Donald Trump and the stupid Wall he said Mexico would pay for: "Who will pay for the wall? Who?"

Donald Trump tweets obsessively about the “Wall”. 

In fact, between 23 December - January 2, he tweeted about The Wall no fewer than 20 times.  Published in New Statesman America by Nicky Woolf.

Tweeting about The Wall is Donald Trump’s happy place – and he’s back there because he’s scared:
Facing the encroaching Mueller investigation and the prospect of dealing with a Democratic House, Trump has retreated to ground on which he feels secure.

“Drones and all of the rest are wonderful and lots of fun, but it is only a good old fashioned Wall that works!” he tweeted on 23 December, adding later that afternoon “We need Border Security, and as EVERYONE knows, you can’t have Border Security without a Wall. The Drones & Technology are just bells and whistles. Safety for America!”

His ongoing tirade continued through Christmas Eve, as the ?"Trump Shutdown” dragged on, leaving government departments unfunded and staff without paychecks over Christmas. “Virtually every Democrat we are dealing with today strongly supported a Border Wall or Fence,” he tweeted (they have not.) “It was only when I made it an important part of my campaign, because people and drugs were pouring into our Country unchecked, that they turned against it.”

Trump's position on The Wall flip-flopped more than a landed salmon. During the campaign, it became his core promise, and central to that promise was the idea that Mexico would pay for it. This idea became one of his most popular call-and-response moments with crowds at rallies.

Obviously, however, Mexico consistently indicated that it would, of course, not be paying to build Trump’s folly. 

In fact, because much of the border follows either rivers or traverses difficult geography, building a solid wall all across all 1,933 miles of the US-Mexico border is impossible.

But, he is bending into the kind of rhetorical contortions that would give MC Escher a migraine, in order to justify forcing the US taxpayer to pay for his preposterous wall. 

“The complete Wall will be built with the Shutdown money plus funds already in hand. The reporting has been inaccurate on the point. The problem is, without the Wall, much of the rest of Dollars are wasted!” he tweeted on Christmas Eve, later adding, “At some point the Democrats not wanting to make a deal will cost our Country more money than the Border Wall we are all talking about” (but, it will not).

Trump also flip-flopped on the materials the wall he envisions would be made from, changing it from his promise of “solid concrete” to a wall made of metal slats in order for it to be “see-through”. But his main broken promise is the one that American taxpayers would not have to pay “a cent” for its construction.

Of course, that one was a lie too. In fact, just before Christmas, Trump forced the government into shutdown because the Democrats would not offer him money from the federal budget in order to pay for its construction.

Most of the time, a government shutdown is a time for the frantic passing-off of blame by both sides. 

But this was an exception: Trump was more than happy to take ownership of this shutdown when challenged by incoming House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, in an extraordinary and fractious public meeting in December.But Trump continued to thrash about on the subject as the holiday period wore on. “We are already building and renovating many miles of Wall, some complete. Democrats must end Shutdown and finish funding,” he tweeted, still on Christmas Eve.

Public opinion was not bending in Trump's favour. 

As the backlash against the administration for the horrific deaths of several children in US border patrol custody continued, the president finally addressed it – by attempting to blame the Democrats. (An evil act of classic psychological projection!) “Any deaths of children or others at the Border are strictly the fault of the Democrats and their pathetic immigration policies,” he said on 29 December.

When this line of attack failed to gain traction, he tried another new approach. “MEXICO IS PAYING FOR THE WALL through the many billions of dollars a year that the U.S.A. is saving through the new Trade Deal, the USMCA”, he tweeted on New Year’s Eve (it is not- there is no Trade Deal in place, yet).

He also attempted to give some historical grounding to his ridiculous idea: “Throughout the ages some things NEVER get better and NEVER change. You have Walls and you have Wheels. It was ALWAYS that way and it will ALWAYS be that way! Please explain to the Democrats that there can NEVER be a replacement for a good old fashioned WALL!”

Why has the wall become Trump’s holiday obsession? 

It might be that he is spooked by the Democrats’ taking control of the House of Representatives – the 116th Congress will begin its work on 3 January, and the new Democratic chairs of several House committees will have subpoena power to investigate whatever they want to within the Trump administration. 

