Euphemism creep and immigration — and politicization issues

First, "euphemism creep", or the "euphemism treadmill," per Steven Pinker is a real thing. James McWhorter has also written much about it.

It's when a euphemism replaces a no-longer acceptable term, but soon enough becomes no longer acceptable itself.

Think "handicapped" being replaced by "disabled," then that becoming not acceptable and it being replaced by "differently abled." Some day in the not too distant future, because of the word "differently," that will be replaced as well.

This is a field with enough to mine that I am going to write about this on various spots, including my philosophy and critical thinking blog. But, there as here, I'll use the same starting point — Substacker Corey Hutchins talking about how different media outlets in Colorado struggle (or maybe "struggle" with scare quotes intended) on how to talk about "people who aren't supposed to be here," or if I need scare quotes inside that, "people who aren't 'supposed' to be here."

Or, per old friend Brains, who used it non-disparagingly? "Ill Eagles." 

Here, it's not just ground-level, but, in media, an official style issue, as the Associated Press long ago said both "illegal immigrant" and "illegal alien" aren't allows.

I agree for sure with the word "alien." That said, quoting Hutchins, I disagree with the AP already trying to get ahead of euphemism creep three years ago.

“We don’t use the terms illegal immigrant, unauthorized immigrant, irregular migrant, alien, an illegal, illegals or undocumented (except when quoting people or documents that use these terms),” the AP wrote. “Many immigrants and migrants have some sort of documents, but not the necessary ones.”

As I said in a comment to Hutchins, why not just add "allegedly" in front of "undocumented immigrants"? 

Per that Shitter link, the AP does offer alternatives. But? Most of them are kind of cumbersome, which undercuts the usefulness of language.

Also, per the authors I cited at the top of the page, this issue tends to get politicized. And, it's usually "conservatives" vs "liberals." Setting aside L/libertarians and some Green types who claim to be neither right nor left, the politicized polarity also ignores friendly skeptical non-liberal leftists.

In my first comment, Hutchins noted that I had used the word "roundup" and he had edited it out of his post, when thinking about using it, as dehumanizing. I noted that I've seen "roundup" in places like a "kindergarten roundup" at a local school district.

I also commented, in a short bit lower in his post, about a Denver TV news anchor wearing a tie from a Soviet journalist to make a statement about the Russia-Ukraine War. I first noted the fact that, pre-invasion, Zelensky was already restricting press freedom in Ukraine. I then referenced Gaza. Hutchins didn't refer to either one.

And, with that, it strikes me that he's probably framing this in a politicized sense, and within the conservative-liberal axis, or, within the two-party duopoly axis.

To me, right-thinking (NO pun, intended or unintended!) people in general should step outside that box. And, media shouldn't step into that box in general.

We all should move beyond language that's harmful, but at the same time:

• Recognize the euphemism treadmill is real;
• Avoid politicization;
• Accept we won't please everybody;
• And, per Humpty Dumpty, never let language be the master. 

And, that's that.

Texas Progressives: What's next on border, immigrants, more?

The General Land Office is offering Trump land for a concentration camp on the border even as Strangeabbott puts up more floating barriers in the Rio Grande. The land was bought from a private owner who had opposed a state border wall in the area. I guess the state's dinero was too much to resist.

The Observer looks at what it was like a century ago when Texas jails served as immigrant detention centers, and again, during the "Operation Wetback" 1950s, including a comment by ConservaDem then-Congresscritter Lloyd Bentsen.

Strangeabbott has also ordered hospitals in the state that get Medicaid or CHIP money to start asking citizenship questions. You don't have to answer, but how many patients will know that?

Strangeabbott likes to thing he's part of the federal government when Washington makes a decision under international law over which he has no power, but that he doesn't like. The sensical amendment to the 1944 US-Mexico water treaty is the latest. Let's add in, which the Trib doesn't, that Mexican President Lopez Obrador, beyond the drought hitting both sides of the river, had cited Strange's floating border barriers as part of why water was being held up. Big John Cornyn and Havana Ted Cruz, per the story, also didn't talk about that.

Off the Kuff analyzes the question of undervoting in judicial races to see if it tells us anything about what happened in this election.

Kenny Boy Paxton has put Dallas in his gunsights as the latest city to be sued over marijuana decriminalization. He's lost so far on cities large enough with the money and legal manpower and willpower to stand up to him. (Denton has the first two, but not the third.)

SocraticGadfly offered up some snark on the JFK assassination anniversary.

Horse torture at A&M's Veterinary School. Will it crack down even more than it already has, as necessary?

RIP Fred Harris, better than Bernie Sanders long before Bernie.

Lone Star Left urges the passage of a bill to require air conditioning in Texas' prisons.  

Steve Vladeck describes getting ambushed at a legal forum. 

 Law Dork calls on President Biden to commute all of the remaining federal death sentences. I've already said, in my own Tweeting about this, that A. it won't happen, and B. Why didn't Geidner ask for Biden to free Leonard Peltier? 

Mean Green Cougar Red mourns the closing of a longtime Houston restaurant, which fell victim to the I-45 expansion. 

Reform Austin looks at the connection between vouchers and educational re-segregation.  

The Eyewall declares an end to the 2024 hurricane season and turns its attention to those big storms in the Pacific.

Texas Progressives' non-primary Roundup thoughts

Income inequality in America is probably EVEN WORSE than even a Piketty says.

The State Bar of Texas fined and gave a probated suspension to Starr County DA Gocha Ramirez for his attempt to prosecute for murder a woman doing a home-brew abortion. Cue the wingnut dogwhistles about the state bar.

SocraticGadfly has a roundup of duopoly and third-party/independent presidential thoughts.

Federal judge David Ezra hit the pause button on the unconstitutional SB4, pushed on the House side by my legiscritter, lawyer David Spiller. Above all, he rejected the idea that Texas is being "invaded" by Ill Eagles in any legal sense. At the Monthly, Forrest Wilder says the border crisis is the best thing that happened to Strangeabbott. The Fifth Circuit quickly reversed, but paused that a week for the Biden Administration to appeal to SCOTUS.

