Quick Hit
Stop appealing to their humanity-They have none
I’m hoping you’re starting to get the theme of these posts and that is one topic that you can learn about, or be smarter on, and maybe an action item. That’s it.
Today, let’s talk about USAID and what SOFT POWER is.
In your neighborhood Hard Power is when you call the cops on the neighbor who lets their dog out every night to roam the neighborhood and bark for two hours or when you shoot it with a BB gun when it is pooping on your lawn every morning at 6 am. Soft Power is when you get to know that neighbor and their dog and share some dog treats that are good for doodle skin issues, and impress upon them to keep their cute little doodle on leash because you’d hate for it to be stolen or hit by a car, and the neighbor agrees and puts it on a leash and you become besties, walking your dogs together 2x a day, and eventually he runs for office. Soft Power is when you use your influence for good instead of hardship or violence.
We know how the US uses Hard Power—troops, weapons, threats, tariffs. Those have a place. But, the US uses Soft Power all of the world (including paying farmers in the US for food sent abroad), in the form of literal aid—food, medicine, textbooks, building supplies, water well building etc and it buys us an incredible amount of political good will for not very much money—the USAID budget about 1% of the US budget. But this week the 2025 Administration abruptly dismantled USAID including sending someone right out to pull the letters off the building of their headquarters which honestly seemed petty.
So what happens when the US stops being a purveyor of Soft Power, and Aid? It creates a vacuum that sucks in the likes of China, and Russia. When countries can no longer rely on the United States, they turn to other countries. And those countries might not be our allies.
Look, I don’t need to find articles across the internet to tell you that people all over the world are going to die because of this administration’s feckless bullshit.
He and his brother Hank and their NerdFighters and their Project for Awesome and their Good Store have been raising money (with USAID) using their SOFT POWER because that is really the only power we regular people have.
But-
So quit wringing your hands and asking whether the Neu Reicht Republicans care if people are going to die because they don’t. They don’t care if Americans die, or lose jobs, or go hungry or become targets of terrorism abroad. Ask why they think what they are doing is legal. Ask how this makes us safer. Ask how any of this *gestures wildly* makes America Great Again?
The response to all of this has to be legal challenges. It is unclear to me what they DO care about besides President Musk and the Orange Court Jester and the latter is becoming less relevant every day but right now the law seems to be all we have and that seems tenuous at best.
Dog Tax.
