Is Iran Losing Control Of Kurds and Lurs?

January 7th, 2026

A friend sent a video showing police joining protestors as a sign the regime was crumbling:

Tiny problem: The city of Ilam is overwhelmingly Kurdish and very far from Tehran. So we can’t use Ilam as proof that the mullahs are on the brink of losing power, as much as that is a consummation devoutly to be wished.

But it’s an interesting data point, as is Kanal 13’s video on the Islamic regime losing control of Abdanan as well:

And wouldn’t you know it, Abdanan is another Kurdish city in western Iran.

It looks like the mullahs have a Kurdish problem. Or, more specifically, the mullahs can no longer repress the Kurdish problem they’ve always had.

But it’s not just the Kurds! Take a look at this BBC report on where mass protests against the Islamic regime have broken out.

Notice how heavy protests are in the western part of the country:

Those clashes mapped in the upper, western part of the country are probably majority Kurds. But not the ones in the southwestern part of the country. Those are Lurs.

No, not that one.

You may not have heard of the Lurs, because they haven’t played a significant role in the war against the Islamic State, or any of the various other Iraqi and Syrian civil wars, the way the Kurds have. They’re an Iranian ethnic minority with their own language, and while they’re also Shia, they have a lot of syncretic elements from Yarsanism and Zoroastrianism, so naturally the mullahs consider them heretical.

So while having the Kurdish and Lur areas of the country rise up against the Islamic Republic isn’t necessarily a sign of the regime’s immediate demise, it does present a unique challenge to it. Right now, the regime probably needs all its military and security forces to keep a lid on Tehran and adjacent areas, and likely doesn’t have any to spare to bring restive western areas to heel.

Dictatorships with significant minority populations inside their country either need to repress them or buy them off. Vladimir Putin has used both approaches with the Chechens. With its currency in freefall, Iran is too broke and overextended to pay them off, but will be hard-pressed to scrounge up enough muscle to repress them, having to play whack-a-mole with outbreaks of resistance across the country.

And the longer the Kurds and Lurs stay free of Tehran, the more difficult and painful it will be to bring them to heel, even if the mullahs survive the most recent uprising.

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Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad | 7 Comments »

Ukrainian Robots 1, Russian Horses 0

January 6th, 2026

Russia decided to attack a Ukrainian position “manned” by a robot (OK, technically an unmanned, remote-operated combat vehicle rather than a real robot) with troops on horseback.

The assault went every bit as well as you would expect.

  • “Ukraine just completed an operation where a ground drone held a position for weeks, implementing innovative technologies for full frontline rotations aimed at replacing infantry. Russia, on the other hand, has introduced an outdated tactic and reintroduced cavalry, with soldiers riding horses to attack Ukrainians over open fields.”
  • “This contrast was laid bare as Ukraine’s Third Army Corps continued scaling robotic warfare, demonstrating that ground drones are not only for assaults but can also hold defensive lines for extended periods. One striking example came when a DevDroid ground robot was equipped with a 12.7 mm Browning M2 machine gun.” That’s .50 BMG in Freedom Units, AKA “Ma Deuce.”
  • “For 45 consecutive days, the robot held a frontline position instead of infantry, suppressing enemy movement and repelling assaults without a single Ukrainian casualty. Operated remotely from cover and equipped with thermal vision, the system detected Russian movements in complete darkness, turning night assaults into one-sided engagements where attackers stood no chance.”
  • “Such operations are sustained by an efficient, decentralized system, with Ukrainian drones remotely controlled from bunkers or armored vehicles and operating in close coordination with aerial drones that scout, jam, and strike targets. With operators positioned behind the contact line and maintenance handled in small frontline workshops embedded within brigades, where technicians repair tracks, sensors, and electronics within hours using mobile tools and 3D-printed components. From there, moving into positions where Russians were detected, using relays from air drones to extend operational range, the ground drones would then return just for a swift swap of batteries, together with the ammo to achieve quick turnaround times and ensure constant defense of the sector.”
  • “While Ukraine is moving forward technologically, Russia is moving backward. On the Pokrovsk front, where Moscow has concentrated the highest number of soldiers and some of its most capable units, Ukrainian soldiers from the 92nd Separate Assault Brigade documented Russian troops advancing on horseback. The first time they were spotted, the Ukrainian operators had no idea what to do and had no choice but to unfortunately hit both the rider and the horse.”

    Poor horsies.

  • “However, immediately afterwards, Ukrainian operators devised and shared a plan that was soon realized, when they deliberately frightened the horses with flybys, causing them to bolt and throw their riders, before neutralizing the dismounted soldiers while sparing the animals. More footage confirms that Russian forces are increasingly using horses in assaults, a tactic unseen on European battlefields for more than a century.” Reporting from Ukraine is mistaken here. Polish cavalry mounted a charge against German infantry at Krojanty in September of 1939, a mere 87 years ago. (However, despite the myth, Polish cavalry did not attack German tanks.)
  • “This return of cavalry is not symbolic but driven by necessity, as Russian losses in vehicles and armored transport have been so severe that even elite units are forced to rely on animals to move troops and supplies; yet against drones equipped with thermal sensors and precision munitions, the clash is brutally uneven, and the Russian command appears willing to repeat these futile attacks regardless of the cost.”
  • “The contrast between the two armies could not be clearer, with Ukraine using drones to solve its manpower challenge by deliberately building a force where technology absorbs risk and preserves lives, as shown by the recruitment of 10,000 new drone operators in less than a month under Magyar’s leadership, while Russia lacks any real way to compensate for its losses and instead falls back on attrition, improvisation, and tactics pulled from the past.”

    • There’s still a small role for horses in warfare in places where vehicles can’t go (such as Afghanistan, where U.S. special forces employed horses in the mountainous terrain). Ukraine’s notoriously flat and muddy terrain would seem ill-suited for beasts.

    Especially for cavalry charges.

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    Posted in Military, video | 18 Comments »

    Venezuela Fallout Roundup For January 5, 2026

    January 5th, 2026

    Here’s a roundup of Venezuela news since the successful operation to snatch him on Saturday.

  • Will Venezuela’s leaders play ball with President Trump? Signs point to yes.

    At a moment Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro and his wife Flores are set to appear before a New York federal judge on various drug-trafficking and gun-running related charges, his VP and now apparently Interim President Delcy Rodriguez is offering a huge olive branch.

    This is unsurprising given the staunchly socialist, pro-Maduro number two under the ousted president is herself under immense pressure from Washington, and still facing down the barrel of Uncle Sam’s gun – or rather the collective might of the Pentagon’s persisting US naval blockade just off Latin America’s coast.

    he’s quickly expressed her willingness to cooperate with the United States on the future of Venezuela, in a significant shift in tone following Maduro’s Friday into Saturday morning ‘shock’ abduction by US special forces.

    “We consider it a priority to move towards a balanced and respectful relationship between the US and Venezuela,” Rodriguez wrote on Telegram Sunday.

