The Glorious Purge At MSNBC

February 26th, 2025

Among the many, many delights that Trump47 has heaped on that giant pile of Winning™ is the rapid collapse of the Trump Derangement Syndrome MSM. A whole lot of outlets that insisted their radical, social justice-infected TDS blatherings were on “the right side of history” now find that they’re on the wrong side of voters, profit/loss statements and their billionaire owners’ willingness to lose money year after year on their lefty virtue signaling.

And no MSM outlet got further out over their skis than MSNBC, who are pink slipping members of “The Resistance” faster than P Diddy’s associates can plead the Fifth.

First came the Joy Reid firing.

MSNBC liberal mainstay Joy Reid’s show has been canceled as part of a major overhaul by the network’s new president Rebecca Kutler, according to a report.

The 7 p.m. program hosted by ardent Trump critic Reid, 56, will be replaced by a new panel show featuring co-hosts Alicia Menendez, Michael Steele, and Symone Sanders Townsend, the New York Times reported, citing insiders.

Snip.

In December, Nielsen Media Research revealed that Reid had lost almost half her viewers since the election of Donald Trump, with MSNBC seeing a whopping 53% drop in primetime viewership following the Nov. 5 result before rebounding somewhat in the four weeks following the presidential inauguration.

Her ouster is an attempt to make the network more appealing to conservatives.

The firing of Joy Reid and the cancellation of her far left MSNBC show may have been in the works for over a year in anticipation of the massive shakeup now rattling through the flailing cable news network.

During contract negotiations last year, NBCUniversal executives had only signed Ms. Reid, a liberal firebrand known for her inflammatory rhetoric about MAGA conservatives, to a one-year extension, according to a report from Status News, an independent newsletter helmed by former CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy, who wrote that such short-term deals are a stopgap measure to “buy time.” Most talent contracts in network news run three to five years.

“[H]er fate had been all but sealed long ago,” Mr. Darcy writes. “Last year, when her expiring contract was renegotiated, MSNBC brass only signed her to a one-year extension, I’m told—a clear sign that network executives were keeping their options open rather than making a long-term commitment.”

Ms. Reid has recently seen a decline in her show’s ratings, with only 973,000 total viewers in February, down 28 percent from the same month in 2024. But her decline generally tracks that of MSNBC’s other evening programs.

However, compared to her MSNBC co-stars, Ms. Reid has had a high number of controversial moments in recent years. After the presidential election in November, she declared that Black women had lost interest in “saving America” after news broke that White female voters turned out in high numbers to elect Mr. Trump. Just last month, she compared Mr. Trump’s policies and efforts to deport illegal immigrants akin to Hitler’s Germany.

Ms. Reid continues to be dogged by old blog entries from her past that resurfaced in 2019, where she made homophobic and other offensive comments. She claimed, without evidence, that she’d been “hacked” and said she was involving the FBI to catch the perpetrator. Her career was saved when MSNBC’s biggest star, Rachel Maddow, who is openly gay, weighed in with her support.

Reid is a classic example of not only Trump Derangement Syndrome, but also a graduate of Dunning Kruger University, constantly picking losing fights with figure on the right obviously far smarter than she. If MSNBC really wants to “appeal to conservatives” (a goal that’s probably not possible short of hiring someone like Ben Shapiro to run the network), then she certainly needs to be one of the first to go.

Given her falling ratings, what did Reid’s SJW fans attribute to her firing? That’s right: racism.

Reid may have been the first pink slip domino to fall, but she was hardly the last.

MSNBC host Jen Psaki will slide into a new primetime slot as part of a massive shakeup that includes the ouster of President Trump-bashing anchor Joy Reid, the embattled network confirmed Monday.

Psaki, the former press secretary for President Joe Biden, will take over the 9 p.m. duties Tuesdays through Fridays from current host Alex Wagner beginning in late April, the network said.

Making Liar in Chief Psaki the face of the network hardly seems a way to “appeal to conservatives.” Indeed, the revolving door between Democratic operatives and MSM sinecures like MSNBC are one of the many, many problems that have driven viewership away in drives.

The overhaul at the left-leaning network by new president Rebecca Kutler also includes axing weekend shows hosted by Ayman Mohyeldin, Jonathan Capehart, Katie Phang and Jose Diaz-Balart.

I’ve never heard of any of these people, but given it’s MSNBC, I’m just going to assume they needed firing.

If MSNBC really wanted to “appeal to conservatives,” then leftwing fossil Rachel Maddow would be the next to get the axe, but alas not, she’s still the face of the network. However, a bunch of her staffers are being let go.

MSNBC has reportedly informed a majority of staffers who work on Rachel Maddow’s primetime opinion show that they are being let go as part of the network’s restructuring that resulted in the cancellation of Joy Reid’s program as well as those of other hosts.

The Comcast-owned, left-leaning channel told Maddow staffers, who also worked on the other canceled shows including “Alex Wagner Tonight,” that they have the option of applying for new roles at the network or accepting a severance payout, according to the news site Guardian.

Maddow, MSNBC’s most prominent anchor and top-rated host, will retain her executive producer, Cory Gnazzo, along with several senior producers, the Guardian reported.

However, the rest of her team, along with producers from other recently canceled shows — including those hosted by Alex Wagner, Katie Phang, Jonathan Capehart, Ayman Mohyeldin and José Díaz-Balart — will need to find new jobs either within the network or at a different company, according to the report.

A network insider reached by The Post denied that the move constituted layoffs. The network insists that the shakeup was a reallocation of resources to support the network’s evolving priorities, according to the source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Also, as long as we’re on the subject of MSNBC and Maddow, they just settled a big defamation lawsuit.

NBCUniversal is settling a $30 million defamation lawsuit brought by a doctor at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center, Mahendra Amin, after MSNBC’s biggest stars aired false accusations that he was a sinister figure known as “the uterus collector” who performed mass, unnecessary hysterectomies on migrant women.

A court filing on Friday said that NBCUniversal and Dr. Amin, had reached a settlement of his defamation lawsuit.

