Category: Winners & Losers

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.

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 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.

Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on 1370 Talk Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. President Donald Trump completed his 200^th day in office yesterday and now that we are in August, we can officially begin the countdown to college football season—Week Zero is on Aug. 23 and the Texas-Ohio State game is slated for Aug. 30. Here’s who made the list:  

LOSERS: Another Swing and a Miss for Texas House Democrats

Almost everybody, including the recently deposed Stephen Colbert, have pointed out the irony of Texas House Democrats fleeing to states where Democrats have gerrymandered Republicans out of almost a dozen congressional seats because they have drawn the redistricting maps in their favor.

In 2024, 43% of New Yorkers voted Republican but only 36% of their Congressional seats favor the GOP, and even though a third of Massachusetts voters chose Trump over Harris, the Baked Bean State doesn’t have any Republicans in Congress. In Illinois, where most of the Texas Democrats are hanging out, almost half of voters, 44%, voted Republican but only 17% of their Congressional representatives are in GOP majority districts. Texas Democrats didn’t go to California, where 38% of voters chose Trump, but only 17% of their congressional delegation is Republican.

It is absolutely hypocritical, but that’s the point of redistricting. The party that wins the election gets to draw the map.

The bigger hypocrisy for the Democrats in the Texas House is that they all insist they left the state to take a stand for their constituents, but on most issues, they don’t even represent what Texas Democrats want.  

Texas House Democrats carried the water for the teachers unions and fought school choice every step of the way, even though a majority of Texans, including Democrats, support it.

And 40 Texas House Democrats voted against bail reform, blocking the two-thirds majority needed to immediately make it law to deny bail to repeat violent offenders—an issue that over 80% of Texans support. Texas House Democrats also filibustered the final passage of Senate Bill 12, to remove “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” (DEI) programs in public schools even after TPPF polling on DEI found that, again, almost 80 percent of Texans—Democrats, Republicans, African-Americans, Hispanics and Anglos—believe all students should be treated the same, regardless of race or ethnicity.

Gov. Greg Abbott is a winner for targeting Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, chair of the House Democrat caucus and ringleader of the quorum bust. Remember, it was Wu who called his Republican House colleagues “monsters” in the SB 12 (DEI in public schools) debate. In an outrageous monologue, Wu charged that GOP House members had not only bullied kids who were different from them when they were in high school but also teach their own children to bully kids today. Unbelievable, right? You can watch the whole debate here—start the replay at 3:42.

Wu and his colleagues seem to have no idea who the people of Texas are or what they think.

WINNER: Texans Support Voter ID, too

The last time Texas Democrats left the state in 2021, they were fighting the Election Protection Act, which, among other things, required that mail-in voters provide the same identification when they vote as those who show up in person. Former President Joe Biden sued the state, but this week, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Texas’ favor and upheld Texas law that requires those who cast their ballots by mail to put their driver’s license number or a portion of their Social Security number on their ballot before they mail it in.

Continuing the battle in court, Democrats had insisted that requiring voters to provide identification violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but the Court didn’t buy it. Neither do most Texans, including Democrats, who support being required to provide an ID before you can vote by a margin of 3 to 1.

WINNERS: Red States Say No to Junk Food for SNAP Recipients

Texas is one of 11 red states that is barring the purchase of candy and sugary drinks with funds supplied to the needy by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The other states are Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Utah and West Virginia. Colorado is not a red state, but it is also changing its rules for SNAP in order to uphold its reputation as one of the healthiest states in the nation.  

Since 75% of Americans are overweight or obese, you may wonder why this didn’t happen sooner and why Red States are acting first. Well, according to progressives who oppose the ban, prohibiting the purchase of junk food with SNAP funds doesn’t work because nobody can really say what kinds of foods are “bad” for us. Huh? Is there some kind of emerging research indicating that Coke and Snickers bars increase life spans?

Opponents also insist that banning junk food will force people to buy candy and soda with other funds. Not sure why that’s bad. Maybe they will buy less.

But the big reason progressives oppose the junk food ban is because they say it “punishes the poor,” “shaming people” for what they eat. So for progressives, heart disease and diabetes are preferable to being embarrassed.

