Musk on USAID: ‘Time for it to die’

FenderTL5 said:

I like your comment and agree in principle.

However, since voter turnout was 63.9% that means that it was only 31.8% of eligible voters who voted for this insanity.

There's hope.

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stevil said:

I'm actually quite interested in watching the next Impeachment hearing, when one comes along.
Impeachments are about "high crimes and misdemeanors", but if nothing is illegal for the president then it is impossible for him to commit crimes. So..... does that mean impeachment is no longer a thing?

Not that any USA president has ever been removed through the impeachment process. So probably no big difference.

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stevil said:

I've watched your video. But I still don't get your issue with USAID.

The guy was saying that 2 Trillion dollars goes from the "global North" to the "global South" some of that being Aid.
And he talked about 5 Trillion dollars flowing back from the GS to the GN. That seems like an obvious problem.

But....
Taking away the aid doesn't make things better for the GS. It makes it worse.
So please explain what your problem is with giving the GS aid money?

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wing2000 said:

I think the USAID contracts with private companies who deliver the aid warrants some attention.....however, it seems Musk simply wants to do away with US assistance to those who need it most. After all, HIV clinics across Africa were shut down last week......I'm not sure if they are re-opening (does SoS Rubio consider them "life-saving"?).

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Hans Blaster said:

They could appoint an inspector general...

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JosephZ said:

If you claim to care about the less fortunate in the world, what Trump/Musk are doing is the antithesis of that.


Turmoil inside USAID: DOGE reps take over offices, senior officials placed on leave

Amid ongoing turmoil inside the U.S. Agency for International Development, sources told ABC News that Department of Government Efficiency staffers have moved to take over offices, escalating tensions as more senior staff members are locked out of internal systems, additional employees are placed on administrative leave, and the agency’s newly appointed chief of staff resigned as the Elon Musk-led agency works to assert control over the USAID, which oversees foreign aid, disaster relief and international development programs.

On Friday night, a dramatic scene played out when a group of individuals who identified themselves as State Department employees and DOGE representatives arrived at the USAID offices in the Ronald Reagan Building and demanded immediate access to every office, according to sources familiar with the incident.

After initially being denied entry, the group told security guards that if they were not granted entry, they would call the U.S. Marshals Service, sources said. The guards ultimately complied, the source said.

As reports emerged over clashes inside USAID, Musk unloaded a barrage of attacks against the agency across his social media platform, X.

"USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die," Musk wrote in one post.

When shown Musk’s posts on X targeting USAID, a senior official for the agency told ABC News, “The warp-speed of this mafia-like takeover has shaken USAID staff to the core.”

The group gained access to USAID’s internal systems on Friday, including the agency’s website and several critical databases, according to sources familiar with the matter. Among the systems was the Development Evaluation Clearinghouse, which houses reports on past and ongoing USAID programs, as well as the Development Information Solution (DIS) -- a system used to track congressionally mandated and performance-related data for all USAID programs worldwide.

Sources also said that the group also seized control of a software system called Phoenix, a program for USAID's financial management system used to track and manage the agency’s budgeting, accounting and financial transactions. The system was down over the weekend, sources said, which has sent shockwaves across contractors for USAID who are fearful they won't be paid for their work. Major firms that manage global supply chains, including those for initiatives like antiretroviral (ARV) drugs and other essential medicines to combat HIV/AIDS, rely on Phoenix.

Sources told ABC News the Trump administration’s foreign aid cuts are being overseen by Peter Marocco, a campaign ally in the Office of Foreign Assistance who was reportedly caught on camera inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

​

The Website Vanished

It's been a tumultuous weekend for USAID — the U.S. Agency for International Development. On Saturday sometime after 3 a.m., its website went down, according to the Internet Archive, a nonprofit group that tracks web pages.

The deletion of the website and social media accounts alongside significant layoffs and the near-total suspension of work is an effort to dismantle USAID entirely, Jeremy Konyndyk told NPR. Konyndyk led disaster relief under Obama and the COVID and mpox responses under Biden at USAID. He's currently president of the aid group Refugees International.

"They're trying to eliminate the agency," Konyndyk said.

"They have announced no plan and given no rationale — they're just taking everything down," Konyndyk said. "They're trying to do it behind the scenes rather than openly," he said, so they don't have to "defend what they're doing" in announcements to the public.

The consequences of a diminished or erased USAID would be dire, Konyndyk said, noting that one key component of its programs is keeping outbreaks and epidemics from reaching U.S. shores.

USAID is "enduring an unlawful shutdown, purge, and dismantling," wrote Dr. Atul Gawande, former assistant administrator for global health at USAID, in a post on Bluesky on Sunday.

The dissolution would extend beyond "the unlawful destruction of USAID's life-saving work," Gawande told NPR. "USAID has become the place where the administration is demonstrating and developing its playbook for eviscerating other targeted agencies."

The web shutdown comes in the wake of both the stop work order and the furloughing or laying off of hundreds of USAID employees. In his first two weeks in office, the Trump administration placed senior leadership at USAID on leave and laid off or furloughed more than 400 contractors in the agency's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance and also laid off hundreds more in its Global Health Bureau.

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Fantine said:

Yes. We had the presence of mind to vote for Harris. This nightmare was signed up for by Trump voters.

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JosephZ said:

Amid ongoing turmoil inside the U.S. Agency for International Development, sources told ABC News that Department of Government Efficiency staffers have moved to take over offices, escalating tensions as more senior staff members are locked out of internal systems, additional employees are placed on administrative leave, and the agency’s newly appointed chief of staff resigned as the Elon Musk-led agency works to assert control over the USAID, which oversees foreign aid, disaster relief and international development programs.

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Fantine said:

Yes. We had the presence of mind to vote for Harris. This nightmare was signed up for by Trump voters.

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During a hearing at the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Accountability in September, USAID Inspector General Paul K. Martin told Congress that the agency was examining its relationship with Starlink, one of Musk's most prominent tech ventures.

In 2022, USAID and Starlink collaborated to provide 5,000 Starlink terminals to Ukraine, to give the country fighting Russian invasion access to Musk's advanced internet system, operated through SpaceX, as reported by The Lever.

"In addition to another ongoing audit on direct budget support, we are examining USAID's Energy Security Project, USAID's oversight of Starlink Satellite Terminals provided to the Ukrainian government, and USAID's efforts to protect against sexual exploitation and abuse in Ukraine," Martin told Congress. Alleged USAID probe into Starlink raises Elon Musk conflict concerns

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Fantine said:

I think I have misjudged Musk. It was not cruelty or callousness that has caused him to gut USAid.

Instead it seems to be their probe into his Starlink business:



So perhaps it is just "vengeance," something Musk might call "business."

An ethical individual would recuse himself from such a decision.

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