Sunday, July 13, 2025

The Truth Is Political

Everyone lies except Kristi Noem.
Bream replied: "So to the point that you're going after the worst of the worst, you've got critics out there who are saying you are getting gardeners, you're getting hotel workers, you're going after you know people that have decades of roots within a particular community."

"Sixty percent of the people are being round up have no conviction or run in with the law at all," the host added.

"That's false! Absolutely false!" Noem exclaimed. "These are the individuals, over 70% of them have been convicted, or they have charges pending against them, because of the investigative work that has been done by a law enforcement officer. So it's simply not true."
See? Lowering the bar until it’s beneath the earth’s crust. Besides, we’ve always done it this way: If they do it once, they can do it again forever, and judges are ridiculous who try to stop them. Can we apply this logic to bank robbery? Now tell us Obama and Clinton wrote the Epstein files, and win the trifecta.

Lagniappe: Saturday.👆 Sunday. 👇
WELKER: The border czar said the physical appearance was a factor in detaining individuals
Which is it?
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Sunday Come To Jesus

Friday.👆 Sunday. 👇 Saturday.👆 Sunday. 👇 Saturday, Turning Point USA. Sometimes you just gotta take the dog out to the gravel pit and put a bullet in its brain. 

Sunday, CNN:
Because if you don’t, we’ll send you to some country you never heard of. You ain’t a citizen.
NOEM: Well, this is the same operation that we've had in the past
The laws don’t apply to you. The Constitution applies to “people.” You’re an “immigrant.” We’re gonna teach the courts to quit being’ political, and just be “American.” You’re the trash we have to burn off. It’s what Jesus wants us to do. Gott mit uns.
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Saturday, July 12, 2025

TeeVee Reflects Reality

No wonder Homan thinks the Constitution doesn’t apply to him. Are those people in the room with you right now? Because I’m thinking they must be. I’m very sure that person is in the room with you right now. With all his other skills, he’s also a master carpenter. I had no idea he was this out of touch with reality. E. Jean Carroll has entered the chat. And town criers. And signal fires. Maybe riders on horseback to take the news to every farm and village. Well, they also created the fake Epstein files…. Is that the camera angle? Or harsh reality? I thought he wanted all the immigrants to leave? Or, you know, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. The President who made Canada the 51st state and annexed Greenland. Brought peace to the Middle East. Ended the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Made America safe for white men again.
Well, you can’t always get what you want.
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Well…

...except Trump and MAGA believe in this conspiracy theory, and now that theory is blowing up in his face, Trump is screwed.

Oh, wait….suddenly, I’m not skeptical either. 😉
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😹😹😹😹

Blind Panic.
Trump: What's going on with my "boys" and, in some cases, "gals?" They're all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB!

For years, it's Epstein, over and over again. Why are we giving publicity to Files written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden Administration, who conned the World with the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, 51 "Intelligence" Agents, "THE LAPTOP FROM HELL," and more? They created the Epstein Files…

Kash Patel, and the FBI, must be focused on investigating Voter Fraud, Political Corruption, ActBlue, The Rigged and Stolen Election of 2020, and arresting Thugs and Criminals, instead of spending month after month looking at nothing but the same old, Radical Left inspired Documents on Jeffrey Epstein. LET PAM BONDI DO HER JOB — SHE'S GREAT!
Call me a pessimist, but I don’t think this is gonna be an easy sell: "They created the Epstein Files…"? 😹😹😹😹😹

“Act Blue”? Did Soros die? Or is he just old news?

Trying to replace a conspiracy theory with five other conspiracy theories, including a brand new one? 😹😹😹

Will the “national discussion” decide this time he’s insane? Or that this just more of Trump being Trump?

And another question: just what the fuck are the Epstein files by now? Evidence gathered after his arrest? “Photoshopped” pictures of Trump with Epstein? The “Epstein list” that nobody’s ever seen but tout le MAGA is sure will expose the same people Trump just blamed for the Epstein files? Purely imaginary? All of the above?

The best part is, there’s no more evidence for Trump’s substitute conspiracies than for the “Epstein list.” So this never gets better for him; but it does for the rest of us.
Folks should really go back and watch that clip from the cabinet meeting.

IMO we have NEVER seen Trump lose his super power--which is commanding and directing attention--like he already was over Epstein.
Yup. Pretty much the root of his troubles.

🍿 🍾 😹😹😹
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P.O.V.

Point. Counterpoit: (The judge is just requiring ICE to uphold the law by abiding by it.)
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Making Choices

“Disasters are a human choice”: Texas counties have little power to stop building in flood-prone areas

Rather than try to summarize or even condense these articles, I’m just going to link to them .

