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14 years ago Trump gave an inspiring speech about walls. Yesterday, 400 migrants took his advice to heart.

14 years ago Trump gave an inspiring speech about walls. Yesterday, 400 migrants took his advice to heart.

On January 17, 400 migrants seeking asylum helped dig a tunnel underneath the border wall between Mexico and the United States. They immediately turned themselves over to U.S. Customs authorities.

The willingness of these migrants, including an estimated 200 children, shows both the desperation of those seeking asylum but also the fundamental decency of those same people who turned themselves in upon crossing the border.

In fact, their actions are so inspiring they remind us of a little speech Trump gave in 2004 in which he literally talked about climbing over, under and around the walls that are put in front of us.

For every Trump statement, there's an equal and opposite previous statement.


It's basically scientific law that for everything our current president says, something he previously said directly counters or contradicts it. The people of the internet have made a game out of finding Trump tweets that don't age well (here are 31 examples, just for funsies) and one entrepreneur even created now-sold-out flip flops with contradicting Trump tweets printed on them.

Good times, America!

"I wanted to highlight this hypocrisy," said the creator of the flip flops.

Posted by INVENTIONS INSIDER on Wednesday, January 2, 2019

A newly unearthed video gem makes Trump's arguments for his "big, beautiful wall" sound even sillier than they already do.

For two plus years, we've heard Trump go on and on about the necessity of building a wall along the entire Mexico-U.S. border, which Mexico was (somehow, miraculously) going to pay for. Though he's now conceded that steel slats are a better choice for a barrier, much of his push was for a "big" and "beautiful" wall made of concrete—which makes archived footage from a commencement speech he gave in 2004 all the more hilarious.

In a clip shared by The Daily Show, Trump described to graduates of Wagner College how people should never get up, no matter what obstacles they come across—including a concrete wall.

"Never, ever give up," Trump said. "Don't give up. Don't allow it to happen. If there's a concrete wall in front of you, go through it, go over it, go around it. But get to the other side of that wall."

Excuse me, but BWAAAAHHAAAHAHHAAAAA!

Oh man, once Trump gets his wall he better hope no one shows Mexico this old video we found.

Posted by The Daily Show on Wednesday, January 9, 2019

All hilarity aside, there are real reasons a wall won't do what the president claims it will do.

Much has been analyzed and written about the potential efficacy of and problems with "the wall," by much more qualified and knowledgable folks than myself. For example:

- Why the Wall Won't Work by David Bier, immigration policy analyst at the Cato Institute’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity. (The Cato Institute is a Libertarian think tank.)

- 5 Problems 'the Wall' Won't Solve by Michael Dear, emeritus professor in the College of Environmental Design at the University of California, Berkeley

- I voted for Trump. Now his wall may destroy my butterfly paradise. by Luciano Guerra, outreach coordinator and educator for the National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas.

To sum up for the TL;DR folks, the wall won't solve the problems Trump claims it will. Most hard drugs are snuck through ports of entry not brought over the open areas of the border, terrorists are simply not coming in through the southern border, human trafficking is a much more complex reality than a wall can possibly address, and most research shows that immigrants both documented and undocumented are actually less likely to commit crimes than American citizens are.

Not to mention, illegal crossings have been on a serious and steady decline since the early 2000s, and are actually at a 46-year low.

[rebelmouse-image 19398160 dam="1" original_size="550x683" caption="Image via factcheck.org." expand=1]Image via factcheck.org.

There is no "flooding" of the border, despite the fear mongering rhetoric we hear from the White House. There are issues with immigration that need to be addressed, but building an expensive, environmentally damaging, largely ineffective eyesore is not the way to address them.

Not to mention, if people take Trump's own advice about getting through or over a wall no matter what it takes to get to the other side, there's no way it will work at even a very basic, purpose-of-a-wall level.

Instead of investing in a wall, let's put that money into meaningful immigration reform that reflects an understanding of the complexities of human migration and respects our identity as a nation of opportunity and diversity.

