Special Mid-Day Election Day Meme!

by Noah

Leave it to the world's biggest asshole to ruin the classic picturesque shot of our White House! The picture postcard that has sold in the millions and has meant so much to so many around the world is now obsolete. You can thank our treasonous psychopathic president and his enablers among the $enate, his staff, and the media for that.

Trump finally has his wall and it's been put up at our expense to protect him, and the treasonous filth who work for him in the west wing, from us. Trump had this new, higher wall put up just in time for the election. The White House doesn't just have a bunker. It IS a bunker. The very fact that he has put up this wall tells us that he expects to be on the short end of the vote. It's a clear sign that, regardless of the vote count, he intends to stay for another four years and more as "president for life" and is expecting waves of Americans to descend on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to try to force his removal and stop him from continuing to inflict his own brand of hell upon us. He built the wall higher to make it more difficult to scale but we don't have to do that. We don't even need a Trojan Horse. All we have to do is do a siege. No one goes in No one goes out. No hamberder deliveries either. Starve 'em all! Let them eat each other like shipwrecked sailors on a lifeless desert island. I'm sure the White House has its own electrical generators but I doubt they have their own well and sooner or later, someone's bound to find the pipes. Can you imagine Donnie's hair when he can't wash it anymore? And, I've always heard he has a peculiar smell to begin with. That's just one of the reasons Melania sleeps on the other side of the house.

So go ahead if, in your deranged brain, you feel you must, Donnie. Go ahead. Make. My. Day. We're gonna have to fumigate the place anyway.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Add Comrade Trump's "former" top personal advisor and Chief Strategist Steve Bannon to the list of Trump indictees! He's been arrested and indicted for fraud in connection with the scheme outlined in the above meme. Yeah, he might get pardoned or whatever. Hell, at this point he might "commit suicide" or suffer a strange accident of some sort. Look out for bonesaws, Bannon!

We can now add We Build The Wall, an apparent private multi-million dollar grift centered around building the failed and unnecessary border wall boondoggle, to the list of Republican endorsed Trump-style scams including Trump University, the "diversion" of money from The Trump Foundation for personal uses and more, including things that will likely be uncovered in the coming years. Maybe not every scam to be uncovered will directly implicate Trump but the Trump Crime Family and Associates is a very large enterprise with long tentacles that would make any mafia Don proud. I'll leave out the Trump/Ryan 2017 Tax Scam. That involved a much bigger group of con artists. Meanwhile, below is a short list of miscreants who are associated with We Build The Wall. These goodfellas make the NRA look on the up and up by comparison. If any of any of them were planning on participating in the Republican Con-Vention, it'll be interesting to see if that has suddenly changed.

1. Former Kansas Secretary Of State Kris Kobach who appears to have been We Build The Wall's top advisor. Koback is a prominent Midwestern Republican who has fortunately failed in runs for the U.S. Senate and Kansas Governor appearing on his resume. He often appears in promotional videos for the We Build The Wall project.

2. Bannon

3. Retired baseball player Curt Schilling, now a far right crackpot radio host of spectacularly low intelligence.

4. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos's brother Erik Prince who founded Blackwater and made attempts to establish a backchannel communications operation with Russia on behalf of Comrade Trump. Yup, nothing to see here folks!

5. "Sheriff" David Clarke, the former sheriff of Milwaukee County and one time regular talking head bizarro on FOX "News" until he proved to be too insane even for them or maybe just too black for them. Clarke has been frequently considered for top White House positions. Had he played his cards right, he coulda been Kanye West.

6. Goofball evolution denier and former Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo who got his start under Ronald Reagan, worked on the Romney presidential campaign and said the Obamas should go back to Kenya.

It took the White House less than 30 minutes to take the "Bannon was just a coffee boy" approach by saying that Bannon hadn't worked at the White House in 3 years, it's "not a White House issue," nothing to see here, blah, blah, blah. I can't wait to see what Kayleigh McEnany has to say over the next several days and weeks about this. I almost feel bad that she's being diverted from her probable true love-- selling Florida swampland to suckers.

The We Build The Wall project took in millions of dollars. Among the uses the money was put to was plastic surgery and other lavish lifestyle habits for its founder Brian Kolfage. Apparently the other participants in the scam such as Steve Bannon received hundreds of thousands of dollars as their cut. According to Kris Kobach, the scam had the blessing of Comrade Trump himself, Kobach says:

I talked with the president and the We Build The Wall effort came up. The president said 'The project has my blessing and you can tell the media that.'"

As news of the indictment of Bannon and others broke, Trump immediately began tap dancing faster than we've ever seen him dance before. One has to wonder about the correlation of response speed and depth of connection and denial. The tap dancing was a thing to behold as he said "It was only done to make me look bad" and "I don't know anything about the project at all." He also claimed he had "disagreed with the ideal in the first place." He also says he "feels badly" about the news which, being as he's not capable of feeling for other people, is indication enough that this case ties him in in some greater way that may or may not be revealed in the near or far future. Stay tuned. There will of course be much more news to come on this case for a very long time.

Bannon Arrested For Scamming Dull-Witted Trump Supporters

Asked this morning by a reporter what this says about his judgment, Señor Trumpanzee replied. "Well, I have no idea."

At one point when I was in high school, my family moved from the Kings Highway area (Madison High School) to the Sheepshead Bay area (Lincoln High School-- before Sheepshead Bay High was built). My transfer from Madison to Lincoln lasted one day. I was in academically-accelerated (Honor) classes at Madison and on my record that was sent over to Lincoln, the classes were marked with an "H" to indicate that. The person in the records office at Lincoln interpreted the "H"s as "M" for Modified, meaning the intellectually-impaired kids who still couldn't read in high school. One day in the Modified classes was enough for me, thanks. I transferred back to Madison the next day, and got back to Dostoevsky instead of... coloring books. My sister married someone from the modified regime. He's a walking talking Trumpist; not a brain cell firing in his skull.

I don't know if he was one of the people who bought into Bannon's scam to defraud low IQ Trump supporters out of their money, but I bet he was. He isn't the kind of guy to miss out on this type of opportunity.

Early Thursday morning, Bannon was arrested by investigators for the Southern District of New York-- along with postal agents-- after being indicted and charged with defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors just like my brother-in-law with his "We Build the Wall" con-job. They raised over $25 million to build a wall along the southern border, a scam that put huge sums into the pockets of Trump regime crooks and hangers-on-- Brian Kolfage, Andrew Badolato and Timothy Shea, who Trump snuck into the Drug Enforcement Administration as the top guy, by making him "acting" administrator, so as to avoid a Senate investigation into his shady past.

