[US Immigration and Customs Enforcement] MCALLEN, Texas ‐ Six Texas residents pleaded guilty Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Guillermo Garcia to a human smuggling operation.
These guilty pleas were announced by Acting U.S. Attorney Abe Martinez, Southern District of Texas. This case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
On Dec. 4, the following defendants pleaded guilty to the smuggling charges: brothers Lucio Segundo, 31, and Christopher Segundo, 23, of Giddings, Texas. On Monday, four others entered their guilty pleas: Francisco Segura, 29, also of Giddings; Alex De La Rosa, 23, of San Marcos, Texas; Jesus Perez, 24, of La Grange; and David Cedillo, 46, of Austin.
During this conspiracy, the defendants at times smuggled illegal aliens in the trunks of rental vehicles. More often, however, the smuggled aliens were transported in trailers that had been specifically modified with false bottoms under vehicle floorboards. As many as a dozen illegal aliens could be transported at one time lying down in those false compartments. Construction materials were placed on the trailers to make it appear that the trailers were carrying legitimate loads.
Various drivers were recruited to transport these smuggled aliens northbound from Laredo through the CBP Border Patrol checkpoints between Nov. 1, 2015, and July 1, 2017.
All six defendants remain in custody pending their sentencing hearings, which will be set in the near future before U.S. District Judge Diana Saldaña.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Bukiewicz and Alfredo De La Rosa, Southern District of Texas, are prosecuting this case.
[Wash Times] Illegal border crossing tumbled to a 45-year low and interior arrests of illegal immigrants soared in 2017, according to data released Tuesday that showed President Trump’s enforcement crackdown netted tangible results during his first year on the job.
The numbers, released by the Department of Homeland Security, reflected a stunning turnaround from the nearly nonexistent interior enforcement of immigration laws under President Obama.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported 310,531 apprehensions nationwide in fiscal 2017, which ended Sept. 30, a decline of 25 percent from a year earlier and the lowest level since 1971.
Nearly all of the Border Patrol arrests ‐ 303,916 ‐ were along the southwestern border, which the agency said underscored the need for a security wall that Mr. Trump wants to build.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who are responsible for capturing and deporting illegal immigrants, made 110,568 arrests ‐ a 40 percent increase from the previous year.
The agency said interior removals ‐ people deported after being arrested away from the border ‐ jumped 25 percent to 81,603.
#2
I want to see a contiguous 750 mile piece of wall by this time next year so we can bring illegal border crossings closer to a 240 year low. I'll even go back on my original design criteria in that it look like the wall around Manhattan in Escape from New York in order to see this done.
[All Africa] William Masvinu won the Mr Ugly contest on Sunday night. Mr Ugly is an annual contest that seeks to celebrate beauty in ugliness, according to organisers.
Scores of people attended Zim-bob-we's Mr Ugly 2017 to see William Masvinu clinch the title for the third time in five competitions.
Masvinu, who comes from Epworth, edged off competition from four other contestants including close rivals Fanuel Musekiwa and Maison Sere at the braai fest held at Mutangaz Hideout in Goromonzi on Sunday night.
Masvinu walked away with $500 and a cow, with Musekiwa earning $200 and Sere $100 for second and third position respectively.
Masvinu expressed his happiness in winning the title.
"No one can dispute that I am the ugliest person in Zim-bob-we. I now want to take my ugliness outside the country. If there is Mr Ugly World, I am confident I will bring the crown to Zim-bob-we," he said.
Mr Ugly World will be held in South Africa in 2018.
In 2015, Masvinu lost the title to Sere amid complaints that Sere's ugliness was only based on his missing teeth.
"Last time, complacency cosy me a lot but this time I came well prepared for the contest and I am happy I have reclaimed my trophy," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/07/2017 00:00 ||
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#5
When will fear of “racism” lose its power to override common sense. There are no partitions in upscale neighborhood because liquor stores are rarely robbed weekly. If blacks want less stigma of protective measure in commercial establishments stop robbing them and help police arrest those that do
#1
When alarmists in charge of surface temperature datasets make dishonest adjustments to exaggerate the appearance of global warming, it looks like corruption.
When alarmists in the entirely separate field of sea level measurement make precisely the same sort of dishonest adjustments in order to accord with the same global warming narrative, it starts to look like a conspiracy.
Nah, just group-think, like lemmings over the cliff. Combined with Stalin-like crushing of opposing views. Plus 'education' about 'feeling good'.
But not a secret-meeting conspiracy. Somebody'd squeal.
