Lawrence Person's BattleSwarm Blog

Tyler Robinson, the alleged assassin of Charlie Kirk, was living with his transgender romantic partner in the leadup to the assassination, Utah Governor Spencer Cox confirmed to CNN.

The roommate was “a male transitioning to female,” Cox said, noting that “this partner has been incredibly cooperative, had no idea this was happening, and is working with investigators right now.”

Snip.

While officials have not yet released the name of the roommate, public records show that Lance Twiggs, a 22-year-old, reportedly in the process of transitioning from male to female, lives at the same address as Robinson. The Post reported that a family member of Twiggs confirmed they were living together.

Cox told the Wall Street Journal that the suspect was “deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology.”

the Official Party of Wanton Assassination is busy making the case that there is extreme political violence “on both sides.” Immediately after the shooting, buffoonish Democrats like Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer, and Elizabeth Warren marched out to the microphones with convoluted messages about coming together and stopping violence on both sides.

By now, the drumbeat of bothsidesism in the aftermath of Kirk’s assassination has become a cacophony. “Bothsidesism” is what I am calling the irresistible urge for morally corrupt politicians (on both sides!) and journalists to lay half the blame for Kirk’s brutal murder at the feet of the right.

In fact, the worst Bothsiders — even worse than the sneering Democrats who can barely contain their glee that Kirk is dead, even as they scold us for not being interested in “unity” — are sniveling Republicans and so-called conservatives.

“There are monsters in your midst too,” intoned The New York Times’ David French, who persists in claiming to be conservative.

As proof, they will present their list of “right-wing violent attacks.” To give this barebones list more heft, they will go as far back as the Oklahoma City bombing, as that cretinous GOP Sen. James Lankford did on CNN. Lankford even had the gall to open his interview with Dana Bash by bringing up “white supremacy.” On Fox and Friends, Ainsley Earhardt tried to bait Trump into conceding that there are extremists on the right, too. Thank God he refused to take it.

This outrageous formulation must be crushed into dust, immediately. There is no moral equivalency. The Bothsiders are on the wrong side.

Why are Bothsiders wasting time blaming the right after a vicious murder committed by a leftist? Shouldn’t they be vociferously defending the innocent? The answer is that they’re cowards. They are too scared to call out Democrats for creating, supporting, and ignoring the evil that has taken root in their party.

Instead of courageously calling out their friends, colleagues, coworkers, and media allies, these pathetic Republican Bothsiders will spout long lists of examples of “right-wing political violence.” This allows them to avoid doing what has to be done: laying bare the left’s deep hatred of conservatives that has been allowed to fester for decade after decade.

By insisting that “both sides” are guilty of violence, they are giving the vicious left a way out. It’s a lifeline — a magical force field that immediately exonerates them. Democrats can then neatly avoid having to address the malevolent violence and hatred in so many of their voters. When it’s “both sides,” you get to escape accountability. When it’s “both sides,” the guilty get to escape a hard look in the mirror.

And just to belabor the point, here is why nearly everyone on the right is so united about political violence as a left-wing problem. First, Matt Walsh posted a short list of all the left-wing violence the right has had to endure in just the past few years:

BLM riots
Antifa
Church shootings
Trump assassination attempt [two of these!]
Pro life pregnancy center fires
Tesla vandalism
Attacks against ICE agents
Attacks against police
Attacks against federal courthouses

Allow me to add to this: multiple transgender shootings and threats by transgender activists. Plus, don’t any of these Bothsiders remember that our cities turned into a nightly warzone of fires, shootings, and Molotov cocktails from 2020-2021? It got so bad outside the White House that the president had to be moved to a secure location.

Don’t forget “Punch a Nazi” and “Punch a TERF” rhetoric either. Yes, men who identify as transgender, some of the most violent of the various Democrat shock troops, have attacked women as TERFs, or trans-exclusionary radical feminists, for years.

And we endure plenty of ancillary political violence. It was left-wing violence that forced Kyle Rittenhouse into a trial for self-defense. It was left-wing violence that forced Daniel Penny into a trial for being a hero. It was left-wing violence that wrecked countless statues, monuments, and businesses.

(Hat tip: Director Blue.)

