Monthly Archives: April 2021

Donald Trumps office emailed a statement to reporters Tuesday in which the former president bashed the Oscars, noting its low ratings and suggesting that it return a host to the proceedings and change its name back to the Academy Awards.

What used to be called The Academy Awards, and now is called the Oscars a far less important and elegant namehad the lowest Television Ratings in recorded history, even much lower than last year, which set another record low. If they keep with the current ridiculous formula, it will only get worseif thats possible, Trump said. Go back 15 years, look at the formula they then used, change the name back to THE ACADEMY AWARDS, dont be so politically correct and boring, and do it right. ALSO, BRING BACK A GREAT HOST. These television people spend all their time thinking about how to promote the Democrat Party, which is destroying our Country, and cancel Conservatives and Republicans. That formula certainly hasnt worked very well for The Academy!

As president, Trump also took to criticizing the telecast, including last year, when he bashed Oscar voters for giving best picture to Parasite. At a rally, he said of the South Korean film, What the hell was that all about? Weve got enough problems with South Korea with trade. On top of that, they give them best movie of the year. Was it good? I dont know.

ABC and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences frequently use the term Oscars to describe the ceremony, but AMPAS still refers to the awards as the Academy Awards.

The ceremony drew 10.4 million viewers, a record low, according to final Nielsen numbers released on Tuesday.

Talk hosts and commentators on the right seized on the low viewership to claim that it was due to political statements and speeches made during the telecast, something that even Regina King acknowledged at the outset could be a turnoff. But theres also a strong case to be made that the viewership numbers reflect the popularity of the nominees. With moviegoing curbed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many had yet to see or even hear many of the contenders, even when they were available on streaming platforms.

The political statements that were made during the Oscars did not focus on Trump, but on topics like gun violence and policing.

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Donald Trump Seizes On Low Oscars Ratings To Bash Telecast: Dont Be So Politically Correct And Boring - Deadline

Former President Donald Trump might run for his old job again in 2024, or he might decide to stay in sunny Florida.

No one really knows for sure what Trump will eventually decide to do, or when he might make a decision, and it's causing a bit of consternation among some of his GOP allies, according to a CNN report.

Although Trump has not revealed any concrete plans, he has continued to elevate Republicans who could be potential successors, including Govs. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Kristi Noem of South Dakota, and Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri.

However, the former president's indecision about his own run has "frustrated" allies, who fear he is blowing his chance to "take control of the GOP early on" before his supporters develop relationships with other potential candidates, according to CNN.

"It's important to have a field-clearing exercise sooner rather than later if he's going to run, otherwise some of these other guys are going to start getting momentum," a former senior Trump administration official told the news outlet.

Several likely GOP entrants have already begun planting the seeds for potential campaigns, including former Vice President Mike Pence, who will give an address in South Carolina this week, as well as former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has already traveled to Iowa and appeared virtually for a New Hampshire GOP event.

Read more: This millennial GOP congressman voted to impeach Trump. Now he's trying to save his party from going off a cliff.

DeSantis and former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley will also make appearances in Iowa and Pennsylvania in the coming months, according to CNN.

Haley, a former governor of South Carolina, would likely play an outsized role in her home state if she decided to run due to its potential to provide political momentum early in the nomination process.

Other potential candidates who have visited or will soon visit Iowa include Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Rick Scott of Florida, and Tim Scott of South Carolina, according to CNN.

Several Trump allies have also told the former president to "fine-tune his post-presidential messaging," arguing that a "vengeance-driven strategy" will not have lasting appeal, per CNN.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia told CNN that Trump would be better off zeroing in on the Democratic Party.

"I think the radicalism of the Democrats is going to rebound enormously to Trump's benefit and he would be better off to focus on the Democrats," he said. "He has enough friends to go after disloyal Republicans."

An individual close to Trump emphasized that the former president misses being in the limelight.

"He hates being off the A block," said the individual, using a reference to a top cable news segment. "He's really thinking of running again in 2024 just to get back to that."

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Trump allies fear his 2024 indecision is blowing chance to 'control' GOP: CNN - Business Insider

Donald Trump believes he should be included on Mount Rushmore (REUTERS)

A stone bust of Donald Trump would already be chiselled into the granite pillars of Mount Rushmore if the former president were a Democrat, according to Donald Trump.

At the same time, Mr Trump has also said Democrats want to "blow up" the presidential monument.

