Making Ballrooms and Bathrooms Great Again: The Trump Wing of the White House

American  Thinker 

Imagine ladies having to cross sinking, wet grass to then enter a porta-potty in a poofy ballroom dress and open-toed stilettos — not a Cinderella moment. That’s what Obama had guests of state subjected to during his presidency. However, President Trump is fixing the problem for the American people and paying for it with donations — even his own.  Hooray for glittering ballrooms and clean bathrooms!

CNN commentators spoke concerning President Trump’s ballroom construction improvements at the White House, stating that Trump “thinks he has the authority to go and destroy what is essentially a sacred historic site and put up a palace because he thinks he is a king.”

Apparently, the Democrats forgot their literal destruction of history during their tearing down of monuments all over America during the past eight years.

October 29th, RINO Gordon Deal’s radio show interviewed yet another leftist-liberal from the Wall Street Journal, who, making it sound bad, explained how Trump had replaced all the sitting members overseeing the architecture in Washington, D.C., installing people who favor Trump’s vision.  During their radio-bickering concerning Trump, they forgot to mention that all of the people Trump fired were appointed by autopen-president Joe Biden, who formerly fired all of the people on the board appointed by Trump from his first term.  Gordon Deal always talks leftist-liberal, begging the question, “What’s the deal, Gordon?”

Responding to CNN’s “king” and “palace” idiocy, Jesse Watters asked,

Palace?  Trump thinks he’s a king?  Obama thought he was a god.  …He told us he had the power to lower the world’s oceans.  His nickname was ‘the messiah.’  The media gave him a hallo.  But Trump builds a ballroom for the country and democrats are stunned speechless.

Speaking to Democrat “ladies,” Jesse said,

He’s building you a place to dance in a dress. What a gentleman.  Obama hosted state dinners in a tent.  Dignitaries from all over the world would come to the White House and they weren’t allowed to go inside the White House.  They ate dinner outside on the grass.  [Imagine the bugs.] And you know where they went to the bathroom?  In a porta-potty.  Prime ministers had to use a porta-potty.  …It’s disgusting.  It also ruined the lawn.  You couldn’t even use Marine One, the tent was so big.  This was long overdue.  They’re actually suing Trump to stop construction.

Jesse Watters continued:

And the President has decided what he’s naming the ballroom.  Are you ready?  The Donald J. Trump ballroom. Of course!  What?  Did you think he was going to name the ballroom after the autopen?

Isn’t that just wonderful!  America will now forever remember President Donald J. Trump, because the new East Wing (The Ballroom) of the White House will be called the “Donald J. Trump Ballroom.”  This is truly Making America Hospitable Again.

Jesse asserted,

Do you know who else loves the Donald J. Trump ballroom?  Rachel Maddow’s boss.  Yeah.  Comcast, MSNBC’s parent company, donated millions to build the ballroom.  How embarrassing for MSNBC.  I mean MSNOW.  They should be called MSNEVER, because they are never right.

President Trump says that he has already received $350 million in donations, which is more than the cost of the building project.

Of course, the Democrats are all lining up with their demented naysaying, with Representative Eric Swalwell (D-CA) leading the way, posting on X, “Don’t even think of seeking the Democratic nomination for president unless you pledge to take a wrecking ball to the Trump Ballroom on DAY ONE.”

So, Swalwell wants to continue his wasteful spending of taxpayer money, and this time it’s to destroy a much-needed ballroom-bathroom project, donated to America by American patriots.  Swalwell wants visiting dignitaries in tents and porta-potties.  Imagine entering a porta-potty after Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) has been in it.

It is surprising that Swalwell has time to comment on anything since his Chinese spy-squeeze was deported — sleazy Swalwell is probably swamped with interviews for a new one.

Law professor Jonathan Turley labeled Swalwell’s Ballroom destruction comments as “reckless”, and former Trump advisor Jason Miller called Swalwell an “idiot.”

