Abbott To Feds: GTFO
Did he Really Say That? Is it Real? What's Going On?
Good morning, friends,
What a wild way to end the week. Ordinarily we try not to publish on Fridays, since that’s when most folks aren’t paying attention to the news, historically— distracted by weekend preps, their daily lives, etc.
But current events compel.
Here’s what we’re looking at this morning:
Governor Abbott, Thursday, notified the City of Eagle Pass, the Federal Government and Border Patrol, that DPS and the Texas State Guard are seizing control of Shelby Park. Shelby Park is that area along the river under the ports of entry where most of the migrants crossing into Eagle Pass are kept milling about while waiting for Border Patrol to process them. With the seizure, DPS is declaring the area off-limits to the public, to migrants and illegal aliens, and most importantly any federal agents like Border Patrol.
2. DPS Helicopter Crash in Kinney County
3. Republican Challenger in TX28 (Henry Cuellar’s district)
Let’s start with Eagle Pass— there’s a lot of nifty pictures and video of corn-fed Texas men and women carrying rifles and doing their thing as they secure Shelby Park, but does it really matter? Here’s the Texas Tribune’s take on the thing:
In a video posted on Facebook, (Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando) Salinas said he received a call from DPS officials on Wednesday to let him know that Gov. Greg Abbott had signed an emergency declaration and that officers would take “full control” of 47-acre Shelby Park indefinitely.
“That is not a decision that we agreed to. This is not something that we wanted. This is not something that we asked for as a city,” Salinas said in the video.
—Reporter Uriel Garcia, The Texas Tribune
It should be noted that Eagle Pass is still a fairly “blue” city. And it’s fairly safe to assume that Mayor Salinas is trying to placate any constituents that might be upset. Even so, one wonders if his words might not also be addressed to certain interests on the other side of the river that might also be upset.
In any event, the answer to the larger question about whether or not this move actually matters is dependent of course mostly on who’s asking.
A lot of folks out there are quick to say that the shutdown of Shelby Park won’t do a thing to actually stem any traffic— that any migrants will simply march a few miles north or south and cross elsewhere.
Indeed, that is already happening, as pictures and video from the unincorporated community of Normandy can attest.
Normandy’s in the same County as Eagle Pass and sits 16 miles northwest of the city.
It has about 60 residents.
It seems to us, that this move at Shelby Park, at its core, is not about the migrants. This is about the Federal Government. It’s about forcing some kind of a showdown in front of the Supreme Court. The fact that it’ll keep Border Patrol Agents from cutting any more of the concertina wire in Shelby Park is just an added bonus.
Open borders activists are already trying to sputter about how migrant crossings in Eagle Pass are already down from previous weeks’ highs, so why this and why now?
Well, if you consider that it isn’t actually about any specific crossings or crossing points, you realize that question is pointless. But there’s also the fact that Mexico still has several caravans on the way to the border— if this influences any of them to cease or change their destination, one could chalk that up as a bonus cherry on top of the State and Federal showdown sundae.
We do still find ourselves curious about the timing, though. Theoretically, Governor Abbott could’ve done this months ago. Is it a matter of him having more support from Congressional Republicans as demonstrated by that recent 60+ person Congressional visit to Eagle Pass? Is there some other indication of changes behind the scenes? Maybe it’s just a matter of being a good time to look like Vice-Presidential material.
Who knows at this point? At the end of the day the only thing that’s certain is that it’s better late than never, and we hope to see more, faster please.
After reading the DPS statement, looking at the published photographs on Breitbart, one feels pretty confident in assuming last night’s DPS Helicopter Crash in Kinney County is going to be a matter of mechanical failure.
A Texas Department of Public Safety helicopter crashed in Kinney County while helping ground crews track a group of migrants attempting to avoid apprehension in the brush. The two crew members onboard did not sustain any major injuries, according to a law enforcement source.
At approximately 7:25 p.m. on January 11, a Texas DPS helicopter experienced an inflight emergency and appeared to crash land into a field in Kinney County. The helicopter crew was reported to be assisting a DPS brush crew with tracking a group of migrants attempting to avoid apprehension while hiking through a Texas ranch near the border region.
DPS helicopter crews routinely assist troopers and Border Patrol agents on the ground as they track migrants marching through the brush.
—Reporters Bob Price and Randy Clark, Breitbart
For a few moments, we have no doubt there were some fears that perhaps there was a sinister explanation for the crash, but that’s looking very unlikely now.
Many don’t realize it, but helicopters fall out of the sky all the time. Especially in high-use sectors like the US Military. In this case, DPS has been flogging the heck out of their equipment for the last 3 years— the choppers are very valuable in brush work, sporting high-powered cameras and infrared sensors.
At one time, it seemed as though DPS was inclined to eschew drones, in favor of continued investment in the helicopters. But, the operating costs are so lopsided, it’s clear there’s room for both, even though technically helicopters are more capable.
Not sure how long an NTSB investigation might take, but given that there’s no hint of foul play, unless the crash investigation turns some up, we don’t expect the results of it to make news. It’ll come and go without notice. Nothing sinister, just facts.
Don’t know if you’ve heard, but there’s a Republican challenger taking a swing at the South Texas King— U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar in TX28.
So far, we don’t know much about the man. His name’s Jay Furman, and he’s apparently a retired US Navy Commander.
Commander’s a pretty decent rank, falling just under Captain, which is roughly equivalent to a Colonel in the US Army.
After a spin through Furman’s website, we can say one thing for absolute sure: The man takes a pretty good photo.
According to his website bio, he served 28 years in the Navy. Here’s some of the red meat:
Today’s Democrats are the most radical and lawless in history. South Texans did not vote for: fake borders, gender madness, a weakened military, sky-high prices, energy dependence, another foreign war, arrested political enemies, spying on the American public and Church, giving up our gun rights. Rep. Henry Cuellar has. In fact, he has voted with President Biden 95% of the time.
—Copy from ‘CommanderFurman.com’
Looking at some of the other data on the page, it looks like Furman’s main office is in San Antonio. That’s probably good. TX28 as most of our longtime readers know is anchored at both ends by Laredo in the South and portions of San Antonio and San Marcos in the North.
Looking at Furman’s LinkedIn page, it looks like he has a naval aviation background, and spent some additional time with some kind of staff position with US Central Command in Africa. Wouldn’t mind hearing his take on the present showdown in the Red Sea, frankly, as the Houthis lob inexpensive drones at shipping, costing us literally millions and millions of dollars to shoot them down. Seems he’d be very qualified on the subject.
A little more research, and we find that Furman is also one of a few on active duty who openly questioned the Covid-19 mass vaccination mandates that were forced upon US Military personnel. At the time, some used the word whistleblower to describe him.
Historically, Henry Cuellar has been just conservative enough of a Democrat to maintain his position, though he barely squeaked through a nailbiter in the primaries last election.
Our prediction is that Furman, and any other challenger, will have to bank heavily on the San Antonio vote. Cuellar seems to have a lock on the Laredo and Zapata areas. As we’ve noted in the past, residents there are well aware of the porcine benefits that come with seniority in Congress, and Cuellar is well positioned for bringing home the bacon, if that’s all constituents care about.
On the whole, longtime readers can probably recall, we’ve a bit of a bias toward Cuellar from our days covering news in Webb County. The man was always available and if he had to duck an awkward question, he never seemed to take it personally. It should be noted that he’s probably the most conservative Democrat in Congress.
We also have good friends that swear to the heavens how much they hate Cuellar.
Heh.
All in all, we look forward to seeing more of Furman and learning what he’s made of. Hopefully he’s ready for any kind of carpetbagging accusations. Can’t help but note, the bio on his webpage doesn’t say much about where he grew up and so forth. The Linked In page says he got his bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M.
As we continue trying to research more background information on the man, we’ve also turned up a recent interview by NTD news. NTD is some kind of corporate relative of the Epoch Times.
On the whole, he seems to say a lot of good things. It’ll be interesting to see how things develop, especially if Cuellar sees another strong primary challenger from the left as he did last go ‘round.
That should do it for now. Thank you to all our new subscribers, and to all our readers who share the newsletter with their friends. By now most have heard there’s going to be a bitterly cold couple of days in the forecast. Stay warm and keep your friends and neighbors close. If the last winter weather outage taught us anything— it taught us what really matters. We’ll see you on the other side of it.
As always, this newsletter should not be mistaken for any kind of official communication by Kinney County, despite our employment there. It remains a personal work product, produced without oversight, and any errors, misdeeds, or other issues are entirely our own.