How Texas Conservatives Argue Abortion Penalties And IVF Policy

A single headline can steer an entire public debate, and today we slow down long enough to ask what’s actually being claimed and what must follow if the claim is true. We take on the Houston Chronicle framing of the Texas GOP platform, especially the language around abortion, criminal penalties, and IVF, and we walk through the uncomfortable consistency test at the center of pro-life politics: if abortion is treated as homicide from fertilization, what does equal protection under the law require, and what does “illegal” mean if nobody is ever held accountable? 

From there, we shift to fresh UT Texas Politics Project polling and what it suggests about the U.S. Senate race and other statewide matchups. We also dig into growing public opposition to data centers in Texas, where concerns about artificial intelligence growth collide with local reality: grid strain, infrastructure upgrades, water use, and the fear that everyday ratepayers get stuck with the bill while communities absorb the disruption. Polls may show a partisan edge, but we argue that numbers can create the most dangerous political emotion of all: complacency. 

Then I’m joined by Robert Montoya from Texas Scorecard to unpack the Permian Basin Reliability Plan and the proposed 765 kilovolt transmission lines, including the rushed 180-day PUC process, notice concerns for landowners, and the mind-bending long-term price tag being discussed. We close with a run of accountability stories, from a massive Houston recycling fire after prior citations to a federal probe into a fatal Tesla crash in Katy and a Texas Supreme Court decision tied to SpaceX beach closures, all pointing back to the same question: who answers before the next crisis? 

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Listen every day to our strong conservative programs on Patriot Talk 920 AM.  Tune-in on your radio in Houston to KYST 920 AM or download our app by visiting 920app.com or search for "Patriot Talk 920" from your app store!

Transcript

Welcome And What’s Ahead

SPEAKER_09 0:08

The voice of reason. Michael Wilson.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and you're listening to the Lone Star Conservative. And it is a, I can't say it's beautiful Wednesday morning because it's not quite bright enough for me to see outside yet, but it is probably going to be a very beautiful Wednesday morning because God has planned this Wednesday morning on it is more beautiful than anything I could have planned. Therefore, I can go ahead and say without seeing, it's a beautiful Wednesday. And of course, at the top of the second hour, we're going to have taxes scorecard today. If you want all of the updates for what the commission is doing, where we're going, if they're going to spend, what is it, $100 billion? I don't even know how much it costs at this point. Unbelievable amounts of money. If you want to find out about all of that, you'll have to stick around through the second half of the show. In the meantime, we have plenty of stories to get into here in the first hour. And one that isn't it we've gone over the pro-life issue. This isn't really like a breaking news story, but I wanted to kick off the show. Because it kind of is, in a sense. I think it was written yesterday, I believe. But that's not the reason that it I consider it breaking news. The reason that I consider it breaking news is because it comes from the Houston Chronicle. And the Houston Chronicle is specifying something that I think everyone needs to understand. And what you need to understand is not that what they're saying is true, it's how manipulative the language of it. It's not just the left. I I I always say the left, I think it's leftism as a disease, liberalism. It's it's anything that's not rooted strictly in traditional Christianity. But the reality is that it's not just actual physical leftists. It's not just people that vote for Democrats. There are people that vote Republican consistently who would call themselves Republican, may even call themselves conservative, uh, but would split on this particular issue. The problem is there is a difference between splitting on an issue and using manipulative language in an attempt to derail the opposition. There is a difference between having an honest good faith debate, which to be fair, the left is relatively unprepared for and incapable, it seems, of having. But nevertheless, you'd expect that that maybe we could just have an honest conversation. But no. Of course, whenever these topics come up, the left always does what they always do, which is they take whatever framing they think will get them clicks, views, likes, and ultimately people believing them. Let me read you the headline of this article, and then we'll go through the article and we'll kind of approach a discussion on what all of this means, where we go from here, and what the truth actually is, without the headlines in your face that completely misrepresent the position of the party and of the conservatives in it.

