IMO one of MSM big failures was never grokking what Madam VP was doing in Africa and the Caribbean to compete with the 'Belt and Road' initiative which China is using to gain access to raw materials and to influence the Governments to a Chinese Model of government with no democracy.
", which was about $600 million in 2023. (That’s around the cost of six F-15 fighter planes and spare parts."
I think that is also the cost of ONE F35... and we lost one of those in Alaska a couple of days before the DC Plane crash....soooooo pony up Americans!
It sucks when it comes to those development/climate mitigation projects to be sure but ... the devil is in the details.
"And of course there’s the whole realpolitik national-interest stuff that’s been a key factor in American aid since JFK created USAID back in the 1960s"...
... which is what many in the rest of the world are quietly (or not so quietly) celebrating. I've compared it to 19th century fiction (like Jane Austen, who had a sense of humor about it, but this applies to Harlequin Romances too) as if the receiving nation was some sort of helpless maiden who needed a "protector". Please. Nations have agency themselves. Maybe they want to be polyamous... not just in bed with Mr. America, but Mr. China or Mr. Cuba, as well, or maybe they want to be cat-lady nations.
The problem with USAID for those of us in the so-called global south is that USAID also was funding groups like (here in Mexico) the "Mexicanos contra corruption..." paying a high salary to the widow of a PEMEX executive (whose pension and insurance payments were based on fraud) not to uncover "corruption" but as a front organization to undermine the left. Similarly, USAID provided the funding for the kabuki "government" of Venezuela's Juan Guidó. Not to mention a massive scandal in Peru, under Fujimori, that as part of a public health initiative was sterilizing indigenous women without their consent.
Don't get me wrong... there are areas where a country is very good in something and offering to share it with the rest of the world certainly builds trust in that nation. I mentioned Cuba above for a reason... thinking of their "medical missions" (Brigada Henry Reeves) that fills the gaps in health services to other countries ... even "first world" ones, like Italy during the pandemic.
Another set of fallout that hopefully the Dems and the MSM will be shouting about in the next couple of weeks.
You know all that food that USAID sent to foreign countries? Yeah, they bought that from American farmers. Who now don't have a market for their goods ... which is sitting rotting (heard Houston port is sitting on something like a million tons of wheat that it can't ship anywhere).
So yer "real American" farmers ... are getting shafted by the party THEY voted for in droves. And by a guy that NO ONE voted for, but who targeted USAID early on in the purge specifically to end investigations into HIS business dealings. It's one of the only things HE cared about enough.
Except that the right hand - seemingly unaware that the left hand was gutting USAID to the detriment of the farmers - is over here defunding SNAAP, so there are no farm bailouts either.
Not to mention that this all comes crashing down in March? May? When the House fails to keep funding the government anyway.
America. I remember when it existed.
- Me, on my front porch, talking to the kids who forage on my lawn because eggs cost $500 each and Florida has sunk into the Atlantic ... sorry ... the Trumplantic Ocean.
A long time ago, back when we worried about the spread of communism, there was a story or urban legend (global legend?) or whatever about how communists in some Third World nation undercut U.S. aid by stenciling a hammer and sickle on bags of rice from the U.S. to make the peasants think that the aid came from the USSR.
Now our enemies have a much more effective way to undermine us: Helping fools, idiots, crooks and dupes infiltrate our government.
I find myself wondering often exactly what kind of world Republicans want to live in. They keep defending the indefensible out of fear of this tinpot despot they have consistently coddled and enabled into power. And now, without exaggeration(!) it’s cool to ::checks notes:: :
Shoot puppies in the face
Sexually assault women (and men, hi there Matt Schlapp!)
Be openly racist (as long as you claim doing so is just about not being racist to white people)
Be a full blown Nazi (as long as you say you were joking)
Destroy the environment (as long as you say you’re protecting big business)
Destroy regulations (as long as you say it’s all about the free market)
Hurt all minorities, including LGBTQI+ (as long as you make it about bathrooms and sports)
Discriminate against all religions besides Christianity (but only certain Christians, and also, just as long as you say that’s the exact opposite of what you’re doing)
Preventing and/or outright destroying all medical and scientific advances (as long as you say it’s all in the name of slashing government waste)
Destroying education and learning (as long as you say it’s about “choice” and fighting “indoctrination”)
Expose sensitive personal information of everyone not aligned with your bullshit ideology, whatever the fuck that even is anymore (as long as you say you’re actually exposing waste, fraud, and abuse)
Hand the national defense over to degenerate drunks and active traitors (as long as you say sad fucked up white guys deserve a second chance through Jesus or some shit. And no excuse even proffered for Tulsi Gabbard)
And let’s face it, the parentheticals are all so much rapidly drying up and blowing away fig leaves that aren’t even necessary anymore because the inmates are running the asylum.