The terms of the deal were not immediately clear as the filing said the parties were “diligently working” on the settlement agreement, and they “expect to effectuate the settlement in the next several weeks.

Mr. Amin became the subject of what a judge ruled were “verifiably false” statements by some of MSNBC’s top talent, such as Rachel Maddow and Chris Hayes, after NBC News’ “immigration reporter,” Jacob Soboroff, interviewed in 2020 a disgruntled nurse who’d filed a whistleblower report about the ICE detention facility.

The ‘uterus collector’ report also aired on ‘All In With Chris Hayes.’ Via MSNBC

The nurse, Dawn Wooten, who worked at the facility, claimed Dr. Amin had performed “mass hysterectomies” that were often botched. She also said he was known as the “uterus collector.”

Mr. Soboroff, son of the former Los Angeles Police Department Commissioner Steve Soboroff, published an article on NBCNews.com on September 15, 2020. The report, written with two other NBC News reporters, Julia Ainsley and Daniella Silva, claimed that the “uterus collector” moniker was whispered fearfully by female detainees at the facility. In an interview with the network, Ms. Wooten claimed that a migrant asked her if the doctor was “collecting all of our uteruses.”

The discovery process in Dr. Amin’s lawsuit disclosed internal communications at NBC News, which inside 30 Rockefeller Plaza works in concert with MSNBC, despite claiming to the public that they are separate operations. Emails and texts handed over to Dr. Amin’s legal team, along with statements made in depositions, disclosed that NBC News’ editorial standards department had serious concerns about the veracity of the story — yet allowed it to be published.

Left wing liars gonna lie.

There’s long been a glut of Trump Derangement Syndrome in America’s media landscape, and it’s only logical that a network that’s in free-fall would want to change directions. But asking “who gets their news from a cable news network” in 2025 is like asking “Who gets their news from Time and Newsweek” in 2010. MSNBC is both a TDS seller in a buyer’s market where no one is buying and an aging media dinosaur with high fixed costs and little to no upsides in the the current media landscape. These much needed corrections are probably far too little, far too late to turn it into a profitable venture.

Prediction: MSNBC will be the first network to go to an All-AI Generated format by 2030…

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Posted in Democrats, Media Watch, Social Justice Warriors | No Comments »

Colony Ridge Swept For Illegal Alien Criminals

February 25th, 2025

Remember how three illegal aliens were arrested in Colony Ridge for carrying 350 pounds of meth in last week’s LinkSwarm? That, and the Trump Administration’s crackdown on illegal alien felons, finally seems to have prodded authorities into launching a crackdown on illegal alien and cartel-infested Colony Ridge.

Gov. Greg Abbott announced that federal authorities and state law enforcement would be targeting criminal illegal aliens in the Colony Ridge development north of Houston.

Abbott said the operation had been in the works with President Donald Trump’s Border Czar Tom Homan for several months.

It’s great to have an administration willing to work with Texas to enforce the law, rather than break it.

“Texas DPS Troopers & Special Agents are assisting Homeland Security Investigations, with an operation in Colony Ridge this morning. They are targeting criminals & illegal immigrants,” wrote Gov. Abbott on X.

The Colony Ridge development has been the subject of controversy, with critics accusing the developer of attracting a large population of illegal aliens by advertising in Spanish on social media and offering predatory loans that require no social security number.

As of publication, the extent of the enforcement action is not clear. DPS vehicles were visibly patrolling and conducting traffic stops in the area.

Numerous criminal illegal aliens have been arrested in Colony Ridge in recent years as the settlement has exploded in size. Last December, an illegal alien smuggler was arrested there for his role in the deaths of 50 people.

The Biden Administration just brought in the very best people.

Last month, an illegal alien was sentenced to 50 years in prison for his role in the murder of 16-year-old Emily Patricia in Colony Ridge.

That Colony Ridge was allowed to metastasize as a crime-ridden illegal alien settlement for so long, despite the Texas Public Policy Foundation sounding the alarm all the way back in 2020, is no credit to the state political establishment. But now that the State of Texas is aware of it, and Trump is back in the White House and ready to do what it takes to control the border, the problem is finally being addressed.

Let a thousand deportations bloom…

Follow-Up: The Texan reports that 118 people were arrested in the raid.

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Posted in Border Control, Crime, Texas | 5 Comments »

Paxton Sues NCAA Over Transsexual Deception

February 24th, 2025

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed another lawsuit, this one against the NCAA over “deceptive trade practices,” namely pretending that NCAA women’s sports are, in fact, limited to women, despite carving out a huge loophole for men pretending to be women to drive through.

Attorney General Ken Paxton is taking legal action against the National Collegiate Athletic Association, seeking a temporary injunction to halt what he claims are “deceptive trade practices” as the organization’s athlete eligibility policy could allow men to compete in women’s sports.

Paxton alleges that the NCAA’s recently amended policy—presented as aligning with President Donald Trump’s executive order to “Keep Men Out of Women’s Sports”—is actually a misleading “illusion of change” that still allows biological males to compete in women’s sports.

The legal move follows Paxton’s December 2024 lawsuit against the NCAA, which accused the organization of false advertising by promoting sporting events as exclusively “women’s” competitions while permitting biological males to participate.

According to the temporary injunction filing, the NCAA’s amended Transgender Eligibility Policy (TEP), effective February 6, 2025, is inconsistent with Trump’s executive order and does not prevent biological men from competing in women’s sports.

Paxton’s application for a temporary injunction highlights key areas of disagreement with the NCAA’s current policy:

  • Definition of sex: The lawsuit states that the NCAA determines a student-athlete’s sex according to “birth records” and designations “assign[ed]” by doctors, rather than biological makeup “at conception.”
  • Changeable vs. immutable: The suit alleges that the NCAA treats sex as changeable rather than an immutable characteristic

    • The attorney general’s filing also raises concerns about the NCAA’s enforcement mechanisms, specifically pointing out the lack of sex-screening procedures for student-athletes.

    Paxton argues that this absence allows biological males to “surreptitiously participate” in women’s sports categories, citing the example of Blair Fleming, a biological male who played on San Jose State University’s women’s volleyball team for two years without initially disclosing his biological sex.

