The reviews are in: everybody hates Dolt 45’s plan for a wall on the border with Mexico.
If you get a chance, give your reps a call and tell them to vote against funding this wasteful piece of shit.
by DougJ| 126 Comments
This post is in: Vive La Resistance
The reviews are in: everybody hates Dolt 45’s plan for a wall on the border with Mexico.
If you get a chance, give your reps a call and tell them to vote against funding this wasteful piece of shit.
Comments are closed.
rikyrah
it’s a crock.
an utter fraud
Dave
@rikyrah: so par for the course then. Don’t understand why he doesn’t use available funds build a tiny but impressive section hold a press conference and declare victory. Hell the Bushies would have done it and they were marginally more tied to reality than this group and most of his voters would buy it in a heartbeat.
Dave
@Dave: Maybe just not as large a grift opportunity.
Frankensteinbeck
@Dave:
A) He’s not very smart.
B) It pisses him off to not get his way about everything, at least for as long as his senile brain can remember he’s been denied.
C) He really, really hates brown people and thinks the wall is a great idea.
oldster
Yup. I called up the DC office for my Rep (Tom Reed, NY-23), and told the nice people there in no uncertain terms that I did not want the wall, did not want Americans to pay for the wall, did not want government shut down in order to pay for the wall, and did not want people to lose health insurance in order to pay for the wall.
And I kept asking the aide whether Tom Reed has spoken publicly about this. Where is his leadership?
Trump supporters like Reed are between a rock and a hard place, and it’s our job to press on that rock until it grinds them into political dust.
TenguPhule
@Dave:
Bushies knew when to cut their losses.
Donald doubles down each time, certain that he will recoup all his losses and then some.
Now you know how he bankrupted a casino more then once.
dedc79
Oh, Mexico
It sounds so simple I just got to go
Ian G.
@Dave:
I don’t get it either. He should just point to a section of the existing fence between San Diego/Tijuana or El Paso/Juarez and claim it’s his. The mouth breathers who agree that his inauguration crowds were larger than Obama’s will believe him. It’s not like these shitbirds from rural Iowa are going to head down to empty Chihuahuan Desert to discover that there’s nothing separating the two countries but the Rio Grande for large stretches of the border.
Humboldtblue
@Dave:
Yeah, he could go all Hollywood and make a big production out of it, just think of the ratings!
Jack the Second
@Humboldtblue: Sheeit, he could build it near Mar-a-lago for the convenience.
ruemara
Annnnd now i have 2 earworms from these music titles.
Karen S.
@Ian G.: Exactly. His supporters will believe anything he says, so he should just stick with what’s working well for him so far: lie, lie, lie.
OzarkHillbilly
Somebody should start a gofundme page for the wall. Let’s see how much the wingnuts are willing to personally sacrifice for keeping those people in their place. Put $1 billion as the goal with any shortfall going to Planned Parenthood.
Ian G.
@ruemara:
I like the use of Townes Van Zandt (covered by Willie Nelson/Merle Haggard) last night and the Stooges a moment ago, but I confess to not being able to identify the song with this post.
Saving Private Equity
Show me a 50′ wall, and I’ll show you a 51′ ladder.
TenguPhule
@Saving Private Equity: Or a 6′ tunnel in the ground. Complete with A/C and a cart.
Felonius Monk
@oldster:
Actually, he did. He was on Chris Hayes program last week talking about a CR to keep the government running. He waffled a bit when Hayes asked him directly, but he said that he did not want the CR bill encumbered with the Wall or healthcare.
Felonius Monk
@Saving Private Equity:
Maybe this is why Uber is pushing VTOL cars.
clay
@Ian G.:
Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur8ftRFb2Ac
germy
I thought they were talking about a virtual wall back in January? Wasn’t it supposed to be some sort of faith-based thing? Not physical, just an idea?
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
I think that’s a great idea, except that Shitgibbon would find a way to grift whatever proceeds end up in the till.
jl
Really surreal situation. Trump issued the ridiculous promise that Mexico would pay for the stupid wall. Mexico said that was ridiculous, which was true.
