Trump-Induced Epidemic of Hardware Chain Stores Shutting Down

Century-old Home Depot rival selling entire chain of stores

Dana Sullivan Kilroy

Sat, November 22, 2025

You can't blame family-owned businesses for wanting to throw in the towel at some point. Running a retail outlet requires 24/7 attention, and it's getting harder and harder for independent businesses to survive.

Even hardware stores that are part of communities across the country and that have been around for generations are facing difficult times.

In fact, all retailers in the home-improvement sector, from Home Depot all the way down, have had a rough go lately, and things aren't looking up for the rest of 2025, according to the September Home Improvement Research Institute report. The group said the growth projection for the home improvement sector in 2025 is a paltry 2.5%, according to LBM Journal.

Home Depot and Lowe's dominate the home improvement retail market in the U.S., and both reported underwhelming numbers this week:

• Home Depot projected growth for FY 2025: 3%
  Source: Home Depot

• Lowe's projected growth for FY 2025: 0%
  Source: Lowe's

That could be a bad sign for the home improvement/hardware sector overall.

The challenges facing the housing market aren't helping, either. With interest rates stubbornly sticking above 6%, and with many Americans putting their home-improvement projects on hold, home improvement and hardware stores are suffering.

These generational hardware stores recently closed forever

The last few months have been tough for some of the oldest continuously operating hardware stores in the country:

• An historic True Value location, the 159-year-old Kreuger’s in Neenah, Wis., told customers in July 2025 it would permanently shut down in 12 to 16 months following a liquidation sale.

• Four-generation-old hardware retailer Ritter’s True Value Hardware in Mechanicsburg, Pa., closed its doors after 117 years on September 30.

• Carnation Ace Hardware, the 56-year-old hardware store in Carnation, Wash., closed its business forever on October 25.

Several long-running local hardware stores have closed recently.Sundry Photography/Shutterstock

Kabelin Ace Hardware sells 8 locations to a bigger group

Now, the owners of a group of eight family-owned stores in Northern Indiana announced they are selling the business, which dates back to 1912.

Kabelin Ace Hardware says it will sell its locations to Houchens Food Group, the Bowling Green, Kentucky-based subsidiary of Houchen Industries, an employee-owned company that owns everything from grocery stores and construction businesses to fast-food restaurants and an insurance group.

Indiana Kaelin Ace Hardware store locations:

• South Bend

• Walterton

• New Carlisle

• Granger

• La Porte (2 locations)

• Michigan City (2 locations)

These Indiana Ace stores have now become part of the Houchens family of 40 other Ace Hardware locations across the country.

More business closings:

• Major trucking company closes Home Depot distribution facility

• 63-year-old bankrupt retail chain closes all stores permanently

• Discount retail chain closes half its store locations

"We knew we wanted to continue the Kabelin legacy, but wanted to do it from a position of strength while also giving back to our employees," Mackenzie Kabelin Watkins told the South Bend Tribune.

Houchens will retain all 150 employees.

"Kabelin has an outstanding reputation for quality service and hometown care, which are values that align perfectly with our mission," Houchens Food Group President Greg Rush told the South Bend Tribune.

 

Even ICE-GESTAPO Can be Both Violent AND Dumb

ICE-GESTAPO'S MOTTO: "HATE FIRST, THEN ASK QUESTIONS". Well-deserved "dumb and ugly".

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ICE agents target Rhode Island high school intern at courthouse, drawing criticism from state officials

Taylor Galgano Caroll Alvarado and Diego Mendoza, CNN

Sat, November 22, 2025

ICE admitted to mistakenly detaining a 16-year-old court intern. - Deportation Defense Network of Rhode Island

Aggressive tactics by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents drew the ire of Rhode Island’s governor and state Supreme Court chief justice this week when a high school intern was detained and questioned before being released.

The incident, captured on video, showed ICE agents detaining the teen, who is taking part in an internship experience at Rhode Island Superior Court, as he was being driven to school by a judge.

“ICE agents wrongfully detained a high school intern outside the Superior Court – an outrageous and indefensible act that could have completely upended a young person’s life,” Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee said in a statement Thursday.

The Department of Homeland Security has faced criticism for pursuing targets in or near courthouses, after rescinding guidance limiting activity in such locations.

Here’s how the latest incident unfolded.

ICE agent took photos in courtroom, stopped judge’s car

It began in a courtroom, where the teen noticed someone taking photos of him, a member of the court staff familiar with the situation told CNN.

When security asked the person to stop taking photos to abide by courthouse rules, he identified himself as an ICE agent, the court staff member said.

CNN has asked DHS why agents were taking photos of the intern.

Upon learning an ICE agent was taking photos of him, the intern appeared shaken by the experience, and Superior Court Associate Justice Joseph McBurney offered to drive him to his high school, the staffer said.

ICE agents later surrounded the judge’s car as he intended to drive the intern to school, according to the court staffer and a video of the incident.

In a video from the Deportation Defense Network of Rhode Island, at least six federal agents are seen near McBurney’s car, asking him and the teen to exit it.

“Are you a judge here?” one of the ICE agents appears to ask McBurney after he opens his car door.

About 30 seconds later, a federal agent is seen restraining the intern’s hands behind his back and escorting him away from the vehicle as nearby protesters shout at the agents.

McBurney continues talking to federal agents, explaining the teen is an intern, and they were making a mistake, a member of the court staff familiar with the situation told CNN.

The intern, who was not named by the court or ICE, was taken across a busy street in front of the Providence courthouse. He was released after his identity was verified by the federal agents, a spokesperson for the Rhode Island Judiciary said.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told CNN the agents had been searching for a “child predator” and “briefly questioned someone who resembled the target” but the person “was never arrested or taken into custody.”

CNN has reached out to the DHS and Judge McBurney for more information.

ICE tactics under scrutiny

The incident comes as ICE has continued to make arrests at courthouses across the country.

In fact, demonstrators were already holding an anti-ICE rally outside the courthouse to protest ICE activity at courthouses and in support of virtual court hearings, for which immigrants would not need to be physically present, reducing their exposure to ICE activity.

Video of the protesters shows demonstrators shouting “Let him go!” as the teen was released. “He’s a f**king kid,” one protester is heard shouting, with another one adding, “That’s a 16-year-old!”

Rhode Island Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul A. Suttell said the incident reinforces the judiciary’s need to focus on ways to enhance access to virtual hearings.

“This egregious incident underscores both the community’s and the Judiciary’s concerns about how ICE is conducting its operations in Rhode Island,” said Suttell.

According to ICE’s website, ICE does not detain unaccompanied children except in rare instances, though CNN has previously reported on similar instances.

“This was not a harmless mistake. It was the direct result of callous and chaotic policies by the Trump Administration,” McKee said. “Moreover, ICE’s failure to exercise even a shred of due diligence is shameful and underscores just how broken and dangerous these federal policies are.”

ICE is continuing its operations under the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, making hundreds of arrests in Charlotte, North Carolina, and preparing to deploy in New Orleans in December.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com

Four Superb US-Born Specimens of White America Uphold MAGA's Family Values

The finest of the finest that white America has ever produced. Just look at them: They look like angels compared to all the dark- and brown-skinned immigrants that are "poisoning our blood" and diluting our "beautiful white skin". They were caught upholding (on their 15-year old daughter) the Christian family values promoted by sex maniac Donald Dumb, the "civilized" teenagers of Turning Stomach USA, and the large herd of MAGA morons roaming the desolate interior of these United States. 

