The Babylon Bee Presents The Second Civil War

Posted on June 27, 2026 by Lawrence Person

Babylon Bee: “We Asked AI To Simulate If The U.S. Had A Second Civil War.”

Here are the results:

  • “In the city, we’re used to being able to burn down a target and no one does anything. I guess it’s different in the suburbs, though.”
  • “One of the big issues is how we hate guns. But the right loves them. I guess none of us considered how big a disadvantage that would put us in a civil war.”
  • “Many of the losing combatants fled to the far north. Starvation was rampant among them from lack of access to DoorDash.”
    • Posted in Democrats, Guns, Social Justice Warriors, video | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

    LinkSwarm For June 26, 2026

    Posted on June 26, 2026 by Lawrence Person

    More Medicare scammers captured, Trump wins multiple border security cases at the Supreme Court, the Supremes also drive a stake through a vampire, Ukraine hits a whole lot of bridges in occupied Crimea, dirty commies win Dem primaries in New York, and Tom Scott looks at some furry workers.

    It’s the Friday LinkSwarm!

  • “FBI arrests second fugitive on Most Wanted Fraudsters list, accused of $1.2B Medicare fraud scheme.”

    Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel announced that another suspect on the T White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud’s new Most Wanted Fraudsters list has been apprehended.

    Patel posted on X Saturday that Herbert Leon Kimble, 60, was arrested in the Philippines thanks to the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) task force led by Vice President JD Vance and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

    “In just over two weeks, this is the second Most Wanted Fraudster arrested on the FBI’s list led by Vice President Vance and the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud,” wrote the director. “Herbert Leon Kimbel was apprehended in the Philippines and is now back in the United States, on the run since 2024 after he allegedly orchestrated a $1.2 billion healthcare fraud conspiracy that targeted the Medicare system – particularly elderly victims – from 2014-2019.”

    Kimble of Chicago, Illinois, is accused of targeting Medicare in a “large-scale healthcare fraud conspiracy” via “the improper marketing and distribution of durable medical equipment (DME), particularly orthopedic braces.”

    According to the FBI, from 2014 to 2019, he operated a scheme in which victims — often elderly — would be unnecessarily prescribed orthopedic braces for pain relief by telemedicine providers via call centers in the Philippines.

    Evidently it’s Medicare fraudsters with connection to the Philippines week here at BattleSwarm.

    DME suppliers affiliated with Kimble would then bill Medicare for reimbursement, resulting in over $1.2 billion in Medicare charges.

    On April 4, 2019, in the District of South Carolina U.S. District Court, he pled guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States, to make a false claim to a department of the United States, to commit mail fraud, to commit wire fraud, to commit healthcare fraud and to offer kickbacks and bribes in connection with the scheme.

    He subsequently failed to appear for his sentencing hearing on August 27, 2024, resulting in the issuance of a federal arrest warrant that same day, charging him with failure to appear.

    The FBI offered a reward of up to $150,000 for information leading to his arrest and conviction.

    Kimble is the second individual on the most wanted list that has been apprehended.

    Last week, Said Abdullahi Ereg, 47, was also arrested after he surrendered to authorities in connection with an alleged $4 million scheme involving the Federal Child Nutrition Program during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Ereg ran a grocery and deli in Minneapolis sponsored by Feeding Our Future. He was initially issued a federal arrest warrant in January 2024 and was indicted in June 2024 by a federal grand jury for conspiracy involving wire fraud and money laundering.

    The FBI’s Most Wanted Fraudsters list can be found here.

  • Two wins for Trump on immigration enforcement at the Supreme Court.

    The Supreme Court this morning, in a pair of 6–3 opinions written by Justice Samuel Alito, gave the Trump administration’s border policies two more big wins. Both pared back humanitarian bases for admitting people into the country. Mullin v. Doe allowed the administration to revoke Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designations granted by the Biden administration — specifically for Haitians and Syrians, but the decision’s logic, which bars judicial review of revocations, would seem to compel the same outcome for Venezuelans. Mullin v. Al Otro Lado allowed immigration officials to prevent people from reaching the border to present asylum claims, because the law allows those claims to be presented by an alien who “arrives in the United States.”

    Along with Tuesday’s decision in Blanche v. Lau, which strengthened the government’s power to exclude criminal aliens prior to their convictions, this was a clean sweep for immigration hard-liners. That may take some of the sting out of the Court’s pending decision in Trump v. Barbara, which could come as soon as Monday and is expected to be a loss for Donald Trump’s executive order limiting birthright citizenship.

    In the backdrop of Mullin v. Doe are the divergent attitudes of the Biden and Trump administrations toward TPS, but the actual ground of battle, as our editorials have emphasized, is the language of the TPS statute and whether courts should take the written law seriously.

    The TPS statute, enacted in 1990, allows the president to designate particular countries as unsafe because of war, natural disasters, epidemics, or other temporary crises and therefore give their nationals temporary protection to stay within this country. Before the statute’s enactment, presidents would sometimes grant such protection as a discretionary matter but with no statutory authorization and, in effect, no rules. In that sense, TPS is like the 1977 tariff statute at issue in Learning Resources: It was designed to provide rules of the road for the executive to follow in responding to emergencies. Prior to 1990, the judiciary had treated these executive decisions as exercises of discretion that courts could not review.

    Of course, nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program. For some countries, TPS has been continually in force now for decades, making a mockery of the “temporary” designation. Somalia has had a TPS designation for 35 years, and Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador have been so designated for more than 25 years. Haiti received a TPS designation because of an earthquake 16 years ago.

    The statute is written to reflect broad executive discretion. The secretary of homeland security “may” grant TPS to nationals of a particular country based on a series of statutory criteria but is under no obligation to do so. Several of the criteria explicitly reference conditions “temporarily” existing in the foreign country. By contrast, the statute requires TPS to be terminated if the secretary finds that the home country “no longer continues to meet the conditions for designation.” The law thus contemplates ongoing review — the secretary is mandated to conduct a new review at least once every 18 months — and DHS violates the law if it extends TPS when the conditions justifying it no longer exist.

    That may be particularly important when a foreign tyranny is suddenly toppled and replaced by a new government, as has happened recently in both Syria and Venezuela. Syria’s designation was applied in 2012 because of the civil war that sought to topple the Assad regime, which ended with Assad’s departure in late 2024. Once TPS is revoked, the affected foreign nationals are given 60 days before they must either leave the United States or secure some other legal basis to stay. The 60-day provision was designed by Congress to accommodate the reliance interests of foreigners here temporarily, who have been given work permits but who knew from the outset that shelter on American shores was explicitly temporary.

    The Biden administration tried to lock in its successor on these inherently fluid, temporary foreign policy assessments by granting TPS extensions, in some cases just days before Joe Biden left office. For example, Alejandro Mayorkas, the impeached-but-not-tried secretary of homeland security, extended TPS for Venezuela on January 17, 2025. By contrast, the Trump administration has terminated every TPS it has reviewed, 13 of them so far. Trump has been quite open about this as a deliberate policy.

    Can courts review TPS designations? Congress didn’t think so. We know that because Congress said so in terms that could hardly be more explicit: “There is no judicial review of any determination of the [secretary of homeland security] with respect to the designation, or termination or extension of a designation, of a foreign state.” The TPS litigation that has been ongoing since the outset of the second Trump term has dragged on this long because multiple lower court judges (including the Ninth Circuit) decided to judicially review what Congress said explicitly they may not judicially review. As Alito noted, judicial orders stopped Trump from ending TPS for Haiti, Syria, Venezuela, Burma, and Ethiopia and also prevented Trump from ending TPS for Haiti during his first term, in 2018.

    Alito began with whether the law written by Congress means what it says, and his opinion is almost comical in attempting to take seriously the ridiculous contention that it doesn’t. “This text is clear, and its plain meaning is very broad,” he noted, and he explained why the word “determination” means decisions that the secretary is empowered and in some cases required to make.

  • “Supreme Court Drives a Stake Through Hawaii’s ‘Vampire Rule.'”

    IAt stake was a Hawaiian statute, Act 52, that inverted the usual presumption that governs public access to generally accessible private property, but only where firearms are concerned. Prior to the passage of Act 52, Hawaiians who were able to obtain carry permits (which, before Bruen, was effectively impossible) were allowed to enter any generally accessible private space while carrying a firearm — unless the property owner explicitly signaled otherwise. After Act 52, Hawaiians with carry permits were allowed to enter any generally accessible private space while carrying a firearm only if the property had signaled that it was acceptable. (Gothic lore holds that vampires must be explicitly invited to enter one’s home before they may cross the threshold. Hence: “vampire rule.”)

    As the Court correctly noted, this change — which was made directly after Bruen, and which shifted only the rules governing firearms, and no others besides — was explicitly designed to impede “the ability of law-abiding citizens to exercise the right Bruen recognized as they go about their daily lives.” That being so, it fell.

    Writing for the majority, Justice Alito recorded that:

    At common law, opening up private property to the general public implies a “license to all persons to enter,” meaning that “no person is a trespasser by merely entering therein” unless the property owner has given “due notice” that such a person is banned.

    “Hawaii’s shift from the common-law rule,” Alito concluded, “unquestionably imposes a new and significant burden on the exercise of the right recognized in Bruen.”n a 6–3 vote, the Supreme Court has struck down Hawaii’s “vampire rule” as a violation of the Second and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. This was the right result, and, once again, it is a disgrace that the decision was not unanimous.

    During briefs and at oral argument, Hawaii offered up three main defenses of its law. The first defense was that it has historically had much stricter firearms laws than much of the rest of the United States. Alito dealt with that one quickly:

    As the plurality explained in McDonald, the Second Amendment has the same meaning in all parts of the United States. 561 U. S., at 784–785. It cannot give way to “the spirit of Aloha” in Hawaii, contra, State v. Wilson, 154 Haw. 8, 27, 543 P. 3d 440, 459 (2024), any more than it can yield to the spirit of the Big Apple (Bruen) or the Windy City (McDonald).

    Aloha, “spirit of Aloha.”

    No, Hawaii, you can’t argue that “Historically, Hawaii has ignored the constitution” as an excuse to ignore it further…

  • “Eight Antifa Members Who Attacked Texas ICE Facility Sentenced to Collective 450 Years in Prison.”

    The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the sentencing eight “North Texas Antifa Cell” operatives to a total of 450 years in prison on Tuesday for their various roles in the July 4, 2025 attack on the Prairieland U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Detention Center in Alvarado.

    “Testimony and other evidence at trial established that the defendants were members of a North Texas Antifa Cell, part of a larger militant enterprise made up of networks of individuals and small groups primarily ascribing to an ideology that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government, law enforcement authorities, and the system of law,” a June 23 DOJ press release said.

    On July 4 of last year, the Antifa members dressed in dark clothing with head and face coverings, forming a “black bloc” in order to conceal their identities and make them indistinguishable from each other. Evidence revealed they had 11 firearms, body armor, and 11 “military-grade first aid kits with tourniquets and other items to treat gunshot wounds to the scene of the attack.”

    They began shooting fireworks and vandalizing vehicles and a guard shack at the property. Alvarado police officers responded to a 9-1-1 call about the attack. Ringleader Benjamin Song was heard on a bodycam recording yelling, “Get to the rifles!” — after which the group opened fire on the officer, hitting him in the neck.

    Many of the Antifa members were arrested near the scene, but Song escaped and was not arrested until July 15.

    The DOJ said this is the “first sentencing of defendants affiliated with Antifa following President Donald J. Trump’s executive order designating the group as a Domestic Terrorist Organization in September 2025.”

    In March, nine of the Antifa members were convicted for “their roles in rioting, using weapons and explosives, providing material support to terrorists, obstruction, and the attempted murder of an Alvarado police officer.”

