Last Week Today Episode 185 Show Notes for Monday, February 10th, 2025
The Trump Administration’s Intentional Destruction of Corrupt USAID, Global Affairs Canada Database Offline, Canada's Economic Summit, The Gaza Strip + Christine Anderson and the EU.
The Trump Administration’s Intentional Destruction of Corrupt USAID
The big story this week is the ongoing uncovering of billions of dollars of massive money laundering and theft of legitimate government funds by Democratic Party proxies working through the $50 billion per year budget of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
That's less than 1% of the overall US government budget, but Trump and his associates need to start somewhere.
No doubt, they fully expect to find other sources of graft and corruption as they work their way through other US government departments.
The February 8th, 2025 Corbett Report on Bitchute post, “USAID is a Deep State Trojan Horse,” based on a 2018 Corbett Report piece of the same name, provides a useful overview of the situation.
It’s also worth looking at the February 6th, 2025 The Constitutional Republic post, “Alliances in Humanitarian Aid, Structures and Political Influence,” to get an idea of the structure of NGO’s and how they fit into the international financial ecosystem.
The Constitutional Republic post calls NGOs:
…a deeply entrenched, self-serving ecosystem of allied entities that allow them to expand influence, secure government contracts, and manipulate policy—all while failing to deliver results proportional to the vast sums of money they receive.
Of course, not everyone is in favor of the Trump Administration’s intentional destruction of USAID.
Trump advocate Naomi Wolfe in her February 6th, 2025 Outspoken with Naomi Wolfe post, "Did Elon Musk Execute a Digital Coup?" notes:
The obvious conflicts of interest involving the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Trump proxy Elon Musk and others.
The ease with which valuable, protected data can be machine-read and exported to third parties.
The potential breaches of security surrounding critical government IP and software.
The fact that Musk and his team (along with their associates) now have a snapshot of tax records, contracts, and payments belonging everyone who deals with the US, including direct competitors to Musk owned and operated corporations like SpaceX and Tesla.
The only joy here seems to be that the opposition Democrats and their allies, affiliate businesses and intelligence agencies already had this data available for use.
With Musk and Trump in possession of USAID data and the cash flow to NGOs and others now mostly cut off, the playing field is a little more level.
It’s well known that at least some of the stranger aid programs receiving USAID funding as listed in the February 6th, 2025 Firstpost story, “USAID Faces Trump's Crackdown Over "Ridiculous" Funding Allegations | Firstpost America | N18G,” are false fronts set up to hide the true recipients.
Whether or not the actual recipients of USAID largess will ever be uncovered is unknown at this point.
Curiously enough, only two days after USAID was shut down, Rumble, the free speech alternative to YouTube, returned to Brazil.
As outlined in the February 10th, 2025 Reclaim the Net post, “Rumble’s Brazil Comeback Signals a New Chapter in the Speech Wars,” Rumble CEO and founder, Chris Pavlovski, initially withdrew Rumble from Brazil in December 2023, citing legal orders to suspend the accounts of content creators as the primary reason.
It’s also worth noting the number of worldwide media outlets USAID seems to have supported over the years, at least as outlined in the February 8th, 2025 Tempo (a division of the New York Times) post, “RSF: USAID Funds 6,200 Journalists and Supports 707 Media Outlets Worldwide.”
No wonder the legacy media hated Trump. USAID seems to have been intentionally funding his opponents.
As outlined in the February 5th, 2025 The Hill on YouTube post, “USAID Inadvertently Funded GAIN-OF-FUNCTION Research In Wuhan Lab: Interview,” even legitimate humanitarian funding for third world nations funneled through UASAID came with political strings attached and kickbacks for favored associates.
It’s surprising where some of the USAID programs are operating.
The February 10th, 2025 CTV News post, “Canadian aid workers warn 'catastrophic' USAID halt puts Ottawa's projects in limbo,” doesn’t mention any specific programs, but instead quotes the Ottawa based Cooperation Canada NGO, which insists that those programs are now in jeopardy.
Cooperation Canada claims to represent:
…dozens of Canadian non-profits working in international development and humanitarian assistance, many of whom run projects that run off of systems operated by USAID, or United Nations agencies that have significant US funding.
Other news outlets seem to be parroting the same story, no doubt basing their stories on Cooperation Canada press releases. Expect a more on this to come out over the next few months.
According to the February 5th, 2025 The Daily Signal on YouTube post, “Trump Clears House at Leftist ‘Rogue Operation,’ USAID | Victor Davis Hanson,” most Americans are in favor of the new administration closing down USAID even as the NGO’s continue to insist that the shutting off of their cash cow is unacceptable.
