Now, if you look at the structure that's behind me, it's tall, which makes it very, very difficult to climb. And today we are also going to be painting it black. That is specifically at the request of the president, who understands that in the hot temperatures down here, [00:00:15] when something is painted black, it gets even warmer and it will make it even harder for people to climb. Yesterday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced that the southern border wall will be painted black at the request of President Donald Trump. [00:00:35] Now, you heard the reasoning for it. They don't want people climbing the wall, and so they want to make it extra hot by painting it black. Cool. So look, the border wall isn't just getting a new paint job. Here's Kristi Noem with more. When you look at what is behind us as far as the wall that is being built, [00:00:54] you see obviously the structure, but also there will be more added to it as far as technology, cameras, sensors that will ensure that it will be secure far into the future, and that will be efficient as well. Here you see structure. We will have water borne infrastructure that will be put in place as well, and [00:01:13] then that technology will be installed. Fantastic. And you know, considering the fact that Trump's budget bill has allocated a ton of money to, you know, just squashing immigration, [00:01:29] they've got a lot to work with. Remember, Congress set aside roughly $170 billion for immigration enforcement and border security efforts through the legislation, including $75 billion in extra funding for Ice. About $46 billion, by the way from that funding is set aside [00:01:48] for walls and barriers along the border. And that's even though oh well would you look at that. Border crossings have gone down dramatically since Trump has taken office. So okay, I mean, let's get into the numbers and then we'll talk about [00:02:06] whether or not this makes sense, whether we should be spending precious resources on something that at the moment isn't really much of a problem. So here are some statistics from the Trump administration. July was another month of record low illegal crossings at the southern border, with just 4598 illegal immigrants arrested by Border Patrol, [00:02:26] a 24% drop from the previous record low set in June, and an average of just 148 illegal crossings per day. So remember, they're getting caught by Border Patrol, they're getting arrested and then dealt with. [00:02:44] And on top of that, border crossings overall are down significantly under Trump, especially compared to what was transpiring under the Biden administration, which, by the way, is a good thing, right? When you get the illegal border crossings down, when you solve that issue. [00:03:00] Great. So why throw more money at the border when it's no longer an issue. That monthly total is nearly 500 fewer than the average number of daily illegal crossings under the Biden administration, 5110 and a staggering 97% decrease [00:03:19] from July of 2022, 181,834, 96% decrease from July of 2023, 132,642 and 92% decrease [00:03:35] from July of 2024 56,400. But you know why not like do a little remodel, you know, freshen up the wall with some black paint and some surveillance? Of course. And Noam has also stated that since her term as Homeland Security secretary began, [00:03:56] over 1.5 million undocumented immigrants have decided to leave the United States. And, of course, that's part of the administration's efforts to get people to Self-deport. They do give these individuals incentives, including a $1,000 reward [00:04:14] and a free flight out of the country. Now, look, we were unable to confirm the number given by Secretary Noem. That's what she's claiming. But we don't know if that's the actual number. And to be quite frank, this administration kind of has [00:04:29] a record of lying about things. But if they say that, you know, they're self-deportation program is working great. Obviously, there's been success at the border since there are far fewer border crossings. And the Washington Post, by the way, has reported the following or did report the following in 2022. [00:04:47] In regard to painting the wall black. This this isn't new. This is something that Trump actually wanted to do back in the day. So the president's determination again, this is a Washington Post piece from 2020. The president's determination to have the steel bollards coated in black has [00:05:04] fluctuated during the past several years. And military commanders and border officials believed as recently as last fall that they had finally talked him out of it. They consider the black paint unnecessary, costly and a significant long term maintenance burden. [00:05:21] I mean, have you ever dealt with black paint? And they left it out of the original U.S. Customs and Border Protection design specifications. But Trump apparently still loves the idea, still insists. And now he's going to get what he's always wanted a big, beautiful, [00:05:37] painted black border wall. Obviously, they're