Florida toxic algae is caused by millions of tons of Sahara dust that travels across the Atlantic yearly as it has for thousands of years. The same dust that causes Florida toxic algae provides nutrients to Amazon soil-NASA, PNAS, UK Independent

Africa dust travels across Atlantic, across Florida, causes toxic algae blooms sometimes known as red tides. This natural phenomenon has been happening for thousands of years:

Image caption: Satellites can track African dust clouds as they migrate across the Atlantic Ocean. This NASA TOMS aerosol movie, which spans the interval June 13 through 21, 2001, shows such a cloud raining bits of the Sahara Desert over the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. [more information] NASA tested 8,100 sq. mile region between Tampa Bay and Fort Myers, Florida-Aug. 2001 study

8/30/2001, “Desert Dust Kills Florida Fish,” “New research links huge African dust clouds with the “red tides” that kill millions of fish along the Florida coast each year,” science.nasa.gov

“Without warning, the sea turns a shade of reddish brown, killing scores of fish and other marine life — and making the water an unwelcome place for humans.

Such “red tides” have, from time to time, plagued coastal communities for centuries. Now a new study, partially funded by NASA, has revealed a surprising connection between red tides in the Gulf of Mexico and giant dust clouds that blow across the Atlantic Ocean from the distant Sahara Desert. NOAA and NASA satellites can spot such dust clouds en route from Africa to the Americas, raising hopes that space-based data could help scientists predict when red tides will strike the Gulf coast….

“The West Florida shelf is a hot spot for fishing, aquaculture and tourism, all of which can be drastically affected by a surprise visit from a red tide,” said Jason Lenes, a graduate student at University of South Florida’s College of Marine Science, and the lead author in the study. 

Red tides, which are actually blooms of toxic algae, have in the past killed huge numbers of fish, shellfish, marine mammals, and birds. They can also trigger skin and respiratory problems in humans.

Storm activity in the Sahara Desert region kicks up fine particles from the arid topsoil there, generating vast clouds of dust. Easterly trade winds carry the dust across the Atlantic Ocean and into the Gulf of Mexico. 

The new study shows that these clouds fertilize the water off the West Florida coast with iron. Plant-like bacteria use that iron to set the stage for red tides. When iron levels go up, these bacteria, called Trichodesmium, fix nitrogen in the water, converting it to a form usable by other marine life.

The addition of biologically usable nitrogen in the water makes the Gulf of Mexico a friendlier environment for toxic algae.

“This is one of the first studies that quantitatively measured iron from the dust and [linked] it to red tides through Trichodesmium,” said Lenes. The research was partially funded by a NASA grant as part of ECOHAB: Florida (Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms), a multi-disciplinary research project designed to study harmful algae. 

The study used satellite and ground based measurements to track large dust clouds leaving Africa on June 17, 1999. Lenes and his colleagues followed the clouds using data from the Advanced Very-High-Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), an imager aboard the NOAA’s Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellites (POES).

The Saharan dust reached the West Florida shelf around July 1st, increasing iron concentrations in the surface waters by 300 percent. As a result, Trichodesmium counts shot up to 10 times what they had been prior to this event. Through a complex process involving a special enzyme called nitrogenase, the Trichodesmium used the iron to convert nitrogen in the water to a form more usable for other marine life. 

In October, after a 300 percent increase of this biologically-accessible nitrogen, a huge bloom of toxic red algae (Karenia brevis) had formed within the study area, an 8,100 square mile region between Tampa Bay and Fort Myers, Florida….

Scientists have labored for several years to develop a reliable method to predict red tides, particularly because the results of these blooms can be both physically and economically devastating to a region.

Humans who swim in the Gulf during a red tide can experience respiratory problems by breathing toxins from K. brevis that get in the air. Also, eating shellfish poisoned by red tides can lead to paralysis and memory problems. Around the Gulf of Mexico, scientists and others have recorded fish kills totaling in the millions and manatee deaths in the hundreds resulting from a single red tide bloom. 

By using satellites to monitor dust arrivals and Trichodesmium blooms, Lenes said this research could lead to forecasting of red tides. “If you could predict when a red tide is coming, you could close beaches and fisheries ahead of time,” Lenes said. 

Note: The research reported here appears in the September [2001] issue issue of the scientific journal Limnology and Oceanography. The paper was funded through a number of grants connected with the ECOHAB program. Other funding for this study included grants from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Office of Naval Research and the Environmental Protection Agency. The ECOHAB: Florida Mission is to better understand the factors involved in the occurrence and dispersal of Florida’s predominant red tide algae, K. brevis, and to predict and manage harmful algal bloom events.”

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Added: Toxic red tides in Florida caused by Sahara dust:
 
Sahara Dust travels across the Atlantic Ocean, across the state of Florida, across the Gulf of Mexico, PNAS peer reviewed study, 5/9/2016

May 9, 2016, “Saharan dust nutrients promote Vibrio bloom formation in marine surface waters,“ PNAS.org https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1518080113
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May 11, 2016, “How dust from the Sahara fuels poisonous bacteria blooms in the Caribbean,” Washington Post, Sarah Kaplan

“Leave your car parked outside in Miami for too many days in August, and you’re likely to see a fine film of orange powder coating the windshield.

It’s dust — African dust — carried thousands of miles across the Atlantic to parking lots in Florida.