The 24 page indictment reads "To induce donors to donate to the campaign, Kolfage and Bannon... repeatedly and falsely assured the public that Kolfage would 'not take a penny in salary or compensation' and that '100% of the funds raised... will be used in the execution of our mission and purpose because, as Bannon publicly stated, 'we're a volunteer organization.' The representations were false. In truth, Brian Kolfage, Stephen Bannon, Andrew Badolato and Timothy Shea, the defendants, collectively received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donor funds from We Build the Wall." Bannon pocketed over a million dollars and Kolfage stole at least $350,000.

Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Straus: "The defendants defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors, capitalizing on their interest in funding a border wall to raise millions of dollars, under the false pretense that all of that money would be spent on construction. While repeatedly assuring donors that Brian Kolfage, the founder and public face of We Build the Wall, would not be paid a cent, the defendants secretly schemed to pass hundreds of thousands of dollars to Kolfage, which he used to fund his lavish lifestyle. We thank the USPIS for their partnership in investigating this case, and we remain dedicated to rooting out and prosecuting fraud wherever we find it." 

Straus and her team could certainly start rooting and a prosecuting fraud by following the stench and looking closely at the organization's board of directors which is absolutely overflowing with sewage from the Trump orbit: bottom-of-the-barrel crooks and degenerates like Erik Prince, Kris Kobach, Tom Tancredo, "Sheriff" Dave Clarke, Curt Schilling, Air Force General Robert Spaulding (ret), John Moran, Jr., Tiffany Ruegner... And, of course, Trump, Jr. spoke at a We Build the Wall fundraising event, helping these horrible people soak the suckers. And then there's the little matter of Trump ordering the Department of Homeland Security to give Bannon's group $400 million. That needs to be looked into more carefully than it has been.

This morning, the Washington Post reported that "Bannon had told associates he was on a boat all summer off the U.S. coast but has stayed connected to the president’s orbit, talking to Trump allies and offering campaign advice even though he no longer holds an official position in the president’s organization. Until earlier this year, he hosted a show with Trump campaign strategist Jason Miller that the president sometimes listened to. A White House spokeswoman said, 'This is not a White House matter' and referred questions to the Justice Department... After learning of authorities’ investigation from a financial institution in October, prosecutors alleged, Kolfage and Badolato began communicating on encrypted messaging apps and added a statement to the campaign’s website that Kolfage would be paid a salary starting in January. On Wednesday, Kolfage tweeted that he had deleted the campaign from the GoFundMe site, alleging it had blocked a separate attempt to by him to raise money for those wanting to sue the Black Lives Matter group."

Midnight Of The Day!

by Noah

Leave it to Traitor Don to turn 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue into East Berlin. With his love of all things Russia, it fits. What's next? Guard towers, barbed wire, and landmines? Maybe a giant, 200 foot statue of Dear Leader designed to loom over the White House and everything it once stood for? These things are all part of the authoritarian dictatorship dreams indulged in (and very rapidly becoming horrific reality) by the people who currently infest the White House. Unlike the Saddam Hussein imitator that lives in that house, the picture doesn't lie. This is a monument to the Republican Party 2020.

Trump-- A Failure At Everything... And We Pay

A day after Trump autographed a tiny section of border wall near San Luis in Yuma County, Arizona-- a county and state being devastated because of his incompetence in confronting the pandemic-- a federal appeals court in California ruled that his use of $2.5 billion that Congress had appropriated to the Pentagon for specified purposes, to build his wall is illegal. "It stopped COVID, it stopped everything," he lied.





In a 2-1 ruling, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found that Señor Trumpanzee’s diversion of defense, military and other funding-- billions of dollars that were not originally earmarked for border wall construction-- violated the Appropriations Clause of the Constitution, which gives Congress the exclusive power of the purse. The majority decision stressed that "These funds were appropriated for other purposes, and the transfer amounted to 'drawing funds from the Treasury without authorization by statute and thus violating the Appropriations Clause.' Therefore, the transfer of funds here was unlawful."

The 9th Circuit issued two related rulings on Friday, siding with the state of California and more than a dozen other states in one case, and private groups in another, all of whom challenged the Regime's unconstitutional and criminal attempts to build an unauthorized wall along the border with Mexico. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra: "Today, the court reminded the President-- once again-- that no one is above the law. While the Trump Administration steals public funds to build an unauthorized wall at the Southern Border, families across the country are struggling to pay their bills."

Trump's wall is not foremost in most Arizonan's minds right now. On Friday the state reported 3,428 new cases of COVID-19. Saturday, Arizona reported 3,593 new cases and today, another 3,857-- a bad trend. Since the weekend began, the cases per million Arizonans rose from 9,130 to 10,154. Arizona now has confirmed 73,908 cases, 10th most among states. Trump says it's all because of increased testing-- but that sure doesn't explain why Arizonans in the hospital with COVID smashed through the state's record over the weekend. Trump hopes to divert voters' attention from his COVID-19 failures by stoking xenophobia, racism and his big, beautiful-- and now autographed-- wall. It isn't working in Arizona, where the newest polling shows Trump losing to Biden by 7 points. Meanwhile, a Fox News poll shows Trump senatorial doormat Martha McSally being defeated by Democrat Mark Kelly by an astounding 13 points-- 50-37%. And yesterday, Pence announced he's "postponing" scheduled campaign events in the state (and Florida) this week. (Is he hanging out with Biden in his basement?)

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

There he goes again! This time President Chimp On Crack went to Arizona, a state that currently suffers from one of the biggest escalations of COVID-19 cases in the world. Upon arrival, he held a typically surreal briefing and claimed that his multi-billion taxpayer dollar boondoggle, aka The Wall, had stopped the virus. He said this on Tuesday as Arizona was setting a new record of 3591 new cases in one day. The previous record had been set just the day before! Also on Tuesday, Arizona's number of hospitalizations in a day broke 2000 for the first time. The numbers for patient beds in use, ICU beds in use and ventilators in use also reached all-time numbers for the state. I guess it depends on what the meaning of stopped is.

