Texas Gov Gets Very Own Blockade By Pissed Off Mexican Truckers, Good Job Well Done
A tit for a tat.
Last week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced a number of measures that are absolutely vital to keep his name in the news with the primary coming up, and also ostensibly to protect Texas from Joe Biden's allegedly open borders. In addition to a stunt that would involve busing and flying asylum seekers to to dump them in Washington DC so Biden can have them (ha! ha!), Abbott ordered Texas state police to start performing "safety inspections" on every single commercial truck entering the US from Mexico.
When he announced the harsher "safety" inspections, Abbott said he knew they would "dramatically slow" cross-border traffic, but by golly it was worth it to keep Texas "safe." This week, it turns out that Abbott was more right than he knew: The inspections have led to hours-long delays for trucks entering Texas, and have sparked blockades of official border crossings by Mexican truckers angry at Abbott's policy.
The Texas Tribune reports that at the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge near McAllen, Texas — normally one of the busiest ports of entry — no commercial vehicles crossed the border at all Monday or Tuesday because Mexican truckers had blocked both north and southbound lanes of the the highway on the Mexico side, in protest of Abbott's inspection order.
Crossings have also slowed to a fraction of normal in El Paso and at other ports of entry, and the New York Times reports that delays of up to 14 hours have led some truck drivers to skip Texas altogether, and to take the longer drive to cross the border in New Mexico or Arizona.
No big deal, it's only around $12 million a day in produce alone that's being held up. If the slowdowns continue, that's certain to lead to higher prices and possible shortages in grocery stores across the US, which of course will be blamed on Joe Biden and Democrats regardless of the fact that Abbott caused them.
Mind you, Abbott's enhanced inspections come after the trucks have already made it through the regular border inspections done by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Under US law, searches for narcotics or undocumented immigrants at the border are entirely a matter of federal responsibility. After the trucks are screened by CBP, they're perfectly legal to travel on into the US. On a typical day, one trucker told the Texas Tribune, the process of getting through the El Paso port of entry only takes about a half hour. Tuesday, he said, the traffic backups and extra inspections delayed him six hours on his trip to pick up office supplies in El Paso, bound for Juárez.
Texas's Department of Public Safety (DPS) does have the authority to check commercial trucks for compliance with safety laws. Normally, such safety checks are performed randomly on a few of the thousands of trucks crossing into Texas daily. But Abbott ordered that all trucks be inspected, to save Texans from that Biden policy that hasn't gone into effect yet. In his press release announcing the crackdown, Abbott insisted he would "use any and all lawful powers to curtail the flow of drugs, human traffickers, illegal immigrants, weapons, and other contraband into Texas."
Which, again, ain't his job.
As of yet, the escalated inspections don't seem to have netted any huge caches of drugs or disrupted any cartel human trafficking operations, the Tribune reports; for that matter, it's not even clear what exactly the long, slow DPS inspections are even looking at. (They're looking at staying in the governor's good graces.)
The Tribune notes that the normal CBP screening process is anything but lax, with agents performing detailed, even invasive searches of commercial vehicles, to the degree that the ACLU complains that the ports of entry are effectively "a Constitution-free zone," according to former CBP commissioner Gil Kerlikowske, who headed the agency from 2014 to 2017.
“The number of K-9 [dogs] they have to look for drugs, the X-ray machines, they got really good at this — you’ll see them be able to tap the sides of cars, panels of vehicles and locate whether there’s a false panel or something’s been concealed,” Kerlikowske added.
There's little reason to think that CBP really need's Texas DPS to help with any of that, but of course, if Abbott can create some chaos at the border, he can scream about "chaos at the border" and blame Joe Biden without much chance of suffering electoral consequences. After all, any fool knows that Republicans are all about enforcing the laws, so any chaos can't be their fault.
Texas truckers and businesses, however, are starting to hurt because of Abbott's policy, and they don't seem to have any trouble seeing who's fucking around with their profits, as the New York Times reports:
“This has national ramifications,” said John D. Esparza, the chief executive of the Texas Trucking Association. “This is trade going to Ford Motor Company. This is trade going to Minnesota. It’s not just about the city of Laredo trying to get stuff to their local H-E-B,” he said, referring to the Texas grocery chain.
