Bottom line: Trump is on strike until taxpayers build a massive monument to him in the desert

[EarlG]

800,000 federal workers without a paycheck (many of whom voted for him). 40 million food stamp recipients out of food (many of whom voted for him), millions of tax refund recipients out of pocket (many of whom voted for him).

Sorry, folks! Fuck you until you cough up five billion for a feckless construction project that has no purpose other than for Trump to put his name on and say “I did that.”

Look on his works, ye mighty, and despair.

[Cha]

1. I like the way you put that!

It's perfect for what's happening.

Thank You, EarlG

[FredsterKathy]

14. a drop in the bucket.....

More should be made of the fact that $5 billion would not even cover the engineering for a border wall. The final cost for engineering, land acquisition, relocation of persons and property, construction and other details could reach $100 billion. Then there is the maintenance and repair where the wall gets damaged, blown up, defaced and tunneled under. And of course, the cleanup detail that would be required to accumulate and destroy the yuge amount of ladders leaning aginst the wall.

[Wounded Bear]

15. The $5B would probably not cover the EIS work...

[Hestia]

41. plus, it's like he thinks there is a magic wand somewhere and a swish & flick there is the wall.

It is amazing how 25% of the country just hands over a $5B down payment of OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY to him/them, and will be going on ad infinitum & ad nauseum (sp). Once a program gets in place, it takes forever to shut down - unless you are EPA & Interior.

[OregonBlue]

47. maybe the Dems should offer to build a huge hollow orange pyramid

That can be seen from outer space and call it the "Temple of the greatest". It would cost much less and the country could get back to actual business while Plump spent all his time gazing at his monument.

[panader0]

2. Why does the Burning Man Festival come to mind?

[NightWatcher]

3. Plus, the mobster is known for inflating building costs to line his own pockets.

And didn't I hear that this wall would run from 28-50 billion? What good is $5 billion?

What is scary is that he's too dumb to know that he's lost and that it's time to quit this tantrum.

Putin wakes up laughing every morning, doesn't he?

[saidsimplesimon]

19. Perfect NW, he is a mobster, a monster and a traitor.

[riversedge]

4. Trump has been on strick since Day ONE! He does not know how to govern, nor does he want to learn

[IADEMO2004]

5. A tRump Presidential Library would be even more ridiculous. 2000 mile bookshelf?

[erronis]

27. with no books... well maybe a few comics.

[Blecht]

33. No comics

Just cereal boxes, fast food wrappers, and Lysol cans as reading material.

[lunatica]

44. I think he wants a wall that looks like this but picture only pictures of him on it

[underpants]

6. People are not going to like a delay in their refunds

W-2's are due at the end of January so we are nearing the point where any further shutdown could mean a delay in refunds. A lot of people, including people who should know better, count on that lump of cash coming in as their own personal bonus. THAT will be when a lot of people (other than SNAP) will feel this.

The economy will also suffer due to the SNAP and Govt employees not spending money.

[Hestia]

39. Didn't I read somewhere that people will be shocked at how very little their refunds will be

since they prepaid for their refunds from the tax cuts?

Talk about double hurt.

And no unemployment checks - thugs have cut those to the bone in "red" states.

[underpants]

40. My wife and I were just discussing this

I'd forgotten about that element. I do remember something about state income taxes going up but I'm not sure how or why.

[underpants]

42. Quick search - here's what I found. It has to do with prepaying state income and local property taxe

https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/12/22/can-you-pre-pay-your-2018-taxes-to-avoid-the-gop-tax-bill-heres-what-you-need-to-know/

[TheCowsCameHome]

7. Exactly right.

That is what this is all about.

[WestMichRad]

32. Mostly.

I think he wants what he thinks will be his own $5 billion slush fund.

[Sinistrous]

8. .

Percy Shelley's "Ozymandias", 11 January 1818

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert... near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings;
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

...and so shall it be again.

[erronis]

28. Perfect. Thanks for this poem that mirrors our times. Too bad we'll have to wait awhile

to see the colossal wreck.

[Nitram]

31. Sorry, sinastrous, I posted part of this below before I saw your post.

[Sinistrous]

48. No problem.

After all, great minds think alike. 🤓

[Dulcinea]

9. I've thought that all along.

He knows this is the only monument he'll ever have. This is about narcissism & ego.

