• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Merged USAID: is it really a bunch of crazy leftists? / Trump Was Absolutely Right to Shut Down USAID

I guess we’ll find out, won’t we, which countries decide to invest heavily in the soft power that USAID have vacated. If nothing happens at all, and people get sick and die, we can maybe say “oh look, Africans are dying, so maybe the pharmaceutical companies weren’t making off like bandits after all. At least the US taxpayer is not on the hook for it.”

However, if China and Russia decide to step into the breach and provide cholera, malaria and HIV treatments, then maybe it won’t be just a Big Pharma boondoggle after all. We might also see it in the voting patterns of such countries in the United Nations. We may also see it in the way that scientists in top US universities decide to go abroad. I would expect that China and Saudi Arabia, while otherwise unappealing as places to live, might be much more willing to pay for the kind of research that Musk, RFK Jr, Trump and the rest of the merry men decided was just a bunch of woke ◊◊◊◊.
 
It's China. China has been spending heavily in soft power in developing countries for decades. USAID vacating these programs will embolden and strengthen China's position in the world. And then they take Taiwan and set off WW3.
 
arthwollipot said:
It's China. China has been spending heavily in soft power in developing countries for decades. USAID vacating these programs will embolden and strengthen China's position in the world. And then they take Taiwan and set off WW3.
Click to expand...
No, they will buy Taiwan...from Trump. Who will be perfectly willing to sell it, and claim some sort of yuge victory for the USA. Of course it isn't his to sell, but nothing he sells ever is! The Taiwanese will be horrified as they are marched off to re-education camps, and be left to wonder why they ever believed in the first place that the USA would honour their guarantee to protect them.
 
Reuters reported, "But in a court filing,on Thursday, they said they were dropping their motion after Justice Department lawyers told them that the documents were largely from other agencies and were no longer needed. No personnel files have been destroyed, and any documents that must legally be preserved still exist on computer systems, according to the administration." I am skeptical.
 
Stephen Novella on the cuts to USAID:

theness.com

Cutting to the Bone - NeuroLogica Blog

One potentially positive outcome from the COVID pandemic is that it was a wakeup call - if there was any doubt previously about the fact that we all live in one giant interconnected world, it should not have survived the recent pandemic. This is particularly true when it comes to infectious...
theness.com
 
Good job DOGE! Good job Trump! Good job Musk! Good job MAGAtwats!

Twenty million people with H.I.V., for example—including five hundred thousand children—who had received medicines that keep them alive have now been cut off for six weeks.

A lot of people are going to die as a result of this. Am I wrong?

The internal estimates are that more than a hundred and sixty thousand people will die from malaria per year, from the abandonment of these programs, if they’re not restored. We’re talking about twenty million people dependent on H.I.V. medicines—and you have to calculate how many you think will get back on, and how many will die in a year. But you’re talking hundreds of thousands in Year One at a minimum. But then on immunization side, you’re talking about more than a million estimated deaths.
Click to expand...

Anyone want to support this with their fatuous twaddle about it not being a good ROI for the US taxpayer or how the real problem is the pharmaceutical companies making off like bandits with their so-called devices?

www.newyorker.com

Hundreds of Thousands Will Die

The writer, surgeon, and former U.S.A.I.D. senior official Atul Gawande on the Trump Administration’s decimation of foreign aid and the consequences around the world.
www.newyorker.com www.newyorker.com
 
If one were doing an honest and thorough review of USAID, it would not make sense to shut everything down for ninety days. In a story from 10 March 2025 The Guardian reported that 83% of the programs will be terminated and the rest absorbed into the State Department: "“Our hard-working staff who worked very long hours” alongside Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) teams deserve credit for this “overdue and historic reform”, Rubio wrote on X, using his personal account...“Tough, but necessary. Good working with you. The important parts of USAID should always have been with Dept of State,” Musk responded on X following Rubio’s announcement."

Are we seriously to believe that 83% of these programs were wasteful? What expertise does Musk have regarding governmental organization? And why is this broadcast using Twitter?
 
Pro Publica reported, "Instead, Rubio and Peter Marocco, another top Trump appointee, have not only ordered the [dioxin clean-up] work [at the Bien Hoa air base in Viet Nam] to stop, but they also have frozen more than $1 million in payments for work already completed by the contractors the U.S. hired. The company overseeing the project is Tetra Tech, a publicly traded consulting and engineering firm based in the U.S., and a Vietnamese construction firm has been tasked with the excavation work."

Dioxin is a product of Agent Orange; my initial position is that cleaning it up is an obligation.
 
Doge has apparetly borken into the Insitute of Peace a Non Profit Independent organization which is NOT a government agency, though it is largely funded by the US Government.
This could mean legal problems for Musk and DoGE. Yes, they can probabl cut off funding, but they do not apprarenlty have right to acess the insitute's records.
 
dudalb said:
Doge has apparetly borken into the Insitute of Peace a Non Profit Independent organization which is NOT a government agency, though it is largely funded by the US Government.
This could mean legal problems for Musk and DoGE. Yes, they can probabl cut off funding, but they do not apprarenlty have right to acess the insitute's records.
Click to expand...
Government agents don't have rights. They have authority.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom