WATCH: Mexican Drug Cartel Ambushes Police in Brutal Gun Fight

The Mexican government announced they are investigating the leak of a video that showed an October 2018 ambush by a Mexican drug cartel on a truck that was transporting four police officers.

“The video depicts the ambush killing of four officers of the Secretariat of Security of the State of Mexico (SSEM),” Robert Arce of Breitbart’s Border and Cartel team reported. “They were traveling on a mountain road in the municipality of Almoloya de Alquisiras on October 28 of this year at the time of their deaths.”

The first half of the video shows the suspects, who are believed to belong to La Familia Michoacana,” socializing and playing with their phones as they waited for the attack to happen. . .

“Roughly one police officer was killed daily on average in Mexico throughout most of 2018, according to a study conducted by Causa en Común,” Arce added. “The study was conducted up to December 9 and accounted for 388 officer deaths, but due to delays in reporting, was revised to 404.” (Read more from “WATCH: Mexican Drug Cartel Ambushes Police in Brutal Gun Fight” HERE)

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North Korea Found Liable for Torturing Otto Warmbier to Death

By Townhall. Federal Judge Beryl Howell ruled Monday afternoon the North Korean regime must pay $501 million to the parents of Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old American student who was tortured to death after being taken hostage in the country three years ago.

“North Korea is liable for the torture, hostage taking, and extrajudicial killing of Otto Warmbier, and the injuries to his mother and father, Fred and Cindy Warmbier,” the ruling states.

Warmbier was returned to the United States in June of 2017. He arrived in a coma and extremely poor health. Shortly afterward, he died. His parents described his treatment as heinous and inhumane.

(Read more from “North Korea Found Liable for Torturing Otto Warmbier to Death” HERE)

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Otto Warmbier’s Parents Confirm North Korea Absolutely Tortured Their Son: ‘They Destroyed Him’

By Townhall. . . .During an interview with Fox and Friends Tuesday morning, Fred and Cindy Warmbier explained in detail how Otto was brought home and what they experienced. They walked onto a plane to find their son deaf, blind, on a feeding tube and violently convulsing.

“When we got halfway up the steps we heard this howling, involuntary, inhuman sound,” Fred said. “It looked like someone had taken a pair of pliers and rearranged his bottom teeth.”

“He had a large scar on his right foot. North Korea is not a victim. They are terrorists,” he continued. “They purposely injured Otto.”

“We see North Korea claiming to be a victim and the world is picking on them, and we’re here to tell you North Korea is not a victim,” Fred said. “They are terrorists. They kidnapped Otto. They tortured him. They intentionally injured him.” (Read more from “Otto Warmbier’s Parents Confirm North Korea Absolutely Tortured Their Son: ‘They Destroyed Him'” HERE)

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WATCH: Mattis Gives His Final Christmas Message to the Troops

On Monday, the Department of Defense released Secretary of Defense James Mattis’ holiday message to the service members who are both at home and overseas.

“Since Washington crossed the Delaware at Christmas 1776, American troops have missed holidays at home to defend our experiment and democracy. To all you lads and lasses holding the line in 2018 on land, at sea, or in the air, thanks for keeping the faith. Merry Christmas and may God hold you safe,” Mattis stated.

In his letter of resignation, Mattis said he would leave the Department of Defense at the end of February 2019 to give time for a permanent replacement to be chosen and to attend one last NATO meeting in February. (Read more from “WATCH: Mattis Gives His Final Christmas Message to the Troops” HERE)

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I’m a Jew. Feel Free to Wish Me a ‘Merry Christmas,’ America!

What’s it like to be an American Jew at Christmas? There are as many answers to that as there are American Jews. GQ’s Julia Ioffe, for example, wants you to stop wishing her a merry Christmas. After tweeting that she didn’t want to explain why, she took to The Washington Post to write that it’s “lonely to be reminded a thousand times every winter that the dominant American cultural event occurs without me.”

