Mary Powell

psychotherapist, retiree, wife, mother, grandmother, progressive, Roman Catholic

[Samantha Power @SamanthaJPower]

Starting in early 2025, Elon Musk and the Trump administration began terminating USAID's programs and firing its staff — with Musk himself boasting about "feeding it into the woodchipper." One year ago today, USAID was officially dissolved, its remaining programs haphazardly folded into the State Department. Amid all the lies and misinformation that have followed, some facts about what has actually been lost:

• USAID saved more than 3 million lives a year at a cost of less than $10/month per American. That is what was destroyed. On purpose.
• According to Boston University's Global Impact Counter — which tracked deaths attributable to the cuts until it stopped operations in February 2026 — an estimated 781,000 people died preventable deaths in the first year, including 518,000 children.
• Global child mortality (the number of children who die before their fifth birthday) rose in 2025 for the first time in 35+ years — by 200,000 additional deaths.
• USAID's 50-country disease surveillance network — the system that cut outbreak response times from 2 weeks to 48 hours — is gone. We are now watching an unprecedented Ebola outbreak unfold in real time — with the highest first-month caseload and death rate in modern history.
• Programs reaching 93 million women and children were cut 92%. TB programs cut 56%. Water and sanitation cut 86%. Over 2,000 health facilities permanently closed.
• 25 million fewer people received humanitarian assistance in 2025. The overall humanitarian budget was slashed 74% — from $14.1 billion to $3.7 billion.
• 363 million people face acute hunger in 2026. The famine early-warning system that would have seen it coming went dark for five months.
• $1.7 billion in democracy and governance funding (election monitoring, anti-corruption work, support for independent media and civil society) was terminated.
• 360+ independent media outlets lost funding. Hundreds of legal clinics closed.
• Far from saving money, the Trump administration itself has already said the dismantlement will cost taxpayers at least $19.2 billion in cancellation fees, severance, and penalties. That's more than half of USAID's annual budget — spent on destruction and closeout, not support for vulnerable people.
• American farmers, universities, and businesses are among the casualties too. USAID partnered with more than 3,500 U.S. companies and maintained 17 university-based research labs. Its work with U.S.-based contractors and the private sector generated hundreds of thousands of American jobs and multiplied the return on every dollar spent. Those markets and partnerships are gone.

[Sen. Bernie Sanders @SenSanders]

If a nurse gives a Senator $50 to vote for Medicare for All, it's illegal.

But Larry Ellison, worth $202 billion, spent $45 million to get Trump elected. So Trump is helping his family control:

CBS
CNN
TikTok
HBO
TNT
MTV
BET
And more

That’s a corrupt campaign finance system.

[James Martin, SJ @JamesMartinSJ]

Catholic Sister released from ICE custody after being detained while on her way to Mass
https://t.co/zbK3vW01KX

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

Massie: "I think it's ironic that we control the House, Senate, Supreme Court, and the White House, and we're yelling 'election fraud'? I mean, we won all the damn elections."

[Paulina Guzik @Guzik_Paulina]

I just play it on repeat since yesterday:

"Hello Pope Leo XIV, I'm Renzo, I'm six years old.
I'd like to ask you a few questions."

Renzo, a little a boy from the poor neighborhood of Barcelona, stole the show yesterday at St. Augustine's parish, a place where Pope Leo admitted he "feels at home."

Renzo in the sweetest way ever asked those questions to the pope:
Do you like soccer?
When you were little, did you want to be Pope?
Why are my mom and dad worried?
Why does my dad have so many jobs?
Why do bad things happen to some people and not to others? Whose fault is it?
Why are there so many people living on the streets? Does no one see them? Does no one help them?
How can we help if the world is so big?
Does God want there to be poor and rich?
Why are there so many lonely grandparents, if they are so important?
And one last question ... Must we always forgive?

What pope Leo answered the boy was really moving.

"Regarding whether I like football, I confess that I play tennis and I enjoy it very much, but I also appreciate football; in fact, during my years as bishop in Peru, I liked to follow how some local teams were doing; and now, as Pope, I have also received football clubs and sports groups," the pope said, adding that "sport is important because it helps us grow up healthy in body and mind."

He said that as World Cup unfolds, "many will be watching the matches. Football reminds us of something we must not forget: life is not a race to show off alone, but a path we learn to travel together."

"Whoever doesn't know how to pass the ball, even if they have talent, hasn't yet understood the game. And whoever doesn't know how to live with others and for others hasn't yet understood life."

Answering whether he wanted to be Pope when he was little, the pope said: "Well, Renzo, I don't think so. I don't think I ever thought about it."

"But I can tell you something: from a young age, I felt the desire to dedicate my life to God. I didn't yet know exactly how or where the Lord would lead me. Over time, I discovered that Jesus was calling me to follow him as a priest, and that this path led through the Order of Saint Augustine."

"But this isn't just true for me," he said. "Every child is a dream of God. You are too. God desires the happiness of all and wants us, from childhood and throughout our lives, to have a heart like that of children (cf. Mt 18:3): capable of trusting, full of kindness; he wants us to be his friends and not turn away from him. Therefore, more important than asking oneself whether one will be a priest, doctor, teacher, parent, or anything else, is asking oneself whether one wants to be a friend of Jesus. Because friendship with Jesus gives us joy, sets us free, and helps us to see, step by step, the vocation and the path that God has planned for each of us."

Answering the point on injustices in the world, Pope Leo told the boy that "through the life of Jesus Christ, God shows us that, although there is suffering, he never abandons any of his children, because he has prepared for us an eternal joy where there will be no more sadness or pain. Let us have confidence, Jesus is with us, he helps us and accompanies us, and gives us strength to go through the difficult moments we may encounter in life."

