Turkish Muslim CMMS Chief, Charlatan TV Dr Mohammad Oz, Fails Basic Math

Dr Mehmet Oz - Mehmet is a distorted spelling of Mohammad to avoid being recognized as a Muslim in white-christian-dominated America - is the administrator of the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMSS), and got himself in a bit of a tangle trying to defend his Moron-in-Chief boss's rhetoric on drug prices.

Appearing on Meet the Press, the former daytime TV personality was invited to watch a montage of Trump making wildly inflated promises on the percentage by which his administration planned to cut the cost of pharmaceuticals, which rose from 1,200 percent to 1,500 percent depending on which press event the president was speaking at.

“Cutting drug prices by 400 percent, anything over 100 percent, wouldn’t that effectively make them free? Is that a realistic goal from the president?” was the question to the Muslim Turkish immigrant, Dr Wizard of Oz.

Strictly speaking, cutting prices by 100 percent would make them free, and any reduction beyond that would put the seller in the nonsensical position of having to pay people to take their product.

Mohammad's response would have him fail not only the SAT test, the but also in the medical USMLE test for which he should be stripped of his license: “The president does the calculation by saying, ‘OK, if a drug was $100 and you reduce it to $50, it’s 100 percent cheaper because you’re taking $50 off and left with only $50, so the amount you took off the price is equal to the amount that’s left. They’re equal so it’s 100 percent.’”  This is so stupid and mathematically wrong. Imagine some one in charge of medical services who does not understand percentage calculations.

In fact, reducing a $100 item to $50 would mean it is only 50 percent cheaper.

When pressed that Trump has boasted about reducing drug prices by up to 1,500 percent. His answer smells of rotten Turkish kebabs in Istanbul: “Well, if you take a drug that is $200 or $240 like we did last week and reduce it to $10, those are the numbers you’re talking about,” Oz answered, only intensifying the atmosphere of confusion.
The creepy Muslim Turkish CMMS administrator, one TV doctor by the name of Mehmet Oz, appears at a White House press conference on drug pricing on October 16 alongside the freaky Not-even-a-TV-doctor, the brain-wormed, throat-frogged Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. 

The physician struggled with precisely the same calculation at a White House press conference on October 16, held to promote a new deal on fertility drugs, when he said at one stage in his address: “You’ll notice, President Trump, these are discounted from $242 to $10", blurting his insane ignorance with, “I don’t know what the math is on that. We can’t even calculate it. It’s too high to calculate.” A reduction from $242 to $10 is 95.87 percent.

Trump was previously accused of engaging in “MAGA math” earlier this year, when a clip of him bragging about bringing down drug prices by 1,400 and 1,500 percent was amended with a Community Note on X that read: “Misleading news. If you reduce price by 100 percent, price becomes zero.”

The note offered a simple example of a 100 percent discount on a $10 book, bringing its price to zero, and linked to a website offering an easy guide to calculating discounts.

Meanwhile, "Dr." Moahmmad Oz, the Turkish Muslim administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said Wednesday that Donald Dumb has a plan to replace President Obama's very popular Affordable Care Act — but provided no specifics about the proposal.

“I fully believe the president has a plan,” Oz enthusiastically said on “Meet the Press, "We’ve been talking about it quite a bit. There’s all kinds of ideas.” When pressed for specifics about Trump’s plan, Oz said, “The plans that were originally offered during the One Big Beautiful Bill fell out, which is fine.”

Donald Dumb hates Obama, the first and brilliant African American president of the US. Out of spite and disgruntlement over the fact that a Black African ruled the US for 8 years, Donald Dumb has hollered and raged and vowed to repeal and replace the ACA, also known as Obamacare, both during his first term and again on the 2024 campaign trail. But he never proposed anything of substance on how to do this. What does the Dumb asshole want to replace the ACA with, no one knows. And his current administration has yet to provide details about what any new plan would be like or how it would affect people who rely on the law for coverage.

More than 24 million people got coverage through the ACA in 2025, according to government data. Oz’s comments come as ACA open enrollment begins Nov. 1, with experts warning that next year’s premium hikes will be the largest since the health care law took effect.

Those ACA subsidies are at the heart of a political standoff in Washington, with Democrats saying they won’t provide the votes to reopen the government until they’re extended. Without the subsidies, average out-of-pocket premium payments are expected to double, from $888 a year to $1,904. The Congressional Budget Office projects that nearly 4 million will drop their coverage if the subsidies aren’t extended. All polling shows an overwhelming support, including among Donald Dumb's own MAGA base, for keeping the Obama care tax credits.

But hatred and racism drive Donald Dumb and his coterie of vulgar and ignorant sycophants: They will keep talking negatively about Obamacare till the day they die because they are on the payroll of criminal insurance companies, but they don't have the political courage to admit their failure and the success of President Barack Obama's signature law. 

The Mamdani Team of Democratic Socialists is Taking Shape

A former top leader and "lifetime member" of the popular Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has been on the payroll of "Squad" Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s, D-N.Y., campaign since she first ran for Congress in 2018.

Frank Llewellyn, the former director of the largest socialist organization in America and a founding member of the socialist group that would later become DSA's sister organization, serves as the treasurer for both Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign and her political action committee, Courage to Change.

Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign has paid Llewellyn a total of over $250,000 for payroll, travel and other administrative expenses dating back to 2018, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings.

Besides working on Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign, Llewellyn also sits on the board of the Democratic Socialists of America Fund, a sister organization to the DSA, according to the group’s website.

"Frank Llewellyn was one of the original incorporators of the Institute for Democratic Socialism which later became the Democratic Socialists of America Fund," the DSA Fund website says. "A lifelong activist and socialist he served Democratic Socialists of America in New York City since the organization was founded. He served on its National Political Committee and as its National Director for more than ten years."

Llewellyn was national director of DSA for over 10 years, from 2001 to 2011 and he continues to be a "lifetime member" of DSA, and that he has been on Ocasio-Cortez's staff since her first election in 2018.

One of the most significant achievements of DSA during Llewellyn’s time as director was the election of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in 2006. Llewellyn wrote an article in the DSA’s magazine celebrating Sanders’ election as the first time in American history that "a self-declared socialist has won a seat in the United States Senate." In the article, Llewellyn detailed DSA’s deep involvement with Sanders’ campaign, saying fundraising for his successful campaign "is a major accomplishment in which we can take great pride."

Llewellyn wrote that "in the coming period, it is vital that we use our newly gained grassroots network, and our ties to truly progressive Democrats and Bernie Sanders, to promote both a progressive agenda and organizing."

The organization also later went on to endorse Sanders during both his 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns.

An examination of Llewellyn’s social media shows that he continues to be an active member of the Queens branch of the New York City DSA. He posts regularly about Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders as well as New York City socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, who is also an active member of DSA. In a 2021 Facebook post, Llewellyn said he was "very pleased to vote for Queens DSA endorsing [Mamdani]" when he successfully ran for the New York State Assembly.

Though Mamdani leads the New York City mayoral race by double digits, sparking hopes about the rise of democratic socialism in America, just like most other western allies and nations, in opposition to the primitive form of raw capitalism that is practiced in the US. Indeed, poll after poll shows that US voters overwhelmingly support raising taxes on the wealthy and limiting the power of corporate money to influence elections and prevent a much desired evolution toward socialist socio-political norms.

Decades of propaganda and brainwashing by the Radical Right through their mouthpieces like Fox News has led Americans to display a hyperimmune reaction upon hearing the word "socialism", which is practiced with great success across virtually all the western and free hemisphere, all allies of the US. The promotion of crude capitalism in American economics and social practices continues to be hidden under cheap and insincere notions of patriotism. American Democrats are loathe to use propaganda and deception - all wrapped in the American flag - to fool the American people, but Republicans-GOP-MAGA and their assorted white christian supremacists do exactly that. Unfortunately the poor level of education and literacy displayed by average Americans renders them vulnerable to the fake propaganda and fearmongering that brought a criminal convicted felon like Donald Dumb to power.

In such socialist countries like the UK, France, Germany, Spain and others, people and workers enjoy the highest standards of living and express mugh higher rates of "happiness" than Americans who eke out a living under the boots of greedy capitalists and giant corporations who, it must be reminded, are funding Donald Dumb's demolition of the historic East Wing of the White House. The demented senile moron thinks that he will be remembered by history for building monuments, in a manner reminiscent of Adolf Hitler who planned gigantic alterations of the Berlin landscape so as to make the city the capital of the New Nazi Europe he was dreaming of. 

Americans have finally woken up to the dupery of the Radical Right's Capitalism and its trickle down economics. They now want 6-week vacations, substantial parental leaves, and many other rights enjoyed by citizens of our Socialist allies in Europe. 

