April 7, 2018

Oh, but The Wall is more of an idea.



Drudge, this morning, links to "Hopping the wall into Trump's US, in under 2 minutes" (Yahoo).

Isn't just the message of WE DON'T WANT YOU worth all the money and effort? And don't you like that hulking rusty monstrosity outlining our border?

Isn't it sort of like locking the doors on your house — a determined burglar can kick the door in, but it keeps out the "opportunistic criminal," like the kid who tries doorknobs to see if he can maybe just walk in and swipe something?

Or is Yahoo kind of fake-newsing us?

61 comments:

Unknown said...

The melting pot myth has become costly.

Like the Iraq war and the freedom myth.

Mark said...

The only wall that was as effective as we would like was the one in Berlin where a gunshot was the likely outcome.

Unless we start putting lead into everyone illegally crossing then any new wall is just theater.

Thats some expensive theater. I would rather they fix the potholes than buy a charade on the southern border.

Big Mike said...

Broken glass and razor wire on top of the wall would have stopped him.

Ralph L said...

Without a wall, the next president can and likely will reopen the floodgates.

David Begley said...

The wall pictured is an old design. The new Trump wall will not be so easy to climb. Fake news.

The Bergall said...

And just by happenstance a photographer was right there...........

Rob said...

Those who are fit enough and motivated enough to climb a twelve-foot wall are just who we need to harvest our lettuce and landscape our yards. But the young, the old, the frail, the lazy--those who if they come would be a drain on society--will stay behind. That fellow climbing the wall could be Richard Dreyfuss in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." Trump, you magnificent bastard, you have depths no one ever suspected.

Tommy Duncan said...

A few former East German guards with green cards and AK-47's would fix this.

Meanwhile, Inga shifts into gloat mode.

Curious George said...

"Mark said...
The only wall that was as effective as we would like was the one in Berlin where a gunshot was the likely outcome."

What idiocy. There are plenty of walls that don't have the risk of being shot behind them. Quick example, August National has a wall all around it. If you hop over no one is going to shoot you. But it does what it's supposed to. Keeps all but the most determined, out. Make the job easier for the security folks.

As far as this example, the proposed wall is 10' higher, and has features that make scaling very difficult. Second, even if it's 90% effective, like the example about, it makes border patrol that much easier. Third, there is a reason the left doesn't want a wall, and it's not cost. And it's not with you. They know that open borders are a losing position with the American electorate.

Big Mike said...

@Mark, @Tommy, the Berlin Wall was designed to keep people in. We want to keep people out. Not the same problem.

Tommy Duncan said...

Blogger Big Mike said...

"@Mark, @Tommy, the Berlin Wall was designed to keep people in. We want to keep people out. Not the same problem."


Different problem, same solution.

Ralph L said...

I assume Israel likes their wall, since we don't hear from them about it.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

I agree with the libs. Im completely opposed to the wall. It's costly, ineffective, ugly and unnecessary.

My proposed compromise is to not build the wall. But also deport any illegal alien. Make it a crime to lease or sell a home to an illegal. Make it a crime to hire an illegal. No government benefits for illegals. Then the wall would be unnecessary.

Deal?

Bruce Hayden said...

This is just another reason I hate Yahoo. Their business plan seems to be anymore getting their search engine installed surreptitiously on people's computer, piggy backed with other software that they download and install, then make it extremely hard to get rid of it. I know, anymore, when I see their search engine pop up on what I had explicitly set up as a blank tab, that I am in for an hour or two of hard work, that often includes scanning the registry, and probably several boots, before I get the infestation eradicated. If I could safely firebomb their headquarters, I probably would.

Hagar said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Hagar said...

Bill, all those things are illegal; the Democrats just do not think they are required to enforce laws they don't like, so they don't.

Chuck said...

Ralph L said...
Without a wall, the next president can and likely will reopen the floodgates.


You might get a "next president" sooner than you'd like, if we have to spend $70 billion of the federal taxpayers' money that Trump promised would be paid for by Mexico. To build a wall that a great many voters in border states (even Republican-leaning voters) don't want.

