I've taken the opportunity to once again point out this forum policy.

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
So... The USAID money was for:
Economic Development in North Sinai.
Job opportunities in Serbia.
Arts and Opera in Columbia.

All complete bullshit and that money could and should have been spent right here in the USA on any number of deserving projects. Like our infrastructure, health care, etc.
America for Americans, first and foremost! Go, DOGE, Go!

While I agree with you that this is all complete bullshit...
I have to disagree "that money could and should have been spent right here in the USA on any number of deserving projects."

We are over $36 trillion in debt. It's so large its unfathomable. Just the interest on the debt has become our largest single expenditure, surpassing military spending for the first time in 2024. If we don't get the spending under control our economy will collapse, the dollar will become worthless due to runaway inflation, and your retirement plan will be worthless too.

Not directed at Badkarma1, but rather, the falling for Twitter propaganda, and the reason behind it, which comes down to one thing- money:

https://x.com/drawandstrike/st.../1888849795550208053

This will help as Billions are shipped here, this way.

Trump suspends tariffs on small packages from China
US President Donald Trump has suspended tariffs on small packages from China, after his sudden order ending duty-free treatment for shipments worth less than $800 (£645) left the US postal service and other agencies scrambling to comply.

The postal service temporarily stopped accepting packages from China as a result of the order, only to reverse course a day later.

The chaos left many in the US wondering about the fate of packages ordered from companies such as Shein and Temu, which had used the exemption for low-value packages to expand rapidly in the US.

Trump made the change last weekend as part of a wider decision raising border taxes on goods from China by 10% on 4 February.

His revision to the order on Friday said tariff-free treatment for packages from China worth less than $800 would remain in place until "adequate systems are in place to fully and expediently process and collect tariff revenue".

The move comes as some of the other rapid-fire changes Trump has announced since taking office last month have also met with roadblocks, including legal challenges.

Last weekend he said he was putting 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada, before rapidly suspending those duties for a month to allow talks to continue.

On Friday, Trump said he expected to announce "reciprocal tariffs" on many countries next week, a plan he had outlined on the campaign trail by which the US would levy tariffs at the same rates that other countries apply to the equivalent products made in the US.

The US had started to re-examine the exemption for low-value packages, known as de minimis, before Trump entered office.

The Biden administration in September proposed to tighten the rules on such packages from China, saying the move would help US firms compete and address challenges blocking shipments of illicit drugs.

In 2016, the US had raised the threshold for exemption from tariffs and other fees from $200 to $800 to facilitate trade and allow officials to focus on higher priority shipments.

But that decision has faced criticism as e-commerce has rapidly expanded and the number of packages entering the US under the $800 limit surged from 140 million to more than 1.3 billion last year.

https://www.bbc.com/news/artic...be415d78644b3a9fa691

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Not directed at Badkarma1, but rather, the falling for Twitter propaganda, and the reason behind it, which comes down to one thing- money:

My easy technique for navigating Twitter is to only read/follow (to me) known sources- Elon Musk, James Woods, Charlie Kirk, End Wokeness, Scott Adams, Andy Ngo, Ben Shapiro, Dan Scavino, Catturd, etc., and the news agencies like Fox, Breitbart, Daily Caller, etc. Most everything else requires a little legwork to see if what they post is valid.

quote:

Originally posted by oddball:

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Not directed at Badkarma1, but rather, the falling for Twitter propaganda, and the reason behind it, which comes down to one thing- money:

My easy technique for navigating Twitter is to only read/follow (to me) known sources- Elon Musk, James Woods, Charlie Kirk, End Wokeness, Scott Adams, Andy Ngo, Ben Shapiro, Dan Scavino, Catturd, etc., and the news agencies like Fox, Breitbart, Daily Caller, etc. Most everything else requires a little legwork to see if what they post is valid.

That and if you get one of those click me and pass it on posts on your Twitter feed, you can click the three white dots and block that person, X will feed you things similar to what you like.

OTOH I have found that several people I follow are posting on a daily or at least multiple times a week and they NEVER show up in my "Following" bucket... which makes you wonder if the algorithms are wrong or have a bug, or if there is some kind of blocking happening.

And now for a Tweet about Trump that shows how funny he really is....

https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/1888755063520473486

DOGE Says FEMA Sent $59 Million to Migrant Hotels In Violation of Trump EO.

https://thenationalpulse.com/2...olation-of-trump-eo/

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has revealed that employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) gave at least $59 million last week to help illegal aliens remain in luxury New York City hotels. DOGE chief Elon Musk announced Monday, February 10, that it had uncovered the payments to luxury hotels, allegedly including the Roosevelt Hotel, which the Pakistani government owns through the state-run Pakistani Airlines.“Sending this money violated the law and is in gross insubordination to the President’s executive order. That money is meant for American disaster relief and instead is being spent on high-end hotels for illegals!” Musk wrote on his social media platform X (formerly Twitter).

