SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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 Thexalon on Saturday October 21 2017, @05:18PM (13 children)
If we really wanted to end illegal immigration to the US, we would ruthlessly enforce the laws that make it illegal to employ an illegal immigrant.
For instance, ICE periodically goes through the Smithfield meat packing plant housing and deports a large percentage of their workforce. Within a matter of days, a bunch of new folks arrive from Mexico, and Smithfield is back to normal. ICE waits a while, then goes and does another round of deportation. A few days later, another round of buses arrive. And yet nobody punishes Smithfield or any of its managers. If those jobs didn't exist for illegal immigrants, none of those Mexicans would be coming to that plant. Replicate that across agriculture, hospitality, construction, and many other industries that routinely employ illegal immigrants (and yes, I'm talking about guys in suits and ties being sent to prison here), and those immigrants would stop arriving.
We don't do that because what policymakers want is not to end illegal immigration, but to have an underclass workforce willing to put up with absolutely any horrific treatment you can imagine (and a few you can't) for pay that's a joke. And that's true regardless of political party.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by jmorris on Saturday October 21 2017, @07:14PM (5 children)
You are correct. Both the Democrats and the GOPe want exactly that, for different reasons. WE out here in flyover country who have to suffer the side effects of all of this 'cultural enrichment' do not, and that was a big part of why you got Trump. If he doesn't build the wall and actually secure the border, doesn't enforce our laws, he will be a one term failure. And he apparently knows this.
The root of the problem used to be one of trust, we didn't trust our leaders. Now we KNOW they hate us and want to see us dispossessed from our own land because Trump has driven them sufficiently mad they say it it openly now. That is why people want the wall, they know Trump leaves in 2025 best case, so they want the physical wall, not just enforcement. They know almost any future POTUS will try to go back to the old open border routine since the whole Swamp wants and benefits from it. They think the wall will stop that. I know the physical wall won't work without enforcement but think the political will demonstrated by building it against the entrenched forces will send a strong enough message we might get a few years of benefit.
A wall isn't a requirement in a Sane World, Mexico certainly doesn't have one on their Southern border and while they allow those destined for the U.S. to pass through they do NOT allow the poorer masses from points South to flood into and remain in Mexico. They actually enforce their immigration laws. Btw, while they posture about how WE should have an entirely open border for their people, try moving to Mexico. Hmm.
We were watching when the protesters were chanting "No Trump, No Wall, No USA at all!" and we noticed how zero voices from the establishment were raised against that sentiment. Because they believe it. They want a world without borders or countries. We do not. BrExit proves they are waking up and saying NO as well. And look at the rest of Europe, the awakening is happening, perhaps too late but at least we might go out on our feet instead of fast asleep.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Saturday October 21 2017, @07:54PM (1 child)
Oh, they absolutely want borders and countries.
Imagine what would happen if poor people in the US started talking regularly to poor people in, say, Honduras and Iraq and Nigeria. They'd figure out that the people getting rich screwing over poor people in Honduras and Iraq and Nigeria are the same people as the ones getting rich screwing over poor people in the US. And then those poor people might start working together to do something about their common enemies, and I'm not talking about writing petitions to representatives or something, I'm talking torches and pitchforks.
Far better, for the rich, to convince poor US folks that they're much better off than those poor folks in Nigeria, and have them either not thinking about Nigeria in any meaningful way or (even better) hating the Nigerians for their email scams and such, so that they don't have energy left to, for example, hate the major shareholders of Shell Oil Company for robbing Nigeria blind with the help of the very compliant Nigerian government, with the support of the US military that Americans get taxed heavily to pay for. Borders and divisions among those without power allow those with power to direct poor people to hate each other rather than hate those with real power.
Sure, they and their cash hop international borders all the time. But they don't want the peasants able to do the same thing, because if they do then they'll find themselves up against Wat Tylers everywhere they turn.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Sunday October 22 2017, @02:44PM
Yes, the same is also true when described in economic terms. They want 100% mobility in capital markets but none in labor markets, or else markets might clear. They like the resulting imbalance because it supplies them with coercive pricing power.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday October 22 2017, @01:04AM
100% correct. The #FakeNews #MSM never covers those alt-left protesters, I call them rioters, in Berkeley. ZERO coverage. Because it doesn't serve the Dem agenda. I know that President Obama said global warming is the biggest threat. I totally disagree. I say that the alt-left is the greatest immediate threat to our great country. I thought it was North Korea, it's not. It's the alt-left rioters who are destroying America. 🇺🇸
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 22 2017, @01:29AM (1 child)
So, local governments are not using local taxes to do the jobs of federal employees in rounding up "illegal immigrants".
