Category Archives: DOJ, DC and inside the Beltway

San Francisco a Threat to Public Safety, Travel Advisory Needed

Posted on by

Governor Newsom traveled to El Salvador, paid for by some non-profit organization to allegedly examine business relationships with California to include tourism and to help out the financial plight of the country.

Destination El Salvador: Newsom's first international trip ...

Meanwhile, has he said a word about the plight of those in California? The state is in a tailspin. What about Dianne Feinstein or Nancy Pelosi? A single word?

Quite frankly there needs to be a travel advisory placed on California….it is a hazmat condition.

San Francisco where human waste has been reported since 2011 has emerged as the city continues to grapple with its growing homeless population.

Caltrans cleaning San Jose 'Googleville' homeless ...

In total, there have been 118,352 instances reported over the last eight years with the map showing a blanket of brown pins which almost covers the city entirely.

Most were found in one of ten neighborhoods; Tenderloin, South of Market, Mission, Civic Center, Mission Dolores, Lower Nob Hill, Potrero Hill, Showplace Square, North Beach and the Financial District.

The incidents took place mostly in 10 neighborhoods stretched out across the northern part of the city

The map was compiled by data company Open The Books.

Their data revealed that the worst year was last year when more than 28,000 instances were reported.

***

It is a slum…

Oakland to try ‘safe haven’ camps for homeless ...

San Francisco is a pretty good place to “hang out with a sign.” People are rarely arrested for vagrancy, aggressive panhandling, or going to the bathroom in front of people’s homes. In 2015, there were 60,491 complaints to police, but only 125 people were arrested.

Public drug use is generally ignored. One woman told us, “It’s nasty seeing people shoot up—right in front of you. Police don’t do anything about it! They’ll get somebody for drinking a beer but walk right past people using needles.”

Each day in San Francisco, an average of 85 cars are broken into.

“Inside Edition” ran a test to see how long stereo equipment would last in a parked car. Its test car was quickly broken into. Then the camera crew discovered that its own car had been busted into as well.

Some store owners hire private police to protect their stores. But San Francisco’s police union has complained about the competition. Now there are only a dozen private cops left, and street people dominate neighborhoods.

We followed one private cop, who asked street people, “Do you need any type of homeless outreach services?”

Most say no. “They love the freedom of not having to follow the rules,” said the cop.

And San Francisco is generous. It offers street people food stamps, free shelter, train tickets, and $70 a month in cash.

“They’re always offering resources,” one man dressed as Santa told us. “San Francisco’s just a good place to hang out.”

So every week, new people arrive.

Some residents want the city to get tougher with people living on the streets.

“Get them to the point where they have to make a decision between jail and rehab,” one told us. “Other cities do it, but for some reason, San Francisco doesn’t have the political will.”

For decades, San Francisco’s politicians promised to fix the homeless problem.

When Sen. Dianne Feinstein was mayor, she proudly announced that she was putting the homeless in hotels: “A thousand units, right here in the Tenderloin!”

When California Gov. Gavin Newsom was mayor of San Francisco, he bragged, “We have already moved 6,860 human beings.”

Last year, former Mayor Mark Farrell said, “We need to fund programs like Homeward Bound.”

But the extra funding hasn’t worked.

One reason is that even if someone did want to get off the street and rent an apartment, there aren’t many available.

San Francisco is filled with two- and three-story buildings, and in most neighborhoods, putting up a taller building is illegal. Even where zoning laws allow it, California regulations make construction so difficult that many builders won’t even try.

For years, developer John Dennis has been trying to convert an old meatpacking plant into an apartment building—but it has taken him four years just to get permission to build.

“And all that time, we’re paying property taxes and paying for maintenance,” says Dennis. “I will do no more projects in San Francisco.”

People in San Francisco often claim to be concerned about helping the poor. But their many laws make life much tougher for the poor.

 

 

PEACH Publishes Anti-Vaccine Propaganda

Posted on by

Jewish Group Spread Anti-Vax Propaganda Before New York’s ...

