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

@basso
@Os Trigonum

 

Humanitarian Aid is for cucks.

 

Posting links from QNON conspiracy websites now lolol.

 

The impossibly rich lifestyle of DC liberals, funded by YOU the taxpayer, without your consent or approval. This is how they live, and the receipts prove it.

USAID, the NEA, and other taxpayer-funded programs issue billions of dollars in grants. John and Jane, or Pete and Pete, each work at non-profits who receive these grants.

The non-profit pays them $300,000 or more. In some cases, such as the Kennedy Center, the CEO is paying $1.5 million.

A married couple takes in $750,000 together, and often much more. Off of your back.

Year after year, and the perks don't stop with salaries. Believe it or not, that's small potatoes.

If they want a free ski vacation in Aspen? Well there's a conference being held annually. The non-profit will of course fly them there and provide accommodations. Every meal is of course non-profit related. Eat well.

Itching for a trip to Switzerland or Paris? Same deal. The non-profit would be delighted to host a conference on some subject.

How they cut their family and friends in on the scam.

Their nepo babies start a "conference organizing business," and pay them from the non-profit to put on events.

Maybe they take on an ownership interest in these businesses via an offshore account.

How will anyone be able to track down this money? It's stash in the Cayman Islands or in Switzerland via one of the many "businesses" that provide "services" for the non-profit USAID industrial complex.

Speaker fees for their friends?

Yes, of course. That's how to really get the big bucks going, as speaking fees and vendors aren't accounted for item-by-item on the Form 990.

Hold a "gala" and pay everyone $100,000 to give a talk. Pay millions to the "vendors" run by nepo babies and others in on the corruption.

Even judge / their families are in on these scams.

It's why DC judges are issuing lawless rulings. Their spouses, friends, and families are all taking a piece of the action.

The end result of that DC exists entirely off of your back.

This corruption must end, and that's why they hate Elon.

They won't go down without a fight. These are all people living lIke billionaires for doing nothing.

Think this story is exaggerated. Look at these salaries from "non-profits," which are funded by taxpayers via grants and other "aid."

Now you understand the anger.

They are thieves!

 

The EO did not specifically exempt food or medical care. The pause was immediate, leaving the determination of any "waiver" to the SoS in consultation with others.

1/20/25 — EO: An immediate 90-day PAUSE to all foreign aids. The department can determine within 90 days whether to "continue, modify, or cease each foreign assistance program." "Funds may resume for a program... if a review is conducted, and the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Director of OMB, decides to continue assistance." "The Secretary of State may waive the pause for specific programs."

1/24/25 — Freeze starts. Secretary of State (SoS) Rubio made exceptions for emergency food programs and military aid to Israel and Egypt (no exceptions were made for medical care or life-saving assistance at this time).

1/28/25 — SoS Rubio issued temporary waivers for "life-saving humanitarian assistance."

The situation was chaotic and put lives at risk. It’s not surprising that someone could die due to the confusing and poorly implemented EO. This is where an Inspector General (IG) could thoroughly conduct proper fact-finding and issue a report with recommendations. Would it really be surprising if one of the recommendations were to double-check before implementation to avoid chaos that leads to dangerous outcomes?

I doubt there will be an IG report in this case, given that many of them were among the first to be fired.

 

It’s accurate and crucial to understanding the chaos it caused. The EO did not specifically exempt anything, but the pause was immediate.

The rush to implement the EO (immediate pause) created chaos and confusion, making it unsurprising that a waiver to "save lives" was issued later amidst the rush. The delay in issuing the waiver compounded the chaos. As a parallel example, the firing of nuclear staff led to a mad rush to "unfire" them, and once a temporary "waiver" (unfiring them) was granted, locating some of the staff became difficult, as they had already been technically fired and lost access to their work emails.

It’s not a surprise that this endangered people’s lives not only during the initial four-day period but also in its aftermath.

 

I don't know how they operate, so I’m not going to comment. But I do find any accusation of the level in the HotAir opinion piece (claiming they purposely killed a woman to make an example) requires extraordinary evidence, and certainly, tweets aren’t evidence. When their initial statement is misleading (EO has an exception built in), there’s reason for me to see the opinion as sloppy or biased. I also subscribe to Occam’s razor - the simplest explanation with the least assumptions is most likely the right one.

As I said before, an IG conducting fact-finding, reporting, and providing recommendations would be one way to discover the impact of government actions. But again, I doubt that will happen here.

 

Extraordinary evidence is required to support the claim of intentional killing, as the HotAir OP suggests. What I see instead are numerous assumptions, and Occam's razor advises me to avoid explanations based on them.

Here’s one possible straightforward explanation that cuts through those assumptions: both cases seem to have involved a "stop-work" order, with one person choosing to ignore the order and violate it, while the other followed it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/06/health/usaid-clinical-trials-funding-trump.html

The stop-work order on U.S.A.I.D.-funded research has left thousands of people with experimental drugs and devices in their bodies, with no access to monitoring or care.

The stop-work order was so immediate and sweeping that the research staff would be violating it if they helped the women remove the rings. But Dr. Leila Mansoor, a scientist with the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (known as CAPRISA) and an investigator on the trial, decided she and her team would do so anyway.

“My first thought when I saw this order was, There are rings in people’s bodies and you cannot leave them,” Dr. Mansoor said. “For me ethics and participants come first. There is a line.”


First USAID Death as Freeze Sees Oxygen Supplies Cut Off for Refugee - Newsweek

Her family reported that after the IRC received a "stop-work" order in late January and she was sent home from the hospital.

 

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You understand that less than 1/5 of Kennedy Center funding comes from the government, right?

 

You're still pumping out hot air. It fits you.