February 6, 2025

"THE LEFT WING 'RAG,' KNOWN AS 'POLITICO,' SEEMS TO HAVE RECEIVED $8,000,000"

Donald Trump is all-caps-ing — at Truth Social — about the biggest scandal of them all:

LOOKS LIKE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS HAVE BEEN STOLLEN AT USAID, AND OTHER AGENCIES, MUCH OF IT GOING TO THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA AS A “PAYOFF” FOR CREATING GOOD STORIES ABOUT THE DEMOCRATS. THE LEFT WING “RAG,” KNOWN AS “POLITICO,” SEEMS TO HAVE RECEIVED $8,000,000. Did the New York Times receive money??? Who else did??? THIS COULD BE THE BIGGEST SCANDAL OF THEM ALL, PERHAPS THE BIGGEST IN HISTORY! THE DEMOCRATS CAN’T HIDE FROM THIS ONE. TOO BIG, TOO DIRTY!

ADDED: I don't know what's been going on lately, but I blogged this on September 6, 2022

"We want to prove that being nonpartisan is actually the more successful positioning."

Said Mathias Döpfner, quoted in "Politico’s new German owner has a ‘contrarian’ plan for American media/Mathias Döpfner has global ambitions for what he calls a more ‘nonpartisan’ kind of journalism — even as his own politics are hard to pin down" (Washington Post).
His own politics have remained something of a mystery.... But weeks before the 2020 U.S. presidential election, he sent a surprising message to his closest executives, obtained by The Washington Post: 
“Do we all want to get together for an hour in the morning on November 3 and pray that Donald Trump will again become President of the United States of America?” 
His email was inspired by a news story he shared about the government’s plans to sue Google for abuse of market dominance, an animating issue of his for years. 
But Döpfner went on to argue that Trump had made the right moves on five of what he deemed the six most important issues of the last half century — “defending the free democracies” against Russia and China, pushing NATO allies to up their contributions, “tax reforms,” and Middle East peace efforts, as well as challenging tech monopolies — if falling short, he implied, on climate change. 
“No American administration in the last 50 years has done more,” Döpfner concluded. Asked about the email, Döpfner initially responded with a forceful denial. “That’s intrinsically false,” he said. “That doesn’t exist. It has never been sent and has never been even imagined.” 
When shown a printout of the text, Döpfner allowed a glimmer of recognition. It’s possible, he said, that he may have sent the email “as an ironic, provocative statement in the circle of people that hate Donald Trump,” because that’s exactly the kind of ironic, provocative thing that Döpfner, a garrulous and enthusiastic texter, likes to do. 
“That is me,” he said. “That could be.”

162 comments:

Crimso said...

The biggest of them all...so far.

Leland said...

I guess Biden needed to issue more pardons. Wait a moment, who were the media organizations calling on Biden to pardon more Democrats and government employees?

rhhardin said...

The idea of government spending is people siphon off a fraction of all the money flowing through and live well.

Ralph L said...

It was more like $34 million. Thousands of bureaucrats were paying thousands a year for subscriptions to Pro Politico.

rhhardin said...

No spell check at Truth Social. That's a good sign.

Rusty said...

Apparently "Freedom of the Press" is a misnomer. Basically the Democrat party bought all the news organizations and fed them the "news".
Do I have that right?

Peachy said...

Did the Democrats ask the tax payers first?
NO.
F the democrats. The are poisonous toads.

rrsafety said...

When I worked in state government, most agencies and departments had subscriptions to both the Boston Globe and Boston Herald. It was very normal and that money engendered not goodwill. I am wondering if there is a way to tease out the subscriptions necessary for a department in DC to effectively operate in the public information sphere while finding the real corruption. For instance, a department having a subscriptioin to WaPo, NYT and WSJ makes sense while the PoliticoPro $10,000 subscription feels like corruption.

Peachy said...

Hunter Lap top - real.
Joe Biden's crook family = real.
There is a reason Joe pardoned his entire family going back to 2014.
and those same people almost got away with foisting Kamala on us.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

It was way more than that. I think the total is up to $24 million now.

Peachy said...

All clear why the CIA/FBI hired a blackrock ad kid to shoot Trump - then after he missed - they shot the kid in a spit second and burned his body and the media don't say a thing.
Cory C - a US citizen - was murdered by the US government.

Captain BillieBob said...

Why do government employees need a news subscription to find out what is going on in the government? Can't they just pick up the phone and ask.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

When asked if he was actually a CIA operative Drupffner said “That is me,” he said. “That could be.”

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

I really wish the White House could keep up with the firehose of news we're all drinking from.

RideSpaceMountain said...

I can't remember who said "Americans are the most propogandized people on earth", but to add insult to injury it appears we've been largely paying ourselves for the privilege.

