DOGE Catch-All
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Many government agencies, including at USAID, pay for a Politico Pro subscription because the way it tracks legislation and regulations.
Not grants, loans or other quid pro quo payments. Paid subscriptions.
But DOGE first claimed these were USAID “program” payments. Then when that was easily debunked, MAGA started claiming it was some nefarious payment for flattering coverage of Democrats.
Not grants, loans or other quid pro quo payments. Paid subscriptions.
But DOGE first claimed these were USAID “program” payments. Then when that was easily debunked, MAGA started claiming it was some nefarious payment for flattering coverage of Democrats.
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Many government agencies, including at USAID, pay for a Politico Pro subscription because the way it tracks legislation and regulations.
Not grants, loans or other quid pro quo payments. Paid subscriptions.
But DOGE first claimed these were USAID “program” payments. Then when that was easily debunked, MAGA started claiming it was some nefarious payment for flattering coverage of Democrats.
Our country us so fucked.
My first thought when reading anything from the current administration is "if true".
They lie so much i never know how to react.
If there were truly nefarious payments I would be against that, but who knows with this group of clowns.
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Maybe I’m misreading you, but the payments are real, and are for a politico newswire type service. It’s used to track legislation, research developments, etc., from my understanding. It’s subscribed to by offices of both parties.
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No, Politico Did Not Receive ‘Substantial Funds’ from USAID
Various government agencies have purchased subscriptions to its publications since 2016.
thedispatch.com
“… Becker and Johnson’s claims are false. The only payments received by Politico LLC from USAID were for two subscriptions to E&E—an energy and environment publication it produces—totaling $44,000 over two years.
According to USAspending.gov, an official source for U.S. government expenditure data—and the resource used by Becker in his post—Politico received $8.2 million in total payments from government departments and agencies between fiscal year 2016 and fiscal year 2025. However, only $44,000 of this total came from USAID. …”
WaynetheDrain
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Point #2 is so very important.
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Yes, but that's not how trump presents it.
I'm saying if there were some kind of nefarious payments under the table I would be against that.
These appear to be normal subscription service payments.
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I haven’t watched the link, yet, but this drive has been in the open for a while. I lived in the Bay Area many moons ago, and frequented the same coffee shops, restaurants, bars, and knew well the people the techoligarchy recruited. The dissolution of national democracy in favor of high tech, UBI driven city-states was a semi-regular conversation, often framed as a thought experiment. If I remember correctly, a group of tech gazzillionaires bought a plot in Marin, as the first targeted location.
ETA: Just watched the video, the plot is in Solano County, which is between the Bay and Sac, and couple of counties over from Marin.
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tallheel95
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I posted this the other day… has been interesting seeing it gain traction (up to 1.2 million views now). Dark stuff indeed. But in reality, how do they get it done? A bunch of rural Americans are not just gonna say, oh sure, let me be a feudal serf and be ruled by a nerdy tech guy.
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Note to Our Readers
POLITICO has been the subject of debate on X this week. Some of it has been misinformed, and some of it has been flat-out false. Let’s set the record straight.
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“… PEPFAR, according to the State Department, has saved the lives of approximately 20 million people since it was created by George W. Bush in 2003. The $6.5 billion annual program has historically enjoyed wide bipartisan support and the praise of public health professionals and AIDS service organizations.
But Republicans in Congress have been targeting it for the last several years, as part of a domestic and international campaign against the health of LGBTQ+ people and people living with HIV
…
Responding to a “stop-work order” issued by the United States to its global partner organizations, Health Policy Watch reported that clinics began to closeacross the continent of Africa immediately. Despite a waiver from Secretary of State Marco Rubio supposedly excluding “life-saving” aid from the freeze, health and humanitarian groups have remained uncertain if they can proceed. Fearing future funding cuts means they can no longer budget and are instead cutting costs or scrambling to find other means of funding.
The effects are already being felt worldwide. One Beirut, Lebanon-based nongovernmental organization employee, speaking to The Intercept under the condition of anonymity in order to preserve their job, said their place of work — a well-known U.S. international organization that responds to humanitarian crises — started issuing staff “a termination acknowledgement letter by HR,” making clear they could be laid off soon. What will happen to the people who rely on their care, the employee worries. “Now of course it will be really hard for them.” …”
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“… The effect is especially dire in South Africa, home to nearly 8 million people living with HIV, the highest number of any country in the world. It was only compounded when Trump announced that he plans to cut all aid entirely to South Africa over his displeasure regarding a post-apartheid land law. …”
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“… It is hard to emphasize the role of trust in public health enough. In 2020, during the first full year of the Covid-19 pandemic, many poorer countries had better health outcomes than wealthier countries like the United States because of trust.
A key factor was not how rich a country was, but how much of a nation’s health budget went toward prevention. Countries, even very poor ones, where local populations had trusted relationships with public health outreach experts, fared better in that first lethal year than countries with no such relationships.
If, say, there’s been a person around your village for years distributing mosquito nets to prevent malaria and giving away condoms to prevent HIV, you might be more willing to heed their advice to wear a mask or hunker down to prevent Covid-19 than if that same message came from a distant health care provider.
Such long-term trust, and its broad benefits beyond HIV, has been built through programs like PEPFAR — and the doctor in South Africa told The Intercept they feared the fallout from the Trump administration’s actions. …”
A key factor was not how rich a country was, but how much of a nation’s health budget went toward prevention. Countries, even very poor ones, where local populations had trusted relationships with public health outreach experts, fared better in that first lethal year than countries with no such relationships.
If, say, there’s been a person around your village for years distributing mosquito nets to prevent malaria and giving away condoms to prevent HIV, you might be more willing to heed their advice to wear a mask or hunker down to prevent Covid-19 than if that same message came from a distant health care provider.
Such long-term trust, and its broad benefits beyond HIV, has been built through programs like PEPFAR — and the doctor in South Africa told The Intercept they feared the fallout from the Trump administration’s actions. …”