Monday's Most Active Threads

Yesterday's most active thread was titled, "Congresspersons and Senators Denied Entry to US Government Building" and was posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. A common theme of today's blog post is going to be the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Three out of four of the topics I will discuss today deal with that agency, which Shadow President Elon Musk has attempted to disband. Musk has completely flouted the law with his actions, so much so that simply describing them makes you sound like a conspiracy theorist. Try telling a normal person that, with absolutely no legal authorization, Musk has sent his minions into the U.S. Treasury and taken over the government's payment system, set up a personal email server in the Office of Personnel Management, and started sending government-wide emails inviting federal employees to resign, and — again with absolutely no legal authorization and in direct contradiction to the law — attempted to eliminate a U.S. agency. They will look at you as if you are a wild-eyed lunatic and steer a wide circle around you. Unless they are a MAGA, in which case they will show extreme excitement and exclaim about what a great job Musk is doing. While Musk has been on a rampage of illegality, elected Democrats have been asleep at the wheel, holding meetings to learn about creating viral social media posts and occasionally addressing an issue that has already been superseded by more recent developments. Yesterday, that changed somewhat as a group of Members of Congress and Senators held a protest outside the offices of the USAID. USAID employees had been informed at midnight that they should not come to the office yesterday because the building would be closed. After giving a round of speeches, a group of officials led by Senator Chris Van Hollen attempted to enter the building to meet with whomever was in charge. The group was denied entry on the order of Musk. Again, let me be clear, Musk has no legal authority to do such a thing. Posters in this thread are outraged, with several predicting that Musk will eventually end up in jail. This is unlikely given the complete collapse of the rule of law that we have experienced. Who is going to do anything about Musk? Certainly not the executive branch that he has taken over or Congress, which is in the hands of Republicans who have prostrated themselves at the feet of cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump. MAGA posters remain stupid. For instance, one posted a "NEWS FLASH" claiming that USAID had been created by an executive order. In fact, the agency was created by Congress with the passage of the Foreign Assistance Act in 1961. Having been created by an act of Congress, USAID can only be dissolved by an act of Congress. By the end of the day, Musk and Trump seemed to have accepted this fact and began talking about merging USAID with the U.S. Department of State rather than shutting it completely. Even that, however, is illegal.

The next most active thread yesterday was the Blake Lively thread, which continues to have significant interest, though now most posters are devoting themselves to accusing each other of trying to get the thread locked. After that was another thread posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. This one was titled "Closing USAID". The original poster laments that by closing USAID, crucial assistance will be cut off to the world's poorest children simply so that America's wealthy can get tax cuts. One thing this thread illustrates is the polarizing views that posters have of USAID. Many of the posters have firsthand experience with the agency and are familiar with programs that have provided crucial benefits to the world's poor. Others accept the MAGA anti-foreign aid position, with some claiming that USAID is actually responsible for considerable harm in the world. There could be a legitimate discussion about USAID. I have personally worked on multiple USAID-funded projects and have served as a short-term consultant on occasion. While the agency has done considerable good, it has always been a tool of U.S. foreign policy, which means that its humanitarian mission is at times compromised. Moreover, while many criticize foreign aid as helping those in other countries, the regulations requiring that much of the procurement be used on U.S.-sourced items mean that much of the aid ends up back in the U.S. But neither cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump nor Shadow President Elon Musk is interested in an informed and nuanced discussion of the pros and cons of USAID. Instead, they want to take a meat cleaver to the agency. Moreover, neither of the two is much interested in the truth. Trump earlier claimed that USAID had spent $50 million to buy condoms for Hamas. Never mind that the US does not provide any assistance to Hamas, USAID didn't spend any money on condoms for the Palestinians in Gaza. Trump later increased his claim to say that $100 million had been spent on condoms for Hamas, who he also alleged used them to make bombs. In fact, USAID did spend money on family planning programs, but these were not for Palestinians but rather Africans. Some of these programs were based in the province of Gaza in Mozambique, thousands of miles from the Gaza Strip. The fact that anyone could listen to Trump's claims about condom bombs being paid for by USAID and not break down laughing is incredible. Sadly, many have taken this ridiculous claim at face value and believed it. As with almost all of his actions, Musk lacks the legal authority to dissolve USAID, and, as of yesterday, the plan is to merge the agency with the U.S. Department of State. That is not legal either, so this dispute will probably continue for some time.

