Courts, Classrooms, And The Texas Rightward Shift

Start with a win that actually touches your wallet: a federal court just struck down HUD/USDA energy mandates tied to federally backed mortgages, calling out agency overreach and shielding low-income buyers from extra costs. From there, we trace how legal clarity connects to Texas’s broader rightward shift—challengers toppling incumbents on ideas, not age—and why the real leverage lives in school boards, county posts, and the quiet committees that shape daily life.

We dig into campus battles where ideology slips into the syllabus. A Texas A&M controversy over a tortured reading of Plato exposes how quickly “censorship” claims get weaponized. Then we pull back the curtain on general education review committees that too often skew to the loudest ideologues, while the University of Houston faces outrage for a simple pledge: teach, don’t indoctrinate. If you care about the next generation’s literacy, numeracy, and critical reasoning, this is the terrain that decides it.

Crime and culture collide in hard stories from Clear Lake and the Heights, where real victims remind us why deterrence and restitution matter—and why the right to self-defense isn’t theoretical. We tackle the pathologies of soft enforcement and the moral order that starts at the dinner table and radiates outward to community and state. On the business front, ExxonMobil’s move to re-domicile in Texas underscores the draw of modern business courts and predictable law, while a Ticketmaster–Live Nation “deal” caps fees but leaves monopoly questions simmering. True markets need freedom with guardrails, not red tape or sweetheart carve-outs.

Threaded through it all is a long-game strategy: courts that say “stay in your lane,” campuses that teach instead of preach, local offices filled by people who show up, and policy that balances growth with fairness. If you want a Texas where families thrive and institutions earn trust, this is the blueprint. 

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Transcript

Opening Banter And Weather Allergies

SPEAKER_03 0:03

From deep in the heart of Texas, it's Houston's God-loving patriot, and the voice of reason. This is the Lone Star Conservative, Michael Wilson.