    And more than that, her following words convey willingness of Caracas to bend the knee: “We extend an invitation to the US government to work together on a cooperation agenda, aimed at shared development, within the framework of international law, and to strengthen lasting community coexistence,” she stated.

    Snip.

    President Trump has warned that if authorities in Venezuela fail to cooperate, the United States would carry out a second strike on Venezuela, noting that any decision to deploy ground troops there would depend on how the situation develops and how Venezuela responds.

    So cooperate with the United States in transition to a Democratic, non-Socialist government (and presumably retire to seized mansions with shares of their ill-gotten loot), or get droned. This should be an easy choice…

  • So who’s in charge of Venezuela now? President Trump says we are.

    President Donald Trump said the United States will “run” Venezuela until a peaceful transition of power is executed, following an operation carried out in the Latin American country early Saturday morning that successfully captured President Nicolás Maduro and his wife.

    “We’re going to run this country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition,” Trump said from Mar-a-Lago during a press conference. “We want peace, liberty, and justice for the great people of Venezuela, and that includes many from Venezuela that are now living in the United States and want to go back to their country. It’s their homeland.”

    Asked on Saturday who would be running the country, Trump said that they would be designating people but that, “for a period of time,” it would largely be those standing behind him at the press conference — apparently meaning Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine.

    The United States is in Venezuela, and will remain in the country until a “proper transition can take place,” Trump said.

    General Caine said the attack was known as “Operation Absolute Resolve.” The president clarified that no American lives or military equipment were lost during the operation, and the embargo on Venezuelan oil also remains in full effect.

  • Just how dominant America’s military was in carrying out the operation is covered by this France24 clip:

    • “Only the US can carry out this kind of mission, so far from home at such a scale and with such coordination.”
    • “At least they’re the only country to have proved that they can still do it.”
    • “And now when we hear that jargon from Dan Caine about air and space support providing layering effects. That’s not just firepower, but it’s everything that’s needed to protect those helicopters as they went into that highly defended capital city and got out again. This requires not just the latest in satellite technology, high-tech jamming, stealth drones, but also just months of old school intelligence, fighter jet platforms that have been tried and tested over decades, and of course, sheer numbers just to provide that operational redundancy.”
    • The U.S. also managed to blackout Caracas during the attack.
    • “We can assume that the Space Force obviously provided latest state-of-the-art mapping to their forces, and potentially threw Venezuelan tracking off the scent as well. The Americans would have also used their EA-18G Growler aircraft which we know were involved. They have highly sophisticated jamming technology. The F-35s that were used can also use electronic warfare capabilities and jamming. So that could well have knocked out a lot of the Venezuelan radar.”

    Combined arms are hard, but no one does them as well, or has the sheer reach, of the United States military.

  • More on just how the operation was carried out.

    The public narrative, stitched together from US statements and multiple reports, looks like this: months of planning, a narrow window, a rapid “snatch” mission at a heavily protected residence, and a fast exfiltration under fire.

    Thank to reporting by the New York Times, we know the CIA has been on the ground in Venezuela for some time. They were almost certainly collecting the intelligence necessary for this exact operation.

    US officials described a five-hour operation with more than 150 aircraft launching from roughly 20 bases across the Western Hemisphere, with a helicopter-borne ground force as the core maneuver element.

    If those numbers are accurate, this was not a raid. This was a joint campaign compressed into one night.

    Start with the centerpiece: USS Iwo Jima.

    A quick aside: When I was in high school in Texas, I was a member of the Air Force junior ROTC. We were invited to march in three Mardi Gras parades in New Orleans, and we stayed aboard the USS Iwo Jima while we were there.

    A Wasp-class LHD is a Swiss Army knife that swims. It gives you a flight deck, fuel, maintenance, command spaces, medical capacity, and the ability to surge rotary-wing sorties without asking anyone’s permission to use their runway.

    If you want to push helicopters into a denied or semi-denied area and pull them back out fast, a big-deck amphib is the kind of platform you park nearby.

    That matters because the reported “tip of the spear” was US special operations aviation. Multiple reports point to a large contingent of 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment or SOAR helicopters, also called the Night Stalkers, involved.

    The 160th’s whole personality is flying low, at night, in bad weather, into places that don’t want them there, and bringing your people home anyway.

    For reference, it was the Night Stalkers who played a critical role in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden (Operation Neptune Spear).

    I’ve personally ridden with the Night Stalkers at Fort Campbell while in the Army… They can do some crazy shit with helicopters. I should note that I was not special forces, I was just hitching a ride as a grunt.

    In Venezuela, those helicopters carried US Army Delta Force soldiers along with FBI agents who would perform the actual snatch (or kill if Maduro resisted).

    Some readers might be wondering what the difference is between Delta Force and a group like the US Navy SEALs.

    Well, first of all, SEALs always have a promising career in Hollywood waiting for them after their service… Or a lucrative book deal. Fucking prima donnas.

    Delta are the “quiet professionals”.

    Jokes aside, Delta Force and SEAL teams are both elite Tier 1 special mission units under JSOC, handling complex counterterrorism, hostage rescue, and direct action missions, but differ in their backgrounds and specializations. Delta excels in land-based, covert operations, while SEAL Team Six (DEVGRU) retains maritime roots, training SEALs for sea-based operations.

    SEALs could have easily performed this operation and they may have been involved, but my initial sources are telling me it was Delta.

    Reports from multiple outlets confirm that FBI Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) agents, physically executed the takedown of Nicolás Maduro inside Caracas.

    That pairing, America’s most elite special mission unit (Delta) and its most capable federal law enforcement strike team, is unusual but not unprecedented.

    It signals one important thing: Washington wanted Maduro alive and in custody, not vaporized.

    Delta Force, formally known as 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (Airborne), is the Army’s top-tier counterterrorism and direct action unit. Their bread and butter isn’t messy firefights or holding ground, it’s surgical raids, high-value target snatches, and hostage rescue under conditions that would make most mortals short-circuit.

    If a door needs breaching in a palace defended by an armored brigade, Delta is who goes through it.

    The FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team, meanwhile, exists in that strange intersection between domestic law enforcement and tactical counterterrorism. They’re federal agents first but trained to the same operational standard as their military counterparts.

    When American leadership needs a mission with law enforcement optics like arrest warrants, indictments, legal custody, the HRT adds the thin blue veneer that separates an extradition from an invasion.

    In practice, the operation probably looked like this: Delta cleared the perimeter and neutralized armed resistance. HRT followed close behind, securing the detainees and beginning immediate chain-of-custody procedures to satisfy Justice Department requirements.

    The Night Stalkers with their Delta/FBI contingent were supported by an impressive stack of US military hardware: F-22s, F-35s, F/A-18s, EA-18s, E-2s, B-1 bombers, Sentry, and “numerous” remotely piloted aircraft.

    F-22s are air dominance and high-end insurance. They deter or swat down any manned aerial response, and they do it before the other side’s pilots finish their climb.

