In the least surprising news EVER, it appears that smugglers have managed to defeat the Trump’s billion dollar boondoggle:
Smuggling gangs in Mexico have repeatedly sawed through new sections of President Trump’s border wall in recent months by using commercially available power tools, opening gaps large enough for people and drug loads to pass through, according to U.S. agents and officials with knowledge of the damage.
The breaches have been made using a popular cordless household tool known as a reciprocating saw that retails at hardware stores for as little as $100. When fitted with specialized blades, the saws can slice through one of the barrier’s steel-and-concrete bollards in a matter of minutes, according to the agents, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the barrier-defeating techniques.
After cutting through the base of a single bollard, smugglers can push the steel out of the way, allowing an adult to fit through the gap. Because the bollards are so tall — and are attached only to a panel at the very top — their length makes them easier to push aside once they have been cut and are left dangling, according to engineers consulted by The Washington Post.
Now I hardly feel smart for having PREDICTED THIS, because anyone with two functioning brain cells could have told you this was going to happen. Unfortunately, that requirement is daunting for Trump and his base, who demanded a wall to keep them dammned furriners out. Honestly, the only possible way you could think this wall would work in any way, shape, or form, is if you are so fucking stupid that you have never examined the history of EVERY FUCKING BORDER WALL EVER BUILT and so fucking racist that you think Mexicans do not have access to sophisticated technologies like ladders, shovels, and… saws.
Of course, not every one is a fucking moron, so there were actual proposals that would have been cheaper, would not have impeded on landowners rights, and not served as a giant stain on the landscape and our nation’s character, but those were ignored:
But it is fertile for an invisible kind of fence, one built of artificial intelligence, radar, drones, sensors, motion-activated cameras and even lidar, the same technology used in self-driving vehicles.
“Virtual walls” or “smart walls” along the southwest border are increasingly being billed as an alternative to the proposed concrete and steel barriers that have so sharply divided public opinion.
An electronic fence is not about preventing intrusion as much as it is about detecting intrusions and then intercepting them.
Although even the strongest proponents for such a technological solution admit physical barriers are likely best in urban areas such as San Diego and El Paso, they see a virtual wall as a cheaper and more effective way to police much of the rest of the 2,000-mile southwest border.
If you were actually serious about this hypothetical “invasion” of illegals, this is what you might consider. If you’re just concerned with riling up your ignorant ass racist base with apocryphal tales of illegal hordes, you build a fucking wall that anyone can saw through.
Omnes Omnibus
I am just happy that immigrants are contributing to Wisconsin’s economy.
Steve in the ATL
Of greater concern: I just made a last minute liquor run for our guests who preferred a brand of whiskey we didn’t have, and 15 minutes before the critical game that will determine whether I pie Betty Cracker for the year or she pies me, there were a handful of people out on the golf course!
Yet another sign of the misplaced priorities that plague our country.
Steve who is not at the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party
cain
We now go to Jefro’s Dad for a comment on said news! Jefro, what does your dad say about this new development!?
Incidently, y’all, I had a great week, got two job offers, on ADHD medication, the company that fired me in April is getting the backdoor treatment, and getting reamed, Trump is losing it, Repubicans in disarray and I’m going to Barcelona in a week! :D
ETA – my open source community got attacked by a patent troll, we are close to raising our $125k goal (just $1300 left) and it’s been an amazing response by the community. The next step is to go after the patent troll and take the patents away from them. Don’t fuck with us.
Kdaug
A). Guatemalan/Equadorian food is amazing
B). Mexicans are bailing.
Mike G
Like nearly all Republican “solutions”, it isn’t about solving a problem but enriching cronies while impressing shallow, stupid people, knowing they’ll never be evaluated on its actual effectiveness.
In fact, ineffectiveness allows them to perpetuate the alarmism (“They’re STILL getting through!”) to perpetuate the grift.
And not one out of a hundred MAGAts will care that the wall is ineffective and a waste of a shit-ton of money, because the act of building a wall of any kind shows Trump performatively “believes the right things”.
Duane
“Trumpov fought the Battle of Mexico, and the wall come tumblin’ down.”?
trollhattan
Wussies–cutting torch or go home!
But seriously, I’d have given the San Diego sample fence a go with just what I have in the basement. Dewalt vs. U.S. Gummint, go!
John Cole
@cain: what happened to your former company
Mart
Or you know, a Mexican could fly over the wall and overstay their visa. Cunning foriegn devils.
debbie
I don’t know how big that saw is, but I’d like to see a little girl, all decked out in her Sunday best, knocking down a panel of the Wall. Maybe with just one hand.
Dmbeaster
Any wall must be manned to be effective. The technology of the wall itself is unimportant. Detecting devices are key. The wall is supposed to have them to alert about being sawed.