It may be with one eye already on the 2020 presidential election: several strong Democratic candidates are lining up already, including Elizabeth Warren, the popular Massachusetts senator, who officially announced her candidacy on New Year’s Eve.

Given both of those pressures, it is unsurprising that Trump, wounded by his dismal midterm election results and scared by the prospect of both the ongoing Mueller investigation and additional summonses by congressional Democrats, is retreating to his happy place – the 2016 campaign – and the sloganeering that served him so well (with evil vigor!) back then.

Failed leadership emphasized with failed Oval Office speech- opinion echo in The Nation

Trump Absolutely Failed to Make a Case That His Border ‘Crisis’ Is a National Emergency

The president’s speech was a mangled mess of lies and fear mongering that further discredited his shutdown gambit.

Donald Trump's failed leadership was painfully evident in his meaningless Oval Office debacle and useless border wall speech

By John Nichols published in The Nation

The only thing that Donald Trump’s first speech to the nation from the Oval Office proved is that Trump is no good at making speeches to the nation from the Oval Office. 

In fact, the president failed on Tuesday evening to deliver an even minimally credible case to support his claim that there is “a growing humanitarian and security crisis at our southern border.” Nothing that he said in a rambling eight-minute recitation of talking points and applause lines from campaign rallies could justify his use of emergency powers to build an unnecessary and unworkable border wall.

These are the vital takeaways from Trump’s speech, as the president and his aides have in recent days been suggesting that he might declare a national emergency as part of a scheme to “secure the border.”

Presidents have limited authority to declare national emergencies when there are crises so severe that immediate action is necessary. But presidents cannot abuse this authority; they must operate within boundaries established by judicial precedent and the 1976 National Emergencies Act.

These actual facts must frame the debate about this president’s fact-free assertion that he might invoke emergency powers to justify the expenditure of billions of dollars to build a border wall that has not been authorized by Congress. And they create the context in which Tuesday’s speech must be assessed.

Every president is duty-bound to make a compelling case case for the use of emergency powers. That was what made Trump’s extraordinary address to the nation Tuesday January 8, evening such a big deal.

And such a disaster for his crumbling presidency.

Trump wanted to portray his border-security agenda as “just common sense.” But there was nothing sensible about the squinting president’s attempt to read from the “how-much-more-American-blood-must-we-shed” script that his fear mongering speechwriters had crafted.

Claiming that he was determined to end a “cycle of human suffering,” Trump offered up a stew of outright lies and false premises. He tried to suggest that he sympathized with immigrants, while at the same time portraying them as violent criminals. He repeated his absurd promise that Mexico will pay for the wall, with the footnote that this will now happen “indirectly.” He asserted that immigrants take jobs from American workers, at a time when American employers say they struggle to fill positions. He tried to blame congressional Democrats for a government shutdown, after tellingChuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi less than a month ago that “I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down—I’m not going to blame you for it.”

Trump’s address was precisely the “word salad of nonsense” that the Rev. Jesse Jackson predicted it would be. It did nothing to change the reality that, as the civil-rights leader noted, “There is no crisis at the southern border. No caravans, trying to sneak in; no terrorists coming across in mass numbers. The greatest number of undocumented immigrants in the United States are those who have overstayed their visas after coming here legally by plane.” And it did nothing to justify what Jackson decried as Trump’s “phony emergency.”

Since the president failed to make the case that was required of him, Congress must be prepared to check and balance Trump before his infamy becomes a disaster for the nation.

“If the president follows through on the threat to declare a state of emergency simply to circumvent the legislative branch and build a wall on the Mexican border,” says Common Cause president Karen Hobert Flynn, “then Congress must act swiftly and decisively to check the abuse utilizing the National Emergencies Act, which was enacted in 1976 as a post-Watergate reform to reassert Congress’s constitutional role in checking and safeguarding against authoritarian abuses of power.”

Drug and Alcohol Testing the Congress

Americans deserve an explanation about how a minority within a minority political party could create such avoidable economic chaos. 

Republicans caused this chaos and, therefore, need to explain how it is they believed their minority could create such seditious tension.

Now Republicans are desperately trying to fix the damage they've done.

