the "Headline That Caught My Attention or the WTF" thread
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wader
Well-Known Angler
War game simulations find China failing to invade Taiwan at a huge cost to all, including US and Japan
A Chinese invasion of Taiwan will result in defeat but at a huge cost to all parties involved, including the U.S. and Japan, according to a war game analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The Washington, D.C.-based think tank brought together military experts to...
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A Chinese invasion of Taiwan will result in defeat but at a huge cost to all parties involved, including the U.S. and Japan, according to a war game analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
The Washington, D.C.-based think tank brought together military experts to predict possible outcomes for the hypothetical conflict, which remains a global concern amid persisting strait tensions and China’s ultimate goal of reclaiming the self-governed island — by force if necessary.
In a total of 24 war game simulations, the CSIS found that China experienced the most casualties, suffering losses of about 10,000 troops, 155 combat aircraft, 138 major ships and imprisonment of some 30,000 Chinese survivors on the island. Such a failure, as well as counterattack damages in mainland territories, could destabilize the ruling Communist Party, the experts said.
Still, China’s military might is expected to cripple the victors for a long time. Taiwan is expected to lose around 1,100 troops, as well as all of its destroyers and warships; Japan, acting as a U.S. base and reinforcement, is bound to lose 112 aircraft and 26 warships; and the U.S. could lose 3,200 troops, 270 aircraft and 17 warships.
uch losses would “damage the U.S. global position for many years,” according to CSIS, leaving Washington with a “pyrrhic victory” in which it suffers “more in the long run than the ‘defeated’ Chinese.”
================
More at the link if interested...........
Let's see how long it takes for the British Press blames Harry & Megan for this...
Britain’s attempt to get into the space launch business on Monday night came up short when a 70-foot rocket stuffed with satellites failed to reach orbit, Virgin Orbit, the company providing the launch service, said.
An hour after takeoff from an airstrip in Cornwall, in southwest England, a modified Boeing 747 released the rocket, which fired away as planned. It was supposed to take nine satellites up into low orbital positions 300 or more miles above the Earth. But Virgin Orbit said in a statement on Tuesday that the system had experienced an “anomaly” while the rocket’s second-stage engine was being fired. It had been traveling at more than 11,000 miles per hour when the mission ended prematurely.
Dan Hart, the chief executive of Virgin Orbit, said in the statement that “the first-time nature” of the mission had added layers of complexities, and that a “technical failure” appeared to have occurred. “We will work tirelessly to understand the nature of the failure, make corrective actions and return to orbit as soon as we have completed a full investigation and mission assurance process,” he said.
People in Britain’s space industry said the goal — launching satellites from British soil for the first time — would have huge importance even though Virgin Orbit, which was founded by the British entrepreneur Richard Branson, is a California company.
The ability to put satellites in space “will complete the picture for the U.K.,” said Doug Liddle, the chief executive of In-Space Missions, a British satellite maker. Mr. Liddle spoke on Monday afternoon from a highway service area on his way to Cornwall, where two surveillance satellites made by his company, with funding from agencies of the British and U.S. militaries, would be loaded onto the Virgin Orbit rocket.
British companies have for years manufactured satellites, only to have to rely on rockets in places like Cape Canaveral, Fla., or New Zealand to haul them into space. Having launch sites available in Britain “makes a huge difference in terms of being able to develop satellites and to fly them,” said Emma Jones, head of U.K. business development for RHEA Group, a space security firm, which also has a satellite on the Virgin Orbit rocket.
The launch would have been the first big payoff of an effort by the British government to bolster the country’s space industry in the wake of Brexit, which has strained scientific and business ties with the European Union, the country’s main trading partner.
Work at Newquay Airport in Cornwall to make it ready to handle satellites cost about 20 million pounds, or $24 million, financed with government and private money, according to Melissa Thorpe, the head of Spaceport Cornwall. Ms. Thorpe said she expected launches to generate revenue by the fifth year of operation.
While the current launch was delayed for around two months, Dan Hart, Virgin Orbit’s chief executive, said Britain’s effort seemed to have all the elements necessary to launch satellites. Virgin Orbit has already launched satellites from the United States and wants to establish itself as a company that can do so from anywhere a 747 can land.
“Just like in the U.S., it is a combination of commercial, civil and national security coming together that makes a space program or a space launch program successful,” he said in an interview.
