In Running to Stand Still, Bono sang that you should “cry without weeping. Talk without speaking.” He can add “condemn without counting.” Recently, the U2 frontman declared that 300,000 have died as a result of USAID funding cuts. The source for this widely cited figure is an example of how some facts are simply too good to check in the media.
Bono said “This will f— you off” and explained that tens of thousands of tons of food are “rotting” in warehouses from Djibouti to Houston because of recent USAID cuts, adding “What is that? That’s not America, is it?”
“They’re throwing the baby out with the bathwater,” he said, acknowledging that while some aid groups do good work, the USAID system has been riddled with corruption.
It turns out that the 300,000 figure comes from a speculative model put out by Brooke Nichols, a mathematical health modeler at Boston University.
I was critical of how these cuts were handled initially. It does appear that some important programs were interrupted and, while later restarted, the interruptions created dire and potentially deadly conditions for some of the most desperate recipients of U.S. aid.
However, it is the figure of 300,000 that shows how such calculations go viral in this political environment.
Nichols insists that this was never an actual count but a projection. It is the parameters of the projections in The Washington Post that are so striking. Nichols admitted that
“The biggest uncertainties in all of these estimates are: 1) the extent to which countries and organizations have pivoted to mitigate this disaster (likely highly variable). And 2) which programs are actually still funded with funding actually flowing — and which aren’t.”
In other words, it depends on whether the programs were actually discontinued and whether local officials stepped forward to continue them. Those seem like some pretty significant “ifs” and raise the question of why project over a quarter of a million deaths on such assumptions. It seems akin to projected hundreds of thousand of deaths from air accidents if every FAA system under Trump is suddenly turned off.
What is the value of a projections with such sweeping “likely highly variable” assumptions?
I still like Bono’s music. It is his math that leaves me with the feeling that “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.”
If CHER or BABS had said this I would know it is the truth.
BONO, not so much.
*. Yes, dishonesty is widespread. It’s a principle of atheism.
What’s that old saying? US, take the beam out of your own eye…
Thank you China and Mexico for supplying the US with food and products.
I don’t see how Bono puts up with his wife, Cher.
Name one.
Watermelon, tomatoes, lettuce, asparagus, etc my shoes, my pots and pans, my shirt, pants, my water sprinkler, my car, blah blah…
A Left Wing Radical DEM professor, develops a so called model to get the end resu;ts he wants to attract news/attention, who is unable to provide hard facts. Then another Left Wing Nut Job Bono quotes it? Pretty assume NY Times/MSNBC, CBS, CNN etc will be doing the same if they haven’t already. The DMES/Washington Elite, Corrupt parties who profited from US AID, where may be 12 cents on the dollar got to the causes or 100% of the money disappeared into off shore bank accounts? are crying
Fewer mouths to feed.
Since Paul David Hewson, AKA Bono, was born in Ireland, why isn’t he asking the question as to why Ireland is letting this happen? It is always the United States fault that things are going wrong. If it is so wrong, why doesn’t he put some of his money into the effort to move these goods to their supposed end location? He can also pay for security to insure that it is not stolen or wasted. The same thing with people saying you should raise taxes. If you want to you can always write a check to the United States Treasury to pay down the debt.
Well, they did all get together to make that “We Are The World” video decades ago – isn’t that enough – and look how great Africa is now because of that video.
Too many morons “amplify” progressively stupid nonsense.
If I want to hear progressively stupid nonsense, I will go to the progressively stupid “academic” source.
Bono should shut up.
No surprise here; just as any cult member does, Bono just accepts the propaganda ( ANYTHING that slurs the right) and shouts it out to anyone who will hear. Truth has no part in it, just so long as harm is done.
Remember, these are members of a cult whose moral core consists of ” the ends justify the means”.
When someone can account for the money which went INTO USAID, then maybe, just maybe I’ll believe a modeled account of the outflow from USAID.
Bono can contribute all of his wealth to the welfare state .
I don’t get my news from the Washington Post, singers, actors, New York Times, etc.
I don’t even get my news from conservative actors and some are quite brilliant.
From watching decades of film and nite time talk shows I used to be surprised at how dumb much of the entertainment industry is and then they live in a an echo chamber and bounce their stupidity back and forth. They are brilliant but in their silo.
Getting your news from the entertainment industry is like getting investment strategy from a physician (hint:doctors are historically awful at investing).
Even “legitimate” news organizations are unreliable at best and outright lie at worst.
I think that most of the damage done cutting off USAid was to the pocketbooks of the NGO’s and their directors and CEO’s.
So I presume you get your news from the voices in your head since “legitimate” news organizations are unreliable.
How many Black Russians are required for you to “tune in” to your primary news sources
Everyone knows MSM is not legitimate, reliable, trustworthy or even watchable. That is why their ratings have fallen off a cliff, polling shows the American people do not trust them and independent media is doing so well.
GEB
You say:
Even “legitimate” news organizations are unreliable at best
Presumably you prefer “illegitimate” news organizations.
I think that explains your “illegitimate” opinions that are often expressed here, and explains everything we need to know about you.
ATS – what is with the stupid semantic games.
News that is nearly always wrong is worse than no news at all.
Regardless or your wordplay there is an enormous amount of new media out there. Much of it is quite good, Some not so much.
But you can make your own choices based on whatever your personal criteria are.
I choose to trust those who have proven trust worthy over and over.
I do not need to play word games with labels like legitimate.
It is quite simple – does this news source have a track record in recent years of being accurate or of buying and selling hoaxes.
Alex Jones has been more accurate than the MSM.
And Alex Jones is not even close to trustworthy.
So why would I trust the MSM which has been far worse ?