But they're in a defensive mode about how Republicans drove the crises they created. We hear the mantra repeated, "Both sides lost"....ahhh, I don't think so. 

It's a common diagnostic truism that a cure for disease begins with an understanding of the illness. In the case of Republican seditious obstructionism, there's certainly lots of explaining to do before people can understand how to fix the problem.  As Lucy Arnez knows, Republicans have lots of "splainin" to do.

In other words, political leaders who don't respond to normally accepted social cues like "majority rule", should have a competency cognitive exam. This includes blood and urine testing for drug and alcohol abuse.

There's precedent for this. Indeed, Medicaid beneficiaries are often threatened with drug and alcohol tests prior to being authorize to receive benefits. 

In fact, Medicaid beneficiaries are paid with US tax dollars.
They share this source of revenue in common with the US Congress  Both Medicaid beneficiaries and the US Congress are paid by US taxpayers. Therefore, Congress should be subject to the same requirements prior to receiving tax payer paid benefits.

Cognitive impairment is a commonly reported symptom of drug and alcohol addiction.  Is there any...any...other explanation for the extremist and fanciful thinking of minority egotistical politicians like Senator Ted Cruz (the Elmer Gantry of the Senate), House Speaker John Boehner and their lock step followers other than a physiological induced narcissism? 

Since Cruz and Boehner are paid with taxpayer money, they should be subject to drug and alcohol testing to assure their bosses, ie "Americans" that they're free of drug and alcohol induced cognitive impairment. 

Meanwhile, if these men, who are experiencing diminished public approval, have any self respect or reverence for democracy, they must move forward with preventing any further obstructionism while they're a minority party.

Shutdown: Is Physiology at Fault? House Speaker Boehner and Senator Ted Cruz Need Medical Exams

It's totally incomprehensible for Americans to understand how a majority of "We the People" want the budget sequester repealed and an immediate end to the government shutdown. Moreover, "We the People" also want our government to pay our bills. Therefore, the idea of not raising the nation's debt limit is totally inconceivable, like driving up a bill on a credit card but refusing to pay when the bill is due.

"We the People" live in a democracy where our majority is supposed to rule. Our system of government can't conceive of a majority of people being overridden by a fringe minority of extremists who are upset because democracy didn't happen to win them the Republican 2012 election.  

It makes virtually no sense.

Therefore, from a clinical or scientific perspective, We the People must find the etiology of this strange "minority wants to rule" behavior. It's selfish.  It could also have a physiologic cause.

Let's look at the strange behaviors.  

House Speaker John Boehner won't call for a simple vote on a clean resolution to end this misery. If he did, the outcome of the vote could eliminate the agony all Americans are experiencing. Think about how the sequester would be gone, government would open and the debt ceiling would be lifted.  

Unfortunately, this remedy won't be entertained by Boehner and Republican House leadership.Why?

Should House Speaker John Boehner have a physicial and mental exam to evaluate his critical thinking skills? Think about this for a minute. Republicans want the people who receive Medicaid to have drug testing before they receive benefits. Politicians should do likewise. In my mind. all politicians are like welfare recipients with huge benefits. They are paid with taxpayer money. Likewise, they should also have drug testing.  

Maybe, if we insisted on a physician exam for House Speaker John Boehner, we could determine if his critical thinking skills are competent enough to lead the Congress. 

What's required for Medicaid beneficiaries should be the same for the Congress. Remember, Eric Cantor spoke about eliminating any Obamacare (aka health care reform) subsidy for Congress, thereby preventing differential treatment. 

Good. Let's ask Congressman Cantor to take a physical exam, too.

Now, let's find out what's wrong with the Elmer Gantry of the Senate Ted Cruz.  He also needs to have a physical exam.  

How does a man who's own Republican colleagues hold in disdain continue to control the right wing Congressional representatives in the House? House Speaker John Boehner is allowing the junior senator from Texas to control his caucus.  

This dysfunctional situation is unexplainable. Convoluted thinking like this seems to have a physiologic origin.  

A leader doesn't allow a junior politician from the Senate to speak authoritatively to the Congressional leadership caucus.  

Meanwhile, Senator Cruz has his own critical thinking problems.

