Please take your trade recommendations to another thread.
It is highly probable that Trump will end up making enemies from within his own circles.
This has to be a MOFO Joke, So this is what we doing now. 
General’s promotion blocked in first sign of Trump retaliation for Afghanistan pullout
A Republican senator has blocked the promotion of a general who oversaw troops in Kabul during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, according to a Senate aide.
The move by Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin follows threats from President-elect Donald Trump to fire senior officers and officials who oversaw the chaotic pullout from Afghanistan in 2021. It also comes as Trump’s transition team weighs possible court-martial proceedings against current and former officers involved in the withdrawal, as NBC News previously reported.
Army Lt. Gen. Christopher Donahue was nominated for promotion to become a four-star general and to oversee U.S. Army forces in Europe. His nomination was among more than 900 proposed nominations sent to the Senate, but Donahue’s was put on hold by Mullin, according to the Senate aide.
Mullin’s office declined to comment.
Donahue was the last American service member to board the final U.S. military plane out of Afghanistan in 2021. A night-vision photograph of Donahue boarding a cargo plane went viral, capturing the symbolism of the end of America’s 20-year war.
After the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan fell to Taliban militants, Donahue — then commander of the 82nd Airborne Division — was ordered to Kabul to oversee the withdrawal of U.S. forces, American Embassy staff and Afghans who fought alongside American troops.
Retired Gen. Tony Thomas, former head of Special Operations Command, said in a social media post that the decision was a “disgrace” and that Donahue was being treated as a “political pawn.”
Heather Nauert, who worked for the State Department in Trump’s first presidential term, said in a social media post that she is a Trump supporter and likes Mullin but disagreed with the hold put on Donahue’s promotion.
“Unless there are facts I don’t know, holding up military promotions bc of our disgraceful Afghanistan withdrawal is wrong,” she wrote.
Donahue is currently commander of the XVIII Airborne Corps at Fort Liberty in North Carolina.
His promotion could now be at risk as the current Senate will soon go into recess and the new Republican-controlled Congress will start its work in 2025.
General's promotion blocked in first sign of Trump retaliation for Afghanistan pullout
Jesse Watters trolls liberals boycotting Thanksgiving with MAGA in-laws – after he wasn’t invited to his mom’s
Jesse Watters is now trolling liberals for boycotting Thanksgiving with their MAGA in-laws after he revealed he wasn’t invited to his mom’s house for the holidays.
Elon Musk is already starting to make his mark. 
Elon is gradually making enemies.
Musk accuses Trump whistleblower Vindman of ‘treason,’ says ‘he will pay’
Elon Musk on Wednesday suggested retired Army Lt. Col Alexander Vindman “committed treason” and “will pay” after the former Trump impeachment witness accused the tech billionaire and close Trump ally of being unwittingly used by Russia.
“Vindman is on the payroll of Ukranian oligarchs and has committed treason against the United States,” Musk wrote on his social media platform X, responding to comments Vindman made in an interview about Musk’s reported conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Musk added that Vindman, who played a central role in the first impeachment of then-President Trump, “will pay the appropriate penalty.”
In a response on X, Vindman said Musk’s comments were “false and completely unfounded accusations.”
He maintained he has never taken money from Ukranian oligarchs, while pointing out he runs a nonprofit to aid in Ukraine’s defense against Russia.
“I served in the military for nearly 22 years and my loyalty is to supporting the U.S. Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. That’s why I reported presidential corruption when I witnessed an effort to steal an election,” he wrote.
“You, Elon, appear to believe you can act with impunity and are attempting to silence your critics. I’m not intimidated,” he added.
Musk accuses Trump whistleblower Vindman of ‘treason,’ says ‘he will pay’
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The people of Gainesboro need to find out how the Christian nationalists were chased out of the previous town where they came from.
This town is not for them.’ Residents react to white Christian nationalists moving to Tennessee
What do we have here, lol
Biden pardons his son Hunter despite previous pledges not to
President Joe Biden pardoned his son, Hunter, on Sunday night, sparing the younger Biden a possible prison sentence for federal felony gun and tax convictions and reversing his past promises not to use the extraordinary powers of the presidency for the benefit of his family members.
The Democratic president had previously said he would not pardon his son or commute his sentence after his convictions in the two cases in Delaware and California. The move comes weeks before Hunter Biden was set to receive his punishment after his trial conviction in the gun case and guilty plea on tax charges, and less than two months before President-elect Donald Trump is set to return to the White House.
