Center for Biological Diversity: STARR COUNTY, Texas — The Biden administration announced today that for the first time it will waive environmental, public health and cultural resource protection laws to fast-track construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall in Texas. The administration says it will...
Biden is trying to score points with conservatives here, but it just won't work in today's ideologically divided political climate. Conservative views are not based on reason, and this action would assume that conservatives would be reasonable.
Which is the most frustrating part of both his admin and the DNC in general. They keep thinking they can sway some of these folks to their side when that’s become an impossibility amongst those still in their camp
This is a little why I worry about the ouster of McCarthy. I think the Dems should probably have voted to keep him.
Largely to screw the GQP, (while it’s not the game we deserve, it is the game the Republicans are playing). but also because they now could face a much worse chairman. It also would have probably ended McCarthy’s chances of reelection, or at least hastened it.
The fundamental problem is that nobody trusts Kevin, which would make it harder to support him.
If he had stuck to his deal with Joe Biden over the debt ceiling, he would have built back some of that trust. He might have gotten enough Dems to vote for him (or at least abstain) to have kept a majority. But nobody can make any deals with him at all, everyone is expecting him to not stick by them.
Can't possibly be right because it's not - he pulled it out of his ass. If you look at sourced govt document, it outlines the motivation pretty clearly.
The United States Border Patrol’s (Border Patrol) Rio Grande Valley Sector is an area of “high illegal entry.” As of early August 2023, Border Patrol had encountered over 245,000 such entrants attempting to enter the United States between ports of entry in the Rio Grande Valley Sector in Fiscal Year 2023.
It's a problem area that the government's trying to get patched up. If you read the document, they list very specific spots they're putting barriers up in - it's not some brain-dead wall. And it's not for conservative brownie points. If people are illegally coming past the border, the government has an interest in stopping that no matter who's actually in charge.
....what? I'm saying the claim that this is a performative gesture to score conservative votes is made up.
But since we're on the center of biological diversity, I'm going to question this site's information too.
Biden Administration Waives Laws to Rush Border Wall Construction Through Texas Wildlife Refuge
Section 2 of the document linked in my post above has the location for the barriers/walls/roads/whatever you want to call it. I noticed that a few of them mention the refuge, but none of them mention going through them - only going up to the border... and that's it.
"useless, medieval wall " - from the site.
Explicitly not what this construction is. This site's motivation is questionable.
Environmental advocates say structures will run through public lands, habitats of endangered plants and animal species like the ocelot, a spotted wild cat.
“A plan to build a wall through will bulldoze an impermeable barrier straight through the heart of that habitat. It will stop wildlife migrations dead in their tracks. It will destroy a huge amount of wildlife refuge land. And it’s a horrific step backwards for the borderlands,” Laiken Jordahl, a southwest conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, said Wednesday afternoon.
This is no different than linking to your original source. AP isn't claiming it's going through the refuge. AP is stating that the environmentalists are saying it will. There's a difference
I'm not sure what your contention is... AP is not even supposed to claim anything. They verify information with sources they consider reliable. You can just claim anyone they reference is unreliable.
And that there is the main concern I have regarding the border wall no matter what idea is trying to build it. The destruction of protected wildlife refuge and habitat with wild-lands and woodlands being clear-cut in the name of greed or something that doesn't make much sense is what pains me as an environmental conservationist.
It doesn’t negate anything, but the press release isn’t actually saying much more than the headline. Waiving environmental protections; bad - border wall; bad.
Layers of understanding exist that didn’t make it into the PR. I appreciate the comment adding some context.
Exactly right. There's always claims of some 5d chess about moves like this that aren't even discussed on most mainstream media that voters are exposed to.
Right side will not even give this news the time of day since it is something positive. If they do post about it it will be talked about in a negative way or that democrats are desperate. Nothing is easy these days...
Yeah, bulldozing part of a wildlife refuge is not only not "positive", but it mainly concerns me since it pains me to hear about the destruction of protected wildlife refuge and habitat with wild-lands and woodlands being clear-cut in the name of greed or something that doesn't make much is, being I'm an environmental conservationist.
I'm not so sure, every time he's actively tried to buck right wing border policy it's gotten him dragged into the supreme court to be lectured about how not being dicks to latine folks for the shits and giggles is apparently unconstitutional somehow.