DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — President Donald Trump’s proposal that the United States “take over” the Gaza Strip and permanently resettle its Palestinian residents was swiftly rejected and denounced on Wednesday by American allies and adversaries alike. Trump’s suggestion came at a White House news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who smiled several times as the president detailed a plan to build new settlements for Palestinians outside the Gaza Strip, and for the U.S. to take “ownership” in redeveloping the war-torn territory into “the Riviera of the Middle East.” “The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,” Trump said. “We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site, and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs.”
The comments came amid a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, during which the militant group has been turning over hostages in exchange for the release of prisoners held by Israel. Egypt, Jordan and other American allies in the Middle East have already rejected the idea of relocating more than 2 million Palestinians from Gaza elsewhere in the region. Following Trump’s remarks, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement stressing the need for rebuilding “without moving the Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip.” Saudi Arabia, an important American ally, weighed in quickly on Trump’s expanded idea to take over the Gaza Strip in a sharply worded statement, noting that its long call for an independent Palestinian state was a “firm, steadfast and unwavering position.” “The kingdom of Saudi Arabia also stresses what it had previously announced regarding its absolute rejection of infringement on the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, whether through Israeli settlement policies, annexation of Palestinian lands or efforts to displace the Palestinian people from their land,” the statement said.
The prime ministers of Australia and Ireland, foreign ministries from China, New Zealand and Germany, and a Kremlin spokesman all reiterated support for a two-state solution. “Australia’s position is the same as it was this morning, as it was last year, as it was 10 years ago,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.
Trump has already made waves — and upset longtime allies — suggesting the purchase of Greenland, the annexation of Canada and the possible takeover of the Panama Canal. It was not immediately clear whether the idea of taking over the Gaza Strip was a well thought out plan, or an opening gambit in negotiations.
“The comments last night were, of course, very concerning,” said Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin. “I always adopt the approach when it comes to the U.S. administration of: judge them based on what they do and not what they say.”
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told state-run Anadolu Agency that Trump’s proposal on “deportations from Gaza is not something that either the region or we would accept.” “Even thinking about it, in my opinion, is wrong and absurd,” Fidan said.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for the United Nations to “protect the Palestinian people and their inalienable rights,” saying that what Trump wanted to do would be “a serious violation of international law.” Hamas, which sparked the war with its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, said Trump’s proposal was a “recipe for creating chaos and tension in the region.”“Instead of holding the Zionist occupation accountable for the crime of genocide and displacement, it is being rewarded, not punished,” the militant group said in a statement. In its attack on Israel, Hamas killed some 1,200 people, primarily civilians, and took about 250 hostages. Israel’s ensuing air and ground war has killed over 47,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to local health authorities who do not say how many of the dead were fighters. The war has left large parts of several cities in ruins and displaced around 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people.
In the U.S., opposition politicians quickly rejected Trump’s idea, with Democratic Sen. Chris Coons calling his comments “offensive and insane and dangerous and foolish.” The idea “risks the rest of the world thinking that we are an unbalanced and unreliable partner because our president makes insane proposals,” Coons said, noting the irony of the proposal coming shortly after Trump had moved to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development. “Why on earth would we abandon decades of well-established humanitarian programs around the world, and now launch into one of the world’s greatest humanitarian challenges?” Coons said.
Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian American member of Congress from Michigan, accused Trump in a social media post of “openly calling for ethnic cleansing” with the idea of resettling Gaza’s entire population.
https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-gaza-trump-netanyahu-db2c407baf803291a4acf6edfd708c48
Comment: The last two weeks have been far more reminiscent of the age of empires than America first except for the gutting of USAID. Trump said he’s been thinking about this for quite some time, probably not as long as Greenland, but maybe longer than Panama. I do wonder if he discussed this with Netanyahu earlier than just before the press conference. Bibi looked a little taken aback when Trump laid out the plan. I wonder what he truly thinks of the plan. Is he ready to give up Gaza to the US in exchange for a penthouse suite in the future Trump Gaza Spa and Resort?
Does Trump really think this is going to be just another redevelopment project or does he realize disappearing the Palestinians from Gaza is something Israel has been unable to do with over a year of high intensity fighting and bombardment? I suppose he could impose a true blockade of aid and wait for the Palestinians to starve to death or he could drive them into the sea militarily or firebomb the lot of them. Or as some MAGA apologists say, this is just the opening bargaining position in an attempt to solve an intractable international problem.
Another question in my mind is what is running through the minds of Rashida Tlaib and the other supporters of Palestinians and apologists for Hamas. They must be feeling pretty damned stupid for refusing to support Harris for not being sufficiently supportive of the Palestinians. That’s a fatal flaw in a lot of “all or nothing” liberal activists.
TTG
TTG,
It’s rather humorous watching the world run away from the Gordian Knot in the middle east. Tlaib ought to know Bibi is happy to keep the refugee washing in Gaza go on as long as he can make it. Coons is stupid enough to not know what was happening with all that USAID fraud, including millions of $ for AP. Abbas? What was his cut of the aid graft? Including decades of UN aid? It should have been Paris on the Mediterranean long ago
I’ll pray for those suffering the Woe of the vanquished, but it is not our problem. And Trump should trust nobody, including Jared and Ivanka, in Israel. (and not many outside of it)
TTG: “I suppose he could impose a true blockade of aid and wait for the Palestinians to starve to death or he could drive them into the sea militarily or firebomb the lot of them.”
I’m actually struggling to see how any of those options are compatible with Trump’s claim that he wants to relocate the Palestinians because he is concerned for their safety.
Trump: “This has been happening for years. It’s all death. If we can get a beautiful area to resettle people, permanently, in nice homes where they can be happy and not be shot and not be killed and not be knifed to death like what’s happening in Gaza.”
So one of the reasons why the USA can to go in there is because he doesn’t want any more of them to be shot and killed, and one way he can do that is by killing them all.
“Netanyahu gifts Trump a ‘golden pager’ during visit”
https://nypost.com/2025/02/06/world-news/netanyahu-gifts-trump-a-golden-pager-during-visit-in-nod-to-stunning-attack-that-took-out-hezbollah-terrorists-report
This seems like a truly rotten idea, on both sides, to me.
Enough of the U.S. stooging for Israel.
Yeah, that was creepy. Is that “golden pager” rigged to explode? Or is it just a subtle (?) reminder that Bibi has some other way to elevate JD Vance to the Presidency?
Looks like a threat to me from Trumps good pal Bibi.
Nah, Netanyahu and his cronies are simply a smug bunch of grifters.
They are convinced that their pager attack on Hezbollah’s civilian workerforce was an unparalleled example of Israeli daring-do and an object of universal admiration.
So I would see the golden-pager as just being a typical example of Zionist bragging.
It’s not just Trump: there is a YouTube video of a smug Zionist walking up to Norman Finklestein on a New York street corner an putting a pager into his breast pocket.
Have to say Finklestein showed great restraint: I would have yelled “self-defense!” and decked the guy.
Why not offer to bring 100,000-200,000 Palestinians to the US? Let Trump put his money where his mouth is! Because he doesnt want anyone from a sh&t-hole country in the US and he knows that his base, much of which is made up of Neo-Confederates, racists, Neo-Nazis and end of timer/Jew hating (claiming to love) evangelicals would hate him for it.
Trump used to claim that he could shoot someone dead on the street and it wouldnt cost him supporters. Bringing a bunch of Christian and Muslim Palestinians to the US would likely be a red line in the sand for even his supporters.
I think Trump just pulled the thing from “min teezak” as the Arabs say. He pulled it from his rear-end. Trump is not a thinker and all of his advisors on the Middle East were shocked by his statement. His own Secretary of Defense first heard about the “plan” on the radio.
It will never go anywhere, more of Trump’s off the cuff verbal flatulence. Of course the members of the MAGA cult will claim Trump is playing some 30 dimensional chess that only God himself could understand, but most of us learned a long time ago Trump could take a turd in a punch bowl and his followers would marvel at the ingenious of it and ask for seconds.
Stefan,
As someone who apparently deems himself a “thinker” and, therefore, contrary to Trump, how many years have you been paid to solve strife in the region? Are there any milestones on the road to success that you’ve achieved that you would like to share with us? What exactly is your most intelligent and viable plan? Why hasn’t it been implemented? If implemented, why hasn’t it resulted in peace?
Who cares? It’s not America’s job to ensure peace there. It’s up to the Palestinians and Israelis to negotiate.
I have been in and around the Arab world for almost 30 years now, speak Arabic and have lived and traveled extensively in the region. Milestones? Yeah, a degree in Middle Eastern studies with a minor in Arabic, working on the subject professionally for over a decade.
Eric, you really sound just like a cult member. Every time Trump speaks you do nothing more than kowtow. It is really embarrassing. Trump trying to make Gaza into Trumptopia is just ludicrous, yet you still think it is some sort or genius. I feel bad you, seriously.
Stefan,
I asked what you and non-Trump US admins have accomplished re; peace in the region and you cited, in return, your personal academic achievements. So, as I already knew – but was willing to give the benefit of the doubt – there have been no solutions; or even steps toward solution other than what Trump has accomplished.
Now it appears that Trump, working with Arabic countries, is going to create a lasting peace; including a viable plan for the residents of Gaza. Jordan’s King just had a very positive meeting at the White House and stated that Egypt is on board as well as others.
Only a demented maniac, sitting far back from the situation, wants the Palestinians to keep fighting over rubble. Gaza residents will be relocated and, eventually, Gaza will be developed and, as Trump said, many jobs will be created for Arabs and a beautiful stretch of real estate will result where peaceful can thrive.
Also, Putin is slated to meet in Washington and finalize peace in Ukraine; just as Trump said would happen.
Losers, tax funded grifters and haters can gripe and call Trump names all they want. It takes a businessman to show government how to operate, set clear sensible objectives and budgets and achieve them.
Eric Newhill,
Trump’s full throated embrace of the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians wrapped in a ridiculous real estate deal has only emboldened the Zionists to get rid of the Palestinians one way or another. Both Jordan and Egypt have reiterated their opposition to Trump’s plan to relocate the Gazans to a beautiful piece of land in their countries. All Trump did was embolden the Israelis to seek a final solution to their Palestinian problem.
