Thoughts On Musk's Raid Of USAID
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced to reconfigure U.S. foreign policy from a unipolar view to a multi-polar concept of strong states.
But, as Brian McDonald warns, that does not mean that the U.S. has given up hope of being the biggest dog in town:
A Washington that stops pretending to rule the world and starts playing smart could be a tougher competitor for Beijing and Moscow than the one we’ve seen desperately clinging to a crumbling 'rules-based order.' The era of unipolarity might be over, but the game is far from done.
'The game is far from done' can also be said about Elon Musk's raid of USAID:
The Trump administration and its allies moved to tighten control of the U.S. Agency for International Development over the weekend, signaling an intent to act forcefully to bring the U.S. foreign policy apparatus in line with the president’s “America First” approach to engaging with the world.
...
Over the weekend, Musk repeatedly denigrated USAID without offering evidence that those working there were corrupt. On X, he called the long-standing government agency “evil” and a “viper’s nest of radical-left marxists who hate America.”“USAID is a criminal organization,” he added. “Time for it to die.”
Established in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy, USAID oversees a vast portfolio of programs designed to provide humanitarian relief, combat poverty, support global health and more.
The rarely spoken of 'and more' part of USAID involves billion of dollars for regime change operations with the help of 'civil society' manipulations via U.S. subsidized media and Non-Government Organizations.
The Trump administration will kill parts of that and reintegrate the rest of USAID into the state department. The CIA offshot National Endowment for Democracy (NED) will likely meet a similar fate.
In their current configuration USAID and NED are under institutionalized congressional oversight. Taking away their independence by putting them under executive control will increase the White House' power. Neither is likely to completely stop their dirty work but it will become more difficult to detect and expose it.
Trump's MAGA is not against doing regime changes in foreign countries. Its main beef with USAID is about its abuse by the Democrats which pushed it to promote their ideologies and to incite foreign societies against Trump.
In a world where the U.S. is no longer trying to be the unilateral power, regime change may not longer be needed that much. In a multi-polar world the U.S. does no longer need to create and confront adversaries but can restrict itself to coerce allies to pay up via tariffs, weapon sales or otherwise. Pax Americana may well become Tax Americana.
Posted by b on February 3, 2025 at 16:46 UTC | Permalink
next page »The good part is they will stop subsidizing color revolutions and DEI with a charity funds.
The bad part is they are not stopping subsidizing color revolution and DEI with "other" funds.
Posted by: Savonarole | Feb 3 2025 17:06 utc | 3
Below is a Musk tweet about USAID that I think is significant
quote
@elonmusk
Did you know that USAID, using YOUR tax dollars, funded bioweapon research, including COVID-19, that killed millions of people?
This is the issue I want to see further exposed.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 3 2025 17:09 utc | 4
thanks b...
that is an important distinction you highlight - "Trump's MAGA is not against doing regime changes in foreign countries. Its main beef with USAID is about its abuse by the Democrats which pushed it to promote their ideologies and to incite foreign societies against Trump."
another turf war, as opposed to progressive policies and practices being put in place, and wrong headed ones being removed... i tend to think of usaid as a branch of the cia.. in so far as that is dismantled, i think it would be a very good thing.. here you suggest the new clowns are working off the same points card as the last set of clowns.. that's discouraging...
Posted by: james | Feb 3 2025 17:12 utc | 5
Trump's "main beef with USAID is about its abuse by the Democrats which pushed it to promote their ideologies and to incite foreign societies against Trump."
Trying to decode this telepathic revelation by our host is taxing. Frankly the idea that any US foreign affairs body should promote Trump's racist ideology instead of being diplomatic with foreigners of so many different races is, well, nuts. The idea that USAID is doing an Elon Musk for Reform/AfD-style campaign for Democrats in foreign countries forgets to explain what benefit Democrats get from this alleged activity? Birth control as a Democrat ideology, by the way, does seem to be a Republican bete noir. The thing is, the Republicans are in the minority on that, that's why they are so intent on using force, state power, legal punishments, to enforce their unpopular whims. Doing that on the world stage puts Republicans in cahoots with very traditional people they also despise for not being themselves, but foreigners. They are basically salesmen who start by flipping off any possible customers, which is why the USAID-style charitable PR approach is more effective...and not even particularly partisan.
"Neither is likely to completely stop their dirty work but it will become more difficult to detect and expose it." Neither appears to be neither congressional oversight (as it is now) nor White House control. It is true that becoming another arm of the WH (or private, like DOGE) is likely to increase nefarious activity. What baffles me is why our host thinks this is a good thing?
The remark about the need to create and confront enemies is also baffling. The rapaciousness and ruthlessness of the imperialists and their state provokes resistance aka enemies but those enemies are not a solution to some mysterious need. They are an obstacle, enemies, hence the perceived need for regime changes against said enemies. And forcing allies to pay up is precisely the sort of rapaciousness and ruthlessness that creates enemies. And enemies is why people like Elon Musk have fired their first shots in regime change for UK and BRD.
I believe that a good part of the support for blindly axing USAID is that so much of it really is a kind of foreign aid program. Now these programs are never as large as imagined nor is it widely understood how carefully such charity is designed to achieve US goals at very little actual expense (especially to vested interests.) Also, the idea of PR upholding humane ideals seems to be quite obnoxious to people who don't hold with such woke nonsense as thinking people in need should be helped and its morally good to at least make gestures at doing so. So cutting USAID is an attack on the principle of charity.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Feb 3 2025 17:14 utc | 6
USAID and NED will continue under the executive branch.
This is hocus pocus for the Hoi Polloi. Like the "big beautiful wall".
A certain degree of cynicism is necessary in order to comment intelligently about politics.
Once one becomes a "fan", they lose objectivity and become emotional.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 3 2025 17:23 utc | 7
@ steven t johnson | 6
Yes, I know it is taxing, but keep working on it and I am sure you will get there.
The CIA is well known for its generous and moral charitable work - including funding bioweapon labs, color revolutions, black ops, weapons and opium running, and funding itself with illegal off-the-books methods. So, I see your concern about these charitable activites being brought under greater scrutiny and executive oversight.
Posted by: Nomnom | Feb 3 2025 17:24 utc | 8
I posted this in the Ukraine open thread as a reply, but I think it is relevant to this new page. so I'm copying over the relevant part here
"I agreed the only solution for the economic problems facing the US is to bring production back to the US mainland, and that means several things need to be done in order to achieve that
1. control over the boarders - yes, they need to prevent illegal immigration and drugs, but more importantly they will need to prevent the smuggling of cheaper good into the US while they rebuild the industrial production until they can increase production enough that the costs begin to drop.
2. use tariffs as a threat to bring back production - I think the Trump admin's eventual negotiation strategy will be to grant exceptions to tariffs for companies that bring "X" % of their production to the US. I.e. if you want to sell to the US you have to manufacture in the US. The idea would be to bring say 80% of production to the US and you get exempted from tariffs for that remaining 20% that the US still imports to meet it's domestic needs, the US would then industrial policy to try to encourage companies to take that 80% of production to 140% of internal US usage (i.e. the US is fully self-sufficient for that product and can then export the remaining 40% to the world).
3. create industrial areas - from the 1870s to the 1970s the US had several dedicated industrial regions (i.e. the Steel belt), The US will almost certainly need to either create new industrial regions or reactive those old regions. Currently, the US has avoid creating industrial regions in favor of allocating parts production based on senator interests (i.e. every state gets a little slice of the pie, so everyone has buy-in on big federal programs, like the F-35 which famously has parts made in all 50 states), however, spreading parts production over all 50 states is extremely inefficient and increases costs significantly compared to only having the parts production localized over a small region of 3-4 states. I also suspect the Trump Admin will create special economic zones that are exempt from some state & local laws/regulations (environmental/union/worker safety) in order to encourage investment
4. consolidate control over raw materials - If the US is going to become an industrial producer again, then it will need to establish firm control over the sources of raw materials and energy to supply that productivity. Greenland, Canada and Brazil are all areas that are rich in natural resources and their geographical closeness would make control over these supplies easier compared to Africa or the Middle East. Currently, Trump is publicly pushing the idea of the US annexing Canada & Greenland, but I suspect what he actually wants is for the respective governments is to remove all restrictions on foreign (i.e. the US, non-US companies will still be barred from making offers) ownership of their vital raw resources and industries (minerals, rare earths, forestry, oil/gas). It is extremely likely that Canada and Greenland collapse in the face of this pressure and will agree to i) allow full US ownership of key industries ii) privatize government services/industries (which will be purchased by US owned corporations) iii) allow newly US-owned industries to move production to the US after "X" many years & iv) excluded non-US based corporations from purchasing businesses within these countries.
far to early to tell if this will work for the US, but it will certainly create a lot of resentment towards the US throughout the world and it will destabilize the countries that agree to these terms (during the 1940-60s the US created wealth in the countries it traded with, now it will be blatantly stealing wealth and impoverishing these countries. Eventually, these countries will either collapse or will be forced to either re-negotiate or even break economic relations with the US in order to save themselves. however, this will take a long time, 15-20 years"
Posted by: Kadath | Feb 3 2025 17:25 utc | 9
Today's chatter I've heard is more concerned with Netanyahu's coming meeting with Trump than with anything else. Lots of evidence of USAID illegalities over the years exists in the public domain, and it ought to have been castrated and lynched long ago. Musk's statement, “USAID is a criminal organization ... Time for it to die,” will be agreed to by most of the bar. Yes, the aid cutoff has been mostly positive, meaning that most of what it was doing wasn't aid whatsoever.
