Mexico should make an announcement. “We're going to build a wall and America's going to pay for it."
Mexico's proposed wall would be butted right against the "American wall", only it would be taller and feature numerous sets of access steps, making it simple for those who want to climb up its side and peer over into the promised land of America.
Signs on the wall would warn visitors not to attempt to use any of the excess building material, contractor's dynamite, tunneling equipment or power tools to cross the gap between the two walls or attack the American wall in any way. Additional warnings would be posted to deter the launching any of the short range gliders placed every few hundred meters on convenient high level platforms.
A call for international volunteers to create a sort of 2,000 mile long "burning man" type artist/performer's festival of wall building would certainly attract numerous participants. This would mean that each segment of the Mexican Wall would be inventive and totally unique. A 2,000 mile long shanty town style encampment of perpetual ad hoc Mad Max style construction would result.
If America moves 'their' wall further back, then Mexico simply annexes the now unprotected no man's land that results. America won't mind them doing this as that's how they got Texas, New Mexico, California, etc ie through land theft, so they think this is simple expedience.
Negotiations to "make a deal" are now initiated over who pays for who's wall.-- xenzag, Feb 02 2017 The recipt for Alaska http://memory.loc.g...sl015.db&recNum=572 [Voice, Feb 05 2017] Mexico border catapult http://ichef-1.bbci...diaitem94661150.jpg [not_morrison_rm, Feb 15 2017] Whoever gets the ATM contract is going to make a fortune.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 02 2017 Is that an Automatic Tortilla Maker?-- xenzag, Feb 02 2017 We've been discussing this here in Canada for, you know, when the US builds the wall up this end.
Our will be the Great White Wall, involving one actual piece of wall and lots of CGI fill-ins for the stretch across the prairies. Snow machines, four-wheelers, camo-tents and provisions will be required for patrols. Buy stock in Molson's.-- Sgt Teacup, Feb 02 2017 Excellent. Anything that keeps Americans from crossing over into Mexico or Canada and contaminating the free world has got be a good idea. "They bring racists, they bring guns, and more guns, and more guns, and even more guns and Frankenstein food, and shite cars, and weird diseases that make their brains shrivel, their heads turn orange and grow tiny hands and some I assume are good people, but many are not good. Bad hombres!"-- xenzag, Feb 02 2017 Can Am border 3987 miles vs Mex Am border 1933 miles.
If they are of metal, would they make a good antenna or Science instrument. Cyclotrons have been growing larger and larger. What sort of thing could you use such a long metal object for ?-- popbottle, Feb 03 2017 Selling Alaska back to the Russians would make the wall a lot shorter?
Apparently they would quite like it back, Moscow Times "But after Russia's annexation of Crimea, which the Kremlin said corrected a "historical mistake," some in Russia would like to see the divide with Alaska eliminated by having Russia stake a new claim on the territory...."-- not_morrison_rm, Feb 04 2017 The U.S.A. probably has the reciept for the payment somewhere ...-- 8th of 7, Feb 04 2017 Probably not, got lost when Nixon sent out his stuff to the dry cleaners in the 1969.
Try getting more than $4 something per km2 this time, depending on the juiciness of the kompromat...-- not_morrison_rm, Feb 04 2017 clever title-- theircompetitor, Feb 04 2017 Not as clever as calling it "Wall Street", though ...-- 8th of 7, Feb 05 2017 Couldn't but help noticing that the catapult affixed to the Mexican border seems a tad Borg-ish..just mentioning it. Link.-- not_morrison_rm, Feb 15 2017 That catapult also appears to feature a hangman's noose. Once again the clever Mexicans have created a most versatile, and dastardly piece of apparatus.-- xenzag, Feb 18 2017 Fear not, [Ian] - amuse yourself by reading the CV of Scott Pruitt, the new head of the EPA, put in post with specific instructions to cripple and if possible dismantle the entire organization.
And so we progress.-- 8th of 7, Feb 28 2017 What, in the (orange) face of the indisputable evidence of his boss's existence ? That's conviction politics for you ...-- 8th of 7, Feb 28 2017 // he firmly believes in intelligent design.// Meanwhile, he's the perfect evidence for design by moron.-- xenzag, Feb 28 2017 This is either very sad, or hilarious. The US was catching up, culturally and intellectually, with Europe - they were making real progress and underpinning their economic and technological strengths.
The scary thing is that Trump's isolationist, protectionist, insular and anti-intellectual policies will in fact be good for the average [non-immigrant] American for the foreseeable future. He is prepared to give the majority of Americans what they want, when they want it, regardless of the cultural price. And America has the resources to sustain this. Which means that either he, or a successor with the same philosophy (and I use that word quite incorrectly) will continue down this path, possibly for a very long time. He is starting an avalanche that can't be stopped.
America is going to have its own Cultural Revolution.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 02 2017 // He is prepared to give the majority of Americans what they want, when they want it, //
So, not democracy after all ? Joe and Jane Public are allowed to elect a leader of their choice, as long as it's the "correct" choice ?