DSA organizer Daniel Goulden claimed the organization has been intimately involved in Mamdani’s campaign, even helping to write portions of his platform. "With Zohran, we're in basically the best possible position to seize state power that we can be in because, you know, we're like this," Goulden said, indicating with his fingers that the campaign and organization are very close.

Goulden went on to suggest that "one of the things that made Zohran really successful with his policy rollouts is specifically relying on DSA."

AOC and Sanders, who are both self-proclaimed democratic socialists, have both endorsed and promoted Mamdani's campaign and will be participating in a rally with him this upcoming Sunday.


Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and New York City Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani hold hands during the town hall "Fighting Oligarchy" event at Brooklyn College on Sept. 6, 2025.

The national DSA organization and its chapters, including the NYC-DSA, have shared views on several issues that they have been vocal about, including their disdain for US dictator Trump's ICE-Gestapo and cracking down on "bad landlords" by having the city take control of properties when a landlord refuses to make repairs or "demonstrates consistent neglect" of their tenants.

Earlier this year, Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders went on a "Fighting Oligarchy" tour against the "billionaire class and corporate greed," which amassed more than 300,000 attendees across 34 rallies in 20 states, according to Sanders.

Lebanon Iznogood reached out to Fox News for their feedback on the rise of democratic socialism and the parallel decline of 18th century raw American capitalism that enslaved kidnapped Africans to work for free on cotton plantations, genocided the indigenous native Amerindians, and treated workers and immigrants like scum. Donald Dumb's "Make America Great Again" is nothing short of a fantasmagoric nostalgia for that obsolete, extinct, and toxic inhuman environment. Fox News did not immediately respond.

The Idiot-in-Chief Learns on the Job. That is How Uneducated Ignorant Morons do it

He's a know-nothing dumbass. He doesn't read. Doesn't know any history or geography. He comes in with the pedestrian lowlife determination of a Mafioso wanting to make a steal-deal.

On Russia, he started out defending the Russian dictator, he even relied on him and his fake news empire to manipulate the ignorant American electorate and get elected in 2015.

He maintained that pro-Russian stance for years, berating and trying to blackmail Ukrainian hero President Zelenskyy. He met with Putin several times, and every time he came out lavishing praise on him. In his stupid mindest of a blackmarket dealer, he thinks that by kissing ass to Putin he can own him and manipulate him into agreeing to some asinine deal over Ukraine.

Educated diplomats and politicians who have a sense of Russian history would never do that. They know from precedent and examples how to posture themselves vis-a-vis a dictator who is heir to centuries of a brutal Czarist monarchy followed by 70 years of a brutal Soviet dictatorship.

And so now, after screwing US relations with Europe over Russia, after not heeding the warnings from Zelenskyy and European leaders, Trump is just discovering how bad Putin is. He's learning on the job like some intern. He didn't listen to any of his advisors (whom he is persecuting for disagreeing with him), and had to experience it himself. Trump could have saved years of turbulence and thousands of lives had he listened to those who knew.

The 180 turn Trump is now making on Ukraine and Russia is welcome but could have been the default position from the start had the dumb stubborn ignorant a$shole read one paper, one report, one briefing, one book, or listened to one experienced advisor.

In fact, you never know with a village idiot like Trump. He made his trunaround against Putin after meeting Zelenskyy a couple of days ago. Trump is known to be so stupid that his position on any subject is determined by the last person he talks to or the last tweet he reads. Should he meet with Putin again, he'll come out of that meeting praising Putin and berating Zelenskyy.

Gathering Trump's thinking into a coherent stream of thought is like herding cats. 

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Trump takes his first direct shot at Putin
Elliott Davis
Thu, October 23, 2025

President Trump on Wednesday took his most significant and direct action yet against Russian President Vladimir Putin in a so-far-unsuccessful push to get the Kremlin leader to end his yearslong war with Ukraine.

New sanctions, announced by the Treasury Department, are targeting Russia’s two largest oil companies, Open Joint Stock Company Rosneft Oil Company and Lukoil OAO, in addition to dozens of subsidiaries.

The news broke just before the president spoke with reporters at the White House alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, where Trump told reporters he “felt it was time” to elevate the punishments against Russia.

“It’s a very big day in terms of what we’re doing. These are tremendous sanctions. They’re big, these are against their two big oil companies and we hope they won’t be on for long. We hope that the war will be settled,” Trump said.

“We would like to see them just take the line that has been formed over quite a long period of time and just go home,” he added.

Trump had previously placed tariffs on India over its purchase of Russian oil, but Wednesday’s move marks the first direct punitive action toward Moscow since Trump returned to the White House, promising to end the war within 24 hours.

Just last week, Trump said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told him India would stop buying Russian oil, though India has not made such a commitment publicly.

The sanctions come a day after the Trump administration called off a planned meeting with Putin in Hungary.

“We canceled the meeting with President Putin,” Trump said alongside Rutte. “It just didn’t feel right to me. It didn’t feel like we were going to get to the place we have to get. So I canceled it, but we’ll do it in the future.”

Whether the latest developments mark a turning point in Trump’s approach Ukraine remains to be seen. But the moves are sure to spur optimism in Kyiv, which just last week had its request for Tomahawk missiles shot down by Trump.

Trump on Wednesday added a new reason to his list of justifications for withholding the long-range missiles, saying it would take too long to train Ukraine’s military to fire the weapons. He had previously indicated concern about U.S. stockpiles and the dangers of letting Ukraine strike deeper into Russia with American weapons.

Behind the scenes, the Financial Times reported that Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky‘s lunch meeting on Friday at times devolved into a shouting match over Zelensky’s pleas for Tomahawks. Prior to his appearance with Rutte, Trump rejected a Wall Street Journal report saying the U.S. had given approval for Ukraine to launch missiles deep into Russian territory.

The Ukrainian president said during a video address on Tuesday that once it became clear that Ukraine might not have access to the long-range missiles from the U.S. anytime soon, “Russia’s interest in diplomacy faded almost automatically.”

“This signals that this very issue — the issue of our deep strike capabilities — may hold the indispensable key to peace,” he added.

As Trump turns his attention to Russia and Ukraine, others in the administration are trying to hold together the ceasefire in the Middle East.

After reports surfaced that Israel launched attacks on Hamas in Gaza over claims the militant group violated the ceasefire, Vice President Vance visited Israel this week in an effort to reinforce the peace deal the Trump administration helped broker. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is planning to travel to Israel on Thursday and meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom Vance met with on Wednesday.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that he ended seven wars — which is at least somewhat misleading — and, after the Gaza ceasefire was announced, added the Middle East conflict to his list of victories.

Even Trump has admitted that adding the Russia-Ukraine conflict to that list is proving a heavier lift than he expected.

But he had one of his biggest cheerleaders at the White House in Rutte. Following a meeting with senators earlier in the day, the NATO chief told reporters that Trump is “the only one who can get this done.”

Russia, Venezuela, and China are just some of the major foreign policy issues before the Trump administration. There’s another one that’s surfaced: the moon. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says he’s reopening the SpaceX contract to deliver astronauts to the moon, saying the SpaceX work is behind schedule. That has made him Elon Musk’s new political foe, who has responded with a slew of posts on X.

I asked Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.), who’s a member of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, about the latest feud. “I think if you’re to be fair about this, there isn’t one Navy contract that hasn’t fallen behind. Not one,” McCormick told me. “I just want to be consistent in our application of our laws and our contracts,” he added.

Here’s the reality: the list of those who can deliver in space is not long. The government is likely to rely on Musk for many of our out-of-this-world hopes in the years and decades to come.

3 Things to Know Today

1. The Trump administration is dispatching 100 immigration agents to San Francisco, days after the president claimed residents would be welcoming of a federal presence and promised the Bay Area city will “be great again.” Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told NewsNation‘s “The Hill” it’d be a “stepped-up” federal presence. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) says he’ll sue.

2. New York City Mayor Eric Adams joined former Gov. Andrew Cuomo at a Knicks game Wednesday night shortly after Cuomo appeared in the city’s second mayoral debate. Adams has not endorsed in the race after dropping his reelection bid. Cuomo, who is running as an independent, faced off against Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, who later ripped the pair’s courtside appearance. Check out takeaways from the debate here.

3. The Department of Justice announced a deal with the University of Virginia to pause federal investigations and ensure funding in the future — a first for a public university amid the administration’s clampdown on higher education.

MERKLEY’S EPIC FILIBUSTER: Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) finally concluded his marathon speech on the Senate floor late Wednesday afternoon after 22 hours and 39 minutes. He was a few hours shy of Sen. Cory Booker’s (D-N.J.) filibuster record, set earlier this year.

