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Home » It turns out that many media sites favoring Democrats have been on the USAID payroll

It turns out that many media sites favoring Democrats have been on the USAID payroll

The New Neo Posted on by

Wow.

No wonder Democrats are so incensed at Musk and his Musketeers and their efforts to expose the nuts and bolts of who receives USAID money. It turns out that Politico – the site that broke the story of the 51 “intelligence experts” saying the Hunter laptop was Russian disinformation – has been on the taxpayer payroll to the tune of many millions. As has the Democrat-favoring AP.

We assumed that websites such as Politico had private benefactors. But USAID? I can’t say the thought ever crossed my mind, skeptical and distrustful as I am of the left.

See this:

And here’s the scoop on Politico:

Also the NY Times and the BBC. Hey, the more the merrier. Much of this – or at least some – seems to have been in the form of paid premium subscriptions.

Much more here, including this about the legality of what DOGE is doing:

As for Musk and usurpation, attorney and activist Tom Renz points out that the Trump administration planned carefully for this effort. Trump took an existing agency from the Obama era that focused on software development and tasked it instead to do a deep data dive on federal spending. He then made Musk a partner to the US DOGE Service — told you it would be important — to facilitate the effort …

… [T]he real lesson from this is that the executive branch has too much authority over too-huge amounts of discretionary spending. That also means that the executive branch can rescind those spending decisions unilaterally, however. So far, it appears that the USDS has been careful to avoid spending that Congress specifically directs in statute or in budget line items, and instead is taking aim at everything else. That has been the case in every single department that DOGE has touched, especially at USAID, where spending is not only discretionary but has never been effectively checked by executives at State or the White House.

Comments

It turns out that many media sites favoring Democrats have been on the USAID payroll — 29 Comments

  1. Watching the revelations emerge from the D.O.G.E. team is near unto wandering into the world of the “projectors” in Swift’s Gulliver’sTravels, Part III, chapter 5: on the Academy at Lagado:

    The author permitted to see the grand academy of Lagado. The academy largely described. The arts wherein the professors employ themselves.
    [ . . . ] I was received very kindly by the warden, and went for many days to the academy. Every room has in it one or more projectors; and I believe I could not be in fewer than five hundred rooms.

    The first man I saw was of a meagre aspect, with sooty hands and face, his hair and beard long, ragged, and singed in several places. His clothes, shirt, and skin, were all of the same colour. He had been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put in phials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw inclement summers. He told me, he did not doubt, that, in eight years more, he should be able to supply the governor’s gardens with sunshine, at a reasonable rate; but he complained that his stock was low, and entreated me “to give him something as an encouragement to ingenuity, especially since this had been a very dear season for cucumbers.” I made him a small present, for my lord had furnished me with money on purpose, because he knew their practice of begging from all who go to see them.

    I went into another chamber, but was ready to hasten back, being almost overcome with a horrible stink. My conductor pressed me forward, conjuring me in a whisper “to give no offence, which would be highly resented;” and therefore I durst not so much as stop my nose. The projector of this cell was the most ancient student of the academy; his face and beard were of a pale yellow; his hands and clothes daubed over with filth. When I was presented to him, he gave me a close embrace, a compliment I could well have excused. His employment, from his first coming into the academy, was an operation to reduce human excrement to its original food, by separating the several parts, removing the tincture which it receives from the gall, making the odour exhale, and scumming off the saliva. He had a weekly allowance, from the society, of a vessel filled with human ordure, about the bigness of a Bristol barrel.

    I saw another at work to calcine ice into gunpowder; who likewise showed me a treatise he had written concerning the malleability of fire, which he intended to publish.

    There was a most ingenious architect, who had contrived a new method for building houses, by beginning at the roof, and working downward to the foundation; which he justified to me, by the like practice of those two prudent insects, the bee and the spider.

    https://www.gutenberg.org/files/829/829-h/829-h.htm#part03

    So many projects! So little time!

  2. Is the US Federal government allowed to fund oestensibly news outlets (but really propaganda outlets in favor of leftists) in such ways? Will their be legal repercussions for those who are responsible?

