Category: Foreign Affairs

Wasted Money

Bureaucracy, Foreign Affairs, Good Stuff, Trumpism

I see that the Department of Labor, not to be outdone by other federal departments in Extreme Chainsaw Activity, has done The Right Thing:

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has canceled nearly $600 million in grants to foreign countries in another round of major funding cuts.

John Clark, a DOL official appointed by President Donald Trump, directed the department’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) to axe all 69 of its active grant programs on Wednesday due to a “lack of alignment with agency priorities and national interest.”

Quite what the Department of Labor was doing in giving money to furriners in the first place… well, we all know the answer to that one.  [humming the tune to “The Internationale”]

And seeing as the U.S. is no longer part of the international socialist collective — or at least we’re heading in that direction, at long last — there’s no reason for us to fund the wellbeing of foreign workers anyway.

One particular item did catch my attention, though:

“$3 million for ‘safe and inclusive work environments’ in Lesotho”

I’ve been to Lesotho several times, know the place quite well in fact, and for three million bucks you could probably buy the country’s entire industrial infrastructure, pay the workers a fat cash bonus and still have some money left over to  gamble  invest in a couple of their casinos.

Of “$3 million to ‘enhance social security access and worker protections for internal migrant workers’ in Bangladesh”, we will not speak.  (It’s a Muslim country;  let the fucking Arabs pay for it.)

Similar arguments can be made for all the other useless items.  Read the article for the full flavor of the wastage, and if you have specific knowledge of the circumstances of any of them, feel free to comment.

In the meantime:

Chopped Liver

Africa, Foreign Affairs

I see that POTUS has made his nomination for the position of U.S. Ambassador to South Africa:  Brent Bozell.

Now just one cotton-pickin’ minute here, Boss.

I have long been an admirer of the redoubtable Brent, who did such sterling work during the Dark Times (circa the various Obama Administrations), but nowhere in his curriculum vitae  have I seen any experience in terms of Africa in general, and South Africa in particular.

I’m sure his intentions are good, mind you, but I think the U.S. is going to need someone with better credentials than Bozell’s to deal with this bunch of “former” terrorists in proper fashion.

I would therefore ask the Senate to vote Bozell down, and force POTUS to nominate someone more experienced.  But who?

Well, I have family there, still have extensive business contacts as well, and even met the current Prime Minister some time back.  Furthermore, my loathing for apartheid should provide all the credentials that  this bunch of homicidal Marxist thugs  the South African government might require.

And the Ambassador’s residence / U.S. Embassy happen to be located in a very pretty part of the country, too.

I wouldn’t be too worried about my personal safety, either.  Quite apart from my [ahem]  own resources, I’m pretty sure that the USMC would be up to the task.

Just a thought.

Unequal Treatment

Foreign Affairs, Qantas, Travels, Two-Minute Hate

I see that OzPM Anthony “Commie Rat” Albanese has invited President Trump to visit that mouse-infested shithole of a country.

Of course, the POTUS wouldn’t experience anything like the Kafka-esque nightmare of trying to visit Strylia that ensnares ordinary folks (like me) — no “visitor’s visa” necessary for him, oh no — and of course he has his own airliner to get there which means he doesn’t have to endure the total assholiness of Qantarse (see here and here, for just two reasons never to fly on their poxy airline).

I don’t see that there’s much benefit for Trump to go there, anyway — especially as their governing political party are a bunch of steaming Commies who make our Democrats look like ultra-capitalists by comparison.

Fukkem.

“Dear POTUS”

Foreign Affairs, Politics

Dear President Trump:

As much as I enjoy watching you shrink the federal government, make English the official language of the United States, and strive to help the American people escape the ravenous fangs of the Internal Revenue Service, there are a couple of things you’re also doing which are starting to get up my nose.

Greenland.  Stop talking about annexing Greenland, or colonizing Greenland, or any of that nonsense.  If Greenland is that important to our national security — and I’m willing to accept your arguments in that assertion — then negotiate with Greenland/Denmark/whoever to build a series of military bases there.  They don’t have to be an actual state for this — we didn’t make Germany a state when we were faced with the USSR problem in post-WWII Europe, after all, we just put military bases Over There.  It worked then, and it would work as well with the CCP problem now.

