Tag: Mexico

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NY Times: No Power, Hot Food Or Thanksgiving For US Troops At Mexican Border


 The New York Times has published a devastating depiction of the 5,600 US troops sent to the US/Mexican border.

Even though the migrant caravan isn’t expected to reach the border for weeks, and the Border Patrol & National Guard were more than equipped to handle the situation, the soldiers were deployed as part of Donald Trump’s explosive midterm election campaign promises.

But it turns out reality isn’t nearly as winning as a stump speech at a campaign rally.

There’s little electricity, no hot food, showers were only recently constructed, and most of the soldiers will miss not only Veterans Day with their families, but most probably Thanksgiving as well.

All so Donald Trump could whip up his followers.

From The New York Times:

The military’s morale issue is almost as worrisome. The deployment orders last until Dec. 15, meaning the troops will be on the border over Thanksgiving. They will have little to do beyond providing logistical support, unless Mr. Trump declares martial law. The troops will not be enforcing United States immigration law — that would run afoul of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, unless a special exception is made.

“When you give a soldier a real mission, you have less of a morale problem, even if it’s Christmas or Thanksgiving,” said Representative Anthony G. Brown, Democrat of Maryland and a former Army helicopter pilot who served in the Iraq war. “But when you send a soldier on a dubious mission, with no military value, over Thanksgiving, it doesn’t help morale at all.”

As it was at the bases in those early war zones, electricity at Base Camp Donna is scarce except to power lights and communications gear. In the last several days, the soldiers installed a small shower tent. Men and women have set hours for bathing. Permitted shower length: seven minutes.

There is no mess hall, just the brown, prepackaged M.R.E.’s. Military police officers patrol the perimeter at night, armed with handguns. The tents sleep 20 soldiers and have no electricity or air-conditioning. Phone charging is relegated to a few generators that power the spotlights around the living area.

Military experts estimate the deployment could cost as much as $200 million.

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News Round-Up: July 3, 2018

(image via Instagram)

Some news stories you might have missed:

• Chippendales’ Okewa (above) celebrates his 30th trip around the sun today. I’d say ‘woof’ but we can settle for a ‘meow’ given the pic 🙂

• A 19-year-old man has been charged with a hate crime after he allegedly beat up and trapped a 50-year-old gay man in a basement apartment.

• The vice mayor of a small California town is facing recall after penning an op-ed sarcastically calling for a ‘Straight Pride’ month.

• In an interview with Andrew Denton on the Australian talk show Interview, actor Guy Pearce was asked his thoughts on working with Kevin Spacey. The actor replied: “Yeah … yeah. Tough one to talk about at the moment. Amazing actor; incredible actor. Mmm. Slightly difficult time with Kevin. He’s a handsy guy.”

• After appearing in the 2003 film School of Rock with Jack Black, then-child actor Brian Falduto was severely bullied for playing a character perceived to be gay.

• The rising cost of PrEP is keeping it out of reach for many.

• Mexico’s newly-elected president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, name checked LGBTs in his victory speech.

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Trump: National Guard Will “Seal” The Southern Border

Donald Trump

Trump took to Twitter today to tout his plan to have National Guard troops head to the U.S.-Mexico border to help with border security.

From Politico:

On Friday, the first wave of troops left Arizona and Texas en route to their deployment.

As he has in the past, Trump slammed Democrats for not being tougher on immigration, but his plan to send troops to the border mirrors similar actions by then-Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush.

Trump tweeted, “We are sealing up our Southern Border. The people of our great country want Safety and Security. The Dems have been a disaster on this very important issue!”

The move begs the question: If the National Guard can “seal” the southern border, why do we need to build a $40 billion wall?

(h/t JoeMyGod)

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Mexican President Cancels White House Visit After “Testy” Phone Call Over Border Wall

Donald Trump (L) and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto (R)

The tense relationship between Donald Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto continues in “testy” territory as a tentative plan for Peña Nieto to visit the White House has been scrapped thanks to disagreement regarding Trump’s long-promised border wall.

From The Washington Post:

Peña Nieto was eyeing an official trip to Washington this month or in March, but both countries agreed to call off the plan after Trump would not agree to publicly affirm Mexico’s position that it would not fund construction of a border wall that the Mexican people widely consider offensive, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a confidential conversation.

