Posts Tagged ‘Crime’

Houston Judge Bonds Out Accused Cop Killer

Thursday, February 27th, 2025

I’ll take “things that never used to happen for $800,” Alex.

A capital murder suspect charged in the killing of a Harris County sheriff’s deputy was released on bond Tuesday even though prosecutors had requested that he be held without bond last year.

According to records from the Harris County District Clerk’s Office, Judge Hilary Unger of the 248th District Criminal Court set bonds for Dremone Eugene Francis, age 27, at $500,000 for Capital Murder and $500,000 for Tampering with Evidence.

I know you’ll be shocked to learn that Unger is a Democrat.

Francis is one of two suspects in the murder of Harris County Sheriff’s Deputy Fernando Esqueda that took place in July 2024. Esqueda and several other officers responded to an incident at a pizzeria where suspect Ronnie Palmer was reportedly angered that his food did not look like its advertisement and had allegedly pistol-whipped an employee before fleeing.

Police tracked Palmer using Flock cameras, but as Esqueda sat in an unmarked vehicle observing Palmer and another suspect, he was ambushed and killed. Investigators found 41 spent casings at the scene. Both Palmer and Frances were charged with Capital Murder.

Palmer is being held without bond.

Records indicate Francis had been given “unsatisfactory termination of probation” in 2022 for charges related to the manufacture and delivery of a controlled substance. Unsatisfactory terminations have at times been awarded to suspects in Harris County even if they have not complied with the terms of their probation.

So not only was the accused cop-killer walking around as free as a bird, he had done so despite not meeting the terms of his parole. He was out there drinking or drugging or whatever, the Harris County criminal system just went “Nah, it’ll be fine.”

The Harris County Deputies Organization lambasted Unger in a social media statement and said, “We are outraged that Dremone Francis, a man charged with Capital Murder in the death of Deputy Fernando Esqueda, has been given bond.”

“He has a criminal history of breaking parole conditions and is free.”

Rafael LeMaitre, a spokesperson for new Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare and formerly employed by Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, blamed former District Attorney Kim Ogg. He said that prosecutors had failed to follow through on a request for no bond with a hearing, “so the court could not lawfully hold him at no bond.”

Teare, of course, is a full-blown Soros-backed radical leftist DA.

Ogg told The Texan that her office always filed motions asking for a hearing but that it was up to the judge to set the hearing and a trial.

Harris County’s bail bond practices were featured in a recent Texas Senate committee hearing on bail reform measures introduced by Sen. Joan Huffman (R-Houston).

Huffman cited research indicating that since 2021 there had been 162 homicide cases filed in the county for which the defendant was out on bond at the time of the murder.

So 162 people are dead because Harris County’s SJW-infected court system feels more sympathy for criminals that check the right “diversity” boxes than it does law-abiding citizens or policemen.

Back in The Bad Old Times, accused cop killers rarely even made it to court to get bonded out, just about all coming down with terminal cases of He Reached For A Gun. (In Homicide, David Simon talks about a police officer being ostracized by fellow cops for letting a cop-killer surrender.) In the Not Quite So Bad Times before social justice, a normal judge would never even think about bonding out an accused cop killer absent some pretty extreme circumstances.

Then again, up until the last decade or so, “Defund the Police” would have been as an insane idea outside the fever marches of the far left. But the social justice fever marches now control the Democratic Party (thanks to George Soros and Barack Obama), so a Harris County judge feels no compunction about letting an accused cop killer bond out.

Colony Ridge Swept For Illegal Alien Criminals

Tuesday, February 25th, 2025

Remember how three illegal aliens were arrested in Colony Ridge for carrying 350 pounds of meth in last week’s LinkSwarm? That, and the Trump Administration’s crackdown on illegal alien felons, finally seems to have prodded authorities into launching a crackdown on illegal alien and cartel-infested Colony Ridge.

Gov. Greg Abbott announced that federal authorities and state law enforcement would be targeting criminal illegal aliens in the Colony Ridge development north of Houston.

Abbott said the operation had been in the works with President Donald Trump’s Border Czar Tom Homan for several months.

It’s great to have an administration willing to work with Texas to enforce the law, rather than break it.

“Texas DPS Troopers & Special Agents are assisting Homeland Security Investigations, with an operation in Colony Ridge this morning. They are targeting criminals & illegal immigrants,” wrote Gov. Abbott on X.

The Colony Ridge development has been the subject of controversy, with critics accusing the developer of attracting a large population of illegal aliens by advertising in Spanish on social media and offering predatory loans that require no social security number.

As of publication, the extent of the enforcement action is not clear. DPS vehicles were visibly patrolling and conducting traffic stops in the area.

Numerous criminal illegal aliens have been arrested in Colony Ridge in recent years as the settlement has exploded in size. Last December, an illegal alien smuggler was arrested there for his role in the deaths of 50 people.

The Biden Administration just brought in the very best people.

Last month, an illegal alien was sentenced to 50 years in prison for his role in the murder of 16-year-old Emily Patricia in Colony Ridge.

That Colony Ridge was allowed to metastasize as a crime-ridden illegal alien settlement for so long, despite the Texas Public Policy Foundation sounding the alarm all the way back in 2020, is no credit to the state political establishment. But now that the State of Texas is aware of it, and Trump is back in the White House and ready to do what it takes to control the border, the problem is finally being addressed.

Let a thousand deportations bloom…

Follow-Up: The Texan reports that 118 people were arrested in the raid.

The Decline Of Johannesburg

Saturday, February 22nd, 2025

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

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

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

    LinkSwarm For February 21, 2025

    Friday, February 21st, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    The result?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    People need to go to jail.

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

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

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

    Every. Single. One.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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





    DOGE Vs. The Vampire Menace

    Monday, February 17th, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    LinkSwarm For February 14, 2025

    Friday, February 14th, 2025

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

    It’s the Friday LinkSwarm!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Snip.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Let the prosecutions begin.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Judge McConnell certainly has stupidity inside him…

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

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

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

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

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

    Snip.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    “Buster” was busted yesterday.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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





    Tren de Aragua Sex Trafficking Ringleaders Arrested In Houston

    Thursday, February 13th, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Snip.

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Five Accused Murderers All Out On Bail

    Sunday, February 9th, 2025

    Travis County having a Soros-backed DA just keeps garnering dividends. And by “dividends” I mean “dead bodies.”

    Austin police said all five men arrested for the November 2024 murder of Xavier Jones were out on bond at the time of the killing.

    Community leaders are outraged and are calling for reform.

    Six people are behind bars facing capital murder charges.

    Austin police said Jon Willard was the planner and leader of the operation. They said he wanted to rob Xavier Jones for his money and a watch, but Willard was on a court-ordered GPS tracking device, so he brought up the idea to his known gang associates, Judaren Forbes, Lorance Jones, Corey Keazer, and Cameron Perkins.

    Investigators said they started two weeks of planning, which included conducting surveillance on Xavier Jones’ home and at least one failed attempt.

    The Austin Police Department is investigating an overnight homicide at an apartment complex in the 400 block of East Wonsley Drive.

    The area is heavily Hispanic, and that “Highland North” neighborhood ranks as one of the most dangerous areas of Austin.

    On the night of Nov. 25, 2024, police said Lorance Jones’ girlfriend, Rhianna Farillas, drove at least three of the men to Xavier Jones’ home.

    When they got there, investigators said the men shot through the sliding glass door, hitting Xavier Jones, then one of the men held a gun to Xavier Jones’ girlfriend’s head, another pointed a gun at her child, and another took money and a watch off Xavier Jones’ wrist.

    Jones died from his injuries, police said.

    Surveillance, cell phones, social media, and even a court-appointed GPS tracking device connected the suspects to the murder.

    Committing murder while wearing a GPS tracker indicates that we’re not exactly dealing with the creme de la creme of criminal masterminds here.

    They are known to Austin police as documented gang members and four previous violent cases show the men working together.

    The suspects are being held in the Travis County Jail. Their bonds range from $75,000 to $500,000.

    “Gangs exist for the purpose of terrorizing communities, of committing crimes with impunity and of operating outside the law. So, you know, I wish this district attorney would take gang activity seriously,” Save Austin Now Matt Mackowiak said, “That’d be a great place to start if you just took gang members off the streets. By convicting them when they commit a crime, which is what they do, you would have our crime rate go down considerably because a huge percentage of the crime that’s occurring in Austin right now and across Travis County is habitual offenders.”

    During the incident, all five men were out on bond.

    The gang had another accomplice making sure they were on the streets where they could kill people: Soros-backed prosecutor Jose Garza. Since getting into office, Garza has instituted a revolving door policy to put violent felons back on the streets due to “social justice” or other left-wing garbage ideas. And just this week we found up that taxpayer money was illegally being used to help elect Soros prosecutors.

    Until Garza is defeated, or federal and state pressure is brought to bear to clean up the mess, expect more revolving door murders.

    LinkSwarm For February 7, 2025

    Friday, February 7th, 2025

    I’m pretty much over my cold, except the occasional cough and continued draining of the Strategic Mucus Reserve.

    The USAID revelation continues, with every left-wing, anti-American cause getting their snout into the trough of taxpayer money. Plus blows against the illegal alien and tranny pander brigades. It’s the Friday LinkSwarm!

  • Second Amendment advocates have long know that “Everytown for Gun Safety” was, like all the other branches of the Brady Bunch hydra, pure Astrotruf, but thanks to database revelations, we now know that taxpayers were footing the bill.

    Have you ever heard of NEO Philanthropy? They’re a left-wing group that has been around for more than 40 years. NEO wants folks to believe it is a partnership between “changemakers and funders.” They claim to provide “resources to groups accelerating change.” Race, gender and DEI are huge for them, but guns are a problem.

    An incredible website database has outed NEO Philanthropy’s actual duties, and those of thousands of other similar groups. NEO, it turns out, is nothing more than a middleman. It receives money and funnels some of it to Everytown for Gun Safety as well as other leftwing, anti-gun groups.

    The website database is called DataRepublican.com, and it will forever change the way nonprofits handle their funding, especially those on the left.

    Snip.

    On Wednesday, pro-gun official Hannah Hill “exposed taxpayer money flowing to Bloomberg gun control orgs.”

    The next day, she used the website to link USAID funds that went to Everytown, Giffords and more gun-control organizations.

    (Hat tip: Blog commenter 10x25mm.)

  • George Soros got his nose in the trough as well. Who was bankrolling the campaign to appoint pro-crime Soros DAs? You were.

    Beginning about a decade ago, George Soros began funding campaigns for people who became known as the “Soros prosecutors.” Local prosecutorial races, which once had a few thousand spent on them, suddenly started seeing hundreds of thousands, and even millions of dollars pouring in, totaling about $50 million to elect 75 prosecutors nationwide.

    Every one of those prosecutors is a radical leftist who immediately set about remaking the local justice system in accordance with leftist values: Criminals are victims of the system and should not be prosecuted; Republicans are enemies of the people and should be prosecuted. Some of these prosecutors are wreaking havoc on a scale that doesn’t make the news; others have done such horrible things that their names hit the headlines:

    Kim Gardner, the woman who used false charges to destroy Eric Greitens, Missouri’s Republican governor, and whose tenure was distinguished by slandering the police, violating open records laws, persecuting the McCloskeys for defending their property against BLM rioters, discriminating against employees on racial grounds, and letting the most egregious criminals walk free.

    Lawrence Krasner, the Philadelphia DA who just promised to prosecute the pardoned January 6ers. He couldn’t name a crime, though. He seemed to be operating on the Lavrentiy Beria principle of “show me the man, and I’ll show you the crime.”

    Andrew Warren, the Florida prosecutor who announced that he would no longer prosecute entire categories of criminal activities because he didn’t like the Florida laws. Governor Ron DeSantis fired him.

    George Gascón, a District Attorney who managed to break both the San Francisco and Los Angeles criminal justice systems. He was finally voted out of office in L.A. this past November.

    Kimberly Foxx, the Cook County Chicago prosecutor who turned the criminal justice system into a revolving door, creating a staggering wave of violence in already beleaguered Chicago.

    And then there’s Manhattan’s Alvin Bragg, who brought an utterly spurious and quite obviously political case against Donald Trump for allegedly criminal hush money payments to Stormy Daniels.

    Without exception, the Soros prosecutors, most of whom received money from the Tides organizations, have been disastrous for their communities and, in Bragg’s case, for America as a whole. (Although one could argue that Bragg’s manifest political persecution of Donald Trump helped return Trump to the White House, which, to date, has been an incredibly good thing.)

    Thus, there’s a straight line from Soros to Tides to corrupt prosecutors.

    But what does this have to do with USAID? Well, back in October 2020, when no one was paying too much attention (COVID, BLM, the election), and USAID-funded mainstream media outlets were busy quashing stories that harmed Democrat interests, USAID was Funding the Tides Center:

    Nearly $170 million in government grants has passed through a liberal dark money behemoth that houses numerous left-wing groups, including the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, tax forms show.

    The taxpayer-funded grants were disbursed to groups through the Tides Center, a San Francisco-based nonprofit incubator that wealthy liberal donors use to bankroll progressive causes. A number of radical left-wing groups have fallen under the auspices of the Tides Center, which acts as a “fiscal sponsor” to nonprofits by providing its 501(c)(3) tax and legal status. This arrangement lets the groups under its umbrella avoid registering with the IRS.

    [snip]

    [Scott] Walter [president of the Capitol Research Center] noted that the Tides Center’s recipient profile on USASpending.gov, which posts government grants, shows $34 million in federal funding since 2008. The grants were primarily from the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Department of Health and Human Services.

  • And Stephen Green discovered that USAID was also funding #BlackLivesMatter so they could help burn down your city.
  • More USAID revelations.

    The Daily Mail assembled a helpful list of examples of USAID’s hard-left blank check policy. This list includes:

    • $30 million to study HIV in Africa among sex workers and so-called “transgender” people.
    • $38 million to the Wuhan Institute of Virology and other Chinese research labs.
    • $1.5 million to an LGBTQ+ group in Serbia.
    • $2.5 million for electric vehicles for Vietnam, with only one battery station built.
    • Money for a “trans” care clinic in Vietnam.
    • $25,000 for a “trans” opera in Colombia
    • $32,000 for “trans” comic books in Peru.
    • $500,000 to expand atheism in Nepal.

    The Clinton Foundation was also a huge USAID winner:

    Plus more about how Trump’s actions are legal and constitutional.

  • Biden Admin Filled Terrorist Coffers With Over $1,300,000,000 Before Trump Took Wrecking Ball To Foreign Aid.”

    More than $1.3 billion in taxpayer funds from the Biden administration ended up helping groups that sponsored or committed terrorism.

    Federal watchdog reports and other documents show former President Joe Biden’s aid programs funneled the money toward a network of terrorism in the Muslim world — largely by reversing Trump-era policies.

    Snip.

    The Biden administration gave $1,053,400,000 in taxpayer money to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which claims to help war-afflicted Palestinian civilians but is tied to terrorists fighting Israel, according to U.S. and Israeli intelligence. Biden reversed a Trump-era ban on UNRWA funding in 2021 but brought back the ban last year after Israel accused UNWRA workers of participating in Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.

    Intelligence officials later revealed that more than 1,000 UNRWA employees, or around 10%, were linked to the groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, according to documents found on the bodies of dead terrorists and other evidence. A dozen took part in the Oct. 7 massacre, including a Hamas commander who was teaching in elementary school for UNRWA and led a siege against an Israeli kibbutz that killed almost 100 people.

    UNWRA’s schools have long used curriculum for Palestinian children that glorifies terrorists and martyrdom, a March 2023 report from UN Watch found.

    The curriculum comes from the Palestinian Authority (PA), a governing body in the West Bank that the Biden administration considered more friendly to American interests than Hamas. The PA also made a profit from Biden’s presidency despite its program that pays Palestinians and their families as a reward for acts of terror against Jews.

    Trump and Congress passed a law in 2018 blocking economic support funds for the PA due to its program. Trump later paused all remaining funding for the PA before Biden took office and resumed it.

    The Biden administration in part revived the economic support fund that Trump’s law restricts. The State Department claimed in documents from 2021 that “most” of the money did not “directly benefit the PA” in violation of the law. However, officials sent $265 million straight to the PA for its “security forces and justice sector institutions” throughout Biden’s presidency, according to the Congressional Research Service.

    Under Biden, the PA agreed to pay more than $97 million to reward the perpetrators of the Oct. 7 attacks, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

  • The terrorism funding corruption also extended to the Treasure Department.

    So Treasury official David A. Lebryk resigned rather than testifying. Sounds like he should be subpoenaed and/or indicted…

  • Another media beneficiary of USAID taxpayer subsidies: Christianity Today. Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and also render unto Caesar what is God’s…as long as Caesar is paying you enough.
  • Radical Vegan Transgender Cult Implicated in Border Agent’s Death. UPDATE: Landlord ‘Impaled With a Sword’ by ‘Vegan Sith’ Cult Member.”

