#7
Peter Orem
A Muslim (Palestinian) student has been erased from media. Looks like a match.
Brown knew who the killer was the whole time.
I am a Brown alum, had classes in that building, walked those streets for 5 1/2 years. This hits close to home.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] A Siberian model who flew to Thailand after receiving a job offer is being held in Myanmar under forced labor conditions at a fraudulent call center. This was reported on December 15 by the Telegram channel Mash.
According to the source, the Russian woman was sent from Thailand to Yangon, ostensibly for an interview. After her application was approved, her passport and other documents were confiscated and she was then forcibly removed to another location.
The girl is being held in a so-called scam center along with other people. According to the channel, those who refuse to work are subjected to violence and intimidation. Amid clashes between armed groups and reports of possible purges, the detainees were taken to the jungle near the Thai-Myanmar border.
Human rights activist Ivan Melnikov told Mash that the kidnappers are demanding a ransom of approximately $10,000 for the Russian woman's release, but she is unable to pay that amount. Melnikov said Russian diplomatic missions in Myanmar and Thailand have been notified of the incident.
Earlier, Myanmar government forces recaptured the KK Park slave call center, where foreign citizens were being held, from the opposition. More than 2,000 people were held in the complex. No documents confirming the legality of the construction or land ownership were found.
On October 7, a Russian woman who had previously been taken from Thailand to Myanmar under the guise of employment was handed over to the Russian Embassy in Bangkok. According to media reports, the woman was deceived by representatives of a transnational criminal network and forced to work at an illegal call center.
[CWBChicago] This Chicago site follows & reports crimes committed by people supposedly being monitored, but are actually free roaming the streets. A lot of these criminals already have multiple serious felonies on their records. But! Were still placed back on the streets and among the UNARMED General Public.
Until this Social Justice system experiment is $hitcanned, and those appointed or elected persons using the system are held responsible, the offenders they dump back on the streets will, continue to inflict greater harm and even death to those around them.
Given these actions, Chicago is still 1 of the top 5 Metros in the USA with over the top gun controls on Honest Citizens, despite the crime levels.
As the December 2026 State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) program spending deadline approaches, local governments should evaluate the long-term fiscal needs of their American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funded programs. The end of this large federal investment in local government signals a period of uncertainty as localities may need to address budget shortfalls. According to the 2025 State of the Cities Report, 69 percent of respondents indicated the end of ARPA funding will negatively impact their budget and city management. To find examples of how other localities are continuing projects with other funding sources after ARPA dollars are spent, local leaders can search the Local Government ARPA Investment Tracker.
[FoxNews] The MTA is probing possible mechanical failure and other potential factors
An out-of-control Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus crashed into several vehicles in the Bronx on Monday, injuring eight people.
Deferred maintenance to save money, deferred training to save money, DEI hire, mental and physical responses slowed due to fatigue and/or creative chemistry…I suspect it is some combination of some or all of the above.
The incident happened shortly before 2 p.m. between Cauldwell Avenue and Trinity Avenue, according to the New York City Fire Department.
Six vehicles were struck by the bus over roughly six blocks.
Two vehicles were struck by the bus in front of a school on East 163rd Street and Caldwell Avenue — one that was pushed into a light pole, and another that was hit on its side.
Down the road, an SUV was shoved onto the sidewalk and the back of a blue coupe was destroyed.
Screaming from panicking passengers was heard in video taken from inside the bus.
The driver of the bus and seven passengers were injured in the incident. All of them were transported to Lincoln Medical, although their conditions are unclear.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation, but the MTA is probing factors including mechanical failure, weather or the driver's medical condition, WABC reported.
The driver was going up a hill when they pushed the gas to accelerate, at which point the bus had a mechanical failure, police sources told WABC, adding that the driver may have hit the emergency break and slid out of control.
#3
Some long, steep hills in that part of NY. Dangerous in winter. We drove pickup trucks the whole time, and put a row of sandbags over the back axle when the snow started.
#4
Witnesses said they saw (NAME UNKNOWN 63 y/o) Bus Driver, smash into multiple vehicles, and it looked like the Bus Driver even tried “to keep going,” before being stopped by an unmarked police car.
So was this a deliberate "Peaceful Accident"? Or a Driver with medical/mental issues?
Side Note: The totaled Blue car sold by the Eastchester Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram dealer in Bronx, NY was running GA tags that expire in 14 days.
Intense fighting has erupted in Ethiopia's Amhara region as the Fano militia and the Ethiopian Defense Force (ENDF) trade claims of significant victories. Fano forces report encircling the strategic city of Woldiya and claim to have killed over 700 ENDF troops and captured… pic.twitter.com/vxJfYxaG2A
Intense fighting has erupted in Ethiopia's Amhara region as the Fano militia and the Ethiopian Defense Force (ENDF) trade claims of significant victories. Fano forces report encircling the strategic city of Woldiya and claim to have killed over 700 ENDF troops and captured high-ranking officers.
