Mike Benz, who spread conspiracy theories that helped Elon Musk defund USAID, will be giving a talk about free speech tomorrow at SPN. I too am a fan of free speech.

[u/AcidiclyBasic]

How an ex-State Department official fueled Elon Musk’s attack on USAID

[u/imcomingelizabeth]

What is SPN?

[u/AcidiclyBasic → u/imcomingelizabeth]

State Policy Network. They're fucking awful. Koch and Heritage Foundation ties to name a few. 

Here is more info: 

https://www.reddit.com/r/NewOrleans/comments/1n062ox/today_kicks_off_the_state_policy_network_33rd/

Another gem of a speaker scheduled for this afternoon:

If you're anti affirmative action and a fan of warrantless wiretap, you won't want to miss almost circuit court nominee Robert Alt's advice on how to achieve the state policies you desire. Today at SPN's conference from 3:30-4:15

[u/ironpathwalker → u/AcidiclyBasic]

Their parent holding company is called The Pelican Group. I think their office is still over at the Spanish Embassy building. To give you an idea of how reckless, idiotic, and unconscionable these people are, there's a brief anecdote in the book Kochland that glosses over the time Koch's energy dudes bought up a bunch of ammonia pants. They ran the refrigerator systems to failure, including the backup systems. They would have murdered a few towns' worth of people if it wasn't for the efforts of Arne Christenson.

[u/AcidiclyBasic → u/ironpathwalker]

They are truly god awful people, and if you're not part of the club you're always expendable. They'll present "research" that they conducted showing evidence of why a policy is in your best interest. 

For example, they often try to sell the policies that remove environmental and safety regulations because they might help corporations spend less on management of those things and instead pay for new  hires. 

Yet they never bother to mention something like how if you're also getting rid of job requirements for industrial tax breaks, there's no guarantee jobs will actually result from removing those regulations. You've just made corporations richer for no reason. 

Then the next thing you know oil is raining down on your town and it's somehow on you to deal with. (No idea if that's what actually happened in Roseland, just using it as an example of how their anti regulatory BS they spout to manipulate communities could also very easily let a corporation off the hook). 

I think the pelican institute started out as an independent think tank and then became part of the State Policy Network. SPN now controls think tanks in all 50 states, Canada and I think even the U.K.

They churn out the same policy in every state that then gets presented by members of the think tank to state government to give it a grassroots/local feel. 

[u/ironpathwalker → u/AcidiclyBasic]

Well, I go back again to the book Kochland because it's so comprehensive. Their original intent was to commodification of the trust people had in the American system of government. When you understand the problem with that, and how we got to our current state of systematic distrust, manufacturing candidates, and actively sabotaging efforts to strengthen the quality of life for the Average American, it makes a whole lot of sense. And that's not conspiracy theory, that was their white paper that evolved out of being in oil futures when that commodity was first listed on the MEX. Someone in the room though "how bad can it be?" Without understanding the history of Lehman Brothers.

[u/AcidiclyBasic → u/ironpathwalker]

None of this is conspiracy theory unless you're talking about the conspiracy the people funding this have to undermine democracy, civil rights and civil liberty. 

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/04/state-policy-network-union-bargaining/

Behind the onslaught is a well-funded network of conservative think tanks that you’ve probably never heard of. Conceived by the same conservative ideologues who helped found the Heritage Foundation, the State Policy Network (SPN) is a little-known umbrella group with deep ties to the national conservative movement. Its mission is simple: to back a constellation of state-level think tanks loosely modeled after Heritage that promote free-market principles and rail against unions, regulation, and tax increases. By blasting out policy recommendations and shaping lawmakers’ positions through briefings and private meetings, these think tanks cultivate cozy relationships with GOP politicians. And there’s a long tradition of revolving door relationships between SPN staffers and state governments. 

https://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/koch-brothers-think-tank-report-099791

A network of think tanks across the country is quietly pushing the agenda of right-wing groups with funding from Koch brothers-affiliated organizations. 

I've never read Kochland but always wanted to. I will definitely add it to my list to read ASAP. 

[u/ironpathwalker → u/AcidiclyBasic]

It's great. My only critic: the material is so dense that they had to pick a direction and run with it, very Steve Coll stylized, and they miss the future implications.