The Hill’s Al Weaver reports that the three-term Oregon senator railed against “grave threats” presented by Trump, including the president’s recent move to deploy National Guard troops to Portland.

“I’ve come to the Senate floor tonight to ring the alarm bells. We’re in the most perilous moment, the biggest threat to our republic since the Civil War. President Trump is shredding our Constitution,” Merkley said to open his speech.

After Merkley left the lectern to applause and brief remarks by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) praising him, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) slammed the marathon speech and wondered aloud what he and Democrats hoped to accomplish.

“The government is still closed, Capitol Police officers and Senate support staffers were here for the entire 22 hours are still not getting paid,” the Wyoming Republican said.

12TH TIME’S (NOT) THE CHARM: Not long after Merkley concluded, the Senate again failed to approve a House-passed bill to reopen the government and keep it funded through Nov. 21.

The vote — another 54-46 tally — was more of the same on Day 22 of the government shutdown. As with previous votes, Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Angus King (I-Maine) crossed the aisle to back the House-passed bill, while Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) joined most Democrats in voting against it.

Speaking of the filibuster, Fetterman has suddenly become one of the leading proponents for Republican senators to deploy the “nuclear option” and carve out an exception to the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to reopen the government.

“I think it would be rather hypocritical for us as a party now to suddenly love the filibuster,” Fetterman told “Sunrise on the Hill” on Wednesday. “In that cycle that I ran, all of us ran on getting rid of the filibuster to enact exactly parts of our agenda. And now we can’t pretend that we love it or pretend we just were in a much different situation just a couple years ago.”

Chatter is picking up among some Republicans about overriding the filibuster, though Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) remains opposed to the idea.

THE SILENT TREATMENT: The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports that Senate Republicans are divided over whether Trump should negotiate directly with Democrats over their demands to extend Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies — a key impasse in the shutdown fight.

While Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) says Trump should talk to Democrats to lay the groundwork for a post-shutdown deal, other Republican leaders think the president should continue to shun Democrats.

Some Republicans, such as Sen. Dan Sullivan (Alaska), are quietly working with Democratic colleagues to find a deal. He said Trump could make a positive difference by talking to Democrats.

“If the president gets involved on big, complicated issues, it’s always helpful,” he said.

However, Thune, who has offered Democrats a vote on ObamaCare extensions, says there’s nothing to negotiate until the government is open, a line that Trump has held — so far.

Recent polling shows Americans generally give Trump, congressional Democrats and congressional Republicans roughly equal shares of the blame pie over the shutdown.

MORE DRUG BOAT STRIKES: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced late Wednesday that the U.S. military destroyed yet another vessel accused of trafficking drugs, after confirming a separate strike earlier in the day. Hegseth said the combined strikes, both of which occured in the Pacific, killed five alleged “narco-terrorists.”

The strikes mark the eighth and ninth vessels the U.S. has targeted since September, killing dozens of people in the process. The latest strikes were the first in the Eastern Pacific. Previous strikes hit boats in the Caribbean Sea, in the Atlantic and off the coast of Venezuela.

“Narco-terrorists intending to bring poison to our shores, will find no safe harbor anywhere in our hemisphere,” Hegseth posted on X. “Just as Al Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people. There will be no refuge or forgiveness—only justice.”

The Trump administration has received some bipartisan pushback over the attacks. Rep. Adam Smith (Wash.), the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, on Monday called for a hearing on the deadly strikes. Kentucky’s Paul, who is a frequent Trump critic and was not invited to a White House luncheon for Republican senators on Tuesday, said Sunday that the recent strikes “go against all our tradition” in the U.S.

The Senate has several hearings scheduled in the morning, including sessions to consider some nominees.

DEMOCRATS: LEFT OR CENTER? Coming off a brutal defeat in the 2024 presidential election and now taking attacks from Republicans over the weekslong government shutdown, the Democratic Party’s soul-searching is very much ongoing.

The Hill’s Amie Parnes reports that party officials are wrestling with whether they need to move further to the left, or more to the center, to win over voters.

She points to two figures who represent these Democratic poles: Zohran Mamdani, the self-described democratic socialist who is the heavy favorite to become New York City’s next mayor, and Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego, a moderate who managed to win over some Trump voters last fall.

However, political strategists said that talk about where voters are leading politically is missing the point.

“Saying a candidate or the party overall needs to fall in the correct place on a left to center policy spectrum is an outdated way to look at things that no real voter thinks about,” Democratic strategist Eddie Vale told Parnes. “Voters don’t care what DC think tank your views line up with. They are looking for authenticity and people who will help them.”

“The biggest factor for presidential candidates running in 2028 won’t be whether they are labeled left or centrist,” added Democratic strategist Rodell Mollineau. “Presidential politics has become all about cult of personality.”

Gallego, alongside his fellow Arizona moderate Democrat Sen. Mark Kelly, made headlines earlier this month when he confronted Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) outside his office over — partially — the delay in swearing in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.).

Asked about Mamdani, Gallego acknowledged that he disagrees with some of his positions, including gove rnment-run grocery stores. But he said Democrats had plenty to learn from Mamdani.

“I think there’s a lot of Democrats that are missing the boat,” he said. “We don’t have to support Mamdani on everything; we could just disagree on some areas. But the fact is that he talks about affordability. He talks about trying to make people’s lives better. That’s resonating. And now we may not agree how he’s going to get there but let’s not ignore the lesson that he’s showing.”

ABBOTT TARGETS PROFESSORS: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has rattled academia over his pronouncement that the state government is targeting professors with “leftist ideologies.”

“We must end indoctrination and return to education fundamentals at all levels of education,” Abbott said Sunday in a post on X.

The GOP governor also shared an Axios story, which reported that a University of Texas professor said the school’s leadership dismissed him from his administrative role in September “due to ideological differences.”

The Hill’s Lexi Lonas Cochran reports that academic and legal experts are concerned about Abbott’s moves and the implications for academic freedom.

The GOP governor appears to be following Trump’s lead, as the president has set his sights on higher education since returning to the White House, largely focusing on campus protests, alleged antisemitism and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Most recently, several institutions have rejected a compact that the administration sent to nine universities that guaranteed funding advantages if they agreed to certain policy changes.

But some universities, including the University of Virginia on Wednesday, have struck deals with the administration.

Fellow Republicans, fellow Hoosiers: Redistricting now is a bad idea, former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) writes in The Washington Post.

Thanks to Trump, Putin is winning, BYU professor emeritus Richard Davis writes in The Hill.

And finally … The makers of the popular game Cards Against Humanity settled their lawsuit against Elon Musk’s SpaceX company, according to the AP. And no, the lawsuit didn’t have to do with any edgy insults hurled in either direction.

Cards Against Humanity, which sued SpaceX for $15 million, alleged SpaceX trespassed on and damaged some of their property along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The card game company had purchased a plot of land in Cameron County, Texas, as part of a campaign to “make it as time-consuming and expensive as possible for Trump to build his wall” along the southwest border during the president’s first term. They then accused SpaceX of acquiring “many of the vacant lots along the road” next to the property and eventually “changing the entire dynamic of the area.”

The terms of the settlement were not disclosed by either part

 

 

 

MAGA Corporations and Individuals Paying for White House Demolition

Apple, Amazon, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Google, Coinbase, Comcast and Meta are just some of the major companies who have made donations to build President Donald Trump’s proposed 90,000-square-foot ballroom, according to the White House.

Trump has repeatedly said that work on the ballroom is privately funded by himself and donors and will cost nothing to taxpayers.

On Wednesday, Trump discussed his plans for the ballroom, saying it will cost “about $300 million,” after he had said that the cost of the ballroom would be $200 million.

Previously, Trump had said that the new construction would not touch the existing structure. But that was also a lie: Right now, the entire East Wing of the White Housis being demolished.

Additional donors include co-founders of cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss; Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and his family; and the Adelson family. Trump awarded Miriam Adelson, a Republican megadonor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2018. Notice that the vast majority of donors are of the Jewish persuasion.

Trump gave these very wealthy companies and individuals extremely generous tax breaks. Their donations to the ballroom are therefore tax-deductible re-payments to Trump who can now claim that he's demolishing the White House with private money, not government money. 

White House ballroom donors:

• Altria Group, Inc.

• Amazon

• Apple

• Booz Allen Hamilton

• Caterpillar, Inc.

• Coinbase

• Comcast Corporation

• J. Pepe and Emilia Fanjul

• Hard Rock International

• Google

• HP Inc.

• Lockheed Martin

• Meta Platforms

• Micron Technology

• Microsoft

• NextEra Energy, Inc.

• Palantir Technologies Inc.

• Ripple

• Reynolds American

• T-Mobile

• Tether America

• Union Pacific Railroad

• Adelson Family Foundation

• Stefan E. Brodie

• Betty Wold Johnson Foundation

• Charles and Marissa Cascarilla

• Edward and Shari Glazer

• Harold Hamm

• Benjamin Leon Jr.

• The Lutnick Family

• The Laura & Isaac Perlmutter Foundation

• Stephen A. Schwarzman

• Konstantin Sokolov

• Kelly Loeffler and Jeff Sprecher

• Paolo Tiramani

• Cameron Winklevoss

• Tyler Winklevoss

 

Voter Fraud Rampant Among MAGA Republicans

A white MAGA Colorado woman has been found guilty of voter fraud. She cast ballots for late ex-husband and son. According to prosecutors, Elizabeth Ann Davis, 61, a MAGA Republican, was convicted Wednesday of two counts of forgery and one count of impersonating an elector for submitting mail ballots for them in the 2022 general election. Although voter fraud is rare and detectable since the nation’s election processes provide many safeguards, MAGA and Trump have based their attacks on the democratic system by impugning the poor and immigrants with illegally voting by mail. But it turns out it is their own base of MAGA morons that have been doing the cheating.

Voters are required to put their signature on ballots before returning them.

Davis, a Republican, has previously been convicted of forgery and other offenses in Florida and Colorado, a press release from the office of District Attorney George Brauchler said.

“Those who seek to corrupt our elections or dilute our votes — by even a single ballot — will find a DA’s office intent on their incarceration," Brauchler's office said.

Davis is represented by a lawyer from the state public defender's office, which does not comment on its cases to the media. Davis will be sentenced on Jan. 9. She could be put on probation or sentenced to up to three years in prison.

 

Accusation of Terrorist has Surpassed the Obsolete Accusation of Antisemitic

Mike Johnson  has called Democrats ‘terrorists’ over the dispute on government shutdown. He could have accused them of being antisemitic because there are Jewish Republicans in the Congress, and the shutdown is hurting law-abiding Jewish Americans.

But "antisemitic" has been brandished every which way, including against a Lebanese sheep that strayed across the border from south Lebanon into the Galilee, that it has become stale and obsolete. Anyone who uses the words "Jew", "Israeli" or "Zionist" in a sentence with a whiff of negativity, no matter how justified it might be, is an Antisemite. If a country recalls its ambassador in Israel because of a disagreement over barbaric genocidal policies by Israel, that country is immediately and conclusively labeled "antisemitic". 

I was recently accused of being an antisemite because I refused to watch yet another bullshit American TV story about Anne Frank while tens of thousands of Palestinian Anne Franks were being exterminated by the Zionist terror army. The Dutch Anne Frank spent 2 years in a cozy attic being served food on silver platters and having the luxury to tell her diary about her first periods in such "difficult" circumstances, but thousands of Palestinian Anne Franks have been starved, maimed, and killed, and mistakingly believed their periods were from wounds caused by Israeli bomb shrapnel. Animals, people, countries, buildings, cars, remote controls, stones, waterways.... anything that somehow remotely suggest a split-second negative thought about "Jew", "Israel" or "Zionist" is eligible for the passe-partout label of "antisemite".

Having been used successfully over several decades, mostly in the West (where Antisemitism was born and is still alive), the accusation of antisemitism has sent shivers down the spine of almost every European and American: If tagged with being an antisemite, you are associated with the Nazis, Hitler, and all the losers of World War II. Being an antisemite means that you hate Jews because they are Jews. Even indifference to Jews is "indirect antisemitism", because we all have been brainwashed to worship and love Jews, regardless of their actions, because they were victims of hatred. You cannot not be indifferent. You must blindly love. Which is why Israel is pretty much getting away with large-scale murder of innocent people.

But after Gaza, "Terrorist" has supplanted "Antisemitic". "Terrorist" has so far been used to describe people fighting occuation, brutal regimes, colonialism and state-sponsored violence. Bust as the adage says, "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter". Therefore, feel free to label anyone with whom you disagree a "terrorist".

The scintillating Trump-Butler Speaker from the backward slavery secessionist state of Louisiana, Mike Johnson, has referred to Democrats as ‘Terrorists’ because they want more Americans to have affordable healthcare. To which House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) reacted on Thursday by saying that Johnson is “going to get someone killed” with his violent rhetoric about the current government shutdown.

Elsewhere, as if trained to use the word "terrorist" by Trump himself, Johnson again referred to Democrats as “legislative terrorists” in a CNN interview.

“We’re not going to allow Chuck Schumer to play selfish political games and hold the American people hostage,” he said. “We will not negotiate with legislative terrorists.”

The position of the Democrats is that an extension of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) subsidies should be included in any plan to fund the government, which Johnson and his MAGA criminal gang reject.

With Johnson accusing Democrats of being “terrorists”, he joins the violent verbiage and footage that Trump and MAGA have been flooding America with ever since the Orange Moron joined the political fray, thus encouraging violence. Jeffries responded by rightfully asserting that Johnson is recklessly using inflammatory language at a time of deep political division in the country.

Jeffries said:

That type of language is reckless, it’s irresponsible, and it’s going to get someone killed. What do these folks not understand as it relates to the language that they continue to use? We should be able to battle it out in the contest of ideas as opposed to trying to use these extreme terms that have been unleashed on the American people from the very beginning of this presidency, and, as a matter of fact, for a long period of time, by the current president and those sycophants who continue to do nothing more than rubber stamp his extreme agenda and hurt the American people. These are folks in the house in terms of the Republicans, they’ve been on vacation for the last four weeks. They have actually canceled votes four consecutive weeks in a row. And as Democrats, we’ve been here, leader Schumer, Senate Democrats, House Democrats making clear we are ready, we are willing, we are able to sit down with anyone, any time, any place in order to reopen the government, enact a spending agreement that actually improves the quality of life for the American people, that actually lowers costs for the American people.

Antisemitic Jewish American Rats on Israel. Should Be Deported to Rwanda

He should be stripped of his US citizenship and denied jobs. He must be a pro-Hamas American who should be tried for complicity with a terrorist organization. How dare he criticize the most moral people on earth? 

I wonder how long it took this idiot to realize that the US media are a subservient arm of the Zionist organization. He says he is "surprised" by the lack of coverage from major U.S. outlets. Where has he been living? It's been 75 years of praising Jewish violence and condeming Palestinian resistance to an unlwaful occcupation.

You know you're dealing with a dumb American when it took an immediate threat to his own "high-value" American life by Israeli terrorist settlers to reach the conclusion that Israel is a colonial criminal entity whose sole objective is to kill, massacre and genocide the native indigenous Palestinian population - a.k.a. ethnically cleanse Palestine - to make way for brand new settlers from New York motivated by the garbage violence of the bible. Mr. Nathaniel could have been one of those Zionist barbarian Brooklyn Jews who made Aliyah and went to steal Palestinian land "on command of Yahweh".

===================================================



‘Nearly Murdered’: Jewish Reporter Who Filmed Violent Attack by Israeli Settlers Calls Out US Media for Ignoring Story
Mediaite
Thu, October 23, 2025


A Jewish-American journalist is calling out U.S. news outlets for ignoring a violent settler attack in the West Bank that he and American colleagues found themselves in the middle of and captured on camera in now-viral footage that has drawn condemnation from the United Nations.

Brooklyn-based reporter Jasper Nathaniel was traveling through the olive fields near Turmus Ayya on Oct. 19 when he filmed masked Israeli settlers assaulting Palestinian farmers.

The attackers, wielding clubs and other makeshift weapons, can be seen beating several people, including a 55-year old woman, as Nathaniel shouted at them to stop.

October 19, 2025. On the first day of the olive harvest in Turmus'ayya, the Israeli Defense Force leads a group of farmers directly into a brutal ambush by armed settlers. These people need to be in prison by tomorrow, and the people of this village, and all across Palestine,… https://t.co/i4PbG9jn4j pic.twitter.com/i67CjLB2gg
— jasper nathaniel (@infinite_jaz) October 19, 2025

“The IDF lured us into an ambush,” Nathaniel wrote on X shortly before posting the footage. “Brutal settler attack in Turmus’ayya olive fields. Many injuries, including a woman knocked unconscious with a club and beaten repeatedly.”
https://twitter.com/infinite_jaz/status/1979797840424796384

In a later post, Nathaniel accused the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) of facilitating the violence, saying the mob descended “moments after the IDF sped away.”

