Stembridge News Digest

  • Deportations are mass enforcement, not mass deprivation of ‘rights’ Tue, 14 Jan 2025 03:00:00 +0000


    Donald Trump hasn’t yet begun his second term in office, and illegal alien advocates are having a complete meltdown. According to these self-proclaimed champions of the downtrodden, Trump’s plan for mass deportations will result in the worst civil rights crisis in the history of the United States. Don’t listen to any of them. They don’t know what they’re talking about.

    To start, foreign nationals do not have the right to enter or remain in the United States. The Supreme Court established this principle in Ekiu v. United States. “It is an accepted maxim of international law that every sovereign nation has the power, as inherent in sovereignty and essential to self-preservation, to forbid the entrance of foreigners within its dominions or to admit them only in such cases and upon such conditions as it may see fit to prescribe,” the court ruled.

    Because the Biden administration ignored the Immigration and Nationality Act for four years, the Trump administration must now catch up to reset the system.

    The court reaffirmed this view 75 years ago in United States ex rel. Knauff v. Shaughnessy, holding that a foreign national has no legal right to enter the United States without authorization from the U.S. government.

    In plain English, that all means independent nations can let in, kick out, or refuse admission to foreigners as they see fit.

    In the United States, the admission of aliens and the terms and conditions under which they may remain in the United States are set forth in the Immigration and Nationality Act. There are, essentially, two classes of lawful migrants: those granted temporary admission and those granted lawful permanent residency (colloquially known as “green card holders”).

    Aliens granted temporary admission to the United States may also be deported. This most often occurs if they violate the terms of their stay by overstaying the authorized period or by committing a crime while in the country. Essentially, the U.S. government expects foreign nationals to be good guests during their visit.

    The term “lawful permanent resident” can be misleading. Green card holders may live in the United States indefinitely, as long as they follow the rules. However, they are subject to removal if they commit a crime, fail to pay taxes, or smuggle other aliens across the border.

    In the end, whatever Uncle Sam giveth, Uncle Sam may taketh away.

    Anyone who enters the United States without the government’s permission is an illegal alien. Illegal aliens are subject to deportation because they are trespassers. Whether an individual wants to remain in the United States, has managed to avoid detection, has not broken any other laws, or even has children born in the America does not matter. The key legal issue is that illegal aliens did not follow the process required to enter and remain lawfully.

    Aliens in the United States are generally entitled to the same civil rights as everyone else. However, there are important differences. For example, U.S. citizens enjoy broad free speech protections and can freely join the Communist Party or any other totalitarian party. In contrast, an alien may be deported for membership in such a group.

    In Matthews v. Diaz, the Supreme Court stated explicitly that “Congress, which has broad power over immigration and naturalization … regularly makes rules regarding aliens that would be unacceptable if applied to citizens.”

    Aliens are entitled to due process during deportation proceedings, which means they must be given a chance to respond to any removal charges the government files against them. The bar for deportation is low: Officials need only prove that the individual is not a U.S. citizen and is subject to removal under the Immigration and Nationality Act.

    Immigration hearings are civil, administrative proceedings. An alien in removal proceedings is entitled to an attorney. But unlike a criminal proceeding — where indigent defendants can ask the court for a public defender — respondents in civil proceedings must pay for counsel out of their own pockets. Which is perfectly fair. Why should U.S. taxpayers be forced to foot the bill for legal counsel to defend uninvited foreign trespassers from deportation?

    What will really happen is not “mass deportation” but the consistent, ongoing enforcement of U.S. immigration laws. In short, immigration laws will be enforced, deportation orders will be issued, and foreign nationals who entered illegally will be sent home.

    The only difference lies in scale. Because the Biden administration evidently ignored the Immigration and Nationality Act for four years and allowed individuals to cross the U.S.-Mexico border unimpeded, the Trump administration must now catch up to reset the system and restore the process Congress intended. No one’s civil rights will be violated, because aliens have no inherent right to remain unless the United States grants them one.

  • Larry Elder’s unvarnished truth: Stop letting woke voters off the hook Tue, 14 Jan 2025 02:00:00 +0000


    Listening to the reactions to the devastating conflagration in Southern California from Republican media sources, I am amazed at what they have persistently omitted. Why isn’t the electoral majority that chose Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass not held responsible for the disaster that so far has killed 24 people and destroyed more than 12,000 structures?

    As far as I can figure out, these incompetent and ideologically crazed public officials didn’t just appear one day in their offices. Elections took place that put Newsom, Bass, and other woke officeholders in the Golden State in high positions while ostentatiously ignoring wise counsels about protecting forests against wildfires and prioritizing LGBTQ criteria in picking fire chiefs and other vital public servants.

    Why can’t Republican news interpreters be more forthcoming and tell the majority of California’s electorate that they brought this curse on themselves?

    California voters gave impressive majorities to the mischievous politicians who failed to take the proper measures to avoid the present crisis. Los Angeles voters who elected Bass knew her racialist and culturally radical positions when they chose her as mayor in 2022. That she chose to be in Ghana celebrating the inauguration of an African leader after signs of the wildfire had already presented themselves, or that her lesbian fire commissioner didn’t take proper measures to keep hydrants filled with water, should not have been a surprise to her constituents. She certainly gave evidence of her flakiness before ascending to her present office.

    Newsom, who has long embraced leftist positions, crushed conservative talk show host Larry Elder, who is black, in the 2021 recall election. Elder offered a clear alternative to the oleaginous Newsom on social, economic, and environmental policies. Had he won, this raging catastrophe might not be afflicting Los Angeles today. However, voters — including a large majority of California’s black residents — endorsed Newsom enthusiastically. Many even embraced a Los Angeles Times columnist’s description of Elder as “the black face of white supremacy.”

