Greg Orders Texas National Guard To Seize Park in Eagle Pass, Bars Border Patrol/CBP

['stache 21743]

15 hours ago, pacman said:

 

 

 

2 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Narrator: They all are.   They are easy to fool and tough to convince that they’ve been fooled.

I'm sure she's already gotten the call.

"Mrs. Magastan, we saw your video and totally agree. The people you are following are not the real convoy but RINO grifters. If you wire us $2,500 dollars, we will be happy to direct you to the real Patriots Convey, in the name of our lord and savior Donald Trump. Payment instructions are below. If your payment clears you can proudly call yourself a real Murican!"

[Pods 7522]

Long CSB Alert-

I had a relative who was in senior leadership with the Customs and Border Patrol in Eagle Pass in the 90's. 

One day, when his boss was off, my relative was in charge of the crossing. One of the trucks trying to cross was ordered to pull off for a thorough secondary inspection. He was walking over to check it out when he saw the agents at the secondary inspection area talk to the driver, then wave the truck through without an inspection.

My relative ordered other agents to stop the truck and then gave it a full inspection. 

Spoiler alert, they found a shitload of drugs. 

In the process of investigating, he discovered an extensive bribery scheme that implicated at least 3 agents. 

My relative, being honest and too trusting, immediately went and reported it to his boss, as well as local law enforcement/DA's office. Unfortunately for my relative, the corruption was pervasive and went WAY above his head. 

There was a token investigation, but some of the evidence disappeared and other evidence was "accidentally" tainted. With the key evidence missing, or tainted, the investigation was dropped without looking into anyone else's involvement.

My relative had been with CBP over a decade and had a spotless record to that point, but he suddenly received several bullshit retaliatory allegations in the next few weeks, and was forced out of CBP. 

He also received multiple, extremely graphic and credible threats against his wife and kids unless he immediately left town, both from the cartel and his fellow agents (he recognized one of the voices). Stuff like how they would be tortured, killed and then buried in the desert where they'd never be found. 

He finally figured out the whole place was corrupt AF, decided not to push his luck, and moved very far away from the US/Mexico border with a quickness. 

[crash_davis 23078]

MAGAt are the stupidest people on flat Earth. 

[Brisketexan 104461]

13 minutes ago, Pods said:

Long CSB Alert-

I had a relative who was in senior leadership with the Customs and Border Patrol in Eagle Pass in the 90's. 

One day, when his boss was off, my relative was in charge of the crossing. One of the trucks trying to cross was ordered to pull off for a thorough secondary inspection. He was walking over to check it out when he saw the agents at the secondary inspection area talk to the driver, then wave the truck through without an inspection.

My relative ordered other agents to stop the truck and then gave it a full inspection. 

Spoiler alert, they found a shitload of drugs. 

In the process of investigating, he discovered an extensive bribery scheme that implicated at least 3 agents. 

My relative, being honest and too trusting, immediately went and reported it to his boss, as well as local law enforcement/DA's office. Unfortunately for my relative, the corruption was pervasive and went WAY above his head. 

There was a token investigation, but some of the evidence disappeared and other evidence was "accidentally" tainted. With the key evidence missing, or tainted, the investigation was dropped without looking into anyone else's involvement.

My relative had been with CBP over a decade and had a spotless record to that point, but he suddenly received several bullshit retaliatory allegations in the next few weeks, and was forced out of CBP. 

He also received multiple, extremely graphic and credible threats against his wife and kids unless he immediately left town, both from the cartel and his fellow agents (he recognized one of the voices). Stuff like how they would be tortured, killed and then buried in the desert where they'd never be found. 

He finally figured out the whole place was corrupt AF, decided not to push his luck, and moved very far away from the US/Mexico border with a quickness. 

 My cousin, a local who joined the BP down there 30 years ago or so, has a similar story.  He made the mistake of being honest and above-board, and reporting shenanigans that he observed.  That move got him drummed out of the CBP on multiple grounds, a process that was worked in parallel with threats, slashed tires, and whatnot.  And yeah, he left the community posthaste.

Listen to YGIFS on this subject.  He knows of what he speaks.  Abbott sending Texas law enforcement down to interdict cartel activity is functionally this scene:

Edited February 5 by Brisketexan

[RDCanecutter 26238]

Well shit. Turns out I was in Quemado years ago going from Del Rio to Eagle Pass. Stopped long enough at the BP checkpoint to prove I wasn't Russian. Remember it looked like an oasis compared to the wasteland I'd been driving through. Wonder if that checkpoint is still there.

