[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The number of Chinese nationals crossing the southern US border near San Diego has eclipsed the number of Mexicans in recent months, according to a new report.
US Customs and Border Protection has recorded 21,000 encounters with Chinese nationals in the San Diego Sector since the fiscal year began in October, according to CBP data obtained by Fox News that is not yet public.
That's more than the 18,700 encounters with Mexican nationals during the same period, and second only to the 28,000 Columbians CBP reported encountering in the sector.
Migrants from Brazil (8,700) and Ecuador (7,700) were the next largest groups, and other countries of origin include Turkey, Guinea, India, Guatemala and Peru, underlining the increasingly global nature of migration at the US-Mexico border.
In fiscal 2023, CBP reported 24,048 Chinese citizens were apprehended by Border Patrol at the southern border — up more than 10 times from the 1,970 arrests recorded during the 2022 fiscal year, and just 323 the year before.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A former Drug Enforcement Agency official made $250,000 by taking bribes from the Mafia and offering protection to his criminal allies in Buffalo, New York, according to prosecutors.
Joseph Bongiovanni, 59, allegedly used the veneer of a veteran DEA agent to derail investigations of his childhood friends, cover for a sex-trafficking strip club and even help a connected high school English teacher keep his marijuana-growing side hustle.
Prosecutors in his ongoing federal say Bongiovanni was a greedy racist who threw his colleagues off by opening bogus case files and encouraging them to spend less time investigating Italians and more time on Blacks and Hispanics.
His protection ranged from providing an 'all clear' assuring trafficker friends they were not on law enforcement’s radar to leaking intelligence and opening fictitious cases that made it appear he was investigating them or relying on them as informants, prosecutors said, a sort of catch-and-kill tactic that prevented other law enforcement agencies from pursuing their own cases.
This also positioned Bongiovanni to receive notice any time another agency became interested in one of the targets, a process known as deconfliction.
Featuring Donovan Chapman's father who is a Vietnam War Era Combat Veteran. Donovan Chapman is a former Air Force Special Warfare Pararescue Combat Veteran who served in "Operation Southern Watch" - Kuwait, and "Operation Enduring Freedom" - Afghanistan, Uzbekistan
[GEO.TV] It is safe to say Taylor Swift is on the top of the world and her attention toward Kanye West after he name-dropped her in his album would be the last thing on her mind, according to an insider. "C'mon, Travis! Let's go make out!"
"[Taylor] has so much on her plate and isn’t concerned with what Kanye is or isn’t doing," referring to Ye's mentioning of the Carolina hitmaker in Carnival song. "She has no plans on responding publicly or privately." "What kind of a name is 'Kanye?' Izzat short for 'cannibal?' 'Can opener?' 'Calliope?'"
"From Taylor’s point of view, this beef is one-sided," the bird chirped to Us Weekly. Kanye is trying to get back in the spotlight and an easy way to do that is through Taylor, who has completely moved on." "Not only move on, she was never there!"
Taylor previously addressed the bad blood with the reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown ...home of Al Capone, the Chicago Black Sox, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel... rapper after he interrupted her 2009 MTV VMA acceptance speech. "That was fifteen years ago! It's starting to smell!!"
"I think a lot of people expected me to write a song about [West]. But, for me, it was important to write a song to him." "[Strum!] Hey, Mister Clam Dip! [Strum!] Go marry a Kardashian [Strum!] Or somethin'!"
She told The New York Magazine, "It doesn’t really add anything good if I start victimizing myself and complaining about things. Because I’m proud of that performance at the VMAs last year, where my fans helped me get through it."
[Gateway] CBS reportedly seized files from Catherine Herridge, the network’s recently laid-off senior investigative correspondent. This action included materials that may reveal information about confidential sources, according to an article by Jonathan Turley, Shapiro Chair of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, in The Hill.
Catherine Herridge, an Emmy-winning and nominated reporter known for her work on national security and intelligence, was among the 800 employees Paramount Global laid off in a bid to streamline operations amid financial strain. Her firing has since escalated into a broader controversy.
