The Decline Of Johannesburg

February 22nd, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

    LinkSwarm For February 21, 2025

    February 21st, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    The result?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    People need to go to jail.

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

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

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

    Every. Single. One.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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





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

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

    February 20th, 2025

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

    First up: The Navy with more Admirals than Warships

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

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

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

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

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    Posted in Military, video | 4 Comments »

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

    February 19th, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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    Posted in Border Control | 1 Comment »

    Paxton Argues For Free Speech, Against Texas Agency

    February 18th, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Indeed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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    Posted in Supreme Court, Texas | No Comments »

    DOGE Vs. The Vampire Menace

    February 17th, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    NYSE Chicago Moving To Dallas

    February 16th, 2025

    The New York Stock Exchange Company is moving operations for the Chicago Stock Exchange (which it’s owned since 2018) to Dallas.

    The Lone Star State has long been a magnet for capital investment, and recent developments regarding the establishment of not one, but two Texas-based stock exchanges seek to increase that momentum.

    The Texas Stock Exchange (TXSE), set to be based in Dallas, was announced in June last year on the principle that “Texas and the other states in the southeast quadrant have become economic powerhouses,” according to TXSE founder James Lee.

    “Combined with the demand we are seeing from investors and corporations for expanded alternatives to trade and list equities, this is an opportune time to build a major, national stock exchange in Texas.”

    The first step to full incorporation was taken in January when registration forms were filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission — after $161 million in initial capital was raised by the TXSE group.

    Former Texas governor and U.S. Department of Energy secretary Rick Perry, former acting general counsel for Charles Schwab and former head of its Office of Legislative and Regulatory Affairs Jeffrey Brown, and former KCG Holdings, Inc. chief technology officer Jonathan Ross, are some of the members on the TXSE leadership team.

    Now, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has announced plans to establish its own exchange in Dallas, which could be a competitor to the TXSE.

    “As the state with the largest number of NYSE listings, representing over $3.7 trillion in market value for our community, Texas is a market leader in fostering a pro-business atmosphere,” NYSE Group President Lynn Martin said in a press release.

    “We are delighted to expand our presence in the Lone Star State, which plays a key role in driving our U.S. economy forward.”

    NYSE Texas is planned to be a fully electronic equities exchange as part of the Intercontinental Exchange. The plan, pending regulatory filings, is to reincorporate NYSE Chicago in Texas.

    Though some stocks are listed specifically on the Chicago Exchange, it also trades stocks listed on other exchanges like NYSE and NASDAQ. Interestingly, a Chinese group tried to buy the Chicago Exchange back in 2016, but Donald Trump objected to the deal and it was eventually rejected by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

    Chalk up another case of another company in a failing high tax, high regulation, blue-run locale getting the hell out while the getting is good and moving to Texas.

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    Posted in Texas | 10 Comments »

    DOGE vs. Bureaucracy

    February 15th, 2025

    For some light Saturday fare, enjoy this FreedomToons video of Elon Musk taking on the USAID bureaucracy.

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    Posted in Budget, Democrats, Waste and Fraud | No Comments »

    LinkSwarm For February 14, 2025

    February 14th, 2025

    Happy Valentine’s Day! Or, as I call it in my house, “Passover.” DOGE uncovers more infuriating waste and fraud, another job number revision downward, a bit on the Russo-Ukrainian War, a Second Amendment ruling, and the Babylon Bee offers up a double-shot of Tolkien.

    It’s the Friday LinkSwarm!

  • “HHS Spent over $22 Billion on Giveaways to Illegal Immigrants over Past Four Years.”

    The Department of Health and Human Services spent $22.6 billion on assistance to illegal immigrants from 2020 to 2024 as border crossings hit all-time highs, a new watchdog report shows.

    The HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement, a unit that lost track of 32,000 migrant children, distributed the bulk of the funds to nonprofit organizations during President Joe Biden’s term, according to a report from government spending watchdog Open the Books, first reported by the New York Post.

    In fiscal year 2023 alone, the ORR doled out $10 billion worth of grants as the Biden administration expanded the number of illegal aliens eligible for assistance. HHS distributed obligated funds of $2.6 billion in 2020, $2.3 billion in 2021, and $4.2 billion in fiscal year 2024. Over that time period, the Biden administration allowed record numbers of illegal immigrants to cross the southern border and remain in the country.