The association endorsed Mr. Abbott for re-election in February, and Mr. Esparza said he immediately got in touch with the governor’s office after the order to express his concerns. “I haven’t had a response, quite frankly,” he said.
Mexico is the state’s largest trading partner, with more than $100 billion in imports in 2019, according to a report from the Texas Department of Transportation. At one of the busiest crossings, in Laredo, 16,000 trucks ordinarily pass through on a given day, Mr. Esparza said.
CBP has noticed too, and says that in just the first week, Abbott's inspections have resulted in a 60 percent drop in commercial traffic across the Texas-Mexico border. In a written statement, CBP said,
The longer than average wait times – and the subsequent supply chain disruptions – are unrelated to CBP screening activities and are due to additional and unnecessary inspections being conducted by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) at the order of the Governor of Texas.
As the Texas Tribune also points out, it's not just Mexican truckers who are being harmed by those "unnecessary" inspections, since most Mexican truckers make several runs a day across the border, bringing Mexican goods and produce to US border cities, where American trucks and drivers haul the loads out to the rest of Texas and beyond.
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, a Republican first elected to that office in 2014, also had harsh criticism for what Abbott is doing to Texas bidniss, saying that Abbott should “cease his truck inspection project,” and that Abbott's “inspection program is turning a crisis into a catastrophe.” In an open letter to Abbott, Miller called the inspections "political theater" and warned that it could result in "untold losses" for businesses across the state.
“Your inspection protocol is not stopping illegal immigration,” Miller said in his letter. “It is stopping food from getting to grocery store shelves and in many cases causing food to rot in trucks — many of which are owned by Texas and other American companies. … The people of Texas deserve better!”
Miller is among the first Republicans to call for Abbott to knock this the hell off, noting that CBP agents already "conduct extensive inspections of commercial vehicles" and that the state should use law enforcement resources where illegal border crossings actually take place, "not to create a crisis where they do not," which we'd just point out is still CBP's job, not Texas DPS's.
Mind you, Miller's criticism isn't merely a call for good government; he's also a rightwing ally of Donald Trump seeking a third term as Ag Commissioner, so he has plenty of reason to poke at Abbott. Isn't democracy a fun game?
[Texas Tribune / NYT / Texas Tribune / Image: KHOU-TV]
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Greg Abbott Will Bus Asylum Seekers To DC, Dump Them For Laughs
Chortle chortle vomit horck!
Last week, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced it would phase out a controversial pandemic policy that allowed the immediate expulsion of most people claiming asylum at the US-Mexico border. The policy, called Title 42, is part of a World War II law that was used by the Trump administration as part of Stephen Miller's goal of using every aspect of federal power to end most immigration to the USA. Using the pandemic as an excuse, the Trump administration paired Title 42 with Trump's "remain in Mexico" policy to prevent nearly all Central Americans asylum seekers from entering the US.
Read More: Stephen Miller, America's Last Bastion Against Humanity
Under Joe Biden, the US continued the use of Title 42 expulsions, but allowed unaccompanied minor children and families with children to enter the US while their asylum claims went forward.
Title 42 expulsions will be phased out by the end of May this year, but anti-immigrant politicians aren't wasting any time trying to ramp up panic about the prospect of brown people once again being able to enter the US to request humanitarian protection from violence, gangs, and abuse in their home countries. We're a nation of laws, after all, except when those laws scare white racists.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who's facing rightwing primary challengers in his reelection campaign this year and would very much like to be president, this week announced an exciting plan to deal with the immigrant hordes his supporters are certain are coming to replace all the white people. As the Texas Tribune explains, it's a doozy:
At a press conference on Wednesday, Abbott unveiled a stunning plan that sent a shockwave through the immigration rights community: Texas would place state troopers in riot gear to meet migrants at the border and bus them straight to the steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., where he said the Biden administration "will be able to more immediately address the needs of the people that they are allowing to come across our border."
Isn't that hilarious? That'll learn Biden! If he loves illegals so much, let him deal with ALL THE MIGRANTS, hurr hurr!
Shortly after the presser, however, the governor's office issued a clarification that would get somewhat less publicity: The buses to DC would only start rolling after migrants had been processed and released into the US, and the program would be completely voluntary.
And in addition to buses, Abbott also ordered the state to charter flights to transport migrants to the nation's capital. The migrants would have to show documentation that they had already been processed by DHS. Many immigration advocates have noted that providing transportation services for asylum-seekers to reach their final destination is something the state should invest in.
