JC has an in depth expose on the story (brilliant analysis as ususal )

The next surreal story came from Texas, which appears to be following through with Governor Abbott’s vow to keep fighting after the Supreme Court vacated an injunction Tuesday that barred the Border Patrol from removing razor wire except for medical emergencies. Take a look at this equally-unbelievable headline also from yesterday’s Daily Mail:

The hot takes yesterday suggested Texas was somehow “defying” the Supreme Court, which is wrong, because the Supreme Court did not order Texas to do or not do anything. Thus, there was nothing to ‘defy.’ All the Supreme Court did on Tuesday was remove a lower-court ban against the federal government. It’s order didn’t even require Texas to let the Border Patrol into Eagle Pass, even though it took away one of Texas’s arguments for keeping the feds out.

According to the Mail article, after Texas seized Shelby Park — the public part of Eagle Pass — somehow border jumpers seemed to immediately know all about it and have started crossing on private ranch property on either side of the area now controlled by the Texas National Guard. Not surprisingly, the ranchers complained, and Texas responded by offering to install razor wire fences on their property for free.

Border Patrol needs ranchers’ permission to enter their private property, which some ranchers appear to be giving. The ranchers’ views about border crossers seems to somewhat depend on their political persuasions.

But much more significant than the razor wire giveaways were Governor Abbott’s public comments. In his recent tweets, Governor Abbott has repeatedly referred to two connected concepts: the Constitution’s Article I, Section 10, which allows States to declare war without Congress if they are “actually invaded” or are in “imminent danger.”

Abbott has repeatedly cited Section 10 adding that he has also officially declared an invasion, which seems to satisfy the Constitution’s “actual invasion” requirement. Not that it will stop Biden’s lawyers, but it seems pretty hard to argue that Texas isn’t being “actually invaded.”

Abbott, known for being cautious with his language, issued a fiery official gubernatorial letter yesterday, and its first paragraph inarguably evoked pre-Civil War rhetoric by accusing Biden’s federal government of “breaking its compact” with the States:

The final paragraph in Abbott’s letter, referring to Section 10’s Constitutional authority, seems pregnant with possibility for future conflict, since it suggested Texas intends to ignore the Border Patrol’s federal statutory authority:

There are a couple ways to read that. Saying the Constitution is the supreme law of the land which supersedes any federal statutes to the contrary is just uncontroversially reiterating black-letter law. Of course the Constitution supersedes conflicting statutes. But in context, that statement triggered a lot of democrats, some of whom are now calling for Biden to “seize control” of the Texas National Guard.

Remarkably, historically, and surreally, the dispute between one of the largest States in the Union and the federal government is playing out in real time on social media, as evidenced by the very first, inflammatory comment to Abbott’s tweet about his letter, by the owner of America’s largest social media platform:

The dispute is causing so many problems for Joe Biden that some liberal commenters are even speculating that the Supreme Court knew this would happen when they issued their decision on Tuesday revoking the razor-wire-removal injunction. So far, no one seems able to suggest any good move for Team Biden; every possible response — including inaction — would be politically unviable and would be a gigantic election-year black eye for Biden.

Let us count the ways Biden has failed lately. President Peters is about to lose his epic Proxy War in Ukraine, a prospect he himself has described in apocalyptic terms for two years now. Just this month Biden started a brand new Proxy War against Iran, via Yemen and whatever else our military is doing in the Middle East these days, with or without a conscious Defense Secretary. And now, Biden has launched an unwinnable political battle with Texas that appears to be shoving the country towards the precipice of Civil War.

Not too good!

Any of these developments would be remarkable on its own. Together they are unprecedented. Nothing like this has ever happened in our lifetimes. In saner times, cooler, wiser heads would have long since headed off this kind of conflict with Texas, de-escalated, and brokered some peaceable resolution behind the scenes, but that kind of statesmanship doesn’t seem to be happening these days.

In other words, there don’t seem to be any brakes or off-ramps on Texas’s highway to more serious conflict. Mercifully, it is still more likely to be resolved in the courts; on Tuesday the Supreme Court only kicked the queso down the road and only temporarily delayed a generation-defining decision.

It never should have reached this point at all.