 |
| Screenshot from a video showing people easily climbing up and over Trump's vaunted Border Wall |
As we all know, he's been harping on this border wall since he announced his candidacy for president.
He said he'd build an inpenetrable wall to keep those horrible Mexicans out and Mexico would pay for it, and we'd all live in his white supremacists nirvana in which we wouldn't have to see all those icky brown and black and people of color types.
Or something like that.
Trump's a showman, of course. You know, Barnum and Bailey. He's cult followers swallow everything he says hook, line and sinker, but nothing he does is rooted in reality.
Like the product of most shysters, the finished product isn't as spectacular as advertised. Predictably, we're learning that it's easy as pie to climb over the wall and crawl under it. And little more than a puff of wind can bring it down.
Remember how Trump said Mexico would pay for the wall? I haven't heard that talking point in awhile. Seems the people who run Mexico aren't stupid, and they'll just let Trump dig his own hole with that one. Plus, I imagine Mexicans don't want to be involved with anything this flimsy and worthless.
Early reviews are not good at all.
Prototypes of this wall have popped up in the media.
Mother Jones, and a lot of other media outlets, quoted Trump a few months ago saying the following:
"That's why, he said, he'd hired a team of 20 'world-class mountain climbers' to test the various wall prototypes. 'Some of them were champions. And we gave them different prototypes of walls, ad this was one that was hardest to climb. And we've all seen the pictures of young people climbing walls with drugs on their back - a lot of drugs. I mean, they're unbelievable climbers.This wall can't be climbed This is very, very hard.'""
The first hint that the wall was pretty lame was the viral videos that went out showing people climbing right over the damn wall. For instance, there's this one. Below the video in this post, I'll get into more. It gets worse, as you might imagine.
Almost looks like I could handle going over the wall and I'm an out of shape middle aged guy, so there's that:
People who aren't in terrific shape might need help getting over the wall. A ladder might help. Would a ladder help people get over this supposedly inpenetrabe barrier?
Well, of course!
As Raw Story and numerous other media outlets tell us, a cheap $5.00 ladder will get you over this barrier. Plus, this inexpensive ladders made of rebar kind of blends in with the wall, so you don't easily see it.
Here's reporting from the Independent:
"The rebar ladders began appearing in large numbers once construction of a replacement wall in El Paso was finished last May. According to Border Patrol, illegal crossings have increased ever since.
'We're starting to see a lot of evading activity,' said Agent Ramiro Cordero. 'We're starting to see criminal organizations working hand-to-hand on either side to avoid detetion. More and more we are seeing failure to yields - they are utilizing ladders to go over the fence and diversionary tactics."
Still can't get past the wall even with that cheap $5 ladder? Well, we'll let either Mother Nature or the Border Patrol itself open up passageways for you.
Last month, wind gusts of just 37 mph pushed over a section of the wall in California. To be fair, the concrete footing holding it up hadn't set yet, but still.
Also, it turns out the Border Patrol will let you right in, if you try to cross at the right time of year. In the late summer in the Desert Southwest, where the wall is, monsoon season comes annually. This weather pattern causes short-lived but intense thunderstorms that cause flash flooding. Each local flash flood lasts no more than a few hours. At most.
According to the Washington Post and other news outlets, debris from the flash floods would stack up against the wall, eventually knocking sections of it over. So gates in the lower portions of the wall need to be raised at the onset of monsoon season so that the debris can pass through, leaving the wall undamaged.
It's too big an area to monitor, so these gates are unmanned and are left open through the monsoon season. Since the flash floods last only a fraction of the time, people can just march right on through those raised gates, as long as it's not raining enough to cause a flash flood. Which is basically most of the time in late summer.
I dunno. Maybe Trump would have been better off if he just planted a big row of cactus along the border or something.
No comments:
Post a Comment