Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

In my day, never was longer.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

White supremacy is terrorism.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

If you are in line to indict donald trump, stay in line.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

I really should read my own blog.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

It’s a doggy dog world.

You are here: Home / Politics / GOP Death Cult / Craven Idiocy Open Thread: GOP WannaBes Rush the (2024) Border

Craven Idiocy Open Thread: GOP WannaBes Rush the (2024) Border

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The governors asked for it – literally!

The auto scrap billionaire who is funding South Dakota’s deployment of national guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border told TPM in an interview that he was making the contribution because “this President would rather help other countries than help America.”

“I fought in Vietnam and a lot of my buddies died over there,” Willis Johnson told TPM in a Tuesday phone conversation. “And now we’ve got people saying we can’t even protect our own borders.”…

“God gave America to us and God can take it away,” Johnson added. “If our people don’t protect it, then I don’t know what’s gonna happen.”

Johnson is the founder of Copart, an auto salvage empire that he has reportedly built since returning from military service in the Vietnam War.

Neither Johnson nor Fury would tell TPM what amount of money had been contributed to finance the deployment, though both said that the deployment would last between 30 and 60 days. Johnson told TPM that he had reached out to Noem about financing the deployment because Noem “stood up for America.”…

He went on to claim that COVID-19 restrictions weren’t being applied evenly to illegal immigrants.

“Everybody is tied down from COVID-19 but they let them come over with no shots, no nothing, no coverings over their face,” Johnson said. “They ship them out to all the states, like I’m in Tennessee, they ship them out to Tennessee and they don’t ask the governor.”

“They just spread ’em everywhere and they don’t care about COVID-19,” he added…

So far, Florida, Nebraska, and Iowa have pledged to send law enforcement to Texas and Arizona…

Bing-bing-bing…

Actually conservative conservative speaks truth:

Reader Interactions

103Comments

  2. 2.

    Jay C

    Anybody with military/NG experience know how Gov. Noem’s mercenary deployment is going to actually be handled? Are those 50 lucky Guardsmen going to volunteers? Picked at random? The next 50 lucky souls reporting for their Guard weekend?

    And WTF are 50 NG actually going to be doing in Texas, anyway? Buffing up the Trump Wall…?

     

    ADD: and, as WaterGirl remarks in #1: ARE there any legal constraints on how State NG can be deployed? I know the Guard (from various states) often get turned out for help in “emergencies” (like natural disasters) across state lines: but for political stunts???

  4. 4.

    MazeDancer

    Isn’t every GOP Gov sending privately financed National Guard troops “to the border” just the beginning of amassing a military force for the next coup?

  5. 5.

    Torrey

    Reposting this from the tail end of an earlier thread. Beau of the Fifth Column has opinions on this subject. His focus is on the trust implied when someone signs up for the National Guard and the (reasonable) expectations about what kind of service they’ll be used for.

  6. 6.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @WaterGirl: I am not a lawyer (should I make that part of my nym?) and neither is Tom Nichols, but apparently it’s legal

    Tom Nichols @RadioFreeTom 11h
    Guys, if a governor wants to exercise lawful authority to assist the governor of another state by deploying the Guard, she can. A guy saying “I’m making a contribution to the state for what that would cost” does not change anything. Even if it’s horrendous and corrupt.

    the fact that he’s a junk yard billionaire is just too on the nose

  7. 7.

    Mr. Prosser

    The National Guard is not some billionaire’s and sleaze governor’s hired guns.

  8. 8.

    Baud

    I would like to see veterans push back against the junkyard guy for invoking their service to justify his actions.

  14. 14.

    dr. bloor

    I’m ready to go anywhere Soros sends me.  Been a while since he’s sent me a check for all those protest marches I was in.

  15. 15.

    ian

    Torrey at #5’s link brings up a extremely valid point, if any of these goofballs was CiC, why wouldn’t they deploy the US military in the same way?  Send troops overseas and into combat for political posture and political gain.  Wage war to distract from scandal.  This little instance seems harmless, but is indicative of a willingness to disrupt the lives of guard members for no valid reason.  Seems reasonable to assume they would have no qualms using the full structure of the US military for the same petty reasons.

  16. 16.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    A scrub is a guy who thinks he’s fly… also known as a filibuster.

  17. 17.

    Spanky

    I think Texas – and Texans – should be mocked for not being able to defend themselves. Loudly and publicly. They’ll like that a lot.