After the semi-coherent briefing, President Chimp On Crack took a trip to his bigly, beautiful wall, a tremendous wall. In the minds of normal people, it was just a 300 foot stand alone section of it. That's right, it was just a section of nowhere near complete wall. The White House photos were shot at an angle that only showed "the bigly, beautiful wall" close up. There were no shots of a wall that extended from horizon to horizon or anything like that. How could there be? The wall where he stood stretched only 150 feet to his left and 150 feet to his right. It was a section of wall acting like a photo op prop just like his audiences of rally fools. If the cameras had been allowed to pull back, what you would have seen would probably look like something you could order from IKEA or Home Depot online (Some assembly required). He even stood there and autographed his little piece of extremely expensive and ineffective vanity wall. It was all a bullshit photo op from the most bullshit president of all time, and that, folks, is no easy title to earn. Trump is so far ahead in that particular competition that he's honing in on owning the top five spaces.

To top this Trumpian Psycho-Circus off, Trump and his White House Stable Genius Squad had scheduled a COVID-19 Mini-Fest in a nearby 3000 seat megachurch. Unlike Saturday, Trump chose a smaller venue so the place was packed, packed with cheering 3000 morons who especially loved Dear Leader's anti-Chinese racist comments. Most of the wackjobs also showed their self-destructive political support for Dear Leader by not wearing a mask. None of them did any social distancing. The scene was like an outtake from "Idiocracy." By the time these suicidal cultist campaign props come down with the disease and explode Arizona's disease numbers even more. President Chimp On Crack will be long gone, after having turned his latest "Breathe In The Virus" event into another campaign advertisement. His human props will have served their psychotic purpose. In a couple of months, someone should take a look at how many of the attendees are dead.

How much you wanna bet that someone has come along already and cut President Chimp On Crack's autograph out with an acetylene torch? It's almost hard to believe that our crazed, demented president really said that his folly stopped COVID-19, almost. The Big Lies just get bigger and bigger. Can you just see all those little virus "spores" or, more accurately, virus particles, floating up to that 300 foot stretch of wall or any other of the dozens of sections of uncompleted wall and stopping? Can you imagine that those "spores" just give up and turn around to head back south? They wouldn't float over to the edges and go around? They wouldn't just float over the top? Really? And how about the miles and miles and miles of The Wall that is just a tall chain link fence or vertical slats with six inches of space between them that the virus can just flow through like the breeze flows through the craniums of Trump supporters everywhere? What the fuck is wrong with the mind of President Chimp On Crack? No need to answer.

Tonight (Wednesday) as I write this, not just Arizona but the whole country is on its way to setting a new record for new cases in a day, but don't you worry, Little Donnie Trump's little wall stopped the virus at the border.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

All in all, it's just another hole in the wall. And, Trump's ineffective wall is costing us tens of billions of our taxpayer dollars, taxpayer dollars that would have a better effect on our country's economic health and our individual physical health if they were spent on things like cancer research, environmental health, improving education, renewable energy, food security, youth programs... You get the picture. Yet, there was Trumpanzee in Yuma, AZ yesterday touting his bigly beautiful tremendous wall that Mexico isn't paying for. Oh, how I would have loved to have seen a Mexican pole vaulter flying over Trump's multi-billion dollar wall as he spoke. Even better if the pole vaulter landed smack on top of The Orange Menace To Society and flattened him. Of course, there was no mention of all of the families destroyed by President Psychopath's policies and no mention of his penchant for kidnapping children and putting them in cages. He needs to be given a punishment that fits his crimes. Start with a cage. Then leave that cage in the desert in the blazing sun. Toss in a few angry rattlers for extra measure. How about a Gila monster, too? They're local to the area.

But, here we are. The government is seizing the private land of American citizens, even those who voted for Trump, and building the wall on what was once their private property. They're also destroying sacred lands that belong to people whose ancestors were here long, long before Trump's wore out their welcome in Germany. Animal migration and water circulation are also being badly affected in the area. Money well spent? You decide. Fair and balanced and all that. Suppose the Italian government decided to build a wall across St. Peter's Square in The Vatican. I bet a lot of blowhard Americans would have a lot to say about that!

As for Gary Beene's comment at the top of tonight's meme, he's a talented guy but I'm extra impressed if he scaled that wall in 15 seconds. I guess that chain-link fencing placed against it on the other side helped. Still, I know I couldn't do it that fast, especially after sitting at home for the last 3 months! Kudos to Gary. There are a lot of similar photos, some photoshopped, some not. My favorites, though, are the ones where someone has brought a saw and cut through the wall in mere minutes. There are also the guys that just stack up a bunch of tires and climb up them to the top of the barrier. Heave a couple of old mattresses over and jump. Some people have towed dumpsters up to the wall to get a leg up, and of course, ladders but ladders are so pedestrian. Too obvious! Sooner or later, someone is going to bring a hydraulic lift. The important thing is what all this says about ingenuity and the human spirit. I call it the force of will.

Bannon's Scammy Wall Halted In Texas

Neo-fascist Trump supporter, Stephen Bannon, decided to ignore all the legal barriers and just build a wall of hatred and bigotry with money from Trump racist, xenophobic supporters. He probably shouldn't have picked bright blue Hidalgo County, Texas for the stunt. In 2016, Hillary crushed Trump there-- 79.0% to 18.9%. Last year, Beto clubbed Ted Cruz and in the gubernatorial race, Lupe Valdez had a landslide win against Gov. Greg Abbott. Hidalgo is split up between 3 congressional districts, all firmly in the hands of Democrats. Hidalgo dominates TX-15 and performed last year as a D+45 county for Vicente Gonzalez. Next door, Republicans didn't even bother to put up a candidate in TX-28. And on the other side of the county, TX-34's bluest county is Hidalgo who performance for Filemon Vela last year was D+44. Every member of the county government is a Democrat.

And Bannon and his fascist vigilantes-- "We Build The Wall"-- barged right in and started building... with no permits and in defiance of government orders. What the hell? The Washington Post's Ted Amus explained what happened. The plan was to erect 3 miles of 18 foot steal fencing. On Tuesday a state judge in Hidalgo County jordered them to stop construction, ruling that "the National Butterfly Center, a 100-acre riverfront preserve in Mission, Tex., could face 'imminent and irreparable harm' if We Build the Wall continues with plans to erect a 'water wall' between the nature refuge and a state park. Javier Peña, a lawyer for the butterfly center, told the Washington Post that the wall could act as a dam that would redirect floodwater to the sanctuary-- a popular spot for school groups and birders-- and wipe out its vegetation, thus destroying the site or reducing its property value. 'You can do almost anything with your property. But what you can’t do is hurt other people’s property,' he said. 'For these guys to come down and use fear and hate to destroy it [the center] for their personal gain-- that’s what troubles us.'"