It caps a long-running legal saga for the younger Biden, who publicly disclosed he was under federal investigation in December 2020 — a month after his father’s 2020 victory — and casts a pall over the elder Biden’s legacy. Biden, who time and again pledged to Americans that he would restore norms and respect for the rule of law after Trump’s first term in office, ultimately used his position to help his son, breaking his public pledge to Americans that he would do no such thing.
In June, Biden categorically ruled out a pardon or commutation for his son, telling reporters as his son faced trial in the Delaware gun case, “I abide by the jury decision. I will do that and I will not pardon him.”
As recently as Nov. 8, days after Trump’s victory, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre ruled out a pardon or clemency for the younger Biden, saying, “We’ve been asked that question multiple times. Our answer stands, which is no.”
In his final weeks in office, Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in law, Jared Kushner, as well as multiple allies convicted in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Trump over the weekend announced plans to nominate the elder Kushner to be the U.S. envoy to France in his next administration.
Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump, who has pledged to dramatically overhaul and install loyalists across the Justice Department after he was prosecuted for his role in trying to subvert the 2020 presidential election, said in a statement, “That system of justice must be fixed and due process must be restored for all Americans, which is exactly what President Trump will do as he returns to the White House with an overwhelming mandate from the American people.”
Why do people continue to act surprised at his behavior? His behavior has been consistent from the very beginning.
Remember the law he signed making it a felony to take classified documents, and what did he do, took classified documents.
Trump signed the law to require presidential ethics pledges. Now he is exempting himself from it
A bipartisan bill to boost transparency and make sure incoming presidents stick to an ethics plan was so uncontroversial that it passed the Senate by a voice vote in 2020. Donald Trump then signed it into law.
But now, after blowing past deadlines to adhere to the law after winning the White House a second time, Trump appears to have excluded himself from those same ethical guidelines.
Trump missed two months of deadlines before finally signing off on an agreement with President Joe Biden’s administration to begin the presidential transition process this week.
But the agreement does not appear to include the president-elect’s pledge to avoid conflicts of interest while in office, despite requirements under a renewed Presidential Transition Act he signed into law four years earlier.
Trump’s team is turning down federal funding and office space for his transition team — as well as official government checks and security checks for his staff. The president-elect has rebuffed agreements with the Department of Justice to process security clearances to access classified information during the transition.
“This announcement fails to answer key questions about national security threats and FBI vetting of nominees, and increases concerns about corruption,” said Senator Elizabeth Warren, who co-wrote the Presidential Transition Act.
“There appear to be serious gaps between the Trump transition’s ethics agreement and the letter of the law,” she said. “The reliance on private donors to fund the transition is nothing more than a ploy for well-connected Trump insiders to line their pockets while pretending to save taxpayers money.”
The team said it is turning down federal support “consistent with President Trump’s commitment to save taxpayers’ hard-earned money,” his campaign said in a statement.
But accepting the money would have put a $5,000 cap on individual donations to the transition and require the public disclosure of donors.
Trump’s team merely said it would not allow foreign contributions and would be disclosing its donors, but did not reveal any guidelines for those pledges.
By turning down roughly $7 million in federal funding for the transition process, Trump will be able to raise unlimited private donations for the transition.
The Presidential Transition Enhancement Act, which Trump signed into law in March 2020, requires presidential candidates to “create and release an ethics plan for their transition team prior to the election,” according to the nonprofit, nonpartisan Center for Presidential Transition.
That plan must disclose conflicts of interest for the president-elect and transition team members, as well as a code of ethical conduct that all staff must agree to.
Trump, whose net worth is more than an estimated $5 billion, has a bulk of his wealth tied up in stock for Trump Media & Technology Group, the publicly traded company that runs Truth Social, and his ties to foreign business interests and potential conflicts of interest have repeatedly come under scrutiny.
He also has advertised a number of products bearing his name, including watches, guitars and shoes, and Trump and his sons embarked on a cryptocurrency venture in the days before Election Day. His Trump Organization also has global real estate holdings, though Trump and his empire are on the hook for tens of millions of dollars in financial penalties for fraud tied to the family business. Trump is appealing that judgment.
