Fort Worth Preachers Confront Police Over First Amendment Rights

A Fort Worth officer allegedly suggests a Christian preacher’s message could be illegal because people feel offended, and that’s where the real test begins. We walk through what the First Amendment actually protects, why “offensive speech” is not disorderly conduct, and how fast liberty shrinks when government authority starts policing viewpoints instead of conduct.

From there, we zoom out to the deeper problem: intimidation rarely needs an arrest to work. We talk about courage in public life, why rights turn into permissions when we stop exercising them, and why the “process is the punishment” has become a modern tool of soft tyranny. A listener text sparks a bigger conversation about MAGA, “God Save America,” and what it looks like to keep pushing for objective moral standards instead of settling for yesterday’s wins.

We also hit rapid-fire Texas issues with real-world consequences: the ICE shooting update involving an immigration attorney facing a felony assault charge, Houston’s flood-prone weather pattern, and a journalism conference where more than 140 employees from taxpayer-subsidized Texas universities are scheduled to participate despite concerns about DEI themes and state law. On the local front, we break down Harris County’s budget deficit, what cuts should look like, and why flood control projects are the kind of public spending that actually serves residents.

Finally, we tackle AI-powered Flock Safety cameras and automatic license plate readers, the Fourth Amendment questions they raise, and why trust in institutions is the missing ingredient.

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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_06 0:08

The voice of reason.

SPEAKER_16 0:13

Michael Wilson Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen.

SPEAKER_12 0:33

I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and you're listening to the Lone Star Conservative here from 6 to 8 a.m. this morning. Very excited to be on with you. Got lots of stuff to cover today, lots of things to dive into, lots of things that we need to talk about that are going on all around our state, uh, but especially here at home, things that we have going on here in our counties uh that are going to impact our daily lives. Things that I know that, you know, it's it's tough to pay attention to all of it because there's always so much going on. And like I say every day, you know, the amount of the amount of research that I do usually, and this is not always true, sometimes we make it through a lot, sometimes there's slower news days, you know, where just not a lot happened, at least not as much comparatively. But I don't think I've ever had a day where I ran out of content. Where I got to the end of the show and I said, Man, I I have nothing else to talk about. Uh, I guess I'll find something on the break. It's never happened. And I don't think it's ever happened on this show. Usually what happens is that we only cover about half of the stories that I've compiled. That's about average. And so whatever we don't cover, I usually try to order, I know this is wild. I'm telling you my whole strategy. I usually try to order the stories from most important to hear, most important to talk about, most impactful, and of course go down the list as we get less and less impactful. But usually even the last story in the lineup is still impactful. For example, what we probably won't get to today, but is is certainly something to talk about, is uh this baby that was surrendered at a safe haven baby box at a fire station up in the woodlands. I want to talk about that. It's on my list of things to talk about. But I have a distinct feeling we're probably not going to get to it. If I was just a news reporter, if I was just a news anchor where we kind of just talked about the news, it would be a lot quicker. And we would get through all of the stories and we would get through all of the, you know, breaking news. But I also think that that would take away from a lot of what the show is. And so instead, we'll do it like normal. We'll go in, we'll get through as many stories as we can while giving you guys all the commentary.

Texas Gun Law Lunch Event Invite

SPEAKER_12 2:38

Uh, by the way, before we kick off the show, really kick off the show, I do have an event coming up this weekend that I want to invite you guys to slash tell you about, make sure that you're well aware if you missed the show yesterday. So essentially, we have this upcoming event. It's uh the Texas Gun Law Launch, Lunch and Learn uh with the armed attorneys. It'll be at Bighorn Barbecue in Pareland from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. this Saturday, right? That's that's coming up very quickly. That's this Saturday, July 18th at Bighorn Barbecue in Paraland from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Now, the registration is 10 bucks. Usually our events are free, but the registration is $10. However, that $10 that you pay is kind of to make sure the people that are coming are actually interested in the material, right? Are actually interested in being a part of what we're doing. That $10 gets given back to you as a sort of meal voucher for $10. So you're basically just contributing to your own lunch that you get when you get there. So um just show up, grab some lunch, sit down. It'll be a good time. We're gonna have some conversations. Um, the armed attorneys are well known as basically the leaders of gun law, gun legislation, gun legislation, and understanding how these things work, especially here in Texas. That was one of the big things that I think is a point for them if you're looking for someone to represent you as your sort of gun lawyers uh to be there for you, is that they're very specific to Texas gun law, which differs from other states. And so that's really important. That'll be this Saturday. Uh the Patriot Talk 920 will be there, the armed attorneys will be there, it'll be a really good time. Bighorn barbecue, I'm gonna put you on something if you go. Bighorn barbecue has great barbecue. I'm not denying that. Uh, but if you want barbecue, there's way better barbecue places. However, however, if you order, I know, I know if anybody that knows me, like personally, is listening, anybody that really knows me, they're gonna know exactly what I'm about to say. Bighorn Barbecue has an excellent burger. I know at a barbecue place. If you get the burger, right, you can get any of them. All the burgers are good, right? Some of them are different. If you like barbecue on your burger or you want an onion ring, there's different ones. I just get the normal one. But if you if you want a burger, make sure you tell them, because it's actually not listed there. You have to tell them I want the sweet sourdough bun. Because they have that. It's kind of hidden. It's on their little fill-out sheet. You don't really know about it. It's kind of a secret, uh, a little bit of a secret. I think you can find it if you look at the fine print on the menu, but most people don't do that. But get try a burger and you can get the sweet sourdough bun. Absolutely excellent. I really like the bun. It's it's very good. With that being said, again, that's this Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. If you want to register, if you're interested in going, I would love to see you guys there. It is at 920gun.com. That'll take you right to the sign-up page, it has all the details. Uh, if you if you heard about it, you're like, I forgot what time it is. That'll all be there at 920gun.com. You can just go to that website, get your registration filled out, and it'll have all the details for you. We'd love, again, to have you there.

Fort Worth Pride Festival Confrontation

SPEAKER_12 5:39

Now, I want to kick it off this morning with a story, not out of Houston, but actually out of Fort Worth, uh, because this is very important to the preservation of our country, and I don't say that lightly. The head of the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division called a video which showed a Fort Worth police officer threatening a pair of Christian preachers with a citation for offensive speech troubling, and said that her office would look into the matter. Herme Dillon responded to a viral clip of events at an LGBT festival and said the civil rights team is on it. Now, the Fort Worth Police Department is also reviewing the incident, as well as allegations against the officers who cited one of the preachers for disorderly conduct related to noise. The department says the citation was not issued for the content of the speech, but for using a megaphone to amplify the preacher's voice. The department noted, quote, a video that is circulated online captures only a portion of the interactions between the officer and the individuals involved. Fort Worth PD also acknowledged that an officer involved in the incident made inaccurate statements. The City of Fort Worth Law Department plans to conduct a training session to provide officers with a refresher on First Amendment protective speech in response to the events. You know, make sure that your boys know what the First Amendment is and what it protects. The incident occurred at the Trinity Pride Festival, which is also, by the way, drawn criticism for being open to minors, children, you know, the family-friendly sort of event. Officers quickly approached the preachers upon their arrival at the festival and denied them entry because of event barriers. One officer said their speech was offensive to others and could constitute disorderly conduct. The pair, of course, protested their demonstration was protected under the First Amendment. David Grisham, one of the pastors, is ultimately cited for unreasonable noise. When Richard Pinskoski, one of the pastors, asked what the officers meant, they refused to give a clear standard, instead, setting examples such as putting a megaphone in an individual's ear, which the pastor said did not occur because the device remained at waist level. He was wearing it. The video quickly went viral on social media with many notable figures, including Elon Musk, weighing in. Sergeant P.A. Vega of Fort Worth PD said that the Department is committed to protecting the constitutional rights of all individuals, including the right to free speech and peaceful assembly, while also ensuring the public safety and enforcing applicable laws and ordinances. He said the Department is aware of a video and allegations circulating on social media. It needs time to review them and will provide additional information once the review is complete.

