Friday 29th of March 2024

when the mexican wall and a donald decree was a shovel...

in the land of the free...

This early 1920s cartoon is from Winsor McCay who was more famous for his strips and animation of "Little Nemo" than his political views. 

See more and pay some cash to Wikipedia on my behalf at :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winsor_McCay

amusing concrete slabs...

The wall along the Mexican border doesn't have to be made of boring concrete slabs.

It might be a "smart wall" filed with fiber optic cables designed to detect anyone trying to climb over or tunnel underneath it. Or it could resemble a medieval castle, with a notched top and turrets. It could be made of solar panels, or even be a work of art. 

These are among the ideas submitted to the Department of Homeland Security, which is considering bids to build a barrier of some kind between Mexico and the United States. 

This round of bids is actually to build a prototype for a wall, the first step in President Donald Trump's much repeated promise to build a border wall. Next, DHS will narrow down the list and request a handful of prototypes. The department declined to say how many proposals were submitted, but several candidates shared their plans with CNNMoney.

read more:

http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/07/news/companies/mexican-border-wall-trump/

 

the wall......

Of all the political tribulations that elicit gnashing of teeth from Washington, the most ridiculous has to be the government shutdown. The federal government has been closed 18 times since 1975 over everything from abortion to nuclear missiles to congressional laziness, yet only recently has this rather mundane occurrence been turned by cable news into a ticking-clock serial thriller. The last villain to trigger a shutdown was Sen. Ted Cruz in 2013, and while voters disapproved, they quickly shrugged it off and awarded Cruz’s Republicans control of the Senate that following year. An Associated Press poll from 2015 found the public supporting a hypothetical shutdown if it extracted needed spending cuts.

That being said, Donald Trump was wise to back off his threat of another shutdown earlier this week. Trump had initially signaled that he would veto any budget that didn’t include funding for his wall on the southern border, now such a trademark promise that he’s branded it as just “The Wall.” Democrats are monolithic in their opposition, with Nancy Pelosi on Sunday calling The Wall “immoral, expensive, unwise.” Since Democratic consent is needed to advance any budget through the Senate and the government’s spending power expires on Friday, Trump’s holding firm would have probably triggered a shutdown. So it was good news when he indicated on Tuesday that The Wall could be appropriated later in the year, drawing lukewarm plaudits from Democrats and grateful exhalations from Republicans.

Yes, shutdowns are hardly unprecedented, but doing one now would have cemented Trump’s already-hardening reputation for managerial chaos. “Only Republicans could shut down the government when they control all of it,” the pundits would snark, and they’d have a point. Democrats would have to do little except recline and point. All this over The Wall—more a symbol of Trump-flavored nationalism than a serious policy to advance its goals—which Republicans are reluctant to fund, ostensible Trump allies dismiss as ineffective, and the public opposes by a yawning margin. To pilfer one of political journalism’s favorite clichés, this is one can that should be kicked down the road.

Read more:


not a wall...


WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Republicans have a new talking point about President Donald Trump’s border wall: It’s not really a wall at all.

Instead, the wall is “a bit of a metaphor as to border security,” in the words of Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida.

Or, a “quote, wall,” as Sen. John McCain of Arizona put it: A combination of drones, towers, anti-tunneling devices and the like that add up to enhanced border security.

The issue arose this week as Congress squabbled over government-wide spending legislation, including money for security measures along the U.S.-Mexico border.

read more:

http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/when-is-a-wall-not-a-wall-gop-r...