Given the way they look, they are understandably undeportable. No "shithole country" out there could be bought with enough dollars to take them. Rather, they should be bred to increase the relative preponderance of fine, civilized, refined, in God's image white America. They should also be placed on an Ozempic regimen, free of charge, for the rest of their lives.

I don't understand why they're called "White Trash".  

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Four people arrested after 14-year-old Wisconsin girl found weighing 35 pounds

Marlene Lenthang

Sat, November 22, 2025 at 7:05 AM GMT+2·5 min read

A father and three others have been charged with child neglect after a 14-year-old girl Wisconsin girl was found weighing just 35 pounds and was forced to stay in a locked bedroom under video surveillance, according to court documents.

Walter Goodman, 47; Melissa Goodman, 50; Savanna Lefever, 29; and Kayla Stemler, 27, were arrested on Nov. 10 following an “extensive” child neglect investigation, the Oneida Police Department said.

They are charged with three counts of chronic neglect of a child with the consequence of great bodily harm and two counts of chronic neglect of a child with the consequence of emotional damage.

Attorneys for the defendants did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday evening.

The investigation began on Aug. 21 when Walter Goodman, the victim's father, called 911 to report that his daughter, who he said barely eats, had been ill for days and was throwing up, according to the charging documents.

When first responders arrived, they found the girl was “severely underweight and malnourished,” appeared to be the size of a 6 to 8 year old child and had a “very prominent” collarbone, rib cage and hip bones, the criminal complaint said.

She was hospitalized and found to weigh 35 pounds. She also had hypothermia and hypoglycemia and signs of multi-organ dysfunction. She had no medical records for the last five years, the complaint said.

Goodman told authorities that his daughter was autistic, refused to eat, claiming she was so thin because she burned up all her energy by not sleeping, the complaint said.

A child neglect investigation was opened Aug. 22.

Goodman told authorities his daughter was fed three meals a day but she often didn't eat because she didn't want to, and he'd often give her Pediasure. He also said she went days without sleep and he had a camera in his daughter’s room because she self-harms and picks at herself, the complaint said.

Investigators and hospital staff found that the victim’s condition didn’t add up with Goodman’s stories. She didn’t have self harm behaviors — the victim said she’d pick her flesh out of boredom and didn’t do so in the hospital — she had no trouble sleeping, and in her forensic interviews, she “described love and fondness for her family members,” the complaint said.

In 2020, the girl began living with her father in a trailer home in Oneida, a small town about 15 miles west of Green Bay. Stepmother Melissa Goodman, the stepmother's adult daughter, Lefever, and Lefever's partner, Stemler, also lived in the home, as did the stepmother's teenage son, who was not named, according to the criminal complaint.

The victim had previously lived with her mother but didn't have any contact with her after moving in with Walter Goodman, the complaint said. The girl hadn't attended school in person since virtual learning during the Covid-19 pandemic and was reportedly homeschooled since 2021 through 2025, the complaint said.

During interviews with investigators and representatives from child protective services and child welfare, Melissa Goodman told an investigator that the victim “likes to fib and say things are wrong with her,” the complaint said. Lefever told the investigator said she didn't have any concerns regarding the victim’s care, according to the filing.

A friend of Walter Goodman's told investigators that he heard Goodman make concerning comments about his daughter, including about not feeding her if she misbehaves. When the friend said he could not do that, Goodman allegedly replied, “Well I keep her locked up in her bedroom with a camera on her, and that’s where she stays,” the complaint said.

Officers who searched the home saw the girl’s door had holes for bolt locks, the complaint said.

According to the complaint, the friend said he confronted Goodman about how he treated his daughter, and he allegedly said, “If I could leave her somewhere in the woods, I’d leave her.”

Officers also spoke to the child’s third grade teacher who reported the girl was a “friendly and talkative” child and did not have any eating problems. The teacher didn’t notice the girl was autistic or on the spectrum and never enrolled in any special education programs, the complaint said.

Officials reviewed messages sent between the family members, in which Melissa Goodman, her son and Lefever referred to the girl as “dummy” and “stupid.” Those texts described feeding the girl, taking her to the bathroom at appointed times, and the girl sleeping on the floor, according to the complaint.

In one text on March 6, Lefever said “if she does well we were gonna give her real food,” the complaint said.

The victim told hospital workers that she’d shower “maybe weekly or monthly.” Her physical condition was so deteriorated she couldn’t raise her arms “all the way up,” and needed a break between walks, the complaint said.

One day while in the hospital she asked for a second chocolate pudding and while eating it she said, “My dad will be so mad,” the complaint said. When asked why, she replied, “He doesn’t like when I eat this much,” the filing said.

When she was told she’d have three meals per day, the registered nurse documented the girl's “eyes lit up as she started listing off all the options of food she could have over the course of her hospitalization,” the complaint said. She asked about pancakes, M&Ms, and tacos and said she was looking forward to having vegetables, the complaint said.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

 

"Turning Stomach USA" Morons: Your Donald Dumb is Stirring Political Violence

 

MAGA tourist morons on a scheduled walking tour of Congress back in January 2021

As the end of Donald Dumb's second term debacle begins, and with the end of his demented dictatorship in clear sight - he knows his MAGA bullshit will be soundly rejected and savaged a year from now in the 2026 midterms - his dementia poses no limits on his calls for violence. 

TRUMP IS CALLING FOR VIOLENCE AGAINST ARMY VETERAN DEMOCRATS BY TELLING HIS MAGA MORONS that Democrats are:

TRAITORS

GUILTY OF SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR 

LOCK THEM UP

PUNISHABLE BY DEATH

HANG THEM

UNDERMINING THE GOVERNMENT 

Worse than "Suckers and losers". 

Trump referred to a group of Democrats as “traitors.”

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Thursday: “The President of the United States just called for Democratic members of Congress to be executed. ‘HANG THEM’, he posted,” Murphy said in a post on the social platform X.

in Truth Social posts, THE SENILE DEMENTED Donald Dumb referred to a group of Democrats as “traitors,” suggesting they should be imprisoned and punished “by death” for speaking up and exercising their Free Speech right as citizens and as Members of Congress. . Murphy’s comment on X refers to another Truth Social post shared by Trump in which a user wrote, “HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD !!”

“SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” another message posted by the president reads.

“Donald Trump has made political violence a feature of his politics. Today he crossed yet another line that NO democracy can afford to tolerate. He must be condemned—forcefully, loudly, and without excuses,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Thursday in his own post on X.

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Even Marjorie Taylor Greene was not spared Trump's political violence. At least, she is apologizing and expressing regrets for being a MAGA moron.

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was once President Donald Trump’s loyal ally but is now breaking rank with Trump and apologizing for her own “toxic” actions as a MAGA moron.

Trump has gallantly withdrawn his support for Greene, calling her “wacky,” a “ranting Lunatic” and a “traitor” to the party, using sophisticated and elegant terms that only a ballroom dancer like him would use..

MTG said in a CNN interview: “Those were the types of words used that can radicalize people against me and put my life in danger,” Greene said, although she used to defend Trump's use of similar words against her political opponents. Maybe she has found Jesus, her Personal Savior, somewhere on a sale on Amazon. That is what the CNN anchor asked her about not defending other people who have faced “attacks or criticism” from Trump. “I haven’t heard you speak up about it until it was directed at you,” Bash said.

