notes

Notes for today's video.

 

https://merylnass.substack.com/p/the-end-of-usaid-is-the-end-of-globalist

https://news.wttw.com/2025/02/05/marco-rubio-s-years-strong-support-usaid-stand-contrast-his-sudden-criticism-aid-agency

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQYd2J3cOps

'Meanwhile, the newly appointed deputy administrator for the agency, Pete Marocco, met with State Department leadership on Tuesday and instructed them to get every USAID employee out of their respective countries worldwide by Friday, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Marocco said that if the State Department did not, the staff would be evacuated by the U.S. military, the sources said. 

USAID has more than 10,000 employees, with about two-thirds serving overseas, according to a Congressional Research Service report. Some 1,400 work in the agency's D.C. headquarters. The agency maintains more than 60 country and regional missions.   

The agency provides humanitarian aid to more than 100 countries, including disaster relief, health and medical aid, and emergency food programs.'  https://www.cbsnews.com/news/usaid-missions-overseas-ordered-shutdown-by-friday/

from USAID archived site:

'Pete Marocco is Assistant to the Administrator, leading the Bureau for Conflict Prevention and Stabilization (CPS), and serves as the agency’s Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) Coordinator...

CPS programming is deployed through its Office of Transition Initiatives, Program Office and Center for Conflict and Violence Prevention. CPS also coordinates Civilian-Military partnerships for the Agency.'

he was the Department of State’s Deputy Assistant Secretary and Senior Bureau Official for the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations:

'The Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations (CSO) enhances the State Department’s ability to anticipate, prevent, and respond to conflict and promote stability though a suite of tools, capabilities, and programs....

CSO provides analysis, policy recommendations, and programming to address the destabilizing impacts of armed actors. This work includes armed actor mapping, promoting defections from armed groups, and supporting broader Department efforts on security sector governance/reform activities. We also lead programs preparing for disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration...

CSO hosts tabletop exercises and red teams to help inform decisions. This allows U.S. government decision makers to explore options for response to issues like political instability and strategic competition, including with foreign partners...

CSO deploys stabilization advisors to embassies and military combatant commands around the world to provide on-the-ground conflict expertise and increase civil-military coordination.'  https://www.state.gov/bureaus-offices/under-secretary-for-civilian-security-democracy-and-human-rights/bureau-of-conflict-and-stabilization-operations/

asdf

'According to current and former USAid and state department officials, the office’s consolidation of power under Marocco has undermined congressional checks and balances and instead given authority to a non-Senate-confirmed appointee who is slashing and burning his way through overseas aid programs at USAid and the state department.

“He is not a disruptor. He’s a destroyer,” said a former USAid official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss Marocco. “And it’s clear to me. The plan is to come in, destroy USAid, take it down, and then build it up again, the way they want to do that.”...

Former and current officials at USAid, the state department and the defense department told the Guardian that Marocco’s previous stints at those agencies had been characterized by secrecy, personal conflicts and arbitrary rules meant to hobble the bureaucracy. Some said they believed Marocco had returned to take revenge on his former colleagues.

“The reaction was recoil and horror,” said a former senior USAid official regarding Marocco’s appointment. “I don’t know if they really believe in development or humanitarian assistance unless it’s transactional.”

“He’s the most unqualified person to be sitting in any seat of government, let alone the person who has the keys to our foreign assistance,” said another former colleague who still works at USAid.

Marocco strode into the offices of USAid this week flanked by members of Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (“Doge”), a special group Trump created, with clipboards in hand. Several hours later, almost 60 senior officials from the office had been put on paid leave.' Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/01/peter-marocco-trump-usaid

Musk's little naive team https://www.foxnews.com/politics/meet-young-team-software-engineers-slashing-government-waste-doge-report