TTG,
No. You are 180 degrees in the wrong. Abdullah II ibn al-Hussein was just at the WH w/ Trump and spoke very favorably of Trump’s plan. He not only smiled upon it, but agreed that other Arab nations are doing so as well. You can view the footage and see what he actually said.
You need to tap into non-biased/non-TDS “news”. Pay attention to actual footage, not some “resistance” stooge’s “interpretation”.
As for “ethnic cleansing”, that is some emotionally laden, slanted language that lays bear your lack of understanding of what is being proposed, as well as your overly romantic view of the situation. Minds are easily redirected by word choice. You know that. The left knows that too and uses it as a primary tactic. It only works on fools, of which you cynically understand, there is no shortage, but I wish you would not suggest me to be among by deploying it in our interactions.
Your professional distortion (I think that’s what Col Lang called it) is to want to identify an underdog and fight an insurgency on his behalf. Well, enough people have died already. There has been enough suffering. No one cares about your non-skin in the game fantasies of fighting for justice, as you define it. The Jews need a homeland and the palestinians need to stop being goaded, by aid $s bloated psychopaths + Iran, into suicidal terrorism.
The historical revisions and moral fairy tales, of either side, aren’t worth the continued destruction that they demand if fully believed. Borders, like the climate, change. That is history, all over the planet, across the centuries.
The dust has settled and it is all over for the muslim brotherhood/plo/hamas crowd. Smart people are ready to move on and to give the residents of Gaza what they need, not what you want.
Eric Newhill,
Abdullah II ibn al-Hussein agreed to take in 3,000 Gazan children for cancer and other medical care. He promised no more than that. He and other regional countries should have been doing that for at least the last year. He merely remained polite during the news conference with Trump. Following the meeting with Trump at the White House on Tuesday, Abdullah wrote on X that Jordan remained “steadfast” against “the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. This is the unified Arab position.”
Ethnic cleansing is a legal term for forcibly relocating a people. It should be an emotionally laden term, just like child rape. If the Palestinians left on their own or were inticed to do so voluntarily, it wouldn’t be ethnic cleansing. If Trump and other want to create a beautiful new home for millions of Palestinians, they should do so.
Eric Newhill,
Abdullah II ibn al-Hussein only agreed to take in 2,000 Gazan children for cancer and other medical treatment, no more. He remained polite and smiled profusely during the rest of the news conference with Trump. Following the meeting with Trump at the White House on Tuesday, Abdullah wrote on X that Jordan remained “steadfast” against “the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. This is the unified Arab position.”
Ethnic cleansing is the legal term for forcibly removing a people from where they currently live. If the Palestinians leave voluntarily or can be enticed to leave voluntarily, it would not be ethnic cleansing. They don’t want to leave Gaza. If Trump wants to avoid the ethnic cleansing accusation, he can create that beautiful new homeland for the Gazans that would entice them to leave.
TTG,
One more thing. You, and people like Stefan, should keep in mind that my position is not from some ideology or academic nonsense. I literally grew up with family – like my grandparents – and a community that consisted of actual survivors of a genocide – and ancestors who endured generations of pogroms prior to that – and who lost homes in a homeland in which our ancestors existed from Old Testament days.
No one complained about life in America. Everyone was at least modestly successful and grateful to live in a country that is safe and full of opportunity. Yes, there was angst over those who were killed or sold into slavery (the Arabs bought a lot of the prettier boys and girls from the Turks and Kurds, who took them from their dead families). Yes, there was angst over a life and land lost forever. However, the general attitude was that life goes on. Everything is part of God’s mysterious plan and we keep the faith and keep on doing our best. My generation is perfectly happy to be American. If bloodthirsty maniacs would not keep goading the palestinians to violence, they could enjoy an experience similar to the Armenians.
TTG,
Re, Abdullah II ibn al-Hussein, you have read the signs incorrectly or missed them entirely and you will see in time what happens. Did you not see him smile and nod in agreement as Trump described what would happen? Of course he has to ease his people into accepting the plan.
You care not what the Houthis have done to the non-Houthis; and dozens of other examples around the world that meet your definition of ethnic cleansing.
I am neither mover nor impressed with your moral outrage; especially because you have no solution. Perhaps if you European types hadn’t been such a-holes to the Jews for a thousand years or so, the Jews wouldn’t have such a strong need for a return to and defend their historic land. Water under the bridge, though. Were your people not driven from Lithuania? Are you suffering in America? Do your children desire a return to Lithuania? Beyond romantic fantasies smart people get over migrations, forced or voluntary.
Eric Newhill,
He smiled and nodded then said we should wait for the Egyptian plan which entails Gaza ruled by Palestinians, not relocation. He then wrote on X that he does not accept trump’s relocation/development plan. You’re too blinded by your adoration of Trump to see the resistance to his plan by all but the Israelis.
There are plenty of examples of ethnic cleansing in the world. None of them excuse Trump’s plan for Gaza.
The people of the Baltics were killed in large numbers and exiled to Siberia in large numbers. My family suffered both fates, but my grandparents emigrated to the US voluntarily.
TTG,
You are literally making shit up. King Abdullah did say he wanted to wait until Egypt presented Trump with a plan “and not get ahead of ourselves” , but did not include your made up part about “Gaza ruled by Palestinians, not relocation”. He never said anything like that.
Like I keep saying, with you guys it’s always we need more n****rs to pick the crops and you and you, over there, should fight to death for a losing cause. And and the same time, “I am moral and you’re not”.
Finally, it is clear that you simply cannot except that borders change. People get dislocated. That is history. No one has ever been exempt. You call it an excuse for Israel on my part. You just don’t get the point because you are lost in selective moralizing.
If you really cared about the palestinians, you’d have the foreign aid that supports hamas cut off; so its leaders can’t accumulate $billions as incentive to perpetuate the suffering of the every day people. You’d be happy to see the people receive a viable peaceful place to live. But no, you are essentially a bomb thrower mentality yourself and you want to live vicariously through hamas “resistance”. You justify your own propensity for violence with constructs concerning right and wrong, justice, etc. You made those up yourself. However, since they are facile, mundane and sophomoric, there are plenty others out there who have constructed the same. Therefore, you have a support community that reinforces your sense of righteousness. I always liked you, seriously. But I’m going to call you on your BS because I do.
Eric Newhill,
The Gaza ruled by Palestinians is the Egyptian plan. It’s a comprehensive plan to rebuild Gaza without displacing the Palestinians. King Abdullah is not going to be rude enough to say that to Trump in a news conference. I doubt Trump will go for it at all. His mind is now clouded with dreams of a new Riviera.
You’re right borders do change. A Palestinian state would change borders no matter how unlikely that’s going to happen anytime soon. Maybe under the threat of Trump’s and Israel’s final solution, the ineffective and do-nothing Arab states may find the will to reconstruct Gaza and push for a Palestinian state. I wouldn’t hold my breath.
The rest of you tirade is just a bunch of name calling bullshit.
Stefan
Martha’s Vineyard is great this time of year. Maybe Sultan Erdogan would like these fine people. The Ottomans ran the place for how many centuries? What did the Palestinians make of it? I know, NAKBA! was year zero so history doesn’t matter. Perhaps with Erdogan’s now Turkey they can turn a new and creative leaf.
When the Ottoman Sultans ran the place Muslims were #1 and the second class Dhimmis had to pay the Jizya. Palestine was mostly a waste land.
Now that it is developed, and worth something, because the Dhimmi are back in charge, the Muslim “leadership” suck up USAID and gripe about the “justice” of getting it “back”.
But, no sense in arguing with someone who’s livelihood depends on a certain meme being accepted as truth by dorks forking around tons of US tax s.
Quick Eric, tell us what Jizya was without googling it. Let me save you the time. The ONLY people that paid it were men of military age. Why did they pay? Because as non-Muslim they were exempt from military service, so it was paid to cover their part for national defense.
Kind of like Trump dodging the draft because of his “bone spurs”. Except Trump didnt pay anyone to take his place in service.
Stefan,
I just saw this.
The fact is that Jizya has been applied differently in different countries, caliphates, etc and at different times.
What is military age? It would seem to equate with working age, as applied in real life and in islamic jurisprudence. So a working age man has to pay the tax. Since women don’t work and are married, it is a tax on a household throughout the productive years of the household.
Isn’t it racist, as defined by you, that muslims often won’t allow Christians to be in the military. If a Christian (or Jew, or Zoroastrian) were allowed in the military, without converting, would he still have to pay the jizya? In practice, yes.
The jizya is money paid by non-muslim citizens (or subjects) for protection. It’s like a Mafia shakedown racket. It amounts to second class citizenship. If not paid, anything can “happen” to the non-muslims. Even if paid, anything can (and did) happen to the non-muslims (“happen” = events like plunder and massacre). That is the kind of arrangement that makes people hate Hitler – the historic figure and the personification of an ideology.
Finally, you are aware, I’m sure, that most Arabs don’t consider the Palestinians to be true Arabs, or even true muslims. That is part of the problem. Additionally, huge swaths of islam don’t consider other huge swaths of islam to be real muslims; to the point where the rejection can turn into bloodshed and full-blown war. More muslims have been killed by other muslims than by anyone else.
But I’m the “racist”, despite the fact that I have explained, several times, that it is the mindset and ideology that object to and not the genetics.
Stefan,
That’s interesting. I don’t think that was Pat Lang’s interpretation of Jizya.
Distraction?
leith,
I think this will serve as no more than a distraction. I don’t see anyone else taking it seriously. I have to admit Trump does think big and out of the box. He just can’t stop himself from sharing his fever dreams.
TTG,
So much pearl clutching and name calling by the “Don’t touch my USAID” crowd, who know the gravy train has ended for them.
Just as Mexico is now cooperating after much contrary sound and fury from its Presidente, the Gaza deal will go the same way. Who cares what the “Global Community” thinks? It’s not like it’s offered anything viable, let alone accomplished anything successful.
Obviously, Trump throws out an ambitious, even bellicose, plan, the ninnies freak out and the heads of foreign states react angrily. A week or two later a viable plan has been accepted by state leadership and goes into motion. Gaza is no exception to the pattern. Pattern recognition is a sign of intelligence.
Gaza is going to be developed by wealthy Arabs. Some – maybe many – of the so called Palestinians will get to live and work there, but terrorism will not be tolerated. The new development will be policed by the wealthy Arabs. Everyone will be better off.
