Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on Talk 1370 Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. The holidays are totally over now, and 2026 is up and running in earnest with big happenings all over the world—and in Texas. Here’s who made the list:
WINNER: Trump Takes Out Maduro
President Donald Trump’s capture and arrest of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro reinforced several foundational American values and principals, but it was also another demonstration of a smaller, but important point in the world conversation—no other country has the military capability to do what we did in Caracas last weekend. Like the obliteration of Iran’s nuclear facilities, Maduro’s arrest and capture is a clear reminder to the world of America’s military supremacy. Even America’s biggest detractors (including the Democrats in Congress) should sleep better at night knowing that the good guys have all that power.
My TPPF colleague, Joshua Treviño, has made the most succinct statement on why Trump was right to take out Maduro on Jan. 3, so I am just going to quote him here from an op-ed published earlier this week in National Review:
Venezuela’s corrupt leaders got away with it for too long. They sent forth millions of their own citizenry to be trafficked, and they got away with it. They trafficked the drugs that killed and addicted millions of our neighbors and family, and they got away with it. They formed alliances with cartels dealing in goods and people, and they got away with it. They entered into the business of narco-terrorism, and they got away with it. They invited the worst enemies of the United States into the Americas — the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians — and they got away with it. They did all this for years, and they got away with it.
This impact of Maduro’s arrest will continue to play out in the coming days—and probably for years to come—and we’ll keep watching, but there is no doubt Trump made a winning move and executed it masterfully.
America’s thinking on Trump’s action in Venezuela has been shifting all week as people get more information. Early in the week most polls showed only about a third supported the president but new numbers put out by CBS News yesterday show about half of Americans now believe the president is doing the right thing. A strong majority of Republicans supported the action from the beginning.
The president also gets a thumbs up for withdrawing from 31 United Nations organizations and 35 other international groups that push left-wing ideologies and operate contrary to American interests. The U.S. sends billions to the United Nations which they spend on programs pushing climate change, DEI and other anti-American ideas. To paraphrase former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on another topic, “let them hate us on their own dime.”
LOSER: Gov. Tim Walz, the Minnesota Fraud
“Tim Walz and the Minnesota Fraud,” sounds a little like a rock band. Financial shakedowns are an old tradition in the Democrat party, dating at least from President Bill Clinton, whose administration used them extensively when doling out HUD money. However, our top loser of the week, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, seems to have lifted Democrat corruption to a whole new level.
Testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform this week revealed that the state auditor knew as early as 2009 that there was extensive fraud in the welfare system in the state of Minnesota, but Gov. Walz looked the other way and nothing was done. State workers continued to raise concerns, but they were ignored.
Happily, it has finally all come crashing down, and Gov. Walz announced this week that he will not run for reelection. Hopefully, losing his job won’t be the only consequence for his ignoring the fact that billions in federal funds earmarked to feed children during the pandemic, provide services for children with autism and other special needs, provide housing for poor people and treatment for drug addicts was instead given to fraudsters in the Somali community in Minnesota.
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board provides a good summary of what has happened so far—including charges against 90 offenders—but the best political perspective on the fraud perpetrated by the Somali community in Minnesota came from Congressman Brendan Gill, R-Texas, in that same congressional hearing.
WINNER: Another Congressional Hearing Home Run for U.S. Rep. Brendan Gill, R-Texas
We all remember when Rep. Gill took down NPR CEO Katherine Maher by reading her tweets back to her after she denied ever saying such things as “white people all feel subconsciously superior.” This week, Rep. Gill brought the same chainsaw to the congressional hearing on welfare corruption in the Somali community in Minnesota, questioning local officials about some interesting statistics:
- 73% of Somali community Minnesotans are on Medicaid, compared to 18% in the general community.
- 81% of the Somali community are on welfare. After living 10 years in Minnesota that percentage drops to 73%.
- 54% of Somalians are on food stamps, compared to 7% in the general community.
Rep. Gill closed by asking the officials whether Somali voters back Democrats or Republicans. The answer of course, is that they overwhelmingly vote for Democrats. It’s all here in the video. Really makes you proud when you hear Chairman James Comer say, “the Chair recognizes Mr. Gill from Texas.”
LOSER: Home Ownership is a Weapon of White Supremacy
When I was in high school, there was a sign over the water fountain that read, “What Communists Believe.” The first and only item I remember on this list was “communists believe there is no God,” which was a deal-breaker for me and my other fellow teenagers at the time, so I didn’t pay attention to what came next.
Now the Democrat Socialist mayor of New York City has appointed Cea Weaver to serve as head of his Office of Tenant Advocacy, and she’s revealed some more details about what communists believe regarding private property.
In an August 2019 tweet, which Weaver recently deleted, she wrote “Private property including and kind of ESPECIALLY homeownership is a weapon of white supremacy masquerading as ‘wealth building’ public policy.”
In 2021 Weaver said “…for centuries, we have really treated property as an individualized good and not a collective good.” Her plan is to transition to a model of shared equity in order to think about property differently. She explained what she means by saying that, “white families and some POC [people of color] families who are homeowners… are going to have a different relationship to property than the one that we currently have.”
Seeing Weaver’s words on the page doesn’t do them justice. Take a look at the video.
LOSER: Los Angeles Homeowners
In case you missed it, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass this week marked the one year anniversary of the devastating fires in the California Palisades by boasting that 12 houses have been rebuilt. Yes, Mayor Bass is claiming victory that 12 houses, out of the over 13,000 homes that were destroyed, have been rebuilt.