Just days after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the left is working overtime to hide the truth and create fantasies about his death.

Specifically, leftists alleged that conservatives were going to “pounce” on the death to wage protests and boost radical agendas in the manner of what followed George Floyd’s death.

Here are some of the lies that such a ridiculous narrative entails.

One, Charlie Kirk is not conservatives’ George Floyd. There were no mass riots after his death of the sort that followed Floyd’s demise.

Floyd’s death was used by the left to justify five months of rioting, arson, murder, looting, and attacking police officers.

The postmortem respect for Kirk’s singular life was not characterized by $2 billion in property damage, the torching of a police precinct, a federal courthouse, and an iconic church, 35 deaths, and 1,500 injured law-enforcement officers.

Instead, thousands of people peacefully joined his Turning Point USA organization and promised to redirect their lives toward peaceful political engagement.

Two, after Kirk’s death, no prominent Republican or conservative is encouraging ongoing mass (and often violent) protests in the manner of high-profile leftists like Kamala Harris.

Snip.

Three, Charles Kirk was not George Floyd. He was a law-abiding, religiously devout, political organizer, happily married with two children. Kirk was a media figure and head of a huge 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose brand was calmly debating students who disagreed with him.

Floyd should not have died while in police custody. But Floyd’s comorbidities were many. When arrested, he was under the influence of fentanyl and methamphetamine, with a heart condition and recent Covid infection.

He was a career felon, with eight previous criminal convictions, who had in the past staged a violent home-invasion robbery and pointed a knife at the abdomen of one of the female occupants.

In contrast, when Kirk was killed, he was not on drugs. He was not resisting police officers. And he was not trying to pass counterfeit currency. Instead, he eschewed violence and tried to engage in polite dialogue with students of different views.

Four, Kirk was not, as alleged by the left, murdered by a right-wing shooter. His death was not an example of right-on-right violence. Just the opposite was true. The shooter, Tyler Robinson, was on record with his family expressing hatred for the conservative Kirk.

Robinson engraved his bullets with both Antifa-like “anti-fascist” messaging and transgender references. He lived with his transgender partner, who was a leftist. Robinson’s aim was to end Kirk’s peaceful conservative career because he hated his politics and popularity and feared his influence.

Five, the left used the death of Floyd to promote its hard-left and otherwise unpopular agenda—defunding the police, cashless bail, decriminalization of theft, and DEI mandates. It manipulated outrage, chaos, and months-long violence to ram through radical cultural and top-down legal changes that otherwise had little popular support.

Leftist political violence is on the rise with Fake News Media, Democrat politicians, activists and the far left using more and more radical, violent rhetoric. I wrote about the violent rhetoric (and leftist political violence) on this substack, several times (see also here and here). I also observed previously that the far left consider political violence a tool and that the violent rhetoric serves to “trigger” the radical leftist fringe into acting out violence. The visceral response Americans had to the brutal assassination of Charlie Kirk only days ago made the media, Democrats and their enablers “circle the wagons” and start fabricating lies and misinformation about Charlie Kirk. I debunk a couple of the nastier lies in this article.

Snip.

AT NO TIME did he say “black women” lack brain processing power. He said several prominent liberal women who admitted they were assisted by affirmative action were admitting they lacked the “brain processing power to be taken really seriously.”

The comments at issue were made on the July 13, 2023 episode of Charlie Kirk’s podcast. During the show, Charlie discusses affirmative action. Affirmative action was a particularly hotly debated topic at the time due to the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard wherein SCOTUS found the use of race-based affirmative action programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

After the Supreme Court’s opinion in Harvard a number of prominent black Democrats publicly supported affirmative action and stated they were personally assisted in their careers by affirmative action. Among these were the late Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat Congresswoman from Texas, former First Lady Michelle Obama and former MSNBC correspondent Joy Reid.

Snip.

The Charlie Kirk Called for Stoning Gay People LIE

Literally hours after his murder, prominent leftists started circulating false claims that Charlie Kirk advocated for or supported stoning gay people to death. Chief among the purveyors of this misinformation was famous author (and radical leftist) Stephen King.

Snip.

Did Charlie Kirk “Advocate” for Stoning Gays?

