What we have here is a DHS secretary who on her own admission can be incapacitated by an allergic reaction, which doesn't seem very "secure" to me.
Maybe we need someone else on the job.
And what we also have here is yet more drama from the actors at Fort Detrick. Somebody needs to clean that place up once and for all, or shut it down permanently.
... According to its website, the Integrated
Research Facility at Fort Detrick studies viruses 'causing
high-consequence disease' like like Ebola or COVID.
One
of its major focus areas is to 'mitigate major public heath events
related to emerging or re-emerging infectious diseases or biological
weapons attacks.'
But Kennedy's Department of Health and Human Services ordered an indefinite work stoppage at the facility in April.
'NIH has implemented a research pause—referred to as a safety
stand-down—at the Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick,' HHS
officials said at the time.
'This
decision follows identification and documentation of personnel issues
involving contract staff that compromised the facility’s safety culture,
prompting this research pause.'
They
added: 'During the stand-down, no research will be conducted, and access
will be limited to essential personnel only, to safeguard the facility
and its resources.'
Dr Connie
Schmaljohn, the lab's director, was also placed on administrative leave
after she allegedly failed to report the incident to other officials.
Speaking
anonymously, an HHS source revealed to Fox News that the shutdown came
after one of the researchers poked a hole in the other's protective
equipment during a vicious 'lovers' spat'. ...
The 2001 anthrax letter attacks CAME from anthrax STORED at Fort Detrick, which was the government's bioweapons research facility from way back in 1943 during WWII, until it became politically suicidal to say that and they snapped their fingers and presto!, it became a biodefense research facility.
The researcher there responsible for the anthrax attacks committed suicide as investigators finally got close to him.
James Comey and Robert Mueller infamously tried to frame the wrong guy for the crime. You know those guys, the guys who relentlessly went after Donald Trump.
DHS didn't even exist until March 2003.
I mean, c'mon Newsweek.
Fort Detrick is also suspiciously close to the location of a facility where elderly people came down with an unknown respiratory illness and died in summer 2019, which I think might have been a precursor to COVID-19. Most people now believe the Chicom lab at Wuhan was the lab from which coronavirus leaked, but I think Fort Detrick and Wuhan were cooperating at the time because bioweapons research was technically forbidden in the USA but they farmed it out to Wuhan on the sly, perhaps through Peter Daszak and Ecohealth-Alliance which got grants connected with Anthony Fauci. I speculate something leaked into the USA in summer 2019 from Fort Detrick.
There is plenty of anecdotal evidence from people in America and abroad that there was a very severe flu-like illness already on the loose in the second half of 2019 which they commonly describe as the worst flu they ever had.
Meanwhile Fort Detrick has been perennially notorious for failing inventory protocols for the HAZMAT stored there, for shoddy maintenance and record keeping, and for leaking waste water into the local environment.
That ICE Barbie fell ill after a visit to Fort Detrick is really one hell of a coincidence.
We are fundamentally transforming our country for the better, truly restoring our government, the 27-year old know-nothing says, when they're actually gutting it.
These people all think they're so smart.
They think they're cutting something down to size which is already on its knees. Federal employment today has hardly been lower as a percentage of civilian population in the post-war. The low point was achieved already in 2018. The Leviathan State is a complete myth.
If Trump truly restored our government, he'd be hiring dramatically, not firing.
For
all of Trump’s and Musk’s talk of efficiency, their policies will
likely slow down the government. The state needs capacity to perform
core tasks, such as collecting revenue, taking care of veterans,
tracking weather, and ensuring that travel, medicine, food, and
workplaces are safe. But Trump seems intent on pushing more employees to
leave and making the civil service more political and an even less
inviting job option. He bullies federal employees, labeling them as “crooked” and likening
their removal to “getting rid of all the cancer.” A smaller, terrified,
and politicized public workforce will not be an effective one.
To
start, let’s dispense with the notion that the government is too big.
It is not. As a share of the workforce, federal employment has declined in the past several decades. Civilian employees represent about 1.5 percent of the population and account for less than 7 percent of total government spending. According to the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service, seven out of 10 civilian employees work
in organizations that deal with national security, including
departments—such as Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security—that the
public supports.