I actually like the idea of stronger enforcement of all of our immigration laws. I don't want any illegal immigration. I definitely don't want any pathway to citizenship. I just don't like "security theater." Big walls, national guard troops; it's all security theater.

The Israeli wall might have some merit as an example; if, that is, we wanted to live like Israelis. And I don't. They live, perhaps by necessity, in a state of near-constant emergency, spending nearly double what we do on defense as a percentage of GDP.

AllenS said...

Chuck, when the Israelis quit their defensive posture, they're dead. Short and simple.

Ralph L said...

Troy liked their walls. Then they got sloppy.

Chuck, if Trump doesn't build a wall (at least where it's most needed), he won't be reelected. Why do you think the Dems ditched the Dreamers to stop it?

Bruce Hayden said...

"The wall pictured is an old design. The new Trump wall will not be so easy to climb. Fake news."

Agree with Begley 100% there. That was part of why the new wall is such a big thing with Trump. They had Special Forces trying to climb the new wall samples, and that was extremely hard for the samples that passed. These are guys who train to climb things for a living. Part of it is that they have to be high enough that the only way to get over them is with a rope, and probably using apparatus that will shoot a hook up there. Plus make sure that a hook doesn't hook on top, and there aren't any easy cracks to wedge, etc.

Boxty said...

Chuck: San Diego built a fugly steel wall that has been effective in dropping illegal crossings by about 90%. That's not "security theater."

https://www.conservativereview.com/articles/border-fences-work/

The only people I know who don't want a wall in California are the ones that live in Del Mar and La Jolla. They want access to their cheap maids and gardeners.

The rest of us hoi polloi--the ones that have to deal with the crime and the strained services and overcrowded schools--want the wall.

Bob Boyd said...

This is fake news.
Look at the way the headline is worded, "Hopping the wall into Trump's US, in under 2 minutes". They hope you'll read it as, "Hopping Trump's wall into the US, in under 2 minutes" But it isn't Trump's wall. It's the wall that doesn't work that Trump wants to replace.

Then this: "President Donald Trump's orders to deploy thousands of National Guard troops to secure the US frontier with Mexico did not stop one determined migrant."

Of course "orders" don't stop anyone. They're words. They haven't been carried out yet. There were no troops there.

mockturtle said...

Needs to be topped with razor wire. Yes, there are few walls that can't be scaled by a fit body with a grappling hook [Ninjas, anyone?].

mockturtle said...

Bill, Republic of Texas: If the existing laws were enforced we wouldn't need it, either.

Paul said...

No problem folks. Just ELECTRIFY THE FENCE. Add a moat to boot. We have PLENTY of alligators to fill them with. And all crossings are by drawbridge.

We asked them politely to not sneak across but instead apply for a visa. They didn't get that message. Maybe they will get this one.

Gahrie said...

Put a squad of National Guardmen on our side of the border and throw his ass back over the wall.

Gahrie said...

I actually like the idea of stronger enforcement of all of our immigration laws. I don't want any illegal immigration. I definitely don't want any pathway to citizenship. I just don't like "security theater." Big walls, national guard troops; it's all security theater.

So how would you stop them? Street signs asking them to go back?

Gahrie said...

The Israeli wall might have some merit as an example; if, that is, we wanted to live like Israelis. And I don't. They live, perhaps by necessity, in a state of near-constant emergency, spending nearly double what we do on defense as a percentage of GDP.


Do you think the Israelis do? They just actually give a shit about defending their borders.

Gahrie said...

"@Mark, @Tommy, the Berlin Wall was designed to keep people in. We want to keep people out. Not the same problem."

Different problem, same solution.


You don't know the difference between a prison and a gated community?

Michael K said...

The Wall just weeds out the half hearted and those who can't climb it. This gives the Border Patrol a 90% reduction in who they have to catch. The San Diego fence has been that effective when it used to be a hopeless task to stop the illegals.

The Wall is also a symbol of will. Chuck doesn't want pay $70 billion. If chuck lived in California he could pay that for a train to nowhere.

Trump isa guy who made billions negotiating deals. Mexico knows, for all their bluster (election time), that we can tax or stop remittances and hit them hard.