In his article titled "CBS faces uproar after seizing investigative journalist’s files," Turley sheds light on the concerns that have emerged within the journalistic community at CBS.
Herridge’s colleagues are reportedly alarmed by the company’s unprecedented steps to take possession of her work materials, including sensitive information on sources promised confidentiality.
"There is trouble brewing at Black Rock, the headquarters of CBS, after the firing of Catherine Herridge, an acclaimed investigative reporter. Many of us were shocked after Herridge was included in layoffs this month, but those concerns have increased after CBS officials took the unusual step of seizing her files, computers and records, including information on privileged sources."
The seizure of Herridge’s files, which span her impressive career at both CBS and previously at Fox News, has sent a "chilling signal" through the ranks, suggesting a potential crackdown on journalistic freedom and source protection.
#2
Unfortunately for Herridge the behavior of journalists the last 40+ years have destroyed the notion that journalists are due any sort of respect or protections or special considerations.
Hopefully she backed up her notes to a few reputable law firms.
#3
The talking heads have been controlled by the deep state as far back as Huntley, Brinkley and Cronkite. The internet has brought daylight to the manipulations.
Her files probably had already been survielled by the DS and were removed to protect itself.
#10
Maybe all the real journalists at CBS should walk off the job and teach CBS a lesson. And after walking off the job publish freelance all the bull$hit that has been happening in the news world. Teaching all media outlets a lesson.
[Washington Examiner] Argentinian President Javier Milei has done something truly astounding — something American politicians have universally failed to do. He delivered on a campaign promise to cut deficits and created a surplus in Argentina for the first time in 12 years. It only took him a few weeks from his inauguration to pull that feat off.
It’s time for House Republicans to demonstrate that kind of resolve by using the tools we already gave ourselves to cut spending. In law, we currently hold the golden ticket — automatic caps that will cut the woke, weaponized federal bureaucracy by $73 billion, nearly 10%, while leaving defense spending and veterans’ benefits untouched.
Because of the January 2023 speaker agreement and hard work, Republicans came together to pass the Limit, Save, Grow Act — a deficit reduction bill that would have capped discretionary spending at 2022 levels, $1.471 trillion, for fiscal 2024 and constrained future growth. LSG ultimately gave way to the bipartisan Fiscal Responsibility Act — a debt limit "deal" that passed with Republican and Democratic majorities and was signed into law by President Joe Biden.
While far from perfect and well short of what Republicans should have held out for, the FRA did, in fact, set two years of caps designed to constrain spending — beginning with a modest 1% year-over-year spending cut under a cap of $1.590 trillion in fiscal 2024. Unfortunately, its negotiations included secret "side deals" to use budget gimmicks to increase non-defense spending by $69 billion beyond the caps.
However, it is important to note that House Appropriations Committee ranking member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) voted against the FRA because the "side deals" were not written into law, something she testified to me in the House Rules Committee. Indeed, many Republicans who supported the FRA were unaware of the side deals and are rightly frustrated — as they were not included in House-passed appropriations bills.
[Breitbart] NATIONAL HARBOR, MARYLAND — Brexit Leader Nigel Farage told reporters on Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) that "the world would be a better, safer place with" former President Donald Trump as America’s commander-in-chief.
When asked by Breitbart News what Trump, who is barreling toward the Republican nomination, needs to do to win the presidency in November, Farage quipped, "Get more votes than the others," before observing that Trump’s 2024 campaign is even "more professional than" his previous campaigns.
"I think that the way his campaign is being run is far more professional than it was in ’16 or it was in ’20. I think the messaging is very clear, and I think there is an appetite," Farage detailed in the press gaggle on radio row.
The Brexit boss, who made populism posh again in Britain, suggested the "state of American cities," the border crisis, and President Joe Biden’s weakness on the world stage are problems for Democrats. He noted the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in the Summer of 2021 — where 13 U.S. servicemembers were killed in an attack in Kabul — was a precursor to other horrible happenings on the global stage.
[FoxBusinessNews] The U.S. witnessed Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lunar lander touch down near Malapert A in the South Pole region of the moon on Thursday evening.
