The war that never was--Argentina and Chile

First let me say I know more about northern Ilinois (Ogle and Lee counties) where I haven't lived since I was 17 than all of South America, especially Argentina. I know well the statue and history of Blackhawk on the Rock River but knew nothing about the statue of Christ in the Andes mountains except what I'd seen in a few tourist brochures. Until today.

Christ the Redeemer of the Andes (on the border with Chile and Argentina) was the topic in my reading in Magnificat for today. It is commemorated on March 13 for celebrating the war that didn't happened between Chile and Argentina in 1904. Although Chile and Argentina have the same ethnicity, language and religion, greed and self interest have no boundaries, and the two countries had been squabbling about some very rich territory in the mountains between them back into the 19th century. History will report the resolution in different ways, but this account credited some Catholic women who organized for peace. Women suffer greatly in wars. Led by Señora Angela de Oliveira Cézar de Costa they got the bishops and Pope involved and the other leaders to talk, and so the issue was brought to arbitration and negotiation led by a third country, Great Britain. Three Christian nations and a disputed region.

The war never happened and the statue on the highest pass on the border celebrates that. There are two plaques on the base of the 60 ft tall statue. "He is our peace who has made us one" and "Sooner shall these mountains crumble into dust than Argentinians and Chileans break the peace sworn at the feet of Christ the Redeemer." (Magnificat, March 2025, p. 206-210, by Anthony Esolen) also, https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/dailystory/permalink/christ-of-the-andes-stands-for-peace

Rosie O'Donnell and Ireland

I'm not upset about Rosie O'Donnell moving to Ireland. So many people are trying to get into the U.S.A. that will make just one fewer ungrateful person and more space for someone to succeed. I'm not sure I'd even blame her hatred for Trump. She hasn't had a happy life, always sarcastic and complaining, so maybe a change of scenery will help her.

We've visited Ireland in 2007 and loved it. The Irish have helped populate Canada, USA, Australia and New Zealand, they contributed so much to their adopted countries and they did so in part because they were oppressed by England. My Irish beat the crowd and got here just in time to fight in the Revolution. I'm probably 8th generation thanks to my Irish.

A bit off topic, but as I look at this photo taken in Ireland, I remembered the shoes! Marti Alt and I went to a Christian Writers festival at Calvin College in Michigan and why I don't know, but we went shopping and I bought these shoes! They must have been comfortable enough to hike in Ireland's very rough terrain. The white rain jacket was "merch" picked up at a library convention probably in the 90s, and I still have it. I checked my blog and I'd written about the Festival in 2004. Looking through it, I found that in the same paragraph that I wrote about skipping meeting Joyce Carol Oates I included the shoe story. They were Naturalizers.   https://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2004/04/308-festival-report-2there-were-some.html?

     

University of Illinois lobbyists object to eliminating waste and bloat

I got an email from The University of Illinois System (Chicago, Urbana, Springfield) warning me that "Cuts to federal research funding threaten the future of innovation at the University of Illinois System. " That's a bit of a stretch. The message came from the "lobbying for more money system." I had to wade through a lot of gobbledygook to find out where it came from and what was being threatened. I have no problem if colleges and universities want to lobby their own legislature for special perks, but they shouldn't be asking through our federal tax system for people living in New York and Nebraska to pay for Illinois lobbyists.

Music of the Fifties

I saw a meme yesterday when a 50-something was getting weepy over 80s music. I was shocked. But my generation got sappy over 50s music--I didn't like it when I was a teenager! I'm always out of step with music. I love me some Lady Gaga and Adele and Patsy Cline, Mahalia Jackson and Tammy Wynette. Eclectic. I didn't care much for Elvis in the 50s, didn't buy a lot of records (they were 78s then) but I did like Don and Phil Everly. Did you like "your" music?