No, of course not. In fact, Charlie Kirk advocated repeatedly for caring for gay people and encouraged and supported gay conservatives. (This link is to a gay conservative Charlie supported. His video is worth watching and includes video of Charlie Kirk answering questions from gay people.)

Charlie Kirk was a Christian and believed in the Bible. Based on Scripture, Charlie knew homosexuality was a sin. Naturally, this enraged the far left. To justify or excuse Charlie’s murder the far left FABRICATED the claim that Charlie Kirk “advocated” for “stoning gays.” All Charlie Kirk did was reference Scripture. Here is what happened.

Charlie Kirk and Jack Posobiec hosted a podcast called Thoughtcrime. During a Thoughtcrime episode on June 8, 2024, Jack and Charlie (along with a couple of other frequent conservative contributors to the show) discussed a social media personality named Miss Rachel and her endorsement of Pride month (gay pride). Miss Rachel’s social media and blogging content focuses largely on kids and parenting. Miss Rachel made a post about suppoting Pride month and invoked the Bible in the process, citing the admonitions on the Book of Matthew to “love your neighbor.” Miss Rachel implied, but did not expressly say, anyone who is against Pride Month, is not being a good Christian.

In response, Charlie Kirk pointed out you love someone by “. . . by telling them the truth and not by confirming or affirming their sin.” He then suggested Miss Rachel read the rest of the Scriptures and pointed out the Book of Leviticus calls for a man who lays with another man to be stoned, making the point Miss Rachel was cherry-picking Bible verses. He also pointed out the Bible says to love God, one must love his law and that the Book of Leviticus lays down God’s law about sex.

“Stephen King himself agreed his own post was untrue and apologized for the post.”

The Fake News Media, the Democrats and the left generally are in panic mode working to spread lies about Charlie Kirk in an effort to blunt public opinion against their radical, violent rhetoric and leftist violence. These two lies are the worst in my view. There are many more other lies being spread about Charlie Kirk by the left. Keep that in mind as you read any media reports.

(Hat tip: Director Blue.)

A few years back we got really serious about studying cash transfers, and rigorous research began in cities all across America. Some programs targeted the homeless, some new mothers and some families living beneath the poverty line. The goal was to figure out whether sizable monthly payments help people lead better lives, get better educations and jobs, care more for their children and achieve better health outcomes.

Many of the studies are still ongoing, but, at this point, the results aren’t “uncertain.” They’re pretty consistent and very weird. Multiple large, high-quality randomized studies are finding that guaranteed income transfers do not appear to produce sustained improvements in mental health, stress levels, physical health, child development outcomes or employment. Treated participants do work a little less, but shockingly, this doesn’t correspond with either lower stress levels or higher overall reported life satisfaction.

Homeless people, new mothers and low-income Americans all over the country received thousands of dollars. And it’s practically invisible in the data. On so many important metrics, these people are statistically indistinguishable from those who did not receive this aid.

Read on for more detailed methodologies, but the results (or lack thereof) are consistent with all other experiments of this type, all the way back to the SIME/DIME experiments of the late 1960s. (Hat tip: Sarah Hoyt at Instapundit.)

The State Department announced Wednesday its decision to close the remnants of the Global Engagement Center, an office the Biden administration rebranded last year after it came under scrutiny for contributing to the censorship of conservatives online.

“The United States has ceased all Frameworks to Counter Foreign State Information Manipulation and any associated instruments implemented by the former administration,” principal deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in a statement, referring to the Global Engagement Center’s new title.

“The Framework, initially launched by the GEC to counter so-called disinformation, devolved into tools for political censorship instead of protecting Americans from foreign adversarial propaganda,” he added.

“Through free speech, the United States will counter genuine malign propaganda from adversaries that threaten our national security, while protecting Americans’ right to exchange ideas.”

The Biden administration reshuffled the GEC into the Frameworks to Counter Foreign State Information Manipulation after congressional Republicans defunded the GEC in 2024. Republican lawmakers shut down the GEC after widespread backlash among conservatives against the agency over the pressure it put on social media companies to censor disfavored points of view.

