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LinkSwarm for October 9, 2021

Saturday, October 9th, 2021

Biden sinking, China stinking, Facebook’s fake whistleblower, and more border woes. Enjoy a special Saturday LinkSwarm!

  • Of course the Biden Administration tucked a multibillion dollar handout to illegal aliens into the reconciliation bill. It’s what they do. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
  • Does this border look controlled to you?

    

  • Related: “69 Percent of Hispanics Disapprove of Biden’s Handling of Immigration.”
  • Indeed, Biden’s poll numbers are so low that even CNN has noticed. “Just 32% of independents approved of how Biden is handling his job while 60% disapprove in a new Quinnipiac University national poll… In 2010, the Republicans picked up 63 seat, with being up 19 points among independents.”
  • Short-term debt limit extension bill passes. Tastes like chicken…
  • The reconciliation bill is deeply hostile to marriage. Well, it’s no surprise, since happily married couples with children are increasingly an obstacle to Democratic Party control…
  • This explains a lot:

    U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland recently instructed the FBI to begin investigating parents who confront school board administrators over Critical Race Theory indoctrination material. The U.S. Department of Justice issued a memorandum to the FBI instructing them to initiate investigations of any parent attending a local school board meeting who might be viewed as confrontational, intimidating or harassing.

    Attorney General Merrick Garland’s daughter is Rebecca Garland. In 2018 Rebecca Garland married Xan Tanner. Mr. Xan Tanner is the current co-founder of a controversial education service company called Panorama Education. Panorama Education is the ‘social learning’ resource material provider to school districts and teachers that teach Critical Race Theory.

  • Remember Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate? It doesn’t exist.

    So far, all we have is his press conference and other such made-for-media huff-puffing. No such rule even claiming to be legally binding has been issued yet.

    That’s why nearly two dozen Republican attorneys general who have publicly voiced their opposition to the clearly unconstitutional and illegal mandate haven’t yet filed suit against it, the Office of the Indiana Attorney General confirmed for me. There is no mandate to haul into court. And that may be part of the plan.

    According to several sources, so far it appears no such mandate has been sent to the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs yet for approval. The White House, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and the Department of Labor haven’t released any official guidance for the alleged mandate. There is no executive order. There’s nothing but press statements.

    Let the lawsuits against private companies firing people for refusing the vaccine for which no mandate exists begin!

  • “Ontario doctor resigns over forced vaccines, says 80% of ER patients with mysterious issues had both shots.”
  • Holy crap: “Wuhan and US scientists planned to create new coronaviruses.”

    Scientists from Wuhan and the US were planning to create new coronaviruses that did not exist in nature by combining the genetic codes of other viruses, proposals show.

    Documents of a grant application submitted to the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), leaked last month, reveal that the international team of scientists planned to mix genetic data of closely related strains and grow completely new viruses.

    A genetics expert working with the World Health Organisation (WHO), who uncovered the plan after studying the proposals in detail, said that if Sars-CoV-2 had been produced in this way, it would explain why a close match has never been found in nature.

    Here’s a novel thought: How about you not do that?

  • Did I mention that Wuhan scientists also wanted to genetically engineer coronaviruses that were more infectious to humans and release aerosols containing “novel chimeric spike proteins” among cave bats in Yunnan, China? And they also applied DARPA grant! Who the hell was asleep at the grant proposal switch while Chinese biological warfare scientists were going full Frankenstein?
  • Also: China started ordering more testing kits six months before we started hearing about the Flu Manchu outbreak.
  • Truth:

    (Hat tip: Director Blue.)

  • Another Chinese real estate developer defaults, this one an Evergrande-linked firm called “Jumbo Fortune Enterprises.”
  • Facebook’s fake “Whistleblower” Frances Haugen was part of the election meddling team that suppressed the Hunter Biden laptop story. Also: “She’s receiving ‘strategic communication guidance’ from former Obama aide Bill Burton’s public relations firm Bryson Gillette, which is run by Democratic operatives. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was a senior adviser there until September 2020.” Basically she’s a pawn to let Facebook suppress even more conservative stories.
  • Another day, another hate crime hoax.
  • Amtrak! Come for the crappy service, stay for the routine drug sweeps! (Hat tip: Dwight.)
  • Australian cop resigns over enforcing tyranny:

  • Bank of America, Citigroup and JPMorgan are all scheduled to lose out on Texas government bond underwriting due to their refusal to deal with companies that make modern sporting rifles.
  • Citizens sues five members of the Round Rock ISD school board for violation of the Texas Open records Act.
  • Another day, another shootout on Sixth Street. (Hat tip: Dwight.)
  • “Tesla is moving its headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Austin, Texas, CEO Elon Musk announced at the company’s shareholder meeting on Thursday.” Given how crappy California’s business climate has become, this was pretty much a forgone conclusion. Come on down, Elon.
  • And here’s the supercondensed backstory:

    If you’re wondering who Lorena Gonzalez, she’s a Democratic California assemblywoman…

  • “Gavin Newsom Named U-Haul Salesperson Of The Year.”
  • Amazon is looking at leaving Seattle. “After years of deteriorating relations with their home city of Seattle and its ultra-progressive city council, Amazon’s CEO [Andy Jassy] made it known that the online giant may look for greener pastures. Citing the city’s hostility toward their presence, Jassy suggested that the suburbs are looking better and better for a new home to its 50,000-employee home base.”
  • Speaking of Seattle, over 400 police officers may be facing termination over refusal to get vaccinated. Good thing Seattle is a peaceful utopia where there are never any antifa riots…
  • Venezuela subtracts six zeros from its currency. This is your economy on socialism.
  • “Afghanistan is literally about to go back to the Dark Ages since the Taliban didn’t realize they have to pay their electric bills.”
  • The China/India border is getting frisky again. “Sources mentioned that patrol parties of both the countries came face-to-face in Arunachal Pradesh, which led to some jostling before they disengaged. The incident took place last week near Yangtse in the Tawang sector.” Arunachal Pradesh is basically the complete opposite end of northern India from where most of last year’s clashes occurred.
  • Did China lose coal shipments waiting for docks to open up to India? Source is a little “rah-rah India,” so grains of salt are probably in order.
  • Are you using the wrong plunger? This plumber seems to think that this one is the new hotness for clearing toilets.
  • Heh:

  • How to tell a prison from a public school.
  • “Hackers Warn That If Demands Aren’t Met They Will Reactivate Facebook.”
  • Let’s ride!

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    Posted in Austin, Border Control, Communism, Crime, Democrats, Economics, Foreign Policy, Guns, Jihad, Regulation, Social Justice Warriors, Texas | 1 Comment »

    George Soros Just Dropped Half A Million Dollars To Oppose Hiring More Police In Austin

    Saturday, October 2nd, 2021

    George Soros, the man whose money helped install radical leftist Jose Garza in the Travis County DA’s office, is so displeased with the push to put more police back on the streets of Austin that he’s dumped half a million dollars into the fight against proposition A.

    The billionaire benefactor of progressive causes across the country, George Soros, has waded into the political fight over Austin’s police staffing — pumping a half-million dollars into a campaign to defeat Proposition A.

