John Barrasso Declares Programs Protecting Christian Minorities and Combatting Migration “Wrong”
On an appearance on Fox News Sunday yesterday, Senator John Barrasso claimed Democrats are “filing lawsuit after lawsuit because they want the border to remain open, they want to have boys playing in girls’ sports, and they want to spend money on things that people think are ridiculous — these transgender comic books, operas, surgery in foreign countries — all of these things are wrong.”
It’s unclear whether Wyoming’s Senator has simply pickled his brain with too much Fox News, made the grave mistake of believing any single thing Karoline Leavitt and/or Elon Musk says, or simply been ill-served by his staffers.
Several of the spending issues he alluded to, for example, have been publicly explained (and represent State Department funding, not USAID funding).
The rest were awarded by the State Department’s Office of the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. In 2022, it granted $70,884 to an Irish company for “a live musical event to promote the U.S. and Irish shared values of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.” A grant for $25,000 was awarded in 2021 to a university in Colombia “to raise awareness and increase the transgender representation” through the production of an opera, with an additional $22,020 coming from non-federal funding. And $32,000 awarded in 2022 to a Peruvian organization funded “a tailored-made comic, featuring an LGBTQ+ hero to address social and mental health issues.”
The bigger problem for the badly misled Senator Barrasso, however, is in claiming that “all of these things are wrong,” he is saying he opposes a bunch of programs that did get shut down, including protecting the religious freedom of Christian minorities in Asia and Africa and combatting migration to the United States at its source.
That’s what declaration after declaration after declaration submitted in lawsuits reveal. Many these lawsuits haven’t been filed by Democrats; some of which have been filed by representatives of small businesses devastated because Donald Trump has decided to renege on billions of dollars of signed contracts, which is the key injury alleged in one of the more sweeping Temporary Restraining Orders thus far.
More importantly, rather than halting things that Barrasso is sure are wrong, they’ve halted programs that go to the core of what Trump claims he supports.
Disrupting migration at its source in El Salvador and Venezuela
One USAID contractor, Chemonics, describes several programs designed to disrupt migration to the US at its source. It describes the disruption of a program targeting El Salvador:
Working with urban municipalities and communities to counter incentives to join gangs and creating safe public spaces, addressing the root causes of migration to the U.S. from El Salvador;
[snip]
In El Salvador, each day the stop work order is in effect undermines progress made by Chemonics enhancing safety, economic opportunities, and safer environments. These work stoppages disrupt services designed to prevent organized crime and reduce migration, and they impede the development and implementation of long-term policies and organizational capacity of our government counterparts to sustain these gains.
And another program facilitating Venezuelan migration to Colombia, in lieu of migration to the US.
Helping resettle Venezuelan migrants permanently in Colombia by supporting Colombian visa processes and assisting with job skills training and placement to prevent migration to the U.S. southern border;
[snip]
In Colombia, 11 one-stop-shops for Venezuelan migrants to obtain temporary visas and nine workforce development centers now lack the resources necessary to operate, leaving migrants without access to social integration services. Agreements that Chemonics had negotiated with four banks to provide bank account registration and other financial services for migrants could not be signed, resulting in reputational harm. Similarly, each day the stop-work order remains in place, we lose the engagement of more than 1,500 private sector companies across different sectors that had agreed to promote job hiring and placement of Venezuelan migrants and connect migrant-led businesses to market opportunities. Chemonics fears that, without access to these services, more Venezuelan migrants will turn to illegal smuggling and human trafficking to on-migrate to the U.S. border.
Protecting Christian minorities
One contractor described that its human rights defenders protecting Christian communities from terrorists are at risk.
In Burkina Faso, human rights defenders who are working to track violence by the military junta and terrorist groups that have targeted Christian communities are at risk of being killed because the program can no longer help them relocate to safer locations and provide them with food, shelter, and subsistence support.
The American Bar Assocation also described having programs supporting religious freedom in Asia shut down.
With our partners in Indonesia, ABA is actively pursuing six religious freedom cases, including 4 representing Christian churches who were denied necessary permits to hold worship services and 2 representing Shia and Ahmadiyya Muslims who were accused of blasphemy/heresy
Combatting human trafficking
The ABA also supports programs fighting human trafficking in the Congo and Colombia.
