The DOGE team has now taken the step, reported earlier this week, of freezing government payments to the National Endowment for Democracy, a private organization that in 2023 received a $315 million appropriation from Congress, paid via the State Department. That is big news in Washington because the NED, a nongovernmental organization that depends on federal funds, has survived numerous attempts over the years to close it down and up to now has maintained a bipartisan consensus to keep it in business. The move to cut off the organization’s funding suggests that its bipartisan support has at last broken down.
The order from DOGE to freeze further disbursements to the NED has paralyzed the organization, according to news reports. “It’s been a bloodbath,” one NED staffer said. “We have not been able to meet payroll and pay basic overhead expenses.” It sounds as if what happened to USAID last week has now happened to the NED.
I have written about the Trump Doctrine for several years; however, as we enter this critical inflection moment perhaps a revisit is worthwhile to consider.
What you will notice from President Trump’s responses to questions during foreign leader engagements is the unique nature of his honesty. In the most consequential of ways, President Trump is the most consequential foreign policy leader in generations. We forget that during Trump’s first term in office, the headlines about North and South Korea were not about conflict, but rather about the possibility of unification on the Korean peninsula.
President Trump executes a unique doctrine of sorts, where national security is achieved by leveraging U.S. economic power. It is a fundamental shift in approaching both allies and adversaries; summarized within the oft repeated phrase: “economic security is national security.”
The Trump Doctrine using economics to achieve national security objectives and global peace is a fundamental paradigm shift. Modern U.S. history provides no easy reference for the effective outcome.
President Trump doesn’t just represent an office or title, nor does he simply represent the majority of the American people; President Trump’s voice is the voice of every ordinary person, what the non-English speaking world defines as “simple people,” and he channels a global message from the majority to the top of the highest power structures.
[I highly recommend this article. It provides a clear summary of Trump’s politics and why they are the way they are; why he does what he does. ABN]
Taiwan Semiconductor, the biggest chip manufacturer in the world, is now in talks to partner with Intel to produce chips in the United States to avoid President Trump’s tariffs.
Taiwan’s President also encouraged Taiwanese companies to begin investing in America, “In light of President Trump’s concerns about our country’s semiconductor industry, the government will carefully respond and strengthen communication with the U.S. The government will also strengthen guidance and encourage Taiwanese companies to invest more in the United States.”
TARIFFS ARE WORKING, and they haven’t even been implemented yet.
On Trade, I have decided, for purposes of Fairness, that I will charge a RECIPROCAL Tariff meaning, whatever Countries charge the United States of America, we will charge them – No more, no less!
For purposes of this United States Policy, we will consider Countries that use the VAT System, which is far more punitive than a Tariff, to be similar to that of a Tariff. Sending merchandise, product, or anything by any other name through another Country, for purposes of unfairly harming America, will not be accepted. In addition, we will make provision for subsidies provided by Countries in order to take Economic advantage of the United States. Likewise, provisions will be made for Nonmonetary Tariffs and Trade Barriers that some Countries charge in order to keep our product out of their domain or, if they do not even let U.S. businesses operate. We are able to accurately determine the cost of these Nonmonetary Trade Barriers. It is fair to all, no other Country can complain and, in some cases, if a Country feels that the United States would be getting too high a Tariff, all they have to do is reduce or terminate their Tariff against us. There are no Tariffs if you manufacture or build your product in the United States.
For many years, the U.S. has been treated unfairly by other Countries, both friend and foe. This System will immediately bring Fairness and Prosperity back into the previously complex and unfair System of Trade. America has helped many Countries throughout the years, at great financial cost. It is now time that these Countries remember this, and treat us fairly – A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD FOR AMERICAN WORKERS. I have instructed my Secretary of State, Secretary of Commerce, Secretary of the Treasury, and United States Trade Representative (USTR) to do all work necessary to deliver RECIPROCITY to our System of Trade!
This illustrates the First Noble Truth of Buddhism — the suffering, greed, ignorance and immorality which characterize mundane reality in this world. And it’s not just the money. There’s two million dead bodies, destroyed cities, a ruined nation (which never had a chance). The people doing this are living at the lowest levels of human existence. If all goes well much of it will be discovered and prevented from happening again. But human life is always characterized by our potential to engage in extremely low behavior. That is a core Buddhist teaching so none of us should be overly surprised to see this real-world horror. Gaza is not much different. ABN
Before getting to the announcement, let me first answer a repeated question. “Why is it so easy for DOGE to identify wasteful spending?” ..in simple form.
When the trillion-dollar American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was passed, those “shovel ready jobs” in fiscal year 2009, that was the last year of a full federal budget. Every budget year thereafter has been a process of continuing resolutions and omnibus spending. Within the CR process they use “baseline budgeting,” which essentially accepts all prior spending as the starting point for the next spending allotment within the Continuing Resolution process.
That means, the $1 trillion ARRA was not only spent in 2009 (Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi on behalf of Barack Obama), but it was also spent again in ever year thereafter. Without a formally followed federal budget process, every year there is an extra trillion dollars (that’s a thousand billion) injected into federal spending. That accounts for $16 trillion of the current deficit. Make sense now?
To be clear, what the DOGE team and U.S Treasury have jointly agreed makes sense is the following:
– Require that all outgoing government payments have a payment categorization code, which is necessary in order to pass financial audits. This is frequently left blank, making audits almost impossible.