Do you remember Brian Kolfage, a hustler who started a Trump-approved GoFundMe page to build the wall that first Mexico and then Congress refused to pay for? Almost a year ago, yelling about "too many illegals... taking advantage of the United States taxpayers," Kolfage raised $20 million in just a few days. How stupid does someone have to be? Their evangelical pastors have them well-trained to be just that stupid. Kolfage was aiming for a billion dollars to build Trump's wall for a "fraction of what it costs the government." How'd that work out for the morons? Kolfage, who was able to enlist failed Kansas politician Kris Kobach for his company's board, says his wall will cost between $2 and $3 million per mile. Kolfage is known for shady behavior in the past, including the misuse of funds he raised. BuzzFeed looked into Kolfage’s previous crowdfunding efforts, which included an initiative to mentor wounded veterans at military hospitals-- among them Walter Reed and Brooke Army Medical Center. He raised thousands for the project, but spokespersons for the medical facilities told the outlet they have no record of him working at the hospitals or donating money.

Yet the Florida group, and its founder, outspoken military veteran Brian Kolfage, may be barreling forward anyway.

“We have many people who try to stop us legally with silly attempts, and in the end we always prevail,” Kolfage said in an email to The Post. “I would put a 50/50 chance this is fake news, and if it’s not it will be crushed legally pretty fast.”

In a video posted to Twitter on Tuesday evening, the group’s project manager-- a man in a hard-hat identified only as “Foreman Mike”-- said that a mile and a half of land had been cleared, and steel bollards and panels would be installed within 48 hours.

“We’re going to be putting this up,” he said, asking for more donations, while pledging to have the whole project complete by Jan. 15, 2020. “We have to supercharge it now. It’s time to get really moving.”

Kolfage, a triple amputee in Florida who received a Purple Heart for his service in Iraq, first went viral last December, when he launched a GoFundMe looking to crowdfund $1 billion to privately build Trump’s border wall.

As he raised $25 million online, his campaign drew scrutiny about where all that money was going. But Kolfage, who enlisted the likes of Bannon and Kris Kobach to serve on his board, then revealed that the group had hired a North Dakota construction firm to erect a half-mile of fencing on private land in Sunland Park, N.M.

In May, the town’s mayor sent We Build the Wall a cease-and-desist letter, seeking to block its construction on private land belonging to a brick company. Days later, though, the construction firm-- headed by a major GOP donor and touted by Trump himself-- was later allowed to finish carrying out the project.

Over the summer, Kolfage and his group set its sights on South Texas, where they again hired the North Dakota firm to erect a “water wall” on private land along the Rio Grande belonging to a sugar cane farmer.

The U.S. Army Corps typically builds on higher ground along river levees, placing steel bollards yards away from the ever-shifting curves of a river that has been especially prone to flooding. (The butterfly center has sued the Trump administration over its plans to extend such construction into the protected area, and a circuit court is set to hear arguments later this week.)

Unlike the federal government’s construction, Peña said that Kolfage’s plans ignore the possibility of damage to neighboring properties.

“Whether you’re for the wall or against the wall, they [the government] are cognizant of the dangers that construction could cause,” he said. “These guys are just going in there to stoke everyone’s anger and fear, raise money, and then move along to the next victim.”

The International Boundary and Water Commission, a joint U.S.-Mexico agency that issues permits to build along the Rio Grande, asked the group to halt construction, submit an engineering study and remove heavy equipment from the levees, The Post’s Nick Miroff reported. The group appeared to ignore that request.

During that time, Kolfage and the butterfly center erupted into an online flame war. Kolfage accused the center of assisting cartels and partaking in insect smuggling, calling them “left wing thugs with a sham butterfly agenda.” The center took its own jabs at Kolfage on social media, sometimes including the hashtag “#LiarLiarPantsOnFire.”

Then, the butterfly center sued Kolfage and his group. Peña said that the preserve’s leaders wanted to conduct a study of the fencing itself, but have been blocked from doing so until the court grants them access to the land now being used by We Build the Wall.

“They’re not stopping. They’re not planning on conducting studies. They’re not concerned with what damage it would do to neighboring properties,” he said. “They just want to build the wall.”

The temporary restraining order will last at least until Dec. 17, at which point it can be extended for another two weeks and may then lead to a temporary injunction hearing.

Should Kolfage and his group continue construction anyway, a judge could call them in for a hearing and consider sanctions ranging from monetary fines to jail time, Peña said.

Another 11 House Republicans Voted Against Trump's Wall

Before leaving town for another long vacation, the House-- which just got back for a few days-- voted, as had the Senate, to overturn Trump’s bogus national emergency declaration, the excuse he's been using for stealing money from the Pentagon to use for his vanity wall. Trump will veto it. Neither the House nor the Senate passed it with a veto-proof majority, 11 Republicans in each chamber voting with all the Democrats.

Yesterday, it passed the House 236 to 174. Colby Itzowitz and Erica Werner reported for the Washington Post that it was "the second time that Congress has tried to block the emergency funding. But since that vote in March, the Pentagon has released a list of $3.6 billion in military construction projects that were being canceled to pay for Trump’s wall. Those opposed to the wall thought the new data might spur more Republicans to break with Trump to protect projects in their states, particularly those incumbents facing tough reelections. But only 11 Senate Republicans and 11 House Republicans voted to overturn the national emergency.

“The taxpayers of the United States will pay for his stupid, useless wall, cutting essential things from the Coast Guard... cutting funds from the military who need these facilities for their troops and troop morale and for the safety and security of our troops, all for a stupid wall,” Rep. Peter A. DeFazio (D-Ore.) said on the House floor.

Trump issued the emergency declaration after a standoff with Congress over wall funding resulted in a 35-day partial government shutdown. Congress can vote to overturn the declaration through a disapproval resolution, but that still requires the president’s signature.

Republicans who spoke on the floor accused the Democrats of “political theater” and advocating for open borders. “This has nothing to do with really legislating,” said Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC).

“We now want to open the borders up and have this country become what was previously a nation of laws become overrun and say that laws are no longer sanctified in this country,” said Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC). “We have a president who’s bold, who’s recognized what’s not been recognized by previous presidents, that we do have an emergency.”