JSTS
So what you are saying is that you prefer news sources that align with your prejudices, which are multitudinous and extreme.
If believe that Alex Jones is more accurate than MSM, then you are quite simply profoundly mentally impaired.
ANO
What news services like say CNN or CBS keep getting sued over and over for fake news.
Dustoff
What news services are being sued for fake news ????
Alex Jones and his Infowars sued successfully for $1.3 billion.
Fox News sued by Dominion Voting systems for fake news and settling for $800 million.
Fox News sued by Smartmatic for $2.7 billion for fake news, about to go to trial.
Newsmax sued by Smartmatic for fake news, and settles for $40 million.
Newsmax sued by Dominion Voting Systems for $1.6 billion for fake news, going to trial this month.
OANN sued by Smartmatic for fake news and settled
OANN sued by Dominion Voting Systems for fake news and settled
Breitbart sued by Shirley Sherrod for fake news, and settled
Hey anon… Notice ALL of these lawsuit are under appeal…. Not looking good for the fake news…
Dustoff
As usual you post ZERO proof of your claims.
Just your opinion.
Please post the evidence of the appeals being filed.
Of course you won’t because you can’t.
For the record, all the cases except Smartmatic v Fox, and Dominion v Newsmax have SETTLED and the damages have been PAID.
Smartmatic v Fox and Dominion v Newsmax have not yet gone to trial, but are scheduled for trial.
They will certainly settle like all the others.
THERE IS NOTHING THAT CAN BE APPEALED.
ANYONE who, at this point, puts ANY credence in MSM is already floating in a sea of human flotsam. Your ability to rationalize one iota of prog propaganda by validating its megaphones is exposed as a tool.
You’ve done enough just like you annoyed others until they left. You’re ill. It’s called sadism. Go call someone else names.
Ano
I bet you are pissed that CBS is getting sued by Prez Trump for FAKE news…
Me I’m loving it.
We should not be subsidizing ANY NGOs with tax dollars – it gives them the impression that they are US government sanctioned. After DOGE exposed that grift we hear who is screaming the loudest about not getting taxpayer funds anylonger.
GEB,
Well said about who was actually harmed the most by ending USAID, the NGOs, their their directors and CEO’s. Only some 8% actually goes to actual aid to then recipient. The rest is paying for over head.
BONO? MORE LIKE BOZO!!
Better yet, “BONER”.
Nah, that implies that he’s got some juice left, I would think he is rather impotent at this point.
It’s okay to not like his formulaic, mewling music, or if you do, keep that idiotic and irrelevant statement to yourself…
@Anonymous
Oh, contraire. Though he’s insufferable now, at the time U2 started they were actually unique for the time. Less so with more recent output, and they have been imitated and integrated so much it might not seem so (especially Edge’s guitar sound, though he learned that largely from Stuart Adamson, and I digress), but they were once terrific.
Go listen to ‘Boy’ from 1980 and then listen to what was topping the charts then (Olivia Newton John, The Knack, Michael Jackson etc.). Sure, U2 were far from alone making interesting indie music then, but they most certainly were doing it, and though they were popular then too, they were far from instant sensations. 🤷🏽♂️
Oh, and PS – for many the moment they lost it was ‘Rattle and Hum’ when they inexplicably decided they were some kind of American roots band. We used to call it, ‘Throttle Your Chum’, and yes, that’s a euphemism for wanking. 😂
“It turns out that the 300,000 figure comes from a speculative model . . .”
A university computer “model” that’s as accurate as the “models” for Covid and “climate change” catastrophes.
In other words: GIGO.
@Sam
Yup. The sheer absence of basic critical thought is the only predictable thing in the entire scenario all the way from the university to the Bono-head, and the only thing being ‘projected’ is their own behavior onto others.
These are the same people that didn’t say a peep about inflation, drug abuse, insufficiently tested vaccines, suppression of rights, etc. – all the things that were actually happening in real time, every day. Impossible to take seriously. That they are so smug about it – sheesh.
In other words, “Bull Sh*t”!
Sigh. Just sigh. And additionally, there’s no guarantee an algorithm’s predictions would prove accurate even in a worst case scenario given software’s inability to consider unknown variables (e.g. funding coming from elsewhere). Truly bone-headed, all the way around. But that is the modern left. They are cave people with credentials.
The baby/bathwater comment was made by Rogan, not Bono if you have actually listened to the podcast…
The United States Tax Payers need to allow other countries the opportunity to spend their tax dollars in taking care of the rest of the world’s sick, lame, and lazy $h*t hole countries. We don’t want to pay them to hate us. They can do that for free.
They’re eating cats and dogs, and geese. And don’t forget to shine a light inside the body. And stare at the eclipse. And buy sneakers. And terminate the Constitution. And spend millions securing stupid golf courses. But Bono!
MAGA has TDS.
Yet Prez Trump is winning…
I feel you’re pain.
Im sorry that your news sources did this to you
Huh? WTF?
What the h*ll are you blathering about? It must be some inculcated mix of TDS hallucinations, but one usually finds such nonsense when interacting with a prog.
a great example why singer’s political ideas should be ignored. They are DUMB LIARS
Would you let a singer do heart surgery?
Democrats and the Main Stream Media have consistently failed to meet the low standards that they set for themselves and replaced common sense with DRAMA.
You may remember, every time a celebrity makes a political statement, they look like a court jester. Essentially, the Democrats are acting like a bunch of Court Jesters, rather than leaders who know how to govern with common sense ideas.
Instead, Democrats use Soul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals” a Communist How to Book to overthrow the U. S. Government.
Why do Americans vote for these pukes?
The TEA party types shouldn’t mind that. I hear they’re not too fond of the government, anyway.