Mr. Hart said the payload on the Virgin Orbit rocket, which included commercial satellites as well as devices sponsored by Britain’s Ministry of Defense and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, was an “excellent model” for the combined funding sources needed to sustain the expense of a full-service space program.
Now that the British authorities have had a run-through on the regulatory and other work necessary for a space launch in densely populated Western Europe, the process should be smoother next time.
“We’ve had to work very closely with Portugal, with Spain and Ireland,” because the Virgin plane “will fly through their controlled airspace,” said Ian Annett, deputy chief executive of the U.K. Space Agency, which helped finance the launch. He said commercial airlines would have to reroute flights to stay out of the way.
Working out such arrangements led to delays. “Clearly the first launch was an expensive undertaking,” Mr. Hart said. Virgin Orbit had to keep its launch team in Britain since October, making the exercise far more costly than expected, although the company said precisely how much more would be hard to estimate.
Virgin Orbit usually charges around $12 million for a launch, although the fees can vary.
Britain already has a sizable satellite industry and has been one of the leaders in designing and making the shoebox-sized, relatively cheap devices that are becoming increasingly important for communications, surveillance and other purposes.
The government expects that having the ability to send these satellites into orbit will give Britain a further edge. With modest funding, the government has encouraged receptive local authorities, like the one in Cornwall and others in Scotland, to develop sites suitable to have either vertical rocket launches or jumbo jets used as launch platforms.
Ms. Jones of RHEA Group said the prospect of having launch sites in Britain had encouraged her employer, a private Belgian company, to have its device built at Harwell, near Oxford, where there is a cluster of space companies.
Ms. Jones’s satellite is the type that analysts say represents a growth area for the space industry. The box, which measures about 1 foot by 4 inches by 4 inches, cost less than $1 million to build and is intended to be the first of a string of orbital vehicles that could be called into service if a cyberattack or a technical problem knocked out the GPS navigation system.
Ms. Jones also said she was not worried about dependence on Virgin because other launch providers in Britain were likely to be available soon.
Indeed, Mr. Annett of the U.K. Space Agency said he expected launches “in the next year” from two sites being prepared in Scotland, on the Shetland Islands, and in Sutherland, on the mainland.
Attempt at First Satellite Launch From Britain Fails
An “anomaly” prevented a rocket from reaching orbit after its release from a jumbo jet, Virgin Orbit said.'Britain’s attempt to get into the space launch business on Monday night came up short when a 70-foot rocket stuffed with satellites failed to reach orbit, Virgin Orbit, the company providing the launch service, said.
An hour after takeoff from an airstrip in Cornwall, in southwest England, a modified Boeing 747 released the rocket, which fired away as planned. It was supposed to take nine satellites up into low orbital positions 300 or more miles above the Earth. But Virgin Orbit said in a statement on Tuesday that the system had experienced an “anomaly” while the rocket’s second-stage engine was being fired. It had been traveling at more than 11,000 miles per hour when the mission ended prematurely.
Dan Hart, the chief executive of Virgin Orbit, said in the statement that “the first-time nature” of the mission had added layers of complexities, and that a “technical failure” appeared to have occurred. “We will work tirelessly to understand the nature of the failure, make corrective actions and return to orbit as soon as we have completed a full investigation and mission assurance process,” he said.
People in Britain’s space industry said the goal — launching satellites from British soil for the first time — would have huge importance even though Virgin Orbit, which was founded by the British entrepreneur Richard Branson, is a California company.
The ability to put satellites in space “will complete the picture for the U.K.,” said Doug Liddle, the chief executive of In-Space Missions, a British satellite maker. Mr. Liddle spoke on Monday afternoon from a highway service area on his way to Cornwall, where two surveillance satellites made by his company, with funding from agencies of the British and U.S. militaries, would be loaded onto the Virgin Orbit rocket.
British companies have for years manufactured satellites, only to have to rely on rockets in places like Cape Canaveral, Fla., or New Zealand to haul them into space. Having launch sites available in Britain “makes a huge difference in terms of being able to develop satellites and to fly them,” said Emma Jones, head of U.K. business development for RHEA Group, a space security firm, which also has a satellite on the Virgin Orbit rocket.
The launch would have been the first big payoff of an effort by the British government to bolster the country’s space industry in the wake of Brexit, which has strained scientific and business ties with the European Union, the country’s main trading partner.
Work at Newquay Airport in Cornwall to make it ready to handle satellites cost about 20 million pounds, or $24 million, financed with government and private money, according to Melissa Thorpe, the head of Spaceport Cornwall. Ms. Thorpe said she expected launches to generate revenue by the fifth year of operation.
While the current launch was delayed for around two months, Dan Hart, Virgin Orbit’s chief executive, said Britain’s effort seemed to have all the elements necessary to launch satellites. Virgin Orbit has already launched satellites from the United States and wants to establish itself as a company that can do so from anywhere a 747 can land.
“Just like in the U.S., it is a combination of commercial, civil and national security coming together that makes a space program or a space launch program successful,” he said in an interview.
Mr. Hart said the payload on the Virgin Orbit rocket, which included commercial satellites as well as devices sponsored by Britain’s Ministry of Defense and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, was an “excellent model” for the combined funding sources needed to sustain the expense of a full-service space program.
Now that the British authorities have had a run-through on the regulatory and other work necessary for a space launch in densely populated Western Europe, the process should be smoother next time.
“We’ve had to work very closely with Portugal, with Spain and Ireland,” because the Virgin plane “will fly through their controlled airspace,” said Ian Annett, deputy chief executive of the U.K. Space Agency, which helped finance the launch. He said commercial airlines would have to reroute flights to stay out of the way.
Working out such arrangements led to delays. “Clearly the first launch was an expensive undertaking,” Mr. Hart said. Virgin Orbit had to keep its launch team in Britain since October, making the exercise far more costly than expected, although the company said precisely how much more would be hard to estimate.
Virgin Orbit usually charges around $12 million for a launch, although the fees can vary.
Britain already has a sizable satellite industry and has been one of the leaders in designing and making the shoebox-sized, relatively cheap devices that are becoming increasingly important for communications, surveillance and other purposes.
The government expects that having the ability to send these satellites into orbit will give Britain a further edge. With modest funding, the government has encouraged receptive local authorities, like the one in Cornwall and others in Scotland, to develop sites suitable to have either vertical rocket launches or jumbo jets used as launch platforms.
Ms. Jones of RHEA Group said the prospect of having launch sites in Britain had encouraged her employer, a private Belgian company, to have its device built at Harwell, near Oxford, where there is a cluster of space companies.
Ms. Jones’s satellite is the type that analysts say represents a growth area for the space industry. The box, which measures about 1 foot by 4 inches by 4 inches, cost less than $1 million to build and is intended to be the first of a string of orbital vehicles that could be called into service if a cyberattack or a technical problem knocked out the GPS navigation system.
Ms. Jones also said she was not worried about dependence on Virgin because other launch providers in Britain were likely to be available soon.
Indeed, Mr. Annett of the U.K. Space Agency said he expected launches “in the next year” from two sites being prepared in Scotland, on the Shetland Islands, and in Sutherland, on the mainland.
Rick67
Well-Known Angler
And how fast Harry plays Meghan's race card.
Hmmm, lived in Vegas, flew to NY and found out 27 miles out off the coast of Maine, what could have possibly happened??
pressherald.com/2023/01/12/human-remains-found-floating-27-miles-off-maine-coast-identified-23-years-later/
By Gillian Graham January 12, 2023
The remains of an 84-year-old Las Vegas man have been identified nearly 23 years after they were found 27 miles off the coast of Maine.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner announced Wednesday that a renewed attempt to identify the man led to confirmation that the remains belonged to Philip Kahn, who was reported missing from Las Vegas. It is unknown how Kahn ended up off the Maine coast.
The partially skeletonized remains were found on July 24, 2000, in the Atlantic Ocean near Grand Manan Banks, but attempts at the time to identify the body using DNA and fingerprints were unsuccessful. The fingerprints were submitted to the FBI, but there were no matches. A DNA sample was uploaded to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index (CODIS).
In 2019, the medical examiner’s office contracted Parabon Nanolabs to analyze the DNA and attempt forensic genealogy. That process revealed the man was Ashkenazi Jewish, but did not produce any viable leads to identify him.
The medical examiner revisited the case last March when representatives met with the FBI’s Deceased Persons Identification Services Division to discuss updated technology that could help in the case. The fingerprints were submitted to the FBI in May.
The FBI matched the fingerprints and dental records to Kahn, who left Las Vegas and flew to New York.
Kahn’s next of kin has been notified, according to the medical examiner’s office.
