Latest news with #TheDonald
The Age
14-05-2025
- General
- The Age
A tarrific piece of marketing
Of all the nations at odds with The Donald, it has always seemed that the Scots are the most creative with their abuse. Terms like 'Wee orange rodent', 'Hamster heedit bampot' and 'Mangled apricot hellbeast' are just a few that come to mind. However, Jim Dewar of Davistown notes that they will happily utilise him in the name of tourism: 'Arriving in Turriff, a small town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, visitors are greeted by a recently erected roadside sign: Turriff - A Beautiful Thing.' There are plenty of C8-ers with a tale to tell of the Rawleigh man (C8), Janita Rankin of North Dandalup (WA) being one of them: 'We lived in a village with a small general store, so travelling salesmen were welcome, none more so than the Rawleigh man. While my mother served tea and cake, I sat enthralled as an array of ointments, balms and liniments were displayed. He also managed to fit seasonal gifts, ribbons and utensils in his suitcase. One product in particular, Goanna Salve, got my attention. I'd seen goannas in our yard and could not understand how he got one into a small tin.' 'My mother remembers the Rawleigh man,' says Nick Bencsik of Hunters Hill. 'In fact, she still has a tin of Rawleigh's Antiseptic Salve in her pantry. She's not sure how old it is, but it's still going strong!' Judy Jones of Thornleigh recalls that 'the Rawleigh man sold Man and Beast Ointment, the one ointment, but, I must hasten to add, he was preceded by the Watkins man. He had wonderful aromas from all the bottles of cooking essences floating out the back doors of his little van. I likened him to Aladdin.' 'I bought a new sewing machine for my wife for Christmas (her request), and the very lovely and knowledgeable ladies at the sewing store in Waratah supplied a beautiful pair of scissors (C8) as a complimentary gift,' writes Tony Bennett of Broke. 'I was informed quite firmly and without discussion to NEVER cut paper with them as paper blunts sewing scissors. Incidentally, they are also referred to as shears, not scissors.'
Sydney Morning Herald
14-05-2025
- General
- Sydney Morning Herald
A tarrific piece of marketing
Of all the nations at odds with The Donald, it has always seemed that the Scots are the most creative with their abuse. Terms like 'Wee orange rodent', 'Hamster heedit bampot' and 'Mangled apricot hellbeast' are just a few that come to mind. However, Jim Dewar of Davistown notes that they will happily utilise him in the name of tourism: 'Arriving in Turriff, a small town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, visitors are greeted by a recently erected roadside sign: Turriff - A Beautiful Thing.' There are plenty of C8-ers with a tale to tell of the Rawleigh man (C8), Janita Rankin of North Dandalup (WA) being one of them: 'We lived in a village with a small general store, so travelling salesmen were welcome, none more so than the Rawleigh man. While my mother served tea and cake, I sat enthralled as an array of ointments, balms and liniments were displayed. He also managed to fit seasonal gifts, ribbons and utensils in his suitcase. One product in particular, Goanna Salve, got my attention. I'd seen goannas in our yard and could not understand how he got one into a small tin.' 'My mother remembers the Rawleigh man,' says Nick Bencsik of Hunters Hill. 'In fact, she still has a tin of Rawleigh's Antiseptic Salve in her pantry. She's not sure how old it is, but it's still going strong!' Judy Jones of Thornleigh recalls that 'the Rawleigh man sold Man and Beast Ointment, the one ointment, but, I must hasten to add, he was preceded by the Watkins man. He had wonderful aromas from all the bottles of cooking essences floating out the back doors of his little van. I likened him to Aladdin.' 'I bought a new sewing machine for my wife for Christmas (her request), and the very lovely and knowledgeable ladies at the sewing store in Waratah supplied a beautiful pair of scissors (C8) as a complimentary gift,' writes Tony Bennett of Broke. 'I was informed quite firmly and without discussion to NEVER cut paper with them as paper blunts sewing scissors. Incidentally, they are also referred to as shears, not scissors.'
