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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Texas troopers continue to find missing children, arrest ‘most wanted' criminals from border crisis
2025-04-28
Bless them for continuing this necessary work.
[JustTheNews] Texas Department of Public Safety officers continue to find missing children and arrest those on its criminal illegal immigrant most wanted list.

With April being “Child Abuse Prevention Month,” DPS troopers have rescued more than 600 children through its Interdiction for the Protection of Children (IPC) Program, DPS said. IPC officers are trained “to identify victims of exploitation, missing children, crimes against children and high-risk threats against children,” DPS said.

Through Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security mission, Operation Lone Star, DPS troopers rescued more than 900 children illegally brought into the U.S. in Texas alone under the Biden administration, The Center Square reported.

So far this year, DPS and other agencies have arrested 21 Texas 10 Most Wanted fugitives, sex offenders and others, including six sex offenders and seven criminal illegal immigrants – with $25,000 in rewards being paid for tips that yielded arrests, DPS said.

One recent arrest was of a fugitive on Texas’ 10 Most Wanted Criminal Illegal Immigrants List, 46-year-old Mexican national Carlos Ortiz. He was arrested after DPS received a tip through Crime Stoppers.

Ortiz was wanted by authorities in Tarrant County since October 2024 on charges of continuous sexual abuse of a young child. He was arrested at an apartment complex in Haltom City by multiple authorities, including special agents from DPS’ Criminal Investigations Division, Haltom City Police and U.S. Marshals North Texas Fugitive Task Force.

Since 2008, Ortiz had been arrested in Tarrant County for assault causing bodily injury to a family member and driving while intoxicated, according to DPS records.

Another fugitive arrested on Texas’ 10 Most Wanted Criminal Illegal Immigrants List was 25-year-old Honduran national Anderson Ronaldo Reyes Giron. He was arrested in north central Austin and wanted by authorities in Travis County since February for deadly conduct (discharging a firearm) and in Williamson County since March on property theft charges.

He was first arrested under the Trump administration in January 2017 by U.S. Customs and Border Protection “for alien removal.” By August 2024, he was arrested by the Austin Police Department officers for deadly conduct (discharging a firearm) and subsequently bonded out of jail, according to DPS records.

Through the governor’s Public Safety Office, taxpayer money is allocated to Texas Crime Stoppers to offer cash rewards to anyone who provides information that leads to the arrest of one of Texas’ 10 Most Wanted Fugitives, Sex Offenders or Criminal Illegal Immigrants. To be eligible for cash rewards, tipsters must provide information to authorities by calling the Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-252-TIPS (8477), submitting a tip through DPS website or Facebook page.

“All tips are anonymous – regardless of how they are submitted – and tipsters will be provided a tip number instead of using a name,” DPS says.

As offenders are arrested and come off of the lists, others are added.

Two recent additions include U.S. citizens, Rondarrius Evans, 21, of New Boston, to the Texas 10 Most Wanted Fugitives List and Rodolfo Martinez Jr., 42, to the Texas 10 Most Wanted Sex Offenders List.

Evans is wanted by authorities in Bowie County since last August on two capital murder charges and drug charges. Martinez Jr. is wanted in Harris County since last November for indecency with a child by sexual contact.
Link


Economy
Trump says furniture makers coming back to North Carolina as Canadian company moves to state
2025-04-08
[THEPOSTMILLENNIAL] Trump has applauded furniture makers moving production to the US amid tariffs, with one company closing its Canadian production facility and shifting all production to the United States, while a North Carolina furniture maker is closing its doors due to ongoing production issues with its main supplier in Mexico, among other issues.

"Those tariffs, next year will make us $1 trillion. In addition to the $1 trillion, thousands of companies are gonna relocate back into the United States. In North Carolina, already furniture people are starting to move back in," Trump said.

Progressive Furniture, a subsidiary of Sauder Woodworking and importer of "budget friendly" furniture from Asia and Mexico, will be closing at the end of the year and laying off around 30 employees, per Furniture Today.

President of the company, Dan Kendrick, told the outlet, "This decision was not made lightly, and we understand the impact it will have on our employees, customers and partners. We are committed to supporting our employees through this transition and will aid where possible to help them find new opportunities."