    It was, in fact, Elder who distinguished himself from the usual Republican blah-blah artists by telling voters the unvarnished truth. Last week, he blamed California voters and what he called the “lying mainstream media” for the devastating fires, arguing the media has shielded politicians like Newsom and Bass for years. Rather than simply targeting Democrats and a handful of public officials, Elder said the majority who voted against him — and the slavish media outlets that, in his view, slandered him to protect Democratic dominance — are now enduring the predictable results of their political conceits.

    It is hard for me to shed too many tears over the rich wokesters in Pacific Palisades, who have seen their pleasure domes destroyed. These pompous parvenus contributed heavily to the disastrous government ruining California with their votes, donations, and political campaigning. Although there’s nothing wrong with discussing the extent of the damage and the losses suffered by perfectly decent people, at least some of the victims should be held to account for their stupid, perverse political actions. I’m sorry that Eugene Levy, who is my favorite comedian but also a wacko leftist, saw his Palisades spread burn down. But I’m afraid that his politics and those of his friends had something to do with this tragic outcome.

    I was also disappointed to hear the mollycoddling treatment accorded to Patrick Soon-Shiong, owner of the Los Angeles Times, in a recent Fox News interview. Soon-Shiong claimed he and his paper care about “competence, not party” in their assessment of Los Angeles leaders. But his paper until last week was the slobbering handmaiden of Bass and other nutty leftist California politicians. Soon-Shiong bears major blame for what happened over the last week.

    My friend John Zmirak in a recent column for the Stream compared the fate of California to the firebombing of Dresden and other German cities during World War II. Although terrible things happened then to hapless civilians, historians always remind us that the Nazi government had something to do with this destruction. We are also usually told that lots of Germans voted for Hitler’s party, although, as Zmirak observes, the Nazis never came even close to winning a majority of German voters in a fair election.

    The flaky maniacs and demagogues who run California won with vast majorities. Yet, our Republican politicians and their obliging “conservative” media can’t bring themselves to point out this inconvenient fact. This is the same nonsense they give us when they pretend that other leftist ideologues like Alvin Bragg, Larry Krasner, and Fani Willis are just the Frankenstein creations of George Soros. The last time I checked, these lunatics were democratically elected.

    Why is Larry Elder almost isolated on the right in assigning proper blame for what is happening in California? Why can’t Republican news interpreters be more forthcoming and tell the majority of California’s electorate that they brought this curse on themselves — by their freely given political choices?

  • California’s war on foster children EXPOSED: ‘They're using children to persecute practicing Christians’ Tue, 14 Jan 2025 01:30:00 +0000


    When Liz Wheeler says that California is persecuting Christians, she swears she’s not being hyperbolic.

    “The state of California is coming after Christians in the worst kind of way. ... They're using children to persecute practicing Christians — people who live according to biblical values or Catholic doctrine,” she says.

    California’s current Senate Bill 407, which was introduced by state Senator Scott Wiener — “a rabidly pro-LGBTQIA politician” — requires foster parents to “affirm a child's chosen gender identity and sexual orientation, even if such affirmations are counter to the foster parents' strongly held religious or moral values,” says Liz.

    If this language alone didn’t already single out Christian families — the group most likely to foster children — a new directive from the Department of Social Services makes it crystal clear exactly who’s in the crosshairs.

    This directive, which was issued last November, “took it one step further ... and interpreted the bill to actually add something additionally egregious to the language that was already bad,” Liz explains.

    According to the directive, not only must foster parents “explicitly proclaim that they support the idea of a child's ability to change his or her gender identity,” but they also must “receive training on cultural sensitivity regarding sexual orientation and gender identity expression and best practices for providing care to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning children.”

    Liz calls the mandatory education course a Marxist “re-education camp for Christians.”

    And yet it gets even worse.

    The directive also demands that “each resource family must have the capacity, the ability, and the willingness to safeguard a child's or non-minor dependent's personal right and respect and honor the child's identities regardless of their own values and beliefs.”

    How does the state determine whether a foster family can meet these requirements?

    “There's an interview process that the state requires for foster families to be licensed,” which includes a “grilling questionnaire,” says Liz.

    The interview is “intended to assess the family's ability, willingness, and capacity to provide a safe, accepting, and affirming home to prevent additional trauma to any child or non-minor dependent who could be placed with them by asking direct and open-ended questions about their ability and capacity to care for LGBTQ+ children and non-minor dependents,” she explains, calling the interview “a litmus test.”

    Would-be foster families who refuse to pledge that they will “facilitate a transition for a gender confused child” are barred from the system.

    “This is absolutely, 100% illegal,” says Liz. “It is a violation of the Constitution of the United States.”

    She points to the 2021 case Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, in which the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the city of Philadelphia violated the Petitioner Catholic Social Services’ First Amendment rights by refusing to renew the agency’s contract unless it agreed to allow same-sex couples to be foster parents — an act that would violate Catholic doctrine.

    Liz hopes and anticipates that this same ruling will apply to this egregious directive by California’s Department of Social Services.

    Unfortunately, even in the best-case scenario, “it’ll take years to get through the court system,” which means that in the interim, the children will be the ones to suffer.

    To hear more of Liz’s commentary, watch the clip above.

    Want more from Liz Wheeler?