Meanwhile, the aforementioned slimy, useless, USAID hypocrites will be sad that the Palestinians are no longer “resisting” and getting killed in the ghetto. Because ‘let’s you and him fight’ gives those hypocritical bastards a reason to exist off other people’s money – and feel important and virtuous while doing it.
Eric Newhill,
Pearl clutching? About $25,000 of DOS funding going to support a production in Columbia of an American opera from 2014? The pearl clutching seems like it’s coming from the right about the opera’s transgender subject matter. After seeing this review, I can see why. Evoking compassion? No wonder MAGA is upset.
Mexico’s 10,000 national guardsmen have been on Mexico’s northern border since Biden asked for it in 2021. It was increased to 15,000 last year. That’s what brought down the number of border crossers last year. Sheinbaum played Trump in making him believe he was getting something new in exchange for not implementing the tariffs. Trudeau did the same thing. He and Biden worked out an increased presence on the northern border last December. All Trump got out of him was the naming of a fentanyl czar. That’s new. Alternatively, all three were in on the kabuki show and the whole elaborate charade gave Trump a huge propaganda win at no cost to anybody. That would have been damned clever.
It will be interesting to see how he spins his Gaza whopper into a win.
Eric Newhill,
Having said all that, the blowing up of USAID is exposing a bunch of waste by beltway bandits that have accrued since its founding by JFK. Too bad a lot of excellent programs have to end in the process. Of course, the cruelty is the point. Isn’t it?
TTG,
USAID = CIA/State? Hits close to home?
Why are tax payer $s funding big media that cranks out fake news and turns Americans each other and makes people not proud to be Americans?
Which “excellent programs” are being ended?
Erik Newhill,
Mostly health related and humanitarian assistance programs. PEPFAR in Sub-Saharan Africa is a big one. All those condoms that Trump and others lied about going to Gaza were part of this Sub-Saharan anti-AIDS program. Their democracy promotion projects do work in conjunction with CIA/State objectives.
https://apnews.com/article/usaid-hiv-humanitarian-assistance-disease-spending-20f9cb969ffb6773e57886e34bf69165
I don’t hear Musk bragging about ending the clearing of landmines in Cambodia. China picked up the slack on that one quickly.
TTG,
“the cruelty is the point.”
Yes getting rich while screwing your fellow citizen is cruel, and that was the point. Getting rich.
Where did all that money go? A tranny opera is a fine distraction for the suckers and the usual suspects are happy to keep that front and center. How many millions did people get, each, for a photo op with Zelensky? Too many. More to come. Poor Hunter, he was just a bag man and the whole family missed out on the real graft.
USAID going bye bye? Good riddance.
Open your wallet, spend your money. No one is going to stop you, or anyone, from sending it to whatever noble cause you desire. (except for your wife, and your common sense, slapping you upside the head) Needless to say you would want more accountability than a GS whatever rubber stamping the checks like has been happening for years.
… a little help for his friend? The top reason for the visit? Which would make gestures like the ones linked below semi-staged for public Israeli public consumption? Which will be cherished by the vast majority of his base too, since it enrages the Democrats at home?
https://www.moonofalabama.org/19i/trumpchair1-s.jpg
https://x.com/jakeshieldsajj/status/1886931086946574418
I admittedly liked Bernhard’s framing. 😉
What a pity the late PL isn’t among us anymore.
The problem I have with such a theory is that Trump will run into the same problem that Lord Balfour did when he wrote his letter.
Which is: if you promise the Zionists anything – no matter how outrageous, no matter how impractical – they will pocket that promise and insist that you make good on it.
No amount of “Ho, ho, ho, I was just kidding you” is going to cut it with them.
They’ve just been promised that the USA will go in and remove 1.8 million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, and they will insist that Trump make good on that promise.
Yeah, Right,
AIPAC is undoubtably on Trump’s target list.
Fred….AIAC on Trump’s list? lol Only for $$
No wonder you call yourself “Yeah Right”. Thanks
This man’s walking around without body armour in one of the most dangerous spots for a civilian you could find. Where they’ll shoot you like a rabbit, or burn your house down, or blow it up, depending what mood the local soldiery find themselves in, and think it great sport to round off the day’s jollity by bagging a journalist or two.
I’ve seen him on videos before. Always a suit, always collar and tie, unafraid and self-possessed, wouldn’t be out of place in the City or, more likely, strolling round to some Government office where the senior staff don’t dress flash but tend to dress tidy. Though he’s not in some London street in those videos. He’s in a psycho hellhole quietly bearing witness to the doings of the psychos. Our man in Auschwitz country, reporting back.
This video, he’s not for once risking his life amidst the mayhem. He’s solo in the ruins, meditating on things the psychos will never understand.
https://x.com/CraigMurrayOrg/status/1885024736100413581
Auschwitz country? Where are the rail lines, box cars, and showers? I don’t see any crematoria out there? Underground, built with UN money over, how long was UNRWA spending how many pounds of money on that place? Ah, well it’s 1944 again…..
He’s all alone, not even a selfie-stick to hold the camera. Or driver for the car or …Perhaps you should send YOUR army back there and put an end to all that genociding.
Fred – thought we were on the same side, dammit. Seems we’re not! I’ll have a go at bringing you round:-
Israel, more than any other country, commemorates the atrocities inflicted on their people in the ’30’s and ’40’s. That gives it no licence to inflict atrocities today. Nor us licence to assist in the work.
On UK involvement, “my army” was there to an extent. RAF pilots at least. But it’s what the US is doing that concerns us here, not one of the lesser Europoodles. Which is what HMG has decided is a fit role for the UK.
So, US involvement. If there are too many in the States who can’t see that what has been done and is being done in the ME is wrong, then your country’s in a bad way.
Move the argument to the practical. There we might be able to agree. Let us take it as common ground that morality is not a consideration here. Common sense should nevertheless tell you that the US, in aiding genocide and ethnic cleansing, is doing itself no good in the eyes of the rest of the world.
“Do you even now not know what you have done”, said President Putin of another of these episodes in his 2015 UN speech. That was discussed on this site, though then the consensus here was that we should not be doing it.
If the answer to that from you and from too many others in the States is still “no”, then you condemn your country to the diminution of power and influence that was so marked during the Biden administration. Trump’s best bet is to reject that Biden legacy in its entirety and to start to claw back America’s international standing.
A somewhat utilitarian argument, maybe even contemptible, but do please understand that even on that utilitarian level you’re not helping MAGA much by pretending wrong is right in Gaza.
Hope that gets us all square again.
EO,
You are losing your touch.
“Israel, more than any other country, commemorates the atrocities inflicted on their people in the ’30’s and ’40’s.”
Israel was not a nation on the European continent then or now. The hasbara, the explainers, have been working overtime for years now. Israel of ’49 and ’67 and so on is long gone. Pat Lang commented on the rot in the IDF and the culture more than a decade before his passing. Or course the UK has been there, have you forgotten WW1 and the destruction of Ottoman, as well as German, Russian, and Austro-Hungarian empires? The UK purposely drew the maps with their fellow victor, the French, in most of the trouble spots on two continents.
The Great Game. Few gave a damn about Palestinians then, including the Ottomans.
Trump has either showed himself to be entangled at the hip to Adelson, Bibi, Jared, and all the rest; or, he has tossed ‘US obligations’ to the ME into that dustbin of history we kept hearing about. Kind of like giving HM Government responsibility for Ukraine. He will have to kick AIPAC in the bank account too, or show everyone just who he is most concerned with.
There is close to zero desire to take Gazans anywhere, especially here. Proclaiming a “Right to Return”, where did we hear that before? Kind of a ‘law of return, eh? Puts a nice spin on it for Bibi’s fellow citizens. Paying for rebuilding? Why? What the hell did the corrupt Hamas government, voted into office by the people fed up with the corrupt Fatah government, did what with it? What ‘oversight’ did the UN provide? Walking away would be the best thing we could do – for US. And that would include cutting Israel’s umbilical cord. The cost though, I’m sure you understood Bibi’s golden pager threat was meant as?
By the sound of it you’re as appalled by what’s been done in Gaza as me, Fred. That so, sorry I wrote so sharp to you above.
I think certain factions in the Israeli government have decided that this is the right time to settle the Palestinian question. They already destroyed Gaza and are now trying to escalate things in the West Bank. Trump has already promised to support the annexation of the West Bank. Militarily, Syria is in shambles and there is no danger of fighting a two-front war.
Israeli public is generally supportive of a military solution, so this will not politically hurt Netanyahu. The only issue is that Israel may become a pariah state, but I feel they think that with American support they can block any UN Security Council action and that the US can bully countries that act to sanction Israel on their own.
They’ve already dealt with 2M+ in Gaza, so if they can remove 1-2M (out of 3M) from the West Bank, this would give them a decisive demographic advantage to a point where the remaining Palestinians could be granted Israeli citizenship.
If the Israelis decide that the time is right to enact their Endlösung they are not gonna leave 1 million Palestinians in the West Bank who would then get citizenship and have access to the entire state. If they do their Endlösung it will involve clearing out ALL Palestians in the West Bank, Christian and Muslim. If they are gonna pay the price international they are not gonna stand around like 1 o’clock half struck. The real question is whether or not their Endlösung will include the “Israeli” Arabs as well. 50/50 chance of the Israelis decide to ethnically cleanse the West Bank and Gaza they will also remove almost all of the “Israeli” Arabs as well. They’d just need to work out how many they need to keep around to do the work the Israelis dont want to
Stefan,
That is not quite Academy Award winning sound and fury. Keep working at it, maybe you’ll get your big break. Or not. The time for people like you finger wagging and trying to guilt trip us into silence at the rest of us from your DC pulpit is over. Your funding is gone.
Here is how your life blood is splaying out outside the gateway – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj9jXMEzCZY.
You’re kaput. Bon voyage. Adios. Sayonara. Get a real job.
Eric, like any cult member, the stuff you spew is nothing more than verbal flatulence. You will support anything Trump says, you have no mind of your own, so it is a waste talking to you.
You cant even be trusted to stick to your own promises, which was to post less. Your word is worth as much as Trump’s is. Zero. So you can continue to address me, but I will not response. The vast majority of the people who comment here know you who are. A racist (self hating because you are Middle Eastern) Islamophobe and a MAGA cult member. Your comments just reinforces these opinions.