    Some of the ORR money went towards a program that helped illegal immigrants save for car and home purchases, while another program distributed business and personal loans to help migrants build credit. Additional funds were allocated toward providing migrants with “legal assistance,” “cultural orientation,” and “emergency housing support.”

    “ORR is part of a troubling trend of using nonprofit groups as ideological proxies. Vast sums are being outsourced to evade accountability and prop up an immoral, exploitive system that is hurtful to both American citizens and people in other countries who are longing for a better life,” Open The Books CEO John Hart told the Post.

  • Heh: “Terrified staff left hysterical as ‘well drilled’ DOGE nerds storm hyper ‘woke’ Department of Education.”

    Elon Musk’s nerd army stormed into the Department of Education on Tuesday and saved over $900 million.

    Musk’s DOGE lieutenants Akash Bobba and Ethan Shaotran, both 22, already have access to the department, NBC News reported.

    And as many as 16 DOGE team members have entered the premises as the agency begins to be ripped apart.

    Rep. Melanie Stansbury, (D-NM) described the terror agency staff are feeling after Musk’s team entered to ‘actively dismantle’ the institution.

    ‘They are in the building, on the 6th floor, canceling grants and contracts,’ she said in an interview with HuffPost.

    The Department of Education was targeted by Donald Trump during his campaign, He is keen to dismantle the so-called ‘Deep State’ constantly working against conservatives.

    Most Republicans believe the department employs some of the most activist liberal bureaucrats in the federal government.

    Trump plans to sign another executive order on Tuesday to order all agencies to work with DOGE, according to Semafor, including with the ‘workplace optimization initiative.’

    Snip.

    The department has already terminated 89 Education Department contracts worth $881 million.

    And over 29 training grants for DEI have been eliminated saving $101 million, according to the DOGE X account.

    President Donald Trump campaigned on shutting down the Department of Education and sending the funding back to the states to fund their schools as they see fit.

    Gooder and harder. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)

  • If you’re not already furious enough with the Biden Administration: “USAID Sent Over $18,000,000,000 to Islamic Terror States.

    Over the last two years, USAID had funneled $2.3 billion in “humanitarian assistance” to [Ilhan] Omar’s native Somalia. Last year it reported a request for $1.6 billion in aid and even with the Biden administration on the way out the door, it sent an additional $29 million in December 2024.

    USAID support for Somalia had doubled under the Biden administration and with $3.3 billion from USAID allocated in the last 5 years, the end of the USAID gravy train for the Islamic terrorist state of Somalia must have been a painful blow for Omar, who is very close to the Somali regime. Former Somali Prime Minister Hassan Khaire had reportedly celebrated that “the interest of Ilhan are not Ilhan’s, it’s not the interest of Minnesota, nor is it the interest of the American people, the interest of Ilhan is that of the Somalian people and Somalia.”

    It’s unknown if any of Omar’s Majerteen clan members benefited from the billions in American money, but considering the prominence of the clan in Somali politics, it’s likely to be the case.

    Somalia, along with other Islamic terrorist entities, including the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Houthis in Yemen, and Hamas in Gaza, were among the top beneficiaries of USAID cash.

    USAID boasted of having sent $2.1 billion to Gaza and the West Bank since the Hamas attacks of Oct 7. In 2024 alone, $917 million was programmed for the terrorist areas occupying Israel.

    USAID provided over $3.7 billion to Afghanistan since the Taliban took over with $832 million in the previous fiscal year alone. The money was so unaccountable that USAID refused to cooperate with the U.S. Government’s Afghan War watchdog tracking money going to terrorists.

    Even while the United States of America was at war with the Houthis, the Iran-backed Islamic terrorist group firing on US Navy vessels, USAID continued to direct billions of dollars to Yemen.

    In 2024, USAID announced a $2.7 billion aid request for Yemen and allocated $753 million. In the last 5 years, USAID provided an estimated $3.4 billion in aid to an enemy terror state.

    Other Islamic terrorist states that have heavily drawn on USAID include Pakistan which harbored Osama bin Laden, but benefited from $600 million in the last 5 years. While some American towns and cities lacked clean drinking water, USAID labored to build plants for Pakistan’s majority Muslim population even while it engaged in the persecution of Christians.

    USAID spent over $700 million on Iraq during the last 5 years even though the country has long since been governed by Iranian puppets whose militias have been firing on American soldiers.

    $3.4 billion was directed to Syria over the past 5 years by USAID even as it was caught in a civil war between Shiite Islamists aligned with Iran and Sunni Islamists aligned with Al Qaeda.

    USAID allocated $1.1 billion to spend on Lebanon even as the country was run by Hezbollah.

    While USAID is unable to function in Iran, between Yemen, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, over $8 billion was sent to Iranian puppet regimes even without counting the money spent on Gaza.

    In total, USAID had spent some $18.5 billion on Islamic terror states over those 5 years.

  • And even more looting of taxpayer money for leftist causes.

    PA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a video released on Wednesday night that his agency has discovered an unprecedented scheme that was utilized by the Biden administration to funnel money to far-Left activist groups.

    “An extremely disturbing video circulated two months ago featuring a Biden EPA political appointee talking about how they were ‘tossing gold bars off the Titanic,’ rushing to get billions of your tax dollars out the door before Inauguration Day,” Zeldin said.

    He continued, “The gold bars were tax dollars, and tossing them off the Titanic meant the Biden administration knew they were wasting it.”

    Zeldin said that he has contacted the U.S. Justice Department and the inspector general to launch investigations into the $20 billion that was transferred to an outside financial institution for the purpose of doling out funds to leftist organizations during Biden’s final days in office.

    “Fortunately, my awesome team at EPA has found the gold bars,” he said. “Shockingly, roughly $20 billion of your tax dollars were parked at an outside financial institution by the Biden EPA.”

    “This scheme was the first of its kind in EPA history, and it was purposely designed to obligate all of the money in a rush job with reduced oversight,” he continued. “Even further, this pot of $20 billion was awarded to just eight entities that were then responsible for doling out your money to NGOs and others at their discretion with far less transparency.”

    He said that the financial agreement with the bank needs to be instantly terminated and the funds need to be returned to the government.

    Let the prosecutions begin.

  • More USAID fraud uncovered.
    • $2M sex change surgeries in Guatemala
    • $20M to increase tourism in Egypt
    • $520M for consultants to teach people in Africa about climate change
    • $4.5M to teach people in Kazakhstan to fight back against internet trolls
    • $15M for condoms to the Taliban
  • “Trump Draining Pool Of Money From Which Leftist Activists Drink.”

    People need to understand what Trump is doing, whether it’s intentional or not, but he is cutting off the flow of money to the pool from which a variety of left-wing groups and activist groups around the world and in the US drink.

    So imagine a pool that’s being filled with money. A lot of that money comes from the programs that have been cut off by his DEI orders, Federal funding.

    But a lot of it came from USAID, which is essentially an international development and development agency of the government, which has a massive, tens of billions of dollars, budget. And now we know what has been happening.

    It has been like a fire hose filling up the same pool that the DEI funding filled up, and they all drink from that, and he’s cutting off that flow.

    This has the potential to be absolutely devastating to the DEI and left-wing industrial complex.

    We always think of it as being George Soros and people like that, and, and it is, but they all are feeding into the same pool. And Soros doesn’t have enough money to replace what the US government spends on this stuff.

    That’s why they are apoplectic. That’s why they are losing their minds. That’s why they are senators are trying to break into buildings. That’s why there’s a lawsuit after lawsuit because they know if Trump is successful in cutting off the various spigots that fill the pool from which left-wing activist groups drink, they are in big trouble.

  • The evil that the Biden Administration did lives on in so many ways. “January Jobs Report: 2024 Employment Revised Down by 600,000.”
  • “Federal Judge Blocking Spending Freezes Has History of Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

    The federal judge who ordered the Trump administration to unfreeze all funding pauses while federal spending is being assessed, has a history of anti-Trump and woke activism.

    Chief Judge John McConnell Jr. of the U.S. District Court in Rhode Island can be seen in video footage from 2021 accusing Trump of being “a dictator” and claiming that “racism is a white people problem” and that “we all have racism inside of us.”

    Judge McConnell certainly has stupidity inside him…

  • Newly confirmed Trump Attorney General Pam Bondi is suing Letita James along with other New York Democratic politicians for refusing to help deport illegal aliens.
  • Polls show Trump and his policies are deeply popular.
  • American voters have decisively rejected wokeness. So how do Democrats respond? By doubling down on reparations.
  • “GOP senators are terrified over the prospect of facing primary challengers funded by Elon Musk if they stick their necks out by opposing President Trump’s agenda.” Good. Get-along go-along Republicans have played a key role in letting the federal budget deficit grow to Brobdingnagian proportions. They can atone but letting Trump balance the budget and crush the left or they can get the hell off the stage. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
  • Russia has launched a drone attack against the Chernobyl radiation containment sarcophagus. Way to convince Europe you’re ready for peace, Vlad…
  • Suchomimus has a video roundup of Ukraine strikes on Russian oil facilities.
  • A Ukrainian Su-27 pilot describes the changing nature of the air war, including the desperate early days.

    Viking was not at his normal base in the Zhytomyr region when the war started, he was in Kyiv. His race to Zhytomyr was frustrated by a lack of rail services out of the capital and ended with a walk between 25-30 miles to get to the air base, still in civilian clothes. Once there, he was very quickly in the thick of action, and from Feb. 25 on he flew air defense missions that he described as “deterrence,” first flown in daylight and later at night, over the Kyiv region.

    “We held them back,” Viking explained. “If their aircraft had come here and worked freely, everything would have been completely different.”

    Viking and his fellow 39th Tactical Aviation Brigade (39 BrTA) pilots faced a significant disadvantage in terms of radars and missiles compared to the Russians. While Ukrainian fighters could occasionally track enemy aircraft, getting within missile-launch range was rarely possible.

    The Ukrainian Air Force began the war with around 32 Su-27s operational within two brigades, the 39 brTA at Ozerne in the Zhytomyr region of northwestern Ukraine and the 831 brTA at Myrhorod in the Poltava region of central Ukraine. At least 15 Ukrainian Flankers have been visually confirmed as destroyed but, in the meantime, additional examples have also been returned to airworthiness after overhauls. The aircraft are also regularly moved around between different operating locations, some of them austere in nature, making it harder for the Russians to target them.

    Snip.

    In these early days, Viking’s available intelligence on Russian air defenses was scrawled on a piece of map that he’d torn off, with information vital for survival being exchanged by word of mouth between pilots. The map simply showed the best route into a given area, with circles showing the approximate engagement ranges of hostile air defenses.

    The primary job at this time was attempting to blunt the advance of Russian tactical aircraft flying from Belarus. “We were the only ones here, to put it bluntly. We were the first line of defense, and they were constantly trying to sneak their Su-34s and Su-35s in at night, at extremely low altitudes.”

    Complicating their job was the fact that, according to Viking, the avionics and missiles of the Ukrainian Su-27s, at this time, were “two generations behind” those of the Russians. Within these parameters, “the battle was reduced to trying to get closer to [the Russians].” But even if that was possible, the Ukrainian Su-27 pilots were rarely able to get within the launch parameters of their missiles, with the Russian jets always having the opportunity to launch weapons first.

    “Even though our [missile] launches had short ranges, we still tried something, we launched missiles, we held the Russians back, and we repelled these attacks every night,” Viking explains. “Almost every pilot flew two, sometimes three sorties each night.”

    Also a lot of interesting discussion about how western munitions (HARM missiles and JDAMs in particular) have improved their chances.

  • Another day, another public official arrested on fraud charges.

    Pearson, Georgia is a small town, with a population of 1,821 per the 2020 census. Robert “Buster” Johnson is the mayor.

    “Buster” was busted yesterday.

