Towner Blackstock

I help construction companies select, implement, and get more out of their enterprise software systems.

[Towner Blackstock @townerb]

Hey @CLTAirport, what’s the deal with closing the Express Deck? My favorite airport service!

[Marco Foster @MarcoFoster_]

Stephen Colbert on the ICE murder of Renee Good: “The message from this administration is clear. Only they determine the truth. And when their forces come to your city, obey or die. And if you die, you clearly didn’t obey. This should be an alarm bell for the entire country.”

[Towner Blackstock @townerb]

@andrew_dunn Must be a 250th anniversary thing?

[Towner Blackstock @townerb]

Cookie Walk at Providence UMC in Charlotte! Open until noon today (Saturday 12/6). Frozen casseroles, Christmas decor, cards, baked goods, and of course COOKIES! $20 per clamshell.

[Jimmy Camp @jimmycamp1]

Reading @GregIles "Southern Man."
This is the best, single paragraph I've read that succinctly breaks down the reasons for the rise of Donald Trump.

[Andrew Dunn @andrew_dunn]

Happy @MeckDec Day! May the spirit of Mecklenburg live on in every corner of our state.

[WFAE @WFAE]

Republican Edwin Peacock was appointed Monday to finish the final six months of Tariq Bokhari’s City Council seat representing District 6 in south Charlotte. Bokhari resigned last month for a high-level job with the Federal Transit Administration.
https://t.co/UmT2FdlZGI

[freeonis @freeonis_]

Vladimir, STOP! ✋ (animation)

[Julia Davis @JuliaDavisNews]

"Trump is not a fair broker: He is acting as a de facto Russian ally and making demands as Moscow’s proxy... no one should blame the Ukrainians if they refuse to bow to Washington’s demand that they accept a grim destiny as Moscow’s newest serfs."
https://t.co/WZKK9697Cx

[@ijbailey @ijbailey]

This is all this dude has, turning these other things into political bogeymen to distract from his extreme incompetence - an incompetence endangering our troops, and the rest of us.

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

This is quite crazy.

According to former Assistant Secretary of Defense Chas Freeman (one of the rare senior US officials that I admire), the Trump administration couldn't even explain to the Japanese negotiating team what they were looking to achieve with the tariffs.

Here's what Freeman said: "The Japanese have just been in Washington. Their experience apparently was they went to talk to the American leadership on this matter, and the American leadership said 'what are you offering?' And the Japanese said 'well, what is it that you want?' And the Americans could not explain what they wanted."

Freeman also noted, correctly, that "the United States [broke] virtually every agreement it has agreed to in recent decades including the replacement for NAFTA with proposed tariffs on Canada and Mexico that was negotiated by Mr. Trump in his first term."

Which doesn't exactly encourage countries to make a deal with Trump: what's the point?

Which is why Freeman believes that China won't go for negotiations and has instead decided to "wait [America] out".

As he puts it: "What is [China's] incentive to negotiate with the US when the US has no stated objectives that make sense and no record of compliance with its own agreements? I think the Chinese have decided they will wait us out and see how Americans like Walmart and Amazon denuded of products."

Fundamentally and somewhat paradoxically, that's the thing Trump the self-anointed "dealmaker" obviously doesn't get: at the end of the day dealmaking is built on credibility and consistency, and America has now neither.

[Phillips P. OBrien @PhillipsPOBrien]

Hi All, Just sent this post out on the ridiculous trade war Trump has launched with China (and US Allies it must be said). Its a war he did not properly plan for, cannot force China to acquiesce on, and is incentivizing US allies to move closer to the Chinese because of.

[Dr Helen Fry | WWII Historian @DrHelenFry]

#OTD 15th April 1945: British troops liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

Nothing prepared them for the unspeakable horrors they they were about to witness.

[Cato Institute @CatoInstitute]

Contrary to what President Trump and VP JD Vance claim, free trade has substantially enriched most Americans. 👉 https://t.co/1yvqUTlFSf

[Robert Reich @RBReich]

Trump's EPA just moved to reverse state and local bans on toxic "forever chemicals" that can lead to birth defects and cancer. 

So much for "Make America Healthy Again." https://t.co/3y9qEuBFUo

[CALL TO ACTIVISM @CalltoActivism]

Stephanie Ruhle is one of the only voices in the media who tells it like it is and always speaks truth to power. I wish we had another 100 like her.

Watch this video. It’s 100% truth.

[Yaroslav Trofimov @yarotrof]

If you want to know why overseas tourism to the United States is falling fast even as the dollar gets cheaper.

[David Frum @davidfrum]

Another reason that international investors are wary of US assets: the US is heading to post-Soviet levels of public corruption under Trump second term.

[West Wing Report (Edited by Paul Brandus) @WestWingReport]

WIth the exception of the 2020 pandemic (when Trump was also President), American consumers haven't been this down in the dumps since 1952 (Univ. Michigan survey)

[derek guy @dieworkwear]

I think the truth is much more complicated. Manufacturing overseas can create certain jobs here by offering a more affordable product. In the end, you may actually see a *loss* of US jobs as fewer people pay for $220 sneakers, both at home and abroad.