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[WaPo] Trump moves to wrest control of USAID as Musk says, ‘We’re shutting it down’

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by Os Trigonum, Feb 3, 2025.

  1. rimrocker

    rimrocker Member

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    One thing that has stopped because of this USAID stuff is the first phase of clinical trials for an AIDS vaccine. It's tied to the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, which was an initiative by W and frankly, one of the few good things he did.

    Oh well, time to re-read the great And the Band Played On. (For you Wuhan conspiracy types, you should read the book as Fauci does not come off looking well at all.)
     
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  2. Tomstro

    Tomstro Member

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    Yes, Biden never lied. Give it a rest. The grifter is gone.
     
  3. jo mama

    jo mama Member

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    and you used to be a george w bush supporter (arguably the biggest one in here) iraq war supporter. believer in america flexing and imposing its military might around the world.

    and now you support donald trump who trashes the entire bush family, says iraq war was our nations biggest foreign policy disaster (i agree with him, but you previously did not) and is actively pulling the US out of its role as global leader.

    i find it comical that you say the democrats are the warmonger party when you previously had been such a staunch defender of the iraq war.

    i dont believe youre under blackmail though. youre just a republican above all else and will always tow the party line.
     
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  4. Tomstro

    Tomstro Member

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    Oh and I definitely see you turning republican soon.
     
  5. jo mama

    jo mama Member

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    how so?
     
  6. Tomstro

    Tomstro Member

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    Sarcasm. You will always be on the left.
     
  7. jo mama

    jo mama Member

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    and you will always be a loser.
     
  8. Tomstro

    Tomstro Member

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    That definitely sounds like lefty talk.
     
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  9. fchowd0311

    fchowd0311 Member

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    Left and right is a ideological spectrum.

    You don't have to change your entire ideology to be like "**** is having the wealthiest people on the planet managing our government a good idea?"

    As a leftist, if the Biden admin made Michael Bloomberg have access to the Treasury department and was on social media explaining how he's in charge of auditing the government, I'd be like "why the hell is an unelected billionaire telling us that we need to cut government expenses?"

    That won't make me leave the left. That would make me criticize Joe Biden.


    I'm a leftist. I didn't leave being a leftist because I call Joe "genocide Joe" for his continual support of Israel.

    It's because I don't see the parties as a sports team to root for regardless of context. I'm a leftist even when I **** on Democrats like I do all the time.

    People like you and @El_Conquistador are cheerleaders for political parties. You don't have an ideology or principles. It's just the party.
     
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  10. Tomstro

    Tomstro Member

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    And you will most definitely always be on the far left.
     
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  11. jo mama

    jo mama Member

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    thats because youre a loser in a cult.
     
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  12. Tomstro

    Tomstro Member

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    That sounds lefty too
     
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  13. fchowd0311

    fchowd0311 Member

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    Ya unless my ideological principles change.

    Something about people on the right projectioning their shame on others. No, only right wing people like you are afraid to admit their ideological leanings. I'm definitely far left and I'm not ashamed of stating it. It's my sincere ideological belief.
     
  14. tinman

    tinman 999999999
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  15. Os Trigonum

    Os Trigonum Member
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    UPDATE to “Can Anyone Think of an Innocent, Ethical Explanation For USAID’s Giving $8.1 Million to Politico? Because I Can’t”: It’s Even Worse Than That…

    https://ethicsalarms.com/2025/02/06...tico-because-i-cant-its-even-worse-than-that/

    excerpt:

    At this point, my head is metaphorically spinning as new revelations about the money-laundering, journalism-bribery and astounding abuse of U.S. taxpayer funds just under a single bloated, unaccountable, Democratic ideologue-infested agency are coming out left and right, from credible sources and marginal ones, as the crumbling Axis denies, obfuscates, screams, threatens, and throws up dust. I confess: I don’t have the time or the skills to gather all of the information, vet it, and explain it. That’s not my job, either. I resent the fact—actually “resent” is not a strong enough word—that our most prominent journalists who should be informing the public regarding the USAID/Politico scandal are doing anything but.

    Thus the thread on the post yesterday introducing the topic includes among the most recent of its 60 comments (as of this moment), a sincere reader offering this: “I just spent some time today since this hit the news on the USASPENDING site and confirmed Politico only received two awards, one for 20 thousand, the other for 24 thousand dollars from the USAID. So it does appear your post is wrong.” No, what’s wrong is that the actual expenditures have been disguised, hidden, mis-labled, and been examined through so many disparate sources that it is impossible for even well-intentioned readers to answer the question, “What’s going on here?” The Axis propaganda media news site Mediate made the same claim as the commenter, quoting Politico’s management that the “subscription” support was as pure as the driven snow. As with the other “usual suspects” like CNN’s hack media ethics watchdog Brain Stelter, the current strategy is to pretend this is much ado about nothing. Stelter’s defense: Why isn’t DOGE going after waste in misspent funds in the Defense Department?

