Mexican Cartel Leader Threatens Government After His Mother And Sister Are Arrested

On June 21st, Jose “El Marro” Yepez, leader of the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel issued a video statement, threatening the Mexican government, as well as his competitor cartels.

He released several videos with threats, the video above contains all of them.

The videos were released after Mexican authorities reportedly arrested the mother and sister of an alleged crime gang boss along with 24 other people.

This prompted a wave of violence in the central state of Guanajuato.

The army said an operation involving both state and federal officials captured the two family members of José Antonio Yépez Ortiz.

Enraged members of the gang blocked highways and set cars and trucks ablaze along roads in the state and Yépez Ortiíz threatened further disturbances in the videos.

The gang began by robbing trains and expanded into stealing gasoline from government pipelines, and has branched out into extortion rackets, often clashing the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

“I’m going to be a stone in your shoe. I’m going to blow up, you will see,” Yepez said.

Yepez said he feared the authorities would frame his mother as one of the leaders of the cartel. “In my mother’s and my people name…I don’t fear you,” he said.

Yepez also said he could form a coalition with the Sinaloa cartel or other crime groups in the north to fight Santa Rosa’s arch-foe Jalisco New Generation cartel, which has been on a bloody expansion drive to take over rivals’ territories across the country.

In the area of the Jalisco New Generation cartel, authorities discovered two separate areas with the bodies of people the cartel had likely killed.

One location had four bodies. The four bodies were bound hand and foot and dumped near an old tin mine. Two had been doused with powdered quicklime, and two were identified as people who had been reported missing between May and June.

In a more remote area, inspectors found the remains of nine men and one woman scattered in the brush. All had been covered with quicklime.

Some of the bodies were also bound, and experts said they had apparently been dumped there about a month ago.

Quicklime is frequently used by the cartels to hide the scent of decomposing bodies.

Separately, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador admitted that he ordered the release of El Chapo’s son during a shoot-out between a cartel and security forces – and claimed he saved hundreds of lives in doing so.

An operation in October ended in absolute embarrassment after security forces briefly captured Ovidio Guzman, one of the sons of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, leader of the infamous Sinaloa Cartel.

They were forced to let the 30-year-old go just hours later after soldiers were overwhelmed by cartel forces.

https://southfront.org/mexican-cartel-leader-threatens-government-after-his-mother-and-sister-are-arrested/

WH Press Sec. Slams Dem Governors, Mayors After Spike In Violence Over The Weekend

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany slammed Democratic leaders in Minneapolis, Chicago, New York, and Seattle over the weekend’s record violence, during Monday’s press briefing. Watch below:

“This past Father’s Day weekend, we saw violence across the country, but we saw scant media coverage of this violence,” McEnany said. “Let’s be clear here: These states are responsible for policing their streets, the governors, the mayors are responsible for ensuring that our streets are safe, that the American people are protected. And what we have seen is in far too many Democrat-run states and Democrat-run cities, we have seen violence and chaos and nothing like the law and order that we saw here in D.C. when President Trump stepped in and surged the National Guard.”

In Chicago, the weekend saw its highest number of shootings this year, with 102 people shot, 14 of them fatally, as reported. In Minneapolis, there were 11 people shot and 1 killed. In New York City, Saturday saw one shooting per hour with 24 people shot in the single day, according to The New York Post. In Seattle, the autonomous zone created by anarchist groups in the area, known as ‘CHAZ’ or ‘CHOP,’ two people were shot, one fatally.

“It is the responsibility of governors to protect their states, to police their streets. The police power rests at the state level. And we expect mayors to step up and to do their job. And for governors to step up and do their job in the mold of President Trump, who secured D.C. after a night of lawlessness two weeks ago,” McEnany said.

Concluding her remarks on the spike in violence, McEnany called ‘the defund the police movement’ “misguided,” adding that “it will only hurt the vulnerable citizens of American cities the most. It’s sad and it is shameful.”

https://saraacarter.com/wh-press-sec-slams-dem-governors-mayors-after-spike-in-violence-over-the-weekend/

Trump adviser: China using resurgent Covid scare 'to spook' U.S. into keeping economy closed

'China put out information that Beijing's on a wartime footing because there was a second wave, because they got 57 cases of covid,' Curtis Ellis said. 'This is meant for American consumption.'

A senior policy adviser to a Trump advocacy group says China is "trying to spook" American media and blue-state governors into keeping the U.S. economy shuttered following the worst of the coronavirus pandemic.

Curtis Ellis, policy director with America First Policies, a 501c4 that works closely with Trump administration officials, said China is putting out disinformation to divide Americans.

"China put out information that Beijing's on a wartime footing because there was a second wave, because they got 57 cases of covid," Ellis told Just the News in a video interview. "This is meant for American consumption. They're trying to spook the American media and these blue-state governors to keep the economy shut down, to keep small businesses shut down."

Curtis, who was also a senior policy advisor with the Trump presidential campaign in 2016 and has been traveling this year with Vice President Mike Pence promoting a post-Covid economic recovery, said it was big businesses who have best been able to manage through the coronavirus. Large chain stores were allowed to remain open even while smaller businesses shut down.

"The big players have been doing quite well through this whole shutdown," Ellis said. "It's the small players, the small businesses, and the average American who can't work from a laptop, who work with their hands that have been hit hardest. So we need to get this going again."

Ellis said for decades leaders of the Democratic Party lulled Americans into a false sense of security about China by urging Americans to grow their business and other engagements with China.

"That's how you're going to help the reformers and not the hardliners," Ellis said Americans were told. "That was all a ruse."

Ellis said the Chinese charm offensive appears pulled from a playbook but with roles reversed.

"This is something that China is very aware of, by the way, in the 19th century, the Chinese Empire opened itself up to foreign capital," Ellis said. "And what happened was the local businessmen in China started to identify with the foreigners and to identify with the foreign capital. And those local elites, those local businessmen, essentially became lobbyists for the foreign capital. And that's what we've seen in America, that American businesses that have business interests in China are lobbying in Washington for pro-China policies … Joe Biden is a great example of that. The people around Biden are examples of that. Larry Summers, a great example of that."

Ellis was critical of more and more "investor visas" going to Chinese nationals, many of whom are likely affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party.

"And so as we bring in these 'visas-for-sale' and bring in these investor visas, the money that's coming in, is serving China in two ways," Ellis said. "It's creating influencers in the United States, but their influence is going to be to push the Chinese Communist Party line in Washington. And this is very dangerous."

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/trump-policy-adviser-china-trying-spook-us-media-dem-governors-keep-covid-economy

SCOTUS "Legislated from the Bench" on Obama's Illegal DACA Amnesty!

Last week’s Supreme Court ruling on the Obama-era DACA program is a threat to the rule of law and civil rights law. It’s time for the President to “just say no” to Supreme Court abuses – and put an end to the SCOTUS’ legislating from the bench. Tune in to hear more about how Chief Justice Roberts broke his promise of impartiality and put his thumbs on the scales.

https://www.judicialwatch.org/videos/daca-ruling-bench/

China investments undermining US support for Israel including annexation

Chinese firms with links to Iran bidding to build Tel Aviv light rail.

Israel’s continued openness to Chinese involvement in major infrastructure projects is undermining some Trump administration officials' support for a continued strong Israel-US relationship, including backing a move to apply Israeli sovereignty to parts of the West Bank, a US official told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

The warning came as US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman headed to Washington for meetings in the White House to determine the US position on the sovereignty options Israel is considering.

The US official spoke weeks before a tender to build two lines of the Tel Aviv light rail was set to close, and three of the six international groups bidding for it include Chinese state-owned companies, most of which worked on railway projects in Iran.

The US official warned that “the Israeli government is trying to have it both ways with us. It wants approval for annexation and the continuation of beneficial economic, diplomatic and security ties, while opening the door to China in critical infrastructure projects [such as] 5G and the light rail.”

Israel’s behavior is “raising eyebrows” in Washington, “even with strong pro-Israel supporters in the administration,” the source said.

However, an official from another part of the Trump administration called it “absurd” to think that US support for moving forward with the Trump peace plan would be linked to China policies. He rejected the notion that annexation was connected to China.

Still, the official admitted that all elements are factored into the US-Israel relationship.

The US has been asking its allies in recent months to sever ties with China in areas with security risks and reduce its economic ties to China more broadly.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reiterated this position in a speech to the Virtual Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Friday, saying “the Chinese Communist Party strong-arms nations to do business with Huawei, an arm of the CCP’s surveillance state. And it’s flagrantly attacking European sovereignty by buying up ports and critical infrastructure, from Piraeus to Valencia.

“Every investment from a Chinese state-owned enterprise should be viewed with suspicion,” he added, calling on US allies to “take off the golden blinders of economic ties.”

Yet the NTA - Metropolitan Mass Transit System’s NIS 15 billion tender to plan, build and maintain the systems and train cars for the green and purple lines of the Tel Aviv light rail has remained open to Chinese companies.

Submissions for the tender, which is in the pre-qualification stage, end in July, and a winner is expected to be chosen by December. Six international construction groups have bid to build the light rail lines, three of which include Chinese companies, which are state-owned.

