The democratic convulsions over USAID is delightful. Tell me you're mad about your money laundering organization going away without telling me, folks.
The Trump Presidency 2.0
- Thread starter Box
- Start date
Box
Verified SOF
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2018
- Messages
- 2,335
What really baffles me about the "CIA angle" to this entire USAID debacle is the bizarre shit that was being funded.
If someone could explain to me how a transgender turkey shoot in Belize - or an LGBTQQIP2SAA puppet show in Syria - or gain of function research in Wuhan - or a 4-D star trek chess set to Venezuela - a special edition of Rue Pauls Drag race in Siberia - or even sending $60.8 million in contraception and condoms to other countries in fiscal year 2023 - was advancing US national security in the region - I'd probably feel different about the whole "USAID as a CIA front" component of this story line. The problem is, I just can't see how programs that advance the agenda of entities HOSTILE to American goals and values are somehow worth 40 billion dollars worth of beer money.
I just need someone more virtuous than I am to fill me in on the appropriate amount of outrage I should be showing
If someone could explain to me how a transgender turkey shoot in Belize - or an LGBTQQIP2SAA puppet show in Syria - or gain of function research in Wuhan - or a 4-D star trek chess set to Venezuela - a special edition of Rue Pauls Drag race in Siberia - or even sending $60.8 million in contraception and condoms to other countries in fiscal year 2023 - was advancing US national security in the region - I'd probably feel different about the whole "USAID as a CIA front" component of this story line. The problem is, I just can't see how programs that advance the agenda of entities HOSTILE to American goals and values are somehow worth 40 billion dollars worth of beer money.
I just need someone more virtuous than I am to fill me in on the appropriate amount of outrage I should be showing
ThunderHorse
Verified Military
This issue reminds me of how it's impossible to hired at Google because they won't authorize new head counts and won't fire people who don't work. Sounds like the Federal Government? At Google when projects need to be plussed up, they hire contractors to teams. Mind you these are indefinite term...and they report to the same building, just don't have the same rights...sort of like the H1B farms.
20k federal employees have taken the buyout... rookie numbers. We gotta pump those numbers way up.
We'll see if they get to the 5% they thought they would. I really think they could have reached 10%+ if they hadn't tried to speed run it.
I know a few people who would take it if their was an actual document ensuring they'd get retirement other than the "trust us bro" emails we keep getting.
Box
Verified SOF
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2018
- Messages
- 2,335
There are folks all over my building that are talking about it - found out today that a few of them already dropped their "deferred resignation" EARLY in the process...
...so they can retire in July/August
We just spent "pre-lunch" where I work doing a "Town Hall" so the CHRD could give everyone ground truth on the process and I am preeeeetty sure based on the questions being asked that a few more folks are going to cut bait now than were originally planning...
...free money and you can get a second job and STILL retire on time !!!
...so they can retire in July/August
We just spent "pre-lunch" where I work doing a "Town Hall" so the CHRD could give everyone ground truth on the process and I am preeeeetty sure based on the questions being asked that a few more folks are going to cut bait now than were originally planning...
...free money and you can get a second job and STILL retire on time !!!
Last edited:
I think they got what they deserved, but I get your point. I'll take 2.5%, and then the move out of DC.
ThunderHorse
Verified Military
Consider that in October, we shed 28,000 private sector jobs...but somehow the Federal government hired 40,000 people So the Jill admin could point to positive job growth...
Where Are New Jobs Coming From? - Everything Policy - Briefs
TLDR20
Verified SOF
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2009
- Messages
- 6,671
I will preface this by saying I truly do not care. I’ve been pushed back to what I consider center by politics the last few years. I am still certainly to the left of many members here, but honestly I feel what i feel is left leaning from me, has become some altered disgusting platform. At the end of the day, I’ll be fine. I am in a recession proof job, and I work in a place that barely takes Medicare.
However. This is not well planned, and “burning it to the ground” is gonna burn a lot of Americans to the ground. There will be immense second order effects that are just being ignored as of now. What happens when some pay person at the Social Security agency stops coming to work, there is no one to back fill and SS checks stop going out? Great, we saved some money? But now long term you might cripple a family with a dependent. In the short term we are owning the “money launderers” at USAID, but in the long term we might be taking senior citizens fixed income payments, on money they were promised. I truly hope none of this happens.
I hope we can have a functioning government. I had fears of project 2025 stuff before the election, and those things keep popping up.
And now. We are planning to take over the Gaza Strip according to President Trump. How could that go poorly?
However. This is not well planned, and “burning it to the ground” is gonna burn a lot of Americans to the ground. There will be immense second order effects that are just being ignored as of now. What happens when some pay person at the Social Security agency stops coming to work, there is no one to back fill and SS checks stop going out? Great, we saved some money? But now long term you might cripple a family with a dependent. In the short term we are owning the “money launderers” at USAID, but in the long term we might be taking senior citizens fixed income payments, on money they were promised. I truly hope none of this happens.
I hope we can have a functioning government. I had fears of project 2025 stuff before the election, and those things keep popping up.
And now. We are planning to take over the Gaza Strip according to President Trump. How could that go poorly?
TLDR20
Verified SOF
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2009
- Messages
- 6,671
ThunderHorse
Verified Military
Brother, we didn't have a functioning government the last four years. This can't be nearly as bad.
Also, can we get USCIS to cap these H1Bs and H1B renewals. Time to get American engineers into engineering.
TLDR20
Verified SOF
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2009
- Messages
- 6,671
I don’t know what your connection is to engineering, but my wife is an engineer and everyone who works for her is, she isn’t hiring foreign visa holders because it is a pain in the fucking ass. Sometimes bro the sound bites aren’t real.there are roughly 85k total H1B visas total per year. Literally a drop in the bucket. Hiring them is a pain in the ass because you have to show you couldn’t hire an American.
They don’t hand out these visas to engineers. They are given to people who bring exceptional ability to science and engineering, with caveats. Most of my wife’s PH.D cohort who were foreigners(only a few) were required to stay after their Ph.Ds. This was at “The Ivy of the south”, and a top 3 program in the nation. My wife was an NSF fellow, and has pretty mad bona fides in engineering.
ETA: something that is rarely mentioned is that many of the grants that fund research, particularly DOD and DARPA, don’t allow certain people to work on them. DOD and DARPA fund a lot. They funded a huge grant my wife received for her Ph.D in tissue engineering, as it related to the long term treatment of burn related scarring. This is improtant because labs can’t fund research that doesn’t have outside funding. So if a grant excludes foreigners, they can’t take a foreign student.
Last edited:
ThunderHorse
Verified Military
H1Bs are exceptionally abused. I've seen it first hand. So are O-1s. There are numerous Americans who are qualified for roles who aren't getting hired in place of foreign people. Like this will tell you how bad H1Bs are abused. You all remember Milo, right? He was on an H1B.
Manifest destiny. I thought you’d be happy that finally the open air prison was liberated and protections would be granted to underprivileged Gazans. End to suffering? End to abject poverty? No? Oppressor de liber and all that?
Can this day GET any better? That oughta get us to that 10%.
TLDR20
Verified SOF
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2009
- Messages
- 6,671
N
I give zero fucks about the Palestinians or the Israelis. I’ve been pretty consistent on this issue my entire life. They’ve been fighting over that land since western written history. I don’t want to be involved. I would challenge anyone to find me saying anything positive about either side. I do not consider the Israelis our ally in any sense of the word, and the Palestinian leadership are terrorists.
Miss me with the jab at a de Oppresso Liber.
I give zero fucks about the Palestinians or the Israelis. I’ve been pretty consistent on this issue my entire life. They’ve been fighting over that land since western written history. I don’t want to be involved. I would challenge anyone to find me saying anything positive about either side. I do not consider the Israelis our ally in any sense of the word, and the Palestinian leadership are terrorists.
Miss me with the jab at a de Oppresso Liber.
ThunderHorse
Verified Military
So apparently like 25-40% of the FBI was involved in the January 6th investigation...
Similar threads