Stefan,
You and Eric have made it quite clear what you think of each other. From this point on, keep your comments to facts, ideas and criticisms of those facts and ideas. No more diatribes about each other.
TTG,
“From this point on, keep your comments to facts, ideas and criticisms of those facts and ideas. No more diatribes about each other”
My promise too. I hope Eric Newhill will do the same.
I don’t think it will happen. Trump is known for running his mouth and delivering much less. It is just another distraction from all the other crap he is trying and is increasingly stopped by judges. At some point some of it will reach the Supremes and they will have to deal with their earlier culpability. They are aware that they are no longer trusted to do the right thing and they will see this as an opportunity to raise their image, which should not be a concern, but now is.
Trump wants to privatize the Gaza beach front for himself and his billionaire buddies. In fact, he wants to privatize much of what government bureaucracies do now. How far will he go? How about the Dept of Interior? There’s a lot of money in those trees and minerals to strip mine. A Ferris Wheel on top of Half Dome or a slide twisting a a mile or two from the top to the meadow. Trump doesn’t care, he’s never stepped into a redwood grove or hiked along a crystal clear stream. New York is his type of wild and concrete is easy to walk on.
If he gets away with stealing land in Gaza, there’s no stopping him from taking your land or mine to build a “big beautiful casino to make so much money for our country.”
And I voted for him knowing Oregon always votes Dem and to say FU to the moronic candidate they ran.
“About $25,000 of DOS funding going to support a production in Columbia of an American opera from 2014?
The pearl clutching seems like it’s coming from the right about the opera’s transgender subject matter.”
Why on earth should America be paying for this?
Should America be promoting transgenderism?
I think absolutely not.
I refuse to support that abomination.
Keith Harbaugh,
The opera is about one person transitioning and how miserable an experience it can be. It doesn’t promote transgenderism. Why should the US pay for this? That’s a valid question. How about funding a production of “Our Town” or “Hamilton”? How do you feel about high school students reading Oedipus Rex?
“How about funding a production of “Our Town” or “Hamilton”?
How do you feel about high school students reading Oedipus Rex?”
In Columbia, South America? Why?
Why should America be funding that?
Oedipus Rex?
Is that now not to be read?
Is that now cancelled?
I am okay with young people reading that.
Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, and Pythagoras? Yeah!
Alexander Hamilton?
Team PC has put their spin on the
story of his life.
We must realize that.
Yes, I understand your basic point.
I was born in the 1940s, and spent my youth in various WASP, Calvinist dominated, communities, with their emphasis on self-restraint and the good of the whole community.
I think those cultures and the Calvinist values they proclaimed and attempted to uphold,
no doubt imperfectly,
were good and should be upheld to the extent possible.
But no, transgenderism should be scorned and reviled.
Just my opinion.
I will leave various doctors to disagree with me, and do their PC bit.
Keith,
USAID was even paying for the transgendering of monkeys and mice. The fascination with transgender is bizarre, even evil. Bill Gates was receiving $millions in USAID (like he needs it). He wants to reduce the human population. He makes vaccines from aborted babies (his own site says so). The Dept of Education has been in on it, brainwashing our youth to be compliant. The leftist media receives the funds and picks up the brainwashing once the kids are out of the [so called] education system. The pieces of the puzzle are lining up.
Those in league with Satan – and make no mistake, that’s what this is all about – will lie and scream and deny. Let them. They are being exorcised and doing what demons do as they are sent back to hell. You will see of that here and everywhere.
Eric Newhill,
Bill Gates may claim he wants to reduce the human population, but Trump and Musk are actively trying to do just that by stopping USAID funding of many food aid and health care projects.The international internet project founded by Musk, pocketed $1 million from USAID just for that project. His provision of Starlink for Ukraine got millions more. So is Musk part of that criminal organization? All those midwestern farmers selling wheat and corn to USAID for distribution to Africa and elsewhere must also be part of that criminal organization.
Sure a lot of the waste and graft in USAID needs to be cut. Looks like USAID was used as a petty cash box for a lot of unnecessary programs. Even Ivanka Trump got $11,000 from USAID in 2019 for AV equipment for a White House event.
TTG,
You, like Stefan, are assigning loyalties to me that I don’t actually have. My Loyalties are to the Constitution and the USA, to Jesus Christ and to my family.
USAID – my tax dollars and those of my fellow citizens who actually pay in – have been abused by all manner of assholes for all manner of nefarious purposes. Kill it. It will be cut off for Ivanka Trump (who I have visceral dislike for) as well as everyone else.
And I do not believe that it has been the source of any beneficial programs. You can call it corn for starving Africans, but you’d you have to demonstrate that starving Africans actually got some corn and that the bulk of the money went to that, instead of greedy African warlords, greedy politicians here and there.
Which brings us back to Gaza – how is that so much aid money went to wealthy Hamas “leaders” living out fo country in nice mansions and assault tunnels?
This is all BS, the whole thing about USAID being good, mostly. No one is taking the die hard left’s talking points about any of it seriously. You don’t know how the money was truly spent. You’re repeating what the lefties have said.
TTG,
Why are you making excuses? Federal policy doesn’t decide if high school students read Shakespeare. But Biden sure did arrest parents for complaining to a school board about their daughter being raped by a “transgender” student.
Biden didn’t arrest that father, nor did any Federal LE. It was Loudon County Police and it was under Virginia statutes, eventually pardoned by Youngkin. The school superintendent was fired and charged by the state for mishandling the whole thing. The then 14 year old boy was found guilty of sexual assault for that and another incident at another school. He met his victim in the girls bathroom and committed the sexual assault, although they both had consensual sex twice before in the girls bathroom. He wasn’t transgender, he was a heterosexual male who happened to use the girls bathroom to commit his sexual assaults.
And who said anything about Shakespeare? I asked Keith about Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, a play about killing the father and marrying the mother.
Thanks TTG. People who spew this crap ignore the details. Details matter. The difference between reality and omissions which make the story a lie to spread hate and ignorance.
Responding to Stefan,
I suggest you become aware of how men claiming to be “transgender” are committing crimes against girls.
See, for example
https://mynbc15.com/news/nation-world/registered-sex-offender-identified-himself-as-transgender-in-indecent-exposure-case-arlington-virginia-washington-liberty-high-school-richard-cox
That illustrates how men claiming to be “transgender” are using the left-wing infatuation with “transgenderism” to commit crimes.
You can Google Richard Kenneth Cox
to get more accounts of what Cox did.
For an Arlnow report on this, see
https://www.arlnow.com/2025/01/18/charges-against-sex-offender-for-w-l-girls-locker-room-incident-prompt-statement-from-gop/
Keith Harbaugh,
This is how one man, a sex offender, used a transgender claim to commit crimes. You make it sound like all men do this. But you do expose a real problem. Why would the school let an old man, not a parent, into the girl’s locker room. The administration’s bending backwards to appear tolerant rather than using common sense is almost as much to blame as Cox.
If you can find a video of South Park’s “Death Camp of Tolerance” you should view it. It came out in 2002, but it’s still right on the money.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_Camp_of_Tolerance
Elon was the largest beneficiary USAID. But later USAID started investigating Starlink. So a bit of revenge now by DOGE.
And he’ll find a way to monetize it. Tesla sales are crashing in both Europe and the USA. So he needs some of your tax money to build his Megafactory in China to sell Tesla’s in Asia.
Leith,
Did Ukraine return the products paid for by our tax monies? Should we bother going back in the comment records and seeing your praise of Ukraine getting starlink terminals and access?
Fred –
The African ketamine addict has all our tax monies that were used to buy those starlink terminals.
Ask him nicely, maybe he’ll put it back in the Treasury?
Fred, so wrong again!
TTG,
What’s fun is that USAID distributions can be searched. So we don’t have to rely on what dismissive government stooges and “fact checkers” say. For example, here’s a search that shows the $millions that were given to Politico.
https://www.usaspending.gov/search/?hash=06f9eb87528583dd211eb3ce06521f22
Just for fun and illustration of how the leftist slime machine works, here is SNOPES denying Politico received money, until, near the bottom, it admits it, then tries to say the USAID money wasn’t really USAID money
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/usaid-payments-to-politico/
Who wants to search to see if Turcopolier began receiving funding in Feb 2022?
I think we will find that a lot of “true believers” in this or that ideology or cause, that just happens to align with the deep state’s thinking, were recipients.
Eric,
Politico is privately held in Europe. Who does Kari Lake sue for all the hit pieces they put out against her is what some wag on the ‘net is asking.
Subscriptions were to Politcal Pro…not Political media.
House Republicans subscribed at $800,000 total.
USAide…$44,000
Political Pro obviously has value across political lines
Al,
No. Wrong. It’s right there at the link I posted. USAID spending, not individual congress people spending.
I don’t care if Rs are involved too. That is such a lame “you guys did too” attempt to divert from the problem. There are a lot of scumbag Rs that need to be taken down along with the democrats. Like TTG and Stefan, you are assigning loyalties to me that I don’t have. It is a short cut to thinking on your part, as well as excuse making for rot as normal.
Eric Newhill,
Your USA Spending link shows no payments to Politico LLC from USAID, just millions of dollars from agencies and departments across the government. USAID is only mentioned in your Snopes link showing the $44,000 subscription by USAID. Trump and Musk are lying and you’re swallowing the lies.
Fred,
There are probably a fair number of business failures and suicides coming up; some actual suicides and some Epstein type “suicides”.
If Kari is a dark, vengeful kind of woman, she may take some delight in them. If she is a good soul, she may marvel at how the wheels of Karma grind slowly, but very finely – and pray that the Lord have mercy on the souls of those who trespassed against her. Otherwise, she’ll be fine. She now has a role in national politics on team America.
Al,
That’s still taxpayer $ that should not have been wasted on a foreign firm
Eric…who paid for Politico Pro (not Politico)….38 Repub House members $300,000…several Repub chaired committees $500,000. Various Fed agencies also subscribed to Political Pro (again not Political) USAid??? $44,000. Mild compared to what Repub House members paid out!
You sure slant the issues you intend to hit with disinformation, loaded with incomplete facts
Have you taken a look at Politico Pro? It obviously has value across the Political lines
.
Al,
And how is sponsoring Politico Pro different than Politico? Cocaine goes up the left nostril or goes up the right nostril, all reaches the same brain.
