Zhi Zhu 🕸️ (@ZhiZhu@newsie.social)

18h

" #USAID was established to advance our national interests as well as our values, & its demolition means that the #UnitedStates loses soft power & #China gains...

#America spends just 0.24% of gross national income on humanitarian aid. We properly honor a firefighter who saves a single child, but three cheers for us as taxpayers for rescuing millions of #children around the world from AIDS, starvation & disease.

That is, until January."
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/15/opinion/foreign-aid-cuts-impact.html?unlocked_article_code=1.4E4.H8Lx.GD39rucUfloD&smid=url-share

#Musk #Doge #Trump #USPol #News

Text from article(edited for length):
...but why is it our job to keep kids alive in poor countries?

There are two answers to that. The first is that USAID was established to advance our national interests as well as our values, and its demolition means that the United States loses soft power and China gains...

Antiterrorism programs in Syria and West Africa are faltering and may lead to new attacks on Americans. Surveillance for early detection of avian flu and Ebola are weakened, and an epidemic of either disease could reach America and cost billions of dollars. Trump’s defunding of the polio eradication effort may lead, by one USAID official’s estimate, to 200,000 cases of paralytic polio each year.

...aid stoppage could lead to nearly a one-third increase in tuberculosis cases. Some of those will reach the United States and lead to enormous expense — a single case of extensively drug-resistant TB can cost $500,000 to manage.

The second answer to that query reflects not a calculation of self-interest but the moral code we live by. In this century, we are all blessed with miraculous, almost biblical powers: We can heal the sick and save children’s lives, all inexpensively: America spends just 0.24% of gross national income on humanitarian aid. We properly honor a firefighter who saves a single child, but three cheers for us as taxpayers for rescuing millions of children around the world from AIDS, starvation and disease.

That is, until January.

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18h

"I find it odious when the world’s richest man cackles about #America shoving programs for needy children “into the wood chipper.”

When you meet those dying #children and look into their eyes and hold their hands and feel faint heartbeats flutter, you can’t bear the gleeful laughter. You see children just like your own and hang your head in shame."

#GiftArticle #GiftLink
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/15/opinion/foreign-aid-cuts-impact.html?unlocked_article_code=1.4E4.H8Lx.GD39rucUfloD&smid=url-share

#ElonMusk #Musk #Corruption #Coup #Cruelty #Trump #GOP #Politics #USPol #USAID #News #US #USA

Text from article:
I recognize we cannot save every hungry child around the world. I agree that U.S.A.I.D. is imperfect and should be reformed. I appreciate that helping people is harder than it looks. I understand that there are difficult trade-offs in allocating tax dollars.

Yet I think most Americans would both welcome some reforms and also be proud to see how we save the lives of hungry children and sick orphans around the world by allocating just 24 cents of every $100 of national income to aid. And I find it odious when the world’s richest man cackles about America shoving programs for needy children “into the wood chipper.”

When you meet those dying children and look into their eyes and hold their hands and feel faint heartbeats flutter, you can’t bear the gleeful laughter. You see children just like your own and hang your head in shame.

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18h

Team finding kidnapped Ukrainian children scrapped by Doge

Humanitarian Research Lab based at #Yale University is latest organisation to fall victim to federal budget cuts
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025/03/14/team-finding-kidnapped-ukrainian-children-cut-by-doge/

"more than 20,000 #Ukrainian children have been kidnapped by the Russians since the 2022 invasion...

The Yale team located hundreds of #children who were unlawfully brought to #Russia...

In all, around 1,240 have been repatriated."

#ElonMusk #Doge #Russia #Musk #Corruption #Politics #News #US #USA

Headline and text from article:
Team finding kidnapped Ukrainian children scrapped by Doge

Humanitarian Research Lab based at Yale University is latest organisation to fall victim to federal budget cuts

by Benedict Smith. David Millward, US Correspondent
14 March 2025 9:17pm GMT

A taskforce which helped find hundreds of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia has been scrapped by Elon Musk’s Doge.

The Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL), which was based at Yale University is the latest organisation to fall victim to the tech billionaire’s evisceration of the federal budget.

It is estimated that more than 20,000 Ukrainian children have been kidnapped by the Russians since the 2022 invasion.

“Researchers at the Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) were notified recently that government funding for their work on the war in Ukraine has been discontinued,” a Yale spokesman said.

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17h

Who DOGE Hurts: Gutting NOAA
https://joycevance.substack.com/p/who-doge-hurts-gutting-noaa

"the #NOAA was preparing to lay off more than 1,000 workers...

People who live in #hurricane & #tornado country keep their “NOAA #weather radios” handy...

In theory, it sounds like one more bad thing to worry about. In practice, it’s much worse. We’ve just had a demonstration of precisely how effective NOAA is & what we stand to lose without it."

#Musk #Doge #Coup #Corruption #Trump #GOP #USPol #Politics #Disasters #Climate #News #US #USA

Headline and text from article:
Who DOGE Hurts: Gutting NOAA

by Joyce Vance
Mar 16, 2025

On March 12, there was reporting that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was preparing to lay off more than 1,000 workers as part of the Trump administration's "reductions in force" directive to federal agencies. Cuts like that call into question whether NOAA will continue to provide the early warnings and predictive modeling that help people prepare for weather emergencies in advance. People who live in hurricane and tornado country keep their “NOAA weather radios” handy, and they are especially important for events that occur, as they frequently do, when most of us are asleep.

In theory, it sounds like one more bad thing to worry about. In practice, it’s much worse. We’ve just had a demonstration of precisely how effective NOAA is and what we stand to lose without it.

Beginning on Friday, violent, long-track tornadoes with damaging winds of up to 80 mph and large hail materialized across the Midwest and South. This was the news Friday night. NOAA’s early warning system, transmitted on social media, radio, television, and by word of mouth, kept it from being much worse.

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17h

"Mother Nature doesn’t care who you voted for. If there’s a #tornado headed your direction, you need access to early #warning systems. Gutting #NOAA means you won’t have that...

"NOAA is [already] down about 2,000 employees since January “as a result of the first round of the #Trump administration's cuts”..."This is not about efficiency & it's certainly not about waste, fraud & abuse. This is taking programs that people depend on to save lives & emasculating them"

#Musk #Doge #Trump #News #US

Text from article:
Apparently, the Trump administration is not concerned with that. ABC is reporting that NOAA is down about 2,000 employees since January “as a result of the first round of the Trump administration's cuts.” California Congressman Jared Huffman, who chairs one of the relevant House subcommittees, said, "There is no way to absorb cuts of this magnitude without cutting into these core missions. This is not about efficiency and it's certainly not about waste, fraud and abuse. This is taking programs that people depend on to save lives and emasculating them."

Cuts that sound like a good idea to Elon Musk and Donald Trump have real impacts on the rest of us. That is only just beginning to dawn on people, who I’m sure you’re hearing, like I am, saying, “But I didn’t vote for this.” Trump 2.0, as I’ve written previously, isn’t a pick-your-own-adventure experience. You go to the carnival, you get all of the rides.

We were fortunate last night. Everyone in our house (chickens included) is okay, we just have a little cleanup to do. But so many people weren’t that lucky. They lost houses and lives. They will need support from FEMA and other federal services. If DOGE continues its romp through essential federal work that we, as taxpayers, fund and rely on, it’s only going to get worse.

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17h

"Necessary": Musk calls for judge who blocked Trump deportations to be impeached

The billionaire shared a post from a #Republican congressman seeking to impeach the Obama appointee
https://www.salon.com/2025/03/16/necessary-musk-calls-for-blocked-deportations-to-be-impeached/

" #Musk shared Gill's post... announcing the planned #impeachment move, calling the action "necessary."

Musk's response comes shortly after a judge ordered the #Trump administration to reinstate scores of probationary workers fired using #DOGE 's blunt methods."

#ElonMusk #Corruption #News

Headline from Salon:
"Necessary": Musk calls for judge who blocked Trump deportations to be impeached

The billionaire shared a post from a Republican congressman seeking to impeach the Obama appointee

By Alex Galbraith
Published March 16, 2025 11:40AM (EDT)

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16h

Elon Musk Shared, Then Removed a Post Absolving Dictators for Genocide

The post falsely claimed that Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler and Mao Zedong were not responsible for the murders of millions of people, but rather public sector workers were.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/14/technology/elon-musk-x-post-hitler-stalin-mao.html?unlocked_article_code=1.4E4.RW-P.VV-Qk7n8s5HK&smid=bs-share

"Musk shared the post without any other comment. He removed it soon after users on X criticized the post, saying it was #antisemitic and dismissive of #genocide."

#ElonMusk #Musk #Corruption #Trump #GOP #USPol #News #US #USA

Headline:
Elon Musk Shared, Then Removed a Post Absolving Dictators for Genocide

The post falsely claimed that Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler and Mao Zedong were not responsible for the murders of millions of people, but rather public sector workers were.

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6h

DOGE Is Making It Harder to Track Extreme Weather. What Could Go Wrong?
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/opinion/weather-service-doge-cuts.html

"These cuts threaten your budget, too. #Insurance companies rely heavily on #data gathered by #NOAA and the #US Geological Survey to assess wildfire, flood, wind and other risks. Some firms are warning that any interruption in data availability could drive insurance premiums for customers even higher."

#ElonMusk #Musk #Doge #Trump #GOP #USPol #Weather #Climate #News #US #USA

Headline and photo with credit.

Headline:
DOGE Is Making It Harder to Track Extreme Weather. What Could Go Wrong?

March 17, 2025, 5:02 a.m. ET

Photo:
A collage of a photo of the Earth surrounded by blue-gloved hands holding stethoscopes on a static background.

