The News & Topicality Thread

[Del]

As far as real news and topicality goes.... Hunter Biden's plea deal fell through. He thought he was getting off with a couple of tax evasion misdemeanors and no jail time, and the closing of all investigations.

When the judge pressed prosecutors on this, Hunter's lawyers discovered that Hunter (and Dad) are still under investigation for bribery and operating illegally as a foreign agent. So, he is pleading "Not Guilty."

But lawyers and prosecutors were sent back to discuss any plea deal further, before any trial date is set on the tax evasion and gun charges.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/hunter-b ... s-in-court

===================================================

In the meantime, Hunter has to get a job and submit to frequent drug testing!
https://www.dailywire.com/news/federal- ... -get-a-job

I'm so excited because this is, like, the first time ever that anyone in the Biden crime family has experienced anything like "equal justice" such anyone else would experience.

No more selling paintings to "anonymous" benefactors who happen to get political appointments.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden- ... gs-experts

A real job would help keep Hunter busy and out of trouble.

And how is it that he isn't already under some sort of regular drug testing regime? As a known addict and frustrated deadbeat, accused of numerous high and low crimes and couch-surfing in the White House, you'd think that someone would insist that the man be certified clean.

[Wosbald]

+JMJ+

Title: Federal judge blocks Biden asylum ban criticized by US bishops, migrant advocates
Source: National Catholic Reporter / OSV News
Link: ncronline DOT org/news/federal-judge-blocks-biden-asylum-ban-criticized-us-bishops-migrant-advocates

The Money-Quotes:

Catholic immigration groups and the U.S. bishops have objected to the asylum ban, arguing it violates existing U.S. immigration law, and exposes those who may otherwise be eligible for asylum to additional danger.

Dylan Corbett, executive director of Hope Border Institute, told OSV News July 26 that the court "has made the right decision here — there is no legal basis for the Biden administration's asylum ban."

"It needlessly puts asylum seekers in danger and it outsources the challenges of immigration to countries less equipped to address them," Corbett said. "Effective management of the border doesn't need to come at the cost of the rights and dignity of asylum seekers and vulnerable migrants. The administration should pivot now by taking strong action to fully restore asylum at the border and make the moral argument to the country and Congress that we need immigration reform."

[…]

… Anna Marie Gallagher, executive director of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc., said in a statement that CLINIC welcomes "the decision by Judge Tigar, who indicated the asylum ban is arbitrary and capricious, and was issued without adequate opportunity for public comment."

"As we have said before, the right to seek asylum through a full and fair process, with dignity and respect, is a bedrock rule of international and domestic law," Gallagher said. "Any barriers to asylum that undermine the principles of U.S. law and Catholic social teaching with respect to migration, and fail to uphold due process, are contrary to the values we hold dear as a compassionate and just society."

[Wosbald]

+JMJ+

Title: Abbott's border buoys straining U.S.–Mexico relations, DOJ says
Source: Houston Chronicle
Link: houstonchronicle DOT com/politics/texas/article/doj-abbott-border-buoy-18264881.php

The Money-Quotes:

In Ciudad Juárez on Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar was meeting with Chihuahua Gov. Maru Campos to highlight how the countries are working to disrupt human smuggling networks. Salazar said that through cooperation, the two countries had been able to dismantle several smuggling networks. But he was also trying to reassure Mexican authorities that the U.S. government did not support Abbott’s “illegal” actions with the buoys.

Campos said she worried about the danger the buoys could pose to people.

“Beyond politics, we cannot set aside respect for people’s lives and dignity,” Campos said, according to Border Report, which attended the meetings.

[…]

But it’s not just Mexican officials raising concerns. U.S. Border Patrol has raised concerns that the barriers could impede their ability to get to people struggling in the water. In the Justice Department lawsuit, the agency uses statements from Border Patrol that warn anything placed in the water can pose a danger to their officers and the migrants trying to cross.

“Any obstructions in the water could naturally impair the freedom of movement and potentially delay response times,” Jason D. Owens, chief of the U.S. Border Patrol, said in a statement.

Abbott’s Operation Lone Star has intentionally blocked Border Patrol from getting to parts of the river near Eagle Pass to help migrants. In one section where Border Patrol set up a station with water, toilets and shade to assist migrants in distress, Texas Department of Public Safety placed razor wire to keep Border Patrol from getting to the river and migrants from getting to the shade and water.