Senator Cruz made a judgement on behalf of his constituents that uninsured people in Texas should not have access to affordable health insurance, offered in the Obamacare insurance exchanges. He wants to eliminate Obamacare and thereby prevent his uninsured constituents from buying health insurance.

In other words, Senator Cruz fancifully decided that he has the power to prevent Obamacare from being implemented, shutting down government to make his egotistical point, just because he doesn't want to obey the law.   

Senator Cruz also needs to have a physical exam where his critical thinking skills are evaluated.

Our world is in desperate need of our American  political leadership to be competent enough to make informed and rational decisions. Given the behaviors we've witnessed during this daunting and preventable economic crisis, it's time we see the medical records for Speaker Boehner and Senator Cruz.  

Since taxpayers pay for their medical coverage, seems like we should see what we're paying for. 

Ted Cruz Test: Republicans are Making a Mockery Out of Our Proud American Democracy

Are any Republicans out there who still believe in the majority rule in democracy?  Listen up!  It's time to count votes and eliminate the (a) stupid budget sequester (b) end the stupid government shut down and (c) stupid obstruction of lifting of America's debt ceiling.  
Can Senator Ted Cruz pass this 2 question test?  
Who said the following?

1.  "No mother would ever willingly sacrifice her sons for territorial gain, for economic advantage, for ideology."

2.  "Leadership is someone who brings people together."

Both of the above quotes were spoken by Republican presidents.
(1) Ronald Reagan (2) George W. Bush

Republicans and House Speaker John Boehner have departed from the Republican Party as we know it.  

Republican Olympia Snowe, former Senator from Maine says today's GOP is not a political party she recognizes anymore. This, from a leader who gave her all for the Republican party but she wasn't "conservative enough" (whatever that means!).

Snowe of Maine says the Republican Party has bowed to extreme elements, making it unrecognizable from the GOP she joined years ago. "Obviously it’s moved to the extremes. I wouldn’t characterize everybody within the tea party movement, but certainly there are broad elements within the party now that are driving their own agenda for their own advantage, irrespective of what implications it has for the Republican Party," Snowe told Ashleigh Banfield on CNN Newsroom. "And certainly, this isn’t a party that I recognize and the party that I joined when I first enrolled, and that’s regrettable."

Senator Snowe is correct, this mess with the economic shutdowns is regrettable but it's also preventable.  Republicans can recall all the misery they are currently causing themselves and the people being harmed by their right wing extremism by simply taking a vote to stop this madness.  In not calling for a vote, House Speaker John Boehner is in denial about the inevitable.  This power struggle is preventable and a majority vote of the House would fix all of it, presto (!) like a finger snap.  

In not taking a simple majority vote, Speaker Boehner is leading a party movement that's making a mockery of democracy for the world to see, like hanging our dirty laundry out for scrutiny.  Nobody wants to see dirty laundry especially when there's soap and water available.  A vote is the soap and water of this horribly ridiculous economic mess created by a Republican minority in Congress who are being puppet controlled by Tea Party right wing extremists.  This extremism must be eradicated.

Senator Tom Cruz should take a cruise. He needs to return to Canada, where he was born, to learn from their Parliamentary

system how a democracy can work, when the will of the people is the goal of government. 

Republicans must be voted out of office as soon as possible, before they so damage our American democracy, until it becomes unrecognizable. Republicans are on the road to dismantling our democracy and we must fire them all for their complete incompetence. ASAP.

Republicans Should Know (by now!) How to Vote - Simple Majority Can End This Economic Misery

Louisiana Governor Jindal said the Republicans must stop being the stupid party, but who ever thought his political party would forget how to count? Republicans behaved stupidly by driving a US government shutdown over the Obamacare health care reform law, without offering any alternative. 

Now, the same stupid Republicans, who believed their shutdown would change minds about Obamacare, don't seem to understand how to undo the damage they've caused.

Republicans must surely know how to vote. If House Speaker John Boehner called for a clean resolution vote to repeal the stupid budget sequester (a budget stifling gimmick Congress imposed on itself for no reason whatsoever), and then to lift the government shutdown topped off by a lifting of the US debt ceiling. Nothing, absolutely nothing could be easier. 

