geekwithsoul

joined 2 years ago
[–] geekwithsoul@lemm.ee 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You do know the USAID's budget is public and directed by Congress, not the CIA - right? And that they don't send out folks directly but fund charities and NGOs to meet certain goals. In 2023 they spent $43.4 billion over 130 countries with $30 billion of that going to Ukraine. NGOs account for 52% of what they spent and among public international organizations almost all of the money spent goes to the World Food Program and the World Bank.

Current estimates on the effects of cutting USAID funding are one million children will go untreated for severe malnutrition, up to 166,000 people will die from malaria and 200,000 more children will be paralyzed by polio over the next decade.

But sure "CIA front" sounds so plausible.

[–] geekwithsoul@lemm.ee 11 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Every part of the government (and tons of NGOs) got used as CIA fronts at various times. However, the preponderance of money spent has been humanitarian aid that has quite literally saved millions of lives. Saying it isn't an aid organization is ridiculous. Sounds like your problem is (justifiably) with the CIA and not USAID. It was never perfect but there are plenty of people alive today because of the work it's funded.

[–] geekwithsoul@lemm.ee 11 points 1 month ago

Yeah, it's all hallucinations - it's just that sometimes the hallucinations manage to approximate correctness, and it can't tell one from the other.

[–] geekwithsoul@lemm.ee 11 points 1 month ago (5 children)

"The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an agency of the United States government that has been responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance." Wikipedia

And I know this because my dad was the Assistant Administrator of USAID under Clinton. Their funding fell into the following general categories and funding levels:

But please continue with your wildly inaccurate statements by all means.

[–] geekwithsoul@lemm.ee 8 points 1 month ago (7 children)

Yeah, all that tuberculosis treatment and prevention, emergency food aid, and vaccine work was all just a clever front for their real plan to take over niche social media platforms! How could we have been so blind?! 🙄

[–] geekwithsoul@lemm.ee 10 points 1 month ago

Respectfully, Buffy's "Once More With Feeling" is incredible.

[–] geekwithsoul@lemm.ee 4 points 1 month ago

Well, basically Microsoft bought the entire company and now acts as their publisher so better than Private Division but that's all you can say 🤷🏼‍♂️

As for working with Private Division, Obsidian didn't have a lot of options at the time - they were basically short on cash and couldn't find anyone to front the money to make the game. They took the deal they could and the success of Outer Worlds contributed to Microsoft being willing to pick them up which in turn led to Obsidian being able to continue to make games.

[–] geekwithsoul@lemm.ee 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I don't know about the unpatched bugs, but the Spacer's Choice edition was put out by their old publisher Private Division -- Obsidian had no say in it and didn't contribute anything to it. Private Division paid a third party developer to do Spacer's Choice Edition and the Switch port.

[–] geekwithsoul@lemm.ee 6 points 2 months ago

Black gospel music has often been the only Christian-oriented music that really did it for me. A lot of blues, soul, etc was created by folks who got their start in black gospel music, and used what they learned there in secular genres. Hugely influential in so many different types of music.

[–] geekwithsoul@lemm.ee 4 points 2 months ago

Unlike Jefferson, I don't believe there were any contemporaneous accounts of it, and there's never been any DNA evidence to confirm it. I mean Jackson was undoubtedly an asshole and believed in the institution of slavery (and I believe treated enslaved people inhumanely), but as far as I understood it, not for this in particular.

 

“Asked how many members of the House of Reps there were, Stein guessed 600-some before hosts corrected her.”

 

"According to FEC filings, the Synapse Group has worked for Republican Governor Doug Burgum of North Dakota, who ran for the GOP presidential nomination this cycle, as well as GOP candidates for Congress. Synapse has also been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for field and canvassing work by America PAC, the outside spending group started by allies of Musk that has spent millions of dollars this election cycle to boost Trump and oppose Democrats."

 

There is no KBSF-TV in San Francisco, and, according to a BBC Verify investigation, the original website that published the story was registered less than two weeks ago. The photograph attached to the article, which supposedly depicted the crash itself, was actually snapped in Guam in 2018. And the video of Brown—whom the article and video misname several times—also appears to be a deepfake. The x-ray images of Brown’s spine, allegedly taken after the accident, can be traced back to medical journals that have no relation to the supposed crash.

 

A group called “Lion of Judah,” led by self-described Republican opposition researcher Joshua Standifer, is traveling the nation to recruit Christians to “key positions of influence in government like Election Workers.”

 

In light of at least someone around here announcing that they were switching from supporting the Green Party to the Socialist Worker Party, I thought it would be helpful to provide an introduction to the kinds of things that party believes in. This is offered straight from the party's official website without additional comment and it stands to reason that this viewpoint is endorsed by their presidential candidate Rachele Fruit.

 
 

Robert Reich articulated something that has been bouncing around my head since 2016

 

”This helps take away votes from Joe Biden,” the activist told one person at the rally, according to a video posted to X (formerly Twitter) by a Washington Post reporter. “We’re helping the Trump team who’s trying to get him on there,” added a woman by his side.

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