    F-35s are the quiet burglars. They sniff emitters, map threats, and cue strikes. If you want to dismantle air defenses quickly, you bring the jet that was built to hunt radars. We currently don’t know how many air defense systems the F-35s removed, but I’m sure we will learn more in the coming days.

    F/A-18s and EA-18Gs are the Navy’s workhorses for strike and electronic attack. The Growler exists to turn an air defense network into a migraine.

    An E-2 Hawkeye is the Navy’s “baby Sentry” airborne battle management. It gives the air picture, deconflicts assets, and helps keep fratricide from becoming the main headline.

    B-1s presence signals: if you escalate, we will flatten the area. They also provide standoff fires and a psychological effect that Venezuelan air defenders will be aware of.

    E-3 Sentry is the quarterback.

    I doubt B-1s were on call, but the presence of the other assets seems logical. (Hat tip: Sarah Hoyt at Instapundit.)

  • Suchomimus has a detailed look at exactly where U.S. forces landed near Maduro’s bunker to capture him, and what Venezuelan military equipment they took out in the process:

    • Among those taken out was a Russian 9K37 Buk SAM system. “Russian air defense systems proving to be just as useless in Venezuela as they are in Ukraine and Russia.”
    • “There were some reports a few weeks back that Russia tried to bulk up Venezuela’s air defense by sending two S300 launchers and two book SAM systems, as well as up to a dozen to SAM systems as well….And all for naught. The American operation was a complete success, with zero American aircraft shot down.”
  • Did Chinese radar also fail?

  • How are ordinary Venezuelans taking Maduro’s capture? They’re celebrating:

  • Heh:

  • Triggernometry adds some background on just how much socialism in Venezuela sucks:

    Plus this: “Nicholas’s Maduros’s nephews were captured by the DA in Haiti with kilos of cocaine. They were brought here. They went to trial. They were declared guilty. And then Biden pardoned them and sent them back.”

    Maybe part of the eventual settlement with Venezuela can include banks records for all regime payments to American politicos…

  • And speaking of Democrats, they’re melting down over Maduro’s capture.

    While Venezuelans hit the streets in wild celebration, popping bottles and celebrating freedom, Democrats in Washington, D.C., clutched their pearls and went into full meltdown mode, accusing Trump of getting us into a war and violating the Constitution.

    “Trump’s unilateral operation last night was an illegal act of war without Congress’s authorization,” Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) claimed.

    “Maduro is a brutal dictator who has oppressed the Venezuelan people, but our constitution does not yield for bad people. If Congress is to survive as an institution, the Republican majority must join us exercising our power to hold this administration accountable for this flagrant violation of the constitution.”

    He wasn’t the only Democrat to claim that Trump acted illegally.

    “Without authorization from Congress, and with the vast majority of Americans opposed to military action, Trump just launched an unjustified, illegal strike on Venezuela,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) claimed.

    “He says we don’t have enough money for healthcare for Americans—but somehow we have unlimited funds for war??”

    Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) also chimed in.

    “President Trump’s unilateral military action to attack another country and seize Maduro — no matter how terrible a dictator he is — is unconstitutional and threatens to drag the U.S. into further conflicts in the region,” she argued.

    “The American people voted for lower costs, not for Trump’s dangerous military adventurism overseas that won’t make the American people safer.”

    Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) similarly accused Trump of getting the United States into an “illegal” war.

    “This war is illegal, it’s embarrassing that we went from the world cop to the world bully in less than one year,” he said.

    But these claims don’t hold water.

    “Trump does not need congressional approval for this type of operation,” explains constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley. “Presidents, including Democratic presidents, have launched lethal attacks regularly against individuals. President Barack Obama killed an American citizen under this ‘kill list’ policy. If Obama can vaporize an American citizen without even a criminal charge, Trump can capture a foreign citizen with a pending criminal indictment without prior congressional approval.”

  • You know who else hates Maduro’s capture? The current leaders of China, Russia and Iran.

    President Trump’s historic intervention in Venezuela offers needed hope to friends of freedom around the world and nervous traders in the oil market.

    A pro-America, free-market government could unleash the country’s oil potential and lower energy prices around the globe. This is bad news for the Kremlin and clerics in Iran, who need high oil prices to perpetuate their regimes.

    For decades, Venezuela’s socialist leaders have plunged their country into a black hole of poverty. Populist leader Hugo Chavez promised his voters unlimited riches. Nicolás Maduro, Chavez’s hand-picked successor, turned those hopes into an economic nightmare.

    Chavez and Maduro seized the infrastructure of American oil firms in their country and ran the national economy into the ground. Under Maduro’s rule, the economic decline in Venezuela has been worse than the Great Depression in the US.

    In the 1930s, America’s GDP declined by 30%.

    Under Maduro, Venezuela’s economy has shrunk by about 75%, and Moscow and Beijing have been circling like vultures.

    Last year, China purchased around 568,000 barrels per day from Venezuela; and Beijing needs Venezuela to fuel its economy. Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin has been keen to keep the Maduro regime as a proxy in the Western Hemisphere.

    The loss of Maduro in Caracas, who has welcomed Russian weapons and support to prop up his wobbly regime, is a major blow to Moscow. It also sends a powerful message to dictators around the world who look to America’s rivals as an alternative to US leadership: When the chips are down, Putin and Xi Jinping can’t help you.

    While Maduro was in power, both Putin and Xi were eager to include oil-rich Venezuela in their “Axis of Aggressors.”

    Trump abruptly changed the geopolitical balance by putting Maduro in handcuffs. He can now put more pressure on Beijing and box out Moscow’s hopes for a sustained partnership with Caracas.

    The clerics in Tehran are also worried. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps needs Venezuela to enable its sanctions-evasion schemes that were in place under Maduro. Worse, the ghost tanker fleet that serviced the IRGC out of Venezuela is now in jeopardy. And with the prospect of increased Venezuelan oil exports, there’s a potential opportunity to put a squeeze on all remaining Iranian oil.

    Funny how often Democrats are on the save wavelength as the dictators in Moscow, Beijing and Tehran when it comes to opposing Donald Trump’s foreign policy successes…

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    Posted in Communism, Crime, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Military, video | 11 Comments »

    Library Additions: Caro, Rand, Yamane Firsts (Two Signed)

    January 4th, 2026

    Two of these were picked up at Half Price Books locations in DFW and the greater Houston area, the other was a gift.

  • Caro, Robert. The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate. Knopf, 2002. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine- dust jacket folded just slightly off-center, with a tiny bit of pull to top of flaps and a trace of edgewear, signed by Caro. The third in Caro’s monumental LBJ series. According to Caro, Johnson is the first Majority Leader to ever actually make the senate work. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Replaces an unsigned copy. Bought for $29.49 at the Half Price Books in Humble. I now have three of the four published volumes signed by Caro (the first two signed on his book tour for Working, which obviously I also have signed). (Previously.)