FEMA removed dozens of Camp Mystic buildings from 100-year flood map before expansion, records show

The common thread should be obvious from the headlines.

Camp Mystic’s owner warned of floods for decades. Then the river killed him

Or, I should say, the topic is set by the first headline, and the second two develop the theme, ironically voiced by the late owner of Camp Mystic who died trying to rescue campers he also, it must be said, knowingly put in harm’s way.
I “The river is beautiful,” Eastland told the Austin American-Statesman in 1990. “But you have to respect it.”
The river has its place, and it won’t yield to your convenience.

Another excerpt from that New Yorker article:
On July 3rd, Lee Pool, the chief of the Hunt Volunteer Fire Department, was heading home to Texas from a vacation in Colorado with his family when his wife, Stephanie, showed him the weather forecast. Severe storms were predicted in the Hill Country that night. Pool warned the members of the department to stay alert. Like many people in the area, Pool wears many hats. Besides being the chief of the fire department—an unpaid position—he’s also the vice-principal at the high school and, during the summers, he works nighttime security at Camp Mystic, a summer camp for girls. When his flight home was delayed, Pool asked a colleague to cover his shift at the camp.

That night, after Pool and his family made it back to Hunt, the rain was relentless. Around 3 a.m., Pool’s fire-department radio went off. The river was rising, and the situation was quickly developing into an emergency; Hunt, a town of about thirteen hundred people along the banks of the Guadalupe River, sits in what’s known as Texas’s flash-flood alley. Pool was alarmed but not panicked as he threw on his clothes and headed to the station. The drive should have taken less than ten minutes, but the water was already all over the road. When he reached Schumacher Crossing, just before the street that leads to the fire station, a low bridge over the river was underwater. By this point, the road behind him was impassable, too. He backed his pickup truck into a sloped driveway, seeking higher ground, and texted Stephanie: “I am stuck on Highway 39. I can’t go anywhere.”

In front of him, the highway was now a swift-moving river. When the flood reached the front of his truck, he got out, worried that he was about to be washed away. His radio was alive with more distress than he’d ever heard—reports of people stuck in trees and hanging onto roofs. “I mean, it’s just constant,” he said. “Just, help, help, help, help.” He thought about the children in the summer camps along the riverbanks, and about his colleague filling in for his security shift. It was the worst possible time for a disaster to strike: a summer weekend when, between the camps and the July 4th vacationers, the town might see roughly triple its usual population. Over the radio he counselled his fellow-firefighters, many of them similarly stranded, reminding them, If you can’t save yourself, you can’t save somebody else.

Then a pair of headlights cut through the night. It was a car with people in it, drifting through the flood. They saw the beam of his flashlight and called out to him. It was the most helpless he’d ever felt. “I think I just saw some people on their way to their death,” he texted Stephanie. “This is horrible. They are floating down the river and there’s nothing I can do.” He told me, “Having your hands bound, not being able to help people, especially when that’s in your heart, when what you want to do is serve—it kills you.” When the water finally began to ebb, hours later, it receded so quickly that it left fish flopping and gasping on the highway. Pool kicked them back into the water with his boot. “I’m, like, If I can’t save people now, I’ll save fish,” he said.
I’m not assigning blame. I’m just underlining the point: “You gotta know where you are.” And government, from city upwards, has an obligation to make sure people do. Especially visitors, like campers, and young girls who trust the rest of us to not put them in harm’s way.
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when a clown enters the palace, the clown does not become a king

 Via The New Yorker:

While much of the focus, understandably, has been on Camp Mystic, the affected area is much broader, and some of the outlying communities, including Hunt, have had to make do with fewer official resources. In a disaster of this size, the Federal Emergency Management Agency typically deploys hundreds of people, including specialized search teams; by Monday evening, the embattled agency had reportedly sent only eighty-six, in part owing to cost-cutting processes put in place by Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security. (By Tuesday night, fema had sent three hundred and eleven people to the area.) When searchers called in a discovery of human remains, it sometimes took more than two hours for state troopers to arrive. The Salvation Army has set up shop in Kerrville, the county seat, but one local speculated to me that people in Hunt may be too proud to call on outside resources. Instead, they reached out to the place they’d always reached out to for help: the fire department. “Realistically,” Pool told me, “we’re kind of on our own.”
Per The New Yorker article, there are no specialized FEMA rescue teams on the Guadalupe, or at least outside of Kerrville. Recovery of bodies is largely being done by volunteers. So, not a lot of state or federal help. The article focuses on Hunt, Texas; an unincorporated area hard hit by the flood. Abbott flew in there for a press conference, which seems to be the most “aid,” or attention, areas outside Kerrville along the river, have had. Those communities matter, too. How the fuck would he know anything about it?
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He Thinks His Social Media Is An Official Edict, Right?