This phenomenon, known as the Saharan Air Layer, brings several hundred million tons of dust to the Americas each year. 

It helps build beaches in the Caribbean and carries nutrients that fertilize the Amazon rainforest. The dust is also thought to help suppress hurricanes along the coast.

It has been happening for thousands of years, but in the past few decades, scientists have become concerned about the effects of this dust on coral reef ecosystems in the Caribbean. Studies have linked the dust plumes to toxic “red tides” — huge algae blooms that poison fish and trigger skin and breathing problems in people. There’s also some evidence suggesting that African microbes may be hitching rides on the dust and poisoning corals on the other side of the sea. 

But what about the bacteria that already live in the ocean? In a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists examined how one genus of bacteria, a pathogen called Vibrio, responded to the influx of dust that rains down on the Caribbean in the late summer months.”…
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Added: Sahara dust also reaches UK:

4/2/2014, “Saharan dust: Six things you didn’t know about red dust storms,” Independent UK, Heather Saul

Red dust in Perth, Australia

 
“Dust all the way from Africa has reached Britain after unusual weather patterns”

“Motorists across the country awoke to grains of dust coating their cars on Monday, which had travelled all the way from the Saharan desert to leave a little piece of North Africa on their vehicles.

But the dust has also triggered fears it may cause health problems for people across Britain. The Government issued warnings of “very high” levels of air pollution across parts of England and Wales, after the dust and winds combined to create a potentially toxic storm.

Here are six other things you may not have known about Saharan dust:

1. Red dust storms can cause air pollution to increase to “very high levels” and can aggravate breathing problems. Health professionals warn the dust may irritate lung tubes and cause asthma to flare up.

2. While it may not be healthy for humans, Saharan dust can prove beneficial for the environment. Trees and plants in the Amazon Rainforest rely on the nutrient-rich dust, which helps to keep the area fertile, New Scientist reported.

3. However, researchers have also linked Saharan dust to coral disease. Coral reefs in the Caribbean have been in a state of decline since the 1970s. Scientists from the US Geological Survey (USGS) Centre for Coastal Geology believe this decline in the Caribbean is a result of pathogens transported in dust from North Africa.

4. The dust clouds can literally turn the sea from blue to a reddish brown by encouraging the growth of algae blooms in a phenomenon known as red tides.The toxic blooms have been responsible for the deaths of huge numbers of fish, marine mammals and birds in the past. They can also have an impact on human health by causing respiratory problems for those living near a shoreline.

5. Dust clouds from the Sahara are often so big they can be seen from space. Space station crew members frequently report seeing Saharan dust masses as very widespread atmospheric haze, according to Nasa.

6. These dust palls blowing from Africa can be lifted as high as 15,000 feet and transported across the Atlantic Ocean. Scientists found dust from the Sahara influences levels of precipitation as far as California because of a hot, dry, dusty layer of air known as the Saharan Air Layer.” (image above: “A towering red dust storm in Perth, Australia (Twitter/ National Geographic"))
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Added: Map, African dust also travels to UK:

4/2/2014, “Deadly smog leaves us gasping for breath: Millions of asthmatics struggle as giant cloud of Saharan sand and toxic air covers Britain,” UK Daily Mail, Ben Spicer


 
“Journey: The dust has been blown across from the Sahara over mainland Europe and into Britain,” image from UK Daily Mail
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Added: Sahara dust keeps Amazon alive:

1/3/2007, “Amazon forest relies on dust from one Saharan valley,“ newscientist.com, Richard Fisher 

“The trees and plants in the Amazon rainforest rely on nutrient-rich dust from a single valley in the Sahara desert for sustenance, researchers have discovered.

Scientists know that millions of tonnes of mineral dust are blown from the Sahara desert to the Amazon basin each year. The dust helps keep the Brazilian rainforest soils fertile.

Now, researchers have found that 56% of this dust comes from one place: the Bodélé depression in Chad, Africa. They also showed that three times more dust than previously thought is transported each year from the Sahara to the Amazon – over 40 million tonnes.

The team, led by Ilan Koren at the Weizmann Institute in Israel, used satellite and geological data to track the “dust parcel” across the Atlantic ocean….

The Bodélé valley is 200 times smaller than the Amazon basin, and forms only 0.2% of the Sahara itself. The reason the valley supplies so much dust is its location between two mountain ridges. It forms a funnel that accelerates the flow of air, not unlike a wind tunnel, allowing more dust to be carried. In winter, the valley produces an average of 700,000 tonnes of dust per day.

Journal reference: Environmental Research Letters (DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/1/1/014005)”
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Added: CO2 is trapped on ocean floors as result of dust storms:

4/20/2016, “Explainer: What Dust From The Sahara Does To You And The Planet,“ theconversation.com

(subhead): “The ocean floor”

“Saharan dust that settles on the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean is also likely to be a significant contributor of iron to marine algae. When this algae sinks to the ocean floor, or is eaten by planktonic organisms, whose carbonate shells also sink, carbon dioxide is sequestered into sea floor sediments. The distribution of iron in the oceans is likely to be a way of trapping excess atmospheric CO₂. On the one hand, global warming could increase winds and therefore dust production, but then more dust could enter the ocean, potentially providing a natural mitigator to those effects.”
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Added: More: Africa dust keeps Amazon alive:

8/9/2010, “African dust keeps Amazon blooming,” Nature.com, Richard Lovett

“Plumes of dust that cross the Atlantic are richer in nutrients than previously thought.”