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/israeli-indecision-on-china-investments-endangers-annexation-us-official-632374

Hezbollah Releases Video Showcasing Targets For Possible Strike On Israel

On June 21, Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement released a new video threatening Israel with a retaliation strike on its strategic facilities in the event of a new escalation.

“Today, we can not only hit the city of Tel Aviv but also, if God wills it and with His help, we can hit very precise targets within Tel Aviv and anywhere in occupied Palestine,” Nasrallah can be heard as saying during the video.

The video ends with the following statement:

“Whatever you do to block the way — it’s already over and done with.”

Israel is pretty sensitive towards such threats and uses them to justify the continuing military campaign against Iranian-backed forces. Therefore, it’s expected that Israel could soon conduct airstrikes on what it likes to call Hezbollah and Iranian weapon depots and weapons in Syria

https://southfront.org/hezbollah-releases-video-showcasing-targets-for-possible-strike-on-israel/

Bolton: US won't attack Iran, but will green-light Israel to do it

He gives an extensive narrative of what is mostly viewed as Trump’s botched response (or non-response) to Iran’s shooting down of a RQ-4A Global Hawk drone in June 2019.

If former US national security adviser John Bolton’s book is accurate, three major long-debated points essential to Israel’s national security would be resolved.

The points are:

1) The US under President Donald Trump will not attack Iran’s nuclear weapons program preemptively;

2) Trump has green-lighted and would continue to green-light Israel to do so; and

3) none of Trump’s key advisers believe his “maximum pressure” policy will change Tehran’s behavior absent of a regime change (which only Bolton actively sought to do).

The truth is that a number of top US and Israeli security officials have been theorizing about these three points for some time.

But no one has ever reported what Trump’s mindset was on the issue behind closed doors, as Bolton has now done.

Bolton reports on a few key moments.

In a 2017 meeting in which he and Trump were discussing their critique of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Trump told him, “You tell Bibi [Netanyahu] that if he uses force, I will back him. I told him that, but you tell him again.”

The former national security adviser also recalls multiple instances where he was discussing the viability of America's deterrence of Iran with then-US military chief Joseph Dunford, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other top Trump officials.

Finally, Bolton gives an extensive narrative of what is mostly viewed as Trump’s botched response (or non-response) to Iran’s shooting down of a RQ-4A Global Hawk drone in June 2019.

What is clear in all of these passages is that despite having confidence in public – away from the cameras – Bolton, Dunford and Pompeo do not believe Iran will change its behavior simply by virtue of Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign.

Another point that is clear is that they believed, in those behind the scenes talks, that Trump’s actions sent a message to the Islamic Republic that he would not be willing to preemptively strike its nuclear program.

Further, there is also no question that one reading of the Dunford-Bolton and Pompeo-Bolton passages is that none of these top aides believed Trump was willing to preemptively strike Tehran’s nuclear program.

They are concerned that Iran knew this and wanted to fool Iran into thinking that the president still might strike so as to deter the ayatollahs from deciding to break out to a nuclear weapon.

Together with Trump’s comments to Bolton in the other passage about Israel striking first, this reading seems very likely to be the correct one.

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/bolton-us-wont-attack-iran-but-will-green-light-israel-to-do-it-632391

Militant Attacks In Nigeria and Niger Leave Dozens Dead

In recent days there’s been yet another escalation of terrorist activity in Nigeria and Niger.

On June 19th, unknown armed bandits killed one, injured six and kidnapped two people in attacks on seven different communities in Shiroro local government’s area in Niger.

Shiroro is a volatile area, where attacks of this kind are frequent.

On June 16th, once again five civilians were killed in the area. And this itself came just several days after 4 police officers were killed in clashes.

In neighboring Nigeria, the situation is not much different. At least 82 bodies were recovered in the northeast of the country, following four attacks in three different locations, allegedly carried out by Boko Haram members.

The Nigerian army said in a statement that only 20 Boko Haram militants were killed by troops while repelling an attack in Monguno, one of the locations of the four attacks this weekend.

The army said that the militants had “attempted to breach the town” but troops inflicted heavy casualties on them. Some of the militants were captured and their equipment, including four gun trucks, was destroyed.

The media and other local sources, including humanitarian workers, confirmed some 20 soldiers were killed while repelling the attack in Monguno.

In Gubio and Nganzai, two other locations that came under intense attacks by the Boko Haram militants, a total of 42 civilians were killed on the same day, according to a top military officer.

On June 9th, at least 81 residents were killed by Boko Haram militants in another village in Gubio, according to local officials.

Boko Haram, and other terrorist organizations such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda carry out frequent attacks in the region, and they seem to be operating largely undeterred, with the attacks becoming increasingly bloody.

This is happening despite claims by Nigerian authorities that an effective anti-terrorism operation is being carried out.

https://southfront.org/militant-attacks-in-nigeria-and-niger-leave-dozens-dead/

Antifa Planning Flag Burning At Gettysburg On July 4th

According to a Facebook page called Left Behind USA, Antifa domestic terrorists are planning to desecrate the Gettysburg National Cemetery and set the American Flag ablaze on Independence Day.

Gettysburg, the site of the bloodiest battle of the Civil War and on American soil, is respected and revered by every sane American. As they have demonstrated since 2016, and in particular since Antifa and BLM have fused into a violent rage mob, the modern progressive and leftist movement has lost all sense of decency and sanity.

The event page for the flag burning, that they have scheduled on the day we should all be coming together to share our nation’s freedom from a tyrannical nanny state, features praise for cop killer Christopher Dorner.

The group also claims to be building an armed left-wing movement, as we have seen in places like Seattle’s CHOP Zone, where foreign funded Warlord Raz has handed out AR-15’s to random youth

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/06/antifa-planning-flag-burning-gettysburg-july-4th/

China Warns India: "If Fired Upon, Our Troops Are Prepared For War"

Beijing has issued its formal reaction to widespread reports that the Indian Army has authorized "complete freedom of action" for its troops deployed along the China-India Line of Actual Control after the deadly June 15 skirmish which left 20 Indian soldiers dead and an unconfirmed scores of PLA troop casualties.

The new Indian rules of engagement of course mean a much higher likelihood of more deadly border conflict, given Beijing is likely to alert its forces in kind. An editorial in Chinese state-run Global Times lays out the Chinese response, underscoring the "change" will inevitably "turn into a military conflict" which is "not what most Chinese and Indian people wish to see," according to the editorial.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/china-warns-india-if-fired-upon-pla-border-troops-are-prepared-war

Meet BlackRock, the New Great Vampire Squid

BlackRock is a global financial giant with customers in 100 countries and its tentacles in major asset classes all over the world; and it now manages the spigots to trillions of bailout dollars from the Federal Reserve. The fate of a large portion of the country’s corporations has been put in the hands of a megalithic private entity with the private capitalist mandate to make as much money as possible for its owners and investors; and that is what it has proceeded to do.

To most people, if they are familiar with it at all, BlackRock is an asset manager that helps pension funds and retirees manage their savings through “passive” investments that track the stock market. But working behind the scenes, it is much more than that. BlackRock has been called “the most powerful institution in the financial system,” “the most powerful company in the world” and the “secret power.” It is the world’s largest asset manager and “shadow bank,” larger than the world’s largest bank (which is in China), with over $7 trillion in assets under direct management and another $20 trillion managed through its Aladdin risk-monitoring software. BlackRock has also been called “the fourth branch of government” and “almost a shadow government”, but no part of it actually belongs to the government. Despite its size and global power, BlackRock is not even regulated as a “Systemically Important Financial Institution” under the Dodd-Frank Act, thanks to pressure from its CEO Larry Fink, who has long had “cozy” relationships with government officials.

BlackRock’s strategic importance and political weight were evident when four BlackRock executives, led by former Swiss National Bank head Philipp Hildebrand, presented a proposal at the annual meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in August 2019 for an economic reset that was actually put into effect in March 2020. Acknowledging that central bankers were running out of ammunition for controlling the money supply and the economy, the BlackRock group argued that it was time for the central bank to abandon its long-vaunted independence and join monetary policy (the usual province of the central bank) with fiscal policy (the usual province of the legislature). They proposed that the central bank maintain a “Standing Emergency Fiscal Facility” that would be activated when interest rate manipulation was no longer working to avoid deflation. The Facility would be deployed by an “independent expert” appointed by the central bank.

The COVID-19 crisis presented the perfect opportunity to execute this proposal in the US, with BlackRock itself appointed to administer it. In March 2020, it was awarded a no-bid contract under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) to deploy a $454 billion slush fund established by the Treasury in partnership with the Federal Reserve. This fund in turn could be leveraged to provide over $4 trillion in Federal Reserve credit. While the public was distracted with protests, riots and lockdowns, BlackRock suddenly emerged from the shadows to become the “fourth branch of government,” managing the controls to the central bank’s print-on-demand fiat money. How did that happen and what are the implications?

https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/77259/meet-blackrock-the-new-great-vampire.html