The closure of the company was blamed on multiple issues, but mainly on the closure of the company's primary supplier in Mexico. Kendrick said, "Obviously, business conditions have been challenging for the past few years, but the closure of our primary supplier in Mexico has made a major impact. This factory supplied 60% of our products."

According to Home News Now, the company's main supplier, Baja Wood, was based in Rosarito, Mexico. In January, around 60 of Baja Wood's 320 employees protested outside of the factory over reduced hours. The factory was shut down as government officials investigated the claims, which required a lengthy interview process. At the end of the investigation, the plant owner decided not to reopen. Baja Wood and Progressive furniture were closely intertwined, with the US company receiving over 50 percent of its wood furniture from the Mexico plant, and Progressive being the plant's primary customer in the US.
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
IDF’s 162nd Division hands responsibility for Gaza buffer zone to 252nd Division
2025-02-18
For information.
[IsraelTimes] The IDF’s 162nd Division has concluded its operations in Gaza after 15 months straight, and handed over the responsibility of the military’s buffer zone in the Strip’s north to the 252nd Division, the military says.

The 162nd Division lost 265 soldiers during the ground offensive in Gaza, during which it demolished numerous tunnels and killed thousands of Hamas operatives, according to the IDF.

The southern portion of the buffer zone and the Philadelphi Corridor, the Egypt-Gaza border area, is under the responsibility of the Gaza Division.
My thanks to whoever found and added the very informative image — you’re amazing!
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
From jihadi group to gov’t, cont’d: New regime HTS in Syria said to appoint some foreign Islamist fighters to military
2024-12-31
[IsraelTimes] Prominent Uighur, Jordanian, and Turkish foreign fighters given military ranks, as Islamist rebel group at core of de facto new government in Syria arranges formal armed forces

Syria’s new rulers have installed some imported muscle including Uighurs, a Jordanian, and a Turk in the country’s armed forces, as Damascus tries to shape a patchwork of rebel groups into a professional military, two Syrian sources said.

The move to give official roles, including senior ones, to several jihadists may alarm some foreign governments and Syrian citizens fearful about the new administration’s intentions, despite its pledges not to export Islamic revolution and to rule with tolerance toward Syria’s large minority groups.

A Syrian government spokesperson did not reply to a request for comment on the thinking behind the appointments.

The sources said that out of a total of almost 50 military roles announced by the Defense Ministry on Sunday, at least six had gone to foreigners.

Rooters was not able to independently verify the nationalities of the individuals appointed.

Thousands of Sunni Moslem foreigners joined Syria’s rebels early in the 13-year civil war to fight against the rule of Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators...
 and the Iran-backed Shiite militias that supported him. Some imported muscle formed their own gangs while others joined established formations such as Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
 as it rampaged across Iraq and Syria, briefly declaring a so-called caliphate before being routed by US and Iran-backed forces.

Other groups of foreign jihadists joined Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
 (HTS), which disavowed previous links to al-Qaeda and Islamic State and fought bloody battles against them before going on to spearhead the lightning advance that toppled Assad on December 8.

Ahmed al-Sharaa, the HTS-leader-turned de facto ruler of Syria, has purged dozens of foreign jihadi fighters as part of a campaign to Syrianize and moderate his group.

In remarks broadcast on Sunday, Sharaa said the new Syria "cannot be run by the mentality of groups and militias."

Syria’s new rulers, drawn mainly from HTS, have indicated that imported muscle and their families may be given Syrian citizenship and be allowed to stay in the country because of their contributions to the fight against Assad.

The Defense Ministry on Sunday announced 49 appointments to the army that included leaders of key Syrian armed factions. Among them were several imported muscle, three given the rank of brigadier-general and at least three others the rank of colonel, a Syrian military source said.

’TOKEN OF RECOGNITION’
"This is a small token of recognition for the sacrifices Islamist jihadists gave to our struggle for freedom from Assad’s oppression," an HTS source told Rooters.

Chinese Uighur Abdulaziz Dawood Khudaberdi, also known as Zahid and the commander of the separatist Turkistan Islamic Party’s (TIP) forces in Syria, was appointed a brigadier-general, a TIP statement said and the Syrian military source confirmed.

