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Trump Endorses Phelan Opponent David Covey

Tuesday, January 30th, 2024

A huuuuuge Texas Republican Primary endorsement just dropped.

Former President Donald Trump has officially waded into the Texas House Republican primaries with his first endorsement, throwing his support behind House District (HD) 21 candidate David Covey, who is challenging incumbent House Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont).

In an exclusive interview with The Texan last year, Trump first indicated his intent to endorse Covey, saying, “Well, tell David to get ready,” after slamming Phelan for the House’s role in impeaching Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Now, in a post on Trump’s social media website Truth Social, the former president and leading 2024 GOP presidential candidate made his support for Covey official.

“David Covey is running against Dade Phelan, the speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, who led the Fraudulent Impeachment of the recently re-elected, in a landslide, Attorney General of Texas, Ken Paxton,” Trump wrote. “David is an America First Conservative who will Secure the Border, Restore Election Integrity, Protect our Families, and Military/Vets, and Defend our under siege Second Amendment.”

Covey reacted to the news with a statement, writing that he spoke with Trump and reassured the president that he intends to win the race.

“When I spoke with President Trump, a few minutes ago, I reassured him that for the sake of Texas’s future, we will win this race for President, and my race to unseat liberal Dade Phelan,” Covey said.

Naturally this is big news. Texas House District 21 Republican voters who hadn’t been paying attention to how Phelan has repeatedly thwarted conservative priorities and foolishly impeached Paxton now have no excuse to ignore Phelan’s sins.

Phelan needs to go, as well as every one of his enablers in the Texas House.

The weeds making up the Democrat-backed Straus-Bonnen-Phelan axis must be pulled out by their roots so they can’t grow back.

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Posted in Democrats, Elections, Regulation, Republicans, Texas, Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

LinkSwarm For January 26, 2024

Friday, January 26th, 2024

The biggest story right now is that Abbott isn’t backing down from securing the border, and a whole bunch of states are backing him in his high-profile fight with the federal government.

  • Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott, normally a cautious, careful politician, has become an absolute firebreather over The Biden Administrations deliberate failure to secure the border.

    As the standoff continues between the Biden administration and the state of Texas over the crisis at the southern border, Gov. Greg Abbott says Texas will continue to push back against the invasion.

    At the center of the current controversy is a recent U.S. Supreme Court order that allows federal agents to remove concertina wire and other barriers placed along the Rio Grande by the Texas National Guard and the Texas Department of Public Safety.

    Ground Zero of that battle is Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, where state forces have taken over a park along the border and have thus far prevented federal officials from entering.

    Abbott says the state is taking action because of a failure from the Biden administration.

    “The federal government has broken the compact between the United States and the States. The Executive Branch of the United States has a constitutional duty to enforce federal laws protecting States, including immigration laws on the books right now. President Biden has refused to enforce those laws and has even violated them,” said Abbott. “The result is that he has smashed records for illegal immigration. Despite having been put on notice in a series of letters—one of which I delivered to him by hand—President Biden has ignored Texas’s demand that he perform his constitutional duties.”

    He went on to say the U.S. Constitution allows for states to push back against invasions:

    James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and the other visionaries who wrote the U.S. Constitution foresaw that States should not be left to the mercy of a lawless president who does nothing to stop external threats like cartels smuggling millions of illegal immigrants across the border. That is why the Framers included both Article IV, § 4, which promises that the federal government “shall protect each [State] against invasion,” and Article I, § 10, Clause 3, which acknowledges “the States’ sovereign interest in protecting their borders.”

    To that end, Abbott cited an executive order issued by him in November 2022 to “invoke Texas’s constitutional authority to defend and protect itself.”

  • Nor is Abbott alone in this endeavor, as no less than 25 states have said they stand behind him.

    “President Biden and his Administration have left Americans and our country completely vulnerable to unprecedented illegal immigration pouring across the Southern border. Instead of upholding the rule of law and securing the border, the Biden Administration has attacked and sued Texas for stepping up to protect American citizens from historic levels of illegal immigrants, deadly drugs like fentanyl, and terrorists entering our country.

    “We stand in solidarity with our fellow Governor, Greg Abbott, and the State of Texas in utilizing every tool and strategy, including razor wire fences, to secure the border. We do it in part because the Biden Administration is refusing to enforce immigration laws already on the books and is illegally allowing mass parole across America of migrants who entered our country illegally.

    “The authors of the U.S. Constitution made clear that in times like this, states have a right of self-defense, under Article 4, Section 4 and Article 1, Section 10, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution. Because the Biden Administration has abdicated its constitutional compact duties to the states, Texas has every legal justification to protect the sovereignty of our states and our nation.”

