Putting Paid To The Lie …

Posted on by under Environmental Issues, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

I think it’s pretty funny that while Trump carries on like a wild banshee about the need for a border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, while he shrieks about violent criminals “pouring” across the border, the states that are actually on that border say there is no need for the wall.  And they have just about had enough of Trump’s exaggerations and lies affecting their states.  A few examples:

In New Mexico, House Bill 287 would ban construction of a wall on state land along the Mexico border. State Representative Angelica Rubio who sponsored the legislation says she doesn’t believe a wall would solve the problems that many have raised.

“I think when investing in communities, investing in our schools are ahead of the issues that are being raised in the long term will work out, knowing that we’re making those real investments.”

In addition, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has ordered the majority of National Guard troops deployed at her state’s Southern border to withdraw, condemning what she called a “charade of border fear-mongering” by Trump.

“I reject the federal contention that there exists an overwhelming national security crisis at the Southern border.” 

She added that the area has “some of the safest communities in the country.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom is expected today to withdraw nearly 400 of his state’s National Guard troops from deployment along the border with Mexico and assign them to other duties.

The city council in Nogales, Arizona, passed a resolution unanimously last Wednesday to formally condemn the excessive razor wire, strung on Trump’s orders.Nogales razor wire.jpgThe resolution demands that it be taken down over safety concerns. Residents and business owners have told local reporters that it makes the town feel like a war zone — “an inquisition,” one said — and worry about the effect on its life and commerce downtown.  Nogales resident Allen Zale, who served with the Army, said it reminded him of his time stationed in Berlin.

Nogales Mayor Arturo Garino said he’s concerned that the wiring is more of a danger than a safety feature because of the way it is installed down to the ground. The town’s code prohibits the use of the wire, which is also known as concertina wire, except in industrial parks and storage areas. Even then, it has to be at least six feet off the ground. The wall it adorns stretches through many residential areas in the city, as close as 10 feet in some places to people’s property.razor-wire.jpgWould you want your kids walking home from school along this lethal path?  Or would you want to live in one of those houses and have to see this every time you look out your window?  It seems to me that Trump has made the town less safe.

U.S. Representative Raúl M. Grijalva who represents the district said

“The additional wire is nothing more than a spectacle by the Trump administration to reinforce his twisted narrative of rampant lawlessness at the border. Border residents know that this mischaracterization couldn’t be further from the truth, and will not stand for the lies perpetrated by the Trump administration.”

And in Texas, State Representative Roland Gutierrez filed a bill on Wednesday to determine what environmental impacts such a wall could bring to the southern part of the state.

“The Rio Grande Floodplain is home to several towns that have seen devastating damage from record breaking floods recently, something that a border wall would only make worse.  Taking thousands of acres from Texas farmers and ranchers while cutting off communities from their own water supply just doesn’t make sense. We have a chance to be the first state Legislature to stand up to the federal government’s unprecedented land grab and we should take it.”

And there you have it, folks.  All four states that share a border with Mexico object to Trump’s wall and have put paid to his lies that the area is rampant with crime and lawlessness brought in by vicious immigrants.  We all knew it was a lie, and now we have it straight from the horses’ mouths.  Further proof, if any needed it, that Trump’s demands for We the Taxpayers to spend $5.7 billion of our hard-earned money on his damn wall is nothing but an ego trip for him.  And this ego trip is likely to lead us into yet another shutdown at midnight on Friday just like the one that lasted 35 days, ending only three weeks ago.

36 thoughts on “Putting Paid To The Lie …”

  3. Sometimes I fear the human experiment has reached its end.
    Or some mutation is going on and the species is beginning to divide neurologically.

    They are losing the area that controls critical and rational thinking. The area that produces fear and inclination towards conspiracy theories has become enhanced. This same area controls religious belief and other superstitious propensities.
    In the fear area also lies fear and therefore hatred of others unlike them and that is increasing too.

    Our side’s brain area of compassion and empathy is growing larger and also the ability to take the longer view and bigger picture, as well. Our fear area is not as large either. We may have more happy positive genes too.

    The key is which will become dominant? Negative feelings make more of an impact on people. They effect them stronger and stay in memory longer. The adrenaline rush of hatred is a powerful tool.

    I don’t see how this can play out well without bloodshed and destruction to our very cultures and societies around the world. I do not have a good feeling about this at all. Again, I’m just glad I’m older.
    However I posted a more positive link on Jill’s more recent blog. So sometimes I feel hopeful, then others, I think it’s hopeless. And the climate change may make all this a moot point anyway…
    Ok I’m rambling now…time for a drink😊

    Liked by 1 person

    • While I am a firm believer in evolution, I think the current situation is more one of a lack of education, combined with the manipulation of the masses by the uber-wealthy. That said, I would agree that the ‘human experiment’ is about to come to an end, for we have failed to protect our home, and if scientists are correct, unless we make drastic changes and soon, we will have made our planet uninhabitable for human life. I’m not sure that’s a bad thing in terms of survival of the planet, for it seems to me that mankind has been destructive to the air, the sea, and the wildlife that was here long before humans.

      Just a bit ago I asked another reader where he sees this all ending. Personally, I have lost hope that we can heal the divisions that separate us at this point, and see those gaps in understanding becoming wider, rather than narrowing. I suspect that nothing short of a catastrophic event will bring us closer together. Have you read William Forstchen’s book, “One Second After”? If you haven’t, check it out. It isn’t all that far removed from the realm of possibility.

      And now, please let me join you for that drink! 🥂

      Liked by 1 person

      • I have heard of that book..will check into it.
        In some ways it’s always been the Uber wealthy and the huddled masses, but the modern western world has somewhat gotten away from that,some more than others.

        Religion is a powerful force as well and some are quite wealthy and powerful. And the controllers of the masses want to keep the dumb.

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  4. I have been trying to read some conservative blogs lately, to see where the disjoint exists. They have created a monster of the “Dem/Leftists” that reaches right across the border into Canada. We, on our side of this divide, are no longer individuals, we are tools of the monster who are out to destroy the conservatives and take their very existence away from them. To quote just one of them, They will “defend their existence” as if we are trying to commit genocide on them. This belief is encountered all over the place, they have to destroy us before we destroy them. The evangelicals are spouting the same lies, they are under attack from those of non-christian and other-christian religions alike, not to mention the non-believing atheists who would deny them their god.
    This is war to them all, though they are the only ones fighting it.
    And as for Trump’s wall, it is going to save them from non-white criminals, even if they live nowhere near Mexico. We leftists are to blame for everything they fear. We are the cause of fear itself. They will not let co-existence happen. Their way, or no way. There is little room for hope…

    Liked by 1 person

    • You have a stronger stomach than I, for every time I try to read a conservative blog or OpEd, by about the third sentence I am yelling at my computer, threatening to throw something. That said, I do get my ‘daily dose’ of conservative viewpoints whether I wish to or not. Question for you … where do you see this ending? The ‘Great Divide’, which in this country began in earnest when we elected Barack Obama in 2008 and escalated one hundred-fold when Trump took office in 2017, has only gotten deeper, with democrats and republicans as far apart as they have ever been. Can it be narrowed with understanding, compromise and civil discourse? Personally, I don’t think so and am of the belief that a catastrophic event is the only thing that might possibly bring unity.

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      • I cannot see it happening under el dumpo, that is for sure, Jill. Under better leadership, maybe. MAYBE! I won’t be holding my breath.
        As for those right-wing blogs, I want to vomit. But I stick it out, because they do end. But I certainly cannot take too much at one time, I start to question my own sanity.

        Liked by 2 people

        • No, don’t hold your breath, for even when we had much better leadership, the right-wing conservatives were toxic … they just didn’t have as loud a voice as they have now. Sigh.

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  6. Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
    Quite interesting … from the ‘horse’s mouth’ indeed! … ‘All four states that share a border with Mexico object to Drumpf’s wall and have put paid to his lies that the area is rampant with crime and lawlessness brought in by vicious immigrants. We all knew it was a lie, and now we have it straight from the horses’ mouths.’

    Liked by 2 people

    • GASP!!!! You think? 😨 Or, as one reader asked, “Has Mexico just suddenly appeared next to the U.S.?” Hmmm … good point, eh? ‘Twas never a problem until the ignorant Trump came on the scene. Sigh. I’m so sick of him …

      Liked by 3 people

    • Good point! It was never a problem until Trump needed a cause, something he could use to instill fear in the ignorant and by promising to ‘protect’ them from this ‘threat’, win their eternal, blind loyalty. We were, indeed, fine without a wall, and we’ll be fine without one still. The bigger threat is the fool on the hill!

