Category: The Opposition

Obama's 'Final Year'—finally gone!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Subtitle: Why Donald Trump is in the White House!

 

Obama's men and Power
Ben Rhodes, Samantha Power, John Kerry,  and of course Obama.  Four reasons (five if you throw in Susan Rice) why Trump won!

 
There is a new documentary film being released (in a few theaters near you) about the final year of the Obama Administration and how their foreign policy decisions (blunders!) helped put Trump in the White House.
But, the film idea didn’t start out that way. When filming began, Trump wasn’t supposed to win!
Be prepared for a sympathetic look, dripping with nostalgia, for the good ol’ days.
My special interest in viewing the film is to see what more the ever-cocky Samantha Power has to say.  You will find her discussed many times over the years here at RRW from her earliest mention in 2008 as Obama’s ‘Iraqi refugee czar’ to her rise to her UN catbird seat.
See the trailer (here if it doesn’t play below):  Pay special attention to the 1:25 minute mark (5 months left which means it would have been early September 2016) where Samantha Power says this:

“We have to be sure to make it harder to dismantle if we take a different turn.”

Does she mean make it harder to dismantle Obama’s foreign policy legacy (which was pretty lousy anyway) in case Trump wins? Did she suspect then that Trump might very well succeed?
The dossier and the FISA applications????  Wasn’t she fingered as a chief ‘unmasker?’ Hmmm!
 

 
(By the way, the 1:38 minute mark is pretty good too—Ben Rhodes realizes that they have lost!)
Now here is a bit of the text from the Times of Israel where the reporter seems to be wishing the Obama gang was back.

‘The Final Year’ follows the Obama administration’s last attempt to shape world affairs. (Magnolia Pictures)

For those tired of watching reruns of “The West Wing,” there’s a new political thriller out — and it just so happens to be real.

The recently released documentary “The Final Year” is the story of the Obama administration’s final 12 months in office as told by former president Barack Obama’s foreign policy team.

Leading roles are played by Obama administration stars. US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power and Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, along with Secretary of State John Kerry — and the president himself — all race against the clock to broker a deal with Iran, negotiate a climate accord in Paris and find a solution to the Syrian crisis, among the other issues on their diplomatic agenda.

For the individuals portrayed in the documentary, “The Final Year” was intended to solidify Obama’s foreign policy legacy, but President Donald Trump’s ultimate victory leaves the Obama team more stunned than assured.

“We tried to change the ending but we couldn’t do it,” joked director Greg Barker in an interview with The Times of Israel …..

[….]

“Samantha [Power] gets very excited and we’re talking about these ideas, and I’m thinking, ‘Wow, this is great. We’re going to change the world.’”

But by the fourth quarter of Obama’s final term, the glamour of their vision had succumbed to the political reality of the office.

The role refugees played in Trump’s victory….

Barker said that Power now believes that the Obama administration’s failure to take definitive action in Syria prompted a domino-effect of world events.

“[Power] will say that you can make the case that without the Syria tragedy and the outflow of refugees, you may well not have had Brexit in the UK, you may well not have had Trump without this fear of ‘The Other’ which was perpetrated by a million refugees flowing into Europe,” Barker said.

“She’ll make the case that the world could be a very different place [if not for the Syria crisis],” he added.

More here.
Note that comments to the Times of Israel are not flattering to the team.
Heck, it would be fun to watch this in a theater wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat!

US Refugee program is a kind of Ponzi-scheme that is failing

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

They want to blame it all of course on Donald Trump (and Stephen Miller!), but the refugee slowdown has exposed the weakness of a scheme set up in 1979-1980 by then Senator Ted Kennedy (with Joe Biden) and Jimmy Carter.

NA/KENNEDY
The architects….

The whole program was sold as a public-private partnership implying that there would be an equal sharing of finances and responsibility, but over the years the public share (your tax ‘contributions’) has grown while the private share has withered.
So that now, with the per refugee head payment dropping as fewer refugee are admitted, the program is being exposed for what it has become….
It is a monopolistic conglomeration of supposed ‘religious’ and ‘humanitarian’ charities living almost exclusively on the federal dole. Their budgets are fully dependent on the next shipment of paying clients (aka refugees).
 