Breaking Down A Loaded Headline

SPEAKER_01 3:42

Here's the headline of the article. The Texas GOP wants to stop all abortions. That's not the end of the headline, by the way. They did a two-centence headline, which should be unlawful. A two-centence headline, I really think is, you know, it's one of those things where you're getting creative to make it a fun headline, but at some point, you're just breaking the rules of headlines. You're just it You know how suits can get so colorful that at some point that's not a suit. That's not masculine at all. The the suit was supposed to be kind of highlighting masculinity and you've just ruined it. You know, you call it a suit because it has buttons on it and it has a blazer, but is it is it really a suit at that point? It's kind of the same thing with headlines. Once you had a second sentence, anyways, the second sentence says so that it's the Texas GOP wants to stop all abortions. It's willing to punish women to do it. So you throw in the this, right? And of course, and by the way, again, the reason I said it's not just leftists is because there have been supposedly I don't want to say right wing, but pro-life groups that are in the same position. I don't want to say supposedly, it's not alleged, they admit it. Um, you have the Alliance for Life. You also, unfortunately, have the Texas right to life, which they're not nearly as strong armed when it comes to ending this policy, when it comes to changing the platform of the GOP. But they've been relatively unspoken on the issue. And when they do speak on it, it's in very minor terms, saying that that's not what they're really interested in doing. They they don't really care about that. That's not their that's not their goal. And so that's that that doesn't put them in the same boat of of intentional provocateur, but it does put them in the boat of people that are not actively fighting the same fight that we should be fighting. Nevertheless, I'm gonna read the article itself and get into how they paint the picture of what we're doing in the state of Texas and show you guys, again, how manipulative the language is in an attempt to convince you that what Texas is trying to do is we're willing to punish women. We want to punish women. Let's read this. Abortion is already illegal in Texas. I have some issues with that claim, but we'll get into it. But it but a battle is brewing between factions of the anti-abortion movement over whether lawmakers should go even further by banning in vitro fertilization and punishing women who get abortions. At this month's Texas GOP convention, delegates added both policies to the party platform, calling IVF destructive and saying anyone who has an abortion law or anyone who has an abortion should face criminal penalties. Now I want to clarify when they say delegates added both policies to the party platform, they're misspeaking a little bit. Those the the at least I don't know about NVIDIA fertilization. I wasn't super read up on Texas's prior platform when it comes to that. I do know uh that the position to give criminal penalties to people who commit abortions, that was already there. They reaffirmed it because there was a debate brought if they could c if they could strike it down and change it, but it was reaffirmed. So it was not added to the platform. Nevertheless, it says the push for more hardline restrictions shows how the state's most extreme anti-abortion groups, known as abolitionists, are gaining sway. The new platform also puts the party at odds with some of its top leaders, including Vice President J.D. Vance and Attorney General Ken Paxton, who declared in recent days that he is a strong supporter of IVF. And it comes as Texas Republicans have moved to soften a strict abortion ban that women said put their lives in danger. The GOP platform, of course, they say is not a binding document, but the party uses it to pressure lawmakers, and it often does influence the policy they set. Some in Texas worry it's a sign of what to come. You have Amy Bresnan, a lobbyist who has been involved in abortion policy in Texas and is pro-abortion. She said, in the near term, in 2027, I think it's almost impossible that bill would pass. In 2029, I don't know. Anti-abortion groups were prominent at the GOP convention, many of them were just a couple slots away, by the way, from where Patriot Doc 920 was set up, putting up booths and handing out flyers fighting over the proposed protect life language. The party kept stances. They said adopted, but I don't like that phrasing because they didn't adopt them. They were already there, asking lawmakers to advance policy defending equal protection under the law from the moment of fertilization, a concept pushed by hardliners who believe the termination of a pregnancy should be equivalent to homicide. Not should be. I want to, I already I'm trying so hard to actually make it through the article and then address the actual concerns therein. I can't do it. I I I just I'm not capable of it. We don't we don't say that it should be the equivalent. We say that it is. And the law because the law doesn't determine what homicide is. Not really. I understand that it sets the penalties for said crime, but we've gone over back and forth, uh, I mean, uh so many times. Is the law the arbiter of what's right and wrong? If if you affirm yes, then I don't want to say you're a lost cause, because I think that you can be persuaded. But we all have to understand from a logical perspective and an analytical one, that's simply not possible. If the law were the arbiter of what's right and wrong, then in every country, right and wrong means different things. And if right and wrong means different things, then there is no such thing as right or wrong. There is no such thing as homicide. There those things don't exist. They're just terms we made up in America. Now, if you believe that, again, I'm not saying you're a lost cause, but there's a real issue in your in your form of thinking. Right? And you can point back because all these people are are certainly, you know, very anti-slavery. These are the people that actively very much celebrate Juneteenth. And I don't mean that in the worst way possible, but they're there they would they would argue that slavery is the worst crime ever committed in America. And so if you ask them, hey, but slavery was legal, that made it fine, right? It wasn't slavery, because really, if you're defining slavery as this evil thing, well, it was legal, so it couldn't have been bad. And they'd say, no, that was bad law. You'd say, okay, so it's possible uh that it that that homicide can mean more things than the law currently stipulates that it means, right? That that murder can mean more than what's currently being committed. It can be it can mean more than what's currently on the books. Now, I want to move further than this because there's more. The platform also called for protection from destructive practices such as IVF and commercial surrogacy, and it struck language that exempted women from criminal penalties in to their own abortion. You have abolition abortion taxes, a sponsor of the convention, celebrated the changes, even as other prominent Texas anti-abortion groups say they didn't agree. On social media, the group posted, We won the debate fair and square. Anyone claiming otherwise is simply in denial that Texas conservatives support equal protection of the laws for pre-born babies. The article continues While the opinions of the party carry no inherent weight for lawmakers, the Texas GOP has taken steps to campaign against Republican incumbents it views as insufficiently conservative. Proof of its clout was also reflected in the convention speakers, including Governor Greg Abbott, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, and House Speaker Dustin Burroughs. Incoming Chair Dorinda Randall announced that delegates chose Protect Life as the eighth top priority for the party this year. The platform puts the party out of step with most Texas GOP lawmakers and with federal Republicans. They continue. Texas has been deliberate in targeting doctors, family, and others who help women get abortions in some way, but not women themselves. Last session, lawmakers passed a bipartisan bill to make it clearer when doctors can perform an abortion during a medical emergency after lawsuits and widespread outcry from women who said their lives had been put at risk. Though, to be clear, that was a claim of medical malpractice, not a claim of law issues, right? That that we clarified it because there was medical malpractice, but it was medical malpractice. Nevertheless, Burroughs and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick did not respond to requests for comment. The governor's office released a statement that it did not directly address those comments. Andrew Mahalaris, who was the press secretary for Abbott, said, quote, Texas will continue leading the nation, protecting both mothers and their children. Federally, Republicans have also defended IVF, describing it as pro-family. Some have shied away from harsher abortion penalties as a matter of political reality. Vance recently said in an interview that he hears from the abortion abolition movement all the time, and my response is to them, we can't be immune to the realities of modern politics. But since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, Mary Ziegler, who studied the history and policy of abortion policy, says the abolition movement has grown. She said, quote, there's a lot of debate within the movement about what this idea of personhood actually requires, and if it either, in terms of practicality or logical consistency, it requires punishing women. And that was a very fringe position a decade or two ago. The wing of the movement has gained more influence. She said, It turns out that it's very hard to punish doctors when most people are getting abortion medication from states where abortion is legal. While Ziegler said that in some states, abolitionists have a lot of influence in the state legislature, Texas isn't necessarily there yet. But that doesn't mean the idea among powerful anti-abortion groups isn't being debated. John Siego, president of Texas Right to Life, who I mentioned, one of the most influential groups in the state, said right now the prospect of imposing new criminal penalties is kind of like a family conversation amongst Republicans. Siego wouldn't directly say whether the organization would support or oppose punishments for new abortions, only that it's not their top priority right now. Currently, he said they're focused on limiting access to abortion drugs. On the issue of IVF, he said they aren't advocating for a ban, but want to regulate the industry to avoid any destruction of embryos, which if you regulate that, you're basically banning IVF. That that's the entire that's that's how IVF works is the destruction of embryos. And so Amy O'Donnell, director of Texas Alliance for Life, who I mentioned, said that punishing women will ultimately work against the goals of the movement. She described situations where a woman may need help that could ultimately lead her away from an abortion, but won't seek it out of fear of prosecution. She also described situations where a woman's life could be in danger, but she won't seek medical attention out of fear. Quote, we want to hold abortion providers accountable and help women choose life. Repealing these statutes opens the door for prosecuting women for homicide instead, and that it's not going to be an advancement for the pro-life movement. Democrats in the state have warned that the laws against abortion will hurt women. The Texas Democrat Party said, quote, the Texas Republican Party has once again shown how extreme its agenda has become by removing protections for women facing pregnancy complications, which is not true, and calling for an end to IVF, Texas Republicans are interfering with some of the most personal decisions families will ever make. The state's abortion ban, which offers no exception for rape or fetal abnormality, continues to drive women to leave Texas for care. Despite the state's near total ban on the procedure, about 43% of Texans said the state's current abortion policy should be less strict, and 53% said it should be illegal for women to get abortion medication. President said while anti-abortion groups do get out of the platform changes, she'll be watching lawmakers. So far, when these type of policies have been introduced in Texas, they haven't gotten anywhere. She said people should be watching legislation closer than platforms. Now I want to address the actual logic inside the article,

Is Abortion Illegal Without Penalties

SPEAKER_01 15:40

the claims they make. Texas is willing to punish women, right? And I think that slavery is a is a is a fairly solid comparison, because obviously I think that it's it should be undeniable. It should be just logically true that slavery is evil. That let me rephrase that. That should tell slavery purchase of men is is is immoral. But if you had a scale of immorality, right? We understand that, hey, stealing is not as bad as murdering someone. Even if both are evil things, both are sin, both condemn you, from a spiritual perspective, from a legal perspective, right, from that sort of you know position, we understand, okay, yeah, murder is obviously worse. That's why it demands harsher penalties, and that's why it demands, you know, stricter consequences, that justice must be swifter and must be stronger in the case of homicide than in the case of theft. We get that. If you were to compare slavery and murder of innocent human life, I think it would be fair to say one is should be obviously worse than the other. And so I think slavery is a good comparison because all these people are ardently anti-slavery. And so if you were to say, well, did you want to punish slave owners? Well, did did you want to punish people who are currently do you want to change the law to punish people? Yes. Because it's wrong. Yes. And so the logic of this is actually very simple when you boil it down. And that's why groups like Alliance for Life and and all these other groups, th they don't make much logical sense. Because you have to understand what's what's our reason for being anti-abortion? Is it just because we think that abortion is a bad industry? Or is it because we say, no, when you murder an unborn life, when you when you take away the life of a child in the womb, that's wrong because it's murder. Right? If if that's the reason, then all of these conversations cease to really make much sense. If we acknowledge that there is a human being present at the moment of conception, at the moment of fertilization, at the moment when you have that connection made, that you now have an independent human life, it's why all the arguments for viability don't make any sense. All of the arguments for up till birth abortions don't make sense. And why all these groups would argue, yeah, that's really bad. Yeah, we want to stop that as as much as possible. Yet then you get to the issue of penalties for for said murder. And this is the only murder in the country, anywhere, where we look at it and we say, well, yes, we understand that that's a a human a human life that we want to protect. We do believe that. The whole platform believes that. It's not just the platform, the lawmakers claim to believe that. The Republican groups claim to believe that. But then if you were to ask, okay, so what should the punishment for any murder be? Even if, even if you're not a capital punishment believer, even if you just say, hey, I think the answer should be something like, you know, strict jail time, life in prison, 30, whatever your particular form of that is, well, what's the excuse for not giving out said punishment in a case like this? What's what's the arg what's the logical argument for saying, so we believe that it's murder, we believe that it's wrong, we believe that it's homicide, but we don't want to punish the people who commit the homicide. It's the only case in the entirety of the country where we make that claim. It's the only exemption we give to murder is well, if you commit murder of the most innocent among us, you're entitled to protection from the law. And this is why I take issue when we say that abortion is illegal in Texas. Because from a statutory perspective, sure, you could make that argument, yeah, it's very illegal. It's not legal to do. The law says so. But I've said before, how much does the law matter if we don't have consequences? And this is a claim I've made all across the board, from homicide to theft. I often use the example. If I say, hey, theft is illegal, but if you do it, you're not going to face any penalties. If you steal, we're not going to charge you, we're not going to prosecute you, we're not going to arrest you, and we're not going to sentence you, we're not going to ever convict you for it. Is theft really illegal? Well, again, from a statutory perspective, we could say, yeah, of course, of course it's illegal. The law says so. But if you face no consequences for it, then it's uh kind of a useless law. It's it's a completely irrelevant argument. Sure, it's illegal, and that means quite literally nothing. When you still have thousands, tens of thousands of abortions going on in your state, and no one gets punished for it, it's hard to sit around and say, well, it's illegal, so it's fine. No. Whatever we're doing isn't working because it may not be legal, but it's still allowed. It's still deliberately happening, and we're doing nothing about it. And so whenever these people come out and they say, Well, you want to punish women, no, I I don't want to punish women. I actually don't want to punish women at all. I want to punish murderers, actually. I want to have in repercussions that are preventative so that people don't want to commit murder, so that that the desire to murder anyone is curbed all across the board. From a 90-year-old to an unborn child, everybody that that has a conception where they say, ah, you know, I might murder somebody, says, Well, but the law would punish me. The law is supposed to be preventative in nature, that the consequences outweigh the the reward that you could possibly receive. We do that for every law in the books. We say, we don't want someone to break the law, and so we make repercussions, we have justice, so that people fear breaking that law. When you don't have those, of course nobody fears breaking the law, and you keep having people do it. Of course there's there's a standard for that. And so it's not that anybody on any side of the argument wants to quote unquote punish women. Again, that is intentionally manipulative phrasing by calling us hardliners. No, we're just the only ones that are actually consistent in our argument. Because if you're if you're in the pro life movement and you say, Hey, I believe in the protection of the unborn, hey, I believe that there is a human being in the womb at the moment of conception. Which is again the only logical argument, and everyone in the pro-life movement currently says they believe that. If that's the case, then what's your justification for not creating criminal penalties? If you say, okay, so there's a living human being and people are murdering living human beings, but we don't want the murderers to face any repercussions for murder. How do we justify that from any sort of logical perspective? You can't. It's impossible to do. They don't have an argument. That's why the GOP platform was wise enough with the delegates to say, yeah, we can't abandon that policy. We we can't change that because of course it doesn't make logical sense to do so. You can say all day long, well, but we don't want to do this. Well, but what you want to do has nothing to do with it. It's about what's right, it's about what's objective, it's about what's true. And the truth of the matter is, when you talk about abortion, you you have no leg to stand on if you say, I think there is a living human being that should be protected, but I don't think if you murder that living human being that you should face any consequences for it. You're blatantly saying that you don't actually care very much about that life. That, well, I believe it's a life, but it's not worthy of protection. It's not worthy of human rights, it's not worthy of the same defense we provide to everyone else. When you walk out, the defense of your life is of course our law enforcement and the understanding that you'll be protected and that there are harsh consequences if you are not for the person who commits a crime. But we won't do that for unborn children. It's not an issue of hardlining or being far right or of being extremist or of pushing for women to be punished. It's a very clear conversation about what is the taking of a human life who's done no no wrong. And that's why when you get into well, what they say fetal abnormalities or or cases of rape or incest, they always point to these things and you say, well, not only is that a tiny fraction, a tiny fraction of the population, but more than just that, that still wouldn't be logically consistent. In a case of rape, what crime has the has the baby committed? What have they done to justify their death? Nothing. The person who did the crime, of course, is the father who committed the rape, right? Go after that guy for sure. But what crime has the baby committed? In a case of a phenal abnormality, right? They'll they call it that, but really if you believe that abortion is justifiable for quote unquote fetal abnormalities, in 99% of cases, you're justifying eugenics. The the murder of people who you think are lesser than, which is why you had a couple uh just a couple weeks ago who came out and said that they were they were very distraught because they had to get an abortion because their baby had trisonomy 21, which is just Down syndrome. They found out their baby had Down syndrome and they murdered him. That's where that leads. And so whenever I asked, well, what about rape, incest, what about all these things? The only exemption that makes any sense at all, bare minimum from a logical perspective, is life of the mother, because now you have two competing lives. And even then, I think the argument for abortion is very shaky at best because there are so many solutions to dealing with life of the mother that does not require abortion, because abortion is the slaughtering of the child. There are ways to intentionally attempt to remove the child to save the life of the mother that is that are just as successful at the life of the mother that have a chance at keeping the baby alive. That should be the goal. There's two patients in that room when the life of the mother is at risk. There is a mother and there is another living human being that is just as worthy of rights as the mother. And when you kill that baby because of the life of the mother, when there are other options, legitimate options, that are arguably more successful, like a C-section, that is, that is, again, from just a statistical analysis, is just as successful, and often more so because it's quicker than an abortion procedure. It's more successful saving the life of the mother, and has a very high rate of survivors when it comes to the unborn children. And so for all these arguments, they want to call us hardliners. And I didn't even have time to get really into IVF, though I will highlight just for our listeners, IVF does destroy embryos. That's what it does. It does murder living human beings that you made. You made a bunch of them and then you murdered a bunch of them. That's that's like serial killing, is what IVF is. And I understand, well, well, we want technology that can help women conceive. I agree with that. I think that's great. But not at the not at the consequence of murdering children, actually. That's that's not a higher good. Well, we want children, so we're willing to murder a bunch to get a good one, is not a good argument either. And so in all these cases, it's not that I'm taking a position that wants to punish people and hates people and doesn't want any protection for people. It's that I'm coming from a logical position to say if it's murder, which we all agree in the pro life movement it is, then the logical following of that must mean that there is protection. Otherwise, not all murder is created equal, and some people who are murdered were less worthy of protection than others. And that is an incredibly evil position to hold. And that is what the left wants you to hold. And that's again why we have to stop being lectured by left-wing outlets who tell us how to run our own party. Well, that's a hardline stance. Yeah, it is. We I do I do take a hard line stance against murder. Yes, I do. Absolutely, I take a hard line stance against the slaughter of innocent people. I think that that's wrong and unjustifiable, and people should face consequences whenever they do it and whomever they do it to. Yes. And I don't need a lecture from people who want abortion up to nine months telling me what I should believe about murder, actually. I think I can I can do without that. And so I just wanted to go through that and highlight just how insane people have

Rape Exceptions And Moral Consistency

SPEAKER_01 27:53

gotten. With that being said, a new poll from UT has kind of gone through some of the big stuff going on right now, from the Senate race to the data centers, uh, Ken Backstage and James Salarico's race, and Texans are voicing concerns over other things as well. Uh, this new poll is kind of going into all of the different data and kind of giving us an idea of what direction the state's moving, what people in the state believe, all that good stuff that we'll talk about after this break. As always, if you would like to text into the show, if you have a disagreement with something that I've said, right? If you say, no, actually, I don't think we should punish women, quote unquote. I don't think that we should punish murderers. I I would love to hear an argument for it that makes any semblance of sense. You'll be tough, you'll be hard-pressed to find one. But but nonetheless, if you want to text in because you disagree, or you have a story you want to hear more reports on, um, or you have a some sort of question as to what I've said that didn't make sense, feel free to text in and let me know. 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 with that UT polling data after the break. Stick around.

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UT Poll And The Senate Race

SPEAKER_01 33:30

A new University of Texas slash Texas politics project poll finds the race for U.S. Senate remains highly competitive. While a majority of Texans are saying things about data centers, we'll talk about it. The survey, which was conducted June 5th of the 12th, but it was just recently released, found Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton and leading Democrat state representative James Talerico by just one percentage point, 43% to 42%. And the results, they say, fall within the poll's margin of error, meaning that because of the low population that participated in the poll, it's so close that if they had taken just an extra couple hundred people, it could have drastically changed the results. The bull comes, of course, less than a month after we know Paxson beat out John Cornyn in that runoff. And so according to the survey, Republican voters have largely consolidated behind Paxton, which is exactly what we want to see, is that sort of unity. 84% of Republicans said they would support him in a head-to-head match with Taller Rico, while, of course, 88% of Democrats backed the Democrat nominee. So 84%, 88%. So they're still a little more unified than we are. But nevertheless, the Zenick contest appears to be the most competitive statewide race in the survey. Governor Greg Abbott led Gina Hinahosa 47% to 40%, while Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick held a 43% to 36% advantage over Democrat Vicky Goodwin. In the race replaced Paxton's attorney general, Republican Mays Middleton led Democrat Nathan Johnson 41% to 36%. So all these are five to ten percent different as opposed to the one percent between James Halarico and Ken Paxton.

