IF RICE UNIVERSITY AND ENVIRONMENTALISTS, EACH WITH THEIR OWN PLANS, AND FISCAL CONSERVATIVES HAD NOT FOUFHT THE IKE DIKE, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN BUILT BY NOW, AND FOR A LOT LESS MONEY

U.S. Senate approves bill containing Texas’ “Ike Dike” coastal protection project

The U.S. Senate voted to authorize the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to begin planning for a massive coastal barrier project in Galveston Bay meant to protect against hurricanes’ storm surge. Funding is not yet secured.

 

by Erin Douglas  

 

The Texas Tribune

July 28, 2022

                         Hurricane Ike made landfall at Galveston on September 13, 2008 with 110 mph sustained winds

 

The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved a bill that would authorize federal agencies to plan for an estimated $31 billion project intended to protect the Texas coast from hurricanes.

Hundreds of millions of dollars have already gone into studying the idea to build a system of concrete gate barriers at the mouth of Galveston Bay. Nicknamed for the destructive hurricane that hit Galveston Island in 2008, the so-called Ike Dike could be the largest civil engineering project in U.S. history.

The project is included the Water Resources Development Act, which contains various federal water, coast and flooding projects that require congressional approval to move forward, but does not allocate funds. The bill passed with 93 yes votes in the Senate on Thursday; only Sen. Mike Braun, R-Indiana, voted no.

The U.S. House passed its version of the act in June. The legislation will go back to the House for the two chambers to iron out differences before sending it to President Joe Biden for approval. But the Texas coastal spine project is authorized in both versions.

Republican Sen. John Cornyn said the project brings Texas “one step closer” to ensuring the state’s coast will be as “prepared as possible” for future hurricanes.

“Protecting the Texas coast from devastating hurricanes is a top priority when it comes to preserving the livelihoods of Texans and ensuring the massive amount of international trade that relies on our state can resume after a storm,” Cornyn said in a statement.

The Ike Dike is part of the larger Texas Coastal Project, which was proposed to protect the state’s shoreline against hurricane storm surge and rising sea levels. It includes a series of other coastal infrastructure and environmental projects, from artificial barriers to beach and dune restoration.

The Ike Dike gates will be similar to the sea gates that protect the Netherlands

 

The Ike Dike gate project alone would account for at least $16 billion and require 18 years to build, according to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimates. The gates would span a nearly 2-mile gap from the island to Bolivar Peninsula.

The act doesn’t include funding for the Ike Dike and the rest of the Texas coast projects, which will require a separate request to Congress from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Congress is expected to fund the project in smaller appropriations rather than all at once.

If — or when — Congress does appropriate money, the state and local governments will be on the hook for a local match, which could total at least $10 billion, but inflation and changes in building costs mean estimates vary widely. Typically, such projects require a 65%-35% split in federal and nonfederal funding.

Texas politicians have generally supported the proposal: Earlier this week, Cornyn and Sen. Ted Cruz introduced standalone legislation for the coastal spine project. Last June, Gov. Greg Abbott said it would “go down in history” as one of the most significant coastal protection projects ever done in Texas.

The Ike Dike was first conceptualized by Bill Merrell, a marine sciences professor at Texas A&M University in Galveston. The current plan imagines artificial islands anchoring huge floating gates more than 80 feet tall that could close as water levels rise during a storm.

On each side of the floating gates, concrete towers would rise more than 100 feet in the air to hold more vertical gates that could lower into the water during a storm. When closed, the gates could reduce surge into Galveston Bay by 30% to 60%, according to the U.S. Army Corps analysis, depending on the hurricane’s track and intensity.

THOUSANDS OF WEST VIRGINIA COAL MINERS DPEND ON MINING COAL FOR A LIVIG

West Virginia Becomes First in the Nation to Stand Up Against Woke Wall Street, Cut Contracts Already Total $18 Billion

 By Abby Liebing  

 

The Western Journal

July 28, 2022

 

            Coal miners return on a buggy after working a shift underground

West Virginia is standing up against big Wall Street banks that are boycotting fossil fuel.

West Virginia treasurer Riley Moore decided that BlackRock (the world’s largest asset manager), Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are no longer eligible for any West Virginia’s banking contracts due to the banks’ decisions to boycott fossil fuels, Reuters reported.

This West Virginia ban will cost the Wall Street banks $18 billion per year, according to Moore’s office, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

A representative for Well Fargo and Morgan Stanley said that the banks disagreed with the state’s decision.

A representative for JP Morgan called it “disconnected from the facts.” A BlackRock representative also said that the firm disagreed with the decision.

