Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungoverwe’ve been bailed outwe’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
Terror bombings strike London’s transit system; Oliver North testifies at Iran-Contra hearings; Sandra Day O’Connor nominated for U.S. Supreme Court; Author Robert Heinlein and musician Ringo Starr born.
From monitoring clinical trials and approving medicines and vaccines, to ensuring the safety of blood transfusions, medical devices, groceries, and more, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is one of the nation’s most vital watchdogs. By several measures, however, FDA’s compliance and enforcement actions have plummeted since President Donald Trump took office, Science has found.
The agency’s “warning letters”—a key tool for keeping dangerous or ineffective drugs and devices and tainted foods off the market—have fallen by one-third, for example. Such letters typically demand swift corrections to protect public health and safety. FDA records from Trump’s inauguration through 22 May show the agency issued 1033 warning letters, compared with 1532 for the most recent equivalent period under former President Barack Obama. Compared with the start of the Obama presidency, Trump-era letters dropped by nearly half.
Warnings from the FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health, which helps ensure the safety and quality of medical devices, and from some of the agency’s district offices—including Philadelphia, Florida, and New York—have dropped even more steeply, by more than two-thirds. Two district offices have not issued a warning in more than 2 years. The numbers don’t just reflect a new administration’s slow start. FDA sent significantly fewer warning letters in the second year of Trump’s presidency than in his first.
Though the dividing line between Democratic presidential candidates on “Medicare for All” concerns the elimination of the private insurance market, new Morning Consult data suggests that anxiety among voters may be misplaced fear about losing their providers rather than their private plans.
According to a Morning Consult/Politico survey conducted after the first Democratic presidential primary debates, support among voters for Medicare for All falls to 46 percent from 53 percent when respondents are told the government-run health system would diminish the role of private insurers — but rises back to 55 percent when voters learn that losing their private plans would still allow them to keep their preferred doctors and hospitals.
Between the forums last Wednesday and Thursday, only four of the 20 candidates onstage said they were in favor of abolishing private health insurance in favor of a government-run plan: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Kamala Harris (Calif.). Harris later partially modified her position, stating she misheard the question and believes private plans should continue offering supplemental coverage alongside the federal system (as would be the case under Sanders’ Medicare for All plan).
“These numbers only affirm what the senator has said many times: people don’t like insurance companies, they like their doctors and their hospitals,” Sanders’ campaign said of the data in an email to Morning Consult. “Despite what the pharmaceutical and insurance industries will tell you, Medicare for All is the only proposal that gives Americans the freedom to control their own futures — change jobs, start a family, start a business — and keep their doctor.”
Iran nuclear deal: Government announces enrichment breach
Iran has announced it will break a limit set on uranium enrichment, in breach of the landmark 2015 deal designed to curb its nuclear ambitions.
Deputy foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said Iran still wanted to salvage the deal but blamed European countries for failing to live up to their own commitments.
The US unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2018.
It has since reimposed tight sanctions affecting the Iranian economy.
The Iranian announcement marks the latest breach of the accord.
In May, Iran stepped up its production of enriched uranium, which can be used to make fuel for reactors but also for nuclear weapons.
Donald Trump ‘inept’ and ‘dysfunctional’, UK ambassador to US says
In ‘leaked’ diplomatic memos, Kim Darroch reportedly says presidency could ‘end in disgrace’
Agence France-Presse
Britain’s ambassador in the United States has described President Donald Trump and his administration as “inept” and “uniquely dysfunctional”, according to ‘leaked’ diplomatic memos published by the Mail on Sunday.
Ambassador Kim Darroch reportedly said Trump’s presidency could “crash and burn” and “end in disgrace”, in the cache of secret cables and briefing notes sent back to Britain and seen by the newspaper.
“We don’t really believe this administration is going to become substantially more normal; less dysfunctional; less unpredictable; less faction riven; less diplomatically clumsy and inept,” Darroch allegedly wrote in one dispatch.
Iran and France working on plan to salvage nuclear deal, Macron says
French and Iranian presidents want to find ‘conditions for talks’ between Tehran and world powers
France and Iran have agreed to work together to find conditions for resuming international talks aimed at saving the 2015 nuclear deal, French president Emmanuel Macron has said.
Mr Macron said he spoke for more than an hour with Iranian president Hassan Rouhani on Saturday, and said they are trying to find a way to resume dialogue between world powers and Iran.