Times
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Times
The new Pope has wellwishers flocking to greet him*
Trump Hey, this is THE DONALD texting THE POPE. Isn't that a beautiful thing? Everyone was saying that I would make the GREATEST POPE because I love the Bible, the second greatest book ever written, such a great story which I have read, and also I have the BEST taste in interior decor, everyone says so, but I've got to fix the Biden economy and stop the rest of the world treating us so unfairly and I'm running the Kennedy Center. I don't have time to pope but you will do a great job. Not as good as me but maybe, I don't know, let's see The Pope That is very gracious of you, Mr President JD Vance USA USA USA! Trump Thanks JD. Yes,
New York Post
02-05-2025
- Business
- New York Post
Why elite US colleges are looking to ‘make a deal' with Trump
Trump's war with the woke university system is just beginning, and while some colleges are looking to fight back, others are thinking about doing a little 'Art of the Deal' to curry favor with The Donald, On The Money has learned. Trump wants massive cultural changes at the nation's top colleges. No more protests celebrating the Oct. 7 massacre of innocent Israelis. More western civ and fewer courses depicting America as the great Satan. He wants to squeeze the colleges financially to get his way. Wall Street executives who work with endowments are talking about different ways their clients can soften the blow of likely cuts in federal funds, stiff new taxes on endowments, and a possible loss of the schools' tax-exempt status, which would throttle donations from alumni since they couldn't write them off, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Advertisement Trump wants massive cultural changes at the nation's top colleges. No more protests celebrating the Oct. 7 massacre of innocent Israelis. Jack Forbes / NY Post Design While Harvard is fighting back, praying the courts can lend a hand and restore funding, colleges are also hiring lobbyists to scour Capitol Hill and convince lawmakers that they aren't that woke and shouldn't be paying for the sins of Harvard or say Columbia. They're also arguing that withholding federal aid will likely impact the sciences, not the woke gender studies departments, and thus curtail crucial medical research. Another avenue being discussed is to possibly get on Trump's good side and get him to back off his assault by appealing to his well-honed instincts as a deal maker. Advertisement Trump the businessman is the reason his name is on some many buildings in NYC and around the world. He loves to do deals. and some colleges might just cut him in on a little side hustle they've developed in recent years, my sources say. It involves using federal grants to create patents that ultimately lead partnerships and business with venture capital firms. Money is made if they create useful products — drugs, computer chips, AI whatever — that can be sold to the public, On The Money has learned. The idea to give the Trump White House a piece of the action in the form of government ownership stakes in whatever business comes out of the federally funded research. An anti-Israel protest at Harvard in 2023. AFP via Getty Images To be sure, this idea is far from being fleshed out, though it is in the discussion phase by people on Wall Street involved in the endowment racket. Plus, who knows how amenable the White House might be to such a deal. But knowing Trump, getting him interested might not be so far-fetched. Even as president, he has businesses under his name being led by his son and outside advisers, including golf courses, country clubs, and most recently crypto. Advertisement He wouldn't personally be making money in this scenario but the country would. The idea would be to give the US government warrants in the early stage companies that colleges own with their VC partners. The federal budget can benefit when companies are sold or converted into public shares. 'Trump has spoken about a US sovereign wealth fund that makes investments in various things,' said one investor with knowledge of the matter. 'This would be a perfect holding.' And he has the perfect people to begin crafting the plans. Michael Grimes was among the elite Wall Street dealmakers involved in tech, and he now works the Trump White House helping former Cantor Fitzgerald chief and now Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick attract more investment for domestic manufacturing (A Commerce spokesman declined comment). Advertisement Again, a lot of talk here and very little in the way of real dealmaking. I should point out that except for some of the elite universities, colleges have a pretty uneven record in making money trying to get federal grants. Yet the very fact that deal making with Trump is being discussed is a tell about how the entire elite university system feels under siege. Then again, if you want to go woke, it's hard not going broke with Trump controlling the old purse strings.
Scoop
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Choosing Mass Murder?