    Signatories include: Governor Kay Ivey (AL), Governor Mike Dunleavy (AK), Governor Sarah Sanders (AR), Governor Ron DeSantis (FL), Governor Brian Kemp (GA), Governor Brad Little (ID), Governor Eric Holcomb (IN), Governor Kim Reynolds (IA), Governor Jeff Landry (LA), Governor Tate Reeves (MS), Governor Mike Parson (MO), Governor Greg Gianforte (MT), Governor Jim Pillen (NE), Governor Joe Lombardo (NV), Governor Chris Sununu (NH), Governor Doug Burgum (ND), Governor Mike DeWine (OH), Governor Kevin Stitt (OK), Governor Henry McMaster (SC), Governor Kristi Noem (SD), Governor Bill Lee (TN), Governor Spencer Cox (UT), Governor Glenn Youngkin (VA), Governor Jim Justice (WV), and Governor Mark Gordon (WY).

  • Moreover, documents prove that Biden’s assault on America’s border security was intentional.

    As President Joe Biden’s immigration crisis overwhelms the United States and wreaks havoc on the state’s resources, confidential documents suggest the president’s open border policies were intentional.

    The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) filed a lawsuit against Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS), claiming the agency halted the 287(g) program, which assists in the deportation of illegal migrant child rapists, attempted murderers, assailants, carjackers, and other known criminals.

    In August 2023, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) revealed that the government ended the program in January 2021— right after Biden entered office. However, the compromised agency gave no reason why the government did that.

    The 287(g) program allows local law enforcement agencies to work closely with ICE to capture illegal aliens who have committed crimes. They were then able to turn the migrants over to federal officials for arrest and deportation.

  • The Biden Administration is also spending billions on welfare programs for illegal aliens.

    Expenditures on one of the most controversial federal programs aiding the millions of illegal immigrants and refugees from Afghanistan, Cuba, and Haiti have skyrocketed more than $2 billion in two years, according to a new report by a non-profit government spending watchdog.
    Spending on the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) jumped from $8.9 billion in 2022 to more than $10.9 billion last year, auditors at OpenTheBooks.org (OTB), the Hinsdale, Illinois-based watchdog, found.

    Most of the ORR spending explosion came in grants under ORR’s Refugee and Entrant Assistance program that provides a lengthy list of services to such individuals, including emergency housing assistance, work authorizations, public assistance benefits, medical screening, school enrollment, employment, and mental health referrals, and legal assistance.

    Such spending was $33.4 million in 2021, the first year of President Joe Biden’s administration. But it hit $404.5 million the next year and then increased to $616.6 million last year, according to federal data obtained by OTB under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
    Much of the funding went to seven social service organizations, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops ($66.5 million), the International Rescue Committee ($66.4 million), Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services ($66.2 million), Church World Service ($64.9 million), U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants ($64.6 million), HIAS (originally the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society)($56.4 million), and the Ethiopian Community Development Council ($51.6 million).

  • Trump says he’ll reverse all this:

  • Trump won New Hampshire. Some takeaways the media doesn’t want you to think about.

    1. More Democrats voted for Haley than Republicans.

    Much like the morning after a drunken hookup with that salad-phobic dude from the IT department, the sun rose to reveal Darling Nikki’s reality. It turns out that a whopping 70% of Haley’s votes were grudge votes from Democrats according to exit polls.

    I’m surprised Haley didn’t dump a bucket of Gatorade over herself Tuesday night as she celebrated another shattering loss. More importantly, either Haley doesn’t know a bunch of patchouli ghoulies voted for her, or she doesn’t care.

    According to my calculator, 70% of her 136,461 votes is 95,522. Do the subtraction and Haley received a paltry 40,938 Republican votes compared to Trump’s 172,202. In other words, Trump got well over four times as many Republican votes, and Haley got hammered like Thor for the second time.

    And yet Haley still got more votes than Biden…

  • Things that make you go Hmmm: “U.S., Chinese Researchers Wanted to Engineer Virus Similar to Covid One Year before Pandemic Outbreak, Internal Docs Show.”
  • LA Times urges people fleeing California not to tell other people how much it sucks or why.

    In an editorial fit for The Onion or the Babylon Bee, Los Angeles Times’ letters editor Paul Thornton wrote a column this week entitled “If you want to leave, fine. But don’t insult California on the way out.”

    The column acknowledges an exodus from the state, but sees the problem as former Californians sharing their experiences about what drove them from the Golden State.

    It is like Captain William Bligh asking the mutinous crew of the Bounty for a reference as they head for the lifeboats.

    Thornton wrote that “more than 800,000 Californians moved away in 2022, and many thousands more left last year. Often, the departees, cash in hand from the sale of their $1-million bungalows, feel the need to express disdain for their home state, and even some anger too.”

    He then begs them to keep mum about their reasons for leaving the state, which commonly range from rising crime to high taxes to runaway spending.

