Author: Sherry Sylvester

Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle & Wooley Show on Talk 1370 Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. The government is still shut down, and members of the military won’t be getting their paychecks next week, but in case you were worried, the members of Congress (the same people who won’t even talk about ending the shutdown) will still be getting paid. Here’s who made the list:

WINNER: Trump’s Peace Plan in Gaza

No place on earth is trickier than the Middle East, but Trump’s Peace Plan has been accepted by both Hamas and Israel. And while details are still being worked out, the Wall Street Journal reports that both sides are hopeful and moving forward. Israel says it has withdrawn from parts of Gaza, and the 72-hour clock is now counting down for Hamas to release the hostages.

It is hard to imagine anyone but President Trump getting this done, although so far, accolades are coming reluctantly. A New York Times columnist reluctantly suggests that Trump could claim the right to a Nobel Peace Prize for the accomplishment, but, so far, only Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman from the Democrat side has given the President a high five.

Norway, the country where they award the peace prizes, expressed worry yesterday that Trump might throw a fit if he didn’t get the prestigious award. The leader of the socialist party in Oslo said the country should be prepared for anything, because Trump is so volatile and authoritarian. They want to make sure Trump knows that Norway doesn’t officially have anything to do with who gets the prize, in case Trump was thinking of invading or dropping a bomb or something.

This morning, the Nobel crowd announced that the Peace Prize would be awarded to Maria Corina Machado, who has been fighting the authoritarian regime in Venezuela. Machado immediately dedicated her award to the people of her country and to President Trump, for his “decisive support of our cause.” She clearly understands what matters better than the Nobel Peace Prize committee, which essentially said they don’t like the President’s style.

Apparently, style is a big part of the whole “peace prize” thing. The Peace Prize Committee ignored the guy who brought the Abraham Accords to the Middle East and laid the groundwork for the ceasefire agreement today while making such a big deal about giving the prize to former President Barack Obama in 2009 for doing nothing.

LOSER: Were Biden’s Antics Worse than Watergate?

The more we hear about what was happening while former President Joe Biden was in office, the more outrageous it becomes. This past week, emails surfaced from the CIA with Ukrainian complaints about how incompetent Biden’s diplomatic efforts were in regard to their country. Ukrainian leaders also didn’t trust dealings with Biden because of the highly questionable business activities of his son, Hunter. The kicker on these revelations is that Biden officials demanded that the CIA bury the Ukrainian emails.

We also learned this week that Biden and his henchmen ordered the monitoring of phone calls of eight Republican senators—including Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Some have said the outrage of a sitting president surveilling the phone records of members of Congress is worse than Watergate, and it clearly is. After all, Watergate was actually about stealing campaign plans—something that is pretty much standard practice today. Getting the phone records of members of the opposition party is a huge affront to all our Constitutional rights.

This comes on top of what we learned last week, about Biden requiring flash cards with photos to remember who he was talking to—Hillary Clinton, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois. There’s no way to know whether he understood that he’d signed off on going after the phone records of the GOP lawmakers. But if he didn’t sign off, who did?

WINNER: Texas Tech and UT Audit of Gender Identity Classes

Let’s be clear, gender identity isn’t a real thing. The idea that individuals are born neutral and turn into males or females depending on how they are reared is, frankly, nuts. Gender identity advocates believe that girls are girls because their parents encourage them to behave like girls. Presumably, if their parents encouraged them to behave like boys—they’d be boys. Their core belief is that your gender is “arbitrarily assigned at birth.”

Most Texans don’t agree, so the recent winning move by Texas Tech and the University of Texas at Austin to examine the so-called “gender identity” classes on campuses is long overdue. Last year, during the debate over the passage of Senate Bill 37, a cursory review of the course catalog at UT revealed over 400 courses with the word “gender” in the title.

That’s because once you accept the premise that gender is arbitrary, it permeates every aspect of study—the role of gender in the agricultural patterns of southwest America—the role of gender in defining color-blindness in dogs, whatever. A new curriculum emerges and dozens of gender theory professors are required to teach it. It’s a grift. It’s a racket. Good for Tech and UT for going after it.

WINNER: Abbott Edict on Crosswalks

Gov. Greg Abbott let Austin and other cities know this week that government-sanctioned graffiti like we see in Austin including the Gay Pride crosswalk and Black Lives Matter messages have to go. The city of Austin authorized these “decorative street markings” over the past several years, but, as Abbott rightly points out, taxpayers don’t want their money being used for activist ads that they are forced to stare at while they are waiting in traffic—which they almost always are. Street propaganda is not unique to Austin. Most Democrat cities, including Houston, have them.

So far, the neither Gov. Abbott nor TXDOT have suggested the activist ads are a safety hazard, so perhaps cities could get entrepreneurial and sell the space to make much needed cash. You could imagine: “TURN LEFT HERE FOR THE BEST TACOS IN TOWN” in bright red and yellow.

LOSER: Watching Progressives Continues to Entertain

I so wanted to read a news report on a national conference of progressive Democrats entitled “Democrats Still Have No Idea What Went Wrong,” that I signed up for a free trial to Atlantic Magazine, a premier left-wing publication, to learn what happened at an conference called Persuasion 2025 in Washington, D.C., last week. (I intend to unsubscribe before they charge me, but even if I miss the deadline, I gained some interesting intel).

Austin Congressman Greg Casar, chair of the Progressive Caucus, told the group that they all had to stop blaming progressive policies for the loss of the 2024 election, even as data was circulated by another Democrat pollster showing that the ad revealing that former Vice President Kamala Harris supported sex change operations for inmates in prison (She’s for They/Them, He’s for Us) resulted in a 2.7% shift among Independent voters—a margin that amounted to victory for Trump in seven swing states.

Since the election, we have seen a few news reports of Democrats trying to regroup. California Gov. Gavin Newsom admitted it isn’t fair to have boys playing girls’ sports and Rahm Emanuel wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed bluntly telling Democrats they need to totally re-think their stance on education. So-called “sane Democrats” like Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore have become fixtures on many podcasts and news talk shows, but they are exceptions, not the rule.

According to the Atlantic, the Persuasion 2025 conference makes it startlingly clear that the stereotypes about progressive Democrats are actually true—they may love humanity, but they can’t stand people. They ignore opinion polls, insisting it doesn’t matter what people think. They think voters are simply wrong and paying attention to polls is “pollingism.”

One progressive pollster, Anat Shenker-Osorio, challenged the idea that the way to win elections is to find people who support your ideas and get them out to vote. Shenker-Osorio says that’s all wrong:

Conventional wisdom says to meet people where they are. But on most issues, where they are is unacceptable.

“Unacceptable,” is a little bit nicer than “deplorable,” but the sentiment is the same.

UPDATE WINNER: Cell Phone Ban Update

After a rocky start last month, Alamo Heights School District, in San Antonio reported this week that the school system will abide by the state cell phone ban on students, prohibiting phone use from bell to bell. Alamo Heights was one of several large San Antonio school districts that had initially defied the state ban on cell phone use for students in classes, creating a ridiculous loophole by interpreting the law to mean that students were only restricted from using their phones during class. They could still use them before, after and between classes, at lunch and virtually anytime they were out of the classroom—totally defeating the purpose of the ban.

Whether it was pressure or the fact that the cell phone ban is proving to be very popular among students, Alamo Heights has reversed course.

Northeast School District, also in San Antonio, continues to ignore the ban and the Texas Education Agency (TEA) is investigating this refusal by professional educators to do what is best for kids. Northeast ISD has essentially said to the State, “You are not the boss of me.” TPPF and many others worked hard to pass this important legislation. Stay tuned.

LOSER: Sentence in Kavanaugh Assassination Attempt

It was outrageous this week that the man who attacked Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was only sentenced to eight years for the crime. It is also outrageous that the media seems to have completely forgotten he is a man.

It is not completely clear how Nicholas Roske became Sophie Roske during the time he has been awaiting trial for the attempted under of Kavanaugh, but virtually all the legacy news reporting this week on the sentencing said that Kavanaugh was attacked by a woman, even though the person who traveled from California with a knife and a Glock to kill Kavanaugh was a man.

