Free Republic

On last week's Clubland Q&A, I remarked en passant that almost everything connected with the Government of the United States turns out to be a racket, and it might be quicker for Elon Musk just to listen the seven things that aren't a racket. And several commenters protested that seven was a gross-overestimate of the non-racket component. After the weekend's revelations, I am inclined to agree with them. Just as a f'rinstance, USAid funds nine out of ten media outlets in Ukraine, under the guise of supporting "independent journalism". Hang on. If words mean anything, wouldn't the "independent" media in...

(2/9) 🔎 The Clinton Foundation reported $83M in 2023, but only $17K from USAID. Analyst Charles Ortel 🧐 questions if all receipts were declared, given the foundation’s history of hiding revenues. 📉💸

The news for Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and her favorite agency just got worse. NBC News on Saturday night obtained an email sent to CFPB employees in which Vought announced a dozen directives that would go into effect immediately. Here are the details from NBC: [Employees were instructed to “cease all supervision and examination activity,” “cease all stakeholder engagement,” pause all pending investigations, not issue any public communications and pause “enforcement actions.” Vought also told employees not to “approve or issue any proposed or final rules or formal or informal guidance” and to “suspend the effective dates of all final...

Mario Nawfal @MarioNawfal 🚨EX-USAID CHIEF SAMANTHA POWER’S NET WORTH SKYROCKETS—FROM $6.7M TO $30M ON A $180K SALARY Samantha Power, Biden’s ex-USAID chief, saw her wealth explode while earning just $180K per year. Where did the extra $23.3M come from? And all of this in just 3 years! USAID oversees billions in global funding—was she cashing in? The public deserves answers. Follow the money. Source: vBulletin, Inside Biden's Basement --- Elon Musk @elonmusk Replying to @amuse How did she accumulate wealth that is 100 times her after tax salary? --- Not a bad gig if you can get it. Her husband,...

How much power would you have if you had a giant money machine that showered your political allies and political causes that you favor with tens of billions of dollars every year? The corruption that is being uncovered at USAID is truly historic. USAID has a budget that is larger than the CIA and the State Department combined, and much of that money was funding a vast network of liberal activists and liberal causes all over the globe. When Laura Ingraham of Fox News asked U.S. Senator Josh Hawley about this, Hawley explained that Democrats “are just losing their minds”...

U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican, said there was a moral imperative for the U.S. government to deliver international food aid to starving people. He also said it was important to not undermine market opportunities for U.S. commodities in wake of Trump administration maneuvering to close the U.S. Agency for International Development. (Kansas Reflector screen capture of U.S. Senate video) TOPEKA — U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas said a freeze on federal funding and change at the U.S. Agency for International Development left $340 million in lifesaving food grown in the United States sitting at domestic ports awaiting...

It is amazing, very revealing that today's radical democrat party uniformly praised and elevated Greta Thunberg, a vegan Swedish professional protester and activist with no degree and no training at age 15 for demanding tens of trillions of dollars be lost from the econmy6, be diverted and be dedicated to fighting natural climate change. This same worldwide group of liberal democrats are cursing and attacking the five professional programmers hired through Musk's DOGE government workshop, some only 18 years old, who are exposing more billions in government waste and democrat party corruption every hour.

As the Trump administration this week dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development, the primary vehicle for U.S. foreign aid, the White House issued a statement justifying its actions. Titled “At USAID, Waste and Abuse Runs Deep,” the news release claimed USAID “has been unaccountable to taxpayers as it funnels massive sums of money to the ridiculous — and, in many cases, malicious — pet projects of entrenched bureaucrats, with next-to-no oversight.” The news release then listed 12 examples, plucked from the websites of right-wing media. But the numbers cited — as low as $32,000 — hardly justify the claim...

Four young coders sat in Treasury’s basement. Their screens cast blue light across government desks. Their mission? Crack the deep state. “We’re in,” Akash typed. “All of it.” Within hours: $17 billion in waste exposed. No committees. No approvals. No red tape. Just four coders with a bunch of laptops. Moving faster than bureaucracy could react. By the time resistance drafted its first memo… Three more systems were already mapped.

In a bombshell revelation that could shake the foundations of American healthcare, Elon Musk, leading the charge under President Trump’s newly minted Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has uncovered what he describes as a staggering “$100B of taxpayer money” wasted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). On Wednesday, Musk’s team, along with two senior veterans from the agency, has been meticulously reviewing the CMS’s payment and contracting systems, which are crucial for managing health insurance for approximately one in every four Americans, according to far-left USA Today. “CMS has two senior Agency veterans – one focused on...