Ivan Cantu is the latest possibly innocent man executed by Texas.

The RRC continues to boast about plugging abandoned wells even as it continues to try to dump responsibility for which wells are under its oversight.

It's looking more likely that Kenny Boy Paxton will primary John Cornyn in two years, even though Big John is more Trumpy than Havana Ted Cruz. (How a conviction in his securities trial next month would be worked around remains to be seen. Cornyn referenced that in Tweeting back at Kenny Boy that "It's hard to run from prison, Ken!" AFAIK, Big John, not staff, does many of his tweets.)

Off the Kuff interprets Greg Abbott's incoherent BS about IVF.

CVS and Walgreens are about to start selling mifepristone, the primary abortion by medications drug.

Sorry, Caitlin Clark, but #RockChalk Lynette Woodard and fuck the NCAA.

Credit where credit is due: Genocide Joe is actually doing something on student loans.

Neil at the Houston Democracy Project asked how Houston police & Mayor Whitmire would respond to Trump's openly-planned mass round-ups of migrants. 

The Texas Tribune tells you how to help and how to stay safe in the Panhandle during the wildfires.

Ryan Puzucki reports from the YMIBY conference in Austin.

The Texas Living Waters Project brings highlights from their first Texas Water Trust Workshop. 

The Dallas Observer listened to Ted Cruz's podcast with Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson so you don't have to.

And, a late primary thought: As seen in the San Antonio Current, via Kuff, Biden, more than "uncommitted," had an expressly pro-Palestinian candidate among his Texas opposition. I'm not a Doink, but if I had known more about the platform of Armando Perez-Serrato in advance, I would have publicized him. As I told the person quote-tweeted at the end of the piece, per SAC, the real question is what will the likes of Perez-Serrato do in November?

Texas Progressives talk lawsuits on Ill Eagles, more

As promised, Biden's DOJ is suing Strangeabbott over Senate Bill 4 empowering Texas law enforcement to make arrests for "illegal entry." I think it's likely it will lose again, given the Arizona case in 2012, where five of eight justices struck down in entirety everything but "show me your papers," and Alito concurred on the direct parallel to Texas: striking down the Arizona state crime of illegal entry. Kennedy is gone (as is Scalia and Ginsburg) but that still leaves five for the key issue if Alito doesn't change and we know that Kagan won't recuse. The three newbies of Kavanaugh, Gorsuch and Barrett are at issue, especially if Alito does flop.

Related? New York City is suing not Abbott, but the bus companies that send Ill Eagles there. It's the first suit of its type. Since it's against the bus companies, not Tex-ass, I think it would he hard to get it kicked to federal court. If nothing else, I suspect that at a minimum, while the suit plays out, these companies will want an ironclad hold harmless from Strangeabbott before transporting any more people to New York.

SCOTUS will hear, from Idaho, the case on the federal emergency medicine law being used to try to protect emergency abortion. Kuff calls the simple act, via Talking Points Memo's header, as "ominous." Rather, on it's own, it's the normal action of a Supreme Court when two circuit courts give totally differing rulings on a major issue. Now, on the big picture, I think it's ominous because Team Biden has been trying to get the law to do what it wasn't designed to do and I expect they'll lose.

 Law Dork and Steve Vladeck go deep on the Fifth Circuit's EMTALA decision. 

The Dallas Observer reminds is that there remain challenges to Texas' draconian anti-abortion law.

Here's some potential fallout from federal COVID money for schools ending this fall.

SocraticGadfly said RIP to Eddie Bernice Johnson.

Contra Alexandra Samuels, 52 degrees is BELOW normal for most of Texas outside the Panhandle in early January. Note that where I live, where the almanac on Weather Underground says the average is above 52, has actually had that many days above 52 in the last 10 days. (By next Monday, we're supposed to have sub-20s low with snow.) If Samuels had wanted to talk about something relevant to climate change this time of year and over the recent past, she would have discussed polar vortexes.

Off the Kuff analyzed the runoffs for Mayor and Controller in Houston.

Neil at the Houston Democracy Project said that Houston Mayor John Whitmire has no plan to protect Houstonians from the extremism of the Texas far right. 

The Eyewall explains what a polar vortex is.  

Bishop C. Andrew Doyle pens an open letter to the NY Times about its use of "taco sauce" in a crossword puzzle.  

Jeff Balke makes nine transportation-related resolutions for Houston for 2024.

Meatball Ron DeSatan — human trafficker or abetter thereof?

Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar has officially recommended the Bexar DA bring charges in last year's case of Ill Eagles being taken from San Antonio to Martha's Vineyard. People connected to Florida Gov. Meatball Ron DeSatan appear to be behind that, as also behind the new stunt of flying people from El Paso to Sacramento, though of course, it's not clear if the SAME Floridians were involved. Salazar has not named names on who he thinks should be charged.

But, the Miami Herald at the first link names names:

The migrant relocation program, using Florida tax dollars, was overseen by DeSantis’ chief of staff, James Uthmeier, and public safety czar Larry Keefe.

And then adds background:

Although DeSantis’ has not yet confirmed the state of Florida was behind the latest flights to California, the migrants arrived outside a Sacramento-area church carrying documents that indicated the travel was arranged by the Florida Division of Emergency Management and Vertol Systems, the private contractor that also arranged the original flights to Martha’s Vineyard, the office of California’s attorney general said.

All seems pretty clear.

All of this raises one other question: Where is our almost Republican United States Attorney General Merrick Garland?

Why does Drew Springer hate kids? Why will some Dems abet Abbott and him?

Shock me that my state senate Legiscritter, Drew Springer, since he mentioned it in early January, is carrying water for Strangeabbott's latest round of unconstitutionality, this time, with Drew filing a bill where the state would refuse to pay for the public school education of Ill Eagles. We'll send them to Sacred Heart instead, in Cooke County?  It's not just unconstitutional in general, it specifically goes against a 1982 SCOTUS ruling, which Springer has discussed and rejected before. I'm sure that this is another attempt to get the new batch of allegedly precedent-supporting wingnuts on SCOTUS — Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, Barrett — to overturn precedent, or else to dare Wallbuilder Joe to enforce the law.