Whether contradictory or consistent ideas, Mr Trumps comments in a new podcast on Wednesday are the latest in his long-running preoccupation with the landmark dedicated to Theodore Roosevelt, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson.

Mr Trump also told podcast host Dan Bongino that he would be holding a rally "soon", and that he would likely announce his plans for the 2024 presidential election immediately after the 2022 midterms.

Mr Bongino, an avid supporter of Mr Trump, proposed that Hollywood loved the former president before he became a Republican, and that if he had run as a Democrat he would already be on Mount Rushmore.

I know, I know yeah, I would have, Mr Trump replied.

He has previously suggested his face should grace the monument, tweeting in August 2020 that it "sounds like a good idea to me!" after reports emerged his office contacted the governor of South Dakota Kristi Noem to discuss the idea.

"Based on all of the many things accomplished during the first 3 1/2 years, perhaps more than any other Presidency," he claimed.

At Independence Day fireworks on 4 July 2020, Ms Noem reportedly gifted Mr Trump a $1,000, 4.4 feet (1.3 metres) tall miniature of Mount Rushmore with his face included alongside Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln.

Mr Trump told a campaign rally in September last year that his poll numbers had been going up "like a beautiful rocket" ever since his speech at Mount Rushmore for that Independence Day celebration.

"If you would see how beautiful this is, it was like this perfect evening. The Sun was setting. The faces of these great, great majestic heroes of our country, right. Heroes of our country," Mr Trump said.

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"And they want to blow up Mount Rushmore."

The former president told Mr Bongino on Wednesday that he would likely announce if he would run for a second term regardless of whether Republicans do well or not in the midterms.

"And I am giving it the most serious consideration I think probably the most appropriate time would be right after the 22 election. Thats my opinion, Mr Trump said.

I could do it sooner, but I think right after the election would be good, especially if you have a good election. Now Im not sure if you didnt have a good election, Im not sure that that wouldnt be good also, if you want to know the truth.

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Donald Trump believes he would be on Mount Rushmore if he were a Democrat - Yahoo News

Opinion: Since Friday the one-term president has sent out no fewer than seven statements about Arizona's election audit, each one a bit more bizarre.

In this Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021, file photo, President Donald Trump waves as he boards Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, in Washington, en route to his Mar-a-Lago Florida Resort. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)(Photo: Alex Brandon, AP)

Former President Donald Trump may live in Florida but he is obsessed with Arizona, a state that hes clearly hoping can spark his political resurrection.

A state thatis quickly becoming to the MAGA crowd what Area 51 is to people who believe that little green men walk among us.

Since Friday the one-term president has sent out no fewer than seven statements about Arizona's election audit, each one a bit more bizarre.

To summarize, he despises our governor (second worst Republican governor in America), loves Senate Republicans (brave and patriotic) and absolutely adores their choice of election auditors (Great American Patriots).

Democrats, not so much.

According to Trump, the Democratic Party has dispatched more than 100 lawyers to the state to try to stop the audit of Maricopa Countys election.

Thats up from 73 on Friday and way, way up from reality, which would be closer to 0.

Trump began pumping out pronouncements on Friday, thanking the brave and patriotic Republican State Senators from Arizona for the incredible job they are doing in exposing the large scale Voter Fraud which took place in the 2020 Presidential Election.

Its worth noting that Senate President Karen Fann has repeatedly claimed this audit isnt about overturning the results of the election that its about determining if there were problems that need to be corrected in order to restore voter confidence but dont try to convince Trump of that.

For Trump and the Trump Nation, this audit is all about overturning the results of the 2020 election and clearingthe way for hisglorious return to the White House.

The Democrats have sent 73 lawyers to Arizona in an effort to stop this recount and full transparency because THEY KNOW WHAT THEY DID! he said on Friday. The Democrats are desperate for the FRAUD to remain concealed because, when revealed, the Great States of Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, New Hampshire, and the Great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, would be forced to complete the work already started.

73 lawyers?Full transparency?

What audit is he watching? The handful of lawyers (four, maybe five tops?) are the same Arizona attorneys who handle all the Democrats legal work and the media has been locked out of Veterans Memorial Coliseum, where the audit is taking place. The auditors, meanwhile, have asked a judge to keep secretthe procedures they are using to determine whether Joe Biden and Sen. Mark Kelly really won the election.

But no matter. Later on Friday, Trump sent out another statement saying Democrats are swarming the state.