So Trump cooks up an extortion scheme to get his stupid wall paid for. Why not extort the US health care system and try to blame the Democrats?
I heard a few clips of the Democrats on the Sunday talkies. I didn’t hear them state the obvious truth of the matter, though. But I may have missed the sound bites where they did.
Doug R
@Ian G.: The obvious solution is to upgrade some of that fence next to San Diego and have a photo op, declaring victory and WALK AWAY.
Dave
@Frankensteinbeck: True I’m starting to think that the angry racist grandpa that watches FOX News persona may actually be overwhelming the conman grifter one to a degree. Which isn’t really reassuring at all.
oldster
@Felonius Monk:
Interesting. Could you get me a link to that? I just checked the Chris Hayes archives, and searches did not turn it up.
His aide did say something about him wanting a “clean CR,” but that means little until you get down to details.
OzarkHillbilly
@clay: You are mean.
@SFAW: If I was responsible for it I guarantee some grifter somewhere would find my fuck up and steal the money.
jl
@Ian G.: That is a good idea. In fact, pointing to stuff he didn’t do and taking credit for it is almost SOP with Drumpf.
You need to apply for a job with the WH policy team. Right away. You have a brilliant and cheap solution.
schrodingers_cat
What do Paulie Blue Eyes and Sen. Chinless Wonder have to say about the wall?
Corner Stone
@Felonius Monk:
I keep wondering when people are going to realize that Uber is this bubble’s K-TEL ?
jl
@schrodingers_cat: Probably there’s a gif of a meerkat peeking out of hole in the ground on Josh Marshall’s twitter explaining their stance on the issue.
catclub
@Felonius Monk:
Anything that gets okayed by the FAA will have no fly zones and borders programmed in.
TenguPhule
@Corner Stone: Surely you mean Tulip bulbs. It’s gonna be huge, I tell ya!
germy
Looking on the bright side
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/04/democrats-are-winning-the-first-round-of-the-2018-fight.html
Uncle Ebeneezer
Just take a photo op by the Great Wall of China and say it’s done!!
trollhattan
@germy:
I recall when Trump finally did a presser he mocked a reporter who asked him about the border fence. “Wrong, it’s a wall.” or somesuch.
Wally McWallface
trollhattan
@Corner Stone: My guess is K-Tell was around longer than Uber will be.
germy
@Uncle Ebeneezer:
He’ll tell reporters they can see it from space.
Corner Stone
@trollhattan: Sir, point of order! That is a slander against the genuinely useful Boaty McBoatface. I will thank you kindly to not impugn that good ship’s name by trumpstantiation.
Chris
@Frankensteinbeck:
If only this weren’t a spot on description not only of him but of virtually all of his supporters, too.
Chris
@Dave:
Oh, I’m pretty sure it’s both. He thinks of himself as a clever con artist who can totally pull one over on everyone, but also emotionally unstable and prone to letting those emotions take over all the time.
Felonius Monk
@Corner Stone:
Probably when the price of an Uber ride includes buying a Veg-O-Matic and a Magic Brush.
dmsilev
@schrodingers_cat:
As little as they possibly can.
ET
Oh to be in the room when 100 Senators get briefed on N. Korea at the WH. I will assume he will blather a bit but that someone else will actually do the briefing since I doubt he knows where N. Korea actually is (not like he can put a hotel/golf course there).
clay
@OzarkHillbilly:
Hey, blame Doug. He brought it up. Could be worse, though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyYhZ9HH8cI
Doug R
Notice it’s always people that don’t live near the border that think a wall is a great idea. Those of us who live near a border are always watching”foreign” stations and crossing for cheap gas and eggs and milk.
Corner Stone
I just don’t understand Uber. Call me old fashioned, I guess. It’s a ride sharing app with no assets and no barrier to entry. How do you monetize that?
If someone said, “I want to purchase your entire company. What do you own? What do you have to evaluate?”
Doesn’t it have to be whatever data/analytics they have recorded during their usage as a ride sharing app? I mean, what else do they have?
trollhattan
@Corner Stone:
I have LGM to blame!
