The Wall...Isn't Actually Getting Built?

What's happening in your world? Discuss it here.
Forum rules
Play nice. We will be watching

The Wall(?)

Postby Absentia » Thu Feb 16, 2017 5:50 pm

Background information:



Surely you all remember Trump's promise to build a "big, beautiful, concrete wall" along the Mexican border, and make Mexico pay for it. And presumably you also remember when he took office and Mexico told him no fucking way are we paying for your stupid wall. And then maybe you remember that he signed an executive order stating that he wanted to go ahead with the wall anyway.

Well, the Department of Homeland Security did their homework and concluded what everybody who doesn't own a "Make America Great Again" hat already knew: a solid concrete border wall would be a really stupid idea. Not only because it would be ludicrously expensive but, as Border Patrol officials pointed out, a wall would obstruct their vision across the border and make it harder to catch those bad hombres Trump is so worried about.

So DHS is set to recommend instead a fence made of reinforced steel bars, 18 feet high and 6 feet underground to prevent tunneling. Fencing like this is already used in border-crossing hot spots like San Diego, and the DHS plan would upgrade and extend these fences by about 200 miles for a total coverage of around 40% of the border. This would cost about $5 billion, which is considered reasonable enough to actually sell to Congress while giving Trump the chance to claim a measure of victory.

In my opinion this would still be a waste of $5 billion but not a totally outrageous one, and seems like a reasonable compromise. Whether Trump will go for it, who the hell knows, but some of the anonymous DHS sources said they would quietly discourage Congress from doing anything more extravagant. At the very least, it looks like they won't start building a real wall anytime soon.
  • 21

User avatar
Absentia
TCS Moderator
TCS Moderator
 
Posts: 1786
Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2015 4:46 am
Location: Earth
Show rep

Re: The Wall(?)

Postby cmsellers » Thu Feb 16, 2017 5:59 pm

You mean Homeland Security is not completely useless? Color me surprised.

And yes, it is a waste of five billion dollars. But my big concern is the "make Mexico pay for it" part.

He keeps discussing two options to make "Mexico" pay for the wall: to raising tarriffs and confiscating remittances. Tarriffs fuck the American consumer; they're not Mexico paying for it. And they may start a trade war. Fucking with remittances won't stop remittances; I know this because Somalis living abroad send back remittances via an informal system due to the fact that normal economic institutions don't operate in Somalia. But it will cause a lot of unnecessary economic and social chaos while the black market gets up and running. And once it's up-and-running, it will probably strengthen the hand of Mexican organized crime, because you know the cartels and coyotes will get involved in the money smuggling business as well.
  • 19

User avatar
cmsellers
Back-End Admin
Back-End Admin
 
Posts: 9316
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2013 7:20 pm
Location: Not *that* Bay Area
Show rep
Title: Broken Record Player

Re: The Wall(?)

Postby iMURDAu » Thu Feb 16, 2017 5:59 pm

Can it be one of those wood fences with horizontal slats? Those are in style and in the future would be a nice way to remember when the wall was built because it would be contemporary to the end of all days on this foul Earth times we currently live in.

Reinforced steel bars are too jail-ish and would make me feel like I was trapped, not secure. Plus with the horizontal planks I want it would be soooo easy to paint the American flag. And then about 10 years later when it fades we'll just put the proper Russomerican flag on there so it's still got a current look to it.
  • 19

“This is going to become a bad meme,” Todd observed.
User avatar
iMURDAu
TCS Chomper
TCS Chomper
 
Posts: 6752
Joined: Fri Apr 19, 2013 10:08 am
Location: twitch.tv/beakstore
Show rep
Title: King of Fuh

Re: The Wall(?)

Postby Anglerphobe » Thu Feb 16, 2017 7:27 pm

I had wondered previously how the Great Wall of America would be manned and maintained. Will it be an army of conscripts, Israel-style? Will there be a real life Night's Watch with an eternal oath and everything? All we know for sure is that Mexico is going to pay for it.
  • 15

"Tusser, they tell me, when thou wert alive,
Thou, teaching thrift, thyselfe couldst never thrive.
So, like the whetstone, many men are wont
To sharpen others, when themselves are blunt."