    Of the nine, eight were sentenced on Tuesday, including Song, who received the harshest sentence of 100 years in prison for the attempted murder of the officer. Evidence from the trial showed that Song acquired and distributed firearms to the co-defendants and “recruited members at gun ranges and combat sessions he conducted, as well as from various ideologically aligned groups.”

    Maricela Rueda was sentenced to 70 years; Cameron Arnold, Savanna Batten, Zachary Evetts, Bradford Morris, and Elizabeth Soto to 50 years each; and Daniel Rolando Sanchez-Estrada to 30 years.

    Ines Soto was granted a continuance and will be sentenced on July 1, along with seven co-defendants who all pleaded guilty to one count of providing material support to terrorists: Seth Sikes, Nathan Baumann, Joy Gibson, Susan Kent, Rebecca Morgan, Lynette Sharp, and John Thomas.

    Seven others who pleaded guilty to providing support to the terrorists will be sentenced on July 1.

  • I didn’t have time to include The Tulsi Gabbard/Fauci story in last week’s LinkSwarm.
    1. Fauci, as NIAID director, directed millions in U.S. taxpayer funds (via Peter Daszak of EcoHealth Alliance and other entities) for gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses in Wuhan.
    2. Fauci had close relationships with intelligence-community leaders and provided hand-picked NIAID-funded scientists as advisors, which was used to promote a natural-origin narrative and downplay the lab-leak theory. Fauci played a direct role, even meeting with the CIA to assist in a coverup.
    3. Fauci LIED to Congress in 2024 when asked about his involvement in these schemes (there is a long trail of evidence proving this).

      The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released declassified documents to support her claims, which can be found here.

  • “Kerch Oil Depot Hit By Drones: Close to the Kerch Bridge.”
  • “Storm Shadow Strike on Semiconductor Plant in Voronezh: Four Hits.”
  • “Voronezh Update: Major Damage to Semiconductor Plant in New Video & Satellite Imagery.”
  • “Moscow Oil Refinery: Satellite Imagery Shows Extensive Damage.”
  • “Key Bridge in Vasylivka Destroyed in Big Ukrainian Air Strike.”
  • “Ukraine Destroys Key Railway Bridge in Crimea! ”
  • “Satellite Imagery Shows Severe Damage to Crimean Bridges.”
  • “Ukrainian Drones Hit the Poltavskaya Oil Depot.” This was in Krasnodar Krai.
  • “Ukraine Destroys Multiple Russian Ferries at Port Kavkaz.” This was near the Kerch Strait.
  • “Ukraine Hits TWO Russian Support Ships and a Ferry in Zatoka Shipyard Near Kerch.”
  • Ukraine also hit 38 different targets in Crimea; radars, electrical substations, oil storage, etc.
  • “Zelenskyy says drone signal repeaters in Belarus have been switched off.”

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that signal repeaters on the territory of Belarus that had been helping Russian drones strike Ukraine ceased operating on 22 June….

    “Based on the available information reported to me by the Commander-in-Chief [of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi] and intelligence services, the relevant signal repeaters stopped operating on the territory of Belarus on 22 June. I don’t know yet whether they have been dismantled, to be honest. But we are working on this, and I am keeping a very close eye on the situation and receiving daily reports. It is a fact that the signal repeaters are not operating today.”

    On 19 June, Zelenskyy issued an ultimatum to self-proclaimed Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, giving him a week to dismantle the signal repeaters used to adjust Russian drone strikes on Ukrainian cities, or Ukraine would do it itself.

  • Old and busted: Russia puts heavy air defense around Putin’s vacation palace. The new hotness: Russia torn down the palace. Puzzling.
  • “Why Every High School Student Is Learning to Shoot a Gun – in Latvia.” Every country bordering Russia should legalize private ownership of firearms and do the same. (Hat tip: KR Training.)
  • A huge earthquake rocked Venezuela this week, with death toll unknown but expected to be high.
  • Despite Abigail Spanberger’s best efforts, the Second Amendment still applies to Virginia.

    Things went from bad to worse for Democrats on Thursday afternoon after a judge in Virginia issued a preliminary injunction on the “assault firearms” and high-capacity magazine ban that was set to go into effect in the Commonwealth on July 1. The judge from Lancaster County, located in the Northern Neck of Virginia, ruled that the Virginia State Police (VSP) cannot enforce the bans through December 31, 2026 or until a final order is issued.

    The lawsuit was brought against the superintendent of the VSP by the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) and Gun Owners of America (GOA), who took well-deserved victory laps on social media.

    There’s also another law case winding its way through the courts. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)

  • “Mamdani-Backed Socialists Sweep New York House Primaries.”

    New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s endorsement proved influential in three key congressional primary races on Tuesday, as his favored progressive candidates prevailed over opponents more closely aligned with the Democratic establishment.

    New York State Assemblywoman Claire Valdez and Harlem community organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier, both of whom were also backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, won races in New York’s seventh and 13th congressional districts, respectively. Meanwhile, former city comptroller Brad Lander, a progressive former DSA member, pulled off an impressive upset over incumbent Representative Dan Goldman in NY-10. Lander is a Jewish progressive who left the DSA in 2023 after it held a pro-Palestinian rally just one day after Hamas’s terror attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.

    Lander and Goldman, who is also a Jewish Democrat, both made their stances on the Israel-Hamas war a key part of their respective campaigns. Lander, who sits to the left of Goldman politically, had criticized his opponent for failing to take a tougher stance on Israel.

    Avila Chevalier prevailed over incumbent Representative Adriano Espaillat despite her status as the most controversial of the three Mamdani-backed progressives. While Espaillat is the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus “who has over the years built a political machine of his own in upper Manhattan and parts of the Bronx,” according to Politico, Avila Chevalier is a first-time candidate who was well known in Harlem for her pro-Palestinian activism but whose unearthed social media posts made her a political liability for the DSA. Those posts included messages blasting Democratic politicians, including one 2021 post in which she wrote “f*** Kamala Harris,” and others against an array of topics from the police to Israel and private property.

    Mamdani, for his part, said he wasn’t aware of her past comments when he endorsed her, but he did not pull his endorsement nonetheless.

    The mayor also endorsed Valdez in her bid to assume the seat left open by retiring Representative Nydia Velázquez. The outgoing Democratic congresswoman had endorsed Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso as her replacement. Mamdani and the DSA’s decision to endorse a different candidate led to a falling out with Velázquez, who had been an early supporter of Mamdani’s mayoral run.

  • China’s oil reserves aren’t.

    In late May Chinese leaders travelled to the Zhoushan National Oil Reserve and discovered the nation’s strategic oil reserves weren’t there. For over a year, the disruption of oil supplies from Venezuela and Iran had left Chinese oil reserves reduced. Despite that, government documents indicated that China still had 1.2 billion tons of oil reserves. That’s equivalent to 8,756,117,022 barrels.

    China’s strategic oil reserve, to the surprise of the government officials who went to verify the reserves in May, was instead composed of water, sludge, various debris and overflow from nearby sewer lines.

    Because the Americans dominated global energy supplies, the Chinese oil reserve served as a major cushion to any disruptions to Chinese oil imports from the Persian Gulf, especially Iran whose main customer was China. Under America’s global energy stranglehold, Chinese crude oil stockpiles have reached the verge of collapse at the slightest exposure.

    The current Chinese vulnerability stems from the American disruption of Venezuelan oil exports to China and more recently a similar situation with Iranian oil exports to China.

    China’s strategic oil reserve was insurance against disruptions in Venezuelan and Iranian imports. With its oil reserves revealed as a sham, China finds itself in a desperate situation. What happened to Chinese oil? It was soon discovered that corrupt government officials and oil reserve personnel had sold the oil and pocketed the proceeds. The local buyers were often operators of small, locally owned refineries that turned the oil into commercial products that were sold throughout China. Most of these oil criminals then fled, often leaving China for sanctuary states that would welcome any affluent Chinese and their new wealth. The only winners were a few conniving Chinese and the Americans, who continued to dominate the global energy system.

    (Hat tip: Bayou Renaissance Man.)

  • “John Bolton Pleads Guilty to Mishandling Classified Information, Faces Five-Year Prison Sentence.” He should have stayed as UN Ambassador, where he was useful scaring other nations, and everyone would have been happier.
  • “For every hour employees think they save using AI, they spend an hour ‘botsitting.'”
  • American memory company Micron blows away earning guidance.
  • Bungie went woke and now they’re going broke.
  • Why Spirit Airlines failed. “Perhaps the Biden DOJ should have allowed the JetBlue merger.” Yay think?
  • Meme for the week:

    (Hat tip: Sarah Hoyt.)

  • Important tip: If you’re a Bexar County judge and you’re given an official YouTube channel to livestream your court proceedings, don’t use it for your book club.
  • “Woman who emptied Knicks trashcan on street — then stole it — is fired from JPMorgan Chase, was DEI exec.” Shocked face engaged. (Hat tip: Dwight.)
  • How Adam Savage sorts his connector cables.
  • The Lock-Picking Lawyer: “I didn’t think it was possible, but somehow Master Lock has now tarnished its name even more with a brand new line of padlocks.” Evidently the Elite line isn’t.
  • Tom Scott looks at…ferrets?
  • Critical Drinker liked The Furious.
  • The Pitch Meeting for Disclosure Day.
  • Jeremy Clarkson: “The observant among you will notice that I’m not dead yet.”
  • Dwight offers up a look at some early Smith & Wesson history.
  • “New Yorkers Excited To See How Never-Before-Tried Government Called ‘Socialism’ Turns Out.”
  • “Al-Qaeda Wins New York Primary.”
  • “New ‘Communist Catan’ Expansion Set Just Makes Players All Wait Their Turn For Grain.”
  • Soccer finally accomplishes something.

    (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)

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





    Posted in Border Control, Communism, Crime, Democrats, Elections, Guns, Jihad, Military, Social Justice Warriors, Supreme Court, Texas, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

    Bill: Hey Universities, You Can Take Money From The ChiComs, Or From Uncle Sam, But Not Both

    Posted on June 25, 2026 by Lawrence Person

    Many of America’s universities have proven eager to take money from communist China for “partnership” arrangements. A new bill aims to put an end to that by making them choose between ChiCom money and federal funding.

    Republican U.S. Rep. Pat Fallon of Texas has introduced legislation that would prohibit federal funding for higher education institutions that partner with the Chinese Communist Party.

    H.R. 9123 would “establish intelligence community funding restrictions on institutions of higher education that have a relationship with certain entities in the People’s Republic of China.”

    The legislation amends the National Security Act of 1947 to prohibit intelligence community support for any higher education institution that participates in a series of relationships with entities tied to China.

    This would seem a common sense policy implemented that should have been implemented long before now. Communist China is always looking to steal technology from the West through its “Thousand Talents” espionage program, and Chinese nationals have been stealing technology from American universities (including Texas A&M) for a while now.

    Examples of these entities include:

  • Confucius institutes
  • Institutions that participate “in the Chinese defense industrial base”
  • Institutions that are “affiliated with the Chinese State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for the National Defense”
  • Institutions that receive “funding from any organization subordinate to the Central Military Commission of the Chinese Communist Party”
  • Institutions that provide “support to any security, defense, police, or intelligence organization of the Government of the People’s Republic of China or the Chinese Communist Party”

    • The legislation also places restrictions on partnerships that undermine America’s relationship with Taiwan and on Chinese propaganda efforts against U.S. citizens.

    This is a good first step, but we should go further and ban Chinese nationals from holding any position at any U.S. research university, laboratory or institute that takes federal money.

    To paraphrase Bob Dylan, you have to serve somebody, and it shouldn’t be communist China. As I’ve said before, anything that discourages colleges and universities from working with a genocidal communist dictatorship is a good thing.

    Posted in Communism, Regulation, Texas | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

    House Investigates Austin’s Own Soros-Backed DA Jose Garza

    Posted on June 24, 2026 by Lawrence Person

    It turns out if you repeatedly flout Uncle Sam’s immigration laws, sooner or later Uncle Sam is going to notice.

    Congressional Republicans have launched an investigation into Travis County District Attorney José Garza’s handling of immigration-related cases, accusing his office of adopting policies that shield illegal aliens from immigration enforcement and undermine public safety.

    In a letter obtained by Texas Scorecard, U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R–Ohio), Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement Subcommittee Chairman Tom McClintock (R–California), and Constitution and Limited Government Subcommittee Chairman Chip Roy (R–Texas) demanded records from Garza’s office related to its interactions with federal immigration authorities and treatment of noncitizen defendants.

    “The Committee on the Judiciary is conducting oversight of state and local jurisdictions that endanger American communities through their refusal to cooperate with federal immigration officials and their prioritization of illegal and criminal aliens over American citizens,” the lawmakers wrote.

    The letter points to campaign promises made by Garza regarding immigrant communities and his office’s consideration of immigration consequences in criminal prosecutions.

    According to the lawmakers, Garza previously pledged to “protect immigrant communities” and create policies that consider the immigration consequences of criminal charges and convictions. The committee also highlighted Garza’s support for diversion programs that could allow noncitizen defendants to avoid criminal convictions carrying immigration consequences.

    “Under your office’s pro-crime, pro-illegal immigration policies, illegal alien criminals are allowed to freely operate, terrorize local communities, and reoffend without consequences,” the lawmakers wrote.

    Just like the offices of other Soros-backed DAs. See also: Larry Krasner and George Gascon (among others).

    The committee is seeking a broad range of records dating back to January 2021, including communications with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, policies related to the prosecution of non-U.S. citizens, training materials concerning immigration consequences, and communications with local law enforcement agencies regarding immigration enforcement.

    Lawmakers also requested records involving cases in which prosecutors considered immigration consequences, including instances in which defendants were allowed to replead charges or had convictions reduced or vacated.

    Roy said the inquiry builds on concerns he has previously raised about Garza’s office.

    “Under District Attorney José Garza, Austin has been failed by pro-criminal policies that weaken accountability and prioritize lawbreakers over public safety,” Roy told Texas Scorecard. “This dereliction of duty has raised serious questions about whether repeat offenders, including criminal aliens, are being adequately prosecuted and whether the safety of law-abiding Austin residents is being put first.”

    Of course American Citizens aren’t being put first. Garza and Soros prioritize putting criminal back out on the streets in the name of socials justice, not to mention the needs of keeping illegal aliens around as welfare state clients and to vote for Democrats.

    Congressional hearings are one thing, but Roy et al need to refer Garza to the Department of Justice for prosecution (and all other Soros-backed DAs) for ignoring the law in favor of putting hardened criminal and illegal alien felons back on the street.

    Posted in Austin, Border Control, Crime, Democrats, Republicans, Social Justice Warriors, Texas | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

    $1 Billion In Medicare Fraud

    Posted on June 23, 2026 by Lawrence Person

    One billion dollars is a sum that gets your attention, especially when it’s alleged Medicare fraud.

    A Las Vegas nurse practitioner…

    Not an administrator, not a doctor, a nurse practitioner. Although the average nurse practitioner earns about $130,000 a year in Texas, that’s still not the sort of profile you usually see in billion dollar fraud cases.

    ..who operated wound care clinics in Pearland and Manvel has been indicted on federal charges alleging she masterminded one of the largest Medicare fraud schemes ever prosecuted in the Houston area, billing the government for nearly $1 billion in treatments prosecutors say were medically unnecessary, falsified, or administered to patients who were already dying.

    Pearland and Manvel are to the south of Houston, exurbs that are turning into suburbs. 60 years ago, Manvel had a hundred people, and now it has an estimated 17,261 population, doubling what it had in 2020.

    Marizel Yukee was indicted June 18 in the Southern District of Texas on charges including conspiracy to commit health care fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to pay and receive illegal kickbacks, and money laundering, according to the federal indictment. A warrant for her arrest was issued the same day.

    Prosecutors allege that between October 2023 and April 2026, Yukee and unnamed co-conspirators submitted more than $906 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare and TRICARE, the federal health insurance program covering military members and their families, through four wound care companies she owned: Wound Medic, My BestHealth First, AllCare Mobile Wound Treatment, and Oracle Wound Treatment. From those claims, the government paid out approximately $297 million, according to the indictment.

    The scheme centered on skin-substitute allografts, which are bioengineered from donated placental tissue and used to treat chronic wounds. According to prosecutors, Yukee’s clinics applied those grafts to wounds that were already healed, infected and ineligible for treatment, or to patients who had no qualifying wounds at all. In some cases, hospice patients received grafts and died within days, according to the indictment.

    Prosecutors allege Yukee paid health care providers to refer patients to her clinics, and separately received nearly $16 million in kickbacks from allograft distributors whose products she used. In one documented example from the indictment, she paid $1,600 for a graft product and then directed her billing company to invoice Medicare for $3,900, more than double the actual cost. She averaged more than $1 million in billed claims per patient, according to prosecutors.

    The indictment accuses Yukee of falsifying patient records to make the treatments appear medically appropriate and of instructing colleagues via email to inflate prices when seeking reimbursement.

    Prosecutors allege the proceeds funded an extravagant personal lifestyle.

    Of course she did.

    The indictment identifies a Ferrari valued at more than $500,000, an $865,000 Bulgari diamond necklace, a $1 million home in Hawaii, and a $4.6 million beach resort under construction in the Philippines. Investigators have also seized a Porsche, a Mercedes, an Escalade, two Teslas, and roughly $467,000 in cash.

    She should have tried building her stolen money resort in a country without an extradition treaty with the U.S. Then again, it probably won’t shock you to learn that Yukee is herself a Philippines national.

    The government is seeking forfeiture of several properties, including real estate in Hawaii and Las Vegas and a commercial property in Pearland.

    I have to think that the sheer scale of her operation probably doomed her. Employees in her Houston-area clinics had to have known skin drafts for dying patients weren’t medically necessary. All it takes is one or two of them squealing for the feds to lower the boom.

    I notice she started her (alleged) shenanigans under the Biden Administration. How many more untold billions in fraud did that headless machine enable?

    Posted in Crime, Texas, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

    Starmer Slithers Offstage

    Posted on June 22, 2026 by Lawrence Person

    Two Tier Keir has left the building. That’s from Sky News, which is better than most, but the words “Muslim” and “rape” are conspicuously absent, a point made about CNN’s coverage by James Waterman of NewsBusters.

    Over the last few days, American news networks have failed to make any mention of a massive report about the rampancy of migrant rape gangs in the UK. Now, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer resigned under colossal political pressure surrounding the migrant crisis, Monday’s CNN News Central had only continued to avoid mention of the terrifying report and the other consequences of mass migration in the U.K.

    During the morning’s CNN News Central, there was hourly coverage of Starmer’s resignation from the role of Prime Minister. Only once did they go into the reasons behind his resignation, with CNN correspondent Clare Sebastian saying this about the troubles facing the U.K.’s political leadership:

    Why, you might ask, can the UK not hold on to prime ministers? Well, there’s a number of different reasons. But ten years ago this week, the UK voted to leave the European Union and the turmoil that has followed, the economic turmoil, the political turmoil, certainly has contributed to some of this. There’s other economic reasons as well. The big surge in inflation that we saw after the pandemic and the war in Ukraine has really hurt people here, and they are looking for radical change.

    Sebastian was very vague about the conditions surrounding Starmer’s resignation, shifting the blame onto U.K.’s exit from the E.U., the Ukraine war, and COVID, things which occurred years ago. She avoided mention of the actual current disaster facing Starmer’s administration: the UK migration crisis.

    For the past few years, concerns among the British public have risen regarding immigration, eventually reaching a breaking point after two massive scandals in the past two weeks.

    Firstly, major riots in Belfast after a beheading attempt by a Sudanese migrant. Secondly, the release of a massive report uncovering huge child trafficking networks in the U.K., perpetrated primarily by Muslim immigrants and entirely ignored by the British government. Those who only listen to the media, however, have probably never heard about these crises.

    According to Sebastian, Starmer simply just didn’t bring the radical leftist change he promised:

    Now, Keir Starmer swept to power in a landslide nearly two years ago, promising that radical change. But most people here, well, certainly most people around the country that we’ve spoken to, and an increasing number of members of parliament in his party, feel that he hasn’t managed to deliver that.

    This cover-up of immigration crises like these was part of a larger campaign by the media. They downplay the brutal effects mass immigration has on European societies. They demonize those who try to fight back against the flood of violent criminals into their societies.

    And Starmer’s coverup of the Muslim rape gang scandal stretch back to long before he took up residence at Number 10 Downing Street, as the rape gang inquiry report makes clear. “While Sir Keir Starmer was the Director of Public Prosecutions, it has been reported that 13,000 suspected rape gang members and paedophiles were let off with warning letters.”

    Ah yes, pedophiles. The other constituency that Starmer’s Labour Party seems riddled with. “Starmer’s Labour is now infested with sexual predators and child rapists. The communist types, the Jeremy Corbynites, you know, like, you know, they’re insane, but they’re not Blairites. And the Blairits seem to have a lot of nonces [i.e. pedophiles] in there.”

    Here’s Iowahawk via Stephen Green on the subject:

    Jeremy Corbyn is an old-style communist whose policies would have been disasterous for the UK (and he played his own role in covering up the Muslim rape gangs), but somehow the elderly commie seems less personally odious and repulsive than Starmer. It’s not so much that Starmer is insincere as that he’s completely incapable of understanding what sincerity consists of. He’s a frightened little rabbit who fancies himself a lion, with none of the cunning or cuddleness of an actual rabbit.

    And speaking of Corbyn, remember that Starmer’s “Labour Together” operation was a coordinated effort to censor those who dared to disagree with Keir Starmer, from Corbyn to Donald Trump to Elon Musk’s Twitter. Starmer had a significant role in helping spin up the global left-wing, social justice censorship machine to hide inconvenient facts that might negatively impact Starmer’s Labour Party. The fact that Starmer is the most unpopular PM in the history of polling tells you how well his censorship efforts worked out for him.

    Certainly there have been worse Prime Ministers. The tenures of Neville Chamberlain and Lord North probably wrought more harm to the UK than Starmer’s short time at the top. But none seemed as personally repugnant as Starmer, and his slithering off stage is long overdue.

    He will not be missed.

    Posted in Jihad, Media Watch, Social Justice Warriors | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

    Russia’s Military: Thermoclines of Truth (And Endemic Corruption) All The Way Down

    Posted on June 21, 2026 by Lawrence Person

    Thermoclines of truth, where valid information can’t make it to the top of organizations because telling unpleasant truths is discouraged, has been an ongoing concern of the blog. Simon Whistler and his crew have taken a look at the Russian military, and it appears that it’s thermoclines of truth (and endemic corruption) all the way down.

