Bonkers, Blather, Blunders & Buffoons #39
Certainly, unanticipated. After only three+ days, the much-concerning Longshoremen’s strike is ‘over,’ just as thousands of East Coast households have stockpiled mounds of toilet paper as if expecting hordes of Cub Scouts to soon be clamoring to use their bathrooms. Actually, the ILA strike is not over, but merely postponed, stood down with an interim agreement, with talks to resume after the national election! Originally said to be demanding an 80% wage increase, the fact that all was suddenly put on hold until beyond election day would seem to clearly indicate a political gift in kind to the Democrat ticket, no doubt achieved by behind the scenes pressure from the intrenched progressive administration deep-state, which now, somehow, seems to be running the country in place of the President who appears to be mostly on-leave. No need for an Executive Order to end it, when certain negative political impact was at stake. So, then, a major commerce-hampering shipping strike, anticipated to run for weeks, now suddenly ceased in just three+ days, with talks not to re-start until early January. Does that sound like mere coincidence to anyone on the Republican side?
Of more immediate importance, said DHS Secretary Mayorkas on Thursday regarding Hurricane Helene assistance to impacted citizens: “We are meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have. We are expecting another hurricane hitting. We do not have the funds – FEMA does not have the funds – to make it through the season.” As such, the current Vice President has announced that $750.00 in FEMA aid, per household, can be applied for. That’s $750 in FEMA money (from America’s taxpayers) for folks who are, in too many cases, dealing with catastrophic home/business damage or have actually lost everything, including lives, in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. Insulting! Why insulting? First of all because of the paltry amount which could buy, what, perhaps a couple of weeks’ worth of family subsistence supplies?
Secondly, so where has the federal money gone? Congress provided FEMA with substantial funds for “emergency spending.” Emergency spending has instead become assistance to illegal migrants. In 2023 alone, DHS awarded $364-million “to help communities provide shelter and aid to people in the country illegally.” That figure rose to $650-milion in 2024, reaching about $1-billion overall in the last two years. “In the last four years, the Biden-Harris administration has steadily transformed FEMA – the agency responsible for responding to natural disasters – into an illegal alien resettlement agency.”
Believe it or not, storm preparedness, which should be far and away FEMA’s first priority is now said to rank third (!) for the nation’s disaster relief agency. Oh, and by the way, while the Democrat candidate was out offering the opportunity to apply for $750 government relief checks, back in D.C., Mr. Biden recently announced an additional grant of $8-billion in continuing aid to Ukraine! Yes, the sovereignty and survival of Ukraine is very important. As is the survival of Israel, our longest, strongest ally in the Middle East. But our own citizens in need should, and must, come first. Congress must authorize additional funding for FEMA so that the relief agency can respond to the needs of what should be its very first priority: the American citizens! Footnote: Speculation has emerged that the reason for the alleged delay in deploying FEMA trucks and supplies to the destructive storm affected areas may have some political roots. You see, it’s assumed that the remaining residents of those small southern towns in western North Carolina and Tennessee are more likely to be potential Trump voters. Delaying supplies and clean-up response to those hurricane ravaged communities may well impact their ability to vote. Thus: advantage Harris! If that’s at all true, Democrat politics are being put well ahead of American human needs, life, and survival. If true, that’s beyond despicable.
And speaking of spending federal dollars in the wrong places, word is that watchdogs are now uncovering the presumed fact that the Biden administration may well be on the hook for at least $1-trillion in “improper government payments” by the end of the current presidential term in January. Improper payments “are made by the government to the wrong person, in the wrong amount, or for the wrong reason and are forms of wasteful government spending that include underpayments, overpayments, administrative errors, and in some cases, fraud.” Examples include: Medicare & Medicaid payments, past COVID payment programs, retirement payments to dead people, along with millions of dollars paid to prisoners, plus tax credits paid to families claiming more children than they have. More than just a Biden era issue, sadly, improper payments “have plagued the federal government for years.” Seems like somewhere in that massive waste, with better oversight, currently-needed hurricane relief funds could have been found.
In the liberals’ ultimate crusade to prevent Americans from purchasing, possessing, or using legally obtained firearms in a safety-conscious manner, VP Harris recently named guns as the #1 killer of children, echoing the same assertion made by Mr. Biden back in 2022. That statement made by both individuals is false. Motor vehicle deaths are the #1 cause of child fatalities. “CDC numbers show that, in age range 0-19, unintentional motor vehicle deaths were 27-times higher than unintentional firearm-related deaths.” A false claim about guns back in 2022, that remains false today.
In a brief patronizing speech, following her initial brief trip to the Arizona border (September 27, 2024), regarding the massive, nation harming issue of illegal immigration, VP Harris is reported to have said: “Those who cross our borders unlawfully will be apprehended and removed and barred from re-entering for five years. If someone does not make an asylum request at a legal point of entry and instead crossed our border unlawfully, they will be barred from receiving asylum. While we understand that many people are desperate to migrate to the United States, our system must be orderly and secure.”
Now, while one might be tempted to conclude that she is finally getting serious about border control (“orderly and secure”), she is, as with the last three years, saying or doing nothing to stop or slow the illegal migrant hemorrhaging at our border(s). Her only warning is to those illegals who cross into America at other than a designated ‘point of entry.’ These individuals would be primary the so-called “Got Aways” who sneak in, are undetected, disappear within our nation, and for whom asylum is the very least of their very concerning intentions (e.g., drugs, child trafficking, terrorism, etc.).
So, her comments are merely a smokescreen to try to fool concerned citizens into thinking that she has perhaps finally gotten serious about the border(s) crisis. The obvious between-the-lines message regarding illegal migrants, who in too many cases are wandering the U.S. unaccounted for, is that it will be open border(s) business as usual during her administration. Come one, come all, but doggonit, you must come here through designated points of entry, or via other administration designed migrant-friendly programs. Crime and crushing financial impact be damned. Come on in!
And thanks to the huge federal expenditures over the last four years, especially, the annual interest (not principal, interest only) payments on the U.S. government public debt has finally reached a staggering $1-trillion. To put that figure in perspective, we are now paying more for national debt interest than we are for the defense of America. Yep, the Pentagon’s annual budget is currently well below that of our annual interest payment. Clearly, the debt level is unsustainable. And in this very troubled and threatening world, the financial support for our military and for the crucial defense of our freedom and nation, must finally involve serious efforts, by the next administration and Congress, to cut out the enormous wasteful expenditures (e.g., for climate change, green everything, etc.) and redirect badly needed increased military funding for the defense of America.
(FACT SOURCES: FEMA falls well short of sufficient aid for the Hurricane Helene victims via breitbart.com, Kristina Wong, 10-3-24, and thefederalist.com, Tristan Justice, 10-3-24 and breitbart.com, Hannah Knudsen, 10-3-24; Billions of dollars in wasted thru improper federal payments via dailywire.com, Spencer Lindquist, 9-26-24; False claims about childhood gun fatalities via breitbart.com, Awr Hawkins, 9-26-24; Smokescreen statement on migrants from the VP via foxnews.com, Andrew Mark Miller, 9-27-24; Interest alone on our national debt now exceeds Pentagon funding via breitbart.com, John Carney, 9-12-24).