It’s true that Christmas is the 800-pound gorilla when it comes to American holidays. It’s also true that if you’re Jewish, Christmas is always somebody else’s holiday. But beyond that, I view the season rather differently, because of my own family’s history and because of who I am.

My mother’s parents were German-Jewish immigrants. In their tiny German hometowns, they were among the very few Jews. So, every year, my Jewish ancestors gathered for dinner on Christmas day. They weren’t Christmas dinners as much as they were opportunities for community. This way, Jewish families didn’t feel isolated while the Christian majority observed Christmas. . .

I accept that as a Jew, I am a religious outsider by definition (anywhere other than Israel). However, I don’t feel alone, because I am surrounded by a warm Jewish community and a tolerant larger society. This country’s vibrant tradition of religious liberty means that I can choose to attend synagogue, eat kosher food, and give my children a Jewish education. I also don’t feel excluded as an American. I love celebrating the 4th of July and Thanksgiving, for example, and I’m always happy to attend a good Super Bowl party.

Still, I see the Christmas season — in spite of its clearly Christian core — as remarkably inclusive in this country. When strangers wish me a merry Christmas, I take it as a kindness. Someone, who likely celebrates the holiday themselves, is sharing their joy with me. As a Jew who knows what she believes, I feel happy for my Christian friends and neighbors, as they prepare to celebrate the most special holiday on their religious calendar. (Read more from “I’m a Jew. Feel Free to Wish Me a ‘Merry Christmas,’ America!” HERE)

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WATCH: How to Survive Your Liberal Family During the Holidays

Christmas is a time to come together with friends and family to celebrate all we are thankful for. . .

Extremely progressive family members can be triggered easily by things like Christianity, traditional values and meat eating. The liberal family member can be a real spoiler for holiday traditions and good tidings.

(Read more from “How to Survive Your Liberal Family During the Holidays” HERE)

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Watch: Tsunami Sweeps Away Boy Band During Performance in Indonesia

Jaw-dropping footage emerging Sunday shows a giant tsunami wave sweeping away a boy band mid-performance in Indonesia.

Crowds can be seen in the shocking video swaying along to a beach-side Saturday performance by the rock band Seventeen — seconds before the natural disaster hits, engulfing the stage.

Loud shrieks can be heard before the 11-second video goes dark.

The band confirmed that their bassist M Awal Purbani, guitarist Herman Sikumbang and their road manager Oki Wijaya were dead.

(Read more from “Watch: Tsunami Sweeps Away Boy Band During Performance in Indonesia” HERE)

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Border Patrol Snags More MS-13 Members, Convicted Sex Offenders Trying to Jump Border

United States Customs and Border Protection say they have arrested at least two more members of the notorious MS-13 gang, and two convicted — and previously deported — sex offenders trying to cross the United States-Mexico border. . .

“On Wednesday, agents arrested a 46-year-old Mexican national, after he illegally entered the U.S. near Lukeville,” the Mail reported. “During processing, agents discovered he was convicted in 2002 of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor in Mesa, Arizona.”

“Then on Thursday evening, Nogales Station agents arrested a 24-year-old national of El Salvador,” the report continued. “During processing, agents conducting records checks learned that he is a member of MS-13, a violent trans-national criminal organization operating in many parts of the U.S.”

Specific details weren’t available on the other two men, but CBP did report that one was a member of MS-13 and the other had been previously convicted of a sexual crime and deported back to his home country. All four appear to have been booted from the United States between 2012 and 2013 and returned, recently, with the influx of asylum-seeking migrants. . .

Arrests of MS-13 members are rare; the libertarian Cato Institute estimates that around 0.1% of “asylum seekers” intercepted at the border belong to the dangerous, multinational gang. But even a single arrest seems to prove the Trump administration’s early point on immigration: that the looser immigration enforcement is, the more likely that dangerous immigrants will flow in with crowds of immigrants seeking refuge. (Read more from “Border Patrol Snags More MS-13 Members, Convicted Sex Offenders Trying to Jump Border” HERE)

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Activists Suggest the Next James Bond Should Be TRANSGENDER

Activists — including high-profile British actor Dominic West — are encouraging the producers of the popular James Bond franchise to abandon 007’s traditional roots and cast a transgender individual as the next Bond.

