Nothing but the truth. Even if against me.
Tuesday, December 23, 2025
Beloved Jim Bean Shuts Down because of Trump's Tariffs
Jim Beam Shutters Main Distillery For 2026 As Sales Falter Due To Trump Trade War
On Dementia, Trump is Copy-Pasting Biden but with a Touch of Insanity
Brace yourselves for the next three years of Trump. He's in decline, becoming irritable and angry... He knows two things for sure:
1- His mind is declining, his megalomania is growing by the day - ballroom, arc de Trump, warmongering, golden fleet of aircraft carriers, renaming the Kennedy Center in his name as if by simply adding his name to it the culture will somehow osmose into him, and
2- He has only three years left in office during which he aims to leave as much of his dander as he can on everything.
Put these two things together, and you get a demented AND desperate loser who will burn all the bridges because he knows he won't be walking them ever again.
The man should be thrown out of office before he does more harm to the republic.
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Trump Mental Decline Is Accelerating: Psychologist
William Vaillancourt, The Daily Beast Podcast
Sun, December 21, 2025
Donald Trump’s boasts about passing cognitive tests suggest he’s being monitored for the progression of dementia, one psychologist says.
Dr. John Gartner told The Daily Beast Podcast that the 79-year-old president’s claim to have “aced” three Montreal Cognitive Assessments could be more than simple routine screenings for the degenerative disease.
“You know, he kind of gave the game away again, as he often does,” Gartner, a former professor at Johns Hopkins, told co-host Joanna Coles about Trump claiming to have passed a test in front of “large numbers of doctors and experts, most of whom I do not know.”
“You could maybe justify giving someone the MoCA once, just on their age, just as part of a physical. If you’re giving it to him three times, that means you’re not assessing dementia. That means you’re monitoring dementia,” Gartner said.
The MoCA is a 30-question assessment given over 10 minutes.
“Because if you keep feeling like, no, he’s still got the symptoms, we’ve got to see how bad he’s doing now, we’ve got to check again, see how bad he’s doing now—I think they’re giving him cognitive tests and MRIs every six months to monitor the progress of his dementia, and/or strokes," Gartner added.
Trump had an MRI in October, just six months after his April physical. The White House has said it was a “preventative” look at his heart and abdomen.
In July, Trump was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, a condition common in older people where the leg veins have trouble returning blood to the heart. Trump has often been seen with swollen ankles.
Regarding the president’s cognitive health, his rushed speech this week defending his administration in an elevated voice was indicative of his “hypomania,” Gartner went on to say.
“We have to judge people against their own baseline, and if somebody doubles their rate of speed, that’s a mental status change of some kind,” Gartner said. “I’ve always said that Trump is on the bipolar spectrum. He’s not manic, he’s hypomanic. ‘Hypo’ is Greek for ‘less than,’ so he’s not fully manic.”
“I think the reason that he was speaking so quickly here… was because he’s scared,” Gartner continued, adding that he believed White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles told him he’s “losing the country” on a variety of issues.
Wiles and Trump
“They’ll never admit it, of course, and so this was his attempt to kind of make a comeback, and so the anxiety stimulated his hypomania, which then made him speak at this hypomanic pace that isn’t even typical of him.”
Wiles, in a Vanity Fair interview published this week, described Trump as having an “alcoholic’s personality.” And her boss agreed, telling the New York Post that he does have a “possessive and addictive personality.”
One of thing the president can’t stop doing, it seems, is bragging about cognitive tests. Trump, the oldest person elected president, has been doing it since his first term. In a 2020 interview with Fox News, he claimed that he impressed doctors so much that he earned “extra points” on a 2018 exam, part of which required him to repeat the words “person woman man camera TV” in the correct sequence.
When reached for comment, the White House criticized Gartner and insisted that Trump’s health is “excellent.”
“The Daily Beast is a left-wing mouthpiece that should be deeply embarrassed to publish this garbage and pass off deranged resistance leftists as ‘experts,’” Assistant Press Secretary Liz Huston said in a lengthy statement. “Anyone pathetic enough to defend Biden’s mental state—while being labeled as unethical by their peers—has zero credibility."
”As the President’s physician, Dr. Sean Barbabella, has made clear time and again—and as the American people see with their own eyes every single day—President Trump remains in excellent overall health,“ she continued. ”President Trump’s relentless work ethic, unmatched energy, and historic accessibility stand in sharp contrast to what we saw during the past four years when the failing legacy media intentionally covered up Joe Biden’s serious mental and physical decline from the American people. Pushing these fake and desperate narratives now about President Trump is why Americans’ trust in the media just fell to a new all-time low.”
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Donald Trump’s Odd Behavior Sparks New Health Concerns
Debbie Krencicki
Mon, December 22, 2025
Photo Credit: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Image
First it was the swollen ankles. Then it was the bruises on the back of his hands and the alarming droopy face. Though his staff continues to assure us that Donald Trump is at the peak of health, his behavior is sometimes worrisome.
The man is nearly 80, after all. Most men his age would be relaxing on the golf course, not sitting in the Oval Office. Despite insisting he’s “aced” several cognitive tests and had a “beautiful” MRI, some people wonder why he needed those tests in the first place. Are his doctors concerned about something?
Donald Trump smacked his leg three times going down the stairs of Air Force One
President Trump exited Air Force One tonight in West Palm Beach. He is headed to Mar-a-Lago. . pic.twitter.com/Z4vBY8qobw — Paul Villarreal (AKA Vince Manfeld) (@AureliusStoic1) December 20, 2025
As further evidence that his health may be declining, the president seemed to exhibit some odd behavior as he departed Air Force One on December 20. After landing in Florida, he looked more cautious than usual as he descended the stairs from the plane.
After exiting the plane, POTUS strangely tapped his right leg three times. He then seemed to cling to the handrail, as he slowly descended the stairs. This isn’t the first time he seemed cautious descending the stairs, as he narrowly escaped a fall back in October.
Commenters on X (formerly Twitter) were quick to notice his hesitancy. As one social medial user quipped, “I wish he concentrated on the economy like he concentrated on going down those stairs.”
Others thought he appeared frail, another person even writing, “That’s a stroke patient.”
“It is not his leg he is touching, but he is trying to get life back into his hand,” another suggested. “I have seen this before on old people … Either he has had a stroke at one point or he has nerve damage in [his] hand.”
Another opined that the president’s behavior was “perfectly fine,” and perhaps his leg had just fallen asleep on the flight.
In the past few months, Trump has often seemed to doze off during cabinet meetings. Equally concerning are his sometimes inappropriate and rambling tangents. He recently offered a crowd in North Carolina a little TMI on his wife Melania Trump’s undergarments.
What Names do Violence-prone MAGA Republicans Give their Children?
Let's start with Donald Dumb naming his son "Barron". He could have gone higher with King, or Emperor, or even Shah.
But the average, patriotically violent, gun-owning American of the Trump movement find names with violent connotations too cute: I have a Simth & Wesson in my home arsenal, so my boy will be named "Wesson".
According to Huffpost, other trending names in regressive Trump's America include Caliber, Shooter, Barrel, Trigger, Bullet, Ammo, Blade , Cannon, Remington, Colt, Ruger, Winchester, Arson, Cutter and Dagger are among the other names with a violent edge in recent data, according to the Social Security Administration.
Weapons-inspired names suggest that parents transfer their love of violence from their favorite weapons to their newborns, who in turn could grow up "inspired" by their names. You know, a Joseph is often suggestive of a fatherly persona with a particular connotation with the father of Jesus. Names like Paul and Peter also derive aura from religious figures. By far, the currently trending violence-inspired names are given much more frequently to newborns in primitive backward states in the racist, segregationist south, like Texas or Alabama.Now imagine if the last name is also, perhaps inherited unwillingly, derived from violent history, mythology and imagery. Hatchett is one. Caine is another. Blight yet another.... etc.
The appeal of such names is embedded in conservative values espoused by gun advocates whose machismo and exaggerated masculinity underscores the fear that their child - a boy - might be less masculine. By giving their son a name associated with violence, aggression or strength, they seek a nominal insurance voucher that their male offspring will be masculine and not gay-like or effeminate.
I remember a family in upsate New York that had a boy and two girls. When the boy was about 5 years old, he would occasionally run around visitors holding his shirt up to his chest, showing his belly and yelling, "Wanna feel my body? Wanna feel my body?". The father would go ballistic, grab the boy and lecture him not to do that anymore because boys don't do that!
