Sunday thoughts---the Wall and Trump’s shutdown

Let me start by saying the very idea of Trump’s wall is STUPID…it’s not about border security….it’s a monument to Trump’s ego and maybe a financial boon to his allies (where’s he planning on getting the steel? His own buildings aren’t built with American steel.)…nothing more.

For one thing, most illegal immigration is a case where people come here legally and overstay their visas so why is Trump focused on the border to Mexico? It’s twofold…it’s well-known that Trump is a racist and to be fair, Mexico has a lot of crime. When that “caravan” was coming that Trump talked about before the election (afterwards, not so much), there were people wondering why they didn’t just seek asylum in Mexico. Why would refugees fleeing a crime-ridden country seek asylum in another crime-ridden country? I swear, if people had to prove they had common sense before posting on social media, the world of social media would be a lot smaller.

Another issue…the length of the border itself. The border between the US and Mexico is 1933 miles…counting natural barriers like the Rio Grande and the Colorado River. There’s a lot of border space that Trump is ignoring along Canada (5525 miles),the coastlines, and the shorelines of the Great Lakes.

https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RS21729.pdf

He claims he wants to stop criminals from coming but what’s to stop criminals from going around the walls….or under or over as they’ve done for years with the current barriers? Not a damn thing! The only people his wall would stop are the poor who are coming here to seek asylum…which is legal. If Trump were really concerned with securing the borders, he’d construct a wall all around the United States but wait…that’s just by land or sea. Most illegal immigrants arrive by air…guess we need a dome. Sounds stupid, right? Just like the wall. There are already barriers in place and yes, some could be improved upon…but in no way, shape, or form, should natural barriers be interfered with in any way.

That brings up another point…the effect on the environment. There are wildlife refuges right where Trump wants to put some of his wall. Humans share this planet with other life forms and we’ve already driven some species to extinction. Our planet has a very delicate eco-system and every species has a part to play in it…though what houseflies and mosquitoes contribute is beyond me. We need to protect our planet. The movie Independence Day featured aliens who visited worlds to plunder their natural resources and essentially kill the planet. Who needs aliens when we’re doing that on our own? We need to protect our wildlife and environment because despite what the orange idiot says, climate change is very real. The movie 2012 looked at what we could be looking at if we don’t clean up our act. Truthfully, the movie did go to extremes…we aren’t looking at an ice age like that anytime soon but our polar ice caps are melting and ocean levels are rising while the habitats of some animals are disappearing. We’re not past the point of no return yet but it’s not far off if we don’t work on cleaning up our acts.

https://www.vox.com/2018/3/28/17152644/trump-border-wall-texas-environment-refuge-butterflies

Back to the shutdown. It’s been going on for over 2 weeks. Some people are out of work because of it. Some are stuck working with no pay. Neither of those situations is acceptable to anyone with a soul. The Democrats have come up with plans to reopen the government and fix those situations. Republicans have been in favor of these same plans…but Mitch McConnell, whose love for blind obstructionist tactics is well documented, refuses to let anything happen unless his fuhrer is ok with it. When did Congress stop being about checks and balances and go to being a rubber stamp on whatever the President wants? Trump is about as evil a politician as we’ve ever had but let’s face it, enablers like McConnell are complicit when they refuse to do the jobs they were elected to do…not to block an agenda or to serve an agenda, but to serve the American public to do what’s right for the nation.