Trump today:
"Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship. She is a Threat to Humanity, and should remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland, if they want her. GOD BLESS AMERICA!"
Ms. O'Donnell was born in Commack, New York.

Can we get the next POTUS to take away Trump’s citizenship? And that of his kids while we’re at it?

I don’t think the Supremes would let Trump do this. But they would stay any order denying it.

Again: if Biden had done this, Jake Tapper would have had an aneurysm on air, because we all knew Biden would know better. So we’d all know something was seriously wrong.

But it’s Trump, so “serious people,” if they notice at all, will ask: “Does he really mean this?” And say: “Of course the President can’t do this.”  And: “How will the Democrats respond?” And overall, treat this as perfectly normal.

I guess because the alternative is run in circles, scream and shout?
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“A Republic. If You Can Keep It.”

Same as it ever was.
super cool to realize that the capacity for shame was a load-bearing part of our system of government and that the MAGA movement's total rejection of that is an insanely powerful cheat code
Slavery was shameful. The Trail of Tears was shameful. The Tulsa Massacre. The wholesale slaughter of the native peoples of this country. The Tuskegee Experiment. The perfectly legal and violent opposition to labor unions. “Poor laws.” Sharecropping. The Japanese internment camps. The again perfectly legal discrimination against Mexicans and Central and South Americans across the West and Southwest. Eugenics laws: “Three generations of imbeciles is enough!” We lauded the man who wrote those words as a great public figure and one of our greatest jurists. And then the Nazis shamed that out of us. We thought we’d shamed racism out of our legal system. John Roberts proves we haven’t.

All shame has ever really done is make us hide our history from ourselves. What has MAGA changed? Where did MAGA come from? Foreign invaders? Foreign and alien ideas, antithetical to American culture and history? A bacteria, a virus, from an enemy laboratory far across the seas?

Yeah, right…
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“Follow The Money”

Further context: If you’ve never dealt with FEMA after a disaster I can tell you they answer within 30 seconds. No hold times. Real live wonderful people who help while you cry and can’t even figure out what questions to ask. They walk you through it all. Every call.

NOEM
STOLE THAT $
FOR ICE
Makes sense.
Exactly: THe stories on what didn't get done bc Noem required her personal signature (in additional to call centers, the rescue teams) aren't stating clearly that one reason Noem is doing this is bc she's $1B over budget bc she has blown it all on kidnapping grannies.
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It’s Not Just MAGA…

This event is gonna help:
Americans have grown markedly more positive toward immigration over the past year, with the share wanting immigration reduced dropping from 55% in 2024 to 30% today. At the same time, a record-high 79% of U.S. adults say immigration is a good thing for the country.

These shifts reverse a four-year trend of rising concern about immigration that began in 2021 and reflect changes among all major party groups.

With illegal border crossings down sharply this year, fewer Americans than in June 2024 back hard-line border enforcement measures, while more favor offering pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already in the U.S.

These findings are based on a June 2-26 Gallup poll of 1,402 U.S. adults, including oversamples of Hispanic and Black Americans, weighted to match national demographics.

The same poll finds many more Americans disapproving than approving of President Donald Trump’s handling of immigration. Trump’s 21% approval rating on the issue among Hispanic adults is below his 35% rating nationally, with the deficit likely reflecting that group’s low support for some of the administration’s signature immigration policies.
No, I don’t mean good for Trump/Miller.
The UFW can confirm farm workers were critically injured yesterday during chaotic raids in Ventura County, California. Others, including US citizens remain totally unaccounted for. 3/

Our staff is on the ground supporting families. Many workers-including US citizens, were held by federal authorities at the farm for 8 hours or more. US citizen workers report only being released after they were forced to delete photos and videos of the raid from their phones. 4/
There are so many constitutional and civil rights violations here the mind reels. Not to mention outright criminal acts, including, ironically, conspiracy to obstruct justice. I understand one injured person died, which raises manslaughter (at least) issues. Reports are the person fell 30 feet. Yeah, these guys are exemplary government agents. And the beat goes on: You almost hate to see it. Almost.😅 
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Friday, July 11, 2025

