Donald Trump

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Gutting world health in favor of a gilded ballroom only Trump wanted

Until recently, the United States was the biggest funder to the World Health Organization. Ten months after Trump announced the U.S. was withdrawing its membership, WHO just announced it must let go of 2,371 workers, about one-quarter of its workforce.

Trump estimates a cost of $300 million for the ballroom that will replace his unauthorized demolition of the White House’s East Wing.

That is more than the $218 million the United States paid in the two years of 2022 and 2023 as its assessed member contribution to WHO. In addition, the U.S. voluntarily gave $47 million to WHO’s emergency fund. Those two figures add up to $265 million. Total voluntary contributions from the U.S. in those two years amounted to $1.02 billion.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation chipped in another $826 million.

China’s voluntary contribution in those years was $41 million.

We now have sunk below even that paltry sum.

Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/19/world-health-organisation-to-cut-jobs-due-to-us-withdrawing-funding

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualized-who-funds-the-world-health-organization/

https://www.statista.com/chart/33800/top-contributors-to-the-world-health-organization/

The U.S. Government and the World Health Organization
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Trump is creating his own Praetorian Guard

First, he ordered 2,000 National Guard troops from Republican-led states to patrol the streets of Washington D.C. to combat a non-existent crime wave. Now, Pete Hegseth has ordered them to be armed, as well. (1) Service-issued weapons to these troops include the M16 and M4 assault rifles, a shotgun, the M9 semiautomatic pistol, a 7.62 caliber sniper rifle and a .50 caliber sniper rifle. (2)

Trump, a self-proclaimed “genius,” doesn’t know enough about history to realize what he may have done – to himself. Here’s what historians say:

“Over the years, the guard would become a dangerous threat to imperial power and emperors were forced to gain its favour in order to ensure their reign. In the 1st and 2nd century CE many an emperor was murdered with Praetorian Guard involvement, and once one of their number, Macrinus, was even declared emperor. The body specifically created to protect the emperor’s person had become his greatest liability.” (3)

Sources

  1. https://www.theguardian.com, 8/22/25, “Trump targets Chicago and New York as Hegseth orders weapons for D.C. troops”

2. https://www.in.gov/indiana-national-guard/camp-atterbury/ground-ranges/weapons/

3. https://www.worldhistory.org/timeline/Praetorian_Guard/

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Watch out what you wish for

Newsmax

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If you think Trump’s brown-nosed minions, billionaire backers and Project 2025 blueprint won’t hurt you, read these books and view the video linked below:

“It Can’t happen Here,” by Sinclair Lewis, 1935;

“The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich,” by William L. Shire, 1960;

Illinois Gov. Jay Pritzker’s State of the State address, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS66O1C7Gp4

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At last: an honest statement from Trump

Being president of the United States isn’t good enough for DJT. He wants to be king, according to one of his posts on Truth Social, accompanied by a cheesy depiction of him wearing a crown.

Next, he’ll want an army of soldiers dedicated only to him, not to the Constitution. He’ll want to turn the White House into a tacky version of Versailles, with huge portraits of himself on every wall and liveried servants standing silently by to open a door or hand him toilet paper (wait: the king shouldn’t have to wipe his own ass!).

He’ll have so much fun designing the uniforms.

He’ll designate his youngest son, Barron, as the heir apparent. He and Melania also will get crowns. Should the taxpayers get obstreperous about this extravagance, while their medical benefits, food stamps and housing vouchers are slashed in the name of “government efficiency,” he’ll throw McNuggets at them much as he threw rolls of paper towels as “relief aid” to victims of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico while blocking $20 billion in recovery aid.

He’s not much acquainted with facts or history, so someone should remind him how things turned out for the last king of Versailles.

J.D. Bares His Claws At Childless Cat Ladies

My cat, Karma

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you, J.D. Vance, for opening my eyes to the dangers of childless cat ladies.

How clever they’ve been! Masquerading as harmless, even caring, while insidiously spreading their status-obsessed misery to the rest of us. If this sounds confusing, since childless cat ladies are not known for their obsession with status, let J.D. explain.

Childless cat ladies “are miserable in their own lives and want to make the rest of the country miserable, too,” he told Tucker Carlson on Fox News. https://www.foxnews.com/video/6359536060112

“They live in one-bedroom apartments in New York City. They’re obsessed with status, wealth, fortunes.

“They hate normal Americans for choosing family over these ridiculous DC and New York status games.

“If you’re a miserable cat lady, you should not force your misery on the rest of the country.”

Until J.D. went on to point it out, I had not realized that Democrats and corporate oligarchs are childless cat ladies. Or that such people live in one-bedroom apartments.

“For a healthy ruling class,” he said, we need leaders with children. Those without children “have no personal and direct stake in the country.”

Wow! I didn’t realize how close I’d come to falling into that trap. I’m childless, a Democrat and a cat owner. Even worse, I used to work as a newspaper reporter. The only thing that saves me (besides J.D.’s clear-eyed and brave revelation) is that I also own a dog.

But she’s not the kind of canine you’d expect a real woman to own – not a robust family protector but a 30-pound lap lover named Sugar.

She and Karma are buddies.

Gosh, “Karma” sounds a lot like “Kamala,” doesn’t it?

Save me, J.D.!

 

 

 

 

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From words to deeds

alec cook by john hart wis state jrnl.jpg

Alec Cook, accused of multiple sexual assaults. Photo by John Hart, Wisconsin State Journal

Men are entitled to sex with women and women are not entitled to say no.