The money given by FEMA is just a small percentage of the overall cash spent to house migrants in luxury New York City hotels. According to reports last July, hotel bosses in the city have amassed over a billion dollars by converting their properties into migrant shelters.In total, New York City has spent over $4.8 billion on the illegal migrant influx, with just under $2 billion spent on housing.FEMA seems to be Elon Musk and his team’s latest target at DOGE. Last week, DOGE highlighted waste at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which includes millions spent on bizarre programs such as transgender operas. As a result, President Donald J. Trump and his administration have ordered the vast majority of USAID workers on leave, with just a fraction of essential employees remaining at the agency.

Some perspective:


One thousand seconds was 16 minutes, forty seconds ago

One million seconds is 11 days, 13 hours 46 minutes and 40 seconds

One billion seconds is a bit over 31 and one-half years

One trillion seconds is slightly over 31,688 years

Trump Instructs Treasury Secretary To Stop Minting Pennies, Citing "Wasteful" Spending

https://www.zerohedge.com/econ...ng-wasteful-spending

President Donald Trump directed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday night to halt the minting of new pennies, citing "wasteful" spending as coin production costs soar.

"For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful! I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies. Let's rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if it's a penny at a time," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Well if you get a 2025 penny in your change, save it, since it will be the last of the minted coins at some point in the future its value may exceed the cost to make it!

“Trump Instructs Treasury Secretary To Stop Minting Pennies, Citing "Wasteful" Spending”

It’ll reduce litter too. Folks don’t bother to pick up dropped pennies.

More nonsense from the ‘judiciary’, issuing a ukase to block the Secretary of the Treasury (and DOGE) from accessing some Treasury records -

https://x.com/TPostMillennial/...32762242216387?t=11s

One of the reasons they are shutting down USAID:
https://x.com/KarluskaP/status...twcon%5Es1_&ref_url=

Apparently we have been subsidizing BLM, George Soros, WEF, etc. with our tax money.

quote:

Originally posted by ridewv:

I had no idea there even was a NIH museum? Why not do away with it?

Many may be surprised to learn that almost every Federal building in DC has some sort of museum/display flouting the history of the organization that occupies the building. They are usually no more than a few posters in an office or hallway, but some can be quite elaborate. All of them have at least one caretaker assigned, your tax money at work.

For example, there was one of these in the South Interior Building (next door to the Federal Reserve on Constitution Ave.) when I was consulting for the Office of Surface Mining. So coal strippers have their own museum too (maybe not anymore given how long the Greenie Weenies were in control). There seems to be a common mentality amoung Govt. bureaucrats that they must honor themselves with a public display to have validity.

There are perhaps more than a dozen in the Pentagon, at least one for every war or action in which we've participated, and often individual ones for each military branch in each war.

Thanks, I didn't realize that. I figured the Smithsonian museum complex which is right there took everything into account.

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
“Trump Instructs Treasury Secretary To Stop Minting Pennies, Citing "Wasteful" Spending”

It’ll reduce litter too. Folks don’t bother to pick up dropped pennies.

I do, always.

My reasons:

1. MAD magazine had a "you know you're really fat when..." piece that had a panel that said "When you won't bend to pick up anything less than a quarter."

2. It essentially free money.

quote:

Originally posted by architect:

quote:

Originally posted by ridewv:

I had no idea there even was a NIH museum? Why not do away with it?

Many may be surprised to learn that almost every Federal building in DC has some sort of museum/display flouting the history of the organization that occupies the building. They are usually no more than a few posters in an office or hallway, but some can be quite elaborate. All of them have at least one caretaker assigned, your tax money at work.
...

There are perhaps more than a dozen in the Pentagon, at least one for every war or action in which we've participated, and often individual ones for each military branch in each war.

I get to DC every other year, a good friend works for Treasury and a cousin is a lobbyist/consultant. Both have showed me around and the areas they frequent, it was nauseating after awhile that every single building lobby at a minimum had a display with a bunch of mementos/keepsakes, honorariums and menagerie of portraits. Nobody is lingering around or, lounging about to look at these things, they all want to get through security with the least amount of delay yet, every department had to have 'their' own military version of the I Love Me Wall. Some cafeterias has even more laid-out..nobody is seeking out a museum of these items.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Thank you, but all of that has been removed from this thread. It should never have been posted without a link. All news items and related commentary must always be accompanied by a link to the source, no exceptions.

Posting something like that and then asking if anyone knows where it came from is unacceptable. This is a way propaganda and falsehoods get spread and we'll have no part of such things here.

Anything of that sort which is posted without a link will be removed from the forum. If someone posts a news item sans link I do give them a chance to correct their error by asking for the link, but if they don't provide it PDQ, the "news" goes away.

Understood and lesson learned, again I do apologize for my mistake.
Dale.

People are doing music videos about the President!

https://x.com/iheartmindy/stat...664869823750356?mx=2