The United States continues to maintain a strong military presence in the Middle East while holding talks with Iran aimed at limiting Tehran’s nuclear program.

Clown World likes to recognize the clowns in our society who cause harm or are caused by harm. We picked out seven of our favorites. Notably ill-informed Mark Ruffalo wants us to shift away from capitalism. He never says anything worth listening to, but he does represent many in Hollywood. Mark Ruffalo suggests America should […] The post Seven X Posts That Made the ‘Evil Clowns’ World Hall of Fame appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

The Trump administration is setting up an alternate system to monitor global disease outbreaks and assist in response in direct competition with the World Health Administration. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the WHO last year, citing complaints he has had about the United Nations health body dating back to his first term. The Trump administration is now spending billions to set up an alternative, according to The Washington Post. The Department of Health and Human Services, run by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is spearheading the effort to set up the new, U.S.-led global health body. The new agency will be built on dozens of bilateral agreements between the United States and other countries and extend the HHS’ international footprint to many more countries than it is currently operating in. “This $2 billion in funding to HHS is to build the systems and capacities to do what the WHO did for us,” an official told the Post. Kennedy’s department has already requested the funds from the Office of Management and Budget. Trump signed an executive order on the first day of his second term withdrawing the United States from the WHO, citing an unfair cost burden that it placed on the United States and the agency’s poor handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. “So, we paid $500 million to World Health when I was here and I terminated it,” said Trump, referring to his first term when he initially withdrew from the organization. The president added that the cost to the United States “seemed a little unfair” in the context of what China paid to the WHO. “China pays $39 million and we pay $500 million, and China’s a bigger country,” said Trump. The financial burden the WHO placed on the United States had been substantially larger than the figure the president cited, according to HHS data. Assessed dues and voluntary contributions that the United States paid to the UN health agency amounted to roughly $680 million a year, amounting to 15-18% of the WHO’s total funding, the Post reported. The president’s executive order also cites the WHO’s actions during the pandemic. Trump initially withdrew from the body in 2020 because of “the organization’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, and other global health crises, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states.”

Large majorities of Republican primary voters want the Trump administration to crack down on the distribution of the abortion pill by mail and say they would be less enthusiastic to vote in the midterm elections if GOP leaders shy away from pro-life policies, according to new polling.  Over 70% of GOP primary voters oppose a Biden-era policy that allowed the abortion pill mifepristone to be shipped through the mail without any in-person doctor visit, according to polling conducted by Cygnal. That included 77% of self-identified Trump voters and 76% of voters who said they supported the Make America Healthy Again movement. The polling surveyed 1,000 GOP primary voters across the country from February 8-10.  The polling comes after lawmakers like Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) and pro-life groups have called for the Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration to end the Biden-era provision that has allowed abortion drugs to flood into red states where medication abortions are technically illegal.  Mifepristone cuts off the nutrients that an unborn child needs to survive in the womb. Another drug is then taken to expel the deceased baby from the mother.  Pro-life advocates say that failure to act could cause a lack of enthusiasm from pro-life voters, who constitute a significant portion of the GOP base.  “The failure to rein in abortion drugs risks base enthusiasm this November,” said Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser during a Thursday press call attended by The Daily Wire, discussing the polling. “You cannot win without your base. You can’t bring together that handful of votes in battlegrounds that are required. The abortion drug problem is an electoral problem in addition to a moral problem in our nation, and it’s caused by the lack of leadership at HHS.” Nearly a third (32%) of GOP primary voters said they would have decreased enthusiasm to vote in the midterm elections if Republican leaders weakened their stance on the issue of life. Another 34% said they would be less likely to volunteer and help out with campaigns.  Cygnal pollster John Rogers said that a drop in enthusiasm could have a “dramatic effect across the board” in key midterm elections.  When asked about the polling, White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales highlighted pro-life policies enacted by President Donald Trump. “President Trump is the most pro-life and pro-family President in history. Thanks to the President’s appointments to the United States Supreme Court, Roe v. Wade was correctly overturned – a triumphant victory for life,” she told The Daily Wire. “The President has also enforced the Hyde Amendment and reinstated the Mexico City Policy to end taxpayer-funded abortion at home and abroad, expanded child tax credits, created Trump Accounts, and established a rigorous, Gold Standard Science safety review of mifepristone by the FDA.” Wales added that the Trump administration would continue to pursue pro-life policies. “President Trump and his entire administration will continue to boldly advance policies that protect the most vulnerable among us and promote the growth and success of America’s families,” she said.  Both FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that they are conducting a study on the abortion pill, but lawmakers and advocates have grown impatient. In September, the FDA shocked pro-life advocates by approving another generic brand of mifepristone.  The Cygnal polling found that 80% of primary voters wanted the FDA to require in-person doctor visits to get the abortion pill, and another 72% oppose approving generic forms of mifepristone before the completion of a safety study. Sixty-five percent disapproved of HHS’s handling of the abortion issue.  Despite the overturning of Roe, abortions across the country have increased, fueled in large part by mail-order abortions. Data shows that there have been tens of thousands of abortions in states like Texas and Louisiana, where medication abortions are banned.  “Pro-life protections passed at the state level are being completely undermined, stealing sovereignty away from pro-life states who have passed strong pro-life protections,” Dannenfelser said Thursday. Last week, Hawley told The Daily Wire after a phone call with Makary that he thought it was time for Congress to take action. “I think Congress needs to be involved. Congress shouldn’t be a spectator and just outsource this to other people,” he said. “I think it’s time for Congress to get involved.”