Al,
About $8.4 million in taxpayer funds were obligated to Politico over the 12 months ending Sept. 30, 2024. Fact.
You and TTG can try to obfuscate with tangents all you want to.
Eric Newhill,
Now you’re being clear. It wasn’t USAID spending eight million. It was dozens of government agencies and departments buying subscription services to Politico Pro.
TTG,
Not interested in playing your shell game or debating with you the meaning of “is”. $ millions from US agencies to Politico LLC isn’t ok. You can’t imagine that money wouldn’t bias Politico’s “reporting”?
You can’t conceive that USAID money goes into a fund for “subscriptions” or whatever and then, from there goes to Politico? For God’s sake man, how did you ever track down Russian espionage if you don’t understand how these things work? You’ve never heard of mapping networks and money transfers?
Apologies if I come off as being rude to you, but your attempt to play me like I just fell off the turnip truck is rude also.
Eric Newhill,
All the listed government agencies and departments have their own subscriptions to Politico Pro out of their budgets. Almost all, if not all, of those departments have far larger budgets than USAID. Why is that so hard to understand? Your own source document says that.
Would all that government money cause Politico to cater to their customers. You bet it would. That’s the whole purpose of Politico Pro, a subscription only service. But I’m sure some of that reporting bleeds over into the regular Politico publications.
TTG,
The website I linked to might be misleading in confusing USAID with other government expenditures. I’m not clear on that.
Regardless, Politico had received $34.3 million from assorted federal agencies, the bulk of which appeared to have been payments for subscriptions to Politico publications (specifically E&E News and Politico Pro).
Congress can’t purchase their subscriptions privately? They need tax dollars? How might $34 million from the US government skew “reporting”. This is crazy and you’d rather split hairs in defense of it.
Eric Newhill,
The website you linked to showed no USAID expenditures for any Politico LLC products. It does show dozens of other federal agencies making payments to Politico over the years. However, other reporting has shown $44,000 going to Politico Pro from USAID over the years, specifically the E&E News subscription service.That website probably shows government payments going to NYT, AP and others over the years. The NYT received $50 million. Your Snopes article links to an exhaustive list of Congressional expenditures. Several Congressional offices pay for similar subscriptions to Plitico Pro and other publications.
The E&E News and other Politico Pro products provide fine grained information and analysis of political/legislative aspects of various subjects like the environment and energy (E&E News). More of those subscriptions come from businesses and lobbyists than from federal agencies. Those customers pay for accurate information, not articles kissing up to the customers. I doubt anything is deliberately skewed in any of that subscription reporting. That would be bad for business.
The only hair I was splitting was the White House and Musk lies that USAID was paying off Politico for favorable reporting. Even Trump got in on the squawking in his late night rants from the shitter.
TTG,
Yeah. Maybe Trump and Musk have been conflating USAID with tax dollars from other funds. I would prefer they be more precise with their language for several reasons, one being that defenders of waste, fraud and abuse of tax dollars can divert attention from the waste, fraud and abuse by saying it wasn’t USAID; like you did.
However, all of the crazy and sinister expenditures of tax dollars that they speak have actually occurred; that is the point.
Eric Newhill,
Musk ought to keep a running tally of programs/projects shut down along with the amount of money saved. Right now, his work makes better headlines than spreadsheets. My guess is that the actual dollars saved is pretty damned small for all the sound and fury expended. From this point forward the elimination of any program related to DEI should be immediate. They are certainly not in consonance with the administration’s foreign policy or domestic goals.
I happened to be looking at the local VA hospital site for the orthopedics contacts and saw they had LGBTQ+ Veteran Care as an entry under health services offered. It’s more a coordination office rather than a major clinic. Here’s the description:
The office is probably no more than one or two counselors, but I’m sure it will be targeted for elimination. Won’t save much even if it’s done across all VA hospitals.
Eric – just a brief but aggrieved response to “fell off the turnip truck”.
Don’t know about turnip trucks. Never saw turnips harvested in the old days. Usually the sheep were folded in on them in strips, so did their own harvesting. Swedes, though, are much the same but larger and the skill required to harvest them was direct refutation of the suggestion that those who do are no account deplorables.
This is how it used to be done. There’s you. There’s a forty acre expanse of swede that looks, when you start the work, as if it’s stretching out to infinity. And there’s a foot long sharp blade with a hook at the end of it.
You’d haul the swede out of the ground, using the hook if it didn’t want to come out, and trim the root end. In the same motion you’d heave the thing towards the cart, as you did so cutting the foliage (that you’re still holding) off the other end.
Can you imagine the skill required to do all that in one fluid movement, cutting and throwing at the same time so the swede lands where it should in the cart? Taking care not to amputate your hand instead of the swede? And doing your best to avoid the shame of missing and hitting the side of the cart while all the others are hitting the right spot at speed and with the precision of a target shooter.
“Fell off the turnip truck”. You’d have had every right to, after forty acres of that.
On a less contentious issue, Ritter launches into an exhaustive discussion of what Musk’s getting up to. He covers, among other things, the patronage system that we’re also familiar with in the UK. You don’t cart sacks of cash around to reward those with the right views. You get them a job with some foundation or think tank, or as a “researcher” or aide or lobbyist.
There’s no Mr Big behind it all. As Ritter says, no “deep state”, no deep-seated conspiracy. Just an automatic and self-sustaining mechanism, money in at one end and emergent behaviour doing its thing at the other.
It’s been more or less like that since Lincoln’s time, since Walpole’s here and likely before, just that the patronage system has grown like topsy since – there’s so much more money around and so many more people to be accommodated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvpHy6U4IZw&t=6s&ab_channel=DialogueWorks
As for the world-wide machinery of subversion and destabilisation that’s being revealed to the public 1, we knew all that already here, on the Colonel’s site, and 2, we don’t yet know whether that machinery’s being dismantled by the Trump administration, or whether Trump’s just bringing it under control so he can use it for his own foreign policy purposes.
Swede is known in the States as “rutabaga”, would you believe. I looked it up. Don’t know how you got the name so wrong. Suppose it’s another bit of local waywardness like calling rounders baseball. The Thirteen Colonies seem to have got entirely out of hand since we cast them adrift to make their own way in the world.
$27 million to the George Soros prosecutor fund. $20 million for Iraqi Sesame Street?
Yes wail and gnash teeth – how will life around the planet continue without USAID?!?!?!?
I love how I work hard and pay my taxes so holier than thou government midwits can spend the money funding outlets that tell me I’m a bad person, how much they hate me and why the US should be “fundamentally” changed (= destroyed).
The left has now been destroyed by its own actions. Conspiracy theorists have been proven correct. The CIA/deep state really is behind the lying left media, woke crap and illegal immigration (untold $millions in USAID spent on that). Only the mentally ill and those financially benefitting from the deep state drunk spending bureaucracy will cling to progressive ideology, globalism and related smooth brain ideologies. This is a glorious time to be alive. And this is bigger than any other scandal in US history.
Eric, what are your sources on those Soros/USAid claims?
All that I see via google search is from a couple FAR right wing sites.
But then, seems like everyone was getting bites out of USAid, even tiny ones “In November 2019, Ivanka used $11,539 to purchase software, CDs, tapes and records…, The purchase was approved by the then USAID deputy chief of staff and Administrator’s Office, Jenifer Healy. However, it is not clear which event …”
https://www.newsweek.com/ivanka-trump-usaid-money-white-house-event-2027132
During Trump’s first term, his wife and daughter touted USAID’s role in providing vital economic assistance in Africa to promote children’s education and female entrepreneurship and to help protect Egypt’s pyramids
https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/02/07/melania-and-ivanka-trump-praised-usaid-for-funding-their-white-house-projects-reports/
Melania Trump, Ivanka Trump promoted USAID programs which are now called ‘fraud’ by Donald Trump. Melania focused on education and healthcare programs, while Ivanka headed efforts to empower women
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/us/melania-trump-ivanka-trump-promoted-usaid-programs-which-are-now-called-fraud-by-donald-trump/articleshow/118034918.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cpps
Mr. Newhill why so much fuss about $20 Million Iraq Sesame Street fund? The real news of 1 Million Iraqi’s killed in our democracy project at a cost of 5 or 6 Trillion dollars and 5000 American soldiers is never mentioned or talked about. How is this different from WWE entertainment? Same old same old “Roman empire circuses and real death matches” Thanks
s
Muralidhar Rao,
You make a good point and I agree.
There is no difference, really. I was totally against the Iraq war before it happened. I was with Col Lang. Saw it coming, said it was being pushed on us by lies. Republicans and Democrats were for it. They are all lying scum.
The only hair I can split is that they conned us into war right in front of our faces and the USAID crap is kind of covert and probably no Sesame Street Iraq was ever produced. The money probably just went directly into some party members’ pockets.
Eric Newhill,
Sesame Street Iraq is a very real program. The Ahlan Simsim Initiative is run by Sesame Workshop and the International Rescue Committee. “Millions have been reached through Ahlan Simsim—more than 3 million children and caregivers in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria through direct services for families and 27 million more through the award-winning locally produced Arabic-language version of Sesame Street airing across the Middle East and North Africa.” The biggest contributor is a $100 million grant from the MacArthur Foundation.
https://sesameworkshop.org/our-work/what-we-do/ahlan-simsim/
TTG,
Well, there you go. A link and everything – and a smiling girl with a smiling Muppet. Ok, then it must be real. I’m sold on it. More Sesame Street for Iraqis! Next thing you know they’ll all be purple thumbed transgenders and it will be so beautiful.
So DOGE has a link and everything to USAID expenditures, but you don’t believe that one.
’cause Orange man bad and Democrats and entrenched Wahington USAID awesome. Don’t question it. Not even for a second. Spend more money on awesomeness. When out, print some more! Yeah, yeah, I get it. Same old same old.
Eric Newhill,
The link you provided shows no USAID expenditures going to Politico LLC.
Muralidhar Rao, I guess the invasion of Iraq and all of the death and cost is ok because, as TTG informs us, now Iraqis really do have Sesame street. It’s good to have one’s puny undeveloped mind set on the straight and narrow path by one’s guru.
So what do you think – would India be a much improved country if Sesame Street were to be introduced? Or perhaps the power and majesty of Sesame Street is too sublime for you to understand until you have directly experienced it. If you can’t formulate an answer to my question, I get it.