    Who can you trust? Apparently nobody. And that’s dangerous and frightening. AND I have no idea what to do about it.

    I would have once expected the Columbia Journalism Review to be a source that might give definitive intelligence on this matter. Here, after hundreds of words attacking Trump, Musk, and DOGE, it tells us,

    $268 million [of the now frozen USAID funds] was earmarked to fund “independent media and the free flow of information” this year. In the recent past, USAID had boasted of supporting more than six thousand journalists, around seven hundred independent newsrooms, and nearly three hundred media-focused civil society groups in thirty or so countries…

    Including ours? “Independent” journalism being funded by a U.S. agency with a political agenda is an oxymoron anywhere. What would U.S. pundits say if it learned that, say, Russia, Ukraine or Israel was sending funds to the New York Post or some of its reporters to encourage them to be “independent”?
    more at the link
     
  16. Commodore

    Commodore Member

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  17. Os Trigonum

    Os Trigonum Member
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    Democrats Are Falling For Trump and Musk’s Foreign Aid Trap
    Three veteran strategists want their party to be more thoughtful about fighting Trump’s anti-bureaucracy campaign.

    https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/02/04/democrats-foreign-aid-trap-trump-00202447

    excerpt:

    Rahm Emanuel — the former House leader, Chicago mayor and diplomat — told me much the same: “You don’t fight every fight. You don’t swing at every pitch. And my view is — while I care about the USAID as a former ambassador — that’s not the hill I’m going to die on,” he said.

    Trump’s orbit, meanwhile, couldn’t be happier seeing Democratic lawmakers lined up on a downtown Washington sidewalk Monday — in their view, wasting political capital defending an agency that they believe the public doesn’t give a rip about. Musk himself spent the following 24 hours posting videos of Democrats protesting the move.

    “The federal bureaucracy is very unpopular. … It’s a pretty widely held, majority position — if you poll it, people think the government is wasting money. And, very simply, that’s the battle that we’re fighting,” one senior Trump administration official told me Tuesday. “The Democrats are now taking the opposite position: ‘Everything’s perfect.’ ‘Nothing to look at here.’ ‘No money is wasted.’ ‘All your tax dollars are being spent well.’”

    “Not a very politically tenable position,” the person added.
    more at the link
     
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  18. jo mama

    jo mama Member

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    https://www.yahoo.com/news/doge-staffer-jumps-ship-pro-221701484.html

    DOGE Staffer ‘Resigns’ After Secret Racist X Posts Revealed
    One of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency goons resigned Thursday amid growing inquiries over his links to a social media account pushing racism and eugenics theories.

    Marko Elez, 25, was identified earlier this week as the engineer who was granted access to the Treasury’s “top-secret” payment system, which controlled social security and tax distributions.

    Yet outside of helping his billionaire boss cut down federal inefficiencies, the Wall Street Journal reported that Elez may have used a secret social media account to push “eugenic immigration policy.”

    “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity,” read a September X post from the now-deleted account. Another post urged, “Normalize Indian hate,” allegedly referring to Indian workers in Silicon Valley, reported WSJ.

    When the Trump administration was asked about Elez’s connection with the account, spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said he had resigned, reported WSJ.

    The account in question, @nullllptr, made several disparaging remarks about Indians and immigration in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election.

    In a post appearing to be directed at Indian software engineers and Musk’s H1B fight, the account wrote, “99% of Indian H1Bs will be replaced by slightly smarter LLMs, they’re going back don’t worry guys.”

    A July post by @nullllptr boasted, “Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool.”

    Commenting on the Israel-Gaza war in July, a post read, “I would not mind at all if Gaza and Israel were both wiped off the face of the Earth.”

    Elez has worked for Musk’s SpaceX, Starlink, and X companies, focusing on artificial intelligence, reported WSJ.

    The Daily Beast has reached out to Elez for comment.

     
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  19. pgabriel

    pgabriel Educated Negro

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    This has proven to be false. Why are you still posting about it?
     
  20. Os Trigonum

    Os Trigonum Member
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    lol. guess you didn't read it
     

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