In other words, it's still a trolling publicity stunt that treats desperate poor people as political props, but it'll be stripped of some of the more obviously fascist (and illegal) elements Abbott had trumpeted.
ACLU of Texas staff attorney Kate Huddleston still wasn't pleased, because you know how those lefty attorneys are, thinking that people have "rights" simply because they've managed to sneak into our beautiful land of freedom for people who look like Greg Abbott. Huddleston said in a statement that
Any forcible busing of migrants across the country would be outrageous and blatantly unconstitutional. Given that Abbott cannot dictate where people are sent, he has already backpedaled on this heinous plan, announcing that it will be only voluntary.
Beto O'Rourke, who's running against Abbott this fall, dismissed Abbott's cruel publicity stunt as if it were merely some sort of cruel publicity stunt, accusing Abbott of emphasizing pointless trolling over policy. In a statement, O'Rourke said, "If Abbott focused on solutions instead of stunts, then Texas could have made some real progress on the issue over the last seven years."
Well sure, but then the libs wouldn't be owned, and they might not even go cry, to say nothing of the possibility that asylum seekers' rights under US and international law might be recognized, and what American patriot could even bear to live in such a world?
Abbott also said at his Wednesday presser that the Texas Department of Public Safety would immediately begin stepping up "enhanced safety checks" of commercial trucks from Mexico entering the US, to search for undocumented migrants.
Abbott acknowledged that the move will "dramatically slow" traffic at the Texas border. Mexico is one of state's largest trading partners and does hundreds of billions of dollars in trade with Texas every year.
Abbott claimed that the end of Title 42 expulsions would be a bonanza for "cartels" and human smuggling, although as the Houston Chronicle notes, immigration advocates say that's not necessarily the case. They argue that, in reality,
the policy had been a boon for cartels that target migrants expelled to Mexico. Critics of Title 42 also note there has been a massive spike in repeat border crossings since Trump began enforcing the rule, which they argue has inflated border numbers.
“The evidence is clear: Title 42 is neither a meaningful public health measure nor a successful deterrent,” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior policy counsel for the American Immigration Council, testified at a congressional committee hearing Wednesday.
In addition, Abbott said state police would use "boat blockades" on the Rio Grande to somehow make migrants go away, and because the cruelty is always the point, announced Texas would place razor wire in low-water areas of river crossings that get lots of traffic.
The Texas Tribune doesn't report whether Abbott literally rubbed his hands together and grinned at the prospect of those terrible asylum seekers getting all tangled up in concertina wire and drowning, but you have to assume his base voters will be able to fill in the details in their own diseased minds and be very pleased with what a great torture that'll be. After all, crossing the border without papers is a crime (a misdemeanor), and anyone who breaks the law must be dealt with harshly.
[Texas Tribune / Houston Chronicle]
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Your Weekly Dose Of GOP Non-Answers And BS, Courtesy Of The Sunday Shows!
We watch so you don't have to.
The Republican Party has long given up on governance or the appearance of even trying. It's so plain that even when they publicly confess that truth, it's met with a shrug rather than any pushback.
Translation: We have no agenda other than obstructing like it's 2008!
It's nevertheless infuriating when the GOP tries to cover its bullshit with a thin veneer of legitimacy.
Roy Blunt on ABC's 'This Week'
A great example of this is GOP Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, who got his own dedicated Wonkette post about this earlier today. Blunt was asked about where he stood on the upcoming vote to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. Blunt decided to pretend he just really wanted to be a part of this historic moment, but just couldn't vote for this particular person:
BLUNT: Really, there are two criteria, I said immediately. One is, is the person qualified for the job? And two is, what's her judicial philosophy?
She's certainly qualified. [...] But the judicial philosophy seems to be not the philosophy of looking at what the law says and the Constitution says and applying that, but going through some method that allows you to try to look at the Constitution as a more flexible document, and even the law. And there are cases that show that that’s her view. [...] And I won't be supporting her but I'll be joining others in understanding the importance of this moment.
If only the very qualified Judge Jackson had answered that question about her judicial philosophy. Oh wait. We guess Blunt just missed it during the confirmation hearings or when it was reported by The Wall Street Journal or Slate or The New York Times or Des Moines Register. I'm sure once Sen. Blunt's staff does a quick Google search, he'll get right on confirming Judge Jackson.
