Santa clara county registrar of voters

Article: Here
A failed political candidate has been indicted on federal charges including election interference in connection with a series of drive-by shootings at the homes of state and local lawmakers in Albuquerque, according to a grand jury indictment that was unsealed Wednesday.
The indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque takes aim at former Republican candidate Solomon Peña and two alleged accomplices with additional conspiracy and weapons-related charges in connection with the shootings in December 2022 and January of this year on the homes of four Democratic officials, including the current state House speaker.
The attacks came amid a surge of threats and acts of intimidation against election workers and public officials across the country after former President Donald Trump and his allies spread false claims about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
U.S. Attorney Alexander Uballez highlighted that the shootings targeted the homes of two county commissioners shortly after their certification of the 2022 election.
"Peña targeted several of these public officials because, in their official capacity, they certified the election, which he lost," Uballez said at a news conference. "In America, voters pick their leaders and would-be leaders don't get to pick which voters they heed, which rules apply to them or which laws to follow."
The shootings began Dec. 4, when eight rounds were fired at the home of Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboa.
Barboa said Pena had confronted her at her home shortly after the November election.
"He said, 'I want results now,' and he was definitely aggressive," Barboa said. She said that in December, she came home from Christmas shopping and found evidence of gunfire.
"My home was shot right through my front door, four times, out my back window, right through my living room and kitchen, right where I had been playing, only hours before, with my brand-new grandbaby," Barboa said.
Days later, state Rep. Javier Martínez's home was targeted. On Dec. 11, more than a dozen rounds were fired at the home of Bernalillo County Commissioner Debbie O'Malley, police said. Martínez became the Democratic state House speaker in January.
The final related shooting, targeting state Sen. Linda Lopez's home, unfolded in the midnight hour of Jan. 3. Police said more than a dozen shots were fired, including three Lopez said passed through the bedroom of her sleeping daughter. The girl was reportedly awoken by debris dropping onto her bed.
The new indictment outlines smartphone communications including text messages by Peña in the days following the Nov. 8, 2022, election that pinpoint the locations of officials' homes, allege election-rigging and confide to a political ally about plans to "press the attack."
Text messages in the indictment show the 40-year-old candidate bristling with outrage as Bernalillo County commissions certified the results of the midterm election and his own overwhelming defeat as a candidate for a seat in the state House of Representatives. Federal authorities say Peña hired others to conduct the shootings and carried out at least one shooting himself.
Hours before the first shooting on Dec. 4, 2022, Peña texted a Republican political ally, who also lost a bid for state representative, to say "we have to act. I'm continuing my study of election rigging. The enemy will eventually break."
Amid the shootings, Peña later texted one of several unnamed conspirators in the indictment to say, "It is our duty as Statesmen and Patriots, to stop the oligarchs from taking over our country."

I'm currently seeking like-minded individuals who are interested in exploring casual connections and engaging in exciting encounters.
Now, it's important to emphasize that consent and respect are crucial aspects of any interaction. It's essential to establish clear boundaries and expectations from the start, ensuring that everyone involved feels comfortable and empowered to communicate their needs.

https://twitter.com/santaclarapd/status/1663789112493768704?s=46&t=5O2AJqhzbf5J0g6yIodcaA

I don't regard myself as an expert at this game but I play almost exclusively on Lethal now.
I rarely pull any crew from my Legacy Pool, but I do "lean" on the Legacy Pool to overcome problems (call it spamming or savescumming or cheesing I don't mind) with getting from "launch" to having the Infirmary built - as you will see it is not in my gameplan to do that "super early" and I have typically eliminated 5+ hearts before establishing the Infirmary.
I don't use things like the firework gun thing and generally I avoid calling in the Impaler.
Below is Drucker County. This is at "pre boon mission" - and I will probably restart the map rather than do the Boon mission, as I have already done them all and they are boring.
For reference at the end of the game, I have survived 12 days: less than 2 weeks. That means killing 2 or 3 hearts a day. I'm pretty sure this time around I had no community deaths, although I did exile a couple of people and I think one might have been plague effected after getting a heart to a phase.
Here is my community having just killed the last heart. Nobody has maxxed all 5 stats yet, and only 2 have maxxed anything at all - Vasquez was recruited with Automechanic already maxxed... I have finished the game occupying Wallys Bar and Grill (the cafe type place in Santa Maya, the centre of the map). None of my characters are Sheriffs - so I have not been able to "finish" the Lounge.
https://preview.redd.it/hjvz1vywhw3b1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=d59849abd43974f355e47c58267c9d1210876d51
For this walkthrough I used Builder and Sheriff boons. I find Trader and Warlord dump a bunch of stuff on you at the start which simply amps the starting difficulty without particularly providing a long-term benefit.
https://preview.redd.it/14fbilv8gw3b1.png?width=1611&format=png&auto=webp&s=b2d385d3482ceab405dd4578c4c444852aa90c7b
The image below shows what I do before I claim the Vogel House. Note I do make a fair bit of use of...

1. A known location for a jerry can
2. Using my whole team as pack mules
3. Finding cars to load Rucksacks into, BEFORE claiming the base.

The new update has decreased item 3 quite a bit: I have learned through trial and error that waking a heart before claiming the starter house is a Bad Idea (tm).
Pre claiming Vogel
The diagram below shows the circuit I do before I claim Vogel House. But first, Ferals: I have found that with Update 33 I am running into more ferals than previously. My answer to this is in three parts:

1. Honestly if it happens as soon as you start, go straight in. They seem easier to kill with 3 newbies who are not tired even if all they have is pipes.
2. At the gun shop give your two partners whatever gun you can find, ideally a shotgun stuns a feral and that can solve a lot of problems when there are 3 of you.
3. At least one of the characters having a Blunt heavy weapon.