The reality is that the federal government has long faced a human-capital crisis. ...
The country is $36 trillion in debt because it is not taxing enough, and hasn't been taxing enough since Ronald Reagan. We pretend we can borrow to infinity for what we want, but we can't afford it all anymore. That is why they're surrendering to Putin, and taking a meat cleaver to DC.
This is not a serious country, otherwise a South African wouldn't be running it.
Biden-Harris have let in at the very least 4 million of these, counting the minimum estimate of gotaways who have overwhelmed the ridiculous system and the known parolees. The largest standing army in the world is China's at 2 million.
Nearly three million foreign nationals illegally entered or attempted entry into the U.S. in fiscal 2024, according todatapublished by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The total reported nationwide was 2,901,142, with 198,929 reported at the northern border and 2,135,005 reported at the southwest border.
The data includes Border Patrol apprehensions between ports of entry, CBP encounters at ports of entry, and Office of Field Operations apprehensions nationwide.
CBP’s fiscal 2024 data, which covers Oct. 1, 2023, through Sept. 1, 2024, is the second highest reported under the Biden-Harris administration and second highest in U.S. history.
The highest total reported in U.S. history was more than 3.2 million in fiscal 2023, followed by fiscal 2024, fiscal 2022’s more than 2.76 million and fiscal 2021’s 1.95 million.
When subtracting the first three months of fiscal 2021, which occurred during the Trump administration, the number drops to 1,684,116.
No other administration has reported totals as high as these.
Combined, CBP apprehension/encounter data under the Biden-Harris administration totals 10,552,984.
This total excludes more than 2 million who illegally entered and evaded capture, known as gotaways.
CBP does not publicly report gotaway data.
The Center Square first reported gotaway data in 2021 after receiving it from a Border Patrol agent.
Retired CBP officials say the number is higher because gotaway data is underreported by about 20%.
The total also excludes 1,383,000 inadmissables released into the U.S. through two parole programs created by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
This includes more than 852,000 illegal foreign nationals processed and released into the country through the CBP One App and more than 531,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans deemed inadmissible and released into the country through the CHNV parole program, according toCBP data. ...
The parole total also excludes the number of illegal foreign
nationals released into the country through at least another 10 programs
Mayorkas created. Federal judges ruled the parole programs are illegal;
House Republicans cited them as examples of illegal actions for which they impeached Mayorkas in February. ...
Under the Biden-Harris administration, a record 518,524 illegal border crossers were reported at the northern border, excluding gotaways, the highest in U.S. history.
"Praying for #Baltimore, but praying even harder for an end to a
capitalistic police state motivated by explicit and implicit racial
biases," Cherry posted in 2015 amid riots that were sparked following
the death of Freddie Gray, a Black man, in police custody in Baltimore.
"Apt (sic.) time to recall that the modern day police system is a
direct evolution of slave patrols and lynch mobs," he stated in a
separate post months later.
In 2018, Cherry called for Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE), the Homeland Security Department agency tasked with preventing
cross-border crime and illegal immigration, to be abolished.
Cherry was also posting support for "Palestine" on social media in 2014 during the Gaza War in which Palestinian forces, led by the radical Iran-backed terrorist group Hamas, launched hundreds of rockets into Israel, sparking a forceful Israeli response that involved airstrikes and a ground invasion.
"Cheersing in bars to ending the occupation of Palestine — no shame
and f--- your glares #ISupportGaza #FreePalestine," Cherry said on July
25, 2014, in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Cherry also has a history of criticizing Republicans on social media, including in 2017 when he said that conservatives in the Republican Party were focused on "white grievance politics."
"The Tea Party was never about the debt/deficit but about racism and white grievance politics," he wrote on X.
WASHINGTON — The House voted 286-134 on Friday to pass a sweeping $1.2 trillion government funding bill, sending it to the Senate just hours before the deadline to prevent a shutdown. ...
The bill,
released early Thursday, funds the departments of Homeland Security,
State, Labor, Defense, Health and Human Services and various other
agencies. Together with the $459 billion bill
passed earlier this month, it fully funds the federal government to the
tune of $1.659 trillion through September, after months of stopgap
bills and negotiations.