The State Department’s move followed through on Secretary Marco Rubio’s directive earlier this year to close the unit and end the practice of government-sponsored censorship.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has responded to Gov. Greg Abbott’s hemp-derived THC executive order (EO), saying that “on this issue, we disagree.”

A staunch supporter of an outright ban on THC in Texas, Patrick said in his Friday press release that via the EO, Abbott “intentionally or not, has sent a signal to the THC industry that they have a state seal of approval on the current THC market.”

Abbott’s EO, which comes after his veto of the THC ban in Senate Bill 3 at the end of the regular session and then two special sessions where the Legislature was unable to come to an agreement on regulation, directs the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) and Department of State Health Services (DSHS) with prohibiting the sale of hemp-derived THC products to “minors” — but does not explicitly state a specific age.

The EO also directs DSHS to conduct a review of existing agency rules that deal with total THC content in products, labeling requirements, and record-keeping.

Abbott told The Texan in July that he wants to see a 21-year age limit on the sale of hemp-derived THC products, an age he had mentioned in his veto proclamation.

Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller joined Vice President JD Vance, who hosted The Charlie Kirk Show earlier, following Kirk’s assassination last Wednesday by what has been described as a “radical left, ANTIFA-adjacent creep” with a radicalized transgender partner.

Miller told Vance, “Which is that we need to have an organized strategy to go after the left-wing organizations that are promoting violence in this country.”

It appears that Miller has correctly identified the dark-money-funded NGO world as fueling this madness, and that an urgent all-of-government approach is necessary.

More on the subject from Jason Curtis Anderson of One City Rising:

It’s encouraging to see the White House focus on the violent, revolutionary arm of the radical left, but targeting small organizations alone won’t solve the problem.

• We need a multi-agency coordinated effort, and it must confront the dark-money network of foundations that prop them up.
• We also must begin ruthlessly regulating and enforcing the tax-exempt 501(c)(3) system, where the revolution against the West operates. To qualify for tax-exempt status, a group is supposed to serve the public good.
• Yet many qualify on flimsy claims of promoting social, racial, or climate justice and then devote themselves to protests and flag-burning.
• They are a cancer on society, and the longer we wait, the more it will metastasize.
• It’s also alarming how closely far-left radicalization mirrors Islamist radicalization. The stages are strikingly similar: Introduction to ideology, Obsession with ideology, Belief that violence is justified, Acts of violence on behalf of the ideology.

Planned Parenthood’s online “gender affirming care” lesson for students as young as middle-schoolers suggests using “liquid filled condoms” to mimic a penis and provides instructions on how to circumvent safeguards if “you’re looking for hormones without extra gatekeeping.”

Sex Ed To-Go is an online program with free sex-education lessons in Spanish and English developed by Planned Parenthood for teachers and students, ranging from topics like sexually transmitted diseases to “handling break-ups.” The new module titled “Gender Affirming Care,” created by Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest, is designed for students in eighth grade and above. The lesson plan explains gender-related terminology, explores “types of things people can do to help their body and appearance match their gender identity,” directs students on finding “resources,” and details “how to support someone who is transgender, non-binary, or transitioning.”

Mark Welsh, president of Texas A&M University, is stepping down effective September 19. Announced by Chancellor Glenn Hegar and the Board of Regents, the news follows weeks of mounting controversy over Welsh’s leadership.

Welsh’s resignation caps a period of public uproar sparked by his handling of a children’s literature course that included instruction on introducing LGBT and gender identity material to children as young as three.

The situation came under public scrutiny after State Rep. Brian Harrison (R–Midlothian) released audio of a student objecting to the curriculum and subsequent allegations that the student was kicked out of class for expressing concerns about transgender indoctrination. Initially, Welsh defended the professor involved but later reversed himself—firing the instructor and removing the department head and dean from their posts.

Despite these actions, criticism intensified from lawmakers and activists, who accused Welsh of ambivalence and being slow to address the controversy.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick publicly called for further accountability, stating Welsh “did not handle the recent situation … as he should have,” while Harrison said Welsh “must be fired for forcing radical trans indoctrination on students.”

Sadly, trans indoctrination in education is something squishy Republicans dragged their heels on fighting in the past. That’s no longer the case, and I suspect that anyone in Texas who thinks its a good idea to use trans indoctrination on kids is soon going to find themseleves on the receiving end of a pink slip.

