This Texas situation is very concerning. Greg Abbott is a monster-not sure what it’s going to take when dealing with such an inhumane person. Doesn’t the GOP continue to vote against funding to secure the border? Give Texas back to Mexico... except Austin. Let’s keep Austin. 😂✌️💙
The Texas governor and the Texas military and National guard members that are blocking the Federal Border Patrol from doing their job which led to these deaths should be tried for murder. They should also be sent to Chicago, on buses, with no coats or shoes. Currently is it -5 degrees Fahrenheit.
Gail, Thank you for sharing this project. Our Governor Pritzker of IL asked that Governor Abbott not send people with no shoes and coats and no notification to anyone here to drop them off with no one to meet them, especially while we have these frigid temperatures. Tonight we are going down to -10F. Abbott is a hater. That is not a good neighbor. Who wants to be led by or live by a hater? As Taylor Swift says in her song, Shake It Off. And "the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate." https://youtu.be/H59xVMF4zxE?si=TWDkTgC25wPIO5lV
This is the link to the Hyde Park Refugee Project in Chicago, IL. You will see many of my neighbors, friends and former students in the video. https://hprp.clubexpress.com/
The immigrants in our community have become our good neighbors as we try to be good neighbors to them.
Wait... what? You... you mean... ACTUAL CHRISTIANS?!
Good for them, and if you get a chance, thank them profusely for doing actual "God's work".
I do not know how some of these so-called "christians" live with themselves. Their presence in church on Sundays is a lie, they have taken to characterizing the words of their Lord and Savior as "liberal talking points", and therefore display zero understanding of the basis of the religion they profess to honor and obey. Christ stood for love and forgiveness. Abbott and his ilk stand for hatred and temporal power, nothing more or less.
Linda, you took the words right out of my mouth. The only thing that’s going to stop the disgustingly inhumane Greg Abbott is legal action that involves his arrest.
I actually read the appeal from the governor of Illinois, talking about this. Basically, he said - we don't mind taking in these people, but at least FLIPPING TELL US when you are sending them, because they get dumped here, on their own, in freezing temperatures. Please don't cause any more deaths. Of course.... appealing to someone like Abbot for any sort of humanity is pointless.
If those three large cities are blue, and a friend tells me that San Antonio is also a blue city, I don’t understand why Texans can’t elect better representatives, and get the hell rid of Greg Abbott. I guess the population in rural areas is large enough to work against this.
Hi Beth, right above your comment I posted a reply to someone else. Someone named Michelle Davis wrote a really great, short article on this issue with non-voters and Greg Abbott threatening to shoot people as they cross the border. What a nice guy.
According to this article from Michelle Davis, there are actually 9.5 million non-voting Texans. What could these people be thinking? They have absolutely no interest in what happens in their state? Can you imagine the changes that could occur if these people would get registered to vote? I’m willing to bet money that most of these non-registered, eligible voters would be Democrats, or Democrat leaning independents.
That's what frustrates the bejesus out of my brother who is very active with the Dem party in TX. Trying to get people to register and/or vote against the pols who are making their lives miserable 🤯
This writer, Michelle Davis, clearly shows us the moral decrepitude of the Texas government, but more importantly, how citizens sit at home and do nothing to stop this when they could be voting to make their state a better place.
Texas has several blue cities. Dallas, Houston, El Paso (I think), Austin, of course. When I lived just north of Austin, the county I lived in was stuck in one of those hyper-gerrymandered congressional districts and this conservative Christo-Nationalist blowhard named John Carter kept winning every time. It was maddening. Not only was he a pure bread Texas Taliban, but he never did anything. I don't think he introduced one bill in Congress while I lived there. When I tried to call him out on it on Facebook (I wasn't abusive), he blocked me.
tRump looked like warmed over death (we should be so lucky) in a black bathrobe.
The forecasted low overnight tonight in Des Moines is -19. That’s without wind chill. Maybe someone can get tRump to stand outside tonight to thank the faithful as they leave caucuses.