LOSER: Nuclear Power Plant on the Moon

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced this week that he is about to get the green light to build a nuclear power plant on the moon. Is that a good idea? I don’t know and I’m pretty sure Duffy doesn’t either. The problem is that Duffy is not just running the Department of Transportation, he is also serving as interim NASA Administrator and clearly somebody there told him it was really urgent that we get back to the moon, throw up a power plant and get the lights on so we can beat China.

We are all on board for beating China wherever we can, but even Duffy admits he’s not finished fixing Newark Airport yet, and it is pretty clear the entire air traffic control system needs a serious upgrade.

We’ve got the train mess in California, and while Duffy’s not responsible for I-35 between San Antonio and Austin, and I-10 in every direction around Houston, they are reminders that Americans are spending almost 50 hours a week in traffic and it is costing us billions in productivity. Someone needs to be focused on making American transportation great again. Duffy needs to tell President Trump that he doesn’t have time to run NASA.

Besides, if we need a nuclear power plant on the moon, isn’t that something Elon should do?

LOSER: Harvard’s partnership with the CCP

As if there were not already enough reasons to be angry at Harvard, this week we learned from congressional investigators that Harvard’s Kennedy School has a collaborative relationship with the Chinese Executive Leadership Academy Pudong, which is controlled by one of the most powerful bodies within the Chinese Communist Party.

The investigators include Rep. Elise Stefanik, D-NY, who attended Harvard and helped expose the anti-Semitism of the notorious Ivy League presidents in 2023 who would not say that threatening Jewish students was in conflict with their respective universities’ codes of conduct.  

Stefanik and her House colleagues found that when the Chinese Communist Party wants leadership training, their go-to is Harvard. It is not clear how many students from China involved in this leadership training are currently on the Harvard campus.  

Harvard continues to insist it has the moral high ground in its battle with the Trump administration, who is suing it over its failure to protect Jewish students from anti-Semitism, its use of race in recruitment and hiring and its refusal to provide information about foreign students on campus. This latest revelation about its relationship with the CCP is not going to make it easier.  

LOSER: Does Warren Endorse Mamdani? You Betcha!

Speaking of Ivy League universities, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, who once got a teaching job at Harvard by claiming to be Native American, endorsed socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York City this week.

If you wonder why Mamdani continues to persist in the news, it’s not just that Democrats are about to elect another big blue city mayor—we have those in Texas—but New York isn’t just any city. At 8.4 million people, the Big Apple is larger than 38 states—about the same size as Virginia. It’s over twice the size as Los Angeles, the country’s second largest city. If one of the big blue states was about to elect a socialist governor—or, as President Trump insists, an actual communist, it would be big news, even for Democrats.

None of that bothers Sen. Warren, (who represents a state that gerrymandered every Republican out of Congress…just saying). When asked if Mamdani reflects the future of the Democrat party, Warren said unequivocally, “You betcha!”

WINNER: Royal New Zealand Air Force

In case you missed the story of the New Zealand rescue of the American scientists from Antarctica, it was called “nothing less than heroic,” and is clearly a winner. One of the scientists was in urgent need of medical attention so the Kiwi pilots flew into the McMurdo Station in complete darkness, wearing night vision googles and braving below zero temperatures. Members of the U.S. Antarctic Project Winter Team had to create a runway on top of the ice so the plane could land. It took 20 hours. Here’s more footage. It is going to be a great movie.

WINNERS: Texas Tech & UT Austin

College football season starts in 15 days! The Red Raiders made big news this week when they landed linebacker LaDamion Guyton, the number one 2027 defensive recruit. Former Red Raider Patrick Mahomes gave Guyton a huge thumbs up.

Meanwhile, Arch Manning’s grandfather, Archie Manning, told Texas Monthly that he predicted Arch would skip the 2026 NFL draft and remain at UT. We’ll see. I find my own grandchildren pretty unpredictable, but perhaps it’s different in the Manning family.

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 1370 Talk Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. As we enter the month of August and finish up the second week of the first called legislative session in Texas, some things are turning out to be more special than others. Here’s who made the list: 

WINNER: Texas Republicans Draw a New Congressional Map 

Who knows where it will all end, but it was big news across the nation this week when State Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, released the first draft of the much-discussed Congressional redistricting map, which would give Texas five more congressional districts and would likely replace their current Democrat representatives with Republicans. There are currently 219 Republicans in the U.S. House and 212 Democrats, and President Donald Trump thinks policy negotiations would go more smoothly if there were more Republicans. Hunter’s map would increase the number of likely GOP congressional seats in Texas and help Trump reach that goal.    