“We got too progressive, I believe,” said JoJo Burgess, the black Democratic mayor of Washington, Pennsylvania, a small city in steel country. He’s also a steelworker trying to claw back some of the steel country for Democrats.

Burgess argued that the Democrats’ problems are Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and identity politics, including gender ideology. Clairton Mayor Rich Lattanzi, also a Democrat and a former steelworker, basically agreed.

“It’s almost like the Democrats forgot the people they are representing,” Lattanzi told the Washington Examiner.

In 2000, Al Gore won Fayette, Washington, and Greene counties, all steel and coal country south of Pittsburgh, by 10 points, which was the norm. More recently, President Donald Trump carried all three counties by 30 points.

Burgess told the Washington Examiner he believes steel country Democrats were done in by a one-two punch. First, former President Barack Obama won the presidency, and Burgess said he believes white rural Democrats didn’t want to be in a party headed by a black man. He said the second blow was self-inflicted in 2016, adding “one of the biggest problems that we had with the Democratic Party — that’s Bernie Sanders.”

Burgess said he believes Sanders got so much attention that party leadership felt they had to tack left to embrace it.

“We got too progressive, I believe. And you got the progressives that picked up on that, like the AOCs [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] and people like that,” Burgess said. “Listen, I’m not gonna say that they’re bad, but sometimes some of the shit that some of these guys say: it’s just it’s too extreme and it don’t make sense.”

He added that one example is “gender stuff.”

“Whenever the LGBQTIA community comes out and says, ‘We’re getting treated just like black people,’ no, you’re not,” Burgess said. “As black people, we have no choice. In that community, you do have a choice, and you do know what you sign up for when you take on that role. Do I believe that you’re discriminated against? Yes. Do I believe you should be protected against it? Absolutely.”

However, Burgess totally rejected the idea that boys who identify as girls should be able to compete as girls, and he said he believes Democrats harm themselves by taking the other side.

Lattanzi said when the Democratic establishment hosts an event in steel country, it plays its identity-politics games and tries to stay away from the working-class white guy who stereotypically embodies this region.

“They’re out there looking for minorities, gays, and lesbians,” Lattanzi said.

Lots of interesting takeaways there, but this was a big one: “white rural Democrats didn’t want to be in a party headed by a black man.” Emphasis added. And that’s in 2008, which suggests racism lingered on in the rural Democratic Party much longer than in the Republican Party or America as a whole. See also: The Myth of the Southern Strategy.

One European politician, MEP Petr Bystron, has revealed that the EU commission has provided Financial support to the American investigative network Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) right after the 2024 EU elections. Major German news outlets like Spiegel, Zeit, and Süddeutsche Zeitung belong to the group, which is the world’s largest network of investigative media.

These outlets are known for their hit pieces on conservative and right-wing parties, often at opportune times. Notably, Spiegel and Süddeutsche Zeitung’s reporting in 2019 on the Ibiza Affair scandal — which involved an undercover video of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) party’s leader — led to the toppling of the Austrian government at the time, which included the FPÖ. Many critics believed that due to the sophistication of the operation, which included an undercover actress, intelligence services may have played a role.

The OCCRP group was founded in 2006 and is most well known for publishing the “Panama Papers” and the “Azerbaijan Laundromat” evasion scandals.

After a massive flow of U.S. money was cut off to key European establishment outlets and NGOs, Brussels is stepping in to fill the gap. Namely, the Trump administration ended the massive levels of funding headed towards foreign organizations, particularly from USAID, which allowed them to pump out pro-EU and left-wing content to wide swathes of the population across Europe.

The OCCRP group has received an extraordinary amount of money from U.S. taxpayers and other U.S. sources. According to French outlet Mediapart, the group received nearly $50 million from U.S. sources, but these funders were not just generous donors. They also could dictate editorial agendas and veto staff appointments.

Two journalists from NDR, a German state media network, questioned just how independent the OCCRP is in a 2024 report.

The two determined that a significant portion of the money was coming from American funds, particularly from USAID. OCCRP was funneling content and material to German media outlets like Spiegel, Zeit, and Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Since the revelations, Alternative for Germany (AfD) MEP Petr Bystron has officially requested the EU Commission to provide information about whether it also provides financial support to OCCRP. The response revealed that the organization has received €600,000 since November 2024 as part of an EU project to “strengthen” journalism.