Anyhow, we should not despair, Iraq has been saved by Oscar the grouch and Big Bird and kids getting down to Alphabet Rock. A few hundred thousand deaths, $trillions spent, unaccountable suffering – heck we should have just sent Kermit and the Cookie Monster over there, as ambassadors, in 2002. Sadam would have experienced instant enlightenment, bowed to US cultural superiority, retired to a monastery in the mountains where he’d devote himself to watching Sesame Street 24/7 so as to remain in a perpetual state of Samadhi; and the whole ugliness could have been avoided
Eric –
Elmo, Bert and Ernie et al have been speaking Hindi for a long time now. Catch up.
Difficult to take seriously, this – “Trump’s suggestion that US ‘take over’ the Gaza Strip …”
Not going to happen. Maybe, if the Israelis manage to kill or starve out enough Gazans Smotrich’s settlers will be able to move in and take over the land. But any US support for that, let alone what TTG’s headline italicised above suggests, no! Because Washington couldn’t be that dumb. Not even the Europoodles would go along with it – though, as Mercouris notes, none of them have as yet had the guts, on this issue as on so many others, to tell an American President to his face to go pound sand.
OK, so maybe this is just the US President shooting his mouth off in pursuance of some as yet undisclosed objective. Politicians have been known to do that. Maybe this is just 3D chess, the Art of the Deal in action as Trump tries to square the circle. His dilemma being that he’s got somehow to get the Likud Rottweiler back on the leash whilst not alarming his donors. And whilst not losing the support of the great mass of evangelicals and Christian Zionist voters in the US electorate he can’t afford to lose in the midterms.
So one can try reading it like that. Those who hope that Trump’s efforts at internal reform will come off, and there are a great many of us in Europe as well as in the US who do hope that, can read it like that if we please. We can persuade ourselves that this Gaza idea, like the Greenland project, is merely Trump advancing outrageous ideas so while everyone’s gasping he can achieve his real objectives. That’s a nice bedtime story to keep us Trump well-wishers happy even now.
Doesn’t work, though, does it. The very fact that an American President can brush aside so casually the living hell the Gazans have been put through, and then prattle on about building condos on the graves, betrays a moral obliquity worse even than Biden was guilty of. That the powerful, not only in the US but in the West as a whole, can listen to that without meaningful protest leads one to believe the rot goes down quite some way.
Which we’ve known for a while now, I suppose, if we’re being realistic.
The Israelis have made it known their desire to rid of the Palestinians. Only fools and cowards believe in a two state or any state solution involving the Palestinians. Trump’s declaration embodies why he is hated and feared. His candidness has made the Israeli servants argue like the pitiful Palestinians. International law? What right does he have? He has the same rights as the Israelis. The US should take over Gaza. We are already paying for everything already. Why not have some equity? Bravo Trump.
Ending USAID will make a lot of Republican voting farmers upset. They are about to lose about $40B per year. Once they start to complain to their elected officials, there will be a backlash. That is why prior efforts to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse failed, because that money is somebody else’s income and frequently end up as political contributions. Now trying to end that system will make Sisyphus’ efforts look like a walk in the park.
Lars,
The poor starving people of where ever getting all that food will now have to use their own $. Even worse are the factory farming corn growers producing for the ethanol fuel market. Once Trump blows that requirement up they’ll have to find another use for it, like feeding pigs, or making bourbon. Doubt that a factory farm has as many votes are you think. Nor do they need to be subsidized by the rest of us.
Fred, now you’re making some actual sense!
Judge pauses Trump order to put USAID employees on administrative leave
Inbox
https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/02/07/g-s1-47224/usaid-freeze-judge-trump?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20250207&utm_term=9973939&utm_campaign=breaking-news&utm_id=58784466&orgid=133&utm_att1=
Another zap to Trump’s plans…..Trump tries to take the illegal and non-contractual routes…his fast pace continues with Musk misdirection and his clown car hitting speed bumps. It will be some lengthy time before his clown car gets out of the ditches and makes it SCOTUS .
Al But USAID distributions are still stopped.
Enjoy your teeny tiny victory for corruption while you can. USAID workers can be put to work doing something other than forking tax dollars over to idiotic freaks and phony programs and assorted other scams. Like maybe they can be sent to Africa, Gaza, Central America, etc. to actually roll up their sleeves and put in an honest day’s work helping some indig.s do some farming. Maybe they can provide free sexual favors to frustrated transgenders. I’m sure Trump will find suitable ways for them to earn their paychecks.
Eric –
free sexual favors? No way a pimp like Trump will give it away free.
Eric, your proposals for USAid look like fitting well in Trump’s “moral” schemes …as well as those who alibi for him!
TTG,
So sorry to get the plays of antiquity so wrong. Should the Federal government set the requirements of every classroom in the Republic? As to the school board:
https://judiciary.house.gov/media/in-the-news/house-judiciary-subpoenas-fbi-director-wray-targeting-parents-school-board
And this:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/03/29/garland-school-board-memo-fbi/11561422002/
Leith,
Was the USAID funding how Zelensky’s government got all those starlink stations? I wonder what Putin thinks about that outrage, not starlink but that people are now outraged about Musk helping Ukraine.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2025/02/03/usaid-and-musk-were-partners-via-spacex-starlink/
Wait until the deep dive on “minority” grants for procurement come out. Some namesake (no actual relation) make close to half a million as a reseller of body armor and other gear to various state agencies under such contracts during – drum roll – Trump’s first term. Having been involved in procurement and being the point of contact for the company’s minority sourcing in my division I can tell you most of it is well above market cost and in some cases just fraud. The big players got that way mostly due to federal requirements. We had a discussion on that years ago on SST. Flex-N-Gate being the subject of one. The owner only became a citizen because of the guaranteed sourcing my employer was going to provide on a major platform production run. Lots of such examples abound.
No, it’s not okay to be white. Or it is ok to be white; you will, however, get separate but equal treatment.
https://www.mbda.gov
Fred,
So did the DOJ actually pursue any threats made against local school boards? As for school books, it’s local or maybe state authorities who make those determinations. I don’t know of any Federal book requirements or prohibitions. The Feds don’t care whether the kids read Shakespeare or Sophocles.
TTG,
LOL “Threats” You mean like holding their public servants to account? What federal law is their applicable to a county school board? You gonna trot out “terrorism”? They sure pursued parents for speaking up. The suits were the punishment and certainly contributed to the left losing the election nationally.
Books? No idea what the Department of Education is recommending? Well, not for much longer.
Fred, State Boards of Education determine what books are used for instructional purposes.
Fla Dept of Ed, for example, did not allow textbooks that had racial examples, history, etc:
Florida rejects 41% of new math textbooks, citing critical …
What was rejected from Florida textbooks? Passages about …
https://www.miamiherald.com › local › article275380156
May 13, 2023 — The Holocaust, Black Lives Matter and George Floyd were rejected or edited out of Florida public school books for the next school year.
https://www.cnn.com › 2022/04/17 › florida-math-text…
Apr 17, 2022 — The Florida Department of Education announced Friday the state has rejected more than 50 math textbooks from next school year’s curriculum.
Florida approves social studies textbook list after changes …
https://thehill.com › homenews › education › 3996966-…
May 9, 2023 — The Florida Department of Education announced a list of textbooks approved for social studies curricula in K-12 schools in the state.
Fred,Please ID one school board or parent group that DOJ investigated? … You seem to wander in fog, thinking it smoke from a fire.
al,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1maXOW6LWfs
” On Monday, Garland sent a memo to the federal law enforcement agency directing it to coordinate with the nation’s 14,000 school districts.”
“Has some great number of teachers, principals, and district leaders come under violent attack? Of course not. What both the Justice Department and the concerned school boards are really talking about it is the increased number of recent community meetings that have featured angry feedback from parents. ”
https://reason.com/2021/10/06/ag-merrick-garland-fbi-critical-race-theory-parents-schools-domestic-terrorists/
Parents upset about tranny policy and girls being raped. How dare parents hold elected officials accountable.
Fred –
Just exactly how many transexual teenagers are there in American public highschools? Can you identify any specifically? If true, which I doubt, they should get their education elsewhere IMHO.
But why, if they exist at all, are they more dangerous to your children and my great grandchildren than the 50-plus school shootings last year? Or the almost 600 school shootings in the last 24 years?
I’m old enough to remember that the word “tranny’ was the contraption between the engine and the driveshaft that allowed you to use the stick and the clutch to shift into all three gears plus reverse.
Leith,
The last 4 school shootings to make the news were trannys. It would be helpful to stop medicating our children with the likes of adderall and publity blockers.
I remember before the cultural marxists started pushing this crap too. The OK Boomers helped move this to the forefront of our culture by being afraid to say no. Hope you are enjoying the Great Reset that is happening. “Big Balls” at DOGE has been an enjoyable read, other than all the fraud the data crunching brought to light. I want my money back, including the USAID moneys to the gun grabbers here at home
Fred,
“The last 4 school shootings to make the news were trannys.”
You’re engaging in spreading another desperate right wing lie. There has been one shooter, a 28 year old transgender man who was assigned female at birth who committed the March 2023 shooting in Nashville. The others were quickly leapt upon by the right wingers trying to spin the killings with fake identities and other tricks to bolster their lies. The truth is that is is usually straight males and females doing the killing. Better keep the guns away from those dangerous, unstable heterosexuals.
Still, puberty blockers and hormone therapy are powerful medical procedures. They should not be approved lightly. I think their use should be approved or disapproved by a team of two or more medical professionals before being prescribed for minors. Even for adults, it shouldn’t be taken lightly.
Fred –
Thanks again for avoiding the question. I’ll ask it again: Can you identify any transsexual teenagers in our schools? Never mind, we all know the answer is no. If you knew of any, you would have doxxed them already. It’s all political bullshit to stir up the torchlight parades. Meanwhile let us know what is going on with Trump’s sidekick, Eyeliner Boy. Does he still put on wife’s dresses now that he’s living at the Observatory?
Leith, that was odd. Did my better self delete my babbling traces?
Meanwhile let us know what is going on with Trump’s sidekick, Eyeliner Boy.
Eyeliner Boy recently was demanding more babies; did you now that? Putin has been demanding that for years now, too. Eyeliner Boy bonded with Musk [quite fond of more babies too] on X supporting that poor boy, Marko Elez, recently forced out of Musk’s team of youngsters by that really, very, very “nasty” WSJ journalist.