I thought it was just me. My first thought when I saw that picture was "looks just like John Gotti walking the streets of New York in his bathrobe" (I was wrong, that was actually Vincent Gigante).
No discomfort at all after he pulls out the big Sharpie and a photo of Fox News weather and raises the temperature to 70 above and redirects the cold front to Greenland. Teach them to turn down his real estate buyout offer.
The U.S. strikes on the Houthi pirates are echoes of the U.S. strikes on Barbary pirates in North Africa during the administration of President Thomas Jefferson - the strikes that led to the reference to “the shores of Tripoli” in our Marine Corp’s anthem. There is ample historic precedent for what is happening right now. Our country has a long and proud history of responding to piracy.
Houthis do not know what they are messing with. They THINK they do, because they have survived the Saudis and the other half of Yemen for all these years, and they get guns and stuff from Iran. We like "proportional" responses to things of this nature. When you are screwing around with the global economy, the proportions can shift massively with little to no warning. And if they think Iran will bail them out they will learn some interesting lessons in logistics and power politics.
The North Vietnamese may disagree with you. As would the Taliban and various factions in Iraq. And even if you are right, I'm sure Iran is going to view the Houthis as an expendable proxy force.
The US does not have a great track record of success with overwhelming force against that type of enemy.
What really scares me is that there is a non-zero chance that Tel Aviv and Teheran will be the next Hiroshimas. Both sides have almost certainly illegally acquired nuclear weapons.
Vietnamese and Taliban had advantages of terrain that Yemen does not (jungle/mountains vs. desert) - and I promise you Defense Intelligence knows the location of every weapon, launcher, and radar station in Yemen. Furthermore, neither of those conflicts had much, if any, effect on international commerce.
The Iraqi debacle was down to allowing dishonest amateur ideologues to run policy both before and after. And none of these conflicts had actual justification for the U.S. to go to war.
This? There are numerous countries who will feel the pinch if this shipping chokepoint is allowed to be closed off and they will be happy to help.
And to your last point, Israel is generally known to possess nukes. Iran definitely wants them, but so far, are not thought to have gotten there - and Israel has a very large portion of its intelligence community dedicated to making certain they do not.
Your concerns are valid - and yeah, we have shown the capability to screw up what should be simple military ops before - but this appears to be a very straightforward mission that the U.S. military is well-trained for. Find 'em (satellite intel - check), blow 'em up (drones, cruise missiles, fighter-bomber aircraft - check) and go home.
Will there be repercussions? Oh, yeah. Will we have backup? Ohhellyeah. No question. Houthis simply cannot be permitted to interfere with the global economy in this way, and they will not be.
Iraq was a desert war, too. Sure, it was the amateur ideologues who got us into that war (just like Vietnam, and also just like Yemen today), but they didn't conduct it later. Iraq was fundamentally unwinnable. The US getting involved in Yemen is likely going to be another quagmire, quite probably worse. If you think Syria is bad for Turkey or the Russians, you might have a hint.
You may also be underestimating the sheer size and organization of the Houthis. To be clear: the Houthis aren't nice people (I'm talking about the movement, not the tribe by the same name. Want to make the point that I don't condemn people based on birth or ethnicity alone), I'm just looking at the situation there, hopefully dispassionately.
As for trade: that's not going to be factor. On that, the Houthis really outmaneuvered the US by focusing only on ships with Israeli connections. Everybody else could pass through just fine, until the US strike of course.
Add to that the near-universal worldwide condemnation of Israel's action, and the fact that the Europeans are preoccupied with supporting Ukraine against Putin and are upset about the lack of US support.
"Iraq was a desert war, too" True - but the problem there was the whole "you broke it, you bought it" idea, plus the notion of exporting democracy. Not to mention there was no actual justification for that little adventure in the first place. Nobody wants that here, or anything like it. No invasion necessary, or likely to happen. Just a matter of taking out sufficient high-end military equipment (missile infrastructure, air defense stations, etc.) to get the point across - the point being "cut it out, or we'll break all your toys." Eminently doable, but I will say - it should not be unilateral.
