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One rule of money is that money is fungible. Another rule of money — and this one is Washington’s favorite — is that fungibility is the opposite of transparency. If you have $100 and I give you $20 and you spend $20 on candy, did I give you $20 for candy? Well, no. Not directly. But you started with $100, you still have $100, and you have $20 worth of candy.
Ifanybodyasks,IcansaywithastraightfacethatIdidnotgiveyou$20toblowondeliciousTwix.You’regoingtoshareoneofthose,right?
Let’sbegintoday’stalewiththeTidesFoundation,aSanFrancisco-basednonprofitandamajorrecipientofGeorgeSoros’slargessviahisOpenSocietyFoundation.“Open”inthecaseofOSFfollowsthe“fungibilityistheoppositeoftransparency”rule.So,notveryopenatall.TidesandOSFbothreceivemoneyviaUSAID.KyleBeckerestimatesthatUSAIDgaveOSFbetween$24and$27millioninrecentyears.
IsetChatGPTlooseontheproblem,hopingitwouldbeabletocollatemoresourcesthanIevercould,butIwasalsopreparedforitsleftwingbiastoshinethrough.Here’swhatittoldme:“Determiningtheexa