ICE, ICE Barbie

Oops.
the times is reporting that fema let call center operator contracts expire on july 5, the day after the texas flood, and calls answered went from 99.7% that day to 36% the next to 16% the next
Abbott covered it with plenty of ass kissing:
Abbott, who sat to Trump’s left at the roundtable, said it was “the fastest I'm aware of any administration responding so swiftly, so collaboratively, so coordinated as we have in response to this.”
Sure:
Noem now requires that all agency spending over $100,000 be personally approved by her, according to current and former FEMA officials. To prevent delays on the ground, on Monday FEMA officials created a task force to speed up the process of getting Noem’s approval, according to two people familiar with that unit.
That would be the day Noem finally got FEMA personnel on the ground. Not soon enough to get that disaster hotline working again. Can’t have everything, I guess.
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🤦‍♂️🙈

 


That looks like the biggest diplomatic fuck up Trump has executed in a long time. Hold mah beer..:

Myanmar’s military leader has praised Donald Trump and asked him to lift sanctions, as the junta sought to capitalise on a tariff letter from the US president believed to be Washington’s first public recognition of its rule.

Min Aung Hlaing, who has been in power since a 2021 coup, expressed his “sincere appreciation” for Trump’s letter, which threatened a tariff of 40% on its goods, and commended the US president for his “strong leadership” and for guiding the US “toward national prosperity with the spirit of a true patriot”.

US diplomats do not officially engage with Min Aung Hlaing or the ruling junta, which seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. It was among a tranche of almost identical letters sent by Trump to world leaders on Monday.

“This is the first public formal recognition that I’ve seen,” said Richard Horsey, a senior Myanmar adviser for the International Crisis Group, describing it as “a gift to the regime”.
Myanmar is just happy to be recognized.

Trump’s a cinch for that Nobel Peace Prize now.
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“Possibly. Mostly. We don’t know.”

It was worse than I expected. The “round table” meeting, I mean. One of the first press conferences a week ago was roundly slammed online for being nothing more than officials congratulating each other on what they really hadn’t yet done. This was just like that, only with the POTUS and the Governor of Texas and a strange group of celebrities in attendance. It's all about Trump.
Noem: Emergencies and disasters are always locally executed. The state manages them. And then the federal government comes in and supports. What we are doing here, sir, is empowering the state and the local officials to make the best decisions for their people because they know their people, they know their community. Thank you for being a president who trusts people
Always. She’s actually worse at this than Trump. You’ll see. No mention of the three day delay in signing off on FEMA recovery efforts. And where is the head of FEMA? Funny, that. Kill me now. So far, only Melania has addressed the families. When Trump does, he will insult them. You thought I was exaggerating. Aside from refusing to take responsibility in the same way Trump just did, what has Abbott done? And WHAT THE GODDAMNED FUCK DOES THIS DO TO HELP PEOPLE IN PAIN AND NEED? It doesn’t get any better, does it? Make it stop! Fuck Chip Roy. At that fucking round table? Where everyone but your wife has given you a blow job? "Get back to you”? WE’RE HERE RIGHT NOW, ASSHOLE! What the blue-eyed FUCK does any of this have to do with the price of eggs!?!?? No matter how hard he struggles, he always finds the absolute worst thing to say. My God, man, they’re still looking for the bodies of dead children along 180 miles of river bank. Jesus take me now. Because it just gets worse and worse. Across six counties? Simultaneously? Here's an idea: KEEP PEOPLE THE FUCK OUTTA THE FLOODPLAIN! I do NOT want to know what is throbbing, or why. Pretty sure he should be pointing in the other direction. Past is prologue.
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“The Buck Stops Over There!”👉

"With them poor people! In fact, they don’t even deserve the buck! You should give it to me!”—Donald J. Trump 
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Not Letting Reality Get In The Way


 And of course we shouldn’t give them any healthcare, regardless, so they can be a danger to public health.

After they mow our lawns, clean our houses, perform stoop labor for construction, and do the agricultural work nobody else will do.

Or are we gonna bus people on Medicaid around the country to do that work?

In related news:
Department of Homeland Security officers were on the grounds of the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture Tuesday afternoon, according to museum officials.

"I am upset, frustrated, and literally in disbelief of what happened yesterday," said NMPRAC Director of Education and Programming Veronica Ocasio.

Museum officials said around 4 p.m., 15 to 20 Homeland Security vehicles arrived outside the museum, at 3015 W. Division St., wearing mostly plain clothes. Museum officials said that when asked by staff, the agents refused all requests to show a warrant or any identification.

Ocasio and other museum leadership officials said they believe the agents were trying to learn about the area ahead of a large festival the museum has planned this weekend and are worried that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will try to make arrests during that event.