Trump’s alleged resistance to signing an ethics pledge is a “red flag pointing to nothing so much as greed and corruption and an intention to enrich himself and/or his family through the extensive powers of his office,” according to Virginia Kase Solomón with democracy advocacy group Common Cause.
“Americans expect and deserve a president who prioritizes the nation’s well-being over personal gain,” she added. “They will not tolerate a president who abuses the powers of his office to line his own pockets.”
The plan requires transition team members to “avoid both actual and apparent conflicts of interest” and to “safeguard classified information” and “non-public information and other information that is not readily available to the public.”
It also blocks team members from lobbying activities and prohibits them from serving as registered foreign agents while working during the transition
Without thorough reviews of the incoming administration’s financial withholdings and interests by the Office of Government Ethics, those nominees could be in a position to benefit from their proximity to power, according to Campaign Legal Center counsel Kedric Payne, a former deputy chief counsel with the Office of Congressional Ethics.
“Without this crucial review — which is mandated by law — nominees may enter office with conflicts of interest (obvious or hidden) that they are not ordered to remedy,” Payne said in a statement.
Trump signed the law to require presidential ethics pledges. Now he is exempting himself from it
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Give credit where credit is due, Maybe things will head in the right direction after all.
Elon Musk is getting some (tentative) bipartisan interest as he heads to Capitol Hill
epublicans are set to fete Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy Thursday in a Capitol Hill gathering, but there are also signs that the pair’s extra-governmental “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) is attracting interest from across the political aisle.
“One of the things that’s been encouraging about seeing DOGE come into existence is how nonpartisan and even apolitical the interest in this mission has been,” Ramaswamy said Wednesday afternoon in an appearance at the Aspen Security Forum before his planned Capitol Hill stop today.
Ramaswamy was talking primarily about business leaders he said are flooding his inbox, but it could equally be applied to at least a few Capitol Hill denizens.
“Elon Musk is right,” posted Sen. Bernie Sanders earlier this week in reference to trimming military spending.
“Reducing ineffective government spending should not be a partisan issue,” added Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Florida Democrat who was the first Democrat to joined the House’s now-bipartisan “DOGE caucus.”
But for today at least, the focus will be on the GOP members who have embraced the Tesla (TSLA) CEO as well as Ramaswamy and invited them in for a discussion where Republican lawmakers are expected to trade ideas for cuts with the two billionaires.
Elon Musk is getting some (tentative) bipartisan interest as he heads to Capitol Hill
The country is RED across the board, The Democrats might never see power again, and this could be the end for them- powerless, just here in name only.
Republicans just won a permanent Senate majority
Kamala Harris’s defeat was damaging to the left. But her loss overshadows the true scope of the damage wrought on the Democratic Party: the permanent loss of the Senate.
Democrats have lost the Senate before, but this loss is different from 2014. This time, it may well be for good. For the first time in a century, there is not one Democratic senator from a reliably red state.
We have entered an era of one-party rule — at least where the Senate is concerned.
Today, the Senate map mirrors the national electoral divide. Democratic senators in blue states, Republican senators in red states, and swing states up for grabs. That’s grim news for Democrats. Simply put, there are more red states than blue states.
For decades, Democrats relied on popular Democratic senators in deep-red states — for example, Tom Daschle in South Dakota (lost in 2004), Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas (lost in 2010), Mary Landrieu in Louisiana (lost in 2014), Claire McCaskill in Missouri (lost in 2018), and Jon Tester in Montana (lost in 2024). In recent years, these red-state Democrats were critical to holding the Democratic majority.
The final nationalization of the Senate in 2024 with the ousting of Tester and Sherrod Brown in Ohio, and the retirement of Joe Manchin in West Virginia, shifts the path to a Democratic Senate majority entirely to blue and purple states. This makes the Democrats’ task nearly impossible.
Republicans, in contrast, can compete in many more states. Even if Democrats sweep every swing state contest (and oust Susan Collins in Maine), they can win at most 52 seats in the Senate. That includes both seats in North Carolina. If Republicans were to win all the Senate seats in all of those same swing states, they would control 62 seats.
Healthcare was the reason for this killing?
Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealth Group executive Brian Thompson, is seen yelling at reporters while he was being taken into court in Altoona, Pennsylvania on Tuesday.
Luigi Mangione Yells at Press Going Into Pennsylvania Court
Interesting family background. I’m sure something will come out about mental illness. That’s my guess.