“Dana, I think that’s fair criticism,” Greene replies. “And I would like to say humbly, I’m sorry for taking part in the toxic politics. It’s very bad for our country. It’s been something I’ve thought about a lot".

In 2020, Greene posted an image of herself holding a gun alongside images of progressive Democratic congresswomen –– Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib –– and encouraged going on the “offense against these socialists.” 

In 2021, Greene liked social media posts that suggested executing then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and FBI agents, among others, according to several media reports.

“I addressed that back in 2021. I never want to cause any harm, or anything bad to anyone,” Greene said in response. “And I very much stand by my words I said then, and I stand by my words today. I think America needs to come together and end all that toxic, dangerous rhetoric and divide. And I’m leading the way with my own example. ”

How sincere is this conversion? Not very, say experts. This is merely a tactical move to place herself in the political center in anticipation of further forays into politics. 

“That incredibly flat affect we saw in the CNN interview is just so bizarre, especially compared to her usual animated and bombastic affect in other interviews,” said Denise Dudley, a clinical psychologist and behavioral expert. “She was definitely struggling to rein it in.”

For body language experts, the most noticeable exchange is when Greene actually says, “Humbly, I’m sorry for taking part in the toxic politics.”

In this sentence, Dudley said Greene has pauses, closes her eyes, and appears to grimace in between the word “toxic” and “politics,” “like she’s choking it down.”

Four White Prison Guards Beat Black Prisoner to Death in Upstate NY

BUT NOT TO WORRY! DONALD DUMB WILL PARDON THEM. He's pardoned some 2,000 WHITE criminals (like him) so far: Murderers, seditious terrorists, financial criminals, and all his former associates in crime. WHITE CRIMINAL AMERICA FIRST.

THEY USED TO LYNCH. NOW THEY BEAT TO DEATH.
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4 guards sentenced in brutal beating death of an incarcerated Black man at New York prison
Associated Press
Fri, November 21, 2025 


From left to right, David Walters, Anthony Farina, Michael Mashaw and Nicholas Anzalone are seen on the day they were sentenced, November 21, 2025. - WSTM

Four prison guards involved in the death of an incarcerated Black man whose brutal beating at an upstate New York prison last year was captured on body-worn camera videos were each sentenced Friday to prison terms.

The four had pleaded guilty in September, just two weeks before the start of the trial for a group of guards accused in the death of Robert Brooks, who was pummeled while handcuffed at the Marcy Correctional Facility on Dec. 9. The beating of the restrained 43-year-old man triggered outrage and calls for reform.

Nicholas Anzalone and Anthony Farina, who both had faced a top charge of murder before pleading guilty to a lesser charge of first-degree manslaughter, each received 22-year terms. Two more men charged with second-degree manslaughter also pleaded guilty. Michael Mashaw was sentenced to three to nine years in prison, while David Walters got two years, four months to seven years.

Brooks had been serving a 12-year sentence for first-degree assault since 2017 and was transferred to Marcy from a nearby lockup on the night he was beaten. The videos show Brooks being struck in the chest with a shoe, lifted by his neck and then dropped.

Robert Brooks is restrained by correctional officers at the Marcy Correctional Facility. - NYS Attorney General

During the hearing, prosecutors read statements from Brooks’ relatives, including his brother, Jared Ricks, who wrote that he hopes the “welcoming committee” shows the four defendants more grace when they arrive in state prison as incarcerated people than they showed his brother, Syracuse.com reported.

The victim’s son, Robert Brooks Jr., wrote that watching the video of his father’s fatal beating was like watching a horror movie.

“I pray this case teaches others that they can’t treat incarcerated people like animals,” he wrote.

Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick, the special prosecutor in the case, said the two men were not allowed to read their statements themselves due to objections from all four defense attorneys after Fitzpatrick failed to file the required paperwork.

The first plea in the case came last May, when a guard charged with murder pleaded guilty to manslaughter under a deal with prosecutors. Christopher Walrath, who resigned, was sentenced in August to 15 years in prison.

Another guard pleaded guilty later in May to attempted tampering with physical evidence and was sentenced to a one-year conditional discharge.

The trial of three other guards charged with murder and first-degree manslaughter concluded last month with a jury convicting David Kingsley on both counts but acquitting the other two, Mathew Galliher and Nicholas Kieffer. Kingsley faces a potential life term when he’s sentenced, while the last guard, Michael Fisher, is scheduled to stand trial in January on a second-degree manslaughter charge.

Fitzpatrick is also prosecuting guards in the March 1 fatal beating of Messiah Nantwi at another Marcy lockup, the Mid-State Correctional Facility. Eight guards have reached plea deals in the case, while five others are scheduled to stand trial in March, including two who are charged with murder.

Both prisons are about 180 miles (290 kilometers) northwest of New York City.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com

Trump and Bondi's Released Epstein Files Look Like This (per Stephen Colbert)

 They incriminate Bill Clinton!

 

Not Attending G20. Not Attending COP30. Trump's America Bailing Out.

And yet, the Idiot-in-Chief claims America is now respected.  

Vulgar. Disrespectful. Cheating and lying. Hallmarks of the Donald Dumb administration. The 28-year old "spokesman" for Trump, Karoline Leavitt, has four fathers: Her biological one, her 60-year-old husband, her fatherly president Donald Dumb who says he loves her lips, and of course her Father in Heaven. Her wilful submissiveness to all these male father figures is part of her Christian ethos, just like Muslim women in backward societies. 

She is very good at insulting officials of other "shithole" countries at the behest of her President Father. She is upset at South Africa's president because she says he was "running his mouth a little bit against the United States and the president of the United States earlier today and that language is not appreciated by the president or his team". 

As if Donald Dumb is a virgin when it comes to hurling vulgarities (like a "real" man does) and running verbal diarrheas from his buccal orifice that often looks like a giant caudal orifice operating under stimuli from an unstable peristaltic brain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Karoline Leavitt Says US ‘Not Participating’ in G-20 Talks After She Saw South African Prez ‘Running His Mouth’
Tom Durante
Thu, November 20, 2025

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that the U.S. is “not participating” in G20 talks in South Africa after she saw the country’s president “running his mouth a little bit.”

The remarks came as Leavitt was asked about a recent piece in the New York Times, which reported that the U.S. was sending South African ambassador Marc Dillard to the country this weekend, a 180-degree turn from the original Trump administration tactic of boycotting the event.

In addition, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said during a Thursday press conference, “We have received notice from the United States, a notice which we are still in discussions with them over about a change of mind, about participating in one shape, form or other in the summit … In a way we see this as a positive sign, very positive, because as I’ve often said, boycott politics never work.”

In the briefing room Thursday, Leavitt denied a “shift” in the policy toward the South Africa-hosted G20, and called out Ramaphosa for “falsely claiming” the U.S. was to participate, adding, “I saw the South African president running his mouth a little bit against the United States and the president of the United States earlier today and that language is not appreciated by the president or his team.”

A senior Trump administration official told The Times that America will only be taking part in the event this weekend on a “purely ceremonial” basis.

Leavitt also said that Dillard would only attend to recognize that the U.S. will be hosting the next G20 in December 2026.