It comes as Iranian officials get set to announce an increase in uranium enrichment to 5 per cent – an amount above the limit set by the landmark agreement.
The World’s BankVast Chinese Loans Pose Risks to Developing World
China is the largest creditor in the world, funding infrastructure projects in the developing world in exchange for access to raw materials. A new study shows that the risk of a new debt crisis is significant.
The future rail link cuts its way through the jungles of Laos for over 400 kilometers. Soon, trains will be rolling through — over bridges, through tunnels and across dams built just for the line, which runs from the Chinese border in the north to the Laotian capital of Vientiane on the Mekong River.
After five years of construction, the line is set to go into service in 2021. And the Chinese head of one of the sections has no doubt that it will be finished on time. “Our office alone employs 4,000 workers,” he says. There is also no lack of money: The Chinese government in Beijing has earmarked around 6 billion dollars for the project and has recently become both Laos’s largest creditor and most significant provider of development aid.
Designed as a symbol of unity, Hong Kong’s flag becomes the focus of protest
Written byOscar Holland, CNNHong Kong
Hong Kong’s flag was designed to be a symbol of unity. Its circular arrangement of white flower petals, set prominently against a bright red background, is supposed to embody the rights and freedoms enjoyed under the “one country, two systems” principle.
But in the 22 years since it was first raised, the flag and flower emblem have become targets for pro-democracy activists — including those who smashedtheir way into Hong Kong’s Legislative Council building Monday evening, after weeks of street protests.
Demonstrators are using the city’s ensign, which depicts a bauhinia flower, as a symbolic tool in their push to block a controversial extradition bill. Banners and protest art, for instance, have pictured the petals wilting, an apparent commentary on the perceived erosion of sovereignty.
THE RIVER BASIN at the center of Latin America called the Amazon is roughly the size of Australia. Created at the beginning of the world by a smashing of tectonic plates, it was the cradle of inland seas and continental lakes. For the last several million years, it has been blanketed by a teeming tropical biome of 400 billion trees and vegetation so dense and heavy with water, it exhales a fifth of Earth’s oxygen, stores centuries of carbon, and deflects and consumes an unknown but significant amount of solar heat. Twenty percent of the world’s fresh water cycles through its rivers, plants, soils, and air. This moisture fuels and regulates multiple planet-scale systems, including the production of “rivers in the air” by evapotranspiration, a ceaseless churning flux in which the forest breathes its water into great hemispheric conveyer belts that carry it as far as the breadbaskets of Argentina and the American Midwest, where it is released as rain.
So for the last week I’ve been at North Lake, making sure it’s up to code and fully functional as our Primary Satellite HQ for 2020 (Tulsi Gabbard is dumping a ton of money into an early buy, a bit too soon for Yard Signs yet) and preparing for International travel. I spend the next 2 days at By The Sea doing the same for our Arts and Entertainment branch and then I’m making a run for the border.
I’ll be doing Travel/Stay for about 2 weeks then back to By The Sea for a performance. I try to provide seamless service but posting will be irregular.
I’ll be back in Stars Hollow for a week or 2 after that, then more frantic running around. Things may settle out by Halloween but they might not too.
Since I will be physically isolated from the Internet for the rest of today this will probably be my only piece unless there are earth shattering developments. I will surely burden you tomorrow with the results of the 2019 Women’s World Cup.
Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungoverwe’ve been bailed outwe’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
This Day in History
John Lennon and Paul McCartney meet for first time; Baseball’s first All-Star Game; Outbreak of the Biafran War; Painter Frida Kahlo born; Althea Gibson wins at Wimbledon; Singing cowboy Roy Rogers dies.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.
A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Southern California on Friday night, the second major temblor in less than two days and one that rocked buildings across Southern California, adding more jitters to an already nervous region.
The quake was centered near Ridgecrest, the location of the July Fourth 6.4 magnitude temblor that was the largest in nearly 20 years. It was followed by an aftershock first reported as 5.5 in magnitude. Scientists said the fault causing the quakes appears to be growing.
Friday night’s quake caused some fires and other damage in and around Ridgecrest and Trona, two Mojave Desert towns shaken by both quakes, said Mark Ghilarducci, director of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. The quake was felt as far away as Phoenix, Las Vegas, Baja California and Reno, according to crowd-sourced data logged into the U.S. Geological Survey’s Did You Feel It? website.