  • And speaking of the LA Times, 115 staffers were just laid off. Sucks to be you. I would suggest learning some Python, but with so many startups shutting down, it probably wouldn’t help. Instead, maybe they should learn to weld. (Hat tip: Legal Insurrection.)
  • “Senate Candidate Says Fraudulent Donation to Speaker Phelan Made in His Name…Jace Yarbrough, an attorney and Air Force veteran, was shown on a recent campaign finance report as having sent a $75 donation to Phelan on December 24, just days after he filed to run for the open Senate District 30 seat. Yarbrough, however, has categorically denied making any donation to Phelan…He also emphasized his role as counsel to State Sen. Angela Paxton (R–McKinney) during the impeachment trial of her husband Attorney General Ken Paxton that was championed by Phelan.”
  • “‘Europeans Will Succumb to Islam, Says Former Intelligence Chief.”

    Islam is on the verge of completely taking over Europe, in all ways—at least according to one who should know, Hans-Georg Maaßen, Germany’s top domestic intelligence chief from 2012 to 2018. In a recent interview, he stressed several points that spell the imminent downfall of Europe to Islam.

    His warnings are buttressed by disturbing demographic changes. According to conservative estimates from Pew Research, over the next 25 years—meaning most of the current generation’s lifetime—Europe’s Muslim population will triple to a staggering 76 million. In fact, the actual current and future numbers of Muslims appear to be higher, though there are no official tallies. For example, in an earlier, 2011 study, Pew Research found that “The number of Muslims in Europe has grown from 29.6 million in 1990 to 44.1 million in 2010. Europe’s Muslim population is projected to exceed 58 million by 2030.” Clearly 58 million in five years’ time is more significant than 76 million in 25 years’ time.

    Not only is mass migration responsible for Islam’s exponential growth in Europe, but once there, the average Muslim woman has significantly more children than the average European woman. “Muhammad” is taking West Europe by storm as the number one name for newborn baby boys.

    During his interview, Hans-Georg Maaßen said that these large numbers are intentional, and the work of Europe’s ruling elite. For this intelligence chief, the “great replacement” theory is no myth. The more ideologically mixed a population is forced into becoming, the less able it is to identify itself, much less protect any beliefs:

    [O]ur politicians want a different population. The political left follows the course of the anti-German ideology. The more heterogeneous a population, the less able it is to articulate itself and have a democratic say. The more politics accept immigrants from other countries as they see fit and grants them citizenship, the more politics select the people of the state and influence the election results. These migrants then vote differently than the locals.

    (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)

  • New “Christian” program to combat “divisive politics” involving David French turns out to be funded by the far left and the Rockefeller Foundation. Imagine my shock. (Hat tip: Not the Bee.) Vaguely related:

  • Journalist who criticized tennis players Novak Djokovic for not getting the jab dies of suddenly.
  • B-21 Raider officially enters production. Though the B-21 has contained costs better than some Air Force programs, I believe the days of expensive manned bombers has passed.
  • Director Norman Jewison dead at 97. He directed more popular and critically acclaimed films, but for me he’ll always be the director of the vastly underrated Rollerball. (Previously.) (Hat tip: Dwight.)
  • America’s largest skyscraper will be built in…Oklahoma City? Yeah, can’t see the economic case there.
  • The Critical Drinker and Ben Shapiro discuss out the future of entertainment.
  • Forty years ago, we found out how 1984 wasn’t 1984.
  • Enjoy a look at that time when the Soviets tried to use World War II-era tank destroyers to blast a hole through Chernobyl.
  • Heh:

  • “Laid-Off LA Times Reporter Sits On Street Corner With Sign Reading ‘Will Call You Racist For Food.'”
  • “Hours After Hillary Condemns ‘Barbie’ Snub, Oscar Statue Found Dead In Apparent Suicide.”

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    Posted in Budget, Communism, Crime, Democrats, Economics, Elections, Jihad, Media Watch, Military, Obama Scandals, Republicans, Social Justice Warriors, Supreme Court, Texas, Uncategorized, video, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | 4 Comments »

    George Soros Trying To Buy More Texas Elections

    Tuesday, January 23rd, 2024

    George Soros has set his sights on Texas yet again.

    Newly released campaign finance reports show George Soros in the top ten political donors in Texas.

    Texas’ latest campaign finance reports show liberal billionaire George Soros has been pouring money into political action committees rather than funding candidates directly.

    Soros contributed a total of $2,562,000 across several PACs between August and December 2023, making him one of the top 10 contributors in Texas.

    Receiving over a million dollars from Soros, the Texas Majority PAC boasts the motto “let’s turn Texas blue.” The organization seeks to elect statewide Democrat officials by researching the most effective strategies to accomplish this goal.