Meanwhile, reports indicate heavy exchanges of fire across key battlefronts, marking a serious surge in the ongoing conflict.
[ZERO] Fresh reporting in Reuters has tracked at least five supertankers which have changed course on Monday after initially heading to Venezuela to load crude oil, following this month's US naval seizure of a Venezuelan tanker.
Among these was a Russian tanker transporting crude for Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA, along with at least four other supertankers en route to Venezuelan ports. They made u-turns on fears of facing US military interdiction.
This also comes after last Friday Bloomberg and others reported that Washington was preparing to carry out further seizures of sanction-linked oil tankers off Venezuela's coast.
Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Yvan Gil condemned these moves and threats as piracy, calling it an "illegal and aggressive act of sabotage."
Officially at least, the Trump-ordered military build-up in the southern Caribbean is all about disrupting and dismantling drug trafficking operations. But many analysts see the real motivator is ease of access to major underground oil reserves.
This has meant that Venezuela’s oil exports are effectively paralyzed, with the exception of Chevron's shipments which are operating under US authorization.
Meanwhile, those earlier telegraphed Trump-authorized CIA covert ops appear to be well underway, given new reports of a major cyber attack on Venezuela's national oil company.
Quantum Commodity Intelligence – The number of tankers that have operated in the opaque market between January 2021 to March 2023 and are still active has reached 1,000, according to analytics and tanker tracking company Vortexa.
Most prominently, Russia now accounts for over 50% of the so-called 'dark fleet' total, operating 509 crude and refined products vessels between early December when EU sanctions first kicked in and 5 February.
The report also found Iran and Venezuela have 198 and 136 active tankers operating in their respective markets from January 2021 to March 2023, with the combined level accounting for 34% of the total, which is also referred to as the 'ghost fleet' in acknowledgement that transponders are typically kept switched off.
In addition, there are 157 active ships which operate on behalf of more than one country, accounting for 16% of the total fleet, while 125 tankers have switched from Iran and Venezuela to Russia.
Vortexa said it tracked 745 tankers which carried Iranian, Russian and Venezuelan crude, condensate and products in Q1 2023, a 300% y-o-y increase, while Russian carriers accounted for 80% of all opaque market tanker activity in Q1, a 50% increase on Q4 2022.
[PJMedia] Chile hasn't had a conservative leader in decades, but as of Sunday night, that is over. As we predicted last month, Chileans took to the polls on Sunday and voted for former congressman José Antonio Kast to become the country's next president over Jeannette Jara, a member of the Communist Party.
You can tell what type of leader he'll be based on the MSM headlines. I just did a quick Google search to see what people were saying, and all the usual suspects are calling him "far-right" and "ultra-conservative." Let me interpret that for you.
Kast campaigned on being tough on crime and restoring law and order to the South American nation. That includes deploying the military to cities with high crimes, strengthening the country's borders, mass deportations of hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants colonists, putting the interests of native Chileans first, and getting tough with cartels and terrorist organizations like Tren de Aragua.
Gee, where have I heard this before? Many people have called him Chile's Donald Trump ...They hit him with slander, they impeached him twice. Nancy Pelosi tore up his State of the Union address on national TV. They stole an election and put his adherents in jail. They vilified him. They couldn't crucify him, so they shot him. Still, they can't keep him down... . He and his supporters have even used the phrase "Make Chile Great Again" during his campaign.
That's why the MSM is already labeling him with these little dog whistle phrases they use. In certain media circles, saying "far-right" and "ultra-conservative" essentially means "this guy is Hitler ...late Fuehrer of Germany, founder of the Third Reich, currently communing with his pals Himmler and Heydrich. He is reincarnated every few days, sometimes every few hour if it's an election year, as a politician somebody doesn't like... The 59-year-old Kast is Catholic and also pro-family — he and his wife have nine children. He's also a strong child sacrifice abortion opponent. Economically, he's in favor of cutting billions in government spending and embraces marked-oriented reform.
Kast also keeps good company. He and Argentina ...a country located on the other side of the Deep South. It is covered with Pampers and inhabited by Grouchos, who dance the Tangle. They used to have some islands called the Malvinas located where the Falklands are now. They're not supposed to cry for Evita... 's President Javier Milei are good friends, and the two have vowed to work together in the future. While he and Trump haven't met as far as I know, he's a big fan of our president and our country and promises to work together with us too. As a matter of fact, as soon as Jara conceded this evening, Secretary of State Marco Rubio ...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration... and Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau were quick to congratulate Kast via X, and the State Department released a statement as well:
The United States congratulates President-Elect JoséAntonio Kast of Chile on his electoral victory. Under his leadership, we are confident Chile will advance shared priorities to include strengthening public security, ending illegal immigration, and revitalizing our commercial relationship. The United States looks forward to working closely with his administration to deepen our partnership and promote shared prosperity in our hemisphere.