Harris Faulkner on Fox News broadcast “Outnumbered,” stated, “I refuse to take judgment about right and wrong from Representative Eric Swalwell anymore.  It took the FBI to get him up off that woman who was a Chinese spy.”  With Kayleigh McEnany chiming in, “Fang Fang.”

Another loony tune whining naysayer about the ballroom is Hillary Clinton, who attempted to rally Americans to reject the project.  Being so concerned about preserving history, Hillary, Ms. Morals, forgot she stole furniture from the White House when she and Bill exited, being “forced to return it.”  Perhaps she wanted to preserve U.S. history privately at her house.  Not surprisingly, the Clintons denied any wrongdoing (again), claiming it was a “cataloging error.”

Side question: Do Hillary’s grandchildren say, “Grandma, tell us again the story about Whitewater, Vince Foster, and all the other mysterious deaths that make you out to be a ‘ruthless political operative’”?

Other Democrats freaking out and lamenting the demolition, like Tom Colicchico, posted a picture on X stating it shows “My wife and I in the East Wing.  I can’t believe that it is gone.”  The only problem is that the picture he posted is not of the East Wing.  But as usual with a Democrat, what does truth matter?  The picture posted is the diplomatic reception room on the ground floor of the White House, which the president walks through every time he goes out to Marine One.

On another construction project, President Trump is building an Arc de Triomphe, commemorating the 250th anniversary of the founding of America.  Some call it the “Arc de Trump.”  Presenting models of the arc, Trump says the models are in varying sizes—small, medium, and large.  Trump says, “I happen to think the large looks nice.  [The audience laughed.] Why are you shocked?”

Then, literally bringing in the “Golden Age” at his own expense, President Trump gave the Oval Office a gilded makeover.  The gold “is of the highest quality,” and he brought out artwork hidden for years in the walls of the White House.  Comparisons of photos before and after Trump’s renovations helps one see what the White House should look like, and Trump, as usual, has the proper vision, being “Right about everything.”

Then Trump, once again footing the bill, installed two massive 88-foot American flags flanking the White House, each reportedly costing around $50,000.

What a day to live in America.  It is truly wonderful having a president who is putting America first, and is fun.  With the new Donald J. Trump Ballroom, dignitaries and politicians will all have to say, “President Trump,” for years into the future, just like legendary singer Carman said in his 2017 original song and the updated version.

God bless you and keep you, President Trump. You are a true patriot!

Podcast and entertainment thread for Nov 6

 

Learn to forgive yourself.

Mamdani’s socialist and Muslim backers, including Sarsour and Wahhaj, take victory lap

 

By Jerry Dunleavy for Just the News

Mamdani's rise to power was guided by a number of New York-based socialist and Muslim groups, and they celebrated his win on Tuesday as their own.

High-profile socialist and Muslim backers of Zohran Mamdani’s successful mayoral campaign — including controversial figures such as Linda Sarsour and Siraj Wahhaj — took a victory lap in the wake of the self-described democratic socialist’s victory in New York City's mayoral race.

Mamdani, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, leaned heavily on the backing of the DSA and of Muslim activist groups to win both the Democratic primary in June and the general election on Tuesday.

A wide-assortment of Muslim, socialist, and other far-left groups and figures celebrated Mamdani’s win Tuesday, with many arguing that it pointed toward growing momentum for socialism and Muslim politicians in America.

Linda Sarsour, a high-profile anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian activist, celebrated Mamdani’s win on Instagram on Tuesday.

“When what we were told was impossible becomes the reality. From 1% in the polls to New York City Hall,” she said. “Congratulations @zohrankmamdani, thank you for taking us all on this incredible journey and helping us believe in democracy again.”

A Just the News review previously found that Mamdani embraced a nearly decade-long association with Sarsour as he rose from an activist to New York State assemblyman and now the Democrat Party’s nominee to run America’s largest city. Sarsour’s commentary and views on Israel have stirred years of controversy and accusations of anti-Semitism, an allegation she denies.

Sarsour and her Muslim activist group MPower Change also posted a lengthier celebration on Tuesday.