Well, in that larger context, I stumbled across someone who had quite a funny label for your Eyeliner Boy too. Sadly, it slipped into oblivion by now. 😉
But following Musk is interesting; not too long ago he linked to a TikTok video, shortened for effectiveness, a breakdown of Musk’s & his team’s DOGE successes in their efforts by Sen. John Kennedy:
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1888487323420999742
I admittedly struggled a bit with his drawl: A study by whom? The Middle East Four? Hmm, ok, it was actually Daniel Pipes’ (long time no hear; see) Middle East Forum. For me, that closes a circle somehow after all those years …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA3ma1MeSIU&t=654s
automatic transcription;
what else did Mr musk found
10:57 that my colleagues don’t want to talk talk about well um he he reviewed a study and
11:06 then went and checked it the study was done by the Middle East
11:11 Forum they found that usaid spent
11:17 $164 million to support radical organizations
11:23 about around the world we’re not talking Cub Scout Troops here we’re talking about radical 11:30 organizations around the world they gave $122 million of that to groups aligned
11:37 with foreign terrorist organizations our taxpayer
11:43 money according to this reporting Mr musk the usaid has given millions of
11:50 dollars to quote organizations in Gaza controlled by Hamas
12:00 why why why aren’t my colleagues talking about that
Is Kennedy one of the GOP’s masters on the Arab Mind, with a little help from experts like Pipes?
LeaNder –
Eyeliner Boy also bonded with openly homosexual venture capitalist Peter Thiel. Who by the way is an immigrant from your noble country, did you kick him out? Vance claimed that Thiel was his mentor. I’d like to hear your label for JD if yo can ever recall it. Another one I’ve heard from the witty wags at our local VFW meetings are Maybelline and J. D. Prance.
By the way Trump’s former sidekick, Rudy Giuliani, was also well known to occasionally wear a dress and apply mascara. You have to wonder why Trump likes hanging around with these nancy boys? How do you say “nancy boy” in German?
Don’t know much about the African immigrant, Elmo, other than he needs to kick his habit of mainlining ketamine.
Al,
The state of Florida removed GenderQueer and a lot of other cultural Marxist material from schools. Yes the George Floyd values of the left aren’t promoted either. You can home school.
Fred, The poing being that you obvious missed…and were wrong about….is the the US Dept of Ed does not deal with books that local schools. That is left to controlling State boards/depts.
You make so many false assumptions on here it is almost a full time job for TTG setting you straight.
Also, you failed to ID even one investigation that Biden’s DOJ did on a school board or parent group. “Coordinating ” is not “investigating” per the dictionaries I use. Again, your assumption ran amok.
There’s a phenomena roundabouts here in Arkansas we hillbillies refer to as “spitballing.” Occasionally somebody (usually an uninvolved spectator) will take some “gem” of what the participants of the spitballin’ proffered as something that might be brought to the attention of, for instance, law enforcement and/or, so I’ve been reliably informed, a social media hullabaloo.
All to mention a quote a Pennsylvania lady type person what came to my attention:
“Trump’s supporters take what he says seriously but not literally: his critics take him literally but not seriously.” Selena Zito
Which seems a fair accurate bit of spitballin’ to me.
ProPublica funding:
https://x.com/MZHemingway/status/1888056801767063656
Fusion GPS is a good analogy. Watching the desperation of the left as their taxpayer sinecures disappear is rather humorous given the damage they’ve done to American society
Article in the “new conservative” Washington Post:
Lawmakers flooded with calls about Elon Musk: ‘It is a deluge on DOGE’
Up to 1,600 min from 40 min ave.
Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) said he’s been hearing from constituents “constantly” on DOGE and Musk. “We can hardly answer the phones fast enough. It’s a combination of fear, confusion and heartbreak, because of the importance of some of these programs.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/07/musk-congress-doge-angry-calls/
Al,
Coordinating is not investigating so THERE take that! And why didn’t Fred research a single time the FBI investigated a local school board. Everything I say must therefor be WRONG! FFS
” the US Dept of Ed does not deal with books that local schools…”
What is Title IX Al and how would a ‘suggestion’ work? There’s not a list saying put books A, B, and C in the classroom? Gimme a break. You and TTG understand the coercion as well as those parents did.
Angus King is now complaining about a coordinate phone bank from people losing money? Did anyone at the WAPO ask Angus why zero of the USAID employees pointed to any waste, mismanagement, or fraud involving our tax dollars.
Did you hear about the Coast Guard stopping illegal immigrant boats off San Diego?
Did you hear about the NCAA dropping the pro-tranny stance? CA and MN doubling down on trannies?
Did you hear about Trump landing a $billion investment from Japan after one meeting?
Did you see the Maxine Waters dog and pony show at the doors to the department of Education and getting told NO by hired security?
Did you hear that less than 4% of Detroit School students are proficient in english? Thanks Department of Education. Baltimore is at what level? How much have we spent for decades at the federal level?
Did you catch on to why the left lost the election yet?
Enjoy the show. It is going to get even better next week.
I have a pet theory about Trump and USAID. It is that USAID has been used to attack rightwing populists like AfD and Le Pen … but even more so Orban, Fico, Vucic and Georgian Dream.
If Trump believes in what he is doing I imagine he sees these parties and politicians as allies in a global struggle. If Trump reigns in USAID/NED/etc from interfering in these countries elections then the popular right could become much stronger and rightwing populists could form a coalition of sorts that supports one another.
Times in the past when I thought Trump was playing 4D chess in turned out that he wasn’t. So this cunning plan is probably all in my imagination. But Elon Musk is pretty good that thinking 4 steps ahead of everyone else …
James,
Canada have a bad day, eh?
oh look, scholarship grant $ gets redirected of a political advocacy group focused on gun control:
https://x.com/NatlGunRights/status/1887627152293830769
Oh look even more:
https://x.com/NatlGunRights/status/1887283604990144520
That’s not even the tip of the self-licking ice cream cone of fraud.
Leith,
“If you knew of any, you would have doxxed them already.”
No Leith I would not doxx anyone. I understand the cultural marxist forces at work, apparently you do as well.
Fred –
That’s good to hear that you are not a doxxer. But are you OK with your MAGA cohorts who doxxed Trump’s jury panel, the Georgia election workers, Texas school board dissenters, and many more ad nauseam. Will you at least point to an American highschool that has one of those imaginary teenage transsexuals you blabber on about?
The only marxist forces I’m aware of were the ones I fought against in Nam. You remember right, the ones back then when Bonespurs Donald’s daddy paid a doctor to keep him from being drafted.
Hey Leith,
I’m kinda/sorta curious about your having Fred answer … “Will you at least point to an American highschool that has one of those imaginary teenage transsexuals you blabber on about? …
I’d kinda like to know how/why there was a policy in the first place for Trump to’ve reversed, thereby getting so many folks in a frenzied tizzy if there wasn’t at least “some” non-imaginary teenage transsexuals.
Admiral Rachel perhaps got some teens of that age mebbe. Leah Thomas?
I mean .. it’s *difficult for me to imagine the Ds putting in a policy for an imaginary problem. HL Mencken aside.
JK/AR,
The earliest case I heard was “Grimm v. Gloucester School Board” here in Virginia in 2016. It involved Gavin Grimm, born female, came out as male to his parents and high school. The school first let Grimm use the boys bathroom, but later changed that to a special bathroom separate from the boys and girls bathrooms. Grimm sued based on Title IX all the way to the Supreme Court winning in both 2016 and 2021.
https://www.aclu.org/cases/grimm-v-gloucester-county-school-board
I don’t know of any single federal policy that might have set this all off other than Title IX. Seems like all cases start at the local or, at most, the state level.
Leith,
Some of your transgenders pals have killed a border patrol agent.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/transgender-vegan-zizian-cult-linked-090023651.html
Wouldn’t be surprised if they watched Sesame street and received USAID
Eric –
Not my pals. You must be thinking of Trump’s Mr Vice, Eyeliner Boy. They’re definitely his pals.
And BTW I’ve been telling you and the other build-the-wall people for years, to beef up the border patrol on the Canadian border. It’s the route that the Jihadis use. And now the zizians whoever the hell they are. But oooh nooo, you’d rather stick it to a few centroamericanos fleeing poverty and gang violence.
leith,
Wait, what? Jihadis are entering USA through Canada?
I want Canada to screen people coming in to the same standard that the US does – if you can’t get into USA then you shouldn’t get into Canada. I think Trump can get the Canadian government to agree to this which will be popular with the vast majority of Canadians.
I also want both Canada and USA to check passports on exit – like everybody else in the world does. You don’t have a secure border if you don’t have exit controls.
James,
What’s this? You’re a racist? Everyone knows that the greatest terrorist threat is white Christain conservatives. There are no jihadis sneaking into Canada or the US – and if there were, they’d just be helping the economy by doing the jobs that Americans (and Canadians) don’t want to do.
You’re just succumbing to Trump lies! Somehow, Lieth got off message; brain short circuit or something. Jihadis don’t kill people, just like third world immigrants don’t eat cats and dogs. There is no evil in the world other than Russians and Christians conservatives. So knock it off already with the monsters crossing the border paranoia.
/s
leith,
MLK HS Riverside CA:
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-12-20/tensions-brew-over-trans-athletes-at-riverside-high-school-as-conservative-protests-grow
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/girls-distance-runner-pleads-removal-trans-athlete-amid-safety-fears-lgbt-shoved-down-our-throats
https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/transgender-high-schoolers-identify-cdc-national-survey-rcna174569
Then there’s the very stable Aubrey Hale of Manefesto can’t be released fame. Sorry that person was mentally ill and almost 30. Too bad about Trans day of rage and all that killing. Maybe those things didn’t make the blue silo news
As to whichever cohort did what have at ’em.
Congrats Fred – You finally found one.
Or did you? Did this Riverside HS transgender get the snip and tuck operation like Trump’s good friend and supporter Caitlyn Jenner?
Or was it more like Trump’s other close supporter Scott Presler, who is openly gay and identifies himself as transgender but never had neither the op nor the hormone treatments?
PS don’t forget the faggot venture capitalist that gave Trump millions and was on executive committee of Trump’s transition team. And never never forget the cross-dressing by Trump’s sidekick, Eyeliner Boy, hmm does he also identify as transgender?