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No one is making excuses here, they are just trying to figure out his reason for the murder, no different than any other investigation, hopefully, he can answer this question.
Luigi Mangione suffered from spondylolisthesis, a back condition. Experts say it can cause ‘massive’ pain.
Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old who has been arrested and charged in connection with the killing of the CEO of United Healthcare, Brian Thompson, appears to suffer from a back condition called spondylolisthesis, which can cause severe pain, his social media accounts suggest. Mangione had reportedly lived with chronic pain before undergoing back surgery in 2023, Business Insider reported. An image on his X banner appears to show an X-ray of his back after surgery, and several neurosurgeons and spine specialists agree that it looks like the operation was done to correct a condition known as spondylolisthesis.
Here’s what to know about Mangione’s apparent injury, surgery and pain.
What we know about Mangione’s back injury
Aside from the X-ray on his apparent X account, Mangione shared in a handwritten note that he suffered from spondylolisthesis, according to Business Insider. The condition was apparently aggravated after Mangione went surfing in Hawaii, where he began living in 2022. A post from a Reddit account that appears to belong to Mangione, in a group dedicated to the condition, described having experienced pain and numbness in his back, limbs and groin for a year and a half. A later post from the same account described the injury as “completely devastating.”
Mangione apparently wrote in another post that he spent 1.5 years undergoing “conservative” treatment for his back pain until he posted in 2023 about having back surgery, adding that he needed “zero pain meds” within a week of the operation. But, in May of that year, he reposted an X post referring to most doctors as “basically worthless" (the post has since been deleted), Business Insider reported.
What is spondylolisthesis?
The condition occurs when one or more vertebrae of the spine slip out of place, Dr. Uzma Samadani, a Minnesota neurologist specializing in spine surgery, tells Yahoo Life. Because the vertebrae usually sit neatly on top of each other, when one slips out of place, it can compress both the disc that provides a cushion between the bones and the bundle of nerves that run through them, causing acute pain, chronic pain or both, Samadani says.
How does it happen?
Spondylolisthesis affects between 4% and 8% of the U.S. population, and the most common form, degenerative spondylolisthesis, can be due to the wear and tear of normal aging, according to the Cleveland Clinic. It’s far less common among young people like Mangione, but when young people do develop spondylolisthesis, it often occurs after a back fracture due to athletic activities or traumatic accidents like a hard fall.
How painful is spondylolisthesis?
Back pain in general is a known cause of chronic pain. Both Samadani and Stanford University pain management specialist Dr. Beth Darnall say that spondylolisthesis is a common source of back pain. “It’s a common enough problem that people who have back pain should get investigated to find out if they have it,” says Samadani.
And it can be quite painful. “If the nerves are pinched … putting weight on your spine can hurt a lot,” Samadani adds. “It is an excruciating pain, and it doesn’t go away with conservative management. Medications aren’t going to help, injections aren’t going to help.” (According to the Cleveland Clinic, most cases of spondylolisthesis can be effectively managed with rest, pain medication, steroid injections and physical therapy, but more severe cases may require surgery.)
The severity of the condition also matters. If a vertebra has only slipped slightly out of place, the pain may be manageable without surgery, the Cleveland Clinic suggests. But a higher “grade” — or degree of slippage — case of spondylolisthesis can cause much more severe pain and warrant aggressive treatment. R.J. Martin, a friend of Mangione’s who lived with him in Hawaii, told the New York Times that Mangione’s “lower vertebrae were almost like a half-inch off, and I think it pinched a nerve. Sometimes he’d be doing well and other times not.”
Darnall says that chronic pain can be deeply disruptive to a person’s life and stability. “About 10% of people have what we call high-impact chronic pain,” she says. “This is chronic pain that really impacts daily acts, school work, daily self-care. Those people are more likely to really struggle with mood, with one’s ability to get restorative sleep to manage the distress and anxiety that can naturally occur with pain."
Delays in treatment are not uncommon
Mangione never mentioned being covered by or angry with United Healthcare specifically in any social media, according to multiple reports. But Samadani, who treats patients with spondylolisthesis, notes that many insurers require patients to undergo six to 12 weeks of physical therapy before the companies will agree to cover surgery or even imaging to diagnose the condition. And for someone with severe spondylolisthesis, physical therapy can be “excruciating” and won’t necessarily help, she adds. “It’s sort of like a torture, a mandatory torture imposed by the insurance company,” Samadani says.
