Tex's Place

Washington is waking up to the threat of Mexican drug cartels and the growing chaos in Mexico. But is Trump prepared to take robust action? By John Daniel Davidson In an interview posted online Tuesday, President Trump said he would designate Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, marking a major shift in U.S. policy toward Mexico, where cartels now exercise effective control of much of the country. In  the interview , with former Fox News has Bill O’Reilly, Trump said his administration has been working on the designation for the last 90 days, well before  the massacre of nine American women and children  on November 4 by cartel gunmen in the Mexican state of Sonora, not far from the U.S. border. The victims, some as young as eight months old, were members of the LeBaron family, a Mormon community that’s lived and farmed in northern Mexico for decades. One woman was shot point blank as she begged for her children’s lives. The brazen ki...

By THOMAS D. WILLIAMS, PH.D. Climate change alarmists are pushing for a change in vocabulary to scare people into taking global warming more seriously, starting with terms like “global meltdown” and “climate collapse.” Writing for AdAge this week, Aaron Hall  argues  that in order to get people to “take action” against climate change, “rebranding” is crucial, since people have gotten too used to the idea that climate is  changing  and need to be shocked into the notion that the world as we know it is  ending . “Is there a better way to convey the urgency of the situation, while also encouraging folks to take action? Could the tools of branding and brand naming create a more resonant, powerful name?” Mr. Hall asks. What he and his marketing team came up with was a series of much more frightening labels to stick on climate change in the hope of jolting people into meaningful engagement. The terms “Global Meltdown” or “Global Melting,” for instance...

By Paul Curry When you have to ask for a right, it ceases to be a right and becomes a privilege. And privileges, like freedom, can be taken away. The right of the people to keep and bear arms is enshrined in the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution and it cannot, constitutionally, be taken away. So-called red flag laws are an attempt to do just that, demote the “right” of the people to bear arms to a mere privilege. Championed by left-wing politicos who would prefer we view the Bill of Rights, not as a sacrosanct guarantee of individual liberty, but rather an à la carte menu of daily preferences, red flag laws are, although often well-intentioned, ill-conceived reactionary surrenders of our Constitutional liberty. It would be both curious and dangerous to see exactly how many other “rights” and liberties they truly believe are subject to such daily whims. Red flag laws allow individual judges to issue orders allowing law enforcement to seize firearms from Americ...

By Amil Imani Uprisings in Iran have become routine occurrences, albeit without much success. Why? Because Iran is ruled by a totalitarian Islamic ideology like Nazism and communism. In Iran, there is no sovereignty of the people. Instead, there is a perception of the Ummah in Shia theology  “rule of Mahdi” , guardianship over the people. In other words, Iran belongs to “Imam Zaman” (the Hidden Imam) and in his absence, a supreme leader is in charge. In this case, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Any revolt against the State is considered a direct attack against the upcoming “Lord of the Age.” Hence, at the slightest signs of protests, the regime unleashes its wild dogs (soldiers of Mahdi) on a killing spree.  Iranians partook in many protests across the country amidst a failing economic situation, systematic government corruption, and widespread frustration over the lack of political and social freedoms. As always, the regime’s security apparatus reacted to these protests wi...

Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel (center) speaks with President Donald Trump during the G7 summit in Quebec, Canada on June 9. (From left, front row: White House National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow, British Prime Minister Theresa May, French President Emmanuel Macron, Merkel, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and White House national security adviser John Bolton.) | Jesco Denzel/German Federal Government via AP By Bonchie A German ranting and gyrating behind a podium about limiting rights never comes across well. Angela Merkel, the current Chancellor of Germany, decided to go on a bonkers rant about limiting the rights of her citizens, including curtailing free speech because of its supposed dangers. This happened in an address to the Bundestag, which is Germany’s federal parliament. Here’s the video and then some excerpts via Townhall. Watch till the end. Angela Merkel says: we have to take away your freedom of speech, or else society won’t be free. pic....

By Walter E. Williams Former presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke said that racism in America is “foundational” and that people of color were under “mortal threat” from the “white supremacist in the White House.” Pete Buttigieg chimed in to explain that “systemic racism” will “be with us” no matter who is in the White House. Senator Cory Booker called for “attacking systemic racism” in the “racially biased” criminal justice system. Let’s follow up by examining Booker’s concern about a “racially biased” criminal justice system. To do that, we can turn to a recent article by Heather Mac Donald, who is a senior fellow at the New York-based Manhattan Institute. She is a contributing editor of City Journal, and a New York Times bestselling author. Her most recent article, “A Platform of Urban Decline,” which appeared in Manhattan Institute’s publication Eye On The News, addresses race and crime. She reveals government statistics you’ve never read before. According to leftist rhe...

By SIMON KENT Officials at the United Nations COP25 climate change conference in Madrid next week must consider implementing taxes on developed countries to transfer wealth to nations dealing with “the cost of drought, floods and superstorms made worse by rising temperatures,” more than 150 environmental groups said Friday. The financial impositions being considered include U.N.-administered taxes on financial transactions, international air travel and fossil fuels. In an open letter to the president of the  COP 25  talks, Chile’s environment minister Carolina Schmidt, the organisations urged agreement on “the creation of a comprehensive financing facility, including debt relief, for developing countries experiencing such disasters.” The U.N.-sponsored Madrid conference is set to be dominated by discussions on so-called “loss and damage” funding, with a sharp divide between developing nations and richer polluters over how finance should be structured....

By Beth Baumann Things aren't looking so hot for Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA). Not only has she gone from a first-tier candidate to a second-tier candidate, her campaign is  hemorrhaging money  up the wazoo and they've had to "restructure," which also meant laying off campaign staffers. But the real icing on the cake is when her State Operations Director, Kelly Mehlenbacher, resigned and rival Michael Bloomberg  picked Mehlenbacher  up as a campaign staffer over Thanksgiving. What's amazing, however, is the insight  Mehlenbacher's letter  provides to those of us on the outside. The former Harris staffer has "never seen an organization treat its staff so poorly." That's saying something considering Mehlenbacher has worked for three presidential campaigns and as an accountant or treasurer for various Political Action Committees (PACs) and organizations related to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Apparently the straw that brok...

From The Babylon Bee U.S.—During an appearance on All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC earlier this week,  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez condemned the rise of division in our country "when addition and subtraction are hard enough." "What do you think about the state of politics, of all this division that we see everywhere in our nation?" Hayes asked. Ocasio-Cortez thought for a moment before responding, or at least paused to give the appearance of thought: "I'm against division." The audience applauded. Hayes nodded sympathetically, motioning for the studio audience to quiet down. "And what is it about division that you think harms discourse in this country?" Again, there was a faint glimmer of thought in her eyes before she responded: "I think, like, numbers and stuff? Carrying the numbers left and right and back and forth is a lot to ask of people, and I think we're ready for a return to, like, what this country was founded...