The Real Cost Of Freedom On Memorial Day

Memorial Day only works if we tell the truth about it. We’re not talking about a three-day weekend or “patriot energy” we’re talking about graves, families, and the cost that made normal life possible. I walk through where the holiday comes from, why it was once called Decoration Day, and why a number like 1.3 million Americans dead in U.S. wars should hit you like a punch, not a trivia fact. We also highlight the National Moment of Remembrance and why a minute at 3 p.m. can reset the tone of the whole day.

Then we pivot hard into the kind of headlines that make people feel like the country is coming unglued. I react to a reported pattern of gunfire incidents near the White House and what it says about culture, despair, and a rising willingness to do something violent even when the outcome is obviously death or prison.

From there, it’s Texas-focused accountability: Ken Paxton’s lawsuit against Discord over child safety and alleged deceptive marketing, a Magnolia-area teacher arrest, and what TEA data suggests about the scale of sexual misconduct complaints in the public school system. We also hit a case of an ICE agent impersonation robbery, a push for transparency on AI data center water and energy use, and why you should support policies without handing any politician blind loyalty.

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Transcript

Why Memorial Day Exists

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From deep in the heart of Texas, Houston's God loving Patriot. The voice of reason is opposed to our conservative Michael Wilson.

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Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and you're listening to the Lone Star Conservative. First and foremost, happy Memorial Day, everybody. Thanks for tuning in. I'm sure there's a lot of people that probably are not driving to work this morning. It may not make it up in time to tune into the show. That's okay. Enjoy the little bit of rest for Memorial Day. But this morning, before we get into all of the headlines and the topics and all the stories kind of going around, and there's quite a few of them. I wanted to spend a little bit of time talking about Memorial Day, kind of explaining why we celebrate Memorial Day, what Memorial Day is all about, how it differs from other holidays, and furthermore, kind of give you guys some numbers on how things are going here in our country in this particular topic. I think some of it's going to land a little differently than maybe you're used to hearing. But let's go back to the beginning. Where did the day come from? Where did Memorial Day really kind of kick off? Where did it start? It traces its origins, by the way, all the way back to the Civil War, a fairly long time, which was, of course, we all know a lot of the history surrounding the Civil War, kind of what came out of that, uh took the lives of roughly 620,000 soldiers, by the way. And in the aftermath of all of that, um, something kind of happened across the country, on both sides of the war, mind you, where you had, you know, communities that were going to these massive graveyards uh that would go to the cemeteries together, they brought flowers, they brought their children, because again, 620,000 people, 620,000 soldiers would be a lot today, right? That would be if if we saw that happen in our country today, that number would be unbelievable to some of us. 620,000 men dying for America today is just roughly unheard of. I mean, realistically, we we as a people group, as Americans, could not imagine that sort of conflict today. We just couldn't even picture the amount of destruction that 620,000 people dying is. But when you look back at the time of the Civil War, and you have to imagine how many more people 620,000 people was back then. You have to imagine how many people that was on the scale, especially given that that nowadays, right, we have like what, 340, 350, 360 million people population in the U.S. Back then it was like 10 percent of that. It was like 31 million people, 30 million people. And so you'd imagine they lost a little uh I mean I mean, they they realistically they lost what 3% of their total population. I mean, a massive change very quickly. And so, you know, they're coming out of that and and they're realizing, you know, we don't really know what to do. I mean, the graves of the number of men who gave their lives for this are are unimaginable. And so, of course, in in a lot of that aftermath, all you can really do is grieve. I mean, all you can really do is be honest about how things went and how you can honor the men who gave their lives. And one of the things you can do, one of the only things you can actually do, they're they're gone. One of the things you can actually do is, of course, you can show up and you can decorate. You can I I'm being dead serious. You can show up and you know, you can you can bring flowers. You can bring a wreath, right? You can show up, you can say, you know what, we want to honor these men who gave their lives. And so that's where the original name, of course, came from. That would be Decoration Day. And so some records show that a group of formerly enslaved people in Charleston, South Carolina uh also organized some commemorations, um, which I think gives you a little bit of pause to a lot of the mainstream historical narratives about slavery, but we don't need to get into that. That's not what we're talking about. Nevertheless, the federal government uh eventually came out and they declared Waterloo, New York, the official birthplace of the holiday. Waterloo was first celebrated on May 5th of 1866, and was chosen because it hosts a community-wide event in which businesses closed and residents decorated the graves. Um but to be completely fair to everywhere else in the country, it was also happening everywhere else in the country. It was not just a thing that started in Waterloo, New York. By the time that it had even been considered to be announced by the federal government, it was already really happening simultaneously all across America. And so in 1868, General John A. Logan, who was the commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, which was this fraternal organization of the Union soldiers, the Union veterans, uh, he issued a formal proclamation calling for a National Day of Remembrance on May 30th. He chose that date specifically because it was springtime, flowers were blooming, and the act of placing any living and beautiful on a grave of someone who was gone was uh a sort of theology. Um he kind of viewed it the end of May as this moment in our country and in our seasons, the way that our weather works differently from a lot of other places in the world, where, you know, this is the epitome of spring kind of turning to summer, where this is the moment where, you know, we're placing and we're sitting down and we're thinking, you know, as we get to celebrate life today, as we get to celebrate freedom today, as we get to live our lives and say the things we'd like to say and spend time with our friends and our families, as we get to do all of that, there are many people who cannot. And not just because, you know, death is is inevitable and it comes for all of us, not just because, you know, eventually we're all going to die, though that's true. But people who've died, who gave their lives for this country. People who have given everything for this country. And so the holiday uh was largely called Decoration Day until really the 20th century. After World War I, uh the the observance expanded from those who died in the Civil War to those who died in all wars, right? Uh uh change from what the original decoration day was. So I think for good reason, because we realized, hey, what if we are celebrating those who are giving their lives?

unknown 7:22

Right.

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I know that we had many men who died as a result of the Civil War, and that's important. We should always celebrate, you know, those who gave their lives. But we still have lots of men dying in lots of wars. And I think it's worth celebrating all of them. And so in 1971, and be aware this is more than a hundred years after it was originally proclaimed, um, Congress officially made it uh federal holiday. Um, and then apparently the name, and I didn't actually even know this until I was really diving into it, but the name of the holiday was a little different. It was not just called Memorial Day, it was called Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day, um, which was the the the official name, Prayer for Peace. And, you know, I think that actually was not a terrible idea. Because we live in a time nowadays, especially, and I know a lot of desensitizations have happened between I know people talk about video games all the time, but between video games, movies, documentaries, consistency of war itself, always hearing about war in the news, hearing about killings, hearing about crime, right? All of those things over time desensitize us to the point where we hear about a war or something going on, and I don't want to say that we automatically approve it, or that we say, yeah, war must just be good. But so often we forget what the cost of war is. We forget that every war you get involved in, people lose their lives, and that lives have worth and they have meaning, and every single person that comes back in a casket is a life gone. And when you have a war, how many people are gonna give their lives for that? That's why I always say, whenever we talk on the show about any foreign conflicts, there needs to be the highest standard imaginable for any of that. Why? Because people are going to give their lives for that. And lives have worth. And I don't want to see lives take it away because of something that we shouldn't even be involved in. But I digress. The original name, Prayer for Peace, which is what the point of war, right? Just so we're clear. The point of war is supposed to be in a good country to achieve peace. That's the goal. And so I want to give some numbers out because I think we throw around phrases like the ultimate sacrifice, kind of put them as like a wallpaper on people's phones, but we stop really hearing, you know, who's sacrificed, what has been sacrificed, what we've accomplished, and why we were able to accomplish it.