“Zohran Mamdani has become the first Muslim mayor of New York City, and we are elated. This election win is not simply about the man who will lead New York City in January — it is also about the mass of people, the communities, and the solidarity that lifted Zohran to victory,” Sarsour and her groups said on Instagram.

Sarsour and MPower Change added: “Zohran faced a constant stream of vile Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism during his campaign. … Zohran and our communities showed that we can overcome this bigotry. When we stand together against anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian hate, we win.”

Mamdani has cited his membership with the Muslim Democratic Club of New York (MDCNY), which had been led for two terms by MDCNY co-founder Sarsour, as formative in his political career. Mamdani was a board member for the MDCNY just after Sarsour’s presidency ended.

While he was with the MDCNY, Mamdani and Sarsour appeared in multiple photos together as she remained a regular presence with the club. MDCNY repeatedly touted Mamdani’s campaign for mayor this year, including hosting Mamdani for campaign events, including alongside Sarsour.

The Muslim club posted on Instagram that “we are incredibly proud of our former board member, Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@zohrankmamdani), on his historic win!!” The group added: “This is our moment — the first Muslim Mayor in NYC’s history! Thank you to our dedicated volunteers who for months canvassed, phone banked, talked to their neighbors, registered voters, and so much more. This is our win!”

Sarsour replied that she was “so so so proud of @MuslimDemsNY” and followed that with three heart emojis.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) also celebrated Mamdani’s win with a lengthy post on X.

“CAIR congratulates @ZohranKMamdani on his historic election as Mayor of New York City and we congratulate the people of New York City, including many New York Muslims, for exercising their right to vote in massive numbers,” CAIR tweeted. “The election of New York City's first Muslim mayor represents a historic turning point for American Muslim political engagement. Mayor-Elect Mamdani's ability to win while openly advocating for Palestinian human rights and experiencing a barrage of anti-Muslim hate also marks a historic rebuke of both Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism in politics.”

CAIR, which has a close affiliation with Sarsour and repeatedly has her appear at events as a lecturer or keynote speaker, also poured money into Mamdani’s mayoral race this year, according to campaign finance records.

Mamdani had spoken at imam Siraj Wahhaj's Brooklyn mosque in October and praised him on X as “one of the nation’s foremost Muslim leaders and a pillar of the Bed-Stuy community for nearly half a century.”

The imam has a long history of incendiary commentary and appeared as a character witness for Egyptian Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman – commonly known as the “Blind Sheikh” – who was convicted of seditious conspiracy in 1995 for his involvement in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and other plots to bomb major NYC landmarks.

Wahhaj and Mamdani praised each other during the remarks at the Brooklyn mosque last month.

“We have a lot to do. Inshallah [God willing], real soon we’re going to have a new mayor in New York City,” said Wahhaj, who made a face as if pretending to act shocked. “And he might be sitting right here somewhere.” Wahhaj then pretended to look around.

“My family will tell you how much love I have for him. … One of the best ever that I’ve ever heard ever, and I’ve met all the mayors of New York City. I’ve never met one like this young brother here, Mamdani,” Wahhaj said. “Now, I’m not going to tell everyone to go vote for Mamdani – though you should – but I want to say that we’re very happy to have him.” 

Wahhaj then directed his remarks to Mamdani directly: “I want to let you know that our prayers are with you. I love you more than you can ever imagine. 

The Instagram account for Wajjah’s mosque, Masjid At Taqwa - Brooklyn, on Tuesday shared a portion of Wahhaj’s remarks praising Mamdani at the mosque back in October. The caption of the post from Wahhaj’s mosque said: “We have The First Muslim mayor in New York City! Zohran mamdani! A Big Win For NYC And History Was Made!”

Mamdani has been a longtime DSA member and leader, and he is listed as one of the group’s nine “New York State Socialists in Office.”

A recently unearthed clip from 2023 shows Mamdani telling the DSA national conference — which he was the keynote speaker for — that “when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it has been laced by the IDF.”

