And we thought SignalGate was bad. I think this is worse. This is really damaging. Let me show you: “Two Trump administration spreadsheets, which each include what numerous advocates and government officials say is highly sensitive information on programs funded by the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), were sent to Congress and also leaked online.” I’m not happy about this. Whoever leaked it should be slapped. How many people and sources are now in danger?
“The leak, which sent a variety of international groups and nonprofits scrambling to assess the damage and protect workers operating under repressive regimes, came after the organizations had pressed the Trump administration to keep the sensitive information private and received some assurances it would remain secret.” Lives are in danger that did not have to be. And all through either a careless mistake, or deliberately. It’s still worse than SignalGate, I think, but if this was deliberately leaked, that’s much, MUCH, worse WORSE. I’m now thinking about less of a slap and more of a punch.
“In all our years of receiving grants from a range of governments, we have never seen the safety of government partners treated with such reckless abandon. People will lose their liberty, and possibly even more, because of this.” What the hell??!! We have no idea who did this. At least with SignalGate, we had names. For this, we have nothing. Trump’s State Department was supposed to keep sensitive information about foreign grants private, despite Musk’s meddling. And it gets better!
As part of their campaign to eliminate what they’re calling “waste, fraud, and abuse,” Team Trump and DOGE had demanded comprehensive grant recipient information, and State Department officials let the organizations know that Musk’s lieutenants were likely planning on turning this information into a public spreadsheet or database. The message, according to three sources familiar with the matter, was If you’re not OK with providing all this information or with having it all posted online, let us know; however, that decision could, or will, lead to your expected funding being halted. That’s one helluva threat! “Give us the info for public consumption, and we don’t care if we put you in danger.” Lose your money or lose your life. What does it matter??? Dadgum!
After a flurry of phone calls and messages, State Department officials reported back to their partners with a note of reassurance: Though other information would likely be posted online in the near future, the closely held, highly “sensitive” information on certain grants and nonprofit organizations would be left off the table. The officials promised these groups that the information would stay under lock and key, and the grant recipients would still get their money. A few days after these assurances were made, two different documents — one was a spreadsheet about State Department grants, the other concerned USAID — were shared with Congress, and they were leaked to several mainstream media outlets and elsewhere.
Y’all, I don’t know what’s going on with this for sure, but I can say that the leakers were playing with people’s LIVES. How careless and idiotic can you be? How could someone not think about what would happen when these were made public??! We’ve already lost so much with USAID being shut down. But it seems some people were dedicated enough to their cause, who chose to stay and try to keep the good work going. How can you not think about how many of them are in prison, or being tortured, or dead now??!
*****And now, please read a very special request from our awesome boss******
Zoomers, if you can find some spare change in the sofa cushions, we could use it. April starts soon, and that is month six of this depressed media climate we now live in due to Trump Depression Syndrome. We thank you for any help you can give, and most of all, we thank you for coming here to read. Ursula
Forgive me, Susan, this is a little off-topic, but definitely under the giant umbrella of horrifically deadly moron behavior of this group!
🥵🤣🤬 Augh! Maniacal laughing from me at the evil morons!! This morning, “they” apologized for wrongly sending an adjudicated protected Maryland resident, Kilmer Abrego-Garcia, to prison in El Salvador! He may have once been a member of MS-13 (never proven by the government), but has no record of committing a crime. Yet, ICE tried to deport him starting in 2018 because Trump said “if I say you’re MS-13 you are MS-13 and you have to go!” While Garcia was in ICE custody, an Immigration Judge agreed that this guy should be removed from the US, but put him under protected status to NEVER be sent back to El Salvador, because he would likely be tortured or killed, so Trump’s ICE released him from custody in 2019 and the guy has been living his life with his US citizen wife and his autistic daughter. Then, Trump’s ICE came for him again! The ICE agents who pulled him from his car apparently knew his history of nonviolence and judicial protection. They waited patiently while his wife came to get their daughter, who was in the car, and took him away. But, the rest of ICE ignored his status and put him ASAP on one of those “hurry before the court stops us!” flights on March 15. Robert Cerna, Acting Field Office Director of Homeland Security, admitted in a court filing yesterday that they made “an administrative error.” But, Trump’s ICE also said getting Garcia back won’t be easy…really?! Send a substitute to El Salvador so the prison doesn’t lose the $1600/month we pay PER PRISONER and bring the guy home! If it isn’t that easy, I can think of only one reason why…he is already dead or near death! 🤬 That is not funny so why am I maniacally laughing at these evil morons?! 🥵🤣 Because I am being driven insane! We are all upset that that these prisoners were not given due process BUT…GARCIA DID GET DUE PROCESS!! He was under TRUMP court protection to not be on that flight and that didn’t stop TRUMP evil from putting him on that plane!! This is all TRUMP and he cannot blame it on “Biden’s lax border policy!” We must keep up the pressure on this story just like with Signalgate! These morons killed innocents in Yemen while trying to kill one Houthi missile expert (did they get him? I dare you to find confirmation!) and now they have probably enabled the murder of a man under their protection!! We as liberals/Dems/good human beings need to make it clear to these evil morons that every way of fighting them is on the table!! I hope my car will survive a trip to DC so I can help surround buildings and kick out the morons inside!! 🤬🤬
I think Senator Booker and his more than 23-hour marathon speech are trying to do exactly that! With any luck, this will kick our Democratic reps to start *thinking* again instead of crying. I listened to him for a couple of minutes, and wow! But back to your comment about the gentleman who was sent to El Salvador – Ouch. ICE is just trying to make their quotas without any thinking involved because some of the people they’re grabbing are American citizens! Damn, I just don’t have the words right now….