An inflection point has been reached. 40% of the country is still and will always be plugged into the matrix, but for the rest with functioning neurons, their house of cards can never be rebuilt.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

"Feels like corruption"? Feels like?

Eva Marie said...

Latest: looks like Politico got 34.3 million (Instapundit)N

Quayle said...

Perhaps the Dems success in running these shadow government centers emboldened them to run a shadow primary this last election.

Temujin said...

The entire media/government complex has been a paid for and scripted show for years. Want to know who's been in on the dipping? Listen to the loudest whiners, watch the most hysterical screamers all week long.
There are only two things I've seen Democrats fight for this hard: Unlimited government grifting and abortions. In other words: Stealing from the people- the nation, and clamoring for more babies to be killed.

I'll be surprised if anyone outside of Martha's Vineyard, Brooklyn, and Seattle are voting for Democrats in four years. Oh...and Minnesota. But they're barely a state anymore.

Captain BillieBob said...

Why are the democrats so upset by disclosures of corruption by the government uncovered by Musk? Shouldn't they be angry with the perpetrators of the corruption?

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

There's a growing list of violent events that were never explained by the FBI or the media, compiled recently by John Podhoritz (I think), those two last year being the most personal to Trump of course. But the Las Vegas shooter, the Nashville tranny shooter...

narciso said...

https://x.com/BasedMikeLee/status/1887350804031340725

Peachy said...

X
"There is a US agency, with a $50B budget, that was redundant to our US State Dept, but with next to zero oversight or transparency, funding all sorts of ridiculous and partisan projects and allies.

Democrats are defending this up to and including the threat of violence."

John henry said...

The NY Times, part owned by Unelected multi-billion aire Carlos slim received $55 million

That we know about.

So far

John Henry

Dave Begley said...

Look at the NYT and Politico. Not a word on this major story. Hypocrites!

RideSpaceMountain said...

"Shouldn't they be angry with the perpetrators of the corruption?"

Mirror Mirror on the wall
Who's the sleaziest of us all

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Captain, I regret to inform you that Democrats are in fact the perpetrators and benefactors of this corruption. All this domestic meddling by the CIA's slush fund funded ONLY Democrats or the Republicans who are subservient to Democrats like Paul Ryan and Lindsey Graham. Democrats controlled USAID. 100%. Full stop.

narciso said...

Blank pages see they live

Jaq said...

Politico Europe did a story on Biden family corruption, I will link it if anybody is curious, or you could google on Joe, Beau, etc and "747s of cash lined up to invest in the Biden name" that might not be an exact quote, anyway, two reporters who quite Politico claimed that they had stories about Biden family corruption killed by editors, and Jon Solomon was forced out at The Hill for writing about Biden corruption. He had very good sources.

Peachy said...

X
"According to the Columbia Journalism Review, USAID supported 6,200 journalists, 707 news outlets and 279 media sector civil society organizations in 30 different countries.

No wonder the news all sounds the same."

[Q corrupt leftist whining about Fox.]

RCOCEAN II said...

This is just more Trumpian Hyperbole. And its just a tweet. But it is odd that leftists in the Federal Government were giving $$ to their friends in the Press. We know well-connected Bill Kristol was indirectly getting Fed money.

To those assert this was even handed, how much was Tucker Carlson getting or Fox News? LOL

narciso said...

https://x.com/LoneStarChica/status/1887193012838801736

RCOCEAN II said...

Is Captain Billie being naive or slyly humorous? Yes, the Democrats will be as outraged over Government corruption as they always are. "Captain Renault, here are you chips"

Peachy said...


Kind of a big story right here - and the entire corrupt toxic leftwing hack Soviet-Democrat media are ignoring it.

RCOCEAN II said...

When the WaPo says your politics are "hard to pin down" that means he's the standard liberal/left Globalist, who agrees with them on everything except tax cuts. If this German newspaper owner was a moderate, he'd be called "far right".

rehajm said...

As with many important decisions we’re only allowed imperfect information before a decision must be made. The guilty evade, deceive, manipulate, but as in poker it is obvious it is happening when you know what to look for…

…so yes, this is probably the biggest scandal presented, with evidence, so far, but probably small compared to the government participation and funding of violence against it’s own people, against its own Presidents, past and present…

planetgeo said...

No wonder the Democrats were screaming "This is war!" DOGE is literally an existential threat to the Party. The entire financial network the Party constructed so intricately to feed and nurture allies in the news media and the NGOs with a feedback loop in contributions to the Party is being dismantled. This means financial death for them.

I fully expect them to start violent protests in our urban centers using their imported insurrectionists as foot soldiers to burn, loot, and murder.

Peachy said...

I posted this before I scrolled down.

D.D. Driver said...

