i haven't rejected the wall due to the cost. if anything, the higher cost would be an asset to congress; this is the kind of thing they'll pay for, because it's contracted out. this is what lobbyists do. it was politically stupid for clinton to make this a fiscal issue; the cost is of no concern to much of anybody except a couple of right-wing blowhards. and, they can yell at the wall all day - nobody cares except for their circle jerk.

the reason i claimed that the wall doesn't make any sense is that it would restrict the flow of cheap labour, which nobody wants to do. i mean, surely you don't think that these mexican peasants are outsmarting the border guards? they're allowed to pass back and forth. it's the bedrock of the border economy, and of the agricultural industry. i can actually cite aviva chomsky on this; she wrote the book on it. briefly, the migrant population replaced slave labour in the areas it exists in and the process of managing the labour fell to the state. the border patrol is like an hr agency. this is extremely dark subject material....

so, if they cut the routes, you'd get massive levels of inflation. that's insane; all of the money in the region would push back. unless, of course, they have something better....

it didn't cross my mind until now that this whole push may be about replacing migrant workers with prison labour. i'm making deductions on speculations; a real journalist would be useful, here.

i guess it never crossed my mind because i wasn't taking him seriously until the last week of the election, when it became obvious that the big money was behind him. and, i haven't really done the reanalysis on a case-by-case basis.

if you want to get out ahead of me, the themes should be obvious. i'm sure there's a number of things that need to be understood differently when you realize that trump is the big money, establishment candidate. just....it's not a panacea. there will be things that still don't make any sense.

https://consumerist.com/2017/01/25/for-profit-prisons-could-see-boost-with-trumps-executive-order-to-open-new-detention-centers/