The Roll Call Vote is here, if you want to check how your representative voted.
The argument is perennially NOT about deficit spending, but deficit spending on WHAT.
The projected tax shortfall for all programs for fiscal 2024 is $1.582 trillion, more than half of which will be net interest expense of $0.870 trillion on the exploding national debt. Interest payments on what we have already borrowed now exceed defense outlays of $0.822 trillion.
CBO in early February estimated fiscal 2024 discretionary spending at $1.739 trillion, so today's bill "saves" a mere $80 billion off that.
Mandatory spending on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. is estimated at $3.908 trillion for fiscal 2024.
It's obvious that spending should be cut and taxes raised, but no one has the courage for either.
They should just agree to do both and let the chips fall where they may. Everyone out here will be pissed, vote accordingly, and it would be a wash politically.
Current national debt is $34.5612 trillion and rising.
House Republicans have impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas
in a contentious vote Tuesday evening, making the Biden administration
official the first Cabinet member to be removed in nearly 150 years. ...
Three Republicans joined all Democrats in rejecting the articles of
impeachment: Reps. Ken Buck (R-CO), Mike Gallagher (R-WI), and Tom
McClintock (R-CA). They were the same three as last week’s failed vote,
but the return of Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) from cancer
treatment tipped the math against Mayorkas on Tuesday. ...
Since Biden took office, more than 7.5 million illegal immigrants
have been encountered attempting to enter the United States, and 6
million of that figure entered illegally between ports of entry,
according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.
The Biden figure far exceeds the number of illegal immigrants
encountered during the Trump administration’s four years and the Obama
administration’s eight years combined.
The Biden administration says it is using executive power to allow border wall construction in Texas
FILE - A border wall section stands on July 14, 2021, near La Grulla, Texas, in Starr County. On Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023, the Biden administration announced that they waived 26 federal laws in South Texas to allow border wall construction, marking the administration’s first use of a sweeping executive power employed often during the Trump presidency. The Department of Homeland Security posted the announcement with few details outlining the construction in Starr County, Texas. (Delcia Lopez/The Monitor via AP, File)
McALLEN, Texas (AP) — The Biden administration announced they waived 26 federal laws in South Texas to allow border wall construction on Wednesday, marking the administration’s first use of sweeping executive power to pave the way for building more border barriers — a tactic used often during the Trump presidency.
The Department of Homeland Security posted theannouncement on the U.S. Federal Registrywith few details outlining the construction in Starr County, Texas, which is part of a busy Border Patrol sector seeing “high illegal entry.” According to government data, about 245,000 illegal entries have been recorded in this region during the current fiscal year.
“There is presently an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States in order to prevent unlawful entries into the United States in the project areas,” Alejandro Mayorkas, the DHS secretary, stated in the notice.
The Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act and Endangered Species Act were some of the federal laws waived by DHS to make way for construction that will use funds from a congressional appropriation in 2019 for border wall construction. The waivers avoid time-consuming reviews and lawsuits challenging violation of environmental laws.
Related stories
Although no maps were provided in the announcement, aprevious mapshared during the gathering of public comments shows the piecemeal construction will add up to an additional 20 miles (32 kilometers) to the existing border barrier system in the area.
“The other concern that we have is that area is highly erosive. There’s a lot of arroyos,” said Starr County Judge Eloy Vera, the highest-elected official in the county, pointing out the creeks cutting through the ranchland and leading into the river.
Starr County is home to about 65,000 residents spread over about 1,200 square miles (3,108 square kilometers) that includes ranchland and part of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge.
Environmental advocates say structures will run through public lands, habitats of endangered plants and animal species like the ocelot, a spotted wild cat.
“A plan to build a wall through will bulldoze an impermeable barrier straight through the heart of that habitat. It will stop wildlife migrations dead in their tracks. It will destroy a huge amount of wildlife refuge land. And it’s a horrific step backwards for the borderlands,” Laiken Jordahl, a southwest conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, said Wednesday afternoon.