Come on Congress!  It is time to dump it or fix it.

I notice that with all the talk about reforming LEGAL immigration there is no talk of reforming the obviously seriously flawed USRAP!

The program is “under siege” say the refugee agencies and their media lackeys!

Rarely do I post twice on one story, but I told you about this one yesterday (here) and it is full of revealing information.  I see it is a ‘Religion News Service’ story that appears here in the National Catholic Reporter showcasing (again) that anti-Trump rally last month at the White House.
Do they really think the average American taxpayer will be moved by a photo of Muslims praying against the President as a publicity stunt?
 

Muslims praying at WH
The big banner on the right is the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society protest march banner.   https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2018/01/28/church-world-service-and-hias-join-cair-to-protest-at-white-house/

Boo hoo! We Catholics are running out of your money!

National Catholic Reporter:

USCCB [US Conference of Catholic Bishops—ed] officials said they are still deciding how to move forward but already expect to close about 15 sites this year, shifting from 75 to as few as 60. Catholic Charities, the primary affiliate for the USCCB’s on-the-ground resettlement work, said that of the 700 full-time employees across its network who work on refugee resettlement, more than 300 are estimated to see a temporary layoff, permanent layoff or possible reassignment due to the refugee ban.

An April 2017 report from the Episcopal News Service said the Episcopal Church would cut its 31-member affiliate network by six in 2018.

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service said it had not closed any sites, though before she resigned earlier this week as its president and CEO, Linda Hartke confirmed the agency has made staff reductions at its headquarters. [This is especially funny because we know that many staff at headquarters quit due to Hartke’s poor management!—Now it is all Donald’s fault!—How convenient!—ed]

Maybe if the top dogs took pay cuts, and raised PRIVATE money, the lower level staff could be retained? 

Local organizations appear to bear the brunt of the cuts. [Sure they do, no one really expects the CEO’s to take pay cuts.—ed] Paula Torisk, deputy director of refugee resettlement for Catholic Charities San Antonio, which works with the USCCB’s program, said her office has laid off at least 23 people because of the various bans — around 30 percent to 35 percent of her staff.

unemployed
Lower level staff are unemployed because the whole refugee program is built (wrongly) as a Ponzi scheme.  https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2018/02/16/trump-administration-wrongly-blamed-for-closure-of-refugee-offices/

She said many of those who lost their jobs are, like Giri [refugee star of the story—ed], themselves refugees or former refugees who have since become U.S. citizens. Her office previously relied on their cultural knowledge and language skills but has been forced to hire translators in their absence.

“You’ve got staff taking on cases where they don’t speak the language,” said Torisk, who has worked with refugees since 1996. “I’ve heard other resettlement programs say, ‘How can we pay for [interpreters] if our funding is cut?’”

She also said that due to uncertainty surrounding the program, funding for the longer-term refugee assistance — such as providing English classes — is now doled out on a quarterly basis instead of annually throughout Texas.

There is much more, but you get my drift.
The whole 1980 system is based on an ever-expanding refugee flow to America and over the ensuing decades the contractors (below) got fat and lazy because federal money flowed like a river to them and they built fiefdoms with it!

I repeat: Where is Congress?

The nine refugee contractors “fighting for their survival”….
The number in parenthesis is the percentage of their income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees and get them signed up for their services (aka welfare)!  From most recent accounting, here.

