Abbott Is Using Cars For A Border Wall And It Looks Pretty Stupid

(Texas Department of Public Safety)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things.

Working At The Car Wall

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has engineered a “steel wall” of Texas Department of Public Safety vehicles at the Del Rio area of the southern border, which has seen a major influx of Haitian migrants in recent days.

  • Abbott calls his barrier a “steel wall,” and it looks like……this:

  • Abbott bragged about the “wall” on Fox News earlier this week, claiming that “we effectively regained control of the border.”

(Sorry, it’s just way too easy to picture migrants casually strolling between those cars in the middle while the agents inside struggle to open their doors.)

The House Jan. 6 Select Committee Is Still Digging

Seven executive agencies have handed over records the committee requested in its massive sweep for Trump-era documents to get to the bottom of the Capitol attack, according to Politico.

  • The committee will reveal its subpoena targets this week, according to committee chair ​​Bennie Thompson (D-MS).
  • Thompson aims to wrap up the investigation this spring, he told Politico.

Proto-Trump Is Officially Gunning For His Old Job

The infamous former Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) announced yesterday that he is running to get his seat back.

  • Sen. Susan Collins (R) endorsed LePage, claiming that he was the “best candidate to grow our economy.”
  • LePage had already filed his campaign back in July. I wrote about that with a short recap of some of his worst hits here.
  • Calling LePage a proto-Trump isn’t a lazy comparison between two racist shit-stirrers; this is how the ex-governor reacted to an election result he didn’t like (and how you can certainly expect him to react if he loses):

Your Kids Are Learning About MLK Being Mean To Whites And That Is A Problem For Me

A local group of Tennessee moms is on a warpath to scrub out any educational material that it deems to be “critical race theory” via a detailed list of complaints to the state’s department of education.

  • One of those materials includes “Martin Luther King Jr. and the March on Washington”
  • Go ahead and take a guess as to whether the leader’s kid actually goes to public school.

Bipartisan Talks Over Police Reform Collapse

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) and Sen. Tim Scott’s (R-SC) six-month effort to reform laws on policing is dead.

  • Biden blamed Republicans for the failure, saying that they “rejected enacting modest reforms, which even the previous president had supported, while refusing to take action on key issues that many in law enforcement were willing to address.”

Trump v. Bush: The Cheney Round

The 43rd president will be holding a campaign fundraiser for Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) next month, according to the Wall Street Journal and CNN.

  • It’ll be Bush’s first campaign event of the 2022 midterms. The event will reportedly be held in Dallas on Oct. 18.
  • Trump has endorsed one of Cheney’s primary challengers, Harriet Hageman, as part of his revenge mission against the Republicans who voted to impeach him for fomenting the Capitol insurrection.
  • Bush has (sort of) criticized Trump without actually calling him out by name, while the latter fully mocked Bush’s “failed and uninspiring presidency” (even though Trump should probably thank Bush’s incompetence for giving rise to his own future presidency).

How To Do A Science

Dennis Prager, a conservative commentator behind the “Prager University” videos, offered this solution to climate change while ranting about women who choose not to have kids:

The Smoothest Of Brains

Lt. Col. Paul Douglas Hague, an Army officer who says he’s quitting over the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, admits he’s gotten all the other vaccines the military requires, but he insists the COVID-19 shot is BAD because freedom and eagles.

  • Hague told Fox News host Sean Hannity that his stunt is “really not about whether I’ll get the shot,” it’s about “the freedom of the American people.” It’s about “The right to decide what’s gonna be injected into your body and what’s not,” said Hague.

Do you like Morning Memo? Let us know!

Latest Morning Memo

Notable Replies

  1. I saw that on TV earlier and thought palmface.

    Maybe they didn’t have enough horses and riders?

  2. Avatar for dont dont says:

    Smuggling weapons into Texas? Is there a coal into Newcastle analogy here?

    • Abbott calls his barrier a “steel wall,” and it looks like……this:

    “Our #bordercrisis goes beyond the RGV and South TX communities — the smuggling of drugs, people, and weapons reaches far and wide, and it affects all of us. I will continue to work tirelessly to secure our border and protect the people of Texas." — @GregAbbott_TX pic.twitter.com/2kMkse29l2

    — Texas DPS (@TxDPS) September 18, 2021

    Sheesh, do it correctly or don’t do it at all.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

326 more replies

Participants

Avatar for playitagainrowlf Avatar for josephebacon Avatar for mattinpa Avatar for steviedee111 Avatar for chelsea530 Avatar for psudawnc Avatar for tacoma Avatar for ralph_vonholst Avatar for lastroth Avatar for stradivarius50t3 Avatar for left_in_washington_state Avatar for darrtown Avatar for jinnj Avatar for jonney_5 Avatar for southerndem Avatar for 21zna9 Avatar for castor_troy Avatar for coimmigrant Avatar for kelaine Avatar for zenicetus Avatar for LeeHarveyGriswold Avatar for Scoutmom Avatar for geographyjones Avatar for john_adams

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: