American soft power has been crippled worldwide. You really have to ask yourself when the moderators of Wikipedia are going to go ahead and edit the Cold War page.

People have been joking about fake as hell NGOs being used for espionage and misinformation for decades, but its weird they they're actually throwing away their leverage across the board.

Unless they plan to just move the funding to another organization like the CIA.

i love mintpressnews. their links were and probably still are banned on facebook and instagram and probably more places. the great firewall of the US is too good

"any media outlet, no matter how big an empire it is, that is not owned or funded by the state" is not the common definition of "independent media" (it's not even the definition given in the hyperlinked definition). "Independence" in this context refers to journalistic independence.

the only media i care about is people or outlets supported by small donations from regular people & lots of transparency about their sources. if otherwise, they can go fuck off

This was an incredible read. All the liberal media lamenting the loss of USAID, but an estimated 90% of the funds were actually used to further CIA goals. Crazy. 10/10 would read again.

Though I’m sure some of them will find new funding through whatever new channels the Trump administration builds.

I wonder if they're really that stupid to give up this super-efficient means of soft power over some progressive things they've done or intentionally handing influence in parts of the world to Russia for a bit of money for themselves while taking a calculated risk of maybe having to retake control militarily (which is more costly but could be a problem for the next admin).

If USAID appears as horrific to the general public, and not really news for many people with a critical mind, just imagine what its proposed replacement will be like under Trump.

Not too many administrations ago a USAF intelligence organization was formed directly under presidential supervision as chief, and came into contradiction with NSA/CIA. Then there was HSA which had a green light by past administrations to violate the constitution at will and simply blanket any enemy as a national security matter.

Of all those corporate/state tools against humanity and rights, USAID has outlived its purpose. But don't get too happy, they are just burying it in a good moment to start clean, without historic responsibilities carried on.