Data Centers And Local Pushback

SPEAKER_01 35:01

Now, beyond the election matchups, uh the poll also found significant opposition to data center construction as Texas continues to attract large-scale projects tied to artificial intelligence and cloud computing. 56% of Texans said they oppose the construction of a data center in their community, including 42% who said they strongly oppose those projects. Only 29% of people specifically expressed support of the project. Total combined of 56% somewhat oppose and strongly oppose. If you look at strongly support and somewhat support, only 20% somewhat support and only 9% strongly support data center construction. And there's, I think, about about 16% of people who just didn't know or didn't relay their opinion, didn't really have anything to say about it. Now, opposition was especially pronounced in rural and suburban areas where many existing and proposed projects are expected to go, especially considering, by the way, that of course, if you already live in a massive city that's already very noise polluted, that already has a lot of electricity and grid issues, that rates are already very high. If you already live in these cities, more than likely, if there were the position of there being a data center near you, with everything already going on in your city, you probably wouldn't even really know. You probably wouldn't even be that aware. It wouldn't really impact you very much. As opposed to if you're living out on farmland in the middle of rural Texas, you're intentionally living out of the city. You are intentionally not participating in the big city events. And for them to essentially what data centers are doing, bring the city to you, and in some cases take your land to do it, or force you to pay for it, I think it's obviously a much harder sell. Now, of course, that comes as you also have people that are kind of leading the state, uh focusing on the impact. Of course, you had just earlier this month, we talked about it before, but that issue of, hey, are we gonna have to pick up the slack? You have Governor Greg Abbott, who directed the Public Utility Commission and ERCOT to ensure that Texans are not left paying for electric grid upgrades tied to the rapid expansion of data centers. Abbott instructed regulators to pursue policies requiring data centers to bear their own infrastructure costs, minimize impacts on local communities, and reduce pressure on residential electric bills. The governor also proposed requiring water-efficient cooling technologies, annual reporting of electricity and water usage, and the elimination of tax incentives for data center projects. The poll was conducted online through Ugov, and they give out their margin of error, which is 2.83 percentage points. And so, like I said, all the other races are not in the margin of error, which means supposedly they're supposed to be fairly accurate polling, as opposed to the Senate race, which is so close uh that when you have a margin of error of nearly three percentage points and it's within one, that that fits firmly within the margin of error zone, as opposed to the five to ten point sway when it comes to lieutenant governor, attorney general, and governor. Now, this this poll was kind of, I don't want to say short-sighted. I wish we had more data coming out of it in regards to the ad commissioner race, yeah, in in in all of the other races in the congressional races. I wish they had done a thorough deep dive. I know that that takes more time and requires, you know, um, but there there are other statewide offices. Uh, uh we don't even have to go into specific congressional districts, though that would be cool if we could conduct some of those as well. But there are other statewide races that they just blindly ignored, that they just didn't go over. They didn't talk about railroad commissioner, they didn't talk about ag commissioner, they didn't go into a lot of these races that are very important. Right? You look at Railroad Commissioner, and again, I I know that that's not an overtly sexy race. I know that that's not the kind of race that when you're getting up in the morning and you're thinking about very important elections coming up, they're like, ah, Railroad Commissioner. But you need to be aware, Railroad Commissioner has so much authority when it comes to the oil and gas industry, which is the driver of the Texas economy. It's it's absolutely insane that that is not considered a big important race. It should be. It is a big important race. It should be widely considered one from everyone else's perspective. Because from DEI to ESG policies and carbon emissions, all of those things can easily come out of the railroad commissioner's office if you're not very cautious and you're not making sure that we elect a good representative. And in the case of the railroad commissioner, for instance, we're actually very blessed because not only do we have a Republican running who appears to have a chance at winning, but the Republican that we put in to run is a very conservative Republican. Someone who is very much a conservative. Not just not just has an R next to their name, but actually stands to represent conservative policies in his position very anti-DEI, anti-Islam infrastructure, pro-Texas, pro-oil and gas, anti-ESG and carbon emissions guidelines and regulations, all those sorts of things. So I wish that we'd seen more data, but even with the data we have, I want to remind everybody of two competing concepts that are both true. On the one hand, it does certainly appear that Republicans still have an edge up in basically every race, from I mean, even those in the margin of error, from the Senate race to the governor's race, to the lieutenant governor's race, to the attorney general's race. I would imagine that holds true for a railroad commissioner or an AG commissioner if you're voting down the ballot, which you you definitely, if you're not, if you're not already doing that, that should be an automatic thing that you do is vote all the way down the ballot. But nevertheless, it does feel, it does seem like from all the data that Texas is still strongly Republican. That we still have a wide enough point spread that we're not overly concerned with losing. That it does not appear like the that the state of Texas is falling right now. But I also wanna I also want to caution people because unfortunately, what I've seen polling data do, I I know people who this has happened to, is they'll see the polling data where they see a 10-point spread for the Republican, and they'll say, Well, I guess I don't need to show up. Well, I suppose that race doesn't really matter all that much. He's already, he, he already got it in the bag. It's already basically been won. You can see the data. There's no real concerns here. That could not be further from the truth. The Democrat Party has been trying to take over Texas for a very long time. This is nothing new, and they so far have not been able to do that. But every year, more people are moving from blue states. The cities are getting larger and they're spreading outward. And by spreading outward, conservatives are paying less attention at the same time. And to highlight that, I would remind everybody Paraland, down in Brazoria County, historically one of the reddest counties, Paraland now has a mayor, and I know it's a technically a nonpartisan race, is is what they call it, but it is a partisan race. You can see the policies of each of the candidates, and you can find out very quickly what they actually believe and what they represent. And the guy who won the Paraland mayoral election in this last cycle, that guy has supported DEI and these climate activists, right? That's that's the that's the ESG, you know, climate, pro-climate, you know, control sort of policies. He is a left he is a leftist in his beliefs, even if it's a nonpartisan race. The guy who ran in the nonpartisan race and won in Brazoria County in Paraland, Texas, was a Democrat by any reasonable standard of which we

Poll Leads Can Breed Complacency

SPEAKER_01 42:55

would call someone a Democrat without actually them being one. He is. And so it's spreading out, it is spreading into the suburban and urban areas, and it's getting worse. And the most dangerous thing we can do right now is to see all this data and say, hey, yeah, it looks like Texas is gonna win again. It looks like we're gonna keep our stronghold here in this state against Democrat control. We're going to maintain our leadership in the nation as a conservative state, and that's all good and fine and positive. But what we can't allow that pollinator to do is to drive us to thinking that we can grow complacent and we can calm down and we can feel safe and secure in what we've done. And then we can start believing, oh yeah, they're never gonna they're never gonna get us. We're totally good. There's nothing to be worried about. If I don't show up, it doesn't really even matter because we got this in the back. We're we're totally fine in every major race. We're all set. We cannot afford to let ourselves lapse like that. We we don't have The time, we don't have the resources, we don't have the ability to take a break. We cannot start giving up things because we already feel like we want. I mean, that is that is one of the most dangerous things we could possibly do, is to underestimate the left because of polling data from UT is to come out and say, well, the polling data says that everything's going all right, that we have a firm lead as the Republican Party here in the state of Texas. So there's nothing really that we need to be concerned about is the worst thing we could do. Because you know the leftists aren't going to do that. They're not going to see the polling data and be disenfranchised. They're going to think we have ground to make up and they're actually going to push even harder, which is what we also have to do. We have to see this and say, hey, a five-point spread, that's not enough. We need a bigger, we need a bigger margin. And we push it for a 10-point spread, a 15-point spread. We need to be pushing harder and better than before because of this data. That needs to be our response. Now, with that being said, when we get back from the break to wrap up the first hour of the show, we are going to jump over and we're going to cover the weather report. I'm going to give you guys the weather that we see coming out of today, tomorrow, the plans for the rest of this week. Though I promise you, spoiler alert, it's nothing new, it's nothing developing. You could probably have guessed without the weather report what the weather report's going to be, but we will talk about it after the break. As always, if you would like to text into the show, 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 break to ride with the first hour of the show with the weather report. So hang tight.

SPEAKER_08 45:46

Patriot Talk 920 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_18 46:00

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SPEAKER_01 47:01

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SPEAKER_12 47:36

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SPEAKER_19 49:02

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SPEAKER_14 49:30

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Houston Heat And Saharan Dust

SPEAKER_01 49:54

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and you're listening to the Lone Star Conservative. Houston is going to spend the rest of the week under a stubborn dome of high pressure that keeps temperatures in the 90s and keeps those rain chances scarce. That same pattern is going to allow Saharan dust, if you guys remember that from last year, it's making a comeback, to become a bigger part of the forecast, with a modest plume arriving later this week and a potentially larger plume reaching Texas around Tuesday of next week. Now, Houston's weather pattern is not going to change much today as high pressure remains firmly in control all across the Gulf Coast area. The ridge will suppress cloud development and keep meaningful rain chances out of the forecast through at least the weekend. You can expect mostly sunny skies and afternoon highs reaching into the lower to mid-90s each day, and overnight low settling into the 70s. The good news is that humidity levels should remain somewhat manageable. Dew point temperatures, which indicate or should indicate most of the time moisture saturation levels, are projected to be a bit lower than average, helping keep humidity-driven heat index values from triggering a National Weather Service issued heat advisory, despite the warmth out there because of the muggy conditions. Southerly winds will continue off of the Gulf of America, but the atmosphere will remain too stable and dry to support widespread thunderstorm development. For now, we're being dominated by sunshine heat and a very low chance of rain. Now, the first of several likely rounds of Saharan dust will continue spreading across Texas to the end of the week, bringing, of course, hazier skies. The initial plume is not expected to be especially dense, but it should be noticeable. You may notice sunrises and sunsets looking particularly vibrant as dust particles can enhance the reds, oranges, and other colors. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality expects dust concentrations to remain elevated enough that air quality may occasionally slip into the moderate category in the Houston area. Most people won't notice significant problems beyond the haze, but tentative groups, like those with asthma or other respiratory problems, could experience irritation during periods of higher concentrations. We also have a larger plume moving across the southern Atlantic or the Eastern Atlantic. Forecast models continue to depict a larger and denser plume of that dust moving west of Africa, crossing the tropical Atlantic and approaching the Caribbean and Gulf of America early next week. Current projections suggest some of the dust could begin reaching Texas around next Tuesday, though the exact timing and the level of concentration is still expected to potentially change. That'll do for our weather report today. We'll be back with that more tomorrow. In the meantime, that'll do for the first hour of the show as well. And when we get back, we're gonna have Robert Montoya from Texas Scorecard talking all about the transmission lines, what the commission will be doing, where we go from here with this big project, some of the background, and so much more. Stick around. You're listening to Lone Star Conservative. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and Lloyd, we're gonna be back at the top of the next hour with Robert Montoya from Texas Scorecard. Hang tight, and we'll talk soon.

SPEAKER_09 52:54

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

Texas Grid Plan And Landowner Rights

SPEAKER_01 53:21

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and you're listening to the Lone Star Conservative here on Patriot Talk, 9.20 a.m. here in Houston. And we have Robert Montoya joining us from Texas Scorecard this morning, talk all about these big transmission line projects, what's going on, the latest updates, where are we expecting this to go from here? Welcome to the show, Robert. Thanks for having me on, Michael. Good to be here. Good to have you here. Now, Robert, you've been kind of covering this proposed 765 kilovolt transmission project, uh, which is of course tied into the Permian Basin Reliability Plan. We've had some major developments. Before we get into those developments, can you kind of lay out the background for our listeners, the basics of this case, what exactly the project is, maybe why it's getting the attention that it's getting, what's going on here?

SPEAKER_20 54:08

Right. So for those who aren't aware, uh what the Permian Basin Reliability Plan includes is you've got utility companies proposing to build three 765 kilovolt transmission lines. Now, we've never built these kilomet lines before in Texas. Electro high voltage that would bring energy from east Texas into the energy-rich Permian basis because there's a lot more growing demand in the Permian basis. And each of these lines have been broken down into five separate segments to be considered one at a time. But one of the things to criticize is you'll notice I said the energy-rich Permian basin. He'll point out that there is untapped energy that can be used to deal with the energy needs in that region. Why are we building transmission lines to move power there instead of just building local generation?

SPEAKER_01 55:00

Right. I think that's a fair question. If it's an energy-rich area and there's a lot of untapped energy, why would our first response, especially at the cost, which we'll get into here in a little bit, why would our first response be to build these massive projects that we've never done before? And I think that's a totally fair question, even if it's not necessarily a criticism, even if it doesn't come as a criticism, I think it's a totally fair question that we should be asking hey, is is there an alternative that makes more sense that doesn't require something we've never built and requires us doing what we're already pretty good at?

SPEAKER_20 55:29

Correct. And so they were broken down into five segments, and uh an attorney for one of the utility companies pushing this encore said that you know it was broken down into five segments at the request of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, which they're the final decision makers in this. Each segment goes through a process where it goes through administrative law hearings where people who landowners who are affected can voice their concerns, the judge, administrative law judges, by the way. Administrative law hearings are not like normal courts. It's very strange to have an attorney criticize the whole process when we want. But these judges make a decision, and then the public utility uh commissioners take the recommendation from these judges and make the final decision. So that's the whole process, it all has to happen within 180 days from the time these companies file an application.

SPEAKER_01 56:20

Right. So now the specific segment that we're gonna be talking about for the most part today with the most major recent update has been this longshore switch to drill hole switch transmission line. Uh, for maybe people who don't live in West Texas or follow utility dockets, where would this line run? How big of a project is even just this one line?

SPEAKER_20 56:42

Well, this will run approximately 160 miles, uh starting west of Corsayan in Howard County, and it would end in Culverton Reeves County in West Texas. And mind you, this is just kind of like one half of an entire uh 17 divide line. Uh it would connect with uh dinosaur throw hole, and all this would again be part of bringing energy from East Texas into the Pictonian basin. And you know, as I said before, the lifetime cost for all three of these lines approaches a hundred billion. So a hundred billion divided by three, uh you can do the math right there. We're talking about maybe roughly about oh, maybe thirty-five billion lifetime costs of just this one entire line.

SPEAKER_01 57:29

Right. And so we've already got the the conversation right now is on the long short control, but this is part of this that you mentioned the dinosaur to draw import path, which is one of three import paths. And you mentioned that it got broken into these three import paths, these five segments, uh, at the request of the public utility commission of Texas. And so the big kind of picture purpose why do we have any background for why they decided to bring energy here in the first place? As opposed, I know we asked the question already of hey, is there an alternative? What was the designation for saying no, this is the way we need to do it? Do we have any reasoning on the background of this?

SPEAKER_20 58:06

Well, so about uh a couple of years ago, uh, state lawmakers passed uh law called House Bill 5056, and that seems to have been the justification for that. Um what that is, and there's conflict because ever since that was created, that's kind of all the thoughts to create the project. But you know, we've had before now saying, look, any lawmakers have said, hey, this is not what we intended. We intended when we thought when we got this thing create a limited thing to a problem in the permeation. This wasn't meant to be some major future transmission line project using voltage lines we've never used before. In fact, you know, state lawmakers have gotten about to, I think briefly about roughly 40 or more than 40 of them, signed a letter to the commission saying, hey, we need to put a pause on this, put a pin in it, and let's pause this process so we have more time to consider what's going on here.

SPEAKER_01 59:07

Right? And I think that's fair because again, when you look at the law that was passed and you look at the Permian Basin Reliability Plan, it was supposed to be a limited regional fix for the Permian Basin. And this project, uh based on the length of even just one segment, when you look at the project, it's become, I think it would be arguable that it's a statewide project rather than a limited regional fix, which was obviously the intent. So it seems like, at least to me, there's not a lot of accountability here. There's not a lot of return to say, hey, this was not the law we passed. We didn't give the authority to do this. This is not based on anything that the people desired. So where's the authority then being derived from in order to do this?

SPEAKER_20 59:47

And this whole process has been very rushed. When you mentioned lack of accountability, unfortunately, one of the things that that law did, House Bill 5056, is it shortened the time frame for the decision process for a project like this? It was originally one year, like the time an application filed. You have one year for the entire process to run through. Now it's been reduced to 180 days. And I gotta tell you, I've I've covered stories of affected landowners who are looking at either imminent domains affecting them if they go through, or um just having like the uh huge transmission line within view of their land they don't want to see. And say, hey, look, I got a notice in the mail. I only had like two weeks to respond. And I wasn't I didn't even understand what this whether I got in the mail was saying, it wasn't even clear. So this is just entirely rushed. And I had one attorney, Brad Bailiff, tell me that land he told commissioners landowners' interests are not being represented here.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:50

Right, which I think is a totally fair concern, again, especially given the the authority that was originally derived for this to happen. Now, the most recent decision, the most recent update, um, which was unanimous by the way, when the public utility commission members voted to abate the first segment. Um, for those of us who maybe don't speak legal or regulatory language, what does abate mean here? What is it? Is it cancellation, a pause, a delay? Like, what is abatement? What does that look like for for this project?

SPEAKER_20 1:01:22

Well, things I was saying next to an attorney to uh one of the attorneys in this case. And basically what they decided to do was they said, okay, we're not gonna make a decision until we consider the other half that would make up this line, which would be the third thing. So it looks like they're not gonna do anything about this until roughly sometime in August 15th. So landowners and all this, sometime. But it's live sometime. Um unfortunately, the commissioners didn't give as much time as they could have because the following day they decided not to uh run a hearing on whether or not you know enough routes have been proposed if they had done for the final segment of all this, if they had done that, you know, there'd be even more time at it.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:13

So let me ask, and you probably don't know the answer to this, so it's more of a rhetorical question, but maybe what you can kind of hope to kind of think about. Why in the world did they do it on Wednesday and then the next day go and say, but we're not gonna do it again? If the goal was to say, hey, we need more time in this, we need to address each of these primary concerns for each of these segments, why did they not do it the very next day?

SPEAKER_20 1:02:33

Unfortunately, I'm not a mind reader. All we can do is look at the actions, you know, and say, look, they granted some time, but they didn't grant as much as they could have. So kind of a conflicting message, it seems.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:44

So then let me ask, if we don't know why they did it the next day, maybe we know this, why did they decide to do an abatement for this particular segment then?

SPEAKER_20 1:02:53

Uh I will tell you that uh Chairman Gleason, uh, his words were he was not comfortable making a decision at this time. And the commissioners, when they were questioning um on board attorney Jared Taylor, they brought up two things that have to keep coming up throughout the time I've been covering the story. The short time frame landowners have to respond to, and also the improper public notice. You know, either notices not being clear, or some landowners not getting noticed um with an I think in some cases, or maybe getting noticed like way, way, way too late in the process.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:29

Right. Now you mentioned those those 40 to 43 state lawmakers. You also have the American Stewards of Liberty that are asking commissioners to defer any of this determination. Um and the attorney for that case, that's Elena Fulguares, I believe, uh, who asked I believe it's Fulgaris.

SPEAKER_20 1:03:45

Fulgaris.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:46

Fulgaris. So she she asked um kind of whether local generation alternatives could solve some of that problem. And in fact, she said, so we asked this question at the beginning, but I want to raise it back up because she she presented an important point that I that I had kind of missed, but I think it's it's kind of important to talk about. She said that the record suggests local generation wasn't even studied as a potential alternative. Not only did they just decide, hey, the transmission lines just make more sense and didn't really give much of a justification. According to her, it sounds like this may have been, you know, procedural oversight. I don't know what else to call it, but it seems like they didn't even really look into the potential alternatives as an option in the first place.

SPEAKER_20 1:04:22

That's the argument they've been making that uh just instead of building his massive transmission line, just have the amazing resources that are in the Permian Basin itself to address the problem. Um Americans of Delivery has likened this whole project, you know, bringing energy into the Perry Basin as akin to hauling water into the ocean. So this is uh this is a key question. Why aren't they being considered? Now I will say just my thought, if you have transmission companies to solve an energy problem, are they likely to come up with creating new generation or to build more transmission? Uh that's that's the question I put to people.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:02

Right. And then again, it's one of those rhetorical questions where you go, well, no duh. Right? You go, okay, well, that you go, okay, all right, I see why they did what they did, right? You you put if you have a a contractor who builds buildings, you say, Hey, do you want to build a new building, or do you think it'd be better to hire a demolition crew here, they would probably immediately say, no, we'll just we'll just build a new building. That would make more sense for their company. So I do certainly understand that. Now, the hundred billion is something else that I'm very concerned about because on top of, of course, the landowner's concern and the procedural oversights and the authority itself, even if all those things were in order, I think it'd be fair for people to be a little bit concerned. That $100 billion, I have I have two kind of questions attached to it. The original uh authorization of the plan from lawmakers. What would the cost of that have been if we have any idea? And then the second question kind of attached to that where does this money come from if this whole thing does get passed and we do end up spending $100 billion? Those are two types of questions. What was the cost originally supposed to be? And

SPEAKER_20 1:06:39

Your power bills may go up to annually cost of your bill may go up to like maybe at most two hundred dollars. So ratepayers will be taking authentically.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:51

Now, I don't like to not give nuance into things. I don't like doing that. But I do want to summarize this for our listeners and for myself to see if this is a fair representation. So we have a project that has been blown wildly out of the proportion of what lawmakers authorized, that is a burden on ratepayers, that is a burden on landowners, that has procedural oversights where we're not even discussing alternatives to that plan, and where the Public Utility Commission of Texas is not taking as much time as they could or slash should to address those concerns. Is that a fair kind of sum up of what's going on right now?

SPEAKER_20 1:07:28

We're having landowners say that, hey, we're not being represented here. Why aren't we being allowed to be part of this process? We're being rushed through this.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:08

Yeah, it it it seems like it's a whole mess. And I'm sure we're gonna get more updates on the future of the plan, where we thinks go from here. Um that time delay from the abatement, what does that look like? Where do we expect things to go? I'm sure we'll get more updates from you as they actually happen, but what what's the timeline looking like right now of where we expect things to go heading forward?

SPEAKER_20 1:08:27

So I'm watching to see if uh this means the commission is also going to pause the decision on the second segment. Which if they don't, that means we're looking at uh decision of coming in July. But when it comes to the first segment, you know, August is going to be a very big month. That's when they're gonna make a decision on both the first and the third. So keep watching. And in case anyone's wondering, the governor appointed the commissioners of the public utility commission. So that's where the accountability lies.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:57

Right. The accountability at this point lies heavily in the in the governor's office. It's good to know. Well, Robert, as always, we greatly appreciate you giving your time uh to join us this morning and for all the reporting that you're doing on this and so many other topics. Where can people go to find all this reporting and all the other statewide reporting when you're not here on the show?

SPEAKER_20 1:09:15

Oh, yeah, you can just go to TexasScorecard.com and you'll find us on all your favorite social media platforms.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:21

Well, Robert, like I mentioned, we greatly appreciate your time for coming on, and I'm sure we'll get more updates in the future.

SPEAKER_20 1:09:26

Thank you very much, Michael.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:27

Of course, with that being said, when we get back from the break, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to jump over and talk about this Houston Recycling Company that had a history of illegal burning citations before this recent massive fire this week. You won't want to miss that story. Text in 713-779-5978. That's 713-779-KYST. I'm your host, Michael Wilson. You're listening to the Lone Star Conservative, and Lord willing, I will return with that biggest update on that story after this short break. So hang tight. We'll talk soon.

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Recycling Fire And Government Accountability

SPEAKER_01 1:14:18

Talking about this Houston Recycling Company. A massive fire tore through a large pile of trash, which was mostly rubber tires, at Mammoth Metal Recycling in Houston's East End, sending a plume of smoke visible for miles across the city. Before the fire broke out a little earlier this week, a Houston Fire Department source said the company has been cited twice in the last month, twice in the last month alone, for illegal burning. It's unclear how many citations, if any, have been received before that. You know, we don't know if it was one citation or if it was two in the last month and we had hundreds before. We have we have no idea. Uh, but the citations were just the beginning of the company's legal troubles. Less than two years ago, the city of Houston sued Mammoth Metal Recycling for more than $70,000 in back taxes, according to Harris County District Clerk Records. Records show the city won through a default judgment last year, and a judge ordered the property sold, though the current status of the property is unclear considering they're still doing all the things that they would usually be doing. You also have company leaders facing criminal trouble. You have a federal grand jury indicted the leaders of the company in 2023 for an alleged $53 million fraud scheme, including COVID-19 paycheck protection program dollars, the PPP program. According to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice, federal court records show the owner of the Mammoth Group pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud in 2024, and he's scheduled for sentencing later this summer. Despite the company's history of problems, Houston Fire Department arson investigators are now working to determine how the fire started. The Houston Fire Department said it is standard procedure for arson investigators to be involved. The officials must establish the cause of a fire before determining whether it was intentional. Flames were still shooting from the trash pile as of Monday evening, I believe. And so there's now been a formal public records request for the city of Houston for more information about citations at the property. But this is obviously a much larger problem. I think this ties into a very big problem that we've had over and over and over again. Because yes, the immediate question is obvious, right? How did the fire start? Was it accidental? Was it negligence? Was it, you know, something worse like arson? But the bigger question I think that we can answer in the meantime, even if we don't know the actual reason for this particular fire, why do we keep finding out about these things? Why do we keep finding out about a history of malfeasance and malpractice and all these other things once there's something big and dangerous happening? Why does it take that long? Because according to what we're hearing, right, before this massive fire broke out, they've been cited twice in a month. And there's a city lawsuit in unpaid taxes, and there's federal fraud charges involved in the COVID PPP program. Right. Again, not every one of those things is anything like proving the cause of this particular fire, but I think it paints a picture of this system where we have these issues, these red flags that are just piling up. And somehow it seems like nobody seems to care about hitting the brakes and taking a pause and saying we need to look further into this until there's literally smoke filling the city, right? That that that's the issue. Normal citizens d shouldn't, sometimes they do actually, but they should not get this kind of nobody should get this kind of grace, right? You miss a tax deadline, you get a letter. You ever get some bureaucratic filing, you get threatened with with civil or criminal actions. Uh you build a shed in the improper zoning area or run a small business or make a genuinely honest mistake, and the government not only finds out pretty quickly, but punishes you pretty severely. But somehow you have these companies uh that are already showing signs of very serious problems, and the system just seems very slow, very passive, very, very reactive, and waits for something bad to happen. And again, this is not just issues with this one recycling company or just even recycling companies. This is an issue of this general failure that we've seen over and over and over with accountability in our government and in our in our populace. We see it with violent crime all the time, by the way. Uh, we see it with fraud and repeat offenders, illegal dumping, unsafe properties, uh every crime you can think of. The first ex the first the first time that something happens, they excuse it. The second offense, they either excuse it or just get to little paperwork, and then they delay the third offense, they say, we'll look into it. And then one day, the public, we the people have to pay the price for it. And we finally ask, hey, let's talk about violent crime for a minute. When we finally ask, hey, why was that person out? Why, why was that business still operating? Why was that property still allowed to even exist to become the hazard that it became? The answer is always the same bureaucratic, just fraudulent lie, right? Well, jurisdictional confusion and unclear enforcement authority, and we will have pending hearings and open investigations and ongoing review. At some point we got to say that enough is enough.

unknown 1:18:57

Right?