During the sentencing, Roske became the victim in the story when the judge said that one reason the sentence was so light is Roske will be held in a male prison. The judge noted that life for “trans woman” is particularly difficult in male prisons, suggesting that eight years should count for more—like dog years or something.

WINNER: Columbus Day “We’re Back, Italians”

The long travail is finally over—Columbus Day is back, just in time for “Columbus Day.” Trump officially proclaimed the end of politically correct “Indigenous Peoples Day,” today and the country can now move forward out of the murky confusion.

Winners & Losers: Red River Shoot Out, Aggies & Raiders

Perhaps the less said the better about the Red River Shootout and the battle for the Golden Hat tomorrow as the undefeated Oklahoma Sooners, ranked No. 6 in the nation, come to the Cotton Bowl to face the Longhorns (who barely came out of The Swamp alive last week). Texas, with a record of 3-2 has dropped out of the top 25 national rankings and Oklahoma is picked to win it—but you never know in a rivalry game like this so Hook‘em. Kickoff is at 3:30.

Meanwhile, Texas A&M, ranked No. 5 in the nation, will play Florida, but they are in College Station. Texas Tech continues to move up the charts, now at No. 9. They are playing Kansas.

Hook ‘em! Gig ‘em! Wreck ‘em!

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.

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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Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on 1370 Talk Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. As we begin October, the Democrats have shut down the government, which is never great news. But hey, Texan Elon Musk amassed $500 billion this week, cementing his spot as richest guy in the world, and we have three Texas football teams rated in the Top 11. Here’s who made the list:

WINNER: Trump Picks UT for “Compact on Higher Education Excellence”

Adding a carrot to his approach for reforming higher education in America, President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced this week that nine universities, including the University of Texas at Austin, have been offered the opportunity to sign a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.” The Compact will give the selected schools priority access to federal research funds if they agree to operate under guidelines that will ensure free speech and open inquiry, as well as freezing tuition for five years, capping the percentage of international students and clearly defining the two genders.

Trump and McMahon clearly understand that American universities have generated the ideologically based and wrong-headed academic thinking that has fueled woke policies over the past two decades, weakening and destroying many American institutions and corporations.

Reforming universities will require the strong, no-nonsense approach the president has already employed to end anti-Semitism and race and gender-based admissions and hiring at places like Harvard and Columbia, but it will also require universities to develop operating principles based on open debate, merit-based achievement and a focus on successful student outcomes. Because Texas has led the way nationally in higher education reform by both ending DEI on campuses and reining in the hegemony of faculty by returning campus leadership to university regents, our academic leaders are ahead of the game.

UT System Board of Regents President Kevin Eltife said that the University is honored

to be part of the Trump higher education reform initiative. The other schools that are included are University of Arizona, Brown University, Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia.

Many UT faculty members are not happy. Their American Association of University Professors (AAUP) spokesperson predicts that Trump’s efforts will destroy the university, and in an unprecedented twist, the Texas Faculty Association insists that President Trump can’t control federal research funds because they belong to American taxpayers. This is rich, considering these are the same faculty members who have screamed throughout the last two legislative sessions that Texas lawmakers have no authority over state universities despite the billions in Texas taxpayer dollars that go to college campuses every year. UT President Jim Davis and Provost William Inboden are breaking new ground every day over at the Forty Acres. There’s no question the Longhorns are up to this challenge.

WINNER: Greg Abbott Shuts Down Sharia Law in Texas

It wasn’t a big news story this week, but Gov. Greg Abbott took an important stand in Houston when he affirmed that there is no place for Sharia law in Texas. Responding to reports that a Houston imam was trying to force some Muslim-owned businesses to stop selling alcohol and pork and conform to Muslim religious practices, Abbott said, “To be clear, Texas law and Texas courts govern those businesses and those neighborhoods. No ranting imam can change that.”

If you think Abbott may have been over-reacting (the Houston Chronicle accused him of using right-wing fear tactics), consider that in Dearborn, Michigan, when a resident challenged the Muslim mayor’s move to rename a city street after a Hezbollah terrorist, he was ejected from a City Council meeting and called a racist and an Islamophobe.

In Great Britain, some reports indicate that almost a hundred Sharia councils have been established, allowing Muslims to marry, divorce and file wills outside regular British civil law. This is the exact opposite of assimilation. Abbott is right to make it clear that Texas law prevails.

WINNER: The “Bathroom Bill” is Now Law in Texas

The last and maybe the only big victory by the left in Texas came in 2017 when Democrats, working with their allies in the media, defeated the Women’s Privacy Act, which they pejoratively called “the bathroom bill.”

Back then, the left and the media were successful in creating a narrative that portrayed women and girls who wanted private restrooms and locker rooms as stupid bigots. They ridiculed Texas State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, a former NCAA athlete, who understood what was at stake better than anybody. Had the media listened to Sen. Kolkhorst, they would not have been so surprised about the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.

Perhaps the most disgusting memory from that time was the ad, “I Pee with the LGBT.”  It was not only gross, it deployed phony economic fear tactics by insisting that Texas would lose over a billion dollars in tourist dollars if the legislation passed. It didn’t happen.

Abbott signed Senate Bill 8 into law this week, and violators will be fined $25,000 for the first offense. That’s great news, but it is important to remember how long we had to fight just to ensure that in Texas, women and girls could have their own public restrooms.

LOSER: Hegseth Sounds like Attila the Hun

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth should be a winner this week for calling in American generals from all over the world and making it clear that ending wokeness in our military is his top priority. No more race- and gender-based promotions or DEI, no more sex change operations and drag shows, no more gay pride flags flying over American bases. It is a good thing that the key takeaway from his unprecedented meeting of military leaders in Quantico, Virginia on Tuesday is that America is done with all that.

What I can’t figure out is why the Secretary of War didn’t follow up that terrific news with a blueprint for the military that reflects the vision of President Trump.

From his first day in office, President Trump has re-defined America’s leadership role in the world, leaving no doubt that we are the most powerful country on the planet and that he is committed to using that power to end wars and stop killing people. He’s said it dozens of times, making clear he wants all countries to prosper, even countries we don’t like. That’s why the international response to Trump has been so positive.

But Secretary Hegseth didn’t echo the President. Instead, he often sounded like Attila the Hun:

We fight to win. We unleash overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy. We also don’t fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement, just common sense, maximum lethality and authority for warfighters.

I don’t know who the Secretary of War is talking to, but I am the widow of a professional military officer who was on the ground in Vietnam. I have a military family and I live in Texas’ “Military City.” I am also the daughter of a World War II veteran who fought in four theatres of war, and I can tell you that principled American solders don’t say things like, “We unleash overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy …and intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill the enemies of our country.”

Nowhere do words matter more than when talking about war. Hegseth needs to start sounding like Trump and less like the bad guy in a cheap action movie.

LOSER: Trust in American Media Drops to New Low

It has become a cliché to say that the media has lost its credibility, but it is important to look at the latest survey numbers from Gallup to see exactly what is happening. According to the Gallup data, only 28% of Americans say they trust the media. Half of the people who call themselves Democrats (51%) say they believe the media is mostly accurate—a percentage that has not changed much over the past decade, but the 28% nationwide is a real drop.

In the late 1990s, over 50 percent of the entire country, regardless of political party, believed the information they got from mainstream media was mostly accurate. Today, only 8% of Republicans say they trust the media, the first time GOP trust has dropped to single digits. For Independents, only about 27% say they trust the media—also an all-time low.

WINNER: Free Press Founder Takes Over CBS

Apparently CBS has taken a long look at those Gallup poll numbers, because it is now official that Free Press founder Bari Weiss will be taking over CBS as Editor in Chief.

The move had been rumored for weeks as CBS staffers have cowered in fear that they might be called on to address their biased views. Weiss, who left the New York Times editorial page in 2020, saying she was tired of being bullied by liberals, established a newsletter on Substack that quickly became one of the most reliable news sources in the country. She features writers from across the political spectrum and zeroes in on cultural issues in ways traditional media ignores or distorts.

It will be interesting to see what Weiss does with a major broadcast network. But to get an idea of the bias you won’t find in the Free Press, just read this morning’s news report from the Washington Post on Weiss taking the helm at CBS. It is loaded with slanted commentary and snarky cheap shots even though it’s on the “news” page.

