June 9, 2021, And Every Wednesday
By: Linda Case Gibbons, Esq.
(Check out Lest We Forget and FYI)
Most things change, but some don’t.
American voters didn’t like Kamala Harris when she ran for president in 2020. Now people don’t like her in Guatemala.
So, it wasn't a surprise when Harris was greeted by protesters when Air Force Two landed in Guatemala last Sunday.
“We’re against her interference and blackmail in return for aid,” members of the group Society in Action said.
“We’re against their agenda of imposing the LGBTQ, pro-abortion ideology,” a member told newspaper El Faro. “In Guatemala we’re pro-life.”
Joe, Kamala and Joe’s State Department haven’t been so good at reading the room. They don’t realize that when in Latin America, you’re not in Kansas anymore.
And that people can smell weakness and corruption a mile away.
Look at Secretary of State Tony Blinken.
He had his head handed to him by Chinese officials at the Alaska Summit in March. And everyone noticed.
Mocking U.S. strength, and turning the table on “human rights,” diplomat Yang Jiechi said, “We hope that the United States will do better on human rights.
“China has made steady progress in human rights. And the fact is that there are many problems within the United States regarding human rights, which is admitted by the U.S. itself.”
After which Blinken thanked him by conceding that the U.S. “wasn’t perfect.” And President Joe allowed, regarding the Muslim Uyghurs, that "culturally, there are different norms that each country and their leaders are expected to follow."
Including, presumably, Uyghur slavery.
And while Joe lets the U.S. border go to pot, 77 days without his Border Czar, Harris was happily handing out Kamala-Look-Alie Cookies to journalists on the way to Guatemala.
Was it any wonder then, given this team, that instead of being grateful to Kamala for handing out more U.S. money to the Northern Triangle countries, a group of Guatemalans held signs reading:
"Kamala Mind Your Own Business;"
“Kamala Go Home;”
“Kamala Trump Won;” and
“Kamala Non Grata (that’s Latin for an unwelcome person) Go Home and Fix Your Own Corrupt Government.”
Switching horses, Harris said in a speech in Guatemala, aimed at potential immigrants from South America, “Do not come.”
Of course, there was a backlash. Of course it came from progressives and pro-immigration types, but also from people who don’t like being patronized.
“How do you show up to Guatemala and tell Central Americans how to behave,” Portillo Villeda, an associate professor at Pitzer College said.
The vice president’s comments, she said, reminded her of President Theodore Roosevelt’s “coercive and paternalistic foreign policy approach to South America.”
It was good, she observed, that Harris said this in Guatemala. She wouldn’t have gotten away with it in El Salvador or Honduras, “whose presidents are not as friendly with the new U.S. administration.
And she’s right. They’re not crazy about crazy Joe. But Kamala was on a roll.
“I want to be very clear that the problem at the border, in large part, if not entirely, stems from the problems in these (Central American) countries,” she told Mexican reporters on Tuesday, her foot securely in her mouth.
But the leaders of Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala disagreed.
They blame Biden’s lenient border security policies on the border problem.
They blame Joe’s haste to undo Trump’s border security and immigration enforcement measures for the humanitarian crisis at the U.S. southern border.
All in all, Harris’ trip and her role as the border overseer, have been a bust. But, laughing and undismayed, she carried on.
As she told Morning Joe’s co-host Mika Brzezinski, “I eat ‘No’ for breakfast.”
“I’ve been told many times during my career,” she explained. “Things from, ‘oh, you’re too young,’ ‘It’s not your turn,’ ‘They’re not ready for you,’ but I didn’t listen.”
She’s right. She didn’t listen, because the No she eats for breakfast really is, “No, I’m not going to the border,” and “No, I didn’t know President Trump already struck a deal with the Triangle countries.”
And Trump’s plan was a plan that worked.
Because Trump knew about the border. Because he went down to the border.
He ate Yes for breakfast and lunch, instead of letting other countries eat our lunch.
Hold the line, America.
Where We Go One, We Go All
Stay strong, Patriots.