“BlackRock does not boycott energy companies, and we do not pursue divestment from sectors and industries as a policy,” the representative said, Reuters reported.

But West Virginia’s decision to part ways with these big banks makes sense since the state is dependent on coal — a fossil fuel.

Most of the state relies on coal for its electricity.

“In terms of consumption, West Virginia generates electricity almost entirely from coal-powered plants, with eight of the state’s ten largest power plants being coal-fired. As of 2020, 89 pecent of electricity in the state is generated by coal compared to 19% nationwide,” according to DSire Insight, which is a “database of state incentives for renewables & efficiency.”

Besides having its electricity grid relying on coal consumption, the coal industry in West Virginia employs thousands.

In 2018 coal-mining jobs in the state totaled 13,962, according to Statista.

In 2020, two out of ten leading underground coal mines by production are in West Virginia.

Overall, the entire Appalachian region is very reliant on coal mining for employment and consumption.

In 2020, there were nearly 34,000 coal mining jobs throughout Appalachia.

Despite how reliant the region is on coal, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo all publicly said they were reducing financing for new coal projects, the New York Times reported.

Meanwhile, BlackRock has been reducing its actively managed holdings in coal companies for the past two years.

“Such moves are increasingly common on Wall Street as big financial firms move to reduce their financial exposure to industries like coal, which is a major contributor of planet-warming emissions, and has become less profitable in recent years,” the New York Times reported.

However, no matter how virtuous it may seem to try to cut back on financing things that will produce carbon emissions, it carries serious consequences for economies like West Virginia’s.

It only makes sense that West Virginia would want to cut ties with banks that seem to be shifting away from investing in its main market.

“We’re handing money over to a financial institution that is generated from the fossil fuel industry,” Moore said, according to the Times. “At the same time, they’re trying to diminish those funds. There’s a clear conflict of interest there.”

It is certainly a clear conflict of interest. And the loss of West Virginia banking contracts is going to hurt these Wall Street players significantly.

It just goes to show that hopping on the trend of investing in green initiatives is not always a win-win. It affects major economies and there is still plenty of money to be lost by rejecting fossil fuels.

ALEX JONES BLAMES THE MONKEYPOX OUTBREAK ON THE ASTRA-ZENECA AND JOHNSON & JOHNSON COVID-19 VACCINES ..... IF AN EXPERT LIKE ALEX SAYS SO, WHO ARE WE TO ARGUE WITH HIM

In race for monkeypox vaccines, experts see repeat of COVID

Currently, more than 70% of the world’s monkeypox cases are in Europe, and 98% are in men who have sex with men. 

 

By Maria Cheng

Associated Press

July 30, 2022

                                            

Sorry girls, but there are no beauty products to clear up these monkeypox blisters

 

LONDON — Moves by rich countries to buy large quantities of monkeypox vaccine, while declining to share doses with Africa, could leave millions of people unprotected against a more dangerous version of the disease and risk continued spillovers of the virus into humans, public health officials are warning.

Critics fear a repeat of the catastrophic inequity problems seen during the coronavirus pandemic.

“The mistakes we saw during the COVID-19 pandemic are already being repeated,” said Dr. Boghuma Kabisen Titanji, an assistant professor of medicine at Emory University.

While rich countries have ordered millions of vaccines to stop monkeypox within their borders, none have announced plans to share doses with Africa, where a more lethal form of monkeypox is spreading than in the West.

To date, there have been more than 22,000 monkeypox cases reported in nearly 80 countries since May, with about 75 suspected deaths in Africa, mostly in Nigeria and Congo. On Friday, Brazil and Spain reported deaths linked to monkeypox, the first reported outside Africa. Spain reported a second monkeypox death Saturday.

“The African countries dealing with monkeypox outbreaks for decades have been relegated to a footnote in conversations about the global response,” Titanji said.  

Scientists say that, unlike campaigns to stop COVID-19, mass vaccinations against monkeypox won’t be necessary. They think targeted use of the available doses, along with other measures, could shut down the expanding epidemics that were recently designated by the World Health Organization as a global health emergency.

Yet while monkeypox is much harder to spread than COVID-19, experts warn if the disease spills over into general populations — currently in Europe and North America it is circulating almost exclusively among gay and bisexual men — the need for vaccines could intensify, especially if the virus becomes entrenched in new regions.

On Thursday, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called for the continent to be prioritized for vaccines, saying it was again being left behind.

“If we’re not safe, the rest of the world is not safe,” said Africa CDC’s acting director, Ahmed Ogwell.