Rare photos shine light on ‘degrading’ conditions in Iraqi jails
Concerns overcrowding at prisons for Isis suspects could fuel radicalisation
Photos have surfaced of overcrowded and “degrading” conditions in Iraqi detention centres used to hold thousands of men, women and children with suspected links to Islamic State.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday it had acquired rare photographic evidence of conditions falling short of the most basic international standards at three facilities in Nineveh province. HRW warned the situation could lead to the radicalisation of vulnerable prisoners.
In one photograph, taken at Tal Kayf prison, dozens of women and small children are so tightly packed into a cell that the floor is not visible and clothes and belongings are hung on the wall. In another, of a juvenile cell at Tal Kayf, there is so little room a sea of teenage boys are forced to sleep in the foetal position.
Malta says deal reached with Italy to take migrants from rescue boat
Malta said it will accept migrants from a rescue vessel that had been headed toward Italy. A second boat with rescued migrants is also sailing for Lampedusa, where Italian officials have said it won’t be allowed to dock.
Malta and Italy reportedly reached a deal on Friday to begin to tackle the standoff between charity rescue ships in the Mediterranean Sea and Italy’s far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.
The two countries are said to have agreed to each take refugees from a sailboat belonging to Italian NGO Mediterranea that rescued 54 people at sea.
Under the arrangement, Malta would send a coast guard vessel to pick up migrants on the Mediterranea and bring them to the country’s capital, Valetta.
In South Sudan, daring to hope for peace
After five years of brutal civil war in South Sudan, a peace deal signed last year by President Salva Kiir and his opponent Riek Machar is providing hope at last. Our reporters went to Bentiu, one of the cities worst affected by the war and home to 100,000 displaced people. Our team also witnessed negotiations between former enemies who are now praying side by side for a shared future.
Nine months after the ratification of a peace deal by South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir and SPLM-IO rebel leader Riek Machar, violence in the country is subsiding. Several people have admittedly been killed since then, but far fewer than what the country has seen in five years of civil war.
Since December 15, 2013, the armed conflict between supporters of Salva Kiir and those of Riek Machar has left hundreds of thousands dead and forced four million people to flee their homes.
Losing one island cost Japan a war. That’s a warning for the South China Sea
In early July 1944, on a tiny island in the Pacific Ocean, the United States clinched a devastating defeat over Japan in one of the bloodiest battles of World War II.
Some 29,000 Japanese troops, almost the entire force Tokyo put on Saipan, in the Northern Marianas, were killed. US losses totaled almost 3,000 dead and more than 10,000 wounded.
It was a pivotal moment in the war.
Soon after the Battle of Saipan, the US took the nearby islands of Tinian and Guam. On all three islands, the US built runways to accommodate heavy B-29 bombers, the biggest bombers in World War II.
Debate on death penalty not very vigorous 1 year after Aum executions
July marks one year since the founder and 12 former senior members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult were executed after being convicted of murders, including the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system.
The executions could have sparked a vigorous debate on the death penalty in Japan, but they have not led to any major movement calling for its abolition despite international criticism, and polls suggest many Japanese are supportive of capital punishment.
The unprecedented group execution of Aum founder Shoko Asahara, whose real name was Chizuo Matsumoto, and the former senior members occurred on July 6 and 26, 2018.
Unlike some of my contemporaries I’ve been reluctant to embrace the Internet because as a Computer Technician I have long and well understood the Privacy Problem and the tangential Permanence of Ephemeral Photons.
Unless you are clever and well disciplined (and most people aren’t) your on screen activities, even conducted under a pseudonym, are easily connected by anyone with an interest to your Meatspace persona. It does not even require the resources of a Government Agency (of which there are No Such) or super hacker abilities. Folks love to chat about themselves and merely feigning a sympathetic ear will quickly yield TOO MUCH INFORMATION!
You’re such a bore, all you want to talk about is yourself. Put down your Phone and pay attention to me, the living, breathing one right in front of you, not some stinking Russian Troll-bot.
If one is intemperate and cares about the pwecious fee-fees of others (neither true in my case) the urge at some point will be to hide or amend offending remarks.
The scrubbing began quickly. At 10:55 a.m., ProPublica published a story reporting the existence of a secret, invitation-only Facebook group for current and former Border Patrol agents that featured vulgar, violent, and misogynistic content directed at migrants and lawmakers.
A little over two hours later, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, called for active-duty agents responsible for the posts to lose their jobs. Minutes after that, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency that oversees the Border Patrol, said in a tweet that the inspector general’s office at the Department of Homeland Security was “immediately informed” of the “disturbing social media activity,” and an internal investigation has been launched.
Back in the “I’m 10-15” Facebook group, evidence that might inform such an investigation was quickly disappearing. The name of the group — radio lingo Border Patrol agents use when they take a migrant into custody — was changed to “America First X 2,” and the group was archived.
But the archived group, the version that investigators might examine, was not the same one that existed prior to the ProPublica article.
The meme that group member Thomas Hendricks shared of President Donald Trump forcing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to perform oral sex was gone — though ProPublica’s tipster managed to grab that one. Investigators would not, however, see that Carrizo Springs resident Hector Garcia Jr. had posted something similar, sharing a meme of the congresswoman performing oral sex through a detention center fence in a mock Porn Hub preview (“Lucky Illegal Immigrant Glory Hole Special”). Similarly, investigators would not find the post from user Jorge Nunez: a video of a Trump impersonator grabbing the crotch of a woman in a red, white, and blue bikini, in which Nunez wrote, “Grab her right in the pussy…MAGA!!”
Hendricks deleted his account soon after the ProPublica story broke. Garcia and Nunez did not respond to requests for comment.
Anybody trying to look further into “I’m 10-15” after reading the ProPublica article would never see the Washington Post article that a poster named Bobby Matthews shared about asylum officers raising concerns about the administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy. Matthews wrote “Fucking liberal traitors” and “more lies from the tonks” — using Border Patrol slang for migrants, referring to the sound a flashlight makes when it connects with a migrant’s skull — to which Nelson Pou III, the Del Rio, Texas-based lead singer of the band Semper Acerbus, replied, “Fuck the whole country of Honduras.”
Matthews did not respond to a request for comment. Pou declined to comment.
And investigators would never see the posts that came right after the ProPublica story was published, in which they talked about “the rat” in their midst, and Mike Herrero accused ProPublica of trying to “do away with the First amendment.”
“The media is really the enemy because they know better and just feed the dissonance,” he wrote.
These are just a handful of examples of posts from the days before, and shortly after, the ProPublica story went live. The Intercept gained full access to the invitation-only Border Patrol group weeks ago and, for more than a month has collected and archived hundreds of posts that show that the content shared with ProPublica was no aberration. In fact, the Border Patrol group was a hotbed for the kind of right-wing memes and anti-immigrant hate common in some corners of the internet. The only difference is that the group — which had nearly 10,000 members at the time it was exposed and has since dwindled to a little over 4,000 — was meant to be used by current and former federal law enforcement personnel.
“Where Old Patrol meets New Patrol,” the about section of the group read. “Post your pics. BP and AMO [Air and Marine Operations] related. Funny, serious and just work related. We are family, first and foremost. This is where the Green Line starts, with us. Start a chat or discussion, or use the group as a message board or Q and A session. We are here for each other. Remember you are never alone in this family.”
The Intercept messaged 28 Facebook users named in this article, whose accounts remained active in the immediate wake of the ProPublica article, and requested comment. Although Facebook prohibits the use of aliases, it is possible that members of the group used assumed names. The Intercept is publishing the names of individuals quoted in this story as displayed on the “I’m 10-15” group to accurately portray the contents of the postings.
Heh, heh, heh, heh- you are doxxed. Me?
In his mid thirties (in 1926), E.K. Hornbeck is a brilliant newspaper columnist for the Baltimore Herald. Hornbeck, like Mencken, is cynical, insolent, and flippant, he is not malicious. He is, he admits, “admired for his detestability.”
Hornbeck is contemptuous of the bigotry and ignorance that seems to exist in southern society. From the moment Hornbeck arrives in Hillsboro, his air of superiority is obvious. He “sneers politely at everything,” and his clothes are “those of a sophisticated city-dweller.” He speaks haughtily, as though he is reciting poetry; in fact, Lawrence and Lee use verse for Hornbeck’s lines. Hornbeck is a chorus character. His wisecracks are comments on the action in the play, as well as a representation of progressive ideas and beliefs held by people from the North. He mocks the people of Hillsboro for their fundamentalist beliefs and their narrow-minded views about evolution. He acknowledges that “a few ignorance bushes” exist in Hillsboro, but no “tree of knowledge.” He sees a monkey and calls it “Grandpa” and buys a hot dog instead of a Bible because he chooses to feed his stomach rather than his soul.
