His accountant wrote “legal fees” instead of “hush money”. This might have been a misdemeanor whose statute of limitations ran out in 2019 (if ndas were illegal), but now a felony proven with inadmissible evidence, allegedly to hide another crime that cannot be mentioned. This the first time in history anyone has been convicted of this shit.

You’ve convicted him of crimes but no one else has. Crazy how that works out.

None of which resulted in any criminal convictions, correct?

Civil cases misconstrued as criminal ones. Why won’t you tell the truth and say he lost some lawsuits, I wonder? Amnesia?

The kleptocracy is falling apart, one day at a time:

You say “crimes” plural but refuse to name one. That’s because all you got is the trumped-up Bragg charges, and now you can say he’s a felon because his accountant wrote “legal expenses” instead of “hush money”, a charge so laughable it puts everything into perspective. So horrific are Trump’s crimes in the perversion of anti-Trump mythology that you let yourself use OJ Simpson as an analogy.

Which crimes are those again?

Not according to them, at least.

What type of funding is permitted to move forward?

The original order, dated January 24, 2025, contained several important exceptions, including “emergency food assistance,” and outlined the process to secure additional exceptions. Requests were reviewed and, where needed, approved within hours. Subsequently, the Secretary approved a broad waiver on January 28, 2025, for humanitarian aid, which is defined as “life-saving medicine, medical services, food, shelter, and subsistence assistance, as well as supplies and reasonable administrative costs as necessary to deliver such assistance.”

https://www.state.gov/prioritizing-americas-national-interests-one-dollar-at-a-time/

From what little I've seen not much of the "aid" part has been cut from the program, and both Trump and Rubio like the idea of foreign aid. Except not much of USAID is aid, as far as I can tell, save for the clever acronym. Hopefully we'll get to see a full audit.

DOGE shares some of their cuts on X.com:

This will be his best executive order yet:

I will be signing an Executive Order next week ending the ridiculous Biden push for Paper Straws, which don’t work. BACK TO PLASTIC!

I love watching the USAID debacle unfold. It proves a few things.

The whole intersectional and progressive grip on culture throughout the world is largely astroturfed, payed for by American tax-payer dollars. It is forced; there is nothing organic about it.

Americans have been thanklessly funding foreign NGOs, media, Universities, and subsidizing the aid of other wealthy countries, like Australia.

Hidden beneath the facade of humanitarian benevolence is routine imperialism. “Experts” who lament a lack of access to such a piggy bank are now fearful China will step in to fill the void.

“After this therefor because of this”. The consequences and damage occurs in the reaction to Trump’s statements, not in the statements themselves. The ebbs and flows of the markets are indicative of this.

I see them when I both preview and look at my posts. They are still there when I look right now.

Thanks for letting me know I probably looked like a madman without all that context.

Yeah they’re X posts. God, have I been the only one seeing them this whole time I wonder?

Watch Netanyahu squirm here. If the Whitehouse press secretary was right, Trump thought up his Gaza idea on the spot and Bibi found out on live television.

The old GOP died when Trump took over. The Dems are a walking corpse.

In any case it’s an innovative and bold idea. Though if Biden’s Gaza Pier is any indication (another wasteful USAID boondoggle), it will be difficult to implement. Let’s see what comes of it.

That didn’t take long.

Yeah, it’s a bad idea. I cringed when I heard it. It contradicts “America first” and the reasons people voted for him.

What makes Iraqi Sesame Street "bullshit"? It's been part of the effort to restore the country to normalcy after the devastation inflicted by Bush's war. Pottery Barn rule.

Regardless, Trump could have ordered review of all the programs and done selective shutdowns. It's a product of executing a simplistic solution with callous disregard for the consequences. That's why I labeled it manslaughter, and not murder.

Sesame Street is normalcy in Iraq? USAID is a division of America’s so-called “soft power”, an imperialist arm of the US government. Think of what they did in cuba, for instance. There is no intent to restore anything to normalcy, but to further US interests in those regions and abroad.

It’s stupid to blame Trump and not the people who fund bullshit like Iraqi Sesame Street. It’s their fault aid is tied to massive government waste and corruption.

They trot out that kind of argument every few years. In opposing Trump’s border wall during his first terms they claimed border apprehensions were so low that no wall was required, and it’s such a small problem that people shouldn’t worry about. But what others care about is what isn’t apprehended, and what isn’t seized.

The Canada/US border is the largest border in the world. Canada’s fentanyl labs have been known for years, as has its tradition of drug smuggling. One ”superlab” busted just last fall (and close to the border) was estimated to be able to produce 95,500,000 fentanyl doses, which far exceeds domestic consumption. So why should we not wish to stop this drug from crossing the border?

Out of all his pie-in-the-skies this is Trump’s worst idea ever, sure to set the region on fire and send all involved into a spiral of evil. The only way he can redeem himself is if this turns out to be some negotiating tactic.