This could be Voter Fraud at the highest level. Dont think that Arizona is the only State, he said. Much more to come!

And there was more to come. Another statement,demanding that Gov. Doug Ducey immediately provide large-scale security for the brave American Patriots doing the Forensic Audit.

State police or National Guard must be immediately sent out for protection. The Democrats do not want to have this information revealed, and they will do anything to stop it. Governor Ducey must finally act!

Ducey, having already defended the integrity of Arizonas elections, has been silent on thisaudit. Unlike Fann, a once-reputable mainstream Republican who took a header down the rabbit hole, hes sitting this one out.

Trump has noticed.

Governor Doug Ducey of Arizona, oneof the wost Governors in America, and the second worst Republican Governor in America, is refusing to provide security for the American Patriots who are hand counting the Rigged 2020 Arizona Election Ballots, he groused on Monday.

Thats got to be a blow for the ambitious but term-limited governor who is running to the border and eliminating mask ordinances and generally doing just whatever he can to ingratiate himself with the base.

Everything, that is, but buying into the hopes and dreams of the Trump Nation that Arizona will be the domino that ultimately leads to Joe Bidens downfall.

Incredible organization and integrity taking place in Arizona with respect to the Fraudulent 2020 Presidential Election, Trump proclaimedon Monday. These are Great American Patriots, but watch, the Radical Left Democrats demean and destroy campaign will start very soon.

They will say anything they can to take away the integrity, validity, and credibility of what these incredible Patriots are doing but the people of Arizona wont stand for it. They were among the earliest to see that this was a Rigged Election!

Integrity, validity and credibility of an auditor who has promoted conspiracy theories about how the election was stolen andis apparently consulting with other conspiracy buffs on how to root out fraud?

Integrity, validity and credibility of an audit run by and for Republicans, one the media hasn't been allowed to watch? One in which no one really knows what who these people are or what theyare doing with our 2.1 million ballots or with the early ballot affidavits that contain our signatures or with the registration files that contain thenames, addresses andphone numbers and signatures of every voter in the state?

Or as Trump sees it, a red, white and true-blue audit that is independently run, with no advantage to either side.

The Radical Left Democrat Party has gone absolutely INSANE in fighting the Forensic Audit of the 2020 Presidential Election Scam, right now taking place in the Great State of Arizona, he said Tuesday. They sent a team of over 100 lawyers to try and stop it because they know what the result of the Arizona Senate sponsored audit will be and it wont be good for the Dems.

Nope, still just the same old handful of the usual Arizona attorneys who handle Democrats business attendedWednesdays court hearing.

But hey, the delusion continues.

The audit is independently run, with no advantage to either side, but the Democrats dont want to hear anything about it because they know that they lost Arizona, and other scam election States, in a LANDSLIDE, Trump said. They also know that the Arizona State Legislature approved virtually none of their many election requests, which is totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL. The people of Arizona are very angry, as are the people of our Country. If we cant have free and fair elections, we dont have a Country. The audit must continue. America deserves the TRUTH!

Truth would be nice, wouldnt it?

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.

Support local journalism:Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/laurieroberts/2021/04/27/trump-statements-arizona-election-audit-detached-reality/4863399001/

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Donald Trump is turning Arizona into the Area 51 of politics - The Arizona Republic

For weeks, Trump had been giving winding, stream-of-consciousness updates on the state of the Covid fight as it clearly worsened. So when he got up from the Oval Office to brief reporters gathered in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room on April 23, there was no expectation that the days proceedings would be any different than usual.

Privately, however, some of his aides were worried. The Covid task force had met earlier that day as usual, without Trump to discuss the most recent findings, including the effects of light and humidity on how the virus spreads. Trump was briefed by a small group of aides. But it was clear to some aides that he hadnt processed all the details before he left to speak to the press.

A few of us actually tried to stop it in the West Wing hallway, said one former senior Trump White House official. I actually argued that President Trump wouldn't have the time to absorb it and understand it. But I lost, and it went how it did.

Trump started his press conference that day by doing something hed come to loathe: pushing basic public safety measures. He called for the voluntary use of face coverings and said of his administration, continued diligence is an essential part of our strategy.

Quickly, however, came a hint at how loose the guardrails were that day. Trump introduced Bill Bryan, head of science and technology at the Department of Homeland Security. Hes going to be talking about how the virus reacts in sunlight, the president said. Wait til you hear the numbers.

