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The last two of eight prototypes for President Donald Trump's proposed border wall took shape Thursday at a construction site in San Diego.
The prototypes, including one built by Israeli defense firm Elta, form a tightly packed row of imposing concrete and metal panels, including one with sharp metal edges on top.
[...] The models, which cost the government up to $500,000 each, were spaced 30 feet (9.1 meters) apart. Slopes, thickness and curves vary. One has two shades of blue with white trim. The others are gray, tan or brown — in sync with the desert.
Bidding guidelines call for the prototypes to stand between 18 and 30 feet (5.5 and 9.1 meters) high and be able to withstand at least an hour of punishment from a sledgehammer, pickaxe, torch, chisel or battery-operated tools.
Features also should prevent the use of climbing aids such as grappling hooks, and the segments must be "aesthetically pleasing" when viewed from the US side.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Saturday October 21 2017, @11:23AM (16 children)
I'm still waiting for the media to rant up and down about the wall the Israelis built around the West Bank. Or is it, as we already suspect, only OK to build walls and treat people like animals if you're a Zionist?
I think Trump's wall is stupid. I think Israel's wall is an atrocity. Tearing down the Berlin Wall was one of the signature achievements of the late 20th century. That's the direction we should be headed in.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Funny) by coolgopher on Saturday October 21 2017, @12:09PM
How can we triumphantly tear down walls if no one is building walls? Eh? Ever think of that?
(If you can't spot the sarcasm, well... *shrug*)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Saturday October 21 2017, @01:18PM (4 children)
The Berlin wall was designed to keep citizens IN more than non-citizens OUT. Not exactly a great analogy.
Look, I'm a pinko lefty and all that. But even I can comprehend why the oligarchy is for open immigration - it means they get to import third world wages right here at home without the bother of offshoring.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Saturday October 21 2017, @05:05PM (3 children)
That does bring up an interesting point though. Imagine if the US were completely secured on all sides: A giant unbreachable wall on the Mexican side. A giant unbreachable wall on the Canadian side. Coast Guard so dense that smuggling is completely impossible on the water borders.
Now imagine that the US government decides to take out a bunch of people for what are currently illegal reasons. Not bring them to court, but send the cops or military to kill them. You might suggest they take up arms, but they have AR-15s and the military has drones that can blow them to smithereens from miles away before their targets even hear the missile coming their way (a US government who would do this isn't concerned about how the bad public relations involved in this). That leaves their only viable option as getting out of dodge, but now those secure borders are working against them.
Walls that can keep people out also keep people in, and vice versa.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 21 2017, @10:10PM (1 child)
> Now imagine that the US government decides to take out a bunch of people for what are currently illegal reasons.
"Imagine"? Ever hear of Abdulrahman al-Awlaki or Nawar al-Awlaki?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 22 2017, @12:43AM
As of April 2015, the list included 6 more:
Adam Gadahn
Ahmed Farouq
Samir Khan Bottom
Jude Kenan Mohammed
Warren Weinstein
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 22 2017, @08:56PM
Border walls between neighbouring countries won't really matter in that regard for people in the United States. The country is so huge, 90% of the people living in the US aren't going to get to a neighbouring country in time to prevent their impending death. When backed into a corner, the only option is to fight back or die. With that considered, you should also realise no government will kill an entire population within a country unless they honestly value the dirt that much.
(Score: 5, Funny) by realDonaldTrump on Saturday October 21 2017, @01:38PM (1 child)
How do you define a country if you don’t have borders? If we're going to have a country, we need a border. As far as Mexico is concerned I believe strongly in a very, very strong border. We have no border right now, it’s like a sieve. It’s like water pouring through. It’s ridiculous. I just feel strongly that you need to have a border and it has to be strong. Some people thought that was a racist statement. It’s not. And I’m not talking about keeping Mexicans out. I’m talking about keeping the world out. You know, we’re like a dumping ground for the rest of the world. And we’re not getting the finest people. We’re getting people that many other countries, including Mexico, don’t want. They’re sending them over to us because our government is so stupid and so foolishly run that we accept everybody with open arms. It’s not like the old days, so we are getting a lot of bad people coming in. And I’m not talking about Mexico. I’m talking about a lot of bad people period. They’re coming through and they’re pouring through our border and we don’t know what to do with them. I feel we need a strong border. I don’t feel, I know. If we’re going to have a country, we need a border, and we have to have a strong border so illegals aren’t coming in. And that’s illegals coming from all over the world. I think if having borders and having borders -- and I mean strong borders, I don’t think there’s anything strong with that, and frankly, this country better get smart or we’re not going to have a country.