U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was in Austin this week to talk to Texas Democrat lawmakers who must vote on the redistricting plan. He accused Texas Republicans of trying to steal the next election. His exact words were, “These corrupt sycophants cannot win a free and fair election, so they are trying to steal it.” 

Last year, President Trump won 56.2% of the vote in Texas. He beat Kamala Harris by more than a million and a half votes. What election does Jeffries think Texas Republicans can’t win? 

One of the map’s targets, U.S. Rep. Vincente Gonzalez, D-McAllen, is screaming that the Texas redistricting plan is “cheating.” U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, D-Austin, has called the new map “voter suppression,” and, of course, U.S. Rep. Al Green, D-Houston, says the redistricting move is “racist.” Green’s is also one of the target districts on Hunter’s map. Getting rid of Green, who had to be bounced out of Trump’s first speech to a joint session of Congress in March, might be reason enough for the Republicans to push forward with Hunter’s map.  

There is undoubtedly more outrage to come from Democrats, so here’s a little historical perspective. In 2002, Texas Republicans garnered 53.3% of the statewide vote while 43% of Texans voted for the Democrats. Still, Democrats controlled the Texas congressional delegation with 17 seats drawn in their favor. Republicans had 13 and went to court to get two more. In 2003, when Texas Republicans finally gained control of all three branches of state government, they went back to court to demand a new map. I’m skipping lots of juicy details, but the key point that needs to be made is that back then, the Democrats told the judge that the GOP redistricting plan wasn’t fair.

Reportedly, the judge laughed out loud at the notion that Texas Democrats, who were notorious for outrageous gerrymandering, would charge Republicans with being unfair.   

WINNER: Trump in the Scotland Press Conference  

It has seemed for a while now that Trump is a winner every week, but what can we do? His joint press conference in Scotland with British Prime Minister Keirs Starmer clearly earned the president a place on the winner’s list as he took questions from the international media for over an hour. He talked about the big trade deal with the European Union, his exasperation with Putin and his commitment to provide food to Gaza, all of which was likely big news to the hostile Europeans who hate him. Before he arrived in Scotland, the National, a newspaper, ran a front page story with the blaring headline CONVICTED U.S. FELON TO ARRIVE IN SCOTLAND.  

But his detractors just ended up looking stupid, while Trump demonstrated what a world leader looks like. Whether he was talking about the wars, trade deals or economic policy, his command of the issues, including the details and the numbers, is undeniably impressive, not only for those of us who put up with a frequently incoherent president for the last four years, but also for Europeans who only hear about Trump from antagonistic news sources. Even for those who disagree with him or think he’s lying, these extensive interviews allow viewers to see how he approaches issues.  

Trump seems truly puzzled as to why Russia doesn’t use all its resources to make its people rich instead of spending it on war—the same sentiment that caused him to propose leveling the Gaza strip and turning it into resorts. He’s kind of a “make money, not war” guy. You can listen to the entire press conference here.  

WINNER: Senate Passes Taxpayer Funded Lobbying Ban in the Special   

Gov. Greg Abbott is a winner for adding a ban on taxpayer funded lobbying to the special session agenda. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is a winner for already passing Senate Bill 12 in the Special Session (the Texas Senate has passed a ban on taxpayer funded lobbying at least four times) and Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, is a winner for carrying the bill that will finally stop cities, counties, school districts and special districts, from using taxpayer dollars—which they get through property taxes—to pay hired-guns to lobby the members of the state Legislature. 

My colleague, anti-taxpayer funded lobbying warrior James Quintero, found that that local jurisdictions spent almost $100 million last year paying contract lobbyists to push for programs that serve the interests of local governments, not taxpayers. Efforts to end taxpayer funded lobbying over the last decade have been futile, mostly because the army of lobbyists who descend on the Texas Capitol every day are a powerful force whose connections to lawmakers are extensive and deep. In 2019, after a bill to ban taxpayer funded lobbying was ultimately defeated on the House floor, contract lobbyists who had congregated in the House Gallery burst into applause. This was a rare demonstration of self-interest. The hired guns usually play it pretty cool in public.  

Several years ago, a couple members of the Midland City Council noticed that an Austin lobbying firm was being paid $10,000 a month to represent the city in the State Capitol. In fact, the city had been paying $10,000 a month for over a decade, so we are talking about over a million dollars here. The councilmen investigated and learned that the hired guns were not only doing nothing for Midland, they were also working against their priorities.  