  • Rand, Ayn (edited by Michael S. Berliner). Letters of Ayn Rand. Dutton, 1995 First edition hardback (“First Printing, June, 1995/1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2”), a Fine- copy with a trace of bend at head in a Fine- dust jacket with small crease to rear top flap tip and a trace of haze rubbing. 682 page collection of Rand letters. Bought for $9.99 from a Half Price Books in Garland.

  • Yamane, David. Gun Curious: A Liberal Professor’s Surprising Journey Inside American’s Gun Culture. Exposit, 2024. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine copy, inscribed by the author: “To Lawrence-/Always/be/curious!” Given to me as a gift by Dwight.

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    Posted in Democrats, Guns | 2 Comments »

    Ding Dong Maduro’s Gone

    January 3rd, 2026

    It’s always a pleasure to wake up to find another communist dictatorship dumped into the dustbin of history.

    President Trump announced early Saturday morning that U.S. forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife during a “large scale strike against Venezuela,” a dramatic conclusion to Trump’s months-long pressure campaign to oust the socialist dictator.

    Shortly after Trump’s announcement, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that Maduro and his wife had been indicted in the Southern District of New York on drug trafficking and firearm charges.

    “They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” Bondi said of Maduro and his wife.

    Venezuelan officials did not immediately release casualty numbers but said that the operation did result in Venezuelan deaths.

    Trump administration officials have long argued that Maduro, who seized power in 2013, is an illegitimate ruler and is responsible for trafficking vast quantities of cocaine into the U.S. He was indicted in 2020 in the U.S. on charges that he was the active leader of a drug cartel known as Cartel de los Soles.

    Despite the surge in socialism among the Democratic Party’s ideological core, it’s long been a bipartisan foreign policy position that Maduro’s regime is illegitimate. The Biden regime considered Maduro’s regime illegitimate, with then Secretary of State Antony Blinken recognizing opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia as the legitimate winner of the 2024 Presidential election, just as the Trump45 Administration and the Organization of American States had previously recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as the legitimate President of Venezuela in 2019.

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s only public comment on the operation consists of a reposted social message, originally published in July of last year, stating that “Maduro is NOT the President of Venezuela and his regime is NOT the legitimate government.”

    The Pentagon has been amassing warships, troops, and air assets in the Caribbean since August and has attacked many small vessels which Pentagon officials insist were carrying drugs, killing at least 115 people. The U.S. has also seized two Venezuelan oil tankers in recent weeks, disrupting the Maduro regime’s main source of revenue.

    Though reports seem light on military details, Suchomimus has video footage of airstrikes hitting military targets in Caracas, noting the presence of Chinook helicopters over the city:

    He suggests that the airstrikes were mainly to take out anti-aircraft emplacements to clear the way for the Chinooks.

    Maduro has been on borrowed time since at least the 2019 uprising against him over food shortages.

    Lifting the dead corpse of socialism off the backs of the Venezuelan people is a huge accomplishment, as is removing another ally from the Russia-China Axis of Assholes. It also shows that the Monroe Doctrine is alive and well.

    Now: How long until district court judge James Boasberg declare that Trump must restore Maduro to power?

    Also: Cuba and Iran should consider themselves on notice…

    (Headline credit to commenter A. Nonymous.)

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    Posted in Communism, Military, video | 25 Comments »

    LinkSwarm for January 2, 2026

    January 2nd, 2026

    Happy New Year! The Somali welfare fraud scandal just grows and grows, Ukraine hits more Russian oil refineries, Iran revolts against the Mullahs, and Austin steels itself for an .0825% budget cut.

    It’s the Friday LinkSwarm!

  • Here’s the original Nick Shirley video exposing child care fraud in Minnesota:

  • The summary:

    A 42-minute bombshell video by journalist Nick Shirley and a local private investigator documents an on-the-ground investigation in Minneapolis that alleges massive, ongoing fraud in government-funded social services. The main focus is on Somali-owned businesses in child daycare, adult/autism care, home healthcare, and non-emergency medical transportation programs that draw from the taxpayer-funded Child Care Assistance Program.

    Shirley claims his team uncovered more than $110 million in questionable payments to Somali-owned businesses on just the first day of their investigation, as part of a broader welfare fraud scandal totaling upwards of $9 billion.

    Shirley and the investigator visited several childcare facilities that had no visible children, toys, or activities during peak hours. Staff could not answer basic questions about rates or licenses. Both were denied entry to the reception areas of these facilities:

    • Quality Learing Center: Licensed for 99 children; received $4 million over two years. Sign misspells “learning” as “learing”; no children visible, doors locked, no playground.
    • Future Leaders Early Learning Center: Licensed for 90 children; received $6.67 million over two years. Facility empty; staff evasive when asked about child numbers.
    • Mako Child Care and Mini Child Care Center (combined): Licensed for 120 children; received $1.3M (2020), $987K (2021), $714K (2022), $1.6M (2025). No children observed.
    • ABC Learning Center: Licensed for 40 children; nearly $3 million over three years. Blacked-out windows, no activity.
    • Sweet Angel Child Care: Licensed for 74 children; $1.26 million in 2025 alone.

    Millions of taxpayer dollars went to one daycare company that could not even spell “learning” correctly…

  • Fallout.

    Agents with Homeland Security Investigations, the primary investigative arm of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, are on the ground in Minneapolis Monday morning, conducting what DHS Secretary Kristi Noem described as a “massive investigation into childcare and other widespread fraud.”

    Snip.

    While allegations of Somali-linked welfare fraud in left-wing-controlled Minnesota have been known for years, the timing of Nick Shirley’s bombshell investigation suggests the federal government needed positive sentiment in the news cycle to begin the action phase on the ground. That’s usually how these types of operations work.

    * * *

    A viral video that has topped 76 million views on X within 48 hours has significantly heightened public scrutiny of multiple Minneapolis daycare centers linked to Somali operators that received millions in state and federal funding despite showing minimal operational activity. The apparent mismatch between allocated taxpayer funds and observable services strengthens a recent report by Christopher F. Rufo, which alleges that Somali-linked fraud in the left-wing-controlled state may involve front companies potentially diverting taxpayer funds to at least one overseas terrorist network.

    Update: And according to FBI Director Kash Patel, the agency will “continue to follow the money” in Minnesota, and their investigation is “ongoing.” (And why did it take Chris Rufo cracking the case before they took action?)

    “To date, the FBI dismantled a $250 million fraud scheme that stole federal food aid meant for vulnerable children during COVID. The investigation exposed sham vendors, shell companies, and large-scale money laundering tied to the Feeding Our Future network,” Patel said on Sunday.

    Meanwhile, the Democratic Party and its PR machine across left-wing corporate media outlets, including CBS, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, 60 Minutes, The New York Times, and the Associated Press, have largely remained silent on citizen journalist Nick Shirley’s investigation.

    And the “Quality Learing Center” has been shut down…

  • And Director Blue offers up a handy infographic covering the fraud.

  • Moreover, it’s obvious that the fraudulent child care facilities were always fraudulent, and yet the checks kept coming.