The Numbers Behind The Sacrifice

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Over 1.3 million Americans have died serving in this nation's wars since the Revolutionary War. 1.3 million. That is not a statistic. That is that is 1.3 million sets of parents who got a knock on the door. That is 1.3 million funerals, 1.3 million empty chairs at a kitchen table somewhere. That is 1.3 million real people who had lives just like you, just like me. Of course, the Civil War uh is still, I think, undebatedly the most deadly conflict, the deadliest conflict in American history. Um according to the newest information we have, it was I think a 2024 study said that something like 698,000 people died, uh, that'd be 700,000 instead of the 620 that I grew up learning, uh, which is more than any other American war, of course. That number is by itself larger than the total combined combat deaths from every other war this country has ever fought. If we've lost $1.3 million or $1.3 million lives in combat, and about 700,000 of those were from one conflict. Well, that means the other 600,000 were from all the other ones added together. World War II, over 400,000 Americans killed. World War I, 53,402 Americans killed in action. Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf, the Gulf War, Iraq, Afghanistan. The list goes on and on and on, by the way. Uh since even just 9-11. Even if you if you move into this in the 21st, into the 21st century, since 9-11, we've lost nearly 7,000 military service members. The average age, just so we understand, was between 26 and 27 years old. And look, I'm a young guy, right? I don't I don't hide that, I don't pretend that it's not true. 26 years old is someone that graduated high school, maybe did a year or two of college, skipped college entirely, went straight into a recruiter's office. That's someone who was just starting their life. I saw, I saw a an interesting kind of way to think about time the other day. You know, if a a human life was a 24-hour day, all these all these young people saying, oh man, I'm already, I'm already 20, whatever years old, that the 20s would basically be 7 a.m. in that 24-hour day. Wild how that works. This was somebody who's really just starting their life out. I mean, they made a decision that their country, and they they admitted this going in, that their country was worth dying for uh if it came to that. And for thousands of young, young people just this century, thousands of them, it did come to that. And so, you know, for for a lot of us that that either, you know, understand what it means to give up one's life. And it's hard to understand what that even looks like for a lot of people. Could you imagine what these families went through? I'm sure that some of our listeners probably can. I cannot. I I I cannot imagine, you know, being a parent standing at the doorway having having to get the news that my son is gone. I I couldn't imagine going through that. But thousands of families can. I don't have to imagine it because it happened to them. And so I want to make sure that we understand how important it is, how how vitally important it is that when we talk about Memorial Day, when we talk about understanding, hey, we know the numbers, we know why it's called the day, we know the history of the day, but but at the end of it, what's the day really for? I mean, of course, we're honoring their sacrifice, and that's that's very important. Of course, we're talking about them, we're talking about what they gave, why they gave it. But I think it's I think it's actually even more than that. I actually is a lot more, if we're being honest, I think it's a lot more than that. Because the reality is that that each of us, in one way or another, has a role to play in making this country great for the next generation and the generation after them. Each and every one of us has a part to play in that story, if if of course we're willing to play it. Each and every one of us has things we can do to change our neighborhoods, change our cities, change our counties, change our state, and change our country in a variety of ways. Each of us has different gifts, different talents, different things we have time for and are good at. But all of them, all of them are parts in the greater story of America. When you've had 1.3 million give up their lives in service of that country, in service of the greatest nation on the in the history of the world, in service of this place that we actually do call home. We don't just say, oh, it's just, you know, just America, just that, it's just, you know, just a country, just a place. No, it's home. Those those people that died are our countrymen who died for us. And so, and by the way, if you did not know, and I actually

Prayer For Peace And War’s Cost

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did not know this, uh, but back in 2000, the we had the National Moment of Remembrance Act, which established a moment of silence at 3 p.m. local time. Um, and so one minute at three o'clock this afternoon, wherever you are. So if you were gonna plan on driving, be if you're gonna be driving at three, maybe pull over at 255, uh at 3 o'clock, take a minute, be in prayer, and use it as an opportunity, by the way, not only to remember everybody who's given their lives for this country, but to pray that it actually would result one day in peace. That's that's what they all died for. They died not just for useless ideological fights. They died for something real and something true. They died that we could have the rights that God has given us, the justice that we deserve, the government that defends its people and its borders, the the people that produce uh a truthful, good, moral culture. That is what was died for. And so uh, you know, there's a verse in in the Gospel of John that says, um, greater love has no man than this to lay down his life for his friend. I'm sure you've all heard that verse. I get to put on memorials all the time for good reason. I gets quoted at especially at military funerals. And sometimes, like a lot of verses, you hear it enough and you start to think, you know, I I it's kind of like it's not really a desensitization, but it is of sorts. You hear it so many times that it just Yeah, yeah. You just kinda nod along, smile and nod when you hear the verse. Oh, I know that verse. But today I want you to think of it a little different because that verse is not a metaphor. It it is a literal sentence. Every one of those 1.3 million Americans is a literal instance of that verse. They laid down their lives for freedom that would be taken granted by us, for children that had not yet been born, for people they would never meet, but knew were their countrymen, were in, in a sense, their extended family. And that kind of love, the greater love, the kind of love that would drive a man to be willing to give his life up, it is it is something that I think showcases why at the end of the day we're going to win. That's why this day, when we do it right, it has this sort of sacred quality to it. And it should, by the way. If if it doesn't have that, if we start losing that for whatever reason, we're we're we're we're the ones that are failing there. Um in a certain sense, it almost feels similar

When Memorial Day Becomes A Sale

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to uh the sort of solemn nature of attending a funeral. Because we are celebrating people who gave up their lives. And so I think I think we as a culture have steadily drained the life out of this holiday. And we didn't do that, you know, to be evil, but but it's become, you know, a distraction, a convenience. We say, ah, enjoy the three-day weekend when you leave work on Friday. You know, Memorial Day has a comp for many Americans, clearance sales, it's become a reason to get outside and grill, which I don't have a problem with, by the way. That's not what I'm saying. I'm not anti-grilling. You you know, you know I'm not anti-grilling. I need to be very clear. But when the loudest cultural message around Memorial Day is mattress discounts or or beer ads, we start I have a problem with that. We have a country that is literally consuming the benefit of that sacrifice while forgetting the sacrifice. And another thing I'd push back on, you guys know I am incredibly patriotic. In fact, one of my favorite holidays is coming up in just over a month. You guys know, Fourth of July. That's something else that I need to talk about. I think we have a tendency to treat Memorial Day as broadly patriotic or a celebration of America. It's not. It is, it really should be a solemn day of mourning that acknowledges specific sacrifice. There is a difference between celebrating America, which we should do on the fourth of July, and honestly reckoning with what sacrifice it cost to get that country. And I'll say this. If your kids or your grandkids don't know what today is, not just, you know, it's a memorial day I'm off from school or or what have you, but actually what it means, why it started, who it honors, uh that's that's something worth fixing. Not because they'll fail a test, it has nothing to do with school, but because a child who doesn't know the cost of freedom has no framework for valuing that freedom. A child who doesn't know what freedom costs has zero respect or reverence for it. And a generation, by the way, you know, you say one child doesn't value the cost of freedom, well, that's bad. A generation that doesn't value the cost of freedom is a generation that will eventually stop defending it. And so if you're gonna cook out today, great. We'll talk about the weather here later in the hour. But before you start the day or before you eat, before you go grill, just take five minutes and and talk with your kids or your grandkids. You know, look up a soldier if you have to. There are hundreds of databases, you know, the Vietnam the Vietnam Wall, you're I can Afghanistan Memorial Registries, find a name, you know, make it a person, personify, the sacrifice at 3 p.m. and you might want to set an alarm for this. You guys know. One moment of silence. And if you're anywhere near a veteran cemetery, by the way, just go walk. Walk the roads, read some of the stones. Look how young. I know the average is 26-27. I mean you feel on both sides of that. Look how s how young some of them were. This country is worth mourning for its dead. It is worth a d the discomfort, which it should be a little uncomfortable, of remembering what freedom costs. Because the men and women whose names are on those stones, they didn't get a long weekend. They didn't get a three-day weekend, they get to enjoy go go grill with their families. No, they don't get to do that. We do, they do not. They gave everything they had, and they deserve better than us just having a day off and saying, Oh, enjoy it. So today, be grateful. And remember that freedom is not free. That a and it's not just freedom, it's so much more than that. That that a good country filled with good people, a home is not free. It costs something. It costs a lot. And many people had to die for what happened. With that being said, when you get back from the break, we are gonna go.