Courage When Speaking Costs You

SPEAKER_12 8:05

But this is one of those sort of situations where all the talk that we have about courage and liberty and standing against tyranny, where you actually kind of put that down and say, do we actually mean anything when we say this? Because I said before, it's relatively easy to get on a microphone in a private room, in a place where no one knows where you are and say whatever you want. Kind of the same thing with social media. It's it's very easy to get on social media and to say things from the safety of a keyboard. It is undeniably a lot harder to do these things in public, to show up where you really aren't welcome and to say things that are going to be offensive to basically everyone around you. That is a difficult thing to do. If you've never done it, I would encourage you. It is it is not the same sort of situation as talking uh with people that maybe moderately disagree with you. When you go basically into the lion's den and you're willing to courageously speak the truth, it is very easy, right, when you're in these safe spaces, right, which we have. We talk all the time, we say spaces are dumb. Yeah, but we have them, right? Well, we have them in our churches, right? It's easy to speak the truth uh when everybody in the room already agrees with you or is very kind and and and you know has mild temperament and is meek, right? It's very easy. Courage only really gets displayed when you don't have that sort of space space, right? When when you when you you know can look at the outrage of the crowd that you're speaking to and they tell you, hey, your words are offensive, we can't tolerate that, that's not that's not okay. That's when courage actually gets displayed, is when there is an actual conflict. Because it's it's not all that courageous to speak when you know that you're speaking to people that that already like you. Right? It still requires a level of courage because some of the stuff you say may be considered radical enough that people may still disagree with it. But in a lot of cases, the only time that you'll find out what you're made of is when you're having to deal with people that are going to absolutely hate you for what you're doing. Or maybe when you're alone. You can you can look at at Peter as a good example of this, right? All the courage in the world, I'll cut off the ear of one of these soldiers. I got this. And then immediately he's in a crowd being surrounded and he denies Christ. It it and that's that's human nature, right? We can look we can say, Oh, that was that was just Peter. I'd never do that. I I would I would encourage you to put yourself in one of these situations. It gets a lot, it gets a lot more difficult to do that when you're surrounded by people who may hate you for your beliefs. Which is, by the way, precisely when it's even more important that you don't surrender those principles. That's when it gets very important that you stand on your faith and you stand on truth and you're willing to speak it anyway, right? Whatever ultimately happened with the noise level and whatever a court determines about this particular citation, the statement allegedly made by that officer was flatly wrong. Right? It was it was just outrageously not true.

unknown 11:02

Right?

