Regrets… foreign and domestic

Published 03-25-21

If the recent diplomatic meeting between China and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken are any indication of what to expect over the next four years, well, its gonna be... problematic.

The continuing ascension of China looks more sure if this is the caliber of those that are supposed to be a steady hand abroad balancing American interests with both allies and enemies... whose self and national interests all collide.

When your top diplomat is complaining about their opponent going over their allotted time and not the substance of the argument your side lost. Spectacularly.

And it sets a tone that the State Department is going to to have a hard time changing.

Especially when said enemies use the narrative and talking points of the Democrat party against those who’ve been espousing the same “truths to power” to serve their electoral goals over the past year.

Even less shocking is the announcement that the United Nations Human Right’s Council will now be investigating claims of systemic racism in the United States.

Yes, lead by the countries most known for their human rights leadership, China and Russia will be the ones to denounce and set to punish the only nation big enough to stop the complete totalitarian takeover of the planet.

They will do it with the terminology that universities and woke professors seeded throughout the credentialed class, dominating the national conversation and stoking further division.

And they will do it better and more thoroughly than any of us can imagine.

One can only hope the smart set running the show at Foggy Bottom can get it together before the real ramifications of this foreign policy “tone reversal” start to rear their ugly head and necessitate a different kind of enforcement action.

One could hope, though not counting on it is a safer bet.

My memory, while sometimes spotty on what I had for lunch yesterday, can remember the not too distant past of Obama era foreign policy quite well, and not quite fondly either, thank you very much.

More of that, no matter who is at the helm, is definitely not good for America.

•••

In the latest installment of regret over throwing the baby out with the bath water, America’s return to an inclusive immigration policy seems to be working out so well even ABC couldn’t avoid it anymore, traveling down to detention centers in Texas where nothing short of an unforced and completely predictable crisis is occurring.

In the early days after inauguration, Joe Biden cancelled or rescinded a flurry of Trump executive orders, including many of the immigration orders and policies given during the Trump administration. The Remain in Mexico policy, one of the most effective tools, was chief among them. Career immigration officials warned the incoming administration about ramifications and consequences to no avail.

Couple that with the rhetoric of then Candidate Biden, Kamala Harris and immigration activists that America’s border be open to all, well it wasn’t surprising that the worst of the practices and plans like migrant caravans and unaccompanied children making the dangerous trek across Central America started forming before a vote was certified.

Over the last four months, over 70,000 migrants have been taken into custody each month. That’s more than have entered our nation during those months in the last ten years.

Couple this with the regulatory crackdown on capacity and interaction limits because of COVID, and the humanitarian and policy disaster becomes a real world crisis at the breaking point in a hurry. And people are starting to notice.

The kids in cages crowd is astonishingly silent, and funnily enough no opportunistic Congressional photo shoots are occurring outside detention facilities on this go round. There hasn’t even been an uproar that under the guise of “COVID protocols” reporters and photo journalists haven’t been allowed in the facilities to document conditions.

I’m sure there’s one or two reporters that got vaccinated and could enter the facility without unleashing the plague, just for transparency’s sake.

When DHS finally released a photo, conditions were shown to be less than optimal. Older teenagers housed with toddlers, food shortages and lack of showers topped the list.

That’s before we get into DHS releasing migrants into communities without proper COVID testing or tracing.

Seems a little disingenuous as federal health officials continue to beat the drum about variants and distancing, even going so far as downplaying the vaccine efficacy and increasing anxiety about every facet of regular life.

The mixed messages could make you crazy. It’s supposed to.

And as to regrets, at least regarding policies like Remain in Mexico, might result in at least one re-instatement.

•••

Spring around here brings rain, and deep cleaning. Something about being able to open up doors and windows, airing out the house and giving everything a good scrub after a long fall and winter gives me a sense of accomplishment... but sometimes has it’s drawbacks, beside the back ache.

It’s the critters. Or more specifically, encounters with critters inside my house that belong outside my house.

The first spring it was the over foot long lizard that took up residence in the basement. Thankfully it wasn’t a fan of humans, so it made itself scarce when we flipped the lights on. Last year it was the king snakes in the dryer. That too was an easy and cheap enough fix after the critter guy took pity on the California people and relocated the male snake that was in the motor to his property in Kentucky.

This spring seems to be mice. Little field mice to be precise, that found entry into my laundry room after a short jaunt from the fields next to my house.

In a boon to the mice, and honestly probably the draw, it’s where the dog food, bowls and water are also located.

I’m kinda kicking myself about relocating that other king snake, in all hindsight. Definitely not the smartest move, balance of nature-wise.

Needless to say bleach spray got moved up to absolute highest priority on the cleaning list when I discovered the trail.

It was also repeated multiple times for good measure.

The dogs were sneezing when I was done... so maybe I went a little overboard. But no harm was done.

Except for the two mice we caught, no thanks to said dogs.

It was past time to move all the stuff that had accumulated in there over the course of a few months anyways.

So our next week will be filled with traps, more traps and checking nooks and crannies, and more than one bottle of bleach spray.

I’m definitely going to say a prayer that this will be my one this spring. I don’t even want to think about what could come next.