06 February 2021
SoCal
A Yon-Genre Mind-Dump sans edit
I made these photos on two separate days, are location. You can hardly see the Trump Wall in the main image above because I am lined up on its edge. Trump Wall is laser straight. The vehicle obstacles are the Biden Border.
This is by Boundary Monument 31 on the New Mexico and Mexico.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, "These obelisks, also known as Boundary Monuments, trace their roots to the Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty of 1848 and the Gadsden Treaty of 1853, both of which redefined the international boundary between the U.S. and Mexico." https://www.cbp.gov/about/history/did-you-know/obelisk
If you want to play ultimate border pranks -- move these ten miles into Mexico, or ten miles into United States. Something my high school friend, Richard White and I likely would have done if we grew up on the border. Would probably be called the Yon-White Border Incident in history books, and we likely would be getting out of Mexican or American prison soon for accidentally starting the second Mexican-American War.
Interestingly -- and this is important -- international disputes continue to arise from companies like Google drawing maps. This caused much tension between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, as example, when a border dispute emerged and the Nicaraguan side said something like, "But hey, look! Google Maps puts the border here!"
Just draw up an official looking map and stamp a big name -- and it's Game Time.
Meanwhile, watch China with their Globe & Map wars about Taiwan, South China Sea, and endless more. Threatening hot conflict with Japan as China encroaches. Japan will either stand up or lose. CCP plays by Jungle Law.
So many border and boundary disputes. A person would have to dedicate a fair portion of their working life to even map all the claims. It's a LOT. At least in the hundreds, but more likely in the thousands, depending on how you decide to count.
Countries like USA and Mexico cleverly made an ever-changing river into the border. Mother Nature would re-draw a new border with rain clouds and melting snows. Who thought that one up? "Hey! How about let's make a border from peak-to-peak of the the highest sand dunes?" (While oil percolates underneath.)
China will eventually claim the moon with some argument about who mapped or named the moon parts first. I said this years ago and they are starting to go for it.
Back in the Middle East and Asia, the British and others seemed to have taken crayons in one hand and bottles of whiskey in the other, cigar smoke filling the den, and drew maps all over Asia and the Middle East.
Border fights never end -- such as the 1,640 mile Durand Line between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Tribes and others have been fighting over that since 1893.
Well, actually, they were fighting before 1893, and so maybe the border made little difference. But ultimately, many of the borders seem as if they were forged one night with fists full of whiskey, dueling swords, and the winner makes the borders with crayons, or at least written in blood at the place where they ran out of ammo.
Often, the people making the borders never were at the borders, or at least live thousands of miles away and have little idea what their crayons set into motion. Big effects!
Look at the line between Juarez, Mexico, and El Paso, Texas. El Paso is a nice town.
People living in El Paso seem proud of their town and their history. Walk over the bridge into Juarez and you are walking back and sideways in time. But what's the difference? El Paso is also filled with Mexicans and it's nice, and safe. I could happily spend a season in El Paso.
Or, for that matter, cross some State Lines in America. Ten yards and the world changes. Government matters.
Speaking of which, I just drove from El Paso to New Mexico to Arizona, and now in California. Including four trips in last couple weeks into Mexico.
Why do we need a wall? We see this all over the world. And between States. When you cross into California from Arizona, California stops all vehicles for a species check. Agricultural border patrol, essentially.
As for human borders, reasons for borders are myriad. Borders around the world are great business divides where price and other differentials create markets, such as for smuggling of tobacco, alcohol, and drugs. Americans go to Mexico to buy pharmaceuticals at 1/10th the price, and Mexicans come north to shop.
Human-osmotic-pressures create all sorts of migrations and trade. Or, in cases like the old Iron Curtain, or between North and South Korea, that line in the sand is more than a privacy fence.
I've mentioned my study of pandemic and famine many times in relation to studying war. Another important topic: Geography. Another still is/are boundaries and borders, and why we have them.
I've been to this section twice. It's way out in the boonies and you will not find it unless you really try, and drive far -- unless you are one of the few who live out there.
This section of the Trump Wall was almost finished. You can see the red shock-tube for the explosive charges still there, and fresh holes drilled for explosives to blast away part of a hill.
This empty part will leave a gap that will funnel border-crossers onto a private ranch.
Now, I am in California and today will tour the massive homeless camps in Los Angeles.
My apologies again -- no edit. Got to roll.
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