Read the exchange here:

REPORTER: Two questions for you. The “New York Times” reporting that the administration is now sending a U.S. Official to the G20. They’re sending Marc Dillard. Can you confirm if that is true and also explain the shift and-

KAROLINE LEAVITT: I’d be happy to explain because there is not a shift. The United States is not participating in official talks at the G20 in South Africa. I saw the South African president running his mouth a little bit against the United States and the president of the United States earlier today and that language is not appreciated by the president or his team. The ambassador, or the representative of the embassy in South Africa is there to recognize that the United States will be the host of the G20. They are receiving that send-off at the end of the event. They’re not there to participate in official talks despite what the South African president is falsely claiming.

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Gavin Newsom trolled Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt with a satirical picture after she rushed to defend the president’s “piggy” insult.

After the White House released a video showing President Donald Trump, 79, telling Bloomberg reporter Catherine Lucey, 46, snarling “Quiet, piggy!” over questions about sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the California governor was quick to flip Trump’s insult back on him.

Now, the governor is responding to those in the president’s administration who are coming to his rescue.

“There is nothing she won’t defend,” Newsom posted on X in response to a clip of Leavitt telling reporters at Thursday’s press conference that the president is “very frank and honest” and that it’s “one of the many reasons the American people re-elected” him, in response to a question about what the president meant when he called a reporter “piggy.”


Newsom trolled the press secretary with a 'Hunger Games' inspired AI photo. / @GovPressOffice on X

In a typical Newsom-style post, the governor also shared an accompanying satirical image of Leavitt dressed as The Hunger Games character Effie Trinket.

Trinket acts as a face for the book series’ affluent, yet morally bankrupt Capitol, leading District 12’s yearly “Reaping” ceremony.

The Daily Beast has reached out to Leavitt’s representatives for comment.

Leavitt’s defense of Trump is not the first attempt to tamp down backlash since the president’s insult went viral. On Tuesday, the White House told the Daily Beast that Lucey “behaved in an inappropriate and unprofessional way toward her colleagues on the plane,” adding, “If you’re going to give it, you have to be able to take.”

Republican congresswoman María Elvira Salazar also shrugged off Trump’s remarks, saying that “No one is perfect,” and describing the president as a “picturesque and difficult, and a different type of politician.”

The press secretary echoed similar sentiments at the briefing, saying that although Trump gets “frustrated with reporters,” he is also “the most transparent president in history” and that everyone should “appreciate the frankness and the openness” they receive from him.

Trump’s history of publicly insulting female reporters precedes his time in office. During his first presidential campaign in 2016, he targeted then-Fox News host Megyn Kelly, claiming she had “blood coming out of her wherever” after she questioned him about calling women “fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals.”

U.S. President Donald Trump and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. / JIM WATSON / AFP via Getty Images

One day after the video surfaced of the president calling Lucey “piggy” on Air Force One, he told ABC White House correspondent Mary Bruce to “learn how to be a reporter.”

Leavitt has consistently defended the president at press briefings. In September, she struggled to explain Trump’s downplaying of domestic violence and has also defended him after emails linked to Epstein surfaced, suggesting he “knew about the girls”—claims the president denies.

Donald Dumb's pro-Evangelical Misogyny: Nursing isn't a Profession.Theology is

Yup, the voodoo bullshit religious drivel known as "theology" is considered a profession by the Donald Dumb administration, which entitles theology students to apply for federal loans to pay for their tuition.

But nursing, a highly respected and foundational scientific profession, is now deemed "not a profession" by Donald Dumb and his anti-science former pro-wrestling imbecile Linda McMahon who has been tasked by the Organutan to destroy the already struggling American education and shut down the entire Department of Education.

MAGA morons don't like science and education. They prefer God and illiteracy. This is on the same day that the Shaman of Health and Human Services, the brain-wormed, frog-throated RFK Jr's CDC has updated its website to say that there is a link between vaccines and autism, one step backward in American science, despite decades of research that show no link between childhood vaccines and autism. In fact, only recently did the moron in charge of the nation's health declare that autistic children are born of women who took Tylenol (Acetaminophen) during their pregnancy, without any research, study, or data to back this claim.

The underlying objective of re-classifying fields dominated by women (nursing, counseling, social work....) such that they are excluded from financial aid, is to push women out of professional sectors and relegate them to home-making and low-skilled jobs and careers. This is consistent with drunk adulterer "War Secretary" Pete Hegseth's efforts to eliminate women from leadership positions in the US Armed Forces.

"BACK TO THE KITCHEN MAKING BABIES".... is God's plan for American women. Donald Dumb and his cabal of morons are obeying God's will as stated in the bible.
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Outrage over Trump’s bill reclassifying nursing as not a ‘professional degree’ for college students
Rhian Lubin
Fri, November 21, 2025


Outrage over Trump’s bill reclassifying nursing as not a ‘professional degree’ for college students. Nursing has been excluded as a ‘professional degree’ by Linda McMahon’s Department of Education as it looks to implement sweeping cuts to student loads laid out in President Donald Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’ (file image) (AFP via Getty Images)

Nursing organizations are “deeply concerned” after the occupation has been “excluded” by definition as a “professional degree” by the Department of Education.

The decision is part of the sweeping cuts to student loans, overseen by Education Secretary Linda McMahon, laid out in President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”

The move has alarmed nursing organizations, which warned that limiting student nurses’ access to funding “threatens the very foundation of patient care.”

Trump’s signature legislation, which was signed into law earlier this year, eliminates the Grad PLUS loans used by many students to pay for grad school, and puts a cap on the amount they can borrow.

Under Trump’s bill, only “professional degree” students are eligible for the higher loan limit of $200,000, while graduate students are capped at $100,000. Excluding nursing by definition as a professional degree effectively prices aspiring nurses out of their studies, campaigners warned.

“Nursing is the backbone of the healthcare structure in the United States,” Dr Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, president of the American Nursing Association, told NewsNation. “We are short tens of thousands of nurses and advanced practice nurses already. This is going to stop nurses from going to school to be teachers for other nurses.”

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing is also calling on the Department of Education to reverse the decision.

“Excluding nursing from the definition of professional degree programs disregards decades of progress toward parity across the health professions and contradicts the Department’s own acknowledgment that professional programs are those leading to licensure and direct practice,” the organization said in a statement.

“Should this proposal be finalized, the impact on our already-challenged nursing workforce would be devastating,” the statement added.

Mary Turner, RN, president of National Nurses United, told The Independent that the Trump administration’s priorities were “at odds with the needs of nurses and patients.”

“If the Trump administration truly wanted to support nurses, it would be working to improve working conditions, expanding education opportunities, and ensuring patients can get health care,” Turner said. “Instead, this administration is stripping nurses of their union rights, making education harder to access, and cutting health care for those who need it most.”

Nurses earn $45 per hour on average, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Meanwhile, Trump’s bill provides more than $1.5 trillion in tax cuts for the top 5 percent of Americans, the Center for American Progress found.

The Education Department brushed off concerns over the future of nursing as “fake news” and accused the nursing organizations of having had an “unlimited tuition ride on the taxpayer dime.”

“The Department has had a consistent definition of what constitutes a professional degree for decades and the consensus-based language aligns with this historical precedent,” the department’s press secretary for higher education Ellen Keast told Newsweek.

“The committee, which included institutions of higher education, agreed on the definition that we will put forward in a proposed rule,” Keast continued. “We’re not surprised that some institutions are crying wolf over regulations that never existed because their unlimited tuition ride on the taxpayer dime is over."

The Department of Education did not immediately respond to The Independent’s request for comment.

