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gsharper's avatar

USAID is probably the worst example of wasteful spending and corruption but the waste goes on at every agency in the government. I worked for the Census Bureau for 23 years and although most of the people I worked with were good conscientious people, most of the work they were doing simply didn't need to be done. There is just no incentive for the government to do anything efficiently. I estimate that about 70 to 80 percent of the workforce could be cut and nobody would notice.

I've heard from some people I used to work with and some are complaining that the government is under attack. They have just received the most generous buyout offer I have ever heard of (an offer I would have jumped at) and they are acting like they are poor victims after spending the last four years working from home. The counties surrounding Washington DC are the richest in the country. The lack of self awareness of these people is stunning.

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Matt L.'s avatar

Yup, USAID is just the pre dinner cocktail. MUCH more to come. Matt & Walter riffing is the best thing on the net right now.

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HL3's avatar

They dont riff they just get bitter and nasty. MST3K did riffs all they do now is tell us how evil and bad Liberals. They use the "excuse" they were targets of democrats and part of that was true but they become just another partisan pusher.

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Orenv's avatar

Or maybe... it really is that bad and they are completely empty vessels.

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R H's avatar

I'll give you credit for continuing to cry...lol. Cry louder though so we can continue to win.

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HL3's avatar
Feb 9Edited

Its funny you dont even look at their videos they are so playfully and fun when it comes to MAGA but look at their faces when they talk about any liberals.

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Danimal28's avatar

Yep, been a lifetime public employee(soldier and firefighter(volunteer)) and totally agree. Every time there is a shutdown nobody notices which is why the UniParty freaks out. Between all of these fraudulent NGO's these days and Dubya's government growth with FEMA and DHS, et al, there is waaayyy too much unaccounted-for money.

There was a depression about to hit in 1921 and Coolidge cut the govt by 40% - BAM - the Roaring 20's.

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gsharper's avatar

I was furloughed during the government shutdowns in 1995 and 1996. I remember all the interviews with the outraged government workers wondering what would ever become of them. The truth is we all got a 3 week paid vacation. The net effect of the shutdown to government workers was a two week delay for one paycheck. The shutdowns happened to occur when my son was born and I was planning to take some leave anyway so it really worked out well for me.

Nobody ever interviewed me. I would have had to tell them the truth that I thought the shutdown was awesome. It is very hard for some people to admit that their work is just not that important. They need to come up with all sorts of rationalizations as to why their work really matters.

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vader's avatar

this is a massive scandal yet Democrats and supporters showed that they have learned nothing from their election shellacking. Instead of looking into where 2B in Harris campaign donations went since she lost everything that could be lost despite all that money being given to her to win, they are trying to make the Elon Salute Fetch happen. So angry leftiests on reddit and similar left-wing sites are making a "statement" by not tagging X posts while using X to b*tch and moan just the same. It's the same crowd that calls Jews "Nazis" over Gaza but are now so offended over a salute that wasn't what they say it was because it suits their agenda. They don't matter and have no power since voter rejected their lunacy, so they resort to childish stunts like this one to have an illusion of relevancy. The same thing that their useless role models such as AOC and Squad do. They can't move the needle in a meaningful way cause they support BS that people reject so they zero on irrelevant online nonsense to feel like they matter.

This USAID scandal is the same. They are outed for not just wasting taxpayer money on highly unpopular DEI initiatives and taking down foreign goivernments, but for bribing domestic media to be the agitprop for their party. The screeching is cause they got caught and are facing consequences which they never did for almost 2 decades (Obama term and onward). I hope that we bget the proof of 2020 ballot harvesting in the next 4 years cause that's overdue. Everyone can see now that it happened but to drive the point home evidence is needed.

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Orenv's avatar

SHe was spreading the wealth. Most politicians keep a reserve because when they are all done they get to keep it.

