Today we learn via the BBC that Trump has signed another executive order sanctioning the International Criminal Court, accusing it of "illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel." God Almighty! This is all because Netanyahu has been accused of war crimes.
His Secretary of State has refused to attend a G20 Summit in South Africa on the entirely false grounds that the South African government is engaged in a land grab against whites, an Elon Musk accusation that the SA authorities strongly deny.
If you can pick one thing out of the abyss into which the US is descending, spare a thought for Mauritania, an impoverished West African nation between Mali and Morocco. The five million inhabitants have a per capita income of about $2,300. It has a GDP of about $10 billion. It became the Islamic Republic of Mauritania after independence from France in 1960. This doesn’t mean it’s a hot bed of ISIS, simply that it’s 100% Muslim and has been for centuries.
I mention this because Elon Musk tweeted that DOGE, his newly created department, had identified a series of projects that US Agency for International Development was funding:
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All 78 projects anounted to no more than $110 million. I think the Mauritanian project was part of this one, the African Water Facility, spending $3 million to provide safe drinking water for 22 million in West Africa. I believe Mauritania was getting about $1 million of that investment. Musk has stopped it.
There is something particularly and unspeakably heartless that the world’s richest man, personally worth several hundred $billion, living in the world's richest country, is cutting what amounts to a tiny fraction of some small change for him that was helping to deliver clean water to millions of Mauritanians.
What kind of human being would do that? And take such pleasure in doing so that he proudly tweets it out to his 200 million followers? Moreover, the purpose of slashing US government spending is to enable tax cuts for wealthy men like him.
I would have thought having access to clean water in the year 2025 was just about the minimum required for human existence, but not Musk, a man whose ambition it is to become the world's first trillionaire. Sickening isn't it?
This comes in the same week that the BBC aired a documentary about another billionaire, Bill Gates. His foundation has given out over $100 billion of his own wealth to alleviate disease and help the poor and the hungry around the world. The contrast could hardly be more stark.
The Washington Post has an article reporting on the impact of these massive cuts in foreign aid: Fear, pain and hunger: The dire impact of U.S. funding cuts in Africa.
"The president’s decision to cancel or suspend billions of dollars’ worth of foreign aid — followed by ill-defined exemptions — are deepening humanitarian crises and putting an untold number of lives at risk, according to front-line aid workers and civilians who rely on American-funded programs."
"Last week, thousands of “stop-work” orders went out to employees and contractors for the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, which has long been Washington’s main vehicle for global aid. USAID spent $40 billion of the $68 billion that the U.S. allocated for foreign aid programs last year, making it the world’s single biggest donor — providing food, health care and clean water for tens of millions of people. Over the past five years, countries in sub-Saharan Africa have accounted for more than a third of U.S. foreign assistance spending."
In any case, American aid isn’t just about doling out money. It's about promoting US interests and building goodwill for the future. You can be sure that China will be glad to restore the funding. Beijing has already expressed solidarity with South African and will be on the phone to the Mauritanian government within days, if they haven't already done so.
Trump is angry about growing Chinese influence - in Panama for example - but is doing his level best to pave the way for more.
ProPublica are keeping track of what it calls Musk's 'Wrecking Crew' - a group of twenty something geeks who are on the front line of the demolition of the institutions that sustain democracy in America. Some of these may not realise it yet, but they could well end up in jail.
If you wanted to reduce spending in any government why send in a bunch of software engineers? They may be able to uncover the 'what' and the 'how' of where taxpayers money goes, but not the most important one - the WHY. They may soon find out. None of it is in America's interests but they are all too stupid to see it.