An entire four-year bachelor of science in nursing program can range from $89,560 to $211,390, including tuition, housing and other fees, according to NurseJournal.

Nursing wasn’t the only casualty of Trump’s spending bill. Physician assistants, physical therapists, educators, social workers, audiologists, architects and accountants were also on the list of degrees that were not classed as “professional” by the Trump administration.

Programs deemed “professional” by the department were medicine, pharmacy, law, dentistry, osteopathic medicine, optometry, podiatry, chiropractic, veterinary medicine, theology, and clinical psychology.

“Can someone explain how a theologian is considered more “professional” than a nurse practitioner?” Amy McGrath, a candidate for the U.S. Senate in Kentucky, asked on X.

“As part of the “Big Beautiful Bill” the Department of Education just proposed a reclassification of a “professional degree,” and it means fewer students will qualify for the higher loan limits they need for grad school,” she said. “Programs being excluded include many fields dominated by women like healthcare, counseling, and social work. This isn’t a coincidence. This is a way to quietly push women out of professional careers.”

The new measures are due to be implemented beginning July 1, 2026.

US-Born White Alabaman Rapes Two Children Under the Nose of Their Parents

Again, and sorry for the refrain, but Parker is no migrant, legal or otherwise, nor an immigrant, legal or otherwise, nor is he one of those brown- or dark-skinned US citizens now being hunted by Trump's ICE-GESTAPO.... No, no, no. He's an inbred white mongrel - balding blond with green eyes - in the image of God but from the backward state of Bama (Alabama's nickname; the first "a" should be pronounced in "Dame" and not like Obama, Heaven forbid). In that State, you never know if your sister is actually your mother or whether your son-in-law is actually your own son. Strange things have been happening down there ever since illiterate ignorant and promiscuous English peasants settled there a couple of hundreds of years ago.

I'm not sure why the story below has to specify that the rapes took place on an air mattress, as if this fact is an attenuating circumstance, what with the ebbing and flowing of the mattress doing a rock-and-roll motion that could have suggested something nefarious to the moron child rapist from Alabama. I wouldn't put it past an Alabama prosecutor to suggest partial guilt because of the mattress. Would the rapes on a Japanese futon, or behind an Appalachian moonshine still be any different?

Now Parker was doing marijuana and amphetamines when he indulged himself on the two girls. Were these drugs smuggled into Alabama by the drug cartels that Trump claims to be fighting? Who forced Parker to buy and take these illicit drugs? He should be placed on a fishing boat, tied to the boat, and launched into the Caribbean at very high speed where US military drones should blow him up.

Can't wait to hear what the scintillating Senator Tuberville, the rather low-minded representative of the State in the Senate, thinks about the lurid stories that keep emanating from his State.

Can anyone guess who Parker voted for in 2024?
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Alabama man raped child sleeping on air mattress while he spent the night doing drugs with her family
Carol Robinson
Thu, November 20, 2025


An Oneonta man has been convicted in the sexual abuse of a young girl in Blount County.

The jury on Wednesday found 38-year-old Christopher Don Parker guilty of first-degree rape and sex abuse of a child under the age of 12, said District Attorney Pamela Casey.

Parker’s trial began Monday. The jury delivered the verdict after about four hours of deliberation.

Parker was arrested in June 2022 when authorities received a report that Parker had sexually abused two children under the age of 12 at a residence located on County Highway 42 in Blount County.

Evidence at trial showed that Parker often visited the family at their home.

“Parker would often smoke marijuana and methamphetamine with the parents,” Casey said. “On at least three of these occasions, Parker spent the night at the residence, which is how he gained access to the children.”

“Parker attacked one victim as she lay sleeping on an air mattress,” she said. “The young girl reported the attack to her grandfather who had custody of her at the time.”

Casey praised the work of lead investigator Sgt. Ed Hull of the Blount County Sheriff’s Office.

“These cases are always difficult,” Casey said. “It is hard and often heartbreaking to listen to the evidence in these cases.”

“This can be even more difficult,” she said, “when jurors are having to consider the testimony of children who do not have the life experience and/or vocabulary to describe the vile and disgusting things that happen to them.”

Parker faces a sentence of life in prison or a term not less than 99 years under Alabama’s Habitual Felony Offender. He has two prior felony convictions for burglary and theft.

Following the verdict, Parker was booked into the Blount County Jail to await sentencing on Jan. 20.

Donald Dumb: Lie to Your Heart's Content. MAGA Morons will Believe Your Lies

It's a "tactic" Roy Cohn taught Pinocchio Donald: Even if confronted with the truth, never admit, never give up, keep lying. It works with poor-minded, superstitious, ignorant people who believe he is a Messiah with big gonads, i.e. rednecks, survivalists, and such backwoods inbred imbeciles of the back country. It's really not even at street level; it's in the gutter; and it's disgusting. Even the dense MAGA morons are beginning to reckon with the now-proven fact that HE LIED TO THEM ONLY TO GET ELECTED. 
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Analysis: Trump keeps lying while accusing others of lying
Daniel Dale, CNN
Wed, November 19, 2025


President Donald Trump speaks to the press during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on November 18. - Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

President Donald Trump tells a lot of lies. Trump also regularly accuses others of lying.

And sometimes he does both at once – telling a lie about something while accusing someone else of lying about it. In other words, the president has been dishonest even about others’ honesty.

It’s a subset of his years-old “I know you are but what am I?” tactic of trying to turn common criticisms of him against his opponents. And he’s used it a bunch this fall.
Trump’s deception about supposed deception from Democrats and his former FBI director

One perfect example: Trump has repeatedly alleged that Democrats are lying when they correctly say overall prices and grocery prices are up during his second presidency – even though it is Trump who is lying when he says overall prices and grocery prices are down.

“The problem with the Democrats: they lie. They do it so well. They talk about affordability, but I’m the one that’s getting the prices down,” he told reporters Sunday, though overall prices were 3% higher in September than they were in September 2024 and 1.7% higher than they were in January 2025, the month he returned to office. “More than anything else, it’s a con job by the Democrats,” since “costs are way down,” Trump falsely said last week on Fox News.

Then, on Monday morning, Trump claimed on social media that Christopher Wray, whom he appointed as FBI director during his first term, had “lied!!!” about the deployment of FBI agents on January 6, 2021, the day Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol. But the president’s supposed basis for this claim was a false conspiracy theory that FBI agents had been secretly inserted into the pre-riot Capitol crowd to whip up a frenzy.

The phony narrative was debunked in September by none other than Trump’s current FBI director, Kash Patel, who noted that the agents were deployed for crowd control “after the riot was declared by Metro Police.”

Trump chooses colorful fiction over fact-based ammunition

In late October, Trump attacked the integrity of former president Joe Biden in a speech to a military audience – saying, “Biden used to say he was a pilot. He was a pilot, he was a truck dri— whatever, whoever walked in. He wasn’t a pilot.” Biden did falsely claim during his presidency to have previously been a truck driver, among other inaccurate claims about his past, but there is no record of him having claimed to have been a pilot. In other words, Trump was making something up – again – while calling out Biden for supposedly making something up.

Biden’s actual fabrications about his biography would give Trump ample material for attacks. But Trump often discards fact-based ammunition in favor of colorful fiction.