Human remains identified 23 years after being found floating 27 miles off Maine coast
pressherald.com/2023/01/12/human-remains-found-floating-27-miles-off-maine-coast-identified-23-years-later/By Gillian Graham January 12, 2023
The remains of an 84-year-old Las Vegas man have been identified nearly 23 years after they were found 27 miles off the coast of Maine.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner announced Wednesday that a renewed attempt to identify the man led to confirmation that the remains belonged to Philip Kahn, who was reported missing from Las Vegas. It is unknown how Kahn ended up off the Maine coast.
The partially skeletonized remains were found on July 24, 2000, in the Atlantic Ocean near Grand Manan Banks, but attempts at the time to identify the body using DNA and fingerprints were unsuccessful. The fingerprints were submitted to the FBI, but there were no matches. A DNA sample was uploaded to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index (CODIS).
In 2019, the medical examiner’s office contracted Parabon Nanolabs to analyze the DNA and attempt forensic genealogy. That process revealed the man was Ashkenazi Jewish, but did not produce any viable leads to identify him.
The medical examiner revisited the case last March when representatives met with the FBI’s Deceased Persons Identification Services Division to discuss updated technology that could help in the case. The fingerprints were submitted to the FBI in May.
The FBI matched the fingerprints and dental records to Kahn, who left Las Vegas and flew to New York.
Kahn’s next of kin has been notified, according to the medical examiner’s office.
Sure wasn't as sturdy as the Great Wall in China...
MISSION, Texas — Along a bend in the Rio Grande, shorn of all brush except for an occasional palm, looms an 18-foot fence of galvanized steel a few feet from the muddy water’s edge.
The fence, constructed three years ago with private funds, was once at the center of a bitter national debate over border security, its builder touted by President Donald J. Trump and promoted in a fraudulent scheme by Steve Bannon known as “We Build the Wall” that resulted in criminal indictments and convictions.
Now, the three-mile-long barrier is essentially orphaned, functionally useless — because of a federally constructed border barrier a short distance behind it — and, according to an engineering report commissioned by the Justice Department, at risk of falling over in a major flood and floating away.
And because of its location and construction along the water’s edge, federal officials worry that the fence could end up redirecting the Rio Grande in such a way that the land it sits on would end up as part of Mexico.
The fence has been opposed in litigation brought by the nearby National Butterfly Center, which attracted threats of such vitriol last year that it briefly closed, and by the Justice Department, which accused the private builder of the fence, Fisher Sand & Gravel Company, of violating an international treaty.
The Justice Department reached a settlement with Fisher last year that allowed the fence to remain in place and required a subsidiary of the company to maintain it. The butterfly center, which sits just upriver, is continuing its effort to force the demolition of the fence; a trial could take place this year.
“The whole thing was stupid,” Ryan Patrick, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, said of the fence, whose construction on the edge of the river, he argued, was a violation of a treaty with Mexico. “The erosion began almost immediately,” Mr. Patrick said. “I would not be happy if I lived in the vicinity of this thing.”
Despite its size, the fence is mostly invisible to the residents of the border community in Mission, Texas, where it rises at the edge of a sugar cane farm on the outskirts of town. But it is impossible to miss when looking out from José Alfredo Cavazos’s property a short distance down the river.
The reedy riverbank land has been in the Cavazos family for generations, said Mr. Cavazos, 73, who recalled working there for his grandmother on what was then a farm and described jumping into the river to cool off. Mr. Cavazos, who once ran a local grocery store, now gets around in a motorized wheelchair and his family rent plots along the water to local residents, including four members of the Border Patrol, so that they can have access to the river for fishing and boating.
Mr. Cavazos was dismayed when the fence was built on his neighbor’s property upriver, concerned about the impact it would have on the river and the land around it.
“He never even bothered to come and talk to his neighbors,” Mr. Cavazos said, speaking of the owner of the sugar cane farm, Lance Neuhaus. “He probably knew it was going to damage his neighbors because he’s not dumb.”
Mr. Neuhaus, reached by phone, did not express concern about the fence, which sits on land he sold to Fisher. “The wall is still standing,” he said. “It’s a good project.”
Before the private fence was built, the Cavazos family spent years fighting against the existing federal barrier. Mr. Cavazos’s cousin, Reynaldo Anzaldúa Cavazos, expressed dismay at having had to watch the private fence go in right along the riverbank, an area that they thought everyone knew was ill-advised to build.
“We’ve lived here all our lives so we know what a flood does,” said Mr. Cavazos, 77, a retired U.S. customs agent. “You don’t build on the riverbank.”
