Sirius Basterd

I build things

[Sirius Basterd @RobotWhatIsLove]

@ScottMStedman She really fucked up

[Sirius Basterd @RobotWhatIsLove]

@mehdirhasan @NickKristof She could have pushed back way harder with actual facts!!

[Sirius Basterd @RobotWhatIsLove]

@mehdirhasan @elonmusk She didn’t come prepared to rebut his bullshit. So frustrating.

[Sirius Basterd @RobotWhatIsLove]

@sjs856 I’m pissed she didn’t come prepared for this!!! She let him lie and had nothing!! Argh come on how did she not realize this would happen.

[Sirius Basterd @RobotWhatIsLove]

@elijahwood Wanna go together? Metreon in SF

[Sirius Basterd @RobotWhatIsLove]

@bubbleboi Still waiting 2 weeks to buy back into $INTC?

[Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 @Noahpinion]

No you won't. You'll pay them hundreds of billions of dollars in war reparations because your boss is afraid of high gas prices. LOL

[Jessica Tarlov @JessicaTarlov]

Mocking the Democratic candidates in Maine may feel good now, but reality it’s a very blue environment and Susan Collins is six years older than when she beat Gideon and has been voting with Trump 95% of the time.

She gave the go ahead on an extra 70 billion for ICE with no guardrails. Listen to the ex wife of the agent who shot Joan Guerrero - he shouldn’t have been in that job. Maine is confronting the consequences of an agency staffed with untrained, unaccountable officers operating without body cameras. Collins can issue all the carefully worded statements she wants, but her record is clear. In 2026, make her answer for every vote.

[Sirius Basterd @RobotWhatIsLove]

“Weekend at Bernie’s” except it’s a Senator they have to pretend is alive for 30 days to prevent a special election.

[Desirée Townsend @Cheering4Change]

Senator Mitch McConnell has now been hospitalized for three weeks. The gravity of this situation cannot be overstated, especially given that his wife, Elaine Chao, appeared in China just days after his hospitalization to meet with high-ranking Chinese officials. The question now is about national security: if Senator McConnell has been unable to independently perform his duties, what safeguards exist to ensure classified intelligence briefings, defense appropriations information, or other sensitive congressional matters could not be accessed, discussed, or shared by individuals operating behind the scenes? And given the timing of Chao’s meeting with China’s vice president, what exactly was discussed?

[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.

[Nicholas Kristof @NickKristof]

.@elonmusk says that no one can name a person who died from his aid cuts. In fact, I've met the kids who are dying, and I've talked to the families who lost children. In my columns, I've cited many, many names of people who have died because of Musk's aid cuts. A few examples:
*Yamah Freeman was a 23-year-old woman who died in childbirth because Musk cut funding for the diesel for ambulances in her part of Liberia. She couldn't get to a hospital and died as people were carrying her there. I talked to her parents and sister in their village.
*Gbessey Kiadu, age 1, died of malaria because of his cuts to malaria medication in Liberia. I talked to his mom in her village.
*Ibrahim Koroma, an infant, died of AIDS in Sierra Leone after he interrupted HIV supplies. I talked to health workers who cared for him.
*Achol Deng was an 8-year-old girl with HIV in South Sudan who died when Musk cut funding for the health care worker who provided her medicines. I talked to the healthcare workers.
I could go on and on. In almost every village you go to in South Sudan, Uganda, Liberia, Sierra Leone or other countries I reported in, you find people dying because of aid cuts. I challenge Musk: Come with me on a reporting trip, and we'll talk to these moms and dads, and you'll see the dying children themselves. I think if you see the kids whose lives are at stake, maybe you'll change your mind.

[Sirius Basterd @RobotWhatIsLove]

@NateWitkin @mattyglesias Agreed but this is only temporary

[Sirius Basterd @RobotWhatIsLove]

@mattyglesias Seems like the only way out of this is either 1) jihad or 2) merging man and machine

[Sirius Basterd @RobotWhatIsLove]

@daveweigel Free money

[Sirius Basterd @RobotWhatIsLove]

@LeBoopenator @bhangbhangducx Everyone made out with Leia

[Sirius Basterd @RobotWhatIsLove]

@BillAckman @SpencerGuard Not interested in your opinion til you say “I was wrong for supporting that fucking loser”

[Sirius Basterd @RobotWhatIsLove]

@Noahpinion He’s so much worse, are you serious?

[Sirius Basterd @RobotWhatIsLove]

@bubbleboi Thoughts on $AMKR ? Since packaging is everything now…

[Sirius Basterd @RobotWhatIsLove]

@theoluminati She refused to sleep with him so now he’s a pig all the time

[Sirius Basterd @RobotWhatIsLove]

@mattyglesias Ok he can give good speeches but Buttigieg is way better at off the cuff discussion.