It’s an avalanche. Twenty stories today could have been a Front Page Headline
The newest addition to the grift, graft and fraud list are terrorist organisations. — USAID sent $310 million US dollars to Hamas to build a cement factory in Gaza which would have helped make the tunnels of terror. Senator John Kennedy said Mr Musk discovered the American taxpayer was also giving money to Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria, and even $10 million to an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group called the Nusra Front. So far, Musk and co, with his team of hot young tech-coders, have found that USAID spent $164 million to support radical organizations around the world.
In other inexplicable calls, the US government gave nearly $8 million to help teach Sri Lankan journalists how to avoid binary gendered language. A lot of Americans worked hard all year to pay their tax bill to cover that. Why?
But where are all the pleas from foreign leaders to save USAID?
Question of the week on the suspension of USAID comes from Mike Benz:
What’s the grift to charity ratio?
Forty or fifty billion dollars is a lot of money to spend to NOT create a photogenic fan club and an instant response team to protest the sudden end of the funding. Even if 10% of USAID was spent on things like feeling starving babies in Malawi, that’s still $4 or $5 billion worth of skinny-baby photo-ops and impassioned pleas from desperate leaders. The BBC has found an AIDS patient in Ukraine and 1,077 students in Egypt. But where are the national leaders and surely, hundreds of thousands, or millions of beneficiaries?
Were the recipients of USAID all dodgy dealers or terrorists who don’t want to embarrass their donors? Are they Prime Ministers and Presidents who don’t want to admit they needed USAID help to “win” their jobs? Are the governments of recipient-countries silent because the money was being used to control them or foment dissent against them, and they are happy it’s over? Any way we look at this is not good.
Then we find out USAID spent $268 million on the worlds independent media which presumably makes them dependent media
Without USAID money, journalism as we know it, might not exist. The global US media octopus has 6,000 arms. US Taxpayers were spending money 6,200 journalists and 707 news outlets, and nearly 280 organizations to “strengthen” independent media, whatever that means. And this information was out there, but no one went looking. And that is an annual budget. Wow.
USA: Trump’s foreign aid freeze throws journalism around the world into chaos
USAID programs support independent media in more than 30 countries, but it is difficult to assess the full extent of the harm done to the global media. Many organizations are hesitant to draw attention for fear of risking long-term funding or coming under political attacks. According to a USAID fact sheet which has since been taken offline, in 2023, the agency funded training and support for 6,200 journalists, assisted 707 non-state news outlets, and supported 279 media-sector civil society organizations dedicated to strengthening independent media. The 2025 foreign aid budget included $268,376,000 allocated by Congress to support “independent media and the free flow of information.”
In Ukraine, where 9 out of 10* outlets rely on subsidies and USAID is the primary donor…
Blaim Game captures this moment:
But US funding of terrorists and extremists will be hard for the Blob to explain:
Ready to have your mind blown?
Senator John Kennedy on Elon Musk and DOGE exposing USAID, “I’ll tell you what Mr. Musk discovered. I find it fascinating. He discovered:
– The American taxpayers are giving money to Afghanistan
– He found that we are giving money to Yemen
– He… pic.twitter.com/605uTwKbTV— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) February 7, 2025
This meme goes deep pic.twitter.com/pTTvW7fbpU
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 7, 2025
In other big news… Donald Trump is bringing back plastic straws~! We’re in a culture war, and Trump is winning.
And of course, in Australia, under the cover of these fireworks, our Uniparty politicians have brought in radical HateSpeech laws after 30 microseconds of discussion and no consultation. That’s a 7 year jail sentence for reckless speech. By golly, that was oddly efficient. Almost like a well funded global shadow government blob called in its last favors to shut down any hints of the Trump-Musk-MAGA contagion arising here in an election year?
More on Australian hatespeech laws soon. The Senators who voted NO were Rennick, Babet, Antic, and Payman, Tyrell and Pocock.
Right about now, we need Donald Trump to say nations that don’t allow free speech can’t be trusted with our nuclear subs or something like that…
The Swamp is fighting back. Elon Musk is being denied access to treasury data.
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Not quite correct. DOGE has read only access. To everything.
For tech nerds with “smart glasses” that is an “elegant sufficiency”.
The DOGE knows USAID and NED are the source of forever foreign conflict and the tax laundering back to Congress Critters.
Read only is enough. Treasury can’t keep the laundry working via new means, without being instantly detected.
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https://redstate.com/streiff/2025/02/07/usaid-has-its-office-lease-terminated-and-you-wont-believe-the-new-tenant-n2185353
That’s right.
This is the new headquarters for US Customs and Border Protection.
******
Bwahahahahahah😈😈😈😈😈😈😈
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[Duplicate]AD
30
The ABC has its usual supportive story:
And a sub-header:
” Trump says USAID is corrupt, with no evidence ”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-08/judge-blocks-trump-usaid-freeze/104913794
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I’m sure that “their ABC” Four Corners program will shortly do a 4 part expose on all the wasteful spending from USAID.
I don’t need a sarc tag do I?
60
Scary when you think how much more transparent US-Treasury has always been (eg. Daily Cash statements) compared to our own Federal and State Treasuries…
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Elon Musk has reportedly spent a staggering $40 million on Super Bowl ads to highlight the federal government’s overly wasteful spending habits.
The tech mogul’s ad campaign is expected to dominate the airwaves on Sunday, driving attention to exposing the government waste discovered by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) through USAID.
Rumor has it that Musk has allocated a staggering sum for five commercials set to air during the biggest football game of the year.
Social media users speculated that Musk’s ads would send Democrats into a state of panic.
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“A federal judge early Saturday temporarily restricted access by Elon Musk’s government efficiency program to the Treasury Department’s payment and data systems”
“saying there was a risk of ‘irreparable harm.’
The Trump administration’s new policy of allowing political appointees and ‘special government employees’ access to these systems, which contain highly sensitive information such as bank details, heightens the risk of leaks and of the systems becoming more vulnerable than before to hacking, U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer said in an emergency order.
The order came in response to a lawsuit filed on Friday by Letitia James of New York along with 18 other Democratic state attorneys general, charging that when Mr. Trump had given Mr. Musk the run of government computer systems, he had breached protections enshrined in the Constitution and ‘failed to faithfully execute the laws enacted by Congress.’ The Constitution says that a president ‘shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.’
Is the federal judge taking the position that in the name of enforcing the Take Care Clause, it is the role of the judiciary to oversee whatever the President does with the executive power that the Constitution vests in him?
Is there some extra-legal notion that the federal judge should seize the power to put on the brakes when a President with questionable judgment is moving too fast? (I’m hearing some lawprofs singing that tune.)
ADDED: Here is the request for a temporary restraining order, and here is the judge’s order.
Posted by Ann Althouse
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Elon Musk@elonmusk
To be clear, what the @DOGE team and @USTreasury have jointly agreed makes sense is the following:
– Require that all outgoing government payments have a payment categorization code, which is necessary in order to pass financial audits. This is frequently left blank, making audits almost impossible.
– All payments must also include a rationale for the payment in the comment field, which is currently left blank. Importantly, we are not yet applying ANY judgment to this rationale, but simply requiring that SOME attempt be made to explain the payment more than NOTHING!
– The DO-NOT-PAY list of entities known to be fraudulent or people who are dead or are probable fronts for terrorist organizations or do not match Congressional appropriations must actually be implemented and not ignored. Also, it can currently take up to a year to get on this list, which is far too long. This list should be updated at least weekly, if not daily.
The above super obvious and necessary changes are being implemented by existing, long-time career government employees, not anyone from @DOGE
. It is ridiculous that these changes didn’t exist already!
Yesterday, I was told that there are currently over $100B/year of entitlements payments to individuals with no SSN or even a temporary ID number. If accurate, this is extremely suspicious.
When I asked if anyone at Treasury had a rough guess for what percentage of that number is unequivocal and obvious fraud, the consensus in the room was about half, so $50B/year or $1B/week!!
This is utterly insane and must be addressed immediately.
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A DOGE Origin Story: How Barack Obama Laid The Groundwork For Elon Musk
Democrats thought they could shutter the Department of Government Efficiency before it even started, filing lawsuits that said its anticipated structure as an outside advisory committee was illegal.
But when Inauguration Day rolled around, the reality was, for them, much worse: DOGE would be an official entity with hundreds of paid staff, authorized to hire outsiders with little vetting, and able to engage in openly ideological activity.
And Democrats had only themselves to blame.
DOGE took over the U.S. Digital Service, a 300-person technology office President Barack Obama set up inside the Executive Office of the President in 2014 to fix his beleaguered HealthCare.gov.
Bureaucrats had bungled the site, so USDS sought out Silicon Valley innovators, and was authorized to circumvent federal hiring procedures to get them. Hiring young people from the tech world and putting them together to work for Obama, unmoored from the stuffy rules of a typical government building, led to an environment of overt left-wing advocacy.
Obama designed it that way, making the USDS administrator, its top employee, a political appointee.
The irony is that Democrats had built a ticking time bomb. Then federal employees destroyed any pretense that, if left to their own devices, they would be “apolitical” instead of left-wing. Happening in over-the-top fashion right underneath Trump’s nose, it was an outrageous betrayal that no president would forgive or forget.
USDS is a case study in why Trump and his team are taking a more skeptical, hard-knuckled approach to the president’s second term. Trump learned that kindness would be exploited as weakness. Democrats and federal employees had set the table, and now Elon Musk is serving revenge that’s been chilling for four years.
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Righting a legal wrong is not revenge.
40
The DOGE is certainly being very DOGGED. Top Stuff and more please.
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I heard nothing about USAID on last nights news.
Most of my friends have not even heard of USAID.
What happened to all those journalists who were paid by USAID? Why aren’t they writing any stories about USAID, even good ones?
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“What happened to all those journalists who were paid by USAID? ”
They are to busy writing stories about how the Murdoch media empire is interfering in international politics, you know, by spreading mis/dis information.
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Or how the Murdoch empire have paid no taxes in Aus since 2019.
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‘No’ taxes is more money than $1 billion pa of ABC subsidy.
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From behind a paywall, a small article on page 67 of the Murdoch Melbourne paper today under the title ‘Musk’s payout scheme halted’ via AFP.
