Sunday, September 7, 2025

Our 'Maryland Man' Deportee Can Look Forward to an Unforgettable Experience in Eswatini


The Kingdom of Eswatini welcomes visitors:
As one of the few remaining monarchies in Africa, culture and heritage are deeply engrained in all aspects of Swazi life, ensuring an unforgettable experience for all who visit. As well as the rich culture, the overwhelming friendliness of the people makes all visitors feel truly welcome and very safe. Add to that stunning scenery of mountains and valleys, forests and plains; plus wildlife reserves across the country that are home to The Big Five; and a fascinating mix of modern and traditional festivals, ceremonies and events, and you have all that’s best about Africa in one small but perfectly formed and welcoming country.

 

Tuesday, September 2, 2025

Trump to Traffickers: I"m the Captain Now


He's not waiting for arrest warrants or calling for trafficking vessels to stop and be boarded.  

This new drug war will be much less restrained than the ongoing cleanup of DC. 


Saturday, August 23, 2025

There Are Not Really 55 Million Foreigners Living in the USA


Before responding to news media stories about the recent DOS announcement that it will review all existing visa holders for possible ineligibility, please be advised that all visa holders do not reside here.

Get it straight, news media. The State Department said visas will be revoked if there are indications of "overstays, criminal activity, threats to public safety, engaging in any form of terrorist activity, or providing support to a terrorist organization." Nothing more or less.

Object to that initiative if you wish, but try not to fan the flames of public ignorance while you're doing that.


Egypt's NYC Consulate Shows One Way to Control Visitor Access


Some security types call it a sally port, others some call it a Compound Access Control facility. By whatever name, it's the protected space where people who walk off the street seeking access to a secured facility can be identified and inspected before they are either admitted or turned away.

Egypt showed us an unusually kinetic access denial when it put the boots to those protestors at its New York City consulate. If I may say so, that reception exceeded even what NYC once accepted when the city was cleaned up during Giuliani Time.  

Egypt can get away with that kind of thing because a declared diplomatic premise such as its consulate is not subject to the criminal jurisdiction of the host country. For all you private sector entities who have to deal with your own unruly protestors, Don't Try This at Home.

  

Saturday, August 9, 2025

FSO Confesses to Being a Romantic Fool

 

\Well, well, well. What he did for love? Where have we heard those lyrics before? 

Kiss your job goodbye 
Your last day is tomorrow
Wish her luck, but none to you 
Now you've got the shove
So we're rid of, what you did for love 

Oh, dammit, now I've got that song stuck in my head. 

As is more than obvious from the video above, yet another male FSO has shown extremely poor judgement in the serious matter of his obligation to report continuing contacts with persons from criteria countries. 

Not like that's never happened before, but this one keeps talking about it to women he's just met who are wearing wires. That's a double whammmy. First he compromises himself via-a-vis the Chi-Coms, and then he falls right into a trap set by one of the sillier anti-government activist groups. 

This sad news makes me wonder yet again whether the State Department wouldn't be better served if it went to exclusively female embassy staffing in those hostile countries where the local intelligence services like to run sexual entrapment games on western diplomats. 

Women FSOs have not been 100 percent immune to that approach, it must be admitted, but they nevertheless seem nowhere near as foolish as their male counterparts. 

Until the day comes that we raise an order of celibate monks to do diplomatic work in places like China, female FSOs might be our safest bet.

China Plans to Build a Fortress Embassy in London, To Which Security-Based Objections Are Raised


BBC has more on this, including a regular Chinese laundry list of security concerns:
The plan itself involves a cultural centre and housing for 200 staff, but in the basement, behind security doors, there are also rooms with no identified use on the plans. 
There is another fear, held by some opponents, that the Royal Mint Court site could allow China to infiltrate the UK's financial system by tapping into fibre optic cables carrying sensitive data for firms in the City of London. 
The site once housed Barclays Bank's trading floor, so it was wired directly into the UK's financial infrastructure. Nearby, a tunnel has, since 1985, carried fibre optic cables under the Thames serving hundreds of City firms. 
And in the grounds of the Court, is a five-storey brick building - the Wapping Telephone Exchange that serves the City of London. 
According to Prof Periklis Petropoulos, an optoelectronics researcher at Southampton University, direct access to a working telephone exchange could allow people to glean information.
Against all that, if there are any good arguments in favor of this Great Diplomatic Wall of China, I didn't catch them.

DSS Doing Immigration Enforcement, Not a Big Stretch From Visa/Passport Fraud