Machismo is often associated with men in Latin America, but not in North America. The fact is that men in the United States are as macho as their counterparts in south and central America, but they have learned to disguise it under a veneer of civility. Trump has, unfortunately, lifted the veil and freed the United Statesian male from any inhibition with regards to violence and aggressive masculinity. He took all of America back to the Wild West where 21st century men, supposedly tamed into being civlized, can again enjoy killing free of remorse or ethical considerations. In the mind of Trump's MAGA and republicans, a male is by definition an aggressive, mean warrior (Hegseth dixit) who should like to be "lethal". There can be no other form of masculinity. Which explains the reaction - backlash against the women's rights movement as being the culprit behind the North American male's feminization, as the Radical Right sees it.Interviewed by Huffpost, Sophie Kihm, the editor-in-chief at the website Nameberry, says, “It’s rare for me to outright reject a name or name trend, but I cannot get behind weapon-inspired names ... They glamorize violence, particularly in the wake of so much violence in the U.S."
BabyNames.com founder Jennifer Moss says, “I find the weapon names particularly alarming because it’s tying your child to an instrument of destruction or death ― or at the least a word that’s associated with violence,” Moss said. “Another reason not to use a name with an immediately identifiable meaning is that it can become a joke. People’s first response might be to laugh at it, or assume that you do belong to a particular culture that favors weaponry or violence. It comes with baggage.”
Monday, December 22, 2025
As Predicted, Pam Bondi has Customized the Epstein Files to Trump's Advantage
Opinion
Impeachable: Pam Bondi Defied Federal Law by Erasing Epstein Photos to Protect Trump
Colby Hall
Sun, December 21, 2025
The Justice Department is now engaged in an open cover-up carried out in direct violation of federal law.
Over the weekend, the department quietly removed 16 photographs from the Epstein files website it created to comply with a disclosure statute passed by Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump. The removals came without notice or explanation. Among the deleted images was one of the few photographs that even indirectly featured Trump, a picture of a credenza drawer inside Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan home containing other photographs, including at least one of Trump. Twelve others depicted Epstein’s third-floor massage room, a central crime scene in the federal investigation. Some images of the same room remain public. Others disappeared.
When Democrats on the House Oversight Committee asked whether the Trump-related image had been taken down, the Justice Department declined to respond.
What followed made matters worse.
In a post on X quoting Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, the Justice Department claimed that “photos and other materials will continue being reviewed and redacted consistent with the law in an abundance of caution as we receive additional information.” Blanche’s original post asserted that the department had released Epstein materials “under the Epstein Files Transparency Act” and that additional disclosures would follow “as our review continues, consistent with the law and with protections for victims.”
That explanation fails under the statute the department invoked.
Congress did not authorize a rolling review. The Epstein Files Transparency Act compels the Justice Department to release all Epstein-related materials in its possession. The law imposes a mandatory disclosure obligation and permits only limited redactions to protect victims. It grants no authority to retract, revise, or curate records after release. Once the department published those materials, the law required that they remain available to the public.
Removing them placed the department in direct conflict with the statute Congress enacted.
That conflict was immediately recognized. Blanche’s post received a community note stating that the law requires the release of all files and allows only narrow redactions to protect victims, adding that the department’s partial release and extensive redactions violated the statute. The Justice Department’s own post received a community note citing the statute directly and stating that retractions and redactions to protect politically exposed persons are not permitted. Community Notes appear only when users with differing political viewpoints agree on their accuracy, underscoring how broadly that conclusion was shared.
The department’s own explanation confirms it is violating the law it claims to follow.
The sequence exposes motive. The files went live. Political reaction followed. The department then altered the public record. Compliance held only until presidential exposure appeared, then gave way to erasure.
In November, I described the Trump Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein files as a cover-up. Last week, I wrote that the administration’s delay in disclosure created a political problem rather than an immediate legal one. That assessment reflected weak enforcement mechanisms and an approach built on delay rather than open defiance.
This moment marks escalation.
Removing already released material that implicates the president converts a credibility crisis into a statutory violation and a far larger political emergency. Congress passed the Epstein disclosure statute precisely to eliminate executive discretion. Lawmakers acted because the Justice Department repeatedly demonstrated it could not be trusted to manage politically sensitive material involving powerful figures. The law mandated disclosure to prevent executive self-protection.
The department seized that discretion anyway.
Attorney General Pam Bondi had lawful options. She could have sought judicial review. She could have consulted Congress. She could have acknowledged that the statute permits no removal authority and sought amendment. Each path would have preserved institutional legitimacy. She chose concealment and false justification instead.
This erasure differs from earlier Trump-era document fights in a crucial way. Prior disputes centered on whether materials must be disclosed. This episode involves evidence already released to the public under statutory standards. The department determined the images satisfied the law’s requirements, then removed them once the political cost became apparent.
That changes everything.
Every disclosure statute now faces the same test: compliance survives only until it threatens the president. Months of delay, sweeping redactions, and staged releases already convinced much of the public that the Justice Department prioritized Trump’s standing over transparency, victims, and the public interest. The image removals confirm that conclusion decisively.
A Justice Department that edits evidence to shield the president forfeits legitimacy. Oversight collapses when obedience ends at political inconvenience. The rule of law depends on statutes binding the executive even when compliance proves costly.
Congress wrote a law to prevent exactly this abuse. The president signed it. The attorney general is now violating it to protect him. That meets any reasonable standard for impeachment.
The backlash on Capitol Hill was immediate and bipartisan. Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California, who co-authored the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who forced the House vote compelling disclosure, both said the Justice Department failed to comply with the law. Khanna has confirmed that he and Massie are drafting impeachment and contempt measures against Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Congress now faces a choice. It can accept that disclosure laws apply only when politically painless. It can normalize the disappearance of already public evidence. It can allow executive power to override legislative command.
Or it can enforce the law it wrote.
This is a cover-up enforced through executive defiance. The question now is whether Congress will enforce its own laws.
The post Impeachable: Pam Bondi Defied Federal Law by Erasing Epstein Photos to Protect Trump first appeared on Mediaite.
CBS Keeps Caving In to Dicktator Trump
It has been a tradition in totalitarian systems for the government to install a monitor inside news agencies to make sure reporting is always favorable to the dictator. The fall of the Soviet Union and its KGB tight control over Pravda did not change things: Dicktator Vladimir Putin not only controls his country's media, but he even kills those journalists who dissent.
The US under Trump is following a similar course. Trump seemingly hasn't killed any journalist yet, but he is controlling editorial decisions within private US media institutions: at CBS, there is a government-imposed media monitor that ensures nothing bad is said about Trump. Which is why CBS just pulled from its schedule a program on the notorious prison in El Salvador (CECOT) where Trump is sending people arrested by his many his police forces (ICE, CBP, etc.)
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FCC Commissioner Calls CBS News Decision To Pull ‘60 Minutes’ Segment “Deeply Alarming”, Warns Of Trump Getting “Veto Power Over Critical Reporting”
Ted Johnson
Mon, December 22, 2025
Heather Diehl/Getty Images
The sole Democrat on the FCC said Monday that the CBS News decision to pull a 60 Minutes segment on Trump administration deportations is “deeply alarming” and risks giving the government “veto power over critical reporting by simply refusing to engage.”
Commissioner Anna Gomez said in a statement, “We are now seeing the real-world consequences of blurring the line between regulatory authority and editorial independence.”
“A free press cannot function if the government is able to exercise veto power over critical reporting simply by refusing to engage,” Gomez said. “That is fundamentally incompatible with the First Amendment and the role of journalists in holding those in power to account. These concerns are only heightened when a media company seeking favorable action on future regulatory approvals tempers or delays coverage critical of this Administration, raising serious questions about whether editorial decisions are being influenced by external pressure rather than journalistic judgment.”
On Sunday, just hours before the 60 Minutes broadcast, the show announced that the planned segment, which featured interviews with deportees sent to a harsh CECOT prison in El Salvador, was being pulled from the schedule. CBS News indicated that it would be run at a later date, and that it needed more reporting.
The correspondent on the piece, Sharyn Alfonsi, later wrote an email to colleagues that the piece had been screened five times and cleared by standards and practices and network attorneys, and had been promoted on social media. “It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now, after every rigorous internal check has been met, is not an editorial decision, it is a political one,” she wrote.
Bari Weiss, the editor in chief of CBS News, defended her decision in a call with staffers on Monday, telling them that it was “not ready” and while it “presented powerful testimony of torture at CECOT,” it did not advance the topic, as the New York Times and other outlets have done similar work. “The public knows that Venezuelans have been subjected to horrific treatment at this prison. To run a story on this subject two months later, we need to do more. And this is 60 Minutes. We need to be able to get the principals on the record and on camera,” she wrote.