    With the 2024-25 Women’s NCAA March Madness basketball tournament approaching, Paxton asserts that the NCAA’s deceptive practices are causing confusion among consumers and potentially harming female athletes.

    Paxton is asking the court to order the NCAA to immediately begin screening the sex of student athletes and prohibiting biological males from participating in women’s sports categories.

    Social Justice Warriors pushing a radical transsexual agenda have been controlling decisions at the NCAA, making them rule in direct opposition to the clear language of Title IX, the wishes of female student athletes, and the will of the American people and their elected government. There are two biological sexes, male and female, and retroactively changing a birth certificate from male to female doesn’t actually change a person’s sex.

    Men shouldn’t be allowed to compete in women’s sports. That this common sense proposition even needs to be argued for is a sign of how illogical social justice madness has infected our institutions.

    Let’s hope that the NCAA can be made to see the error of their ways well before this lawsuit even gets to trial.

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    Posted in Democrats, Social Justice Warriors, Texas | 2 Comments »

    France Proves J. D. Vance Right By Shutting Down Conservative TV Channel

    February 23rd, 2025

    After J. D. Vance accused European elites of threatening free speech on the continent, France went out of its way to prove him right by shutting down a right-wing TV channel.

    The French Council of State has just confirmed its closure of the right-wing TV channel C8, setting a dangerous precedent of state censorship in the media. Protests are growing from public figures who are concerned about the increasing and institutionalised restrictions on freedom of expression.

    The C8 channel, owned by the Catholic billionaire Vincent Bolloré, had been on probation for several weeks following a decision by the media regulatory authority, ARCOM, to withdraw its broadcasting licence. The channel had attempted an administrative appeal, which has now been rejected by the Council of State. It will cease broadcasting definitively on the evening of February 28th.

    Until now, C8 occupied a privileged place in the French audiovisual landscape. The Canal+ group, owned by Vincent Bolloré and operator of the channel, denounced a decision

    unprecedented in the history of DTT [Digital Terrestrial Television], leading to the outright ousting of the C8 channel, which has been part of the audiovisual landscape for nearly 20 years, always ranking as the leading DTT channel and attracting more than 9 million cumulative viewers every day.

    One of the channel’s star presenters, Cyril Hanouna, a Frenchman of Lebanese origin, was the target of virulent attacks from the Left, who accused him of having ‘rolled out the red carpet for far-right ideas’ on his programmes. He continues his work as a columnist on the radio station Europe 1, which also belongs to Bolloré’s group. On Wednesday, February 19th, he hosted Bartolomé Lenoir, a UDR deputy—allied to the Rassemblement National (RN)—who shared his concerns with listeners:

    The closure of C8 opens a major Pandora’s box for freedom of expression in France.

    Snip.

    On the side of the RN, Marine Le Pen denounced “the threats that weigh heavily on pluralism and freedom of opinion.” “The cessation of activity of C8 is a terrible regression and a worrying decision that proves the Ayatollahs of single-thought, the diktats of a sectarian left that only wants to see and hear one voice, that of the system,” explained the leader of the RN deputies in a message on X.

    European elite sure seem bound and determined to suppress any “unapproved” non-leftwing thoughts. I wonder if audits of France’s budget would reveal as much graft and fraud being raked off by leftwing politicians and entities as DOGE has discovered in the U.S. budget…

    (Hat tip: Michael Heaver on YouTube.)

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    Posted in Foreign Policy, Media Watch | 4 Comments »

    The Decline Of Johannesburg

    February 22nd, 2025

    Of all the transitions to majority rule in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa’s was probably the most successful, with the Apartheid regime coming to a negotiated end rather than a violent bloodbath.

    But thirty years of African National Congress rule, either solo or in coalition, find South Africa undergoing a gradual collapse toward Sub-Saharan standards, as seen in this France 24 video on the decline of Johannesburg.

  • “Johannesburg, once the economic powerhouse of all of Africa. But over the last 20 years the city, has fallen into decay, the inner city streets are lined with trash, potholes, and degraded footpaths. And broken infrastructure has led to contaminated rivers and wasted drinking water.”
  • “Adele is part of a resident crisis committee. She says her complaints to the council about broken pipes often go unheard.” “Now we just have rivers of excrement and trash.”
  • These an upstream river trash catch facility that’s been broken for two years.
  • “Johannesburg restricted access to tap water for residents in November, but more than a third of available drinking water is wasted from broken infrastructure.”
  • “The African National Congress has been bleeding support in Johannesburg since 2016, leading to chaotic coalitions. Infighting and opportunism which has seen the city ruled by ten different mayors over the last five years. With each change of mayor, infrastructure contracts are often abandoned and administration staff are fired. On top of that, corruption has plagued the mayoral committee during the tender process.”
  • There’s some high-minded blather about separating the bidding process from politics. Good luck with that.
  • “The decay of Johannesburg goes beyond broken pipes and sink holes. In the city center, entire 15-story buildings are hijacked by criminal syndicates or squatters who refuse to pay for services or rent.” Gangs will just dump bodies in the building to let them rot in place.

    • When competent government and dedication to the rule of law gives way to a spoils system, decay inevitably follows, either in Johannesburg or in America’s deep blue inner cities…

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    Posted in Budget, Crime, video, Waste and Fraud | 4 Comments »

    LinkSwarm For February 21, 2025

    February 21st, 2025

    Another deep freeze week here in Texas, with temperatures below freezing most of the week, but the state grid seems to be holding, and I haven’t seen any widespread power outages. I did lose power, but only for five minutes.

    This week: More waste and corruption exposed by DOGE, the Secretary of Defense gets a spite audit from the IRS, and Texas rolls out plans for securing cybersecurity and nuclear power futures. Plus an unusual amount of stories about China, AI, Chinese AI, airlines, Canada, and an airliner in Canada.

