Doing the crime the locals won’t do. What do we think of sending them home with a brand on their hand: T for thief, R for rapist, G for gangsters of all sorts, P for pedophile, J for jihadi?
[Breitbart] Latvian nationals in the United States illegally were arrested in Texas for running an alleged $14 million gift card fraud scheme throughout several states.
All three men allegedly illegally migrated to the United States from Eastern Europe and had been stealing gift cards from roughly ten stores a day, seven days a week, going back to May of this year.
”The card is removed, and then the material on the back that covers up the numbers to transfer anything or activate the card is then removed so that they can see it,” FCIC Director Adam Colby said. “The numbers that are on the card are then programmed into another program that the criminals are using, which will now monitor that card.”
The alleged scammers would then reassemble the cards to appear new before placing them back on the shelves for someone to buy, so they could collect the money at purchase.
”As soon as it is activated and money placed onto that card, the criminals are now aware of it, but they now have the ability to transfer the money off of that card and onto another card where it is then cashed out or used to buy high-end merchandise,” said Colby.
The Texas Financial Crimes Intelligence Center (FCIC) arrested Kristians Petroviskis, Romunds Cubrevics, and Nurmunds Ulevicus for their alleged involvement in the scheme, per Fox News. All three suspects were reportedly in the United States illegally.
“At the time of their arrest, authorities allegedly found more than 400 gift cards on them, authorities said. The trio targeted stores in multiple cities, including Dallas, Houston and San Antonio,” noted Fox News.
[JustTheNews] The lawsuit argues that prison officials failed to address known safety risks that preceded a deadly attack and continue to place correctional officers in danger.
The plaintiffs are not seeking monetary damages. Instead, they are asking a federal judge to order changes to staffing, training and threat-response policies and to place the department under court oversight to ensure those changes are implemented statewide.
[FoxNews] More than 100 pages include journal entries from 2021 and handwritten notes about weapons acquisition
Newly released FBI records connected to the Covenant School shooting in Nashville include writings made by shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale
…also in the archives as Audrey Hale, unhappy former student of the Covenant School and wannabe fake boy, who was shot dead by police fourteen minutes after she started massacring students and staff to actualize her learnt hatred of whites, Christians, and all the usuals in a planned attack years in the making…
that shed further light on her motivations, planning and personal finances.
The FBI released more than 100 pages of Hale’s writings following litigation, which included journal entries believed to date back to late 2021, handwritten notes outlining preparations for a school shooting and references to weapons Hale intended to acquire.
Some of the writings list "Christian school (hate religion)" as a reason for targeting the Covenant School.
Hale, 28, carried out the March 27, 2023, attack at the Christian elementary school she once attended, killing six people before being shot dead by responding Metro Nashville Police Department officers.
The victims were identified as school staff members Katherine Koonce, 60; Cynthia Peak, 61; and Mike Hill, 61; along with students Hallie Scruggs, Evelyn Dieckhaus and William Kinney, all age 9.
Surveillance footage released by police following the attack showed Hale moving through the school armed with multiple firearms.
Authorities have said Hale entered the building through a side entrance and moved through several areas of the school before being confronted by officers.
Shortly before the shooting, Hale sent a text message to a friend describing the planned attack as a "suicide mission" and stating the friend would likely "hear about me on the news after I die," according to summaries released by officials.
Among the newly released FBI materials is a handwritten page seen by Fox News Digital and labeled "Account Savings Record," and referenced federal student financial aid.
In the entry, Hale wrote that "FAFSA [sic] grant checks started at $2,050.86," followed by ledger-style notes documenting payments from Nossi College of Art and Design in Nashville, where Hale was enrolled at the time.
The financial entries appear alongside extensive notes about firearms Hale planned to purchase and use in the attack.
The Tennessee Star also reported those records may lend support to statements Hale’s parents made to Metro Nashville Police Department detectives shortly after the shooting.
Hale’s parents reportedly told investigators in 2023 that their child had used federal Pell Grant money to purchase the firearms used in the attack.
Hale’s mother also reportedly told police that because Hale was over 25 and enrolled as a student, parental income no longer factored into financial aid eligibility, allowing Hale to qualify for grant funding despite being unemployed.
Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake previously confirmed that investigators recovered a manifesto and hand-drawn maps from Hale’s vehicle after the shooting.
While portions of Hale’s writings have since been released, both city police and the FBI have continued to resist public records requests for the full manifesto.
[The Federalist] New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced in an op-ed last week that she will sign a bill legalizing medical assisted suicide for adults with a terminal illness.
Hochul says she is passing the Medical Aid in Dying Act due to the "genuine and deeply held belief that government must respect the rights and will of the people it serves." To qualify, an adult must be "mentally competent" and have a "prognosis of six months or less to live," the bill states.
Translation: Old people and those with chronic illnesses are expensive to treat, and tie up health care staff time. Killing them off will save the state lots of money, freeing it up for more bennies for the criminal class and illegals.
The bill also makes it clear that anyone who makes the request for medical assisted suicide must not be considered "suicidal" and taking medication to intentionally end one's life should not be considered a "suicide."
Never mind what it is, just enjoy what we’re going to call it.
This move lets New York join the club of 12 states and the District of Columbia that preach suicide as a form of "medical aid in dying."
“Around here we purely looooove Chat GPT and it’s advise for the slightly sad or troubled!”
Although the act will allow "individual doctors and religiously affiliated health facilities" to decline offering suicide as a form of treatment to those who are suicidal, doctors must "promptly" transfer requesting clients to a health care provider who is "willing to permit the prescribing, dispensing, ordering or self-administering" of suicide medication.
“Join the kids who think they’re trans — we’ll get to you in a moment.”
"I heard stories of a parent or spouse pleading for an end to the suffering," Hochul, whose own mom died from ALS, writes. "I am all too familiar with the pain of seeing someone you love suffer and feeling powerless to stop it."
#3
Having had relatives spend the end of their lives being miserable and wanting to die, I am not opposed to the idea, the problem is the implementation.
Right now we are just warehousing people in long term care facilities staffed by underpaid and overworked employees. It's a crappy way to live.
#4
^^^ Agreed.
A few years ago I visited someone in a care facility. The entire floor this person was (is still) on just smelled awful...made a farm smell pleasant. I don't know how the workers can even stand it.
#5
After watching my mother and son in agony the last few weeks/months of their lives, I do support this on a case by case basis.
Problem is, there will always be a camel nose under the tent issue as Canada has proven. If legalized, there HAS to be very strict laws with major teeth in it for violations to even have a hope of staying with what the intent was.
#6
Translation: Old people and those with chronic illnesses are expensive to treat, and tie up health care staff time. Killing them off will save the state lots of money, freeing it up for more bennies for the criminal class and illegals.
Appears to be a window. Sometime within 9 months of (conception) and age 59 (+ or -) ten years.
* Meaningful employment for males however, can terminate as early as age 46. Yes, there could be a corollary.
[Breitbart] The New York Times warned that President Donald Trump’s deportation of illegal migrants will damage the nation’s decorative shrubs by forcing up Americans’ wages.
“Construction wages have been rising, even as home building has been sluggish — a potential indication that deportations in the immigrant-heavy industry are bidding up salaries,” the newspaper warned its wealthy, pro-migrant, pro-shrubbery readers on December 28, adding:
The same is true in landscaping. Immigrant crews, working outside, were an easy deportation target over the summer. Come spring, said Kim Hartmann, an executive at a Chicago-area landscaping firm, the labor force could be 10 to 20 percent smaller. “It’s going to be much more competitive to find that individual who’s been a foreman or a supervisor and has years of experience,” Ms. Hartmann said. “We know that drives costs up.”
But there are limits to how much customers will pay for decorative shrubs, and they may opt to go without.
The article grudgingly admits that wages and automation rose in the 1930s, following Congress’s decision to sharply curb migration in 1924. But it did not describe how the nation’s shrubbery survived the resulting creation of prosperous suburbia:
#1
They say that Americans won’t do landscaping and roofing, but we have plenty of folks that are willing to do backbreaking labor because they can’t pass a drug test.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/30/2025 15:48 Comments ||
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[Daily Signal] Daily Signal senior contributor Victor Davis Hanson announced on his popular podcast that he will have a major medical operation this week. His show will continue with co-host Jack Fowler as Hanson recovers.