And trade absolutely WILL be a factor, and already is. Houthis need to stay in their lane - which is screwing with Sunnis. Nobody cares about their rebellion except the Saudis and other Sunni governments in the region.
Agreed. Shipping deserves and needs international protection. Houthis are being weird. Obviously Iran doesn't control them as much as we thought. Iran isn't stupid. Putin might be though.
We are essentially living under mob rule, a scenario created totally by Trump and his henchman. This recently revealed audio of Roger Stone threatening the assassination of Eric Swalwell and Jerry Nadler is even more proof of this, although we didn’t need more evidence. All the Republicans who are allowing this to continue are part of Trump’s army of mobsters.
You’re welcome, Jay, and thanks for these awesome newsletters. I subscribe to The Big Picture as well, so I look forward to reading it. I’m truly sickened and alarmed by all of this. I hope these members of Congress have excellent security details.
So, let's see if I have this straight: Abbott, Trump, Johnson, Gaetz, Jordan, Boebert, Greene, and all their enablers and lackeys are representatives of the "master race"???
What [expletives deleted] criteria are they using for that designation?
"A recent internal study by the Biden Campaign showed that three out of four undecideds are not yet ready to believe that Trump will actually be on the GOP ticket."
How in the world is anyone "undecided?" Are these people actually weighing the pros and cons of a democracy vs authoritarian Fascism? That's the only choice here, democracy or not. What's to decide? Are they holding their breath and waiting for Nikki or Ron to be the nominee? They are no different from Trump. If you are against Biden, you are against democracy. Period. NO deciding needed.
But the people who don't follow politics aren't weighing democracy vs fascism. They either don't know the threat or don't know what to believe since both sides say the other is authoritarian and anti-democracy
Which they will ignore. Evidence or belief? They choose to believe what they wish to believe. And please recall, they have "alternative facts" going for them. grrrhhh...
Ask her how she feels about having a lame ass politico making decisions regarding her OBGYN care instead of a real, educated medical doctor. Better yet, how does she feel about consulting NFL quarterbacks who went to community college when it comes to treating her illness?
I know civil servants have to maintain a certain level of abstraction in how they talk, but there’s nothing stopping any Democratic* elected official from saying “Greg Abbott is a murderer.” The Senate can hold hearings, like Republicans do whenever someone undocumented commits a crime.
*(Republicans too, of course, but lol right now one expects decent human behavior from them.)
Also, that picture of Trump--he looks like someone the Secret Service would haul off.
I can understand the sentiment, but actually, there is. Calling somebody a murderer before conviction could be considered libel. Especially in this case, before anybody has died. I'm not sure that even the broad protections from our First Amendment would help in this case.
It would probably also not be the smartest move politically.
Uh... people have died. Specifically, in the very instance that set this off, a mother and her two children - who could have been saved, but Texas NG soldiers, operating under Abbott's direct orders, refused to allow Federal agents to effect rescue. Others have perished previously in his razor wire - so I am perfectly OK with characterizing him as a murderer.
To read of the callousness and lack of even primitive empathetic feelings towards humans in distress is truly a visible marker of the degradation of morals and corruption of right-vs-wrong agency that years of GOP rule have brought to TX. Absolute lack of any humanity on display there, and people wonder how the people of Nazi-era Germany countenanced public beatings and murder of Jews.
I think that Biden needs to get on television this week, as soon as possible, and condemn the deaths of these three innocents. He must explain to the American public that the federal government has control over international borders, and make it clear that seeking asylum is not illegal. He needs to clarify that he is enforcing the laws that Congress has put in place, and explain that the Republican Congress will not act to create additional border laws because they are using it as a political wedge. Most Americans simply do not understand what’s going on. Of course, some people simply cannot be reasoned with because they live in the delusional MAGA dimension; but people who can be reached need to understand that what Abbott did is illegal and resulted in the deaths of three people.
Just saying: statistics point to most of those national guard troops as well as the mother and children all being Christians. Crickets from the right wing bible thumpers.
Abbott (and his lackey Paxton) does not consider these "illegals" human. They are no more than abstract animals to him/them. That's how they can callously use them as pawns in their insurrectionist fight against the US Government (that would be all of us).