As Bryan spoke, charts were displayed behind him about surface temperatures and virus half-lives. He preached, rather presciently, for people to move activities outside and then detailed ongoing studies involving disinfectants. We tested bleach, he said at one point. I can tell you that bleach will kill the virus in five minutes.

Standing off to the side, Trump clasped his hands in front of his stomach, nodded and looked out into the room of gathered reporters. When Bryan was done, he strode slowly back to the lectern.

A question that probably some of you are thinking of if youre totally into that world, Trump began, clearly thinking the question himself, So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous whether it's ultraviolet or just very powerful light and I think you said that that hasn't been checked, but you're going to test it. And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way, and I think you said you're going to test that, too. It sounds interesting. And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning. Because you see it gets in the lungs, and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that.

Dr. Deborah Birx, Trumps former coronavirus response coordinator, sat silently off to the side as the president made these suggestions to her. Later, she would tell ABC, I didnt know how to handle that episode, adding, I still think about it every day.

Inside the Biden campaign, aides were shocked as well. They were working remotely at that juncture, communicating largely over Signal. But the import of what had happened became quickly evident to them.

Even for him, said one former Biden campaign aide, this was stratospherically insane and dangerous. It cemented the case we had been making about his derelict covid response.

In short order, the infamous bleach press conference became a literal rallying cry for Trumps opponents, with Biden supporters dotting their yards with He Wont Put Bleach In You signs. For Trump, it was a scourge. He would go on to insist that he was merely being sarcastic a claim at odds with the excited curiosity he had posing those questions to Birx. His former team concedes that real damage was done.

People joked about it inside the White House like, Are you drinking bleach and injecting sunlight? People were mocking it and saying, Oh let me go stand out in the sun, and Ill be safe from Covid, said one former administration official. It honestly hurt. It was a credibility issue. It was hurting us even from an international standpoint, the credibility at the White House.

That Trump was even at the lectern that day was head-scratching for many. For weeks, he and his team had downplayed the severity of the Covid crisis even as the president privately acknowledged to the Washington Posts Bob Woodward that it had the potential to be catastrophic. But as it became clearer that the public was not buying the rosy assessments, Trump had decided to take his fate into his own hands assembling the press on a daily basis to spin his way through the crisis.

He loved it. The former administration official said Trump was elated with the free airtime he was getting on television day after day. He was asking how much money that was worth, the aide recalled. The coverage was so ubiquitous that, at one point, Fox News Bret Baier attended the briefing and peppered the president with questions because his own show was being routinely interrupted.

The bleach episode changed all that.

Aides immediately understood what a public health quagmire Trumps remarks had created. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany insisted he was being taken out of context.

President Trump has repeatedly said that Americans should consult with medical doctors regarding coronavirus treatment, a point that he emphasized again during yesterdays briefing, McEnany said in a statement issued the next day. Leave it to the media to irresponsibly take President Trump out of context and run with negative headlines.

But behind the scenes, Trumps remarks were used as evidence by senior aides for why they needed to crack down on unvetted information being put in front of the president. Either they didn't know what he was going to say which isn't ideal or they didn't push back before he went out to the briefing, said a former senior communications official in the Trump administration. It was a huge unforced error that could have been prevented."

By then, White House aides were already debating the efficacy of having Trump relay health information to the public and having to answer whatever question a reporter might throw his way. Some aides along with Republican allies on Capitol Hill were pushing to get the president to take a back seat to his health experts at the podium.

It became like a presser for the sake of having a presser. We didnt have anything to announce or real policy plans, a former White House official said. If youre just coming out and talking, a Q&A [with reporters] wasnt going to be helpful.

Trump would end up doing only a handful more press conferences after the bleach episode before picking them back up again in July. A year later, the episode is still considered a defining point in the Covid fight and a prime exhibit of what can go wrong when an over-confident president believes he can message his way through a once-in-a-lifetime global pandemic.

Undoubtedly [it was] a seminal moment in presidential communications, and while it is easy to laugh it off, I hope it educates leaders and communicators for decades, said former Obama White House press secretary Robert Gibbs. But this was the moment where we knew without any doubt that the government was in way over its head, and its ability to both respond effectively and educate Americans about what to do was not going to be anywhere close to meeting the moment.

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Its been exactly one year since Trump suggested injecting bleach. Weve never been the same. - POLITICO

President Donald Trump was pitched on founding a conservative media and tech company centered around himself, Axios reported on Thursday.