That said, as Josephine Lee notes (after making Bernard Rapoport turn over in his grave by calling the Dallas Morning News "liberal"), stiffing Ill Eagle kids is part of stiffing public education in general.

Related? Abbott has a willing partner in crime in getting the Lege to blow yet more money on border issues. Sadly, as the Observer notes, El Paso Dem Mary Gonzalez, chairing the relevant state House subcommittee within the Budget Committee, basically became Abbott's lapdog. As Gus Bova notes there, half the problem is bad framing by Dems on this issue.

Besides, on putting up new hurdles, Wallbuilder Joe is Title 42 Trump under a new name.

Biden and the border; Hypocrisy alert

Team Biden (maybe in part the Deep State within DOJ, but the buck has to stop somewhere) refused to make publicly available documents on the legal negotiations re the Fisher private border wall until threatened with legal action. The new story on that makes pretty clear why, IMO; Biden doesn't want to actually remove the wall.

Sounds like the tonks at the Border Patrol are abetting Strangeabbott and the DPS on locking up Ill Eagles. Be nice if Biden fired more people. Be nice if he also pushed to restore mandatory service location rotations. Neither is likely to happen. For a mix of political reasons and, I believve, personal belief, Biden's actually pretty hardcore on border issues, at least for a Democrat.

Speaking of tonks and hypocrisy, or something, Kyrsten Sinema would indeed think it's a grand compromise to help out the Dreamers, in exchange for BOTH extending Title 42 another year (at least, could be more!) AND giving the tonks even more money than Trump was asking for in his 2018 proposal. Also, any idea that allegedly "immigration moderate" Rethugs like Cornyn will buy in, as long as he's claiming Biden's not enforcing the border, is baloney.

Texas Progressives on the border and more

Off the Kuff looks at the developments in the SD10 redistricting lawsuit.

SocraticGadfly talks about the odiousness of antivaxxers blathering ignorantly about the Nuremberg Code, especially with the anniversary of the Wannsee Conference.

On immigration issues, per the excellent Border/Lines, it's ever more clear that #StatusQuoJoe is exactly that. Result? An exodus of executive branch young blood, led by Andrea Flores, even as oldsters like Ron Klain and Susan Rice, defend largely preserving the status quo.

Tex-ass now has both a battle and an issue on environmentalism. The battle? The feds have rejected the state's attempt to set a more lenient standard for ethylene oxide, a chemical key to production of household detergents and related items produced in Greater Houston (and southern Louisiana's) Cancer Alley. The issue? As known by many of us, and amplified in Winter Storm Uri, TCEQ shuts off pollution monitors in the face of severe weather.

Kenny Boy is trying to get the Court of Criminal Appeals to overturn its December decision that he cannot unilaterally prosecute election fraud allegations. And, he's jumped in bed not just with Steve Bannon but pillow guy Mike Lindell to push this. (That said, the Observer is wrong when it indicates just a few states have partisan judicial elections. While only seven states have partisan elections for their top courts, 18 do for lower courts, per Ballotpedia. In addition, of the 21 states with retention elections, in eight, the initial election after a gubernatorial appointment to fill a vacancy is a partisan election. In total, that's 26 of 50, more than half.)

Melinda Lucio could be the first woman executed in Texas since 2014 if SCOTUS doesn't do the right thing.

Alex Sammon asks just how much will Pelosi or others of the Democrat establishment go to the mat again this year for corruption-investigated Henry Cuellar? Sammon notes that Cuellar has a decade-plus history of ethics issues and violations. The Monthly has more, including that some third-party ad buys have dried up and that the San Antonie Express-News has endorsed Jessica Cisneros.

Who is Kandy Kaye Horn and why is she running for gov, and as a Rethuglican to boot? Not asked by the Monthly — will she and other minor candidates get just enough votes to push the race to a runoff? She appears to be as befuzzled in some ways as Kinky Friedman.

Mucus (THAT Mucus) and "furries." Click the link to learn more.

The first First Amendment lawsuit against Collin College for shit-canning a prof has concluded; Lora Burnett settled for OK money, and contra Collin's hack PR spox, it's a win not only for her, but for others suing the college; the settlement's not sealed and thus is admissible in their suits.

Grits for Breakfast looks at a time when the Austin Police Department removed lights and sirens from its police cars to encourage better driving by its officers.

The Current provides an oral history of the legendary punk band The Butthole Surfers' time in San Antonio.

Eric Berger cheers on the James Webb Space Telescope.

John Nova Lomax documents the Nicknamed Krogers of Houston. 

A federal judge has enjoined BNSF railway workers from going on strike. Check back on Feb. 8.

Greg Sergeant rightfully calls out Ruy Teixeira (and tho not named, the James Carvilles et al) in saying that Dems need to ignore "wokeness" entirely, and just shift that Overton Window.

Taking a deep dive on Paxton, the border, gov's race nutters

Shock me both that Kenny Boy Paxton is trying to hide his cellphone texts related to Jan. 6, 2021, when he was in DC, and that the Travis County DA's office has found that this this violates the Texas Public Information Act. (That said, given Paxton's history of stalls in legal issues and the second fact that the Tex-ass AG's office is usually involved with Public Information Act and Open Meetings Act issues, how this plays out is your guess as good as mine.) Since first blogging this, Kenny Boy has rejected the Travis DA and claims that all the information Texas media outlets want is "inconsequential."

==

The Borderlines blog takes a deep dive into the ongoing failures and snafus of Operation Lone Star, triggered by a state district judge saying it's unconstitutional — NOT Texas unconstitutional, but US Constitution unconstitutional, namely, the arrests being made. The blog also sets this in backdrop of Biden's continued enforcement of Trump's Article 42 (190-proof BlueAnoners won't like this and other aspects of the site) and how this ties in to what is actually NOT a new "surge" of crossings. Borderlines also puts this all into larger political context not only of Strangeabbott's current gubernatorial race but also his possible 2024 presidential interest. Borderlines ALSO notes that Biden continues to #BuildTheWall, and calls bullshit on Biden Administration claims that it's just making Trump's wall "more secure."