Although monkeypox has been endemic in parts of Africa for decades, it mostly jumps into people from infected wild animals and has not typically spread very far beyond the continent.

Experts suspect the monkeypox outbreaks in North America and Europe may have originated in Africa long before the disease started spreading via sex at two raves in Spain and Belgium. Currently, more than 70% of the world’s monkeypox cases are in Europe, and 98% are in men who have sex with men.

Catherine Smallwood, a senior emergencies officer at WHO Europe, said the deaths in Spain did not change the agency’s assessment of the outbreak.

“Although the disease is self-limiting in most cases, monkeypox can cause severe complications,” she said in an email, adding that about 8% of infections reported had required hospitalization and that monkeypox could sometimes lead to life-threatening complications like encephalitis.

“With the continued spread of monkeypox in Europe, we will expect to see more deaths,” Smallwood said.

WHO is developing a vaccine-sharing mechanism for affected countries, but has released few details about how it might work. The U.N. health agency has made no guarantees about prioritizing poor countries in Africa, saying only that vaccines would be dispensed based on epidemiological need.

Some experts worry the mechanism could duplicate the problems seen with COVAX, created by WHO and partners in 2020 to try to ensure poorer countries would get COVID-19 shots. That missed repeated targets to share vaccines with poorer nations.

“Just asking countries to share is not going to be enough,” said Sharmila Shetty, a vaccines adviser for Medecins Sans Frontieres. “The longer monkeypox circulates, the greater chances it could get into new animal reservoirs or spread to” the human general population, she said.

At the moment, there’s only one producer of the most advanced monkeypox vaccine: the Danish company Bavarian Nordic. Its production capacity this year is about 30 million doses, with about 16 million vaccines available now.

In May, Bavarian Nordic asked the U.S. to release more than 215,000 doses it was due to receive “to assist with international requests the company was receiving,” and the U.S. complied, according to Bill Hall, a spokesman for the department of Health and Human Services. The U.S. will still receive the doses but at a later date.

The company declined to specify which countries it was allocating doses for.

Hall said the U.S. has not made any other promises to share vaccines. The U.S. has ordered by far the most number of doses, with 13 million reserved, although only about 1.4 million have been delivered.

Some African officials said it would be wise to stockpile some doses on the continent, especially given the difficulties Western countries were having stopping monkeypox.

“I really didn’t think this would spread very far, because monkeypox does not spread like COVID,” said Salim Abdool Karim, an infectious diseases epidemiologist at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. “Africa should procure some vaccines in case we need them, but we should prioritize diagnostics and surveillance so we know who to target.”

Dr. Ingrid Katz, a global health expert at Harvard University, said the monkeypox epidemics were “potentially manageable” if the limited vaccines were distributed appropriately. She believed it was still possible to prevent monkeypox from turning into a pandemic but “we need to be thoughtful in our prevention strategies and rapid in our response.” 

In Spain, which has Europe’s biggest monkeypox outbreak, the demand for vaccines far exceeds supply.

“There is a real gap between the number of vaccines that we currently have available and the people who could benefit,” said Pep Coll, a medical director at a Barcelona health center that was dispensing shots this week.

Daniel Rofin, 41, was more than happy to be offered a dose. He said he decided to get vaccinated for the same reasons he was immunized against COVID-19.

“I feel reassured it is a way to stop the spread,” he said. “We (gay men) are a group at risk.”

________________

 

Alex Jones’ Unfounded Claims That Monkeypox Outbreak Due To Covid-19 Vaccines

 

By Bruce Y. Lee

 

 

Forbes

May 22, 2022

 

 

 

Alex Jones, the founder of Infowars and seller of supplements, is now saying that Covid-19 vaccines are behind the monkeypox outbreak

 

Well, it was only a matter of time before someone started blaming the Covid-19 vaccines for the current ongoing monkeypox outbreak. After all, since early 2021, seemingly every time a new health problem has reached the news, some politicians, TV personalities, and anonymous social media accounts have tried to link the new problem back to the Covid-19 vaccines. For example, on May 1, I covered for Forbes how some folks were trying to connect the hepatitis outbreak among children to Covid-19 vaccination. They were doing this despite the minor detail that many of these children didn’t even receive Covid-19 vaccines. 