AllenS said...

One look at that picture on Drudge of that wall should tell everyone that it has been standing for years. That wall wasn't built yesterday, but some people might have been born yesterday.

Phil 314 said...

The Israeli wall is higher...


Oh, and there are armed and willing soldiers on the other side.

n.n said...

The melting pot myth has become costly.

Most people are not diversitists and make color judgments. Principles, character matters.

Like the Iraq war and the freedom myth.

The Iraq war reached a ceasefire with the first Bush; sustained under Clinton; ended with the second Bush; and reopened and progressed under Obama throughout the Middle East, Africa, and Eastern Europe, and transmitted through CAIR (catastrophic anthropogenic immigration reform).

n.n said...

The wall is a symbolic entreaty for action to help the men, women, and children left behind. There needs to be emigration reform and unPlanned Parenthood.

rcocean said...

The Israeli wall is working just fine. The US power elite - which includes the DC Uni-party and almost the entire MSM - doesn't want a wall. They don't want to stop immigration - legal or illegal. Ever. Miss Lindsey and McCain were almost apoplectic when Trump floated cutting legal immigration by a couple hundred thousand.

So, every single MSM story is about how terrible the proposed wall is. What a big waste of money it is. How its "racist" to build it. How - even if we build it - it won't work.

Propaganda - nonstop.

Achilles said...

One look at that picture pointed out that 1 person out of 3 made it over.

With any kind of surveillance the guy that got over is picked up a few minutes later and spends a day or two in a cell before being dropped off in Mexico.

Bruce Hayden said...

“The Israeli wall is working just fine.”

And they have the effrontery to back it up with lethal force. So, last week, there was apparently some spontaneous mass march on their wall. Some people got by/through it. 15 or so Palestinians died. The Israelis showed their military using tank fire to blow them up. How dare they kill innocents that way. Well, next we know, the Israelis have released mug shots of most of the deceased, showing which martyrs brigade they belonged to. Turns out, the spontaneous mass march was put on to hide a military attack on Israel with a screen of civilians. Israelis knew it, saw it coming, and were prepared, not just to negate the attack, but also to go on the offensive politically.

Sitting much of a half a planet away from them, I thought that machine gun fire might have been the better counter. For one thing, I would think that tank fire would be more likely destructive of their wall. But blowing them up from a half a mile away probably has more of an in terrorem effect. Esp if they could do it without damaging their wall. The Palestinians thought that they could hide the attack by burning a lot of tires. Which, I think is to say that they don’t quite understand modern technology, and is similar to those Afghani peasants fornicating with their livestock, apparently to great mirth of the American drone drivers watching them live a half a world away. The moral is that just because you can’t see them, doesn’t mean that they can’t see you, whether in the middle of the night, or through thick smoke.

mockturtle said...

With any kind of surveillance the guy that got over is picked up a few minutes later and spends a day or two in a cell before being dropped off in Mexico.

Unfortunately, Achilles, that's not how it works. The policy is that if an illegal immigrant sets foot [literally] on our side of the border, the agents must process him and release him, here in the US, until a hearing, which often takes two years or more. This policy is often called 'catch and release'. These illegals know that all they need to do is cross the border. How many of them ever show up for a hearing? Overstaying one's visa is never an enforced crime, either. We've been more than sloppy and it's time to right the ship.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

...border wall...reporter right there...
Hold my cerveza !!

maybe we make being able to scale our border wall in under 2 minutes the requirement for citizenship, and call it a day, huh?
Now THAT'S common sense immigration reform.

Achilles said...

mockturtle said...

Unfortunately, Achilles, that's not how it works.

You are falling behind the Trump curve.

becauseIdbefired said...

I wonder what it is like to drop 30 feet vs. 20 feet. A guy who worked in construction in NYC told me once "There is no difference between falling from the 3rd story or the 100th."

Darrell said...

So the upshot is that Democrats want hunter/killer drones at the border.
Works for me.

Gahrie said...

You are falling behind the Trump curve.

