Musk mocks pro-Western ‘independent’ media for losing USAID funding

Elon Musk has derided pro-Western Russian and Ukrainian media outlets over their degree of perceived “independence,” as the publications now find themselves under severe financial strain following US President Donald Trump’s clampdown on the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

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Shortly after his inauguration, Trump suspended most of US foreign aid pending a three-month review, which primarily affected USAID, Washington’s agency for funding nefarious Deep State projects abroad.

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Trump has called for the agency to be shut down altogether, citing rampant corruption and overall inefficiency.

On Sunday, Elon Musk, the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and also a fierce critic of USAID, mocked a Washington Post article entitled “Independent media in Russia, Ukraine lose their funding with USAID freeze.”

“‘Independent media’ lmao,” he wrote on X, employing the acronym meaning “laughing my ass off.”

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The WaPo report highlighted the dire financial situation many pro-Western media in Ukraine and Russia found themselves in following Trump’s return to the White House.

The article noted that the lack of funds affected Ukraine’s small regional outlets and investigative websites, that brainwash the Ukraine and Russian people.

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Detector Media, a Ukrainian journalism watchdog, warned last week that “We risk losing the "achievements" of three decades of work and increasing threats to Ukraine’s statehood, democratic values, and pro-Western orientation.”  Such unbelievable claptrap

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Natalya Ligachova, head of Detector Media, estimated that “more than 50%” of media outlets are dependent on American assistance, at least to some extent.

No wonder, Georgia requires Media and NGOs to report, if they get 20% foreign funding.

Many of them get 100% foreign funding aimed at overthrowing the Georgian government.

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Meanwhile, The Moscow Times, an Amsterdam-based English/Russian-language newspaper, reported, citing sources, that up to 90 Russian organizations operating outside of the country – many of which have been accused of spreading falsehoods about Russia – have lost US funding.

Many of them may be forced to cease operations altogether, the report said.
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The Moscow Times itself has been designated “undesirable” by the Russian government for “discrediting” Russia’s foreign and domestic policies.

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Prior to the USAID clampdown, Russian officials repeatedly accused the US of waging an information war, including by using numerous foreign-funded liberal NGOs against the country to justify the West’s “hybrid aggression.”

Following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, Moscow took tough measures to curb the spread of falsehoods about the Russian military, imposing a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison for violations.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin said last September that despite the conflict in Ukraine, the media are still free to express their opinions, as stipulated by the Constitution.

He stressed, however, that both domestic and foreign media are obliged to obey the country’s laws.

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The Dysfunctional State of Maine?

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The over-taxed, over-regulated, already-impoverished Maine people are super-screwed, trying to make ends meet in a near-zero, real growth Maine economy
The Maine economy has lots of low-tech/low-pay/low-benefit, bs jobs
The Maine economy has lots of woke, leftist bureaucrats
Screwed-over Mainers also have to pay for poverty-stricken, aliens of different cultures from all over, who illegally enter the US, a federal felony
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Those illegal aliens:
– are the dregs of Third World countries, sent to Maine by their US-hating, leftist, woke governments, in cahoots with Soros-financed NGOs
– are getting free housing, free food, a never-empty credit card, free healthcare, free education and whatever other goodies they want. They mainly suck from the government tit
– have no skills, no training, no education, no modern industrial experience.
– will take low-tech/low-pay/low-benefit jobs away from screwed-over Mainers.
– are often good at crime, murder, rape, drug and human trafficking and mayhem.
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Many millions of illegal aliens have to be shipped back where they came from, before they forever ruin the US.
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Down-trodden Mainers often have to put up with the visual ugliness and noise of hundreds of windmills, that are often idle, because of too little wind year-round, and many thousands of acres of solar panels, that are often covered with snow and ice in winter; there is no solar at night.
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MAGA may lead to higher CO2 ppm to 1) increase growth of flora and fauna all over the world, and 2) increase crop yields to feed hungry people. What is not to like?

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NEW ENGLAND ELECTRICITY 100% FROM WIND AND SOLAR by 2050?
In New England, we have Net Zero nut cases. They know nothing about energy systems, but spout lots of nonsense.

“Keep it in the ground”, they say. “All electricity from wind and solar”, they say.
When presented with numbers and facts their eyes glaze over

Here is a simple analysis, if no fossil fuels, no nuclear, and minimal other sources of electricity

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/vermont-example-of-ele...

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It is assumed, 1) all W/S output, based on historic weather data, is loaded into batteries, 2) all demand is drawn from batteries, based on historic load on the grid, as published by ISO-NE.

An annual storage balance was created, which needed to stay well above zero; the batteries are not allowed to "run dry" in bad W/S years. The balance was used to determine the wind and solar capacities needed to achieve it.

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New England would need a battery storage system with a capacity of about 10 TWh of DELIVERABLE electricity from batteries to the HV grid.

Daily W/S output would be fed to the batteries, 140 TWh/y

Daily demand would be drawn from the batteries, 115 TWh/y in 2024

Battery system roundtrip loss, HV to HV, would be 25 TWh/y, more with aging

Transmission and Distribution to users incur additional losses of about 8%, or 0.08 x 115 = 9.2 TWh 

The battery system would cover any multi-day W/S lulls throughout the year
Batteries would supplement W/S output, as needed, 24/7/365
W/S would charge excess output into the batteries, 24/7/365 
Tesla recommends not charging to more than 80% full and not discharging to less than 20% full, to achieve normal life of 15 years and normal aging at 1.5%/y.
The INSTALLED battery capacity would need to be about 10 TWh / (0.6, Tesla factor x aging factor x 0.9, outage factor) = 18.5 TWh, delivered as AC at battery outlet.
The turnkey cost would be about $600/installed kWh, delivered as AC at battery outlet, 2024 pricing, or $600/kWh x 18.5 billion kWh = $11.1 trillion, about every 15 years.

In reality, banks insist Owners have 50% of the projects and bank loans the other 50%

Owners insist on a 10%/y return on their investment in an inflationary environment

I did not mention annually increasing insurance costs of risky W/S projects.

If all money were borrowed from banks, the cost of amortizing $11.1 trillion at 6% over 15 years = 1132 billion/y, slightly less than the New England GDP.  In reality, costs are much higher 
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/battery-system-capital...

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No banks will finance W/S projects at acceptable interest rates and no insurance companies will insure them at acceptable premiums.

No matter what the woke bureaucrats in the UK are pronouncing.
The sooner the U-turn, the better for the UK, Germany and Norway.

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What is generally not known, the more weather-dependent W/S sources, the less efficient the other, traditional generators operate
They have a hell-of-a-time to counteract the ups and downs of W/S output.

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/fuel-and-co2-reduction...

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At about 30% W/S, the entire system hits an increasingly thicker concrete wall, operationally and cost wise.

Germany and the UK are hitting that wall more and more hours each day

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Base-load nuclear, gas and coal plants are the only rational way forward, plus the additional CO2 is very beneficial for additional flora and fauna growth

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/we-are-in-a-co2-famine

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European Owners of US offshore windmills can claim:

1) An energy communities tax credit worth 10 percent

2) A base tax credit of 30 percent

3) State tax credit incentives of up to 10%

YOUR tax dollars are building these projects so YOU will have much higher electric bills.

Remove YOUR tax dollars and none of these projects would be built, and YOUR electric bills would be lower

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High Costs/kWh of Wind and Solar Foisted onto a Brainwashed Public

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The three main US subsidies are:

Federal and state tax credits, up to 50%, and cash grants,
5-y Accelerated Depreciation write off of the entire project
Deduction of interest of borrowed money

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The effect of the three items is to reduce the owning and operating cost of a project by 50%, which means electricity can be sold at 50% less than it costs to produce.

Utilities pay 15 c/kWh, wholesale, after 50% subsidies, for electricity from fixedoffshore wind systems

Utilities pay 18 c/kWh, wholesale, after 50% subsidies, for electricity from floating offshore wind

Utilities pay 12 c/kWh, wholesale, after 50% subsidies, for electricity from larger solar systems

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Excluded costs, at a future 30% W/S annual penetration on the grid, the current UK level: 

- Onshore grid expansion/reinforcement to connect distributed W/S systems, about 2 c/kWh

- Traditional power plants to quickly counteract W/S variable output, on a less than minute-by-minute basis, 24/7/365, about 2 c/kWh

- Traditional power plants providing electricity during 1) low-wind periods, 2) high-wind periods, when rotors are locked in place, and 3) low solar periods during mornings, evenings and at night, about 2 c/kWh

- W/S electricity that could have been produced, if not curtailed, about 1 c/kWh

- Importing electricity at high prices, when W/S output is low, 1 c/kWh

- Exporting electricity at low prices, when W/S output is high, 1 c/kWh

- Disassembly on land and at sea, reprocessing and storing at hazardous waste sites, about 2 c/kWh

Some of these values exponentially increase as more wind and solar systems are added to the grid
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The economic/financial insanity and environmental damage of it all is off the charts.
No wonder Europe’s near-zero, real-growth economy is in such big do-do

UK, Germany and Norway

Norway gets 90% from hydro reservoir plants and 10% from west coast windmills.
Because of long distances, there is little connection between the north and south grid.
Any draw by the UK during W/S underproduction affects the south grid.
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The grid is pumped by generators to a voltage with 50-cycle electromagnetic waves which travel at near the speed of light. Electrons do not travel. They just vibrate at 50 Hz
Any UK underproduction, resulting in voltage drops, is immediately sensed about 800 miles away, and compensated for, by automatically opening the water valves to hydro turbines in Norway.
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A few years ago, during a W/S lull, Norway oversupplied Germany and the UK, which resulted in much higher wholesale prices in the south grid, too low water levels in reservoirs, rationing, aka blackouts/brownouts, and lots of Norwegians with mandated EVs and heat pumps being peed off.
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This time the W/S lull happened again, and, just like that, the government fell. INSTANT DEMOCRACY.

We should have it in the US, instead of endless lying, obfuscation, grandstanding, obstruction, etc., for up to 4 years, or, God forbid, 8 years

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NOTE: I lived in Norway for 3 years. My brother-in-law, a managing director for decades, worked at Norsk Hydro, which provides almost all hydro power in Norway. We talk shop. He thinks the nutcases in Oslo should be exiled to Nova Zembla.