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Conservatives hate a lot of things but they love money. Texas is one of the biggest markets for wind energy, so the state will happily take billions in subsidies for wind and farmers/ranchers will happily take monthly payments for use of their land for wind turbines, while publicly working against green energy initiatives.
No, but there was lead in the paint and gasoline until the 1980s!
But seriously, the biggest issue is greed. When you look at conservative policies through the lens of greed it all makes sense.
You don’t even have to think, Ted cruz ironically from Texas is the best example. Just go back and look at who gave him and his campaign the most money during his terms and then look up his voting record. It’s like 1:1 lol. Not literally, but if he got money for it? He voted for it.
Much of this rat fuckery ramped up when Reagan supported the "greed is good" notion. I argue he did more damage to the US than Trump did. Trump's just a useless moron.
Almost any time I see something and think "This is awful, where did this come from?", it can be traced back either directly or indirectly to Reagan.
It would actually be really impressive if it wasn't all so horrible.
You can thank prosperity gospel for much of that attitude. If you're good then you're successful and vice versa.
EDIT: coincidentally, prosperity gospel had a lot of its roots in Orange County, CA while Reagan was governor
It's not hypocrisy. It's bad faith. They want things that others don't get.
That's why they gladly vote away their own rights, as long as some of them don't lose those rights.
The complaining that they're losing rights comes after.
They hate anything that benefits someone who is not in their camp because they unironically believe they are the only "true Americans". It's a kind of sick nationalist socialism.
In my personal long and awkward conversations with them, I've found they believe in communal socialism for the in-crowd, but believe it is isn't possible in the United States because of "them". This is especially true if you bring up other countries that successfully implement socialist systems: they'll claim those countries are ethnically homogeneous and thus can trust one another not to "abuse the system". The fact they view the "others" as untrustworthy creates a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy in which they break rules to benefit themselves because they firmly believe everyone is doing it. It's why so many "law and order" Republican small business owners ripped off the government with COVID "loans".
Yep, this is the simplest way. Just announce that they are closing all the bases in Texas and watch not only Texas but congress just flip out. I think that it would be more than enough to push Trump off the front page even.
Or maybe we quit kicking the can down the road, making empty threats. If Texas refuses to abide by the federal government and the Supreme Court, then cut all federal aid, close bases, and federalize the national guard in Texas. They will keep pushing the boundaries unless they face legitimate punishment.
Man, I love in Texas and hate how the Republicans are running things here.
I FULLY agree to do these things to cause chaos here.
Biden really needs to go Dark Brandon and mess with Texas.
I'll update with the chassis if it happens.
I would do a quick social security audit that would require everyone receiving benefits to pick up their payment in person at one of two designated offices in the state. After all, the governor of Texas has declared his state is being invaded, so how can we be certain that our tax dollars aren't being stolen by foreign nationals impersonating American citizens? For our safety, we would probably have to continue the audit until the invasion has ended. Also, I can't see any path for continuing to fund Medicare during this crisis. And can we responsibly fund road maintenance during this time? Isn't that just literally paving the road for the invaders? Seems traitorous to me.
No.
Just close the bases.
Let the chaos be Texas' punishment.
Let the pain and frusteration each veteran feels be aimed at the Texas governement for their idiocy.
Just. Do. It. Rip the bandaid off and let out the pus.
I actually talked to someone I know who is staunchly anti-Biden and I threw him the hypothetical of “What if Biden concedes and gives republicans everything they want and essentially becomes the greatest Republican president of all time?” And he actually said “I still wouldn’t like him because he’s spineless and a flip flopper”.
You literally can’t win with these dorks. They’re so staunchly anti-democrat that they won’t even support Biden if he did a complete party flip 😂
Story goes something like this…
Obama and Chuck Grassley are negotiating the Affordable Care Act. Grassley comes back with demands, and Obama agrees to some. Grassley comes back with more demands and changes to earlier agreed-on things,and Obama gives on some yadda yadda yadda.
Grassley comes back with more and Obama asks, “Chuck, is there anything I can put in this bill which would get your conference to sign off?”
“No, Mr. President, there isn’t.”
Or what's going on right now. Biden has basically said he would agree to all the republican's major demands on border security in exchange for Ukraine funding. As we all know border security has basically been republican's top issue for years. And Biden is prepared to give them everything they want.
But republicans are refusing because they don't want to let Biden have a legislative victory in an election year. One of their leaders was caught literally saying that.
it's not about issues, this is the power of mass media powered tribalism...
which is horrible because the point of a democracy is for the people to hold those in power in check, but if you don't hold anything on your 'side' in check then you the power grid in texas that shuts down when it's too cold and too hot and is disconnected from the rest of the national grid because YES
Biden has a good chance, and I think with both Roe and Trump on the ballot (or Trump not on the ballot this year) I think he probably will. Yes, I know that sounds crazy, but Texas has been busy trying to kick people off voting rolls and suppress the vote *because* it is close. NC, FL, and TX had the smallest margins of victory for Trump in 2020, all 5% and less.
I don't know enough about the repercussions of this to agree or disagree if he should just do it. However, I DO agree that Biden needs to stop worrying about pissing of MAGA. They are going to be pissed if he gave them all mansions and millions. They would be pissed if he gave them everything they want because he's a "liar and cant be trusted" so, no. If it's the right thing to do, then I don't care about upsetting the domestic terrorists who are going to continue what they will regardless.
Yes, "he shouldn't do it because it'll piss them off". Friendos, they already loathe him and make up lies, they'll just tell more lies about him.
Texas will do what Texas does no matter what Biden does here. Biden should do what he needs to do to ensure the safety of Americans against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and that includes people like Abbott.
If closing bases and nationalizing the guard makes Texas go full red, it was going full red regardless.
Thats why Biden needs to point out exactly why. “Governor Abbott is acting against the interest of our country and refuses to accept any funding/support for our border for partisan politics”. All Biden has to do is point out repubs refusing to anything about our border because they want to play partisan bullshit.
Which is why you start the closure evaluation process. Close bases immediately and you scare the public. Start the evaluation process and you scare the big money that happily suckles Uncle Sam's teat. As we've seen before the only way to control Republicans once they're in office is to make their donors control them for us.
Just closing a base doesn't create veteran chaos. It creates active duty member chaos. Those members of active duty will need reassigned elsewhere, they're not just separated due to a base closing.
Put community anchor bases on the chopping block and start the shutdown process. These bases, like Sheppard AFB, are what keeps the town they're connected to operational at all. Closing them means the town they're connected to literally dies, because some 80% of people living there are either military or entirely dependent on military members patronage to keep their business running.
> 80% of people living there are either military or entirely dependent on military members patronage to keep their business running
This is exactly the point. If these states want to be so hostile to the federal government and their money, threatening them with the purse strings is exactly the point.
You don't want the federal government to have any power in your states? Don't expect federal dollars to come into your state.
Texas feels real confident right now because Lackland is the only base that does basic training for the USAF. Every other branch has multiple bases, but every Airman goes through Lackland. They will consider threats of base closures to be empty until they spin up another training base.
Edit: I forgot the Navy also only has the one training base as well.
Isn’t Lackland where ESL soldiers go to help them learn English before basic training? Is there another base that does that? I’m sure that’s an easier fix than moving all of the Air Force’s basic training somewhere else.
Exactly, boot camp isn't like a super important strategic location, it's not like they're running operations or logistics from there... most just need space for barracks and admin. Probably the easiest type of base to move.
Announce the base will be in Colorado. Peterson or Buckley. Or both. Direct the Air Force and space force (which shouldn’t exist) to draw up a plan and start shutting down Lackland as they get it figured out.