Two other Uighur fighters, Mawlan Tarsoun Abdussamad and Abdulsalam Yasin Ahmad, were given the rank of colonel, said the TIP statement published on its website, congratulating them and the Uighur community on the appointments.

All the names appear in Sunday’s Defense Ministry announcement, though the nationalities are not included.

The TIP is thought to have hundreds of fighters in Syria and aims to establish an Islamic State in parts of China and central Asia, where there is a large Uighur Moslem population.

Rights groups accuse Beijing of widespread abuses of Uighurs, a mainly Moslem ethnic minority that numbers around 10 million in the western region of Xinjiang, including the mass use of forced labor in camps. Beijing denies any abuses.

There was no immediate comment from the Chinese foreign ministry.

China labels the TIP a terrorist organization responsible for plots to attack overseas Chinese targets. Beijing has said TIP "gravely threatens" China’s interests and security overseas and that combating the group was China’s "core concern" in its counter-terrorism effort.

Ottoman Turkish citizen Omar Mohammed Jaftashi and Jordanian citizen Abdul Rahman Hussein al-Khatib were also made brigadier-generals, the Syrian military source and the HTS source said.

Abdul Jashari, an ethnically Albanian fighter also known as Abu Qatada al-Albani, was appointed colonel, the military source said. Jashari heads the Albanian jihadist group Xhemati Alban and was designated a terrorist by the US Treasury in 2016.

Egyptian Alaa Mohammed Abdel-Baqi was also given a military rank, the source said.

Egypt’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Xhemati Alban: Albanian Snipers in Syria
December 8, 2024
Excerpted from a much longer post witht he usual Grey Dynamics information.
[GreyDynamics] Xhemati Alban is a Sunni jihadist militant group operating in the Idlib Governorate in Syria. Garnering attention for its formidable “sniper squad”, they have been active in spreading propaganda detailing the unit’s exploits. Linked to Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) they have been involved in several operations together. Comprised of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo and North Macedonia, the group’s current membership numbers are unknown but believed to not exceed two dozen members. Despite claiming establishment in 2012, the group’s earliest piece of propaganda dates back to 2017.

The group’s fighters are relatively unadorned when compared to contemporary modern fighting forces and their propaganda pieces are usually without patches of any kind. However, the group does have one patch of note which is that of Albanian Tactical which is a further subgroup within Xhemati Alban. Albanian Tactical offers tactical training in line with other mercenary or contract organisations in the region such as Yurtugh Tactical and Muhojir Tactical. This has allowed them to frame themselves as a contract enterprise and not simply a militia/terror group.

Xhemati Alban, which translates to “Albanian Group,” comprises ethnic Albanians from Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia, and the Presovo Valley in Serbia. Although the group claims to have originated in 2012, reports indicate that its active operations began around 2017, coinciding with its involvement in conflicts such as those in Ras al-Ayn, Abu al-Duhur Airbase, and Jisr al-Shughur.

Under the leadership of Abu Qatada al-Albani (Abdul Jashari), born in 1976 in Skopje, North Macedonia, the group appointed its military leader, as designated by former Jabhat al-Nusra leader, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani in 2014. Al-Albani’s association with Jabhat al-Nusra led to his inclusion in the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List in late 2016. Notably, al-Albani also serves as a close military advisor to the leader of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

HTS appoints Maysaa Sabrine to lead central bank, first woman to hold position
[IsraelTimes] Syria’s new rulers have appointed Maysaa Sabrine, formerly a deputy governor of the Syrian central bank, to lead the institution, a senior Syrian official says.

Sabrine does not immediately respond to a request for comment.

She will be the first woman to lead the institution in its more than 70-year history, replacing Mohammed Issam Hazime who was appointed governor in 2021 by now-toppled president Bashar al-Assad.

