gAlienLifeform

joined 2 years ago
 

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

Tonight, thousands of people who work for USAID will be forced to go on leave as the Trump administration continues to gut the agency that provides humanitarian assistance all over the world. Now, this comes two weeks after the U.S. froze nearly all foreign assistance, including food. So how is that affecting the fight against hunger globally?

Eugene Cho joins us now. He's president of Bread for the World. It's a Christian organization based in the U.S. that advocates for policies to end hunger.

...

MARTÍNEZ: So are you worried that lives are at stake here?

CHO: Absolutely. We know that lives will be in jeopardy. Soon, we'll learn more. But all the reports that we're hearing from our implementing partners are very dangerous stories because systems have been shut down, and people are unable to do the work that they were contracted to do through the USAID.

MARTÍNEZ: What is happening, then, to all the aid that was maybe in transit or put in storage in recent weeks? Is it just going to sit there?

CHO: There are stories about essential medicines that are expiring in the Democratic Republic of the Congo after a cash-strapped government contractor was forced to shut off its air conditioning. And so there's concerns about the lifesaving antibiotics and the antimalarial drugs. There's stories about certain food. This particular story comes from a woman named Gena Perry, who leads a human health program for the American Soybean Association, which is an industry trade group. And so there's 33,000 metric tons of soybeans and soy products, which is used to treat severe malnutrition in East Africa, other regions. And unfortunately, these shipping containers full of these materials, en route, have had to be diverted to warehouses, or worse - held at ports. Basically, there's no instructions on what they're supposed to do.

[Bolding added]

Archived at https://web.archive.org/save/https://www.npr.org/2025/02/07/nx-s1-5288130/humanitarian-groups-alarmed-by-the-trump-administrations-gutting-of-usaid

[–] gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Leopards

Because Israeli soldiers murdering children (archived) totally didn't happen under prior administrations /s

[–] gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago (11 children)

It’s a scenario that was so concerning to Washington state Rep. Sharlett Mena that she introduced legislation that would make uninvited deployments of out-of-state troops illegal. Her bill cleared a committee last week and has the backing of Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson, who pushed for the proposal in his inaugural address last month.

...

But, as she noted to her colleagues last week, if Trump were to federalize National Guard units, there’s nothing the state could do to prevent it; a presidential order preempts state authority.

[–] gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 29 points 1 day ago (4 children)

If I was that persons attorney I would advise them not to answer this question

[–] gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago

I don't think it's been corporate media posting a bunch of stupid and antagonizing bullshit to c/politicalmemes

Also, the last three elections in a row at least have all had moderate Dems who refuse to listen to their voters and do whatever their donors want and then go on to lose or barely win against this fascist prick, and I really really really don't want to go through another one of those elections. We need to have a thorough examination of how the Democratic party has been fucking us here and concrete verifiable steps they will take to stop this, otherwise the left is going to remain divided whether or not corporate media is reporting on it.

I don't think the expert is the problem here, during the election he wrote an opinion column titled "Democrats' Unquestioning Support of Israeli War Crimes Puts 2024 at Increasing Risk", it's just that this news source has decided there's more clicks in selling a "you didn't do anything wrong my dear white affluent college educated liberal readers, it was those stupid fucking brown people" narrative to the 1996 crime bill defenders of the world

 
 
 
 
 
[–] gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

It is unclear whether Trump will go ahead with his proposal or, in keeping with his ~~self-image as a shrewd dealmaker~~ pattern of being a manipulative bullshitter who doesn't care whether anything he says is true or not, has simply laid out an extreme position as a . [sic, sentence ends here in original]

Yeah, random Reuters reporter, I probably would have needed to stop writing that sentence right there to go throw up in self disgust too.

His first term in 2017-21 was replete with what ~~critics said were over-the-top foreign policy pronouncements~~ any objective observer would call "lies", many of which were never implemented.

I feel like he's going to make a big show out of being shitty to Palestinians because that's what his voters want, but I feel like his administration is going to have a hard time finding anything to do to them the previous administration didn't already allow to happen. We've been at the point of dropping bombs on bombed out rubble for months already.

[–] gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Also, it sure is interesting that the nationwide Associated Press went with this headline while the local Detroit Free Press felt that "Arab Americans in Michigan slam Trump's Gaza plans, but also criticize Democrats" (archived) was a more accurate description of things.

[–] gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

My last comment here got determined to be "misinformation" and removed, so let me try to just state my opinion and avoid any factual claims -

I feel like Trump did say a stupid thing. I feel like the stupid thing Trump said here won't actually be implemented, but only because actually occupying Palestine with American troops would be extremely costly and Trump's allies in the area wouldn't actually gain anything from it they don't already have. I feel like the Trump administration does want to find some way to make the lives of Palestinians worse that they can show to their voters, but I feel like they will struggle to find any policies that make things much worse than Israel and the Biden administration has already made their lives.

I don't feel like that makes what Trump is saying or doing acceptable. However, I feel like many people don't recognize how bad it has already been for Palestinians because of the actions of the prior administration. Moreover, I feel like elected Dems need to condemn the prior administatrion's actions if we are going to build the sort of political coalition that can win elections and give us an administration that will be willing and able to hold Israel accountable for what I feel is an ongoing genocide.

[–] gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago

No US president has actually cared about anything Amnesty has called them out on since, like, forever. Still glad they're documenting and advocating for human rights so those of us that do care can get reliable information.

[–] gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 38 points 2 days ago

How is that agreement going to be monitored and enforced? Federal courts can't be so stupid as to take this administration at their word.

[–] gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

Wonderful, thank you for collecting and posting all these!

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