Kay
I hate the wall. It’s so petty and useless and mean. I’m horrified these people represent me. They remind me of people who are always calling the cops on their neighbors and getting into stupid “grudge” matches that last for decades and make me want to cry with boredom and frustration.
Seriously- we have NOTHING more important and productive to do with our time and money than build a wall?
Why don’t they just hire people to go dig holes? It’s just as useless and less mean-spirited. Spend a billion dollars digging holes and filling them in again. I’d sooner pay for that than this monstrosity, this monument to meanness and stupidity.
clay
@Corner Stone: I don’t think Uber is ride-share so much as ride-purchase. Uber drivers are basically taxi drivers who make less (and have less oversight), and the Uber app is basically the taxi dispatcher. I would guess Uber gets some percentage of each purchase, and/or the drivers may have to pay a flat rate to use their service, i.e. connecting drivers to riders.
Jeffro
In other Trumpov-BS-related news: How Trump Succeeds By Lying and Denying Reality
Hey Politico, I can’t really say this is news. It’s more like a horror short story, (just like that AP interview) but it’s not news
Mike in NC
The ‘big, beautiful wall’ should be built from the stacked corpses of Trump voters.
Felonius Monk
@oldster: This is the only link I could find, but the video seems unavailable. I think that program was from this past Friday evening so maybe they haven’t put it up on Hayes’ site yet.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@Kay:
This is Trumpism boiled down to it’s essence.
aimai
@Dave: he should build an invisible wall–or rather, I should sell him one! and then he can stand in front of it and explain how great it is while somewhere, a small child, points out that he is naked.
Corner Stone
@aimai: I knew you were going there, but still…nightmare fuel.
germy
@aimai:
Perhaps a Mexican child, pointing from across the border.
aimai
@Kay: It just goes to show that just as one death is a tragedy and a million deaths are a statistic one dollar spent on a poor person is a tragedy while a billion dollars spent on something showy, useless, and mean is a positive social good. Trump’s voters are simply unable to add the real dollars in their lives into the stack of dollars that would be required to build this thing and its cost to them in lost services. They can neither count nor add–or they hold these things in separate parts of their brain or accounting system. Just like they don’t get that they are having to trade butter for guns, and social services and their own medicare for billionaire tax cuts.
Kay
German newspaper asks more and better questions on nepotism than anyone in the US does:
The main thing Donald Trump has done for me is make me think Germany is pretty fabulous!
aimai
@Corner Stone: Don’t worry corner stone–I have to assume that Trump’s _______ is vanishingly small and even the youngest child or the most prudish old lady would not be able to see anything.
OzarkHillbilly
@clay: I.am.not.going.there. Not now, not never, no how, no way. My SIL buried one in my brain yesterday. I don’t need anymore.
Millard Filmore
@TenguPhule:
No need to economize. Lay down tracks and electrify the operation. Use double deck rail cars. Have you ever seen the Sydney rail system? Like that.
This could be the Mexican side, before it has to go underground.
https://i1.wp.com/upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/61/CityRail-Sset-49-ext.JPG/800px-CityRail-Sset-49-ext.JPG
Gravenstone
@Kay:
Small consolation, but they don’t represent you (or any of us), only themselves. We’re just collateral damage along the path to their latest grift.
OzarkHillbilly
@Corner Stone:
A nearly endless supply of suckers.
Steeplejack
Obligatory for post title.
Sorry if it’s a repeat; I haven’t read the comments yet.
dmsilev
@Corner Stone: I don’t think it’s quite right to say that there’s no barrier to entry in the “ride-share” (twisting the word share beyond all recognition, of course) market. You need a critical mass of drivers in a given market (so that your customers can get their ride quickly), which means that you either need a lot of startup cash to hire people in advance of having customers or you’re an established player with a customer base.