"I’m having a major operation, and I’ve been presented with a serious problem, but I’m going to do all I can to solve it. And that’s all I can do and trust in the power of prayer, and faith—and in a wonderful surgeon," Hanson said. "I finally ended up going to the best medical center that I know, Stanford Med, and the people there have been absolutely wonderful. It’ll work out one way or the other."
Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Wayne and Marcia Buske distinguished fellow in history at Hillsdale College. He joined The Daily Signal as a senior contributor earlier this year, providing daily video commentaries.
[ZH] Lots of "allegedly"s and "could've"s
The maritime industry publication The Maritime Executive, citing a new report from the Spanish outlet La Verdad, reported that the Russian cargo ship that sank last year off Spain's southeastern Mediterranean coast was transporting undeclared components for two VM-4SG nuclear submarine reactors, allegedly with a port call planned in North Korea.
In December 2024, the Russian cargo ship Ursa Major sank under highly suspicious circumstances in waters between Spain and Algeria following reported engine room explosions. The ship's owners characterized the incident as "an act of terrorism."
Spanish authorities determined that blue-tarped objects on Ursa Major's stern were likely unfueled naval nuclear reactor casings, each weighing roughly 65 tons. Investigators identified them as components of VM-4SG reactors, Soviet-designed naval nuclear reactors developed to power Russia's nuclear ballistic-missile submarine fleet during the late Cold War and still in limited service today.
Here's the report:
The circumstances of the vessel's sudden sinking were suspicious, prompting the maritime captaincy to begin questioning the crew. Ursa Major's master, Capt. Igor Vladimirovich Anisimov, initially told investigators the cargo consisted of more than 100 empty containers, two giant crawler cranes on deck, and two large components for a Russian icebreaker project, referring to the tarped objects near the stern. All cargo was reportedly bound for Vladivostok.
The two so-called "icebreaker components" were shipped as deck cargo and were visible to spotting aircraft during the ship's earlier transit. Based on aerial surveillance, each object measured approximately 20 to 25 feet square, including crating, dunnage, and tarping.
Spanish authorities estimated their weight at roughly 65 tonnes each, indicating unusually high density. La Verdad reported that after the captain was pressed on the matter, he asked for time to think before telling investigators the items were merely "manhole covers."
Documents reviewed by La Verdad show Spanish investigators ultimately identified the cargo as casings for nuclear submarine reactors, specifically two Soviet-era VM-4SG reactors.
As for the destination, Spanish authorities speculated the reactor components may have been intended for North Korea's nuclear submarine program, which recently unveiled its first ballistic-missile submarine. Multiple analysts have suggested the new North Korean vessel likely benefited from Russian technical assistance for reactor design and could potentially incorporate a fully built Russian reactor. Russia is believed to owe North Korea a strategic debt following Pyongyang's large-scale transfers of artillery shells and munitions that helped Russian forces stabilize and regain ground in eastern Ukraine.
The cause of Ursa Major's sinking appears to have been kinetic. The shipowner told media there were three explosions and a 20-inch hole in the shell plating, while the captain confirmed the hole's ragged edges were bent inward. This damage profile is consistent with an external explosion impacting the hull.
This report surfaced days after North Korea released new images of what it claims is its first nuclear-powered submarine, a platform framed as a direct challenge to American naval dominance in the region.
If the report that Ursa Major's sinking was kinetic is accurate, the unresolved question is who executed the strike and under what operational authority.
#3
^ "approximately 20 to 25 feet square, including crating, dunnage, and tarping."
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/30/2025 8:21 Comments ||
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#4
Bad, US naval reactors are usually delivered by barge. Unfueled, of course. These days generally from Bechtel, although Westinghouse and GE are still in it.
Posted by: de in texas ||
12/30/2025 9:45 Comments ||
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Have they the men and matériel to do anything more than cheer from the sidelines? Even with all the foreigners under arms who thought they were signing up for soft jobs in Europe, bypassing the people smugglers, I mean, because they were meant for the Ukraine front.
[StraitsTimes] Russia will support China if a Taiwan contingency flares up, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with the country’s Tass news agency, as Beijing’s tensions with Japan continue to escalate over the issue.
