[America's Freedom Fighters] A Texas man was sentenced to 40 years in prison for his leadership role in an armed home invasion robbery crew that traveled the United States targeting families of South Asian and East Asian descent.
Juan Olaya, 41, of Houston, Texas, was convicted by a federal jury of one count of racketeering conspiracy, four counts of assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering, and four counts of brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence on March 9, 2020. According to evidence presented at trial, Olaya acted as the road boss for an enterprise that committed a string of armed home invasions in Michigan, Georgia, New York, New Jersey, and Texas from August through December of 2014. Olaya recruited other crew members and assigned roles to those members. Olaya and crew members then traveled to specific locations, conducted surveillance, and executed the robberies.
"The Criminal Division is committed to protecting the American public from violent criminals, particularly when those criminals target individuals based on their ethnicity or race," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicholas L. McQuaid of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. "We hope that this prosecution, trial conviction, and sentence will serve as a deterrent to others who might think about engaging in similar violent conduct."
"Juan Olaya and his robbery crews committed a host of violent crimes that terrorized innocent victims across the United States," said Special Agent in Charge Timothy Waters of the FBI’s Detroit Field Office. "His crimes are made more disturbing because the victims were chosen based on their ethnicity or race. The FBI will continue to work with our federal, state, and local partners to investigate and hold accountable predators like Olaya who threaten the safety of our communities."
The organizer of the crew, Chaka Castro, ran the enterprise from 2011 through 2014. Castro was convicted by a federal jury on June 4, 2019, and was sentenced to 37 years in prison on Oct. 28, 2019. Castro generated lists of robbery targets in various states around the county, specifically families whose last names were common to certain ethnicities
So coy. Which ethnicities would a Hispanic robbery crew target, O FBI? And are any of the gang members connected to the usual Hispanic narco gangs?
and assigned crews to carry out armed robberies inside the families’ homes.
The crew utilized a particular modus operandi in each of the robberies. Members preferred to rob homes while the families were present so they could use their victims to point out valuable items. Members disguised their appearance with clothing and bandanas so that victims would have difficulty identifying them. They openly carried and brandished firearms to gain control of the victims and then immediately corralled the victims, including children, into one location in the home. At least one crew member then restrained the victims using duct tape and threats of violence, as one or more others ransacked the home in search of cash, jewelry, and electronics. The crew organized their trips to involve multiple home invasion robberies over a series of days.
[FoxNews] 369 people were shot in the past 72 hours as of Friday afternoon, the Gun Violence Archive says.
Police should brace for a potentially more violent summer than last year as crime trends show the bloodshed in some parts of the country, such as New York City, picked up earlier than is typically expected, analysts and experts tell Fox News.
"It's not getting any better," Joseph Giacalone, an adjunct professor with the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told Fox News. "Let's put it this way: New York City is already ahead of last year's pace, but last year, the homicides and shootings really started spiking at the end of May and into June. So that will be the real tale of the tape, so to speak, to see what's happening over there."
Giacalone said the rise in crime "seems to be centered around the urban environments and the cities."
"So, if you look at New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Baltimore, you name the big cities and they're having huge problems," Giacalone added. Good thing they're all run by Democrats with strong gun laws
Giacalone, a former sergeant for the New York Police Department (NYPD) who has been tracking the crime numbers, said the fast-approaching summer months generally bring out "more crime because there are more people out there."
"We have … the pandemic ending. People want to get out and do things again," he said. "And it's just a cocktail for disaster to some."
According to the Gun Violence Archive, 369 people were shot in the past 72 hours as of Friday afternoon.
As of Sunday, the NYPD reported a 350% increase in murders for the week prior compared to the same time year-over-year, statistics show. Shootings were up 166% in April compared to April 2020, police previously said.
In Chicago, the most recently available crime statistics show that murder was up 56% from April 26 to May 2 compared to the same time last year, the Chicago Police Department said. The number of shooting incidents was also up 40% during the same time frame year-over-year, police said.
And in Los Angeles, murders year-to-date as of May 8 were up 30.9% from the same time last year, while reports of shots fired incidents increased by 58% and the number of shooting victims was up 67.2%, Los Angeles Police Department statistics show.
When asked his opinion on how trends so far this year might reflect summer 2021 crime trends, Giacalone said this summer is "going to be worse than last year, for sure."
#3
I'm really looking forward to hundreds of boarded-up triple deckers on Mass. Avenue and other parts of Boston. That was the look around here in the mid-70's.
An East Asian driver sitting in his car at a gas station in South El Monte, Los Angeles was beaten and robbed at gunpoint. The suspect has not been apprehended. pic.twitter.com/1KSXjJEaEt
Would you want one of them watching out for your kid? They have proven that when push comes to shove, they don't have what it takes. Yeah, that's harsh. I know running to the sound of gunfire is unnatural, but that is what this job is. If I were a parent in the district, I would express my disapproval.
[NYPOST] An Australian woman has gone viral on TikTok after claiming that she woke up with an Irish accent following tonsil surgery. Faith and begorrah!
Angela Yen, 27, had a tonsillectomy on April 19 and was confused when her Aussie accent reportedly turned into an Irish brogue 10 days after the procedure.
"I’ve never been to Ireland. I grew up in Australia and had an Aussie accent for the last 20 years since I moved here when I was 8 years old," she told Storyful. "They're always after me Lucky Charms"
The Brisbane resident met with doctors and did research trying to figure out what happened to her normal accent.
Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki, a science author and commentator, weighed in on the debacle in a TikTok video explaining that Yen may have foreign accent syndrome.
The rare speech disorder causes a person to sound like they are speaking with an accent from another country. It has only been reported about 150 times, according to Kruszelnicki, and is normally caused by a brain injury. But Yen explained in a video that she has no neurological symptoms — and doctors are reportedly perplexed.
"When I started singing, I was singing in a different sound and also talking words in a funny accent," Yen recounted of the morning she discovered her new trick.
She told viewers that she’s found a neurologist with a specialty in stroke rehabilitation who is willing to help diagnose her. Now the Aussie-turned-Irish lass said that she’s documenting her troubles to help people, but she has some skeptics.
In her latest update, she responded to a commenter who mocked her, offering a calculation of the medical bills that will pile up as she tries to get her down-under slang back.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/15/2021 00:00 ||
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#1
It's not "throat surgery." It's called Bushmill's
#2
*Shrug* Considering the sheer size of the Universe -- Of course there are aliens out there somewhere. Aliens here on Earth (Other than the people with weird hair colors, tattoos and body piercings?) -- color me agnostic to VERY skeptical.
#6
Our Milky Way has an estimated 100+ billion stars alone in a UNIVERSE with Billions of other such Galaxies.
Given the Milky Way is a late comer to an expanding universe. Then that means there is a likelihood of more intelligent civilizations. Life that has had Millions even Billions of years to develop past our Earth or kill themselves off.
Have they visited EARTH ?????
Who knows, but the odds sure do favor at the very least their existence.
Want a better answer go ask David Kipping, a Columbia University astronomer he is the expert.☺
#7
These alleged celestial visitors, are they flooding our emergency rooms, applying for food stamps, demanding reparations, rigging elections, burning and looting, herding infants and children across our borders, ripping the unborn from the womb to harvest body parts? threatening to kill Asians ?
I'm holding off on condemning the Green People until we know a bit more. Perhaps our attention should not be so easily diverted while more over-riding issues are at hand.
Posted by: Spoter B ||
05/15/2021 9:00 Comments ||
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#9
An elderly friend of mine, now sadly deceased — Korean War vet, one time president of the local VFW post, which is how we met — shared stories of an experimental series he and his buddies in the factory handyman group at the local steel plant north of Cincinnati ran on nights when work was slow. They wanted to see what kind of responses would result from different kinds of “alien aircraft” reported in the area... so for months they launched different things connected to helium balloons from the roof of their building, presumably giggling together (in a deep, very masculine way, of course) on their breaks about the newspaper reports that followed. As I recall, their best effect was a bunch of clear garbage bags lifting a frame festooned with slowly flashing lights. Commander Fred was a delightful man who took in his daughter and granddaughter when his daughter was divorced.
#10
OK, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, but to date I've seen no convincing evidence and all the X Files stuff about government coverups doesn't rock my world either.