  Charlie Bristow’s team in Chad found significant micronutrient levels in dust heading for the Atlantic.

Dust from one of the world’s most desolate places is providing essential fertilizer for one of the most lush, scientists have discovered. Significant amounts of plant nutrients have been found in atmospheric mineral dust blowing from a vast central African basin to the Amazon, where it could compensate for poor rainforest soils.

The basin, known as the Bodélé depression, is the site of a once-massive lake in Chad. Bodélé is thought to be the dustiest place on Earth.

Scientists went to Bodélé in 2005 and took atmospheric measurements to learn how the dust travels¹. They also took dust samples to learn about its composition (see ‘Climate science: The dustiest place on Earth’). 

With chemical analyses now complete, the dust turns out to contain substantial amounts of the key plant nutrients iron and phosphorus. Although the abundances are not unusually high, prior estimates of the dust plume’s nutrient content were very low, particularly for phosphorus. The team estimates the dust to be 38 times richer in this mineral than formerly thought. 

The dust in any case is unusual in the sandy Sahara, as it is essentially lakebed sediment originating from the shells of freshwater diatoms, and so richer in nutrients, including iron.

The results were reported in Geophysical Research Letters on 30 July². Charlie Bristow, a sedimentologist at Birkbeck, University of London, and lead author of the study, says, “A hypothesis we are investigating at the moment is that because it’s coming from the lakebed, this iron is going to be more bioavailable than if it were coming from the deeply weathered surface of the Sahara.”

“The Amazon is essentially a leached or leaching system,” says Bristow. Nutrients in the soil are washed away by rains. “So although it is very productive, it is actually quite nutrient-poor.”

So nutrient input is vital to the rainforest. Phosphorus, a major element of commercial fertilizer, is essential for plant growth, respiration and energy transfer and storage. Iron is a micronutrient that plants use to make an enzyme critical for photosynthesis….   

Dried mega-lake  

But it is more nutrient-rich than simple sand and, crucially, there is a lot of it….
 

The Bodélé depression in central Africa is part of a vast dried-up lakebed. Modis/NASA… 

Joseph Prospero, an atmospheric chemist at the University of Miami, Florida, is in Barbados studying the dust blown across the Atlantic.

 “Looking at satellite images, day after day you see these huge plumes coming out of that region,” he says. The dust takes two seasonal routes across the ocean, in the summer passing by the Caribbean and in the winter swinging further south to the Amazon.

At current rates of dispersal, the dust in the basin will last for perhaps another 1,000 years or more, assuring Amazon fecundity if weather patterns do not change. But what about changes in precipitation, which could have an effect on the amount of dust produced? 

Unfortunately, even the latest climate models can’t agree on whether that part of Africa will get wetter or drier, says Prospero. “If it becomes drier, we can expect more dust.” 

That might be bad for nearby residents, leading to more dust storms, but it could be a good thing globally. More dust means more nutrients for the Amazon, which means greater plant growth. Plants in the Amazon help to remove excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which could mitigate global warming by slowing its rate…. 

Dust in the atmosphere, or the lack of it, may have even wider implications. It increases the amount of sunlight reflecting off Earth into space, potentially offsetting global warming. It could also affect cloud formation, and even tropical storms. “It gets pretty complicated,” says Prospero. 

“One of the primary areas of [global climate] research today is understanding the global cycle of dust.”…

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Forget billions spent on cybersecurity, US gov. employee at USGS infects gov. computers with malware, viewed 9000 pages of porn, malware present on many pages he visited. US gov. won’t release his name-Washington Post, BBC

10/30/18, “How’d this government agency get infected with malware? 9,000 pages of porn.” Washington Post, Michael Brice-Saddler 

“A federal employee infected a U.S. government network with malware after viewing more than 9,000 pornographic webpages at work, according to an inspector general’s report.

The report, published Oct. 17, shows that the employee’s actions were discovered during a security audit of the computer network at the U.S. Geological Survey. The employee had an “extensive history of visiting adult pornography websites” on a work computer, many of which were Russian and contained malware that spread to the USGS network.

The USGS is a government agency that performs analysis of the country’s landscape and seeks to recognize hazards that may threaten natural resources.

The employee, who was not named in the report, saved many of the pornographic images onto an unauthorized USB device and a personal cellphone – which was also found to contain malware. The Android phone was connected to the employee’s government-issued computer, according to the report.

Now, the Office of Inspector General is recommending that the USGS enforce a “strong blacklist policy” of “rogue” web domains and more closely monitor its employees’ internet usage.

“An ongoing effort to detect and block known pornographic websites, and websites with suspicious origins, will likely enhance preventive countermeasures,” the report reads. The inspector general also suggested that the USGS enact a security policy that would restrict usage of unauthorized USB devices and personally owned mobile devices.

The USGS is part of the U.S. Interior Department, which specifically prohibits employees from using government systems to view pornography, according to the report. Employees are also asked to “refrain from connecting personal devices, such as USB drives and cellphones, to Government-issued computers or networks.”

The employee had previously signed a statement indicating understanding of these rules, according to the report. Nancy DiPaolo, external affairs director at Interior’s inspector general’s office, told Nextgov that the employee no longer works for the USGS.”

Published by Washington Post.

