We’re going for a ride down to the frontlines of America’s war on Having Any Goddamn Sense At All.
You have to see what the Mindless Dunce in Chief has our active duty troops doing.
It is effing nuts.
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As setup, our southern border runs a rather impressive 2,000+ miles through all kinds of terrain.
Remote areas. Populated areas. Mountainous, hilly and flat areas. This land is your land. This land is my land.
You get the picture.
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Much of the border requires no fence because your average immigrant is unlikely to choose a route across a vast unpopulated inferno, over 200’ cliffs or through 100 miles of high scrub.
That river is the border. Those cliffs are probably more formidable than a 30’ wall.
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Populated areas, naturally, tend to draw people.
So we’ve put up walls in some.
This is around Nogales, Arizona.
There are communities on both sides of the wall. People pass back and forth btwn them each day through checkpoints.
Normal human travel by humans being human.
4/
Since we have a hateful ignoramus as our Commander in Chief now, the plain old wall just won’t do anymore apparently.
After all, there are ignorant voters six states from the border with fears that must be mongered.
Imaginary crises require real props.
Enter the military.
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Since President F***apotamus sent 8k troops to the border with nothing to do (and that makes for lousy television) might as well have them do SOMETHING, right?
Something crisis-y!
Something that screams “An invasion is afoot! Fortify thy easily defeated stationary barrier!”
6/
As you can see, the braintrust that is Trump’s coterie of dumbalinas came up with the genius idea of putting up razor-wire...
...on the U.S. side of the wall.
If you’re planning on fleeing the country on foot, I’d suggest avoiding Nogales. They’ve really fenced you in.
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“But... but... putting the razor-wire on our side of the wall makes no sense!” you say.
Of course it doesn’t make any sense!
None of this makes any goddamn sense!
This is a clown college field trip to Stupidville.
It’s ALL just a charade. An absurd performance. An act.
8/
The goal is to create the optics of crisis and danger.
That level of theatrics at this scale requires props. Shiny, sharp, pointy, dangerous props.
One problem: Petrified Patriots watching at home on Fox News can only see the props if they’re on OUR side of the wall.
9/
Plus, there’s a minor issue that tends to pop up when we put the razor coils on the other side facing Mexico:
Intrepid entrepreneurs promptly pull them down, thank us for the kind gift and recycle the metal to make useful things... as people with damn sense do with metal.
10/
We, being a land free of any sense though, are heavy into staged, illusory dramas.
So a double-coil was unrolled and mounted...
...but does that REALLY say “prepare to stash thy heirlooms in a body cavity, for a caravan is bearing down!”
No, that takes way more rolls.
11/
So, here we have the United States side of a wall covered in razor-wire from ground to top.
Razor-wire came by its name honestly. It is truly made to resemble long threads of razors.
It is sharp as shit. It will kill you.
12/
An attorney friend was involved in a case where a man went to a New York City Cadillac dealership to look at cars.
The dealership had a coil of concertina on the inside of their fence.
Guy bends down to look at a car. Lacerates his ass to the tune of 25 stitches.
13/
So, the good people of Nogales, Arizona now have a dangerous hazard running through streets where kids play and walk.
All for the optics of crisis and deference...
...which only matter until you get far enough out of town for no one to notice.
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But, man, oh man, at the great filming locations...
Whoops, I mean at the “immigration hot spots”...
...we are just maxing out the Danger and Defense mood lighting.
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And not to land this plane like a total Border Battlements Buzzkill but...
Ya know what it takes to defeat razor-wire if you really want to get to the other side?
A couple of carpets or a mattress or two.
That’s it.
Assuming the metal doesn’t get recycled first, that is.
16/
This is all a show, folks.
A vainglorious buffoon’s expensive charade.
Our hardworking military is putting up staging for an inane vanity play.
What a waste of money.
17/17
Note: Credit for almost all border photos to Jonathan Clark, Nogales International.
For more on the insane razor-wiring of the Nogales border, see here:
…which contributed to 20 players bolting for other teams or the NFL
And then, having shot itself in only one foot, FSU picked an expensive, losing legal battle with its own league… while alienating their best remaining quarterback - which made him decide he’s done there.
2/
Now, FSU has managed to put itself in a position where, after making a national spectacle of itself, it has to go up against an actual powerhouse Georgia team with what’s left of its own disintegrating team.
FSU threw such an epic tantrum, it ensured high ratings…
3/
On the morning of 9/11, a casual friend of mine was on a high floor of the World Trade Center above where the first plane struck. He called another friend of ours to tell him he was trapped and it didn’t look good. He didn’t make it out.
There is a 9/11 memorial near me…
1/
It has the names of everyone who perished on 9/11 etched in marble.
The memorials sits high on a ridge with sweeping views toward New York City twelve miles east.
It’s a beautiful spot. I used to park there at sunrise with my son when he was a baby.
2/
Every time I visit the place, I walk the wall and find Tommy’s name.
We were only lightly acquainted. Our circles overlapped but our worlds only overlapped one weekend a year up in Saratoga.
Still, I look for his name as a duty of remembrance.
3/
So, I’m in a notorious mob hangout today. An Italian-sounding place. Panera. And there are two older guys about 5 feet away. Straight in front of me.
It isn’t entirely unheard of in my area to cross paths with some goodfellas. I live in Sopranos Country. It ain’t fiction.
1/
So, I’m trying to write but my table is facing theirs and I can’t help but overhear (mostly because I was eavesdropping, but still) and these two guys are talking about “The Chin” which I cleverly deduced was Vinnie “The Chin” Gigante from having watched quite a bit of cable.
2/
And then they roll on to talking about somebody who was low-level loansharking and another guy who something something I don’t know.
And then the one guy says “That’s all Gambino now…”
And I’m pretty much feeling like I’m wearing a wire at this point.
3/
I entirely understand people’s beef with “Do Something” Twitter.
However, there is a difference between screaming “DO SOMETHING” and agitating for our federal government to do *some specific thing*.
When we need something specific to be done and it isn’t being done, telling the people pushing for it to shut up isn’t being anti-‘Do Something Twitter’.
It’s being pro Do Nothing Government. It is literally working against our own interests.