Urgent Emergency

Well, actually the title is just “Urgent”. Foreigner-

Unindicted Co-conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio has just announced that he’s not going to declare a “National Emergency” so he can build his Vanity Project Penis Wall O’ Racisim…

Today.

Hat tip to Scarce @ Crooks & Liars. 1958 beats the Simpsons by 42 years.

As the Cato Institute (hardly a hotbed of Open Border Lefty Communists) reports, the Office of Management and Budget estimates the Vanity Project Penis Wall O’ Racisim will cost at least $24.4 Million per mile. The Institute applies a 50% cost overrun to the project and comes up with this estimate-

Building a steel fence along the remaining 1,637 miles of Mexican border not covered by pedestrian fencing would cost approximately $59.8 billion, excluding any maintenance costs.

There are a few caveats about the above estimate.

First, the 50 percent cost overrun estimate is conservative. A small sample of large construction projects selected by my colleague Chris Edwards shows that cost overruns boost total project costs by an average of 3.3 fold. The cost of the border fence is thus very likely to be more than double what I estimate above.

A Billion here and a Billion there and pretty soon you’re talking about real money, and of course that doesn’t account for the costs of land acquisition and litigation. Not many land owners in the path of this development are happy about the prospect of the Federal Government siezing it at below market value.

Here’s a shuffleboard court on the Mexican border-

Unindicted Co-conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio asserts that not only are they enthusiastic supporters (Bottomless Pinocchio, eh?) but, if he invokes a “State of Emergency”, the Military can simply walk in and take over with no compensation at all.

The 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 8th Amendments kind of say differently along with several sections of the Constitution as originally adopted (Amendments and Treaties are co-equal with the primary document legally).

This, along with the prospect of President Warren declaring a “National Gun Emergency” the next time some racist terrorist shoots up a Church or a Synagogue or a School or a Clinic or a Federal Building or a…

Well, you get the picture.

Anyway the Teabagger crowd is not altogether happy with the precedent that would be set and their Representatives in the Freedom Caucus have started to try and apply the brakes on the whole “National Emergency” thing despite the fact that they hate Brown people just as much or even more than anyone else.

Freedom Caucus members tell Trump to back off wall emergency
By MELANIE ZANONA and SARAH FERRIS, Politico
01/11/2019

A core group of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus is urging President Donald Trump against the explosive step of declaring a national emergency to build his wall.

Multiple Republicans in the conservative group have privately raised their concerns with the Trump administration, fearing it would lead to a years-long legal standoff that Democrats could win while setting a dangerous precedent for the presidency, according to more than a dozen lawmakers and GOP aides. They want Trump to hold out for a deal with Democrats, regardless of how long the partial government shutdown drags on.

Trump’s possible pursuit of an emergency declaration on the border divided the caucus during an animated meeting Wednesday night, according to lawmakers who attended the meeting. Members wrestled with constitutional concerns. GOP Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan was reportedly particularly outspoken. Searching for an alternative, the group kicked around other, more legally sound ways for Trump to raise revenue for the wall.

“[Trump] has more options on the table than what I have read about,” said Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), who has sponsored a bill allowing private citizens to make contributions toward building and maintaining border walls. “We shared some of those ideas.”

But while conservatives are uneasy with the prospect of an emergency declaration, many acknowledge they would ultimately line up behind the president if he pulls the trigger — a scenario that is increasingly expected on Capitol Hill as the shutdown barrels into its fourth week.

“I do see the potential for national emergencies being used for every single thing that we face in the future where we can’t reach an agreement. That’s the slippery slope that I’m concerned about,” Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), a top Trump ally, told POLITICO on Thursday. “The administration is well aware of the ability to use national emergency [powers] and the reluctance to do so from House members.”

“And yet, I think the president would find broad support if it’s determined that ultimately he has to do it,” Meadows added.

So they’ll squish ultimately but even among Republicans support is rapidly diminishing as the latest polling shows.

Napoleon said, “Lorsque l’ennemi fait un faux mouvement nous devons prendre bien soin de ne pas l’interrompre,” which roughly translates as “When your enemy is in the process of destroying himself, don’t interrupt.”