Credit: Shannon Lin/The New York Times ...Illustration by Shannon Lin/The New York Times; source images by Roberto Machado Noa/Getty Images, nisara Tangtrakul/Getty Images, nndanko/Getty Images, lusia599/Getty Images, herstockart/Getty Images

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6h

Top broadband official exits Commerce Dept with sharp #Musk warning

“Stranding all or part of rural #America with worse internet so that we can make the world’s richest man even richer is yet another in a long line of betrayals by Washington,” Evan Feinman warned.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/16/official-exits-commerce-department-musk-warning-00232278

" #Trump administration is poised to unduly enrich #ElonMusk ’s satellite #internet company w/money for #rural broadband.

The #technology offered by #Starlink, Musk’s company, is inferior"

#Corruption #News

Headline from Politico:
Top broadband official exits Commerce Department with sharp Musk warning

“Stranding all or part of rural America with worse internet so that we can make the world’s richest man even richer is yet another in a long line of betrayals by Washington,” Evan Feinman warned.

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5h

Some Federal Office Leases Restored After Pushback to Musk Team’s Cuts

The chaotic effort to reduce the govt’s real estate portfolio is another example of the setbacks the admn has faced as officials try to carry out Trump’s agenda.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/us/politics/musk-doge-lease-terminations.html

"turnabout comes after [ #Doge]... released a list of... 440 fed properties that could be sold off, incl several HQs for cabinet-level depts, before removing the entire inventory the next day w/little explanation."

#Musk #News #USPol #USA

Headline and photo with caption.

Headline:
Some Federal Office Leases Restored After Pushback to Musk Team’s Cuts

The chaotic effort to reduce the government’s real estate portfolio is another example of the setbacks the administration has faced as officials try to carry out President Trump’s agenda.

Photo:
Men wearing hard hats stand on a metal platform while working on a large silver container.

Caption:
The potential cancellation of the lease for a Department of Energy office in Carlsbad, N.M., raised alarms among some lawmakers because the office is responsible for the nation’s only permanent underground repository for nuclear weapons waste.
Credit: Michael Stravato for The New York Times

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5h

DOGE Cuts Reach Key Nuclear Scientists, Bomb Engineers & Safety Experts

Firings & buyouts hit the top-secret National Nuclear Safety Admn amid a major effort to upgrade America’s #nuclear arsenal. Critics say it shows the consequences of heedlessly cutting the federal work force.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/us/politics/federal-job-cuts-nuclear-bomb-engineers-scientists.html

"Officials had initially expected that the nuclear agency’s #NationalSecurity mission would protect it from layoffs."

#ElonMusk #Musk #Doge #Trump #GOP #USPol #Politics #Security #News #USA

Headline:
DOGE Cuts Reach Key Nuclear Scientists, Bomb Engineers and Safety Experts

Firings and buyouts hit the top-secret National Nuclear Safety Administration amid a major effort to upgrade America’s nuclear arsenal. Critics say it shows the consequences of heedlessly cutting the federal work force.

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3h

@ZhiZhu The rushed nature of this affair, reeks of incompetence, not efficiency. Thugs #MuskRat and #ConDon are either hell bent on destruction, seizing total control of the FedGov, breaking its ability to function for the people, or the two culprits reek of incompetence and mismanagement.
FedGov has been reduced in size before under Clinton and Obama, but in an intelligent and non-disruptive manner, by Presidents who actually care about the country and they’re sworn duties.

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5h

Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for March 16, 2025
https://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2025/03/16

#ElonMusk, #Doge & the #Trump administration are skewered in #Doonesbury #Comic strip.

"In just seven years, we shrunk the federal workforce by 426,000, consolidated 800 agencies and eliminated 640,000 pages of rules...

And you didn't notice because the process was carefully planned and responsibly executed.

It never disrupted essential public services. Compare that to now."

#Musk #Coup #Corruption #USPol #Humor #Comics

Part of the Doonesbury Comic Strip for March 16, 2025.
Six of the eight panes are shown (four completely, two partialy).

In the first two panes Mark, the radio host, answers a call from Al Gore.
Third pane: Mark asks, "So, Al, wasn't government reform once your jam?" Al replies,"It was, Mark. Reinvention was job one for me as veep."
Fourth pane: Al continues,"In just seven years, we shrunk the federal workforce by 426,000, consolidated 800 agencies and eliminated 640,000 pages of rules.
Fifth pane: Mark says, "Wait... What? Why didn't I know that?" Al replies,"Because you didn't notice at the time.
Sixth pane: Al continues, "And you didn't notice because the process was carefully planned and responsibly executed."
Top of the Seventh pane: Al continues,"It never disrupted essential public services. Compare that to now."
Top of the eighth pane: Bits of chaos with a minion shouting, "Banana" and another one shouting, "Poopaye!"

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