  20. 20.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    @Baud: do you want swift boat veterans for truthiness to make a powerful comeback?

    because this is how that happens.

  21. 21.

    Amir Khalid

    I haz a mystified: how does a governor have authority to deploy the state National Guard to another state?

  22. 22.

    Baud

    One solace is that Noem probably lie to the guy about how much this costs to make him fork over extra dough.

  27. 27.

    Almost Retired

    She really is vile, and I hope her Presidential aspirations are like an empty husk of an ear of corn used to decorate the Corn Palace (I had to kind of strain for a South Dakota-specific metaphor).

    She seems to be building her dubious reputation on Trump sycophancy, COVID-denial, and performative right wing red meat stunts like this one.

    This made me research why there are two Dakotas, since it seems to me the one would be sufficient.  Long story short, mutually hostile populations, separate trade and development routes, a dispute over the location of the capital, and undoubtedly a desire by the oligarchs for two additional Senators to support the Republican fetish at the times (tariffs).   It paid off.  And now we’re stuck with two of them.  And Nebraska.  Sigh.

  28. 28.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    @Baud: yes, but they tend to be quiet.

    just compare how john forbes surfboard talked about his vietnam service, or algore, for that matter, vs. how walnuts! mc cain did. neither gore nor kerry wrote a flags of my fathers.

    & now look at dan crenshaw v. jason crow, visavis iraq & afghanistan service.

  29. 29.

    Ruckus

    @MattF:

    Seems like it already is.

    Does anyone know where the money actually ends up? In the state budget, and how does that work? In the governors pocket, isn’t that nice…..

    They send them, what does the governor of the state getting 50 bodies do with them? Do they go for their yearly active week or do they go onto full time? What the hell do those 50 people do, they have to be assigned something, otherwise it’s just expensive posturing that doesn’t do anything for anyone.

    The reality is that the republican governors are grasping at idiot straws and doing completely asinine stunts, because that’s all they have left.

  30. 30.

    Ruckus

    So now instead of telling me that I duplicate posted, which I didn’t, we are just duplicate posting?

  31. 31.

    Michael Cain

    Re the financing.  Talk is cheap.  It is easy to say, “I will make a contribution to the governor to cover the cost of this Guard deployment.”  In most states it would be almost impossible to actually do that.  State legislatures tend to be paranoid about protecting their power of appropriation in order to control spending.  I really doubt that the SD legislature has authorized the Guard to accept and spend private contributions.

  32. 32.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @MontyTheClipArtMongoose: No, Johnson is using his service the way that the Swift Boaters did.  Pushing back against that is a legitimate thing to do. “We to an oath to the defend the Constitution, not one of fealty to a wannabe fascist dictator who would use us as mercenaries at the beck and call of anyone who writes a check.”

  35. 35.

    MattF

    @Amir Khalid: The governor of a state is the commander of the National Guard in that state— and it’s not unusual for the Guard from one state to be deployed in a different state, e.g., for disaster relief. But what Noem is doing is blatantly political and weirdly mercenary.

  37. 37.

    Elizabelle

    @MattF:   Cruel of me, but I rather hope some disaster befalls South Dakota and its people say:  We could use our National Guard.  Why are they down on the Texas border?

    This is a terrible initiative by Noem; I hope it blows up in her face and that she is not allowed to follow through with it.  Public opinion in the State — why should they pay the overhead costs for a Noem election stunt?

    Am thinking that DeSantis cannot pull this stunt, because hurricane season is upon us AND there are about 150 souls dead under piles of concrete and rubble in Surfside.  While it may be that specialized personnel — and not the National Guard — are better suited for that task, why should the NG be gallivanting off to the Texas border?

    This all strikes me as fundamentally aimed at Biden, too.  It is so damn disrespectful.  As intended.

    Maybe tourists could inform the SD tourism office that they decline to visit a state behaving in this manner??

    Money talks.  As we see with Mr. Salvage Fortune mouth.

  38. 38.

    Ruckus

    @Elizabelle:

    Didn’t know that, do not recall ever seeing it and I’ve been around here for 15 years. I do understand that there may be a few things I’ve missed over that time…..

  39. 39.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud:  Sounds like that may be the only recourse we have.  What a clusterfuck.

    I think someone like George Soros should pay for the national guard from some blue state to work a birthday party for one of his grandchildren in another blue state.  (assuming he has grandkids)

    Let’s see how the anti-democratic Republicans feel about that.