    Texas Organizing Project PAC received a quarter of a million dollars from Soros. Placing their mission’s emphasis on black and Latino voters, TOP focuses on reaching the minority communities in Texas to shift the state’s political leaning. However, TOP has also been linked in recent years to bailing out hundreds of inmates with severe criminal records.

    After TOP was linked to Soros in the past, former candidate for Harris County Judge Alexandra Mealer posted on social media, saying “TOP works year around to elect candidates in favor of dismantling the criminal justice system so no surprise on [Soros donation].”

    Soros also contributed to the Hidalgo County Democrat Party, which aims to emphasize elections at all levels rather than only those on a larger scale.

    CTX Votes, Dallas County Democratic PAC, Cameron County Democratic Party Executive Committee, and Planned Parenthood Texas Votes PAC all listed Soros as a top contributor, with CTX Votes and Cameron County receiving over 94 percent of their total contributions from Soros.

    In addition, Soros was in the top 10 contributors for both First Tuesday and the Texas Justice & Public Safety PAC.

    One particularly interesting race is that for Harris County DA, where’s backing a primary challenger to incumbent Kim Ogg, whom he had previously supported.

    Vying for her third term as Harris County district attorney, Kim Ogg faces a challenge in the Democratic primary from a former prosecutor who is backed by Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and groups funded by billionaire criminal justice reform donor George Soros.

    Ogg’s challenger, Sean Teare, worked for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office (HCDAO) until February of last year, most recently as head of the Vehicular Crimes Division. After announcing his candidacy, his campaign raised $785,000 in the first six months of 2023, while Ogg trailed behind at $56,000. According to the most recent campaign finance reports, Ogg took in $282,000 compared to Teare’s $279,000 in the second half of the year.

    Official campaign finance reports also show that Teare is receiving assistance from the Texas Justice and Public Safety PAC, a political action committee that has received most of its funding directly from Soros. The PAC, which previously supported the campaigns of Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza and Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot, provided polling services to Teare.

    Teare’s reports also show coordination with the Texas Organizing Project, a criminal justice reform group that often posts bail for suspects and supports candidates who will work to end the cash bail system.

    On the campaign trail, Teare has criticized Ogg for “weaponizing the DA’s office” against political opponents.

    After an investigation into an alleged bid-rigging scheme for a COVID-19 vaccine outreach contract in 2021, a Harris County grand jury issued felony indictments for three of Hidalgo’s staffers, which Teare and Hidalgo have blamed on Ogg.

    A day after news broke in November 2023 that the Texas Rangers had issued new search warrants related to the case, at a press conference Hidalgo accused Ogg of leaking the warrants to the media. She also used the press conference, which took place on county property and was live-streamed on the Office of the County Judge’s official social media accounts, to announce her support for Teare, which drew a new criminal complaint and an ethics complaint against Hidalgo.

    For more on ethics complaints against Hidalgo, see here. And here. And here. And here. And here.

    In an interview with FOX 26 Houston this week, Ogg lambasted Teare for not revealing that after leaving his post at the HCDAO he went to work for the Cogdell Law Firm, which represents Hidalgo’s indicted former staffer Alex Triantaphyllis. According to Ogg, Teare was still a senior staffer at the HCDAO at the time prosecutors were building the cases against Hidalgo’s staff.

    “The notion that I should turn a blind eye simply because it was committed by a Democrat is not just offensive. It’s dangerous,” said Ogg.

    That is, in fact, exactly what Soros-backed social justice tools expect

    Teare’s campaign website features Hidalgo’s endorsement along with those of state Rep. Gene Wu (D-Houston) and a group of Harris County Democratic Party (HCDP) precinct chairs.

    On the Republican side, Dan Simons seems to be running for DA, but his campaign doesn’t have a website up yet. An odd decision, since he filed fr the race over a month ago and primary day is less than two months out.

    Having seen the devastating toll letting a Soros-backed DA run your county has taken on Harris County thanks to high levels of violence from criminals put back on the street, you would think the Harris County GOP would be doing more to make sure it doesn’t happen again…

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    Posted in Austin, Border Control, Communism, Crime, Democrats, Elections, Supreme Court, Texas, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

    Old And Busted: Botched Software Update Bricks Your PC. The New Hotness: Botched Software Update Bricks Your Car

    Saturday, December 30th, 2023

    Louis Rossmann has ample reason rant today, namely news of a failed software update that bricks your car.

    Note: This happened on the Ford Mach-E Mustang, the ugly crossover SUV that shouldn’t be called a Mustang.

