[JustTheNews] 158 House Democrats voted against deporting sex offenders, including child rapists
After 158 U.S. House Democrats voted against deporting sex offenders, including child rapists, and one U.S. Senate Democrat blocked a bill to strengthen protections for unaccompanied minors, a Texas group is again calling on state leaders to act.
“Despite the extraordinary efforts of [U.S.] Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-IA, and others, Congress is unwilling to protect children,” Sheena Rodriguez told The Center Square.
Rodriguez, the founder and director of Alliance for a Safe Texas, has been calling on the Texas legislature to strengthen state law overseeing facilities housing “unaccompanied alien children” (UACs) in Texas for roughly two years. After meeting with local officials statewide, she discovered a consistent problem: allegations of abuse and neglect of facilities housing UACs in Texas. The facilities are largely funded by taxpayer money and contracted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
“What Americans may not realize,” she said, “is the facilities housing UACs run by nongovernmental organizations receiving multimillion dollar contracts with the federal government are also receiving contracts from state governments, including Texas, to house American foster care children.”
State Rep. Stan Kitzman, R-Bellville, and state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, filed bills to address the issue. Kitzman’s HB 5000 advanced out of the House State Affairs Committee last year during the regular legislative session but never got a floor vote and died. Kolkhorst’s SB 572 passed the Senate but not the House. Kitzman filed another bill in the third special session, cosponsored by state Rep. Eddie Morales, D-Eagle Pass, which also went nowhere.
A bipartisan group of state lawmakers also called on the Office of the Texas Attorney General to investigate claims of alleged abuse and trafficking of UACs in Texas, which went nowhere. Last year, the Texas legislative session was an extraordinary one: lawmakers were involved in a regular legislative session, four special sessions, and the impeachment and trial of the attorney general who was ultimately acquitted.
In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis called for a grand jury to be convened to investigate alleged abuse of children. It conducted extensive investigations and published multiple reports. It concluded that HHS was “facilitating the forced migration, sale, and abuse of foreign children. This process exposes children to horrifying health conditions, constant criminal threat, labor and sex trafficking, robbery, rape and other experiences not done justice by mere words.”
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody also called on Congress to investigate, which resulted in hearings, at which Rodriguez testified. UACs were placed with unrelated individuals and put in situations “where they are subject to abuse, including rape, molestation, and effectively forced to work to pay for their travel to the United States in violation of child labor laws,” Moody said.
An HHS Office of the Inspector General report also identified how HHS wasn’t vetting sponsors or protecting UACs in their care. Another IG report said that HHS couldn’t account for more than 100,000 UACs, prompting additional investigations by Congress. Still another found that several hundred thousand couldn’t be found once released into the country.
Congressional investigations led by Grassley uncovered multiple issues including UACs being released to MS-13 gang members and alleged traffickers, prompting him to file criminal complaints and Senate Republicans to propose legislatives solutions.
At the state level, an Alliance report outlines the need for state regulatory reform and the impact the facilities have on Texas communities.
Kitzman isn’t backing down and is again filing a bill next year to address the issue. It’s already gained additional bipartisan interest. At a recent Texas Senate Committee on Border Security, Rodriguez testified in support of it.
Rodriguez also testified that since 2021, 62,000 UACs were released to sponsors in Texas, according to data obtained by the New York Times from HHS. The data shows that from January 2021 through May 2023, 27,000 UACs were released to sponsors in Texas who were not their parents; over 6,400 were released to distant relatives or unrelated individuals.
She also pointed out that Texas has the greatest number of HHS-contracted facilities for UACs in the country and the most UACs are sent to Texas from the border.
No other state has nearly the number of facilities or is receiving the volume of UACs than Texas, The Center Square first reported.
At least 52 HHS-contracted facilities were operating in Texas in 2020, according to a GAO report.
Texas, California and Florida have historically received the most UACs; the number exponentially increases every year. In fiscal 2015, Texas received 3,272. By fiscal 2022, 19,071, according to HHS data.
“The federal government continues to fail to protect children, taxpayers, and our communities,” Rodriguez said. “Texas is at the forefront of this crisis. We must not sit idly by. Texas must act.”
She’s again calling on Texas officials to conduct an investigation similar to Florida’s and is urging state lawmakers to support and pass Kitzman’s bill.
[GatewayPundit] A taxpayer-funded food pantry in Minnesota has come under fire after it was revealed that the owner attempted to block white people from accessing the resources. Mykela ‘keiko’ Jackson opened a pantry on July 27th using funds the obtained through a Minnesota State grant, for the purpose of feeding poor and hungry residents near the Sanctuary Covenant Church. However, the pantry was forced to relocate after a church chaplain filed a complaint over Jackson allegedly discouraging white people from using the service.
Chaplain Howard Dotson, 54, told Alpha News that he had stopped by the pantry for himself, but was denied service due to being a white male.
Chaplin Dotson has a fondness for Governor Tim Walz and Palestinian B&W checkered scarves, according to photos at the Daily Mail linked in the Gateway Pundit article. One can understand why Ms Keiko would assume he was an ally. Also, looking at a photo of the selection of foods Ms Keiko offers, I have to wonder where the grant money is really going…
Dotson took photos of a sign that Jackson had on the pantry door that read, ‘The resources found here are for Black and Indigenous Folx. Please refrain from taking anything if you’re not.’ He also reported the incident to the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission.
”This is not building community, its destroying it,” he told Alpha News. “I went over there and confronted her. I told her that I saw the sign and I asked if she really thought she could take grant money from the state and discriminate against poor white people.”
According to the DailyMail, Jackson addmitted to hanging the sign, but claims that she did not turn anyone away. She then accused the chaplain of ‘political violence’.
”There was no one there directly turning them away. They felt entitled to the resources that were not for their demographic – white priviledge is real,” she said.
In a social media post announcing the pantry’s relocation, Jacosn referred to the chaplain as a “karen”, blaming him for the discrimination he faced from her policy.
“It has been recently brought to our attention that our partnership with Sanctuary Church may not be fully aligned with our mission due to a recent ‘Karen’ last week,” Jackson wrote.
“Although the curch likes our concept they feel our commitment towards directing these resources towards Black and Indigenous families ONLY is exclusionary to other POC & White members of the community that use their establishement.”
The DailyMail reported that the Sanctuary Covenant Church has since stated that they felt misled by Jackson’s original proposal. They have asked her to either open her services to all members of the community or relocate.
Jackson refused to accommodate and later stated in her post that the pantry would be relocating to the F.T.P Bodega, claiming that the new venue is more “aligned” with Jackson’s discriminatory beliefs.
Odd, because Hispanics also are not included within her criteria for sharing. Does the bodega owner realize that?
[WDEL] The president’s schedule for the day.
In the morning, the President will deliver remarks on his Administration's continued response efforts to Hurricane Helene.
After, the President will deliver remarks at an event celebrating the 2024 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams.
Continued on Page 47
[JustTheNews] For grid operators to intervene in a case asking the Supreme Court to remand regulations back to the agency is unprecedented. The operators' main argument is about the impact the EPA's rules will have on grid reliability.
Continued on Page 47
#2
Why not? The Biden admin wants us to have all electric, not gas cars or stoves. Then shut off the power so we are all dependent on the kings and queens of the beltway. This will end badly.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/30/2024 13:54 Comments ||
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#3
I wonder how the electric vehicles in western North Carolina are doing right now.
Of course, even those with gas vehicles are stuck, because a lot of roads and bridges are washed out.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
09/30/2024 14:17 Comments ||
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[REDSTATE] In an awesome win for conservatives and election integrity in November's elections, a federal judge has barred liberal Arizona Democrat Secretary of State Adrian Fontes from putting into practice new rules he inserted into the state's official procedures on the state's canvassing process of election results. And the judge did, indeed, compare it to nukes. More on that in a minute.