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  • Andrew Tate’s Trojan horse: Would the right let in a ‘minor-attracted person’ too? Tue, 14 Jan 2025 01:00:00 +0000


    Judging by their embrace of Andrew Tate, it seems as though some conservative influencers in 2025 are ready to trade in their familiar “Christ is King” mantra for a new one: “Pimping ain’t easy.”

    Benny Johnson is a popular conservative commentator with over 3 million followers on X and close to 3 million subscribers on YouTube. He caused a major controversy in right-wing circles after announcing he would have the man known as “Top G” on his show to discuss the sentencing phase of President Trump’s hush-money case. Johnson advertised his guest with an image of both men in black aviator shades with images of a crying liberal woman in their lenses.

    American conservatism will die a well-deserved death if it becomes defined by its foes rather than its values.

    The imagery was telling. Andrew Tate has described his webcam operation featuring over 75 women as “pimping” and bragged about getting “betas” from all over the world to send money to the women “working” for him. His appearance on Johnson’s show wasn’t going to be a hard-hitting interview about Tate’s own legal troubles, an update on his human trafficking case in Romania, or his past statements about controlling women.

    Tate’s contribution to the show was essentially a series of comparisons he made between himself and President Trump, as well as complaints about conservatives “policing” right-wing bad boys. At one point, Alina Habba, one of Trump’s legal counselors, joined the show and gushed over Tate. She compared his legal travails to Trump’s and told Tate she sympathizes with him, admires him, and has his back.

    I try to avoid therapeutic language, but Tate’s defenders conducted a master class in gaslighting. Instead of addressing the concerns conservatives have about Tate’s content and views, they made the issue about censorship and free speech. Johnson even tried to shield himself with the Bible, posting, “He who is without sin cast the first stone …”

    I have no problem with media personalities speaking to guests with controversial views. I’m an ’80s baby who remembers when talk show hosts would invite provocateurs to explain their ideas and defend their positions in front of a hostile crowd. But there is a big difference between Phil Donahue interviewing a former Klansman to understand his views and fawning over him like an Exalted Cyclops groupie.

    The pushback against Tate and his defenders isn’t about “cancel culture” or policing speech. It’s driven by the fact Tate promotes a lifestyle and worldview that are completely antithetical to what conservatives claim they value.

    I highly doubt any conservative influencer would post an image promoting a drag queen who performs in front of kids or a pediatric surgeon who performs “gender-affirming” hysterectomies and then screech about free speech and censorship when fans criticize their decision. Likewise, no one would accept such a lapse in judgement with out-of-context scriptures.

    Conservatives have a right to determine which ideas need to be debated publicly and which personalities should be promoted widely. Failure to use discernment when considering allies and co-belligerents always backfires.

    I saw this firsthand in 2020 when Black Lives Matter turned a self-evidently true phrase into a movement that gave its leaders political power, cultural influence, and a multimillion-dollar real estate portfolio. Of all the victims of BLM’s obvious scam, the churches and pastors who hitched their wagon to anti-family Marxist lesbians were by far the most pitiful. My issue with them was not their naïveté. It was the fact that they thought they needed people with such anti-biblical views to deliver a message about the value of human life that could be pulled straight from the Bible.

    Likewise, American conservatism will die a well-deserved death if it becomes defined by its foes rather than its values.

    You can’t take a bold public stance against pornography one minute and celebrate OnlyFans “entrepreneurs” the next simply because they have “based” takes on politics. You can’t claim to care about rebuilding the family one day, then fawn all over people whose ideas will only create more broken homes. You can’t call out transgender ideology when it’s pushed by “impossible women” in public health roles but prop up men identifying as women on the right because they appear to be more convincing counterfeits or support the incoming president.

    The litmus test for the right can’t be how much a person is hated by the left. You don’t have to be an expert on Andrew Tate’s legal issues to understand why conservatives shouldn’t want to see his ideas and views legitimized. If having the right enemies is all it takes to become a conservative media darling, a shrewd “minor-attracted person” could simply hide his pedophilia behind a manufactured persona characterized by standing up to the globalists trying to destroy Western civilization.

    No serious political movement should be that easy to hoodwink, and no self-respecting person would want to be.

  • ‘I view him as a goofball’: Mark Levin DESTROYS Robert Reich Tue, 14 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000


    While many Americans have woken up to the absolutely disastrous state the Biden administration has left them in, some are so loyal that they’ve become blind.

    Robert Reich is one of them, and Mark Levin of “LevinTV” has no problem saying so.

    “I don’t view him as a gentleman; I view him as a goofball,” Levin comments. “And yet he’s a Harvard graduate, I think he taught at Harvard for a period of time, he’s considered an intellectual, which means nothing. He was labor secretary under Bill Clinton, but he’s gotten increasingly radicalized.”

    Reich puts out his own videos, and in one of his latest, he told his audience what he believed is the greatest lesson learned from the 2024 election and Trump’s landslide victory.


    “It’s not that we need to move to the right. That’s both morally wrong and bad politics. It’s not that Harris ran a bad campaign, I think she ran a good one, given that she only had three months to do it. And while yes, misogyny and racism absolutely played a role, I don’t believe they were the biggest factors either.”

    “According to standard economic measures, most Americans without college degrees, that’s the majority,” Reich continued. “These Americans overwhelmingly voted for Trump. In fact, most Americans without college degrees have not felt much economic improvement for four decades, and their jobs have become less secure.”

    “Adjusted for inflation, the typical income of the bottom 90% is stuck nearly where it was in the early 1990s. Most of the gains have gone to the top,” he added.