  • Judge says that DOGE can access student financial aid data. “US District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan has denied an emergency filing to block DOGE’s access to federal records and government layoffs – saying in a 10-page decision that the 14 states who brought the lawsuit have failed to meet the burden of proof to prove ‘imminent, irreparable harm.'”
  • “A judge who blocked President Trump’s federal spending freeze is Chairman Emeritus of a nonprofit that will continue to receive millions in government funding as a result of his ruling, in an apparent conflict of interest seen as a second cause for the judge’s impeachment. On Wednesday, Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) announced articles of impeachment against federal Judge John McConnell on the grounds that he overreached his authority and engaged in partisan activism by blocking Trump’s executive order freezing federal funding while Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) searches for wasteful spending. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
  • Doug Ross has chosen 20 of the best examples of waste and fraud DOGE has discovered “Stacey Abrams/Power Forward Communities $2 Billion Grant (2025). DOGE uncovered $2 billion in taxpayer funds allocated to Power Forward Communities, tied to Stacey Abrams via Rewiring America, from a $20 billion EPA grant in April 2024. With $100 in revenue, it’s under scrutiny for potential fraud.”
  • Victor Davis Hanson: How To Commit Democratic Party Suicide.

    The Democratic Party is polling about 31 percent approval, a near-historic low.

    Despite enjoying a huge lead in fundraising, legacy media favoritism, and incumbency, in the 2024 election, Democrats lost the White House to Donald Trump. Ever since, they have offered nothing new, no novel agenda, no innovative policies—nothing other than screaming that they are loudly against everything and anything that the president is for.

    In the past, what did they accomplish by following their prior two impeachments with attempts to de-ballot Trump? Who thought sending an FBI swat team to raid Trump’s home or waging five lawfare civil and criminal suits and issuing 91 felony indictments against him would win over the public?

    Was conducting a media barrage of Hitler-Trump invectives, or lowering the bar of demonization that likely led to two assassination attempts of Trump a good way to win an election?

    Apparently not, given the Democrats have now lost the presidency, the House, and the Senate. The Supreme Court is conservative. They have no power to subpoena anyone; they cannot block any nomination. Much of their old administrative state control is eroding. All the main issues—the economy, energy, border security, illegal immigration, crime, DEI/woke, and foreign policy—poll against the Democrats. The more they shouted that biological men must be able to compete as transgendered females in women’s sports, the more that 80% of the public disagreed, women were turned off, and the absurd idea was exploded by Trump.

    The power of the administrative state, the legacy network news, print media, and Silicon Valley’s social media and search engines, the billions that poured into the Biden and Harris campaign all went for naught.

    The efforts of moderators to warp debates, of network news to edit out unfavorable Harris or Biden comments, of leftists to cancel, deplatform, ostracize, censor, and shadow ban their enemies have failed. More likely to succeed now are numerous lawsuits against leftwing media for chronic defamation and censorship.

    Given that collective meltdown, what would a sane Democratic Party do?

    If they were stable, then they might renounce political suicide and perhaps return to something akin to the Clinton efforts of 1992 and 1996. Then the once self-destructive Democrats finally gave up on disastrous out-of-touch McGovernism, Carterism, an Dukakism. Instead, they began to embrace legal-only immigration, secure borders, balanced budgets, support for law enforcement, and meritocracy.

    The result?

    After twelve years in the wilderness (1980-1992), the Democrats regained power for the next 16 of 24 years—only in the second term of Barack Obama to go full radical Jacobin and soon lose it.

    The current self-destructive obsessions with DEI/woke racialism, bi-coastal talk-down elitism, boutique transgenderism, and nonstop America Lastism all came to fruition during the Biden years. A shameless conspiracy to use an enfeebled John Biden as a prop to masque an otherwise unpalatable radical, neo-socialist agenda ensured the MAGA counterrevolution.

    But instead of postmortem autopsy and introspection, since Election Day, the Democrats have doubled down on their veritable collective self-destruction.

    On immigration, after wiping out the border and allowing in 12 million illegal aliens, including more than 500,000 suspected felons, they seem deliberately to be alienating public opinion even further.

    So, thousands of leftists swarm and block the freeways of Los Angeles to protest the deportations of criminals. And how exactly?

    By enraging middle-class commuters, while burning the flag of the country that they demand must allow them to stay, while chauvinistically waving the flag of the country to which under no circumstances they wish to return?

    New Jersey Democratic governor Patrick Murphy idiotically virtue-signaled that he would defy the law, as he bragged that he was harboring an illegal alien living above his garage.

    Then, when apprised that such performance-art showboating was a felony, in theory entailing a long prison sentence, the now buffoonish governor changed his narrative that the occupant of his garage was not really illegally living above his garage.

    Democratic governors and mayors vie, bragging that they will be foremost in breaking the law by impeding the efforts of the federal immigration services to find and deport illegal aliens—for now, half a million criminals. Other activists are tipping off criminal illegal-alien gang leaders to avoid US government efforts to apprehend such dangerous criminals.

    Is that the way to win back the working classes? By ensuring that the felons of M-13, Norteños, Sureños, and Tren de Aragua can flee and put in danger fellow American police officers?

    Elon Musk has been appointed by Donald Trump to create a new government agency, DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency), to find waste, fraud, and abuse in the government spending of taxpayers money.

    He and his young team of tech standouts have exposed shocking waste and fraud, but mostly insanity, in the USAID’s $50 billion of foreign aid grants.

    Why are Americans paying for overseas drag shows or gay and trans advocacy in culturally imperialist fashion in traditional and conservative societies abroad? Why are we paying eight percent of the budget of the hardcore left-wing BBC? Is that a way back to the White House?

    Do Politico, the New York Times, or the Wuhan gain-in-function virology lab and birthplace of COVID-19 really need millions of dollars of taxpayer dollars?

    Do Democrats really think the middle class will hate Elon Musk for exposing that their government may well have handed the communist Chinese the necessary cash to birth a manufactured killer virus that took one million American lives?

    Is that a winning strategy—to scream in Congress that Musk is a Nazi, a dictator for showing that Biden’s USAID under leftist Samantha Power was a clearing house to enrich and empower well-off leftist organizations that only weakened their own country abroad?

  • The Democratic Medical Complex has a lot of ‘splainin’ to do.