The pitch involved "a conservative media powerhouse" called Trump Media Group "that will rival the liberal media and fight back against 'Big Tech' companies of Silicon Valley," according to 24-page presentation viewed by Axios.

The company would include a subscription content and entertainment arm called "Trump+", a social media platform or an investment in an existing platform under "Trump Social Media," and "Trump Technologies," which would offer online services similar to Stripe or Amazon Web Services. The pitch estimated the company would be worth $15 billion.

Trump, who would be the company's CEO, chairman, and president, was introduced to the idea last month and reportedly didn't show much enthusiasm for it. Still, Trump has for months considered starting his own digital media company.

The former president has escalated his attacks on his favorite network Fox News and major tech companies. He and his allies were furious when the network called Arizona for Biden before other outlets did last November. And the ex-president's voice in politics and media has been quashed in large part by Facebook and Twitter's decisions to ban him from their platforms for spreading lies about the election that incited the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

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Trump was pitched on founding a $15 billion 'conservative media powerhouse' called Trump Media Group - Business Insider

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and... Donald Trump? The former president believes that his dome would be the next on Mount Rushmore if he was a Democrat.

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When host Bongino said the 45th President would have been on the South Dakota monument if he were a Democrat, Trump agreed. "I know, I know yeah, I would have," he said.

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However, Trump has also said that Democrats want to "blow up" the monument, according to The Independent.

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The former president reportedly held a rally in front of the monument last year. "If you would see how beautiful this is, it was like this perfect evening. The sun was setting," Trump said at the time. "The faces of these great, great majestic heroes of our country, right. Heroes of our country. And they want to blow up Mount Rushmore."

In August 2020, Trump said it "sounds like a good idea to me" after reports that his office had contacted the governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem, to discuss the prospect of having his head added to the monument. Trump added that he was not the one to suggest it, but said he thought it would be justified, "based on all of the many things accomplished during the first 3 1/2 years, perhaps more than any other Presidency," he said in a since-deleted tweet (his account has been suspended).

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Trump said on the podcast that he would be holding a rally "soon" and that he would most likely announce his plans for the 2024 presidential election following the 2022 midterms.

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He continued, "I could do it sooner, but I think right after the election would be good, especially if you have a good election. Now Im not sure if you didnt have a good election, Im not sure that that wouldnt be good also, if you want to know the truth."

Trump also said he would beat Republican governor Larry Hogan in a presidential bid in his own state of Maryland. "This guy, I watch him. Hes a total loser and he hasnt been a good governor, Trump claimed. "I think he wants to run. I think I would give him less than a zero percent chance."

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Donald Trump Believes He Would Be On Mount Rushmore If He Ran As A Democrat - OK!

BEDMINSTER, NJ Donald Trump is known for spending his annual summer vacations at his golf club in Bedminster. And this summer seems to be no different as reports show he may be returning after Memorial Day.

Since leaving the White House in January, former President Trump and his post-White House staff and political aides were residing at his private club in Mar-a-Largo in Florida.

However, the club will be closing just after Memorial Day when the Southern Florida weather becomes too hot and muggy. As a result, Trump is "actively discussing" when to vacate Mar-a-Lago and temporarily relocate to Trump National Golf Club at 900 Lamington Rd. in Bedminster, according to businessinsider.com.

Throughout his presidency, Trump has frequented his golf club during the summer months, including having his yearly vacations in August.

Trump's visit to Bedminster will differ from the past. This time around, businessinsider.com says Trump is considering a 2024 presidential run.

As such, the Bedminster golf club is situated in a better location for fundraising events, is 50 miles from New York City and near many Republican donors.

"They're moving the whole operation to New Jersey because they're going to start doing more fundraising," said one Trump advisor familiar with the deliberations, according to businessinsider.com.

Patch's request for comment from Trump's press team was not immediately returned.

In past summer vacations, Trump spent 10 days at the golf club in 2019, 11 days in 2018 and 18 days in 2017.

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Donald Trump May Be Returning To Bedminster This Summer: Report - Patch.com

Defense

A federal court will allow a complaint to proceed alleging political inference by former President Donald Trump in the award of a $10 billion, 10-year cloud computing contract to Microsoft in October 2019.

Judge Patricia E. Campbell-Smith of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims issued a ruling under seal on April 28 denying a motion by the U.S. government to dismiss the claim.