Incidentally, I’ve posted this ad verbatim from the hard copy print. The grammar seems sloppy. I wouldn’t have placed a comma after “world” in the 2nd paragraph and the hyphens have odd spacing. Makes me wonder if AFP is using AI to quickly put articles into circulation.
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The second paragraph is actually fine. The words “the government’s agency for distributing aid around the world”, separated by commas, are an explanatory section that can be omitted without changing the meaning of the sentence.
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Personally, I would have dropped the comma after “world” and put a full stop after “crippled”. Next sentence would begin “With foreign-based staff…”.
That aside, the article wasn’t exactly headline news. My comment wasn’t merely about grammar, it was more about the content MSM are presenting as truth.
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My slush fund – TexasAID – just provided support for an independent journalist. Keep it coming!
(Any bets that Julius Epstein was getting USAID money?)
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Jeffrey, the lolita flights chap described in the link (not Julius the movie maker):
https://www.thecut.com/2019/08/jeffrey-epstein-virgin-islands-little-st-james-house.html
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Imagine if even a tiny proportion of that money was used for something useful for Third World countries – like feeding starving people or providing educational supplies for children like pens, pencils and paper, tables abd chairs etc. …
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Yes, and access to clean water, how to grow food, sanitation, etc, etc,…………
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Aid builds dependency. Any help should be aimed at developing natural resources so the poor countries can dig their way out of poverty like the developed world has done for centuries.
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10^6 AMENS!!!
Same for internal welfare
Want some government influence on media?
NPR
https://training.npr.org/2024/07/23/what-journalists-need-to-know-when-covering-climate-change/
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I think Musk is targeting NPR.
Dutton really needs to defund their ABC.
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BandAid was a disaster. The Horn Of Africa has multiplied it’s population but they still live in abject poverty.
To improve the lot of the truly poor, give them grid power so they aren’t cooking inside with cow dung, the kids can do some reading for home work and mum & dad can watch a cheap TV instead of doing what comes naturally. Someone will give a sewing machine and a cottage industry is born. Energy is everything.
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The population of Ethiopia has doubled to 135 million since BandAid, and they have 68 million cattle. 1 cow per 2 people. (Think of the methane!)
In comparison the UK has 1 cow per 8 people, yet there is a move to reduce UK cattle in order to save the planet.
I totally agree with Hanrahan that the aid has been totally misdirected.
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The famine in Ethiopia was largely due to the government controlling food supplies and when some ignorant unkempt pop star came along to feed them the president laughed his sandals off.
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Most USAID money goes somewhere ‘useful’:
https://apnews.com/article/usaid-hiv-humanitarian-assistance-disease-spending-20f9cb969ffb6773e57886e34bf69165
For some reason, some people have an expectation that taxes should only be spent on themselves. Just like climate change denial, it suggests a high degree of selfishness.
Only Congress can defund USAID. What’s happening here is illegal, and the courts will have their say.
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Don’t forget the deficit and debt. The debt held by the public has grown nearly 900% since 2001. Clowns on the left are economic illiterates who think national income comes from the government and Tinkerbell. The far left extremists believe the debt and deficit are caused by not taxing the rich enough. Wrong. If the 1%ers paid the same rate of taxes as under Clinton when the budget was balanced, that would increase tax revenue by only $50 billion per year. The annual deficit will be $2 trillion this year and will grow by $300 billion per year after that. The far leftwing extremists live in Utopia divorced from the realities of economics.
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Musk and DOGE are not in the business of “defunding” USAID, they are in the business I’d shrinking it and redirecting funding to more meaningful aims. The USAID as has been will be shrunk down to a smaller agency and folded into the State Department, and controlled by the Secretary of State.
This is called Draining the Swamp.
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Your linked article doesnt support youur assertion of “most” goimg somewhere useful. The cherry picked items running cover for the main program are not the bulk of the $52B budget.
Its funny that you even think an imaginary “most” is good news for a supposed aid organisation. The old lefty low bar again.
Welcome back to a new school year
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Once again Simon is tripping over himself pretending to know. I don’t see “unfunding of USAID rather I see smart administrative oversight-something that is very legal.
What I see is that USAID is a complete waste of my money, completely Left partisan spending that is reckless. Courts might intervene but I see instead that Congress will step in and step all over this spending.
So sad for you Simon.
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The NY Times has an article fact-checking the many claims about USAID.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/08/us/politics/usaid-funding-trump-fact-check.html
The fact is that the withdrawal of USAID is causing turmoil in the developing world. The consequences are far-reaching and are unlikely to be beneficial to the US. There is a lot of benefit in ‘soft power’ but I don’t think Trump & Musk understand the concept. China will use this opportunity to increase its influence.
09
Lets see.. NY Times ran what stories about Trump when the impeachment work was set on him? What did NY Times say about the “Dossier”?
How about the Russia Russia Russia charges? Oh and what did NYT say about the Hunter Biden laptop?
Yes I truly trust the NY Times…
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Any article that sites Aaron Motsoaledi as one of its anchors deserve only ridicule. South Africa is cesspool of nepotism and corruption with an elite ruling class that couldn’t give a hoot about the plight of the common people.
