This, Guadalupe Canyon, is the kind of majestic place where Trump thinks it is necessary to build a border wall, ruining it for all concerned. What would he know about the wilderness?
This tower reminds me of Weaver's Needle in the Superstition Wilderness in Arizona, which I once stood before at very early dawn as I did my business just after getting out of our tent, a bit of a holy séance.
I hope Biden quickly tears Trump's wall down. I hope these kids mean it:
26 comments:
David - There are almost always costs to solving a problem. Complaining about these costs while ignoring the problem is a cheap kind of virtue-signaling.
Like you, I regret the destruction of this lovely canyon. However, something must be done to prevent an unlimited amount of illegal immigration over the Southern border. Do you have a better solution than building a wall?
Cheers
DiC, buiilding a wall doesn't solve the problem. The border is too long,the wall only covers part of it, and it will be easy to get under, over or through it at unguarded places.
The wall is just symbolism. A very expensive way of waving the flag. I understand some of the contactors may get rich, though.
Thomas - you have a point. The wall surely won't be 100% effective. However, I think it will be substantially effective. Countries all over the world build walls for this purpose. They wouldn't build all these walls if they didn't work.
Cheers
Trump's justification for the wall is hogwash. The real aim is to sooth the anxiety of ~50% of Americans in the face of growing secularization and "browning" of the country. And that ain't worth sacrificing this beautiful land.
Unknown - playing the race card is always reprehensible. Since a wall actually benefits black Americans, your comment is doubly so.
Cheers
DiC - Bringing up issues of race is not reprehensible if helps uncover the truth. There was a recent (post-election) Fox News poll that revealed 42% of Americans was one of the greatest President, and I think another 8% that he was above average. This is mystifying in light of his malevolence and incompetence, and the general chaos he is leaving behind. I base my conclusion that racism is one of the reason for this level of support on the fact that many of his tweets, political ads and speeches (and indeed policies) are laced with xenophobia and racism, and that there is virtually no push back from traditional Republicans. Clearly that indicates to me that they think these are winning themes, hence my belief that latent racism, or at least xenophobia, is a component of his success. If not, why would he stoke those fears? You may not harbor those feelings, but you have your own reasons to look past the cruelty, stupidity and corruption of this man.
Dan Hue
DiC Very few countries build wall like that. You may think about the Berlin Wall, but that was a much shorter construction with armed guards all along. The argument "they wouldn't do it if it didn't work" isn't very good either. People and countries do all kind of stupid things that doesn't work.
Thomas - maybe I should charge for my services in looking up things on google. :)
From 7 to 77: There's been an explosion in building border walls since World War II
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/05/24/border-walls-berlin-wall-donald-trump-wall/553250002/
Cheers
Unknown -- Bringing race into the discussion, as you have just done, leads to mutual insults. E.g., Trump's policies were excellent for African-Americans -- better than Obama's policies. Suppose I call you a "racist" for being oblivious to the improvement in black lives thanks to Trump's policies? I don't think that insult would forward a useful discussion.
Cheers
DiC - What does it tell you about the supposed excellency of Trump's policy towards black Americans that those concerned went 90% (give or take) towards Biden?
Dan Hue
Dan Hue - there's a lot of inertia in voting patterns. As a Jew I'm struck at how Jews continue to stick with the Democrats, even though Republican policies have been more favorable to Jews for some time.
I haven't seen final figures, but surveys before the election showed some amount of increasing black support for Trump. Not a big increase, I grant you.
cheers
David in Cal wrote:
Suppose I call you a "racist" for being oblivious to the improvement in black lives thanks to Trump's policies?
I keep having to point this out, but black unemployment was 7.5% when Trump came into office, and is now 10.3%:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=zd01
That doesn't include those who have dropped out of the work force.
Also, "In the three years before the pandemic, 2.3 million Americans lost their health insurance, accounting for up to 10,000 “excess deaths”; millions more lost coverage during the pandemic."
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/01/the-legacy-of-donald-trump/617255/
I wonder how these losses were distributed by race. Of course, any of us can make an educated guess, but that's not the same as data.
This is the most obvious data that pops up -- uninsured rates by race and ethnicity for 2010-2018:
https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Slide1-1.jpg
I'm not interested in looking much more now.
David, I believe you're right, there was increased black support for Trump, I believe by about 4 pct points. There were similar increases across almost all minority groups, I believe -- Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, and I forget if any else. I believe I've read this has Democrats very worried, as well it should. I'll try to post about it next time I read something on it -- or, if you find something (or anyone else), drop a link, as it's an important, and puzzling (to me), topic.
The ultimate reason we're building the US-Mexico border wall is because of the vast economic inequality behind the two countries. Did Trump do anything to lessen this inequity? Did he even note its existence? As long as it exists, as long as it grows, we will have to build the wall higher and thicker, and even then determined Latin Americans will find their way into the United States, and not just to keep our grocery prices low.
I think the wall is a humanitarian disgrace, a fascist's solution to an economic and demographic problem, and, in this Canyon's case, an environmental and aesthetic insult by people who lack vision and enlightened values. In this case, if the wall must be built, move it two miles north to preserve this natural tower. Better yet, give the land back to the people we stole it from.
David - Just about every country in the world has legal restrictions on who can immigrate. Is every country in the world fascistic?