DSA-NYC hosted more than a dozen election watch parties across the city on Tuesday.

“The next mayor of New York City is a dues-paying member of DSA. Join the winning team,” the socialist group tweeted when he won. They added: “We look to the future with a young, Muslim, Democratic socialist mayor who proudly identifies as such.”

The DSA’s national organization also celebrated the DSA member’s mayoral victory.

“Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani’s win as the next mayor of New York City is a win for the working class. New Yorkers achieved the most monumental electoral victory for the US socialist movement in the last century — despite the millions of dollars invested to stop us,” the DSA said. “Through Zohran’s victory, the people defeated the oligarchy; the working class defeated major corporations; Democratic Socialism defeated the Democratic Party status quo.”

The national DSA group argued that “thousands of DSA members in NYC-DSA played critical roles in the campaign as staff and volunteers” and that “Zohran wasn’t afraid to say boldly what his voters and the majority of Americans believe: that Palestine should be free, and that the U.S. shouldn’t be complicit in Israel’s genocide.”

Just the News obtained internal plans from the NYC-DSA’s Anti-War Working Group detailing how the group intends to pressure Mamdani to inject anti-Israel policies into the management — and life — of the Big Apple.

Jeremy Corbyn, a former UK Labour Party member of Parliament who was expelled from leadership over multiple anti-Semitism accusations, tweeted over the weekend that “I’m hosting a phone bank” with the NYC-DSA to “Get Out The Vote” for Mamdani.

Corbyn tweeted his “congratulations” to Mamdani after the win. The leftist British politician said: “Congratulations to @ZohranKMamdani! You ignited a grassroots campaign, built on the radical idea that everyone deserves to live in dignity. This is a seismic victory — not only for the people of New York, but for all those who believe that humanity & hope can prevail.”

Mamdani had run as both a Democrat and on the leftwing Working Families Party line, and the latter’s New York chapter tweeted, “Welcome to City Hall, Mayor @ZohranKMamdani.”

The Working Families Party’s national organization crowed, “26 billionaires spent over $22 million to defeat @ZohranKMamdani. They lost. Why? Because regular people came together around an agenda that prioritized making life easier for more people. It beat big money. That is how we win.”

Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., tweeted out a photo of himself with Mamdani.

“Starting at 1% in the polls, @ZohranKMamdani pulled off one of the great political upsets in modern American history. Yes. We CAN create a government that represents working people and not the 1%,” Sanders said. “I look forward to working with Zohran as he builds a city that works for all.”

Former DSA member and current leftwing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also shared a photo of herself and Mamdani hugging. She tweeted: “Greatest city on earth. [Statue of Liberty emoji] Congratulations @zohrankmamdani.”

Alex Soros, the son of and heir to billionaire bankroller of leftist causes George Soros, shared a picture of himself and Mamdani together, tweeting, “So proud to be a New Yorker! The American dream continues! Congrats, Mayor @ZohranKMamdani.”

Leaders from the socialist revolutionary financial network backed by billionaire Neville Singham also celebrated Mamdani’s win. Singham, who sold his ThoughtWorks tech company in 2017, and has used the money to fund openly Communist endeavors globally.

Singham has been described as a “comrade” of — and is a financial backer of — the People’s Forum, a Marxist revolutionary group based in Manhattan.

“They told us to be afraid of socialism. Yet so many working class New Yorkers rejected fear & voted for Mamdani. Tonight’s victory belongs to all the working people who've been priced out & pushed aside. The fight for an affordable city & a socialist future is heating up in NYC!” Manolo De Los Santos, a founder of The People’s Forum, tweeted in response to Mamdani’s victory.

Claudia De La Cruz, the U.S. presidential nominee for the Singham-linked Party for Socialism and Liberation in 2024 and the former co-executive director of The People’s Forum, called Mamdani’s win “an electoral victory representing a blow to the right wing and the most conservative elements of the Democratic Party is a valuable step — an opening!”