Anonymous anti-vaxxers push propaganda on local Orthodox community

The purported Jewish organization sent a 40-page anti-vaccine booklet that cites rabbis questioning the obligation to vaccinate children, links vaccines to physical harm and death.

An unwelcome package arrived in the mailboxes of many members of Pittsburgh’s Orthodox community last month — a 40-page anti-vaccination booklet titled “The Vaccine Safety Handbook,” published by a purported Jewish organization called PEACH (Parents Teaching and Advocating for Children’s Health).

The pamphlet, whose authors and editors hide behind pseudonyms, is filled with spurious “facts” that refute hard scientific studies, including long-refuted claims that vaccines are linked to autism.

The final page of the handbook bears an inscription of dedication to a child who “passed away from SIDS three days after her DTaP vaccine.”

Attempts by the Chronicle to reach PEACH for comment were unsuccessful. In a curt email response, a representative from the organization referred only to the handbook, calling it “comprehensive” and did not respond to an inquiry as to how it obtained its Pittsburgh mailing list.

The extensive booklet not only cites various rabbis questioning the obligation to vaccinate children, but also advances anecdotes and statistics in an attempt to connect vaccinations to physical harm and death. More here.

***

(In part)

A a 40-page booklet about vaccines that’s been circulating in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg and Borough Park neighborhoods is Public Health Enemy No. 1.

Called “The Vaccine Safety Handbook: A Handbook for Parents,” the magazine comes across as an official publication, cleanly designed and sporting extensive footnotes citing scientific studies. Published by Parents Educating and Advocating for Children’s Health, the booklet is commonly known as the “PEACH magazine” and has been passed among friends and relatives in ultra-Orthodox—also known as Haredi—communities.

And cover to cover, it’s full of misinformation about vaccines.

“When I got my hands on a copy…I realized this was a piece of anti-vaccination propaganda,” said Marcus, a nurse practitioner at Memorial Sloan Kettering and adjunct professor of nursing at Hunter College.

Amid the largest measles outbreak in nearly 30 years, and a rise in vaccine hesitancy within the ultra-Orthodox community, Blima and other members of the Orthodox Jewish Nurses Association decided to do something about it. They have been compiling a book of their own to respond to PEACH’s assertions, which is slated for publication in the next few weeks.

“We decided to be a little tongue and cheek and call it PIE, Parents Informed and Educated,” Marcus said. There’s a rotten peach on the front cover.

She blames the PEACH magazine, and the hotline also run by the group, for the spread of fears about vaccines in their communities. Marcus realized the influence the PEACH book had while she was giving presentations about vaccines in living rooms for groups of Orthodox moms; she found the book spooked many of them. They had questions about the book’s claims, but they weren’t getting their questions answered at the doctors office.

(allegedly)

Published by Orthodox Jews, the booklet is targeted to ultra-Orthodox Jews, with excerpts from the Torah, bits written in Hebrew, and a letter signed by several rabbis from Lakewood, New Jersey, and Philadelphia in support of parents of unvaccinated children.

032519nuremburg.jpg

This type of slickly produced misinformation from anti-vaccination groups is familiar to Sean O’Leary, a spokesman for the American Academy of Pediatrics, who specializes in vaccines and vaccine preventable illnesses at Children’s Hospital Colorado. He says he’s seen the claims in the PEACH magazine used by anti-vaccination groups across the country for years.

“They use these sort of leaps of logic if you’re not really paying attention and you don’t live in this world of reviewing scientific literature it’s very easy to miss,” O’Leary said. “I absolutely understand how parents get taken in by this. They’re trying to do what’s best for their children and these misinformed pamphlets; they play on parents’ fears.”

But O’Leary added, the same thing that made the PEACH manual so dangerous, might make the PIE book by the group of nurses a success.

“This was being shared parent to parent. You get it from a trusted friend you think, ‘Oh this must be true,’” he said. “So the fact that people within the community around the community are helping dispel those myths I think is very powerful.”