SPEAKER_12 11:02

Offensive speech is not disorderly conduct simply because people are claiming to be offended. In fact, speech that causes no disagreement rarely would need constitutional protections in the first place. The First Amendment was not written because everybody just agreed with everything else everyone was ever going to say. Right? The first amendment wasn't there because everyone just automatically agreed and got along. The first amendment was there because, hey, you have the right to say things even if I don't like what you're saying. Right? And that and and and that's very important. Because the First Amendment is ultimately meaningless if it's not protecting speech that people don't like. If it only protects speech that we all agree on, then it's kind of a pointless measure because no one's gonna care, anyways. You're never gonna be harassed, you're never gonna be targeted, you're never gonna need to be protected by the Constitution at all if everything you ever say is something that everyone just likes. You you have no need for the First Amendment. It's protected because the founders knew there would be times and places where you had to say things that were going to be offensive, they were going to make people angry, there were going to be things that the government didn't want to hear. It was not written to protect government-approved language. It was not it was not written to protect those who just consented with everything the government ever did and with everything the people ever did. And so you could just, you know, say whatever. No, it was written to protect those who dissented, who maybe didn't agree, who had issues with what was being done, who have frequently had issues with the culture and with the people and with what we do and why we do it. That's what the First Amendment is for. Right? It was it was the the political radical and the people that were standing alone in times when the spirit of the age, when the beliefs of whatever time they were in were drifting squarely into territory that was wrong and was evil, and it was time to call it out. Right? And look, even the police department admits now that, of course, the officer made these sort of inaccurate statements and they're kind of reviewing the encounter, the Justice Department's division is looking into it, right? And that's very important because when an armed representative of the government is what law enforcement officers are, when an armed representative of the government comes in and tells a Christian that his message could be illegal because homosexual activists think that it's offensive, that's not just a customer service problem, right? That's not just somebody at a desk saying, hey, that kind of wasn't very nice of you to say, right? That that is the government uh approaching a very thin line between the job, which is preserving public order and safety, right, which is important, and then also enforcing ideological conformity, that you have to conform. You have to be aligned. You you can't say things that dissent, that disagree, that get in the way. Right, which is which is wild because it reminds you, um, you know, Romans tells us, hey, don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may know what is good. We're called to that. We're called not to conform, actually. And when you look back at a lot of the history of the persecution of Christians, you'll find that a lot of it was due to a lack of ideological conformity. You look back at, hey, you have to deny Christ, or we're gonna we're gonna send you to the lions. Often literally. And how many Christians before us said, okay, then the lion it is that fine then, right? I I will take death over denying my Lord and Savior. And so this is this has been a frequent problem throughout world history, where of course the combatants of Christianity, those who hate Christ and hate his word, those who hate the truth, those who are blinded by their sin, um, absolutely hate to hear what we have to say. But we have to understand the threat does not have to result in handcuffs. And this is important because I think a lot of people think, well, they they didn't get arrested or whatever, so it's totally fine. The process is often the punishment. And what I mean by that is that the the intimidation is the point of what is often happening in these cases. Because even without having to arrest anyone, in so many cases, once someone feels intimidated, once they feel threatened, they often flee or they give up or or they leave, right? Whatever it is. The the uniform and the citation, the possibility of arrest, and and by the way, on top of all that, the public humiliation of being of standing out there being talked to by officers as everyone's kind of pointing and laughing at you, right? That's all meant not just to work on those two preachers in Fort Worth, but to work on everybody else that would dare do the same thing. To go after everybody else that would dare come out in public and speak the truth in a place where they're not welcome. It's designed to make the next person that would desire to speak against evil, maybe, maybe stay home instead. Maybe you don't want to have to deal with that. Maybe, maybe you're being taught as an ordinary Christian that your rights exist only until someone complains and you don't really want to be complained against. You don't want to have to deal with that. You don't want to have to be approached by law enforcement. You don't want to have to be, you don't want to have to deal with any of that. So it's easier to just stay home, to just stay out of it. To just and this is why we have so many people who I I I talk to who say, Yeah, I'm not really interested in politics. Well, I know that's not true. You certainly care a lot about politics, because I tell you what, when you're when your property taxes go up, you don't like it. You complain about it, and you should. When when laws are passed, right? I I can ask, you know, I I know people who say, Hey, I don't really like politics. And I go, Do you like when babies are killed? And they go, Well, of course not. No. I was like, that's political. That that is that is actually a partisan issue at this point, whether or not it's okay to kill babies. So you do care. You don't like seeing babies killed. So you do care about politics, right? But do you like it when when kids are being transitioned? Do you like it when you know you take, you know, 50 years ago where homosexuality was considered shameful enough that even when it occurred, it was at least hidden, covered up. People said this is shameful, right? It wasn't a a publicly celebrated thing. And that of course led into all the other nonsense of non-binary and transgender and everything else. There was a time not so very long ago when those things were considered shameful. And it it didn't require courage to speak out against them because everybody knew it was shameful. Well, now it does. Right? And and this is its own form of tyranny, by the way. It it tyranny doesn't just and this is a good analogy is when it comes to government corruption. I know that all of the movies, right, you watch something like Mission Impossible or you watch movies and you you think, oh yeah, government corruption are these these big conspiracies where someone's pulling the strings and that stuff happens. I'm not gonna deny that that stuff happens, right? Gain of function research that results in a global pandemic that then gives the government more control. I'm not gonna deny that that stuff happens, because it does, but but a lot of government corruption is this what we could call soft tyranny, right? This sort of tyranny that it's not some dramatic declaration from the Supreme Court as to your rights or you find out there's a global conspiracy. In in so many cases, it's these sort of thousands or hundreds of thousands of really small moments where decent people who believe in truth are basically convinced that speaking the truth is not worth the trouble of doing so. They feel like, okay, well, I don't really want to get in trouble. I don't want to have to deal with this. And the answer can't just be, well, we'll work on our police training. We'll we'll we'll make sure that they know a little bit more about the Constitution. Yeah, the officers should be trained, right? And anyone who who abuses authority should be, of course, held accountable. He should be disciplined, right? And unlawful citations should be just immediately dismissed, for sure. Uh, but then I think a lot of the deeper question goes into how did our country become so morally backwards, literally twisted, inverted, changed 180 degrees, um, where where a public celebration of sexual rebellion, which is what this is, can be treated as a respectable civil act. And the Christian who's calling people to repent, to believe the gospel, to to you know, follow Christ, that's the person who's treated as the threat. When did speaking the truth become labeled as some form of disorderly conduct? When did the government begin treating biblical morality, right, the truth, as a disturbance from which everybody needed to be protected? That's not American at all. Right? And and part of the answer lies in the courts, right? I've talked before about the 14th Amendment, uh, which by the way did not mention same-sex marriage or or sodomy, but those results came through modern judicial interpretations of due process and equal protection clauses. You can look back, I've said before, 2003. I know people often reference Obergefell because that's when gay marriage was made legal. I think that was 2015, was when that case came out. But you can go 12 years before that, 2003, you had Lawrence v. Texas, here in Texas, um, which invalidated our prohibition on same-sex sodomy, right? We said that's not, that's not actually sex. That's something else. Sex is natural, normal, and good between a husband and a wife. But between two men or two women, that's actually immoral, should be illegal, should not be a public celebration, should certainly not be something that we we say is good. And then they said, no, no, no, that's that's not good. You can't say that. That's that's rude. That's harassment, that's discrimination. And they used the 14th Amendment to say that's a violation of people's God-given rights to equal protection under the law. They if you can protect sex between a man and a woman, then it's not really fair to not protect it against two men. You can't you can't pick and choose what's moral. You can, actually. Right? And then, of course, twelve years later, 2015, you had Obergefell come out. Uh I think it was V, I don't remember. It was something. Obergefell v. somebody, which required every state to license and to recognize what they called same-sex marriage, was just a mirage of what's actually true. It's it's not marriage. It can't be, definitionally cannot be marriage. But that's important because the words of the Constitution didn't magically change, right? It wasn't like all of a sudden somebody rewrote it, and it now means something it didn't before. Judges developed doctrines that that said, hey, you know, our our culture is shifting, and it's not cool that we're banning these things because a lot of people want to participate in them. It's becoming popular, and so our laws have to change to recognize that. And conservatives were told, hey, hey, hey, just accept this and move on. That's yesterday's battle, right? Stop being divisive and imposing your morality. Do you know how many times I've been told, not by Democrats, but by Republicans, that when I speak out against something like, you know, homosexuality, that I'm crazy. They say that that's way, that's way in the past, Michael. Why are even you can fight the transgender? Fight. You can fight the non-binary fight and the sexual indoctrination in schools and maybe even some of the literature that gets put in public school libraries. But why in the world are you going after homosexuality? We don't mind you how many times have you heard the claim? We don't mind the LGB. It's everybody else. That's the problem. The LGB is fine. It's the TQIA plus. They're the issue. Where do you think that came from? Because once you once you remove the line that says, hey, there is such a thing as sexual degeneracy, once you say, hey, there's there's good sexual proclivities and there's bad ones. Hey, there's what God designed that's natural, and there's things that God didn't design that are unnatural. Once you once you blur that line at any point, it's inevitable that you're going to reach a conclusion where you say, Well, if we're not going to say there's a line, then why are the trans outlawed? Why, why is all why are all the other groups not allowed? That's that's the slippery slope. And it's not a fallacy to say that's gonna happen because it did happen, and many of us warned it would happen. And so I'm not coming out and saying, you know, uh uh, you know, that that we shouldn't fight evil. We should. And that means that sometimes we're gonna have to fight fights that maybe a lot of the right has already resigned and given up on. I'm not gonna stop speaking the truth just because it's now uncomfortable. I remind everyone, it's only been 10 years. It's been well, 11, but it it's been a decade since gay marriage was created. Since they said that's that's a thing you can do. It's only been 20 23 years of our nation's history that sodomy hasn't been outlawed. What do you think happened in the first 200? What do you think happened in the first 230 of those years? You want to know how people treated same-sex, you know, stuff? It was viewed at as a moral problem, a moral evil. And then 20 years we've we've said, well, no, actually we can't. We can't say that. And now all of a sudden I speak what most of Americans believed for our history, and what still a very large portion, if not the majority, believe today. And I'm considered radical and insane. And like I'm pursuing things, and this is the same conversation about abortion. When I say abortion is still a massive problem, I was told, well, Roe v. Wade's ended, it's to the states, leave it alone. It's not a problem. And I'm said that I I'm the problem, and I'm being divisive because I say no, I think that murdering babies should be illegal in all 50 states. It should be illegal at every level to murder a child, regardless of the level of development or the location of that child. It should be illegal to murder them. And we should fight for that. Even if that, you know, makes me look divisive, or it means that it's not, well, that's not strategic. I don't care. My goal, again, is to speak the truth. And the truth is that the 2003 decision and the 2015 decision were awful. That that we're being treated like the evil people for speaking out in a way that everyone believed prior to 20 years ago. And so i again, they they changed the law, they changed the schools, they change all these things. Public celebrations are are now allowed to be celebrating things that are i i you know just objectively immoral. And now the old Christian moral standard, like the consensus that we all had is not simply rejected, but you're treated as hateful and suspicious and potentially criminal for even saying it. So, yeah, we have to protect the the preacher's first amendment rights. We we have to do that. But we also have to rec recover the courage that we've seemingly lost to change bad law through lawful action. Right? That means that we should pursue legislation, we should elect better officials, we should appoint constitutionalist judges, protect people's rights, and restore the abilities of communities to govern themselves according to the truth. Right? We can't accept these defeats as permanent while our opponents are treating the the victories they're getting as the starting point for their next demand. We can't leave it alone. We can't say, no, no, no, we've already lost that fight, leave it alone. No. All all things can be changed. All laws can be changed. And we need to start playing that way, right? And I I I think there's a lesson in this because you can't you you you might never stand outside of a of a Pride Festival with a megaphone, but I promise you, sooner or later you are going to face your own version of this moment. Right? A boss is gonna tell you to use words that you know are false. Right? But hey, you just gotta you just gotta put your pronouns in your email header, right? That's that's really important. That's your in your signature. Right? Uh a school is gonna tell your child to affirm something that they don't believe. A government official is going to suggest that your beliefs are dangerous. And and and uh a crowd is going to demand and convince you that silence is the best version of compassion, that you just need to sit down, shut up, and stop being rude. And in that moment, you are going to have to decide whether you truly believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, that truth is still truth, even and especially when it becomes unpopular, and whether your liberty is worth exercising it when doing so is going to carry a cost. It's going to require a level of sacrifice. Because courage, as has often been highlighted by many men smarter than me, courage and bravery are not the absences of fear. It's not when there's no fear that courage is displayed. Courage is obedience to God and to his word when there is fear. That's when courage exists. You can't be courageous if you have nothing to be fearful of. It's when there is a moment where it requires sacrifice. And in the face of adversity, you choose to do the right thing anyways. That's what courage is. Those preachers were surrounded, threatened with government action, and told, hey, you're offending people. Yet they said, no. This is our right given to us by God. And that is the instinct that we all have to get back to. The the hey, it's not live and let live anymore. That's not how this works. It's not complacency and laziness and the refusal to speak the truth. No, we should be peaceful and lawful, right? We should be disciplined, but we cannot be intimidated into not speaking the truth. Because once speech can be punished, whether by the government or by, you know, the crowd of intimidation, then there's no limiting principle. Today it's a street preacher, tomorrow it's it's a regular sermon, right? On Sunday, it's a regular sermon. A father at a school board meeting, a journalist that's challenging the government, rights that that are not exercised to become permissions, and then they revoke them. That's that's where this is going. Right? The government is not the one that granted us the right to speak the truth. Our rights from come from God. The Constitution is supposed to restrain the government from violating them. So what you have to do is you have to speak the truth. You have to remove the officials who refuse to defend your liberty. And when the culture threatens you, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abandonigo for refusing to bow to the idol. Stand up anyway. That's when it matters.

Why Offensive Speech Still Protected

SPEAKER_12 28:54

With that being said, when we get back from the break, we have an update on what's going on with ICE right now. Uh Hugo Baldera Sabara, he's the immigration attorney, representing uh two of the three men who were in the van with Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during last week's deadly ice shooting. He's now facing a he's apparently facing a felony assault charge, according to Harris County Court Records, uh, which does not bode well for the case, but we'll talk about it when we get back. As always, if you would like to text into the show, let us know your thoughts. The number is 713-779-5978. That is 713-779-KYST. I'm your host, Michael Wilson. You are listening to the Lone Star Conservative. And Lord willing, I will return right after this break with that update on the attorney representing those ICE people. Not the ICE people, the other people. So stick around.

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SPEAKER_20 31:20

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

SPEAKER_02 32:22

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SPEAKER_21 32:45

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SPEAKER_09 33:17

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

MAGA To GSA And What’s Next

SPEAKER_12 33:46

We're going to save that story for the next segment, because this is a short segment. We got a text in it, it'll be perfect timing. The text says, MAGA came at the right time, but now I think it's time for GSA. God save America. Let me give you an analogy of why I think this is certainly true. The God is sovereign and uses things for his plan and his timing. When you look back at the Biden administration, it's very easy to say how evil that was. But let me let me provide another perspective. Not that they weren't evil and there wasn't a massive problem, but the reality is that Biden drove the issue of immigration, the issue of transing children, of sexually explicit content, of the LGBTQisms, all these sorts of things were driven to the extreme. To the point where everyday people were waking up and saying, Maybe I I can't be a moderate anymore. I can't live and let live. They're importing in en masse people into my neighborhoods. They're destroying my cultural heritage. They are teaching my children that transgenderism is acceptable and even worthy of being celebrated. Transgenderism is at an all-time high. They're allowing kids to be trans. All these sorts of things came out of the Biden administration while they were all evil. They woke a lot of people up. Same as COVID, right? It was in God's providential timing that we had this sort of test run for the government's tyranny where people said, Yeah, I'm not ever doing that again. I'm woken up to this conspiracy theory stuff. It's real. In similar fashion, two things can be true at the same time. We can say that Trump came at a nearly perfect time for where American culture was headed and needed to be going. And say that's step one and it's not the final step. We don't end with with Trump. We don't end with whatever Trump believed, that that was just the Kickstarter of the program. We can say all day long, again, I s again, I I've said before, I was on the Trump train when I couldn't even vote. I I was big into Trump in in the 2016 era. And I was big on Trump in 2020. I was even big on Trump in 2024. But it was worthy of me pointing out that that can be true. You can be a big fan of Trump and a supporter of what Trump has done and say we have a lot more to do uh that Trump is not going to do. What I mean by that is that Trump is not far enough right to push things forward that we need done. So Trump was a phenomenal step. He woke a lot of people up. A lot of people, you know, the lesson that's able to be learned is hey, you can just say things, you can just do things, and if they bully you, it doesn't matter. Look how much they bullied Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020 and 2024 and every moment in between, and say, okay, the lesson we can take away is we should speak the truth. We have the option to not care and to not be bullied and to say, no, it's drug runners and rapists, right? All of those things are possible. And so I actually very much agree with you. MAGA came at just the right time. The movement came at a time where people were really growing so complacent that no one was really going to say anything, and it was just gonna kind of be let to let to fade into history. And Trump showed up and said, No, no, no, we're not doing that. Here's the truth, I'm speaking it, bully me all you want. And so while I think that Trump has a lot of issues, and there are a lot of things that need to be addressed, and a lot of things that need to be different under the next, you know, president, and we need to continue down this pathway that Trump kind of started us on. We have to push even harder. We can't have a million more Trumps that are in the same sort of moral place that Trump is. We need more Christians. We need more people who are even further to the right than Donald Trump, that are less populist, that say, no, no, no, here's what needs to happen. Abortion needs to be banned. We're done with homosexual marriage, we're we're done with all these crazy, crazy concepts that came out of the last 50 years. You know, illegal immigration's not the only problem. I don't believe in H1Bs, right? I don't believe that it's worth cheap labor to immigrate en masse people to our country and change our cultural heritage, all of those things. And so Trump came at a perfect time, the time that, interestingly enough, in his providence, God sovereignly decreed he would. And now it's time to keep moving forward. Now it's time to say, all right, MAGA was great, on to the next iteration, whatever we end up calling it, onto pushing harder and further, more towards truth, more towards objective morality, more towards biblical promises, more towards what the Bible calls us to, and more towards the ultimate goal of returning America to the Christian nation we all know we can be. That has to come next. Now, with that being said, like I said, in the next segment, we will we will talk back more about this attorney, what he's being charged with, uh, and where the case is at right now. When we get back as always, if you would like to text into the show as well, let us know your thoughts. I promise you'll get a reply. 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 will be right back after this break with the rest of that story. So stick around and we'll talk about it very soon.

SPEAKER_01 38:31

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SPEAKER_14 38:48

My doctor won't take my plan anymore.

SPEAKER_00 38:51

Why is my Medicare supplement so expensive?

SPEAKER_14 38:54

My prescription drug plan sucks.

SPEAKER_13 38:58

When you need some help with Medicare, go to Senior Health Services.com.

SPEAKER_20 39:05

In all seriousness, we know you're frustrated, but if you'll call 281-894-7540, we'll help you with your Medicare and we'll do it for free. Plus, we're not with the government and we are fully licensed to help.

SPEAKER_18 39:18

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SPEAKER_05 40:35

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SPEAKER_10 40:40

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SPEAKER_08 41:05

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ICE Case Update And Lawyer Arrest

SPEAKER_12 41:41

The lawyer, the immigration attorney, representing two of the three men, not sure he's not representing all three, who were in the van with Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during the deadly ice shooting, is facing a felony assault charge. Uh it was a felony assault family violence impeding breathing charge back in February of this year. According to charging documents, Baldera Sabara is charged with felony assault family violence by impeding breathing in connection with an incident from May of last year. Investigators say the woman told police the couple had been dating since August of 2023 and had recently moved in together when the relationship became abusive. She told investigators she decided to leave after finding something on his phone while he was showering and went to the airport early before a flight to Florida. The affidavit states that Baldera Sabara agreed to bring her luggage to the airport. When he arrived, the woman told investigators he threw her luggage to the ground, then grabbed her by the neck as she bent down to pick it up. She alleged he squeezed her throat, twisting it, and prevented her from breathing for several seconds. According to the affidavit, an officer documented redness and swelling on her neck through photographs. The woman later identified him through his Texas driver's license photo. Baldera Sabarra is representing detainees Daniel Torado Patoja and Jose Trinidad Rojas Polego, who are currently being held at the Montgomery Processing Center in Conroe. According to the bar website, Baldera Sabara is licensed to practice with a probationary license. He has been licensed to practice law in Texas since January of last year. The three men with him who uh with Lorenzo Salgara Raojo have also disputed the federal government's narrative of the deadly episode, saying that Lorenzo Salgara Raojo never tried to run anyone over. Uh, but you know, the trustworthiness of people who are literally in the act of breaking the law with their friend, probably not the people I'm going to trust to speak the truth. But nevertheless, this just does not bode well for the case. When when your lawyer is also facing a felony indictment uh for assaulting someone that he's claiming to love, probably not the guy you necessarily want to be deep in your corner. Probably not my recommendation. Uh but we'll see where the case goes. I think right now, at least at least two of them, maybe all three, are in the midst of deportation proceedings. Uh people are really upset about that too, because they're saying, well, we need them as witnesses in the case. We've got their testimony, we've got their witness statements. It's time to deport, right? That's how this works. They shouldn't have broken the law if they wanted to be a part of a case. You should you should go home. But we'll see where this case goes. A lot of people are obviously very upset by this whole case and this whole episode in general. And we'll, of course, keep everyone updated as those updates come out, what the federal government continues to say through their investigation, uh, as the Houston Police Department and City Council is pushing for their own investigation. We'll see how everything kind of plays out with the DA's office, and we'll keep you guys posted on any of the updates that do come out, what the police say, what the government says. Um, at bare minimum, I think that what we can all agree on or should agree on is that we need the the dash cams and the body cams to be worn at all times, even if you're going undercover. I think that's really important. With that being said, when we get back from the break, we are, of course, going to jump over for the bottom of the hour weather report. We'll give you guys all of the weather coming out today, uh, what we expect as we go into the middle of the week and towards the end of the week, how weather patterns are going to shift midweek into a completely different pattern. We'll talk about all of that when we get back. If you would like to text into the show and let us know your thoughts on anything we're covering, always feel free to do that at any point in the show at 713-779-5978. That is 713-779-KYST. I'm your host, Michael Wilson. You're listening to the morning show The Lone Star Conservative. And I'll be right back, Lord, willing to wrap up the first hour of the show with the Weather Report after this break. Talk soon.

SPEAKER_09 45:16

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_15 45:32

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SPEAKER_19 46:03

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SPEAKER_05 48:03

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

SPEAKER_10 48:09

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

SPEAKER_12 48:33

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SPEAKER_01 49:02

Houston, this is Tom Gresham inviting all gun owners to join me live every Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. for gun talk. Call in with your questions or range reports, and let's tackle everything Second Amendment here on Houston's Leader for Gun Owners, Patriot Talk 920.

Houston Flooding Forecast And Heat Return

SPEAKER_12 49:28

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and you're listening to the Lone Star Conservative. Today's round, uh, or yesterday's round of slow moving thunderstorms soaked parts of the Houston area, but the atmosphere isn't done with the rain quite yet. Today is going to bring another day of weather that could trigger flood alerts. The same slow moving thunderstorms that soaked parts of the Houston area yesterday are expected to redevelop today, with repeated downpours capable of producing localized street flooding. Rain chances begin easing tomorrow before hotter, more typical July weather returns later this week. Much of the Houston area picked up roughly an inch to three inches of rainfall by yesterday afternoon, while isolated pockets of places that the rain could have stayed over easily exceeded three inches again in the same locations. Harris County recorded some of the highest rainfall in the western and southwestern parts of the county, where a narrow corridor of slow moving thunderstorms produced more than three inches of rain. Just a few miles away, many gauges measured less than an inch. Again, these were very localized pockets. Several flood advisories were also issued during the afternoon as heavy rainfall led to pooling on roads and minor street flooding in parts of the metro area. Today's weather is shaping up to look a lot like yesterday's, with scattered to widespread showers and thunderstorms expected to develop through the day before gradually diminishing during the evening. Repeated rounds of thunderstorms throughout the day will continue to be focused along a stalled front draped across Southeast Texas. The first round of thunderstorms is expected to to to start really before even the show started back at about six AM. Thunderstorm coverage should increase along and near I-10 between about eight and ten AM, potentially slowing down the morning commute. By the evening commute, the heaviest downpours should be winding down, leaving mainly lighter showers through about seven or eight P.M. Flood forecasters at the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center are keeping much of us under a level two out of four risk through today, highlighting again the potential for continued localized flash flooding. Most communities can again expect between one to three inches of new rainfall through tonight. But again, isolated corridors that repeatedly see thunderstorms over the same area could pick up three to seven inches. The persistent heavy rainfall should begin winding down tomorrow as the stalled front weakens and the atmosphere becomes less favorable. The transition will also allow temperatures to climb. Adding temperatures right now, again, are in the mid to upper eighties, maybe scratching around ninety. Advernoon temperatures are still to return to the mid to upper nineties later this week, while humidity temperatures drive up into the nineties, up into the nineties, or even into the triple digits if you figure in humidity. Rain chances will also become much more isolated, with only a few overnight or pre-dawn coastal showers expected by the weekend. So, right now, rain, slightly cooler weather. But of course, every morning we have the weather report for you guys so we can keep updated on where that's going. With that being said, when we get back from the break, we're gonna jump into a journalism conference uh that that nearly 150 university employees are expected to participate in. We'll talk all about it in the next segment. As always, if you'd like to text in, the number is 713-779-5978. That is 713-779-KYST. I'm your host, Michael Wilson, and Lord, we're gonna be right back at the top of the next hour.

SPEAKER_06 52:51

This is the Lone Star Conservative, Michael Wilson.

SPEAKER_12 53:20

It is an absolute pleasure to be with you this morning. Thanks everybody for texting in. Let us get your thoughts on what's going on. Um, if you would like to text in at any point during the show to let us know your thoughts on anything we're covering. Uh maybe you have a disagreement with something that I've said. Maybe you have an encouragement to offer, maybe, maybe you have a story that you read somewhere or you saw a headline for, you didn't have time to dive into it, and you want to get my take on it, hear more information about it. That text line stays open to the show for that very reason. Uh, because this show is it's kind of like a constitutional republic. You do have somebody that's technically in charge, but all the power is vested from the people, you guys. And I'm representative of that. And so any questions that you have, any sort of concerns, disagreements, things that you want to know more about, I want to make sure those are the things we talk about. I I I hand select stories. Um, I I would never want someone to do my show prep for me. That doesn't sound like something I would actually ever be interested in, really. Uh, because one, show prep isn't the the end of the world, it's something that's taking up, you know, 10 hours of my day or anything like that. And it's something I don't mind doing. And because I I like reading through stuff, I like being aware of what I'm discussing. I want to already have, you know, kind of fomented opinions about it. So I hand select stuff, but I hand select stuff that I think will be something the audience wants or needs to hear. And so if there's something particular that you want to hear more about, that's priority number one. That that comes first. And so if you have anything you want to hear more about or you have a disagreement or something that you want me to talk more about, feel free to text in at 713-779-5978. Uh, if you want the tagline, that is 713-779-KYST. Now, with that being said, I did say before the break we're gonna have this sort of conference that uh Texas University employees are participating in, and that is this journalism conference.

DEI Journalism Conference And State Law

SPEAKER_12 55:09

More than 140 employees from at least a dozen taxpayer subsidized universities are scheduled to participate in a journalism conference that the University of North Texas already said violates state law by promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion themes. At issue is a conference sponsored by the Association of Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, that is, AEJMC. This group currently has commissions on LGB, LGBT, QIA plus communities, the status of minorities, and the status of women, and has passed many resolutions on topics of identity politics. Last week, it was reported on the University of North Texas' decision to not reimburse travel expenses for Professor Tracy Everbach's attendance at this conference. A UNT policy memo outlined five alleged violations of the text education code related to racialized and sexualized content. Everbach, however, is far from the only employee at a taxpayer subsidized university in the Lone Star State participating in the conference. He's not the only one. And UNT has made the right decision to not reimburse the travel funds and to say, hey, yeah, this conference kind of a violation of state law. We're not really interested in funding that uh you as an individual are allowed to attend whatever conferences you want. We don't have a rule against that. We don't have a law against a professor in his personal capacity going and attending. But what we're not gonna do is subsidize your travel expenses. What we're not gonna do is pay you to go on the taxpayer's dime. The conference schedule lists more than 140 employees of institutions that are subsidized by Texas taxpayers. Of those, the overwhelming majority are faculty members. A handful appear to be graduate students or other employment categories, but the vast, vast majority of those in attendance are actual staff faculty at these universities. UT Austin leads with 52 affiliated personnel listed on the conference schedule. Texas Tech follows with 46. UNT has 13 additional attendees beyond Everback. Texas State has 11. Uh, you also have Texas AM that has a few UT Arlington, University of Houston, UT Rio Gran Valley, West Texas AM, UT El Paso, AM Corpus, AM uh International, and Sewell Ross State. In addition, at least four private institutions, that is Texas Christian University, Baylor, Abilene Christian, and Southern Methodist have personnel listed as well. While the overwhelming majority of conference participants are scheduled in person and would thus qualify for travel expense reimbursement, a handful are not. For example, Sewell Ross State specifically clarified that its employee was presenting research in poster format, but she is not traveling to the conference. Now, uh, news organizations have sent questions to every institution subsidized by Texas taxpayers listed on the schedule, including a question regarding employee travel reimbursement. None of them so far have replied with any of the requested information. They've not posted any response. They've not said, hey, are you, you know, we're not going to do this or we are going to do that, or here's why we sent or here's why we didn't. None of those sorts of questions got answered. But I I think that this story in particular does more than one thing at once. The easy direction I could go with this would be to discuss why universities should stop sending people to conferences, uh, to talk about the evil within the university system, how a lot of our higher institutions of education have gone woke. But we all already know that. And it might come up in the conversation as I talk about this. You never know how my brain's gonna work. It's a little unpredictable sometimes. Sometimes I expect to go one way and then it just leads itself into the way that I wasn't planning on going. So we'll see where I go with this. But I actually want to go a little different direction, and that's to look at conservatives for a minute. Uh, because we as a group, right? Not not all of us individually, this is a generalization. That means that there will be those of us who don't fall under this, but many do. Conservatives seem to treat every political question as though it were merely a question of procedure. And here's what I mean by that. The question is is not simply should a public university ever pay for professors to attend professional conferences? That would be an easy out to say we should never be funding this, ever, ever, ever. But I I think the answer is actually m more nuanced than that, because I think there are certainly conferences that would be beneficial for the people attending the university for their professors to have attended and to have learned from. I think there are certainly conferences on the list that would be a win for our universities to have been a part of. And so I don't think the question is actually, you know, should we ever fund, you know, the travel for conferences? Because yeah, I think in some cases we should. There are conferences where professors learn better teaching methods or or uh, you know, networking with other scholarship for research or you know, improve professional standards and bring genuine knowledge that they learned there back to their students, right? Funding that kind of work uh can serve a legitimate public purpose. I think it's beneficial. I think it benefits the students. But that doesn't mean that every gathering, right, that hides behind the word conference is inherently a positive either. And what we should be able to be competent to do is to have a level of nuance, to be able to say, hey, some things are good and some things are bad. Right a good analogy, we were just talking in the last second about LGBTQ stuff, is the example of marriage. Some marriages are natural and some aren't really marriage, they're unnatural. And we should be able to draw a dichotomy between those two things. We should be able to have the wherewithal to say, hey, the reality is that some things are good and some things are bad. Some reasons for things are good and some reasons for things are bad, right? That's a trap. The left takes two radically different activities, places them beneath the same sort of neutral sounding category of quote unquote conference, and then demands that all conferences are created equal. Right? A conference dedicated to academic excellence and a conference dedicated to ideological activism are both called professional development, and therefore we're told we either have to fund both or we have to fund neither. It's not fair to pick and choose. But that's that's not actually fair or equitable or or just. That's just blindness to anything that that exists. That's refusing to draw distinctions between things. And we can't do that. Not all ideas are equally true. Right? Not not all institutions are equally healthy, not all purposes for doing things are equally legitimate. And and not every use of, say, government power is is morally equivalent merely because the same mechanism is being used. And this is what I meant when I know it was a little bit confusing when I said that we often treat every question as a question of procedure. What I mean by that is that so many times I see conservatives say, No, that was wrong, because the government should never do that. And