    Daycare centers with millions of dollars in government funding and no children inside, and neighbors who say they’ve never seen children going in or coming out. This is a slam dunk, and I couldn’t possibly love it any more.

    He names the daycare centers he visits, so you can start to find out how much the State of Minnesota knows about the scam without getting off the couch. Daycare centers are licensed and inspected: government inspectors regularly show up with a clipboard and look around. So go look at the record of inspections for Quality Learning Center of Minneapolis, the one in the video with the misspelled sign over the door. The whole thing instantly becomes darkly funny, because there’s no way anyone has ever believed that this is a functioning daycare center running at anything near its declared and funded capacity of 99 children.

    He then supplied a list of 29 code violations just from May of 2022. And there are lists of violations from 12 other visits.

    This inspection implies that there have been some children on site at some point, possibly family, but the inspector couldn’t identify anyone in the building: “The program did not have a file for each child,” and, “The program did not have a file for each staff person.” No training, no equipment, no records. This place has never been a functioning daycare center. No one has ever believed that it was. But the government checks kept coming, and government inspectors kept coming around and playing make-believe.

    Spending in Minnesota has risen 19% per person since 2019.

    As government does more and spends more, government does less. Explosive budget growth leads to declining effectiveness and quality. Low-tax red states pave the roads. High-tax blue states slop cash around to friends. Progressive elected officials view the task of governance as a series of costumed performances.

    They’re not trying to run anything. They intend to make faces for the camera and steer money to their friends, the end.

  • And it’s not just Minnesota!

    The “Nick Shirley Effect” has begun, with Muckraker founder Anthony Rubin on the ground in Columbus, Ohio, home to the second-largest Somali community in the U.S., investigating daycare centers. This development comes less than a day after Ohio attorney Mehek Cooke said federal investigators are examining allegations that elements within Ohio’s Somali community defrauded millions of dollars from the state’s Medicaid system.

    “The first Somali-affiliated daycare facility that we knocked on after landing in Columbus, Ohio, today did not answer,” Rubin wrote on X, alongside a video showing the daycare center, Great Minds Learning Academy.

    Rubin continued, “A neighbor across the street told us, ‘I’ve never seen anybody come out of the building or go into the building.'”

    On Sunday, Breitbart News published an interview with Ohio attorney Mehek Cooke, who alleges that members of the Somali community in Ohio have defrauded millions of dollars from the state’s Medicaid program. She said that authorities at the highest levels are investigating “what is happening in Ohio.”

    Since Ohio is a red state, at least there’s a chance that officials there will actually investigate the fraud…

  • “Could Democrat Tim Walz Face Criminal Charges Over Growing Somali Fraud Scandal in Minnesota?”

    The growing social services scandal in Minnesota — now reckoned to amount to billions of dollars — raises the possibility that the state’s two term Democratic governor, Tim Walz, could face criminal jeopardy.

    Congressman James Comer, who leads the House Oversight Committee, is widening his probe into the scandal, which is centered on Minnesota’s Somali community. This week he took to Fox News to declare that “The walls are caving in on Tim Walz,” who was Vice President Kamala Harris’s choice as a running mate in the 2024 election. They lost to President Trump.

    While regular citizens are not usually required to report crimes, public officials like Mr. Walz are usually held to a higher standard. They are generally seen to have a fiduciary duty to protect state assets. Actively concealing a felony could amount to the crime of “misprision of felony” or, alternatively to obstruction of justice. A failure to report could —theoretically — even lead to a charge of conspiracy, with the silent party accused of being an accessory to a crime.

    Mr. Walz has a national reputation due to his service as Ms. Harris’s running mate, and has become a lightning rod for criticism of how such staggering fraud could have gone unnoticed for years until two New York-based publications, the New York Post and City Journal, an outlet of the conservative Manhattan Institute, published investigations.

    Earlier this month, Mr. Walz sought to deflect negative attention from the Somali community, telling reporters that society “should be holding a lot of white men accountable for the crimes that they have committed,” rather than focusing on one ethnic group. Mr. Walz has also said he is accountable, as the fraud occurred “on my watch.” He added that “I am accountable for this, and more importantly, I am the one that will fix it.”

    Mr. Comer announced his intention to invite whistleblowers to testify under oath and subpoena banks that operate out of Minnesota. He added that “hopefully we’ll have some criminal referrals at the end of this investigation.” Once a criminal referral is issued by Congress, it is up to the Department of Justice — led by Attorney General Pam Bondi — to seek indictments, perhaps of the governor himself.

    Snip.

    Mr. Comer, in a statement last week, declared that “The House Oversight Committee is aggressively investigating widespread fraud in Minnesota’s social services programs and the failures of Governor Walz’s administration that allowed taxpayer funds to be funneled to terrorist networks responsible for the deaths of Americans.” The reference is to allegations that stolen money made its way to the coffers of Al-Shabaab, a Somali terrorist group.

    Longtime critics of Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party – what the state’s Democratic Party is known as — accuse Mr. Walz of looking the other way at misconduct in the Somali community since they wield significant political power as a voting bloc.

    Snip.

    Prosecutors claim that more than half of the $18 billion in taxpayer funding spent on 14 Medicaid programs in Minnesota since 2018 was stolen. More than 90 people have been charged, the vast majority of Somali ancestry. The lead federal prosecutor, John Thompson, said in a statement earlier this month that “What we see in Minnesota is not a handful of bad actors committing crimes. It is staggering industrial-scale fraud.”

    The question, of course, is whether Walz is merely grossly incompetent, or an active participant in the fraud and the cover-up.

  • And why do Somalis keep getting away with all this fraud? Because Social Justice infected Democrat judges let them.

    Meet three AWFL (Affluent, white, female, liberal) Minnesota judges who are making headlines for the most predictable reasons imaginable.

    These ladies have recently dismissed cases against Somali fraudsters in Minnesota, even overturning jury verdicts, allowing the immigrants stealing millions from Americans and Minnesotans to walk free.

    Each of these judges found small, technical prosecutorial errors, resulting in the cases being tossed.

    Snip.

    Here’s local reporting in Minnesota on the case where Judge Sarah West tossed the jury verdict:

    Jurors who were chosen for the case were shocked by West’s decision.
    ‘I am shocked,’ jury foreperson Ben Walfoort told KARE 11 News.
    ‘I’m shocked based off of all of the evidence that was presented to us and the obvious guilt that we saw based off of the said evidence.’

    When the one case was tossed, these other lady judges decided to toss the related cases.

    More Minnesota reporting:

    … Judge West’s decision stems from a strict review standard for cases that involve mostly circumstantial evidence. A jury is not asked to consider that standard, but appeals courts do, and Young said in this case, Judge West based her decision on it …
    Judges analyzing these cases look not just at proof beyond reasonable doubt but whether guilt is the ‘only reasonable hypothesis.’
    ‘In other words, if there is another reasonable explanation, that could be the reasonable doubt,’ Young said.

    So Somali fraudsters haven’t been convicted because Democrat judges don’t want the fraudsters convicted.