Are these "subsidies" or "subscriptions"? It makes a huge difference to me.

boatbuilder said...

In the business world, or in any world where economic common sense applies, the big customer/agency/corporation would negotiate a favorable deal to get everybody who needs it access to the publication or research service. The idea that the government is paying the full unit price for thousands of "subscriptions" to the same publication or service is absurd--especially in the digital age, where there is zero cost to the publisher for duplicate subscriptions.
So why were they doing it?
Yeah, it feels like corruption.

Gusty Winds said...

Tens of millions of Americans, including university elites, have been successfully brainwashed by gov't controlled state media propaganda. This is just on the surface. I'm sure DOGE will soon discover that the left wing money laundering went through US Universities as well.

boatbuilder said...

That's a shitload of Lutefisk.

Bob Boyd said...

Do left wing rags like Politico who took federal money now have to abide by Trump's executive orders on say DEI?

narciso said...

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2025/02/06/wait-usaid-was-involved-in-the-2019-impeachment-of-donald-trump-n2651759

RideSpaceMountain said...

"Do left wing rags like Politico who took federal money now have to abide by Trump's executive orders on say DEI?"

No. That would mean revamping the corkboard in the breakroom that hasn't been touched in 30 years. It's too much of a hassle to change it every 24hrs during the whirlwind Trump era.

RideSpaceMountain said...

This is my shocked face: (-_-)

wendybar said...

That was my question too. Funny, that!!!

Captain BillieBob said...

I'll take humor for $500 Alex.

Peachy said...

LOL headline:
"Democrats Warn Trump’s Unelected Shadow Government Is Dismantling Their Unelected Shadow Government"

Kate said...

It's not as evocative as "covfefe" but I do like a misspelling that introduces a delicious sweet bread into the conversation.

Captain BillieBob said...

Samantha Power. Leading and funding the corruption.

Larry J said...

For Politico, it appears government employees have been buying subscriptions to Politico Pro for about $12,000 a year. That really sounds dubious to me. What could Politico Pro possibly offer that's worth so much? This sounds like someone buying Hunter Biden's "art" as a means to deliver a payoff.

As of yesterday, it seems tens of millions of dollars were sent to Reuters, the AP, Politico, the New York Times, and the BBC, plus additional millions to thousands of other reporters around the world and millions more to NPR/PBS. All of this seems like a real conflict of interest, doesn't it?

Captain BillieBob said...

Except it's not funny it's beyond outrageous. The guilty should all hang in the public square.

R C Belaire said...

Sort of hoping this was sarcastic humor...

Captain BillieBob said...

There are more rocks to turn over. Stay tuned.

gilbar said...

during the '70s, it turned out; that MOST Black Nationalist terrorism was done BY the FBI..
Now, we find that MOST terrorism is done BY the FBI..
The More Things Change..

Captain BillieBob said...

Too subtle?

Birches said...

I'm willing to believe that Politico Pro is a niche specific trade publication that is completely non partisan and doesn't resemble its namesake at all. If that were the case, wouldn't Politico maintain a friendly neutral storefront so the golden goose of Politico Pro wasn't slain? The fact that it didn't is pretty damning.

Iman said...

“The[y] are poisonous toads.”

Hey… I’ve read that licking poisonous toads will get you high. These Dem toads and toadies are utterly useless.

Leland said...

Maybe we will find out that NPR was the cheapest taxpayer funded media.

mikee said...

This is just a small bit of "follow the money." Wait until they release the Epstein files and "cherchez la femme" starts.

Iman said...

“Are these "subsidies" or "subscriptions"? It makes a huge difference to me.”

Not to worry, DD… you can continue your door-to-door magazine subscription sales, this won’t conflict.

Drago said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Drago said...

Can't have a New Soviet Democratical Party without a Pravda.

Lazarus said...

Don, use capital letters sparingly -- only when you want to make a point of paramount importance (or begin a sentence or a proper name).

This looks like some wild payola loop. Bureaucrats pay the top premium rates for subscriptions to ensure access to the media and good coverage, and they keep paying so that they don't start getting bad coverage. The journalists get to stay a few steps ahead of unemployment and the publications stay in business. Win-win for those concerned.

Iman said...

Now THAT is a punchable face what’s taken far too many punches, narciso!

Dogma and Pony Show said...

The dem/left's response to the USAID scandal seems pretty weak so far:
1. Elon has no business pawing through USAID's internal records (IOW, what USAID does is none of our business);
2. USAID does some good/necessary things around the world (IOW, not every single penny spent was wasted or corrupt);
3. USAID's budget constitutes a small percentage of total government spending (That's like saying the $10k bribe I accepted represented only a fraction of my overall income);
4. Some well-liked republicans benefited from USAID money (Fine, but if you told me that a well-liked republican attended Diddy's parties, that might make me like him or her less, but I'd still disapprove of Diddy's parties).

planetgeo said...