10
You’re missing the main point. The spending of every tax dollar needs to be 100% traceable, 100% justified and 100% documented in the public domain. There are millions of people getting up at 5:00am each day working one or more stressful jobs, arriving home late each day, too exhausted to do anything else and all just to put food on the table and have a roof over their heads. Most people don’t get to keep any of their own money until Wednesday each week, with Monday and Tuesday’s earnings being taken by big government who care little for the blood sweat and tears that lie behind that money. People have a right to know where their hard earned tax is being spent and they have a right to reject wasteful and corrupt politically motivated spending.
40
JFK said this when he created US-AID in 1962`:
02
And a 1962 JFK would not be a 2025 Democrat by any measure. Today’s USA Democrat looks more like the enemies of the time JFK is familiar.
Simon are you familiar with the expression “swing and a miss”? Of course it is followed with a strike count. You are on strike 19,362,388,573 and counting…..
20
a tiny proportion was used for that, a very tiny portion.
00
The “journalists” who lost their USAID funding should go and personally pick up rubbish in Third World countries and teach the locals not to litter, or perform other menial tasks (as I mentioned yesterday), until it is deemed they have worked off their debt to society.
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Clearly, if you are an Iman firing out hate speech from a “pulpit” in a mosque, you are exempt from these laws.
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Such should have been arrested immediately and, if not citizens, deported to the paradise they came from.
30
Tariffs until Australia repeals Stalinist speech laws.
Do it Donald!
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It’s interesting and very sad how TRUMP is promoting free speech and forcing social media to comply but Australia is going the opposite way of more censorship with the Uniparty in full agreement.
And remember it was the fake conservative Liberal Party that gave us the e Safety Kommisar, the censorship laws (written by Libs, fully supported and attempted to be passed by Labor but which were narrowly defeated) and the Libs also gave full support to attaching your digital person number to social media posts via the ruse of making sure all social media users were over 16 (the e Safety Kommisar is working out how that will be implemented with the platforms).
450
Ah, at least one more person is awake. The Libs cannot be trusted. Vote Pauline, Babet or Family First. Below the line, preference Greens last, then Teals, then Labor, then Liberal. With the likes of Birmingham, Cash etc in their ranks, they’re just as useless.
20
Blame Game’s before and after meme applies to Climate Action, too.
Climate cash probably follows the same template.
230
Klimate Krisis Kash?
USAID?
Same model, all three.
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It’s disturbing to think about all the US taxpayer money given as assistance to enemies of the US and enemies of US allies and of the West in general.
430
Enemies … but … were they enemies of Mr. Biden, or his handlers?
Auto
10
Listening to Senator John Kennedy in the video above, I like how he always refers to the USAID wasted money as taxpayer money. How many Australian politicians or Leftoids actually understand that about government expenditure in our case? The money comes from hard-working people, by and large. There is no such thing as “government money”, it’s ours.
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FWIW – some reading
“DISPATCHES FROM AIRSTRIP ONE: UK secretly orders Apple to let it spy on iPhone users worldwide.”
https://instapundit.com/701187/#disqus_thread
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” UK law would actually forbid it from telling customers that it had weakened their security.”
“Under UK law, it is a criminal offense for Apple to even reveal that such a demand has been made, and so consequently the company has refused to comment. ”
Ah, transparency in Govt… Those laws would be the worst in modern times, and I expect every Western tyranny has them by now. Its getting very hard to find things that make China more of a tyranny than us, and even harder again to find freedoms we have that China doesn’t. What will the Govt do when their poster-boy of badness is better than us?
30
Well well well…
This is happening now, whilst I type.
Direct statement from USAID…
https://www.usaid.gov/
“On Friday, February 7, 2025, at 11:59 pm (EST) all USAID direct hire personnel will be placed on administrative leave globally, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs. Essential personnel expected to continue working will be informed by Agency leadership by Thursday, February 6, at 3:00pm (EST).”
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Correction- Directive comes in effect, approx 6.5 hrs from now.. Sorry all, got my time zones mixed up.
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This is all for the better. It is for the common good. While it will disadvantage employees it will be a hard lesson in snout troughing and sucking on the public teat. Geez, I wish I could give some of the smug, arrogant Canberra types the same dose.
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Incidentally, to help Third World countries, providing a stable government is first installed, you don’t need vast amounts of money to dramatically help them.
Simple things can dramatically improve their lives such as:
-A clean-burning wood stove so they don’t get lung disease from the fumes of primitive stoves.
-A small 5W solar panel with battery and LED light so children (or adults) can read or do homework at night.
-Water bores with appropriate filtration if necessary for clean fresh water.
-Even plastic buckets and containers help. Etc..
Rather than spending on such necessities, USAID taxpayer money was used to promote LGBT+++, DEI, woke “journalism” etc., in countries where people have traditional values such as believing in “only” two genders and traditional gender roles and orientations.
It was a typical waste of “other people’s money” for ideological reasons by the Left.
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I’m getting the feeling this USAID story will be like the Twitter files expose. Which wasn’t just Twitter, it was how the Biden administration leant on all the social media companies to adhere to their preferred narrative. So, censorship. What happened then was that the bulk of the MSM ignored that story and it never got much traction. Potentially there are stories in this USAID saga that could last a year, but maybe already the media moguls would like to bury it. Over the next few days it will get obscured by the NFL Super Bowl hype, particularly in the US, but to some extent even here in Australia. Because even though there’s been a dramatic change in media over the last 30 years, a helluva lot of people still get their info from breakfast TV and the 6 o’ clock nightly news.
