Robert Downen

@robertdownen.bsky.social

56056 Followers 3929 Following

Texas Monthly senior writer focused on the far right, Christian nationalism and the billionaires funding them. Helped expose the Southern Baptist abuse crisis. Send me music.

A Quote Tweet of a video by French with the quote: “Your universe has no meaning to them. They will not try to understand. They will be tired, they will be cold, they will make a fire with your beautiful oak door...”
A screenshot of Robert Morrow yelling at Robert Caro about LBJ killing Kennedy. “Morrow tries to follow up by asking about Billie Sol Estes,” a caption reads. “But the audience isn't interested in Facts....”
Email: Today marks the 108th anniversary of the execution of the Romanov family by the Bolsheviks. My opponent, Radical Rosenthal, has much in common with the Marxist revolutionaries who brutally executed the Romanov family and ushered in total Communist control of Russia.
A photo of Brian Lynch on the grounds. Not far behind him, rioters scale walls.
A YouTube video claiming that the cities of Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio could be a mega city by 2060, clearly made by someone who has never tried to travel 15 miles in houston let alone lived in the so-called “Texas Triangle”
an email from the NRCC: If South Texans needed another reminder that Johnny Garcia is wildly out of touch, they just got it. James Talarico, the far-left Democrat that Johnny Garcia and his party are cozying up to, is now working with the founder of "Cocks not Glocks" working together to take guns away from Texans and replace them with oversized sex toys. "James Talarico and Johnny Garcia are a perfect match: radical, anti-gun, and embarrassingly out of touch with South Texas. Texans don’t want Democrats who want to strip away their Second Amendment rights and replace them with oversized sex toys. Garcia belongs in Talarico’s far-left freak show, not anywhere near Congress." - NRCC Spokesman Christian Martinez
A graph showing that Identitarian social media accounts now have roughly 19.2 million followers, compared to 4.6 million in 2023.
On Twitter, SBOE board writes that “this is exactly” what they did last week. He is responding to another tweet calling for the Bible to be taught to “the exclusion of all other false religions”
a screenshot of a Google search showing that elephants usually pee 10-20 liters per go
As for Antelope Hill, they thought the entire affair was a clear success. One of the individuals who manned the company’s conference booth, himself a white supremacist podcaster who posts under the name “Mainstream Dissident,” rejoiced at having made racial solidarity among white people part of the conference’s theme. The key, he said on a video livestream, was acting like they were just there to sell historical books. “Dude, we’re just humble book merchants, man,” he said, laughing. “We’re just selling Third Reich literature at a Christian conference is all!”
Excerpt from Stephen Kinzer’s book about MKULTRA: White stood five feet seven inches, weighed over two hundred pounds, and shaved his head. Writers have described him as "fat and bull-like," a "vastly obese slab of a man" who looked like "an extremely menacing bowling ball." His first wife, who divorced him in 1945, called him "a fat slob." He regularly used illegal drugs, keeping for himself a share of…
A tweet from Michael Spangler: “We need a Protestant Hitler.”
Article text: As the idea of a Black Robe Regiment has found footing in right-wing spaces, its mythology has increasingly been used as a pretext for antidemocratic, if not militant, action, according to Ruth Braunstein, a sociologist at Johns Hopkins University who has studied the movement. Cook, the militant speaker at the December 2020 rally outside the U.S. Capitol, has received the backing of Michael Flynn, a former U.S. national security adviser who became a major figure in QAnon circles. And more recently, Cook’s organization has been holding “pastor’s huddle meetings” across the country that have featured figures such as Richard Mack, the leader of a national group of “constitutional sheriffs” who believe they can legally defy federal laws and that has ties to the broader militia movement. “They’re providing manpower to the most radical fringe of the MAGA coalition,” Braunstein told me of the modern Black Robe Regiment. “They’ve really expanded the range of what the public views as acceptable behavior.”
a screenshot of a video titled "me when a succubus tries to seduce me," in which a video game character activates their "virginity shield"
A screenshot of an instagram video in which a goth kid with face paint holds a black cross to the camera. "Me when a succubus tries to seduce me" is the caption.
Signs for “stop the kill switch” movement
A room with a few hundred people
Texas Lt Gov Dan Patrick in a black shirt and leather jacket
A pamphlet that says Islam is “a disease that spreads by immigration. You are being conquered!”
A photo of numerous anti-Muslim brochures. One reads “ISLAMIC SHARIA LAW: A Threat To All Americans.” Another reads “ISLAM Equals Hate.”
A photo of the TEXIT booth
A photo of a booth for the John Birch Society
a screengrab of Ali Alexander and Ed Martin onstage
A screenshot from the Simpsons where Mr. Burns is booed, and Smithers tells him "They're saying Boo-urns. Boo-urns."
Article text: Which brings us to our second catastrophe: Leonard left, forcing a trade to the Toronto Raptors in 2018, dismaying fans and relegating the Spurs to the depths of the Western Conference standings for the next half-dozen years in the process. (Salt in the wound: He also brought Toronto a championship.) But then, in 2023, providence intervened when the Spurs pulled the first pick in the NBA draft lottery. The consensus top option was a seven-foot-four French teenager named Victor Wembanyama, widely considered the best NBA prospect since LeBron James. Just like that, Spurs fans regained hope.
AIPAC on Twitter: Congratulations Rep. Christian Menefee on your victory tonight over one of the most outspoken anti-Israel voices in Congress.
Green statement: "Afraid to come out during the election, AIPAC has finally reared its ugly head. Click here to read its insidious prevarication. I am not anti-Israel; I am anti-sending any more of hardworking American's tax dollars to Israel. AIPAC, which has not denounced the genocide in Gaza, seems to perceive every person who denounces the slaughter of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinian men, women, and especially children under the leadership of Prime Minister Netanyahu as anti-Israel. Question for AIPAC: Why are so many candidates rejecting your once open and notorious contributions? Answer: You have become persona non grata. Shame on you for what you have condoned. Crawl back into your hole. Sincerely, your unbought, unbossed, unafraid, unelected, liberated Democrat - Al Green, The People's Congressman."
Another company that appears to be involved with Parscale's Israel contract is Jackson Parker, whose Florida chapter was founded by Parscale and billionaire oil tycoon Tim Dunn in early 2025. The company shares an Ohio office with several other Parscale companies working on the Israel project. A recent job listing from Jackson Parker for a director of strategic communications says, "We are a mission driven organization focused on combating anti-Semitism and strengthening public understanding of Israel as America's closest ally in the Middle East." One of the position's requirements, the listing says, is to maintain compliance with the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA. Dunn, a major Trump donor, is an evangelical preacher and billionaire who has spent tens of millions of dollars to push Texas towards a Christian governance model. He's staunchly pro-Israel and chairs the Christian Advisory Board of the Israel Allies Foundation. Dunn once told a Jewish Republican Texas House speaker, however, that only Christians should hold leadership positions in the statehouse.
Screenshot from article: French, who did not respond to an interview request, has proven similarly adept at stoking the most reactionary corners of the GOP base, then framing himself as their lone hero, unafraid to stand up to “the swamp” or “uniparty,” which they blame for their many woes. Since taking the helm of the Tarrant County GOP after losing two Texas House races—and as he has increasingly hobnobbed with a prominent fascist sympathizer—the 55-year-old has been perhaps the most controversial figure in the sprawling, ever-controversial political network funded by West Texas oil billionaires Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks. French praises his allies as “based,” and calls his detractors “gay” or “retards.” He frequently accuses non-white, elected officials of being terrorists or communists. “There are just some things where you can’t trust women TBH,” he wrote in response to a Kamala Harris 2024 campaign advertisement. And last month, as millions of low-income Americans were set to lose food stamps, French posted about the coming “chimp out.” “November 1, 2025 is National Chimp Out Day,” wrote French. “It’s going to be lit.” He was broadly accused of racism, which he denied.
A tweet in which French calls for the deportation of a Muslim woman who was recently named principal of a Texas high school
A screenshot of Bo Frenchs Twitter, in which he posts two photos he took of Posobiec and other right wing influencers at an event.
A tweet from James Talarico: I want to thank Senator John Cornyn for his years representing our state. We don't agree on everything, but we both still believe in public service. To Senator Cornyn's supporters: you have a place in our campaign.
The company is privately owned by Marie Sharp, 81 years old in 2021, who began locally selling sauces on her 400-acre Melinda Estates farm outside Dangriga in 1981.[3] In 1985 a factory was built to meet growing demand, now also serving as a popular tourist destination.[4][5][6] The product was the first commercially successful agricultural product manufactured in and exported from Belize. It was originally sold under the name of "Melinda’s Hot Sauce", a reference to the Melinda family farm, which is located within the Melinda Reserve, at #1 Melinda Road. Marie's recipe was the first habanero pepper sauce to achieve national distribution in the United States, with the Reese Finer Foods distribution network in 1989. Once the market for the product had been established, the importer, Figueroa International Inc., who was marketing the sauce, trademarked the product name, effectively cutting Sharp out of her own business.[7][8]
A photo of Marie Sharps Belizean Heat
A tweet by Bo French, who is currently running for Railroad Commission: “Long live the spirit of Rhodesia.”
A meme of Pope Leo holding a baseball bat with the text, “Delete this AI Slop.”
Matt Yglesias on Twitter: It is not surprising to see that the Pope endorses a lot of superstitious mind/body dualism about artificial intelligence but it's still wrong, even as he is also raising a lot of good points about some of the risks at play
Nikes new ad campaign for Victor Wembanyama. “Stop him? Just pray,” it reads, with a photo of Wemby towering over a group of ten nuns
In Brazilian Portuguese, talarico is a colloquial, derogatory slang term for a "homewrecker" or "wife-stealer." It refers to a person who pursues, flirts with, or becomes romantically involved with someone else’s romantic partner or crush, particularly those of a friend.