LOSERS: Those Defending Texas Teachers Fired Over Charlie Kirk Comments

The Texas Tribune reports that legal experts are “troubled” that the Texas Education Agency (TEA) is investigating over 300 reports sent to them by parents pointing to teachers who commented negatively following the murder of Charlie Kirk. FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression) is concerned that the free speech rights of teachers are being trampled, and the teachers’ unions are calling it a Republican plot.

But this report by The Texan on what the fired teachers actually said makes it absolutely clear there is no gray area here. Those who were fired went on a public platform and said Kirk got what he deserved in being killed for the beliefs he spoke about on college campuses.

The fired teachers did not say, “I disagree with Kirk,” or “Here’s what Kirk was wrong about,” or even, “I disliked Charlie Kirk because he was an awful person.” Instead, the teachers sounded like Antifa protesters, insisting that anybody who said what Charlie Kirk said deserves to be shot.

Parents don’t want anyone who thinks that people deserve to be shot for what they believe teaching their children. We will see what else unfolds as the TEA investigations continue, but Commissioner Mike Morath is a hero for taking a stand.

LOSER: Big City of Austin Tax Increase on November Ballot

It was heartening to see the Austin American-Statesman editorialize this week about the outrageous 20% local tax increase that the city of Austin has put on the November ballot. Apparently, among other things, some Austin City Council members believe their election entitles them to a free lunch. The Austin City Council can frequently be spotted wasting money big time, but now we know they are also careless with taxpayer dollars behind the scenes.

My TPPF colleague, James Quintero, knows more about the fight against wasteful local spending and tax increases than anyone. You can read his analysis here.

LOSER: X on Passports

In 2021, former President Joe Biden declared that those who are confused about what sex they are could simply mark “X” on their passport application. President Trump overrode this idiocy with an Executive Order shortly after he returned to office and now Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, has a bill that will codify Trump’s edict into law so that the only options available on passport applications are male and female. It makes sense that if you can’t figure out what sex you are, you probably shouldn’t be allowed to travel.

WINNERS: Well, Fingers Crossed

As mentioned above, Texas has three teams in the Top 25 in the AP poll as we begin October and week 6 of the season. The University of Texas at Austin, which is ranked No. 9, plays unranked Florida tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. Texas is predicted to win by a touchdown, but the big speculation is how quarterback Arch Manning will hold up under the pressure he continues to receive as a result of his last name. He certainly has had some moments, but we’ll see how he does against the Gators. They are playing in Florida.

For some, the only thing that matters is that Texas A&M is ranked higher than UT, so we want to acknowledge that. At No. 6, the Aggies are the heavy favorite over Mississippi State. They play tomorrow night in College Station. It’s an SEC matchup, so anything can happen.

Meanwhile, the Texas Tech Red Raiders are ranked at No. 11 in the AP poll and are No. 1 in the Big 12. They travel to the University of Houston tomorrow night where they are expected to wallop the Cougars. Kickoff is at 6 p.m.

Hook ‘em! Gig em! Wreck ‘em!

Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on 1370 Talk Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. Charlie Kirk’s horrific assassination continues to produce aftershocks in Texas, America and the world. It was a week where many moved forward, finding strength, meaning and purpose in these dark times while others recycled old angers. Here’s who made the list:

WINNERS: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dustin Burrows

Lt. Gov. Patrick and Speaker Burrows announced this week that they have created joint committees to examine free speech and civil discourse on public university campuses in Texas. State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, will chair the Senate Committee while Rep. Terry Wilson, R-Georgetown, will chair the House Committee. Both Patrick and Burrows said they were very concerned about some responses to Kirk’s murder at colleges around the state, including the response of a student at Texas State University who mimicked Kirk’s shooting at a campus vigil, and a Texas Tech student who attended a celebration of Kirk’s life in Lubbock and began screaming profanities at mourners, calling Kirk a “homie” and saying she was glad he was killed.

When you trace the source of this kind of oblivious ignorance and hatred, all roads lead back to our universities. They are indoctrination factories that teach young people, including those who go on to teach in public schools, that America is built on racism and patriarchy. Everyone is identified as either oppressed or an oppressor and these hateful students put Charlie Kirk in the “oppressor” category, so they believe they are justified in glorifying his killer.

Texas has done more than any other state to reverse the ideological damage on campuses and return universities to their role as places of open inquiry and debate. The hearings that will be convened by these joint legislative committees will help Texans understand more about what happened and identify what still needs to be done to move the transformation forward.

They will also help answer the question of how almost 300 public school teachers, most of whom are graduates of Texas universities, have been reported to the Texas Education Agency for posting incendiary comments about the Kirk assassination.

Last week we reported that the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is threatening that college professors will leave the state because of Texas higher education reforms. This week, Fox News reported that while the AAUP has expressed concern about faculty members being fired for inappropriate comments, it has not made a statement condemning Kirk’s murder.

WINNERS: The Monarchy

No one, not even America, can outdo the Brits when it comes to Set Direction and Stage Design, and what they pulled off at Windsor Castle this week for President Trump and Melania was spectacular.

America’s royals—Trump and Melania, brought much of their court, including the Tech barons, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Princess Tiffany—to meet the original royals and celebrate what, as King Charles said, neither George Washington nor King George III could have ever imagined. The queen looked queenly and the Prince and Princess of Wales looked absolutely perfect like they always do, a reminder that they will be able to handle this big show long after both the seventy-something guys at the top have moved on.

LOSER: Pete Hegseth’s Department of War

It is not really clear why they changed the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War. The new name undercuts one of President Trump’s most positive assets—he is the strongest anti-war president we have had in decades. No one has more clearly articulated the senselessness of the body counts coming out of both Ukraine and Gaza than Trump. He is usually more conscious about branding, so I blame Secretary Hegseth. The DOW is one more example of Hegseth’s failure to think things through.

Here’s another. Hegseth was right to end wokeness in the military—getting rid of DEI training and race-based promotions, prohibiting drag shows and gay pride celebrations on military bases were all important things to do.

But for some reason that is hard to fathom, Hegseth decided he should also prohibit Black History Month, Hispanic History Month and Women’s History Month.

What is he thinking? Perhaps he doesn’t’ like the idea of a whole month devoted to history and we can understand that. It has always seemed odd that Women’s History Month goes on for all of March while Washington and Lincoln now have to share a day in February that isn’t either one of their birthdays.

But the long and storied history of Black Americans in the American military, starting with the Revolution, is important for every service member to know. The same is true for Hispanic service members, who now make up just under 20% of our fighting forces. And the history of women fighting for America by land, sea and air throughout our history is part of everyone’s heritage. We work very hard in Texas to get history right (see the next winner). We tell the stories of who we were because it helps us understand who we are as Texans and Americans. Somebody should explain that to Hegseth.

WINNER: SBOE Passes Social Studies Teaching Plan

This week, the State Board of Education (SBOE) passed a new social studies curriculum that is a vast improvement over the one our public schools have been using for years that simply forced students to memorize dates and facts about history in the early grades and repeat the process again before they got into high school. Kids will learn more about Texas and how it fits into American history and how America fits into world history under the new plan. My colleague, Mandy Drogin, explains it all here and I invite you to read her brilliant breakdown before you look at this story in the Houston Chronicle with the headline: “SBOE Passes Right Wing Plan to De-Emphasize World History and Culture.”

There should be a special category of LOSER for the Houston Chronicle, because this headline is the worst distortion we have seen in a while. Only about 30 percent of our kids have a clue about any kind of history. Why would anyone demonize the people who are trying to improve those numbers?

LOSER: Jasmine Crockett—Wannabe Hitler and Defining Criminals

U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, told us this week that committing a crime doesn’t necessarily make you a criminal. Huh?

Crockett also defended her frequent descriptions of Trump as a “wannabe-Hitler,”  insisting that she is simply informing people of history.

Crockett clarified this week that she is only interested in a possible run for the U.S Senate, saying unequivocally that she doesn’t want to run against Greg Abbott for governor. That is disappointing. Would love to see what Abbott’s advertising team could do with the quote “just because you have committed a crime doesn’t mean you are a criminal.”

LOSER: Jimmy Kimmel and the Search for Motive

Why was Jimmy Kimmel cancelled and why is there a national debate about the motive? I didn’t watch him and I don’t know anyone who did, but I did see a clip that he went on TV and insisted, after the investigators from Utah presented lots of evidence to the contrary, that the MAGA crowd was responsible for the killing of Charlie Kirk and they are desperately trying to cover it up.

Dumb thing to say for sure, but did they fire him for it?

Kimmel had lost about half of his audience in the last six months, which is why we saw the story of his suspension roll out the way it did. Nexstar, which owns most of the ABC affiliates in Texas, couldn’t sell any ads during his show so the outrageous comments gave them a good excuse to get rid of him.

Incredibly, the left has taken off on this, insisting this is a debate about free speech and overreach by the Trump Administration with the FCC weighing in pretty heavily against Nexstar and Sinclair—the major player—but that isn’t why they took him off the air. Kimmel was cancelled because nobody watched him, just like Stephen Colbert.

LOSER: Kamala Harris’ Identity Politics

Former Vice President Kamala Harris wrote in her book “107 Days” that she really wanted former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to run as her Vice President last year, not Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, but she thought it was too much to ask the country to accept a “black woman and a gay man.” She is so steeped in identity politics that she also wrote that she carries the additional identity baggage because she’s married to a Jewish man.

There are so many sad things about Harris, but one of them is that she seems to have no idea who the American people are. Nobody cared that she was Black, nobody cares that Buttigieg is gay and nobody cares that Walz is white. What Americans were looking for in 2024 was a leader who would pledge to shut down the border, focus the economy on creating jobs, stop getting into wars, end the crazed takeover of campuses across the country, keep boys out of girls restrooms… They were looking for a leader who wasn’t afraid to step up and stand firm. These new identity revelations of Harris checking identity politics boxes are more proof of why Kamala Harris was never that leader.

WINNER: The Ted Cruz Curse is Over

In case you missed it, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was in College Station last Saturday to witness No. 16 ranked Texas A&M defeat No. 8 ranked Notre Dame 41 to 40 in a barn-burner of a football game. Cruz was believed by many Texas football fans to be bad luck. and they made all kinds of efforts to keep him from attending their games.

The Harris County Democrats tried to ban him from Texas football (see how they are) but the junior senator has now proved that, in fact, he could be a good luck omen.

The Aggies are off this week and the University of Texas is playing Sam Houston State. The Red Raiders game with Utah in Salt Lake City at 11 a.m. looks like a good one to watch.

Have a great weekend.

Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on 1370 Talk Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. This week, the day before the 24^th anniversary of September 11, the country experienced a political assassination that will also be remembered as a day of infamy. Many are calling the murder a watershed moment, and hopefully they are right. It is important to remember that Charlie Kirk called his organization, “Turning Point.”

Here are some reflections on our loss and other happenings this week:

Charlie Kirk’s Mission — Prove Him Wrong

So much has been said and will continue to be said about the amazing Charlie Kirk – 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 was 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.”

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. His documentary film, “Religulous” combines the words religion and ridiculous and is designed 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 likely suspect captured today 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.

LOSER: Texas A&M Professor Fired for Closing Minds

Melissa McCoul, an English professor at Texas A&M, was fired this week after a recording of her was leaked revealing her response to a student who questioned a lesson on gender identity. The class was focused on “children’s literature,” so the professor was instructing a class on how to teach gender identity to kids.

On the leaked tape, the student pointed out that President Donald Trump has issued an executive order on gender extremism affirming that there are only two genders. The student asked if it is legal for the professor to be teaching that there are multiple genders and she also said the topic went against her religious beliefs.

The professor insisted she was free to teach whatever she wanted and the student was free to leave. After she was fired, the professor hired a lawyer and now claims her academic freedom was violated. Just the opposite is true.

Academic freedom is about open debate and discussion. The professor demanded that a student who disagreed with her leave the classroom—that’s indoctrination. The Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and the Department Chair were removed from their positions, but it is not clear whether they were terminated.

LOSER: Texas State Professor Fired for Wanting to Overthrow U.S. Government

Meanwhile, at Texas State University in San Marcos, a professor was fired for advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government. Thomas Alter, who teaches history, said on a zoom call that, “without organization, how can anyone expect to overthrow the most bloodthirsty, profit-driven mad organization in the history of the world, that of the U.S. government?”

According to the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), college instructors across the state are thinking about leaving Texas because of legislation passed in the last couple sessions that prohibits so-called DEI offices on campus and requires universities to adjust all programs and classes to focus on merit, open inquiry and debate instead of ideological indoctrination, race, gender and political identity.

To hear the AAUP tell it, there’s a stampede for the border, but the facts don’t bear that out. Fewer than 5% of Texas professors are members of the AAUP and most campuses report piles of resumes for every job opening.

Loser: Texas Universities Show Little Improvement on Freedom of Speech

The day before Charlie Kirk was assassinated, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) released part of their latest annual campus survey with the headline “1 in 3 students say some level of violence acceptable to stop campus speech.”

In Texas universities, the percentage of students who say violence is at least sometimes acceptable to stop someone from speaking is 35% while 71% believe it is OK to shout someone down to prevent them from talking. Overall, FIRE gives Texas university students an “F” on political tolerance—their willingness to hear speakers with whom they disagree.

On campuses across the state, there are roughly two liberal students for every conservative—a sharp contrast to the statewide profile of Texas where 6.5 million conservatives voted for Trump last year compared to 4.6 million who voted for Harris.

Breaking down the “F” on political tolerance, shouting down speakers is very popular in Texas. 80% of Aggies approve of it, at least in some situations. At the University of Texas at Austin 76% of students say shouting down a speaker you disagree with is sometimes acceptable and 42% believe violence can also be called for. Among the Longhorns, the ratio of liberals to conservatives is just short of 4 to 1. At Texas Tech 68% of students said shouting down a speaker was sometimes ok, while 34% condoned occasional violence.

LOSERS: Matthew Dowd, Elizabeth Warren and AOC

Political commentator and former advisor to George W. Bush, Matthew Dowd, was fired from his pundit role at MSNBC for blaming the victim, saying of Charlie Kirk, “harsh words lead to harsh actions.” Those who realize that Dowd is a Texan will remember that he briefly launched a run for Lt. Governor in 2021 before announcing that he was stepping aside because a “diverse” Democrat candidate was needed. Dowd is white. Texas Democrats nominated Mike Collier for Lieutenant Governor. Collier is also white.

Most Democrats, especially U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, were respectful and thoughtful regarding Kirk’s murder, but Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, decidedly was not, claiming that the president’s hateful rhetoric created a climate of violence. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, tried to blame the shooting on a lack of gun control.

LOSERS: Democrats Love Socialism

The new Gallup Poll released this week found that 66% of Democrats view socialism favorably while only 42% of the folks on the Blue Team have a favorable view of capitalism. Among Republicans, only 14% have a favorable view of socialism and 75% are fans of capitalism.

U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pennsylvania, who is a winner, said he visited a communist country one time where he asked people there about the Democrats going soft on socialism and communism. He said they told him “they are morons,” to even consider socialism. Fetterman is sticking with the “morons” assessment.

Winner: Cell Phone Ban (Except in San Antonio)

The Texas public school cell phone ban has only been in effect for a couple of weeks but reports from around the state are that it is going better than most people imagined—even the kids like it. They are talking to each other at lunch, playing games, and engaging. The research showing that banning cell phones in class substantially improved student performance appears to have been right.

Ironically, it appears parents are complaining the most. A large majority want their kids to have phones so they can get ahold of them whenever they want. Two large San Antonio school districts have buckled under parental pressure. Northeast Independent School District and Alamo Heights Independent School District insist they have found a loophole in the cell phone ban signed by Gov. Greg Abbott, which allowed them to re-define the school day to only the time a student is in class. They can use their phone before every class, while passing between classes, after every class, at lunch, when they go to the restroom—anytime they are not sitting at their desk.

State Rep. Caroline Fairly, R-Amarillo, points out the “loophole policy” completely defeats the purpose of the cellphone ban which was written to be enforced “bell to bell.” The mission is to create and expand phone-free environments for kids rather than turning the classroom into a place where students wait until they can be back on their phones again. Fairly is currently the youngest member of the Legislature—she’s 26 and a tenacious fighter. You can bet she’ll get that loophole closed.

WINNING: Week 3 of College Football

Texas A&M has a lot on the line this weekend as they travel to South Bend to play Notre Dame. The Aggies go in as underdogs, but that doesn’t mean anything to the fans. The game starts at 6:30. The University of Texas at Austin will play the University of Texas at El Paso at home with a 3:15 kickoff while Texas Tech will play the Oregon State Beavers in Lubbock starting at 2:30.

Looks like a solid football Saturday. Have a great weekend.

Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on 1370 Talk Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. Many dreams died last week with Texas’ big loss on the opening day of college football, and the list got longer when the Second Called Special Session of the Texas Legislature adjourned with a hefty list of unfinished business. I’m still sifting through all that and, as promised, it will be a short list this week, but I want to acknowledge a couple big winners.    

WINNER: Texas Tech University Names Creighton

Texas Tech announced this week that Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, has been named the sole finalist to become the next Chancellor of Texas Tech University.

Creighton, the author of Senate Bill 17, which closed down so-called Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) offices on all Texas public university campuses, ended DEI training and the requirement that all employees pledge fealty to DEI before they could be hired, set the national standard for higher education reform. This session, with Creighton’s absolutely fearless leadership, Senate Bill 37 scuttled the power of the noisy, often left-leaning faculty senates that lorded it over campuses statewide. With the backing of Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Creighton’s legislation strengthened the roles of the Boards of Regents, appointed by the governor and empowered by the Texas Constitution, to run taxpayer-funded universities.

Universities have been the Wuhan Wet Labs of woke for decades — everything bad originates there, starting with hatred for America rooted in contempt for all Western thought. Plus, there’s all the theories — critical race theory, gender theory, intersectionality theory — that had become required courses for many Texas students. If you wonder how all this junk got into our public schools, it’s because universities are training public school teachers.

Texas university systems are massive — seven multi-billion dollar flagships, often blindly supported by thousands of alumni who have no idea what is actually going on in the classrooms. Creighton saw what was happening and took it all on — starting the process of unraveling the left-wing ideological straight-jacket that was hampering free speech, open inquiry and the growth and achievement of every student on Texas campuses.

Creighton has laid down the framework for a return to merit-based achievement and a focus on successful outcomes for every Texas kid — a path to ultimately get rid of the ideological blight that has corroded our university systems. Texas Tech is a big winner.

WINNER: We’re Number 4! We’re Number 4!

It’s always tricky to figure out how these Wallet Hub reports are calculated, but its latest names Texas as the 4^th hardest working state in the nation, after North Dakota, Alaska and South Dakota. It reports that Texans are second only to Alaskans in working more than 40 hours per week. The Dakotas get into the top spot because there’s no unemployment in either of those states — of course, there’s not very many people either. We could complain about the referees, but we have too much hard work to do. Let’s just take the W, such as it is.

WINNER: Squad Member Ilhan Omar Marries Money

In 2023, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minnesota, reported a net worth of $51,000 on her congressional financial disclosure report. This year, she reported $30 million as a result of her marriage to her campaign consultant, Tim Mynett. Mynett was broke when she met him, but he seems to be doing well now (except for a few lawsuits and a couple of Federal Election Commission complaints). It’s a great rags to riches story — you can read it here.

Omar, of course, is not the first Democrat to demonstrate how to make money from public office. Remember when the Clintons and the Obamas didn’t have any money? Now they both have a half dozen homes each. I wonder how they did it?

LOSER: New York City

It was fun news earlier this week when the rumor that a Clinton and a Kennedy were both eyeing the congressional seat held by Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-New York, after Nadler announced he was stepping down. With Zohran Mamdani leading all the polls, no matter what they do, Democrats seem to be trying to recycle their greatest hits to prove they aren’t communists. Chelsea Clinton has already backed out, but Jack Schlossberg, grandson of the late president John F. Kennedy, is still in the race to represent New York City’s upper west side in Congress — the last bastion of white liberalism. Mamdani announced plans this week to raise taxes on residents earning more than $1 million annually, raising corporate tax rates and instituting a city-wide rent freeze. One more reason to be thankful we live in Texas.

In Other News —

I was interviewed about U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon’s proposal to challenge the American Bar Association’s exclusive role in accrediting law schools — which definitely needs to be challenged. My comments were picked up several places — here’s one of the clips.

I also talked with KTRH Radio about the Bluebonnet Curriculum in public schools, which is getting a lot of blowback from the media because it includes some Bible references as part of our cultural history. Here’s a clip.

WINNER: College Football

Even with the defeat of the Longhorns in Columbus last week, college football season had a great opening week with more to come on Saturday. The now-7^th ranked University of Texas will take on San Jose State in Austin, while Texas A&M, ranked 19^th, will travel to Utah State. The Red Raiders, ranked 24^th, will play Kent State in Ohio.

Have a great weekend.

Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on 1370 Talk Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. The start of college football begins a season of hope, so with Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s getting engaged, we can hope they will inspire the estimated 50% of Gen Z’s who currently say they are unlikely to get married to move forward and make some plans. Here’s who made the list:

LOSERS: National Democrats Still Getting Everything Wrong

Has “What stupid thing did Democrats do today?” become a regular TV show? It seems to be on every channel, even Democrat outlets. If there was any doubt that Democrats are in awful shape, and polls have been showing us for weeks that there is no doubt, the Democratic National Committee’s three-day meeting in Minneapolis this week made it clear that they are even worse off than many thought.

It’s not clear if they opened the DNC session with a prayer—Democrats voted to eliminate any mention of God from their party platform decades ago, but they did open with what has become a pro-forma “land acknowledgement,” apologizing for “stealing” all the land in America.

It went downhill from there. The DNC affirmed their opposition to everything President Donald Trump has done or will do, pledged to continue to back racial and gender identity politics through DEI, and celebrated the fact that they were holding their meeting in Minnesota—a “trans refuge,” where parents can allow their children to take hormone blockers or undergo unnecessary mastectomies and castrations to change their gender, if those procedures are banned in the state where they live.

Divisions over the terrorist war in the Middle East finally shut conference debate down. Progressives insisted on a platform plank that called for suspending all military aid to Israel and demanded the recognition of a Palestinian state. They rejected an alternative proposal demanding the hostages be released.

Democrats seem to have no idea who Americans are or what country they are living in.

WINNERS: Republicans Who Remember History

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, 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.

LOSER: DNC Member Claiming DEI is “foundation of the Christian church”

Bill Owen, a former state senator from Tennessee, and apparently a member of the DNC, told the group gathered in Minneapolis this week that so-called DEI is the foundation of the Christian church.

No, it is not. Owen is totally wrong. DEI, the phony “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion,” ideology that divides Americans into oppressors and the oppressed and pushes hate and division is exactly the opposite of what Christ commands Christians to do, starting with loving your enemies. For a refresher, here’s an article I wrote the other year entitled, What is DEI, Really?

WINNER: Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins Gets Rid of DEI at USDA

Who knew there were politically correct farmers? Fortunately, Texan and former TPPF President Brooke Rollins is the Secretary of Agriculture, and she and President Trump are shutting down DEI there.

In response to a lawsuit from the state of Wisconsin, the USDA said it would not defend former President Biden’s agriculture programs that are based on racial and gender preferences.

The USDA has a loan guarantee program, for example, that allows women and minorities to pay lower interest rates than white male farmers. Similarly, an environmental quality grants program awards up to 90% of the costs to “socially disadvantaged farmers,” while white male farmers only get 75% and the Dairy Margin Coverage program charges white farmers $100 to apply, while minorities and women can apply for free.

Going forward, the USDA will stand for the equal shmequal treatment of farmers.

WINNER: Texas House Passes Bathroom Bill

A headline in the Texas Tribune this week read that the Texas House had finally passed a “bathroom bill,” after “a decade of failed attempts.” Men and boys will no longer be allowed to enter restrooms set aside for women and girls in government-owned buildings, public schools and universities. Men will also not be able to claim they are women at prisons, jails and domestic violence shelters.

This war started in 2016 when former President Barack Obama sent a letter to  every public school in the nation demanding that so-called “transgender” students be allowed to participate in all sex-segregated sports and use restroom and locker facilities of whichever sex they declare themselves to be.

Obama’s directive did not allow schools to simply establish a “gender neutral” restroom. Instead, it was a manifesto that proclaimed transgender students were protected under Title IX and their rights trumped the privacy rights of women and girls who didn’t want boys in their bathrooms. It remained in place until Trump was elected and threw it out. Biden replaced it all immediately after he took office, even though many states including Texas had banned boys in girls’ sports. The Texas Senate has repeatedly passed privacy bills to protect women in bathrooms, so the odds are very good that this one will finally make it to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk.

WINNER: Melania Trump has Better Things to Do

Conservatives were outraged when they heard that a new editor at Vanity Fair proposed putting a photo of Melania Trump on the cover, causing a top employee to threaten to quit. Using lots of nasty words, the employee predicted every other worker at the magazine would follow her out.

Former First Lady Jill Biden was actually on two Vogue covers, which makes it easy to be outraged for Melania, who is a professional model, but the current First Lady doesn’t seem to be taking it personally.

While Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama and “Dr.” Jill were all on the covers of Vogue or Vanity Fair, Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush and Laura Bush never were, although they had photo spreads inside the magazine. Melania gets it and points out she has more important things to do. 

During President Trump’s recent Alaska Summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, she had her husband deliver a letter to Putin expressing her concern about the hundreds of children who have been abducted during the Russian-Ukraine War.

WINNER: Cracker Barrel and Southwest Back Down

USA Today chronicles the very short journey of Cracker Barrel’s teetering on the edge of oblivion before conservative blowback and President Trump urged the company to “make Cracker Barrel a winner again”—and here they are back on the Winners List.  Cracker Barrel cried “uncle” and the old man and the barrel are back on the logo, the country décor will remain in the restaurants and the tanking stock values are climbing back up. Americans can rest easy that their grits and fried chicken are safe.

In a much quieter cultural reversal, Southwest Airlines is tightening up its policies for big people who need two seats on its airplanes. This may or may not be connected to the Make America Healthy Again movement, but it definitely feels like we are reining in the whole woke ideology of “healthy at any size,” and encouraging people to think about their hearts, their health and the cost of two airplane seats when they focus on their diet.

LOSER: Minneapolis Mayor Defends Trans Community after Shooting

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey spoke out in defense of the trans community on the same day a man who thought he was a woman killed two students who were praying in a Catholic School in his city. A review of the killer’s writings make it clear he was mentally ill, a fact that would have blocked him from purchasing guns had he been viewed as dangerous, instead of a member of a “protected” minority.

LOSERS: Faculty Councils at Texas Universities

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.

Last year, after the provost at Texas A&M recommended that the University end low enrollment classes, including several that focused on LGBTQ+ issues, the faculty flatly said no, informing school leadership that they have absolute control over the curriculum.

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 is following. Ending the hegemony of so-called “faculty governance” groups is key to change.

LOSER: Deceptive Headlines on Americans Seeking Refugee Status in Canada

Newsweek admits the numbers are small, but somehow they and other news outlets are making a big deal out of the fact that 245 Americans have sought refugee status in Canada so far this year.  Calling the increase both a “spike” and a “surge,” they say it might reflect dissatisfaction with President Trump, since the new number is 41 more than the 204 people who sought refugee status in Canada last year, when Biden was president.

The Census Bureau said this week that the current U.S. population is 342 million, so don’t expect a line at the northbound lane at the border.

WINNER: Longhorns and Red Raiders Get First Game Buzz

We are less than 24 hours from the University of Texas and Ohio State kick-off at 11 a.m. tomorrow, in which the Longhorns are the slight underdogs, even though they are the number one ranked team in the nation. Ohio State wanted to play later, in prime time, but UT said no, so the big game is up first.

Meanwhile, up in Lubbock, the Texas Tech Red Raiders have been pegged as the most “intriguing team in the nation” because of their massive infusion of NIL funding. They square off against the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. while the Aggies play University of Texas at San Antonio in College Station at 6 p.m.

Let’s Go Everybody! Have a great weekend.

P.S. There will be no Winners & Losers newsletter next weekend, but I will be on the air at 8:30 a.m. Friday, Sept. 5 with the list. You can LISTEN LIVE HERE.

Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on 1370 Talk Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. Texas House Democrats came home empty-handed, so you might say this week marks the end of an error. Here’s who made the list:

WINNER: Trump’s “No Apology” Tour on the World Stage

President Donald Trump is transforming the way diplomacy works and how the world sees America. The stature Trump has gained around the world is a complete reversal of former President Barack Obama’s apology tours. Recall that in 2009, Obama told the G-20 Summit that he hoped for some “restoration of America’s standing in the world.”  The same year Obama apologized to France and Europe for America’s arrogance.

With Trump in office, America’s standing in the world is crystal clear, and nobody worries much about style issues like arrogance. That was demonstrated when seven European leaders rushed to Washington, D.C. last week to join him and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a follow-up meeting to Trump’s Alaska Summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In a session that would have taken previous presidents weeks to pull together, heads of state from Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Finland and the head of the European Commission dropped everything over the weekend and flew across the pond.

Trump’s Alaska Summit did not yield much—as Trump predicted—but it did allow him to orchestrate the B-2 flyover, a not-so-subtle reminder of how, just weeks ago, they had wiped out the nuclear threat from Iran and changed the balance of power in the Middle East overnight.

Meanwhile, the European leaders acknowledged Trump’s critical leadership in ending the war in Ukraine. Italy’s president told Trump “something had changed since he got involved” and Finland’s president said flatly that they would not be as far along as they are without Trump. Sure, the European leaders have questions about his approach, but one thing they do not question is Trump’s commitment to bringing peace—he hates war. Europeans also hate war, and they know Trump is absolutely willing to do whatever it takes to stop the fighting. That’s why they came to Washington.

LOSER: Texas Quorum-Busting Democrats Are Back

The quorum-busting Democrats returned to Texas on Monday with literally nothing to show for their antics. The Texas House passed the new map adding five more congressional seats that favor Republicans, just as we knew they would, and Democrats threatened to take that map to court—again, just as we knew they would.

House Democrats tried to create a little drama in response to House Speaker Dustin Burrows,’ R-Lubbock, requirement that the quorum busting Democrats be accompanied by a DPS officer when they leave the House floor. But considering that the House Democrats delayed legislative proceedings and cost taxpayers millions, Burrows’ demand is quite reasonable.

When state Rep. Nicole Collier, D-Fort Worth, refused to leave the Texas House floor in protest, she was treated like a hero by the progressive left. Former Vice President Kamala Harris called her personally to cheer her on, although we don’t know what wisdom the word-salad spouting former VP passed along.

Even some in the Texas media have noted that they don’t get what Collier is trying to prove. Reviewing the footage of her roaming around the House floor all night, one reporter claimed it was like watching the “bald eagle cam.”

WINNER: Dan Patrick IS Running for Re-Election

My former boss, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, announced this week that he is running for re-election, which was a surprise to no one who has been paying attention. He made the announcement surrounded by state senators who are running for re-election, and several candidates for the state senate who he has endorsed.

Patrick has transformed Texas, championing and passing the agenda that the conservative majority of Texas supports from fighting property taxes—the homestead exemption was $25,000 when he came into office and it’s $200,000 for seniors today—to pro-life issues, border security issues, Second Amendment issues, law enforcement and bail reform issues, infrastructure, and public education. He’s been working to pass school choice since he got to Austin and now it is law. In his spare time, he saved the Alamo.

In reporting his re-election announcement, the Dallas Morning News called him the most powerful legislative force in Texas. A number of years ago, Texas Monthly wrote that “in the history of Texas, there has never been anyone like Dan Patrick.” Texans are lucky he is running again.

WINNER: The Truth on Illegal Immigration

Remember in 2023, when Fox News was the only place on television that was reporting the explosion of immigration at the border? Democrats and the legacy media downplayed the open border invasion and treated Trump and conservatives as racist xenophobes.

Trump won the election because the reality of the illegal immigration overcame the left-wing spin and now we have a study from the left that proves it. The prestigious Pew Research Institute just reported what we knew all along—there were 14 million new immigrants in the country in 2023, a fact they say led to Trump’s re-election. The study, reported by Axios, says:

“Economic upheaval and violence in Africa, Asia and Latin America – and the perception that Biden’s lifting of immigration barriers would make it easy to enter the U.S. – helped drive unprecedented migration, analysts say.”

Thank you, analysts.

LOSER: Court Ruling on Texas’ 10 Commandments Bill

U.S. District Judge Fred Biery temporarily blocked a new Texas law that would have allowed a copy of the Ten Commandments to be displayed in Texas public school classrooms. Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 10, which requires that the Ten Commandments posters not be paid for with taxpayer dollars. Instead, volunteers can donate them to the schools.

The Freedom from Religion Foundation sued the state and said in court that, “the state of Texas has no right to dictate to children how many gods to worship, which gods to worship, or whether to worship any gods at all.”

Nobody disagrees with that, but it misses the point. The Ten Commandments is an historical document that provides the foundation for most of the legal systems in the western world.

Texas is not dictating that a child be religious, it is fulfilling its public education mission to ensure that children don’t grow up ignorant, and a child who doesn’t know about the Ten Commandments is ignorant.

A year or so ago, I wrote an op-ed about a CBS 5 Austin news story where the reporter said Texas parents were worried that changes in the Texas public school curriculum to expand cultural references, including some from the Bible, would force students to learn about the “Sermon on the Mound.”

Even though several baseball jokes appeared in the comment section following the news report, it took almost 24 hours before anyone at CBS 5—presumably including many former Texas public school students—corrected the error to read Sermon on the Mount.

There’s lots of cultural ignorance going around. It is impossible to understand what happened in the development of the world—from ancient times to current history—without being familiar with the Ten Commandments.

Judge Biery predicted the issue would go to the Supreme Court.

WINNER: Public School Cell Phone Ban

My teenage granddaughter glared at me when she learned that the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) helped pass Texas’ new cell phone ban in public schools. She believes it is a great injustice to her because, in her view, the purpose of the ban must be to stop students who are using ChatGPT to cheat, which, of course she would never do.

Kids don’t get it, but it’s not about cheating, it’s about getting their attention spans back. Data shows most kids check their phones 100 times a day—focus and concentration is impossible. Cell phone bans improve school performance and also force kids to actually interact with each other. If this conversation is also going on in your family, you should read TPPF’s research summary on cellphones here.

LOSER: Pride Week in Austin

Officials from Austin Pride told Axios Austin that they have lost many corporate sponsors for their annual celebration this weekend and are strapped for cash. This year’s celebration is themed “Silence = Death,” and comes just as the Texas Legislature passed legislation that will prohibit men and boys from entering women’s and girls’ restrooms—which Austin Pride calls an attack.

LOSER: U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett Blinks

On Texas’ new congressional map, U.S. Reps Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, and Greg Casar, D-Austin, ended up in the same district. Doggett blinked first and announced this week that he will not run in a primary against Casar. Doggett is 78 and has served in Congress for 30 years. Casar is 36 and was elected chair of the Progressive Caucus. He is also a member of “The Squad” and the faction of his party which is working to push old Democrats out of Congress.

LOSER: Water Fountains Signs in Virginia

Virginia’s Lt. Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, a Republican, is currently running for governor to replace Glenn Youngkin, who is term limited. Earle-Sears, who is African-American, was speaking in Arlington, Virginia last night at a local school board meeting.   Mandating separate restrooms for boys and girls was on the board agenda, so a pro-transgender rally erupted outside the meeting where a woman held up a sign that read:  “If trans can’t share your bathroom then blacks can’t share my water fountain.”

The woman clearly had no idea how offensive her sign was, but leaders from both parties quickly denounced the statement, although the Arlington Republican Party sent the sign-carrier a thank-you note because it revealed so much about who progressives really are.

It is surprising that this issue is still under debate in Virginia after the infamous case in Loudoun County in 2021, when a teenage boy dressed in a skirt, entered the girls’ bathroom and raped a female student. School officials had been reluctant to confront the boy because he said he was transgender. He was convicted as a juvenile.

WINNER? Oklahoma Sooners Selling Tickets to Press Conferences

In the latest example of what college football will be like in the NIL era, the Oklahoma Sooners announced this week that they are selling tickets to the post game press conferences. Two tickets will cost close to $700 for the Michigan game but will be a little cheaper when they play Auburn at home.

To raise money to help pay players and stay in the game, the Sooners are also selling pregame photos on the 50-yard line, the high five tunnel, game ball delivery and halftime field access. As I have reported before, President Trump is working to stop all this in college sports, including ending the bidding wars that make non-stop fundraising critical for every team and protecting non-revenue producing sports and women’s Title IX sports.

LOSER: Make Cracker Barrel Great Again

In an unprecedented move, California Gov. Gavin Newsom followed Donald Trump, Jr. and a country-wide tsunami of conservative critics who roared back after the new Cracker Barrel restaurants CEO, Julie Feiss Masino—who apparently missed the whole Bud Light Dylan Mulvaney fiasco—changed Cracker Barrel’s logo, removing the old country guy and the barrel. She also announced she was going to tone down the country feel of the restaurant—get rid of the clutter. Shares of Cracker Barrel have dropped 12% so far.

In these polarized times, it is hard to imagine any issue that could bring us all together. Who knew it might be Cracker Barrel.

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.

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Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on 1370 Talk Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. While the Texas kids I know are trying to figure out how they will possibly manage being back in school without their cell phones, the first called special session has come and gone. Gov. Greg Abbott has called a new one and we are now in what is officially called 89^th (2), which started today. Here’s who made the list:

WINNER: Trump Takes Over Policing in D.C.

I am reading a great book called “Reveille in Washington: 1861-1865,” about the day-to-day happenings in Washington, D.C. during the Civil War. As everyone knows, despite being the capitol of the Union, Washington was a southern city, and throughout the war it was filled with confederate spies, would-be assassins, thieves, bordellos and all manner of grifters who gravitate to war zones. Still, the historic accounts don’t suggest anyone felt unsafe walking down the street in Washington, D.C back then, like they do today.

When Trump made his takeover announcement, he said D.C.’s homicide rate is six times higher than New York City and three times higher than Islamabad. The media spent several days trying to discredit his crime numbers, then Border Czar Tom Homan suggested that reporters who say crime isn’t a problem should hang out in D.C. at night. Trump invited reporters to go on a ride-along with police.

By the end of the week, even the progressive diehards at MSNBC admitted that no one who lives in D.C. believes the city is safe, and the increasingly pathetic MSNBC star, Joe Scarborough, admitted that many Democrats are cheering Trump’s takeover after too many car jackings, too many shootings, too much street crime. Still, on Thursday night protesters showed up to heckle the National Guard officers’ first night on the streets. The protesters called the officers fascists.

Washington, D.C., has gone to court, of course, to stop Trump, but the lawyers I’ve listened to make it clear that the law definitely gives the president the authority to go in and clean up the nation’s capital.

WINNER: Trump Winning Culture Wars

President Trump earned several spots on the winners list this week, including his historic meeting in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump made it clear he doesn’t necessarily expect a cease-fire agreement, but he is a big believer in face-to-face conversation. As a bonus, the leaders may also discuss a nuclear arms agreement.

But Trump’s latest victories in the culture wars are what earned him an extra spot on the winners list this week. Conservatives used to routinely say that “the culture war was over and we lost.” It seemed hopeless. The left controlled everything and pushed its divisive and hateful anti-American ideology into media, arts, movies, music, education—the culture.

Trump has changed all that because he clearly sees boosting American culture as part of his job—from his attendance at big sports events to his takeover of the Kennedy Center. The New York Times laments that Trump is obsessed with pop culture, but Trump wants to see America through the eyes of Americans. He’s interested in what everyday people listen to and like. He chose Sylvester Stallone, Gloria Gaynor and George Strait as recipients of the first Kennedy Center honors under his direction, along with the legendary rock band KISS and Phantom of the Opera star Michael Crawford. In fact, his entire list is so stellar that you have to ask why these icons weren’t given these honors before—perhaps at the same ceremonies where notable leftists including Robert Redford, Barbara Streisand, Robert DeNiro, Oprah, David Letterman, Lin Manuel Miranda, Joan Baez, Norman Lear, George Clooney and a zillion other progressives got theirs. When Clinton, Obama and Biden handed out those awards, there were no snide comments from the New York Times.

Importantly, Trump also announced this week that he has sent in a team to do a comprehensive review of everything that is on display at the Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C. His charge is to implement “content corrections where necessary, replacing divisive or ideologically driven language with unifying, historically accurate, and constructive descriptions across placards, wall didactics, digital displays, and other public-facing materials.”

To start with, they can probably take down the homage to the gay pride flag that is currently near the entrance of the Smithsonian Museum on American History, along with a statement in support of transgender men competing in women’s sports.

The Smithsonian Museums have been an outrage for the last couple decades. The African-American History Museum contains no mention of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, for example, and instead of explaining Benjamin Franklin’s world-changing experiments with electricity, the museum exhibit suggests that because Franklin had several slaves over his life time, he had free time to do his research.

The Federalist has a good list of some of the most outrageous violations of historical facts, including a long display suggesting that Texas still belongs to Mexico. “I didn’t cross the border,” says one exhibit, “it crossed me.” As for the Texas Revolution, a museum display explains it was fought to preserve slavery.

The Smithsonian Museums are a comprehensive demonstration of how much damage so-called DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) programs have done over the past 20 years. Every American should support Trump’s effort to dismantle the woke, anti-American narrative.

LOSER: Democrats’ Quorum Bust Completely Fails

We assumed the Texas House Democrats were kidding on Tuesday when ABC News in Houston reported their announcement that they had “accomplished their mission” and would be returning to Texas. That mission, they say, was to show the country that Texas was trying to gerrymander the state’s congressional map.

Unfortunately for them, even their media allies pointed out that they had decamped to three states where Democrats have notoriously gerrymandered the maps—New York, Illinois and Massachusetts—eliminating almost a dozen Republican seats. What the Texas Democrats actually accomplished was to show the country that gerrymandering was not some kind of Republican trick. Democrats have ruthlessly gerrymandered the states where they hold a majority, and gerrymandering has been part of the American political process since the country began.

The Democrats then rolled back the “mission accomplished” rhetoric and claimed all they really cared about was flood relief. They stuck with that for a while and then, yesterday, they held a press conference demanding that Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, adjourn the First Special Session, something he’d already announced he was going to do. Now they say they will return to Texas and fight the redistricting map in court—something everyone already figured they would do anyway. They also say that California must present a redistricting map that will counter any new seats Texas creates.

Yep. Texas House Democrats are demanding that California voters blow up their redistricting process and establish a new one, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom has called for a special election to do just that.

The latest polling says 64% of Californians oppose changing their redistricting process and even if they change their minds, the California election won’t be held until Nov. 4, so it’s not clear how that fits into the Texas Democrats’ timeline. Whatever, it’s a safe bet that they will be slinking back into Austin in the near future. For the record, 80% of California’s Congressional seats already advantage Democrats, even though 40% of Californians voted Republican.

A slanted report in the New York Times explains that California’s map is drawn by an independent commission and that the state was careful to make sure racial and ethnic minorities are represented. That’s particularly interesting because it’s illegal to use race to draw Congressional districts. Also, there’s really no such thing as an “independent redistricting commission.” States that have them stack them to favor the majority party. It just means the politicians don’t have to do the work.

WINNER: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and the Texas Senate Pass It All

Meanwhile, doing the work they were elected to do, Lt. Gov. Patrick announced this week that the Texas Senate passed every item on Gov. Greg Abbott’s special session call. In addition to the critically important flooding legislation and congressional redistricting, the list included a bill to continue to cut property taxes, get rid of the STAAR test and end taxpayer-funded lobbying. The whole list is here.

WINNER: Texas Taking Over the Hollywood Kitchen

In one of the terrific ads the “True to Texas” team put out earlier this year to help pass Senate Bill 22, the legislation to provide incentives to movie makers who bring their productions to Texas, Matthew McConaughey says, “if you don’t like what Hollywood’s been dishing, take over the kitchen.”

This week we got the latest report that the kitchen takeover is happening big time when it was announced that a new company called Alliance Texas is opening a huge new sound stage in Fort Worth. A collaboration between Taylor Sheridan—producer of “Yellowstone,” “Landman,” “1883,” “Lioness”—and Hillwood, Ross Perot Jr.’s company anchored in Dallas, it is the largest film production studio in Texas so far.

Conservatives rightly avoid advocating government incentives to create winners and losers in the marketplace, but fighting the cultural war against wokeism and California domination is critically important to the future of America and Texas. The filmmakers in Fort Worth report that the recent filming of the second season of “Landman” resulted in the hiring of 1,092 people for the film crew along with 192 cast members and more than 2,500 extras. Notably, Dennis Quaid was also in the True to Texas ad and he said, “We won’t call it Hollywood, we’ll call it Fort Worth.”

LOSER: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Wobbling on 19^th Amendment

Trump’s Secretary of Defense and former Fox News personality Pete Hegseth needs to take a breath. This week he posted a video featuring several Christian nationalist pastors, one of whom believes the 19^th Amendment (which gives women the right to vote) should be repealed and another whose compromise position is that women should cast their ballots for whoever their husband tells them to.

Hegseth has fired several high ranking women military leaders and continues to be the administration’s primary source of cringe-worthy moments. Recall, he decided to double-down on his strong belief that women should not be involved in combat, just as it was revealed that one of the fighter pilots who bombed Iran was female.

Everyone supports getting “woke” out of the military, but Hegseth completely blew the challenge to get rid of DEI by removing references to African-American war heroes, including the Tuskegee Airmen and the female WASP pilots in WW II, from military recruitment videos and official websites. He was forced to put them back. He stopped the month-long celebrations of Pride Month and drag shows at military bases, which is a good thing, but for some reason, he used the same tactics to try to erase Juneteenth, a holiday celebrating the end of slavery that originated in Texas and is now an official federal holiday.

Hegseth let it appear that he might be wobbly on women’s voting rights for several days this week until it became clear it wasn’t going away. In the last 12 hours, dozens of headlines have been posted that read: “According to the Pentagon, Hegseth supports a woman’s right to vote.” Huh? Hegseth probably thinks he’s fighting some battle against political correctness, but he’s not. He just looks ignorant.

WINNER: M&M’s, Skittles and Freedom of Choice

Mars Wrigley North America announced this week that they are working on new versions of M&M’s and Skittles that are free of artificial dyes. They will call these new color-free candies “product options,” although it’s not clear when they will be coming out. As far as we know, Mars Wrigley hasn’t gotten any farther on the project than making the announcement.

It’s hard to imagine anyone will be interested in eating M&M’s or Skittles without their bright shiny colors and it looks like the candy company also has their doubts. The new color-free candy will only be available for purchase online.

Happily, for the freedom lovers among us, you will still be able to purchase regular M&M’s and Skittles, complete with bright colors, everywhere. They call them “choice products.” Is this a great country or what?

WINNER? Ohio State Chopping Wood & Carrying Water

Perhaps in preparing to face the Texas Longhorns in just two weeks, Ohio State coach Ryan Day revealed this week that over the summer he made all his Buckeye players read “Chop Wood Carry Water: How to Fall In Love With the Process of Becoming Great.” Ohio State believes they have the toughest starting game of the season when they face Texas on Aug. 30. The Longhorns are ranked No. 1 in the AP pre-season poll while Ohio State is ranked third.

According to Day, his goal has been to get his team, which lost 14 players to the NFL draft, to focus on the process, not the result. Doesn’t sound like a winning game plan, but we’ll see.

If the Longhorns want to gain some insight into what the Buckeyes are thinking, they still have time to read the book before game day in Columbus at the end of the month. It’s only 118 pages long.

Have a great weekend.