    Among other reforms, Proposition A would establish a minimum staffing level for the Austin Police Department (APD) of 2 officers per 1,000. Earlier this summer, APD was floating around 1.2 officers per 1,000 residents. From current staffing levels, it’d require the hiring of roughly 500 officers.

    APD is suffering not only from a dearth in approved positions compared with its staffing level two years ago, but also from rampant attrition within its ranks, averaging 15 to 20 departures per month this year.

    According to the Austin American-Statesman’s Ryan Autullo, the Open Society Policy Center, one of Soros’ advocacy arms, gave $500,000 to Equity Austin which opposes Proposition A.

    The proposition is on the November ballot for Austin voters and is openly opposed by Mayor Steve Adler, Councilmember Greg Casar, and the city’s numerous progressive activist groups who each pushed for the $150 million APD budget cut and redirection last year.

    Here’s the filing document showing the filing. And they’re not the only ones opposing Proposition A:

    As I’ve written before, the hard left opposes adequate funding for policing because it’s much harder for them to rake off money from policing than various “Social Justice” initiatives for which their bureaucratic functionaries control checkbooks. And because they view police officers (probably correctly) as competing institutions of legal force and legitimacy that stand in the way of complete overthrow of capitalism and the current American constitutional order and its replacement with the neo-Marxist/Social Justice/Critical Race Theory “successor ideology.” To them, soaring Austin crime rates are a sign of their success.

    All the more reason for ordinary Austinites to show up and vote in droves for Proposition A.

    (Hat tip: johnnyk20001.)

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    Posted in Austin, Crime, Democrats, Social Justice Warriors, Texas | 4 Comments »

    Matthew Dowd Running Against Dan Patrick For Texas Lt. Governor

    Thursday, September 30th, 2021

    Matthew Dowd, Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-ABC-News-dweeb-turned-Democrat is running against Republican incumbent Dan Patrick for Texas Lieutenant Governor:

    Matthew Dowd, the chief strategist for George W. Bush’s presidential reelection campaign who later split with the former president publicly, is running for lieutenant governor as a Democrat.

    Dowd also has worked for Bob Bullock, who in 1994 was the last Democrat elected as Texas lieutenant governor, and faces an uphill battle to unseat Republican Dan Patrick, the state’s second-highest-ranking official who has steered Texas politics into the far-right fringes of the GOP.

    In a two-and-a-half minute campaign announcement video, Dowd said GOP politicians have failed the state, zeroing in on Patrick, who he called “cruel and craven” and denounced as a divisive figure who puts his political ambitions over the needs of everyday Texans.

    “Enough is enough. We need more officials who tell the truth, who believe in public services, in common sense with common decency for the common good. … We need to expect more from our politicians,” Dowd says in the ad. “Dan Patrick believes in none of those and that is why I am running for the powerful office of lieutenant governor of this great state.”

    In an interview with The Texas Tribune, Dowd said he started seriously considering running for office after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump who were trying to stop the certification of last year’s presidential election. But it wasn’t until after the state’s legislative session that Dowd really focused on Patrick as his target.

    Well, that’s certainly a very swampy resume. When we last mentioned Dowd he was lying about jihad terror fatalities. And he seems to have scrubbed his Twitter history:

    Does this mean that Democrats will have to swallow their pride, crank up the “strange new respect” machine, and embrace a Bushie in order to have a chance to beat Patrick?

    Not necessarily. Mike Collier, who lost to Patrick by 400,000 votes in 2018, looks to be running again, has already spent half a million dollars and had over $200,000 on hand as of the last reporting cycle. He also ran ahead of Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke in 171 Texas counties in 2018.

    Of course, at last count, Patrick had over $23 million on hand, a substantial warchest for a Republican incumbent in a Republican state in a Republican-favoring cycle that has no primary challengers to worry about.

    Patrick seems formidable enough that George P. Bush forwent a primary run against him to run for Attorney General instead. Are we to believe that a turncoat Bush hanger-on has a better chance against Patrick than an actual Bush? I tend to doubt it. Especially since Dowd seems to have gone full Social Justice Warrior:

    Good thing there aren’t a lot of white Christian men in Texas. Then again, Dowd doesn’t seem a man with a fine grasp of details:

    Turncoat candidates seldom do well in either party, at least since the Great Red Awakening that swept the south in the late 20th century. There’s no reason to believe a former Bushie is going to waltz into a high profile statewide Democratic Party nomination in Texas just because various swamp creatures are pushing his candidacy.

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    Posted in Democrats, Elections, Republicans, Social Justice Warriors, Texas | No Comments »

    TPPF’s Jason Isaac On The Reasons Behind The Great 2021 Texas Freeze Blackouts

    Saturday, September 25th, 2021

    Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Jason Isaac has a Prager U video analysis of the reasons behind the great Texas ice storm blackouts.

    The analysis will be familiar to regular readers: Over-investment in unreliable, subsidized renewable energy meant under-investment in reliable fossil fuel and nuclear necessary for base load reliability.

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    Posted in Regulation, Texas, video | 1 Comment »

    LinkSwarm for September 24, 2021

    Friday, September 24th, 2021

    Greetings, and welcome to another Friday LinkSwarm! Unexpectedly, Austin’s fall started the first day of fall! That never happens!

  • The Biden Administration wants the IRS to have access to all your banking transactions of $600 or more. Good thing the IRS under Democratic Presidents has never abused IRS information in the past…
  • Speaking of the IRS, Slow Joe may owe may owe more than $500,000 in back taxes.
  • China bans all cryptocurrency transactions. I can’t possibly see this move backfiring on them in any way…

  • John Kerry’s commie connection. “Kerry’s latest filing with the Office of Government Ethics shows Teresa Kerry benefits from an investment of at least $1 million in a hedge fund specializing in private partnerships with Chinese government-controlled funds.” (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
  • Duh: “Biden aides set up a ‘wall’ to shield him from unscripted events.” Like reporters questions…
  • “Hillary Clinton Is The Most Systemically Manipulative Politician Of Our Lifetime.

    The Indictment of Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussman for allegedly lying to the FBI has a lot of people grumbling about how long it took prosecutor John Durham to finally come up with an indictment of someone with regard to the Russia collusion hoax. And even then, while Sussman was an important lawyer at an important Democrat operative law firm, his indictment has a “that’s it?” feel to it.

    But, the 27-page Indictment is a wealth of information, and hopefully a roadmap to wider and more substantial prosecutions (you can’t take my hope away!). What the indictment demonstrates is that the Russia collusion claim leveled against Donald Trump and the Trump campaign was a fabrication of Hillary Clinton operatives who peddled the fraud to the media and FBI, allowing Clinton to use the media reports in the campaign against Trump.

    Much like the fabricated Steele Dossier, also paid for and arranged by Clinton operatives, Hillary Clinton and Clintonworld perpetrated a massive fraud on the American public which not only manipulated the election process but also froze the Trump presidency and nearly paralyzed the nation politically for years.

    We have had some pretty terrible politicians in our lifetime, and it’s always dangerous to say “the worst” — but the Russia collusion hoax fabricated by Hillary Clinton operatives proves beyond little doubt that Hillary Clinton is the most systemically manipulative politician of our lifetime.