Known as the NEXT-U project, it aims to support European journalists and media organizations with training and tools for investigative journalism. The commission defends the grants, stating that the taxpayer money is transparently distributed and adheres to journalistic standards.

Bystron argues that the ample amount of money amounts to an influence operation.

“OCCRP media outlets like Der Spiegel received over 600,000 euros from the EU directly after the EU elections. These very media outlets manipulated the last EU elections through massive campaigns,” he said in an interview with Berliner Zeitung, which published the exclusive story first.

The AfD MEP stated that the aim was to discredit conservative, right-wing politicians who are critical of the EU.

I first met Charlie Kirk when he was just 18 years old, in my friend’s living room. Fresh out of high school, even then, he had a vision for Turning Point USA—a dream to energize young people, inspire them, and get them involved. He started in his parents’ garage, and that vision grew into something extraordinary.

From the beginning, Charlie stood out. He was brilliant, bold, courageous, and joyful. He was a happy warrior.

Like so many across the country, I struggled to comprehend the news of his death.

He was assassinated for speaking the truth, for sharing his heartfelt beliefs, for daring to open conversations across the political spectrum. And his absence leaves a gaping hole in our nation’s soul.

Snip.

When I think back on Charlie’s life and all that he accomplished by the age of 31, I’m struck by how profoundly he influenced our nation. He had a gift, and few have done more for America’s youth.

Yes, he encouraged young Americans to go to the polls. He engaged in open discussion. He wanted to know young people’s hearts.

But most importantly, he was good for our country because he wanted to revive the souls of Americans.

Charlie wanted people to know the Lord, and he wanted to be remembered most for his courage in faith. He was one of the most important Christian evangelists and apologists of modern times.

Charlie sought out those who disagreed with him, and he was happy to listen to their arguments—respectfully and civilly—and to engage them on substance.

And he made an unbelievable difference in the lives of young people, inspiring millions across America and across the world.

The Indiana Supreme Court on Thursday permanently banned Judge Matthew J. Elkin of Howard County from judicial service following findings of judicial misconduct.

Chief Justice Loretta Rush wrote the rare decision to oust a county judge, and the other four justices on the Indiana Supreme Court agreed.

Elkin, a Republican who served in Howard Superior Court in Kokomo, was found to have engaged in misconduct by failing to disqualify himself from cases involving former clients, making inappropriate comments to court participants, and favoring certain litigants over others.

Yeah, the failure to disqualify is a huge no-no. Never let it be said that I don’t report actual Republican corruption when it happens.

According to [Oliver] Darcy, among the affected Rolling Stone staffers are executive digital director Lisa Tozzi, chief television critic Alan Sepinwall and copy chief Steven Pearl. As of this writing, none of them have commented publicly.

I honestly don’t know any of those names, but if of them had a hand in glamorizing the Boston Marathon bombers, or the Wranglestar hit piece, or the Ivermectin hit piece, or the UVA rape hoax, then I’m glad to see them go.

Following months of speculation about her future plans, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo announced this week she will not seek a third term as chief executive of Texas’ largest county.

“I am still in office until December 2026, and I’ve got the work cut out for me and that’s not even, knock on wood, counting any emergencies that might arise,” Hidalgo said during an interview with ABC 13 in Houston. “After that, I don’t know. I don’t know what I will do. I know that I’m not running for office this cycle. I can say that with confidence, and I know that I will stay in public service.”

First elected in 2018 in the down-ballot “Beto wave” of victories for Democrats, Hidalgo won with less than 50 percent of the vote against incumbent Republican Judge Ed Emmett. Prior to taking the reins as chief executive of Harris County, the 27-year-old had worked as a medical interpreter at the Texas Medical Center in Houston and volunteered for the Texas Civil Rights Project. A graduate of Stanford University, Hidalgo previously worked for international media group Internews in Indonesia.