Speaking by phone on Tuesday, Peña Nieto and Trump devoted a considerable portion of their roughly 50 minute conversation to the wall, and neither man would compromise his position.

One Mexican official said Trump “lost his temper.” But U.S. officials described him instead as being frustrated and exasperated, saying Trump believed it was unreasonable for Peña Nieto to expect him to back off his crowd-pleasing campaign promise of forcing Mexico to pay for the wall.

During a phone call in January 2017, Trump admitted to Peña Nieto that they both were “in a little bit of a bind” over the promised border wall.

“The fact is, we are both in a little bit of a political bind because I have to have Mexico pay for the wall,” Trump told Peña Nieto. “I have to. I have been talking about it for a two-year period. If you are going to say that Mexico is not going to pay for the wall, then I do not want to meet with you guys anymore because I cannot live with that.”

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Trump Demands $18 Billion For Mexico Wall In Exchange For Saving DACA Recipients

After a bipartisan panel of five U.S. Senators have spent months hashing out an immigration deal that would tighter national security while also giving DACA recipients protection from deportation, Donald Trump has upended the game board issuing a list of demands including $18 billion to begin building a wall on the U.S./Mexican border before he will grant young immigrants protection.

From The New York Times:

The request, which totals $33 billion over a period of 10 years for border security measures including the wall, could jeopardize bipartisan talks aimed at getting an immigration deal. Among the items on Mr. Trump’s immigration wish-list: money to hire 10,000 additional immigration officers, tougher laws for those seeking asylum, and denial of federal grants to so-called “sanctuary cities.”

The list, delivered to Senator Richard J. Durbin, the Illinois Democrat who has been leading the talks related to young immigrants without documentation, is identical to one Democrats declared a non-starter when the White House issued it in October.

“President Trump has said he may need a good government shutdown to get his wall,” a furious Mr. Durbin said in an emailed statement Friday afternoon. “With this demand, he seems to be heading in that direction.’’

A poll in September (above) shows 62% of all Americans oppose building a wall along the U.S./Mexico border. Only 27% “strongly support” the idea of a wall.

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White House Transcripts: Trump Begged Mexican President To Stop Saying Mexico Will Not Pay For “The Wall”

A transcript of newly-elected President Trump’s first phone call with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto shows Trump knew he’d painted himself into a corner campaigning on “The Wall” to be paid for by Mexico.

Trump was most concerned that the Mexican president continued to say his country would not be paying for any wall.

From the Washington Post:

“You cannot say that to the press,” Trump said repeatedly, according to a transcript of the Jan. 27 call obtained by The Washington Post. Trump made clear that he realized the funding would have to come from other sources but threatened to cut off contact if Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto continued to make defiant statements.

The funding “will work out in the formula somehow,” Trump said, adding later that “it will come out in the wash, and that is okay.” But “if you are going to say that Mexico is not going to pay for the wall, then I do not want to meet with you guys anymore because I cannot live with that.”

Trump also told with the Mexican president that he won the state of New Hampshire (he didn’t) because “New Hampshire is a drug-infested den.”

That’s an American president denigrating a state to the head of a foreign nation.

The article goes on to chronicle Trump’s heated conversation with Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over a previous agreement by the U.S. to accept 1,250 economic refugees.

“I hate taking these people,” Trump said. “I guarantee you they are bad. That is why they are in prison right now. They are not going to be wonderful people who go on to work for the local milk people” — an apparent reference to U.S. dairy farms.

Turnbull tried to salvage the deal, noting that the detainees were economic refugees who had not been accused of crimes. He explained that they were being denied entry into Australia because of a policy aimed at discouraging human smuggling.

“There is nothing more important in business or politics than a deal is a deal,” Turnbull said. “You can certainly say that it was not a deal that you would have done, but you are going to stick with it.”

Trump only became angrier, saying the refugees could “become the Boston bomber in five years.”

“I think it is a horrible deal, a disgusting deal that I would have never made,” Trump said. “As far as I am concerned, that is enough, Malcolm. I have had it.”

Response from the Twitterverse:

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Boy Scouts & Mexican President Call Out Trump For Making Up Congratulatory Phone Calls

Donald Trump enjoys his flights of fancy

During an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Donald Trump said the Boy Scouts called him to say his speech at last week’s Jamboree was “the greatest speech that was ever made to them.”