Engineers who studied the fence’s construction on behalf of the Justice Department reached a similar conclusion. Among the issues outlined in the 400-page report from the engineering firm Arcadis were that, in the event of a major flood, the fence “would effectively slide, overturn and become buoyant.”
The firm concluded: “The fence is likely not fit for use under all reasonably anticipated service loads,” meaning environmental conditions, such as snow, wind, rain, earthquakes and floods.
But the government did not take its case to trial, choosing instead to reach the settlement with Fisher. Among the stipulations agreed to by the Justice Department and Fisher were that copies of the engineering report be destroyed. Its conclusions were instead reported by ProPublica and the Texas Tribune. A copy was obtained by The New York Times.
A spokeswoman for the Justice Department declined to respond to questions about the settlement.
“Ultimately we think what would be the best for everyone involved is just to take it down, even for Fisher,” said Javier Pena, a lawyer for the National Butterfly Center, referring to Tommy Fisher, the owner of the company. “He did not intend for this fence to stay up forever, because if he did, he would have built it better.”
Mark J. Courtois, a lawyer representing Fisher and its subsidiary in the project, said the company stands behind the design and construction of the fence, disagreed with the “assumptions and modeling” of the government’s report, and “agreed to perform routine maintenance for the project as is required for all structures.”
The fence sits just outside a relatively urbanized portion of the border in the Rio Grande Valley, which has been among the top locations for illegal crossings. Around the time of its construction, more people crossed in the Rio Grande Valley sector than anywhere else in Texas, though more recently larger numbers have been recorded farther northwest, in and around Eagle Pass and El Paso.
Almost from the moment it went up, Marianna Treviño Wright, the director of the butterfly center, has been watching for cracks in the wall and erosion along the waterfront. “The river is going to continue to reclaim its bank,” she said while motoring along the fence in a boat and pointing out areas where she says new dirt and rock appeared to have been carted in to replace what had washed away.
After working on the fence, Fisher received large federal border barrier contracts from the Trump administration.
But by 2020, Mr. Trump had distanced himself from the project after ProPublica and the Texas Tribune raised questions about its construction. “It was only done to make me look bad,” he wrote on Twitter, adding that perhaps “it now doesn’t even work.”
For the Cavazos family and others who have opposed the fence, its towering expanse along the denuded shoreline stands as a monument to a political moment. Its simple repetition of forms, particularly when catching the light at sunset, has the effect of a colossal artwork.
Indeed, it has become more symbol than substance. The private fence is effectively redundant because of a federally constructed border barrier, which also rose up during the Trump administration and runs along the levee nearby
And the fence looks to be slowly shifting. Up close, its base appears to be separating and cracking. From afar, its evenly spaced posts are visibly misaligned in places.
On a recent visit, a red breasted hawk perched atop a post where one of its security lights had broken and fallen off. Trucks could be seen hauling in sand and gravel, which appeared to have been recently spread across the riverbank to replace what had washed away.
Among those who rent space along the water is Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Mission, which uses the river access for a day camp. For years, Father Roy Snipes has been taking groups down to the patch of riverfront for fishing and bonfires and overnight camping.
“The river deserves respect. The river is sacred. It’s been a source of life for hundreds of thousands of years,” said Father Snipes, sitting in the parish office surrounded by several stray dogs he had taken in. “They really messed up the river. And for what?”
He said that after big rains, he has been able to see the erosion washing out from under the fence. Apart from its potential danger in a flood, Father Snipes said the fence has, from the beginning, sent a message to local residents who had long known that they were not allowed to just build whatever they wanted along the riverbank: “If you’re rich, you can do as you please.”
But not everyone is concerned about the fence. Jennifer Hart has owned the Riverside Club, a restaurant and event space, for four decades, and in that time there have been floods, including a massive one in 2010 that saw several feet of water come into the dining room and sit there for a month.
Ms. Hart said she did not worry about the fence eventually collapsing. “If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen,” she said.
Her husband, Johnny Hart, motors by the fence several times a week, driving a tour boat from the restaurant for afternoon rides along the river and mixing commentary about the ocelots and migratory birds with talk of how smugglers use rafts to take migrants across where the water is deep. On a recent tour, several deflated rafts were visible in a particularly overgrown section of the United States river front.
As the fence approached, out-of-town visitors marveled at how imposing and impenetrable it appeared.
Mr. Hart provided some basic facts about its construction, highlighting its cheaper cost when compared with the federal border barrier construction. The silvery posts contrasted with the rust-hued metal of the federal barrier, visible at a distance behind it.
