by Karl Denninger, Market Ticker:

There seems to be this mantra that some 10,000+ people are “marching” over 1,000 miles from southern Mexico to the US Border and it is all organic, never mind being timed to the midterm elections in a couple of weeks.

Bull****.

First, I can (and have) hiked 10+ miles in a day carrying a full pack of supplies.  I’ve done a number of times, unsupported.  I’ve managed 20 miles a few times, under good conditions.

But that’s for a few days.  It’s not over 1,000 miles or more.  Talk to people who have done that — who’ve done the entire AT, for example, and you will discover a number of things, chief among them is that it takes money, it takes supplies and it takes logistics and planning.

The old military standard is that you can reasonably expect a fit, fighting-age man with proper gear to be able to march about 10 miles per day.  There will be days in which you can do more of course but this is a reasonable expectation over a long period of time. Doing so requires logistics, support and supplies none of which these so-called “caravan people” have.

Where do 10,000 people take a crap — for starters?  On the side of the road?  10,000 catholes a day you think?  Who’s got the trowels for that?  I think not.  What comes when you pay zero attention to hygiene and sanitation in a hoard of 10,000 people?  Disease — and death.

Then there’s just the basics of life — water, to be specific.  In reasonable conditions you need a gallon a day per person just to drink, plus more for basic sanitation and similar.  It goes up quite a lot if you’re sweating heavily, and if you’re marching in the topical heat — you are.  So now we need at minimum 10,000 gallons of potable water plus the containers to carry it in which each person must bear.  Where are they and where’s the supply?  If said supply is from free-flowing sources and reasonable sanitation practices are not maintained then water-born disease will quickly occur and sicken or kill huge numbers of people.

Simply put these people are not doing this unsupported.

So who’s providing the support?  Who’s carting them around in trucks and buses?  It’s happening, away from the cameras, and the so-called “media” is intentionally refusing to report that.  Who’s bringing them ten thousand gallons of potable water a day and providing them with the means to carry it and keep it safe for consumption?  After a few days who’s providing them with 10,000 meals a day?  Yes, you can go without food for a short while — but only a short while, especially when exerting yourself like this.  And don’t kid yourself either on caloric requirement; it’s trivially easy to burn 3,000 kcal/day hiking over distances, which is at least 50% more than you consume sitting around.

Then there’s shoes or boots.  Try to hike 15 or 20 miles a day for a week or two without being well-worn in doing that and you’ll be dealing with bloody feet after the blisters you raise pop and are ripped off your flesh.  When (not if) that happens you’re not going anywhere, and the resulting open skin is a fabulous route for infection that can and will debilitate and, if untreated, could kill you.  Could I make it 1,000 miles in one pair of hiking-specific shoes or boots?  Maybe, maybe not but I sure as hell wouldn’t like it; the average person trying to hike the AT goes through three or four pair of hiking-specific footwear.  Could I do it without decent inside footwear (a few pair of good socks for example)?  No, and neither can they.  Who’s providing all that and what are they paying for it with?

I have the gear necessary to spend time in the backcountry.  It didn’t buy itself and it wasn’t cheap.  A fair bit of it is consumable and when used requires replacement.  The food is always consumable of course and when out there you need resupply on a pretty-regular basis via some means.  We call those stores but to buy things in them you need money.  Where’s the money coming from?

These are people who supposedly have nothing.  Really?

If these are refugees why are nearly all of them fighting-age men?  Oh there are token women and children near the front which, by the way, is exactly where you would not place them if you were really interested in protecting people as a cohesive unit.  But every picture and video I’ve seen features nearly all fighting-age men.  Among both men and women I see a hell of a lot of obese, out-of-shape individuals (which is a further problem when it comes to attempting to hike 1,000 miles) — not starving refugees. Optics are more important than the facts, and hiding the fact that these people are not women and children marching unsupported over more than 1,000 miles is the most-important fact of all.

The US can and should find those trucks and supply lines and blow them up.  This is an attempted invasion.  Those who claim it’s not will quickly be disabused of that when the formal support and supply lines are destroyed and said invasion force is unable to continue without it.  The lie of this being some “organic” thing will be exposed — and those people will turn back.

What’s wrong with blowing those supply lines, which the supporters of these “refugees” claim don’t exist, to beyond the orbit of Mars?  Remember, said supply lines doesn’t exist according to the supporters, so why would they object to something being destroyed that doesn’t exist?

Trump is a liar and a fraud.  He knows all of this and yet he won’t act on it.  He wants the political statement he can make with it, but he doesn’t want solutions.  Mexico’s government is not only complicit they are intentionally aiding and abetting this invasion and by doing so committing an act of war.  The Honduras and Guatemala governments are likewise sponsoring invasion of a foreign country (ours) and are committing acts of war.

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