[atomheartbevo 89362]

 

 

[David Dennison 18603]

 

[atomheartbevo 89362]

 

 

[atomheartbevo 89362]

Also, MAGA is apparently going after Cornyn now because he supports the hill or something.  Glad to see the Republican civil war brewing.

[Biff Tannen 45476]

8 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

Hopefully they all kill one another ..

 

[TexasHooch 5117]

32 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

 

 

I may have already posted this somewhere. Nancy's down to Santos' ex-staffers now.  No one else wants to work for her.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/a-major-sign-of-trouble-in-nancy-maces-office-total-staff-turnover?ref=home?ref=home

A Major Sign of Trouble in Nancy Mace’s Office: Total Staff Turnover

Quote

 

Add another ignoble credential to Rep. Nancy Mace’s résumé.

As of Monday, according to three sources familiar with the matter, Mace’s entire D.C. staff has turned over since Nov. 1, 2023.

That’s nine staffers in the span of a few short months—with all but one of those employees leaving on their own accord.

The lone exception to those eight staffers who left Mace’s office on their own accord is now-former chief of staff Dan Hanlon, who was fired on Dec. 1. Hanlon has subsequently filed to run against Mace in her South Carolina district.

As for the rest of her former staff, they all quit. That includes her deputy chief of staff Richard Chalkey, her legislative director Randal Meyer, communications director Will Hampson, a financial adviser, a staff assistant, two legislative assistants, and her military legislative assistant. And from what the departed staffers told The Daily Beast, there was good reason to leave.

Former Mace employees described a “toxic” work environment.

But in response to questions about the dramatic turnover, Mace’s new chief of staff, Lori Khatod, presented the complete turnover as a “non-issue.”

“New coach, new team in the DC office,” Khatod said in a text message.

Former staffers who spoke with The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity, however, told a very different story.

“The member was abusive,” one former senior staffer told The Daily Beast, specifically pointing to the frequency with which Mace would communicate with her staff, either over text, Signal, or Monday.com—an unauthorized software system Mace uses in her office.

This former staffer said Mace uses the software to “micromanage the office all day and into the night and early morning.”

“It was constant,” this person said.

Another senior staffer recalled how Mace called them close to midnight on Christmas Eve and demanded to know why she wasn’t getting on TV more during the holiday week.

“If she needed us, we had to answer within eight minutes,” this staffer said, clarifying that the eight minute timeframe was actually a “rule.”

“Nancy is delusional as a boss,” the former staffer continued. “She says nothing publicly without her consultants or senior staffers telling her to, but takes credit for everything. She’s a walking teleprompter.”

The former staffer added that Mace “has no idea what it actually means to be a member of Congress and is too scared and self-conscious to deal with other people, so she accomplished nothing.”

“All this is why pretty much every staffer and fellow member on the Hill thinks she’s a joke,” this ex-employee said. “Also a big reason why she’s only able to hire former George Santos staffers right now.”

(Mace recently hired Santos’ former communications director to serve her office in that role.)

More broadly, these staffers described Mace’s office as grueling and thankless. She created a “demoralizing environment for staff,” as one of her other former senior employees put it.

Multiple former employees specifically complained about Mace’s propensity to ensure everyone was working all the time. Even on Good Friday, when some staff just wanted to take an hour off to go to Mass in the late afternoon, Mace wouldn’t have it, two former senior staffers said. (The House was adjourned at the time.)

“For Mace it was all about control,” one of the previously mentioned former staffers said. “She didn’t see the staff as people but as property.”

A more recent demoralizing incident was when the new chief of staff, Khatod, tried to send the D.C. employees home early one day in early December. For the staff that hung back, they were treated to a bizarre show.

It turns out that Khatod had called the Capitol Police on Hanlon, who had been fired just days before. Politico, which first wrote on the incident, reported that Hanlon had been in the office earlier to return his keys, but it wasn’t clear to these staffers who talked to The Daily Beast whether Hanlon was actually on Capitol Hill at the time of the call.