  • In Iran, the people have launched massive protests against the theocratic government in the wake of the currency collapsing. “Protests come as the country deals with economic instability and declining living standards. Not to mention, citizens might just want to be a regular country instead of being the world’s terrorist state.”

    In the videos, protesters chant anti-regime slogans and confront security forces in crowded streets.
    Footage included scenes of screaming and apparent gunfire, with demonstrators throwing objects and shouting, ‘Death to the Dictator’ and ‘Proud Arakis, support, support.’

    What proud Arakis might look like

    Additional footage shared by MEK shows crowds chanting, ‘Death to Khamenei!’ and ‘Shame on you, shame on you!’ as anger appears to spread across the country, with a particular focus on bazaar-led protests in Tehran.

    The four days of protest have left at least one Revolutionary Guard member dead and the country was at a “near standstill” for about a day due to the unrest. In the city of Fasa, protesters stormed the governor’s office, forcing the Revolutionary Guard to open fire on the insurrectionists. The military then flew helicopters over the city to intimidate the protesters.

  • Moreover, President Trump is threatening dire consequences if the regime starts killing protestors.

    President Donald Trump warned early Friday that the U.S. would intervene if Iran started killing protesters.

    Writing on Truth Social, the president said if Iran shoots and “violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue.”

    “We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” Trump said.

    Trump’s warning comes as demonstrations triggered by Iran’s deteriorating economy expand beyond the capital and raise concerns about a potential heavy-handed crackdown by security forces. At least seven people — including protesters and members of Iran’s security services — have been reported killed during clashes, according to international reporting.

    (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.) It’s possible that hostile regimes in Iran, Venezuela and Cuba could all be swept aside before the end of 2026.

  • This week Ukraine hit the Syzran oil refinery some 800km from Ukraine.
  • Ukraine hit the Tuapse oil refinery in Krasnodar with drones.
  • They also hit the Ilsky oil refinery in Krasnodar, and a Kaluga oil depot.
  • They hit two oil refineries in Samara, Novokuybyshevsk and Kuibyshevsk.
  • They also hit a marine drone base in Crimea. So yes, Russia evidently has its own marine drones.
  • Ukraine hit a Shahed base at Donetsk Airport with at least 15 drones.
  • They also hit an ammo depot in Donetsk.
  • Moscow suburb blacks out after Ukrainian drone strike on power sub-station.
  • Australia donated a number of M1A1 tanks to Ukraine, and they’ve already arrived and entered key fights.
  • Massachusetts: “When we said ‘life without parole’ we didn’t mean it.”

    The Massachusetts Parole Board has granted parole to 39 individuals convicted of murder who were originally sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, following a landmark state Supreme Judicial Court decision that upended sentencing practices for a specific group of offenders.

    Under the 2024 Commonwealth v. Mattis ruling, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held that it is unconstitutional to impose life-without-parole sentences on people who were 18, 19 or 20 years old at the time of their offense. The court defined those in that age range as “emerging adults.”

    If you’re old enough to vote, you should be old enough to hold accountable for murder.

    As a result, individuals who previously had no opportunity for release were made eligible for parole hearings. In recent months, the Parole Board has processed dozens of cases under that framework, ultimately approving the release of 39 murder convicts while denying parole to a dozen others.

    Murderers seem to be one of the social justice Democrats most respected constituencies.

  • “Italy arrests 9 over alleged Hamas funding through charities.”

    Italian prosecutors ​said on Saturday they ‌had arrested nine people on suspicion of financing Hamas ‌through charities based in Italy, in an operation coordinated by anti-mafia and anti-terrorism units.

    The suspects are accused of “belonging to and having financed” the Palestinian group – classified as a terrorist group by Israel, its top ally the U.S. and ‍the European Union – prosecutors in the northern Italian city of Genoa said in a statement.

    Those arrested allegedly diverted to Hamas-linked entities around 7 million euros ($8.2 million) raised over the last two years for ostensibly humanitarian purposes, prosecutors said. Police ​seized assets worth more than 8 million euros.

    In ​another statement, police said officers had seized 1.08 million euros in cash found in the offices of a pro-Palestinian charity and in suspects’ homes, as well as material supportive of Hamas, Israel’s foe in the ‍two-year Gaza war.

    At this point it’s safer to just assume that every “Islamic charity” is funding terrorism.

  • Are you eating slave sushi? “Feds say Chinese brothers ran sushi slavery ring in Arizona that forced illegal aliens to work 7 days a week.” “Court documents allege Yung Lau, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from China, along with two managers, including his brother, kept dozens of undocumented immigrants in four “stash houses” and forced them to work at restaurants seven days a week with no days off. The restaurants involved were Sakura Sushi in Gilbert, Mesa, and Phoenix and Akita Sushi in Scottsdale.”
  • “Thieves drill into a German bank vault and steal tens of millions of euros’ worth of property.” In this age of sophisticated electronic theft, it’s pretty old school to break into a bank using a big honking drill…
  • Critical Drinker’s best and worst of 2025.
  • With the failure of odious Proposition Q, the City of Austin is actually having to cut their budget by a tiny amount.

    Austin’s municipal government is poised to cut its social services budget by approximately $5.3 million.

    According to a memo from City Manager T.C. Broadnax, the city plans to “reallocate” social services contracts from a series of city departments. Affected departments include economic development, homeless strategies and operations, Austin community court, and public health.

    The $5.277 million in proposed reductions represents a .0825 percent decrease from the record-setting $6.3 billion budget the city council passed in August.

    This curtailment follows the landslide defeat of Proposition Q last November. Had it passed, Proposition Q would have represented a record-setting tax increase.

    The council had previously approved $95 million in emergency budget cuts following Prop Q’s defeat.

    The reductions come as a coalition of citizen groups has launched a petition drive to amend the city charter, requiring an independent audit of municipal finances before any future tax increases. If successful, this petition drive would place the proposed charter amendment on the May 2026 ballot.

    A .0825% decrease isn’t enough. All the social justice items in Austin’s budget need to be removed with a chainsaw.

  • And speaking of Austin, groundbreaking on a planned downtown condo hes been delayed until market conditions improve.
  • Part 2 of the Professor of Rock’s interview with Rick Beato.
  • Matt of Diesel Creek once again exposes his junk to the camera. If you ever thought you’ve just got too many projects going on, here’s the ultimate “hold my beer.”
  • “Walz Announces $8 Billion Grant To Somali Company To Investigate Fraud.”
  • “The Babylon Bee Would Like To Inform Tim Walz We Are Now A Functioning Daycare In Minnesota.”
  • “Man Achieves American Dream Of Working Hard And Paying Taxes For 50 Years So He Can Fund Fraudulent Somali Daycares.”
  • Evergreen: “Perfect Day Ruined By People.”
  • Funniest pet videos of 2025.

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





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    Posted in Austin, Crime, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Jihad, Media Watch, Military, Social Justice Warriors, Texas, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | 7 Comments »

    Is Dan Crenshaw Pussing Out On Shawn Ryan?