Why Conservatives Need Moral Clarity

SPEAKER_12 1:02:10

I'm I I say, hey, can we pump the brakes a little? That's not the reason why this was wrong. The issue is not the government power. And this reminds me of the conversation of limited government that I've tried to have many times before. Limited government was never about the size, and it was really never about the scope, it was about the decisions themselves. Right? The government should have nearly unlimited power when it comes to border enforcement, for instance. Right? We should say, hey, limited government's great, but we should have the full authority as a government to say zero people come in this in this land, no more coming in. That's a legitimate use of government. Limited government was never about the size or the scope, it was about the ideals themselves. And that requires nuance. That requires the ability to to on a case-by-case basis analyze these specific decisions. And that's the same thing here. I think we've spent decades saying that government should not pick winners and losers. Uh, but government should always be able to distinguish between purposes, right? It funds mathematics departments and not astrology departments. That's a good thing. You should fund the study of mathematics and research into math and math teachers without saying, hey, we actually want our students to learn astrology signs, right? We we can say, hey, medical research is great. We should fund medical research. You know, a lot of that should be privatized anyways, but it's a good pursuit. And then also be able to say, yeah, so witch doctors probably not on the list of things we should pursue. Probably not worth genuine knowledge, right? And so in the same way, when we talk about these conferences, the the issue is not, hey, should we ever fund a conference? Right? Should we would be should we should we pay employees to acquire useful professional knowledge? Yes, of course. But we should not be required to finance these ideological crusades that your employees find personally meaningful. Hey, I attended this conference. That's great. What was the conference? What did the conference teach? What was the goal? What was the stated purpose of the conference, right? And that's the difference between a principled government and a supposedly neutral government, which really doesn't exist in the first place. And and that's that gets into the the problem with neutrality. It's the same thing as live and let live, this growing complacency that we have in our country, and it's it's it's actually very evil because the the the concept of neutrality sounds very attractive on the surface, right? Until you realize that neutrality actually demands that you surrender every question under the banner of is this neutral? Right? Oh. And and here's here's where this really kicks in, right, all the time. When you approach something called neutrality, which doesn't exist, this is the issue. You wind up with something called tolerance, where every idea is treated the same and everyone has the right to believe whatever rumbo jumbo that exists, and you wind it, you wind up saying, Well, and immigration is a great example of this, where you can't have any nuance, right? It i it's not good according to the left for us to say we should pick which countries we want to immigrate from. That's looked at as xenophobic and racist. If you say, hey, I think that some countries are by definition more likely to assimilate into ours, that that is a benefit to the American people. That when you look at countries that are already pretty similar in in culture to America, that those are the people that we'd like to bring here. Well, that makes you evil. And that's why nuance is not allowed. Because if I were to look at other countries and say, hey, maybe bringing people from Haiti is not a good idea because you get people eating cats and dogs, right? Maybe that's maybe that's a bad idea. Maybe it is a bad idea to be bring people from cultures that that are worshiping pagan gods and want to bring that into our country. That's not a positive, and that country should be on the ban list. Right? Maybe we should look at other countries and say, are they culturally assimilatable into ours before we just let people come? Like, not all immigration is bad, and not all immigration is good. It's not immigration per se that is the problem. It's how you do it. It's why you do it. It's the purpose and the principle behind the thing, right? And so these conference organizers have already made decisions about which identities deserve commissions, which social theories are are earning the funding and deserve institutional endorsement. That they're not neutral, right? They simply want their own moral judgment subsidized while denying that you have no right to make any sort of judgment at all. Right. But but public money is not some sort of entitlement given to whoever's in charge. You don't acquire some sort of blank check to pursue every ideological interest simply because you have a university title. The money belongs to working Texans before it ever gets to the university. That's our money. Which means we have every right to demand that it be used for education purposes rather than political formation. And this is where we need to learn to wield power. Because again, the right has been in the pursuit of limited government, a big fan of the of the government not being able to make distinctions, not being able to make decisions. What we should not say is because the left abused institutions, nobody should ever use institutions to advance worthwhile ends. That is a terrible position to take. Well, these universities can be abused, so maybe we shouldn't even have them. Right? These these these forms of power can be abused. How many times have you heard someone, even a talk show host or a podcaster, or someone on social media, someone with a lot of influence, who said, Yeah, we can't do that because then the left is going to abuse it. We we can't do that thing because if we do that thing, then that opens the door. Right? You probably heard that a lot. Man, if we wield that power, you have no idea how crazy the left is gonna go, man. It's just it's a bad idea. Well, the let me let me tell you a little little secret about the government. The left is going to do it anyway. And the only person losing when the right refuses to engage is the right. It's it's the people who are correct. It's the people who speak the truth. We're the only ones who lose when we refuse to wield any power at all. God has given that to us, right? It's granted to the people and invested in our government representatives. That's the job is to wield power justly, righteously. And for too long, I think the right-wing movement has been so afraid of leftist abuse that we basically just throw it to the wind and said, Yeah, you know, we we don't want to wield power at all. Yeah, it's bad. Power is inherently evil and it's corruptive. No, no, no, no, no. Not true. The issue is not power, it's how it's wielded. And so we shouldn't demand that the right be powerless and then we not use government and that we not use institutions to advance what we want. No, we should say there are ends that are good and there are ends that are bad, and we have to have the we have to have the analytical common sense and the ability to reason logically to decide which ones are good and which ones are bad, which conferences are worth attending and funding and which ones are not, which government ideas are ones that we should promote and which ones we should demote. Right? Not all things are good and not all things are bad. And we have to be able to make decisions. We have to be able to make designations and distinctions between them. We can't just throw it all to the wayside and say, well, power's bad, so we're never gonna use it because other people are going to. And God has given us power for a reason to use, but to use in a good way. And that's a lot of the problem, is that we're so used to government operating poorly that we kind of just threw it all and said, I guess all power's bad and it all corrupts and it's all evil, and we should never do it, instead of learning a lesson and saying, no, power is not the problem, it's the men who are wielding it, and they're wielding it wrong. And we should demand better and more accountability from our elected officials. And if they're not doing what we demand they do, if they're not following what God has called them to do, we should demand better leaders. We should demand we should we we and we actually live in a country where we have the ability to do that through elections. We actually have the right under God to do that. We have a phenomenal opportunity in our country to actually make notable and noticeable differences in the way the government operates, right? We should be able to say that institutions exist for political and particular purposes, right? Universities actually have a an existence and a purpose, and that is to pursue and to teach the truth, right? They should transmit knowledge, they should be able to help foment competent citizens and professionals in industry. What they should not do is become public, publicly financed missionary societies for racialized content and sexualized content and gender ideology and all these other things, right? Using authority to stop institutional corruption is not the same as using authority to impose institutional corruption. Those are not the same thing. Even though it might be the same level of power, even though it might be the same people, those are different things. We should be able to say it is good to use power to impose a level of the stoppage of the corruption that we're seeing in our institutions. We should use that power. And it's also fair to say, and we should not allow that power to be abused to sort of enforce this ideological corruption campaign. Those those are both true. One is abuse of power, the other is the proper powerful correction of the abuse that's already happened, right? A police officer is a good analogy who say arrests someone, a criminal who uses force to arrest a criminal, and a criminal who kidnaps an innocent person both used a level of physical force. We do not therefore conclude that all abuse, that all force is morally equal, that all use of force is bad, right? A surgeon and and uh a psychopath may both cut human flesh, right? That happens. The moral difference does not say, well, I guess cutting people is inherently wrong. Uh no, the difference lies in the purpose and the end toward which the act is directed. I know that's kind of philosophically complicated, but I mean it's simple, but it's kind of hard to express in language. I'm doing my very darndest. If it doesn't make sense, take it and let me know, and I will do my best to give different analogies or or to present it differently. But the the point I'm making is the procedure's not the problem, it's the goal. The procedure of going to a conference is not the issue, it's what is the conference teaching? It's not, is cutting someone bad, it's why are you cutting them? It's not, is use of force problematic, it's why are you using force, right? A good example of this, uh I mentioned the police officer, even just two people. One person is using a gun to break into a home and threaten the family to commit a robbery. The other is the father in the home threatening the the criminal with a firearm and saying, no, get out of my house, being willing to do that. Those are both uses of force. They both use a firearm, but they are one is morally evil and the other is completely morally justifiable. That's also, by the way, why it's important that you become a member of our sponsor, Gun Owners of America. Gun Owners of America does not deny that evil men will use guns for evil purposes. That's not the point. That's not the question at all. Can guns be used for bad? Of course, the same as literally any other object ever created in human history. The question is, do we have a God-given right to them? And should they be able to be used for good to prevent government tyranny, to prevent attackers from entering your home, to protect your home, your family, and yourself? Of course. And that's why they campaign for people who are going to defend your Second Amendment rights and support them. That's why they're they prep years in advance for legislative sessions. Basically, the time that the last legislative end last the last legislative session ended, they were already right researching and prepping for the upcoming one in 2027. And if something gets passed that's evil or unconstitutional or violates your rights, they're willing to take it to court through a lawsuit to say this must be struck down. If you would like to become a member to defend your rights and defend what is good, then go to goahhouston.com. It is a twenty-five dollar annual membership, just twenty-five bucks a year, which of course is going to get used to continue to defend and support your Second Amendment rights to make sure that your rights are not stripped away or not infringed upon with no compromise at every level. Again, that is GOAHuston.com. Now, with that being said, when we get back from the break, we're gonna have a little bit about Harris County. We got two kind of stories that kind of go together on this. Harris