    On December 6, 2024, a federal judge ordered the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to release documents related to the emergency use authorisation of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine. These documents had been hidden from public view.

    The legal battle traces back to September 2021, when attorney Aaron Siri filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) on behalf of the Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency. The plaintiffs sought access to the vast trove of documents the FDA relied on to approve Pfizer’s vaccine.

    Initially, the FDA proposed a slow release schedule. In November 2021, the agency stated it would release just 500 pages per month—a pace that would have stretched the full disclosure process to 75 years.

    However, in January 2022, District Judge Mark Pittman of Texas rejected the FDA’s proposal, ordering the agency to expedite its release to 55,000 pages per month, aiming to complete the disclosure of all 450,000 pages by August 2022.

    As the documents trickled out, researchers began uncovering glaring gaps that prevented a systematic review of the data. These gaps fueled suspicions about what else the FDA might be withholding.

    It became evident that the FDA had withheld records directly tied to its emergency use authorisation of Pfizer’s vaccine, estimated to be over one million pages.

    These documents, which the FDA had full knowledge of, were excluded from earlier disclosures, effectively misleading the judiciary and undermining public trust.

    People need to go to jail.

  • Trump and Musk’s attempts to cut federal waste are super popular.

    In recent months, Democrats have manufactured an elaborate narrative around Donald Trump’s push to streamline government operations and eliminate waste, branding it as a “constitutional crisis.” This exaggerated portrayal overlooks a critical reality: many Americans, particularly those who are politically moderate, actually support Trump’s initiatives aimed at reducing the size of government.

    A recent focus group composed of Arizona swing voters, including those who previously backed Joe Biden, revealed a striking consensus on this issue: they overwhelmingly approve of Trump’s agenda and Elon Musk’s efforts with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to make government more efficient. “Every Arizona swing voter in our latest Engagious/Sago focus groups said they approve of President Trump’s actions since taking office — and most also support Elon Musk’s efforts to slash government,” reports Axios.

    Every. Single. One.

  • Dear Instant Internet Audit Experts: That’s not how audits work. (Hat tip: Dwight.)
  • Vice President J. D. Vance tore into Europe’s leaders for their retreat from free speech.

    Vice President JD Vance confronted European leaders at the Munich Security Conference on Friday over their support for authoritarian restrictions on speech, putting the assembled dignitaries on notice that the Trump administration expects the continent to revive its commitment to Western values.

    “The threat that I worry most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia, not China, it’s not any other external actor. What I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values,” Vance said. “When I look at Europe today, it’s not clear what happened to some of the Cold War’s winners.”

    The vice president recited a litany of examples, taken from across Europe, in which governments cracked down on politically disfavored ideas.

    In Brussels for example, officials notified citizens that they would shut down social media platforms “during times of civil unrest” if users post so-called hateful content. Vance also cited examples taken from Germany, where “police have carried out raids against citizens suspected of posting anti-feminist comments online”; Sweden, where a judge recently explained to a man accused of participating in a Koran burning that he does not have “a free pass to do or say anything without risking offending the group that holds that belief,”; and the United Kingdom, where citizens can be arrested for silently praying within 200 meters of an abortion facility.

    “In Britain, and across Europe, free speech, I fear is in retreat,” Vance said.

    The vice president lamented Europe’s abandonment of other democratic values, such as border security, he said, adding that Europeans should work with anti-immigration factions to address the record-breaking influx of illegal immigrants into Europe.

    “While the Trump administration is very concerned with European security and believes that we can come to a reasonable settlement between Russia and Ukraine, [we] also believe that it’s important in the coming years for Europe to step up in a big way to provide for its own defense,” Vance said.

    A majority of French, German, Dutch, Italian, and Portuguese citizens believe that their countries should have stricter border security measures to curb illegal immigration, according to a poll conducted by the nonprofit EU-US Forum and the Tyson Group. Most respondents from France, Italy, Portugal, and the Netherlands also agree that “I am more worried today than I was a decade ago about government censorship of my ideas,” according to the same poll.

    Vance connected the massive flow of migrants into Europe with recent terrorist attacks, such as the one carried out this week in Munich by a 24-year-old Afghan migrant. The man has an Islamist motive, police said, and he plowed a car into a crowd of people blocks away from where the Security Conference is being held, injuring at least 30.

    Another Saudi migrant rammed a car into a Christmas marked in central Germany last December, injuring hundreds, and killing five.

    “Over the span of a decade, we saw the horrors wrought by these decisions yesterday in this very city,” Vance said.

    European leaders responded with a large bout of pearl-clutching and a chorus of “Well, I never!”

  • Senate confirms Kash Patel as FBI Director. Let the Augean stables cleansing commence.
  • “Trump Orders Firing of All Biden-Era U.S. Attorneys.” Good.
  • Nothing says class quite like the outgoing Biden Administration targeting incoming Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth with a spite audit and demanding $33,000.
  • “Legislators File ‘Atomic Texas’ Act to Spark Nuclear Power ‘Renaissance.’ With the advent of small modular nuclear reactors, the nuclear industry feels bullish on a revival of nuclear power. Gov. Greg Abbott called for forging a “nuclear power renaissance” in Texas during his 2025 State of the State address, two legislators have filed legislation intended to make the concept a reality. State Rep. Drew Darby’s House Bill (HB) 2678 would create the Texas Advanced Nuclear Energy Authority and a low-interest loan fund to go with it, and is the companion bill to state Sen. Tan Parker’s (R-Flower Mound) Senate Bill 1105.”
  • Ukraine hits another oil refinery. I’m ignoring the news about U.S. Russian talks, etc., because Trump does a lot of persuasion bracketing, and it’s fruitless to place too much import on it at this stage.
  • New York governor Kathy Hochul says she might remove new York City Mayor Eric Adams from office, now that trump’s Department of Justice has dropped charges against Adams. My working assumption is that since Adams is a New York Democratic politician, he’s guilty as sin, but it’s funny how Hochul only started paying attention to Adams’ alleged misdeed when he started cooperating with Trump on deporting illegal aliens…
  • With DOGE busting their scam, is the Soros operation relocating to Europe?