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Added: BBC article

10/30/18, “Porn-loving US official spreads malware to government network,” BBC

“The porn habit of an employee at the US Geological Survey (USGS) led to a government network becoming infected with malware, an official report has revealed.

The employee, who has not been named, had “an extensive history of visiting adult pornography websites”.

Investigators found malware on many of the 9,000 pages he or she accessed.

The US Office of the Inspector General has recommended that the USGS blacklist “rogue” websites.

“Our analysis confirmed that many of the pornographic images were subsequently saved to an unauthorised USB device and personal Android cell phone,” the report explained.

As well as government computers, the employee’s personal mobile was also found to be infected.

USB risk

Reports of the case were picked up by news site TechCrunch, which confirmed that the Earth Resources Observation and Science Center (Eros) does not maintain any classified networks.

The site also reported that the malware in question was designed to steal data from infected computers and was “associated” with ransomware attacks.

USGS employees are advised not to connect USB devices or mobile phones to government computers – though USB connections are not disabled.

An IT policy that prevents USB use should be implemented, the US Department of the Interior suggested.”





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41% of Latinos approve of job Pres. Trump is doing per NPR/PBS/Marist poll. Latinos resemble Independent voters rather than automatic Democrat constituency-Oct. 1, 2018

NPR PBS Newshour/Marist poll National Tables, Oct. 1, 2018

Poll conducted Oct. 1, 2018, error margin 3.8. Land line 28%, cell phone 72%, 1183 national adults 

Do you approve or disapprove of the job Donald Trump is doing as president? 

National adults 

Approve: 

White 47
Latino 41
African American 12
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10/10/2018, “The Democrats Have a Latino Problem,” Slate, Leon Krauze

“Hispanic voters were supposed to be the party’s future. It’s not working out that way.”

“[University of Southern California professor Roberto] Suro suggests that Latinos more closely resemble independent voters rather than “a steadfast Democratic constituency.” The polls, says Suro, also dispute “the presumption that Trump’s immigration policies have alienated large numbers of Latinos.”

The fact that Donald Trump is viewed in a relatively favorable light by as many as 1 in 4 Hispanic voters should be alarming for Democrats, but it’s not even their biggest problem. That would be turnout.”…

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Invasion of US southern border isn’t a legal problem, can’t be solved by laws or executive actions. It’s a security issue effecting the entire United States-Rush Limbaugh, 6/25/2018

6/25/18, “Who’s Behind the Invasion of America?” Rush Limbaugh

“This is not the day-to-day illegal lineup of people trying to get in. This is a steady invasion that has been going on intensely here for probably four or five years, and some would argue longer than that…. 

Can we pass a law that will stop all these migrants? No. Can you enforce a law that might stop them? Maybe. But what’s really going on in the border is it’s not a legal problem, when you get down to brass tacks. It’s not something that’s gonna be solved by the law.…What’s going on on the border is a security issue….

Until we get serious about the security to our country posed by this invasion, we’re never gonna deal with it. If we deal with it with executive actions, executive orders, or new laws, we’re not getting anywhere near what the problem really is. It is a security issue. By security, I mean security of the United States and the states and the people on the border where all this is originally at first happening…. 

Every law that they attempt to pass or enforce, somebody is gonna come along and sue the United States on it, tie it up in court for years while the migration or invasion continues. But if it’s a security issue, and if it’s dealt with as a security issue, well, then you have an entirely different framework within which you are dealing. And it certainly is a security issue.”…  






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US elites insist on open borders in part because they view themselves as superior to those they rule who want secure borders. Elites couldn’t bear agreeing with such inferiors-Peggy Noonan, Wall St. Journal, 3/24/2016

“If they convincingly attempted to protect the people and respected their anxieties, the people would feel far less rage.”…
 

3/24/2016, “How to Defeat Radical Jihadism,“ Peggy Noonan, Wall St. Journal, opinion (subscript)

“It will require Western elites to form an alliance with the citizens they’ve long disrespected.”

“These things are obvious after the Brussels bombings: In striking at the political heart of Europe, home of the European Union, the ISIS jihadists were delivering a message: They will not be stopped….

Radical jihadism is not going to go away, not for a long time, probably decades. For 15 years [as of 2016] it has in significant ways shaped our lives, and it will shape our children’s too….

The usual glib talk of politicians—calls for unity, vows that we will not give in to fear—will produce in the future what they’ve produced in the past: nothing…. 

Let’s say only 10% of the 1.6 billion harbor feelings of grievance toward “the West,” or desire to expunge the infidel, or hope to re-establish the caliphate. That 10% is 160 million people. Let’s say of that group only 10% would be inclined toward jihad. That’s 16 million. Assume that of that group only 10% really means it—would really become jihadis or give them aid and sustenance. 

That’s 1.6 million. That is a lot of ferociousness in an age of increasingly available weapons, including the chemical, biological and nuclear sort….We must absorb that central fact….

The “they” is radical Islamic jihadism. Normal people have seen that a long time, but the leaders of the West-its political class, media powers and opinion shapers–have had a hard time coming to terms....They cast about-if only we give young Islamist men jobs programs or social integration schemes, we can stop this trouble. But jihadists don’t want to be integrated. They want trouble….

On April 28, 2010, in Rochdale, England, Britain’s then prime minister [Gordon Brown] accidentally performed a great public service by revealing what liberal Western leaders think of their people. 

At a campaign stop a 65-year-old woman named Gillian Duffy approached him and shared her concerns regarding crime, taxes and immigration. Mr. Brown made a great show of friendliness and appreciation. Then, still wearing a live mic, he got into his Jaguar, complained to his aides about “that woman” and said, “She’s just a sort of bigoted woman who said she used to be Labour.”

That was the authentic sound of the Western elite.…The elites have for a long time enjoyed nothing more than sneering at the anger and “racism” of their own people. They do not have the wisdom to understand that if they convincingly attempted to protect the people and respected their anxieties, the people would feel far less rage…. 

Republican operatives and elected officials in the U.S. don’t want to change their stand on illegal immigration, and a key reason is pride. They’re stiff-necked, convinced of their own higher moral thinking, and they will have open borders—which they do not call “open borders” but “comprehensive immigration reform,” which includes border-control mechanisms.

But they’ll never get to the mechanisms. They see the rise of Donald Trump and know it has something to do with immigration, but—they can’t bow. Some months ago I spoke to an admirable conservative group and said the leaders of the GOP should change their stand. I saw one of their leaders wince, as if I had made a faux pas. Which, I understood, I had. I understood too that terrorism is only making the border issue worse, and something’s got to give.

But I doubt they can change.”…
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Among comments to March 2016 Peggy Noonan article:
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“Jeff Boone: The top-end strategy of radical Islam relies on Western liberal ideology. Without it, radical Islam would be significantly weaker.”

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Added: Since at least 1984 the Wall St. Journal has called for open borders via a five-word Constitutional amendment: “There shall be open borders.”

 
7/3/1984, “In Praise of Huddled Masses,” Wall St. Journal Editorial

“If Washington still wants to “do something” about immigration, we propose a five-word constitutional amendment: There shall be open borders.”…



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US and UK ‘special relationship’ turns out to be that the two are equals in hypocrisy, determined to destroy Russia for no reason but adoring and selling arms to Saudi terror government-Strategic Culture, Cloughley

10/30/18, “Sanctions and the Hypocrisy of Washington and London,” Strategic Culture, Brian Cloughley

“The message is clear: The US and Britain are determined to damage and if possible destroy Russia, and will continue to use whatever means they can to do this, by military confrontation and inflicting economic sanctions. On the other hand they are steadfast in their resolve to support the Saudi dictatorship in pursuit of their money-spinning arms industries, no matter what evil excesses may be perpetrated by the Riyadh regime.

In other words, they are complete hypocrites.”



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Texas Big Bend area is easiest way to illegally cross US border, few patrols. US has ceded this land, a quarter of the entire US southern border, to drug cartels. What's here to stop them, says border agent-LA Times, 12/16/2017

12/16/2017, “Could the Big Bend in Texas be the border’s weakest link? Smuggling of drugs and migrants is on the rise,” LA Times, Molly Hennessy-Fiske

“Just yards from the Rio Grande, Agent Lee Smith pointed to footprints and scraps of carpet. Smugglers tie carpet to their shoes in hopes of covering their tracks, he said. Smith followed the rough trail through thick brush, his fellow agent close behind, wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a long gun.

They saw no one. But the agents sensed smugglers watching, waiting.

“They come right across. What’s here to stop them?” Smith said.

Sometimes smuggler scouts cross on horseback: The muddy banks are pocked with human and horse tracks. The river here, about 60 miles east of El Paso, is just a few yards wide, one of the reasons Border Patrol agents in Texas’ Big Bend region have seen troubling increases in smuggling, attacks on agents and migrant deaths in recent years.

“There’s hundreds of these crossings just in our area of operation,” Smith said. “The drug cartels, they own this part of the land. We have conceded large swaths of the border. There are areas where there are not agents for days.”

He called the vast Big Bend “the absolute weakest link on the southern border.”

The natural barriers beyond the river that made the landscape a stunning backdrop for “No Country for Old Men,” “There Will Be Blood” and “Giant” were also supposed to protect it. Or at least that was long the assumption of U.S. officials. There’s the river. There are mountains–the snow-covered Chinati, Chisos and Davis ranges….

But smuggling routes shift according to the dictates of criminal organizations, often in response to border enforcement. In the late 1990s, border traffic moved from Southern California to remote desert stretches of Arizona; by 2013, it moved east again to Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, the epicenter of migration and enforcement ever since. But now new routes are opening up to the west, in Big Bend.

“As things in the Rio Grande Valley get tougher to cross, they’re looking for other places, and this is a spot that over the past few years has become established for smuggling,” said Border Patrol Agent Rush Carter, a spokesman for the agency in Big Bend.

Just as migrants once tried to cross the Arizona desert unprepared, Central Americans are arriving in Big Bend without cold weather gear, abandoned to the elements by smugglers. Migrants tell agents that smugglers advertise the area as an easy crossing, the least patrolled stretch of border.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection divides the southern border into nine sectors. Big Bend is the largest: 135,000 square miles, 510 miles of river, a quarter of the entire southern border.

The sector stretches north to include 118 counties in Texas and all of Oklahoma. Yet it has the smallest staff of any southern border sector, about 500 agents assigned to a dozen stations and several highway checkpoints including one in Sierra Blanca, notorious for large drug busts. That’s fewer agents than have been assigned to a single station in the Tucson sector, Smith said.

President Trump has promised to add 5,000 Border Patrol agents, potentially doubling Big Bend staffing, but with high turnover, agents said that they would still be spread thin.

With such a small staff, agents usually patrol alone, with hand-me-down technology from other areas, including radios so spotty agents have erected makeshift cell towers in the brush to boost reception. Sometimes they just yell.

They don’t have observation towers along the border as in the Rio Grande Valley, and their single aerostat blimp hovering overhead, unlike those used in the Valley, is not equipped with infrared technology, Smith said.

“You know what it [the blimp] helps?” Smith said. “Migrants. They use it as a guide: Go that direction.”

The only time they received drones, agents complained, was when the devices were sent west from southeast Texas for safekeeping before Hurricane Harvey hit in August.

Since the summer [2017], Big Bend saw the biggest increase in unaccompanied youth caught on the border, mostly Central Americans:

278 since the federal fiscal year that began in October, up 74% from last year. By contrast, the number of youths caught in the Rio Grande area dropped 64% during the same period.

At the same time, Big Bend saw drug seizures drop, Smith and other agents said. That’s because smugglers use the migrants as decoys, they said, and abandon dozens at a time to overwhelm agents, before sending drug mules with 50-pound backpacks of marijuana in their wake.

Big Bend agents caught 6,000 people last fiscal year, which ended in September. During the next two months, they caught 1,646 people, putting them on pace to far exceed last year’s total.

Big Bend agents seized 40,852 pounds of marijuana last fiscal year, but 4,211 pounds in the first two months of this year. That’s more than a thousand pounds less per month.

As conditions deteriorated, some agents said they feared a death was inevitable….Last month, the agents’ worst fears were realized.

Two Border Patrol agents were injured [one of whom died] while investigating smugglers who had reached a culvert under Interstate 10, about 55 miles north of Porvenir. Both agents were fathers with years of experience. Both suffered serious head injuries. Agent Rogelio Martinez died. Agent Stephen Garland is still recovering and has trouble remembering what happened, said Smith, who spoke recently to the agent, who declined interviews. The FBI is still investigating the incident, and there have been no arrests.

Walking the 9-foot-deep concrete culvert where Martinez, 36, was found fatally injured, Smith pointed out signs of recent smuggling: 

A gray backpack, a man’s black-and-white checked shirt, an empty water jug in a holder sewn from a pair of blue jeans.

Up on the highway, traffic zoomed past a lighted sign advertising “Reward for information Border Patrol agent death.”

Days after the agents were injured [one agent was actually murdered–not just “injured”], another was sent to investigate potential smuggler activity in a culvert farther south, alone. The agent, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak, didn’t encounter anyone, but he was nervous: His two backup agents at a nearby station has been sent north to help after the attack.

“If it picks up here, we’re just going to be unprepared,” Smith said. He and other agents said they need more staff, improved radios, cameras and other equipment. Otherwise, they worry they may become overwhelmed the way Rio Grande Valley agents were by tens of thousands of Central American youth and families in 2014.

They also worry for the migrants unprepared for the harsh conditions of Big Bend. This month, agents patrolling by air spotted 15 Guatemalan men lost in the desert. The agents caught and brought them to a station, but the migrants were already suffering hypothermia. One died. Migrant families often turn themselves in, Smith said, but agents are increasingly discovering skeletons in the desert.

Recently a group of 50 migrants–mostly Guatemalan families and a couple of Hondurans–turned themselves in at Presidio, about 250 miles east of El Paso. Across from the bustling Mexican town of Ojinaga, connected by an official bridge and makeshift river crossings marked by guide wires, Presidio has become a hot spot for families who claim asylum [to be paid for by struggling US taxpayers], agents said.

On the Mexican side stands a roughly 50-foot-high retention wall topped with razor wire, set back from the river, built after a flood in 2008. Agents said it may be time to build a similar wall on the U.S. side. [It “may be time?”] 

A day after the Central American group arrived, a half dozen agents were still processing them in the Presidio station, a collection of trailers with reward posters on the door for Martinez….

They lined up a dozen of the migrants…outside where Border Patrol vans waited to take them to two other Big Bend stations. Agents there would have to interrupt other duties to help process the latest arrivals."




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Chris Wallace surprised to find bias in Washington Post front page headline: No mention that shooter of Republican congressman Scalise was Bernie Sanders supporter-Rush Limbaugh

10/30/18, “Chris Wallace Surprised by Biased Headlines,” Rush Limbaugh 

“On Fox News Sunday, “Chris Wallace contrasted front-page headlines from The Washington Post the day after Republican Congressman Steve Scalise was shot at an Alexandria, VA … by a Bernie Sanders supporter with the Post’s headline following the capture of mail bomb mastermind and Trump supporter Cesar Sayoc.

“Not surprisingly, the Post made sure to emphasize that Sayoc’s political views were mentioned in the headline while the” guy who shot up Scalise was not mentioned, politically, at all — and it’s Chris Wallace holding these two headlines up and pointing it out. “The Sayoc headline read

‘Bomb Suspect Outspoken Supporter of Trump.’
 
Wallace said that the headline really surprised him as he expected the [Washington Post] headline to read ‘Suspect Arrested.’

