The Bizarre Texas Standoff.
Texas is pulling some shenanigans in its dealings with the Federal government. From SCOTUS rulings to Federal Supremacy, it’s testing the limits of power. Biden has to act decisively.
Hello, friends,
Last week, we talked about the U.S. Postal System. In a brief update to that story, there was a protest against the proposed Buffalo facility closure. We do love a good protest at The Progressive Cafe.
This week, we’re addressing an issue of the Federal government’s authority regarding immigration law, the Supreme Court’s authority to mediate between levels of government, and the State of Texas as well as its Governor.
The truth is, this issue is a little complex, a little technical, and a lot annoying because the intentions of bad actors like Governor Greg Abbott are transparent, even if the technicalities they rely on are not.
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The Texas Issue
As you might be aware (because I can’t remember if we’ve talked about it or not), Texas has been upping the ante on its anti-immigrant devices. I think this is best summed up when their Governor stressed that they would shoot migrants if it wouldn’t get them arrested for murder.
One of its strategies has been to put razor wire up along the border. Recently, the Supreme Court ruled (in a sickeningly narrow 5-4 opinion) that the Federal Government had every right to go in and cut the razor wire. Texas has decided to put up more razor wire, thus exploiting a loophole in the ruling: They must allow the Feds to cut down what they’ve put up, but they are not explicitly prohibited from putting more up.
This technicality is bullshit and we all know it.
Let’s start with the fact that immigration is a Federal issue as per the U.S. Constitution’s Article I, Section 8, Clause 18. Article IV Paragraph 2 further spells out that the Federal government is supreme in areas where it might conflict with State governments, such as, you know, immigration.
More to the point, inspired at least in part by ex-President Donald Trump, Republican-controlled states are sending their national guards to Texas in order to I guess ‘help out,’ however that might happen. Even Republican Speaker Of The House Mike Johnson has expressed support for Texas.
Even more to the point, Governor Abbott has stressed that Texas is defending itself from an “invasion,” and thus acting Constitutionally while refusing to allow Federal agents to do their job. This is demonstrably a lie - invasions look like what Russia did to Ukraine - but it’s a ‘technically appropriate’ argument that might or might not hold water with the regressive-dominated Supreme Court.
Progressive commentator Beau Of The Fifth Column made an excellent video stressing how this crisis is overblown, emphasizing the whole ‘technically he wasn’t told not to do it’ approach, but he also mentioned how there is always a risk of conflict when two armed groups are sent to the same place with conflicting orders.
And that is what’s happening here.
The Feds have instructions to access a site and remove wire. Texas’ national guard has orders to deny access and put up more wire. A conflict can easily arise, and any conflict would be disastrous for the stability of the country. With Newsmax airing a “Force On Force” (I.E. civil war) oriented discussion with Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, with Texas Senator Ted Cruz “joking” about civil war, and with all the various discussions of potential violence I saw when I was at the gym on Thursday, I can’t help but feel nervous.
How Biden Has To Act
Basically put, Democrats (including me, yay!) are calling on Biden to Federalize the Texas National Guard. This would be similar to when President Kennedy signed Executive Order 11111 to shut down the whole “Segregation now, Segregation forever” thing in Alabama. Basically, this is Biden saying, “The National Guard is only part of Texas’ chain of command when it isn’t part of mine - and I’m making it mine.”
For what it’s worth, Governor Abbott thinks he’s got plans that’ll thwart Biden if he did this. He might be right, he might be wrong, but the only way we find out is when Biden does it.
The truth is, the longer Biden goes without shutting this down, the easier it is to make this seem like just “one more tiny step” and not “one giant fucking leap” towards insanity. It’s the military force equivalent of the shifting of language we discussed when we talked about The Overton Window and the “hostagification” of January 6th terrorists. If Republican governors continue to be insane and Biden puts off acting, well, when he finally does, and if they choose to continue acting in defiance, it’ll be seen as just one more tiny step and not a major disaster.
Maybe Biden is afraid of that outcome?
Maybe he thinks that Texas will screw him over if he Federalizes the guard, either by some kind of malicious Greg Abbott plot, or even by the Texas guard simply refusing to follow his orders. It’s possible, sure! But the longer this goes on, the more likely it becomes that when he acts, he gets that negative response.
Furthermore, it’s fair to say that if we’re at a point where the President is afraid to give an order because he thinks it will be disobeyed, we’re already in a crisis, we’re just pretending there’s nothing wrong. Because the longer this goes on, the worse this gets.
He needs to act.
In Other News…
As you may have heard, today’s “big news” is that Donald Trump was (again) found liable for defaming the woman he de-facto raped, E. Jean Carroll. This time, he was hit with an over $83,000,000 judgment. I read a lot of the on-the-ground live transcribing by Twitter user Matthew Russell Lee, AKA Inner City Press, and it was fantastic.
The International Court of Justice has ordered Israel to limit civilian deaths in Gaza. This order falls short of a demand that the war be stopped, although the ICJ’s power to actually change the situation on the ground was always in doubt from the start. We lament that more innocent people will die.
Meanwhile, in the extended sphere of that conflict, the Houthi terrorists attacked and set on fire an oil tanker. That’s bad news for a lot of reasons, not least the ecological damage that might occur.
Tech columnist Brian Merchant compiled a list of layoffs in the media landscape over the year, thusfar. And it’s only January.
Judge Royce C. Lamberth, a Reagan appointee, remarked on how the “Jan 6th Hostages” narrative we’ve discussed on this publication is bullshit. My word, not his.
In something positive, here’s a picture of France back in the day versus now. You’ll note that there’s more forested area now than in the year…That I can’t read because it’s Roman Numerals and even then it doesn’t seem to be clear. The post in question also suggests that the U.S. is using less land for crops now than it was in the 1960’s, which makes sense given advancements in maximizing agricultural resources. Now, if only we had Vertical Farms. Maybe I’ll write about those, some day.
Thank you for reading The Progressive Cafe. If this article has helped you, please consider signing up for our mailing list. This article is by Jesse Pohlman, a former hyperlocal journalist and sci-fi/fantasy author from Long Island, New York, whose website you can check out here.