– All payments must also include a rationale for the payment in the comment field, which is currently left blank. Importantly, we are not yet applying ANY judgment to this rationale but simply requiring that SOME attempts be made to explain the payment more than NOTHING!
– The DO-NOT-PAY list of entities known to be fraudulent or people who are dead or are probable fronts for terrorist organizations or do not match Congressional appropriations must actually be implemented and not ignored. Also, it can currently take up to a year to get on this list, which is far too long. This list should be updated at least weekly, if not daily.
The above super obvious and necessary changes are being implemented by existing, long-time career government employees, not anyone from DOGE. It is ridiculous that these changes didn’t exist already!
Yesterday, I was told that there are currently over $100B/year of entitlements payments to individuals with no SSN or even a temporary ID number. If accurate, this is extremely suspicious.
When I asked if anyone at Treasury had a rough guess for what percentage of that number is unequivocal and obvious fraud, the consensus in the room was about half, so $50B/year or $1B/week!!
This is utterly insane and must be addressed immediately. {link}
USAID has pushed nearly half a billion dollars ($472.6m) through a secretive US government financed NGO, “Internews Network” (IN), which has “worked with” 4,291 media outlets, producing in one year 4,799 hours of broadcasts reaching up to 778 million people and “training” over 9000 journalists (2023 figures). IN has also supported social media censorship initiatives.
The operation claims “offices” in over 30 countries, including main offices in US, London, Paris and regional HQs in Kiev, Bangkok and Nairobi. It is headed up by Jeanne Bourgault, who pays herself $451k a year. Bourgault worked out of the US embassy in Moscow during the early 1990s, where she was in charge of a $250m budget, and in other revolts or conflicts at critical times, before formally rotating out of six years at USAID to IN.
Bourgault’s IN bio and those of its other key people and board members have been recently scrubbed from its website but remain accessible atarchive.org. Records show the board being co-chaired by Democrat securocrat Richard J. Kessler and Simone Otus Coxe, wife of NVIDIA billionaire Trench Coxe, both major Democratic donors. In 2023, supported by Hillary Clinton, Bourgault launched a $10m IN fund at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). The IN page showing a picture of Bourgault at the CGI has also been deleted.
IN has at least six captive subsidiaries under unrelated names including one based out of the Cayman Islands. Since 2008, when electronic records begin, more than 95% of IN’s budget has been supplied by the US government (thread follows)
If you thought the USAID revelations were alarming sunlight, just wait until you see the apoplectic fits of rage about to come out from the Democrats, the DNC affiliated community activist groups, and the professional leftists who all rely upon the financial mechanism of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
According to a Politico article (also funded by USAID money), written with stunning amount of anger and apoplexy itself, Elon Musk’s DOGE team has just entered the CFPB to do a review and audit. This one is going to be beyond bananas.
Jumpin’ ju-ju bones, tell Ma, to fire up the coffee pot, we are in for a delicious treat. There’s no way for the DC outrage machine to handle this dose of Trumpian nitrous oxide directly into the intake manifold. The machine will explode.
BACKGROUND FIRST– The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CPFB) was originally created by congress (Elizabeth Warren lead) as a quasi-constitutional watchdog agency to reach into the banking and financial system, under the guise of oversight, and extract money by fining entities for CFPB defined regulatory and/or compliance violations
Essentially, the CFPB is a congressionally authorized far-left extortion scheme in the banking sector. The CFPB levies fines; the fines generate income; however, unlike traditional fines that go to the U.S. treasury, the CFBP fines are then redistributed to left-wing organizations to help fund their political activism.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was the brainchild of Senator Elizabeth Warren as an outcome of the Dodd-Frank legislation. Within the CFPB Warren tried to set up the head of the agency, the Director, in a manner that that he/she would operate without oversight. Unfortunately, her dictatorial-fiat-design collapsed when challenged in court. Backstory #1 – Backstory #2
A federal court found the CFPB Director position held too much power and deemed it unconstitutional. The court decision noted that giving the President power to fire the Director would fix the constitutional problem. This issue was argued extensively after President Trump appointed Mick Mulvaney as interim Director. Elizabeth Warren declaring the CFPB Director could not be fired by the executive. The legal battle worked its way to the Supreme Court.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive memo ordering a review of funding to all non-government organizations that rely on federal dollars, a White House official said.
On Friday, February 7, 2025, at 11:59 pm (EST) all USAID direct hire personnel will be placed on administrative leave globally, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs. Essential personnel expected to continue working will be informed by Agency leadership by Thursday, February 6, at 3:00pm (EST).
For USAID personnel currently posted outside the United States, the Agency, in coordination with missions and the Department of State, is currently preparing a plan, in accordance with all applicable requirements and laws, under which the Agency would arrange and pay for return travel to the United States within 30 days and provide for the termination of PSC and ISC contracts that are not determined to be essential. The Agency will consider case-by-case exceptions and return travel extensions based on personal or family hardship, mobility or safety concerns, or other reasons. For example, the Agency will consider exceptions based on the timing of dependents’ school term, personal or familial medical needs, pregnancy, and other reasons. Further guidance on how to request an exception will be forthcoming.
American Buddhist Net 