    With the Trump administration cutting off billions of US taxpayer funding for the USAID international slush fund, formerly flush NGOs are now begging woke EU nations for money to continue operations, according to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

    “WARNING! Our fears have come true: the globalist-liberal-Soros NGO network is fleeing to Brussels, after President Trump dealt a huge blow to their activities in the US,” Orbán wrote in a Tuesday post to X. “Now 63 of them are asking Brussels for money, under the guise of various human rights projects. Not going to happen! We will not let them find safe haven in Europe!”

    “The USAID-files exposed the dark practices of the globalist network. We will not take the bait again!”

  • “A series of by-elections were held for local government seats on Thursday, with Nigel Farage’s [Reform] party storming to victory in Trevethin and Penygarn in Torfaen, Wales, gaining 47% of the vote from a standing start. Labour plummeted a whopping 49.2% to just 26.6% of the vote, down from 75.8% last time. Two independents then came in third and fourth, with the Greens in fifth on 2.6%.” The Tories didn’t even run a candidate.
  • “Gov. Abbott Lists ‘Texas Cyber Command’ as Emergency Item for State Legislature. The Texas Cyber Command is planned to be located in San Antonio.”

    Gov. Greg Abbott delivered his State of the State address several days ago, outlining his priorities for the 89th Legislative Session and listing his emergency items, which included an unexpected addition — the creation of a Texas Cyber Command.

    “We must deploy cutting edge capabilities to better secure our State,” Abbott declared.

    Minutes after the proclamation was made, information from the governor’s office on the new proposition was circulated, detailing the necessity of a Texas Cyber Command to increase the state’s ability to protect critical infrastructure from cyber threats and hostile foreign adversaries like China, Iran, Russia, and “other rogue outlets” around the world.

    The governor’s plan is to have the new venture be headquartered in San Antonio — a city with a large presence of cybersecurity experts, including the University of Texas (UT) at San Antonio, which is a member of the United States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) Academic Engagement Network.

    Austin has at least as many cybersecurity firms as San Antonio…

  • “Attorney General Paxton Launches Investigation Into Chinese AI App. Paxton expressed concerns that artificial intelligence company DeepSeek could be violating the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act.”
  • “Four Times-Deported Illegal Aliens Arrested With 350 Pounds of Meth in Colony Ridge.” You may remember Colony Ridge from such hits as “We secretly built an illegal alien city inside Texas.”
  • Speaking of foreign cities inside Texas, take a look at an Islamic City being built northeast of Plano.
  • In Houston: “22-year-old Chilean national arrested with device that disabled communication between arresting officers.”
  • “Transgender migrant featured in NYC Pride Parade charged with raping 14-year-old boy in public restroom.” “A migrant transgender woman [man] wanted by federal immigration officials allegedly stalked and raped a boy in Manhattan this week, The Post has learned. Nicol Suarez allegedly followed the 14-year-old into the bathroom of a bodega across the street from Thomas Jefferson Park in East Harlem Tuesday and attacked him, police and sources said.”
  • Chinese foreign investment declines 99% in the last three years. That’s what happens when you’ve got dirty commies being jerks of the world…
  • “Lebanon: IDF Strike Eliminates Top Hamas Operative Planning Terror Attacks on Israelis Abroad.”
  • Dear Margaret Brennan: No, National Socialist Germany was not an example of “weaponized free speech.”
  • Leftwing racism is reaching its inevitable conclusion: “Desegregation was a mistake.”
  • “Delta flight that crashed at Toronto airport was operated by Endeavor Air, which loves to brag about all-female crews.” (Flashback.)
  • Suddenly, failed presidential candidate and incompetent Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg is pretending he’s against DEI. As if the son of a Marxist academic who specialized in the work of Italian communist Antonio Gramsci would ever give up cultural Marxism.
  • Accidents will happen. “Trump Administration Un-Fires Hundreds Of Nuclear Weapon Workers.”
  • California’s one party Democratic rule is so incompetent and burdensome that weed dealers can’t make money selling pot to Californians. “California’s legal cannabis market has hit another grim milestone: There are now 10,828 inactive and surrendered pot licenses in the state and only 8,514 active ones, meaning dead pot licenses now outnumber active ones.” (Hat tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.)
  • Jihad terrorism is still very much alive in Africa. “70 Christians Decapitated in Church in Democratic Republic of Congo. DRC also faces violence from the Rwanda-backed armed group M23.”
  • “Trump Administration Pulls Approval of NYC Congestion Toll.” “The congestion toll came into effect last month, imposing a $9 charge on drivers entering Manhattan below 60th street. The tax will increase by $3 increments in 2028 and 2031 as drivers adjust to the program, if it remains in place.” London’s “carbon tax” is widely unpopular with drivers as well, so I imagine New York drivers are just as livid.
  • Kentucky Fried Chicken is moving its headquarters to Plano, Texas. That’s gonna leave a mark
  • Why Canada’s housing costs so much more than that in the U.S.
  • Air Canada has to honor refund policy invented by a chatbot. Live by AI, die by AI…
  • “Fungus Turns Cave Spiders Into Zombies.” I get the feeling your spellcaster should have fireball ready before facing these…
  • Teacher gives anti-Trump tirade. Student: Calm down. Teacher: DETENTION. Result: Teacher suspended.
  • “Canadian Hockey Fans Boo Their Future National Anthem.”
  • “Delta Adds A Little Hanging Tennis Ball To End Of Runway For Female Pilots.”

    • I’m between jobs again. Feel free to hit the tip jar if you’re so inclined.





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    Posted in Border Control, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Jihad, Media Watch, Military, Regulation, Social Justice Warriors, Texas, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | 5 Comments »

    “The British Army Is Now Too Small To Effectively Perform Its Tasks.”

    February 20th, 2025

    In the midst of debate in America and Europe over European adequately funding their NATO defense obligations, historian and YouTuber Mark Felton has put up a couple of videos that question the United Kingdom’s commitment to fielding an adequate military.