Democrats are claiming that President Trump is a racist because he is deploying help to clean up the giant poop spill in the Potomac. On Monday, The Washington Post reported: President Donald Trump said Monday that federal authorities will respond to a major sewage spill that occurred four weeks ago in the Potomac River, which flows between Maryland, Washington and Virginia. In a post on his social network, Truth Social, Trump said the Federal Emergency Management Agency would play a key role in a response involving “Management, Direction, and Coordination” to protect the Potomac. FEMA is one of the agencies affected by the current partial government shutdown; in past shutdowns, its employees have largely been required to work without pay. Trump blamed “local Democrat leaders” for “gross mismanagement” in his post, and he singled out Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D), suggesting that the governor is incapable of handling the situation. On Air Force One on Monday afternoon en route to Washington from Mar-a-Lago, Trump again criticized Moore. “I don’t like the fact that he did that horrible, you know, with the pipes and the Potomac, and he’s not doing the job,” Trump said. “I’m going to have to get the federal government involved in getting it fixed, because he can’t fix anything.” Wes Moore tried to claim it was actually the federal government’s fault. It is not. He says he’s a victim of President Trump now. Sure, it’s his state pumping raw sewage into the rivers, but it is President Trump who is the real exploiter here.  Moore will most likely run for president in 2028. I think that would be a quixotic quest; I do not think that he has “it,” whatever “it” is. “I think the president just seems to have a very real issue with the fact that I do not bow to him and I will stand up to him because I will always defend my people. But the fact that I am the only black governor in this country and the fact that he seems to have a real issue with me, I think that’s an issue he’s got to take up,” he declared. It’s very sad. What a victim. Moore also claims that President Trump may be a racist because he is “assaulting” employment opportunities for black women. He stated, “He also has spent the past year making a direct assault on scholarships for HBCUs. The past year, we have seen the greatest assault on unemployment for black women that our country has ever seen. He’s spending his time attacking history and banning books. I honestly think that, you know, it’s a question not just for the president, but frankly, I think it’s also a question for white America. If they are looking at his actions. I think that’s something that people need to wrestle with.” This is ridiculous. The unemployment rate in the country right now is 4.3%. Trump is not undercutting black women. If the claim by Moore is that government employment has been cut in certain areas and that demographically this disproportionately affects black women, that does not mean that Trump is specifically targeting black women by cutting federal jobs. Claiming victimhood on behalf of black women everywhere because President Trump is cutting federal jobs is truly silly, especially on the same day that President Trump was celebrating Black History Month at the White House. Our apparently incredibly racist president said this: Black Americans have stepped forward to defend the flag and to defend our country like few others. And you’ve never really been given the recognition that you should get for that. I don’t think a lot of people have given the kind of recognition, but, everyone knows all about the Tuskegee Airmen. They were great and amazing. The Buffalo Soldiers, you know, the Buffalo Soldiers? Good stuff, right? Black leaders from Frederick Douglass to Martin Luther King. … have made our country freer. What they’ve really done is made life more just. What a racist. That is egregiously KKK-type racist stuff. One reporter on Wednesday took the opportunity to ask about whether Trump is a racist, since he has been called racist so many times.  He asked, “Where or when does the president believe he’s been falsely called racist?” “You’re kidding, right?” White House Secretary Karoline Leavitt fired back, “I will pull you a plethora of examples. I’m going to get my team in that room to start going through the internet of radical Democrats throughout the years who have accused this president falsely of being a racist. And I’m sure there’s many people in this room and on network television across the country who have accused him of the same. In fact, I know that because I’ve seen it with my own eyes.” I love it.  One D.C. resident gave a very lively speech during this event at the White House. Her grandson was violently killed in Washington, D.C., and she raved about Trump:  “We need National Guard, which we did years ago. He brought it on. I love him. I don’t want to hear nothing you got to say about the racist stuff. And don’t be looking at me on the news, hating on me because I’m standing up for somebody that deserves to be stand up for. Get off the man’s back. Let him do his job. He doing the right thing. Back up off. And grandma said it!” But, oh, look at that vicious racist in the White House. Say what?

The new “Toy Story 5” trailer has the internet buzzing as the popular animated franchise will take on the growing problem of children having too much screen time. As the teaser trailer, which was released in November, indicated, the villain this time around is a new tablet called “Lilypad,” which steals main character Bonnie’s attention as she forgoes playing for screen scrolling. This recognizable storyline is resonating with parents and justifying the idea of yet another “Toy Story” sequel. The voice cast includes Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, and Joan Cusack, who return to their roles of Woody, Buzz, and Jessie. Greta Lee voices Lilypad. The official synopsis says, “The toys are back and this time, Buzz Lightyear, Woody, Jessie and the rest of the gang’s jobs are challenged when they come face-to-face with Lilypad (voice of Greta Lee), a brand-new tablet device that arrives with her own disruptive ideas about what is best for their kid, Bonnie. Will playtime ever be the same?” In the trailer, Jessie says to Lilypad, “Me and the toys have been working all summer to try and get Bonnie to make friends, but then YOU had to ruin it.” She decides to call Woody, who tells her, “Toys are for play but tech is for everything.”  The full trailer was released on February 19. “Toy Story 5” hits theaters June 19.  “I’m generally opposed to milking these franchises dry until they’re nothing but a shriveled husk, but if this movie is going to villainize iPads and scold parents who use screens to babysit their kids then I wholly support it. This may be the only ‘part 5’ movie that has ever had a valid reason to exist,” Daily Wire podcast host Matt Walsh wrote in response to the trailer. “Finally, a movie calling out the iPad baby epidemic,” another X user agreed. “It’s about time we admit that parking a kid in front of a screen 24/7 isn’t parenting, it’s just surrendering. Woody and Buzz are basically fighting for the soul of childhood at this point.” “Facts, if Part 5 is finally calling out iPad parenting and the screen babysitter culture, I’m in. Make Hollywood preach something useful for once,” another person agreed.