America

[CRNDLSM]

Canada is offering asylum apparently, i just have to show up at the border with my ID and say I seek asylum

[busker]

Iran is busy making a nuclear bomb

[Mark A Becker]

We may run, but we can't hide.
Better, I think, to stay and hold the line.

[brynmawr1]

Epitaph on a Tyrant by W.H. Auden

Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,
And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;
He knew human folly like the back of his hand,
And was greatly interested in armies and fleets;
When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,
And when he cried the little children died in the streets.

[CRNDLSM]

Hes the new chair of the Kennedy center, you know who

[dukealien]

Yet, as Tom Wolfe remarked, "The dark night of fascism is always descending in the United States and yet lands only in Europe."

Now is no exception: look at Britain, France, Germany (but not, oddly, Italy) becoming desperate Falangists to "keep the fascists out." Is this American exception luck, or something systemic?

Or is it only that those who cry about the never-happening descent are a tiny bit ... systemic.

[busker]

Fascism is too advanced a concept for America. The immediate danger is from a nuclear armed idiocracy. There will be no American Mein Kampf because 18% of the population is functionally illiterate and a reasonably high percentage barely reads anything.

The citizens of France, Germany, and the UK don’t think that they need to do anything other than follow the normal democratic process to avoid fascist rule. 

The American right likes to bleat about fascism in the UK, but the actual right wing party reform UK got only 14% of the popular vote while labour got 33% and the Tories 23%. The lib Dems another 12%. 

By contrast, Trump had only about a 1% popular vote lead over Harris even in this election. So if there’s a country where a vast number of people believe that a fascist holds sway, it is America, not the UK.

There is reason to believe that Americans are quite under an idiocracy, with a  drugged out Ivy League legacy philandering cheat about to be in charge of health, and another average student who bought his way in, dismissing the work of actual scientists. His cheerleaders suffer from the same Dunning Kruger syndrome.

[CRNDLSM]

All my news is between Google Facebook and tiktok. Clips from fox, CNN, NBC, BBC, but I'm pretty certain my info is filtered, possibly even intentionally misleading.
I appreciate any world news updates anyone feels like providing at any time

[brynmawr1]

Fascism is too advanced a concept for America.  Yay, I guess?  Not sure why that is a criteria, as control of information is the key to any fascist regime.  Any anti-democratic system really.  Fascism is the use of force to maintain policy.  Such as storming the capital to prevent the certification of an election, or threatening to prosecute those that tried to hold said offenders to account.  Or threaten criminal investigations of private companies for policies with which the government disagrees.  So easy to go on.

Dunning Kruger syndrome- Yes!  Explains the history of the world.  Anecdote-  I play hockey with an otherwise intelligent man, he argued that the earth is only 10,000 yrs old, he maintained that science is a lie cause the bible said so.  That's what we are fighting against.  Noting has changed since the middle ages.

[RiverNotch]

i've been hearing how your usual
voter for a certain kind
of asshole had been simply fooled
and should be treated with a little

patience and, indeed,
to lose your temper leaves you useless,
it does nothing for your cause,
but the same goes for believing

in the previous portion of
what i've been hearing, not when we
are certain how he's not all talk
for all the evil he has done

(he's grabbed them by the pussy, hon)

so when you're with Republicans
be gentle, cordial, even kind,
but always open with these words:
"have all y'all been denazified?"

[dukealien]

Y'know, if this was snark season I could bag my limit just in this thread.

But if it pleases progs to let the critters romp as if they were making sense, that's fine.  Just stay out of honest people's way while they get things done in their crude, unsophisticated manner.  The fruits of their labor will be available as usual, so long as you don't blow a gasket about having your pet snark laughed at.

Or defunded.

[CRNDLSM]

One says one thing,  another another

The USAID “Scandal” and the Playbook of Manufactured Outrage

The dismantling of USAID isn’t about fraud. It’s not about waste. And it’s certainly not about making government more efficient. Instead, it’s a test case for a new era of governance—one where facts are optional, reality is shaped by cherry-picked narratives, and faith in a leader replaces independent sources of truth.

Rather than conducting an actual audit, Musk and Trump have used a familiar tactic—manufacture a scandal, flood the space with selective outrage, and use it to justify dismantling an agency they already wanted gone. It’s an attack on facts themselves—and if it works here, it will be repeated elsewhere.