    First up: The Navy with more Admirals than Warships

  • “New US president Donald Trump has made it very clear that America’s NATO allies must increase their defense spending to 5% of GDP in order to shoulder more of the burden of their own defense.”
  • “This is particularly pertinent in my country, Great Britain, which has seen defense spending decline massively over the past three decades, from 4.1% in 1990 to only 2.3% today, reflected in 30 plus years of shrinkage and reductions, but plenty of fresh conflicts to manage with less equipment, less investment and less personnel.”
  • “The Royal Navy is a brilliant example of the managed decline of Britain’s Armed Forces…presenting a hollowed out shadow of the force that, even in 1982, at the height of the Cold War, still managed, on its own, a brilliant Naval campaign in the Faulklands those days are well and truly over.”
  • “In 2025, the Royal Navy has 62 commissioned ships, but only 25 of those vessels are real warships designed to fight battles at sea. The rest are lightly armed patrol vessels, transport ships, and survey vessels and so on.”
  • “Breaking this figure of 25 warships down, the Royal Navy currently has two aircraft carriers, six guided missile destroyers, eight frigates and a grand total of just two classes of submarine totaling nine vessels.”
  • “But the Royal Navy also has 40 serving officers at the rank of Rear Admiral and above.”
  • “The personnel strength of the Royal Navy in 2025 is, including reserves, only 32,225 men and women. This means that there is an admiral for every 805 sailors.”
  • “Britain can no longer deploy large numbers of warships to sea, as we simply don’t have large numbers of warships. What we do have are a small number of warships, with quite a number of them currently in refit, mothball or lacking sufficient crew due to the dire state of Royal Navy recruitment.” Sounds similar to U.S. armed forces recruitment woes under Biden.
  • Only two destroyers are currently ready for active duty.
  • “How would our Royal Navy cope in the event of another Falklands crisis? For example, in 1982, the Falkland’s task force consisted of two aircraft carriers, eight destroyers, 16 frigates, and six submarines, plus many other Royal Navy vessels and auxiliaries, and still the Navy maintained its presence around the rest of the world.”
  • “[With] the current number of ships and their readiness, I think we’d struggle to put together a task force even half as big, and even then we’d have to send virtually every surface asset we have stripping vessels from all other tasks globally.”

    • Next up: The Army with more Horses than Tanks.

  • “2012. Number of main battle tanks: 334. Number of horses: 501. 2015. Number of MBTs: 227. Number of horses 494. 2024. Number of MBTs: 213. Number of horses: 497.”
  • “The number of main battle tanks in, this case the Challenger 2, has been steadily reduced over the past decade while the number of horses in the Army has remained constant at slightly under 500 animals.”
  • In 1991, Britain had 1,200 MBTs.
  • “In 2025 investigations by journalists and the Ministry of Defence’s own figures revealed that, despite the conflict in Ukraine, a very tank heavy war, Britain’s armored backbone is consistently decreasing year on year. We currently have 213 Challenger 2s, but only about 157 actually combat ready, or able to be activated within 30 days for combat deployment.”
  • Naturally the horses are used extensively in ceremonial duties, the details of which I’m skipping over.
  • “The British Army is the smallest it’s been for centuries, reduced by endless amalgamations and cuts numbering today only 78,500 personnel, plus just over 25,000 in the volunteer reserves.” That’s half the size of Japan’s armed forces.
  • “The British army is now too small to effectively perform its tasks.”
  • By the way, the U.S. army now has 176 horses…and 4,650 Abrams tanks.

    • Tune in next week, when Felton will no doubt note that the Royal Air Force has more tubas than aircraft…

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    Posted in Military, video | 4 Comments »

    First 10 Days Of Trump = Sharp Decline In Illegal Alien Crossings

    February 19th, 2025

    Just under a month into the Trump47 Administration, so much is going on so quickly that it can be hard to keep track. But one good bit of news is that border crossings are down dramatically in the first ten days of the second Trump Administration.

    President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise of “mass deportations” and securing the southern border, and now CBP has released numbers showing the impact of his rhetoric and new measures put in place.

    Between January 21 and January 31, Customs and Border Protection reports reveal an 85 percent decrease in apprehensions along the southwest border compared to the corresponding period in 2024.

    The CBP report also details how in the 11 days following the termination of the CBP One app, inadmissible alien encounters at the border have fallen 93 percent, as compared to the 11 days prior.

    “The reduction in illegal aliens attempting to make entry into the U.S., compounded by a significant increase in repatriations, means that more officers and agents are now able to conduct the enforcement duties that make our border more secure and our country safer,” CBP Commissioner Pete Flores stated.

    FYI, CBP Commissioner Peter R. Flores is not the same person as Texas state senator Pete Flores (who is currently my state senator).

    Furthermore, the White House detailed that CBP agents arrested 29,000 people illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in January — the lowest tally since May 2020 — potentially signaling that the yearlong decline in crossings could persist under Trump if the executive orders continue to be enforced.

    Declaring a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border was one of Trump’s first acts in office, along with restarting construction on the border wall, reviving the “remain in Mexico” policy for asylum seekers, halting migrant parole programs, and cancelling the CBP One mobile application for asylum appointments.

    85% and 93% are not a small amounts. Merely having Trump as President is enough to deter many would-be illegal aliens from crossing the border. It also goes to prove, once again, that the Biden Administration simply didn’t want to control the border.

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    Posted in Border Control | 1 Comment »

    Paxton Argues For Free Speech, Against Texas Agency

    February 18th, 2025

    When Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton shows up in the news, usually he’s suing on behalf of the State of Texas. This time, however, he’s weighing in on the other side of a lawsuit, backing Michael Quinn Sullivan in his case against the Texas Ethics Commission before the Supreme Court.

    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is taking the unusual step of siding against the Texas Ethics Commission in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. Rather than defending the state agency, he has filed an amicus brief supporting Michael Quinn Sullivan, a conservative activist who was president of Empower Texans at the time of the events in question.

    Now Publisher of Texas Scorecard, which is also the source of this article.

    The case centers on whether Sullivan should have been required to register as a lobbyist before communicating with lawmakers and the public about tax and spending policies.