    He starts out with a discussion of the current state of the war:

  • “Once upon a time, the Russian military was supposed to be the second most powerful on Earth. Today, the Russian military isn’t even the most powerful military in Ukraine.”
  • “From the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, the nation’s armed forces have been subjected to a strange humiliation ritual, partly because of the cunning and innovation of their Ukrainian rivals, but partly because of the sheer bumbling idiocy of their own commanding officers.”
  • “Russia’s consistent ability to find its way into new and catastrophic blunders also definitely doesn’t hurt. As painful as the last several years have been for the Russian military, the situation has deteriorated even further in 2026. Russia is losing troops at an unprecedented rate, expending more lives, more munitions, and more state wealth. Even as they capture less and less territory each month, his battlefield commanders are making increasingly poor decisions, and they’re openly lying to their higher-ups when their attacks inevitably fall apart.”
  • “In the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin and his inner circle are being fed a constant stream of false victories when on the front lines, Russia’s spring and summer offensive has fallen flat on its face.”
  • “But however incompetent the Russian military might seem, the reality is even worse. Because underneath Ukrainian victories and underneath obvious blunders by Moscow, the Russian military has built a hidden corrupt machine where every battlefield catastrophe puts rubles into Russian pockets.”
  • “As the time of writing, Russian forward progress on the battlefield has basically halted in an overall sense. But Russia is still pushing forward in some areas just as it is being pushed back in others.”
  • “The graft and exploitation we’re going to describe today isn’t an accident. It exists because of the war in Ukraine. It feeds off the war in Ukraine. And the people who benefit most from the exploitation are the same people with the greatest incentives to ensure that the war continues even after any honest outside appraisal would suggest that Russian gains aren’t even close to being worth the cost.”
  • “Just a few short months ago, Russia was moving assets into position for what was intended to be a major push centered on the city of Sloviansk in the partially occupied Donetsk oblast. Taking Sloviansk wasn’t going to be easy for the Russians.”
  • “But even before there was time for the spring offensive to get underway, Ukraine revealed what’s turned out to be a decisive advantage. a new arsenal of mid-range drones, including an American-made model called the Hornet, plus the tactical advances to use those drones effectively. Dubbed the Martian 2 by Russian soldiers, the Hornet is piloted partially by artificial intelligence, and it’s completely impervious to Russian jamming because it navigates by using that AI to read the terrain visually instead of relying on GPS or remote control. The onboard AI can identify targets and even handle the final kill process all by itself. Flying at a range of over a 100 km, they’re practically silent until just before impact.”
  • “They’re extremely cheap, and they’ve been used by Ukraine less to target Russian troops at the front, and more to target the staging operations that would have created the foundation of a successful offensive. Russian forces have been unable to protect their ammunition stockpiles, their fuel trucks, or their encampments and training grounds away from the front lines.” More on how Ukraine is hammering Russian logistics here.
  • “Nor is the Hornet the only drone in Ukraine’s arsenal. Recently, Ukraine’s 412th Nemesis Brigade unveiled the Morrigan, another mid-range strike drone that’s optimized to operate significantly behind enemy lines. Those drones have allowed Ukraine to completely diffuse the spring offensive before it ever really got going.”
  • “Even more important, Ukraine has achieved those results without putting its soldiers at greater risk. Ukraine’s forces are chronically undermanned and perpetually exhausted. And Kiev does not have the ability to go head-to-head with the full strength of a Russian offensive in any one area, but instead it’s completely destroyed the infrastructure Russia needed to create an offensive that wouldn’t collapse under its own weight.”
  • “As a result, Russian forces near the front are badly isolated, cut off from easy reinforcement and resupply, while the bulk of the killing takes place away from the front lines where Russian troops naturally have their guard down. Ukraine has even expanded its strikes to target the highway network leading across occupied territory and into Crimea where the impact of Ukraine’s bombardment has gotten so bad that the entire region is on the brink of economic collapse. Fuel trucks, trains, and even ferries are unable to reach Crimea. The existing fuel storage infrastructure there has been destroyed and the problem’s only getting worse with fuel shortages now starting to spread across the Donbas.”
  • “According to the latest frontline reports, mobile drone defense teams are now at risk of running out of fuel. A crisis that would clear the way for even deeper Ukrainian strikes.”
  • “Better yet for Ukraine, targeting efficiency is improving constantly, to the point that it now takes only a few minutes for Ukrainian forces to spot a new moving target, get a drone on site, and destroy it.”
  • “Over the last several years, Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a cycle of mutual innovation, with one side working out new solutions to battlefield problems and gaining a temporary advantage until the other side counters with innovations of their own. This time, however, Russia hasn’t been able to innovate a solution to the new problems that Ukraine has posed.”
  • “Russian troops are overextended and they have no choice but to hold their positions on the front when really their manpower is needed to defend the territory that Russia has already captured.”
  • “In the air, Russia still hasn’t found a way to meaningfully engage its air force in the conflict. Besides the use of strategic bombers and MiG-31 fighters to launch long-range cruise missiles, Russia can’t risk using some of its most valuable reconnaissance and command aircraft after Ukraine proved able to use American-made Patriot missiles to bring them down. And the supposedly world-class Su-57 fighter jet is still almost completely absent from contested airspace.”
  • “Russia’s aerial problem is expected to get even worse by early 2027, when Ukraine will take possession of its first Swedish-made Gripen fighter jets along with a long-range missile, the Meteor, that will have the range to strike Russian strategic bombers as they conduct those missile launches over the water.”
  • Snipping discussion of the poor state of Russia’s Black Sea fleet and the most recent St. Petersburg strike that we’ve covered in various LinkSwarms.
  • “Russian air defenses on the home front appear to be on the verge of complete collapse. Ukrainian long-range drones now regularly impact targets that were once unthinkable. From the Baltic Sea oil terminals at Primorsk and Luga to sensitive or highly specialized defense industrial centers located deep in the Russian heartland. Even Moscow has been targeted successfully.
  • “According to the chief designer at Ukraine’s leading missile innovator Firepoint, a new line of ballistic missiles will soon be operational and capable of hitting Moscow directly.”
  • “Russia hasn’t been able to meaningfully address the [air defense] problem.”
  • “As for its attempts to prevent Ukrainian long-range strikes, Russia seems to be unable to hit the command and control centers or the drone stockpiles that enable the campaign. So instead, Russia tries to deter Ukraine by launching long-range strikes of its own, often targeting population centers, energy infrastructure, or dual use facilities instead of going after the Ukrainian military.”
  • “Just as important [as Ukraine’s strikes], if not even more so, is the incredible consistency with which Russia manages to shoot itself in the foot. Moscow’s original sin, so to speak, is one that the rest of the world has gotten very familiar with. A supreme overconfidence that’s been helping Russia defeat itself from the very beginning. Despite the alternative storylines pushed out by Russian bot farms and repeated, no doubt, in this very comment section [aside: “Hello there, robots”], the idea that Kiev would fall in three days was very much a Russian invention.”
  • “But much more important than Russia’s original mistake was the fact that Moscow still hasn’t learned its lesson. Military planners and strategists all up and down the Russian military, from the unit level on the battlefield to Vladimir Putin himself, still base their decisions and expectations on an aggrandized version of the Russian military that simply does not exist.”
  • “Over time that problem is fused with another one. The fact that Russian leaders, again from the unit level all the way to the top, simply refuse to give each other honest assessments of what’s happening. At a certain point, those leaders realized that they could get away with reporting advances, victories, and other good news that didn’t actually exist.”
  • “The problem often starts small on the front lines. A Russian army captain sends a small unit to plant a flag and takes a few selfies in a contested area before that unit is annihilated in drone strikes. And then the captain sends those selfies to his major, claiming that today his forces took the territory in the picture. That same day, the major gets several similar reports from other captains. So he reports to his colonel that the front line has moved up by a few hundred meters when in reality most of the forces under his command have not moved at all.”
  • “That’s a throwaway example, of course, but you get the idea. And that news then travels up the chain until it reaches somebody like chief of the general staff of the Russian armed forces, Valery Gerasimov. We put the spotlight on Gerasimov in particular, because this is how you get statements like the one he made this past April, when he claims that Russia had captured a total of 80 settlements and over 1700 square kilometers since the start of the year. According to independent war monitors, Gerasimov tripled the amount of territory that Russia had actually taken. And of course, he failed to measure the territory that Russia had lost.”
  • “Don’t just take it from us, though. Even Russia’s milblogger class was calling bullshit in the aftermath.”
  • “But those institutional miscommunications, combined with the Russian military’s inflated perception of itself, combine to form a third problem, a demand for forward progress at all costs.”
  • “At this point in the war, commanders and higher-ups have gotten very used to the idea that their troops are consistently moving forward, consistently taking territory, and consistently getting Russia closer to victory. But now that lie has become too big to fail. And if individual Russian commanders were to report results that don’t align with that lie in places Russia wasn’t expecting, then they are at risk of being demoted, relieved of duty, or even worse.”
  • “As a result, each level of Russian leadership places immense pressure on the next level below them, all the way down to the frontline soldiers. Because their commanders need to deliver forward progress. And because their commanders won’t get into any real trouble if they sacrifice more lives in exchange, those frontline troops are at immense risk of being ordered forward into incredibly risky assaults.”
  • “Of course, it’s not unusual that a soldier on the front line of a major war would face some risk. But there’s a difference between being asked to advance as part of a coordinated push on a well-defined, well-scouted target and being told to sneak into a zone where there’s been no prior scouting and where Ukrainian surveillance and kamikaze drone coverage is expected to be overwhelming. Those are the kinds of situations that Russian soldiers are being ordered into. Not because there’s any expectation that they would succeed, but because their attempt gives their commanders enough plausible deniability to report success.”
  • Sometimes it works. “But the costs of munitions, funds, supplies, and especially human life are so much greater than the value of what Russia’s actually capturing.”
  • “Nor does Russia particularly care which soldiers get sent to the meat grinder. More and more sources from within the Russian military report the troops are sent into assault units regardless of their other qualifications, including skilled recruits who could make meaningful contributions to enhance Russia’s overall situation. Soldiers with experience in electrical work, logistics management, and even the medical field, have been reassigned against their will to assault brigades, often without explanation. At times, those reassignments come after they were recruited into the military on the promise that they’d be working with their advanced skill set.”
  • “Sometimes the reassignments appear to be random, but at other times they’re used as punishment. Soldiers who disobey orders, try to desert, or otherwise anger their commanders are highly likely to be reassigned to units where they’ll be used as cannon-fodder.”
  • “But let’s circle back to Ukraine’s mid-range drone campaign, because that makes this problem even worse. At the best of times, Russian troops were being sent forward into these high-risk assaults with at least a few things going for them: A little bit of training and prep time, a decently well supplied sustainment infrastructure to keep them alive, a possibility of MedEvac if they’re wounded, and a possibility that reinforcements would soon join them if they survive.”
  • “Today, though, that entire support infrastructure has been torn to shreds. Yet, the expectation of forward progress still remains. So, these soldiers are still ordered forward, but they’re overexposed, under-supplied, and isolated compared to what was already a bad situation. When they’re wounded, they aren’t evacuated. They die slow, horrific, predictable deaths. To the point that instead of the usual ratio of killed to wounded in modern war, one killed for every three wounded, Ukrainian assessment suggests that Russia’s balance looks more like two soldiers killed for every one wounded.”
  • “Even worse, the soldiers who are wounded will often be sent back to combat. Every so often, video footage emerges from the front lines depicting soldiers on crutches or in wheelchairs bearing visible shrapnel wounds or dealing with limbs that won’t work like they’re supposed to, forced back into assault units where their death is all but certain.”
  • “And all of that would be bad enough if Russia wasn’t so insistent on hobbling its soldiers even further. Take the example of frontline drone equipment. According to Russian milblogger sources, the Kremlin recently ordered most combat units to start giving up drones of various models, sending them back to be reassigned to Russia’s dedicated drone forces. That’s despite the fact that the Russian drone forces are not properly dispersed along the front line, and they’re not part of any efficient decision-making infrastructure that would allow them to support Russian troops in real time. So where a Russian platoon might once have been able to use small FPV drones to scout their surroundings or strike Ukrainian targets, they now have nothing. They’re operationally blind and beholden to another branch of the military for support.”
  • “On paper, Russia has started to fix the issue. Officials in Moscow say that Russia is now producing record numbers of FPV drones. According to the milbloggers, however, these replacement drones are unreliable, ineffective, and of a dangerously low construction quality. Similarly, Russian troops are still reeling from the decision to cut off access to Telegram a couple of months ago, demanding that Telegram be replaced with the state-run Max app, despite the fact that it is insecure, incomplete, and extremely buggy. Maybe Vladimir Putin vibe coded it. The same could be said for the loss of Starlink, a western controlled connectivity service that Russia chose to remain dependent on instead of dedicating the appropriate resources to build its own alternative.”
  • “If we were to end this episode right now, the situation we’ve described would already be bad enough. A Russian military that’s completely failed to address Ukrainian combat innovations and one that’s consistently made decisions that puts its troops at extreme unnecessary risk. But all too often, when a country or a fighting force seems to suffer from issues so comprehensive and so obviously stupid, that they seem to resist understanding, it’s important to ask another question. Who’s getting paid?”
  • “If Russia’s obvious incentives are to increase the combat potency of its troops, make legitimate gains on the battlefield, and eventually win the war, then who benefits inside Russia from making sure that that doesn’t happen? To answer that question, we’re going to invite you to think about the war a bit differently for just a minute.”
  • “Take away the people, the guns, the tanks, the drones, and the territory, and think about Russia’s invasion as a flow of money. That money is being sent from within Russia and funneled into Ukraine. Sent in the form of military equipment, fuel supplies, and direct payments made to Russian soldiers. Then some of that money flows back into Russia as those soldiers paychecks travel to bank accounts or are sent to their families.”
  • “That flow of funds is partially regulated, but it’s happening in and around an active combat zone, which means monitoring is difficult, and financial transfers have to happen with limited internal oversight or anti-corruption protections. Not to mention that the Russian state isn’t exactly the best at internal oversight.”
  • “Transactions happen on the aggregate scale of tens of billions of rubles, meaning that even relatively large amounts of missing cash can easily be dismissed as just a rounding error.”
  • “If you were a person interested in taking money that you could reasonably obtain somewhere within the Russian economy, then the war is the perfect place to do it. You’ve just got to figure out where you can get in the way of the regular flow of funds, whether those funds are headed into the conflict zone or traveling out.”
  • “Take another look at the problems the Russian military is dealing with and the specter of internal corruption is everywhere.”
  • “We’ll start with a few examples at the top from people who exert immense power within the Russian armed forces. Take Roman Demurchiev, a major general who serves as deputy commander of Russia’s 20th Combined Arms Army. Over the span of several years, he engaged in regular shakedowns of his subordinates worth the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of US dollars, some of which he passed up to his superiors who expected additional payouts. As he once texted to one of his subordinates, quote, “War is war, but don’t forget about the cash. Get yours. Delete this message later.'”
  • “Or take the former deputy defense minister Ruslan Tsalikov, who was brought up on bribery, money laundering, and conspiracy charges that alleged he created a gang to steal from the Russian state budget. He was brought down during a wave of prosecutions that surrounded former defense minister Sergey Shoygu.”
  • “But even though Russia does occasionally prosecute corrupt officials, the Kremlin’s track record dovetails in a very troubling way with the problem we’ve already mentioned. Commanders only tend to come under real scrutiny when they’ve already failed in some way that requires their removal, usually due to battlefield setbacks. From Vladimir Putin’s perspective, the nice thing about everybody in the Russian leadership being so corrupt, is that when it’s time to remove them, it usually doesn’t take very long to dig into their finances and bring legitimate, damning charges against them.”
  • “But if these commanders understand that they’ll only be scrutinized after they’ve been found to have committed battlefield screw-ups, then they’re heavily incentivized to ensure that their screw-ups don’t become common knowledge. So they push their subordinates harder and they push their subordinates harder still until frontline soldiers are fighting and dying to create an illusion of frontline progress so their commanders can save their skins.”
  • “Or take another problem we’ve already mentioned, the cheapy and ineffective FPP drones that are being flooded toward the Russian front lines. That decision was the work of Yuri Vaganov, the commander of the Russian unmanned systems forces who was appointed in late 2025. But here’s the thing about Vaganov. He has got zero military experience, zero military education, despite now holding the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Instead, he owns a very large drone company, the same drone company that’s now guzzling down rubles from state contracts and mass-producing the FPV drones that Russian soldiers are expected to use. Interesting, isn’t it? In essence, this single aspiring oligarch has worked out a way to position himself within both the Russian military itself and the Russian defense industrial complex so that he could give himself a monopoly over drone procurement in the biggest drone war that the world has ever seen.”
  • “For Russian soldiers, his appointment is a life-threatening catastrophe. But for Vaganov himself, the incentives will be to cut corners, inflate costs, and otherwise pillage as much of Russia’s drone budget as possible.”
  • “But let’s talk about the other way that money flows through the Russian side of this war, into soldiers pockets, and then ideally back to their bank accounts or to their families. That’s where lower level commanders get their opportunity, because they wield the power to decide who lives and who dies. Take an article published this April by The Economist, where a dozen Russian contract soldiers describe a system where low-level infantrymen will bribe their commanders for a position away from the front and then spend a high share of their remaining wages financing their commander’s lifestyle while carrying out unpaid labor on the side.”
  • “As one soldier in that article described, troops often start giving up a portion of their paychecks to buy decent drones or body armor or other assets that might, you know, keep them alive. But then also, quote, ‘You’ll pay forever so they don’t send you to the meat grinder.’ Other Russian commanders have purportedly forced troops to pay exorbitant sums to stay alive and sometimes just to avoid being shot on the spot.”
  • “According to recent reports by exiled Russian journalists, low-level commanders operate more like gang leaders than actual military personnel, in increasingly sophisticated structures that are informed by the high proportion of ex-convicts that now swell the Russian ranks. Often when new troops arrive, commanders confiscate their bank cards and ping codes and threaten violence against those who don’t comply. And when those soldiers are killed, they’re formally reported by their commanders as missing. A change that ensures that money will continue flowing to their accounts.”
  • “Think of frontline soldiers as a pure revenue stream, and even some of Russia’s most asinine decisions start to make sense. When a soldier is wounded in combat, that soldier still receives a paycheck. And if they can be kept on the front lines, then the process of extortion can continue.”
  • “When a higher skill Russian recruit shows up in one of those units, commanders know that they’re likely to have more money, partly because they’re going to be paid on a better contract, and partly because they probably have some form of savings squirreled away from their civilian life. Trap those soldiers in an assault unit, and there’s no limit to what they might be willing to pay in order to avoid the meat grinder. But if they seem as if they’ll cause trouble, then the meat grinder is right there for their commanders to use.”
  • “Those incentives also help explain increasing reports of physical torture of Russian soldiers by their own commanders on or near the front lines, including soldiers who’ve already been wounded. Our own Warfronts team has encountered footage of Russian troops who’ve had multiple limbs amputated due to combat wounds who were then cling-wrapped onto trees and extorted further. Videos like that can be sent to a soldier’s family who will then ends up paying even more to spare the life of a person who’s locked into conscription or contract by the Russian state.” The Western tradition of military service demands leaders who will do just about anything for the men serving under them, while Russian officers torture their subordinates for money.
  • “Quoting researcher Alexandra Arapova [Russian families] are saying that literally we paid everything to have our father, brother, husband not to be killed. In many cases, superiors, they use torture to take money from the soldiers.”
  • “As for the scale of the brutality, we can’t know for sure, but judging by the available information, this kind of treatment is everywhere. One Russian exile outlet, Radio Echo, obtained accounts from soldiers like these, and over a 6-month period in 2025, Radio Echo indicated that they had received almost 12,000 complaints of corruption and violence by Russian commanders against their own men.”
  • “It’s here that we find the real root of Russia’s ongoing military incompetence. Where Ukraine has spent the last four years learning, adapting, and innovating on the battlefield, Russian generals, defense industrial elites, and low-level battlefield commanders have been building a deeply corrupt machine at every level of the Russian armed forces. That machine exists to extract wealth for the direct and personal benefit of people lucky enough to wield power at the expense of frontline soldiers who aren’t so fortunate.”
  • “In a system like that, where officials aren’t just personally corrupt, but can safely assume that corruption is all around them, reform just isn’t a goal, even if it saves lives. Reform, there is a danger, even an enemy. Because if Russia were to ever fix the incompetence that runs through its armed forces, then it would destroy the machine that Russian incompetence is built to serve.”
  • “Right now, that status quo demands constant reports of forward progress, by any means necessary. And the Kremlin is willing to pay every ruble in Russia in order to make that happen.”
  • “But Vladimir Putin’s military is overrun with people who don’t particularly care about conquering Ukraine as long as they know they’ll be set for life in the post-war Russia that comes next. Russian incompetence is getting worse because it’s becoming streamlined and because the Russian leadership has proved that corruption will go unchecked as long as forward progress continues.”
  • “The incompetence is the point because the longer this situation lasts, the longer this vast corrupt machine can go on making a profit.”