---

Misinformation doesn’t have to be an outright lie to be effective. The most powerful form of disinformation is cherry-picking—taking a real event or number, stripping it of context, and reframing it for maximum outrage.

Take a look at a few of the White House’s official justifications for gutting USAID:

▪️ Claim: “USAID spent $6 million on tourism in Egypt.”
Reality: This funding was for education and economic development in North Sinai, not tourism. The grant was announced in 2019 during Trump’s first administration. Stripping away the date and purpose makes it sound like a recent, frivolous expenditure rather than part of an established economic aid initiative.

▪️ Claim: “USAID spent $1.5 million to promote workplace diversity in Serbia.”
Reality: This was part of a broader economic initiative to increase job opportunities in Serbia—where workplace discrimination limits economic participation. The program focused on helping businesses grow by improving inclusivity—but was reframed as an ideological “waste” rather than an economic development effort.

▪️ Claim: “USAID spent $47,000 on a transgender opera in Colombia.”
Reality: This was not a USAID grant at all—it was issued by the State Department, not USAID. The grant supported an arts program aimed at increasing representation in Colombia’s opera scene. By misattributing the funding to USAID and framing it solely as a “transgender opera”, the claim was designed to provoke cultural outrage rather than discuss arts funding in global diplomacy.

Could an actual audit be conducted on how these funds were used? Absolutely. In a functioning government, there should always be room for debate over whether certain initiatives are priorities or whether they are effective. But that is not what is happening here.

Instead of evaluating whether these programs delivered results or whether better alternatives exist, these numbers were stripped of context and framed for maximum outrage—not to improve policy, but to justify dismantling an agency outright. A real debate would analyze impact and effectiveness, not manipulate selective facts to push a predetermined conclusion.

The biggest red flag? If USAID were truly corrupt, they would be showing full financial audits, not vague accusations.

---

If the goal were actually to root out inefficiencies, a proper USAID audit wouldn’t be done in a day or two based on cherry-picked spending line items. Audits—even for small organizations—are lengthy, comprehensive, and detail both strengths and weaknesses.

A real audit would:
▪️ Be conducted by independent agencies (GAO, OIG, CBO), qualified and experienced leaders, or objective, appointed and vettyed contracted individuals or organizations.
▪️ Use full financial forensic analysis, not cherry-picked line items.
▪️ Compare USAID to other government expenditures for context.
▪️ Provide publicly available, transparent findings.
▪️ Recommend measured reforms, not mass firings.

Real audits include:
▪️ Positives and negatives—not just failures.
▪️ Strengths and weaknesses—where the agency is effective and where it isn’t.
▪️ Successes and failures—not just the failures someone wants to highlight.
▪️ Annotated findings with full transparency—each claim links back to data.

This takes months, not days—because an audit can’t be done by just extracting data, running it through an algorithm (AI or otherwise), and issuing selective pronouncements.

Instead, Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) simply declared USAID “beyond repair” and started shutting it down—no audit needed.

This isn’t about USAID—it’s about eliminating institutions. And if they can do this to USAID, they can do it to the CDC, NOAA, or any other agency that provides inconvenient facts.

---

The attack on USAID is just the beginning. If this strategy works, other congrssionally created and funded agencies that provide oversight, enforce regulations, or provide objective information will be next.

The same manufactured outrage playbook will be applied to:

▪️ The CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) – Criticized for interfering in free markets and overregulating financial institutions.
▪️ The SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) – Framed as an obstacle to economic growth by restricting corporate and investment practices.
▪️ The IRS – Cast as a weaponized agency persecuting political enemies.
▪️ The Pentagon – Attacked over spending inefficiencies and social policies.
▪️ The Federal Reserve – Accused of economic manipulation and globalist control.
▪️ The DOJ & FBI – Portrayed as corrupt institutions waging partisan investigations.
▪️ The Department of Education – Framed as a wasteful bureaucracy pushing ideological agendas.
▪️ The EPA – Blamed for stifling business growth through overregulation.

Each will be misrepresented and undermined not through comprehensive audits and evidence-based reform, but through cherry-picked data, selective outrage, and preordained conclusions that justify dismantling their authority.

The irony? Real audits of these agencies would be fantastic. If the goal were truly efficiency, effectiveness, and responsible governance, independent reviews would be welcomed. A thorough, transparent audit of USAID, the CFPB, the SEC, the IRS, or the Pentagon would provide critical insights for better decision-making. But that’s not what’s happening.