    “Let’s stipulate that what he’s saying is true, even though it may not be true because I don’t trust guys like this. ‘Most of the gains have gone to the top.’ Why would most of the gains go to the top?” Levin asks.

    “Because we the people have decided to buy this, this, this, or this. If we decide not to buy Teslas, then Elon Musk is not as rich as he is. If we decide not to buy Microsoft products, then Bill Gates isn’t as rich as he is,” Levin explains. “That’s the way it works, so what do you mean, ‘Most gains went to the top?’”

    Want more from Mark Levin?

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  • California’s biggest fire hazard? The Coastal Commission Tue, 14 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000


    Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) cut the fire department budget, supported diversity hires in the fire department and department of water and power, and, as deadly winds threatened the city, flew off to Ghana. For his part, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) neglects forest maintenance, lets winter snowmelt flow into the ocean, and blames wildfires on “climate change.”

    With city and state government failures on full display, the people need to know that another state government agency is a big part of the problem.

    Contrary to Gavin Newsom, the wildfires are not driven by 'climate change,' but 'regime change' could be part of the solution.

    Dating from the 1970s, the California Coastal Commission is an unelected body of regulatory zealots that overrides dozens of elected city and county governments on land use and environmental issues. The appointed commissioners managed to combine Stalinist regulation with mafia-style corruption. For example, Commissioner Mark Nathanson, appointed by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown in the 1980s, served prison time for extorting bribes from Hollywood celebrities and others seeking coastal building permits.

    The CCC holds jurisdiction in an area extending up to five miles inland “and including coastal mountains.” The commission can require “restoration of sites to native habitat” and looks askance at “removal of major vegetation.” The commission can seek judicial penalties and can also “impose penalties itself, administratively,” with no need for the courts to approve. So in a real sense, the unelected commission is a law unto itself, with no accountability to the people.

    Property owners in Pacific Palisades, Malibu, and the coastal mountains are not exactly free to remove brush that could prove dangerous in times of fire, like the blazes that turned their neighborhoods into ash last week. On the other hand, the CCC also helps to prevent California from accessing its greatest natural resource, the Pacific Ocean.

    For example, the Poseidon Desalination Plant in Huntington Beach was in progress for 20 years, projected to provide Orange County with 50 million gallons of fresh water a day, and supported by a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers. In 2022, the CCC turned it down, with Commissioner Dayna Bochco explaining, “The ocean is under attack from climate change already.”

    Bochco, an attorney, is the wife of the late Steven Bochco and served as president of Steven Bochco Productions, producers of “Doogie Howser, M.D.,” “Cop Rock” and other television shows. First appointed by the state Senate’s rules committee in 2011, Bochco has been reappointed several times and is now on board until May 20, 2027. The unelected commissioners have no term limits.

    In Santa Barbara County, Vandenberg Space Force Base has been launching jets and missiles for decades. Last year, the commission voted to block more SpaceX launches from Vandenberg because, as Commissioner Caryl Hart put it, Elon Musk was “injecting himself into the presidential race.” So it’s really all about politics, not the environment.

    The unelected commissioners have been rather quiet about the coastal fires, but not to worry. As the CCC’s website now proclaims: “Homes, businesses, churches, schools and other structures that have been destroyed by the recent fires are exempt from Coastal Act permitting requirements.” Victims can be forgiven for believing that they never should have been required in the first place.

    As the smoke was rising and the wind blowing strong, Mayor Karen Bass flew off to Ghana. For what happened next, consider this January 8 email from a friend caught in the fire zone:

    Everything destroyed. Entire neighborhood vaporized. Worse than a thousand nightmares. Power went out at 7pm. Complete blackness everywhere. Violent embers flew like piercing rockets. Palm trees exploded like Saturn V. Cyclone winds swirling vortex at 80 mph. Mandatory evacuation, cars abandoned on Sunset Blvd. Everything is obliterated. EVERYTHING!!!!!

    Contrary to Gavin Newsom, the wildfires are not driven by “climate change,” but “regime change” could be part of the solution. At this writing, embattled Angelenos are gearing up a recall for Karen Bass. So, as Donald Trump likes to say, we’ll have to see what happens.

  • High school girls claim teacher is a sexual predator. Now the teens are the ones charged with felonies. Mon, 13 Jan 2025 23:45:00 +0000


    Two female high school students in Louisiana allegedly accused a teacher of being a sexual predator. But now it's the pair of teens who've been charged with crimes after a police investigation.

    The Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that officers received a sexual harassment complaint on Dec. 18, 2024, from two female students at the Central Lafourche High School in Mathews — roughly 45 miles southwest of New Orleans.

    'We are shocked and appalled to learn of the actions of two of our students.'

    The teenagers allegedly accused a male high school teacher of sending inappropriate sexual messages to a 16-year-old female student.

    Detectives with the sheriff’s office conducted a two-week investigation during which law enforcement procured search warrants for the cell phones of the parties involved in the alleged incident. Investigators scoured social media and messaging apps to find any evidence of wrongdoing.

    However, authorities said the only bad behavior discovered was carried out by the teen girls who attempted to frame the teacher for child sex crimes.

    The Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office stated, "The investigation revealed that the two teenage girls had fabricated messages, created fake accounts, and shared screenshots with friends in an effort to frame the teacher for sending inappropriate messages."

    Investigators determined that the male teacher had not sent any messages or photos and "had no involvement" with the pair of teen girls.

    The police declared, "The teacher was actually proven to be the crime victim and has been cleared of all allegations."

