Ahhh, the oh fucks are piling up again, a brief roundup…
Reveal News reported Friday that Trump plans to cut $60 million from the Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs, which fights child labor, human trafficking and slavery around the world.
“The preliminary budget of President Donald Trump’s administration would eliminate $60 million in grants from the bureau’s budget, calling them ‘largely noncompetitive and unproven,’” wrote Reveal News’ Jennifer Gollan. “It suggested that the agency instead focus its efforts ‘on ensuring that U.S. trade agreements are fair for American workers.’”
The cuts would cripple the government’s ability to monitor child exploitation around the world and potentially interfere with tenets of 13 separate trade agreements. Furthermore, the measures would ultimately have the opposite effect of what the president intends. By allowing other countries to exploit child workers and other laborers, U.S. workers will be put at a disadvantage for using fair labor practices.
Full story here. Exploiting children, that’s sure to make Amerikkka Great Again, right?
Moving on to Health and Human Services, the Tiny Tyrant has appointed a vicious anti-choice activist. Well, as we all know, women don’t count for shit, so this certainly won’t downgrade that greatness, right?
President Donald Trump has tapped a well-known anti-abortion activist, Charmaine Yoest, for the position of assistant secretary of public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services.
Yoest is a senior fellow at American Values, a conservative group that says it opposes a “culture of death,” and the former president of Americans United for Life. AUL’s work has been key to moving anti-abortion bills forward on the state level, since it claims to have offered state lawmakers 32 different kinds of anti-abortion model legislation, according to its website.
And because destruction in pursuit of oil will certainly make everything great again, fuck the land, fuck the oceans, fuck the arctic, and there’s no climate change, either!
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday that seeks to increase offshore oil drilling in federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico, the Arctic Ocean, and the Atlantic Ocean. The order leaves out the Pacific Ocean and Eastern Gulf regions.
During the signing ceremony on Friday, Trump emphasized that the order will open the Arctic for drilling.
“It reverses the previous administration’s Arctic leasing ban,” the president said. “So hear that: It reverses the previous administration’s Arctic leasing ban, and directs Secretary Zinke to allow responsible development of offshore areas that will bring revenue to our Treasury and jobs to our workers.”
President Barack Obama protected 98 percent of the Arctic Ocean from oil leasing in December 2016, under Section 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. The new order directs all areas protected as of July 2008 to be preserved, but anything else — including broad swaths of the Atlantic and Arctic — has been reopened.
The Tiny Tyrant spoke to the NRA, pledging his undying love and sucking up so damn hard, I’m amazed he didn’t swallow himself. Odd how weapons weren’t allowed at his little suck up session. Of course, what Amerikkka really needs to make it great are more guns, more, more, more! They are now sacred. Yep. There’s one lobby that will get whatever the fuck it wants. Way to drain the swamp there. :Spits:
Trump pledged his allegiance to the powerful National Rifle Association, the country’s leading gun-rights advocacy group, at a convention attended by thousands. Elected in part on a law-and-order platform, Trump was the first sitting president to address the NRA since fellow Republican Ronald Reagan in 1983.
“As your president, I will never, ever infringe on the right of the people to keep and bear arms,” Trump told thousands of people attending the NRA’s annual convention in Atlanta, Georgia.
[…]
“You have a true friend and champion in the White House,” he said. “We want to assure you of the sacred right of self defense for all of our citizens.”
By allowing other countries to exploit child workers and other laborers, U.S. workers will be put at a disadvantage for using fair labor practices.
I think there’s a major unwarranted assumption in that sentence…
Re: NRA
That made me wonder once again where their power actually comes from. I gather they have a lot of politicians on their side by virtue of campaign donations and command the loyalty of a voting bloc that’s quick to mobilise if their guns are threatened. Is that it?
Money, fine, that’s US normalcy, er, democracy. But surely those voters striking fear into the hearts of sensible politicians can’t be that many in the grand scheme of things. I always figured the hardcore gun-enthusiasts would be vocal but ultimately in the minority, and that their only advantage during an election over the rest of the population would be their fervour. All things* being equal that shouldn’t be too difficult to beat, should it? Which then raises the question why politicians of all sorts would bend over backwards for the NRA as they apparently do.
Of course Trump’s promises are worth less than nothing and appear to be doomed to fail just to spite the man. Sadly that’s not something to get one’s hopes up for.
*Money
P.S.: I suppose realistic politicians would also have to consider the risk of being shot by a disgruntled
NRA-membermentally disturbed lone wolf irresponsible gun owner, but let’s not politicise this tragedy and pass anti-gun legislation to prevent future incidents.His campaign took $30 million from the NRA. Because Trump was self-funding.
Make the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Great Again!
How is a bureau “which fights child labor, human trafficking and slavery around the world” supposed to be competitive? Who are they meant to competing against, and why is it a competition?
CD:
Yeah. I guess all those “beautiful babies” don’t matter.
@Daz
And if it’s not competitive, doesn’t that imply a better alternative? What’s their plan instead?