“The people want to live dignified lives and this victory reaffirms that, not only for New Yorkers, but across the country. People aren’t afraid of socialism — the ruling class is! And rightfully so,” Cruz said on X.

PSL openly calls for revolution to bring down the current American system and publicly sympathizes with Communist regimes. The People’s Forum and PSL share a number of connections. Singham has also financially backed a number of other Marxist groups with links to PSL.

PSL itself said Tuesday that “democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the New York City mayoral election represents a major political breakthrough” and that “his campaign, which took on the character of a mass movement, energized millions across the city and the country, defied the odds, and has sent large sections of the ruling elite into a panic.”

Mamdani himself cited Eugene Debs, a former five-time U.S. presidential candidate of the Socialist Party of America, in his victory speech on Tuesday, and set about naming his transition team on Wednesday. The first Muslim and DSA member to win the job will take the reins as NYC mayor in January.

Tuesday Night Sucked. Now, Get Over It.

Townhall 

I've been watching elections since 1972 – yeah, I was that second-grader who cared that Richard Nixon won, even though Justin Poe assured me it was because Nixon voted for himself 20 times. I've had great nights – Reagan 1980, the 1994 midterms, Trump 2016, and Trump 2024 – and bad nights. This was a bad night, really bad, bleak without a single ray of light through the clouds, an electoral abortion of Roe v. Wade levels. But here's a hard truth about elections from a lot of these nights. Some election nights are good, some nights are meh, and some nights suck. Tuesday night sucked.

But it didn't super suck. While we lost everything, the end result was not a disaster of Obama 2012 proportions. Well, except for NYC, but they can live with that. The election was the equivalent of walking down a Scat Francisco sidewalk barefoot after a hobo chili cook-off, but it did not illustrate any great new truths that doom us in one year in the midterms. It illustrated old truths. It just sucked, and it's important that we learn what we can from it and get ready for 2026.

I predicted it, as did most observers. In Virginia, New Jersey, California, and New York, Democrat jurisdictions voted for … wait for it … you're not gonna believe this … the Democrats. I'm a great believer in Occam's Razor – the simplest explanation is probably the explanation. And the most likely explanation for Democrats winning in Democrat jurisdictions is that they were Democrats.

But it still sucks.

And sucking is part of politics. Sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. We had a pretty good run, and this time the basics were not in our favor. The basics matter. The venue. The candidates. Historical trends. Procedural factors. The economy. Events. Motivation. These are not always determinative, but they tend to be. They were against us here. They don't all have to be next year.

We talked about venue. The big Democrat wins were big Democrat places. It would have been shocking if we had won – we were fighting for upsets. We were likely to lose – not necessarily by as much as we did, but lose nonetheless. We can't choose where the elections are, but next year they are everywhere.

Candidates matter. Winsome is a nice lady, but a terrible candidate for Virginia. In a place like VA, a super-conservative black lady who takes pictures with rifles is not going to sand off the sharp edge of NOVA blue vote totals. You need a Glenn Younkin —a calm, reassuring, competent businessman who gives off the vibe that he'd happily give you a 6:00 a.m. ride to the airport. But even that may not be enough. Jason Myares was mellow and competent, and the wine women still chose the sociopathic murder onanist because he is a Democrat.

At the best of times, for a Republican to win in Virginia, you need to have a very normie Republican who's aided by political tail winds, like a human eggplant in the White House screwing everything up, as well as advantages like not having hundreds of federal workers blaming Republicans for how the Democrats stopped paying them. You have to get lucky. Winsome did not get lucky. She got creamed.

But they did elect a communist in NYC. He was charismatic and hopeful. Andrew Cuomo was entitled, lazy, and also Andrew Cuomo. Curtis Sliwa is a nice guy, but just no. As one person told me, "He should take off that hat once in a while." Again, great guy, great New Yorker, but nostalgia for the Guardian Angels' heyday of 40 years ago won't cut it against a political superstar like Mamdani.

We need to nominate good candidates.