But Alfonsi wrote that they “requested responses to questions and/or interviews with DHS, the White House and the State Department. Government silence is a statement, not a VETO. Their refusal to be interviewed is a tactical maneuver designed to kill the story.”
Last summer, Gomez opposed the FCC’s approval of Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS. Among other things, she faulted the companies for “capitulation over courage” as Donald Trump sought — and got — a $16 million settlement of his lawsuit against CBS and 60 Minutes, even though many legal observers called the litigation baseless. Weeks later, after Skydance said it would agree to hire an ombudsman to take complaints about news programming, and the deal then secured the FCC’s greenlight. The new Paramount later tapped Kenneth Weinstein, former president and CEO of the Hudson Institute, a right-leaning D.C. think tank, to serve in that role.
Gomez said, “The public has the right to question how CBS will ensure the independence and integrity of its journalism going forward, concerns which are only compounded by the existence of a government-imposed media monitor at CBS, a deeply flawed and unprecedented form of government involvement in editorial affairs. In the days ahead, I hope CBS provides its viewers with a clear accounting of how this decision was made and demonstrates how it will safeguard the independence of its newsroom.”
A CBS News spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.
Paramount has made a hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, in a transaction that will require approval from the Justice Department. Trump has said that he will be involved in the regulatory approval decision.
US is on a Cliff: Trump added $1.8 Trillion to the National Debt now at $38 Trillion
Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act will likely cause the national debt to grow to $52 trillion by fiscal year 2035. Much like the average American who lives "rich" on debt, the US keeps borrowing, even under a conservative administration like Trump's. According to [https://www.moneydigest.com/1943642/how-much-united-states-debt-is-owned-by-china/ ]:
"The United States is in debt with China for hundreds of billions of dollars, yet that sum is miniscule when compared to the total national debt, and the amount of debt owed to other bond holders. As of 2025, China's central bank owns a 2.1% share of America's nearly $37 trillion deficit, according to an analysis of U.S. Treasury data by the Pew Research Center. That amounts to $756.3 billion, which pales in comparison to the $7.4 trillion that the federal government owes itself for programs such as Social Security, or the $4.6 trillion owed to the Federal Reserve. On top of that, another $4.5 trillion is owed to mutual funds, $1.9 trillion is owed to U.S.-based banks, and $1.7 trillion is owed to state and local governments.
Plus, China is not even the largest foreign owner of U.S. debt. That title belongs to Japan, which owns 3.1% of the United States' deficit, or $1.1 trillion, followed by the United Kingdom, which owns 2.2%, or $809.4 billion of U.S. debt....the real issue is not who owns the debt, but the debt itself. In Q2 2025, U.S. debt was 119.4% of the country's GDP, per the Pew Research Center. Adding to this, the deductions and tax breaks from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will likely cause the national debt to grow to $52 trillion by fiscal year 2035".
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Mitt Romney says the U.S. is on a cliff—and taxing the rich is now necessary ‘given the magnitude of our national debt’
Dave Smith
Mon, December 22, 2025
Mitt Romney - (Bill Clark / CQ-Roll Call, Inc—Getty Images)
Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. senator from Utah, has long been known for fiscal conservatism and tax cuts. But in a Friday op-ed for The New York Times, he reversed course, calling for higher taxes on rich Americans like himself to address the looming national debt crisis and prevent the collapse of Social Security.
Romney said the U.S. is headed for an economic cliff as the Social Security Trust Fund races toward insolvency in 2034, according to a projection from the CRFB. Without congressional intervention, benefits would be slashed by roughly 23%, forcing the government to borrow trillions at potentially exorbitant interest rates or print money that could trigger hyperinflation.
“Today, all of us, including our grandmas, truly are headed for a cliff,” he warned. “Typically, Democrats insist on higher taxes, and Republicans insist on lower spending. But given the magnitude of our national debt as well as the proximity of the cliff, both are necessary.”
America’s national debt has swelled to more than $38 trillion; in 2025 alone, it increased by about $1.8 trillion. Last year, interest payments on the debt surpassed $1 trillion for the first time, exceeding spending on Medicare and national defense. Annual debt-servicing costs are projected to climb to $1.8 trillion over the next decade.
”DOGE took a slash-and-burn approach to budget cutting and failed spectacularly,” Romney wrote. Indeed, a Yale University Budget Lab report earlier this year said DOGE was likely costing the government more than it was saving.
Romney devoted most of his op-ed to tax proposals aimed at high earners. He reversed his longstanding opposition to raising the income cap on payroll taxes, which currently stands at $176,100.
“I long opposed increasing the income level on which FICA employment taxes are applied (this year, the cap is $176,100). No longer; the consequences of the cliff have changed my mind,” he explained.
The 78-year-old former presidential candidate also called for closing what he described as tax “caverns” or “caves” that benefit multibillionaires. He singled out the step-up in basis provision, which allows heirs of large estates to avoid capital gains taxes on inherited assets. Using Tesla CEO Elon Musk as an example, Romney argued this loophole should be eliminated for estates valued above $100 million.
“If he had originally purchased his Tesla stock with, say, $1 billion and held it until his death and if it was then worth $500 billion, he would never pay the 24% federal capital gains tax on the $499 billion profit,” he said. “Why? Because under the tax code, capital gains are not taxed at death. The tax code provision known as step-up in basis means that when Mr. Musk’s heirs get his stock, they are treated as if they purchased it for $500 billion. So no one pays taxes on the $499 billion capital gain. Ever.”
Romney said the “unusual provision” makes sense if you’re talking about helping families keep the farms they’ve passed down for generations, “but it’s being used by billionaires to avoid capital gains taxes.”
He also proposed reforms to carried interest rules—a tax provision that allows private equity and hedge fund managers to treat management fees as capital gains taxed at 15% rather than ordinary income taxed at up to 37%. He suggested ending certain like-kind exchanges and depreciation rules that shelter income from taxation.
“I believe in free enterprise, and I believe all Americans should be able to strive for financial success,” Romney concluded. “But we have reached a point where any mix of solutions to our nation’s economic problems is going to involve the wealthiest Americans contributing more.”
Romney, who is worth an estimated $254 million and was among Congress’s wealthiest members before leaving the Senate in January of this year, famously paid an effective tax rate of 13.9% during his 2012 presidential run.
On Sunday, The Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote a searing response to Romney’s essay, saying “Mr. Romney made his fortune at Bain Capital, and good for him. He can afford to pay more now, but would the 28-year-old Mitt still on the make have thought so? Raising taxes makes it harder for others to get rich.”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
"The United States is in debt with China for hundreds of billions of dollars, yet that sum is miniscule when compared to the total national debt, and the amount of debt owed to other bond holders. As of 2025, China's central bank owns a 2.1% share of America's nearly $37 trillion deficit, according to an analysis of U.S. Treasury data by the Pew Research Center. That amounts to $756.3 billion, which pales in comparison to the $7.4 trillion that the federal government owes itself for programs such as Social Security, or the $4.6 trillion owed to the Federal Reserve. On top of that, another $4.5 trillion is owed to mutual funds, $1.9 trillion is owed to U.S.-based banks, and $1.7 trillion is owed to state and local governments.
Plus, China is not even the largest foreign owner of U.S. debt. That title belongs to Japan, which owns 3.1% of the United States' deficit, or $1.1 trillion, followed by the United Kingdom, which owns 2.2%, or $809.4 billion of U.S. debt....the real issue is not who owns the debt, but the debt itself. In Q2 2025, U.S. debt was 119.4% of the country's GDP, per the Pew Research Center. Adding to this, the deductions and tax breaks from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will likely cause the national debt to grow to $52 trillion by fiscal year 2035".
==============================================
Mitt Romney says the U.S. is on a cliff—and taxing the rich is now necessary ‘given the magnitude of our national debt’
Dave Smith
Mon, December 22, 2025
Mitt Romney - (Bill Clark / CQ-Roll Call, Inc—Getty Images)
Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. senator from Utah, has long been known for fiscal conservatism and tax cuts. But in a Friday op-ed for The New York Times, he reversed course, calling for higher taxes on rich Americans like himself to address the looming national debt crisis and prevent the collapse of Social Security.
Romney said the U.S. is headed for an economic cliff as the Social Security Trust Fund races toward insolvency in 2034, according to a projection from the CRFB. Without congressional intervention, benefits would be slashed by roughly 23%, forcing the government to borrow trillions at potentially exorbitant interest rates or print money that could trigger hyperinflation.