This is a reasonable question by D.D. Driver, because subscriptions to newspapers and magazines are pretty standard and defensible. The answer is, "how much does it cost and what do you get for it?" There is no newspaper on the planet whose subscription is worth $12,000 dollars a year. And in this case, the kinds of "information services" Politico offered can easily be acquired directly from other government agencies for free. Ergo, "subsidy."

Iman said...

Say… didn’t that ponce James VandeHei (co-founder of Politico, now with Axios) run his mouth in a big, big way just a few months ago about who the legitimate journalists really were?

Shitbird!!!

Paul said...

F*ck off Politico... you are toast.

Iman said...

Democrats are pounding on the table now. That’s all they’ve got.

robother said...

Aren't all caps an impeachable offense? Pretty sure I've heard that if you turn the US Constitution just right in the light of the setting sun on July 4, there's a penumbra that says that.

narciso said...

https://twitchy.com/dougp/2025/02/06/cbs-news-is-now-blurring-out-triggered-usaid-workers-like-theyre-testifying-against-the-mob-n2407944

mezzrow said...

My guess is that Herr Döpfner knows a good stollen when he sees one. Great with coffee.

Howard said...

According to Glenn Greenwald, USAID is a CIA operation.

YouTube from yesterday: Trump/Musk Attack CIA Fronts USAID & NED: With Mike Benz
339K views · 1 day ago...more

Glenn Greenwald

Gravel said...

If Dopfner wants to establish some bona fides, he could publish all the communications between his staff and the folks running ops like Crossfire Hurricane. If he wants to increase his subscriber base, he'll fire those staff.

narciso said...

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/the-big-thaw-thursday-february-6?r=8reln&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false

The Vault Dweller said...

The Left tends to care more about social status than the right. That explains the frequent use of Performative (the word) by other folks on the Left. When an action of someone on the Left is so glaringly solely for gain in social status other folks on the Left label it performative. If we really want to dismantle the dishonest corpo/globo/woke media ecosystem there needs to be a hefty dose of shame of working for any of these media organizations. This USAID scandal seems a perfect opportunity to do so. Targeted mocking and scorn to any person from one of these organizations would pay huge and lasting dividends.

Breezy said...

It’ll be interesting to see how these media outlets respond in the coming days. Will they disband, double down, turn back into reporting the truth, cite actual sources, etc? In some ways, this scandal could enable or force journalism back to life. Clearly, the gov subsidies were not helping their viewership numbers in recent months. Now they'll have to regroup and start earning people’s money the old-fashioned way. Or the media outfits die and the journalists post on X or do podcasts or substack individually.

Enigma said...

Books have loooooooong been a way to hide political gifts, donations, and/or bribes. Some stories mention that they are bought in bulk, which causes a "Best Seller" appearance before they are dumped or shredded. This practice includes Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor book sales at speaking engagements, the Obama's reported $65M book deal, etc.

Kakistocracy said...

Hoo Boy …. I can see Meade stabbing at his ashtray like it might give up the truth. I would hope Althouse might look into how many news subscriptions were purchased. Seems like something someone would want to do if they were looking for the truth.

D.D. Driver said...

They are subscriptions.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/media/article-14368103/Politico-subscriptions-DOGE-defends-Musk.html

A waste of money? Maybe. I can't say. I have never used Politico Pro so I can't say. I don't have enough information to be outraged.

Jaq said...

It's nothing at all like buying pallets of books which nobody reads, written by say, the Speaker of the House, what was his name? Oh yeah, Jim Wright -D Texas

Jaq said...

Those terrorist attacks in Europe blamed on the "Red Guard"? They were done by CIA trained terrorists who were supposed to be sleeper cells in case the Soviets occupied more of Europe. Well, they got bored.

The Vault Dweller said...

If that is the truth, then it must also be true that you won't mind if all these Federal agencies start subscribing en masse to Rumble Premium, Daily Wire, Breitbart, and Stephen Crowder. The truth shall set you free.

Milwaukie guy said...

Back in the 70s I worked for Revolution, the journal of the Revolutionary Communist Party. A good part of our budget came from Chinese Communist Party subscriptions. The Soviets did the same with the CPUSA Daily Worker. I'm not really surprised about today's goings on.

No ital on publication names cause I don't want to F up.

Jaq said...

In Georgia, the country, it turns out that USAID spent $40 million interfering in their elections. The country just dodged a color revolution in December, and the basis of the "street protests," a.k.a. USAID paid mobs, was that Putin had interfered in there election, and it was all they could do to get the French born president out of the palace, her grandparents were Nazis, BTW, and left Georgia due to "persecution."

Left Bank of the Charles said...