We don’t know yet whether Guardsmen actually saw the migrants in distress. What we do know is that Abbott’s orders to occupy the park kept the border patrol from being able to do their jobs, including rescue.
Can't the House work on laws for the border? Not that I'd approve of them but it seems like they're just sitting there, causing trouble for Hunter Biden rather than writing bills on the border.
They (Republican House members) could work on fixing the border problems. Their stated reason for not doing so is so they can use the border issues against Biden in the 2024 election.
They COULD. They actually have - but passing the already-agreed-to bill would be seen as a win for Biden, and thus to be avoided at all costs. And anything else they would manage to produce would be strangled at birth by the Senate. The so-called "Freedom Caucus" hates government, therefore refuses to govern until forced.
So many people just have no idea what a danger Trump is to democracy. They have insulated themselves from reality to the point that they can't fathom how fragile a democracy actually is.
They still think he will be restrained by operation of law and separation of powers.
He does not, and is determined that he will not be. Anyone with a cursory understanding of history can see just how quickly "it can't happen here" could turn into "DJT Dictator-For-Life." The sole qualification for any government office from SecState on down to park ranger would be professed and demonstrated utter blind loyalty to him. The playbook has been written for a long time, and has recently been updated for our time and place (see: Project 2025).
The actions by the Texas state government is an act of insurrection. There is no middle ground. They took over a section of the United States territory and prevented US border agents from performing their duties. Three people died as a result.
I agree. It's a matter of timing -- why set our hair on fire before it's needed?
There is still a HUGE AMOUNT of water to go under the Trump bridge. Indeed, we WILL all jump eagerly into the fray when (if?) Trump happens to be the R nominee.
I'm projecting June/July for our all-out effort to Dump Trump, once and for all. Have patience, Jedis.
This Texas situation is very concerning. Greg Abbott is a monster-not sure what it’s going to take when dealing with such an inhumane person. Doesn’t the GOP continue to vote against funding to secure the border? Give Texas back to Mexico... except Austin. Let’s keep Austin. 😂✌️💙
The Texas governor and the Texas military and National guard members that are blocking the Federal Border Patrol from doing their job which led to these deaths should be tried for murder. They should also be sent to Chicago, on buses, with no coats or shoes. Currently is it -5 degrees Fahrenheit.
In the meantime, a bunch of moms in an Oak Park IL Catholic parish have started a Migrant Ministry to help and shelter the people Abbott dumped.
http://www.stgilesparish.org/migrant-ministry/
Gail, Thank you for sharing this project. Our Governor Pritzker of IL asked that Governor Abbott not send people with no shoes and coats and no notification to anyone here to drop them off with no one to meet them, especially while we have these frigid temperatures. Tonight we are going down to -10F. Abbott is a hater. That is not a good neighbor. Who wants to be led by or live by a hater? As Taylor Swift says in her song, Shake It Off. And "the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate." https://youtu.be/H59xVMF4zxE?si=TWDkTgC25wPIO5lV
This is the link to the Hyde Park Refugee Project in Chicago, IL. You will see many of my neighbors, friends and former students in the video. https://hprp.clubexpress.com/
The immigrants in our community have become our good neighbors as we try to be good neighbors to them.
Thank you! Abbot is a murderer and every vote for him comes from an accomplice to murder.
Thanks for the link!
Wait... what? You... you mean... ACTUAL CHRISTIANS?!
Good for them, and if you get a chance, thank them profusely for doing actual "God's work".
I do not know how some of these so-called "christians" live with themselves. Their presence in church on Sundays is a lie, they have taken to characterizing the words of their Lord and Savior as "liberal talking points", and therefore display zero understanding of the basis of the religion they profess to honor and obey. Christ stood for love and forgiveness. Abbott and his ilk stand for hatred and temporal power, nothing more or less.
Yep. They really do exist. And this isn't their only ministry, either.
I completely agree. Human decency has evaporated. Abbott is a murderer.
Linda, you took the words right out of my mouth. The only thing that’s going to stop the disgustingly inhumane Greg Abbott is legal action that involves his arrest.