Moment Of Remembrance At 3 PM

SPEAKER_14 24:50

I don't usually do this. Usually we, since we have a local show, I usually keep it, you know, local, statewide. You guys know how the show works. But I do want to mention uh the the pattern that yesterday happened, yesterday, uh or day before yesterday, I suppose, you had a man who walked up to a security checkpoint just outside the White House, pulled out a weapon, and opened fire on Secret Service officers. We'll talk about it when we get back. Because I think it's important now that we're noticing a real pattern of what's happened in this country. As always, if you would like to text in, the number is 713-779-5978. One more time. That is 713-779-KYST. You are listening to the Lone Star Conservative. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and Lord willing, I'll be right back after this short break. So hang tight. Talk soon.

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Gunfire Near The White House

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So, yes uh I guess day before yesterday, that was May 23rd, it was Saturday, a man walked up to a security checkpoint just outside the White House on 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, pulled a weapon out of a bag and opened fire on Secret Service officers. Of course, the Secret Service returned fire, the man identified as 21-year-old Nasir Nassiri Best of Maryland was shot and transported to GW Medical Center where he passed away. A bystander was also wounded. President Trump was at the White House at the time, but of course was not impacted because the guy didn't get into the White House. Now, here's the part I think that that is a little bit, I don't want to say, frustrating. But this was the third time, right, in the past month, that gunfire has broken out, at least relatively close to our president. I I mean, I'm not saying that there was any real level of concern for the life of the president on Saturday. That's not what I'm saying. What I am saying is there is a very clear pattern of a of aggressive, an aggressive willingness. I mean, you gotta know if you start shooting at Secret Service officers, I mean, literally, a best case scenario is you just go to jail for the rest of your life. That's a best case. The real the real likely case is you're just gonna get shot. So when you go into it, you you automatically have a willingness to die for whatever it is you're about to do. And the more of those you have in a month, the more it showcases the the just total despair of our culture, where we're headed. If we don't, if we don't, if something doesn't change culturally, because you know, we we talk about the gun issue all the time, in terms of mass shootings at schools, quote unquote. And the reality is a lot of why that's happening is a massive cultural change. Uh that's changed the way the kids view violence, justified evil, the way the kids view the world generally. This guy's 21 years old, he's a kid. I know he can drink now, but he's a he's a kid. And I'm not saying he didn't deserve what he had what he got com I'm I'm not saying any of that. What I am saying is there is an issue where our young people are going in a situation they know they're probably not gonna walk out of in order to kill or or send a message to the president of the United States. The third time in a single month. Uh you had April 25th, that was the White House Correspondent Center, you guys remember all that kind of going down. Um and that was Cole Thomas Allen, who was 31 out of California, who ran through a security checkpoint, fired a shotgun at Secret Service officer. In addition, you also had a couple weeks ago, May 14th, uh near the Washington Monument, several blocks from the White House. And so that guy was 45 years old from Texas. And so this third incident, of course, this security checkpoint firing at Secret Service officers. And so again, this is the sort of insane pattern that we're now, I think, becoming a little accustomed to. I don't want to say that each of these really count as assassination attempts because you know the president is actually within any level of immediate danger. Although I guess I don't know what the definition is of a of a of an attempted assassination. But the reality is that this I think is far more indicative of the dangers within our country right now than than a a single assassination attempt that did actually succeed. I think this is more indicative. When was the last time you guys heard about multiple incidents like this in a short time period? I maybe I'm just young, right? Maybe I just don't know what I'm talking about. I've never heard of this happening. I I've I've never heard of it. That we have multiple people firing shots outside dinners and and the White House and the National Monument in an attempt to bully, intimidate, or hurt the president. I've I've never heard of this happening three times in a one-month stretch. I've never heard of that happening ever before. So I don't know what exactly is going on in our country, but something I think it's fair to say is very wrong. I think that's I think that's putting it incredibly mildly, by the way. But I think it's a fair sentiment to come across. Something is very wrong in this country. Something something is very wrong. And our culture is is completely backwards right now. Our young people are completely out of their depth, have no idea what's going on. They they are being groomed and indoctrinated by a woke government school system. Right? This is why so many young people saw Luigi Bagioni as a sort of folk hero, legitimately. They view him that way. Why? I mean, as many of us probably know, if you do your research, the insurance companies aren't even really the ones that are doing a lot of these issues. I mean, a lot of it is coming actually from the medical industry. And so, I mean, nevertheless, three incidents in a single month, at some point,

A Culture Sliding Into Despair

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we're gonna have to start wondering have we just is our country just gone? I mean, this is not the sort of thing that's supposed to happen in a civil country. This is a third world tribal country where you have multiple assassination attempts on the president's life in a one-month period. That is not America. That is not the country that I grew up in. And if we're gonna return to that, it's gonna require some pretty serious changes culturally, criminally. Uh, and and it it's just it's just insane how we got here. Nevertheless, with that being said, when we get back from the break, we're gonna jump over and we're gonna talk about a lawsuit coming out from Ken Paxton's office. Uh getting into some bring it back here uh to the state of Texas, bring it back home a little bit. He has now sued Discord and has accused the platform, by the way, of exposing children to predators, which you guys might remember started as an investigation, but there was no lawsuit. And so it alleges the discourse that Discord misled parents about the safety of its platform while enabling predators, extremist networks, and child exploitation to flourish through its design choices, uh, that it was just allowed to sort of transpire. We'll talk all about it when we get back from the break. As always, if you would like to text in, the number is 713-779-5978. That is 713-779-KYST. I'm your host, Michael Wilson. You are listening to the Lone Star Conservative, and Lord willing, I'll return with that update from Baxton's office after the break. Stick around.

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Here's Jim Dotton, host of Texas Home Improvement and owner of Dew West Foundation Repair.

SPEAKER_13 38:32

It's no secret, this year has brought us a lot of rain. And that means your foundation is about as good as it's gonna get. So if you're still noticing cracks in your walls and doors that are sticking, call us today so we can help correct the problem before it gets out of hand and more expensive. Call the best. Call Dew West Foundation Repair 713-473-7156 online at du-west.com.

SPEAKER_14 38:56

Hey y'all, this is the Lone Star Conservative Michael Wilson, and I want to tell you about my friends at Telgee Roofing. What might seem like a simple water leak in your house could be a sign of roof damage. Our friends at Telgee Roofing help homeowners uncover those problems before they get worse. Their experts provide free roof inspections, and if they find a problem, they will help you with your insurance claim as well. Don't wait for the next storm. Call Telgee Roofing today at 281-290-0606 for your free, no obligation inspection.

