Pentagon halts plans to build extra 20 miles of border wall, citing insufficient funds

Jezcoe · 2019-09-21T16:43:37.829Z

While the President touts at how he has rebuilt the military and diverts funds from Pentagon projects in a way to make a run around Congress for funding… there are now several military construction projects that are being put back on the back burner.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/pentagon-has-warned-of-dire-outcomes-if-military-projects-canceled-for-wall-dont-happen/2019/09/18/03e99ac6-d988-11e9-ac63-3016711543fe_story.html

military officials describe dilapidated World War II-era warehouses with “leaking asbestos panel roof systems,” a drone pilot training facility with sinkholes and a bat infestation, explosives being stored in buildings that didn’t meet safety standards and a mold-infested middle school. In numerous instances, Defense Department officials wrote that the infrastructure problems were hurting the military’s readiness and impeding the department’s national security mission.

Some examples.

The Air National Guard has been seeking to replace the aircraft parking ramp at a New Orleans facility, which abuts a public roadway. This means munitions-loaded aircraft — which are kept on alert so they can be scrambled quickly in the event of a terrorist attack — expose the public to the “unacceptable risk” of being affected by an explosive accident, the Air Force wrote in 2018. An Air Force analysis calculated that members of the public are inside the jets’ “explosive arc” for about 3,800 hours per year as they pass by the base

The Air Force has been seeking a new control center at Hill Air Force Base in Utah, designed to replace a pair of “dilapidated WWII-era warehouses” used for air traffic control and mission control operations even though they have been labeled “structurally deficient” and don’t meet regulations. The Air Force noted in its budget request that air traffic control equipment is at risk of being destroyed by “roof leaks from failing asbestos panel roof systems.”

Vehicle maintenance buildings at Fort Huachuca in Arizona date to the 1930s and 1940s and do not meet the Army’s standards for vehicle testing and maintenance, forcing service members to work in “unsafe” facilities that “jeopardize personnel health, security and safety,” the Army wrote in 2017.

There are more… so Yay?

Publius · 2019-09-21T16:54:56.828Z

Yabbut, it’s a “good, strong rust color,” so there’s that…

LouC · 2019-09-21T20:44:59.056Z

Publius:

Yabbut, it’s a “good, strong rust color,” so there’s that…

There is that.

There is this as well.

While Trump has insisted that the barriers be painted, the cost of painting them will reduce the length of the fence the government will be able to build. According to the internal analysis, painting or coating 175 miles of barriers “will add between $70 million and $133 million in cost,” trimming the amount of fencing the Army Corps will be able to install by four to seven miles.

President Trump wants a border wall, painted black, by Election Day | The Texas Tribune

I see a rust fence and I want to paint it black!

In June, teams of U.S. soldiers painted a one-mile section of fence in Calexico, California, at a cost of $1 million. The coating, known as “matte black” or “flat black,” absorbs heat, making the fence hot to the touch, more slippery and therefore tougher to climb, according to border agents.

LouC · 2019-09-21T20:49:34.223Z

Oh. FYI The fence in Calexico that the U.S. Soldiers attacked with brushes and matte black paint (and that our Corpulent Commander in Chief falsely claimed as part of his “big beautiful wall”) was simply more replacement barrier fencing that was already in the design and planning stages during the President Obama administration.

WildRose · 2019-09-22T05:19:49.060Z

And it therefore proves their utility and value in securing the border and that your post had no basis in fact.

LouC · 2019-09-22T15:55:28.836Z

My post was based entirely on actual facts, with loads of basis. I never said fences aren’t barriers now did I?

Just mocked the president for the enturely doltish things he said and did on his trip to the border fence project near San Diego that was already in the works before he became president and was of a design already established by DHS and CBP before he wasted millions on uncceptable prototypes, established designs that best suited CBP work at the border.

WildRose · 2019-09-22T15:56:53.707Z

The new taller walls in both the SD and EP sectors have reduced illegal crossings upward of 95% proving his premise correct.

LouC · 2019-09-22T16:02:24.416Z

Did I ever say barriers are completely ineffective?

No I did not.

That they are somewhat effective does nothing to negate the doltish things our dolt in chief did and said at the border near San Diego.

But you keep on carrying his water for him!

LouC · 2019-09-22T16:07:15.689Z

Actually they are not walls, they are bollard style fences, they were always called fences, until the unofficial word went to out from this white house that fences were now to be called walls.

Chris · 2019-09-22T19:21:45.207Z

Washington State has recently sued the Trump administration for their plan to take away from their State $89 million dollars.
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2019/sep/19/washington-sues-trump-over-transfer-of-89-million-/

Ferguson questioned the administration’s authority to transfer funds that had been allocated for other things by Congress when the plan was announced in February. But the state didn’t join previous lawsuits because there was no proof Washington would be affected until the list of projects was announced this month.