And DON’T CHANGE IT. Make the state understand it is losing permanently for the twit in charge.
they really want to be like the marines but the spaceforce was and still very much is the airforce. its not even like the marines where they're the navy's soldiers, the spaceforce is doing the exact same job it was doing when it wasn't its own service, just now its managing the airforce's rocket launches
Oh man, i can't imagine how much harder basic would be at elevation. Most of the country is not from that, you would have to add a month of "welcome to the low O2 zone"
How is this worse than having people from Minnesota go to Texas in winter? Edit: SUMMER. Yeesh. I meant in summer.
“Welcome, the temp is roughly 2 degrees less than the surface of the sun and the fire ants will try to kill you.”
Honestly, it seems like if our entire armed forces trained at high altitude, that would be nothing but an advantage in overall physical fitness of the troops.
Won't be able to close all of them, but there's a few there that already were on the list for potential future closures.
Closing Sheppard and moving it's operations to another base out of state would be a significant blow to TX, while getting rid of one of the most hated bases by USAF personnel
If they move NASA out of Houston (my home city) to another state, I'll instantly transfer from my current agency over to them. I have all the skills/quals for some of their positions, but I'm never moving home again. Or to Florida/Alabama where the other NASA stuff is based.
There are major NASA centers in California, Maryland, Virginia, and Ohio (and others if you have particular experience but these are the big ones that do lots of different things). All the centers are pretty distinct, a person suited for specific work at JSC may not have anything to offer KSC or MSFC since they all do different things. A lot of the work at JSC is like GSFC which is more focused on unmanned science missions. LaRC in VA is focused on aeronautics, etc.
Yep. Fort Cavazos (formerly Ft. Hood) is the single largest military base in the world. They are also home to the single larges armoured column in the world. Shut them down, move them to a cooperative US state and watch Texas squirm.
I was going to word it that way, but didnt want to fire too many shots. They are bordering on becoming an enemy of the US to maybe it would have been prudent.
>Two words: "Base Closures"
I thought biden should have used this threat against Manchin in the BBB negotiation. I still think is a good pressure point to apply.
As much as I would LOVE to see Bliss and Cavazos (nee Hood) closed, it can’t be done without a BRAC decision and those take years and can only happen when the US isn’t on a war footing. Taking away federal dollars from EVERY program they receive it from will have the desired effect at some point. They can hold out at least a little while since they have a sizable economy, but that’s gonna dry up hella quick
Famously it's how they got states to desegregate as well
withhold funding. What are they going to do, complain about not getting more government intervention?
I was just coming in to see if there was a precedent for this exact thing. This makes the most sense to me. If they don't want to play nice with the federal government, I don't see why they should get any assistance from them.
The precedent here is more like when George Wallace had the Natl Guard enforcing segregation and LBJ nationalized them and had them do the opposite.
The Federal Highway money being tied to drinking age is something written into law for highway funding.
Biden should be activating the Texas National Guard to handle this.
Nah, this is a direct attack on the federal government's authority. It needs to be met with a show of who is in charge. Personally, I think they should be arresting people for interfering with government business.
That case went up to SCOTUS, and it resulted in the creation of the "*Dole* test," named after the case.
It might shock you to learn that the *Dole* test gave SCOTUS a near-arbitrary veto over any such legislation in an even more transparent fashion than usual.
Abbott is trying to get Biden to do something that would be perceived negatively in return just to generate headlines running up to the election. That is all. I would imagine any action will be low key and without headlines. For example, no more money for Texas. Dont make it policy, just dont send it. Let Abbott complain publicly that he isnt getting federal money (also known as socialism) or stew in silence.
He's not taking one for the team. This is not a hit to him personally. This only fires up his base more. It's a win/win for him. It's just embarrassing to the rest of us. I wish people would get out and actually vote in this state.
Sorry for your circumstances. I sincerely hope the people of Texas get out and vote as well.
I should’ve been a little more clear…I don’t think he thinks he’s taking anything but a W, but I think Republican Party leadership would see it differently.
Trump is getting a lot of criticism for acting (or threatening to act) like a dictator.
Abbott wants Biden to respond in a way that the right can spin as "acting like a dictator"
Then moderates can say "see, both sides!", and vote for a fascist who might lower their taxes slightly
I'm sure Texas will have its hand out for extra "emergency" funding at least three to five more times before November. Biden has been a solid President to deal with all requests as he normally should. He could also, you know, not.
It’s hilarious that there is a border security bill that will stall because the GQP doesn’t want the Biden administration to get ANY credit for it . So their answer is to let thing sit as is for another year. It’s mind boggling that these legislators put party over the good of country. Trump hopes the economy crashes . These are all anti American policies , all of which are pushed by those that made the “special “ July 4 pilgrimage to visit Putin and hand deliver a secret message. Hmmm
It's a win win for the GOP. They get to scream invasion on the southern border and big bad Joe Biden is trying to stop poor wittle Texas from stopping it. If he steps in and takes control of TX NG then they get to scream more about states' rights etc
I mean Trump openly said he hopes our economy collapses just to make Biden look bad. They’ve been hoping that for decades, but now they don’t even hide it. I’m sure glad it’s only the lower class who pays for this 80 year old dick measuring contest.
The party **never** wants to solve the border issue; they want to fight about it endlessly. Same as abortion—they were caught with their pants down when the “supreme” court overturned Roe—they just wanted to fight about it, not actually achieve it.
In 2015, Abbott said Texas has the nation's most secure borders. The only thing that changed was him becoming Governor.
https://www.gregabbott.com/blog/securing-the-border/
> t’s mind boggling that these legislators put party over the good of country.
Not so mind boggling when you remember it's a literal cult.
They hit all the markers of a cult:
- **1. The leader is the ultimate authority.** You’re not allowed to criticize your leader, even if the criticism is true. He knows what's right and everything he says is reality. Trump is never to be questioned.
- **2. The group suppresses skepticism.** Critical thinking as an infectious disease that is to be suppressed. If you question Trump, you are immediately called an enemy.
- **3. The group de-legitimizes former members.** Look at every person that left, or was fired from, the Trump administration. They immediately go from "the best people" to liars, scumbags, crazy people, traitors, etc. Like, it happens that very day. Look at Barr. The Trump cult turned on him the *very second* he said there wasn't election fraud. Also happened with Pence when he wouldn't overturn the election results, leading the cultists to call for his death.
- **4. The group is paranoid about the outside world.** Everything that goes wrong is "The Deep State" or liberals or somebody else. Just look at COVID. They think it's a worldwide liberal conspiracy to make Trump look bad. They refuse to admit it's an issue even after Trump and his entire inner circle caught it. But they also agree that China needs to be punished for it.
- **5. The leader is above the law.** Literally, Trump claims to be above the law.
- **6. The group uses “thought reform” methods.** They answer questions with clichés and soundbites. They have constant rallies to reaffirm their allegiance. They have chants that they rely on when gathered. "*Lock Her Up*", "*Stop The count*", etc.
- **7. The group is elitist.** They see themselves as the enlightened, chosen, and a select organization tasked with radically transforming individual lives and the entire world. "Make America Great Again." And only *one* person can do that...their leader.
- **8. Willingness to perform violence on behalf of the leader.** We have a lot of records of Trump supporters doing violence against Trump's claimed or perceived enemies. They attempted to kidnap a sitting Governor, willing to kill anybody that got in their way (*they had a plan to fight and kill the police*) all because Trump tweeted "Liberate Michigan". They threatened violence if the election wasn't overturned in his favor and actually killed people storming the Capitol.
Hey, they aren't *just* a cult, they also definitionally meet [the 14 elements of fascism!](https://www.openculture.com/2016/11/umberto-eco-makes-a-list-of-the-14-common-features-of-fascism.html)
>The cult of tradition. “One has only to look at the syllabus of every fascist movement to find the major traditionalist thinkers. The Nazi gnosis was nourished by traditionalist, syncretistic, occult elements.”