 

So what Alex Jones tried to do on a recent episode of his InfoWars show shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Jones, who by the way is not medical doctor or other type of scientist yet has peddled supplements and other health products, tried to somehow connect the monkeypox outbreak with Astra-Zeneca and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Covid-19 vaccines. If you’ve been Jonesing for a clip of this moment in Jones’s InfoWars show, Florida lawyer Ron Filipkowski provided one with the following tweet: 

"Alex Jones insanely claims certain covid vaccines are causing monkeypox: “What is AstraZeneca and J+J. They’re virus vectors that inject the genome of a chimpanzee into your cells.” Maybe Marge Greene can discuss this with him on her next appearance on the show."

As you can see, Jones’s primary argument was that the monkeypox outbreak has been affecting the same countries where people have been receiving the Astra-Zeneca and Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccines. Of course, that ain’t too compelling an argument. A lot has been going on in the 12 countries that have had monkeypox cases so far, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). For example, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, U.K., and the U.S. all have places that serve hot dogs as well. Yet, frankly, you don’t seem to hear anyone wondering whether hot dogs may be the source of the monkeypox outbreak.

Jones went on to claim that these two Covid-19 vaccines are “virus vectors that inject the genome of a chimpanzee in to your cells and then orders your cells to replicate under those orders.“ Umm, that would be correct except for the fact that it is completely wrong. As Peter Hotez, MD, PhD, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine, pointed out in the following tweets, Jones seemed to be injecting quite a lot of what-the-bleep into his InfoWars segment.

DEAD MAN WALKING ..... DUMBASS WAITING

America is on the brink.

We have a president who thinks he's Black and caters to people of color. We have a vice president who is black - well, at least half-Black - and can't spell 'cat' if you spotted her the 'c' and the 't'. And we have a country that teaches its schoolkids to be ashamed of themselves if they are White.

 

 

We have an idiot for a president and a vice president who will make the idiot seem brilliant if she ever becomes president. 

The Chinese are laughing at us and are well on the way of replacing us as the predominant country in the world.

God please save America from itself!

POLICE 'REFORM' BILLS HAVE DECIMATED THE RANKS OF COLORADO LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES

Police and sheriff departments across Colorado are struggling to hire for thousands of empty positions

By Allison Sherry

 

CPR News

Jul. 18, 2022

 

                                           A Denver Sheriff Department recruitment car

 

Denver Sheriff’s Sgt. Stephanie Laing doesn’t remember a time in recent years when her deputies have worked a straight 40-hour week.

Out of about 875 sworn officer positions, the agency is down more than 250 people, she said. This means the deputies, including Laing’s husband, are all working at least one extra shift a week — sometimes more.

Laing said she hasn’t worked a single year where she didn’t make more than $100,000 — much of that due to overtime pay.

“Our goal is to be out here trying to get as many people as we can to help our brothers and sisters not have to do as much overtime or really alleviate it completely, which would be nice,” Laing said, at a recent job recruiting fair. She noted that when deputies are tired, mistakes happen. “We are hurting severely.”

Law enforcement agencies across the state are struggling to find qualified people to fill positions —  sworn officers but also civilian jobs, including dispatchers and people to work in booking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nearly every agency in the state is hiring, and some are trying to find hundreds of people to fill positions. The Colorado Police Chiefs Association and the Colorado County Sheriff’s Association estimate up to 20 percent of the sworn officer positions statewide could be unfilled. They plan a formal survey later this summer.

Officials say the increasing crime rate and skyrocketing calls for service have created a crush of work for the existing staffers.

 

At a recent job fair in Broomfield, agencies set up tables with promises of signing bonuses and good pensions and guaranteed checks of up to $70,000 annually. Roughly 200 people attended the fair — though organizers were hoping for double that number.

“It’s just mandated overtime,” said Sterling Police Officer Spencer Kind, who recently traveled to Denver to the job fair in hopes of filling seven open positions out of only 21 in the tiny agency on the Eastern Plains. “Just people gotta work. Crime doesn't stop.”

Those in law enforcement leadership across the state say the profession has taken a punch since George Floyd’s death in 2020 in Minneapolis and the subsequent summer of protests against police brutality.

 

 

Then came reform measures passed mostly at the Colorado legislature that they say have scared off both veteran officers — who are retiring in droves — and new recruits.

There is division, though, on whether those fears are warranted. 

 

Senate Bill 217 passed in the summer of 2020 and mandated body-worn cameras statewide, it overhauled use of force policies, required officers to “intervene” when they see bad behavior with a fellow officer and made it easier for residents to sue officers directly.

Subsequent police reform bills also passed the following year.

“Cops don’t like change, right? So when they hear reform, they think something terrible is coming,” said Ethan Harper of the Longmont Police Department. “One of the best things about reform in my opinion is that when you really get down and you start reading what those reform bills are, they’re meant to weed out the bad folks. That’s the idea behind it. There really was no reform bill that came out … that was a change in anything we were doing in our department.”