“Today, all of us, including our grandmas, truly are headed for a cliff,” he warned. “Typically, Democrats insist on higher taxes, and Republicans insist on lower spending. But given the magnitude of our national debt as well as the proximity of the cliff, both are necessary.”
America’s national debt has swelled to more than $38 trillion; in 2025 alone, it increased by about $1.8 trillion. Last year, interest payments on the debt surpassed $1 trillion for the first time, exceeding spending on Medicare and national defense. Annual debt-servicing costs are projected to climb to $1.8 trillion over the next decade.
”DOGE took a slash-and-burn approach to budget cutting and failed spectacularly,” Romney wrote. Indeed, a Yale University Budget Lab report earlier this year said DOGE was likely costing the government more than it was saving.
Romney devoted most of his op-ed to tax proposals aimed at high earners. He reversed his longstanding opposition to raising the income cap on payroll taxes, which currently stands at $176,100.
“I long opposed increasing the income level on which FICA employment taxes are applied (this year, the cap is $176,100). No longer; the consequences of the cliff have changed my mind,” he explained.
The 78-year-old former presidential candidate also called for closing what he described as tax “caverns” or “caves” that benefit multibillionaires. He singled out the step-up in basis provision, which allows heirs of large estates to avoid capital gains taxes on inherited assets. Using Tesla CEO Elon Musk as an example, Romney argued this loophole should be eliminated for estates valued above $100 million.
“If he had originally purchased his Tesla stock with, say, $1 billion and held it until his death and if it was then worth $500 billion, he would never pay the 24% federal capital gains tax on the $499 billion profit,” he said. “Why? Because under the tax code, capital gains are not taxed at death. The tax code provision known as step-up in basis means that when Mr. Musk’s heirs get his stock, they are treated as if they purchased it for $500 billion. So no one pays taxes on the $499 billion capital gain. Ever.”
Romney said the “unusual provision” makes sense if you’re talking about helping families keep the farms they’ve passed down for generations, “but it’s being used by billionaires to avoid capital gains taxes.”
He also proposed reforms to carried interest rules—a tax provision that allows private equity and hedge fund managers to treat management fees as capital gains taxed at 15% rather than ordinary income taxed at up to 37%. He suggested ending certain like-kind exchanges and depreciation rules that shelter income from taxation.
“I believe in free enterprise, and I believe all Americans should be able to strive for financial success,” Romney concluded. “But we have reached a point where any mix of solutions to our nation’s economic problems is going to involve the wealthiest Americans contributing more.”
Romney, who is worth an estimated $254 million and was among Congress’s wealthiest members before leaving the Senate in January of this year, famously paid an effective tax rate of 13.9% during his 2012 presidential run.
On Sunday, The Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote a searing response to Romney’s essay, saying “Mr. Romney made his fortune at Bain Capital, and good for him. He can afford to pay more now, but would the 28-year-old Mitt still on the make have thought so? Raising taxes makes it harder for others to get rich.”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
Trump "Buys" Peace and Loyalty. Is the American People for Sale Too?
He probably bought his bimbo wife Melania. Last week he bought the loyalty of his "Suckers and Losers" soldiers with a check for $1,776.
He keeps dangling another check for up to $2,000 to the American people to buy up their silence over his disastrous handling of the country (after his seditious attempt at toppling the US government in January 2021): Epstein files cover up. War with Venezuela. Tanking economy. Pardoning and releasing a convicted drug lord while claiming to fight drug trafficking....etc.
Spineless US corporations keep bending the knee to the criminal in the white house. CBS just canceled a program on the San Salvador CECOT prison where innocent people are held because they have brown skin. US corporations keep caving in to Trump's threats. The American people should remember what US corporations are doing in collusion with Trump: They will have to face their day of reckoning when the time comes.
I don't think that American people will fall for this, even the 77 million morons who voted for him. What Americans will probably do in their vast majority is take the money and still give him the finger in the voting booth come November 2026 and November 2028.
Trump is basically a fundamentally dishonorable human being with no integrity, and only fools fall for his lies and criminal conduct.
People around the world pity America's fall from grace. They mock Trump as an "idiot", a madman", a new "Hitler", but deep down they feel sad for the country. It's as if the absence of the mythical America from its traditional role in the world has confused the global moral compass, and the outcome will be felt over the next decades as a decline in America's influence. Worse yet, the model that the US has brandished is gone: Wannabe dictators will imitate Trump; they already are, and democracy is dead.
Desperate to repair his tanking approval by the American people, the mafioso-in-chief Donald Dump has declared spring 2026 to be the “largest tax refund season of all time.” And one of his top economic advisers says the checks won’t just be big — they’ll be “massive.”
Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, says a tidal wave of refund money is coming — all because of the timing of Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
“We didn't pass the Big Beautiful Bill until the middle of the summer, and so a lot of the tax changes which affect last year weren't in any tax forms that people filled out at the beginning of the year".
“So we are going to see the biggest refund cycle ever in the history of America, and people are going to get massive refund checks.” Which implies that misery, penny-pinching Americans will be able to buy eggs, a few dolls and pencils for Christiams, and consequently feel so grateful that the "King" is dispensing some of his own money to his people, that they will vote for him in upcoming elections.
To make sure the American people will feel indebted to Trump for his generosity, Hassett added that the administration will launch “a big PR campaign at the beginning of the year urging people to file early” to make sure workers claim everything they’re owed. "Filing early" is important for the criminals in the white house because they want to make sure the political impact of the checks will be felt by the time Election Day is upon us.
Sunday, December 21, 2025
Zionist Occupiers Save Western Civilization by Killing Indigenous Palestinian Teen "Terrorist"
How long will the barbarian indigenous Palestinian owners of the land keep harassing the foreign civilized white european settlers who are illegally colonizing and stealing Palestine in defense of Trump and Netanyahu's Western civilization? 
The most moral army in the world as it saved Western civilization....
...by killing 16-year old Rayyan Abdel Qader point blank for no reason [Screenshot]
Israeli soldiers shot and killed a West Bank teen they say ‘hurled a block.’ Video shows them shooting him point blank
Ibrahim Dahman, Max Saltman, Thomas Bordeaux, CNN
Mon, December 22, 2025
The Israeli military said it shot dead a Palestinian “suspected of hurling a block” at soldiers on Saturday during an operation in the occupied West Bank town of Qabatiya.
Video reviewed by CNN shows a soldier shooting the teen when he is just feet away. In an earlier statement, the military did not use the word “suspected,” and said the person “hurled a block toward the soldiers.”
The Palestinian was identified as 16-year-old Rayan Muhammad Abdul Qader Abu Mualla by the Ministry of Health, citing the Palestinian General Authority of Civil Affairs (PGACA), who said his body is still being held by Israel after he was killed in the Al-Sab’aneh neighborhood in Qabatiya.
A 26-second security camera video shared on social media and geolocated by CNN to Al-Sab’aneh, shows what appears to be the moment Israeli troops shot Abu Mualla.
In the video, a person walks down an alley towards two helmeted soldiers crouched partially behind a corner. The person is just about to reach the corner when one soldier raises his rifle and fires at point blank range, causing the person to collapse backwards.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in its initial statement that its soldiers had been attacked by a “terrorist.” The video shows the 18 seconds before the shooting, in which time nothing appears to be thrown from the alley the Palestinian teenager comes from. His left hand, however, is obscured. It was not immediately clear who captured the footage, who initially released it, or what happened before the video begins.
On Saturday, the Israeli news site Ynet published what it says is a photo of Abu Mualla’s left hand clutching a chunk of concrete, taken after his death. CNN could not verify whether the photo is of the same person in the security footage.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said that Israeli troops blocked its emergency workers from reaching the scene of the shooting.
A set of videos geolocated by CNN show an ambulance, with its emergency lights on, stopped about 650 feet away from the site of the shooting.
Asked for comment on the video and the allegation that emergency workers were blocked from reaching Abu Mualla, the IDF said: “Yesterday (Saturday), a Palestinian suspected of hurling a block at IDF soldiers was shot. The incident is under review.”
Late on Saturday, Abu Mualla’s school announced on Facebook that it would close on Sunday in honor of his memory and pushed exams a week ahead.
In a separate incident on Saturday, the Ministry of Health said the IDF shot and killed a 22-year-old Palestinian man named Ahmed Saed Ziyoud in Silat al-Harathiya, a town north of Jenin in the West Bank.
The IDF said in a statement on Telegram that it shot an individual in Silat al-Harathiya who “hurled an explosive” toward soldiers.
On Sunday, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, said he was a fighter in the Al-Quds Brigades. He was shot by an Israeli sniper’s bullet during the IDF storming of the town.
CNN’s Dana Karni contributed to this report.