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That’s the beauty of it all, ignore it and it’s full speed ahead for Trump. Try and fight and they expose themselves.
The speed is the advantage of one determined leader. The swamp is built on we’re all as guilty as each other. It takes time to ensure everyone is equally guilty, so no one can rat the others out.
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FWIW – latest Kunstler
“How It Worked
“They never prepared for algorithms that could map everything. For personnel pre-positioned everywhere. For a president who counts every week like it’s his last.” — VP JD Vance”
https://www.kunstler.com/p/how-it-worked
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As the punch line of another joke has it –
“Eek! It’s gruesome”
“And, if you care to have another peek, you’ll find it’s gruesome more”
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I do believe. That he believes, he won’t live out his full term. But courage is contagious.
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“How it Worked” clearly sets out Trumps’s successful strategy to undermine and expose the Democrat’s deep state. It’s Trump’s well planned and executed operation, with patriots guided by Musk’s management and IT expertise that has finally revealed America’s rotting core for all to see.
This planning and organising would have taken months to set up and thousands of hours to implement and it certainly would not have been paid for by USAID.
America and it’s future owes Trump alone for this reality check.
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It was also revealed this week that the Reuters News Agency, the Associated Press, The New York Times, the Wash-Po, and around 700-other news outfits altogether had been receiving financial support from USAID, the CIA, and other government entities.
Now do you understand why the Democratic Party voters are so obdurately deluded and deranged?
Besides the perfunctory lawsuits filed against DOGE and the agency chiefs, the response to all this corrective action has been surprisingly feeble.
You might conclude that they couldn’t marshal the rioters this time because the money for rioters has been cut off.
Instead, you saw a motley pack of political creeps — Jamie Raskin, Ayanna Pressley, Liz Warren, Chuck Schumer, Maxine Waters, Jasmine Crockett , Ilhan Omar —crying crocodile tears outside USAID HQ at 1300 Pennsylvania Ave.
They looked like roaches after the exterminator’s visit.
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I believe they received $200 each to give water to emergency victims. but that may be the cover story, be careful how fast you jump on incomplete stories coming out.
00
FWIW – on the inner workings
“It Is Coming……
[Comments enabled]
Category thumbnail
…. DOGE is in the house.
CMS, to be precise.
This is step 1, incidentally, but one that Congress can neither interfere with or prevent. In fact it is the Executives job to pay only valid invoices at valid amounts to valid vendors for valid acts.”
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=252782
And
“The Outrage Machine In Full View
[Comments enabled]
The number of “political figures” screaming about “DOGE” being given access to the payment flow systems (e.g. check register – the real one) at Treasury and other parts of the government is quite amusing.
I am particularly amused at the screaming about “oh those people were not Senate-approved!”
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=252777
Haven’t these things supposedly been audited for years?
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Senate approval is not required. DOGE is simply auditing and reporting to the executive (in all his orangey badness). Even better, they are volunteers, not federal employees, so squealing time expired Congress Critters like Shmuck Choomer have no power to stop DOGE bringing the sunlight.
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Confident they were ‘Too big to fail’ they became complacent in thier corruption. Just one of the pitfalls of the ‘everyone is doing it’ echo chamber. By shutting down any disent and refusing to acknowledge Trumps capability, they blinded themselves to his courage and determination.
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Binny
Another example of why
“Those that the Gods wish to destroy they first make confident”
is a viable expression – if not the usual one
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So how about we investigate how Ausaid is spending australian money?
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Is this not treason? And what is the penalty for that in the USA?
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In many cases the penalty is re-election to Congress.
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Think of it as a swamp that carries around its’ own swamp.
(If you’re gonna fight a GWOT, you need T.)
Or like the great W.C. Fields line …
“I always carry a small flask of medicinal elixir in my pocket in case of snake bite … in my other pocket I always carry a small snake.”
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I would also like to express my pride as an American.
When we go, we go big.
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Fortunately TRUMP and his team are about five moves ahead of the Left/Swamp in a game of three dimensional chess.
I think he and his team will defeat the forces of evil this time.
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We may hope.
But there is something to remember, Trump and his team can take out those who agreed to alow Epstien/Diddy style Kompromat on themselves to be part of the “elite” in the US. He has little power over those those visiting the cellers of Belgium and London.
I hope he/we win, but the opposition are going to fight like deamons.
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This shows the organisation around the “Fire Elon Musk” movement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y-C_-7tclM
Look at the comments. Look at the audience. This trite nonsense goes on for hours.
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This is how their ABC reports on shutting down USAID.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-08/donald-trump-usaid-freeze-hit-thai-myanmar-migrant-camps/104908708
There are probably homeless people in USA who think they are more deserving of US taxpayer support than someone in Thailand.
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North Carolina was virtually ignored by the Biden government after natural disasters last year.
Much of FEMA’s budget was diverted to helping illegal immigrants instead.
The world thinks that the U.S. owes it a living.
This is not so.
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“This is not so.”
As that past president of Kenya just pointed out
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Video of the above
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RRUmIyiUCIQ
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I dont think its “the world”, and perhaps we should consider who is cultivating who with some of these payments and for what purpose
40
Incidentally, Musk is not drawing a salary, not on cent, for his role.
