Of course, she will defend her reign, but what are her most substantive points and does she accept any blame? That's my attitude as I'm reading this to make some excerpts for you. Power begins by listing some things that will seem good to many or most Americans — health programs, "giving girls a chance to get an education," "growing local economies," "helping communities rebuild after ISIS."
She asserts that these activities have "generated vast stores of political capital" for the United States. They have also, she said, been the subject of attacks by China and Russia. Those attacks she calls "propaganda." And what we did... well, that was in the interest of the United States:
After U.S.A.I.D. expanded its partnerships in the Pacific Islands in 2023, Chinese and Russian state-backed media spread disinformation before the 2024 general election in the Solomon Islands. The false claims suggested that U.S.A.I.D. planned to incite riots and orchestrate an electoral coup. Russian intelligence used a new media outlet called African Initiative to smear U.S. health programs in Africa... claiming the programs were covertly carrying out biological testing....
If the claims weren't false, would you tell us?
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68 comments:
We should do all those good things.
After.
After every American child is fed.
After every American family is housed.
After every American vet is rehabilitated.
After every American dollar of debt is repaid.
And not until then.
A family DROWNING in debt does not donate to charities. That would be reprehensible action ... giving your money away while your own family starves and is impoverished.
Samantha Power should NEVER hold any government job ever again.
Any worthy foreign aid initiatives can be run through the State Department. US AID was structured to be an easy cut-out, and patronage and kick-back haven.
Call Powers before Congress, that’d be interesting.
Samantha Powers and the New York Times.
Totally believable.
She said, “I know what it’s like to be dead.”
She was/is one of the rogue insubordinates that Rubio spoke of.
On NPR, I heard a Defense of USAID that was similar to that of Powers. All the bad things were skipped over, and the reporter told us USAID helped starving kids in Africa, women "oppressed" in Afghanistan, and was essential to achieve US foreign policy goals.
Lying by omission. You can defend almost any organization (even the Nazi Ss or MAO's Red guards) by focusing on their good side and ignoring everything else.
I don't think anyone is against helping starving kids in Africa. But not only is their massive waste, fraud, and abuse, but USAID is putting a leftwing agenda in large numbers of countries. How would we like it if Russia or whoever was financing NGO's and bribing people to change American Society?
The Cold war is over. We need to stop the imperialism.
The list of vague good things. (who could argue with that! The hivemind will be impressed. The normals - not.)
Are girls in America held back from a solid and good education?
well - if true at all - it would be because of the corrupt democrat party Teacher's Union. The Teacher's union exists to stuff money in union coffers, hire more lackey bureaucrats - and circle jerk more money back to the Democrat party. Education is the last thing it cares about.
"Hey what about starving kids in Africa?" is similar to "Hey, what about parks and libraries?" whenever anyone wants to cut local county or city spending. Its the same ol' scam.
Her lips are moving again shes a wretched scoundrel
Samantha Powers testified in front of Congress in 2017 that she never tried to unmask records containing information about General Michael Flynn. She did it 7 times. She said she 'didn't recall' ever doing that. Does that sound like an honest person? Bad apple.
Giving billions to the corrupt ocrats in yemen in afghanistan yes that will earn us no good will
Hi,
I’m Samantha Power from the CI...I mean USAID. You may remember me from such films as Who’re All These Weird Foreigners And Countries On Top Of OUR Oil!, Teaching Boys In Botswana To Put Condoms On Bananas Is A Blessing Of Freedom, and What Do You Mean Taxpayer Dollars Can't Pay For Cocaine!?!. Tl;Dr, this entire screed is essentially "but it's different when we do it!" the op-ed, but I'm really hoping it will maintain the illusion for 65yo+ housefrau demographic that worship Oprah and have lesbian crushes on Rachel Maddow.
Really wishing Donald hadn't looked to the right,
Samantha Power
https://www.frontpagemag.com/usaid-sent-over-18-billion-to-islamic-terror-states/
Giving money to various autocrats and even their opponents and saying this money is to educate young girls or feed the hungry in the best case frees up money already had they could have done those things with to be used for nefarious purposes. In most cases in goes directly in the their Swiss bank accounts.
According to Wikileaks, and based on the fact that ISIS is the terrorist group that only attacks people who are enemies of the CIA, or where the CIA needs a pretext to put our soldiers "to protect" countries, say in sub-Saharan Africa.
"Oh, your window got broken last night? Don't worry, just give us access to skim from your til and we will make sure it doesn't happen again." ISIS is part of a protection racket. They are not abandoning their narrative, they are doubling down on it. They think that their narrative is their ace in the hole and that nobody who matters will see through it.