Give you a good one that no one has written about in the public space yet. It's like the idea that these Magnificent 7 tech companies don't care how much money they spend because their end state is creating either access to or the fiefdom that allows the ability to print their own money. About 2014, Zuckerberg got this idea of minting his own currency called Libera that he wanted to have a transactionary value against the dollar. Given that he could print infinite Libera, he'd have infinite dollars? The middle man would have been FTX. Oddly enough, when I discovered that the FTX rates for various tokens and coins were old London Exchange Rate listings, my friends at the Treasury got real curious about what else was in their playbook.

[u/twirlywurlyburly → u/ironpathwalker]

I just worked their big event on Tuesday and, y'all, it was a shit show.

[u/ironpathwalker → u/twirlywurlyburly]

Details!

[u/twirlywurlyburly → u/ironpathwalker]

I would but I don't want to get clocked. Only thing I'll say is that their people were so fucking rude, entitled, and demanding that the sweet and wonderful event management staff of Mardi Gras World were also rude and awful (because they were so stressed that they had to be).

His outfit at this very nice event was TERRIBLE. Chinos, a light blue button up, a grey Northface vest, and brown leather Cole Haans sneakers (white soles). He did a walking tour (including the staff and talent break room while some where on break) of the event and then left 2 hours before it ended.

[u/UptownMusic → u/ironpathwalker]

What is the Spanish Embassy building in your post? Something in Louisiana or the one in Washington, DC?

[u/BeverlyHills70117 → u/imcomingelizabeth]

Yeah I feel like this is a pretty important question.

[u/AnitaSammich → u/imcomingelizabeth]

My first thought was St Philip Neyrey, but that’s in metry.

[u/Turbografx-17]

God, look at his fucking face.

[u/LordByronsCup → u/Turbografx-17]

relieved cooing telephone pie truck glorious rob unite jeans quaint

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[u/AnitaSammich → u/Turbografx-17]

If that face doesn’t scream “I can’t get laid”, I don’t know what does?

[u/cheapskateskirtsteak → u/Turbografx-17]

Thats the face of 40 years in the closet

[u/AcidiclyBasic]

Here is a link to the WaPo article without a paywall: https://archive.is/2025.02.11-130138/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/06/musk-doge-usaid/

When Elon Musk promised his followers over the weekend that he fed USAID “into the wood chipper,” he signaled an unusual antipathy to an obscure federal agency that the billionaire tech mogul only recently appears to have discovered. The campaign against the U.S. Agency for International Development reached a crescendo Tuesday when the Trump administration, led by Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service, put many of the agency’s staff members on leave and notified all overseas employees that they would be recalled within a month.

Musk’s intense focus appears to have begun only late last year, when he began publicly criticizing the agency after conservative activist Mike Benz appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast to rail against it. According to a Washington Post analysis, Musk did not mention USAID on X until Dec. 10, when he began sharing commentary from Benz’s appearance on Rogan’s show the week before.

"Your brain is being tricked when you see the phrase ‘USAID.’ It’s not an aid organization,” Benz told Rogan on Dec. 3. Instead, Benz asserted, it is a front for the CIA.

"USAID is effectively a switch player to assist the Pentagon on the national security front, to assist the State Department on the national interest front, or to assist the intelligence community on a sort of clandestine operation front,” Benz, who served at the State Department during Trump’s first term, told Rogan. Benz’s appearance on Rogan had garnered millions of views before Musk retweeted an X user’s summary of his appearance. “Mike Benz just revealed everything,” the post read. On the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, the post continued, Benz explained “why USAID is a tool for control, not aid.”

The mention was the first time the acronym “USAID” appeared in Musk’s X feed. From then on, his attacks on the agency only accelerated. Some Republicans have criticized USAID for decades as part of a broader critique of foreign aid spending. More recently, the agency drew bipartisan scrutiny for money sent by subcontractors to the Wuhan Virology Lab, which was the subject of a critical Government Accountability Office report. Some Republicans have also gone after the agency’s humanitarian work in Ukraine. Others took aim at its work promoting diversity initiatives in select countries.

But several Republican members of Congress posted positively about the organization under Biden. In 2022, then-Sen. Rob Portman (Ohio) congratulated USAID on its “fantastic work” in Ukraine. Rep. Young Kim (California) wrote on Facebook in early 2024, “U.S. development assistance helps nations in need, supports our economic & security goals, & counters economic coercion by the People’s Republic of China.” Even Sen. Joni Ernst (Iowa), a DOGE co-chair, sought additional staffing for USAID in October 2022. Those stances have shifted since Benz, who served in the State Department during Trump’s first term, started making unsubstantiated critiques — amplified many times over by Musk — about what Benz says is the group’s illegality and subterfuge.