When there are 3 of you these 3 tactics seem to get the job done.
Also, prior to update 33 - the hearts were the hearts. I am now finding I need to be a lot more timid to avoid things like screamers or killing plague zombies waking hearts up during this part of the game.
​
https://preview.redd.it/bfv5tby9jw3b1.png?width=1138&format=png&auto=webp&s=fb711387971f17271996f6bc0e02f7651c0b1469
A: the starting makeshift camp where you can access your Command Centre, and drop off items which fit in a backpack.
1: where the car is at the start of the game. 2: by this point you should have found a petrol can. 3: a campsite where you can usually find something useful. 4: generally you will find one or two ranged weapons and maybe a workshop mod in the gun store in town. After clearing these out you will go to the makeshift camp. From the makeshift camp you return to your car. Note: the earlier you find a car then your journey might not change much but your approach to rucksacks WILL change. You want to have "all cars full" plus two of your 3 beginner characters carrying a ruck. In your car travel to 5. Here you can pick up fuel - both a jerry and a ruck - and materials. You should also be able to find one or two plague locations.
Don't hang around!
Travel to 6. Between 5 and 6 you should be looking for hearts while avoiding doing anything that will wake them up.
If you find a car, drop off the rucks you're carrying.
Go via 7 - if there is a chance, loot one or both the food locations here.
Back to the makeshift camp. Empty all backpacks. Reallocate rucks.
Head off to 8. I like to secure but not loot on the way north to 9.
9 is a checkpoint. More weapons and an ammo ruck. You might prefer to leave the ammo ruck behind because you will return to 8 where you will probably find more rucks than you can carry.
This is when I finally claim Vogul House.
Then the Materials World mission starts. Ideally by now I have found 1x heavy weapon - even a driveshaft club is good enough.
https://preview.redd.it/2o3qy490hx3b1.png?width=1060&format=png&auto=webp&s=16a8b988bd33fe43fe7a66815d1ba126592ad537
Generalyl there will be about 5 hearts in this south-west portion of the map. You need to be a bit cautious to work out which one/s you can do without waking any of the others. With each of your 3 characters - the goal is, pick up anything that isn't a material ruck from the previous step, while killing 2 hearts per character. Chances are if you are as bad as me you will get at least 50% plagued "by accident" - if this happens, head home. As soon as you can - call in an enclave. You need them for fuel, toolboxes, maybe stim items, maybe a weapon.
Don't hang around and loot if it seems dangerous: go back with the healthy character, and do it without taking risks, to manage fatigue.
By now you can think about...
the rest of the plague hearts on the west,
https://preview.redd.it/snxf3vgthx3b1.png?width=1138&format=png&auto=webp&s=6a2312787fb21f5855390cd06a09c32ce7d8dd57
you probably have 2x heros,
and you should be thinking about claiming the cell-phone tower near Vogul House to manage crowds / prevent accidental waking of plague hearts.
Those hearts on the South of the map are usually close enough to trigger a chain reaction of wakening. What you really don't want is to accidentally trigger the ones clustered in the centre of the map near the hospital up there.
From there I went and did the isolated heart in the medical centre in the middle of nowhere.
I actively used the (new to release 33) Disruptor feature of the cell-tower, as well as, relocating which cell tower I claimed all over the map, to use the (new to release 33) "land mine" feature.
I moved my other outposts periodically as well, for the same reason, and to simplify character change-over while taking out hearts.
All this was done without accessing anyone from the legacy pool, or any military recruits.
I did recruit from enclaves to disband the ones with the sucky benefits.
I did recruit from the mechanics enclave, and wound up with a champion auto-mechanic (plus someone to exile).

Hi everyone, I’m looking to apply to universities for premed this fall. I would do early action for every college possible, as I’m already working on essays over the summer. I was wondering if eight universities is enough to apply to, as I am pretty honed in on my preferences. These are the eight University of San Diego Pepperdine College of Charleston Eckerd Point Loma Nazarene UNC Chapel Hill Vanderbilt Santa Clara

i’m looking for a santa clara ticket to either shows. i’m only willing to pay through paypal goods and services and i will need proof of tickets. thank you. very much.

A postcard received today from Caltrain says:

Starting the week of June 5th, Caltrain will begin testing the new electric trains. Testing will begin along the westernmost track between the Santa Clara and College Park stations. The train will be run at low speeds and will be tested during daytime hours.
As soon as June 10th, trains will be tested on the main tracks between San Antonio Station in Mountain View and San Jose Diridon Station in San Jose. Trains will be tested up to the maximum speed of 78 mph.
Testing on the main tracks will be completed at night to reduce the impacts on regular Caltrain service. Residents neat the tracks may hear additional noise during testing hours, including additional grade crossing activations and train horns. We appreciate your patience as we complete this transformational project.