[Del]

+JMJ+

Title: Federal judge blocks Biden asylum ban criticized by US bishops, migrant advocates
Source: National Catholic Reporter / OSV News
Link: ncronline DOT org/news/federal-judge-blocks-biden-asylum-ban-criticized-us-bishops-migrant-advocates

The Money-Quotes:

Catholic immigration groups and the U.S. bishops have objected to the asylum ban, arguing it violates existing U.S. immigration law, and exposes those who may otherwise be eligible for asylum to additional danger.

Dylan Corbett, executive director of Hope Border Institute, told OSV News July 26 that the court "has made the right decision here — there is no legal basis for the Biden administration's asylum ban."

"It needlessly puts asylum seekers in danger and it outsources the challenges of immigration to countries less equipped to address them," Corbett said. "Effective management of the border doesn't need to come at the cost of the rights and dignity of asylum seekers and vulnerable migrants. The administration should pivot now by taking strong action to fully restore asylum at the border and make the moral argument to the country and Congress that we need immigration reform."

[…]

… Anna Marie Gallagher, executive director of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc., said in a statement that CLINIC welcomes "the decision by Judge Tigar, who indicated the asylum ban is arbitrary and capricious, and was issued without adequate opportunity for public comment."

"As we have said before, the right to seek asylum through a full and fair process, with dignity and respect, is a bedrock rule of international and domestic law," Gallagher said. "Any barriers to asylum that undermine the principles of U.S. law and Catholic social teaching with respect to migration, and fail to uphold due process, are contrary to the values we hold dear as a compassionate and just society."

I read this story in the real news.

It is odd for Biden to enact an asylum ban of this sort. It doesn't do anything to control the flow of illegal immigrants. All it does is make it even more difficult for illegal immigrants to obtain legal status. I have cynically believed that this has been Biden's goal all along, but really?

[Hovannes]

Well, this is disturbing:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medica ... 4289&ei=13

Reedley is only a few miles from Fresno, where I live!

[Del]

Well, this is disturbing:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medica ... 4289&ei=13

Reedley is only a few miles from Fresno, where I live!

I have never heard of this before. An "illegal" lab, trying to do legit work for vaccine suppliers.... but cutting corners on the cheap.

Actually, I have heard of this before. Just not in America.

When taxes and red tape compliance become too onerous, the result is a large and vigorous black market economy -- like the black market economy that held the Soviet Union together for many decades. We already have millions of gig workers and laborers working off the tax grid. (This is about the only way that Biden's illegal immigrants are allowed support their families.)

I wonder if we are seeing the start of industrial black market endeavors?

[Wosbald]

+JMJ+

Title: Dead body found stuck to Texas Gov. Abbott’s border buoys in the Rio Grande
Source: Texas Public Radio
Link: tpr DOT org/border-immigration/2023-08-03/dead-body-found-stuck-to-texas-gov-abbotts-border-buoys-in-the-rio-grande

The Money-Quotes:

Mexican officials said a body was found stuck in Texas’ floating buoy barrier in the Rio Grande on Wednesday.

[…]

The nationality of the deceased and the cause of death were unknown.

Mexican officials found a second body about three miles upriver. The Associated Press reported the Coahuila state prosecutor's office in Mexico told local media outlets that the two bodies were recovered and that the process of identification was underway.

[…]

"We reiterate the position of the Mexican Government that the placement of the buoys from Texas authorities is a violation of our sovereignty," the press release said in Spanish. "We express our concerns that these policies will have over the impact on human rights and the safety of migrants."

[Wosbald]

+JMJ+

Source: Texas Standard
Link: texasstandard DOT org/stories/body-found-rio-grande-buoy-barrier-texas-migrants-abbott/

More details emerging about the body found on the Rio Grande buoy barrier [Interview]

〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰

Another body was also found on Thursday three miles up the river.

August 4, 2023 — The body of a person believed to have drowned in the Rio Grande was found on the recently installed buoys near Eagle Pass.

The buoys were put in the river as a barrier to migrants, part of Gov. Greg Abbott’s multibillion dollar border security initiative, Operation Lone Star.

Sandra Sanchez, South Texas correspondent for Border Report, spoke to the Texas Standard about the discovery. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.

