Yes, I have kept quiet for long enough. Yup I have seen all the comments about fraudulent spending at USAID. Follow the money and you will find who approved it! Wasteful spending for sure! Must have been the Biden administration for sure! Government employees hiding something! Once again, many folks just cut and pasting from another post or social media outlet, without ever researching or understanding what the hell is going on. I even saw a post where someone cut and pasted Elon Musk’s security clearance which would allow him access to sensitive government files and systems, like what is happening in Washington, DC now. Someone responded with a question, “Has this been fact checked”? My point exactly. Stop posting shit unless you, YOU, fact check it! Just because it was said or someone posted it, doesn’t make it reality. Ask Alex Jones how much it cost to spread false information.
And what really bothers me is most of the people (not all), who are posting shit about USAID spending, and fraud, and shutting them down, don’t even understand how the system works. Nor will they take the time to research the subject.
Kind of like if news outlets were blocked from providing you with factual information, and all you’re allowed to hear is the information put out by a Government run news outlet or news outlets specifically approved by your government, then all you will believe is what you are fed. This is what happens in Russia, North Korea, China and other authoritarian countries. So, I did some fact checking for you.
- Musk has top-secret clearance but no permissions for sensitive compartmented information, limiting his access to specific SpaceX spy satellite programs such as Starshield. Dec 18, 2024
His security clearance only relates to SpaceX information and does not apply across the Federal Government. Unlike some of the folks I know and have worked with, who do have Top Secret security clearance, Elon’s does not allow him access to all top-secret info within the U.S. Government outside of the SpaceX program. That would also include the lame teenagers who are doing his bidding.
I did some other research for you as well.
FRAUDULENT – obtained, done by or involving deception, especially criminal deception.
ACTING FRAUDULENT – acting with or having the intent to deceive. Relating to or proceeding from fraud or dishonest action.
In law, fraud is intentional deception to deprive a victim of a legal right or to gain from a victim unlawfully or unfairly. Fraud can violate civil law or criminal law, or it may cause no loss of money, property, or legal right but still be an element of another civil or criminal wrong.
Jesus Christ (shit, there goes that commandment again) this sounds so much like someone I know and trust. Not!
APPROPRIATION – a law by congress that provides an agency with budgetary authority. An appropriation allows the agency to incur and make payments from the U.S. Treasury for specified purposes.
You may not like what the appropriation is being spent on, but it is allowed by law of Congress and regulations by the Department/Agency. But it is not fraudulent. So just because Elon Musk goes around the office with his pants on fire yelling FRAUD!, FRAUD!, FRAUD!, doesn’t make it true.
U.S. Department of State’s mission is to protect and promote U.S. security, prosperity and democratic values and shape an international environment in which all Americans can thrive. USAID falls under the State Department. I remember working at FEMA (DC) on the Haiti hurricane response in 2016. USAID was one of the U.S. Government agencies that help with the response and provided funding for the recovery.
USAID (U.S Agency for International Development) – is the principal agency to extend assistance to countries recovering from disaster, trying to escape poverty, and engaging in democratic reforms.
Now I think we can all agree that there is wasteful spending throughout the government. On all sides. We may not like where money is spent, what it is spent on, or who is allowed to spend it, but that is what we have. If you don’t like the above, then talk to your legislators on all sides. The funny thing is, if Congress approves the appropriation, then the agency is allowed to spend the money. But let’s not call it fraud. If the agency was authorized to spend it, then they are allowed to spend it based on laws/regulations. The only folks who can revoke that spending, is Congress, not the President or some lame secondhand quasi government employee. Don’t get me wrong, I think we need to take a look at spending across the board in government, but not the way it is being done. I think some programs as silly as they may seem to you, make a difference on the global stage. I also don’t think we should be looking at the penny, nickel & dime funding that folks are complaining about within USAID. Looking at the wasteful pork spending in legislative districts, and larger government projects should be the focus.
Elon Musk thinks he should walk in and dismantle all federal agencies just like he did Twitter (X). Twitter (X) is losing market share and losing users in both the US & UK. If the president did know how to run a business, and I still question that, he would follow the lead of other large organizations. Even the Secretary of State Marco Rubio (who Trump made fun of during his campaign, yet for some reason Marco, continues to pander to him) has said that the state organization reviews being done, are standard review processes. Not! It is a complete screw up of an organization’s processes without knowing what the organization actually does. Terrible business practice. When performing an operational review of your organization, you allow it to run at the same time. You evaluate what the processes are, and what value they bring to the organization. You should also know what your organizations core competencies are, which our president does not. Neither he nor Elon Musk understand the global system that a nation’s government operates within. It is much different than the global marketplace a business operates within.
Once you have evaluated the organization’s processes, and understand what the organization’s core competencies are, then you can begin to make changes. The changes that may be made may require a reduction in force. If a reduction in force is needed, then it should be handled through attrition (retirements), transitions and then and only then, lay-offs. When you lay off entire departments without a plan, what happens to the services the department provides? What happens to the citizens who were receiving those services? I guess it doesn’t matter when you are a millionaire, and you don’t need to worry about those things.
Knowing how the president has handled negotiations in the past with workers & vendors, I’m not convinced that a government employee who takes the severance, will ever see the severance. His art of the deal is that there is always a winner & loser. His negotiations are short-term transactions. Never good for a business. Maybe that is why he has filed for bankruptcy so many times. It isn’t good on the world stage either. When you start to distance yourself from other countries because of your transactional negotiations, the losers start looking for someone else to deal with. That is when the U.S starts to lose its stance in the world. There are many other countries (Russia & China) who would love to step in and take our place.
I guess the President doesn’t remember he supported USAID in his last administration because his daughter was championing a woman supported program funded through USAID. He supported it because at the time, it was a win for him. All his deals are transactional. He wins someone loses. That is why he back tracks on many things he say. It all depends on how he can benefit at the time.
Very similar to what Trump said to the Arabs for Trump organization. Prior to the election he said he agreed 100% in a 2-state solution. Now that they have voted for him and he won the presidency, he doesn’t need them anymore. Now he wants Arabs to leave Gaza. Transactional. The only reason he wants to turn Gaza into a vacation spot, is so one of his failing companies, run by his son, can profit from investing in real estate there. Hence the President making money off his position. Transactional. All I care about is how I benefit.
Transactional Fraud!