Since the Constitution talks about having a census every ten years, some have interpreted this to mean redistricting can only occur every ten years, making Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s mid-decade redistricting plan unconstitutional. You know who says that idea is bunk? The United States Supreme Court.
Texas finds itself once again embroiled in a familiar political storm. Republicans control both chambers of the legislature and the governor’s office and are considering revising the state’s congressional map before the next census.
Democrats and their allies in the press are portraying the move as a threat to democracy. “Mid-decade redistricting!” they cry. “Republican partisans drawing Republican seats is an outrage!”
But Republicans are simply engaging in the same political hardball Democrats themselves played for decades when they were in charge, and the courts have repeatedly stated that the practice is perfectly legal.
In 2003, the Republicans gained the majority in the Texas Legislature after 150 years of Democrat rule and Democrat favored district lines. Texas Democrats had redrawn district lines in 2001 to send as many Democrats to Congress as they could. When the legislature flipped in 2003, the Republican majority wanted to draw a new congressional map that would send more Republicans.
To thwart the will of the legislature, more than 50 Democratic House members fled across state lines to Oklahoma to prevent a quorum and stop the redistricting bill from advancing. Their absence stalled the process for weeks and forced Gov. Rick Perry to call multiple special sessions.
The spectacle drew national media attention but ultimately failed. The Democrats returned, the map passed, and, of course, they sued.
When that case, LULAC v. Perry, reached the Supreme Court in 2006, the justices addressed the core question directly: Is there anything in the Constitution that limits redistricting to once per decade? The answer was a resounding no.
The Court concluded that “nothing in the Constitution prevents a state from redrawing its congressional districts more than once during a census cycle,” so long as it complies with equal population and federal voting rights requirements.
The ruling didn’t just settle the Texas dispute but confirmed that mid-decade redistricting is a legitimate tool available to any legislature with the votes to pass a new plan.
Snip.
“Redistricting is an inescapably political enterprise,” the Justices wrote, “which federal courts should make every effort not to pre-empt.” In Abbott v. Perez (2018), the Court went further to say that redistricting is a “local function” and “federal-court review of districting legislation represents a serious intrusion on the most vital of local functions.”
And to reinforce the right of legislatures to complete their constitutional duties, the Supreme Court in 2024 declared the obvious: the good faith of state legislatures “must be presumed” in matters of redistricting.
In Alexander v. S.C. State Conference of the NAACP, the Court ruled that state legislators have taken the same oath of office to uphold the Constitution as judges and every other office holder and have a “strong presumption” of acting on good faith. If the redistricting plans do not involve a constitutional or statutory defect, the lower courts must let the plan stand unaltered.
If that’s not enough for anxious Democrats, the Court in Rucho v. Common Cause (2019) held that state legislatures may redistrict on the basis of partisanship. Partisanship does not involve constitutional issues for the courts to review.
So that’s that.
For over two centuries, legislatures have gerrymandered congressional districts for partisan advantage. Indeed, the word “Gerrymander” dates all the way back to 1812, named after a district created under the leadership of Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry.
For the overwhelming majority of that two century history, Democrats have been the ones wielding the gerrymander pen, reaping the partisan advantage of lopsided representation. Now that Republicans are finally in a position to do the same, they want to cry foul.
In this short video from Tim Pool’s Timcast, he and others float two possible theories of fraudulent practices from the left that have a certain plausibility to them.
Theory the first: Democrats have been using taxpayer money to prop-up leftwing media outlets. “I genuinely believe USAID was funneling money to prop up media and big channels, like Colbert getting cancelled and whatever.”
“I think, directly or indirectly, the US government, maybe it was USAID or otherwise, was funding sock puppet accounts, bot accounts, online to prop up liberal personalities to make it look like they were getting traffic.”
“Because we saw this when Elon announced he was buying Twitter. All these liberals. You guys remember this? They lost hundreds of thousands to millions of followers.”
“When Elon won the court battle and he was going to buy, it was like someone at Twitter said, ‘Quick, burn everything.’ And they started eliminating millions of bot accounts.”
Theory the Second: Blue states have been carrying out massive census fraud to boost their House and Electoral College counts. “What if the new census finds that, we didn’t track this, but there’s census fraud? What if Democrats in California were increasing the amount of people in the census count because nobody checks?”
“The illegal immigrant argument might actually just be a red herring. The real issue might be that Democrats have been just claiming more people live there than they [have].”
“What if it comes out it’s like actually they they added 3 to 4 million to the number, giving themselves extra seats without actually anyone living there?”
“How many times have we or anyone else talked about census fraud? Ne-ver. Never.”
“It’s not about illegal immigrants. You know, they do ballot harvesting. We watch them do it and people get paid to collect ballots. Why would I not believe at the same time they’re saying, you know, that census form you got filled out? They said three people live there. Make it six.”
“It’s like when DOGE found all those dead people getting benefits, like 190 year old guy getting benefits still, people who vote still.”
“Consider how much that warps your understanding of American politics and the supposed competitiveness.” Maybe the supposed 50/50 competitiveness of American politics is actually an artifact of that fraud.
Plus a discussion of how Trump bringing the National Guard to the highest crime cities (which are also blue cities) not only flexes his political power, but let’s ICE do it’s job.
I’m not sure how much direct evidence their is for either theory, but both have a lot of explanatory power. If Democrats were going to prop up the legacy media with taxpayer money, you’d think they’d do a better job of it, as it’s been in collapse for, what, a decade now? Maybe they just don’t have enough of “their” people working for Nielsen. But evidently not even taxpayer money can make Jen Psaki popular.
As for the census, certainly numerous other federal agencies have been corrupted, so it certainly doesn’t seem beyond the realm of possibility. Surely Slow Joe’s corruption couldn’t have been limited to USAID, immigration authorities and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
What do you think? What other government agencies have been corrupted that we haven’t even started looking at? Leave your comments below.
There’s been a lot of media articles that the runaway Texas House Democrats are going to cave, but it hasn’t happened yet. The Trump Administration continues to rack up success after success at the border, Ukraine hits more Russian oil facilities, once again Adam is full of Schiff, more illegal alien sex traffickers nabbed, and China finally picks on someone its own size.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has said that the U.S.-Mexico border is experiencing “all-time lows” of illegal immigrant crossings after President Donald Trump’s administration ramped up efforts to secure the southern border.
On August 1, DHS released preliminary numbers for the month of July that report to show nationwide encounters are 90 percent lower than during the Biden administration, in addition to the “lowest single-day apprehensions in history” — on July 20, DHS reported just 88 apprehensions at the southern border and 116 across the country.
“History made, again. The numbers don’t lie — this is the most secure the border has ever been,” said DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. “President Trump didn’t just manage the crisis — he obliterated it. No more excuses. No more releases. We’ve put the cartels on defense and taken our border back.”
The numbers released from DHS reflect previous assessments made by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which said in July that nationwide apprehensions have hit a “new historic low” following a “dramatic shift” in policy focus since President Donald Trump entered office.
According to the Migration Policy Institute, encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border have dropped to levels not observed since the 1960s.
Progress. “Trump Purges 275,000 Illegal Aliens From Social Security.”
Months after President Trump signed a Presidential Memorandum targeting illegal aliens and other ineligible individuals from collecting Social Security Act benefits, the president told reporters at the White House on Thursday afternoon that nearly 300,000 illegals have been removed from the government program that provides financial benefits to eligible citizen taxpayers and/or lawful permanent residents (green card holders).
“Last month, I signed the One Big Beautiful Bill, and allowed No Tax on Social Security for our great seniors … and to protect our benefits, we’ve already kicked nearly 275,000 illegal aliens off of the Social Security system,” Trump told reporters.
Recall that on April 15, the president signed a memorandum directing federal agencies to take immediate action to purge the Social Security system of illegals and fraudsters.
