The old media -- or the "mainstream media," as it used to be called -- is dying for a reason, and that reason is because they keep serving the public an endless stream of "nothing burgers," usually with a dash of well-past-its-sell-by-date Kremlin sauce.
While outlets like CNN, MSNBC, and the New York Times were raking through the news desert, chasing the mirage of Donald Trump Jnr.'s supposed "collusion" with Russians -- yawn! -- Donald Trump Snr. was pulling off his main campaign promise of building a "great big beautiful wall" along the border with Mexico by getting the all-important funding stream set up. This should have been the week's biggest news.
A House spending bill, providing the funds needed to start construction on the Wall, moved forward on Wednesday (12th July), with the funding included in the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill for the fiscal year 2018.
Total Homeland Security spending is set at $13.8 billion, with $1.6 billion earmarked for the wall and closely related projects.
Of this sum, $100 million will go to hire 500 more Border Patrol agents, $131 million to new border defence technology, $106 million for aircraft and sensors, and $109 million for inspection equipment. This leaves still well over a billion for getting the wall designs finalized and actual bricks and mortar.
The funding will see 32 miles of a new border wall system in the Rio Grande Valley Sector, 28 miles of a new levee wall in the Rio Grande Valley Sector, and 14 miles of a new border wall system that will replace a secondary fence in the San Diego Sector. Not enough, clearly, but definitely a start.
The spending plan was passed forward by the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee to be voted on by Congress and Senate. The Chairman of the Subcommittee John Carter said:
Keeping Americans safe by protecting our homeland is a top priority. This funding bill provides the resources to begin building a wall along our southern border, enhance our existing border security infrastructure, hire more border patrol agents, and fund detention operations."
With the Republicans in the majority in both Congress and the Senate, and with the wall being a top priority with most Republican voters, there is unlikely to be any breaking of GOP ranks, as there was with the recent shameful vote on picking up the tab for gender reassignment surgery for military personnel.
Of course, Trump has always said that the Mexicans are going to pay for the wall, but waiting for their full agreement before starting to build it would be a disaster. The plan therefore is for the US to push ahead fund it, and then find a way to force the Mexicans to reimburse the costs. If Trump is keeping his promise to actually build the Wall, who says he won't also keep his promise to make the Mexicans pay?
This is good news, but the other story here is the churlish way the old, dead media have chosen to ignore it, preferring instead to run after more Russian marsh gas. How much longer will the public keep supporting their lies and omissions?