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/07/2017 16:56 Comments ||
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#2
Just because it's not happening doesn't mean it's not happening. And we have the data to prove it!
[Breitbart] Obama’s National Security Council allegedly leaked information about former Navy SEAL and Blackwater CEO Erik Prince to the liberal press after they put him under "illegal" surveillance during a foreign trip, according to testimony Prince gave the House Intelligence Committee back in November.
The transcript, released Wednesday, indicates Prince believed that surveillance to be "illegal." In response to a question from Rep. Tom Rooney (R-FL), Prince discussed his belief American intelligence agencies surveilled him while he spoke in a hotel bar in the Seychelles with Russian businessman Kirill Dmitriev in January of 2017.
The investigation, supposedly about Trump-Russia ties, later was used by the Washington Post in a piece about Trump ally Prince’s connections to Russia. The Post alleged he was trying to set up a "back channel" between Trump and Putin.
Prince told Rooney:
What really bothers me and what I would hope the intelligence committee is doing is question why Americans that were caught up in the waves of signals intelligence, why on Earth would the Washington Post be running an article on any meeting that a private citizen, me, was having in a foreign country?
"That’s illegal. That is a political abuse of the intelligence infrastructure," Prince said. "And that is really dangerous, especially as this committee and the Congress thinks about reauthorizing very wide-ranging intelligence authorities to dig into private Americans’ electronic communications of any sort."
[All Africa] Zim-bob-we's ex-foreign minister, Walter Mzembi, who was expelled from Zanu-PF over his alleged links to Grace Mugabe, has spoken of his future under President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Mzembi was promoted to foreign minister in a cabinet reshuffle in October widely seen as strengthening the hand of the G40 faction loyal to the former first lady. It was that cabinet reshuffle, and the later sacking of Mnangagwa as vice president, that triggered the army intervention last month.
But in an interview with the private Daily News, Mzembi denied being a Grace Mugabe ally, and suggested Mnangagwa, though reserved to the point of "aloofness" has "bottled up ideas and refreshing thoughts that are only coming out now".
"He has said all the right things so far and is on track. He is carrying the cross as our leader but he needs all of us to achieve his vision and mission for a prosperous Zim-bob-we," said Mzembi.
Mzembi, who has a reputation for hard work and was respected in his former role as tourism minister, said he might give politics a break.
He and other alleged G40 members were expelled from Zanu-PF in the wake of the military takeover on November 15.
Asked by the interviewer what his final word was, Mzembi responded: "Hail the new president... It is time to move on for everyone, time for healing, for forgiveness, time to love, to smile, to laugh, time to live."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/07/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
"Hail the new president... It is time to move on for everyone, time for healing, for forgiveness, time to love, to smile, to laugh, time to live."
TRANSLATION: "Don't hurt me."
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/07/2017 4:51 Comments ||
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#2
Mzembi, who has a reputation for hard work and was respected in his former role as tourism minister, said he might give was told to politics a break.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2017 9:19 Comments ||
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#3
DOH! "told to give"
I need more covfefe, stat!
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2017 9:20 Comments ||
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A federal judge on Thursday asked Argentina's Senate to allow the arrest of former President Cristina Fernandez on a charge of treason for allegedly covering up the role of Iranians in a 1994 bomb attack on a Jewish center.
Judge Claudio Bonadio asked lawmakers to remove Fernandez's immunity from arrest, which she gained when she was sworn in as a senator last week. She was president from 2007 to 2015.
The judge also ordered the arrest of several aides and allies of Fernandez, including former presidency Secretary Carlos Zannini and activist Luis D'Elia on the same charges. Former Foreign Minister Hector Timerman was ordered held under house arrest due to health issues.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2017 12:21 ||
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[Jamestown.org] Based on the words of the Russian leadership and the actions of local officials, the country has entered a new stage of confrontation with the West and now has to prepare for looming war. Speaking, on November 22, at a meeting of defense ministry leaders and the heads of defense-sector firms, President Vladimir Putin focused on the theme of "mobilization preparations." Notably, he declared that one of the main goals of the Zapad 2017 military exercises (September 14‐20), which provoked a sharp negative reaction from member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), was to check "our mobilization readiness and ability to use local resources to meet troop requirements. Reservists were called up for this exercise, and we also tested the ability of civilian companies to transfer their vehicles and equipment to the armed forces and provide technical protection to transport communications" (Kremlin.ru, November 22).