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vader's avatar

what reserve? she ended in 20M debt! Her campaign knew from the get go that she was losing - David Plouffe admitted that their internal polls were always behind Trump never ahead unlike the fake public polls - yet they were grifting for more money to blow on the freakin Vegas Sphere! I don't care for big donors who absolutely deserved to be grifted and will barely feel the loss in their pockets, but what about genuine believers who donated cause they wanted first WOC or whatever? that's the kind of supporter that should rage against Democrats instead of "boycotting" Elon by not tagging X on reddit while posting on X all the same.

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Orenv's avatar

She really thought she would win and refill the coffers. She is that dumb.

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vader's avatar

I think that her campaign team kept her in the dark how bad it was cause they needed her to believe. she was unconvincing when she believed, imagine a disaster if she knew. probably would start crying cause her voice tends to tremble like at the verge of tears even in friendly interviews.

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Matt L.'s avatar

I just listened to about 30min of the Tucker interview of Mike Benz and had to stop. Benz is stammering about like he is the male version of Kamala Harris, over USAID. Someone or something seems to have gotten to him. I’d venture to say his life was threatened. I’ve never heard him beat around the bush like this. He seemed as shocked about the USAID corruption being exposed as were the Democrats. I would be very surprised if Tucker ever has him on again.

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AncientViking's avatar

Yes--and maybe this is the time to decentralize the fed govt... I used to live very close to the swamp, worked on some campaigns and was a political appointee, I was never so glad, as when I finally got away from that trainwreck...

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Stop Chemtrails Michigan's avatar

I’ve got a friend who runs a USDA office with 15 employees. He tells me he could get all of the work done without a single one of them. Yet they’re pretty much untouchable.

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RWinDC's avatar

I consider the “FORK” not a generous offer but a test of intelligence. Why would anyone waive their current rights in favor of nebulous promises, including being paid for not working? E.g., IRS employees that did take the Fork as truth found out that, rather than being paid from Feb 28th and being on leave that instead they are essential until May 15: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/hiring-retention/2025/02/some-irs-employees-taking-opms-deferred-resignation-offer-told-to-keep-working-until-may-15/

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Bat Man's avatar

Yea, let them eat cake.

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Colonel X's avatar

This is really a BFD. Pretty soon even the dumber people are going to understand that USAID was spending copious amounts of our money to influence domestic politics and force the trans religion on the world. How did it benefit the cause of the US to bring this BS to the rest of the world?

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Candis's avatar

At this point it's not even just our money, it's goes all the way to our unborn great grandchildren's money that they were spending into oblivion.

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Grieving Father's avatar

True, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. Lots more departments and agencies to go. We ain’t seen nothing yet.

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Matt L.'s avatar

That’s right. USAID is only a $40B per year agency. That is peanuts. But good to start with the low hanging fruit. I would not be surprised to see an assassination attempt. Wait until DOGE uncovers the Medicare and Pentagon fraud. We are witnessing the start of a real power change unlike any seen in America in last 100 years. This is not like when power was transferred between say Clinton and Bush, where afterward they were chummy and called each other brothers by another mother. Because the $ grift was allowed in that 4 year cycle to go 60/40 towards one of the two parties, while the other party took the lower 40/60 for that term. But both sides in on the game. No, Walter Kirn described this moment in Washington DC to be similar to Russia under Yeltsin after the Cold War conclusion. Where there is much up for grabs, and a real shake up and realignment.

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vader's avatar

this is the tip of the iceberg, while the iceberng under the water is 2020 election shenanigans. Stay tuned.

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Candis's avatar

Haha nuking the site from orbit

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Grieving Father's avatar

It's the only way to be sure!

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Matt L.'s avatar

Much of the USAID $ may be labeled one way (like DEI or LGBTQ) but it never actually happened or followed the title, outside a video facade to ‘show’ the label. The bulk of the $$ actually went elsewhere. Much of it to CIA cutouts and foreign intel assets. Where all this USAID $$ really went - is why we need a small army of independent investigative reporters to descend upon Washington DC. There are thousands and thousands of USAID grants. This allocation of money in name only has also been going on in the Pentagon for a long time. Health and Human Services, too. But in much bigger $ amounts. USAID just a small tip of the iceberg.

