From The News - 15 Apr 2025
Foreign Aid Clean-up, DOE Shutdown, Tesla Terrorism, ActBlue
Our Father’s Mighty Works in #SavingAmeria continue
US DOS Cleaning Up Foreign Aid
President Trump’s EO begins “The United States foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values."
The U.S. State Department is proposing a significant overhaul of the foreign aid framework, aiming to refocus efforts on U.S. national interests and strengthen accountability - emphasizing results-oriented programs and leveraging private sector involvement.
Shifting Priorities:
The new framework focuses on countries and regions critical to U.S. interests, rather than simply continuing historical aid programs.
Strategic Objectives:
It outlines five key strategic objectives: Peace and Security, Governing Justly and Democratically, Investing in People, Economic Growth, and Humanitarian Assistance.
Country-Specific Needs:
The framework categorizes countries based on their progress and identifies the most critical needs to address, aligning aid programs with those needs.
Results-Oriented Programs:
The proposal emphasizes time-limited programs with clear metrics for success, promoting accountability and demonstrating the effectiveness of aid.
Leveraging Private Sector:
The framework advocates for a more transactional approach, seeking to incentivize recipient countries to offer something in return for U.S. assistance, potentially through private sector investment and partnerships.
Increased Accountability:
The framework aims to improve fund tracking and accountability through the use of blockchain technology and other measures.
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Trump Signs EO To Shutdown Dept of Education
On 20 Mar 2025, President Donald Trump will signed an executive order to shut down the Department of Education, fulfilling a key campaign pledge, the White House said in a fact sheet on the measure.
The order directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to "take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure (of) the Department of Education and return education authority to the States, while continuing to ensure the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely."
It also mandates that any programs or activities receiving remaining Department of Education funds should not "advance DEI or gender ideology."
Republican senators introduced the "Returning Education to Our States Act" after President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order to close the U.S. Department of Education.
The bill, led by Senator Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota and cosponsored by Senators Jim Banks, R-Indiana, and Tim Sheehy, R-Montana, would redirect portions of the Department to other federal agencies such as the Departments of Interior, Treasury, Health and Human Services, Labor, Defense, Justice, and State.
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VP Vance: 'Terrorism Is Not Cheap”
He said Thursday during an interview on "The Vince Show" that the focus should be on "the guy at the top writing the checks," not on the "foot soldiers" trashing the cars.
"My guess is that if we do get to the bottom of this, we're going to find out that there are some very crazy, very deranged, but very wealthy left-wing people who are funding this stuff," he said.
While the motives behind individual attacks vary, Elon Musk has identified certain groups who organized protests against him and his company. “An investigation has found 5 ActBlue-funded groups responsible for Tesla ‘protests’: Troublemakers, Disruption Project, Rise & Resist, Indivisible Project and Democratic Socialists of America,” he said in a recent X post.
ActBlue Under Investigation
The #DNC Dark Money Conduit faces multiple investigations
House Judiciary Committee, the Committee on House Administration, and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released a joint interim staff report titled, “Fraud on ActBlue: How the Democrats’ Top Fundraising Platform Opens the Door for Illegal Election Contributions.”
Democratic online fundraising platform ActBlue should be investigated for potentially supporting terrorist groups following “credible allegations” of fraud, a Republican lawmaker has argued this week.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) fired off a letter to the Treasury Department on Tuesday urging the Trump administration to investigate whether ActBlue, which has funneled billions of dollars to Democratic candidates in recent election cycles, has knowingly accepted payments from any terror-linked groups.
| House Oversight Cmte | NY Post|