CBS News Chicago was shown footage from museum surveillance cameras showing the agents' arrival and subsequent movements. Most of them stayed in the parking lot, according to staff. But they said two agents entered the building, asked to use the bathroom and then started to walk around the museum in a different direction.
Puerto Ricans are American citizrns. But they tend to be “brown.” Not even vaguely correct, but ICE SOP now is: “Grab ‘em all and let the courts sort  ‘em out. If they can find ‘em.” Skin color as probable cause. Same as it ever was.
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“Missing” Is Not An Absolute Term


According to immigration experts and attorneys, the claims largely stem from an August report from the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general's office, which found that 32,000 unaccompanied minors failed to show up for court dates at immigration courts from 2019-23.

The report noted that 291,000 migrant children received no court notices at all. It also called on the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) to "take immediate action to ensure the safety" of unaccompanied migrant children in the US.

Migrant children "who do not appear for court are considered at higher risk for trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor", the inspector general's office reported.

But Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director at the American Immigration Council, a migrant advocacy group, told the BBC the figures are indicative of a bureaucratic "paperwork issue" rather than "anything nefarious".

"When you hear the phrase 'missing', you think that there is a child that someone is trying to find and can't," he said.

"That's not the case here. The government has not made any effort to find these children."

Many of the children, experts say, may well be at the addresses that are on file with the government, but were simply unable to make their court dates.

"That doesn't mean something bad happened to them," Mr Reichlin-Melnick said. "It means you missed a court hearing."

Mr Reichlin-Melnick added that there are "valid concerns" about exploitation.

"We cannot, however, suggest that all 320,000 of those children are being labour trafficked," he said.

Eric Ruark, an immigration researcher with NumbersUSA - which calls for tighter border controls - said that the children are difficult to track "because of some combination of apathy, incompetence and bureaucratic inefficiency".

"Many, hopefully even most, are safe with caring sponsors," he added. "But the Biden administration can't actually say one way or the other, and apparently doesn't care enough to find out."

What happens to children at the border?

Unaccompanied minors detained at the US-Mexico border go through a complicated process that begins with detention and processing by Customs and Border Patrol, or CBP.

If the child is from a foreign country that is not Mexico or Canada, they are placed into removal proceedings and transferred to the US Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS.

HHS, through its Office of Refugee Resettlement office, cares for the children in a network of state-licensed providers.

The office also seeks to reunify children with family members in the US or with individual or organisational sponsors - who in turn are obligated to ensure they arrive at immigration court dates. 
What can the Trump administration do?

Homan and other Trump administration officials have so far not provided many details about how they plan to address the issues that plague the detention of undocumented minors.

Several immigration attorneys contacted by the BBC suggested that the administration is likely to make becoming a "sponsor" for undocumented children much more difficult, even if the sponsor is a member of their family.

In practice, this would mean that more undocumented children are kept in detention.

"They could do what the Obama administration did, and detain them," said Alexander Cuic, an immigration attorney and professor at Case Western Reserve University.

 The controversial "Remain in Mexico" programme could also be applied to children, forcing them to wait across the border for the outcome of immigration proceedings.

"I'm not sure even they know what they're going to do with the kids," Mr Cuic said of the Trump administration. "But there's a border problem they're trying to figure out first, and that's the first concern before whether they're going to be harsh to both children and adults."

When the BBC asked the Trump transition team what plan they have for the undocumented migrant children, spokesman Taylor Rogers said only that "Democrats' wide-open border policies" have led to the children going "missing".

"President Trump and leaders in his administration will deliver on their promise to end the invasion at our southern border that puts innocent children in harm's way," she added.
What has Trump done? Blamed Biden. And not much more.
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Fantasy Land Bizarro World

Sure.
Whatever you say, Donny
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No Notes

Psst! Superman is an “illegal” immigrant! Pass it on! 😈
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The Rehnquist Court…

...was all about property uber alles. It was Rehnquist’s jurisprudential raison d’etre.

His judicial philosophy was that the proper focus of the law was protection of property rights, which has deeper roots in British jurisprudence than protection of persons does. Criminal law had its origins in the idea that subjects of the crown were protected by the crown because to injure them was to injure the property of the crown itself. People had no inherent value in themselves, especially not those with no real property ownership, but they were protected as property of the sovereign. Queen Elizabeth could have you taken to the Tower, but a brigand could not deprive the sovereign of her property’s life or limb.