  3. This is incredible news.

    It didn’t seem so at the time, but Trump’s 2020 loss may have turned out for the better. I doubt that Trump, if elected in 2020, would have gone after the Democrat-infested Government with the thoroughness he has shown in the past two weeks. Trump’s nature is to be a deal maker. The intractable behavior of the Democrats from 2016 on—but especially from 2020 on—has shown Trump that making deals with the Democrats is a fool’s game.

  4. I have been enjoying the Dem congress critters going ape on TV over some of their slush funds being drained. Millions will die. No…, but maybe the AP and Politico will.

    Looking at the details a bit, it seems that the AP has been dipping into these funds for a long time, but it looks like it just started last year for Politico…, unless my thought and conjecture below is true.

    The following is a recollection and a conjecture: I was most amazed by one factor in the RussiaGate story. That factor was the idea that some US actors (political or government or both) had enlisted & orchestrated various foreign intelligence people to engage in nefarious activities, that would have been illegal if a US person had performed them. So this is criminality laundering via foreign intel people.

    Conjecture: Now we have USAID exposed as a giant corrupt slush fund, funding who knows what? Nominally, they are supposed to deliver funds to foreign people. What if they are funding foreign actors, who might have legitimate credentials, who then turn around and deposit chunks of cash in almost anybody’s pocket. US congress persons, US corporate accounts, entirely criminal people operating in the US? Use your imagination.

  6. Some snippets from Claude:

    What is the purpose of the USAID?

    USAID (United States Agency for International Development) is the primary U.S. government agency responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and promoting international development.

    Why are American non-governmental organizations (NGOs) getting this USAID money?

    American NGOs receive USAID funding through a structured grant and contract system for several key reasons:
    snip
    snip snip

    • 2. Accountability: U.S. organizations are subject to American laws and regulations, making it easier for USAID to maintain oversight and ensure proper use of taxpayer funds.
    snip snip snip
    snip
    The relationship between USAID and American NGOs has been subject to debate, snip, while others emphasize the importance of maintaining strong accountability measures through U.S.-based partners.

    Newly sworn in AG Pam Bondi needs to look in on these “accountability measures”. Trump is thinking about sending some of the new 90,000 IRS agents to the border, but maybe IRS should also be helping AG Bondi.

    Grant Fraud Responsibilities

    Using federal grant dollars for unjust enrichment, personal gain, or other than their intended use is a form of theft, subject to criminal and civil prosecution under the laws of the United States.

    Bet potential rats are thick as hops in all these American non-governmental organizations (NGOs)…

  7. i think it was a revision of the smith mundt act of 1952, which allowed domestic propaganda, of course there was the mockingbird revelations which were mostly apocryphal,from carl bernstein, this runs parallel, to the journolist, which was the other feedback loop

  8. Apparently the UK public funded BBC also received USAID to the tune of $3.2 million. WTF!? As this onion’s layers are peeled away I wouldn’t be shocked to find most of the global media ecosystem on the take. FJB/FBO.

  9. The trouble is that none of the lib/ everyday democrats will ever see any of this. And if they do, they’ll assume it’s all a lie. I’ve lost total faith in 40% of the population.

  10. DOGE is conducting the long-overdue mother of all audits. There is nothing illegal or unconstitutional about it, Democrat screeching notwithstanding.

  11. @TommyJay:US congress persons

    Yes, including some Republicans.

    Seeing all these big names on such a tiny fraction of EINs, and so many names associated with establishment Republicans, I am lead to conclude that these NGOs *are* the so-called uniparty.

    NED includes both Democrats (Karen Bass) and Republicans (Elise Stefanik, Mel Martinez, Steve Biegun). IRI is packed with GOP heavyweights (Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, Mitt Romney) but operates under the same umbrella as its “Democratic” counterpart, NDI, which boasts figures like Stacey Abrams, Tom Daschle, and Donna Brazile. Even IFES, positioned as neutral, features top Democrats (Steny Hoyer) and Republicans (Rob Portman) working side by side.