Howard Fischer from Capitol Media Services has the scoop on Friday's ruling:
PHOENIX — Calling what Secretary of State Adrian Fontes proposed "utterly without precedent'' and comparing it to a nuclear weapon, a federal judge blocked him from refusing to include a county's vote in the statewide totals if local supervisors fail to certify the election's results.
In the ruling late Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Michael Liburdi acknowledged there was at least one attempt in the past by a board of supervisors to delay certification. That action threatened to hold up the formal canvass of all the votes throughout the state and to change the outcomes of some races.
But Liburdi said the solution Fontes incorporated in Arizona's Elections Procedures Manual — allowing him to skip over uncertified votes simply to finalize the state results — would unfairly and illegally disenfranchise the voters who had cast their ballots.
The report continues:
Consider, Liburdi said, what would happen if supervisors balked in Maricopa County, the state's most populous, where 2.4 million people vote.
Under the rules Fontes, an elected Democrat, enacted in the manual, he would be permitted to certify the state results without including those votes — meaning the results would be determined by votes only from the other 14 counties.
Judge Liburdi wrote:
"If the right to vote is the right of qualified voters within a state to cast their ballots and have them counted, then the canvass provision imposes the most severe burden: state-sanctioned disenfranchisement.
...
"A registered voter in Arizona may perfectly comply with all voting requirements and obligations but nonetheless have her vote excluded based on the mal- or nonfeasance of public officials."
The best part, though, was when Liburdi chastised Fontes for his office's lame excuse for needing the rule; Fontes claimed "the provision was meant largely to spur county supervisors to comply with the law and likely would never be enforced." The judge wasn't having it:
"A nuclear weapon does not become any less dangerous simply because a world leader avows never to unleash it.
...
"The canvass provision imposes a nuclear-level burden on voting rights.
"It is a weapon in the secretary's arsenal that he has discretion to use should the circumstances present themselves — a weapon that does not become any less threatening simply because the secretary is self-professedly 'committed' to not pulling the trigger.''
And while the judge's ruling does not remove the rule from the procedures, it bars him from leaning on it for 2024:
Strictly speaking, Liburdi's order does not void the provision of the manual. That would take a full-blown trial. But it does preclude Fontes from enforcing or relying on that provision this year.
Read related:
NEW: SCOTUS Allows Arizona Law Requiring Proof of Citizenship in Voter Registration to Take Effect
BREAKING: Ninth Circuit Delivers Decision on Citizenship and Voter Registration in Arizona
According to Ballotopedia, Judge Liburdi was appointed by former President Donald Trump ...The man who was so stupid he beat fourteen professional politicians, a former tech CEO, and a brain surgeon for the Republican nomination in 2016, then beat The Smartest Woman in the World in the general election... in 2019.
There was a second provision that Liburdi blocked, which appears to be a progressive attempt to thwart election observers
The challengers in the lawsuit, two groups with ties to Republican interests, also convinced Liburdi to bar Fontes from enforcing another provision dealing with speech and actions permitted in and around voting locations.
That language would have prohibited "any activity by a person with the intent or effect of threatening, harassing, intimidating, or coercing voters — inside or outside the 75-foot limit at a voting location.''
Liburdi found it was too broad, and likely to burden Arizonans' First Amendment rights, writing in the decision that "there's no problem in general with barring intentional threats, intimidation or coercion," but "[t]he issue, he said, turns on the fact the wording also covers actions that have the effect of doing so, regardless of the intent of the person."
Western Journal reported all sorts of dreadful things about Mr. Fontes, including that he is a Soros protégé and had clients among the Mexican drug cartels back when he was a defense lawyer, which are sad things to read about a man who for a few years was a Marine marksmanship instructor.
[ZERO] Following Kamala Harris' photo-op trip to the southern US border - talking tough about border security as if she wasn't responsible for the flood of illegal immigrants into the country, the Border Patrol Union slammed the VP for having 'ignored the border problem she created for over three years.'
[JustTheNews] The Democratic talking points in the Harris endorsement by former National Security officials have stirred critics who say it reeks of the same political shenanigans in the Hunter Biden "fake laptop" letter promulgated by then-Biden campaign advisor Antony Blinken and signed by 51 former intelligence officials.
