In 1975, my ROTC professor, a three-tour Vietnam veteran, asked me during a scholarship interview if our government should use mercenaries in future conflicts. The Vietnam conflict had ended horrifically that year. Our military had won every battle but lost the war. He approved of my answer and granted me the scholarship.
I answered without hesitation. I thought the US should never use mercenary forces. Mercenaries are not subject to the Uniformed Code of Military Justice, and they would also not be subject to the Status of Forces Agreement, a negotiation between our government and foreign countries outlining judicial necessities if our military violates their laws. Historically, neither document has been perfectly followed, but they provide guidance and accountability.
Donald Trump has inserted mercenaries into our government. Elon Musk and his cyber-creeps have invaded our Treasury Department. They don’t have the people’s blessing to handle government funds. These unauthorized people don’t have security clearances to tinker with our data or manipulate our governmental funds. We did not elect Elon Musk, aka Mr. X. Mr. X and his mercenaries are doing a combination of their own and Trump’s bidding. Not ours.
I have begged Representative Thompson and Senators Schiff and Padilla in Congress to invoke the 14th Amendment, Section Three, to stop President Trump from continuing his insurrectionist agenda. A hundred and fifty years ago, our Congress made the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments the law of the land to prevent another civil war. I humbly ask the Democratic leadership in Congress to stop this evisceration of our government and the incursion of mercenaries who serve no one but themselves.
Major Mel Brinkley, USAF, Retired
Is it so terrible that DOGE is cutting unneeded waste from our government that is almost $40 trillion in debt? Have you seen some of the programs and pet projects that our taxpayer money is being wasted on? It’s about time that someone looks into this and makes the needed adjustments. Musk is not a mercenary, he’s a true patriot.
For example, here’s where some of our taxpayer funded USAID ends up:
USAID ‘Care Packages’ Found with Hezbollah Weapons in Lebanon
https://yournews.com/2025/02/06/3207600/usaid-materials-discovered-among-hezbollah-weapons-in-lebanon/
There is plenty of room to reform USAID, but simply unilaterally ending a congressionally approved program is neither the way to do it nor likely legal.
Atul Gawande confirms 50 top USAID officials removed. DOGE teams forced their way into USAID offices this weekend, he confirmed to Fox News.
“This is a gift to our enemies and competitors. This pause is not a pause. It’s the destruction of the agency.”
“Two weeks ago I was combatting diseases. We had 21 serious outbreaks at the time worldwide. Three are serious now: an Ebola outbreak in the capital of Uganda. Bird flu has broken out in 49 countries. Our efforts to contain them have all been shut down.”
In terms of HIV treatment and prevention: USAID was funding the treatment for 20 million people with HIV worldwide including 6.5 million orphans and their care givers.
“We were on the verge of ending HIV, TB, and malaria. That has all ended with this pause. It is a gift to our enemies and competitors,” Gawande said.
“We were funding demining operations in Vietnam to allow farmers to get back to their fields so people can farm.”
“The insanity and cruelty to break this independent agency…they (DOGE teams) took down the USAID Memorial Wall which honored employees killed in the line of duty overseas…Lebanon in the 1980s, USAID personnel killed during the bombing of the U.S. Embassy. Their Memorial torn down.
These attacks are spurious and dangerous.”
Those who have worked for USAID now and in the past: “They are being treated with enormous disrespect and fear. The top 3 layers of experienced employees have been removed. All contract employees have been or will be terminated…2/3 of the malaria staff, child immunization experts. This kills our capacity. It’s insane to break this. It’s cruel and it does our country enormous damage.”
“If you want to end foreign aid, let’s have that discussion, but this is a Congressionally statutorily created agency that President Kennedy signed into law. What is happening now is an unlawful shutdown and purge,” Gawande told Fox News.
“800 people work for USAID’s Global Health, 400 have been terminated. It’s not legal.”
“It’s an unlawful shutdown, purge and dismantling of the agency.”
“John Voorhees, our experienced security expert, was put on administrative leave for not letting unauthorized people from DOGE into classified systems. He was just following the law.”
“They have turned into a shell overnight an organization that reaches 100s of millions of people around the world. Our health programs added 6 extra years of life to children by eradicating diseases. That is all being decimated with spurious charges of corruption and mismanagement. It is a playbook coming to an agency near you.”
