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Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

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This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

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You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / Open Thread: Militarizing the Border: “Say the President Was Confused”

Open Thread: Militarizing the Border: “Say the President Was Confused”

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May I state for the record: Go with your poll-tested Reagan Defense, claim the President is too far into Alzheimers to know what he’s talking about is not only definitive, it’s the most Massachusetts political commentary of the week…

Yesterday:

Today:

Per the Washington Post:

President Trump will sign a proclamation Wednesday sending National Guard troops to the southern border to ramp up security efforts, the administration announced, after days of warnings from the president about the dangers of illegal immigration.

The National Guard will be sent to assist Border Patrol agents until legislation is passed to close “loopholes” that the Trump administration says allow certain undocumented immigrants to stay in the country and the “catch-and-release” policy is ended, according to a person familiar with the expected White House proposal. Catch and release is a practice of releasing undocumented immigrants from custody while they await their hearings.

The troops will be in a support role, doing tasks such as road development and intelligence gathering, according to the person familiar with the plan who would discuss the unreleased details only on the condition of anonymity.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Trump will sign a proclamation Wednesday that will direct her department and the Pentagon to work with states to deploy the National Guard.

She declined to provide the number of troops that will be sent or other specifics about the plan, saying the administration plans to coordinate with governors of southern states on the border strategy.

“We hope to have the path forward very much specified in the very near future,” Nielsen said.

She said the hope is to begin the deployment immediately and that some troops could arrive at the border as soon as Wednesday night…

Earlier Wednesday, Trump teased the announcement on Twitter: “Our Border Laws are very weak while those of Mexico & Canada are very strong. Congress must change these Obama era, and other, laws NOW! The Democrats stand in our way — they want people to pour into our country unchecked….CRIME! We will be taking strong action today.”

Previous presidents, including Barack Obama and George W. Bush, have deployed National Guard personnel to provide backup to Border Patrol agents amid concerns about security and drug trafficking. In recent years, however, the number of people crossing illegally into the country has plummeted and is at its lowest level since 1971.


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As ever: If it weren’t for hypocrisy, Repubs would have no shared values whatsoever!

Reader Interactions

55Comments

  1. 1.

    Hungry Joe

    Most memorable line (for me, anyway) from “The Right Stuff.” It was repeated three or four times:

    Astronaut — any astronaut — to reporters, after Gus Grissom has made a comment: “I think what Gus is trying to say is … “

  3. 3.

    Corner Stone

    Who is going to pay for this call-up?
    Where are they going to be housed?
    How will they be resupplied?
    Are they going to field arms inside our border?

  5. 5.

    clay

    White Presidents deploy the authors National Guard like this. Black Presidents deploy the National Guard LIKE THIS.

  7. 7.

    Zelma

    How happy do you think National Guard members are going to be about leaving jobs, home and family for this particular duty?

  10. 10.

    Jay

    @Corner Stone:

    “Who is going to pay for this call-up?”

    Who knows. Barring Federal Funding, the States who elect to agument with National Guardsment will have to foot the bill.

    “Where are they going to be housed?”

    Motel 6 because Senior Management is tight with ICE,

    “How will they be resupplied?”

    Taco Bell border runs.

    “Are they going to field arms inside our border?”

    Nope.

  13. 13.

    Mnemosyne

    I’m telling you guys, Kirstjen Nielsen is John Kelly’s mistress. Make them deny it.

  14. 14.

    Fair Economist

    @geg6:

    This will do wonders for NG recruiting and retention.

    What? You don’t think people are just *dying* to march around in remote areas of the Southwestern deserts in the heat of summer?

    Now that I think about it, with Trumpians organizing, they might well be dying to do it – literally.

  15. 15.

    Kay

    So this is just the National Guard deployment that the last two Presidents did?

    You have to hand it to Trump. He gets wall to wall coverage of this bullshit every single time.

  16. 16.

    Jay

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    Which is a “protest” Caravan that’s happened for years, get’s “broken up” in Mexico, and some people from the Caravan, make it as far as registered US Border crossings, where they turn themselves in and claim amnesty as refugees.

