Anybody with a basic Judeo/Christian education knows walls cannot stand against righteousness. Joshua 5:13-6:27 tells the story of the Battle of Jericho and how Joshua destroyed the wall by blowing horns.
Yes, you got it, Joshua brought the wall down by blowing horns. Yep, vuvuzelas did the trick.
Walls did not protect Troy. Clever Ulysses came up with a simple, low cost, low tech plan to get into Troy and the rest is history..
The Trojan Horse has evolved since the fall of Troy. Today's Trojan Horses are made of steel. They are even cruder than what the Greeks used. They don't even resemble horses. They are simple rectangles and they are brought into ports all over the world every single day.
Cargo containers are used to smuggle everything from drugs to human beings.
People fly over walls and tunnel under them. Some people just walk around them. I actually met a man who flew over the Berlin Wall in a hot air balloon with his family.
Walls are mere inconveniences. Anybody remember the Maginot Line? The great defensive wall meant to protect France from any possible invasion. You know, the one's the Nazis just bypassed on their way into France during World War II.
How about Hitler's Fortress Europe? Remember the Siegfried Line - the impenetrable wall protecting Europe from an Allied Invasion?
Walls are really the ultimate in low tech defense. They can't stop someone who is determined to get in and they can't stop someone determined to get out. Remember Robert Stroud?
People keep building walls and variations of walls and other people just keep ignoring them. A bank vault is a heavy duty wall, yet thieves keep finding their way in.
Is this sinking in? Remember Belshazzar? He had trouble reading the handwriting on the wall, the handwriting that God had placed there: "Mene, Mene, Tekelm, Upharsin". Belshazzar couldn't read it. He praised the gods of silver and gold. He was slain, his kingdom was divided. Daniel 5.
Still having a problem with this? Okay, Donald Trump wants to spend billions of dollars building a wall on our border with Mexico. He says he wants to stop drug smuggling, human trafficking and terrorists. He wants to protect us from rapists and murders and people driving super cars across our border. Bullshit!
Trump is a modern version of Belshazzar. He worships gold. He has sold us out to Russia. He is engaged in every despicable thing you can imagine. He has betrayed us and our country. He is part of an international crime syndicate. He launders money. He is Putin's puppet.
Putin is an evil MF running a Kleptocracy. He got his hooks into Doanld decades ago when Donald blew through his inheritance and was on the verge of going bust. When no American bank would lend Donald any more money, and when Donald's bank notes were due, Russian oligarchs started lending him money. Donny is literally married to the Russian mob.
So what's the deal with this wall and the shutdown and all the other bullshit and pain generated by this administration? The deal is distraction. Trump is a master of distraction. He uses Twitter and FOX and Rush and other haters to amplify his bullshit.
The wall is a mere pretense for Trump. Donald is using the wall to justify shutting down the government. That's it. If it was so important the Republicans could have passed legislation to build it during the 2 years they controlled both the House and Senate.
Shutting down the government causes massive distractions. It causes chaos and chaos is what Donald is all about. Cry if you must, but we need to peel this onion.
Just don't let the stink of this stop you. Let's peel this baby and see what we find. First and foremost, we need to go down only one layer to realize that Trump is not responsible for the shutdown. This is important, because we cannot focus on the problem and deal with it if we keep misstating and mislabeling it. Mitch McConnell is responsible for the shutdown.
Yep, stinky ole Mitch is causing this. Mitch controls the Senate and Mitch won't let the Senate vote on any bill to end the shutdown and/or fund the government. Trump can throw all the hissy fits he wants, but legislation is passed in the House and Senate. It takes action on the part of both the House and Senate to get anything done. Congress, the Legislative Branch, is a co-equal partner. It is not subservient to the Executive Branch.
Congress can pass legislation and the President can veto it, but Congress can override a veto and pass the legislation anyway. So, in order to get the government funded and open, we need legislation. If the Senate goes on strike, which is what is happening, then no legislation can get put on the President's desk for his signature.
McConnell can play coy all he wants. Pelosi and the House have passed legislation to fund the government and end the shutdown. Pelosi and the House and Schumer and the Senate Democrats remain ready to negotiate with McConnell and the Senate Republicans, but Mitch won't let any legislation come up for a vote in the Senate. Instead, he says Pelosi and Trump have to reach an agreement. Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit!