Sterling Police Commander JD Ross was enjoying retirement from law enforcement and living outside of Colorado Springs until he saw what he called the backlash and criticism against the profession a couple of years ago. He decided to go back to work.

“I still got some gas left in the tank, and I think good leadership makes all the difference in the world,” Ross said. “In these difficult times, it takes somebody very special to be a police officer. The demands are a lot more, it’s changed so much since I was a baby cop.”

Now, 'when people are applying, they have eyes wide open about it, right?'

 

Master Trooper Maurice Harris said in his 27-year career with the Colorado State Patrol, he’s seen the ebbs and flows.

“It depends on what’s going on on that seesaw,” he said. “I say we are now at the bottom of the seesaw, but it may be coming up now where people are changing their minds about law enforcement. I think it’s a career field they can lean towards — especially if the economy goes bad.”

The Colorado State Patrol is trying to hire 100 people right now.

Officer Ruselis Perry with the Colorado Springs Police Department takes a positive view of all the openings in his agency and the overall view of law enforcement these days. The CSPD is trying to hire between 70 and 100 in an agency of 800 sworn officers.

“The cool and positive thing is that when people are applying, they have eyes wide open about it, right? It’s not like they just saw Lethal Weapon 5 and they say, ‘Oh I want to be a cop now,’” he said. “It’s like, they must feel a calling to it. It’s some burden in their heart. They want to be a police officer. I’m optimistic like that.”

ANOTHER INMATE CALLED THE EXECUTION 'MURDER' ..... NO, NO, SHOOTING HIS FORMER GIRLFRIEND, THAT WAS MUDER

Man executed despite calls from victim’s family to spare him

 

By Kim Chandler

Associated Press

July 28, 2022

 

Joe Nathan James Jr (L) was executed July 28 for the 1994 shooting death of Faith Hall (R)

 

ATMORE, Ala. — An Alabama inmate convicted of killing his former girlfriend decades ago was executed Thursday night despite pleas from the victim’s family to spare his life.

Joe Nathan James Jr. received a lethal injection at a south Alabama prison after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his request for a stay. Officials said he was was pronounced dead at 9:27 p.m. after the start of execution was delayed by nearly three hours.

James, 50, was convicted and sentenced to death in the 1994 shooting death of Faith Hall, 26, in Birmingham. Hall's daughters have said they would rather James serve life in prison, but Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said Wednesday that she planned to let the execution proceed.

Prosecutors said James briefly dated Hall and he became obsessed after she rejected him, stalking and harassing her for months before killing her. On Aug. 15, 1994, after Hall had been out shopping with a friend, James forced his way inside the friend's apartment, pulled a gun from his waistband and shot Hall three times, according to court documents.

Hall’s two daughters, who were 3 and 6 when their mother was killed, said they wanted James to serve life in prison instead of being executed. The family members not attend the execution.

“Today is a tragic day for our family. We are having to relive the hurt that this caused us many years ago," the statement issued through state Rep. Juandalynn Givan's office read. Givan was a friend of Hall's.

“We hoped the state wouldn’t take a life simply because a life was taken and we have forgiven Mr. Joe Nathan James Jr. for his atrocities toward our family. ... We pray that God allows us to find healing after today and that one day our criminal justice system will listen to the cries of families like ours even if it goes against what the state wishes," the family's statement read.

Ivey said Thursday that she always deeply considers the feelings of the victim’s family and loved ones, but “must always fulfill our responsibility to the law, to public safety and to justice.”

“Faith Hall, the victim of repetitive harassment, serious threats and ultimately, cold-blooded murder, was taken from this earth far too soon at the hands of Joe Nathan James, Jr. Now, after two convictions, a unanimous jury decision and nearly three decades on death row, Mr. James has been executed for capital murder, and justice has been served for Faith Hall.

She said the execution sends an," unmistakable message was sent that Alabama stands with victims of domestic violence.”

The execution began a few minutes after 9 p.m. CDT following a nearly three hour delay. James did not open his eyes or show any deliberate movements at any point during the procedure. He did not speak when the warden asked if he had any final words. His breathing became labored, with deep pulsing breaths, and slowed until it was not visible.

Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Hamm, responding to a question about why the execution was delayed, said the state is, ”very deliberate in our process in making sure everything goes according to plan.” He did not elaborate. Hamm also said James, who showed no movements at any point, was not sedated.

