Category: Politics

Trying not to start the public floggings

Keeping Up

Trumpism

I am a man of advanced years and much-reduced mental- and physical capacity thereby, so I’m having trouble dealing with all the MAGA / Trumpist / Musk-y goodness these days.  Quite apart from Saturday’s posts, there’s this:

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Sec. Scott Turner has announced the end of Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured mortgages for any “non-permanent residents,” effectively eliminating illegal aliens’ access to the taxpayer-funded program.

…and this:

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is slashing 10,000 full-time employees as part of its effort to trim fat and reorient the department around Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Health Again” (MAHA) agenda.

“We aren’t just reducing bureaucratic sprawl. We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic,” said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “This Department will do more — a lot more — at a lower cost to the taxpayer.”

…not to mention this:

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that as many as 300 foreign students have had their visas revoked due to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Rubio confirmed the number of revoked visas when speaking at a press conference in Guyana.

“Maybe more, it might be more than 300 at this point,” Rubio said. “We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa.”

Okay, let’s not let my enfeebled state and stamina be a hindrance to all this most excellent and long-overdue Chainsaw Activity.

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.

And About Damn Time, Too

Good Stuff, Illegal immigrants, Trumpism

Getting our act together:

President Donald Trump’s administration is eliminating taxpayer-funded housing program benefits going to illegal aliens.

This week, Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem announced the “American Housing Programs for American Citizens” memorandum which will prevent taxpayer money from being used to aid illegal aliens.

“American tax dollars should be used for the benefit of American citizens, especially when it comes to an issue as pressing as our nation’s housing crisis,” Turner said in a statement:

This new agreement will leverage resources, including technology and personnel, to ensure the American people are the only priority when it comes to public housing. We will continue to work closely with DHS to maximize our resources and put American citizens first.

Yup.

  • For illegal aliens:  tent cities and return tickets;
  • U.S. citizens in truly parlous circumstances:  subsidized housing.

Taxpayer money for our own, not for strangers.

About Those Tariffs…

Business, Numbers & Statistics, Trumpism

…from a guy who’s had many years’ experience in the field:

“The tariffs are only in the cost of goods. They’re not on the retail price. So you put a tariff on the cost of the goods of 20%, it doesn’t mean the retail price goes up by 20%, not unless you can buy everything at a cost somewhere. Additionally, when they put tariffs on toys back in the first Trump administration, studies show 87% of the increase was borne by the Chinese manufacturers. China has a huge toy industry and they have everything to gain and nothing to lose by keeping the sale rather than have it moved to America, like a lot of it will do. Additionally, there are substitute products, you know, products that you can sell that are made in the U.S. instead of differences, promote those. And then, of course, there will be transfers, some sales to the U.S.”

“I think people are hysterical. It’s not nearly the magnitude of what they’re talking about.”

Yeah, of course.  Internet economists, mostly relying on journalists’ “expertise” for their prognoses… what could possibly go wrong?

Listen to the guys with experience.  Nine times out of ten, that experience will beat academic theory like an old carpet.

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.