The fundamental problem Uber has (besides the fact that they’re run by jackasses) is that in order to build that critical mass of drivers and customers, they went with the “lot of startup cash” approach and are still in that mode, charging low fares to grab marketshare from traditional cabs and making up the cost difference using investor cash. That’s not sustainable, especially on the multi-billion-dollar scale that Uber is operating on now.
Gravenstone
@Mike in NC:
Is it wrong of me that I want to see Trump tossed into the hole before they pour the first footer?
TenguPhule
@aimai:
The trick to get the rubes to not realize this is to push off the consequences into the future, after they vote. And then blame the Democrats for it. Works every time. Because these people are morons.
TenguPhule
@Mike in NC: All that fat would be a fire hazard.
Chris
@Kay:
These people’s relationship to money is psychotic. They’ll piss away billions and billions on an F-35 project that’s as big a mess after twenty years as it was when it got started and never wonder if maybe the DOD’s wasting our money, but they’ll move heaven and earth to stop that random poor person in Southeast DC from having access to thirty dollars a month in food stamps.
(By these people, I mean conservatives. The elected ones are just a small subset of the insane lot).
dmsilev
@aimai: There’s an appropriate Onion article for nearly every topic.
Kay
@aimai:
It is. If they build it people will look back and say “WTF was that craziness all about?”
Other Presidents did rural electrification, dams, canals, highways, bridges. Trump builds a stupid wall. It’s the perfect Donald Trump monument. Picture three years from now when it’s way over budget and there are photos of materials stacked on pallets and idle construction equipment. It can become a symbol.
TenguPhule
@Kay:
Anything else might make the life of a black or brown skin just a little better.
dmsilev
Moderation help, plz. I have a comment that used a Bad Word, but unfortunately the Bad Word is part of a URL, so I can’t usefully edit it.
clay
@OzarkHillbilly: Let me help you out…
Sailing takes me away to where I’ve always heard it could be / Just a dream and the wind to carry me / And soon I will be free
TenguPhule
@Kay:
Digging holes would improve soil quality. Which is liberal environmental bullshit that Trump isn’t have any of.
oldster
@Felonius Monk:
Thanks for that!
Yeah, maybe the Hayes show with Reed is not up yet.
I have to say that I am intrigued by Reed’s willingness to appear on Hayes’ show. It reinforces two things that I have come to believe about Reed:
1) He is very ambitious for higher public office, and
2) He thinks that he is a very good debater who can take on The Left and defeat it in head-to-head discussion.
In fact, he’s a mediocre public speaker. I have seen him at several town halls now, and the same pattern occurs repeatedly: he starts out as a jovial, caring, approachable guy, but when people push him, the mask slips. He gets ugly and bullying and starts spouting the most simple-minded College Republican talking points.
You might be surprised that one of Trump’s earliest supporters is an ugly bully at heart, but it’s true!
Corner Stone
@dmsilev: I use the term “ride-share” advisedly as that seems to be the space they want to claim, even though it’s obvious what they’re doing.
There are no barriers to entry. No licensing, regulations, or much of anything else I can see has been established as a whole. Certain jurisdictions have kicked them out or told them they need to comply to certain ordinances, but just gaining mass is only a function of crowdsourcing more or less. Either funds or participants.
TenguPhule
@Corner Stone:
The same way you do to Tulip bulb futures. And end the same way.
TenguPhule
@Corner Stone: All boats matter. Represent!
Kay
@aimai:
My middle son works for a huge electrical contractor and he said they are looking for people to go to a project in Guantanamo. Maybe this is normal- they must have to maintain the place- but I felt like it was ominous, like maybe an expansion. Trump probably loves that prison. I wouldn’t be at all surprised.
SatanicPanic
@germy: Further evidence that the Democrats are DOOMED!*
*unless they follow all of my suggestions to the letter. PS I am not a crank.
germy
@Kay: It will be a wall of materials stacked on pallets and idle construction equipment.
middlelee
Done.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: Let’s just say they don’t need to rewire a soon to be abandoned prison camp.
Miss Bianca
@Felonius Monk: Ronco Pocket Fisherman or GET OUT!
germy
@SatanicPanic:
It’s almost like balloon-juice comments are coming alive and running for public office.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: He wants to turn this country into Russia during the Cold War. The Wall is an ode to the Berlin Wall.
