[PJ] The data is coming in so hot and fast today that it's all I can do not to fall behind too much, but the numbers all tell the same story: the Mainstream Legacy Media is a bought-and-paid-for arm of the Deep State. So while I was busy researching how more than $8 million in tax money went to Politico...
Politico's financials aren't public. I found estimates today that its 2023 revenues were as high as $400-plus million and as low as $7 million. Whatever the case, nobody, and I mean nobody forgets who paid it $8 million in subscription fees.
Anyway, a couple of hours later, Ian Miles Cheong reported, "The US Government gave the New York Times tens of millions of dollars over just the past 5 years despite paying relatively little money to the NYT in the years preceding 2021." We know who came into power in 2021. "For instance, in August 2024, the US government awarded $4.1 million to the NYT."
"The bulk of the funds came from the US Department of Health and Human Services at $26.90m, followed by the National Science Foundation at $19.15m."
Interesting that it was DHHS and the NSF ponying up 50 million American taxpayer dollars to a paper owned by a Mexican billionaire at a time when Washington wanted to silence certain voices on health issues pertaining to the emergence of COVID and the ridiculous government measures taken to "combat" it.
This post from Mike Benz was succinct and mind-blowingly on point:
"We would try to keep USAID in line with the Secretary of State because, technically, the USAID responds to the Secretary of State, and it was very difficult.
#8
One is mindful of the meme that no matter who how you hate the media, it isn't enough. Consider that the media was merely printing what they were told to by the deep state.
[AT] Seth Rich was a DNC operative. He was "mysteriously murdered in the summer of 2016" just "weeks before" Wikileaks released the results of its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails. The matter of who leaked Clinton’s emails to Wikileaks directly pertains to the Russian Collusion Hoax that was perpetrated against President Trump. The murder is still unsolved. And the FBI still refuses to turn over records pertaining to the case to attorney Ty Clevenger, despite a federal judge ruling that the agency must do so way back in November of 2023. Even earlier, in September of that year, a judge demanded that the FBI and DOJ provide everything they had regarding Seth Rich to Clevenger. I suspect the new and improved Justice Department will have something to say very soon about these refusals.
The FBI responded by requesting another 66 years before they’d be required to release the information.
66 years?! "If we put our best people on it, and maybe work a little overtime, I think we should be able to get our notes and emails together for you in, say, 66 years."
What the hell?! How can they get away with this preposterous intransigence? 66 years is essentially the span of time from the invention of the automobile until we landed on the friggin’ moon! They should be able to get any and all materials relevant to this investigation together in 66 hours! 66 days, tops.
This is just another example of a massive DNC-weaponized agency protecting itself...and the Democrat party...from a catastrophic public relations disaster and any subsequent accountability or penalties.
In a nutshell, it’s bulls**t and shouldn’t be permitted in a nation supposedly governed by equal justice and the rule of law.
This ties in, of course, with the way USAID and other federal agencies have been screaming about being investigated for waste and corruption. Democrats are making speech after speech, inside and outside the Capitol—each one shriller and more devoid of facts or rationality—in rabid defense of their favorite bloated cash cows. They appear to have gone bat-guano crazy, completely around the bend, off their rockers, off the rails, out of their minds. Really and truly. It is alternately hilarious and frightening to see.
"Common sense" sends them into a frenzy. Truth and transparency frightens them. Accountability is their kryptonite. Speaking of truth, they care neither about "democracy" nor the people they are supposed to serve. They only care about their own power and money. They are frauds and charlatans. And hypocrites.
In fact, it’s beginning to look like they may be trying to foment—dare I say it—an insurrection.
There were supposed to be big nationwide protests yesterday under the headline 50 States. 50 Protests. 1 Day, but only a few Bernie Bros and Antifa types showed up in some cities for crowd sizes quantified as “dozens”. The insurrection lacks the usual screeching cannon fodder.
#3
Not much in the new lately about WikiLeaks or Assange is there ?
WikiLeaks is a non-profit media organisation and publisher of leaked documents. It is funded by donations and media partnerships. It has published classified documents and other media provided by anonymous sources. It was founded in 2006 by Julian Assange. Kristinn Hrafnsson is its editor-i
n-chief.
[X]
John Ʌ Konrad V
@johnkonrad
Fact: Bribery is rampant in the U.S. government and military—but it’s also legal.
To understand what’s going on at USAID you must understand how bribery works in America today.
Here’s how to legally bribe a 4-star US Army General:
American bribery operates differently than the classic cash-in-a-suitcase (or bitcoin today!) model still used in most other countries. It relies on trust, time, and reputation—making it nearly impossible to prosecute.
Example 1: Bribing a General in Africa
A corrupt general in Africa demands $2 million cash (or gold or BYT) up front. Why? Because if you don’t pay later, he has no way to enforce the deal.
Example 2: Bribing a U.S. General (Legally)
If you’re a defense contractor in the U.S., you play the long game:
1.Invite the general into a secure, private meeting.
2.Thank him for his “dedicated support” on a project “for the American people.”
3.Wink.
4.Casually mention that a board seat might open up at your company—about five years after he retires.
5.Tell him to call you in ten years to “help find good candidates.”