SPEAKER_02 39:26

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SPEAKER_10 39:55

Hi, this is Harold Gunn. And this is Bill Olson. Texas Outdoor News is the longest-running, most awarded outdoor radio show in the state for a lot of good reasons.

SPEAKER_09 40:04

We bring you the latest news and information about hunting and fishing across our great state and beyond. And our guests are who's who from industry, government, and the field. Texas Outdoor News is brought to you by Ford Trunks and your best in Texas Ford dealers, the state's number one outdoor radio show, Texas Outdoor News. Saturday mornings at 6 on Patriot Talk, 920.

Texas Sues Discord Over Child Safety

SPEAKER_14 40:45

So Attorney General Ken Pax has now filed a sweeping lawsuit against Discord, this online messaging organization, accusing the company of deceiving parents about child safety while knowingly operating what the state calls one of the Internet's most efficient hunting grounds for predators targeting children. Filed in Collin County, the lawsuit alleges that Discord violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Bradges Act by falsely marketing its platform as safe for children while designing features that allegedly maximize exposure to predators, extremists, and sexually explicit material. He said, Discord has allowed and invited all kinds of nihilistic violence and evil. My office is taking action to protect our nation's precious children from predators. And so the state's petition portrays Discord as a platform intentionally structured to prioritize growth and user engagement over safety. According to that lawsuit, Discord essentially combines this sort of a few things that you can see the danger behind each of them, but then you combine them and you you definitely see it. These sort of anonymous, pseudonym style names and pictures. You get a random avatar and a random name, it just says something like um Big Bagel 31, 49, 76, 82. Like it's that's it's it gives you these automatically. And so you get that random identity, direct messaging that no one will ever see, private servers that have you and your friends in them and no one else, voice and video chat, and invitation-based communities. Completely out of public view. And so the lawsuit actually points to several cases that where you had children harmed. A thirteen-year-old girl in Texas who was allegedly groomed and assaulted by a predator she met on the platform, a 15-year-old boy who was autistic, who later died by suicide after being coerced into sending uh explicit sexual material through Discord, and a teenager out of Washington targeted by an extremist network who also took his own life. And so the petition argues that Discord publicly claimed that safety is at the core of everything we do and fully integrated into our design process while internally making design decisions that weakened that sort of safety they were claiming they cared about. According to the lawsuit, Discord allegedly defaulted many safety settings toward broader exposure instead of maximum protection, relied heavily on self-reported ages that miners could just bypass by lying, and left key moderation tools optional rather than automatically enabled. Discord is also accused of relying heavily on unpaid volunteer moderators with very little training or support, um, while again saying, well, we're big on having moderators in our in our communities. Uh the lawsuit further claims that Discord's quote unquote zero tolerance policy toward child exploitation and extremist content were not enforced very consistently and were circumvented incredibly easily because banned users could quickly create new accounts. It wasn't hard at all to fix that problem. And so DEX is taking, of course, civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation, along with court orders requiring the company to Implement stronger default protections and age verification measures. If you guys remember, I actually talked about this story before because we instituted the original investigation back in October of last year. That's when the investigation kicked off. And so I wanted to give you guys the update, as I said I would back at the time, that the investigation has now kind of moved into a lawsuit, which I think everyone kind of expected when they announced the investigation, given all of the evidence they had at the time. But we now have officially moved into an actual lawsuit. And so we'll see where it goes from here. Of course, Discord themselves is saying that it uses automated systems and investigations to identify harmful activity, that there's only so much they can do, and you can't fault them for the action of someone else using their thing, you know, to do bad things. And so we'll see how the lawsuit actually plays out in court. We'll find out, you know, how all that goes. In the meantime, you guys know what time it is. It is now the bottom of the first hour, meaning we're going to jump over and we're going to cover the weather in the next to wrap up the first hour of the show. As always, if you would like to text into the show, the number is 713-779-5978. One more time. That is 713-779-KYST. You are listening to the Lone Star Conservative. I'm your host, Michael Wilson. And Lord willing, I'll be right back to wrap up the first hour of the show with our weather report after the break. Stick around.

SPEAKER_08 45:32

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SPEAKER_17 45:47

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SPEAKER_02 46:19

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SPEAKER_06 48:19

Here's Jim Dotton, host of Texas Home Improvement and owner of Dew West Foundation Repair.

SPEAKER_13 48:25

It's no secret, this year has brought us a lot of rain. And that means your foundation is about as good as it's gonna get. So if you're still noticing cracks in your walls and doors that are sticking, call us today so we can help correct the problem before it gets out of hand and more expensive. Call the best. Call Dew West Foundation Repair 713-473-7156 online at du-west.com.

SPEAKER_11 48:49

My doctor won't take my plan anymore.

SPEAKER_01 48:52

Why is my Medicare supplement so expensive?

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My prescription drug plan sucks.

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SPEAKER_00 49:26

I'm Tom Gresh of host of Gun Talk. Call in Sundays between 1 and 4, right here on Houston's Leader for Gun Owners, Patriot Talk 920.

Houston Weather And Midweek Storm Risk

SPEAKER_14 49:47

I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and I want to kick it off talking a little bit about the weather today before we get into the rest of this week. Memorial Day in Houston is shaving up to be a little bit drier than they originally predicted, especially after the disturbance that brought heavy rainfall over the weekend, which has shifted to the east. The National Weather Service yesterday canceled its flood watch for Southeast Texas a day early, so that's not extending into today anymore. However, the Weather Service was still closely monitoring the development of the next round of storms, which is likely to arrive by tomorrow night or Wednesday. Now, Houston on Monday only has about a 30% chance of afternoon rain under otherwise mostly sunny skies. Daytime temperatures are going to be warm, uh likely reaching about 87 degrees. More clouds are expected to roll in at night as southeast winds return, carrying moisture-rich air from offshore. Overnight temperatures are going to stay above a balmy 72 degrees through dawn on Tuesday, so not a massive cool-off like we, you know, used to get. If you do start to get a little rain, it could be quickly, you know, kind of stacking up quite a bit. However, the areas under the highest risks for any rainfall at all are generally along and east of I-45. Now, although the work week is expected to start relatively dry, a midweek rain threat is going to emerge tomorrow going into Wednesday. An atmospheric disturbance called a shortwave, which is just low pressure that can make storms just go off, is going to approach our region. They say that forecast model guidance is in pretty good agreement, showing another complex of storms pushing across Southeast Texas Tuesday night into Wednesday. Again, this is coming from a weather service forecast bulletin. They said we'll begin focusing on the finer details with this one in the coming days. Houston tomorrow has a even smaller really than today, afternoon chance of rain at 20%. However, uh they have these winds kicking in up to 55 to 10 miles an hour, and Tuesday night is a completely different story than Tuesday afternoon. Uh rain is, I don't want to say certain because we don't know. Uh, but storm chances right now are 90% Tuesday night. Cloudy skies, any humidity overnight uh will keep temperatures above uh 75 degrees going into Wednesday. However, the 90% chances of rain kind of persist into Wednesday, so do be aware of that. Brings the weather back down to a high of 83 degrees. Uh forecasters are not sure what that'll mean for Thursday. I think we'll still have a 60% chance of rain going into Thursday, but beyond that, it's just a guess. So we'll keep you guys updated throughout the week. With that being said, when we get back at the top of the next hour, we're gonna have Justin White from Senior Health Services coming on to talk all about all the questions you might have. As always, text in 713-779-5978. I'm your host, Michael Wilson. You're listening to the Lone Star Conservative, and Lord willing, I'll be back with Justin White at the top of the next hour.

SPEAKER_07 52:52

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.

Holiday Reset And Show Plans Change

SPEAKER_14 53:19

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and you're listening to the Lone Star Conservative. You know, it being Memorial Day. Really, this happens every holiday. I actually do remember, I I don't remember what I I was gonna say, I do remember what holiday, but I actually don't remember what holiday it was. But it was, it was last year. Some some holiday. What was the what was the holiday? It was in the middle of the week. Maybe it was maybe it was Christmas. Uh but it was it was last year. I think it might have been it was either Christmas or Christmas Eve. Whatever the day was, um maybe it wasn't even that holiday. But it was, it was I meant we had an interview scheduled. Or at least, you know, I assumed we did because we had a weekly interview going back at the time. And so it was either Text Discord card or Charles Plain. I don't remember who. But we were gonna have an interview and a game a call and I called him a couple times. I said, I texted finally, I said, What in the world's going on? You you you didn't let me know. Like the if you if you can't make it, that's totally fine. But just if you'd let me know, that'd be great. I get a text back, it says, Michael, it's and I don't remember, it was either Christmas, it was something. I just get it, Michael. It's Christmas. I'm not. What are you talking about? I'm not getting up and getting on your radio show. What are you what are you talking about? Anyways, all this to say, uh my my bad, y'all. Uh Justin White will not be coming on this morning given the holiday nature of the of the day. And it's totally all good. We like I said have plenty of stories to get into here this morning, especially given that, of course, since we talked about Memorial Day this morning and we covered the shooter outside the White House, that a lot of the stories that I'd prepped for are still available. And so we have lots to get it lots that we we can get into uh throughout the show this morning. So

Magnolia Teacher Arrested For Misconduct

SPEAKER_14 55:00

without further ado, I want to get off by talking about a teacher out magnolia. Now, you guys might, if you've listened to my show pretty extensively, have heard about Magnolia. And I don't just mean, of course, you've heard of Magnolia in the sense that you know we all live in the greater Houston area, but have heard some of the recent, shall we say, issues inside Magnolia. Particularly in regard to the mayor's office. You guys might remember that there was originally just some random allegations of sexual assault and misconduct and harassment. And the city essentially kind of I don't want to say tried to cover it up, though it certainly looks that way to an objective outside observer. But in a sense, it looked like they kind of just swept it under the rug. Now they had their so-called reasons for doing that, uh, between what in their understanding was a lack of evidence, but it doesn't seem like they tried very hard to get evidence to prove or disprove the allegations. And so eventually that turned into a Texas Rangers investigation, is kind of where that ended up. Which of course ended up with the mayor being charged and that being a whole mess. Well I I say all that to say Magnolia in general is already going through a tumultuous period of their history between everything going on in the in the mayor's office and at the city level. Now in Magnolia, a teacher has been arrested for sexual misconduct with elementary students. He was a second grade teacher in Magnolia. I see his name is Jason Maldonado. Now, he was obviously it's now former, uh but now former Magnolia elementary school teacher is facing a felony charge for alleged inappropriate physical contact with students in his classroom. Jason Thomas Maldonado, he's 40 years old, was arrested and charged with attempted improper relationship between educator and student, which is a third-degree felony. And we have to say he was, because the school district is, of course, let him go. But he was a second grade teacher at Magnolia Parkway Elementary School inside Magnolia Independent School District. According to the district, he was placed on leave back in December and has since resigned. He was booked into the Montgomery County jail. So these this investigation obviously kind of kicked off sometime around December, which is when they placed him on administrative leave. And so the investigation, of course, eventually resulted in charges uh lat late last week, and his bond has been set at $150,000. Now, according to the Montgomery County Police Reporter, authorities began investigating me investigating him again back in December, following a report from CPS, Child Protective Services. Now, investigators with the Montgomery County Precinct Five Constable's office interviewed students, witnesses, and school staff, as well as contacted families associated with students in that classroom. Several students reportedly disclosed to investigators that Maldonado subjected them to inappropriate physical contact while in their classroom, including prolonged hugging and having them sit on his lap. Some students also said the teacher had touched them underneath or inside their clothing. Now the alleged incidents happened during the 24 to 2025 and 2025 to 2026 school years. So this was not a single incident where and even then, by the way, I'm not trying to justify or say that would be fine. Nothing, nothing even remotely like that. You guys know how I feel about child predators. You guys are well aware if you've listened to the show for any time how I feel about them. But the reality is that this was an ongoing issue for at least two distinct school years. And so Precinct Five Constable Chris Jones said that his investigators are working with Magnolia ISD and continuing to identify and interview potential witnesses as well as potential victims. Families whose children may have had contact with Malinato are encouraged to contact the Montgomery County Precinct Five Constable's office. And in a tape in a statement, Magnolia ISD spokesman Denise Myers confirmed that Malinato was placed on administrative leave back on December 15th of 2025 and has since resigned. Here's the actual statement. Throughout this time frame, Magnolia ISD continued to cooperate fully with law enforcement. The district was not at liberty to communicate this information to the public until now to avoid interfering with the ongoing law enforcement investigation. Online records show that he joined Magnolia ISD all the way back in the 2022 to 2023 school year as a fourth grade teacher. He previously taught in Aldean ISD. Now he's held a teaching certificate in Texas since 2016, though, of course, his certification is currently under review by the Texas Education Agency. And the TEA has been, I don't want to say doing a lot better, but they've been doing better in these investigations and more importantly, in the transparency regarding the investigation. So there's more data for us to pour through, uh, there's more information regarding these sorts of cases, which also means there's more information for other school districts. So say that he bonds out or he gets out, whatever happens, and he goes and tries to get a job in another school district, given the updated information coming out of the TEA, that's not going to happen. We have a lot more protections in place that we should have always had, but we certainly have them now, where cases like this are no longer going to result in him being able to go apply in another district, that that would now pop up reasonably on a background check. Which again is insane that that wasn't happening before, that we didn't have the proper data set so that if you're charged in one district, that that doesn't carry over. That's I think fair enough to say that's pretty insane. And that's pretty crazy that that is a new development coming out of the tax education agency and the scoreboard the school board certification program. But nevertheless, that's happening now. That's what's important. But one of the things that I wanted to talk about on this story is yet again the sort of pattern that we're having to deal with. Because the unfortunate reality of the situation is this isn't a one-time situation. This is not a one-time issue. This is not uh a teacher or two that's been caught doing inappropriate things with students. This has become a patterned issue.