Yesterday’s Guest And Podcast CTA

Grassroots Vs. Islamic Influence In Texas

Long-Game Culture And Christian Foundations

SPEAKER_16 0:30

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and you're listening to the Lone Star Conservative brought to you by Texellent AC Service. Now, listen up, ladies and gentlemen, because I tell you what, these weather changes have been absolutely disastrous for my sinuses. Uh this week, especially. And I know you're thinking, well, the weather's not changed that much. No, but I like predict like my my nose is so dramatic that it's like thinking about what the future is going to hold for it. And so it knows what's coming. That's why I can almost always my I'll get severe allergies. And everyone's like, Are you okay? I'm like, yeah, rain must be coming. Like, what? I'm like, I'm gonna check, I check the weather. Yep, rain, rain is a day out. That's not a surprise. And so that's what's been going on. And when you know it, today we are gonna get some rain. Also a cool front moving, I think, behind that rain. And so we'll talk about that at the top of this hour. I just wanted to highlight that. In case my voice sounds a little bit wonky, it is not a voice changer, not a not a different person doing the show. It's me. Uh it's just that my uh my nose is a little stuffy. You can you can hear the sniffles a little bit, unfortunately. Now, with that being said, with that little preface in there, I want to go ahead and jump over to a very actually a very exciting conversation uh because I was looking into the direction that Texas is going. Right? Yesterday, uh we had a very exciting guest on, John Guandolo, who came on to talk about all of the Islamic influence here in the state of Texas. And if you guys missed that interview, just so you guys know, you should check out the podcast because my show is now getting uploaded as a podcast every day. Uh that you can check out, just search the Lone Star Conservative on Spotify or Apple. And if you missed that interview, or if you heard it and and you want to go back and hear some of the details again, sometimes it's good to hear things a couple times. It's important enough that it's worth it. You can go hear that on the podcast. So if you missed that, go check it out at some point today. Not right now. You don't have to, you know, miss out on this show. But you should go check that out sometime over the next couple days because he he he's what happens when you dedicate a lot of your life to one particular thing and get really good at it. I I like to think that, especially in a in an industry like media, you gotta kind of have a jack of all trades mindset about news in general. You have to understand local government, county government, you gotta understand law enforcement, you have to understand state government, the way that the constitution works between state constitution and federal constitution, you have to know federal history, state history. So you have to know a wide array of things and be caught up on all of them in order to produce a pretty cohesive show. You can't just know how state government works and then you talk about local corruption, you have no idea what's going on. Doesn't work. And so in media, in this sort of political media, political commentary, you kind of gotta, you kind of gotta diversify, you know, your accounts. You gotta diversify what you know about. What that does often mean in a lot of cases, uh, are that because your time is split, right? Jack of all trades, master of none, that's where you sometimes end up, is that you're you can be well informed and you can be more informed than most people on something, uh, but you're not as informed as you could be if all of your time could be dedicated to that thing. And John Guandolo has dedicated almost all of his time to understanding Islam, Islamic influence, the way that they interact in Western society and what their goal is and and what they're doing for the past 20 years. And so when he talks, right, it's not like it's some you know flowery speaker getting up there to deliver the news. He's getting up there and he's speaking about all of the background data, all of the connections, all of the funding, and in a way that I I would not be able to put together in any period of time, much less you know, a short show period time. And so that was an excellent interview. Uh, I think a lot of our listeners text in to say thank you. A lot of people that I talk to who listen to the show, uh, outside of those who text in, also said thank you and said it was a great interview. Uh, and so we'll have him on again sometime uh after the after the show we were talking, and he said he definitely would be on to come on again sometime. Uh any time that I wanted him on. So we'll certainly have another John Guendolo interview in the future. Not sure when that'll be, but it'll be a good time, and I'll be excited to do that. I I say all that to say that Texas is certainly being influenced. And if we're gonna win this, it's gonna require two things. It's it's going to require two things. One, as John mentioned yesterday, it is going to require people like us, people that are not in politics, people that are not legislators, people that are not, you know, running for governor, running for this, that are getting involved on the grassroots level, that are getting involved in local policy, that are getting involved in county level government, water boards, school boards, all these sorts of positions that, again, as I pointed out before, may not sound all that big and important, but in many cases determine our day-to-day lives, right? A school board has a lot of power and authority over the way that your school, your school operates, the school that the kids are growing up in. And when they allow, if they allow Ramadan displays or if they allow Islamic influence to creep into the school, care-sponsored events like the Islamic Games, if these things are allowed into our school districts, kids are going to be influenced by it. And as John mentioned, you uh uh you know, there's the lawsuit ongoing right now that Islamic schools receive school voucher money. And of course, uh you have named in that lawsuit people like Kelly Hancock, Ken Paxton, Greg Abbott, because they're stopping taxpayer funds from being sent to Islamic schools as vendors. They're not eligible to receive taxpayer funding. And the argument is, well, we're not linked to any terrorist groups. But as was highlighted yesterday, the question isn't really whether they're linked to terrorist groups. The question ultimately should be: do we think that taxpayer money should go to schools that ideologically are teaching children anti-American things? And that, by the way, should be an easy no, right? For the state of Texas, that shouldn't even be a difficult debate to have. It shouldn't be one where there even is really a lawsuit that's allowed to proceed on the merits of the case. It should be an easy, yeah, no. Texas has the sovereignty to determine where its money goes. And if they don't want it, going to schools that teach anti-American ideology and are indoctrinating kids that are Americans or are American citizens into things that are evil, that want to tear down Western society and Western civilization, and we don't want to fund that, that's totally acceptable. And it should be totally acceptable. And so there's a lot of this ongoing stuff. And if we're going to win it, it's going to require activism at every level. It's not going to come just because we got one school board or we just got one water board or we just got one office. It is going to have to be a consistent, and I I want to say it's going to have to be a rightward shift because the left has been willing to align themselves with Islam as if they're allies. Uh the left, especially the far left, sees Muslims almost as sort of allies in their fight to take down the right. And Muslims are very good at playing whatever side they need to play to get in the good graces of people. And so they'll play the left, they'll play the right, they'll play whatever fiddle tune they have to to make the people in the bar happy. And so, of course, when they're hung on the right, they're they're all about, you know, traditional values, and they're all about making the country better and going back to a time of real tradition and the things that Americans believe in. And then when they hug to the left and they're big fans of communism, and they're big fans. Like you look at you look at Mam Dani up in New York City, you got this foreign-born Muslim communist. The left just adores Mamdani so much so that people in many other cities are saying, We need a Mam Dani. We need a Muslim communist running our city too, as a mayor. And so they're playing this game with everyone where they're they're actively tearing down American ideology on both sides of the political aisle, mind you. If they got their way, both sides of the political aisle would be, as it turns out, very dismayed with what they do. And they're playing this game with us, where that's that's what they do. And so on that lawsuit, the reason I bring all that up is to say that if we're gonna win this, it is going to inevitably require that we are pushing back on all of that. It can just be that we're pushing back on one section at one level. It has to be every level, pushing back consistently. Uh, I know it was mentioned, well, we can't legislate it. You're right, but we should be having every level, doing everything they can to stand in the way of this. That means legislation. It also means grassroots involvement. And you can't, I don't think you're gonna win if you have one or the other. I think you need all of the above. And so you need a consistent push from people who are on the Christian right, from people who have an actual understanding of American history, American tradition, American exceptionalism, and general American ideology and what that actually means if we're going to stand up to Islam. Because Islam is very good at playing a long game. I was listening uh to a pastor, it was years and years ago, and he was talking about Islam. And one of the things that has stuck with me about Islam is he said, you know, one of the things about the Muslim world is they have kept to old beliefs. And not just in the sense that they believe things that you know people believed a long time ago, but they believe in the same sort of timing that people used to believe in. With the advent of social media and the internet and just the way that America has worked as progress has come, a lot of America sees the world through the lens of what's happening today and what's happening tomorrow and what's the plan for next week. And at most people start thinking, okay, what's my what's my five-year plan? What's my 10-year plan? And this pastor was talking and he said, you know, people used to see the world. If you look at the grand cathedrals in Europe, you look at how Christians used to operate, the people that were putting down the foundational stonework for cathedrals, they knew they were going to die before that cathedral was anywhere near completed. They knew it would be their grandchildren or their great-grandchildren who were completing that construction. And they built it anyway. Because we used to have a fundamental understanding that our lives are but the blink of an eye. And a lot of what we do will not see fruition for many years after we're gone. But we have to set the foundation if we want any shot at it. And we've kind of lost a lot of that in recent years. We've kind of lost a lot of our position uh that things take time. And this pastor is pointing out that Muslims did not lose that. Muslims have held to that, and they're playing this game where they know they may not see fruition, their kids may not. They've been playing the game for hundreds of years to start this sort of influence to say, okay, so we were not able to conquer them through the sword. So I guess we need to try something else. And they're willing to wait it out and continue playing that while we're focused on what policy passes this next legislative session. Not that it's bad to focus on the present, but that if you don't have goals for where you want this country to go long after you're gone, what foundational stones are you even going to place? And so it requires that we consistently are pushing the needle further to the right, further back towards traditional Christianity in this country and Christian ethics, if we want any shot at that. And so the reason I say all of that is to say that I want to point out some of these races real quick, with a lot of the election season, you know, over, and of course you've got the general election coming up, and you've got some major runoff elections. One thing that I want to highlight is that we actually did see a pretty significant rightward shift in many of these elections. And I just want to highlight those for a moment. Uh you have Steve Toth, big, big win by the way, against Dan Crenshaw to earn that Republican nomination in C D2, uh, who I think we all are well aware uh that that I think Toath is the first challenger to defeat an incumbent over ideological reasons, maybe ever. And that's a big deal. Because a lot of the times that you'll see, I think the last time we had uh someone beat an incumbent in general, I think was John Ratcliffe back in 2014. But that was uh the large argument for that win was that John Ratcliffe was significantly younger than Ralph Hall, and Ralph Hall Ralph Hall was just getting too old to serve. And so I think it's the only time in Texas elections that you've had someone beat an incumbent over ideological reasons. That was the main that was the main vote cast for Steve Toth over Dan Crenshaw. You also have Brandon Herrera, who because you have Tony Gonzalez who announced that he was dropping out of the race, well now you have Brandon Herrera as the the Republican nominee for CD 23. And so again, Brandon Herrera is is the essentially the the far conservative compared to Tony Gonzalez, right? Again, a significant rightward shift in that district from who Tony was as a politician. You also have Alexander Mueller and Briscoe Kane, both are solid conservative leaders in their respective areas. Um you also have Tom Cell and Abraham Enriquez in CD19. You also have outside San Antonio, you have uh John Lugin, and and and so again, you have a lot of these races where you see a lot of people who are significantly further to the right than the people they were running against. And so even though Republican turnout might not have been great in the primary cycle, the Republicans who did turnout, many of them were grassroots Christian conservatives. And so our nominees, many of them are significantly more conservatives. I mean, we could talk about the Ken Paxton, John Cornyn vote. Ken Paxton is undeniably the further right candidate in that election. And that election was close even with Wesley Hunt being in the election. A lot of Wesley's votes, depending of course on how all this goes, I know that there's been talks of Ken Paxton dropping out or John Cornyn dropping out due to Trump's endorsement and all this sort of stuff. If it does end up going to a runoff and neither of them drops out by May 26th, uh again, that could signal another rightward shift, another incumbent who's beat by a challenger. I think even just having Brandon Herrera and Steve Toath is the first time in Texas history that two incumbents have been replaced in one election cycle. If you make it three, that's more than historic to have that many incumbents that are taken down by conservatives. It's not just that you have incumbents, it's that you have more moderate incumbents being taken down by conservatives, by people who are further to the right. And so we're seeing a massive shift in Texas politics right now. That's got to continue, by the way. It has to expand, it has to extend to the governor's office, the lieutenant governor's office. Uh far more elections need to go that way. And the reason that I pointed out the years is that it's gonna take time, right? We're not gonna we're not gonna get rid of anybody, especially people that have, say, hundred million dollar war chests in in one election cycle. It's just not gonna happen that we're able to do that in a short period of time. That's going to take a very long time with a lot of gusto behind us to get there. But I do believe that we can. I do actually believe that. That that's not just hyperbole, that's not just me speaking from a place of optimism. It is my genuine belief that we have grand opportunities, especially here in the state of Texas, to change things before they've before we fall. I do believe that. I know there's a lot of people who are on this train of, well, it's too late, we've already lost, there's nothing we can do between the left and Islam and foreign influence and China and all this stuff. You know, we're we're controlled, it's over, we've already lost. I don't actually believe that at all. I think our country is still entirely salvageable. I I still think America, and we talked yesterday, the Muslims believe this too. America is still a standing place for Christianity and for freedom. One of the last pillars of that in Western civilization, by the way. And so it's going to require that we put everything into this, and it's going to require that many of us are willing to acknowledge that this is going to be the rest of our lives in this fight, maybe to see not the ultimate win. It might take far longer than our lifetimes to get there. And that's okay. And we have to be content with that and be laying those foundation building blocks so that the cathedral can one day be built. That's that's what we have to acknowledge and we have to be okay with if we're gonna have any shot at fixing all of this. I just wanted to highlight that in a lot of those elections, we we did see a lot of districts that moved further to the right from where they were before. And if that if that trend continues next election, and the one after that, and the one after that, before you know it, we actually will have a solid conservative majority here in the state of Texas, and we'll actually get to start doing things that conservatives should have been doing a long time. Um yesterday it was mentioned that Greg Abbott's number one donor is a Pakistani Muslim. And so again, you you know we've got this influence on a lot of our moderates who are willing to play this political game where they align themselves with people who want the ultimate destruction of America and of the West in general. That means we're gonna have to have conservatives that don't take that money and say, no, we we don't want to be bought and paid for by Muslims. No, we don't want to align ourselves with Islam. Now, we're not gonna dress up for Ramadan and post a picture on social media of us wearing garb from other countries. We're Americans here. And we're gonna stand up for that, and we're gonna believe in the truth of Christianity, and we're gonna be willing to fight and die for it. That's what it's going to require. With that being said, we get back from the break. We're gonna jump over and talk about uh this Biden-era energy rule. It imposed green energy requirements for new housing constructions, which of course, of course, as it always does, threatens the availability of affordable housing. The left wants to complain over and over about affordable housing, but one of the main barriers to that has been regulation in general. From taxation to policies, have all infringed on the ability to make affordable housing. And so that might change now because the court has now struck down this Biden-era energy requirement for new affordable housing. We'll talk about the details of that court ruling when we get back from the break. As always, if you would like to text in, be a part of the show, we'd love to hear from our listeners. You can do that at 713-779-5978. That's 713-779-KYST. I'm your host, Michael Wilson. You're listening to the Lone Star Conservative. Be right back with that court ruling after this short break. Stick around. Talk soon.