The wall in Israel is working great. The wall in Germany, in Berlin, worked great. And they had the barbed wire fence, the mine fields, the snipers, everything. We're not doing that. We're doing a wall. The American people elected me to keep out the illegals. Not to kill them. Not for killing. As I said, we’re a dumping ground for the rest of the world and we have got to create a border. You don’t have a country without a border. You know, what’s a country? How do you define a country if you don’t have borders? #MAGA 🇺🇸
(Score: 1) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday October 22 2017, @01:29AM
I don’t think there’s anything *wrong* with that.
(Score: 4, Informative) by TheGratefulNet on Saturday October 21 2017, @05:35PM (6 children)
this was 'insightful' ??
you actually compare the relationship between israelis (or jews) and arabs - vs americans and mexicans?
seriously?
there must be a form of godwin that relates to this kind of fallacy.
last I checked, there was not hundreds of years of 'I want to wipe you off the earth!' feelings between americans and mexicans like there are from the arabs to the world's population of jews.
I'm beyond words, on this one. speechless that you'd think that a small country in the middle of hostility (middle east) - that is simply trying to survive the constant threat of being attacked (with intent to remove all jews from the planet) - is acting the same as a SMALL portion of the US that resents 'brown people'?
the way some people's minds work - wow, just wow. ;(
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 21 2017, @06:14PM (1 child)
There aren't hundreds of years of animosity between jews and arabs either - that's a relatively new phenomon that coincides with the Zionist movement and the rise of Wahabbism.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 22 2017, @01:13AM
Yeah. The "history" related by TheGratefulNet is pretty weak.
The Battle of the Alamo (Republic of Texas): 1836
The Mexican-American War: 1846 - 1848
The Balfour Declaration which established British support of a Jewish homeland in Palestine: 1917
The State of Israel founded: 1948
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 21 2017, @10:12PM (2 children)
The Israelis come from Khazaria. They are not Jews. They mass-adopted the Jewish religion (which cannot be done) otherwise their throats would have been cut long ago.
The Israelis are Zionists, not Jews. Many Christians are also Zionists.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 21 2017, @11:18PM (1 child)
It can't be done, but they did it? Huh?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 21 2017, @11:23PM
Jews are a race. Judaism is not a religion like other religions. Adopting Judaism does not make one a Jew. You have to be born to real Jews to be a Jew. The Israelis are not Jews.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Sunday October 22 2017, @02:39PM
There must also be another form of godwin for a person who swallows propaganda hook, line, and sinker.
Assertion #1: There are "hundreds of years of 'I want to wipe you off the earth!'" feelings between arabs and the world's population of Jews. In fact, the Palestinians were the only ones who took in Jews fleeing the holocaust after Britain, America, and all other countries turned them down. As thanks, the Zionists then turned around and dispossessed the Palestinians. That's pretty much ground zero for the hostility that exists now between the two parties.
Assertion #2: "a small country in the middle of hostility (middle east) - that is simply trying to survive the constant threat of being attacked." You mean the small country in the middle east that is the only one with nuclear weapons and which invades its neighbors at will, without international retaliation a la the Gulf War? The small country that is running a slo-mo ethnic cleansing campaign of the West Bank? Yeah, poor, poor, poor Israel!
"I'm beyond words, on this one. speechless"
That does rather happen when one is confronted with incontrovertible facts.
"the way some people's minds work - wow, just wow."
I'm more frequently dismayed at how some people's minds don't work. They don't receive information critically, accept any warm, fuzzy cognitive blanket they're given without question.
As for walls, the comparison I draw between Israel's and Trump's is that they are a physical manifestation of bigotry. The walls, and the bigotry, must be torn down.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 22 2017, @08:44PM
Yes, Consistency. Why don't you tear down the walls in your home then?
Tearing down the Berlin wall was a huge accomplishment, but for reasons that are entirely unapplicable to this discussion. The USSR held half a city captive, made the conditions there terrible, and prevented them from leaving. West Berliner's weren't trying to keep those in the east-wing out, just the opposite, their friends and family were on the other side.
Comparing border walls to the Berlin wall is one of the most illogical comparisons anyone has ever made, yet the comparison is constantly made when this discussion is brought up. In this case a more accurate, but figurative example, would be the "walls" between castes in India preventing others from getting to the other side and bettering their family and life to a far greater extreme than those who immigrate from Mexico to the USA. Please never use that comparison again, you're not retarded, you should know better.