Get hyped!!
I couldn't find anything about this on official Caltrain websites. I will update this post when I find one.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/06/02/trump-georgia-election-investigation-fulton-county/
An Atlanta-area investigation of alleged election interference by President Donald Trump and his allies has broadened to include activities in D.C. and several states, according to two people with knowledge of the probe — a fresh sign that prosecutors may be building a sprawling case under Georgia’s racketeering laws.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D) launched an investigation more than two years ago to examine efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn his narrow 2020 defeat in Georgia. Along the way, she has signaled publicly that she may use Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute to allege that these efforts amounted to a far-reaching criminal scheme.
In recent days, Willis has sought information related to the Trump campaign hiring two firms to find voter fraud across the United States and then burying their findings when they did not find it, allegations that reach beyond Georgia’s borders, said the two individuals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly about the investigation. At least one of the firms has been subpoenaed by Fulton County investigators.
Willis’s investigation is separate from the one at the Justice Department being led by special counsel Jack Smith, but the two probes have covered some of the same ground. Willis has said she plans to make a charging decision this summer, and she has indicated that such an announcement could come in early August. She has faced stiff criticism from Republicans for investigating the former president, and the ever-widening scope suggests just how ambitious her plans may be.
The state’s RICO statute is among the most expansive in the nation, allowing prosecutors to build racketeering cases around violations of both state and federal laws — and even activities in other states. If Willis does allege a multistate racketeering scheme with Trump at its center, the case could test the bounds of the controversial law and make history in the process. The statute calls for penalties of up to 20 years in prison.
“Georgia’s RICO statute is basically two specified criminal acts that have to be part of a pattern of behavior done with the same intent or to achieve a common result or that have distinguishing characteristics,” said John Malcolm, a former Atlanta-based federal prosecutor who is now a constitutional scholar at the conservative Heritage Foundation. “That’s it. It’s very broad. That doesn’t mean it’s appropriate to charge a former president, but that also doesn’t mean she can’t do it or won’t do it.”
Among Willis’s latest areas of scrutiny is the Trump campaign’s expenditure of more than $1 million on two firms to study whether electoral fraud occurred in the 2020 election, the two individuals said. The Post first reported earlier this year that the work was carried out in the final weeks of 2020, and that the campaign never released the findings because the firms, Simpatico Software Systems and Berkeley Research Group, disputed many of Trump’s theories and could not offer any proof that he was the rightful winner of the election.
In recent days, Willis’s office has asked both firms for information — not only about Georgia but about other states as well. Trump contested the 2020 election results in Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Ken Block, the CEO of Simpatico Software Systems, declined to comment on what he has turned over to investigators. A lawyer for the Berkeley Research Group also declined to comment. A spokesman for Willis declined to comment on the investigation. Lawyers for Trump also declined to comment.
It is unclear if Willis will seek indictments of people for alleged actions that occurred outside Georgia, such as those who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. RICO experts say it’s unlikely she will do so. But, these experts said, the law allows Willis to build a sweeping narrative of an alleged pattern of behavior to overturn the 2020 election, with Georgia as just one piece. Evidence and actions outside the state, such as Trump’s statements from Washington that inspired some of the rioters and the parallel efforts to overturn other states’ results, could be presented as additional evidence that helps establish that pattern.
“The Georgia statute is broadly written” to allow the inclusion of violations of federal law as well as some other states’ laws, said Morgan Cloud, a law professor at Emory University in Atlanta and expert on the state’s RICO law. “For example, acts to obstruct justice committed in Arizona might be relevant if the goal of the enterprise, of the racketeering activity, was to overturn the 2020 presidential election nationally, as well as in Georgia.”
Cloud added that prosecutors in Georgia must prove only that two racketeering crimes occurred under the state RICO statute, but that other facts could be used to explain the breadth of an alleged scheme.
An ambitious prosecution
Willis’s investigation has already come under scrutiny as a test of applying state criminal laws to actions that revolved around a federal election — and that in many instances resembled constitutionally protected speech. The probe has prompted a debate, even among those who believe Trump’s efforts were improper, as to whether prosecutors will be able to prove that Georgia crimes were committed.
Her potentially sweeping application of Georgia’s RICO statute could amplify those questions. RICO allows prosecutors to target leaders of alleged criminal enterprises who in previous generations eluded convictions. In Georgia, it can be applied to many patterns of activity that are crimes under state or federal law, such as dogfighting or drug dealing, obstruction or conspiracy — going far beyond its origins as a tool to fight organized crime.
Several legal experts said they expect Willis to home in on possible false statements by Trump and his allies to government officials — one of the crimes that can be prosecuted under Georgia’s RICO statute.
In 2015, Willis attracted national attention as a deputy district attorney by using RICO to prosecute a massive cheating scandal in Atlanta’s public schools that sent eight teachers and administrators to prison.
Prosecutors in Georgia have obtained RICO convictions where the pattern of racketeering activity included actions in other states. In one notable case, prosecutors in Richmond County got convictions for several men they accused of kidnapping a Sam’s Club manager in a robbery scheme in 1998, stuffing him into the trunk of a car, driving to South Carolina and killing him by setting the car on fire.
In the Trump case, Willis has said she is focused on the phone calls Trump made to multiple Georgia officials seeking to reverse his defeat, his campaign’s efforts to persuade the Georgia legislature to declare Trump the winner, the gathering of Trump’s electors to cast electoral college votes for Trump after Joe Biden had been declared the winner in the state, and the Trump campaign’s potential involvement in an unauthorized breach of election equipment in rural Coffee County, Ga.
Dozens of people participated in those efforts, according to reams of emails, texts and deposition transcripts from the House investigation into the Jan. 6 attack: Trump lawyers such as Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell, Ray Smith and John Eastman; senior advisers including then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows; Jeffrey Clark, then a senior official at the Justice Department; and Georgia GOP leaders including the party chairman, David Shafer, and its then finance chairman, Shawn Still.
Multiple legal experts have said persuading a jury that those actions broke the law could prove difficult. The debate reflects the unprecedented nature of Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election. While the effort immediately prompted calls to hold him and others criminally responsible, identifying laws that apply to such a scenario has proved challenging — and could help explain why Willis’s investigation is in its third year. That dynamic applies both to the Georgia investigation as well as the special counsel’s federal probe.
Most of those scrutinized in the Willis investigation have maintained that they did nothing wrong. They had every right to pursue claims of anomalies, many have said, particularly given how close Biden’s margin of victory was in Georgia, two-tenths of 1 percent.
“There’s not a single thing that I did in pursuit of election integrity that I have any regret or concern about,” Shafer said in a recent GOP address.
“It’s dangerous,” said Malcolm, the Heritage scholar, referring to the investigation in Georgia of contingent electors. “What you’re doing is tainting political activists who are trying to play a part in an election, who are trying to help their candidate, and all of a sudden you’re launching a criminal investigation.”
Norm Eisen, who served as special counsel to the House of Representatives’ first impeachment of Trump, over his pressure campaign with Ukraine, cautioned that it’s too soon to judge the investigation, but said he believes the overall case is a “strong one.”
“Either skepticism or belief is premature because we are not privy to all the evidence that the district attorney has amassed at this point,” said Eisen, a criminal defense attorney and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “It just depends on the evidence.”
Eisen was among the authors of a lengthy examination of the applicable law in the Fulton investigation, concluding that possible crimes, besides racketeering, included making false statements and conspiracy to commit election fraud.
Malcolm said he agrees with the report’s conclusion that Trump is at substantial risk of being charged. But he said he believes much of its analysis is “slanted and misguided.”
Trump’s call to Georgia
Willis launched her probe shortly after Trump’s Jan. 2, 2021, phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), during which Trump said, “I just want to find 11,780 votes.” That number would have given Trump exactly the votes he needed to reverse Biden’s victory.
While Trump has been widely rebuked for that comment and others during the roughly one-hour call, it’s unclear to some legal analysts if uttering those words broke the law.
Trump did not spell out that he wanted Raffensperger to break the law; nor did he directly ask the state official to find the votes, which might have given Willis a clearer path to seek a felony charge against him, such as solicitation to commit election fraud. Instead, the comment could be interpreted as the president simply spelling out the math that would allow him to reverse Biden’s victory.
Trump may have hurt himself, however, in his appearance last month at a town hall broadcast by CNN, during which he explained that he called Raffensperger to tell him, “You owe me votes because the election was rigged.” Willis could offer the statement as evidence of Trump’s intent for Raffensperger to switch votes, several legal experts said.
“Subjects of criminal investigation aren’t usually reckless enough to go on national television and admit their corrupt intent,” Anthony Michael Kreis, a constitutional law professor at Georgia State University, wrote on Twitter after the appearance. “But Donald Trump just handed Fani Willis a new piece of evidence and tied a bow on it.”
Willis has also investigated appearances by Giuliani and other Trump allies before Georgia lawmakers in the days immediately after the 2020 election, during which they described fantastical conspiracies of voting machines swapping Trump votes for Biden votes and poll workers in Atlanta triple-counting suitcases full of ballots.
It’s a felony in Georgia to make a false statement in a government matter, but Willis must prove that Giuliani and the others knew that what they were saying was false. Giuliani was not speaking under oath, so there is no exposure for perjury charges, and some legal experts say he might also be protected under the First Amendment.
Willis may also examine the actions of Clark, then the acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil division, who wanted to send a letter to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) and state legislative leaders falsely claiming that the department was investigating “significant concerns” in the 2020 election, and urging them to call a special session of the General Assembly to appoint Trump’s electors to cast Georgia’s electoral college votes. Senior Justice Department officials blocked Clark from sending the draft.
Whether the Republican electors who convened to cast electoral college votes for Trump on Dec. 14, 2020, broke the law is perhaps even murkier.
Georgia was among seven states where the Trump campaign and local GOP officials arranged for alternate electors to convene with the stated purpose of preserving legal recourse while an election challenge made its way through the courts. Willis has offered some form of immunity to 12 of the 16 electors, according to three individuals with knowledge of the investigation. Not counted among those with immunity are Still, now a Georgia state senator, and Shafer.
Shafer helped organize the meeting and presided over it. Still has been described in news reports as having blocked members of the media from entering the room before the meeting started. Prosecutors have apparently focused on those activities in their questions to various witnesses, according to three other people with knowledge of the interviews. Prosecutors have also inquired about who mailed the electoral certificates to Washington, they said.
One of Shafer’s lawyers, Holly Pierson, wrote in a letter to Willis that Shafer had no knowledge that Trump allies would propose, later in December, to use the alternate elector certificates to block the counting of electoral votes for Biden in the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress. It is not even clear if the plan to thwart the joint session had been hatched by Dec. 14, 2020, the day the electors met. The House committee did not refer Shafer or Still to the Justice Department for federal prosecution. Pierson declined to comment.
As the nation waits to see what, if any, charges Willis will seek, one key question is what evidence she has gathered that Trump, his campaign or allies knew about all the different efforts to reverse Biden’s victory. And that’s just the first step — getting to trial and persuading a jury may present even more formidable challenges.
“Proving all this beyond a reasonable doubt,” Kreis said, “that’s going to be the hard part.”

