Month: December 2025

After a year of debating and finally passing a new curriculum for Texas public schools, it seems like the day after Christmas is a good time to re-visit this piece I wrote in 2024 about cultural illiteracy and the importance of understanding the role Christianity plays in the foundation of our western culture.

“Sermon on the Mound,” Shows Religious Illiteracy
August 15, 2024

One could only laugh at the news report by CBS 5 in Austin that cited “concern over a ‘Bible infused public school curriculum in Texas.’” According to the reporter, one of those “concerns” is that students would be taught about the “Sermon on the Mound.” Here’s what she wrote:

But criticism sparked when the teaching materials released, included biblical principles like the “Sermon on the Mound,” the life of Jesus Christ from birth to resurrection, and Bible prophecies.

Yep. Sermon on the Mound. Insert your own baseball joke here.

The obvious reference to the “Sermon on the Mount” could have been a typo—but if so, not only did the reporter miss it, the proofreaders also missed it. It was posted for almost a day before being corrected.

Did they miss it because they don’t know that the Sermon on the Mount is widely considered to be the most famous sermon ever delivered? If they didn’t know that, then they should understand that is precisely the reason the new public school curriculum they are “concerned” about is necessary.

To give the Sermon on the Mount an historical, non-religious cohort, it was the “I Have a Dream” speech of its time. Of course, Martin Luther King Jr. never would have written the “I have a Dream” speech if not for the Sermon on the Mount, because there never would have been a civil rights movement, or emancipation from slavery. In fact, there would never have been an America, at least as we know it today, and Martin Luther King Jr. would not have been named Martin Luther.

The basis for “all men are created equal” is rooted in “blessed are the poor in heart, blessed are the meek, blessed are the merciful”—all from the Sermon on the Mount.

Religious illiteracy is not rare in America. Years ago, while working in a newsroom, I was asked to coach a junior reporter on a piece she was doing for Christmas. She wrote, “Like the old saying goes, it is better to give than to receive.”

I informed her it was not an “old saying,” that, in fact, Christ had said it. The reporter had no idea, apparently having never made a link between Christ and Christmas.

Like all illiteracy, cluelessness about the Bible reflects a lack of basic cultural knowledge akin to not knowing what the Declaration of Independence is and how it is related to the Magna Carta, and how the Magna Carta is related to the Sermon on the Mount.

The Sermon on the Mount is one of the primary building blocks of Western Civilization—changing our values from hierarchy, entitlement and barbarism to humility, forgiveness, and caring for others.

When the leadership at the Texas Education Agency followed the direction of the Texas Legislature with the passage of House Bill 1605, the goal wasn’t to convert students to Christianity in the classroom. Instead, the goal is to ensure that Texas students understand the values and principles that resulted in the exploration and settlement of North America, the founding of our country and the systems and laws that guide our country today.

It’s not just a story for Christians. Educated Jewish and Muslim Americans know the story of the Sermon on the Mount and how it fits into the American story—they also know how its history is related to the stories of their faith.

Teaching isn’t preaching, even if some of the stories come from a historical source like the Bible. Using another Bible story example, the Good Samaritan can help teach children how to be good neighbors to all. Discussing the Golden Rule and its origin reinforces the civilized way to treat one another. Going back to Martin Luther King Jr. again, he used the Bible to make the case for moral law in his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail, a document that every Texas student is required to read and learn about.

A majority of Texans support adding the Bible to the historical sources used in the classroom. According to a new poll conducted by WPAi for TPPF, 64% of Texans support the inclusion of historical religious stories and examples into state provided curriculum, while only 33% are opposed. Further, 58% say the biblical stories provide students with a greater understanding of the development of Western civilization, versus just 25% who say it has the potential for religious indoctrination.

Of course, biblical illiteracy is not the only problem that has come up in the debate over Texas’ new public school curriculum. In the CBS 5 news report, a distinguished political science professor from Rice University snidely insisted that the curriculum probably violates the “separation clause” of the Constitution.

