Did "Third Assassination Attempt" on Trump Even Happen?, New Evidence About Gang-Takeovers of Colorado Apartment Buildings, TikTok "Addictive" After 35 MINUTES of Use! (The Five for 10/15/24)
Plus, Lime Growers in Mexico NowU
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With that being said…let’s dive into the news.
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[one]
Well, this is a strange one. The news hit social media yesterday that a third attempt on Trump’s life had been thwarted after California police searched a vehicle trying to enter a Trump rally with an “obviously fake, homemade” license plate on his vehicle. The search produced multiple passports and driver’s licenses as well as two loaded guns.
The man arrested outside Donald Trump's Coachella rally has broken his silence, confirming he's a supporter of the former president and denied he was attempting to shoot him.
Vem Miller, 49, is a registered Republican who tried to present fake VIP credentials at a Trump rally on Saturday and then found himself arrested on illegal firearms charges.
A friend and business partner of Miller told DailyMail.com he is a full-blown Trump supporter and slammed police for 'not understanding he's one of us'.
Speaking out for the first time since his arrest, Miller said that while he keeps firearms in his car to protect against death threats, he has never fired one before and says he's 'beyond a novice' about them.
'I've literally never even shot a gun in my life,' Miller said. 'I don't know anything about guns.'
'I’m an artist, I’m the last person that would cause any violence and harm to anybody,' he told the Press Enterprise, adding the accusations were 'complete bulls***.'
When asked by Fox News about his political beliefs, he confirmed: 'Yes, I'm 100% a Trump supporter.'
He added that while he'd supported Democrat Barack Obama in the past, thinking he would 'save us from needless wars and censorship,' he's drifted rightward to libertarianism.
'I'm certainly more Republican now,' he said, claiming that he's been 'all-in' on Trump since 2018.
Miller said that he briefly flirted with supporting Bernie Sanders 'without realizing the implications of socialism' but has come to see Trump as 'a visual example of freedom of speech.'
'This is a man that I deeply admire, because I was a closet individual in terms of my beliefs, because I worked in Hollywood. As my politics started to change, I realized that Hollywood is a homogenous community,' he added.
Well…that’s strange, all the way around. Miller is out on $5,000 bail so I guess we’ll see if he pops back up?
[two]
Over the weekend, ABC news was trending on social media after anchor Martha Raddatz made the claim that Venezuelan gangs taking over apartments in Colorado…just weren’t that big of a deal during a segment with VP nominee J.D. Vance.
"The incidents were limited to a handful of apartment complexes... A handful!"
"Do you hear yourself? ‘Only a handful’ of apartment complexes were taken over by Venezuelan gangs and Donald Trump is the problem and not Kamala Harris' open border?"
The segment came on the heels of the management company who has dealt with the gangs speaking out on social media about what they’re up against.
CBZ Property Managers in Colorado took to Twitter to clarify:
After some time, we noticed a rise in crime and tenant complaints. The most alarming moment occurred when our local CBZ representative was attacked at the end of 2023. He had gone to inspect a recently vacated three-bedroom apartment (a rare occurrence for such a large unit) only to find a group of men already inside. When he refused their $500 bribe to overlook the situation, they brutally attacked him.
After the attack on our CBZ representative, he began getting threatening text messages. We also frequently found people illegally occupying newly vacated apartments during scheduled tours. This was initially attributed to an influx of migrants exploiting squatter laws. We even received a call from a tenant returning from vacation, only to find strangers living in his apartment. This legitimate tenant was forced to find a new home after police couldn’t help him.
Once we fully understood what we—and our tenants—were facing, we expected a swift response, with the city offering meaningful resources and police protection—perhaps even from the National Guard—to help us regain control of our properties. That never happened. Instead, we were left helpless, watching as violence, bullets, and destruction overtook our buildings. Many of our legitimate tenants fled out of fear. Despite the obvious crisis, several city officials refused to acknowledge the reality. Instead, they blamed us, citing "code violations" as the reason for shutting down our property—violations we couldn’t resolve for tenants who weren’t even ours.
Not is Tren de Aragua (TdA) taking over apartment buildings in Colorado, but they’re also recruiting new members from MIDDLE SCHOOLS nationwide.
On Monday, the Texas Department of Public Safety arrested 32-year-old Jorgenys Robertson Cova, a Venezuelan native who entered the U.S. illegally two years ago. Cova is suspected of recruiting middle school students at Jane Long Academy and Las Americas, both within the Houston Independent School District.