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/06/03/politics/tennessee-drag-ban-law-unconstitutional/index.html
A federal judge in Tennessee has ruled that a state law limiting public drag show performances represented an “unconstitutional restriction on the freedom of speech.”
“As a matter of text alone, the (Adult Entertainment Act) is a content, and viewpoint-based restriction on speech. The AEA was passed for the impermissible purpose of chilling constitutionally-protected speech,” US District Court Judge Thomas Parker, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, said in a 70-page late-Friday ruling.
Parker, who called the law “unconstitutionally vague and substantially overbroad,” also barred the defendant in the case – the district attorney of Shelby County, which is home to Memphis – from enforcing the law in that county.
The court ruling comes after Friends of George’s, a Memphis-based nonprofit that produces drag performances and comedy sketches, sued in March to stop the law from going into effect, arguing it was a violation of its free speech. Parker then temporarily blocked the state from enforcing the ban as he considered the law’s constitutionality.
Tennessee Republicans, who hold supermajorities in the state legislature, earlier this year passed the measure to restrict public drag show performances, which was signed by Republican Gov. Bill Lee. The law sought to limit “adult cabaret performances” on public property to shield children from viewing them, threatening violators with a misdemeanor and repeat offenders with a felony. The ban specifically included “male or female impersonators” who perform in a way that is “harmful to minors.” It had been set to go into effect April 1.
“WE WON!” Friends of George’s wrote in a tweet Saturday. “Judge Parker has declared Tennessee’s anti-drag law unconstitutional!”
Tennessee officials have argued that the measure is not a full ban and is only intended to stop overtly sexual performances in front of minors. Parker, in his ruling, acknowledged the state’s “compelling interest in protecting the psychological and physical wellbeing of children” but ruled against the law as “an unconstitutional restriction on the freedom of speech.”
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said in a statement Saturday that his office was reviewing the order and expects to appeal “at the appropriate time.”
“The scope of this law has been misrepresented in public by those more interested in pressing a narrative than in reading the statutory text,” Skrmetti said. “The Adult Entertainment Act remains in effect outside of Shelby County. This narrowly-tailored law protects minors from exposure to sexually explicit performances. Its operative language is rooted in the U.S. Supreme Court’s long-established First Amendment precedent.”
CNN has also reached out to Lee’s office for comment.
Tennessee’s law is just one of a slew of other similar measures that Republican-led state legislatures across the country have considered this year.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is running for president, signed a bill last month that, among other things, gives his administration the power to take away licenses from establishments if they allow children into an “adult live performance,” widely interpreted as a crackdown on drag shows.
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte signed legislation in May that prevents children from attending “sexually oriented shows” and from being present at obscene performances on public property. It specifically targets drag story hours, which it defines as “an event hosted by a drag queen or drag king who reads children’s books and engages in other learning activities with minor children present.”
Republicans say the performances – which often feature men dressing as women in exaggerated makeup while singing or entertaining a crowd, though some shows feature bawdier content – expose children to sexual themes and imagery that are inappropriate. LGBTQ advocates, however, argue that not all drag shows are sexual in nature and laws such as the ones in Montana and Tennessee stigmatize the community and could violate the First Amendment.

The Los Angeles County Master Bicycle Plan is looking for feedback on how the County can improve bike infrastructure in unincorporated areas of Los Angeles. Right now, they're looking for feedback on areas like the VA in Brentwood, Santa Monica Mountains, Ladera Heights, and more.
You can enter your comments on the interactive map they're using to collect feedback. Take a look at the areas where other folks have added comments, and include your thoughts too.