The other point about the Outlaw US Empire withdrawing from the periphery IMO is wishful thinking since it continues to violate the UN Charter and the US constitution on a daily basis. Until it starts conforming to the Law, it will remain an Outlaw to be resisted/arrested and repudiated by as many nations as possible--now is not the time to cower in response to Trump's bluster but to come back and strongly say we will govern ourselves in our own national interests and reject your illegal, immoral attitude.
How Trump handles Netanyahu will be key since Netanyahu wants to continue pursuing the Jabotinsky plan of genocide as does his governing coalition, but Trump can put an end to it very easily.
About your conclusion, it's kind of obvious that the USA and vassals are looking more and more like Athens and late-stage Delian League.
Posted by: Clueless Joe | Feb 3 2025 17:33 utc | 11
It doesn’t matter who’s in power. Democrats or Republicans. Biden or Trump. At the end of the day it’s the United States citizens who get ska-rooed. Our tax dollars which get extracted from our paychecks most of the time never gets used for the betterment of our children, our families and ourselves. And we go right along with it. Never asking in depth questions about how our money is used. It’s as if Washington D.C. is a country unto itself. Never to be questioned, which includes the new regime which has taken power.
Posted by: Jose Garcia | Feb 3 2025 17:36 utc | 12
Trying to decode this telepathic revelation by our host is taxing.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Feb 3 2025 17:14 utc | 6
Our sometimes (but not always) sane commentator, steven, apparently missed the embedded hyperlink in the statement our host provided.
https://x.com/MikeBenzCyber/status/1886147244874674394
There was nothing "telepathic" about b's simple pointer to a statement made by another person along with the graphics showing the connections.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 3 2025 17:37 utc | 13
@ Posted by: steven t johnson | Feb 3 2025 17:14 utc | 6
Excellent analysis. Republican partisans, and there are many who visit here, seem to believe they're above ideology, or it's not ideology if it comes from The Big Man Upstairs (Trump, or Gawd da Father, and at this point the two figures are getting blurred for our reactionaries).
I think the notion that little Marco is some earnest multipolarista is nuts as well. Recognition of a multi-polar world order doesn't require the end of US imperialism - if anything, it requires the renewed advancement of it. The choosing of little Marco as Secretary of State was a signal to Latin America that the US is refocusing its sights from Ukraine to Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and any other LatAm state that dares to challenge US neo-colonialism. "Multipolarism" just means letting Russia have its sphere of influence while the US attempts to cut China off from Latin America. Perhaps the division of the world into 1984 style sectors (Oceania, Eurasia, East Asia) is all "multipolarism", as opposed to anti-imperialism, has ever meant. Oceania has always been at war with East Asia.
Posted by: fnord | Feb 3 2025 17:38 utc | 14
Perhaps the helicopter posts will move into this thread now...
Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Feb 3 2025 17:43 utc | 15
@ Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 3 2025 17:37 utc | 13
From what I can tell, there's nothing nefarious, Congress approved funds to a news organization and it did its job breaking the news. But because it broke news on the corruption and malfeasance of Rudy Giuliani (R), Republicans are up in arms. Circling the wagons. The left could learn a lot from the tactics used by this reactionary minority to hold onto power.
The tweet is also dishonest ("dishonest tweet" is practically redundant) insofar as it implies $20m were spent just to "dig up dirt" (when you deal with pigs like Giuliani, you'll inevitably find dirt) and not keeping the lights on, paying journalists, janitors, etc.
Posted by: fnord | Feb 3 2025 17:45 utc | 16
Posted by: Nomnom | Feb 3 2025 17:24 utc | 8 USAID is not funding the CIA, it is not conducting black ops, it is not by and large dealing drugs. It's probable that the NED does much more of the heavy lifting of color revolutions. The relationship between NGOs and color revolutions seems to me to be like the relationship between a rototiller and the dude who plants the tomatoes. The NGOs funded by the likes of USAID are the rototiller, preparing the ground. And the actual security agencies that do the serious operational work are the gardener. It is not at all clear to any sensible observer that the CIA needs USAID to do its work, so no, selling this as a blow to the CIA is...a modified limited hangout? A pretended cure instead of threatening the real thing? Or is it simply, as the original post verges on declaring, the desire to have the CIA in total subservience to the God-King?
And by the way, picking USAID over NED is itself a sign of political priorities and it's not the one pretended here. That's even more true when the pretended opposition to the CIA also somehow includes opposition to the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Why, it's almost as if political hypocrites with a secret agenda are pretending to be anti-imperialists!
Posted by: steven t johnson | Feb 3 2025 17:45 utc | 17
Bad usaid will continue while the good will be stopped with all money going to the bad side. trumpster/musk aren't doing this because theey're nice.
Posted by: jo6pac | Feb 3 2025 17:46 utc | 18
@10
USAID and NED are prototypica” ugly American”.
US empire gained nothing from the entire Cold War.
Can Musk/DOGE educate….?
Posted by: paddy | Feb 3 2025 17:46 utc | 19
@14
Try the other pill …..
Once you withdraw from the usual TDS flavor.
Posted by: paddy | Feb 3 2025 17:50 utc | 20
Kadath | Feb 3 2025 17:25 utc | 9--
If you want to bring productive employment back to the USA, then the first thing needing to be done is to control all the rent seekers who don't allow any investment into activities that provide such employment as they want all that cash flow to go into their coffers. Yes, that will require a huge political battle and revolt by a substantial portion of the public. But there's no question that must occur first. One of the goals of the revolt is to put elections into the hands of the public by overthrowing Citizens United and enacting a public elections law that negates the need for fund raising. The second act is to require all political parties to be public non-profit legal entities, while rewriting all ballot qualification requirements to allow for maximum participation.
Accomplishing those tasks will allow for the additional legislation needed to lower the cost of living and thus the cost of production so those new productive jobs will be competitive in the global marketplace. As long as the Neoliberals remain in control and election laws remain unchanged, no positive change will be possible in the Outlaw US Empire, and it will continue its decline.
And USAID also does torturing and assassinations. USAID employee (and torturer) Dan Mitrione who was revered upon his death by the US high establishment (Frank Sinatra even gave a concert) is the proof of that.
The reason why money was ever invented is because it's more efficient than a wip. Cutting of sedition money flows and bribes jeopardizes compliancy of the vassals, proxies and agents.
I do enjoy the Make America Go Away show by the current Trump administration but somewhere I have the feeling it might have a premature ending. Maybe not like an (helicopter) accident or overt assassination which barely failed but through natural causes or incapacitation.
Posted by: xor | Feb 3 2025 17:52 utc | 22
First of all, Elon Musk is a moron, which may come as a surprise to some regular readers, as obscene wealth and the appearance of technical and business expertise (none of which would have led to successes without massive government assistance and the externalization of costs and losses to the 'third world', workers and taxpayer) are not markers of "stable geniuses."
Hence, his comments about the CIA/IMF cutout USAID being some purveyor of "leftist" or "marxist" ideologies is pure undiluted horse manure. The purpose of USAID, when not being "perverted" by one center-right capitalist class party (the Democrats) to use for political gain against the erstwhile leader of another right capitalist party (namely, Trump), is to serve as a soft power entree into mostly third world and developing countries on behalf of global finance and extractive capital for the mostly US-based rentier oligarch class. Any handing out of condoms or birth control pills is way down the list of real priorities, and further still down the list is any alleged indoctrination of any ideology except neoliberal boot licking, teat sucking and begging for money and raw materials export jobs in tax-free 'special economic zones' - often conveniently coupled with the application or repayment phases of massive IMF loans and the requirements for austerity and privatization for the lower classes.
Often the soft power approach is good enough, albeit in a global environment in which the targets of such soft power are well aware that the next step on the escalation chain is a CIA trained right wing death squad or palace coup, as it is also the case that NED is already working in-country when USAID first rolls in. We can ask Saddam Hussein, Manuel Noriega, Viktor Yanukovych, Bashar Al Assad and many others what happens when the previous two steps don't achieve the desired results.