There you are, you see ... give ordinary people the franchise, and they'll just go off and vote for some random bloke merely because he promises them what they want, without even bothering to consult what the politico-intellectual elite know to be right.
Shocking, we call it.-- 8th of 7, Mar 02 2017 That's the problem. He was democratically elected and, because he is an empty vessel with no personal agenda, vision or awareness, he will lead in the most literally and directly democratic way: by giving the majority of the American population exactly what they want there and then. He is the KFC Bucket of politics, and KFC does very well.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 02 2017 And your point is ?
// he will lead in the most literally and directly democratic way: by giving the majority of the American population exactly what they want there and then. //
But isn't that the philosophical ideal of truly democratic government ? The population decide what they want, and a non-ideological dispassionate technocray implements their wishes without fear or favour ?
If 51% of those eligible to vote decide that every citizen shall have 4 litres of sugary fizzy soft drinks and a kilo of chocolate delivered to them free of charge every morning, that's democracy. Yes, there will be a lot more obesity and dental decay - but it's what they voted for.
Where does it say that in a democracy you can only vote for things that are good for you ? The electors make the choice. It may be good or bad, right or wrong, but it's their decision, and they have to live (or sometimes die) with the consequences.
<Godwin's Law Disclaimer>
Adolf Hitler was democratically elected. This is historical fact.
He was elected because the existing political hierarchy did not deliver what the electorate wanted.
This was not an indication of success for Hitler; it was an indication of the political and intellectual bankruptcy of the existing elite. He won because of their failure, because voters said "Anything's better than the current useless idiots".
Like the Confederacy, they didn't have to "win"; all the elite had to do was not lose. And they couldn't even manage that.
A fundamental weakness of all democracies is that they are intrinsically vulnerable to takeover by extremists if the moderates fail to deliver what the electorate think they voted for.
</Godwin's Law Disclaimer>-- 8th of 7, Mar 02 2017 In theory the union was designed to be able to withstand tests like this - the hands on the levers of power are supposed to change periodically, and the designers thought that their checks and balances would work as designed.
It's going to be a long four years. If little is accomplished but the damage is minimal I'll count it a success. I always wanted to try this experiment - somebody with no government experience at the helm - but in that vision it was somebody like me. Oh well ...
What we'll end up with is whatever his handlers can keep him focused on. That might just be a new line of menswear or something.-- normzone, Mar 02 2017 // He'll say what people want to hear, but I don't think it would be accurate to say that he'll give them what they want. //
That is in all probability entirely correct.
However, that highlights the huge and growing disconnect between what the population want, and what the "establishment" actually choose to give them.
Voter: "I want <thing>"
Candidate A: "I will get you <thing>"
Candidate B: "We would like you to have <thing>, but it is bad for the ozone layer/jews/foreign policy/your health/owls. We will form a committee to look into the possibility of you eventually being allowed to buy a watered-down version of <thing> entirely at your own expense and for a limited time only."
Tough choice, huh ?-- 8th of 7, Mar 02 2017 [8th], you know as well as I do that democracy is great until the people get hold of it. Democracy only works if the democratically elected leader has some kind of vision that extends beyond the immediate desires of the people who elected him.
//It's going to be a long four years.// No, it's not. It's either going to be a long 18 months, or (at the very least) a long 8 years. If he doesn't get impeached for something, he'll storm the next election. And whoever follows him would be an idiot not to follow his example.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 02 2017 // if the democratically elected leader has some kind of vision that extends beyond the immediate desires of the people who elected him. //
... like, just as an example, "Lebensraum" in the eastern lands, currently occupied by mere Slavic Untermenschen ? A vision of a thousand-year Pan-European empire, denuded of hebrews, homosexuals, gypsies, dissidents and communists by the lavish use of Zyklon-B ?
Yes ... vision. Wonderful thing, vision. As long, that is, that it's the "right" vision ...-- 8th of 7, Mar 02 2017 " and whoever follows him would be an idiot not to follow his example "
Yeah, THAT'S what I'm truly worried about. Will I have to vote the Kanye West / Miley Cyrus ticket, or will there be an alternative available under the newly enacted laws, such as the of7 / Buchanan candidates?-- normzone, Mar 02 2017 //hebrews, homosexuals, gypsies, dissidents and communists
You forgot the Esperanto speakers and trade union leaders, or perish the thought, Esperanto-speaking trade union leaders.
Anyway, I was thinking back to old Islamic practice that you can't make a depiction of something with mind, specifically humans...so presumably it's not ok to draw a picture of Obama.-- not_morrison_rm, Mar 03 2017 // You forgot the Esperanto speakers and trade union leaders, or perish the thought, Esperanto-speaking trade union leaders. //
Hitler didn't, though. He* had a little list, he had a little list, and none of them were missed, oh no none of them were missed...
*Actually, Hitler probably gave the list to Reinhardt Heydrich to fill out, but the principle still stands.-- 8th of 7, Mar 03 2017 Did Trump ever sing "If I had a Hammer " at camp? Did he ever go to camp?-- popbottle, Mar 03 2017 random, halfbakery