“This is a private wall, this has nothing to do with the federal government,” he told the group. A few snapped photos. No one commented on its sudden end. There, a short stretch of concertina wire spiraled off into the tall grass, held together in places by bits of metal and cords.
They Built the Wall. Now Some in Texas Fear It May Fall Down.
A scandal-plagued private border fence is essentially orphaned, mostly redundant and, engineers found, at risk of floating away in a flood.MISSION, Texas — Along a bend in the Rio Grande, shorn of all brush except for an occasional palm, looms an 18-foot fence of galvanized steel a few feet from the muddy water’s edge.
The fence, constructed three years ago with private funds, was once at the center of a bitter national debate over border security, its builder touted by President Donald J. Trump and promoted in a fraudulent scheme by Steve Bannon known as “We Build the Wall” that resulted in criminal indictments and convictions.
Now, the three-mile-long barrier is essentially orphaned, functionally useless — because of a federally constructed border barrier a short distance behind it — and, according to an engineering report commissioned by the Justice Department, at risk of falling over in a major flood and floating away.
And because of its location and construction along the water’s edge, federal officials worry that the fence could end up redirecting the Rio Grande in such a way that the land it sits on would end up as part of Mexico.
The fence has been opposed in litigation brought by the nearby National Butterfly Center, which attracted threats of such vitriol last year that it briefly closed, and by the Justice Department, which accused the private builder of the fence, Fisher Sand & Gravel Company, of violating an international treaty.
The Justice Department reached a settlement with Fisher last year that allowed the fence to remain in place and required a subsidiary of the company to maintain it. The butterfly center, which sits just upriver, is continuing its effort to force the demolition of the fence; a trial could take place this year.
“The whole thing was stupid,” Ryan Patrick, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, said of the fence, whose construction on the edge of the river, he argued, was a violation of a treaty with Mexico. “The erosion began almost immediately,” Mr. Patrick said. “I would not be happy if I lived in the vicinity of this thing.”
Despite its size, the fence is mostly invisible to the residents of the border community in Mission, Texas, where it rises at the edge of a sugar cane farm on the outskirts of town. But it is impossible to miss when looking out from José Alfredo Cavazos’s property a short distance down the river.
The reedy riverbank land has been in the Cavazos family for generations, said Mr. Cavazos, 73, who recalled working there for his grandmother on what was then a farm and described jumping into the river to cool off. Mr. Cavazos, who once ran a local grocery store, now gets around in a motorized wheelchair and his family rent plots along the water to local residents, including four members of the Border Patrol, so that they can have access to the river for fishing and boating.
Mr. Cavazos was dismayed when the fence was built on his neighbor’s property upriver, concerned about the impact it would have on the river and the land around it.
“He never even bothered to come and talk to his neighbors,” Mr. Cavazos said, speaking of the owner of the sugar cane farm, Lance Neuhaus. “He probably knew it was going to damage his neighbors because he’s not dumb.”
Mr. Neuhaus, reached by phone, did not express concern about the fence, which sits on land he sold to Fisher. “The wall is still standing,” he said. “It’s a good project.”
Before the private fence was built, the Cavazos family spent years fighting against the existing federal barrier. Mr. Cavazos’s cousin, Reynaldo Anzaldúa Cavazos, expressed dismay at having had to watch the private fence go in right along the riverbank, an area that they thought everyone knew was ill-advised to build.
“We’ve lived here all our lives so we know what a flood does,” said Mr. Cavazos, 77, a retired U.S. customs agent. “You don’t build on the riverbank.”
Engineers who studied the fence’s construction on behalf of the Justice Department reached a similar conclusion. Among the issues outlined in the 400-page report from the engineering firm Arcadis were that, in the event of a major flood, the fence “would effectively slide, overturn and become buoyant.”
The firm concluded: “The fence is likely not fit for use under all reasonably anticipated service loads,” meaning environmental conditions, such as snow, wind, rain, earthquakes and floods.
But the government did not take its case to trial, choosing instead to reach the settlement with Fisher. Among the stipulations agreed to by the Justice Department and Fisher were that copies of the engineering report be destroyed. Its conclusions were instead reported by ProPublica and the Texas Tribune. A copy was obtained by The New York Times.
A spokeswoman for the Justice Department declined to respond to questions about the settlement.
“Ultimately we think what would be the best for everyone involved is just to take it down, even for Fisher,” said Javier Pena, a lawyer for the National Butterfly Center, referring to Tommy Fisher, the owner of the company. “He did not intend for this fence to stay up forever, because if he did, he would have built it better.”