A coterie of former civilian national security officials and military leaders signed on to an open letter last week endorsing Kamala Harris for president, eliciting fresh criticism for the industry that has waded into politics in recent years against Donald Trump and reminiscent of the 11th-hour Hunter Biden laptop letter.
In April of last year, it was discovered that the infamous letter signed by 51 former intelligence officials falsely discredited a New York Post story regarding Hunter Biden’s laptop as supposed Russian disinformation. That led to a censorship and news blackout saga, in which the New York Post story was banned from social media, and mainstream media refused to cover the story. Eventually, The New York Times and Washington Post admitted that the laptop was indeed genuine, several months after Biden was elected. The signatories never mentioned, and both newspapers missed the fact that the FBI had authenticated the laptop months before its release. One of the letter organizers testified in 2023 that then-Biden campaign advisor Antony Blinken, the future secretary of State, first reached out, triggering the effort to draft it.
Published by the National Security Leaders for America and addressed in an open format to the American people, the recent endorsement letter argued that Harris is the only candidate in the race that would be a “serious and capable” commander-in-chief and able to protect “American democracy.”
“This election is a choice between serious leadership and vengeful impulsiveness. It is a choice between democracy and authoritarianism. Vice President Harris defends America’s democratic ideals, while former President Donald Trump endangers them,” the more than 700 former officials, civilians employees, and military veterans wrote.
ECHOES OF PAST POLITICS
The echoes of prominent Democratic talking points in the open endorsement letter, for example about GOP nominee Donald Trump being a threat to the democratic process, have stirred criticism from other former national security officials who say their contribution to the election reeks of the same political interference from the community in the Hunter Biden laptop saga and serves to try and undercut Harris’ real electoral vulnerabilities.
Fred Fleitz, former chief of staff to Trump National Security Council, called the letter “preposterous” in an article posted by American Greatness, a journal dedicated to reinvigorated the conservative movement.
“[The] letter makes several ridiculously false accusations, such as accusing Trump of ‘heaping praise’ on Hezbollah and ‘excoriating’ Israel,” Fleitz wrote. “And, of course, the letter includes the usual Democratic talking points about Trump being an impulsive leader who threatens democracy.”
Fleitz says, in reality, the letter is designed for one thing only, to counter one of Harris’ most "significant vulnerabilities,” the growing global instability presided over the Biden Administration.
“The Harris campaign hopes a letter signed by large numbers of former national security officials will distract Americans from Trump’s successful national security record and prevent them from holding her accountable for the global instability caused by the Biden/Harris administration’s atrocious foreign policy,” he wrote. “This includes the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre against Israel, Iran’s surging nuclear program, significantly increased tensions and threats from China and other threats.”
The open letter followed another endorsement, this one from more than 100 former Republican national security, elected, and other federal government officials echoing similar arguments.
“We believe that the President of the United States must be a principled, serious, and steady leader who can advance and defend American security and values, strengthen our alliances, and protect our democracy. We expect to disagree with Kamala Harris on many domestic and foreign policy issues, but we believe that she possesses the essential qualities to serve as President and Donald Trump does not,” the signatories wrote. “We therefore support her election to be President.”
Fleitz said the new letter was reminiscent of the effort by an overlapping group of former national security officials to discredit reporting about the Hunter Biden laptop. They labeled the leak of the laptop hard drive as bearing the hallmarks of Russian information operation and insinuated that reporting derived from its contents could not be trusted.
“Many Americans were outraged over this letter because it represented former intelligence officers, several with high-paid government contracts, misusing their profession to meddle in a U.S. presidential election and mislead the American public,” Fleitz wrote.
Endorsement by some of the same people involved in disinformation campaign
It appears that several of the officials who signed on to the laptop letter remained undeterred about their assessment being proven inaccurate. Of the hundreds of officials who signed the new letter endorsing Harris, nine former officials were also signatories of that prior effort to discredit the Biden laptop.