[greymattermom]

11. So just put a sign on the fence that's already there.

TRUMP BORDER WALL, and be done with it. When the sign wears out, don't repair or replace it.

[ismnotwasm]

10. Pretty much

The Liberal Redneck said much the same thing and I agree

[Cha]

12. That was Funny! "..have Obama

come out for the wall.. and trump will never want to be around a wall again or hear the word wall.." paraphrasing.

Glad LR brought up Mexico!

Thanks, ismnotwasm!

[William Seger]

13. A monument to bigorty and stupidity, and not just Trump's

... but also his deplorable base.

[usaf-vet]

16. I agree with one small caveat

Trump's demands

Sorry, folks! Fuck you until you cough up five billion for a feckless construction project that has no purpose other than for Trump to put his name on and say “I did that.”

My slight revision would be Trump has two goals with building a wall.
1."to put his name on [it] and say “I did that.” and
2. he wants to bleed off millions $$$ in kick back dollars from the construction costs.

Trump keeps saying "nobody knows construction like I do"!
If that statement is true (IF?) then he knows how to bleed off kick back dollars.

With Trump is ALWAYS about the money.

Who, other than Mueller, would miss say $100 million from a $5+ billion dollar budget?

[Cracklin Charlie]

18. I think your no. 2 has it nailed.

He wants to pay his outstanding mob debts with money taken from the United States Treasury.

Uh...hell to the no, two scoops!

[dalton99a]

22. And #3: Russian steel.

[usaf-vet]

35. The oligarch that 'owns' the steel(?) and aluminum production just had his sanctions lifted.

Surprise...surprise. The concrete wall paid for by Mexico is now morphing into the steel barrier/fence to be paid for by the US taxpayers.

How long before it becomes the "structural aluminum" barrier/fence/wall to be paid for by the US taxpayers?

IMO it all adds up to more kick back dollars for Trump and family.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

36. And news coverage for the 'Trumps"

for the next 30 years, so add 'free advertising' on that as well.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

37. Woot there it is.

Been obvious for a long time. He's in it to rape the treasury.

[Martin Eden]

17. A monument to his ego, his stupidity, ...

... and to all the LIES he's told to ramp up border hysteria.

[DFW]

20. I didn't even know Trump could spell Ozymandias. N/T

[dalton99a]

23. He thinks Ozy Mandias is a gang member in Honduras

maybe Mandias runs a Mexican drug cartel

[DFW]

46. Or Harriet Mandias' husband in a 1950s sitcom? n/t

[Rebl2]

21. He said

the other day Mexico is paying for the wall by way of the new trade deal with them. So why does he want taxpayers money for the wall?

[avebury]

24. And you know that he would find a way to

pocket a chunk of the money because he never does anything unless he gets something out of it.

[liberalmuse]

25. I was raised Christian.

And the way you put that made me think of the Antichrist and the Abomination that causes desolation. This gives me the creeps even though I am atheist now. I can’t help but think of Revelations these days, which was directed towards the church. They sure love Trump and pretty much worship him.

[Fuzzpope]

26. Paybacks are a bitch (nt)

[BarbaRosa]

29. Trump's Folly

keeps crossing my mind.

[Nitram]

30. Ozymandias.

"And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."

[2naSalit]

34. He needs to make a boat payment, that's where the money is gonna go...

seriously, he needs to pay up somewhere and the $5+B is the price. And the accompanying chaos is just part of the destroy American pootinplan.

[NotASurfer]

38. Exactly what this is and always has been

He wants the ultimate memorial, something Speerian that will be there with his name on it for millennia to come. Kind of like the Futurama episode where Bender becomes Pharaoh of a planet and orders his slave labor force to build a monument depicting him stepping on the previous Pharaoh's monument commanding future generations "Remember ME!"

(Albert Speer was Hitler's chief architect, who wanted to rebuild Berlin with an eye toward scale and durability, so that civilization in a thousand years would still marvel at the ruins, and the power, vision, and genius of the leader who made it happen. Remind you of anybody?)

[Scurrilous]

43. K&R

[Hekate]

45. Round that colossal wreck/Two vast and trunkless legs of stone...

Thanks, EarlG