  • “[EcoHealth Alliance head Peter] Daszak Admits Fauci Funded Chinese Coronavirus Research at Conference Featuring Hunter Biden-Linked Pandemic Group.” It’s like a giant debutante ball of all the last few years’ scandals rolled into one… (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
  • “Members Of Congress, Staff Exempt From Biden Vaccine Mandate.” Because of course they are.
  • Forget the MSM spin: Here’s what the Maricopa County audit really found:
    • None of the various systems related to elections had numbers that would balance and agree with each other. In some cases, these differences were significant.
    • There appears to be many ballots cast from individuals who had moved prior to the election.
    • Files were missing from the Election Management System (EMS) Server.
    • Ballot images on the EMS were corrupt or missing.
    • Logs appeared to be intentionally rolled over, and all the data in the database related to the 2020 General Election had been fully cleared.
    • On the ballot side, batches were not always clearly delineated, duplicated ballots were missing the required serial numbers, originals were duplicated more than once, and the Auditors were never provided Chain‐of‐ Custody documentation for the ballots for the time‐period prior to the ballot’s movement into the Auditors’ care. This all increased the complexity and difficulty in properly auditing the results; and added ambiguity into the final conclusions.

    (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)

  • Old and busted: Illegal aliens on the border at Del Rio have Flu Manchu. The new hotness:

  • R. S. McCain on Missing White Woman Syndrome:

    That’s the thing about a Missing White Woman story — the damsel-in-distress angle only works, in terms of TV news ratings, if the missing woman is young and attractive, preferably blonde. Males can and do go missing, but those disappearances never dominate national news. It’s always a woman, and a young, attractive woman — if she’s old, fat or ugly, nobody cares if she goes missing. But the nubile blonde? Oh, yeah, that’s nationwide headline stuff, because she’s Prime Rape Bait, and sex is the secret ingredient in the Missing White Woman story.

    Beyond the cynical calculations of ratings-hungry TV news producers, however, what’s really wrong with Missing White Woman Syndrome is not the kind of “social justice” concerns Joy Reid is talking about. No, what’s wrong is that it feeds the public’s distorted ideas about crime.

    How many people are murdered in America annually? Nearly 14,000 in 2019, according to the FBI, and about 78% of the victims were male. In terms of statistical risk, then, males were nearly four times more likely to be murdered than women, but how many of those murdered men become national news? Not many. And how many murder victims are white? About 5,800 in 2019 — 42% of the total — whereas blacks were 54% of the total murders. There were 1,759 white women murdered in 2019 — 12.6% of the total, according to the FBI — compared to 6,446 black males, 46.3% of the total. So the death of Gabby Petito was anomalous, a comparative rarity in the overall crime situation in America.

    A blonde, blue-eyed “social media influencer” is not typical of murder victims, who are disproportionately male and black. During the month of August, when Gabby and her boyfriend were on their excursion across the West, 87 people were killed and 424 were wounded in Chicago. Did any of those Chicago victims make national news? Well, about 83% of the victims in Chicago were black, and none were blonde, blue-eyed 22-year-old “social media influencers.” Not newsworthy, you see?

    The selectivity of the news media in deciding which murders deserve national attention is a sort of bias that most people never notice. Why does the death of one black in police custody become a cause célèbre, while the vast majority of murdered black men — about 125 a week, on average — never get any national media attention? Because the death of George Floyd fit a specific political narrative. And why does the disappearance of a blonde girl with an Instagram account get hourly updates on the cable-news networks? Because it’s a convenient distraction from the disastrous failure of Joe Biden’s presidency.

  • Twitter is so scared of Nikki Minaj’s cousin’s balls that they suspended her account.
  • In fact, there were at least 46 reports of swollen balls (and another 76 of testicular pain) in the VAERS database of adverse reactions.
  • People who wanted Biden to win to see a “return to normal” are being gravely disappointed:

    In traditional Washington fashion, Biden has ignored that message voters sent and delivered the opposite. In less than seven months, we have found that Biden is far from that empathetic persona he has crafted over the years, and we have not returned to anything near normal.

    And Biden lies. Not tiny little lies, but ones that affect events that are deeply tragic. Last week, he told leaders in the Jewish community that he visited the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, where 11 people were slaughtered during a service in 2018.

    Synagogue officials said he was never there.

    One can only guess he said this as an attempt to continue the manufactured empathy he allegedly possesses. Forgetfulness is not an excuse anyone should accept.

    Nor is it normal.

    In fact, the only thing the Biden presidency has done most effectively is prove that we are not on the path to normality under his administration.

    From the uneven overall economy to soaring inflation to the humiliating debacle in Afghanistan, and from Biden’s insistence to spend our money like a drunken sailor to the crisis at the Mexican border that he has blatantly ignored and to how he has politicized the pandemic: None of this is normal, none of this promotes stability, none of this is what an exhausted electorate bargained for.

  • “18 Months of Ammo Sales during a Pandemic, Protests, and the Biden Presidency.”

    Over the past 18 months our overall sales have increased as follows:

    • 590% increase in revenue
    • 604% increase in transactions
    • 271% increase in site traffic
    • 77% increase in conversion rate

    This data is from February 23, 2020 – August 23, 2021, when compared to the previous 18 months (August 24, 2018 – February 22, 2020).

    Leading the way: Texas, with a 736% increase.

    9mm was the most popular ammunition just about everywhere, followed by .223 and 5.56 NATO.

  • “Maspeth High School [NYC] created fake classes, awarded bogus credits, and fixed grades to push students to graduate — ‘even if the diploma was not worth the paper on which it was printed,’ an explosive investigative report charges. Principal Khurshid Abdul-Mutakabbir demanded that teachers pass students no matter how little they learned, says the 32-page report by the Special Commissioner of Investigation for city schools, Anastasia Coleman.”
  • “A Chinese student in Canada had two followers on Twitter. He still didn’t escape Beijing’s threats over online activity.”
  • Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s gambit to have funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system stripped backfires, with the funding passing 420-9. Now there’s principled case to be made against the U.S. funding Iron Dome, as part of a broader initiative to eliminate all foreign aid because it’s not an enumerated responsibility of the federal government, because we’re already running huge budget deficits, and because Israel is a prosperous, modern country that shouldn’t need our charity. But we all know that not why The Squad presented this bill.

  • Austin Police Chief Joseph Chacon drops the interim from his title.
  • Word is that pick isn’t popular with the rank and file:

  • Speaking of APD, they’ve announced that staffing problems means that they won’t be responding to non-emergency calls. All the more reason to vote for Prop A.
  • In the UK: “Our eco-obsessed government is sleepwalking into an energy crisis….we could be facing a hard winter of higher energy bills and even blackouts.”
  • More children have died from gunfire in Chicago than have died from Flu Manchu nationwide. (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
  • Some inconvenient truths:

  • Islamic terrorist dirtnapped in Indonesia. “The military earlier said the militants killed late Saturday were Ali Kalora, leader of the East Indonesia Mujahideen network that has claimed several killings of police officers and minority Christians, and another suspected extremist, Jaka Ramadan, also known as Ikrima.” (Hat tip: Rantburg.)
  • “Family Farms Won’t Escape Biden’s New Tax.”
  • Why freight rail makes money, and passenger rail doesn’t. (Hat tip: Borepatch.)
  • Round Rock ISD school board tries to censure dissenters.
  • Speaking of people on the Round Rock ISD enemies list, here’s the legal fee fundraiser page for Dustin Clark and Jermey Story.
  • “Does a professor have the right to say ‘China virus’? At UDallas, the answer is no.”
  • “Black People Who Oppose Critical Race Theory Are Being Erased.”