  40. 40.

    Elizabelle

    @Ruckus:   Well, now that you’re RETIRED, you have all the time in the world to go back at look at all the threads (no! don’t).  You will occasionally find a trackback, especially on Cheryl Rofer’s posts (cross-posted with Nuclear Diner).

  41. 41.

    Betty Cracker

    Does it strike everyone else as especially stupid for Noem to disclose the junkyard billionaire funding aspect of the story? Of course all the wingnut governors who are participating in this absurd theater will be asked about cost. But at least DeSantis was canny enough to mumble something about TX paying FL back in kind with guard services the next time a hurricane razes the state or another building collapses. Bringing the mercenary angle into it seems really dumb.

  43. 43.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    What’s to stop some rich factory owner from paying for National Guard troops to break a strike? Or some super star to pay for them to be guards at a concert? Nothing? That’s astounding.

  46. 46.

    Ohio Mom

    I know we like to joke about checks from Soros but one of the things we like about him is that he’d never pull a stunt like this one — there is deep thinking behind what he chooses to support. He’s not a frivolous guy.

    Which is what rankles about Patrick Chovanec’s false equivalency. I can assume he’s trying to speak the Far Right’s language but comments like his just reinforce dumb, counterproductive thinking.

    Did I mention I’m in a grumpy mood today?

  47. 47.

    Ruckus

    @Elizabelle:

    Recall that there is a huge motorcycle rally/cheap beer fest every year called Sturgis, in the city of the same name. It ran last year, in the middle of the pandemic.

  48. 48.

    SFAW

    @WaterGirl:

    I think someone like George Soros should pay for the national guard from some blue state to work a birthday party for one of his grandchildren in another blue state.  (assuming he has grandkids) deploy to Mar-a-Grifto, to prevent teh illeguls from invading it, and also to prevent the occupants from putting themselves in danger by leaving.

    Fixed

  50. 50.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    I agree that mocking Texas for failure to protect themselves is on pressure point. Another is…50 whole people? Spread over a 2,000 mile border? Like that’s anywhere near sufficient to make a dent. The financier is a cheapskate.

  55. 55.

    Ruckus

    @Betty Cracker:

    Republicans, especially stupid?

    No, say it isn’t so!

    As they say, the proof is apparent most every day. The only thing is, the stupider things that republicans do, the more their supporters scream and giggle. It’s like they are all 6 and have IQs of 50. And I’m being generous.

  59. 59.

    MisterForkbeard

    It’s stupid and corrupt and destructive and not illegal. Like many things Republicans do. Though I think Biden could technically co-opt them if he wanted.

    But I still haven’t heard any answer of what the Guard will actually DO there. They’re being sent  to “secure the border”. How? What actions will they take? Nobody seems to have any idea.

  61. 61.

    Spanky

    OT, and possibly deserving its own post:

    (CNN)The Manhattan district attorney’s office is expected to charge former President Donald Trump’s namesake company and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, as soon as Thursday with tax crimes in connection with an array of perks and benefits awarded to employees, The Wall Street Journal reported.

    ETA:

    Trump himself isn’t expected to be charged, his lawyer has said.

    Boo.

  62. 62.

    Jeffro

    Maybe one of ‘our’ billionaires could offer Noem $X (whatever the TN guy is paying) for 50 SD National Guard troops to protect voters in Georgia come election time.  Response, Governor Noem?

  63. 63.

    Cameron

    So far that’s three Republican governors with their eyes on national office in 2024…..how many more are going to sign up?

  64. 64.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Jay C: Going by my housemate who was in the NG; they will likely send some unit down the the border for their two weeks a year of active duty.  Also when the NG patrols the border they only observe border crossings and report them to the Border Patrol or local law enforcement.

  67. 67.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Amir Khalid: The States in question asks for aid.  Usually this is done for disaster relief.

    Do note that these legislators in the states involved aren’t paying for this. In other words they want to keep the money available for an actual emergency.

  68. 68.

    WaterGirl

    @Spanky: I wrote about this in an earlier comment this morning.

    Because the money guy at the Trump organization won’t spill the beans on Trump, won’t share any information, there is no way to prove knowledge or intent on Trumps part.

    Therefore, if charged, Trump could just say “I just did what the money guy told me, I thought it was all on the up and up” so there’s no way for the charges to stick.