One of the contributing researchers to the PEACH manual is Barbara Loe Fisher, who co-founded National Vaccine Information Center, a group that lobbies against mandatory vaccination laws. Contributing editor Moishe Kahan, who lives in Williamsburg, helped facilitate the PEACH group’s conference calls, according to two doctors who were contacted by him. When reached by Gothamist/WNYC at his Williamsburg apartment, he threatened a reporter with arrest, adding, “I have no interest in talking to fake news reporters.” Read the full summary here from the Gothamist.

Marc Elias, the Dubious Lawyer of Politicians

Posted on by

Marc Elias is the Chair of the law firm Perkins Coie. You know that firm because that firm hired Fusion GPS, then Christopher Steele, the former British spy that eventually gave us that funky Trump dossier.

OOPS: Lawyer Linked To Trump Dossier Was Sitting Right ... Elias and Podesta

The Democrat National Committee paid Perkins Coie at least $7 million for legal work on the matter of Fusion GPS. Not to be overlook, the Obama campaign (OFA) also paid Perkins Coie almost $1 million in 2016 for ‘legal services’. Oh, and the Hillary for America paid Perkins Coie $5.1 in 2016 ad the DNC paid Perkins Coie $5.4 million in 2016.

Sidebar: (the wife of a Fusion GPS employee, Shailagh Murray, who previously worked for the Washington Post went on to work in the Obama White House as a communications adviser. Murray is married to Neil King, who formerly worked for the Wall Street Journal, the very place and time that Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS was there. And those back channels just keep open with high traffic of shady people…

During some testimony….the FBI general counsel, James Baker revealed that Michael Sussman, a former DoJ lawyer was the point person that got a thumb drive that had documents related to Russian interference of the election and hacking. Sussman..well yes works at Perkins Coie.

Famed lawyer and legal professor, Jonathan Turley had an item from October of 2017 that read in part: Here is the nut of the report:

“Podesta was asked in his September interview whether the Clinton campaign had a contractual agreement with Fusion GPS, and he said he was not aware of one, according to one of the sources. Sitting next to Podesta during the interview: his attorney Marc Elias, who worked for the law firm that hired Fusion GPS to continue research on Trump on behalf of the Clinton campaign and DNC, multiple sources said. Elias was only there in his capacity as Podesta’s attorney and not as a witness.”
If this and the earlier report is true, Elias not only falsely denied any connection between the Clinton campaign and the dossier to two New York Times reporters but sat silently as Podesta gave false information to congressional investigators.

Okay now that we have that part covered, let us move on to Kamala Harris shall we? When she launched her presidential campaign, she needed a lawyer. Yup, she hired Marc Elias. He came with high recommendations from Hillary as Elias worked for her campaign and he also worked for the John Kerry presidential campaign. Elias represents the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Congressional Committee and oh yeah, the Democratic Governors Association. Pssst, he also represented Al Franken and his 2008 senate campaign.

Elias is the legal fixer.

During the two highly contested races in Florida including the senate race and the governor race….guess who Marc Elias represented? Yes, Andrew Gillum and Bill Nelson, the democrats and both had to concede. Elias was again the shady lawyer that pulled all the levers for making absentee ballots, mismarked ballots and irregular ballots get counted.

He is the loud voice behind the repeated headlines that the Republicans support voter suppression of youth voters. Hence part in parcel the reason there is a new debate of lowering the voting age. If you just read his Twitter feed, you will see how he plants the seeds of new voting laws. He does have a cool dog though named Bode.

Shortly before the 2016 election, billionaire left-wing donor George Soros gave at least $5 million to Elias and his firm to challenge what left-wing activists allege to be restrictions that deter Democrats and left-wing constituencies from voting, such as photo identification requirements at polling places. In early 2017, Elias joined the board of Priorities USA as it was announced that the organization would begin focusing on similar work. Soros also contributed $5 million to the Priorities USA super PAC during the 2018 election cycle.