Despite the graphic footage circulating widely online, Nathaniel said he was “surprised” by the lack of coverage from major U.S. outlets and claimed that the “group of Americans” – of which he was one – “were nearly murdered.”

I don’t hold the US media in very high regard, but I’m still a bit surprised that not a single mainstream outlet is covering an event where a group of Americans were nearly murdered by an enormous government- and military-backed Israeli mob. https://t.co/F2JVoXBw0f
— jasper nathaniel (@infinite_jaz) October 22, 2025

The clip was shared by Francesca Albanese, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights in Palestine, who later wrote, “For 2 years, the world has seen scenes like this from the West Bank. I wonder where decent Israelis are; those who protest in Tel Aviv.”

For 2 years, the world has seen scenes like this from the West Bank. I wonder where decent Israelis are; those who protest in Tel Aviv. Hatred of Hamas is one thing, but do they not feel some obligation to act to stop their fellow citizens behaving like criminals on the loose? https://t.co/N9fT4mVc60
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) October 19, 2025

The attack was covered by the BBC and British newspaper The Independent as well as Qatari government-owned outlet Al Jazeera.

What do You do When You Have MAGA Morons in Your family?

 
"I Still Love Them, But They Get Dumber Every Day": 11 People Got Very, Very Candid About How They Handle Conversations With Their MAGA Family
Alexa Lisitza
Thu, October 23, 2025

Recently, we asked people in the BuzzFeed Community to share how they handle conversations with their MAGA family members.

Bloomberg / Getty Images
 

The responses ranged from frustrating to exceedingly honest. Here's what they said:

1. "I'm Hispanic and my father-in-law is a white MAGA male — who is also a veteran — who claims that he's OK with me because I'm 'one of the good ones.'"

"Before the election, I used to try giving him only facts, and he kept saying how I was trying to sell him a liberal agenda. One time, I tried bringing the immigration issue up, and he belittled me, saying things like, 'How can you think he will come for you? He's only going after the worst of the worst. I'm disappointed that you have all this knowledge and still make outrageous claims like that.' Then, everyone else got uncomfortable and walked away from the conversation. He followed up with a text telling me how talking about politics is taking away time from his family time. THEN, when T ultimately got elected, and he did go after people like me, I heard my father-in-law say that the ends justify the means. Long story short, you don't 'handle' it. Let them get their benefits cut and livelihoods get taken away until they can't blame the Dems anymore."
—greenwitch492

2. "I don’t. They abandoned me when I came out, and now that they’re losing their healthcare, they're looking for sympathy. Womp womp."
—sillymoon

3. "Rather than focusing on the political divide, I focus on issues that are common across all people at our economic level: wages, housing costs, healthcare costs, rising cost of living, and inequity between normal people and the billionaire class."

"My MIL is MAGA because she thinks that being pro 'hard work and responsibility' means that she has to be a republican. Her mind was blown when I said, 'I agree with you; I think people should work hard and be responsible for themselves.' I just add on that I also think that, as a society, we should help people when they stumble. That if we DO work hard and take responsibility for ourselves, we should be able to live a comfortable life. Not extravagant, not something for nothing, but that honest work should yield an honest wage. She agreed with ME. We solved nothing, but we took steps toward each other on common ground. I'll take my wins where I can get them."
—reneelynnripley

Anadolu / Getty Images

4. "Unfriending and blocking them on all social media and having nothing to do with them in real life. There's enough B.S. in life, no need to include unnecessary B.S."
—keathome2010

5. "I want to keep the lines of communication open, but productively."
"If/when they start going off on tangents, clearly and firmly say, 'That’s not a conversation I’m going to have with you right now. If you want to get back to discussing X, I’m happy to engage.' Then hold the line. It keeps things productive and respectful, which also helps because I want to hold out hope that they will see reason someday."
—originalcan965

6. "Funny enough, my MAGA relatives don’t want to talk about politics anymore."
"During the first Trump term and then Biden, they brought up their love of Trump constantly. Now, after all his horrible policies —them getting layoff notices, the cutting of services, etc. — they’re not so enamored and suddenly don’t want to discuss it! I pray this dissatisfaction with the president spreads like wildfire."
—originalknight396

Anadolu / Getty Images

7. "I usually walk away from the conversation. Almost all of my family members are Republicans, and it's hard to talk to them about what I believe."
"Most of the time, they don't want to talk to me, even though I'm only 13. I still can have my own beliefs and opinions.

One day, I was in my room. This was during the election, and my brother came in and said, 'Fuck you Democrats,' Like, bro chill😭😭😭! But what can I do? I'm not old enough. You expect me to vote for Republicans, no, when I'm old enough, I can do what I want, but I mostly support Democrats, so it's sometimes hard since I have no one to talk to about this stuff, and half my friends are Republicans, and my other half avoids the drama about which is better for our country. So I just avoid conversations like that."
—SabrinaCarpenterFan

8. "I don’t talk to them anymore. Easy peasy. Especially the woman who gave birth to me."
—PhillyInDC
 

9. "I hate it when anybody gets political 'cause it's always hyper negative."
"My sister and cousin are the WORST about it. I wouldn't mind if they actually came up with their own opinions, but they just spew MAGA/conservative soundbites from TikTok. At my confirmation dinner, I made the mistake of sitting next to them. They just discussed their 'views' the whole time, and proceeded to shit on every 'snowflake' family member.

My sister called both of my parents brainwashed, two people who don't use social media and only read non-biased news articles. Two people who are not registered with either party, whose political views have not changed since 1993. Yeah, guys, totally brainwashed. So honestly, I try to avoid them when they're together. I avoid all forms of political conversation with my sister. I still love them, but they get dumber every day."
—slylight675

Anadolu / Getty Images

10. "With patience and boundaries. I try to listen without debating every point, focus on shared values instead of politics, and step away when it stops being respectful."
"You can’t change someone’s beliefs overnight — but you can choose peace over endless argument."
—glitterypumpkin715

11. And finally, "It's really difficult, especially since we live under the same roof."

"I'm nearly 36, and I help take care of my family, but I'm the only one in the household that isn't a MAGA. I've heard people who voted for someone other than Trump should have their heads examined. And today I was basically called a terrorist because I'm not MAGA. I've started to just remove myself from the uncomfortable conversations, and thank my lucky stars when I'm at work, away from what I feel to be a hostile environment."
—prorockstar686

Republican-MAGA Antisemitism is Finally Coming to the Fore

I've often reflected on the contradiction inherent to the Republican-MAGA-GOP-KKK-Radical Right-Proud Boys... conglomerate of criminal racist morons:

- On one hand, they've historically been rabid antisemites as part of their broad hatred umbrella against anyone not a white anglos-saxon moron like them, not to mention their declared love for Hitler and Nazism and other assorted Fascist ideologies.

- On the other hand, they claim to love Israel, literally to death. Their love for Israel is premissed on their Evangelical barbaric belief that the fictional garbage of the bible is actually true, most notably the prophecy of End of Times and Armageddon which will usher the Messiah back to earth (Jesus for Christians, and a brand new warrior Messiah for Jews). If and when Jesus returns on a SpaceX rocket back to earth from his celestial abode, US moron Ambassador to Israel, the imbecile Mike Huckabee from the backward state of Arkansas expects his much beloved Zionist Jews to convert to christianity. If they don't then will face death at his own MAGA hands.

How long can the MAGA morons hold that fucked up contradiction remains to be seen. One thing is certain, though: Neither Jesus, nor the Jewish Messiah, are ever showing up on earth, at least not before the next mass extinction that life on earth has experienced several times over the past 600 million years. Antisemitism by white anglo-saxon protestant American is the legacy of the crooked English colonials who created the US colony. It is likely to last until the next mass extinction of human dinosaurs in the southern bible belt of the United States.

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‘They’re Being Spread Lies!’ Ted Cruz Warns of ‘Growing Cancer’ of Right-Wing Anti-Semitism
Mediaite
Wed, October 22, 2025 

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) decried the “growing cancer” of right-wing anti-Semitism in remarks delivered at Hagee Ministries’ 45th annual Night to Honor Israel in San Antonio on Tuesday.

“Listen, about a decade ago, anti-Semitism began rising on the left. And the Democrat Party did nothing. And in the decade that followed, it has consumed the Democrat Party. I do not believe this is exaggeration to say there is a real and meaningful pro-Hamas contingent of the Democrat Party in Washington. And the remainder of the Democrats are terrified of the pro-Hamas contingent,” began Cruz. “We know that, but the danger that I want to highlight to you tonight is not anti-Semitism on the left, it is anti-Semitism on the right. And I’m here to tell you in the last six months, I have seen ant-Semitism rising on the right in a way I have never seen it in my entire life.”