You may not like the idea of separate nations, but that's how the world works today. The responsibility of the President of the United States is the United States, not the whole world. That's what our Constitution says. If a President makes the US such a nice place to live that many people would like to move here, then that President has done a good job.
P.S. although the rest of the world was not Trump's bailiwick, he did a lot for people outside the US by bringing peace to a number of areas.
David:
"[In 2017], the number of Mexican immigrants living in the U.S. illegally has declined by 2 million since 2007."
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/28/what-we-know-about-illegal-immigration-from-mexico/
Mexican immigrants are not the majority population among undocumented residents.
The wall is a big show of toughness. So was holding people in inhuman pens on the border, and immorally separating children from their parents. Now over 600 of these children have been unable to be reunited with their parents, a crime of shocking inhumanity. Who will be held responsible for this Nazi-like outrage?
Besides, we *need* more immigrants, with a bulge of baby boomers retiring, and millennials not earning like their parents did at their age.
And, let's be frank, without illegal Mexicans crops will rot in the fields.
David in Cal wrote:
If a President makes the US such a nice place to live that many people would like to move here, then that President has done a good job.
Yeah, Trump didn't do that. Just the opposite.
Good night.
If a President makes the US such a nice place to live that many people would like to move here
Do you really think that America is a nicer place since Trump became president? Even if we were able to remove his callous and incompetent management of the pandemic from the equation he was still a disaster.
He has emboldened conspiracy theorists and right wing extremists probably because they make up a significant part of his base and therefore should be pandered to at all costs.
Nothing illustrates more how polarized and damaged he is leaving America than the present situation. There is in effect an ongoing coup. I don't know how else you can describe the fact that he and his supporters are trying to have millions of votes invalidated in crucial states he lost and have himself declared as winner. Officials and judges who don't bend to his will are demonized. Poll workers have been doxed resulting in them needing police protection. Do you really believe that he has made the country a nicer place?
Just what does he have to do before his supporters accept that he is not fit to be president and that his losing was for the best? Given his mental issues I really think that if he thought the army would support him he would declare martial law as some of his supporters have suggested.
from The Hill 12/11/20:
"A Fox News poll released Friday found mixed reviews about President Trump's job performance over the last few years, with a majority ultimately saying they thought the United States was worse off now than it was four years ago.
"Fifty-five percent of voters in the the poll said they believe the U.S. is worse off now than it was four years ago, while nearly a third — 32 percent — said it was better off and 11 percent said it was the same.
"Asked if they personally were better off than four years ago, 33 percent said yes while 36 percent said they were worse off and 30 percent said they were the same."
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/529913-55-percent-in-new-fox-news-poll-say-us-worse-off-than-it-was-4-years
To be fair to DiC, the US still looks like an attractive place to live from South of the border, relative to gang-ridden parts of Mexico, drought-plagued Guatemala, and other tough spots. But raising a wall in front of desperate people fleeing these conditions (and ripping families who pass through apart) is morally disgusting, even if you believe that immigration should be more controlled or restricted. By doing so you're directly endangering the lives of these people either by making their journey more perilous or making them more vulnerable to exploitation. There are more humane and efficient ways, but they are not popular with Trump's base, for whom a physical wall is symbolically in line with their ideology and emotionally more satisfying.
Unknown - You are attributing motives to people you have never even met. I am very pro-immigrant. I was raised in an immigrant family. Nevertheless, I favor a wall because it's a reasonably effective way to help control illegal immigration.
Of course a wall isn't perfect. It doesn't help with the many illegal immigrants who don't come through the Southern border. Drug cartels have the resources to dig massive tunnels. OTOH what are the alternatives?
IMO a big part of the problem is that many Americans want to encourage illegal immigration, rather than discourage it. E.g., rich business owners looking for cheap labor and Democratic politicians looking for more voters. If the country were unified in opposing illegal immigration, then a wall wouldn't be necessary.
Cheers
It's eight weeks since the election and the president of the United States has just tweeted,
“Breaking News: In Pennsylvania there were 205,000 more votes than there were voters. This alone flips the state to President Trump.”
The day after the 2016 election Hillary Clinton said,
“Donald Trump is going to be our president...We owe him an open mind and a chance to lead.”
The present situation is purely down to the fact that someone with narcissistic personality disorder managed to get elected and that cowardly Republican politicians prevented him from being held to account. It's clear from Trump's behaviour and his disconnect from reality that he is not well and it's long past the time for Trump's enablers to put the country first.
From this below, it appears that to the political guardians of our nation's security, the borders of Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and Oman are of more importance than the borders of the United States of America.
"SEC. 9026. Of the amounts appropriated in this title under the heading “Operation and Maintenance, Defense Wide”, for the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, $250,000,000, to remain available until September 30, 2022, shall be available to reimburse Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and Oman under section 1226 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 (22 23 U.S.C. 2151 note), for enhanced border security, of which not less than $150,000,000 shall be for Jordan: Provided, That the Secretary of Defense shall, not less than 15 days prior to obligating funds made available in this section, notify the congressional defense committees in writing of the details of any planned obligation and the nature of the expenses incurred: Provided further, That the Secretary of Defense shall provide quarterly reports to the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Senate on the use and status of funds made available in this section.
https://rules.house.gov/sites/democrats.rules.house.gov/files/BILLS-116HR133SA-RCP-116-68.pdf
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