Border troops bracing for possible clashes with armed crackpot militias of U.S. citizens, not Migrant Caravan

The rest of them are on GabTwitter.

I’m not exactly sure how he gamed the system but he was proudly waiving his disability papers around at a recent gathering and talking about how he’s getting his knees replaced on the government tab. This from a guy who hasn’t held a steady job or paid income taxes in decades and has been living on a friend’s couch for years.

And I kid you not…the next sentence out of his mouth was about how immigrants are taking away jobs and getting free stuff from the government. SMH

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If you served no matter how long or what capacity you get access to the VA. If you end up with a disability even if it’s not directly service related the military can offer you early medical retirement/discharge. Comes with a disability pension that often exceeds the pension you’ve already earned or would earn if you fought to stay in. Think you have to be in when it happens though. VA seems back and forth on what they cover. My grandfather got a lot of his general healthcare through the VA. I dunno why because he had civilian insurance and a decent pension. When he stopped he very much wished he hadn’t, civilian doctor missed a cancer diagnosis his VA doc ended up catching too late.

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The distance from San Pero Sula to Brownsville TX is the same as the distance from Brownsville TX to Chicago IL.

The distance from San Pedro Sula to San Diego CA is the same as the distance from San Diego CA to New York NY.

First, imagine being so desperate that you’d walk all the way across the US to maybe be allowed to go to prison.

And second, how long do you suppose it would take you and your baby to walk all that way? Maybe you’d arrive at the asylum intake some time around Thanksgiving, given their schedule? (Google thinks it would take 914 hours to walk from SAN to LGA.)

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No, more like “a good soldier knows when his orders are full of shit”, and also “following the chain of command”.
And while I know that POTUS is the ‘commander in chief’ of the armed forces, it’s quite likely at this point to be ‘in title only’ and with no actual authority behind it unless it’s confirmed by the chain of command proper. And the Posse Comitatus Act comes into play as well.

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Now now, let’s not get common sense involved here. /sarcasm

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Assuming that isn’t suspended, along with habeas corpus, to deal with the “invasion”, but I can’t imagine a lame duck congress passing that, right?

And when a reporter asked if the White House was considering suspending habeas corpus — the right to due process — to deal with the migrants, the press secretary declined to say whether such a move was being considered or to rule it out.

“We’re looking at a number of different options,” she said.

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The military are obligated to refuse illegal orders. Among other things.

One of several reasons Bush II Bush Harder needed legalistic cover for torture and rendition.

We’ve seen stuff like this a couple of times. Trump wanted a military parade. Military brass hates that sort of thing. So they gave him his military parade, laid out as so expensive that even Trump had to drop it. He wanted ALL THE NAVY sent to Korean Waters. So they rerouted some stuff they were doing anyway to be slightly closer to Korea. He wants 5000 troops to head to the border and do… things?

They’ll put together a plan to send 5000 guys down so they can play Taxi driver and dig ditches. The military has been fairly good at making Trump think he’s getting what he wants for the sake of staying out of it. It unfortunately feeds his propaganda based motives, but at least they aren’t fueling a fight between the military and the executive branch. That could get dangerous.

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Navy SEALs:

Or, for the other end of the military hierarchy, some random reservists:

And for a reminder of the US military’s recent record:

&

etc.

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Nailed it

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i read about those actions in a recent issue of “harper’s.” i’ll try to track down the exact issue and the author of the article. although i note that @Magdalene has a story from the “guardian.”

the troop deployment is for 45 days. if those people walk 20 miles a day (yeah, right) they’ll get to the border in 50 days.

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Hey, don’t malign the jackass by implying he is like trump. Only humans can be this shitty.

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Well importantly those things were violations of the rules. And also importantly they were not, in at least those examples, the result of illegal orders given from higher up. Military brass or the Executive. In so far as any orders from direct commanders pressed any soldiers into participating. Which i don’t think was the case, wasn’t everybody in those disturbingly enthusiastic about it? Part of what those soldier did wrong is accepting a plainly illegal order. The presence of a rule against something doesn’t preclude violation of that rule.

The torture remains the better example. As that was ordered through the preseident and at least a portion of the military brass. And like I said part of the reason for those memos was giving cover for people who knew it was illegal and didn’t give a shit. They also felt the need to keep it quiet among much of the military even as they hid it from the public.

And yes the military skews pretty conservative. And contains a lot of Trump fans. But he hasn’t been doing much lately to endeer himself to soldiers. The military parade, the shit with McCain, attacks on law enforcement, going after people’s pensions, going after gold star families, his instance on arming teachers is really unpopular in military circles, and shit like this. Seem to piss off the military people I know pretty bad.

I know a lot of people in the military, I live near a military base, and I’m in a spot that’s pretty Trumpy. And I’ve been watching a lot of pretty loud and proud Republicans in the military turn into vocal anti Trump people. Like annoyingly vocal. And the many Trump people on that end seem pretty worn out.

But those are soldiers on the ground. Thus far military brass. Including a certain member of his cabinet whos pretty perpetually rumored to soon be out of a job for doing his own thing rather than following Trump. Have been pretty unwilling to participate actively with the guy.

And you know for all we know the military itself may very well be preparing more for clashes with right wing militia groups than anything else. Not like we’d ever catch wind of that though.

Compare that with ICE and CBP. Their unions are actively stumping for Trump. They’ve actively violated court orders on his say so. And during the Muslim ban CBP came right up to the edge of armed stand offs with other law enforcement agencies and even some National Guard units.

If some ones going to (or continue to really) violate norms, laws and their duty. On Trump’s say so. It’s gonna be CBP and ICE. Not the military.

If Trump’s gonna have his own loyal to him and not the nation enforcers. It’s gonna be CBP and ICE.

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This group isn’t new or different. There were groups of refugees like this before, and there will be more later. They’ve learned to band together to reduce the threat and impact of the predatory groups along the way.

What you’re saying is like looking out at the ocean and asking, “Why is that wave approaching the beach now? Couldn’t it have waited for a more convenient time?”

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This is what really baffles me, because so many CBP and ICE employees are relatives of immigrants in a most obvious genetic way.

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Well, Cadet Bonespurs has upped the rhetoric, It’s now DAILY caravans -

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Why is “guardian” in quotes?

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that’s how i show that it’s the name of the paper, same as the reason i put “harper’s” in quotes.

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OH, ok. Proper name. I just don’t see that that often.

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I also don’t think that’s working in Trumps favor.

An ever growing proportion of our military is Hispanic these days. And a lot of those people are actual immigrants. He backed off trying to kill Military service as a pathway to citizenship because of military push back.

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