YouTube Music  50s music

Egg-citing breakfast

I know eggs are expensive, but the dozen I have in the frig were about $3. So, I made a fried egg sandwich for breakfast rather than have them go bad. I'm not making desserts (sort of a sugar fast) right now which was about the only dish I used them for. A salute to my Dad--he wasn't much of a cook, but he could make a fried egg sandwich, and after Mom died, I think he ate a lot of them.

It's been a busy week and it's about to end. I have whip lash trying to keep track of what President Trump is doing. Yesterday I watched the bitcoin meeting. Clueless. Dinner out last night with friends, Joyce and Bill and Joan and Jerry. Our Friday night dates which had been a staple for us for 60 years ended with Covid, and now it's about once a month, if that. I've looked at the menu (Houlihan's) before we left and picked out a petite top sirloin 5 oz, with 2 sides, green beans and fresh fruit. And since I don't drink wine anymore because I take too many medications, I treated the table to appetizers, stuff mushrooms. 

Some policies of Trump I'm not enthusiastic about

There are some things in the Trump plan that I don't care for. I'd rather have Canada be a good neighbor than a sullen step-child always trying to run away. I'm not crazy about name changes--never understood why some of our bases were named for Confederate heroes, but the change back? Seems petty. But Department of Education? It's sort of a newcomer. Late Jimmy Carter idea. The main beneficiaries have been the office holders and those who received grants. (I think I may have had one.) "Crumbs," as Fancy Nancy called the money, was all that went to the children.

Transgender mice

I know everyone (except Democrats) is joking and laughing at transgender mice experiments--millions spent on this with our tax dollars. It was mentioned in the President's speech Tuesday night. You know the one--all the Democrats were glued to their seats and they wore pink put don't support women.

 
But better they experiment on mice than children! No one gets sexually aroused (well, maybe some do) mutilating a mouse. Yet there are those medical horror chambers called "affirmation centers" at almost all our major health centers like Ohio State where surgeons (I'm just guessing most are men) can experiment with vaginoplasty, orchiectomy, mastectomy, fat transfer, metoidioplasty, sex hormones and other ghoulish dreams on people not old enough to vote, or to understand their human rights.

 
It reminds me of the Kinsey sex experiments on children in the 1940s or how American medical researchers used African women to experiment with birth control pills back in the 60s to be sure contraceptives were safe to use on European and American women although many died or were left sterile for life. Or the experiments conducted by our government on southern black men from the 1930s to the 1970s who had syphilis. It was later strongly condemned, too late to help those men who were not told what was being done to them.

Last night Democrats just pouted and probably felt sorry for the mice. I'm sure they can throw a benefit to support PETA's program to live in harmony with mice and rats. But children? Why don't they care about children?

From Father Petkosek, a message about Ukraine

 A message from a Ukrainian American priest: Father Michael Petkosek, Catholic Diocese of Cleveland 

If you’re going to virtue signal with the flag of my heritage, please know this:
The Ukrainian people have long been caught between the imperialism of a neighbor and their own independence. Their history is one of being ethnically Ukrainian yet belonging politically—generally by force— to a stronger and more militant neighbor. They have long seen empires fight over their fertile soil and Black Sea coastline.

The twentieth century alone was quite brutal for the Ukrainian people. In the 1930’s, seven million Ukrainians died in Stalin’s artificially created famine, the Holodomor, in an attempt to simply get rid of the population and claim the land. During World War II, the Ukrainian people were caught between Nazi and Soviet invasions. The Communists never left and the people became citizens of the Soviet Union.

When the long-suffering Ukrainian people finally achieved independence with the fall of the USSR, they knew only one corrupt government after another. The influence of Communist evil ran deep and the KGB never really died.

Did you care about any of this, now or in the past?

My grandfather forsook serving in his national army because it was infiltrated by the Soviets. Instead, he fought with the real Ukrainian army, the Underground. He fought Nazis and hid from Communists. His friends were executed for attending a town dance while he slept under a dead horse for safety. This is the Ukrainian grit that has held off Russian aggression for three years, it is a grit that will continue to run headlong into a hopeless fight.