    January 1st, 2026

    When last we checked on this story, Texas Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw was threatening to sue YouTuber Shawn Ryan over comments Ryan had made about Crenshaw, and Crenshaw had agreed to come on Ryan’s show to address the issues.

    Guess what? Rep. Crenshaw appears to be pussing out by refusing to sign Ryan’s standard release form.

  • “I need to talk to you about the Dan Crenshaw situation. As many of you know, he sent me a cease and desist, threatened to sue me. I made a rebuttal. I invited him on the show. Then he challenged me. I accepted. I said, ‘Okay, perfect. January 2nd to come on this show, you have to sign a release form.'”
  • “Everybody that’s been on this show since around episode 10 has signed a release form. President Trump, J.D. Vance, Tulsi Gabbard, Joe Kent, lots of very important people, much more important than a congressman have signed that release form. Everybody that has been interviewed in the new studio has signed the exact same release form.”
  • “Dan and his attorneys, they don’t want to sign the release form. They want special concessions. We sent them that release form on December 26th. They then sent a bunch of red lines. We said we’re not making any special circumstances or modifying our release form for the congressman. I’m sorry, that’s not going to happen.”
  • “But we will make some special concessions for his protection on another document and send that over.” You know, I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that Rep. Crenshaw doesn’t need more protections than Donald Trump.
  • “Well, they have yet to sign either one of those documents. I have to have those documents signed to interview somebody. Everybody’s done it.”
  • “I talked to my attorney. I said, ‘I think this is what’s going to happen. They are going to wait until close of business on New Year’s Eve to send some type of a communication in hopes that we don’t get it because who the hell is checking their email at 10:00 at night on New Year’s Eve?’ Well, guess what?”
  • “We get an email at 10 o’clock at night from Dan’s campaign manager on New Year’s Eve, where the next day is a national holiday and nobody’s behind their decks. And the next day it’s game day. It’s interview time.”
  • “They said, ‘We’re booked. We’ve booked the hotel that you’ve recommended. Will somebody be there to pick us up?’ There was no mention of the release forms.”
  • “So, here’s what’s going to happen. They’re going to come here and they’re going to make a big stink on how I didn’t interview them and how I was scared to interview them or whatever, but they’re hiding behind the paperwork.”
  • “Dan, I am now redacting my invitation for you to come on my show. I gave you the opportunity to be a man. You didn’t take it.”
  • “I gave you the opportunity to speak to five and a half million people and prove to them that you are not insider trading. That’s a fucking gift. I might add, a gift that not very many people get, and you turned it down.”
  • “I’m not going to interview you now. I don’t play games.”
  • “This is what you do, Dan. You’re a bully. You bully people into submission. Anybody that scrutinizes you, you send them a nasty gram and you threaten to sue them. And that works. Unfortunately, it didn’t work on me.”

    • Assuming all this is true (and right now I have no reason not to believe it’s true), Rep. Crenshaw comes off looking even worse than he did before threatening to sue Ryan.

    If Crenshaw doesn’t have anything to hide about his finances, he’s sure acting like someone who has something to hide…

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    Posted in Republicans, Texas, video | 2 Comments »

    Spielberg Schindler’s List Foundation Now Funds Anti-Israel Groups

    January 1st, 2026

    William F. Buckley once observed that any group that wasn’t explicitly conservative would inevitably move left over time. A corollary seems true of Jewish foundations as well, as Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List-funded Righteous Persons Foundation is now funding anti-Israel organizations.

    That the foundation established by Stephen Spielberg using funds from his Holocaust drama, “Schindler’s List,” has become a cash well for progressive groups that vilify Israel is a shonda. The charity was born from Mr. Spielberg’s conviction that the movie’s profits — “blood money” he called them — belonged not to him but to the people whose murder he chronicled on film. He committed $150 million to the cause.

    The so-called Righteous Persons Foundation started out well enough. It adopted a mission “to recover and make accessible Jewish stories from the past, and to help build a contemporary Jewish community predicated on meaning, joy, and a responsibility to help repair our world.” It funneled money to supporting Holocaust survivors, preserving testimony, and ensuring the lessons of the Nazi’s genocide of the Jews would not be forgotten.

    Yet, as our Novi Zhukovsky reports, its financing of such worthy groups began to dwindle — then eventually ran dry. The last donation to the United States Holocaust Museum came in 2019. The same year marked its final gift to a legal fund, Bet Tzedek, that provides pro bono legal services to Holocaust survivors. Since 2020, the foundation has funneled a modest $125,000 to Holocaust projects, according to calculations by Front Page magazine.

    Where did the money go instead? To groups like T’ruah. It identifies itself as a rabbinic human rights organization that has received some $650,000 from the foundation to organize street blockades in protest of the war in Gaza and to accuse Israel of intentionally starving Palestinians — even after Israel adopted 10-hour daily pauses to facilitate humanitarian aid. Its chief executive called Israel’s beeper attack on Hezbollah a “war crime.”

    Then there’s Bend the Arc, which collected $1.2 million while blaming American support for Israel for driving antisemitism at home and while endorsing in New York a mayoral candidate who refuses to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. Another $900,000 went to Jews United for Justice, an opponent to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, which recognizes anti-Zionism’s link to Jew hatred.

    It’s hard to believe that Mr. Spielberg, a Jew himself, expects to move the needle in the ways of preventing another Holocaust by demonizing Israel and undermining the Jewish people’s connection to the state.

    Spielberg should overhaul and restaff his foundation to avoid funding anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli activity.

    What good is a Jewish foundation if it caves to the institutional antisemitic bias of the radical social justice left?

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    Posted in Social Justice Warriors, Waste and Fraud | 9 Comments »

    Railroaded APD Officer’s Conviction Overturned

    December 31st, 2025

    Remember Christopher Taylor, the APD officer who Soros-backed Travis County DA Jose Garza literally campaigned on indicting over his shooting of a drug-addicted career criminal? Well, Taylor’s conviction in another Garza-prosecuted shooting was just overturned, and he was acquitted of all charges.

    Former Austin police officer Christopher Taylor has been acquitted of all charges after his conviction was overturned by an appeals court.

    A jury convicted Taylor of deadly conduct in Oct. 2024 after three days of deliberations. He was charged in connection with the officer-involved shooting of Dr. Mauris DeSilva in 2019.

    Taylor was sentenced to two years in prison and was originally not determined eligible for probation.

    Austin Police Association President Michael Bullock released a statement about the acquittal, saying:

    “The Austin Police Association was notified this evening that Texas’ 7th Court of Appeals has REVERSED and ACQUITTED the wrongful conviction against Austin Police Department Detective Christopher Taylor. This once again shows that District Attorney Jose Garza manipulated the criminal justice system by repeatedly trying cases against Detective Taylor, until the jury pool was so tainted, that an impartial decision could not be made. Thankfully, the 7th Court of Appeals saw through this and did their part by reversing and acquitting Detective Taylor. They showed that Travis County and District Attorney Garza cannot create their own version of justice deviating from and manipulating state law, while also ignoring standard police practices.

