NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – The New Mexico Department of Health announced a Santa Fe County woman has died from plague. NMDOH said this is the first case of human plague in New Mexico in 2026.
NMDOH will work to conduct an environmental assessment to determine any ongoing risks and will reach out to close contacts of the woman to confirm no one else has plague symptoms. According to NMDOH, plague is a bacterial disease carried by rodents and is generally transmitted through the bites of infected fleas from wild rodents or household pets. It can also be transmitted through contact with infected animals or humans with plague in their lungs can transmit it through coughing. Plague symptoms include sudden fever, chills, headache, and weakness. There may also be swelling of the lymph node in the groin, armpit or neck areas.
[NationalWeatherServiceClimatePredictionCenter] EL NIÑO/SOUTHERN OSCILLATION (ENSO) DIAGNOSTIC DISCUSSION
issued by CLIMATE PREDICTION CENTER/NCEP/NWS
11 June 2026
ENSO Alert System Status: El Niño Advisory
Synopsis: El Nino conditions are now present and expected to strengthen into the Northern Hemisphere winter 2026-27.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
06/12/2026 00:00 ||
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[1815 views]
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#1
The El Nino of 1982-1983 was quite interesting in southern California. We had actual weather there for a while. You know, when it's 70 degrees all the time you can't really call that weather. Driving was the most fun. I saw cars hydroplaning and spinning like tops in the rain on Interstate 5. That was real rain, not the drizzle that we usually get. I saw snow on the peaks of coastal mountains that never get snow. I saw waves breaking bigger and further from the shore than I've ever seen before or since then in San Diego County. I keep hearing claims that we'll get another El Nino but I've yet to see anything like 1982-1983 since then.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
06/12/2026 13:12 Comments ||
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#2
I got married in Jan '82. The constant driving rain, clouds, and lightning should have been seen as an omen, I guess.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/12/2026 14:06 Comments ||
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Was it '81-'82 or '82-'83? Maybe I'm getting old.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
06/12/2026 17:29 Comments ||
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[Yahoo] On Martha's Vineyard, a tick-borne allergy is changing more than summer routines. It is also reshaping restaurant menus, ingredient sourcing, and how local businesses think about serving both residents [e.g., the Obamas who have a 7000 sqft mansion there] and tourists. And in the USA, we call those ticks democrats.
Now, plant-based and alpha-gal-friendly options are becoming a more visible part of the island's food scene. I'm sure Obama's lover chef would've approved. Wagyu only every other night
Because alpha-gal, a tick-borne allergy, can make certain foods [especially red meat] dangerous to eat, Martha's Vineyard restaurants are placing greater emphasis on helping diners identify safer options. Menus are increasingly marking items as dairy-free, gluten-free, vegan, or alpha-gal-friendly as businesses respond to customers seeking those options.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
06/12/2026 00:00 ||
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[1832 views]
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#1
Oh, you mean blood sucking tick the insect, as opposed to the people that normally hang out there?
Posted by: ed in texas ||
06/12/2026 8:58 Comments ||
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Alpha-gal.
Making fashion? Seriously? You taking a piss? Why not just call it Ticky Kimmel?
#8
If you were to search it you would find quite a bit oddly emanating since 2019 which, I would argue, probably coincides with an increasing funding. Within that body of works is where you will also find the paper titled Beneficial Bloodsucking out of W MI Univ. So they are saying the dirty part out loud and on YouTube.
#10
Tangential to this I also found out this week Amazon’s new data center in Walula Wa, 3 rd largest in the world at this time, and much of the Data Center land in Tx are both on current grazing land for cattle. Food for thought.
#11
/\ Walula is downstream on the Columbia River from Richland, WA "The Atomic City." Water cooling for a data center actually makes sense. You can't drink the water or eat the fish.
[NBCSanDiego] The State Department announced that through cross-referencing information, several embassies have already identified cases of people whose goal was to obtain American citizenship for their children.
The U.S. State Department said it has begun revoking visas of people who entered the country on tourist visas to give birth.
Go team!
The department announced Wednesday that it has launched an offensive against individuals and international networks involved in what is known as "birth tourism" — a practice in which foreign nationals seek to enter the country on visitor visas with the primary purpose of giving birth so their children can obtain U.S. citizenship.