    They need testimony against Trump, or records that show Trump knew damn good and well what was going on.  But because the guy won’t cooperate, there is apparently no legal basis for charging that would stand up in court.

  69. 69.

    Ruckus

    @Amir Khalid:

    I’m thinking that the concept that they will ever actually leave the state is endearing. Are they being activated? Driving down in their military trucks? Taking a C5 for a short jaunt? Who’s putting them up somewhere along the border, the border patrol? Is the state of Texas paying them, feeding them? Because I’d bet that the US government isn’t having any part of this.

  70. 70.

    Geminid

    @MisterForkbeard: Abbott’s people can find these 50 soldiers some makework that ostensibly “supports” Texan efforts. They will probably be staged in remote areas and kept away from reporters. These soldiers might be grumpy. Who the hell wants to be pulled out of South Dakota and sent to South Texas for a political stunt, in July?

  71. 71.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    The more I think about it that Johnson guy just comes across as full of shit too.   “I didn’t watch my buddies die in the mud i Vietnam” sounds like he is quoting The Big Lebowski and who gets rich on junkyards?  That was the thing, most people who are rich are born rich and one of the problems with Vietnam was it was to easy for a rich kid to get a deferment.

  72. 72.

    Kelly

    Broad scope for quick action is a good thing for the executive branch of our various layers of government when bad things happen suddenly. But it gives scope for this crap.

    In more cheerful news we woke up to cool, grey fog along the river here in Oregon’s western Cascade foothills.

  74. 74.

    Anoniminous

    The last time a bunch of white ignorant hick bigoted lard butts ventured to the Mexico/New Mexican border they lasted about two weeks.  To their utter amazement they found the Chihuahuan desert dry, hot, and lacking readily available sources of food and water.  In the summer the desert will kill you if you aren’t prepared and don’t know what you’re doing.

  75. 75.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @WaterGirl: Or Soros pay for Venezuelan military to help the Mexico police patrol the US border against Canadian-American serial killers…  I mean it should be no surprise people are fleeing Mexico now that Zodiac Killer is lose there.

  77. 77.

    Leto

    @Ruckus: NGs have specific budgets for deployments and it’ll be interesting to see what this costs. Because ofc this wasn’t planned for, so where is this money being pulled from? And as others have stated it’s supremely dumb for Noem to announce that a GOP billionaire is paying for this, so lets keep a look at her incoming $$$ for an illegal contribution.

    I honestly don’t know how this will play out because the red base will just cheer this on, because they’re fascist wannabes and don’t care that red state govs are turning the military into the French Foreign Legion (or Erik Princes dumbshit for hire forces). I have a bicycle ride to get ready for. Be back later.

  78. 78.

    Just Chuck

    @Elizabelle: There’s only 50 going to Texas. It’s pretty much just symbolic. No, I think when a disaster befalls SC that we should just nationalize the guard there to provide relief since the governor evidently can’t be trusted with command.

  79. 79.

    Geminid

    @Ruckus: I see Virginia National Guard units on the road every summer. These just travel in state, though. The South Dakota Guard will have to rustle up their twenty best vehicles for the run to Texas. Texas. A portion of the fifty soldiers might be truck mechanics.

  80. 80.

    Ruckus

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    There is money to be made in scrap metal. It’s far cheaper to melt down old metal to make new than to actually make/mine new from scratch. And it’s not as if there isn’t an abundant supply from the millions of cars/washers/dryers/refrigerators that get to end of life every year. It used to be that cars would be kept for parts, but that isn’t done as much as it used to be, land costs are up, a lot in some areas and a junkyard takes a lot of land

    Also, how many rich kids would work in scrap metal or scrap yards? Too dirty, actual effort required. No, he’s likely actually made money buying and selling scrap.

  81. 81.

    brantl

    I hope some intrepid journalist volunteers to embed with these guys, you’ll have 2 weeks of them driving a truck in the texas outboack “circling the wagon”, a la Blazing Saddles.

  82. 82.

    Ruckus

    @Geminid:

    I worked with a kid in the CA national guard. His unit got activated and sent to the middle east for a year. It’s not all one weekend a month and two weeks driving around in trucks.

  83. 83.

    Geminid

        Lately South Dakota has been voting very red in elections for federal office. I was interested to see, though, that in the 2018 Governor’s race, Kristi Noehm beat Democrat Billie Sutton by a only a little over 11,000 votes out of 339,000 cast, a 3.4% margin. I wonder if  all Noehm’s national attention will help her or hurt her when she runs for reelection next year.