This bone-deep belief is the bedrock of rape. It’s so embedded, in men and women alike, that we have trouble identifying it and bringing it to the surface for examination.

It’s simultaneously masked and enforced by stereotypes about male aggression and female passivity: expectations that being manly means being forceful,  put-downs and taunts about women being “over emotional” if they object or “unladylike” if they so much as raise their voices.

The most insidious aspect is that women have been taught they aren’t entitled to trust themselves. If you are constantly told you are too emotional to think straight and that your reaction is not justified, you’ll doubt yourself and what you saw, felt and know.

Thus the confusion of the young woman who texted to her brother how the accused had held her in a “death grip” and kept yanking her back to him as she tried to leave: “I don’t feel like I was assaulted…I don’t think. But I feel very weird.”

trump

Donald Trump, Republican candidate for president.

The behavior that becomes rape starts with words that express the attitude that women can’t be trusted. “Women have one of the great acts of all time,” today’s self-proclaimed alpha male, Donald Trump, said in The Art of The Comeback. “The smart ones act very feminine and needy, but inside they are killers.”

So, no need to believe women’s protests when men take what they feel entitled to. In this view, the lying, manipulative bitches are getting what they deserve.

Too much of a stretch? Not fair?

One of these men publicly boasted about grabbing women’s crotches. The other jammed his fingers inside them. Not a big stretch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Biggest Loser

toddler

The closer we get to election day, the more candidate Trump morphs from bully to whiner.

My microphone was faulty! The media’s out to get me!

Next will come the crybaby: I was robbed! It was a conspiracy! No fair!

Despite dire predictions of chaos and revolution after the ballot count shows Clinton won, I think it’s safe to say most people just will heave a sigh of relief that it’s over. And some of us won’t be able to resist yelling at the self-proclaimed victim of injustice as he stomps, pouting, out of the schoolyard:

Nyaaa, nyaaa – LOSER!

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Trump’s America: land of the tweet, home of the craven

toddler

The contest this November is between fear and hope.

Those who are fearful of the world, the future, the unfamiliar, of change and of Others have given up on our democracy. They feel (often rightfully so) that they’ve been lied to, cheated and used. They see no security in their futures and don’t believe they can exert any influence over the forces that control their fates.

The hopeful also feel they’ve been lied to, cheated and used, but haven’t given up. They see change as an opportunity instead of a threat, a chance to reinvent themselves and maybe the country for the better. They aren’t looking for scapegoats. They’re willing to take the risks of tolerance and to give up some security to forge a path into the unknown.

One group sees democracy as a zero-sum game whose rules are rigged against them. They think they’re falling behind because Others are getting ahead.

The other group thinks that if everyone follows the rules, nobody will fall too far behind and everybody has a shot at winning.

People in these two groups have one thing in common: they’re all angry with each other. The fearful view the hopeful as dupes who will only bring on more of the same. They want reassurance that somebody powerful will seize control to protect them, and they’re willing to let that person blow the whole country to hell because they believe the system can’t be fixed. They confuse bluster with bravery, bullying with strength and compromise with betrayal.

The hopeful will have to drag the fearful, kicking and screaming, into the future of an imperfect democracy. In this country, we dare to venture forth instead of hunker down, we value liberty over security and we strive to overcome fear with courage.

 

 

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Frankentrump’s monster: It’s alive!

 

The Republican Party has created the most oafish presidential nominee ever as surely as Dr. Frankenstein created his monster.

Start with dead ideas and keep digging them up, no matter how rotten: tax breaks for the rich, benefit cuts for the poor;  unlimited campaign funding for corporations, voting restrictions for people. Cobble together with beliefs, not facts.

Stoke the anger of voters by blaming the powerless. Deny reality. Refuse to leave the isolated echo-chamber of angry old white men. Expel those who sound warnings.

Zap the campaign with high-voltage fearmongering and watch this give life to an unnatural creation who appalls and frightens. It’s alive!

Voters naïve enough to go along with this are, like Little Maria, putting themselves in peril. The rest of us hope to kill the monster at the ballot box.

Failing that, we’ll see angry villagers storming the White House, and every other Trump property, with clubs and torches.

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To silence a jerk, whose name will not be published here, ignore him

If someone bullies you with insults and mockery, as did a rival to Carly Fiorina – “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?” –  you should:

A) call him on it using the words “sexism” or “offensive,” thereby demonstrating your weak, feminized, grievance-based victimhood;

B) get over it, toughen up and refuse to be an oversensitive ninny or a loser.

Option B is what one columnist urges Fiorina to choose when she faces that loudmouth tonight in the debate of Republican candidates for the party’s presidential nomination. According to the columnist, the loudmouth’s supporters like him because he has the balls to offend people. Those who object to being accosted by a jerk, whom the columnist describes as “walking testosterone,” simply invite further abuse and weary those who aren’t oversensitive losers.

What a great way to collude with abusers while burdening their targets with a phony stigma.

This view associates being a rude jerk with manliness, or at least with testosterone. Are there any men out there brave enough to dispute that, despite the risk of being jeered by rude jerks?

The best way for anyone to respond to such boorish behavior, writes the columnist, is to avoid using terms sneeringly deemed as “politically correct,” since that will only spur jerks on. But instead of hobbling one’s vocabulary, I suggest a different course: regal silence. Do not deign to acknowledge jerks.

Attention of any kind fuels them. Their greatest fear is to be ignored. Deal with them as you would a bad smell from someone deliberately and delightedly farting in a crowd. Ignore him until he and the smell go away.