Showing posts with label Marco Rubio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marco Rubio. Show all posts

Friday, February 7, 2025

USAID was not just great in the opinion of the old Marco Rubio, both Melania Trump and Ivanka Trump thought so too, deploying millions of its dollars for their pet projects under Trump I lololol


 

A bunch of phony baloney plastic banana good time rock 'n rollas, but I repeat myself.

 

Melania and Ivanka Trump used thousands of dollars from USAID to fund pet projects during Trump's first term it's been revealed as the agency's spending comes under scrutiny from the president.

The president has gone scorched-earth against the USAID this week, berating its use of tax-payer dollars and saying it had to be 'corrupt' in its spending.

But despite Donald's disdain for the aid agency, it has maintained close ties with his wife and daughter for years by investing in their government ventures. 

USAID helped fund Melania Trump's Be Best program and Ivanka Trump's Women's Global Development and Prosperity Initiative during the first Trump term.

And each woman traveled with the agency on separate trips to Africa, where they praised the investments it was making on the continent.

Ivanka Trump travelled with then-USAID administrator Mark Green to Africa in April 2019, where they met with women entrepreneurs in Ethiopia and rural cocoa farmers on the Ivory Coast.

USAID oversaw $265 million per year in spending Ivanka Trump's women's business initiative and an associated antipoverty program.

Melania Trump partnered with the agency on her 2018 trip to Ghana, Malawi, Kenya and Egypt.

In Malawi, the first lady promoted USAID's national reading program, which was donating on Trump's behalf 1.4 million textbooks to the more than 5,600 primary schools in the poverty-stricken nation.

'I am so proud of the work this administration is doing through USAID and others,' the first lady said at the time, 'and look forward to the opportunity to take the message of my Be Best campaign to many of the countries, and children, throughout Africa.'

In his first term, Trump heavily cut funding for the aid agency but it still found money to invest into his family's government ventures.

Ivanka Trump used USAID for her program to promote women in business, claiming 12 million women around the world had been helped by it.

She travelled with the agency to Colombia in September 2019 to run a workshop for women entrepreneurs.

That same year, she also used over $11,000 from the agency to buy video recording and reproducing equipment for a White House event, its records show.

Meanwhile, USAID was one of the first agencies to name an ambassador to Melania Trump's Be Best initiative.

When Melania Trump first announced her signature program in May 2018, she asked government agencies to name a liaison to her group. USAID immediately did so.

At her one-year anniversary celebration in May, Melania acknowledged the agency and thanked it for naming the first Be Best ambassador.

'For the first time in history, the United States Agency for International Development has appointed a Be Best ambassador,' she said.

'On this one year anniversary of my initiative, I call on all of our partner agencies to appoint a be best ambassador who will serve as a liaison between my office and their respective agency to better highlight and promote the programs and services offered to parents and children on behalf of the US government,' she added.

Donald Trump was sitting in the audience listening.

Neither the East Wing, the West Wing, nor Ivanka Trump's office responded to DailyMail.com's request for comment.

USAID delivers billions of dollars in humanitarian aid overseas.

The Trump administration is threatening to shut it down or bring the independent agency under the umbrella of the State Department.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is now acting director of the agency it's been announced this week.

Hundreds of USAID contractors were placed on unpaid leave and some were terminated. Elon Musk, who is running Trump's Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE program, said the agency would be eliminated.

Its Washington D.C. office is closed and employees were either put on leave or told to work from home.

Trump has said of the agency: 'It's been run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we're getting them out.'

He also claims it 'had to be corrupt' to approve certain initiatives. 

The president has berated the agency for its spending practices, including having a subscription to Politico Pro, a service that tracks legislation and other government news.

And his press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, gave a blistering account of USAID's spending. Speaking to reporters at the White House last week, she held up a sheet of paper giving details of the astonishing ways in which taxpayers' money had been doled out.

It was an apparent reference to a story in Daily Mail, which first outlined the shocking expenditures related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), on which President Trump has ordered a crackdown.

'I don't know about you. But as an American taxpayer, I don't want my dollars going toward this crap. And I know the American people don't either. And that's exactly what Elon Musk has been tasked by President Trump to do. To get the fraud, waste and abuse out of the federal government,' Leavitt said.

Monday, February 3, 2025

Clueless Marco Rubio appoints Taiwan surrender monkey Darren J. Beattie to State Department job

As if the nine-dash line doesn't even exist.