    Governor Greg Abbott, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, and the Texas Legislature have done their part by remedying state law so that no peace officer can be charged under the Deadly Conduct statute that was used against Detective Taylor and the nearly 30 other officers that District Attorney Garza has gone after since taking office.

    We call upon District Attorney Garza to immediately drop all remaining charges against Austin Police Officers, related to his political attacks. The men and women of the Austin Police Department must be allowed do the job they signed up for, protecting the citizens of Austin and the State of Texas, without fear of these countless political prosecutions. The Austin Police Association will always stand alongside Detective Taylor and every officer who wears the uniform of the Austin Police Department. With this ruling, the madness must end, and common sense must prevail.”

    Snip.

    The misguided nature of this case is apparent in the District Attorney’s Office dismissal of charges against co-defendant Officer Karl Krycia. This action underscores that the prosecution was not about seeking justice but rather DA Garza exploiting tragic events for political gain at the direction of the Wren Collective. Before even taking office, Garza publicly vowed to target Detective Taylor.

    The Wren Collective is a radical leftwing social justice organization that never met a minority criminal it didn’t love, nor a cop it didn’t hate.

    On July 31, 2019, Austin Police received several 911 calls around 5 p.m. from the Spring Condominiums in downtown Austin about a man having a mental health crisis holding a knife to his own throat.

    Neighbors reported a man banging loudly on emergency doors who sounded like he was having a mental breakdown.

    One officer arrived and was told by staff that the man was a resident and had been holding a knife to his throat while walking around. The officer went inside, got on the elevator and went to the fifth floor gym.

    Austin police at the time of the incident said they were told he was waving his knife at the camera, which sped up their need to respond. Four officers and a security guard got on the elevator and when they arrived at the fifth floor, the officers’ body cameras caught the rest of the incident.

    APD says the officers began giving the man commands and he turned around. The man is seen on body camera footage pulling the knife down towards his side and walking towards the officers. As he took a step or two toward them, two of the officers fired their guns and one fired a Taser.

    Naturally, Garza is going to appeal, because he hates APD officers far more than the criminals he seems determined to keep out on the streets.

    (Hat tip: Dwight.)

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    Posted in Austin, Crime, Democrats, Social Justice Warriors | 2 Comments »

    Musk Backs Wilco GOP Chair In Tranny Bathroom Wars

    December 30th, 2025

    Via Holly Hansen in The Texan News comes a culture war skirmish that checks off a lot of this blog’s interest boxes: Williamson County GOP Chair Michelle Evans had her phone seized documenting a man using the women’s restroom, and now she has a powerful ally in the war against transsexual madness.

    Social media giant X announced it will provide legal backing to a Texas Republican activist who faces felony prosecution for posting a photo of an alleged biological male in the women’s restroom at the Texas Capitol.

    In the midst of a 2023 debate at the Capitol over legislation prohibiting gender modification procedures for minor children, Williamson County Republican Party Chair Michelle Evans posted the photo of a clothed person at a public bathroom sink on X in May 2023 and wrote that she had to tell the “man to stop using the women’s restroom at the Capitol.”

    Hours later, police detained Evans and confiscated her phone, and Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza launched a criminal investigation into whether Evans had violated a state law prohibiting taking photographs or videos of individuals in bathrooms or changing rooms.

    Although Garza has not indicted Evans, the Travis County District Attorney’s Office (TCDAO) still has possession of her phone.

    “I just want my phone back,” Evans told The Texan. “I’m not worried about anything in particular, but I’m not going to give up anytime soon. Garza can continue to investigate me, charge me. But what I can do is make sure that it’s on the record that this was a safety issue for the women that were in that bathroom.”

    Remember that Texas finally passed the The Texas Women’s Privacy Act, barring men from women’s bathrooms this year, and the law took effect December 4th. If Evans were to take such a picture today, she would be documenting evidence of a crime.

    Garza, of course, is Travis County’s Soros-backed lefty DA, who seems far more interested in defending men in women’s bathrooms than protecting Austinites from criminals.

    Evans has maintained that the person in the photograph is a biological male who was in the Capitol to testify on Senate Bill (SB) 14, and she told The Texan that said person had publicly announced as a candidate for Texas House District 64.

    Several weeks after the confiscation of her phone, Evans filed a federal lawsuit accusing Garza of violating her free speech rights, but a lower court rejected Evans’ request for an injunction. Earlier this month, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a split opinion on Evans’ appeal of the case with two justices affirming the lower court’s decision.

    The majority noted that Garza had not yet filed charges against Evans and thus the lower court had appropriately applied a legal doctrine that limits federal intervention in state matters, but in his dissent, Justice Andrew Oldham argued that the court had created a “Catch-22” for Evans that would prevent her from seeking an injunction at all, and that the mere threat of criminal charges had already created an injury and inhibited her First Amendment right to free speech.

    “Evans has undoubtedly suffered an irreparable injury,” wrote Oldham. “While Garza decides whether to charge Evans, her First Amendment rights hang in ‘limbo.’ She must ‘self-censor’ from further publishing the purportedly illegal photograph.”

    In support of Evans’ right to injunctive relief, Oldham asserted that “the loss of First Amendment freedoms from Day 1 is an irreparable injury.”

    He also noted that the Texas law prohibited collection of images with the “intent to invade the privacy of a person,” but that Evans’ posted photograph was of a fully clothed person at a sink, not in an “intimate” setting.

    “Insofar as we have to guess, it should be obvious that DA Garza will not be able to prove that Evans had the ‘intent to invade the privacy of the other person,’” wrote Oldham.

    Evans is now asking for an en banc consideration of her case that would allow all 17 justices of the 5th Circuit Court to weigh in.

    She will have additional legal representation provided by X itself.

    X owner Elon Musk, a self-described “free-speech absolutist,” purchased the social media platform in 2022, citing many users’ complaints of censored content as one of his motivations.

    True, but an even more basic reason for Musk’s intervention is social justice sorts turning his son Xavier trans. This was probably the key moment in which Musk started his journey from vaguely libertarian leftist to a Trump ally.

    Evans said she has not communicated with Musk himself but that members of X’s legal team contacted her earlier this month.

    X’s Global Government Affairs released a statement Monday morning in support of Evans.

    Evans has a strong case on First Amendment ground, but an even stronger case in the court of public opinion, where insisting men can use a women’s restroom just because they’ve declared they’re women remains deeply unpopular. Tranny bathroom mandates were an early sign of just how far Democrats were willing to go to impose radical social justice on the nation under Obama, and have proven widely loathed everywhere they’ve been imposed. When put to a vote in Houston (hardly a deep red city), tranny bathrooms went down in flames.

    Bill by bill, lawsuit by lawsuit, the transsexual madness social justice-infected Democrats tried to inflict on America is being rolled back, and women across the across the country can breathe a sign of relief.

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    Posted in Austin, Democrats, Republicans, Social Justice Warriors, Texas | 1 Comment »

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