Right? Right?
John Cornyn on 'Fox News Sunday'
Speaking of lack of consistency, Texas GOP Senator John Cornyn was asked about Donald Trump doing that thing where he asks Russia to interfere in our elections (again) and asks for dirt on a political opponent (again) in plain sight and on tape. Because crimes done in plain view aren't crimes, we guess.
His answer will not surprise you if you've paid attention or have a longer political memory than a goldfish.
Asked on Fox News Sunday about Trump asking Putin for dirt on the Bidens even as Russia wages war on Ukraine, John Cornyn says "I wouldn't trust Vladimir Putin" but stops short of criticizing Trump or calling his comments unwisepic.twitter.com/jGU0CvbkJS— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1648994648
The acrobatics it takes to be against Russia while your presumptive presidential nominee for 2024 and the leader of your party is kissing Putin's ass is "Flying Graysons" level of difficult.
Ron Johnson and Bill Hagerty on Fox News's 'Sunday Morning Futures'
Some in the GOP, rather than twist themselves into pretzels, just barrel on with their propaganda. So here's noted 4th of July Moscow vacationer and Wisconsin GOP Senator Ron Johnson!
Johnson went to Maria Bartiromo's conspiracy safe space show to spread the same old debunked conspiracy theories about Hunter Biden and the same old lies about Trump/Russia collusion being a hoax.
The cover-up of the Biden\u2019s vast web of foreign financial entanglements by our intelligence agencies is the worst corruption I\u2019ve ever seen in the United States government.pic.twitter.com/sTzP5U8dEY— Senator Ron Johnson (@Senator Ron Johnson) 1649079510
Later on the same show, Tennessee GOP Senator Bill Hagerty didn't have much time for questions about mass graves found in Kyiv, because he was on location to do some fearmongering at the OTHER border Fox News is freaked out about. "I want to talk about what's happening here at the [southern] border," he said.
Cornell Belcher on NBC's "Meet The Press"
We conclude with Democratic pollster Cornell Belcher telling a very plain truth that explains why Hagerty and the GOP want to switch topics to immigration, and more broadly why they don't have solutions to any problems.
BELCHER: Let's get real about immigration reform here, right? There's a reason why that's in almost every Republican ad, right? And look, we've seen this play before, right? This is part of that, more fuel for driving the tribalism that Republicans see as part of their political calculus as how they drive this. [...] Dissatisfaction with immigration has been driven by Republicans and they're feeding this. Not so long ago I remember when a guy named Barack Obama thought he had an immigration deal with the Gang of Eight. But it was in the Republicans’ benefit to not have a deal, comprehensive immigration reform, that included border security, that included a pathway. And by the way, most Americans think that you should pay a penalty, and there should be a pathway. And that's not going to happen. You know why it's not going to happen? Because Republicans in Congress don't want it to happen.
They have no plans or solutions because there's no political consequences for it (yet). They are counting on it for the midterms and beyond.
I hope we can prove them wrong.
Have a week.
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State Department Warns Ukraine Crisis Could Continue Beyond US Attention Span
Your Ukraine War update.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been going on for a month, and as Ukrainian cities keep getting hammered by Russian attacks, President Joe Biden is in Europe for a series of emergency meetings with US allies to discuss imposing more sanctions on Russia and providing military aid to Ukraine. Biden will announce new US sanctions on "more than 400 Russians and Russian entities, including the Duma and more than 300 of its members, along with more than 40 defense companies," according to one of those "senior administration officials" we always hear from. [NBC News]
In addition, the White House announced today the US will welcome up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees, with an emphasis on helping the most vulnerable, NBC News reports:
The administration will allow their entry through a range of pathways, including the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, nonimmigrant and immigrant visas, and other means. There will also be a focus on welcoming Ukrainians who have family members in the U.S. Additional details are expected to be unveiled in the coming weeks.
The administration believes most Ukrainians displaced by the war will choose to remain in Europe so they can more readily return home when it's over, depending on the outcome. The UN estimates that out of a population of 43 million, 3.6 million people have fled Ukraine for other countries, and another 6.5 million Ukrainians displaced from their homes are taking refuge elsewhere inside Ukraine. [NBC News / BBC]
NATO Estimates 7,000 To 15,000 Russian Troops Dead. So It Goes.