I actually read the appeal from the governor of Illinois, talking about this. Basically, he said - we don't mind taking in these people, but at least FLIPPING TELL US when you are sending them, because they get dumped here, on their own, in freezing temperatures. Please don't cause any more deaths. Of course.... appealing to someone like Abbot for any sort of humanity is pointless.
Gov Pritzker in Illinois is a good guy. He’s got the state back on track. 👍🏻
Ya gotta keep Dallas then too. And Houston. Both are WAY Bluer than Austin is now. Austin lost it’s Weird when Abbot moved into the Capital.
If those three large cities are blue, and a friend tells me that San Antonio is also a blue city, I don’t understand why Texans can’t elect better representatives, and get the hell rid of Greg Abbott. I guess the population in rural areas is large enough to work against this.
Because the rural areas are ALL Red. And gerrymandered like Rorschach tests.
I figured that had to be the case. It’s truly disgusting.
Gerrymandering and Houston is in peril with the "ledg" putting voting in the crosshairs. Also, lots of people just don't vote.
Hi Beth, right above your comment I posted a reply to someone else. Someone named Michelle Davis wrote a really great, short article on this issue with non-voters and Greg Abbott threatening to shoot people as they cross the border. What a nice guy.
Likely more registered Republicans than Democrats, still.
According to this article from Michelle Davis, there are actually 9.5 million non-voting Texans. What could these people be thinking? They have absolutely no interest in what happens in their state? Can you imagine the changes that could occur if these people would get registered to vote? I’m willing to bet money that most of these non-registered, eligible voters would be Democrats, or Democrat leaning independents.
That's what frustrates the bejesus out of my brother who is very active with the Dem party in TX. Trying to get people to register and/or vote against the pols who are making their lives miserable 🤯
Bless your brother and the work he does.
Link to article:
https://open.substack.com/pub/lonestarleft/p/governor-greg-abbott-muses-over-murdering?r=2vk1c6&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
Excellent!
Abbott if he has way would murder them as they come over.
https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/governor-greg-abbott-muses-over-murdering
Molly Ivins would have had some... pithy... observations on this subject. I miss her so.
And Governor Ann 🤗
😱🤯🤬🤬🤬
This writer, Michelle Davis, clearly shows us the moral decrepitude of the Texas government, but more importantly, how citizens sit at home and do nothing to stop this when they could be voting to make their state a better place.
Oh my God. 🤬 thanks for sharing this.
Hey guys… just kidding about giving Texas back! I’d miss the BBQ and football. 😜
I’m not kidding.
Also the tacos n’ such.
I have the recipe. Willing to share.
There's NAFTA
Texas has several blue cities. Dallas, Houston, El Paso (I think), Austin, of course. When I lived just north of Austin, the county I lived in was stuck in one of those hyper-gerrymandered congressional districts and this conservative Christo-Nationalist blowhard named John Carter kept winning every time. It was maddening. Not only was he a pure bread Texas Taliban, but he never did anything. I don't think he introduced one bill in Congress while I lived there. When I tried to call him out on it on Facebook (I wasn't abusive), he blocked me.
tRump looked like warmed over death (we should be so lucky) in a black bathrobe.
The forecasted low overnight tonight in Des Moines is -19. That’s without wind chill. Maybe someone can get tRump to stand outside tonight to thank the faithful as they leave caucuses.
Trump could throw icey snowballs at his followers as they’re entering the caucus and these people would still vote for him.
I thought it was just me. My first thought when I saw that picture was "looks just like John Gotti walking the streets of New York in his bathrobe" (I was wrong, that was actually Vincent Gigante).
Seriously? Discomfort himself in any way? Never.
No discomfort at all after he pulls out the big Sharpie and a photo of Fox News weather and raises the temperature to 70 above and redirects the cold front to Greenland. Teach them to turn down his real estate buyout offer.
lol.
Abbott’s a sadist.
He really is.
