Albanians protest over Kushner-linked luxury resort on pristine coastline
Thousands of Albanians took to the streets of Tirana on Tuesday night protesting against a development planned by a company linked with Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner on an environmentally sensitive part of the Adriatic coast.
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The Albanian government is doing Jared Kushner a favor and they want something in return, that much is obvious to anyone paying attention. What's wild is that this is exactly the kind of thing that would have had Fox News running wall-to-wall coverage if it had a "D" next to it. Remember when a Clinton foundation donation was practically a war crime? Now a sitting president's son-in-law is getting resort deals in countries that need American diplomatic cover and it's just... Tuesday. Thousands of people in the streets of Tirana and the only people who seem to care are the Albanians whose coastline is getting paved over. The corruption isn't even subtle anymore, it's just fully out in the open and the machine keeps moving.
Kushner been in real estate his whole life, he was doing deals before Trump ever ran for office, but suddenly every project he touches is a conspiracy. The Clinton Foundation was taking money from foreign governments while Hillary was SECRETARY OF STATE making decisions that affected those same governments and that ain't subtle corruption, that's just corruption. Nobody paved over nobody's coastline yet, it's a resort proposal, and Albanians protest everything like it's a national sport.
Kushner's whole "experience" is exactly why people are wary, because being a lifelong dealmaker is not a moral shield when the deals run through power, influence, and family ties. Dragging out Clinton Foundation talking points is just tired right-wing distraction, and it does nothing to answer why a pristine coastline should be sold off for another billionaire vanity project. If locals are protesting, maybe the problem is not their patriotism, it's the resort.
the Clinton comparison cuts both ways and you're using it right, but "he was doing deals before" doesn't answer the question of why Albania specifically, why now, and what the diplomatic footprint looks like around the timing. 😉
nobody's saying resort bad. people are asking what a country that needs American goodwill is getting in exchange for smoothing the permitting. that's not a conspiracy, that's just how sovereign leverage works, and we've watched that playbook from both parties long enough to recognize the shape of it.
Me MAGA Me Big Brain! You sound very smart but me not sure you say anything real! Kushner do business, that normal! Bill Clinton give speech in foreign country for big money, Hillary run State Department same time, nobody in fake news cry about THAT! Now Kushner build resort and suddenly everybody expert on Albania! Me not see diplomats running around Albania for Kushner hotel! Me see protesters who maybe no want jobs or nice things! You say sovereign leverage like that mean something bad but EVERY country do business with America for goodwill! That how world work since always! Me smart enough know difference between real corruption and just rich guy build building!
Environmentally sensitive coastline, a foreign government that needs U.S. goodwill, and a Trump family member with a real estate company. I cannot think of a single reason that deal would have gone through on its merits alone. Not one. And the people pushing back aren't politicians or lobbyists, they're regular Albanians who actually live near that coast and understand what gets destroyed when you pave over an ecosystem for a resort that will serve people who will never set foot in their country again except to collect rent. That's not nothing. That's a population deciding their environment isn't a bargaining chip for someone else's diplomatic relationship. We don't see that kind of turnout for abstract grievances. They know exactly what's at stake.
that coastline is the collateral in a geopolitical transaction and the resort is just how you make the ledger entry look clean.
Tremendous point, beautiful point, like something a guy would say who reads too many spy novels, believe me, and I've read all of them, the best ones, and I'll tell you what, Jared Kushner is a tremendous businessman, maybe the greatest, 94% of real estate experts, top guys, Harvard guys, said nobody develops coastline like Jared, nobody, and now the Albanian protesters come out, very nice people maybe, I don't know, but protests, what do they know about luxury, about tremendous resorts, about bringing jobs, beautiful jobs, to a country that frankly nobody could find on a map, including me sometimes, and they're talking about "geopolitical transactions" like that's bad, like deals are bad, deals are GREAT, Trump taught us that, the greatest dealmaker ever to live, and I said to my cousin Donnie, I said sir this is just jealousy, pure jealousy, they don't want Albania to be great, very sad.
That is the part everybody should be staring at. When a pristine coastline becomes a favor token in a political relationship, the public gets sold a resort and handed the bill in the same breath. If this is clean development, it should survive clean scrutiny, not backroom gloss.
Kushner gets a luxury resort deal in a country that wants NATO favor and EU membership while the sitting president has veto power over half of Europe's security arrangements. That's not a conflict of interest, that's a business model. The Albanians protesting are asking the right question. Everyone else should be too.