I just finished my sophomore year at a historically women’s college on the East Coast, with no intention of returning. I will most likely take a semester or even a year off from college and apply to transfer for Spring 2024 or Fall 2024.
Here are my stats:
Demographics: Chinese-American female from California
Major: Public Health (or Environmental Health/Public Policy) Minor: Dance (maybe)
College GPA (out of 4.0): 3.08
I failed a Music Theory class my second semester in my first year but I won’t majominor in anything music-related.
High school GPA: 2.9UW/3.0W
I have no SAT/ACT
APs: World History, Music Theory, English Literature, Environmental Science, and Psychology (school doesn’t offer IB or let students take more than 3 APs a year, don’t let freshmen take APs)
Extracurriculars (HS and College):
High school:

• attended a very selective songwriting summer program held by the Grammys (12, summer before college)
• Volunteer at Eating Disorder Resource Center (12)
• Advocate for Eating Disorder Organization Project HEAL (12)
• counselor-in-training at summer camp (11,12)
• wrangler-in-training at summer camp (11)
• rode horses recreationally (9,10,11,12)
• volunteered at a horse ranch I went to (9,10,12)
• played piano recreationally (9,10,11,12)
• took singing lessons recreationally (12)
• co-foundecoordinator of a club at my school (10)

College:

• CDC intern
• President of the Class of 2025
• Vice President of OASIS (Organization of Asian Students in the South)
• Social Media Chair and content creator for HerCampus college chapter
• Member of an Acapella group and performed at concerts
• Catalyst Leader (leadership program at my school)
• worked at a Chick-fil-A during the summer of 2022
• Trainee at Keens Academy (Korean music training academy hosted by SM Entertainment)
• Awarded a $21k/year scholarship from my college

Additional Info: I was hospitalized for a week during the second semester of my first year for something pretty traumatic.
I'd prefer to attend a smaller to mid-size college and stay in my home state of California. I would also love to attend a college with a vibrant social life and many parties/revelry. However, I’m open to all suggestions. I’m also not taking on any debt and don’t want to. I’m okay with either a co-ed school or a women’s college. I’m honestly kind of worried about how many of my credits will transfer since my college has college-specific requirements.
I was possibly looking into Georgia Tech (even though it’s in Georgia) and some UCs (Santa Cruz, maybe Merced) but those are long shots and I need some matches/safeties. I was also considering San Jose State and Santa Clara University.

March/April 1519
The Italian War of 1515-1516 and its consequences have been disastrous for the county of Cremona and its people. Much like in several of the previous conflicts in Lombardy, Cremona was bitterly contested by the French and Imperial armies, having been the victim of a lengthy Imperial siege in 1515 and a much shorter French siege in 1516. The results were devastating, and the scars of the sieges were still readily apparent when Francesco Maria arrived in the city in late 1517.
Though he meant to spend the beginning of 1518 helping to heal these scars, God had other plans. The treason of the Gonzaga of Mantua revealed at the Trial of Cesena, and the following declaration of war by Pope Leo X turned Francesco Maria’s attentions from peace to war. By March, he was already in the field.
Before long, the campaign year settled into a siege. Sieges are long, plodding affairs, leaving Francesco Maria with an abundance of downtime between directing engineers and commenting on maps of proposed trenches. Throughout the year, a flurry of letters flew between his camp and Cremona, managing and directing the repair of his new city from afar. In time, he hopes that these repairs and reforms will build Cremona into the wealthiest of his many possessions.

Prevosto dei Mercanti di Cremona

Among the first reforms introduced by the new Count of Cremona is the creation of a new bureaucratic position, the Provost of the Merchants. Largely copied from the institution introduced in the city of Milan in 1509, the Provost is an official appointed by the Count of Cremona, bearing responsibility for overseeing public works, provisioning the city, collecting taxes, and managing Cremona’s canal network. He is assisted in this task by four assessors, who are nominated by the Count, but approved by a majority vote in Cremona’s city council (of which the Count is the leading member, but by no means the only powerbroker).
With the creation of this new position, Francesco Maria has appointed a loyal administrator from La Marche as Provost, while filling the assessor positions with local notables (a mix of local nobles and upwardly-mobile merchants). To ensure that they have the proper facilities available to them to complete their tasks, he has designated Palazzo Cittanova as their permanent headquarters.
Fixing the Navigli
Like much of Lombardy, Cremona is host to a series of complex, interconnected canals they criss-cross both the city and the province. These canals (the navili in the local dialect) are used for both navigation--allowing Padane trade direct access to workshops and warehouses throughout the city--and agriculture--the various canals bring irrigation water from the Adda and Oglio throughout the county, making it some of the most productive farmland in Italy.
The successive sieges of Cremona caused extensive damage to the navili. The besiegers--first Austrians, then French--regularly diverted the navili to supply fresh water to their siege camps and deny it to the city. Within the city proper, collapsed buildings and sunken ships had clogged narrower portions of the navili, while other sections had been intentionally dammed off to build reservoirs for firefighting or drinking. While the worst of the damage had been repaired since the war ended, the navili were still operating well below their full capacity, causing serious economic damage to the city and its inhabitants.
Addressing this persisting damage is the first task facing the new Prevost--one that is likely to earn near-universal support in Cremona.
Repairing the Walls
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the walls of Cremona were devastated by the successive sieges of the last war. The brutal eleven week Austrian siege of 1515 in particular destroyed large sections of the walls--part of why the French siege in 1516 was so much quicker. While the walls are more-or-less functional at the moment, with earthen palisades protecting those portions that were breached in the two sieges, they still leave much to be desired. As the southeasternmost city of French Milan, it is more likely than not that Cremona will see yet more sieges in the future. Thus, it is critically important that the city’s defenses be brought back into working order, and that they be upgraded to ensure the success of future defenses of the city.
Recognizing the strategic importance of Cremona to maintaining France’s presence in Milan, the Duke Philippe’s regency council has authorized the Count of Cremona to renovate the walls of his city. To this end, France has transferred its best and brightest military engineers (many of whom have already had experience upgrading the walls of other Lombard cities, such as Novara, Asti, Milan, Pavia, Lodi, Bergamo, and Crema), and agreed to fund the upgrades (M: we’re waiting to see what the cost is to work this out). The planned upgrades will introduce modern defensive innovations to the walls, such as reinforcing bastions to allow for enfilade fire and earthen ditches and glacis to protect the base of the walls from cannon fire. Furthermore, the Castello di Santa Croce, the castle and ducal residence on the western edge of Cremona, will be upgraded to bring it in line with modern defensive works (M: I’m not sure how much of the historic upgrades occurred--I’m mostly just looking to make it so that the OTL 1503 fortifications and 1520 fortifications are built with these upgrades). Upgrades and renovations will be managed by the Provost of the Merchants.
Now Entering/Exiting Milan
Cremona’s position is not just strategically important, but economically important. Built just a few miles east of the confluence of the Po and the Adda, Cremona is the first major Milanese city along the Po (Casalmaggiore notwithstanding), making it the first port-of-call for Padane shipping moving into French Milan (or even Savoy--the Po flows all the way to Turin), or the last port-of-call for shipping moving towards the Adriatic. Put simply: just about every vessel moving into or out of Milan will pass by Cremona at some point. This makes Cremona ideally situated for two things, which are mutually beneficial and, in the right circumstances, very lucrative.
The first is taxation. By decree of the Duke of Milan, Cremona will henceforth be a mandatory port-of-call for merchants wishing to enter French Milan via the Po. In order to continue along the Po, merchant vessels will first have to stop at Cremona, where they will have to pay customs duties on the goods they are importing into French territory, as well as a per capita toll on their crew. Once the duties have been paid, the ship’s captain will then be provided proper documentation for his goods and sent on his merry way. Further tolls may be collected along the river--particularly if the ship means to make use of the navigli--but the customs documents will be valid from Cremona to Milan to Turin.
The second is trade. As the first major French port on the Po, Cremona is well-suited to operate as an entrepôt for imports to and exports from Milan. Merchants, looking to save themselves time by avoiding a full trip along the Po, might instead look to offload their goods at Cremona (and pick up goods for their return trip). Others might be looking to transfer their goods to different sized vessels (smaller if they are continuing onto the Po tributaries or the navigli, larger if they are heading towards the Adriatic), or onto numerous different vessels (say, if a spice merchant from Venice wants to send his product to Crema, Pavia, Milan, and Turin). More entrepreneurially-minded local merchants might even try to profit from the arbitrage opportunity introduced by the new customs rates, which are lower for French and Milanese merchants than their foreign counterparts, by buying up foreign (usually Venetian) goods and selling them in French Milan at a profit.
In any case, for Cremona to fulfill this purpose, there is a need for new infrastructure within the city--something that the Count is all too eager to provide. With funds from his own treasury, Francesco Maria will be building a series of warehouses, guest houses and trading posts both near Cremona’s waterfront and further into the city, dotted along its canal network. The largest of these warehouses, dubbed the Fondaco dei Veneto (literally, the warehouse of the Venetians) will be conveniently situated close to the Po. Built in the style of a Venetian fondaco, with high arches, waterfront access, and living quarters above the ground floor, this trading post will specifically cater to Venetian merchants, giving them a safe place to store, buy, and sell their wares while enjoying the comfort of a hot meal and a good night’s rest. All while paying the Count for the services provided, of course!
By mandating that merchant vessels stop at Cremona to pay duties on imported goods, ships that would previously pass Cremona without stopping will have to spend some amount of time in the city’s port. With this in mind, traffic is expected to increase considerably. Thus, it is imperative that ships are moved as quickly and efficiently through Cremona’s port as possible. To this end, Francesco Maria has announced the construction of a new customs house in the port district of Cremona, the Palazzo dei Mercanti, a two-story building intended to function as the administrative headquarters of the new customs system. In search of a leading Italian architect to design the building, Francesco Maria has invited noted pupil of Raphael (who arrived in Milan in 1517 Lorenzetto. Should he fail to retain Lorenzetto’s services, invitations will then be sent to local Lombard architect and pupil of Bramante Antonio da Lonate and, failing that, Girolama Genga, who Francesco Maria has hired several times in the past.
Collecting customs duties, managing the city’s primary customs house, and operating the Count’s network of warehouses and trade posts will all be under the purview of the Provost of the Merchants.
Attracting Investment
Despite its strategic position on the Po and fertile farmland, Cremona is… strangely devoid of economic activity. Francesco Maria is not quite sure why this is (perhaps Venetian merchants and Lombard nobles fled with their wealth when the province was conquered by France?), but the effect is the same: there is an immense opportunity to expand the county’s productivity. Like the rest of Lombardy, Cremona’s farmland is some of the most productive of Europe, and the city’s position on the Po gives it easy access to population centers like Turin, Milan, and Venice.
If the Venetian merchants won’t invest in the province, maybe their Lombard and French counterparts will. The new Provost of the Merchants of Cremona will offer institutional and legal support to subjects of French Milan--that is, French and Lombard merchants, nobles, and clergy--looking to establish new holdings in the city and the county. To help incentivize further investment by Cremona’s nobility and merchant families, Francesco Maria will also consider the willingness of individuals to reinvest in Cremona when making future political appointments in the county--most notably the four assessors of the Provost of the Merchants and the Castellan-Provosts of the Castellany-Provostships of the county.