There is, of course, no “separation clause” in the Constitution. What the Constitution bans is an official, government supported church. Literate Texas students should know that too.

The reporter who wrote “Sermon on the Mound” in a news report demonstrates precisely why a curriculum for Texas public schools should include all the historical resources, including the Bible, that contribute to our country’s identity. It is one of the things needed to understand what it means to be an American. It’s all connected. It’s impossible to understand the importance of Juneteenth, for example, without understanding the significance of the message of the Sermon on the Mount—that’s Mount, not Mound.

May your Christmas season continue to be merry and bright.

Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.

Listen to Winners & Losers on Talk 1370, the Cardle & Woolley show, every Friday morning at 8:30 AM. Here’s the listen live link.

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Throughout 2025, I joined the Cardle & Woolley Show every Friday morning on Talk 1370 Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. Starting with the inauguration of President Donald Trump’s second term and an epic session of the Texas Legislature, 2025 has been an epic year, changing the course of history in so many ways, for good and for ill. To reflect a bit, I pulled the best and the worst happenings from this year’s Winners & Losers lists:  

WINNER: The Best of 2025—Trump Should Get the Nobel Peace Prize

June 27 — American presidents have been trying to rein in the theocracy in Iran for the last 40 years, using all kinds of threats, sanctions, sticks and carrots in an effort to get the Iranians to stop developing a nuclear weapon. President Trump finally said, “Times up,” when it was clear Iran had no intention of backing down. In a massive display of American might—those B-2 bombers had never been in battle before—he blasted their program out of existence, ensuring that the largest state sponsor of terrorism no longer has the ability to develop a nuclear bomb.

He did so while expressing no malice toward Iran—urging Iranians to focus on trade and building their economy instead of their jihad against Jews. At the same time, he was unequivocal that the United States will never abandon our commitment to Israel.

Trump’s F-Bomb statement—that Iran and Israel had been fighting so hard for so long that they don’t know what the f*** they are doing”—not only succinctly describes how most of the world views the Middle East, it also made it crystal clear that he had no intention of joining that fight.

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Trump’s action “a shot in the arm for American credibility.” Rice served under George W. Bush, one of Trump’s harshest critics. The shift Rice saw in American credibility was immediately apparent in the NATO Summit that week, where every country in Europe except Spain finally agreed to substantially increase what they pay for their defense, no longer forcing the U.S. to cover most of the costs. This was a goal Trump set during his first term, but no one believed he had any hope of succeeding. Now he has.  

What happened to Iran sends a strong message to Russia and China about America’s strength and the principles that make up the Trump doctrine. “Kill all the Jews” can’t be anyone’s national mission statement, but his simple pleas to Iranian leaders to open some markets, make some money and “give peace a chance” has a whole new meaning in our current times.

Granted, the ceasefire may not hold, and Trump’s additional effort to end the fighting in Gaza may not be successful, but no world leader has pushed for world peace harder than Trump—in the Middle East, in Ukraine, in Asia. His name has repeatedly been floated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Whether he receives it has nothing to do with merit, of course, like getting all A’s at Harvard.

President Barack Obama received the Peace Prize in 2009, but it’s not exactly clear why. According to the Nobel Committee’s press release, Obama wanted to turn over international negotiations to the United Nations and embrace the fight against climate change—plus he was a big star who gave people hope. Trump’s record in just the last few months outshines that, but as I said, peace prizes aren’t awarded on merit.

LOSER: The Worst Event of 2025–Losing Charlie Kirk

September 12 — So much has been said and will continue to be said about the amazing Charlie Kirk: He was a brilliant thinker, inspired leader, husband, father, man of faith who changed the political landscape in America. I met Charlie after hearing him speak at a large conservative event a number of years ago—I don’t remember which one.

I didn’t take him seriously at the time, after he stated his mission was to win over younger voters. I have been in and around politics for decades, and every election cycle or two somebody rises up and professes they will win the next election by getting out the youth vote. It had never worked before.

Charlie Kirk changed that, wading onto college campuses across the country, and talking to students about everything from Marxism to immigration to Native American health care to sex before marriage—whatever they wanted to debate with him. He believed that in order to save the greatest country in the world, it’s critical to talk with people who disagree with you. He said:

“…when people stop talking, really bad stuff starts. When marriages stop talking, divorce happens. When civilizations stop talking, civil war ensues. When you stop having a human connection with someone you disagree with, it becomes a lot easier to want to commit violence against that group. . . . What we as a culture have to get back to is being able to have a reasonable disagreement, where violence is not an option.”

Charlie was an evangelical Christian who recently told the Catholic News Service that if he died, he wanted to be remembered for acting with the courage of his faith. This moved me to go back and re-listen to his appearance on comedian Bill Maher’s podcast “Club Random,” earlier this year.

Maher is the most prominent and outspoken atheist of our time. He not only doesn’t believe in God, he believes religion is a malevolent force in our culture. The title of his documentary film, “Religulous” combines the words religion and ridiculous, and it’s meant to expose what he sees as the absurdity of faith.

But like Charlie, Maher believes dialogue and disagreement are critical. “Everybody is a monster until you talk with them,” Maher says.

Charlie sat down with him in April. You can listen to their conversation here. In the opening minutes, Maher casually comments on the security people Charlie brought with him, asking “do you need security?” Knowing what we know now, the exchange is chilling.

Wall Street Journal columnist Kim Strassel notes that what usually happens in America after heart-breaking political violence like this is the country is on good behavior for a week or so before politicians on both sides go back to stoking up their supporters, insisting that their political opponents will bring tyranny and an end to civilization as we know it. The suspect in the murder apparently believed killing Charlie was fighting fascism. Ironically, when a student once accused Charlie of being a fascist to his face, Charlie asked him to “name one fascist thing about me.” The student not only didn’t know what Charlie stood for, he also didn’t really know what fascism was.

Charlie believed talking to people who disagree with you is the only path to real change. He bet his life on it.

WINNER: Gender is Over, Sex is Back

January 25 — Trump’s Executive Order, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” officially ended the battle for “biological truth” that has been going on for almost a decade. Skirmishes continue all over the country, but in fact, this one is done.

Later in the year, in a 6 to 3 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the right of Tennessee to bar parents from giving their children puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones and allowing them to undergo unneeded mastectomies and even castrations in an effort to change their sex. Hopefully, this will bring the destructive mutilation called “gender affirming care” to an end.

LOSER: Biden Cover-Up Still on Big Loser List

May 20 — After Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s book, “Original Sin,” made a big splash, I assumed the issue of former President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline in office would finally rotate off Winners and Losers. Surely, that horse has been sufficiently beaten. But then the tapes of Biden’s deposition by Special Counsel Robert Hur were released and America could actually hear just how disoriented the former president was. His sense of time, his focus, his grasp on reality—all demonstrated that Hur had been right when he said that although Biden had broken the law regarding classified documents, he was so feeble and forgetful that no jury would convict him.

The Hur tapes further validated the information in Tapper’s book about how the White House staff misled the public about Biden’s competence. The Joe Biden revealed on those tapes was the same Joe Biden who his advisors said was sharp as a tack.

Finally, it wasn’t just conservatives who were asking, “Who was running the country?”

Then, just before that question could be seriously considered, Biden’s spokespeople announced that the former president has “Stage 4 prostate cancer that has metastasized to his bones.”

That is terrible news for the former president and his family and virtually everyone, including President Trump and Biden’s harshest critics in conservative media, have profusely and repeatedly expressed their concerns and offered their prayers.

Unfortunately for the Biden family, after the Tapper book and the Hur tapes, they are no longer trusted by anyone, so this awful news doesn’t just evoke sympathy, it raises more questions: Men his age are routinely screened for prostate cancer. If Biden wasn’t, why not?