 
No one in their right mind likes the idea that Russia stands to get away with a great injustice. But, no one in their right mind wants this war to continue. The first step is to stop the bleeding. One must wonder just why Zelenskyy was willing to throw that chance away.

 
Understand that when you say, “I stand with Ukraine,” I know that what you really mean is, “I hate Donald Trump.” From where I’m sitting, “I stand with Ukraine,” first said on February 27, 2025, sounds as if you’re happy for the war to continue—for Ukrainians (and Russians) to keep dying…. because, hey, it’s a chance to troll Donald Trump.

See the expression of Ukraine’s ambassador during the infamous meeting, which if watched in its entirety, does not support an anti-Trump narrative. She sees what Zelenskyy did and she knows that Ukrainians will continue dying.

You stand with Ukraine? Spare me. Your virtue signaling is just tacit support for an ongoing war, one that Ukraine can’t win. You're just cheering on a slaughter.

St. Josaphat, pray for us!

The importance of congregational singing and reading the Bible

Congregational singing and reading the Bible, thoughts from Thaddeus Williams, author of "Revering God; how to marvel at your maker."

"And I think singing congregationally is huge. And if I get very practical with this, if I had a word of advice on congregational singing, it would be to the sound engineers and churches around the country, turn it down. Maybe this is the old man in me, like the curmudgeonly guy in his 40s. But the power of corporate worship is that I can hear my wife exalting God next to me. And I can hear Joe the plumber sitting in front of me. Whether he's on key or not, he's exalting God out loud, affirming the same truths about God. And I can hear the little kid behind me singing off-key and glorifying God with everything she's got. There's power to hearing the congregation, not just hearing a face-melting guitar solo and a wall of sound. So I'd say that's number one, corporate worship is important.

And number two, I'm just going to land where we started, just getting into the Word. There's a study that I cite in the opening of the book that people who read their Bibles once a week have no measurable difference, no positive outcomes relative to those who never read their Bibles. People who read their Bible twice a week, no measurable positive outcomes. Three times a week, you start to see a few little areas beginning to peak. But for some reason, it seems like at four, when people read their Bible four times, four times plus, then the study showed people become less lonely. They become less angry. They become less addicted to alcohol or pornography. They become less spiritually stagnant. They become more evangelistic. They become better disciples. So I would say if you want to tap into some of this reverence, try to push past that four threshold and see the difference." https://www.biola.edu/blogs/think-biblically/2024/revering-god

Save us, Oh God, for the waters have risen to our necks--Psalm 69

 Excuse, please, if I take some liberties with pronouns (everyone else is), because the filth is too awful to use a mild word like swamp or chat room for just one writer crying out.  The smut, slime and sin are engulfing us all. Anyone who votes and says I'm an American, is involved.

Recently, Doge has exposed what is going on in the NSA (and other agencies) and Tulsi Gabard has fired over 100 people who were involved in a sexual, gay porn cabal.  And in hearings it has been revealed our tax money has been funneled to our sworn enemies, even Hamas which has been exposed as killing Jewish babies after the October 7, 2023 raid with their bare hands. We bought and paid for that through our unelected bureaucracy which we allowed to grow in fetid slimy darkness. We should cry out to God collectively--we've not been careful--we've entrusted our country to evil people who intend to destroy us and God's plan for life.

New American Bible, slightly revised.

Psalm 69

2Save us, God,

for the waters* have reached our necks.a

3 We have sunk into the mire of the deep,

where there is no foothold.

We have gone down to the watery depths;

the flood overwhelms us.b

4 We are weary with crying out;

our throats are parched.

Our eyes fail,

from looking for our God.c

5More numerous than the hairs of my head

are those who hate us without cause.d

Those who would destroy us are mighty,

our enemies without reason.

Must we now restore

what we did not steal?*




and so forth and so on.

Psalm 69 New American Bible

Rare earth metals put there by God

Q. Why would God place rare earth metals mainly in China and Russia-occupied Ukraine for a time in world history when they had become essential to all our technology?