      Liked by 1 person

  9. Jill, the truth rarely gets in the way of a Trump story. I think we should call it the “Wailing Wall” as Trump keeps crying about it.

    Maybe, he should go to those seven agriculture states around Nebraska and see what real tears look like as the farm bankruptcies are significantly more than in 2017 due in large part to his tariffs. Or, maybe we should look at federal employees who suffered during the Trump owned shutdown or those federal contractors who will never be paid for the lost pay. Or maybe we see the tears of those people whose ACA premiums went up even more when Trump reneged on a deal to pay insurers to help people in need (by the way, the insurers did not renege on their commitment to those in need, just Trump).

    I am long past tired of people not seeing precisely what this man has done and is doing. The sad part is I could go on. Keith

    Liked by 5 people

    • Keith, everything you’ve stated is absolute and true, but the man simply can’t help himself. Like the song goes… ♪oh there Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked♪
      We do have the power to vote him out, first time i’ll be voting party over policy, Democrat all the way!

      Liked by 3 people

      • The GOP leaders have made the deal with this devil to look the other way. All of his machinations are coming home to roost and my former party will deserve all of the pushback they will get. I have been pleading for a 1 1/2 for them to condemn what he is doing to our country. Keith

        Liked by 3 people

        • I hear you! In the past, on principle I would vote either Libertarian or Green Party, but we no longer have that luxury going forward. Howard Schultz as an independent has a real chance of upsetting the apple cart and should drop out if he’s a true liberal (in reality he’s a DINO) and his real agenda is to protect his financial interests. TYT recently had a great podcast about establishment Democrats: “Beware Of THESE Democratic Candidates”.
          My great hope is that the DNC would unify their true objective and rally behind a viable candidate to oppose Trump. It’s only been 2 lousy years and feel like a lifetime with this oaf, 6 more years would be utterly intolerable. Hopefully Mueller’s got some good news for us soon. 😉

          Liked by 3 people

    • The Wailing Wall is an apt name for it, for sure. And yes, my friend, I could go on … and on … and on. One night I tried to compile a list of all the wrongs he has done, all the insidious paths he has taken, and I finally gave up, for basically it boils down to every single decision he’s made … every executive order he has signed, has been destructive to this nation and its people in one way or another. Like you, I am beyond tired of hearing the excuses to try to justify his existence in the White House.

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  10. I think we all know by now this has nothing to do with crime, security or terrorism.
    It is simply fodder for his racist base to keep their support.

    Liked by 2 people

    • Indeed, if we start at the end of your list and get rid of Trump first, the rest will go easily enough. He has sold his base on the idea that we are in danger of all being slaughtered in our sleep if the wall isn’t built immediately, and they are, apparently, too ignorant to read the news, to see for themselves that we have lived in peace and harmony with our neighbors to the south for centuries, and there’s no more danger now than there was ten years or 50 years ago.
      Cwtch

      Liked by 1 person

      • I’m guessing that by now Trump’s base probably know that the wall isn’t needed, isn’t wanted. They’re just carrying on with their support because it’s one in the eye for the Democrats. What Trump wants, Trump gets, is their mantra.It’s a pity it doesn’t start, What Trump deserves……. But there’s time yet. I doubt Mr Mueller’s report is far off being finished and probably even his base won’t be surprised.
        Cwtch

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        • Some of his base likely recognize his rhetoric for what it is, but there seems to be a contingent that have fallen for his fear-mongering, and are genuinely convinced that without the wall, we are all doomed. Ignorance is the only explanation I can come up with, and given that our education system is on a downhill slide, I don’t see it ending in the near future. Interestingly, most of those who are convinced what he says is true, do not live in the states that are actually on the border. As to Mueller’s report … I think Trump’s base have already convinced themselves that it is, as Trump has decried for 2 years now, a ‘witch hunt’. They are already prepared to disbelieve whatever the report says, and nothing will convince them otherwise. As I’ve often heard said, “You can’t argue with stupid”. Sigh.
          Cwtch

          Liked by 1 person

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