That means a lawsuit by Amazon Web Services, alleging that Trump actively steered the award in the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud contract, can go forward. If the U.S. continues with the case, it will have to continue to argue that Trump did not act improperly during the lengthy and contested solicitation process.

Pentagon spokesman Russell Goemaere said in January, just over a week after the inauguration of President Joe Biden, that DOD "has consistently stated in all court filings, and public discussions, that the allegation of improper influence is not supported. The DOD IG considered these allegations and found no evidence that improper influence occurred or affected the procurement process or award decision."

Attorneys for AWS have argued that the decisions to award Microsoft the contract, and to reaffirm that award in September 2020 after allowing for revisions to the original bid, reflected long-standing animus of Trump toward Jeff Bezos, founder of AWS parent company Amazon.

The court at least is willing to listen to evidence to the contrary, and that could mean a change in direction for DOD's cloud plans.

"The record of improper influence by former President Trump is disturbing, and we are pleased the Court will review the remarkable impact it had on the JEDI contract award," an AWS spokesperson said in an emailed statement. "AWS continues to be the superior technical choice, the less expensive choice, and would provide the best value to the DOD and the American taxpayer."

In January, DOD's CIO told Congress that it could move on from JEDI if the litigation drags on. The program has been under a stop-work order because of the lawsuit since February 2020.

The "prospect of such a lengthy litigation process might bring the future of the JEDI Cloud procurement into question," the unsigned DOD communication to Congress stated. "Under this scenario, the DOD CIO would reassess the strategy going forward."

According to Microsoft corporate vice president Frank X. Shaw, the ruling "changes little."

"Not once, but twice, professional procurement staff at the DOD chose Microsoft after a thorough review. Many other large and sophisticated customers make the same choice every week," Shaw said. "We've continued for more than a year to do the internal work necessary to move forward on JEDI quickly, and we continue to work with DOD, as we have for more than 40 years, on mission critical initiatives from supporting its rapid shift to remote work to the Army's IVAS," a reference to the military's $22 billion augmented reality headset program, which recently scaled up from a pilot to production.

About the Author

Adam Mazmanian is executive editor of FCW.

Before joining the editing team, Mazmanian was an FCW staff writer covering Congress, government-wide technology policy and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Prior to joining FCW, Mazmanian was technology correspondent for National Journal and served in a variety of editorial roles at B2B news service SmartBrief. Mazmanian has contributed reviews and articles to the Washington Post, the Washington City Paper, Newsday, New York Press, Architect Magazine and other publications.

Click here for previous articles by Mazmanian. Connect with him on Twitter at @thisismaz.

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Court will hear case against Trump on JEDI - FCW.com

The Terrorist Nuke card from Illuminati: New World Order (Amazon)

An out-of-print multiplayer card game that first appeared in 1994 is continuing to attract interest and unease online over its apparently eerie ability to predict major global events, from 9/11 to the election of Donald Trump, the coronavirus pandemic and the riot at the US Capitol on 6 January this year.

Illuminati: New World Order was released by Steve Jackson Games and cast the player as a puppet-master pursuing world domination on behalf of their chosen mythic secret society, the game offering a choice of the Bavarian Illuminati, the Discordian Society, the UFOs, the Servants of Cthulhu, the Bermuda Triangle and the Gnomes of Zurich.

The goal of Illuminati - spun off from the same companys 1982 board game that was in turn inspired by The Illuminatis! Trilogy (1975) fantasy novels by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson - is to develop and consolidate a power structure through which to rule the globe from the shadows on behalf of your chosen order, manipulating society and dealing out apocalyptic blows to your opponents as you go.

Maybe the Illuminati are behind this game, Mr Shea wrote in his introduction to the original games rulebook. They must be - they are, by definition, behind everything.

While the games preoccupation with globalist deep state conspiracy themes was clearly wildly ahead of its time, anticipating our bamboozled, boggle-brained era of fictional election-rigging claims, QAnon, anti-vaxxers, 5G paranoia and seething app-based nonsense cauldrons like Telegram, its the 2,000AD, Tarot-style illustrations on the cards themselves that are the real source of fascination.

Illuminatis Terrorist Nuke card, for instance, shows an explosion midway up a skyscraper in a scene that looks undeniably like the attack on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City on 11 September 2001.

One depicts a bomb blast at the Pentagon, the next shows barbed-wire fencing around the White House shielding the president from civil unrest, a scene realised last summer during the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in Lafayette Square.

