Winning

 The best part of winning is the good feelings it brings. As John Wilder writes in his latest post, "Actually Draining The Swamp: The Lamentation Of Their Women":

This.  This is what I voted for.  This is what I’ve always been voting for.

To crush our enemies, see them driven before us, and to hear the lamentation of their women!

    One of the key moves that Trump has made is against the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). According to the main stream media, the agency, which has an annual budget of more than $50 billion, "provides humanitarian assistance to other countries impacted by conflicts and assists developing countries, primarily by dishing out funds to nongovernmental organizations, foreign governments and international organizations, or other U.S. agencies, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS)." 

    So to what worthy organizations and causes does USAID distribute it's money? Well, as noted in Wilder's article, "never Trumper" Bill Kristol is president of an organization called Defending Democracy, which is an indirect beneficiary of USAID funding through the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. In fact, it appears that Defending Democracy received over $10 million in funding, but only issued $1.4 million in grants. (See also, "The Dirty Truth Behind Bill Kristol's 'Private' Funding"--PJ Media). The latter article notes:

    USAID had a budget of about $50 billion in 2023, the last year for which full figures are available. While $50 billion is a drop in the bucket — it's less than 1% of federal spending — it has an outsized effect. That's billions of dollars going every year to left-wing causes (some of them dressed up as RINOs) that are too unpopular to gain private support.

    It's largely NGOs, armed with your tax dollars, funding the migrant invasion, pushing gender confusion on a global scale, etc.

    Moving to the Feb. 3, 2025, post from Anonymous Conservative, we see that USAID apparently funneled $53 million to EcoHealth Alliance, the entity behind the gain-of-function research that led to Covid 19. Senator Lindsey Graham, who is defending USAID, apparently is a director of the International Republican Institute which is supported by USAID.

    The Center for Immigration Studies published a report on Jan. 30, 2024, which noted that vast amounts of funds flowing from the State Department and USAID to fund illegal immigration through the UN and various NGOs, including $1.4 billion in the prior 12 months to just the International Organization of Migration (IOM). (See also "Kristi Noem stops taxpayer money from funding illegal migrant flood" at the New York Post which also discusses more of how U.S. tax dollars are being funneled through the U.N. to NGOs that assist mass illegal immigration into the U.S.). Of course, the funding does not end there. The CIS report cited above notes that many religious NGOs receive funding to assist illegals once they are in the U.S. 

    In short, as Glenn Reynolds points out in his New York Post column, "Smashing the ‘rice bowls’ — how elites are lashing out at Trump and Musk’s reforms," "[m]oney from the US Agency for International Development and other agencies is going for organizations shipping illegal migrants to the United States or paying their expenses upon arrival — which then oppose, on 'humanitarian' grounds, any effort to stem the flow." Reynolds adds: "Musk and hedge-funder Bill Ackman wrote that the government funded non-governmental organizations to get around laws that are supposed to keep taxpayer dollars out of party politics and dangerous scientific research." 

    And some related articles:

• "USAID Pays the Terrorists Who Kill Us"--PJ Media. Apparently providing money to the terrorist behind the Benghazi attacks, Hamas, and to the Taliban. "Indeed, not only do we do that, but we also pay the costs of running the Taliban "rufugee" office.  That refugee money actually goes to Al-Qaeda training camps."
  
• "Senator reveals 'crazy' USAID threatened her when she tried to curb its spending last year"--Daily Mail. The senator in question is Sen. Joni Ernst (R) of Iowa. USAID threatened to bring legal action against her to stop her requests into how the agency spent its money.
• "Here’s How Trump’s Move on USAID Will Impact George Soros’ Funding Empire"--Daily Signal. 
  
• "After being down for hours, The USAID website is back online with a message saying direct hire personnel will be placed on administrative leave GLOBALLY starting on Friday."
• "USAID to put nearly all staff on leave Friday; overseas missions shuttering"--CBS News.
  
• Even celebrities pushing ant-American messaging might be impacted, as Jeremy Kauffman sadly reports that his NGO has had its USAID funding cut off. "My NGO was responsible for coordinating the celebrity response to any American first cultural movement."
• "The Media was Always Fake"--Vox Day. Noting that with the demise of USAID, Politico suddenly is having problems meeting its payroll. Also, the BBC and New York Times received millions from USAID. The Associated Press apparently also received money from USAID. And then there is this:

Can someone explain to me why the Department of Defense provided $9,147,532.00 to Reuters for "ACTIVE SOCIAL ENGINEERING DEFENSE (ASED) LARGE SCALE SOCIAL DECEPTION (LSD)"

    One point that you will see brought up in the main stream media is that "foreign aid makes up just 1% of the federal budget," with the insinuation that because it is such a small part of the federal budget, it should be exempted. But, as Wilder notes in his piece, it isn't just the direct assistance to illegal immigration but all the follow on costs:

Tens of billions of dollars are given to the major aid groups to make the United States more attractive to illegal and legal aliens.  Those aliens in turn consume (generally, there are exceptions) much, much more in services than they provide.  A strawberry picker working off the books contributes next to nothing, but it costs tens of thousands in welfare to feed his family, and his children consume tens of thousands of dollars in education funding.  I could go on, but they are a net economic and cultural drag.