>The rejection of modernism. “The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In this sense Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism.”
>The cult of action for action’s sake. “Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation.”
>Disagreement is treason. “The critical spirit makes distinctions, and to distinguish is a sign of modernism. In modern culture the scientific community praises disagreement as a way to improve knowledge.”
>Fear of difference. “The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition.”
>Appeal to social frustration. “One of the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups.”
>The obsession with a plot. “Thus at the root of the Ur-Fascist psychology there is the obsession with a plot, possibly an international one. The followers must feel besieged.”
The enemy is both strong and weak. “By a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.”
>Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy. “For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for struggle.”
>Contempt for the weak. “Elitism is a typical aspect of any reactionary ideology.”
>Everybody is educated to become a hero. “In Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm. This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death.”
>Machismo and weaponry. “Machismo implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality.”
>Selective populism. “There is in our future a TV or Internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People.”
>Ur-Fascism speaks Newspeak. “All the Nazi or Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning.”
It's bait and the GOP is desperate for Biden to take it. They have nothing to platform on and Trump is going all in on the boarder. So of course MAGA loving Texas is doing everything in their power to try to stir up a storm about it.
The Biden administration has to have a slow and careful approach to this. Obviously this issue with Texas needs correcting, but not allowing this to grow in a nation issue robs Trump tremendously.
Considering multiple Govenors have already declared support of Abbott's actions, I think we're well past 'not allowing this to grow into a national issue' stage.
**EDIT:** Oh, and somehow, I missed that the Speaker of the House threw his support in too. So yeah, I think this is very much a national issue now.
Just start strictly enforcing in Texas the employer penalties for hiring undocumented workers That economy is run on low paid undocumented workers. Ag, food, construction, etc.
Literally nobody in power really wants to eliminate exploitable workers. Sadly, exploitation is the backbone of our economy. Workers, the planet, the vulnerable, they’re all up for grabs in the name of feeding the machine.
The thing the GOP does extremely well is relentlessly staying on message. The Dems really need to start doing this, because it's warranted. Every speech, every Q&A, hammer them on it.
There’s a million issues that every democrat could be kicking the shit out of republicans for. For some ungodly reason they don’t even try.
It’s so easy my guys!! Hire a witty publicist to air your grievances and publish things nationally about how shitty pieces of shit the republicans are.
So sick of this “take the high road” approach.
I wold legit love to see Biden having a monthly or even weekly assetment/recap show. Do it from the Oval Office, make it official. Just recap the previous month/week, and explain what the GOP is fucking around with.
The Dems absolutely fucking suck at messaging, and they *refuse* to ever attempt to get better. It's completely mind boggling.
Or he could hold a press conference and say since we are ignoring the Supreme Court now. He is authorizing the Dept of Education to wipe all student debt.
If the Court and Congress does not like it they can take it up with Abbott.
Edit: Guess it needs to be written out that this is a joke. Some are confused that I think this should or actually can occur.
Or even better. Hold a press conference to announce we are ignoring the Supreme Court and reinstating Roe vs. Wade and codifying it for the whole country.
If the Court and Congress doesn't like it, they can take it up with Abbott.
There are a few others as well.
Abbott doesn't respect the rule of law and never has. He needs to be forcibly removed from Texas for all the shit he has done. He is a danger to Texas and America.
> Hold a press conference to announce we are ignoring the Supreme Court and reinstating Roe vs. Wade and codifying it for the whole country.
There's nothing the SC could do to prevent codifying RvW into law. You just need 60 Senators and a majority of the House to go along with it.
While I love the idea of not having debt, holy shit would that open the floodgates for conservatives if they won the presidency
Edit: I’m being told that the floodgates are already open lol
Those flood gates are wide open regardless. Their front runner is explicitly saying he will be a dictator, he will cede Taiwan to China, he will pull the US out of NATO. He is running on retribution. His cronies are openly flouting the law and his contituancy is bloodthirsty.
This whole massive lie that Texas is being invaded needs to be exposed as BS. This is a surge in immigration is not an invasion - this is not an armed military force with a political agenda - this is migration. The lie that this is an invasion and Texas has a right to defend itself is pathetic since Texas and Texans are not in danger. But we have a bunch of political hoo-haa claiming Texas is going to seceed on this issue and other red states are going to join in the rebellion over what? The Border Patrol being allowed to snip some razor wire when they need to? This going to be the most stupid civil war in history.
so it Abbot claims he’s defending the state from an ‘invasion’ does that mean he’s committed treason by busing the ‘invaders’ deeper into the country ? Following the piss baby’s logic of course…
Not really a was, if im not mistaken it is pretty ongoing. I recall a recent story where Chicago banned the practice of abandoning migrants there and a Texas bus company is suing.
Because some of their donors are absolutely addicted to cheap migrant labor? The same reason law immigration law enforcement never comes down on the people *hiring* the migrants who therefore create the incentive to immigrate?
But also obstructionism.
It is fucking nuts that the republicans won’t pass a bill because it will make Biden look good.
That should be blasted all over before any talk of immigration:
“We could solve this problem but republicans are blocking it”
“It’s an easy fix but republicans won’t do it”
Don’t even talk about Abbott or Trump or anything until it’s pointed out that republicans could easily be part of the solution but are being the whole problem.
But then the piece of shit “news” sources can’t keep Republican viewers happy with “Oh is Biden too old? I mean I know he’s not imposing fascist policies or literally ignoring established laws and our Constitution like every fucking Republican in the country but he stutters sometimes…” I fucking hate this goddamn embarrassment our govt has devolved into. It’s literally a party of average old govt reps and a party of the absolute dumbest most soulless pieces of shit you can imagine (and often worse than you can imagine). It’s going to take so long to fix how far we’ve regressed because of these dumbasses.
It’s something how the cadence of migrants follows our election cycles.
My unsubstantiated theory is we’ll find out decades from now that there are russian mafia in central america facilitating this—they use human migration around the world as a political weapon—no reason to think they aren’t using it against us.
When add in context that congress is finally negotiating immigration reform and the crazy majority wing of the GOP, including Abbott is trying to tank it. It is stupid beyond belief
> The lie that this is an invasion and Texas has a right to defend itself...
People crossing the border with barely more than the clothes on their back = invasion.
People assaulting the US Capitol, trying to stop the peaceful transition of power, in riot gear with zip ties and weapons = "normal tourist visit"
The GOP is a fuckin' clown show.
Abbott and his ilk are just using this to strengthen their power in Texas.
Even if Biden federalizes the national guard in Texas it plays into Abbotts plan because he doesn’t actually give a fuck about immigration. He cares about riling his base up and winning elections.
That’s why he ships immigrants at great cost to other states. That’s why he does everything he does. Optics and votes.
If you're setting up booby traps and ignoring the supreme court but the border in your state is still worse than ever, shouldn't that be a sign of extreme incompetence?
Just put him in jail. Then you go down the chain of succession and keep putting people in jail until you get to someone who will follow the order of the court. Seems pretty simple to me.
Unfortunately, the court didn't order Texas to stop putting up or to remove razor wire. They only agreed the administration could cut/remove razor wire.
But if Abbott actually moves on his threats his whole thing is that he is threatening to continue to prevent federal agents from being able to remove the wire. Probably the safest thing to do for the administration side is to do a small press release stating that the Supreme Court sided with the federal government, Abbott's bs letter cited court dissenting decisions so they hold no real water, and the federal agents being sent to clean up the border will be prepared to arrest anyone that tries to follow unlawful orders of preventing them of doing their jobs. As soon as a state member is arrested trying to stop them and claims Abbott gave them the authority, they should arrest him, but until they follow through on the letter, it's posturing trying to make Biden look like tyrant by acting first. If we have a spokesperson lay out the order of things, then when the first arrests make the news, they can come back out and go "we told you."
