Every Friday morning at 8:30AM I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio, in Austin to pick the week’s top Winners & Losers in Texas, America and the world. This week, there’s lot of emphasis on the world as the week has winners and losers across the globe: Here’s the list for this Friday:
Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan and the two dozen other prisoners who were released yesterday in the largest prisoner swap between the U.S. and Russia since the Cold War are at the top of the winner’s list. The swap has been called lopsided because actual Russian spies and criminals were exchanged for Americans who were wrongly accused. There will undoubtedly be a price to pay for giving a win like that to Vladimir Putin, but that does not take away from the joy that an innocent Wall Street Journal reporter and an American Marine are now back in the USA, regrouping at Brooke Army Medical Center at historic Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio.
The news from Paris is that Team USA has a big lead in the Olympic medal race with 40 as of this morning, although China has 3 more gold medals than the Americans. There have been many stunning performances but the most memorable so far was Texan, Simone Biles, who broke the all-time gold medal record for a gymnast last night – and she’s still competing. Biles continues to prove she really is the GOAT. Another great memory was watching basketball greats Steph Curry and Kevin Durant watching the gymnastic finals and cheering Biles on.
Another international winner this week is the Israeli Defense Force, who took out two Hamas leaders and Fuad Shukr, a leader of Hezbollah, in Tehran. Israel is making it clear that it will no longer wait while the rest of the world dithers regarding the attacks against them. They are deadly serious about defending themselves and they are going to act.
The loser of the week is former president Donald J. Trump for his dumb comments about Vice President Kamala Harris’s race at the National Association of Black Journalists Convention. There are so many things to attack Harris on – her abject failure at the border, her flip flopping on energy policy, lying about her support for the Green New Deal, covering up Biden’s infirmity, tax increases, reparations for slavery, etc. With a list like that, why make the ridiculous charge that she may not really be black?
Granted, the NABJ panelists are big losers too. They were rude and hateful, pummeling Trump with condescending ‘gotcha’ questions, but Trump surely knew what to expect. He should have been ready and capitalized on it.
Fox News Anchor Harris Faulkner came out of the NABJ panel a winner for pushing Trump to answer real questions, demonstrating to the black journalists at the conference how a real journalist should actually behave. And the look on ABC’s Rachel Scott’s gob smacked face when Trump asked her to define DEI is also priceless. Trump gets points for showing up and Faulkner says he connected with the audience on several issues, but the only clip that matters is Trump attacking Harris on her race — an unforced error as Trump loses the week with 94 days until the election. Watch the entire panel HERE if you haven’t seen it.
More losers are the men and women who signed up for White Dudes for Kamala and White Women for Kamala which organized this week, making it clear how Democrat policies are totally rooted in racial and identity politics. White people on zoom calls were directed to never challenge or correct a biracial or person of color and to remember how much white people have to “learn and unlearn.” It seems to go without saying that Vice President Harris will choose a white man as her running mate. Wonder if he will have to sign on to those rules?
As great as the Paris Olympics have been, the French organizers make the losers list by reminding the world what we really hate about European sensibilities. In addition to the awful anti-religious drag queens in the opening ceremony, a great report in the Wall Street Journal details France’s intention to impose their “climate vision” on the athletes. First, their food plan was to reduce animal proteins and substitute “sustainable catering,” drastically reducing the amount of meat that was available. After athletes (who are all in training, remember) started trekking out of Olympic village to get real food, Olympic leaders almost immediately rolled it back, bringing in a ton of meat and eggs.
The Olympic Committee also decided not to install air conditioning for anyone but the para-athletes, because they say air conditioning is bad for the planet. However, instead of creating some kind of green standard, the decision made the Paris 2024 games a “Bring Your Own Air Conditioning” event as most countries had mobile units shipped in to ensure their athletes could sleep comfortably.
Finally, of course, there’s the awful decision to let men box against women at the Olympics. This is a big controversy but it shouldn’t be. Two so-called women boxers have “Y” chromosomes. That should be the end of it.
The Hobby School of Public Affairs sponsored by the University of Houston and Texas Southern are on the winners list for releasing a survey revealing that 65% of Texans support school choice. These pollsters aren’t the first to find that Texans support parental choice, but they are winners because they clearly asked the question without attempting to manipulate the response. They learned that whether you call them “voucher programs” or “education savings accounts” Texans in every demographic group and political party support providing education funds so that parents can choose the best school for their child. The only demographic group where a majority is not in favor is “white Democrats,” the same group, as one of my TPPF colleagues pointed out who supported segregation after the Civil War and continued to oppose public school integration for decades.
Sen. Ted Cruz is also winner this week for his bill to require schools to report all funding and curriculum materials that come from foreign countries. The Chinese Communist Party invests billions in American education and the first step in pushing back against that is transparency. Good for Cruz.
And what about Keller ISD where the school board intervened after school officials had required that students who painted pro-Trump murals on their parking spots remove them. (Seniors at Keller High School pay $200 for a reserved parking space and they are allowed to paint it.) When the School Board got word of the anti-Trump ruling, they reversed it, stating students could say whatever they wanted as long as it was polite. What is ironic about this is that while Texas high schools must assist in helping 18 year olds register to vote, many young Texans don’t vote because they say they don’t have enough information. Slapping down kids who are excited about casting their first ballot is absolutely the wrong way to go.
The next few days will be filled with speculation over whether Vice President Harris will choose Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro as her running mate, risking the ire of her progressive base, or somebody else. Betting odds are on Shapiro but who knows. The weekend will be filled with pundits offering their two cents on the choice.
Fortunately, Team USA Men’s Basketball will play Puerto Rico tomorrow, which should be fun since they have promised the run-up the score. Team USA Women’s Basketball will play Germany on Sunday. And Track and Field started today!
USA! USA! 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.
Sign up to receive this in your inbox every week at www.texaspolicy.com/9thandCongress.
Follow me on X @sylvester1630 and follow my podcast, the Sherry Sylvester Show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.