Elias recently had a 5 minute Q&A. Of note is the following:

What law would you change, abolish or create?
I would enact universal voter registration and otherwise modernize our voting laws.

How has the practice of representing public officials, parties and organizations evolved over the years?
The field of political law has grown dramatically in size since I started, and has changed dramatically. What was once a side-practice for a handful of lawyers is not a fully-fledged specialty. We now deal with so many more issues than just campaign finance. We need to advise on intellectual property, business law, leases, employment law, and litigation — to name a few areas. As campaigns grow in size so do their legal needs.

Who is your legal hero?
I have a deep and abiding respect for my mentor and fellow Partner at Perkins Coie, Bob Bauer, who literally invented this area of the law.

Sheesh Bob Bauer was a White House lawyer and private attorney for Barack Obama. At that time there were at least three cases of note. 1) the whole Obama/Blagojevich case 2) letters written to TV stations forbidding them from running ads that tied Obama to Bill Ayers and Weather Underground and then 3) the Tony Rezko affair.

Another sidebar: Bob Bauer’s wife is Anita Dunn, who also worked in the Obama White House. For those with a short memory, she was the one who said she admired Mao Zedong….

Ah, so now we have a major Federal investigation in Illinois….no real surprise there except this has to do with the new Governor, J.B. Pritzker. The federal criminal investigation is for a dubious residential property tax appeal that critics highlighted in last year’s gubernatorial race. Those details are here.

Oh…guess who is the lawyer of record for Pritzker? SURPRISE it is….Marc Elias. Can you imagine the case files he has on democrats and their nefarious actions?

Not All of Central America is Desperate, but Is

Posted on by

Belize and Costa Rica are thriving. Tourism for Belize is the top economic earner, then comes sugar and citrus production. The country enjoys an estimated annual growth of 2.5%. Costa Rica also has a strong economy with almost 4% annual growth and both countries have foreign investors.

So when it comes to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, they are among the poorest countries in the region. Seems those countries maintain an 85% poverty rate. The SOUTHCOM  Commander, Navy Admiral Craig Faller was in the region in January for a week visit to the three countries discussing security cooperation with emphasis on training, counter-drug missions and humanitarian operations. The United States maintains flight operations that track, detect and monitor all vehicles and crafts for illicit drug trafficking.

USAID has these cockamamie work plans in the region that promotes prosperity. That includes securing borders, increasing economic and business opportunities and stopping corruption. How is that working out? Just skim this document for context.

USAID gives $181 million to Honduras annually. Guatemala receives $257 million while El Salvador accepts $118 million. But hold on that is not all. We also have this other U. S. organization called Millennium Challenge. This is yet another cockamamie operation designed to partner with countries worldwide to promote growth and lift people out of poverty while investing in future generations through education.

Under the Hillary Clinton and John Kerry State Departments, Millennium Challenge has these workshops. Read more here.

Meanwhile, people are still bailing out of Central America in these caravans and the plight of Central America is now a plight for the United States coming through our Southern border.

So, check out how the caravans are using social media and encrypted communications to mobilize.

***

How does a Central American migrant caravan form?

By MARIA VERZA and MARCOS ALEMANtoday
In this Oct. 28, 2018 file photo, migrants charge their cell phones as a caravan of Central Americans trying to reach the U.S. border halts for a rest day in San Pedro Tapanatepec, Oaxaca state, Mexico. Hundreds of Central Americans are now getting as many details as possible before leaving north towards the U.S. border. Increasingly they’re organized over Facebook and WhatsApp as they try to join together in large groups they hope will make the trip safer, and without having to hide themselves from authorities. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — “When does the next caravan leave?” ″Can I go? I’m from Guatemala.” ″What papers do I need for my kids?”

The questions pile up on the phones of hundreds of Central Americans, all with the same goal: Get as many details as possible before leaving their country.

Costly phone calls with relatives and friends in the United States to work out the route or find the best smuggler are a thing of the past for many Central Americans. Now would-be migrants create chat groups and organize using social media to leave in caravans.

