Posts Tagged ‘Social Justice Warriors’

Fort Worth ISD Bets On “Equity,” Loses

Monday, September 30th, 2024

There’s a recurring pattern where conservatives point out the obvious negative effects of leftwing policies, Democrats ignore them, and then are stunned by the obvious, foreseeable consequences of their actions. Be it the inflation from deficit spending and flu manchu shutdowns to Austin’s decision to let drug addict transients camp in the streets increasing the number of drug addicted transients camping in the streets, leftists are constantly making things worse and then throwing up their hands and proclaiming “How could I have possibly known?”

Which brings us to Fort Worth ISD. In 2022, over protesting parents, they hired a social justice superintendent eager to impose DEI on the district.

As parents fight back against racist ideologies in their children’s schools, Fort Worth ISD’s newly minted superintendent, Dr. Angélica Ramsey, announced at a breakfast meeting that the system needs to be “reinvented” because “the truth is that black, brown, and poor kids in this country do not get the education they deserve because we’re in a system that wasn’t built for us.”

According to Ramsey, who has a history of supporting the “diversity, equity, and inclusion” agenda, “we integrated into their system, not the other way around.”

Ramsey’s 2013 doctoral dissertation on “the experiences of Latina principals in both established and burgeoning Latina/o communities in raising Latina/o achievement” promotes her research as “championing the causes of equity and student success for all with a social justice agenda.”

Meanwhile, Fort Worth ISD’s student test scores are declining, yet Ramsey called parents and citizens concerned with her overarching agenda “haters,” promising to “keep pushing forward” with her radical policies.

“Superintendent Ramsey has shown her true ideological colors,” said local Fort Worth activist Carlos Turcios. “It’s strange how she has said she would listen to every parent, yet she attacks conservatives for being haters and being afraid.”

Naturally, she also wanted to impose transsexual gender fluidity ideology on the district.

So how hiring Ramsey work out for them?

Exactly like you would expect.

Fort Worth Independent School District Superintendent Angélica Ramsey has resigned following parental and teacher outrage at her leadership over the past two years.

In an 8-1 vote Tuesday night, the Fort Worth ISD Board of Trustees agreed to accept Ramsey’s resignation. Trustee Camille Rodriguez was the lone dissenting voice.

Trustees hired Ramsey to lead Fort Worth ISD in 2022 and set her salary at $335,000. Her contract was scheduled to expire in July 2026.

The decision to accept Ramsey’s resignation came after a four-hour closed executive session with Fort Worth ISD attorneys.

During the meeting, Board President Roxanne Martinez said she supported Ramsey’s resignation following public comments by concerned residents and teachers.

“The board will, of course, be moving forward with our commitment and focus on student outcomes and improving student achievement,” said Martinez.

Questions arose about Ramsey’s performance after Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker sent a letter and spoke to the board last month to discuss the district’s failings.

According to Parker, standardized test data from spring 2024 showed that Fort Worth ISD trailed 11 percentage points behind Dallas ISD, 14 points behind Houston ISD, and 18 behind Brownsville ISD.

I would say that Forth Worth ISD trailing Houston ISD is especially shocking, but to my surprise Fort Worth ISD and Houston ISD now have broadly similar demographics, each with over 60% Hispanic students. Hispanics have increased from just under 20% to 35% of Fort Worth’s population since 1990.

During last week’s board meeting, residents and teachers spoke to the board, expressing their outrage with Ramsey’s leadership, accusing her of creating a toxic environment and failing Fort Worth students.

One mother said she had warned the board about Ramsey’s prior performance at Midland ISD before her hiring. Ramsey led Midland ISD for only a year before breaking her contract and moving to Fort Worth.

“What would have happened if the things that I told you, you would’ve listened, what would happen to our students?” asked mom Hollie Plemons. “I gave all of you the data on Midland before she came here, before you gave her a contract, before the 21 days was up, before it had even started. They were an F-rated school. Their school had worse scores than we did. You hired her [Ramsey] based on equity, not merits, and look where it’s gotten us.”

Fort Worth had the opportunity to focus on academic excellence, or focus on social justice, and they chose social justice, and reaped the inevitable falling test scores that decision entailed. What did they think was going to happen?

Social justice is a racist, sexist, anti-American, anti-Enlightenment, anti-reality ideology designed to weaponize white guilt, empower the far left and destroy everything it touches. Advocating for it should be immediately disqualifying for any management or supervisory position.

Pink slip by pink slip, progress is made…

Paxton Sues Biden Admin Over Gender Madness Yet Again

Saturday, September 28th, 2024

If you’ve been reading this blog any length of time, you know that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has been suing the Biden Administration for both dereliction of federal duties and regulatory overreach. The latter has included several lawsuits against the Biden Administration over their attempts to impose a radical transexual agenda via judicial fiat, and on this front Paxton has just filed another one, this time over the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Texas and 16 other states sued the Biden administration, accusing it of attempting to unlawfully rewrite a federal disability law to include “gender dysphoria” in a newly approved rule.

The lawsuit was filed on September 26 against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the charge that its rule “upends decades of established federal disability law” by redefining “gender dysphoria” as a disability under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the ADA were signed into law in 1977. Section 504 states, “No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States … shall, solely by reason of his or her disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under … any program or activity conducted by any Executive agency…”

According to the lawsuit, Section 504 “prohibits ‘any program or activity’ that receives federal financial assistance from discriminating against a qualified individual with a disability.”

The ADA defines a disability as “a physical or mental impairment that constitutes or results in a substantial impediment to employment.”

The HHS issued a rule in May titled “Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government,” which included a change to Section 504 that states gender dysphoria “may be a disability.”

It determined that any “restrictions that prevent, limit, or interfere with otherwise qualified individuals’ access to care due to their gender dysphoria, gender dysphoria diagnosis, or perception of gender dysphoria, may violate section 504.”

However, Attorney General Ken Paxton’s lawsuit asserts that when Congress enacted Section 504 and the ADA in the 70s, “it established as a matter of law that ‘transvestism, transsexualism . . . [and] gender identity disorders not resulting from physical impairments, or other sexual behavior disorders,’ are not protected disabilities.”

The lawsuit additionally seeks to have a 2002 amendment to Section 504, “Nondiscrimination Under Federal Grants and Programs,” declared unconstitutional, claiming it “applies with extreme breadth” to any “program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance,” meaning all recipients of Federal funds are subject to compliance to the Rehabilitation Act.

The court documents allege that the HHS rule “exposes” the 17 states and their agencies to “loss of federal funding.”

“The Biden Administration is once again abusing executive action to sidestep federal law and force unscientific, unfounded gender ideology onto the public,” Paxton said in a press release.

Funny how a man pretending to be a woman is simultaneously both a powerful personal statement of individuality that requires large companies to demand people use officially sanctioned pronouns and a mental illness that requires the federal government to invoke the ADA to remove federal funds unless targeted political enemies bow down to radical transsexual social justice. The answer appears to change depending on whichever is most useful for radical leftwing Democrats to force ordinary Americans to bend to their will.

Paxton has won several previous lawsuits on the issue, and I expect him to win this one as well.

The Creepy Commie Origins of Kamala’s Catchphrase

Tuesday, September 24th, 2024

Chris Williamson, as part of a longer interview with Eric Weinstein, asks what he thinks of Kamala’s vacuous, much-repeated phrase “What can be, unburdened by what has been.”

He traces it directly back to Marxist thought.

  • EW: “There’s a line in Marx where [pause] Sometimes you hear certain phrases Like ‘A World to Win.’ AOC uses the phrase ‘We Have A World to Win,’ which comes from the end of The Communist Manifesto.”
  • EW: “It basically says you have to wipe out what has been to arrive in the new. And where’s it from what can be unburdened by what has been. It’s not a direct translation, but it occurs in Karl Marx.”
  • EW: “If you think about what Mao had to do to wipe out Chinese history, what Pol Pot had to do, you’re trying to wipe out memory, because the memory has all of this burden.”
  • EW: “Why do you think is it important to go after doctors and lawyers and teachers and professors? Because in some sense they are going to resist the New Order that you’re about to impose. You’re looking for a blank slate.” That’s why after the Khmer Rouge took over, they called it “Year Zero.”
  • On a trip to Vietnam, Weinstein sees the complex Dan Bau musical instrument in a window.

    I become transfixed by it, and a woman says “I see you looking at this” in English. “Would you like to come in?” I said I don’t want to impose. She says “No, no, no, it’s not mine.” So she invites me in, and there’s this guy who appears to be brain dead. He’s like deformed. I’m not going to get through this. And he’s speaking very haltingly and I don’t know who he is. Something about music, something about journalism, something about a professional. I can’t really make out what’s happening. I’m asking about the instrument, and this woman brings him a guitar, and this deformed man starts playing some transcription, like Chopin, or some piano concerto on the guitar, at some incredible level. And I can’t even imagine that his body can do it, and so I have no idea where I am or what’s happening. And then he motions for like a book, and she brings a book. And it has all of these articles about this man tortured for his principled stand against communism. This man has been destroyed mind, body, to the point where it’s just painful to watch him.

  • Weinstein brings up the topic of a “nail house,” a house where the owner refuses to leave, so Chinese authorities literally build a road around their house.

    EW: “They’ll build a highway to screw over the person who stands up and says ‘I will not move,’ and the idea is that that road is the future unburdened by what has been, and then there’s some hold out who won’t go along with the program.” Or as the Maoist proverb puts it, “The nail that stands up shall be hammered down.”

  • Weinstein asks Williamson if he knows what Harris’ father did for a living. He does not, but we know that her father was a Marxist professor. “As a man whose family comes from the far left, you recognize certain sorts of commonalities.”
  • Weinstein asserts that the Democratic Party is not communist, “But it is welcomed in a lot of neo-Marxian thought.” I would go further and say that the current ideological core of the Democratic Party is are true believers in Marxist social justice. “I would say AOC is straight up Marxist. I think Kamala is everywhere between crony finance and Marxism.”
  • Williamson thinks Harris is “unsophisticated,” but Weinstein disagrees. “Nothing in politics happens by accident.”
  • I believe that most Americans would prefer not to live through a Khmer Rouge Year Zero.

    Democrats: Farming Illegal Aliens For Votes And Profit

    Monday, September 23rd, 2024

    The storyline that’s come out of the Democratic Party’s decision to flood Springfield, Ohio with illegal aliens from Haiti is them eating people’s pets, but the real storyline should be how Democrats destroy neighborhoods and displace locals for financial and political gain all over the country.

    Wall Street Journal reporter Asra Nomani has published a shocking report that could soon change the national discussion from Haitians and other migrants eating cats or dogs in Springfield, Ohio, to one that is more sinister: The hub of a complex “hidden human trafficking network” in the tiny rust belt town.

    “The story in this town is not about cats or dogs. It’s about mules. It’s a twin tragedy of migrant workers from Haiti exploited and locals from Springfield marginalized,” Nomani wrote in the Jewish Journal.

    She said, “Just about every week since 2019, First Diversity Staffing Group Inc. has shuttled vulnerable Haitian migrants in unmarked white Ford and Chevy vans from Florida to Ohio, where they are allegedly exploited for cheap labor by companies like Dole Food Company Inc.,” adding, “It is a secretive and sinister operation that has gone unchecked for more than five years.”

    Nomani provided an image of one of those vans owned by staffing companies that shuttles the migrants to factories.

    The ex-WSJ journo said ‘George Ten’, the alleged mastermind behind this scheme, lives in a mansion in rural Ohio. She continued, “His nickname is “King George” because of his opulent lifestyle of luxury cars, cash handouts, and fast talk. For years, he has operated his reign of alleged exploitation.”

    This is stunning, as Nomani noted:

    One Haitian man I interviewed asked to be anonymous for fear of retaliation and recalled how he was picked up by a driver for one of Ten’s vans on a street corner near a Winn-Dixie grocery store in Immokalee, Florida. After the long journey to Springfield, he was dropped off at a rundown home on Rice Street, infested with cockroaches. He soon found work through First Diversity at Jefferson Industries Corporation, earning $12.50 an hour; he didn’t know how much George skimmed off his wages. The home he lived in had no working heat, and he bought an electric heater to survive the cold Ohio winter, the heater barely heating his room.

    What essentially began as an unverified claim by Trump about migrants eating pets has led to the disturbing truth of alleged labor trafficking and modern-day slavery in Springfield. The Haitians, here legally, are being exploited by mega corporations…

    And it’s not just Ohio.

    What will also blow your mind is that this alleged labor trafficking network has possibly also surfaced in Charleroi, Pennsylvania.

    We cited a resident of the town, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. In a video, the resident revealed the complex network of staffing vans in a town that is 50% Haitian. The vans shuttle migrants back and forth to several food packaging plants.

    Funny how the Democratic Party, the supposed “friend of the working man” seems so intent on helping replace working Americans with illegal aliens.

    It’s not just Pennsylvania or Ohio, it’s all over the country.

    Bloomberg has unveiled one of the most detailed maps yet, showing where the 2023 migrant invasion has spread across the US, broken down on a county-by-county basis. The map, built on immigration court case data, highlights clusters of new migrant populations that primarily emerged across the eastern half of the nation. The question becomes if the federal government and a shadowy network of non-governmental organizations worked in unison to precision dump migrants in small towns and cities to replace native blue-collar workers.

    The data plotted on the map includes immigration court data showing where the 1.8 million migrants landed in the US and have since taken up residence. Notice massive clusters of new migrants across the Mid-Alantic and Northeast metro areas, as well as the Midwest and Rust Belt regions.

    “In the battleground states that will decide this November’s election, about 72% of migrants in 2023 went to Biden counties while less than a third went to Trump counties, the Bloomberg analysis found. Counties that voted for Biden four years ago are home to roughly 60% of the overall US population,” Bloomberg said. ‘

    More on how illegal aliens were used in Charleroi, PA.

    The story in Springfield, Ohio, and Charleroi, Pennsylvania, should not be about goat sacrifices and migrants eating cats and dogs. It’s more sinister than that. It’s about a much darker reality of an alleged large-scale human trafficking and labor exploitation network operated by mysterious staffing companies with dozens and dozens of passenger vans in what some have called “modern-day slavery.” These migrants are shuttled around to factories, displacing native-born workers.

    More:

    It seems like the Biden Administration and their shadowy network of NGO’s imported some 10 million illegal aliens into the country to provide cheap labor for big business.

    corporate interests have become deeply interconnected with immigration through a non-governmental organization called Tent Partnership for Refugees. This NGO comprises more than 400 major multinational companies committed to hiring “refugees.”

    Several NGO partnerships with mega corporations include RedRoof Inn, Royal Farms, Shopify, CSX, Delta Airlines, DoorDash, Etsy, and even Bloomberg.

    The NGO’s relationships run deeper than mega-corporations, in fact, all the way up to the Biden administration.

    In December of 2022, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed a memorandum of understanding with Tent Partnership to “expand economic opportunity for refugees” in the private sector.

    And what do Democrats get for letting all these illegal aliens in? Well, obviously they get to punish lots of blue collar workers for their “whiteness” and “clinging to their guns and religion.” And they get to rake off lots of NGO graft. And, of course, they expect illegal aliens to vote for Democrats, either illegally through voting fraud or legally via a mass amnesty.

    Forestalling illegal alien voting was part of rational behind the SAVE Act.

    The electorate is narrowly divided, and November’s presidential contest is likely to come down to the wire once again. Those in power are naturally tempted to secure an advantage — by any means necessary.

    That became clear Monday when the White House threatened to veto legislation intended to close a loophole allowing illegal aliens to register to vote. The loophole was created by what is known as the motor voter law, which forced states to allow mail-in voter registration in 1993.

    All one has to do is check a box that says “Are you a citizen of the United States of America?” on a federal form to be signed up. Though the form asks for more information, it’s optional.

    “If you do not have a driver’s license or a state-issued identification or a Social Security number, please write ‘NONE’ on the form,” Colorado’s official instructions state. At the polling place, a utility bill or welfare check counts as acceptable identification.

    House Republicans set up a vote Wednesday to close this loophole through the SAVE Act. Introduced by Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, the proposal forces states to verify citizenship before adding someone to the voter rolls. It also enhances penalties against anyone intentionally registering noncitizens.

    The White House blasted the effort. “It is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in Federal elections — it is a Federal crime punishable by prison and fines. … States already have effective safeguards in place to verify voters’ eligibility and maintain the accuracy of voter rolls,” the formal statement of administration policy explained.

    While noncitizen voting is illegal, there’s no way to know when it happens. The Supreme Court blocked states from enforcing their own registration verification process in Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona. Writing for the majority in 2013, Justice Antonin Scalia said requiring proof of citizenship prior to registration clashed with federal law.