Billions are being stolen, “much” of it by media organizations and the example of “much” is 8 million. That’s not much of a billion, let alone billions. Shades of Austin Power.

There is a long history of various levels of government buying media services, from legal notices in newspapers to military recruiting ads and public service announcements on television. I’m sure a lot of employees at the Treasury Department and other agencies have subscriptions to the Wall Street Journal. I wonder how much federal money Twitter gets.



Jaq said...

Speaking of Georgias, I wonder how much of that cash in Fani Willis's mattress came from USAID?

Jaq said...

Wait wut? The organization that funds the street mobs and media cover for color revolutions across the globe is a CIA front?

Jaq said...

That's like saying that a ton of feathers can't weigh a ton because a feather is so light.

Leland said...

They do have the right to remain silent.

Jaq said...

Trump's real crime, the "coup" he has committed, is to bring USAID under the direct control of a Senate confirmed cabinet official, Mark Rubia, SoS, instead of letting the billions and billions of dollars be doled out by unaccountable bureaucrats who report to nobody.

Rubio is now on my list of people I would vote for for President.

Aggie said...

@Bob Boyd: "Do left wing rags like Politico ..."

We're still missing some key things, though. First, what is the annual budget of an organization like Politico? $100 million? More? Doesn't ex Ms. Jobs pay out $100 million to float the Atlantic? Then, there's the 'wink & nod' aspect of this symbiosis, which will never be proved. The money had to be delivered with instructions, not just an unspoken 'understanding' or pretend solidarity. These things will never be revealed, I predict. It's going to have to be enough that it's simply been stopped. That link that @narciso shared at 7:50am regarding Lutheran charities is really something. Hundreds of millions. What a machine.

Christopher B said...

As somebody pointed out above, this is the digital version of the 'book advance' grift.

Kakistocracy said...

Ready. Fire. Aim. 😂

Kakistocracy said...

Ready. Fire. Aim.

Jaq said...

Bishop Mariann Budde, who famously criticized Trump during an inaugural prayer service, has been found to have pocketed a staggering $53 million in taxpayer funds through her organization, Episcopal Migration Ministries - Gateway Pundit

Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of New York!

I mean it, glorious summer. I can't stop smiling. Though I did lose a couple of dear friends because they have been so wound up by the media that they insisted on an inquisition into my political beliefs, which IRL, I keep close to the vest. Fuck them. I hope that their faith NPR which has admitted lies to them is worth it to them.

I think they expect me to apologize for not hating Trump. Oh well. It's like 1984, it wasn't enough to just shoot Winston Smith, he had to become a believer before they would grant him that blessed relief. I could just hear them: "Say it! Say I love Big Brother! And mean it!"

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

I don’t know for certain if it’s true but there’s a claim USAID was used as a vehicle to get around the Obama era prohibition on gain of function research. They funded Wuhan via USAID.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Yes, Iman. Yes he did. Got his back up about the "we are the media now" proclamation from Elon. Elon, whose X is now the ONLY place you can learn these things when they are breaking. History happens fast sometimes.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Yes it is revealed in the by-party domestic donations USAID made to campaigns, which had a huge spike in 2020 and another last year.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Poor Samantha, out of job and can't even see herself in a mirror.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Oh no, USAID funded Paul Ryan's post-congressional NGO just when he landed at Fox as a VP and board member. He's just Liz Cheney with a beard. To think we all rallied around him when he ran for VP.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Zip. USAID was funding the groups trying to demonetize Tucker. Paul Ryan was in on the grift, and he's on the board at Fox, but I doubt their journalists were. I could be wrong. I only watch Gutfeld on YouTube now not that channel at all.

mikee said...

The demonstration of Politico obtaining millions under Biden is sufficient for extremely reasonable suspicion about every other penny spent by USAID, kind of like finding one remaining bit of a worm in an apple you're eating.

Larry J said...

While I have no firsthand knowledge of the matter, I've read that Bloomberg has a serious analytical area that businesses pay a lot of money to access. They do it because they believe they're getting a good value for their money. What could Politico Pro possibly have to offer that's worth a subscription of $12,000 a year? And why would government employees be justified at using tax money to subscribe to Politico Pro? Either their subscription price is Bloomberg envy, or more likely this is just a way to funnel money to a "news" outlet for favorable coverage?

Jaq said...

Poor Kaki, this must be painful to you to hear about how misplaced your faith in the deep state has been. Sad.

Mary Beth said...

It's not serious until they take off a shoe and bang the table with it.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

The $10,000 per customer super-subscription is bullshit, but the rest of the $34 million from USAID can't be reasonably waved away as a subscription.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Without the appearance of an angel investor, Politico is dead in the water. Didn't even make payroll last week, before the grift was discovered and stopped.