Sex, Religion and Crime: Perfect Trifecta in Backward South Carolina
Pastor indicted after allegedly posting nude photo of wife before her death
Natalie Neysa Alund, USA TODAY
Fri, December 19, 2025
Editor’s note: This article discusses suicide and suicidal ideation. If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.
For the video, go to: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/12/19/south-carolina-pastor-john-paul-miller-stalking-wife/87844288007/
A South Carolina pastor, whose wife died by suicide last year after she filed for divorce, has been federally indicted after being accused of posting her nude photo online and stalking her before her death.
John-Paul Miller, 46, is charged with felony charges of cyberstalking and making false statements to federal investigators, according to information from the US Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina.
Miller, who previously preached at Solid Rock Church in Myrtle Beach, came under fire after his wife, Mica Miller, was found dead at Lumber River State Park in April 2024. The 30-year-old woman's death was ruled a suicide, but the case drew national interest after allegations that Miller abused Mica before her death came to light
According to prosecutors, Miller was indicted on Thursday, for allegedly sending "unwanted and harassing communications" to his estranged wife from November 2022 until her death.
The behavior, the indictment alleges, included posting a nude photo of his wife online without her consent, and in one instance, contacting her over 50 times in a single day. Prosecutors also allege Miller interfered with her finances and her daily activities and on one occasion damaged her vehicle tires.
USA TODAY has reached out to the church and Miller's attorney.
Who is Pastor John-Paul Miller?
Miller has five children with his wife.
One day after his wife was found dead, Miller announced her death at the end of a sermon.
“I’m taking a little bit of a break and I don’t want to have to worry about the church,” he said before announcing her death. “My break may be a few days, a few weeks, I don’t know."
Soon after, reports began to surface alleging the pastor abused his wife in the leadup to her suicide. According to a WBTW police report obtained in May 2024, Miller's wife alleged her husband did not allow her to drive and “groomed” her years before their marriage.
"She has known her husband since she was 10 years old and that he ‘groomed’ her while she worked for him at Solid Rock Church until they were married six years ago,” the police report from the outlet reads.
Who is Mica Miller?
Mica Acacia Miller, was born in Wichita, Kansas to Michael Francis and Angelita Ramirez, according to her obituary.
Family described her as "energetic, affirming and adventurous" in the written memorial, and said she and her husband married in 2017.
"Mica was a great stepmother, and an amazing wife and helpmate," the obituary reads. "She helped Pastor JP with the church in every way. Mica was the worship leader, graphics designer, youth leader, women’s ministry leader, and Pastor’s assistant."
Pastor faces prison if convicted in wife's stalking case
If convicted, prosecutors said Miller faces up to five years in prison for cyberstalking and two years in prison for his false statements.
Miller is set for arraignment on Jan. 12 in federal court in Florence, about 95 miles southeast of Charlotte.
Contributing: Fernando Cervantes Jr.
White US-Born Criminals from Texas Don't Eat Pets. They Just Steal Packages
Not migrants. Not immigrants. White. Anglo-Saxon names. Likely devout Evangelical Christians. From the backward state of Texas.
Porch pirates arrested with 57 pieces of stolen mail and packages
Tyshin Dawson
Sat, December 20, 2025
IOWA PARK (KFDX/KJTL) — Police in Iowa Park are warning residents to be on alert after a porch pirate investigation led to arrests and the recovery of stolen packages.
Officers say the thefts may stretch across multiple communities during one of the busiest delivery weeks of the year.
A man and woman, identified as Harley Holder and Virginia Burden, were taken into custody early Wednesday morning, December 17. Their charges are still pending.
Officers say they responded to the area after receiving a Ring Doorbell notification about a woman taking packages from someone’s porch and pulled over the suspected vehicle. After questioning the couple, they noticed the woman matched the suspect seen in the ring footage.
Upon searching the vehicle, at least 57 pieces of stolen mail were found spanning across Wichita County.
This case is still under investigation, but police urge residents to take extra precautions, including tracking packages, retrieving packages as soon as possible, and installing security measures, such as lighting, package cases, and cameras.
Porch pirates arrested with 57 pieces of stolen mail and packages
Tyshin Dawson
Sat, December 20, 2025
IOWA PARK (KFDX/KJTL) — Police in Iowa Park are warning residents to be on alert after a porch pirate investigation led to arrests and the recovery of stolen packages.
Officers say the thefts may stretch across multiple communities during one of the busiest delivery weeks of the year.
A man and woman, identified as Harley Holder and Virginia Burden, were taken into custody early Wednesday morning, December 17. Their charges are still pending.
Officers say they responded to the area after receiving a Ring Doorbell notification about a woman taking packages from someone’s porch and pulled over the suspected vehicle. After questioning the couple, they noticed the woman matched the suspect seen in the ring footage.
Upon searching the vehicle, at least 57 pieces of stolen mail were found spanning across Wichita County.
This case is still under investigation, but police urge residents to take extra precautions, including tracking packages, retrieving packages as soon as possible, and installing security measures, such as lighting, package cases, and cameras.
Trump Belongs inside a "Cuckoo's Nest": Melania's Panties are Steamed, he Says
Trump evacuating gas from his oral orifice (instead of...)
Trump talks about neuroses, selecting chairs and his wife’s underwear drawer in latest affordability speech
Kevin Liptak, CNN
Sat, December 20, 2025
President Donald Trump came to North Carolina on Friday to talk about the economy.
He ended up explaining how his wife organizes her lingerie drawer.
“I think she steams them,” he offered at one point, hoping to underscore the violation Melania Trump felt when, in his telling, FBI agents rummaged through the pristine undergarments — “sometimes referred to as panties” — during their 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago.
In the realm of Trump tangents, it wasn’t the wildest, or angriest, or most bizarre.
Yet as the president hopes to refocus the nation’s attention on his economic record ahead of next year’s critical midterm elections, it was another reminder that his own focus often remains somewhat adrift.
Trump did periodically discuss the economy in his 90-minute speech, which he called a “quick little stop” in Rocky Mount on the way to Mar-a-Lago for the holidays. He trumpeted a report this week that showed inflation unexpectedly cooling. He recounted an announcement he made earlier in the day on lowering some drug prices. He framed an uptick in the unemployment rate as a success since he’d fired so many government workers.
Supporters behind him held signs reading “Lower Prices” and “Bigger Paychecks.” But even the visual cues couldn’t keep the president from veering well off-piste — often to the delight of his crowd.
As he was explaining the negotiations that went into the drug pricing scheme, attendees listened politely, if quietly, as he assumed a French accent to mimic President Emmanuel Macron during their pharmaceutical negotiations.
The audience really came alive when he reminisced about his opponent from nearly a decade ago.
“I don’t know, beating Hillary was fun,” he said to roars. “Remember, she was a nasty person. I was going to use a B word. I said, ‘my wife would not be happy.’”
There are plenty of Trump advisers who would prefer the president focus more on the here-and-now, or — even better — the what’s-to-come. As he loses his political edge on the economy, many of his allies worry he’s lost touch with voter concerns and anxieties that propelled him into office in the first place.
Friday’s rally was the latest in a roadshow of sorts that White House advisers have planned for Trump to hone his message on bringing down prices. He also delivered a primetime address to the nation this week meant to drive the message.
Much of his argument rests on having inherited what he says was an economic disaster from Joe Biden, though inflation was at 3% when he took office and is now only slightly lower. (And economists cautioned that last month’s inflation dip had a lot to do with shutdown-related distortions of economic data.)
Yet as is so often the case, the intended content of Trump’s speech was a target that didn’t always find an arrow.
As he hit the hour mark, his grievance list grew, encompassing the news media and Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the onetime loyalist who has dramatically broken with him and whom Trump now calls “Marjorie Traitor Brown.”
His aside about Melania’s unmentionables came amid a diatribe over the investigations that plagued him during his time out of office. He mused about awarding himself a massive sum in connection with complaints he filed against the Justice Department.
“I am suing and I’m the one that’s supposed to settle. So maybe I’ll give myself $1 billion and give it all to charity,” he said.
Trump found ample distractions in the crowd, including a group of glamorous women from the western part of the state who volunteer at his events. When he spotted a hat he liked, he explained how he could gauge its value.
“I want gold thread, not mustard color. You know?” he said. “When you have a mustard-colored thread, don’t accept it.”
Recalling the times he came to purchase furniture in North Carolina as a hotelier, he explained the exacting nature of the task.
“The arm of a chair was very important to me. I said, ‘I like that chair, but this arm has to be a different shape,’” he said. He kept going: “I’m a very aesthetic person, believe me, except with women, I don’t care what a woman looks like. I used to say beautiful. Now I don’t care.”