USAID was not a "marxist" fuck all. It was not pushing Marxist ideology. Literally. Ever. Elon is a moron.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 3 2025 17:53 utc | 23
Musk describing the USAID agency as a nest of “radical-left marxists” is stupid, and an echo of know-nothing tendencies in US nativist blocs. The rhetoric harkens the Birch Society.
With Canada, Trump is flexing his bully instincts, punching down so to frighten the rest of the vassals. But his analysis that the northern neighbour is subsidized to the tune of “hundreds of billions of dollars” is equally stupid and ignorant. Abrogating trade and financial systems that his own country put in place, doing so without regard to the negotiated withdrawal terms, and relying on mechanisms (tariffs) which have no relation to the contemporary problems they are supposed to fix - Trump arrives as the chaos agent who will take down the whole “rules-based order” in a rapid frenzy, rather than glide to the soft-landing the order’s adversaries were prepared to extend.
Posted by: jayc | Feb 3 2025 17:53 utc | 24
"The rarely spoken of 'and more' part of USAID involves billion of dollars for regime change operations with the help of 'civil society' manipulations via U.S. subsidized media and Non-Government Organizations."
So true. I've seen too many articles this weekend portraying that regime change outfit as a benign aid organization, it's sickening. It and NED are imperialist regime change agencies, nothing more. Any actual aid they provide is very likely nothing more than a slush fund for their foreign stooges and supporters.
But this is just the warm up. If he doesn't deep clean or disband the FBI he'll never get anything done. Really all the intelligence agencies are run by fake left Dem Imperialist genociders. Its a zero sum game. He gets rid of them or they get rid of him.
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Feb 3 2025 17:54 utc | 25
One must not forget that the CIA, and thus USAID are tools of the 'Globalists'. The 'Globalists' are mortal enemies of Trump, as proved by their numerous attempts to destroy him (literally).
The 'Globalists' are also behind all of the efforts to take down Russia by any means possible. Although their approach to China, so far, seems to be less hostile.
Remember, 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'. Is this behind Trump's apparent soft approach towards Russia (and China?)?.
'Globalist' attack dogs like Canada under Trudeau, and his former minder Christia, need to be careful not to get caught in the cross-fire.
Posted by: dh-mtl | Feb 3 2025 17:54 utc | 26
Tried to find out what they are spending their money on, only got 404 - https://www.usaid.gov seems to be down.
Does anybody have a budget breakdown, clarifying how their 40 billion dollars per year are split between food for the poor and regime change and propaganda, sorry, "support for independent journalism?"
Posted by: marvin | Feb 3 2025 17:54 utc | 27
Everything absorbed by Musk's "department to eliminate congressional oversight" is a win for Trump's concentration of power into the executive branch.
Do people rub themselves raw cheerleading this foolishness out of envy or is it caused by some other defect?
Sure USAID was a pig trough. Removing the trough doesn't address the problem of the pigs.
Posted by: too scents | Feb 3 2025 17:57 utc | 28
DOGE is unaccountable and should therefore not be allowed access to anything. But this is Trump, so laws don't apply to him.
Posted by: D J G | Feb 3 2025 17:58 utc | 29
Why nothing about President Musk grabbing the payment systems???
Talk about a data breach or how about a COUP
nobody elected that asshole
and a whole bunch of poors about to be eliminated cuz 'budget'
O for a supply or morphine/phenobarbital cuz I am too old to be homeless and I'm tired as hell of fighting to survive
Posted by: furies | Feb 3 2025 17:59 utc | 30
*** Frankly the idea that any US foreign affairs body should promote Trump's racist ideology ... ***
Posted by: steven t johnson | Feb 3 2025 17:14 utc | 6
Has somebody lost a revenue source?
*** The other point about the Outlaw US Empire withdrawing from the periphery IMO is wishful thinking since it continues to violate the UN Charter and the US constitution on a daily basis. ***
Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 3 2025 17:33 utc | 10
May be so but this guy Trump has made a little progress in less than 2 weeks. He posted on Truth Social his aim was not to hurt Russia - a stark contrast to "as long as it takes." A recognition of multipolarity and now this. This narrative shift will open other possibilities about "withdrawing from The periphery." (Nice turn of a phrase btw).
Please don't consider me a Trump fan boy. I hate them all. I become optimistic when I see the opportunities for the excercise of governmental power become unavailable.
Posted by: frithguild | Feb 3 2025 18:06 utc | 31
The NED will still do what it has always done - since it was established in 1983 - the difference now is this. Basically it has become more difficult to chart its machinations around the globe.
"The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has removed its grant database from the internet, which previously allowed public access to information about U.S.-funded organizations worldwide. This change limits transparency regarding U.S. involvement in foreign political activities.
The NED was established in 1983 to conduct overt operations that were once covertly managed by the CIA. It has funded various groups to promote democracy and influence political outcomes in several countries, including Ukraine and Georgia.
With the database's removal, independent researchers and journalists can no longer easily track NED's activities. This shift suggests a move towards more secretive operations, undermining the NED's original purpose of transparency in U.S. foreign interventions."
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Feb 3 2025 18:07 utc | 32
Only fools think the money and power underlying the Deep State will be forever destroyed by whatever anyone does.
For those of us in the real world: sufficient unto the day that what Trump is doing now is going to be positive for Americans and the rest of the world for now.
As for US vassals: wah wah. Time for these babies to grow up, get a job and move out of America house.
If they had not become so infantilized, Trump could not do what he will do.
Posted by: c1ue | Feb 3 2025 18:09 utc | 33
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Feb 3 2025 17:54 utc | 25
Re: slush fund - precisely. I neglected to square the circle there in my comment. And to add to what I mentioned before, the condoms, vaccinations, birth control and other surface-level good deeds performed by USAID are accomplished on the cheap compared to the overall slush fund, and carried out by the types of people who served out of good intent in the Peace Corps when younger. USAID is the graduate level Peace Corps for the former members who actually like doing that kind of work out of the goodness of their hearts (and a heavy dose of geopolitical/economic naivete) but it's also a stepping stone and weed-out program for those who seek to reach the next level: NED or CIA or IMF/World Bank type careers. Many members of the Peace Corps have been suspected of being CIA plants, and the same goes double for USAID, with documented examples of both - and in fact, Evo Morales kicked the Peace Corps out of Bolivia based on such intelligence.
TL/DR: USAID is finance/extractive class Empire's friendly face and "diplomatic" or "humanitarian" cover.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 3 2025 18:11 utc | 34
Only fools think the money
Posted by: c1ue | Feb 3 2025 18:09 utc | 33
---
Money schmoney. The credit is going "poof".
Posted by: too scents | Feb 3 2025 18:12 utc | 35
The relationship between NGOs and color revolutions seems to me to be like the relationship between a rototiller and the dude who plants the tomatoes. [..] It is not at all clear to any sensible observer that the CIA needs USAID to do its work [...] a modified limited hangout?Why, it's almost as if political hypocrites with a secret agenda are pretending to be anti-imperialists!
Posted by: steven t johnson | Feb 3 2025 17:45 utc | 17
I let Mr. johnson speak for himself here, but will comment that this looks just like one of the rear-guard skirmishes of the gobalists I spoke of the other day.
I add a personal note to steven t for whom I felt genuinely sorry after learning that he hates his surname. Please don't. It's a common name, people from farmers to presidents carried it, and to my German ear it sounds beautiful.
Posted by: persiflo | Feb 3 2025 18:19 utc | 36
Musk is just an immigrant doing the work that Americans won’t do for themselves...
Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Feb 3 2025 18:21 utc | 37
This is excellent news for battling the progressive virus that had gripped the West and is destroying our societies.
What started as a central humanitarian agency has become the primary instrument of funding progressive projects way beyond the ability of the targeted population to absorb them or even way past common sense. It also creates unnatural power balances where a small part of the population of the targeted country (that is given the “victim” status) has disproportionate influence. See Moldavia for a USAID sponsored political forces.
It is the main tool for battling pro-Russian influence from the 90s onward. It is why we are in this situation now.
There are thousands of NGOs/media with 10s of1000s people worldwide paid by USAID, its various programs and Soros’s Open Society. They have a disproportionate voice and hold undeserved power. Many national miseries would have been avoided had USAID and Soros stopped meddling.
It is a glorious day for many many people all over the world that have been suppressed and abused by these people. Rejoice!
It fills me with hope and calmess to see the progressive virus finally being eradicated, our societies have changed in the past 2 weeks more than the past 20. This is simply fabulous, Trump is way beyond expectations.
Posted by: alek_a | Feb 3 2025 18:22 utc | 38
@too scents #35
You are a fool if you don't understand that there is real money and power underlying the Deep State right now.
Built up, among other things, by its decades of existence.
The question is not whether the Deep State can fight - the question is: will it? Can it?
The same decadence and incompetence underlying US foreign policy for the last few decades, is, in my view, merely a reflection of the decadence and incompetence of the Deep State these days.