He means this:

"Donald Trump signed a memo on Friday ordering the end to the Bush-era program that allowed illegals caught at the border to be released from detention pending the outcome of their legal proceedings."

https://pjmedia.com/trending/trump-orders-end-catch-release-program-illegal-aliens/

MeatPopscicle1234 said...

This article is intentionally misleading... it attempts to portray this as TRUMP’s wall, the one he’s been championing, and to say SEE!! Trump’s wall is innefective after all..: But this is NOT Trump’s wall... it is not one of the new prototypes that he is trying to get funding for... it is one of the existing, easily climable POS that demonstrate exactly WHY we need a newer, bigger, better wall... #FakeNews!!!

Michael K said...

The moral is that just because you can’t see them, doesn’t mean that they can’t see you, whether in the middle of the night, or through thick smoke.

They didn't have thermal imaging sights in the 7th century.

mockturtle said...

He means this:

"Donald Trump signed a memo on Friday ordering the end to the Bush-era program that allowed illegals caught at the border to be released from detention pending the outcome of their legal proceedings."

https://pjmedia.com/trending/trump-orders-end-catch-release-program-illegal-aliens/



Yesterday? Sorry, I didn't hear that. But he did sign an order a year ago ending catch and release but the courts blocked it, IIRC.

mockturtle said...

And "As part of the order, Trump is requesting "a detailed list of all existing facilities, including military facilities, that could be used, modified, or repurposed to detain aliens for violations of immigration law at or near the borders of the United States."

Sounds like we still have to house and feed them.

mockturtle said...

Shooting them would probably be the most effective deterrent and fairly economical, too.
Leave the bodies on the other side of the border.

Anonymous said...

How do we know he's not escaping US?

mockturtle said...

Truth is, we are being had BIGLY by Mexico.

Michael K said...

ockturtle said...
Shooting them would probably be the most effective deterrent and fairly economical, too.
Leave the bodies on the other side of the border.


Reminds me of a story. I was attending a cocktail party in Mazatlan 30 years ago and the host, a retired Disney illustrator, told me about a fellow who started crawling over the wall between his house and the beach.

He yelled in Spanish for the guy to quit climbing over the wall. Then he got his gun.

The guy kept coming over the wall. I said, "What did you do ?" He said, "I shot him." I said, "What happened?"

He said, "He fell back over the wall onto the beach.

I said, "What happened then?"

He said, "I dunno. He was gone in the morning."

That was that.

mockturtle said...

He had a gun in Mazatlan? Or was he talking about his house in CA?

Michael McNeil said...

If he was talking about his house in California, he certainly should have tried using English on the guy….

Michael McNeil said...

In my view the Wall should be double — two walls, with a military road (constantly patrolled by vehicles and guards) in between. Anybody found in between the walls would be scooped up. They should be designed, I believe, so as to require different skillsets to cross them both.

gadfly said...

Speaking of fake-newsing:

Yaser Murtaja died Saturday after being shot the day before while covering protests at the edge of the Gaza Strip, likely for Al Jazeera.

Murtaja was laid to rest in the land he never left. His body was carried through the streets of Gaza City draped in a Palestinian flag and the blue-and-white vest marked “PRESS” that he was wearing when he was shot.


The armored vest really said "PRESS" in English and the IDF troops shot him anyway or at least so goes the tale. Last time I checked, reading English was not a requirement for Israeli armed forces.

Oso Negro said...

Yahoo “news” is leftist drivel, day in, day out.

AllenS said...

Making sure that there is razor concertina wire on the top, and on both sides of the top of the wall would probably be enough to stop 95% of people from even trying. Leaving the 5% that tried and then gets stuck in the wire would also be a helpful reminder for others.

Rusty said...

The fact is no wall ever kept everybody out, but what it does is make the number of people who do make it over manageable.

C R Krieger said...

The Blog Mistress denegrated the wall for being rusty, but that is, I suspect, the way it is supposed to be.  Pre-rusted steel (CORTEN), for a lower maintenance cost.  Thus less cost to the Taxpayer.

Regards  —  Cliff

jg said...

At least this way we'll be getting only their Best(TM).

jg said...

Hey, it still slows down the pregnant women?