This is similar to Clinton versus New York when the SCOTUS ruled that the Line Item Veto Act was unconstitutional in 1998. Link
Only the Legislation branch of the Government has the power of the purse.

WildRose · 2019-09-23T05:10:28.978Z

I don’t care what you call it. This is the design the BP wanted and that’s what they got.

WildRose · 2019-09-23T05:12:45.016Z

The courts have already ruled that the administratiion can pull the federal grants for state and local LE that refuse to cooperate.

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/452862-9th-circuit-rules-in-favor-of-trump-admin-in-sanctuary-city-case

There’s no way the SCOTUS overturns the 9th on this one so it’s over.

LouC · 2019-09-23T12:16:06.477Z

WildRose:

I don’t care what you call it. This is the design the BP wanted and that’s what they got.

OMG

Dude, I have been broadcasting that here from day one. The design is exactly what the DHS-CBP came up with LONG before jackass Trump came along. He is down at the border trying to give away CBP apprehension and prevention secrets, he is doltishly talking about the design being designed to be “hot” as he said “you could fry an egg on it”. It was not designed to be “hot” that just happens to be a purely coincidental side effect of concrete and steel when subjected to So Cal dessert sunlight. Trust me, I know this, I lived there right near the border. I built green houses in 108 to 112 degree summer heat in the Imperial Valley. I picked crops there as well. I used to leave my coffee cup on the dashboard of my truck when I would go to get supplies and the coffee would be hotter when I got back than when I poured it.

Trump is a dolt.

The bollard style fencing DHS-CBP design (not Trump’s design) is not meant to be 100% proof against crossing, it is meant to slow and impede individuals and groups and it will stop ground vehicles. Along with the bollard style steel fencing that Congress authorized with the $1.6 Billion since 2017’s budget that has been going for replacement fencing projects like the one Donald the dolt visited and that had already been in the works additional surveillance equipment has been included, with passive, ground sensors, and active camera pods, but all that is pointless if the CBP officers don’t have access to the fencing that is going up. That is why a goodly chunk of the monies being spent is going towards roads along the fence where there had been none and improvements to the roads along the fence that had already existed.

All of this was already being done without a Trump and a sharpie at the border, it is what I have been supporting ever since the Fence Act of 2006 and stronger and better border security I have called for since before then.

For sane and rational informed voters out there what Trump did at the border was to just further showcase what an ignorant jackass and political dolt he is.

To his acolyte’s, he of course can do no wrong, so they will fawn and praise their chosen one for even the stupidest thing he says or does and that was plenty on his war on California trip.

WildRose · 2019-09-24T07:37:52.454Z

Yet he beat the “smartest woman in the world” and will probably be reelected in spite of such articulate dissenters as yourself.

LouC · 2019-09-24T10:34:37.660Z

WildRose:

Yet he beat the “smartest woman in the world” and will probably be reelected in spite of such articulate dissenters as yourself.

He beat just another candidate who happened to be a woman and who actually received legitimately more popular votes than he did. The people, as in “we the people” came out to vote for her in greater numbers, just by some twist of fate, not in the right places in the right states where enough Donny Deplorable Dummy’s carried the electoral college for him.

I said from the start he would get reelected if he managed to not totally destroy the economy before election day come November 2020 or otherwise screw the pooch.

So you mentioning that isn’t going to bother me, I am prepared for it, have been since January 20th of 2017.

Thanks for the proper acknowledgment that yes, I am an “articulate dissenter”.

Of course none of this changes the fact that Trump’s behavior at the So Cal border was pathetic, laughable, but oh so doltish.

We sane and rational articulate dissenters see that truth, Trump minions, not at all.

LucyLou · 2019-09-24T10:43:28.061Z

LouC:

WildRose:

I don’t care what you call it. This is the design the BP wanted and that’s what they got.

OMG

Dude, I have been broadcasting that here from day one. The design is exactly what the DHS-CBP came up with LONG before jackass Trump came along. He is down at the border trying to give away CBP apprehension and prevention secrets, he is doltishly talking about the design being designed to be “hot” as he said “you could fry an egg on it”. It was not designed to be “hot” that just happens to be a purely coincidental side effect of concrete and steel when subjected to So Cal dessert sunlight. Trust me, I know this, I lived there right near the border. I built green houses in 108 to 112 degree summer heat in the Imperial Valley. I picked crops there as well. I used to leave my coffee cup on the dashboard of my truck when I would go to get supplies and the coffee would be hotter when I got back than when I poured it.

Trump is a dolt.

