Don't blame me, I voted for the other guy. (Politics General)

The biggest threat the border wall is to the US is how expensive and unnecessary it is. That’s it. That is literally the only weak point of the Wall, but it’s a pretty huge weakpoint.

@kyle2252  
More people leave via the southern border than enter, and DHS has never caught a suspected terrorist coming through there, they come through airports, also most illegal immigrants don’t cross in illegally they overstay visas,

@Thanotos Omega  
I did, unlike you.
 
This is literally the first result.

@kyle2252  
I thought Mexico was going to pay for the wall? Now us.

@Thanotos Omega  
So? that doesn’t stop people physically trying to break through and enter illegally  

@igotnopicks  
It was always going to be us. His dumbass schtick about Mexico paying for it was his comical misunderstanding of trade deals.

@kyle2252  
There is no law that says they are owed back pay. The Trump administration has only said it “supports” back pay, but it also says most of those employees are Democrats.
 
Congress has yet to determine if furloughed employees will be paid. And if that passes Trump would have to sign that into law to make it happen.

@kyle2252  
Holy shit you were right about something, oh never mind, still doesn’t help with the bills now though, all because one fucking man baby and his sycophants want to waste out money building a monument to the most pathetic president in our history,

@Ciaran  
No law that says they aren’t owed back pay? So slavery is still legal then?  
@Thanotos Omega  
I’m right about everything. Never question me again.
 
You can’t fucking expect your employees to show up if they aren’t going to be paid for the work they do.

@Thanotos Omega  

 
No, he doesn’t want a freaking monument. He wants better border security, which is one of the key issues he was elected on. And it’s not childish to stand your ground on issues that are important to you, and more importantly, your constituency.

@kyle2252  
USA Today article about the man babies habit of not paying people for their work because he’s a fucking conman

@Scrabbleman  
It would also be expensive and unnecessary to invest in a $1000 security system for my house, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t do it if I’m serious about security.

@kyle2252  
I don’t know about you but all windows and outside doors of my house at the ground floor have bars as security. You literally need at least 3 different keys to open the front door.

@Scrabbleman  
Good.
 
Also, Trump is delusional if he thinks he can build a workable border wall for $5b. Try $30b. Minimum.

@kyle2252  
Well, it’s in court. Many people feel that requiring people to work without pay, or not allowing furloughed employees to find temp jobs until the shutdown ends, should be illegal.
 
https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/31/politics/federal-workers-sue-government/index.html
 
So, yes - people are being forced to work without pay. It’s not really slavery because they can quit, but … yeah. And they can’t access their vacation time, and if they had vacations planned they’re not allowed to take them, and people scheduled to retire have to keep working it if they’re essential employees, etc etc. Shutdowns really fuck everything up.
 
The really stupid stuff though is stuff like making security staff and server admins do the work of the furloughed employees, like answering phones and giving tours and helping people with questions about their services or taxes, because the server admins and security staff are essential employees.
 
But they aren’t trained to answer questions about people’s 2018 taxes, or direct people’s phone calls, and now who is keeping the servers running or doing the security work?
 
And all of this while those server admins and security staff are also not getting paid.
 
So people start calling in sick, because they have to choose between earring their savings, or buying food for their family, or paying their mortgage, or buying gas to drive to a job they aren’t being paid to do, and aren’t even doing any more because instead of keeping servers running or buildings secure, now they’re answering questions about 2018 tax forms they’ve no training to help with.
 
It’s a really, really big mess.

@kyle2252  
Oh, I missed that. I was looking through the House bills. That’s good news.

@Zincy  
Coal simply isn’t profitable vs renewables and is basically propped up here in Australia by politicians that are friends with the corporations and get sizeable donations.
 
Expect the price of electricity to plummet if we ever do get around to properly implementing renewables.  
Literally the only reason it’s happening so slowly is that the capitalists don’t want to lose profit by closing down an existing structure that they own, and of course as a result, the value of said structure plummeting over time due to continued closures and sell offs.  
Renewables are far more efficient and profitable, but these rich fuckers don’t want to wait for the start-up costs and time to go thru.

@kyle2252  
I thought this was a pretty good write up on the cost of a speculative wall, and it put it at about $25 Billion to build, and about $750 Million annually to maintain. but that was from December when it was still mostly concrete.
 
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/trumps-border-wall-how-much-it-will-actually-cost-according-to-a-statistician
 
No idea what the new speculative wall with solar panels and steel spikes would cost.
 
And, again - that’s US taxpayer dollars, not Mexican pesos.

@Ciaran  
It is 100% illegal to not pay an employee for work they have done. The government is no exception. Once the shutdown ends, the workers that DID show up and DID work, WILL be paid.  
@Ciaran  
The wall is not going to have solar panels on it.

And, seriously, all this wall stuff is just rediculous.
 
Most of the terrorists and drugs coming into the US is on container vessels and airplanes.
 
But thanks to the shutdown, TSP screeners, the Coast Guard, Customs and other Import and Port authorities, as well as the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents responsible for anti-terrorism security (C-TPAT) are all furloughed or working at reduced staff levels without pay.
 
https://www.arentfox.com/perspectives/alerts/what-government-shutdown-means-imports
 
If this was really about the nation’s security, the President would get those agencies funded again, using the bills the Republicans and Democrats have already unanimously passed.

@dissociativity  

 
TFW gotta start up a collective community measure to build a community owned renewable energy plant/place/deal that’ll probably be seized by the city or state anyways and sold off to the state private electrical utility.

@Ciaran
 
@kyle2252  

 

 
Yeah..great, except the wall still needs to be built.
 
It’s not ridiculous. It’s a WALL. It’s part of essential border security. No, the wall is not going to fix everything but that doesn’t matter, it would still stop people from PHYSICALLY entering by FORCE.

@kyle2252  
If it was 100% illegal, then why do you think Congress has to pass special legislation to do it?
 
Agreed, it is 100% immoral. But for Federal employees, it is not 100% illegal. In fact, it would be illegal to pay them WITHOUT that special legislation. That’s why furloughed employees can not even legally use their work laptops or phones, and why “essential employees” aren’t allowed to take vacations - doing so would encur a debt that the Federal government is not legally able to repay.
 
If I’m wrong, quote the statute.

@kyle2252  
Why are you insisting that a wall that might take years to build is more important than securing our ports, airports, or having customs and the coast guard operating at their normal levels?
 
Why are you ok shutting down entire divisions of our nation’s anti-terrorism mechanism - the parts that do almost all of the actual catching of terrorists and illegal drug trafficking?

@Ciaran  
It’s not a matter of if they will be paid, it’s when. If you work, you’re entitled to pay, period end of story. And if you don’t pay, then here come the lawsuits. And you’ll win.
 
there’s no fucking way the federal government would get away with not paying it’s employees for work lmao. Especially when the shutdown ends and they no longer have a reason to not pay them.