Jaq said...

Yeah, the famous COVID patient zero, who was doing research on coronaviruses obtained from bats, and who was the first person to die of COVID, got nearly $40 million, just two months after the beginning period of Fauci's blanket pardon, and at Fauci's direction. The research was illegal in the United States, and anywhere, but Fauci fiddled with the definitions to get around the prohibition and gave Dr Hu at Wuhan the money.

mikee said...

Trump is moving faster than the legacy media can spin, lie, obfuscate, misreport or make up. He is inside their OODA loop. They are chasing yesterday's news every day so far.

Kakistocracy said...

Tesla’s sales plummet across Europe ~ Fortune

“Registrations in Germany fall 59% amid consumer backlash against Elon Musk’s political activism”

-59% in Germany....that's not just people waiting for the new Model Y 🤣

And with the doubling of EV sales generally in Germany, that is a much bigger drop in market share.

I'm guessing that the kind of people that like Musk's politics don't buy electric cars.

The German's need a word for schadenfreude.

Lazarus said...

Dan Mitrione, the USAID official killed by the Tupamaros in the 70s, was a CIA agent. USAID and USIA often provided cover for intelligence operatives. USAID was tied to Cold War imperatives from the beginning.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Liz Cheney got her start in politics as an USAID officer "implementing programs" in Ukraine. Just like everyone in on the Russia Russia and Ukraine hoaxes. USAID started and financed the impeachments. Plural.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

It was their regular daily "Playbook" but came with access to their database of contacts in government, which people in government used to find other people in government. Nifty! But that was it. No extra news. No scoops. It was the equivalent (as someone upthread said) of the giant advances publishers pay to pols they want to buy off. The ones with D after their names.

Lilly, a dog said...

Come on Left Bank, you can't just come here and say something reasonable.

"We cancelled subscriptions" doesn't sound as awesome as "Biggest Scandal in History."

Enigma said...

"Media monitoring" is a routine practice in many organizations with a public relations component -- this includes many political groups. They all want to know what's being said about them by others. Still, this would require at most a handful of subscriptions to a pro-type news service. Paid analysts would read and compile reports for the executives.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Tesla's sales have not fallen as fast as the rest of the EV market. But let's get back to your disinformation on X. Remember you said he ran it into the ground? It recorded a profit margin increase from 14% in '23 to 46% last year. That's more than tripling their profit margin, dumbass.

By the way, Germany has no electricity. And when they did EVs only made up about 13% of sales and hey, look at Forbes' headline: Germany's EV Sales Crash in 2024

For the slow-witted like Rich a "crash" is very opposite of "doubling" the sales. Thanks for playing dumbass.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

I like Mike Benz's description: "If it's too dirty for the CIA to touch they give it to USAID."

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

No spell check is closer to Truth. Without spell check comes great responsibility.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

USAID had 12 subscriptions to Politic Pro. Why do you ask?

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Pam Bondi is ON the case!

Enigma said...

In the famous words of Sarah Palin regarding Obama:

But when the cloud of rhetoric has passed ... when the roar of the crowd fades away ... when the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot - what exactly is our opponent's plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish, after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet? The answer is to make government bigger ... take more of your money ... give you more orders from Washington ... and to reduce the strength of America in a dangerous world. America needs more energy ... our opponent is against producing it.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sarah-palin-rnc-conventio_n_123703

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

It's newsworthy because we aren't supposed to have state subsidized media. Go look at the "meddling in domestic campaigns fund" where USAID wasted $13 billion. That's like 13 Kamala campaigns.

Larry J said...

I have not watched CBS News since Dan Rather's forged papers story in 2004, so can anyone tell me if they provided similar protections to privacy to Elon's DOGE crew. They were doxxed and have been receiving death threats. What, if anything, has CBS News shown about that?

Fred Drinkwater said...

"Freedom of the Press belongs to people who own one." Apparently this works through shell corporations, too.

Fred Drinkwater said...

My father used to bring home an occasional copy of professional magazines. Each with a distribution list stapled to the cover of a dozen names, initialed by his colleagues who had reviewed it.

NASA, c. 1968.

Ampersand said...

Went to my gym this morning, where the well to do kneejerk leftists control the television screens. (fortunately, audio is off and there are only subtitles). CBS News and MSNBC were devoting lots of minutes to the starvation in the Sudan purportedly being caused by Elon Musk's vicious attacks on the pristine USAID. This wasn't government propaganda. It was Democratic Party propaganda. How many fools are gullible enough to accept all this as true? Enough to cause a great deal of harm.
Put those guns down, Luigi fans!

Fred Drinkwater said...

Mike, the Angels I know only invest in companies with serious growth potential.

Aggie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rusty said...

Either way. Why am I paying for them? Or are you just being a disingenuous douche?

