Archive for the ‘Texas’ Category
Thursday, October 17th, 2024
Commenter LBK alerted me to this, but the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals just yanked a case from Clinton appointee Janis Jack that she had presided over for thirteen years.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ordered the case of M.D. v. Abbott be reassigned, in addition to vacating a contempt order [Clinton appointee Janis] Jack entered.
The panel released a 36-page opinion that found Jack has shown an extensive and well-documented pattern of antagonism toward the State of Texas and its counsel, and a bias favoring plaintiffs who have strived for years to get the state to comply with orders for timely investigations into abuse allegations.
Although the panel recognized Jack’s institutional knowledge and the complexity of the civil case, the court said, “It is necessary to reconsider the continued adversarial nature of this proceeding.”
Circuit Judge Edith H. Jones, in her analysis of the history between Jack and the Texas agencies she oversees, also strongly indicated Jack erred in not recognizing the state has been “substantially compliant” in recent years with the court’s orders.
The opinion, anticipating reassignment, gives notice to that regardless which jurist inherits the case, “as a general rule of law federal judges are not allowed to become permanent de facto superintendents of major state agencies.”
Jones said it is not appropriate “for federal court intervention to thwart the state’s self-management, where the state is taking strides to eliminate the abuses that led to the original decree.”
The Department of Family and Protective Services, in a prepared statement, said, “We are pleased that the Fifth Circuit recognized the significant efforts DFPS and HHSC have invested in serving the children and families of our state. We remain committed and are grateful to Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Legislature for their continued support in furthering the well-being of our most vulnerable Texans.”
TDFPS is hardly free of sin. At one point Abbott had to instruct them to stop requiring Critical Race Theory classes. Somehow I have a feeling that wasn’t something Jack objected to…
Yetter Coleman partner R. Paul Yetter, lead counsel for the plaintiffs and appellee advocate during the Aug. 5 oral argument, has worked the case since it was first filed.
“We respectfully disagree with the panel ruling and will ask for reconsideration by the whole circuit,” Yetter said, adding the case will stay with Jack at least until the reconsideration petition is decided.
When litigation began, Jack’s role involved addressing abuses within the entire foster care program and more than 10,000 children.
In 2014, Jack issued her ruling after trial and the remedial measures were appealed to the Fifth Circuit. Although the Fifth Circuit provided the state some relief in a series of orders over a period of years, Yetter said the merits of the case have been thoroughly adjudicated and the focus has been on compliance for the past five years.
The issues before the appeals court this time are primarily focused on 38 unresolved cases involving children with intellectual disabilities that are in the state’s permanent custody.
Wait, 13 years and $100,000 in fines over 38 cases? I would imagine that most of them have aged out of the system by now. Every life is sacred, but $100,000 a day in fines for 38 cases seems…disproportionate.
Speaking in Jack’s defense, Yetter argued the judge has been “incredibly patient” with the state for the past seven years, and the Fifth Circuit did not credit Jack where she praised state officials on progress made.
“There’s been improvement, and she’s called them out and praised state officials for that,” Yetter said.
In an amicus curiae filed by Alexander Dubose & Jefferson attorney Marcy Hogan Greer on behalf of National Disability Rights Network, Center for Public Representation, New Disabled South, and Disability Rights Mississippi, Greer argued Texas has continued to fail foster children with intellectual disabilities.
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission created a special “Provider Investigations” unit to investigate alleged abuses of children with disabilities “who are often incapable of advocating for themselves,” but that unit “has been plagued by incompetence, ineptitude, insensitivity, and backlog,” Greer noted.
Texas appealed a Jack contempt order in April that came with a $100,000-a-day fine. The Fifth Circuit stayed the fine and late Friday vacated it with the reassignment order.
The actual decision is here, and near the end it notes:
We take no position on issues that have not yet matured into appealable orders. However, as a general rule of law federal judges are not allowed to become permanent de facto superintendents of major state agencies. Horne v. Flores, 557 U.S. 433, 453, 129 S. Ct. 2579, 2597 (2009) (“[T]he longer an injunction or consent decree stays in place, the greater the risk that it will improperly interfere with a State’s democratic processes.”); United States v. Mississippi, 82 F.4th 387, 400 (5th Cir. 2023)(“Micromanagement, enforced upon threat of contempt, does not reflect the principles of comity” in prison context.). Nor, under the federalist structure created by the Constitution, is it appropriate for federal court intervention to thwart the state’s self-management, where the state is taking strides to eliminate the abuses that led to the original decree. Horne, 557 U.S. at 448,
129 S. Ct. at 2593–94 (“Federalism concerns are heightened” where “a federal court decree has the effect of dictating state . . . budget priorities.”).
Nor are federal judges even suited, by training or temperament, to manage institutions, personnel, or the provision of vital state services, even if counselled by monitors. In this case particularly, the integrity of oversight may have been further put at risk by the trial court’s creation of a “fund,” based on plaintiffs’ attorneys’ foregoing their court-approved fees, that the court may evidently disburse at its discretion. Federal judges should not be personally allocating resources from the state’s taxpayers for purposes not directly tied to and controlled by the state itself in order to abide by a court decree.
Indeed.
I’m sure there probably were some significant cases of abuse at the heart of the case, but 13 years seems like a ridiculously long time for a case to drag on (though far from the longest).
Tags:5th Circuit Court of Appeals, Edith H. Jones, Janis Jack, Social Justice Warriors, Texas, Texas Department of Family and Protective Services
Posted in Democrats, Social Justice Warriors, Texas | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, October 16th, 2024
Good news! The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has given Texas the green light to actually enforce voter integrity laws.
The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has granted the State of Texas’ request to pause a district court’s injunction against a 2021 Texas election law, citing the Supreme Court’s guidance against altering election laws close to an election.
The order notes that the “law has been on the books for over three years, but the court did not see fit to enjoin until now.”
In 2021, Abbott signed into law Senate Bill (SB) 1, which added provisions designed to prevent voter fraud by creating additional criminal statutes, prohibiting unsolicited mail-in ballot applications, and setting more ground rules for early voting and voter registration.
The law creates an offense for “vote harvesting services” and specifically bans “in-person interaction with one or more voters, in the physical presence of an official ballot, a ballot voted by mail, or an application for ballot by mail, intended to deliver votes for a specific candidate or measure.”
The “Election Protection and Integrity Act” was a centerpiece of Texas GOP legislation and received significant pushback from Democratic lawmakers at the time it passed, sparking a quorum bust as many members of the Democratic caucus fled to Washington D.C. The U.S. Department of Justice even went as far as filing a lawsuit to challenge two provisions of the law.
Six progressive organizations sued the state over the election integrity laws, with a federal judge issuing a ruling last month that declared the law unconstitutional and enjoined state officials from enforcing it.
Funny how Democrat-appointed judges always seem to want to let Democrats cheat. We covered the stay here.
La Union Del Pueblo Entero (LUPE) was the lead plaintiff, along with the League of Women Voters of Texas, the Texas American Federation of Teachers, the Texas Alliance for Retired Americans, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), and OCA-Greater Houston.
All of these, including the teacher’s union, are merely appendages of the social justice-infected Democratic Party.
Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has launched voter integrity investigations into a number of Texas counties, promised to appeal the ruling to the 5th Circuit Court.
Days later, the 5th Circuit issued a temporary stay of the federal judge’s ruling.
Circuit Court Judge James Ho, who authored the court’s decision, explained, “The district court issued this injunction after counties have already started to mail absentee ballots.”
“So Texans are about to cast ballots not subject to voter privacy protections currently on the books but rather subject to the injunction issued by the district court.”
Judge Irma Carrillo Ramirez, in the concurring judgment, wrote, “Because of the proximity of the injunction’s issuance to the upcoming election, issuance of a stay is consistent with both Supreme Court and this court’s precedent.”
Democrats have previously used politiqueras all across south Texas to wheedle, cajole, steal, and fake votes for Democrats. This ruling should prevent at least this one avenue of Democratic Party voting fraud for this election.
Tags:2024 Election, 2024 Presidential Race, Elections, Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Irma Carrillo Ramirez, James Ho, La Union Del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), League of Women Voters, Texas, Texas Alliance for Retired Americans, Texas American Federation of Teachers, voting fraud
Posted in Democrats, Elections, Texas | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, October 15th, 2024
It’s bad enough that Venezuelan illegal alien gang Tren de Aragua is taking over apartment complexes in San Antonio and hotels in El Paso, but now they’re recruiting Houston middle school students.
Authorities have arrested a confirmed Tren de Aragua gang member, after he allegedly recruited students from two Houston middle schools to join the Venezuelan gang.
According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Jorgenys Robertson Cova—an illegal alien from Venezuela—entered the United States two years ago.
Cova is suspected to have recruited students from Jane Long Academy and Las Americas—both of which are located in the Houston Independent School District. He was arrested last week after being wanted in Pearland for theft and was accused of recruiting the students.
The Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed Cova was part of the Venezuelan gang after observing known tattoos related to the gang on his arms that included a five-point crown and a clock and roses. Other known tattoos include stars, Ak-47s, and trains.
Via FAIR, here are some of the tattoos DPS seems to be focusing on.
Cova was scheduled for an asylum hearing in Houston on the same day he was taken into custody and booked into the Brazoria County Jail.
A Houston ISD spokesperson told Texas Scorecard that they have not been made aware of any activities related to the gang member, but will work with law enforcement to provide any information they need.
The gang has also been spotted in North Dallas, with Dallas Police officers confirming they have infiltrated the city. Members of the Tren De Aragua gang have congregated with other Venezuelans in the northern part of Dallas, nicknamed “Villa Dallas.” Since the gang’s arrival, the neighborhood has become riddled with illegal street racing, beatings, shootings, and extortion attempts.
It was bad enough when gangs recruited high schoolers, but now their dragging middle schoolers into a life of crime. Thanks, Joe Biden.
As I noted before, I never read about Tren de Aragua until the Biden-Harris Administration decided to flood America with illegal aliens, and now they seem to be popping up everywhere. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has designated Tren de Aragua as a terrorist organization and is offering up to a $5,000 reward for information leading to capture of members.
There’s just no end to the vibrant diversity that Democrats have inflicted on ordinary Americans…
Tags:Border Controls, Crime, Dallas, Democrats, Houston, Houston Independent School District, Illegal Aliens, Jorgenys Robertson Cova, Pearland, Social Justice Warriors, Texas, Tren de Aragua, Venezuela
Posted in Border Control, Crime, Democrats, Social Justice Warriors, Texas | 6 Comments »
Monday, October 14th, 2024
This is a pretty startling tidbit via Texas Republican congressman Chip Roy:
Given that the entire population of Texas is some 31,000,000 people, that means that just under 10% of the population are non-citizens, the majority of which are probably illegal aliens, and most of them have probably been imported under the Biden-Harris administration.
If you were wondering how Democrats were planning on stealing the 2024 election, that’s one of the ways. Fortunately, Texas officials finally seem to have their act together for ensuring only citizens vote.
In a major reversal from her guidance just days ago, Secretary of State Jane Nelson now says non-citizen driver’s licenses may not be used as a form of voter identification.
The Texas Department of Public Safety issues driver’s licenses and personal identification cards to lawfully present noncitizens, which are clearly marked “Temporary Visitor” or “Limited-Term” and expire after one year or when the individual’s period of lawful presence ends.
An advisory from the Secretary of State issued Tuesday afternoon stated that while citizens should not use these types of IDs to vote, poll workers should nonetheless offer a regular ballot to people on the voter rolls who present a noncitizen ID. This contrasts with previous guidance from the Secretary of State’s office in 2018, which specifically stated that DPS-issued driver’s licenses and personal identification cards “should not be used if ‘Limited Term’ or ‘Temporary Visitor’ appears on the face of the card, as this indicates the person is not a U.S. Citizen.”
Instead, voters with such IDs were urged to show other forms of identification, including naturalization certificates or passports.
After backlash, Nelson has issued “updated guidance” reversing the decision:
When an individual attempts to vote by presenting a temporary or limited-term driver’s license (which federal regulations say must be issued only to non-citizens who are lawfully present in this country) election workers must require that the individual produce a naturalization card or naturalization certificate demonstrating U.S. citizenship to receive a regular ballot.
I still expect Democrats to try to harvest illegal alien votes (and pursue other avenues of voting fraud) in deep blue cities, but state vigilance has helped forestall this particular avenue of illegal alien voting fraud.
But voting fraud is far from the only baleful effects of Democrats importing such a staggering number of illegal aliens into Texas (and elsewhere). Higher crime rates, soaring housing costs, and downward pressure on manual labor and entry level jobs are all notable problems, as is the diversion of federal funds from more vital tasks to fund the Biden-Harris illegal alien importation agenda.
The Biden-Harris administration allegedly redirected funds meant for securing the southern border to advancing its open borders agenda.
The Center for Renewing America reported that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been using funds allocated to U.S. Customs and Border Protection to spur illegal border crossings.
Specifically, CRA Executive Director Wade Miller levied accusations against the Biden-Harris administration for propagating the illusion that CBP had enough taxpayer funding, but then moving those dollars to FEMA to advance open-border policies.
He described this process as being even more scandalous than FEMA funding illegal aliens with its own money.
“It appears that much of the money used by FEMA to fund illegal immigration was transferred to FEMA from CBP,” Miller posted on X. “The Biden/Harris admin is defunding border security to facilitate open borders.”
Miller explained later that “Democrats set up the CBP funding levels to make it look like CBP had non-laughable funding levels, with the intent of then later transferring those funds to fund the open borders agenda through FEMA.”
While U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas revealed that FEMA is running out of money amid the ongoing hurricane season, FEMA actually spent exorbitant amounts of money on welfare for illegal aliens.
For example, in the past two years alone, FEMA covered approximately $1 billion worth of food, shelter, and transportation for illegal aliens.
Now, not only is FEMA allegedly out of money, but the federal government has also been accused of taking taxpayer dollars from CBP’s pockets and transferring it to FEMA to continue its spending on illegal aliens.
“Absolutely nothing that Border Czar Kamala Harris and President Biden do – or intentionally fail to do – surprises me,” State Rep. David Spiller told Texas Scorecard. “They continue to consciously endanger every Texan and American by their indefensible open border policies.”
Having this many illegal aliens running around lose is an active threat to Texas and the United States. A second Trump presidency is necessary to secure the border and start the deportation of all illegal aliens.
Tags:2024 Election, Border Controls, Center for Renewing America, Chip Roy, David Spiller, demographics, FEMA, Illegal Aliens, Jane Nelson, Texas, Texas DPS, Texas Scorecard, voting fraud, Wade Miller
Posted in Border Control, Texas | 9 Comments »
Friday, October 11th, 2024
Weird roundup this week: Lot’s of Hollywood and car news, not too much on the looming election. (Shrugs.) It’s whatever happens to catch my eye.
It’s the Friday LinkSwarm!
Yes, Democrats spent FEMA money on illegal aliens.
More than 200 people have been confirmed dead as a result of Hurricane Helene, and that total is expected to rise as search-and-rescue crews reach more remote communities. Roads have been destroyed, many towns are still without power, and people are beginning to run out of food as trucks cannot get in to provide aid.
Amid all of this, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the architect of the migrant invasion, warns that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is running out of money to aid hurricane victims. Meanwhile, thanks to the migrant crisis his catch-and-release policies created, FEMA has spent over $1 billion feeding, housing, and transporting illegal immigrants across the United States in just the last two years.
Before he was elected, President Joe Biden said of migrants wanting to enter the U.S. illegally, “We could afford to take in a heartbeat another 2 million.” Thanks to Biden’s subsequent policies, all supported by Vice President Kamala Harris, including the end of former President Donald Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” program, the temporary suspension of all deportations, and the creation of the CBP One app parole program and the Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans parole program, the number of illegal immigrants allowed into the U.S. by Biden has been closer to 4 million.
Unfortunately for communities across the U.S., the ability of this country to take in millions of illegal immigrants has not been as smooth as Biden predicted. Cities, many of them controlled by Democrats, have been begging the federal government for assistance in housing, clothing, feeding, education, and providing healthcare for the flood of migrants who are straining budgets in their communities.
In response, the Biden administration has spent tens of billions of dollars helping to ease the pain caused by their illegal migrant invasion. Local governments are required to provide education to all children, regardless of legal status, and the Department of Education helps local governments pay to educate these children. Hospitals must provide emergency care to all patients, even illegal immigrants without health insurance, and so the Department of Health and Human Services helps local hospitals stay afloat by reimbursing them through Medicaid.
And the Department of Homeland Security helps provide food, housing, and transportation to illegal immigrants through FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program and Shelter and Services Program Awards program. When the influx of migrants was bankrupting cities across the country this past winter, Democratic mayors traveled to the White House to beg Biden for more FEMA money to help their communities “meet the growing needs of these individuals.”
And the White House gave them the FEMA money they wanted. In just the last two years alone, the Biden administration has spent over $1 billion in FEMA funds giving local communities the resources needed to deal with the migrant crisis that the Biden administration created.
if Joe Biden had said he wanted to let 4 million illegal aliens into the country, and subsidize their food and clothing, do you think he would have been “elected” in 2020?
CBS lies, altering interview of Kamala Harris on Israel:
(Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
At CBS, an employee stands accused of doing actual journalism.
On September 30th, anti-Israel author Ta-Nehisi Coates sat down for what turned out to be a spirited six-and-a-half-minute interview on CBS Mornings, during which co-anchor Tony Dokoupil challenged some of the claims made in Coates’ new book, “The Message.”
The book contains several essays about some of Coates’ travels, with the longest one being about his trip “to Palestine.” It was claims made in that essay that Dokoupil zeroed in on for closer examination during their exchange:
“I have to say, when I read the book, I imagine if I took your name out of it, took away the awards, the acclaim, took the cover off the book, publishing house goes away, the content of that section would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist,” Dokoupil said.
“So then I found myself wondering, why does Ta’Nehisi Coates, who I’ve known for a long time, read his work for a long time, very talented, smart guy, leave out so much? Why leave out that Israel is surrounded by countries that want to eliminate it? Why leave out that Israel deals with terror groups that want to eliminate it? Why not detail anything of the first and the second Intifada, the café bombings, the bus bombings, the little kids blown to bits. Is it because you just don’t believe that Israel in any condition has a right to exist?” the CBS anchor continued.
Perhaps because Coates’ word is viewed as sacrosanct by woke leftists in the media, academia, and beyond despite his deeply flawed logic on issues like reparations, eruptions began almost immediately in the CBS newsroom, with tensions boiling over a week later during an editorial call:
During its editorial meeting on Monday at 9 a.m.—the morning of October 7—the network’s top brass all but apologized for the interview to staff, saying that it did not meet the company’s “editorial standards.” After being introduced by Wendy McMahon, the head of CBS News, Adrienne Roark, who is in charge of news gathering at the network, began her remarks by saying covering a story like October 7 “requires empathy, respect, and a commitment to truth.”
After quoting extensively from the CBS News handbook, she said, “We will still ask tough questions. We will still hold people accountable. But we will do so objectively, which means checking our biases and opinions at the door…”
Presumably, the “bias” accusations stem from the fact that, according to the New York Post, Dokoupil is “a convert to Judaism whose ex-wife lives in Israel along with their two children.”
“During its editorial meeting on Monday at 9 a.m.—the morning of October 7—the network’s top brass all but apologized for the interview to staff, saying that it did not meet the company’s ‘editorial standards.’”
Though Shalt Not Question the Holy Social justice.
#BlackLivesMatter fraudster Tyree Conyers-Page sentenced to 42 months in prison.
A US judge has sentenced a disgraced Black Lives Matter leader to federal prison after he was convicted at trial in April on wire fraud and money laundering charges. Sir Maejor Page, 35, of Toledo, Ohio, who uses the alias Tyree Conyers-Page, was found guilty of running a “fake charity scheme” for personal profit, defrauding donors of more than $450,000 they had given to his nonprofit Black Lives Matter of Greater Atlanta.
US District Court Judge Jeffrey Helmick of the Northern District of Ohio sentenced Page on Thursday to 42 months in federal prison. He was also ordered to pay a $400 special assessment fee, according to a press release from the Department of Justice.
Prosecutors accused Page of defrauding 18,000 donors who collectively gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to his fraudulent charity, Black Lives Matter of Greater Atlanta. Page took the donations and used them for his own personal benefit. He purchased entertainment, hotel rooms, clothing, firearms, and a property in Ohio that he intended to use as his personal residence, court documents showed.
Page continued to collect donations for his “social justice” charity through its Facebook page after the organization’s tax-exempt status was revoked for failing to submit IRS Form 990 for three consecutive years. He consistently shared content on Facebook relating to social justice and racial issues in order to establish the legitimacy of his nonprofit organization, despite the fact this it was no longer tax-exempt. The convicted fraudster used Facebook to communicate privately with donors, to which he falsely claimed that their contributions would be allocated to “fight for George Floyd” and the “movement.”
#BlackLivesMatter was fraud all the way down…
Elon Musk thinks that the reason so many billionaires are dumping money on Kamala is that they’re terrified Trump will release Epstein’s client list.
Does internal polling show Harris in trouble?
In a recent podcast interview, the political analyst who first predicted that Joe Biden would withdraw from the presidential race revealed that private polling he has seen appears to suggest that Vice President Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) is in serious trouble ahead of the November election.
According to Breitbart, Newsmax commentator and former political director for ABC News Mark Halperin gave his analysis on The Morning Meeting with Sean Spicer and Dan Turrentine. Halperin said that internal polling could see Harris lose all but one of the seven swing states in this election, as her current lead in the national popular vote is not enough to win the electoral college against former President Donald Trump.
“So the new New York Times poll shows her up three nationally,” Halperin explained. “We all know that three is like the bubble point, right? If she’s up three, she’s got a chance to win the Electoral College, but they’d rather be at four, and they don’t want to be at two. So three is right at the bubble. I’m not saying this Times poll’s right. But it’s in line with international polls.”
“We all know from our contacts in both campaigns that Pennsylvania is tough for her right now. And without Pennsylvania, there are paths, but there aren’t many. There’s no path without Wisconsin,” Halperin continued. “So you see here, Tammy Baldwin’s Senate campaign poll shows Harris down three in Wisconsin. We all said yesterday, Wisconsin and Michigan are looking worse for Harris than before.”
Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin’s (D-Wisc.) campaign had previously shared internal polling with both the Wall Street Journal and Axios, showing Harris losing to Trump in the state and Baldwin herself with a mere 2-point lead over her Republican challenger, Eric Hovde (R-Wisc.).
Such results in private polls align with the trend reflected in public polls, with pollsters such as Quinnipiac University and Emerson College showing President Trump gaining momentum in most of the swing states, now either leading Harris or tied in enough states to win the electoral college.
“I just saw some new private polling today that’s very robust private polling. She’s in a lot of trouble,” said Halperin. “The conversation I’m having with Trump people and Democrats with data are extremely bullish on Trump’s chances in the last 48 hours, extremely bullish. You think of the seven battleground states; which ones is Harris in danger of losing? I would say Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, North Carolina and Georgia. I’m not saying she’ll lose all six, but she’s in danger.”
If Harris were to lose these six states but hold the seventh swing state, Nevada, then the result would be an exact repeat of the 2016 election, with President Trump winning 306 electoral votes to Harris’ 232.
“100-foot ‘Vote for Trump’ sign lit up in Amsterdam, NY after court rules against Democrat-run city for trying to block it.”
Others have done a better job reporting this, but Milton hit central Florida hard.
“Law enforcement has arrested Estefania Primera, an illegal alien from Venezuela, following reports that she was the ring leader for a gang’s sex trafficking operation in El Paso. Primera was named by a sex trafficking victim as the leader of a Tren de Aragua sex trafficking ring.”
“Springfield resident films Haitian migrant cutting up animal in yard of “pet-friendly” apartment complex featured on CNN.”
Ukrainian drones hit another Russian ammo depot.
They also hit a Shahed drone stockpile in Krasnodar.
They also hit an oil facility in Feodosia, where the fire spread for days.
Meta fined $101 million for storing Facebook passwords without encryption. This is like setting your smart phone unlock number to 1234…
The Royal New Zealand Navy manages to lose a ship to a reef. I’m sure that result had nothing to with the captain being a lesbian and that she was super-qualified and not a diversity hire…
People have been asking about the Texas temporary ID ruling in other threads, and now we have an update.
Secretary of State Asks Attorney General to Rule on ‘Limited Term’ Driver’s Licenses as Voter ID. Paxton received a request from Secretary of State Nelson to rule on the validity of “limited term” driver’s licenses as voter ID.
Texas Secretary of State (SOS) Jane Nelson issued an advisory on Tuesday that describes “limited term” driver’s licenses as an acceptable form of voter ID, though recommending other forms of photo identification if possible.
While the Texas Election Code does not specifically designate “limited term” ID cards as a permissible form of voter ID, it does describe “a personal identification card issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety” (TxDPS) as an approved form of identification.
As Nelson’s advisory acknowledges, TxDPS distributes “temporary term” driver’s licenses to noncitizens, provided they are an individual with lawful temporary status in the U.S.
The SOS’s guidance concedes that if an individual is registered to vote and presents a “limited term” driver’s license or ID card, they may receive a ballot after being fully informed by the election judge or clerk of the “eligibility requirements” necessary to vote in Texas.
The issue cited by the SOS is that while the limited term ID denotes noncitizen status at one point, it doesn’t mean that the individual has not since been naturalized. Transportation Code also includes the limited term ID as a valid form of identification, creating a small window for a potentially legitimate use of the document to vote.
Additionally, if an individual presents a “limited term” ID card but is not registered to vote, they may receive a provisional ballot after election officials fully evaluate what their lack of registration and unique form of identification suggests.
Nelson recommended using language such as, “The limited-term driver’s license/identification card you presented suggests that you are not a United States citizen. Your name does not appear on the list of registered voters. Per the Texas Election Code, to be eligible to vote in the State of Texas, you must be a qualified voter of this state,” when explaining the situation to the unregistered voter and prior to distributing a provisional ballot.
Nelson requested on October 9 that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton rule on whether a limited term driver’s license that “generates questions of voter eligibility” is a valid form of voter ID and if an election official must present a ballot to an individual who only provides such ID in person. The request is for a non-binding opinion by the Office of the Attorney General.
