The cliché of the loud, ignorant American abroad.....that is the Couchfucker.
The Guardian · Vance’s posturing in Greenland was not just morally wrong. It was strategically disastrous
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#softpower
11 posts7 participants1 post today
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The "majority view" in #China sees some of #Trump's moves as an "own goal"
Da asserts that most Chinese people he talks w/viewed #USAID, the #ForeignAid agency, as one of America's strengths, improving its image & influence in the developing world. Virtually eliminating the agency was "in #China's interest."
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Da said he learned some of his English in college while listening to #VOA broadcasts & also learned news that wasn't reported in the Chinese media.
Da acknowledges that in recent years, VOA was less important as the internet spread. But he says another agency mattered more: the U.S. Agency for International Development (#USAID).
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In an email to #USAID staff, Jeremy Lewin, a #DOGE ofcl who took over running the day-to-day ops at USAID from Pete Marocco on March 20, said the RIFs would go into effect either on July 1 or Sept 2.
This comes as the #Trump admin wraps up the dismantling of the 64-year-old USAID, having terminated some 5,200 contracts, & moves forward with its plan to shift the remaining portion of its work to the #State Dept.
The #Trump admin is terminating nearly all of the remaining 900 employees of the #USAID, in a final reduction-in-force #RIF.
Virtually no one will be spared, not even political appointees, acc/to 2 snr USAID ofcls….
Staff were ordered to leave "the front office" by 1PM on Fri for reasons that are not clear, the ofcls said. But they may still be asked to continue working for a few months.
#Musk #DOGE #Aid #geopolitics #SoftPower
https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/03/28/g-s1-56968/usaid-terminates-nearly-all-its-remaining-employees
[NYT Opinion-Gifted]: Hillary Clinton: How Much Dumber Will This Get?
March 28, 2025
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In a dangerous & complex world, it’s not enough to be strong. You must also be #smart. As Secy of #State during the Obama admin, I argued for smart #power, integrating the hard power of our military w/the #SoftPower of our #diplomacy, development assistance, economic might & cultural #influence. None of those tools can do the job alone. Together, they make America a #superpower. The #Trump approach is #dumb power.
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The #Trump admin intends to terminate the #UnitedStates’ financial support for #Gavi, the org that has helped purchase critical #vaccines for #children in developing countries, saving millions of lives over the past quarter century, & to significantly scale back support for efforts to combat #malaria, one of the biggest killers globally.
#US to End #Vaccine Funding for Poor Countries
A 281-page spreadsheet obtained by NYT lists the #Trump admin’s plans for thousands of #ForeignAid programs.
#USpol #geopolitics #GAVI #USAID #SoftPower #TheCrueltyIsThePoint
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/health/usaid-cuts-gavi-bird-flu.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=p&pvid=0B1E1CC6-D21C-41FD-BBF7-6EF340A550AA
The New York Times · U.S. to End Vaccine Funds for Poor Countries
Replied in thread
@crazyeddie @Nux @ErikJonker @geopolitics @bert_hubert
Odd since the #Trump regime seems to be bound & determined to destroy all of the #USAs #softpower & about 1/2 of the USAs #military power.
How #ElonMusk’s #DOGE Cuts Leave a Vacuum That #China Can Fill
The Department of Government Efficiency is shuttering organizations that Beijing worried about most, or actively sought to subvert. And, as with much that #Musk’s DOGE has dismembered, there has been no published study of the costs and benefits of losing those capabilities — and no discussion of how the roles, arguably as important as a fighter jet, might be replaced.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/22/us/politics/elon-musk-doge-china.html
https://archive.ph/YQ2wU #US #SoftPower
The New York Times · How Elon Musk’s DOGE Cuts Leave a Vacuum That China Can Fill
The EU is intensifying efforts to challenge China's dominance and reduce Russia's influence in Central Asia through strategic investments and soft power initiatives https://timesca.com/in-central-asia-the-eu-defies-its-geopolitical-dwarf-label #EU #China #Russia #EUStrategy #CentralAsia #SoftPower #StrategicInvestments #EUForeignPolicy
The #Trump admin plans to overhaul the structure of how the US distributes billions of dollars of #ForeignAid, acc/to an internal memo that calls for funding fewer areas that it views as better aligned w/[Trump’s]…geopolitical interests.