    And that’s why Congress must exercise its authority to fix that broken law and restore trust in the system. Liberals will cry foul, but they’re not sincere. They have no problem forcing everyone to flash IDs and passports to handsy Transportation Security Administration agents before boarding an airplane.

    “Many of the Democrats want all of these illegals to participate in our federal elections,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, said at a news conference Tuesday. “They want them to vote. There’s no other conclusion you can draw.”

    Mr. Johnson estimates the administration has allowed as many as 16 million illegal immigrants to enter the country, which is more than enough to swing a tight election.

    Noncitizens aren’t supposed to participate in elections, but it’s also illegal for them to enter the country uninvited. Unlawful immigrants don’t even need to cast votes themselves. The loophole adds names and addresses to the system that ballot harvesters can then use with mail-in voting schemes.

    Unverified checkboxes go hand in hand with unverified ballot drop boxes.

    Sounds like the SAVE Act is important for election integrity. So why did the same Republican Speaker just give up on fighting for it?

    House Republicans are moving forward with plans to vote on a clean stopgap spending bill that will extend government funding until mid-December, dropping a proof-of-citizenship voting measure backed by former President Donald Trump from their latest proposal.

    The continuing resolution, released on Sunday, would continue current spending levels until Dec. 20, buying lawmakers time to continue negotiations for the federal budget for the 2025 fiscal year. The proposal comes after the House failed to pass its initial government funding proposal last week that would have extended current spending levels until the end of March 2025 and included a voting integrity measure known as the SAVE Act that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) sought to attach as a policy win for Republicans.

    That spending package was shot down after it failed to garner enough support from GOP lawmakers who vowed never to support a temporary government funding bill.

    “Since we fell a bit short of the goal line, an alternative plan is now required,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) wrote in a Dear Colleague letter to lawmakers on Sunday. “The feedback and ideas from everyone have been very helpful, and next week the House will take the initiative and pass a clean, three-month CR to prevent the Senate from jamming us with a bill loaded with billions in new spending and unrelated provisions. Our legislation will be a very narrow, bare-bones CR including only the extensions that are absolutely necessary.”

    But the absence of the SAVE Act could prompt several Republicans in both the House and Senate to reject the stopgap measure. Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly called on Republicans to oppose any funding bill that does not include language of the SAVE Act, even at the risk of a shutdown.

    Democrats are importing millions of illegal aliens to replace Americans and congressional Republicans are evidently too scared of losing a press cycle to try and stop it.

    LinkSwarm For September 20, 2024

    Friday, September 20th, 2024

    More Trump assassination details emerge, the Israel-Hezbollah front remains spicy, a huge Russian ammo dump blew up real good, more open borders shenanigans from the Biden-Harris junta, more woke Tolkien garbage, and China tries to pass off the most adorable fake pandas.

    It’s the Friday LinkSwarm!

  • “Hawley Releases Damning Report on Security Failures Leading Up to First Attempt on Trump’s Life.”

    Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) released a whistleblower report Monday on the law-enforcement failures leading up to the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump two months ago. The report was released one day after a suspect was apprehended in Florida for trying to kill Trump on his golf course in Florida.

    The Secret Service’s failures to secure Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pa., on July 13 were extensive and constituted one of the most consequential security debacles in U.S. history. Chief among them was law enforcement’s apparent choice to leave the rooftop of the American Glass Research (AGR) building unguarded, allegedly because of heat, before gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks climbed atop the building to carry out the attack, Hawley’s report states.

    The report is based on whistleblower allegations brought to his office in the wake of Crooks’s rampage. Before the report was published, Hawley sent multiple letters to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, questioning him about the most shocking details from the whistleblowers who contacted his office.

    Overseeing the Secret Service’s security operations at the rally was an unnamed lead agent who apparently has a history of incompetence and who directed the placement of certain items around the stage of the Trump rally that impaired visibility. The individual is allegedly known to be a low-quality agent and failed an examination on the way to becoming a Secret Service agent.

    Secret Service intelligence units were not at the Butler rally. If they had been there, they could have prevented or mitigated the communication breakdown between federal and local law enforcement, Hawley’s report says, a major allegation that he has not previously publicized.

    Ahead of the rally, the Secret Service’s counter-surveillance division did not conduct its typical inspection of the site and did not have a presence at the Butler campaign rally. A whistleblower told Hawley’s office that the counter-surveillance division would have arrested Crooks for carrying a rangefinder. The same whistleblower alleges that acting director Ron Rowe personally requested cuts to the counter-surveillance division, a claim Rowe has denied.

    At a congressional hearing in July, Rowe admitted to the Secret Service’s mistakes on the day of the Trump rally, including a decision to reject an offer from local law enforcement for drone support after the Secret Service was unable to fly its own. Hours before the shooting, Crooks flew a drone around the perimeter of the Trump rally for roughly 11 minutes, the FBI has determined.

    According to the report, a whistleblower with direct knowledge of the Butler planning process said that the rally was not slated to receive any additional security because Trump is not a sitting president or vice president. These additional resources would have included counter-snipers and counter-surveillance personnel.

    The Trump rally was considered to be a “loose” security environment, meaning that Department of Homeland Security personnel failed to police the area immediately surrounding the stage and were not placed at intervals around the perimeter, Hawley’s report asserts. Extra DHS personnel without the necessary training to work campaigns were pulled away from the department’s investigative team and reassigned to the Trump rally, a whistleblower told Hawley’s office.

    Up to this point, Hawley says, the Secret Service and DHS have not answered questions about the lead agent overseeing the Trump campaign rally, resources allocated to the Trump campaign, and the Secret Service’s lack of counter-sniper coverage on the AGR building.

    I think we need to know the name of this unnamed lead agent, and how many ties he has to the Obama regime…

  • What we know about the latest would-be Trump assassin.

    On Sunday, September 15th, 58-year-old Ryan Routh of Hawaii showed up to Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, where former President Donald Trump was golfing.

    Routh reportedly shoved the barrel of a scoped polymer SKS-style rifle through the fence with the intent to fire at President Trump, who was several hundred yards away.

    Nothing says “accuracy” quite like an old Soviet design they dropped for the AK-47.

    Authorities say Routh also had a GoPro camera, as well as two backpacks containing ceramic tile that he had hung on the fence (a type of ballistics armor is made of ceramic tile).

    Secret Service agents saw Routh and fired at him. He escaped in a black Nissan before getting arrested by local police on I-95 thanks to a photograph taken by a bystander.

    USA Today says Routh has a “complex history,” which is code for “the man was foaming at the mouth for leftist causes.”

    A profile for Ryan Routh on X dates to January 2020, where he posted a range of passionate opinions on issues including Black Lives Matter, Taiwanese sovereignty and supporting Ukraine in the war with Russia.

    Obviously he supported Palestinians and hated Israel.

    According to Fox News, Routh spent the majority of his life in North Carolina, where he owned a company called United Roofing.

    You won’t be surprised that Routh was in support of Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) in the 2020 election.

    In 2020, during the presidential primary, the X account said: ‘I was not supporting Bernie, but now I am; as sleepy Joe stands for nothing; no plans, no ideas, just as limp as hillary. Bernie…….give them hell…..fight to the death…’

    Routh reportedly donated to ActBlue, a major Democratic campaign fund, at least 19 times.

  • A lot of reports said would-be Trump assassin Routh fought for Ukraine and against Russia. Ukraine says they rejected him as a “Call of Duty Warrior.”

    Ukrainian military recruiters appear to have spotted almost immediately that Mr Routh, who had a long criminal record, was not promising material.

    According to an interview that he later gave to the Financial Times, he was rejected for service when he first reported to a Legion office on the Polish border at the war’s outset.

    “They said: ‘You’re 56, you’re old and you have no experience’,” he told the paper. “So why don’t you recruit and coordinate?”

    If that is what they told him, they probably intended him doing so having returned himself safely back to the US. Undeterred, however, Mr Routh continued on to Kyiv, where he became a familiar – if less than welcome – face on the Legion’s fringes.

    There were many such cranks in Kyiv at the time, latching on to the war to pose as international men of action and boasting of high-level contacts in the Pentagon or CIA.

    Regular Legionnaires did their best to avoid them, referring to them variously as “Call of Duty Warriors”, “Volun-tourists” and “Screamers” – the latter a reference to their reaction if coming under fire.

    But there was little to stop them promoting themselves on social media, as Mr Routh did prolifically, claiming to be an active recruiter for the Legion ranks.

    “Any gender, any age, any skill level to no skill level,” he claimed to Newsweek in 2022. “Yeah, if you wanna fight, come and see me and I’ll put you in a unit so you can go fight.”

    (Hat tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.)

  • Kamala Harris: “As of today, there is not one member of the United States military who is in active duty in a combat zone, in any war zone around the world for the first time this century.” U.S. active duty soldiers in a combat zone: “Say what?
  • CBS polls restaurant patrons in Nevada and finds precisely one Harris supporter. Everyone else was for Trump. Presumably illegal aliens don’t eat out much…
  • “Oregon DMV admits that they’ve registered hundreds of illegal immigrants to vote since 2021.”
  • “PA Supreme Court rules that misdated ballots must not be counted.”

    The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has determined that the two biggest counties in the state do not have to count mail-in ballots that have either the wrong date or no date where indicated on the outer envelope. The ruling was 4 to 3, with those 3 justices writing a dissent in the case.

    The order from the court found that the lower court, which had ruled that those ballots must be counted even with the errors, lacked jurisdiction in the case because only Allegheny and Philadelphia Counties were mentioned in the case and not all of the state’s 67 counties.

    The order reads: “AND NOW, this 13th day of September, 2024, the order of the Commonwealth Court is VACATED. The Commonwealth Court lacked subject matter jurisdiction to review the matter given the failure to name the county boards of elections of all 67 counties, and because the joinder of Al Schmidt, in his official capacity as Secretary of the Commonwealth, did not suffice to invoke the Commonwealth Court’s original jurisdiction.”

    In practice, this means that in the coming presidential election, officials will not count any ballots that are either misdated or undated ballots. The jurisdiction issue could be addressed by the plaintiffs in the case before the election. The plaintiffs are listed as Black Political Empowerment Project, Power Interfaith, Make the Road Pennsylvania, OnePA Activists, New PA Project Education Fund, Casa San Jose, Pittsburgh United, League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania and Common Cause Pennsylvania.

    But don’t think for a minute this will keep Pennsylvania Democrats from trying to steal the election just like they did in 2020, as they won’t start “counting” absentee ballots until election day.

  • And speaking of Pennsylvania voting fraud: “Pennsylvania[‘s Luzerne County] bans drop boxes after woman caught with multiple ballots.”
  • “Ex-Border Patrol Chief Says He Was Instructed By Biden-Harris Admin To Hide Terrorist Encounters.”

    In a scathing revelation before Congress, former San Diego Sector Border Patrol Chief Aaron Heitke accused the Biden-Harris administration of covering up a sharp rise in encounters with suspected terrorists at the U.S.-Mexico border.

    During a House Committee on Homeland Security hearing titled “A Country Without Borders: How Biden-Harris’ Open-Borders Policies Have Undermined Our Safety and Security,” Heitke said he was muzzled from releasing critical information on the number of Special Interest Aliens (SIAs) — individuals with known or suspected ties to terrorism — apprehended in California.

    “I was told I could not release any information on this increase in SIAs or mention any of the arrests,” Heitke testified. “The administration was trying to convince the public there was no threat at the border.”

    According to Heitke, arrests of individuals with terror ties skyrocketed under President Joe Biden’s watch. The former Border Patrol chief revealed that before 2021, his sector had apprehended between 10 to 15 SIAs annually. By 2022, that number had shot up to over 100, with even more recorded in 2023.

    “Once word was out that the border was far easier to cross, San Diego went to over 100 SIAs in 2022, well over that in 2023, and even more than that registered this year. These are only the ones we caught,”

  • Scott Adams lays down some truth bombs:

    You’ll need to click on that to expand it. (Hat tip: Instapundit.)

  • “US Secures Convictions, Guilty Pleas As CCP-Directed Spying Exposed.”

    For years, Beijing has been deepening its hold on America, drawing intelligence from the U.S. government while silencing critics with the help of agents embedded in U.S. society.

    The United States is now hitting back—and seeing results, according to experts.

    In early September, prosecutors arrested Linda Sun, former aide to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, accusing her of acting on behalf of Beijing in exchange for gifts and payouts valued in millions of dollars to her family.

    There has also been a marked increase in the rate of convictions or pleas in recent months. The Justice Department has brought forth dozens of CCP-directed espionage and foreign agent cases in the past four years, resulting in at least 13 convictions or pleas, with more than half of those taking place this year—including three in the past month. an Epoch Times review of the court records show.

    On Aug. 6, a Chinese American scholar posing as a pro-democracy activist was convicted by a jury for spying on dissidents for the CCP.

    On Aug. 13, a U.S. army intelligence analyst from Texas pleaded guilty to selling military secrets to the CCP.

    On Aug. 23, a software engineer who worked two decades at Verizon pleaded guilty to gathering intelligence on countless dissidents and organizations targeted by the CCP since 2012.

    Case documents reveal a broad range of criminal actions taken by agents, often different from what most may imagine to be spying. Beyond industrial espionage and covert influence campaigns, the regime has directed hacker rings, including a group that was charged and sanctioned this year for waging a 14-year campaign on the United States.

    “I feel that our nation must take every opportunity to stop these threats,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), chair of the cybersecurity subcommittee for the House Armed Services Committee, told The Epoch Times, noting that the U.S. intelligence community has identified Beijing as the number one threat to the United States.

    Bacon has experienced Chinese espionage attempts firsthand. Last year, he was hacked by CCP-linked hackers who also broke into email systems of State and Commerce department officials and dozens of other groups.

    “Can we ever say that whatever actions we are taking are enough? I don’t believe so as the threats are increasing in frequency, sophistication, and national security impact,” Bacon said.

    The CCP has long targeted people of Chinese descent—of whom there are more than 60 million people outside China—as potential assets in its intelligence operations.

    Among those charged by the DOJ in the foreign agent cases are officials of the CCP’s top intelligence gathering agency Ministry of State Security (MSS), Chinese citizens traveling to the United States under false pretenses, hackers residing in Asian countries; as well as asylees, permanent residents, and U.S. citizens of Chinese descent.

    Some reside in the United States while dozens of others charged are known to reside in China, and will now face arrest if they ever set foot on American soil.

    There are also many who are U.S. citizens that aren’t of Chinese descent. They include active military members, former law enforcement, and experts in competitive fields.

  • “Israeli Strike Kills Hezbollah Commander behind 1983 U.S. Embassy Bombing.”

    An Israeli airstrike in Beirut killed senior Hezbollah military official Ibrahim Akil on Friday, Israeli Defense Forces announced. Although Hezbollah has not confirmed the reports, Lebanese officials said earlier in the day that the strike killed at least eight and wounded 59.

    Israeli Defense Forces reportedly targeted two residential buildings in southern Beirut. Akil is the head of Hezbollah’s Radwan Force and Jihad Council, and is sanctioned by the U.S. Department of State for playing a role in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut, in which a suicide bomber murdered 63 people, including 52 embassy employees. The State Department designated Akil a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in 2019, and offered a reward of “up to $7 million for information” about the Hezbollah leader.

    Good. Burn in Hell, terrorist scumbag.

  • Despite Israel’s recent successes against Hezbollah’s command and control, Hezbollah was still able to launch multiple missile attacks against northern Israel today. Indeed, the whole theater is quite spicy:

  • A few thoughts on Operation Grim Beeper.
  • “Two chiefs with the New York Fire Department have been arrested on bribery charges.” Those are Brian E. Cordasco, 49, and Anthony M. Saccavino, the same ones the FBI raided.
  • Shark Tank host Kevin O’Leary says that New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey and California those states are now “uninvestable.” The taxes are too high and “the regulatory environment is punitive.”
  • American Transit Insurance Company [is] insolvent.” They insure hire cars, cabs, Uber, etc. “As in, ‘can’t pay their bills’ insolvent. As in ‘can’t pay claims’ insolvent.”
  • Ukraine just blew up a Russian ammo dump in Toropets so large that the explosion was visible from space. (More.) (And still more.)
  • Remember Thierry Breton, the eurocrat who got in a slapfight with Elon Musk over Twitter refusing the censor people and knuckle-under? He just resigned. “France’s European Union commissioner Thierry Breton abruptly resigned on Monday amid an ongoing dispute with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. He was slated to serve a second term after being re-appointed by French President Emmanuel Macron, The Guardian reports.” Evidently von der Leyen wants the Commission to be “gender balanced.” Social justice will oft social justice mar…
  • “The mayor of Atlantic City, Marty Small Sr., and his wife [La’Quetta Small] (the superintendent of schools) have both been officially indicted.” Despite both being Democrats, they weren’t indicted for fraud, but for brutally beating their own teenage daughter. Bonus: The daughter told principal Constance Days-Chapman of the abuse, and instead of telling the police, she told the abusive parents. She’s being charged, too.
  • Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing Harris County’s revamped version of their unconstitutional socialist guaranteed income program.
  • Has technology killed bands?
  • Both North Carolina and parts of Europe got hit with some near-Biblical floods this week.
  • New Hobbit game obviously more woke bullshitAfter swearing for months they wouldn’t add AI to D&D, Hasbro to add AI to D&D.
  • “23andMe’s board quits en masse: A former tech darling is in turmoil after all seven of its independent board members resigned. 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki is now the sole remaining member following a disagreement over taking the company private.”
  • ESPN’s NBA reporter Adrian Wojnarowski retires. He was at the top of his profession, and reportedly walked away from a $30 million contract. But given Disney’s ongoing debacles, it’s quite possible they asked him to take a haircut or let him retire in advance of a layoff.
  • Jane says/Can you taste my fist today? Also, the tour’s been cancelled on the basis of chin music. A shame, really, since Jane’s Addition has a fairly unheralded role as the musical bridge between LA’s “hair metal” scene and the harder alt rock edge of acts like Nirvana.
  • “FBI Tries To Distract From Old Trump Assassination Attempt With New Trump Assassination Attempt.”
  • “FBI Says We May Never Know The Motivation Of The Would-Be Trump Assassin Who Was A Biden-Harris Supporter And Donated To Democrats 20 Times.”
  • “Biden Promises Next Trump Assassin Will Be A Woman Of Color.”
  • “DOJ Warns If Trump Is Elected He Will Do To Them All The Stuff They’re Doing To Him.”
  • “Media Assures Americans The Real Threat Is The Side That Keeps Getting Shot At.”
  • “Kamala Safe And In Stable Condition After Attempted Interview.”
  • “Rashida Tlaib Uninjured After Her Pager Mysteriously Explodes.”
  • “BREAKING: Israel Kills Thousands More Terrorists With Exploding ‘200 Free Hours of AOL’ CDs.”
  • It’s a LinkSwarm tradition to end with an amusing dog clip or story. So here are some pretty Chow Chows…painted up to look like Pandas in a Chinese zoo:

    (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)

  • I’ve now been unemployed for one year, so feel free to hit the tip jar.





    LinkSwarm For September 13, 2024

    Friday, September 13th, 2024

    Happy Friday the 13th! Harris continues to slip behind Trump despite (because?) of their debate on the network of her Best Friend Forever, Haitian immigrants in Ohio accused of eating roof rabbit, Texas blasts Biden Administration overreach (again), Conor McGregor steps into a different kind of ring, a worse than usual remake idea, and American cats meet a variety of grisly ends.

    It’s the Friday LinkSwarm!

  • You know that Harris bounce? Nate Silver says not so much. “I’d also note that Harris’s raw polling averages have DECLINED in most swing states since the start of the DNC. This data is NOT subject to the convention bounce adjustment. She’s had a run of pretty mediocre state polling.”
  • Harris minions replace her blank issues page with a mix of liberal pablum and blatant lies.
  • Yes, Kamala Harris does support taxpayer-funded genital mutilation surgery for illegal alien children.
  • Kamala’s Condescending and Mocking Debate Faces May Be What Voters Remember.”

    It’s not surprising that the snap polling, including by groups that conservatives trust, like Trafalgar, is showing that Harris “won” the debate. And I think that’s true. She was more polished, more prepared; she had her canned barbs. But there’s something strange going on here. While she won the debate, Democrats always come across in snap polling as winning the debates. I saw people sharing on X the history of snap polling after debates with Donald Trump, first with Hillary and then with Biden. In every one of those debates—six in total—clear majorities said that Trump lost the debate. I’m not sure what to read into that.

    So, it was anger at the moderators, frustration that Trump wasn’t making a lot of the points I thought he could have made, but he was being Trump. And I’ve misjudged his appeal to voters and his electoral success so many times, so it is what it is.

    But there’s something else I took away from this—and it’s showing on the screen just to the side of me here. One thing I really noticed throughout was the faces that Harris was making—very condescending, very mocking, very childish, actually. I think that’s the one thing I remember more than anything about the debate.

    Now, I think Trump did a very good job, even though he didn’t make the points I thought he could have, like showing how she flip-flopped. He hit hard on the border and the economy, and I think that may have a lasting impact.

    What’s showing up in the focus groups—ones I’ve seen not by right-wing groups, but CNN, Reuters, NBC—there seems to be a disconnect between who they think won the debate and how they’re reacting substantively.

    Trafalgar was consistent with the others, showing a 15-point win for Harris in terms of who won the debate, but no movement in who people were going to vote for. CNN was interesting—they had an even larger, 20-plus-point win for Harris, but found that on the key issue—voters’ most important issue—the economy, Trump actually improved over pre-debate polling. Similar findings came from Reuters and NBC.

  • “The woman who oversees ABC News is Kamala Harris’s best friend, Dana Walden.”

    Dana Walden, a senior Disney executive whose portfolio includes ABC News, is one of Vice President Kamala Harris’ “extraordinary friends,” according to a report in the New York Times.

    Walden and Harris have known each other since 1994, while their husbands, Matt Walden and Doug Emhoff, have known each other since the 1980s.

    Dana Walden has donated to dozens of Democrats and contributed to Harris’ political campaigns since at least 2003, when she ran for district attorney in San Francisco.

    (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)

  • “National Fraternal Order of Police Endorses Trump.” You would think it would be an easy pick over someone on record as wanting to defund police.
  • “Trump Unveils Plan To ‘End All Taxes On Overtime’ Work.” Eh. I feel like a better policy would be a bigger personal and family member exemption.
  • In Montana’s senate race, Republican challenger Republican Tim Sheehy takes a big lead over incumbent Democrat Jon Tester.
  • “Immigration Crisis On Display In Springfield, Ohio: It’s Not Just About Haitians Eating Pets.”

    While the legacy media has yet to find any evidence of pet consumption that it’s willing to accept, there are some much larger issues regarding the crisis that has been created in Springfield through the importation of nearly 20,000 Haitian illegals.

    Former Ohio State Representative Kyle Koehler has sounded a warning regarding the consequences that have followed the Biden administration’s policy that gave temporary protected status to more than 100,000 Haitian migrants, including those relocated to Springfield.

    Among the concerns raised by Koehler are the strain on the local school system with more than 1,600 non-English speaking students now enrolled and Haitian refugees who are 20 years old being placed Freshman High School classrooms with 13 year old kids.

    Koehler also voiced concern over an individual who is renting his 63 homes to the relocated Haitians for as little as $250 per month, with 20-25 individuals living in each home.

    Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) has also weighed in on the controversy, saying that he too has heard from Springfield residents complaining that pets and wildlife were being abducted and that health services are being severely strained by an influx of individuals with communicable diseases like TB and HIV.

    The community of 60,000 residents is clearly facing serious issues related to the open border policies of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

  • Robert Stacy McCain thinks that Springfield got what it deserved.

    When tales of Haitian immigrants eating cats emerged on social media this week, it suddenly focused attention on the city of Springfield, Ohio, but now we are learning there’s more to the story:

    “Those 20,000 Haitians did not show up overnight or uninvited. Though flown in by the federal government, they were not forced on the city by the federal government. Elections have consequences. Springfield voted for this. They signaled their virtue, their signal was seen, and virtue arrived. This is what they wanted. This is what they got. They’ll have to deal with the consequences.”

    (Hat-tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.) Much commentary has focused on whether it’s true that pets are being killed and eaten by the Haitians, but that’s not really the point. The point is why Springfield became the destination for thousands of Haitians (who may or may not eat cats).

    It’s a long story. First of all, you’ll find liberals insisting that these Haitians are not illegal immigrants. Research further, however, and you learn that most of them entered the country illegally, crossing the U.S.-Mexico border after making their way through Central America. After Haiti descended into its latest crisis, the Biden administration granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to all Haitians in the U.S., so you may say that they have been retroactively (but temporarily) “legalized.”

    Now let’s talk about Springfield, which is a “blue” island of liberalism in a sea of Republican “red.” Ohio was once a battleground state, closely contested in every presidential election, and then Trump came along and the Buckeye State has now become a GOP stronghold. Springfield was a city of 58,662 residents before the Haitian influx, and the city sits in Clark County (population 136,000) which voted 61% for Trump in 2020.

    You see that, if the Democrats can turn these Haitians into voters, they can make Clark County “blue,” and a similar calculus is being applied nationwide by the Biden administration’s immigration policy. Democrats insist that the “Great Replacement” is a right-wing conspiracy theory, but we can see them doing it — blatantly, deliberately, in front of our eyes — in places like Springfield. And this brings us to the late Warren Copeland.

    For most of the past three decades, Copeland was the mayor of Springfield. He was a professor at Wittenberg University, a local institution affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Anyone who knows anything about the ELCA will tell you it is the pluperfect example of degenerate liberal Protestantism. “The ELCA has drifted so far into pagan goddess worship that to call it ‘Lutheranism’ is an insult to Luther; to call it ‘Christian’ is blasphemy,” as I wrote in 2016. Copeland was a radical obsessed with “social justice,” and the fact that Springfield repeatedly elected him as their mayor tells you something about the politics of the city. Indeed, Springfield eagerly welcomed the influx of Haitians. Read this article from December 2022:

    A surge in the number of Springfield residents from Haiti has resulted in an outpouring of language assistance and additional forms of help from the Springfield City School District and others who are trying to meet their needs.

    Social Justice destroys everything it touches.

  • Citizens have questions to City Council about vetting of Haitian refugees in Sylacauga, Alabama. City Council: “Meeting adjourned.”
  • Kamala Harris confirms that yes, she does want a giant illegal alien amnesty.
  • Trump thumps Harris in the latest Rasmussen poll.
  • Two more “election interference” charges against Trump thrown out.
  • It looks like Germany has finally had enough, as they’ve instituted border controls for immigration.

    For the first time in EU history, Germany is at the forefront of immigration suspension. Other EU countries will follow.

    The Schengen Area…is an area encompassing 29 European countries that have officially abolished border controls at their mutual borders.

    Reuters reports Germany Tightens Controls at All Borders in Immigration Crackdown.

    Germany’s government announced plans to impose tighter controls at all of the country’s land borders in what it called an attempt to tackle irregular migration and protect the public from threats such as Islamist extremism.

    The controls within what is normally a wide area of free movement – the European Schengen zone – will start on Sept. 16 and initially last for six months, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on Monday.

    The government has also designed a scheme enabling authorities to reject more migrants directly at German borders, Faeser said, without adding details on the controversial and legally fraught move.

    The restrictions are part of a series of measures Germany has taken to toughen its stance on irregular migration in recent years following a surge in arrivals, in particular people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East.

    Recent deadly knife attacks in which the suspects were asylum seekers have stoked concerns over immigration. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a knife attack in the western city of Solingen that killed three people in August.

    Polls show it is also voters’ top concern in the state of Brandenburg, which is set to hold elections in two weeks.

    Scholz and Faeser’s centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) are fighting to retain control of the government there, in a vote billed as a test of strength of the SPD ahead of next year’s federal election.

    “The intention of the government seems to be to show symbolically to Germans and potential migrants that the latter are no longer wanted here,” said Marcus Engler at the German Centre for Integration and Migration Research.

    Seems like Germans are getting tired of all that vibrant raping and stabbing diversity…

  • “Elon Musk’s X wins case against California over ‘content moderation’ law.”

    On Wednesday, a federal court ruled in favor of Elon Musk’s X Corp in its case challenging California’s content moderation laws, citing free speech violations. X Corp filed a lawsuit to block the controversial law, which took effect on January 1, 2024.

    The legislation requires social media companies to disclose details of their content moderation policies to the state or face civil penalties.

    The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco overturned a previous lower court’s decision that ruled against pausing enforcement of the state law. The panel of three judges decided the law facially violated the First Amendment, Reuters reported.

    “X Corp. is likely to succeed in showing that the Content Category Report provisions facially violate the First Amendment,” Judge Milan D. Smith, Jr. wrote in his case opinion.

    In the complaint filed in Sept. 2023, X Corporation argued that Assembly Bill 587 violates the company’s First Amendment rights because it pressures “companies such as X Corp. to remove, demonetize, or deprioritize constitutionally-protected speech that the State deems undesirable or harmful” which “interferes with the constitutionally-protected editorial judgments” of the company.

  • Ex-UK Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair is the smiling face of global censorship.

    For free speech advocates, we often feel that other citizens have become passive observers as an anti-free speech movement grows around us, threatening our “indispensable right.”

    One of the most infamous figures in this movement has been former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has long been the smiling face of censorship. As the head of the Labour Party, Blair pushed through some of the early crackdowns on free speech in the United Kingdom. He is now calling for global censorship to expand these efforts.

    In an interview on LBC Radio, Blair declared:

    “The world is going to have to come together and agree on some rules around social media platforms. It’s not just how people can provoke hostility and hatred but I think… the impact on young people particularly when they’ve got access to mobile phones very young and they are reading a whole lot of stuff and receiving a whole lot of stuff that I think is really messing with their minds in a big way.”

    Remember, when the want to crackdown on “misinformation,” the sort of things they want to ban are opinions contrary to their social justice agenda. Such as “the Chinese coronavirus came from a lab” or “there are only two biological sexes.”

  • More of that voting fraud Democrats swear doesn’t exist. “Illegal Alien Charged With Stealing U.S. Citizen’s Identity to Vote in Elections. She voted in the 2016 and 2020 primaries and general elections.”
  • “US Marshals Help Recover Dozens of Missing Children in Ohio.”
  • The Biden Administration wants Texas to cede Fronton Island to federal control. Texas Governor Greg Abbott told them to get stuffed.

    I am in receipt of a letter from the U.S. section of the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) to the Texas General Land Office (GLO) … given that it concerns actions taken under Operation Lone Star to secure Texas’ southern border around Fronton Island against the ongoing invasion of Texas by transnational criminal cartels — a crisis created and incentivized by your Administration,” Abbott wrote.

    Abbott added that the letter “alleges that GLO has altered the flow of the Rio Grande by engaging in activities on Fronton Island without USIBWC’s approval.”

    “It also alleges that [the] GLO trespassed on federal land in the process of facilitating cleanup and security efforts on the Island … That agency responded in a letter … detailing that GLO has not engaged in construction activities at all, and, in any event, Fronton Island is state-owned land.”

    Abbott then responded to the United States Section of the International Boundary and Water Commissioner Maria-Elena Giner’s request that Fronton Island be returned to its pre-construction conditions: “You are either unaware of, or indifferent to, what those ‘pre-construction conditions’ were.”

    Before Texas secured Fronton Island, Abbott wrote, “[T]ransnational criminal cartels had assumed practical control of the densely vegetated Island and used it to terrorize Texas communities.”

    He recounted occasions when authorities found the criminal cartels to be using the “thick vegetation” to “stash weapons, plant explosives, evade apprehension, and engage in open warfare against rival cartels and against state and federal officers.”

    “Are you aware that your appointee is asking Texas to return grenades and rocket launchers along with IEDs to the Island?” he asked the Biden administration.

    Abbott continued, “Your open-border policies have allowed an invasion at the southern border and incentivized criminal activity that threatens the lives of Texas law enforcement, soldiers, and citizens.”

    “Yet … the federal government has refused to enforce federal laws — even in dangerous areas like Fronton Island.”

    “I determined that Texas could not ignore an ongoing invasion of its sovereign territory,” Abbott said of his decision on October 5, 2023 to move a “heavily armed invasion force” onto Fronton Island.

    He then addressed USIBWC’s complaint that Texas had built “two sediment bridges.”

    “Your Administration’s letter betrays a basic misunderstanding of facts on the ground, and its claims are unsupported by either science or common sense.”