    • Thermoclines of truth and endemic corruption are the horrifying reality for Russian soldiers, and also a big reason why Ukraine has a real chance to win.

    We previous touched on Putin’s thermocline of truth here.

    Posted in Military, video | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 35 Comments

    Judges Tire Of Soros-Backed DA Krasner Lying To Them

    Posted on June 20, 2026 by Lawrence Person

    Judges hate it when people lie to them, and when they do it over and over again, they start to get pissed. And the office of Soros-backed Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner seems to be lying to them an awful lot.

    Most of the mainstream media isn’t spending much effort to cover the slow-rolling collapse of Soros-prosecutor District Attorney Larry Krasner.

    At least I HOPE it will be a collapse, as judges turn on Krasner not so much for his soft-on-crime policies, about which they can do little directly, but for his office’s illegal tactics used to help convicted murderers get out of jail.

    I wrote about decision #1 yesterday, in which the Democrat-dominated Pennsylvania Supreme Court blasted Krasner’s office for lying to the courts about deficiencies in trials for convicted murderers, conceding—falsely—that prior D.A.’s had committed errors (or worse) in pursuing convictions of murderers.

    By doing so, they gave what amounted to get-out-of-jail tickets to murderers. With convictions vacated, Krasner’s office did not give up the right to retry the cases, but it’s pretty hard to expect that an office that committed what amounted to perjury to help convicts overturn their convictions would then pursue the subsequent cases with vigor. At best, they purposely helped the defense and endangered cases that were won; at worst, they decided to just let guilty people go free.

    The Supreme Court was not amused, and essentially defanged Krasner’s office, allowing the Attorney General of Pennsylvania to intervene in cases as required.

    In a forceful and scolding opinion, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office misled the courts, “violated its duty of candor,” and submitted false statements when asking a judge to vacate a 2004 murder conviction.

    In the opinion released Tuesday, Justice Kevin Dougherty wrote that prosecutors’ pattern of misleading judges in seeking to overturn murder convictions is so troubling and recurrent that, going forward, before Krasner’s office seeks such relief, judges must notify the state attorney general’s office and allow it to review the case.

    The decision amounted to one of the most scathing rebukes yet of Krasner’s efforts to revisit decades-old convictions, and arrives amid intensifying scrutiny of the office’s Conviction Integrity Unit and appeals division, whose handling of post-conviction cases has drawn criticism from judges in both state and federal court.

    Just last week, Krasner’s office reversed course in a separate murder case, writing in a federal court filing that one of its prosecutors had made “material misstatements” and submitted “legally erroneous” statements when seeking to overturn a man’s murder conviction. The office sought to withdraw its recommendation to grant the defendant a new trial.

    This decision is, as far as I can tell, one of the most scathing rebukes of a District Attorney in memory. It’s pretty shocking, actually. The Justices spared no mercy to Krasner and company, and with good reason.

    Snip.

    Now comes round two: a federal court just sanctioned one of Krasner’s former attorneys who was in charge of this program, barring her for three years from cases before the court.

    Nancy Winkelman was suspended for three years by a panel of federal judges who found that she was complicit in efforts to mislead a federal judge while seeking to overturn the death sentence of a man convicted of killing an East Mount Airy couple in the 1980s and allow him to serve life in prison instead.

    The ruling, made public this week, adds to the mounting judicial scrutiny of post-conviction work in Krasner’s office. On Tuesday, the state Supreme Court imposed remarkable new restrictions on prosecutors’ efforts to reverse potentially problematic convictions.

    In a forceful and scolding opinion, the high court said Krasner’s office misled judges, submitted false statements, and “violated its duty of candor” in asking a judge to vacate a 2004 murder conviction.

    The court wrote that prosecutors’ actions in the case were part of a troubling pattern of conduct in seeking to overturn murder convictions and ordered that, going forward, the state attorney general’s office must be asked to review and weigh in on all such cases.

    The panel of federal judges, in ordering Winkelman’s suspension, echoed some of those concerns.

    Nor did the viciousness of the murders in question prevent Krasner’s office from lying to get said murderers sprung.

    The three-judge panel, in a ruling issued in March and unsealed this week, said Winkelman and a subordinate, former assistant district attorney Paul George, misled a federal judge by misrepresenting parts of the case while attempting to reverse the death sentence of Robert Wharton.

    Wharton was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death for the 1984 strangulation and drowning deaths of Bradley and Ferne Hart inside their East Mount Airy home.

    The jury found that Wharton, angry over a disputed debt, spent months terrorizing the family before he forced his way inside the home at knifepoint and killed the couple. Afterward, he turned off the heat, leaving the couple’s seven-month-old baby, Lisa, to freeze to death — but she survived.

    Decades later, prosecutors in Krasner’s office, in seeking to vacate his death sentence, suggested in court that the victims’ family backed their effort. But it was later discovered that they had consulted only one relative and never contacted Lisa Hart-Newman, the couple’s surviving daughter, who strongly opposed the move.

    George later acknowledged that was a mistake, and U.S. District Judge Mitchell Goldberg ordered Krasner to write apology letters to the Harts’ relatives.

    Goldberg, who denied the request to reduce Wharton’s sentence, later said George’s and Winkelman’s review of the case was “patently deficient,” and that they violated federal rules of procedure in a manner that was “egregious” and “exceptional.”

    The two prosecutors then faced federal disciplinary proceedings to examine whether they’d been intentionally deceptive.

    Last year, the three-judge panel found that George had lied to Goldberg about key facts, “flouted the interests of the public and the victims’ families,” and acted as the “quarterback” of efforts by the district attorney’s office to undo or undermine all death penalty cases.

    Is it possible to have them tried for perjury? I am not a lawyer, so I am unclear whether lying in documents to the court count the same as perjury under oath.

    Apparently, among the “needed reforms” Krasner refers to, letting convicted murderers escape punishment by lying to courts is on the top of the list.

    Two courts so far have made clear that Krasner’s office is not only pursuing bad policies, which could be “justified” by the fact that Krasner was elected, but also willing to break the law to do so in the name of “reform.”

    Given that Krasner got some 75% of the vote the last time he was elected, it seems that ordinary Philadelphians are either ignorant of his love of criminals and mindlessly pull the D lever, or are aware of them and side with the criminals as well…

    (Hat tip: Director Blue.)

    Posted in Crime, Democrats | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

    LinkSwarm For June 19, 2026

    Posted on June 19, 2026 by Lawrence Person

    Happy Juneteenth, the day we celebrate Republicans freeing the slaves!

    This week: More Newsom graft, the Iran War maybe ends, he horrific extent of Muslim rape gang activity in the UK revealed, black rain in Moscow, two Supreme Court decisions (one Texas, one U.S.) with some interesting implications, and a famous cathedral is finally finished after a mere 144 years of construction.

    It’s the Friday LinkSwarm!

    Another weird week for me, as I had to have over $700 in car repairs done (bad battery, 120,000 mile maintenance stuff, odds and ends, etc.), and dealing with a welcome (but time consuming) order for over 50 paperback books. So a lot of things got pushed aside while I was dealing with that stuff.

  • “U.S. military blows leader of Tren de Aragua to kingdom come. The Venezuela strike was on Niño Guerrero, “whose legal name is Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores.”

  • Stephen Green: “How Deep Are the Newsoms in It? THIS Deep.”

    It seems impossible — or just too revolting — to keep up with the financial hanky-panky of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and First Partner (gag) Jennifer Siebel Newsom. But thanks to a couple of investigative reporters with stronger stomachs than I have, let’s see if I can’t put everything you need to know into one easily digestible column.

    I love it when other people do my dirty work for me, so let’s get started.

    “Today, my wife & I joined Donald Trump’s hit list,” Newsom practically boasted on Monday. “He has directed his Department of Justice to investigate us. They have not found a crime — they are simply trying to find one.”

    Well, let’s see what Fox Business anchor Liz MacDonald and my old friend and Red State colleague Jen Van Laar have to say about that.

    MacDonald said Tuesday that the DOJ probe “is about California Democrats’ modern-day machine politics,” which she described as a “feedback loop of Sacramento-corporate lobbyists-governor/wife nonprofit-behested nonprofit donations-lucrative state contracts-Sacramento.”

    Don’t bother writing all this down — there won’t be a quiz at the end of today’s column. You’re welcome.

    “The modern Sacramento machine trades corporate compliance and nonprofit funding/donations for policy access and state business,” MacDonald added, and then explained how that grift (allegedly!) worked for the Newsoms:

    According to IRS Form 990 disclosures, her nonprofit frequently buys from Siebel Newsom’s for-profit film company—Girls Club Entertainment LLC—writer, producer and director services and the licensing and production rights for her documentaries. Then it sells the docs to the state and public schools.

    IRS records show that her nonprofit has paid her Girls Club Entertainment LLC roughly $1.64 million for these production and licensing rights since 2012, which includes a steady annual contracting fee of $150,000 since 2018.

    TL;DR: Siebel Newsom produced unwatchable propaganda videos for children, for which Democrat-dominated schools then paid her handsomely. Or as MacDonald summed it up, “Over the past decade, Siebel Newsom has collected over $3.7 million in combined personal salary and LLC payouts funded by the nonprofit.”

    Then there are behested payments, which MacDonald explained are “a unique mechanism in California politics where an elected official asks a corporation, labor union, or wealthy individual to donate money to a specific charity, nonprofit, or government program.” Unlike campaign donations, there are no caps.

    As governor, Newsom requested a record $226 million in behested payments in one year. “Hundreds of thousands of dollars went to the California Partners Project,” MacDonald wrote, “a nonprofit founded by his wife.”

    “Many of the biggest donors were corporate giants (like health insurers and utility companies) actively bidding for lucrative state contracts or fighting state regulations.”

    One hand washes the other with filthy lucre, if you’ll allow me to mix metaphors.

    Which brings us to Jen Van Laar, and her hip-deep-in-the-muck wade through the Newsoms’ finances, going back years.

    Way back in 2021, Jen asked, “Somebody Paid $3.7 Million Cash for CA Gov Newsom’s Estate – But Who?” But couldn’t come up with any satisfactory answers. That’s because the Newsoms alternately claimed that “the Newsoms’ cash was used to purchase the home but was done through an LLC managed by his first cousin,” or that “Newsoms obtained a loan… to purchase the home because the sale happened so quickly that they didn’t have time to obtain a mortgage.”

    Then, California’s First Couple played similar LLC games, buying a second home for $9.1 million in ritzy Marin County. “Based on my examination of 15+ yrs of Newsom’s financial disclosures, tax returns, and real estate transactions,” Jenn explained in March, “they absolutely did not have $9.1M in cash.”

    Clearly, somebody did.

    The shenanigans were so egregious that — no matter what TDS nonsense Newsom’s social media team posts on X — the DOJ investigation began under the Biden administration. As I quipped on Instapundit this week, maybe Newsom needs to take a break from social media and lawyer up.

  • “U.S.-Iran MOU Language Released and Signed.” I haven’t read it yet, and a lot of people aren’t too happy with it. After I’ve had a chance to actually read it, I hope to have a far more extensive, informed write-up on it.
  • “The official [UK] rape-gang report is here.”

    1) The number of raped and trafficked British girls is in the hundreds of thousands.

    From the report:

    The scale of the crimes committed is staggering. It has been previously established that, at the very least, 250,000 young white girls have been subjected to repeated rape, gang rape, trafficking, torture, pregnancy, forced Islamic conversion, and lifelong trauma. The true number is probably higher.

    This number was reached by compiling reports from Rotherham and Telford over several decades, in addition to conversations and estimates from dozens of British cities, then looking at estimates of national distribution and underreporting (many women have never acknowledged that they were raped by these gangs).

    Reviews that informed these estimates include the 2025 Baroness Casey National Audit on Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, as well as the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), a group established by the British government in 2015.

    2) The attackers are overwhelmingly Muslim foreigners.

    From the report:

    In court records and official inquiries, around 87% of those convicted in these group-based child sexual exploitation (‘CSE’) cases bore distinctively Muslim names. The vast majority of men involved in these gangs were not convicted. Dr. Taj Hargey, an imam with the Oxford Islamic Congregation, believes the true proportion of gang members who are Muslims to be around 95%.

    And:

    Researcher Peter McLoughlin in Easy Meat (2016) compiled a comprehensive list of grooming gang convictions from 1997 to 2018 (with updates in subsequent analyses), drawing from published court outcomes. His examination of names indicated that approximately 87% of those convicted bore distinctively Muslim names, which was a figure echoed in related analyses far exceeding the Muslim proportion (around 6%) of the general population of Britain.

    While the largest rape gangs were operated by Pakistani Muslims, “smaller groups from Somali, Iranian, Syrian, Turkish, and other Muslim origins were also involved.”

    Snip.

    The report goes on to say that these gangs were religiously motivated to carry out these rapes under the theological teaching of al-walā’ wa-l-barā’, which demands subjugation of the infidel, including sex slavery as a form of subjugation.

    Muslim armies have used this teaching to justify rape across the world for 1,400 years.

    Evidence for these numbers includes from a 2017 Quilliam Foundation analysis, Peter McLoughlin’s research, and “analysis of 264 convictions for group-based child sexual exploitation from 2005 – 2017.”

    The report does not pull punches in its conclusion:

    These figures indicate that the rape gangs are a specific ethnoreligious phenomenon, with Muslims – especially Pakistani Muslims – significantly overrepresented.

    3) The problem is geographically widespread, affecting all corners of the nation.

    From the report:

    We found that the same unspeakable crimes occurred in at least 149 local authority districts – close to 40% of all such districts across the United Kingdom…

    Here is a map showing where rape gangs have operated in the nation (these are only the known cases).

    4) The rape gangs started more than 50 years ago.

    From the report:

    The independent chair of the Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection Alexis Jay has identified the 1970s as the decade when immigrant rape gangs first began tormenting the girls of Britain. However, the British Newspaper Archive reveals that the first recorded case of specifically Pakistani rape gangs dates back to 1955, when four Bradford-based Pakistanis were charged with raping a 15-year-old girl from Middlesbrough.

    This was soon after former colonial subjects, from the subcontinent as much as the Caribbean, became eligible to enter the United Kingdom in non-trivial numbers under the British Nationality Act 1948. What began as singular and small-scale instances became systematic and industrial over time.

    These horrific crimes have only escalated in recent decades, especially following Tony Blair’s 1997 victory and the start of orchestrated mass immigration. With greater numbers came greater opportunities for abuse. Perpetrators built organised networks that transported victims between towns and cities and passed girls between multiple adult men.

    5) Authorities purposefully and willfully ignored the mass abuse.

    From the report:

    Police forces ignored repeated reports, criminalised victims instead of perpetrators, destroyed evidence, and allowed known rapists to walk free on bail. Social care services undermined protective parents, placed children in trafficking hubs inside children’s homes, closed cases despite clear indicators of exploitation, and retaliated against whistleblowers.

    The NHS [the UK’s health service] recorded genital injuries, multiple sexually transmitted infections in children as young as 13, pregnancies caused by rape, and suicide attempts, yet discharged victims back to their abusers without safeguarding referrals or trauma care. Schools observed older men collecting girls at the gates, heard disclosures of rape on school premises, and responded by excluding victims rather than protecting them.

    Taxi licensing authorities renewed permits for drivers who formed the logistical backbone of the networks and collapsed in the face of organised protests when basic safety measures were proposed.

    The report specifically blames the Labour Party for these government failures.

    Much more at the link, including “Whistleblowers were silenced and threatened with seizure of their assets and careers.”

  • The actual report can be found here. (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
  • A final example that should make your blood boil: “But the report describes one particular occasion in which a vulnerable young girl was returned by the authorities to a house where she was being sexually abused. According to the account, the police officer who brought her back reportedly told the men inside to ‘have fun with her.'” Plus this pick of the rapists Labour policy let into the country:

  • Nor is it limited to the UK. In France, they’re threatening to send a rape survivor to prisoner for daring to point out the rapes are being carried out by black and Muslim men:

  • But all of Europe is getting tired of leftist parties importing Muslim rape gangs, and they’re finally willing to do something about it.

    The announcement of the European Parliament’s final vote on the Return Directive was met with a burst of jubilation in the chamber, where energetic cries of “Send them back” rang out, reflecting the MEPs’ enthusiasm at having succeeded in passing the first genuine measure to seriously restrict immigration at the European level. On the opposite side of the chamber, MEPs responded to these exclamations with vigorous—though minority—cries of “Shame on you.”

    The choice of words is not insignificant; some even see it as a foreshadowing—still a fantasy at this stage—of remigration.

    Through a number of key measures, the directive drastically changes the landscape for the management of illegal immigration. Previously, an obligation to leave the territory remained a national decision. From now on, thanks to the Return Regulation, these decisions may be converted into a ‘European Return Order’—an obligation to leave European territory.

    The maximum detention period for irregular migrants is quadrupled, up to 24 months, with the possibility of a further six-month extension.

    The Return Regulation lists a number of other measures that may be taken: body searches, property searches, the obligation to remain contactable during the procedure, the recording of biometric data, house arrest, and the obligation to report regularly… Finally, the Return Regulation establishes a framework for EU member states to sign agreements with third countries that agree to receive individuals subject to a return decision.

    This outpouring of enthusiasm did not go down well with everyone. Fabienne Keller, a French Renaissance MEP, made a fool of herself in the European Parliament by denouncing the right-wing “celebratory evening” organised by a few MEPs on the terrace of one of the parliament’s buildings, following the vote on the Return Regulation for rejected illegal migrants—a measure which, Keller argued, “will send families with children to camps.” Her statement, in which she lambasted a “political drinking spree,” was met with boos and prompted a call to order from the chair on the grounds that no breach of conduct had taken place.

    On the Left as well as in the centre, the prevailing mood was one of exaggeration and dramatisation. Abir Al-Sahlani, a left-wing MEP from the Renew group, said she had never felt “as unsafe in Parliament as she did after the vote.”

    It is true that the MEPs’ symbolic reaction marks a real turning point in the mindset of the political class at the European level. For a long time, the EU has been a brake on the implementation of more selective migration policies. This remains the case on many issues, particularly asylum. But we are witnessing a major shift, one that is being openly acknowledged. From a political standpoint, as a result of this vote, the European Union can no longer be invoked as a convenient excuse for inaction that satisfies the imperatives of political correctness.

  • “Alleged Leader of UFC Terror Plot Is an Illegal Immigrant Granted ‘Dreamer’ Status Under Obama.”

    The man accused of coordinating a failed scheme to attack the UFC Freedom 250 event at the White House over the weekend is an illegal immigrant from Mexico who was granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) under the Obama administration, Department of Homeland Security officials said Thursday.

    FBI agents arrested Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez in Omaha, Neb., on Sunday for his alleged connection with a plan to attack the recent UFC event on the south lawn of the White House, which was attended by numerous government officials and others. Alvarez is believed to be the ringleader of the group that planned the attack, according to officials, while four other co-conspirators were also arrested over the weekend in Ohio, Missouri, and California.

    The FBI alleges Alvarez was responsible for organizing the thwarted attack, which involved a multi-part plan to target buildings near the event with explosive-laden drones in an attempt to force a mass evacuation that would send crowds toward a pre-staged sniper team. The would-be attackers then allegedly planned to storm the White House gate.

    Alvarez, who operated under the name “Shepherd” online, allegedly “used a Signal chat to direct staging locations, sniper and drone positions, escape routes and communications protocols,” according to court documents. He instructed the others involved in the plot — police say as many as 23 people were involved in the chat planning the attack — to obtain explosive-capable drones, specifically instructing them to get their hands on “as many and as deadly as we can get.”

    Now DHS says Alvarez, who is facing federal charges of conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to commit violence on White House grounds, entered the United States on a B2 visitor visa and failed to depart before it expired in December 2001. He was later granted DACA status by the Obama administration in 2014.

    Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has lodged a detainer for Alvarez.

    “This illegal alien from Mexico should never have been allowed in our country. He was the ringleader of a failed terror attack targeting UFC Freedom 250 at the White House,” acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement. “He and his co-conspirators now face charges of conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to commit violence on White House grounds. He will face justice and swiftly be removed from our country.”

  • “63 people arrested, 4 stabbings and 1 shooting reported in NYC as Knicks fans go wild celebrating NBA Finals win.”
  • “Moscow Attacked By Drones! Oil Refinery Hit Hard by Drones!”
  • “Moscow Refinery Hit Again! With Oil Tank Toss (Lid Lifted on Fireball!)” But see the next item about that dramatic lid toss…
  • “Russia Destroyed Their OWN Oil Tank With Missile: Plus MORE Air Defence Failures in Moscow!” Russian air defense is like those scenes in Sleeper where a crew repeatedly sets up a gun, only to have it misfire every time…
  • “Moscow Update: Moscow’s Skies Turn BLACK As Oil Refinery Burns: Plus Oil Rain Starts.”
  • “Ukraine Destroys 415 Russian Trucks, Tankers and Logistics Vehicles in June: Ten a Day!” And that was four days ago…
  • “Big Drone Strike on Rybinsk Oil Depot (Air Defence Non-Existent) and Azot Chemical Plant in Tula.”
  • “Ukrainian FP-2 drones destroy an important bridge on a supply road leading to Chongar and Armiansk in Crimea.”
  • “Big Drone Strike on Russian Ammo Depot & Base in Donetsk.”
  • “Tu-22M3 Bomber CRASHES in Irkutsk!” Probably not from Ukrainian action.
  • “Federal Agents Dismantle Human Smuggling Stash House In Texas.”

    U.S. Border Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents busted a stash house used for human smuggling in El Paso, Texas, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) exclusively told The Epoch Times on Monday.

    The joint investigation, which resulted in the arrests of 11 illegal immigrant adults and one unaccompanied child found in the house on May 27, highlights the need for strict enforcement efforts at the border to dissuade individuals from entering the country unlawfully through human smugglers, CBP officials said.

    “This operation, in partnership with U.S. Border Patrol, reflects our mission to safeguard the homeland and uphold the integrity of our immigration system,” HSI El Paso Special Agent in Charge Ryan McRae said. “We remain committed to ensuring the safety and security of El Paso and beyond.”

    Of the 12 illegal aliens arrested, 10 were from Mexico and two from Guatemala.

    The 11 adults were processed and charged with violations of Title 8 of the U.S. Code, CBP said, which encompasses immigration offenses including unlawful entry, unlawful reentry, alien harboring or smuggling, and more.

    The unaccompanied minor was “administratively processed,” CBP told The Epoch Times.

  • “Texas Supreme Court Sides With Citizens in Eminent Domain Dispute. TxDOT had refused to return land it no longer needed, citing sovereign immunity.”

    The Texas Supreme Court has ruled that state agencies cannot invoke sovereign immunity to block former landowners from reclaiming property taken through eminent domain and later deemed unnecessary for public use.

    Snip.

    In 2013, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) sent an offer to Joyce Hutcherson, Rudolph Pusok, and Jimmie Pusok—the owners of 19502 Mueschke Road in Tomball—to purchase their property. TxDOT planned to construct a new road along the Grand Parkway (State Highway 99).

    After receiving pushback from the landowners, the state filed an eminent domain lawsuit to acquire the property in 2014. The suit was dismissed when the owners ultimately agreed to sell at $1.05 per square foot.

    Years later, TxDOT stated in an email that approximately 20,000 square feet of the subject property constituted “surplus land,” as the decision to reroute Mueschke Road made the land no longer necessary for public use. When the landowners—now represented by JRJ Pusok Holdings—sought to buy it back, TxDOT denied the request.

    Pusok then sued both the State of Texas and Kyle Madsen—director of TxDOT’s Right of Way Division—in a Harris County civil court, claiming a right to repurchase under the Texas Property Code Chapter 21.

    The code states: “A person from whom a real property interest is acquired by an entity through eminent domain for a public use … is entitled to repurchase the property as provided by this subchapter if … the property becomes unnecessary for the public use for which the property was acquired.”

    The State argued that the property was purchased from a settlement—even though the process began with the threat of eminent domain—rather than a final judgment in an eminent domain proceeding. According to the State’s logic, “the repurchase statutes therefore do not apply.”

    Pusok rejected this logic, asserting that “all that is required for a property to be acquired through eminent domain is a transfer of land in exchange for compensation.”

    Another argument made by the State was that Pusok sought to recover only a portion of the property, while the repurchase statutes allegedly require any repurchase to cover the entire parcel.

    Snip.

    On Friday, Texas’ Supreme Court sided with Pusok, affirming that the State has “no immunity from Chapter 21 claims to repurchase condemned property no longer necessary for public use.”

    “Repurchase claims derive from constitutional limits placed on the State’s eminent domain power,” the opinion continued. “Further, Chapter 21 permits the repurchase of a portion of condemned property no longer necessary for public use.”

    The ruling is significant as it clarifies that State actors may not eminent domain a property then claim immunity to block repurchase attempts when the property goes unused and unneeded.

    Correctly decided, especially since “sovereign immunity” was never intended as a “Get Out Of Any Statute Free” card.

  • An interesting case. “SCOTUS Sides With Texas Man Over Second Amendment Rights for Drug Users.”

    The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has unanimously sided with a Texas man in ruling that the government cannot restrict gun rights for casual drug users.

    The case involves a dual citizen of Pakistan and the United States, Ali Hemani. In 2019, Hemani, the subject of an FBI investigation that found he was connected to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was stopped at the Texas border. He was not arrested at the time.

    The FBI had additional information that not only was Hemani connected to a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization, but that he was dealing drugs.

    In 2020, Hemani attended the funeral of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani after Soleimani’s assassination by the U.S. that year. Hemani’s mother was reportedly seen on Iranian television stating that she hoped her sons would follow in the footsteps of Soleimani and become martyrs themselves.

    Over the next couple of years, his passport showed trips to Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, and a July 2022 border search of Hemani upon return from Iran “found Defendant deleted all messaging applications and wiped communication data from his cellphone.”

    Eventually, the FBI obtained a warrant to search the home he shared with his parents, at which time a handgun, cocaine, and marijuana were all discovered.

    Hemani is clearly a Jihadi scumbag, but that’s not the focus of the decision.

    Hemani was indicted by a grand jury, not for foreign terrorism charges, but under the federal statute that it is unlawful for a person addicted to or using a controlled substance to possess a firearm “in or affecting commerce.”