“Every administration does a top to bottom review of programs and whether they are working or wasteful. There is no need to shut down the agency to do a review. It’s like pausing a hospital or stopping a plane mid flight. You are pausing funding to hospitals where 100 malnourished children are being given life saving support. Teams have been hollowed out. You can’t just switch that back on. There will be large scale layoffs at U.S. companies that we have worked with for years to provide these services overseas. It is very dangerous and cruel.”
“USAID is a massive pool of waste and corruption and should be shut”
“Shutting USAID’s doors won’t put much of a ding in how America helps others. It will, however, put a stop to those who seek to exploit USAID funds for political and personal purposes, and It will, however, flood the agency with a light of accountability that has been so long lacking. That, undoubtedly, is why the left is so up in arms.”
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/feb/3/usaid-massive-pool-waste-corruption-shut/
Some examples of the waste. This just touches on the abuse. Is this really what we should be sending our tax dollars for?
$1.5 million to “advance diversity equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities”
$70,000 for production of a “DEI musical” in Ireland
$2.5 million for electric vehicles for Vietnam
$47,000 for a “transgender opera” in Colombia
$32,000 for a “transgender comic book” in Peru
$2 million for sex changes and “LGBT activism” in Guatemala
$6 million to fund tourism in Egypt
Hundreds of thousands of dollars for a non-profit linked to designated terrorist organizations — even AFTER an inspector general launched an investigation
Millions to EcoHealth Alliance — which was involved in research at the Wuhan lab
“Hundreds of thousands of meals that went to al Qaeda-affiliated fighters in Syria”
Funding to print “personalized” contraceptives birth control devices in developing countries
Hundreds of millions of dollars to fund “irrigation canals, farming equipment, and even fertilizer used to support the unprecedented poppy cultivation and heroin production in Afghanistan,” benefiting the Taliban
Did you read anything that I posted?
Trump sank our country into $8T more debt during his last idiocracy takeover—more than any president, more than what happened in WWII when the whole world was at war. He’s not saving us money. He’s giving Musk and the other two almost Trillionaires free reign over the finances of the US government so that they can find ways of enriching themselves.
They’re not enriching themselves. Stop with the fake accusations.
This Trump catastrophe was entirely predictable given the fact he has already been ranked as the worst President in American history. Trump has allowed a South African born self-proclaimed Nazi to run rampant with illegal actions throughout the Federal Government. He is an unelected and unconfirmed shadow government official that has been handed enormous power. As I speak the Federal Judiciary is fighting back with numerous preliminary injunctions to stop this widespread lawlessness.
“South African born self-proclaimed Nazi”
This is so false. Why does the Vanguard allow statements like this?
You are so right, Keith. Mr. X is not just a “South African-born self-proclaimed Nazi.” He’s Trump’s “South African-born self-proclaimed Nazi.” And that extra presidential coverage makes Mr. X much more dangerous than the other deranged, run-of-the-mill Nazis. With Trump and his presidential immunity given to him by a corrupt Supreme Court, they, together, make up the most dangerous duo to democracy our country has seen. The Confederates are not working from the outside this time; they are already in the White House. I’ve seen a Civil War up close and personal. The only ones in a Civil War who prosper are those running the black market and the militias.
And we don’t have a Lincoln to navigate us out of this mess yet. Chuck Schumer yells, “We will win,” and dances around, while cooler heads like Hakeem Jeffries make far more sense.
“self-proclaimed Nazi.”
Show proof where Musk is a “self proclaimed Nazi” and don’t try and use the hand gesture that has already been debunked. Waiting…
USAID was created by a JFK Executive Order, there’s no reason it can’t be downsized by Executive Order
“USAID was created in 1961 by President Kennedy under executive order,” she further explained. “And his idea for the agency would be housed under this Department of State. So President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are totally within their right to bring USAID back under the Department of State. It’s within its original mandate.”
https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/ex-usaid-officials-speaks-out-over-alleged-waste-fraud-inside-agency
“USAID traces its origins to a bill introduced by U.S. Sen, William Fulbright that passed Congress in September 1961 and became the Foreign Assistance Act. After signing it into law in November, then-President John F. Kennedy created USAID by executive order to implement the law. Originally, the agency functioned under the authority of the secretary of state.”