Why School Misconduct Looks Systemic

SPEAKER_14 1:02:00

Uh right now, literally right now, according to I I mentioned that the TEA has a new sort of dashboard slash portal that you can see all of their ongoing investigations right now alone. Not just over the course of the past few years, not just over the course of Texas history. Right now, the agency is currently investigating more than 2,000 sexual misconduct complaints and opening an average of 250 new cases every single month. So this is not a limited scope issue. This is not a single teacher who's been accused of something bad. This is not a a single instance where you had a teacher who is accused of bad things, maybe convicted, and who we deal with appropriately and in a just way. It's not a single case. It's not a handful of cases, not a dozen cases. Uh it's not even that we have, you know, a couple hundred cases that are ongoing. We have two thousand ongoing cases consistently, with an average of two hundred and fifty new cases every single month. And so this is an incredibly widespread patterned issue in the entire public school system. And you know, I've talked to uh constables before uh when I've been doing research into these stories, trying to find out, you know, all these sorts of things. And I've got I gleaned a couple of things from the conversations that I've had with constables. Two two main things I've walked away from every time that I have a conversation with anyone in law enforcement regarding how best to handle these type of situations, what drives these sorts of problems. And the two biggest things that I walked away with were one, and and you don't really need to talk to a constable to understand the logic behind this, but one is that of course, if you have these sort of inclinations, these sort of very evil, perverted inclinations, you expect that those sorts of people are going to desire to be in a p in a place or in a position that is, shall we say, open to the sort of position they need to be around children. Happens all the time. Whether that's a daycare or at a school or in any regard around children. That's why you often see it also in in, say, the children's area of a church. Happens all over the place that these sort of individuals who have these sort of very evil, very disordered desires intentionally put themselves in places where they're working with or around children. That was the first thing that that Cosables have consistently highlighted to me is that they don't have there there's no way to conclusively prove that that predators are drawn to those positions, but all the evidence would suggest that is the case. That when you see the number of predators, unless you you average that out by population doesn't mean you say that there are just you know far more predators than we could possibly imagine, that the odds are that predators are being drawn to positions that grant them authority over children. The second thing that I walked away from that is, I don't want to say more important, but arguably gives us more info to work with, is that the number one thing, the number one, and I I have something that goes along with that, but the number one thing that was suggested as a I don't want to say solution, but as a way to kind of prevent a lot of these sorts of crimes from occurring is consistently, especially when it comes to children, their openness,

Protecting Kids Online And In Public

SPEAKER_14 1:05:35

parents' openness to getting their children off the internet. Then a lot of these issues, not all of them, right? You can't not all of them are preventative in this sort of way, but so many of the cases they've had uh with with educators, teachers, anyone in a a a powerful authority sort of position, so many of them are utilizing social media, school messages. Messaging platforms, any sort of internet sort of communication they can have with a child, that's being used all the time. And so every every single person I've talked to in law enforcement has basically said the same thing, which is if you want to protect your children, the number of ways you can do that from almost any situation, be it from a teacher or be it from somebody on a on an online platform, somebody who doesn't know your child, but maybe met them on we mentioned Discord or on some sort of video game platform, Roblox is also under investigation, is to take away as much as possible your child's access to the internet and to monitor any sort of connection they do have to the internet. So if you're gonna let your kids play on platforms or give them some sort of access to social media, which is a terrible idea, but if you're gonna do it, that you monitor every single thing they're doing. That that was the number one thing that these law enforcement individuals have talked about in regards to fixing the problem, how to best protect your children. The other thing I want to keep in mind is, and and this would be my argument, another one of the number one ways, because when you have 250 new cases per month just in the state of Texas when it comes to sexual misconduct allegations in the government school system, another major way that you can go about protecting your children is of course to make sure that your children are not in a school system that is, I don't want to say allowing, because it's unintentionally done, as far as I'm aware, by the school system, but that is the predication, the the the pre-background for this to occur in the first place. When you have that many cases opening up in a single system, you have to think to yourself, hey, maybe that system is not the safest place for my child. You know, maybe it just so happens that the system that has allowed for decades this sort of misconduct to exist, maybe that's not what I want my children around. Maybe that's not where I want my children to be. And so as I try to consistently highlight, the best course of action is one to get your kids as far as possible away from the internet and to get your kids as far as possible away from these sorts of school systems where predators are drawn, it seems, to these sorts of positions with the intent to take advantage of children. The other thing that I want to highlight, since we're on the topic, just to be very clear, not all predatorial cases are done through the internet. Some people still go the old-fashioned route, right? And I don't mean the ice cream truck or the free candy on the back of a white van, uh, but I mean targeting kids out in public, seeing kids playing in a playground where parents are not present. And I've highlighted it before, but I want to highlight it again. The reality is that when a lot of these predators are looking for potential victims of whatever crime it is they want to commit, the n one of the number one things these predators seem to look for is an unpresent father or a weak father. A father who is incapable in one way or another of actively protecting his children, whether that's because he isn't present to do so or because he doesn't appear like he could do so, whatever the case may be, that they look for families, they look for kids where the father is not actively involved in his children's lives, where there isn't somebody that's going to really stand in their way. They look for that. They are actively investigating that. That's something that they want to make sure. Uh uh again, this guy did an interview with an in with the media where they asked him, What's what's the number one thing you look for? And he said, I look for weak and more importantly, unpresent fathers. Fathers who are not involved in the lives of their children, who I don't think would protect them. And if we that that's number one. And if we don't have that, he would he would literally say this. He said, if we don't, if that if that standard is not met, if I see a present, strong-willed father, I'm not that that is an immediate off the list. And so in that regard, the number one way to protect your children is just to be involved in their lives, to be a father capable of protecting his children. That is the number one way out in public to protect your kids. I would argue that also means being prepared, if necessary, and and you know, you don't ever want this to actually happen, but if necessary, to physically protect your children. That is incredibly crucial. That that is incredibly important. And one of the ways, I would argue the main way you can do that is by carrying a firearm, which of course requires your knowledge and your ability to do so. That requires training, it requires being prepared for the situations, being observant. And it also requires, by the way, that you have the right to do so, which is where our sponsor, Gun Owners of America, comes in. Gun Owners of America understands that you have a God-given right to the to the defense of yourself, of your family, and of your home. It is given to you by God, it is enshrined in the Constitution to the Second Amendment. And they believe in the stout defense of that right. In fact, that's their entire goal. And they do it not only incredibly well, but they do it because their position on the Second Amendment, unlike most gun lobbies, their position is no compromise. That when the when the Constitution says shall not be infringed, it actually means shall not be infringed. They do that by campaigning for candidates who also believe in no compromise, candidates who will fight for your Second Amendment rights. It means lobbying for bills to be passed that will continue to make sure that your rights are defended. And furthermore, by making sure that bills that would violate those rights are shot down, that they're not allowed to move forward. It also means if again, God forbid, one of these bills does go through, one of these ordinances is passed, one of these ordinances, one of these laws does actually manage to make it, that they're willing to sue on behalf of your rights to make sure that it never sees the light of day. So if you'd like to become a member, you go to G-Oahahuston.com. That is G-O-Ahouston.com. It's a $25 annual reception, $25 per year, which goes right back again to the preservation and the defense of your God-given rights. With that being said, moving back from the break, we're going to talk about a guy who has now gotten time for impersonating an ICE agent after apparently there's this robbery scheme in West Houston. His name is Giuliano Christopher Thompson, and he was arrested and charged with impersonating a public servant and robbery by threats. He is now pleaded guilty to two felony charges and has been sentenced. We'll talk all about that story, the background, what he's been sentenced to, all that sort of stuff when we get back from the break. As always, if you would like to text in the show, if if you're tuning in and you have some questions, feel free to text in and ask. The number is 713-779-5978. One more time. That is 713-779-KYST. You are listening to the Lone Star Conservative. I'm your host, Michael Wilson. I'll be right back. Talk all about that robbery scheme involving impersonation of an ICE agent after the break.

SPEAKER_09 1:13:24

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SPEAKER_18 1:14:39

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If you are of Medicare age or getting close or you have a loved one that is, be careful with those unsolicited phone calls that I know you know about. We get told about them all the time. What you need to know is that many of those phone calls are not even legal. They're coming from offshore call centers. Sometimes they're calling regardless of whether you're on the do not call list. Isn't that nice of them, by the way? It's really sweet of them to just do that because they are thinking that they can't get caught. Bottom line is when you get on there and you talk to them, they're already kind of operating sidelong of what should be done. And sometimes people end up in plans that they did not intend to enroll in. And so what do you do? Call somebody local. If you got a local agent, my gosh, call them and get in front of them. And if you don't have a good agent, think of an organization like Senior Health Services where you can sit down, talk about what you're looking for, and get the help that you need. You don't need to be talking to phone operators from other countries that you don't know who they are, where they are, or what in the world they're doing.