A. I don't know, but He somehow figured out how to get President Trump into the same time frame to make a deal.

". . . minerals such as titanium, cobalt, and various rare and rare earth metals have become critical components of green technologies, playing a pivotal role in the energy transition from fossil fuels to alternative energy sources in advanced economies. Ukraine possesses substantial reserves of rare and rare earth elements, including tungsten, tantalum, niobium, indium, and others. These elements exhibit unique physical and chemical properties that render them essential for industrial applications, including use as alloying additives in steels and alloys, in electronics, magnetic materials, catalysts, and nuclear technologies. Nearly all titanium and iron ore deposits in Ukraine are complex, containing valuable rare-metal impurities such as vanadium, scandium, tantalum, niobium, zirconium, hafnium, thorium, tungsten, tin, gallium, indium, and yttrium. the present study identifies three primary sources of rare earth elements in Ukraine . . . : This research is based in investigations of titanium-bearing minerals within the Ukrainian crystalline shield, as well as the review of over 200 production reports ( GEO&BIO • 2024 • том 26)

"The American Geosciences Institute’s list of critical minerals encompasses “rare earth metals and other metals such as lithium, indium, tellurium, gallium, and platinum group elements.” Their shared importance is that they are crucial in the manufacturing of various advanced technologies, including, notably, clean energy generation assets (solar photovoltaics and wind turbines, especially offshore ones), battery systems (utility scale, household scale, and batteries for electric vehicles), as well as various digital technologies (needed in the energy transition process but also in the broader global information technology and communications sector)." https://www.mei.edu/publications/ukraines-critical-minerals-and-europes-energy-transition-motivation-russian-aggression?

Watching movies on Hallmark

 I was bored with politics and Antiques Roadshow reruns so I found some good movies to watch.  From Wikipedia--Riding the Bus with My Sister is a 2005 television film that aired on CBS as part of the Hallmark Hall of Fame anthology series, based on the 2002 memoir of the same name by Rachel Simon. The film, like the book, is about the time Simon spent with her sister Beth, who has a developmental disability, and whose lifestyle revolves around riding buses in her home city of Reading, Pennsylvania. Andie MacDowell plays Rachel Simon, while Rosie O'Donnell plays Beth. It was directed by Anjelica Huston, with a screenplay by Joyce Eliason.

From Wikipedia--made for TV movie also on the Hallmark Channel: Brush with Fate is an American drama television film debuted on February 2, 2003, on CBS. It followed the life of an imaginary painting by Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer as it passes through the hands of various people. The film was based on Girl In Hyacinth Blue, the 1999 novel by author Susan Vreeland, and starred Glenn Close and Ellen Burstyn. The imaginary painting Girl in Hyacinth Blue, the principal object in this film, is painted exactly in Vermeer's painting technique by the American master painter Jonathan Janson, author and webmaster of the world-known website about the life and work of Johannes Vermeer "Essential Vermeer".

Beautiful settings and costumes.  Interesting stories. Rosie O'Donnell did an outstanding job.

https://https://youtu.be/cYu_G1ekfQg

Learning from podcasts

Not to repeat myself, but I will. I benefit from the All-in podcast. Even the parts I don't understand. It's definitely a peek into the future. As near as I can tell of these four brilliant, successful men (besties), three are immigrants. And yesterday's edition had as guests 2 brothers, Patrick and John Collison, who started Stripe and Arc and are from Ireland. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxP55dZjqZs They look like teenagers, but I think were born in 1988 and 1990. Each are worth over $3 billion.

Somewhere I read a news story about how the besties got together originally, it was some sort of friendship group before it was a podcast, but I can't remember where. One of the interesting discussions on the 21st is corporate structure--given the lay-offs going on right now in government bureaucracy, it's similar in corporate bloat.

https://youtu.be/Oo3tPAjrI1c?si=SylT2I1ryEnrjpRj

Video about the brothers Collison

Two of my favorite podcasts

Two of my go-to podcasts are Megyn Kelly and All-In. Megyn can be a bit of a potty mouth--and that's definitely a negative and I'm not sure why she does it; it doesn't add anything. All-in is all men, and although that can be confusing (I don't watch, only listen) it's 1000x better than trying to listen to a group of women discuss something!