LuciaMia
Hmmm, bad name for a rock band.
mrmoshpotato
@Omnes Omnibus: Sawzalls can’t saw through the big, beautiful wall! It’s made of steel and concrete, not zalls, you libtard losers! Sad!
Omnes Omnibus
@mrmoshpotato: Eh, they’ll just have to buy more blades.
MattF
And yet, the Trumpites cite his genius, e.g., from Vanity Fair:
Now, I’ll allow that being mocked by a Trump toady for not being able to handle the overwhelming intellect of His Orangeness is exactly what Kelly deserves. That said, I’d have thought geniuses would have heard of reciprocating saws. IMO.
Roger Moore
Or you might consider some kind of penalty or punishment for people who hire them. Until we do that, it’s clear we have no interest in stopping illegal immigration, just in keeping immigrants powerless and exploitable.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I had a good day at the McHenry author fair. Sold five books and used my new credit card reader for the first time.
Now I get ready to talk to the sixth graders.
dmsilev
@debbie: The grip at the right of the picture is sized for an adult’s hand, to give you a sense of scale. Giving something like that saw to a small child is a Bad Idea; asking the child to cut something with it is an even worse idea. Having the child push the already-cut steel bar out of the way, on the other hand…
Quaker in a Basement
So that section of the wall becomes something like…a door? A big, beautiful door? Well, Trump promised the wall would include a big, beautiful door, dinnee? Quid pro quo…err, QED, libs!
cain
@John Cole:
I worked for a company called Purism, a purported ethical company focused on privacy and security. They were working on a phone. I was laid off along with the entire business part of the company because we challenged the CEO over financial issues on a Saturday night. Since then they have been beset with issues of their own making.
1) the community figured out that Purism was lying to them about shipping phones out, and started doing their own investigations (the phones were based on a pre-order)
2) There has been leaked by former employees about the money situation to people in the community have been blogging about it
3) this week, apparently, their hardware supplier is now building their own phones based on Purism’s design
4) The CEO is now called Toad instead of Todd by the community
Meanwhile us ex-employees have been having a grand popcorn eating time. I suspect they’ll be out of money by next year unless someone buys them out. We tried to address all these issues prior, but you know, idealogues don’t give a shit and thus they deserve every problem they get. They replaced my position of director of marketing with a guy who is focused on promoting (mostly him) and apparently, the word I hear is that he hasn’t been working, he disappear for days before appearing again. Morons.
ETA: I have more stories – like the fact that I still have access to their twitter account. Their security guy is a moron, who upon releasing a social media product got hacked on day one.
trollhattan
@MattF:
It does make me ponder what else Stephanie Grisham will do for money.
Isn’t she a Romney spawn? They love them some money.
SFAW
@MattF:
Except, with the Grifter-in-Chief, he doesn’t believe in reciprocating ANYTHING — pay someone fairly (or anything, for that matter) for a job they did? Fuck no! Return a favor that someone does for you? Hell-to-the-FUCK NO! — so I can see how it might confuse all those high-quality hires in the Traitor’s maladministration.
waspuppet
But Trump is a BUILDER who knows how to BUILD THINGS! He said so himself, and he oughta know because he’s a BUILDER who knows how to BUILD THINGS! How can —
Oh wait — this is because it wasn’t painted black with spikes on top, isn’t it?
And no MOAT!
SFAW
@Omnes Omnibus:
By buying products from a company whose HQ is in Hong Kong?
mrmoshpotato
@waspuppet: No moat! No moat! You’re the moat!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Omnes Omnibus: I don’t know where half our doctors would come from without immigration.
mrmoshpotato
@Omnes Omnibus: Nope! Sad and unbigly! It’s a Sawzall, not a Sawzwall!
stinger
Congratulations, Dorothy!
I’m sitting in our community auditorium waiting for a mock caucus to begin. The rules have changed this year, and we’re mock caucusing to learn the deets.
mrmoshpotato
@dmsilev:
Gotcha. Child-size Sawzalls! Get on it Milwaukee Tool!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@stinger: Are you going to be a precinct captain for someone?
Matt
I’m going to be yelling some Thanksgiving “I told ya so’s” to the MAGA cousins and have one moment of pettiness, because I said this like a million times in arguments with them in 2017.
LuciaMia
Since she holds no press briefings I wonder what she’s doing for her paycheck now?
mrmoshpotato
@Quaker in a Basement: Great! Our racist, dumbshit government has created human-sized pet doors!
stinger
@waspuppet: I could see right through that. And now I could saw right through it.
stinger
@Dorothy A. Winsor: probably not, but can help make sure our event is properly run.
mrmoshpotato
@SFAW:
LOL Well played.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I see Buzz Feed has released some of the Mueller Investigation documents it got through FOIA
Omnes Omnibus
@SFAW: The particular subsidiary is headquartered in Brookfield.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@stinger: I’m sorry not to be caucusing this time.