==

Speaking of Strange and politics, the Observer takes a deep dive on the GOP guv primary. It starts by reminding us that in addition to Abbott and the other two oxygen-suckers, Allen West and Don Huffines, talk show dude Chad Prather is also running. The piece is right about extremism.

Prather claims that "god wouldn't tax his own people," ignoring that the Tanakh MANDATED tithing. And, in the New Testament, as the Observer notes, Jeebus himself said, to quote the divinely inspired King James Version: "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's." Allen West, not to be outdone, claimed Marx invented the idea of property taxes. Hey, West, if Karl Marx wanted to eliminate private property rights, he'd start with eliminating private property, which would mean there WOULD BE NO private property for him to invent private property taxes. Don Huffines, among other things, explicitly rejected federal constitutional supremacy, which means that he couldn't lawfully be sworn into office without being a rank hypocrite. At the event from which the Observer reported, West had a slight edge in a straw poll. Strange, in case you can't tell by now, didn't show up.

Now, what's this all add up to? I still think odds favor Strange getting 50 percent plus 1 and avoiding a runoff. But, the odds of that aren't that much more than 50 percent plus 1.

Texas Progressives talk Beto, SB8, Afghanistan, more

Axios claimed Sunday that Beto was running (for gov, of course). Beto's inner circle denied it.

 

Meanwhile, for whatever weird reason (well, not weird if wingnut but not wingnut squared Texas GOP members are panicky), Joe Straus for gov rumors have heated up. (Ain't happening, folks.)

Texas Monthly has a detailed dive into why Texas Hispanics are shifting Republican. Remember, the Census and other questions always refer to "Hispanics of any race"; it's a cultural box. And, in Tex-ass, many don't see themselves as La Raza but as White. It also confirms my own refudiation, with later detailed follow-up,  of a decade-plus in the making of Texas Democrats from Gilberto Hinojosa on down blindly believing demographics is destiny. The identification is interesting; New Mexico has plenty of Hispanics who have been in the US at least as long as the Texans in the Valley. They may or may not identify as White; they're definitely more Democratic, but by no means totally so. That said, back to Texas. How do they deal with racism in the Texas GOP? And, yes, Valley Hispanics, it's real. In a somewhat related issue, I blogged last month about how demographics is not destiny among young voters.

Colleyville Heritage High School's principal was placed on paid administrative leave earlier for alleged teaching critical race theory, even though, as a principal, he doesn't teach. The Grapevine-Colleyville ISD School Board deliberated his fate Monday night. Per the first link, there's much additional backstory, not only over race issues, but the principal's take in the ISD's handling of COVID and other things.

Dr. Alan Braid, an OB/GYN announced via newspaper op-ed Sunday he'd deliberately performed an abortion that violated SB 8. Pro-life (except for the death penalty) groups split in their reaction. Texas Right to Life said we're "exploring all our options." At the same time, its John Seago said this was a "stunt." Another anti-choice group, Human Coalition, explicitly said it had no plans to sue; in typical wingnut paranoia, it feared a "trap."

Can Mark Cuban undercut the pharmaceutical industry?

Chicago is recruiting Texas businesses over permitless carry, anti-abortionism and other shite.

Barrett Brown is in trouble again.

As the withdrawal wound down over the last month, SocraticGadfly had a series of pieces related to history of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. First was initial thoughts on the withdrawal. After that, he looked at how the initial 1978 US meddling unnecessarily led to all that followed. Third, he said former Counterpunch publisher Alexander Cockburn was probably lying with his claimthe Taliban had a pre-invasion offer of a no-strings-attached surrender of bin Laden. Finally, he rejected claims, and the domestic political thought behind some of them, that the Taliban would now run wild, instead saying Afghanistan's future looks complex.

In other international news, Pretty Boy Trudeau's snap election in Canada basically backfired. As compared to the current Parliament, he gained two or three seats, no more. Conservatives and Greens treaded water while the Bloc and NDP both had small gains. The People's Party Canada, largely a vanity project, increased its vote share but took no seats in Canada's Westminster-style election.

In case you're wondering about the Haitian flood at Del Rio? The Trib says that many of them left Haiti years ago for various countries in Latin America and have now decided to try to cross. It's not coyotes rounding up some new flood. My question, and unanswered by the Trib story, is why are they not staying in Chile or whatever?

People claiming to be part of Anonymous have hacked Epik, the internet host for Parler, Gab and other alt-right and alt-white sites.

Texas 2036 released its poll showing widespread dissatisfaction with the direction the state is going.

The Texas Living Waters Project sees the American Rescue Plan Act as a historic opportunity to invest in our water infrastructure.

Reform Austin catches Ken Paxton in a rare moment of self-awareness.

The Bloggess recommends some horror movies for you.

The Great God Pan Is Dead is looking forward to fall art season.

Status Quo Joe still missing promises on Ill Eagles

President Biden still hadn't abandoned Article 42, and other recent actions of his in re Ill Eagles are head fakes, gaslighting or whatever other term you prefer.

The latest? Hiring immigration judges primarily originally hired by Team Trump. Some have zero immigration court experience.

Earlier, it was picking Ed Gonzalez to run ICE, who might hate Trump's immigration policies, but hated even more letting people out of his jail on reasonable bail.

Let's not forget the first 75 percent of Obama's tenure as president on this issue.

Let's not forget that Central American countries have become even more tumbled up since then.

All of this means that Biden isn't likely to soften up too much any time soon.

Besides, here in Texas and across La Frontera, a number of Mexican-Americans within the "Hispanic" world showed last year they want more toughness. That means, as a politician, Biden is trapped between that, and some Hispanic and non-Hispanic activists thinking he should loosen up.

The Texas Roundup says: Give me your ladders

There's lots of stuff to consider this week, between strictly Texas news and national and even global items hitting directly upon the Pointy Abandoned Object State™, including fracking, Biden and the border, and other fun stuff, so, let's dig in.