    I’m just going to quote the list of charges here:

    • Criminal Attempt to Commit Hindering or Apprehension or Punishment of Criminal
    • 3 counts of Influencing Witnesses
    • Criminal Solicitation to Commit False Statements and Writings
    • Criminal Solicitation to Commit False Official Certificates or Writings by Officers or Employees of a State and Political Subdivision
    • 2 counts of False Statements and Writings
    • Criminal Attempt to Commit Theft by Taking
    • Conspiracy in Restraint of Free and Open Competition
    • 4 counts of Conspiracy to Defraud State and Political Subdivision
    • Theft by Deception
    • 3 counts of Bribery
    • 2 counts of Theft by Taking
    • Fraud, Forgery, and Theft in Connection with Registration of Title to Land
    • Filing False Documents
    • 4 counts of Violation of Oath of Office by Public Officer

    Given Andy Ngo’s highlighting of Johnson’s posts charging racism, I think I’ll go out on a limb and guess he’s a Democrat…

  • “On January 30, the Fifth Circuit decided Reese v. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, & Explosives, holding that the federal Gun Control Act’s prohibition on the sale of firearms to persons under 21 years old, as applied to adults aged 18 to 20 years old, violates the Second Amendment. The law effectively banned handgun sales, as it has an exception for rifles and shotguns, which may be sold to persons 18 and older.”
  • Object to not deporting illegal aliens? Expect a beating from those “mostly peaceful” protestors.
  • “Harris County Comes Up Short on Funds For Planned Flood Control Projects. One set of projects for subdivisions may face a shortage of nearly $140 million.” Is there anything in the article that indicates where the real problem lies? Why yes, there is: “The framework, which has been slightly revised since then, shifts from targeting areas with the most damage to adding consideration of the Social Vulnerability Index and areas with lower incomes.” There’s no institution so robust that adding social justice to it can’t beat it out of whack…
  • “Blind director of watchdog group funded by George Soros testifies that he does not see widespread evidence of government waste.”
  • Crazy story out of Columbine High School (yes, that one) in Colorado.

    A friend of the student’s mom, Heather McCormick, accused a female teacher of grooming the teen girl at school. According to the allegation, she then worked with the school to secretly change the girl’s status to “homeless” so she could legally move out of her parents’ home … and into the teacher’s home.

    The unnamed mom discovered thousands of phone calls and texts between the two, which revealed that the female teacher had, at the minimum, been making out with the student.

    When the student’s mom went to the principal to let him know that a predator teacher had been sexually grooming her daughter, this is how the principal reportedly responded: “Ms. Kearney takes interest in helping kids navigate their sexuality.”

  • “French Far-Left Leader Mélenchon Openly Calls For Great Replacement In Shock Speech.”

    In two speeches given less than 24 hours apart in the French city of Toulouse, Jean-Luc Mélenchon delivered some of the most shocking yet brutally honest words from a European politician, openly calling for the older French to be replaced by a “Creole” generation of mixed races and cultures.

    The leader of France’s far-left LFI is calling outright for replacement of White French people, conjuring up the Great Replacement term that has been demonized as a conspiracy theory by the left for years.

    “In our country, one person in four has a foreign grandparent. 40% of the population speaks at least two languages. We are destined to be a Creole nation and so much the better! May the young generation be the great replacement for the old generation,” said Mélenchon.

  • The Senate confirmed Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence. Let the reckoning begin.
  • They also confirmed Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as Health and Human Services secretary.
  • They also confirmed Brooke Rollins as Secretary of Agriculture.
  • “40 Massage Parlors Closed in Texas Since Passage of Anti-Human Trafficking Law.”
  • “Department of Education Urges NCAA to Restore to Female Athletes the Records Stolen by Men.” This is obviously the right thing to do, so expect them to drag their heels on it.
  • Stolen from Sarah Hoyt:

  • “Burrows Promises Trump: Texas House Will Pass School Choice. Both the House and Senate budget proposals currently allocate $1 billion for education savings accounts.” Color me skeptical. The Democrat-backed cabal backing burrows has made killing school choice a priority in the past
  • “A US Navy aircraft carrier has collided with a merchant ship off the coast of Egypt in the Mediterranean Sea, a US Sixth Fleet spokesman revealed Thursday. The collision involved the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and the merchant vessel Besiktas-M at around noon local time on Wednesday.” Fortunately there was no lose of life, but there’s a whole lot of stupid to go around for this one. At 189 meters, or over 620 feet, the Besiktas-M certainly isn’t small, but the Harry S. Truman is over 1,000 feet long.
  • Facebook lays off 4,000 workers, some of whom say they had glowing performance reviews last year.
  • Good news! Trump rescinds Biden’s plastic straw ban! There seems to be no end of the woke making your life more difficult to display their own climate virtue…
  • “Microsoft Drops USAID-Funded NewsGuard After Ted Cruz Starts Digging. Microsoft has dropped NewsGuard, a left-wing fact checking organization they partnered with that has helped the advertising industry justify blacklists for independent conservative media sites such as ZeroHedge.” Good.
  • Target faces class-action lawsuit for misleading investors about DEI initiatives.