TaMara (HFG)
JFC.
dmsilev
@mrmoshpotato:
Think of the cobranding opportunities. Hello Kitty Sawzalls!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@TaMara (HFG): You can never overestimate the horribleness of Trump and his people.
Bill Arnold
@cain:
Please feel free to share details. Oh, and [smile] on the job offers; I’ve just started looking. (Job cuts mid Oct because of uncertainties related to the Chaos Demon DJT’s Trade War(s) and impending possible brexit. (Brexit extension since then, but still uncertainties)). (Tech, current cloud infrastructure skills, lots of pubs and patents.)
hells littlest angel
Trump is looking at the bright side — a perfect excuse to stiff the contractors!
Ken
Before scrolling down, I imagined what “Donald Trump’s Nemesis” would be.
A garden rake left with the tines up?
A door clearly marked “PULL”?
His shoelaces?
I decided it would be a picture of Trump himself, accompanying a story about how he’d released some new confession to a felony. The saw is good, though.
jl
@waspuppet: @mrmoshpotato: The genius Trump foresaw that Wall needed Moat. With crocodiles on fire, sharks with fricken laser beams, and mutant man-eating bass. Libtards lose, again. If only they had appreciated the genius of Trump and listened to him.
In the meantime, until we get Wall with Moat, pupusa, chuchitos,. and ceviche trucks on every corner! From aggressive cultures! Pushing out the lutefisk and gamalost trucks of yore. We are doomed.
Edit: what we need is for spikes on top of Wall to shoot fire and sparks. Kind of like the fountain in front of the Bellagio in Vegas, except fire and sparks, not water. Would be a tourist attraction from US side, and for the few ‘good; Mexican on to the south
Charge admission for prime seating.
Wall with pay for itself!
debbie
@TaMara (HFG):
That is so Stephen Miller.
Roger Moore
@TaMara (HFG):
All in all you’re just another brick in the wall
The Dangerman
@hells littlest angel:
Uh-uh, because somewhere in that deal, a Trumper is getting his or her cut.
stinger
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I expect it will be interesting!
psycholinguist
you know will now say that we should just shoot everybody, or electrify the fence.
J R in WV
@trollhattan:
Bosch Hammer-Drill for one, angle grinder, 2 sawzalls, I’m with you, between the basement downstairs and the garage, I’m in too!
ETA to add Trollhattan’s comment I was replying to…
jl
@psycholinguist: ” we should just shoot everybody ”
The PC Deep State treasonous coup plotters deep-sixed and nixed that stroke of Trumpian genius. Some BS about against the law. Trump’s problem is that he can’t keep the dirty rat fink fuzz out of the WH.
Martin
The problem with virtual walls is the same as for a regular wall. If there was a border patrol agent at the regular wall, nobody could have cut through it. Someone would have stopped them. If someone crosses a virtual wall, same problem – someone needs to be there.
The problem with the southern border has always been that we don’t want to pay for someone to stand with a visual on every inch of the southern border. A wall increases the cost of passage, but given that it’s cheaper to cut through the wall than to repair the hole, it becomes a war of attrition which we’re on the losing end of.
The risk of a virtual wall is that if we’re unwilling to fund a person to stand there, what will be the next best economic value for stopping a border crosser, and I fear the answer is an armed drone. We have no compulsion to spending DOD dollars, and it’s obvious that no Republican has the moral will or personal courage to stand up to that, so that’s exactly what will happen.
MattF
@Martin: I imagine that armed drones at the border would have to be remotely piloted. So, someone with that assignment will be spending their days at the office, shooting refugees. Sounds right.
RAVEN
@Roger Moore: My brothers Floyd band is doing it tonight
Which One’s Pink, the world’ pre-eminent Pink Floyd tribute band, has been performing together since 1997.
Tonight, they’ll be performing Pink Floyd’s The Wall in its entirety.
November 2, 2019
The Canyon – Agoura Hills
28912 Roadside Drive Agoura Hills, CA 91301-3304
Doors 6pm. Headliner 9:00pm.
Martin
I wonder if a low profile car jack could fit in there and bend the bars enough? Alternatively, one of those new polymer ropes with a long enough lever. Not that hard to accumulate a few tons of force. Either would likely be faster/quieter than a sawzall.
cain
@Bill Arnold:
I’m sorry to hear that. I hope you do find a good job. :) I was laid off in April, and it took some time to find the job I want and that I can fit in. The offers I’m entertaining are 50-75% more than what I was paid in my last job. (the past 2 jobs, I was taking less than market worth IMHO, so this is really normalizing) It was very depressing to work for less.