Anyone who has any kind of opinion fucking disgusts me.
User avatar
Anglerphobe
TCS Junkie
TCS Junkie
 
Posts: 2160
Joined: Fri Mar 06, 2015 6:03 pm
Show rep
Title: round Earth shill

Re: The Wall(?)

Postby sunglasses » Thu Feb 16, 2017 7:47 pm

Mother, should I build the wall?
  • 8

TCS Etiquette Guide

Rules and FAQs

Zevran wrote:Magic can kill. Knives can kill. Even small children launched at great speeds can kill.
User avatar
sunglasses
TCS Moderator
TCS Moderator
 
Posts: 11541
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 2:52 pm
Show rep
Title: The Speaker of Horrors.

Re: The Wall(?)

Postby D-LOGAN » Thu Feb 16, 2017 7:57 pm

Oh just give the man his damn wall people!!! Can you not see how much the poor lad wants it, show a little compassion. I mean he's been going on about it for so long, how about you just let the baby have his bottle and be done with it. Christ All Mighty, it's just a bloody wall. It's not like he's asking everyone in the world to have plastic surgery to look like pterodactyls and then errect a moat of molten lava around the whole country with dragons swimming around in it! And it's only for 8 years, then you can take the fecker down and move on with your lives. Honestly, just be the bigger man and leave him to it. Frankly I think it'll be a good thing as I think it'll keep him out of trouble, give him something to do like while he's sorting it out and keep him out of everyone's hair for a bit.

Pfffft, wall! That's your border issue? A wall???? I could tell yez a thing or two about border problems. A wall would have been the least of our concerns lemme tell ya. Yez don't know yez are born!
  • 15

Not just yet, I'm still tender from before.
User avatar
D-LOGAN
TCS Junkie
TCS Junkie
 
Posts: 3590
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2013 7:08 pm
Location: Éire
Show rep
Title: ALL PRAISE UNTO MIGHTY KEK!

Re: The Wall(?)

Postby CarrieVS » Thu Feb 16, 2017 8:00 pm

I want to be a pterodactyl and have a moat full of dragons.
  • 24

A Combustible Lemon wrote:Death is an archaic concept for simpleminded commonfolk, not Victorian scientist whales.
User avatar
CarrieVS
TCS Redshirt
TCS Redshirt
 
Posts: 7103
Joined: Sat Apr 20, 2013 7:43 pm
Location: By my wild self in the wet wild woods waving my wild tail
Show rep
Title: Drama Llama

Re: The Wall(?)

Postby D-LOGAN » Thu Feb 16, 2017 8:05 pm

OH YOU JUST HAVE TO BE DIFFICULT ABOUT EVERYTHING DON'T YOU CARRIE?!?!?!?!?

*sigh*

Fine, I'll have a word with Donnie next time he's over, see if he can find some loophole to fit that into the bill too. Man this is really starting to spiral out of control. The catering budget hasn't even been figured out yet. I mean it can't all be cheese sandwiches. Plus there are probably other issues somewhere down the line.
  • 10

Not just yet, I'm still tender from before.
User avatar
D-LOGAN
TCS Junkie
TCS Junkie
 
Posts: 3590
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2013 7:08 pm
Location: Éire
Show rep
Title: ALL PRAISE UNTO MIGHTY KEK!

Re: The Wall(?)

Postby Twistappel » Thu Feb 16, 2017 9:26 pm

This is yet another thing they should have asked Germany about.
  • 10

You say "New World Order" "communist echo chamber" like it's a bad thing.

The TCSer formerly known as "Sister Morphine’
User avatar
Twistappel
TCS Junkie
TCS Junkie
 
Posts: 2640
Joined: Thu Dec 05, 2013 11:07 pm
Location: The People's Republic of Colorado
Show rep
Title: Failed the Turing Test

Re: The Wall(?)

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Thu Feb 16, 2017 9:31 pm

Image
  • 10

Image
User avatar
Deathclaw_Puncher
Knight Writer
Knight Writer
 
Posts: 12452
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2013 9:42 pm
Location: Fair Oaks, CA
Show rep
Title: Queen of the Furrets

Re: The Wall(?)

Postby reallifegirl » Thu Feb 16, 2017 9:33 pm

I just want to share what a friend of mine wrote on Facebook about why the wall is a bad idea.