SO put me in the "seeing is believing" camp.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/15/2021 9:55 Comments ||
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#11
I grew up about 20 miles from Wright Pat and no one gives my third eye a second glance...
#12
It makes for very good entertainment is all. And distraction from our real problems, like Besoeker said.
Americentric yahoo overconfidence engenders stupid tropes like camera shy flying objects crashing into USAF hands and naked gray dwarves slinking in the dark, afraid of that Arizona deputy's SureFire™ flashlight.
The universe doesn't give a shit for sanctity of life, human jurisprudence or the concepts of rights; civilizations older than us that have traveled well far would have incorporated the coldness of that truth into their mindset by now. If they came here, they'd impose that truth by force and shatter our paradigms of self elevation.
If there were agencies of extra terrestrial super powers flying around, they'd have enslaved us, assimilating us into their galactic machine of control. They would believe they were 'emancipating' everyone from human government forever, and outlawed forming governing bodies, churches and parliaments. And they'd call it their 'democracy'.
As for the real powers out there, when they come, it won't be Independence Day or a Rendezvous with Rama. It'll be the end of the kingdoms of man altogether.
[NYPOST] Alcohol caused a car accident — but not in the way you might expect. Important safety tip: Don't do that.
A car burst into flames Thursday after a Maryland motorist unwisely used hand sanitizer while smoking. A harrowing video taken from a news chopper shows the vehicle smoldering in a parking lot as firefighters rush to douse the blaze.
"Using hand sanitizer and smoking a cigarette is a bad combo in unventilated areas like a car," a Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service official told the local ABC affiliate. The crew responded to the freak inferno, which occurred around 5:30 p.m. at the Federal Plaza Shopping Center in Rockland.
According to official reports, the unnamed driver was smoking a cigarette and then started using the germ-killing elixir, which ignited and set the whole car aflame like an impromptu Molotov cocktail.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/15/2021 00:00 ||
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More on this story from yesterday, now with Moar Fred!
[NYPOST] A Hummer burst into flames and was destroyed in Florida after the driver loaded cans of fuel into the vehicle — amid a nationwide gas crisis, according to fire officials. Important safety tip: Don't do that.
The driver had just filled four containers of gas at a Texaco Food Mart in Homosassa at 10:52 a.m. Wednesday when their ride caught on fire next to the station, the Citrus County Chronicle reported. "My Hummie!"
Fire crews that rushed to battle the blaze discovered four 5-gallon containers filled with gas in the back of the vehicle, according to the outlet. "I'm on fire!"
"You got twenty gallons of gas in yer trunk!"
The fire was extinguished in about 20 minutes and one person was injured but refused to be transported to a hospital. "No! I don' wanna go!"
"C'mon, man! Yer fried!"
"I'm ashamed to show my face in public!"
The Florida State Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the official cause of the fire. Other details were not immediately available Thursday. "I don't wanna talk about it."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/15/2021 00:00 ||
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#1
Safety tip!
Gas fumes are heavier than air.
Fill cans on ground in open air away from ignition sources.
Roll electric windows down first.
Return cans to open compartment when ready to leave.
Allow airflow to stir up gas fumes in compartment to window level to exhaust fumes in the cross flow.
Do not use electric pumps that are not sealed for gasoline.
Store gas cans in isolated metal shed.
[911] The Federal Bureau of Investigation is warning Americans about the dangers involved in the illegal sale of fraudulent COVID-19 vaccination cards and other COVID-19 scams.
Vaccination cards are intended to provide recipients of the coronavirus vaccine with information regarding the type of vaccine they received and their dates of inoculation. The creation, purchase, or sale of vaccine cards is illegal and "endangers public safety," the FBI says.
The unauthorized use of an official government agency’s seal on such cards is a crime that may be punishable under Title 18, United States Code, Section 1017, and other federal laws. Penalties may include hefty fines and prison time.
FBI-Chicago is also warning the public that posting photographs of legitimate vaccination cards online may leave individuals vulnerable to identity theft.
#1
The unauthorized use of an official government agency’s seal on such cards is a crime that may be punishable under Title 18, United States Code, Section 1017, and other federal laws. Penalties may include hefty fines and prison time.