Until recently, Moscow repeatedly argued that the scale of Zapad 2017 was restricted to participation of only 12,700 Russian troops. Nothing was ever officially mentioned about practicing mass mobilization of reservists; this aspect only featured occasionally, in fragmentary reports. Local press reported, in particular, about mobilization being done in complete secrecy in the Kaliningrad region‐reservists had to sign a non-disclosure agreement (Novyi Kaliningrad, August 30; see EDM, September 18). Some hazy reporting on "mobilization actions" in Kursk region also appeared (Seim, August 18). The call-up of reservists was supposed to replace the need for transferring troops from elsewhere in the country. However, while addressing the defense ministry, Putin noted that these mobilization activities during the Zapad exercise were unsuccessful and will need to be corrected (Kremlin.ru, November 22).
A bit later in his speech, Putin made a second notable announcement: "I want to say that the economic ability to increase the production of defense products and services quickly is a vital element of military security. All strategic and simply large companies, regardless of the type of ownership, must be able to do this" (Kremlin.ru, November 22). Such a policy would imply the government intends to return to the Stalinist-era model of a mobilization economy. In accordance with Joseph Stalin’s industrialization plans, every enterprise producing civilian goods‐even pasta or baby toys‐had to switch to military production quickly during a prewar period.
That mobilization concept allowed the Soviet Union to dramatically raise military production during World War II. But the same concept ultimately played a crucial role in the collapse of the Soviet economy in the 1980s. "Civil" enterprises were forced to create and maintain parallel redundant production lines and hire excessive workforces. Moreover, industry had to unify all main components to suit both military and civilian production. Huge reserves of strategic materials had to be kept stockpiled for industry during wartime. All this created massive imbalances in the economy, and the cost of military production was included in the price of already-produced civilian goods. One of the most important functions of the Gosplan (the Soviet state planning commission) was to artificially balance prices to achieve some semblance of profitability, burdened by the "mobilization task." As a result, in the period before the collapse of the Soviet Union, industry regularly produced thousands of tanks, aircraft and missiles, but the government could no longer pay for these weapons (see EDM, September 29, 2016). Much more at the link.
[REUTERS] Large military drills being carried out by the United States and South Korea and U.S. threats of a preemptive war against Pyongyang have made the outbreak of war on the Korean peninsula "an established fact", North Korea’s foreign ministry said.
A front man for the North’s foreign ministry also blamed "confrontational warmongering" remarks by U.S. officials for pushing the peninsula to the brink of war.
"The remaining question now is: when will the war break out?" the front man said late on Wednesday in a statement carried by North Korea’s official KCNA news agency.
"We do not wish for a war but shall not hide from it," he said.
Tensions on the Korean peninsula have risen markedly in recent months after North Korea’s latest missile and nuclear tests, conducted in defiance of international pressure and United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... resolutions.
North Korea said last week it had tested its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile yet, which was capable of reaching the United States.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/07/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
Seems like KCNA Guy's been a lot more subdued recently, with the notable absence of the 'sea of fire' and other over the top rhetoric. Can't have anything to do with Trump threatening to kick the shit out of them, can it?
The article is in French and has a lot more but this paragraph caught my eyes.
[Challenges.fr] Incidents, which have remained confidential, have already been identified in recent years. In France, the military intelligence that has the GRAVE radar for space observation, developed by Onera, has for example noted the repeated maneuvers of a machine, officially dedicated to Russian civil telecommunications, near Intelsat satellites and Eutelsat. Events analyzed as probable trainings to inspection operations and digital intrusions. In Paris, the challenge for the Ministry of Defense is today to develop, with allies such as Germany, a watchful capacity to identify these equivocal postures or threatening. This objective was taken into account for the first time by the strategic defense and national security review presented last October.
#2
The Air Force began in one of its bases in Colorado, December 4, an extensive exercise of protection of telecommunication satellites in orbit against hostile actions. A first while a real arms race in space is looming in the next decade.
Allied countries were invited to these confidential jobs that will last until the end of the week. France has thus sent a strong delegation outcome of ICE (the Joint Space Command, under the direct supervision of the Chief of Staff of the army, General Lecointre). Private and parastatals, as Eutelsat and SES PanamSat were also invited as observers.
By 2022, Washington wants to be able to meet this challenge will be the rapid identification of an intrusion against a satellite and its protection. While the 1967 Treaty governing the use of outer space is no longer able to regulate these situations, the Pentagon also reserves the right to attach these defensive procedures of a retaliatory capability against a possible aggressor. For this, laser firing tests to the space include conducted from ground stations.
