Alright, folks, gather 'round and let me tell you a story about how your tax dollars are being used to prop up the latest Silicon Valley scams. Turns out, the UK's 'Advanced Research and Invention Agency' (Aria), brainchild of everyone's favorite unelected advisor Dominic Cummings, is busy throwing cash at US tech companies like it's confetti at a gender reveal party.

So, Aria's supposed to make Britain a 'science superpower' by funding 'crazy' ideas. Instead, they've decided to hand over £50 million – yes, million – of your money to US tech firms and venture capital groups. A joint investigation by the Guardian (lol) and Democracy for Sale (never heard of 'em) revealed that over an eighth of Aria's £400 million budget went straight across the pond. Because apparently, the best way to boost British innovation is to subsidize American companies. Makes perfect sense, right? No.

One of these companies, Rain Neuromorphics, is also backed by OpenAI's Sam Altman and was supposedly near collapse right before Aria swooped in with a sack of taxpayer loot. Two of their founders peaced out, but hey, at least they're still 'delivering a project' for Aria. Probably developing an app to help you virtue signal more effectively.

Cecilia Rikap from University College London (shockingly, a lefty) says the government is just expanding the power of the US tech ecosystem with our money. She calls them 'big tech's footman.' Accurate. They're basically handing over the keys to the kingdom to woke Silicon Valley. Don't forget those digital ID's are coming down the pipeline folks.

Chi Onwurah, chair of the Commons science and technology committee, wants 'stronger scrutiny.' Good luck with that. The Aria Act says the organization needs to benefit the UK, but apparently, benefiting the UK now means funding diversity and inclusion workshops in California.

Aria, of course, defends itself by saying it's funding the 'best ideas.' Naturally. And the best ideas are all conveniently located in California, where they can virtue signal their way to even more funding. They claim over 80% of their funding goes to UK teams, but the devil's in the details.

Transparency disclosures show they spent £23 million on nine US tech firms and £6 million on Normal Computing, which conveniently set up shop in the UK weeks before getting the grant. And let's not forget the £29.4 million to three US venture capital groups, including Pillar VC, which incorporated in the UK a single DAY before getting a £10.9 million contract. Coincidence? I think NOT!