But Democrats pushed back against the GOP contention that there is an emergency at the border. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) said, “The president is raiding actual national security priorities to build his wall.”

These are the 11 Republicans-- primarily, but not entirely, incumbents facing tough reelections-- who voted against Trump yesterday:

• Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA)
• Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA)
• Dusty Johnson (R-SD)
• John Katko (R-NY)
• Thomas Massie (R-KY)
• Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA)
• Francis Rooney (R-FL)
• Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI)
• Elise Stefanik (R-NY)
• Fred Upton (R-MI)
• Greg Walden (R-OR)

Jason Butler is running for a North Carolina congressional seat currently held by a Trump lackey, George Holding, who, of course, was not-- and will never be-- one of the 22 Republicans willing to stand up to Trump. "The real emergency in America, Jason told us today, "is that so many are suffering due to the lack of health insurance. The real emergency is the growing divide between the rich and the rest of us. The real emergency is the reality that our climate is dying. The border wall is nothing more than disconnected politicians like Trump and his biggest fan, George Holding, trying to sell the American people something they don’t need-- just like Trump’s red hats and Trump’s red straws. Trump is not a President, he’s a CEO trying to turn a profit. America needs healthcare. America needs an economy that works for everyone. America needs to be a world leader in reversing greenhouse gases. If Holding and Trump want a wall this bad, why don’t they use their personal fortunes and build it themselves."

   Kara Eastman is also running for a district-- this one in Omaha-- represented by a Trump bootlicker, Donald J. Bacon. "Do-nothing Don Bacon," she said, "is most effective at toeing the Trump line. He has supported POTUS over 96% of the time so it's no surprise that he voted in support of the bogus Southern Border Wall. I went to the Southern border and what we need is an investment in human rights and resources for those who are fleeing violence and persecution. Do-nothing Don Bacon talks a good talk on immigration but when it comes down to votes he is as Trump as they come."

TX-10 is represented by a drunken Trump enabler, Michael McCaul. We're working towards helping Mike Siegel replace him in Congress. "McCaul," he told us, "is willing to sacrifice any sense of decency to keep his power. He wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed claiming impeachment is 'what Putin wants,' an absurd declaration. And he supported the government shutdown for the Border Wall, even though he opposed a wall before Trump's election. 'True to form' for McCau -- no backbone, just pandering... As Trump sells our democracy, McCaul defends him. When our democracy is on the line, McCaul chose a side: to protect a corrupt authoritarian. To defend a President who today threatened to execute a whistleblower. To coddle a person who is undermining American democracy, at home and abroad. We can’t tolerate Trump appeasers for a minute longer... Our mission is to replace the corrupt regime in power and restore common sense and decency to our government.

Is It Fair To Point Out That Pelosi Is An Accessory To Trump's Crimes?

Thursday evening, Washington Post reporter's Nick Miroff and Josh Dawsey wrote that the Trumpist Regime is "considering a plan to again divert billions of dollars in military funding to pay for border barrier construction next year, a way to circumvent congressional opposition to putting more taxpayer money toward the president’s signature project." The criminal fake "president" needs $18.4 billion to finish 500 miles of photogenic wall before the 2020 election.

Planning documents obtained by the Washington Post show the cost of building 509 miles of barriers averages out to more than $36 million per mile. The documents also show that the government would need to obtain-- either by eminent-domain claims or purchases-- land that lies under nearly 200 miles of proposed barrier.

At a Sept. 11 meeting at the White House led by adviser Jared Kushner, senior officials discussed a plan that would press lawmakers to backfill-- or reimburse-- $3.6 billion of Pentagon funds that the administration diverted this year to pay for fence construction, the officials said.

Trump is forcing the Army Corps of Engineers to bypass regular contracting processes in order to steer all work to North Dakota-based Fisher Industries, a company whose top executive, Tommy Fisher, is a GOP donor and frequent guest on Fox News. North Dakota's crooked senator, Kevin Cramer-- who has received over $10,000 in bribes from the Fisher family-- is the bag-man on the project and has been "deputized" by Trumpanzee to make sure Fisher builds the wall and Republicans and the Trump campaign get appropriate kicks backs.

In short, Trump forces the Pentagon to hand over money appropriated by Congress for specific projects so he can build his vanity project expressly prohibited by Congress, and then the Pentagon goes crying to Congress that they have to have the money for those projects or it will be a disaster.

House on Fire

Apparently, Pelosi finds this aberrant behavior less distasteful than impeaching Trump, making her an accessory to his crimes, from concentration camp funding to the building of this useless monument to his disgusting xenophobia. Yesterday, in his Bloomberg column, Jonathan Bernstein let Pelosi off easy, claiming there's only so much Democrats can do about Señor Trumpanzee's increasingly bold misconduct, by asking How Long Will Republicans Tolerate Trump’s Lawlessness?. The answer is obvious: for as long as their constituents allow them to. He claims it isn't Pelosi, but the Republicans "who have the real decision to make." Bernstein's bullshit line in 3 short sentences: "Because the truth at this point is pretty obvious: If they could be assured of even a smattering of Republican votes, Democrats would almost certainly impeach the president. If they had enough votes to ensure his removal in the Senate, you could remove that 'almost'-- Trump would be gone very rapidly. It’s all up to the Republicans."

What utter bullshit. Pelosi-- who has given up all pretense of governing on behalf of the people rather than on behalf of a tiny, electorally vulnerable Blue Dog fringe within her caucus-- could easily pass David Cicilline's assault weapons sales ban. There are 210 Democratic co-sponors to the bill, one Republican co-sponsor (to give her bipartisan cover if she wants it-- which she doesn't) and at least a dozen members on both sides of the aisle who say they will vote for it on the floor but not co-sponsor it. Pelosi needs 218 to pass it. She has at least 225 votes now. She's full of shit-- and so is Bernstein. He wants to dwell on Trump's criminal behavior-- which is fine-- but excuse Pelosi for allowing it.

We still have only limited information about the emerging whistleblower scandal. But we do know (from what Rudy Giuliani has bragged about) that the president’s lawyer has pressed another country to investigate a Democratic candidate for alleged corruption. That’s on top of the original Trump campaign’s dozens of contacts with a nation attacking U.S. democracy; several documented instances of the president obstructing the investigation of that attack; violations of the emoluments clauses of the Constitution and regular use of government resources to enrich the president’s businesses; and assertions of invented presidential privileges to prevent congressional oversight.