As Maureen Steele via American Greatness elegantly noted earlier this year, “We don’t need an executive order to bar illegals from Social Security – we need a government that obeys the law.”
Let’s not forget that the Biden-Harris regime facilitated the invasion of illegal aliens, allowing millions of these third-worlders to siphon dollars and essential services from citizens and lawful permanent residents – in what some have described as a classic Cloward–Piven strategy.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform estimated that taxpayers spend more than $182 billion annually to cover costs associated with 20 million illegal aliens and their children, which includes $66.4 billion in Federal expenses plus an additional $115.6 billion in state and local expenses.
The free lunch for the Democratic Party’s illegals is coming to an end.
A Democratic whistleblower told the FBI that Senator Adam Schiff authorized the leak of classified information related to the Russia collusion investigation in 2017 in an effort to discredit President Trump, newly-released documents show.
The whistleblower, who worked for Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee for more than ten years, first reported Schiff’s alleged behavior to the FBI in 2017, when Schiff was leading the committee’s Russian collusion investigation.
FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed on Monday that he had handed over the documents, first obtained by Just the News, to Congress. “We found it. We declassified it. Now Congress can see how classified info was leaked to shape political narratives – and decide if our institutions were weaponized against the American people.”
The FBI interviewed the whistleblower most recently in June 2023, at which point the unidentified intelligence officer said he had been part of an all-staff meeting called by Schiff in which the then-California representative “stated the group would leak classified information which was derogatory to President of the United States Donald J. TRUMP. SCHIFF stated the information would be used to Indict President TRUMP.”
“[The whistleblower] stated this would be illegal and, upon hearing his concerns, unnamed members of the meeting reassured that they would not be caught leaking classified information,” the report added.
The whistleblower expressed concerns that Schiff’s actions were “treasonous” and “illegal.”
District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer (Obama) wrote in his order that the government’s premise that unsealing the records would shed light on meaningful new information was “demonstrably false,” and that “unsealing the grand jury materials would not reveal new information of any consequence.”
“Contrary to the Government’s depiction, the Maxwell grand jury testimony is not a matter of significant historical or public interest. Far from it,” he wrote. “It consists of garden-variety summary testimony by two law enforcement agents. And the information it contains is already almost entirely a matter of longstanding public record.
Translation: Either it implicates powerful Democrats, or else we need to keep the issue alive to try to dirty up President Trump.
Truth: “White House Deputy Chief of Staff on Redistricting Battle: ‘We all know Democrats cheat.”
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller is blasting Democrats for complaining about the current redistricting uproar and accuses them of stealing dozens of House seats by counting illegal aliens in the last census.
Miller told Newsmax that Democrats brought in tens of millions of “invaders” into the nation through their open borders policies to “rig the results of the census” and the apportionment of congressional seats.
Miller pointed out that even though Republicans won a landslide in the House popular vote, they only picked up a 4-seat majority due to Democratic gerrymandering, manipulation and rigging of congressional districts.
He contrasted the gains of this last election with the 2010 election, in which the Republicans won a much smaller majority in the popular vote, yet gained 63 seats in the House.
President Trump on Monday announced plans to place the Metropolitan Police Department under federal control and to deploy several hundred National Guard troops and more than 100 FBI agents to the streets of Washington, D.C., to assist local law enforcement in fighting crime.
“I’m announcing a historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, squalor and worse,” Trump said during a press conference on Monday. “This is liberation day in D.C., and we’re going to take our capital back.”
“Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged out maniacs and homeless people,” he said.
Trump said the murder rate in D.C. is higher than some of the “worst places” in the world, including Bogota, Colombia.
Trump has the authority to take over the Metropolitan Police Department under the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which includes a provision that grants him the ability to take over the department when there are “special conditions of an emergency nature.” As part of the federal takeover, Attorney General Pam Bondi will lead the department, while Terry Cole, the new DEA Administrator, will be the interim federal commissioner of the department.
On Friday, the Trump administration dispatched federal law enforcement officers to tourist hotspots around D.C. Trump has also threatened to federalize the district if crime rates do not fall and on Monday, he said he would send in the military, if needed.
Attorney General Pam Bondi rescinded several DC police executive orders Thursday that restricted officers from arresting illegal migrants – vowing that the nation’s capital will not be a sanctuary jurisdiction under President Trump.
“DC will not remain a sanctuary city. Actively shielding criminal aliens will not happen,” Bondi declared in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity.
The attorney general’s comments came as she issued a new directive voiding commands issued – as recently as earlier Thursday – by DC Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith.
Smith is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. “DC police chief [Pamela Smith] asks what ‘chain of command’ means after question from reporter.”
Hilarious news this week: “Two Chinese ships collide while chasing Philippine Coast Guard boat.” A Chinese Coast Guard ship collided with a Chinese Navy ship. And yes, there is video:
A power bill crisis is gripping parts of the U.S. Mid-Atlantic and is set to worsen, threatening to financially crush households as long-range forecasts point to a brutally cold winter. What began in Baltimore, Maryland – as first covered in our reporting one year ago- has now spread to New Jersey, where residents are furious over skyrocketing electricity costs.
The common denominator in both states? A disastrous green energy agenda, pushed by radical leftist lawmakers, is dismantling reliable and cheap fossil fuel power generation in favor of unstable solar and wind. This has unleashed a power bill armageddon on working-class and middle-class households, as well as mom-and-pop businesses, all while baseload power demand surges in the era of AI data centers.
Fox News is beginning to latch onto the power bill crisis theme, starting with coverage of New Jersey residents who are absolutely furious over exploding power bills. This new development could severely damage the state’s Democratic leaders in the upcoming elections.
This all started when New Jersey’s Board of Public Utilities approved a 17 to 20% rate hike for power bills in June. Many residents were shocked when they opened their bills at the end of last month.
“$200 more, I know my electrical bill,” one Jersey woman told Fox News reporter CB Cotton, adding, “I was shocked. So to say the least, I’m very disappointed. This is killing us, and every time you turn around it’s something more. You only get little pleasures in life that you enjoy, and my air conditioner is one of them.”
Perhaps Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy’s decision to shutter the state’s nuclear and coal plants, without a one-to-one replacement for lost capacity on the grid, was a catastrophic error that is only now coming home to roost. He also prioritized offshore wind farms and other green energy projects, which have left the grid more fragile than ever.
“Just like the old gypsy woman every Republican ever said!”
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, disillusioned and even disavowed by Democratic leaders, is showing Republicans some love in the midterms. The union’s donations are evidence of a realignment that could outlast President Trump’s term unless Democrats embrace at least some union-friendly policies like tariffs.
Prior to 2024, the Teamsters backed almost no Republicans. This year, the Democrat, Republican, Independent Voter Education PAC gave the maximum, $5,000, to each of 22 House Republicans and backed several Senate candidates, Politico reports. They also gave $50,000 to the Republican Attorneys General Association.
After dumping millions into the 2024 election cycle and coming up short, Las Vegas Sands appears ready to roll the dice again.
New financial disclosures show that Texas Sands PAC, the Texas-based political arm of the casino giant, has more than $9 million in cash on hand heading into the upcoming election season. That money comes almost entirely from Miriam Adelson, the billionaire owner of Las Vegas Sands and majority owner of the Dallas Mavericks. Despite its name, Sands does not operate casinos in Las Vegas or anywhere in the United States; its operations are exclusively in China and Singapore.
While the group has largely held off on spending in recent months, records show it contributed $1.8 million to members of the Texas House during the 2024 cycle—$1.34 million to Republicans and $457,500 to Democrats. That spending mirrors the strategy the group employed last time: pour money into protecting lawmakers who supported its push to legalize casino gambling in Texas.
That effort didn’t go as planned.
Despite getting casino legislation to the floor of the Texas House in 2023, Sands watched its momentum collapse in the primaries. Voters rejected the very lawmakers who had sided with the casino giant. Former House Speaker Dade Phelan, the top recipient of Sands money, was forced into a runoff. Meanwhile, 14 Republican House members who voted for casino legislation either lost re-election or chose not to seek it.
Sands and Adelson attempted to salvage the cycle with a massive last-minute push. The Texas Defense PAC, funded entirely by Adelson, poured more than $7 million into runoff races in an effort to rescue Phelan’s allies. But again, the money didn’t translate into wins.
Now, Sands is recalibrating.
Although no major new contributions have been reported yet this cycle, those connected to the group have continued to work in some statewide campaigns.
Former State Sen. Kelly Hancock, who is now running for state comptroller, has hired John Jackson to run his campaign.
Until earlier this year, however, Jackson served as Sands’ head political consultant in Texas. He previously managed campaigns for Gov. Greg Abbott and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn.
Hancock did not respond to a request for comment on whether he supports the group’s efforts to bring government-monopoly casinos to Texas.
Neither Don Huffines or Christi Craddick—the other two candidates currently in the race—have casino operatives leading their campaigns.
Hancock is not the only one with senior staff tied to the casino operator.
Jordan Berry, a recent registered lobbyist for Sands, also serves as a campaign consultant to numerous candidates in the state legislature, including State Sen. Mayes Middleton (R–Galveston) in his campaign for attorney general. Berry’s lobby registration with all his clients ended on June 23.
City-owned Kansas City grocery store closesdespitebecause of millions of dollars in subsidies.
Not this shit again: “Judge Rules Against Little Sisters of the Poor in Obamacare Contraception Case.”
A U.S. district court decided on Wednesday to strike down a 2017 federal regulation that exempted religious employers from the Affordable Care Act’s mandate for employer-sponsored health insurance to cover the cost of contraception.
If the ruling holds, religious non-profit organizations such as the Little Sisters of the Poor, the defendants in the case, may now be required to file for an accommodation process with the government that still maintains employees’ access to contraception without the religious organization having to pay. For-profit employers would have access to no religious exemption from the mandate whatsoever.
Judge Wendy Beetlestone, chief judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, found that the Trump administration’s 2017 rule expanding religious exemptions from the contraception mandate was “arbitrary and capricious,” thus violating statutory authority. Consequently, she declared the rule vacated.
The left can’t stop attacking the Little Sisters of the Poor because it is intolerable to them that there is an legitimate source of moral authority apart from the state. Catholic nuns must be forced to pay for contraception (and abortions) as a token of their submission to social justice. Every. Knee. Must. Bend.
I know you’ll be shocked to learn that Beetlestone is an Obama appointee…
So on Monday, I get a text from my property management company saying that they’ve retained an outside security company to address the numerous complaints about loitering and drug sales in the neighborhood.
‘Beginning today, you will see these security personnel around the properties and in the neighborhood, goes on and on about procedures.’
Okay. Today’s Wednesday. It’s two days later, I get an email from my property management, and they said,
‘We’re disappointed to share that the security company that was hired has pulled out of the neighborhood. After a day and a half of doing recon and observing activity in the neighborhood, they decided the problems with crime exceed their resources to control. We will continue to work with organizations and neighborhood and explore other options to improve public safety and so on.’
Funny what happens when a Democrat-run locale decides to “defund the police” because a random black drug user died…
“Commissioner Ramsey Seeks Removal of Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo. Following a vote to censure Hidalgo, Ramsey said, ‘It is time to consider replacing Judge Hidalgo.'”
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo faced a historic 3-1 censure vote from the commissioners court after her proposed property tax increase was rejected. The vote followed accusations of disruptive behavior, prompting Republican Commissioner Tom Ramsey to call for her removal.
This is the first time a Harris County judge, the chief executive of the county, has been censured.
Lots of candidates (Democrats and Republicans) are lining up to run against Hidalgo next year.
United States Attorney Lesley A. Woods announced that five people were charged by complaint for a range of federal violations that center around their alleged conspiracy to engage in labor trafficking, sex trafficking, and harboring of aliens at several hotel locations across the Omaha metro area and into central Nebraska. The defendants own, operate and manage several hotels in the Omaha metro area located at the following locations where federal search warrants were executed in the early morning hours of August 12, 2025:
The AmericInn, 2920 S 13 Ct., Omaha;
The Inn (formerly Super 8), 9305 S 145th St., Omaha;
The New Victorian, 10728 L St., Omaha; and
Roadway Inn, 1110 Fort Crook Rd S, Bellevue, NE.
The five Nebraska men from Nebraska with very Nebraskan names were identified as:
Kentakumar Chaudhari, a/k/a Ken Chaudhari, age 36, of Elkhorn, NE;
Rashmi Ajit Samani, a/k/a Falguni Samani, age 42, of Elkhorn, NE:;
Amit Prahladbhai Chaudhari, a/k/a Amit, age 32, of Omaha;
Amit Babubhai Chaudhari, a/k/a Matt, age 33, of Omaha; and
Maheshkumar Chaudhari, a/k/a Mahesh, age 38, of Norfolk, NE.
Federal, state, and local law enforcement officers conducted a search of 14 premises, including homes and several “Brow and Lash” salons associated with the men.
During the operation, law enforcement officers rescued 10 minors from an alleged labor trafficking conspiracy that involved putting children under the age of twelve years old to work at the hotels for long hours with little to no pay. Seventeen adult victims were also rescued from the same conspiracy.
The US Attorney’s Office says at least one of the defendants were running a sex trafficking operation that sold both children and adults into prostitution. Sex trafficking was “not only allowed at the hotels … but also encouraged.” Prosecutors say hotel management and employees sexually abused the victims personally, as well as selling their victims out to others.
Drugs were also openly used and sold at the hotels, according to officials.
The Biden Administration went all-out to ensure that all 50 states got to enjoy that vibrant illegal alien diversity they imported…
An Arizona judge is reportedly planning to free an illegal alien who kidnapped and raped a girl from Kansas whom he brought all the way to Arizona.
The 14-year-old girl went missing on July 20, but authorities were able to track her cell phone and locate her in an Extended Stay America hotel in Chandler, Arizona. The kidnapper is a man named Cristian Leonardo Caal Mucu. When police arrived, the teenage girl was alone in the hotel room. What local media was reluctant to admit was that Caal Mucu is an illegal alien. And now this predator is set to be released on bail with only electronic monitoring.
A bombshell investigation in Kentucky just exposed what Democrats are desperate to hide. Whistleblower Melissa Moorman caught government employees at the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet selling driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. The price? Two hundred bucks cash, under the table. This wasn’t rare. Nope. Moorman says it happened four to five times every single day at Louisville’s Nia Center Licensing Branch. Every. Single. Day.
From Biz Pac Review:
Alleged whistleblower retaliation raised the specter of impeachment for a Democrat governor regarding an “under the table” scheme to get illegal aliens driver’s licenses.
Questions are being raised about what Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) knew and when he knew it after a report exposed blowback against a former Kentucky Transportation Cabinet employee (KYTC). Speaking with WDRB News, Melissa Moorman laid out how she was fired after informing her supervisor that employees were allegedly getting paid $200 multiple times a day to provide licenses to illegals.
“The employees were being paid under the table,” she explained to WDRB’s Gilbert Corsey. “I immediately let my supervisor know about it.”
Snip. “When Moorman did the right thing and reported this mess, you think they thanked her? Nope. They fired her. On the exact same day a detective showed up to interview her. What are the odds?”
Snip. “Governor Andy Beshear? He claims he had no idea about any immigration part of this fraud investigation. Sure, Andy. And get this—the same day WDRB dropped this bombshell report, the KYTC suddenly had a ‘statewide network interruption.’ They had to cancel all appointments. You believe in coincidences?”
Now the voting fraud potential part.
In Kentucky, you can get a voter registration card with just a driver’s license. That’s it. Every single illegal license could mean a fraudulent vote. Your vote—my vote—gets watered down. Legal citizens get cheated. One social media user nailed it: “You know what else you can get with a driver’s license in Kentucky? A voter registration card.”
State Representative TJ Roberts isn’t playing games. He’s already filed Open Records Requests. And he’s not stopping there. Roberts says if Governor Beshear knew about this, he’ll force an impeachment vote. Good. Someone finally gets what’s at stake here. This is about our elections. This is about our country.
You know this isn’t just Kentucky, right? This Kentucky scandal is a window into what’s happening everywhere. How many other states have the same scam running?
It sounds like there should be a nationwide audit of state drivers license databases to verify that all the holders are either American citizens or legal residents. Indeed, that sounds like a good task to carry out right after President Trump’s new census is completed…
Two Hamtramck city councilmen were arraigned Tuesday on election fraud charges.
During separate hearings in Hamtramck’s 31st District Court, Muhtasin Sadman and Mohammed Hassan were arraigned on multiple counts, including forging signatures on absentee ballot applications, and election law forgery.
Mohammed Hassan is a Democrat. I can’t find a political affiliation for Sadman, but I would bet money he is as well.
A not guilty plea was entered on behalf of the defendants, who did not speak during their short hearings.
District Judge Alexis G. Krot set a personal bond for both councilmen, who must surrender their passports. The judge also ordered the media to turn off their recording devices during each hearing, and ordered the defendants to avoid contact with witnesses who the judge wanted to remain anonymous.
Separate preliminary examinations for the councilmen were scheduled for 9 a.m. Aug. 28. Probable cause conferences were rescheduled for Aug. 21.
Following each hearing, Jeffery Maynard, Sadman’s attorney, and Scott Ruark, Hassan’s attorney, declined to comment.
The charges follow a two-month investigation by the Monroe County Prosecutor’s Office, which was appointed by the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan to look into the allegations.
In April, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office requested a special prosecutor to explore allegations that Hassan, Sadman and others who have not been charged conspired to receive unvoted absentee ballots that had been signed by recently naturalized citizens, and then filling in the candidates of their choosing. In June, the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan selected the Monroe County prosecutor to explore the accusations.
Sounds like the immigrant-to-Democrat voting fraud pipeline is alive and well in Michigan.
“Sadman forged an absentee ballot application with the intent to defraud and aided or counselled two unqualified electors to vote in the 2023 election,” Monroe County prosecutors said in a Monday press release. “It is further alleged that Council Member Mohammed Kamrul Hassan also forged an absentee ballot application with the intent to defraud in the 2023 election for City Council. Several law enforcement agencies conducted thorough investigations and submitted their findings to our office.”
Did either defendant have anything to say for himself? Yes. “The charges are made up to make the Bangladesh and Muslim communities to look bad.”
Oh yeah, he’s guilty as sin.
That post also noted some curious voting patterns in that election:
In the August Primary Election, [Nayeem Leon] Choudhury was the top vote-getter but, in the November election, he fell to fifth place out of a field of six candidates – an unheard-of drop-off for a top contender.
And Sadman, an obscure newcomer to politics, rose from fifth place in the primary election to the number two spot in the November election.
Hassan rose from fourth place — right behind Lynn Blasey, the only female in the election — to go on to become the top-vote getter in November’s election.
Hassan and Sadman’s sudden rise in the November election edged out Blasey from taking a seat on council.
Choudhury also claimed, that in the November 2023 election, 200 absentee ballots had not been counted.
Asked why he made this claim, Choudhury told The Review at the time:
“I don’t know, the whole community is shocked and saddened that they voted for me by absentee ballots — over a thousand. They don’t know why I lost against a candidate that came in fifth place in the primary.”
Once again, note the willingness of Democratic politicians to (allegedly) commit voting fraud in a relatively low stakes City Council election. Does anyone doubt that they’d be even more willing to break the law in higher-stakes elections? And remember that Michigan was one of those states with 3 AM ballot shenanigans in 2020.
Also note the evidence of plenty more illegal shenanigans going on there. “The investigation was initiated by suspended City Manager Max Garbarino. After Garbarino made the allegations in May, amid a visit by the FBI, he suspended Police Chief Jamiel Altaheri. The City Council, prompted by Mayor Amer Ghalib, in turn suspended Garbarino.”
“The people responsible for the previous suspensions have been suspended.”
Here’s to hoping a lot of disinfecting sunlight gets shined under all the dark rocks of Hamtramck’s government…
No matter how unpopular the topic is with American voters, the hard left still wants to keep as many illegal aliens from being deported as possible, and to that end they’re organizing to attack ICE agents.
A volunteer orientation meeting hosted by the Party for Socialism and Liberation in partnership with Houston Leads outlined plans to establish a rapid response network against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Houston.
The session, attended by about a dozen participants, emphasized organizing volunteers to counter deportations, raids, and detentions.
A speaker described the initiative’s objective, stating, “We want to build a long-term movement that fights back against deportations, raids, detention, and all other forms of immigration-related terror.”
Snip.
Tactics discussed include responding to ICE sightings by recording agents, slowing operations, and mobilizing at locations. Volunteers are advised to identify as neutral observers to avoid affiliation disclosure.
“What you say is that you’re a volunteer legal observer … we never say what we are a part of,” instructed an organizer.
The meeting covered legal rights, such as refusing searches without warrants, and potential risks like being arrested for obstructing justice. “We are just inevitably going to be facing up against law enforcement and ICE agents,” speakers noted.
Whoever knowingly and willfully obstructs, resists, or opposes any officer of the United States, or other person duly authorized, in serving, or attempting to serve or execute, any legal or judicial writ or process of any court of the United States, or United States magistrate judge; or
Whoever assaults, beats, or wounds any officer or other person duly authorized, knowing him to be such officer, or other person so duly authorized, in serving or executing any such writ, rule, order, process, warrant, or other legal or judicial writ or process, shall, except as otherwise provided by law, be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.
So how does the Party for Socialism and Liberation get away with an open conspiracy to hinder law enforcement officers in carrying out their official duties? This seems like the sort of thing the FBI should investigate, especially the funding sources. The Party for Socialism and Liberation’s fiscal sponsor is the Progress Unity Fund, which in turn is funded by the George Soros-backed Tides Foundation.
The left know that deporting illegal aliens is widely popular with the American people, and that such deportations are both legal and constitutional. But they are in open rebellion (indeed, dare we say “insurrection?”) against them because they have deluded themselves into thinking that importing a huge populace of unassimilated illegal aliens into the country is somehow going to be their ticket to permanent political rule, long after the author of this idea stated that it was no longer true.
It’s yet another 20%/80% hill they seem willing to die in.
Shortly after declaring that running for congress was “one of the worst nine-month experiences of my life,” gun YouTuber Brandon Herrera is rushing into the breach again.
He starts off by comparing his run to Rocky II, the movie in which Rocky actually wins the heavyweight championship.
His first run “was a terrifying jump into unfamiliar territory. But I did it because the congressman who represented me, Tony Gonzalez, even though a Republican, kept making bad votes that just made no sense to me, like voting for Biden’s gun control, opposing border security, selling out American interests on behalf of other countries, and a bunch of other things that shocked me to learn that a Texas Republican would vote for.”
“Statistically, replacing an incumbent that wants to run for reelection is very hard to do, but we gave it a shot. What followed was one of the craziest 10-month journeys of my life, running for office in Texas Congressional District 23, one of the biggest in the country, against one of the best funded members of Congress in the entire country.”
“We succeeded in our goal of taking him to a runoff.”
“What followed was a brutal two-month runoff where I had all of the guns and money of the establishment pointed directly at my forehead. over $10 million being spent against me. I got outspent like 10 to one.”
“I lost by like 400 votes, by 1%.”
Gonzales doesn’t seem to have gotten the message. “Like three days after the election was over in November, he was on CNN arguing against deportations.”
“When these people win, they feel untouchable. They will continue to do favors for the people who kept them in office and vote for garbage without any sense of accountability from the people who they hate and pretend to love when the cameras are on. The truth is, these people only understand one language. The only way to stop them, truly stop them, is to win.”
“I’m not going to lie, [the loss] started to eat at me. Those things that I didn’t like about DC, about my congressman, they didn’t change. The things that the voters in the district were upset about, the reason so many of them were sick of their fake conservative congressmen, they didn’t change.”
“People in the political world kept telling me, you know, nobody wins on their first try, even during my first try, which, I’ll be honest, kind of ticked me off, cuz I was, you know, gunning to prove them wrong.”
“Texas District 23 deserves a real conservative, not a cheap fake who plays one on TV.”
“Somebody who actually understands and respects the Constitution, not just as like a cheap line, but actually respects it. Someone who will vote not just to protect, but to enhance your gun rights. Not vote to throw them away when it gets inconvenient.”
“Someone who will actually vote to protect America’s borders, not just claim that they will on TV during election season.”
“Texas deserves better than Tony. I’m willing to put my life to the side to stand up and take that fight.”
He goes on to praise his donors. “The amount of you guys that were able to put together even just $5, $10, $20 blew away the DC professionals. I’m not even kidding. I had these conversations after the race with, you know, DC types who do political data for a living, and they were in literal disbelief of what we were able to put together. All with no big super PACs, no special interests, no foreign lobbyists, just me and you guys.”
“They literally didn’t believe me until I showed them the numbers. I mean, we were able to raise over a million without having to play the DC games and beg people who definitely don’t expect favors in return.”
“But this time, I want to make sure we give them a fight they’re not ready for. I’ll give you a war you won’t believe.”
Flogs his website: https://brandonherreraforcongress.com/ and says he’s going to personally match donations with his own money. “To start off strong, I’m going to be matching your donations in the month of August up to $100,000 personally.”
“I hate that money is such a pivotal part of politics, but last time I saw exactly what happens when you didn’t have enough. The establishment could barely handle us last cycle, and money and slander were the only two weapons they had. This time, if we keep the momentum up, they don’t stand a chance.”
“Unlike the DC types, I don’t need this. I already have my dream job. I’d be taking a pay cut to take this job, but I’m willing to do it because I truly feel like it’s the best way I can currently serve my country, cuz that’s what it should be.”
“When I’m in office, I will not be buying, selling, or trading a single stock. Hell, I support legislation to ban it while in office. Again, unlike the DC types, I don’t need insider trading to be successful. Although, if you’re looking for stock tips, I’d just recommend doing what Nancy Pelosi does. I hear that tends to work out for some reason.”
“I am tired of Republicans saying that they’re going to go in and they’re going to fight for us. And then when the time comes to fight for something specific, they cave, they capitulate, they say, ‘I had no choice.’ Most of them didn’t even bother to fight in the first place.”
Some of it is standard campaign boilerplate, but Herrera is striking all the right notes here.
As in 2024, unseating a sitting congressman is going to be an uphill struggle, especially since Gonzales has been careful to stand closer to President Trump (at least rhetorically) than he has in the past.
The Q3 fundraising numbers for the race should be very interesting…
Another week, another example of AI hallucinating in a way detrimental to human beings.
Kneon: “We’re going to talk about Open AI adding mental health safeguards to chat GPT because apparently it’s feeding into users delusions.”
K: “It’s telling them that they’re they’ve got superpowers, or that they’re the chosen one.”
Geeky Sparkles: “If you have chat GPT trying to generate something for you, if they don’t have the information, they’ll make up or whatever, cuz it’s just programmed to please you.”
GS: “So when you have people who have um mental health issues, and they might be delusional in some way, it’s going to reaffirm that, which is not helpful.”
K: “Apparently, it’s causing issues in relationships. People are using it as a marriage counselor, relationship counselor.”
GS: “Oh no.”
K: “A 30-year-old man with autism was hospitalized for manic episodes and an emotional breakdown after chat GPT reinforced his belief he had discovered a way to bend time.”
AI doesn’t tell you the truth, it tells you what you want to hear, or some stochastic approximation of truth laid down by process you probably don’t understand. It’s a salesman that doesn’t even know its lying because it has no human conception of “truth.”
K: “A 30-year-old man on the autism spectrum had no previous diagnosis of mental illness. He asked ChatGpt to find flaws with his amateur theory on faster than light travel. He became convinced he had made a stunning scientific breakthrough. When Irwin questioned the chatbot’s validation of his ideas, the bot encouraged him, telling him his theory was sound.” So AI has less “common sense” than an average high school science fiction fan…
K: “And when Irwin showed signs of psychological distress, the chatbot assured him he was fine.”
GS: “Well, right there, you’re asking a chatbot if you’re okay. That’s your first indication that you’re not okay.”
GS: “If you don’t watch it, it’ll just make up shit. It’ll make up quotes, it’ll make up numbers, it’ll make up that’s why you have to double check everything anymore. Because you know sometimes these bots are running amuck as far as articles and stuff are concerned, and people don’t check.”
Just imagine what Chuck Jones could do with “Bot Amuck”
K: “YouTube is completely littered with all these like fake videos, not even like, ‘Hey, we’re bending the news.’ No, it’s ‘we’re just making shit up,’ like so-and-so died, or this is a big lawsuit going on with so and so and so and so and, oh my god, that’s not real.”
Sadly, So-And-So is, in fact, dead
GS: “You especially can’t expect ChatGPT to tell you the truth about things like, ‘Am I mentally ill?'”
The isolation of the pandemic also left some people broken and lonely. K: “They just can’t make those human connections again.”
GS: “ChatGPT, they’re worried, is stunting people mentally.”
GS: “It’s actually making them dumber.”
GS: “If it’s telling you you can bend space and time, it’s probably not telling you the truth.”
I’m skipping over the whole “sad, lonely men turning to AI ‘girlfriends'” thing.
It’s possible that the rational, infallible, near God-like AI envisioned by our venture capital TechLords could have been developed. On Vulcan. By a select caste of priest king logicians dedicated to pure truth. In the 23rd century.
But that’s not the AI we have. The AI we have was birthed in the weirdness of the social justice/pandemic era by very irrational human beings. Garbage in/garbage out.
Real artificial intelligence was always going to be a long-shot, but AI had the misfortune of having the technological underpinnings that allowed it to arrive and grow at the exact same time that one of the most irrational movements in human history infected the overclass with wokeness. Not only are the terminally woke incapable of telling the truth, they deny the very possibility of objective truth in favor of their subjective “lived experience.”
To be sure, wokeness was not the only madness around when the the TechLords unleashed their bottlejinn to krill-feed data in the vast ocean of the Internet, but social justice has been the most pervasive flavor of madness.
In our previous examination of Sig Sauer’s P320 uncommanded discharges issue, a whole lot of commenters seem to get hung up on the screw, ignoring the methodology that Wyoming Gun Project laid out in his video. Well, it is a 40 minute video, and maybe he didn’t explain the preconditions for the failure mode he was trying to demonstrate well enough.
Well, here’s a 20 minute video by Shadetree Armorer that explains, in much clearer detail, the part failures the screw simulates before the loose slide come into play.
For legal reasons, he says to add “allegedly” every seven words or so.
“This is meant to be a summary with some connecting tissue uniting the whole so you can understand the big picture.”
“Despite what Sig may publicly claim about the P320, it relies on exactly two things to not go off, and the trigger isn’t one of them.”
“The first thing the P320 relies on is the sear. It is important to note that, unlike a Glock or even a 1911, there is no feature or device that blocks movement of the sear when the trigger is not pressed to the rear.”
“It is floating on two coil springs. These two coil springs and by way of geometry, pressure from the striker spring, are the only thing holding the sear in place.”
“The second thing that the P320 relies on is the safety lock, more commonly referred to as the striker safety or striker safety lever, which is held in place with a torsion spring. So, in order for a SIG P320 to discharge without a trigger pull, both the sear and striker lock must move, and those things are only prevented from moving by spring force.”
“The firing pin safety, that part was designed to be stamped. Someone in finance was like, ‘Hey, let’s save like $30 per pistol.’ So, a bunch of parts that were designed to be stamped end up becoming MIMed [Metal Injection Molded], which includes that striker safety. So, what’s the difference between stamping and MIMD in terms of safety and quality? With MIMing, once in a while, you might run into bubbles in the safety lever. If the bubbles break, then you have a problem where it shears off, the striker goes forwards.”
“With safety levers in particular, if there’s a wear issue, the striker goes forwards and the safety lever saves you a few times. There’s a possibility that it’ll break after a few instances of it happening. Out of the box, if you have a good one, the pistol should be safe, which is why the majority of 320s haven’t gone off. But if you have a bad one out of the factory or if you drop it too many times, then you might have a problem.”
This, by itself, is not enough for an uncommanded discharge. “You also need a sear issue.”
Next up: The FBI Ballistic Research Facilities report on a Michigan State Police P320. Quoting from page 29:
Because of the inherent movement between the slide and frame, a third test of the striker safety lock was conducted. Approximately 50 attempts were made to determine if the striker would impact the prime case after manipulating the weapon while holstered. The weapon was pressed together and pulled apart at the slide and frame. Thereafter, pressure was applied to the frame and the sear manually released from the primary notch. The intent of the manipulation and pressure was to mimic what might occur to a holstered weapon during an officer’s duties, such as running, jumping, climbing, fighting, pressing a weapon against a wall or vehicle, or obtaining a master grip on the pistol prior to drawing, etc.
BRF staff observed the prime case fired on nine attempts, with the primer indent measuring between 019 and 0026 of an inch with, an average of 023. While staging one attempt to allow another BRF staff member to observe the striker safety lock function as designed, the weapon was prepared and placed in the holster with no manipulation. A second staff member released the primary sear notch from the striker and the prime case fired, indicating failure of the striker safety lock.
“The important thing to take away here is that the striker safety in the examined firearm was able to be defeated by simply jostling the P320 in the holster, as would be expected to happen for any firearm carried in the holster throughout the day.”
Following the airman’s death, the Air Force released instructions on checking the striker safety in each gun. “The Air Force does not trust the striker safety lock either. They also mentioned specifically to check for proper assembly.”
“So, we have good reason to believe that the striker safety design is compromised and ineffective. Anecdotally, I have also heard reports elsewhere that it is sometimes assembled incorrectly from the factory, with one leg of the torsion spring being dislodged.
“I have also heard anecdotal reports that fouling such as carbon, unburnt powder and brass shavings can overwhelm the spring, and as a result the safety lever sticks in the upwards defeated position. My perspective on this is that the design seems to allow for a lot of surface area for fouling to build up when compared to the typical round plunger design.”
“There does not seem to be a singular problem with this safety lever. Rather, there are allegedly a lot of problems.”
“Why did SIG choose this design? Well, it is very compact and it saves having to cut a pocket in the slide for a striker safety plunger design like Glock, Smith and Wesson, and pretty much every other striker fired pistol use.”
The P365 doesn’t use safety lever design of the P320.
“The second thing that needs to happen for a P320 to discharge without a trigger pull is that the sear needs to release the striker. Now, you’re never going to guess. It looks like there’s multiple alleged ways for this to happen as well. And they can combine and get worse, just like the striker safety lever issues.”
“First, it seems as though there’s the potential for the takedown lever for large frame guns, that is 10mm and .45ACP, to get mixed up with the takedown lever for small frame guns. Whether this has happened in factory guns has yet to be seen. However, one of the most stalwart defenders of the P320’s honor, Grey Guns, has put out a notice stating that this combination of parts can create an unsafe condition.”
“I won’t get too into the weeds, but the take down lever is what allows the P320 to be disassembled without a trigger press. And it does this by lowering the sear via an arm. For whatever reason, Sig designed the large frame and small frame pre-P320 takedown levers to fit interchangeably. But importantly, the large frame takedown lever reduces the sear engagement in the small frame guns when it is in the assembled and ready to fire position.”
“The second way this can allegedly happen is poor surface finishes, or geometry of the interface between the striker and sear. Because nothing forces the P320 sear to fully engage in the way that the drop safety slot in a Glock trigger housing forces the Glock trigger bar to fully engage the striker, we are again reliant on spring pressure combined with a bit of geometry. However, should the geometry be off or a poor surface finish, or a burr be present in the sliding searsurfaces, these parts can get hung up, resulting in reduced sear engagement.”
“The FBI BRF’s report of the MSP320 that discharged in a holster found that one of the sliding sear surfaces had a ledge. And the US Air Force’s supplemental inspection criteria released on July 22nd specifically calls out the sear and striker assembly as areas to look for damage.”
“The third way that the sear and striker engagement can be reduced is by fouling or debris. That’s a bigger subject that we’re going to get to later because it affects all P320 pistols.”
“The important thing to note is that none of these problems are enough on their own to make the sear release the stiker uncommanded.”
“I was reminded of the Swiss cheese safety model by Gen Y Revolver Guy on Arfcom.” In which only when several problems occur at once, passing through different Swiss cheese holes, does the problem occur when all the holes (flaws) happen to line up. “That final piece of Swiss cheese in this situation, which all the issues I’ve covered combine with, is excessive movement between the slide and frame that seems endemic to the P320 platform. In particular, the slide can move up and down relative to the frame, which is enough to shift the sear engagement. And combined with one or more of the three aforementioned issues of incorrect takedown levers, bad sear surfaces, or firing debris, this can be enough for the sear to let go of the striker entirely.”
Now the part most immediately relevant to this previous post. “In these videos from Wyoming Gun Project, the loose slide to frame fit is demonstrated as well as the ability for that slide movement to release the striker when the striker engagement is reduced. It’s important to note that he set his P320 up to have reduced striker engagement by using a screw to pull the trigger to the rear a small amount past the wall in the travel after the takeup. And the takeup also serves to defeat the striker safety lever. So those two issues are simulated here while the third issue loose slide to frame fit is demonstrated.” Those who still don’t understand the purpose of the screw should read and reread that section until they do understand.
“It’s not simulating a screw getting stuck in the trigger. It’s a static and repeatable simulation of other known issues.”
Back to the debris issue. “The design of the P320 seems particularly susceptible to capturing environmental debris between the sear slide and striker. Indeed, these parts all combine to form a pocket. And if the pistol is carried muzzled down in a holster, the bottom of that pocket is a place where fouling and debris can accumulate.”
“Worse, there’s a gap between the frame and the slide directly above that pocket through which things from the environment can fall into.”
“This video from YouTuber Mischief Machine demonstrates that if the area is fouled with unburnt powder and brass shavings, the sear engagement can be reduced to the point that the slide movement will release the striker.”
Once Mischief Machine inserts the debris with the strike safety already simulated off, he gets the gun to discharge by tugging on the slide.
Again, the P365 doesn’t suffer from this P320 design flaw.
“I think that tidies up things nicely for this P320 saga. It’s pretty obvious what the problems are. The FBI and the US Air Force both seem to be on the same trail, and I honestly don’t think SIG has a realistic chance of fixing all the problems.”
“I think their only option at this point may be bankruptcy, which is why they are pushing so hard with the PR spin to gaslight everyone.”
Shadetree Armorer also points to YouTuber Dick Fairburn’s SIG P320 An unfolding Disaster, which I haven’t had a chance to watch yet (it’s another 40 minute video, and seems heavy on talk and light on illustrations).
I had no intention of doing another Sig P320 post so soon after the last one, but the video was so informative on the (alleged) flaws, and so clear on things people seem to be getting hung up on, that I thought it was worth posting.
The redistricting wars escalate to previously unseen heights, Paxton launches investigation of Democratic orgs backing the quorum busters, Ukraine hits a lot more Russian infrastructure, another spite prosecution from Travis County’s Soros-baked DA, and Saturday Night Live is just as profitable as NBC’s other late night shows.
President Donald Trump has directed the Commerce Department to conduct a new census that excludes illegal immigrants from its population count.
“I have instructed our Department of Commerce to immediately begin work on a new and highly accurate CENSUS based on modern day facts and figures and, importantly, using the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024,” Trump said in a Truth Social post Tuesday morning. “People who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS.”
The Constitution mandates a census be conducted every ten years to apportion congressional districts. Since the first census was conducted in 1790, the count has reflected each state’s total population, including noncitizens.
It’s unclear whether Trump can instruct that illegal aliens be excluded from the census without the approval of Congress, as Article I Section 2 of the Constitution empowers the legislature to determine when and how censuses are conducted.
When Trump tried to end the practice of counting illegal aliens in the census in his first term, he argued that the executive branch has discretionary power to determine who qualifies as a U.S. resident for apportionment purposes. The move faced legal challenges and was ultimately overturned by Joe Biden before it could take effect.
Because House districts are apportioned “according to [states’] respective Numbers,” high-immigration states could lose congressional seats and electoral votes if illegal immigrants are not counted in the census. If noncitizens had been left out of the 2020 census, California, Florida, and Texas would have each lost a congressional seat, and Alabama, Minnesota, and Ohio would have retained one seat each they otherwise would have lost, according to a Pew Research Center analysis.
Maybe this is a cunning ploy to force Democrats to argue before the Supreme Court that illegal aliens count as 3/5ths of a person…
Meanwhile, in Texas, the redistricting battle is white-hot following the latest Democratic State Representative’s quorum break. “AG Paxton Launches Investigation Into Soros-Funded Texas Majority PAC. This is the second investigation launched by Paxton in as many days seeking information from groups alleged to be supporting the Texas House Democrat quorum break.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has announced the launch of a formal investigation into Texas Majority PAC—funded by leftist billionaire George Soros—for its “role in potentially unlawful financial coordination and bribery of Democratic legislators who fled Texas to break quorum.”
The Texas Majority PAC was founded by former staffers from Robert “Beto” O’Rourke’s unsuccessful campaign for governor and has since gained national attention. The PAC is largely funded by leftist billionaire George Soros. Latest reports indicate it has around $600,000 cash-on-hand.
Paxton described the PAC as “radical,” with a mission aligned with other left-leaning organizations aiming to influence Texas politics.
Paxton alleges that the PAC played a “coordinating role” in assisting with illegal fundraising operations and possibly bribing Texas House members. These actions, Paxton maintains, may have incentivized lawmakers to abandon their legislative responsibilities, an act that—if financially rewarded—could constitute bribery under state law.
“If Texas lawmakers are bowing to the Soros Slush Fund rather than the will of the voters, Texans deserve to know. Getting financial payouts under the table to abandon your legislative duties is bribery,” Paxton stated. “Texas Majority PAC’s actions seem to indicate that it may be using its Soros-funded resources to break the law and fund the illegal abandonment of public office. If that’s the case as determined by this investigation, there will be a heavy price to pay.”
As part of the ongoing investigation, Paxton’s office has issued a formal Request to Examine to Texas Majority PAC seeking documents and records related to the alleged activities.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is launching an investigation into Beto O’Rourke’s organization Powered by People for allegedly “bankrolling” the Texas House Democrats’ ongoing quorum break.
The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) asserts that according to “public reports,” Powered by People is potentially one the top funders of the recent quorum bust by Texas Democrats, who left the state in protest to House Republicans’ proposed redistricting map — alleging racist motivations and unconstitutional actions.
Paxton said in a press release on Wednesday afternoon, “Any Democrat coward breaking the law by taking a Beto Bribe will be held accountable. Texas cannot be bought.”
“I look forward to thoroughly reviewing all of the documents and communications obtained throughout this investigation,” he said.
The OAG ordered on Tuesday that all quorum-breaking House Democrats must return by Friday morning when the House gavels in, per House Speaker Dustin Burrows’ (R-Lubbock) declaration, or else face removal from the membership.
Did they return? They did not. Hence:
“Paxton Files Texas Supreme Court Petition to Declare 13 Democratic House Seats Vacant.”
The Texas House again failed to meet a quorum on Friday afternoon, and now Attorney General Ken Paxton is taking additional legal action against 13 Democratic members that fled to other states.
Paxton has targeted state Reps. Ron Reynolds (D-Missouri City), Vikki Goodwin (D-Austin), Gina Hinojosa (D-Austin), James Talarico (D-Austin), Gene Wu (D-Houston), Lulu Flores (D-Austin), Mihaela Plesa (D-Dallas), Suleman Lalani (D-Sugar Land), Chris Turner (D-Grand Prairie), Ana-Maria Rodriguez Ramos (D-Richardson), Jessica Gonzalez (D-Dallas), John Bucy (D-Austin), and Christina Morales (D-Houston).
This follows Abbott petitioning the Texas Supreme Court to vacate Wu’s seat.
I’m in Bucy’s district (TX-136), so I could theoretically run for his seat, assuming I was a glutton for punishment…
The petition was filed with the Supreme Court of Texas (SCOTX), with the intention to have their seats declared vacant.
“Because Respondents have abandoned their offices as State Representatives, the Attorney General, on behalf of the State, seeks a declaration that those positions are vacant.”
The petition goes on to state that because the Democratic members named in the suit “have announced that they refuse to perform the duties of their offices, they have abandoned them, and this Court should declare their offices vacant.”
It adds, “These actions aim to prevent the Legislature from exercising the legislative power conferred on it by the Texas Constitution, Tex. Const. art. III, § 1, depriving the people of Texas of a functioning government and, if allowed to continue, would create ‘an absolute supermajoritarian check on the legislature’s ability to pass legislation opposed by a minority faction.’”
“Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we must zoom out if we are to understand the pattern that we are gathered here to explore, because the pattern is larger than federal health agencies and the COVID cartel. If we do zoom out and ask, what are they hiding?”
“The answer becomes as obvious as it is disturbing. They are hiding everything. It will be jarring for many to hear a scientist speak with such certainty. It should be jarring. We are trained to present ideas with caution as hypotheses in need of a test. But in this case, I have tested the idea, and I am as certain of it as I am of anything. We are being systematically blinded.”
“It is the only explanation I have encountered that will not only describe the present, but also, in my experience, predicts the future with all but perfect accuracy. The pattern is a simple one. You can see it clearly and test it yourself. Every single institution dedicated to public truth-seeking is under simultaneous attack.”
“They are all in a state of collapse. Every body of experts fails utterly. Individual experts who resist or worse in an attempt to return their institutions to sanity, they find themselves coerced into submission. If they won’t buckle, they are marginalized or forced out.”
“Those outside of the institutions who either seek truth alone or who build new institutions with a truth seeking mission face merciless attacks on both their integrity and expertise. often by the very institutions whose mission they refuse to abandon. There is a saying in military circles, once is a mistake, twice is a coincidence, three times is enemy action.”
