No pay, and still no wall.

 Today should be payday for thousands of government workers. Unfortunately, though, there will be a big fat zero where their money should be, thanks to Mr. trump and his fragile ego.

trump's vanity wall is going to cause countless families to suffer all sorts of unspeakable misery if this government shutdown doesn't end soon. It's not impacting the rest of us as much just yet, but it will. Just wait until all those TSA workers decide that enough is enough. Think of all the long lines and canceled flights at  our airports, and all the problems that will come as a result. Wait until the FDA can't properly check our food for poisons, and as a result the first little child dies in suburbia from some kind of food poisoning. Or the EPA fails to properly inspect a superfund site. Or, god forbid, the food stamp program is shut down in February, and all those poor working class trump voters  (the ones the New York Times love to fawn over) can't get their benefits.

I don't think that the orange one thought this through. He likes to say that folks who are with him will suck it up and suffer the long term consequence of not having food their tables, but wait until those bills start piling up, and their stomachs start growling. The con has been working because it hasn't seemed to affect Cult 45 in a serious way just yet, but if this shutdown continues it will.

Yesterday trump went down to the Southern border to show us how much of a national crises we were in, and let's just say his messaging didn't go over very well. It was a wasted trip.

First, he went to one of the safest towns in the region, where most of the residence want to keep things just the way they are, and where they get along just fine with those brown people South of the border. And then he had to sit and listen to a lecture from a border patrol agent, who had to explain to him that the wall won't do a damn thing to deter the serious criminals, who will just dig a long and deep tunnel right under it. Throw in the fact that all the contraband used as props to highlight the "crisis"--  such as the seized illegal drugs, money, and weapons-- were not captured at one of the illegal crossings along the Southern border, but at ports of entry into this country, which as we all know, is where the real problems start.

But this debate is not about facts with this president. It is about his wall and what it represents: A racist symbol of his dream of an America, that is more white and more homogenous than most of us could ever imagine. It is what he campaigned on, and it is, sadly, what his base expects.