The bollard style fencing DHS-CBP design (not Trump’s design) is not meant to be 100% proof against crossing, it is meant to slow and impede individuals and groups and it will stop ground vehicles. Along with the bollard style steel fencing that Congress authorized with the $1.6 Billion since 2017’s budget that has been going for replacement fencing projects like the one Donald the dolt visited and that had already been in the works additional surveillance equipment has been included, with passive, ground sensors, and active camera pods, but all that is pointless if the CBP officers don’t have access to the fencing that is going up. That is why a goodly chunk of the monies being spent is going towards roads along the fence where there had been none and improvements to the roads along the fence that had already existed.

All of this was already being done without a Trump and a sharpie at the border, it is what I have been supporting ever since the Fence Act of 2006 and stronger and better border security I have called for since before then.

For sane and rational informed voters out there what Trump did at the border was to just further showcase what an ignorant jackass and political dolt he is.

To his acolyte’s, he of course can do no wrong, so they will fawn and praise their chosen one for even the stupidest thing he says or does and that was plenty on his war on California trip.

Great post, Lou.

LouC · 2019-09-24T10:47:59.820Z

LucyLou:

LouC:

WildRose:

I don’t care what you call it. This is the design the BP wanted and that’s what they got.

OMG

Dude, I have been broadcasting that here from day one. The design is exactly what the DHS-CBP came up with LONG before jackass Trump came along. He is down at the border trying to give away CBP apprehension and prevention secrets, he is doltishly talking about the design being designed to be “hot” as he said “you could fry an egg on it”. It was not designed to be “hot” that just happens to be a purely coincidental side effect of concrete and steel when subjected to So Cal dessert sunlight. Trust me, I know this, I lived there right near the border. I built green houses in 108 to 112 degree summer heat in the Imperial Valley. I picked crops there as well. I used to leave my coffee cup on the dashboard of my truck when I would go to get supplies and the coffee would be hotter when I got back than when I poured it.

Trump is a dolt.

The bollard style fencing DHS-CBP design (not Trump’s design) is not meant to be 100% proof against crossing, it is meant to slow and impede individuals and groups and it will stop ground vehicles. Along with the bollard style steel fencing that Congress authorized with the $1.6 Billion since 2017’s budget that has been going for replacement fencing projects like the one Donald the dolt visited and that had already been in the works additional surveillance equipment has been included, with passive, ground sensors, and active camera pods, but all that is pointless if the CBP officers don’t have access to the fencing that is going up. That is why a goodly chunk of the monies being spent is going towards roads along the fence where there had been none and improvements to the roads along the fence that had already existed.

All of this was already being done without a Trump and a sharpie at the border, it is what I have been supporting ever since the Fence Act of 2006 and stronger and better border security I have called for since before then.

For sane and rational informed voters out there what Trump did at the border was to just further showcase what an ignorant jackass and political dolt he is.

To his acolyte’s, he of course can do no wrong, so they will fawn and praise their chosen one for even the stupidest thing he says or does and that was plenty on his war on California trip.

Great post, Lou.

Thanks!

“If we the people aren’t free to fry an egg on our bollard style border fencing is anyone really free?”

Camp · 2019-09-24T11:40:23.555Z

The only one’s weeping are the drug pushers and the OD victims like these…

An unnamed witness who was at the party told investigators Mr. Sanchez Montalvo cut into the box with a knife and scooped out a large quantity of what appeared to be cocaine. He then walked around the room with the knife and let people sniff the powder from it.

When he came to the witness, the person refused. The witness argued with Mr. Sanchez Montalvo, and then fled the apartment.

The witness gave law officers a video showing Mr. Sanchez Montalvo displaying his money, cutting into the drug package and serving the others in the apartment, according to the affidavit.

Mr. Sanchez Montalvo’s face was visible in the video, authorities said.

Shortly after ingesting the powder, people became seriously ill. Three died at the scene: Rubiel Clemente-Martinez, 32, of Columbus; Josue Soberal Serrano, 38, of Carthage, Mo.; and Joel Pecina, 32, of Coraopolis.

Pittsburgh police said six victims were found inside the building and another was found at an intersection two blocks away. Federal authorities said Monday they have not yet connected the seventh victim to the incident in the apartment.

First responders found Mr. Clemente-Martinez lying dead outside an elevator in the apartment building, according to a federal affidavit by FBI Agent John Balish.

Police learned Mr. Clemente-Martinez was staying in Apartment 421 and went to check on others there.

They found five more victims. Mr. Pecina and Mr. Serrano were dead. Three others — Freddy Clemente Martinez, Gerardo Gutierrez and Pedro Ruiz — were in medical distress and taken to UPMC Mercy, where one was in critical condition and the others were upgraded to stable.

The overdose victims later told Pittsburgh police they did a “bump” of suspected cocaine and “people immediately began to ‘drop’ and suffer adverse effects,” according to the affidavit.

Agent Balish said investigators suspect the victims died from a likely ingestion of fentanyl.