Rusty said...

Lefty. I hope you're unemployed soon.

Bob Boyd said...

Yeah, I guess hiring policies aren't going to be a major concern for Politico.

Kakistocracy said...

Every little thing happens is “THE BIGGEST SCANDAL OF THEM ALL” to Trump and his supporters.

This appears to be based entirely on subscriptions for Politico Pro that many agencies pay for…..

Trump tried to overthrow the government and stole classified and national defense information. I tend to think that’s Imore of a scandal.

TickTock1948 said...

"It was more like $34 million. Thousands of bureaucrats were paying thousands a year for subscriptions to Pro Politico."

Unlikely, in my opinion. Much more likely was that a senior official in various agencies was purchasing a single subscription for the whole agency.

Jaq said...

If forgot, "allegedly" does not need to be used with Trump, especially when those allegations are made by his political enemies.

But I agree, illegally funding the research that created COVID, and pardoning the man who OK'd it, given the deaths of millions, is a far larger scandal than providing $35 million dollars in funds through an unaccountable agency to a press outlet that led a lot of the press side of that bullshit impeachment.

Kakistocracy said...

“Sales of electric vehicles slowed sharply in Germany and France last year following a pullback in government subsidies, but demand has started to recover recently.

Tesla’s drop came as the German EV market in January grew more than 50 per cent year on year, pushing its market share down from 14 to 4 per cent.”

“In France, Tesla sales were down 63 per cent in January, while registrations of Tesla cars in Norway fell 38 per cent. In the UK, registrations declined 8 per cent from a year earlier.”

The problem for Musk is that the people who support the AfD can't afford a Tesla.

The real litmus test for Tesla and Musk will be the YoY change in sales in California and China.

Musk effectively killed rail transport in California with his Hyperloop charade to keep Californians behind the wheel of Teslas, and he succeeded. Now while I know Americans are not the most morally or socially conscious bunch, Californians certainly are image conscious. The second it becomes uncool to drive a Tesla the sales will go through the floor, and I can assure you the red hat wearing F150 driving patriots are not gonna get behind the wheel of a model 3.

As for the Chinese sales, BYD are a better looking car for half the money. And once the tariffs really hit the Tesla factory signs will shift to CCP production plants pretty darn quick.

Jaq said...

"Much more likely was that a senior official in various agencies was purchasing a single subscription for the whole agency."

Why? Why through USAID? Whatever the justification, it gave the Biden administration a lot of leverage over what Politico did and did not publish, and according to journalists who resigned from their, stories on Biden's corruption in Ukraine were killed and investigations into the Biden family business were discouraged with prejudice.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Rich your data is corrupted.

"2024 (January to December 2024): Battery-electric car sales in Germany contracted by 27.4% to only 380,609 electric cars for a market share of only 13.5% compared to 18.4% in 2023. Volkswagen was again the largest electric car brand in Germany in 2024 but BMW sold more electric cars than Tesla. The Tesla Model Y was Germany’s favorite battery-electric car but volumes were sharply down."

https://www.best-selling-cars.com/germany/2024-full-year-germany-best-selling-electric-cars-by-brand-and-model/

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Is that dumbass below here trying to say THIS January Tesla had a bad month? I don't speak dumbass and the terms seems to be mixed.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Tesla Model Y still "Germany’s favorite" model. Pretty clear even for a dumbass like Bich.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

ONE agency, dumbass. USAID. They had 12 subscriptions for $10,000. To a "free" newsletter. No one said it's the greatest thing, that's just you throwing chaff in the air. What it is, is just one more datum showing how the Leftist Media is a propped up, fake news generating, bullshit machine and can't survive without Uncle Sugar funding them.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

His reading comprehension is even worse than Bich. We're up to $34 million to Politico and $13 billion in democrat campaign donations.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Lot of bad guessing going on by our left leaning commentariat. Or wishcasting. Hard to say.

gilbar said...

some leftie claimed:
"a lot of employees at the Treasury Department and other agencies have subscriptions to the Wall Street Journal."
hmm?
a couple of awkward questions then..
HOW MUCH is a subscription to the Wall Street Journal? $1,000? $10,000?
How come those employees get to put their personal subscription on the Government tab?

Prof. M. Drout said...

Based on what I have been able to read of the actual data, USAID was Politico's BIGGEST CUSTOMER. So you can quibble that we can't "prove" that ridiculous $12K subscriptions are corrupt (they obvious are, but whatever), it makes ZERO sense that this one agency of the Federal Government, which isn't even a particularly large agency, was the single largest contributor to Politico's finances.
Yes, USAID was paying for--and getting--the propaganda the people running it wanted. Politico, the BBC, the NYT, Thompson-Reuters ... all corrupt.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

At least Zuckerberg excuse was the government made me do it. What’s Politicos excuse? The money was too good to turn down?