Instead of pursuing genuine oversight and accountability, the administration is manufacturing outrage and using it as a justification to dismantle institutions outright—not to fix them, but to eliminate their independence.

---

The final step in this process isn’t just about cutting waste—it’s about removing any part of the government that isn’t directly controlled by the executive branch.

▪️ No independent oversight.
▪️ No neutral agencies providing inconvenient data.
▪️ No checks on power.

This isn’t about USAID—it’s about whether any institution will be allowed to exist outside the direct control of a single leader.

The next time an agency or institution is suddenly declared “too corrupt to fix,” ask yourself:
▪️ Where’s the full audit?
▪️ Why is the data missing?
▪️ Who benefits from removing this institution?

When facts disappear, power takes their place. That’s what’s happening here.

---

Copied from someone else

[busker]

Y'know, if this was snark season I could bag my limit just in this thread.

But if it pleases progs to let the critters romp as if they were making sense, that's fine.  Just stay out of honest people's way while they get things done in their crude, unsophisticated manner.  The fruits of their labor will be available as usual, so long as you don't blow a gasket about having your pet snark laughed at.

Or defunded.

'Just let them do all the damage and we'll see' 

---

Trump’s plan for Gaza, though, is bold enough for it to work

[RiverNotch]

i would let the immigrant do their thing, but you know what's happening to them....

[busker]

i would let the immigrant do their thing, but you know what's happening to them....

I don’t think it’s ethnic cleansing
The Palestinians have been held hostage for years by an Iran funded terrorist group that’s made matters intractable for everyone around 
The solution is to make the Gazans so wealthy that there’s no support for Hamas again
This means make them live in a Dubai like place, with great jobs, good housing, and luxury.
The infrastructure will be financed by America and Saudi Arabia, say.
There will be a permanent American base to ensure stability
Economic growth will pay off the loans over 50 years 
Like Japan

if that is the Trump plan, it’s a good one

[brynmawr1]

I am at a conference for graft versus host disease (GVHD). I happens in bone marrow transplant recipients when the donor marrow mounts an immune response against the patient if they don't match well enough. It's a terrible disease with around 50% mortality. Groups from around the world come to share their research findings. Some of the research is funded by NIH grants as well as done by NIH scientists. 40 or so presenters from the NIH were not able to attend due to the freeze imposed by the current administration. That might seem like a small thing, but this work, as everything at the NIH does affects real people in life and death ways. To just issue a blanket ban shows no understanding of what is at stake for real people. I don't just mean the NIH but all of the government agencies that have been affected. These people do real work that people depend on, work that benefits everyone in America, the world for that matter.

That's the kind of detail that people who think what is happening is a good thing can't bother to consider. It's all abstraction and innuendo. There must be corruption they chant, then cheer the removal of every anti-corruption organization that has been formed for their protection. It wasn't the democrats that killed any oversight of COVID money that then the right took credit for bringing home after voting against it. It's all 1984 double speak. So Duke, stop the vague bullshit and actually say something.

Regarding Gaza, Trump's plan is just more arrogant western imperialism. It is so fucking naive to think that America can just relocate 1.7 million people that don't want it to somewhere they aren't wanted and it's just going to be "so beautiful". Just discussing it is a ready made recruitment ad for radicalization. No matter what happens with that land, it's not going to end well. The area has been condemned to generations more violence.

[busker]

I am at a conference for graft versus host disease (GVHD).  I happens in bone marrow transplant recipients when the donor marrow mounts an immune response against the patient if they don't match well enough.  It's a terrible disease with around 50% mortality.  Groups from around the world come to share their research findings.  Some of the research is funded by NIH grants as well as done by NIH scientists.  40 or so presenters from the NIH were not able to attend due to the freeze imposed by the current administration.  That might seem like a small thing, but this work, as everything at the NIH does affects real people in life and death ways.  To just issue a blanket ban shows no understanding of what is at stake for real people.  I don't just mean the NIH but all of the government agencies that have been affected.  These people do real work that people depend on, work that benefits everyone in America, the world for that matter.

That's the kind of detail that people who think what is happening is a good thing can't bother to consider.  It's all abstraction and innuendo.  There must be corruption they chant, then cheer the removal of every anti-corruption organization that has been formed for their protection.  It wasn't the democrats that killed any oversight of COVID money that then the right took credit for bringing home after voting against it.  It's all 1984 double speak.  So Duke, stop the vague bullshit and actually say something.

Regarding Gaza, Trump's plan is just more arrogant western imperialism.  It is so fucking naive to think that America can just relocate 1.7 million people that don't want it to somewhere they aren't wanted and it's just going to be "so beautiful".  Just discussing it is a ready made recruitment ad for radicalization.  No matter what happens with that land, it's not going to end well.  The area has been condemned to generations more violence.

Musk is of course fucking America up internally in the most egregious case of open corporate regulatory capture in modern history. And the various assorted morons and semi educated simians who simp for him won’t see that. But in his second term I don’t think Trump gives a fuck about America’s internal affairs. Whatever happens, it’s large enough to survive four years, and he can’t be arsed with what happens after that. If there’s a biiiiiiig shit show that gets out of hand, he’s got an autistic self imagined genius in Musk to take to the guillotine. It’s perfect.

Trump wants to be remembered as the man who solved the world’s biggest problems. The Levant is one.

You are writing it off, but it is the only workable plan

Going back to what it used to be is the definition of madness because it’s failed every time.

Temporarily relocating 1.7 million people isn’t that big a deal.
The war in Syria displaced 7mn+ people.
There are 3.7 mn Afghan refugees in Pakistan 
15 million people were “relocated” during the partition of India.

Temporarily relocating 1.7 mn people is a cakewalk

---

of course, this mess wouldn’t have been there if the west hadn’t decided to endorse the colonisation of Palestine with an imported population in 1948 just because Germany had done a number on them a few years before, but that’s water under the bridge at this stage.

[brynmawr1]

I don’t think it’s ethnic cleansing
The Palestinians have been held hostage for years by an Iran funded terrorist group that’s made matters intractable for everyone around 
The solution is to make the Gazans so wealthy that there’s no support for Hamas again
This means make them live in a Dubai like place, with great jobs, good housing, and luxury.
The infrastructure will be financed by America and Saudi Arabia, say.
There will be a permanent American base to ensure stability
Economic growth will pay off the loans over 50 years 
Like Japan

if that is the Trump plan, it’s a good one
[/quote]

On paper.  I agree that the Palestinians have been held hostage, but both by Hamas and Israel.  To execute your plan would take billions and at least a decade.  Where do they live in the mean time?  If Trump had the Palestinians best interest in mind, this plan would be done within Gaza, but where ever it is done the construction will be constantly hounded by militants from every muslim culture around the world, which means that the American peacekeepers will be getting killed and maimed for many years.  Something no-one here has the stomach for at this time.  This is a generational problem that can't just be fixed.  The only way to advance constructive change is constant subtle pressure via soft diplomacy.  Not incidentally, the kind provided by USaid that whittles away the establishment.  In the short-term the area is fucked.  The Palestinians will continue to suffer and Israel has painted an even bigger target on their back.

[busker]

I can think of a zillion ways in which the resettlement of Gaza can happen. We start with a master plan. There’s a plot of land or a flat for every Gazan family in that master plan. There’s a value assigned to that. There’s a trump tower and seed funding for named Palestinian corporations
Things can be made better
I should tweet this to that apartheid child

---

I have worked as a consultant on DfID projects in the power sector
Similar to usaid, but British
The majority of that money goes to consultants and service providers who churn paper
I loved my per diem. I gained quite a bit of weight living off the largesse of the UK taxpayer and felt sorry for them at the same time.
It is far better to lend money to private corporations and businesses, even governments, than aid agencies

---

Money makes everyone happy
The only reason the Saudis haven’t toppled their prince is because the moolah is great

[brynmawr1]

I can think of a zillion ways in which the resettlement of Gaza can happen. We start with a master plan. There’s a plot of land or a flat for every Gazan family in that master plan. There’s a value assigned to that. There’s a trump tower and seed funding for named Palestinian corporations
Things can be made better
I should tweet this to that apartheid child

---

I have worked as a consultant on DfID projects in the power sector
Similar to usaid, but British
The majority of that money goes to consultants and service providers who churn paper
I loved my per diem. I gained quite a bit of weight living off the largesse of the UK taxpayer and felt sorry for them at the same time.
It is far better to lend money to private corporations and businesses, even governments, than aid agencies

---

Money makes everyone happy
The only reason the Saudis haven’t toppled their prince is because the moolah is great

I think my main point is that when one group of people starts to decide what is best for another group of people it doesn't go well.  And why do they need to be resettled?  They just need to be able to live free.  Let them run their own resort destination rather than trump and his family use it as a real estate investment.