grumpyduck
grumpyduck's JournalOkay, seriously, why so much talk about the wall instead of about immigration issues?
We hear about the wall all the time, but not so much about problems with people and drugs entering illegally. Congress is trying to pass some bills, but the overall commentary --everywhere -- is about the wall.
The wall isn't an end in itself (okay, okay, it is to some people). It's a means to an end: a solution to a problem. So why do we (as in people in the US and the media) keep focusing on this one solution instead of on the problem? Is it just easier to talk about? I'm just fascinated by how easily some discussions get sidetracked.
AOC comment about Hannity and Fox
I don't think I've ever just posted a link to something else, but I think this piece in HuffPost is right on the nose. She asks whether Fox News is just "elaborate, postmodern performance art."
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ocasio-cortez-hannity-fox-news_us_5c493f3de4b06ba6d3ba2c6f
Some people can't seem to be able to tell the difference between reported news and commentary, and this guy ain't helping.
I miss Kronkite.
I'm not singling out Nancy.
And I think she kicked ass too. I'm commenting on the avalanche of duplicate posts that just push "new" stuff down the page.
Geez, let's not go back to me being a troll... I went through that shit enough when I first joined and had a low post count. And as far as my username, yeah, this admin has made me want to write it all in capital letters.
Can we please stop writing OPs about how well Nancy handled T?
She did fantastic, but it's over (for now). Continuing to post about this is just going to keep pushing stuff down the page. There are plenty of posts already to respond to or just k&r.
Ok, how many of you are actively involved in supporting the Democratic agenda
besides just posting here in DU?
Posting here and blowing off steam is fine, but we need to do more.
$5.7 billion is only the down payment for the wall
I wrote about this yesterday, but the post got buried in the avalanche of new OPs, so I'll post it again. I believe it's an important fact, and one that the press seems to be ignoring in their focus on "the wall vs the shutdown." I wrote my three members of congress about it, but don't expect to get back anything besides a form letter.
From Fortune magazine last year:
Estimates range from as low as $8 billion to as much as $67 billion or more, depending on whom you ask and the number of miles of wall that get built. Based on Trump’s 2017 budget request for $2.6 billion to plan, design and build 75 miles of wall, Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill’s office estimated the per-mile cost would be about $37 million, or nearly $67 billion for the entire 2,000-mile border. Congressional Republicans have said they expect a wall to cost from $12 billion to $15 billion, based on the cost to rebuild existing border fencing covering a third of that distance. These projections, however, don’t include the cost of land acquisition.
http://fortune.com/2018/01/19/donald-trump-border-wall/
Yes, I know... the $67 billion figure may not be dead-on-the-button accurate, and the estimate was prepared by a Democrat, so therefore it's BS, and it was reported in a leftist magazine, so it's fake news, and all that. But for anyone who bothers thinking a little bit, the message will be loud and clear: that wall will cost a hell of a lot more than the $5.7 billion we keep hearing about.
And, sadly, once a new administration takes over and realizes that it's not working, and that costs continue to skyrocket, and decides to stop the project, all that taxpayer money will have gone down the drain and people and drugs will continue to come in illegally.
Please -- please -- bring this up to your own representatives and your local media. It needs to be up there with all the other stuff they keep repeating.
My letter to my MoCs re: the wall and its cost
Aargh. For some reason I decided to spend my time writing my MoCs instead of doing something more pleasant. Here's what I just sent my three MoCs. Feel free to copy and re-send if you want.
And yes, I did include a salutation.
Now that the “wall vs. shutdown” battle has become even more interesting, I think it’s time that the American public be made aware of the realities. The figure the White House keeps repeating, and that we keep seeing in the mainstream media, is $5.7 billion. But, as I’m sure you know, that’s not the price: that’s just a down payment. A piece in Fortune magazine, from January 2018, includes the following:
“Estimates range from as low as $8 billion to as much as $67 billion or more, depending on whom you ask and the number of miles of wall that get built. Based on Trump’s 2017 budget request for $2.6 billion to plan, design and build 75 miles of wall, Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill’s office estimated the per-mile cost would be about $37 million, or nearly $67 billion for the entire 2,000-mile border. Congressional Republicans have said they expect a wall to cost from $12 billion to $15 billion, based on the cost to rebuild existing border fencing covering a third of that distance. These projections, however, don’t include the cost of land acquisition.”
Once more, history gives us a clue as to reality: This is not much different than President Bush’s insistence that the Iraq war would cost “so much,” where it actually cost “a heckuva lot more.”
Since the mainstream media has apparently chosen, for some reason, to keep repeating the $5.7 billion figure, I believe Congressional Democrats should take the initiative to bring out the truth about the estimated cost of that wall. Maybe it’ll help some non-Democrats understand that things aren’t always what they seem, and hopefully reconsider their support of this administration.
Therefore, I urge you and your fellow Members of Congress to get out there and tell it like it is: $5.7 billion is a down payment, and, once the Oval Office has a new occupant and Congress decides to stop the project, that money will have been wasted.
Best regards, and keep up the good work.
Interesting article on the wall from a construction journal
Just now looking for information on the steel specs for the wall, and ran across this article in Equipment World, a journal for the construction industry. It's from last year, but an interesting take on their viewpoint. The short article ends with:
Washington D.C. can’t make the sensible choice when there is money on the table. But for those of you in the private sector who are eager to get a piece of this wall building deal, think about the implications. What does it say about your character if you are willing to take vast amounts of taxpayer money to build something bound to fail; a wall predicated on America’s addiction to illegal drugs and cheap labor and our hypocritical inability to enforce our own laws?
And 10 or 20 years from now, are you going to take your grandkids out in the desert to see this half-built, broken down and abandoned wall and proudly say: “See kids, I helped build that.”
https://www.equipmentworld.com/can-trumps-wall-be-built-will-it-be-effective-should-you-bid-no-no-and-no-heres-why/
Another piece, in Fortune, says partly:
Estimates range from as low as $8 billion to as much as $67 billion or more, depending on whom you ask and the number of miles of wall that get built. Based on Trump’s 2017 budget request for $2.6 billion to plan, design and build 75 miles of wall, Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill’s office estimated the per-mile cost would be about $37 million, or nearly $67 billion for the entire 2,000-mile border. Congressional Republicans have said they expect a wall to cost from $12 billion to $15 billion, based on the cost to rebuild existing border fencing covering a third of that distance. These projections, however, don’t include the cost of land acquisition.
http://fortune.com/2018/01/19/donald-trump-border-wall/
OK, for us lingo-challenged folks: what does nt mean?
I see it on posts all the time. Thx.
So let me get this straight: T directed Cohen to lie to Congress?
And Cohen actually did it?
If that is correct (and AFAIK, it hasn't been proven yet but I may be incorrect):
Cohen's a lawyer. How blankety-blank dumb is that?
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