    Our current moment is often described as a “racial reckoning.” In reality, what this often means is that a narrative about Black victimization has gone mainstream. We hear endlessly about systemic racism, white supremacy, the black/white income gap, and police brutality. So powerful an ideology has this narrative become that those of us who pose a credible counter-narrative—black anti-woke writers, for example—frequently find our words being misconstrued in an effort to stanch their impact.

    This doesn’t happen to everyone who opposes the Critical Social Justice narrative of black victimization. White dissenters are simply called “racist” while many black dissenters are considered tragic victims of internalized racism. But things get ugly when woke Critical Social Justice proponents encounter a certain kind of black person who does not align with their preferred victim narrative and instead emphasizes his or her own individuality or self-regard. Such people present a threat to the woke narrative, since that narrative insists that all black people are victims of white supremacy, meaning anyone who insists on their individuality and their own power proves the falsity of that victim narrative; if the woke narrative were true, such people should not be able to exist.

    Which means that when we claim to exist, antiracist woke warriors need to erase us, using a logical fallacy I call “erase and replace.” Erase and replace is a combination of the strawman and ad hominem logical fallacies. The move involves taking the argument someone is making and substituting it for one that fits more neatly into the woke victim narrative by specifically targeting the character of the challenger—since it is, in part, their character that is the greatest challenge.

  • “Chris Cuomo accused of sexually harassing former boss at 2005 party.” “A former ABC executive producer has accused Chris Cuomo of sexually harassing her at a 2005 work party after he grabbed her butt in front of her husband and co-workers.” If she was his boss, does that technically count as sexual harassment? In New York, I believe such an offense would fall under the statute for “forcible touching,” which is a class A misdemeanor. Do you think that this is coming out now because, with his brother out of office, Fredo is no longer of any particular political use to CNN?
  • ACLU alters Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s words to eliminate #Wrongthink.

  • Shatner…IN SPAAAAACE! (Hat tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.)
  • “CDC Cautions Against Taking The Red Pill.”
  • “I hope I’m getting union scale for this!”

    • Also, a technical note: Bluehost will be doing server maintenance Friday night and Saturday morning, so the blog might be temporarily down then.

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    Posted in Austin, Border Control, Communism, Crime, Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Guns, Jihad, Media Watch, Social Justice Warriors, Texas | 2 Comments »

    Is Austin Homeless Funding A Conduit For Democratic Party Graft?

    Wednesday, September 22nd, 2021

    My working theory for why Mayor Steve Adler and the other leftwing radicals on the Austin City Council inflicted the homeless crisis on Austin is that the Homeless Industrial Complex is a particularly good vehicles for passing graft onto leftwing cronies.

    So yesterday, when current councilwomen Mackenzie Kelly (an outsider whose tenure postdates the disastrous camping law repeal) was kind enough to post a report on Austin’s homeless spending, I dove right in.

    Literally the first name I plucked out of Appendix B was Barbara Poppe and Associates of Columbia, Ohio.

    And the first thing I checked about Poppe was what political candidates and organizations she donated money to. Well, what do you know?