  • “Unfortunately a recent software update was not successful your vehicle cannot be driven. Please call customer support.”
  • “I’m confident that when you call that number, you’re going to be dealing with is somebody who helps talk you through how to restore your car’s operating system from backup memory. Because of course, if you’re dealing with mission critical firmware or something, surely you would have a copy of the original that came with it?”
  • “Or perhaps a copy of the last known good update that was actually working over there that you could go back to if the update was not successful?”
  • “Of course not! You paid $63,000 for a device that is literally more buggy than Windows 10.”
  • “This car is over $60,000 and they don’t have even the most basic, fundamental redundancy built in, so that if your update fails it will flash back to a known good [version] on the backup memory. Apparently that’s not a thing.”
  • Says that this problem isn’t because the Mach E is an EV vehicle.
  • “I do not believe there is a circumstance where the vehicle is so screwed up because the version of software that it had from February of 2023 was so behind that that vehicle is now fundamentally unfit to be on a road, even in limp mode. That’s ridiculous.”
  • “The ability to roll back a version of software to an older version if the update that you put on is an update that screwed it up this is something that has been more than perfected in the modern day.”
  • “To not implement it into a vehicle that costs over $60,000 to the point where the entire 4,000 lb hunk of metal needs to be towed, and you no longer have a method of transportation because of that? There’s no excuse for it.”
  • “One of the things that bothers me a lot is that every time you move to a new technology paradigm, we accept less freedom. We accept that things are going to suck more in ways that they don’t have to suck.”
  • “You see this subscription bullshit, this less reliability bullshit, this everything made to break bullshit, this everything made to be replaced in a year or two, this every…this is not something that is simply inherent to electric vehicles this is something that is pervasive. This is something that is happening everywhere.”
  • “This is something that we need to push back against every single time we see this happen.”

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    Posted in Uncategorized, unions, video | 5 Comments »

    What F-16s Would Mean for Ukraine

    Tuesday, December 26th, 2023

    With three Russian aircraft downed over the weekend, there’s been some speculation that Ukraine already has some of the F-16s promised to it by NATO members Netherlands, Norway and Denmark. While possible, last word was that the transfer was still in preparation, though evidently the first batch of pilots have already finished training in the UK. And there’s no shortage of weapon systems that might have shot down Russian aircraft.

    It appears the model Denmark, Norway and Netherlands all have is F-16AM/BM Block 15 MLU, which means they’re pretty old F-16s (bad), but were all upgraded (good), but the upgrades arrived in 1996 (not exactly bad, but not great either).

    I would expect them to beat the snot out of anything manufactured in the Soviet Union, hold their own against the Su-30 (and possibly the Su-34, of which the Russians have lost a considerable number), maybe get edged by the Su-35 (though maybe not; that platform has had a lot of teething problems), and should theoretically be outclassed by the Su-57, which on paper is a thoroughly modern fighter aircraft with stealth capability (assuming the Russians will even let it go up against a near peer aircraft; they’ve seemed to use it very sparingly after the early stages of the war). And given the NATO country origins, expect all to be better maintained than their Russian counterparts.

    This quick and dirty comparison analysis, of course, assumes that said planes will be engaged in dogfighting, which we’ve seen precious little of since the opening days of the war. Indeed, the aerial environment has become so deadly in Ukraine that neither side ventures much in airspace controlled by the other, and the favored Russian ground support tactic seems to be to fly up just short of the front live, release dumb munitions in an arc calculated to have it come down someone in the general vicinity of the enemy forces, then hightail it home and call it a day.

    Ukraine getting F-16s would make Russian air activity near the front line even less likely, with AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles and their 60 mile range offering a real threat to splash anything that gets near the contested territory.

    While the lethality of the airspace over Russian-held territory will also discourage too much direct sorties against Russian forces (at least at first), the AGM-88 HARM missile would considerably speed up the destruction of Russian anti-aircraft systems.

    Russia’s S-400 system (their answer to Patriot) is probably good enough to shoot down the pre-stealth F-16, but Ukraine has had some success in destroying those systems. A squadron of F-16s launched from Odessa is easily within strike range of Sevastopol, and either JDAMs or Harpoons would be enough to sink whatever is left of the Black Sea Fleet that Russia has foolishly left there. And Harpoon-armed F1-6s on regular patrol would probably be enough to deny use of the northwest Black Sea to all of Russia’s surface fleet.

    With enough degradation of Russia’s air defense systems, Ukraine might be able to achieve local air superiority in regions like Kherson, which could prove very valuable in future offensives.

    A final advantage: With over 4,000 F-16s built, spare parts should be readily available to keep them flying.

    Some 50-100 F-16s in Ukraine’s arsenal probably wouldn’t be the game changer that, say, HIMARS and ATACMS have proven, but they might be enough to shift the balance of power top further erode Russia’s hold over illegally seized Ukrainian territory.

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    Posted in Uncategorized | 32 Comments »

    Breaking: Paxton Sues Pfizer

    Thursday, November 30th, 2023

    Breaking news on the Flu Manchu Phonies Front:

    Texas attorney general Ken Paxton announced Thursday that his office is suing Pfizer, claiming that the company violated state law when it allegedly lied about the efficacy of its Covid-19 vaccine.