Take what Trump said about Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut when the president announced in October that he was commuting the prison sentence of former Republican Rep. George Santos, who had pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges after gaining notoriety for numerous lies about his biography.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal gavels the start of a hearing on Capitol Hill on June 11, 2024 in Washington, DC. - Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Trump posted on social media that Blumenthal’s actions were “far worse.” Trump claimed that Blumenthal had lied for nearly two decades that, while serving in the Vietnam War, he “was ‘a Great Hero’” and “endured the worst of the War, watching the Wounded and Dead as he raced up the hills and down the valleys, blood streaming from his face.”

There is no record of Blumenthal claiming to have been a war hero, nor of Blumenthal claiming to have been injured in Vietnam, seen wounded or deceased people, fought in battles, or run through any particular terrain.

Blumenthal, who served in the Marine Corps Reserve in the US during the war, did falsely claim on at least a few occasions in the 2000s that he served in Vietnam itself. But Blumenthal – who accurately described his service on other occasions, and apologized in 2010 for the misstatements – told none of the vivid stories about taking part in deadly fights that Trump attacked him for supposedly telling.

Trump has told similar lies about Blumenthal’s supposed lies for more than seven years now.
Echoes of Trump’s other baseless attacks on the integrity of people and institutions

Trump’s attacks on the honesty of his political foes echo some of his best-known attacks on American institutions. Consider his frequent claims that accurate media reports are “fake news” and that the legitimate 2020 election he lost was “rigged and stolen.”

In those cases, as with his claims this week about inflation and January 6, he has presented himself as a paragon of truth while deceptively undermining the reputations of people who have actually been truthful.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com

Floridiot MAGA Rep. Cory Mills Caught with Pants Down While in Afghanistan

They're all for "family values", which include adultery, illegal fornication, homosexual pick-ups in airport bathrooms, pedophilia, porn actresses and prostitutes... I was raised a Christian, but they never taught me how to fornicate in sinful bliss like these famous Republicans, MAGA morons, and associated imbeciles who then, when caught with their pants down, claim to have been redeemed by their "personal" Savior Jesus Christ.

Cory Mills is a white dude. White American dudes think they own America because their granparents moved (illegally) from Europe, mass murdered the indigenous Amerindians and stole their lands, enslaved millions of Africans as free labor on their cotton plantations, and made the stunning discovery that "All men are created equal!". They had no idea. Their bible taught them that they - the white european dudes - are God's superior creation, a notion they must have borrowed from the Jewish people's scriptures that claim that they are Yahweh's favorite pet people and own the earth because God says so in the said goat-skin-parchment bible.

Even after making this astounding discovery that "All men are created equal" and proposing democracy as the new ruling method of their new country, the white founding fathers never really changed their mind. They just said they liked democracy because it was the cool thing to say in the late 18th century, what with all these philosophers and enlightened thinkers around them saying those things. But deep down, they continued, and continue, to hold racist, colonial, supremacist ideas and put them in practice. Donald Dumb is only the last in a long line of white supremacist racist dudes who say it is cool to have a democracy but do not practice it in reality.

The dude Mills also has the unrestrained libido of a rabbit. He must have sex - or turn violent - with every woman he meets. Perhaps he is following God's biblical injunction - again, borrowed from the biblical Hebrews - to "MULTIPLY", although Moses's ten commandements do not include "fornicative multiplication" as the eleventh commandment. I advise the adultering Texas Governor, the violating promoter of the divine commandments, the fornicator Gregg Abbot, to add an eleventh commandement, "Thou Shalt Fucketht Every Woman" as a fine print waiver to the other commandements (Thou shalt not commit adultery and Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife). This is what American insurance companies do: In large print, you get all the promises and pledges, but then after 100 pages of bullshit materials, they insert a small fine-print page in which they walk back all the aforementioned promises of coverage. This is the American business genius!

 White and horny MAGA republican dude Cory Mills - Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images

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Rep. Cory Mills Just Got Busted for Yet Another Sex Scandal: Report

Sarah Rumpf

Fri, November 21, 2025

No stranger to scandal, Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) just got his name in the headlines again, this time for reportedly getting caught with sex workers during a 2021 rescue mission to help evacuate Americans from Afghanistan.

The tale of Mills’ alleged misplaced priorities was reported on Thursday by Reese Gorman at NOTUS, citing “a source with direct knowledge of the incident and two sources briefed on the matter.”

According to Gorman’s report, Mills was part of a group of private individuals on an unofficial trip to Afghanistan in the wake of the chaos that accompanied the withdrawal of U.S. troops, with the intention of extracting Americans still stranded there as the Taliban retook control. At the time, Mills, an Army veteran, was a candidate for Florida’s 7th congressional district.

The trouble arose before they even arrived in Afghanistan, Gorman wrote, when the group was stopped in Tbilisi, Georgia before continuing on the next phase of their travels. One evening, Mills “was caught with sex workers” in the hallway of their accommodations, a discovery that made the other group members because “[t]heir mission was already sensitive, given the state of the country they were trying to enter.”

New: Cory Mills was caught with sex workers in Tilbisi, Georgia in 2021.

While awaiting to travel on an unannounced rescue mission to Afghanistan, Mills was caught in the hallway with sex workers and was kicked out of the group.https://t.co/rZ0o3A2q66  — Reese Gorman (@reesejgorman) November 20, 2025

The sources told NOTUS that this incident led the group to decide to “part ways” with Mills, and he traveled to Afghanistan separately.

While there, Mills did apparently help evacuate an American woman and her three children and then later publicly squabbled with the State Department, accusing the Biden administration of stealing credit in an appearance on Fox News and other media interviews.

Mills, now 45, has co-founded several security and defense contracting companies. His troubles over the past year include multiple on-the-record stolen valor accusations from soldiers who served with him in combat, a House Ethics Committee investigation into his business dealings and financial disclosures, a report he was being evicted from his D.C. penthouse apartment after his landlord accused him of owing $85,000, an accusation in February from 27-year-old Sarah Raviani that he had assaulted her at that D.C. apartment, a warrant was issued for Mills’ arrest but then Raviani recanted her accusations and he was not arrested, and then in September, Lindsey Langston, 26, the current reigning Miss United States and a Florida GOP state committeewoman, filed a restraining order petition against him.

Langston’s petition included numerous allegations against Mills, describing how she broke up with him after learning he was also in a relationship with Raviani from the news reports. However, he continued to aggressively pursue and harass her for months, ignoring her repeated rejections and requests to leave her alone.

According to Langston, “the threats from Cory intensified over time,” and included “emotional manipulation,” “physical violence against whoever I date in the future,” and threats to release nude images and sexually explicit videos of her, which would violate the Miss United States pageant’s code of conduct and jeopardize her crown.

Last month, a Florida judge slapped Mills with a restraining order requiring him to stay away from Langston, telling the congressman he found his testimony to not be believable.

Momentum is building in the House to censure Mills for these accusations of domestic violence and stolen valor, with several of his fellow Republicans supporting a censure resolution.

Regarding this latest report about sex workers in Georgia, his office did not respond to NOTUS’ request for comment and thus far, Mills has not posted on social media about it, although he has recently denied other allegations against him.

Trump to Pardon Jonathan Pollard, the Jewish Spy who sold US secrets to Israel

Christian Zionist US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee Loves Israeli Spies.  