They need to live in the world they are actively, objectively making worse. Do they understand that or are they so far down the rabbit hole they’re just breathing in dirt?
Here’s the short versions: republicans want to hurt everyone they don’t like (ie, anyone who isn’t rich, white, cis, male, conservative,and Christian) and put more money into the pockets of billionaires.
Literally, nothing else matters to them unless the leopards start eating their faces.
::sigh:: There is some comfort in knowing that being that short sighted guarantees they will eventually walk straight into a wall. But good lord is it taking a long time!
I'm sure this is mentioned elsewhere in the comments, but one of the key reasons for not eliminating USAID is that it serves a *diplomatic* function that is to the enormous benefit of the U.S. By engaging in aid in these countries, the U.S. gains respect and alliance and a foothold in international diplomacy - DUH!
Also, a large number of people who work in USAID come from Christian backgrounds that take humanitarian service seriously. So eliminating USAID is really a slap in the face to those Christians who have hewn more closely to the service message of the gospels than, say, someone like Jim Bakker or Jimmy Swaggert.
The budget impact of USAID is miniscule, so eliminating it would do little to help shovel money at billionaires. Aside from its role in ending apartheid, Muskrat has a hard-on to get rid of it because of the healthcare it promotes in parts of the world populated by non-white people. He believes that USAID is thwarting the dominance of White people whose natural superiority ordains them divinely selected to rule the planet
Primorac also claimed, nonsensically, that promoting clean energy in developing nations is “literally financing China’s global expansion,”
Cutting off American aid to developing countries ensures that they will turn to China, who will provide them with the latest in green tech. Within a short time, Trump will transform us into an unwelcome former ally with nothing to offer, "America Last"
IMO one of MSM big failures was never grokking what Madam VP was doing in Africa and the Caribbean to compete with the 'Belt and Road' initiative which China is using to gain access to raw materials and to influence the Governments to a Chinese Model of government with no democracy.
TFG has no clue.
Bill Gates went to the White House to argue for USAID...the Gates Foundation has already saved thousands of children and adults in other countries...
", which was about $600 million in 2023. (That’s around the cost of six F-15 fighter planes and spare parts."
I think that is also the cost of ONE F35... and we lost one of those in Alaska a couple of days before the DC Plane crash....soooooo pony up Americans!
Sorry, what is "woo?"
Ta, Dok. Our energy future is renewables, period. Everything else is delay, deny, destroy.
It sucks when it comes to those development/climate mitigation projects to be sure but ... the devil is in the details.
"And of course there’s the whole realpolitik national-interest stuff that’s been a key factor in American aid since JFK created USAID back in the 1960s"...
... which is what many in the rest of the world are quietly (or not so quietly) celebrating. I've compared it to 19th century fiction (like Jane Austen, who had a sense of humor about it, but this applies to Harlequin Romances too) as if the receiving nation was some sort of helpless maiden who needed a "protector". Please. Nations have agency themselves. Maybe they want to be polyamous... not just in bed with Mr. America, but Mr. China or Mr. Cuba, as well, or maybe they want to be cat-lady nations.
The problem with USAID for those of us in the so-called global south is that USAID also was funding groups like (here in Mexico) the "Mexicanos contra corruption..." paying a high salary to the widow of a PEMEX executive (whose pension and insurance payments were based on fraud) not to uncover "corruption" but as a front organization to undermine the left. Similarly, USAID provided the funding for the kabuki "government" of Venezuela's Juan Guidó. Not to mention a massive scandal in Peru, under Fujimori, that as part of a public health initiative was sterilizing indigenous women without their consent.
Don't get me wrong... there are areas where a country is very good in something and offering to share it with the rest of the world certainly builds trust in that nation. I mentioned Cuba above for a reason... thinking of their "medical missions" (Brigada Henry Reeves) that fills the gaps in health services to other countries ... even "first world" ones, like Italy during the pandemic.
This is proving to be a very painful way to learn about government.
Another set of fallout that hopefully the Dems and the MSM will be shouting about in the next couple of weeks.
You know all that food that USAID sent to foreign countries? Yeah, they bought that from American farmers. Who now don't have a market for their goods ... which is sitting rotting (heard Houston port is sitting on something like a million tons of wheat that it can't ship anywhere).
So yer "real American" farmers ... are getting shafted by the party THEY voted for in droves. And by a guy that NO ONE voted for, but who targeted USAID early on in the purge specifically to end investigations into HIS business dealings. It's one of the only things HE cared about enough.