  17. 17.

    BC in Illinois

    I have heard, for perhaps the first time in my life, people discussing the 21st century application of the Third Amendment:

    No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

    It is said that much of the southern border is not open land or public land. It is private land. Since we are, as far as I can tell, not “in time of war,” can any landowner simply tell the soldiers to get off of his lawn?

  19. 19.

    Jay

    @Fair Economist:

    They arn’t going to be marching around the SouthWest in the heat.

    They, ( if Govorner’s sign up for it and funding get’s worked out) will be sitting in AC offices a cubicles, getting paper cuts and looking at maps.

  20. 20.

    Corner Stone

    @Fair Economist: South Texas in summer is actually quite delightful. Maybe not humping an AR, ammo and a stuffed rucksack, but delightful nonetheless. AZ is a full on bitch because for whatever reason, the UV/sun is much more intense and just fucks with you non-stop.

  21. 21.

    tamiasmin

    “In recent years, however, the number of people crossing illegally into the country has plummeted and is at its lowest level since 1971.”

    Yes now, right now, is the time to act. It’s a mergency, I tell you. MUST DO SOMETHING!

    And within a few days the C-in-C will claim credit for a decline that began while he was getting spanked by Stormy.

  22. 22.

    Tony Jay

    I’ve said it before and, look, I’m saying it again. Just advertise on Fox for brave, patriotic Americans to sign up for the White American Liberty Legion, charge them a couple of hundred dollars for their W.A.L.L. armband, then have a few hundred of them shuttled to the border for photo ops where they pose against rugged desert outcrops looking armed, fat and out of place.

    “President Trump has built his W.A.L.L.! You are the W.A.L.L.!’

    What could possibly go wrong?

  24. 24.

    karen marie

    @Mnemosyne: I googled that and all I can say is “wow.”

    The guy who “shepherded” Nielsen through her confirmation hearing is a lobbyist for Panamanian interests, among others, with lots of lobbying of the Department of Homeland Security.

    I am starting to think the Trump administration motto is “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.”

  25. 25.

    Jay

    @Tony Jay:

    There’s grifter groups that already do that. There’s not a lot of people willing to sign up, and it often ends in murder.

    You are better off setting up a PAC to target the Gullibillies. You don’t have to spend any of it on anything other than salaries, travel, perks and a nice office space.

  26. 26.

    hellslittlestangel

    Coming soon from the mouths of loyal Republicans (and all good Americans): We have always been at war with Mexico.

  29. 29.

    mad citizen

    Hey lay off the Gus Grissom cuts–he’s a Hoosier hero, from Mitchell Indiana, Purdue graduate in Mechanical Engineering, WWII and Korean War pilot, etc.

    I enjoy the Right Stuff, though, great movie.

  31. 31.

    mad citizen

    It really is a non-stop solid brown waste show. Today is a slow news day, and we have the trade war with China, and this National Guard to Mexico border nonsense.

  32. 32.

    Hungry Joe

    @mad citizen: I wasn’t trying to rag on Grissom — hey, i was born a Hoosier myself. It’s just a funny line, is all, and more than applicable to the Commander in Chief of He Doesn’t Have a Clue What.

  33. 33.

    Roger Moore

    @Corner Stone:

    South Texas in summer is actually quite delightful.

    I knew somebody who died of heatstroke photographing Big Bend NP, so I’m not 100% convinced.

  35. 35.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    Speaking of Posse Comitatus, when is it legal to deploy military units on American soil? Martial law and invasion by a foreign power?

  36. 36.

    mad citizen

    @Hungry Joe: No offense–I’m just kidding too. I was trying the interwebs to see if I could find evidence of Grissom’s smarts. Obviously he had something going along with balls of steel since he graduated Purdue. I sometimes think of these how these small town boys grow up, or grew up, and could handle advanced math, etc. in college. I went to a large high school in Fort Wayne, so had college prep classes, but what was the school like in Mitchell Indiana in the 1930s?