SPEAKER_01 20:07

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Texas Primary Results And Rightward Momentum

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Donor Influence And Cultural Lines In Politics

Tease: Biden-Era Housing Energy Rule

SPEAKER_16 24:19

So a federal court has now struck down a Biden-era rule that imposed these green energy policies, these green energy regulations and requirements for those who were building new, new housing constructions. Back last year, Texas, along with 14 other states and the National Association of Home Builders, sued the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Agriculture over a 2024 Biden rule that required new homes being built with certain federal housing financing to comply with significantly stricter energy efficiency building codes. The case, which was co-led with Utah, was argued by Attorney General Ken Paxton in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas over in Tyler. He said the corrupt Biden administration's radical policies were reducing the availability of affordable homes and making it harder for Americans to achieve the dream of homeownership. This ruling is a major victory for home buyers, builders, and families and helps protect access to affordable housing. Some of the stricter energy efficiency building codes required by the binaro rule included the installation of stronger insulation, higher efficiency windows, and upgraded HVAC systems. All of that would have increased construction costs for housing financed by FHA insured mortgages, according to USDA rural housing loans, as well as other venues that require an every any level of federal assistance. And so plaintiffs, of course, argued that the new rules violate the Affordable Housing Act as the cost of implementation would severely limit affordable low income housing. The housing that would have been low income, the whole point of it is that you if you're if you're not making a lot of money, you can still afford to build a home and buy a home. Well, if the federal government, who's helping make sure that happens, comes in and puts super strict regulations on the building requirements, then all of a sudden you were getting that loan for the purpose of it being more affordable, and now it's no longer more affordable. It completely destroys the whole entire point of the existence of the program. If you wanna, if you want to avoid the program, by all means, say the federal government can't assist. We're not gonna do that with the loans. We're not gonna play that game. The federal government's business isn't this, that, or the other. But if you're gonna come in and put those sorts of requirements on it, then you're you're doing that anyway. You're just doing it far, far more evilly. Right? You're just you're just doing it in such a way that you're doing what the government does, which is the government makes more money, people can't afford things, and where does that responsibility lie? Of course, with the federal government. And so it was enacted by Congress back in 1990. You had this Cranston Gonzalez Affordable Housing Act, which was passed to reaffirm the long-established national commitment to decent, safe, and sanitary housing for every American by increasing the nation's supply of decent housing that is affordable and providing a reliable, ready, readily available supply of mortgage finance at the lowest possible interest rates. The Act, of course, required the Housing and Armit and Development Secretary to create energy efficiency standards for new housing constructions. Now, although this was to be done after the Act's passage, the agency did not create those standards within that original time frame, leading Congress to amend the Act several times to push back the deadline for the agency to determine what energy efficiency even looked like. Not only did the court find that the rule would reduce the availability of affordable housing due to increased construction costs, obviously, but it also found that the rule exceeded both agencies' statutory authority, saying, Yeah, we understand that you are supposed to have some level of these houses need to be built well, but you far overstepped that when you put these guidelines into place. And so the court agreed that with Texas that the act allows only a single update to the codes, which occurred after Congress acted in 2006. HUD and USDA both agreed in 2015 to adopt the 2006 standards laid out by Congress. The court's opinion says if Congress had wanted the agencies to adopt code updates on an outgoing on an ongoing basis, they would have no reason to reference a particular addition in the statute. In other words, Congress did their job. Right? In 2006, they said, okay, it's been 16 years since we originally passed the act. Obviously, it's been too long. We we waited a long time to put in uh what we think needs to be done, what those you know efficiency routes look like in building homes. It's been a long time, and now we're in a position where we've done it. And nearly 20 years later, after housing and urban development already accepted the 2006 standard laid out by Congress, they said, well, what if we had more rules, more requirements, more strict guidelines to produce green energy homes? And on top of that, what if we require those guidelines to be followed if you want access to federal loans? And so Texas and again, 14 other states all said, that doesn't make any sense. You're going above and beyond what you were called to do. Congress already laid this out, you guys already agreed to it, and now you're overstepping your boundaries. And on top of that, you're destroying the entire point of your entire of your program, right? Your your housing and urban development, the goal is to produce affordable housing. You're destroying your own goal through your policies. Your radical leftist policies dedicated to green energy are destroying the availability of people being able to afford a home, especially young people who are trying to apply for loans like the FHA. And so I am I am quite pleasantly surprised by the court's ruling on this. I I think it's excellent that you have a case where the court is saying, yeah, you know what? What the Biden administration did through housing and every development and the USDA was not only, not only uh did it decrease the availability, which is the point of the program, but it actually exceeded their authority. They're not actually allowed to even do that in the first place. You you don't have the that's that's a congressional issue. And Congress already did it. You're not allowed on an ongoing basis, whenever you feel like it, to say, you know what, we need new policies. Well then petition Congress to write a law about it. But you don't just get to come in in the executive branch and just say, you know what, we're just gonna make it where it's impossible. Not in your authority to do. I think it's good to continue setting these standards, by the way, because for many years you've had people in positions that never should have had the amount of power they have who've gone in and used their power to do bad things, power that they don't actually have. And for many years, because of judicial activism in the courts, that's just been allowed to continue. That that governments are getting away at every level with things that exceed their authority, things they're not actually supposed to be allowed to do in the first place. And it's resulted in a conundrum where people's access to a lot of things has been completely hampered, has has been completely destroyed. And that's been going on for more than just the past two years, been going on for decades. And the courts have a lot of authority in the way they interpret things, the things that they allow to stand. And that's got to start being used because the other branches are playing by different rules. They they are willing to exceed their authority, or at least try to. And when the courts just turn the other way, just look the other way and say, ah, whatever, I guess it is what it is. Well, that's where they're supposed to come in and say, No, you don't actually get to do that. That's actually not within your statutory authority to do. That's where the courts actually have the amount of power that they have is to make sure that the agencies are staying within their own guidelines. Now, with that being said, when we get back from the break, we're gonna jump over and talk about a criminal case here. You have this man over in Clear Lake uh who is now being accused this is crazy, of holding his wife, who apparently had a disability, captive in their bedroom for five years, leaving her with like one egg as a meal per day. And they say she eventually was able to call 911 after her husband mistakenly left a phone within her reach. But this is another one of those cases where we should have strict scrutiny. But if if the allegations of this case hold true, I think everyone would understand that this is certainly a case of abuse, at best, abuse. So talk about it when we get back. Text in 713-779-5978. That's 713-779-KYST. You're listening to the Lone Star Conservative. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and we'll talk about that crime or potential crime after the break.