Fucking Nazi Scum. All of them.
Not to worry, farm subsidies are really popular!
Except that the right hand - seemingly unaware that the left hand was gutting USAID to the detriment of the farmers - is over here defunding SNAAP, so there are no farm bailouts either.
Not to mention that this all comes crashing down in March? May? When the House fails to keep funding the government anyway.
America. I remember when it existed.
- Me, on my front porch, talking to the kids who forage on my lawn because eggs cost $500 each and Florida has sunk into the Atlantic ... sorry ... the Trumplantic Ocean.
"the Trumplantic Ocean."
TFG- "Ericsburg?"
Eric T- "It's a small place...."
Will torpedoing USAID weaken US influence overseas? FAFO!
A long time ago, back when we worried about the spread of communism, there was a story or urban legend (global legend?) or whatever about how communists in some Third World nation undercut U.S. aid by stenciling a hammer and sickle on bags of rice from the U.S. to make the peasants think that the aid came from the USSR.
Now our enemies have a much more effective way to undermine us: Helping fools, idiots, crooks and dupes infiltrate our government.
Those wilily Russkies also used a fucking pencil in Space instead of spending millions to make a Space Pen too....
I find myself wondering often exactly what kind of world Republicans want to live in. They keep defending the indefensible out of fear of this tinpot despot they have consistently coddled and enabled into power. And now, without exaggeration(!) it’s cool to ::checks notes:: :
Shoot puppies in the face
Sexually assault women (and men, hi there Matt Schlapp!)
Be openly racist (as long as you claim doing so is just about not being racist to white people)
Be a full blown Nazi (as long as you say you were joking)
Destroy the environment (as long as you say you’re protecting big business)
Destroy regulations (as long as you say it’s all about the free market)
Hurt all minorities, including LGBTQI+ (as long as you make it about bathrooms and sports)
Discriminate against all religions besides Christianity (but only certain Christians, and also, just as long as you say that’s the exact opposite of what you’re doing)
Preventing and/or outright destroying all medical and scientific advances (as long as you say it’s all in the name of slashing government waste)
Destroying education and learning (as long as you say it’s about “choice” and fighting “indoctrination”)
Expose sensitive personal information of everyone not aligned with your bullshit ideology, whatever the fuck that even is anymore (as long as you say you’re actually exposing waste, fraud, and abuse)
Hand the national defense over to degenerate drunks and active traitors (as long as you say sad fucked up white guys deserve a second chance through Jesus or some shit. And no excuse even proffered for Tulsi Gabbard)
And let’s face it, the parentheticals are all so much rapidly drying up and blowing away fig leaves that aren’t even necessary anymore because the inmates are running the asylum.
They need to live in the world they are actively, objectively making worse. Do they understand that or are they so far down the rabbit hole they’re just breathing in dirt?
No Lies Detected.
Here’s the short versions: republicans want to hurt everyone they don’t like (ie, anyone who isn’t rich, white, cis, male, conservative,and Christian) and put more money into the pockets of billionaires.
Literally, nothing else matters to them unless the leopards start eating their faces.
::sigh:: There is some comfort in knowing that being that short sighted guarantees they will eventually walk straight into a wall. But good lord is it taking a long time!
I expect that the evangelical Christians who are involved will have the president’s ear
I'm sure this is mentioned elsewhere in the comments, but one of the key reasons for not eliminating USAID is that it serves a *diplomatic* function that is to the enormous benefit of the U.S. By engaging in aid in these countries, the U.S. gains respect and alliance and a foothold in international diplomacy - DUH!
Also, a large number of people who work in USAID come from Christian backgrounds that take humanitarian service seriously. So eliminating USAID is really a slap in the face to those Christians who have hewn more closely to the service message of the gospels than, say, someone like Jim Bakker or Jimmy Swaggert.
There's this Elon-USAID linkage that indicates at the least a conflict of interest for Elon's involvement: https://www.newsweek.com/usaid-elon-musk-starlink-probe-ukraine-2027054
The budget impact of USAID is miniscule, so eliminating it would do little to help shovel money at billionaires. Aside from its role in ending apartheid, Muskrat has a hard-on to get rid of it because of the healthcare it promotes in parts of the world populated by non-white people. He believes that USAID is thwarting the dominance of White people whose natural superiority ordains them divinely selected to rule the planet
Primorac also claimed, nonsensically, that promoting clean energy in developing nations is “literally financing China’s global expansion,”
Cutting off American aid to developing countries ensures that they will turn to China, who will provide them with the latest in green tech. Within a short time, Trump will transform us into an unwelcome former ally with nothing to offer, "America Last"