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vader's avatar

the biggest scandal isn't funding trans opera in Columbia or laundering money through it but paying domestic media to be the agitprop for DNC. Politico revelation made this scandal a household thing.

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Richard's avatar

Yeah but pull one thread and the whole sweater unravels. The Left knows this which is why they are freaking out.

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Matt L.'s avatar

It’s not just the Left. Those in the Uniparty are all going to be exposed. R’s played this game, too. It just so happens the most recent malfeasance is D’s since they held the executive branch the last 4 years.

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vader's avatar

I think that eevryone understands already, This scandal is overshadowing absolutely eb everything. It's a watercooler topic, not just something confined to online spaces. The Genie is out of the bottle and it's not going back.

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DLEducator's avatar

Sadly, I also read the liberal Substackers (I always want to hear the rationales of opposing viewpoints) and I can tell you that the people in the comments are convinced that democracy has been destroyed, Musk & Trump are a pair of dictators and they would not agree with almost all of the comments here.

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vader's avatar

yes like you I read all sides and they still thinks that. It's funny. You have "USAID, legacy media and DNC have done nothign wrong" liberals and "that may be wrong in a different context but anything is justified in fighting Trump so in that context it's totally OK to lie that demented POTUS is as sharp as a tack" liberals.

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Richard's avatar

Not to mention the MSM which is even worse.

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Candis's avatar

The major freak outs are coming from people that have been riding that enormous gravy train for quite sometime now. Plus, we are not a democracy, we are a Constitutional Republic. That's what they never understood.

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Grieving Father's avatar

The amount of corruption and graft that’s been exposed over the last 8 years is staggering. I now think it was a blessing for Trump to lose in 2020, as it set the stage for all that we are seeing now. Dimly understood by most people is that Congress (cowards that they are) outsourced most governance to the Executive (via the administrative state) over the last hundred years. In other words, Republican presidents have always had the power to do what Trump is doing now, but failed to do so and the Federal Government is now full of more filth than the Augean Stables. I’m 100% supportive of Trump and would take a bullet for him at this point. MAGA.

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Matt L.'s avatar

Yes, it all began around 1913 under Woodrow Wilson. Where the progressive class found that passing their agenda and aims through traditional Constitutional defined Congress, was ‘too hard’ and ‘too slow’. Better to bypass Congress and create executive administrative agencies to impose regulations that in practice were the same as laws. Time to kill off some of these agencies which are not defined in our Constitution, and salt the earth thereafter.

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vader's avatar

he had 4 years to look back at his term, the good, the bad, the ugly, to keep tabs on Biden-Harris performance and think about all those agencies that did dirty work on him and the rest of the country. So yes, in hindsight, it was a good thing. Also, the nation sees his loss in 2020 as paying his dues for covid response (not that any country had a great one) so that adds to his narrative that he's earned his comeback for he'd learned a lot and is back in better form.

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Mark Emerson's avatar

Greg Gutfeld had a good opening monologue on his show tonight about USAID and what they did in foreign countries and what they did in the U.S. and how the legacy media was complicit in the lies

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Ataraxis's avatar

His key point was that we are not hearing any of the foreign countries complaining, only the grifters in Washington. That tells you everything you need to know.

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la chevalerie vit's avatar

and does GG have a record of calling out USAID ?

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Mark Emerson's avatar

Prior to this week I don’t know but his sense of humor and commentary was spot on.

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patrick tobin's avatar

I watched GG as well and it was on target, funny and jaw dropping…

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la chevalerie vit's avatar

he can be funny

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reality speaks's avatar

The WSJ had a hit piece on one of Musk’s workers the author it turns out used to work for USAID and they Just left that part out. First they censored any comments pointing this fact out. Then they turned off all ability to comment. You can not trust any MSM for truthful information.