During the Trump administration, about450 miles (724 kilometers) of barrierswere built along the southwest border between 2017 and January 2021. Texas Governor Greg Abbott renewed those efforts as part of hisongoing immigration enforcementfrom the state level after the Biden administration initially halted them at the start of his presidency.
The DHS decision on Wednesday contrasts the Biden administration’s posturing when aproclamationto end the construction on Jan. 20, 2021 stated, “building a massive wall that spans the entire southern border is not a serious policy solution.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection had no immediate comment.
The announcement prompted political debate by the Democratic administration facing an increase of migrants entering through the southern border in recent months, including thousands who entered the U.S. throughEagle Passat the end of September.
“A border wall is a 14th century solution to a 21st century problem. It will not bolster border security in Starr County,” U.S. Representative Henry Cuellar said in a statement. “I continue to stand against the wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars on an ineffective border wall.”
Political proponents of the border wall said the waivers should be used as a launching pad for a shift in policy.
“After years of denying that a border wall and other physical barriers are effective, the DHS announcement represents a sea change in the administration’s thinking: A secure wall is an effective tool for maintaining control of our borders,” Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said in a statement. “Having made that concession, the administration needs to immediately begin construction of wall across the border to prevent the illegal traffic from simply moving to other areas of the border.”
The Washington Examiner obtained leaked video recordings of
virtual meetings that Kerry Doyle, ICE's principal legal adviser, held
with the more than 1,200 ICE prosecutors who bring cases against illegal
immigrants nationwide, in which she explained in detail who should not
be targeted for deportation. Illegal immigrants identified as national
security and public safety threats, or those who had crossed the border
illegally after Nov. 1, 2020, would be the only cases ICE would pursue.
All others would be dropped. ...
“Congress hasn’t passed it, but [Homeland Security Secretary
Alejandro] Mayorkas’s chief lawyer at ICE is telling all prosecutors to
dismiss cases. Once it’s dismissed, they’re not required to check in
with you anymore," said the ICE federal prosecutor who spoke with the Washington Examiner on the condition of anonymity. ...
The tens of thousands of noncitizens who have been cleared from the
immigration court dockets over the past eight weeks may now apply to
become permanent legal residents, the prerequisite to becoming a U.S.
citizen. An illegal border crosser is barred from applying for legal
permanent residency as long as his or her case is pending in court. With
no case pending, they may apply. Once approved, they may apply for
adjustment of status to citizenship after five years.
More than 120 of them held a Zoom call last Friday to discuss the breakaway group, which would run on a platform of "principled conservatism," including adherence to the Constitution and the rule of law - ideas those involved say have been trashed by Trump. ...
Evan McMullin, who was chief policy director for the House Republican Conference and ran as an independent in the 2016 presidential election, told Reuters that he co-hosted the Zoom call with former officials concerned about Trump's grip on Republicans and the nativist turn the party has taken.
Three other people confirmed to Reuters the call and the discussions for a potential splinter party, but asked not to be identified.
Among the call participants were John Mitnick, general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security under Trump; former Republican congressman Charlie Dent; Elizabeth Neumann, deputy chief of staff in the Homeland Security Department under Trump; and Miles Taylor, another former Trump homeland security official. ...
Call participants said they were particularly dismayed by the fact that more than half of the Republicans in Congress - eight senators and 139 House representatives - voted to block certification of Biden's election victory just hours after the Capitol siege. ...
McMullin said just over 40% of those on last week's Zoom call backed the idea of a breakaway, national third party. Another option under discussion is to form a "faction" that would operate either inside the current Republican Party or outside it.
[O]ver 1% of the populations of Guatemala and Honduras have entered the
United States since September, according to the Homeland Security
Department chief.
ICE officers who endorsed President Trump in 2016 now say he has failed to follow through on his get-tough promises, saying catch-and-release of immigrants living illegally in the U.S. is not only still happening, but has gone into “overdrive.”
H J RES 31 YEA-AND-NAY 14-Feb-2019 8:59 PM QUESTION: On Agreeing to the Conference Report BILL TITLE: Making further continuing appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security for fiscal year 2019, and for other purposes