Land, or “real property,” was the source of power, and the sovereign distributed that to buy loyalty, as rulers had done since the days of Beowulf. But land proved more enduring, and valuable, than plunder. So the legal system was (still is, actually) rooted in land and its possession and the protection of same. Property law is far more fundamental than tort law, and ancient of days, especially in contrast to the young upstart, civil rights law. 

Rehnquist didn’t have a lot of use for the concerns for persons exhibited by the Warren Court. That was too recent an idea, and not as firmly rooted, as foundational to Law, as the law of property. The legal system we inherited protected property interests first, and people only much, much later. 

There is a school of thought that Warren, having overseen the Japanese internment camps, was trying to atone ever after. Certainly the Warren Court was the vanguard of a spasm of liberalism (perhaps because we were “liberators”?) after WWIi, a spasm we have been contracting from ever since. 

Not to say the Roberts Court isn’t returning discrimination to the law, or upholding power over the powerless. Just that it’s a return to status quo, a reversion to the norm, that started with the Burger Court and kept right on going. Quite consciously and intentionally, with very, very deep roots in our legal and historical culture. And as little concern as possible for people who are not property owners first, and foremost.
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Thursday, July 10, 2025

But Biden Was Insular!

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I Dunno…Maybe She’s Dying 🤷🏻‍♂️

It’s an explanation.
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Going Straight At Plyler v Doe


 

And a strong “FUCK SCHOOL KIDS!!” image.

These people are monsters.
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A Human Choice

 Warning systems were not the problem in Kerrville and along the Guadalupe River. (For one thing, the damages extend for almost 200 miles, far beyond the reach of Kerrville or any warning system Kerr County might have installed.) No, the real culprit was more basic: floodplains, and what was done to protect people from them. Read the article; it’s well worth your time. The tl;dr? Nuthin’. Nuthin’ was done. Disasters really are “a human choice.”

And the special session probably won’t address a landowner’s precious right to use his river bottom land as he pleases, even if that use is to make it open to the public at their great risk.

The Lege will provide money for warning systems that sound whenever it gets cloudy (the only way to be sure with flash floods); or that warn the water’s comin’ ten minutes before it gets there. (This water traveled 200 miles in a few hours. How much warning can you reasonably give, and to whom?) The latter is clearly useless, the former is the boy who cried “WOLF!” Except in that story, the wolf did eventually show up.

But declare flood plains off limits to development and economic use without adequate protection from floods?

Yeah, that’ll happen. Ten years after hell freezes over.

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That’s Gonna Leave A Mark

believe marriage is a sacred covenant and I have earnestly pursued reconciliation. But in light of recent discoveries, I do not believe that it honors God or is loving to myself, my children, or Ken to remain in the marriage.

I move forward with complete confidence that God is always working everything together for the good of those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose.
No, not because Texas is “Bible proud,” or because “Biblical grounds” are recognized by the Texas Family Code. (She doesn’t need grounds for divorce in court. This is purely for public consumption.)*

Paxton’s “former” mistress was a central figure in his impeachment trial. She was the alleged beneficiary of Paxton’s corruption, getting a job for her with the real estate developer Paxton was protecting/helping (I consider the allegations proven even if the Texas Senate did the political thing. I followed that trial; Paxton didn’t really put on a defense. In the end, he knew he didn’t have to.). IIRC, he also got a house in Austin (Paxton lives there as AG; his wife lives in the Dallas area. She comes to Austin once every two years for six months, as a state senator.). Anyway, plenty of evidence of his infedelity was presented. Paxto later said the affair was over, and Angela Paxton stood by her man. Not unlike Hillary Clinton.

But this sounds like Paxton took a new mistress, and for the wife, that was the last straw. This will not make him popular among the conservative GOP women of Texas. Whether it will affect his political career, cannot be accurately forecast at this time.

But it doesn’t help.

*I say that because Sec. 6.001 of the Texas Family Code provides:
INSUPPORTABILITY. On the petition of either party to a marriage, the court may grant a divorce without regard to fault if the marriage has become insupportable because of discord or conflict of personalities that destroys the legitimate ends of the marital relationship and prevents any reasonable expectation of reconciliation.

That was the provision we always relied on when I was doing divorce cases. You basically cited the words of the statute in the petition, and it was all over but for division of property and custody/support of the kids. Of course, there is, still, sec. 6.003:

ADULTERY. The court may grant a divorce in favor of one spouse if the other spouse has committed adultery.
When you use the former, most of the work is done outside the courtroom, settling the division of the estate and custody/support of the children. The actual granting of the divorce is a brief and pro forma matter before the judge, once all agreements are final.