Speaking to the Sunday Times of London, West claimed that there are enough transgender individuals in the UK’s military to justify making the next MI6 agent male-to-female (or female-to-male).

“They should have a transgender Bond because there are a lot of transgender people in the army. That’s actually a brilliant idea,” West said. . .

Activists probably won’t get their way anytime soon, however. Bond’s longtime producers, the Broccoli family, have often bristled at the thought of deliberately changing Ian Fleming’s signature character. The series’ executive producer, Barbara Broccoli, unequivocally ruled out the idea of a female Bond earlier this year.

Instead, viewers can expect a more “modern Bond” — but only up to a point. The character was written in the 1950s, and modeled on Fleming himself. Since the spy stories have an element of biography to them, Bond will probably always stay as toxically masculine as he currently is. (Read more from “Activists Suggest the Next James Bond Should Be TRANSGENDER” HERE)

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Deaths From Alcohol Overuse Continue to Climb

Alcohol misuse accounted for 35,823 deaths in 2017, an increase of nearly 46 percent over almost two decades, according to a Washington Examiner analysis of mortality data.

The data, which come from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, show that alcohol-related deaths have climbed steadily from the 19,469 deaths recorded in 1999. Deaths from misusing alcohol did not decline at any time since that period, and they included not only alcohol poisonings but also alcoholic liver disease and cirrhosis. They do not include deaths from accidents people have while they are drinking, because in these instances, the cause of death would be drowning, a car accident, or a fall.

Deaths from such heavy drinking patterns are contributing to the lower life expectancy trend that has been observed in the U.S. in recent years, an issue compounded by opioid overdose deaths and suicides. These alcohol deaths are still lower than those caused by opioids such as heroin, which were responsible for 47,600 deaths in 2017, and suicides, which accounted for 47,173 deaths. When combined with deaths from accidents where people have been drinking, however, they climb to 88,000 deaths a year, federal reports show. . .

It’s unclear what is behind the factors driving lower life expectancy. Scholars have dubbed the phenomenon “deaths of despair,” noting mortality is rising particularly among whites in rural areas who have no more than a high school education. Princeton economists and spouses Anne Case and Angus Deaton have raised the possibility that deaths are tied to mental health issues, economic uncertainty, and physical pain. . .

In recent years, the statistics show that alcoholic liver disease has been primarily responsible for the increases in chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, according to the CDC. But with alcohol poisoning data, sometimes opioids or another drug such as Valium are also involved as contributing to the death, even though alcohol is considered the underlying factor, the CDC has said. (Read more from “Deaths From Alcohol Overuse Continue to Climb” HERE)

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‘Bushies’ Creep Into Trump’s Administration

President Donald Trump uses the term “Bushie” as shorthand for anyone he considers too establishment, thinks too conventionally, or is just, in the president’s mind, a pain.

But a strange thing has been happening within his administration lately. Bush administration alums now run huge swaths of Trump’s government. They’re at high levels of his departments of Homeland Security, Labor, State, Health and Human Services, and Treasury. At the White House, they staff his legal and domestic policy offices. . .

Earlier this month, Trump picked Bill Barr, an attorney general under President George H.W. Bush, as his replacement for Jeff Sessions. Two of his recent hires for the White House counsel’s office, Mike Purpura and Pat Philpin, served under President George W. Bush. They will report to the new White House counsel, Pat Cipollone, who served in the elder Bush’s Justice Department.

Meanwhile, the newly confirmed deputy secretary of the Treasury Department, Justin Muzinich, worked on Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign and helped draft his tax plan. Trump’s pick to run the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Heath Tarbert, served as an associate counsel to George W. Bush — a fact unmentioned in a recent White House announcement of his nomination. Jim Jeffrey, a former senior aide in George W. Bush’s White House, became Trump’s U.S. special representative to Syria in August. (Read more from “‘Bushies’ Creep Into Trump’s Administration” HERE)

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