    The dispute dates back to 2014 when the Texas Ethics Commission fined Sullivan $10,000 for allegedly acting as an unregistered lobbyist. The TEC ruled that his efforts to inform legislators and the public—particularly through emails detailing his Fiscal Responsibility Index—qualified as lobbying under Chapter 305 of the Texas Government Code.

    This has always seemed a very odd cranny for the Texas Ethics Commission to stick its nose into, but at that time Sullivan was quite a thorn in the side of then-speaker Joe Straus. Indeed, Sullivan was such a thorn in the side of the Straus/Bonnen/Phelan/Burrows cabal that Sullivan would eventually cause Dennis Bonnen to resign for offering Sullivan an unethical deal for press credentials in exchange for bringing pressure on certain GOP caucus members. It was a stupidly petty deal at the time, and appears even more so in retrospect. The TEC case certainly seems like someone doing the bidding to the cabal to shut Sullivan up.

    Sullivan has spent the past decade fighting the ruling, arguing that the communications were protected free speech, not lobbying. He is now asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case.

    Paxton, rather than backing the agency tasked with enforcing Texas lobbying laws, is arguing that the TEC’s enforcement is unconstitutional and represents a violation of First Amendment rights.

    “No free citizen should have to register with the government and pay a special fee just to send letters or emails to the government about matters of public importance,” Paxton’s brief states, contending that the First Amendment does not allow government officials to regulate political speech in this way.

    The attorney general’s filing goes on to suggest that the Ethics Commission’s enforcement is not just improper but harmful to public participation in government.

    “Discussing political issues with elected officials is indispensable to democracy,” the brief argues. “In recent years, the Court has repeatedly stressed the importance of robust political discussion.”

    Paxton’s brief also challenges the bureaucratic barriers imposed by the state’s lobbying laws, arguing that the TEC’s actions stifle political activism rather than regulate true lobbying.

    Indeed.

    “Sullivan should not be punished for communicating his views without first registering with the government and paying a fee,” the brief states. “Many people do not have the resources to pay such fees and do not understand the registration requirement; Sullivan’s publicized punishment will discourage the public from sending letters and emails to lawmakers.”

    Paxton’s decision to challenge a Texas state agency is rare. While the attorney general’s office typically defends state entities in court, Paxton’s brief emphasizes that he is responsible for protecting constitutional rights above bureaucratic enforcement.

    “General Paxton has sworn an oath to ‘preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States.’ When those obligations conflict, General Paxton may decline to defend a State entity whose actions violate the U.S. Constitution,” the filing states.

    At the time of the events in question, Sullivan was president of Empower Texans, a conservative organization focused on fiscal responsibility and government transparency.

    As part of that work, Sullivan published the Fiscal Responsibility Index, a rating that graded Texas legislators on their votes related to taxes and spending. The Ethics Commission ruled that his outreach to lawmakers—informing them how their votes would be scored—met the definition of lobbying, making him subject to registration and disclosure laws.

    If actually applied to all, this standard would make groups like Right to Life, the NRA and the ACLU “lobbyists” merely for stating how they would score certain votes.

    Sullivan and his supporters, meanwhile, have argued that such political communication is core protected speech, not regulated lobbying activity.

    Tony McDonald, a free speech attorney who represents Sullivan in the case, sees Paxton’s brief as a warning about broader abuses of power by the TEC.

    “This brief should be a strong signal not just to the court, but to anyone who will listen,” McDonald said. “The Texas Ethics Commission is out of control.”

    The TEC has faced mounting criticism in recent years for what some say is overreach in its regulation of political speech.

  • In Katy Christian Magazine v. The Link Letter, the TEC forced a small publication into a costly legal battle over political advertising disclosures, leading to accusations that the commission’s tactics are designed to intimidate conservative media outlets.
  • The agency has also been criticized for targeting citizens. Darnella Wilkerson, an older black activist, was fined thousands of dollars over paperwork issues, effectively shutting down her ability to participate in political organizing.
  • Lawmakers have raised concerns that the commission is being used to silence political speech rather than enforce ethical standards. A growing number of Republican legislators have called for reforms to rein in the agency.

    • The case was a serious overreach for a Texas Ethics Commission serving narrow political interests rather than those of free speech, democratic governance and the public good. Hopeful the case will be heard by the Supreme Court, and both Sullivan and Paxton will come out victorious.

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    Posted in Supreme Court, Texas | No Comments »

    DOGE Vs. The Vampire Menace

    February 17th, 2025

    In Avram Davidson and Ward Moore’s novel Joyleg, some modern federal bureaucrats launch an investigation into a possible case of fraud: The titular character is still collecting an $11 a month veteran’s pension…from the Revolutionary War.

    But according to DOGE’s audit of the Social Security database, there are over 15 million supercentenarians (those 110 years are older) for whom the death flag has been set to FALSE.

    Elon Musk was expected to remain offline Sunday night into Monday morning as his xAI team prepared for the highly anticipated debut of “Grok 3,” scheduled for release Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST. However, the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), tasked with streamlining the federal bureaucracy, returned very excited to his social media platform around midnight, unveiling what “might be the biggest fraud in history.”

    Musk posted a spreadsheet of Social Security Administration data showing “numbers of people in each age bucket with the death field set to FALSE!”

    The data shows that 20.789 million Americans are collecting social security benefits over the age of 100. Drilling down into the age buckets, benefits are still being paid out to folks over 140!

    “Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security,” Musk emphasized.

    One X user pointed out that 2023 data showed the US population at around 334.9 million. However, Musk’s data (likely from DOGE’s ‘Big Balls’ analyst) shows 394 million names in the Social Security Administration database.

    Musk responded: “Yes, there are FAR more “eligible” social security numbers than there are citizens in the USA. This might be the biggest fraud in history.”

    How corrupt is our government that no one looked into this fraud long ago?

    At the very least, reporters should be quite keen to interview the one person in the 360-369 age bracket, to ask them about living through The French and Indian War and get their health and longevity tips…

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    Posted in Budget, Crime, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | 11 Comments »

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