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Speaking of Mr Trump, theres even a Charismatic Leader card that features a blonde-haired demagogue addressing a crowd of adoring supporters in a seemingly uncanny forecast of the reality TV businessmans rise to power, amusing given that he was a bankrupt Atlantic City casino impresario at the time of the games launch with very little prospect of being taken seriously ever again.

Amazon

Theres a Hillary Clinton card in the deck and a tree-hugging Al Gore (they were US first lady and vice president at the time), Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein makes an appearance and there is a particularly gruesome card anticipating the advent of militant political correctness, now a regular bugbear of Fox News, which portrays two hanged men holding signs announcing their crimes.

Used Insensitive Pronoun, reads one.

Ate Flesh of Dead Animals, says the other.

Theres a March on Washington card, one for Market Manipulation instigating a deliberate Wall Street crash, and even a Plague of Demons descending on DC to set Q hearts racing.

Illuminati has long-since been discontinued and become a collectors item, with unsealed decks sold on Amazon and eBay for almost $2,000, the wildly inflated price an indicator of high demand among a certain sort of feverish-minded consumer.

In addition to the games artwork, a further source of intrigue is the fact that the Secret Service raided the offices of Steve Jackson Games in Austin, Texas, on 1 March 1990 and confiscated hard drives and documents, some of which pertained to the board game.

While conspiracy theorists believe this represented the feds moving in to hastily hush up Illuminati and stop the developers revealing the existence of its secret societies to the wider world (why would you choose to make that information public in board game form, rather than, say, by hosting a press conference?), this is simply untrue.

One of the companys employees, Loyd Blankenship, was also a hacker who served as the system operator for a messaging board that had published a stolen set of files detailed how Americas 911 emergency response systems worked, a fact the Secret Service had been tipped off to and been a granted a search warrant to investigate.

Amazon

Speaking to Vice News about his old boss in 2012, Mr Blankenship said: Steve is a huge fan of conspiracy theories. Not that he believes in them - as far as I could tell in five years of working with him - rather, he is immensely entertained by them.

The site also spoke to illustrator John Grigni about the prophetic imagery he drew for the series.

Mr Grigni admitted the coincidences but said that the likes of the Terrorist Nuke card were inspired by anxiety about the threat potentially still posed by post-Soviet Russia rather than any vision of what was to come from al-Qaeda.

Terrorism was heating up as a headline seller without the ever-present threat of nuclear annihilation, but we were still looking at Hamas and Palestine as likely culprits for such acts, Mr Grigni explained.

Art direction-wise, frankly a nuke wouldnt just blow up one building, even a tactical nuke would do damage on a much larger scale. It does seem oddly prescient, given the Twin Towers shown.

Steve Jackson himself has also addressed the games origins, telling Dragon Magazine in the mid-1980s that his intention was primarily satirical and that he hoped to keep the tone tongue-in-cheek rather than serious.

He explained that the original concept arose from a conversation with cover artist Dave Martin in September 1981 about their mutual administration for the Shea and Wilson novels.

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Even aside from the question of buying game rights to a novel (always an involved and expensive process), there was the subject matter, Mr Jackson recalled.

Giant golden dope-smuggling submarines, talking dolphins, anarchistic midgets, the holy man underneath Dealy Plaza (the Dealy Lama, of course), dozens of secret organisations with obscene acronyms, and a final deus ex machina in the form of a real live (and horny) goddess Even if you could figure out who was on whose side, which I didnt think I could, how could you make a game out of it? But it was such a fascinating thought!

Mr Jackson explained that he had carried out extensive research into cults and conspiracy theories and observed: Its possible to get deadly serious about the idea of conspiracies and assassinations. I didnt want that. Among all the material Id read, the articles with the really wacky theories - even if they were presented totally seriously - were the most fun to read. Logically, then, a wacky game should be more fun to play.

As much as possible, I wanted to retain the flavour of the conspiracy material Id been reading. Thats why groups like the South American Nazis, the Cattle Mutilators, the fluoridators, the Communists, the oil companies and the United Nations, are in there.

Perhaps the clearest insight into Illuminatis alleged soothsaying properties comes from Mr Blankenship, who told Vice: Its pretty much like any psychic - say that a Middle Eastern leader will be killed next year and you have a decent chance of getting it right.

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The 1990s card game that predicted 9/11, Donald Trump, Covid and the Capitol riot - Yahoo News