Syrian FM says he accepted invitation to visit Saudi Arabia
[IsraelTimes] Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, appointed by the new rulers, says on X that he has accepted an invitation from his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah to visit, in what would be his first foreign trip.
Related:
Turkistan Islamic Party: 2024-12-12 Syria after the collapse. What next?
Turkistan Islamic Party: 2023-08-22 China Turns to Taliban to Control ETIM: Exclusive on Bid to Woo Guv of Afghanistan’s Badakshan
Turkistan Islamic Party: 2023-08-13 NATO-calibre weapons being transferred to ISIL-K by Taliban, Al-Qaeda-affiliated groups like TTP: UN report
Link


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Terrifying map reveals how bloodthirsty Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua has infiltrated America
2024-10-20
A few highlights for each city — more at the link.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Terrifying new research has laid bare how notorious Venezuelan super gang Tren de Aragua's criminal tentacles have spread across America.

Members of the violent migrant gang TdA have crept into the US hidden among the one million Venezuelan migrants who have entered the country during the Biden administration.

Arrest data shared with DailyMail.com has now revealed that the tattooed gangsters are operating in even more US cities than originally feared - with San Antonio, Texas, the latest hub of activity.

Dubbed the 'epitome of evil' and 'MS-13 on steroids', police investigations showed that the mob is behind a spiraling crime wave across the US, with members accused of murders, violent assaults on cops and sex trafficking women.

'MS-13, they were never organized; Tren de Aragua is a transnational criminal organization from the bottom to the top,' Colorado's former ICE director John Fabbricatore told DailyMail.com.

'These guys right here [in the US] - they're sending money back to leaders in Venezuela. They're set up shop like a corporation - it is the like the mafia. What it took MS-13 to do in like a ten-year period, Tren de Aragua has been able to do in less than a year,' he added.

EL PASO, TEXAS
Texas' largest city to straddle the US-Mexico border has been called the epicenter for TdA activity by state law enforcement officials.

As DailyMail.com exclusively reported, El Paso's Mexican sister city, Juarez, is the gang's new headquarters.

From its base on America's doorstep, gang members move back and forth between the US and Mexico, federal sources tell DailyMail.com.

Texas' sixth largest city, the busiest border crossing for most of 2022 and 2023, has also been used as the entry point for many TdA members.

In March, a rare riot on the border was orchestrated by TdA, in which a migrant mob overwhelmed Texas National Guard members, kicking and overpowering armed soldiers at a border crossing in El Paso, the governor of Texas said.

AURORA, COLORADO
Most of the nation first learned about Tren de Aragua when a video of armed men storming an apartment building in Aurora, Colorado, surfaced in late August.

While local leaders initially denied there was a gang problem in the Denver suburb, they later admitted the international crime ring had taken control of additional apartment complexes in the area.

By September, Coffman acknowledged Tren de Aragua was in the city limits, but continued to claim their presence was isolated to just those three apartments.

However, a July 3 letter to the city manager obtained by DailyMail.com detailed a meeting between the Aurora Police Department, the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations or HSI to discuss the gang problem at the three properties owned by CBZ Management.

'In that meeting, it was disclosed that our situation is not an isolated event, but numerous other multi-family projects in the City of Aurora and throughout the State of Colorado are subject to the same gang control,' disclosed CBZ management's attorney.

A special regional task force between Aurora cops, Colorado State Patrol and Colorado Bureau of Investigation was created on August 19 to take the cartel down.

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS
TdA has been caught replicating its Aurora criminal model San Antonio, Texas.

Law enforcement sources confirmed TdA had been operating at the Palatia Apartments for five to six months, squatting in empty units they either rented out to other migrants, used as a base to deal cocaine or, most horrifically, as prostitution dens to pimp out women and children.

However, DailyMail.com can reveal that this apartment invasion is just the tip of the iceberg, with at least three additional rental properties also occupied by the criminal organization.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK
The gang's exploits in the Big Apple have garnered much media attention, with two TdA mobsters charged over beating New York City police officers earlier this year.

The gang has been found to have taken part in cell phone thefts on mopeds, participated in thefts at stores, and have sold a pink, powdery drug known as Tusi, according to the New York Times.

As of September, the police had officially identified 24 Tren de Aragua members in the five boroughs, with the department explaining individuals had to self-identify as being part of the criminal network in order to be counted.

'Do we think that there's only 24 TDA members in New York City? That would be silly,' Chief Joseph Kenny told the publication. 'Obviously there are more.'

Just days ago, NYPD warned of the gang's growing power in Gotham.

