Tag: Border Wall

Another Brick In The Wall

Can you hear Pink Floyd?  Close your eyes…it’s there.

Well that is not what this is about……it is all about that wall that has been wanted by Trump…..first promise was that Mexico would build it, then it was a threat to shut down government if he, Trump, did not get the money for his wall, then a memo to cabinet members telling them to look for unused funds for the wall……none of these waffles have given him, Trump, what he wants…..”that big beautiful border wall”……

Now we have the next “brick ” in Trump’s wall song…….

President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to shut down the government over funding for his border wall. But as the question of money for his campaign proposal once again roils Congress, one man thinks he may have found a solution: Crowd-funding.

Brian Kolfage, a 37-year-old Florida resident who was severely wounded in the Iraq war, has started a GoFundMe campaign to complete Trump’s signature pledge. The campaign has raised over $2 million in the three days since it started, with an overall goal of $1 billion.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/19/trump-border-wall-gofundme-campaign-1070788

Who will fund the wall this time?

Will the raised funds actually go for a wall or will they fall into the abyss of of other Trump charities and Foundation stuff?

Mexico?  Russia even?  Or just gullible ignorant Americans that fell for the BS the first time?

The Wall – An In-Depth Examination

It’s the WALL…..again.

WE have been having this back and forth about a promise that President Trump first made on his 2016 campaign…..a “big, beautiful wall” across our Southern border.

Since he first uttered the slogan there has been a massive amount of ink wasted on the analysis on what he has meant by his assertion.

Most people know what their “party” thinks about the Wall….very little has been written about a total analysis of the issue…..

Maybe this would help….that is if you are truly interested in the issue or you just like the concept….for whatever reason……..

A USA TODAY NETWORK special report examines the impact of Trump’s proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall, exploring every foot of the 2,000-mile boundary.

“Build the Wall.” Three words energized a campaign.

But could it be done? What would it cost? What would it accomplish? Our search for answers became this, a landmark new report, “The Wall.”

The task was massive. We flew the entire border, drove it too. More than 30 reporters and photographers interviewed migrants, farmers, families, tribal members — even a human smuggler. We joined Border Patrol agents on the ground, in a tunnel, at sea. We patrolled with vigilantes, walked the line with ranchers. We scoured government maps, fought for property records.

In this report, you can watch aerial video of every foot of the border, explore every piece of fence, even stand at the border in virtual reality. Still, breakthrough technology would mean nothing if it didn’t help us better understand the issues — and one another.

Source: The Wall – An in-depth examination of Donald Trump’s border wall

Personally, I believe that an article like this would have served a greater purpose if it had been publish during the primaries…..

Deal Or No Deal?

Many Americans are applauding the new found cooperation between a GOP president and the Congressional Dems……but since the “good news” was release there has been a wealth of back and forth……

It is confusing…..so do we have a deal?  Or Not?

The Congressional Dems seem to think that there is a deal….

In a move that stunned many Republicans, Democratic leaders announced Wednesday night that they had reached a deal with President Trump to protect Dreamers from deportation in return for funding extra border security—but not a wall. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi announced the deal after a White House dinner, the AP reports. “We agreed to enshrine the protections of DACA into law quickly, and to work out a package of border security, excluding the wall, that’s acceptable to both sides,” they said in a joint statement. A source says the deal also includes a pathway to citizenship for the almost 800,000 young immigrants involved.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted that DACA and border security were discussed at the meeting, though “excluding the wall was certainly not agreed to,” the Los Angeles Times reports. This is the second time in two weeks that Trump has bypassed Republicans to cut a deal with Democrats and immigration hardliners are furious over what they see as an amnesty, the Washington Post reports. If reports of the deal are true, Trump’s “base is blown up, destroyed, irreparable, and disillusioned beyond repair,” said GOP Rep. Steve King. “No promise is credible.” Breitbart.com called the deal a “full-fledged cave” and dubbed the president “Amnesty Don.”

The with a flick of the thumbs Pres. Trump is saying that there is NO deal…..

Thursday morning brings a dose of confusion to the debate over the fate of young undocumented immigrants. President Trump tweeted that he and top Democrats had not reached a deal about the fate of the Dreamers, despite Democrats’ assertion Wednesday night to the contrary. “No deal was made last night on DACA,” the president wrote, referring to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. “Massive border security would have to be agreed to in exchange for consent.” All this began when Democrats including Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer had a dinner meeting with Trump at the White House on Wednesday, and Democrats emerged afterward to declare that they’d struck a deal to “enshrine the protections of DACA into law.” In exchange, they’d agree to a number of border security improvements—excluding the president’s proposed border wall.

