"The crisis at the border: Do we have the courage to act?"

Okay, so I haven't written here in a long time.  Part of the reason was laziness.  Part of it was that other things got in the way.  Part of it was I just didn't think what I wrote here mattered.  That's probably why I let other things get in the way.

But, an editorial in this morning's Austin American-Statesman by U.S. Rep. Roger Williams, entitled "The crisis at the border:  Do we have the courage to act?," was so bad that it has motivated me to write here again.

First, let me say, and emphasize, that Crazy Don's campaign promise was not that he was going to build a fence.  It wasn't that he was going to build a wall.  It was that he was going to build a wall and Mexico was going to pay for it.

All his turning and twisting to try to claim that money that comes from Mexico into the United States is what he meant by "Mexico will pay for it" is just that:  turning and twisting.  It isn't true.  It's a lie.  Mexico is not paying for the wall.  Period.  Everybody knows that.  And everyone who heard him make the promise knows that's not what he meant.  He's lying.

Not that it should surprise anyone that Crazy Don lies, even if you're part of the "take him seriously, but don't take him literally" crowd.  He lies.  Many of the words that come out of his mouth aren't true, literally or seriously, and many of them he knows when he says them that they aren't true, and many of them he intends his listeners to believe.  That's lying.

However, whether Crazy Don is lying or not, his campaign promise was not just that he was going to build a wall, it was that he was going to build a wall and Mexico would pay for it.  The idea that now he is just trying to keep a campaign promise is a lie, Rep. Williams.  It isn't true.

Furthermore, Crazy Don made it clear that he wasn't talking about a fence.  He was talking about a wall.  Everyone except those that don't speak English well knows the difference between a fence and a wall.  I have a fence in my backyard.  I have walls in my house.  Only a fool or an apologist for Crazy Don (are they the same thing?) would confuse the two.

The American-Statesman showed a picture of border fencing the other day.  They called it a wall.  It was not a wall.  It was a fence.  To call it a wall was a lie.

Rep. Williams asks in his article "how can Democrats actively oppose the president's request to provide adequate funding to secure the southern border?"  They don't and they haven't.  They have opposed Crazy Don's request for funding for a wall.

Rep. Williams says in his article that "[t]he Nancys and Chucks [referring, I think, to Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and all those who agree with them] of the world would rather watch countless immigrants attempt to illegally cross out southern border and put American lives in danger, than help the president do what is right and what he promised."  Putting aside whether Crazy Don is actually trying to do what he promised (he's not), putting aside whether illegal immigrants put American lives in danger more than Americans do (they don't), the statement is still not true.  It's a lie.  Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have both made clear that they are not opposed to securing the southern border.  They have both made it clear that they are not opposed to funding border security.  But, they have also made clear that they don't think a wall is the best way to secure the border.  That's what's true.  The statement is a lie, Rep. Williams.

Rep. Williams says he will support a wall through Big Ben National Park along the Rio Grande if that's what the "security professionals" advise him to do.  He won't even support building a wall along the north side of the park.  Never mind that the only "security professional" he can cite is the Secretary of Homeland Security.  Never mind that he is unable to point to a single instance of an illegal immigrant trying to cross the Big Bend country.  ("Google it," his aide said.  I did.  No instances.)  Never mind that the history of the Big Bend country is that the Spanish were unable to find a way across it from the south to north and the American settlers were unable to find a way across it from east to west.  He's going to support building a wall through Big Bend National Park along the Rio Grande if that's what the "security professionals" advise him to do.

Rep. Williams, we didn't elect you to do whatever the "security professionals" advised you.  We elected you to represent us.  We don't want a wall through Big Bend National Park along the Rio Grande.  Do what we elected you to do.