1/7 - TOWNHALL - Trump Has a New Name for the Gulf of Mexico
In remarks on Tuesday, President-elect Donald Trump revealed that he plans to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America when he takes office.
“Mexico’s really in trouble. A lot of trouble. Very dangerous place. And, we’re going ot be announcing a future date pretty soon… we do most of the work there… we’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring… covers a lot of territory. The Gulf of America. What a beautiful name,” Trump said on Tuesday. “And it’s appropriate.”
[Baja California could become West Mexico]
'Has a Beautiful Ring' to It: Trump Has a New Name for the Gulf of Mexico
1/6 - OC PADRINO - I asked AI...
ME: What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?
AI: The question often arises whether we are discussing an African or a European swallow.
[I swear]
1/6 - TOWNHALL - Mexican President Shifts Stance on Accepting Deported Illegals
In a surprising reversal, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has shifted her stance on accepting deported illegal immigrants from other countries— a move that could have had significant implications for President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming border policy. After months of resistance to taking in deportees, Sheinbaum now appears to be softening her position, signaling a potential new strategy for handling immigrants who are sent back to Mexico. Critics argue this change could further strain Mexico’s already overburdened resources and allow the flow of illegal immigration to continue unchecked as the new Trump Administration grapples with an inherited record surge in illegal alien crossings.
During a press conference, Sheinbaum reversed her previous stance and suddenly said that Mexico is not ruling out the possibility of taking in illegal immigrants deported by the U.S.— regardless of nationality. However, she did say she would request that the U.S. compensate Mexico for returning them to their home countries.
In November, Trump announced that he and Sheinbaum agreed to stop the massive flow of illegal immigrants into the United States by “strengthening collaboration on security issues.” The sudden change of heart came after Trump threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on Mexico if it did not take action to stop illegal immigrants from entering America through its southern border.
[So let me get this straight. Immigrants illegally enter the U.S. unobstructed via Mexico and when deported back to Mexico, we're supposed to pay for their return to wherever they came from prior to entering Mexico. Mexico didn't seem to consider its "already overburdened resources" when allowing these new citizens into their country. If the immigrants have no intention of returning to their country of origin, wouldn't Mexico be their new home under any circumstance? Certainly the Mexican government wouldn't be involved in merely trafficking humans. That would be violating international law! So, how is the deportation of illegal imigrants crossing the same border back to their latest home country a problem? - OC Padrino]
Mexican President Shifts Stance on Accepting Deported Illegal Immigrants
1/5 - ARMY TIMES - US Military Task Force In Honduras
Over the past four decades a small outpost in Honduras has housed a mix of U.S. military forces, backed by aid organizations to do a Swiss Army-knife type mission of providing medical assistance, disaster response and military training for Latin American allies.
Joint Task Force Bravo contains between 500 and 1,500 U.S. troops at Soto Cano Air Base, Honduras, and hosts both permanent active-duty staff and rotating Guard and reserve troops for its regionally focused mission.
[I'm sure it has nothing to do with the location being a good interdiction choke-point... with reinforcements just a transport-hop away.]
[Thanks S.A.M.]
Deep in the mountains of Honduras, few know what this US military task force does
1/4 - RED STATE - Honduran President Warns Trump American Troops Will Be Kicked Out
American troops, when stationed abroad, spend a lot of money. They buy local merchandise, they eat at local dining establishments, and believe you me, in nations where it's a thing, they drink in local watering holes. Locals may approve or disapprove of the presence of American service members, but they will surely take their money.
Honduran President Xiomara Castro warned in a television broadcast message this week that she could decide to have the United States haul out its service members from the Central American country if Trump tries to deport Hondurans with criminal histories back to their home country.
“Faced with a hostile attitude of mass expulsion of our brothers [comrades], we would have to consider a change in our policies of cooperation with the United States, especially in the military arena,” Castro said during the Wednesday broadcast.
The U.S., Castro said, maintains military bases in Honduras “without paying a cent for decades,” though the country receives significant foreign aid from the U.S.
Now, let's take a stab at constructing the incoming Trump administration's response:
"Fine, fine, President Castro. Go ahead and decree that all American forces should withdraw from your country, and we'll pull them out. We will close the 10 bases we have in Honduras and bring home our 600+ service members. We'll pull out all the money they spend in your economy. There will be no more American service members buying local merchandise, dining in local restaurants, or spending any of their pay in any way in Honduras. Oh, and we will be cutting off the roughly $175 million annually in foreign aid to Honduras, as well. We are deporting people who are in the country illegally, and who have committed crimes in our nation or their nation of origin, including Honduras. We are sending these criminals back to you, where they belong, in your country, not ours. Your terms are acceptable; we will remove our people, we will cut off American aid to your nation, and regardless of what else happens, we will return your people to your country."