The House and Senate each pass legislation, they negotiate with each other and when they finalize a bill, they send it to the President for approval. Nancy has done her job. The House has done it's job. The Senate hasn't done anything.
On to the next layer. McConnell can't do what he is doing without the passive approval of the Senate. The Republicans are in the majority in the Senate. If they wanted to act, they could join with the Democrats and force a vote on legislation independent of McConnell. The Senate Democrats are willing to act. The Senate Republicans aren't. So, the Senate Republicans are keeping the government shut down.
While we are all distracted with border wall bullshit, the Senate Republicans are busy not doing other things. On Wednesday they refused to block the Administration from lifting sanctions on Russia. The Russians were so happy they put pictures of U.S. Senators up on Russia's state run TV.
Specifically, the Senate refused to stop Trump from lifting sanctions on Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch with ties to Putin.
Earlier, they refused to enact legislation to protect Robert Mueller and his investigation.
The next layer is really interesting. It consists of two entities that were not elected to any office in our country. Indeed, one is not even a citizen of our country. The first entity is Vladimir Putin. Putin is the President of Russia. Putin is the undisputed beneficiary of Trump's chaos. Putin wants to weaken our country, break up the European Union and get rid of NATO. Putin is succeeding at all three of his goals.
While Putin is giving us all the finger, the Koch brothers and other wealthy American oligarchs are controlling McConnell. The Kochs et al want to breakdown our government. They don't like government. They don't like majority rule. They don't like paying taxes and being regulated. They hate regulations that limit environmental pollution. The Kochs own the GOP.
Republicans in Congress are basically employees of the Kochs. If you want to understand this, just look at the money the Kochs directly and indirectly donate to the GOP. Read a book.
The Kochs et al and the Russians give massive amounts of money to the GOP. They funnel the money in through all kinds of organizations. Some of those include the NRA and various Evangelical Christian organizations.
Which gets us to the core of this onion - the American voter. We are being manipulated by everyone. The NRA appeals to our fears. The evangelicals appeal to our fears. Trump appeals to our fears. They appeal to us and seek to manipulate us because at core, we are the power behind our government. We vote. Our votes determine who controls the House and Senate. Our votes determine who the next President and Vice President will be. Our votes are the source of all political power in the Untied States.
We took back the House in 2018. We need to take back the Senate and the Presidency in 2020. We need to get rid of all the Republicans who have betrayed us. We mustn't allow others receiving funds from Russia to divide us again.
We need to control the public debate. We need to stay focused and not be distracted. We need to vote for real Democrats. Obama took us back from the brink of a major economic depression. Obama was a real Democrat.
So let's use the right language when we talk about what is happening now. Here are a few key points to remember and repeat.
1. McConnell and the Republicans are responsible for the shutdown.
2. McConnell and the Republicans need to negotiate with Pelosi, Schumer and the Democrats. Pelosi and Schumer do not need to negotiate with Trump.
3. The Republicans could stop Trump in a heartbeat. They have the power to do so.
4. The wall is bullshit.
5. Russia is waging war on us and we need to fight back. We need to protect Mueller and make sure he finishes his investigation.
6. We need to keep the sanctions against Russia in place.
7. Trump is incompetent. He is a consummate liar. He is compromised and acting on behalf of Russia.
8. Trump needs to be impeached.
9. We are at grave risk of losing our country.
In the meantime, Trump is building a very personal wall. It exists solely in his mind. He thinks he can hide behind it. He thinks because he is the President it will protect him.
In truth, Trump's wall is crumbling. His administration is in free fall. Mueller is racking up convictions and new information is coming out everyday. Today we are learning about Trump suborning perjury. Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer/fixer says Donny ordered him to lie to Congress.
It is we who will ultimately provide Trump with his wall. It's not what he has in mind, but it's what's headed his way. No one is above the law. This is still the United States of America.
We survived the Civil War. We survived the Cold War. We'll survive the Kochs. We'll survive Putin. Too many people have sacrificed and died to get us to where we are today. We are not going to let that be for nothing. When the horn blows we will answer. We will answer the clarion call.
Holy Moly!
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