Next week, Trump and associates are expected to go after other US government departments. Stay tuned.
Also in the News this Week
Global Affairs Canada Database Offline
The Federal government’s Global Affairs Canada database appears to have experienced technical issues but has since been restored.
Posts on X from February 7, 2025, just after the USAID scandal broke in the US, indicate that the database was back online after what was described as a "technical glitch" or "scheduled maintenance."
As outlined in the February 7th, Rebel News post, “Global Affairs Canada claims ‘technical difficulties’ brought down foreign aid database,” the government department has “lavishly spent billions of dollars on foreign aid and silly pet projects while Canadians face economic hardship at home, prompting backlash online.”
Curiously enough, that’s just like USAID.
As noted in the February 7th, 2025 CanPoli on Bitchute post, “Global Affairs Canada is USAID in Canada,” there’s a lot of overlap between what’s going on in the US and what’s going on in Canada.
There’s also a lot of overlap between the Liberal party in Canada and the Democratic Party in the US, at least according to the February 5th, 2025 The Opposition with Dan Knight post, “Two Press Conferences, Two Futures: Reality vs. Liberal Delusion.”
Perhaps the only real Canadian alternative political voice currently campaigning is Max Bernier who seems to be at least trying to bring “Maga” ideas to Canada.
On the other hand, and as outlined in the February 10th, 2025 Al Jazeera post, “Trump to escalate trade war with retaliatory tariffs,” the US president announced yesterday a series of 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum products from Canada, Mexico and China.
And, as outlined in the February 9th, 2025 CTV News post, “Trump doubles down on annexation threat, says Canada would be ‘cherished state,’’ the US president keeps repeating how he’s interested in making Canada the 51st US state.
So maybe a Trump presidency might not turn out to be as good for Canada as for the US.
Canada’s Economic Summit
Meanwhile, back in Ottawa, last week Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau held an economic summit with hundreds of attendees attempting to come up with a position to push-back on the US tariff threats.
As outlined in the February 9th, 2025 CTV News post, “‘Most serious industrial threat we’ve ever faced’: Federal government hosts Canada-U.S. economic summit,” no one has, so far at least, come up with a useful idea.
The part where the US tariff threats were all about Fentanyl and border security seems to have fallen by the wayside, lost in the scramble to build a new international regime funded by tariffs and control over essential resources.
Trudeau also seems to think that Trump’s talk of making Canada a US state is ‘a real thing.’ As outlined in the February 9th, 2025 Associated Press post, “Trump says he is serious about Canada becoming 51st state in Super Bowl interview,” the US president seems to agree.
The conservatives are positioning themselves to take advantage of the Liberal confusion.
As outlined in the February 7th, 2025 Hill Times post, “‘Canada First rally’ expected to be major rebranding of Conservative campaign, say senior Tories,” the upcoming February 15th, 2025 campaign rally is expected to shift Conservative campaign strategy away from an “Axe the Tax” focus to a new slogan, “Canada First.”
Of course, this isn’t the first time Canada and the US have had disagreements over trade. The February 6th, 2025 Epoch Times post, “Canada-US Trade; Ups and Downs Over 160 Years,” is a good overview of some of our previous challenges.
The Gaza Strip
Also in the news tonight, US president Donald Trump claims the US will take ownership of the Gaza Strip in order to rebuild it into the “Riviera of the Middle East,” at least according to the February 6th, 2025 CBC News on YouTube post, “Can the US really take over Gaza? | About That.”
The February 10th, 2025 Fox News post, “Trump says the Gaza Strip for the United States is a 'real estate development for the future',” goes into the plan in a little more detail.
It’s worth noting that not everyone agrees with the US president.
At the very least, it means the US must work with reviled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who been accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court in the Hague for recent Israeli Defense Force activities.
It’s also worth noting that no one is really sure of the details of Trump’s plan for Gaza.
As outlined in the February 10th, 2025 Al Jazeera post, “Elation, confusion mark Israel’s reaction to Trump’s Gaza comments,” there is much confusion in Israel over his public statements.
Latest news is that Hamas has suspended hostage transfers on news that there is “no right of return” under Trump plan, although the February 10th, 2025 CNN on YouTube post, “What you need to know about Hamas postponing hostage release,” disagrees with that assessment.
Christine Anderson and the EU
Finally tonight, here’s the February 8th, 2025 Mongo Minds on Bitchute post, “German MEP Christine Anderson The EU Is A Prototype For A Global Governance.”
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