Whatever you want to say about the assassination of JFK or the takedown of Nixon - it took literally generations before even suspicions of nefarious activities went mainstream.
One of the reasons I attend things like Climate Change events or Hoover institute conferences is precisely to observe the Deep State apparatchiks at work.
They are, almost uniformly, stupid and incompetent fools living in a bubble.
Posted by: c1ue | Feb 3 2025 18:23 utc | 39
Red-Blue partisan bickering aside, what I’m interested in is More Light on the Fishbowl!! Of course we re not going to get perfect transparency but we can achieve a reasonably translucent look into these shady agencies and what they are up to.
I’ll even trot out the tired old phrases and turn them back on the users: If democracy dies in the darkness, why such an aversion to sunlight? It’s a great disinfectant! The innocent have nothing to hide, right? And if they are handling TRILLIONS in tax base munnies, all the more reason to take a peak, non?
It took a week and a half but now the MSM has regained their footing and has gotten their talking points to spin. Oh the tariffs oh the eggy-eggs, oh the meanness. But if I were a registered democrat in the USA I might just start thinking about what cause millions of voter to flee my party. What happened to the 81 million? Since they didnt just switch the copers have this to say: they just stayed home. I guess they will never entertain the possibility of voting fraud, at least not in THAT direction….
However I digress. Say what you will about The Don, the Swamp Reptiles and the vast array of gatekeepers. Watch the effects as they can be measured and see what happens. More light, more disclosure and above all else: Accountability.
Posted by: Chevrus | Feb 3 2025 18:23 utc | 40
It is not at all clear to any sensible observer that the CIA needs USAID to do its work [...] a modified limited hangout?
Posted by: steven t johnson | Feb 3 2025 17:45 utc | 17 (and persiflo's quote)
Nobody with any sense would say that the CIA "needs" USAID to "do its work" - that's either oversimplified straw manning or genuine ignorance of how Empire works. USAID is more the Empire's PR and relief agency in certain countries and political environments, where, often hard power or direct covert ops are not seen as needed. In other cases both can be happening at the same time. Or in yet others, USAID is there as a probe or on civil society intelligence gathering and opinion-making operations. Assessing, softening up or preparing the civilian component of a country or government targeted by Globo-Cap via Uncle Scam for future economic exploitation through good deeds and friendly overtures. And yes, there are in fact some actual do-gooders in the ranks. But hell, I'd also wager 3/4 of the overall NED, and even CIA, employee base really truly thinks they're doing good in the world and would never dream of assassinating a member of government, let alone the leader of a peasant revolutionary movement. But there are others who would.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 3 2025 18:28 utc | 41
there is real money and power
Posted by: c1ue | Feb 3 2025 18:23 utc | 39
---
The base money as been hypothecated into vapor and the power has not sustained the scrutiny of its Ukrainian test.
The best you can hope for is a "soft landing".
Posted by: too scents | Feb 3 2025 18:31 utc | 42
India to jump onto the Foundational AI Model.
"India’s ambition to create its own AI model is underpinned by the establishment of a robust computing infrastructure. With the deployment of 18,000 GPUs, India is laying the foundation for an AI model designed to meet the unique linguistic, economic, and social needs of the country. The establishment of AI data centres in Odisha will further strengthen this infrastructure, ensuring that the country has the resources needed to drive AI innovation.
The IndiaAI mission, which received Cabinet approval in March 2024, is a key part of this push. With an outlay of Rs 10,371.92 crore, the mission is aimed at creating a scalable AI computing ecosystem to support India’s rapidly growing AI startups and research community. The mission is also focused on fostering public-private partnerships that will drive AI research and development across the nation."
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Feb 3 2025 18:33 utc | 43
A masking cover for covert action as well as a finishing school for "management". Now, with U$AID in the garbage bin; the deep $tate operatives will need to create new flak-catchers and trappable gophers. Interesting times.
Main objective for rooting out the manipulators will be to severiously reduce central governance bureaucracies. Unable to scheme and cheat...and even murder...behind this tangled-web of paper shufflers and e. mail directives...the basically parasitical reality of a large proportion of federal employees removed from the scene of the deep state's crimes, should be good for the real economy...whatever that is.
Posted by: aristodemos | Feb 3 2025 18:37 utc | 44
They are, almost uniformly, stupid and incompetent fools living in a bubble.
Posted by: c1ue | Feb 3 2025 18:23 utc | 39
And organized this way, they are effective. Without the illigimatly funded organization all that is left is stupid and incompetent fools.
Lavrov has spoken at length about how the UN Charter prohibits more than just military invasions. I see a harmony between this sentiment and calling USAID a ball of worms. Both actions can serve the same purpose.
Can there be an international security architecture that prevents the hydra from regrowing its USAID head? But what do I know - I'm just some bozo in the bar.
Posted by: frithguild | Feb 3 2025 18:41 utc | 45
Republicofscotland @1807 Feb 3
The National Endowment for (get this) "Democracy" is simply a mask and stalking-horse for the Agency. Ultimately, the Agency itself will need to revert to its original purported mission...to gather and analyze intelligence for the President. Period.
NO MORE "Operations" Department. That evil entity has been responsible for numerous assassinations and overthrows of governments deemed as enemies by the ruling financier elite...the Trillionaire money-mongers.
Even more egregious have been the assassinations of genuine Americans...along with the N$A and fourteen additional nests of spies...snooping on the lives of WE THE PEOPLE.
All this cloak and dagger monkey-business needs to be eradicated. People are finally awakening to these leeches and similar bloodsuckers. Fire the lot of them and let's find out if they are capable of either operating a small business or join the rest of the wage-labor serfs and slaves.
Posted by: aristodemos | Feb 3 2025 18:47 utc | 46
Dr Li Wenliang - knew what to look for in patients with regards to the Covid outbreak - the Gain of Function (GoF) release was deliberate.
"when the outbreak was first noted in Wuhan in late 2019 and January 2020, key U.S. virologists associated with NIH believed that the SARS-CoV-2 had most likely emerged from GoF research, and said so on a phone call with Fauci on Feb. 1, 2020.
The most striking clue for these scientists was the presence of the FCS in SARS-CoV-2, with the FCS appearing at exactly the location in the virus (the S1/S2 junction) that had been proposed in the DEFUSE program."
Professor Jeffery Sachs.
https://consortiumnews.com/2024/03/19/what-the-us-might-owe-the-world-for-covid-19/
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Feb 3 2025 18:47 utc | 47
@ Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Feb 3 2025 18:21 utc | 37
that's funny and has a lot of truth to it too... we are all immigrants at some point...
Posted by: james | Feb 3 2025 18:53 utc | 48
A lot of powerful ‘National Interests’ now wholly revelling as ‘International’ global robber barons spreading their Fascism via rent earningTechnology have come into being since the 60’s and 80’s. The covert funding via public funds went covert … but it still left a trail which is now deleted under such ‘reform’.
The number of Foundations has bludgeoned. These multi billionaires who didn’t exist back in the 80’s. Gates , Soros many many more who collected high sums from government contracts and simply by robbing the Bank like King Sorass…
They collect tax rebates and dispensations and have their fingers in all the same lines as the State apparatus does. Often with revolving doors.
PMC’s have gone from wild geese to hundreds of companies private and in many cases multinational conglomerates.
Most of the piracy, robbery and mass murder is carried out through such operators and funders. Including a whole raft of ‘soft’ power interference in countries media and politics.
Something not at all tolerated in the US itself!
Hypocrites. And that’s before we get to the main elephant in the room the direct funding of the illegal Apartheid Entity, it’s weapons and natzios military participation.
Fuck King of Mars Elon, king of earth Soros and his pathetic little minime and all their works.
They ain’t retreating from anything they haven’t been forced to by the Multipolarists.
They are just rearranging some deck chairs and they will go down as surely as the Romans did …shrinking into their Nort American/European Collective Waste.
But this time with nothing to show of centuries of civilsation and architecture just rundown shanty towns.
Just like My SK remembers from tghe good ole days in Saffy land.
Posted by: DunGroanin | Feb 3 2025 18:54 utc | 49
Well, in the spirit of Cato (Carthage must be destroyed), may I offer an anaolgue?
All that is happening is because Russia won.
Putin, Russian leadership and of course most importantly, the Russian people themselves literally saved the world.
No Russia, no Trump, no revolution. If Russia had been "dealt a strategic defeat", the imposition of a global WEF techno-feudal state would have been fait accompli.
Posted by: Markw | Feb 3 2025 18:54 utc | 50
aristodemos (46).
Yeah- this guy sums it up well - unfortunately bodies like the NED will always exist - for me it down to human nature.
"US Government Hides its Funding of Sedition Worldwide...
The US government National Endowment for Democracy (NED) no longer discloses its funding around the globe.