Mr Lavrov also said in the interview, released on Dec 28, that Japan’s leadership is seeking to accelerate militarisation, citing defence spending increases under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration, in remarks seen as a warning to Tokyo.
His comments come after Ms Takaichi said in a parliamentary session in November that a Chinese attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially involving its defence forces in support of the US.
“As for the possible escalation in the Taiwan Strait, the procedure for acting in such situations is set forth” in a treaty with China, Mr Lavrov said. “One of the basic principles” is “mutual support in defending national unity and territorial integrity.”
China and Russia have conducted joint bomber flights repeatedly over the years, prompting Japan’s Defence Ministry to describe the moves as “clearly intended for demonstration of force against Japan”.
Communist-ruled China and Taiwan have been governed separately since 1949 following a civil war. Beijing views the democratic island as a renegade province to be unified with the mainland by force if necessary.
Mr Lavrov was also quoted by Tass as saying Russia urges Japan to “weigh up” the possible consequences before resorting to any sudden decisions as it pursues a course toward militarisation.
#3
The Trump administration has shown antagonism (political and military) towards Russia's allies in the world that is unprecedented since at least the Reagan administration.
But Trump seems to be determined to appease Russia in Europe, in spite of Russia's demands for a takeover of Europe and the finlandization of the US (2021 ultimatum.)
Sending mixed signals increases the risk of a great war in East Asia.
A China that sees "weak" Russia's success against the West will conclude that a strong China can successfully take over Taiwan.
9/11 and now Ukraine (and Europe/Canada/Australia siding with Hamas against Israel) show that there is no serious commitment to self-preservation in the West.
The Ukraine war itself is a consequence of Western provocative weakness after 9/11, but it will not be the last, or worst unless this provocative weakness ends.
[Euronews] Eurostar has advised passengers to avoid travel due to significant disruptions in the Channel Tunnel caused by an issue with the overhead power supply and a failed Le Shuttle train. This has resulted in numerous train cancellations and severe delays, impacting services between London St Pancras and Paris Gare du Nord. Both Eurostar and National Rail have urged travelers to postpone their journeys, warning of ongoing disruptions. Large crowds have been reported at St Pancras International as passengers await updates. The situation remains fluid, with the potential for further cancellations and delays in the coming hours.
[JustTheNews] In fiscal year 2025, explicit government subsidies in the form of tax expenditures for the energy sector total $64.1 billion. Those going to renewable energy, electric vehicles and energy-efficient equipment accounted for 90% of that total.
A new report from the National Center for Energy Analytics (NCEA) finds that 90% of subsidies for the energy sector in 2025 went to renewable energy. The analysis also shows that oil, gas and coal industries’ subsidies come mainly in the form of tax expenditures as opposed to direct subsidies.
Using data from the Department of the Treasury, Paul Tice, senior fellow with the NCEA, calculates that in fiscal year 2025, explicit government subsidies in the form of tax expenditures for the entire energy sector totaled $64.1 billion. This was more than all other domestic industries. The NCEA was created by The Texas Public Policy Foundation as a national energy think tank.
The total fossil fuel-related tax expenditures came to $2.6 billion in revenue losses for the federal government in fiscal year 2025.
By comparison, the total amount of federal tax money subsidizing renewable energy, electric vehicles and energy-efficient equipment in fiscal year 2025 was $57.9 billion, which exceeds the total for fossil fuels over the entire fiscal year 1994-2025 period, according to the report.
DISPUTING OTHER REPORTS
The analysis disputes claims from other sources that “Big Oil” is gobbling up trillions of dollars in subsidies every year. The International Monetary Fund pegs the global figure at $7 trillion. A report in September from the climate advocacy nonprofit Oil Change International estimated that oil, gas and coal in the U.S. receive approximately $34.8 billion per year.
“This yearly figure continues a decades-long escalation of public support for the fossil fuel industry, despite the trillions in profits accumulated by the oil and gas industry and a laundry list of harms caused by fossil fuels to the residents of this country and the globe,” the Oil Change International report claimed.
The report doesn’t argue that the subsidies for the energy industry are problematic. Instead, the report demands that the subsidies going to fossil fuel companies should be redirected to social services and wind and solar development.