Texas

Ill Eagles are defeating border wall sections built by Trump (and by Dear Leader and Shrub Bush before him) with $5 ladders. Sadly, Status Quo Joe, rather than doing everything he can to cancel more wall-building, as shown by his detention issues, is probably going to do some difference-splitting along with Trump-blaming. (See below under the National subheader about Biden's continuing to use Trump's Title 42 declaration for arbitrary turn-backs at the border.)

A radioactive waste site out west of Andrews is struggling to safely store radioactive oil and gas waste from elsewhere, including Australia. Yes, Australia. But, don't worry; Lloyd Bentsen himself made sure that (the law says) this waste is nontoxic. That's even as the Society of Petroleum Engineers admits the truth. The Railroad Commish alleges it inspects Lotus, but, really? The RRC claims it "inspects" all sorts of stuff.

Frackers are still looking for "bigger fools" to buy them out.

New House and Senate vote bills specifically target urban counties over 1 million. Gee, wonder why. Kuff has more.

 

Permitless carry may still not get through the Senate, at least not in the House's version, says the Trib.

Per that piece, but the Trib has no link to a story of its own, I don't know how I missed it, but Jeebus Shot Sid Miller is suing Lite Gov Danny Goeb over COVID restrictions under the Pink Dome. Getcher popcorn, especially since "Doctor" Steve Hotze is behind the suit and Jared Woodfill is the barratry specialist of record. I guess a COVID shot ain't a Jesus shot? What's more interesting yet is that Patrick actually has apparently abandoned his "duty to die," even though he's over 70 himself; the restrictions are ONLY on the Senate side of the Capitol, but Patrick has essentially done a cross-dome callout to House Speaker Dade Phelan to tell him to get his shit together. That said, the Trib link of the previous graf DOES note that the Sidster has dropped hints about running for higher office in 2022. That leaves just Abbott or Patrick; Pee Bush's office would be a lateral move, and the idea of Sid challenging Glenn Hegar for Comptroller is mind-boggling.

Off the Kuff derides that ridiculous Abbott/McConaughey poll, which could have told us something about 2022 but failed to do so.

Will Derek Chauvin's conviction up north push forward the George Floyd Act?

Dan Solomon does another one of his fellation jobs at Texas Monthly, this one over HornsSawnOff QB Sam Ehlinger and "The Eyes of Texas," with Solomon pretending to ask a question about that.

Will the Lege officially block Strangeabbott from taking away regular state funds any time the feds offer new COVID-related money earmarked for schools? R.G. Ratcliffe looks at that and other budget issues.

Never Trumper Michael Wood hopes to make the runoff in the CD6 special election. Ain't gonna happen, but nice honest try.

Grits for Breakfast reminds us that under current Texas law, a police officer has to be fired twice before they can have their law enforcement license revoked. 

The 19th profiles Houston City Council member Abbie Kamin, the first person to serve on the Houston City Council while pregnant.

John Hryhorchuk explains what's holding up federal stimulus money for Texas public schools. 

Jef Rouner gives a legislative marijuana bill update.

The Texas Civil Rights Project documents some of the ways that the two big voter suppression bills would harm voters.

Zenen Jaimes Perez and Stephanie Gómez show why restricting voting hours makes it extremely difficult for some people to be able to vote.

Amber Briggle had to file a police report for the harassment she's received since testifying against the various anti-trans bills in the Lege.

National

For Earth Day, SocraticGadfly talked about the ecosocialist Earth Day to May Day framing by the Green Party of what a real Green New Deal entails.

Richard Trumka was elected many moons ago on the promise of a new AFL-CIO. Then why is he continuing to hassle the new new AFL-CIO at its Vermont chapter?

 

Gavin Newsom will face a recall, but unlike Grey Davis, he'll almost certainly win — in part because today's California GOP has nobody like an Arnold to lead a non-nutbar, socially somewhat libertarian, conservative opposition. 

Pro Publica, which has previously busted international tree purchasing climate change offsets as largely fake, especially in the tropics, does the same with California.

Ashli Babbitt's family is as much Babbitt grifters / Dum Fuqs as she was if they think they can win a $10 million lawsuit against the Capitol Police. (It will be great to see if white wingnuts lose this in part by being hoist on the sovereign immunity petard.) Family lawyer Terry Roberts will also have a fun time trying to prove what constitutional rights of a person committing multiple felonies at the time she was shot were being violated.

Biden continues to hate on Ill Eagles. And much of BlueMAGA continues to make themselves deliberately unaware, or else defend him in the face of knowing this. The BorderLines newsletter has more about some of the problems this causes when migrants from further south than Mexico are simply shoved back across the Mexican border.

ICE-ing Ed Gonzalez

USA Today reminds us, with Status Quo Joe nominating Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez to run ICE, that even though Gonzalez criticized Trump's immigration policies, as of 2019, he honored ICE 48-hour detainers more than any other sheriff in the USofA. Yeah, the AP says it was "in accordance with Texas law," but, you know, that was after Lina Hidalgo became county judge. Harris County could have had Gonzalez simply stop arresting fewer people for Class C misdemeanors, like the city of San Antonio, and thus avoiding the worst of the 2017 Lege's SB 4. It's true that Kenny Boy Paxton sued over that. It's also true that, as of two months ago, two and a half years after the spavined grifter filed the suit, it's still ongoing.

So, in other words, whether as formally as the city of San Antonio or not, Harris County (along with Dallas County and Travis County, and Austin, Dallas, etc.) could be doing and could have done some slow-walking vis-a-vis SB4.

That all said? That's not news to some of us in Tex-ass who know it was a partial contributor to Harris County Jail overcrowding.

But, it's not the only factor, as my Janis Joplin-fueled paean to Ed's jail overcrowding, inspired by Grits, makes clear. Among other factors is Ed's lockstep marching with anti-pergressuve Harris DA Kim Ogg on opposing everything even close to bail reform.