Prosecuted as often as video copying? Asking for a friend.
#2
The one I got (when I got vaccinated) at CVS has the CDC seal on it but could be reproduced on any laser printer at a level that would require lab analysis to be proven a fake.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/15/2021 8:28 Comments ||
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#3
I copied a co-workers. Laminated it and use it where ever I go.
Posted by: Spoter B ||
05/15/2021 8:54 Comments ||
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#4
There are a number of sites selling the JPEG images for the VAX Card for a donation.
Some use the "cover"
"To allow Employers to identify the Real from fake Vaccination Cards" and other cover stories.
A simple Google for Images using:
"covid-19 vaccination card"
or
"covid-19 vaccination card back side"
will get you a Printable pic.
#7
How exactly does a card that has only my first and last name on it, a vaccine lot number and a date open me to identity theft. Seems like scaremongering to me, but then that's the whole purpose of the entire charade.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/15/2021 9:51 Comments ||
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#8
Moral dilemma. What happens when ANTIFA starts selling these?
#9
So, where do the get off telling any of us what to do?
Breaking911
May 14, 2021
NEW: About 40-50% of CDC, FDA employees are refusing the COVID-19 vaccine according to Fauci, Marks
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/15/2021 11:18 Comments ||
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Direct translation of the article
[Korrespondent] The ministers of economy, infrastructure and health are leaving, and the Rada will appoint their replacements next week.
Serious changes are being prepared in the Ukrainian government. The Verkhovna Rada next week will consider the replacement of three ministers at once - economy, infrastructure and health.
Also, the deputies say that there are claims against the Minister of Justice Denis Malyuska and the Minister of Finance Sergei Marchenko.
Correspondent. net was looking into upcoming staffing rotations.
Stepanov - on the way out
The resignation of the Minister of Health, Maxim Stepanov, has been awaiting for a long time. The deputies even collected signatures for this. The main complaint against the minister is the failure of vaccination, which is proceeding at a very slow pace in the country.
Stepanov himself, in his own defense, says that there is a war for vaccines all over the world and all countries are experiencing a shortage.
But now the prime minister has submitted to the Rada a proposal for the minister's resignation. Most likely, Stepanov will be replaced by the current Deputy Minister Viktor Lyashko. More at the link
Direct translation of the article
[REGNUM] The list of unfriendly foreign states includes the United States of America and the Czech Republic. The corresponding order was approved by the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Mishustin .
The list consists of two states - the United States and the Czech Republic. These countries, as noted, commit unfriendly actions towards Russia and Russian organizations.
According to the document, the Czech diplomatic mission in the Russian Federation will not be able to hire more than 19 Russian citizens. With regard to the United States, the conditions are even more stringent. They are completely prohibited from hiring citizens of the Russian Federation in the diplomatic mission.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree "On the application of measures of influence (counteraction) on unfriendly actions of foreign states."
[EpochNews] The cybercriminal outfit that U.S. authorities have said infiltrated the network of a major pipeline operator, leading to gas shortages and rising prices, is claiming that it is disbanding.
DarkSide, which operates ransomware as a service, announced Thursday they were stopping operations.
In an announcement in Russian, the group said they lost access to part of its infrastructure, along with some of their financial assets, after an apparent raid by law enforcement authorities.
Someone followed them home with malice aforethought? A delightful thought.
Affiliates that use DarkSide’s ransomware were told they will be given tools so victims can regain access to data that attackers held hostage in return for payment.
"In view of the above and due to the pressure from the US, the affiliate program is closed. Stay safe and good luck. The landing page, servers, and other resources will be taken down within 48 hours," the announcement read, according to a translation by Intel 471, a group of intelligence operators.
The attack on Colonial Pipeline earlier this month prompted the Georgia-based company to shut down certain parts of its network. That led to a major U.S. pipeline going offline, which in turn led directly and indirectly to gas shortages and rising prices at the pump.
Reports suggested Colonial paid millions of dollars to get a tool to regain access to system parts the hackers invaded, but the company has declined to confirm that publicly, as has the U.S. government.