    Category Contributor Occupation Date Amount Recipient Recipient Jurisdiction
    Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 11-26-2020 $250.00 Fair Fight PAC (D) Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 Barbara Poppe & Associates 10-30-2020 $500.00 Ryan, Tim (D) Federal
    Money to SuperPAC/Outside Group POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 Barbara Poppe and Associates 10-22-2020 $250.00 Ohioans for Justice & Integrity Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 Barbara Poppe & Associates 10-01-2020 $250.00 Espy, Mike (D) Federal
    Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 Barbara Poppe & Associates 10-01-2020 $250.00 Colorofchange.org Federal
    Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 09-30-2020 $250.00 Colorofchange.org Federal
    Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 09-30-2020 $250.00 Fair Fight PAC (D) Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 Barbara Poppe & Associates 09-28-2020 $500.00 Biden, Joe (D) Federal
    Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 09-04-2020 $250.00 The Collective PAC Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 Barbara Poppe & Associates 08-30-2020 $250.00 Biden, Joe (D) Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 07-28-2020 $500.00 Biden, Joe (D) Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 05-31-2020 $250.00 Swearengin, Paula Jean (D) Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 05-29-2020 $250.00 Swearengin, Paula Jean (D) Federal
    Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 04-24-2020 $250.00 Fair Fight PAC (D) Federal
    Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 12-27-2019 $250.00 Colorofchange.org Federal
    Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 12-22-2019 $250.00 Colorofchange.org Federal
    Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 12-19-2019 $250.00 Fair Fight PAC (D) Federal
    Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 06-29-2019 $250.00 The Collective PAC Federal
    Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 05-03-2019 $250.00 The Collective PAC Federal
    Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 04-21-2019 $250.00 Fair Fight PAC (D) Federal
    Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 01-13-2019 $250.00 The Collective PAC Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 10-30-2018 $500.00 O’Connor, Danny (D) Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Columbus, OH 43202 10-29-2018 $1,500.00 ZACK SPACE FOR OHIO Ohio
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA J
    Columbus, OH 43202 10-29-2018 $1,000.00 CORDRAY, RICHARD A & SUTTON, BETTY Ohio
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA J
    Columbus, OH 43202 10-20-2018 $500.00 CORDRAY, RICHARD A & SUTTON, BETTY Ohio
    Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 09-21-2018 $650.00 The Collective PAC Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 09-21-2018 $500.00 Pureval, Aftab (D) Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Columbus, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 09-21-2018 $750.00 GILLUM, ANDREW D. (DEM)(GOV) Florida
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Columbus, OH 43202 09-21-2018 $250.00 BEJAMIN TODD (BEN) JEALOUS CAMPAIGN CMTE Maryland
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Columbus, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 09-21-2018 $400.00 STACEY Y ABRAMS CAMPAIGN CMTE Georgia
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Columbus, OH 43202 09-21-2018 $1,500.00 CLYDE, KATHLEEN Ohio
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Columbus, OH 43202 09-14-2018 $500.00 DETTELBACH FOR OHIO Ohio
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 09-13-2018 $500.00 O’Connor, Danny (D) Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Columbus, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 09-13-2018 $250.00 STACEY Y ABRAMS CAMPAIGN CMTE Georgia
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Columbus, OH 43202 09-05-2018 $1,000.00 CLYDE, KATHLEEN Ohio
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Columbus, OH 43202 09-05-2018 $1,000.00 ZACK SPACE FOR OHIO Ohio
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Columbus, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 08-29-2018 $250.00 GILLUM, ANDREW D. (DEM)(GOV) Florida
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 08-26-2018 $250.00 Garrett, Janet (D) Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA J
    Columbus, OH 43202 08-24-2018 $2,500.00 CORDRAY, RICHARD A & SUTTON, BETTY Ohio
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 08-10-2018 $250.00 O’Connor, Danny (D) Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 07-16-2018 $250.00 O’Connor, Danny (D) Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Columbus, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 07-16-2018 $100.00 STACEY Y ABRAMS CAMPAIGN CMTE Georgia
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 07-08-2018 $500.00 O’Connor, Danny (D) Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Columbus, OH 43202 05-23-2018 $250.00 ZACK SPACE FOR OHIO Ohio
    Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 05-15-2018 $250.00 The Collective PAC Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Columbus, OH 43202 05-15-2018 $250.00 CLYDE, KATHLEEN Ohio
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Columbus, OH 43202 PRINCIPAL 04-21-2018 $100.00 HELEN PROBST MILLS CAMPAIGN CMTE North Carolina
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA J
    Columbus, OH 43202 04-07-2018 $1,500.00 CORDRAY, RICHARD A & SUTTON, BETTY Ohio
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 03-14-2018 $250.00 O’Connor, Danny (D) Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Columbus, OH 43202 01-28-2018 $2,500.00 CORDRAY, RICHARD A & SUTTON, BETTY Ohio
    Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 11-23-2017 $250.00 The Collective PAC Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 11-15-2017 $250.00 Jones, Doug (D) Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 11-15-2017 $250.00 Jones, Doug (D) Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 08-18-2017 $2,500.00 Brown, Sherrod (D) Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Columbus, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 08-14-2017 $250.00 JUSTIN FAIRFAX CAMPAIGN CMTE Virginia
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Columbus, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 08-14-2017 $125.00 DONTE TANNER CAMPAIGN CMTE Virginia
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Columbus, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 07-09-2017 $250.00 STACEY Y ABRAMS CAMPAIGN CMTE Georgia
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Columbus, OH 43202 06-29-2017 $100.00 CLYDE, KATHLEEN Ohio
    Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES LLC 06-20-2017 $250.00 The Collective PAC Federal
    Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES LLC 04-15-2017 $500.00 The Collective PAC Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 10-29-2016 $250.00 Clinton, Hillary (D) Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 10-14-2016 $250.00 Clinton, Hillary (D) Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 09-25-2016 $250.00 Clinton, Hillary (D) Federal
    Unknown POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 09-11-2016 $250.00 The Collective PAC Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 09-11-2016 $250.00 Harris, Kamala D (D) Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 09-11-2016 $250.00 Rochester, Lisa Blunt (D) Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 BARBARA POPPE & ASSOCIATES 09-11-2016 $250.00 Demings, Val (D) Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 09-02-2016 $250.00 Clinton, Hillary (D) Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 08-23-2016 $250.00 Clinton, Hillary (D) Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 CONSULTANT 07-28-2016 $250.00 Clinton, Hillary (D) Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Columbus, OH 43202 12-03-2015 $250.00 DORRIAN, JULIA L Ohio
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA J
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 COMMUNITY SHELTER BOARD 02-24-2012 $500.00 Kilroy, Mary Jo (D) Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Columbus, OH 43202 10-21-2008 $100.00 STEWART, DANIEL K Ohio
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 COMMUNITY SHELTER BOARD 05-12-2008 $500.00 Kilroy, Mary Jo (D) Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Holland, MI 49423 04-08-2008 $25.00 CMTE TO ELECT MICHELLE MAKSIMOWICZ Colorado
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    COLUMBUS, OH 43202 COMMUNITY SHELTER BOARD 06-29-2007 $250.00 Kilroy, Mary Jo (D) Federal
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Columbus, OH 43202 10-04-2006 $100.00 CELESTE, TED Ohio
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Columbus, OH 43202 09-23-2006 $100.00 CELESTE, TED Ohio
    Money to Candidates POPPE, HERBERT & BARBARA
    Nederland, CO 80466 RETIRED 05-01-2006 $25.00 FITZ-GERALD, JOAN Colorado
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Nederland, CO 80466 11-03-2005 $50.00 GRANHOLM, JENNIFER M & CHERRY JR, JOHN D Michigan
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Columbus, OH 43202 03-30-2004 $100.00 STEWART, DANIEL K Ohio
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Columbus, OH 43202 10-15-2002 $100.00 MILLER, RAY Ohio
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Nederland, CO 80466 10-02-2002 $30.00 PLANT, TOM Colorado
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Columbus, OH 43202 10-01-2002 $50.00 MILLER, RAY Ohio
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Columbus, OH 43202 09-27-2002 $150.00 HAGAN,, TIMOTHY & TAVARES, CHARLETA Ohio
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Nederland, CO 80466 07-23-2002 $30.00 FITZ-GERALD, JOAN Colorado
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Nederland, CO 80466 07-17-2002 $30.00 STEELE, TERESA L Colorado
    Money to Parties POPPE, BARBARA
    Nederland, CO 80466 09-06-2000 $100.00 DEMOCRATIC SENATE CAMPAIGN FUND OF COLORADO Colorado
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Nederland, CO 80466 06-16-2000 $25.00 FITZ-GERALD, JOAN Colorado
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Columbus, OH 43202 09-14-1998 $250.00 FISHER, LEE Ohio
    Money to Candidates POPPE, BARBARA
    Columbus, OH 43202 07-31-1998 $50.00 TAVARES, CHARLETA B Ohio

    A total of 91 donations, all to Democrats and left leaning organizations, including:

  • Hillary Clinton
  • Joe Biden
  • Kamala Harris
  • Stacey Abrams
  • Andrew Gillum
  • “Ohioans for Justice & Integrity”
  • “Colorofchange.org” (BLM-esque group)
  • Etc.

    • Hardly invalidates my thesis, does it?

    There are lots of other names on that list, and lots of other ways for money to to flow into the hands of Democrats and far-left organizations.

    More research is needed.

    Tags:, , , , , , , ,
    Posted in Austin, Democrats, Social Justice Warriors, Texas, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | 4 Comments »

    Have Texas Troopers Secured The Border at Del Rio?

    Tuesday, September 21st, 2021

    It appears that Texas DPS Troopers have, for the time being, done what the Biden Administration seems actively hostile to doing: secure the border at the Del Rio crossing.

    State troopers deployed to the border by Gov. Greg Abbott are being credited for doing the federal government’s job and stopping thousands more migrants in Mexico from illegally crossing into the United States after well over 15,000 made it through here late last week.

    A swarm of Texas Department of Public Safety officers, known as troopers, descended on the riverbank Saturday afternoon as a show of force to deter people in Mexico from wading across the Rio Grande. Approximately 150 black SUVs were still lined up Sunday afternoon on the dirt road that runs parallel with the river.

    Their arrival on the scene Saturday had an immediate impact, stopping foot traffic from primarily Haitian migrants who had been going back and forth between the U.S. and Mexico.

    “With our DPS troopers, there have not been any crossings from that specific area,” Lt. Chris Olivarez, spokesman for the department’s South Texas Region, said in an interview on Sunday.

    The impact DPS’s arrival has had on Border Patrol agents has been significant. Despite it being the responsibility of Customs and Border Protection to patrol the nation’s borders, virtually all agents have been pulled from the field to transport migrants to and from holding facilities and then process and care for them once in custody.

    Those under the bridge are in an unusual go-between point as they are not in custody, but they are waiting under the bridge in hopes of being taken into custody and then released into the U.S. They may claim asylum to avoid being flown back to Haiti, though Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Sunday that most families will be released into the country and adults will be repatriated.

    I don’t believe this “catch and release into the U.S.” policy is actual law, but rather the Biden Administration’s perversion of the law in order to install as many illegal aliens in America as possible to amnesty them as future Democratic Party voters.