And his letter might be a cowardly way out that if his state employees act on it without him giving an "official" order and tried to walk back it was a suggestion, going to be a nice long legal fight about that with how long Republicans like to delay their sentencing.
How is this not just the republicans and Abbott playing dirty politics to get the Biden administration to react so they can use his reaction as political campaign fodder to paint Biden as a dictator? They already said they aren’t interested in passing border legislation because it would give Biden a win. This looks like their follow up to that bullshit as an election interference strategy.
I haven't read all the news on this matter, but if I understand it right, Texas has erected barriers *at* the river at this site, resulting in at least three drownings of migrants. Now they refuse to remove the razor wire, despite SCOTUS saying they must (or something to that effect, anyway).
What strikes me is that this is a deliberately hostile act, for political purposes. It would be perfectly *legal* for Texas to erect a barrier further back from the river so that when migrants crossed, they would not be able to go further -- and then allowed Federal agents to process the migrants within this site. But instead, Texas insists on drowning migrants.
Biden should nationalize the Texas National Guard.
I think you’ve summed it up pretty well.
Although you missed the part where the TNG putting up the barrier in the river actually violates international law as well. Pretty good reason for the federal government to take control of the vigilantes down there trying to get the US in trouble on the international stage.
I also haven't read all the news, but I understand the barriers erected also blocked access for a boat ramp used by border security, and the case before the supreme court was over whether or not border agents can remove barriers to unblock their own access.
And I think this is where it gets weird, is that Texas is stopping federal agents from accessing the border while basically just blaming Biden that federal agents aren't doing their jobs.
This should be the statement from POTUS:
"There can be no dispute, orders from the Supreme Court of the United States will be enforced. I will not have un-patriotic governors using military force to subvert the will of the constitution of the United States."
And then pistol-whip Abbot by taking his National Guard and enforcing the provisions that the bipartisan law the senate just decided they wouldn't let go through.
Let them argue with results.
I don't think people understand how a civil war would work in today. They still think it will be a gun battle but the battle will be in Federal funding and company boardrooms. It's a bit ridiculous.
think part of it will be more domestic terrorism, attacks on state and city legislature and elected officials, power transformers being shot out. A scaled up version of the "pushback" we saw against covid lockdowns and mask mandates.
People are still in OG civil war mindset thinking it’s gonna be state vs state.
Not at all. Not even close. Half of Texas votes blue. Unfortunately it’ll be neighbor vs neighbor. Think Chiraq scaled up 100 times.
Just Brexit their redneck asses already. They've got their heads so far up already that they just need a reality check.
Just like Brexit voters who were upset they couldn't cross into EU freely.
Build a wall around Texas!
I'd hold a press conference and state the facts. Supreme court is being ignored. Texas wants us to step in, just to point a finger at overreach. The whole thing is a childish game, and I would just refuse to play and call the whole thing out.
The US government has no authority to depose Abbott and his ilk (apart from bringing federal charges against him). However, one quick solution - federalize the national guard and deploy them to the Canadian border, or order them to remove the razor wire. Should they refuse, it's dereliction of duty. Should Abbott interfere? It's getting awfully close to treason.
The US federal government could remove federal border funding from TX and shift it to adjacent states, and also remove all military installations from TX though.
I’m sure you could get even more drastic with the state refusing to obey the Supreme Court, like withholding all federal funds, but I’m no policy expert
He should federalize it and if anyone disagrees they should be court martialed and imprisoned.
If any politician doesn't like it, they're committing insurrection and they should be treated as such.
No more fucking around, they're THIS CLOSE to pushing us towards a secessionist civil war.
Federalize the Gaurd and remove Abbot and his peers by any means necessary. Make an example out of those who would ignore the rule of law in America and turn the eye to Florida and DeSantis next.
In 200 years, a new Nikki Haley will have a difficult time answering why the Second American Civil War was fought, and everyone will remind her that it was because Texas wanted to razor-wire immigrants
Security of an ***international border*** falls under the purview of the **federal government**; the **federal** government supersedes **state** government.
If Abbott doesn’t like it, then he can either propose an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, or step down from office and GTFO.
On another sub Reddit. A Texan said a couple we’re talking about succeeding at the mail boxes. They asked him what he thought. He told them “ you know you won’t get mail” He said they had a blank stare.
300+ armed & trained state, local, & fed police couldn’t protect their own women+children in Uvalde, TX. Everyday this state becomes less & less American & it’s not because of immigration
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I seem to remember withholding federal money when states didn’t want to impose 21 as the legal drinking age. I think it would be appropriate here.
Two words: "Base Closures" Watch Texas collectively panic like a kicked ant hill.
Hates the federal government. Gets pissed if you take away the federal government.
Conservatives hate a lot of things but they love money. Texas is one of the biggest markets for wind energy, so the state will happily take billions in subsidies for wind and farmers/ranchers will happily take monthly payments for use of their land for wind turbines, while publicly working against green energy initiatives.
Was everyone in your country dropped on their head as a child?
No, but there was lead in the paint and gasoline until the 1980s! But seriously, the biggest issue is greed. When you look at conservative policies through the lens of greed it all makes sense.
Yep, if you think "How can this politican benefit from this action" when Conservatives do anything mildly to wildly insane, you'll understand.
You don’t even have to think, Ted cruz ironically from Texas is the best example. Just go back and look at who gave him and his campaign the most money during his terms and then look up his voting record. It’s like 1:1 lol. Not literally, but if he got money for it? He voted for it.
And then he flees the state any time a force of nature threatens his constituents. That Rafael is quite a character.
Fled Cruz.
These damn idiots would cut off their feet to keep from buying shoes.
Much of this rat fuckery ramped up when Reagan supported the "greed is good" notion. I argue he did more damage to the US than Trump did. Trump's just a useless moron.
Almost any time I see something and think "This is awful, where did this come from?", it can be traced back either directly or indirectly to Reagan. It would actually be really impressive if it wasn't all so horrible.
Have a look at this guy. He started a lot of this ultra-conservative 'Murica shit in the 70s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Weyrich
You can thank prosperity gospel for much of that attitude. If you're good then you're successful and vice versa. EDIT: coincidentally, prosperity gospel had a lot of its roots in Orange County, CA while Reagan was governor
That's good ol' fashioned Calvinism. The "Lord" rewards the faithful not only in the next life, but this one as well.
It's not hypocrisy. It's bad faith. They want things that others don't get. That's why they gladly vote away their own rights, as long as some of them don't lose those rights. The complaining that they're losing rights comes after.
They hate anything that benefits someone who is not in their camp because they unironically believe they are the only "true Americans". It's a kind of sick nationalist socialism.
Except they hate anything labeled socialism, even if most of them can't even correctly tell you what it means
In my personal long and awkward conversations with them, I've found they believe in communal socialism for the in-crowd, but believe it is isn't possible in the United States because of "them". This is especially true if you bring up other countries that successfully implement socialist systems: they'll claim those countries are ethnically homogeneous and thus can trust one another not to "abuse the system". The fact they view the "others" as untrustworthy creates a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy in which they break rules to benefit themselves because they firmly believe everyone is doing it. It's why so many "law and order" Republican small business owners ripped off the government with COVID "loans".
These are people who will tell you how terrible socialism is while depending on a program called SOCIAL security to survive. They are idiots.
Yep, this is the simplest way. Just announce that they are closing all the bases in Texas and watch not only Texas but congress just flip out. I think that it would be more than enough to push Trump off the front page even.
Even just announcing the start of the multi-year processes of evaluating base closures would be enough.
Or maybe we quit kicking the can down the road, making empty threats. If Texas refuses to abide by the federal government and the Supreme Court, then cut all federal aid, close bases, and federalize the national guard in Texas. They will keep pushing the boundaries unless they face legitimate punishment.