According to the federal agency, a U.S. embassy in West Africa uncovered a network of more than 100 foreigners who allegedly used fraudulent documents and visa "brokers" to obtain travel permits. Authorities indicated that the visas were revoked and that they are working with local authorities to identify similar operations.
In Europe, another embassy identified more than 400 suspicious cases since 2024. Investigators linked those cases to at least six companies that, according to the State Department, advised applicants on what to say during consular interviews, coordinated housing in the United States and arranged birth plans.
The agency also reported that another embassy in North Africa revoked more than 100 visas from individuals flagged as "birth tourists." Consular officials, working in coordination with security agencies and through data analysis and cross-referencing, identified several networks and individuals abusing the immigration system.
"A U.S. visa is a privilege, not a right," the State Department said, warning that it will continue taking action to dismantle these operations and hold accountable those who attempt to defraud the system, according to a post on the federal agency's social media.
WHAT THIS MEASURE MEANS
Visitor visas, such as B-1/B-2 visas, cannot be used when the primary purpose of the trip is to give birth in the United States to obtain citizenship for a child. Consular authorities can deny or revoke visas if they determine there was fraud, misrepresentation of information or misuse of the process.
The announcement comes amid increased federal government scrutiny of visa applications linked to potential birth tourism schemes. So far, the State Department has not publicly identified the specific countries where the alleged networks operated.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/12/2026 00:00 ||
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[1810 views]
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#1
Our friend has been trying for a year to get an appointment to renew his R-1 visa so he can go visit his family in India and then get back in. No issue with the qualifying, just with getting the appointment to apply.
[PJ Media] Leftists have tried to warn World Cup attendees about the "dangers" they supposedly face when visiting the South, but of course, those dire predictions are unfounded. One German tourist’s reactions to the glories of the South are spectacular.
The X user, whose handle is @FreddyLA7, has been documenting his travels through the South on his way to a friendly match at Auburn University. He has gotten to experience all sides of the South, from the city to the country. He likes the Waffle House, Buc-ee's, Auburn University and the Auburn 'War Eagle' flying in the stadium; also Ella Langley (country music) and the Gulf of America. Links to his X posts at the site. Good stuff!
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/12/2026 00:00 ||
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[1792 views]
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#1
Always liked the South. Friendly welcoming people, lovely food, beautiful landscape and a lot of history.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
06/12/2026 6:56 Comments ||
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A lot people love to joke about the Waffle House, myself included from time to time. Like when WSB-TV (Atlanta) was doing an on the scene news report of a big I-285 accident while in front of a WH. Which "just" happen to have the W burnt out on the big sign.
But if a local disaster hits your area and the power is out just about everywhere else. They seem to reopen quickly and feeding you and yours.
My example while doing a IT D/R in 1996 the day after Hurricane Fran Raleigh NC. I-440/US-1 area. Power was out just about everywhere. The Power crews made sure the Waffle House locations quickly had power.
WH locations were loaded with families needing a meal. Power Crews as they came in covered head to toe from working their A$$es off trying to restore power quickly. Many a WH Customer seeing them, refused to allow the crews to pay for their meals. WH staff gave the crews free coffee and fountain drinks also.
#8
Freddy had to get takeout because the dining area was closed. X is abuzz with danger warnings for Freddy.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/12/2026 12:59 Comments ||
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What I love about the south (mainly GA and TX) is the fishing. Such a wide varsity of fish species to catch, Bass ain't the only fish in the south. Even caught a gar once, was quite a shock when I saw what I had on the line.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
06/12/2026 13:21 Comments ||
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#11
That's just Mexico City.
Posted by: Difar Dave ||
06/12/2026 13:42 Comments ||
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#12
Waffle House is the most reliable indicator of disaster severity and recovery in the South. If a hurricane is coming and the ones near you close, it's too late to evacuate, and once they re-open it means you are good to return.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited by Andrey Bulkin
[REGNUM] Mass protests erupted in Kenya against the construction of a U.S.-run quarantine center for Ebola patients in the country. Police used live ammunition to disperse the demonstrations in early June, killing at least three people and detaining approximately 50 more.
The standoff that unfolded on the streets of a small Kenyan town became a symbol of a much larger geopolitical shift. A crowd of protesters, waving national flags and carrying a coffin emblazoned with the words "Ebola," chanted, "Kenya is not an American colony!"