'Right now what we have, I like to call a "perfect storm" of sorts. We have individuals, tremendously brazen, absolutely ruthless individuals that have committed a multitude of crimes with basically no repercussions,' NYPD Assistant Chief Jason Savino of the detective bureau told Fox 5.

'What started out as a robbery crew...20 individuals arrested for upwards of 50 robberies. Out of those 20 individuals, every single one of them is on the streets today.'

Savino went on to explain how the notoriously clever and adaptable crime ring is recruiting kids to do their dirty work because minors face little or no legal consequences if caught.

TdA is operating mostly in Times Square with a splinter group called 'Los Diablos de la 42' (or the devils of 42nd Street in Spanish) setting up shop on 42nd Street.

SAMFORD, CONNECTICUT
A motel murder has been pinned on TdA in a wealthy enclave of Connecticut that's considered a New York City suburb.

Gregory Marlyn Galindez-Trias, 24, and Moises Alejandro Condollo-Urbaneja, 22, have been accused of shooting Angel Samaniego, 59, at a Super 8 Hotel before fleeing the state, reported Fox News.

Investigators arrested them at a train station in New York State where they were traveling with their two children aged three and one.

ATHENS, GEORGIA
The man accused of killing a Georgia nursing college student has also been linked to the criminal enterprise TdA.

Jose Ibarra, 26, is charged in the death of the Laken Riley, 22, who was beaten to death while out running on the University of Georgia campus in February.

It is unclear if TdA is active in other parts of the Peach State but officials are concerned.

PRAIRIE DU CHIEN, WISCONSIN
Unexpectedly, TdA has also popped up in the northern state of Wisconsin, where police said they are 'confident' a gang member beat and sexually assaulted a woman in September.

Alejandro Jose Coronel Zarate, 26 of Venezuela, found his way to the small town of Prairie du Chien, about two hours outside of Madison, Wisconsin, when he went to spend time with the woman he later assaulted.

'Based on our investigation, we can confirm that Mr. Coronel Zarate entered the United States in September of 2023 at or near the El Paso, TX point of entry,' the cops said.

'Since that time, he has been arrested in Minneapolis, MN on November 17, 2023, for receiving stolen property. He was charged with Strangulation/Suffocation, False Imprisonment, Battery, and Disorderly Conduct in Dane County, WI on December 1, 2023.'

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
Venezuela's most infamous export has been operating in Chicago since October 2023, according to NewsNation.

Described as a 'new threat developing amongst the newly arriving immigrant community,' the professional criminals have followed the thousands of law-abiding Venezuelans who have made the Windy City their final destination.

TdA is known to hide among its own law-abiding, asylum-seeking countrymen - not just to blend in, but to also exploit their own people.

MIAMI, FLORIDA
In South Florida, two Venezuelan migrants who police believe have TdA allegiance are accused of killing a former Venezuelan police officer in a Miami surbub.

Authorities claimed Yurwin Salazar and Julio César Hernández Montero lured victim Jose Luis Sanchez-Valera, 43, to a hotel where he met with a woman last November.

Surveillance video showed Sanchez-Valera left the hotel. But then three men were seen following him in another car before forcing him from the driver's seat and into the back seat of his SUV.

The next day, Sanchez-Valera's blood-splattered SUV was found on the side of the road.

OTHER TEXAS CITIES
In Dallas, a violent home invasion has been linked to TdA where a woman was pistol-whipped and threatened with having her fingers cut off if she didn't show armed goons where her valuables were stashed.

Manuel Hernandez-Hernandez, 28, is one of four men police in Texas believe took part in the September 21 home invasion.

He illegally entered the country near El Paso in March without being inspected, admitted, or paroled by an immigration officer, Immigration and Customs Enforcement told DailyMail.com.

In Houston, state police announced the arrest of confirmed gangster Jorgenys Robertson Cava, 32, earlier this year.

Local cops have also been working to establish whether the brutal murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray is tied to the group.

Houston also has a large Venezuelan population concentrated in the Katy suburb, which has earned it the nickname 'Katyzuela.'

In the Lone Star State, there is legal threshold for anyone to be classified as a gang member by the cops, with police around the state stating that simply having tattoos associated with a group is not enough.