Legally, he is classified as a “special government employee” which has certain rules and restrictions.
There is more than 130 days of work for Musk to do.
After 130 days TRUMP will have to create a new job for Musk or appoint a permanent employee once Musk has started the ball rolling. Afterall, Musk will be busy with colonising the moon and Mars before the Chicomms set up there and illegally claim them. Plus all his other projects like Starlink, Neuralink, SpaceX etc..
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Jo asks an excellent question as to why the apparent beneficiaries of all of this money are silent. It is the dog which hasn’t barked question.
I’ll add another question along similar lines which is what examples have been identified of spending which anybody thinks was worthwhile. Another dog which isn’t barking.
My guess is that the blob are being softened up by DOGE harvesting some low hanging fruit before heading for the big one in the department of defense.
Boom baby!
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Yes, the US DoD is the Big One.
And in Australia, we also have enormous waste and overcharging in our DoD and in just about all Government departments, state, federal and local.
And even that’s small compared to the huge subsidy harvesting scams of “green” energy and the huge overcharging and fr@ud in the NDIS.
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DoD will be hard. They have a lot of secret projects that are perfectly legit but which need funding. The U-2, F-117 and SR-72 were all flying before the projects were announced, before money could be allocated, money that would not be visible to an auditor. Dodgy appearance for sure, but legit.
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This is all for the better. It is for the common good. While it will disadvantage employees it will be a hard lesson in snout troughing and sucking on the public teat. Geez, I wish I could give some of the smug, arrogant Canberra types the same dose.
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Thanks to the hard working volunteers who fished my comment above out of automated purgatory.
I’d be very interested in having a look at the automation system if anybody knows what it is.
It’s only an irritation but it must be possible to do better.
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I have been advocating that posts should go through the naughty word filter on Preview. If they fail then you can correct your sins. Have received no support so far.
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I support the idea. Your idea would provide an option to pre-check. I would even prefer to have the post rejected altogether rather than be put into purgatory.
I am concerned that the software vendor could simply shut the entire forum down on a whim with a simple change in policy.
Ah well. Such is life!
20
Really depends on what WordPress supports and the cost of doing custom extensions. I’m pretty sure Jo would like to do many things but is constrained by reality, unlike Chris Bowen.
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Quite right yarpos. The first question is what extension is currently in use.
I have an uneasy feeling that the present extension is like a lop sided fact checker.
Seriously, have a look at my post #26 and identify something, anything which deserves the treatment it got.
20
Could it have been The Berm?
00
This Aid spending was already set up under State by Obama so is not impacted: https://www.state.gov/pepfar/
HIV tests and ARVs won’t be impacted
20
“Somalia, along with other Islamic terrorist entities, including the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Houthis in Yemen, and Hamas in Gaza, were among the top beneficiaries of USAID cash.”
https://www.frontpagemag.com/usaid-sent-over-18-billion-to-islamic-terror-states/
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Telling photo of USAID evil profligacy helping the terrorist cause: What’s the likelihood that USAID paid for the camo outfits and the RPG as well as the tent?
https://gellerreport.com/2025/02/rubio-slashes-usaid-staffers-only-294-out-of-14000-are-necessary.html/
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When I heard about the Arabic Sesame St I didn’t think it as bad as most do, on the basis that it was better than Jihad Kindy which is the normal fare for kids in the region, but then I saw something posted by libs of tictok in which it was actually Jihad Kindy.
Libs of tictok don’t normally make stuff up. Has anyone else seen that video?
41
Accidentally switched over to the ABC and all I got was how USAID had just canceled funding to a refugee hospital centre somewhere in Asia resulting in many deaths because patients no longer had access to oxygen .
Claims I doubt but absolutely no mention of the wasted money .
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A nasty accident – condolences.
110
That’s the kind of thing I was interested in. A potentially worthwhile program among the egregious waste and kick backs.
But didn’t they run out of oxygen quickly?
I wonder who could be subpoenaed by one of the many congressional committees. I’d love to hear how the more appalling programs got funded and who ended up with money in their pockets. There’d be enough material to fill a nightly program. CNN could do it.
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I can’t believe this story about running out of oxygen so quickly. Sounds like left disinformation. I mean, I wouldn’t put it past the ABC.
180
I found that one person aged 71 died at home after being discharged from hospital near the Burmese Thai border. Clinic closed down apparently.
60
I’m doubting anything from the ABC GlenM.
150
“I found that one person aged 71 died at home after being discharged from hospital near the Burmese Thai border”
That sounds like a problem for the Burmese or Thai Govts, not America’s.. Why isn’t everyone protesting outside their Govt offices?
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“I mean, I wouldn’t put it past the ABC.”
It’s getting to where you can probably depend on “Their ABC”
50
Gold Star to Greenas today. He consumed the ABC. He goes where a lot of us fear to tread.
50
Had to have a shower afterwards Ross and still feel dirty but sometimes we need to know just how deranged the ABC really is .
81
The ABC news website leads with “World’s richest man wants poorest people cut off from crucial US aid”.
click on that link and of course the headline on the article is not the same.
it’s a trick the “impartial and balanced” ABC regularly use.
141
It’s a common tactic. Busy people only read headlines. And do not check the article for substance. Why would the ABC lie to the public?