The FBI this week said the DarkSide ring was responsible for the compromise of Colonial networks. DarkSide appeared to acknowledge that much in an earlier statement, saying they are apolitical with the goal of making money and not creating problems for society.
DarkSide utilizes a highly targeted approach to attacking victims by using custom ransomware and a corporate-like method of communication throughout their attacks, according to Digital Shadows, a cybersecurity firm. Last year, the company said it did not attack companies in certain sectors, like education.
Security researchers expressed skepticism of DarkSide’s new announcement.
Robert Lee, co-founder and CEO of Dragos, said on Twitter that the move "is almost certainly a rebranding attempt to avoid the heat."
DarkSide and another ransomware group, Babuk, which said it was shifting operations on Thursday after taking credit for obtaining and leaking information from Washington’s police department, took the actions in reaction to "the high-profile ransomware attacks covered by the media this week," Intel 471 said.
"However, corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds... a strong caveat should be applied to these developments: it’s likely that these ransomware operators are trying to retreat from the spotlight more than suddenly discovering the error of their ways. A number of the operators will most likely operate in their own closed-knit groups, resurfacing under new names and updated ransomware variants," it added.
President Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. We get to suffer the consequences... told news hounds earlier Thursday that the U.S. government has "strong reason" to believe the Colonial hackers were based in Russia but were not backed by the Russian government.
"We have been in direct communication with Moscow about the imperative for responsible countries to take decisive action against these ransomware networks," he said. "We’re also going to pursue a measure to disrupt their ability to operate. And our Justice Department has launched a new task force dedicated to prosecuting ransomware hackers to the full extent of the law."
An international task force that included officials from Microsoft, Amazon, New York state, and the U.S. government, said in a report sent to the Biden administration last month that the United States should "execute a sustained, aggressive, whole of government, intelligence-driven anti-ransomware campaign, coordinated by the White House."
Servers for Darkside were taken down by unknown actors Friday, a week after the cyber extortionist forced the shutdown of a large US oil pipeline in a ransomware scam, a US cyber security firm said.
Recorded Future, the security firm, said in a post that the allegedly Russia-based Darkside had admitted in a web post that it lost access to certain servers used for its web blog and for payments.
Accessed via TOR on the dark web, the Darkside site address showed a notice saying it could not be found.
Recorded Future threat intelligence analyst Dmitry Smilyanets said he found a Russian language comment on a ransomware website ostensibly from "Darksupp", described as the operator of Darkside.
"A few hours ago, we lost access to the public part of our infrastructure, namely: Blog. Payment server. DOS servers," Darksupp wrote.
"The Darkside operator also reported that cryptocurrency funds were also withdrawn from the gang's payment server, which was hosting ransom payments made by victims," said Recorded Future.
While there was no evidence of who might have forced down Darkside's website, the twitter account of a US military cyber warfare group, the 780th Military Intelligence Brigade, retweeted the Recorded Future report on Friday.
#5
"....Well, that ought to do it, then. Thanks, Ray."
- Dr. Peter Venkman
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
05/15/2021 9:22 Comments ||
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#6
Saw a series of posts on Gab. Seems the local hacker community has never heard of these "Darksiders". They were speculating it was official Russian Gov't or connected to.
Why? My own immediate thought was "How long ago was it that Dementia Joe called Putin a murderer?"
Moral: Never speak truth to power when you're a wuss.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[America's Freedom Fighters] A Texas man was sentenced to 40 years in prison for his leadership role in an armed home invasion robbery crew that traveled the United States targeting families of South Asian and East Asian descent.
[NYPOST] An Australian woman has gone viral on TikTok after claiming that she woke up with an Irish accent following tonsil surgery.
[NYPOST] Alcohol caused a car accident — but not in the way you might expect.
[NYPOST] A Hummer burst into flames and was destroyed in Florida after the driver loaded cans of fuel into the vehicle — amid a nationwide gas crisis, according to fire officials.
...46th president of the U.S. We get to suffer the consequences...
Servers for Darkside were taken down by unknown actors Friday, a week after the cyber extortionist forced the shutdown of a large US oil pipeline in a ransomware scam, a US cyber security firm said.
In an announcement in Russian, the group said....