The U.S. strikes on the Houthi pirates are echoes of the U.S. strikes on Barbary pirates in North Africa during the administration of President Thomas Jefferson - the strikes that led to the reference to “the shores of Tripoli” in our Marine Corp’s anthem. There is ample historic precedent for what is happening right now. Our country has a long and proud history of responding to piracy.
Houthis do not know what they are messing with. They THINK they do, because they have survived the Saudis and the other half of Yemen for all these years, and they get guns and stuff from Iran. We like "proportional" responses to things of this nature. When you are screwing around with the global economy, the proportions can shift massively with little to no warning. And if they think Iran will bail them out they will learn some interesting lessons in logistics and power politics.
The North Vietnamese may disagree with you. As would the Taliban and various factions in Iraq. And even if you are right, I'm sure Iran is going to view the Houthis as an expendable proxy force.
The US does not have a great track record of success with overwhelming force against that type of enemy.
What really scares me is that there is a non-zero chance that Tel Aviv and Teheran will be the next Hiroshimas. Both sides have almost certainly illegally acquired nuclear weapons.
Vietnamese and Taliban had advantages of terrain that Yemen does not (jungle/mountains vs. desert) - and I promise you Defense Intelligence knows the location of every weapon, launcher, and radar station in Yemen. Furthermore, neither of those conflicts had much, if any, effect on international commerce.
The Iraqi debacle was down to allowing dishonest amateur ideologues to run policy both before and after. And none of these conflicts had actual justification for the U.S. to go to war.
This? There are numerous countries who will feel the pinch if this shipping chokepoint is allowed to be closed off and they will be happy to help.
And to your last point, Israel is generally known to possess nukes. Iran definitely wants them, but so far, are not thought to have gotten there - and Israel has a very large portion of its intelligence community dedicated to making certain they do not.
Your concerns are valid - and yeah, we have shown the capability to screw up what should be simple military ops before - but this appears to be a very straightforward mission that the U.S. military is well-trained for. Find 'em (satellite intel - check), blow 'em up (drones, cruise missiles, fighter-bomber aircraft - check) and go home.
Will there be repercussions? Oh, yeah. Will we have backup? Ohhellyeah. No question. Houthis simply cannot be permitted to interfere with the global economy in this way, and they will not be.
Iraq was a desert war, too. Sure, it was the amateur ideologues who got us into that war (just like Vietnam, and also just like Yemen today), but they didn't conduct it later. Iraq was fundamentally unwinnable. The US getting involved in Yemen is likely going to be another quagmire, quite probably worse. If you think Syria is bad for Turkey or the Russians, you might have a hint.
You may also be underestimating the sheer size and organization of the Houthis. To be clear: the Houthis aren't nice people (I'm talking about the movement, not the tribe by the same name. Want to make the point that I don't condemn people based on birth or ethnicity alone), I'm just looking at the situation there, hopefully dispassionately.
As for trade: that's not going to be factor. On that, the Houthis really outmaneuvered the US by focusing only on ships with Israeli connections. Everybody else could pass through just fine, until the US strike of course.
Add to that the near-universal worldwide condemnation of Israel's action, and the fact that the Europeans are preoccupied with supporting Ukraine against Putin and are upset about the lack of US support.
"Iraq was a desert war, too" True - but the problem there was the whole "you broke it, you bought it" idea, plus the notion of exporting democracy. Not to mention there was no actual justification for that little adventure in the first place. Nobody wants that here, or anything like it. No invasion necessary, or likely to happen. Just a matter of taking out sufficient high-end military equipment (missile infrastructure, air defense stations, etc.) to get the point across - the point being "cut it out, or we'll break all your toys." Eminently doable, but I will say - it should not be unilateral.
And trade absolutely WILL be a factor, and already is. Houthis need to stay in their lane - which is screwing with Sunnis. Nobody cares about their rebellion except the Saudis and other Sunni governments in the region.
Asymmetric warfare never worked like that - just look to Hamas, Hezbollah or the Taliban. And AFAIK, the Houthis are larger than those three combined.
Agreed. Shipping deserves and needs international protection. Houthis are being weird. Obviously Iran doesn't control them as much as we thought. Iran isn't stupid. Putin might be though.