The City Council ended the lobbying contract, but not before noting that it was especially ironic in Midland, since the city is represented in the State Legislature by former Speaker Tom Craddick, the longest serving and one of the most influential lawmakers in Texas history. The news reported that one councilman said, “We have the best lobbyist in Austin already. We have Tom Craddick. You can’t do better than that.”  

WINNER:  American Eagle Has Good Genes  

One of the oddest news reports this week just wouldn’t die. It was the Sydney Sweeney American Eagle jeans ad. Sweeney is a gorgeous blonde, blue-eyed young woman who made a denim ad saying, “I have great jeans.” Ohmigosh! Wokies came out of the woodwork to attack her. How dare she be blonde and happy about it? Plus, they insisted that what she clearly meant was “I have good genes,” celebrating her whiteness, which, as we know, cannot be celebrated, only denigrated. The fact that Sweeney did not slink away in shame is a good sign—maybe this kind of nutty wokeness is coming to an end.   

Sen. Ted Cruz had a good political observation about Sweeney’s blue jeans, pointing out that progressives coming out against beautiful women is unlikely to poll well for them. 

I am hoping the Sweeney ad signals a new trend with commercials that feature a wider variety of people. Wouldn’t it be great to see a few ads where every family isn’t bi-racial? Bi-racial families are great, but in every commercial? What about a black family, an Asian family, or perhaps even a white family? In the world of ads, it seems like people of the same race aren’t getting married anymore.   

LOSER: The Democrats Again  

There’s an old joke about a guy who calls his lawyer’s office and is told by the receptionist that his attorney had recently died. Several minutes later, the guy calls back and the receptionist again tells him of his lawyer’s passing. On the third call, the frustrated receptionist says bluntly, I’ve already told you, your lawyer is dead. The guy replies, “I know. I just like to hear it.”  

That is the same reason I keep listing these polls which seem to come out every week now, showing Democrats are re-defining rock bottom. I just like to hear it. This week, the Wall Street Journal found that 63% of voters have a negative view of the Democratic Party—the lowest rating since 1990—and only 33% view Democrats favorably. 

There’s so many reasons for this—covering up Joe Biden’s cognitive failures, shutting down schools during COVID-19, Zohran Mamdani, California, attacks on ICE agents. This week we got another one. Nineteen Democratic attorneys general moved together to try to  stop the Trump administration from investigating food stamp fraud. Don’t expect the Democrat poll numbers to go up soon. 

That said, conservatives must remain vigilant. The latest analysis of generic ballot polls, which are critical when looking at the mid-term elections, show that Democrats are leading Republicans 45.3% to 43%, reminding us again that the only relevant question in politics is “compared to what.”  

WINNER: EPA Gets Rid of Useless Climate Regulations  

EPA  Administrator Lee Zeldin took steps this week to “drive a dagger into the heart of the climate change religion,” when he rolled back the Obama era rules that declared war on the oil and gas industry—not to mention American cars—with draconian regulations against fossil fuel emissions. Everybody supports action to maintain a clean environment, but people have had it with what Zeldin rightly calls the “climate change religion” which proscribes a series of virtue signals that have no impact at all, like these fossil fuel rules, plastic straws and bags that say “my reusable bag makes me better than you.“ 

But Trump is not just going after useless climate regulations. This week, the Competitive Enterprise Institute reported that the president has created something they call the “unrule,” eliminating 10 regulations for every new regulation they establish. Ten to one sounds good.  

LOSER: Seattle Climate Activists Go After Blue Angels 

They are even sick of climate change virtue signaling in Seattle. The Seattle Air Show Climate Action Coalition was unsuccessful in stopping the participation of the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels in the Seafair Air Show this weekend. The climate activists insisted that the jets were polluting the skies of Seattle, but nobody bought it. They also didn’t buy the argument that the jets triggered some veterans who wanted the show stopped.   

There are few things as exhilarating on earth as watching the precision Blue Angels—or their Air Force counterparts, the Thunderbirds. Here’s a preview for the show in Seattle.  

LOSERS: It’s not just California—the Northeast Exodus  

New York and New Jersey lost $140 billion in income over the last decade because nobody wants to live there anymore. Over 2 million people have taken their money and moved to other states—mostly Texas and Florida. We’ve heard all the reasons before—property and income taxes are off the charts, housing prices are astronomical and then there’s crime. Those old blue states are no fun anymore. I was just in New York last week, and everybody is depressed.  

In terms of new arrivals, we got some data from U-Haul this week about where refugees from California are landing in Texas—Austin and San Antonio are the top choices. So if you see somebody in your neighborhood walking around with a sack that reads “my reusable bag makes me better than you,” grab it out of their hands and give them one that says, “Come and Take It,” instead.  

LOSER: Does Kamala Finally Get It? 

The people “just aren’t that into her.” This week Kamala Harris announced that she will not run for governor of California. There were some reports that she didn’t want the job, but nobody believed that. If she got elected, she could just pretend being governor wasn’t her job, like she pretended she wasn’t really the Border Czar. What is more likely is that the polling looked awful and the people who fund the kind of campaigns that are required in a big state like California wouldn’t give her any more money after she forked over more than a billion dollars for her presidential run that went nowhere.    

It is so hard to figure out how Harris, the first woman to serve as vice president, will show up in our nation’s history. Will she just be a trivia question, like Jeanette Rankin, the first woman to serve in Congress and the only person to vote against declaring war on Japan after Pearl Harbor? Perhaps Harris is thinking about her legacy. She also announced this week that she is writing a book, entitled, “107 Days,” about her presidential campaign.   

WINNER: Trump is Saving College Sports  

College football season starts at the end of the month and after the antics of last season—with players scrambling around for the biggest NIL deal and the transfer portal allowing weekly roster shuffles—we all hope we are not watching the beginning of the end.   

This week, President Trump stepped up to say that in addition to trying to end wars and the correct the trade imbalance, he’s also going to save college sports. Trump re-established the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, which former President Barack Obama shut down because he thought it was too embarrassing for kids to fail the fitness tests.

Trump also re-iterated his commitment to college sports, pledging to end college football players being “traded around like playing cards,” and preserving the U.S. Olympic athlete pipeline and Title IX sports for women. USA! USA! 

LOSER:  The Media Conspiracy Continues to Unravel  

All First Lady Melania Trump had to do was send her lawyers over to the Daily Beast office and they immediately deleted an article that appeared to link her with the Jeffrey Epstein mess. Hopefully, this means those stories that are “too good to check” will now be checked, or at least reined in. Meanwhile ABC News anchor  Terry Moran, who was fired in June after calling President Trump “a world class hater,” admitted this week that there was no “diversity of thought” at the network, which he said resulted in “inadvertent bias.” The problem, according to Moran, is that no one at ABC supported Trump so there was no way to know what the other side might be thinking. Aren’t journalists supposed to go ask people what they are thinking, whether they agree with them or not?   

Finally, New York Times columnist Bret Stephen, who describes himself as a “foam at the mouth critic” of Trump admitted this week that “not everything Trump does is bad” and he put out a long list of examples. If you care what the New York Times said (and I totally get that you may not) you can read it here.  

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 1370 Talk Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. A year ago this week, former President Joe Biden announced that he was dropping out of the race for president. It’s only been a year, but we are now on day 188 of Donald Trump’s second term and virtually everything has changed. Here’s who made the list this week:

WINNER: Trump Keeps on Winning

It is not surprising that Trump’s approval rating remains solid in the latest WSJ poll because, even when he does thing folks don’t like, like some of the tariff action, he does so much that people absolutely love. Just this week, he pulled the United States out of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), a notoriously woke organization currently pushing a pro-Palestine agenda. Former President Ronald Reagan pulled out of UNESCO too, just to make it clear that the U.S. does not see the world the same way they do.

The president also issued an Executive Order this week that will allow officials to hospitalize homeless people who are mentally ill—which, unfortunately, is a large percentage of them. The president’s action is being portrayed by left-wing media as “forced hospitalization,” forgetting that most of the homeless people on the streets got there because of forced de-institutionalization decades ago, leaving them without treatment or any options other than to try to survive on the streets. Ending homelessness is a tall order, but Trump is right that it is time to start reversing the bad policies that continue to fuel the problem. It is the compassionate thing to do. 

Trump issued another important Executive Order this week that will that stop the big power conferences from turning college football into the NFL. Trump’s Save College Sports order will protect athletes in non-revenue producing sports, including Title IX programs for women.

WINNER: Senate Bill 7 – the Return of the Women’s Privacy Act

Without being indecorous, allow me to say to my fellow women that every time you are forced to use a filthy restroom where men have dribbled all over the floor, you can thank the Texas media. Back in 2017, Sen. Lois Kolkhorst B-Brenham and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick fought to pass the Women’s Privacy Act, what the media called the “bathroom bill,” which would have prohibited men from entering spaces reserved to protect women’s privacy, like restrooms, locker rooms and showers.

Naturally, Democrats opposed this common-sense law, but it was the Texas media that made defeating the legislation their top priority. They brutally disparaged Kolkhorst, Patrick and anyone who suggested that women’s restrooms should be separate from men’s. Every editorial board in the state railed against the Privacy Act, insisting it was, somehow, a gay rights issue to allow men in women’s bathrooms.

The bill failed in the Texas House and as a result, the state is now proliferated with gender-neutral restrooms that are dirty and unsafe. Gov. Greg Abbott added women’s privacy to the Special Session agenda and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick made it a top priority—Senate Bill 7. Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, will carry the bill in the Senate and Valoree Swanson, R-Houston, is sponsoring HB 23 in the House.

Fortunately, the era of TransTyranny is coming to a close. Among the other winners this week are the 27 attorneys general nationwide who have demanded that the NCAA return the trophies to women who lost them over the past several years to men who infiltrated women’s sports. Meanwhile, a loser is artist Amy Sherald who cancelled her upcoming exhibit at the Smithsonian this week because there were questions about her painting of a trans Statute of Liberty which she says “reflects the full, complex truth of American life.” 

The “full complex truth of American life” is that there are only two genders … and nobody likes a dirty public restroom.  

LOSER: Pete Hegseth on Women

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth frequently states that women do not belong in combat—a principle that makes sense most of the time to most people. However, a news report this week revealing that one of the pilots flying the B-2 that bombed Iran was a woman, makes it clear that the Defense Secretary needs to clearly define his terms. 

There is broad support for ending DEI programs in the military. Promotions and job selection should never be based on race and gender. But that doesn’t mean women can’t fly combat missions. What it means is that the selection of every warrior for every job in the military must be based on merit, not some kind of identity marker. We want the best qualified people in every combat role. That may eliminate most women for some types of combat (based on whatever merits standard is defined for the job). But Hegseth shouldn’t be stupid. No one wants to shut out some hot-shot fighter pilot just because she’s a girl. 

LOSER: Harris County Property Tax Payers

A report in the Houston Chronicle this week revealed the salaries of officials in the state’s largest county and local taxpayers are undoubtedly experiencing some sticker shock. The top earners are pulling down salaries that are close to half a million dollars, including the chief of staff for one of the county commissioners. But even the average salaries are off the charts in a county where the per capita income is under $40K. The median household income in Harris County is $73K. Harris County is currently facing a $270 million budget deficit and County Judge Lina Hidalgo, a Democrat, says they may need to raise taxes, because that’s how Democrats think.

The legendary Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale told a MAGA Rally in Houston this week that he feared the Bayou City was going to turn into Detroit. It will be interesting to see how long the people of Harris County will continue to keep Democrats in charge.

 LOSER: City of Dallas Faces Death Star

Meanwhile, the Texas Public Policy Foundation recently notified the city of Dallas that it has 133 ordinances that violate the so-called “Death Star” law which prohibits local jurisdictions from creating regulations that conflict with state law.

Dallas has 90 days to repeal the ordinances or otherwise amend 133 ordinances that are preempted by state law—or face legal action. The “Death Star” bill was challenged by San Antonio, El Paso and Houston, but the Third Court of Appeals ruled earlier this month that it can go forward. So far, there’s been no response from the people in Big D.

WINNER: Scotty Scheffler Inspires the World

After what may be the best tournament of his career so far, it was great to hear golfer Scotty Scheffler clearly say that faith and family are the first priorities in his life’s—golf is third. After the British Open there is little doubt that he is the best golfer on the planet.

 It is not odd for Americans to speak out about the importance of their faith and their families, but Europeans don’t hear that testimony very often so it is wonderful that he put it out there. 