Biden said he had cancer in 2022, but his staff said he misspoke. Did he? Did the family know Biden had cancer and not tell the country? Did Biden know he had cancer when he was insisting that he would run for re-election again? Did Jill Biden and Hunter know? Did his advisors, the so-called “Politburo” who were apparently making all the presidential decisions, know? Or was Biden somehow unlucky enough to have a personal physician who missed a crucial point on the former president’s regular check-up? Texas Sen. John Cornyn has asked DOJ to investigate “potential violations of federal law regarding representations made to the general public about the president’s health.

Going forward, historians will undoubtedly debate whether the Biden cover-up was just a sequence of bad decisions made expediently, or if voters had unknowingly put a Richard III in the Oval Office where he and his advisors would do whatever it took to keep the White House.

In the short term, a good question for the media to ponder is how did the former president so completely destroy the public’s trust that even a tragic cancer diagnosis raises justified suspicion?

WINNER: Taxpayers No Longer Must Fund NPR and PBS

July 18 — Not sure why this was even debatable, but last summer, President Donald Trump actually had to waste his valuable time convincing some Republican senators to move forward with clawing back federal funding from National Public Radio and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as part of his rescissions package.

“Clawing back” is the appropriate term. Conservatives have been fighting tooth and nail to end taxpayer funding of the left-wing public media outlets for decades. NPR and PBS have always been among the most biased news sources, because they don’t even have market forces to keep them even-handed. In recent history, they pushed the Russia-gate story, censored anyone who suggested COVID-19 might have come from a lab leak, and refused to cover Hunter Biden’s laptop, according to an insider report, because editors were worried the story “might help Trump” win the election.

The government should not be funding media—left, right or whatever. That’s a communist thing. I usually am not a fan of U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, but her congressional hearing comments to the leaders of PBS and NPR summed it up perfectly: “We believe that you all can hate us on your own dime.”

LOSER: No Kings March Proves There Are No Kings

June 19 — A fake tweet was posted by somebody suggesting that Trump thanked all the No Kings protestors for making sure that no king took his place. He happily reported he is still the president.

Too bad it was fake, because, as a USA Today column pointed out, the nationwide marches prove the point that democracy is alive and well in America. We don’t know how much the American Federation of Teachers spent to help promote the No Kings events, but they didn’t get much for their money. We got one more round of the usual low-grade street riots in Los Angeles, Seattle and New York, but it was mostly a big nothing burger. Meanwhile, the president’s parade in Washington, D.C., celebrating the 250^th anniversary of the U.S. Army, went off without a hitch. It got great reviews, even from critics at left-wing MSNBC who were shocked that there was no “dark, malevolent energy.”

LOSER: Democrats and the Shutdown War

November 14 — It was great seeing the headline in the Washington Post proclaiming the Democrats had lost the shutdown battle after that newspaper spent 40 days proclaiming that the blue team was winning. Granted, the liberals at the WaPo predict that Republicans will ultimately lose on the health care issue, and maybe they will, but, in fact, nobody ever really understood what the Democrats were trying to prove.  

After almost six weeks of shutdown, at a cost estimate of anywhere between $7 billion and $15 billion a week, eight Democrat senators listened to the demands of the American people to bring the shutdown to an end and broke the logjam. The majority of Democrat lawmakers are outraged at the defection of the eight and, as they try to regroup, most seem to think all their problems will be solved if they get rid of their minority leader, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, who couldn’t hold his caucus together and refused to endorse New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.

They have no idea why they lost.  

LOSERS: Faculty Councils at Texas Universities

September 5 — Several of Texas’ flagship universities announced this week that they are taking steps to disband faculty senates and councils that have insisted for years that they, not college presidents or boards of regents, are in charge of our taxpayer-funded universities.

Senate Bill 37, authored by Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe and Rep. Matt Shaheen, R-Plano, stops all that and returns control of the campus and the curriculum to the Boards of Regents, appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott, who is elected by the people of Texas.

At the University of Texas at Austin and the University of North Texas, there are four liberals for every conservative—numbers which create a culture more hospitable to progressive and DEI-infused ideology than the values of free speech and open inquiry. When it comes to reforming higher education, Texas has created the model that President Trump and the rest of the country are following. Dynamic new leadership at the state’s flagship universities is making an enormous difference. Ending the hegemony of so-called “faculty governance” groups is one big key to change.

WINNER: A Great Year of College Football in Texas

Despite the continued threats to college football from the machinations of NIL and the struggle between those who want to save intercollegiate competition and those who want to create an NFL feeder league, 2025 was a great year in college football with three Texas flagships ending up in the Top 15.

The No. 4-ranked Red Raiders of Texas Tech are the Big 12 Champions! They will play the winner of the Oregon vs. James Madison University game in the Orange Bowl on New Year’s Day. No. 7-ranked Texas A&M had an undefeated season, until the last game when the University of Texas knocked them out of the SEC championship battle, with a 27 to 17 victory. The Aggies are still in the CFP, of course, and will play Miami tomorrow night in the first round.

The Texas Longhorns, ranked No. 14, will play Michigan in the Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Eve. Please continue to cheer on Savings College Sports in 2026. GameDay’s Pat McAfee and Texas Tech Board of Regents Chair Cody Campbell lay it all out here.

Meanwhile, Gig ‘em, Wreck ‘em, Hook ‘em.

Have a blessed Christmas.

Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.

Sign up to receive this in your inbox every week at www.texaspolicy.com/9thandCongress.

Follow me on X @sylvester1630 and follow my podcast, the Sherry Sylvester Show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on Talk 1370 Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. Amid the joys of this holy season and the machinations of the College Football Playoff bracket, here’s the list for this week:

WINNER: Paying Attention to History

White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles announced this week that President Donald Trump is going to be out campaigning like it was 2024. The president is also taking steps to regain the ground he has lost over the past few months. While you won’t hear it on Fox News, the president’s polling numbers are definitely down and any conservative pundit who tries to explain it away simply isn’t paying attention.

Conservatives often dismiss polling data because we are right on the issues and the Democrats and progressives are so very wrong, but being right isn’t always enough. We are in a fight of light over darkness—and to win, we cannot forget that.

In August, I voiced concerns about those who were saying that the progressive Democrat Party had been destroyed and conservatives would dominate for the next decade—even millennia. I wish that were true, but history tells us it isn’t. Here’s the snippet I wrote this summer that bears repeating today:

Unfortunately, the persistent cluelessness of Democrats has caused too many conservatives to prematurely pronounce them dead and even on the verge of extinction. But political terrain in America shifts quickly, and Democrats have been here before.

In 1972, Republicans defeated left-winger George McGovern in the biggest Republican landslide in history, but just four years later, a guy nobody had ever heard of, Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter, took the White House back for the Democrats. It was a sweet victory for the blue team, but then Ronald Reagan took Carter out after just one term and in 1988, when Reagan ran for re-election, he won 49 states.

Times were as bad for Democrats back then as they are now. They didn’t really have a leader. All their big guns stood down. Former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo (father of losing NYC mayoral candidate Andrew) was viewed as the Democrats’ strongest candidate, but he was afraid to run against George H.W. Bush.

However, there was this governor from the poor and tiny state of Arkansas whose only claim to fame was a disastrous speech delivered at the Democratic National Convention (his only applause line was “in conclusion”), who thought he could beat Bush. Clinton threw his hat in the ring and we know what happened from there.

It is dangerous to forget history.

Democrats may seem clueless right now, but they are not dead. Politics turns on a dime. Conservatives should remember 1972, 1976, 1992, and 2008. If we don’t pay attention, the Democrats will make the country pay some other way.

Just saying. Meanwhile, look who else made the Winners List this week:

WINNER: Jasmine Crockett Eight Points Up

I was wrong last week when I predicted that U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, would ultimately balk on a U.S. Senate run. She announced on Monday that she is definitely in, and the first public poll released this week conducted by Texas Southern University shows her up eight points over state Rep. James Talarico, D-Round Rock. Meanwhile, Colin Allred, who ran against Sen. Ted Cruz last time, and had been the frontrunner in the Democrat Senate primary race for a while, dropped out in the face of a Crockett candidacy.

According to the poll, African Americans are solidly behind Crockett, while Hispanics and Anglos are with Talarico. It is a long time until next March’s primary and even longer until the November election—where it is unlikely either one of them can defeat whomever the Republicans choose to run for the seat. But for now, the always hateful and frequently foul-mouthed Crockett is the face of the Democrat party in Texas—and that is a good thing for conservatives. Let’s hope she launches a speaking tour all over the state making fun of Gov. Greg Abbott for being in a wheel chair and talking about the need for open borders to bring more workers so black people won’t have to pick cotton.

WINNER: Amnesty International Finally Reports Hamas Oct. 7 Crimes

Amnesty International leans heavily left, but this week it finally reported that the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel targeted civilians and killed over a thousand people. Amnesty International also confirmed that the hundreds who were captured by Hamas were subjected to physical torture and sexual assault and violence.

This is certainly not news, but it is important since there are so many young Americans on college campuses who continue to believe that the attack didn’t happen, or if it did, it was somehow justified. The Amnesty International report echoes similar findings by the United Nations, making it harder for left-wingers in America to ignore.

LOSER: President Trump Moves to Legalize Pot

It probably should be no surprise that President Trump is said to be moving toward taking steps to legalize marijuana. He’s got his hand on the pulse of the country and 64% of Americans support legalizing pot (although that’s down from 70% in 2023).

As a boomer who lived through the golden age of marijuana—back when it was mild and cheap—it is hard to see how this is a good idea. The links to marijuana psychosis are terrifying, and too often link to mass shooters. Plus, in a time where so many young people are already wandering in the wilderness, why would we want to take steps to expand the use of a drug that reduces ambition and focus, and increases aimlessness?

There are many heroes who have been fighting for years against legalizing pot in Texas including Dr. Matt Poling, from College Station. Take a look at what he says here.

LOSER: Indigenous Peoples Scam

It looks like a Small Business Administration program designed to help “small disadvantaged businesses” is actually a scam that has resulted in billions in fraud and bribes to native tribes and other “disadvantaged groups” that partner with non-natives to do business. This report in Tribal Business News on the recent Senate hearing provides the long time line and scope of the scam. Here’s a telling quote from the Daily Wire report on the hearing:

“…there are skyscrapers down the street in Tyson’s Corner, [Virginia] defense contractors working on advanced weapons that don’t have to bid competitively for contracts because we say they’re Alaskan Native corporations. Every one of us in this room knows there are not Native Alaskans in those buildings … The scandal isn’t that there have been a few examples of abuse. The scandal is that it’s hard to find one that isn’t.” 

LOSER: Mid-Cycle Redistricting Map Wars

At this point it looks like the Trump strategy to increase GOP numbers in the U.S. House before next year’s mid-term elections appears to have fizzled after the state senate in Indiana voted against a proposed redistricting map last night. Even though Texas’ map was upheld in court last week, California’s map will likely also be upheld—making those five seats a wash for Democrats and Republicans. Looking at the current tally, Republicans could come out one seat ahead when all the smoke clears. That seems like a lot of squeezing for very little juice.

WINNER: Texas Economy Remains Strong

In some final data, this week’s reports show Texas sales tax receipts are up 5.4% over last year, the Texas oil and gas industry paid $27 billion in state taxes and royalties in 2025 and the Texas Workforce Commission reported the state has added 168,000 jobs this year. Winding down 2025 in the Lone Star State, that’s a lot of merry and bright.

