Trump’s $27m-a-mile border wall being scaled with $5 ladders

[Morrison71]

A look at this structural struggle came this week in a story in Texas Monthly. In the piece the magazine follows along with a local artist and activist named Scott Nicol, a man who has become an expert spotter of wall ladders, which he often finds discarded after one use and photographs them. “It’s made of cheap, rough wood, quickly nailed together because it is only going to be used once,” Nicol says of one he finds along a walk by the border.
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“Unlike the wall, these ladders are functional.”

It’s a joke but it also happens to be true, and points up the absurdity of the money poured into what amounts to little more than a broad symbol of xenophobia.

What’s more, the slapdash nature of the ladders often used to circumvent the efforts of border patrols seems all the more ridiculous when compared with the ever-inflating price tag of building the walls in the first place.
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“These ladders are probably $5 worth of hardware, and they’re defeating a wall that cost $12m a mile in that location,” adds Nicol, himself an opponent of border walls. In one area in particular where a section of walls ordered by the Trump administration has been built the cost is even higher than that, the magazine reports.

“The cost of the Trump wall in this area – an 11.4-mile stretch from just west of Granjeno downriver to the Santa Ana national wildlife refuge – runs to about $27m a mile.” they write.
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[TJ8869]

Have you seen the price of lumber lately? That ladder is easily $30.

 

[lucas80]

I hope at some point more and more Americans realize the boondoggle that is Trump’s vanity wall. And, remember, that whole thing started because one of his handlers knew he was struggling with his stump speech, so they gave him something super easy to remember to riff on.

 

[DooBi]

That's bidens wall now.

 

[DFSNOLE]

That's bidens wall now.

TDS

 

[lucas80]

That's bidens wall now.

So impotent.

 

[kwik44]

The word 'expert' is recklessly used these days.

Like saying the NFL, expert just rolls off the tongue; tastes good to say it.

 

[Hawkeye_311]

Don't need a ladder when the gate is wide open.

 

[lonestar50]

 

[Huey Grey]

Look at the size of those calves!

 

[OrlandNole]

And yet Republicans want to lecture about wasteful infrastructure spending.

 

[DogBoyRy]

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NTSA.
You think border patrol would have more trouble defending that or miles of open border?

 

[Huey Grey]

NTSA.
You think border patrol would have more trouble defending that or miles of open border?

At this point open borders would probably be easier to defend. At least border patrol can spot crossers better without a giant wall obscuring everything.

 

[DogBoyRy]

At this point open borders would probably be easier to defend. At least border patrol can spot crossers better without a giant wall obscuring everything.

Great point. If only their was some technology available to help.
I wonder how our military protects it’s bases with walls - they should just take them down for better vision.

 

[B1GDeal]

I still don’t get this. With drones, heat sensors, cameras, lasers, etc., we have plenty of things we can deploy to secure and monitor the border without some structure that they can go under, over and around. This without taking land away from owners or placing an unsightly wall on the land that the owners don’t want there to begin with.

 

[DogBoyRy]

I still don’t get this. With drones, heat sensors, cameras, lasers, etc., we have plenty of things we can deploy to secure and monitor the border without some structure that they can go under, over and around. This without taking land away from owners or placing an unsightly wall on the land that the owners don’t want there to begin with.

Right.
Prisons don’t need walls either.

 

[The Tradition]

I still don’t get this. With drones, heat sensors, cameras, lasers, etc., we have plenty of things we can deploy to secure and monitor the border without some structure that they can go under, over and around. This without taking land away from owners or placing an unsightly wall on the land that the owners don’t want there to begin with.

Yup, put some sharks with lasers on their heads in the Rio Grande. Problem solved.

 

[sober_teacher]

I still don’t get this. With drones, heat sensors, cameras, lasers, etc., we have plenty of things we can deploy to secure and monitor the border without some structure that they can go under, over and around. This without taking land away from owners or placing an unsightly wall on the land that the owners don’t want there to begin with.

This. I do not understand how, in 2021, it’s not possible to have every inch of the border covered through one form of surveillance or another.

 

[DogBoyRy]

This. I do not understand how, in 2021, it’s not possible to have every inch of the border covered through one form of surveillance or another.

It is possible. Seeing isn’t stopping.
How many people you think border patrol will need to chase down people that cross-24/7?

 

[sober_teacher]

It is possible. Seeing isn’t stopping.
How many people you think border patrol will need to chase down people that cross-24/7?

You don’t think regular patrols could not then catch them? Between border patrol and local law enforcement?

 

[Whatsgoingonwitgyouguys0190]

It is possible. Seeing isn’t stopping.
How many people you think border patrol will need to chase down people that cross-24/7?

With how easy it is to bypass a wall I’d think surveillance and apprehension would work a lot better than a wall.

 

[Whatsgoingonwitgyouguys0190]

I still don’t get this. With drones, heat sensors, cameras, lasers, etc., we have plenty of things we can deploy to secure and monitor the border without some structure that they can go under, over and around. This without taking land away from owners or placing an unsightly wall on the land that the owners don’t want there to begin with.

Not just taking land from human owners but we’re just fvcking with wildlife for no damn reason.

 

[silasstarr]

NTSA.
You think border patrol would have more trouble defending that or miles of open border?

This is where you appear to be not so bright. In your mind there is a wall or nothing else. That’s simply false.