Castellano-Prevosto di Cremona

Much like the city of Cremona was adversely affected by the sieges of 1515 and 1516, the countryside saw substantial damage. Armies on campaign tend to pick the countryside bare, stealing whatever they can get their hands on (most especially grain and livestock) and killing whoever tries to stop them. As Austrian, French, Venetian, and Bourbon armies criss-crossed the Cremonesi countryside, it was treated no differently. Fields were burned, livestock were slaughtered, storehouses were robbed, and families fled. Though peace has returned once again, the damage remains, and Francesco Maria must address it.
With the exception of the navili, which are governed by the Provost of the Merchants, the countryside of Cremona falls under the direct jurisdiction of the Count and is administered through a series of appointed administrators called Castellan-Provosts. It falls to those Castellans to mete out the Count’s aid and repair the land.
Food for All
The nice thing about farms is that they are largely self-sustaining. With proper stewardship, one harvest yields enough seed for the next, livestock beget livestock, and the farm continues as it always has. The bad thing about farms is that the bulk of farmers do not generate much in the way of surplus value. This means that when looting armies come through, burn fields, slaughter livestock, steal all of your valuables, and otherwise ruin (or end) farmers’ lives, the farmers can struggle to garner the capital necessary to start their lives anew. Such is the case in the countryside of Cremona.
In order to help restore the agricultural wealth of Cremona--the lifeblood of the province--Francesco Maria has authorized the disbursal of additional funds to the Castellan-Provosts, who will distribute these funds to replenish livestock herds and seed stores throughout the County.
Settling Property Disputes
While many farmers return to their fields after a war, some do not--some because they found a new life elsewhere, and others because they died. Ownership disputes over the lands they leave behind are common. Neighbors expand their farms into the abandoned lands while sons, cousins, uncles, brothers-in-law, and people pretending to be those things lay claim to the land of families who died. Sometimes, these competing claims turn violent.
Sifting through these claims and keeping the peace is the duty of the Castellan-Provosts. To help ensure that these legal claims are dealt with quickly and efficiently, Francesco Maria has transferred funds to the Castellan-Provosts to hire additional administrative and legal personnel.
Summary: Francesco Maria is spending money to reduce devastation throughout Cremona. A new administrative position, the Provost of the Merchants of Cremona (mirroring the Provost of the Merchants implemented in Milan in 1509) is tasked with repairing the canal system of the province, while the Castellan-Provosts who administer the countryside will be given additional financial support to repair the county’s agricultural production. Furthermore, with support from the Duke of Milan, Cremona’s walls will be repaired and upgraded.
The Duke of Milan has also designated the city of Cremona as the official customs hub for imports entering the Duchy of Milan. While the rates will be set by the Duke, the Count of Cremona (through the Provost of the Merchants of Cremona) is responsible for collecting those customs, which are intended to protect French and Lombard merchants in Milan from foreign (mostly Venetian) competition. Hoping to profit off of this new importance of Cremona for trade along the Po, Francesco Maria has also authorized the construction of a new customs house and trade hub within the city.
Moderation required:

