OMB freezes all disbursements / USAID shutdown / GOP begs for exceptions for their states

[nycfan]

FFS

 

[nycfan]

 

[UNCBAdookJD]

So, I'm still a bit confused as to why Trump's coterie of Jaffars went after USAID so quickly out of the gate. Is it just because of the money, or is there some other ideological reason in addition?

USAID assistance to oppressed peoples in South Africa helped bring down apartheid.

 

[superrific]

If any of the claims about USAID are true, it needs to be closely reviewed. For example, I don’t want to give another cent to Serbia to promote DEI….if that’s actually happening.

Here are only a few examples of the WASTE and ABUSE:

• $1.5 million to “advance diversity equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities”
• $70,000 for production of a “DEI musical” in Ireland
• $2.5 million for electric vehicles for Vietnam
• $47,000 for a “transgender opera” in Colombia
• $32,000 for a “transgender comic book” in Peru
• $2 million for sex changes and “LGBT activism” in Guatemala
• $6 million to fund tourism in Egypt
• Hundreds of thousands of dollars for a non-profit linked to designated terrorist organizations — even AFTER an inspector general launched an investigation
• Millions to EcoHealth Alliance — which was involved in research at the Wuhan lab
• “Hundreds of thousands of meals that went to al Qaeda-affiliated fighters in Syria”
• Funding to print “personalized” contraceptives birth control devices in developing countries
• Hundreds of millions of dollars to fund “irrigation canals, farming equipment, and even fertilizer used to support the unprecedented poppy cultivation and heroin production in Afghanistan,” benefiting the Taliban

Hey dipshit, those "poppy production" payments were made between 2005 and 2008. And this post is a perfect example of why the brain-dead "lab leak" theory is so dangerous.

 

[ZenMode]

Why start with a premise of accepting what Trump's propaganda officer cherry-picked out of all USAID grants? Why not seek out the actual information? And most of the examples she picked were such small amounts of money in the grand scheme of things that picking on them is laughable.

Well, the fact that you use the term cherry picked implies that you also are inclined to believe that the claims are true. The dollar amount is irrelevant when you're talking about spending taxpayer money.

 

[Paine]

Eliminating the Department of Education is not going to play out like these ghouls think it will.

 

[Paine]

Well, the fact that you use the term cherry picked implies that you also are inclined to believe that the claims are true. The dollar amount is irrelevant when you're talking about spending taxpayer money.

It’s irrelevant. The appropriate method would be to cut the spending via Congress. That’s where the money was allocated, and that’s who controls it. The executive has no authority to unilaterally cut off these funds, effectively killing a 60+ year old agency.

 

[superrific]

Is it acceptable for me to hope that he slips in the shower, breaks his hip and dies in a puddle of his own feces?

 

[superrific]

The dollar amount is irrelevant when you're talking about spending taxpayer money.

Don't ever have kids, and if you do, please don't ever throw out the bathwater.

 

[lawtig02]

Eliminating the Department of Education is not going to play out like these ghouls think it will.

 

[MOUNTAINH33L]

Is it acceptable for me to hope that he slips in the shower, breaks his hip and dies in a puddle of his own feces?

It is to me.

 

[Healing]

Eliminating the Department of Education is not going to play out like these ghouls think it will.

Disagree. I think they know exactly how it will play, and don’t care. This is about consolidating unprecedented wealth, reinstituting white supremacy, and repressing opposition. They have the guns to eliminate any and all pushback and know the courts are all bark. In the short term, the poor magas might squeal, but in the long run the fascists will give them, effectively, Christian nationalist k-12 child care centers, and the maga will squeal no more. For the non-maga that raise a fuss, they’ll economically extort, and physically repressive, as needed.

 

[nycfan]

Is it acceptable for me to hope that he slips in the shower, breaks his hip and dies in a puddle of his own feces?

Depends on your personal moral compass, I suppose. From a board perspective, it doesn't rise to hoping for (or urging etc.) an assassin to commit a murder.

 

[rodoheel]

Well, the fact that you use the term cherry picked implies that you also are inclined to believe that the claims are true. The dollar amount is irrelevant when you're talking about spending taxpayer money.

I don't know how you got to the term cherry-picked implying that I believe the claims. I am referring to the fact that the press secretary picked four purported individual grants that collectively account for like 0.01% of USAID's budget (which itself is less than 1% of the federal budget) which were doubtlessly selected because they seemed, to the people doing the selecting, like they could be characterized as the four craziest things done with USAID money. I do not trust in any way that the way in which Trump's secretary described those grants is completely accurate, and wouldn't be surprised if it isn't remotely accurate at all.

Anybody who thinks that $30k of USAID money going to fund a play in Ireland, or whatever the heck she's talking about, is a problem worth getting worked up about is an absolute fool. Candidly I couldn't care less what the play is about.

 

[rodoheel]

Eliminating the Department of Education is not going to play out like these ghouls think it will.

I dunno. Conservatives have been trying to defund, undermine, and ultimately destroy public education for decades. That's a feature, not a bug.

 

[superrific]

Depends on your personal moral compass, I suppose. From a board perspective, it doesn't rise to hoping for an assassin to commit a murder.

That's a weird distinction. What about rooting for someone to break into Kennedy's house, pushes him down in the shower, robs the house and then Kennedy dies in a puddle of feces? Is that hoping for an assassination? Never mind, I won't belabor the point but you've committed yourself to an incoherent theoretical framework.

 

[Paine]

I dunno. Conservatives have been trying to defund, undermine, and ultimately destroy public education for decades. That's a feature, not a bug.

I’m fully aware. My point is: the average person hearing that Trump has eliminated the department of education is going to play a lot differently than the current dustup at USAID.

 

[Healing]

I’m fully aware. My point is: the average person hearing that Trump has eliminated the department of education is going to play a lot differently than the current dustup at USAID.

What does the “average person” know of the DoE? The “average person” just put ttump into power, and now he’s doing exactly what he campaigned on. Most people in this country are too occupied with housing security and 50hr work weeks to have space to care/know who’s teaching their kids or what they’re teaching them. And those who do care are more likely to trend wealthier and will stick their kids in “non-profit” charter schools, just like the fascists hope.

 

[Paine]

What does the “average person” know of the DoE? The “average person” just put ttump into power, and now he’s doing exactly what he campaigned on. Most people in this country are too occupied with housing security and 50hr work weeks to have space to care/know who’s teaching their kids or what they’re teaching them. And those who do care are more likely to trend wealthier and will stick their kids in “non-profit” charter schools, just like the fascists hope.

You’re making my point for me. The average person doesn’t know about the inner workings of the Department of Education. They don’t know what they do, but they will feel the effects of its elimination. The headlines and narrative for the average person will be: Trump eliminates Department of Education. At a time when the public education system is already struggling badly. Easy messaging for the Democrats, IMO.

 

[superrific]

You’re making my point for me. The average person doesn’t know about the inner workings of the Department of Education. They don’t know what they do, but they will feel the effects of its elimination. The headlines and narrative for the average person will be: Trump eliminates Department of Education. At a time when the public education system is already struggling badly. Easy messaging for the Democrats, IMO.

agree with this.