SPEAKER_01 1:18:57

A serious society should hold people accountable, very accountable the very first time. Not because every mistake deserves a maximum punishment, especially that's I mean, that's why you have courts and you have due process to determine your authority in the case, to determine your level of liability in the case and determine what the reason and intention was behind all of it. But because the intent of accountability is also prevention of future issues, right? When someone shows you that they're willing to intentionally cut corners when it comes to public safety, you don't need to wait until you have smoke over the city uh to say, hey, maybe we should step in and do something about this. Uh when someone shows you that they're willing to defraud the public, you don't say, well, they're just a misunderstood entrepreneur trying to make their way in the world. Right? When somebody repeatedly violates basic rules of society by committing violent crime, you don't keep passing the file around and hope that nothing bad happens in the future. And we know that that happens. You you look at a lot of these big na nationwide headline cases like Arena Zarutzka, Daniel Penny, George Floyd, right? The list goes on and on and on. But you look at these cases and you quickly find out, hey, wasn't that person a career criminal? I mean, we and we have this in Houston all the time, by the way. How many times have I had a report on a guy who was out of jail dozens, dozens of times for a variety of crimes, and then he he almost kills an elderly man by by almost beating him to death while he's out on bond. How many times it's not once, it's not twice. It's happened hundreds of times here in the city of Texas, here in the city of Houston, and especially as you expand that circle to look nationwide, it has become a consistent historical issue where we're not holding criminals accountable for the things they're doing, and the result has consistently been that bad things happen when you don't have accountability and justice. Law and order is not just about having more law enforcement out on the streets patrolling, right? It doesn't just mean that you're there after something goes wrong to prosecute people sometimes. Law and order should mean consequences that are real and very predictable. It means that the honest citizens and the honest business owners and the good people in America are not punished, right? Protection of the innocent while those who are operating outside the bounds of the law, right? The guilty, the wicked, are held accountable. They don't get endless second chances. They don't get to keep trying over and over and over again and continue doing bad things over and over and over again, right? And so, look, look, everybody needs to answer basic questions from the mayor's office to Harris County, the city, the fire department. How many citations were issued at the property? When were they issued? What actual enforcement followed? Because it was mentioned earlier on the show, if you have a law but there's no enforcement of it, then it's not really a law. Did anyone expect inspect the site after there were citations? Was there any effort at all to shut down the dangerous activity that was clearly going on? And again, those are not just gotcha questions for an interview. Those are very real accountability questions. And look, again, this is this is not me demanding that the government should just endlessly harass companies who've made a mistake, right? It's actually quite the opposite. A very healthy city and a healthy country should protect honest businesses and honest people by cracking down on those who would commit evil early on in that situation. When the rules are not enforced, the worst operators then get this competitive advantage. Right. And I said the same thing when we had, and we still have, by the way, because they're not doing anything about it, this ongoing issue with after hours, bars, and clubs that are operating in in Houston. I said, hey, you know why they do that? Because the punishment isn't very severe, and they're getting to juice out the competition and say, hey, if you want a drink after 2 a.m., come here. We'll get you one. And they make thousands of extra dollars, and then you find them a grand and they keep doing it. And they get to beat out their competitors because their competitors are following the law. That's not right. That's not moral. That's not just. There's a terrible response. It's actually very evil to treat accountability that way. And and look, the COVID fraud is a perfect example. Uh the government flooded the country with money and inflation and debt. Politicians, of course, bragged about, well, we gave relief, uh, and then we spent years, are still spending years, finding out how much of it was stolen, how much of it was abused, no oversight, we got robbed, and and these these companies, these connected people, uh treated public money, our money, like it was a jackpot they won. And so when a company that you have that's tied into the into that that COVID fraud also has tax problems and illegal burning and a massive fire, we have every right to say stop pretending that those things are isolated. We need a justice system that recognizes, hey, there's impending disaster. Hey, that guy that's been arrested 30 times and is out on bond right now, maybe letting him out is not a wise idea. Maybe there's not a slim chance, but a very large chance that something very bad is going to happen because we actually have this really cool thing called pattern recognition.

unknown 1:24:10

Right?

SPEAKER_01 1:24:10

If I start reading you a list of numbers, and it's imperfect, but it works a lot of the time. If I say, all right, I want you to tell me what number comes next. And I say one, two, three, four, what number comes next? You'll probably say five. And 99.999% of the time, you'd be correct. If I say, okay, two, four, six, eight, what number comes next? You probably say ten. And again, you'd be right, 99.999% of the time. And of course they do got you with that, with math problems. But I'm saying that's basic patent recognition. When you say, hey, this guy's committed a crime 30 times in a row, should we let him out on bond and expect he won't commit one? I think the answer should very easily be, no, that's a that's a very poor idea. That's a very bad idea. Because you know, almost without a doubt, 99.999% of the way, what's going to happen the moment you let him out. And that's how our justice system has been operating for years, where there's no sense of pattern recognition, there's no ability, and even if you didn't have the pattern recognition, just bare minimum you should achieve justice. And they're not doing it. They're not actually holding anyone accountable for these things. And then the result is, oh, look, there's disaster. Who could have seen that coming? Well, everybody that has a functioning brain cell left. Everybody knew that was coming.

unknown 1:25:17

Right?

SPEAKER_01 1:25:18

We didn't know there would be a massive fire. We didn't know that it would be beating an elderly man half to death. We didn't know that it would be, you know, someone being stabbed on a bus or someone being choked down a subway. But we knew that something like this was inevitably going to happen because you didn't hold people accountable when they did it the first time. And so of course they did it a second time. And when you didn't hold them accountable over a dozen times, at some point, the issue falls to you. That yes, they are still in direct responsibility, they still have full liability for their own actions. But at some point we have to have a conversation about the way the government's operating and say, hey, what about you? Where's your place in all this? Because it was your job to protect the innocent and punish the wicked, and you didn't do that dozens of times, and now something worse has happened, which everybody saw coming, you should have seen coming, and you should have done something about it. And that also highlights, by the way, the need that regardless of any of this, you have a right, a God-given right, to defend yourself from these sorts of issues, from danger, from people who would do you harm, because there are so many out there that have been given a free pass to do whatever they wanted and who will continue to do whatever they want, which can often mean hurting you. And that's where our sponsor, Gun Owners of America, comes in. Because bar all the conversations about justice and the government obligations, one thing that is true and will remain true is that you have a God-given right to keep and bear arms for your self-defense, which shall not be infringed. Gun Owners of America understands the belief in no compromise. They stand at the gates, ready to fight whatever battle needs to be had at any given time. If that battle is right now in election season campaigning for candidates who are actually going to defend your rights, that means campaigning for those candidates. If that means you get into legislative session and we have bills that we need heard and to get on the floor and to be passed, or we have bills that are really bad that need to be shot down, that means doing the lobbying for those things. That means if something does get through the cracks and makes it and gets passed into law or it gets signed as an executive order that someone's willing to go in and say, no, this needs to be a lawsuit because this is a violation of your constitutional rights. And Gunners of America is doing all of that, from the lawsuits to the lobbying to the campaigning and so much more. If you would like to become a member, which is the only way they can continue doing what they're doing, is through your membership. You can go to G-Oahuston.com. It is a $25 annual membership, $25 a year, which again is what allows them to continue that fight. Again, that is GOAHouston.com. With that being said, when we get back from the break, we're going to talk about Elon Musk a little bit. We've got some uh stuff coming out between SpaceX and Tesla that I want to go over. Uh, you have this lawsuit in Katy, as you have this federal probe opening into Tesla. Elon Musk has worked coming out and disputing the role of the Tesla technology in this fatal crash in Katy. You also have lawsuits surrounding SpaceX that have been dropped. We'll go over all the details, updating you guys with what's going on in those cases when we get back from the break. As always, if you'd 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 will return with the Elon Musk SpaceX Tesla updates here in Texas after the break.

