The Sun Bay Paper Page 10 April 22, 2022 - May 5, 2022 And The Walls Came Tumbling Down! Barely over a year ago “the walls came tumbling down,” so to speak. With Joe Biden assuming occupancy in the White House, a visible and compellingly logical first step in border security came to a dramatic halt. Trump’s border wall construction was discontinued by Biden. The hustle and bustle along the border quieted as workmen scurried away from their unfinished project. And about $100 million of construction materials began rusting in piles on the ground. Trump built about 400 miles of wall, mostly replacing other, useless, or inadequate fencing. He had ordered over 300 miles more. The method Trump chose to accomplish border security is one of simple common sense – a barrier for slowing things down and sorting things out, enhanced by electronic surveillance. He chose a “stop and sort” method and Biden has chosen a “whoops, better chase” approach. And who’s in charge? The VicePresident, who has never visited the actual border, is assisted by the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, who insists we are in control of the border. “Thus endeth” Trump’s most visible accomplishment, progress in controlling our porous southern border. The very real potential for controlling the border shifted, with a stroke of Biden’s pen, to immediate actual control by Mexican drug cartels. In addition to the abandoned construction materials already mentioned, Biden is spending $3 million per day to NOT build the border wall. Much of this is for contractors monitoring the rusting process, I guess. That daily rate is down from an initial $6 million. It’ll be a while before the remaining contracts can be cancelled. The rusting steel can then disappear back into nature. As of late 2021, approximately $2 billion had already been spent on ongoing expenses. Those numbers are from a 2021 investigative report initiated by republican members of the (now try to finish this sentence reading aloud in one breath) Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on Government Operations and Border Management (SHSAGACSOGOABM for short – whew, gasp). That report is now several months old so things may be worse. Too bad the democrat members didn’t want to know the details. Here's some information on the status of illegal immigration. During Trump’s last 2 years, illegal immigrant encounters were up and growth of illegals gaining access was down. During the fiscal year ending in 2021, covering much of Biden’s first year, thwarted illegal border crossings was third highest on record. Many were released into the U.S. and untold thousands more successfully entered the U.S without being caught, including known terrorists. We’ve been hearing a lot recently about Title 42. That was an order Trump initiated near the beginning of the pandemic. It granted authority for the CDC to deny admission of people who pose a risk of spreading communicable diseases. Whether you agree or disagree with that order, the problem now is that Biden’s announced he would suspend it in April. That will release a pent-up demand for border crossings, with a massive surge of illegal immigrants at the southern border. Officials expect releasing about 600,000 into the U.S. by September 2022 – a record. Understandably, there’s major bipartisan pressure for him not to terminate the order. Biden’s border policy has demonstrated a pattern. First, reverse anything Trump instituted. Most importantly, don’t build a barrier wall. Next, he seems to desire a nuanced set of procedures such as an exclusively technology-centered approach. He was unprepared to implement it. Last, his nuanced approach emphasizes solving the root problems that compel people to come to the U.S. i.e., solving problems in the home countries of illegal immigrants, an impossible task. There’s been little progress on any of these. Let’s finish the border wall. Border officials and patrol personnel want a barrier as an essential part of an entire system that includes technology. Only then will we achieve order and control. Before November, republicans and conservatives should work to achieve republican control of both congressional houses. Hopefully, with that accomplished we could scrape the rust off the piles of steel, and redeploy a workable, commonsense, border security and control process that the Biden administration at least temporarily squandered. And that’s the way it is, April 22, 2022. Hard to believe, isn’t it! myslantonthings.com Steve Bakke, Fort Myers The Fourth Time Around The first time around, I thanked God, my daughter and Twitter for managing to snag me one of the first appointments for a COVID19 vaccine. It was February of last year, and I felt like I'd won the lottery. I drove for an hour to East LA, stood in line for an hour with my son (there to drive me home in case I had a bad reaction) and thanked everyone in sight. When I got the confirmation for my second shot, I couldn't believe that the system set up by the city of Los Angeles actually worked. I went back to East LA, stood happily in line again and thanked everyone in sight -- again. For my booster last August, I made an appointment on the same day, attested to my rheumatoid arthritis, and thanked the very nice pharmacist at my local Rite Aid. The whole thing took 20 minutes. I felt very smart to be one of the first to get my booster. This time, I have no idea if I'm very smart or not. I have no idea of much of anything when it comes to COVID-19. I don't know if I've had it or not, for example: I had two positive at-home tests, one negative PCR and no symptoms after being exposed. I don't know why I wore a mask everywhere for two years and now don't wear a mask at all, why we campaigned against anti-maskers and now we're all anti-maskers. Were they right? Obviously, Too many of them got sick and died, so did maskers didn't they? So, what's changed? I'm lucky, I think, because I don't have any reactions to the Moderna vaccine other than being tired, which is not unusual. But, among other things, I don't know if that's a good thing -- a sign of a robust immune system -- or a bad thing -- a sign that the shot is not "working." You can find plenty of people, many of them experts, according to themselves, on both sides of these and almost every other question relating to COVID-19. One thing COVID-19 has made clear is that many of the selfproclaimed experts aren't, or they aren't to be believed. But figuring out who is to be believed is another matter. Every time someone says they are being guided solely by cience; I wonder where politics is lurking in their advice. (Fauci comes to mind) They protest too much. Taking politics out of the most important public health issue of our time is simply not possible. In the middle of an election, no less. The very nice Rite Aid pharmacist, who also gave me my third shot, reassures me that I'm doing the right thing. "Is it busy here?" I ask, the window just having opened for those over 50 to get our second booster. "Not like back in the beginning," she tells me, when she was giving shots every five minutes. The fourth time around, there is no line. There is no one in front of me and no one behind me. The Rite Aid is down the street, not an hour across town. It's all very frustrating in an entirely different way. Frustrating because she probably is right. I've just heard of a friend of a friend who died of COVID-19, three shots and all; Across the Pacific, an epidemic is raging; and here at home, it seems like it's over and done. If the pharmacist is right, and I think she is, where is everyone? Trying to figure it out, I fear. Trying to figure out who to believe. As I leave the pharmacy, whose shelves are strangely empty, I can't help but feel that sense of insecurity that pervades so much of life lately. And there is still one more question: where is Joe Biden? Why doesn't his voice ring through? Susan Estrich
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