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Fake ICE Stop Leads To Prison

SPEAKER_14 1:17:37

With the intent to rob a Houston driver, pleaded guilty to two felony charges, and has now been sentenced to prison, according to court records. He's 38 years old. He was arrested in June of last year and charged with impersonating a public servant and robbery by threats. Thompson was accused of pulling a man over on Skyline Drive in West Houston and posing as an ICE agent. Around 1 a.m. on June 23rd of last year. He used his car to block his victim in, flashed a badge, and then demanded cash. The victim gave Thompson about $1,800 as well as a Guatemalan ID card, according to prosecutors. Thompson was arrested in the third ward the next day. He pleaded guilty to both charges late last week. In exchange, prosecutors recommended a four-year state prison sentence. District judge Peyton Peebles agreed to the recommendation and issued the sentence according to court records, meaning he has been sentenced to a four-year state prison sentence. Now, had he been convicted at trial rather than agree to this plea deal, he could have faced up to twenty years in prison. By the way, this guy has also been previously convicted of arson. In that case, he was accused of causing a woman to pull over, telling her something was wrong with her car, and surreptitiously lighting a fire near a tire. He then tried to convince the woman she needed repairs to her brakes and offer to fix the car. You know, again, that's sort of it's it's the same sort of scam mentality he had for this case. Uh he was sentenced to ten years for that charge, but was released on parole, because we don't have an issue with that at all, in July of 2024. He was obviously previously convicted of theft, driving while intoxicated, having a fictitious license plate, and credit card abuse. So again, a variety of charges. He also had more than a dozen alleged bond violations within his criminal record. A dozen. Just so we just so we're clear. More than twelve independent cases where he violated his bond. You'd think after the first one. After number one, if we should have bonds at all, whatever standard we set should be that if you break it once, you're no longer allowed to do bond again. Whatever it is that's driving our desire to let people out of jail, if you violate the standards that we put in place, you'd expect. All right, we're gonna give him another chance. We'll give him a second bond. You'd think after strike three, that would be regardless of your political philosophy, regardless of I mean, you talk about bipartisan all the time, regardless of whether you're on the right or you're on the left, that after three strikes, after three times of saying, you know, maybe this guy is going to consistently violate these, maybe it's for the best that we don't let him back out, that that would be the end of that. That we would look at that as evidence in every case he's ever involved in moving forward, of which case again, th there are many cases that he's involved in. You'd say, Yeah, no more bonds for that particular individual. Regardless of how you feel about the bond system in general. Even if you're pro-bond, uh, which most people are not these days, given what we know about the bond system, but even if you were, this would be a clear-cut example where you should be able to say, Yeah, this guy should not be given a bond. This guy in particular, uh, clearly is not the kind of person that's going to respect those conditions, and so we don't have a but they did it over a dozen times. Over over a dozen times he was allowed to be given a bond again. And uh he he did this. He he violated those conditions. Now also to be clear, uh last year there were more than two dozen cases of people accused of committing crimes while posing as ICE agents, this sort of impersonation. Uh, and so of course the the left is using that again as evidence that ICE in general is bad, which just is not capiche. That doesn't logically follow. Uh, but we also had another impersonation case which happened in Houston last year in November. A man allegedly demanded money for an employee at a massage parlor after displaying a card that said ICE on it, which we actually talked about and reported on when that happened. Though I don't know that we've reached a conclusion in that case. I don't know that he's been convicted yet, as far as I'm aware. Uh if I'd have seen that, we certainly would have reported on the update. But nevertheless, again, this this is going on. We we see this happening. And it's happening at least consistently enough that it's become, as we mentioned before, a pattern problem. Which means that our solution to these sorts of cases needs to needs to be approached with the understanding that this is not a singular one-time case sort of issue. That we've got a variety of them. And that means that our response to said crime must be approached with from a position of we have to stop this and nip it in the butt. Uh, which means that our sentences need to be quite extreme. And I don't know about four years being extreme. Uh, but I I think it at least sends a message, right? That this is not a small time misdemeanor. You don't get to flash a badge, say that you're ice and say, well, really the crime is just being a little dishonest. Uh how about how about just some sort of re-education program, right? Or how about some sort of, I don't want to say parole, uh, but some sort of situation where you're forced to check in with somebody and and No. I think we need to start sending messages, hey, this is a very serious felony. This is a very serious crime. You are taking advantage of people illegally by impersonating federal agents. Uh that is obviously against the law, but more importantly, it completely erodes public trust in real government entities. Hence why the call from the left was, hey, uh, this is a real problem. ICE is is also part of this problem. No. But that is, of course, one of the conclusions that people are going to reach because it erodes the public trust in that institution. Right? I've said the same thing about teachers that are accused of certain things. It starts to erode the trust that people have in whatever the institution is when people when people commit crimes. Even if it's not the fault of that institution, right? You can't come out and you can you can't really say, well, it is the school system's fault that people are committing crimes. Even if they bear some responsibility, we agree that it's not their fault when a person decides to do something evil, right? You can't blame the tool for the job. However, if you aren't willing to handle those issues appropriately, and it keeps happening, it is nonetheless going to result in that erosion of trust. People are gonna look at the institution and say, Yeah, I don't trust that. I I I don't have any sort of goodwill towards that. And so if we're gonna fix this, if we're going to make sure that people do have a level of trust in our local, state, and federal institutions in every sphere, it requires that people who take advantage of that institution are held accountable. Because if they're not, people are going to continue to see it and say, Yeah, well, I don't actually trust the realize agents either. I don't trust anybody. And as I've highlighted before, when you don't have trust in your government, it usually does not work out for the best. With that being said, when we get back from the break, we're gonna know a little bit about Chip Roy. Representative Chip Roy has now filed legislation to track data center water and energy use, uh, which would require annual reporting on water consumption and grid connection costs for large data centers receiving expedited federal permitting. We're also gonna kind of compare and contrast and say, you know, this is why I don't I don't like to be the kind of person that gets behind a person as opposed to a policy. I'll explain what I mean by that in the next segment, uh, because I think there's a lot of danger of people saying, well, he did something good, therefore he has my loyalty. We'll talk about why that's bad as well. As always, if you'd 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, and we'll talk all about this new legislation after the break.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:06

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Data Centers And Texas Water Strain