    Fortunately, the footage of the giant illegal alien camp in Del Rio was enough for the Biden Administration to resume deportation flights to Haiti.

    “Finally, the White House has directed appropriate U.S. agencies to work with the Haitian and other regional governments to provide assistance and support to returnees,” the press statement read.

    While DHS added that “our borders are not open,” the Biden administration has faced criticism for making policy moves this year that have seemingly incentivized illegal immigration. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) argued last week that the rush on the border can be partially attributed to a decision to cancel deportations of Haitians on September 8.

    After repatriated Haitians, many of whom have been in South America for years, began arriving Sunday in the nation’s capital, Port-au-Prince, officials in the Haitian government were reportedly complaining about the deportations to their country, which is currently in poverty and disarray.

    Haiti is always in poverty and disarray. Until the Biden Administration, this was never considered a legal rational to illegally transport Haitians to the United States.

    One wonders if the same radical leftwing groups (Pueblo Sin Fronteras, La Familia Latina Unida, Centro Sin Fronteras, etc.) are responsible for the latest wave of illegal alien caravans like they were for the ones a few years ago. All three have money trails “lead back to George Soros’s well-funded Open Society Foundations.”

    In recent years, OSF has given millions of dollars to other organizations that directly assisted the caravans with fundraising, legal assistance, and media support. These organizations included the American Constitution Society, Centro para la Acción Legal en Derechos Humanos (Center for Legal Action in Human Rights), Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, Amnesty International, National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, Center for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights First, and Church World Service.

    A bill adding $2 billion for border security passed during the last special legislative session, including $750 million for border wall construction.

    As mention yesterday, Abbott’s potential Democratic gubernatorial opponent Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke isn’t just opposed to spending more on border security, he wants to tear down existing walls:

    I’m glad the border appears to be secured at Del Rio for the time being. But for how long? And how many other border crossing points are receiving massive influxes of illegal aliens that we may not be hearing about?

    Tags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
    Posted in Border Control, Crime, Texas | No Comments »

    Beto III: The Betoing

    Monday, September 20th, 2021

    Spider-man 3. Aliens 3. Godfather Part III. Very rarely is the third installment in a series the best.

    What brings this to mind is word that Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke, hot off losing a senate race and a Presidential primary, has decided to run for governor of Texas.

    2018 was a perfect storm of fawning media coverage, peak Trump Derangement Syndrome, a Republican incumbent weakened by his own unsuccessful Presidential run, off-year presidential race dynamics, and more money than any Senate candidate had ever amassed in any race, ever. And all that managed to do was get him within three points of Ted Cruz. Then he ran for President, and flamed out well before Iowa.

    Then he got out on the national campaign trail, where mainstream media outlets had already lined up behind candidates like Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren as their preferred favorites, and the nation found out what Texas conservatives had been saying all along: O’Rourke is a big bag of nothing. All the qualities that the media found “endearing” and “authentic” were now goofy and eminently mockable. The flaws were always there.

    Quick, name a single signature issue O’Rourke stood out from other candidates on. Until his disasterous “I’m gonna grab your guns” moment, there wasn’t any. Warren was the candidate that wanted to socialize healthcare; O’Rourke was the candidate that Instagrammed his dental visit. The more a national audience saw of him the less they liked him. The harder he pandered to the hard left the more phony he seemed and the softer his poll numbers, racking up some perfect “0.0” scores, where not a single person polled planned to vote for him.

    Faced with an obviously failing campaign, O’Rourke made the decision to pull the plug.

    There’s little reason to believe he’s gotten better.

    Incumbent Republican Governor Greg Abbott has been hurt by a variety of missteps over the last two years: The futile Flu Manchu lockdowns, the border crisis, the ice storm. On none of those issues does O’Rourke credibly represent positions closer to those of the average Texas voter than Abbott.

    Border security? While the Rio Grande Valley is in the midst of a Republican upswell over the issue, Beto wants to tear down the border wall:

    Ice storm? Beto wants to keep pouring money into the same green energy boondoggles that couldn’t keep the lights on.

    Flu Manchu lockdowns? Beto wanted to keep them going longer.

    And that’s to say nothing of the myriad issues O’Rourke moved hard left on during his presidential run, from guns to taxes. “”In his Presidential bid, Beto veered so far to the left, he is probably an unelectable candidate in Texas.”

    Moreover, off year elections typically benefit the party out of the White House, which benefited O’Rourke in 2018, but hinders him in 2022. From inflation to the border to Afghanistan to Sundown Joe’s whole sleepwalking presidency, all signs point to a very difficult electoral environment for Democrats in 2022.

    Does O’Rourke have any strengths as a candidate? Yes. First and foremost, he does the work. He’s been a pretty indefatigable campaigner in his senate and presidential runs, and there’s no reason to believe his gubernatorial run will be any different. He has an army of leftwing fans across the state, most of whom will probably return, meaning adequate campaign volunteers won’t be a problem. He also built an organization that ran far more smoothly than the one Wendy Davis built in 2014. And he has a large list of campaign donors to work, though it remains to be seen how many will want to keep throwing money at him for his third big race in four years after losing the first two in such spectacular fashion.

    Does O’Rourke have straight path to the nomination? Right now, yes. Should actor Matthew McConnaughey jump into the race, all bets are off.

    The dynamics of the Democratic Party are going to make the 2022 Texas Gubernatorial Race a crusade for abortion. That didn’t exactly help Wendy Davis win in 2014, where she failed to garner 40% of the vote. And remember that in 2018, when they were both on the ballot, O’Rourke got 4,045,632 votes, while Abbott got 4,656,196. That’s a big gap to bridge.

    Democrats haven’t won the Texas governor’s mansion in over a quarter century. I’m pretty sure O’Rourke is not the one who’s going to break that streak.

    Tags:, , , , , , ,
    Posted in Border Control, Democrats, Elections, Texas | 5 Comments »

    Round Rock ISD Arresting Critics

    Saturday, September 18th, 2021

    So what the hell is this?

    A small protest was held outside the Williamson County Jail Friday night after two people were arrested in connection to a Round Rock ISD board meeting earlier in the week.

    The protesters said the arrests were unjust.

    On Tuesday, Sept. 14, Round Rock ISD board members were set to discuss extending the district’s mask rules. But attendance inside the meeting was capped. Board members said they were trying to maintain social distancing. But members of the public say they were unfairly kept out of a public meeting.

    One of the people who was escorted out was Dustin Clark. In video from Tuesday night, an argument can be heard between him and board members before a police officer made him leave the chamber.

    “Mr. Clark, you have to leave. You have to leave. You have to leave, Mr. Clark. We cannot continue this,” the school board member said.

    “You’re right, you can’t continue to keep the public out of here,” Clark can be heard saying.

    “You have been warned, sir. You have a choice. You’ve been warned to be quiet or leave,” the board member responds.

    “You’re not letting the public into an open meeting. Shame on you! Communists! Communists! Let the public in!” the man said.

    Eventually, the board ended the meeting early and pushed the mask discussion to next week.

    Clark is one of the people who was arrested Friday night. The other person arrested was Jeremy Story.

    So the meeting was Tuesday but Clark and Story were arrested on Friday? For a misdemeanor? How often do sheriff’s deputies go to someone’s home to arrest people for a misdemeanor three days after the fact?