Have a great weekend.

Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.

Sign up to receive this in your inbox every week at www.texaspolicy.com/9thandCongress.

Follow me on X @sylvester1630 and follow my podcast, the Sherry Sylvester Show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on Talk 1370 Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. Not sure why there are so many more winners than losers this week, but here’s who made the list.

WINNER: Texas Congressional District Map Stands

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the Texas new congressional map can stay in place for next year’s election. My favorite line from the ruling is the conservative majorities’ assertion that the “lower court had failed to presume legislative good faith.” I think many people have forgotten that there is any such thing as “legislative good faith”—so great to see it affirmed.

The Supremes also charged that opponents of the map had presented circumstantial evidence and that it was too close to the election (the filing deadline is on Monday). The high court said, “the District Court improperly inserted itself into an active primary campaign, causing much confusion and upsetting the delicate federal-state balance in elections.”

Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch wrote that it was clear that Texas lawmakers had drawn lines based on partisanship—whether voters were likely Democrats or Republicans—not race, which made the map legal. This is a big win for Texas Republicans. It will add five new Texas house seats and energize Republicans across the state who have been engaged in congressional campaigns for months.

California’s new map that adds five new Democrat-leaning House seats will have to meet the same challenge, proving partisanship, not racial gerrymandering. Odds seem good that will happen, but you never know.

WINNER: Trump Ends Biden’s Green Fuel Mandates

In a great move for Texas and the world this week, President Donald Trump announced that he is ending Joe Biden’s fuel economy and emission regulations for new cars and light trucks. Biden had pronounced that they’d all have to get 50.1 miles to the gallon by 2031. Trump rolled that back to 34.5.

This move will likely make cars cheaper—we saw just last week in California that they have decided that electric vehicles are not really financially feasible. Biden’s regulations have been costing both jobs and money, while Trump has always seen that policies that hamstring fossil fuels have crippling side effects that sap our economic strength and even our national security. And, as we know in Texas, fossil fuels are critical when it comes to reliability.

WINNER: Trump Pardons U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar

President Donald Trump issued a “full and unconditional pardon” this week of Laredo Congressman Henry Cuellar. Cuellar, a Democrat, was the first Texas Secretary of State to serve under former Gov. Rick Perry, who appointed him in 2001. He was first elected to Congress in 2005—so he’s been there 20 years.

Trump stated that the feds went after Cuellar when he broke with his party regarding their open border policies, instead supporting what Trump had done to close the border. Nobody doubts Cuellar when he said the people in his district he agreed with him. Cuellar is one of the few remaining moderate Democrats, and says he intends to run for re-election next year.

WINNER: Creighton Takes Charge at Texas Tech

Brandon Creighton, the new Chancellor at Texas Tech, is not the first Texas conservative to call out the ideological indoctrination that has contaminated the culture on most university campuses, including in Texas, but, working alongside Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, he is the first person to take steps to eradicate it.

Creighton wrote legislation that empowers regents to review the curriculum. And this week, he provided the guidelines for that process. For starters, no one will be taught that there are more than two genders.

Next, no one will be taught that one race is inherently superior to another. Do they do that? Absolutely. Theories of “white supremacy,” and “colonization” appear in dozens of courses, teaching that students of one race are guilty of crimes and other races are not.

The same is true of the notion that an “individual, by virtue of race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, consciously or unconsciously.” Does that happen? You bet it does. Ever hear anyone say, “Check your white privilege at the door”? That’s why prohibiting the teaching that moral character is determined by race and that individuals bear responsibility or guilt for actions of others of the same race.

Creighton’s memo also said no person can be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment because of race or sex. Isn’t that already illegal? Yes, but just last year Texas A&M had to end its involvement in a higher ed program that did not allow white or Asian students to apply.