SPEAKER_09 32:35

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SPEAKER_16 32:50

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SPEAKER_12 35:51

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Court Strikes Down HUD/USDA Energy Codes

SPEAKER_15 35:57

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SPEAKER_07 36:22

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SPEAKER_16 37:02

So a man in Clear Lake is now facing serious charges after investigators say he held his disabled wife captive inside their home for years, severely restricting her access to food and communication. According to court documents, James Earl Johnson, who is 46, was arrested a few days ago and charged in connection with the alleged abuse of his wife, Ruby, in the couple's Clear Lake home. Authorities say Ruby, who is disabled, had been confined to a bedroom for approximately five years inside the couple's home. She was locked inside the room without access to a phone and had extremely limited contact with the outside world, according to allegations in court documents. Court records also state that Johnson would leave his wife a single egg to eat during the day, maybe returning home on certain days to give her dinner. The alleged captivity came to light after Ruby Johnson was able to dial 911 when her husband accidentally left a phone on the nightstand before leaving the house. Authorities responded to the home and began investigating the situation, ultimately leading to Johnson's arrest. Now, police have not released additional details about her condition, whether she required medical treatment after being rescued. We don't have any of the details but i it's pretty wild. Apparently Johnson made bail. One of the conditions of the bomb that he got was that he was not to come within 200 feet from the couple's home. He's facing two felony charges, by the way, abandoning or endangering a disabled individual and causing injury to a disabled individual. And is slated to appear again in Harris County Court on March 18th, which, by the way, is one week from today. So next Wednesday, he'll be back in court. Um that won't be a bond hearing. I imagine that'll either be start of the trial or to see if the trial is going to proceed, hear opening arguments, all that sort of stuff is gonna come in the future. But I wanted to bring this case up to again highlight the way that our culture has become, I don't want to say desensitized, though we have, by the way, it's a separate conversation, but has become inundated with living our lives in a way that is not at all on par with what we're called to live as Christians and by extension as Americans. One of the fruits that we're supposed to have as Americans is that we're kind, patient, understanding. And when you hear stories like this, and it's one thing when you hear, you know, elderly individuals are being targeted or disabled people are being targeted, you know, when you hear about potential voter fraud or theft, that's already crazy in and of itself. And we all understand that. We all we all can hear those stories and know, okay, you're you're targeting vulnerable populations. But there's a special sort of crime that's committed when you are taking advantage of people who your job is to protect and take care of them. And that comes because we have not highlighted in our modern culture who you are called to take care of, right? And and this, by the way, they did studies on the way that the left versus the right views the world and views you know the order of love, views the the people that you're called primarily to take care of. And the left frequently will say, our goal is to take care of everyone, right? They have this sort of communist ideology inherent in their worldview where they look out at people that they don't know and they say, No, it's my obligation to take care of those people. My obligation is to take care of people in far-off countries and donate to these causes while, by the way, while their family is suffering, while they can't afford to put food on the table. And that's not some sort of righteous piety. That's actually you just ignoring your number one goal because you've been indoctrinated to believe that helping other people is more important than helping your people. And I'm not saying that it's ever bad to donate to charities, or that it's it's bad to help people in other countries, or that it's bad to help people that you've never met. Not my claim whatsoever. I'm sure that that could certainly be quoted out of context to to appear to be my opinion, but it isn't. My opinion is that your first obligation that must be met before anything else is even on the table, is that your family is adequately provided for and protected. And the the right actually understands this. When you look at stuff the stu again, the the polling data and the studies on the right versus the left, and the left wants to pretend like this makes us evil. The right consistently said, no, my number one goal is to protect my family and then my neighborhood and my community, and then my state, and then my country. Right? In that order, we build up to those things, right? My number one obligation starts at the dinner table and then goes out to our local school district, and then goes out to our county government, and then goes out to our state government, and then goes out to our federal government, and if all of those things are being dealt with in accordance, then we can talk about dealing with other countries and their issues, right? Eventually we can have that conversation. The left views it completely, completely inverse of that. They often say people that I've never met, that I do not know, that have no relation to me, and I have no impact on, those are my first goal. That's why you'll consistently see that they're, you know, you'll have you'll have people who are fighting for the illegal immigrants who are residing, again, illegally in this country. And that seems to be their big goal to the point where they're willing to fight, physically fight law enforcement and get themselves shot because they're defending these illegal immigrants. And then you this is the same argument for a lot of people that are, say, older and and are fighting for abortion. Well, I I I don't need to get an abortion. Nobody I knows needs an abortion, but but I believe that this is a very important right for all those women out there that I don't know, I don't know their situation whatsoever, and I don't know why they're actually getting abortions, and I've not actually looked at the data or debated it, uh, but I believe that. As opposed to making sure that your family is cared for and and loved and provided for. And that sort of mental gymnastics that are required to get to that point are what allow cases like this to transpire. Where this guy was probably saying, Well, I I do all these good things, I take care of all these other people. Look, my wife struggles with this. I wasn't trying to be evil, I just didn't care that much, or or I just thought this might be what's best, because they're completely twisted. Their version of reality has been completely perverted by a culture that's that's taken away responsibility, by a culture that's taken away self-government, and by a culture that's taken away what should have been the general setup of every single home with a nuclear-loving family. I don't know, I I guess I should reword that because I'm saying a family that loves nuclear stuff. I'm saying with a nuclear family with love in the home. That should be the general design. And unfortunately, it's become the opposite of that because of the left's influence on the culture. It's gotten to a point where, you know, a man paying all the bills will uh and then the woman staying at home, his wife staying at home and nurturing the children and you know, cooking the food and cleaning the house, well, that's that's patriarchal evil. Well, that's tyranny. Well, that's That's toxic masculinity, as opposed to, no, that's actually just the norm, as it has been for most of world history. That's actually just the way that God designed us to be. That's actually just normal and good and profitable. And when you when you inverse that, when you take that away, it's going to lead to lots of cases where you have this sort of abuse. Interestingly enough, that's what creates this sort of tyranny when men are not raised with you are the obligatory provider and protector of these people. They should be your number one concern that they are looked after, not an afterthought, not somebody that you can just throw around, somebody that you're called to have a responsibility for. And when the culture gets that wrong, it results in cases like this. Even if the left wouldn't look at this case and say it's good, this is where it leads. Now, with that being said, when we get back from the break to wrap up the first hour of the show, we're going to jump over to Sugarland, where you have a postal worker who's now been accused of stealing mail, who, by the way, they're saying may have been targeting specifically envelopes with checks inside. This USPS employee who was charged with theft and pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon, according to records, had specific targets on the mail that was being stolen. We'll talk more about the details of that case and why charging these sorts of people and getting them out of here is so crucially important. When we get back from the break to wrap up the first hour of the show, do you like to text in? The number is 713-779-5978. That is 713-779-KYST. I'm your host, Michael Wilson. You're listening to the Lone Star Conservative. Don't go anywhere, because right after this break, we're going to cover the rest of that story to wrap up the first hour. Talk to you soon.

SPEAKER_01 45:41

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Clear Lake Abuse Case And Cultural Responsibility