60
It could be a chance for other donor countries to reprogram their own non-essential aid spending and step in to help.
It can’t be that hard to make a payment that was due to be paid….
30
A lot of the initiatives are being taken to court where temporary rulings are stalling them. This will insure they get thoroughly aired in view of the public. That may not be what the plaintiff wants.
Because I know some folks with TDS, I am waiting to see how they explain some of these things. Maybe there will be quick changes of subject.
Finally, in the 1st ¶, Elon’s last name is spelled incorrectly.
70
Also on that X link to Senator John Kennedy reciting the amounts USAID provided to various outfits, he says *Hamas* yet the (AI?) subtitle states *MOSS*.
A simple enough mistranslation of his southern drawl, yet add an *AD* onto the end of *MOSS* and the whole sorry story falls into place.
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I am a regular on Hot Copper which may have the most active forum on world politics in Aus. The moder@tors lean left but it is generally open slather and the TDS afflicted have their knickers in knots over process, abusing Trump and Musk in terms which should not go to air while totally ignoring or even denying misuse of funds. They are incurable.
Why does USAID need everything to be classified Top Secret? Yea, I know, to keep out Musk and his wizards or at least have something to scream about.
70
Interesting that I haven’t heard a peep out of Dutton about the grift relating to USAID.
You would think that with an election soon, he’d be making a lot of noise about examining Australia’s foreign aid budget and expenses, too. It would be sure hold Albo’s feet to the fire, but then, it would also reveal the corruption in previous governments, too.
And the Uniparty just can’t have that! No, best let sleeping dogs lie, eh Peter?
180
Dutton hardly inspires or gives hope when he continually impersonates a marble tombstone. No go whatsoever.
90
I’m hoping he’s keeping his powder dry until the enemy is in clear sight. In this case until the Albo actually announces an election date.
50
I think and hope that’s what he’s doing. There are penalties for going early with a campaign argument, ie, during the actual campaign it’s dismissed with “we’ve heard that before”.
30
FWIW
“More Than 100 Billabong, Quiksilver, Volcom Retail Shops Closing in US”
https://hotair.com/headlines/2025/02/07/more-than-100-billabong-quiksilver-volcom-retail-shops-closing-in-us-n3799607
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That’ll learn ‘em. All those brands were gobbled up years back by a wealthy Wall Street investor who doesn’t surf. All their claims of culture and heritage were like pi$$ing into the wind: Quikie and Bong died long ago, RIP.
70
According to Dr Ned Nikolov the co2 driver theory is very poor science and he has been an atmospheric Physicist for decades.
He also states he hopes that Trump will stop all funding of the co2 driver theory and get more real scientists to work on the proper science.
See 1 hour 15 minutes for his conclusions and only takes about 4 minutes.
What has trump got to lose and why wouldn’t he want to save endless trillions of $ on their fra-dulent CC lunacy?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTMEc5DPWx0
200
Always loved Dr Ned ( and his mate Zeller) with their “theory” of adiabatic atmospheric warming. Makes so much more sense than the outdated Greenhouse/CO2 radiative theory. In fact not a theory, because in a co-authored research paper they predicted the surface temperature of many planets ( and moons) with their research using NASA data. QED, as you would say.
40
Musk also needs to look at NASA.
Apparently they have been heavily affected by DEI and placed incompetent staff into various important positions.
An example is the failure of the heat shield on the lunar re-entry vehicle, Artemis I Orion (thankfully unmanned).
They could successfully make a proper heat shield around sixty years ago before DEI but can’t do it now?
201
Free speech? You mean we once had that?
51
No. Unlike the US Constitution, Australia doesn’t have anything like the US Bill of Rights. The High Court determined that there was an implied freedom of speech for political purposes, but that is easily removed by an act of Parliament; witness the recent legislation denying our freedom of speech for anything that the leftoids don’t like.
90
Dunno about free speech but once we weren’t a nanny state. We used to ride our bikes through the wharfs and walk to the end of the breakwater. No reason, but it was a cool place and no one cared.
50
Free speech as a natural right was established by the Magna Carta. while not in so many words it brought forth the principle
https://chertseymuseum.org/magna_carta
70
USAID is just a small part of the problem . If you look at all the “charitable trusts” and “foundations” the usual story is that only a small fraction of donations gets to the purported recipients and most of the money gets spent on “administration” . They are tax free slush fund that are just as corrupt as all the other NGO’s . Australia has “donated” to the WEF and clinton foundations and many more boondoggles of that ilk . Activism masquerading as assistance .
141
Yes. But it’s another thing to directly fund terrorists like Hamas. And I never dreamed that George Soros who has been paying prosecutors to take his view that villains are all simply misunderstood has been directly funded by USAID? The War on the West is being funded by America itself.
170
TdeF,
If you fund it you own it . Funding both sides of a conflict must be very profitable…..
40
” Funding both sides of a conflict must be very profitable…..”
..as American corporations found in WW2.. That’s not a bug, its a feature!
“Australia has “donated” to the WEF and clinton foundations and many more boondoggles of that ilk .”
We have our own indigenous little pool of corruption going on, you just have to look at how much gets allocated to them and how much their living standards have improved! A lot of other people have made millions of dollars from those Govt handouts.