Next was a thread titled, "DC deferred to UVA despite good stats" and posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum. Yesterday, one of the threads that I discussed was about the early action admissions at the University of Virginia. The original poster could have, and probably should have, posted in that thread. Her child was deferred by UVA, despite having objectively good stats. The original poster is upset and confused about this result. As the responses in the thread that I discussed yesterday show, the original poster's child is not alone. College admissions is really a crapshoot with seemingly frequent contradictory results. Several other posters responded to say that their children with similar stats were also deferred and, in some cases, outright rejected. There are a few theories about why these students with high stats are not being accepted by UVA. One, coming from a poster who described herself as Asian, is that diversity is deemed more important than merit and non-Asian minorities are being accepted instead of better-qualified Asians. Another theory is that UVA tries not to accept too many applicants from the same high school and many students from northern Virginia high schools were accepted in the earlier Early Decision round of admissions. This meant that fewer students from those high schools were accepted in this round. Some posters claimed that connections were necessary to be accepted, but others — including parents of accepted kids — denied this is the case. Another suggestion is that the essays were the distinguishing factor and that students whose essays reflected a strong desire to attend UVA and an understanding of its culture had better chances. Some posters contend that students with stats like the original poster's child are very common in northern Virginia and, therefore, something else is needed to distinguish them. One poster quoted the Associate Dean of Admission at UVA as saying that class rank plays very little role in admissions. Another poster, on the other hand, claimed that "It’s almost entirely class rank." Who to believe? As for the original poster, in a follow-up post, she said that her child had been accepted by the University of Maryland and would likely go there. Surprisingly, this did not unleash a fight between UVA and UMD supporters, which normally don't take much to ignite.

The final thread that I will discuss today is another one about the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Posted in the "Jobs and Careers" forum and titled, "Usaid terror", the original poster says that he doesn't know if he has a job or even an agency any longer following Shadow President Elon Musk's claim to have dissolved the agency. The original poster wonders whether he should go to work the next day. As it happened, hours later, Musk  closed the USAID offices and demanded that the original poster and the rest of the USAID staff telework. What often gets lost in discussions of the big picture is that, ultimately, actual humans are impacted. Many chose to work for the government because they valued stability. Many of those further chose to work for USAID because they wanted to contribute something good to the world. The need to fight for the future of their programs, their jobs, or their entire agency was not something that they ever envisioned. It is not an exaggeration to say that some of those employed to strengthen democracy abroad are now forced to turn their attention to their own country where democracy is very much endangered. Many posters sympathize with the original poster. Some are in the same position. Advice tends to be twofold, telling the original poster to continue going to work and doing his job but also to look for another job. The thread also has its share of "actually" posters. These are those who post things along the lines of "sorry that you are losing your job but ACTUALLY it is for the good of the country". To be clear, these posters are simpletons. The most convincing explanation that I've heard for Musk's vendetta against USAID is that he is doing China's bidding. China, due to Tesla's presence in China, has considerable leverage over Musk. Alternatively, Musk is so far down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories spread on his own social media network — theories that he often retweets — that he actually believes that USAID is a nest of anti-American communists. It turned out to be a rollercoaster of a 24 hours for the original poster. He went from wondering if he had a job, to being told to telework, to being told to return to the office. The future of USAID is not clear, but Democratic Members of Congress and Senators, as well as a few Republicans, have rallied in support of the agency. It does not appear that it will go quietly into the night as Musk seems to have hoped.