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SPEAKER_08 49:00

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SPEAKER_09 49:08

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SPEAKER_16 49:41

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and you're listening to the Lone Star Conservative brought to you by Textellant AC Service. So a United States postal worker, Postal Service employee in Sugarland is now behind bars, accused of stealing mail. A source confirmed that law enforcement is now looking into whether he specifically targeted envelopes containing checks. The Sugarland Police Department confirmed officers arrested 32-year-old Jalen Mootin after a couple uh just a couple of blocks from the post office, where a law enforcement source says that he worked. This happened just the day before yesterday. The source said that Mootin was stopped as he was leaving work and had hundreds of pieces of stolen mail inside his personal vehicle. Law enforcement is now investigating whether he specifically sought out envelopes that appeared to contain checks. One of the people investigators commented about the arrest uh yesterday is Eric Hansen, who may have been a victim in the alleged check theft scheme after he used the Sugarland Post Office in October. Hansen said he dropped two checks in the mail to pay bills and days later logged into his bank account. Two days later, I have my bank account empty. One was sixty-seven dollars, the other was$130. I'm$7,000 in the hole. He shared images of the checks, which he said showed pay e names altered and the amounts drastically increased by the time they hit his account. Hanson reported what happened to Sugarland Police and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. He said he also contacted his congressman. Five months later, he got a call from investigators telling him a postal employee had been arrested in connection with his case. He said, You feel so stupid when you're victimized like that. Like I should have known better. And then you get angry. Here you have a government employee who stole it. Hanson and his bank eventually reimbursed the stolen money, but the experience took his trust in the mail system. He said it makes you feel like we can't trust the post offices. That's pretty bad. I don't write any checks, and I certainly would not mail them. I learned my lesson. So as of yesterday night, Hansen was uh Mooton was in the Fort Bend County jail and is expected to appear before a magistrate today when his bond is expected to be set. Harris County Records show that he previously pleaded guilty to aggregate robbery with a deadly weapon nearly a decade ago when he was twenty-three years old. Uh, the agency did provide this statement, quote, we can confirm this individual is employed at the Postal Service and is currently in a non-duty status. Due to privacy issues, the Postal Service does not publicly discuss personnel matters. But again, this is the sort of case where the punishment for a crime like this one, not for the former, you know, 10-year-ago gun charge or whatever aggravated robbery, but the punishment needs to be full plus some restitution. Right, I know this guy was reimbursed by his bank. Well, this individual who did the theft needs to pay all of that back to the bank and to this guy for the for the for the victimization that he imposed. And we need to make it clear, yeah, any taxpayer-funded position like postal service, you're not working in ever again. Goodbye. Have fun finding a job with that record. It needs to be on your record. You need to lose your job, not be allowed to be employed by an agency in the government, and pay full restitution. That's that's a good outcome. With that being said, at the top of the next hour, we're gonna have Adam Kahn coming on to talk all about Texas AM, UVH, lots of stuff going on in our in our higher education institutions. When we get back, stick around, you're listening to the Lone Star Conservative. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and we'll be right back with Texas Scorecard after the break.

SPEAKER_03 52:49

From deep in the heart of Texas, it's Houston's God-loving patriot, the voice of reason. This is the Lone Star Conservative, Michael Wilson.

SPEAKER_21 53:01

I'm offended. Let's all defend it.

SPEAKER_16 53:16

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and you're listening to the Lone Star Conservative brought to you by Textellant AC service. We have Adam Khan coming on from Texas Scorecard. For a couple of these higher institution stories, I know that as conservatives, many of us here on this show are consistently flabbergasted because a lot of us almost expect, you know, gender ideology and all the radical stuff to come out of universities we look at and we say, oh, those are those are leftist universities, right? They've been overtaken. And we we want to take them back one day, but we kind of expect that from places like not to name names, but UT Austin. It's kind of an expectation. But then you look over at Texas AM, and all of a sudden, when you see some of the same stuff happening, you're sort of left in a state of shock where it's unimaginable that this could be happening. And we're gonna have Adam on to talk a little bit about that. Welcome to the show, Adam.

SPEAKER_10 54:06

Hey, thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_16 54:07

Of course, of course. And I want to kick it off talking a little bit about this uh this professor at Tech AM University. I believe he's a philosophy professor.

SPEAKER_10 54:16

Yeah, uh, real quick before we get into this work, I just meant you mentioned UT Austin in um in your intro. I just want to real quick say, if anything, they're a little bit further along in the process of rooting some of this stuff out than uh some of the other schools.

SPEAKER_16 54:34

Which is incredibly surprising, by the way. I guess maybe it was far more obvious so they were targeted. It's like everybody knew what was going on. Um, but but yeah, it's it's so surprising to people to hear of what I mean. I know that it's good that it's being caught, and it's good that we're hearing about it, but it also creates a level of of just general shock that this was happening in the first place, the text saying it.

USPS Mail Theft, Restitution, And Trust

SPEAKER_10 54:56

Yeah, no, uh, fully agree, fully agree. So the backstory on this, um for those of y'all who may have been paying attention back in early January, Martin Peterson, who is a philosophy professor at Texas and um related to gender I think gender issues, gender ideology or religion for the twenty twenty-five years a really pure reading from Plato for the first time ever to his course reading, which is a whole unit as part of it uh as part of it generally part of a course review. He then came out and claimed that Texas AM was censoring Plato when they weren't doing any such thing. They were like merely putting some basic intellectual guardrails on no, Plato never said what you're trying to claim that he said.

SPEAKER_16 56:48

Right. I this this kind of reminds me of James Tallerico's take on Christian doctrine. How the pastor came out and they look at James Talarico, and you're like, so actually, like that's not cool to say that about Mary and the angel. It's actually not a justification for abortion because they're censoring the Bible. Uh no.

SPEAKER_10 57:08

Yeah, no, that I I haven't thought about it in that sense until you brought it up. But that's actually like a very good analogy for how wrong um what Martin Peterson was trying to say about Plato like actually is.

SPEAKER_16 57:26

Yeah, and it's it's wild because I have to imagine, like in high school for philosophy, we of course, if you're gonna take a philosophy course, you're probably gonna wind up talking significantly about Plato. And I I not that I was in a necessarily conservative place or that I was, you know, inherently taking a conservative philosophy course if there's any such thing, but I don't remember any discussion, and we had extensive ones on Plato's beliefs regarding gender ideology. And so I don't even know where this came from or what sort of obscurity he had to go to, and then he had to exegete it out and say, well, you know, I I just think that maybe it could I'm sure that this is such a fringe belief uh that I I just can't fathom. And then to imagine that it happened at AM.

SPEAKER_10 58:14

Yeah. Um so the reading was called Plato's Symposium on Aristophanes' myth of split human. And um basically, like this is this is too complicated and obscure stuff. Um, the simplest way to explain this in like one to two sentences would be that he's basically exploring various forms of love, including sort of male love, female love, and like androgynous love. Which is or is not anything perhaps that's valuable worth discussing, but it just has nothing to do with modern gender ideology as we've come to like understand it over the past 10 to 15 years. Um Scott Jenner, who is a kind of well-known scholar who uh studies higher education issues, he told us back when this controversy came first came out that Peterson's interpretation of Plato was ridiculous.

SPEAKER_16 59:32

Which I think is putting it mildly, to say the least.

SPEAKER_10 59:35

Um yeah, um again, I'm not like I if I'm gonna be completely just in in all candidness, um when I was in college and I had to study Plato, like my eye that was eyes glazing over territory for me. So I I'm really not like super expert on this, but that's um Gen Ed course, you just wanted to get through. Yeah, I kind of had to do it for my major, uh, but I I'm definitely not the person you should look to to like explain platonic philosophy.

SPEAKER_16 1:00:11

And yet somehow I think you might do a better job than this professor of philosophy.

SPEAKER_10 1:00:17

Um yeah, I mean you can't do much worse.

SPEAKER_16 1:00:21

And it's it's again, I just want to highlight to everyone that this is the sort of stuff that is going on, even when it's not reported, this is going on in our public institutions. This is occurring all the time. I I know that there have been so many stories that have come out of UT, AM, U of H, and so on and so on and so forth. But this is going on right under everyone's noses because the left largely has capped had captured at least higher institutions of learning, and they will find ways to impose, superimpose these themes on writings that never related to it in an agenda to convince younger populations who are or should be able to trust their professors and say, oh, this professor probably knows what he's talking about. He's a professor of philosophy, he knows Plato. And they use this sort of stuff as a justification to impose their own rel what is really a religious ideology on their students. And so and the craziest part to me of this is just this backwards claim that when all of this comes to light, and Anim says, yeah, that's actually not true. Let's cut that out of the course because that's insane. He goes, Oh, you're censoring one of the great ph philosophers of our time, uh one of the great philosophers of the olden days. You're censoring Plato. It's just unfathomable that this is going on in our institutions.

SPEAKER_10 1:01:33

Yeah. Um and it's not just that, it's that the censorship claim was instantly picked up by a whole bunch of left-wing advocacy and media organizations, but I do repeat myself.

SPEAKER_16 1:01:46

Yeah. Immediately they're like, ah, see, they are censoring the right one. Book bans, again, you're banning Play-Doh. It's it's just it's just also tired. But that's not all that's going on at Text Statement. I actually want to hop over because you have this general education review committee. Can we talk a little bit about what that committee is and what they're doing?

