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The Trump Shutdown


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3 minutes ago, DC Tom said:

 

Which is also why Trump's Wall is a load of *****: the cost is being low-balled by addressing just the physical construction ("Build a wall!") and not the more significant cost of patrolling and maintenance.  It's not a $5B wall...it's a $50B wall.


I "think" it was $25B? But $50B wouldn't surprise me. Still a drop in the bucket over a $2T budget... and fewer costs associated with less illegal drugs, and incarcerating illegal aliens that commit violent crimes at a higher rate , etc., etc. 

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3 minutes ago, Tiberius said:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/dhs-test-cut-right-through-trumps-border-wall-steel-slats-with-a-saw-report

 

Department of Homeland Security testing of a prototype of the steel-slat design that Donald Trump favors for his Mexico border wall proved that it could be cut through with a saw, NBC News reports. A photo obtained by the network shows the slats with a gaping hole in the middle after experts from the Marine Corps were instructed to attempt to destroy the barriers with common tools. Testing by DHS in late 2017 showed all eight prototypes, including Trump’s favored steel slats, were vulnerable to breaching, according to a Customs and Border Protection report from last February. CBP spokesman Ralph DeSio said the prototypes “were not and cannot be designed to be indestructible,” and can only “impede or deny efforts to scale, breach, or dig under such a barrier, giving agents time to respond.” During the presidential campaign, Trump promised to build an “impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful” wall on the border that would be paid for by Mexico.

bull####. those are not saw marks. in fact they more closely resemble slag marks from a torch. more than likely a plasma torch. good luck getting the requirements for that to cut a hole in the fence.

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53 minutes ago, WhitewalkerInPhilly said:

Oh look, you ran away and hid because of the facts hurting your "feelz"!

 

Or did you get triggered by seeing a cartoon of a brown person? Do you need your safe space?

 

Uh. I responded to your "facts" - which were goal post shifting or otherwise irrelevant to the discussion - and smashed your post. 

 

Surprised you missed it. But ignoring reality in favor of your emotions is what you do:

 

1 hour ago, Deranged Rhino said:

 

That's a nonsense point devoid of proper context. Walls are highly effective at stemming the tide towards better covered areas. This is the goal, and the result 99% of the time. 

 

How do I know? I talk to actual border agents. You should try it, you'll be amazed at what you learn from people who actually have to do the work. 

 

 

This makes my case, not yours. "I don't know if it'll help" is a cop out. Not an answer and not a fact. 

 

 

Moving the goal posts, not dealing with facts or the topic. No one is arguing a wall will STOP the crime from happening. The argument is it will stem the tide and flow towards areas with better/easier coverage which will decrease supply and increase arrests while saving lives. 

 

 

Thank you for proving, again, you do not operate on facts, but on manufactured talking points masked in emotions. 

 

Have you spoken personally with CBP/DHS/ICE agents? Have you called them yourself to ask their opinions?

 

I doubt it. But you should... you'll be amazed at what you can learn when you stop going by feelz and start going by facts.

 

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2 minutes ago, DC Tom said:

 

No.  That's a pain point for a lot of people...but not anyone that anybody in DC really cares about.  I mean, how much have you heard about garbage in Yosemite, compared to food stamp recipients?  "Welfare recipients" is an abstraction, so "starving welfare recipients" isn't real pain.

 

"Starving federal workers," on the other hand...those are real.  They exist within the DC bubble.  


You think anyone in Washington cares about their voters these days? I know the old rule used to be 1 call (or 1 letter) = 1000 voters, but I have no idea if it is still applicable today.  Would a call in campaign or an email campaign  wake anyone in Congress up? 

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2 minutes ago, Foxx said:

bull####. those are not saw marks. in fact they more closely resemble slag marks from a torch. more than likely a plasma torch. good luck getting the requirements for that to cut a hole in the fence.

They just cut a hole in the stupid thing!! ?

 

Too funny!!!

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50 minutes ago, jrober38 said:

 

I'm not a conservative, but sometimes listen into conservative talk radio and try to listen to opinions from a variety of sources across the spectrum to gauge where people are coming from. It's a small sample, but some of the people who call in literally sound like they think a "wall" will completely block the flow of people across the southern border. It's as if they have no idea whatsoever how much commerce occurs there, and that those ports of entry where people cross legally and where so many tons of drugs come through undetected will remain open with a wall. 

 

A simple solution is good in theory, but it's not practical. 

 

Human beings have fled their homelands due to war, genocide, disease and famine for thousands of years, and that instinct isn't going to change suddenly with the creation of a wall.

 

Desperate people with no hope or opportunity to better themselves or support their families will continue trying to get into the United States for as long as the reward outweighs the risk.

 

The journey is too dangerous? Your risk getting raped or killed along the way? Not as bad as staying put and watching your kids starve to death due to the extreme poverty you face with no way out. 

 

You're not wrong that some people on the right are blinded by partisanship or dreams of a wall doing more than it actually will. But that's just politics. 

