Full Fifth Circuit Hears Arguments Over the Fate Of Texas' Floating Border Wall

BY TYLER DURDEN
FRIDAY, MAY 17, 2024 - 06:20 PM

Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times,

The legal saga over the fate of a 1,000-foot floating barrier on the Rio Grande has entered a new phase.



Texas Gov. Greg Abbott last summer ordered the deployment of the string of giant orange buoys in the river near Eagle Pass. As a part of Operation Lone Star, the Republican governor’s signature initiative aimed to curb illegal border crossings from Mexico into his state, the buoys are anchored to the bottom and themselves rotate so that people can’t climb over or swim under them.

Following the installation of the barrier, the Biden administration sued Texas, demanding that it be taken down. Attorneys for Texas invoked the Constitutional right for each state to defend itself against “invasion”—in Texas’ case, by those illegally crossing the river, but that self-defense argument was rejected by the lower court, as did by a split three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Arguing on Wednesday before a full, 17-member Fifth Circuit, attorneys for both Texas and the U.S. Department of Justice largely focused on the question of whether Mr. Abbott’s floating wall violates a Reconstruction-era law regulating the use of waterways.

 
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/...ng-border-wall

We're old sticks in the mud.

At one time psychologists did classify homosexuals as having a mental illness.  Not to mention that they have a higher suicide rate.

It seems to me that whenever there is some change that has political ramifications, the group that is most likely to benefit from the change overestimates the damage that will be caused if we do not act; overestimates the advantages that will accrue from acting; and underestimates the damages that will come from acting. And we keep falling for it.

There is a good reason why our founding fathers generally distrusted mob rule, and we are seeing it manifested in virtually every aspect of our lives today. 

May 18, 2024
Time to change the course in Ukraine
By Edward Lozansky

The recent statement by the former Joint Chiefs chairman Mark Milley — “We slaughtered people in massive numbers, innocent people who had nothing to do with their government, men, women, and children” — is a rare admission by someone in his rank.  At the same time, in March 2023,  still on active duty, Milley said that Ukrainians on the current battlefields are the sons and grandsons of the people who fought against Stalin and Zhukov.  Not sure if he realizes that both these statements actually disparage or even betray American World War II veterans, since Milley should have known that we were allies with Stalin in the war with the Nazis.

Still, when it comes to the war in Ukraine, which is at the center of the current crisis, one should admit that Milley’s rhetoric is less dangerous compared with what is emanating from Biden, Blinken, and Sullivan or some of their NATO and E.U. colleagues, like Sunak, Macron, Scholz, Duda, and co.  It seems there is no indication that they are prepared to listen to the sober voices calling to give a chance for diplomacy to end the Ukraine war.

In the U.S., the list of these voices is long and includes university professors and think-tank experts; retired military, intelligence officers, and diplomats; journalists; and even members of Congress — regrettably, so far, only Republicans.

excerpt:

Instead, House Democrat leader Hakeem Jeffries did not rule out that the U.S. would have to send troops to the Ukrainian conflict zone if Kyiv is defeated.  “We can’t let Ukraine fall because if that happens, there is a significant possibility that America will have to get involved in the conflict, not just with our money, but with our troops,” Jeffries said.  He also claimed that a pro-Russian faction within the Republican Party was gaining momentum and “does not want to support Ukraine and believes that Russia is not an enemy of the United States.”

more
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/05/time_to_change_the_course_in_ukraine.html