Daily News Brief for Wednesday , December 20th, 2023

This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Wednesday , December 20th, 2023. 
 
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https://thepostmillennial.com/kamala-harris-to-take-pro-abortion-reproductive-freedoms-tour-across-us?utm_campaign=64487
 
Kamala Harris launches 'Reproductive Freedoms' pro-abortion tour across US
 
Vice President Kamala Harris announced Tuesday that she plans to travel around the United States in what she calls a "Reproductive Freedoms" tour. Harris announced that these trips will be taken "to organize, build community, and fight back" against what she calls a "full-on attack on a woman's fundamental freedom to make decisions about her own body" across the nation. 
 
The pro-abortion tour will kick off in Wisconsin on Jan. 22, which marks the 51st anniversary of the now-overturned Roe v. Wade.
 
The White House promises that "Vice President Harris will also hold extremists accountable for proposing a national abortion ban," although it does not specify what those consequences may be.
 
https://thenationalpulse.com/2023/12/18/britain-bans-prayer-near-abortion-clinics/
 
Britain BANS PRAYER Near Abortion Clinics.
 
England’s High Court has upheld a local government order establishing a so-called “buffer zone” against prayers being said near an abortion clinic. Livia Tossici-Bolt, who heads the pro-life group 40 Days for Life Bournemouth, and Christian Concern had attempted to overturn the ban, arguing it “criminalized prayer and reading from the Bible”. 
 
Judges determined on Friday that the banning order “lawfully followed the democratic and consultative procedures”. They said any infringements of freedom of religion, speech, and the right to protest were “justified by the legitimate aim of protecting the rights of women attending the clinic.”
 
Christian Concern intends to appeal the decision. “Peaceful witness near abortion centers are helpful to many women in crisis pregnancies, offering genuine choice by providing support,” argued Christian Legal Centre chief executive Andrea Williams. British police are exceptionally rigid in enforcing “buffer zones” protecting abortionists. Lone Christians have in some cases been arrested or fined for praying silently inside their heads near clinics.
 
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/immigration/border-officials-encounter-14-509-illegal-immigrants-new-record
 
Biden border crisis shatters record with 14,509 illegal immigrants encountered in one day
 
U.S. border officials encountered the highest number of illegal immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border on Monday than any day, upending all other records that the Biden administration has set over the past three years.
 
The Washington Examiner obtained internal U.S. Customs and Border Protection data Tuesday that revealed 14,509 immigrants were encountered by federal law enforcement at the southern border on Monday. The large majority of encounters were of immigrants who walked around the port of entry and crossed into the country illegally, while a small percentage tried to enter at the port of entry but were denied admission.
 
The most recent record of 12,000 was set last week, according to Fox News. If yesterday's rate of 14,509 arrests per day continued for a month, it would translate to more than 435,000 immigrant arrests.
 
Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX), whose district runs along 800 miles of the 2,000-mile border, described the situation in his region as "all very sad." Gonzales told the Washington Examiner in a text message Tuesday morning that he believes the situation in Eagle Pass, Texas, a border town where 2,500 immigrants were arrested on Sunday, will continue to decline but that the extent would depend on how the Biden administration responds.
 
"Depends on how much pressure gets put on U.S. and Mexican officials," Gonzales wrote.
 
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) reacted to the new one-day record on X, formerly Twitter.
 
"Another Record: Over 14,500 illegal immigrants have been encountered while entering our country," Green wrote. "This has been the single worst 24 hours for our Southwest border in our nation’s history."
 
Border officials in the Eagle Pass-Del Rio region encountered 3,100 illegal immigrants Monday, while officials in the Tucson region of Arizona encountered 3,089 people.
 
Government numbers obtained Tuesday show 26,758 immigrants were in custody as of Tuesday morning, including 5,197 in Del Rio, Texas; 5,004 in Tucson, Arizona; 4,968 in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas; and 4,722 in El Paso, Texas.
 
Existing Border Patrol stations in the Eagle Pass area are too small to accommodate more than several hundred people, so immigrants are being processed at a large tent facility outside town known as "Firefly" for the road that it is located on. The tent facility was set up last year with the intent of holding up to 1,000 immigrants, but as of Tuesday, more than 3,000 immigrants were at the site — putting the facility three times over the legal limit.
 
Border Patrol is also busing immigrants to other regions for processing. One official at the tent facility told the Washington Examiner that it sends out 30 to 50 large buses of immigrants to other regions each day.
 
Border Patrol highway checkpoints, including the only one north of Eagle Pass, were shuttered this week as agents were pulled to transport and process migrants.
 
President Joe Biden has yet to react to the situation.
 