 
All-in is Chamath Palihapitiya, David Friedberg, Jason Calacanis, and David Sacks (created PayPal). Sacks has recently joined Trump as an "unelected" adviser, but I'm not sure what he does, and now there is a guest filling in for him. These guys are venture capitalists, business men, scientists, etc., and talk way over my head, but that's why I listen. They were really divided on Trump, but now at least on policy, are "all-in."

 
Kelly, too, was originally not a fan of Trump or MAGA , and in the first primary back in 2016, she made no bones about it. This time around she's definitely a fan, although it came gradually. Because she is no longer "owned" by a network she can say anything she pleases--and does. She's also a lawyer, a former network host, and a mom of 3, so she has plenty of opinions and expertise to share.

The most recent All-in podcast (weekly, Feb. 14) was Naval Ravikant an Indian-born American entrepreneur and investor. He is the co-founder, chairman and former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of AngelList. He has invested early-stage in Uber, FourSquare, Twitter, Postmates, SnapLogic, and Yammer.

 
The most recent Kelly podcast (daily) was her interviewing the guys from All-In about Trump, Musk, their appeal to independents and moderates, media, technology and family issues, parenting, and celebrities. I'm always surprised how much the All-in guys talk about family issues.

It was fun to hear my favorites together although they have a somewhat rocky road in their past.

Beatitudes in Luke 6

 

ESV Luke 6:20-24  And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.  “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.  “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!  Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.  

Lectio Divina, Magnificat, February 2025, p. 247 "Everyone desires to be happy," teaches Saint Thomas Aquinas.  Here, Jesus lays out his program for happiness, as indicated by the recurring word makarios, which is Greek for "blessed" or simply "happy." (Strong's Greek: 3107. μακάριος (makarios) -- Blessed, happy, fortunate)  Yet the picture Jesus paints appears rather grotesque at first glance.  He endorses everything our instincts tell us to avoid at all costs:  poverty, hunger, tears, rejection.  Why? 

Is it because money, wealth, merriment, and esteem are bad in themselves? No: on the contrary, these are good things.  At the same time, there is a danger that we might become so distracted by the gifts that we forget the Giver.  Saint Gregory the Great warns that if the prosperous are not careful, they may "love their pilgrimage more than their homeland and . . . transform the supplies for their journey into an impediment for their arrival." Sufferings borne well, on the other hand, can increase our desire for heaven and help prepare us to receive the joy that is to come.

Saint John Paul II points out that the Beatitudes "are a sort of self-portrait of Christ and for this very reason are invitations to discipleship and to communion of life with Christ." In other words, Jesus practices what he preaches--or better, he preaches what he practices.  . . 

As Christians, we say that we want to follow Jesus and to be like him, but are we ready to embrace the difficult truth that imitating Christ means being acquainted with suffering?

If you are a Christian (or even a non-Christian) who wants to poke the hornet's nest of differences between the Luke version and Matthew's, there are many sermons and writings on that, although not the topic of Lectio Divina for this Sunday, The Beatitudes in Luke and Matthew | Psephizo

Catholic answers suggests two possibilities: Why Are There Eight Beatitudes in Matthew and Only Four in Luke? - Catholic Answers, Inc

St. Augustine provides two possible explanations for these differences. My preference is the second. 

Jesus gave 2 sermons.  My favorite verse is Psalm 37:3, and it essentially says the same thing in 7 words.

"One possibility is that although only one sermon was delivered, its location was described under different aspects by Matthew and St. Luke. For it is possible that the place was a level spot along the slope of the mountain, which at once was part of the mountain and might also be described as a plain in relation to the peak of the same mountain. According to this account, the sermon as related by Matthew included a number of our Lord’s words that Luke omitted and omitted some of the words that Luke included.

