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Albania Is Not for Sale: Kushner's $4B Resort Triggers'Flamingo Revolution'

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201–210 of 247 posts

Re: Albania Is Not for Sale: Kushner's $4B Resort Triggers'Flamingo Revolution'

#201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is ironic because Rae Kushner - his grandmother - is a legend. She has gone through some things. Now her grandson is wrecking Europe. https://www.npr.org/2018/05/04/560224531/trump-stories-kushn...

Would you elaborate why she's considered a legend? She was certainly a victim and a refugee, of which we have many today, most being denied admission to the US. Are those all legends too?

She was in Jewish underground resistance after she escaped the ghetto, and that movement was responsible for saving a lot of lives. Sure, not a shockingly unique story in WWII, but she did better than these upward fail sons.

Re: Albania Is Not for Sale: Kushner's $4B Resort Triggers'Flamingo Revolution'

#202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you just failed to produce evidence, which should have been easy, if your original claim was valid.

[flagged]

You listed a bunch of names, in response to an article that contains factual reporting and sourced information to support the allegations that are being made. Excuse me for not being impressed.

Whereas I recognize many of the names, the only one whose transgressions I am familiar with is Robert Menendez. He is in jail.

The burden of proof rests upon the person who makes the allegation. "Do your own research" lol.

Re: Albania Is Not for Sale: Kushner's $4B Resort Triggers'Flamingo Revolution'

#203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most resorts secure favorable tax deals directly from the central governments before they invest, accompanied by public announcements in the media about success of government in attracting international investments. is this just pure old corruption. govt not working for ppl stuff.

This happens, publicly, in the US, all the time. Megacorps like Amazon regularly pit cities and states against each other for what you're calling plain old corruption.

A more common example is sports stadiums.

Re: Albania Is Not for Sale: Kushner's $4B Resort Triggers'Flamingo Revolution'

#204

Half of Albania is butchered like this, beaches and green being destroyed to make resorts for the tourists to come. Go see Dermi or Vuno and then go see Borsh how clean it is, with no excavations at all or resorts being build.

All coastal zones are. Mallorca is the same, for example. Eivissa as well. Many parts of València, etc. And that's just the ones I know.

Re: Albania Is Not for Sale: Kushner's $4B Resort Triggers'Flamingo Revolution'

#205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is weird because this is pretty much what they voted/abstained for. I think we have to trust the ballot box more than opinion polls.

> I think we have to trust the ballot box more than opinion polls. I think voting trends are a pretty poor signal of voter values, but a much stronger signal of voter “alignment”, especially in first-past-the-post systems.

Certainly there is very little granularity in both election outcomes and yea/nay approval rating.

That said, if people voted based on values or alignment for a candidate that said he would overturn civil service reform and conduct the bigliest deportation campaign in history, it'd be silly to think they'd reject the outcomes they voted for.

Re: Albania Is Not for Sale: Kushner's $4B Resort Triggers'Flamingo Revolution'

#206
post #24

Somewhat higher stakes version of the Trump Aberdeen golf course: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-she... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Forbes_(farmer)

This led to the greatest trolling of an individual ever when they deliberately stuck a windfarm directly off the coast of his new golf course. He's spent a couple of decades spending countless millions in losing a bunch of court cases, and of course, to this day, constantly moans to anyone who will list about "windmills". As far as trolling goes, it's one of the greatest achievements in the history of mankind.

On par with publicly embarrassing someone's birtherism at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.

That blowback though.

Re: Albania Is Not for Sale: Kushner's $4B Resort Triggers'Flamingo Revolution'

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you just failed to produce evidence, which should have been easy, if your original claim was valid.

[flagged]

Is there a reason you left out Eric Adams?

Re: Albania Is Not for Sale: Kushner's $4B Resort Triggers'Flamingo Revolution'

#208
post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you've read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html , this is obviously not what this site is for, so please don't post like this.

I get that the guidelines are just about the most subjective black hole you could drive a quasar through, but what exactly is the offending aspect? Is it the “Epstein island 2.0”? I mean, who believes that these types of people will not be trying to rebuild that same kind of capacity in some other place by some other, albeit similar means? If I were tasked to do it, the Albanian coast would be a top choice for me too…

HN's guidelines are subjective in the sense that they involve interpretation and no two people (including tomhow and me) interpret them identically. But they're not arbitrary, in the sense that every moderation call is just a whim. Most aren't borderline calls, and the one here certainly wasn't.

In this case it's the use of denunciatory rhetoric that fries any element of curious conversation that the comment might have contained. The combination of snark and fulminatey pejoratives is the kind of internet discourse which, however popular, is destructive of what we're trying for on HN.

(Secondarily, there's also something about the combination of "His kind [...] alien [...] paraistic [...] depraved" which has overtones that I can understand why other commenters were objecting to. I'm sure you didn't mean it that way, but such language does have history and the imprints of that history are still active.)

There's a phrase in your reply here which I think touches on the core and that's "calling out". Denunciatory rage and the shaming process are natural social responses to bad behavior. But it's really not what HN is for, and this isn't just a matter of taste because we can't have both forms of discourse at the same time.

Past explanations about this in case anyone is interested:

calling out - https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

shaming: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

This is in no way to deny or defend bad behavior of course. It's just trying to preserve HN for its intended purpose, which is fragile and forever in danger of getting trampled by the much stronger default forces on the internet. We're simply trying to stave that off for as long as we can (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...), and since it's more or less a battle with entropy, it takes a lot of energy.

Re: Albania Is Not for Sale: Kushner's $4B Resort Triggers'Flamingo Revolution'

#209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think we have to trust the ballot box more than opinion polls. I think voting trends are a pretty poor signal of voter values, but a much stronger signal of voter “alignment”, especially in first-past-the-post systems.

Certainly there is very little granularity in both election outcomes and yea/nay approval rating. That said, if people voted based on values or alignment for a candidate that said he would overturn civil service reform and conduct the bigliest deportation campaign in history, it'd be silly to think they'd reject the outcomes they voted for.

I think one of Trump’s greatest sleight-of-hands was convincing nearly every red triber that he represented their interests specifically, which is the ultimate goal of a populist. He was simultaneously a free market hero, while also highly protectionist. He was fair and sophisticated, while also highly retributive and humble. He became representative of their values, no matter what they were. I even still see it when talking to people who lean red - they’ll forgive Trump for nearly everything except what they view as being the important thing, which is a reflection of their own politics rather than Trump’s.

I mean, up until the election he was denying that he even knew what Project 2025 was, and now he’s bragging about how much from the document he’s accomplished.

Trump’s win was not a policy win, it was a culture war win.

Re: Albania Is Not for Sale: Kushner's $4B Resort Triggers'Flamingo Revolution'

#210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans aren’t “fine with it.” Trump’s approval ratings are very low. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/trump-approval-stays...

Which is weird because this is pretty much what they voted/abstained for. I think we have to trust the ballot box more than opinion polls.

It's a two party system in a big complicated country. Voting for a candidate you dislike and often disagree with is the norm. People vote against opposing candidates as much as they vote for something, especially in recent years.

In the particular case of trump, the less one knows about politics and governing the more likely they are to support him. The US is full of people who don't care much about how government actually works, which is not an unreasonable position for the most part, but can get hijacked by an effective conman.

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