Felonious Monk
@oldster:
Not at all. Look at Carl Paladino.
SatanicPanic
@Corner Stone: The barrier to entry is the same one that keeps Facebook on top- everyone’s already using it and are too lazy to change. They appear to be losing customers to LYFT and IIRC they haven’t been making money, but it’s not nothing of value. If they were to get to FB status and had no competitors they might start turning a profit.
D58826
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/24/politics/donald-trump-mar-a-lago-state-department-blog/index.html?sr=twcnni042417donald-trump-mar-a-lago-state-department-blog0803PMVODtopPhoto&linkId=36853553
And the property has a bit of a history
http://crooksandliars.com/2017/04/pass-emoluments-please-trump-promotes-mar
So we are paying an arm and a leg for a property that we used to own but was given away by Saint Ronulus the Unready. (sigh)
schrodingers_cat
@Corner Stone: Online market place between drivers and customers.
Corner Stone
How in the world can you say with a straight face that a Govt shutdown is on Chuck Schumer when the R’s control the House, Senate and WH?
I mean I get why you try it but come the F on.
TenguPhule
@D58826:
It cost more to maintain then it was worth. Because nobody was using it.
TenguPhule
@Corner Stone:
Forget it Jake, its Republicantown.
SatanicPanic
@germy: anecdotal, but I attended a candidate training with a friend who is thinking about running and they were shocked at how many people were there. Said they’d never seen anything like it.
randy khan
I see that Trump is going to have a rally on October 29 in Pennsylvania, presumably to put another nail in the White House Correspondents Dinner. (Which is stupid on its own merits – his decision not to appear was the only nail required.) It seems not to have occurred to him how that would look if there’s no continuing resolution by the day before and the government is shut down.
germy
@SatanicPanic: If the result of the last presidential election wasn’t a wakeup call, then nothing will be.
D58826
@TenguPhule: true. and i guess if we still owned it Der Fuhrer would stay somewhere else since the money would not be going into his own pocket.
Mike J
Bundy Bunch got a mistrial. Rescheduled for June 26.
germy
@Mike J:
http://www.startribune.com/2-found-guilty-in-1st-trial-over-bundy-standoff-in-nevada/420268153/
Mike J
@germy: 60 total charges, 10 guilty, 50 hung.
12 good men and true looked at a photo of a defendant aiming a sniper rifle at federal agents and couldn’t come to a verdict.
opiejeanne
@OzarkHillbilly: Lol. Good idea.
I’ve been looking for you and there you are . I want to ask some questions about the Ozarks so should I email you through one of the moderators ?
Dave
@aimai: just green screen in the wall from Game of Thrones he and his supporters will love it. Even if an ice wall makes even less sense on the Southern border than the northern one. These details are for the small minded.
TenguPhule
@Mike J: I think we need to see your definition of good and true.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 4/21/17
New Trump hire resurrects corruption questions
Rachel Maddow revisits the questions that surrounded a Donald Trump Foundation donation to the campaign of Florida A.G. Pam Bondi coinciding with her decision not to join a lawsuit against Trump University, now that a top lawyer for Bondi, Carlos Muniz, has joined the Trump administration.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 4/21/17
Trump real estate a potential means to pay money to a president
Rachel Maddow highlights the investigative journalism done by USA Today in tracking down every property owned by Donald Trump’s companies, the sales of which pose a potential conflict because the profits would go to Trump as president of the United States.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 4/21/17
Trump real estate an opening to do a deal with US president
Steve Reilly, investigative reporter for USA Today, talks with Rachel Maddow about the legwork he and his colleagues did to catalog the real estate holdings of Donald Trump’s companies, exposing an unprecedented means of conveying money directly to a U.S. president.
Redshift
@Corner Stone: From what I understand, their business model is basically to undercut the taxi industry by evading regulation, including labor regulation. But they’re losing money hand over fist, so I don’t think you’re missing anything.