    You’ve never heard of the “Zizians,” and neither had I until this afternoon, but you’re probably going to be hearing a lot more about them now that this weirdo California cult has been connected to the shootout in Vermont last week that left a Border Patrol agent dead. Credit to Andy Ngo for putting together the pieces of this bizarre puzzle. When the shootout went down in Vermont on January 20, the initial reports were very thin, but piece by piece, we’ve learned more about the two suspects, Teresa Youngblut, a 21-year-old from Seattle, and Felix Bauckholt, a math genius from Germany who had worked in the financial industry on an H1B visa. About seven months ago, Youngblut’s parents had reported her missing, saying she had cut off contact with them and they were concerned she might be in a coercive relationship. The police didn’t do anything, saying that as an adult, she couldn’t be considered a runaway.

    Youngblut and Bauckholt showed up in Vermont a couple of weeks ago and attracted suspicion because they were wearing black “tactical” gear and Youngblut had a pistol in a visible holster. Eventually, this led to an attempted traffic stop on I-91 in which both Youngblut and Bauckholt pulled pistols. Bauckholt was killed in the resulting shootout, but Younglut survived and will face charges.

    Then it gets weird…

  • Pam Bondi was confirmed as Trump’s attorney general.
  • And Bondi wasted no time in freezing all funding for sanctuary cities.

    The Department of Justice will ensure that, consistent with law, ‘sanctuary jurisdictions’ do not receive access to Federal funds from the Department,’ Bondi’s first-day memo says.

    ‘Consistent with applicable statutes, regulations, court orders, and terms, the Department of Justice shall pause the distribution of all funds until a review has been completed, terminate any agreements that are in violation of law or are the source of waste, fraud, or abuse, and initiate clawback or recoupment procedures, where appropriate.’

  • In fact, the DOJ has already sued Chicago, Illinois, and various officials over their sanctuary city laws.

    It’s no secret that Chicago has forsaken its own low-income residents to virtue signal as a so-called ‘sanctuary city’ for illegal immigrants – to the point where local residents have been excoriating city officials during official meetings, and major businesses such as Ken Griffin’s Citadel moved to Miami due to the city devolving into “Afghanistan.”

    Now, the Trump DOJ is suing Chicago, the state of Illinois, local officials over laws creating said ‘sanctuary,’ and have accused the defendants of impeding federal immigration enforcement efforts. In their complaint, the DOJ has asked a judge to declare the state and local measures unconstitutional due to the federal government’s supremacy.

    One of the laws challenged by the Wednesday lawsuit prohibits officials from complying with federal immigration detainers and providing certain information about noncitizens.

    “The challenged provisions of Illinois, Chicago, and Cook County law reflect their intentional effort to obstruct the Federal Government’s enforcement of federal immigration law and to impede consultation and communication between federal, state, and local law enforcement officials that is necessary for federal officials to carry out federal immigration law and keep Americans safe,” reads the lawsuit.

    Named in the case are Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D), Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D), as well as the city’s police superintendent and other city officials.

    The case, filed in federal court in Chicago, marks one of the first major cases brought by the Trump administration in such a case, and comes after the Wednesday confirmation of Attorney General Pam Bondi, who issued a same-day memo restricting sanctuary cities from accessing DOJ funds.

  • I have to admit I have no clue what Trump is thinking when he announced we’ll be taking over the Gaza strip.

    The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it, too. We’ll own it, and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangers, unexploded bombs, and other weapons on the site, level the site, and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area.

    Trump’s affinity for beachfront property aside, I don’t see how rebuilding Gaza is a proper use of American tax dollars.

  • “Trump Withdraws From UN Human Rights Council, Ends Funding To UNRWA.”
  • Ukraine launches new Kursk counteroffensive. More.
  • Remember Saturday Night Live‘s Walker Brigade? Well, evidently the Russian army is sending wounded soldiers with canes back to the front lines.
  • Ukraine hit yet another Russian oil refinery, this one in Volgograd.
  • Sudden Putin Death Syndrome strike again. “Russian singer who donated to Ukraine and called Putin an ‘idiot’ mysteriously falls to his death from a window.” (Hat tip: Dwight.)
  • Kamala Harris team lied about Joe Rogan’s attempt to get her on his show. Of course they did. The whole campaign was built on lies and an attempt to install Harris in the White House without enduring any scrutiny from voters.
  • Speaking of which, remember when CBS swore up and down they didn’t deceptively edit the Kamala Harris video They lied.
  • Winning. “President Trump Signs Executive Order Barring Men from Women’s Sports.”

    On Wednesday, National Girls and Women in Sports Day, President Donald Trump signed an executive order barring men from women’s sports through Title IX, withholding funding from universities that insist on allowing male athletes to encroach on women’s competition.

    The order will also empower women who are forced to compete against men to sue their schools and directs the Department of Homeland Security to deny visa applications from foreign athletes who identify themselves as the opposite sex in order to compete in the U.S.

    At the signing ceremony, Trump specifically cited the importance of protecting female athletes at the upcoming 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles and the World Cup.

    “My administration will not stand by and watch men beat and batter female athletes. We’re just not going to let it happen,” Trump said.

    J.K. Rowling had something to say about it as well:

  • Moreover, the NCAA has quickly fallen in line.
  • However, Arlington Public Schools in Virginia are still committed to letting men use 6he little girl’s room.
  • Our vile media: “Newsweek runs puff piece on gender transition of man who held family hostage, raped them, and killed their kids.
  • More dictates from the Texas House Cabal: “Speaker Burrows Confirms House Rules Were Written by Democrat Lawyer. The new rules mandate that all House committee vice-chairs be Democrats and expand their authority.”
  • Follow-up: Charges against Aaron Dunn and Wallis Nader, two of the Lina Hidalgo’s aides indicted for vote rigging, have been been dismissed by the Texas Office of the Attorney General, and a third against Alex Triantaphyllis is expected to be dismissed as well, though it’s unclear why.
  • Annals of doomed business decisions: Two women in Austin plan to open an all women’s sports bar in March. A place in Australia tried to do that and closed in five months.
  • Crappy made in China parts kill your Toyota.”
  • Has the CROATOAN mystery been solved?
  • “Trump Becomes First Fascist In History To Reduce Size Of Government.”
  • “Democrats Warn Trump’s Unelected Shadow Government Is Dismantling Their Unelected Shadow Government.”
  • “Illegal Immigrants Helpfully Wave Flags So ICE Knows Where To Send Them.”
  • “World Health Organization Warns Trump Funding Cuts May Delay Release Of New Pandemic.”
  • “Hungover Mark Cuban Wakes Up Hoping He Didn’t Make Any Dumb Basketball Trades Last Night.”
  • Acute hearing:

    (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)

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





    Band Dads Thwart Active Shooter In Pasadena

    Monday, February 3rd, 2025

    Here’s a heartwarming story of a mass shooting that wasn’t thanks to quick thinking by four band dads.

    PASADENA, Texas – A group of four tactically-trained band dads jumped into action Saturday and apprehended an active shooter at a band competition at Pasadena Memorial High school.

    Pasadena ISD officials said a man in his 80s with a gun entered the school between 5-6 p.m. and fired two shots. One hit a door and another struck a 26-year-old victim in the shoulder, who the Angelton ISD says is a percussion technical consultant for Angleton High School.

    Later on it says “Pasadena Police identified the suspect as 83-year-old Dennis Brandl of Spring.” It’s extremely unusual for an active shooter to be that old.

    Officials say the victim was flown to a nearby hospital and is expected to be okay.

    After the shots rang out, the band dads jumped in.

    The four are 13-year Air Force vet Abram Trevino, 13-year Army vet Adam Curow, 4-year Marine vet Efrain (Polo) Castillo and 32-year Houston Police Sergeant Joe Sanchez.

    “As soon as everyone was screaming and yelling, gunshots fired, Joe and myself looked at each other and ran straight to the door. By the time we got inside, Polo and Abram were right behind us as a band dad team,” said Curow.

    The four say they and two other men took the suspect down to the ground and restrained him.

    “I grabbed his arms while Adam took the gun out. Once the gun was removed from his hands, we had no handcuffs, so I took my belt off and made a handcuff,” said Sgt. Sanchez.

    The four worked together to keep the suspect restrained until law enforcement arrived.

    Sometimes all it takes is being in the right place at the right time with the right mindset.

    The MSM loves to report on successful mass shootings to further their gun control agenda of mass civilian disarmament, but pays far less attention when one is thwarted. Civil society needs sheepdogs to protect against the wolves. Parents and students alike were very lucky they had sheepdogs among them ready and willing to act.

    Now would be a good time once again to re-familiarize yourself with Karl Rehn’s advice on what to do when faced with an active shooter.