Segment Tease And Guest Preview

SPEAKER_10 1:02:04

Yeah, um, and actually your comment about sort of uh how faculty is uh kind of imposing their view on uh students is actually a good segue into this because it's worth pointing out in terms of how colleges and universities are generally run, is they generally tend to be run by like a series of committees uh covering all sorts of different things, and it typically tends to be the two to three, the craziest two to three percent of the faculty of faculty members who tend to serve on these committees. Um, so it's not even that all faculty members are imposing these views on students, it really is like even within the generally left leading cohort that is college faculty, even there it's like two to three percent of the like really craziest people.

SPEAKER_16 1:03:04

Right, it's a very loud minority.

SPEAKER_10 1:03:06

Yeah, but anyway, moving on, a great example of this is this general education review committee at Texas AM. So, what this is, is that um a little under a year ago during the 2025 legislative session, lawmakers have a bill uh Senate Bill 37 months a law. Uh with the bill of the time, 10 bill thirty-seven. And overall aspect of university governance. It's called general education requirements at some universities, at some schools, they call them the core curriculum. Basically, it's a set of courses that any student has to take, regardless of majors, regardless of how they specialize for like a career field later in their education. These are the foundational things that we say. If you're a college, you know, if you're a college graduate, these are the basic things we want you to know. Um over the past sort of generation or so, a lot of these core requirements have been dramatically expanded. So that you're basically creating mandate for students who take what courses they wouldn't otherwise want to take.

Texas A&M Plato Controversy Explained

SPEAKER_16 1:04:53

Wait, you mean that the core curriculum isn't literally just a core? It's not just that you know enough math, reading, and writing to make sure that you can graduate. Nice, nice, not that that's a surprise.

SPEAKER_10 1:05:22

Yeah, which includes now when I say a lot of stuff, that includes you know, the low gender stuff, rate, stuff, queer theory, that's one half element of this that's sort of the most politically salient, but it's not the only one. Anyway, as part of Senate Bill thirty seven, the legislature has each university system with reviewing the core curriculum requirements. And so the various university systems are at various and the various campuses are at various points in all that. I think it was about a few weeks ago at this point. Who was actually going to be serving on this committee in um on their campus and just had a number of people who had really sort of well let's just say left leaning background. So you have a committee tasked with actually no more than left, like like far left, like super low backgrounds.

SPEAKER_16 1:06:33

Like radical backgrounds. People, it's crazy because the whole point of this, arguably, was to make sure that the core curriculum was actually good for students. And then the people you put on the committee to review the curriculum are people who don't care if the curriculum is good for students but care about imposing their thoughts and ideologies. Yeah. So I want to go over a few of those people because I kind of want to know more about what that looks like in terms of practical application. Sure. Um and I want to kick it off talking a little bit about this first person, Matthew McKinney. Uh, who is Matthew McKinney and what's some of the background in say one of these people?

SPEAKER_10 1:07:07

Uh Matthew McKinney is an English professor at Texas AM. Um, he's written a number of things with critical race theory, um posiing justice diversity, inclusion, and social justice and the writing class. He's given a number of presentations that kind of work along similar themes, uh, the most notable I'd say is that in 2016 he gave a presentation where he called social conservative counter-revolutionary.

SPEAKER_16 1:07:56

Right, so specifically targeting uh arguably can considerably targeting the people who like to attend Texas AM.

SPEAKER_10 1:08:05

Yeah, for sure, for sure, for sure. And just really kind of doing it in a uh particularly vicious way. And I want to highlight for our listeners you call some like calling someone a counter-revolutionary has implications within certain circles that are not good.

SPEAKER_16 1:08:29

Of course. And I want to highlight for our listeners, this is not the only one. You've got a variety of names from Andrew Klein uh to Marian Idy to Elizabeth Powanka to Jennifer Mauricia. There are so many names on this committee who have, and correct me if I'm wrong on it, but have, again, extensive histories with wokeism and leftism running their worldview.

SPEAKER_10 1:08:52

Yeah. I mean, uh E Marian, whatever her um the woman whose first name is Mary, and I can't actually pronounce her last name. I think it's E A or E, but I'm not really sure. Um as a women's gender studies professor, which is also interesting because she has to say abolished that department uh a few maybe a month and a half ago at this point. Um so that'll be interesting to see where that goes. And she lists feminist theory as one of her research interests.

SPEAKER_16 1:09:37

Right. So these again are not just your general run-of-the-mill, you know, people who vote for Democrats. These are people who are extensively connected to left-wing ideology. And like it's rooted down to what they want to teach, what they believe in, what they want to research and learn more about. It's in the very roots of their entire belief system. And we put them on the committee to review our core curriculum to make sure that there isn't this sort of crazy stuff in it.

SPEAKER_14 1:10:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_16 1:10:06

And so uh it just makes it difficult to trust what's coming out of the universities so often because you know, you pass a bill where the goal is to weed out craziness, and the people you put in to do that are the crazy people creating the craziness. I I mean it's just such a such a loophole to that rule.

SPEAKER_10 1:10:24

Yeah, no, uh, I fully agree. And actually, just because you mentioned um UC Austin at the beginning of this segment, it's worth pointing out that while they do have one person with this sort of a background on their equivalent committee. Um they also put a number of their sort of best known conservative professors on it as well.

SPEAKER_16 1:10:52

Which which again is such a surprise to come out of UT as opposed to Tech CNM. But one thing I want to do as we wrap up here, Adam, is that I believe tomorrow the U of H are ha U of H is doing their meeting to kind of go over a lot of their core curriculum review. What is what do we have any idea of what that's supposed to look like? An agenda, what the goal is there?

SPEAKER_10 1:11:13

So unfortunately, the University of Houston has yet to post a detailed agenda to their website. So there's only so much we can sort of answer. They have posted the official paperwork for tomorrow's meeting that they need to post with the Secretary of State. So uh they are in compliance with their requirements, but they have actually posted a detailed agenda after seven twenty-five AM on Wednesday. Um review is the function of the board review. We don't really know too much of what we're going to say. Um the best that I can um the best thing I can get is that on Monday the distribution had an article where they were basically throwing a gigantic hyper tantrum out of whatever the board intends to do this week. Um most likely means that they had a source in the NP that didn't like it. Um they're gonna have something related to having faculty essentially pledge that they will teach rather than indoctrinate. But other than that sort of vague wording, I I don't really know a ton of detail about what U of H intends to either report back or announce tomorrow.

Core Curriculum Committees And Ideology

SPEAKER_16 1:13:06

Right. Though I will say that is such a crazy thing for people to be up in arms about. Yeah, you know, I uh sign a pledge saying you're just gonna do the job we hired you to do. I know that that's crazy, and I'm sure it's an inconvenience that you just do your dang job. But we're just asking that you just teach the curriculum, you just teach the lessons and stop trying to impose your radical ideology on students. Just teach the the school, just teach what you're you're paid to teach. Just sign on it.

SPEAKER_10 1:13:31

Yeah, I mean, if anything, like the the real complaint with something like this is that it would be kind of toothless and that you could, you know, people could just sign it without like sincerely meaning it.

SPEAKER_16 1:13:42

Right, right. And so I guess we'll have to see tomorrow what comes out of it.

SPEAKER_10 1:13:46

I think have you ever seen the movie Gazed and Confused? I have not. Okay. Well, anyways, in that movie, um the coaches have the football players all sign a pledge to basically engage in clean living over summer break. And the players all sign the thing having absolutely zero intent of complying with it. But then the star quarterback um refuses to sign it and makes a gigantic issue out of this, uh, even though it's kind of unenforceable and nobody really took it seriously. And like that's the equivalent to what these U of H faculty are doing.

SPEAKER_16 1:14:29

Of course, making a big stink about nothing because uh yeah, it is it's just so typical of higher education these days. With that being said, Adam, I want to thank you so much for coming on. Everybody, you can visit. If you want to see all this reporting, I'm sure when everything happens, it'll be reported as well to see what's going on at AM, what's going on at UT, what's going on at U of H. You can go to TexasScorecard.com to keep up to date with all that news, all those daily updates coming from around the state. Adam, I want to thank you for coming on and giving us your time this morning. And and on top of that, for doing the research into these stories and keeping higher education accountable.