50
Rats! Indig-whats-its-name must have tripped the censor wire!
10
And overseeing all this you have really switched on President Joe Biden. Except he had no idea what he was signing.
50
Interesting, but, I think, most have misidentified yon mud puddle for a swamp. In America, the house controls the monies spent. The president and senators just recommend expenditures. What party has controlled the house the most since Carter.
31
Trump is draining the Swamp –
https://www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2025/02/IMG_4784.jpg
10
No hotlinking allowed
Just go to the main site and scroll through all the meme cartoons
00
Thank you, Jo, for keeping this front-and-center!😎😎👌👍
60
Can somebody please tell me where Australia found the best part of a billion$$$ to give to The USA for an AUKUS commitment to pay a deposit for subs that most of us alive today will not see.
40
Borrowed it from China
50
Its only a billion! Govt has borrowed more than 850 of those haven’t they, what’s one more..
50
Don’t know if anyone linked this yet.
Tucker Carlson
Mike Benz Takes Us Down the USAID Rabbit Hole (It’s Worse Than You Think)
https://rumble.com/v6ia6nd-mike-benz-takes-us-down-the-usaid-rabbit-hole-its-worse-than-you-think.html?e9s=src_v1_epp
40
Yes, also on YouTube, as is this one:
How USAID Became A Front For The Global Drug Trade
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFikB4unZgo
Benz, the Director of The Foundation For freedom Online is the man whose investigations, via his work as a cyber guy at The State Department, sparked off this realisation the USAID was the tool of subversion, funding, money laundering, media control, democracy destabilisation etc.
He said,” USAID is effectively a rent-a-riot operation”.
60
It makes one wonder who arranged and funded all the ready-to-hand Pallie flags and keffiyahs for western twerps to use immediately after the massacre on Oct the 7th?
80
All of it Annie!! Georgia, Armenia, any of the ‘Stans, Eastern Europe in Romania and Serbia…
The moment people start protesting with ready-printed placards and megaphones, you know the CIA has been supervising USAID money! The best one was people protesting against China taking back Hong Kong from Britain, and they were all waving AMERICAN flags!
20
Yes Annie and same goes for all the professional signs and placards held by “spontaneous” rioters at various BLM and Floyd type disturbances.
40
Yes, I reckon you are correct.
20
A couple of things:
In the REAL world, “offence” cannot be GIVEN, only TAKEN.
We are being bulldozed at remarkable speed towards the final stage of fully-adopting the “Napoleonic Code”; i.e.:
“You must be guilty. Were you NOT guilty, you would not have been investigated, charged and convicted”. (Spoken in the voice of Inspector Clouseau).
Any legal eagles out there who can identify the last time a piece of law or the regulations thereto, were ACTUALLY based on the once vaunted “presumption of innocence?”
So, who gets to play “Javert” in this new production of “Les Miserables”?
“Can you hear the people sing?” Or is it going to be a LOT more; “Empty Chairs and Empty Tables”?
80
Well, with Govt thugs grabbing cash or goods off people and then saying “Prove it was legitimately yours to get it back”, I figure presumption of innocence vanished in the last century.
40
Amusing that USAID isn’t funding our ABC.
Guess USAID said “no point doubling down”.
Can we make the ABC an election issue?
Dump the loony left bloated dinosaur and save $$$.
80
> …isn’t funding our ABC
Who at the ABC ARE they funding?
10
all of this stuff only highlights the depths to which Democrats have sunk themselves – Trump is on the warpath thank God.
10
From PJMedia
READ THE FULL ARTICLE
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Thanks. Extraordinary interview. But her depiction of the Democratic party as a cult was frightening. 99.99% believe the Party comes before the country. And everyone is fighting for position. Conservatives have no place. She confirms RFK’s statement that he did not leave the Democrats, the Democratic party left him. It is extreme left.
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Further to #47, here’s a link to the Shawn Ryan interview with Lindy Li.
Lindy Li – Obama’s Third Term, Kamala Paying Beyoncé, Cardi B, and Oprah | SRS #167
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHXVeLVHWuY
00
The above posts have been renumbered since last night.
What was #47 is now #48 and what was #48 is now #49.
Where #49 reads >”Further to 47,”
It should now read *Further to #48
The Shawn Ryan/Lindy Li interview is absolutely essential viewing for anyone who wants to understand the awful details of what was happening in the slow-moving 4 dimensional train-wreck that was the US Government over the 4 years from 2020 to 2024.
It’s all revealed by an insider who was intimately enmeshed with Joe, Jill, and all the central players. Another true-blue Democrat who was shocked by everything she witnessed, and like the rest of what is now the Trump government, deserted the Democrats. She names all the players and their roles.
Confirms that Joe was definitely Obama’s puppet for an Obama third term. That the US President was unaware of executive orders signed in his name. And that Hunter had not given up cocaine use despite his assurances, and yet he was effectively President, but without any security clearance, the whole time after the debate.
The picture Ms Li paints of the operation of the Whitehouse under Obama/Biden is a national disgrace and needs full public exposure.
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I do hope that someone can look into Teals and Greens electoral funding – especially at funds received from NGOs and thinktanks – and discover the links back to USAID. Then at funding for the Guardian, Saturday Paper etc.
They are there. You can be sure of it.
40