A second solution is that Jesus actually gave two sermons that were closely related: for his purpose was to promulgate the New Law, yet not all were prepared to receive that law in its most perfect form. Therefore, since the first promulgation was given only to his close disciples on the mountaintop, it was lengthier and more proportioned to the spiritual-minded; and since the second was given to the multitudes on the plain, it was shorter and more proportioned to the carnal-minded."

This is handy: a recent reading history (actually a skimming history)

My recent reading history--but mostly skimming

Way Out of the Tunnel? Three Hundred Years of Research on the Apocrypha: A Preliminary Approach, - Peter Toth

The Scope of the Old Testament Canon - Christopher Heard

The Question of Canon: Challenging the Status Quo in the New Testament Debate. By Michael J. Kruger. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2013. Pp. 252. Paper, $24.00 - Michael W. Holmes

Book Review: Canon Formation: Tracing the Role of Sub-collections in the Biblical Canon - Clark R Bates

Septuagint, Sages, and Scripture Studies in Honour of Johann Cook Edited by - Markus Witte

The Canons of the New Testament - Leslie Baynes

The Canon and the Testaments - S. A. Wassen

Tradition, Scripture, and Interpretation: A Sourcebook of the Ancient Church  - Drake Williams

Deuterocanonical Books in Latin Tradition, in Houghton, ed., Oxford Handbook of the Latin Bible (2023)

Christian agencies and the USAID

Many small and large Christian organizations that have accepted contracts with USAID are going to be hurting. 

1) They've taken tainted money, 

2) the bulk of their supporters, the $10-$100 donors, will lose their trust, 

3) some good programs will come to a halt as the spigot turns to off. 

This means the organizations will have to do some soul searching and rely only on donors and not on tax dollars. Trust me, this is not just about trans dance festivals in Venezuela or other strange, vulgar events. USAID was set up in the 1960s by JFK to bring USA influence to other cultures, nations and people. It was never an aid organization. It became one if that benefited our own government's vision. This corrupted, ugly mess has now become our "values" and it ain't pretty. Much of it has turned against us using our own tax dollars which for the most part stay right here, particularly in the beltway. For now, some humanitarian relief agencies have waivers to continue until the wheat can be separated from the chaff.

Samaritan’s Purse Dodges Trump’s Foreign Aid Freeze – MinistryWatch

World Vision, a Christian organization I supported for many years, received $491 million from US Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2022. Senator Grassley of Iowa reported on agency in 2020. Many were reporting on the shady, strange agency with more money than God with only a small percentage going for "aid." Why did it take Elon Musk showing us line by line the budget for the pieces to fall together? It was Trump. And now hundreds of news agencies are trying to cover it up, but they too have received the tainted money,

Senator Demands to Know if World Vision Is Funding Terrorism - Christianity Today

Do we need the White House in our faith journey?

"Trump said on Thursday he would create a White House faith office and direct Attorney General Pam Bondi to lead a task force on eradicating what he called anti-Christian bias within the federal government." (Glenn Beck website)

 
I'm not a fan of this idea. There was a fairly prominent faith office in the Bush Administration which as I recall Obama continued, but with much watering down. "President Bush created the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives and Centers for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in eleven Federal agencies to lead a determined attack on need by strengthening and expanding the role of FBCOs in providing social services." (old White House document). In my opinion, this led to many truly service centered ministries accepting government money. I don't know if it was continued.

 
Let the First Amendment handle it--try enforcing it. When government interferes in religion in the name of help or protecting, especially Christianity, bad things happen. I don't mean wars or jail time, but general all around bad feelings. We have over 35,000 Protestant and non-denominational church organizations and most can't agree on the basic points of theology, they don't like each others worship services or social services, and most of them don't like Catholics, and probably haven't heard of all the varieties of Orthodox, or the African and Middle-eastern groups. They all "stand on the Bible," but not which translation of which canon. And the politics! Oh my.