Hornbeck ridicules Brady for his bigotry and backwardness. Because Brady was a politician and ran for the presidency of the United States three times before becoming a staunch defender of fundamentalism, Hornbeck calls him “a shouter,” “an also-ran,” “a might-have-been, an almost-was.” He claims that Brady came to Hillsboro to find a stump to shout from, not to be the “champion of ordinary people.” Hornbeck thinks Brady is a fraud and continues to denounce him even after Brady dies.
Hornbeck’s character is static. He is as opinionated and iconoclastic, attacking institutions and firmly held beliefs, and he does not change throughout the course of the play. His character is also shallow and one-dimensional. Because he is first and foremost a newspaper columnist, he is talkative and always in everyone else’s business, asking questions and speaking his mind.
And I’m exacly like that, shallow and one-dimensional. If you dig into my 15 years of postings you will find that I live in Stars Hollow Connecticut. There are 3,572,665 people in Connecticut, not an infinite universe and you are helped by the facts that I am Ben Franklin White and a guy which limits it further. Happy hunting.
Of the individuals contacted whose accounts were still active, only two responded, both declining to comment. Several of the members of the Facebook group cited in this story had previously posted photos of themselves on their profile pages in uniform, whether with the Border Patrol or other law enforcement agencies or military units, or openly listed their employment for the federal government on their profile. At least three identified themselves as retired.
On Wednesday morning, Kevin McAleenan, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security tweeted “that any employee found to have compromised the public’s trust in our law enforcement mission will be held accountable.” The Intercept shared the names and posts of 31 users with Customs and Border Protection and requested confirmation of whether these individuals were currently employed by the agency. In a statement to The Intercept, a spokesperson for CBP said the agency was reviewing screenshots from the group and that some of the individuals appeared to be active duty employees of the agency.
“The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) is investigating information provided to the agency regarding postings to a private Facebook group,” the statement read. “CBP has been provided several screenshots of Facebook postings, with posting names visible. OPR has been working to determine if these posting Facebook identities are connected to current CBP employees. Several of the names in the screenshots do appear to match names of current CBP employees. Additionally, there are postings attributed to accounts bearing common names, that appear to match to multiple CBP employees. CBP is fully investigating these postings and will hold accountable any CBP employee who is found to have engaged in misconduct.”
On Wednesday, Politico reported that CBP officials and Border Patrol leadership knew about the secret group for up to three years, with one former DHS official stating that CBP’s public affairs office monitored the “I’m 10-15” group “as a source of intelligence” to see “what people are talking about.”
Posts on the “I’m 10-15” group routinely fantasized about violent or deadly action that could be taken against migrants.
Just a few weeks before the deaths of a father and his daughter while crossing the Rio Grande captured national attention, the Border Patrol Facebook group was filled with posts about alligator sightings in the river. “Medieval solutions to a modern problem,” Israel Valentin wrote. “Let’s stock the river with gators,” suggested John Tedford, who lists himself as a retired Border Patrol agent. “This needs to be crowd funded,” added Riley Glöck, whose recent postings indicate that he operates helicopters for the federal government. “Can the river ecosystem support sharks?”
…
On the topic of dead children, Eric Castillo separately posted a video of a large, child-sized portion of meat being wrapped in foil and then roasted over an open flame. The foil resembles the mylar blankets that unaccompanied children are given in Border Patrol custody.
“Little tonk blanket ideas!” Castillo wrote.
Castillo’s account appears to be deleted, though his posts appeared elsewhere in recent months, including a heated comment section about whether Border Patrol agents can use lethal force against migrants who throw rocks — the president previously encouraged them to do so.
When a member of the group raised the point that “’I was just following orders’ hasn’t been an effective defense in about 72 years,” Bob Wilkinson, who lists his former occupation as Border Patrol supervisor and his current occupation as a U.S. government contractor, replied, “Are you a PA or a fucking snowflake.” Wilkinson went on to write that while he had “never killed anyone,” he had “used my share of force.”
“The fact that the President recognizes rocks as deadly weapons is a good thing,” he wrote.