He spent several minutes discussing his physical health amid questions about his stamina after appearing to doze off during multiple on-camera events recently. He pointed to the string of cognitive tests he claims to have aced. And he pledged to alert the nation should he find himself in decline.
“When that time comes, I will let you know about it. In fact, you’ll probably find out about it just by watching,” he said. “But that time is not now, because I feel the same that I felt for 50 years.”
It was, in the end, the same type of speech Trump has been delivering now for more than 10 years, the “weave” in which he takes great pride. It has less to do with a calculated political message than free-association of whatever’s on his mind — which is often the people or entities he thinks have done him wrong.
If some of his fixations cause heartburn among his allies, though, Trump has a different view.
“I think I’m probably very neurotic,” he said in Rocky Mount. “I always say controlled neuroses is good. Being neurotic, no good. But if it’s controlled, that’s okay. It gives you some energy.”
Non-Immigrant Undeportable White US-Born Teenager Kill His Parents for Inheritance
He's no migrant. Not an immigrant. Legal or otherwise.
Curry County Jail - Darren Munoz
He must have watched too many Hollywood movies, and like an idiot he thinks that he can do in real life what they do in typical American movies: Cheap violence, wanton hatred...
Darren Munoz is a 19-year old US -born white imbecile who could be confused for an immigrant because of his name. That is one instance where an ICE-CBP intervention could have saved lives. He has hired a friend to "Get Parents Out of the Picture" so he inherits them. He is now charged with two counts of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and criminal solicitation in connection with the deaths of his father Oscar and stepmother Dina. The dumb American teenager
thought that by killing his father Oscar - who owns a convenience store
franchise - the money would end up to him.
The "friend", another dumb
American teenager, is 18-year old Julio Zamora who has also been charged
with two counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
On December 15, the police responded to a call about a burglary in progress at a home in Clovis and found Munoz's parents shot in their bedroom. When officers arrived on the scene, they
found the garage door open and Munoz telling them officers that
“everything is fine there".
With an imagination fertilized by Hollywood and violent video games, Munoz told the officers not to check on his parents because they "slept in the nude".
The officers entered the room and found Munoz's father and stepmother shot, the affidavit states. Oscar was “still showing signs of life although he had suffered a gunshot wound to the head,” according to the affidavit. Dina was pronounced dead at the scene.
Munoz allegedly told investigators that his parents spent the weekend in San Antonio for their anniversary and he stayed home alone. According to the affidavit, he said that when his parents returned, they brought home food and he went to bed between 9 and 10 p.m. before he woke up hours later after hearing the garage door alarm.
“He would then lie to investigators about whether he called 911 or not,” the affidavit states. “However, 911 call logs would indicate Darren had called and when confronted with this information Darren admitted he did in fact call 911, reporting the [alleged] burglary.”
Of course, guns are in the picture. Darren wanted to trade an AR machinegun for a ghost glock or a pistol without a serial number." Home security footage also showed Munoz hiding a pistol in his waistband around 5 p.m. the night before the killings happened.
Zamora was later arrested leaving his home, and allegedly had a ghost gun in his possession, police said. Both teens are being held at the Curry County Adult Detention Center. They have both pleaded not guilty.
Radical Conservative Karl Rove: Trump is Politically Insane
By adding "politically", Rove avoids the simpler obvious: Trump is Insane, politically or otherwise.
Remember when Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld were the demons of American conservatism? They now seem like angels when compared to Trump.
Notice that Rove below does not challenge the foundations of American conservatism; he just says that Trump's methods will hurt the GOP. With his former boss, the idiot George W Bush and his fake war in Iraq that uselessly killed 5,000 US soldiers, they at least represent an acceptable version of the primitive (~17th century vintage) US Conservative-Christian-Capitalist plasma.
===============================================
GOP Strategist Reveals Why Trump Is Now ‘Politically Insane’
Annabella Rosciglione
Fri, December 19, 2025
Longtime Republican strategist Karl Rove is warning that President Donald Trump is making drastic “mistakes” that will result in the GOP losing its grip in Washington, D.C., in the 2026 midterm elections.
In an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal on Friday titled “Alarm Bells Ring, Are You Listening?” Rove said Trump’s attitude toward the cost-of-living crisis and his sinking voter approval ratings on the economy should be a warning sign for the GOP.
“Mr. Trump despises Joe Biden, yet he’s making the same mistake his predecessor made,” Rove wrote. “Telling voters not to believe their own lying checkbooks was politically insane. Mr. Trump is doing the same thing.”
Trump’s approval rating on the economy has fallen drastically in recent weeks. A poll from AP-NORC released last week found just 31 percent of voters approve of Trump’s handling of the economy.
Trump’s advisers have attempted to get the president to focus more on affordability and the economy, but Trump has rallied against even the word “affordability,” calling it “a hoax that was started by Democrats” and “a Democrat scam.”
Karl Rove warned that if the Trump White House keeps making “mistakes,” the Republican Party will lose in next year’s elections. / Michael Kovac / Getty Images
Rove also pointed to Trump’s recent MAGA rally in Pennsylvania, which was supposed to focus on affordability, but instead featured Trump rambling about past grievances for 100 minutes. During that speech, the president also claimed Americans could cut back on costs if they didn’t buy so many pencils.
Rove wrote that “The president did say he has ‘no higher priority than making America affordable again,’ but seemed uninterested in offering further changes.”
“Perhaps if during the rally the president had stayed on the issue at hand, he would have eventually offered something genuinely reassuring to voters. Instead, he spent most of his time on how he’s ended eight wars, deployed the military to destroy drug runners, and cracked down on illegal immigration,” Rove said.
Rove, who worked in George W. Bush’s administration as an adviser, noted there is time for the Trump White House to turn things around ahead of next year’s elections, but said Trump’s current actions “chew up valuable time that should be spent winning over tepid supporters or persuading anyone open to voting Republican.”
“The president’s grotesqueries have to stop. His team has 10.5 months before voters decide the shape of his final two years as president. Every day matters,” Rove wrote.
“It doesn’t look good for the GOP next year. The White House is on the wrong track,” he wrote. “Time’s a-wasting.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
Talarico (D-TX): US Corporations are Biggest Welfare Queens...
...and pretty soon the Radical Right base of MAGA criminals and greedy corporations will accuse James Talarico of being a Socialist and a Communist.
Rarely does one hear common sense coming out of backward Texas. But "there's a blaze of light in everything", and James Talarico is one such ray of hope that the US will one day cease to be a giant cartel of greedy corporations dictating policy to the government to keep the American people coralled like as a herd of consuming cattle.
State Representative James Talarico, a Democrat from Texas and US Senate candidate, during a campaign event in Houston, Texas, US, on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025. (Mark Felix / Bloomberg—Getty Images)
James Talarico says the biggest ‘welfare queens’ in America are ‘the giant corporations that don’t pay a penny in income taxes’
Dave Smith
Updated Sat, December 20, 2025
James Talarico, a 36-year-old former public school teacher and current Texas State Representative, is mounting a 2026 U.S. Senate campaign that challenges conventional wisdom about government spending and corporate responsibility. He represents a growing push to scrutinize corporate tax strategies and reframe the debate around who truly benefits from government support. His arguments about tax avoidance by Fortune 500 companies and wealthy executives are gaining traction among young voters and may influence future tax policy discussions if he gains higher office.
During a recent taping of Jubilee Media’s web series Surrounded at the company’s Los Angeles studios, Talarico sat down with roughly 20 undecided Texas voters to debate his policy positions. The episode, which released on Monday, caught fire on social media after Talarico delivered a pointed reframing of conservative rhetoric about welfare spending. In a sharp challenge to long-standing political talking points about “welfare queens”—a term traditionally used to disparage low-income individuals receiving government benefits—Talarico flipped the script, arguing that the nation’s actual dependency on public resources flows upward, not downward.
“The biggest welfare queens in this country are the giant corporations that don’t pay a penny in federal taxes,” he said. He also extended his critique to include wealthy executives, adding “the biggest welfare queens are the CEOs who get a tax deduction for flying on a private jet.”
Corporate tax avoidance as hidden welfare
Talarico’s argument strikes at a real issue: Some of America’s largest corporations have legally structured their tax arrangements to minimize or eliminate federal income tax liability. This practice has drawn scrutiny from policymakers across the political spectrum and sparked ongoing debates about tax code reform. So, rather than accepting that welfare is primarily a lower-income issue, he argues the problem is systemic and benefits the wealthy.