And some more winning:

• "Trump: U.S. Will Take Over Gaza, ‘We Will Own It’"--Breitbart. According to the article, "The surprise announcement came as the president spoke alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the first foreign leader to visit Trump since his Inauguration last month." Trump's suggested plan was for the U.S. to force other Muslim countries to take the Palestinians, then the U.S. would go into Gaza, clean up the destroyed buildings and infrastructures, removing the tunnels and bombs, but retain control after redeveloping it into "the Riviera of the Middle East.” (What Beirut was described as before the PLO was admitted to Lebanon). 

    I suspect that what happened here is that Netanyahu wants the U.S. to pay for the cleanup and reconstruction of Gaza, and so Trump sprung on him the idea of the U.S. retaining Gaza if it did so. This would obviously be unacceptable to Israel, so I think it is his way of telling Israel that the era of American largess is over, and any future beneficence will come with strings attached. Or it could be a way to exert pressure on neighboring Muslim nations to take in the Palestinians, even if just temporarily.

• "Trump administration to take steps to defund Education Department"--Reuters (via MSN). Test scores and academic achievement have only declined since the Department was created, while education costs have skyrocketed.
  
• "FBI agents who investigate UFOs worried they could be pushed out in possible purge"--Politico. This story is a two-fer: first, we learn that the FBI actually has an "X-files" type unit investigating UFOs; and, second, they are concerned they may lose their jobs. Not for investigating UFOs, but for their involvement in the J6 persecutions. In that regard, Zero Hedge noted that "DOGE Enters FBI Headquarters To Obtain Names Of 5,000 Agents Who Worked Jan. 6 Cases." The 5,000 figure is significant: as Anonymous Conservative points out, "[t]here are 13,000 FBI Agents total, so over a third of the entire national agency was devoted to a handful of grandmas and grandpas who walked peacefully, inside the ropes, inside the Capitol which they paid for."
• "Venezuelans in U.S. call Trump's move to end deportation protections a 'betrayal'"--NBC News. The article reports that "[t]he Trump administration revoked Temporary Protected Status for almost 350,000 Venezuelans who are in the U.S. Also, the protection will end in 60 days instead of October. Those affected will no longer have temporary protection from deportation or work permits that TPS allows." So the real issue here is not that Trump is ending TPS--that had already been in the works under Biden--but that he is ending it 6 months earlier. 
• Related: "Big Deportation Raids Begin In Tren De Aragua-Infested Aurora, Colorado"--Zero Hedge.
  
• "'No Immigrant Should Be Detained,' Says Left-Wing Nonprofit With $769 Million Federal Immigration Contract"--Washington Free Beacon. 

    Acacia Center for Justice, based in Washington, D.C., is one of the largest federal immigration contractors, overseeing a $769 million program that provides lawyers for unaccompanied alien children and adults in immigration court hearings and deportation proceedings.

    The group says its aim is to provide due process rights for illegal aliens. But it also calls for a radical upheaval of the immigration and deportation system—goals that are starkly at odds with the Trump administration's objectives.

And why are we, as taxpayers, funding all of this? Think of how many bridges could have been repaired using that money. As DOGE works its way through the federal agencies and programs, I would expect the Acacia Center to lose its contract.

• "At least 20K federal workers take Trump buyout offer, with more expected to accept"--New York Post. 
• "CIA offers buyouts to entire workforce as it seeks to infuse 'renewed energy': report"--Newsbreak.
  
• "US sends first flight with migrant criminals to Guantanamo Bay after Trump crackdown"--New York Post. 
• "El Salvador offers to hold ‘dangerous’ US citizens and criminal migrants from any country in their hellhole ‘mega-prison’"--New York Post.

    The president of El Salvador on Monday offered to house convicted US citizens in his country’s “mega-prison” and take in deported criminal illegal migrants of any nationality after a meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

    Rubio, 53, said the deal struck with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele represents “the most unprecedented, extraordinary, extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world,” in remarks from the capital city of San Salvador.  

    “We can send them and he will put them in his jails,” the secretary of state said of migrants set to be deported from the US. “And, he’s also offered to do the same for dangerous criminals currently in custody and serving their sentences in the United States even though they’re US citizens or legal residents.”

• "Illegal migrant cut loose in plea deal after raping sleeping woman — but then the feds stepped in"--New York Post. "Kail Cardenas, 27, was picked up in a US Department of Homeland Security raid in Jamaica Monday morning, less than a month after he was freed in the horrifying 2023 rape and sex abuse case, The Post has learned."