Nelson also asked Paxton how ballot workers ought to treat mail-in ballots that only list an ID number or driver’s license card that is “limited term,” in regards both to “counting” the vote and for investigating “instances of fraud.”
So Paxton will be able to nip this potential avenue of voting fraud in the bud.
“A former Democrat member of the Texas Senate is throwing his support behind a Republican candidate for the seat he once held. Former State Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. of Brownsville announced his endorsement of Adam Hinojosa in the race against freshman Democrat State Sen. Morgan LaMantia, pointing to their shared pro-life values as a key reason.”
The Biden Recession is slamming restaurants.
“The most fun I had going to see the new Joker movie was in the car ride and from it, because I was listening to Warhammer 40K lore on the Horus Heresy. And just listening to that was better than seeing Joker Folie a Deux.”
Finally, a non-insulting use for AI? They’re going to use AI to create dubs of original Japanese anime in voices that sound like the original Japanese voice actors. This would be a big improvement on a lot of the early crappy dubs, but I can’t imagine American voice actors being thrilled at losing those gigs…
95% of gamers don’t want DEI in their games. Obviously. Social Justice poisons everything it touches.
Oh no! Velma has been cancelled! Let’s have a moment of silence forOK that’s enough.
Speaking of things that have no future, Deadspin fails to get the lawsuit against it over calling a young Kansas City Chiefs fan racist thrown out. G/O Media is looking at losing a lot of money for dickish virtue signaling…
Social Justice video game consulting company Sweet Baby Inc. scrubs their website of just about everything, including their client list.
“Oklahoma-based BrucePac has issued a massive recall of nearly 10 million pounds of “ready-to-eat” meat and chicken products due to potential contamination with Listeria.” Here’s a complete list of the products recalled.
“Electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Fisker Inc. is under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and faces formal objections from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) over its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. The company filed for bankruptcy earlier this year after halting production in March…The DOJ contends in filings that Fisker’s proposed $750,000 cap on recall expenses in its bankruptcy plan is insufficient to cover both parts and labor costs required for vehicle repairs.”
Also: “New York-based company called American Lease was less deterred by this warning and in June agreed to purchase the remaining Fisker inventory—approximately 3,300 cars for a total of $46.3 million dollars. By October, American Lease had paid Fisker $42.5 million and had taken delivery of about 1,100 Oceans. That was the plan until the end of last week, at least. Last Friday evening, Fisker informed American Lease that the Oceans ‘cannot, as a technical matter, be ‘ported’ from the Fisker server to which the vehicles are currently linked to a distinct server owned and/or controlled by’ American Lease.” (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
Also from Instapundit: Fisker left their California headquarters trashed when they vacated.
“Kia cars can be hacked with a smartphone.”
The issue originated in one of the Kia web portals used by dealerships. Long story short and a hefty bit of API abuse later, [Sam] Curry and his band of far-more-capable Kia Boyz managed to register a fake dealer account to get a valid access token, which they were then able to use to call any backend dealer API command they wanted.
“From the victim’s side, there was no notification that their vehicle had been accessed nor their access permissions modified,” Curry noted in his writeup. “An attacker could resolve someone’s license plate, enter their VIN through the API, then track them passively and send active commands like unlock, start, or honk.”
Sales for once mighty Toyota are down due to a massive engine recall.
“1 killed, 12 rescued inside Colorado gold mine after elevator malfunctioned during tour.” Dwight pointed this out to me, mainly because I just posted a Halloween horror piece on mining disasters, including the famously gruesome Val Reef’s gold mine elevator disaster.
Bungled. “A founding member of the experimental rock band Mr. Bungle was found guilty Friday of first-degree murder in the killing of his girlfriend after prosecutors in California found an audio file the victim recorded on her phone as she fought for her life. A jury in Santa Cruz deliberated for a day before finding Theobald ‘Theo’ Lengyel guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of his girlfriend Alice “Alyx” Kamakaokalani Herrmann on the night of Dec. 4, 2023, inside her Capitola home.” (Hat tip: Dwight.)
Trop dropped.
Quentin Tarantino on how John Carpenter’s The Thing inspired both Reservoir Dogs and The Hateful Eight.
The pianist cashed his ticket and drove an exhausting 500 miles to the concert venue on the only night he could play, only to find a broken, out-of-tune piano. The restaurant couldn’t get his order right before he had to leave to perform. He refused to play multiple times before finally relenting and, still in pain from the drive, improvised the best-selling solo piano album of all time.
“Democrats Perplexed Why Candidate Nobody Ever Voted For Is Slipping In The Polls.”
“FEMA Warns They Don’t Have The Resources To Block Humanitarian Aid For Next Hurricane.”
“Trembling, Bleeding Spokeswoman Issues Statement Denying That Doug Emhoff Would Ever Hit Anyone.”
“Thousands Of Migrant Farmworkers Head North In Preparation For The Democrat Ballot Harvest.”
“Lesbian Captain Crashes After Insisting Ships Don’t Have To Go Into Ports.”
This dog story angries up my blood, but it has a happy ending.
I’ve been unemployed a year now, so feel free to hit the tip jar.
Also, a hearty thanks to everyone who has already donated.
Tags:#BlackLivesMatter, 2024 Election, 2024 Presidential Race, Adam Hinojosa, Alejandro Mayorkas, Alice “Alyx” Kamakaokalani Herrmann, Babylon Bee, bankruptcy, Biden Recession, Border Controls, California, cars, CBS News, Crime, Democrats, dogs, Doug Emhoff, drones, Eddie Lucio, El Paso, electric cars, Elon Musk, Estefania Primera, Facebook, FEMA, Fisker, Florida, food, fraud, hacking, Haiti, Hollywood, horror movies, Hurricane, Illegal Aliens, Israel, Jane Nelson, Jeffrey Epstein, Joe Biden, John Carpenter, Kamala Harris, Ken Paxton, Kia, LinkSwarm, Mark Halperin, Media Watch, Morgan LaMantia, movies, murder, music, New York, New Zealand, polls, Quintin Tarantino, recall, Republicans, restaurants, Russia, Russo-Ukrainian War, Sam Curry, SEC, sexual slavery, Social Justice Warriors, Springfield (OH), Texas, Tren de Aragua, Tyree Conyers-Page, Ukraine, Velma, Voter ID, voting fraud
Posted in Border Control, Crime, Democrats, Elections, Military, Social Justice Warriors, Texas | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, October 8th, 2024
The Biden-Harris Administration’s decision to flood America with illegal alien criminals continues to bear bitter fruit. Police raided a San Antonio Apartment complex taken over by Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua over the weekend.
Law enforcement officials have confirmed that a vacant San Antonio apartment complex had fallen under the control of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which was using it as a base for criminal activity.
On Saturday morning, a multi-agency task force—which included the San Antonio Police Department, Texas Anti-Gang Unit, Texas Department of Public Safety, Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Border Patrol, and U.S. Department of Homeland Security—cleared more than 300 vacant units at the Palatia Apartment complex on the North side of the city.
San Antonio PD had received several complaints about the complex regarding narcotics, human trafficking, and threats to apartment personnel, according to San Antonio Police Chief Bill McManus.
“We had information that members of the transnational gang, Tren de Aragua, were in control of the area and committing various crimes,” said McManus during a press conference. “The task force processed over 20 individuals that we arrested. We confirmed that four TdA members are in custody.”
McManus also revealed that one of the members is an “enforcer” for the gang, who collects payments or dues on behalf of the gang. Nineteen of the 20 detained were charged, with several having warrants out for their arrest.
The weeks-long investigation by San Antonio PD—“Operation Aurora”—was part of a broader effort to disrupt Tren de Aragua’s influence in Texas.
Authorities believe the Venezuelan gang has been involved in prostitution, selling cocaine, and other violent crimes in the city. McManus said the gang has been operating in San Antonio for “several months.”
“We assure the community and members of the public that we are committed to their safety, and we are on top of this TDA issue that seems to have gone very public lately,” said McManus.
McManus said this was only the first takedown of a known gang location and that they have “other places we are going to hit.”
“We are on to you,” McManus told Tren de Aragua. “We are coming for you, and we know where you are.”
The gang has also been spotted in North Dallas, with Dallas Police officers confirming they have infiltrated the city. Members of the Tren De Aragua gang have congregated with other Venezuelans in the northern part of Dallas, nicknamed “Villa Dallas.” Since the gang’s arrival, the neighborhood has become riddled with illegal street racing, beatings, shootings, and extortion attempts.
As I’ve noted before, I never read about Tren de Aragua until the Biden-Harris Administration decided to flood America with illegal aliens, and now they seem to be popping up everywhere, from New York City to Aurora to El Paso, and Texas Governor Greg Abbott recently declared them a terrorist gang.
What do you think the odds are that Tren de Aragua is also active in more illegal alien-friendly blue states like California, and nobody is bothering to report on it or do anything about it?