"They never prepared for algorithms that could map everything. For personnel pre-positioned everywhere. For a president who counts every week like it's his last." — VP JD Vance. If you wondered since 2016 how come the blob and the Democratic Party were aligned so exquisitely in their operations to destroy populism (personified by Mr. Trump) and to permanently entrench single party power in America for all time to come, it’s because an endless font of taxpayer money was streamed into countless non-governmental orgs creating a shadow civil service of Democratic Party activists that melded seamlessly with the big policy-making agencies....

Spiteful federal government workers have vowed to boycott struggling mom-and-pop businesses near their offices after Donald Trump banned remote working. In a now-deleted Reddit post titled 'Boycott using local businesses around work site if forced back to office, several federal discussed how to fight back against Trump's order. 'For those that end up being forced back to their respective offices I would avoid patronizing the local businesses in those areas,' the original poster said. 'Bring your own lunch to avoid using the eateries and grocery stores, avoid parking in pay parking (use mass transit if available), and don't buy anything...

Planned Parenthood failed to pass its abortion agenda. Now, the so-called “health” organization is entering Pennsylvania’s school board elections — and their fight has to do with everything besides bettering students’ lives. While parents worry about test scores, school safety, quality-of-life issues and helping teachers perform their jobs, Planned Parenthood wants to fill students’ minds with their radical agenda. Our students may struggle to read, but that is okay with Planned Parenthood, so long as their school board candidates push more robust sex-ed, gender ideology and pro-abortion talking points to our vulnerable children. I know this fight well. As the...

@S_Coughlin_DC joins Tera Dahl to discuss how the terror attacks seem to be well-funded and well-executed around the country as pro-Hamas supporters celebrate the New Orleans attack.

Senate GOP hawks who receive large sums from the defense industry could be mobilizing to tank one of President-elect Donald Trump’s national security nominees. Former Democratic Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, nominated by Trump to helm the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, could face opposition from Senate Republicans with hawkish views on national security over her beliefs on Ukraine and government surveillance powers. Though a considerable number of Trump-aligned senators have endorsed Gabbard, citing her decades-long military service and commitment to reforming the country’s intelligence agencies that have been frequently weaponized against the president-elect, GOP senators whose national security...

Far-left groups with a history of engaging in violent protest are being recruited ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20. Flyer are now suddenly appearing around college campuses in Washington, D.C. After scanning the QR codes on the flyers, a collection of links invites individuals to fight fascism by joining the following groups: The People’s Medic Collective (PMC) The DMV Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) The Socialist Action Initiative (SAI) The groups recently took part in the pro-Palestinian protests at the nation’s capital following Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attacks against Israel. One post-election flyer reads “What now?”...

Isn’t it strange how Barry and Michelle Obama are so closely tied—in friendship and lifestyle—to convicted rapists and accused slavemasters and traffickers? That’s the question many people are asking again as we witness the downfall of Obama’s good friend, Sean “Diddy” Combs.Shadow of Ezra:After the U.S. Department of Justice announced the arrest and indictment of Sean Combs, also known as “Diddy,” the music industry has been rocked by a series of major resignations.These departures are allegedly tied to claims that the infamous “freak offs” were actually organized and funded by some of the most powerful CEOs in the music world.After...

When my family moved back to the United States from East Africa in the mid-1980s, one might have thought it was a peak time of compassion for people suffering in faraway places. A glittering group of music superstars had recorded “We Are the World,” a smash hit charity single to raise money and awareness for the victims of a brutal famine that had gripped my mother’s home country, Ethiopia.But when I told my new grade school classmates of my origins, I was met with cruel taunts. I was awfully fat for an Ethiopian, one said with a snigger. Must be...

A big-time New Jersey Democrat kingmaker was indicted on racketeering charges. George Norcross, who for decades was the Democrat boss and kingmaker in New Jersey politics, his brother Philip Norcross, and a few other defendants were charged in a 13-count indictment in a case pursued by the state’s attorney general Matthew Platkin. According to a 111-page indictment unsealed on Monday, Norcross lead a “criminal enterprise” in South New Jersey. “The entities that benefitted, including Cooper Health and [the insurance firm Conner Strong & Buckelew CSB] then occupied the properties they obtained interests in and sold the tax credits they obtained...

George E. Norcross III, an influential New Jersey Democrat, was indicted on Monday with 13-counts of racketeering. New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin, a Democrat, unsealed the indictment, which alleges that Norcross used his political influence to acquire waterfront real estate in Camden, N.J. The 111-page indictment names five other individuals who were also charged.