The All Things Political Topic - In politics stupidity is not a handicap

[BruceVC]

10 hours ago, Malcador said:

Information war is a thing, who knew. Surprised to see MAGA types outraged over aid being used to further US strategic aims, however indirectly

The entire USAID budget for 2023\2024  was $50 billion and independent media houses gets $300 million

Media funding is 1% of USAID and not significant in any way compared to where the rest of the money is spent 

https://rsf.org/en/usa-trump-s-foreign-aid-freeze-throws-journalism-around-world-chaos?mc_cid=4e8b353ce6&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

 

[BruceVC]

9 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

Don't think it's that they're outraged over that per se, even indirectly. It's that being pro US so often meant being pro previous administration and pro US foreign policy orthodoxy both of which are things they hate- most would have no problem supporting Iranian opposition media so long as it was in Farsi and only anti Iran (or, given their bias and general lack of self awareness, was pro Trump). The perception that it was a soft money pro Democrat Party and Liberal Agenda* slush fund was reinforced by how much of the media aimed at [countryname] was written in english, and thus obviously aimed at, well, english speakers.

The more pragmatic and realpolitik sorts may also be a bit miffed that the claims of independent media being foreign agents made by adversaries have now been proven correct despite all the repeated claims to the contrary. Makes it a lot harder to paint the Georgian foreign agent law for example as being a blatant threat to independent journalism when their accusations that the media aren't independent but are being funded from overseas are now shown to be largely accurate.

*le sigh, but it is the sort of term they'd use to describe it

I still dont get  what your point really is around how some media houses get foreign funding, that shouldnt change the reality of what they report on if the problems or issues are real

I will use South Africa as an example. We have lots of media houses reporting on corruption and state inefficiencies and they  sometimes report on the links and corruption that we see from some in the ANC around  corrupt public sector tenders  with Russia or other countries. Here is an example

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025-01-22-gazprombank-reneged-on-r3-7bn-deal-to-restart-mossel-bay-gas-to-liquids-refinery/

Now Daily Maverick  (DM)is  sometimes accused of being  a  "CIA\Western " controlled media house with an agenda to destabilize the country but this story is true, the way the tender was awarded to Gazprombank had massive and egregious irregularities but  the only reason this project fell apart is the Russians wanted complete control of the refinery  and  the SOE wasnt prepared to agree to that but the tender was initially  awarded to Gazprombank

So my point is  it doesn't matter if DM gets some of  its funding from USAID, they dont get any but they have been accused of getting some,  because they report on legitimate and real cases of corruption within the country 

Is your overall point that independent media houses that get USAID cant be considered legitimate and objective  because of this funding or are you just pointing out they do get funding from the USAID which might have been denied?

 

 

 

 

[Lexx]

So consumer protection agency is gone now too? Man, I've never been happier to live in the EU.  

[Malcador]

4 hours ago, Lexx said:

So consumer protection agency is gone now too? Man, I've never been happier to live in the EU.  

Consumer protection is Marxist, you know

[uuuhhii]

5 hours ago, Lexx said:

So consumer protection agency is gone now too? Man, I've never been happier to live in the EU.  

 

osha are on the chopping block for sure

soon usa worker can enjoy unprecedented amount of factory fire

[Malcador]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2025/02/09/jd-vance-suggests-judges-arent-allowed-to-control-trump-after-courts-block-his-policies/

Should be concerning of some sorts.  Considering Vance and others' view on Yarvin - https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23373795/curtis-yarvin-neoreaction-redpill-moldbug

 

[Gfted1]

Third judge blocks Trump’s order ending birthright citizenship for kids of people in US illegally | AP News

Trump says he has directed US Treasury to stop minting new pennies, citing rising cost | AP News  US zinc and copper industry destined to crater, or something like that.

[Gfted1]

Trump fires boards of U.S. military service academies - POLITICO

US destined to lose every future war, or something like that.

[Gfted1]

House Democrats create a Trump-focused ‘rapid response task force’ - Live Updates - POLITICO

US government destined to grind to a halt, or something like that. The real lesson here is, we should put a federal judge from each of the 11 districts right in the WH to instantly shoot down his EO's. He signs it, a little conveyor belts takes it to a judge, then another little conveyor belt takes it to a shredder. 

[rjshae]

1 hour ago, Gfted1 said:

Third judge blocks Trump’s order ending birthright citizenship for kids of people in US illegally | AP News

Trump says he has directed US Treasury to stop minting new pennies, citing rising cost | AP News  US zinc and copper industry destined to crater, or something like that.

The latter at least makes some sense (for once). Copper is an important commodity these days, and the value of a penny has dropped to nearworthless. Our state has a sales tax, and I would like to see them modify it to round to the nearest nickel (5 cents).

[rjshae]

22 minutes ago, Gfted1 said:

House Democrats create a Trump-focused ‘rapid response task force’ - Live Updates - POLITICO

US government destined to grind to a halt, or something like that. The real lesson here is, we should put a federal judge from each of the 11 districts right in the WH to instantly shoot down his EO's. He signs it, a little conveyor belts takes it to a judge, then another little conveyor belt takes it to a shredder. 

It's becoming a government at war with itself, 7x24. I have no idea what we'll do in a crisis -- perhaps foreign powers will gamble that the USA is to distracted to respond? Certainly DJT isn't the President you want to have if the bird flu develops into a pandemic.

[Gfted1]

^Hopefully we'll be taken over by a country that provides: UHC, UBI, UFE and UFH.

Meanwhile, Democratic-led states sue to block Trump research funding cuts | Reuters

[Malcador]

2 hours ago, Gfted1 said:

Trump fires boards of U.S. military service academies - POLITICO

US destined to lose every future war, or something like that.

Wonder what "woke" means this hour.