Biden's Border Wall Betrayal - The Friday AM Quickie 10/6/23
Have a nice weekend, folks! I'll be back Monday. - Corey
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THE BIG NEWS
Biden's Principled Stand on Building Border Wall: It's The Wrong Thing to Do But I'm Doing It Anyway
Let's start with some context, shall we? The presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, is now more or less directly quoting Adolf Hitler on the subject of immigrants, as the New York Times reports. In a recent interview with a far-right website affiliated with his advisor, Steve Bannon, Trump said immigrants were "poisoning the blood of our country." Noting that "Trump has long had a Hitler fascination," the Times cites several passages from "Mein Kampf" that use almost those exact words. Unsurprising, perhaps, but still worthy of note.
What could be more concerning than the leader of a major American political party going full Nazi? The leader of the only other major political party deciding to meet the Nazis halfway. Per the Associated Press:
President Joe Biden on Thursday defended his administration's decision to waive 26 federal laws in South Texas to allow for construction of roughly 20 miles of additional border wall, saying he had no choice but to use the Trump-era funding for the barrier to stop illegal migration from Mexico.
Asked if he thought such walls work, he said flatly, 'No.' ...
"The money was appropriated for the border wall," Biden said. "I can't stop that."
I'll grant that it's possible Biden may actually believe he has no choice but to keep building Trump's insane, pointless, destructive wall because a previous Congress approved funding for it. But if that's the case, it raises the question of why, instead of waiving 26 federal laws to permit the wall's construction, he isn't citing those same laws to explain why construction must be stopped? NBC News suggests that Biden is demonstrating some action on border control to satisfy Democratic governors and mayors who've pleaded for help with "migrant influxes." But as the Texas Tribune reports, Democrats in that state are now mad at Biden for dismissing environmental and human rights concerns to pursue "a 14th century solution to a 21st century problem."
The administration's decision to resume deporation flights to Venezuela, as though that will "deter migration," also suggests Biden has electoral, as opposed to legalistic, concerns at the top of his mind. If Biden thinks feeding in to the GOP's xenophobic frenzy is going to help him win reelection, he may have miscalculated. "What happened with Biden's word during his campaign?" asks one South Texas landowner, worried that the wall's construction will disrupt her life and cause her house to sink. Voters remember such betrayals. Worse still, Biden's border wall reversal now makes it seem like Trump had the right idea all along -- and if there's any true poison in American bloodstream, it's the idea that certain people don't belong because of what they look like or where they were born.
MORE STORIES TO WATCH
Trumpdates: One Way to Impress a Golf Buddy
- Trump Spilled Nuclear Secrets to Australian Billionaire Federal prosecutors have learned Trump told cardboard box tycoon and Mar-a-Lago member Anthony Pratt "two pieces of information about U.S. submarines: the supposed exact number of nuclear warheads they routinely carry, and exactly how close they supposedly can get to a Russian submarine without being detected"; Pratt "within minutes" began sharing the information with "scores of others," including foreign officials and journalists. via ABC News.
- Wanna Dictator Watch: Lawyers Argue Trump Is 'Absolutely Immune' from Jan. 6 Prosecution In a Washington, DC, federal court filing, defense lawyers Todd Blanche and John Lauro argue that Trump's 2021 coup attempt was "within the heartland" of his official duties. via HuffPost.
- Speaker Trump? Some House Republicans Are Taking It Seriously Trump may terrorize the Capitol again next week before House Speaker elections open, claiming he's "been asked to speak as a unifier" and could take on the role if another candidate fails to secure enough votes. via the Associated Press.
- Rudy Giuliani's Unpaid Taxes Total $549,435.26, IRS Says Federal tax authorities have placed a lien on the tipsy Trump adviser's lakeside condo in Palm Beach. via NBC News.
More Proof Electing Republicans Will Kill You
The Washington Post has an in-depth report about how decades of Republican rule has resulted in markedly lower life expectancies in red states. Research draws a straight line between rising death rates among younger people and policies like cigarette taxes, public health investments and seat-belt regulations.
Today, people in the South and Midwest, regions largely controlled by Republican state legislators, have increasingly higher chances of dying prematurely compared with those in the more Democratic Northeast and West...
Ohio sticks out — for all the wrong reasons. Roughly 1 in 5 Ohioans will die before they turn 65, according to [a Syracuse University] analysis using the state's 2019 death rates. The state, whose legislature has been increasingly dominated by Republicans, has plummeted nationally when it comes to life expectancy rates, moving from middle of the pack to the bottom fifth of states during the last 50 years, The Post found. Ohioans have a similar life expectancy to residents of Slovakia and Ecuador, relatively poor countries.
Ohio state Rep. Bill Seitz, a Republican leader who had a kidney removed due to cancer after smoking for 50 years, tells the Post the experience did nothing to change his mind about policies like cigarette taxes. "I'm not going to turn into a smoke Nazi just because I used to smoke and I don't anymore," he says. That smell? Freedom.
QUICKEST QUICKIES
- Shirtless Man With Handgun Shows Up for Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, Bails Out of Jail, Returns to Capitol With Assault Rifle Police cited 43-year-old Joshua Pleasnick, who said he wanted to discuss "domestic abuse towards men" with the Democratic Gov., for unlawfully carrying a collapsible police baton in his backpack, but not for the loaded "AK-47-style" rifle he was toting, because the latter is legal on state capitol grounds. via the New York Times and the Associated Press.
- Joe Biden Makes Plans to Meet Xi Jinping in San Francisco Next Month The yet-to-be confirmed face-to-face meeting represents "an attempt to stabilize the relationship between the world's two most powerful countries." via the Washington Post.
- Cornel West Already Fed Up with Green Party Politics "The campaign declined to elaborate further on the decision to leave beyond wanting to be more focused on voters than intraparty dynamics," such as the Green Party's internal presidential nominating process. via Politico and the Post.
- Judges Sign Off on New, Less Racist Alabama Voting Map "The new map sets the stage for potentially flipping one U.S. House of Representatives seat from Republican to Democratic control and could lead to the election of two Black Congressional representatives to the state's delegation for the first time." via the AP.
SOME NUMBER
43 million
That's how many children were displaced by extreme weather, mostly floods and storms, between 2016 and 2021, according to a new UNICEF report. The agency estimates that another 113 million children will be displaced in the next three decades "as the impacts of climate change continue to intensify."
ON THE SHOW TODAY
10/6: It's Casual Friday! Sam and Emma speak with Alex Pareene, contributing editor at The New Republic and co-host of the Politics of Everything podcast, to round up the week in news. Then, they're joined by David Feldman of The David Feldman Show!
DON'T MISS MR CLIPS
Republican Eager to 'Put Kids in Cages' if Trump Reelected
Talk about scum!
Elon Musk Followed Right-Wing Nutjob's Plan to Destroy Twitter
The SEC is now suing the obnoxisou billionaire for blowing off a subpoena, but that's just another headline you won't see on X.
PARTING WORDS
"This man, with his lies and manipulations, has ruined many a life."
-- Ray Perini, a lawyer for Nancy Marks, speaking of Marks' former employer, the fabulist and formerly fabulous New York Republican Rep. George Santos. Marks was "a well-respected campaign treasurer and political operative" for Long Island Republicans before being "mentally seduced" by Santos and joining his campaign as bookkeeper. Yesterday she pleaded guilty to wire fraud, identity theft, and lying about campaign finances to benefit Santos; she is likely to testify against him in the future.
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