Leith,
I wonder what DOGE is doing the the networks set up by fine people who spent a lifetime in government after they lost their moral bearings.
Leith, thanks for making things perfectly clear:
you just can’t understand the central issue here:
Should men, with hanging balls and a dick, be naked in girls locker rooms?
I think absolutely not.
You just can’t understand the issue.
As I said, thanks for making things perfectly clear.
KH – The answer to your question is NO from my POV. Like your opinion I also say “absolutely not”. The bigger question is why do you believe that BS like that is really happening? If it happened at my great-granddaughters high school the man in question would definitely lose his balls. I have faith in American womanhood that the same would happen in every girls locker room in the country.
Fred – The only moral bearings lost are the ones in the current administration. Led by a sexual deviant, who is friendly with and supported by gays and trannies. Based on Trump’s previous perversions we shouldn’t be surprised in the future when he channels Bruce Jenner and starts wearing dresses and mascara.
Leith thanks for your most communique from the back woods of the PNW. However, I think you may need to polish your crystal ball or whatever device it is that allows you to see into everything happening throughout the country – nay the world – with unequaled clarity. Surely, you’re not relying on some “news” source you have found on the internet.
Leith asked
“The bigger question is why do you believe that
BS like that is really happening?”
Because I know how much the Arlington, VA politicians and media love what they call “inclusion”.
Here are not one, not two, but three news stories documenting that love.
https://www.arlnow.com/2025/01/18/charges-against-sex-offender-for-w-l-girls-locker-room-incident-prompt-statement-from-gop/
https://www.arlnow.com/2025/01/22/new-superintendent-addresses-arrest-of-sex-offender-for-incidents-at-w-l-pool/
https://www.arlnow.com/2025/02/03/arrest-of-sex-offender-for-indecent-exposure-in-locker-rooms-sparks-aps-debate-on-gender/
Reading the numerous comments to those articles,
many commentators assert that the only reason to keep Cox out of a girls locker room was because he was, and is, a registered sex offender.
They utterly deny that men should be kept out of girls locker rooms.
Like Superintendent Durán, they believe in “inclusion”.
And girls should get used to having men in their locker rooms.
I think that attitude is utterly sick.
But that is what gets elected in Arlington.
As for me, I stick with the KISS principle: “Keep It Simple, Stupid.”
Guys don’t belong in girls locker rooms. Period.
No matter who or what they “identify with”.
But that is too hard, or too unpopular, for the Arlington political class to accept.
KH –
Those women and girls should have kicked Mister Cox’s ballsack across the Potomac.
Trump appointee Carl Nichols (a former Clarence Thomas clerk) Enjoins Trump from Cutting USAID Workers
Trump appointee Carl Nichols (a former Clarence Thomas clerk)
The most important language in Judge Nichols’ short opinion was his disdain for the government’s flimsy claims that the USAID employees have to be put on leave because of vague claims of fraud.
When the Court asked the government at the TRO hearing what harm would befall the government if it could not immediately place on administrative leave the more than 2000 employees in question, it had no response— beyond asserting without any record support that USAID writ large was possibly engaging in “corruption and fraud.”
That is, when pushed to justify this purge to a sympathetic Trump appointee, DOJ simply couldn’t substantiate claims of fraud.
To be sure, Nichols only enjoined the government until February 14. And he didn’t reverse the freeze on funding — notwithstanding that the government likely lied in saying that the freeze only applied to prospective funding obligations.
As a threshold matter, the Court notes that there are significant factual questions about what the practical effect of that order is. The government argued at the hearing that the order only prevents USAID from entering “new obligations of funding”—leaving it free to pay out contracts that it entered into prior to January 24, 2025—and indeed, the text of the order does seem to permit that result. Dep’t of State, Memo. 25 STATE 6828. Yet, plaintiffs maintained at the TRO hearing that payments on existing USAID grants have been frozen, preventing certain “contracting officers” employed by USAID from using agency funds to fulfill monetary commitments that the agency had already made.
But Trump’s administration had a chance to substantiate the wild claims of fraud and abuse that Elon Musk has leveled at USAID.
And Carl Nichols was unimpressed.
https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/02/08/trump-appointee-carl-nichols-enjoins-trump-from-stranding-usaid-workers/
Oh, you are relying on emptywheel?
I long ago researched that empty piece of shit.
You can stay with her.
KH Only reporting the FACTS as they are!
“FACTS”?
Let me quote from the webpage you referenced.
“They described the death and destruction the shutdown has caused and will cause.”
Blaming the U.S. for alleged
“death and destruction”?
Yes, that is Marcy Wheeler’s pattern.
Her left wing pattern.
And yours?
Yes, the factual reporting of the Judge’s actions. Do you have some sort of reading or comprehension problem? Likely selective biases, perhaps
Keith,
Marcy is great, just not at legal analysis. Judge Nichols issued a temporary restraining order. That will probably be resolved by Friday. The likely result for these people is the same as the ‘buy out’ offer. Those on foreign assignment continue pay for 8-9 months. They’ll get relocated back to their home of record at taxpayer expense. During that time there will be audits of expenses and disbursements of funds. Some few might actually be guilty of some intentional misconduct, we’ll see soon enough.
Fred,
No more living in NYC hotels to the tune of $40 million/yr FEMA bucks for that one city?
Meanwhile, when US citizens might need FEMA, it’s out of money. There’s some death and destruction for you – and some suicidal empathy on the part of the tools supporting the grifters.
How many strawberries are being picked by the hotel dwelling illegals in NYC?
Eric,
That $, other than hotel taxes, is going to a foreign hotel owner not the city.
Alastair Crooke, only a few hours back, with a panoramic account taking in both conflicts. A brief section on Ukraine – nothing there that hasn’t been known for a long while but a useful and authoritative reminder – and the rest a look at all the moving parts in the ME. Lots of them, seems, but I think one can take away from it that war with Iran is less likely than it was under Biden. Good to hear if correct.
Not so good to hear from Crooke that one of the donors had more influence on events than was proper. What with the US setting foreign policy in the ME for the entire West, means that some shadowy American oligarch has more influence on the foreign policy of my country than I and my neighbours have.
Crooke confirms the view that President Trump’s talk about Gaza was more to shake things up than to propound a course of action. But he also intimates that there are some things better not suggested and that Gaza fantasy was one of them.
https://youtu.be/dKo0aNIvnkc?t=120
What is Elon Musk doing?
He gives a first person explanation in the first ten minutes of this 31 minute video from the Oval Office, dated Tuesday 2025-02-11
https://youtu.be/L27N_I9Yg98
Highly informative to hear him explain it in his own words, without being filtered by the media.
A subjective opinion: He sounds a little nervous, like he is concerned about criticism.
But he makes excellent points, that have evidently been ignored by too many.
Keith Harbaugh,
The best point he makes is within the first three minutes. He point out the need for visibility into the workings of the government to make this a democracy. What he misses is that the bureaucracy only spends what the Congress and President approve. Of course, some of that is just not spent well and is true waste and abuse, but the larger fraud, waste and abuse occurs in the bigger budgetary process overseen by the Congress and approved by the President. In addition to providing visibility into the workings of the bureaucracy, we need visibility into the budgeting process. Also, we need more visibility into how decisions are made in the White House. Things like how did the story of $50 million for Gaza condoms come about and how was it pushed so hard in spite of being false need to be explained. Musk just brushing it off as a simple mistake is not adequate visibility.
Musk sure got the “fake condoms for Gaza” question stuck in his mouth while spouting off with Trump!!!
So much for their so called “transparency”.
TTG,
If you think Congress approved these line item payments you are mistaken. If you are unaware that treasury was approving transfers of $ with no accounts or method to track or review what precisely items were being spent for you are uninformed.
Keith,
If finding fraud and abuse were Trump and Musk’s real agenda they wouldn’t be firing the IGs. Might assign some of Musk’s whiz kids to oversee them, but they wouldn’t be removing people and staff that have knowledge and experience right off the bat.
Musk’s claims are subjected to some examination here:
“Fact-checking Elon Musk’s claims in the Oval Office”
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwyjz24ne85o
“[Musk] provided no evidence when making sweeping statements about corruption in government agencies
and also defended false allegations he had spread about US funds being used to send condoms to Gaza.
…
Several posts on X have highlighted a US commitment to fund an HIV-prevention programme in Gaza, Mozambique.
US government records show that an American-funded scheme for Gaza, Mozambique was awarded $83.5m for “prevention, care, support and treatment interventions within HIV and TB facilities and communities” for a programme running until September 2026.
…
The US State Department told us two $50m donations due to be sent to the Gaza Strip via the International Medical Corps had been stopped,
which it claimed included contraceptives such as condoms.”
The BBC report makes a good attempt to examine some other claims by Musk.
I don’t think they found any whoppers, but often found evidence lacking which could definitively prove things one way or the other.
Musk seems to have uncovered some things worth consideration, at least.
Leith asked Fred:
“Will you at least point to an American high school that has one of those imaginary teenage transsexuals you blabber on about?”
https://turcopolier.com/trumps-suggestion-that-us-take-over-the-gaza-strip-is-rejected-by-allies-and-adversaries-alike/#comment-247913
Here is some information on that topic.
The Arlington, VA public schools have welcomed transgender students.
I don’t know how many there are, but APS has a stated policy of welcoming any that exist.
This has been extensively covered in local media, e.g.
https://www.arlnow.com/2019/03/27/aps-developing-an-implementation-plan-for-transgender-non-discrimination-policy/
https://www.arlnow.com/2024/10/25/arlington-school-board-candidate-and-lgbtq-group-clash-over-transgender-policies/
https://www.arlnow.com/2025/02/12/aps-transgender-policy-faces-dilemma-after-change-in-athletic-leagues-rules/
There are activists actively supporting transgenderism in Arlington.
E.g, a group called
“Arlington Gender Identity Allies Association”.
From the most recent article mentioned above:
“A questionnaire from the parent group Arlington Gender Identity Allies touched on this topic last year.
It asked School Board candidates whether they would support the current APS policy around transgender students
“regardless of any anti-trans policies enacted by the [Department of Education].” ”
I would presume there would not be this level of activism in Arlington unless there was a reason for it.
The articles provide lots of information on the politics of this, but not numbers.