The day after another mass shooting in the USA, the Guardian ran a puff piece entitled, 'Trump is creating a selfish, miserable world Here's what we can do.' The Donald would be glad to know that he's having such a worldwide effect. But it isn't true. Trump and his right hand man, Stephen Miller, who evokes the same fiendish creepiness as Himmler, are symptoms far more than they are causes of the disease that afflicts America. The Guardian's putative philosopher and founder of the 'Happier Lives Institute' has hitched his wagon to the wellness craze, adding a patina of respectability by citing 'scientific research.' He offers this bromide for personal happiness and societal renewal: 'Research shows when we share meals with others, volunteer or strike up friendly conversations with strangers, we're not just making ourselves and others happier. We're rebuilding the social fabric that authoritarian politics tears apart and reducing the distrust that fuels politicians like Trump.' That may fly in England, where Happier Lives is located, but its shallowness adds to the sinking feeling of the few thinking people left in the United States. As a true philosopher once said, 'It's no measure of health to be well adjusted to a sick society.' The collapse of western civilization makes a mockery of such chicken-soup-for-the-soul remedies. Is it really necessary to point out that the polycrisis is intensifying, and the idea of 'rebuilding the social fabric' by means like this amounts to a partial remedy for half a century ago? Volunteering and having friendly conversations are good things in themselves, but they don't come anywhere near meeting the multi-faceted crisis we face as individuals, societies and a species. A philosopher worth his or her salt is concerned with an adequate response at all levels, not with promoting more individualistic panaceas. 'A people die from too many lies,' Bill Moyers, President Lyndon Johnson's press secretary said during the Bush-Cheney prologue to Trump-Vance. When the history of this wretched period is written the consensus will be that despite America's triumphalism after the end of the Cold War, the social fabric in the US was ripped beyond repair at the same time the USSR collapsed. So it's grating when the progressive mainstream media features fake pearls of wisdom from a professional philosopher like: 'Trump and co want to make you feel helpless and furious. Keeping your composure and finding joy are acts of resistance.' For a philosopher to write banalities like this when evil rules is philosophical malpractice. The pretension of such 'think pieces' adds to a feeling of hopelessness in thinking people, whatever their educational level. Intellectual elites need to stop talking down to people, and start speaking to readers in the same way they speak to each other. The fetid social fabric in the USA is the background from which a college student at Florida State University, the son of a police officer no less, used his mother's weapon to randomly shoot people on campus, killing two and wounding five. It's inane to keep searching for individualistic motives when American society is sick from top to bottom. After decades of seeing enemies abroad and killing millions of people with impunity, from Vietnam to Yemen, Americans are now making war on each other. Stoicism is all the rage, but it's just another word for suppressing one's emotions and carrying on. A favorite quote from Epictetus, the Stoic philosopher born a Roman slave, is a wellness credo: 'We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them.' Such a notion fits perfectly with the fad about 'agency' and the entire absurd notion of 'choosing' to act ethically and happily. The truth, as Socrates pointed out, is that when we see things clearly we don't choose; we act. In the parlance of today, a chooser is a loser. There isn't a duality and division between two things – the choice and the chooser. There is simply the choice as a challenge, and our clarity or confusion of action flowing from the depth or shallowness of our perception and insight. No matter how much planning and 'premeditation,' the plague of mass murderers in the USA is the ultimate expression of pathological individualism. People, mostly young men, 'choose' to kill random people because their mental, emotional and social life is so sick that they strike out in horrific reaction to the internalized evil of society. Fragments kill; in-dividuals (non-divided human beings) do not. We all face choices in life certainly, but choosing is an inherently false thing. We choose from the background of our conditioning and confusion, our unseen motivations, and from social and metaphysical compulsions of which we are unaware. In short, there is no freedom in choosing, quite the opposite. We're free when we perceive, understand and act as a single unbroken movement. Emphasizing individualistic happiness in a socio-political culture from which the boils of Trumpism have erupted is idiotic. And offering remedies like striking up friendly conversations with strangers as a remedy to repair a social fabric torn to shreds is ridiculous. What can one do? Stop thinking individualistically, and in terms of the polls and movements promoted by a complicit media. One inwardly alive human being counts more than a million inwardly dead humans. But even the walking dead can awaken and come back to life. With passion but without judgment, be self-knowing, and see society for what it is and people for who they are. Don't lose sight of things, but remain with things as they are, without becoming an activist.