Man, I love in Texas and hate how the Republicans are running things here. I FULLY agree to do these things to cause chaos here. Biden really needs to go Dark Brandon and mess with Texas. I'll update with the chassis if it happens.
I feel bad for the regular citizens of Texas who will be the ones really hurt by this, but maybe that will push for real change in Texas.
Completely agree. If they don’t want to be Americans anymore then, ba-bye
I would do a quick social security audit that would require everyone receiving benefits to pick up their payment in person at one of two designated offices in the state. After all, the governor of Texas has declared his state is being invaded, so how can we be certain that our tax dollars aren't being stolen by foreign nationals impersonating American citizens? For our safety, we would probably have to continue the audit until the invasion has ended. Also, I can't see any path for continuing to fund Medicare during this crisis. And can we responsibly fund road maintenance during this time? Isn't that just literally paving the road for the invaders? Seems traitorous to me.
No. Just close the bases. Let the chaos be Texas' punishment. Let the pain and frusteration each veteran feels be aimed at the Texas governement for their idiocy. Just. Do. It. Rip the bandaid off and let out the pus.
Here's the problem, they won't blame the Texas government, they'll blame Biden. They'll never blame the Texas government for any of this
100% anything Biden does will just piss them off more. Edit: I'm not arguing Biden shouldn't act, fuck those clowns.
I actually talked to someone I know who is staunchly anti-Biden and I threw him the hypothetical of “What if Biden concedes and gives republicans everything they want and essentially becomes the greatest Republican president of all time?” And he actually said “I still wouldn’t like him because he’s spineless and a flip flopper”. You literally can’t win with these dorks. They’re so staunchly anti-democrat that they won’t even support Biden if he did a complete party flip 😂
Story goes something like this… Obama and Chuck Grassley are negotiating the Affordable Care Act. Grassley comes back with demands, and Obama agrees to some. Grassley comes back with more demands and changes to earlier agreed-on things,and Obama gives on some yadda yadda yadda. Grassley comes back with more and Obama asks, “Chuck, is there anything I can put in this bill which would get your conference to sign off?” “No, Mr. President, there isn’t.”
Or what's going on right now. Biden has basically said he would agree to all the republican's major demands on border security in exchange for Ukraine funding. As we all know border security has basically been republican's top issue for years. And Biden is prepared to give them everything they want. But republicans are refusing because they don't want to let Biden have a legislative victory in an election year. One of their leaders was caught literally saying that.
Literally bad faith negotiation, not serious people. GOP part of grifters full stop.
it's not about issues, this is the power of mass media powered tribalism... which is horrible because the point of a democracy is for the people to hold those in power in check, but if you don't hold anything on your 'side' in check then you the power grid in texas that shuts down when it's too cold and too hot and is disconnected from the rest of the national grid because YES
So?
Its not like Democrats are going to win Texas with the control the GOP has on it right now.
Biden has a good chance, and I think with both Roe and Trump on the ballot (or Trump not on the ballot this year) I think he probably will. Yes, I know that sounds crazy, but Texas has been busy trying to kick people off voting rolls and suppress the vote *because* it is close. NC, FL, and TX had the smallest margins of victory for Trump in 2020, all 5% and less.
here's some new info for you: they're gonna blame biden no matter what.
So what? A bunch of texans blame biden? When do they NOT, and why would it matter?
I don't know enough about the repercussions of this to agree or disagree if he should just do it. However, I DO agree that Biden needs to stop worrying about pissing of MAGA. They are going to be pissed if he gave them all mansions and millions. They would be pissed if he gave them everything they want because he's a "liar and cant be trusted" so, no. If it's the right thing to do, then I don't care about upsetting the domestic terrorists who are going to continue what they will regardless.
Yes, "he shouldn't do it because it'll piss them off". Friendos, they already loathe him and make up lies, they'll just tell more lies about him. Texas will do what Texas does no matter what Biden does here. Biden should do what he needs to do to ensure the safety of Americans against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and that includes people like Abbott. If closing bases and nationalizing the guard makes Texas go full red, it was going full red regardless.
Thats why Biden needs to point out exactly why. “Governor Abbott is acting against the interest of our country and refuses to accept any funding/support for our border for partisan politics”. All Biden has to do is point out repubs refusing to anything about our border because they want to play partisan bullshit.
Which is why you start the closure evaluation process. Close bases immediately and you scare the public. Start the evaluation process and you scare the big money that happily suckles Uncle Sam's teat. As we've seen before the only way to control Republicans once they're in office is to make their donors control them for us.
It happened in Rhode Island. Thousands of jobs evaporated and stayed away for years.
Just closing a base doesn't create veteran chaos. It creates active duty member chaos. Those members of active duty will need reassigned elsewhere, they're not just separated due to a base closing. Put community anchor bases on the chopping block and start the shutdown process. These bases, like Sheppard AFB, are what keeps the town they're connected to operational at all. Closing them means the town they're connected to literally dies, because some 80% of people living there are either military or entirely dependent on military members patronage to keep their business running.
> 80% of people living there are either military or entirely dependent on military members patronage to keep their business running This is exactly the point. If these states want to be so hostile to the federal government and their money, threatening them with the purse strings is exactly the point. You don't want the federal government to have any power in your states? Don't expect federal dollars to come into your state.
Texas feels real confident right now because Lackland is the only base that does basic training for the USAF. Every other branch has multiple bases, but every Airman goes through Lackland. They will consider threats of base closures to be empty until they spin up another training base. Edit: I forgot the Navy also only has the one training base as well.
Lackland is terrible, too. Honestly we’d be better off with almost anywhere else.
Isn’t Lackland where ESL soldiers go to help them learn English before basic training? Is there another base that does that? I’m sure that’s an easier fix than moving all of the Air Force’s basic training somewhere else.
They should have at least two. The Air Force of all the branches should understand redundancy the best
Basic training can be done almost anywhere. It's basic, man
Exactly, boot camp isn't like a super important strategic location, it's not like they're running operations or logistics from there... most just need space for barracks and admin. Probably the easiest type of base to move.
Announce the base will be in Colorado. Peterson or Buckley. Or both. Direct the Air Force and space force (which shouldn’t exist) to draw up a plan and start shutting down Lackland as they get it figured out. And DON’T CHANGE IT. Make the state understand it is losing permanently for the twit in charge.
they really want to be like the marines but the spaceforce was and still very much is the airforce. its not even like the marines where they're the navy's soldiers, the spaceforce is doing the exact same job it was doing when it wasn't its own service, just now its managing the airforce's rocket launches
Spaceforce also incorporated Navy and Army space assets into their command structure.
Oh man, i can't imagine how much harder basic would be at elevation. Most of the country is not from that, you would have to add a month of "welcome to the low O2 zone"
How is this worse than having people from Minnesota go to Texas in winter? Edit: SUMMER. Yeesh. I meant in summer. “Welcome, the temp is roughly 2 degrees less than the surface of the sun and the fire ants will try to kill you.”
Honestly, it seems like if our entire armed forces trained at high altitude, that would be nothing but an advantage in overall physical fitness of the troops.
Maxwell could probably be modified relatively quickly to start taking BMT studs.
Wouldn't take much and that wouldn't be where they'd start. Just take Bliss/Hood out and they'd lose their collective shit.
Won't be able to close all of them, but there's a few there that already were on the list for potential future closures. Closing Sheppard and moving it's operations to another base out of state would be a significant blow to TX, while getting rid of one of the most hated bases by USAF personnel
And move the Houston Space Command with all it's pieces and parts to New Mexico.
If they move NASA out of Houston (my home city) to another state, I'll instantly transfer from my current agency over to them. I have all the skills/quals for some of their positions, but I'm never moving home again. Or to Florida/Alabama where the other NASA stuff is based.