What if those local cops did the efficient thing and rounded up the folks who are hiring the "illegal immigrants" and held those folks for the feds?
Seems so much easier.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Sunday October 22 2017, @04:09AM
You weren't paying attention, State and local governments are forbidden from enforcing immigration law, Obama took that to SCOTUS. Yes it is insane, yes the States should have raised Hell and stopped enforcing any other Federal Law they didn't particularly love in protest. Coulda, woulda, shoulda, didn't. And, as you note, the places with the worse offenders are sanctuary cities (and now States) where the locals explicitly refuse to enforce the law, even the parts they are allowed to.
Of course the SCOTUS ruling actually said that if POTUS (who happens to be a Magic Negro, obviously wouldn't apply for just ANY President ya know) declares it against Administration Policy to enforce a law the States are bound by that lawless decision, which means, in theory and after a year of lawfare, Trump could reverse most of it. Interesting he hasn't yet even started that clock ticking.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Sunday October 22 2017, @02:49PM (6 children)
Absolutely true. Therein lies a lesson for those on the left who think illegal immigration is good. It doesn't help those people to a better life, and it undercuts any bargaining power Americans might have to win a better deal from corporations. Of course that's why capital wants illegal immigration.
Personally I find the nativist motivations of those who oppose illegal immigration repugnant. But that doesn't mean the policy goal of stopping illegal immigration is wrong, for the aforementioned reasons.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Sunday October 22 2017, @03:47PM (5 children)
Hang on one second there.
The folks coming to the USA to work illegally aren't particularly irrational, stupid, or ignorant. That means they wouldn't walk hundreds of miles through treacherous terrain and find a way across the border (none of the options for that are easy or safe), all for the privilege of working some of the worst jobs in America and constantly fearing deportation, if they didn't think it would improve their lives or the lives of their kids.
Yes, their lives absolutely suck here in the USA. Their lives suck even more in Mexico (or wherever they came from: nowadays some are coming from Honduras and Guatamala and walking the entire length of Mexico to get to the USA).
The alternative policy that could fix both the problem of their life sucking where they are, and the problem of their illegal work undercutting American bargaining power: Make it easier for people from Mexico or Central America to immigrate to the US legally. That lets them in, but also prevents employers from abusing them the way they do now. The US has done that before, it could do so again if it wanted to.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Sunday October 22 2017, @05:04PM (4 children)
And maybe we could go after the bankers in the USA who undermine democracy in those countries of origin, fostering corruption and incompetence there to facilitate their looting of those countries, such that the citizens of those countries could improve things for themselves where they are. (See: Unaoil [huffingtonpost.com]).
Then, conditions wouldn't suck so much in those places and produce emigration.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Sunday October 22 2017, @06:33PM (3 children)
I'd be in favor of that policy too. One reason I was (and still am) a Sanders backer is that he more than any other candidate seemed like he would have told the bankers to go straight to hell.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Phoenix666 on Sunday October 22 2017, @07:38PM (2 children)
Dammit, Thexalon, when will we learn that Jamie Dimon has the solution? Clearly the answer is to eliminate all taxes on banks, not punish them for being successful!
Jamie Dimon for president.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Thexalon on Sunday October 22 2017, @09:12PM (1 child)
Well, we tried to #AskJPM, but they decided to not answer our questions. Of course, that might have had something to do with the questions, like:
- "I have Mortgage Fraud, Market Manipulation, Credit Card Abuse, Libor Rigging and Predatory Lending AM I DIVERSIFIED?"
- "Can I have my house back?"
- "Did you always want to be part of a vast, corrupt criminal enterprise or did you 'break bad'?"
- "What's it like working with Mexican drug cartels? Do they tip?"
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday October 23 2017, @02:29AM
Those are all excellent questions. Why does no one ask them?
That no one does proves how broken the first American Republic is.
Washington DC delenda est.