The execution took place at a prison that houses the state's death row. An inmate put signs in a cell window calling the execution a “murder."

A Jefferson County jury first convicted James of capital murder in 1996 and voted to recommend the death penalty, which a judge imposed. The conviction was overturned when a state appeals court ruled a judge had wrongly admitted some police reports into evidence. James was retried and again sentenced to death in 1999, when jurors rejected defense claims that he was under emotional duress at the time of the shooting.

James acted as his own attorney in his bid to stop his execution, mailing handwritten lawsuits and appeal notices to the courts from death row. A lawyer filed the latest appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court on his behalf Wednesday. But the request for a stay was rejected about 30 minutes before the execution was set to begin.

James asked justices for a stay, noting the opposition of Hall's family and arguing that Alabama did not give inmates adequate notice of their right to select an alternate execution method. He also argued that Ivey’s refusal violates religious freedom laws because the Koran and the Bible “place the concept of forgiveness paramount in this situation.”

The state argued that James waited too late to begin trying to postpone his execution and “should not be rewarded for his transparent attempt to game the system."

TRAGIC DEATH OF MOUNTED DEPUTY

By Bob Walsh

                                       Volunteer mounted Deputy Nichole Shuff 

 

 

Nicole Shuff was a volunteer mounted deputy working at the Clare County Fair in Michigan she died in a freak accident.

Deputy Shuff stopped to assist someone who was having a medical emergency.  In her regular job she was a physicians assistant.  Her horse spooked when she was only partially dismounted and threw her, then fell on her.  She was declared dead two days later due to a brain injury.

She has been kept on a ventilator to assist with organ donation.

RIP sister.   

BORDER WALL ..... WHAT BORDER WALL?

By Bob Walsh

                                   

 

The Biden administration is VERY quietly completing several sections of the horrible and nasty and racist Donald Trump border wall near Yuma.  These fill-ins are in the vicinity of the Morelos Dam just west of downtown Yuma.  (I didn't even know there was a downtown Yuma but then again I haven't been there is something like 40 years.)  

The actual authorization came down on Thursday from DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Mr. THE BORDER IS SECURE himself.  Theoretically this is not being done to increase border security (because it is already so secure) but to discourage unsafe movement of undocumented democrats into the country. 

The Yuma area is the third most active district on the US / Mexico border with 235,230 documented "contacts" with undocumented democrats in the lasts nine months.

SAN JOSE GUN INSURANCE MANDATE GETTING NO LOVE AT ALL

By Bob Walsh

                                                                     Phooey!

 

The San Jose city ordinance mandating that gun owners who lived in city limits have liability insurance related to the ownership of firearms was supposed to kick in next week.  It ain't happening.  It has been set back by the city council for at least a year, maybe more, maybe forever.  There are at least three serious lawsuits pending against the ordinance, in addition is is still not exactly what sort of insurance is required, where it can be obtained, how proof is shown to the city and little details like that.

I guess it feels good to throw warm-fuzzies out there.  Then when it comes time to make the bullshit actually work things are not necessarily so wonderful.

POSSIBLE GOOD 2A NEWS IN CA

By Bob Walsh

---

Just a few of the guns that are on the California Gun Roster

In the wake of the latest SCOTUS case on the Second Amendment (Bruen) the U S DISTRICT COURT OF APPEALS has vacated Renna V Bonta.  This is the case that will determine whether or not the hateful CALIFORNIA GUN ROSTER is constitutional or not.  

This action means that the case will have to be reheard in the light of Bruen.

For those of you who do not know the formerly great state of California maintains a roster of guns that are not known to be unsafe.  This list is for almost all centerfire handguns eligible to be sold new in the state to civilian customers.  However, police departments and individual police officers can buy guns not on this list.  Private individuals can not.  The number of guns on this list is shrinking all the time and it is both expensive and difficult to get new guns on the list.  Also, now new guns "bump" old guns off the list.  

In any event the case of Renna v. Bonta will now move forward.  With luck forward towards victory for the Second Amendment.

TEXAS GOV. GREG ABBOTT HAS GIVEN D.C. A LESSON ON DEALING WITH AN INFLUX OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ... EXCEPT THAT TEXAS HAS TO DEAL WITH THOUSANDS EVERY DAY

White House claims Republicans are sending migrants to D.C. as 'political pawns' after Mayor Bowser called in the National Guard - as Gov. Abbott says Washington will 'finally learn what Texans are dealing with every day'

The White House slammed Republicans Thursday  for using migrants as 'political pawns' by bussing them to the nation's capital. But Texas hit back saying Washington was only learning what Texans were suffering every day.