Musk went to a Nazi rally in Germany.
WORLD
Elon Musk tells German far-right crowd the nation should move beyond “past guilt” ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day
By Haley Ott
Updated on: January 28, 2025 / 9:35 AM EST / CBS News
London — Elon Musk made a surprise videolink appearance at a campaign event for Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on Saturday, during which he told a crowd of around 4,500 AfD supporters that “children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents, let alone their great-grandparents,” in an apparent reference to the Nazi Germany just two days before Holocaust Remembrance Day. The AfD, which Musk had previously voiced his support for, has been labeled a suspected extremist organization by Germany’s national security services.
Not true. AfD is not a Nazi party.
Try again…
Enough on this riff
WORLD
Elon Musk tells German far-right crowd the nation should move beyond “past guilt” ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day
By Haley Ott
Updated on: January 28, 2025 / 9:35 AM EST / CBS News
London — Elon Musk made a surprise videolink appearance at a campaign event for Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on Saturday, during which he told a crowd of around 4,500 AfD supporters that “children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents, let alone their great-grandparents,” in an apparent reference to the Nazi Germany just two days before Holocaust Remembrance Day. The AfD, which Musk had previously voiced his support for, has been labeled a suspected extremist organization by Germany’s national security services.
WORLD
Elon Musk tells German far-right crowd the nation should move beyond “past guilt” ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day
By Haley Ott
Updated on: January 28, 2025 / 9:35 AM EST / CBS News
London — Elon Musk made a surprise videolink appearance at a campaign event for Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on Saturday, during which he told a crowd of around 4,500 AfD supporters that “children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents, let alone their great-grandparents,” in an apparent reference to the Nazi Germany just two days before Holocaust Remembrance Day. The AfD, which Musk had previously voiced his support for, has been labeled a suspected extremist organization by Germany’s national security services.
You left out the part where Musk stated:
“Children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents, let alone their great-grandparents,” Musk said, seemingly referencing the country’s history with the Nazi party.”
Musk referred to Germany’s Nazi past as “SINS”. It hardly sounds like anything a Nazi would say.
***My response to your lies, Keith.
Sorry, I couldn’t find a way to respond to your uninformed gibberish.
Telling neo-Nazis not to worry about the past sins of their ancestors is like telling the white race they don’t have anything to worry about concerning slavery, land grabs from the Native Americans, detention camps for those of Japanese descent, etc.
Yeah, we do need to pay attention to our past. The past is prologue to the future. Anti-CRT is just another way to edit out the bad stuff so that the white race can go forth guilt-free. It’s also the tactic that Trump and his enablers use to erase what happened on January 6th, 2021. Legitimate Political Discourse? My ass.
Today, a convicted felon (Trump) revoked a former President’s (Biden) security clearance.
You’ve got to love Trump.
Not to worry – it seems that both of them have a habit of taking classified documents home. So I’m not sure that removing either of these guys’ security clearance has any impact.
For that matter, it seems like Musk has security clearance.
Security clearance for everyone.
So, if I take your statement at face value, you say you’re OK with giving Putin our crypto Top Secrets.
That seems ill-advised.
“Those who love evil are themselves evil.” Plutarch
True. Of course, everyone sees the “other” as evil. So that complicates things 😐
When voting, I try to vote for the lesser of two evils. Trump is more of a crime boss than Biden. The way Trump handled California’s water is a case in point. He totally bungled it. To say that the air crash of the helicopter and the commercial jet was DEI’s fault is tragically untrue. The FAA has no one in charge, thanks to Trump, who fired the acting chief. An organization that critical needs a strong chain of command. There needs to be someone in charge who knows what they are doing. Trump fired a lot of key FAA personnel before the crash. Of course, he’s going to shift the blame. During Covid, he said he didn’t take any responsibility. My God, that’s the job description for the presidency. “The buck stops here if it’s good news, passed on to whatever racist crap otherwise.” That’s Trump’s leadership style in a nutshell.
“When voting, I try to vote for the lesser of two evils. ”
Exactly, that’s why I voted for Trump and not Kamala and the democrat party.
Trump had to take Biden’s security clearance away out of fear that Biden would sell state secrets to the highest bidder through one of his pardoned crime family members.
MAGA