Hidalgo’s surprise victory handed Democrats control of the commissioners court, with whom she initially worked well to usher in a slew of reforms to the county’s management of flood mitigation, infrastructure, and criminal justice systems; an administrative restructuring of county government; and the launch of new social programs. Lauded as a rising political star, the young judge drew the attention of national media for her promotion of progressive policies in a reliably Republican state.

Despite multiple controversies during her first term — including her efforts to release violent criminal suspects from the county’s jail during the COVID-19 pandemic and indictment of several staffers over an alleged vaccine outreach bid-rigging scheme — Hidalgo narrowly won a second term in 2022, but has since increasingly clashed with fellow Democratic commissioners and often exhibited erratic behavior.

During a swearing-in ceremony after the 2022 election, Hidalgo accused fellow Democratic commissioners of trying to cut her out of the program. Later that year she alleged that she had been “groped” in the commissioners court meeting room. Months later, Hidalgo took a lengthy leave of absence while she sought in-patient treatment for depression.

Since returning to her office Hidalgo has increasingly clashed publicly with Commissioners Adrian Garcia (D-Pct. 2) and Lesley Briones (D-Pct. 4), while largely maintaining her alliance with Commissioner Rodney Ellis (D-Pct. 1).

The fractures on the commissioners’ court erupted earlier this year when Garcia and Briones joined the lone Republican Commissioner Tom Ramsey (R-Pct. 3) in support of raises for law enforcement but refused to support Hidalgo’s proposal for a tax increase to continue a pilot daycare program launched with federal COVID-19 relief funds in 2022.

Good news for the exit of an unqualified leftist who did much harm while she was there.

A woman accused of running an illegal ballot harvesting scheme during the 2022 General Election was arrested in Starr County, Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on Wednesday.

A grand jury indicted Modesta Vela of Roma after a yearlong investigation into ballot harvesting operations targeting numerous senior citizens in South Texas. She was arrested on September 4, marking her fourth arrest since 2010.

That name may be faintly familiar for longtime readers, as she was previously indicted on voting fraud charges back in 2018.

“Due to the findings of this investigation, a grand jury issued a true bill indictment against Vela for intentionally and knowingly influencing a Texan’s vote in the presence of the ballot during the voting process, which is an offense punishable as a state jail felony,” according to Paxton’s office.

Ballot harvesting—sometimes referred to as “ballot trafficking”—typically involves a third party illegally collecting and handling voters’ ballots in order to influence elections.

In South Texas, these third-party ballot harvesters are known as politiqueras.

Investigators with the Office of the Attorney General said Vela’s activities focused on Texans over the age of 65, a group often targeted in such cases due to their automatic eligibility for mail-in voting.

Paxton reiterated his longstanding position that election fraud is an ongoing threat in Texas.

“Though liberals and the left-wing media like to pretend otherwise, we know that election fraud is real and a serious threat,” said Paxton. “Criminals trying to steal our elections and rig the democratic process will be found, arrested, and prosecuted. Modesta Vela was trying to take advantage of voters and broke the law by illegally ballot harvesting and targeting a Texan seeking to engage in our elections. Now, it’s time for Vela to answer for her actions in court.”

The investigation followed a complaint filed in late 2022 by Project Red Texas, alleging Vela was involved in ballot harvesting operations in Starr County.

A popular Ohio barbecue restaurant is facing major backlash after one of its co-owners called conservative activist Charlie Kirk a “piece of s—” in a social media post after his assassination.

Shortly after Kirk, 31, was shot Wednesday while speaking at a campus event in Utah, Aaron Sharpe, co-owner of Lucius Q in Cincinnati, commented on a Facebook post from someone offering prayers for the husband and father of two.

“Good riddance,” Sharpe wrote in a post that is no longer publicly visible but has been circulated widely online in screenshots. “What a piece of s—,” he added.

On Wednesday evening, Sharpe doubled down on Facebook, posting, “Don’t you dare come at me with your hypocrisy. … If you think that threats of social media attacks on me or my business will in any way keep me silent about what I believe, you are sorely mistaken….”

On Thursday, several of Lucius Q’s business partners announced they had cut ties with the restaurant. Lucius Q later announced it had parted ways with Sharpe.

pic.twitter.com/thfoSRuef3

— Dogs are our lives (@loveDoges111) September 16, 2025

(Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)