Stressing that grandparents play a crucial role in families, the pope said: "Let us not allow loneliness and abandonment to become normalized in the lives of older adults. That is a very sad thing. Let's have our hearts open to all of them."

On forgiveness, he told Renzo and those gathered: "It does not mean forgetting by force, as if nothing had happened. Forgiveness means not letting hatred become the master of our hearts ... our willingness to forgive is a condition for the forgiveness we receive from God."
Video: Vatican Media

[Bri Gillis @Bgilly13]

Dems have been looking for their message for years, and @AnnieAndrewsMD just did it (in under two minutes). Take note 📝

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

Some thoughts on the new Epstein Files revelations:

I’ve now read everything that’s come out from the new Haberman and Swan book, and the thing I keep coming back to is the Situation Room. They held multiple meetings in the Situation Room about the Epstein files. That room is for war. It’s for national security emergencies. It is not for figuring out how to spin a scandal you’re telling the country is a hoax.

While the President was deflecting or calling this old news, his own Vice President and Chief of Staff were huddled in the most leak-proof room in America because they knew how bad it really was.

You don’t take a nothingburger to the Situation Room.

And I have to be honest, reading all this brings back a lot of frustration about what happened in the House of Representatives. I sat there and watched Mike Johnson send the House home early to dodge a vote on releasing these files. I watched him refuse to swear in a duly elected colleague for months just to stall the discharge petition. Month after month of excuses, arm twisting, and procedural games, all to keep this information from the public. We only got the files because survivors, families, and a handful of members in both parties simply refused to let it go.

So when people ask me why I talk so much about transparency and accountability, this is why. The truth eventually comes out. It always does.

The only question is whether your leaders helped reveal it or helped bury it.

Everyone who voted to keep these files hidden should have to answer for that.

Finally, notice what’s missing from all of this is any sign that Trump’s DOJ will actually investigate the powerful men named in these files.

Draw your own conclusions about why a Justice Department run by the President’s former defense lawyers might not be eager to pull that thread.

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

The World Cup begins tomorrow, and many will watch the matches. Soccer reminds us of something we must not forget: life is not a race to show off on our own, but a path we learn to walk together. Anyone who does not know how to pass the ball, even if they have talent, has not yet understood the game. Anyone who does not know how to live with and for others has not yet understood life. #ApostolicJourney

[Tim Miller @Timodc]

One time loretta lynch was on the same tarmac as Bill Clinton and went into his plane to talk.

@BretBaier has done 176 segments on that outrageous breach of Justice Department norms.

[💕 Brittany Belle 💕 @BrittanyinTexas]

Flashback: SNL Mocks Trump Comparing Himself to Jesus on Easter 2023 🐣🤣

[The Bulwark @BulwarkOnline]

Former ICE lawyer Ryan Schwank: “I received secretive orders to teach new cadets to violate the Constitution.”

[Meidas_Charise Lee @charise_lee]

“You sure right, I couldn’t do it” bahaha she’s the 👑
She’s so quick witted‼️ 💙💙💙

[Michael Steele @MichaelSteele]

Ahh, and there it is. The End Game. https://t.co/2jDrhYnzwM

[Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT]

A UAE investor secretly gave Trump $187 million and his top Middle East envoy $31 million. And then Trump gave that investor access to sensitive defense technology that broke decades of national security precedent.

Brazen, open corruption. And we shouldn't pretend it's normal.

[PoliticsGirl @IAmPoliticsGirl]

Today is the tipping point.

[Republicans against Trump @RpsAgainstTrump]

This is Alex Pretti, a VA ICU nurse, honoring a veteran he cared for at a VA hospital.

The son of the deceased veteran just posted this video on Facebook with the following message:

“RIP Alex Pretti,
he was my Dads ICU nurse, he read my dad’s final salute at the VA after he passed away. Never wanted to share this video but his speech is very on point. Also my Fathers final words to me was continue to fight the good fight. He would be honored in Alex’ sacrifice, and ashamed of this current administration. In my Dads words I encourage you all to continue to ‘fight the good fight’”

[Governor Tim Walz @GovTimWalz]

I just spoke with the White House after another horrific shooting by federal agents this morning. Minnesota has had it. This is sickening.

The President must end this operation. Pull the thousands of violent, untrained officers out of Minnesota. Now.

[Tom Nichols @RadioFreeTom]

No one can be watching this Davos speech and reach any conclusion but that the President of the United States is mentally disturbed and that something is deeply wrong with him. This is both embarrassing and extremely dangerous.

[PBS News @NewsHour]

Even though PBS and NPR are still in existence, President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he “heard they’re closed up.”

During a news conference at the White House that lasted more than 90 minutes, Trump noted that, among his accomplishments during the first year of his second term in office, he signed legislation “to cut all taxpayer funding” to the two main American public media networks.

The Trump administration’s move mainly affected the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the independent nonprofit organization that distributed federal funds to PBS, NPR, public media programming and more than 1,500 local stations. The corporation’s board voted earlier this year to dissolve itself after Congress voted last summer, at Trump’s request, to claw back about $1.1 billion of previously approved federal funding for public broadcasting.

While the rescission of federal funding and the dissolution of the CPB resulted in layoffs, programming cancellations and operational changes at stations across the country, PBS and NPR continue to air news, arts and other programming on television, radio and online platforms.

[Tom Nichols @RadioFreeTom]

I don't know why he thought it was a good idea to go out in front of the country in this condition, but I am mesmerized watching it