SPEAKER_10 1:15:01

Yeah, for sure. Glad to do it.

SPEAKER_16 1:15:03

With that being said, ladies and gentlemen, when we get back from the break, we're gonna jump over. We're gonna talk about this guy uh who was was originally charged with with murder in in the case of this 61-year-old Austin woman who was visiting Houston, by the way, not even a Houston resident, visiting Houston uh to support a friend who was undergoing cancer treatment. Well, now that's been been, you know, he's now facing federal charges in that case. And so we'll talk more about the details of this guy, of his criminal history, of yet again why the theme holds true, that maybe if we just dealt with criminals correctly in the first place, we would we would hamper down on a lot of these cases. We'll talk more about the details of that case when we get back. Text in 713-779-5978. That is 713-779-KYST. You're listening to the Lone Star Conservative. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and Lord willing, I will return with the updates to that story after the break.

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UT Contrast And UH Pledge Debate

SPEAKER_16 1:20:10

So apparently, this 18-year-old is now facing federal charges in the murder case of a 61-year-old Austin woman who is visiting Houston to support a friend undergoing cancer treatment. Loved ones identified the victim as Marietta Allison. Investigators say she was robbed and carjacked over the weekend in Houston's Heights neighborhood after dropping her friend off from chemotherapy treatment at MD Anderson Cancer Center. A prosecutor told the court the suspect, Darius Duane Hall, confessed to evading police and admitted to being in the vehicle, but denied involvement in the shooting. Hall appeared in court on a capital murder charge and was ordered held without bond. A judge had his next hearing for February 23rd. And let me let me say that again. His next hearing for February 23rd. You might think, well, February 23rd just passed. Uh-huh. You're getting it. February 23rd, 2027. So on Tuesday, that was just yesterday, uh, U.S. attorney Nicholas J. Gonji announced that Hall is now going to face federal carjacking and firearms charges in addition to the state charges. Houston police say Allison had just parked and was walking toward the apartment when a mass armed man approached her attempting to steal her purse. The robber opened fire after she resisted. The gunshot struck Allison in the neck. Police say the suspect fled in her vehicle. About forty-five minutes later, they located the car and pursued it for roughly 10 miles before the vehicle crashed. They hit the suspect then entered an empty apartment and a SWAT standoff followed, ending with the suspect ultimately surrendering. Now, friends describe Alison as the kind of person who put others first. Uh one friend said she'd cut her trip short from Istanbul to take care of her friend when she was diagnosed with cancer. That is who she is. She was an amazing soul, a bright light in this world, lived her life to the fullest, and like every day would be her last, and it turns out this past weekend was. And so this guy, uh Dwayne Hall, has a massive criminal rap sheet. Uh he's been on probation for aggravated robbery, motor vehicle theft, aggravated assault, in addition to the Capitol murder charges. Of course, he's also facing evading uh in the Capitol murder case, tampering with evidence. And of course, now the updated federal charges with firearms and everything else, carjacking. And so court records and prosecutors also say that Hall picked up an underage girl after stealing the car. So he shot this woman in the neck. He stole from her, then stole her vehicle, sped off to evade the police, picked up a minor, and then kept going and evaded the cops. He had two guns in the vehicle and used expletives and asked where he got the car, according to prosecutors. And so again, what I want to highlight in this particular case is we consistently we talked a couple days ago about HISD's enrollment decline. And they say, well, a lot of families are moving to the suburbs. We don't really know why. We don't know if it's property. I can tell you why people are moving away from Houston because they don't feel safe and comfortable raising their children there. And I don't blame them. It is entirely reasonable. And in fact, it makes far more sense than any other explanation because, of course, you don't want to raise your kids in a city where this is happening. And and I know that this can happen anywhere, right? In every place you go, there's going to be evil people who do evil things. I'm not denying that. But when you look at a lot of these big cities where you have district attorneys who campaigned on and continue to enforce the law in a sort of way that says we want to give second chances to criminals, and we want to we want to just say, oh, that's just a nuisance crime. It didn't really hurt anybody. So we're not gonna we're not gonna put them in jail or anything. We're not gonna actually punish them to the fullest extent of the law. No, no, no, no, no. You wind up with criminals being incentivized to continue committing crimes, things getting worse when a small, very small portion of the population are the ones committing the crimes in the first place. And if you just said, enough of that, we're gonna put these people away, or we're gonna execute these people, and you don't have the availability to commit crimes anymore. You know how much safer our country would be if we just had some teeth? If we just had some backbone in how we dealt with criminals punitively, but we don't. And so then stuff like this happens, they go, well, there's just nothing we could do. Yes, there was. This guy had an extensive criminal history. You could have understood that maybe he's not the kind of person that you should have let back out. Maybe he's not the kind of person that you should have allowed to be in the presence of normal human beings because he's not capable of it. And and it's it's just so insane how easily preventable this is. But it also highlights, with the ongoing state of the world, the state of affairs going on, how important it is that you have not only the ability, but that you have the right to defend yourself from these sorts of crazy people that are out and about because of our government. The same government that would love to strip those rights away from you, interestingly enough, which is why you need to join our sponsor, Gun Owners of America. You see, Gunners of America understands the Second Amendment is actually a very wide set of ideals. It actually is a very wide swath of issues that, yes, it protects your right to keep and bear arms, but shall not be infringed. But the reason for that is not only hotly debated, but I think it's actually multifaceted. Right? Yes, it certainly is a level of accountability for the government. It's designed so much so the founding fathers coming off a revolution understood you must have the right to hold the government accountable. That's why when the left uses terms like, well, these are weapons of war, your reply should be, of course. And if there is a war, I need to make sure that I'm as armed as as the government is. Absolutely. Yes. That's the whole point of the Second Amendment. But also, you also have the God-given right to self-defense from those who would harm you. Whether that's the government through tyranny or whether that's through people, criminals who who would hurt you and steal from you. They're both covered under the Second Amendment. And so Gunners of America is fighting that fight in legislative sessions, out of legislative sessions, through campaigning, lobbying, and of course through lawsuits on tyrannical applications. You can go to GOAHouston.com to become a member. It is a$25 annual membership. Again, that is GOAHuston.com, and you know that your money, unlike everywhere else it could largely go, is going to be well spent going back to make sure that your God-given constitutionally enshrined rights are defended and supported. Again, that is GOAHouston.com. With that being said, when we get back from the break, we're gonna talk about ExxonMobil. Uh, because the company, ExxonMobil, has now cited Texas's new business courts and business friendly environment as the reason why they've decided they're now going to re-domicile in Texas. Its board apparently unanimously suggested that shareholders approve changing the company's legal domicile from New Jersey to the state of Texas because they were already headquartered in the Lone Star State. This is where they've been a very long time, and they moved around a bit, but now they're planning to come back here. We'll talk more about the details of that, what drove them to that, and why we need to continue to create a place where that is the case. All that after the break, text in at 713-779-5978. One more time. That is 713-779-KYST. You're listening to the Lone Star Conservative. I'm your host, Michael Wilts, and we'll talk all about ExxonMobil's plans and the state of Texas' business-friendly environment after this short break.

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Capital Murder, Crime Policy, And GOA CTA

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SPEAKER_12 1:30:18

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SPEAKER_07 1:30:48

Patriot Talk920 is your Houston base camp for the America First Movement. I'm Todd Starns and join me weekdays at 11 on Patriot Talk 920 and online at PatriotTalk920.com.

