this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2025
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Microblog Memes

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[–] [email protected] 66 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Fun fact, they're still providing USAID funding to Israel and Egypt but stopped providing funding to Ukraine.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 3 days ago

Trump executive order requiring the state and all state-funded education institutes to not acknowledge Ukrainian as a language separate from Russian coming in 3...

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago

Via NPR:

A question of legality

The question of the legality of any attempt to change the status of USAID is connected to its origins. The agency was created in 1961 when President John F. Kennedy signed an executive order after Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act, which mandated the creation of an independent agency to focus on development separate from politics and the military. The agency was formally established by Congress as an independent agency in 1998.

That means "it cannot just be undone, at this point, by an executive order," Konyndyk said. "To actually disestablish the agency and dissolve it into the State Department will take an act of Congress."

Source: Why does Musk want USAID 'to die'? And why did its website disappear? : Goats and Soda 

I’m doubtful relying on congress is any comfort either however.

[–] [email protected] 124 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Wow, I guess I better get used to a ton of USA events and news per day for the next years.

[–] [email protected] 54 points 4 days ago

It keeps burning the wick at this rate and you'll only have to deal with it for months

[–] [email protected] 38 points 4 days ago (14 children)

Probably not. Sooner rather than later most free press will be shut down by trump and the only news that anyone will get is whatever there government wants you to hear. Stories like this will disappear.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago

That's already the case.

Do you remember every single mainstream outlet falling in line to promote the Iraq war? To blackout the antiwar protests? Going to Occupy Wallstreet and interviewing random weirdos instead of the organizer's designated press people? The coverage of Ukraine? The coverage of Israel?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

I think you vastly overestimate how organized the Trump admin is. I'm sure they will try, though.

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[–] [email protected] 86 points 4 days ago (6 children)
[–] [email protected] 49 points 3 days ago (6 children)

It's the organization that manages all of the official external humanitarian aid from the US government. It does everything from food distribution to micro loans in developing countries.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It provided funding to Ukraine, Irsael, and Egypt among other things.

Now it provides funding to Israel and Egypt.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

And soon to Russia.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 4 days ago (17 children)

It's a CIA front that mascarades as an aid organisation. Part of the US' soft power projection. I'm guessing for all their talk about hating China, they're really keen on China taking on the role the US has been playing since WWII, as they're simultaneously doing their best to undermine the US dollar as the global reserve currency.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 days ago (5 children)

You think that the CIA pretends to be an international aid organization for the sake of advancing the interests of checks notes... China? The 3-letter agency that has spent decades building and maintaining American hegemony is now serving that same purpose for a rival nation? And the people that have also spent decades building for this moment to take over the federal government entirely... want to now give their power away? ... what?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 days ago

The first two statements are describing USAid and the last sentence is a sarcastic remark, indicating taking it down is working in Chinas best interest. Thats how it reads to me.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago

How does this have 36 votes? It's ridiculous.

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[–] [email protected] 72 points 4 days ago (2 children)

It is far easier to knock something down than to bring something up.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 4 days ago

From barbarism to civilization requires a century; from civilization to barbarism needs but a day.

Will Durant

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

Life is an anthology of destruction. Everything you build eventually breaks. Everyone you love will die. Any sense of order or stability inevitably crumbles. The entire universe follows a dismal trek toward a dull state of ultimate turmoil.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/what-is-entropy-a-measure-of-just-how-little-we-really-know-20241213/

[–] [email protected] 43 points 4 days ago (3 children)

lmao Trump accidentally defunding US soft power. Who is going to pay the CIA to train torturers and traffic drugs now?

[–] [email protected] 24 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Is it an accident?

Trump (and specifically, the heritage foundation) believe in isolationism. Alienating its geopolitical and geographical neighbors serves that purpose. Think of it as the groundwork for a full North Korea style break from non-state controlled culture.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 days ago (2 children)

He's going to utterly crash the US economy he's not going to be able to pull it off.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago

How many authoritarian nations do you know with excellent, well-functioning economies? Do you think good class mobility serves any purpose for a regime like Putin's, or Kim Jong Un's? Destroying our economy is part of the plan.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Got anything more recent than 50 years ago?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago (13 children)

Alright so hold on, USAID is not equipped to stop the Israeli military. So that's right out. And the vaccination ruse was a CIA operation.

It is interesting to see that USAID has an office meant to react to rapidly changing political situations. But there are several things about the Cuban Internet story. First, obviously it's not torture and similar stupid stuff. Second, from the article it looks like it was never properly authorized and was beyond what USAID is meant to do.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 days ago

Really silly question tbh. Trafficking drugs pays for itself and the torture. The CIA may be the only government agency making a net profit.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago

The perma stun proceeds

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago

🎶 Just want one thing, just to play the king
But the castle's crumbled and you're left with just a name 🎵

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