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 1370 Talk Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. As we enter the “dead of summer” with what must now be officially referred to as “the first called Special Session,” scheduled to start Monday in the Texas Capitol, here’s who made the list:

Here’s the list:

WINNERS: Taxpayers No Longer Must Fund NPR and PBS

Not sure why this was even debatable, but earlier this week, 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.

NPR and PBS have always insisted that they don’t really need the federal money, but when it finally was clear that the gravy train was coming to an end, they totally panicked. Public media leaders insisted that if they lost the billion dollars in federal funds, people in rural areas would have no way to get news.

I grew up in a rural area and I do not recall any point in my life when someone actually said, “we’ve got to turn on NPR or PBS to get the news.”

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 sum it up perfectly: “We believe that you all can hate us on your own dime.”

LOSER: Things are Really Bad for Democrats

The fact that things aren’t going well for the Democrat Party is not really news, but I love reminding everyone how bad it is and this week it got a lot worse. A new Quinnipiac University poll found that only 19% of Americans approve of the Democrats in Congress. But wait! There’s more:

1. Their candidate for mayor of New York City is a communist and an anti-Semite. In a country where 80% of Americans support Israel and reject communism, this is a bad look.
2. The former governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, announced this week that he will re-enter the race for mayor of New York City, thereby virtually assuring that the communist, anti-Semite will win.
3. In Texas, no congressional representative raised more money than Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, from Dallas, who raked in $3.8 million. Crockett is also a big leftist who frequently appears on the Losers List. She is the awful person who makes fun of Gov. Greg Abbott because he’s in a wheelchair and has called President Trump (and most Republicans) racist. In more bad news for Democrats, their top Congressional fundraiser is another socialist—Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.  
4. Another poll by a Democrat group found that Democrats are continuing to hemorrhage male voters who perceive them as “weak and woke.”
5. Democrat leaders who try to make things better like California Gov. Gavin Newsom look really silly when they decide the key is to curse more and try to “sound authentic,” like Trump.
6. Texan Mark Cuban—a Democrat sympathizer—seems to get it. He said this week that Democrats have to get a better message than “Trump sucks.”
7. Finally, going into next week’s Texas Legislature’s special session, which features a charge from Gov. Greg Abbott to draw a new map of congressional districts, Texas Democrats haven’t got much of a plan beyond blaming Gov. Abbott for the flood. They could leave the state and break quorum, so the state Legislature couldn’t conduct business, or they could try to get a big blue state to create new Democrat congressional seats to counter what happens in Texas. None of that looks likely, but it will be fun to watch.

LOSER: National Teachers Union President Screaming in Philadelphia

It’s been all over the Internet, but in case you missed the YouTube video of National Education Association (NEA) President Becky Pringle screaming like a crazy person at the group’s convention in Philadelphia, you can watch it here. Her performance has been widely described in the media as “unhinged,” so I went to the thesaurus to find a similar term—deranged was suggested, along with unbalanced, mad and “crackers.” I’m going with “crackers.”    

A lengthy report in the Free Press provides a detailed narrative of the latest agenda from the NEA which includes vows to stop President Trump’s fascism, eliminate ICE and resist the Supreme Court ruling that allows parents to opt their children out of “gender ideology” classes.

The NEA has also pledged millions for local political campaigns and says it will support the “No Kings,” movement, which nobody knows exactly what is, but apparently isn’t over. The NEA doesn’t seem to be pretending anymore that they care about what happens to our children.

A Texas teacher is quoted in the Free Press story saying she was told there was no time to discuss ways to improve reading and math skills (which continue to be in the tank across the country) because they had to “fight Trump.”

Texas parents finally defeated the teachers’ unions in the last legislative session after fighting for over three decades to pass school choice and establish the largest Educational Savings Account program in the country. But the screaming coming out of Philadelphia makes it clear that as long as the teachers unions can collect dues—and in most states teachers have no choice but to pay them—their wars against a good education aren’t over. To review NEA’s record, only 26% of American high school seniors are proficient in math and only about 40% of fourth graders are reading at grade level. Taxpaying parents are the ones who should be screaming.  

WINNER: Trump’s Garden of American Heroes

One of the things that was included in the Big Beautiful Bill was a small amount of funding to start the “Garden of American Heroes” that President Trump proposed back in 2020 when the country was obsessed with tearing down statues. Trump thinks putting up more statues is a better idea and, so far, his “Garden of American Heroes” will feature 250 people.

Take a look at who is on the list and you find most people you would expect—George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John and Sam Adams, Davy Crockett and Martin Luther King, but there’s also Bob Hope and Kobe Bryant. Lauren Bacall is next to Clara Barton and there are even lefties, including Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Woody Guthrie.

The Washington Post report about the Garden includes the lie Trump’s anti-DEI executive orders have outlawed honoring Blacks, Hispanics and women, which is, of course, ridiculous. No word yet on where the Garden of Heroes is going to be, although there appears to be a push to put it near Mt. Rushmore, which sounds like a great spot.

LOSER: Biden Team Takes the Fifth — Week 2

One big loser last week was former President Joe Biden’s doctor, Kevin O’Connor, who invoked the Fifth amendment at a congressional deposition when asked if he believed former President Biden was up to doing the job as president, or if anyone had asked him to lie about the president’s health.

This week, Anthony Bernal, former First Lady Jill Biden’s Chief of Staff, also took the Fifth when asked if he believed Biden was able to execute his duties as president. Clearly, these guys know they are in trouble. Invoking the Fifth means you refuse to answer because telling the truth could incriminate you.

They clearly believe somebody is going to be prosecuted and they are taking steps to make sure it isn’t them. Meanwhile, Biden’s son Hunter is sticking to the script. Sounding like a character from Game of Thrones, Hunter said Democrats lost the election because they weren’t loyal to his father. Here’s the whole unbelievable quote:

We lost the election because we did not remain loyal to the leader of the party. We had the advantage of incumbency. We had advantage of an incredibly successful administration, and the Democratic Party literally melted down.

There are rumors that the House Oversight Committee may subpoena Jill Biden to testify. Hopefully, that would be more interesting than the doctor and her chief of staff. Hard to imagine the former First Lady taking the Fifth.

WINNER: Trump Gets another Victory from SCOTUS

Last week, President Trump was on the winners list when the Supreme Court ruled the obvious—that as head of the executive branch of the government, he has the right to reduce the size of the federal work force, which is part of the executive branch. This week, Trump won at the Supreme Court again when the high court ruled he could fire 1,300 employees at the Department of Education. The Department of Education was created by former President Jimmy Carter as a favor to the National Education Association, so it’s hard to figure how anyone thought that another president wouldn’t be able to fire employees or even shut it down.  

LOSER: Stephen Colbert is Finally Done

Was it something he said? Probably not. CBS announced this week that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will be discontinued after May of next year. CBS says it is a financial decision, and I believe them. According to the LateNighter ratings, “Excluding Gutfeld!, aggregate linear late-night viewership was down -9% year-over-year among total viewers, and -21% in the demo.”

According to their report, “Fox News’ Gutfeld! …leads all of the shows we track among both total viewers and viewers aged 18–49.

The difference between Gutfeld and Colbert is that Gutfeld is not a progressive activist disguised as a comedian who spends every evening bashing Trump and MAGA.

Colbert and his defenders are ignoring the data showing nobody is watching him and instead are trying to make him a martyr, pretending that he was fired because he criticized CBS for the $16 million settlement they paid President Trump for doctoring their “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris to make her sound coherent.

Monty Python director Terry Gilliam said this week that he believes Donald Trump’s re-election has brought comedy back and people can laugh again. Monty Python is the gold standard in comedy. It will always be remembered. I’ve already forgotten why anybody ever thought Stephen Colbert was funny.

WINNER: Kristi Noem Could End Travel Size Bottles

Granted, so far it’s just an idea, but Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said this week that she is looking at getting rid of the requirement that only allows 3.4 ounces of water, toothpaste, shampoo—any liquid you really need—in your carry-on bag when you board a plane.

It’s almost too much to hope for. After getting rid of the “take off your shoes,” rule last week, we now have hope the tiny bottles rule is the next to go. The tyranny of TSA security could be coming to an end.

LOSER: SEC Confuses Texas Songs

Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey seemed sincere when he apologized to University of Texas Coach Steve Sarkisian, who took the stage at SEC Media Days in Atlanta to the tune of the Texas Aggie War Hymn.

Sankey said, “Mistakes happen. No ill intent there,” but not every Texas fan believed him. Texas is currently one of the teams at the top of the list favored to win the national championship this year, and nobody wants anything that could be construed as a bad omen. There are lots of yards to cover between now and then. Texas will play Texas A&M in Austin on Nov. 28.

Have a great one!

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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