Texas has offered $5,000 to anyone with information on gang members.

Reports can be made anonymously by calling Texas Crime Stoppers at 800-252-TIPS or on the Texas Department of Public Safety website, according to the department's social media accounts.
Link


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Arizona State University student stabbed entering classroom
2024-09-28
[NYPOST] An Arizona State University student is in the hospital after being stabbed by a female classmate — who was looking for someone to knife and attacked the victim for being an "easier target."

Mara Daffron,19, was stabbed last Thursday after Kaci Sloan,19, jumped from her seat and plunged a knife into her twice as she entered a classroom in Glendale, Arizona, 12 News, AZ Central and FOX 10 Phoenix reported.

Sloan was allegedly deciding between two different people to attack in class, but decided to go after Daffron because Sloan "believed the victim was an easier target," court documents obtained 12 News said.

Daffron was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after the stabbing and underwent surgery after the attack, police said.

Sloan was arrested soon after in connection with the stabbing, the ASU Police Department said.

Sloan came to class planning to hurt someone, according to court documents obtained by 12 News, although her exact motive remains unclear.

"The defendant admitted she came to class to hurt somebody and was planning the attack since the night prior," the documents said according to the outlet.

"This planning included placing the knife used in the attack in her backpack to bring to school. The defendant told detectives she knew the victim’s first name but did not know anything else about her. "

"She knew the victim from a prior class and shared a class with her this semester," the documents said.
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Iran tells Hezbollah chief Israel will face 'crushing response' after comms attack
2024-09-20
[GEO.TV] Israel will face "a crushing response from the axis of resistance", Iran's Revolutionary Guards Commander Hossein Salami told Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday according to state media, after attacks on Lebanese Hezbollah's communication devices.

The axis of resistance refers to Iran-aligned armed groups in the Middle East, including Lebanon's Hezbollah, Yemen's Houthis, and Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces.
Link


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Gazans' access to toilets and personal hygiene is severely limited, says UNRWA
2024-09-19
[GEO.TV]
Next time don’t start a war.
Yes, actions have consequences.
Link


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
All he wanted was a trim!
2024-09-19
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
Link


Science & Technology
Boeing's Starliner Faces Uncertain Future as NASA Considers Cancellation
2024-08-30
[Breitbart] Boeing’s plagued Starliner spacecraft is facing an uncertain future as technical issues, delays, and budget overruns continue to mount, leading NASA and industry experts to question the viability of the project.

Futurism reports that the Boeing Starliner spacecraft, once touted as a critical component of NASA’s Commercial Crew program, is now facing the possibility of cancellation due to a series of technical mishaps, supply chain issues, and years of delays. The troubled capsule is returning empty-handed from its latest mission, with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams planning to catch a ride back to Earth on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon instead.

The decision to abandon Starliner mid-mission is a significant blow to Boeing, which has been battling with the spacecraft’s development for years. Since 2016, the project has exceeded its budget by a staggering $1.6 billion, according to a report by Rooters. This latest setback has raised doubts among analysts and industry experts about whether Starliner will ever fly again.

Former NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver expressed uncertainty about the future of the project, telling Rooters, "I am not sure the decision will ultimately be NASA’s. Boeing is going to have to foot much of this bill, as they have been." When asked about the possibility of Starliner’s cancellation, a Boeing spokesperson did not directly address the issue, stating only that the company is focusing on the safety of the crew and spacecraft and preparing for an uncrewed return.

Adding to Boeing’s woes, a recent report by NASA’s inspector general found that the company’s contributions to the agency’s Moonbound Space Launch System are also years behind schedule and significantly over budget. This, combined with controversies surrounding Boeing’s passenger jet business and recent executive shakeups, has put the company under increased scrutiny.

The failure of Starliner’s first crewed test flight has denied NASA the confidence it needed to certify the spacecraft for regular crew rotation missions to the International Space Station. The space agency had hoped that Starliner would provide redundancy in case SpaceX’s Crew Dragon experienced any issues. Instead, persistent gas leaks and thruster problems have cast doubt on the spacecraft’s reliability.
Related:
Starliner 08/17/2024 Watch supplies get delivered to astronauts stranded in space
Starliner 08/08/2024 Astronauts trapped in space by Boeing's faulty Starliner are given horrifying news about potential return to Earth
Starliner 08/05/2024 No, Boeing Starliner's NASA astronauts are not stranded in space. Here's why.