We are essentially living under mob rule, a scenario created totally by Trump and his henchman. This recently revealed audio of Roger Stone threatening the assassination of Eric Swalwell and Jerry Nadler is even more proof of this, although we didn’t need more evidence. All the Republicans who are allowing this to continue are part of Trump’s army of mobsters.
https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1745848493611032932
Thank you for reminding me! I want to include Stone’s threats in a piece I’m doing about terror and mob boss rule, in The Big Picture this Tuesday.
You’re welcome, Jay, and thanks for these awesome newsletters. I subscribe to The Big Picture as well, so I look forward to reading it. I’m truly sickened and alarmed by all of this. I hope these members of Congress have excellent security details.
How very, very "pro-life" of them.
So, let's see if I have this straight: Abbott, Trump, Johnson, Gaetz, Jordan, Boebert, Greene, and all their enablers and lackeys are representatives of the "master race"???
What [expletives deleted] criteria are they using for that designation?
Definitely not empathy.
It's fascism. No one is alive to remember what we learned in WW2, but I'm pretty close. Don't forget. Never forget.
That's easy. White , cisgender and male christians. Have to include females only to repopulate their worker bees.
"... christians." 😂😂😂😂😂
Why, that's easy.
They're White.
It's all they need - obviates the need for critical thinking.
"A recent internal study by the Biden Campaign showed that three out of four undecideds are not yet ready to believe that Trump will actually be on the GOP ticket."
How in the world is anyone "undecided?" Are these people actually weighing the pros and cons of a democracy vs authoritarian Fascism? That's the only choice here, democracy or not. What's to decide? Are they holding their breath and waiting for Nikki or Ron to be the nominee? They are no different from Trump. If you are against Biden, you are against democracy. Period. NO deciding needed.
But the people who don't follow politics aren't weighing democracy vs fascism. They either don't know the threat or don't know what to believe since both sides say the other is authoritarian and anti-democracy
I have mentioned this to my niece and she says that the people who support the traitor feel the same way about President Biden.
The difference of course is that one group has evidence and the other has none.
Which they will ignore. Evidence or belief? They choose to believe what they wish to believe. And please recall, they have "alternative facts" going for them. grrrhhh...
Ask her how she feels about having a lame ass politico making decisions regarding her OBGYN care instead of a real, educated medical doctor. Better yet, how does she feel about consulting NFL quarterbacks who went to community college when it comes to treating her illness?
"Undecided" has many synonyms, most of which are not very polite.
I know civil servants have to maintain a certain level of abstraction in how they talk, but there’s nothing stopping any Democratic* elected official from saying “Greg Abbott is a murderer.” The Senate can hold hearings, like Republicans do whenever someone undocumented commits a crime.
*(Republicans too, of course, but lol right now one expects decent human behavior from them.)
Also, that picture of Trump--he looks like someone the Secret Service would haul off.
Trump looks like he just rolled out of bed and threw an overcoat over his pajamas.
If we are all very fortunate, perhaps poor iddle twumpy is feeling unwell from all the "unfair, mean" victimization he's had to 'withstand' of late.
He’s also not wearing that stupid red tie that goes down beyond his genitals. All the stress must be getting to him. Poor baby.
I can understand the sentiment, but actually, there is. Calling somebody a murderer before conviction could be considered libel. Especially in this case, before anybody has died. I'm not sure that even the broad protections from our First Amendment would help in this case.
It would probably also not be the smartest move politically.
Uh... people have died. Specifically, in the very instance that set this off, a mother and her two children - who could have been saved, but Texas NG soldiers, operating under Abbott's direct orders, refused to allow Federal agents to effect rescue. Others have perished previously in his razor wire - so I am perfectly OK with characterizing him as a murderer.
Thanks for the correction, you are right. I was thinking of his musings about shooting migrants.
https://open.substack.com/pub/joycevance/p/if-you-cant-win-call-the-judges-corrupt?r=75exf&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
I read her substack daily. Very perceptive and helpful.