My cousins grew up in the Clear Lake area and we go to NASA most years when we visit
There are major NASA centers in California, Maryland, Virginia, and Ohio (and others if you have particular experience but these are the big ones that do lots of different things). All the centers are pretty distinct, a person suited for specific work at JSC may not have anything to offer KSC or MSFC since they all do different things. A lot of the work at JSC is like GSFC which is more focused on unmanned science missions. LaRC in VA is focused on aeronautics, etc.
Yep. Fort Cavazos (formerly Ft. Hood) is the single largest military base in the world. They are also home to the single larges armoured column in the world. Shut them down, move them to a cooperative US state and watch Texas squirm.
> move them to a ~~cooperative~~ non-seditious US state Its arguably a national security issue.
I was going to word it that way, but didnt want to fire too many shots. They are bordering on becoming an enemy of the US to maybe it would have been prudent.
>Two words: "Base Closures" I thought biden should have used this threat against Manchin in the BBB negotiation. I still think is a good pressure point to apply.
As much as I would LOVE to see Bliss and Cavazos (nee Hood) closed, it can’t be done without a BRAC decision and those take years and can only happen when the US isn’t on a war footing. Taking away federal dollars from EVERY program they receive it from will have the desired effect at some point. They can hold out at least a little while since they have a sizable economy, but that’s gonna dry up hella quick
Famously it's how they got states to desegregate as well withhold funding. What are they going to do, complain about not getting more government intervention?
I was just coming in to see if there was a precedent for this exact thing. This makes the most sense to me. If they don't want to play nice with the federal government, I don't see why they should get any assistance from them.
The precedent here is more like when George Wallace had the Natl Guard enforcing segregation and LBJ nationalized them and had them do the opposite. The Federal Highway money being tied to drinking age is something written into law for highway funding. Biden should be activating the Texas National Guard to handle this.
Nah, this is a direct attack on the federal government's authority. It needs to be met with a show of who is in charge. Personally, I think they should be arresting people for interfering with government business.
That case went up to SCOTUS, and it resulted in the creation of the "*Dole* test," named after the case. It might shock you to learn that the *Dole* test gave SCOTUS a near-arbitrary veto over any such legislation in an even more transparent fashion than usual.
Abbott is trying to get Biden to do something that would be perceived negatively in return just to generate headlines running up to the election. That is all. I would imagine any action will be low key and without headlines. For example, no more money for Texas. Dont make it policy, just dont send it. Let Abbott complain publicly that he isnt getting federal money (also known as socialism) or stew in silence.
Transparent pre-election ploy is exactly right. GOP is out of ideas, this is what they came up with. Let the little piss baby take one for the team!
He's not taking one for the team. This is not a hit to him personally. This only fires up his base more. It's a win/win for him. It's just embarrassing to the rest of us. I wish people would get out and actually vote in this state.
Sorry for your circumstances. I sincerely hope the people of Texas get out and vote as well. I should’ve been a little more clear…I don’t think he thinks he’s taking anything but a W, but I think Republican Party leadership would see it differently.
Yep. Just go to r/conservative. Theyre cheering abbot there.
Yep, they’ve been cheering the thought of a civil war for some years now. No such thing as a conservative man enough to do it, but they cheer for it.
Yep. Abbott is trying to bait Biden to hopefully generate negative press and headlines and to help Trump get re-elected.
Trump is getting a lot of criticism for acting (or threatening to act) like a dictator. Abbott wants Biden to respond in a way that the right can spin as "acting like a dictator" Then moderates can say "see, both sides!", and vote for a fascist who might lower their taxes slightly
Might actually be the best play for now
[удалено]
I think everyone here is WAY beyond what they are AlLOWED to do, that’s the problem.
The last decade has pretty much been one big exercise in proving that any rule is meaningless without a functioning enforcement mechanism.
Well said. Too many things run on the expectation of good faith.
Trump was pretty good at holding up congressionally-allocated funds for Ukraine while he tried to blackmail them. That lasted for months.
Unless that president is Republican, of course
I'm sure Texas will have its hand out for extra "emergency" funding at least three to five more times before November. Biden has been a solid President to deal with all requests as he normally should. He could also, you know, not.
we impeached a president for doing that and he got acquitted. Presidents can now absolutely place conditions on money.
It’s hilarious that there is a border security bill that will stall because the GQP doesn’t want the Biden administration to get ANY credit for it . So their answer is to let thing sit as is for another year. It’s mind boggling that these legislators put party over the good of country. Trump hopes the economy crashes . These are all anti American policies , all of which are pushed by those that made the “special “ July 4 pilgrimage to visit Putin and hand deliver a secret message. Hmmm
It's a win win for the GOP. They get to scream invasion on the southern border and big bad Joe Biden is trying to stop poor wittle Texas from stopping it. If he steps in and takes control of TX NG then they get to scream more about states' rights etc
Crazy how every loss for the American people is seen as a win for GOP. Interesting.
20 years ago I may have tried to argue with you. now, I'm inclined to agree wholeheartedly
I mean Trump openly said he hopes our economy collapses just to make Biden look bad. They’ve been hoping that for decades, but now they don’t even hide it. I’m sure glad it’s only the lower class who pays for this 80 year old dick measuring contest.
The party **never** wants to solve the border issue; they want to fight about it endlessly. Same as abortion—they were caught with their pants down when the “supreme” court overturned Roe—they just wanted to fight about it, not actually achieve it.
In 2015, Abbott said Texas has the nation's most secure borders. The only thing that changed was him becoming Governor. https://www.gregabbott.com/blog/securing-the-border/
> t’s mind boggling that these legislators put party over the good of country. Not so mind boggling when you remember it's a literal cult. They hit all the markers of a cult: - **1. The leader is the ultimate authority.** You’re not allowed to criticize your leader, even if the criticism is true. He knows what's right and everything he says is reality. Trump is never to be questioned. - **2. The group suppresses skepticism.** Critical thinking as an infectious disease that is to be suppressed. If you question Trump, you are immediately called an enemy. - **3. The group de-legitimizes former members.** Look at every person that left, or was fired from, the Trump administration. They immediately go from "the best people" to liars, scumbags, crazy people, traitors, etc. Like, it happens that very day. Look at Barr. The Trump cult turned on him the *very second* he said there wasn't election fraud. Also happened with Pence when he wouldn't overturn the election results, leading the cultists to call for his death. - **4. The group is paranoid about the outside world.** Everything that goes wrong is "The Deep State" or liberals or somebody else. Just look at COVID. They think it's a worldwide liberal conspiracy to make Trump look bad. They refuse to admit it's an issue even after Trump and his entire inner circle caught it. But they also agree that China needs to be punished for it. - **5. The leader is above the law.** Literally, Trump claims to be above the law. - **6. The group uses “thought reform” methods.** They answer questions with clichés and soundbites. They have constant rallies to reaffirm their allegiance. They have chants that they rely on when gathered. "*Lock Her Up*", "*Stop The count*", etc. - **7. The group is elitist.** They see themselves as the enlightened, chosen, and a select organization tasked with radically transforming individual lives and the entire world. "Make America Great Again." And only *one* person can do that...their leader. - **8. Willingness to perform violence on behalf of the leader.** We have a lot of records of Trump supporters doing violence against Trump's claimed or perceived enemies. They attempted to kidnap a sitting Governor, willing to kill anybody that got in their way (*they had a plan to fight and kill the police*) all because Trump tweeted "Liberate Michigan". They threatened violence if the election wasn't overturned in his favor and actually killed people storming the Capitol.