Incidents, remained confidential, have been identified in recent years. In France, the military intelligence who has the space observation radar GRAVE, developed by Onera, noted for example the repeated maneuvers of a craft, officially dedicated to the Russian civil communications, near Intelsat satellites and Eutelsat. Events analyzed as probable workouts to inspection operations and digital intrusions. In Paris, the challenge for the Ministry of Defense is currently developing, with allies like Germany, a standby capacity to identify these ambiguous or threatening postures. This objective was included for the first time by the strategic review of defense and national security presented in October.
[Breitbart] Jeannie Rhee, another lawyer hand-picked by Special Counsel Robert Mueller to serve on the Russia probe, is coming under scrutiny for her pro-Hillary Clinton bias, after two others were forced to leave the team for the same reason.
Rhee represented Obama Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes during Congress’s investigation of the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack, while she was an associate at Mueller’s law firm, Wilmer Hale, according to congressional records.
This affiliation, pointed out by Fox News host Laura Ingraham on her show Ingraham Angle Tuesday night, is yet another data point of evidence that Mueller’s team ‐ whose members have donated overwhelmingly to Democrats and Clinton herself ‐ is heavily biased.
"What Mueller did was hire a pedigree team of obvious partisans," Ingraham said. "They should all step aside ... including Bob Mueller."
Rhee also represented the Clinton Foundation against a racketeering lawsuit brought by a conservative legal activist in June 2015, and donated $5,400 to Clinton’s political action committee in 2015 and 2016. She also represented Clinton herself, in a lawsuit seeking access to her private emails, according to CNN.
#1
This very partisan and pro-Hillary team needs to be ended. The counsel was formed based on a lie.
Moreover, illegal "unmasking" was used to justify this counsel. You can't break the law to prosecute the law. No useful purpose has been accomplished in over a year. They have found nothing. The Dems and Rinos don't like the outcome of the election and are trying everything they can to overturn a duly elected Potus. They are trying to nullify our votes.
#2
Indeed JohnQC. This is an attempt at a deep state coup d'etat and classifies as treason and sedition. Trying to remove a sitting president without the appropriate Constitutional methods is nothing less. We should be very afraid of this and fight it to the necessary degree.
They seek to nullify our soapbox and now our ballot box. It might just be time for us to resort to the cartridge box I'm sorry to say.
[DAWN] A second polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set... case within three months has emerged in the city, this time in a five-month-old baby, setting off alarm bells and exposing the fact that authorities in the metropolis have yet to eradicate the crippling disease, officials said on Tuesday.
"The second case, too, involves an Afghan family. A five-month-old boy has fallen prey to the virus in UC-4 of Gadap," said a bigwig in the Sindh health ministry.
Officials said the child had duly been administered with anti-polio drops during frequent campaigns. However, a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth... they blamed "low immunity" in the child’s body because of malnutrition that failed to save him.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/07/2017 00:00 ||
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#3
Multicultural bilingual social justice priority over basic reading, writing and arithmetic. Insty is correct, sending your kid to public school probably is child abuse.
Since the unionization of the state teachers association, the trend line on literacy, math, and science in California have fallen off the table. That is the reason the tech industry wants to import workers from India, China, and Japan. The state of California spends a staggering 20K per student on education which is almost 10x Japan and India and can't teach kids how to do math or read a book.
The educators need to quit playing games with "new and innovative" techniques to teach reading and math. They obviously don't work. They need to dust off those old methods the ones used when California had one of the best school systems in the nation and get on with really teaching. Kids in Harlem, the Bronx, and St. Louis score higher on achievement tests than kids in SD, LA, and SF. And teachers in California are among the highest paid.
#5
Ya get what you want and work for from schooling. My three kids attended public schools in east San Diego (redneck imagery) County.
My oldest (daughter) is a Real Estate Agent, my oldest son did 5 years in the Army and is a Senior in Criminal Justice at SDSU (Dean's list), and my youngest works for a software company.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/07/2017 12:40 Comments ||
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#7
I cannot see the disparate trendlines of coastal and fly-over country culture continue without a great, violent fracturing, or a very ugly purge of the vanquished. One or two decades at best before the great boiling-over......
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Wash Times] Illegal border crossing tumbled to a 45-year low and interior arrests of illegal immigrants soared in 2017, according to data released Tuesday that showed President Trump’s enforcement crackdown netted tangible results during his first year on the job.
[All Africa] William Masvinu won the Mr Ugly contest on Sunday night. Mr Ugly is an annual contest that seeks to celebrate beauty in ugliness, according to organisers.
A federal judge on Thursday asked Argentina's Senate to allow the arrest of former President Cristina Fernandez on a charge of treason for allegedly covering up the role of Iranians in a 1994 bomb attack on a Jewish center.
North Korea
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set...