“I’m here to tell you, the church is asleep right now. If I pick up my phone and send out a tweet, if I say good morning, within minutes I will have hundreds of blatantly anti-Semitic responses. When Prime Minister Netanyahu was here a few months ago, I sat down with him for a couple of hours. I raised this issue with him, and his first reaction was, he said, ‘Well, that’s Qatar. That’s Iran. They’re paying for it. It’s AstroTurf.’ And I said, ‘Mr. Prime Minister, yes, but no. Yes, Qatar and Iran are clearly paying for it, and there are bots, and they are putting real money behind it, but I am telling you this is real, it is organic, these are real human beings and it is spreading,'” said the conservative senator. “In the last year we had three prominent voices on the right publicly muse, ‘Gosh, maybe Hitler wasn’t that bad a guy after all.’ Yes he was, he was the embodiment of evil! And I asked Prime Minister Netanyahu, I said, ‘Imagine how different American political history would have been if Rush Limbaugh had been an anti-Semite instead of a philo-Semite. We would have a fundamentally different country if Rush Limbaugh has spent years spreading poison.”

“This poison of anti-Semitism on the right, it is spreading with young people. It is gaining traction,” continued Cruz, who expanded on this point minutes later:

But I will tell you, there is a movement among Christians, particularly young Christians. The public polling numbers of support for Israel among young Christians is plummeting. And they’re being spread lies. They’re being spread lies, isolationist lies that we should withdraw from the world because nobody wants to hurt us. But they’re also being spread theological lies. They are being taught replacement theology. Which is a lie that the promises God made to Israel, and the people of Israel, are somehow no longer good! They are no longer valid! That when God made a promise, He didn’t mean the promise He made! And instead, it is an argument that the Christian church has replaced Israel and the Jews, and the Jew are no longer God’s chosen people, and all of the promises throughout the Bible are now a dead letter.

Cruz has sparred with other figures on the right over Israel and anti-Semitism — including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson — in recent months.

The post ‘They’re Being Spread Lies!’ Ted Cruz Warns of ‘Growing Cancer’ of Right-Wing Anti-Semitism first appeared on Mediaite.

This is What Happens When MAGA Republicans Kill Obamacare (ACA) Subsidies

Trump, GOP and MAGA fought Obamacare tooth and nail. They wanted to cancel it altogether. They wanted insurance companies to deny coverage on the basis of pre-existing conditions. They wanted to deny parents the ability to cover their college-age children up to the age of 26. They wanted to give the greedy crooked insurance companies a free run on raising their premiums at will....

They called Obama's efforts "socialism". But Americans by and large loved Obamacare, and were not convinced with the Republican arguments in favor of insurance companies and against the average American. So, when put to the test, so-called "Socialist" policies are not only accepted but very much desired by the American population. Think Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany...and basically every ally and country on earth... are they all terrible "socialists" for giving their workers maternity and paternity leaves, free healthcare, 6-week vacation time....? Why do the people of those countries every year rank higher on the happiness index compared to the US population?

I just found out via a letter that doesn't explain anything that my health insurer will stop covering me on Dec. 31, 2025. No reason given whatsoever, but a lot of advice on where to find alternative coverage. Is that a way to treat customers who've been faithfully, and painfully, renewing their coverage every year. I now have to sift through tons of fine-print literature to find out what friggin' company covers which dreaded disease, then decide which diseases I am likely to be stricken with before making a decision on which new insurance thief company to choose for 2026. 

Is that how the American people really prefer to be treated? Like disposable bodies that can be tossed from one flithy company to another filthier company? 

The Republican MAGA crowd is an agent for criminal insurance companies. They've always resisted and fought against meaningful and common sense change that benefits the average American. They want insurance companies to keep toying with our lives by playing a capricious intermediary between one's health and one's doctor. And you want me to accept that this is the best that the "American way of life" can offer us? 

President Obama fought hard, but ended up compromising, to make slight improvements in how we access health care and how we benefit from health care. Today, Trump's spineless MAGA Republicans still want us to go back to freewheeling premiums and arbitrary denials of coverage. The Democrats have so far held their ground: No government funding until the ACA-Obamacare is protected.

==================================================== 

‘It’s only gotten worse’: As ACA premiums are set to climb, some Americans opt to go uninsured

Berkeley Lovelace Jr.

Wed, October 22, 2025

Ginny Murray says she and her husband, Chaz, are out of options for health insurance. In January, their premiums are expected to rise higher than they’ve ever gone up before, putting the cost out of reach.

The Arkansas couple plan to drop their coverage, betting their savings will be enough if unexpected illness strikes.

“Our plan is to keep putting the money we’re already paying towards health care in savings,” said Murray, whose insurance is covered through the Affordable Care Act, “and really just hoping that we don’t have a stroke or we don’t have a heart attack.”

They’re part of a broader shift taking shape as enhanced subsidies for ACA premiums are set to expire at the end of the year. Without them, many Americans could see their monthly premiums double or even triple next year, a spike that’s forcing people to rethink what they can afford — or whether health insurance is even worth it.

Next year will be the biggest premium increase since the ACA took effect, said Art Caplan, the head of the medical ethics division at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City.

Open enrollment for ACA plans begins next month, and there is no data yet on how many people plan on dropping their coverage. However, the Congressional Budget Office projects nearly 4 million will drop their health insurance for next year if the subsidies expire. The issue has paralyzed Washington, where Democrats say they won’t vote to reopen the government unless the tax credits are extended.

For Murray, 48, the math simply doesn’t work. A truck driver, she was injured in a work accident 2 ½ years ago and is still receiving workers’ compensation, unable to work full time. Her husband, also a truck driver, continues to drive as an independent owner-operator.

The couple’s monthly premium is around $1,500; with the subsidies, it comes down to around $450. But the state regulators approved a 26% rate increase for their insurer, which means their premiums will rise by at least $400 next year. The cost could more than triple if the subsidies expire.

“What other choice do we have?” Murray said.

‘A catastrophic event’

Choosing to go uninsured isn’t new. Before the ACA became law in 2010, millions of Americans made similar choices — often with devastating financial consequences, said Dr. Adam Gaffney, a critical care physician and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.

From 2010 to 2023, the rate of people going uninsured fell from around 16% — about 48 million people — to 7.7%, according to data from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research group. Meanwhile, enrollment in ACA plans has grown from 8 million people in 2014 to a record 24.3 million people in 2025, thanks in part to the enhanced subsidies, according to the health policy research group KFF.

“Unless you are extraordinarily rich, it is effectively not possible to save enough money to cover the costs of a serious illness or major trauma,” Gaffney said. “For the uninsured, medical debt and bankruptcy is just one major illness or injury away.”

That reality is compounded by the fact that many Americans don’t have much of a financial cushion, said JoAnn Volk, co-director of Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms.

In 2024, roughly 37% of adults said they would struggle to cover a $400 emergency expense, according to the Federal Reserve.

And for those who do manage to build a large emergency fund, the balance often pales in comparison to what a common medical procedure could cost, Volk said.

“I’m sure people plan to save the money,” Volk said, “but [I’m] not sure how many can do so, and I expect they don’t know how much they’ll need for some common procedures if they have to pay out of pocket, let alone a catastrophic event or unexpected diagnosis.”

‘It’s only gotten worse’

D’nelle Dowis, of Denver, knows how quickly an unexpected medical expense can add up. She recalls how her father’s appendectomy in the 1990s was a huge financial burden for her family.

“It was a big thing for our family having to deal with that,” Dowis said. “So, there’s some kind of childhood fears wrapped up in this.”

Still, Dowis and her husband, Christopher, plan to drop their ACA coverage for next year and put that money into a high-yield savings account.

The Denver couple, both in their 40s, run a web development business together — which Dowis says they were only able to start due to the safety net the ACA provided. They pay about $600 a month in premiums, but that could jump to $1,300 next year.

D’nelle and Christopher Dowis and their two dogs. (Courtesy of Dowis family)
[Iznogood: I wonder if the Dowises voted for Trump.]

Keeping their coverage would mean cutting back on care for their two aging dogs, both of whom have cancer, as well as putting less money toward their retirement savings and holiday travel to visit family.

“We’d be cutting down on other things that I see as necessities, and I’m not sure if, at this point in my 40s, I’m necessarily willing to do that or not,” Dowis said.

Both she and her husband are healthy, which makes going without coverage feel manageable for now.

“I am exceptionally frustrated and there’s a level of anger to it,” Dowis said. “We’ve had 15 years now to try to solve this problem, and it’s only gotten worse.”

Claire Esparros, 34, said she has the same “psychological, mental, emotional breakdown” every year when it’s time to renew her ACA coverage and face the new monthly rate.