Republicans have been okay with all this, presumably because they’re getting what they want on policy. Or perhaps out of pure partisanship. Or maybe because they’re so deep in the conservative information-feedback loop that they’ve convinced themselves none of it is real. But they should be taking stock now of just how much lawlessness they’re willing to tolerate. At this point, it looks like the whistleblower’s story involves Trump attempting to offer U.S. policy favors to Ukraine in exchange for dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden.

I’ve said all along that there’s a middle ground where the evidence may justify impeachment and removal of the president, but not demand it. Well, the evidence has long since established that impeachment is justified. Now we’re tiptoeing up to the line where it demands removal. At some point, we may wind up clearly over that line by any reasonable definition. If Republicans choose to stick with Trump then, he’ll correctly conclude that he’s above the law.

Democrats can’t do much about this by themselves. Sure, they can attempt to convince the public that Trump’s actions demonstrate that he’s unfit for office, and it’s reasonable to consider every method of doing so, including a partisan impeachment ending in a party-line acquittal in the Senate. They should also continue their investigations, even though much of the case against Trump has been public from the beginning.

But we know how public opinion works. As long as Republicans choose to stay relatively united, either in denying evidence of Trump’s malfeasance or claiming that there’s nothing wrong with it, then Democrats will be unable to generate enough constituent pressure to change their minds. Whatever evidence is turned up, Republicans probably can brazen it out if that’s what they really want, regardless of the damage it does to U.S. democracy. So that leaves one question for them: Is this really what you want?  

"A president is sitting in the Oval Office, right now, who continues to commit crimes. He continues because he knows his Justice Department won’t act and believes Congress won’t either. Today’s news confirmed he thinks he’s above the law. If we do nothing, he’ll be right."- Elizabeth Warren

Trump Is Stealing Taxpayer Money For His Personal Priorities

Without consulting Congress, Trump started a disastrous trade war with China that has, for example, destroyed the American soy bean sector-- likely forever. The economies of rural counties across the country are already in recession. Dairy farms, corn farmers, wheat farmers... are all suffering from Trump's policies as well. Last month, the Nebraska Corn Board and the Nebraska Corn Growers Association sent out a scorching press release-- and it was Trump who got scorched. Trump did very well in Nebraska in 2016. He won 91 of Nebraska's 93 counties and beat Hillary 495,961 (58.75%) to 284,494 (33.70%). It was even better for Trump in the most rural counties. The massive 3rd congressional district takes up over three quarters of the state and is bigger than New York state.-- and it's 86% rural. Trump won NE-03 with 74.9% of the vote, one of his biggest wins anywhere in the country. Those corn farmers bought into the Times Square hustler hook line and sinker. "As harvest approaches after an extremely difficult year for agriculture," wrote the Nebraska Corn Board team, "many Nebraska corn farmers are outraged by the Trump administration’s lack of support for the American farmer. The Nebraska Corn Board and the Nebraska Corn Growers Association call upon the administration to fulfill its promises..." NE-03 isn't going to abandon Trump in 2020. He'll win that district and ridiculous closet case Adrian Smith (R) will be reelected to Congress. But NE-01 is probably lost to the GOP and NE-02 is teetering."

Trump's subsidies-- $16 billion-- will mostly make already wealthy farming operations even wealthier. Struggling family farms will get very little. And the geriatric and less-than-capable House leadership has done nothing about it but rubber-stamp Trump's outrageous behavior. House Democrats were frightened off my Kevin McCarthy's (and other Republicans') tweet storms.

Pelosi and Hoyer and their lame, incompetent team, are falling into the same trap with the Defense Budget. They funded billions of dollars in military projects, only to see the Pentagon illegally hand that money over to Trump's vanity wall project-- and then blame congressional Democrats for not funding "essential projects." Pelosi (79) and Hoyer (80) are too old and tired to fight back effectively. The military has wasted millions of dollars at luxurious Trump properties and the House Democrats do nothing about it but whine.

Yesterday, Aaron Gregg and Eric Werner of the Washington Post reported that the Pentagon is already screaming about dire outcomes if Congress doesn't fund the same projects that it already funded! "The Pentagon warned of dire outcomes unless Congress paid for urgently needed military construction projects nationwide-- the same projects that have now been canceled to fund President Trump’s border wall. The warnings are contained in Defense Department budget requests sent to lawmakers in recent years. They include potentially hazardous living conditions for troops and their families, as well as unsafe schools that would impede learning. In numerous cases, the Defense Department warned that lives would be put at risk if buildings don’t meet the military’s standards for fire safety or management of explosives."

Michael Franken is a progressive Democrat running for the Democratic nomination to take on reactionary Senator Joni Ernst in Iowa. She's just another Trump enabler. Franken is far from that. When I asked him how he plans to deal with this kind systemic GOP corruption, he shot back the need for Congress to "Vow and follow through with axing other projects dear to the prez and freeze EVERY political appointment... starve him of every luminary and personnel confirmation across all the exec branch. Then, never go in recess... and starve his party members from significant time at their respective home states."

Teresa Tomlinson, the former mayor of Macon and progressive Democratic running for the Democratic Senate nomination in Georgia is also eager to deal with this kind of a situation enabled by Trump rubber stamps like David Perdue, her opponent. "The money spent that lines Trump’s pocket can be identified through an equitable accounting by Congress and a Disgorgment process," she said. "Money shifted through budget adjustment has to be challenged in the courts or altered by legislative process."

What A Leader Sounds Like And What A Leader Doesn't Sound Like

Writing a couple of weeks ago for the New York Review of Books, Jonathan Stevenson suggested that "Trump appears to be testing the American political system’s tolerance for soft dictatorship through the cavalier-- and potentially illegal-- use of presidential emergency powers. On February 15, after months of blustery threats, he declared a national emergency on the southern U.S. border and dispatched the Army Corps of Engineers to administer the construction of a wall by private contractors in order to stop the flow of migrants and drugs into the country from Mexico. Trump issued the executive order because after a thirty-five-day government shutdown over funding for the border wall, Congress had just passed a spending bill that included only a fraction-- $1.375 billion-- of the $5.7 billion he wanted for the wall and specified that it be constructed of fencing rather than the steel he had demanded. The House and Senate passed a joint resolution to terminate the national emergency declaration, which Trump vetoed. The House was then unable to muster the two-thirds majority required to override the veto."