This marked the first American spacecraft has landed on the moon since the last crewed Apollo mission over 50 years ago. The last time an American spacecraft touched down on the moon was in 1972, during the Apollo 17 mission.
The lunar lander touched down at 6:24 p.m. ET Thursday, and its mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative and Artemis campaign.
Although the lander was believed to be on the moon, the signal being transmitted by the equipment was lost.
In order to get that signal, the crew needed to use a dish in the U.K., because the lander's transmission had been lost at landing.
Nearly 15 minutes later, a faint signal was detected.
"We're not dead yet," Mission Director Tim Crain said, before telling the team the equipment was on the surface of the moon and transmitting.
A SpaceX rocket carried the Houston-based company’s Nova-C lander, also referred to as Odysseus, from Florida shortly after 1 a.m. on Feb. 15 on a Falcon 9 rocket departing from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. The launch unfolded after a lunar lander from Astrobotic Technology encountered propulsion difficulties during a mission in January and failed to reach the moon.
The uncrewed spacecraft has been circling the moon about 57 miles above the surface since reaching orbit on Wednesday and remained "in excellent health" while roughly 239,000 miles from Earth, transmitting flight data and lunar images to Intuitive Machines' mission control center in Houston, the company told Reuters.
#3
There will be several more space flights to the moon, the purpose of which is to build a permanent, human inhabitable moon base with a ready for occupancy target date in 2030.
#5
I remember watching the first manned lunar landing in 1969. I would never in a million years have guessed that we would just abandon the whole space exploration project for 50 years.
I'm glad to see some progress in getting back on track.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/23/2024 11:33 Comments ||
Top||
#6
..."but the poor". Yeah, right. We've pumped far more wasted graft money in helping the 'poor' for the last four decades and we still have poor and we have new arrivals daily.
#7
The lack of any lunar surface photos or other data is perhaps a hint that being on the surface of the moon may not be the same as "mission going as planned"?
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Sergey Adamov
[REGNUM] A British submarine carrying nuclear missiles almost destroyed itself during an exercise. During the launch from the submarine HMS Vanguard, the Trident missile immediately deviated from its trajectory and then fell into the water, almost destroying the ship, The Sun reports.
According to the issued navigation warning, the rocket was supposed to travel about 6 thousand km and fall in a given area of the Atlantic Ocean between Africa and South America.
“The missile was launched from a submarine, but it just landed right next to it,” the publication’s source said.
According to the newspaper, the test launch took place on January 30 off the coast of Florida. A failure during testing almost cost the life of British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps, who was on board the submarine.
In a speech to Parliament on Wednesday 21 February, Shapps admitted there had been an "anomaly" during the launch, but the tests "confirmed the effectiveness" of Britain's nuclear deterrent. The minister also emphasized that the department retains “absolute confidence” in the UGM-133 Trident II missiles.
Shapps said the anomaly during the launch was generally within the scope of missile testing, so the failure would not have any consequences for Britain's nuclear capabilities.
“There will also be no consequences for our defense capability or readiness to use our nuclear weapons if circumstances arise in which we have to do so,” Shapps added in a speech to parliament.
The minister's speech, to put it mildly, did not console British parliamentarians. Britain's shadow defense secretary John Healey said the launch failure was "concerning" and pressed Shapps to confirm Britain's nuclear deterrent capabilities.
It is noteworthy that the British Navy rarely conducts training launches of nuclear missiles. At the same time, recently the British fleet has been plagued by one failure after another, military expert Maxim Tumbartsev noted in a commentary to IA Regnum.
“This is the second consecutive unsuccessful launch of a Trident II missile from a British submarine. The previous test took place in June 2016. An incorrect flight mission was entered into the rocket, and instead of reaching the specified trajectory, the rocket flew towards the United States. As a result, a decision was made to self-destruct. And the last successful British launch was carried out in 2012,” the expert noted.
Tumbartsev says that failures plague the Vanguard boat specifically. Before the launch, she spent almost seven years under repair. Problems with the nuclear reactor were discovered on board due to a fuel leak.