Residents of the Sharpstown community, where the schools are located, expressed concern over the growing threat. Janice, a local resident, remarked, "A lot of things have happened that are on the news, so if it’s happening elsewhere it might also be happening in our neighborhoods as well, and we’re unaware of it." The community's sense of safety has been rattled by the news as they call for increased police and authority intervention to prevent an escalation to "a serious situation," Janice noted.
"I think it’s bad for the neighborhood and for the community and I think the police department and authorities need to do something about it before we get to a serious situation," another neighbor said.
The gang's activities are not confined to Houston with recent weeks seeing Tren de Aragua members arrested across Colorado, New York, Chicago, San Antonio, and El Paso, signifying the transnational reach of the organization, which has posed significant challenges for law enforcement in identifying its members.
So yeah…not just a “handful of apartments” that can be handled by local police.
[three]
Over the weekend, Axios dropped a pretty major report about the growing divide between VP Harris and President Biden.
Driving the news: Some on the Harris team say that top White House aides aren't sufficiently coordinating Biden's messaging and schedule to align with what's best for the vice president's campaign.
Biden gave an impromptu press conference in the White House briefing room Friday just as Harris was about to do an event in Michigan, ensuring that her event would get less TV coverage than it otherwise would have.
Earlier in the week, Harris criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) for not taking her call about the recent hurricanes, only for Biden to praise DeSantis soon after for being "gracious" and "cooperative." (A person familiar with the situation told Axios that Biden hadn't been briefed on Harris' comments.)
Biden has been eager to boast about a robust jobs report, helping to end the strike by the longshoremen's union and other perceived victories recently. Harris has been trying to focus on voters' pocketbook concerns, including inflation.
One person involved with Harris' campaign told Axios: "The White House is lacking someone in the room thinking first and foremost about how things would affect the campaign."
Zoom in: The tensions have played out on the staff level, too.
Harris' team has been trying to add staff to the vice president's official office to handle the bigger workload. It's been frustrated at the White House's pace in getting people detailed for that, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The White House has been working to help Harris' team but has been frustrated by some of the rules about who can be detailed and when.
Several Biden aides have joined Harris' campaign, but some feel like they've been labeled as disloyal by Biden's team for leaving or even considering it.
A White House official told Axios: "Everyone from the president on down knows how important the election is, and we always anticipated a number of staff would want to transition from the administration to the campaign for the final stretch."
[four]
Bet you didn’t see this one coming. Cartels in Mexico are now demanding a cut of the profits frome lime farmers…and the military has been dispatched.
Mexico has sent 660 soldiers and militarized National Guard officers this month to the western state of Michoacan to protect lime growers who complained they were suffering extortion demands by cartels.
The Defense Department said Thursday that since the start of President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration on Oct. 1, it has sent 300 soldiers and 360 Guard officers to several lime-growing townships.
In August, more than half of lime packing warehouses in the lowlands of Michoacan closed temporarily after growers and distributors said they had received demands from the Los Viagras and other cartels for a cut of their income.
The department said the troops were visiting packing houses, escorting trucks transporting the fruit and providing security at wholesale markets in the main producing areas around the towns of Apatzingan, Aguililla and Buenavista.
It said that in just over a week, the troops deployed to Michoacan had seized 10 guns and two grenades.
Limes are an absolute staple of Mexican cuisine. The Michoacan state government had acknowledged the producers’ shutdowns in August, but claimed it was largely because growers were unhappy with the prices they were getting.
[five]
TikTok is really bad for kids…according to TikTok’s own internal data, the app is addictive after a half hour of initial use.
For the first time, internal TikTok communications have been made public that show a company unconcerned with the harms the app poses for American teenagers. This is despite its own research validating many child safety concerns.
The confidential material was part of a more than two-year investigation into TikTok by 14 attorneys general that led to state officials suing the company on Tuesday. The lawsuit alleges that TikTok was designed with the express intention of addicting young people to the app. The states argue the multi-billion-dollar company deceived the public about the risks.
As TikTok’s 170 million U.S. users can attest, the platform’s hyper-personalized algorithm can be so engaging it becomes difficult to close the app. TikTok determined the precise amount of viewing it takes for someone to form a habit: 260 videos. After that, according to state investigators, a user “is likely to become addicted to the platform.”
In the previously redacted portion of the suit, Kentucky authorities say: “While this may seem substantial, TikTok videos can be as short as 8 seconds and are played for viewers in rapid-fire succession, automatically,” the investigators wrote. “Thus, in under 35 minutes, an average user is likely to become addicted to the platform.”
Another internal document found that the company was aware its many features designed to keep young people on the app led to a constant and irresistible urge to keep opening the app.
Until the next one,
-sth