Legislators have good reason to oppose the construction of a border wall. Trump’s arguments for building one-- mainly that illegal immigration is rampant, that illegal immigrants commit more crimes than US citizens, and that the bulk of illicit drugs enter the United States through illegal border crossings—are demonstrably false. Trump himself betrayed his own claims of urgency when he said, in declaring the emergency, “I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather do it much faster.”

...Congress has delegated to the president broad authority to invoke a national emergency, presidents have done it dozens of times, and the courts have shown little appetite for questioning the president’s emergency powers. But the legal, political, and factual background to Trump’s declaration illuminates its egregiousness. The International Emergency Economic Powers Act, enacted in 1977, has been the basis for about 80 percent of the emergency powers that presidents have exercised. It was designed specifically to allow the president to take economic measures outside the United States in response to an “international emergency.” Most cases have involved the imposition of sanctions on foreign individuals or groups for terrorist activity, human rights violations, or drug trafficking, which is widely considered well within the power of the executive branch.

The statutory authority that Trump has asserted to build the border wall comes from the National Emergencies Act of 1976, which affords the president considerable leeway in determining what constitutes a national emergency. Even so, no president has ever used his emergency powers to fund a project for which Congress has explicitly refused to appropriate money. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi characterized Trump’s move as a “power grab” and an “end run” around Congress’s constitutional authority over federal spending. Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, called it “a gross abuse of power that subverts the key principles laid out in the Constitution.”

...Following Trump’s veto of the resolution to terminate the border emergency declaration, Senate Republicans are considering new bipartisan legislation to rein in the president’s statutory emergency powers. Meanwhile, Trump is publicly brandishing his veto as an affirmation of his power to thwart Congress and protect the public. It is possible that he will stop there, recognizing that Senate Republicans are beginning to grow intolerant of his steamrolling of the legislative branch. But it seems just as likely that he will feel vindicated and again dare them to say no. He has already included $8.6 billion for a border wall in the White House’s 2020 budget proposal, indicating his intent to continue leveraging a domestic issue he has effectively militarized. Getting veto-proof majorities to oppose Trump’s policies is still unlikely in a Congress whose Republican members have mostly been unwilling to challenge him, which also makes impeachment unlikely. In this light, the courts may be the best chance of restraining him-- at least until the next election.

Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney and fixer, in congressional testimony in late February expressed his fear that Trump, if defeated in 2020, would not allow a peaceful transition of power. In reaction, Trump gave a two-hour speech on March 2 at the Conservative Political Action Conference in which, among many other caustic statements, he declared that members of Congress who oppose his policies “hate our country.” And as he prepared to veto Congress’s resolution to terminate the border emergency declaration, he dismissed the legislative branch as a delusional, unpatriotic inconvenience, remarking that “the only emergency Congress voted to revoke was the one to protect our own country.” The integrity of the United States’ constitutional democracy remains at risk.

Earlier today, former congressman Alan Grayson shared a letter with me from the President of Mexico, noting that "this is what a leader sounds like... beautifully written and profound."

President Donald Trump,

I am aware of your latest position in regard to Mexico. In advance, I express to you that I don’t want confrontation. The peoples and nations that we represent deserve that we resort to dialogue and act with prudence and responsibility, in the face of any conflict in our relations, serious as it may be.

The greatest President of Mexico, Benito Juárez, maintained excellent relations with the Republican hero, Abraham Lincoln. Later, when Mexico nationalized its oil resources and industry, Democratic President Franklin D, Roosevelt understood the profound reasons that led our patriotic President Lázaro Cárdenas to act in favor of our sovereignty. By the way, President Roosevelt was a titan of freedom who proclaimed the four fundamental rights of man: the right to freedom of speech; the right to freedom of religion; the right to live free from fear; and the right to live free from misery.

With this in mind, we frame our policy on immigration. Human beings do not leave their villages for pleasure but out of necessity. That’s why, from the beginning of my government, I proposed opting for cooperation in development and aid for the Central American countries with productive investments to create jobs and resolve this painful situation.

You also know that we are fulfilling our responsibility to prevent, as much as possible and without violating human rights, any passage of the persons concerned through our country. It is worth remembering that-- in a short time, Mexicans will not need to go to the United States and that migration will be optional, not forced. This is because we are fighting, like never before, the main problem in Mexico, corruption. And, in this way, our country will attain a powerful social dimension. Our countrymen will be able to work and be happy where they were born, where their families, their customs and their cultures are.

President Trump, social problems are not resolved by tariffs or coercive measures like turning a neighboring country overnight into a ghetto, an enclosed place for the migrants of the world, where they’re stigmatized, abused, persecuted, and excluded and the right to justice is denied to those who seek to work and to live free from want. The Statue of Liberty is not an empty symbol.

With all due respect, although you have the sovereign right to say it, the slogan "United States First" is a fallacy because universal justice and fraternity will prevail until the end of time, even over national borders.

Specifically, citizen President, I propose to deepen our dialogue, and seek alternatives to the immigration problem. And, please remember that I do not lack courage, that I am not cowardly or timorous, but that I act on principles. I believe that politics was invented to avoid confrontation and war, among other things. I do not believe in the Law of Talon, in a 'tooth for a tooth' or an 'eye for an eye' because, if we practiced it, we would all be toothless and one-eyed. I believe that as statesmen and even more so as patriots, we are obliged to seek peaceful solutions to controversies and to practice the beautiful ideal of non-violence, forever.

Finally, I suggest that you instruct your officials, if it doesn’t cause any inconvenience. that they attend to representatives of our government, headed by the Secretary of Foreign Relations, who will be in Washington tomorrow to reach an agreement for the benefit of our two nations.

Nothing by force. Everything by reason and human rights.

Your friend,

Andrés Manuel López Obrador
President of México

The Plague Of Trumpism Is Predatory, Of Course-- But Also Cannibalistic

SCAM-ALERT

Elizabeth Warren was in tiny Kermit, West Virginia yesterday, where she and her message were warmly received. The media dubbed it Trump Country. Politico's story headed it like this: Trump backers applaud Warren in heart of MAGA country. And it is true that Mingo County voters went strongly for Trump in November of 2016. Trump beat Hillary there, 83.2% to 14.4%. But guess what they had done on primary day. Mingo into Trump Country; it's Bernie Country. On primary day, Hillary came in third with 1,074 votes. Bernie came in first among Mingo voters with 2,425. In fact, Bernie beat Trump that day too. Trump trounced Ted Cruz (56), John Kasich (22), Ben Carson (14), Marco Rubio (14), Mike Huckabee (8), Jeb Bush (7), Rand Paul (6), Carly Fiorina (2) and poor Chris Christie (1). Yeah Trump's 1,161 votes was more than all the Republicans combined. Impressive. But remember how many Mingo voters pulled the lever for Bernie that day? 2,425-- more than double Trump's vote-- more than double all the Republicans' votes combined. Mingo County is Bernie Country. But don't tell the media; they'll never stop calling it MAGA Country anyway. Or anti-Hillary Country or Anti-Establishment Country. Hillary offered them nothing and they returned the favor. Not only did Bernie beat her and Trump on primary day. Bernie's primary voters were nearly twice as many as Hillary's in November!