Finally, Creighton’s directive notes that students cannot be taught that “meritocracy or a strong work ethic are racist, sexist, or constructs of oppression.” If you are thinking, who thought they were, the answer is basically every DEI professor and text book writer in the country. Michael Sandel, at Harvard, wrote a book called “The Tyranny of Merit.” DEI programs have identified an “emphasis on hard work” as racist, as well as time schedules and punctuality requirements.

Creighton has been fearless in tackling this massive ideological misinformation campaign, and his latest move is one more step in returning our universities to places of open inquiry and freedom of thought.

WINNER: Trump Puts Media on the Record

I concluded a while ago that fighting media bias is tilting at windmills. Even when you catch the media red-handed, they never confess, they never apologize, they never correct and, most importantly, they never change.

Just this week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant slammed down New York Times’ writer Andrew Ross Sorkin, who questioned him about a New York Times report that Trump was slowing down—working shorter hours, holding fewer meetings. Hours after the New York Times story was released, the White House provided logs showing that Trump routinely works 12 hour days, in addition to outside political activities.

Bessant pointed out that the New York Times was deeply involved in the repeated failure to report Joe Biden’s cognitive decline—which he called “one of the greatest scandals of our times.”

It was fun to watch Bessant take down Sorkin, but it is unlikely to make any difference. Still, the Trump White House website, Misleading.Bias.Exposed, is a good counter to the avalanche of biased news coverage.

Speaking of, it’s time for Politifact’s annual “Lie of the Year” contest where they allow their readers to vote on what they deem to be the biggest untruths of the last 12 months. This year voters can choose from six alleged “lies” by President Trump, five alleged lies by other conservatives, versus one alleged lie each from J.B. Pritzger and Hakeem Jeffries—along with internet story that Trump was dead.

LOSER: Jasmine Crockett’s Potential Senate Run?

A poll from the left-leaning Change Research reported this week that half of Democrats say they definitely would not vote for U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, who is suggesting that she will announce on Monday that she is running for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Sen. John Cornyn.

Crockett, who represents a big chunk of Dallas in Congress, gained notoriety after referring to Gov. Greg Abbott as “Governor Hot Wheels,” and explaining that she supports open borders because black people are done picking cotton—meaning that illegal immigrants are needed to work in America’s fields.

Crockett has the highest name ID of any Democrat in the poll, but 40 percent of Democrats view her negatively, which can give us all some hope that Texas Democrats aren’t totally clueless. Crockett said this week that she is “closer to yes than to no” when it comes to running for the statewide job, and told reporters today said she was calling others who are already in the race.

It would be absolutely terrific for conservatives if Crockett was at the top of the Democrat ticket in Texas running for the U.S. Senate—she is a gift that keeps on giving. Every time she opens her mouth, she demonstrates the combination of irrationality and hatefulness that has become the progressive Democrat brand. Still, I will not be surprised if she ultimately walks away. Even if she wins the Democrat nomination she is unlikely to win the seat. Even this lefty poll shows Democrats 10 points behind. I think it’s a stunt by Crockett to get attention—but I would love to be wrong.

WINNER: San Antonio Spur Victor Wembanyama Makes Forbes ‘30 Under 30’

It is a victory for all of Texas that the 7’4” San Antonio Spur Victor Wembanyama has been named to the Forbes “30 Under 30” list in the sports category, not just because he was “Rookie of the Year” and then NBA defensive player of the year, but because of everything else he is doing to expand the basketball fan base. The Spurs don’t win as much as they used to, but Wemby feels like the championship Spurs used to feel—international, innovative and dedicated to the community. Whenever Wemby is playing, the game gets better—and now more people will be watching.

WINNER: Tech Plays for Big 12 Title

Texas Tech Red Raiders will take on BYU tomorrow in Arlington for the Big 12 Championship. Tech beat BYU last month in Lubbock in what some viewed as an upset, and the Raiders are the favorite to win tomorrow—but it won’t be easy. BYU will be looking for revenge. GUNS UP!

Have a great weekend.