“A closer inspection of the article finds that it does not even mention that Sayoc was the bombing suspect until the fourth paragraph. Rather, the first three paragraphs read like a psychological profile of Sayoc, talking about his support for President Trump and all of the stickers on his van… On the other hand, the headline after the Scalise shooting read 

‘Congressman Shot in Va…’”…
 
It didn’t mention his support for Bernie Sanders.

“The front page article did not mention his support for [Bernie] Sanders but footnoted” like with an asterisk “that his social media posts were ‘highly critical of President Trump…’” So here’s Chris Wallace holding up the obvious evidence of media bias here that he said “surprised” him. Later on, “The Wall Street Journal’s Jason Riley remarked: ‘If you want to know why Trump won’t give up Twitter and social media, that is why. That headline is why,’” and it’s exactly right.

Folks, every day Donald Trump is the only Republican tweeting or informing people about the success of his policies….And if it weren’t for him, it wouldn’t be out there — other than us, of course, here in so-called alternative media.

But the point is, the Republican Party is not even touting the Trump administration’s agenda’s successes. Trump alone is doing it, and that’s why he’s not gonna give up the opportunity to do it, and I hope he never does. But when I realized this, that Trump is the only guy… Like today there are a couple of tweets from Trump tweeting the consumer confidence as being at a record high and relating it to how can peopling be voting Democrat when this kind of great economic news has been the news of the day for two years?…

You know, Republicans are running for election in 435 House seats, 35/36 Senate seats. Where is…? I know Ronna McDaniel is out there tweeting some things out now, but where is the party in general touting itself and its achievements? You don’t see it, other than from Donald Trump, and he’s not whining about that. He’s unabashed. He just tweets it out and gets it, and he tweets the truth out about the media as they report on him and lie or distort or what have you.”…image above from RushLimbaugh.com





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Rush Limbaugh educates Max Boot: ‘There is nothing that I or anybody else I know in conservative media could do that even approaches what the Obama FBI, Dept. of Justice, and intelligence community did and is doing in corrupting the highest levels of our government for the express purpose of overturning an election’-Rush Limbaugh, 10/29/18

10/29/18, “The Drive-Bys Are Driving Voters to Trump,“ Rush Limbaugh

“They’ve done everything they can to overturn the 2016 elections.…The idea that Washington should be able to command anything at any time is what the left wants with the White House. That’s how they want to use it….

After reporting on the anti-Semitic hate crime in Pittsburgh, NBC shifted over to complaining about Trump for not bowing to the man’s hatred. ‘On Saturday, he [Trump] continued with his midterm campaign commitments despite that tragedy,’ chided anchor Willie Geist, while White House correspondent Kelly O’Donnell huffed about how the ‘President’s response to this tragedy has been to speak extensively about all aspects of it while not giving up his midterm fight.’”

So Trump’s supposed to stop his campaign. Trump’s supposed to stop the rallies. Trump is supposed to bring everything to a screeching halt because Trump is supposed to lose. People are supposed to vote against Trump. “NBC: If Americans Are ‘Fed Up’ and ‘Mean It’…” See, they do believe that. Don’t doubt me. I’m telling you, they are relying on their belief that you are as fed up with Trump as they are, and that you mean it….

Trump should cease this campaigning. He should stop it! This is unseemly. “ABC: Trump ‘At the Center’ of All the Political Violence Right Now.”

That was George Stephanopoulos on This Week yesterday [Sunday 10/28]. “After giving a rundown of the violence of the week, he declared it all occurred ‘against the backdrop of the ugliest political climate in modern times,’” and, of course, “at the center” of it is Donald Trump. No. (chuckles) No! At the center of it is the media, the media and their reporting on Trump….
 
So now we have a tweet from Max Boot. You know, I don’t know what happened to Max Boot. Max Boot used to be a columnist and reporter for the Wall Street Journal. He’s an international political expert at what have you, and I used to think of the guy as a conservative, being a Journal opinion writer.

He would occasionally send me his pieces in advance, thinking I would enjoy them. But ever since Trump was elected, he has gone off the reservation — I mean, to the point that a lot of people are asking, “What happened to Max Boot?” Now he’s on CNN as often as he can get on there just ripping Trump a new one, primarily from the standpoint that Trump’s manners and his behavior and his comportment just isn’t presidential. You know, the usual complaint from the establishment crowd.

So he [Max Boot] tweets out, “There is partisanship on both sides of the political spectrum, but no left-wing outlets propagate extremism as successfully or widely as conservative media do. Conservatives are being brainwashed in an ‘echo chamber’ for ‘rumor and conspiracy theory.’” This tweet is then replied to by John Harwood, a former New York Times/Wall Street Journal reporter now at CNBC who has never been anything other than an uber-ultraleftist.



Harwood says Max Boot “is 100% correct. most important: extremism on the right has gotten baked into the entire movement and GOP – WH, Congress, Fox, Limbaugh, Breitbart, CPAC etc.” I maintain to you, as I said in my opening monologue of the program today, that we get up every day and we see people and institutions that we admire and respect under attack. I mean, every day the left is politicizing everything, including mass murder wherever it happens. They are politicizing the weather.

Republicans have been called murderers by the Democrat Party and willing accomplices in the media, Mr. Boot, simply because we don’t believe in the man-made climate change hoax. Murderers! Republicans have been called murderers for not supporting Obama’s takeover of the American health care industry for the purposes of putting it under the auspices of government for the purposes of controlling the way people live.... 