Harris County Budget Gap And Flood Project

SPEAKER_12 1:14:34

County is bracing for staff and service cuts uh to close this $129 million budget gap. They're also breaking ground on a $32.7 million flood project. So we'll talk about both those things when we get back from the break. As always, if you would like to text in to the show, let us know your thoughts on any of the stuff that we're talking about. Feel free to text in at 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 return with the rest of those stories from Harris County's budgets after the break.

SPEAKER_07 1:15:13

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SPEAKER_12 1:19:19

So leaders from 66 Harris County departments are going to appear before Commissioners' Court this week in a bid to protect their staff and initiatives from looming cuts driven by the issues with our county budget. Many departments could face layoffs, will face layoffs, as the county seeks to close its projected $129 million budget deficit, according to the budget director Daniel Ramos, this came out yesterday. That figure assumes that commissioners adopt the higher of the two property tax rates allowed under Texas law this fall. In other words, that assumes there's an increase to the property tax rate. So if they don't do that, if they say no, we actually don't want to raise taxes, which I don't think anybody thinks commissioner's court isn't gonna do that. It's gonna be like something to one again. But if they don't, if they were to say we're not gonna raise taxes, that budget would be even larger. Again, the the lower rate would balloon the deficit to roughly $287 million if they don't raise it. And so Harris County's fiscal outlook was similarly bleak last year when officials closed a $130 million deficit, partly by implementing a countywide hiring freeze. Uh but even that was considered a relatively easy option. And the budget director is saying that they're basically out of any of the easy options. He said, really, where we're at is people, we're kind of past being able to dig into vacancies, dig into unspent funds. We're really at the point where we're making decisions about who's staying and who's going. Department heads have identified potential reductions they will lay out during this week's budget hearings. Leaders are expected to offer a sort of menu of potential cuts while commissioners ultimately decide which to approve and which to reject. Nancy Sims, she's a political lecturer at the University of Houston, said they're going to plead their case on why some of their proposed cuts they cannot do and continue functioning at the same level. The anticipated shortfall coming this fiscal year, uh, which starts October first, marks the fifth consecutive year the county has projected a deficit. Among the driving factors, Ramos said, are sweeping pay raises. The deputy raises, uh, as well, part of a measure aimed at matching pay for county law enforcement, will on average increase salary cost by roughly 50% over the next five years, which will add $73 million in costs compared to the current fiscal year, more money coming out. Combined the raises, including the fire marshal, eight constables, and the sheriff's office, will add $292 million in annual expenses to the budget by the time the raises are fully implemented in 2030. To afford that, Romo said the county in the coming years will have to scale back services. Well, I can tell you there's a lot of places you can cut. We're out of easy options. Well, maybe not funding the legal defense for illegal aliens or helping sponsor the gay softball world series. The number of decisions that are made on things that are even if you think they're they're good, right? Even though you think that something like legal funding is good is a positive, that doesn't mean that it's something the county has the money to spend on. Right? We can still we could you could even be a fan of sponsoring the gay softball world series and acknowledge, hey, we actually have a $129 million budget deficit. Like we actually need a sheriff's department, we actually need a functioning jail. So sorry to the gay softball players, but this year it ain't gonna work. And and and you don't even have to do a moral argument to make that one, right? You can do it from a purely financial argument. Now, of course, I would come out and say, no, that's evil anyway, so it's an easy thing to cut. Uh no, actually, that's that's an immoral use of funds. It's it's it should be illegal, right? But you don't even need to do that to acknowledge we shouldn't be spending money in those places. Now, one place we should spend money, let's kick this over to the the flood project. Harris County is taking a major step uh toward this particular fight. Uh yesterday morning they broke ground on the Poor Farm Ditch Project. It's a thirty-two point seven million dollar investment aimed at protecting roughly 500 homes. The groundbreaking ceremony took place at 9 a.m. yesterday at the Southside Police Department. The Poor Farm Ditch Project will modernize approximately 3,100 linear feet of an aging drainage channel within the Brace Bayou watershed. Plans call for widening the channel from about 30 feet to 40 feet and deepening it from seven and a half feet to ten feet, increasing its afflective flow area by more than sixty percent. The result is expected to be uh significantly reduced flood risk for hundreds of families in two of Houston's inner loop communities. Now, the project brings together a broad coalition of government agencies. Um Lizzie Fletcher, Texas State Representative Ann Johnson, Southside Place Mayor Andy Chan, West University Place Mayor Susan Sample, and Harris County Flood Control District Executive Director Marcus Stuckett, the new guy. The project is funded through a local, state, and federal partnership. I think funding sources include federal community project funding, Texas legislative appropriations, and Harris County's 2018 flood bond, as well as direct contributions from the cities of West University Place and Southside Place. The collaboration is supposed to highlight how multiple levels of government can come together to address a persistent challenge. In this case, that would be flooding. But with the groundbreaking now complete, construction work on the channel modernization is set to move forward. Residents in both of those cities can expect meaningful improvements to flood resilience in their neighborhoods as the project progresses. But again, look at that. A good use of taxpayer money. Hey, we have a massive problem with flooding infrastructure in the Greater Houston area. We all know that. We're all very well aware of that, and you know, especially in a place where we have consistent flooding concerns from tropical moisture, tropical storms, hurricanes, even just basic flash-flooding rain problems. We know we have that here. And so this is a place where the government should come in and say, hey, one of the biggest issues that our people face is the fact that we don't prevent flooding. So we should address that. And we can do that without raising taxes. We can do that without demanding more money from the community, and it's very simple to do. But it it requires, it it it pre-necessitates that you have to make those decisions based on what what helps the people. This is back to an America first policy. It's the same question. Does this provide tangible benefits to those under your care? Because the illegal aliens are not under your care, right? The the people, the gay softball players are not under your care. Those are not issues that you have direct involvement in. It's just your little pet projects, right? What you do have under your care people that are are concerned because their homes get flooded during during storms and they lose their homes. What is a concern is do our roads function? Hey, how are our schools operating? Right? Things that are affecting day-to-day, how how is our sheriff's office doing? How how is our how are our jails functioning? Those are real questions that impact people on a day-to-day period. And the government, especially our local governments where we have the most sway and the most influence, should go back to a time where they did their job. I know that that seems kind of radical nowadays. Oh, you want the government to just do their job? Yeah, actually, I do. I I do. I do want the government to do what God called them to do, actually. You're a city, you're not a state, you're not the federal government, you are not worried about immigration enforcement, you are not supposed to be worried about funding other countries and giving money and coming out and speaking on on foreign issues. Sorry, not your job. If you want to do that, you can run for a different office. You particularly are tasked with assisting the people in your constituency, which just so happens to be those in Harris County. So how about instead of saying, hey, we really, we really want to fund these little fun pet projects? No. Fund the things that benefit your people, fund the things that are your job. And if you want to fund bigger things, if you want to be a part of these conversations, run for something else. It's open to you. Win or lose, you have the option to go run for a different office. If you think that what you're doing had a big enough impact, then you want to have something to say, go be a James Talarico. Go do that. Go run further off, go do something else. Because Harris County should be for those who live in Harris County and it should be for their benefit. With that being said, when we get back from the break, we're going to jump over and uh talk about these automatic license plate readers. U.S. Representative Keith Self has noted that we need a lot more transparency, especially when we're coming to these sort of citizens' privacy concerns. We've also talked about these flock cameras, which we'll talk about when we get back. As always, if you would like to text into the show and let us know your thoughts, 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, I'll be right back with the rest of that story after the break. So stick around and we'll talk soon.