    After the new developments, detectives questioned the girls once again, and one of the teenagers confessed to their involvement in the crime, according to police.

    On Jan. 6, both high school girls were charged with one count each of cyberstalking, online impersonation, and false swearing for the purpose of violating public health or safety — a felony. The teens were placed on electronic monitoring and released to the custody of their parents.

    Sheriff Craig Webre said, "Our juvenile detectives are diligent and take claims of inappropriate behavior very seriously. They are, however, equally serious about false claims. Someone’s life can be instantly ruined by a false allegation, and I am proud that our investigators were able to get to the bottom of this."

    "Technology has made it very easy for people to try to manipulate the truth, but technology also makes it easy for investigators to ultimately find the truth," Webre noted.

    Lafourche Parish Schools Superintendent Jarod Martin added, "We are shocked and appalled to learn of the actions of two of our students. The allegations against one of our teachers were false and malicious, and we appreciate the efficiency of investigators in uncovering the source of these messages."

    "Such attacks on a teacher’s credibility and reputation are concerning and can inhibit their ability to effectively educate our children," Martin continued. "We are committed to investigating all allegations of misconduct in order to provide a safe environment conducive to learning and working for all of our students and staff."

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  • 34 people arrested amid California fires, including burglar disguised as firefighter; 3 arrested for illegal drone activity Mon, 13 Jan 2025 23:02:35 +0000


    The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office has arrested 34 people for criminal activity related to the devastating fires ravaging the area, according to authorities.

    As Blaze News previously reported Monday, one person has been arrested for suspicion of arson.

    'We have people who will go to all ends to be able to do what it is they want to do to exploit the victims of this tragedy.'

    During a Monday press conference, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna highlighted that there were two "drone incidents" that led to three arrests.

    On Friday, firefighting aircraft attempting to battle the Palisades fire were forced to leave the area because of unauthorized drones in the air.

    Citing California officials, NewsNation reported that there have been at least 40 incidents in which unauthorized drones forced firefighting aircraft to pause operations.

    On Thursday, a drone collided with a CL-415 “Super Scooper” — a firefighting aircraft capable of scooping 1,600 gallons of water to drop on fires.

    The Los Angeles County Fire Department said in a statement that a civilian drone struck the Super Scooper Quebec 1 on loan from Canada. The collision reportedly left a hole in one of the wings, but the extent of the damage wasn't known until the plane landed.

    Cal Fire spokesperson Chris Thomas told the Los Angeles Times, "This is not just harmless fun. This is incredibly dangerous. Seriously, what if that plane had gone down? It could have taken out a row of homes. It could have taken out a school.”

    The damaged Super Scooper reportedly has been repaired and could be back up in the air as soon as Tuesday following a Federal Aviation Administration inspection.

    The FAA warned, "It’s a federal crime, punishable by up to 12 months in prison, to interfere with firefighting efforts on public lands. Additionally, the FAA can impose a civil penalty of up to $75,000 against any drone pilot who interferes with wildfire suppression, law enforcement, or emergency response operations when temporary flight restrictions (TFRs) are in place. The FAA treats these violations seriously and immediately considers swift enforcement action for these offenses. The FAA has not authorized anyone unaffiliated with the Los Angeles firefighting operations to fly drones in the TFRs."

    The FAA and FBI are investigating the drone strike.

    At least 20 people have reportedly been arrested for looting the fire-ravaged areas of South California.

    One alleged burglar disguised himself as a firefighter to rob a home during the fires.

    Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell stated, "There were three individuals in a vehicle. They were stopped. They were where they weren't supposed to be. One had on a fire jacket and a fire hat. And he was additionally arrested for impersonating a firefighter. We have people who will go to all ends to be able to do what it is they want to do to exploit the victims of this tragedy."

    Sheriff Luna added, "When I was out there in the Malibu area, I saw a gentleman that looked like a firefighter. And I asked him if he was okay because he was sitting down. I didn't realize we had him in handcuffs. We are turning him over to LAPD because he was dressed like a fireman, and he was not. He just got caught burglarizing a home. So those are issues that our front-line deputies and police officers are dealing with."

    Police said a handful of people were arrested for violating the government-imposed curfew that runs from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.

    Those who violate the curfew could be charged with a misdemeanor and hit with a fine of up to $1,000.

    Sheriff Luna also said his department is communicating with local, state, and federal agencies to crack down on "white-collar" crimes in relation to the fires.

    "They are all eager to prosecute anybody who is taking advantage of our residents during this very difficult time, whether it is a burglary or it is some kind of white collar crime in a scam or anything that you may be thinking about doing," Luna stated.

    Police said at least six people reported missing in the city of Los Angeles.

    The County of Los Angeles Department of Medical Examiner stated that 24 people have died in the Palisades and Eaton fires.

    Los Angeles Police Department Assistant Chief Dominic Choi said 266 officers have been assigned to the Palisades fire. In addition, 200 National Guard members are helping to secure the Los Angeles area.

    According to the latest data from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the current wildfires have scorched over 40,000 acres and destroyed or damaged more than 12,300 structures.

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  • Dan Bongino’s warning: Trump is NOT safe Mon, 13 Jan 2025 22:30:00 +0000


    Dan Bongino is a former Secret Service agent. So in terms of assessing threats on the president’s life, he’s an expert.

    Which is why Liz Wheeler of “The Liz Wheeler Show” believes President-elect Donald Trump should heed Bongino’s latest warning — which is that he doesn’t believe it’s safe for Trump to be holding a pre-inauguration rally.

