Trump wants a “great wall” on the US-Mexican border that Mexico will pay for.
A new wrinkle is the wall must be see-through so we can see who is on the other side.
Trump will personally select the design.
CNN reports ‘You don’t need it all the way’ and other things Trump said about ‘the wall’ on Friday.
President Donald Trump assured a crowd in Alabama Friday night that “the wall is happening.”
Here are some of the more notable comments the President made during his speech regarding the construction of the wall:
Transparent
Criticizing the inability to see across the border that comes with a concrete wall, Trump said the new design needs to be transparent.
“If you can’t have vision through it, you don’t know who’s on the other side,” he said.
“You need to have a great wall, but it has to be see-through,” Trump said. “We’re looking at different samples already of see-through walls. And, I think also, to be honest with you, a see-through wall would look better.”
“I’m going to out and look at them personally, going to pick the right one,” he added.
Not a full wall
Trump noted that a wall extending across the entire border is not necessary.
“You don’t need it all the way,” Trump said, adding, “We are going to have as much wall as we need.”
“You have a lot of natural barriers, et cetera. Somebody said, ‘Well, what are you going to do, you going to build that wall in the middle of the river? … That nobody can go in? Are you going to build that wall on the mountain?’ I said, ‘You don’t need the wall on the mountain. You have a mountain which is a wall.’ But we are going to build a wall. It is coming along great,” Trump said.
Stopping drugs
One of the goals of the wall, Trump reiterated, is to curb the flow of drugs into the country.
“They take drugs, literally, and they throw it. A hundred pounds of drugs, they throw it over the wall. They have catapults. They throw it over the wall, and it lands and it hit somebody on the head. You don’t even know they’re there. Believe it or not, this is the kind of stuff that happens,” Trump said.
Artist’s Rendition
The image shows the concrete portion of the wall (E) would sit on the U.S.-facing side of an electronically monitored zone and another barrier (B) — which can be seen through — faces toward the Mexico. The monitoring zone would be about 150 feet wide and alert patrol agents if someone breached the initial border barrier.
NBC News reports DHS Seeks Designs for ‘See-Through’ Section of Trump’s Wall.
The Department of Homeland Security took another step this week toward building President Donald Trump’s promised wall along the southern U.S. border.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Thursday they’d awarded contracts to four companies to build prototypes for the stretch of the desired barrier made of non-concrete materials that can be seen through.
The section of the wall that would face the U.S. is expected to be built with concrete and contracts for prototypes have already been given out, while officials imagine the stretch of wall facing Mexico would be built from “other materials” that would allow border security officials to see through it.
Mish Response
Dear president Trump
The Rio Grande river is not going to stop anyone from coming into the country.
I crossed the river 30 years ago when the river actually looked like a river. I recall the water was about waist deep and I carried my camera above my head.
Out of curiosity, I did a search for “Depth of Rio Grande River” and came up with this.
The caption states “The Middle Rio Grande was dry near San Antonio in July.”
I can see why engineers would not want to build a wall in a mud pit, but I fail to see how that river forms a natural barrier.
No wall has a distinct advantage. It would be quite transparent. One could easily see to the other side.
Speaking of which, I have a simple question. Instead of building a transparent wall, wouldn’t it be a lot cheaper to mount cameras on top of the wall or in the wall?
Yet, I understand that to be a truly great wall, it needs to be pretty.
Then again, why is the pretty side facing Mexico?
We need a pretty wall on the US side as well. In fact, it needs to be even prettier wouldn’t you say?
Would a laser light show suffice?
If the wall is high enough, how about using the wall as a drive-in movie theater?
What about using the wall for target practice. I suggest moving images of the appropriate people or animals like Donkeys, and award prizes for the best shot.
Add those features and the wall might pay for itself eventually.
That would be a truly great wall.
Addendum
How about Transparent Aluminum?
Interestingly enough, the material now exists two different ways, one of them practical.
Transparent aluminium is ‘new state of matter’
Wikipedia comments on Aluminium Oxynitride.
Aluminium oxynitride or AlON is a ceramic composed of aluminium, oxygen and nitrogen. It is marketed under the name ALON by Surmet Corporation. AlON is optically transparent (≥80%) in the near-ultraviolet, visible and midwave-infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is 4 times harder than fused silica glass, 85% as hard as sapphire, and nearly 15% harder than magnesium aluminate spinel. Since it has a cubic spinel structure, it can be fabricated to transparent windows, plates, domes, rods, tubes and other forms using conventional ceramic powder processing techniques. ALON is the hardest polycrystalline transparent ceramic available commercially. Combination of optical and mechanical properties makes this material a leading candidate for lightweight high-performance transparent armor applications such as bulletproof and blast-resistant windows and for many military infrared optics. AlON-based armor has been shown to stop multiple armor-piercing projectiles of up to 50 cal. It is commercially available in sizes as big as 18×35-inch monolithic windows.
Peepholes
Reader Mission Accomplished asks a great question. Why not peepholes?
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