    Paxton’s office claims the pharmaceutical giant violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act by engaging in “false, deceptive, and misleading acts and practices by making unsupported claims” about the vaccine.

    The AG’s office said Pfizer’s claim that its vaccine is 95 percent effective against Covid-19 infection is “highly misleading.”

    “Pfizer created the false impression that its vaccine provided a substantially greater amount of protection against COVID-19 infection than what it afforded in reality,” Paxton’s office said, accusing the company of launching a “continuous and widespread campaign” to mislead the public about the efficacy of its vaccine.

    The “deceptive conduct was reinforced and extended by Pfizer’s efforts to censor persons who sought to disseminate truthful information that would undermine its ongoing deception,” the statement adds.

    Paxton claimed Pfizer relied on a “relative risk reduction” assessment to arrive at the 95 percent efficacy figure. The FDA says such assessments leave patients “unduly influenced” and vulnerable to “suboptimal decisions.”

    “We are pursuing justice for the people of Texas, many of whom were coerced by tyrannical vaccine mandates to take a defective product sold by lies,” Paxton said in a statement. “The facts are clear. Pfizer did not tell the truth about their COVID-19 vaccines. Whereas the Biden Administration weaponized the pandemic to force illegal public health decrees on the public and enrich pharmaceutical companies, I will use every tool I have to protect our citizens who were misled and harmed by Pfizer’s actions.”

    The lawsuit comes nearly eight months after Paxton first announced plans to investigate Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson for their potentially misleading claims about the efficacy of each of their Covid shots and whether or not they “engaged in gain-of-function research.”

    Absent from the press release is whether Pfizer engaged in false, deceptive and misleading acts and practices in supressing information about adverse side effects from their vaccine. I hope the Attorney General’s office is pursuing that line of inquiry as well.

    Ten days ago, the AG office announced it was suing Pfizer and Tri Pharma over “providing adulterated pharmaceutical drugs to Texas children in violation of the Texas Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act.”

    If the Powers That Be expected their attempted impeachment to throw a scare into Paxton, they were obviously mistaken. Was Pfizer one of those shadowy Powers? It wouldn’t surprise me. I note that Texas House Speaker (and Paxton nemesis) Dade Phalen received campaign contributions from Pfizer in the 2022 and 2014 election cycles, which is…interesting, but hardly an iron-clad case.

    More research is needed…

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    Posted in Budget, Regulation, Republicans, Texas, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

    Pre-Black Friday Prepping/Shopping Guide

    Wednesday, November 22nd, 2023

    Since I know many of you will be shopping on Black Friday, here’s A.) Listing some basic cold weather prepping gear, and B.) Providing possible gifts or purchases for items I approve of.

    I’ve included Amazon links, but for some items (like batteries), Sam’s or Lowes tends to offer better prices.

    The Basics

    Here are some all-purpose tools everyone should already have, listed here for completeness sake.

