Tex's Place

By Ward Clark It's always good to have a Plan B, even if you're the President of the United States. Granted, presidents generally have a replacement, in the form of the vice president, and in the current term, Vice President JD Vance has proven to be worth his salt.  Even so, when you're not just President of the United States, but a guy who has been the target of not one, not two, but three assassination attempts, a little extra contingency planning isn't the worst idea. President Trump apparently thinks so. Deputy Assistant to the President Sebastian Gorka, on a podcast recently, spilled that President Trump has left Vice President Vance a letter in a drawer of the Resolute Desk, to be opened if the vice president finds himself at that desk after a disaster that results in him suddenly shedding the "vice" part of the title . President Donald Trump has instructions tucked away in the Oval Office for Vice President JD Vance should he ever need to succeed ...

By JOHN NOLTE Sounds like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has conceded defeat in the 2026 redistricting battle, but like George Costanza and the Jerk Store, he’s already plotting his revenge in 2028. If you take a deep breath, you can smell the failure laced with no small amount of humiliation… Hakeem Jeffries warns Republicans that because they are eliminating racially-gerrymandered districts before the 2026 elections, several blue states which are already heavily gerrymandered (NY, NJ, CO, WA, OR, IL, MD) will gerrymander themselves again... before 2028. "We will be… pic.twitter.com/EPjYg8cqNM — Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) May 13, 2026 “In advance of 2028, where we will have additional states that will come online, including but not limited to New York, New Jersey, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Illinois, and Maryland,” says Jeffries. “That’s at least seven states. We will be able to unleash a decisive and forceful response to what they are doing...

By Kristine Parks A 78-year-old retired pastor has been convicted and fined for  preaching a gospel sermon near  a hospital in Northern Ireland. "Naturally, I was deeply saddened by the verdict," Clive Johnston told Fox News Digital. "At 78 years old, I never imagined I would leave a courtroom with a criminal conviction for preaching the Christian gospel. But beyond the personal impact, my overriding concern is what this says about the state of fundamental freedoms in our nation." On May 7, District Judge Peter King at Coleraine Magistrates' Court convicted Johnston of breaching a "safe access zone" outside Causeway Hospital in Coleraine on July 7, 2024. Northern Ireland’s Abortion Services ( Safe Access Zones) Act  prohibits "influencing," "preventing or impeding access," or "causing harassment, alarm or distress" to a protected person within 100 meters (about 328 feet) of facilities where abortions are per...

By Bob Hoge Acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons announced in April that he is stepping down from the post effective May 31 because he wants to spend more time with his family. That leaves a pretty big hole to fill, as the Trump administration has prioritized putting an end to illegal immigration and getting criminal illegals out of the country. The president has found his man, and it’s David Venturella, an ICE senior advisor who was recruited to the agency by Border Czar Tom Homan and who has a background in private prison firms. That resume is certain to drive the Democrats crazy, as they tend to view prisons as the ultimate sign of evil. He would do things differently from some of his predecessors: He started his career in 1986 at the former INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) and as acting director and assistant director of ICE’s Office of Detention and Removal Operations. Sources said he is well liked within ICE and one source describ...

By Brad Slager There has been plenty of news coverage in the past week about the Dutch research vessel that saw passengers infected with the Andes strain of the hantavirus. Eleven confirmed cases on board have been recorded, with three deaths resulting from the virus. This has become fodder for hype in the news; the prospect of another global outbreak is just too much to resist, and NBC News is here to lead the charge. The people on board were traveling from Antarctica, with frequent stops en route to Europe. One passenger has been tabbed as the initial carrier. This man, an ornithologist, was studying birds during one excursion, and it is believed he contracted the virus while tracking fowl in an Argentinian landfill. Small wonder how he became Patient-Zero; it would have been challenging enough to have the cabin beside him after his romp through a South American garbage dump. The ship has reached port, and the passengers have been quarantined. NBC News is all excitable because th...