However, the mayor’s unbelievable effort at positive spin is not the worst thing about California’s inability to rebuild. In an echo of the old liberal cliché, “World ends—women and minorities suffer most,” the folks at UCLA are more concerned about whose homes are being rebuilt rather than the numbers. According to them, African-American homeowners made up a large share of the population of Altadena California, which was destroyed by the fires, and the professors at UCLA‘s Latino Policy and Politics Institute warn that those homes are likely to be the last to be rebuilt.
Since virtually nobody’s home is being rebuilt in California, you have to wonder why the folks at UCLA want to suggest that white people are cutting in line. The point is there is no line, just a brick wall of state government red tape.
Still, so far, at least black homeowners in Altadena don’t have to fear that some bureaucrat is suggesting they shouldn’t actually own a home because it is a “symbol of white supremacy, masquerading as wealth building public policy.”
Let’s pause for just a moment and give thanks that we live in a state where “wealth building public policies” are known to be a good thing.
LOSER: Beto O’Rourke Hasn’t Gone Away
Perhaps this is good news for Republicans, or maybe it doesn’t matter, but just so you know, Axios reported this week that Beto O’Rourke, who has been defeated by U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. Greg Abbott and pretty much every Democrat who ran for president in 2020 (except Kamala Harris), is now reportedly working behind the scenes to help Texas Democrats. You may have missed the fact that he’s been campaigning in red zones like Amarillo, Wichita Falls and Tyler, and a September University of Texas/Texas Politics Project Poll showed he had higher favorability ratings among Democrats than U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas. Not seeing a ripple effect here, but will keep you posted.
WINNER: Texas Supreme Court Ends Bar Association Hegemony
In another blow against the hegemony of DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), the Texas Supreme Court formally announced this week that the American Bar Association (ABA) will no longer determine which Texas law students can sit for the Texas bar exam. Instead, the Texas Supreme Court, whose members are elected by the people of Texas, will now develop their own criteria to approve law schools.
The ABA has long required law schools to establish strong DEI programs that are now in conflict with new Texas laws that require student admissions and faculty hiring to be based entirely on merit. And although the ABA claims to be non-partisan, it has taken official positions in support of a number of issues, including restricting fossil fuel use and limiting the death penalty. To show how out of touch they are with Texans, the ABA’s strongly opposed requiring a photo ID in order to vote—a policy that is supported by 85% of Texans, including minorities and members of both parties.
The Texas Supreme Court is the first state to make this winning move, but news reports indicate that Florida and Ohio are also poised to cut ties with the ABA.
WINNER: Eat Real Food
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s edict this week that America “Eat Real Food” has implications that go far beyond the dinner plate. One of the chief ideological tenets of the progressive left—along with the notion that there are lots of different genders and there should be no enforcement at the border—is that what you eat says a great deal about who you are.
The left would classify eating steak as a sin, if they believed in sin, so the new food pyramid—with its big picture of red meat at the top—is likely to make lefties go crazy. There’s also a left-wing war on dairy, causing us to live in a world where people actually drink something called “oat milk” and demand gluten-free communion wafers.
The rest of us, who have known since the Atkins diet in the 1980s that protein, fruits and vegetables are the key to health and carbs are the road to oblivion, were not surprised by Kennedy’s policy change, although we know it will take more than a new pyramid graphic to make it happen. The phony flavors created by food companies—like the orange stuff on Cheetos—are as addictive as cocaine and will be hard for people, especially children, to kick.
My favorite recommendation is that kids be prohibited from having added sugar until they are 10 years old, although I have no idea how they will pull it off. Currently, the recommendation is age 2, and I doubt if many parents are following that guideline.
It is disappointing that RFK, Jr., did not include a recommended daily requirement for coffee and chocolate, which we all know are two essential nutrients that make life worth living—along with steak.
WINNER: A 1951 Treaty Gives America Lots of Rights in Greenland
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is going to Denmark this week to discuss U.S. interests in Greenland. That’s a good sign that both Rubio and Danish officials read the very interesting op-ed in the New York Times this week that pointed out that the United States signed a treaty with Denmark during the Cold War which gives us broad military access to Greenland. According to Mikel Runge Olsen, of the Danish Institute for International Studies in Copenhagen, “the U.S. has such a free hand in Greenland that it can pretty much do what it wants.”
The Danish op-ed writers say the agreement allows the U.S. to construct, install, maintain, and operate” military bases across Greenland, “house personnel” and “control landings, takeoffs, anchorages, moorings, movements, and operation of ships, aircraft, and waterborne craft.”
So perhaps we can just start constructing, installing and operating and see where it goes from there. Greenlanders are pretty dug in against allowing the United States to take over at this point, but once they get to know us, I’m betting they will like us. We can barbeque a bunch of steaks, schedule a few country music concerts and win them over in a week.
WINNER: The College Football Playoffs
Despite everything that went wrong and continues to go wrong in college football, we are coming to the end of a terrific season. Last weekend, college football fans watched as the so-called “big dogs,” Ohio State, Alabama and Georgia, became “former big dogs” and last night’s semi-final game between Ole Miss and Miami was one of the best of the season, with Miami coming out on top in the last minute.
The Red Raiders, the last Texas team in the CFP fight, were defeated by Oregon last week, but Tech has stepped up with a “get ready for next year” messaging strategy this week that has been dazzling, including getting a commit from almost a dozen new players from the portal, including Brendan Sorsby.
I married into an Oregon Duck family and am a longtime fan who’ll be watching the other semi-final game tonight to see if the Quack Attack can overcome the seemingly unstoppable Indiana Hoosiers on their second try. There’s a 3.5 point spread in Indiana’s favor. The game is at 6:30 p.m. and the winner will face the University of Miami on Jan. 19.
Have a great weekend!
Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.
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