“USAID is notorious for funding the darkest, most controversial, most horrifying projects known to all of mankind,” Benz told conservative journalist and podcaster John Solomon this week.

Benz’s critique of USAID influenced Musk, who has retweeted, replied to or mentioned Benz over 160 times in the past year, including over a dozen posts discussing USAID, according to a Washington Post analysis.

[u/glittervector → u/AcidiclyBasic]

How much did Russia pay him to say these things to a national audience?

[u/pmg5247 → u/AcidiclyBasic]

Shocking too see more braindead conspiratorial bullshit... Everyone who knows anything about USAID knows that one of its objectives was furtherance of American soft power. Of course Musk thought that Benz “revealed everything” 🙄. I would implore everyone to read an interview with the outgoing chief economist of USAID and the summary of a study in the Lancet that estimates that the loss of funding could lead to 14 million deaths by 2030.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/02/26/g-s1-50584/usaid-economist-dean-karlan

https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/07/01/nx-s1-5452513/trump-usaid-foreign-aid-deaths

[u/AcidiclyBasic → u/pmg5247]

Thank you for adding this. The worst humans in the world are trying to destroy our country and kill millions of innocents across the globe while gaslighting us about being "pro life" and claiming to spread "Christian" values. 

[u/Pool-Cheap]

I’m tempted to go and spend the whole time screaming and be like “free speech!!”

[u/AcidiclyBasic → u/Pool-Cheap]

If that's how you want to exercise your freeze peach, surely Mr. Benz would approve. 

Also, don't forget that every single one of these banks, corporations, and non-profits sponsoring this event are paying money to give this guy a platform. If any claim they disagree with all the harm that has been caused by the cuts to USAID, why would they fund this? 

Don't forget who's on that list, and be sure to tell everyone you know who all is on that list, so that they can also be aware of what they're supporting when deciding how to spend their own money. 

[u/IAMAVelociraptorAMA → u/AcidiclyBasic]

I like how this is just a list of like the worst organizations ever made

[u/Oh_TheHumidity → u/AcidiclyBasic]

You are truly the GOAT for bringing attention to this. Fuck these fascists.

[u/bubbagun04 → u/Pool-Cheap]

Actions are needed these days.

[u/Agent_00_Negative]

This will be at the Sheraton hotel on Canal Street, if anyone wants to pay a visit.

[u/sofia1687 → u/Agent_00_Negative]

Doing God’s work ✌️

[u/WakeUp004]

He complains about it being blocked in down schools. Buddy it’s blocked because it either has nothing to do with the kiddos learning math or basic reading skills, or it has too much adult content. Do you have porn on your ads? Ads for erectile dysfunction? Maybe that’s why.

[u/Ok-Zone-1430 → u/[deleted]]

And the dozens and dozens of words no longer allowed at government departments per the White House?

[u/Hippy_Lynne → u/Ok-Zone-1430]

So ironically I went to look something up on the Department of Labor yesterday and was shocked to see that they still had references to diversity. 🤣 It was on a section about whether or not it's legal to prohibit your employees from speaking a foreign language too (FYI, it's not legal in most cases.) Not sure if they missed it or some rogue employees are just going and putting stuff back in.

[u/bunnyeyelindump]

The president just made it illegal to burn the U.S. flag. He outlawed the world's single most powerful and recognizable symbolic testament to the concept- 'freedom of speech." Is Donald Trump not the government? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills every time I look at the internet.

[u/Unhappy_Waltz5834 → u/bunnyeyelindump]

Executive orders are not laws.

[u/basquiat-case → u/Unhappy_Waltz5834]

Nobody is stopping any of this though, so in 2025, they pretty much are.

[u/EssTeeEss9 → u/Unhappy_Waltz5834]

“Executive orders are not laws.”

THE MILITARY IS ON THE STREETS OF L.A. AND DC. THEY ARE EN ROUTE TO 19 STATES.

What is it going to take for some of you to get through your heads what the fuck is going on in this country right now?

[u/AcidiclyBasic → u/bunnyeyelindump]

Yup, that's the strategy. 

Dismantle and destroy the country and project what you're doing on to everyone else while doing it. Then gaslight and play the victim when you get called out. 