One thing I haven't seen people talking about with trump's wall. Bush tried to build a wall, too. It was a major campaign promise in 2004. Does anyone remember what we got? (Hint: google the 2006 Secure Fence act.)

And people were furious. "border fence" just doesn't sound as good as "border wall," amirite? Why do we even have fences??? They're so stupid. Preschoolers can climb them!

Why do we have fences? Science. Specifically climate science. Remember how we learned in school about a little stream carving it's way through hundreds of miles of dense stone over millions of years? A border fence would be like that. Only instead of a little stream over millions of years, you'd have gallons of runoff, pooling on both sides around a flimsy man-made structure. Most of it on arid desert land that doesn't have the ability to suck up water the way we in Illinois are used to. Remember when Arizona flooded last year? That. On a massive scale. Alternatively, remember when your neighbor's septic tank started back flowing? Yeah.

And if the phrase "thousands miles long poop dam" isn't good enough for you: Climate scientists have been telling us for years (ten of them!!) what would happen to the ecosystems on both sides of the wall if we started trying to erect barriers along man-made borders without regard for the existing ecosystem.

In fact, pressure from environmental scientists and activists is part of why Bush's wall plan was swapped for a fence.

I'm not saying Trump isn't systematically shutting down environmental agencies because he's anti-global warming. He clearly stands to profit from decreased emissions regulation. But the Trump Wall becoming the Trump fence would be an egg on his face. Silencing our environmental scientists kills (however many birds exist) with one really big stone.


She has also since been referring to the wall as 'the Poop Dam'.
  • 19

Last edited by reallifegirl on Thu Feb 16, 2017 9:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"I can believe things that are true and things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not."

Encyclopedia Dramatica wrote:Reallifegirl: Is supposedly a girl in real life, but we all know that's false. Gets highest comment roughly 75% of the time, and has never had a single red-thumbed comment. Ever.
User avatar
reallifegirl
Time Waster
Time Waster
 
Posts: 1609
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 5:21 pm
Show rep
Title: Officially allegedly female

Re: The Wall(?)

Postby Anglerphobe » Thu Feb 16, 2017 9:44 pm

Anglerphobe wrote:I had wondered previously how the Great Wall of America would be manned and maintained. Will it be an army of conscripts, Israel-style? Will there be a real life Night's Watch with an eternal oath and everything? All we know for sure is that Mexico is going to pay for it.


I have had some more thoughts on this, and decided that the GWoA should be manned by all the Wrestlers, Boxers, and other athletes who have ever competed/performed under the nickname "The Wall". There would even be theme music!

  • 10

"Tusser, they tell me, when thou wert alive,
Thou, teaching thrift, thyselfe couldst never thrive.
So, like the whetstone, many men are wont
To sharpen others, when themselves are blunt."

Anyone who has any kind of opinion fucking disgusts me.
User avatar
Anglerphobe
TCS Junkie
TCS Junkie
 
Posts: 2160
Joined: Fri Mar 06, 2015 6:03 pm
Show rep
Title: round Earth shill

Re: The Wall(?)

Postby Grimstone » Thu Feb 16, 2017 9:56 pm

Image

sunglasses wrote:Mother, should I build the wall?


Image
  • 16

"The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart."
User avatar
Grimstone
TCS Guerilla
 
Posts: 2160
Joined: Wed Feb 17, 2016 11:52 am
Show rep
Title: Creature of the Night

Re: The Wall(?)

Postby NathanLoiselle » Fri Feb 17, 2017 12:21 am

Mother, should I run for president?
Mother, should I trust the government.
Mother, do you think they'll try to break my balls?
Oooooooh, mother should I build a poopdam?
  • 2

User avatar
NathanLoiselle
TCS Junkie
TCS Junkie
 
Posts: 4484
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2014 3:49 am
Location: You'll Never Know!
Show rep

Re: The Wall(?)

Postby Grimstone » Fri Feb 17, 2017 12:32 am

CarrieVS wrote:I want to be a pterodactyl and have a moat full of dragons.


Don't we all
  • 13

"The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart."
User avatar
Grimstone
TCS Guerilla
 
Posts: 2160
Joined: Wed Feb 17, 2016 11:52 am
Show rep
Title: Creature of the Night

Next

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 21 guests

cron