Although Mr. Sanchez Montalvo has a California driver’s license, investigators believe he and another man were renting Apartment 421.

The official lessee of the apartment told investigators a friend asked the lessee to rent the apartment to a Hispanic man named Eddie and his cousin, “Carlos,” who the FBI believes to be Mr. Sanchez Montalvo.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

California man charged in South Side OD deaths; feds say initial tests show...

Peter Rene Sanchez Montalvo was arrested around 3 a.m. in McKees Rocks and will appear Monday in federal court.

Make sure you read all of this…It is sickening and a barrier will help.

LouC · 2019-09-24T12:25:58.943Z

Camp:

The only one’s weeping are the drug pushers and the OD victims like these…

An unnamed witness who was at the party told investigators Mr. Sanchez Montalvo cut into the box with a knife and scooped out a large quantity of what appeared to be cocaine. He then walked around the room with the knife and let people sniff the powder from it.

When he came to the witness, the person refused. The witness argued with Mr. Sanchez Montalvo, and then fled the apartment.

The witness gave law officers a video showing Mr. Sanchez Montalvo displaying his money, cutting into the drug package and serving the others in the apartment, according to the affidavit.

Mr. Sanchez Montalvo’s face was visible in the video, authorities said.

Shortly after ingesting the powder, people became seriously ill. Three died at the scene: Rubiel Clemente-Martinez, 32, of Columbus; Josue Soberal Serrano, 38, of Carthage, Mo.; and Joel Pecina, 32, of Coraopolis.

Pittsburgh police said six victims were found inside the building and another was found at an intersection two blocks away. Federal authorities said Monday they have not yet connected the seventh victim to the incident in the apartment.

First responders found Mr. Clemente-Martinez lying dead outside an elevator in the apartment building, according to a federal affidavit by FBI Agent John Balish.

Police learned Mr. Clemente-Martinez was staying in Apartment 421 and went to check on others there.

They found five more victims. Mr. Pecina and Mr. Serrano were dead. Three others — Freddy Clemente Martinez, Gerardo Gutierrez and Pedro Ruiz — were in medical distress and taken to UPMC Mercy, where one was in critical condition and the others were upgraded to stable.

The overdose victims later told Pittsburgh police they did a “bump” of suspected cocaine and “people immediately began to ‘drop’ and suffer adverse effects,” according to the affidavit.

Agent Balish said investigators suspect the victims died from a likely ingestion of fentanyl.

Although Mr. Sanchez Montalvo has a California driver’s license, investigators believe he and another man were renting Apartment 421.

The official lessee of the apartment told investigators a friend asked the lessee to rent the apartment to a Hispanic man named Eddie and his cousin, “Carlos,” who the FBI believes to be Mr. Sanchez Montalvo.

California man charged in South Side OD deaths; feds say initial tests show drugs had fentanyl | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Make sure you read all of this…It is sickening and a barrier will help.

I agree, a proper barrier will help.

Most illicit drugs though pour through our legal ports of entry, unfortunately.

I never said a fence along the border will not help.

Actually the pre Trump design that is being built helps immensely when combined with access road improvement and the other passive and active surveillance measures that have been implemented.

What is not being done is that Mexico is not paying for any of the border infrastructure improvements as Trump promised they would ad nauseam.

Also none of what is being built is of any Trump design.

The billions he removed from DOD monies to build his “big beautiful wall” have yet to be used to build a single solitary inch of “brand new wall” as he has promised.

What is also not being seen is whether the monies he has removed from the DOD are going to be intelligently spent on border security improvements, that DHS-CBP wants, based on their experiences at our border, or whether he will squander those monies on shoot from the hip nonsense projects. Like the $11 Million he wasted on 8 “wall” prototypes in the dessert east of San Diego none of which passed DHS-CBP muster and have since been razed and swept away.

Lord knows he is won’t to act on his thinking that he knows better than anyone else, especially the experts, what needs to be done.

What is also a mystery is whether Trump will use any of those billions he is taking from the DOD to go for seriously increasing the number of CBP agents, especially at our 328 legal ports of entry, which are still our biggest risk for the transport of illegal drugs into the country.

One of the things only sometimes mentioned is that a fence alone is not at all an impediment to illegal crossers. What is the real impediment is a new taller barrier and in many places a double fence barrier, coupled with sensors, coupled with video pods, and extremely important access roads. That is the combination that makes CBP agent jobs so much easier and in reality allow fewer agents to cover the border more efficiently.

Again, I agree, a barrier (fence) will help, but only with all the other things put in place along with it that I mentioned.

BlueTex · 2019-09-24T12:40:20.152Z

Camp:

Make sure you read all of this…It is sickening and a barrier will help.

Read the article and the criminal complaint… Nowhere does it say where the substances came from or how they got to Pennsylvania.