    They should show The RIght Stuff and From the Earth to the Moon to 4th or 5th graders to show them what our nation once achieved.

  37. 37.

    WhatsMyNym

    Barry Ritholtz covered the USPS problems in Bloomberg View (and on his website) today.

    Then there is the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA), which some have taken to calling “the most insane law” ever passed by Congress.

    Incidentally, the PAEA bars the Post Office from pricing parcel delivery below-cost.

  38. 38.

    Josie

    @Corner Stone: I beg to differ. I taught summer camps at a world birding center there for three summers. I can assure you that the heat was anything other than delightful. We finished at 1:00 p.m each day, and I was exhausted.

  42. 42.

    bemused senior

    Went on a road trip through the Southwest with my dear departed dog Toro in April. We camped at Big Bend National Park, and it was in the 90s. I was extremely glad I had brought a 5 gallon jerry-can of water. Can’t believe it would be “pleasant” in the summer.

  43. 43.

    Jay

    @Miss Bianca:

    Gullibillies, they think they are tough, when it’s women and children, but when push comes to shove, they are like The Crying Nazi.

    They are dumb enough to donate money.

  45. 45.

    Corner Stone

    @Josie: I have been there many times, doing manual labor on a lease as well as camping/hiking, when it was 118F and higher. I found it quite peaceful, beautiful and exhilarating.
    I’ve been in Tucson, AZ at 115F + and Las Vegas at 125F and found both of them oppressive. I think LV because there is no shade and you go from 68F into the raw oven that is the outdoors. The sun in AZ is just brighter and more intense than anywhere else in the US I have been.

  46. 46.

    Hildebrand

    @Corner Stone: You are high. Lived for 10 years in Deep South Texas – mornings are humid as hell, the wind blows at gale force on most days, we hit 100 degrees for 90 straight days one summer (without a drop of rain), and AC runs at least 10 months a year. I do miss real fajita, though. Miss cheap avocados, too.

  47. 47.

    TenguPhule

    @Corner Stone:

    I have been there many times, doing manual labor on a lease as well as camping/hiking, when it was 118F and higher. I found it quite peaceful, beautiful and exhilarating.

    Well now we have confirmation that you’re completely insane.

    And also possibly a mutant turtle.

    :P

  48. 48.

    Corner Stone

    @TenguPhule: One of my best friends now lives in El Paso but used to live in Juarez and commuted daily between the two. Until his wife became pregnant he and I redefined “insane” with the stupid shit we got away with. His wife made him sell the bar he owned in Juarez after she was pregnant with their second child.

  49. 49.

    Ruckus

    @Corner Stone:
    Before all of that, where are they going to get the bodies? I know an NG member, he is going to Jordan, with his unit. We are so short of full time military that the NG is being used to shore up the military. The navy is short staffed. 15 yrs of war will do that to a country that wants to be everywhere but doesn’t understand that you have to do more than just pass a budget.

  50. 50.

    J R in WV

    @Corner Stone:

    South Texas in summer is actually quite delightful.

    You may need medical care, immediately. No place in Texas is delightful in the summer. No, really, nowhere. I’ve been there at all times of year. The hill country is nice on warmer winter days, but in the summer? Just nope.

  51. 51.

    jimmiraybob

    I’m guessing that they – the Guard – will mostly be spreading the gospel of freedom (and paychecks) in small towns and crossroads with liquor stores and cantinas. I’m also guessing that working women across the southwest are initiating a mobilization of their own. I’m patenting and/or trade marking “Spring Break Border Wall” – call me MTV. I may sign up. I know a couple of places in So. AZ that I wouldn’t mind seeing again.

  52. 52.

    Tehanu

    I think Dump should volunteer for “wall” duty himself. The size and smell of his ginormous ass ought to stop at least a couple of border-crossers, dontcha think?

  54. 54.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    I am sure Jerry Brown will be happy to activate the California National Guard to sooth Trump’s night terrors over illegal alien caravans.

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