Worth Knowing, Probably Not Quite Threadworthy, 10/01

[SVPete]

Sham marriages, elder 'exploitation,' fake death certificates uncovered in massive Minnesota immigration bust

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/sham-marriages-elder-exploitation-fake-death-certificates-uncovered-massive-minnesota-immigration-bust

FIRST ON FOX: The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office conducted an unprecedented large-scale investigation in Minneapolis this month, focused on those who were committing marriage and asylum fraud.

Under a mission known as Operation Twin Shield, officers targeted 1,000 cases, knocking on doors at more than 900 sites to conduct interviews and review immigration criteria. Coordinating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the FBI, they found fraud, non-compliance, or public safety and national security concerns in 275 cases.
...
In one example, an immigrant engaged in a sham marriage with an elderly U.S. citizen and subjected the citizen to "elder abuse and exploitation," according to USCIS. Another immigrant admitted to fabricating a death certificate from Kenya for $100 to falsely claim the termination of a marriage — the spouse in question was alive, living in Minneapolis and the mother of five of his children.

Other cases included a petitioner who confessed to marriage fraud just hours after swearing under oath that her marriage was legitimate, and another involving an immigrant who had overstayed a visa waiver, was the son of a suspected terrorist, and had previously been denied benefits for fraud.

Bombshell ICE sweep in Minneapolis-St. Paul finds 50% of immigrants had committed immigration fraud

https://nypost.com/2025/09/30/us-news/bombshell-ice-sweep-in-minneapolis-st-paul-finds-50-of-immigrants-had-committed-immigration-fraud-after-massive-arrival-uptick-from-somalia/

Nearly half of all immigrants in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Twin Cities were found to have committed some form of immigration fraud during a recent sweep by immigration authorities, officials revealed Tuesday.

“Officers encountered blatant marriage fraud, visa overstay, people claiming to work as businesses that can’t be found, forged documents, abuse of the H1B visa system, abuse of the F1 visa, and many other discrepancies,” US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) director Joseph B. Edlow told reporters Tuesday.

Officials didn’t point to a specific group, but the Twin Cities has seen a massive uptick in Somali refugees and immigrants in recent years — with more than 82,000 from the East African country living in Minnesota.

[SVPete]

Infamous Climate Scientist Michael Mann Resigns Penn Role After Charlie Kirk ‘Hitler’ Posts

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/infamous-climate-scientist-michael-mann-resigns-penn-role-after-charlie-kirk-hitler-posts/ar-AA1NEVI1

Climate scientist Michael Mann has resigned from the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) after fallout from controversial comments he posted following the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.

Mann went on a social media spree in the wake of the murder, sarcastically describing the assassination as “white on white violence” and reposting multiple inflammatory remarks about the conservative leader, including one that referred to Kirk as the “head of Trump’s Hitler Youth.” Despite later attempting to backtrack, Mann has now resigned from his role as Vice Provost for Climate Science, Policy, and Action.

“I have reluctantly come to the position that the science policy advocacy work I am doing … at times feels in conflict with the nonpartisan role demanded of me as an administrator at a university with an established institutional neutrality policy,” Mann wrote in a statement on his personal website. “Particularly at this moment in time, I don’t feel that I can forsake the public scholarship and advocacy that I am doing and have thus decided to step down from the VPC role.”

                                                                

Talk of Trump having "Hitler Youth" is "nonpartisan"?

[SVPete]

Wikipedia Co-Founder Larry Sanger Tells Tucker Carlson that the Site Blacklists Breitbart News

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2025/09/30/wikipedia-co-founder-larry-sanger-tells-tucker-carlson-that-the-site-blacklists-breitbart-news/

Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger told Tucker Carlson during Monday’s episode of The Tucker Carlson Show that anyone can easily look up a list of Wikipedia’s blacklisted sources. Breitbart News features prominently on the list of media outlets that users are forbidden from citing when editing articles on the leftist “encyclopedia.”

Sanger told Carlson that Wikipedia’s “fully approved sources” include “the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, The Nation, Mother Jones, [and] GLAAD.”

“These are all fully greenlit,” Sanger continued, adding, “The blacklisted sources are Breitbart, Daily Caller, Epoch Times, Fox News, New York Post, [and] The Federalist. So, you can’t use those as sources on Wikipedia.”

The internet project developer told Carlson that anyone can “just type in ‘perennial sources Wikipedia’ into any search engine, and the first result will be this page.”

Unsurprise! Unsurprise! Unsurprise!