"WALL FOR VIRUSES"
The main reason for this heated confrontation is the United States' plans to establish a 50-bed center at Kenya's Laikipia Air Base, located near the city of Nanyuki, for American citizens at risk of contracting the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda. As a thank you for this favor, the United States has pledged to provide Kenya with $13.5 million to prepare for a possible outbreak.
President William Ruto accepted the US president's request, calling the deal "an agreement with friends who have been working with Kenya for the last 30-40 years."
The Kenyan High Court suspended the project, demanding the government disclose all details of the agreement. However, satellite imagery indicates that the US is continuing construction. Consequently, protesters have taken to the streets demanding the detention center be abandoned.
The root of the problem lies in a deep-seated fear of the spread of the disease. Kenya, unlike neighboring Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the number of confirmed Ebola cases has reached several hundred, has yet to record a single case on its territory. Local residents are asking a reasonable question: why should they bear the risk of isolating foreign citizens from overseas?
"Nanyuki is a very small town. The soldiers stationed at the base live with us. Our children attend the same schools, which means if someone gets infected, we all get sick. We're protesting to save our lives," said Patrick Wahome, one of the protest leaders.
Ordinary residents of Nanyuki, who work in the tourism industry at the foot of Mount Kenya, also fear that the opening of the centre will discourage travellers, turning their region into an exclusion zone.
The lack of transparency only adds fuel to the fire. Doctor and trade unionist Bill Muriuki, also protesting the construction, said the American quarantine center is shrouded in secrecy, leaving Kenyans unclear about its exact nature.
"Kenyans only learned about this when US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced it to [US] citizens. The information didn't come from our own government. To date, the agreement itself hasn't been made public, so we can't even say what it means for Kenyans," he noted.
The statement Muriuki refers to was made by Rubio on May 27 and was one of the reasons for the mass demonstrations that erupted a few days later. " The top priority of our foreign policy is to protect the American people," he said then, explaining the need to build the isolation facility. " We cannot and will not allow a single case of Ebola to occur on U.S. soil."
In other words, Washington's logic is simple: the danger must be contained on foreign soil. "It's like building a wall, only for viruses," Brown University professor Craig Spencer, who recovered from Ebola in 2014, caustically remarked.
Amid street clashes and legal proceedings, all parties to the conflict are trying to defend their positions. President William Ruto, despite public discontent and loss of life, continues to defend the agreement with the United States. In his speeches, he calls the project part of a national strategy to combat the disease, claiming that the center will be accessible to Kenyans as well.
"We are a responsible government. We know what we're doing," Ruto said, calling on the public not to politicize "such a serious issue" as Ebola.
Official Washington maintains an outward calm, noting that it is working with the Kenyan government to resolve any differences.
However, US rhetoric is at odds with its actions: construction continues despite the court's injunction, confirming the previously expressed concern that Kenya is being viewed merely as a convenient venue, rather than as a fully-fledged partner whose opinion is worth considering. After all, the money has already been offered—what other questions are there?
Interestingly, even within the United States, there are voices against this initiative. "This doesn't make America safer. On the contrary, it makes us less secure when the rest of the world is so angry with us," says Professor Naheed Bhadelia, director of the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases at Boston University.
And Craig Spencer called what was happening a "profound abdication of moral responsibility" to its own citizens working in epidemic zones.
MEDICAL APARTHEID
The mistrust of Nanyuki residents and other Kenyans is not unfounded, as Africans have been the subject of inhumane experiments by Western pharmaceutical corporations in the past.
One of the most horrific examples was Pfizer's trials in Nigeria. In 1996, during a meningitis epidemic in Kano State, the American pharmaceutical giant conducted clinical trials of the new antibiotic Trovan.
More than 200 children participated in the study. It was later discovered that the parents had not consented and had not been properly informed. By comparison, while participants in the US trials were thoroughly warned about the risk of joint damage based on animal studies, the Nigerian participants were not informed of this, and many were convinced they were signing consent forms for treatment with a standard drug, not an experimental one.
The outcome was horrific: 11 children died, and 189 suffered devastating side effects, including blindness, deafness, and paralysis. Only years later did Pfizer agree to pay $75 million in compensation, while denying any direct connection between the drug and the deaths and disabilities of the children.