“The social networks have had an empowering role in this new way of migrating,” said Abbdel Camargo, an anthropologist at the College of the Southern Border in Mexico. “They organize themselves en masse in their home countries, formed by entire families, and the networks serve them as a mechanism for safety and communication throughout the journey.”

The roots of the migrant caravan phenomenon began years ago when activists organized processions – often with a religious theme – during Holy Week to dramatize the hardships and needs of migrants. A minority of those involved wound up traveling all the way to the U.S. border.

That changed last year: On Oct. 13, hundreds of people walked out of Honduras and as the days passed and they crossed Guatemala, the group grew to more than 7,000 migrants. U.S. President Donald Trump seized on the new phenomenon to ramp up his anti-immigrant policies.

Since then, and parallel to the usual clandestine migrant flow north, smaller caravans have continued to leave the so-called Northern Triangle of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.

And increasingly they’re organized over Facebook and WhatsApp as they try to join together in large groups they hope will make the trip safer, and without having to hide from authorities.

The most recent caravan left the bus station in San Pedro Sula in northern Honduras on April 10, and journalists from The Associated Press have been following various online migrant chats since late March.

“Anyone know anything about the caravan leaving on the 10th? They say the mother of all caravans is going,” one message said.

In this Feb. 8, 2019 file photo, 17-year-old Honduran migrant Josue Mejia Lucero, his girlfriend Milagro de Jesus Henriquez Ayala, 15, and Josue’s 3-year-old nephew Jefferson, look at cell phones as they lie in bed at the Agape World Mission shelter in Tijuana, Mexico. Hundreds of Central Americans are now getting as many details as possible before leaving north towards the U.S. border. (AP Photo/Emilio Espejel, File)

Élmer Alberto Cardona, a 27-year-old shopkeeper from Honduras, saw an announcement on Facebook just days after being deported from the U.S. to San Pedro Sula and said he didn’t think twice: He collected his three children, ages 3, 6 and 9, and headed north again on April 10.

He and his wife had left with the first caravan in October and made it to Tijuana, across the border from California. They obtained Mexican humanitarian visas that allowed them to temporarily live and work locally, but decided to cross the border and turn themselves over to U.S. border agents to request asylum.

It didn’t go well and they were detained in facilities in different states. He was deported first and his wife was still locked up when he started the journey again, this time with his children.

“I think it will go better this time; it looks like a lot of people are getting together,” he said by phone near the Honduras-Guatemala border.

It’s not clear who is launching the chats. The AP called the number of the person who created one of the WhatsApp chats. The woman who answered said her husband had lived in the U.S. for eight years, was deported and now wanted to return. After a few minutes, a male voice was heard and then she suddenly hung up and no one answered again.

In that group, members give bits of advice: Everyone should bring their passports and those thinking of traveling with children or coming from far away should arrive a day before the caravan leaves. “To take a child you just need a passport and permission if the mother isn’t going.” ″Take a photo with the mother and the baby.”

Some chats appear to be created for a set departure date. Others remain active from earlier caravans or with an eye toward future ones. They usually have various administrators who give advice from points on the route. WhatsApp group members’ phone numbers are from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and even the United States. Friends and relatives share invitations.

People aren’t afraid to ask delicate questions in the chats: “Group, in Mexico can you find someone to take you to the other side?” And suspicions come out: “Don’t trust.” ″Remember that in Mexico there are a lot of kidnappings.” ”’There are no coordinators, that’s what people have to say so there aren’t problems.”

The messages also explore ways to seek protection against the robberies, extortion, kidnappings that have long plagued those crossing Mexico. Some express fear that the gangs have tried to infiltrate: “This dude works with the Zetas, a friend of mine from Olancho told me he knows him and that he’s still with them,” said someone who shared a photo of the alleged criminal.

Attention to the recent caravans soared in late March, when Mexican Interior Secretary, Olga Sánchez Cordero met with then-Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, and without giving details, said that “the mother of all caravans” was forming with more than 20,000 people.