Apparently, Republicans need some help with this "count" thing. They need to understand how democracy depends on people who can count. A person or issue with the most votes wins over those that don't receive enough votes. Arriving at the "majority" decision requires votes to be counted. Many Republicans may need help from Sesame Street's "The Count", to learn how this counting system works.

Governor Jindal said: “We’ve (ie GOP) got to stop being the stupid party. It’s time for a new Republican Party that talks like adults,” he said. “We had a number of Republicans damage the brand this year with offensive and bizarre comments. I’m here to say, we’ve had enough of that.”
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/gov-bobby-jindal-gop-stop-stupid-party-article-1.1247645#ixzz2hSdy6ZNh

Unfortunately, Republicans, obviously, haven't had "enough" of being stupid, They just keep getting even more stupid.  

It was delusional for Republicans to be misled into believing they could garner support for a repeal of the Obamacare law (just because they don't like it) by shutting down government.

NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll adds to Republican shutdown woes; By Cathleen Decker  Los Angeles Times October 11, 2013, 4:00 a.m.

For Republicans, the last 10 days have felt like falling down a darkened elevator shaft: You want to hit bottom, but wonder about the odds of survival.

In what has become an almost daily occurrence, Thursday night brought another poll showing the damage the party has suffered as a result of the government shutdown. A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that the party’s popularity had dropped and Americans were far more likely to blame them for the goings-on in Washington than their Democratic opponents.

Listen up, you number challenged Republicans! If House Speaker Boehner would just count, like "one, two, three..." and so on, he would find out if there are enough votes, in a simple majority, to fix America's economic crises. Please try.

Frank T. Kyrza in The Economist - How US Government Shutdown Impacts the World

The Economist - shutting down government an act of international sabotage.   

Does Shutting Down The US Mean Shutting Down The World?

Frank T. Kryza Writer and Editor

With the US government in shutdown again, there's not just bemusement in capitals across Europe and Asia, but a growing sense of angst. If the current deadlock extends to October 17, and a congressional refusal to raise the debt ceiling triggers a US default, the impact will be instant and international. What, for the Tea Party caucus will be a gesture about excessive federal spending, will do to the rest of the world will be an act of sabotage inflicted on the global economic system.

Frank Kryza is receiving feedback on his blogs in The Economist. Tea-Party zealots who are a minority in our US government can't be allowed to control the world's economy just because these political extremists happen to disagree with government spending. Meanwhile, Tea Party ultra conservative proposals ie "shutdown government" harms people and doesn't save any money. In fact, the shutdown costs money and hurts people. This selfishness could extend to impacting the world's economy as well.  

Tea Party zealots must understand how minority rule by bullying tactics is not democracy. Now, they're trying to convince Americans how their right wing economic tactics ie "shutdown" is not really so dangerous. It's like asking the Peanuts character Lucy to stop playing that stupid football trick on Charlie Brown.

How poor Charlie falls for this trick every fall is a mystery, but the Tea Party is trying the same foil on Americans, only this time it's about our economy and it's obviously not funny. Kyrza says it's international sabotage.

Americans must vote all Republicans out of office. Meanwhile, House Speaker John Boehner must exert leadership over extremists in his Republican party by calling for a continuing resolution majority vote to stop the shutdown madness, eliminate the stupid sequester and to lift the debt ceiling so America will pay it's bills.

Meanwhile, quoting Republican Governor Jindal (R-LA), the "stupid party" started a denial campaign, trying to downplay the impact of their economic "shutdown" radicalism. But, these "stupid" people don't believe in science like creation theories or human physiology like rape causing pregnancy! Americans must never be led to believe these Tea Party obstructions understand macro economics either.  

President Obama Must Act to Protect the American Economy

US Senate Democrats Propose to Vote to Allow President Obama to Raise Debt Ceiling

Let's hope the Newsmax report will be realized. Inaction on the US debt ceiling will be extremely damaging to our nation. In my opinion, President Obama can do no harm by taking administrative or executive action to move our nation beyond the preventable stalemate currently putting our nation into an economic limbo.  

Senate Democrats could introduce legislation as soon as today that gives President Barack Obama the authority to raise the debt ceiling unless two-thirds of Congress disapproves, according to a Senate Democratic aide.