The Resistance and tariffs fake news

About two weeks ago, the Donut Twitter corner of The Resistance was lamenting Dress Barn going out of business, and following on the footsteps of Payless Shoes — and some were blaming Trump's tariffs on China.

This is fake news, of course. China is the leading importer of apparel to the US, but with a plurality of less than 30 percent.

It's also callous, and finally, it's blame shifting. Let's tackle all three, as they're interrelated, especially the first two.

Yes, a fair amount of imported clothes and shoes are made in China. But, in most cases, even more is made outside China, in places like Vietnam, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Honduras, Cambodia etc. Specifically, countries 2-7 combined top China. So, Trump's tariffs wars have not driven either store out of business. And, let's take women's, or men's, walking shoes. (Hold on to that order.)

Would you pay $54.99 instead of $49.99 at Payless, rather than $64.99 for American made? Many of you would.

Plus, the first Donut Twitterer I saw claimed this was a war specifically on women. Really? Last time I checked, men wore shoes, too, even if we're not overwhelmed by capitalist fashion brainwashing to buy 15 pairs. That's on you. Men also wear clothing (we hope) last I checked.

Second, all of those countries I listed have poor labor rights. (Not that Trump cares about that. He just hates free or even fair trade. Goods could be made in Canada and especially if they were old-time manufactured objects, he'd still hate them.)

But, Donut Twitter, especially those of you who are political insiders? You haven't cared about labor rights, or pollution safeguards for the 25 years since the Slickster got you to sign off on NAFTA. So, put your hands down again.

Finally, are you really buying stuff at Dress Barn? And I mean you individually.

Maybe you went to the Big Yellow A.

So, blame Jeff Bezos.

Then blame yourself.

==

Sadly, without neoliberals of the Resistance doing an ounce of introspection, Trump has given real tariff new stupidity news with his 5 percent until you stop the migration threat. That's just after he cut some Mexican, and Canadian, tariffs to try to get the Senate to pass NAFTA 2.0, aka USMCA.

Immigration: Liberals, left-liberals, leftists and Frum

It's easy to skewer David Frum, as I have done myself on foreign policy issues — a neocon deluxe who has but lightly modified that since becoming a Never Trumper as well, and thus ardently defending The Blob/Deep State.

Domestic policy? Well, even blind hogs find acorns, and while his new long read on immigration isn't all right, it's not all wrong, either.

White maladjustment to the changing face of America is not a good moral reason to reject "open borders" or anything close to it — though it may indeed be a good political reason.

Wage undercutting by illegal immigrants — who spread from replacing their legal Latinx brothers and sisters in farm work to moving into housekeeping, gardening and construction work (many Southwestern big cities, it's hard to get a new residential development built without them) IS arguably a good moral reason.

Before we go further? The Flaws of Frum, just a few.

Yes, more people ever are making $2 a day globally. But, making a 20-year-old comparison without adjusting for inflation is a huge fail. That's reason No. 1 life is NOT "all well" whether in Honduras or Haiti, Zambia or Zimbabwe, Ukraine or Uzbekistan.

Second, speaking of Honduras? And Latinx? Frum (of course) ignores how we have repeatedly destabilized most countries in Latin America. And yes, most countries. (The map is actually wrong in not coloring Honduras red as well.)

And thus, Hispanics who DON'T have a better life in front of them come north. If we were honest, Frum, we'd call these people refugees.

Third and related? Frum doesn't distinguish between legal and illegal immigration.

Fourth? Frum also ignores that many Hispanic illegal immigrants normally plan to move home eventually. But, Trump's wall makes that harder.

Fifth, Frum engages in stereotyping by pretending that the vast majority of illegal immigration is Latinx, and that they're new arrivals. Neither is true.

The shorter David Frum? Ignore American coups, less wall and more law enforcement bodies on the border, and ignore realities of immigration.

Now, per the above?

Liberals is really, anymore, just a term for left-neoliberals. They do exist, and per Michaels, one distinguishing mark is not wanting to call themselves neoliberal on the issues where they ... are neoliberal.

Left-liberals are those who admit there are at least some problems with market capitalism, especially in conjunction with a deregulatory state, but don't want to discuss just how bad the problem is, and also in the US don't want to walk outside the Democratic party.

Leftists are those who go beyond that. (And, I don't care if you claim to be a leftist; if you won't put even one toe outside the duopoly, you're a left-liberal.)

Back to immigration.

Liberals, if not favoring totally open borders, lean in general toward more open borders than the other two groups. Why? They're neoliberals at end. Open borders lets them boost both neoliberal market capitalism with cheap labor, and boost diversity by changing the demographic face a bit more. They may think this demographic change boosts Democratic electoral chances, a claim about which they should be much more circumspect. As for the jobs being an economic boost? Hell, many conservatives, while being careful with phrasing, will admit cheap labor does goose the economy, and it can be either legal or illegal. And, speaking of, liberals often are no better than Frum at distinguishing the two.

And, librul Deadspin shows this (love calling it out at times) by getting Frum's character right and his motivations at least semi-right but going semi-wrong on its call-out of his call-out of Joaquin Castro et al. Castro is not offering amnesty per se. BUT, if he were? An amnesty for all illegals IS the functional equivalent, at least, of abandoning border control, especially when the Reagan amnesty, we were told, was a once-off.

Left-liberals and leftists have less unity on the issue. (The Nation found this out a decade ago when it wrote a semi-open borders piece and got flamed by a number of readers in letters to the editor.)

Leftists will generally, as I did above, point out the US imperialism that has caused the immigration push. Left-liberals may not go that deep; leftists will also point out the capitalist tsunami behind all this more ardently. Both will also generally distinguish between legal and illegal immigration and will likely express different strategies for both. And, left-liberals and lefists, more than liberals, know that African-Americans are no more immigration friendly than whites, if that much.

For this leftist, addressing illegal immigration begins with addressing American right-wing coups.

Second, this skeptical leftist will agree with Frum on cutting, or even ending, the family reunification portion of today's immigration law and reframing the law on skills.