Related:
Boeing 08/24/2024 Current information on the situation on the front line: August 23 (updated)
Boeing 08/20/2024 Boeing grounds 777X test fleet after finding issue with key engine part
Boeing 08/17/2024 Watch supplies get delivered to astronauts stranded in space

Link


-Short Attention Span Theater-
MSNBC has gone completely crackpot this summer
2024-07-20
[NYPOST] They’re having a rough one over at MSNBC.

After keeping "Morning Joe" off the air Monday, following the liquidation attempt against Donald Trump
...His ancestors didn't own any slaves...
, their primetime talent has overcompensated by cranking up the crazy during coverage of the Republican National Convention.

Never mind that the network’s main anchors are delivering many of these wild takes from their Manhattan studio with an LED-screen backdrop which creates the illusion that they’re live from Milwaukee.

On a scale of 1 to 10 tinfoil hats, Alex Wagner, Rachel Maddow and Joy Reid have rated a strong 12.
Am I the only one who believes that Joy Behar and Joy Reid might not be the same person?
Altogether, this trio has dropped crackpot monologues about Trump’s shooting, compared beating COVID to surviving an assassin’s bullet and suggested JD Vance has Aryan leanings because he named his company after a "Lord of the Rings" reference. And my personal favorite: that Vance’s speech contained "Easter eggs of white nationalism."

Look, it’s the Republican National Convention, so I’d expect — even welcome — a healthy dose of pushback from the left-wing network.

Surely they’d find plenty of substantive disagreements with Trump and Vance. Maybe there’s something to nitpick from Vance’s past, considering the potential veep gifted the Dems plenty of opposition research in a best-selling little book called "Hillbilly Elegy."

Nope. Instead, MSNBC’s team deployed its go-to weapons: identity and white supremacy

...the pernicious doctrine that laws were intended to be obeyed, that society works better when people don't pour shreiking from their places of worship every Friday for a weekend of rioting over insults real or imagined; and that cannibalism, beastiality, incest, murder, theft, rape, and similar activities are bad. A Dead White European (which invalidates his opinion) philosopher once opined that societies thrive when a person's word can be relied upon, and that a society which puts individual happiness first will invariably fail. Strangely enough, other successful societies, such as China, Japan, Korea, and those kinds of places could also be lumped with white supremacist societies, since they push the same values...
.

During Vance’s acceptance speech at the RNC, he recalled proposing to his wife, Usha, a daughter of Indian immigrants colonists. "Honey, I come with $120,000 worth of law school debt, and a cemetery plot on a mountainside in eastern Kentucky," he said.

It was a sweet, very personal expression of love and the hope for a shared future.

Wagner, however, said it shows that Vance "fundamentally believes in the supremacy of whiteness and masculinity." And that the only history their family should inherit is "white male lineage," not their Indian side.

Perhaps it would have been more romantic — and acceptable to Wagner — if Vance had included an endorsement of equity and inclusion in asking for Usha’s hand in marriage.

Wagner was also dismayed by Vance’s optimistic assertion that "America is not just an idea, it is a group of people with a shared history and a common future."

She offered an alternative: "It’s a lot of people with different histories, different heritages."

Maddow didn’t even wait for Vance’s speech to verbally crawl into a Nazi rabbit hole on air. On Wednesday, she said that Vance naming his venture capital firm Narya, after a ring in "The Lord of the Rings," meant he harbored a love of the far right.

"He called it Narya, N-A-R-Y-A," she said. "Which you can remember because it’s ’Aryan,’ but you move the ’N’ to the front. Apparently that word has something to do with elves and rings from ’The Lord of the Rings’ series, I don’t know."

Yeah, we know you don’t.

Meanwhile,
...back at the Hubba Hubba Club, Big Shirley was still trying to snatch Nunzio bald-headed. She was already halfway there...
 Reid seems to be growing increasingly untethered from reality. She attacked RNC speaker Amber Rose as "racially ambiguous" to delegitimize her message to minorities, and suggested that the Trump liquidation attempt was a set-up.