Then there are historical trends. They are not determinative—look at the 2002 midterms, when the GOP won with W in the White House. But they are a pretty solid indicator – look at how I had to go back a quarter century for an example. Historically, these off-year elections should have sucked for us, and – surprise! – they sucked for us.

There are procedural factors at play. There is redistricting—California's initiative to do it passed 2-1. Several Fredocon Republican states are balking at following suit. The GOP traitors need to be nuked from orbit. Further, forever elections where you vote for weeks on end mean last-minute revelations – like murder fantasies – may come out after people cast their ballot. Also, we got crushed in early voting – the GOP (and especially the president) need to stop sending mixed messages on early voting and voting by mail and turn people out long before the nominal election day. We have to win elections as they are, not as we want them to be. How many times do we have to learn this lesson?

Also, look at the ranked-choice voting scam that will play a role in places like Maine and Alaska. In Minneapolis, the frigid leftist stronghold of the north, this socialist Omar Fateh (D-Mogadishu) guy may end up beating the normal pinko Jacob Frey because of ranked-choice; the scam is to add several other socialists to the ballot to drain away second-round votes. The GOP needs to be hip to this okey-doke where it is actually playing in an RCV jurisdiction.

James Carville, before he gave up and started trying to maintain a grasp on his fleeting relevance by spewing MSNBC gulag slop, famously observed, "It's the economy, stupid." Yeah, it is. The economy is coming back, but you don't feel it yet unless you own a lot of NASDAQ stock. The driver of the economy is negative – people vote on it when it is bad. People think it's bad today. And there are serious disruptions that come from fixing the failures we have experienced over recent decades. Is it fair that the GOP gets blamed? No, but only teenage girls and journalists whine about fairness. The Republicans have to get this economy cooking – fortunately, they can do it.

We have a year. That's got to be job one. Trump is doing a lot. His administration's dispersed efforts keep the Democrat opposition off its game, but also can give the impression of chaos and lack of focus. Maybe pare down on foreign policy and other stuff.

Events will be key, of course. The Democrats played their shutdown well. It helped in VA and to some extent NJ, not just by depriving lazy civilian government slugs of their grossly inflated paychecks but by creating an atmosphere of crisis and chaos. While Israel is calming down, Venezuela and Nigeria are heating up. The regime media is still plucking the violin over every child-raping Third World peasant ICE ships back to Scumbagistan. The GOP needs to reassert control over the narrative.

And there's motivation. The Left had it, we didn't. Part of it is that our coalition includes people who came in because of Trump. Trump was not on the ballot, and the fact is that Trump is a huge motivation to the other side. Going into Virginia and New Jersey would have been a net loss, considering that so many of these blue degenerates have replaced faith and family with a bizarre hatred of the president and all of us who support him. The fact is that they will crawl over broken glass to vote against Trump, and too many of our folks just sort of shrugged.

We have to motivate our folks in 2026. We did not this time. We'll have money. We have a growing alternative media. We also have Trump himself. But we have not cracked the code on turning our people out in an off-year, and the Democrats have.

Yeah, this sucks. These days after a loss are the worst. But they happen. Nothing is written. We are not doomed. We have real problems and challenges, but dooming won't address them. Hard work and providing results will. Just remember: You Winsome – if you pardon the expression, Virginia – and you lose some. And Tuesday was one of the some we lost.

🎭 𝐖𝟑𝐏 𝓓𝓐𝓘𝓛𝓨 𝓗𝓾𝓶𝓸𝓻, 𝓜𝓾𝓼𝓲𝓬, 𝓐𝓻𝓽, 𝓞𝓟𝓔𝓝 𝓣𝓗𝓡𝓔𝓐𝓓

 

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Famed Florentine diamond surfaces in Canada after century-long disappearance AUSTRIA

 Empress Zita brought stone to Canada as Nazis took over Europe in 1940s and it remained in bank vault ever since 

 

 

At the height of the Battle of Britain, when the UK government needed a secret location to store 186,332 gold bars, it turned to Canada.