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.
 
https://www.dailyfetched.com/germany-begins-deploying-troops-for-first-time-since-world-war-ii/
 
Germany Begins Deploying Troops for First Time since World War II
 
The announcement was made on Monday in Lithuania, where Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas met Boris Pistoriusto to outline a “Roadmap Action Plan” involving 4,800 permanently stationed German soldiers.
 
The new move was described as “historical” for both nations and NATO.
 
German troops will be stationed in the Lithuanian cities of Kaunas and Vilnius in early 2024, with the majority of troops being deployed in 2025 and 2026 and full-operation capability expected by 2027.
 
Meanwhile, Lithuania committed to providing all necessary civilian and military infrastructure.
 
“The German commitment of permanently stationing a brigade in Lithuania is a historical step for both Germany and Lithuania,” Anusauskas said Monday, according to a press release.
 
“We are turning over to a page of even deeper strategic partnership.
 
Pistorius noted the step as being positive for defense relations, considering the war between Ukraine and Russia,
We will ensure reliable deterrence, and we will be ready to [defend] NATO. We are sending a clear signal with this step to those who present a threat to peace and security in Europe.”
 
Newsweek reported that experts within the two defense ministries formulated the plan:
 
“Most of the German troops will be stationed in the territory of Rūdninkai military training ground, while the rest will be deployed in the town of Rukla, where some 1,000 allied troops already reside.”
 
Logistical hubs will cater to the new brigade, including three maneuver battalions and combat support and supply units formed by new and existing units.“
 
“The 203rd Panzer Battalion, based in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the 122nd Armored Infantry Battalion, based in Bavaria, will be moved to Lithuania. Lithuania’s enhanced Forward Presence Battalion Battle Group will be transformed into a multinational battalion to become “an integral part of the brigade,” the release said.
 
The head of the parliamentary National Security and Defense Committee, Laurynas Kasciunas, said the country would allocate 0.3 percent of its gross domestic product to help fund the deployment and to build housing.
 
Earlier this year, Germany faced pressure from the US to provide Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.
 
https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2023/12/18/americans-yawn-at-cdc-warnings-about-tripledemic-n4924835
 
Americans Yawn at CDC Warnings About 'Tripledemic'
 
While America's public health officials issue one warning after another about this winter's "tripledemic" of COVID, flu, and RSV, the American public is responding with a collective yawn — if vaccination rates are anything to go by.
 
The CDC's most recent weekly vaccination update says that "receipt of the COVID-19 vaccine is low across all socio-demographic subgroups and has consistently varied by age, race and ethnicity, poverty status, health insurance status, and urbanicity." As of December 2, fewer than 18% of adults reported getting the updated COVID-19 vaccine since Sept. 14, and about another 15% of adults said they would "definitely" get vaccinated. 
 
RSV — respiratory syncytial virus infection — is another one of those bugs that poses its most serious risk to the 60-and-over crowd. Although a serious RSV infection might require hospitalization, the uptake rate among the eligible 60-plus cohort is just 16%. 
 
Vaccinations for the ordinary flu are down a bit, too. "Adult vaccination rates for influenza reached their peak for the 2020-2021 cycle," the Washington Examiner reported on Monday, "with 50.2% of those over 18 getting vaccinated. For the 2022-2023 season, however, only 46.9% of the same population obtained their shot." Rates are expected to be about the same or lower for the current 2023-2024 flu season.
 
The drop isn't huge but the trendline is clear: Americans don't seem to be all that worried about the flu — and aren't concerned at all about COVID or RSV.
 
That's not for any lack of effort on the part of our public health system.
 
The CDC began its big vaccination push more than two months ago, with this tragically hip tweet from CDC director Mandy Cohen.
 
Chicago health officials took a more traditional (and much less wince-inducing) approach on Monday, with Dr. Colleen Nash, associate professor of pediatrics in the division of infectious diseases at Rush University Medical Center, warning, "We’ve now been lucky enough to kind of live with COVID but still enjoy normal life and activities and things. And that is directly attributable, at least in part, to vaccinations. So I would really encourage people to do that if they haven’t already."
 
While reports show that Illinois' hospitalization rate for COVID is "ticking up," the actual numbers aren't anything like 2020, with an additional 1,251 COVID hospital admissions this week statewide. And yet according to the Chicago Tribune, only about 11% of city residents are fully up to date on their COVID vaccinations.
 
The CDC tried on Twitter/X again on Saturday, reminding readers, "‘Tis the season for joy and family. Now is the time to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and flu before you see your loved ones again."
 
"Visit vaccines.gov to find vaccines near you."
 
The ratio, as the kids like to say, is epic.
 
While the replies were all over the place in tone, this one reasonable-sounding tweet captured the general sentiment.
 
When vaccination rates are down even for the innocuous (and generally trusted) flu shot, it's clear that the CDC no longer enjoys the clout it used to with the American public.