    Hemani moved to dismiss the indictment, arguing that the statute violated his Second Amendment rights and conflicted with Second Amendment precedent. The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Hemani’s argument.

    However, the government sought SCOTUS’ review of the lower court’s decision, and on Thursday, the high court announced its decision, delivered by Justice Neil Gorsuch.

    Gorsuch stated, “Ali Hemani uses marijuana a few times a week. That fact alone, the government says, means he is automatically banned from possessing a firearm under federal law.”

    “This case poses the question whether the government’s prosecution of Mr. Hemani is consistent with the Second Amendment.”

    Gorsuch stated that the government’s argument, which attempted to draw a parallel between “present regulations and historical laws addressing habitual drunkards,” did not hold against Second Amendment violation claims by Hemani.

    Other justices also rebutted the government’s comparison of chronic alcoholism to casual marijuana use by Hemani. Justice Samuel Alito wrote that “marijuana use today is like alcohol use at the founding. It is widespread and increasingly considered socially acceptable in many quarters.”

    “And from a practical standpoint, law enforcement widely tolerates the use of marijuana.”

    This is a case of “bad defendant, good decision.” If Second Amendment rights are “fundamental” and “deeply rooted” in American history, as per Heller and Bruen, then they can’t be tossed aside for misdemeanor offenses. Now I’m waiting for the Supremes to apply the originalist jurisprudence test of Bruen to interpretation of the commerce clause…

  • “Public School Closures Mount Amid Enrollment Declines. More than 100 campuses have permanently closed in recent years, with 64 more confirmed for closure next year.”

    Public school closures are increasing across Texas as districts face historic enrollment declines and mounting financial pressure.

    Despite Texas’ continued population growth, public schools lost 76,000 students in the past school year—the first nonpandemic decline in nearly four decades. Districts across the state are consolidating and shuttering campuses in response to the decline, setting the stage for major structural changes to Texas’ education infrastructure.

    “There’s a lot of emotions and history tied to these schools,” said Monica Ryan, board president of Judson ISD, which voted to close four campuses amid a budget shortfall. Ryan is one of many district officials across the state citing enrollment declines and budget pressures as reasons for the closures.

    The closures are widespread. Fort Worth ISD plans to close 18 campuses over the next four years, while Houston ISD will close 12 next year and Austin ISD 10. Arlington, McKinney, Aldine, and many other districts are pursuing similar plans.

    In a May 2026 report, Texas 2036 pointed to parents increasingly choosing private or homeschooling options as a big reason for the decline. As families move away from traditional public schools, districts are shifting budgets and long-term planning.

    “Parents are paying attention to the weekly barrage of failures across the education system,” Mandy Drogin of the Texas Public Policy Foundation told Texas Scorecard. She pointed to schools’ failures to adequately serve students, especially those with special needs, to shield classrooms from political agendas, and to protect students from predators.

    Lower birth rates have further accelerated enrollment losses. Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath told lawmakers, “a lot of this is a decline in birth rates that has happened that is working its way through the system as students age up.”

    While elementary schools absorbed the majority of the losses, the empty desks are expected to ripple upward through higher grades.

    School choice programs could also affect future trends.

    Beginning next year, the Texas Education Freedom Accounts program (TEFA) created through Senate Bill 2 will provide $1 billion in education savings accounts for eligible families seeking alternatives to public schools. Around 102,000 families have been approved, though it remains to be seen how many will use the funds.

    Strangely, given that it’s Texas Scorecard, no mention is given to the deportation and self-deportation of illegal aliens that were previously overloading the system.

  • “Higher Education Administrators Conference Promotes DEI Themes.” “Belonging,” “Culturally Relevant,” and “Culturally Sustainable” are the new DEI terms.”

    A national trade association for higher education administrators held a conference last week in downtown Austin that demonstrates the continued presence of diversity, equity, and inclusion ideology in higher education.

    Texas Scorecard was present at the conference, which highlighted a series of less politically charged terms that expressed similar goals to DEI.

    The National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) describes itself as “the leading association for the advancement, health, and sustainability of the student affairs profession.”

    The organization has a membership of over 15,000 professionals at 2,100 institutions across the globe.

    While the conference was not exclusively dedicated to DEI, many panel discussions across the three-day event explicitly discussed DEI themes. Examples include:

    • Servingness and Beyond: An Equity Minded Leadership Playbook for Institutional Transformation.
    • First Gen Latinas Leading First-Gen Strategy.
    • Black First Gen Collective.
    • Operational Equity: Creating STEM Circles of Belonging.
    • Building a Neuro-Inclusive Campus.

      Eternal vigilance…

    • TPPF: “Why Can’t We Get Rid of Drag Queen Story Hour?”

      Americans have pushed back. Many, even on the left, believe that a big factor in President Donald Trump’s re-election is because he is for “us,” and his opponent, Kamala Harris, was for “they/them.”

      Polling consistently shows that most Americans oppose allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports and support maintaining sex-specific spaces, such as locker rooms and restrooms for women.

      Pride celebrations in many cities can’t find sponsors anymore as corporations reconsider whether it’s worth alienating customers to add their brand to a “pride” event.

      Americans delivered a resounding “no thanks” to Bud Light after it featured Dylan Mulvaney, a man pretending to be a woman, in its advertising. Customers also turned their back on Target after it marketed a line of cross-dressing clothing.

      So why has there been so little progress in eliminating drag shows for children, most commonly manifested in what has become known as Drag Queen Story Hours?

      Texas has spent several legislative sessions attempting ban drag shows that target kids. Senate Bill 12, which passed in 2023, prohibited sexually oriented performances in the presence of minors and on public property. Texas has gotten leave to enforce the law, but court challenges continue.

      Some educational leaders, including Texas public school librarians, believe it is important that children see drag shows. They insist drag queen performances are part of the mainstream, so they belong in public schools.

      Unspoken by TPPF: Because the leftwing groups pushing it want to destroy the nuclear family because it represents a separate power center apart from the all-powerful stateand they view it as a celebration of their power in the culture wars.

    • “TDCJ fires parole supervisor Donna Robinson over Facebook comments on Karmelo Anthony case. “In her viral Facebook post, Robinson wrote that Anthony would be protected in prison, expressed indifference to the victim’s family, and stated she was glad they did not have to bury another Black child.”

      The TDCJ administration emphasized that impartiality is a non-negotiable requirement for state parole employees. A department spokeswoman released an official statement defining the agency’s position.

      “These statements are incompatible with TDCJ policy and values. They demonstrate bias and a lack of the impartiality essential to the fair administration of justice in Texas. Discriminatory or inflammatory conduct that erodes public confidence in the criminal justice system will not be tolerated,” the spokeswoman added.

    • Obama the Deadbeat. “Obama Presidential Center subcontractors claim they’re owed millions and facing financial ruin ahead of grand opening.”

      Several [contractors] also described what they viewed as a wall of silence surrounding the project, with some declining to speak publicly or requesting anonymity because of confidentiality agreements or fears of professional retaliation.

      The allegations emerge days after a Fox News Digital investigation reported that the Obama Foundation’s reserve fund — originally promoted as a $470 million financial safeguard intended to help protect taxpayers if the project encountered financial trouble — remains funded at roughly $1 million.

      Standing outside the center on a gloomy Friday afternoon, Owen flipped through spreadsheets and financial records that he said documented millions of dollars in losses tied to the project.

      Owen said the project stretched on for years longer than anticipated, forcing his company to absorb millions of dollars in labor and overhead costs as work demands changed and expanded.

      He said the losses have drained the company’s reserves, created uncertainty for employees and could ultimately force layoffs.

      Debts are for the little people…

    • Nick Freitas doesn’t think China can take Taiwan. It was looking pretty difficult before Russia invaded Ukraine, and the recent leaps and bounds in development of military drones make it look all but impossible.
    • Missed this last week: After 144 years, Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia cathedral, designed by Antonio Gaudi, was finally completed.
    • Joshua Baer, godfather of Austin’s startup scene, dies in plane crash. A dramatic video shows bystanders rushing to the plane with tools and implements of destruction to extract the other passengers.

      Everyone else survived.

    • Rick Beato says he was right about AI. He also mentions Flock AI cameras mysteriously popping up everywhere. Maybe he and Louis Rossmann should compare notes…
    • The bright side of the Google-pocalypse: “What’s left of Vox Media has been sold (likely on the cheap) to Penske Media, and this is after Buzzfeed imploded and MSNBC got spun off from Comcast because it was such a failure.”
    • Critical Drinker didn’t like Disclosure Day.
    • Speaking of Critical Drinker, here’s “Crash And Burn Gaming – The Anita Sarkeesian Story.
    • “Body Symptoms Doctors Are Seeing Everywhere But Can’t Explain.”
    • “British Tourists Pleasantly Surprised By Quality Of American Food, Lack Of Rape Gangs.”
    • “Gen Zer Hospitalized After Going More Than 5 Minutes Without Saying ‘Bro.'”
    • Puppies!

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





      Posted in Austin, Budget, Crime, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Guns, Jihad, Military, Obama Scandals, Social Justice Warriors, Supreme Court, Texas, video, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

      Houston “Financial Integrity Advisor” Paid $127,000 To Show Up Twice This Year

      Posted on June 18, 2026 by Lawrence Person

      Some jobs are more difficult than others. Houston’s Democratic Mayor John Whitmire employs a “Financial Integrity Advisor” for $127,000 to rarely show up for work.

      Houston City Controller Chris Hollins announced Monday that his office has launched a formal investigation into Chris Brown, Mayor John Whitmire’s senior advisor for financial integrity.

      Brown, it should be noted, was the previous City Controller.

      The investigation follows a Houston Chronicle report raising questions about Brown’s attendance and work output in the taxpayer-funded position. According to Hollins, badge records show Brown swiped into city facilities just 13 times across nearly 600 workdays, including only twice so far in 2026.

      Nothing says “integrity” like barely showing up for work.

      The Chronicle also reported Brown sent roughly a dozen outgoing emails in the first three to four months of this year, with none of them appearing to involve fiscal policy or budget strategy. Brown’s annual salary for the position is just over $127,000.

      Hell, when I was working from home, I probably sent out a dozen emails a day. And while there are many work-from-home positions that don’t require badging in or sending emails to gauge progress (say, a programmer who checks in the work using GitHub and tracks their progress via Jira and Confluence), I rather doubt that “senior advisor for financial integrity” is one of them.

      Hollins said his office will examine what work was actually performed, what deliverables were produced, who supervised Brown, and how his performance was evaluated over the roughly two-and-a-half years he has held the role. He also pointed out that the position itself did not exist before the Whitmire administration and was created specifically for Brown.

      Sounds a little like a juicy sinecure for a political supporter, doesn’t it?

      “The central issue in question is whether the work being paid for with taxpayer money was performed at all,” Hollins said at a Monday press conference. He added that the investigation is not a finding of wrongdoing and that investigators plan to interview Brown, Whitmire, and other relevant parties.

      Hollins also called on Whitmire to suspend Brown while the probe is underway, saying suspension is not a finding of guilt.

      There’s a difference between “working from home” and “getting paid to breathe.”

      On the other hand, Chris Hollins, the guy slinging these accusations, is a Democrat who talks about diversity, and who helped found an organization, Texas Democratic Voices, with two lawyers, Kurt Arnold and Jason Itkin, who donate to some of the same leftwing PACs as George Soros. Is it possible that Hollins is retaliating against Brown for advising against funding various left-wing NGOs and causes? Possibly, though I’m not seeing any direct evidence thus far.

      Of course, it’s possibly that Chris Brown isn’t showing up for work and Chris Hollins shouldn’t be trusted…

      Posted in Democrats, Social Justice Warriors, Texas, Waste and Fraud | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment