swlabr

Hey, buddy, listen. I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. Sorry if I hurt your feelings. I love the CIA. And USAID. Really, I do. Please don't accuse me of ad hominum [sic], that would break my heart. And evidence? Of course, there's no evidence. The US is a perfect little angel; everything it does is moral and good. It's just that big old meanie trump making a mess of things, that's all. Does that make it better?

Well, at this point, you're just being obtuse.

I still don’t get what a non-covert front is.

That's a term you made up, so that's a classic "you problem"!

You said USAID is a front for CIA operations and it isn’t covert when it does these operations. [...] Like I’m picturing a pizza parlor which is a front for a mafia operation, but instead of being covert, it is open. So it says “Mafia’s Pizza” instead of “Tony’s Pizza”. Are you thinking USAID is something like that?

Again, you're the one coming up with this. Stop thinking. You aren't good at it.

Propaganda certainly does exist. I never said that it didn’t.

Great!

I’m disputing that USAID is a CIA operation and not an independent organization with it’s own goals and directives.

Good for you!

I probably just misunderstood what you mean by “front”.

Sure.

I read it as something like a feigned appearance.

That would be the long and short of it.

Maybe I’m just having trouble understanding how a something can be both openly avowed (not covert) and yet non-openly avowed (a front) at the same time.

Definitely don't look up these terms, they might be above your reading level:

• ulterior motives
• chess for the intermediate player
• palace intrigue and scheming eunuchs

I agree with USAID being a tool for soft power.

Great!

So are many things, like Hollywood. Doesn’t mean Hollywood is a CIA operation.

Putting aside the equivocation, that's a lousy counterexample. Are you just going to pretend like propaganda doesn't exist?

covert

Don’t put words in my mouth, bud.

The primary benefit of USAID to the US is as a tool of soft power, internationally. You think the US just does things to be nice? That they don’t have any strategy in mind when throwing cash at other countries? That the CIA wouldn’t play any role in US foreign policy?

Don’t worry, they are buddies

The pundits in question are Derek Thompson and Ezra Klein. More accurately speaking they are liberals.

Did you drop an /s or jk there bud

Dems do literally anything to materially oppose fascism, even in the most minuscule way challenge (impossible)

My understanding of USAID is that it is primarily a front for CIA operations. So, having all their financial activities recorded on a public ledger would be not particularly… intelligent. So there’s that.

Nicole was a bot? I need to make some phone calls... (jk)

Brings to mind the sopranos scene of the two dudes trying to shake down a starbucks or starbucks analogue for protection money