An initial test vote on the proposal, described by the aide on condition of anonymity, could occur as soon as Oct. 11, just six days before federal borrowing authority is set to expire.
Democrats have been pressing for a one-year increase in the nation’s $16.7 trillion debt ceiling without any of the spending cuts of policy changes Republicans are demanding.

The method of giving Obama the authority to raise the debt ceiling barring a congressional disapproval was first proposed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, in 2011 and became part of the Budget Control Act passed in August of that year.

Republican extremists obstructing President Obama on every initiative need to recall their mother's proverb, "What goes around comes around". 

It makes virtually no sense for Republicans to continue holding America hostage to their extremist agenda by refusing to lift the budget sequester and repealing the #shutdown. 

Eventually, the political pendulum will ultimately swing to the equal and opposite direction and the obstructionist cycle will become self perpetrating.  

President Obama must take action to protect all future presidents from extremist agendas. He must act to protect the American economy by figuring out how to take charge of raising our nation's debt ceiling, in spite of the Congress. By taking decisive action, he will also protect future presidents from becoming victims of political hostage taking.  

Republicans Wasting Taxpayer Money Shutting Down Government

Rep. Peter King: GOP Shutdown Strategy 'Doomed to Failure'

Add wasteful government spending to the litany of issues causing Republicans confusion.  Add wasteful spending to Republican confusion about:

1. Biblical creationism, 
2. Dinosaurs, the sorry GOP has a hard time understanding how these beasts walked our planet earth, in spite of millions of carcasses retrieved, 
3. Pregnancy causation and correlation between conception and rape,
4. Science behind meteorological global warming 
5. Arithmetic behind democracy, or learning how the most votes wins elections or ballot measures (this really seems to cause Republican great confusion)
6. Civics, understanding how the US government can't be controlled by a minority of one legislative House within one branch of American government.  

This growing list now includes a complete misunderstanding by the GOP about what constitutes wasteful government spending.  

Congress wasted time voting 42 useless times to repeal the health care reform law aka "Obamacare", while millions of people signed up for the plan starting on October 1st.  Uninsured Americans want to receive affordable health care coverage. Republicans don't seem to want these Americans to have the coverage. It seems like Republicans are confused about how to avoid having government pay for health care for uninsured.  They don't understand how giving people access to their own health insurance will reduce dependence on government entitlement programs like Medicaid. During these completely bogus recall efforts, the Speaker of the House John Boehner knew about the urgency of the budget and debt limit deadlines looming in October 2013, but led the defeated repeal efforts, in spite of calling on his caucus to resolve the essential big picture emergency issues. Nevertheless, Republicans are very confused about Obamacare. By and large, Americans are willing to give Obamacare a chance to work. Americans I speak with can't understand how one house in one branch of government can shut down government, because some members of a particular legislative body don't like the law.

It's wasteful for Republicans to keep the government in shutdown when the reality is they voted to pay all government workers for the furloughed time when they return to their jobs.  How wasteful is that?  We're essentially paying government workers to stay home.

Meanwhile, New York's Republican Congressman Peter King says the effort to shut down government for the purpose of repealing Obamacare was doomed from the outset.  The budget strategy led by Republican Sen. Ted Cruz to defund Obamacare was destined for failure, and the events that unfolded in Congress last week prove it, New York Rep. Peter King said on "Fox News Sunday."
"If we wanted to defund something, we should repeal it," King said. "This was a strategy doomed to failure, and Ted Cruz has now walked away from it. We are the ones who shut this government down."

Congressman King does not speak in a vacuum.  His comment is obviously reflective of a number of his Republican colleagues.

Apparently, Congressman King is not as confused as others in his Republican caucus about the root cause of the Republican shutdown of government.

Regardless of who is ultimately held responsible for the government shutdown, the fact is, this political horror act by a minority of members of one branch of government is wasteful.  

There's no way Republicans can claim to be the political party of fiscal conservatism while the shutdown is costing taxpayer's so much in lost opportunity and unproductive paid time to furloughed employees.  

Republicans must be removed from political power. Their politics are obviously confused about how to run government. They don't get how "We the People" want them gone.