The mainstream media is extremism, if you ask me. That’s what they’ve become. Daily media reporting has become extremism. It certainly isn’t factual, it certainly has an investment in the outcome of events, and somehow we conservatives in the media are far more successful in propagating extremism — and that you in this audience are being “brainwashed in an echo chamber by rumor and conspiracy theory.” Which takes me to President Trump. President Trump tweeted — and I also mentioned in the first hour that Trump was elected to behave differently.

He was elected precisely because he is cut from a different cloth….

“This guy can’t be serious. He’s not gonna last this campaign two weeks!” And then the first polls came out, and they saw Trump leading. And they said, “Ah, this is not gonna last. This is crazy.” Trump kept slowly but surely eliminating all of the other Republicans in the primary, and all of them had this preferable, laid-back, walk-all-over-me attitude toward the left and Democrats that you want….

Then they [the Beltway Establishment] started the two-year silent coup, and that is the real reason for all of the suspicion about those of you on the left.

I’m gonna tell you something, Mr. Boot.

There is nothing that I or anybody else I know in conservative media could do that even approaches what the Obama FBI, Department of Justice, and intelligence community did and is doing in corrupting the highest levels of our government for the express purpose of overturning an election. I don’t care how much power you think I’ve got, I couldn’t come close to doing what was done and has been done the past two years.

Including the Mueller investigation, including the planting of outright lies five times a day in media all over the country from anonymous people alleging that it was only a matter of time before proof that Trump had colluded with Russia to steal the election was found. For two years, Mr. Boot — for two years, with no evidence and everybody in on it knew there was no evidence — everybody in on this knew there had not been any collusion. They were hoping….

The FBI, the DOJ, they knew the tricks being played, and they willingly supported those tricks. They ignored the real collusion and rigging of elections on the part of the Hillary Clinton campaign, the DNC.

I don’t care what kind of power you think we’ve got over here on conservative media, but we couldn’t get anywhere… I mean, we couldn’t come close to getting away with running any kind of a soft or a silent coup using the upper reaches of power at the Department of Justice, all Obama loyalists and Hillary loyalists. No way we would have the power to plant spies in the campaign of a presidential campaign that we opposed.

There is no way any of us could write up a phony document purported to be real intelligence claiming that Hillary did despicable things on a bed in Moscow and go get a FISA warrant to spy on the Hillary campaign. There’s no way any of us in the conservative media could come close to doing anything that has become a natural, everyday occurrence on the left. You want to talk about extremism and this so-called magical ability to brainwash?

What do you think’s happened the past two years in the mainstream media? Brainwashing the American people?…I’m gonna ask a question here. When Robert Mueller does not come up with the goods — when it is finally admitted or alleged that Donald Trump did not collude with the Russians and he didn’t cheat to steal the election — how many crazies on the left are gonna go bonkers when they hear this?

Meaning how many people in this country to this day, at this moment, still believe that Trump stole the election, that he worked with Putin and the Russians to do it, and it’s only a matter of time? And why do they think this? Because the media has assured them that it happened for two years with the constant reporting of anonymous sources, leaks here, leaks there. James Comey manufacturing leaks to get a special counsel appointed….

Trump has always been the target! Nobody else. Trump remains the target! Now, how many people are out there — dangerously unbalanced on the left — who think that between now and Election Day, this gigantic October Surprise is gonna be revealed, that Mueller is gonna somehow issue a report or something’s gonna leak? Something’s gonna happen to prove that Trump colluded.

But when that is not shown to have happened, what are some of the lunatics on the left gonna do? ‘Cause you know how many people believe it, Mr. Boot? Do you know, how many people — average, ordinary Americans who get their news from your vaunted Drive-By Media. Do you know, how many people believe this and who knows how many other lies about Trump and conservatives in general have been reported…that we don’t know yet…? Like this guy who shot up the Republican baseball practice.

What set him off? His hatred for Trump! The fact that nothing was happening to Trump. The fact that Trump was getting away with it. Why? Because his media had assured him that Trump was history. When he finally figured out it wasn’t gonna happen, he lost it. There’s no way I or my conservative compatriots could come anywhere close to creating scenarios like that. Trump himself is accusing the media of stoking great anger….

Stop and think if the news media were not so blatantly associated with the destruction of one party and president. Stop and think how American day-to-day life would be different if there wasn’t any hate routinely reported as news in the Drive-By Media. That’s Trump’s point.”
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Rush Limbaugh “Related links” 

• RushLimbaugh.com: More Positive Election News You Won’t Hear Anywhere Else – 10.26.18
• Daily Signal: The Left Goes Full Open Borders
• CBS: Tight Contests Mark Critical Senate Races — CBS News Battleground Tracker Poll
• NewsBusters: NBC: If Americans Are ‘Fed Up’ and ‘Mean It’, They’ll Vote Against Trump/GOP
• NewsBusters: ABC: Trump ‘At the Center’ of All the Political Violence Right Now
• NewsBusters: Stelter Blames Synagogue Shooting on Fox News Coverage of Caravan

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Added:

1/24/18, “Mainstream Media and Imperial Power,“ Consortium News, Dennis J. Bernstein, Randy Credico

“John Pilger: “Media in the West is now an extension of imperial power. It is no longer a loose extension, it is a direct extension. Whether or not it has fallen out with Donald Trump is completely irrelevant.”





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