Talarico said his background as a middle school language arts teacher at Rhodes Middle School in San Antonio informed many of his policy positions.
“I was a public school teacher, so I saw how when kids showed up hungry, they couldn’t learn,” he told local ABC affiliate KSAT in October. “Even my brightest students, even my hardest working students couldn’t succeed. Couldn’t pull themselves up by their bootstraps when they didn’t have boots.”
To illustrate the point, he invoked a metaphor about teaching someone to fish: “If you’re gonna take your friend out on a boat for the day to teach him how to fish, you wanna make sure he had breakfast that morning. You wanna make sure he’s not sick, because that allows him to learn how to fish again,” he said.
A platform around corporate accountability
Since his election to the Texas House in 2018 at age 28, Talarico has positioned himself as a champion of legislation targeting corporate and pharmaceutical industry practices. He was instrumental in passing legislation capping insulin copays at $25 per month in Texas and enabling the importation of lower-cost medications from Canada.
His Senate campaign messaging appears to hinge on this core idea: that fairness and personal responsibility should apply equally to billionaires and working people.
“We don’t want dependency. We want to reward hard work. And I think that should apply to those billionaires, not just working people,” he said during the recent taping.
Saturday, December 20, 2025
In the Fight vs Flight Response, Female MAGA Morons are Racing for the Flight
In response to a perceived harmful event, attack, or threat to survival, animals, including humans, have to choose to either fight the perceived danger or flee the scene.
After listening to the Great Moron in the White House, the herd of MAGA morons initially "fought, fought, fought". But by now, a year into the voyage aboard the USS Disaster, the drains are overflowing with raw conservative sewage from Trump's White Christian Supremacist and neo-Nazi cesspool, and the stench is unbearable. Passengers and sailors are mounting a mutiny, and the leading MAGA morons are realizing that the Trump boat is leaking, that Captain Dumb has been lying to everyone, including to his own demented senile self, and that the storm looming over the horizon is likely to wash them all off. So the "flight" instinct has taken over the "fight" instinct.
Jumping ship is the reaction of opportunists without principles. They jump first, leaving the weak and vulnerable behind.
More MAGA are quitting the sinking ship.... and more will follow.
Wyoming MAGA Senator Cynthia Lummis has just announced that she’s quitting politics. Half an hour later, another MAGA racist Elise Stefanik (upstate NY congresswoman) followed her off the sinking ship before the November 2026 storm.
“While spending precious time with my family this Christmas season, I have made the decision to suspend my campaign for Governor and will not seek re-election to Congress,” she wrote in a lengthy X post. Good riddance (https://lebanoniznogood.blogspot.com/2025/12/good-riddance-neo-nazi-trumpian-elise.html)
Stefanik said she was stepping out of politics to spend more time with her 4-year-old son, a lie no one will believe. She is stepping out because she doesn't want to go down in the shame she brought upon herself for being a white MAGA racist. She knows the disaster is looming next November and that the country will vomit her brand. So she flees the scene of Donald Dumb's many crimes. For how long can a conservative Christian mom associate herself with a pedophile adultering criminal? She thought she could ride the wave and come out sound and safe on the other side, but cowards and opportunists are the first to wear the lifevests and board the lifeboats.
It should be noted that Stefanik was first elected as a moderate Republican, but once the Great Moron Trump showed up on the scene, she fell in love with the demented criminal and took a hard turn to the right because that is what cheating politicians do: Ride whatever wave happens to be popular with disregard for any principle.
In fact Trump supported her in 2021 as a MAGA spare part to replace Liz Cheney as House Republican Conference Chair. This past November, Stefanik announced that she would run for governor of New York to unseat incumbent Democrat Kathy Hochul. According to a December poll, she trailed magnificently - by 19 points- behind Hochul. That is when the alarm bells rang. The white supremacist Stefanik announced she is jumping off the sinking MAGA ship three days after that poll.
Senile Trump is mourning her departure, oblivious to the fact that she is quitting because of him.
In contrast, Lummis’ retirement did not merit a Truth Social rant from the Great Moron. Lummis, 71, says that she decided not to seek re-election because she felt she did not have “six more years” in her, even though Donald Dumb himself is 79, will be 82 by 2028, and is talking about an unconstitutional third term. Like many dictators around the world who cling madly to power and have to be wheeled around in wheelchairs while looking stupid and senile.
Cynthia Lummis
Another longtime MAGA loyalist-turned-"traitor" (per Trump), Marjorie Taylor Greene, has already jumped ship. “More explosive early resignations are coming,” says an anonymous lawmaker. “Morale has never been lower. Mike Johnson will be stripped of his gavel, and they will lose the majority before this term is out.”
Zionist Terrorist Settlers Illegally Cross into Nablus and Gaza to Kill Palestinians
...And the IDF (Israeli Death Forces) simply walks them back under its protection.
Several Israelis illegally entered the city of Nablus and drove into a peaceful Palestinian civilian with the intent to kill. The injured Palestinian was rushed to the hospital with severe fractures in both of his legs.
The Israeli Zionist terrorists fled the scene, but were later apprehended and escorted out by IDF. As is typical of the Fascist Zionist regime, it never prosecute its own terrorists because they are sacred Jews, but it always says it opens an investigation into the matter that never goes anywhere. "Opening an investigation" gives the western supporters of the colonial government the impression that the latter is a "civilized" western-like place.
Attacks by the foreign Israelis and colonial settlers against unarmed indigenous Palestinians in the West Bank continue to rise amidst fears that the colonial Fascist regime intends to ethnically cleanse and expel the native Palestinians from their ancestral lands to make way for more foreign criminal settlers. All of these attacks are carried out in plain sight of the IDF soldiers (who are themselves fanatic Zionists tasked with supervising the ethnic cleansing while pretending to be a mere policing force. Even when Jewish Zionist extremists are arrested by the IDF -pending the so-called investigation - the criminals are immediately released.
Earlier in November, the Palestinian village of Jeba was set ablaze by dozens of Israeli terrorists who vandalized homes and cars in the area. The IDF keeps proclaiming that it is hunting down the terrorist Jews - calling them "extremists" - but there is never any official report that any of these Jewish criminals are ever held to account as terrorists.
Meanwhile, terrorist colonial settlers of the "Nahala Group" planted an Israeli flag on Palestinian land in Gaza as a provocation. They hope that the Palestinians would respond and be then killed or arrested as "terrorists" because they are resisting an illegal occupation of their land.
Again, IDF troops allowed the terrorist settlers to enjoy a couple of hours of their rape of Palestinian sovereignty, but then dispatched a unit to the scene and gently returned them back to Israel proper.
The Nahala Group demand that Gaza remain under illegal occupation by Israel and that it not be handed over to the Americans or any other foreign entity. Zionist terrorist settlers are particularly adamant at preventing any unbiased foreign military from entering Gaza because this would be the first time that cheating lying genocidal Israel would be monitored for its decades-old brutal occupation of Palestine. The terrorist settlers are of course more comfortable having the colluding IDF around.
The Nahala Group chairwoman, a German settler by the name of Daniella Weiss, claims that Gaza belongs to the "people" of Israel. All attempts by the international community over several decades to convince colonial Israel to cease its expansionist brutality have failed. Israel does not want peace. If it does, it would have to end its illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories and allow the Palestinians the self-determination they are entitled to under all international agreements.
But Israel has taken the brunt of Palestinian resistance over 80 years because it actually uses that resistance as a pretext to reject peace. Making serious peace with the Palestinians would mean Israel would abandon its project of stealing ALL of Palestine. For the Palestinians, if they resist an illegal occupation they are called terrorists. And if they don't resist, their lands, villages and towns are stolen by Israel for new Zionist settlements.
In 1948 Israel stole some 60% of Palestine and is determined - with brutality, genocide and ethnic cleansing - to steal the remaining Palestinian lands. Israel is militarily powerful enough to strike at will as far as Iran, Yemen and the Emirates; why would a tiny puny independent Palestine represent an "existential" threat to Israel is a fake and untenable argument. The looming question is: What does Israel want to do with the Palestinians? Israel keeps saying no to all proposals for peace with the Palestinians; BUT IT NEVER SAYS WHAT IT ACTUALLY WANTS.
Good Riddance: Neo-Nazi Trumpian Elise Stefanik Drops out of NY Governor Race
A sign of the bad things coming up for all the fascists running for office under the demented senile Trump banner.
As a dedicated MAGA moron, Trump boot licker Elise Stefanik says she has decided to drop out of the New York Governor's race, stay at home, cook for her husband and indoctrinate her children into her political collage of Nazi, Fascist, Zionist and virulent MAGA ideology.