going to surveil the border. There's already surveillance at the border, but they really want to beef it up. You know, give some government contracts to Palantir and others. So let's get into that. In April of this year, wired reported that Ice is paying Palantir [00:05:54] $30 million to build immigration OS surveillance platform. Cool. Now, the platform's objective is to give Ice near real time visibility on immigrants who are self-deporting. [00:06:09] But that's not all it would do. Immigration Aussies targeting and enforcement prioritization capability would streamline the selection and apprehension operations of illegal aliens. People prioritized for removal, Ice says, should be violent criminals, [00:06:27] gang members and visa overstays. About the visa overstays, let's remember that most of them travel to the country not through the southern border, but by flying here, and then they just overstay their visas. So painting the border wall black isn't really going to solve that issue, is it? [00:06:45] The immigration, life cycle process function would streamline the identification of aliens and their removal from the United States, with the goal of making deportation logistics more efficient. It's more of our money getting sent to Palantir [00:07:03] in the form of government contracts. That's what this this really is. The looting that's currently going on when it comes to our resources is pretty remarkable, to be honest. Now, wired was not able to verify the data sources. Palantir would be utilizing. Palantir has been an Ice contractor for a long time, since 2011, but surveillance [00:07:24] really isn't a new and cutting edge idea. Let's just keep it real. And in 2023, Axios published a piece about this. If you want to call bullet points a piece. US deploys AI in virtual border wall. So the article explains that the US has deployed autonomous surveillance towers [00:07:44] along the border with sensors that can scan for miles. It also notes that defense contractors such as Anduril Industries and Elbit Systems of America, a subsidiary of Israeli based Elbit [00:08:02] Systems, are among those who have recently built new towers on the border. Hey, you know what? Speaking of Israel, since we're, you know, discussing foreign threats to the United States, why don't we talk about a threat that the Trump administration was totally cool with a threat specifically to American children? [00:08:21] So that would be a good time to remind everyone that, you know, the Trump administration still hasn't addressed the fact that the Department of Justice under the Trump administration. There we go. Allowed that guy, this creepy, disgusting guy by the name of Tom Alexandrovich, [00:08:39] an Israeli cybersecurity official and suspected pedophile, to flee to Israel after he was charged with using technology to lure minors for sex. American minors. Yeah. That guy. Okay, so local police in Las Vegas and the FBI caught him during a sting operation [00:08:58] where he was trying to have sex with a 15 year old girl. No time to comment on that, I suppose. You know, but I am really looking forward to the border wall getting painted black. Right. [00:09:13] Because the Trump administration is very much concerned about foreign threats to America. Now, look, I have no problem with wanting to control immigration. I don't want people's human rights to be violated [00:09:29] in the process of doing so, obviously. But you can't purport to give a damn about the American people by fear mongering about foreign threats. When one of the biggest foreign threats to this country, Israel, continues to get away with bad behavior. [00:09:47] They get to have their government officials. That guy, okay Alexandrovich, is part of Netanyahu's government in Israel. He's the head of their cyber security agency. He comes to the United States 3 to 5 times a year based on what he told authorities. [00:10:07] So the fact that he was allowed to go back to Israel, the fact that he's not facing punishment for attempting to have sex with a 15 year old miner in America is a problem, isn't it? Especially when he had traveled to the United States so often. [00:10:25] Who knows how many people, how many kids he was able to victimize without us knowing about it. We'll never know because we can't investigate it. We can't prosecute him. We just let him go. And in Israel, he's on leave. [00:10:41] But that's it. Because when it comes to killing American citizens in the West Bank, six of which have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli settlers impunity when it comes to attempts to rape kids in America. Impunity as long as it's an Israeli official. [00:10:58] So please spare me the faux concern about foreign threats to Americans, because unless the Trump administration addressed what its DOJ did in the case of Alexandrovich, I don't believe anything that comes out of that administration about our safety. [00:11:14] Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets his wings. Totally not true. But it does keep you updated on our live shows.