Mark J. Courtois, a lawyer representing Fisher and its subsidiary in the project, said the company stands behind the design and construction of the fence, disagreed with the “assumptions and modeling” of the government’s report, and “agreed to perform routine maintenance for the project as is required for all structures.”
The fence sits just outside a relatively urbanized portion of the border in the Rio Grande Valley, which has been among the top locations for illegal crossings. Around the time of its construction, more people crossed in the Rio Grande Valley sector than anywhere else in Texas, though more recently larger numbers have been recorded farther northwest, in and around Eagle Pass and El Paso.
Almost from the moment it went up, Marianna Treviño Wright, the director of the butterfly center, has been watching for cracks in the wall and erosion along the waterfront. “The river is going to continue to reclaim its bank,” she said while motoring along the fence in a boat and pointing out areas where she says new dirt and rock appeared to have been carted in to replace what had washed away.
After working on the fence, Fisher received large federal border barrier contracts from the Trump administration.
But by 2020, Mr. Trump had distanced himself from the project after ProPublica and the Texas Tribune raised questions about its construction. “It was only done to make me look bad,” he wrote on Twitter, adding that perhaps “it now doesn’t even work.”
For the Cavazos family and others who have opposed the fence, its towering expanse along the denuded shoreline stands as a monument to a political moment. Its simple repetition of forms, particularly when catching the light at sunset, has the effect of a colossal artwork.
Indeed, it has become more symbol than substance. The private fence is effectively redundant because of a federally constructed border barrier, which also rose up during the Trump administration and runs along the levee nearby
And the fence looks to be slowly shifting. Up close, its base appears to be separating and cracking. From afar, its evenly spaced posts are visibly misaligned in places.
On a recent visit, a red breasted hawk perched atop a post where one of its security lights had broken and fallen off. Trucks could be seen hauling in sand and gravel, which appeared to have been recently spread across the riverbank to replace what had washed away.
Among those who rent space along the water is Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Mission, which uses the river access for a day camp. For years, Father Roy Snipes has been taking groups down to the patch of riverfront for fishing and bonfires and overnight camping.
“The river deserves respect. The river is sacred. It’s been a source of life for hundreds of thousands of years,” said Father Snipes, sitting in the parish office surrounded by several stray dogs he had taken in. “They really messed up the river. And for what?”
He said that after big rains, he has been able to see the erosion washing out from under the fence. Apart from its potential danger in a flood, Father Snipes said the fence has, from the beginning, sent a message to local residents who had long known that they were not allowed to just build whatever they wanted along the riverbank: “If you’re rich, you can do as you please.”
But not everyone is concerned about the fence. Jennifer Hart has owned the Riverside Club, a restaurant and event space, for four decades, and in that time there have been floods, including a massive one in 2010 that saw several feet of water come into the dining room and sit there for a month.
Ms. Hart said she did not worry about the fence eventually collapsing. “If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen,” she said.
Her husband, Johnny Hart, motors by the fence several times a week, driving a tour boat from the restaurant for afternoon rides along the river and mixing commentary about the ocelots and migratory birds with talk of how smugglers use rafts to take migrants across where the water is deep. On a recent tour, several deflated rafts were visible in a particularly overgrown section of the United States river front.
As the fence approached, out-of-town visitors marveled at how imposing and impenetrable it appeared.
Mr. Hart provided some basic facts about its construction, highlighting its cheaper cost when compared with the federal border barrier construction. The silvery posts contrasted with the rust-hued metal of the federal barrier, visible at a distance behind it.
“This is a private wall, this has nothing to do with the federal government,” he told the group. A few snapped photos. No one commented on its sudden end. There, a short stretch of concertina wire spiraled off into the tall grass, held together in places by bits of metal and cords.
longcast
Well-Known Angler
Migrants are 'drinking all day,' 'having sex in the stairs' in taxpayer-funded New York hotels: whistleblower
An employee at a hotel in Times Square became a whistleblower Wednesday after he released video and photos of illegal immigrants trashing the hotel.
www.foxnews.com
wader
Well-Known Angler
New York Firefighter Accuses Chief of Raping Her as a ‘Birthday Present’
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/Wantagh Fire Dept.A volunteer firefighter in the New York City suburbs says she was plied with alcohol and served up as a “birthday present” to a ranking officer by the department chief, after which both men violently raped her in a...
wader
Well-Known Angler
Prince Harry Says He Once Sent a Fighter Jet to Blow Up His Dad
In his new memoir, Spare, Prince Harry says he once called in an airstrike on his own father, King Charles. Here's what happened.