JIM said...

Beginning to think politicians and the bureaucrats aren't exactly prudent with taxpayer money.
What part is real spending and what part is slush fund? It's blurry at best. Swampy shade of dankwater.

Bob Boyd said...

Over 7 million people worldwide died as direct result. Over 1.2 million Americans.
But the people looking into it are the bad guys.

Kakistocracy said...

“They had 12 subscriptions for $10,000. To a "free" newsletter.”

Feel free to correct me — but it was “Politico Pro”… that was the product mentioned in reporting.

Any idea what the price point is for that product??

Lazarus said...

Episcopal Migration Services were a little disappointed that so few of those they'd smuggled across the border actually were bishops, but $53 million buys a lot of vestments and sacramental wine, so nobody complained.

Qwinn said...

I have a different take on this. Remember the Journolist, where journalists assembled to synchronize their propaganda? We know it scattered when the lights were turned on to it. We know they had to reassemble somewhere. Why not behind a $12000 paywall to minimize detection? It's not like *they* had to pay for it.

AlbertAnonymous said...

These are trump lies ....
Its just some subscription fees...
everybody on both sides does it....
don't kill the whole agency because the employees were not frugal...
ALL B.S.

I'd bet the "subscription fees" were not simply each employee signing up for a redundant access unknowing there were others they could use. MORE BS SPIN. I'd bet its a single payment of the agreed upon grift money simply "described as" or "disguised as" subscription fees.

Seems I recall Trump being convicted of 34 felonies for categorizing legal costs as legal costs. But the left is A OKAY with this because reasons...

wendybar said...


Insurrection Barbie
@DefiyantlyFree
They didn’t hold press conferences when people couldn’t pay their rent.

They didn’t hold press conferences when people couldn’t afford gas and groceries.

They didn’t hold press conferences when Venezuelan drug gangs took over the entire apartment complexes in Aurora, Colorado .

They didn’t hold press conferences when there was no aid to North Carolina and people were suffering.

They didn’t hold press conferences when the train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio and American citizens were crying because they were afraid they were living in contaminated areas.

They didn’t hold press conferences when they pulled out of Afghanistan and cost 13 young service members their live lives.

They didn’t hold press conferences when they left $8 billion worth of military grade equipment to the Taliban .

They didn’t hold press conferences when parents were begging schools to be reopened because their children were suffering .

They didn’t hold press conferences when they lied to you about inflation for four years after they printed 40% of the dollars that are currently in circulation during the Biden years.

But now Democrats are outraged and crying crocodile tears because somebody got a hold of their slush fund of wacko liberal new world order CIA cut out money.

Now they are on the street having a breakdown because they got caught using $70 billion dollars a year for the benefit of getting reelected, funding pet projects overseas and censoring the American people.

These people hate you, stop voting for them.
Last edited
9:20 PM · Feb 5, 2025

Leland said...

What could Politico Pro possibly offer at $10,000 a year that a government civil servant may want and an honest journalist would want to share at that price? News aggregators are a dime a dozen. Lexis/Nexis is half that price per law firm and it provides most of what a government employee should need to know beyond their own job function. Unless Politico is providing names of sources they otherwise would keep secret, I don't see the justification for 5 figures.

Well, one can go to Politico Pro and see what it provides. I think the most important item is this: https://www.politicopro.com/pro-features/stakeholder-management/
Politico Pro provides a messaging platform for its users, that unlike X, allows for private communication among government officials outside channels that require compliance to Freedom of Information Requests. Ok, that's probably worth $10k to government employees that don't want to build their own bathroom email server. It is especially worth it to Politico Pro, that then sells that access to government employees to private firms, like AARP, Amazon, and American Cancer Society. Politico Pro becomes a place for the connected to be connected, and keep their communications hidden from the other classes.

Mason G said...

"That’s not much of a billion, let alone billions."

If it's "not much", there shouldn't be any complaints about not spending money on it anymore.

And yet...

Mr. T. said...

USAID what, paid troll?

Kakistocracy said...

I stand by my numbers.

I will concede—Germans could be waiting for the upgraded Y model, scheduled for the first half of 2025.

Narayanan said...

does Library of Congress pay subscription or for free?
so Government employees can view there?

JAORE said...

Our hostess missed an opportunity. If she had given a hard left slant to this blog USAID may have made purchases through her Amazon Prime Portal.

Instead the taxpayers have been taking it up through our sub-prime portal.

Free press? Free? HARDLY.

Narayanan said...

@ Leland - Politico Pro provides a messaging platform for its users,... allows for private communication among government officials outside channels that require compliance to Freedom of Information Requests.
=================
so Hillary gets royalty for that idea?