Angela wants her pound of flesh. She’s alleged adultery; she’ll have to prove it. Or Ken will have to admit to it, in a form Angela finds acceptable. 

She’s not gonna let this go quietly. 😈

And the NRSC comes to the aid of… John Cornyn. 😈😈 Yeah, I don’t think she’s gonna let him off that easy.

😈😈😈

BTW, I was just reading between the lines her tweet:
It seems they cited 6.001 and 6.003. I’d say that was a belt and suspenders move, but I still think Angela wants her pound of flesh; in court, or in the court of public opinion.
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A Hit Dog’ll Holler

This is a FAKE NEWS LIE from CNN. This reporting is an unapparelled display of activist journalism and distracts from the robust, coordinated federal response led by Secretary Noem that has saved over 900+ lives. While these “journalists” slept comfortably in D.C., Secretary Noem deployed to Texas, working day and night to approve every possible need that search and rescue workers had. Within moments of the flooding in Texas, DHS assets, including the U.S. Coast Guard, tactical Border Patrol units and FEMA personnel surged into unprecedented action alongside Texas first responders. The U.S. Coast Guard alone rescued over 230 Americans.

@Sec_Noem is leading a historic, first-of-its-kind approach to disaster funding: putting states first by providing upfront recovery support — moving money faster than ever and jump starting recovery. This is a breakthrough in how FEMA supports state-led disaster recovery.

President Trump approved a Major Disaster Declaration, hours after Governor Greg Abbott’s request. By Tuesday, FEMA had deployed 311 staffers, providing support and shelter for hundreds of people. Under President Trump and Secretary Noem’s leadership, DHS is reforming FEMA to prioritize state-led, locally executed disaster response, as Texas has exemplified.
The Coast Guard was instrumental in rescuing children from Camp Mystic.
The Coast Guard and a unified command responded to the affected areas after it received a report on Friday, July 4, at around 5:57 a.m. from the Texas A&M Task Force, according to a press release published on the Coast Guard's website.
That doesn’t exactly blunt the criticism that FEMA wasn’t there until Monday. We knew that already, but Noem didn’t care until it hit CNN.  Got on TeeVee, IOW. Cable TeeVee, which is worse. That’s what all the old people still watch; like her boss.

And the Border Patrol jumped in immediately:
On Friday, July 4, CBP emergency response crews from across the agency were dispatched to assist with search, rescue, and recovery efforts in the wake of flash flooding caused by heavy rains. The CBP team includes personnel from BORSTAR (Border Patrol Search Trauma and Rescue), the Office of Field Operations, and helicopter air crews from Air and Marine Operations.
All of this is laudable and what government should be doing. But it has bugger all to do with FEMA’s response, sending 86 people over the weekend, to help out in 6 counties. Hell, H-E-B was there sooner and doing more (the food shown in those pictures are brands from the store chain, donated for relief efforts as soon as the waters receded).

Nothing in that tweet screed refutes anything in the CNN, or the earlier, reports. Including the fact Noem has to personally approve every $1000,000 of FEMA expenditures. And it doesn’t do a goddamned thing to help people in Central Texas.

Noem is a goddamned disgrace. But then, so is the President she works for.
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I’m Not Sure This Means Anything…

...because the poll is Democratic primary voters, not general election voters. I mean, I’m not surprised Crockett leads primary voters over Allred. I saw him on local TeeVee when he announced his campaign, and he was TERRIBLE! He spat out phrases about his Momma working hard to provide for him in a one-room school house he had to walk to in the snow every day, uphill, both ways. You get the idea. He was rattling off what some consultant had told him to say, and when he used that up, he didn’t have much else.

Besides, Allred has been invisible since he lost to Cruz, while Crockett has been highly visible in the House.

Should she run for Senate? I don’t think so. I don’t see Texas replacing Cornyn with a smart, sassy Black woman, much as they should. But Lord have mercy, you put Allred up against Paxton (who will probably beat Cornyn in the primary), my money would be on Paxton.

The more interesting question is how the mid-decade redistricting fight goes in the upcoming special session. That one’s going to run into extra sessions, with the response to Kerrville topping the agenda. (Each session can only run for 30 calendar days.) That fight has already started:
While search and recovery is ongoing, this black-hearted governor added a partisan power grab to a 30-day agenda that should be all about ensuring this NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN," Texas state Rep. Gina Hinojosa (D-49) wrote on social media.

