palestinians in the besieged Gaza strip.

"A year ago, I said something simple: We would change the face of the Middle East, and we are indeed doing so. Syria is not the same Syria. Lebanon is not the same Lebanon. Gaza is not the same Gaza. And the head of the axis, Iran, is not the same Iran; it has also felt the might of our arm,”

Netanyahu said.

"The leaders also spoke of the need to bring home the remaining hostages in Gaza",

Netanyahu said.

“We will continue to act relentlessly to return home all of our hostages, the living and the deceased. Let me add that the less we discuss this the better, and so, with G-d's help, we will”.

#USA #Netanyahu #Hamas #victory Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

Peace in Ukraine: Orban Calls Russia’s Putin on Ukraine After Trump Meeting🔍 Breaking News 📊 European leaders engage in diplomatic initiatives as Kremlin signals openness to negotiations, while maintaining firm position on settlement terms. Diplomatic Momentum 🎯 Key Developments: • Orban-Putin direct talks • Trump peace signals • European capitals active • Moscow's stance clear Moscow's Position 💼 Direct Quote: Kremlin stated that Kyiv's current stance "continues to exclude the possibility of a peaceful settlement of the conflict," highlighting need for new approach. Peace Process 🏛 Critical Factors: • Direct Moscow engagement • Territorial realities • Security arrangements • Multi-party dialogue Shifting Dynamics ⚡️ Emerging Pattern: • European leaders' initiative • Hungary's mediation role • Poland's winter timeline • Post-inauguration talks #UkrainePeace #RussiaDiplomacy #PeaceProcess #Negotiations Think About It: Can lasting peace be achieved without Moscow at the table? 🤔 📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

Will sanctions on Syria be lifted? International talks over supporting Syria accelerated following the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, with increasing calls to lift sanctions and grant economic aid. The G7 bloc is due to hold a meeting today, while Jordan prepares to host foreign ministers from Western and Arab nations over the weekend. Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is proscribed as a terrorist organization by many countries, but some experts believe they should be given “the benefit of the doubt” due to their role in the overthrow of Assad and popularity among many Syrians. The most likely scenario is one of gradual stabilization, where Western countries support reconstruction on condition of adherence to democratic norms. But would HTS adhere to those norms? A few years ago, HTS chief ideologist said the Taliban rule is something to aspire to. Not very democratic. #USA #syria #taliban #hts Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