The proposal,…comes during a push by Trump & #billionaire #Musk to *shrink* [destroy] the federal govt, which they say misuses taxpayer money for causes that do not advance *US* [their] interests.
#USpol ##geopolitics #USAID #SoftPower
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-officials-propose-plan-revamping-us-foreign-aid-memo-says-2025-03-20/
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Those officials are Jeremy Lewin, who has been working for the cost-cutting task force led by the billionaire #ElonMusk, & Kenneth Jackson, a #State Dept official who was named the acting president of the U.S. Institute of #Peace #USIP this week [another independent agency under assault by #Trump, #Musk & #DOGE & subsequently embroiled in federal lawsuits].
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#PeteMarocco, the #State Dept ofcl who oversaw the #Trump admin’s efforts to dismantle the main govt agency distributing foreign #aid, announced in an email on Tues night that he would be replaced at the agency by 2 officials who had been involved in making the cuts.
Marocco said in the email that he would remain at State as director of #ForeignAid, but that 2 other officials would handle what remains of the #USAID.
2 Officials Who Helped Dismantle #US #Aid Agency Are Named as Its New Leaders
Secretary of #State #MarcoRubio said he had canceled 83% of #USAID’s programs. A federal judge found that efforts to shutter the agency were likely #unconstitutional.
#law #USpol #Trump #Musk #DOGE #ForeignPolicy #SoftPower #TrumpPurge
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/19/us/politics/usaid-doge-leadership.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=p&pvid=1B3ACA71-70A6-4630-8DE3-5A77E2B20013
The New York Times · USAID’s New Leadership Includes DOGE Official Who Helped Dismantle Agency
#Trump achieved what the #USSR #KGB and #Russia #FSB never could - silencing #VoiceOfAmerica.
Neither Soviet agents nor global adversaries accomplished in 83 years what Trump did in one stroke, cutting a lifeline to 360 million listeners worldwide.
It's a self-inflicted wound, dismantling #America's most potent #SoftPower tool, celebrated by #Putin and autocrats, undermining decades of global influence.
I'm starting to run a list in my head of soft power institutions that are having funding cut (in one way or another) at the very same time the Govt. has empanelled a group to look at how the UK's soft power might be repaired.
This week is the likely cuts to the BBC world service, which as we all know retains a reputation (now sadly partly diminished) for reliability & objectivity; which (well who'd have thought) fed into the UK's soft power.
More idiocy on soft power!
The #Ebola outbreak in #Uganda has worsened significantly, & the country’s ability to contain the spread has been severely weakened by #Trump’s freeze on #ForeignAid, American ofcls said this week.
The ofcls, representing a variety of #health & #security agencies, made the assessment during a meeting w/ #US Embassy staff in #Kampala, the Ugandan capital, on Wed. An audio recording of the session was obtained by The NYT.
#USAID #SoftPower #geopolitics
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/health/ebola-uganda-usaid.html?unlocked_article_code=1.2E4.DgLS.IGVEb1QM9gbs&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
The New York Times · As Ebola Spreads in Uganda, Trump Aid Freeze Hinders Effort to Contain It, U.S. Officials Fear
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In other words, Justices Samuel #Alito, #ClarenceThomas, #NeilGorsuch & #BrettKavanaugh don’t believe in the power of the #judiciary, their own power, or the #SeparationOfPowers.
They believe that the president is in fact above the #law — as long as that president is #Trump.
Here is the order, Alito’s self sabotaging dissent starts on page 2.