  • First aid kit: There are a lot of different makes and models of these, and I think Sam’s offers a kit that’s a bit cheaper than this one. Has a little bit of everything. A good thing to keep in your car for emergencies.
  • Smoke alarm: Everyone should already have these, but if you don’t, or want more, these are cheap, and it has a silence button so you can put it in your kitchen. This batch seems to be made in Mexico, but First Alert also makes stuff in China, so caveat emptor.
  • Carbon Monoxide detector. Doesn’t say, but I suspect it’s another item made in China. There are some combination carbon monoxide/smoke detectors, but I think you want to avoid the possibility of a single point of failure.
  • Fire Extinguisher: Every home should have at least one, and make sure it’s not expired. This is what I have (I think it’s made in Mexico), but fortunately I’ve never had to use it.
  • Water leak detector: A lot of people don’t have these, but I consider them essential basic gear, as they can save you hundreds or thousands of dollars in water damage. I had one of mine go off a week before the ice storm hit because a shutoff valve I had closed to plunge an overflowing toilet had started leaking. Usual made in China caveats apply, but it’s very simple tech (two parallel wires on the exterior that water closes the circuit and sets off when wet). That link goes to a 5-pack, because I recommend putting one behind every toilet, under every sink you use, under your water heater, and next to your washing machine (I’ve had mine start rocking for an unbalanced load that pulled the drain hose loose). (There’s an even cheaper five pack from another manufacturer (also made in China) that I have no experience with.)
  • Speaking of plunging toilets, I imagine everyone already has a plunger, but if you don’t, here’s one, and you might consider one for each bathroom, or at least each floor. Also, the black bell shaped ones are a lot more effective than the small old red ones.
  • Speaking of things everyone should already have more of, everyone needs flashlights. I ordered a USB rechargeable flashlight from Amazon by Liaolee that was pretty bright and pretty cheap, but it doesn’t seem available anymore. This Goreit flashlight seems bright, cheap, and gets pretty good reviews. The highest rated flashlight on Amazon is the Streamlight 75458 Stinger DS, which is fairly pricey. I assume it’s brighter and with a longer life, and maybe you have a use case that justifies the cost. And speaking of ridiculous lights I have no use case for…
  • The IMALENT MS18 is evidently so insanely bright that it has its own cooling fan. Here’s a video of how insane it is. And if you have flashlights, chances are you’ll also need…
  • Batteries. D-Cells are still used in a lot of things, and you’re going to want, at a minimum, enough to reload every flashlight twice, which should be enough to get you through a couple of evenings of power outages. Check your flashlights every six months when you check your smoke and CO detectors. Speaking of which, those and the water leak detectors take 9 volt batteries, and you want enough around to be able to change out every battery in your detectors as needed. Those links go to Duracells, which I’ve been pretty happy with.
  • Car jump starter: Much better than jumper cables, and can save you money when you have a dead battery, or because it’s just not cranking in the cold.
  • Gas And Water Emergency Shut Off Tool. The Orbit 26097 provides a water shutoff valve, a gas shutoff valve, manhole cover lift tool, and a rubberized grip. You need one of these for the same reason you need a water leak detector, i.e. it will greatly limit damage before the plumber gets there.
  • Sawyer Products Water Filtration System: If you’ve ever been under a water boil notice, the Sawyer system is Good Enough to get you through, even if it is a slight pain to fill and squeeze the bag enough times for my dogs and I to drink (but still less of a pain that boiling water and waiting for it to cool).
  • Duct tape is useful to have year-round, but especially during an emergency, to patch a small leak or keep something together until the emergency is over and you can replace it. Link goes to 3M all-weather duct tape, which is better than the generic stuff for outside tasks, like sealing around the edge of a faucet cover.

    • Cold Weather

    Here are some specific prep items for cold weather:

  • Faucet Covers. If you’re a homeowner, you probably already have those, but if not, here they are, and they seem to work better than a rag or dripping the faucet, and neither of my faucets busted in the ice storm. That link goes to the cheap Styrofoam version, but these plastic ones look a bit bigger and stronger.
  • O’Keeffe’s Working Hands cream: I walk my dogs 2-3 times a day pretty much every single day of the year, and I found my hands getting cracked and raw in the cold, even through gloves. O’Keeffe’s Working Hands fixed the problem. I frequently give this stuff out as Christmas gifts.
  • Carmex lip balm. A small, cheap jar that solves the chapped lips problem in winter. I know some people prefer Chapstick, but to me the main result of using Chapstick is that 30 minutes later you fell a need to use more Chapstick.
  • Kerasal Intensive Foot Repair for cracked and painful feet. Podiatrist recommended! Full review here.
  • De-icing spray. You can stand there for 15 minutes ineffectually scraping your frozen windows like William H. Macy in Fargo, or you can keep a bottle of this in your trunk.

    • Non-Prep “Stuff You Might Need”

    Here are things I’ve bought I’m happy with.

  • Have trouble getting to sleep at night? Have you tried Melatonin? All I can say is that it works for me (sometimes boosted with generic Acetaminophen PM, which you can buy cheap at Sam’s).
  • I’d been having trouble finding plain white T-shirts soft enough to sleep in, but these work really well.
  • Silicone oven mitts: My cousin used these last Thanksgiving and I was impressed with them. They work great and don’t seem to wear out as quickly as cloth mitts do.
  • If you haven’t seen The Death of Stalin yet, I highly recommend it.
  • If you’re looking for a fun TV show you haven’t watched before, may I suggest The Barbary Coast? If features a post-Star Trek/pre-T. J. Hooker William Shatner as a master of disguise working to bust criminals in 19th century San Francisco. You get to see him pretend he’s a gypsy, a Mexican, a southern dandy, an Irishman, an old salty sea dog, etc. It’s a hoot and a half.
  • Speaking of 1970s TV detectives, we’ve been working our way through the complete Rockford Files, and the set is a pretty good value for the money, if you don’t mind the paper sleeves.
  • If you like offbeat science fiction and fantasy, you might try this two volume Avram Davidson set, set up as print-on-demand books from the Avram Davidson society. At 100 stories, it’s a lot of bang for your buck.

    • I know I should be better at offering up Amazon offerings to rake in the filthy lucre, but I don’t tend to buy books and DVDs/Blu-rays from them. Mostly the things I buy from Amazon are vitamins and dog treats, which aren’t exactly exciting link fodder…

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    Posted in Texas, Uncategorized | 6 Comments »

    Reminder: Vote Today!

    Tuesday, November 7th, 2023

    This is your reminder to go out and vote today if you live in Texas or any other state having an off-year election.