No less cynical were the AZT trials conducted in Zimbabwe in the 1990s under the auspices of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study focused on preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
Scientists divided HIV-positive pregnant women into two groups: one received AZT (a treatment regimen whose effectiveness had already been proven in the US, but in a shortened version, as the full course was considered too expensive for African countries), and the other received a placebo. As a result, approximately 1,000 infants became infected with the virus, although this could have been avoided if their mothers had not been led to believe they were receiving treatment.
There are also more recent examples that clearly demonstrate the attitude of Western medicine and pharmaceuticals towards Africans.
In April 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, French doctors Jean-Paul Mira and Camille Locht, speaking live on the LCI television channel, proposed testing potential vaccines in Africa.
"Maybe we should do this study in Africa, where there are no masks, no treatment, no intensive care units—much like we did in some of the AIDS studies, when we experimented with prostitutes because we knew they were at high risk of infection and didn't take protective measures?" Mira asked quite frankly.
Naturally, this statement caused a storm of indignation, which never came to fruition, but this did not increase Africans' trust in Western medicine.
It's episodes like these that are driving the current reaction among Kenyans, for whom the construction of the isolation ward is just another link in an endless chain of attempts by Western elites to use African citizens as test subjects in various medical experiments, shifting their own risks onto them for pennies.
ANOTHER AFRICA
The Nanyuki protest is also significant because it is part of a broader shift in relations between Africa and the West. The "money for concessions" partnership is no longer working, and Kenya is far from the first or only case.
For example, Zambia rejected a $2 billion US aid package that offered preferential access to critical minerals to American companies and required the sharing of medical data in violation of the country's laws.
Ghana and Zimbabwe also protested the transfer of their citizens' health data to the Americans.
In the DRC, local activists accuse the United States of using Washington's peace initiatives to end decades of conflict in the mineral-rich east of the country as a cover for gaining access to rare columbite-tantalite, which is needed to make smartphones.
"The era of waiting for aid is quickly becoming a thing of the past, with African governments increasingly willing to defend their interests, " comments Chitimba Chifunda, director of Oxfam (an anti-poverty organization) in Zambia.
Africa no longer wants to be a testing ground for the West or a source of resources at dumping prices. The Americans failed to buy the health of residents of a Kenyan town for a modest $13.5 million, as no one wants to trust a deceiver.
But the US itself seems to have yet to grasp the scale of the changes: tried and tested methods no longer work, and there are no new ones in stock.
Natural resources?
The main imports from Africa are gold, platinum, and copper, just totaling about $40 billion.
Hell the African nationals that ran US Fake Daycare centers and stole taxpayer $$$$ in other ways. Likely recovered 1/2 of that $40 B during the O'Biden Coup years.
Why the hell are we always trying to be the savors of Africa, when they constants go ape $hit about us being there?
[Breitbart] OpenAI has banned accounts connected to Chinese operatives that leveraged ChatGPT to create social media influence campaigns aimed at American discussions about tariffs and AI data centers, the company disclosed on Wednesday.
Axios reports that the banned Chinese campaigns, while apparently unsuccessful in gaining significant online traction, demonstrate how actors aligned with Beijing are experimenting with AI tools to magnify existing political and economic fault lines within the United States.
OpenAI revealed that its investigators identified two distinct operations that employed ChatGPT to produce social media posts, comments, and political cartoons focused on American technology policy. The first operation, internally labeled “Data Center Bandwagon,” generated commentary and comic strips asserting that AI data centers were increasing electricity costs for American households. The second operation, called “Tech and Tariffs,” utilized ChatGPT to craft content and political cartoons criticizing the tariff policies of the Trump administration and the U.S. pursuit of technological supremacy on the global stage.
“This was not a case of an influence operation creating a debate,” said Ben Nimmo, principal investigator on OpenAI’s intelligence and investigations team, in comments to reporters. “The debate existed already. This was an influence operation from China trying to interfere in it.”
[Popular Mechanics] Human beings tend to be anthropocentric. That is, we often see ourselves as evolution’s magnum opus despite the fact that, as biomass goes, we’re insignificant compared to plants and other animals. For instance, scientists estimate that there are more than three trillion trees on Earth—a number that even dwarfs the amount of stars in our galaxy. And when you add the populations of the more than 380,000 other plant species, the total becomes mind-boggling. Nonetheless, many of us assume that we’re the smartest, most conscious beings on Earth.