• Price for reducing devastation in Cremona (4A1) and the unnamed neighboring province (4A2) through repairing the canal system and rebuilding the rural farm economy
  
• Price for rebuilding and upgrading Cremona’s (4A1) defenses (which will be shared with France--let me know what the cost ends up being, and I’ll let you know what the payment split will be)
  
• Price for building a trade hub (or fondachi?) holding in Cremona (4A1)
  
• Resolution for building customs house in Cremona (need to know which of Lorenzetto, Antonio da Lonate, and Girolama Genga accepts the Duke’s offer to design the building; cost for the construction; and also what mechanical effects it will have both in Cremona and on holding ownership throughout the Duchy of Milan. Not sure if this should be a holding like the sound dues, a staple port holding, a tax efficiency increase for Cremona, or what--open to discussion)
  
• How successful is Francesco Maria’s call for investment in Cremona (4A1) and the unnamed neighboring province (4A2)? These provinces currently have almost no holdings in them (not counting the city, there are only three holdings between them), so I’m hoping to attract estates to build them out a bit. Not sure what estates are around these parts, but I imagine it’d be stuff like Lombard/Milanese/French merchants/clergy/nobility. Merchant/noble families in the county who make considerable investments will be favored when it comes time for the count to make political appointments in the future (most notably, the assessors of the Provost of the Merchants of Cremona and the Castellan-Provosts of the Castellan-Provostships of the county’s Castellany-Provostships).
  

North Miami Beach Mayor Anthony DeFillipo was arrested and charged with three counts of voter fraud, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office said Wednesday. He’s the third mayor of North Miami Beach to be arrested in 11 years.
The arrest comes six months after a complaint was filed with the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics & Public Trust alleging DeFillipo lived in the town of Davie in Broward County, in violation of the North Miami Beach city charter, which requires elected officials to reside in the city.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said her office used cell phone data to track DeFillipo’s driving from Davie to North Miami Beach, where he cast ballots to vote in three elections in August, October and November.
“It wasn’t as if, ‘Oops, I forgot once.’ ” she told the Herald. “This is three times in rapid succession.”
The charges are third-degree felonies, punishable with up to five years in prison.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/north-miami/article275942996.html

TL;DR: The US Intervening into Mexico to defeat the Cartels would spiral out of control very quickly, converting Mexico and quite possibly the Southwestern US into Afghanistan 2.0 for the US military.
There has been rhetoric over the past few months by various right wing politicians in the US that the US should attack the cartels in Mexico, with or without the Mexican government's approval. Politicians like Lindsay Graham, Dan Crenshaw and Marjorie Taylor Greene have floated the idea, and even Presidential candidates like Tim Scott (https://reason.com/2023/05/24/the-republican-primary-consensus-for-sending-the-military-into-mexico/ ) and Donald Trump (https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-vows-deploy-special-forces-military-assets-inflict-maximum-damage-cartels). This is honestly a terrible idea for the US, despite the damage that cartels currently do when it comes to the drug trade. It is like shooting your own leg because of a tick so to speak.
Mexico is an absolutely enormous country, the size of Western Europe, with a population of 126 million people. It also has a geography not too different than Afghanistan, lined with several mountain ranges and many deserts - yet differs with the rainforests of the south. These Mountain ranges consist of most of Mexico's interior, with the coasts and east seeming like the only locations where major tank warfare would be very possible. It is a county that would be an insurgent's dream.
These politicians specifically claim that the US should intervene into Mexico as to defeat the Cartels with or without the help of the Mexican government. I need to mention - the latter is almost certainly true. Despite Mexico's problems most Mexicans are still very proud of their country and very much do not want a US intervention onto their territory, a political consideration that could sink any Mexican government who willingly lets in US troops. So any US intervention into Mexico would also have to deal with the Mexican government, and effectively be an invasion of the country. It would not just be a border operation either - some of the main Cartel hotspots like Mihoacan and Guerrero provinces are further south from the US than Mexico City. Any operation would have to go at least that far into Mexico in order to achieve meaningful success.
Sure, the Mexican Government in Mexico City could be overthrown relatively quickly, if they prove to be an obstacle in any US intervention. They struggle against Cartels alone, and using a naval invasion the US government could take Veracruz (the closest port to Mexico city), and then march onto Mexico City in a relatively short time. The government is fragile enough that it wouldn't survive the loss of the capital. Yet this fragility in and of itself is one of the main reasons why a war in Mexico would be so terrible. Cartels - the very cartels the US would try to destroy in this war - effectively control swathes of the country, and have long experience with asymmetric warfare. With a total Mexican government collapse, they would become warlords fully ruling over their little domains. And this would be when they would be most dangerous. The US couldn't just kill one leader and be done with it, they would have to destroy every single faction to win this war. And if the factions ally to fight the Americans, then that simply means divide and conquer strategy is removed from the table as a means to defeat them.
Due to US blunders the cartels have access to US weapons, and some even have US training (https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2010/11/3/us-trained-cartel-terrorises-mexico https://www.propublica.org/article/allende-zetas-cartel-massacre-and-the-us-dea ). Additionally, Cartels apparently have a history of attempting to corrupt US border agents (https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/immigration/border-coverage/as-cartel-power-rises-so-do-concerns-about-cbp-corruption/ , https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/28/us/homeland-security-border-bribes.html , https://www.businessinsider.com/customs-border-agents-mexican-cartel-smuggling-2016-11 ) , an issue which will allow them to blunt the effectiveness of US operations and continue to access guns within the US. Such problems will be greatly worsened if the Cartels experience similar success corrupting US army troops. These problems will make it more difficult for US forces to fight the Mexican Cartels in an open war, as many of them will be able to counter what the US throws at them.
It is very doubtful that the war would remain a US vs Cartel war anyway. A US intervention into Mexico without Mexican government approval would be seen by the Mexican people as a patriotic war of independence, something akin to how Ukrainians feel about the Ukraine war. Non-cartel nationalist militias will almost certainly pop up to fight the US for this very purpose, following in the footsteps of previous Mexican national figures like Pancho Villa and Santa Ana. Given the broader appeal these sorts of groups would have among the Mexican public than cartels, they could even begin to replace the cartels as the US's main enemy in this Mexico War given a few years time. They would not be without international support either. For instance nearby Cuba has a long history of aiding Latin American guerilla forces against US forces/allies (like in Nicaragua, Columbia and Grenada), and has been heavily sanctioned by the US since the 1960s. Additionally, Wagner Group has already been attempting to establish itself in Mexico (https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/18/russia-wagner-group-ukraine-paramilitary-00083553) - a war between Mexico and the US would be perfect for them to offer their services, and recruit Mexicans into their organization. Additionally a rebranding of this conflict from an anti-criminal operation to a war of Mexican sovereignty would bring much more sympathy to the Mexicans than to the US,. A new US war in Mexico would be like a second Iraq war when it comes to how badly it would affect US international relations, perhaps even worse.
This war would also likely require the US to intervene in many more countries than just Mexico. Mexican cartels have already expanded their activities to other countries throughout the region. Countries like Ecuador, Guatemala, Columbia, El Salvador and Honduras have been suspect to activities by Mexican cartels, mostly for the sake of controlling the supply chain of resources needed for producing drugs in Mexico. In these countries (especially Ecuador), Mexican drug cartels have coopted local gangs to help with their goals, and use local farmers to produce plants needed for drug production (such as coca needed for cocaine). Even if the US somehow eliminates the cartels from Mexico, they will simply move their base of operation to one of these countries and continue their practices. The US would need to export this war on Mexico to all of the countries where the cartel is active if they would want any chance of creating an end to such a war once it begins.
The US couldn't simply walk away from such a war. The US border has sections of deserts and mountains which are by definition hard to defend. Not to mention that there is already a huge amount of illegal tunnels between the US and Mexico, many of which are operated by the very cartels which the US would be at war with. These connections into the US are already the main way cartels get their guns and sell their drugs after all, so it would not be so difficult to repurpose them for attacks on American soil. With the population of the areas of the US right north of the US-Mexico border being majority latino, the local inhabitants will be virtually indistinguishable from any Mexican insurgents crossing the border into the US to commit attacks. As such it would be easy for operatives to sneak into the US, commit attacks on US towns north of the border, and then melt into the local population (similarly to the tactics used against US troops by insurgents in Iraq). This ability to vanish into the local population has the potential to cause a massive amount of persistent fear for Americans, and worsen the ethnic tensions between white and latino Americans. This war would be more like a larger version of the Israel - Palestine conflict rather than another Afghanistan in the sense that the line between the "warzone" and US territory would quickly blur.
This war would likely only become worse from there. If either the US starts launching reprisals on Mexican communities for insurgent attacks, or right wing American militias launch their own reprisals on American latino communities as purported "vigilante justice" for these insurgent attacks - latino communities (especially those with closer ties to Mexico) within the US could be pushed towards becoming insurgents themselves. This is more likely than it seems, as the US Army has committed massacres against civilians before as retribution for insurgent attacks (https://web.archive.org/web/20131212141534/http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?id=8518011 https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-nov-07-fg-balad7-story.html ). This would be similar to what happened with Arab Israelis during the 2021 Israel-Palestine crisis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Israel%E2%80%93Palestine_crisis ) when large swathes of Arab Israeli youths decided to riot in support of the Palestinian factions. After that point there is no going back, it would mean a true open war between US citizens. That is a pandora's box that would only cause greater harm for the US, and permanently render the Southwestern US a conflict zone. If this scenario comes to pass such a war could last decades - in a similar vein to the Troubles in Northern Ireland. This cannot be understated, no part of the continental US has been a part of a conflict zone since the Mexican civil war of the 1910s. And the permanent alienation of latino americans - a group which now consists of 62 million people out of the US population - would have severe ramifications for the internal security of the United States. It would be a crippling blow which cannot be quickly healed.
This conflict would eat away at the US's status as a world power. Being stuck in a major guerilla war right across the border, and a conflict spilling into the US proper, the US would have to deprioritize its interests elsewhere. As a rule of thumb (https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Portals/7/combat-studies-institute/csi-books/mcgrath_boots.pdf) there needs to be 20 soldiers for every thousand inhabitants for an occupation to be successful. For Mexico alone with its 126 million strong population, that means 2.52 million troops are needed for a successful occupation (to say nothing of the other countries which the Mexican Cartels would use as bases against the US, or the factor that the Southern US would experience spillover from the conflict). The US does not even have that many active troops, so they would have to cut corners like they did in Iraq (perhaps bringing the 2.52 million number down to 500,000 to at least create a semblance of a functional occupation). Overall this would leave the US much weaker on the geopolitical stage, and allow for US opponents to fill in the vacuum left by US power. For example, with so many troops tied up in Mexico, the US would need to rely a lot more on their fleet in order to defend Taiwan against China in the case of a Chinese invasion of that island, as the US simply would not have enough soldiers to fight the Chinese PLA on the ground. And the sheer expense needed to deal with a war in Mexico and insurgents within US borders would force the US to consider a considerable drawdown of their military support for allies like Ukraine.
If either Donald Trump or Tim Scott becomes president in 2024 (with Trump being the nearly guaranteed Republican nominee, given DeSantis's floundering), this war could very well become a reality. It could very well begin before 2026 - though I predict that this war could be started at any point between 2025 and 2028 if one of those candidates were to win the US presidency If this does happen, I highly doubt that the war will end anytime soon after it begins. Especially with the geopolitical destabilization of the Southwestern US, it would create challenges for the US which would harm its position across the world and greatly weaken its internal stability. Any candidate or person who considers this idea should reconsider it.

I have been living in Hollister pretty much all my life. Family Moved here in ‘99 when I was 2 1/2. I’ve seen this town change a lot in the time I’ve been here, can’t even imagine how different it must look to people that have been here forever. But one constant I’ve seen throughout all this change is constant growth. There’s always been constant construction, new homes popping up left and right. Brand new neighborhoods appearing over night basically.
But we still have the same 3 or so roads leading in and out of town. Fairview, 156, and 25. The only change I’ve seen with them? How long it takes to get onto 101.
So I gotta ask, Can Hollister handle this continuous growth? People keep getting squeezed out of Santa Clara and Monterey counties because of rising prices, and they flow into here. But how much more can we handle until something snaps?
It took me 30 minutes to drive from my job in Monterey to end up on Freitas RD. And it’s going to take another 30 minutes for me to get from here back home. Half of my commute is spent within a 10 minute drive of my home because of how packed and congested we’re becoming.
Where’s the limit? When is the city going to look at this and say “something has gone wrong.” Or is Hollister doomed to keep expanding its gut but refuses to buy bigger pants until something irreparably breaks?