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vader's avatar

the employee is restored and VP said no one should reward journalists who try to ruin a kid's life for past mistakes. Tl;dr version: cancel culture is over.

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TeeJae's avatar

Hallelujah!

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Susan G's avatar

The WSJ is a bag of doggie doo-ooo. How dumb is the Murdoch now running Daddy's empire? That paper was once great, then at least better than the NYT and WaPo (during Trump 1), and finally, beginning in 2020, decided to follow the example set by the Times and WaPo. You cannot trust the WSJ, period.

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reality speaks's avatar

So true about anything from the news section. The opinion pages I see are now no longer trustworthy. They have been running non stop hit pieces on RFK Jr and Tulsi that are full of lies and misleading information

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Mac Thompson's avatar

The sheer volume of sheeple out there, attempting to defend this corruption, is simply staggering.

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vader's avatar

only on one side. leftiest are in absoliute shambles, reddit being the leading left platform is going crazy over this exposure. the rest welcomes transparency.

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AncientViking's avatar

That's what they've been programmed to do. One thing the communists excel at, is brainwashing. And they, call them neo-comms, have pretty much completely taken over the dem party. If you're one of them, and get out of line--you will be savaged. The ends will always justify then means...

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HL3's avatar

Just like GOP they both do partisan journalism a lot of accusations hoping something sticks.

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David White's avatar

No, not "just like the GOP": the Demos have a specific extremist and authoritarian ideology. You tell me what "ideology" I have that justified voting Obama-Obama-Trump-Trump without any (relevant) change of views.

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HL3's avatar

GOP just hate liberals I can show you articles from Townhall media and Gateway Pundit showing how much they hate 1/2 the country. So, I hate to break it to you the hate is very much out in the open for both parties its just how partisan up their ass are you not to see it or don't want to see it. By the way if you voted both parties and Trump and GOP only I hate to break to you you have changed even Sasha Stone admitted she has veered heavy conservative.

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David White's avatar

Too bad for you that hate is not the same thing as ideology. Certainly I hate the Far Left, or at least its Thought Leaders. The Thought Followers are merely dupes, due to failure to appreciate negative evidence and the enduring reality of fallacies. None of that means that I am somehow magically not Near Left, or that my party-switch was motivated by any change of views. Whether Sasha Stone has changed her views is not relevant to whether I have changed my views. Do you think you know more about my views than I do? Really?

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HL3's avatar

I think many people hide their views or don't realize they have changed so much and are blinded by their hate. I really do not care if you think you are "moderate" but look at yourself really and tell yourself on the policy not your emotional output you are a moderate.

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Richard's avatar

Targeting the NGO/media complex will do enormous damage to the Democrats. Not only are they ideological allies but it is where the Democrat shadow government goes when they are out of power. May take down some RINOs too. Now if we can get RFK confirmed and cut of the Big Pharma support.

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David White's avatar

The whole enterprise looks like some kind of shell game.

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Matt L.'s avatar

Walter Kirn said on Monday podcast that his sources are telling him the upcoming MLK Jr. assassination unveiling is going to be shocking stuff.

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Casey Jones's avatar

I'll take, "What's the malignant child of a card castle mated with a shell game, for $500, Alex.)

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David White's avatar

I have about had it with NGOs. What is the point of such things? Why couldn't whatever USAID does, if it is justified at all, be done by the State Department? Maybe because the salaries paid out could not be justified? It looks like the whole enterprise is just glorified money laundering or "hide the ball". Enough.

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Ataraxis's avatar

The most corrupt thing about the NGOs was that they further distributed the taxpayer money they received and for the most part we don’t know where it went. This is pure money laundering.

The IRS needs to investigate every single NGO.

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David White's avatar

Yes. While we're at it, we can pass a law making it illegal for the federal government to send any money at all to NGOs.