1/4 - THE PATRIOTIC VOICE - Antarctica Sea Ice Doesn’t Lie
Another one of the central tenets of climate alarmism has been debunked by actual scientific data. A team of researchers from Norway, Sweden, and the California Institute of Technology looked at the entire history of satellite data over the ice shelf in Antarctica, dating back to 1979. The ice shelf has slowly and gradually become thicker over the past 45 years. It’s not shrinking. It’s not melting because of cow farts or hair spray. Colorado is not going to become oceanfront property any day now. Once again, climate “scientists” have been caught with their pants on fire.
While the scientists did find that there are fluctuations in the amount of ice from year to year, the gradual trend shows that the ice in Antarctica is thickening. All the other climate scientists must have missed that little detail for 45 years. No biggie. [right?]
[Gotta keep that grant money comin'.]
[Thanks Dave L]
Antarctica Sea Ice Doesn’t Lie — But Climate Scientists Do
1/3 - TOWNHALL - Seattle Residents Are Refusing to Tip
In Seattle, a growing number of people are growing tired [that's a lot of growing] of tipping and are reportedly refusing to tip restaurant staff due to the city’s significant minimum wage hikes.
According to a Daily Mail report, residents in the Democrat-run city feel it is unnecessary to tip service workers. The minimum wage will increase from $19.97 to $20.76 an hour on January 1, 2025. Seattle’s Minimum Wage Ordinance requires the wage rate to reflect the city's inflation rise.
One Reddit user said they are “done tipping 10-20 percent come January 1st,” while another person claimed that with the minimum wage hike, food industry workers have “finally reach[ed] a level playing field.”
[$41,520/yr... ABSOLUTELY! For greater undeclared income, move.]
Why Residents In Seattle Are Refusing to Tip
1/3 - REDSTATE - Seattle Restaurant Closing Due to Mandated Wage Hike
The owner of a popular waffle shop in West Seattle said she had no choice but to shut down her business after the city’s new minimum wage law went into effect on New Year’s Day — hiking hourly pay to $20.76.
Bebop Waffle Shop, which was founded by a former New York City resident more than a decade ago, closed its doors for good on Monday.
“I’ve cried every day,” Corina Luckenbach, the waffle shop owner, told Fox 13 TV.
What's heartbreaking about this is the way it hits small, independent businesses - like the Bebop Waffle Shop. The big chains have resources; they can adopt technologies, like self-ordering kiosks and burger-bots to attenuate the fiscal damage done by mandated minimum wage hikes. Small businesses cannot, and while it's tempting to point out that the people of Seattle voted for this city government and likely will continue to support blue-city policies, this doesn't help Corina Luckenbach's former employees any.
The Real Minimum Wage Is Zero: Seattle Restaurateur Closing Down Due to Mandated Wage Hike
1/1 - TOWNHALL - Ready for President Chuck Grassley?
On Friday the House of Representatives will take a vote on who will be the Speaker for the 116th Congress. Current House Speaker Mike Johnson is hoping to keep his job, but a handful of Republicans are considering voting against him in an effort to seat someone new. Who that new Speaker might be is still a mystery.
The House cannot operate without a Speaker. That vote occurs Friday, January 3. The vote to certify the 2024 presidential election is just three days later on January 6.
But there are only two weeks between January 6 and January 20. If the House can't find a Speaker in time to get the election certified, President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance cannot take office...
With a non-functioning House, Trump, Vance and the House Speaker are out of the chain-of-command, which puts the Senate pro tempore in as acting president. On January 20, 2025, that will be Republican Senator Chuck Grassley.
Are You Ready for Acting President Chuck Grassley?
12/30 - VIGILANT NEWS - CNN Ends Segment After Defense of Biden Falls Apart
ABBY PHILLIP: “I’m still waiting to see the proof of Joe Biden enriching himself. I take his brother and his son, perhaps.”
REP. MIKE LAWLER: “I’ll give you the direct line. A Chinese company transferred money to a shell company owned by Hunter and Jim Biden that then transferred money directly to Jim and Sarah Biden’s shell company that then transferred the money to Jim and Sarah’s personal account, who then immediately wrote a check for $40,000 to Joe Biden. So to say that there was no evidence is not true.”
ABBY PHILLIP: “Trump was president for four years. He wanted to charge Joe Biden. Why did the charges not come? And I think that still remains an open question. If there is something illegal happening here, there should be charges on the basis of what you’re saying, and there have not been.”
REP. MIKE LAWLER: “Well, he just pardoned Hunter for an 11-year time period.”
SCOTT JENNINGS: “He just wiped the slate! Jim will be next.”
ABBY PHILLIP: “Hang on, guys.” (Ends segment)
[Who is propping up CNN?] (coughsoroscoughcough)
CNN Host Abruptly Ends Segment After Her Defense of Biden’s Crimes Completely Falls Apart
12/30 - THE GUARDIAN - Biden Says He Would Have Defeated Trump
Joe Biden regrets having pulled out of this year’s presidential race and believes he would have defeated Donald Trump in last month’s election – despite negative poll indications, White House sources have said.