    “This guy knows what he’s talking about. He understands that the threats against President Trump aren’t going away. They’re not stopping just because President Trump won. We didn’t entirely defeat the left, we defeated them for the presidency, and that’s great,” Wheeler says.

    The rally is reportedly going to be “gigantic” and is taking place in Washington, D.C.


    “Don’t get me wrong, it sounds awesome. It sounds fun. It sounds like the type of energy, which is probably for the history books,” Wheeler says. “But Dan Bongino says, ‘Listen to me, the left is not going to stop their attacks on the president just because he won the election.’”

    Bongino also brought up the Secret Service’s failure to protect Trump from the first assassination attempt.

    “They failed to protect President Trump from a would-be assassin, who fired bullets that hit the president in the ear, and would have, if not for divine intervention protecting him, killed the president. And the Secret Service is still under the same management,” Wheeler says.

    “The reality is, whether it’s lawfare, or whether it’s assassination attempts, the left still wants to take President Trump out. And they will use any means that they possibly can to weaponize to do that, because at the end of the day, they don’t care about human life,” she adds.

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  • Microsoft elites EXPOSE the entire playbook by re-opening Three Mile Island Mon, 13 Jan 2025 21:00:00 +0000


    The Three Mile Island power plant was the scene of the worst commercial nuclear accident in United States history. While zero people died, it’s been used ever since as the media’s poster child for why we can’t invest in nuclear energy.

    That is until now.

    Constellation Energy, which claims to be America’s largest producer of clean, carbon-free energy, has just announced that it has signed the largest ever power purchase agreement with Bill Gates’ Microsoft — which in light of this agreement will be reopening Three Mile Island for business.

    “Wow,” Glenn Beck of “The Glenn Beck Program” comments. “Well, what about solar panels, Bill? What about wind power?”


    Gates also invested $1 billion in a nuclear power plant that broke ground in Kemmerer, Wyoming, last June.

    “Now two power plants. Both of them nuclear,” Glenn says, shocked. “Nothing to worry about here. Bill Gates is a responsible human being, and so is nuclear power. It’s clean, and it’s good for the environment, and it’s totally acceptable.”

    However, what Glenn really wants to know is why this is necessary.

    “Why do they need this power? Not because you’re having a hard time affording electricity. Not because you’re having a hard time affording heat for your house. Not because they want to get rid of natural gas and want all of our stoves and everything else to be run on electricity. Not because we are switching over to battery cars, or that’s what they hope,” Glenn says.

    “Bill Gates wants power because he wants to be the king of the world with AI, [and] he needs nuclear power plants, so he gets to build them. It’s almost as if we’re not allowed to talk about that either,” he continues, adding, “We’re not allowed to even talk about one for us. No, no, no. We have to have nuclear power plants for our new god of AI.”

    Want more from Glenn Beck?

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  • DeSantis highlights 'big problems' with H-1B program and chain migration Mon, 13 Jan 2025 20:50:00 +0000


    Florida Governor Ron DeSantis ripped the H-1B program for its abuse of while at the same defending the use of immigrant workers in his state.

    The Republican gave a press conference predominantly focused on adjustments he will make in the state to facilitate President-elect Donald Trump's deportation process of illegal immigrants.

    "We will allocate resources and ensure state and local officials in Florida are supporting these efforts. We have no time to waste. Florida must lead," DeSantis said, per First Coast News.

    'We've got some big problems with some of the legal immigration programs.'

    However, when it comes to the ever-growing issue of foreign workers under the H-1B program, DeSantis said it was important not to mix the two issues.

    "We have legal immigrants in Florida. So you can't conflate illegal immigrants with people who are here legally," he began.

    "I've also said we've got some big problems with some of the legal immigration programs that we have," the governor continued before providing an example.

    "We've seen this H-1B program, how companies will bring in H-1B [workers], the Americans train the H-1B [workers], and then they fire the Americans and hire the H-1B. How would that even remotely be acceptable?"

    DeSantis continued his press conference by criticizing chain migration:

    "You have chain migration, which is not merit-based and is bringing in this more distant relatives, not what you want. So there's a whole host of issues there that that need major reform."

    At the same time, the governor said he had heard criticisms of immigrant farm laborers and defended them on the grounds of being legal.

    "From an immigration enforcement perspective, I mean, if somebody is here on, like, an H-2A visa, they are working in the state of Florida legally. And when we did E-Verify, people would say, ... 'Hey. There's a a busload of farm workers. I saw them on I-4.' And people assume they're illegal."

    DeSantis' comments largely defended the work of the Trump administration on illegal immigration and Trump's upcoming deportation plan. The governor even threatened to suspend elected officials from office in Florida if they are found to be "neglecting their duties" and causing roadblocks for the new immigration mandates.

    "It will require new legislation in Florida to ensure that the duties of both state and local officials are very clear and that those duties require them to be assisting the federal government in this regard," he said.

    DeSantis added, per the Post Millennial, "I have the authority, with respect to certain officials, to suspend them from office if they are neglecting their duties."

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  • Arson suspect arrested near deadly Eaton fire; David Spade offers $5,000 reward to anyone who catches California arsonists Mon, 13 Jan 2025 20:35:00 +0000


    Thanks to a tip from California firefighters, police arrested a man suspected of committing arson near a deadly Los Angeles-area blaze. Meanwhile, comedian David Spade is offering a $5,000 reward to anyone who catches an arsonist.

    Around 12:30 p.m. Sunday, members of the Los Angeles County Fire Department were extinguishing a small brushfire when they allegedly spotted a man actively lighting fires in Irwindale — roughly 13 miles from the Eaton fire.