“We’re paying $35 billion per year to prop up a polluting, expensive energy system instead of investing our public money into clean, affordable renewable energy. Congress must stand up to Big Oil and Gas, eliminate fossil fuel subsidies, and redirect those billions toward the things our communities actually need: healthcare, housing, and clean, affordable, renewable energy,” Collin Rees, Oil Change International United States Campaign Manager and author of the report, said in a statement.
TICE: ACTIVISTS' REPORTS SHOW "FLAWED METHODOLOGY"
The NCEA's Tice explained in his analysis that organizations opposed to fossil fuels attempt to attribute the exponential growth in the use of fossil fuels to subsidies the oil, gas and coal industries receive, but these are full of exaggerations.
Estimates like those of the International Monetary Fund’s $7 trillion figure, Tice explained, rely on a “flawed methodology” utilizing interpolation — estimating unknown data points between known data points — and “implicit” subsidies. These are costs of health and environmental damages that activists claim come from the use of fossil fuels. Since the companies don’t pay for these costs, the activists argue, they are a de-facto subsidy.
Implicit subsidies are based on a concept in economics called externalities, which are unintended costs to third parties uninvolved with the use or production of a product. Tice points out that the externalities applied to calculations of oil and gas subsidies are highly subjective, and he argues the scope is so wide that it renders the numbers meaningless.
“This is a theoretical exercise that serves only to cloud the issue and confuse the public,” Tice wrote.
PREFERENTIAL TAX POLICIES
Federal financial interventions and subsidies in the energy sector, Tice wrote, come in the form of tax expenditures such as expense deductions, research and development support, loan guarantees, and direct spending, which includes grants.
Citing data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Tice’s report notes that 84% of the total financial support provided to fossil fuels in the fiscal year 2022 was tax in the form of tax deductions. For fossil fuel producers, this comes primarily from costs associated with drilling, such as surveys, labor and road construction. As with other industries, the costs of doing business can be deducted from the company’s income tax for the year the costs were incurred.
Tice stated in the report that the other main form of tax expenditures fossil fuel industries receive is the tax treatments for capital expenditures, which the mining, timber and agriculture industries also receive.
The industries also have smaller tax expenditure categories, such as tax credits against a company’s tax liabilities for enhanced oil recovery activities, which pumps carbon dioxide into the ground to extract more oil from a well. This stores some of the emissions the oil will generate when used.
IMPACTS ON FEDERAL REVENUE
Some of these preferential tax policies, the report notes, go back more than 100 years. Since these are mainly expense-related deductions, Tice argued, the total annual revenue loss to the federal government is minimal. The volatility of the market has also made many of these tax reductions reversible over time, meaning that some years the industry generates negative tax expenditures.
Renewable energy companies, on the other hand, benefit from energy production and investment tax credits for wind and solar farms. Production tax credits are also given to operations producing ethanol and other renewable fuels. Investment tax credits also go to end-use categories for businesses and individuals who purchase electric vehicles or install energy-efficient equipment and appliances on their property.
Unlike expense deductions that fossil fuel companies utilize, Tice explained, the tax credits renewable energy companies receive lower the overall tax liability of corporate filers, which has a much larger impact on federal tax revenues.
DWARFING FOSSIL FUEL SUBSIDIES
The analysis also shows that support for the domestic fossil fuel industry in the U.S. is much less than that of other nations. Developed countries in Europe also provide more fiscal support for fossil fuels, primarily through direct subsidies, than the U.S.
Subsidies have doubled globally in the last few years, primarily due to sharp spikes in energy commodity prices in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Tice concluded that repealing all subsidies for fossil fuels would have no meaningful impact on the profitability of the industry or the demand for its products. The main driver of energy-sector subsidies are tax credits for renewable energy.
“Income tax expenditures for renewable energy producers and clean energy users will continue to dwarf those for the traditional energy sector for the foreseeable future,” Tice wrote.
While the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that Trump signed in July will phase them out, it will be another decade before that happens. And there’s no certainty they will. The tax credits were originally established in 1992 as a means to boost a fledgling industry. They’ve been renewed 11 times since.
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.
[FoxNews] More than 100 pages include journal entries from 2021 and handwritten notes about weapons acquisition
