Tex's Place

By R. C. Maxwell A senior Iranian official told Reuters on Monday that Tehran has shifted from a defensive posture to a “fully offensive” one and is prepared to escalate in the Strait of Hormuz if diplomacy with the United States fails.“Iranian entities must be prepared to escalate tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and wider region, as Iran will be ready to make decisions and take action on difficult decisions,” the official said.  The Iranian official added that Iran would conduct a “timely and precise” military attack aimed at breaking the U.S. naval blockade if talks collapse. Iran's bold warning comes on the day the 60-day window under a June 17 memorandum of understanding expired without a permanent agreement. That interim deal had called for an immediate halt to military operations and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas previously passed.  The arrangement quickly frayed after Iranian forc...

By Ward Clark The Department of War (DoW) is now cracking down on any questionable research collaborations by American educational institutions with foreign interests. To that end, the DoW has now issued notifications to no less than 30 American domestic academic institutions, requiring them to conduct a review of any such collaborations. The initial announcement appeared Monday on DoW's official X account . https://t.co/BnkyLeisKo — Department of War CTO (@DoWCTO) August 17, 2026 The article begins: The Department of War has issued formal notifications to 30 domestic academic institutions, directing them to initiate immediate and comprehensive reviews of their academic, financial and research collaborations with foreign entities of concern. These notifications address active institutional ties and collaborations with foreign entities identified under Section 1286 of the FY19 NDAA, as well as organizations associated with rebranded Confucius Institutes. Executed by the Offic...

By Nick Arama We're seeing a lot of posturing from Democrats who are running or may have ambitions for the 2028 presidential race. They think if they act tough against President Donald Trump, that will help them in their midterm elections or in a 2028 primary.  Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) is running for reelection, and people have tossed his name around for 2028, though he has claimed he has no intention of running in 2028.  But this has to be one of the grossest, most unfair attacks I've seen on Trump in some time. That's saying something, given all the efforts against him. Ossoff even drags the "sailors on the Lincoln" into his political attack, which is vile. Ossoff says that Trump doesn’t want to do his job but wants to “travel with Natalie” pic.twitter.com/aDLMKFeMmR — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 16, 2026 Ossoff claims the soldiers are fighting "his [Trump's] war." That's attacking their effort. It isn't "Trump's war." I...

By Ward Clark There's this old saying about apples and how far they fall from the tree. It's generally taken to be a statement on how a generation takes after the previous generation, in matters ranging from food to culture to behavior. We apply it to politicians, too, especially when examining one candidate in light of how their relatives have behaved. Often that's a huge nothing burger; a candidate isn't responsible for the sins of any of their relatives.  But when a candidate has a history of supporting suspect causes, and then a relative - say, the candidate's mother - is found to have been shoveling money towards those causes, it is more than enough to make one wonder just what the heck is going on.  Case in point: Michigan's Democrat Senate candidate, Abdul El-Sayed , otherwise known as Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, and his mother. In a rather extensive thread on X, commentator Natalie Winters has compiled some interesting information on El-Sayed's...

Houston skyline By Joel Kotkin More than a half century ago California passed New York to become America’s most populous state. It was not only first in population, but an industrial, agricultural, and technology behemoth that also provided most of the nation’s entertainment. Today that primacy is threatened as never before, most powerfully by Texas, whose pro-business policies, low taxes and growing technical skill are propelling its economy. People are voting with their feet. A view of the Golden Gate Bridge with the San Francisco skyline in the background. By 2050, for example, Texas is now slated to pass California in population, driven both by both immigration and domestic migration. Its economy is growing far faster, and it is now the headquarters of many former Californian companies. This year, for the first time, Texas passed California and New York as a headquarters for the nation’s largest companies. Even the establishmentarian Economist recently proclaimed the...

By Rusty Weiss Newly declassified FBI memos have provided fresh and alarming details about a serious but familiar scandal involving former Rep. Eric Swalwell (CA-14). The files reveal detailed evidence that the California Democrat — a one-time presidential candidate and recent gubernatorial hopeful — received illegal campaign donations from Christine Fang. She is the infamous Chinese national long suspected of working for Beijing’s intelligence services.  Swalwell, as RedState readers are well aware, had a well-documented relationship with the Chinese spy, who managed at one point to get an intern placed in his Washington office. According to these memos, he admitted to having an intimate sexual relationship with Fang. The documents show the bureau had built a strong case around Swalwell's involvement with straw donations, intern placements, and a relationship he spent years trying to downplay. For a politician who spent every waking moment of the Trump years loudly warning ab...

By Scott Mechkowski For a certain kind of applicant, the backlog isn’t a failure of the system. It’s the entire strategy. For 24 years I enforced this country’s immigration laws, and I’ll tell you the most effective way to stay in the United States without much of a case. It isn’t a clever lawyer or a sympathetic story. It’s a stamped receipt from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services showing an application is pending. That receipt has nothing to do with whether the application underneath it is any good. When a nonimmigrant, someone here on a temporary visa, files a timely, non-frivolous request to extend or change status before his stay runs out, the law stops counting unlawful presence against him for as long as the request goes unanswered. Congress wrote that pause into the Immigration and Nationality Act § 212(a)(9)(B)(iv) and capped it at 120 days, assuming the government would decide these cases in four months. It doesn’t anymore. So U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Ser...

By Jay Sekulow California has now told the country that it doesn’t know how many noncitizens have been removed from its voter rolls and that it has no formal policy for investigating illegal voting when it’s reported. For years, Americans have been told that concerns about noncitizens voting are a myth, a right-wing talking point unworthy of serious attention. California’s own secretary of state and attorney general have proven otherwise, however, not by admitting the state has no idea whether, or how often, it’s even happening, but by indicating the state isn’t bothering to track it. A few weeks ago, the ACLJ submitted two California Public Records Act (CPRA) requests — one to the California secretary of state and one to Attorney Genera l Rob Bonta’s office — seeking records on how the state maintains the integrity of its voter rolls. The Attorney General’s Office took an extension, ultimately responding on Aug. 10. The Secretary of State’s Office responded first, but refused t...

By Ben Smith Tropical Storm Lala pounded Hawaii with extreme rainfall and damaging winds over the weekend, washing out roads and bridges, damaging at least 100 homes, and leaving nearly 192,000 Hawaiian Electric customers without power before beginning to move away Sunday evening. The National Weather Service in Honolulu said Lala was about 150 nautical miles west-southwest of Lihue at 5 PM HST Sunday and moving west at 14 knots. Tropical storm warnings remained in effect for Kauai County, while warnings had been canceled for the other islands. Catastrophic flash flooding on the big island of Hawaii’s southern coast. Hurricane Lala brushed by and did this! #hurricane #lala #hawaii pic.twitter.com/4RAO6GdMzU — Jonathan Petramala (@jpetramala) August 16, 2026 The Big Island took some of the worst of the rain. More than 35 inches fell in some locations, according to the National Weather Service, while Maui received 10 to 15 inches and Oahu received 5 to 10 inches. Widespread win...