Tags:Bill McManus, Border Controls, Border Patrol, Crime, Emily Medeiros, FBI, Illegal Aliens, police, prostitution, San Antonio, San Antonio Police Department, sexual slavery, Texas, Texas Anti-Gang Unit, Texas DPS, Texas Scorecard, Tren de Aragua
Posted in Border Control, Texas | 4 Comments »
Saturday, October 5th, 2024
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton doesn’t just sue the Biden Administration, he sues anyone breaking Texas law. and this time he’s suing Chinese-owned Tik-Tok.
Big tech companies, and TikTok especially, have continued to draw the attention of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has now sued the social media giant alleging it violated aspects of a newly enacted Texas online safety law.
“Big Tech companies are on notice that I will hold them accountable for exploiting Texas children and failing to prioritize minors’ online safety and privacy,” Paxton wrote on social media.
The Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment (SCOPE) Act is at the center of Paxton’s allegations. “In contravention of the SCOPE Act, Defendants have failed, and continue to fail, to create and provide parents and guardians with the tools legally required to protect minors’ privacy and safety,” the lawsuit states.
An overview of the SCOPE Act can be found here, and the full text of the act can be found here.
The SCOPE Act, also known as House Bill 18, was passed during the 88th Legislative Session. The law aims to prevent digital service providers (DSPs) from entering into agreements with minors without parental or guardian consent. It also mandates that DSPs include options in these agreements for parents or guardians to permanently enable specific settings.
It goes on to allege that TikTok has “failed to develop a commercially reasonable method for a known minor’s parent or guardian to verify their identity and relationship to a known minor.”
Last month, the SCOPE Act went into effect, but only partially.
Judge Robert Pitman for the Western District Court of Texas in Austin determined that the “monitoring-and-filter requirements” of the SCOPE Act, which would require DSPs to monitor certain categories of content and filter them from being on display for known minors,” posed a threat to “content based” online speech.
In his opinion, Pittman questioned the “overbroad terminology” employed by the SCOPE Act.
“For example, what does it mean for content to ‘promote’ ‘grooming?’ The law is not clear.”
“Grooming” is listed alongside other explicit topics like suicide and substance abuse that the SCOPE Act would have required DSPs to monitor and filter out for minors.
Tech industry groups NetChoice and the Computer and Communications Industry Association filed the lawsuit to block the law, and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) sued Paxton in an effort to prevent the SCOPE Act from going into effect.
“Texas law requires social media companies to take steps to protect kids online and requires them to provide parents with tools to do the same,” wrote Paxton about his most recent lawsuit. “TikTok and other social media companies cannot ignore their duties under Texas law.”
The lawsuit, filed in a Galveston County District Court, is seeking civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation and injunctive relief to prevent future violations of the SCOPE Act by TikTok.
TikTok has come under increased scrutiny in recent months.
President Joe Biden signed a bill into law that included a requirement for the Chinese corporation ByteDance to divest from the social media platform.
Last year, back when I wad employed, I had a cleaning lady come in to do my house before a small 4th of July gathering. She brought her daughter, who watched Tik-Tok videos while her mother cleaned. And by “watched,” I mean she would look at the first second or two of a video and then instantly scroll on to the next. I fear we’re raising generations with the attention span of a gnat.
We’ve previously covered that Tik-Tok is nasty Chinese spyware, but the issue of parental controls is not one easily solved, nor is the issue of balancing constitutional rights with the traditional doctrine of in loco parentis any less difficult. Indeed, there are multiple constitutional issues involved:
Just what “constitutional rights” does a corporation owned in part by the Chinese Communist Party enjoy? Corporate personhood is a legal fiction designed to allow corporate entities to enter into legal contracts an obtain standing as separate entities in the judicial system. The rights of foreign corporations to access American markets is usually defined by bilateral or multilateral treaties, yet we know Communist China ignores such treaties at will when it suits them. Why should Tik-Tok enjoy First Amendment protections when American corporations enjoy no such rights in China?
Can a state have the standing to regulate a company that doesn’t have any physical presence in that state? Can California sue Gunbroker for not banning AR pattern rifles entirely?
There seems to be a legal assumption that states have some standing in these matters, as Pornhub IP range-blocked Texas rather than test the constitutionality of parental control requirements in court.
It would be better if parents instituted their own controls and/or refrained from handing their spawn smartphones with mind-destroying Chinese spyware installed, but that doesn’t seem to be the world we live in.
Needless to say, if you have Tik-Tok on your phone, you should delete that right now…
Tags:China, Communism, FIRE, Internet, Ken Paxton, Lawsuit, Media Watch, Robert Pitman, Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment (SCOPE) Act, Texas, Tik-Tok
Posted in Media Watch, Texas | 5 Comments »
Friday, October 4th, 2024
A crippling dock strike gets the can kicked past election day, Hurricane Helene wrecks havoc on the highlands, illegal alien crime flourishes, two bombing plots aimed at “diversity” are thwarted, Texas A&M ditches woke classes, more Diddy dirt, and Japanese gamers aren’t onboard with Ubisoft’s “black samurai.”
It’s the Friday LinkSwarm!
“Striking Dockworkers Agree to Take a Measly 62 Percent Raise and Not Spoil the Election for Democrats.” How convenient.
“America Last: After Spending $640 Million On Migrants And Billions Abroad, FEMA Suddenly ‘Broke.'”
The Biden-Harris administration’s ‘America Last’ policies have left the country vulnerable. Between draining the strategic petroleum reserve, sending hundreds of billions in cash and equipment to Ukraine (such as electrical transformers that are now needed for Hurricane Helene), and FEMA spending $640 million to help migrants, the agency tasked with emergency preparedness is now ‘broke,’ and doesn’t have enough money to get through hurricane season which typically lasts through November.
The agency is being stretched as it works with states to assess damage from Hurricane Helene and delivers meals, water, generators and other critical supplies. The storm struck Florida last week, then plowed through several states in the Southeast, flooding towns and killing more than 160 people.
Mayorkas was not specific about how much additional money the agency may need, but his remarks on Air Force One underscored concerns voiced by President Joe Biden and some lawmakers earlier this week that Congress may need to pass a supplemental spending bill this fall to help states with recovery efforts.
“This woman blasted Joe Biden live on NBC – she has family that has been trapped in NC for days and says FEMA is nowhere in sight. Why haven’t President Biden or Vice President Harris called a major press conference and/or landed on the ground in towns that were wiped off the map by last week’s flooding?”
Indeed, there are a lot of reports that some government agencies are actively hindering private rescue and relief efforts in North Carolina. “Let’s begin with this terrible report of a man who used his own helicopter to rescue stranded people above Asheville, N.C., and who was told if he continued, he would be placed under arrest.”
Also: “We have medical teams trying to access Burnsville (elevation 2,700ft) and Black Mountain. Authorities are threatening arrest. I’m gonna keep this short & simple; something is very wrong here.”
Also: “NEW – Federal Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has shut down aid flights into Western North Carolina. A NOTAM has been issued by the FAA that won’t allow anyone not approved by the state to fly aid missions.”
Plus a slate of 18-wheeler tire slashings in multiple locations that’s hopefully not government sanctioned. Hopefully…
Trump announces that Elon Musk is providing free Starlink terminals to areas affected by hurricane Helene.
Musk will also be a Trump’s October 5 rally in Butler, PA, the same site as the attempted assassination attempt against Trump.
One pollster thinks Trump could win swing states by a landslide.
The Trafalgar Group released a poll on Wednesday showing Trump has increased his lead in the vital swing states of Michigan and Wisconsin.
The recent poll shows Trump beating Harris by 2.2 points in Michigan, with Trump scoring 47.5% of the votes to Harris’s 45.3%.
On August 31, the Trafalgar Group had Trump beating Harris 47% to 46.6%, a lead of only 0.4%.
Trump is winning in Wisconsin as well, topping the Kackler by 47.1% to 46%. The poll had Trump at 47.3% to Harris’s 46.2%.
“These numbers are the best we’ve seen for Trump in this election cycle. If this momentum holds, he could easily win by a significant margin,” a polling source stated.
In Pennsylvania, which many pundits believe Harris needs to win, Trump is up, with 47.5% of the vote, compared to Harris’s 45.3%.
(Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
“Texas Congressman Confirms Thousands of Murderers, Rapists Entered the Country Illegally.”
The Biden-Harris administration has allowed well over half a million illegal aliens with criminal histories to enter the United States.
U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-23) published the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement data on social media platform X.
According to the newly released information, 662,566 noncitizens on ICE’s national docket have criminal histories. These numbers include 13,099 murder convicts, 15,811 sexual assault convicts, and 13,423 weapon offense convicts.
“We’ve known for far too long that the Biden-Harris border crisis poses a direct threat to Americans,” Gonzales said in a press release. “The truth is clear—illegal immigrants with a criminal record are coming into our country.”
The Texas congressman asserted that beyond the disturbing new data, it should also serve as a “wake-up call” for the federal government and cities across the United States that keep sanctuary policies in place.