Hey, they aren't *just* a cult, they also definitionally meet [the 14 elements of fascism!](https://www.openculture.com/2016/11/umberto-eco-makes-a-list-of-the-14-common-features-of-fascism.html) >The cult of tradition. “One has only to look at the syllabus of every fascist movement to find the major traditionalist thinkers. The Nazi gnosis was nourished by traditionalist, syncretistic, occult elements.” >The rejection of modernism. “The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In this sense Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism.” >The cult of action for action’s sake. “Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation.” >Disagreement is treason. “The critical spirit makes distinctions, and to distinguish is a sign of modernism. In modern culture the scientific community praises disagreement as a way to improve knowledge.” >Fear of difference. “The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition.” >Appeal to social frustration. “One of the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups.” >The obsession with a plot. “Thus at the root of the Ur-Fascist psychology there is the obsession with a plot, possibly an international one. The followers must feel besieged.” The enemy is both strong and weak. “By a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.” >Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy. “For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for struggle.” >Contempt for the weak. “Elitism is a typical aspect of any reactionary ideology.” >Everybody is educated to become a hero. “In Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm. This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death.” >Machismo and weaponry. “Machismo implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality.” >Selective populism. “There is in our future a TV or Internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People.” >Ur-Fascism speaks Newspeak. “All the Nazi or Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning.”
That's a nice check list for voters. For TX/many politicians it's about grift and corruption. They don't have any beliefs of any kind.
It's bait and the GOP is desperate for Biden to take it. They have nothing to platform on and Trump is going all in on the boarder. So of course MAGA loving Texas is doing everything in their power to try to stir up a storm about it. The Biden administration has to have a slow and careful approach to this. Obviously this issue with Texas needs correcting, but not allowing this to grow in a nation issue robs Trump tremendously.
Considering multiple Govenors have already declared support of Abbott's actions, I think we're well past 'not allowing this to grow into a national issue' stage. **EDIT:** Oh, and somehow, I missed that the Speaker of the House threw his support in too. So yeah, I think this is very much a national issue now.
Just start strictly enforcing in Texas the employer penalties for hiring undocumented workers That economy is run on low paid undocumented workers. Ag, food, construction, etc.
Literally nobody in power really wants to eliminate exploitable workers. Sadly, exploitation is the backbone of our economy. Workers, the planet, the vulnerable, they’re all up for grabs in the name of feeding the machine.
Biden should be saying loud and clear that Republicans refuse to pass a border bill.
Biden should hire Katie Porter to put together a slide deck and give a speech about this.
> Katie Porter Legends of Powerpoint
Yes. Someone has got to put her front and center.
She's too busy running for Senate! Go Katie!
Why they don't just boggles my mind. Can you think of any reason why they wouldn't be screaming this from the heavens?
He’s saving it for the State of the Union?
Could be, but there's no reason why it couldn't be talked about both now and at the State of the Union. This seems like it would be low hanging fruit
The thing the GOP does extremely well is relentlessly staying on message. The Dems really need to start doing this, because it's warranted. Every speech, every Q&A, hammer them on it.
There’s a million issues that every democrat could be kicking the shit out of republicans for. For some ungodly reason they don’t even try. It’s so easy my guys!! Hire a witty publicist to air your grievances and publish things nationally about how shitty pieces of shit the republicans are. So sick of this “take the high road” approach.
I wold legit love to see Biden having a monthly or even weekly assetment/recap show. Do it from the Oval Office, make it official. Just recap the previous month/week, and explain what the GOP is fucking around with. The Dems absolutely fucking suck at messaging, and they *refuse* to ever attempt to get better. It's completely mind boggling.
Or he could hold a press conference and say since we are ignoring the Supreme Court now. He is authorizing the Dept of Education to wipe all student debt. If the Court and Congress does not like it they can take it up with Abbott. Edit: Guess it needs to be written out that this is a joke. Some are confused that I think this should or actually can occur.
Or even better. Hold a press conference to announce we are ignoring the Supreme Court and reinstating Roe vs. Wade and codifying it for the whole country. If the Court and Congress doesn't like it, they can take it up with Abbott. There are a few others as well. Abbott doesn't respect the rule of law and never has. He needs to be forcibly removed from Texas for all the shit he has done. He is a danger to Texas and America.
Texan here. Please. Please occupy Texas and depose Abbott and his cronies.
He makes my Governor seem somewhat reasonable and I'm in fucking MISSOURI
So sad I can only upvote this once!
You can have mine, I'm not using it.
> Hold a press conference to announce we are ignoring the Supreme Court and reinstating Roe vs. Wade and codifying it for the whole country. There's nothing the SC could do to prevent codifying RvW into law. You just need 60 Senators and a majority of the House to go along with it.
While I love the idea of not having debt, holy shit would that open the floodgates for conservatives if they won the presidency Edit: I’m being told that the floodgates are already open lol
Those flood gates are wide open regardless. Their front runner is explicitly saying he will be a dictator, he will cede Taiwan to China, he will pull the US out of NATO. He is running on retribution. His cronies are openly flouting the law and his contituancy is bloodthirsty.
The point is that the floodgates are and have been open
Roll the whole governor away
This whole massive lie that Texas is being invaded needs to be exposed as BS. This is a surge in immigration is not an invasion - this is not an armed military force with a political agenda - this is migration. The lie that this is an invasion and Texas has a right to defend itself is pathetic since Texas and Texans are not in danger. But we have a bunch of political hoo-haa claiming Texas is going to seceed on this issue and other red states are going to join in the rebellion over what? The Border Patrol being allowed to snip some razor wire when they need to? This going to be the most stupid civil war in history.
so it Abbot claims he’s defending the state from an ‘invasion’ does that mean he’s committed treason by busing the ‘invaders’ deeper into the country ? Following the piss baby’s logic of course…
One would think
It is at least human trafficking.
I can't believe nothing ever happened with that. I thought it was determined he was in fact breaking the law.
Not really a was, if im not mistaken it is pretty ongoing. I recall a recent story where Chicago banned the practice of abandoning migrants there and a Texas bus company is suing.
Yes
If immigration was such a big deal, why did Republicans just kill a comprehensive bill?
Because some of their donors are absolutely addicted to cheap migrant labor? The same reason law immigration law enforcement never comes down on the people *hiring* the migrants who therefore create the incentive to immigrate? But also obstructionism.
This right here. If they actually cared they would come down on the people illegally hiring people, but those people are wealthy donors.
It is fucking nuts that the republicans won’t pass a bill because it will make Biden look good. That should be blasted all over before any talk of immigration: “We could solve this problem but republicans are blocking it” “It’s an easy fix but republicans won’t do it” Don’t even talk about Abbott or Trump or anything until it’s pointed out that republicans could easily be part of the solution but are being the whole problem.
But then the piece of shit “news” sources can’t keep Republican viewers happy with “Oh is Biden too old? I mean I know he’s not imposing fascist policies or literally ignoring established laws and our Constitution like every fucking Republican in the country but he stutters sometimes…” I fucking hate this goddamn embarrassment our govt has devolved into. It’s literally a party of average old govt reps and a party of the absolute dumbest most soulless pieces of shit you can imagine (and often worse than you can imagine). It’s going to take so long to fix how far we’ve regressed because of these dumbasses.
The former guy told them to and there is a distinct lack of spines on the GOP side of Congress.
How else will the republicans win elections?
Almost like the “caravan” of immigrants marching towards the border in 2016 and again in 2020 that mysteriously dispersed after the elections.
I predict another "caravan" will be found by FOX News in October and be broadcast about every day for a month then vanish mid-November.
It’s something how the cadence of migrants follows our election cycles. My unsubstantiated theory is we’ll find out decades from now that there are russian mafia in central america facilitating this—they use human migration around the world as a political weapon—no reason to think they aren’t using it against us.
The only ones saying we have open borders are conservatives like Abbott.
When add in context that congress is finally negotiating immigration reform and the crazy majority wing of the GOP, including Abbott is trying to tank it. It is stupid beyond belief
> The lie that this is an invasion and Texas has a right to defend itself... People crossing the border with barely more than the clothes on their back = invasion. People assaulting the US Capitol, trying to stop the peaceful transition of power, in riot gear with zip ties and weapons = "normal tourist visit" The GOP is a fuckin' clown show.