The little people within the grant system

I woke up this morning thinking about the "little people" at the bottom rung of these government (USAID for instance) grants who have no idea what's behind the paycheck or where the program has gone. Government work is considered "secure" even if you are part time and temporary as I always was in the 80s. I think about the agricultural credit grant that paid me for 3 years, everyone above me, and a few below. I still see my publications pop up on the internet. 40 years. Later, I helped with grant writing workshops. We probably brought in coffee and bagels for the class. For years I know I worked on grants or attended meetings supported by grants--and there was always good food at our events.

 
Even when I was hired to work in a program (STEPS) to retool senior citizens who'd lost their jobs in the 1980s, we subcontracted out to building owners who supplied the spaces and the computers, and the food services, and probably the local senior organizations who supplied the clients. We travelled around the state--the money coming in was going out and helping the local economy. I'm not saying we didn't do any good or people didn't benefit, but it was mainly me who benefitted--the skills I learned, the publications that moved me ahead in my career path, the friends I made, the information I learned--I even wrote speeches on labor for a politician to give on the road (she was later killed in a plane crash). Mainly I'm talking about funding that had already had about 60% taken off the top by whatever state or local agency/organization had gotten from the federal agency. You can imagine all the people who are paid along the way. From file clerk to janitor to van driver to the lowly researcher who wrote and assembled the learning materials and arranged for it to happen.

It's difficult to track what became of USAID money--I went into the WayBack (?) archive and read the 2016 annual report. The photos are wonderful--lovely black faces beaming over experimental agricultural plots, or happy children in bright clothing raising their hands in class. You can see the model programs, and many did benefit. The report was so vague about actual costs, my eyes glazed over. Having worked in the system, I knew how to write like that. A few words about DEI goals, but minimal. Not like you would read today where each chapter seems to need a paragraph. USAID was established as an independent agency to infiltrate and influence the local culture, but probably not with drag queen shows and sex change operations. Its purpose is to maintain our interests over Russia and China's. Instead, we're creating chaos in the local culture which benefits our enemies.

And I also thought (at 6 a.m.) what $9 million to the Leftist media during the Biden years could have done for the people in North Carolina. Yesterday it was reported that "Politico received at least $8.2 million from the U.S. government in recent years, with $44,000 of that coming from USAID, according to USAspending.gov." The Department of Energy has given Politico $1.29 million, the Department of Agriculture has given $552,024 and the Department of Commerce has given $485,572.
Sigh. No wonder the Democrats are screaming and rioting. Someone is draining the gravy train.

Interesting Congressional hearing report on USAID reporting for 2011. USAID: Following The Money : Committee on Oversight and Government Reform : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive  from Internet Archive.  Obviously, Congress has known for many years what was going on with wasted tax money funneled through USAID.

I worked on a grant from USAID!

I do recognize the USAID because it helped me build my career and move to the next step, which was from agriculture credit, to OhioNet, to veterinary medicine by working part time with hours that were convenient for my primary job--being a mom--when I was in my 30s. Never thought I'd see protests about it--but then I never imagined it would be sending my tax money to foreign LGBT groups, either.

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/5122676-usaid-shutdown-elon-musk-doge/

USAID Controversy Explained: Why Musk, Trump Is Attacking Foreign Aid Agency

Mike Benz: There Is No "Aid" In USAID, It's Not A Charity | Video | RealClearPolitics

Because I subscribe to Academia.com (on certain Bible canon topics like Ben Sira) I also receive notices about my own publications on agricultural credit. These I did for Dale Adams in the 1980s the professor who had the USAID grant. I think I had written at least 4 or 5 annotated bibliographies, and one has been completely scanned so I can actually read it without getting on my knees and dragging out dusty boxes and collapsing from exhaustion. The publications were assembled on the living room floor in our previous house, on lime green shag carpet, because everything was written on note cards which were then alphabetized and organized on the floor. No computers, no Chatgpt, no reference organizer and I don't recall I even had a fact checker or proof reader.

Bless my Mt. Morris high school typing class, because I also typed all the entries.