8-22-2021
Monsoon rain has torn apart Trump's border wall.
Several gates of the U.S.-Mexico border wall were damaged by monsoon flooding in recent days along the San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge in Southern Arizona.
But tempting as it might be to see that as some sort of heavenly karma, the damage to the last guy's pet wall was not only predictable but predicted.
"It turns out ignoring bedrock environmental laws may not have been the best choice for a multibillion-dollar construction project. Photos show former President Donald Trump's border wall in deep disrepair after summer monsoon rains literally blew floodgates off their hinges.
"I will build a great wall—and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me—and I'll build them very inexpensively,"
Trump said "I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words."
"Mexico did not, in fact, pay for the wall, which led former Trump to declare a national emergency so he could funnel money from other federal projects and programs to build the wall. Nor was the wall inexpensive, costing the public billions in cost overruns.
It was, however, chintzily built.
"In the rush to build the wall, Trump sidelined environmental and cultural protection laws.
The laws serve the purpose of ensuring multibillion-dollar construction projects don't face catastrophic failures within a few years of being built."
And there was also this reporting from The Sentinel, newspaper in Tuscon, AZ, noting that the government is already reviewing the Trump effort
to rush through the wall.
"In June, the Government Accountability Office said
it was reviewing the impact of border wall construction under the Trump administration.
Arguing that 'in an effort to expedite construction of the border wall, the Trump administration's Department of Homeland Security blatantly abused
its sweeping and potentially unconstitutional authority to waive all laws and legal requirements standing in the way.'
Grijlava wrote to the GAO. 'They ripped through pristine landscapes like Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, literally bulldozed and blasted sacred Native American sites, and drained the fragile desert ecosystem of vital groundwater resources. This careless, lawless action inflicted catastrophic harm on border lands and communities, much of which is irreversible.'"
The issue is far from settled, as the horrendous effects of Trump's malfeasance live on.
It's clear that there's a need for a much deeper reckoning and remediation."
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