But yeah, it's not a surprise that Samantha Powers, the person behind so many leaks of intercepted Trump phone calls before and after the 2016 election, the one who did so many "unmaskings" of the transcripts of intercepted phone calls of Trump people, and undoubtedly the one who leaked them to the press, ran AID.
If it was so important, Samantha, why did you allow it to become partisan, and why did you get it involved in domestic politics?
When the anti Trump people destroyed our democratic norms with reckless abandon, that's when this started. Not this week.
Where ever Samantha Powers shows up, revolution follows. Arab Spring. Color Revolution.
"Vast stores of political capital." Can we trade it for, say, Greenland? Maybe the Danes can make better use of all that political capital.
sorry, according to Wikileaks, we fund ISIS. Arming ISIS was what Ambassador Stevens was doing in Benghazi, buying up all of those weapons floating around after "European defensive alliance" NATO overthrew the government of Libya.
From The Hill, byline John Solomon: ‘Unmasker in Chief’ Samantha Power spewed anti-Trump bias in government emails
They've learned nothing.
In Austin, Texas I asked Samantha Power why she spied on Americans without a warrant. Remember that?
I’ll never forget a beautiful red head coed from UT asked Power if it was acceptable to bring children into a world racked by racism and doomed to burn up. Power danced around and gave her permission, but I was disgusted with how the Left has destroyed and perverted young minds.
The Dems put Power in charge of USAID for a very good reason.
Biden set a torch to the vast stores of political capital with his strong-arm tactics around the world, and his provocation of the Ukraine war, and having leaders in countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh overthrown and arrested.
I am sure that USAID got Solomon pushed out of The Hill, where he did great work.
It is a disgrace that our vets are not taken care of..
But Joe Biden's son --- is.
https://x.com/BenTallmadge01/status/1887697330318811331 carrying over
The corrupt left impeached Trump for asking Zelinski to look into Biden family corruption.
that's how corrupt the leftwing machine is.
NUDGE, NUDGE!!!!
The Dems are in complete disarray if they have to trot out the disgraced hyper-partisan to screech "Russian disinformation!" To defend USAID.
It used to be the world bank delivered the payoffs under mcnamara
Planned Parenthood provides PAP testing for poor women!
This TOTALLY JUSTIFIES their genocide against poor women
Samantha.......how can we miss you when you won't go away?
They need to trot that ugly face to tv so she can make this argument in all transparency.
I read the article. She points to USAID's efforts in "collaborating with communities in countries like Syria to reduce vulnerability to radicalization". Those efforts apparently could use a little more fine tuning. ....I don't suppose it's possible to spend billions without doing someone somewhere some good. From what I've read though, those billions weren't exclusively spent feeding starving children. There have been many substantive criticisms about the absolute wrong headedness of many of USAID's programs. What was notable about Powers' article is that she did not address a single one of those criticisms......She claims that China and Russia are waging a propaganda war against USAID in places around the world. Maybe so, but if she can't win the propaganda war in the United States, how does she expect to win the propaganda war in Kazakhstan.
Fair rewrite of the headline:
Though never elected by anyone, I was given unfettered access to huge swaths of your money, literally taken from your paychecks by force of law (which really means threat of physical force) to spend as I and only I saw fit, with no accountability and no requirement that I even so much as disclose where it went; taking that away from me somehow leads to autocracy.
Usaid is a money laundering scheme, nothing more. Efforts should be made to claw back every dollar. If it ruins people and, or organizations all the better. Ms. Power is incapable of telling the truth. She, like the hildabeast have never had any relationship with the truth. But, then, they are liberals. She and the hildabeast should be swinging in the breeze, by the neck until dead. Perhaps someone will be inclined to do just that, just for fun.
The Exile's article about Samantha Power and her now husband and his castoff partner was a cruel classic of the Obama years. It says a lot about our academic and ruling classes in a not undeservedly snarky way.
https://exiledonline.com/all-the-president%E2%80%99s-middlebrows/
Being a child of the 1960s, when I hear of "Samantha Power" I think of Bewitched, except without the good looks and the "tink-a-tink-a-tee" nose twitch able to make good things happen.
What William said at 9:21. It's pretty obvious the swamp did not game out how to handle a prepared, competent Trump administration. They believed their own propaganda.
In case anyone's forgotten:
"Power was directly involved in the Obama administration’s surveillance of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and sought to obtain Michael Flynn's redacted identity using an "unmasking" request on at least seven occasions, Fox News Digital previously reported, despite testifying under oath before the House Intelligence Committee that she had "no recollection" of ever making such a request even once."
The fact that someone like her was in charge of it convinces me that abolishing the agency is a good idea. No more rogue agencies, please.
Congress has to get a big share of the blame for the insanely huge executive branch bureaucracy. Congress creates these agencies and lets the executive do what it wants with them. Regardless of who the executive is at any given time, that's just a bad idea.
If Samantha Power was in charge then no wonder USAID went rogue. As others upthread have pointed out, government agencies that abuse their power and, especially, their budgets usually have a couple success stories they can trot out to fool the gullible that their agency is worthwhile. A whole lot of agencies were repurposed during the Obama years to prop up the goals of the World Economic Forum and the Davos crowd (“You will eat bugs and you will be happy”).
I don’t want to eat cockroach soufflés. I support Trump and Musk.
A very standard government agency practice is to mix the good in with the bad (i.e., the bad is the main objective), and pump up routine or trivial stuff as important. This is a carefully calculated shell game.
I have read literally dozens of federal reports and program descriptions with the cliched lines "This program is VITAL to national interests. It serves an ESSENTIAL function..." Never mind that said program is one of a dozen nearly-identical programs and that they never change or deliver on their promises over decades upon decades. Piglets love to suckle on mommy sow.
In the words of Weird Al Yankovic:
How come you're always such a fussy young man?
Don't want no Captain Crunch, don't want no Raisin Bran
Well, don't you know that other kids are starving in Japan?
So eat it, just eat it (brr)
Hang together or hang separately they told themselves. The best defense is a good offense they told themselves. They knew were in DEEP LEGAL TROUBLE with Crossfire Hurricane, and kept digging and digging a hole to China (to hide, and to collect more bribes since they were already there).
Psychopaths have no fear. Psychopaths gravitate to power roles. Once in power they must be cut out with force.
Trump isn't "killing" USAID, he's reforming it with the intent of returning that agency to its only goal of advancing our foreign policy at the direction of the President and the State Department, and not the narrow political interests of one and only one party, namely the Democrats, as well as the illicit financial interests of individuals through money laundering of public funds into private wallets.
It's for the children!!111!!!!!1!!!!!!!
Power has provided a continuation of Obama’s subtle undermining of Israel. Strange that she speaks of “autocrats.” I believe I recall she once suggested using US troops in Israel to impose the two-state solution. I won’t breach the paywall, but I can’t imagine that stifling the corruption at USAID is autocratic.
I hope Rubio will act quickly to reinstate the time sensitive life-saving programs sponsored by USAID. My son lives in Uganda and supports Trump but is very concerned about the closure of a USAID program that has protected thousands of children from fatal diseases there. Failure to do that will sacrifice goodwill among many pro-American nations.
It was predictable that NYT would trot out one of the usual suspects to support USAID. They don’t get how far the brand has fallen.
Fun read, thanks. Reminds me of the original American Spectator when it was a news paper form.
Gunther Eagleman™
@GuntherEagleman
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BREAKING: Democrats are trying to storm the Department of Education! Maxine Waters and Maxwell Frost are trying to force their way past the guards.
At one point, Waters asks the guards if they have firearms and if they will shoot them.
Is this an insurrection?
https://twitter.com/i/status/1887886184048968079
Chaotic Genius
@realchaosgenius
So when they do it, it’s 'activism,' but if anyone else does, it’s 'insurrection'?
10:31 AM · Feb 7, 2025
Let's just do the math on USAID:
1. (%$$ actual aid)<<<(%$$ program management)
2. (%$$ actual aid)<<<<<<<<<<(total $$)
The ratio on (1) is something like 1 to 5, perhaps 1 to 10, aid versus grift.
The ratio on (2) is something like 1 to 10, perhaps 1 to 20, aid versus grift.
That isn't an aid program, it is grift, graft, money laundering. This is Vanderbilt giving a building to a university, while for himself the robber baron builds the Biltmore Estate.
Defenders of USAID always point to the value of the programs it supports. Detractors are focused on the abuses, including domestic propaganda operations and silly things like Irish trans operas. Both pale in comparison to real reason USAID must go, the staggering fraud and corruption. 65% of the money spent never leaves Washington. Another 25% is hoovered up overseas before it gets to recipients. On average, only about 10% gets through the tangle of NGOs on the take. USAID supports tons of really good causes. Earthquake relief to Haiti was one. In that case, 98% of the money allocated sucked out before it got there. The Haitians got the remaining 2%. Inexcusable.
See-Eye-Eh
Christian Interfaith Association.
The USAID follies--and they are follies, are being paraded before the American public. I mean who wants to spend US dollars to fund prostitution rings in India? Exposing all of this nonsense gives political cover to the Trump Musk team's slashing of other government activities. There are a lot of hogs at the trough in the swamp, and the effort is to cut the feed supply to those hogs.
For a foreign aid organization, USAID spends a great deal inside the U. S. What percentage of expenditures go to American NGOs and political organizations? 50%? 60%? That's what I want to know.
USAID is a cold war creation. The cold war is over and the organization needs to go away. The money flow should be stopped immediately. If the state department and congress feel any initiative needs funding going forward, they can do the work and pass legislation for each expenditure.
My main point of skepticism here is regarding whether the end recipients of American largesse -- people getting wells drilled or daughters educated or whatever -- understand that they are receiving these things by the grace and favour of the American people, as opposed to whatever NGO received a grant to do this thing. Are they successfully being marketed to their targets are specifically American munificence? Or are random self-interested NGOs taking all the credit?
We all know what is going on. USAID had a $50 billion slush fund, that Power run. Its primary purpose was to subsidize all of the Dems’ priorities that they were too cheap to fund out of their own pockets. A majority was siphoned off into their pockets, and funded a lot of things that the American people wouldn’t approve of. US election fraud? USAID! Transportation of illegals to the border, help crossing the border, help hiding in the US, etc? USAID! Gain of Function research at the WIV that gave us COVID-19? USAID! All the NGOs doing this stuff? USAID. Etc. Heck, even much of the stuff that has been blamed on George Soros and his NGOs was primarily funded by USAID. Meanwhile Republican and Democrat elites were skimming off $billion$ every year.
What’s going to be interesting is that their unions are suing to prevent most of the USAID employees from being fired. Fine, that suit may succeed in the short run. But long run, their power is through the $billions$ that they dispense. And that is easy to shut down - just require that all disbursements to NGOs, etc, require written approval by the head of USAID (currently SecState Marco Rubio). And the level required to approve disbursements is clearly a central Executive power of the President. Without the power to approve and disburse funds to pet causes, the USAID bureaucrats have no power, and really, nothing to do. And twiddling their thumbs can only be justified for a short period of time, union contract or not.
The Santa Ana Unified School District in California is laying off 286 teachers, counselors, and other staff because of a $180 million budget deficit. In 2022 they received a $308 million Covid relief payment.
Santa Ana has a population of 310,227 of which 77% are Hispanic/Latino.
District student enrollment has declined 23% over 6 years from 47,000 to 36,000.
The latest California Assessment of Student Performance found 69% of students couldn't read at level, 79% can't do math at level.
The City motto is - Education First.
California has an Education budget of $124 billion. $13,976 per student is statutory spending, $21,555 per student from all funding.
Spending (more) money doesn't necessarily indicate or guarantee success.
I featured Santa Ana only because their troubles were highlighted in my local paper.
An issue that also covered a topic about "equity" funding through charity donations as a method to close education and wealth gaps.
Education funding in California includes additional increases for "disadvantaged" and "underserved" communities.
USAID wants everyone to believe that funding they direct cannot be disrupted for any reason.
As SOS Rubio said, it needs to more closely align with our core values. Some of it does not obviously.
They will never win the propaganda war against Russia and China, as long as between 65% and 98% (Haiti) go into pockets of middlemen skimmers along the way. It’s a massive graft machine, with a couple dollars leaking out here and there for a worthy cause. And more money being utilized in ways that would not be approved by a majority of American taxpayers (e.g. facilitating election fraud, supporting groups like AntiFA that engage in violence, pushing transgender policies, facilitating massive illegal immigration, etc).
To be fair, that was probably more Valarie Jarrett and Huma Abedin (through Crooked Hillary as SecState). Probably more Abedin, given the Shi’a/Sunni split, and that her family was still running an Egyptian anti-Government paper, funded by the Gulf States. Jarrett’s Iranians look down on the filthy Arabs.
Elon’s Elves Expose
I'd like to see Samantha give us a couple of examples of autocrats who suffered anything other than mild inconvenience as a result of USAID's efforts under her administration.
Until I see Democrats admit that some USAID funding was wildly inappropriate, I can't take anything they say about this seriously.
Full Disclosure: I work with someone who once tried to get me (and some others) funding from USAID. The attempt failed.
I knew Bloomberg was part of it! I called it. Trump confirmed it in his post todayI stopped watching their morning show when they got rid of my favorite old curmudgeon commentator, who couldn't hide that Trump made some good points from time to time, and substituted some DNC harridan who knew very little about finance and markets.
When every legitimate protest in a country that we have targeted for regime change gets turned into a regime-change attempt by USAID, we take away the political freedom of those countries, those people. The government is forced to crack down on its own people, who are being duped by our regime change specialists, in order to survive. And if we do manage to overthrow the leader of this country or that, which we do often, see Bangladesh for the most recent case, the new leader will be more loyal to the United States oligarchy and the neocons' project for world domination than they will be to their own people.
You can bet your bottom dollar that the protests in Tiananmen Square were whipped up by USAID operatives, and the ChiComs knew it was a US backed attempt to overthrow their regime.
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