  • Dwight has been sending me tidbits on the ongoing meltdown among government officials in New York City following FBI raids. Like this: “Paranoid police officials meeting in parking lots as fed raids leave NYPD, City Hall in shock.” “Law enforcement sources telling The Post that they’re afraid NYPD headquarters is bugged and their words are being recorded.” Plus New York City Mayor Eric Adams evidently has several burner phones, which is both highly suspicious and probably justified. And since Adams is reportedly using the messaging app Signal, presumably they’re modern Android or iPhones, which are: A.) More expensive than classic burner phones, and B.) Probably not conducive to quick SIM card swaps, ala Stringer Bell on The Wire.
  • Anyway, NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban just resigned.
  • “A Los Angeles car rental company brought in South American criminals to steal millions in cash and property from businesses and homes in Southern California and nationwide.”
  • Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori dead at 86. Fujimori revived Peru’s economy and destroyed the Maoist Shining Path guerillas, but in the end he too fell prey to Peru’s long history of government abuse of power and corruption. In the end, he too was corrupt and committed human rights abuses…and was still arguably the most successful (and important) President in Peru’s troubled history.
  • MMA fighter Conor McGregor runs for president of Ireland.
  • Spain built a giant sea of plastic greenhouses to grow produce year round. But: They also use illegal aliens to keep the price down.
  • “The head of the UN wants to create a fake bank that will circumvent EU and US sanctions against Russian banks.”
  • Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham pushed back against a Biden-Harris administration proposal to “lease nearly 150,000 offshore acres to an energy company (Hecate Energy) with no experience in wind projects.” But it’s easy to understand why the Biden Administration wants to hand the assignment to Hecate: They donate lots of money to Democrats.
  • Big Lots declares bankruptcy. The Biden Recession is wrecking retail.
  • Alan Dershowitz announces he’s leaving the Democratic Party over its “anti-Jewish, anti-Israel, anti-Zionist convention.” One wonders what took him so long.
  • California’s Democratic governor Gavin Newsom vetoes the home loans for illegal alien bill, presumably to avoid attack ads for a presidential run in 2028.
  • Remember Taral Patel the Ft. Bend democrat who faked hate crimes against himself? Now he’s facing even more felony charges. “Last week a grand jury indicted him on four felony counts of Online Impersonation and four misdemeanor charges including Online Impersonation and Misrepresentation of Identity with intent to ‘harm.'”
  • Former U.S. army sniper relocates to Russia. Turns out he was wanted for sexual assault of a minor.
  • Florida’s post-tenure review law is working. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
  • Self-cleaning litter box has the unfortunate downside of killing your cat.
  • Rick Beato interviews bassist Tony Levin of Peter Gabriel and King Crimson fame. It’s an interesting interview, especially the part about how he sold all his stuff to go on tour with Buddy Rich, only to find out that Rich’s old bassist had agreed to come back, so he was out of a job…
  • “Optronic Technologies, Inc., better known to backyard astronomers as the parent company of both Orion Telescopes & Binoculars and Meade Instruments, has shut its offices and storefront in Watsonville, California.” Actual manufacturing was done in Tijuana, so I’m not sure how much California’s new minimum wage law had an effect.
  • Boeing workers vote to strike.
  • Sony’s new Playstation5 Pro doesn’t come with a disc drive despite costing $700. Evidently they’re climbing aboard the “we don’t want you to own any games, just pay a monthly fee” bandwagon.
  • There are rumors that Barbie director Greta Gerwig wants to make an all female Fight Club remake. That’s about as good an idea as an all-male reboot of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.
  • Comedian Kevin Hart’s chain of vegetarian restaurants in LA closed down. 1. How’s that minimum wage working out for you, California? 2. Vegetarian restaurants aren’t even profitable in LA. 3. Stick to comedy. (Hat tip: Dwight.)
  • “Kamala Quietly Asks Aides If She Should Just Try Sleeping With The Economy.”
  • “Harris Campaign Admits Tim Walz Was The Only Candidate That Answered Their Craigslist Ad.”
  • “‘Stop Foreigners Meddling In Our Elections!’ Says Party Inviting Foreigners To Meddle In Elections.”
  • Bluey Reported Missing After Haitian Migrants Move In Next Door.”
  • Ohio Cats Take To The Streets To Protest Immigration.”
  • “Media Assures Americans That Migrants Haven’t Killed Any Cats, Just Women And Children.”
  • Good dog.
  • Still between jobs, so hit the tip jar if you’re so inclined.





    Harris County Justice Cancels All Warrants

    Tuesday, September 10th, 2024

    Harris County Democrat Justice of the Peace Steve Duble takes his party’s love of criminal behavior to the next level by recalling all warrants in Precinct One.

    A Harris County justice of the peace has recalled all warrants issued through his court thwarting law enforcement efforts in his jurisdiction to enforce traffic laws, pursue fraudulent check writers, and detain individuals who had failed to appear in court.

    Judge Steve Duble, justice of the peace for Harris County’s Precinct 1, sent a letter on August 22, 2024, to staff working for Constable Alan Rosen notifying them that he had recalled the warrants.

    “Please accept this official notification that after extensive research and thoughtful consideration, I have decided to recall each and every outstanding warrant issued from this court, Justice of the Peace Court, Precinct 1, Place 2,” wrote Duble.

    Duble noted that the recalled warrants included those for bad checks and capias warrants which require police to detain an individual until they appear in court. Warrants may also be issued to individuals who have failed to appear in court.

    Justice of the peace courts in Texas handle some civil matters and class c misdemeanors that are punishable by fine. Cases may include traffic violations, disorderly conduct, and misdemeanor assaults.

    Texas law gives magistrates some authority to recall warrants, but Duble’s blanket recall may conflict with the Texas Criminal Code of Procedures, which states that “If an accused fails to appear as required by [an] order, the judge of the court in which the accused is required to appear shall issue a warrant for the arrest of the accused.” The law also states that magistrates must issue warrants for suspects who fail to appear in court for certain citations.

    Elected in 2022, Duble campaigned on establishing eviction diversion programs and promised to bring a “social justice lens” to his courtroom.

    Indeed, his campaign website states “I am deeply embedded in Houston’s progressive community through my work to advance social justice and Democratic values.” Which, these days, means opposition to actual law enforcement.

    The Harris County District Attorney’s Office (HCDAO) told The Texan that they had only recently been made aware of the blanket warrant recall.

    “We only recently were made aware of Judge Duble’s inexplicable decision to grant fugitives a free pass in his courtroom,” said an HCDAO spokesperson. “This decision can endanger the lives of the public and of our law-enforcement officers. Accountability is fundamental to justice, and without it, the public loses faith in our entire judicial system.”

    By law a Justice of the Peace is generally handling non-felony cases. “Justice of the peace courts have original jurisdiction in misdemeanor criminal cases when punishment is by fine only. They have exclusive jurisdiction over civil cases where the amount in controversy is $200 or less and concurrent jurisdiction with both the county and district courts in civil matters in which exclusive jurisdiction is not in the district or county court and the amount in controversy is $5000 or less. By statute, they are granted jurisdiction over forcible entry and detainer actions. A justice of the peace may issue warrants of search and arrest, conduct preliminary hearings…” Etc. So at least he isn’t canceling warrants for rapists and murderers.

    But Duble’s actions are precisely aligned with a Democratic Party that backed #DefundThePolice. Some Democrats may now be pretending they didn’t really mean it, but Duble, and his fellow travelers in his party’s ideological core, clearly did.

    Warrants are a fundamental necessity for running an effective, impartial system of justice. Canceling every warrant is essentially a declaration of war against a functioning judicial system. Social Justice Warriors like Duble are at war with the very foundations of America’s constitutional order. If possible, the State of Texas should pursue removing Dable from the the bench. If not, Harris County voters need to remember that woke judges like Duble are a direct threat to the rule of law and their life, liberty and property.

    Biden Admin Paying Ft. Worth Catholic Charity $1 Billion For Illegal Aliens?

    Monday, September 9th, 2024

    Back in the dim mists of time (the 1980s or 90s), every time a Republican would try to earmark money for a religious charity for non-religious services (say, rehabilitating felons or running an adoption agency), Democrats would throw a fit and scream “Church and state! First amendment!” As always, those same rules never apply when they’re the ones doing it, as the Biden Administartion has been funneling money into a Fort Worth Catholic Charity help import their precious illegal aliens.

    Tarrant County GOP Chair Bo French has revealed that a Fort Worth Catholic organization has been enabling illegal aliens in Texas.

    The Biden-Harris administration’s Department of Health and Human Services has given control of nearly a billion in taxpayer dollars to the organization. The organization has been revealed as funneling this money to illegal border crossers and other organizations funded by leftist billionaires George Soros and Bill Gates.

    Starting in 2021, the Catholic Charities of Fort Worth—the primary charity of the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth—began a unique relationship with the Biden-Harris administration, as well as with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Beccera.

    The two made an arrangement that all federal grants for the state of Texas, regarding cash payments to so-called “refugees” would be given to the charity, with CCFW receiving discretion over who the money was being handed out to.

    With the money being handed out to them, CCFW established the Texas Office for Refugees to handle grants being sent by the federal government. Since 2022, the organization has received more than $800 million from the Biden-Harris administration to aid illegal aliens.

    One wonders what line item was for “help illegal aliens move into American neighborhoods to raise the crime rates, depress wages and vote for Democrats?” Was this in the “inflation reduction act?”

    CCFW also has an Immigration Services law firm that helps illegal aliens obtain legal status and even American citizenship.

    According to French’s findings, the organization’s 2022 Form 990 showed they had given more than $25 million that year to the International Rescue Committee—an international immigration nonprofit whose stated mission is to “help people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster, including the climate crisis, to survive, recover and gain control over their future.”

    So Green New Deal Graft helps with the Import Illegal Aliens Graft.

    The IRC receives more than $1 billion annually, with a majority of that money funded by the Biden-Harris administration, as well as Soros and Gates. The IRC’s expressed purpose for assisting illegal aliens is to help them “become permanent residents and US citizens.”

    The IRC has stated that they’ve already helped more than 50,000 illegal aliens annually and their website states they have settled over 26,000 in Dallas alone.

    In 2022, the President of IRC’s salary was more than $1 million and several other employees received a higher salary than the President of the United States.

    The article fails to mention that office is held by Labour Party functionary David Miliband, possibly the only man every to lose a leadership election to his own brother.

    However, IRC isn’t the only organization receiving taxpayer money from the Catholic Charities of Fort Worth.

    CCFW has also given more than $13 million to Refugee Services of Texas—a Dallas-based immigration non-governmental organization. RST has also worked with illegal aliens to help them attain citizenship in the U.S., however, the organization has since shut down due to financial mismanagement and lack of funds. Nonetheless, RST received more than $20 million—$19 million of which was from federal grants—in 2021.

    The HHS grant, which CCFW has received nearly a billion dollars since 2022, is a grant program 93.566, which gives cash payments to “refugees” and pays for their medical expenses.

    Under the HHS program, illegal aliens can receive up to $685 per month in cash payments and incentive bonuses for actions like getting a job or keeping a job for a certain period of time. The program is also known to pay for medical expenses for the illegal alien and their families—up to 100 percent of the cost.

    Meanwhile, taxpaying American families are eligible for Jack and Squat under the program.

    French accused the Biden-Harris administration of abusing the asylum process to help illegal aliens become voting citizens and of giving money to the so-called “charities” to help with their aims.

    When an illegal alien crosses the border and is apprehended, they can claim asylum. An immigration officer then interviews them to check their claims. If the officer accepts the claim, they are granted asylum status and are legally allowed in the country, where they can receive benefits from these nonprofits.

    If the alien’s asylum claim is denied, they will go to an immigration court and get another chance with a lawyer provided to them for free by nonprofits like CCFW and IRC. Once they receive some form of legal status, the same organizations will help pay lawyers to assist them in obtaining access to taxpayer-funded programs like SNAP, Section 8 housing, and the Women, Infants, and Children’s (WIC) program.

    Illegal aliens are then able to receive thousands of dollars per month of taxpayer dollars and can apply for permanent legal residency after one year.

    None of the Democratic Party’s “let’s cram as many illegal aliens into the country as possible so we can amnesty them to vote for Democrats” is beneficial for the American taxpayer.

    Republican in congress should start an immediate investigation into the organizations receiving these funds, and a second Trump Administration should eliminate all line item spending for national or international NGOs until those designed to violate American sovereignty are weeded out.

    Paxton Sues Travis County Over Partisan Voter Drive

    Sunday, September 8th, 2024

    We’ve had a lot of stories of Harris County Democratic Party corruption, but don’t forget another Democratic establishment in the People’s Republic of Travis County, which Texas Attorney General is suing for funding an illegal partisan voter drive.

    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued members of the Travis County Commissioners Court as well as the Travis County tax assessor-collector and voter registrar, asking the court to “prevent them from giving a partisan organization thousands of taxpayer dollars to identify the names and addresses of potentially unregistered voters without statutory authority.”

    In the suit, Paxton alleges that Civic Government Solutions (CGS), a voter outreach company, was hired to “conduct services for the County that the County is unauthorized to perform.”

    Paxton’s lawsuit explains that CGS CEO Jeremy Smith has made public comments about “getting people to vote for progressive candidates.” Smith is also listed as CEO of Civitech, a company that Axios described as a “progressive data startup.”

    And what do you know! A search of Open Secrets shows that of 142 political donations, all went to Democrats.

    “Travis County has blatantly violated Texas law by paying partisan actors to conduct unlawful identification efforts to track down people who are not registered to vote,” said Paxton in a press release.

    “Programs like this invite fraud and reduce public trust in our elections. We will stop them and any other county considering such programs.”

    Paxton is arguing that the Travis County officials acted ultra vires — beyond their legal authority, in other words — by contracting with Smith and his company to collect personal information and target unregistered voters.

    He further claims that these officials only have the powers explicitly granted to them by law, and argues that nothing in the Election Code allows them to identify and reach out to potentially unregistered voters, some of whom may not be eligible to vote.

    Paxton argues that this action could harm the integrity of Texas elections by encouraging ineligible people to register to vote. As a result, Paxton is asking the court to issue a temporary and permanent injunction to stop Travis County from moving forward with the contract.

    Pushing to get ineligible people to vote for Democrats seems to be the Democrats’ top goal this year, be it illegal aliens or convicted felons, and they’ve been pursuing it by varied means. Paxton has also fought voter fraud with search warrants in Bexar County and preventing similar “justice” organizations from soliciting voter registration outside DPS offices.

    Paxton seems to determined that the voting fraud that happened in 2020 won’t be happening here in Texas.

    Another Texas Win Against Transsexual Mandates

    Tuesday, September 3rd, 2024

    Texas Attorney General has won yet another victory against the Biden Administration’s social justice regulatory overreach, this one against transsexual health care mandates.

    The State of Texas and Attorney General Ken Paxton have been granted a nationwide stay against the Biden administration’s new rule that would defund federally-funded healthcare providers found to be refusing patients “gender transition” procedures.

    The Biden administration announced a rule change last April under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), described as seeking to hold the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) “health programs and activities to the same nondiscrimination standards as recipients of Federal financial assistance.”

    On August 30, U.S. District Judge Jeremy D. Kernodle ruled in favor of Texas and Montana, ordering that the modification of the Affordable Care Act at issue is precluded from implementation across the nation.

    “Here, federal agencies are attempting to impose a sweeping new social policy by manipulating and perverting the statutory text that constrains them,” Kernodle wrote in his opinion.

    “Nothing in these statutes authorizes HHS — or any federal official — to require healthcare providers to perform novel “gender-transition” procedures or force States to subsidize them.Texas and Montana seek a stay or preliminary injunction to prevent the irreparable harm that will undoubtedly follow. The Court grants the States’ request.”

    Snip.

    Texas and Montana sued HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra in June for allegedly requiring “healthcare providers and States to perform and pay for so-called ‘gender-transition’ procedures — or else lose federal funding.”

    The filing asserted that the new rule would “defund healthcare providers across the country who refuse to perform or pay for experimental, unproven, and potentially dangerous ‘gender transition’ procedures.”

    Montana and Texas were then both granted a statewide stay the following month, banning the application of the new HHS rule.

    The victorious states then requested a nationwide stay in order to extend the relief granted by the court against the HHS rule across the country.

    Paxton reacted to the stay, saying in a release, “When Biden and Harris sidestep the Constitution to force their unlawful, extremist agenda on the American public, we are fighting back and stopping them.”

    “By blocking this destructive policy, which would have forced taxpayer-funded hospitals to conduct unproven and dangerous ‘gender transition’ procedures, Texas has delivered a major victory for Americans across the country.”

    For anyone that thought the Democratic Party’s creepy love of child transsexism was a passing fade, the Biden Administration’s institutional determination to mandate child mutilation services into law should belay that naive hope. It also indicates that the evil ObamaCare has wrought on America’s health care is far from over. Fortunately, the vast majority of ordinary Americans have not fallen prey to this madness, and Paxton et al. have put a stop to this particular transsexual madness for now.

    Also, any appeal will be heard in the Fifth Circuit Court, which has previously frowned on the Biden Administration’s previous attempts to mandate transsexism by judicial fiat.