And that’s if they are treated at all. Samadani says she’s seen multiple young patients who were initially turned away by doctors who didn’t believe they could have chronic back pain. “In the case of this particular kid, my guess is that he was in massive pain,” she says.
Should your insurance company be allowed to stop you from getting a treatment — even if your doctor says it’s necessary?
Denying Your Health Care Is Big Business in America
And there you have it, This will become the norm.
North Carolina Republicans override veto, stripping governor’s powers.
A bill that strips power from North Carolina’s Democratic governor became law on Wednesday after state Republicans voted to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s (D) veto in a 72-46 supermajority vote in the House along party lines.
The Senate had already voted to override the governor’s veto on Dec. 2, so with the House vote on Wednesday, the bill becomes law.
Republicans are set to lose their veto-proof supermajority in 2025, as a result of the 2024 elections, and the vote represents the culmination of their effort to preserve power before the end of the year.
The passed legislation’s flagship item provides a third round of relief for parts of western North Carolina ravaged by Hurricane Helene in late September, but it also takes significant steps to limit the authority of offices set to be controlled by Democrats in the new year.
The bill allocates $227 million from the state’s savings reserve to the hurricane relief fund — considerably less than the first two rounds provided — and it also addresses several other aspects of the law unrelated to storm relief. The storm caused record damage in the state, estimated at more than $50 billion, and killed more than 100 people.
Some critics have said, however, that the aid is a smoke screen and that the bill’s real purpose is to erode the top state executive’s powers.
The most prominent change will strip additional power from the governor’s office and from the office of the attorney general, both of which are set to be controlled by Democrats in 2025. The Legislature already limited the governor’s power earlier this year to make appointments.
The bill gives the governor’s power to appoint members of the state elections board to the state auditor. Josh Stein, a Democrat, is the next governor, and Dave Boliek, a Republican, is the next state auditor.
It also limits the attorney general’s authority, particularly when handling out-of-state lawsuits. The bill prevents the office from representing a position contrary to any statute passed by the state Legislature. The attorney general will be Democrat Jeff Jackson, and the legislature will be controlled by Republicans.
The bill also reduces the amount of time allotted for counting absentee ballots, eliminates a requirement that absentee ballots be received before an election is counted on Election Day and abolishes the state superintendent’s ability to appeal decisions from the Charter Schools Review Board, among other initiatives.
The News & Observer, a North Carolina news outlet, reported that the bill was written in secret and fast-tracked, without any committee hearings. The outlet reported that the House started debate on the bill less than an hour after it was made public.
Damn you Biden, this is tragic for all those children that were exploited for monetary gain and incarcerated, Bad enough they were out during covid on house arrest
Victims ‘shocked’ after Biden grants clemency to ‘kids-for-cash’ judge and $54 million embezzler
Victims of major public corruption cases in Pennsylvania and Illinois are angry that President Joe Biden granted clemency this week to two convicted officials.
The commutations were announced Thursday as part of a historic clemency package for 1,500 convicted criminals who, the White House said, “deserve a second chance.”
The two convicted officials whose cases sparked outrage – a crooked Pennsylvania judge and a notorious Illinois fraudster – both had already been released from prison early and put on house arrest during the Covid-19 pandemic. Biden’s actions now end that punishment.
A Biden administration official told CNN the latest commutations were not individual decisions and instead it was a uniform decision granted to people who met certain criteria, like having a track record of good behavior while on house arrest.
Victims ‘shocked’ after Biden grants clemency to ‘kids-for-cash’ judge and $54 million embezzler
I have a strong aversion to all forms of targeted shooting; however, I feel especially enraged about indiscriminate shooting, where individuals go into public spaces and begin shooting and murdering people.
Madison school shooting live updates: At least 3 dead, 6 injured at Abundant Life Christian School in Wisconsin, police say
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Mark Levin slams Biden for hiding ‘what he’s really doing…’
The Democrat Party conducting a scorched earth operation on the way out the door…
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Number of incidents where a gun is fired, brandished, or a bullet hits school property, regardless of the number of victims, time, day, or reason in K-12 schools in the United States from 1999 to December 2024*
In a nation that has already recorded more than 300 school shootings in 2024
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