    'So keep your eyes peeled. Do what you can out there.'

    The Irwindale Police Department said in a statement, "While on scene, LACOFD personnel observed a suspect actively lighting fires in the area."

    Officers responded to the incident and arrested 29-year-old Ruben Montes — a resident of Baldwin Park, which is about a half-hour east of Los Angeles. Montes was charged with arson.

    The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection reported that the Eaton fire had burned 14,117 acres, destroyed or damaged over 7,000 structures, and was 33% contained. To combat the Eaton fire, 3,408 personnel, 16 helicopters, 375 engines, 29 dozers, and 90 water tenders were deployed.

    The Eaton fire has taken the lives of 16 people, according to the Los Angeles County medical examiner. Another eight people died from the Pacific Palisades fire, which has scorched 23,713 acres and damaged or destroyed an estimated 5,000 structures, according to Cal Fire. The Palisades fire has been only 14% contained.

    Officials are still investigating what caused the Eaton and Pacific Palisades fires.

    Comedian David Spade is offering a reward to anyone who provides information that leads to the arrest of arsonists in California.

    The “Saturday Night Live” alum stated in an Instagram video, “I’m out in California and people are saying guys are lighting fires out there to make this s**t worse."

    The comedic actor continued, "They just caught somebody we’re pretty sure was lighting fires walking along with a blowtorch. They let him go."

    Local residents apprehended the suspect with a blowtorch in the area of the Kenneth fire less than an hour after the blaze started

    Police arrived and detained the man on suspicion of arson, but the charge was dismissed because officials said they lacked probable cause to arrest him on arson charges. The suspect — Juan Manuel Sierra-Leyva — was being detained on a felony probation violation, the Los Angeles Police Department stated.

    The Daily Mail and the New York Post reported that the man is an illegal immigrant from Mexico.

    Spade told his 3.2 million followers on Instagram, "So if you can find somebody lighting a fire and you catch somebody, and you get the cops to bust them and throw them in jail, I’ll give you 5,000 bucks. So keep your eyes peeled. Do what you can out there.”

    Spade stressed, "Don’t fake it, though. No staging. Let me know."

    Spade isn't the only celebrity to suspect that arsonists are involved in the devastating California fires.

    "THERE IS an ARSONIST here in LA,” actor Henry Winkler wrote on the X social media platform.

    Conditions for wildfires are expected to continue to be extremely dangerous. The National Weather Service on Monday said, "Dangerous situation expected as Critical to Extreme fire-weather conditions develop across parts of southern California today into Tuesday."

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  • Tom Homan considers citizen hotline for reporting suspected illegal alien criminals Mon, 13 Jan 2025 20:20:00 +0000


    President-elect Donald Trump's incoming border czar, Tom Homan, stated that the administration is considering establishing a citizen hotline for reporting illegal aliens suspected of committing additional crimes within the United States.

    Homan told NBC News on Thursday that he wants to empower the American public to assist in Trump's mass deportation plan.

    'I don't put a price on our national security.'

    He called implementing a public reporting hotline a "fresh idea."

    "I want a place where American citizens can call and report," Homan said. "We need to take care of the American people. We need to make sure they have an outlet to help report child traffickers, forced labor traffickers. We want to give them an opportunity to be a part of the fix."

    Last week, Homan stated that he wants the administration to hold weekly press briefings to update the American public about its deportation progress.

    "There needs to be a weekly White House press briefing on exactly who we're arresting and who we're saving, who we are putting in jail, who we are deporting, so the American people know we're true to our word," he said.

    During his interview with NBC News, Homan again stressed the need for transparency.

    "I think we need to be transparent for the American people, and we need to show people exactly what we're doing," he stated.

    Homan also called for the elimination of the Biden administration's CBP One, a mobile application that allows 1,450 foreign nationals per day to schedule an appointment at a port of entry to make an asylum claim and enter the U.S.

    "Creating programs to allow thousands of people in this country a week that we don't properly vet and that we know don't qualify is not the answer," he told the news outlet.

    Homan reaffirmed that the Trump administration plans to implement worksite raids as part of its deportation plan.

    "We're going to do it in a smart way," he explained. "We're still working on how exactly we want to roll this out, but [work site] operations have to come back again because it's the No. 1 place we find victims of forced labor being run by many cartels."

    Homan has stated that the administration's plan would require at least $86 billion to start.

    "I don't put a price on all these young women who've been raped and murdered. I don't put a price on our national security," he told NBC News.

    Currently, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has 34,000 detention beds. Homan has stated that the administration must increase the number of beds to at least 100,000.

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  • Biden puts taxpayers on the hook for over 150,000 debtors' student loans before leaving office Mon, 13 Jan 2025 20:05:00 +0000


    President Joe Biden announced Monday that he has decided to once again engage in charity with other people's money, putting American taxpayers on the hook for over 150,000 debtors' federal student loans, thereby "bringing the total number of Americans who have had their student debt canceled by my Administration to over 5 million."

    Biden bragged that his administration has "forgiven more student loan debt than any other administration in history." According to the Department of Education, the Biden administration has blown $183.6 billion across 28 debt relief actions since January 2021. These actions have largely been executed by decree, not through Congress.

    Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona suggested in a statement Monday that this wealth redistribution scheme is part of a broader effort to establish "a system that is affordable and accountable to both students and taxpayers."