Their “vision”, I think, is to get to the self-driving car era while retaining a habitual customer base and having a big technical lead in routing and capacity management. I don’t see much chance that’s going to happen fast enough to save them from collapse, though.
TenguPhule
@rikyrah: Slow down, you’re repeating yourself.
schrodingers_cat
T’s vision for the United States, is to make it East Germany of the Cold War.
1. Wall at the border
2. Stasi within
3. Russia’s client state.
ETA: Already have two of the three.
Spanky
Finally, a job Uday and Qusay are good at: being strapped to a seat like monkeys:
Steve in the ATL
@Kay:
Perhaps we wouldn’t need a wall if Mexico’s economy were stronger–we should start moving our automobile factories there
trollhattan
@Mike J:
“Who, among us hasn’t at some time or other….?” Yup, a nation of morons.
ruemara
@Spanky: 2nd term in prison?
Steve in the ATL
@Mike J:
I was hoping you meant “hanged” Damn it.
jl
@Redshift: That seems to be Uber’s basic approach to business: don’t obey the rules and try to get away with it. They got caught road testing driverless cars without permits in California, and they looked bad about it since it was uncovered when people (some of whom were riding in Uber cars during the test drives) accused them of lying about observing traffic and safety regulations. Uber pulled the program and said they would do it in Arizona instead. Then we heard a few weeks of hacks and supposed experts whining that California would lose out on driverless vehicle technology because of over-regulation.
But well over half a dozen other companies were road testing vehicles in California with permits and doing just fine. A couple of weeks ago Uber was back in California applying for the permits.
So, governments just have to stand up to them. I heard a news report that NYC requires Uber drivers to at least have minimum taxi driver training and permits. Every big city should require that, I think.
Ruckus
@OzarkHillbilly:
The go fund me is a great idea but you think way too low. The grift alone will end up way more than 1 billion. The overrun will easily top that. The set up should be at least 5 billion. Make um give till they bleed.
Goku
@Spanky: Holy fucking shit, what a preening idiot! Look, space, and human spaceflight especially, is an interest of mine, and I can tell King Donald, that’s not going to happen. He’ll be fucking dead by the time anything feasible starts to take shape.
Ruckus
@Kay:
In navy boot camp they made the major malcontents dig six foot deep holes in sand while being watched by armed guards. And then fill them back in. And then the process was repeated over and over until the person decided that getting with the program might just possibly be easier. Some of them were exceptionally slow learners. I’d bet those were the conservatives.
Brachiator
Trump is stuck. His supporters want a wall. He’s got to give them a wall. Or tell them a big lie.
And he can’t say that Congress won’t let him. Unless he can blame the Democrats, even though they are the minority.
Yep.
Uncle Cosmo
@schrodingers_cat: Except for the tiny detail that the Berlin Wall was aimed in the opposite direction: to keep the locals from leaving. Which kindasorta wrecks the analogy
TenguPhule
@Uncle Cosmo: Notice that the gun mounts on the proposed new wall all face inwards.
oldster
@Felonious Monk:
S’okay–I was being sarcastic in any case.
sukabi
@Doug R: and there’s your problem. He’s probably got a deal with China to import steel and other construction materials for the wall, he’s looking for “other people’s money”, ie taxpayer funds, to fund the deal so he can take his cut.
That’s one of the only scenarios that makes sense, other than he’s just a crazy fücker.
sukabi
@Spanky: clueless meet delusional. Presidentus moronicus.
J R in WV
I really, really want to call my Republican congressional representatives, Senator Shelly Moore Capito, Congressman Evan Jenkins and DINO Joe Manchin. But I know I will do better going down to the old house seat and yelling down the old dug well.
Joe probably isn’t going to vote for anything connected to the Wall, even too stupid for him. But if it looks like it might need his vote, and if there’s a Republican prepared to run against him, I dunno.
The other two, they’re a done deal. If Trump tells them to shit they will be asking what color. Sorry to be crude, but there it is. My congresspeople are either corrupt or stupid dolts, not even Dolt 45, more like Dolt 22.