GOP’s agenda seems to be the manufacturing and distribution of disinformation

Texas governor speaking into a microphone

Screenshot / WQAD8

Last month 53 migrants died tragically in a tractor-trailer in San Antonio.

According to NPR, it’s likely that people who were in the trailer had crossed the border on foot. They were then gathered in Laredo where they were loaded into a truck.

“We also have to keep in mind that many of these folks already have family in the United States, and they’re simply either trying to reunify with family here” or are in families with mixed citizenship, said Roger Enriquez, an associate professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Naturally, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a serial liar, again blamed President Biden and the federal government. Abbott then decided to replicate his disastrous performative political prattle from April and again ordered the Texas State Police to create their own checkpoints to inspect trucks. He did not say what those inspections would entail or what percentage of trucks would be stopped.

Abbott’s announcement of the new checkpoints comes after his catastrophic spring stunt in which the state police conducted checks of all commercial trucks arriving from Mexico. The universal truck inspections snarled traffic and caused economic damage both in Mexico and Texas. His unmitigated mess cost his state $4 billion and the U.S. nearly $9 billion in just ten days. In addition to the dollars, tons of food spoiled, millions of gallons of fuel were wasted, the supply chain disrupted, Texas businesses hurt, and hours and hours of unnecessary gridlock ensued – just to score some political points that never manifested. This was money that could have been used to fix Texas’ deadly electrical grid (although, to be fair, it only malfunctions and kills people in the winter — 151 last year) or to hire police officers in Uvalde who will actually do their jobs.

If only Governor Abbott stopped lying about the cause. He said that his draconian steps were necessary because the Biden administration wasn’t doing its job to secure the border.

“These deaths are on Biden,” Abbott tweeted. “They are the result of his deadly open border policies. They show the deadly consequences of his refusal to enforce the law.”

However, immigration experts said Abbott’s argument that Biden isn’t enforcing immigration laws isn’t true. Title 42, the public health order implemented by Trump used during COVID-19 to turn away millions of migrants at the border – even those seeking asylum — is still in effect because a federal judge blocked Biden’s efforts to lift it. In addition, another Trump administration program, the Migration Protection Protocols, also remains in effect after a federal judge ordered the Biden administration to reinstate it in December.

Here’s what Abbott said while Trump was president and thirty-nine migrants (ten of whom would die) were found in the back of a truck in San Antonio in 2017.

“Human trafficking is an epidemic that Texas is working to eradicate… To that end, Texas will continue to provide protection for the victims who have been robbed of their most basic rights, and bring down the full weight of the law for the perpetrators of this despicable crime.” Partisan much?

Google “Governor Abbott Lies” and 800,000 results come up. I’m lying. It’s really 2.35 million.

Number one on the GOP’s agenda seems to be the manufacturing and distribution of disinformation.

Even when things are going well, they spin things so they’re not.

Abbott also lied about who was responsible for the baby formula shortage, claiming that President Biden and his “reckless, out-of-touch priorities” was stockpiling it for undocumented immigrants. What the Governor failed to mention was that the Biden administration was (again!) following the law — a law that Trump also followed.

This all makes this new big tech antitrust bill (the American Innovation and Choice Online Act) — that will mean it’s nearly impossible to deplatform disinfo mongers — even more toxic. Because if there’s one thing that America should know by now, it’s that if Ted Cruz is for something, it’s probably good for Ted Cruz and definitely not good for America.

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