[SVPete]

Hillary Clinton ripped for tone-deaf remarks about white men of ‘a certain religion’ damaging the US

https://nypost.com/2025/09/30/us-news/hillary-clinton-ripped-for-tone-deaf-remarks-about-white-men-of-a-certain-religion/

Hillary Clinton has been rapped as tone-deaf after she recently suggested that white men of a “certain religion” were partly to blame for causing “such damage” to the United States.

The former secretary of state was accused of spreading “evil” after she made the remarks on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” last week.

“The idea that you could turn the clock back and try to recreate a world that never was dominated by, you know, let’s say it: white men of a certain persuasion, a certain religion, a certain point of view, a certain ideology, it’s just doing such damage to what we should be aiming for,” Clinton said.
...
“Two weeks after Charlie Kirk is assassinated, Hillary Clinton reminds everyone that white Christian men are dangerous and doing damage to America. These people have no intention of turning down the temperature. They know they’re encouraging what happened,” one person tweeted.

HilLIARy triples or quadruples or ??? down on her bigotry.

[SVPete]

ICE Strikes Florida: 400 People Arrested in Huge Operation

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ice-strikes-florida-400-people-arrested-in-huge-operation/ar-AA1NEn2E

The enforcement activity took place from September 22 to September 26, 2025, according to a press release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“This was another successful operation to arrest the worst of the worst with our Florida state and local partners and can serve as a blueprint nationwide,” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement shared with Newsweek.

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Among those arrested was Walther Ramiro Hernandez-Ortiz, an 18-year-old from Honduras, who faces charges including lewd and lascivious behavior, battery, and molestation of a victim under 12 years old, according to ICE.

Juan Carlos Hernandez-Reyes, a 48-year-old Mexican national with a reinstated final order of removal, was also taken into custody. According to ICE, his criminal history includes domestic violence, driving under the influence, battery, disorderly conduct, and prostitution.

Edgar Rivera-Salinas, a 38-year-old from Mexico who had previously been removed from the United States, was detained by ICE. His record includes larceny, theft, and marijuana possession, the agency said.

Efrain Santos-Palacios, a 26-year-old Mexican national who entered the country without inspection, was arrested as well. ICE reported prior charges against him for driving under the influence, hit and run, and driving without a license.

Those who choose to read past the tendentious headline and partisan first paragraph learn what ICE actually did. The NewSpeak moniker is well earned.

[enslaved1]

Poll: Agreement that political violence may be necessary to right the country grows

Three in 10 people now say that Americans may have to resort to violence to get the country back on track, according to a new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll.

To be sure, a strong majority disagree with that (70%), but the 30% who now say violence may be necessary is up 11 points since April 2024, an increase driven by Democrats. Eighteen months ago, just 12% of Democrats agreed; now, 28% do.

But, still, a slightly higher percentage of Republicans — 31% — also say Americans may have to resort to violence. That's also up 3 points since last year. (Independents have also increased from 18% to 25%.)

The findings come after a string of high-profile acts of political violence, including the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last month.

More importantly, though, the methodology.....

This NPR/PBS News/Marist Poll national survey of 1,477 adults was conducted September 22nd through September 26th, 2025, by the Marist Poll in partnership with NPR and PBS News. Adults 18 years of age and older residing in the United States were contacted through a multi-mode design: By phone using live interviewers, by text, or online.

99% polls are absolute garbage, how does one logically extrapolate the opinions of 350 million plus Americans from 1400 and change?   But the objective isn't truth, it's supporting ideologies. 

[Ralph Wiggum]

NYU Axes Federalist Society Event Scheduled for Oct. 7, Citing Security Concerns

New York University Law School appears to have canceled a Federalist Society event scheduled for Oct. 7 because administrators feared that protesters would disrupt it, according to two people familiar with the matter and emails obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. The cancellation has raised concerns about the heckler’s veto and comes as the White House anti-Semitism task force has vowed to investigate NYU, which last year settled a lawsuit alleging that the university failed to crack down on unsanctioned anti-Israel protests.

NYU’s Federalist Society chapter had invited the conservative legal scholar Ilya Shapiro to discuss his new book Lawless: The Miseducation of American Elites. Shapiro, who is Jewish, has criticized anti-Israel protesters and taken schools to task over their handling of encampments. He has also been the target of multiple campus protests, including one at UC Hastings, where he was shouted down for nearly an hour straight.

On September 10, NYU requested that the Federalist Society change the date of Shapiro’s talk, citing the possibility of disruptions.

"For security reasons, and because we anticipate an increased likelihood of demonstrations and protests connected to the anniversary of the October 7, 2023 incidents in Gaza, would it be possible to host Mr. Shapiro on another date?" the law school’s director of institutional programming and governance, Penelope Fernandes, wrote to student organizers. "If you can change the date, please let us know."