At that point, Castillo joined the conversation, lamenting about missing an opportunity to shoot a migrant while on the job. “Bro im gonna go home alive to my family and stop the threat!!” he wrote. “See it how you will. Ive been rocked before and missed my chance to pop a round before due to me falling to avoid the rock.. Fucker ran back to the river..But I learned for next time.. Don’t be a freaking debbie downer bro..”
Wilkinson described a similar experience, writing to Castillo, “as I was drawing my trainee who was on my right grabbed my arm and screwed up my draw. They were both lucky that day.”
“BRO NEXT TIME ITS ON,” Castillo wrote back.
In what could be of interest to investigators down the line, several members of the Border Patrol group shared photos of documents that included identifying information of migrants in Border Patrol custody.
It began with Angel Avilez, whose personal page suggests a recent posting at the Border Patrol’s Carrizo Springs station, sharing a meme that read, “YOU KNOW WHAT? I’M JUST GOING TO SAY IT […] HONDURANS HAVE THE STUPIDEST NAMES EVER.” The post generated more than 100 comments.
Members shared Central American names that they considered stupid. Multiple users asserted that “Guats” — Guatemalans — also have names equally worthy of ridicule. Before long, group members, including Gabriel Gonzalez, Zack Smith, Anthony Ramos, Rick Mora Jr., and Michael Scherer, were sharing photos of documents — including what appears to be intake forms — that showed migrants’ names. Christian Macias added photos of government IDs belonging to five different individuals to the comment thread.
“Non of these ignorant people can spell or write but somehow they think they deserve to be let in,” wrote Jose Ortiz, whose profile picture is a gold badge that reads “Inspector 211 S.F. Police.”
Uhh…, nor can you Jose.
Seething anger at asylum seekers and migrants in general was the common thread in the “I’m 10-15″ group. On May 31, a user shared an image of the U.S. embassy in Honduras on fire. “Easy enough to do the same thing to all their asylum paperwork…” Gamel Lechner commented. When a member of the group later asked where a friend could drop off food and supplies for people in detention in Los Angeles, he was met with dozens of trolling replies.
“They are like wild animals, stop feeding them and they wont hang around and shit on the street,” wrote Richard Tyler Jr. — Tyler’s Facebook profile identified him as a former trainer for the Border Patrol, a former sheriff’s deputy, and a former sergeant in the U.S. Army.
In late May, user Waldemar Ortiz shared a meme that said “HUNGARY LOCKS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS IN SHIPPING CONTAINERS TO STOP ILLEGAL BORDER CROSSINGS.”
“Can we apply this here?” Ortiz wrote.
Ortiz’s personal Facebook page indicates that he previously served in the U.S. Marine Corps and now serves in the U.S. Army. In 2018, he captioned a photo in his Marine Corps uniform with the hashtags “fuckmuslims” and “fuckislam.” He has since posted dozens of right wing memes, including one suggesting that Rep. Ilhan Omar is a terrorist.
Some of the members of the Border Patrol group appeared to deeply hate the populations they are mandated to work with.
On May 24, Adam Matott, whose personal page includes photos of himself in a Border Patrol uniform and t-shirt, posted, “The excitement of leaving McAllen really sinks in … when the flight is full of OR tonks.”
The post sparked a conversation. Jess Cabe, who listed himself as a retired Border Patrol agent, wrote, “Wait til they start following you at the next airport to get you to help them find their connection, they’re waving that paperwork in your face like it’s the winning lottery ticket.”
“One of them asked my partner if she had the right gate,” Matott replied. “New fucking low point in my career.”
“Mine too,” Cabe replied. “I actually lost it in the airport and told him to get the fuck away from me loud enough to have other passengers leave the gate area.”
Matott replied, “At our gate a family unit came and sat near us. So we swiftly stood up, and relocated our seats.”
“Should have grabbed it and ripped it up. Fuck them,” added Mike Kotwicki, who deleted his account before The Intercept could message him.
“Way too many cameras and witnesses,” Cabe wrote.
The conversation about migrants on airplanes continued in another thread.
“The wife flew out last week said people were pissed cus it smelled like shit,” Jesus E. Nunez wrote.
JD Lopez, whose personal page includes photos of himself in a CBP helicopter crew uniform, replied: “Smells like detention.”
Commentary on current events made up a significant chunk of the content on the “I’m 10-15” group.