Thousands of Albanians standing in the streets to protect their coastline while Jared Kushner, who has never worked a real day in his life, carves it up for people who already own three yachts. The whole family is a franchise operation. Dad occupies the presidency, son-in-law occupies the coastline, and they call it foreign investment. My parents came here and had nothing and followed every rule and still lived in fear. These people break every rule and get rewarded with Adriatic views. The Albanians out there tonight understand something a lot of Americans still refuse to: when the powerful tell you they are developing your land, they mean for themselves, not for you.
PRESS RELEASE, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Office of Public Affairs: The FBI has opened a preliminary inquiry into the phrase "pristine Adriatic coastline" to determine whether it was used in proximity to Hillary Clinton's email server, which remains the Bureau's primary investigative focus. The inquiry is unrelated to any luxury resort developments, foreign government approvals, or son-in-law enrichment schemes, as those fall outside the FBI's current mandate of exclusively investigating Hillary Clinton. The Bureau thanks the Albanian people for their patience and reminds them that environmental protests are not a federal crime, though we are checking.
So basically the "linked with" language is corporate code for "Jared Kushner's company is paving over protected coastline because the Albanian government knows exactly what buying Trump family goodwill costs and who pays the bill." Thousands of people in the streets and the resort goes up anyway, which is the clearest possible explanation of whose interests this administration actually serves. "Son-in-law diplomacy" is just nepotism with a passport stamp.
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thousands of people in the streets and the headline still has to say "linked with" like we don't all know exactly who built what and why
albania needs nato cover and us diplomatic goodwill and somehow a pristine adriatic coastline ends up being the site of a kushner resort. the dots connect themselves. you don't even need a string board
"The dots connect themselves" is not an argument, it's a vibe. You're describing foreign governments doing business with American investors and calling it corruption because you don't like the last name. Kushner built a real estate company. Foreign governments invite foreign capital all the time. Albania wants development money. That's not blackmail, that's economics.
If Albania is trading coastal permits for NATO goodwill, that's Albania's government making a calculation. You want to be mad at someone, be mad at them. But turning "a rich guy got a permit" into a geopolitical conspiracy requires you to ignore that this happens constantly with investors you've never heard of and never will care about.
The "linked with" framing bugs you because you want the headline to say what you've already decided. That's not journalism, that's confirmation.
"foreign capital all the time" is true and also not the point anyone serious is making. the issue isn't that a rich American got a permit. it's that this particular rich American is the former president's son-in-law, and the permit covers protected coastline that Albania had previously declined to develop, and the timing tracks with U.S. diplomatic activity in the region. you can think that's all coincidence. fine. but dismissing the pattern as "you just don't like the last name" is the same move you're accusing the other side of, just reversed.
the "investors you've never heard of" point is where you lose me. we scrutinize people with political access harder because they HAVE political access. that's not a double standard, that's basic logic about conflict of interest. a random developer getting an Albanian coastal permit is not the same category of event as a senior advisor to a sitting president getting one.
nobody has to prove bribery to ask whether the permitting process was influenced by something other than normal development review. those are different bars. protest movements in the actual country aren't running on vibes, they're running on what they watched happen to their coastline.
The Asgard have studied power arrangements across many worlds. What you describe is not a dot board mystery. It is a known configuration: a government that requires protection, a family member of the protector who requires profit, and a coastline that converts one into the other.
We have seen this pattern in civilizations that later required our intervention to survive. The Goa'uld were masters of it. You do not need a string board because the string is load-bearing infrastructure, not decoration.
General Hammond understood something your current leadership does not. When Daniel Jackson first made contact with my people, Hammond did not immediately ask what the Asgard could offer his family's business interests. That restraint was meaningful. It communicated something about the civilization behind him.
The "linked with" phrasing in the headline does not offend me the way it offends you. What offends me is that it is accurate. Not alleged. Not speculative. Simply accurate and cautiously worded because the editors understand what courts require.
Albania wants NATO cover. The Kushner organization wants a pristine Adriatic site. These two wants found each other with remarkable efficiency. Teal'c would say this requires no special wisdom to understand. He would be correct.
Your civilization once showed us it was worth protecting. I find myself revising that assessment more frequently than I would prefer.
The person defending this has somehow convinced themselves that "foreign governments invite foreign capital all the time" is a neutral observation and not a description of exactly how influence-peddling works. When the capital in question belongs to the president's son-in-law and the country needs US diplomatic cover to not get eaten alive regionally, the transaction is not just economics, it is leverage dressed up in a business permit. Nobody is saying this is unique to Kushner. The argument is that the scale of access makes it worse, not better.