But what if consciousness isn’t a feature limited solely to humans—and what if we’re actually wildly outnumbered by a planet full of other conscious beings? As it turns out, a handful of studies suggest that might just be the case.
For starters, plant neurobiologist Stefano Mancuso, PhD, notes that plants respond to anesthesia the same way humans do—they become nonresponsive. Humans tend to think of plants as nonresponsive anyway, because they don't generally move in human timescales. But when scientists have administered anesthesia to plants that do operate "quickly" by human measures, such as the Venus Flytrap, the plant stops responding when flies land on it. And while you won't see a plant fleeing danger the way we do, some have been found to be gradually migrating north as the planet warms, just as animals are changing their migratory patterns.
To test the spatial awareness and intentionality of plants, Mancuso did an experiment, placing a potted bean plant in his lab about a meter from a metal rod. In a time-lapse video, he showed that the bean plant—having reached the top of its support pole—sent out a long, hooked shoot that repeatedly swung out and back, trying to hook the metal pole and eventually catching hold of it. In short: the bean plant "knew" where the pole was. Mancuso also conducted research demonstrating that, when two bean plants reach a support, one recognizes the other plant got there first and begins to look for a different support.
"What is interesting is the behavior of the loser: it immediately sensed the other plant had reached the pole and started to find an alternative," he wrote in the study. "This was astonishing and it demonstrates the plants were aware of their physical environment and the behavior of the other plant. In animals we call this consciousness."
His colleague, Monica Gagliano, PhD, did a series of experiments with mimosas—a genus often called the "sensitive plant" because its leaves fold up quickly when touched. She placed the mimosa in a basket and dropped it several inches, causing the mimosa to close its leaves. But after she had repeated this many times, the mimosa seemed to "get used to" the experience and stopped responding when the drop came. She tried the experiment again a few weeks later, and the mimosas still didn't react to the drop, suggesting that plants can remember.
In 2025, Mancuso worked on a paper led by Tomonori Kawano, PhD. In the article, researchers explored the idea that plants, like people, have Two Minds—or an unconscious mind that makes quick decisions and a conscious one that makes slower decisions, like humans have. In the case of Gagliano's mimosas, for example, the more unconscious "thinking" would be to close its leaves when it's jarred. But by remembering the experience and making a different choice, the mimosa demonstrates a more conscious and deliberate level of "thinking."
Separately, there's another idea that human-level self-awareness emerges when you have sufficient nodes—or points of connection—in a neural network. That's what proponents of AI are hoping for. Systems thinking theorist Jamie Monat, PhD, at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts notes that the number of nodes needed to give rise to this self-awareness is about 70 billion. In a dense forest, the number of nodes between plants and fungi may easily exceed that number. If it is the cells themselves that are conscious, that increases by orders of magnitude.
"Some of Earth's forests number many billions of trees, and some of the world's prairies and seagrass meadows also contain billions of individual plants," Monat writes. "These plant ecosystems may thus be self-aware, and in fact there may be a multitude of self-aware plant-based ecosystems on Earth already."
In South Africa in the 1990s, wardens of a game reserve kept finding kudu—a type of antelope—that had died with no evidence of injury or illness. It was a mystery. Then, zoologist Wouter Van Hoven found the unexpected culprit: acacia trees. A drought had reduced the amount of vegetation for grazing, and the kudu couldn't go elsewhere for food because they were stuck on the reserve. So the kudu overgrazed the acacia trees to the point where they were in danger. The trees defended themselves by increasing the tannins in their leaves, becoming poisonous to the kudu. Not only did the trees increase their own tannins, but they also sent out a chemical signal as far as 50 meters (164 feet) away to warn other trees to do the same.
Humans tend to reduce such surprising plant behavior to chemical reactions and evolutionary biology rather than intelligence and consciousness, but what is human functioning besides biology, electronic, and neurochemical firings? Perhaps it's time we rethink our standing as the "most conscious" beings on planet Earth.
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.
The X user, whose handle is @FreddyLA7, has been documenting his travels through the South on his way to a friendly match at Auburn University. He has gotten to experience all sides of the South, from the city to the country.