Related to this, leftists will reject that the US has some shortage of gray- or white-collar STEM or similar jobs that need filling via legal immigration. That's not true.

A skeptical leftist will also note that we can't solve the world's problems; we can do what we can to not make them worse. That means no more coups. And no more lying about coups.

If liberals are really left-neoliberals who don't like that name, then many neocons are, aside from Israel, a hybrid of paleocons and neoliberals in some way.

TX Progressives look at family separations

Due to a heavy load of links, thanks to Brains' version, this week, the weekly roundup of the Texas Progressive Alliance is being split into two parts. Here's part one, the latest on family separations issues. Part 2 comes tomorrow, with a look at the Texas Democratic Party convention and other issues.

Off the Kuff notes the cowardice and dishonesty displayed by Republican state leadership on the family separation scandal.

RG Ratcliffe calls out Greg Abbott's duplicity on family separations.

News Taco points to Henry Cuellar (D-Laredo) as one of Congress' largest beneficiaries of campaign cash from the GEO Group, one of the many companies profiting on child detention.  Another is Southwest Key, which plans to operate the 'baby jail' being proposed in Houston.  In  framing that would make George Orwell spin in his tomb, the company's CEO described its operation as "daycare".  One of SW Key's employees was found to have an arrest record involving child pornography.

Glenn Smith checks some facts on the Trump administration's kidnapping of immigrant children.

Carlos DeLeon tells his immigrant's story.

Bob Libal and Judy Greene call for the decriminalization of immigration.

There are severe mental health-related ramifications associated with forcibly removing young children from their parents, and that does not include instances where the children have been injected with psychotropic medications, as has happened at the facility in Manvel, TX operated by Shiloh, a company that has already received millions in federal dollars to detain migrant children.

Mayor Sylvester Turner  and several city council members have declared their opposition to SW Key's proposed operation in the Bayou City, but the Houston Press has uncovered a very cozy relationship between the City and the owner of the building who is leasing it to Southwest Key: David Denenburg of 419 Hope Partners LLC, a real estate mogul well-entrenched in H-Town's political and social circles.

Here's your blogger's take on Trump's executive order and what's likely to happen next.

Finally, there are nationwide protests against Trump's family separation policy scheduled for this Saturday, June 30.

Related, and trending on Twitter Monday? The Charles Blow column about "white extinction anxiety." From ages 0-9, the U.S. is already a majority-minority nation.

==

And, TPA bloggers and others take on other issues

Socratic Gadfly talks about why, if the unemployment rate is so low, there aren't more jobs out there.

Stephen Young at the Dallas Observer wonders what comes next after the Texas Supreme Court nullified Laredo's plastic bag ban, and thus several similar laws passed by other Texas cities.

The public hearings in association with the plans to reimagine Alamo Plaza were loud and unruly, as reported (in somewhat irritable tone) by the publisher of the Rivard Report.

Red meat allergies are on the rise due to bites from Lone Star ticks, and their range is expanding in the US, reports NPR. 

Texas Vox's Citizen Stephanie went to Washington to testify against the EPA's roll-back of the Chemical Disaster Rule.

Downwinders at Risk reports on the state's first permanent smog monitor overseen by civilians, up and running in Wise County.

Jim Schutze talks about the strange marriage of Dem-leaning teacher union types and tea partiers that has fueled the rise in charter schools.

Finally, the GOP Texas Lege largely won the gerrymander battle at the Supreme Court.

Family separations in ICE cages end; what next?

Here's the Trump executive order ending the family separations.

(Update: Trump Admin says it will NOT apply to already separated families. So, how do we know it will be applied to new cases. This is a man who wakes up with a lie teed up for Twitter.)

So now, to the "what next"?

First, beyond any current "tent cities" that will be used for whole families, read Section 3. Per subsection (c), military bases will be used next, either with tent cities, or with unused barracks. (The Pentagon has now agreed to provide space for 20,000.) If there are former military bases that have been closed but not for too too long, that might come next. (Actually, it looks like they could come first.) Per subsection (d), note that other federal agencies have already been tasked about making facilities available.

Second, the fact that those two subsections are spelled out in his executive order means that Trump has in no way capitulated in his "no tolerance" stance.

Third, this will surely violate the Flores Settlement. That's what Trump and administration mouthpieces, along with Havana Ted Cruz and other Rethug Congresscritters, have (I think, god knows??) been referring to in claiming there is a law requiring family separations.

No there's not. And Trump's EO indicates there's not. And that his administration and those mouthpieces (tho maybe not Donald himself) have known this all along.

Obama was sued over violating the Flores Settlement in 2015. And lost. And lost with good reason, in the middle of his own "no-tolerance," or near it, that earned him the title of Deporter in Chief. That's also because he grossly expanded immigration law enforcement from where Bush had it, as The Nation noted in 2016. More background here. Trump has already indicated he'll fight and invite suits. Dara Lind says that's surely deliberate; Dolly Gee, the district judge who ruled against Obama, still has control from the bench of Flores Settlement issues. Trump spox Gene Hamilton at the Department of Justice indicated the administration will try to ratchet up PR against Gee just as if she were a Member of Congress.

Fourth, note the title of the EO: "Affording Congress an Opportunity to Address Family Separation." He's already trying to punt the PR snafu back to the Hill.

Fifth, both duopoly parties have contributed to problems that have led to flight from Central America. This long and growing Twitter thread of mine has details. That's even as the National Endowment for Democracy, a bipartisan foreign policy establishment, boasts about plans to destabilize Nicaragua.

Sixth, family-based detention centers already exist and aren't quite full yet.

Seventh, a reminder to wingers. "Illegal presence" is a civil offense only. Only "illegal entry" is a criminal case, and like any other criminal case, must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. That's why immigration lawyers caution immigrants apprehended inside our borders not to talk to police without an attorney present. And, immigrants are entitled to many, though not all, Constitutional protections.

Finally, John Horgan is right. Let's not forget about all the children in the Middle East U.S. presidents of both parties have killed in the War on Terra.