Despite claiming ignorance, Donald Dumb instructed the moron Hucakbee to meet with the Jewish American traitor and spy Jonathan Pollard, who betrayed his own country (well, many American Jews consider Israel as their first country, and the US as a secondary convenient herd of livestock to use and abuse) by selling American military and nuclear secrets to Israel. Donald Dumb has been on a roll pardoning every possible criminal out there, and Pollard appears to be no exception. Pollard has been out of US prisons since 2015, his parole ended in 2020, and he is now a free traitor and criminal, hiding like many Jewish criminals in Israel, the so-called "homeland of the Jews". But an ultimate pardon by Donald Dumb would crown Pollard's nefarious career.

For background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Pollard 

The Evangelical Christian moron from the backward slavery state of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, loves Israelis who spy against the US. His behavior is symptomatic of the "US as Israel's Butler" syndrome in which Israelis can spy and steal from the US without shame or fear. Americans and Israelis are one and the same people because Zionists say they are both bound by the garbage parchment known as the "bible". In his rat hole in occupied colonized Palestine, War Criminal Benjamin Netanyahu claims he has stolen and raped Palestine, and is exterminating the indigenous Palestinian people (with the civilized western methods of ethnic cleansing and genocide) in order to defend western values! Hahahahaaaaa .... Israel thus proves that it itself is no more than a Jewish American colony in Palestine, and that the Israeli Death Forces (IDF) no more than an American colonial militia whose objective is to terrorize the native Palestinians into never rising up against the rape of their ancestral country of Palestine. Netanyahu and Huckabee's magic formula: For every Palestinian killed, ten Zionist settlers can take his place, and ten Christian Americans are ensured a one-way express ticket to Jesus-Christ's heavenly Disney-like resort. 

I have pity for Americans. They don't know that they are used by Zionists to promote and advance the Zionist rape of Palestine. They just go along because their biased media, their Zionist-lobby-paid representatives, and the Zionist-run Hollywood and entertainment industry feed their guinea-pig brains with distorted and biased information. Where do they think did Trump learn his trade of lies, alternative facts, and distorted misinformation from? The dumb jackass learned all of this from Roy Cohn, Jeffrey Epstein and all his New York Russian and Jewish Mafia buddies.

Donald Dumb and Roy Cohn, the evil master "architect" who mentored Donald Dumb (The Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/apprentice-trump-roy-cohn-jeremy-strong-b2628062.html) 

‘He Is Out of Control’: MAGA Demands Answers After Trump Ambassador Mike Huckabee Covertly Meets With Spy Who Sold American Secrets

Charlie Nash

Fri, November 21, 2025

[LI: The neanderthal Arkansan idiot US ambassador to Israel expects all Jews to convert to Christianity once his Savior Messiah Jesus-Christ returns (schedule unknown, but often declared as imminent) to earth from his heavenly abode where he's been recovering from his crucifixion some 2,000 years ago. If the Jews do not repent and convert, then Huckabee must follow his garbage bible's injunction to kill all the Jews who refuse to become Christians. That is why Donald Dumb appointed him as US Ambassador to the Zionist colony in Palestine, namely to speed up the return of the Messiah and the genocide of the recalcitrant Jews. Israelis: You've been warned. Huckabee and his ilk love you to death, literally. Remember that the Christian religion is an offshoot of Judaism, the first Christians during the first 300 years after the death of Jesus were ALL Jewish terrorist rebels fighting to topple the Roman Empire.] AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg

Prominent supporters of President Donald Trump demanded answers on Thursday after it was revealed that U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee had held a secret meeting in Jerusalem with Jonathan Pollard, a convicted spy who sold American secrets to Israel.

Reacting to news of the July rendezvous, which reportedly raised concerns at the CIA, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson said, “This is shocking behavior from a United States ambassador. Is Huckabee going to explain it?”

“Immediately Recall Ambassador Huckabee, He is Out of Control,” reacted former White House chief strategist and Breitbart executive chairman Steve Bannon. 

“There is no universe where it’s appropriate for Mike Huckabee, who is supposed to be OUR AMBASSADOR and serve our country’s interest, is meeting with Jonathan Pollard, who to this day encourages spying on the U.S.,” protested Mike Cernovich, who called for an investigation into the meeting. 

The meeting was also condemned by several Democrats, including Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) and former Obama White House staffer Tommy Vietor. 

“Jonathan Pollard is a convicted traitor who provided highly sensitive national security information to the Israeli government. He did grave harm to our country. He has never shown a degree of remorse for his crimes,” declared Castro. “It’s unacceptable that Ambassador Huckabee secretly met with Mr. Pollard, a convicted traitor, at the United States Embassy.”

Huckabee’s secret meeting with Pollard at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem was revealed by the New York Times on Thursday – four months after the rendezvous took place.

Pollard confirmed the “friendly meeting” in an interview with the newspaper and said that “a lot of things that came up in conversation.”

Pollard also attacked President Trump, calling him a “madman who has literally sold us down the drain, for Saudi gold.”

Three unnamed officials told the Times that the meeting “alarmed the Central Intelligence Agency’s station chief in Israel.” The White House was also reportedly unaware of the meeting in advance.

The former U.S. intelligence analyst was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 after he was found guilty of selling American secrets to the state of Israel.

After being released from prison in 2015, Pollard moved to Israel in 2020 – flying on a private jet owned by top Trump donor Sheldon Adelson. In Tel Aviv, Pollard was given a hero’s welcome by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Nag, Nag, Nag.... NAGA Morons Angry for Being Fooled by Donald Dumb

All of the disappointment below notwithstanding, the NAGA morons know they are under pressure to demonstrate thei patriotism and their "Americanity" by indebting themsleves further into a financial bottomless hole by rushing to spend every penny they make, consume and buy junk and crap for the "holidays" in order to save Trump's America.

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People Have No Sympathy For This Trump Supporter Who Complained About Their Rising Insurance Cost In A Viral Rant
Alexa Lisitza
Fri, November 21, 2025

Republicans have a problem. According to Politico, Americans who buy their insurance through the Affordable Care Act may face a 26% rise in their premiums, and those who get insurance through their employers could see a hike of up to 7%.
Bloomberg / Getty Images
 

Their hypothetical solution? Find a way to avoid premium rises without extending government subsidies. However, if you ask how they'll do this, that has yet to be seen.

I'm sure I don't have to tell you, but Americans are already struggling to afford basic needs and the cost of living. As Bankrate Senior Economic Analyst Mark Hamrick told CBS News, "We are essentially a paycheck-to-paycheck nation," and a single emergency could knock most citizens off their feet.

Bloomberg / Getty Images 

 

As the end of the year nears, so do insurance open enrollment deadlines, and purchasers don't like what they're seeing — including MAGA voters who expected Republicans to lower prices. One such person includes this poster, whose rant about their 2026 insurance premiums is going viral. "Dear President Trump," they wrote. "I once was a supporter of yrs. Now, I am NOT !!!" [LI: FU-- YOU moron]

Charming-Rooster8773 / reddit.com [LI: Thank you for your attention to this matter!]
"Thanks to you and yr administration my insurance premiums in 2026 will be 5 ( FIVE !!!!! ) times what it was in 2025. Same policy.......same coverage ! So much for me retiring next year," they wrote.

"Can't afford it, but hell can't afford anything anymore !!!!!!! 😭😭 This country is no longer about the people. Hate me if you want. Unfriended me if you want."
"i am tired of working my ass off and getting nowhere. I am simply trying to make a good life for my family ! That gets harder everyday," the poster concluded.