When Khatod came back to the office and realized not all the staff had left as she instructed, she didn’t hide her displeasure, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Staffers had no idea why Khatod had called Capitol Police on Hanlon—it could have been over Hanlon taking an office popcorn machine on his way out—but many former employees were disturbed by the incident.

“At that moment, I felt the most unsafe I ever had on the Hill, when I realized she was using the Capitol Police to intimidate staff,” one witness to the event told The Daily Beast.

The incident quickly spread within the office and left many other staffers feeling rattled and uncomfortable, two sources said. It was that moment which cemented in some of their minds that they were going to quit.

Mace’s office would not delve into specifics about the Capitol Police incident or the intense work demands.

“Like most offices, we do not discuss internal processes,” Khatod said in a statement in response to these specific allegations. “We adhere and accommodate employees whose sincerely held religious beliefs, practices or observances conflict with regular work requirements.”

This, of course, isn’t the first time Mace has faced criticism from ex-employees. One of her former staffers, who previously served as her communications director, has been on a crusade to detail Mace’s self-serving ways. And one woman who ran into Mace in the airport recently reportedly overheard her screaming at a staff member, telling this person to clean up press reports that her office was “toxic.”

While Mace’s new office can dispute her former staff’s characterizations of the work culture, what the congresswoman can’t dispute is the numbers.

Professor Casey Burgat, the legislative affairs program director at George Washington University, told The Daily Beast that “disproportionately high turnover signals that staff are incredibly unhappy.”

“It's a ridiculously high number, just out of the ordinary,” said Burgat, who has studied congressional staff turnover patterns and has testified before Congress on some of his findings. “I would be shocked if you found any other Representative or senator with even close to that high of a turnover in such a short amount of time.”

A Mace staff handbook previously obtained by The Daily Beast detailed how her staff was required to book her on a national TV outlet between one and three times per day, and how each staffer had to come up with draft tweets for the congresswoman.

According to the handbook, Mace also held her staff to the standard of passing 10 bills on the House floor every year—which would be an incredible clip for a backbench member—and filing 25 new bills.

During her three years in office, Mace has had one bill signed into law: a measure renaming a post office on Hilton Head Island.

 

 

Edited February 6 by TexasHooch

[Js1 85055]

6 minutes ago, TexasHooch said:

I may have already posted this somewhere. Nancy's down to Santos' ex-staffers now.  No one else wants to work for her.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/a-major-sign-of-trouble-in-nancy-maces-office-total-staff-turnover?ref=home?ref=home

A Major Sign of Trouble in Nancy Mace’s Office: Total Staff Turnover

 

She fucking sucks donkey dick but GOP will scream about how bad a boss SJL is. 

Edited February 6 by Js1

[Js1 85055]

43 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

 

Jeffries and the Dems are a fat no on this standalone bill. If they want to/plan to pass it under suspension of the rules, they need 2/3 of the House. It will fail. 

[TexasHooch 5117]

Well, I suppose if anyone knows how to spot shenanigans...

[Pato del Muerto 52320]

Nice veneers

[David Dennison 18603]

 

[tx 3 putt 76158]

[Fudge Nuggets 19118]

On 2/5/2024 at 10:15 AM, C-Man said:

Yep. My great grandmother was born and lived in Eagle Pass her entire life until she moved into a nursing home in SA. Taught public school for her entire life. My great aunt (or might've been a cousin technically), who passed away a few years ago, ran the pecan farm/business for decades and also taught school (I think). Her kids own the land now but I think they've shuttered the pecan business as the trees were dying and needed to be replaced and I don't think it was a profitable to keep running as it once was. My great aunt would go back-and-forth all the time. Then she cut it back to going only during daylight hours to not going at all due to the cartel activity in the area.

csb.

Well, not really.

[Horn Under a Bad Sign 20341]

I'm old enough to remember when Trump was happy to hire undocumented workers, even when he was in the White House:

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/08/trump-organization-undocumented-workers

 

[HenryJames 65868]

https://www.texasobserver.org/gothams-greg-abbott-private-jet-eagle-pass/

Quote

Early Sunday morning, a private plane owned by Gothams LLC flew from Austin-Bergstrom Airport to Nashville—where Tennessee Governor Bill Lee resides—and then flew down to Maverick County’s airport, touching down just before noon, according to the flight tracking website Flightaware. Governor Lee was among the attendees of Abbott’s Eagle Pass border event, which included a state police briefing and a press conference that began shortly before 3 p.m. 

Gothams has received tens of millions of taxpayer dollars via Operation Lone Star contracts. Gothams CEO Matthew Michelsen has also become a major donor to the Texas governor. 

Kind of gives the game away.

[tx 3 putt 76158]

 

[atomheartbevo 89362]

1 hour ago, HenryJames said:

https://www.texasobserver.org/gothams-greg-abbott-private-jet-eagle-pass/

Kind of gives the game away.

The elevation of the MAGA types into an influential movement has led to so much grift.  @YGIFS and I and others have talked about what broke Abbott in the past 5 years or so and made him into such an raging asshole, but maybe it is as simple as him just hopping on the gravy train and he’s got to keep the hype going to keep the money flowing.

[SimonBolivar 10897]

There's too much economy, shut it down!

 

For First Time in Two Decades, U.S. Buys More From Mexico Than China - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

[RDCanecutter 26238]

19 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

 

It's shit like this that keeps the rest of us from just walking across to see the Donkey Show.

[Brisketexan 104461]

2 minutes ago, RDCanecutter said:

It's shit like this that keeps the rest of us from just walking across to see the Donkey Show.

Donkey Show?  You mean Marjorie Taylor Greene is down there too?

[Goredho 17301]

19 hours ago, longhornmatt said:

“Hey, are you a narc?  It seems like you are faking your excitement when we talk about sniping defenseless people at the border.”

”What?  No way, brother.  I will even buy some of your weapons to prove my commitment.  No, no.  Not that one.  Or that one.  That’s still not … look, do you have any illegal suppressors?”

I read that in Randy "Macho Man" Savage's voice.

[RDCanecutter 26238]

Anybody at UT in the late-90s remember a small pick-up truck that would be parked between the Co-op and the original 6-pack that was covered in sniper stickers and assorted tough guy shit?

Wonder where that dude is now. But don't run-- you'll only die tired.

[speed817 19065]

[Horn Under a Bad Sign 20341]

James Lankford is impressive. I have to say that not all things coming from Oklahoma suck.
 

 

 

[wildcat09 29187]

Fuck that, he's a Republican and a Sooner. 

[Brisketexan 104461]

18 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

Fuck that, he's a Republican and a Sooner. 

That's how far the GQP has fallen.  A Sooner Republican can be the voice of greatest honor and integrity among them.  That....is a low, low, low point.

[Js1 85055]

5 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

That's how far the GQP has fallen.  A Sooner Republican can be the voice of greatest honor and integrity among them.  That....is a low, low, low point.

UT alum as well

['stache 21743]

1 hour ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

James Lankford is impressive. I have to say that not all things coming from Oklahoma suck.
 

 

 

 

48 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

That's how far the GQP has fallen.  A Sooner Republican can be the voice of greatest honor and integrity among them.  That....is a low, low, low point.

This, he's a piece of shit in general, and yet one of the more "reasonable" republicans in office today. I was in a conversation about him recently and we all just had to agree that he's at least better than a plumber who threatens to fight mob bosses in the middle of important hearings. Thats our other senator. What a fucking country we've created for ourselves.

[Thrawn 538]

I can attest to Lankford being a fucking tool. The funny part is that the idiots in this state have gotten to the point where they hate Lankford, and  prefer the idiot plumber.  Even though Lankford is a tool, he is so much smarter than Mullin. This current simulation is just nuts. 

[High Plains Drifter 10970]

On 1/28/2024 at 2:38 PM, Azbadlands said:

More chance than anyone on here that probably hasn't even been near the really bad parts of the border, and think every story is sensationalized for political reasons, or just numb to the stories so don't give a shit..

If you're from AZ, have you ever volunteered to go down to the border with groups that help distressed immigrants in the desert?  Or groups that clean up the trash down there or find and bury the bodies?  Or do you just sit on your ass watching Juan mow your lawn In Gilbert, or Scottsdale?

 

Doing this would get you arrested. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/10/us/texas-border-good-samaritan.html

 

Spoiler

Teresa L. Todd pulled over one recent night on a dark West Texas highway to help three young Central American migrants who had flagged her down. Ms. Todd — an elected official, government lawyer and single mother in a desert border region near Big Bend National Park — said she went into “total mom mode” when she saw the three siblings, one of whom appeared to be very ill.