Esparros, a New York City-based freelance photographer, has no major health problems and mostly uses her coverage for the basics — annual physicals and the occasional sick visit. But she said her plan hasn’t offered much peace of mind.

“It’s horrible insurance,” she said. She has a so-called catastrophic plan, which carries a deductible of nearly $10,000. “The only reason I have it is if something truly horrible happens.”

Next year, though, she’s planning to let it go. Her monthly premium is set to triple from about $300 to $900 — and she said she can no longer justify the cost.

Instead of setting up a savings account like the Murrays and Dowises, Esparros is exploring health care co-ops, which pool money among members to cover medical expenses.

Caplan, of NYU Grossman School of Medicine, said co-ops, sometimes called community-based self-insurance, can be cheaper and more flexible — especially for healthy people — but they aren’t regulated under the ACA. That means they may not cover certain medical bills and are subject to bankruptcy from a single expensive case.

“It is a ‘Put your faith in your neighbor’ idea,” he said.

Esparros has been looking into two options and said so far she hasn’t heard of any major drawbacks. “It feels more personal and safe,” she said.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

State of Emergency, Elections, and White European and South African Refugees

Chicago and LA are training grounds for future "domestic warfare".

Militarizing the streets.

Fighting rampant crime is a pretext.

Practicing and testing "emergency" powers.

Forcing red states to gerrymander districts to artificially ensure a GOP congressional majority.

.......

All of it has one objective: declare a national state of emergency, claim that elections cannot be held, and let Trump stay indefinitely in power.

America: You are facing a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant rebellion against your constitution and your institutions. Democracy works in mysterious ways: little did the inbred White morons of America think they would be one day lose their demographic majority to become the largest minority. But that is what is going on, and the Trump phenomenon is largely an attempt to stem the "demographic timebomb" that White America perceives as a threat to its dominant poisition. That is why, among many other "policies", Trump now wants to allow only white European and South African refugees to be admitted in the US [https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/trump-seeks-cap-on-refugee-admissions-at-only-7500-people-nearly-all-could-be-white-south-africans/ar-AA1OYkrf].

==============================================


Trump’s ‘election integrity’ chief claimed president has future powers to declare voting emergency
Alex Woodward
Updated Thu, October 23, 2025

It was clear from the outset that Donald Trump’s administration would include high-ranking government officials who either endorsed his false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, or refused to publicly admit he lost.

The president continues to hammer a baseless narrative that the election was rigged against him, vowing publicly that it must never “happen again” as he deploys officials to prepare for midterm elections with the balance of power in Congress — and his agenda — at stake.

Before she was tapped as Trump’s “election integrity” official at the Department of Homeland Security, Heather Honey reportedly told a group of right-wing activists in March that the president could declare a “national emergency” to effectively take control of local election administration.

She said the move would follow an “actual investigation” of the 2020 election, if it revealed “manipulation” of the results, according to The New York Times, which had a recording of the call.

“We have some additional powers that don’t exist right now,” she said. “[W]e can take these other steps without Congress and we can mandate that states do things and so on.”

Trump has suggested top administration officials are investigating the 2020 election as he fills the government with election deniers who amplify his bogus narrative that it was rigged against him (AP). Trump’s ‘election integrity’ chief claimed president has future powers to declare voting emergency

She added that she does not know whether such federal control of elections would be “feasible” or if the people surrounding the president “would let him test that theory.”

But in the months that followed, the president has launched an aggressive effort to radically reshape elections, from redrawing congressional maps to promising an executive order he says would eliminate mail-in voting altogether.

“We’re going to start with an executive order that's being written right now by the best lawyers in the country to end mail-in ballots because they’re corrupt,” Trump said in August.

Trump has also backed a measure from Republicans in Congress that would upend how states register people to vote online or through automatic or same-day registration, an effort fueled by a bogus claim that noncitizens are fraudulently voting in federal elections.

“We don’t want it to happen again. We can never let what happened in the 2020 election happen again,” Trump said in the Oval Office Tuesday.

He suggested FBI director Kash Patel and intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard are investigating the results.

“I know Kash is working on it. Everybody’s working on it. And certainly Tulsi is working on it. We can’t let that happen again to our country,” he said.

Heather Honey also alarmed state election officials on a call last month where she reportedly infused a discussion about voting safeguards with rhetoric that echoed right-wing conspiracy theories.

On the September 11 call with the National Association of Secretaries of State Elections Committee, she discussed her current role and Homeland Security’s election security-related work, among other issues, a group spokesperson told The Independent.

Honey, a protege of prominent election conspiracy theorist Cleta Mitchell, was tapped earlier this year to serve as deputy assistant secretary for election integrity in Homeland Security’s Office of Strategy, Policy and Plans to oversee the nation’s election infrastructure.

But she complained that the agency’s employees tasked with combating election misinformation had “strayed from their mission,” according to The New York Times.

She also mentioned a report routinely touted by conspiracy theorists to support bogus claims that voting machines were rigged to favor Democrats, The Times reported, citing people familiar with the call.

The Trump administration has repeatedly hinted at efforts to investigate voting machines based on the president’s debunked allegations that they were rigged to support Democrats in 2020 (AP)

Top administration officials have repeatedly refused to admit Trump lost the 2020 election, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, who repeatedly evaded answering affirmatively that Joe Biden won during her under-oath Senate confirmation hearing.

But officials who explicitly embraced Trump’s election lies are working across the government in positions that critics fear could be weaponized against election administration.

Kurt Olsen, a former Trump campaign lawyer who worked on “Stop the Steal” efforts to overturn election results, is working for the administration as a “special government employee,” according to The Wall Street Journal.

He is reportedly “asking intelligence agencies for information about the 2020 election,” including voting machines, the WSJ reported.

Ed Martin, another “Stop the Steal” lawyer and defense attorney for January 6 rioters, was tapped to lead a “weaponization working group” at the Department of Justice to review what he believes are “political” prosecutions against the president.

Marci McCarthy, who spread false claims about voting machines in Georgia when she was chair of the DeKalb County Republican Party, also was hired as director of public affairs at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, in Homeland Security.

Nearly all of CISA’s election experts were purged from the agency earlier this year.

After hearing about the administration’s cuts to the agency, state officials left last month’s call with Honey “confused and anxious” as she “made unspecified claims of censorship at the agency,” according to The Times.

She reportedly also referred to a report that right-wing activists have used to undermine voting machines and suggested states would plan to use “fusion centers” — law enforcement collaborations typically used for large-scale events like the Super Bowl — for election security issues.

The CISA cuts have dismantled “nearly all” of Homeland Security’s capacity to protect election infrastructure, according to David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research

“The hiring of an election conspiracy theorist with no election knowledge or expertise is the culmination of this reversal,” Becker told ProPublica earlier this year. “DHS now appears poised to become a primary amplifier of false election conspiracies pushed by our enemies.”

The Independent has requested comment from DHS.

“Anyone who cares about the right to vote needs to be clear-eyed about what’s at stake right now,” Joanna Lydgate, CEO of the States United Democracy Center, said in a statement to The Independent. “We know who these people are, the lies they've told about elections, and the actions they've taken to undermine our system. It’s now more important than ever to be paying attention to what they’re saying and doing because they have the backing of the federal government.”

Thanks to Trump, China's No 1 Trading partner is Germany. No. 2 is the US

The US is now Germany's No. 2 trading partner. China is No. 1. Donald Dumb's dumb tariffs are increasingly isolating the US away from international markets.

Americans think they can manhandle anyone on the globe and still retain staying power because of their technology and products. But peoples and nations are not moved solely by money and technological prowess: They will slowly peel off the American tattoo and find other trading concubines to sleep with. 

America First, as predicted, is becoming America Alone. The yoyo pattern of American governance (radical changes every 4 years) is causing distrubing and annoying instability for its trading partners. People would rather deal with a stable demon than with an unstable moron who forces governments to continually make radical adjustments. 

China has indeed unseated the U.S. as Germany’s top trading partner. "There is no question that U.S. tariff and trade policy is an important reason for the decline in sales,” said Dirk Jandura, president of the Federation of German Wholesale, Foreign Trade and Services.

China’s trade relationship with Germany was valued at 163.4 billion euros ($190.7 billion) based on imports and exports from January to August, while the German-U.S. trade partnership was valued at 162.8 billion euros, according to Reuters calculations.

China’s exports to Germany rose 8.3 percent in the first eight months of 2025 while U.S. exports fell by 13.5 percent, according to year-over-year data reported by Reuters. German exports to the U.S. have also decreased by 7.4 percent compared with data from last year. Chinese trade with Germany exceeded the U.S.’s trade from 2016 to 2023.