USAID gives American tax-payer dollars to fund the state-run BBC’s charity, which pushes woke propaganda about misinformation and climate change and DEI in other countries.

Last year USAID gave BBC Media Action $3.23million (£2.6million) of US taxpayers' money, making it the second largest donor to the British-based charity.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14359179/Donald-Trump-Elon-Musks-USAID-closure-hit-BBC-charity.html

This and other examples of “humanitarian aid” has proven a wasteful and corrupt system.

No, I can appreciate the skepticism. The establishment wouldn’t have it any other way.

I appreciate the comments about Milei. After all, he may be the first libertarian leader in human history. All I can say is I hope it awakens some private initiative instead of metastasizing a reliance on the corrupt and wasteful public initiative.

Canada concedes.

I guess we’ll have to see about all that.

Argentina, was it? What do you think of Milei? I’m watching his rule with great interest.

My point is that once they achieve absolute power, the use of democratic means necessarily weakens the fascist nature of the state. Conversely, it precipitates its transformation into a representative democracy. You can't have your cake and eat it too. You either have a fascist state or a democratic one.

I think you’re right that popular sovereignty would eventually be fascism’s downfall, but they literally did create a democratic fascist state in the form of the Italian Social Republic. You can read in their Manifesto of Verona that a leader would be chosen by citizens every 5 years, not to mention the adoption of plenty liberal and socialistic “devices” in order to further the fascist state. So fascism has veered into “left-wing populism”, after all.

Very cool. Thanks.

Let's consider the case of democratic means, to focus on just one example. What would remain of the fascist state if the means of representative democracy were to be the norm? Suppose Mussolini is effectively the Duce. Now suppose that presidential elections are held. And suppose that John Doe gets more votes than Mussolini. Suppose further that, after being elected, John Doe & company (as in, legislators, senators, etc.) carry out a series of reforms such that Fascist Country X starts to look more and more like the United States of America. What remains of the fascist state then, as envisioned by Mussolini, Rocco, and others? Nothing remains of it.

Fascists saw Fascism as the purest form of democracy, so long as the people are considered qualitatively instead of quantitatively. They did use democratic means, such as elections and voting, at least until they achieved absolute power. Again, the point is to use it to service the state, and then perhaps be done with when it is no longer required.

This is just wishful thinking. It's like Stalin's wishful thinking of Socialism In One Country.

Yes, they are terrible ideas. But this is what fascists believed and tried to implement. If we are to oppose it, it might be helpful to recognize it before it becomes action.

Unless they use all of the devices in service to the Fascist state. The phrase “the end justifies the means” doesn’t preclude using these devices to achieve an end.

This indifference to method often exposes Fascism to the charge of incoherence on the part of superficial observers, who do not see that what counts with us is the end and that therefore even when we employ the same means we act with a radically different spiritual attitude and strive for entirely different results. The Fascist concept then of the nation, of the scope of the state, and of the relations obtaining between society and its individual components, rejects entirely the doctrine which I said proceeded from the theories of natural law developed in the course of the XVI, XVII, and XVIII centuries and which form the basis of the liberal, democratic, and socialistic ideology.

At the very least. I think Zelensky was saying that he received all of the weapons he was promised, but the rest, over 100 billion dollars, is missing. Where has it gone?

I don’t know if this translation is accurate or not, so take it with a grain of salt.

So, what's the plan, the drug traffickers will be discouraged by the prospect of tariffs?

I think the point is to convince these governments to help tackle the problem, which is apparent in all countries involved.

And why are they wrong?

Sure, the guy who helped developed fascism is wrong about fascism.

The true antithesis, not to this or that manifestation of the liberal-democratic-socialistic conception of the state but to the concept itself, is to be found in the doctrine of Fascism. For while the disagreement between Liberalism and Democracy, and between Liberalism and Socialism lies in a difference of method, as we have said, the rift between Socialism, Democracy, and Liberalism on one side and Fascism on the other is caused by a difference in concept. As a matter of fact, Fascism never raises the question of methods, using in its political praxis now liberal ways, now democratic means and at times even socialistic devices.

The Political Doctrine of Fascism - Alfredo Rocco

Personally, I’m against tariffs in principle. So I was skeptical of Trump’s moved here. But as leverage they seem to have their practical use.

And now Beijing wants a seat at the table.

“Beijing Prepares Its Opening Bid to Talk Trade With Trump”

https://www.wsj.com/world/china/beijing-prepares-its-opening-bid-to-talk-trade-with-trump-ccec3ca4?mod=hp_lead_pos3

Very nice. I’m glad you’ve read it. The best way to understand fascism is to understand what its creators were thinking, in my opinion.

And you’re right. That’s why Mussolini was willing to use any economic doctrine and policy to further his spiritual one. So fascism could be liberal one day and socialist the next.

I knew it as a general economic principle, sure. I didn’t know Mussolini used the phrase once in a speech or in a poster. So thanks for that.

I’m genuinely surprised that there aren’t more quotes, despite you saying there were several.