Australian 'Christian' magazine goes to bat for US refugee resettlement contractors

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

And, although this article at ‘Sight’ magazine got my blood boiling for its promotion of the six ‘religious’ charities (Ha! Ha!) that (out of the goodness of their hearts?) are ‘welcoming’ refugees and getting them their services in your towns and cities, it is very revealing.
Before reading on, maybe revisit my post yesterday and know that the offices that the ‘religious’ contractors are closing could stay open if they raised private money to pay the salaries of their workers to care for the refugees they placed a few months, or a few years, ago.
To SATISFY THEIR CHARITABLE INCLINATIONS, THEY COULD TAKE CARE OF THOSE WHO ARE ALREADY HERE!  NEW REFUGEES ARE NOT REQUIRED FOR THAT!
However, new refugees are required if they want to suck down millions of federal dollars (through per refugee head payments) and continue their high-flying spending especially on salaries for the big wigs—like Mark Hetfield in the photo that Sight uses to decorate its story.
 

Hetfield at WH
Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society CEO Mark Hetfield (left) demonstrating against the President last month in Washington. Being a humanitarian is lucrative if you can get the work! His annual salary (and related income) amounts to $343,630, and taxpayers pay a hefty chunk of that! Adding insult to injury, Hetfield sits down with the US State Department on a weekly basis to make decisions (in secret!) about which of your towns will ‘welcome’ refugees.

 
Sight magazine (looks like it is a mag for the international religious Left):

A program under siege!

Refugee aid groups have conducted massive layoffs and office closures ever since the Trump administration began issuing various versions of a travel ban, sometimes called a “Muslim ban”. The groups have been left on the hook for empty apartments and have had to explain to interested churches why they can’t bring refugees to their areas. And many refugee advocates have expressed concern over how long it will take the groups to come back from those cuts, if they can at all.

[….]

President Trump has also slashed the total number of refugees who will be admitted into the US, from 110,000 in fiscal 2017 – a bar set by former President Obama – to 45,000 in fiscal 2018, which started in October. And agencies say they aren’t even on track to settle that number: Just over 6,000 had come to the country in the last three months.

Hidden behind these figures is the decimation of an expansive refugee resettlement apparatus composed largely of faith-based nonprofit organisations that have partnered with the federal government for decades.

Of the nine groups helping refugees find a home in America, six claim a religious affiliation: World Relief, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Church World Service, HIAS (founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and Episcopal Migration Ministries.

Historically, these groups are contracted by the government to help take in refugees after they undergo a lengthy application and vetting process that involves several agencies, including the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security. (The placement of families is determined on a weekly basis through consultation between the State Department and the resettlement groups.)

Once people are brought to the US, resettlement groups authorised annually by the State Department typically provide new arrivals with housing and food, as well as long-term assistance for achieving self-sufficiency such as help in finding jobs, learning English and often becoming permanent US residents or citizens. [And signing them up for their WELFARE, food stamps, medical care, etc.—ed]

But leaders of these groups say the Trump administration’s new policies are hobbling their operations and hurting those they serve. They’re fighting back and finding hope in a groundswell of support from people of faith, but the future remains uncertain. [If they have a groundswell of support, can’t those supporters send enough cash to keep the low level employees in their jobs?—ed]

“I don’t know how long it will take to undo the damage that has been done,” said Matthew Soerens, US director of church mobilisation for World Relief.

A program under siege

The harm inflicted on the resettlement program by the Trump administration is difficult to calculate. Each organisation is structured differently and many partner with independent local groups for on-the-ground efforts.

[….]

Meanwhile, officials say the cost of the ban can sometimes fall disproportionately on the resettlement agencies*** instead of on the federal government.

When you have contractors (see below) that are 97-98% federally funded I can’t see that the costs will fall disproportionately on the contractor! 
For serious students of the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program there is a lot of really good information in here, so continue reading here.  I may actually revisit this article tomorrow so I can be sure you see the individual contractor’s sob stories.  And, I got a chuckle out of their glowing use of quotes from the recently departed Linda Hartke.

Where is Congress?

