vxbush 2/11/2025 5:33:02 AM

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vxbush 2/11/2025 5:37:12 AM

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I was reading Sarah Hoyt while I was making my breakfast this morning, talking about when JFK set up USAID. She makes some guesses that seem very possible: 

In fact, I suspect — though I have no proof, but I wonder if some of you could get it? — that a lot of its early work amounted to “community organizing” for the leftists abroad. Guns and proto-revolutionary groups in South America given money. African groups fighting against “colonialism” and bringing in the Soviet Union. you know, that kind of thing.

Based on what they are funding now, I think that sounds eminently reasonable. If this is true, then she says: 

Guys, if I am correct, not only did our tax money go to pay for people to burn our cities, but our parents and grandparents paid to subsidize the cause of international communism.

This generates a question: Given Treasury's job to pay the bills, do they keep all the records of money that goes  out, and how far back can they get? Is there any way to do a multi-decadal audit? 

vxbush 2/11/2025 5:39:53 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 2:

I mean, the action taken over the weekend to prevent the sitting Treasury Secretary from seeing the data he is responsible for sounds like the actions of a very scared team. What has Washington been paying for that has them so freaked out? We know they were paying the Taliban and the Palestinians. What's worse than that?

vxbush 2/11/2025 5:56:46 AM

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Ummm.....

vxbush 2/11/2025 6:01:11 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 4:

The bigger question is, has the DOGE team already saved enough money that there won't be a funding crisis? Wouldn't that be sweet: Dems saying they are going to get what they want or the government doesn't get funded, only to realize that there's no issue funding government when all their largesse is removed. 

vxbush 2/11/2025 6:16:13 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 4:

Ed Morrissey also points out: 

Congress could restore funding for any worthy efforts at USAID that the administration has terminated. They could earmark those funds in the State Department budget (now that Congress has re-enabled that process) or fund it with direct legislation. There are no legitimate reasons that the funds for worthy projects should have to come out of a slush fund that defeats accountability, both fiscal and political. That is precisely how spending is supposed to function in our constitutional system of self-governance, in fact. 

So why aren't Democrats in Congress stepping up with proposals to specifically fund any USAID projects? Because almost all of them would not just be unpopular, but a significant amount of them were corrupt from the start. 

buzzsawmonkey 2/11/2025 6:50:23 AM

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In #1 vxbush said: May I ask why? Something stupid I said? Something so egregiously stupid in the news that it boggles the mind? (There's a lot of that going around.)

Nothing to do with you.  See the Frontier.

JCM 2/11/2025 8:30:02 AM

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Line in the sand..... 

Trump says ceasefire should be canceled if hostages aren't released by Saturday: 'Let all hell break out'

This one is real.

JCM 2/11/2025 8:31:13 AM

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4 FEMA employees fired for paying for hotels for migrants in New York City

The Department of Homeland Security told Fox News that "four employees are being fired today for circumventing leadership and unilaterally making the egregious payment for hotels for migrants in New York City."

The firings come after Elon Musk wrote on X Monday that "The DOGE team just discovered that FEMA sent $59M LAST WEEK to luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants." 

vxbush 2/11/2025 8:53:50 AM

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In #7 buzzsawmonkey said: Nothing to do with you.  See the Frontier.

Thanks. Replied there. 

vxbush 2/11/2025 8:54:59 AM

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In #9 JCM said: 4 FEMA employees fired for paying for hotels for migrants in New York City

I'm sorry, but this looks like accountability, and I thought that wasn't allowed in government. 

Oh, wait. That was the previous administration. This current administration is actually ALLOWED and DEMANDS accountability. 

What a concept.

JCM 2/11/2025 9:03:27 AM

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vxbush 2/11/2025 9:08:17 AM

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In #12 JCM said: Those who doled out the funds should be charged with material support to designated terrorist groups, misappropriation of funds and anything else applicable.

But the DOJ can't do that! They're supposed to go after elderly grandmothers and January 6 insurrectionists!!!!

/////explody-dope PPProgressives

Occasional Reader 2/11/2025 9:37:57 AM

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Reply to JCM in 9:

it’s great that they demonstrate to the American voters what their priorities are like this.

illegals uber alles.

Occasional Reader 2/11/2025 9:44:26 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 2:

I think it’s important to keep in mind that Sarah Hoyt is a bit… out there.

US AID was *originally* founded as a Cold War policy instrument, in the competition for hearts and minds against the USSR.

vxbush 2/11/2025 1:01:52 PM

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In #15 Occasional Reader said: I think it’s important to keep in mind that Sarah Hoyt is a bit… out there.

That might be, but I have found her insights to be useful most of the time, and given her background in a country that underwent political sea changes, she has experienced things that we haven't.