Shipped across the Atlantic and stored beneath a hastily constructed vault in Montreal, Operation Fish became known both for the vast amounts of gold involved – and the immense secrecy that followed.

The lesson: Canada and its banks can keep secrets.

So it should perhaps have come as little surprise that a famed diamond, once feared lost to history, has surfaced after sitting inside a Canadian bank vault for decades. 

 

The Florentine diamond, a 137-carat pear-shaped stone that glimmers with a “fine citron” hue, adorned European royalty for centuries. But after it mysteriously disappeared at the end of the second world war, historians and experts feared the diamond had been stolen, cut up or hidden away in South America.

But a report from the New York Times has revealed a different history: the prized jewel instead remained a closely held family secret, with few living heirs ever being told of the diamond’s location.

After the first world war, the Austro-Hungarian emperor Charles I had prized jewels moved to Switzerland for safekeeping over fears of Bolshevik and anarchist uprisings. He and his family later fled to Switzerland in exile. 

 

 

Uprooted once again in 1940 as the Nazis moved swiftly across Europe, Charles’s wife, the Empress Zita, fled the continent with her eight children, arriving in the United States with the jewels in a cardboard suitcase. The family then travelled to Canada and settled in the province of Quebec.

“My grandmother felt very safe – she could breathe finally,” Karl von Habsburg-Lothringen, a grandson of Charles I, told the New York Times. “I assume that, at that stage, the little suitcase went into a bank safe, and that was it. And in that bank safe, it just stayed.” 

 

 

At the time, only two living people, her the empress’s sons Robert and Rodolphe, were told where the diamond had been hidden. Zita asked they keep the location – and the diamond’s existence – a secret for 100 years after Charles’s death in 1922. Before their deaths, the brothers passed the information to their own sons.

“The less people know about it, the bigger the security,” said von Habsburg-Lothringen.

Zita returned to Europe in 1953, leaving the jewels at the bank in Quebec. She died nearly four decades later, at 96.  

 

 The storied history of the diamond – possibly owned by Charles the Bold, probably owned by Florence’s Medici family and most certainly the property of the Habsburg dynasty – in part fuelled competing explanations about its sudden disappearance. So too did its murky origins. Some speculated that its irregular octagonal outline with a cut that included 126 facets reflected how stones might once have been cut in India. Another theory is that the diamond was cut by a European – the famed Flemish jeweller Lodewyk van Bercken – into a pyramidal shape. 

 

 The disappearance of the stone prompted speculation it was among the Austrian jewels stolen by Hitler when the Nazis annexed the country, or that American troops had located the diamond and returned it to Vienna. Another was that diamond was brought to South America, recut and then sold in the United States. Some posited that the Habsburgs, desperate for money as their empire crumbled, sold the diamond and other possessions. 

 

Briefly, the Shah of Persia, a 99-carat stone recut from larger diamond, was believed to part of the missing Florentine. Others suggested a recut diamond offered for sale in Geneva in 1981 could once again be the Florentine.

But the stone unearthed in Canada is most certainly “the genuine, historical ‘Florentine Diamond’”, said Christoph Köchert of AE Köchert, once Austria’s imperial court jewellers.

The family says it will display the diamond at a Canadian museum in the coming years, adding that it won’t be up for sale – and they won’t disclose how much it might be worth. 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/06/florentine-diamond-canada  

 

 Charles I of Austria, Crown Prince Franz Joseph Otto and Empress Zita, who brought the Florentine diamond to Canada in the 40s. 

 

 

White House Crypto and AI Czar, David Sacks, Warns About “Orwellian AI”

David Sacks, White House AI and Crypto Czar, joined a podcast with his big tech friends and hits on a key issue that should be a concern for everyone. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being built as an information control mechanism that can make the prior government manipulation and control of online information pale in comparison.

The group discussion surrounds the regulatory capture playbook being pushed by certain AI companies, why open source is America’s secret weapon, and they detail the infrastructure crisis that could determine who wins the global AI race. However, I am prompting the video to the segment where David Sacks warns about the current AI trends.