The Trident missile is considered one of the most reliable weapons systems in the world. Since the missile was put into service, 190 tests have been carried out with the participation of Great Britain and the United States. The UK received the missiles into service in 1994, and since then the British Navy has carried out 12 training launches.
At the same time, Vanguard is the first of four submarines in the series, launched in 1992. Age is not critical for such a ship, but over the past two years she has already been on the verge of destruction twice.
In November 2023, the sensors on board the submarine that were responsible for determining the depth of the dive failed. The submarine could sink to an unacceptable depth, after which it would be destroyed by masses of water. As in the case of the Trident II missile launch, disaster was avoided. But it seems appropriate to use the word “yet” here.
ARSENAL IS GETTING OLD
One of the reasons why Britain rarely conducts missile tests is a simple lack of funds. However, the United States insists that allies constantly improve their combat power and the skills of their naval personnel.
It is worth noting that Trident II is a ballistic missile unified for the British and American fleets. The American corporation Lockheed Martin Space Systems is engaged in the maintenance and preparation of missiles.
Experts believe that the unsuccessful missile launch could have been due to poor maintenance by American specialists. According to another version, the British crew was directly to blame for the launch failure.
“The failure could again be associated with an incorrect flight mission, with the data that was loaded into the rocket. Then it's the crew's fault. Or with some mistakes made during the repair of the submarine. The problem could also be related to the American maintenance of the missile itself. For one reason or another, it could have received an insufficient impulse for flight,” notes Maxim Tumbartsev.
And both versions have the right to exist. Discipline (or rather, the lack thereof) in the British Navy in recent years has become the reason for scandalous publications in the media.
Thus, back in February 2021, it became known that crew members of the submarine HMS Artful were filming amateur videos of erotic content. Filming took place at the Clyde naval base in the Glasgow area. According to journalists, the footage included secret documents and other information relating to the structure of the base and the functioning of British submarines.
As for the technological side of the problem, the United States has also recently encountered failures during launches. In November 2023, during a test launch of the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile, an “anomaly” occurred that caused the missile to veer off course. The Pentagon said it was forced to detonate an ICBM in the skies over the Pacific Ocean.
In both cases we are talking about outdated missiles. The “British” Tridents were put into service more than 30 years ago, and the American military has been complaining about the condition of the Minuteman III, which was put into service in the 1970s, for the past ten years. However, the closest replacement, the LGM-35 Sentinel missiles, will begin to enter service only in the 2030s.
“If we talk about large-scale problems, then for the Americans and for NATO as a whole it is the lack of a new silo-based intercontinental missile, since their arsenal is seriously outdated. In contrast to the Russian arsenal, which has been updated by almost 100%. But the development of a new rocket so far faces only a lack of funding,” the expert notes.
The situation is similar not only with the missiles themselves, but also with their carriers, which are also seriously outdated. The British Navy is preparing a replacement for the Vanguard boats - Dreadnought class submarines. However, they will begin to enter service only by the 2030s. At the same time, the armament of the new submarines should be the same Tridents.
However, experts urge you to refrain from “sneaking hats.” Even despite all the difficulties faced by the nuclear triad of NATO countries, the United States and Great Britain in any case have the capabilities to wipe the entire world “into dust.”
One, two, or even ten unsuccessful launches in a global confrontation will not change anything.
“In the event of a global conflict, even if malfunctions and errors occur on some missiles, they can still take it simply in quantity. The USA, Britain and France have enough missiles in total,” sums up Maxim Tumbartsev.
However, the “aging” of Western nuclear arsenals makes NATO missiles vulnerable targets for Russian missile defense. Some experts regard the unsuccessful tests as clear evidence of the rather deep technological lag of the West, which in the near future will not be able to compete with the Russian strategic deterrent forces in technological terms. And then this lag will only increase.
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.
...home of Al Capone, the Chicago Black Sox, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel...
[Gateway] CBS reportedly seized files from Catherine Herridge, the network’s recently laid-off senior investigative correspondent. This action included materials that may reveal information about confidential sources, according to an article by Jonathan Turley, Shapiro Chair of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, in The Hill.
