by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
Donald Trump is pissed! Congress isn't supporting his campaign wall, and most Americans don't believe that there is really a national emergency at the southern border - even though Fox News says there is. Trump, who has an entire life history of getting what he wants through tantrums, is now struggling with where to spit his venom in order to get what he wants - and get it quickly. He has a re-election coming up, and his legions of Walmart shoppers are expecting to see him keep his most tangible promise to them from 2016: a big, beautiful wall along the southern border with Mexico.
Trump has said that he is cutting off U.S. aid to three Central American countries that generate many of the immigrants who seek asylum in the United States: El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Most political observers, at least those from the left, feel that brash move would just make the situation more desperate in those countries and would increase the numbers of of refugees fleeing toward the United States. Skeptics contend that may be the ultimate intent of withdrawing aid - to increase the numbers of refugees and create more chaos along the border - and thus legitimize (kinda, sorta) Trump's claims about the national emergency.
And then, to really bring things to a boil, Trump is threatening to close the entire border with Mexico, possibly as early as this week. In reality he can only close the "ports of entry," the roads and bridges where people cross into and out of the Untied States each day. The net effect of that would be to halt commerce and stop workers from reaching their places of employment - and forcing others, such as those with immigration issues or those seeking asylum to try to gain entry through the isolated stretches of border that lack official ports of entry.
Then our country's yahoos with guns could all rush south to defend the border - and we would indeed have a crisis to contend with. It's sort of like a self-fulfilling prophecy: Trump declares a crisis, then does everything in his power to create a crisis, and then gets what he wants because there really is a crisis.
I heard on the radio this morning that the United States auto manufacturing industry is dependent on car parts made in Mexico, and that if the border is closed, the U.S. factories that make cars will begin closing within a week. Apparently we are also dependent of Mexico for much of our winter and early spring produce, things like lettuce and tomatoes, and almost all of the U.S. avocado crop comes from south of the border. The current U.S. supply of avocados would be depleted in just three weeks!
Surely Trump and his advisors will be able to see the economic folly that would come from closing the border with Mexico (U.S. soybean producers might disagree with my optimism on that point), but just in case, I am headed into town to stock up on tomatoes and guacamole!
Donald Trump is continuing on his mission to destroy every fiber of Barack Obama's legacy. Obama left the presidency with a growing trade surplus and a strong economy - and eventually Trump will have destroyed all of that as well.
Somewhere Putin is smiling.
Citizen Journalist
Donald Trump is pissed! Congress isn't supporting his campaign wall, and most Americans don't believe that there is really a national emergency at the southern border - even though Fox News says there is. Trump, who has an entire life history of getting what he wants through tantrums, is now struggling with where to spit his venom in order to get what he wants - and get it quickly. He has a re-election coming up, and his legions of Walmart shoppers are expecting to see him keep his most tangible promise to them from 2016: a big, beautiful wall along the southern border with Mexico.
Trump has said that he is cutting off U.S. aid to three Central American countries that generate many of the immigrants who seek asylum in the United States: El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Most political observers, at least those from the left, feel that brash move would just make the situation more desperate in those countries and would increase the numbers of of refugees fleeing toward the United States. Skeptics contend that may be the ultimate intent of withdrawing aid - to increase the numbers of refugees and create more chaos along the border - and thus legitimize (kinda, sorta) Trump's claims about the national emergency.
And then, to really bring things to a boil, Trump is threatening to close the entire border with Mexico, possibly as early as this week. In reality he can only close the "ports of entry," the roads and bridges where people cross into and out of the Untied States each day. The net effect of that would be to halt commerce and stop workers from reaching their places of employment - and forcing others, such as those with immigration issues or those seeking asylum to try to gain entry through the isolated stretches of border that lack official ports of entry.
Then our country's yahoos with guns could all rush south to defend the border - and we would indeed have a crisis to contend with. It's sort of like a self-fulfilling prophecy: Trump declares a crisis, then does everything in his power to create a crisis, and then gets what he wants because there really is a crisis.
I heard on the radio this morning that the United States auto manufacturing industry is dependent on car parts made in Mexico, and that if the border is closed, the U.S. factories that make cars will begin closing within a week. Apparently we are also dependent of Mexico for much of our winter and early spring produce, things like lettuce and tomatoes, and almost all of the U.S. avocado crop comes from south of the border. The current U.S. supply of avocados would be depleted in just three weeks!
Surely Trump and his advisors will be able to see the economic folly that would come from closing the border with Mexico (U.S. soybean producers might disagree with my optimism on that point), but just in case, I am headed into town to stock up on tomatoes and guacamole!
Donald Trump is continuing on his mission to destroy every fiber of Barack Obama's legacy. Obama left the presidency with a growing trade surplus and a strong economy - and eventually Trump will have destroyed all of that as well.
Somewhere Putin is smiling.
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