As long as the nine federal contractors are almost entirely funded by the US taxpayer and then are permitted to protest, community organize and lobby Congress for more refugees and more money, this program will never be reformed!
Photo caption! Just so you know I am not making up Hetfield’s handsome salary, here is a page from HIAS’s most recent Form 990:
Screenshot (211)
 
*** These are the nine federal resettlement agencies, six are (LOL!) ‘religious charities.’
The original Refugee Act of 1980, that set up this monstrosity, envisioned a public-private partnership that over the years has almost completely morphed in to a federal program and that is why these agencies are hurting now—they got fat and lazy on the federal teat!
The number in parenthesis is the percentage of their income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees and get them signed up for their services (aka welfare)!  From most recent accounting, here.

Trump Administration wrongly blamed for closure of refugee offices

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

unemployed
I told you about it here yesterday, but I’ve noticed over the last 24 hours that the story about Trump’s refugee policies being blamed for closure of NON-PROFIT GROUP offices is all over the media.
Let me be clear!
The blame rests squarely on the design of the US Refugee Admissions Program (and Congress) which has shoveled so much federal money to NON-PROFITS that they long ago gave up any idea of seriously attempting to raise private money to TAKE CARE OF THE REFUGEES THEY CLAIM THEY WANTED!
The program has essentially become a ponzi-scheme built on US Treasury payments to NON-PROFIT groups on a refugee per head basis.  Refugee (paying client) numbers decline, and thus so does the NON-PROFIT groups’ taxpayer support.
For ten years I have been hammering this point—nothing has stopped NON-PROFIT refugee agencies from raising PRIVATE money in the old fashioned way! They could have held more fundraisers, sought out grants from businesses AND from religious groups to tide them over through the ups and downs of the refugee admissions flow.
(If, at this point, they say there isn’t enough private money for this, then that means the public doesn’t want it!)
So instead they got lazy on the federal dole.  It isn’t the Trump State Department’s fault if refugees brought in previous months and years are now left without local support. The State Department can’t legally shutter NON-PROFIT groups.
It is the management at the top of the nine federal contractors (below) who were careless and lazy (all the while collecting exorbitant salaries themselves!) who are to blame if refugees are left in the lurch now, or staff at the lowest levels is dismissed.

Where the h*** is Congress! It is way past time to either dump or completely reform the Refugee Act of 1980!

The nine contractors….
The number in parenthesis is the percentage of their income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees and get them signed up for their services (aka welfare)!  From most recent accounting, here.

Hungary First: Orban government proposes anti-Soros legislation

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Hungarian government poster portraying financier George Soros in Budapest
Posters say: “Don’t let George Soros have the last laugh”

 
Invasion of Europe news…..
This is a Reuters story from two days ago (just getting to it). Emphasis below is mine:

BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Hungary’s nationalist government introduced legislation that would empower the interior minister to ban non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that support migration and pose a “national security risk”.

The bill, submitted to parliament late on Tuesday, is a key part of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s anti-immigration campaign targeting U.S. financier George Soros whose philanthropy aims to bolster liberal and open-border values in eastern Europe.

The government says the bill, which would also impose a 25 percent tax on foreign donations to NGOs that back migration in Hungary, is meant to deter illegal immigration Orban says is eroding European stability and has been stoked in part by Soros.

Orban and Soros
Orban vs. Soros

Hungary and Poland are both under nationalist governments that have clashed with the European Union leadership in Brussels over their perceived authoritarian drift deviating from EU standards on democracy and rule of law.

But Orban’s message, championing conservative Christian beliefs and rejecting multiculturalism, has gone down well with Hungarian voters and his Fidesz party is expected to secure a third straight term in a general election due on April 8.

The bill says that NGOs that “sponsor, organize or support the entry or stay of third-country citizens on Hungarian territory via a safe third country to extend international protection … qualify as organizations supporting migration”.

Such activity – including campaigning, advocacy, recruiting volunteers, producing information booklets – would have to be approved by the interior minister, who could deny permission if he saw a “national security risk”.

There is much more here.

What I want to know is: Will President Trump invite Orban to the White House so we can watch Leftists’ heads explode?

Go here for my complete ‘Invasion of Europe’ archive.
Don’t miss my post on the IRC just yesterday where we reminded you that Soros is pals with David Miliband!