John Block

Tornado caught on video in eastern NM Friday, ‘extreme’ hail, flooding spotted

Severe storms, including supercells, continue to hit eastern New Mexico with massive rain, hail, and tornadoes. Recent footage was captured Friday of the tornado that hit ground in Encino.

WATCH: 

Other videos show large hail raining down in Encino: 

Large hail was photographed following the storms: 

Parts of New Mexico have also been hit with massive hail, including Moriarty and Edgewood, which saw “extreme” hail falling down in the last few days: 

Flooding was also seen in places such as Tucumcari, which got eight inches of rain in 12 hours — almost half of its annual rainfall in the short amount of time.

Did you know? New Mexico is the nation’s oldest wine-producing region

Thursday (May 25, 2023) is National Wine Day, and wine enthusiasts in New Mexico will be pleased to learn of the Land of Enchantment’s rich viticulture history. The state is the oldest wine-producing region in the United States.

After previous ventures to grow wine in the 1500s and 1600s in places such as Florida and Virginia proved unfruitful, Spanish settlers in New Mexico discovered that the American southwest was an ideal place to grow wine grapes.

According to Casa Rodeña Winery in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, “The first wine making in New Mexico stemmed from the need for sacramental wine in New Spain. As the Spanish Crown edict prohibited wine making here, the requisite transport of wine from Spain brought it across the ocean from Cadiz, via Verazcruz, then overland to Mexico City and finally along the Jornada del Muerte to Santa Fe.”

“Franciscan monks smuggled Monica grape vines into New Spain and searched up and down the Rio Grande River Valley for a place that would replicate the terroir (climate, altitude, soil, mineral content) and climate of central Spain. They decided on the unique terroir of the middle Rio Grande River Valley as the ideal locale to establish the first vineyards at a small mission called Senecu, south of present day Socorro. Frey Marcos de Zuñiga is considered to be among the first, if not THE first, to instigate this crime, which in 1633 resulted in the first wine produced in what is now New Mexico.”

San Miguel Mission, Socorro, Socorro County, NM. Library of Congress via Wikimedia Commons.

“After that, wine culture in New Mexico exploded, and churches all over the region began planting and cultivating their own vineyards. By 1633, New Mexican viticulture had completely taken hold,” wrote the New Mexico Department of Tourism.

“In 1868, Jesuit priests settled in New Mexico, bringing their Italian winemaking techniques to the state, and even founding their own winery. Of course, with Spanish and Italian techniques combined, the product was bound to be popular. In the next decade, wine production increased nearly tenfold, and by 1880, New Mexico has more than two times the grapevine acreage of New York. This little state in the south was ranked fifth in the nation for wine.” 

According to estimates from the World Population Review, New Mexico produces 749,818 gallons of wine annually. 

La Viña Winery in Anthony is the state’s oldest winery, established in 1977. Mission grapes are still produced in New Mexico, with wineries such as Rio Grande Winery in Mesilla producing its “Mission” vino. 

Rio Grande Winery vineyard. Photo by John Block.

The United States is the fourth-largest wine-producing country in the world, after Italy, Spain, and France. California, Washington, and Oregon make up 90 percent of all U.S. production. California alone makes up 84 percent of that. 

WATCH: YouTuber takes down MLG’s anti-gun ignorance in less than five minutes

Prominent YouTube influencer and attorney Colion Noir, whose channel is about the Second Amendment, skewered New Mexico Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham after she made uninformed and false comments while recently appearing on MSNBC. 

In particular, she called AR-15 rifles “weapons of war,” even though the military doesn’t use them, and falsely claimed the weapons were “automatic,” which they are not. 

Noir took down Lujan Grisham in under five minutes in his YouTube segment that is now going viral. 

He ripped her to shreds over what the Second Amendment says, her anti-gun legislation proposed, and the failed anti-gun policies already enacted that are not doing much of anything. 

Watch Colion Noir’s epic takedown here:

Mystery UFO floating over Roswell identified

On Wednesday, Roswell residents reported the sighting of a blimp-looking unidentified flying object. It has now apparently been identified as an airship called a high-altitude platform station (HAPS) from the company Sceye, which specializes in strengthening broadband signals and monitoring environmental activity. These blimps are filled with helium.

It turns out the company has a hangar in Roswell. 

The Roswell Daily Record reported last December, “Sceye, established in 2014, has facilities in Moriarty and a hangar and other work sites at the Roswell Air Center. According to its JTIP funding request, it now employs about 38 people. In June, one of the HAPS launched from Roswell successfully reached the stratosphere using solar and battery power, a demonstration of the capacity of the HAPS to reach that altitude and to stay in one area for months at a time. According to the company, Sceye is ‘on track to expand internet access to remote populations, monitor greenhouse gases down to individual emitters and detect natural disasters as they begin.’” 

Roswell sign. Kevin Burnell via Pexels.

According to Albuquerque Business First, “The airborne internet technology may reduce the need for the construction of hundreds of cell towers. Several other companies are participating in the initiative, including Albuquerque-based rural telecom company Sacred Wind Communications, CellularOne, PVT Networks and Navajo Technical University in Crownpoint, according to Sceye. The initiative, if successful, may be impactful for the citizens of the Navajo Nation, many of whom do not have a fixed internet connection.” 

The revelation of what these flying objects are shoots down theories that the sighting was from outer space, as some suggested. The videos of the blimp lifting can be seen here:

Read more about Sceye and its technology here.

Lawsuit targets company for selling ‘New Mexico’ peppers not grown in NM

In an 11-page filing from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, multiple plaintiffs have sued the Florida-based company Badia Spices, Inc. over the branding of its product “New Mexico Chili” peppers that misleads consumers into thinking the Mexico-grown peppers could be chile from New Mexico.

For consumers to know that Badia chili peppers are grown in Mexico, they would have to visit the company’s website, meaning those who merely view the product’s packaging would not know its country of origin.

“Even if consumers turned the package around they would not be informed the Product is not from New Mexico, because the ingredients identify ‘New Mexican chili’ and the label is not required to disclose its country of origin,” the lawsuit reads.

“New Mexico Chili is deceptively misdescriptive as a name because the Product is not grown in New Mexico.”

“New Mexico Chili is not a name whose market significance is generally understood by the consumer to connote a particular class, kind, type, or style of chili rather than to indicate geographical origin, because New Mexico chili refers to a specific type of chili pepper grown only in New Mexico,” it continues. 

For consumers, the lawsuit alleges, the place of origin is indicative of product quality. Since New Mexico’s chiles thrive from the state’s high altitude, mineral-rich soil, and arid climate, the state’s chiles are “unlike chili peppers grown anywhere else in the world,” the suit says, adding that New Mexico chile is one of the state’s “key” industries.

“New Mexico [chile] is a key industry, employing over 5,000 New Mexicans and putting upwards of a billion dollars into state coffers. However, the past 30 years has seen the number of acres devoted to New Mexico chili decline more than 70%. While drought brought… is one factor, the most significant threat has been lower priced imports of chili from China, India and Mexico.”

“The lawsuit looks to cover all persons in New York, North Dakota, Utah, Idaho, Alaska, and West Virginia who bought Badia ‘New Mexico Chili’ peppers within the applicable statute of limitations period,” according to ClassAction.com.

Read the lawsuit here:

Police kill Farmington shooter who killed three, injured two officers

On Monday, a gunman killed at least three people and injured two law enforcement, according to the Farmington Police Department.

“At this time, the details we have are that multiple officers from the Farmington Police Department were involved in an officer involved shooting. One suspect was confronted and killed on scene,” read a news release from the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office.

The officers are in stable condition at San Juan Regional Medical Center, police said. 

According to The Washington Post, “The shooting shut down a half-mile of Dustin Avenue, between Ute and Apache streets.” 

“A gunman killed at least three people and injured two law enforcement officers Monday in northern New Mexico, the Farmington Police Department said.” 

Farmington Municipal Schools were in “preventative lockdowns” for at least two hours while police responded to the shooting.

A previous report based upon inaccurate reporting from KRQE News 13 incorrectly stated four people had been killed when the actual number, according to reports, is three.

Shocking video report shows cartel smugglers ravaging NM’s southern border

A new video report from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) has revealed shocking images from the United States border with Mexico in the El Paso sector, encompassing New Mexico.

On New Mexico’s border with Mexico, the report by the group’s senior national security fellow Todd Bensman shows images of square holes cut out of the mesh border barrier constructed under President George W. Bush, which the cartel is utilizing to smuggle illegal immigrants into the country.

Just in a one-mile stretch examined by CIS, it found at least seven holes still gaping open and utilized by the cartel. It also caught on video armed cartel members smuggling illegal immigrants into the United States. 

Other scenes from the report show Bensman joining Hidalgo County Sherriff’s deputies to catch criminal aliens with laser night vision technology. 

“In New Mexico, the Democratic governor (Michelle Lujan Grisham) won’t allow State Police to join the dwindling ranks of Border Patrol agents in opposing this runner traffick, quite unlike neighboring Republican Governor Greg Abbott with his multi-billion-dollar ‘Operation Lone Star.’ That leaves some willing sheriffs’ offices to protect their own communities. One of them is Hidalgo County Sherriff William Chadborn of Lordscburg in Southwest New Mexico,” Bensman explains.  

“It’s pretty much a constant flow. There’s always something coming through… Hidalgo County,” the Sheriff said. 

Watch the full report from CIS: 

The dire scenes from the border are only expected to worsen, as Biden’s ineffective border policies and the lapse of Title 42 are creating a perfect storm for an even worse crisis.

Vasquez refuses to vote for immigration fix, lobs strange accusations at GOP

On Thursday, far-left U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico’s Second Congressional District said he would vote against a commonsense bill to help alleviate Joe Biden’s border catastrophe by extending Title 42’s sunset date and implement other measures to stem the flow of illegal immigration into the United States. 

In a video message, Vasquez said, “Republicans are trying to further break a system that’s already broken,” referencing the immigration bill proposed by the GOP to cure the crisis.

“That’s why I’m voting against H.R. 2, an extreme anti-immigrant bill that falls woefully short of who we are as Americans and what we are capable of,” he continued. 

He also charged Republicans with “extinguishing the flame of the Statute of Liberty,” whatever that means, and said the bill “further sows the seeds of division.” 

The National Republican Congressional Committee’s Delanie Bomar wrote on Twitter following Vasquez’s announcement that he will not help stave off the crisis of illegal immigration, “The crisis at the border is unfolding in Vasquez’s own backyard. El Paso is 40 miles from his district. New Mexicans deserve better than this.” 

U.S. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) said during his remarks on the House floor regarding H.R. 2, “And what does this bill [do]? It secures America’s border again and ends catch-and-release. It says, ‘Let’s get back to rule of law.’ We are actually a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. We can do both, but this President has abandoned the rule of law to the point where more than five million people have come across illegally.”

“And what has it also done? It’s brought drugs into our country. The cartels are running our southern border. Today, we’re going to lose 300 young people to fentanyl deaths because [Joe] Biden opened our southern border. Yesterday, 300 young people died. Tomorrow, another 300 young people in America will die because the President opened the southern border, and he doesn’t care about it. He issued a veto threat on the bill that will fix it.” 

Left-wing NM paper says Biden ‘frittered away’ chance to fix border crisis

The Santa Fe New Mexican’s editorial board hit Biden on his failure to secure the southern border and work to fix the immigration issue causing millions of illegal immigrants to flood the U.S. southern border with Mexico.

Title 42 expires at Midnight Thursday, leaving the country without an effective way to quickly and efficiently expel criminal aliens from the country. Biden promised to veto a GOP plan being passed Thursday by the U.S. House that would extend Title 42. Now, as the crisis ramps up, even his far-left supporters are offering criticisms of his border actions. 

The board, while promoting asylum, bemoaned, “Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says after Thursday, people who attempt to cross into the country between points of entry likely will be unable to claim asylum.”

They wrote, “While the pandemic and foreign unrest rightly claimed much of the president’s attention during his first term, the leader of the world’s foremost democracy has to walk, chew gum and otherwise function on many fronts.”

“It’s a mess,” the editorial board wrote. “The situation at the border is long overdue for attention. Neglect gives Biden’s opponents a club with which to attack — a political weapon they employed often and effectively over the past 10 years (Remember Trump?). Biden frittered away a chance to handle immigration effectively; he now faces the unhappy prospect of a new immigration problem that may last weeks, months, years.”

“Until reform passes, the president — this one or any other — will be left to apply Band-Aids on bleeding wounds that require stitching. Biden is supposed to be the adult president, governing from a place of experience and knowledge. He’ll need all of that to defuse the coming crisis,” they wrote.

Under President Trump, over 450 miles of border wall were constructed, while his strong policies to sure up security made illegal immigration dip significantly. However, under the Biden regime, around six million illegals have flooded into the country, with over 11,000 ravaging the border daily.

To counter this, instead of making meaningful reforms, Biden is now authorizing a policy to let criminal aliens flood into the United States without proper vetting or a way to track them.

Billionaire-funded eco group pushes ‘electrify everything’ agenda in NM

The far-left enviro-Marxist dark money group 350 New Mexico, funded by billionaires George Soros and Tom Steyer, is holding an event on May 22, 2023, called “Electrify New Mexico,” which aims to push policies that push electric appliances and vehicles in the place of those that run on gas and other natural extractive resources.

The group wrote in a post, “Concerned about health-harming gases in your kitchen? Want an EV, but don’t like the choices available for purchase? Join us as we unveil our new Electrify New Mexico website. It will answer these and other questions about how going electric will save you money, clean your air and reduce carbon emissions.” 

Some of the items the group says it wants to become electric include heat pumps, induction stoves, heat pump water heaters, heat pump clothes dryers, electric vehicles, and EV chargers.

“They offer superior efficiency, precision, comfort, and health benefits at the same or lower cost as gas appliances,” the group claims. “And because electricity generation grows cleaner every day, switching to electric is better for the climate too.” 

The far-left group has joined others in recent weeks in blasting a veto of hefty electric vehicle tax credits from a recently passed tax package and claims the state Legislature did not do enough to help stop “climate change.”

The group says on its website that it aims at cutting “eliminate 80% of US energy-related emissions” by switching all gas appliances and cars for electric. It says, “Our largest carbon emissions come from our gas cars (50%), home heating (25%) and water heating (10%).” 

350 New Mexico also believes that natural disasters and drought weather are due to “climate change,” along with wildfires and reduced snowpack.

Democrats, such as Democrat New Mexico U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, have made similar calls to “electrify” everything for the sake of “climate change.” Recently, the Joe Biden regime has taken steps to develop rules limiting the sale of gas appliances and even targeting water usage in dishwashers. 

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