Fernandes also recommended hosting the talk in Lipton Hall, a basement space with added security, in order to "minimize disruptions in the event of a protest or demonstration."

https://freebeacon.com/campus/nyu-axes-federalist-society-event-scheduled-for-oct-7-citing-security-concerns/

[Ralph Wiggum]

‘It Was a Fatal Right-Wing Terrorist Incident’: AI Chatbot Giants Claim Charlie Kirk’s Killer Was Right-Wing but Say Left-Wing Violence Is ‘Exceptionally Rare’

The major AI platforms—which have emerged as significant American news sources—describe Charlie Kirk’s assassination as motivated by "right-wing ideology" and downplay left-wing violence as "exceptionally rare," according to a Washington Free Beacon analysis.

When asked to name a "recent assassination in the U.S. motivated by right-wing ideology," multiple AI chatbots—powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Perplexity—listed Kirk’s murder as the main example. Chatbots are tools where everyday news consumers ask questions and receive authoritative answers or fully written articles explaining a news story.

Gemini’s chatbot made the provably false statement that the "assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in September 2025 has been identified by some researchers as the only fatal right-wing terrorist incident in the U.S. during the first half of 2025."

https://freebeacon.com/media/it-was-a-fatal-right-wing-terrorist-incident-ai-chatbot-giants-claim-charlie-kirks-killer-was-right-wing-but-say-left-wing-violence-is-exceptionally-rare/

[SVPete]

Universities surrendering to hecklers' veto is SOP for anti-conservative university admins.

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GIGO still reigns, Ralph. In the case of AI, the "G" comes, currently, AI searches the Internet, which most intelligent and semi-intelligent people know is full of fictional crap.

[SVPete]

Looking at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Perennial_sources :

ABC News, Al Jazeera, ADL (except for Israel--Arab-Pali issues), The Atlantic, BBC, BuzzFeed News, CBS News, Climate Feedback, CNN, GLAAD, GQ, The Guardian, The Hill, HuffPo (with caution about politics), LA Times, Mother Jones, MSNBC, The Nation, NBC News, The New Republic, New York magazine, NYT, NPR, PBS, People, Playboy (only the articles, of course), Politico, PolitiFact, Snopes, SPLC, Time magazine, Vanity Fair, The Village Voice, Vogue, and WashPost, are accepted sources.

ADL (on Israel--Arab-Pali issues), Blaze Media, Breitbart (banned), Change.org (banned), The Daily Caller, Daily Mail, The Epoch Times, Examiner.com (banned), The Federalist, Fox News (politics & science, talk shows), FrontPage Magazine, Gateway Pundit, The Heritage Foundation (banned), Jihad Watch, LifeSiteNews, Media Research Center, Newsmax, One America News Network, The Post Millennial, Project Veritas (banned), The Truth About Guns, The Western Journal, and Zero Hedge are non-accepted sources.

The bias went in before the information got posted. GIGO.

Some of the non-accepted sources sources should, IMO, have been listed as yellow (use with caution), e.g. Gateway Pundit and Jihad Watch, but sometimes they report stories the MSM don't/won't.

Natural News is, deservedly, banned.

[SVPete]

Trump administration confirms another federal agency involved in weaponization: the TSA

https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/dhs-says-biden-tsa-was-weaponized-against-americans-and-refers

The Homeland Security Department announced Tuesday that an internal investigation uncovered “widespread abuses” carried out by the Biden administration's Transportation Security Administration to make air travel “weaponized” against certain Americans.

The revelation that U.S. citizens were kept from flying over their political views drew immediate condemnation from Congress.
...
In the announcement, acting agency TSA Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill, said the Biden-era officials “under the direction and leadership” of previous TSA Administrator David Pekoske had “systematically watch-listed and denied boarding to those who exercised their individual rights and resisted mask mandates on airplanes nearly six months after the CDC relaxed its indoor mask mandate.”

The TSA also said the Biden TSA used the Capitol riot of January 2021 “as an excuse to target several dozen U.S. citizens” and that “these Americans were watch-listed and harassed despite there being no evidence of wrongdoing or illegal behavior.”
...
“These Biden-era officials continued to target Americans even after career intelligence officials and even Biden’s TSA Chief Privacy Officer sounded the alarm over these abusive actions,” the TSA said. “The Biden-era TSA’s actions demonstrate clear political bias. For example, these officials chose NOT to flag individuals who attacked law enforcement, burned down cities, and destroyed property during the widespread and violent George Floyd protests in 2020. During this abuse of power, some TSA officials raised serious concerns about these privacy violations and political targeting. They were ignored.”