    The latest debt cancellation, which Investopedia indicated has a price tag of nearly $4.23 billion, consists of four types of discharges. First, the Education Department approved 6,100 debtors for $465 million in relief through Public Service Loan Forgiveness; second, the department approved around 85,000 debtors for $1.26 billion in the event they were found to have attended schools that cheated or defrauded their students; third, the department approved 61,000 debtors suffering total and permanent disabilities; and fourth, the department had other Americans shoulder the debt of 6,100 public service workers.

    "People who cannot afford their student loans because they are in public service, have disabilities, were cheated by their college, or who have completed decades of payments are now getting the relief they were promised," said Under Secretary of Education James Kvaal. "These permanent reforms will continue to more and more borrowers every year."

    Biden's promise may end up being more empty symbolism, especially if this latest handout is met by the kinds of legal challenges that past debt-cancellation initiatives have faced.

    In June 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court torpedoed Biden's effort to cancel more than $400 billion in loans. Chief Justice John Roberts noted in the opinion for the court's 6-3 majority that the Biden administration "lacked the authority under the [Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2023] to unilaterally cancel debt and that such sweeping policy changes needed explicit Congressional approval."

    A month after the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked more of Biden's student debt-cancellation plan, the Supreme Court denied the Biden administration's emergency request to lift the appeals court's nationwide injunction on the Saving on a Valuable Education Plan.

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  • Alvin Bragg drops assault charges against man who fought back when vagrant attacked him with nail-studded chunk of wood Mon, 13 Jan 2025 19:50:00 +0000


    Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) dropped assault charges against a Chinatown landlord who fought back when a vagrant attacked him with a nail-studded chunk of wood in late August, the New York Post reported.

    Bragg’s office initially charged Brian Chin — a 32-year-old Harvard graduate student — with felony assault after the incident, the paper said.

    'Instead of doing the right thing, [Bragg] used his office to pursue a case against me for nearly five months. It leads me to ask the question: How many other innocent people has he incarcerated?'

    Chin spotted the vagrant lying on the ground outside the subway station at Chrystie and Grand Streets in Manhattan around 8:30 p.m. Aug. 24, the Post said. Chin allegedly kicked the male three times, the paper said, citing a criminal complaint.

    Chin told the Post he approached the male because he recognized him as a local panhandler and wanted to make sure he was OK: “We have so many drug overdoses and deaths and pretty much every conceivable horror that you can imagine. Immediately, he woke up after that and just started screaming.”

    The paper said the pair initially went their separate ways after the encounter — but both came back a few minutes later.

    Chin said he returned because he was haunted by the slaying of his renter, Christina Yuna Lee, two years ago, the Post said. Chin blasted Bragg over Lee's 2022 killing, insisting it could have been prevented since the suspect in her killing had a lengthy criminal history.

    “Especially after the murder, if someone is acting violent, I just like to stand by the front door, just to make sure that no one gets followed in, all my tenants are safe,’’ Chin noted to the paper.

    More from the Post:

    The homeless man did turn violent, breaking a wooden chair and swinging the nail-laden hunk of wood at Chin — who in turn knocked him down and punched him a half-dozen times before the assailant quit.

    Blood gushed from the unidentified man’s face as he struggled to get to his feet when cops arrived, the complaint said. And when he tried to stand, he fell back and slammed his head into the subway station railing.

    Authorities rushed him to Bellevue Hospital with facial and skull fractures, the complaint said. He was intubated and put on a ventilator afterward.

    Chin told the paper he tried to calm him down but feared for his life during the fight: “I just wanted to get home to my wife and kids." Chin also told the Post that in the aftermath he felt "awful. I never want anyone to get hurt.”

    The paper said the assault charges against Chin could have landed him in jail for up to seven years — until Bragg decided not to pursue them.

    “It’s our job to thoroughly investigate and prosecute violent conduct, including incidents of alleged assault,” a representative for the Manhattan DA’s office said Sunday, according to the Post. “This case has been dismissed and, as a result, sealed by the court.”­

    The process is the punishment?

    Chin told the paper he's annoyed that the charges had been hanging over his head since the summer: “I am more angry than relieved because this is something that never should have happened."

    He added to the Post that he "was treated like a violent perpetrator in the eyes of the law, and it has been five months of an unending, waking nightmare. … I woke up every day thinking that I would spend years in jail when I never committed a crime.”

    Chin also told the paper that he had to resign from his teaching position because he no longer could pass a background check: "What was this for? It upended my life, everything I spent decades working for.”

    He also noted to the Post that the homeless man later was charged with menacing and that it's “personally abhorrent that this case was ever brought.”

    “With such an abundance of evidence from the very start, it was clear that I was not a perpetrator but a victim,” Chin told the paper. “Instead of doing the right thing, [Bragg] used his office to pursue a case against me for nearly five months. It leads me to ask the question: How many other innocent people has he incarcerated? How many were not so fortunate as to have been attacked on their own property and to have access to surveillance footage showing their innocence?”

    The Post said Chin compared himself to Jose Alba — the New York City deli worker Bragg charged with murder after Alba stabbed an attacker to death in 2022. After public outrage over what many saw as self-defense, Bragg dropped all charges against Alba.

    “How many more victims — how many more Jose Albas, how many more cases such as myself — will need to be at his hands before the politicians who have continually shielded him wake up to the fact that this is not how justice is conducted in this country? It’s not what New Yorkers deserve," Chin told the paper.

    Chin's attorney Kenneth Gilbert told the Post that Bragg saved face by dropping his client's charges: “If it had gone to trial, it would have been an embarrassment for the prosecutor’s office."

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