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S.H. Jacobs's avatar

I was unsure if you saw that Trump had placed a freeze on international aid, and when money kept leaking out, DOGE found that USAID had a way around the freeze. That is why they even looked at it to start with (All In podcast discussed). I wrote about it this week, and spent quite a while trying to be sensitive to democrat friends. Then I gave up, because they dont want to hear the truth anyway. Check out the letter I attach in a link from Paul Martin, the inspector from the office of inspector general (OIG). It is linked in this article. There is plenty of evidence that their were serious problems, which is part of the design I would venture:

https://shjacobsberg.substack.com/p/doges-sneak-peek-into-the-swamp?r=3lowq1

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Mark R.'s avatar

This is just another 80/20 issue that the dems have assumed the 20% position…again.

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John Collorafi's avatar

If Rogan sides with Maga about USAID, it's over.

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Ken D.'s avatar

I listened to the Tucker / Benz conversation and found myself surprisingly unsympathetic with what I was hearing from Benz. (Usually Benz seems brilliant to me.) But in this conversation, Benz seemed to be saying he was generally ok with U.S. "soft power" covert interventions in the internal politics of other nations, provided it is done well and is never permitted to come home to the U.S. Benz proposed "treble damages" on grantees who operated in the U.S. I'm not so confident as Benz seems to be that (1) we have any moral right to dabble secretly in the government of foreign nations, (2) that we have the competence to do so, even if we did have the moral right, and (3) that the threat of treble damages would dissuade anyone so inclined to do so from employing their "soft power" domestically. Think J6. If as Tucker and many others, and myself, believe, J6 was a DOJ "op", i.e. that the entry of the protestors into the Capitol was premeditated, abetted by Epps' handlers, to wreck havoc on the scrutiny of the 2020 elections, who would Benz now have us penalize with "treble damages" to make everything right? Would the "treble damages" bring Ashley back, or heal a nation torn asunder by that "op"? No, I was surprisingly out of sympathy with Benz upon hearing his thoughts in this conversation with Tucker.

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Tell's avatar

There were definitely government-connected agitators, and there was the fact that Nancy Pelosi refused the offer of extra police. And most people simply walked into the Capitol thinking they were allowed to be there.

But there were also Qanon fools who knew exactly what they were doing. They thought they were part of a revolution like Qanon had been telling them for years - though the most intelligent left after it was obvious Qanon was false. ("The indictments will be unsealed right before the midterm election! Just wait and see!" The intelligent ones waited and saw nothing, and then left.) The Qanon dupes barricaded themselves in offices, using furniture to block the doors, and then pushed all the papers on the desks into their bags "for evidence." That's the low level these people were on. And they FILMED themselves doing it. Then when they heard a signal, they said "it's over!" and climed out a window. Definitely illegal actions and they knew it.

In short, there were agitators, there were innocents, and some who were not innocent. We need to keep all this in mind.

(But of course, the way they were treated afterward was ridiculous. Prosecuted when BurnLootMurder criminals were allowed to go free after burning buildings, looting stores and murdering people. Attacking people in the street because they were White - in one video a man shouts "He's Asian!" to try to stop them from beating his friend. Not a word from the media about the race hatred. But a Black judge forced some Jan 6 participants to read "anti-racist" books and then write statements based on that.)

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Libertarian's avatar

I didn’t watch it but if what you wrote is accurate; I completely agree with your concerns.

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Jennifer Knight's avatar

The kickbacks were just too attractive to the politicians protesting in the streets. And with pushing the LGBTQ ideas on poor populations they get a bonus of slowing down the birth rates. Trans people are people who sterilize themselves. It fits their climate catastrophe cult beliefs. Too many people exhaling carbon is what they believe the root cause is.

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Libertarian's avatar

Democrats kill about 1 million babies in the womb each year; they’re the Cult of Death, Depression, Destruction (eg neocons), Delusion and Dependency.

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Heyjude's avatar

That’s a perfect description of the Dem cultists. A cult of death, destruction, delusion and dependency is also a perfect description of radical Islamists.