Fast forward five years: Boom. He lands that board seat. It pays $500,000 per year for five years. Congratulations—he just pocketed $2.5 million, plus interest.
The Board Seat Shuffle
This gets even better. Say Widgets Inc. lands a huge contract thanks to General Smith, and Cogs Inc. gets another big deal thanks to Admiral Jones.
Instead of directly paying them off, Widgets Inc. gives a cushy board seat to Admiral Jones. Cogs Inc. returns the favor by hiring General Smith.
No money exchanged while they were in uniform. No laws broken.
The Enforcement Mechanism: Reputation
But what if Cogs Inc. fails to pay Admiral Jones?
Simple: Reputation kills them.
Word spreads fast in the high-trust world of defense contracting. Generals and admirals still in uniform hear the whispers. Suddenly, Cogs Inc. starts losing contracts.
Example 3: USAID
Want to bribe a Congressman? Here’s how the game works. First, get them to steer a juicy contract your way. Take some of that money and set up a nonprofit—nothing flashy, just enough to move funds around. A few years after they’re voted out, suddenly there’s a cushy board seat waiting for them. In the meantime, have them use their connections to secure a USAID grant for the next wave of Congressmen or staffers. Rinse and repeat to expand the ponzi scheme and just like that, you’ve built a self-sustaining influence machine.
The lesson?
The bribe is exactly the same as a cash payoff—it’s just delayed, sanitized, and hidden behind a veil of “corporate best practices.”
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how government bribery legally thrives in America.
If this goes viral I might post 2/2 an even more ingenious bribery system: How China Bribes A Foreign General
#1
This is why stripping Milley & the 51 laptop hoax letter IC signers of security clearances was important. It interrupts multiple influence and consulting income channels they could otherwise leverage.
President Donald Trump, the sequel, has moved in his opening days with a velocity faster than any modern-day president, testing the boundaries of his power and challenging the checks and balances that have marked America's democracy from its founding.
He has even pitched plans to redraw the map of the world, from Greenland to Gaza.
To remind: It's only Day 17.
Laws stymied, notably the bill passed with bipartisan support banning TikTok. Appropriated funds withheld, although a second federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the administration's sweeping freeze on federal grants and loans. Government agencies dismantled, starting with USAID; the Education Department may be next. A constitutional amendment guaranteeing birthright citizenship redefined by executive order. Tariffs threatened, imposed and paused on foreign countries, rattling the markets and allies.
Plus the "Fork in the Road" deadline − that was the subject line of the first email they received − looms Thursday for about two million federal workers to decide whether to take an unprecedented offer of buyouts. Even the CIA on Tuesday offered buyouts to almost all of its workforce.
The idea of a 100-day action plan, the milestone set by Franklin D. Roosevelt when he took office in the midst of the nation's worst depression, now seems almost quaint, like snail mail. Helped by a compliant Congress, Trump 2.0 is moving at fiber-optic speed, with more discipline and bigger ambitions than during his first term.
[FoxBusinessNews] Scott Bessent details Trump's economic agenda, including his tariff policies and goal to re-privatize the economy
Since billionaire Elon Musk joined forces with President Donald Trump to head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), various Democrats and other critics have complained over the Tesla founder's influence on the federal government.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, however, came to Musk and DOGE's defense Wednesday on "Kudlow."
"Elon Musk is the greatest entrepreneur of this generation," Bessent told FOX Business host Larry Kudlow in his first interview since joining the Trump administration.
"DOGE is not going to fail. They are moving a lot of people's cheese here in the capital, and when you hear this squawking, then some status quo interest is not happy," he continued.
Bessent's defense comes after weekend reports claimed the Treasury Department granted DOGE personnel access to the federal government's payment system. The Treasury spends roughly $6 trillion per year on payments for federal agencies.
Since then, a Treasury Department official told members of Congress on Tuesday that a tech executive working with DOGE, will have "read-only access" to the government's payment system, stressing that it is committed to safeguarding the system after the department was granted access.
The official wrote a letter in response to lawmakers who were concerned that DOGE's access to the government's payment system for the federal government could lead to security risks or missed payments for various programs, including Social Security and Medicare.
"At the Treasury, our payment system is not being touched," Bessent said Wednesday. "We process 1.3 billion payments a year. There is a study being done — can we have more accountability, more accuracy, more traceability that the money is going where it is. But in terms of payments being stopped, that is happening upstream at the department level."
The Treasury's payments are managed by its Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which disburses nearly 90% of all federal payments and conducts more than 1.2 billion transactions per year, according to its website.
While lawmakers have expressed concerns that Musk possesses too much power within the U.S. government, Bessent emphasized the billionaire's efforts are part of the Trump administration's "mandate" from the American people.
"The U.S. doesn't have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem. I think we can up the revenues, we can up the growth, and most importantly, President Trump got elected because of this affordability crisis... What is he going to do for the affordability crisis? Real wage growth for working Americans is the best way to fix this," Bessent said.
Bessent argued "gigantic government spending" fueled economic growth under the Biden administration but failed to bring about "real" wage growth.
In contrast, Bessent explained how the newly-elected Trump administration will tackle the affordability crisis by re-privatizing the economy, cutting taxes and regulations, addressing the growing deficit and boosting domestic energy production.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[AT] 
