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Told Ya

Is this the waste fraud and abuse

we're so worried about?

Maybe what Republicans are planning on is the removal of millions of people who cost more than they produce. So guys like Elon just want them gone. After all, you're either an asset or a liability. Nothing more. Am I right?

They're working to bring about a final solution to the problems of overpopulation.

There's just too many of "those people".

Musk’s Purges Suddenly Take a Horrific Turn—and Wreck an Ugly MAGA Lie

We can now be depressingly confident that their mass cuts are killing people.

It has a dry, bureaucratic name, but Ready to Use Therapeutic Food has functioned for over a decade as a lifeline for countless starving children around the globe. Manufactured in the United States and distributed by the U.S. Agency for International Development, it’s a paste made of peanuts, milk, and vitamins that alleviates a form of acute malnutrition known as “severe wasting.”

Now the Trump administration has officially terminated a number of current contracts struck by USAID for this lifesaving nutrition, contracts that had called for the paste to be delivered to hundreds of thousands of children, most in Africa, according to the Georgia-based nonprofit set to deliver them, Mana Nutrition.

Mark Moore, the CEO of Mana, says ready-to-move boxes of the paste are now piled up in a Georgia warehouse and may never be shipped abroad. “If these contracts are not reinstated, there is no doubt children will die,” Moore told me.

This comes mere days after I reported that these shipments had been thrown into doubt because Trump’s mass firings at USAID included employees overseeing the latest round of contracts.

The nixed arrangements are just a handful of hundreds canceled amid the Trump administration’s appalling decision this week to terminate 90 percent of USAID’s foreign aid contracts. As the details of these cancellations have started trickling out, one thing is clear. This latest turn has wrecked the narrative that Trump and his MAGA propagandists have tried to spin about these cuts—they’re targeting “wokeness” inside USAID, they’re about “waste and fraud,” they’re designed to achieve “efficiency.” All of it has been unmasked as absolute nonsense.

The full extent of the damage from these cuts—originally set in motion by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency—is not yet known. But Atul Gawande, a surgeon who formerly led USAID’s global health initiatives, has established, via communications with partners that work with USAID, a list of contracts that were terminated. Among them are programs that offer natal care for mothers and children, that provide netting and other equipment to prevent the spread of malaria, that work to thwart the spread of Ebola and bird flu in dozens of countries, and much more. The cancellations will nix programs that helped tens of millions of people, Gawande notes.

“This is going to be a massive loss of life overall,” Gawande told me in an interview. “Children are likely already dying, and will clearly be dying in large numbers.”

Meanwhile, The New York Times has developed a long list of other terminated contracts, which include programs preventing the spread of polio, treating HIV and tuberculosis, ensuring clean drinking water in war-torn regions, and buttressing public health in many other ways. Tens of millions of people benefited; now they will not.

The details of the canceled Mana contracts illustrate the point. RUTF, the sweet nutritional peanut paste that Mana manufactures, is safe for ingestion by children who are suffering acute nutritional deprivation or are on the verge of starving to death. It comes in foil packets that don’t need refrigeration, making it easy to distribute in regions suffering extreme deprivation. RUTF is widely hailed as an extraordinary innovation in feeding children facing starvation and death.

According to Moore, the cancellation of Mana’s latest contracts will mean that around 300,000 kids, mostly in Africa, don’t get aid packets that Congress intended for them. But we, too, are the losers: This paste is manufactured by American workers, and made of peanuts and dairy grown by American farmers, in a spreading of American bounty and goodwill that has long had bipartisan support. Now it’s piled up in a warehouse in Savannah, unshipped and uneaten.

All of this lays waste to the spin that Trumpworld has employed to defend the dismantling of USAID. For instance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has claimed all along that “lifesaving humanitarian assistance” will be spared. By any reasonable standard, many of the contracts that have just been canceled qualify as just that.

What’s more, there is no longer any way to pretend any of this is about “efficiency” or “good management.” Aid like this is incredibly cost-effective. Not only does foreign aid constitute a tiny portion of our budget; things like RUTF cost a relative pittance, but they spread a positive image of the U.S. abroad and each treatment can save a child’s life.

Then there’s Rubio’s claim earlier this month that foreign aid is merely being reviewed to ensure that only “dumb” aid gets cut. In reality, this “review” process has been appallingly terrible even from a management perspective. Assuming it’s true that the administration does intend to restore some of these contracts—which is difficult to believe—then why did this review process require them to be suspended in the first place?

Even if some of these suspensions do turn out to be temporary, they will nonetheless have terrible consequences. Programs like these rely on complex supply chains, involving workers in the U.S. and abroad. They require continued delivery of supplies and sustained administering over time. But many people benefiting from ongoing treatments at this moment have now been “completely abandoned,” Gawande said.

“They’re pausing a plane in midflight, and firing the crew, then trying to tell us that it’s not going to be a catastrophe,” Gawande told me. “Terminating the contracts means we’re not investing in a wind-down at all.”

The fact that these cuts were handled this way—wantonly and recklessly—tells us everything we need to know about the administration’s true goal: To broadcast a clear message to the world that we are now shrugging off any sense of obligation to the global poor. As Awande put it: “They’re almost gleefully celebrating the destruction of these programs.”

Resistance

As always, we'll have to proceed with some caution - what we don't need to do is give the bad guys a good excuse to bash our heads in.

At the same time - knowing the bad guys don't really give a fuck about needing an excuse, good or otherwise - what we really don't need is the usual Paralysis-by-Analysis that Democrats often fall into.

The response to those threats is at once very simple and really really scary:

Hey, skeezix - better men than you have been trying to conquer the world for 40,000 years, and the world remains undefeated.

Lesser men than me have been willing to stand up - to fight and bleed and die to give me the chance to live in the freedom I enjoy now. If it's my turn, then it's my turn.

So here I am, asshole - come and get me.

Nope

What a horrible day to have eyes

Parks & Rec

There is nothing so American as our national parks ... The fundamental idea behind the parks ... is that the country belongs to the people, that it is in process of making for the enrichment of the lives of all of us.

-- Teddy Roosevelt

Protesters gather at Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park as part of nationwide "Protect Your Parks Protest"

Hundreds of protesters gathered in Rocky Mountain National Park on Saturday to oppose the recent firings of approximately 1,000 National Park Service and over 3,000 U.S. Forest Service employees nationwide. This comes as Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency continue to lay off federal employees to cut federal spending.

The protest is one of 433 at national parks across the country organized by the Resistance Rangers. The rangers called for a nationwide day of action on March 1, encouraging protesters to hand out flyers to cars, put signs in front of webcams, hang banners, hang American flags upside down as a signal of distress, march in gateway towns, rally inside parks and picket around park signs.

The upside down flag has become a popular sign of protest, seen at demonstrations and rallies throughout the country both from those protesting the current administration to supporters of President Donald Trump protesting his felony convictions.

According to their website, the National Park Service Rangers are a "community of 700+ off-duty park rangers rallying to save public lands."

The rangers encouraged local protesters to meet at 10 a.m. at the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center in Estes Park with protest signs and trash bags to clean up while at the site.

In February, hundreds of protesters gathered at the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park, carrying signs, chanting "Save our park" and cheering for NPS staff as they passed.

In a previous interview with CBS Colorado, Estes Park Mayor Gary Hall expressed concerns about how the layoffs will not only affect the park but also the communities that rely on them for employment. He said the community's businesses rely heavily on tourism from the park and he's concerned about safety risks to park staff and visitors.

"Estes Park is joined at the hip, heart, and soul of Rocky Mountain National Park," Hall said. "The health of Rocky Mountain National Park is the health of Estes Park to a great degree."

Hall told CBS Colorado that he's working with Colorado congressional leadership to advocate for the reinstatement of all Rocky Mountain National Park staff.

Resistance Rangers said those fired included rangers, scientists, wildland firefighters, first responders, trail crews, maintenance crews, and other mission critical staff.

Although the U.S. federal government is the nation's largest employer, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the federal workforce has grown little since 1980. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said "Most of this recorded spending growth is due to the rising cost of interest payments on the national debt and non-health, non-Social Security mandatory spending."

Do We Really Doubt It Tho?

What to know about the rumor Trump was recruited by KGB in 1987

According to a Facebook post from a former Kazakh security official, Trump was given the code name "Krasnov."

In February 2025, Alnur Mussayev, a former Soviet and Kazakh security official, claimed in a Facebook post that U.S. President Donald Trump was recruited in 1987 by the KGB, the intelligence agency of the Soviet Union, and assigned the code name "Krasnov."
Mussayev's post didn't state whether he personally recruited Trump or simply knew about the recruitment, nor did it state whether Trump actively participated in espionage or was just a potential asset.

Trump did visit Moscow in 1987, but there is no clear evidence suggesting he was actively recruited by the KGB during that trip or at any other time.

Mussayev's allegations that Trump was recruited by the KGB at that time don't line up with Mussayev's documented career path. Several biographies of him on Russian-language websites suggest that at the time Trump was supposedly recruited, Mussayev was working in the Soviet Union's Ministry of Internal Affairs, not the KGB.

Trump's pro-Russia stance (compared with other U.S. presidents) has fed into past allegations that he is a Russian asset — for instance, the 2021 book "American Kompromat" featured an interview with a former KGB spy who also claimed the agency recruited Trump as an asset. Again, however, there is no clear evidence supporting this claim.

In February 2025, a rumor circulated online that U.S. President Donald Trump was recruited as an "asset" by Russian intelligence in the late 1980s and given the codename "Krasnov," following allegations from a former Soviet and Kazakh security official, Alnur Mussayev.

The claim spread on TikTok, Facebook and X, where one account published a thread in response to the rumor, purporting to tie together evidence to support it (archived, archived, archived, archived, archived).

That user wrote: "Now that it's been reveals that Trump has been a Russian asset for 40 years named Krasnov by the FSB, I will write a simple thread of various pieces of information that solidifies the truth of everything I've written." At the time of publishing this article, the thread had been viewed more than 10 million times.

The claim gained traction when the news website The Daily Beast published a now-deleted story (archived) titled "Former Intelligence Officer Claims KGB Recruited Trump," using only Mussayev's Facebook post as a source. The article described Mussayev's allegations as "unfounded." We contacted The Daily Beast to ask why the story was deleted and will update this story if we receive a response.

We also reached out to Mussayev for comment on the story and will update if he responds.

Meanwhile, Snopes readers wrote in and asked us whether the rumor that Trump was recruited to be a Russian asset was true. Here's what to know:


The allegations don't line up with official records

The allegations originated from a Facebook post that Mussayev published on Feb. 20, 2025 (archived). The post alleged that in 1987, the KGB recruited a "40-year-old businessman from the USA, Donald Trump, nicknamed 'Krasnov.'" Mussayev claimed he was serving in the KGB's Moscow-based Sixth Directorate at the time, and it was "the most important direction" of the department's work to recruit businessmen from "capitalist countries."

Mussayev's post didn't specify whether Trump participated in any spying, only that he was recruited. In an earlier post (archived) from July 18, 2018, he described Trump's relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin as follows:

Based on my experience of operational work at the KGB-KNB, I can say for sure that Trump belongs to the category of perfectly recruited people. I have no doubt that Russia has a compromise on the President of the United States, that for many years the Kremlin promoted Trump to the position of President of the main world power.

Trump did visit Moscow in 1987, reportedly to look at possible locations for luxury hotels. However, several Russian-language websites (of unknown trustworthiness) with short biographies of Mussayev revealed a discrepancy: While Mussayev claimed he worked in the Sixth Directorate of the KGB in 1987, those online biographies placed him in the KGB from 1979 until 1986, when he moved to the Soviet Union's Ministry of Internal Affairs. The biography of Mussayev on Lenta.ru attributed that information to a Kazakhstani historian named Daniyar Ashimbayev.

Moreover, according to a translated version of a Feb. 22, 2025, Russian-language post Ashimbayev made on his Telegram account, Mussayev had no connections to the First Directorate, the branch of the KGB responsible for recruiting foreign assets. (Ashimbayev noted that Mussayev could justify this by claiming his real responsibilities were top-secret information, however.)

Other sources corroborate that the Sixth Directorate's main focus was not foreign intelligence. The journalist and author W. Thomas Smith Jr.'s book "Encyclopedia of the Central Intelligence Agency" states that the directorate was responsible for "enforcing financial and trade laws, as well as guarding against economic espionage," while the First Chief Directorate was the KGB's main espionage arm.

Previous accusations against Trump

Trump's relatively pro-Russian positions compared with those of other U.S. presidents have led to past allegations that he is or was a Russian asset in some way.

For instance, the controversial, flamboyant and untrustworthy Steele Dossier, released just before Trump took office in 2017, claimed Russia had incriminating tapes of Trump engaging in sexual activity with prostitutes in Moscow, among other scandalous accusations. CNN reported that the dossier's main source, Igor Danchenko, was mainly relaying "rumor and speculation," and in 2022 he was acquitted of charges of lying to the FBI about the dossier's sources.

In the 2021 book "American Kompromat," journalist Craig Unger interviewed a former KGB spy, Yuri Shvets, who also alleged that Trump was compromised by Russia. Snopes previously covered that claim. The British newspaper The Guardian reported that Shvets had said Trump was "cultivated as a Russian asset over 40 years."

Shvets claimed Trump first appeared on the Russians' radar in 1977, when he was the target of a spying operation — 10 years before the recruitment alleged by Mussayev took place. Shvets said the KGB later went on a "charm offensive" when Trump visited Moscow and St. Petersburg for the first time in 1987 — the same year specified by Mussayev. Shvets told The Guardian that Trump proved so willing to spread anti-Western propaganda that there were celebrations in Moscow. We aren't aware of any evidence corroborating these claims.

The Mueller report documented the official findings of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as allegations of conspiracy or coordination between Trump's presidential campaign and the Kremlin. That investigation — which found that the Russian government did interfere in the 2016 presidential election "in sweeping and systemic fashion" and that there were "links" between Trump campaign officials and individuals with ties to the Russian government — did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government.

Yo, JD

Tens of thousands of Americans are losing good jobs because of a fucked up policy that he fully supports.

And what does he do?

Not Just Sittin' There

Trump is likely to get a rude surprise if he tries to move against the EU.