The Wall Street Journal reports NATO estimates as many as 40,000 Russian soldiers have been killed, injured, or captured in the first month of the invasion. All told, Russia may have lost as much as a 10 percent of its equipment and a fifth of its combat forces, including between 7,000 and 15,000 troops killed. The Journal notes that the NATO estimate is higher than US estimates of Russian casualties, although the "senior US defense official" who commented on the NATO figures didn't provide an alternative number.
The heavy losses, a NATO official said, have impaired the pace of Russia's invasion effort, and, as the Journal puts it,
would underscore how much Russia’s attack on Ukraine that began Feb. 24 has become bogged down after what defense analysts have said have been a series of operational missteps. Ukrainian defensive operations have emerged as far-tougher and enduring than was expected.
The Journal also reports that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday that talks with the Ukrainian government had been difficult because the Ukrainian government keeps changing its position, which we assume must mean that Russia doesn't like Ukraine's insistence that Russia can't just take over the entire country and kill its leaders. That's us, doing "Kremlinology." Lavrov also
accused the West of looking to keep Russia engaged in hostilities for as long as possible by continuing to pump weapons into Ukraine. The U.S. and others have shipped arms and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine to help Kyiv fight off the Russian attack, allowing the defenders exact a heavy toll on the invading military.
Mmm hmm, and to underline the point that maybe Russia is a bit concerned about the impact being made by all those arms, the Journal notes that the last time the Kremlin released any figures on war — err, special military operation — casualties in Ukraine was on March 2, when it said 498 troops had died. Also too:
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday the Russian Defense Ministry will provide additional information on Russian losses “when they see fit…The operation is developing and being carried out strictly in accordance with the plans and tasks.”
Pretty bizarre to see Russia replaying Pee Wee Herman's "I meant to do that!" as part of its war propaganda. [WSJ]
Asked For Proof Of War Crimes, US Says Turn On Your TV
The US government has formally accused Russia of committing war crimes in Ukraine, which actually matters in terms of moving toward international justice. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement yesterday,
Today, I can announce that, based on information currently available, the U.S. government assesses that members of Russia’s forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine. [...]
We’ve seen numerous credible reports of indiscriminate attacks and attacks deliberately targeting civilians, as well as other atrocities. Russia’s forces have destroyed apartment buildings, schools, hospitals, critical infrastructure, civilian vehicles, shopping centers, and ambulances, leaving thousands of innocent civilians killed or wounded.
Blinken said the US will share the evidence with allies and with international institutions that do the work of investigating alleged crimes against humanity.
Neither the US nor Russia formally signed on to the treaty that created the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands. The US Senate never voted to ratify the treaty late in the Clinton administration, because Republicans feared evil UN intrusions on American sovereignty, and George W. Bush formally withdrew the US from the treaty. Human Rights Watch notes that "US relations with the court have been complicated but often positive." Yes, that really does depend on who's president, too.
Still the Associated Press notes,
The U.S. could still assist a prosecution before the court, which earlier opened an investigation into atrocities committed in Ukraine, by helping to gather evidence against Russian forces in Ukraine, using some of the vast abilities it has deployed to track and monitor what has been happening in the conflict.
The U.S. could also provide support and backing to a commission of inquiry established by the U.N. Human Rights Council.
Countries like Spain and Germany have laws recognizing universal jurisdiction in war crimes, so it's possible that Russian soldiers or officials might be prosecuted there or in other countries with similar legal codes. Those people would have to be arrested in order for that to happen, though. And if an American were a victim of war crimes in Ukraine, it's also possible the US would prosecute.
Democratic Reps. Ted Lieu and Rep. Eric Swalwell have written to Merrick Garland urging that the US Justice Department investigate possible war crimes in the deaths of American journalist Brent Renaud and Idaho resident Jimmy Hill, who was killed in a Russian attack while waiting in a bread line. Hill had travelled to Ukraine to care for his partner, Ukrainian citizen Irina Teslenko, who was hospitalized in Chernihiv for treatment of multiple sclerosis. The Justice Department hasn't yet responded to the letter from Lieu and Swalwell. [AP / KTVB-TV]
We would also like to take this opportunity to urge top Russian officials and members of the military to remember that Germany and Spain are very attractive vacation destinations, especially their many international airports and INTERPOL offices.
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