SPEAKER_16 1:31:27

So the new announcement from ExxonMobil has cited Texas's friendly business environment, including its creation of its new business courts. The announcement reads: In making its recommendation, the board considered Texas's legal and regulatory environment, including its modernized business statutes and the Texas business court, which is designed to resolve complex disputes efficiently. When corporate decisions are challenged, Texas courts are required to apply clear, statute-based standards which support sound decision making. Darren Woods, ExxonMobil chairman and chief executive officer, the CEO, added that over the past several years, Texas has made a noticeable effort to embrace the business community. In doing so, it has created a policy and regulatory environment that can allow the company to maximize shareholder value. Now, of course, ExxonMobil is, as we're all well aware, a Fortune 500 and Global 500 company, and is one of the largest publicly traded international energy and petrochemical companies in the world. The company traces its Texas lineage back to 1911 when Texas Entrepreneurs chartered Umble Oil Company, which operated operated on the Gulf Coast and in East Texas. According to the announcement, ExxonMobil's connection to New Jersey is largely historical, dating back to eight the 1882 incorporation of Standard Oil in New Jersey. The company's board of directors has not held a meeting in New Jersey for more than 40 years. In 1989, ExxonMobil moved its headquarters to Dallas Fort Worth before settling in Spring, Texas. Today, the state serves as the center of the company's executive leadership, corporate functions, major research facilities, and its U.S. workforce. And so Wood said, aligning our legal home with our operating home in a state that understands our business and it has a stake in the company's success is important. And so you also have our governor who came out and said, free from the stranglehold of ogre regulation, Texas is where global brand leaders thrive and jobs for hardworking Texans grow. I think ExxonMobil for their decision to redomicile in Texas and for their longstanding partnership with our state. With this decision, Texas will further dominate the corporate landscape and ensure that our economic growth reaches new heights. Now, Exxon also said that ExxonMobil's decision to shift its legal domicile reflects the strength of Texas and its predictable corporate laws and modern business focused legal system. The company made clear that this is merely a forward-looking statement. Plans could change due to a variety of factors, including future litigation, expectations related to the business environment, Texas courts, legislative, regulatory, or judicial developments, unexpected costs, fees and expenses related to the redominalization, all these sorts of things that could change their plans. This is just their forward-looking idea, right? They presented this to shareholders now, but it appears likely on the agenda for the company. And I want to highlight that this is what happens, right? And I've always said this is why capitalism is one of the best forms, if not the best, I mean one of the best. Come on, what are we even competing with? That's not even a hard, that's not even a difficult thing to say. Capitalism is inarguably the the best form of economics ever invented by mankind. Because it understands that work equals success. And the problem is that two things can strangle capitalism. As the same with almost anything else, there are always two ditches. There's there's there's very rarely ever one. You're driving on a road and you got two ditches on the two sides of it. And if you drive off into it, you're you're just you're done. On the one side, of course, you have over-regulation where businesses can't thrive, where they're over-taxed, where they're not compensated, where the requirements, like a lot of the green energy stuff, uh a lot of the stuff having to do with ESG, right? Making sure that all this stuff is followed and there are generalized requirements for the green earth, right? Overregulation can result in a lot of business failures and businesses not wanting to be involved where you operate. But there is the other ditch, and I want to make this very clear because I know that there are people who don't understand that capitalism can, as anything else, be evil if not kept in check. And that is, of course, corporate greed. I'll give you a good example of this. In and and oftentimes it also, by the way, in many cases, can still be regulation. Just so you understand, the ditch on this side of not having checks on capitalism can still be a form of regulation. And it isn't always, right? Like there are times where you do need some regulation. And I don't know, I don't know, just minimum wage or this, that, or the other. But I'm talking about certain child labor laws, making sure that we have an understanding of how employees are are supposed to be treated in the workforce. All these sorts of things are good. But if you take them too far, we all understand how sometimes unions operate, how how you know raising the minimum wage to$15 an hour,$20 an hour is just creating more and more inflation. All right, it can be bad. But sometimes regulation can still be the problem on this ditch. Right. I'll give you a great example of this. When you give tax breaks to companies, right, they call it corporate welfare essentially, where you're giving tax breaks to big companies. I we know an example out in Sugarland, I guess near Sugarland at least, about the big Costco that was built. There were people that were forced out of their homes in that mud district, the municipal utility district, I guess I repeat myself, because Costco was told if you move here and you bring the business here, you won't have to pay a dime in that tax. We'll we'll we'll we'll put that on homeowners. And so so many homeowners that could afford to live there no longer couldn't had to move out because they couldn't afford the added tax from a new big company using using the district. That's bad too. Of course, having overregulation where businesses can't operate is evil. And it results in just everyday people who aren't big businesses not being afforded to live not being able to afford to live, right? We all understand that. But sometimes these tax breaks that we give in the effort to create a business friendly environment is the same end result. And so we must be cautious that we are prioritizing capitalism, that we are prioritizing free market while maintaining a semblance of normalcy for the average American. And that's a difficult balance, I understand that, but it is a balance that we must pursue. With that being said, to wrap up the show, after this break, we're gonna talk about the Justice Department because the Justice Department and Live Nation have now reached a settlement over this illegally illegal monopoly case. This has been an ongoing legal battle to address competition, uh, consumer fairness. Uh basically the company's the parent company Live Nation Entertainment, you might know them better as one of their subsidiaries. Ticketmaster reached a tentative settlement this week, uh uh basically making sure that consumers are not faced with this illegal monopoly over live events in America. And so I I think two states are still planning to fight this in court to make sure it goes even further. But I want to talk about that update when we get back. Text in 713-779-5978. This is your last chance. Text in 713-779-KYST. I'm your host, Michael Wilson. You are listening to the Lone Star Conservative. And I'll be right back to wrap up the morning show after this short break. Stick around. We'll talk soon.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:14

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ExxonMobil Re-Domiciles To Texas

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Show Close And Podcast Reminder

SPEAKER_16 1:42:25

So the Justice Department has now reached a tentative settlement of its antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation Entertainment. As a victory for consumers, essentially, the negotiations leading up to the agreement drew criticism from the judge who would have to approve any deal as soon as a government lawyer revealed it. In Manhattan Federal Court, where an antitrust trial began last week. Throughout the day, various state attorneys general issued statements criticizing the agreement. A term sheet spelling out details of the pact said that Live Nation had agreed to let venues reach deals that would let a certain portion of tickets be sold by entities other than Ticketmaster. It would also let up to fifty percent of all tickets be sold through any ticketing marketplace at amphitheaters that Live Nation owns, operates, or controls. The term sheet also called for Ticketmaster to cap its fees at those amphitheaters at 15% and to divest ownership or control of 13 amphitheaters, including venues in Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Syracuse, New York, and Austin. It said Live Nation will create a$280 million settlement fund to settle claims or pay civil penalties to states. The settlement includes an eight-year extension of the company's consent degree with the Justice Department enabling continuing oversight. Of course, the Justice Department said, this is a win, we did it. But you have multiple states who are saying, I'm not so sure about that. A senior Justice Department official, of course, spoke saying it was great, they did a great job. But you have multiple people like that the pact fails to address the monopoly issue, which is at the center of the case. That that's great. Some consumers are gonna be a little bit happier with some of the fees and all this, but the biggest issue is the monopoly. That's that's the big deal. And so states that are saying they're not gonna go along with that include Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and DC. And so again, you have North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson, he said the agreement was a terrible deal that was hidden from the states until the last minute. He said this case is about Live Nation and Ticketmaster harming consumers, trapping artists, and driving up ticket prices, and we will see them back in court shortly. And so you also have the Washington State Attorney General, Nick Brown, who said the bipartisan group of state attorneys generals who joined the Justice Department's lawsuit back in May of 2024 would continue because the case against Live Nation is strong, and the state coalition is committed to holding the company accountable for its illegal behavior, protecting consumers, and restoring competition to the market. In other words, saying you're paying a big fine so that the government allows you to continue to do illegal things, is their point. Like, great, consumers are gonna be happy for the next eight years. What about after that when the monopoly still exists? And this is another example where you have to have certain regulations if you want to have a beneficial climate for real capitalism to take effect. That'll do for the show today. I want to thank everyone for tuning in. You've been listening to Lone Star Conservative. Lord willing, I will be back bright and early tomorrow at 6 a.m. In the meantime, not only enjoy the rest of your Wednesday, but if you missed part of the show today, you could tune into our podcast. Search the Lone Star Conservative. I've been your host, Michael Wilson. Godspeed.