Bloomberg / Getty Images
 

Hundreds upon hundreds of people commented on the post, and most are not exactly sympathetic. "After all this time, I still don't understand how people relying on health insurance and/or government assistance to get through each month could have voted for a candidate who very clearly indicated he was going to savagely cut those things," Redditor changelingcd commented.

Sopa Images / Getty Images [LI: Donald Dumb's NAGA supporters look like they're mutants from the Jurassic period]
 

"Why are these people so upset?" user JustinTime4242 questioned. "They got exactly what they voted for. Shouldn’t they be happy?" [LI: BUT THEY ARE THE DUMBEST OF THE DUMBEST 'NAGA' MORONS. THEIR DEFECTIVE BRAINS PREVENT THEM FROM ANTICIPATING CONSEQUENCES OF THEIR ACTIONS. THEY VOTE WITH EMPTY SKULLS.]

Bloomberg / Getty Images
Others suggested the poster may have been worried about the wrong thing...or the wrong party.

"If only there was some political party that wanted people to have healthcare and fair wages," letdogsvote quipped. But most suggested that the reality facing America is one that voters should have expected.

"He is not a politician. He is a businessman," derpferd said. "And for everyone who says you should run the government like a businessman, that's dumb. Governments exist to serve the needs of the people. Businesses exist to serve the goal of achieving a profit."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Looming affordability crisis set to hit Americans with health insurance through work
Kelly Hooper
Thu, November 20, 2025

Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo

Rising health insurance premiums are a political problem for Republicans. Rising premiums for workers who get health insurance from their employers could be an even bigger one.

Republicans in Congress are focused on finding a way to counteract an expected 26 percent rise in premiums for people who buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act, without extending government subsidies that make insurance more affordable.

What the GOP isn't talking about: Nearly seven times as many Americans get health insurance through an employer as those who buy it individually. Those 165 million people are expected to see their premiums spike by up to 7 percent.

"That's going to absolutely put pressure on whoever’s [in power],” said Katherine Hempstead, senior policy adviser at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a health care-focused philanthropy.

Voters have started making it clear that affordability of basic necessities — including health care — will be a defining issue in determining who holds the balance of power in Congress after next year's midterm elections. That means the GOP may need to look beyond fixing Affordable Care Act subsidies to maintain control of the House and Senate.

Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers and candidates say they plan to make affordability their top issue in next year’s midterm elections, but it remains to be seen whether they'll include the plight of workers with employer-provided insurance in their push.
 

Passing rising medical costs on to patients

People with group coverage are expected to see an average 6 to 7 percent premium increase this month as they re-enroll in coverage that will start in January.

That comes as their employers are expecting the largest jump in health costs in 15 years in 2026, at 6.7 percent, more than double the rate of inflation and the typical pay raise workers are getting.

Employer-provided insurance rates are rising as medical costs shoot up — especially hospital and prescription drug costs, partially driven by the GLP-1 drug boom. In 2025, prescription drug spending rose 9.4 percent on average among large employers as more companies began covering the costly weight-loss treatments, according to Mercer.

Consolidation among health care providers, which limits competition and gives health systems more power to demand higher prices for care, also plays a role, policy experts said.

Plans may be more expensive next year to account for uncertainty over rising costs as the Trump administration implements tariffs on some drugs and medical devices, the experts said. That could drive up costs for providers at the same time that fewer Americans are projected to be insured, which puts pressure on health systems to shift costs to commercial plans.

“We all use the same delivery system, and if a hospital loses Medicaid coverage or other public coverage, they always seek to recoup those costs by passing them on to private coverage,” said Elizabeth Mitchell, president and CEO of Purchaser Business Group on Health, a nonprofit coalition of employers.
 

Congress is 'missing the broader point'

The 24 million people enrolled in Obamacare and 69 million seniors enrolled in Medicare are also seeing higher premiums during open enrollment. While there are similar catalysts behind the price hikes, Obamacare premiums are under extra pressure due to expiring subsidies Democrats supersized in 2021.

The news gets worse for those on employer plans.

In addition to rising premiums, workers are expected to see higher deductibles, co-pays and out-of-pocket maximums next year, which could lead to larger out-of-pocket costs, according to consulting firm Mercer’s 2025 National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans.

The projected premium increases for next year in the employer market follow a 6 percent increase this year, when premiums for employer-sponsored family coverage reached nearly $27,000. Workers contribute an average $6,850 toward the cost of family coverage, according to nonpartisan research group KFF, with their employers picking up the rest.

Employers plan to raise wages 3.1 percent on average in 2026, according to Mercer. That means a sizable portion of many employees’ pay increase will go toward covering rising insurance premiums, leaving little left over to pay for increased costs elsewhere in their budgets.

“Our wages aren't going up fast enough to keep up with inflation. A huge part of that is because [employers] are spending so much more on health care,” said Shawn Gremminger, president and CEO of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions, a coalition of mid- and large-sized employers.

Concern from employer groups like the National Alliance and PBGH comes as bipartisan lawmakers in Congress are searching for a path forward to make health care more affordable for millions of Americans — but the focus is on the Obamacare marketplace.

Lawmakers are “missing the broader point,” Gremminger said.

Average Americans aren't going to understand the nuances of health care markets and subsidies, he said, adding, "But I think they will notice when their health care costs go up next year, and they will wonder why Congress is congratulating itself on solving the problem that they haven't solved."

Employer groups are urging Congress to consider cost-cutting reforms, including bolstering provider and insurer price transparency requirements and cracking down on health care consolidation. But so far, there’s been little indication that either party is focused on employer health costs as Obamacare subsidies take center stage of lawmakers’ end-of-year discussions.

Republicans recently proposed allowing people enrolled in the ACA to access funds through health savings accounts, as opposed to receiving a federal subsidy to offset premium costs. Democrats continue to push for an ACA subsidy extension.

Earlier this year, the Senate stripped provisions from the House-passed GOP domestic policy megabill that would have strengthened HSAs for people on employer health plans, including one that would have doubled the amount individuals and families could contribute to the pre-tax accounts for medical expenses that some companies offer with high-deductible health plans. Another stripped provision would’ve broadened services enrollees can use HSA funds for to include fitness and sports expenses.

The Senate-passed version of the bill included less expansive HSA provisions, including one allowing high-deductible plans to pay for telehealth visits without jeopardizing clients’ ability to qualify for HSAs. Another allows people to use HSAs for direct primary care, or when patients pay primary care doctors a monthly or yearly fee rather than reimbursing them through insurance.

House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) signaled Monday that he wants to revisit the House’s HSA proposals and address rising employer health plan costs, but it’s not clear whether he plans to offer a specific plan and when he’ll pursue it.

Smith’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, Republicans are looking ahead to the midterms. If they want to hang onto their majorities in the House and Senate, GOP lawmakers could stand to gain from addressing rising costs of employer insurance.

It's among the priorities Americans say they care about, with polling showing that health care affordability is among the top issues voters hope Congress will address. The polling, from Reuters/Ipsos, also showed that voters see cost of living as a top concern going into the midterms.

Faced with rising costs from all angles, employees may opt to enroll in cheaper, lower-quality health plans with higher deductibles or forgo coverage altogether, a trend policy experts think will be mirrored in the ACA market if enhanced subsidies expire.

Consumers are already struggling to pay for basic expenses like food and gas, Hempstead pointed out. If they're hit with a big increase in premiums, she added, they may say: 'I'm just not going to pay for it."

The result could be a lose-lose situation: Fewer people insured and more uncompensated costs for providers.