"I am often disappointed in Greg Abbott," Hinojosa added, "but this is revolting."
It’s days like this I really miss Molly Ivins.
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The Courts Will …

...NOT save us.
HHS announced today they will consider Head Start a welfare program, not an education program, and will subject it to new citizenship requirements. This goes against decades of legal precedence that all children in America have a right to education. Announcement here.

https://www.hhs.gov/press-room/prwora-hhs-bans-illegal-aliens-accessing-taxpayer-funded-programs.html
Aimed directly at Plyler v Doe, which found a Texas law which banned immigrant children (read “Messicans”) from attending public schools violated equal protection (“persons,” not “citizens.” Trump and Miller really hate non-white people.) Jim Plyler was superintendent of schools in Tyler ISD. I went to school with his son. Suit was filed in Tyler because William Wayne Justice was the Federal Judge who desegregated Tyler schools about 10 years earlier.

“Forum shopping” was not invented by Republicans a few years ago.
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🤖

 JMM:

The real lesson of the Grok meltdown yesterday is think of the unimaginable power of controlling one of these platform scale LLMs if you don't go as over-the-top as "I'm Hitler 2.0 let's hurry up and gas the remaining Jews". If it's even slightly more subtle immense possibilities for info dominance.
The guy who started NVIDIA (sp.?) in a Denny’s (he makes AI chips? I dunno. Git offa mah lawn!) was on “Morning Joe” singing the praises of AI and how trustworthy it is, how much good it will do, etc., etc.

They mentioned ChatGPT. They never mentioned Grok.

Maybe I should ask Grok why that is.

After all, Elmo rewrote the corpus of human knowledge just to correct improve Grok.

(Yes, I’m supposed to be terrified that Grok is so easily manipulated. But GIGO. Besides, Grok is so transparent about it. “MechaHitler”? The Proud Boys are subtler.)
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“There’s A Sucker Born Every Minute”—A Famous American

That one? Or this one?
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Wednesday, July 09, 2025

This Is Fine

The sources tell us that FEMA's deployment of urban search and rescue teams, which are typically deployed in anticipation they might be needed instead, was delayed until Monday, three days after the flood. 

Now, a source also tells us that a request Texas made for FEMA aerial imagery to aid in the search was also delayed, waiting for Secretary Noem's approval.
' Now, additionally, multiple FEMA officials say that they were taken aback by the agency's relatively limited response in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.
It’s fine because Abbott is saying he did that, with his gubernatorial weather clairvoyance:
“The state was aware that there was a possible serious flooding event days in advance and pre-positioned assets and resources and personnel,” Abbott said at a Tuesday press conference. “We originally pre-positioned those assets, personnel and resources on Wednesday. Then, when greater clarity was discerned on Wednesday, we moved them closer and made sure we had adequate supplies going into Friday. We were ready.”
I don’t believe that for a minute.
The Texas Division of Emergency Management “activated” state emergency response resources across West Texas and the Hill Country on July 2, according to a TDEM press release. TDEM cited “heavy rainfall with the potential to cause flash flooding” and encouraged Texans to prepare for flooded roads and monitor weather forecasts.
Let me put it this way. Last week about this time, the forecast was for a hot, July dry spell. It’s rained four of the seven days since then. Today the total was 1 inch. More rain is expected. Pretty good for a dry spell. And if TDEM wasn’t getting its weather forecast from NOAA, where were they getting it from? The Texas weather satellite network?*
The state agency listed a number of state agencies and Texas A&M services “available to support local flood response operations,” such as rescue boat teams, helicopters, and personnel to monitor road conditions.

Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring said during a press conference on Wednesday that he wasn’t aware of any resources or personnel sent to his area, although the TDEM had people in Kerrville after the floods struck his city.
So, see, it WAS all NOAA’s fault. Case closed. Right? Shit. H-E-B is doing more for Kerrville.

This is fine, too.
Does this benighted fool think elements are MANUFACTURED??!?

I’m not so sure about this:
Thune responds to Brooke Rollins saying Medicaid recipients should work on farms: "As she pointed out, we have a lot of able-bodied adults who are on programs and frankly, one of the things we said as a result of the legislation we passed is there ought to be some reasonable expectations that people who are getting benefits are at least attempting to find jobs ... there's certainly a lot of work in the ag sector of our economy."
If they don’t want to shovel shit on farms, they should die, and decrease the surplus population.

This is fine, too; but for real this time. Why would Epstein write down a client list? Because he was a blackmailer. How do you know that? The internet knows that. And Tom Fitton is a master of irrefutable logic!

😹😹😹😹

Trump is being hoisted on his own conspiracy, and I am here for it. 

🍿🍾


*Yeah, I made that up.
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