Faithful to her Trump style of lying and making up stuff, she says she would have won easily the gubernatorial race, but decided to drop out to be a Mom. Yeah, sure!
Good riddance! May she drop into irreversible oblivion.
AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr., File
Elise Stefanik Drops Out of NY Governor’s Race and Is Leaving Congress
Ahmad Austin Jr.
Fri, December 19, 2025
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) announced Friday that she is dropping out of the New York gubernatorial race and will not seek re-election to Congress.
In a statement posted online Friday afternoon, Stefanik reaffirmed her belief that she would have won the Republican primary, but concluded that her campaign “is not an effective use of our time or your generous resources.” Stefanik continued:
While spending precious time with my family this Christmas season, I have made the decision to suspend my campaign for Governor and will not seek re-election to Congress. I did not come to this decision lightly for our family.
I am truly humbled and grateful for the historic and overwhelming support from Republicans, Conservatives, Independents, and Democrats all across the state for our campaign to Save New York.
However, as we have seen in past elections, while we would have overwhelmingly won this primary, it is not an effective use of our time or your generous resources to spend the first half of next year in an unnecessary and protracted Republican primary, especially in a challenging state like New York.
And while many know me as Congresswoman, my most important title is Mom. I believe that being a parent is life’s greatest gift and greatest responsibility. I have thought deeply about this and I know that as a mother, I will feel profound regret if I don’t further focus on my young son’s safety, growth, and happiness – particularly at his tender age.
I am incredibly grateful to the people of New York’s 21st District for entrusting me to represent you in the United States Congress. Thank you to my dedicated staff over the past decade. I am proud of the significant results that we successfully delivered for the hardworking families in our district and across America. It has been a tremendous professional honor to serve as your Congresswoman over the past eleven years.
Thank you for your support and encouragement as my family and I look forward to the next meaningful personal and professional chapter.
God Bless and Merry Christmas
The first year of President Donald Trump’s second term has been troublesome for Stefanik. She was initially chosen to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, but Trump later pulled the nomination to protect the GOP’s thin advantage in the House.
In November, Stefanik announced she was running for governor. The launch of her campaign came a few days after Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani — a Democratic Socialist — won the New York City mayoral race. Some also viewed it as a win for Republicans, as it would help fuel anti-socialism messaging ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
A little over two weeks after Mamdani’s win, however, was his surprisingly cordial meeting with Trump. Strategists argued the meeting undermined the GOP’s midterm plans, and it was especially harmful to Stefanik’s campaign. The congresswoman has repeatedly attacked Mamdani as a “communist” and a “jihadist,” but Trump shot down those claims when the press brought them up.
The post Elise Stefanik Drops Out of NY Governor’s Race and Is Leaving Congress first appeared on Mediaite.
Friday, December 19, 2025
Trump's Dementia Cast in Bronze as Insults to ex-Presidents in White House
It's never happened before in 250 years of the country's history. One President has removed the portraits of two of his predecessors - Barack Obama and Joseph Biden - and replaced them with plaques loaded with insults.
Although the so-called "Presidential Walk of Fame" exhibit was disgustingly thuggish and vulgar when it was unveiled last September 2025, new plaques added on Wednesday contained even more insults by Donald Dumb to his predecessors.
The plaque for Joe Biden trashed the former president’s “humiliating debate loss” in June 2024 and alleged that his 2020 election win was “the most corrupt election ever seen.” Biden is introduced as "Sleepy Joe" and "by far, the worst President in American History."
The plaque for Barack Obama described the former president as “one of the most divisive political figures in American history ... a community organizer, one term Senator from Illinois, and one of the most divisive political figures in American History."
The additions mark Trump's effort to remake the White House in his own image and rewrite history in ways that elevate him and trash his perceived enemies. His bimbo-in-chief, Hot Lips Karoline Leavitt,
"The plaques are eloquently written descriptions of each President and the legacy they left behind," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement described the descriptions of former presidents as follows, "As a student of history, many were written directly by the President himself, as if vulgarity and insults are something to be proud of. The descriptions include the Trump's superlative-laced language and haphazard capitalization. An introductory plaque tells passersby that the exhibit was "conceived, built, and dedicated by President Donald J. Trump as a tribute to past Presidents, good, bad, and somewhere in the middle."
Even the plaque for his fellow conservative and equally imbecilic President Ronald Reagan turned into compliments for Donald Dumb himself. In it, Trump claimed "Reagan was a big fan of his", even though Reagan preceded the Moron by three decades and turned senile (alzheimer's) in the early 1990s.
As for his own two plaques, the Great Moron does not skimp on the praise and superlatives — "the Greatest Economy in the History of the World." His 2016 Electoral College margin of 304-227 is described as a "landslide."
In his dementia, the Great Moron really believes that his place in history "as a great man" is safe and secure. The plaque says, "The Presidential Walk of Fame
will long live as a testament and tribute to the Greatness of America", which implies that America's greatness is Trump's doing, while little does the Moron understand that his Presidential Walk of Fame will be demolished - like hopefully his disgusting ballroom and all his gold trinkets - once he is out of office and out of our lives.
Three more years, and his dementia is likely to increase exponentially. The wise of this country must find a way to tame this idiot before it is too late.
Trump Desperate for More Mass Shootings in the US Virgin Islands
Donald Dumb wants to extend the American Dream folkloric mass shootings to those US territories that have learned from the past, like the US Virgin Islands.
There have been mass shootings in the US Virgin Islands. The motherland back on the continent has not spared this territory its most beloved tradition of mass shootings carried out for racial grounds, religious, political, or homophobia reasons, often by mentally deranged US army veterans, etc. We all know the oft-repeated tune. The shooting takes place because it is so easy to buy a weapon in the US, or because a gun-obsessed dad leaves his guns within easy reach of his sick teenage kids who watch violent movies and play violent games all day.
In the US Virgin islands, the 1972 Fountain Valley massacre saw eight people killed in a racially motivated attack at a golf course. The region has since experienced high levels of gun violence, with significant incidents often linked to issues of gun trafficking and social unrest. And so, unlike the derelict US federal government which has no problem with thousands of its citizens being killed each year by gun violence, the local governor decided to do something about it.
An upset violence-promoting federal government, particularly the "warrior" bullshit government of Donald Dumb, is upset and is suing the local government, along with its police department and Police Commissioner Mario Brooks, accusing them of obstructing and systematically denying American citizens the right to possess and carry guns, and go around killing their fellow Americans. Ever since the United States produced the jungle of the Far West, the genocide of indigenous Americans and the slavery-driven economic boom, killing other people under the pretext of freedom has become a right. enshrined in the constitution.
Ever since the 1972 Fountain Valley massacre, the U.S. Virgin Islands has required that applicants for a gun license demonstrate “good reason to fear death or great injury to his person or property,” and to have “two credible persons” to vouch for their need of a firearm. Applicants must demonstrate have “good moral character” to obtain a gun permit, which is valid for up to three years and applies to a single weapon. This is sort of a "background check" that gun violence oppponents have been demanding for decades
The federal lawsuit states argues that no specific standard has been set or defined for the requirement of character. It also claims that the US Virgin Islands' government:
- “Regularly” refuses to issue permits to those who by law are “deemed to be an improper person” by the territory’s police commissioner.
- Subjects applicants “to intrusive and warrantless home searches” as one condition to obtain a gun permit. If an applicant refuses a home inspection, which takes “several months to a year to schedule and complete,” the government will not process their request.
- “Denies firearms licenses to otherwise qualified applicants whenever it deems that the applicant has ‘too many’ firearms”.
- Demands that applicants “unnecessarily spend money to install a safe,” and that it be bolted to the floor or wall of their home.
- Defies “binding Supreme Court precedent to frustrate the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding American citizens.”
All seem like common sense policies to prevent wanton violence and mass killings. But the gun lobby criminals and their GOP backers aren't having it. They want more mass killings in the US in order to perpetuate the tradition.
Their lawsuit notes that citizens “have a fundamental right to possess guns in their homes” and carry handguns publicly for the purpose of immediate self-defense.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S District Court in the U.S. Virgin Islands acccusing the Islands government of violating the Second Amendment and seeking an injunction to prohibit it from implementing local laws tied to the issuance of firearms licenses.
Now who is really behind the lawsuit? Donald Dumb, the convicted felon and coward draft dodger who is in bed with white supremacist militias who love guns. Donald Dumb has often claimed that the Second Amendment was “under siege" and described himself as “the best friend gun owners have ever had in the White House", in a reaffirmation of the culture of violence that the US practices on its oil and around the world.
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