    Story’s statement:

    More background:

    Like school districts across Texas and the country, the Round Rock Independent School District (RRISD) has grappled with the legal issues surrounding mask mandates for months. However, at RRISD, the local mask imbroglio has exposed divisions among the school board and dredged up allegations against the superintendent.

    After flirting with a parental opt-out system, RRISD adopted a mask mandate that allows exceptions for children with medical reasons. This mandate expires tomorrow, prompting the board to put the possibility of a lasting mandate on the agenda for the September 14 meeting.

    The proposed mandate would be a mask “matrix.” Under the proposed matrix, RRISD would adjust mask requirements based on Austin Public Health recommendations, which gauge the threat of COVID-19 in five possible stages. For example, a Stage 4 or 5 — the yellow and red options, respectively — would mean required masking at RRISD under the matrix. The Austin area has been in Stage 5, the highest stage, since early August.

    However, amid a ruckus in the hallway and disagreements between members, the school board decided to table this item until September 18.

    A number of attendees thronged outside the door of the meeting room, held at bay by RRISD police officers. The board was streaming a video feed of the meeting in an overflow room down the hall, but several attendees wanted to be in the meeting room with the trustees.

    The board voted 5-2 to keep the limited seating arrangement. The two nay votes came from Trustees Mary Bone and Danielle Weston, outspoken critics of the district’s past mask policies. Bone and Weston left the meeting afterward, with Bone expressing frustration over the seating rule.

    “They’re not upholding law. They’re upholding policy,” Bone said of the board’s decision to bar the attendees in the hall from entrance to the meeting.

    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton recently ended a suspension of the Open Meetings Act made necessary by COVID-19. Certain provisions of the law were paused during the pandemic to allow government bodies to keep crowds out of meeting rooms. This pause ended September 1.

    Snip.

    Backstage drama surrounding RRISD Superintendent Hafedh Azaiez thickens the plot.

    Similar to other votes, Weston and Bone were the only two trustees to vote against hiring Azaiez, who raised eyebrows after becoming the district’s lone finalist in a hiring process that the two trustees and some parents called opaque.

    Weston and Bone also issued a press release notifying the public that a woman claiming to be Azaiez’s mistress told the school board that he had assaulted her.

    Jeremy Story, a Round Rock father active in Republican circles who has confronted the school board at public meetings before about these allegations, said he brought the issue to the attention of the Round Rock Police Department yesterday and the Williamson County Sheriff today.

    Story was also one of the attendees at last night’s meeting. He was blocked and held by a police officer while trying to enter the meeting room and claims the board has targeted him for probing allegations against Azaiez.

    “I did not aggress against them. They wouldn’t answer any of my questions. Nothing. My offense was walking through the door to get into the open meeting, public meeting, of a school board,” Story said.

    The fact that Azaiez came from Donna ISD rang a bell with me, as that Rio Grande Valley district had a huge corruption scandal several years back, though Azaiez’s tenure as Superintendent there postdates the scandal.

    This is the same Round Rock ISD that just had a Texas Education Agency Monitor installed as part of a corrective action plan stemming from a complaint lodged against the board during the 2018-19 school year.

    TEA monitors report on the activities of the board of trustees or the superintendent. According to documents made public by the district Sept. 15, a complaint against the district from October 2019 found that previous board president Chad Chadwell did not recuse himself from discussion about a grievance against himself, alleging a conflict of interest and board overreach.

    This action, the letter states, violates Texas Education Code Chapter 11, Subchapter D-Powers and Duties of Board of Trustees of Independent School District. The letter states that the TEA requested documentation related to the complaint in August of 2020, which was then reviewed by TEA Special Investigations Unit Investigator Rebecca Clevlen.

    In other RRISD news, a Williamson County judge blocked their mask mandate because it violated Governor Abbott’s directive, only to have that block lifted by an appeals court the same day.

    Parents around the country are waking up and demanding answers on a host of issues, including mask mandates and the teaching of critical race theory, and school boards don’t seem to like it one bit. There are agendas at work that have nothing to do with teaching and everything to do with indoctrination.

    Developing…

    (Hat tip: Holly Hansen.)

    Tags:, , , , , , , , , , , , ,
    Posted in Austin, Social Justice Warriors, Texas | 3 Comments »

    LinkSwarm for September 17, 2021

    Friday, September 17th, 2021

    Greetings, and welcome to another Friday LinkSwarm! Chaos at the border and buying American military tech to oppose China are two of the themes this week:

  • 8,000 illegal aliens await processing underneath the Del Rio bridge on the U.S./Mexican border.
  • Here’s a drone shot:

    Those illegal aliens are there because Democrats and the Biden Administration want them there, so they can turn those illegal aliens into Democratic Party voters via amnesty.

  • So damaging is that drone footage that the FAA has closed airspace over the bridge to prevent it:

    I guess Bret Weinstein spoke too early…

  • Australia signed an agreement with the U.S. and the UK to build nuclear submarines.

    This effort is just one part of a new partnership between the three countries, dubbed AUKUS, which is short for Australia-United Kingdom-United States, that also includes cooperation in other areas, including long-range strike capabilities, cyber warfare, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing. President Biden said AUKUS would help all three countries work more closely together to help ensure peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region in the long-term.

    On the whole, this is probably a good move to counter China, and I hear that Canberra was the driving force behind the agreement. All that said, the United States was already in formal alliances with the UK and Australia through other treaties, so it’s not anything like a tectonic shift.

  • Another sign of the new alliance: The UK is going to station new vessels in the Indo-Pacific. [Senior Royal Navy admiral Tony Radakin] “said that the Taiwan Strait is clearly ‘part of the free and open Indo-Pacific.'”
  • Naturally France pitched a snit fit over the deal because Australia cancelled a contract with French shipbuilder Naval Group. “This brutal, unilateral and unpredictable decision reminds me a lot of what Mr Trump used to do,” Le Drian told franceinfo radio. “I am angry and bitter. This isn’t done between allies.” Cry some more, Jean-Claude. But it isn’t like France was ever going to come to Australia’s aid in a dust-up with China, so the deal makes sense as drawing Australia closer to the regions remaining nuclear naval powers. (Russia can barely keep its own navy running these days.)
  • Speaking of possible China opponents buying American technology, Japan is buying more F-35s.
  • Gavin Newsom survives recall election. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
  • John Durham finally files an indictment over the Russian collusion hoax investigation. “Special counsel John Durham reportedly seeks a grand jury indictment against Michael Sussmann, a cybersecurity lawyer at a Democratic-allied law firm closely linked to British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s discredited dossier.” That firm, of course, would be Perkins Coie, who you may remember from regular appearances in the Clinton corruption updates.
  • Also:

  • More military resignations:

  • “Despite his bellicose rhetoric and bluster, Trump had probably been more reluctant to use military force than any president in memory.”
  • Texas Monthly is shocked, shocked to find Hispanic Texans voting Republican:

    The Democrats of Texas have long, as in 30 years or more, believed that the Hispanic vote would eventually hand them total control of Texas forever. They believe they need not adjust their policies on faith, family, life, the Second Amendment, taxes — anything — because the party brand itself was enough. If it wasn’t, then they would resort to bullying. They could go all the way left to Wendy Davis and Karl Marx if they wanted to — and they have — and the Hispanic vote would save them.