SPEAKER_14 1:28:28

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Tesla Crash Probe And Self-Driving Claims

SPEAKER_01 1:32:38

So in the days after a driver crashed their Tesla into a KD home, fatally striking a 76-year-old woman, a federal agency launched an investigation into Tesla, and Elon Musk cast doubt on his company's driver assistance technology playing a role in the crash. He wrote, just this week, yes, this makes no sense. Full self-driving drives slowly through neighborhood streets, and this was a high speed crash. Ashok Elleswamy, director of Tesla's autopilot software, backed up Musk's comment, alleging the driver manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way. Still, investigations into the crash are underway as Tesla faces repeated probes from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration over the safety of its driver assistance technologies. A spokesman for the Highway Safety Administration told the Wall Street Journal that the agency is launching a special investigation into the crash. Special crash investigations involve the agency's most in-depth and detailed crash data. Martha Viahu 76 was flown to Memorial Herman Medical Center after a Tesla Model 3 crashed into her front room. She was pronounced dead at the hospital back on June 19th. Authorities have yet determined the cause of the crash. You have people saying, well, it's it's auto, it's self-driving, and you have the company saying, No, no, it's not. Uh the driver of the Tesla said that the at the time of the crash they were using a driving assistance system. Tesla offers two autopilot and full self-driving, which have faced scrutiny from regulators and lawmakers. Both systems are considered level two advanced driver assistance systems, meaning they require the driver to still be fully engaged in the task of driving at all times. Tesla has been linked to over 3,400 crashes related to the systems, according to data from the highway safety agency. The probe opened this week is not the first time the agency has investigated Tesla. Over 3.2 million Tesla vehicles could be recalled after the agency in March escalated an investigation into the final procedural step before it can issue a defect decision. And so the agency opened the probe back in October of 2024 in that case to assess reports that full self-driving failed to detect degraded roadway conditions. The agency also opened an investigation into over 2.8 million Tesla vehicles in October of last year to assess reports that the technology failed to stop at red lights and detect wrong way driving. And so again, a lot of this, I one thing that I do want to highlight, because I'm not, I'm not, I don't, I don't I I I've told people before I drive a Tesla. Do you know that I don't own full self-driving? And uh because all Teslas come with a level of autopilot where you can have driver assistance, which is where it keeps you in the lane and keeps you going the same speed and watches for cars. Full self-driving, you put it in, you put in your location, and it can drive, it can pass, it goes the speed that you want it to go, you get to choose what setting you put it on, and then of course, it can even back into parking spots and and whatnot, what have you. So that's all pretty cool. I don't use it. The autopilot gets used maybe once a year, and I don't I don't purchase full self-driving. But that's not because I think that it's uh that it's useless or that it's bad or that it's dangerous. I actually think if you look at the statistics, it's far safer than your average driver. If you they say, well, there were 3,000 crashes, you say, Well, how many crashes were there per capita from not this technology? Well, it's it's much higher. It's it's like quadruple the number. It is it is statistically much safer to be in a vehicle made by Tesla that is full self-driving than driving it yourself. That's just that's just the statistics. Now I don't because I'm prideful and think that I'm a really good driver and am better than Tesla. I think that I am I'm I you know I I I'm sure everybody feels that way, but I just I don't I don't need a robot driving for me. I just don't ever use it. I prefer just driving myself. But I I do understand the statistics. I do understand the reality uh that as it turns out, hey, you know what, maybe, maybe just maybe, there is some benefit to having systems. And I know that a lot of us are hesitant in a lot of these regards. Anytime that you have a massive technological jump, people get a little bit hesitant. I think that's fair to say. And I think it's a good thing in a lot of cases, it's the same conversation with data centers and AI, right? There's a level of hesitancy to say, do we trust these systems? Do we think they're beneficial? Is it good progress? And so each thing has to be looked at on a case-by-case basis, and we have to be aware of what it is that we're exactly dealing with. In the case of Tesla and full self-driving, right, we've had now years of evidence. And all the evidence points to it's imperfect, right? There have been issues with red lights that have been rectified in software. There have been issues with driving the wrong way, rectified in software. But if you compare that overall to your average driver, it's not even remotely debatable how much safer it is, how much it reduces accidents. And how these cars are designed, also, by the way, that every car should be designed the same way, in the sense of how it's designed with crumple room and everything else, that nine times out of ten, even if you do get in a crash, you're safer in the Tesla than you would be anywhere else. And so we'll see what the result of the federal investigation and the probe is. We'll we'll find out what's going on with all of that. Uh, but I would encourage people to be, I don't want to say, I don't like using the phrase open-minded because I think it's been weaponized as well as a as a phrase. Uh, but to keep your ability to be persuaded intact, that you're always critically thinking that you're capable. I know a lot of people can hit themselves in a position where they're like, ah, no, I believe this, and they can never change their mind. Don't be that person, right? There are things that you believe that you you should never change your mind on, right? Is Jesus Christ God and the Son of God? Yes. Is there such a thing as more uh objective morality? Yes. Is murder wrong? Yes. There are objective truths that you should not change. And then there are other things that you can change your mind on that you should be willing to change your mind on if the evidence changes or if you see new evidence, whatever the case is, that you're capable of changing your mind and making new decisions. Now, with that being said, to wrap up the show, we get back. I also mentioned SpaceX. Well, the Texas Supreme Court has now dismissed a lawsuit over the beach closures being done by SpaceX. Uh left-wing environmental groups that of course sued, citing the state's open beaches amendment. We'll talk all about that lawsuit and the conclusion after we get back from the break for the last segment. If you would like to text in, the number is 713-779-5978. That is 713-779 KYST. You are listening to the Lone Star Conservative. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and Lord will now be right back to wrap up the morning show after this last break. So hang tight. We'll talk soon.

SPEAKER_08 1:38:52

Patriot Talk 920 is your Houston base camp for the America first movement. I'm Todd Stearns and join me weekdays at 11 on Patriot Talk 920 and online at PatriotTalk920.com.

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SPEAKER_19 1:42:08

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SPEAKER_14 1:42:36

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SpaceX Beach Closures Reach Texas Supreme Court

SPEAKER_01 1:43:01

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and you're listening to the Lone Star Conservative. A lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of public beach closures during SpaceX flights has now been dismissed by the Supreme Court of Texas. It was determined that only governmental actors can bring those suits. So let me let me go for a little bit of background. The 2009 Open Beaches Amendment to the Texas Constitution holds that the public individually and collectively has an unrestricted right to use and a right of ingress and to and egress from a public beach. The right is dedicated as a permanent easement in favor of the public. However, portions of that act were amended in 2013 to allow public beaches to be closed for space flight activities. Commissioners of counties bordering the Gulf of America or its tidewaters could now close public beaches or access points that were in reasonable proximity to a space flight launch site on launch dates. Since the law is passed, Boca Chica Beach in Cameron County has reportedly been closed for up to 450 hours per year to allow SpaceX to conduct launch activities. This led Save the Rio Grande Valley, a left-wing environmentalist group, to file a lawsuit claiming the law changes are an unconstitutional violation of the open beaches amendment. Defendants include Cameron County, Texas Land Commissioner Don Buckingham, and Attorney General Ken Paxton. The suit was joined by the Sierra Club, another left-wing environmental activist group. And the Carrizo Comakrudo Indian tribe. I don't know why they have rights to bring suits in America. They got their own stuff. But all three plaintiffs claimed their members had been harmed by the closures as they regularly access Boca Chica Beach. Defendants sought to have the lawsuit dismissed on jurisdictional grounds, claiming they are protected by sovereign immunity. But over the weekend, the Texas Supreme Court unanimously dismissed the lawsuit, finding that state and local governments shoulder the enforcement duty of the open beaches amendment. Although voters constitutionalize the right to use owned beaches, the amendment also specified what it was not creating, a private right of enforcement. That these are not it's not a God-given right that you have to say, well, if I don't get the beach, then I have to sue. Well, that falls to the government. And the government can bring the lawsuit, but that's it. Which we don't have time to really get into the details. I think that's a very dangerous precedent to set in any case. I think you should have ruled on this on jurisdictional grounds and said, well, the amendment is constitutional and qualified it if you were going to drop the case to say, well, the government has the final say over prosecuting crimes uh in terms of constitutional rights. Well, that's just I say I get to do what I want, kind of circular. But that'll do it for the show today. I want to thank everyone for tuning in as always. 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, enjoy your Wednesday, ladies and gentlemen, and Godspeed.