My Kingdom for a Wall

Day 8 of the government shutdown and no one seems to be blinking.  Trump now threatens to close the Mexico border and cancel trade deals if he doesn't get his wall in his puerile attempt to up the ante.  This after a surprise visit to Iraq to show he can actually go to a "war zone," despite his long-standing bone spurs.  That must have been a bitter inconvenience for him as he hates not spending the night in one of his signature mattresses but then they probably have one on Air Force One.

The Toddler-in-Chief is determined to carry his protest through the New Year, canceling a planned party at Mar-a-Lago.  I'm sure his family will be sadly disappointed. 

What's amusing about the whole thing is that it is entirely unnecessary.  All Trump needed to do was push Congress to update the Secure Fence Act of 2006 when he first came into office, changing the name to Secure Wall Act.  50 billion dollars was set aside over a 25 year period to improve and maintain border security, including building a more secure barrier.  Over 700 miles of fence have been built since that historic signing, border security personnel has been greatly increased and surveillance is state of the art.  In fact, illegal immigration across the US-Mexico border has steadily decreased in the 12 years since then. 

Nary a word from the press.  They cover Trump's sit-in the way they would a reality show, especially now that Lindsey Graham and other shameless Republican lawmakers have joined in the protest.  This is the type of story that sells advertisement, even Trump Serta mattresses.

We have reached the nadir of American politics when a president can hold up congressional spending bills for no other reason than being shamed by the right-wing conservative media.  Trump put himself in this situation by hosting Chuck and Nancy at the White House earlier this month and demanding $5 billion for his wall.  When he appeared to back down, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and Steve Doocey let him have it, and so this childish sit-in protest began.

Republicans only agreed to sign onto this wall because the base of their party was sold on it during the 2016 campaign.  It was never anything more than a ploy by Trump, but seeing how well it played among the conservative faithful he stuck with it, making it ever more grandiose after each primary win.  Republicans never held him accountable, especially given his claims the Mexicans would pay for the wall.  Instead, we see conservative groups start gofundme pages to help pay for this ridiculous campaign promise oblivious to the fact that the US has been earmarking $1.5 billion in each spending bill toward border security since 2006.  That's roughly $18 billion to date.

You might ask what's $5 billion more?  That's probably what Trump is crying right now as neither Chuck nor Nancy return his calls.  In fact, Schumer has been willing to concede a larger amount, say $2 billion, as long as it goes to border security and not the wall, but for Trump and his Trumpkins it is "no wall, no deal!"

If you are on the outside looking in at this whole sordid affair you must be shaking your head at how American politics operates.  Never has the US had such a childishly truculent president who is willing to hold his own country hostage over a fetish like a wall.  It's not just the roughly 800 million federal employees who are working for no pay at the moment, but the threat of cutting off a border in which a huge amount trade between countries passes through each day or cutting off trade deals entirely.   This is a president who will use any piece of leverage he has to try to bend the will of Congress to his favor.

Good thing he issued this ultimatum on Friday when the stock markets are closed for the weekend.  As it was, the Dow dipped down 200 points at the end of the day, cancelling what would have been three straight days of a Santa Claus rally.

The Dow looks like it will close the year around 23,000, that's roughly 1500 points lower than it started the year.  If it wasn't for the rally, it would have been closer to 21,000.  It's not the Fed that is causing this bear market, but the reckless policies of a president that sees the United States as his corporate empire not a democratic institution.

Congress had a spending bill ready for him to sign, but he chose not to out of fear of alienating his base.  This is called the tyranny of the minority and it is wreaking havoc on our country.  So far, Trump has been buoyed up by a relatively strong economy, but now that his ill-advised economic policies are kicking in things don't look so good with many economist predicting a recession ahead.  What then?  More threats if the Dow doesn't bend to his will?

What's odd about these rallies is how they come at the end of the day.  Everyone expected Wednesday's rally, although probably not 1000 points.  The market was correcting for this huge gain the next day, down about 500 points when magically at the end of the day it surges over 800 points to end in the plus.  It seems like Mnuchin is calling in favors on Wall St. and he has enough investors willing to oblige.  Yesterday was the same story with Dow down about 200 points when it surged in the last hour only to peter out before the end of the trading day and dip back into the red.  As it is, they managed to keep the Dow above 23,000.

This is a a president who apparently lives and dies by the Dow.  As such, you would think he would be more attuned to how the market works.  It wants stability in the White House, not some man-toddler at the wheel.  As a result, billionaire conservatives like Les Wexner are abandoning the GOP.  They can't stand this kind of "nonsense."  We can all marvel at how Trumpkins have managed to raise $18 million for the wall, but when you lose your big time conservative donors you are in deep shit.