Last Thursday, during the photo op on the border with His Orangeness, Dan Patrick offered Texas taxpayers’ money to build his idiotic wall.  That’s right, folks – the most powerful man in Texas offered the most powerful man on the planet OUR money to build HIS wall – and pay us back later.  We can’t afford to fund schools and teachers, but we have enough money for this kind of folly.  Swell.

This is what happens when Americans are so goddam stupid that they elected a hate radio screamer and a cheesy reality television star to high office.

Disaster.

Gary Clark, Jr. is a brilliant young Texas guitarist who many believe has taken on Stevie Ray Vaughan’s mantle of best Texas blues guitarist.  His talent is virtually unparalleled, but now he’s made a serious statement about what it’s like to be African American in the south, especially in the time of Trump.  This is a must see, trust me.

Trump beat all odds two years ago, winning the presidency by appealing to the working class, who fell for his schtick of being a man of the people, never mind the fact that he was a spray painted reality television star whose cheesy branding included gold plated everything and a nude model from Slovenia to whom he was married.  The irony in his common man appeal is that he has a decades-long record of screwing the common man by not paying his bills and being “litigator in chief”, using the courts as a weapon to fend off legitimate bill collectors.

USA Today has published a report that documents a pattern of unreasonably withheld payments by the Trump Organization, driving many contractors into financial distress and even bankruptcy.  This behavior goes all the way back to the 1980s, and continued even after Trump started taking billions from Russian oligarchs. Trump has been the subject of over 3,500 lawsuits, many of which are over unpaid or underpaid contractors.

This report rings very true to me since I have a friend who told me a story two years ago that he had done work for the Trump Organization over a decade before, running up a $40,000 bill.  Trump refused to pay.  After months of arguing, one of his lackeys told my friend that if he wanted any money, he’d have to sue, so he gave up.  Months later, Trump’s people had the gall to call him for another job, telling him that if he’d do this next job, they’d pay him for the first.  My friend wisely told them to go to hell.

Not paying bills, especially to individual contractors, is the worst of the worst.  Trump has demonstrated for decades that he is just that.

Mouthbreathers who can type have been going nuts that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was actually elected to Congress that they’ve frantically been trying to denigrate and discredit her in a dishonest mis-information campaign.  First it was being outraged that she wore a designer outfit for a fashion magazine shoot.  Then they mocked her clothing after she was elected.  Then it was the innocent dance video shot of her and friends back when she was an undergrad at Boston college.  Now it’s this:

This photo, not of Ocasio-Cortez’s feet, was posted by Tucker Carlson’s manure merchant, Daily Caller, with the headline, “Here’s the Photo Some People Described as a Nude Selfie of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.”  That’s right, Tucker Carlson’s propaganda machine actually posted a photo of some woman’s feet in a bathtub, with the “some people” claim for the single goal of smearing a member of Congress because they don’t like her politics.

What’s disgusting is that these smears speed around the internet without the slightest concern for accuracy or common decency.  What’s really offensive?  The above photo or a college video is “shocking” and “inappropriate”, but the photo below is Okey-Dokey.

The noise machine has zero interest in accuracy, honesty, or common decency.  It’s all about winning, facts be damned.  At the same time the blindness with which these same people treat the Trumps is jaw dropping.

Y’all, Trump’s memory of the meeting with “Chuck and Nancy” is growing dimmer.

Favorite Trump quotes from this morning:

“I didn’t pound the table. I didn’t pound the table.”

“I don’t have temper tantrums.”

“I’ll probably will do it, maybe definitely.”

“The buck stops with everybody”

“I’m a professional at technology”

So now we know: Trump definitely pounded the table, he has temper tantrums, he’s in the midst of a full bore meltdown, he won’t take responsibility for anything, and he knows zilch about tech.

Just a gentle reminder.  This sits on my desk because I love Harry.

Thanks to Deb T for the heads up and the Truman sign on my desk.

NBC News

President Donald Trump has repeatedly advocated for a steel slat design for his border wall, which he described as “absolutely critical to border security” in his Oval Office address to the nation Tuesday. But Department of Homeland Security testing of a steel slat prototype proved it could be cut through with a saw, according to a report by DHS.

A photo exclusively obtained by NBC News shows the results of the test after military and Border Patrol personnel were instructed to attempt to destroy the barriers with common tools.

 

Holy crap, y’all.  It’s a fake wall.

They tried to cover this up but – thank the good Lord for a free press – you can’t cover up much now days because somebody is gonna wrestle with their conscience and then squeal.

Response from the wall builders? There’s no such think as an impenetrable wall.  Their new story is that this wall just gives them time to respond to a breech.

A saw, y’all. They just used a saw.

Thanks to Chloe Bear for the heads up.