The US under Trump cannot afford — A healthcare system. — Improving public transport. — Lovering the tariffs. The US under Trump CAN afford — Starting a war with Venezuela. — Bombing Iran. — Sending weapons to Israel while the country is committing war crimes against Palestinians. — Building a White House ballroom. — Renaming every letter head, every business card, and every logo in The Department of Defence to The Department of War, because Trump thinks it sounds cool.

VERY good news for Ukraine: After an entire year of no US support, both the House and the Senate has now passed a military spending bill with an additional 800 million dollars for Ukraine, to be spent as 400 million per year in 2026 and 2027. Slava Ukraini! 🇺🇦 https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-congress-passes-massive-defense-bill-that-includes-support-ukraine-europe-2025-12-17/?taid=694325901b98180001b1d9b2&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

A Southern University poll shows, Jasmine Crockett is likely to become the Democratic primary winner in Texas. I really look forward to the midterm elections in states like Texas. Here, 5 million are about to lose their healthcare, and Republicans will have to defend their decision to scrap The Affordable Care Act, while Crockett will campaign on reviving it. This has potential to change the political landscape dramatically — not only in Texas, but across the US.

Trump now says that Venezuela has stolen their land from the United States, and it needs to be "returned". This will be Trump's Vietnam. When the US fought the Viet Cong, the population of North Vietnam was 18 million. The population of Venezuela is 31 million. They have Su-30 fighter jets, a military of 337,000 soldiers, and they can mobilize 617,000 more soldiers every year. Venezuela is three times the size of Vietnam. #lebensraum

Is the #Mastodon 500 character post length limit still meaningful in 2025? Originally, Twitter introduced a 140 character length limit in 2006 because of the technical limitations of old school SMS texts which were used by the Twitter system back in the day. But is there still a real technical advantage to the limit now, two decades later? Because if not, I would certainly prefer not having to split my posts into multiple posts.

Breaking: The new Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa did not bring enough golden gifts when visiting Trump in The White House.

mas.to

Al Jazeera (en) (gotgrip bot) (@aljazeera_gotgrip@mas.to)

Trump expands US travel ban to include Syria, Palestine https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/16/trump-expands-us-travel-ban-to-include-syria-pale...

The DOGE bags continue: Trump now closes the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, to prevent "climate alarmism". Who needs science anyway, as long as we know how to make the McNuggets, Trump likes to eat?

Trump moves to dismantle National Center for Atmospheric Research lab

#MakeAmericaDumbAgain 🤦🏻‍♂️

Awesome biologist and very inspiring nature guide @npub1mgs3...adka is active on Mastodon. He only has 23 followers, but I have a strong feeling we can help with that… can't we Mastodon? #whotofollow ♥️

Mastodon

Morten DD (@mortendd@mastodon.social)

@randahl - thanxalot, nice meeting you IRL in Vejle.

Heard in Russia: — “Ukraine has sunk the Moskva, they have destroyed the submarine Rostov on Don, they have forced The Black Sea Fleat out of Sevastopol, they have destroyed another submarine in Novorossiysk, and they have disabled multiple Russian oil vessels.” — “That’s incredible! How big is Ukraine’s navy?” — “They don’t even have a navy.” — 😳

The politicization of eulogies. If you voted Trump, and you are murdered, you get praised. If you did not vote Trump, and you are murdered, Trump needs to take a final stab at your dead body.