Canada.  It may have been fun to bust Trudeau’s (minuscule) balls about making Canada the 51st state, but that schtick is just getting tiresome.  The plain fact is that while some citizens of Alberta or Saskatchewan may love to be part of the U.S., trying to get Ontario to assimilate would be damn-near impossible because they’re a bunch of screaming socialists, and we have enough of those in California and the Pacific NW already.  Let’s not even start talking about those Francophone morons in Quebec, who insist on the rest of Canada being bilingual — and would probably resist, with violence — any attempts to suppress the French language in government.  The hell with them:  they’re not worth the hassle, and that applies equally to the rest of Canada, especially the “First Nations” scam artists.

Your constant chatter about this silliness is getting counter-productive.  Don’t forget that you were NOT elected to make us a fifty-two state nation;  your electoral mandate is to end socialism in the existing fifty, to get government off our backs, to end the DEI foulness and to Make America Great Again.

America will not become greater by grabbing Canada and Greenland — in fact, the reverse is more likely — so quit talking about it, and don’t even think about doing it.

Respectfully, from one of your most ardent supporters,

Re-Directing The Dollars

Foreign Affairs, Gummint

Something struck me when I was reading this fine report about the closure of the dreadful USAID department, and it relates to budget priorities.  Consider this little litany of silliness:

Now just in cash terms, those items alone account for about $7.5million, being sent to furriners.

The question:  Wouldn’t those dollars have been better spent by sending them to those folks in North Carolina blown out of their homes by tropical storm Helene? 

And the corollary question:  Wouldn’t those “hundreds of thousands of meals” been more appreciated by those same North Carolinians, many of whom, months after the storm, are still living in TENTS?

Let’s put all this into concrete terms that people can understand.

The problem with being such a wealthy country is that sometimes we’re blase about sums of money that seem trivial in the grand scheme of things;  $7.5million doesn’t seem like a lot of money compared to other budgetary expenditures, and indeed it isn’t at a macro level.

But let’s convert that “macro” to “micro”.  Giving $75,000 dollars each to a hundred families in desperate need of assistance — American families, let me remind you — has the potential to turn their lives around completely.  And that’s worth a lot more than a ticket to an LGBTOSTFU opera in Colombia.

Stop pissing money away on foreigners and start looking after American taxpayers.

Germany Comes to Austria, Again

Elections, Foreign Affairs

…just not at the head of a column of Panzers, this time:

As with Germany and France, losers big and small immediately decided they wouldn’t play with the party that had pulled nearly 30% of the votes cast or let the FPO ‘win’ at all. They moved to form a coalition to ice the Freedom Party out of government.

Like the National Rally in France (and the AfD in Germany — K.), all other ruling parties are uniting to keep the FPÖ out of government.

Hasn’t worked in Austria, either:

The announcement came more than three months after the legislative election on September 29. In that, the FPÖ, led by Herbert Kickl, emerged as the most popular party with 28.8 per cent of the vote.

The FPÖ had been unable to form a government due to a political cordon sanitaire imposed by other parties, labelling it as “far-right”. The ÖVP finished second with 26.3 per cent, followed by the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) with 21.1 per cent. The FPÖ has however taken part in previous government coalitions, the last time being 2019 (with ÖVP).

Austria’s President, Alexander Van der Bellen, a member of the Green Party and a vocal critic of Kickl, announced on January 5 that he would meet with the FPÖ leader on January 6.

In a brief televised address, Van der Bellen acknowledged that opposition within the ÖVP on collaboration with Kickl had softened after Nehammer’s resignation. “I have used the last few hours to speak to numerous political decision-makers. During these discussions, the picture emerged that the voices within the People’s Party that rule out cooperation with an FPÖ under Herbert Kickl have become significantly quieter,” he said.

In an emergency meeting following Nehammer’s decision, the ÖVP leadership appointed Christian Stocker, the party’s general secretary, as interim president. The ÖVP also expressed its willingness to negotiate with the FPÖ to form a coalition.

So off they go, kicking and screaming, into a political future that puts Austrian citizens first, and immigrants second.

Like the Germans, like the French, and for a bonus, like the Canuckis as well.

Of our own MAGA revolution we will not speak.

Hubba hubba.