The Boy Scouts have countered saying they know of no such phone call being made.

From the AP:

Trump told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published Wednesday, “I got a call from the head of the Boy Scouts saying it was the greatest speech that was ever made to them, and they were very thankful.” Politico published the transcript of the interview.

“We are unaware of any such call,” the Boy Scouts responded in a statement. It specified that neither of the organization’s two top leaders — President Randall Stephenson and Chief Scout Executive Mike Surbaugh — had placed such a call.

The White House had no immediate response to the Boy Scouts’ denial.

Surbaugh apologized last week to members of the scouting community who were offended by the political rhetoric in Trump’s July 24 speech in West Virginia.

Other U.S. presidents have delivered nonpolitical speeches at past jamborees. To the dismay of many parents and former scouts, Trump promoted his political agenda and derided his rivals, inducing some of the scouts in attendance to boo at the mention of former President Barack Obama.

“I want to extend my sincere apologies to those in our Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree,” Surbaugh said. “That was never our intent.”

During the Boy Scouts section of the interview, Trump grew irritated that a reporter in the room referred to the speech as getting “mixed” reception.

“There was no mix there,” Trump said. “That was a standing ovation from the time I walked out to the time I left, and for five minutes after I had already gone. There was no mix.”

In related news, CBS reports that Trump’s recent claim that Mexican President Nieto called him to congratulate him on such a great job on border control is false.

As Mr. Trump welcomed his new Chief of Staff John Kelly to the Cabinet table on Monday, Mr. Trump took time to applaud the work Kelly had done during his time leading the Department of Homeland Security. “At Homeland, what he has done has been nothing short of miraculous,” Mr. Trump said of Kelly.

He went on, saying, “As you know, the border was a tremendous problem and they’re close to 80 percent stoppage. And even the president of Mexico called me — they said their southern border, very few people are coming because they know they’re not going to get through our border, which is the ultimate compliment.”

But Nieto denies that ever happened. In a statement released by the Mexican Foreign Ministry, Nieto “has not recently spoken to President Donald Trump over the telephone.”

So, is Trump lying? Or is he delusional?

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Trump To Implement 20% Tax On All Imports From Mexico To Pay For Border Wall

President Trump (L), Mexican President Pena Nieto (R)

Now we know how President Trump plans to pay for the border wall he campaigned on so strenuously.

The New York Times reports:

President Trump plans to make Mexico pay for his border wall by imposing a 20 percent tax on all imports into the United States from Mexico, raising billions of dollars that would cover the cost of the new barrier.

The proposal, which Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, said the president discussed privately with congressional Republicans before giving remarks at a party retreat here, would be a major new economic proposal that could have far-reaching implications for consumers, manufacturers and relations between the two governments.

Mr. Spicer said the 20 percent tax on annual Mexican imports would raise $10 billion a year and would easily pay for a border wall that is estimated to cost between $8 billion and $20 billion. The value of imported goods from Mexico in 2015 was $296 billion. Mr. Spicer said taxing imports is something that 160 other countries already do.

The new tax would be imposed on Mexico as part of a tax overhaul that Mr. Trump intends to pursue with the Republican Congress. Mr. Spicer said the tax initially would apply only to Mexico, but that the president supports imposing a 20 percent tax on all imports.

It seems to me that if this plan goes forward, it’s the American people who will be paying for “the wall” buy having to pay 20% more for imported goods from Mexico.

The Times goes on to say new legislation would have to be crafted to implement such an import tax.

As earlier reported, a planned meeting of the two presidents scheduled for January 31 was cancelled today by the Mexican president. See tweet below from the Mexican president:

UPDATE – The White House is walking running this back now:

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Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto Cancels Meeting With President Trump

Earlier today, President Trump said it might be better to cancel his upcoming meeting on January 31 with Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto if Mexico continues to resist paying for “The Wall” Trump has proposed to build along the United States’ southern border.

It has now been reported that Mexico’s Nieto has informed the White House he will not be attending the meeting.

In an interview Wednesday on ABC News, the president said that U.S. funds are necessary for beginning the construction of the wall. “I’m just telling you there will be a payment,” he said. “As soon as we can. As soon as we can physically do it.”