Beattie is a total suck-up, just like Rubio.

 



Elon Musk and Donald Trump stop USAID payments authorized by Congress, some of which Marco Rubio used to be for before he became Secretary of Suck-Up and is now against

I expect a federal judge to intervene on this one perty quick like.

The sums involved are paltry, but Elon Musk amusingly makes a mountain out of this molehill and says “This is our shot. This is the best hand of cards we’re ever going to have,” he said. “Now or never.”

Seems more like an admission that it will be impossible to slay the federal leviathan.

Elon Musk says he and Trump are shutting down USAID

... Congress annually appropriates money for USAID to spend, primarily for foreign aid and internationally focused charities. Its budget for the 2023 fiscal year was about $40 billion, according to a report last month from the Congressional Research Service. That’s a tiny fraction of the overall federal discretionary spending of $1.7 trillion. ...

A 1974 federal law known as the Impoundment Control Act says that the president generally cannot withhold funds that Congress has approved. Some Trump aides argue that the law is unconstitutional, foreshadowing a potential fight in the courts. ... 

 


 


Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Vice President Vance has sworn in Ohio Senator Husted who replaces him, and Florida Senator Moody who replaces Secretary of State Rubio

 


Marco Rubio confirmed as Secretary of State in 99-0 vote, voted for himself lol


 

The Senate on Monday unanimously confirmed Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) as America’s 72nd secretary of State, putting in place the first member of President Trump’s Cabinet on the day of his inauguration.

Rubio’s confirmation vote passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, 99-0. Rubio also was able to cast a vote for himself. 

Reported here by The Hill at 6:52pm yesterday.

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced Sunday that Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted would replace Vice President J. D. Vance in the US Senate, but he has not yet been sworn in, hence the 99-0 vote for Rubio.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced Thursday, January 16th that Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody will replace Rubio in the Senate after Rubio formally resigns.

Wednesday, December 4, 2024

DeSantis is far and away better for DOD than Pete Hegseth, but it would be a step down for the governor, and a minefield which could blow up his chances for 2028, if he still has any

 Trump Mulls Replacing Pete Hegseth With Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis

Beside all that, Trump is just poaching again. 

Florida still needs Ron DeSantis, especially to appoint the replacement for the already poached Senator Marco Rubio. One bad decision leads to another.

Can't Trump find anyone else? Isn't this just more evidence of how few quality people find serving in this lame duck presidency an attractive prospect?

Ron DeSantis should also think long and hard about having to defend everything Trump for four years, quite apart from defending the United States, if he's still serious about a 2028 run. He ran against Trump in the primaries, after all, for reasons.

I think this story is more of a trial balloon, an advertisement: "Hey out there! Anyone interested in the job? Help! I gotta get rid of Pete! Please step up!"

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

J. D. Vance gets his sorry ass back in the US Senate after missing critical confirmation votes on Monday and Tuesday which confirmed at least one horrible Biden nomination to a lifetime judicial position


 

 If all Republicans had shown up and Sen. John Fetterman’s (D-Pa.) absence held, the GOP would have defeated the nomination [of Embry Kidd] temporarily.

If all senators had shown up, including Fetterman, it would likely have forced a tiebreaking vote by Vice President Harris.

Adding to the drama, Harris left Washington for Hawaii on Tuesday, depriving Democrats of a potential ability to break a 50-50 tie.

Despite the math, GOP members were incensed at the no-shows, which stretched into Tuesday as Vance did not show up for the morning vote.

Other senators, including Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), tagged along with Trump to the SpaceX Starship launch in Brownsville, Texas, further exacerbating the situation as Schumer prepared to hold another long night of nomination votes on Tuesday. ...

Vance, who missed all of Monday night’s votes in addition to the first one on Tuesday, received the lion’s share of criticism.

The outgoing Ohio senator initially defended his decision, saying that he was meeting with Trump as part of interviews for potential candidates to become FBI director and for other slots.

“I tend to think it’s more important to get an FBI director who will dismantle the deep state than it is for Republicans to lose a vote 49-46 rather than 49-45,” he added.

However, he backtracked and deleted his post on X. He also showed up for the pair of Senate votes during Tuesday’s afternoon session.

Full story here

Showing up is the easiest, most important thing senators can do, and they were too busy.

It's unforgivable.