  • Critical Drinker says that Captain America: Brave New World is exactly as bad as we thought it would be.
  • And here’s my imitation of Jonah. (Hat tip: Dwight.)
  • “Democrats Furious Republicans Trying To Control Government Just Because They Won Election.”
  • “Soros-Funded Judge Vows To Keep Billionaire Influence Out Of Politics.”
  • “Sauron-Appointed Judge Rules Frodo Must Return Ring To Sauron.
  • “Government Retirement Files Ruined After Miners Dig Too Deep And Unearth Balrog.”
  • “RFK Jr. Sworn In On Raw 32-Ounce Ribeye.”
  • I have no idea what you’re talking about, so here’s a video of a dog riding a pony:

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





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    Posted in Border Control, Budget, Crime, Democrats, Economics, Guns, Jihad, Media Watch, Republicans, Social Justice Warriors, Texas, Waste and Fraud | No Comments »

    Tren de Aragua Sex Trafficking Ringleaders Arrested In Houston

    February 13th, 2025

    Arrest by arrest, the Trump Administration and Republican governors are rounding up the illegal alien criminals that the Biden Administration deliberately let into the country.

    Federal authorities recently completed two separate operations in Houston targeting criminal illegal aliens.

    The first operation targeted illegal aliens indicted for their role in a Tren de Aragua sex trafficking scheme, while the second operation resulted in the arrest of illegal aliens and the seizure of drugs and a gun. Both took place this week.

    At least two of the suspects apprehended in the first operation are accused of promising women in Venezuela a good life in the United States and then forcing them into prostitution.

    The arrests are part of a case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office targeting a multistate sex trafficking ring with Tren de Aragua members accused of intimidating victims into compliance.

    Eight people in total are charged for their roles in the sex trafficking ring.

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Wildasin wrote to Texas Scorecard: “All of the defendants are Venezuelan. All are in the United States without any legal status. All are in federal custody with ICE detainers. For security reasons, we do not share where people are being detained.”

    According to Wildasin, two of the suspects arrested in Houston are defendants Ariannys Beatriz Gutierrez-Carrillo and Endrik Alexander Morales-Rivero.

    Defendants Frankyanna Del Valle Romero-Rivero and Jesus Enrique Castillo Rodriguez were arrested in Dallas, and Yuribetzi Del Valle Gomez Machuca was arrested in San Antonio.

    After the first operation was made public by FBI Houston on Tuesday, a second operation conducted a day later was revealed. Two illegal aliens were arrested in that operation, and drugs and a gun were seized.

    Snip.

    Tren de Aragua was designated a foreign terrorist organization by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott last year.

    “Tren de Aragua gangsters are like cockroaches,” said Department of Public Safety Director McCraw at the time.

    “They multiply quickly; small intrusions into communities become infestations if not aggressively pursued. These Venezuelan thugs are highly combative, violent, and certainly adaptable. They’re always involved in situations that first start with human smuggling. Then they are involved in the extortion, kidnappings, rape, assaults, and sex trafficking of migrants.”

    Earlier this month, Abbott directed the Texas National Guard and DPS to work with federal authorities to arrest and deport illegal aliens.

    It’s impossible to fathom the leftist mindset that finds letting women be inducted into sexual slavery as a small price to pay for theoretically improving the electoral chances of the Democratic Party via illegal alien amnesty somewhere down the line.

    Arrest by arrest, the evil work of the Biden Administration’s open borders policy is being undone.

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    Posted in Border Control, Crime, Democrats, Social Justice Warriors, Texas | 5 Comments »

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