Gonzales first requested the data on March 13 when he penned a letter requesting answers to several illegal immigration questions to President Joe Biden and U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Of the seven million reported cases on ICE’s docket, the letter requested information on how many noncitizens were charged with a crime by a municipality. Additionally, the letter asked how many were noncitizens convicted of a crime and released into U.S. communities.
Over six months later, Gonzales has finally received a response.
Sure seems like Gonzales has been a lot more active on this issue since Brandon Herrera primaried him…
Another side effect of Biden-Harris open borders policy: An explosion of illegal alien prostitution networks.
As ‘Border Czar’ Kamala Harris visited the southern border for a photo-op on Friday, alarming new revelations also emerged showing that far-left Democrats in the White House rolled out the red carpet to 650,000 migrants with criminal records. This has already fueled chaos nationwide, including a new report of an “explosion in migrant prostitution” networks across America.
A newly leaked law enforcement document obtained by New York Post journalists shows that the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua has exploited desperate migrant women into sex trafficking networks across eight states.
At least eight states have seen an explosion in migrant prostitution since the gang laid down roots in the US, with authorities in Texas, Nevada, Illinois, California, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey and New York now fighting to curtail the sex trade, the memo shows. -NYPost
The Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua has been linked to sex trafficking in eight states including New York.
In New York City, police sources told the NYPost that Tren de Aragua gangsters are recruiting their members and victims straight out of city-run migrant shelters.
In the Big Apple, Tren de Aragua is trying to recruit foot soldiers to force women into sex trafficking — in the hopes that it will become a main source of income for the gang, according to the leaked memo.
Funny how we didn’t see or hear a single story about Tren de Aragua prior to the Biden Administration, and now they seem to be everywhere.
Speaking of sexual slavery, a Yazidi woman captured by the Islamic State was just rescued…in Gaza. From the river to the sea/No sex slave shall be free…
“A paralegal at a New York City district attorney’s office has been arrested after he attempted to make an explosive to bomb a migrant shelter located across from his apartment, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday.” See, here in Texas, we just want to deport illegal aliens, not blow them up…
“Philadelphia: Muslim teen hoped to make bombs for terror group, planned LGBTQ parade jihad massacre….Muhyyee-ud-din Abdul-Rahman, 18, of West Philadelphia, not only had bomb-making materials, that were found in the trash at his home, he had tested bombs in the woods behind his home and had likely considered an attack on Philly’s LGBTQ community.” Funny how some of the Democratic Party’s vibrant diversity wants to blow up other parts of the Democratic Party’s vibrant diversity…
John Kerry admits that the First Amendment is a huge barrier to forcing leftist views down people’s throats. “Our First Amendment stands as a major block to the ability to be able to hammer [disinformation] out of existence. What we need is to win…the right to govern by hopefully winning enough votes that you’re free to be able to implement change.” If anyone you know is committing #Wrongthink, be sure to report them to the Ministry of Love…
Iran hit mostly Jack and Squat in its missile attack on israel, though it did evidently hit one airbase hanger.
“Hamas Commander Killed in Israeli Strike Led U.N. Refugee Agency Teachers’ Union.” [Fateh Sherif] was responsible for coordinating Hamas’ terror activities in Lebanon with Hezbollah operatives, as well as Hamas’ efforts in Lebanon to recruit operatives and acquire weapons.”
MSM media outlets fell all over themselves to praise dead terrorist scumbag Hassan Nasrallah.
Israel hits a Russian airbase in Syria. One wonders what Russian’s adventures in Syria have gotten them other than some dead mercenaries and weapons sales.
“Russia Captures Vuhledar: After Over 800 Vehicle Losses and Over Two Years of Trying.”
“The Babylon Bee filed a lawsuit against the state of California on Monday after Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a series of “deepfake” laws that target outlets that publish satire and parody.”
Virginia high school teacher fired for refusing to use tranny pronouns awarded $575,000. Make them pay.
Albania wants to createa microstate in their own capital for “Sovereign State of the Bektashi Order” for the moderate Sufi Muslim sect. “His hoped-for Muslim state in Tirana, the capital of Albania, will be a Vatican-style sovereign enclave that will control territory the size of five New York City blocks and will allow alcohol, allow women to wear what they want and not impose lifestyle rules.” Not the worst idea I’ve heard this year. At least they could sell postage stamps…
“A&M to Deactivate ‘LGBTQ’ Studies Minor and Social Justice Certificate.”
A Texas A&M spokesperson has confirmed that the university will deactivate 38 certificates and 14 minors, including the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Studies minor.
The A&M spokesperson told The Battalion that the official list of deactivated programs will not be public until it appears before the Faculty Senate on October 14. A university statement cited low enrollment as the reason for deactivating the programs.
However, Theresa Morris, the director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, said that the LGBTQ Studies minor was among those ending.
An official in the Department of Communication & Journalism also confirmed that certificates for both Communication, Diversity and Social Justice and Communication & Global Media are being deactivated.
Additionally, the director of Marketing and Communications in the College of Performance confirmed that the certificates for popular culture and performing social activism were also in the deactivation process.
This comes after State Rep. Brian Harrison (R-Midlothian) repeatedly called DEI courses and the LGBTQ studies minor an “outrageous abuse of tax money” and examples of “taxpayer-funded indoctrination.”
Good. Maybe students will be forced to choose a major that adds to the world rather than tearing it down with social justice.
“Lawsuit Accuses Democrat State House Candidate of Not Paying Vendors. House District 80 Democrat candidate Cecilia Castellano is already under investigation by Attorney General Ken Paxton in a separate voter fraud case.”
A lawsuit filed in Tarrant County is accusing a Democrat running for the Texas House of Representatives of failing to pay her vendors and subcontractors in the business she operates.
House District 80 candidate Cecilia Castellano, who operates Azteca Designs and Construction, allegedly failed to provide proper compensation for work done by one of Azteca’s subcontractors, the Glass Doctor of North Texas, according to the suit.
Glass Doctor had entered an agreement to work on a project with Azteca in November 2023, where the subcontractor was slated to earn $49,643.36, according to the filing. Later, Glass Doctor was tasked with replacing damaged glass installed by another subcontractor for an additional $18,487.77.
However, Glass Doctor says the payments never arrived.
Plaintiffs instead painted a picture of Azteca going out of their way to avoid providing the payments, claiming the project was “not built pursuant to written plans” and back-charging Glass Doctor to fix work done by a third party.
“Fort Bend County Judge KP George Indicted Over Fake Racist Messages. Warrants indicate George may have attempted to conceal evidence.”
Fort Bend County Judge KP George has been indicted on misdemeanor charges related to faked racist messages on social media but could face felony charges over an alleged attempt to hide evidence.
A grand jury indicted George last Thursday in relation to a scheme in collaboration with Taral Patel, his former chief of staff and now Democratic candidate for county commissioner. Patel was indicted on four felony and four misdemeanor charges after investigators tied him to fake social media and email accounts used to make offensive posts and circulate falsified polls.
“Netflix Cancellations Skyrocketed After Founder Donated, Endorsed Harris. Netflix cancellations went through the roof after co-founder and chairman Reed Hastings endorsed and donated to VP Kamala Harris.”
Following up on last week’s Diddy arrest story, the accusations just keep piling on, with 120 more sexual abuse claims, including 25 from minors. If even 10% of these claims are true, how did he get away with such massive abuse for so long? Who does he have dirt on?
“[German] Green Party co-chairs Ricarda Lang and Omid Nouripour are stepping down. The move could make things even harder for Germany’s fractious coalition government. Germany’s Green Party is going from crisis to crisis. Three days after regional elections in the eastern state of Brandenburg delivered a stinging defeat to the party, its entire leadership has resigned. Now, the party will have to choose a replacement at its party conference in November.”
My my, hey hey/Disney cancels the movie about Rei.
Who could possibly be pissed off about a historical game starring a black samurai? Well, for starters, Japanese gamers.
“Kamala Announces Construction Of ‘Murderers Only’ Express Lane At Southern Border.”
“School Shooters Distance Themselves From Tim Walz.”
“Hezbollah Reaches Out To U.S. For Advice On How To Govern With A Dead Leader.”
“Young Hezbollah Recruit Can’t Believe He’s Already Made Regional Manager.”
OK, I’m awake!
(Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
I’ve been unemployed for one year now, so feel free to hit the tip jar.
Also, a hearty thanks to everyone who has already donated.
Tags:2024 Presidential Race, Albania, Alejandro Mayorkas, Babylon Bee, Border Controls, Brian Harrison, Cecilia Castellano, Crime, Critical Drinker, Disney, dogs, Elon Musk, FEMA, First Amendment, Fort Bend County, gay, Gaza, Germany, Green Parties (EU), Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah, Hollywood, Hurricane, Iran, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Israel, Israel-Hamas War, Jihad, John Kerry, Kamala Harris, KP George, Lebanon, LinkSwarm, Longshoremen’s Association, Media Watch, missile strike, Muhyyee-ud-din Abdul-Rahman, Muslim, Netflix, North Carolina, pedophilia, Pete Buttigieg, Philadelphia, polls, prostitution, Reed Hastings, Russia, Russo-Ukrainian War, Sean Combs AKA "Puff Daddy" AKA "Diddy", sex offender, sexual slavery, Star Wars, Sufi, Syria, Taral Patel, terrorism, Texas, Texas A&M, Tim Walz, Tirana, Tony Gonzales, Trafalgar Group, transexual, Tren de Aragua, Ubisoft, Ukraine, UN, unions, video games, Virginia, Vuhledar, Yazidi
Posted in Border Control, Crime, Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Jihad, Media Watch, Military, Social Justice Warriors, Texas, unions | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, October 2nd, 2024
The election season is upon us, which means it’s time for Democrats to try to win the only way they know how: Cheating. So here’s a roundup of links on some (but far from all) the ways Democrats will attempt to cheat in November.
There’s the already-in-progress illegal alien voting push.
A network of left-wing organizations backed by billionaire George Soros is working to naturalize and mobilize immigrants and refugees in order to activate them as voting blocs in swing states, boasting that they could “sway the outcome of national, state, and local elections.”
Chief among these groups is the National Partnership for New Americans, which describes itself as “a national multiethnic, multiracial partnership network of 60 of the country’s leading immigrant and refugee rights organizations.” The group received $560,000 from George Soros’ Open Society Foundations from 2016 to 2021. The group had a total revenue of $4.11 million in 2023.
“Our network has supported the naturalization of over 250,000 U.S. Citizens and has been a key driver of advocacy to make naturalization more affordable and accessible,” the National Partnership for New Americans states. Its website features an image of a t-shirt that reads “Naturalize 2 Million by 2022,” along with the phrase “New American Voters.”
Democrats often rebut the Republican argument on illegal immigration — that the left encourages it to forge a path to permanent Democrat political power — by saying that illegal immigrants don’t have the right to vote. But the effort by the Soros-funded group to get as many immigrants as possible on the voter rolls as a way to “sway” elections indicates that the left does view immigration as a political tool.
Figures suggest that mass immigration could be a boon for Democrats’ electoral chances. One analysis found that congressional districts with a higher-than-average foreign born population voted for Democrats in 90 percent of cases during the 2018 midterm election. The foreign-born population residing in the United States surged to 51.6 million — the highest level ever — under the Biden-Harris administration. An estimate from the Center for Immigration Studies found that illegal immigration accounted for approximately 58 percent of that spike.
President Joe Biden beat former President Donald Trump by only 11,000 votes in Arizona in 2020, a fact that underscores the impact mass immigration could have on American elections. Biden beat Trump by just 12,000 votes in Georgia, another crucial swing state, in 2020. The New American Voters campaign notes that there are more than 86,000 individuals who have been naturalized in Georgia since the election.
The New American Voters campaign, a project of the National Partnership for New Americans, maintains demographic reports on critical swing states and the country as a whole.
“Since the last presidential election in November 2020, an estimated 62,179 voting age adults have become newly naturalized citizens in Arizona,” reads one such report, which also track the top ten countries of origin for new citizens in each state.
National Partnership for New Americans Executive Director Nicole Melaku used the release of its demographic data as an opportunity to push Biden to swing further to the left on immigration, pressuring him to support “pathways to citizenship.”
One 2020 report from the National Partnership for New Americans explains that “new American voters form critical voting blocks that can have the power to sway national electoral outcomes,” highlighting their growing share of the population in key swing states and calling them “a sleeping political giant.”
A 2022 report from the group celebrated newly-naturalized voters as part of the “new American majority,” a term used to describe “all people of color, unmarried women, and young voting eligible Americans.” The National Partnership for New Americans directly compared the margin of victory in the 2020 presidential election to the number of newly-naturalized voters who had since gained citizenship within each state.
The National Partnership for New Americans isn’t the only leftist organization working to leverage mass immigration to impact American elections, however. There’s also the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, an organization that’s received nearly $7 million from Soros between 2016 to 2022, and had $25 million in total revenue in 2022.
Two of the most recent listed grants from the Open Society Foundations, which total nearly $4.3 million, are intended “to encourage naturalization among eligible immigrants, assist them with the process, and mobilize their civic participation.” The center is one of the organizations behind Citizenshipworks, an effort also funded by the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative to help non-citizens residing in the United States become citizens.
The Immigrant Legal Resource Center isn’t exclusively concerned with naturalizing and mobilizing non-citizens. The organization also works to prevent the deportation of illegal aliens. It received $500,000 in 2021 from the Open Society Foundations to fund its efforts to “dismantle the infrastructure of criminalization, detention, and deportation of immigrants.”
And just last week we reported on Democratic schemes to get illegal aliens to vote in Arizona.
Then there’s the money-laundering campaign finance fraud.
A coalition of 19 Republican attorneys general have launched a criminal investigation into the Democrat fundraising platform ActBlue over allegations of money laundering.
As American Greatness reported in April, multiple independent investigative journalists, including O’Keefe Media Group (OMG) and Election Watch have uncovered what appears to be illegal activity involving millions of dollars in campaign donations to Act Blue that have been laundered through unwitting small donors.
The process of breaking up large donations and submitting them under the names of small donors to cover up illegal contributions has been dubbed “smurfing.” Suspicions that ActBlue routinely engages in this type of illicit fundraising have dogged the outfit since at least Joe Biden’s presidential campaign in 2020.
The Committee on House Administration, chaired by Congressman Bryan Steil (R-Wisc.), launched an investigation into Act Blue in November of 2023 to look into reports that the fundraising giant was skirting campaign donation laws and allowing rampant fraud on the site. The committee widened its probe in August 2024.
In a letter sent to top officials on the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on August 5, Steil urged them to “immediately initiate an emergency rulemaking to require political campaigns to verify the card verification value (‘CVV’) of donors who contribute online using a credit or debit card, and to prohibit political campaigns from accepting online contributions from a gift card or other prepaid credit cards.”
In September, Steil sent letters to five states, urging them to launch criminal investigations into ActBlue’s alleged illicit activities, citing three specific areas of concern:
– Donations significantly disproportionate to an individual’s net worth or previous giving history.
– Uncharacteristic donations from party-affiliated registered voters suddenly contributing to candidates of the opposing party.
– Unusually frequent donations from elderly individuals or first-time donors.
The number of GOP AGs involved in the effort has since swelled to 19.
On Tuesday, the 19 Republican Attorney’s General sent a letter to ActBlue CEO and President Regina Wallace-Jones demanding information and explanations regarding the suspicious donations.
Recent reporting suggests that that there may be donors across the country who are identified in filings with the Federal Election Commission as having donated to candidates through ActBlue (and other affiliated entities), but who did not actually make those donations. That raises a host of concerns about whether ActBlue’s platform is being used to facilitate “smurfing”––a type of money laundering in which donors break up large donations and submit them under different names to disguise who the money comes from and thereby skirt contribution limits in violation of state and federal law.
As one former FEC commissioner recently explained, wealthy donors—some of whom are foreign nationals and therefore barred from donating to federal candidates at all—can employ complicated schemes like this to make donations in others’ names. This concern is not hypothetical. Indeed, in an indictment filed last week in federal court, the U.S. Department of Justice alleged that a major U.S. political figure knowingly participated in such a scheme in a recent election cycle to receive contributions from a foreign national through straw donors. Further, the apparent irregularities in FEC filings also raise concerns about whether ActBlue’s fundraising methods are deceptive and properly safeguard donor’s data privacy.
Some of us and our colleagues have raised these concerns with you directly, and at least one senator has raised these concerns with the FEC. Independent investigations have shown that there are donors across the country who show up on FEC filings as having donated to candidates through ActBlue (and other affiliated entities) but deny having made those donations. Given the prominent role it plays in our elections, it is incumbent on ActBlue to address the serious questions created by apparent irregularities in ActBlue’s FEC filings.
ActBlue is one of the largest fundraising platforms for election-related donations. Already during the 2024 election cycle ActBlue has raised billions of dollars. But there are concerns about where those dollars came from. It is essential that we know whether political donations—particularly in such large volumes—are being solicited, made, and processed consistent with campaign finance, consumer protection, and other state and federal laws. We, the chief legal officers of Iowa, Indiana, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming ask that you explain what measures you have in place to ensure that donations made through your platform follow State and federal law.
Just as important, we ask for clarification as to what measures you take to make sure that the donors identified as donating via the ActBlue platform are who they claim. If individuals are inadvertently donating to political campaigns, are misled into making repeat donations, or are having donations made in their name that they do not wish to make, that could violate election-related disclosures or state consumer fraud statutes. Our States’ citizens deserve to know that those facilitating election-related financing are following State and federal laws. Thus we appreciate the assurances that you will provide in answering our questions promptly before the upcoming elections in November.
To prevent voter fraud, many states require voter ID. But in California, Democrats enacted laws to outlaw it.