    But a funny thing happened along the way. People like state Rep. Aaron Peña switched parties on principle and others followed them. And more are following them. His daughter, Adrienne Peña-Garza, is quoted in this Texas Monthly story regarding how the Democrats operate when it comes to independent-minded folks like her father and herself.

    Peña-Garza, the Hidalgo County Republican chair, said Hispanic South Texans, who have long been conservative, “have become liberated” to vote on their long-held beliefs. “People have been bullied into voting Democrat. If you got involved [in conservative politics], people said, ‘I’m not going to give you this contract; I’m not going to give you this job.’ But I think the bullying has backfired. People are more empowered and courageous.”

    When I was reporting on border issues in Hidalgo County during my first stint with PJ Media, I’d hear about the bullying she mentions but it wasn’t provable. Rampant and endemic, but hidden with no paper trails. Tejanos and Tejanas started standing up to it a decade ago, some by running for office, others by working courageously together underground and actually going after some of the political criminality. People noticed. Groups like Hispanic Republicans of Texas and the Conservative Hispanic Society rose up to answer the call outside any party structure. One of the most popular and successful talk radio hosts in the Lone Star State is my friend Chris Salcedo, the “liberty-loving Latino.” The conservative juggernaut is heard expounding on the joys of freedom and how Democrats would take it away on the air every day in Houston and Dallas and nationally on NewsmaxTV.

    People are noticing how embarrassingly paternalistic and out-of-touch the Democrats are when it comes to South Texas. They really don’t know Texas at all and haven’t bothered to understand.

    Snip.

    That’s because they’re not immigrants. Treating them as immigrants cancels their ancestors and their heritage. Tejanos have been in Texas for generations, from the time when it was part of the Spanish Empire. Badly misunderstood and under-reported is the fact that Tejanos are and have been part of the culture of Texas long before we Anglos showed up. By the time my ancestors arrived in Texas in the 1850s and 1860s, Tejanos had been building Texas for more than a century. They’re not immigrants in any sense of the word. They’re Texans and American citizens. They resisted elitist dictator Santa Anna, fought at the Alamo and San Jacinto, they’ve served in every major war defending the United States, they’ve won Medals of Honor and have state veterans homes named after them — and their communities are the most directly affected by the chaos that out-of-state Democrats tend to unleash on the border. They serve in the Border Patrol and the Coast Guard, and they work in the oil fields and own thriving businesses. Coyotes, cartels, drugs, and trafficking all affect Tejano communities first, while the rich Democrats who party at the Met are unaffected personally and weaponize the border as a racial cudgel. RGV citizens are not happy about that and they know whom to blame.

    (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)

  • How to skew poll samples, CNN edition.
  • The country is in the best of hands: “White House Cuts Live Stream of Biden Mid-Sentence as He Asks a Question.”
  • “At Bail Reform Bill Signing, Abbott and Patrick Lay Blame with ‘Socialist’ Harris County Judges.”

    Gov. Greg Abbott visited Houston on Monday to sign new legislation he said would directly address lenient bail practices and rising crime in Harris County.

    “Lives are being lost because the criminal justice system in Harris County is not working the way it should,” said Abbott.

    Known as the Damon Allen Act, Senate Bill (SB) 6 is named after a state trooper who was shot and killed during a routine traffic stop on Thanksgiving Day 2017. Despite having a history of assaulting a law enforcement officer, the shooter was out on a $15,000 felony bond at the time of the murder.

    Allen’s widow, Casey Allen, who has become an advocate for the reforms implemented by SB 6, joined Abbott at the Safer Houston Emergency Summit held by a coalition of ministry groups.

    Noting that her husband had been killed by a “violent, repeat offender,” Mrs. Allen added, “The murderer still went to jail, and my life and my kids’ lives were forever changed by actions that can’t be taken back.”

    The new law will create an online public safety report for judges and magistrates to access more complete information about a suspect’s criminal history before setting bail. In addition, SB 6 requires additional training for judges and magistrates, and prohibits the release of certain violent suspects or repeat suspects on personal recognizance (PR) bonds.

  • “Same FBI That Chased Russia Collusion Hoax for Years Covered Up Sexual Abuse of USA Gymnasts.” Why did James Comey’s FBI fail to investigate charges against Larry Nassar?
  • Masks are for cameras, and the little people:

  • Jackson, I’m goin to Jackson…to get murdered. (Hat tip: Reader Alan Stallings.)
  • A thread about Rick Rescorla, one of the biggest heroes of 9/11.
    

  • Evidently LA parents are not wild about a teacher that has a F*CK THE POLICE poster in his classroom.
  • Funny how no one talks about Sweden’s response to coronavirus.
    

  • Meanwhile, fully vaccinated Israel is seeing record cases. But the death rates appear to be low. (Hat tip: Michael Quinn Sullivan.)
  • “EPA Peer Review: The Best Rubberstamping Cronies Money Can Buy.”

    Now that the Biden EPA has rolled back the conflict-of-interest standards imposed by the Trump EPA on the agency’s outside scientific peer review panels, it has gone back to its old practice of stocking its peer review boards with agency research grant-recipient cronies who can be counted on to rubber-stamp whatever EPA wants to do. The Biden EPA most recently announced the particulate matter (PM) subpanel for the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC). As per below, 17 of the 22 members are current and/or former EPA grantees. The amounts associated with them as principal investigators are shown. Note the largest grantee (Lianne Sheppard, recipient of $60,032,782 in EPA grants) is, naturally, the chairman. Sheppard is also the chairman of the main CASAC panel as well as a member of EPA’s Science Advisory Board (SAB), a separate outside review panel. The Biden EPA needs a reliable multi-purpose rubber-stamper and that is Sheppard, an activist who sued the Trump EPA because it instituted conflict of interest rules under which she was ineligible to rubber-stamp agency wishes.

  • Here’s a UK funeral director who claims all the Flu Manchu deaths he’s seeing now are from vaccinations:

    Take this with a grain of salt and in the interest of gathering data points.

  • What. The. Hell. “Apple threatened to kick Facebook off its App Store after a 2019 BBC report detailed how human traffickers were using Facebook to sell victims.” What’s a little sexual slavery compared to all those likes?
  • Busted!

  • Coronavirus actors in Australia?

  • Part of the $3.5 trillion Democratic Party payoff porkulus is subsidies for newspapers, because of course. (Hat tip: The Other McCain.)
  • Norm Macdonald, RIP.
  • Another tribute to him from Bill Burr.
  • Bad bad boys, what ya gonna do, what ya gonna do when they reboot you? (Hat tip Dwight.)
  • Speaking of Dwight, here’s that list of Mannix episodes where he’s menaced by an old army buddy you’ve been waiting for!
  • The Vinland Map is a fake.
  • First edition of Frankenstein sells for $1,170,000. I guess I won’t be adding that to my collection anytime soon…
  • “Nation Cheers As Democrats Will Remain In California.”
  • “Woman Attending Ultra-Exclusive Gala For The Elite In Expensive Designer Dress Lectures Nation On Inequality.”
  • “Powerful: AOC Writes ‘Tax The Rich’ In The Sky With Her Private Jet.”
  • Live footage of the 101st GoodBoys drop:

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