Kast also supports Trump's anti-drug trafficking activity in the Caribbean and does not consider Nicolás Maduro the legitimate leader of Venezuela. He even supports any U.S. action to get rid of Maduro.
I feel like I say this at least once a week, but it's a sign of the times. Many Latin American and Caribbean countries are swinging to the right.
Milei actually posted this map of South American on X on Sunday night. The colors are a little backwards for us, but the blue countries are the ones that lean center-right now. The red ones are the ones that currently lean left, though I have a feeling we will be able to switch Venezuela over soon.
Colombia and Brazil both go to the polls next year, and while the right remains fragmented in both countries, there's always the potential for a change. Brazil is more of an uphill battle, as Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva plans to run for another term, but after four years of an unpopular Gustavo Petro, Colombia's first leftist president in its history, I could see many voters in that country suffering from socialism and/or lunatic fatigue and voting for a right-winger if they have a good candidate.
[ZERO] With Zelensky having much-belatedly dropped aspirations for Ukraine's NATO membership, European officials are now openly admitting what pretty much everyone knew but was afraid to say.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas has newly acknowledged in fresh remarks that Ukraine's membership in the military alliance is now obviously "out of the question" - but that the European Union now needs to provide concrete security guarantees.
"Now if this [Ukraine’s NATO membership] is not in question, or this is out of the question, then we need to see what are the security guarantees that are tangible. They can’t be papers, or promises, they have to be real troops, real capabilities," she told reporters ahead of an EU Foreign Ministers meeting.
Kallas asserted that "in the last 100 years, Russia has attacked at least 19 countries," and so this means "the security guarantees are needed for all other members" in the EU.
Written by Dorene Billings
Sunday, December 14, 2025
[WebProNews] California’s energy sector is reeling from Valero Energy Corp.’s decision to shutter its Benicia refinery by April 2026, a move that underscores the mounting toll of stringent state regulations on the industry viability. The Texas-based refiner announced it would absorb a staggering $1.1 billion write-down rather than navigate Governor Gavin Newsom's escalating mandates, citing prohibitive costs and regulatory pressures. This closure eliminates 8.6% of the state gasoline production capacity overnight, threatening severe supply disruptions and price surges for drivers already burdened by the nation's highest fuel costs.
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Valero planned to close earlier but held off as California made an effort to get some other company to buy the refinery. Because California requires a different formula gasoline, wholesale buyers will have to scramble. Probably 50 cent to a dollar increase in prices by late next summer.
BTW, I sometimes think the Sierra Club or the Environmental Defense Fund ought to be in the Terrorist organization list.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
12/16/2025 00:00 ||
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[1814 views]
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#1
Los Angeles still produces oil. Next time you fly out of LAX, look over the window and you can see the pumps in the ocean outside of El Segundo, with a pipeline to the refinery onshore.
#10
Only non-fossil-fuel-generated electrons are consumed in CA, except for all the others
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/16/2025 10:14 Comments ||
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#11
^ 7,8,9
Regarding water, California imports water from the Colorado River watershed for a lot of the agriculture in the Imperial Valley but otherwise is self sufficient with northern California exporting water to southern California (by the way, almost all reservoirs in California are at about average capacity for this time of year).
Regarding electricity, California is a net importer but the situation is quite complicated. California exports electricity during daylight on many days because of rooftop solar. However, on rainy days it imports a lot of electricity. On net, California imports about 20% of its electricity. Most of the imports are from the Pacific NW or British Columbia.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
12/16/2025 10:35 Comments ||
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#12
But we still have the best weather.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/16/2025 11:33 Comments ||
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BREAKING NEWS: BLA Fighters Attack Panjgur City in Balochistan
Hundreds of armed fighters have launched an attack on Panjgur city in Pakistan’s Balochistan province.
Local sources report that moments ago, more than 400 Baloch separatist fighters attacked Panjgur and surrounded all government buildings in the city. Heavy fighting is currently ongoing, though the exact number of casualties has not yet been confirmed.
Baloch separatist groups have repeatedly carried out large-scale attacks in the past, during which hundreds of Pakistani soldiers were reportedly killed or captured.
Posted by: badanov ||
12/16/2025 00:00 ||
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[1760 views]
Top|| File under: Baloch Liberation Army
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[CWBChicago] 
...late Fuehrer of Germany, founder of the Third Reich, currently communing with his pals Himmler and Heydrich. He is reincarnated every few days, sometimes every few hour if it's an election year, as a politician somebody doesn't like...
