Baby's First OLS Stories
And, Maverick County Getting Crushed
Good Morning friends,
There’s a lot of what one could call “Baby’s First Operation Lone Star” stories popping off in several places this week. It sounds disparaging, and perhaps it even is, but it’s actually a good thing— an indication that more and more people are waking up on the Southern Border Crisis, even though it’s been dragging on since last year at least.
Better late than never.
Part of “Baby’s First” kind of stories is a sort of facile explanation of the very basics of what’s happening, why it’s kind of different from years past, and what’s being done so far.
The danger in this kind of coverage, is that if not careful one can sort of make it seem like some of the more theatrical portions of Governor Greg Abbott’s response have actually been effective, when really, they haven’t in any truly tangible sense.
In many ways it’s been kabuki theatre, with more in common with TSA airport security screenings than any actual check on illegal immigration or even trespassing. As diligent as Kinney County Sheriff’s Deputies, the Galveston Crew, and DPS Troopers stationed in Kinney County have been, it seems as though it’s made the barest of dents in the machine that is importing so many fraudulent asylum seekers and criminal trespassers. Little wonder, when you realize the machine is funded in part by US taxpayer dollars that are sustaining illegal immigration efforts.
It is perhaps, a demonstration of how difficult it is for the States to claw back power from the federal government in matters like immigration which are plainly spelled out in both the Constitution and case law. Perhaps there’s an argument to be made that we are no longer talking about immigration matters alone.
In any event— here’s a link to the New York Times’ most recent “Baby’s First” coverage. It’s a podcast link, and it’s behind a soft paywall, of course, but does about as well as one might expect at being both timely, but also fit for a newbie’s consumption.
On a more local level, San Antonio’s KSAT 12 drove down to Dilley to ride along with the Dilley police department as they ramp up their Operation Lone Star efforts. Readers may recall, Dilley happens to be the location of the Briscoe Unit, where most of those arrested for trespassing and smuggling are housed. It’s also a border adjacent community about an hour south of San Antonio, and as KSAT discovered, they too are overrun by high speed chases and other signs of illegal alien smuggling.
None of this is truly news for anyone that’s been following this stuff for more than a week. Congratulations, friends— we are all experts in this field.
Crazy to think of no?
But just in the act of following along, and paying attention, and dismissing the distractions like Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, one becomes an expert by comparison to those who do not.
Eagle Pass and Maverick County are getting absolutely crushed right now. It’s been happening all this week— here’s something that got posted up just 30 minutes ago as we write this:
The article’s in Spanish, but the photo and any basic grasp of the language spell it out plainly: More than 1000 asylum seekers have dropped on Maverick County in the last 36 hours.
One of the things that’s leapt out at us in the coverage of matters in Maverick County this week, is how there are so many people piling up across the river in Piedras Negras, that large groups of 100 or more, are coming across the river in the broad daylight.
Normally, such large groups wait for nightfall— the temperatures are cooler, and the lights Border Patrol and DPS use make it easier to find them, or avoid them, depending on the group’s desires.
That’s from May 16— Monday. Promise you folks, still happening.
Here’s an interesting thing— something new from the Del Rio Sector, it appears to be an attempt to get something like unvarnished stats into the hands of the public:
As we said, this is new. Give it a watch. It’s about a minute and a half long. What jumps out at us, is how relatively sophisticated even amateur video editing has become in the last 10-to-15 years.
Someone at the Border Patrol HQ in Del Rio went to some lengths to use what old school professionals call “b-roll” to add visual interest to the piece, and cover up some of the apparent lack of a teleprompter as Patrol Chief Escajeda looks down at his notes and recites the various stats for the last 24 hours.
“B-roll” is a piece of vocabulary left over from the old days of shooting news and documentaries on film, instead of videotape or digital media.
Back then, you would use separate rolls of film for every element of a piece. The voice track for any narration and the interviews was referred to as the “A-roll.”
“B-roll” referred to the moving images and scenes shot in the course of coverage.
And sometimes “C-Roll” might be used, in reference to any natural sound and audio captured in the course of filming the “B-roll.”
In the film editing booths, the various different rolls of tape would be combined, producing the finished product.
It’s a lot easier to accomplish now, and it’s not always necessary to even preserve the verbal distinctions between the elements of video and sound, but the practice persists.
Hopefully, Border Patrol will continue producing these videos. It will be interesting to see if word comes from on high, telling them to stop.
Let’s circle back to that idea of how low the bar for expertise on the border crisis has become.
Oxford defines expert in the following way: a person who has a comprehensive and authoritative knowledge of or skill in a particular area.
Do you feel particularly comprehensive or authoritative on the subject of the border crisis? Odds are you don’t. Odds are, you feel like the same person you were when you crawled out of bed yesterday, and the week before that, and perhaps also the month before that too.
Well, set aside that kind of thinking. It is holding you back. Start talking to someone else— a relative perhaps— about what’s going on. Odds are good, you will quickly realize how mistaken or shallow much of what they’ve absorbed on the subject so far really is.
You have become an expert. Compared to them, anyway.
Congratulations.
It must also be said, that such expertise, combined with the five dollars hiding in the corner of the wallet, is just enough to get us our next Starbucks.
A Substack writer we’ve been reading lately, is experiencing the same sort of surreal disconnect. In the act of just trying to sort out the propaganda coming from Ukraine and Russia, he has become a subject matter expert— taking a deep dive into the purported capture of a Canadian General in Mariupol, Ukraine.
You probably haven’t heard about it. General Thomas Cadieu was almost the man in charge of all Canadian soldiers, before getting derailed by improper sex-related allegations. Then, story goes, he turns up in Ukraine, working as a mercenary maybe. Or running a bioweapons lab. Who the heck knows what the truth is— it’s propaganda all the way down out there, as well documented by writer & economist Chris Karl:
He’s self-effacing at first. But keep reading for another perfect illustration of expertise earned in the absence of apparent truth— expertise earned in the wake of the ongoing immolation of modern professional journalism standards and credibility.
Who could’ve predicted even in the heady days of the DrudgeReport, Newsweek, and Monica Lewinsky scandal just how much of a seeming death spiral journalism would be in today?
The good news is, it’s actually not truly a death spiral, so much as it is simply a transformative period, on par with what ye olde journalism professors used to talk about when describing the changeover from turn-of-the-century “yellow journalism” personified by Hearst and the Spanish-American war.
Faster, please?
As always— thanks for reading. Our next dispatch is going to probably wait until after May 23rd when whatever ultimately happens with Title 42 happens. We will be away from home and traveling for at least a portion of this period, too, and while some folks manage to post and cover things just fine with their laptops and smartphones, we’re a little too Jurassic ourselves.
Yeah. We need the desktop. Gotta have it.
Until then, have a great one— we’ll be back soon enough. Any errors, misdeeds, or half-baked conspiratorial notions contained within this newsletter are ours alone— and do not reflect policies or decisions made at the Kinney County Sheriff’s Office which employs us.
Well, I don't do paywalls or Twitter; but I still like your reporting.