Instead of lists of organizations it is funding in each country with dollar amounts, because of growing awareness of its political sedition worldwide, it now only has pages like this one for "Asia" ambiguously (and dishonestly) describing their programs.
The US NED does what the CIA once did, fund and organize sedition inside other nations, overthrowing governments the US doesn't like and replacing them with obedient client regimes that not only serve Washington's interests, but at the cost of their own nation's best interests.
Nations must urgently pass NGO transparency laws at a minimum demanding organizations involved in internal political affairs receiving funding from foreign governments disclose it especially now that the NED and others are deliberately hiding it.
In truth, US government NED funding is a violation of the UN Charter protecting political independence, and all NED funding and funding like it should be prohibited entirely.
The NED does NOT "promote freedom" or "democracy," it is US political interference and meddling hiding behind the smokescreen of "promoting freedom" and "democracy."
US political interference through the NED and adjacent organizations remains one of the most effective "superweapons" the US still has at its disposal - it is effective because it goes both unnoticed and unchallenged in so many nations around the globe."
https://nitter.poast.org/BrianJBerletic/status/1870714084930547801#m
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Feb 3 2025 19:02 utc | 51
"Neither is likely to completely stop their dirty work but it will become more difficult to detect and expose it."
Because as we know, congressional oversight has done such a wonderful job up to now.
Posted by: ian | Feb 3 2025 19:02 utc | 52
Trump has learned and adapted to the Swamp. Rather than get into long, drawn out funding fights with Congress, he's going for the quick decapitation strike. Take out the agency head, unplug the web server, and fire the muckity-mucks at the top.
It's sort of analogous to Netanyahoo using pager bombs to decapitate Hezbollah leaders. It strikes fear and sows chaos.
Congress can't get their heads out of their own asses to do anything. Only the Courts may offer a bit of relief, but on a slow timeline.
#Thunderstruck!
Posted by: Ghost of Zanon | Feb 3 2025 19:03 utc | 53
Oh, and a request ... can we pretty please get rid of Mitch McConnell? How about a stroke, or a massive fall down the stairs, to prove that God exists?
Posted by: Ghost of Zanon | Feb 3 2025 19:04 utc | 54
Interesting stuff.
"Leaked US Special Forces doctrine on use of #USAID in economic warfare (PDF) 👇
Key:
ARSOF = Army Special Operations Forces
UW = Unconventional Warfare
CA = Civil Affairs special forces
IO = Info Ops
DOC = Dept of Commerce
UWOA = UW Ops Area"
https://nitter.poast.org/wikileaks/status/1886260180750360638#m
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Feb 3 2025 19:05 utc | 55
I wonder if Xi or whoever will be in charge when its built - will fly a Reaper drone into to it to destroy vital evidence on 9/11.
"China is building the world’s largest military command center—10 times bigger than America's Pentagon."
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Feb 3 2025 19:08 utc | 56
Ahenobarbus@1754 Feb 3
Wow! Here's where the materialist and the spiritual seeker totally agree: ABOLISH the FBI. I can testify by personal observation of their thieving and juvenile levels of destruction of private property.. testimony.that the FeeBees have become a law unto themselves and deserve to hit the street and seek an honest job.
What's more, through their police-state centers, aka "Fusion Centers", those enemies of We the People have managed to corrupt numerous state and local law-enforcement entities.
As per Jefferson and other astute observers; Federal powers must be limited to their own little Di$trict.
Posted by: aristodemos | Feb 3 2025 19:13 utc | 57
karlof1@1750 Feb 3
Totally agree that the contra-Constitutional "Citizens United" so-called "ruling" by the nine Blackrobes will require an informed public and a lot of organizing to completely eliminate that destroyer of any reasonably free and open elections.
That brings us to the need for a Constitutional Amendment which would eliminate the so-called "Supreme" Court and replace it with a Constitutional Court which would NOT be made up of lawyers and specifically members of the "American" Bar Association, which is merely a subjunct entity of King Chuck's legal apparatus located in City of London.
Look it up, gang. The ABA is not generically American...it is but a branch of the Crown.
I have very mixed feelings about" Make America Great Again". But why don't we make America America again?
Posted by: aristodemos | Feb 3 2025 19:24 utc | 58
frithguild | Feb 3 2025 18:06 utc | 31--
Thanks for your reply. Yes, it's the very early days and little's been revealed, that's why I opined the Netanyahu visit and outcome will be a significant indicator. Long ago in the 1990s I was writing the Empire must consolidate as spending on its upkeep was approaching one trillion dollars a year, money which needed to be spent to solve its rising domestic socio-economic problems. Now we're well past the trillion dollar mark and interest on the debt incurred to service Empire is now at that level. The big problem is most of that money wastage is done via Congress. Was Trump a budget hawk during his first term? No. And it looks like that will continue.
USAID and NED became the opaque organizations used for channeling money to black operations (like organizing regime change in foreign countries) that they are today because the Church (Senate) and Pike (House) committees in the late 1970's uncovered how the CIA, NSA and other intelligence agencies had been conducting just such operations worldwide since the end of the Second World War. The result of the hearings of these committees was that these agencies would be monitored more closely. This created a need for new channels, for conducting just such operations. USAID was taken over from a previous more humane mission. NED was then also founded as a quasi NGO, to remove its activities from congressional oversight.
Rather than just having the executive branch use decrees to dismantle, move or restructure these organizations, a more democratic and transparent approach would be new hearings by congressional and senate committees, to record in the official government record just how the directors and agents of the NED and USAID have abused their powers and resources. What is need is a new Frank Church and a new Otis Pike, as well as patience, to bring the evidence before the public.
Posted by: kvp | Feb 3 2025 19:37 utc | 60
"In a world where the U.S. is no longer trying to be the unilateral power, regime change may not longer be needed that much. In a multi-polar world the U.S. does no longer need to create and confront adversaries but can restrict itself to coerce allies to pay up via tariffs, weapon sales or otherwise."
Don't drink the kool aid, b.
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Feb 3 2025 19:47 utc | 61
aristodemos | Feb 3 2025 19:24 utc | 58--
Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, your "But why don't we make America America again?" is a myth, which today is known as Narrative. To do that, we'd need to restore the Articles of Confederation and give back all of Mexico's stolen land and pay reparations for the trillions of dollars in wealth extracted. And somehow we'd need to eliminate the urge for imperial expansion and the idea that Americans are the Chosen People, which was the idea used by the Pilgrims to slaughter the natives that made the grave mistake of helping them.
What the Outlaw US Empire will degenerate into is unknown but degenerate it will. Will We The People finally stand up and be counted and take control of our destiny? The degeneracy isn't just at the federal level; it's throughout the Federalist System, which has rarely functioned as theorized by Madison who called democracy evil because it would allow commoners to gain control of their destiny. The mistakes of the past have given us the present we face. IMO, the USA as presently constituted is dysfunctional and requires a complete and what many would consider a radical overhaul. Trump will contribute one way or another.
I LOVE all the screaming in the MSM and even here regarding dismantling the snakepit that's USAID. That means Trump & Elon are scoring direct hits. NGO's are at the heart of the unelected deep state grift and they all need to DIE.
"Malone: Mr. Ness, everybody knows where the booze is. The problem isn't finding it, the problem is who wants to cross Capone."
Posted by: TJandTheBear | Feb 3 2025 19:56 utc | 63
A multipolar world with the US incomparably on top is a world where chaos is sown willy-nilly and pretense to humanitarian values all but forgotten. This is a signal to "allies" and opponents alike that the US deep state is working in "das boot" (or rather U-boat) mode full speed ahead, e.g. the fate of Nord Stream. The commerce and infrastructure of even individual NATO allies is fair game pour encourager les autres. This is hegemony on the cheap, where the sowing of chaos ruins or at least more increasingly and unpredictably upends globalism, despoiling prospective markets for major US competitors, like BRICS, EU, RF, and China per se, while the US cordons off the New World and simultaneously imposes something more closely like autarky at home in the mode of Peron (but one grounded not in so-called left socialism, but a synergized oligarcho-military state more akin to the Prusso-fascist, Stalinist, or— in "moderate" form—the present Chinese and Russian models). This is the Orwellian territory of Oceania et al. To wit, where secrecy, conspiracy, and the widest scale and net of oligarcho-military espionage, aka surveillance, operate at full throttle for decades, if not in perpetuity to come.
Posted by: Ludovic | Feb 3 2025 19:58 utc | 64
LOL. The US government is being couped by a fat ketamine-addicted billionaire who is not a gov't employee, was not elected to hold any office in the gov't, was not approved by any Congressional committee to serve in any position in the government, has so many security issues that he cannot pass a basic background check, is running an illegal, illegitimate 'department' and people think it's great because he 'got rid of' USAid, which they think does only bad CIA things.
He has also gained access to all the treasury records of US spending and the data base with all the personal information of every government employee and which companies get gov't contracts He now has all the personal information on every US citizen who gets social security, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, FEMA loans and grants etc.
This shit isn't funny and it isn't about just one small agency funded by US taxpayers. You want him deciding who gets social security and how much they'll get? I could go on, but surely you get the idea.
Speaking of government contracts (Musk having made his fortune on past and current government contracts should make him completely ineligible for the 'position' he awarded himself due to conflict of interest issues), here is a quote from an article I read this morning:
--------------
[…] Now, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, and a host of other media outlets are reporting that Musk has used his 2-week old position as the head of a Donald Trump faux agency – the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) – which Trump created out of thin air last month by Executive Order, to have his DOGE operatives gain access to the U.S. Treasury’s $6 trillion payment system and snoop on its payments. This means that Musk’s DOGE hires could potentially access confidential information on government contract payments made to Musk’s competitors as well as highly confidential payments related to national security.
There are media reports this morning that Musk has begun to cancel payments to some federal contractors.[…]
Posted by: teri | Feb 3 2025 20:05 utc | 65
I think that discussions of this sort must be framed by a recognition of declining US power. Here are some obvious indicators: the huge decline in the US share of world domestic product, accompanied as it is by a dramatic expansion of the Chinese and India share: Nato’s stunning three-dimensional setback in Ukraine, the three dimensions being military, economic and diplomatic; the emergence of BRICSs as a large body than G7, measured in either population or economic magnitude.
The techniques Trump uses to maximally use what power the US retains may be significantly different that those used by his predecessor; this does not change the fact that the magnitude of that power has declined substantially and is likely to continue its decline. No longer the super-fish that can rule the world’s ocean, the US is now a big fish in a contracted pond, consisting mostly of Nato and Nato-aligned countries. Recognizing that dramatically altered state of affairs, the Trump people focus on the smaller fish in the pond that remains — Europe, Canada and Latin America. If Trump’s approach is ‘successful,’ it will magnify US domination of the Nato pond while that pond, in relation to the rest of the world, continues to shrink.
Posted by: Roger Milbrandt | Feb 3 2025 20:07 utc | 66
frithguild | Feb 3 2025 18:41 utc | 45
"Can there be an international security architecture that prevents the hydra from regrowing its USAID head? But what do I know - I'm just some bozo in the bar."
That would just be doubling down on failure and malevolence, digging the hole deeper. What more countries need to do as part of reclaiming their sovereignty is to kick out all Western NGOs and Trojan horse agencies like USAID which are there to wreak ideological havoc and destroy any nation's ability to feed itself, and of course to serve as the figurehead "public" component of so-called "public-private partnerships". Any country which aspires to self-determination must completely purge ALL such enemy organizations.
Posted by: Flying Dutchman | Feb 3 2025 20:11 utc | 67
It's like a rerun of the Pelopennesian Wars.
Spoiler alert: it ends badly for democracy-promoting Athens.
Posted by: ChatNPC | Feb 3 2025 20:15 utc | 68
Why is nobody talking about the growing number of countries passing their own "FARA" laws ?
Posted by: Hiro Masamune | Feb 3 2025 20:16 utc | 69
Has anyone yet picked up on what I pointed out in the other thread? Trump is now at war with the CIA. He is also at war with the congressional 'oversight" and thus with Congress. You know the congresscritters had their fingers in the pie.
It might be just a war for the cameras and the editorial writers. We don't know. Watch for CIA to start defending itself. Even if only for the peanut gallery the CIA cannot just sit by while Trump shuts down a slush fund.
Posted by: oldhippie | Feb 3 2025 20:17 utc | 70
Trump is now at war with the CIA.
Posted by: oldhippie | Feb 3 2025 20:17 utc | 70
---
Is he? Does he want to eradicate them or take over their business? Has anyone asked the drug cartels what they think about this?
Posted by: too scents | Feb 3 2025 20:21 utc | 71
Posted by: Hiro Masamune | Feb 3 2025 20:16 utc | 69
Lots of people are talking about it, it is discussed frequently here too.
FARA laws ought to be one of the base articles of the constitution for any self-respecting, sovereign nation.
Posted by: ChatNPC | Feb 3 2025 20:21 utc | 72
Posted by: Nomnom | Feb 3 2025 17:24 utc | 8 USAID is not funding the CIA, it is not conducting black ops, it is not by and large dealing drugs. It's probable that the NED does much more of the heavy lifting of color revolutions. The relationship between NGOs and color revolutions seems to me to be like the relationship between a rototiller and the dude who plants the tomatoes. The NGOs funded by the likes of USAID are the rototiller, preparing the ground. And the actual security agencies that do the serious operational work are the gardener. It is not at all clear to any sensible observer that the CIA needs USAID to do its work, so no, selling this as a blow to the CIA is...a modified limited hangout? A pretended cure instead of threatening the real thing? Or is it simply, as the original post verges on declaring, the desire to have the CIA in total subservience to the God-King?
Posted by: steven t johnson | Feb 3 2025 17:45 utc | 17
Will take your post and make some synthetic points:
1. From Dulles 1948 Office of Special Projects it was, is and always will be bipartisan thing, essential not to lose
2. Taking your metaphor, it's the question of what weeds to kill and which ones to astroturf.
3. Current USAID structure is a one trick pony for a certain agenda, best nuke it from orbit and start afresh instead of convincing true believers to change their faith.
4. OSP cannot properly work without USAID prepping
5. Probably a period of unintended nonoperational status will ensue. Best sell it to ROW as good will instead of weakness.
My two cents
Posted by: Newbie | Feb 3 2025 20:23 utc | 73
TQC @ 23
Elon is a front man. A pretty face for the news cameras. He gets to play Worlds Richest Man in the tabloids. Much too dumb to be responsible for anything but pretty pictures.
I have no idea who he works, for, who pulls his strings. That he became who he claims to be as a self-made man is ludicrous.
Posted by: oldhippie | Feb 3 2025 20:23 utc | 74
One wonders - if diplomatic immunity would have been given to say Putin - if he set foot in England - we all know the answer to that one.
English PM Starmer - when the dust settles, MUST be standing in the dock at the Hague alongside Netanyahu and Biden and Scholz, if the Hague is to ever be taken seriously again.
"The UK government has now revealed it “gave consent for special mission status for the visit to the UK on 21-22 January of Major General Oded Bassiuk… and delegation” to attend meetings with officials with the MoD, Foreign Office, and Cabinet Office.
The information was provided in response to a parliamentary question from Brian Leishman, the Labour MP for Alloa and Grangemouth.
Jonathan Purcell from the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) told Declassified: “It is not only an insult to the victims of the genocide in Gaza, but also a total disregard to the rule of law, for the UK to grant diplomatic immunity to senior Israeli officials who have been actively responsible for international crimes against the Palestinian people.”"
https://www.declassifieduk.org/israeli-general-given-special-immunity-for-secret-trip-to-britain/
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Feb 3 2025 20:25 utc | 75
New handsockpuppet's first order of business: Clean-up, leaving no lose ends. Like any new "administration" has to erase all traces of previous figureheads, controlled by the same puppeteers (yes, in london).
If this wouldn't happen, one day accountability might shine light in the places where no light is permitted.
The whole musk thing is just a show for us plebs, making us cheer for the next puppet. They have big plans with this guy, how they keep forcing him on our day to day lives.
This also applies to this greasy Farage dude by the way. They just wont let us forget about him. There is a reason for this.
Posted by: LikeItsHot | Feb 3 2025 20:25 utc | 76
This shit isn't funny and it isn't about just one small agency funded by US taxpayers.
Posted by: teri | Feb 3 2025 20:05 utc | 65
Stunning level of hypocrisy.
The richest man in the world who's been donating his extraordinarily valuable time and money literally saving free speech and now trying to rescue the U.S. from the deepest financial hole any country in history has been able to dig... and you think he's looking to for ways to make more money.
Typical socialist/marxist/progressive/democrat bullshit. All these Dems come into office poor and with no real-world experience, claim they're for the poor and working class and yet enrich themselves ridiculously staying in office forever whilst their constituency sees their standard of living steadily decline. Somehow THEY're the virtuous ones.
Meanwhile, Reps that made their money independently -- and could continue to do so much faster OUTSIDE of government -- nonetheless go into government to try and fix this broken country... yes, they're the evil, greedy ones. LMAO.
Compare virtually any of the past 50+ years presidents and you'll see that the Reps made their money before holding office and the Dems made their money on or after.
Posted by: TJandTheBear | Feb 3 2025 20:30 utc | 77
"In a world where the U.S. is no longer trying to be the unilateral power, regime change may not longer be needed that much. In a multi-polar world the U.S. does no longer need to create and confront adversaries but can restrict itself to coerce allies to pay up via tariffs, weapon sales or otherwise. Pax Americana may well become Tax Americana."
'b'
I concur-Trump is right sizing the Empire.