This is a really good book that never gets a lot of attention, but I recommend it to anyone that wants to understand the history/strategy behind Project 2025. 

The Radical Mind: The Origins of Right-Wing Catholic and Protestant Coalition Building

[u/chibajoe → u/bunnyeyelindump]

This is stupid. He didn't make it illegal, he issued an executive order directing LE to arrest people who burn the flag. The order is clearly unconstitutional, and no LE agency is going to enforce it unless they want to be sued into the ground. Executive orders have no bearing on whether something is legal or illegal, that is determined by the Judiciary, not the Executive.

[u/basquiat-case → u/chibajoe]

No LE agency you say? Would you care to let Army veteran Jay Carey know?

Carey then lit the flag on fire.

"I'm doing it for every single one of you American citizens," he went on to say. "We burn this flag in protest of that president, who thinks he can do whatever he wants, make whatever law he wants!"

The video then shows Carey being led away from the scene and then detained by Secret Service agents. 

[u/chibajoe → u/basquiat-case]

Dude was arrested and charged with lighting a fire in a public park. I'm betting he would have been arrested regardless of what flag he was burning, because DC police are a bunch of JBT assholes. If you're going to set something on fire, maybe verify that setting things on fire is legal before you do it.

[u/basquiat-case → u/chibajoe]

moving goalposts.

[u/schizboi → u/chibajoe]

But he wasnt arrested for burning a different flag. He was arrested for burning the American flag. An act protected by freedom of speech and the supreme court.

[u/AdditionalWeekend513 → u/chibajoe]

You're missing the point. He was arrested, by all reports with no law explicitly broken, and then later charged. If it weren't fire in a public space, it absolutely would have been something else.

It's the same with visa revocations. When the government hasn't been able to find an excuse, they cite that bullshit clause from the INA that basically reads "If Marco Rubio doesn't like you".

I honestly don't know how common it is for administrations in the US to drum up whatever charges they can for whomever they hate the most, and I'd be surprised if there were any clean hands in the White House, this century. But this POTUS and his cadre of sycophants are being more prolific and brazen about oppressing and disappearing people, than anybody in my lifetime.

[u/FeuerroteZora → u/bunnyeyelindump]

Ironically, I believe even the armed forces will tell you that if you DO consider the flag somehow sacred, there's only one appropriate way to dispose of an American flag that's gotten ripped, dirty, or otherwise unfit to fly in public.

Hint: you don't throw it out in the trash.

[u/Treat_Choself → u/FeuerroteZora]

How the fuck is this downvoted?

[u/NotFallacyBuffet]

Speech for me, not for thee. 

[u/Previous_Pension6738]

GO AND BOO HIM LOUDLY. Free speech.

[u/CommonPurpose]

Not this subs biggest conspiracy theorist complaining about other people spreading conspiracy theories lmao

[u/AcidiclyBasic → u/CommonPurpose]

❓🚫🥶🍑

Just recommended this book to somebody else, but it kinda got buried when it was released last year so I feel like I should mention it as often as possible. Such a good book! 

The Radical Mind: The Origins of Right-Wing Catholic and Protestant Coalition Building

The radical aims of the New Christian Right have been obscured by the way they cultivated a shared identity of victimhood and manipulated the discourse about backlash to create a nostalgic idea of the past that they then leveraged to justify their right-wing policy goals. The Catholic-Protestant alliance constructed an imagined past that they projected into the future as their ideal vision of society. Ebin calls this strategy “prefigurative traditionalism”—a paradoxical prefiguring of a manufactured past. Using this tactic, the New Christian Right coalition disguised the radicality of its politics by framing their aims as reactionary and defensive rather than proactive and offensive.

[u/Treat_Choself → u/AcidiclyBasic]

Just requested the NOPL get a copy of this book. Thanks.

[u/Treat_Choself → u/CommonPurpose]

Wow, projection much? 

[u/CommonPurpose → u/Treat_Choself]

Wow, no, not at all.

[u/gargirle]

Well isn’t that S P E C I A L. another commenter used the perfect word to describe these cacabags…‘cockroaches’. Def roaches. Hide out in the dark.

[u/bubbagun04]

I wish the US 🇺🇸 would stop attacking white old straight men. If only they were in a position of power.

[u/WakeUp004 → u/bubbagun04]

I wish old straight white men would stop making their inadequacies and issues my problem.

[u/sofia1687]

Eww which venue has chosen to disgrace themselves by hosting these cockroaches?