Prince Harry Says He Once Sent a Fighter Jet to Blow Up His Dad
- In his new memoir, Spare, Prince Harry claims he sent a fighter jet after his father’s car.
- Prince Harry, a reconnaissance officer, had been training to call in air support for friendly forces.
- After King Charles dropped in for a visit, Harry diverted a nearby Typhoon fighter to conduct a mock attack on his departing vehicle.
Back when Harry was in military training in the late 2000s, he put his skills to work on then-Prince Charles, now the King of England, sending an RAF Typhoon to track him. Harry retasked the fighter to target a nearby barn instead, pretending to blow it to smithereens.
WhatKnot
Well-Known Angler
Lo
Loved Pastina as a Child, Mom would put a nice lump of butter on top.
wader
Well-Known Angler
Dallas Zoo closes to search for missing clouded leopard
The Dallas Zoo has closed its doors Friday as it searches for a clouded leopard that appears to have escaped from its enclosure. "One of our clouded leopards was not in its habitat when the team arrived this morning and is unaccounted for at this time," the zoo said in a statement on Twitter...
MARK OSBORNE
Fri, January 13, 2023 at 12:29 PM EST
The Dallas Zoo has closed its doors Friday as it searches for a clouded leopard that appears to have escaped from its enclosure.
"One of our clouded leopards was not in its habitat when the team arrived this morning and is unaccounted for at this time," the zoo said in a statement on Twitter.
Dallas Zoo said it issued a "code blue," for a non-dangerous animal outside of its habitat.
Clouded leopards are found in southeast Asia and China and males grow to be about 50 pounds, according to the Smithsonian Institute. Females only reach about 25 to 35 pounds. In the wild they eat monkeys, small deer and wild boars.
The zoo said Dallas police are on the scene as they continue to search for the big cat.
==========
Non-dangerous animal? Sounds like it's dangerous to me!!
And in chicken soup!!!
I thought we had a couple of months before this happened??
pressherald.com/2023/01/13/yellen-tells-congress-u-s-expected-to-hit-debt-limit-thursday/
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen tells Congress U.S. expected to hit debt limit Thursday
pressherald.com/2023/01/13/yellen-tells-congress-u-s-expected-to-hit-debt-limit-thursday/
longcast
Well-Known Angler
Children's hospital gender program navigator touts giving uteruses from 'live donors' to trans women
A children's hospital faced criticism on social media after a community navigator discussed transplanting reproductive organs from live donors to transgender patients.
www.foxnews.com
Chinacat
Well-Known Angler
The Talibanish Moral Police are moving in to MO
Chinacat
Well-Known Angler
Yeah I hear that is going on at a phenomenal insane pace and its really a major threat to mankind as we know it ???Children's hospital gender program navigator touts giving uteruses from 'live donors' to trans women
A children's hospital faced criticism on social media after a community navigator discussed transplanting reproductive organs from live donors to transgender patients.
movetheboat
Well-Known Angler
Unearthed clip shows liar GOP Rep. George Santos calling himself 'Anthony Devolder' in 2019 - as its revealed he refused to quit after pre-election vetting exposed his lies
- George Santos, a 34-year-old Republican, was elected to Congress in the November elections, representing parts of Long Island and Queens
- The New Yorker was since revealed to have fabricated much of his resume, claiming to have a degree and falsely saying he worked at Goldman Sachs
- He had been evicted multiple times, had a suspended drivers license, and had married a woman despite being openly gay and living with a man
- Now new footage shows Santos using another name, introducing himself at a 2019 event as 'Anthony Devolder'
- Quizzed on why he had two names, Santos said it was because he was Latino and named George Anthony Devolder Santos, and he frequently used both
- The New York Times on Friday reported Santos's staff were so alarmed by his lies they quit before the election, and an ally of Kevin McCarthy expressed concern
PUBLISHED: 22:39 EST, 13 January 2023 | UPDATED: 01:51 EST, 14 January 2023
New-found clip shows George Santos calling himself 'Anthony Devolder'
dsedy
Well-Known Angler
That guy is the epitome of scumbag. Typically, pols try to appear trustworthy and act with character prior to getting elected, then they become scumbags. This guy went straight to scumbag out of the gate.
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