I think that discussions of this sort must be framed by a recognition of declining US power.
Posted by: Roger Milbrandt | Feb 3 2025 20:07 utc | 66
Did Constantinople suffer when it said "screw rome" circa 400 ad?
Did it have any particular problems for 800 years?
Didn't it linger for another 250 to beat the millennia mark?
Yes, for a brief time the entire empire was ruled from Constantinople, but what was Constantinople's interest in failing areas?
As a parallel, all the us has to do is not to allow WW3 to take place (tall order nevertheless) and show rising powers that they shouldn't be messed with, at least not seriously nor for long.
P.S. If history is a good guide one can expect the us to try to re-establish control over some of the abandoned areas later, but we're talking century level pause.
Posted by: Newbie | Feb 3 2025 20:33 utc | 79
That he became who he claims to be as a self-made man is ludicrous.
Posted by: oldhippie | Feb 3 2025 20:23 utc | 74
“Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.” —Perth, Scotland, 28 May 1948, in Churchill, Europe Unite: Speeches 1947 & 1948 (London: Cassell, 1950), 347.
Anyone that's ever watched Elon talking about the ideas and technology behind his companies knows better. Go back to your hole.
Posted by: TJandTheBear | Feb 3 2025 20:34 utc | 80
steven t johnson | Feb 3 2025 17:14 utc | 6
For a moment there I thought this was one of the usual boneheaded posts by steven t johnson. Oh wait, it IS by steven t johnson. Only this time, he's discovered sentence case capitalisation. Impressive!
---
The occasional regime change aside, USAID is also just a lot of grub in the trough for a lot of useless eaters - i. e. the administrators, program coordinators and other paper pushers, either in the agency or among the natives on the receiving end of the "aid". I'm not an American, nor had I expected Trump's/Musk's move in any way, but I have to say I find it highly amusing and satisfying. So what about Sammy Power then, the last top sow at the USAID trough? Has anyone heard of her? I mean, it's been 2 weeks since she left her very important office...
Regarding the COVID connection, former USAID administrator Rajiv Shah (2010-2015) might also be worth looking into. Before taking over USAID, Shah spearheaded at the "Gates Foundation", the "International Finance Facility for Immunization" and the "Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization".
Posted by: Scotch Bingeington | Feb 3 2025 20:35 utc | 81
I concur-Trump is right sizing the Empire.
Posted by: canuck | Feb 3 2025 20:32 utc | 78
Definitely needs it.
Posted by: TJandTheBear | Feb 3 2025 20:36 utc | 83
I concur-Trump is right sizing the Empire.
Posted by: canuck | Feb 3 2025 20:32 utc | 78
---
You misspelled seizing.
Posted by: too scents | Feb 3 2025 20:40 utc | 84
*** Any country which aspires to self-determination must completely purge ALL such enemy organizations.
Posted by: Flying Dutchman | Feb 3 2025 20:11 utc | 67
Right. I concluded in the 80's that US export of arms and foreign aid came with a moral overhang that would lead to consequences that outweighed their utility. My professors were relieved I was not looking for help in placement.
Posted by: frithguild | Feb 3 2025 20:55 utc | 85
Some of the posters here are so damn clueless. Do the people that LIKE this not realize that Elon, an actual real-life robber baron oligarch, is running rough shod on the power of the purse of the U.S. Congress? If there were any laws left that truly applied to robber barons Elon would have been arrested the moment he attempted this.
Ask yourselves why they are not gutting where the actual biggest waste of money is with failures in audits year after year, that is the Pentagon and the DoD. Again, damn clueless.
Anyone who believes Elon is a hero are THE most misinformed people on the planet. The marriage of such nonsense is literal fascism, corporate power and government working hand in hand that ultimately do not give one fuck above the little guy.
Posted by: anon | Feb 3 2025 20:57 utc | 86
As an add on, incredibly funny that any American posting here that worships Elon and Trump like the fact that six 20 year olds working under Elon's ridiculous "Doge", have no actual experience in govt, have access to MILLIONS worth of access to sensitive data. The complete lack of governance control (i.e. security in data handling) is astounding.
Posted by: anon | Feb 3 2025 21:00 utc | 87
Posted by: anon | Feb 3 2025 21:00 utc | 87
As an add on, incredibly funny that any American posting here that worships Elon and Trump like the fact that six 20 year olds working under Elon's ridiculous "Doge", have no actual experience in govt, have access to MILLIONS worth of access to sensitive data. The complete lack of governance control (i.e. security in data handling) is astounding.
And how is that different from the situation before? Snowden was 20 year old when he was working as a NSA contractor.
Posted by: hopehely | Feb 3 2025 21:13 utc | 88
**** anon@87
"like the fact that six 20 year olds working under Elon's ridiculous "Doge", have no actual experience in govt, have access to MILLIONS worth of access to sensitive data."
************
The kids had already determined the FBI staff working on the 2400 j6 and Trump investigations the Bureau did from the Agency's Case Management System before the idiot Acting Director told President Trump he wouldn't give them to him. The kids also sent out questionnaires to the FBI staff involved asking what they did on the case.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/02/here-we-go-names-fbi-officials-who-worked/
Posted by: Jerr | Feb 3 2025 21:16 utc | 89
"Did Constantinople suffer when it said "screw rome" circa 400 ad?"
400 AD? There were busy dealing with a coup carried out by mercenaries; they killed the lot of them eventually. Also define what you mean by "screw Rome".
"Did it have any particular problems for 800 years?"
Tons of them. Religious/internal disputes, persians, arabs, etc.
Didn't it linger for another 250 to beat the millennia mark?
Yep. In general ebb and flow downward but with significantly succesful periods and partial recoveries.
Yes, for a brief time the entire empire was ruled from Constantinople, but what was Constantinople's interest in failing areas?
The West was never fully retaken in first place and some bits remained under control for quite a while afterwards. Sicily was pretty profitable, I believe.
Posted by: Newbie | Feb 3 2025 20:33 utc | 79
Posted by: Satepestage | Feb 3 2025 21:21 utc | 90
Musk is a cretin. No ifs about it. All I can say is that Trump has chosen "well" with him.
On July 24, 2020, Tesla’s Elon Musk wrote on Twitter that a second U.S. “government stimulus package is not in the best interests of the people.” Someone responded to Musk soon after, “You know what wasn’t in the best interest of people? The U.S. government organizing a coup against Evo Morales in Bolivia so you could obtain the lithium there.” Musk then wrote:We will coup whoever we want! Deal with it.
Latin America in Movement
https://www.alainet.org/en/articulo/208177
CounterPunch
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/07/29/we-will-coup-whoever-we-want-elon-musk-and-the-overthrow-of-democracy-in-bolivia/
Reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/ShitLiberalsSay/comments/hxguo7/elon_musk_on_bolivia_we_will_coup_whoever_we_want/?rdt=33348
Posted by: SattaMassaGana | Feb 3 2025 21:21 utc | 91
The base money has been hypothecated into vapor and the power has not sustained the scrutiny of its Ukrainian test.
The best you can hope for is a "soft landing".
Posted by: too scents | Feb 3 2025 18:31 utc | 42
—————
Yes. I think this cotton candy analogy still applies:
financial matters says:
October 17, 2013 at 8:03 am
Liquidity Factory and the Reserve Currency
In his book ‘Extreme Money: Masters of the Universe and the Cult of Risk’ (2011) Satyajit Das talks about the ‘Liquidity Factory’.
On an inverse pyramid at the bottom little pinnacle are the central banks, 2%, then there are bank loans, 19%, then securitized debt, 38% and then derivatives 41%.
This is all considered liquidity ie the lubricant that allows the global economy to run. And 79% of it is derivatives and securitized debt which are largely unregulated and full of fraud. And the $16 trillion of US Treasuries used as collateral to back it all up is a small little fraction.
This is financialization run amok and what he calls ‘cotton candy’ which is spun sugar composed mostly of air.
This mountain of debt being supported by this little pyramid needs to be dismantled before the right grain of sand causes it to crumble
If US Treasuries continue to support cotton candy they will lose their validity as a global reserve currency.
Posted by: financial matters | Nov 11 2023 2:27 utc | 83
Posted by: financial matters | Feb 3 2025 21:28 utc | 92
Elon is a front man. A pretty face for the news cameras. He gets to play Worlds Richest Man in the tabloids. Much too dumb to be responsible for anything but pretty pictures.
Posted by: oldhippie | Feb 3 2025 20:23 utc | 74
############
I think Elon is the apprentice that Vance wants to be.
I am not a "fan" of any one human being, but Musk's intelligence is obvious if you've ever listened to him communicate outside of this recent foray into politics.