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will publicly announce on Thursday its new proposed rule banning Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements to hospitals that provide sex-trait modifications to minors, National Review has learned.
If finalized, the rule — “Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Hospital Condition of Participation: Prohibiting Sex Trait Modifications for Children” — will “effectively end sex-trait modifications for minors nationally,” a senior administration official told NR.
Thursday’s announcement marks the beginning of the process of convening meetings with Health and Human Services officials to flesh out the language and formalize the rule. CMS sits under HHS.
So no longer will our tax dollars be spent mutilating children. Progress!
The Austin-American Statesman does some actual investigation of Austin city government, and actually finds a bit of improper waste and fraud.
Austin’s top administrator, City Manager T.C. Broadnax, continued what had become a costly habit: charging lunches to his city credit card on a near-daily basis.
Broadnax, one of the highest-paid city managers in the country with an annual salary of $488,800, expensed about 150 lunches during his first year on the job at a cost of about $3,300, according to an American-Statesman review of city discretionary spending. His go-to spot was Sweetgreen, a pricey salad chain where he averaged $20 per order.
Broadnax is not the only city leader who regularly dined on taxpayer dollars in what appears to be a violation of city policy, the Statesman review found. And the spending went beyond food.
The review covered food and travel spending records from the City Manager’s Office and City Council offices from May 2024 to May 2025 — the first year of Broadnax’s tenure — and found charges for business-class flights, high-end dinners and retirement parties costing thousands of dollars.
The Statesman also tallied thousands of dollars spent on snacks and beverages, protein shakes and even chewing gum.
Overall, the review painted a picture of a widespread culture of lavish spending at City Hall among both the city’s top appointed executives and elected leaders who approve the budget.
Experts who reviewed the newspaper’s findings and city spending policies said many charges likely violated internal rules or common ethics guidelines.
“Bring a sandwich for Christ’s sake,” said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University.
If that’s the worst they found, I’d suggest they never scrutinized Austin’s homeless services…
Ukraine hit two Russian oil refineries, including Novokuibyshevsk oil refinery in Samara and one in Ryazan.
And two more , one in Kstovo as well as the Adler oil depot in Sochi.
And another, this one the Afipsky oil refinery, where they evidently hit the cracking/fractional distillation tower, the most essential part of an oil refinery.
And another railyard, namely Tatsinskaya railroad yard in Rostov.
Hackers attacked Russia’s Aeroflot, cancelling lots of flights. All transportation options in Russia seem chancy these days…
A state audit found that a Sacramento area charter school received more than $180 million in funding it was not eligible for, engaged in wasteful spending, and assigned teachers to classes they did not have the credentials to teach.
The report from the California State Auditor found that Highlands Community Charter and Technical Schools did not meet the conditions set for its funding and also did not comply with state law in calculating daily attendance.
The auditor also claims that Twin Rivers Unified School District failed to provide sufficient oversight of the charter school.
According to the audit, Highlands receives K-12 funding despite serving adult students under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. According to the school’s website, it serves adults ages 22 and up at no cost, providing a high school diploma program, English language classes and career technical education.
“By not offering the required amount of instruction at the schoolsite, requiring students to attend class at the schoolsite for the minimum amount of time required by law, or meeting requirements for nonclassroom-based instruction, HCCS was not eligible to receive the $177 million in K–12 funding it received in fiscal years 2022–23 and 2023–24. Further, Highlands received more than an estimated $5 million in overpayments, of which $3.5 million is in addition to the $177 million in disallowed funding, by not complying with state law in calculating its average daily attendance,” the audit states.
The audit also alleges that Highlands engaged in “questionable transactions,” including violating prohibitions against gifts of public funds, not seeking board approval for some contracts and purchases, lacked clear hiring and compensation policies, hired and promoted unqualified individuals and in one instance, entered a contract for mentor services with the spouse of a Highlands director.
The auditor’s report also indicates poor student performance under Highlands.
“HCCS had a graduation rate of 2.8 percent in fiscal year 2023–24,” the audit noted. “CDE determined that Highlands’ schools’ graduation rates were so low that they dropped the overall statewide graduation rate for the 2023–24 school year by more than half of a percentage point, from 87 percent to 86.4 percent.”
One possible reason for the poor student performance, the audit posits, is the student-to-teacher ratio, which was about 51 students for every one teacher.
Euroweenies: Lift the seige of Gaza or we’ll recognize a Palestinian state. Israel: I guess we’ll just have to occupy all of Gaza.
“Majority of Senate Dems Vote to Block Arms Sales to Israel.” Hatred of Israel (and, indeed, all Jews) is a central belief for the Democrat Party’s ideological core.
Vice President JD Vance has weighed in on the left’s demented response to American Eagle’s Sydney Sweeney ads and their unhinged claims that the “good jeans” pun is really Nazi eugenics propaganda.
“My political advice to the Democrats is continue to tell everybody who thinks Sydney Sweeney is attractive is a Nazi,” Vance joked in an appearance on the “Ruthless” podcast Friday.
“That appears to be their actual strategy,” Vance further highlighted, adding “It actually reveals something pretty interesting about the Dems, though.”
Which is that you have like a normal, all-American beautiful girl doing like a normal jeans ad, right?” The Vice President continued, “To try to sell, you know, sell jeans to kids in America, and they have managed to so unhinge themselves over this thing.”
“You guys, did you learn nothing from the November 2024 election?” An exasperated Vance asked.
“Like, I actually thought that one of the lessons they might take is we’re going to be less crazy,” he continued.
“The lesson they have apparently taken is we’re going to attack people as Nazis for thinking Sydney Sweeney is beautiful,” Vance urged.
“Great strategy, guys. That’s how you’re going to win the midterms. Especially young American men,” he further emphasised.
“Their course correction lasted about 30 seconds,” Ruthless co-host Josh Holmes chimed in.
“That’s right, [it] lasted 30 seconds, somehow has gotten even crazier,” Vance responded, adding “it’s just so much of the Democrats is oriented around hostility to basic American life.”
Judge Carlos Barrera has refused to move former Army Sergeant Daniel Perry’s “deadly conduct” case from Travis County’s criminal court despite concerns that he cannot be guaranteed a fair jury trial.
A Travis County jury had previously sentenced Perry to 25 years in prison for murder after District Attorney Jose Garza prosecuted Perry for shooting and killing an armed Black Lives Matter protester. The event occurred in July 2020 during a protest in downtown Austin. Gov. Greg Abbott pardoned Perry in May 2024.
However, even if a person is pardoned for a felony, they can still be prosecuted by the county attorney for additional misdemeanors stemming from the same incident.
Thus, Perry is still being prosecuted for his actions, this time for “deadly conduct,” a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. Travis County Attorney Delia Garza’s Office—which is prosecuting Perry for this lesser charge—claims that the use of his vehicle leading up to the 2020 altercation endangered bystanders. Perry was driving for Uber at the time of the event.
Soros-backed DA Jose Garza evidently finds it intolerable that an armed citizen was allowed to exercise their right to self-defense against a leftist member of a “protected class,” double-jeopardy be damned…
SNL loses money? “CNBC revealed SNL, Fallon and Meyers lose a combined $100 million a year, Thompson said, ‘(Lorne Michaels) cant keep doing that forever.” (Hat tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.)
Loni Anderson, RIP. Whatever her personal life (she was married four times, divorced three, and Burt Reynolds complained that she almost sucked his bank account dry), she was great on WKRP in Cincinnati.
In the end, Black said he was able to settle the conflict and postpone any bloodshed without any deaths by simply explaining the situation to Obama and Clinton.
At publishing time, the body of Vinny Black had reportedly been found dumped in a ditch on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., with authorities quickly ruling his death a suicide.