By Tyler Durden President Trump and his Air Force One entourage have arrived in Beijing on Wednesday, greeted by a lavish red carpet welcome. The American president was received by Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, China’s ambassador to Washington Xie Feng, Executive Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxuong, and US envoy to Beijing David Perdue . Reports describe the extravagant welcoming ceremony as made up of a military honor guard and band, as well as about 300 Chinese youths waving alternating Chinese and American flags. "We’re the two superpowers," Trump had told reporters just before departing to China the day prior. "We're the strongest nation on Earth in terms of military. China’s considered second." This is Trump's first visit there in nearly nine years, and an array of pressing issues will be discussed over the next two days of a packed-out schedule. Official events with President Xi Jinping will kick off Thursday at 10am (local) with a formal welcom...

By Matt Margolis The Virginia Supreme Court handed Democrats a stinging defeat — and instead of accepting it, they're floating the idea of blowing up the government entirely. Last week, the court struck down Democrats' rushed redistricting referendum, ruling it unconstitutional and leaving the existing maps drawn after the 2021 process in place. Democrats had pushed the new plan specifically to engineer more favorable congressional and legislative districts in Virginia. The court said they broke the law by rushing the process, and so the existing map was restored before the new map could be certified. And that's when things got unhinged. The party considered all kinds of responses — including a scheme to force the retirement of every sitting justice on the Virginia Supreme Court. That's a perfectly normal reaction from a political party that claims they respect democratic norms, right? But they weren’t done. Marc Elias, the left's go-to power lawyer for all thin...

By Morgan Phillips As President Donald Trump and hundreds of aides, security personnel and officials prepare to travel to  China , many will leave behind one of the most basic tools of modern government: their everyday cellphones. Instead, officials entering China often travel with stripped-down "clean" devices, temporary laptops and tightly controlled communications systems designed to minimize the risk of surveillance, hacking or data collection in what U.S. officials consider one of the world’s most aggressive cyber environments. The precautions can transform even routine tasks into logistical headaches. Messages that would normally travel instantly through encrypted apps or synced devices are instead routed through controlled channels, temporary accounts or relayed in person. Contacts disappear. Cloud access is limited. Some officials operate for days without their normal digital footprint. Current and former officials say the measures reflect a longstandi...

By Ben Smith While the Biden administration was telling parents the COVID vaccines were safe for their children, its own FDA doctors were quietly reviewing files on 96 dead kids and concluding that some of them had probably been killed by the shots. They wrote it up. They classified it as new safety information under federal law. And they never told the public. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) released the records this week, referenced in a May 11, 2026, letter directed to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Investigative journalist Catherine Herridge was first to report them. EXCLUSIVE: Records via @SenRonJohnson Allege Biden Administration Suppressed COVID Vaccine Pediatric Deaths and Total Death Count “Grossly UnderReported” "...2025 memorandum detailing 96 pediatric deaths following COVID-19 vaccination, some of which were labeled as “possibly” or… pic.twitter.com/ud2IVIfMo1 — Catherine Herridge (@C__Herridge) May 12, 2026 The key document is a December 5,...

By Ward Clark Once in a while, even a Senator like the Senate Minority Leader, Chuck Schumer (D-NY) does the right thing, either by intent or by accident. In this case, it looks like a rare instance of the former; Senator Schumer is now on record supporting a measure that would prevent members of the United States Senate from being paid during a government shutdown. The measure to implement this was put forward on Monday by Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and requires 60 votes to pass.  That just became a lot more likely. Senate Republicans' gamble to inflict pain on themselves to thwart future shutdowns just got an unlikely backer: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. The upper chamber is set to vote on Sen. John Kennedy's, R-La., resolution on Wednesday that would prevent senators from getting a paycheck during a government shutdown. It's a tool that Republicans hope will give them leverage in preventing Democrats from again shuttering the governmen...