The 11 Foot Pole

posted by Sundance at Conservative Treehouse 

While trying to keep tabs and sharing information on current events for discussion, as many of you are aware, I have been working on a deep project surrounding the intelligence community and the weaponization against President Trump.

Shortly before Charlie Kirk was murdered, I informed this audience that a senior influential member of the IC govt had reached out with a request for help.  However, in the immediate aftermath of the Charlie Kirk murder, several alarmed people involved in the request immediately contacted me and said, ‘Wait, stay safe, pause until we can see what this is all about.’  Several weeks have passed, and I’m back on track.

♦ Here’s an update.  One of the core pieces of evidence surrounds the 2019 timeframe, when the Mueller phase finished and the impeachment phase began.

As many of you know, I have been on the hunt for a few key documents that tell a much bigger story.  One of those documents is the transcript of Intelligence Community Michael Atkinson’s October 2019 testimony to a House joint Intelligence and Judiciary committee closed-door hearing.  Within the transcript, ICIG Atkinson was questioned about his authorities to change the CIA whistleblower rules and permit an anonymous complaint.

As most of you also are aware, the commonly accepted narrative is that ICIG Atkinson changed the CIA rules arbitrarily.  This is the common narrative, as pushed by the media, allowed to permeate by the larger Intelligence Community, and supported by the willful blindness of a complicit Congress.

Almost everyone involved in Spygate research accepted this premise – I did not.

It never made sense to me how an Inspector General, especially one that involves review of CIA employees/operations, could make such a substantive change in rules for an agency that is opaque by design.

My position has always been that the ICIG does not have that power, and there is no way that ICIG Atkinson made that rule change by himself to permit the CIA whistleblowing allegation made by CIA employee Eric Ciaramella.

Nothing about the narrative ever made sense to me, especially when you consider this is the CIA we are talking about.

There’s just no way an IG can make that decision about the CIA without the Director, Deputy Director and CIA General Counsel being involved.

It’s absurd when you contemplate the common narrative.  Alas, to destroy this nonsense we must ask the right questions, and few people ever do.

The ICIG office exists under the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).  In addition to the CIA Director and General Counsel, the DNI would have to be part of the process for such an ICIG request/decision.

From my frame of reference, ICIG Atkinson would have to ask all of these stakeholders for approval before he could change the internal procedures and permit an anonymous CIA whistleblower report.   I was not wrong.

This puts the motive of then House Intelligence Committee Chairman, Adam Schiff (the future co-chair of the House impeachment committee), to hide the testimony of ICIG Atkinson into an entirely different perspective.  What was Schiff hiding in that inquiry?

I think we know the answers now, and I will be updating this specific point of issue very soon in an open article for everyone.   The ramifications are quite stark, all things considered.

CIA employee Eric Ciaramella went to see HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff before the CIA whistleblower rule changes were made.  ICIG Atkinson then changed the CIA rules.  ICIG Atkinson later told the HPSCI what authorities were used to change the CIA rules.  The same HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff, that Ciaramella went to see beforehand, then sealed Atkinson’s testimony.

More soon….

In the interim, remember: “You don’t want those CTH folks on your ass“… they don’t quit.

[SOURCE]

Remember where the fraudulent Trump-Russia CIA Intelligence Community Assessment originated?  Ciaramella!

Remember the specific unit inside the CIA that Tulsi Gabbard grabbed control of?  The NIC, Ciaramella!

WASHINGTON DC – Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has fired the top officials leading the National Intelligence Council – whom whistleblowers describe as “radically opposed to Trump” — and has moved the agency to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, or ODNI, to ensure she can block any “politicization of intelligence,” Fox News Digital has learned.

CIA Analyst Eric Ciaramella pushed Trump-Russia 2016.  CIA Analyst Eric Ciaramella fabricated Trump-Russia 2017. Then later, CIA Analyst Eric Ciaramella fabricated the Trump-Ukraine impeachment effort.

[GRASSLEY – 2019]