Almost immediately, the White House pushed back on that characterization, with press chief Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeting that no deal to exclude the border wall was struck, reports the New York Times. Trump reiterated that in his tweet, adding that the wall “will continue to be built.” (He didn’t, however, address whether funding would be linked to DACA.) But the president also expressed support for Dreamers and suggested that he wanted a deal that would provide some kind of pathway to citizenship for them. “Does anybody really want to throw out good, educated and accomplished young people who have jobs, some serving in the military? Really!” hewrote. “They have been in our country for many years through no fault of their own – brought in by parents at young age.”

I for one am pleased to see some small incident of cooperation between the two parties……but with all my cheer leading…… is there a Deal or Not?

How long will this “cooperation” last?

Closing Thought–24Aug17

Another Brick In The Wall!

Soon we will be having the usual debate on the extension of the government so there will be NO shutdown, which most know is NOT a good thing, it is however a great slogan and political theater….

Pres. Trump’s pet issue is the building of the Great Wall of Mexico…..and NOTHING has changed….he still is using it to gin up his base…….

President Trump was speaking in Reno Wednesday even as the assessment continued over his Tuesday night rally in Phoenix. In Arizona, he didn’t just vent about the media, he also made headlines on multiple policy fronts. Among other things, he renewed his push for a border wall in a big way. “If we have to close down that government, we are going to build that wall,” he told cheering supporters. The issue is expected to come to a head during budget negotiations in September, with Politico reporting that Trump has been telling advisers he won’t accept any deal unless it contains “real money” to start construction. “He is animated about the wall,” one source tells the website. “He cares about that more than many other things. He knows his base cares and chants about it.”

Is he truly willing to shutdown the government unless he gets the funds for his “Big Beautiful Wall?”

But I thought Mexico was going to pay for it….is our check in the mail?

What kinda of mindless droid would destroy the government on something as worthless as his “Big Beautiful Wall”?

Thursday is at an end….time to slink back into the crypt and prepare for tomorrow’s stuff……be well, be safe…..chuq

Closing Thought–16Mar17

More Wall Stuff!

There has been lots of back and forth around the Trump promise of a wall on our Southern border…it is gonna be expensive….Mexico will not pay for it…and the government could do what it does best….steal land from the people.

Rumors are that to pay for this abortion then the budget for the Coast Guard and TSA will be smaller….

Texas landowners along the U.S.-Mexico border have begun receiving notices from the federal government saying that they’re coming to either buy, or take, parcels of land for Trump’s pointless border wall. According to the Texas Observer, landowners are receiving “Declarations of Taking” notices that offer a price for the piece that the government wants. If the landowners refuse that, then they may see those parts of their property taken via eminent domain.

One landowner, Yvette Salinas, got her notice back in January. She’d been dreading it for a while because of George W. Bush’s focus on a border fence. Under Obama, she’d been able to relax a bit because he focused on patrolling and monitoring the border in ways that didn’t include taking land and building a wall.

Source: Bigot President Trump’s Border Wall Sh*t Just Got Real – Texans Receive Notices To Sell Or Have Their Land Taken | If You Only News

So Mr. Trump you will steal from the people to get your way?  Then sir you are a true Republican.  I guess in hindsight it would be cheaper to just steal the property than buy it…..

I find it amazing that a party, the GOP, of limited government has no problem using it to get their way…..like most Repubs hypocrisy rules.

The wall will make the US a more secure nation, right?

Did  mention that we, this country, have water on 3 sides?  And a lower budget for the Coast Guard that protects our watery borders makes good sense (sarcasm)….

What Price The Wall?

WE all have heard the grand scheme to protect the homeland from the invasion of the “benefits” snatchers….that scheme would be that all impressive WALL.

The big question is where will we cough up the cash to pay for this monstrosity without raising taxes?  Or just how will this effect the security of the homeland?

According to the “fat man in the bathtub” this, the Wall, will go a long way to protecting the nation from the influx of those rabid bad guys waiting at the border to come flooding in to cause chaos and mayhem….

First, you mental midgets that think this is a good idea do realize that this country has water on 3 sides, right?

Personally, I think that the Wall is a dumb idea from the inception….great slogan but has little practical application.