==

And as of the start of July, the "what next" of Trump is to tell ICE to threaten family separations again if they try to get asylum hearings.

TX Progressives attack Trump, ICE,ConservaDems on immigration

The Texas Progressive Alliance has never needed a taint team, but it does call for firm opposition to warmongering, as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff casts a skeptical eye at a lawsuit filed against Dallas County claiming that white voters are being discriminated against.

SocraticGadfly wonders if Kawhi Leonard has already played his last game for the Spurs.

Neil at All People Have Value wrote an open letter to Democratic Party leaders about the  need for an assertive response to any effort by Trump to curtail the Robert Mueller investigation.  

Stace at Dos Centavos is (without names, so far) criticizing Democrats who even passively support Trump (and supported Obama) on immigration crackdowns, and may name names soon.

Ed Darrell at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub punctures the myth of violently criminal immigrants.

Does ICE need to be abolished? If, per Texas Monthly, it’s now no longer releasing pregnant women from detention facilities, yes.

====================

And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Down with Tyranny says Republicans are worried about Blake Farenthold’s Congressional district.

Dwight Silverman shares how you can check to see if Cambridge Analytica has your Facebook data.

Mark Bennett explains why you shouldn't argue while angry.

Better Texas Blog criticizes the latest farm bill.

Grits for Breakfast has a modest proposal for counties that complain about the cost of indigent defense.

Paradise in Hell remains our state's foremost interpreter of Donald Trump.

Juanita has a close encounter with Tom DeLay.

Downwinders at Risk wraps up disbursing the $2.3 million it got in a settlement with cement plants.

At the Dallas Observer, Stephen Young asks if Erin Brockovich is a “parachute enviromentalist” peddling poor information.

Also at the Dallas Observer, Jim Schuetze discusses early noises in the 2019 Dallas mayoral election.

Obama, #DACA and #hypocrisy shattered Dreamers

Yeah, I saw Obama call out Trump yesterday on wanting to end DACA.

But, how many of you knew that Obama deported more people than any other president? That he deported more than all 20th-century presidents combined?

Snopes tries to get Obama off the hook by saying this was in part due to a change in definition. It then undercuts itself by admitting this happened under Bush, but doesn't say exactly when, or what his stats were. This is one of those clear cases where Snopes, moving from narrow skepticism fact-checking to political analysis, fails. (Obama passed Bush by 750,000.)

And, if part of it was due to other legislative changes, Snopes, did Obama try to veto any of it? This is the man who kept the "Bush tax cuts" in place, after all.

Otherwise, quick Googling of the mainstream media shows poor data there on the main stories trying to compare Obama and Bush.

I am going to make what is, I think, a reasonable assumption, that the change in numbers of full, fingerprinted deportations vs turnarounds, and any definitional changes, started not too long after 9/11, and therefore, covered most of Shrub's presidenncy.

Therefore, at a minimum, with apples to apples for most of their presidencies, suffice it to say that Obama was at least as bad as Bush, I am very sure, and still probably worse. (If I generously say the two administrations were 80 percent apples-to-apples, Obama still deports 200,000 more.)

So why the sudden concern for DACA and the Dreamers?

Guilty conscience?

I doubt it.

Legacy?

Maybe.

He should be guilty for abandoning state and Congressional Dems in 2010. But, I'm not a Dem.

Anyway, I think that Obama created DACA by executive order precisely to let him get away with deporting more adults, at least as one part of the idea behind that.

You read that right.

Hence my header.

But why?

To appear tough on crime? But, he didn't make that part of his re-election platform.

So, ultimately, I don't know.

I just know he comes off as a hypocrite on this issue.

And, sure, he was facing the tail end of a Shrub Bush spike in illegal immigration, but it declined, modestly, under his own administration. Per that Pew link, more of them were long-term residents in the US, 10 or more years, especially from Mexico, which makes their deportation even worse.

Plus, more and more were from south of Mexico, escaping places like chronically right-wing wracked Guatemala, or the Honduras of the Obama-Clinton coup of 2009. (I originally called it a non-coup, then a semi-coup, then a coup, per Wiki.)

Ill Eaglez could build Trump wall

Mexican cement (above) could benefit from a Trumpian wall;
Mexican Ill Eaglez could wind up helping to build it — if it
ever comes to fruition.  (Susana Gonzalez/Bloomberg)

The New York Times kicks the ball down the road on possible details of President' Trump's proposed Mexican wall.

One thing of note is that a US subsidiary of Mexican concrete giant Cemex could win bids for construction material. But, would the Mexican government force divestment?

The second, even more interesting fact, of little surprise to us in Tejas, is that illegal immigrants could be among those building the wall.

“If this wall gets built in Texas, there is a high likelihood that a significant bit of the work force will be undocumented,” said Jose P. Garza, the executive director of the Workers Defense Project, which supports low-income workers.

Ill Eaglez do more than harvest crops here in Texas. They do, especially in Texas' major cities, the bulk of residential new construction, especially carpentry, roofing, and cement foundation pouring. So, they're experienced.

Of course, this leads to several interesting spinoffs which, if broached publicly and followed up on by The Great Bloviator, could monkey-wrench that #fuckingwall, as former Mexican prez Vicente Fox calls it.

First is, what if somebody suggests that these Ill Eaglez could, as a "fifth column," actually build hidden tunnels beneath, secret doors into, or other ways around, the wall? Mr. Fox, I believe your Twitter account is calling.

Related, what if, say, the Zetas, actually get a few coyotes to remain, or else bribe or blackmail some of the coyotes' pollos, to do something similar for drug smuggling routes? With them being sly as needed, but suitably armed as needed?

OK, so The Donald says only verified American citizens can build the wall.

With Texas already at 90 percent of cement capacity, and lets say at 95 percent of cheap manual labor capacity, this would drive construction costs through the roof. That would mean that Texans would pay even more than the $120 a year that Trump's one idea, a 20 percent tariff on Mexican imports, would cost across the country.

So, Trump Train, how big of a crowbar do you want to stick in your collective wallets? And do NOT say "Mexico will pay."