 

Daily Mail

July 28, 2022 

 

 

            White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre slammed Republican governors for the way they were using migrants as a 'political pawn' or 'political tool' as the mayor of Washington, D.C., called for the National Guard to be deployed to help with a humanitarian crisis in the city

 

The office of Texas Governor Greg Abbott hit back, saying: 'Washington D.C. finally understands what Texans have been dealing with every single day'

 

The White House slammed Republican governors on Thursday for using migrants as a 'political pawn' by bussing them to Washington, D.C., after the city's mayor called for the National Guard to help.

Mayor Muriel Bowser said the influx had caused a 'humanitarian crisis.'

Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser called the influx of migrants “dire,” calling the situation a “humanitarian crisis.

 

But the issue quickly spiralled into a political row as Texas Governor Greg Abbott's office said the nation's capital was now experiencing the sort of problems that Texans saw every day.  

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said officials talking with Bowser about the request.

'We have been in regular touch with Mayor Bowser and her team,' she said at her daily briefing.

'And I said this before ... about Republicans using migrants as a political tool, and that is shameful and that is just wrong. 

'There is a process in place for managing migrants at the border. This is not it.'

She said migrants should be expelled under Title 42, or transferred into custody, or placed in the care of local organizations for proper processing.

'So what Republicans are doing, the way that they're meddling in the process and using migrants as a political pawn, is just wrong,' she added.

POLISH GOVERNMENT FINALLY TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT CATS

 By Bob Walsh

The Polish Academy of Sciences has a list of species of animals declared to be alien, invasive species.  There was zero controversy of any kind about the first 1,786 species on the list.  They have just listed domestic cats and species 1,787.  Cat lovers went 5150 over the designation.  Wild bird fanciers were thrilled.

Personally I have always though that cats were useful.  Archers need something to use for practice for hitting moving targets.  They also make good tacos.  (It is believed that the phrase "not room enough to swing a cat" comes from the ancient practice of using a sack-full of wild cats hanging from a branch as a target for archery practice.  The phrase in fact pre-dates the use of the "cat of 9-tails" for flogging by a couple of hundred years.

WELL, THIS SERIOUSLY SUCKS

By Bob Walsh

A 15-year-old boy from Alaska allegedly shot and killed three of his seven siblings, ages 5, 8 and 17, before turning the gun on himself at their home near Fairbanks on Tuesday

 

On Tuesday a 15-year old boy shot and killed three of his six siblings and then killed himself.  The shooting happened in the family home in Fairbanks.  

The three murder victims were five, eight, and seventeen years old.  The children who were not shot were all under the age of seven.  

The parents were not home at the time.  The gun used was described only as being owned by a member of the family.  The shooting happened on Tuesday afternoon.  

A SERIOUS (?) THIRD PARTY LAUNCH

By Bob Walsh

Former Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang and Ne Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman To Lead New Party

 

 

The FORWARD PARTY has just been launched by Christine Todd Whitman and Andrew Yang.  They hope to be on the ballot in all 50 states by the 2024 election.

This is supposed to be a solid, centrist political party.  It might actually turn out to be that.  Hell, it might even get some traction.  So far Third Party attempts have either turn out to be spoilers (deliberate or otherwise) or inconsequential.  

Between the Greeniacs and Socialists who have stolen the Democrat party and the right-wing psychopaths who are pulling the Republican party hard right this might even turn out to be something. 

YES VIRGINIA, THERE IS A RECESSION ... AND WE ARE IN IT

by Bob Walsh

                Charles de Vaulx, 59, head of an investment firm, lies in the street after jumping off the 10th floor of a NY skyscraper after his firm was liquidated because the RECESSION shrank its assets from $20bn to $863m 

 

Despite what Joe the Hairsniffer and his road dogs and butt buddies think there is such a thing as a recession, there is a long-standing and well-understood definition of a recession and we are in one.  I am reminded of an episode of West Wing (which I liked very much despite its serious liberal bent, it was very well written and well presented) in which Josh Lyman and his multiple assistants decided they must refer to the recession as a "bagel" because to name it correctly gave it credence and power where if you pretended it wasn't there maybe it would go away.  If I recall correctly, the strategy didn't work. 