Shortly thereafter, Trump threatened again to close the border with Mexico and suspend aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

While some in the group that left San Pedro Sula referred to it as “the mother of all caravans,” it had fewer than 3,000 people when it arrived at the Mexican border.

The caravans often grow when they reach Mexico because other migrants who are already waiting in the border area tend to join. As of mid-April, there were more than 8,000 migrants, including those who left San Pedro Sula on April 10, at various places in the southern state of Chiapas, according to Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission.

For those hoping to join, the chats provide information in real time about where to meet up — “Caravan where are you going?” ″We’re waiting for you here” — and also about roadblocks, places in Mexico where visas are being processed or sites where there’s been a problem.

Members also upload photos and videos to let their families know where they are and how they’re doing.

And though the April 10 caravan is still in southern Mexico, people in some groups are about forming others: “Another is leaving April 30, Salvadoran friends.”

___

Over 10,000 non-detained Illegal Aliens in America

Posted on by

Hat tip

ERO-LESA Statistical Tracking UnitFor Official Use Only (FOUO)

Pre-decisional 2018-ICFO-32380 Non-Detained Illegal Aliens on the National Docket, as of 06/02/2018

Country of Citizenship Final Order Pending Final Order Total

IRAN 6,331 NORTH KOREA 21 SUDAN 1,860 SYRIA 2,128

Ramin Talaie Pictures | Getty Images

The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) revealed Friday that it has received documents under the Freedom of Information Act that show that the illegals have either been ordered deported or have pending final orders of removal, but are still in the U.S.”

IRLI reported, “In response to an IRLI Freedom of Information Act request, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) provided records that showed that as of June 2018, there were over 10,000 non-detained illegal aliens on ICE’s National Docket from Iran, Syria, Sudan, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea). Iran led the pack with over 6,000 or 61 percent of their citizens with removal orders followed by Syria with 20 percent, Sudan with 18 percent, and North Korea with less than a percent.”

The report quoted ICE Director Thomas Homan expressing his concern, asserting, “My biggest concern isn’t how many terrorists have been arrested entering the country illegally, but how many got through? How many did Border Patrol not catch? That’s what Americans should be thinking about.”

IRLI’s director, Dale L. Wilcox, added:

It’s simply unacceptable that we also have more than 10,000 aliens here from terrorist states that are sworn enemies of America. We saw on 9/11 the damage that only 19 sleeper cell terrorists could cause. This is just the latest example of the disaster of sanctuary laws, which force ICE agents to operate with one hand tied behind their backs while making our communities inherently more dangerous.

PJ Media noted, “State and local law enforcement agencies once coordinated with ICE to remove people on the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) list who were wanted on an administrative warrant for removal from the U.S., but sanctuary laws prevent such coordination. ICE has still removed an average of about 44 known or suspected terrorists per year in fiscal years 2017 and 2018, IRLI reported.”

The Washington Free Beacon reported in April 2018, “Iranian agents tied to the terror group Hezbollah have already been discovered in the United States plotting attacks.” The Beacon quoted various intelligence officials and former White House insiders saying Iran could use Hezbollah agents in America to mount a strike. Michael Pregent, a former intelligence officer, said, “They are as good or better at explosive devices than ISIS, they are better at assassinations and developing assassination cells. They’re better at targeting, better at looking at things … Hezbollah is smart. They’re very good at keeping their communications secure, keeping their operational security secure, and, again, from a high profile attack perspective, they’d be good at improvised explosive devices.”

Emanuele Ottolenghi, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, added, “The answer is absolutely. We do face a threat. Their networks are present in the Untied States … It doesn’t take many of them to penetrate this country and be a major threat. They can pose a major threat to our homeland.” He concluded, “Iran’s proxy terror networks in Latin America are run by Tehran’s wholly owned Lebanese franchise Hezbollah. These networks are equal part crime and terror and have the ability to provide funding and logistics to militant fighters. Their presence in Latin America must be viewed as a forward operating base against America’s interest in the region and the homeland itself.”