In August, Trump announced a trade deal with the European Union, which encompasses trade relations with Germany and 26 other member nations. Under the agreement, there is a 15 percent import tax on 70 percent of foreign products exported to the U.S.

MAGA's Racism Against Their Own "Uncle Tom"s: Kash, Vivek and Dinesh

No matter how much they crawl at the feet of their white anglo-saxon protestant (WASP) MAGA masters, those minorities, immigrants, first-generation Americans with dark skin and others who contribute to their white masters' destruction of the United States, should understand they have no place in white America.

They can accept subservient roles in the MAGA world (wives, FBI directors and other glorified titles), but they will never be allowed to break through in any meaningful sense. Just look at how they are skewering Zohran Mamdani who is running for Mayor of New York.

Kash Patel, Vivek Ramaswamy, Dinesh D’Souza and others like them crawl at the feet of white America - some like D’Souza even converted from the abhorrent Catholic Papist religion to become a "dirty white" born-again nut evangelical just to be accepted as an equal - thinking that they share "conservative values" (belief in one god or many many gods) with the inbred morons of backwoods white America. But that is not the point of racism: You could even breed with them (e.g. JD Dunce's wife Usha Vance), you and your half-white children will forever carry the stain, the mark of Cain.

I wouldn't be surprised if Kash Patel himself, should he go walk alone one day in the streets of Chicago or LA, would not be busted by ICE-GESTAPO for "Walking while Indian", slammed to the floor, handcuffed and thrown in an unmarked van, and find himself celebrating Diwali in a Florida or San Salvador prison. He should try this experiment for the sake of all of us and for his own's eureka moment about the truth. But when you are the Uncle Tom of these genetically inbred racists, you do not have the mojo to free yourself: You prefer the comfort of being the butler rather than the master. They'll use you then get rid of you like a dirty rag. They did it with Back Africans. They did it with the indigenous Amerindian tribes. They are now doing it with immigrants from Mexico, Latin America and everywhere in between. 

There were once immigrants from Ireland. They were white, spoke English, and were Christians. But they were Catholic, not acceptable enough for the WASPs who brutalized them and treated them like scum. Then the Italians came, and they too were treated like "Southern European garbage". A couple of generations later, and those immigrant stocks became part of the ruling elite because they did not "look different". They easily snuck their way through the mines of racism. 

In turn, these same formerly brutalized immigrants started brutalizing the immigrants that followed them. That has been the story of White America. But beware: Your dark skins will never bleach enough for you to be accepted as equals. Regardless of how many generations you breed on American soil, and regardless of all the brain computing power you bring to America, you'll never be able to be fully free in a WASP-dominated America.  If they could, they'd even go back to slavery and you'll be their prime slaves.

Kash, Vivek, Dinesh and all of you out there fearfully celebrating Diwali with your curtains down: Dump Trump. Dump MAGA. Dump the GOP. Be truthful to yourselves and to your heritage. You will never succeed in changing the minds of ignorant racists flushed out of America's sewers by Donald Trump.
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Opinion

Kash Patel and Vivek Ramaswamy get hit with a hard MAGA truth
Sophia Tesfaye
Tue, October 21, 2025


Ohio GOP gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy

After a series of racist revelations and embarrassing encounters, Republicans are being confronted with the very undercurrent of extremism they have cultivated for years. Far from being confined to the fringes, the venom of hate and edgelord internet trolling that propelled President Donald Trump’s return to the White House cannot be contained online — and now it’s coming back to bite some of MAGA’s top foot soldiers.

On Monday, FBI director Kash Patel posted a simple message on X to mark Diwali. The first Indian-American to lead the FBI, Patel is a practicing Hindu who took his oath of office earlier this year with his hand resting on the Bhagavad Gita. After sharing the holiday’s message of hope, light and goodness, the New York-born Patel faced a wave of online hate, including calls for him to “Go back to India.” Conservative podcaster Steven Crowder shared Patel’s message with “Could we not?” Right-wing pastor and podcaster Joel Webbon’s reply was more blunt: “Go back home and worship your sand demons. Get out of my country.” Another MAGA supporter asked why Patel was “betraying Charlie Kirk.”

The White House, which is set to host a Diwali event next month, was also swarmed by anti-Indian prejudice when press secretary Karoline Leavitt shared Trump’s wish that “this observance brings abiding serenity, prosperity, hope, and peace.”

MAGA-aligned Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican candidate for governor in Ohio, faced similar attacks from the right. On Monday, disparaging comments targeting Ramawamy resurfaced from Paul Ingrassia, Trump’s controversial nominee to lead the White House Office of the Special Counsel, who said in January 2024, “Never trust a chinaman or Indian. NEVER.” After Ingrassia’s comments were revealed, at least four Republican senators, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota, yanked their support for the nominee, whose confirmation hearing was scheduled for Thursday. Ingrassia withdrew his nomination late Tuesday. 

Ingrassia’s messages were part of thousands of leaked texts from over 350 Young Republican operatives in a Telegram group chat that was exposed by POLITICO, revealing a culture steeped in racist, antisemitic and misogynistic language. The exchanges among several state-level leaders frequently invoked Nazi references, racial slurs and threats to political rivals. At least 251 documented instances of slurs were recorded in a span of eight months.

These weren’t anonymous trolls. The members represented the future infrastructure of the Republican Party, having held official roles in campaigns, government offices and influential conservative organizations. The next generation of operatives, campaign managers and elected officials is being incubated in a digital ecosystem that rewards cruelty, embraces fascist imagery and treats bigotry as a badge of ideological authenticity. The collection of texts shows an atmosphere of open contempt and violent fantasy that was met with encouragement or silence from peers. That kind of nakedly hateful language — while not yet mainstream — is being both tolerated and defended by Republicans currently in office.

Vice President JD Vance dismissed the GOP text scandal as “stupid jokes” and “kids saying edgy things.” The vice president, who appears more comfortable with relativistic defenses than with accountability, called the outrage “pearl-clutching,” before attempting to draw a moral equivalence rather than take responsibility. Earlier this year, when it was revealed that a staff member of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) once called to “Normalize Indian hate,” Vance — whose wife Usha is Indian-American — argued that “stupid social media activity should [not] ruin a kid’s life” and that he should be rehired.

But this is not a problem simply relegated to online trolling or private chats by “kids.”

Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is currently facing pressure to forcibly remove an elected official from office for online content denigrating Indian immigrants. “Deport every Indian immediately,” Palm Bay city council member Chandler Langevin demanded in September.

And Ramaswamy, who recently headlined a Turning Point USA event at Montana State University, was forced to confront anti-Indian sentiment — cultivated by the online right — face-to-face.

“Jesus Christ is God, and there is no other God,” one student told Ramaswamy. “How can you represent the constituents of Ohio who are 64% Christian if you are not a part of that faith?”

“If you are an Indian, a Hindu, coming from a different culture, different religion than those who founded this country, those who grew this country, built this country, made this country the beautiful thing that it is today,” he continued. “What are you conserving? You are bringing change. I’ll be 100% honest with you — Christianity is the one truth.”

After being asked by another student why he “masquerade[s] as a Christian,” Ramaswamy, whose social media posts featuring his family are routinely flooded with racist comments, was forced to defend his faith. “I’m an ethical monotheist, that’s the way I would describe my faith,” he said. “Do you think it’s inappropriate for someone who’s a Hindu to be a U.S. president?”

Another student essentially told Ramaswamy there is no room for him in Kirk’s movement: “But isn’t Charlie Kirk’s organization founded on Christian values as well? And isn’t America based on what Protestantism is and based on how those values are? Wouldn’t that contradict what your beliefs are?”

Right-wing provocateur Dinesh D’Souza — an Indian-American who was raised Catholic but later became a born-again Christian — has also faced racist attacks. In response to one such comment on X, he said that “in a career spanning 40 years, I have never encountered this type of rhetoric. The Right never used to talk like this. So who on our side has legitimized this type of vile degradation? It’s a question worth thinking about.”

Republicans like to pretend that so-called woke liberals are the real racists, but this rhetoric and behavior undermines that notion. But they don’t care about being hypocritical. In fact, they revel in the anger their hypocrisy causes in their detractors. After all, hypocrisy only matters when shame works. By cultivating a pervasive culture of deflection, the GOP has trained their supporters that shame doesn’t have to be real.

But MAGA’s ethnonationalist purists are clearly not content with the rampant rise of online hate. Theirs is a real world project. For Indian-Americans in the MAGA movement, even their conservative identity will not shield them.

The post Kash Patel and Vivek Ramaswamy get hit with a hard MAGA truth appeared first on Salon.com.