  • Here are my Texas constitutional amendment recommendations.
  • Here are my Williamson and Travis County bond election recommendations, as well as Round Rock ISD.
  • Here are Williamson County voting locations.
  • Here are Travis County voting locations.

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    Posted in Economics, Elections, Texas, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

    HS2: UK’s £100 Billion Rail To Nowhere

    Thursday, October 26th, 2023

    I’ve long documented the failures of California’s still unbuilt high speed rail, and now a video from Simon Whistler (yeah, him) covers a similar doomed British high speed rail project:

  • “Even in a country used to paying absurd prices for everything from houses to a pint of beer, it was still a pretty eye-watering figure. After initially being projected to cost under £40 billion in 2012, Britain’s second high-speed rail project, HS2, was recently calculated to be facing a price tag closer to £100 billion.”
  • “Just the first phase alone the 34 miles connecting London and Birmingham is in danger of becoming one of the most expensive railways ever built.”
  • It was originally supposed to pay for itself by offering high speed connections between London and three English industrial cities in the north: Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield. But ballooning costs forced the cancellation of those two line extensions.
  • “All rationale for HS2 vanished, leaving the UK with a multi-billion pound bill just to slightly reduce travel time between London and Birmingham.”
  • HS1 was the 62 mile high speed rail line from London to the channel tunnel. It only cost three times the estimated price.
  • One reason it was considered a success: “It had added significant extra capacity to commuter lines running into London from Kent, as much as 40% extra in peak times.”
  • In the dying days Gordon Brown’s Labor government in 2010, Transport Secretary and rail freak Lord Adonis published a white paper outlining his Utopian high speed rail vision for Britain. Unfortunately, incoming conservative George Osborne had a soft spot for flashy infrastructure projects.
  • “Neither Adonis nor Osborne nor anybody else could have envisaged a budget that would soon balloon wildly out of control.” Actually, I suspect anyone familiar with the many failures of high speed rail projects in the U.S. could indeed have envisaged it.
  • By 2015 it was up to £55 billion.
  • By 2019 it was £71 billion, or over £22,000 for every UK household.
  • After 2020 and Flu Manchu, it was over £100 billion, and PM Rishi Sunak pulled the plug on everything but the London to Birmingham stretch, which was still going to cost £53 billion, or £396 million per mile.
  • “The fast train from Euston Station to Birmingham New Street takes around 1 hour and 40 minutes. All H2 will do will shave 25 to 35 minutes off that.”
  • All infrastructure projects in the UK cost more than their equivalents in continental Europe. “The insane costs associated with planning applications in the UK, something that you could see in the proposed London Themes Crossing, which recently spent £267 million just on planning paperwork.”
  • There’s a ton of NIMBYism along the route, forcing them to spend billions building rail tunnels despite it being perfectly feasible to build it overland.

    Between London and Birmingham lies the sort of gentile English landscape that people who’ve never visited the UK believe the whole country looks like, a green swath of rolling hills, country lanes and posh blokes wearing tweed. Unfortunately, it turns out that the sort of people who live in this landscape hate the idea of London politicians plonking a fancy new train line right in the middle of it.

  • “Some countries like Japan can do tunneling at a reasonable cost. The UK is not among that group.”
  • Then there’s the well-paid army of white collar consultants, which will be familiar to any observer of California’s high speed rail project. “Among them were 40 employees paid more than £150,000 a year, and chief executives with higher salaries than any other public official in Britain.” Nice work if you can get it.
  • “In July of 20123 the government’s own infrastructure watchdog branded HS2 as unachievable saying it could not be delivered in its current form.”
  • The kicker: HS2 may never make it to central London, as building there is too expensive. “Rather than terminating at Euston Station in central London, HS2 would now end at Old Oak Common,” a suburban station, where they’re expected to catch local connections. “The new line will cost of tens of billions get you from Birmingham to central London less quickly than you can do it at the moment.”
  • But they’ve already spent £40 million for two top-of-the-line boring machines from Germany to dig the Old Oak Common to Euston segment. Current plans are to bury them in hope they might be used later.
  • “Hearing about stuff like this, it is tempting to wonder if, just maybe, the UK shouldn’t have listened to the results of the 2006 independent review into high speed rail written by Rod Edington before HS1 was even finished it concluded that highspeed rail simply isn’t worth it in Britain.”
  • “The money would be better spent on less sexy improvements, like line electrification and improving local bus services.”

    • And we all know why they’d never go that route: There simply aren’t enough opportunities for bureaucratic empire building and graft…

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    Posted in Military, Regulation, Uncategorized, unions, video, Waste and Fraud | 20 Comments »

    This Day Eaten By Bluehost

    Monday, October 2nd, 2023

    Content should resume tomorrow, assuming I’m not suffering from the same endless unavailability and timeout errors…

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    Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

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