On Monday, California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill preventing local governments from requiring voters to present identification at the polls.
Monday evening, X CEO Elon Musk posted in response to the legislation, “Wow, it is now illegal to require voter ID in California! They just made PREVENTING voter fraud against the law.”
Snip.
The new legislation is in a response to Huntington Beach residents passing a voter ID requirement in March. In April, California’s Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta and Democratic Secretary of State Shirley Weber sued the city to invalidate the law, claiming the legislation violated state voting protections.
The bill was passed by the Democratic-controlled California Assembly and Senate earlier this year after members claimed voter ID laws disproportionately affect low-income, elderly and minority voters. The new bill goes into effect on January 1, 2025 when California will become one of 14 states that do not require voter ID for elections.
Despite the bill being signed into law, Huntington Beach has yet to respond to the lawsuit. According to Newsweek, California’s Democratic lawmakers have introduced multiple bills to prevent conservative-leaning locations in the state such as Shasta County from adopting voter ID laws.
Here in Texas, a federal judge wants Democrats to be able to “harvest” ballots.
Six progressive organizations were victorious in their lawsuit challenging a state law that prohibits paid ballot harvesting, with San Antonio-based federal Judge Xavier Rodriguez issuing a ruling on Saturday that declared the law unconstitutional and enjoined state officials from enforcing it.
La Union Del Pueblo Entero (LUPE) was the lead plaintiff, along with the League of Women Voters of Texas, Texas American Federation of Teachers, the Texas Alliance for Retired Americans, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), and OCA-Greater Houston.
The law in question, which was passed within Senate Bill (SB) 1 during the Texas Legislature’s first special session in 2021, creates an offense for “vote harvesting services.”
Specifically, the law bans “in-person interaction with one or more voters, in the physical presence of an official ballot or a ballot voted by mail, intended to deliver votes for a specific candidate or measure” and only if it’s done for compensation or benefit.
Volunteers are not prohibited.
According to the plaintiffs that include LUPE, their paid canvassers are often invited into voters’ homes and asked for assistance with their mail-in ballots.
LUPE staff members and volunteers have been asked for assistance with voting by mail and in-person at the polls by elderly and disabled voters, and have provided such assistance, the lawsuit says, adding, “LUPE often provides its volunteers with t-shirts or gas cards, particularly because there is little public transportation in the Rio Grande Valley.”
According to the judge, confusion about the law’s applicability was not addressed by state officials in charge of enforcing it, such as whether the gas card or other items may qualify as compensation that makes ballot harvesting a crime, and he agreed with their position that the law chilled their First Amendment rights.
In his holding, Rodriguez declared the canvassing restrictions in Texas Election Code Sec. 276.015 unconstitutional under the First and 14th Amendments, and ordered the state’s Office of the Attorney General and the Secretary of State not to investigate violations of the law and local prosecutors not to enforce it.
State Sen. Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola), who authored the legislation, reacted to the news on social media, arguing why the law is needed and adding that Rodriguez’s decision will be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.
“I’m glad the Fifth Circuit will be reviewing,” Hughes wrote.
“I included this in SB1 to protect vulnerable voters — the elderly, first-time voters, voters with limited English proficiency. These are the voters most often preyed upon by vote harvesters and paid political operatives,” he explained.
Note that politiqueras ballot-harvesting fraud has been a continuing concern in south Texas, something the law was meant to address.
In Georgia, democrats are trying to overturn a newly enacted rule requiring hand-counting of ballots. At least Republicans in Georgia are trying to do something after all the 2020 election shenanigans.
The Heritage Foundation has a voting fraud tracker. The page for Pennsylvania shows nine voting fraud incidents since 2020, two of which were for “Altering The Vote Count.”
Finally, remember that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued several search warrants for election fraud back in August.
This is just a sampler of how Democrats intend to commit voting fraud between now and election day. If you know of any others, feel free to share them in the comments.
I’m sure they next month will provide many more examples…
Tags:2024 Election, 2024 Presidential Race, Arizona, California, campaign finance fraud, Crime, Democrats, Gavin Newsom, George Soros, Georgia, Heritage Foundation, Illegal Aliens, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, National Partnership for New Americans, Nicole Melaku, Pennsylvania, Texas, Voter ID, voting fraud
Posted in Border Control, Crime, Democrats, Elections, Social Justice Warriors, Texas | 3 Comments »
Monday, September 30th, 2024
There’s a recurring pattern where conservatives point out the obvious negative effects of leftwing policies, Democrats ignore them, and then are stunned by the obvious, foreseeable consequences of their actions. Be it the inflation from deficit spending and flu manchu shutdowns to Austin’s decision to let drug addict transients camp in the streets increasing the number of drug addicted transients camping in the streets, leftists are constantly making things worse and then throwing up their hands and proclaiming “How could I have possibly known?”
Which brings us to Fort Worth ISD. In 2022, over protesting parents, they hired a social justice superintendent eager to impose DEI on the district.
As parents fight back against racist ideologies in their children’s schools, Fort Worth ISD’s newly minted superintendent, Dr. Angélica Ramsey, announced at a breakfast meeting that the system needs to be “reinvented” because “the truth is that black, brown, and poor kids in this country do not get the education they deserve because we’re in a system that wasn’t built for us.”
According to Ramsey, who has a history of supporting the “diversity, equity, and inclusion” agenda, “we integrated into their system, not the other way around.”
Ramsey’s 2013 doctoral dissertation on “the experiences of Latina principals in both established and burgeoning Latina/o communities in raising Latina/o achievement” promotes her research as “championing the causes of equity and student success for all with a social justice agenda.”
Meanwhile, Fort Worth ISD’s student test scores are declining, yet Ramsey called parents and citizens concerned with her overarching agenda “haters,” promising to “keep pushing forward” with her radical policies.
“Superintendent Ramsey has shown her true ideological colors,” said local Fort Worth activist Carlos Turcios. “It’s strange how she has said she would listen to every parent, yet she attacks conservatives for being haters and being afraid.”
Naturally, she also wanted to impose transsexual gender fluidity ideology on the district.
So how hiring Ramsey work out for them?
Exactly like you would expect.
Fort Worth Independent School District Superintendent Angélica Ramsey has resigned following parental and teacher outrage at her leadership over the past two years.
In an 8-1 vote Tuesday night, the Fort Worth ISD Board of Trustees agreed to accept Ramsey’s resignation. Trustee Camille Rodriguez was the lone dissenting voice.
Trustees hired Ramsey to lead Fort Worth ISD in 2022 and set her salary at $335,000. Her contract was scheduled to expire in July 2026.
The decision to accept Ramsey’s resignation came after a four-hour closed executive session with Fort Worth ISD attorneys.
During the meeting, Board President Roxanne Martinez said she supported Ramsey’s resignation following public comments by concerned residents and teachers.
“The board will, of course, be moving forward with our commitment and focus on student outcomes and improving student achievement,” said Martinez.
Questions arose about Ramsey’s performance after Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker sent a letter and spoke to the board last month to discuss the district’s failings.
According to Parker, standardized test data from spring 2024 showed that Fort Worth ISD trailed 11 percentage points behind Dallas ISD, 14 points behind Houston ISD, and 18 behind Brownsville ISD.
I would say that Forth Worth ISD trailing Houston ISD is especially shocking, but to my surprise Fort Worth ISD and Houston ISD now have broadly similar demographics, each with over 60% Hispanic students. Hispanics have increased from just under 20% to 35% of Fort Worth’s population since 1990.
During last week’s board meeting, residents and teachers spoke to the board, expressing their outrage with Ramsey’s leadership, accusing her of creating a toxic environment and failing Fort Worth students.
One mother said she had warned the board about Ramsey’s prior performance at Midland ISD before her hiring. Ramsey led Midland ISD for only a year before breaking her contract and moving to Fort Worth.
“What would have happened if the things that I told you, you would’ve listened, what would happen to our students?” asked mom Hollie Plemons. “I gave all of you the data on Midland before she came here, before you gave her a contract, before the 21 days was up, before it had even started. They were an F-rated school. Their school had worse scores than we did. You hired her [Ramsey] based on equity, not merits, and look where it’s gotten us.”
Fort Worth had the opportunity to focus on academic excellence, or focus on social justice, and they chose social justice, and reaped the inevitable falling test scores that decision entailed. What did they think was going to happen?
Social justice is a racist, sexist, anti-American, anti-Enlightenment, anti-reality ideology designed to weaponize white guilt, empower the far left and destroy everything it touches. Advocating for it should be immediately disqualifying for any management or supervisory position.
Pink slip by pink slip, progress is made…
Tags:Angelica Ramsey, Border Controls, DEI, Democrats, education, Fort Worth, Fort Worth ISD, Hispanics, Hollie Plemons, Midland ISD, Roxanne Martinez, Social Justice Warriors, Texas, transexual
Posted in Border Control, Democrats, Social Justice Warriors, Texas | 6 Comments »