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Flock Cameras And Privacy Tradeoffs

SPEAKER_12 1:32:07

As flock cameras are being installed all across the nation, I think citizens, including myself, are growing consistently more concerned about the potential privacy violations that are being posed by what they're trying to call automatic license plate readers, but they're there's they're far more than that. That would be the that's the tip of the iceberg. And so over the weekend, U.S. Representative Keith Self wrote on X that if transparency is now considered a threat, we've already drifted too far from the principles of a free republic. This was responding to an article about Flock's CEO, who said that it is terroristic for the public to want to know where the company's automatic license plate readers are being installed. Now, Flock cameras don't act like traditional license plate readers. They're powered by AI and they capture details such as the make and model of a passing vehicle, as well as any unique or identifying features like dents, scratches, stickers, and aftermarket parts, so they know who you are and what vehicle is yours. They uh they also capture data on vehicles regardless of whether they have been implicated in a crime. Police departments do not need a search warrant to access Flock data, uh, which of course can you know heightens concerns about Fourth Amendment violations if they don't need any sort of it's it's it's completely warrantless search, is what this is. And so, according to Flock's Director of Communications, they said Flock has designed our technology with accountability mechanisms built into the system. Every search that is conducted on an agency's cameras is preserved permanently in an audit trail-enabling oversight and transparency for every search. We are committed to ensuring every jurisdiction can use flock products in a way that reflects their values. Community safety does not need to come at the expense of community values. Now, I will say that Flock is integrating its network across the country, including in in small towns. Austin has already ended its contact with Flock amid the privacy concerns. Uh District 7 Councilmember Mike Siegel said that Flock cameras had a dramatic negative impact on civil liberties and privacy for our communities with programs like this, which is wild to hear that Austin did it. I mean, does that baffle anybody else? That almost makes me wonder what I'm missing. If if Austin is coming out against it, I almost want to rethink what what I think about the Austin is and it's like when Lena Hidalgo comes out and she she says, Yeah, it's a great project. And I go, Am I just wrong on this? Or is Lena Hidalgo saying something true? Which one is more I almost feel like it's more likely that I'm mistaken and that Lena Hidalgo's right. So maybe I'm wrong. Flock also publicly states that its cameras capture only vehicle information, not biometric data, and says they are designed to constrain use and support lawful investigations. But the fact they're specifying that almost makes you wonder if they're capable of processing and capturing biometric data about you, which I think we all know, powered by AI cameras, are fully capable of doing that. Flock says that its camera surveillance system is a force for good and helped locate over 10,000 missing persons last year while also supporting over a million cla cases. Flock also noted that its system is not used for mass surveillance because a camera simply takes a single photo at a single point in time. Therefore, therefore, most data is not accessed and is almost always scheduled for archiving or deletion without being reviewed by an agency. Flock cameras helped to solve a double homicide in Georgetown earlier this year. Um, and police chief Corey Tahita credits the arrest of the suspects due to their capture on a local HOA's flock cameras. Now, what I what I will say is that this goes right back to the conversation we had about procedure. Because I I think that of course there are constitutional limits to this concept. But I don't think that most people's issue is inherently that there is a camera system capable of such a thing. I I don't think that's the case. And and maybe some people are, but I think if they actually were to think about it, the issue is the concern of giving someone that power. Because the power, as is particularly often the case, is not what's at fault. It's the people wielding it. If we had a country that we actually believe is being run by Christian leaders, and and I'll give you a hypothetical scenario, I told you that that wouldn't be corrupted and it wouldn't be used against you. Most people would not have an inherent problem with a system capable of doing these sorts of things. There are countries where that's still the case, probably. If you were to look at places in Europe that haven't had mass immigration, haven't had cultural degradation, this would be possible. And I said the same thing about something like, say, Bill Gates funding. If we had private organizations that said, hey, we're gonna breed sterilized, we're gonna have these facilities that that breed sterilized mosquitoes, uh, the ones that bite, so that we can basically eradicate the ms the mosquito uh, you know, species, the the the the small inner groups that particularly cause itchyness, the ones that can bite you and cause, you know, these bumps that itch. If we could end that, um most people would say, I think that would be great technology. I think that would be a great use of research. I have literally a mosquito in my office right now flying around and it's distracting me because I keep watching to see if it's still where it was five minutes ago or if it's disappeared and is probably somewhere on my body. Most people would say that's a great use of research. Let's do that. But how many people trust these private organizations to breed mosquitoes and release them in the wild? Nobody! Nobody trusts that because we see all this stuff and you're like, well, you're probably just trying to sterilize us. You probably have something in there that's gonna like produce some sort of issue where it does these sterilization of people or it causes some sort of disease, and you're probably doing it on purpose. And so, do I think the vlog cameras are inherently wrong? No, per se, but it's gonna take a hundred years to be back in a society where this would be even remotely possible to trust the government to do. Nowhere in our lifetime or our kids' lifetimes are we gonna see this be a possibility because nobody trusts the government with this level of authority right now, with this level of power, with this level of of lack of transparency. It's just not possible. And so these things are bad as they exist today. They need to be taken away, they need to be, you know, cut down. All of that, that needs to end. Flock, sorry, you're you're at least a hundred years too early or a hundred years too late, depending on how you look at it. With that being said, to wrap up the show, when we get back, we're gonna talk about uh this situation with this judge throwing out a second murder charge against a man accused of killing a repairman up in Umble. We'll talk about all the details of that case to wrap up the show when we get back. As always, if you would like to text in and uh let us know, this is your final chance during the morning show today. So if you're if you've been thinking I kind of want to text in, but I don't know, feel free to text in. Last chance, 713-779-5978. That is 713-779-KYST. I'm your host, Michael Wilson. You're listening to the Lone Star Conservative, and Lord willing. If the Lord wills it, I will be back to wrap up the morning show after this final segment. So stick around and we'll talk soon.

SPEAKER_09 1:38:46

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_15 1:39:01

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SPEAKER_10 1:41:38

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SPEAKER_12 1:42:02

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SPEAKER_01 1:42:32

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Murder Case Dismissal And Due Process

SPEAKER_12 1:43:14

Jamie Garcia, he's 32 years old, is currently in custody with Bond, denied for the alleged killing of Christopher Walsh on July 3rd. Walsh had been scheduled to go to Garcia's home to fix an upstairs leak that afternoon, and Walsh didn't return home. His family and company tracked his work truck to a home on Crazy Drive. Walsh was found dead on his back in the bathroom floor, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. Days after Garcia's arrest, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez announced another murder charge had been filed against Garcia in the May 26th shooting of Francisco Navarro. In that case, investigators found Navarro dead inside a vehicle. Investigators said at the time they believed the suspect later identified as Garcia was in the vehicle with the victim when the shooting happened. But Harris County Magistrate Judge found no probable cause for the murder case involving Navarro, according to court records, and his defense attorney confirmed that he is no longer facing charges in that case. And so a spokesperson for the Harris County District Attorney's Office said there are still avenues that we are exploring to refile the murder case. A spokesman for Harris County Sheriff's Office also said that investigators expect charges to be filed on the Barrow case. But this this gets into procedural questions and a lot of stuff that we don't have time for. But here's the thing we have due process for a reason. We all understand that we live in actually a very blessed country. And a lot of that in terms of justice goes back to due process. Many countries don't have that. One of the biggest parts about tyranny is that you don't have due process. It's it's guilty until proven innocent in many countries. We're the opposite of that. It's innocent until proven guilty. So of course, as of now, it's the presumption of innocence. But there's also the importance of doing things procedurally correct. Because if he is guilty, if he did do this, then the evidence should come to light. It should be allowed to come to light, and we should be able to say that this needs to be ended. That this guy, this guy needs to face justice for every crime that he's committed, including the ones uh that required more evidence. That'll do it for the show today. Thanks everyone for tuning in, being a part of the show, texting and let us know your thoughts. As always, Lord will be back bright and early tomorrow at 6 a.m. In the meantime, enjoy the rest of your Tuesday and God speed.