SPEAKER_14 1:30:30

The Power Act, which stands for public oversight of water and energy reporting, would mandate the Department of Energy to report to Congress within two years of enactment and then annually on the resource consumption of data centers qualifying for benefits under the executive order signed last year, which accelerates federal permitting for AI data centers requiring more than a hundred megawatts of electrical load. Now, the bill requires the Department of Energy in consultation with the Environmental Protection Agency to collect detailed information on water consumption by covered data centers that draw from public water systems. And so, of course, it does distinguish between data centers that are using closed loop systems that recycle water and those using open loop systems that continuously draw fresh water from municipal supplies. For facilities that have closed loop systems, means that it's recycled, they must report the total amount of water provided during each reporting period. For those continuously supplied by public water systems, the department must calculate and report average daily water consumption. Now, on the energy side, the bill mandates reporting on how many data centers are generating their own electricity versus drawing power from the grid. For those connecting to the bulk power system, they must disclose the costs associated with that connection and identify who paid the cost, whether that was the data center operator, federal subsidies, or of course ratepayers. And so the reporting requirement excludes data centers owned operator maintained by federal agencies. And so he came out and he said, you know, as data centers spring up across the country, we need to be mindful of our water and energy resources. States like Texas have been enduring extreme drought conditions, and as we build out energy-intensive data center infrastructure, we must have a clear picture of how much water and energy these projects are consuming. The public oversight of water and energy reporting ensures that the Department of Energy collects an honest accounting of exactly how much water and energy these projects will use. Now, we are aware that the number of data center projects around just our state alone, right? Even if you don't look at the rest of the country, you just look at the state of Texas, uh, has been skyrocketing over the past, I mean, really just a few months. And a lot of times that is in direct opposition to local residents because of their large energy use, their noise, unknown water consumption, all that sort of stuff. And so a lot of people are concerned about the level of water usage, about the energy consumption. And I think there's an an obvious position where we have to sit back and say, hey, is this best? At bare minimum, there needs to be transparency as to what it's going to do to the environment, what it's going to do to people's homes, to people's water supplies, especially in a state where, again, we've had

Support Policies Not Politicians

SPEAKER_14 1:33:00

these sort of drought conditions. I mean, you look down at Corpus Christi, you look at Houston, you can see very quickly that we already have water issues. But the reason that I I mentioned before the break, hey, you know, someone can do a good thing and you don't owe them your loyalty. I brought that up not because I want to come out and bash Chip Roy. That's not my goal here. Uh, but Ethan Hay, you guys might remember this guy. Uh we reported on him pretty extensively back in um, you know, when it when it kind of all went down. Uh he was the whistleblower at Texas Children's. And so uh a little over a week ago, he came out and he said that he got an unexpected phone call. And he said he wanted he didn't want to talk about this, but it was very important. Uh he came out and he said he was finishing up a meeting just before noon, uh, about a week ago, when he got a call from an unknown number in Austin. He said it was probably someone that he knew calling about the big news. You guys heard the news where Texas Children had to start this detransition clinic and $10 million paid back. And so they figured he figured it was about that. Someone maybe that he knew at the AG's office who had his number. And he said he answered the call and asked who it was, and the voice replied, Chip Roy. And so he said, It was great to hear from him, hey Chip, how you doing? Great to hear from you. And he said, without even so much as uh, hey, how you doing, bud? Or hey, I'm doing well, how about you? Anything, any sort of nice, you know, anything. No, none of that. He immediately asked me why Ethan Aim. He he asked this guy, he said, Why did you repost this post from Maze Middleton, who of course he was running against in the attorney general race. And so my response was was just nonsense. He said, What post are you talking about? And so he looked back at what he'd reposted, and it was this post from Maze Middleton, who said, Great work, in response, by the way, to the whistleblower himself, right? This was in response to Texas Children, he said, Great work. I fought to ban all transgender studies. Meanwhile, Chip Roy authored an amendment to allow private transgender surgeries to continue and codify them, rewarding Gavin to some of the trans lobby. And Ethan Haim reposted it. And so Chip Roy had called him and said, Hey, why'd you repost this? What are you are you bashing me? Right? That sort of stuff. And so uh he continued to berate Ethan Aimes, saying, like, why are you reposting lies about me? And so he tried to de-escalate. Uh he said, you know, I was I was taking a neutral approach to the race, despite the fact that I did actually support one over the other, but that wasn't my intent in this. I I really just kind of read the beginning and saw that he was also talking about how it was great work, so he reposted it. And so the reality is that it kind of went on from there. And it ended up kind of in a in a sort of fight where Chip Roy was yelling at Ethan Haim, getting on to him, saying you need to take it down, all these sorts of these sorts of sort of aggressive threats. And the reason I bring that up is not even to bash Chip Roy, really, but it is to highlight that a lot of times we have legislators or presidents or local city council members or mayors or whoever it is in any sort of political infrastructure, any sort of policy group, they get in and they do a good thing. And uh, as we should, when something good happens, we applaud. We celebrate, we rebel, we say, We did good, look at what we passed. Unfortunately, in the modern political apparatus, and I don't know really when this shifted, but we start treating the people like the policies. We say, Well, because that individual passed a good policy, therefore I really like that individual. We say, you know, i i you you do something good, therefore I owe you my loyalty. And we start treating the people as if they're, I don't want to say infallible, but as as if they can't make mistakes. And then when they do make mistakes, we're hesitant to call them out or to say anything negative because, well, we like that guy. That is an incredibly dangerous approach to doing politics. And I get it, you need friends, right? I'm not saying that you should just go bash everybody that has made a mistake. That's not my point at all. But it is to say that if we can't hold people accountable on our own side when they do something they shouldn't do, then there's nothing to keep us from transforming into the left. Nothing. If we can't look at people on our own side and say, hey, you're wrong on this. Hey, actually, you made a mistake out of fear or out of some uh like I said, loyalty, then there's a real issue in the way that we're doing politics. It it turns into group politics, group political think where you're not allowed to think for yourself, you're not allowed to question policy, you're not allowed to say anything negative about anybody that is well liked because it gets you in trouble. Well, that's not how I do politics. I hold people accountable. I desire to see people held accountable, especially our politicians who have a level of uh, you know, given authority. I think it's very important that we do hold people accountable. And when we don't, really hold people accountable, ultimately, you know what happens? They're not held accountable. And that's a shocker. But that's exactly what happens. And again, I'll highlight that to wrap up the show after we get back. David Northern, uh, he was the guy who wasted millions of dollars in the Houston Housing Authority position. He's also now running Flint's housing authority and apparently making more money than really ever before. Again, highlighting when you don't hold someone accountable, they get the same job or the same position and they do the same things. We'll talk about it. As always, if you would like to text in, this is your final opportunity during the morning show, this memorial day. The number is 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'll be right back after this final break. So hang tight. We'll wrap up the morning show after the break.

SPEAKER_08 1:39:02

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No Accountability Means More Mismanagement

SPEAKER_14 1:43:13

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and you're listening to the Lone Star Conservative. As we're coming to wrap up the show this morning, David Northern, uh, he was the Housing Houston Authority CEO. Uh, he apparently he left at the end of 2024. We talked about this a little bit before, amid questions tied to millions of dollars of failed projects, questionable spending, and mismanagement. And so he he ended up kind of settling. He walked away with a $200,000 settlement payment in exchange for his resignation because there were all these questions, but they couldn't nail him on anything specific. There was no provability to a lot of it. And so they let him leave. Uh, they agreed to not publicly release the result of his investigation, and again, spending that cost more than four million dollars. And so he left and got a job in Flint, uh, Flint, Michigan. And it's a three-year agreement that starts him at $200,000 a year. And by the way, that is just the base salary. He's also eligible for a 25% annual bonus, a $700 monthly car allowance, full health dental and life insurance coverage paid entirely by the commission, and use of a Flint Housing Commission vehicle. And so they also extended in January of this year that contract through 2030. And so to get back into this, you know what happens when you don't hold people accountable? Turns out they're not going to be held accountable elsewhere. They go, they get a great paying job, more than they made before, working in another place, doing the same thing, taking advantage of the same people in a different area. And that's what happens if we don't have a successful system designed to make sure that people are held accountable for the things they do. That'll do it for the show today. Thanks everyone for tuning in. Have a very happy Memorial Day. Enjoy your time outside. It shouldn't be too rainy, so you should be able to enjoy it. Lord Ling me back bright and early tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. In the meantime, like I said, enjoy Memorial Day and Godspeed.