Biden has nothing to offer them either. Want to see a replay of 2016? Help nominate Biden. These are desperate people, desperate for change, not desperate for Calvin Biden Collidge's "return to normalcy." He's talking about the "normalcy" that gave Trump 83% of Mingo County's vote.

True, there are some Trump supporters who are too stupid and too racist to change their ways. But those aren't the ones that Elizabeth Warren and Bernie are appealing to. They're not pursuing the voters Hillary awkwardly tagged as deplorables. They're pursuing the working families looking out for their own interest and understood the establishment politicians don't represent them. It was either a sure loser for them (Hillary) or a likely loser (Trump). They went with Trump and he didn't deliver anything besides a circus and an outlet for their anger and resentments. Yesterday Michael Brice-Saddler, reporting for the Washington Post, laid out the intellectually under-developed Trump voters who will never abandon him-- not even if they get robbed.

In fact that's what Brice-Saddler was reporting-- a robbery of pathetic moron Trumpists. Remember Brian Kolfage, some random xenophobe and obvious hustler, who started a Trump-approved GoFundMe page to build the wall that first Mexico and then Congress refused to pay for? About 5 months ago, yelling about "too many illegals... taking advantage of the United States taxpayers," Kolfage raised $20 million in just a few days. How stupid does someone have to be? Their evangelical pastors have them well-trained to be just that stupid. Kolfage was aiming for a billion dollars to build Trump's wall for a "fraction of what it costs the government." How'd that work out for the morons?

“I am very disappointed in you Brian Kolfage, where are the progress photographs?” one woman posted to the We Build The Wall Facebook page.

“Quit talking about it and do it,” another commented.

“I’ve been away for FIVE months,” one person tweeted in April. “When’s the groundbreaking?”

Reporting on the apparent lack of progress on the private wall, published early Friday by the Daily Beast, drew criticism from Kolfage. The veteran called out the story’s author, Will Sommer, who indicated he’s repeatedly asked Kolfage for proof they were close to a groundbreaking.

“Omg this is PERFECT timing by the liberal rag news site. They are about to look more stupid than @hillaryclinton on election night 2016!” Kolfage wrote. “I guaranteed we would build the wall... and I’ll leave it at that!"

Kolfage did not respond to an email and message from the Washington Post requesting comment Friday. While the nonprofit has floated various groundbreaking dates in the past, it’s not exactly clear when, or if, construction will begin.

“We should be turning dirt on this thing by May 1, June 1 at the latest, according to our experts,” Kolfage told Politico in February. In a March 21 interview with American Family Radio, however, the veteran asserted they were going to “start breaking ground” in April.

n the interview, Kolfage said his nonprofit had identified eight locations to build along the border, but failed to name them, stating that his efforts could be thwarted by liberals if they were revealed.

“I wish I could name where it’s at, but we can’t name it because of the ACLU, these other liberal groups who want to sue us and impede our progress,” he said. “But it’s actually happening, the process is happening . . . the project is moving forward.”

He continued, “But as soon as we start breaking ground, we’ll be putting that information out there to show the American people what they’re doing.”

Kolfage has previously indicated that We Build The Wall Inc. seeks to develop segments of the wall on private property, which he told The Washington Post in January would cost $2 million to $3 million per mile. His GoFundMe says he’s visited the border to scope out potential sites and negotiate with private land owners. Kolfage has also enlisted the help of several high-profile politicians, among them former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon and Kris Kobach, the former Secretary of State for Kansas, who sit on the group’s advisory board.

Back in January, Kobach told the New York Times they’d hopefully be breaking ground “within weeks.”

Some critics noted Kolfage was accused of shady behavior in the past, including allegations of misusing funds he raised. NBC and BuzzFeed investigations earlier this year alleged that Kolfage peddled false articles and conspiracy theories with the intent of harvesting reader email addresses. The purported scheme would draw people back to his websites and Facebook pages, generating hundreds of thousands in advertising revenue, Buzzfeed reported.

Facebook removed several of the pages he operated last year, according to NBC, in a purge of pages that were used to “drive traffic to their websites.” In response, Kolfage created a new campaign, “Fight4FreeSpeech,” which also accepts donations.

BuzzFeed looked into Kolfage’s previous crowdfunding efforts, which included an initiative to mentor wounded veterans at military hospitals-- among them Walter Reed and Brooke Army Medical Center. He raised thousands for the project, according to BuzzFeed, but spokespersons for the medical facilities told the outlet they have no record of him working at the hospitals or donating money.

Asked about the story in January, Kolfage told The Post that BuzzFeed “100 percent lied” and had fabricated the investigation to slander him. He said the money was raised to cover his travel expenses, and that he only used them for that purpose.

On Friday, many supporters of Kolfage called the Daily Beast story fake news intended to stymie donations. We Build The Wall occasionally replied in agreement, reassuring commenters the wall was on its way.

“This is what we call FAKE NEWS,” they wrote in a post. “We didn’t stop anything and we are full steam ahead. The wall is being built."

As of Friday night, the group said they’ll be breaking ground “shortly.”

In a separate comment, one woman indicated she’d heard enough.

“Saying it doesn’t get it done,” she wrote late Friday. “Do it.”

The kinds of Trump voters who were part of those twenty million dollars that will never build a wall... they will always be Trump voters. As will the die-hard racists and xenophobes. Forget them. There are plenty of normal Trump voters-- some of whom judged Hillary to be the greater evil-- and who now are open to helping rid the country of the plague of Trumpism.

And if you're trying to reassure your increasingly angry investors, who have started catching on that they've been had, that they can trust you because Steve Bannon and Kris Kobach are in on the deal... you certainly know exactly how dumb and how gullible your investors really are. HARDER, DADDY!