Dude was pushing the idea of DOGE years ago. I am not a coincidence theorist. It takes a lot of energy and vision to manifest things like that while on the outside of political power.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 3 2025 21:53 utc | 93
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 3 2025 17:37 utc | 13 Getting your information from X? Shame on you.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Feb 3 2025 22:08 utc | 94
We are simply seeing a change in the balance of power within the oligarchy now that the full on "US Supreme Power of the World" attempt after the collapse of the USSR has been shown to have failed very badly. China did not play along as the US exploited cheap labour camp of the world, and Putin helped Russia recover from near vassalage, while the US threw away so many trillions in Iraq, Afghanistan and generally in the "war on terror". And ASEAN, India and Africa refused to pick sides.
The balance has moved toward a better managing of resources, and a drive for greater tribute from the vassals to maintain the massively indebted and deindustrialized imperial core, and greater extraction at home to keep the oligarch wealth growing. With this big change, the previous set of ideologically-ingrained courtiers need to be exchanged for a better aligned to the new reality bunch - especially the die-hard committed ones. So the neocons, lunatic Russia-haters etc. are out. Also, the state must be shrunk to allow for greater oligarch extraction, so the committed technocratic and competent managers who believe in "public service" need to be replaced/dumped as well.
The attempt at rejuvenation will not work given the rentier, extractive, selfish and traitorous toward the American people (they consider them as a rabble to be used and abused as needed) nature of the US oligarchy, which includes Trump and Musk. China with its nationalist-oriented Party-state has the many times more effective development model, one that will never allow an oligarchy to exist in China. What it will mean is a much greater US focus on its Americas "back-yard" (a la The Monroe Doctrine) and its Western vassals.
Trump is not "at war" with the oligarch-controlled CIA or the "deep-state", he is carrying out an oligarch-directed reordering and repurposing of the US state now that the dominant section of that oligarchy has decided on a change of US focus. The remaining members of the previously dominant oligarch sector will whine and wail through their media etc., but there will be no intra-oligarch war, as the oligarchs are very fully class conscious. Ironically the most Marxist in their view of how US society actually works.
Posted by: Roger Boyd | Feb 3 2025 22:08 utc | 95
I am not a "fan" of any one human being, but Musk's intelligence is obvious if you've ever listened to him communicate outside of this recent foray into politics.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 3 2025 21:53 utc | 93
---
Bertrand Russell in his out of print book Satan In The Suburbs presents an essay The Infraredioscope, about a device that allows its wearer to perceive the true nature of their surroundings and detect the alien force invading them.
It is a cute essay that explains the litmus test that is Elon Musk.
It begins here ==> https://archive.org/details/dli.ernet.425519/page/85/mode/2up
Posted by: too scents | Feb 3 2025 22:13 utc | 97
I love how some spineless/weak leaders are giving Trump some easy victories. Doesn't matter if it's a weak nation such as Panama or some so called middle powers like Canada/Mexico. It's weird that these tariffs which suppose "to affect US consumer" is causing them to fold like cheap who**s. Very interesting, perhaps CNN can explain why.
Anyway, Putin was right a few days ago when he also mention that all of these "leaders" will bend the knee to Donnie like they always do. So much for "sovereignty". Expecting the same stuff from the strong leaders of Europe in the next few days.
Posted by: JamesBond | Feb 3 2025 22:20 utc | 98
You think Biden was bad (and he was!) - Trump/Musk will be worse - for poor and middle class people in America and most ppl on this planet.
The idea to lower taxes in the US will mostly benefit the already super rich barons like Zuckerberg and others and the new taxes aka tariffs will be paid by the poor and middle class people thru consumption of goods with higher prices. The creation of new jobs in the US bc of this will take a lot of time and money. It will not compensate for the damage. Make America great again in reality means make the already poor people in America even more poor - same with the middle class. Trump + Musk said they are sorry for the "hard times ahead". For them it is easy to say bc they and their "friends" will benefit from it - and they are creating them (and blame them on....fill in the enemy that is useful).
All the bullshit about DEI, LBTQ+, Fentanyl etc. are just a cover ups for the bank robbery on a national scale that is happening. Those are red herrings, nothing more. Musk getting access to all the payment records and private data and the Pin to pay? WTF? You think he is doing it for you? I bet some mafiosi in Sicily look at each other and say: Holy cow - we were total amateurs.
The method works like this: create a scandal, blow something out of proportion, make something up, add some pedo-, sex, drug, gay, child-abuse bullshit to it, and you will get away with stealing all the gold in the bank while live on TV. They do this bullshit on a professional level owning or suppressing most of the media, having the say in the House and the Senate. The Nazis in the 30s under Goebbels did exactly the same. Same playbook.
It will take a few months for some people on the conservative side to realize what bullshit and criminals they put their hope into and into office - but it will happen. If the actions of Trump/Musk continue in this pace the Chinese will look like angels and the North Koreans as reasonable ppl to most of the world.
Trump/Musk is no solution for any problem except their own bank accounts. You've been fooled.
I hope you'll get this before it is too late for you and the rest of the world.
And in the meantime: expect new scandals created out of nothing to divert your attention from robbing the train.
There is a book worth reading (it is old, the guy later became sort of a nut-case): Wilhelm Reich: Listen, little Man!
And yes he was Jewish and a communist (kicked out of the party bc he did not follow the party line of Stalin).
Why is this strange guys book worth reading for you being most likely conservative or right-wing? Because it - the little man - and I am only a little man too - holds up a mirror to what you/we are and how they (Trump, Musk, Clinton, Obama, Biden, Gates, Zuckerberg, Cook and others) play you every day. I read it when I was young and it was an eye-opener. It was an eye-opener for my buddies in school too. And it did not matter if they were leaning left, middle or right bc he nailed many things for "the little man", he showed in simple words how fucked up things are (in this time) and how "the little man" got abused by Hitler, Stalin and the rest.
Reading MOA and its comments, I know we are far away from each others, but we live on the same planet and the same country.
They are not us. We are not them. We are not we. Same time we can only survive as we. Try solving the puzzle - what is from your pov - necessary for the species to survive and I try to do the same on my side.
Again we are being played. And I know this about my side (the "left") too.
You will most likely hate this final line: One planet or no planet. No choice!
Posted by: TurboEx | Feb 3 2025 22:20 utc | 99
aristodemos 19:13
If you wanna talk fusion centers, we can't go without mentioning the Department of Homeland Suck-your-itty. DHS operates their fusion centers with FBI and state/local police in the exact same way as Operation Phoenix was carried out in Vietnam. It's literally the 'blueprint' they used.
The parallels are undeniable in both structure and strategy. Just as the eternal war on terror is waged against an ever growing and vaguely defined “terrorism” threat that sweeps up mostly peaceful civilians who are ideologically opposed to the leviathan in Washington, the CIA run operation phoenix was carried out against a vaguely defined “Viet Cong Infrastructure” or “National Liberation Front” of mostly non combatant civilians who were ideologically opposed to the South Vietnamese government and US war effort.
The DHS itself, an appendage of the post 9/11 police state, bears an uncanny resemblance in its organization to the internal security apparatus constructed and administered as a joint effort of the CIA, US special operations forces and Republic of Vietnam military intelligence and police under operation phoenix.
The DHS fusion centers that proliferated in every state and defined region are not all too dissimilar to the provincial reconnaissance units, that were first called counter terror teams, that proliferated in every South Vietnam province that, like fusion centers, used intel gathered by multiple police and paramilitary agencies. The Provincial Interrogation Centers where suspected National Liberation Front proponents were held captive, without charges often on mere hearsay, and tortured for information aren’t much different from CIA black sites and military detention centers throughout the world that hold men suspected of terrorism without charge and tortured for information. The Con Son Island detention center that was 90 miles off the coast of Vietnam is not much different than the one in Cuba. Like the war on terror, habeas corpus and any semblance of due process was suspended including extrajudicial execution of persons deemed terrorist; the only difference is that they didn’t have reaper drones. The PRUs relied on blacklists to identify who needed to be killed or captured similar to the war on terror kill lists developed under the Obama admin or the more mundane DHS no-fly lists and FBI watch lists that sweep up American citizens without a chance to appeal. Like the DHS, the Phoenix program maintained color coded maps, called census grievance maps, of which households were loyal, neutral or hostile to the South Vietnam government within each village, district and province from 1963-64 census interviews.
Like the war on terror, random cordons (like our internal CBP checkpoints 100 miles within the US), arbitrary searches and seizures of civilians and their property were commonplace; however, the PRUs wouldn’t have been able to conceive of having the kind of surveillance tech available to DHS, FBI, NSA, CIA and DIA today. All they had, besides the census grievance maps, was an informal network of snitches and infiltrators which is still not much different from FBI and other LEO infiltration of religious and political groups today.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 3 2025 22:21 utc | 100
The comments to this entry are closed.
South Africa getting nervous.
Stopping aid is the best thing that could ever happen to that country
Posted by: g wiltek | Feb 3 2025 16:57 utc | 1