What you don’t know…

“I honestly believe it is better to know nothing than to know what ain’t so.”

– Josh Billings, American humorist, 1874 I agree.

Not knowing things may mean ignorance on one’s part.

However, knowing what “ain’t so” makes you a fool.

In short, there’s what you know … And there’s what you don’t know … Let’s start small, by just taking a single agency selected by DOGE for inspection for wasteful spending.

The USAID agency.

A Deep Dive: John F. Kennedy created the organization at the height of the Cold War to counter Soviet influence. Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act in 1961, and Kennedy signed that law and an executive order establishing USAID as an independent agency.

And, here’s what warranted the recent examination of USAID: It has appointed and not elected officials in charge, the monies are still taxpayer-funded, and it is totally unaccountable for them, as it basically functions as a front for the CIA, U.S. liberal causes, propaganda and sexual-spectrum causes, while ostensively masquerading as a foreign aid organization.

And here’s why an investigation into it was initiated: Per the New York Post, by Josh Christenson, Feb. 3, 2025: “’It became apparent that it’s not an apple with a worm in it,’ Musk said. ‘What we have is just a ball of worms. You’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It’s beyond repair.’ ‘We’re shutting it down.’” “His comments came after the administration placed two top security chiefs at USAID on leave after they refused to turn over classified material in restricted areas to Musk’s government- inspection teams, a current and a former U.S. official told The Associated Press on Sunday.”

Then, the Chief of Staff resigned as well.

“Members of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, eventually did gain access Saturday to the aid agency’s classified information, which includes intelligence reports, the former official said.”

So, let’s recap: #1-We have a completely independent and irresponsible agency with no accountability to the American taxpayer or Congress … what-so-ever, spending money like drunken sailors to God-knows-who, for God-knows-what, Godknows- when, and Godknows- how much. All unaccountable – not voted on by anyone! Sweet deal, if you can get it, huh?

And #2-Those at the top tier of that agency blocked any and all attempts at discovery into it’s operations by DOGE and President Trump’s investigation of it’s activities.

Don’t see anything wrong with all that? Nothing to see here, right? R-i-ig- h-t? I don’t think any business auditor would agree with you. And if you have been on the receiving end of a federal/ state business audit and had to open up your company’s files for inspection like I have had to personally do in the past, then you damn well know it wouldn’t!

And yet, you have folks out there, screaming, “there’s nothing wrong with USAID!” “Just leave it alone! (like the sobbing Brittany Spears fan of years ago, crying over the internet, “Leave Brittany alone!) Only leaving people in their gross ignorance is a disservice – especially when it involves YOUR money.

So, how about a blast from the past, ala USAID. See if you can remember this one?

This story comes to us, gratis the English newspaper, The Guardian, from an Oct., 11, 2019 article by Jacob Kushner, titled, “Haiti and the Failed Promise of US Aid.”

Otherwise known as the infamous, “Clinton Initiative for Haiti.”

Remember that little gem? The journalist begins with a concise mission goal of USAID in Haiti, under the Clintons: “They (combine) foreign aid with diplomacy, attracting foreign financing to build factories, roads and other infrastructure that, in many cases, Haitian taxpayers must repay. Hillary has called this “economic statecraft”; others have called it a “neoliberal” approach to aid.

“The most significant test of this approach in Haiti began on 12 January 2010, when a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck just west of the capital, Port-au-Prince. In a nation of 10 million people, 1.6 million were displaced by the disaster, and as many as 316,000 are estimated to have died. The earthquake also dealt a huge blow to Haiti’s economic development, levelling homes and businesses in the most populous area of the country and destroying crucial infrastructure, including the nation’s biggest port.

“Within days of the earthquake, the Clintons stepped up to lead the global response. Bill was selected to co-chair the commission tasked with directing relief spending. As US secretary of state, Hillary helped to oversee $4.4bn that Congress had earmarked for recovery efforts by the US Agency for International Development, or USAID. “At every stage of Haiti’s reconstruction – fundraising, oversight and allocation – a Clinton was now involved,” Jonathan Katz, a journalist who has covered Haiti for more than a decade, wrote in 2015.

“The flagship projects of Haiti’s reconstruction were the Caracol industrial park and a power plant and new port that were to come with it. “Each must be completed and remain viable for the others to succeed,” the US Government Accountability Office, Congress’s official financial watchdog, wrote in an audit of the project in 2013. But the audit found that USAID, which was leading the port project, lacked “staff with technical expertise in planning, construction, and oversight of a port.” USAID, the audit pointed out, “has not constructed a port anywhere in the world since the 70s”.

“The audit offered a damning account of USAID’s efforts to build the port. Construction was delayed from the start. The time needed to build the port was revised from an initial estimate of two-anda- half years to 10 years – and then indefinitely. USAID had “no current projection for when construction of the port may begin or how long it will take”. This was “due in part to a lack of USAID expertise in port planning in Haiti”.

“To make matters worse, in June 2015, a USAID feasibility study found that “a new port was not viable for a variety of technical, environmental and economic reasons”. What’s more, the US did not have enough money to finish the job: “USAID funding will be insufficient to cover a majority of projected costs,” with an “estimated gap” of $117m to $189m. Not only was the port not viable, it was not even wanted: the private companies USAID had hoped to attract to Haiti’s north “had no interest in supporting the construction of a new port in northern Haiti”, the feasibility study determined.

“By January 2019, nine years after the earthquake, USAID had spent $2.3bn in Haiti. Most of it was given to American companies and hardly any passed through Haitian hands. Less than 3 percent of that spending went directly to Haitian organisations or firms, according to research by CEPR. In contrast, 55 percent of the money went to American companies located in and around Washington DC. Most likely, according to the research, the majority of what USAID allegedly spent on Haiti’s recovery ended right back in the US.

“It is not clear what happened to the money allocated for a port in Haiti, because USAID would not tell me.”

I bet they didn’t … just like today – with Democrats stonewalling for the institutional grift machine that is the USAID hack-arama. Just like the ‘Clinton initiative,’ where all the money wound up as ‘kickbacks’ and payoffs, instead of where it was designated to go.

And tell me again to, “Leave it A-l-o-o-o-ne!”

Robert L. Hall is a resident of Marion and has a Bachelor’s Degree in music from the University of Memphis and a Master’s Degree from Florida State University. He is the pianist for Avondale Baptist Church.

Robert L. Hall

The Wordaholic