 

No serious person believes a wall is a cure all. It's never been proposed as such, nor advocated as such. It's one part of the solution - but a fundamental one. There are brainless partisans on both sides (of any issue), you can't go by what they say. You have to go by what is actually being proposed/legislated/passed/debated. 

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8 minutes ago, DC Tom said:

 

Which is also why Trump's Wall is a load of *****: the cost is being low-balled by addressing just the physical construction ("Build a wall!") and not the more significant cost of patrolling and maintenance.  It's not a $5B wall...it's a $50B wall.

Would we not patrol the border in the absence of a wall? It seems a wall would reduce the cost of patrolling.

 

And maintenance costs would be far less than the cost of construction.

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42 minutes ago, WhitewalkerInPhilly said:

It's not "too expensive"

 

It's useless.

 

It doesn't stop the flow of people. (No one claimed it stops immigration, but it does have an impact. It moves the flow of people into different/easier to patrol areas)

It doesn't stop the flow of drugs. (Same as above)

It won't lower crime (False)

No one knows if it will stop human trafficking (False, it will stem the flow in the most highly trafficked areas. You clearly don't care about human slaves - bet you have an iphone too - but others do)

Building it means forcibly selling land from private citizens (Not true, it may in some small stretches, but in most it will not)

It is going to continue to be a massive expenditure to maintain and staff. (It offers permanence to a problem. Added funding for men and technology can always be stripped away by the next administration, a wall offers permanence. You don't care about stopping human trafficking or helping stem the sex trafficking of children across the border - that's clear - but a lot of people do including this POTUS) 

 

 

You have no facts to back this up.

 

You're making broad summations of talking points you've heard while doing zero research for yourself into the issue. That's why you're so easily misled. 

 

Just feelz. No facts. The NPCinPhilly way of approaching life's problems.

 

36 minutes ago, WhitewalkerInPhilly said:

I already said this, but it answers your question: Right now, Democrats have zero reason to bend.

 

 

You're terrible at this whole understanding how politics actually works thing. 

 

The pressure is all on the left to bend. They can't win the argument on substance, most of them already voted for the wall in the past, and the more days the government is shut down the less camera time the left's best shots in 2020 have to make their soundbytes on various committees and investigations they're just DYING to roll out. 

 

All feelz, no facts. The NPCinPhilly way. 

31 minutes ago, DC Tom said:

 

Next two weeks should tell.  When government workers start missing pay checks (to be honest, no one in DC gives a ***** about SNAP recipients) the pressure on everyone in DC is going to ratchet up considerably.

 

But much more on the left than the right, considering DC is largely a blue city with blue voting gov't workers.

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2 minutes ago, Buffalo_Gal said:


I have no idea why people do not block him. My head hurts reading what people quote by him, but to see everything he writes?  ?

well, i try to consider input from places that are not aligned with my perspective just to keep it real and not get me locked into an echo chamber. that being said, when it rises to the level of pure stupidity, i just scroll past it. plus i have to admit, i like Tibs . i believe there is hope for him yet.

 

;)

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28 minutes ago, DC Tom said:

 

You're delusional.  The Democrats have been constantly defining their "base" as the coastal urban population, and progressively alienating almost everyone between the East and West coasts.  They're not getting any "middle" back if they keep dismissing most of the country as being "flyover country."  

 

He's emotional. That makes him delusional. 

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The illegal aliens are using our laws against us. They hoped that the caravans would flood our borders so that we had no choice but to release them until their hearing date. The mix coming over has changed from mostly young males to a lot of families. This further burdens us because of our laws. (Separating families) Presently Mexico is helping us out by housing those claiming asylum but at some point in time a wall will be needed to insure people come through ports of entry so they can be vetted.

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{sigh} Catch and release... Congress is full of spineless $#@!!*& that have no will to deal with this through better laws... WHY these people are allowed to stay in the United States once crossing illegally is beyond me. Honest to Pete what do you think would happen to you if you landed in JFK from a foreign country and tried to jump customs? An appearance ticket!? Yeah, I don't think so. 
 

 

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15 minutes ago, Foxx said:

bull####. those are not saw marks. in fact they more closely resemble slag marks from a torch. more than likely a plasma torch. good luck getting the requirements for that to cut a hole in the fence.

 

Cutting through the slats was never going to be that hard. It was just Trump trying to save face and offer a compromise. 

 

If that cross section of the hollow steel with concrete inside (that’s what it appears) is right, hand power tools would work fine to penetrate it. 

 

It will always need to be watched and patrolled to be effective. I assume that’s always been someone’s plan, not that the pols are eager to share those details. 

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21 minutes ago, Foxx said:

bull####. those are not saw marks. in fact they more closely resemble slag marks from a torch. more than likely a plasma torch. good luck getting the requirements for that to cut a hole in the fence.

 

"Prototypes"

 

Key word glossed over in that article.

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