The US president has reportedly also said he made a mistake in choosing Merrick Garland as attorney general – reflecting that Garland, a former US appeals court judge, was slow to prosecute Donald Trump for his role in the 6 January 2021 insurrection while presiding over a justice department that aggressively[?] prosecuted Biden’s son Hunter.
[Oh, Brandon! Even odds both Joe and Jill voted for Trump]
Biden reportedly regrets ending re-election campaign and says he’d have defeated Trump
12/29 - Council on Foreign Relations July 22, 2024 - Crossing the Darién Gap
As the number of migrants grows — with more than half a million making the trek in 2023 — so too does the impact on the Indigenous communities whose lands they often traverse. International aid organizations have sought to manage the crisis by setting up temporary housing and providing basic services to those arriving in Panama, even as the Panamanian government has announced new measures to crack down on migrants and asylum seekers entering the country.
Economic insecurity, political upheaval, violence, and climate change[*] are driving tens of millions of people from their home countries, according to World Bank experts[*]. At the same time, the lifting of COVID-19 border restrictions has reopened many travel routes across Latin America. Most migrants are ultimately headed for the southern U.S. border, where they hope to receive asylum. But many coming from the Caribbean and South America first have to cross the sixty-mile-wide Darién Gap...
According to the Panamanian government, a record number of more than 520,000 migrants crossed the Darién Gap en route to the United States in 2023, over double the number reported the year before and up from just a couple hundred people annually a decade ago. Approximately one-fifth of those who made the crossing were children. The majority of migrants were from Venezuela, followed by Ecuador and Haiti, but some hailed from as far away as Angola, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.
*[HA!]
Crossing the Darién Gap: Migrants Risk Death on the Journey to the U.S.
12/29 - CSIS - Key Decision Point Coming for the Panama Canal
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
The Panama Canal sits at the nexus of international political and economic concerns. Following the Canal’s expansion in 2016, the waterway annually registers nearly 14,000 transits, a value equal to 6 percent of global trade. The Canal’s global shipping role has only increased amid the disruption of global supply chains during the Covid-19 pandemic and U.S. calls for nearshoring away from China. The United States remains the top user of the Canal—in 2019, 66 percent of the cargo traffic transiting the Canal began or ended its journey at a U.S. port; cargo from or destined to China made up 13 percent of Canal traffic. Still, China is the primary source of products going through the Colón Free Trade Zone and its increasing presence in and around the Canal has made the waterway a flashpoint for U.S.-China competition over spheres of influence. China’s influence in the Panama Canal has only grown since 2017 when then-president Carlos Varela severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan and recognized China, further opening the door to China’s expanded footprint in critical Canal infrastructure and laying the groundwork for alignment with the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
...
Given that large fractions of Chinese economic profits, and thus business relations, are driven by a select few families, the United States will need to craft a unique approach to reinforcing its own presence in Panama and particularly around the Canal. Using the Biden administration’s strategy toward Central America as a framework, investment in the Panama Canal can fall under efforts to enhance security and strengthen regional transparency to bolster strong governance and the rule of law. The United States can work with the ACP to counter corruption in public contract awards related to Canal infrastructure projects, strengthening the Canal’s operational transparency. Here too, the United States can engage on security issues, supporting inspections training and anti-trafficking operations in the Canal to combat ongoing drug trafficking and smuggling. The integration of the Panama Canal into a broader Central America strategy will require increased U.S. engagement with Panama itself, with the added benefit of rivaling China not only in the Canal but in the broader region.
Published May 21, 2021
[Of course the "Biden administration’s strategy" has been so obvious... right?]
Key Decision Point Coming for the Panama Canal
12/28 - TOWNHALL - The Difficulty of Freedom
“Nothing is more wonderful than the art of being free, but nothing is harder to learn how to use than freedom.” (Alexis de Tocqueville)
There have actually been people in history who have found slavery to be more comfortable than freedom, and indeed, I would argue that many such individuals exist today. They would rather be taken care of by the government (or, socialism) than risk the “freedom of opportunity” necessary to provide for themselves. Sadly, that just feeds the egos and lusts of power-hungry politicians who live to control other people and tell them what to do. And when you control somebody’s finances, you definitely control them. Congress can’t even go home for Christmas until they try to pass some kind of budget that gives them trillions of dollars to spend to enslave the masses.
We today don’t call such government oppression “slavery” (our Founding Fathers did), but in one sense, that is exactly what it is. People are “enslaved” if it is only the government which allows them to have and do. “Allowed freedom” is not freedom, it is indeed another term for slavery.
De Tocqueville On the Difficulty of Freedom
2024 / December
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