Every Friday morning, I join the Cardle and Woolley Show on 1370 Talk Radio in Austin to discuss the week’s Winners and Losers. As we put up our decorations to celebrate Columbus Day, on Monday, we can remember that President Trump officially declared last year that on October 12 we celebration the Spanish explorer. For those who celebrate, Indigenous People’s Day is some other time. Here’s who made the list:

WINNER: Showing Up

We all know that half the battle in life is simply to show up, which makes Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton a winner this week in his effort to be elected to the U.S. Senate. General Paxton was on stage with President Trump in San Antonio and traversed the state making dozens of campaign stops. Meanwhile, his opponent, State Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, has gone missing. No one has seen him for 13 days. The last time anyone saw Talarico in the flesh was on September 25 at a fundraising event in New York City, hosted by actor Robert DeNiro and attended by all the folks who raised money for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Talarico’s campaign says he has a flu — which as we all know can be awful — but, reportedly, even his supporters are worried. It is not clear where we should send “Get Well” cards.

LOSERS; Anti-Israel Protesters at Too Many American Universities

This week marked the third-year anniversary of the horrific terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel that resulted in the killing of over 1,200 people and the abduction of 251 hostages. Students at Columbia, UCLA and other universities around the country, as well as in the City of New York, launched commemorative protests to affirm their support for Hamas, chanting, “there is only one solution, intifada revolution,” which provides some insight into the worldview of these American students. Even more difficult to understand is another popular chant uttered throughout the protest, “NYPD, KKK, IOF [Israeli Defense Force} they’re all the same.” Think about that.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani made an October 7 statement that seemed to acknowledge the terrorist murdering spree that took place in Israel, but as Politico reported, all but one sentence of his message went on to condemn Israel for what he insists on calling “genocide.” As outrageous and absurd as that statement is, it is important to remember that there are more Jewish people living in New York City than in any other place in the world outside of Israel — and they are outraged.

WINNER: Huffines Launches ISD Audits

Texas Comptroller Don Huffines announced this week that he will be auditing four independent school districts to take a closer look at how their state funds are being spent. The schools are Austin ISD, Barbers Hill ISD, El Paso ISD and Prosper ISD. Austin ISD, with almost 70,000 students, is the largest district being reviewed, reporting a huge budget deficit and a loss of almost 6,500 students in the last year alone. I spoke with Comptroller Huffines about the audits last summer. In came you missed it, you can listen here.

Huffines did not say why he picked those four school districts, although there have been questions raised about their financial operations and transparency over the past year. The State of Texas added an additional $8 billion to public education in the last legislative session and Huffines says his goal is to make sure that state funds are directly applied to classrooms and educating students rather than increasing administrative bureaucracy.

WINNER: Trump in San Antonio Takes on Loser Media

President Trump was in my hometown, San Antonio, this week, where he actually had to make it clear to the media that when he said Iran had the power to hit Los Angeles or San Diego with missiles, he wasn’t suggesting they do it. As hard as it is to believe, the media has never really believed that Iran was an actual threat to America’s security — or even the security of the rest of world.

While in the Alamo City, the President patiently explained that an attack on Los Angeles or San Diego — which is in the realm of possibility with a well-armed Iran, could set the United States into a free fall. He pledged that he would not let that happen. Instead of reporting that, the media pretended that Trump had called for an attack on California.

It gets tiresome to continue to report how biased the media is, but Newsweek reported this week that several American news outlets were very slow to call the FlyDubai terrorist attack what it was despite information surfacing almost immediately of the attacker’s Islamist radicalization. The New York Times described the harrowing fight in the cockpit of the plane as an “altercation between a pilot and co-pilot,” while ABC News noted that the “suspect in the incident had been previously described as a security risk.” The Los Angeles Times got it right the first time — calling the incident a “terrorist attack.”

WINNER: Red River Shoot Out

With 24 days to go until the mid-term election, many of the daily polls are tight, but anyone looking for a sure thing might think they have it in tomorrow’s game between the No. 1 ranked University of Texas Longhorns and the unranked Oklahoma Sooners. Still, everyone knows that anything can happen in a rivalry game, and Texas – Oklahoma is one of the best rivalries in the country, so it should be fun to watch. Kick-off is at 2:30. Texas A&M is playing Missouri and Texas Tech is off this week.

Have a great weekend!

Listen to Winners & Losers on Talk 1370, the Cardle & Woolley show, every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m. Here’s the listen live link.

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