She also asserted, with a straight face, that Biden overcoming COVID was as badass as Trump getting shot at and showing up to the RNC a couple days later.

"This current president of the United States is 81 years old and has COVID, should he be fine in a couple of days, doesn’t that convey exactly the same thing? That he’s strong enough — older than Trump — to have gotten something that used to really be fatal to people his age," Reid said on air. "So, if he does fine out of it and comes back and is able to do rallies, isn’t that exactly the same?"

Sure, Joy. But this bizarre act shows that, as the Biden situation deteriorates and panic sets in, MSNBC is just throwing the proverbial spaghetti at the wall — to see what sticks.

Hey, conspiracy and an "Everything is white supremacy" ethos worked in 2020.

But these anchors are so out of touch with regular folks, they don’t realize that most people have simply moved on.

And some cockamamie commentary won’t pull anyone back in.

Related: Who is JD Vance's wife Usha? Meet the Ivy-League educated lawyer behind Donald Trump's vice presidential pick
Related:
Joy Reid 06/07/2024 BIDEN: DEI are the core strength of America, and it starts at the top with the Vice President
Joy Reid 03/05/2024 Rollerblade wheels ‘infused’ with cocaine found in package from Colombia leads to $30K raid
Joy Reid 01/21/2024 Why I'm Rooting for the 1972 Landslide I Once Feared

Related:
Rachel Maddow 06/21/2024 Maddow, AOC among liberal media and Dem lawmakers who worry Trump will jail them in 'massive camps'
Rachel Maddow 06/17/2024 Sick Of The 'Grotesque Game Of Pretend' Being Played Around Joe Biden...
Rachel Maddow 05/04/2024 This Is Why Trump Should Pick Tulsi Gabbard for VP

Related:
Alex Wagner 03/18/2023 Dear Wokesters, You Named Yourselves
Alex Wagner 03/08/2017 Were Libs As Angry When Obama's HUD Secretary Compared Slaves To Immigrants? NOPE!
Alex Wagner 08/24/2016 Media Myopia: Huma involvement with Islamist mag for a decade no biggie
Link


Fifth Column
'One in a million' Photo shows bullet passing Trump
2024-07-15
[RT] The New York Times has published a photo appearing to show a bullet flying past Donald Trump
...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party...
’s head, at the moment he was targeted by a gunman at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. The image was captured by veteran NYT photographer Doug Mills at the campaign event in the city of Butler, where the Republican presidential hopeful was giving a speech in the run-up to the November 5 election.

Several shots were fired, killing one spectator and severely injuring two more. Trump was whisked off stage by Secret Service agents, and later moved to a “safe” place.” Security officials later reported that the 20-year-old suspected shooter, who had reportedly fired from a nearby rooftop, was shot and killed.

Mills’ photo shows what appears to be a bullet streaking through the air to the right of Trump’s head. The photographer, who has been taking pictures of US presidents for more than four decades, described his experience to colleagues at the NYT.

Mills said the event started out as a “very standard, typical rally,” with him and several other photographers standing “in what is called the buffer area just a couple feet from the former president.”

“All of a sudden, there was what I thought were three or four loud pops. At first I thought it was a car. The last thing I thought was it was a gun,” Mills recalled.

He continued to take pictures, but soon could not see the former president as Trump was surrounded by Secret Service agents from all sides, with counter-snipers appearing on the stage.

Despite looking defiant and seemingly unfazed in his photo with a raised fist high, Trump appeared “very, very shocked” the moment after, according to Mills
I'm guessing Mills has never been shot at himself, much less taken a round through his ear.
The photographer told the paper he had “never been in a more horrific scene” during his decades-long career.

Retired FBI special agent Michael Harrigan, who currently works as a consultant in the firearms industry, confirmed to the newspaper that Mills’ photo most likely captured the “bullet’s path through the air.”

While technically possible with the camera used by Mills, “catching a bullet on a side trajectory as seen in that photo would be a one in a million shot… even if one knew the bullet was coming,” the former FBI agent noted.
Link



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