                               This a different jumper who obviously does not shareBiden's denial of a recession

MOWER STARTS GRASS FIRE THAT BRCOMES A CATASTROPHE FOR DALLAS SUBURB OF BALCH SPRINGS

Homeowners are left distraught as raging grass fire sparked by a mower destroys up to 20 suburban Dallas homes after sweeping across tinder-dry field 

 

The mower was being used in the open field to trim the brush when its blade struck some debris and generated a spark that ignited the blaze in Balch Springs, north Texas 

 

By Rachael Bunyan and Associated Press 

 

Daily Mail

July 26, 2022

 

 

A large grass fire spread into a Balch Springs neighborhood where it burned multiple homes beyond repair on Monday 

 

Homeowners have been left distraught after a grass fire apparently sparked by a mower swept about 300 yards across a tinder-dry open field to a suburban Dallas subdivision, burning through wooden fences and torching as many as 20 houses.

The blaze in Balch Springs was the latest in drought-stricken North Texas, which has been vulnerable to explosive wildfires for at least two weeks.

The mower was being used in the open field to trim the brush when its blade struck some debris and generated a spark that ignited the blaze, said Balch Springs Fire Marshal Sean Davis. 

The fire spread quickly north from the shoulder of Interstate 20 to the subdivision about 4 pm on Monday, causing varying degrees of damage to 14 to 20 homes before the flames were contained, Davis said.

There were no immediate reports of injuries, he said.

Aerial video showed the fire spread up and down the street as firefighters and homeowners working in 103-degree heat tried to prevent the fire from spreading to more of the bricked frame homes. 

 

Flames spread to at least 14 homes in Balch Springs, about 15 miles southeast of Dallas

 

Aerial video showed the fire spread up and down the street as firefighters and homeowners working in 103-degree heat tried to prevent the fire from spreading to more of the bricked frame homes

 

Aerial video shows dozens of homes burning next to the charred grass land in Dallas 

 

Video shows firefighters trying to stem the flames so that the fire does not spread to any more homes in Dallas

 

The blaze in Balch Springs was the latest in drought-stricken North Texas, which has been vulnerable to explosive wildfires for at least two weeks

 

The mower was being used in the open field to trim the brush when its blade struck some debris and generated a spark that ignited the blaze, said Balch Springs Fire Marshal Sean Davis

Firefighters put out hot spots on a home that was one of several that burned when they caught fire from a nearby grass fire in Balch Springs, Texas, on Monday

One end of the fire spread to a home where a panicked dog ran back and forth before running through a pet door at a neighboring home. The fate of pets was not immediately known, Davis said.

Fire crews from Dallas and other nearby suburbs have gone to the scene to assist Balch Springs crews.

Firefighting teams have thrown dozens of extra crew members into the fight over the weekend against a North Texas wildfire that has destroyed 16 homes and damaged five others, officials said Monday.

The crews have held the Chalk Mountain Fire effects in check at 10 1/2 square miles (27 1/4 square km) since last week, according to the Southern Area Blue, Type-I Incident Management Team.

Team leaders say they have added 126 firefighters and extra fire engines and bulldozers to the 190 already clearing fire lines over the weekend 50 miles (80 km) southwest of Fort Worth, expanding the containment from 10% to 20%.

 

Firefighters put out hot spots on a home that was one of several that burned when they caught fire from a nearby grass fire in Balch Springs

 

Aerial footage shows firefighters working to put out the fire which ripped through dozens of homes in Dallas

 

Video shows firefighters trying to stem the flames so that the fire does not spread to any more homes in Dallas

 

Smoke rises from the ashes after firefighters extinguished a large grass fire that spread into a Balch Springs neighborhood

 

Firefighters from multiple departments work on putting out hot spots when a nearby grass fire burned several homes in Balch Springs, Texas

 

Firefighters put out hot spots on a home that was one of several that burned when they caught fire from a nearby grass fire

 

Firefighters put out hot spots on a home that was one of several that burned when they caught fire from a nearby grass fire

 

Smoke rises from the ashes after firefighters extinguished a large grass fire that spread into a Balch Springs neighborhood

 

Firefighters from multiple departments work on putting out hot spots when a nearby grass fire burned several homes

Meantime, firefighters are mopping up the Possum Kingdom Lake fire that destroyed five homes 70 miles (112km) west of Fort Worth. That fire is now 95% contained, team leaders said Monday.

This year has been plagued by wildfires fostered by severe to extreme drought throughout the West.

In California, a huge wildfire spread to a forest near Yosemite National Park, forcing thousands of residents to evacuate mountain communities. The fire is the second to strike the area. Another fire that broke out in the area earlier this month burned to the edge of a grove of giant sequoias.

In New Mexico, a prescribed burn in early April got out of control and grew to the biggest wildfire in the state's history, blackening more than 500 square miles (1295.00 square km) in the north of the state.