A Korean mother and her son

A recently posted story on Reddit shows a mother confidently standing up for her family after being bullied by a teacher for her culture. Reddit user Flowergardens0 posted the story to the AITA forum, where people ask whether they are wrong in a specific situation.

Over 5,600 people commented on the story, and an overwhelming majority thought the mother was right. Here’s what went down:

“I (34F) have a (5M) son who attends preschool. A few hours after I picked him up from school today, I got a phone call from his teacher,” Flowergardens0 wrote. “She made absolutely no effort to sound kind when she, in an extremely rude and annoyed tone, told me to stop packing my son such ‘disgusting and inappropriate’ lunches."

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Photo by Egor Vikhrev on Unsplash

Let's talk about what makes people read articles.

The adage, "If it bleeds, it leads," refers to the media's tendency to headline stories involving death or violence, but it can also be used to point to people's negativity bias. Simply put, people tend to pay more attention to negative news stories than positive ones.

A new study seems to reinforce this idea. And much to our surprise, it's centered on headlines used in Upworthy stories.

Using a public archive of Upworthy headlines and traffic data from 2012 to 2015, two separate teams of researchers analyzed whether people's click tendencies changed with negative or positive words in headlines. In those olden days of Upworthy, a handful of headlines for a single story were tested on the website to see which one would receive the most clicks. The research teams analyzed those results and found that negative words in headlines led to more people clicking on a story (2.3% more), and positive words in headlines led to fewer clicks (1.0% fewer). They also found a preference for headlines that express sadness over those that express joy, fear or anger.

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Pop Culture

Woman was mocked online for calling an $80 purse a 'luxury item.' Her response went viral.

"I'm so grateful that my dad was able to get me one. He worked so hard for that money.”

@zohtaco/TikTok

Zoe Gabriel, showing off her new purse from Charles & Keith

Insults of any kind are painful, but jabs towards someone’s financial status are their own breed.

In January 2023, Singapore-based Zoe Gabriel was on the receiving end of this particular flavor of mockery when she posted a TikTok about a purse from local retail brand Charles & Keith—a gift bought for her by her father.

In her excitement, the 17-year-old called the bag, which costs around $80, a “luxury” item as she unwrapped it. Her excitement was sadly cut short by some of the negative comments she received.

One comment seemed to stand out above the rest and prompted Gabriel to post an emotional response video.

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Samantha Moriá Reynolds's advice on sick children.

It's cold and flu seasons, folks. During this time of year, we're all on a mission to avoid the demon viruses that threaten to invade our bodies and wage Armageddon on our immune systems.

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Family

A doctor specializing in child development shares 5 of her most surprising parenting tips

"How To Discipline Your Child So They Actually Learn" is one of her more popular videos.

via drkristynsommer / TikTok

Parenting is the most important job that most people will ever have in life. Your decisions as a parent will be some of the most important determining factors in whether your child becomes a happy and productive adult or not. It's a huge responsibility.

Parenting is a difficult and important undertaking, but many parents simply repeat the same strategies used by their parents. How often do we hear people rationalize their decisions by saying, "That's what my parents did and I came out ok."

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Pop Culture

RuPaul's Drag Race 'Footloose' parody gets high praise from Kevin Bacon himself

When the OG Ren McCormack approves, you know you're in for something good.

RuPaul's Drag Race/Youtube, Wikipedia

Loosey LaDuca performing as Heaven Bacon for "Wigloose: A Rusical"

Fans of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” are well acquainted with the “Rusical” segment, but in case this word seems like something out of Dr. Seuss, here’s a brief explainer: A Rusical is a challenge on the show where contestants put on a live parody drag musical. Since debuting in Season 6, the Rusical has become a beloved staple of the series, with some of the most popular titles being “Madonna: The Unauthorized Rusical,” “HERstory of the World” and “Moulin Ru: The Rusical.”

For Episode 12, the queens drew inspiration from the 1984 movie “Footloose” to tell a story about a small town that prohibits drag rather than dancing. The performance got a sweet seal of approval from the OG Ren McCormack himself.
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