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Tell's avatar

Homosexuals hardly have any impact on birthrates in poor countries. They push this agenda to hurt normal society, to create a domestic leftist cader, and to the hopefully turn Third World nations into leftist allies against any White nation that turns conservative, like Russia under Putin which has banned homosexual propaganda and bans foreign-funded NGOs that push leftist propaganda.

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streamfortyseven's avatar

Also from Slavlands, this interesting bit from February 24, last year:

"Few people know or care that Washington used to subsidize Putin’s “United Russia” party [the Russian counterpart to the Uniparties in the US and UK] to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. But Victoria Nuland spilled the beans on this 10 years ago. Here:

United Russia received grants from the US Agency for International Development USAID, State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland said. According to her, the party participated in “some” programs of the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI).

It should be noted that on September 18, official Moscow announced the termination of USAID in Russia, later the Russian Foreign Ministry noted that "the nature of the organization’s work did not always meet the stated goals." In particular, it was an attempt to influence political processes in the country through the distribution of grants.

Victoria Nuland did not name the specific unicross programs that were supported by funding from the United States, but noted that it was about training for young leaders, supporting civil society and healthcare.

“We regret this decision,” US Ambassador to the Russian Federation Michael McFaul commented on this decision on Twitter. Recall, on the eve, extend the working life of USAID in Russia until May 2013. asked US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a letter to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

In Russia, USAID has funded programs for the development of civil society, democracy and human rights for over 20 years. It should be noted that the Golos association, which carries out independent election monitoring, also received grants. The latter, commenting on the decision of the Russian authorities, said that it would probably be forced to close its projects.

Kommersant, however, said that the withdrawal of USAID from Russia does not mean the complete deprivation of American support for local NGOs. At least three organizations closely associated with the US government continue to work here - the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the National Democratic Institute (NDA) and the International Republican Institute (IRI)." Ibid.

Note that the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI) are the shadow state organizations behind the US DNC and RNC (perhaps until Trump...), respectively.

Putin is actively working to implement the WEF/UN/WHO program inside Russia, including universal biometric IDs, internal passports, "vaccinations", CBDCs, and so on... just like the globalists/oligarchs here and everywhere else. Interesting how "solutions" to "problems" are common, coordinated, and cross national borders... https://streamfortyseven.substack.com/p/if-this-ukraine-peace-plan-is-for

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Candis's avatar

I'm also curious about the 18 billion dollars that Janet Yellen gave to Putin immediately prior to the Ukraine war.

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streamfortyseven's avatar

Funny how that works - perhaps she wanted him to spend the bucks on flowers and teddy bears, and was hit in the face with Bucha and Mariupol... I'd like to see the source on that.

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Libertarian's avatar

About half the country, 150 million sheeple, depend on the government for food stamps, welfare, fed/state/local jobs like teachers/administrators/etc, education, healthcare, shelter (HUD). Half the sheeple depend on Socialism and the other half in the private sector subsidize them. Every city in the US is 90% sheeple dependent on the government. And they freak when those that feed them threaten their free room, board, food, and video games.

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James Farrell's avatar

Which is exactly why the fire-hose of$$ needs be turned into the OFF position. Taxpayers are bleeding out.

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HL3's avatar

My problem of USaid and other federal programs we are so quick to give billions to rebuild other shit parts of the world (GOP and Democrats) but it becomes a fucking partisan shitshow when it applies to our own citizens.

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James Farrell's avatar

I have a strong suspicion those days are over.

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Linda Wightman's avatar

During my formative years, the Left fought against USAID, claiming that it was just a front for the CIA operating under humanitarian pretenses. But now that the Old Left/Right/Center coalition we have in office is finally trying to dismantle the USAID, the New Left is jumping to its defense.

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Libertarian's avatar

Money corrupts

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HL3's avatar

Actually, some of the biggest foes as Republicans like Jeese Helms and Clinton was a big supporter of it see Brady Anderson,

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