Heh

 

You know that D.O.G.E.'s budget cuts are hitting the target when you read about this sort of shenanigan.  From Time magazine:

U.S. Added to Global Human Rights Watchlist Over Declining Civil Liberties

The United States was added Sunday to the CIVICUS Monitor Watchlist, a research tool that publicizes the status of freedoms and threats to civil liberties worldwide. 

The move comes amid President Donald Trump’s “assault on democratic norms and global cooperation,” said CIVICUS—a global alliance and network of civil society groups, including Amnesty International, that advocates for greater citizen action in areas where civil liberties are limited—in a press release. The organization also cited the Administration’s cut of more than 90% of its foreign aid contracts and its crackdown on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)—which Trump called “illegal and immoral discrimination programs”—through executive action.

“The Trump Administration seems hellbent on dismantling the system of checks and balances which are the pillars of a democratic society,” said Mandeep Tiwana, Interim Co-Secretary General of CIVICUS, in a press release. “Restrictive Executive Orders, unjustifiable institutional cutbacks, and intimidation tactics through threatening pronouncements by senior officials in the Administration are creating an atmosphere to chill democratic dissent, a cherished American ideal.”

There's more at the link, if you want to waste your time reading it.

I'd never heard of CIVICUS, and didn't know them from a bar of soap, so I went looking.  So did Charlie Martin of PJ Media.

I looked at the estimable DataRepublican Nonprofit Financials page, where I found that in its most recent filing, CIVICUS has a total of $10,573,000 (rounded to the nearest dollar) in receipts, of which $7,882,463 — or about 75% — came from the US taxpayer.

At this point, the light dawned. What is the United States' cruel human rights abuse? Cutting back on funding to NGOs.

Recently, on the Larry Kudlow show (March 8, 2025), Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) — always good for a sound bite — observed: "When you trim fat, pigs squeal."

Again, more at the link.

Perhaps we should send a telegram of congratulations to D.O.G.E. for making the world a much more difficult place for those sponging off US taxpayer dollars, and a much better place for the rest of us!

Peter