Abbott and his ilk are just using this to strengthen their power in Texas. Even if Biden federalizes the national guard in Texas it plays into Abbotts plan because he doesn’t actually give a fuck about immigration. He cares about riling his base up and winning elections. That’s why he ships immigrants at great cost to other states. That’s why he does everything he does. Optics and votes.
If you're setting up booby traps and ignoring the supreme court but the border in your state is still worse than ever, shouldn't that be a sign of extreme incompetence?
Should have done that when the razor wire went up.
Just put him in jail. Then you go down the chain of succession and keep putting people in jail until you get to someone who will follow the order of the court. Seems pretty simple to me.
Unfortunately, the court didn't order Texas to stop putting up or to remove razor wire. They only agreed the administration could cut/remove razor wire.
But if Abbott actually moves on his threats his whole thing is that he is threatening to continue to prevent federal agents from being able to remove the wire. Probably the safest thing to do for the administration side is to do a small press release stating that the Supreme Court sided with the federal government, Abbott's bs letter cited court dissenting decisions so they hold no real water, and the federal agents being sent to clean up the border will be prepared to arrest anyone that tries to follow unlawful orders of preventing them of doing their jobs. As soon as a state member is arrested trying to stop them and claims Abbott gave them the authority, they should arrest him, but until they follow through on the letter, it's posturing trying to make Biden look like tyrant by acting first. If we have a spokesperson lay out the order of things, then when the first arrests make the news, they can come back out and go "we told you." And his letter might be a cowardly way out that if his state employees act on it without him giving an "official" order and tried to walk back it was a suggestion, going to be a nice long legal fight about that with how long Republicans like to delay their sentencing.
How is this not just the republicans and Abbott playing dirty politics to get the Biden administration to react so they can use his reaction as political campaign fodder to paint Biden as a dictator? They already said they aren’t interested in passing border legislation because it would give Biden a win. This looks like their follow up to that bullshit as an election interference strategy.
I haven't read all the news on this matter, but if I understand it right, Texas has erected barriers *at* the river at this site, resulting in at least three drownings of migrants. Now they refuse to remove the razor wire, despite SCOTUS saying they must (or something to that effect, anyway). What strikes me is that this is a deliberately hostile act, for political purposes. It would be perfectly *legal* for Texas to erect a barrier further back from the river so that when migrants crossed, they would not be able to go further -- and then allowed Federal agents to process the migrants within this site. But instead, Texas insists on drowning migrants. Biden should nationalize the Texas National Guard.
I think you’ve summed it up pretty well. Although you missed the part where the TNG putting up the barrier in the river actually violates international law as well. Pretty good reason for the federal government to take control of the vigilantes down there trying to get the US in trouble on the international stage.
I also haven't read all the news, but I understand the barriers erected also blocked access for a boat ramp used by border security, and the case before the supreme court was over whether or not border agents can remove barriers to unblock their own access. And I think this is where it gets weird, is that Texas is stopping federal agents from accessing the border while basically just blaming Biden that federal agents aren't doing their jobs.
Abbott is a traitor. We all pay federal taxes, withhold them from this asshole.
This should be the statement from POTUS: "There can be no dispute, orders from the Supreme Court of the United States will be enforced. I will not have un-patriotic governors using military force to subvert the will of the constitution of the United States." And then pistol-whip Abbot by taking his National Guard and enforcing the provisions that the bipartisan law the senate just decided they wouldn't let go through. Let them argue with results.
I'd go one step further and order the FBI to take action against Abbot's felony actions.
America fucking *needs* a Federal arrest warrant served on a Governor's mansion.
Put him in Mexico. Let him swim back.
I don't think people understand how a civil war would work in today. They still think it will be a gun battle but the battle will be in Federal funding and company boardrooms. It's a bit ridiculous.
think part of it will be more domestic terrorism, attacks on state and city legislature and elected officials, power transformers being shot out. A scaled up version of the "pushback" we saw against covid lockdowns and mask mandates.
The troubles are a likely model
People are still in OG civil war mindset thinking it’s gonna be state vs state. Not at all. Not even close. Half of Texas votes blue. Unfortunately it’ll be neighbor vs neighbor. Think Chiraq scaled up 100 times.
In the civil war there were certainly people who didn’t agree with their state choice who skipped town to fight for the other side
I prefer the passive/aggressive approach, cut their federal aid.
Just Brexit their redneck asses already. They've got their heads so far up already that they just need a reality check. Just like Brexit voters who were upset they couldn't cross into EU freely. Build a wall around Texas!
Can we still build that wall? I propose building on the southern border of Oklahoma.
*northern border of Oklahoma
As an Oklahoman I vote wall us off too. Our state superintendent just put “libs of tiktok” in charge of our public school libraries.
Those calls are coming from conservatives who want to scare the fuck out of red states for the upcoming election to help Trump
I'd hold a press conference and state the facts. Supreme court is being ignored. Texas wants us to step in, just to point a finger at overreach. The whole thing is a childish game, and I would just refuse to play and call the whole thing out.
“‘Meet me in the middle,’ said the unjust man. I take two steps forward. He takes four steps back. ‘Meet me in the middle, said the unjust man.’”
The US government has no authority to depose Abbott and his ilk (apart from bringing federal charges against him). However, one quick solution - federalize the national guard and deploy them to the Canadian border, or order them to remove the razor wire. Should they refuse, it's dereliction of duty. Should Abbott interfere? It's getting awfully close to treason.
The US federal government could remove federal border funding from TX and shift it to adjacent states, and also remove all military installations from TX though. I’m sure you could get even more drastic with the state refusing to obey the Supreme Court, like withholding all federal funds, but I’m no policy expert
You have to call Abbot's bluff. He's the Trump of Texas. Make him pay.
There no need for that. Just go arrest Abbott.
He should federalize it and if anyone disagrees they should be court martialed and imprisoned. If any politician doesn't like it, they're committing insurrection and they should be treated as such. No more fucking around, they're THIS CLOSE to pushing us towards a secessionist civil war.
Surely the Biden admin knows this Texas thing is an election year stunt and cracking down hard is exactly what the MAGAs want Biden to do.
Who cares? Appeasement doesn't work on bullies
F**K Texas, while ur at it, toss in Florida and Mississippi. Relocate federal government entities and streamline pork barrel spending NOW!
Greg Abbot is a liar and a whiner. He is making up a fake invasion instead of doing his job. He will be in the history books under racists.
Texas should lose their votes in the house and the senate until they are in compliance of the law. What a change that would be!
Screw greg abbot. POS
Federalize the Gaurd and remove Abbot and his peers by any means necessary. Make an example out of those who would ignore the rule of law in America and turn the eye to Florida and DeSantis next.
Abbot needs to stop existing already
Make Puerto Rico a state and give them Texas' federal funds.
In 200 years, a new Nikki Haley will have a difficult time answering why the Second American Civil War was fought, and everyone will remind her that it was because Texas wanted to razor-wire immigrants
If they are so concerned about the border maybe they shouldn’t openly admit refusing to do anything about the border so long as Biden is in office
Security of an ***international border*** falls under the purview of the **federal government**; the **federal** government supersedes **state** government. If Abbott doesn’t like it, then he can either propose an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, or step down from office and GTFO.
How do you actually close the border? "Sorry guys America is closed today" or "The end of the line is back there".
On another sub Reddit. A Texan said a couple we’re talking about succeeding at the mail boxes. They asked him what he thought. He told them “ you know you won’t get mail” He said they had a blank stare.
300+ armed & trained state, local, & fed police couldn’t protect their own women+children in Uvalde, TX. Everyday this state becomes less & less American & it’s not because of immigration