They include former Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper; former CIA Director Michael V. Hayden; former CIA Director Leon E. Panetta; former CIA Director John Brennan; former Acting CIA Director John E. McLaughlin; former CIA chief of staff Laurence M. Pfeiffer; former Department of Defense chief of staff Jeremy Bash; CIA chief of station John Sipher; and former National Intelligence Council Chair Gregory Frye Treverton.
Several of the intelligence officials who signed the letter later testified to Congress as part of an investigation into the incident. Their interviews made clear the letter drafters were motivated by primarily politics while freely admitting they had no hard evidence for the claims, Just the News previously reported.
The fact that his campaign had a hand in sparking the letter did not stop then-candidate Joe Biden from using it to deflect attacks from Trump.
“Look, there are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what he’s accusing me of is a Russian plan. They have said that this has all the characteristics – four, five former heads of the CIA, both parties, say what he’s saying is a bunch of garbage,” Biden said during the final debate abasing then-President Donald Trump who had criticized him over his apparent involvement in his son’s business dealings.
The letter may have fulfilled its original purpose. Less than one month later, Biden won the presidential election.
"HELPING THE VICE PRESIDENT"
One of the organizers, former CIA Director Michael Morell said one of their reasons for writing the letter all along was to help Biden. “I think of it as two motivations. You know, one, let the American people know about what we saw as a deep suspicion of Russian involvement; and then, two, helping the Vice President,” Morell told Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan.
“You wanted to help the Vice President why?” Jordan asked.
“Because I wanted him to win the election,” Morell answered.
He subsequently admitted that he and his cosigners had no direct evidence that the laptop information was the product of a Russian information operation, as the letter described.
In a comment to Fox News, National Security Leaders for America president Rear Admiral Michael Smith, USN (Ret.) gave a defense for of the nine signatories who signed both letters.
"One well-reasoned but ultimately incorrect assessment does not undermine a lifetime's worth of public service. Their assertion that former President Trump is uncommitted to democracy and unprepared to be Commander-in-Chief is well-founded, as is their assessment of Vice President Harris as a strategic and knowledgeable leader."
[JustTheNews] The union representing U.S. Border Patrol agents slammed Vice President Kamala Harris, claiming she was nowhere to be found when needed, after she visited the southern border in Arizona on Friday.
"Fact check on Harris speech in Douglas, Arizona: Today, VP Harris claimed that she played a role in increasing Border Patrol Agent overtime pay," the National Border Patrol Council wrote on the social media platform, X.
"This couldn't be further from the truth. As with all things border related she was no where to be found when we needed her," the post continued.
During her visit on Friday, Harris criticized former President Donald Trump for the crisis at the border, claiming he tanked a bipartisan border bill.
"It was the strongest border security bill we have seen in decades. It was endorsed by the Border Patrol union, and it should be in effect today, producing results in real time right now for our country," she said during her speech. "But Donald Trump tanked it... because, you see, he prefers to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem."
Trump and other Republicans have criticized the bill, which came up earlier this year, arguing it allowed up to 5,000 border encounters a day before temporarily shutting down the border if it lasted more than a week. But the bill was also criticized as a way to legalize and facilitate the massive influx of illegal aliens entering the U.S., which the House Homeland Security Committee estimates has exceeded 10 million people during the Biden administration.
Republicans have been critical of Harris's role as the "border czar" for the past few years, blaming her in large part for the current surge in illegal border crossings.
Harris's timing for her trip to the border couldn't have been worse. On that same day, Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Tx., released a letter from the Deputy Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) acknowledging that there are currently 13,099 non-detained non-citizens with murder convictions in the country, and 15,811 with sexual offense convictions out of a total of 425,431 convicted criminals.
#3
I don’t think her visit will move public opinion regarding immigration. Kamala wants another debate, but even if there was another debate her record will remain the same.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
09/30/2024 12:24 Comments ||
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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.
...The man who was so stupid he beat fourteen professional politicians, a former tech CEO, and a brain surgeon for the Republican nomination in 2016, then beat 