 



Monday, November 11, 2024

Oh God, please make it stop: Trump to poach his new US Senate majority to fill Secretary of State post with Marco Rubio

These Republican senators don't grow on trees, you know.

It's almost like Trump is a secret Democrat trying to destroy the Republican Party from within.

Trump is insane. He's lost his mind.

 

 


Friday, April 19, 2024

Reports suggest Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had a blast on his birthday last night

 Here:

 “Hearing [Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei] is having a blast today on his birthday,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) wrote on X, shortly after reports of the Israeli strike began to emerge.

Khamenei, 84, was indeed born on April 19.

 


 

Monday, October 30, 2023

In Iowa 57% of Republicans want someone other than Trump in 2023, down from almost 76% of Iowans in 2016 who wanted someone else heh heh

  So much winning!

Iowa (DMR/NBC): Trump 43, DeSantis 16, Haley 16, Scott 7

 

Trump came in second behind Ted Cruz in the Feb 1, 2016 Iowa Republican Caucus:

Ted Cruz 27.64%

Donald Trump 24.3%

Marco Rubio 23.12%.

Monday, August 8, 2022

Little Marco gets it right

 

'Using government power to persecute political opponents is something we have seen many times from 3rd world Marxist dictatorships But never before in America,' wrote Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida on Twitter.  

Thursday, July 14, 2022

Who ya gonna believe: Law & Order: SVU, or Ann Coulter?

 Ann Coulter, December 14, 2019, here:

. . . according to “Law & Order: SVU,” the main demographic with a sexual fetish for pre-pubescent Hispanic girls is: handsome, married American white men. ... Reviewing my years of research on child sex crimes, I see that this has happened NEVER. It’s kind of the opposite. I ended up with so many immigrant child rape cases for “Adios, America!” that most of them had to be left on the cutting room floor — or the book would have been twice as long. ... But for William Edward Ronca, there would not be a single confirmed case of a white man in the Western Hemisphere impregnating a girl 10 years old or younger. 

A report from the Inter-American Children’s Institute explained that Latin America is second only to Asia in the sexual exploitation of women and children because sex abuse is “ingrained into the minds of the people." ... Incest and child rape are not native American habits. Nor is child rape common in Spain. This isn’t genetic. Bestial behavior toward women and children is a hallmark of primitive, peasant cultures — the cultures we are importing by the million. The hallmark of civilized cultures is to arrest and imprison child rapists. But the brain-dead writers of “Law & Order: SVU” invent little stories to demoralize the defenders of civilization, so we can let the incest and child rape flow!


 

Thursday, March 17, 2022

LOL, US Senate votes "unanimously" for permanent daylight saving time, "probably the worst choice"

 The bipartisan bill is the work of perhaps the two dumbest people in the US Senate, Patty Murray and Marco Rubio, who represent the extreme northwest, the extreme southeast, and the nation generally.

While no time system will be perfect for everyone, making daylight saving time permanent would lead to a greater number of dark mornings than we have now, said Phyllis Zee, chief of sleep medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. ...

Experts say circadian misalignment has been associated with adverse effects on cognition and mood as well as cardiovascular and metabolic function. “It’s really not a good thing to have your internal body clocks out of sync,” Zee said. “Imagine being in jet lag a lot of the time; it can’t be good for you." ...

Zee said her “heart sank” when she saw the news of the Senate vote. “I thought there would be more of a discussion, that it wouldn’t be as unanimous.” Of the three potential time systems for the country to be on — permanent standard, biannual switching and permanent daylight saving time — she said, the last is “probably the worst choice.”


More.


 



Thursday, March 14, 2019

Gotta give it to Trump here, his lizard brain has scared the open borders Republicans out of the bushes for everyone to see

They think he is weak (he is), but the Republican base is ready to feed on the flesh of these bastards as much as is the lizard himself.

These Republican traitors don't give a damn about the Constitution, the separation of powers, infringement of those powers by the executive, or anything else.

These are your open borders Republicans in the US Senate, America, pure and simple:

Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Roy Blunt of Missouri, Susan Collins of Maine, Mike Lee of Utah, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rob Portman of Ohio, Mitt Romney of Utah, Marco Rubio of Florida, Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Roger Wicker of Mississippi, and Mr. Jerry Moran of Kansas.

The most notable one is Mitt Romney, since he ran for president on a platform of turning off the immigration magnets. A shape-shifter on just about everything else conservative, this vote proves Romney was never on our side on anything and could never be counted on.