    TL;DR: We are funneling massive amounts of taxpayer money—mostly through the State Department and USAID—to NGOs stacked with high-profile establishment politicians from both parties.

    And this is just from pulling one thread that started with one NGO: Consortium for Elections & Political Process Strengthening.

    How many more are out there waiting to be uncovered?

  13. Is this true?

    No employee at Politico got paid yesterday. First time ever the company missed a pay period.

    It implies their entire payroll was coming from the federal government? I hate how cynical I’ve become, but it always seems that in retrospect, I wasn’t cynical enough.

  14. National12 Feb 2023 2:42 am AEDTShare
    Samantha Power Visits Hungary for USAID

    USAID
    On February 9, Administrator Samantha Power arrived in Budapest and met with a group of young Hungarians to discuss their aspirations and perspectives on developments in Hungary.

    On February 10, the Administrator began the day with a student-moderated discussion at Berzsenyi Dániel High School, where they discussed public service, the U.S.-Hungary relationship, and a range of foreign affairs and development issues. When Administrator Power asked the room of 200 students how they viewed their future, a student told her, “It’s up to us to make it positive.”

    She then met with Hungarian governance and rights advocates, including representatives from the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, K-Monitor, Transparency International, and Eötvös Loránd University to discuss their work supporting democracy, transparency, and rights in Hungary. The Administrator highlighted USAID’s newly launched work to help support democracy in Central Europe, including by bolstering civil society and helping independent media thrive and build new audiences. Administrator Power also held a meeting with advocates for human rights and LGBTQI+ communities, where they discussed the experiences of LGBTQI+ people in Hungary and their efforts to increase understanding, support marginalized groups, and improve the lives of LGBTQI+ people in Hungary. The Administrator emphasized that the United States will continue to stand as an ally with LGBTQI+ people and all marginalized groups in their struggle for equality.

    The Administrator met with Hungarian independent journalists and representatives of media-focused NGOs to discuss their commitment to reporting on issues of critical importance and views on how to address significant challenges to media freedom. They also discussed opportunities for expanding audiences and establishing sustainable revenue streams. On the steps of the historic Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library, the Administrator then spoke with local and international media about the U.S.-Hungary relationship and USAID’s relaunched work in Hungary.

    So we are using USAID money in Hungary to support “alternative” media working to defeat Orban and support LBGTQI+ issues and counter Hungary’s passage of anti-pedophilia (child protection) laws.

    That’s the kind of power projection the liberal left in the US apparently wants.

  15. @ Niketas, from your excerpt > “IRI is packed with GOP heavyweights (Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, Mitt Romney) but operates under the same umbrella as its “Democratic” counterpart, NDI, which boasts figures like Stacey Abrams, Tom Daschle, and Donna Brazile.”

    I assume that’s the same Marco Rubio who is the new Secretary of State, and who is pulling USAID’s legitimate projects back under the umbrella of State.
    Yesterday on one of the threads I counted that as a plus on his account.

    Maybe not.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14355251/shocking-ways-usaid-spent-money.html
    “Now, Musk and officials at his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are readying to dissolve the agency and roll it into the State Department, an idea the Tesla CEO says Trump is on board with. …Rubio announced Monday he is now the acting director of USAID. ”

    However, I can think of ways that Rubio participated peripherally in the NGO taking money from USAID, and was not aware of the total extent of the incestuous connections.

    These old stories might be counter-weights.
    We will have to see what he does.

    https://townhall.com/tipsheet/rebeccadowns/2021/06/04/rubio-outrageous-that-unelected-bureaucrats-would-hinder-investigation-into-wuhan-lab-n2590503

    https://notthebee.com/article/watch-sen-marco-rubio-takes-a-gattling-gun-to-the-woke-corporate-hypocrites-at-delta-airlines

  16. Disgusting, but not really surprising. It turns out the terms “Regime Media” and “State Run Media” were more than just rhetoric.
    ——————————————————————–
    sdferr, re Gulliver’s Travels, lol

  17. Nonapod linked to an Ace post on the State Run Regime Media (LOL) and I read through the comments there, which I seldom do. Among some interesting tidbits (Mitch McConnell fell again) and speculations (what Trump told Obama at Carter’s funeral), was this hilarious skit about the USAID programs we have been funding (IOW the graft that the Left has been skimming for years).

    https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1887174051057020959

    I don’t actually think Trump leaked his plan to Obama, but he could have.
    Maybe.
    https://acecomments.mu.nu/?blog=86&post=413546#c40763783

    479 That little exchange between Trump and Obama at Carter’s funeral is taking form.

    “We need to talk. Not here. Somewhere private. It’s important.”