Struggling to communicate using her broken Spanish, Ms. Todd told the three young people to get out of the cold and into her car. She was phoning and texting friends for help when a sheriff’s deputy drove up, followed soon by the Border Patrol. “They asked me to step behind my car, and the supervisor came and started Mirandizing me,” said Ms. Todd, referring to being read her Miranda rights. “And then he says that I could be found guilty of transporting illegal aliens, and I’m, like, ‘What are you talking about?”

Ms. Todd spent 45 minutes in a holding cell that night. Federal agents obtained a search warrant to examine her phone, and she became the focus of an investigation that could lead to federal criminal charges.

 

note to the NYT: McAllen is nowhere near Big Bend. 

 

Charges were eventually dropped, but the BP made their point: Cruelty. 

 

 

[SimonBolivar 10897]

13 minutes ago, Thrawn said:

  Even though Lankford is a tool, he is so much smarter than Mullin. 

That's probably why they like Mullin more.

[High Plains Drifter 10970]

On 2/6/2024 at 3:12 PM, tx 3 putt said:

 

 

 

This guy has an "arsenal" of explosives, ARs, and a sniper rifle, but he gets arrested for selling a suppressor. 

 

 

[tx 3 putt 76158]

13 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

 

This guy has an "arsenal" of explosives, ARs, and a sniper rifle, but he gets arrested for selling a suppressor. 

 

 

probably found after the arrest 

[hobbes2702 12771]

2 hours ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

James Lankford is impressive. I have to say that not all things coming from Oklahoma suck.
 

 

 

James Lankford fucking sucks.

[RomaVicta 29756]

35 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

 

This guy has an "arsenal" of explosives, ARs, and a sniper rifle, but he gets arrested for selling a suppressor. 

 

 

I think we can assume that he's so heavily armed because he is concerned about school children and wants to ready to rescue them from psycho fucks armed to the teeth.

Big difference.

[Satchel 6908]

36 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

 

This guy has an "arsenal" of explosives, ARs, and a sniper rifle, but he gets arrested for selling a suppressor. 

 

 

We don’t need more gun laws. Just enforce the ones we have and focus on passing more and more laws that restrict women’s health.

[David Dennison 18603]

2 minutes ago, Satchel said:

We don’t need more gun laws. Just enforce the ones we have and focus on passing more and more laws that restrict women’s health.

We NEED to repeal the Second Amendment, but that's a whole other thing.

[Ghost of LL 15348]

2 hours ago, wildcat09 said:

Fuck that, he's a Republican and a Sooner. 

Edited February 7 by Ghost of LL

['stache 21743]

10 minutes ago, Ghost of LL said:

If I didn't already know he was a UT grad, my guess would have been Oral Roberts.

[TeeDubya 3358]

2 hours ago, 'stache said:

 

This, he's a piece of shit in general, and yet one of the more "reasonable" republicans in office today. I was in a conversation about him recently and we all just had to agree that he's at least better than a plumber who threatens to fight mob bosses in the middle of important hearings. Thats our other senator. What a fucking country we've created for ourselves.

Sadly true.

[Heisenberg 162]

4 hours ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

James Lankford is impressive. 

Wake the fuck up.  Look at everything else Lankford ever said or did.  One for-show-only “right” (knowing it would result in nothing happening) doesn’t make up for a lifetime of being a piece of shit MAGA fuck.

[gmr548 16463]

13 minutes ago, Heisenberg said:

Wake the fuck up.  Look at everything else Lankford ever said or did.  One for-show-only “right” (knowing it would result in nothing happening) doesn’t make up for a lifetime of being a piece of shit MAGA fuck.

It's the same shit with Cornyn. People think he's half decent because the point of reference is Cruz, but he is a piece of shit too.

[Judge Roybeanbag 11796]

The whole GQP is a minefield of dog turds, we are forced to run through barefoot.  Some are on fire and obvious, others are buried amongst the weeds and you are inevitably going to step in one. 

[South Austin 52037]

27 minutes ago, gmr548 said:

It's the same shit with Cornyn. People think he's half decent because the point of reference is Cruz, but he is a piece of shit too.

Still, I’d eat a Cornyn-baked brisket every Christmas for the rest of my life if it meant that Canadian son-of-Kennedy-assassin blowhard doughboy piece-of-shit would never hold public office again.

[tx 3 putt 76158]