To read of the callousness and lack of even primitive empathetic feelings towards humans in distress is truly a visible marker of the degradation of morals and corruption of right-vs-wrong agency that years of GOP rule have brought to TX. Absolute lack of any humanity on display there, and people wonder how the people of Nazi-era Germany countenanced public beatings and murder of Jews.
I think that Biden needs to get on television this week, as soon as possible, and condemn the deaths of these three innocents. He must explain to the American public that the federal government has control over international borders, and make it clear that seeking asylum is not illegal. He needs to clarify that he is enforcing the laws that Congress has put in place, and explain that the Republican Congress will not act to create additional border laws because they are using it as a political wedge. Most Americans simply do not understand what’s going on. Of course, some people simply cannot be reasoned with because they live in the delusional MAGA dimension; but people who can be reached need to understand that what Abbott did is illegal and resulted in the deaths of three people.
Just saying: statistics point to most of those national guard troops as well as the mother and children all being Christians. Crickets from the right wing bible thumpers.
Of course. Christianity has completely lost its meaning in the MAGA world. It has literally been converted into something hateful.
Christian churches worshipping their false idol. It's really gobsmacking.
I am a lapsed Catholic, but the New Testament does warn repeatedly of false idols.
Yes it does! At least the Pope finally pushing back a tad.
https://www.reuters.com/world/pope-francis-dismisses-conservative-us-bishop-strickland-2023-11-11/
Yes.
Abbott (and his lackey Paxton) does not consider these "illegals" human. They are no more than abstract animals to him/them. That's how they can callously use them as pawns in their insurrectionist fight against the US Government (that would be all of us).
I hope those guardsmen are charged with murder so that we can all watch them in the dock claiming "we were only following orders."
Of course most of our history-starved population will not get the reference.
We don’t know yet whether Guardsmen actually saw the migrants in distress. What we do know is that Abbott’s orders to occupy the park kept the border patrol from being able to do their jobs, including rescue.
Whether they themselves laid eyes on those in distress, I think we can certainly deduce that they were told something was up.
So - depraved indifference...?
Can't the House work on laws for the border? Not that I'd approve of them but it seems like they're just sitting there, causing trouble for Hunter Biden rather than writing bills on the border.
Why pass a sensible law when you can use the current situation as a fear-mongering cudgel?
Bingo.
They (Republican House members) could work on fixing the border problems. Their stated reason for not doing so is so they can use the border issues against Biden in the 2024 election.
The GOP House is currently refusing 14 billion $$$ for border patrol. Immigration is their culture war issue now that they won the abortion issue.
Yes they could. But they won’t.
They can, but they have refused. this is a manufactured crisis with real innocent victims.
They COULD. They actually have - but passing the already-agreed-to bill would be seen as a win for Biden, and thus to be avoided at all costs. And anything else they would manage to produce would be strangled at birth by the Senate. The so-called "Freedom Caucus" hates government, therefore refuses to govern until forced.
So many people just have no idea what a danger Trump is to democracy. They have insulated themselves from reality to the point that they can't fathom how fragile a democracy actually is.
They still think he will be restrained by operation of law and separation of powers.
He does not, and is determined that he will not be. Anyone with a cursory understanding of history can see just how quickly "it can't happen here" could turn into "DJT Dictator-For-Life." The sole qualification for any government office from SecState on down to park ranger would be professed and demonstrated utter blind loyalty to him. The playbook has been written for a long time, and has recently been updated for our time and place (see: Project 2025).
They are monsters.
The actions by the Texas state government is an act of insurrection. There is no middle ground. They took over a section of the United States territory and prevented US border agents from performing their duties. Three people died as a result.
I think that people will start tuning in once they KNOW who will be the republican nominee.
Let’s hope so.
I agree. It's a matter of timing -- why set our hair on fire before it's needed?
There is still a HUGE AMOUNT of water to go under the Trump bridge. Indeed, we WILL all jump eagerly into the fray when (if?) Trump happens to be the R nominee.
I'm projecting June/July for our all-out effort to Dump Trump, once and for all. Have patience, Jedis.
Haley is no better and DeSantis could be even worse.