  84. 84.

    burnspbesq

    Hmm, let’s see …

    There are four states that have land borders with Mexico.

    Interesting how none of these folks are being deployed to NM or CA.

  86. 86.

    Kent

    CNN is just now reporting that the PA Supreme Court has overturned Cosby’s conviction on sexual assault and rape.  So he will apparently be getting out.

    I’m sure that will be the big news of today when it gets spread around.

  87. 87.

    Kay

    Conservative operatives did the same thing with the Judicial Crisis Network’s charitable arm, the Judicial Education Project, renaming it the 85 Fund.
    Last week, the 85 Fund and the Concord Fund registered new fictitious names, Free to Learn and Free to Learn Action. A few days later, the Free to Learn Coalition, which Fox News described as an “anti-critical race theory” organization, publicly announced that it had “launched with an initial seven-figure national ad campaign of well over $1 million advocating for classrooms independent from political influence.”
    The Free to Learn Coalition’s president, Alleigh Marré, said in the press release that the group “will provide a platform and tailored resources to those ready to take on political activism by school boards and administrators.”

    Big money flowing into the CRT panic effort. These are the same donors that gave Amy Comey Barret 14 million. The operatives appear on Fox posing as part of local parent groups, but they’re easily identifiable as long time far Right activists- they’re all paid professionals in Right wing politics.

    I’d just like to thank all the centrists who absolutely lost their shit over “cancel culture” and contributed to this attack on ordinary people who work at public schools and attend public schools. This is partly on them.

  88. 88.

    Cameron

    @Kent: …and the challenge will be how to tie Bill Cosby to CRT.  But I have faith in the right-wing bullshit generator.

  90. 90.

    JPL

    @Kent: Castor made a deal with him, that if he testified his words would not be used against him..

    sucks   Castor went on to bigger and better things, working for trump.

  91. 91.

    Geminid

    @Ruckus: Yes, Virginia Guard units served in both Iraq and Afganistan when we had a lot of troops overseas, and smaller units were rotating to Afganistan until recently. They’ve mostly been stateside the last few years, doing their monthly training and two weeks in the summertime.  When I lived in the Shenandoah Valley and commuted to Charlottesville, I used to see the convoys coming up or down Afton Mountain on I-64, usually during summer.

    In the Second World War, Virginia Guardsmen formed a portion of the 29th Infantry Division that landed at Omaha Beach and fought across western Europe.

  93. 93.

    Chris Johnson

    @Torrey: Yeah, this one had Beau furious. Rightly so, too.

    He also points out that 50 troops doesn’t mean shit, but while this one is meaningless it also shows a willingness to send another 50 troops to their deaths as a purely political stunt in other circumstances.

    If this is what the National Guard is, we should not have one.

  94. 94.

    jimmiraybob

    I did not know that this was a thing.What state would be the best to approach to get maybe a dozen National Guard to help with some less than desirable neighbors, let’s call it an “invasion” – possibly meth related, and about how much would it cost?Asking for a friend.Thanks in advance.​​

  95. 95.

    Geminid

    @Origuy: Virginia National Guard units were sent to Charlottesville for the Unite the Right Rally of August 11, 2017. They staged at the Guard Armory a couple miles south of the Downtown, but were never put on the streets. They could have been put to good use blocking streets like the one the murderous driver drove down. In hindsight, authorities seemed behind the curve throughout those events. They were lucky, because bad as that day’s outcome was, it could have been far worse.

  96. 96.

    owlbrick

    Given that Abbot has openly invited National Guard units into Texas, what’s stopping Gavin Newsom, e.g., from sending a sizable contingent to act as “observers”? Just asking.

  97. 97.

    James E Powell

    @burnspbesq:

    Interesting how none of these folks are being deployed to NM or CA.

    It’s common knowledge that both NM & CA are socialist hell-holes run by America-hating baby-killers who refuse to say Merry Christmas. No doubt they are opening their borders and offering free health care to anyone who wants to come as long as they promise to vote for Democrats.

  101. 101.

    Geminid

    @Martin: As to California Guardsman, probably not. But the Justice Department can send lawyers and U.S. Marshalls, and the way AG Garland is talking, it may well do that. Next year’s elections could be very eventful, and not just in Texas.

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