In recent weeks, that translated into an uptick in outrage over the number of children and families entering Border Patrol custody and, in particular, hate directed at Rep. Ocasio-Cortez. In addition to the sexually violent posts, members of the group created numerous memes out of photos of Ocasio-Cortez during a 2018 visit to a border detention center. Group member Brian Fawcett, who lists his current location as Laredo, Texas, and previously posted a photo in his Border Patrol uniform on his personal page, shared one such image. It included Ocasio-Cortez accompanied by Pepe the Frog, the internet meme synonymous with white nationalist internet culture.
Recently, when it was announced that Ocasio-Cortez would be making another visit to detention centers along the border, the Facebook group reacted in typical fashion. Chad Wamsley posted a comment that said “AOC” and included a drawing of a man defecating into a woman’s anus.
“Poop in her to show dominance,” the drawing said. Wamsley listed his occupation as United States Border Patrol agent. Justin Blue Ortiz, who lists his employer as the Department of Homeland Security and his residence as El Paso, Texas, suggested a “station wide bang in because the stress of their visit is too much.”
Ick. I conclude with this final thought- these Righteous Republicans and White Nationalists (just because you’re a White Nationalist doesn’t automatically mean you’re a Republican but being a Republican pretty much means you’re a White Nationalist) fantasize in depths of perversion this Lefty Atheist can hardly imagine.
Pondering the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from> around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.
Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Pondering the Pundits”.
Donald Trump’s declaration that “trade wars are good, and easy to win” will surely go down in the history books as a classic utterance — but not in a good way. Instead it will go alongside Dick Cheney’s prediction, on the eve of the Iraq war, that “we will, in fact, be welcomed as liberators.” That is, it will be used to illustrate the arrogance and ignorance that so often drives crucial policy decisions.
For the reality is that Trump isn’t winning his trade wars. True, his tariffs have hurt China and other foreign economies. But they’ve hurt America too; economists at the New York Fed estimate that the average household will end up paying more than $1,000 a year in higher prices.
And there’s no hint that the tariffs are achieving Trump’s presumed goal, which is to pressure other countries into making significant policy changes
The cult of Trump has embraced values and beliefs that Jefferson, Washington and Lincoln abhorred.
Kids in cages and tanks for the tyrant. After that dictator-friendly Fourth of July, it’s time for all true patriots to conduct a political gut check.
Like many people, I’m worried about the Democrats. A majority of Americans are desperate for someone to dislodge the despot from the White House. And yet some Democrats are pushing policy positions — such as taking away private health insurance from more than 150 million people — that are deeply unpopular.
The smarter candidates will rethink this, and soon, or otherwise ensure that an awful American aberration is more than a one-off.
But as troubled as I am by the Democrats, I’m terrified of the Republicans. In numerous surveys of a party that has adopted the worst pathologies of President Trump, Republicans have shown themselves to be explicitly anti-American. The Founders would gag. So would Abraham Lincoln.
Well, not actually. Truth is what we’re waiting for is the Government filing in Kravitz v. U.S. being heard by Judge George J. Hazel who, until the Supreme Court Ruling rendered his decision moot, had ruled that the damaging (to the Government) evidence found in the estate of Thomas Hofeller (who said in correspondence redrawn districts based only on the number of citizens rather than the entire population would “clearly be a disadvantage to the Democrats” and “would be advantageous to Republicans and non-Hispanic whites) implied a discriminatory purpose for the Government’s actions which would make them, uhhh…, illegal, bordering on criminal misrepresentation and in Contempt of Court.
So the Justice Department has been scrambling while Unindicted Co-conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio stood underneath a big umbrella in front of a teeny tiny handful of Bigoted Racists so blinded by hate they’d stand hours in a downpour and gave them some interesting Historical lies about how George Washington attacked Airports and the United States never suffered a defeat in the War of 1812 (I suppose if you count the sack and burning of Washington D.C. a victory) to come up with another excuse besides ‘we need the information to enforce the Voting Rights Act’, which the Supremes have rejected as insufficient and untrue, that does not flat out admit that they lied the first time around.
They give out those Bottomless Pinocchios for a reason folks. Deadline for the filing is 2 pm today.
Still, it seems we’ve been focusing on the Government’s malfeasance over Immigration (a subject I consider as worthy of Impeachment as the Russian Treason Plot and unrelated to it except in the identity of the criminals) a lot recently and Sam has just released (yesterday) a summary of her pieces on the subject over the last 6 months or so.
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