Then I saw a report on one way being considered to help pay for this abortion….

The Trump administration, searching for money to build the president’s planned multibillion-dollar border wall and crack down on illegal immigration, is weighing significant cuts to the Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration and other agencies focused on national security threats, according to a draft plan.

The proposal, drawn up by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), also would slash the budget of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which provides disaster relief after hurricanes, tornadoes and other natural disasters. The Coast Guard’s $9.1 billion budget in 2017 would be cut 14 percent to about $7.8 billion, while the TSA and FEMA budgets would be reduced about 11 percent each to $4.5 billion and $3.6 billion, respectively.

(WaPo)

Think about that for a minute you mindless dolts.

Budget cuts for Coast Guard and TSA….entry points far greater than that damn land bridge that you are so concerned about.

There is already a push back against this sort of “solution”…..

House Republicans and the nation’s largest association of retired military officers have called on the Trump administration to scrap a reported plan for a major cut in the Coast Guard budget, in part to pay for the proposed wall on the Mexican border.

“We cannot defend our homeland and continue critical security missions without the U.S. Coast Guard. It is as simple as that,” Rep. Frank LoBiondo, a New Jersey Republican and member of the House Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee, said in a statement.

“Whomever is advising President Trump that the service could do more with even less is detached from the facts and reality on the ground,” he said.

I realize that it is early in the process but to consider this line of thought is truly moronic….but what can we expect from a group that has NO idea what they are doing?

Guess that check from Mexico bounced, eh?

The (Anthropological) Truth About Walls

For over a year now there has been much to do about walls……in presidential politics and even in the magic of cinema…..so I thought I would do what I always do…..give a historical look at “walls”…….

From the Great Wall of China to Hadrian’s Wall to the New Amsterdam Wall on Wall Street to the Wall defended by Castle Black, walls have a long-standing place in history and pop culture to defend people. But they’re sites of complex interactions, too

Building walls is far from a revolutionary idea. We’ve been building them since ancient times. And they have largely been intended to serve the same purpose: to keep people out (and sometimes in) and define national borders.

Source: The (Anthropological) Truth about Walls – Scientific American Blog Network

Of course I am sure instead of learning from history there will be some sort of debate of what is and what is not “facts”……but that is fine for I have come to not expect much more than that from some……

“The Great Wall”

Not even is this a review of some cinematic magic!

Nope this is about that much chanted…much promised…big beautiful wall along our Southern border.  First let me say there is nothing beautiful about a wall.

The promise now is that the wall will be a combination of virtual and physical….let’s start with the virtual thing.

Back in 2008 I wrote about the virtual wall that Boeing had constructed…it was a worthless waste of money…..but rad it for yourself…..

I know, I know everyone is screaming about those darn pesky illegal immigrants, especially at election, they are a convenient scapegoat for pandering to the people.  But any way, someone somewhere in the bowels of the INS came up with the idea of a virtual border fence, where cameras, radar and other such devices would be used to detect those entering the US illegally.

Source: Immigration: Virtual Border Fence – In Saner Thought

Now estimates from DHS have come out on the cost of said wall…..

A barrier along the border with Mexico could be ready in 2020, but it won’t be cheap, according to a leaked Department of Homeland Security report seen by Reuters. The internal report estimates that the cost will be $21.6 billion, around double to $10 billion to $12 billion figure President Trump cited during his campaign. The plan commissioned by new DHS Secretary John Kelly calls for construction of walls and fences in three phases over more than three years to have the barrier ready by the end of 2020, starting with 26 miles of wall in Texas and California. This would be followed by 151 miles of barrier in Arizona and Texas, then 1,080 miles to seal off remaining sections of the border, which already has 654 miles of barriers.

The leaked plan does not reveal what the wall would look like, or what is going to be done in mountainous areas where construction would be unfeasible. Large parts of the border, especially in Texas, are in privately owned land and the cost of acquiring it, through eminent domain or other methods, is one reason for the soaring cost estimate. “People’s individual property will be condemned by the federal government for construction of the wall,” researcher Denise Gilman tells the Arizona Republic. “That’s what happened in the past. And that’s what would have to happen.” Trump tweeted early Saturday that he hasn’t gotten involved in wall design or negotiations yet. When he does, the “price will come WAY DOWN,” he promised.

Sorry people but that money could be better spent…there are so many other progrmas that will now be gutted to pay for this abortion….society will suffer.