But hang in there, and it will happen. If you need anything let me know.
cain
@Martin:
I imagine shock jock radio contests to see how you can get on the other side. How many ways to get past the wall. Even better, every time you do, you’re costing the federal govt a lot of money.
stinger
Candidates with. representatives here are Yang, Warren, Harris, Buttigiege.
Kathleen
@Mart: Moby Mexican Fly.
Butter Emails
If we’re arguing beautiful steel wall or virtual, we’re using their framing.
1. We don’t need a wall to keep out refugees. To the extent we want to minimize refugees, we shouldn’t be building walls, jailing children and inflicting emotional and physical distress on them when they get here. We should be working to improve the situations in their home countries.
2. If we want to reduce the number of undocumented immigrants crossing the border, the solution is to fine the shit out of the businesses and individuals who aren’t willing to pay the going rate for labor. There’s real demand for the trades and services undocumented immigrants provide that means a revised immigration policy that acknowledges that reality.
prostratedragon
Words of the fraudster Autolycus, a character of that old rapper Will Shakespeare (Come to the pedlar; || Money’s a medler. || That doth utter all men’s ware-a.):
Does make you wonder who is Autolycus and who the clown in this case.
scav
@TaMara (HFG):
Child labor! Republicans will be sooooo all over that for the cost-cutting and character-building aspects.
Ladyraxterinok
Fred Clark on his blog slacktivist at patheos had a post on the wall about a week ago. He reminded us of Frost’s poem ‘Mending Wall’—‘ Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.’ Frost reminds us that a wall demands regular repair and maintenance. It demands constant expense.
The sullen, whining neighbor who periodically comes out to repair the wall reminded me of someone—-!
p.a.
In defense of the MAGAts, they thought the wall would be made of an impenetrable substance, like their heads.
billcinsd
@trollhattan: She worked for Romney 2012. She has 2 DUIs and lost one job for cheating on expense reports and another over plagiarism charges
droog
“impinged”
Evil_Paul
I love this story!
Now, what I’m waiting for is when the Mexicans begin stealing the wall itself! I mean, each bollard is made out of steel, right? Maybe $50-100 each? So you get a ladder, cut a few of them loose at the top, climb down, cut them at the bottom and let them fall onto your side of the border so they can get loaded up and taken to the local scrap metal dealer! A well practiced team could probably harvest a thousand bucks in fifteen minutes!
(I know they’ve already been stealing that concertina wire the army was putting up, but I want to see them take the wall itself.)
phein60
@debbie: What’s pictured is the Milwaukee Sawz-All. You can get the Hackz-all, which is smaller and a little less powerful, but uses the same blades. Just take a little longer.
Martin
@cain: Similarly, it’s simply not that hard to climb. Throw a safety line over the top and pull it under, and you don’t really need to worry about falling, even.
mrmoshpotato
@dmsilev: Teenage Mutant Ninja Sawzalls! Sawzalls for the pint size! Sawzall power!
mrmoshpotato
@jl:
Ummm…where are the cerveza trucks, you monster?
James E Powell
@trollhattan:
Wingnut Welfare draws from a bottomless well. Or perhaps the NYT or CNN will hire her.
mrmoshpotato
@James E Powell:
Will she have to fight David Brooks? Should I buy popcorn futures and stock up on gauze to sell at crazy prices?
Dr. Ronnie James, D.O.
As I never tire of saying, the majority of undocumented immigrants here are people who came here legally and overstayed their visas. So until they can build a wall that travels through time, this won’t even fix the problem it’s pretending to solve.
Also, all Republican rhetoric on the “wave” of “illegal immigration” that’s driving up violent crime rates, destroying US jobs and using huge sums of public money on benefits is bullshit. Like, it’s a 100% phantom problem based on pure lies.
jonas
@Omnes Omnibus:
Naturally, most of Milwaukee’s products are made overseas today, particularly China. What few items it still manufactures in the US are made in Mississippi.
LongHairedWeirdo
The late, great, Molly Ivins would point out that we know how to curb illegal immigration: jail everyone – everyone! – who hired an undocumented person to work for them. Yes, that includes that nice lady who hired the Mexican nanny.
If they can’t find jobs, they won’t come here.
I thought that was weird – Molly Ivins didn’t seem like that kind of hateful person. Then I realized what she meant.
She meant “we know how to curb illegal immigration, and we don’t do it. Ain’t that kinda strange?” Because it *is* true. We *do* know what to do. But we don’t. And it only makes sense if we *want* a scared population of undocumented folks.
The problem with Trump is, he thinks the bad faith argument against immigration is actual *truth*. He thinks we actually need fewer immigrants. And, you know something? That’s the danger when you abandon truth. You might convince people in authority that the BS you’re spewing is meaningful. And, they did.
Worst part is, they can’t walk it back,either. They’ve been expressing it as Absolute Truth for too long.