    I’m willing to bet Trump told him exactly what he planned to do, and that if he fought it or spoke against it, Trump would go directly after Obama personally. Michelle is skedaddling the marriage to protect her assets. And, today fundraisers are pulling away from Obama citing the divorce, but in all likelihood because or how effective Trump is at exposing all of this and they don’t want it attached to them. Obama (and Hillary for that matter) have been extremely complacent and quiet.
    Posted by: Orson at February 05, 2025 01:01 PM (dIske)

    This one is for Snow on Pine 😉
    206 With the amount of irrefutable proof that the things they called us crazy for suggesting these days, I’m starting to think maybe we should take a second look at Area 51.

    How I want things to go from here:
    298 To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their Vindman . . . .

  20. So…is it time to conclude that California’s high-speed train “boondoggle” is NOT QUITE a boondoggle but a long-term Gavin Unwholesome SLUSH FUND?

    “California’s high speed rail faces new delays and a $6.5 billion funding gap”—
    https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/california-state-report-high-speed-rail-faces-65-billion-funding-gap

    + Bonus:
    Funny how that palindrome always seems to POP up…
    “Before it was shuttered, USAID routed funds to Soros-aligned causes, terrorists and drag queens”…
    https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/it-was-shuttered-usaid-routed-funds-soros-causes-terrorists-and

    To be honest, I assumed that he was—sub-rosa—helping “Biden” fund all this stuff…

    Guess this was the way for the Man of Constant Soros to get his money back….

  21. @ Barry > “(from the “That’s my Girl” Dossier…)”

    I knew the Clintons would show up eventually.
    But, given their age and obsolescence in the political world, what are all those NGOs paying them FOR?

  22. Bottom line is that the Democrats in government were subsidizing everyone they weren’t censoring.

  24. Watch “free speech advocates” be more mad about Trump going after CBS for deceptive editing of the Harris interview than they are about government funding of news agencies to promote certain political views.

  25. This is just the beginning. DOGE is apparently moving on to the National Institute of Health. As they move through the government, there will be outrage after outrage, so many we’ll be left to shrug our shoulders at the power usurped, the potential destroyed, the lives ruined, the spirits extinguished on the altar of statists’ need for more, always more.

    On the bright side, we are going to find out just how much money our government REALLY needs to protect our individual rights and provide essential services. Once we have that information, we will see just how overtaxed we are. Then the shrugging will stop and those who sowed the wind will reap the whirlwind.

  26. Um, not sure that “Biden” was providing “essential services”, exactly.

    (Well, maybe to Politico employees, et al…)

  28. @AesopFan:I assume that’s the same Marco Rubio who is the new Secretary of State, and who is pulling USAID’s legitimate projects back under the umbrella of State.

    The same; the same who was part of the Gang of Eight Republicans and Democrats who collaborated on neutering meaningful immigration reform.

    Since he hasn’t much principle, he can probably be counted on to help as long as Trump looks like he’s winning.

    However, I can think of ways that Rubio participated peripherally in the NGO taking money from USAID, and was not aware of the total extent of the incestuous connections.

    I’m sure you can, but any of these people we’re digging up could plausibly say the same thing, and that is what the Swamp has always counted on: diffusion of accountability.

  29. @ Niketas > “I’m sure you can, but any of these people we’re digging up could plausibly say the same thing, and that is what the Swamp has always counted on: diffusion of accountability.”

    Agreed.
    I was attempting to maintain a veneer of open-mindedness, to delay my jumping totally on board with the admonitions of the Mencken quote on the Ace of Spades banner.
    https://ace.mu.nu/

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