This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:

〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰

Michael Marks: Can you tell us more about the bodies found in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass yesterday? Do we know anything about these people?

Sandra Sanchez: Well, there are reports that the young boy whose body was found upriver is from Honduras, and his mother had been at a shelter in Piedras Negras. That is not confirmed. Those are reports from Mexican media.

And it’s important to note Gov. Abbott is saying that that body was not found close to the border buoys — it was like upstream. The body that was found in the bushes, the Abbott administration is saying likely had drowned and floated in to the string of buoys.

But again, you know, they are doing forensics and we don’t have information on exactly the condition of the body, who the person was, what their nationality was, when they might have died, or if they died from the buoys or previously.

Marks: So just to reiterate, it’s not clear whether the buoys themselves were responsible. You mentioned some of the statements made by Gov. Abbott. Could you elaborate a little bit on what his office has said about these deaths?

Sanchez: Right. Well, Abbott’s office says that the buoys are monitored constantly in the river by Texas DPS troopers and other Texas National Guard. And they see as people approach the buoys and that if somebody was floating into a buoy or in distress, they would have noted it.

You know, of course, this is all “one person says” versus “another person says.” What we know is that a body was discovered in the south end of the buoy about 2:30 p.m. and the Mexican consulate was notified by Texas DPS. And that’s what triggered all of this.

Marks: Well, you spoke with several organizations who do humanitarian work along the border. What did they have to say?

Sanchez: They remain and are extremely concerned about how the buoys, as well as the razor and concertina wire that’s placed along the banks of the Rio Grande there, are affecting the migrants. They say that it is inhumane to have these migrants try to traverse not only this 1,000 foot long string of buoy in the middle of the river, but the wire on the side of the river.

Also, environmental groups are really concerned about the effects to wildlife from the buoys.

There is netting underneath the buoy and Texas DPS Lt. Chris Olivarez told me that the buoys are actually tethered to the bottom of the Rio Grande river bed with concrete. And so the Rio Grande International Study Center — which is based in Laredo and they study the Rio Grande for drinking water and they track data on it — you know, say this is unprecedented. You don’t put concrete in the middle of the river and what kind of impact is that having to the drinking water for thousands, hundreds of thousands of people in South Texas?

[…]

[Del]

+JMJ+

Source: Texas Standard
Link: texasstandard DOT org/stories/body-found-rio-grande-buoy-barrier-texas-migrants-abbott/

More details emerging about the body found on the Rio Grande buoy barrier [Interview]

You never believed that the bouys caused the drownings, right? That fake news was debunked faster than the rumor itself.

Biden could end the drownings and the bouys by enforcing our laws.... and end the trafficking and child abuse.... and still have a generous policy for immigration and asylum. He could do it, and Americans would support him.

But legal immigration doesn't support the Democrat agenda of poverty, chaos, and generational government dependence.

[Wosbald]

+JMJ+

Title: Advocates denounce Biden administration’s deportation ‘perp walks’
Source: The HIll
Link: thehill DOT com/latino/4142423-advocates-denounce-biden-administrations-deportation-perp-walks/

The Money-Quotes:

“The use of this footage is shocking and dehumanizing, and ICE should immediately discontinue it,” read the release {from a coalition of 11 Immigration advocacy groups], led by the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC).

“Entirely missing from these frames is the complexity of the human story behind each family, including the love, devotion, and courage that led that family to leave their homes in search of safety and the trauma of being forced back to danger. The blurred faces, militarized surroundings, and police pat downs of parents clinging to their children dehumanizes these families and portrays them as threats.”

[…]

“These are people who have in many cases [fled] to the United States for safety. And we turn around and basically dehumanize them to make a point about our immigration or about our strong immigration stance,” said Tom Cartwright, an advocate with Witness at the Border, one of the groups that signed the appeal.

“This is something I would have expected under the old administration, not under this administration.”

[…]

“If the administration knows — as they must — that this theory of deterrence [officially in use since at least 1994] doesn’t work, then it becomes clear that this is political,” said Altman.

[…]

“[W]hat we’ve been waiting for is for the administration for the current leadership to present an alternative framework that acknowledges the humanity of people seeking asylum in the United States, that acknowledges the right to seek asylum at the southern border,” [said Altman].