The ABA is building the long-term capacity of the Congolese government, lawyers, and local service providers to combat human trafficking and violence against women, children, and other vulnerable groups around the country. ABA’s partners include medical, legal, psychological, shelter, and economic support providers alongside security actors, Congolese government representatives, and judicial personnel who receive training, technical assistance, capacity building, and direct distribution of goods or services for survivors. The project also works with local NGOs to raise public awareness on existing laws, rights, referral pathways, and resources for survivors to collectively improve long-term attitudes toward victims of trafficking and violence against women, children, and other vulnerable groups.
[snip]
In Colombia, ABA ROLI is implementing the Child Protection Compact (CPC) Partnership program, which aims to strengthen investigations, prosecutions and adjudications of child and adolescent trafficking cases through institutional strengthening as well as advocacy and increased access to justice. Emphasizing sustainable outcomes, this program adopts highly participatory approaches that increase commitment of the government, ensures sustained technical knowledge, and has developed tools and standard operating procedures, and improved law enforcement’s practices to obtain reliable data. As a result of the funding freeze, despite Colombia’s efforts to address the worst forms of child labor, children will still remain subjected to commercial sexual exploitation, illicit activities, forced labor, and recruitment by criminal groups.
Competing with China for Congo’s resources
One USAID employee describes how the evacuation and defunding has put programs designed to provide Congo alternate markets to those of China have been put at risk.
My portfolio focuses on establishing conflict-free supply chains of critical minerals from the DRC to the U.S. The overarching objective of my role is to strengthen the supply chain of DRC’s vast critical minerals sector to the U.S. Much of my job is establishing relationships with Government of DRC officials and informing them of the benefits partnerships with the U.S. offer. Over 70% of the world’s cobalt is produced in the DRC, which is almost entirely shipped to China. My job was to help reduce the country’s dependence through increased trade with the U.S.
[snip]
[T]he shutdown is ruining the U.S.’s strong relationship with the DRC government and private sector partners in the mining sector. USAID had many partnerships and programs active in the DRC’s mining sector focused on improving the environmental and social aspects of mining so that minerals could be legally exported to the U.S. Likewise, USAID was the primary donor supporting the development of the Lobito Corridor in the DRC. We have essentially “ghosted” all of our partners and our reputation may forever be tarnished as a result. Over the past few years, the DRC had expressed their preference for U.S. partnerships and USAID worked hard to develop strong, mutually beneficial partnerships that increase trade, benefitting the DRC economy and U.S. consumers who rely on the critical minerals that only the DRC produces. This is in jeopardy. China is ready to immediately jump in and take over.
John Barrasso has a job to do, and that is to oversee the actions taken by the President, of either party.
And rather than doing the least due diligence to learn about the damage that Trump’s shutdowns have caused, Barrasso instead went on TV and — presumably without knowing the least little bit about what he was talking about — cheered the shutdown of programs protecting Christian minorities around the world.
I don’t think anyone from Burkina Faso registers as Christian in his lane and it’s a big lane.
Burkina Faso
Barrasso Finko
…so confusing!
“John Barrasso has a job to do…” that’s right, but it’s not the one most would think it is, namely being a Senator and overseeing the executive branch, etc…his job is to get on Faux news and parrot lies and propaganda in the name of making sure none of the rubes who watch Faux news actually know what this corrupt administration is doing…and to that end I guess he is doing well…
Barasso is fine with Trump overruling US laws? Is he trying for a seat on SCOTUS?
SCOTUS? No. He has not yet proven his kegger bona fides.
Besides, FedSoc places younger meat in the courts.
The border is open? Then why do we need passports and going through INS/CBP to cross it?
The China connection is good to note. China has a crap economy and no population growth, so how does it react? With a New Silk Road project designed to facilitate economic partnerships with distant countries. The US is going in the opposite direction, it is clear from your examples. Does Musk think that Tesla can thrive without strong China connections? Or the rest of US industry? Idiotic. And, of course, harmful to so many; I wonder how the Christians who supported Trump feel these days about “Love thy neighbor as thyself”.
He never goes into ordinary stores (assuming he goes into any at all), or he’d know that we get a *lot* of stuff from China. Not just housewares and toys – I have mung beans (for sprouting) from China. And tea – they still make and sell tea.
China has a crap economy? They are a manufacturing Leviathan totally burying the US and Europe. Now one can argue most of their companies are zombies, making no profit and operating on continuous infusions of credit but what is coming out of their factories is real, is often very good and getting better.
They are graduating maybe 7 times the number of engineers as the US/EU.
Indeed, but their economy is built on a house of cards. Look at their mortgage crisis where people pay into mortgages on buildings that will not even be built for years and are left holding the bag when bankruptcies happen. Large protests in 2022 and 2023.
Also, most if not all of the Silk Road partners are regretting the strings attached to the investments. All advantages Convict-1 is throwing away.
In my working life, I am a rare liberal so I keep my mouth shut. I’ve noticed three trends lately. Trend one is that some of my colleagues are true believers in every sense of the word. When I was educated today that 90% of USAID was given over to trans migrants on fentanyl (yes, those words were said in that order), it was from a highly educated, generally clear-eyed person I have respect for. When I mentioned that I was upset that they just cut off the sick and the poor, I was told that Donald Trump is a good man, and he would make sure that these people were taken care of. He has embraced the delusion has a strong minority in an industry where faith is a serious negative emotion. The other trends are either sell now because the end is near, or don’t sell now because the end is near, opinions very as to why.
It is not surprising that many people believe what they do in the U.S.A. Propaganda isn’t just used by dictators/fascists/etc. People don’t want to believe they are sometimes responsible for their own misery or because of how they voted. Its much easier to blame some one else.
If people want to believe all the b.s. they are being sold, its really too bad,, because even if every current undocumented person was removed from the U.S.A. tomorrow morning, not much would improve for the “americans” who were left. What is going on ;currently in the U.S.A. is a power grab and a “course correction” in the view of many especially the billionaire class.
Undocumented immigrants are about 3% of the national population. There aren’t enough of them to take over, and most of them are here because there are jobs that pay, and they can send money to their families. Or because it’s better than the places they were, where everything requires bribes or avoiding notice by the local powers.
am not making an exactly stunning revelation, but:
there is a rightwing swathe in US that wants and needs undocumented workers. precariousness of their position makes them exploitable and expendable, and undermines wages for native-born workers.
as i see it, the borders became porous in GW Bush administration.
the horrifying thing is then turning on these people (as you observe, economic migrants, mostly and trump supporters) to make them scapegoats for a political agenda.
“there is a rightwing swathe in US that wants and needs undocumented workers.”
It’s a much wider swath than that. Include all who buy food products from fruit to processed meats who expect low prices without regard for how those low prices are obtained. We’re going to have be more conscious of our consumption now, in a way we should have been before TFG 2.0.
Anytime I go to an ATM in the lobby of a building, there’s invariably LARGE tv screen, and it ALWAYS has FOXNews playing.
It’s a reminder (along with occasional calls to my magat syblings) that people who are busy working or caring for their family will watch whatever’s on, and remember the phrases that are repeated the most often.
The book “Propaganda” was written initially for the benefit of business marketing people, before governments started reading it.
Partner’s foot ulcer wasn’t healing for over a year. Podiatrist tried everything to no avail and was considering amputation. As a last resort he sent us to a plastic surgeon to discuss skin graft. In his waiting area were several Newsmax magazines. Yikes, not good. Well, about a week after the consultation her ulcer started to heal on its own, no surgery needed.
Podiatrist had no explanation so I like to think fear of MAGA medicine scared her into healing.
If you put all what these wingnuts say in the context of their deepest held believe in the mantra of “no free shit for black people”, it pretty much explains everything they say and do.
I call Barrasso “The Grave Digger” because he has the appearance, wit and charisma of an undertaker. He and Mitch “Turtlehead” McConnell should wear monk’s cowls when they ramble the halls of the Senate. I didn’t hear the Grave Digger raise one peep when the cost of the F-35 fighter program exceeded two TRILLION dollars on his watch and the plane hasn’t made America one iota safer. In fact, the Colombian trans show probably made us more safe. So much for his fiscal prudence!
https://www.gao.gov/blog/f-35-will-now-exceed-2-trillion-military-plans-fly-it-less
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/president-trump-announces-appointments-to-the-white-house-faith-office/
“Pastor Paula White-Cain will return to the White House as a Special Government Employee and Senior Advisor of the newly created White House Faith Office.”
How is she going to get those angels from Africa over Trump’s border wall?
Ah yes, how would these ghouls sleep at night without reassurance from their Prosperity Gospel (TM) guru?
They wouldn’t want to have to read the actual Bible, after all. It’s full of “woke” crap surely bound for the same shredder as DEI.