this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2025
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Microblog Memes

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[–] Cat@ponder.cat 124 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Wow, I guess I better get used to a ton of USA events and news per day for the next years.

[–] MsPenguinette@lemmy.world 54 points 1 week ago

It keeps burning the wick at this rate and you'll only have to deal with it for months

[–] _thebrain_@sh.itjust.works 38 points 1 week ago (14 children)

Probably not. Sooner rather than later most free press will be shut down by trump and the only news that anyone will get is whatever there government wants you to hear. Stories like this will disappear.

[–] alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 week ago

That's already the case.

Do you remember every single mainstream outlet falling in line to promote the Iraq war? To blackout the antiwar protests? Going to Occupy Wallstreet and interviewing random weirdos instead of the organizer's designated press people? The coverage of Ukraine? The coverage of Israel?

[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I think you vastly overestimate how organized the Trump admin is. I'm sure they will try, though.

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[–] cyborganism@lemmy.ca 86 points 1 week ago (6 children)
[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 49 points 1 week ago (6 children)

It's the organization that manages all of the official external humanitarian aid from the US government. It does everything from food distribution to micro loans in developing countries.

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[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 34 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It provided funding to Ukraine, Irsael, and Egypt among other things.

Now it provides funding to Israel and Egypt.

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[–] jonne@infosec.pub 27 points 1 week ago (6 children)

It's a CIA front that mascarades as an aid organisation. Part of the US' soft power projection. I'm guessing for all their talk about hating China, they're really keen on China taking on the role the US has been playing since WWII, as they're simultaneously doing their best to undermine the US dollar as the global reserve currency.

[–] Initiateofthevoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 points 1 week ago (5 children)

You think that the CIA pretends to be an international aid organization for the sake of advancing the interests of checks notes... China? The 3-letter agency that has spent decades building and maintaining American hegemony is now serving that same purpose for a rival nation? And the people that have also spent decades building for this moment to take over the federal government entirely... want to now give their power away? ... what?

[–] Seasm0ke@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago

The first two statements are describing USAid and the last sentence is a sarcastic remark, indicating taking it down is working in Chinas best interest. Thats how it reads to me.

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[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

How does this have 36 votes? It's ridiculous.

[–] ProtecyaTec@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (6 children)

Why do you think they would be keen to release power to China? Economics?

[–] Carl@lemm.ee 34 points 1 week ago (2 children)

They're not doing it on purpose. The people currently making these decisions do not understand the government, what it does, why it is powerful, where the money comes from, etc. It's like someone stripping the copper wiring out of their own house.

[–] sxan@midwest.social 13 points 1 week ago

This may be the best description of the Trump presidencies I've ever read.

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[–] SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Trump is keen on doing it because he's being told to do it by the people who control him.

Russia and China are allies and in BRICKS. Russia paid for Trump to get elected twice.

[–] iknowitwheniseeit@lemmynsfw.com 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I thought that it was BRICS? Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

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[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago

Because trump views ties as weakness. He thinks isolationism is strength. The exact opposite is true - our ties and treaties, both hard and soft power - have ensured American strength for a century.

Trump is going to set all that ablaze because he can’t think further than his own experience: fuck everyone else to get ahead.

[–] jonne@infosec.pub 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I don't know, the American Empire basically exists to serve billionaires like him, I don't see how a Chinese takeover would serve them, as they just disappear billionaires if they don't get in line.

I guess they just want to turn the USA into what Russia is now, but even there you really don't want to get on Putin's bad side or you lose everything. It's honestly very irrational IMHO, as the US has the right mix of opportunity and lack of any personal risk for the wealthy. They want to turn the US into a crime ridden shithole where they're beholden to the whims of Trump or whomever follows him.

[–] skulblaka@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago

Each of them personally wants to be Putin and cannot comprehend the idea that they won't be at the top of the pile when the ashes fall.

[–] MothmanDelorian@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

I think they are taking bribes

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[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

~~State Department regime change operation~~ an aid organization.

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[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 72 points 1 week ago (2 children)

It is far easier to knock something down than to bring something up.

[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 41 points 1 week ago

From barbarism to civilization requires a century; from civilization to barbarism needs but a day.

Will Durant

[–] hempster@lemm.ee 4 points 1 week ago

Life is an anthology of destruction. Everything you build eventually breaks. Everyone you love will die. Any sense of order or stability inevitably crumbles. The entire universe follows a dismal trek toward a dull state of ultimate turmoil.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/what-is-entropy-a-measure-of-just-how-little-we-really-know-20241213/

[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 66 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Fun fact, they're still providing USAID funding to Israel and Egypt but stopped providing funding to Ukraine.

[–] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 33 points 1 week ago

Trump executive order requiring the state and all state-funded education institutes to not acknowledge Ukrainian as a language separate from Russian coming in 3...

[–] alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml 43 points 1 week ago (3 children)

lmao Trump accidentally defunding US soft power. Who is going to pay the CIA to train torturers and traffic drugs now?

[–] Monument@lemmy.sdf.org 24 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Is it an accident?

Trump (and specifically, the heritage foundation) believe in isolationism. Alienating its geopolitical and geographical neighbors serves that purpose. Think of it as the groundwork for a full North Korea style break from non-state controlled culture.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 12 points 1 week ago (2 children)

He's going to utterly crash the US economy he's not going to be able to pull it off.

[–] djsoren19@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 week ago

How many authoritarian nations do you know with excellent, well-functioning economies? Do you think good class mobility serves any purpose for a regime like Putin's, or Kim Jong Un's? Destroying our economy is part of the plan.

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[–] alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 week ago

In 2016, Trump's issue with Libya was that we didn't send troops in to steal their oil, and then make a deal with whatever faction was willing to sell us the oil cheaply. Same with Iraq. You're are wildly overestimating his moral character if you think he is trying to dismantle the american empire.

[–] FireTower@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago

Really silly question tbh. Trafficking drugs pays for itself and the torture. The CIA may be the only government agency making a net profit.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Got anything more recent than 50 years ago?

[–] alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (13 children)

Alright so hold on, USAID is not equipped to stop the Israeli military. So that's right out. And the vaccination ruse was a CIA operation.

It is interesting to see that USAID has an office meant to react to rapidly changing political situations. But there are several things about the Cuban Internet story. First, obviously it's not torture and similar stupid stuff. Second, from the article it looks like it was never properly authorized and was beyond what USAID is meant to do.

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[–] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 week ago

Via NPR:

A question of legality

The question of the legality of any attempt to change the status of USAID is connected to its origins. The agency was created in 1961 when President John F. Kennedy signed an executive order after Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act, which mandated the creation of an independent agency to focus on development separate from politics and the military. The agency was formally established by Congress as an independent agency in 1998.

That means "it cannot just be undone, at this point, by an executive order," Konyndyk said. "To actually disestablish the agency and dissolve it into the State Department will take an act of Congress."

Source: Why does Musk want USAID 'to die'? And why did its website disappear? : Goats and Soda 

I’m doubtful relying on congress is any comfort either however.

[–] pyre@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

🎶 Just want one thing, just to play the king
But the castle's crumbled and you're left with just a name 🎵

[–] Shardikprime@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

The perma stun proceeds

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