The Great American Wall

“Everyone says he (Drumpfen-dunce) is crazy – which maybe he is – but the scarier thing about him is that he is stupid.
You do not know anyone as stupid as Donald Trump. You just don’t.”   Fran Leibowitz

 

My dear friend (I'll call her 'Gorgeous') and I were exchanging pointed barbs about politics; the Drumpfen-dunce was the recurring butt of jokes and exclaims of incredulity.
I insisted that it wasn't my fault. She accepted my attempt at exculpation with a side-ward look.

Amid our chatter, she shared an idea she had by which he - the Drumpfen-dork - could pay for his Wall.  

China.
Sell blocks of the wall to Chinese families. They could then travel to the US/Mexico border to view their family's block (or section) as well as the blocks of the rivals, relatives, associates and either gloat or bristle with envy.
The Chinese would go for this in big way. Having a block in the wall would become a renowned status symbol. Never mind having a private jet - you ain't got a familial block in 'The American Great Wall'?
You ain't got jack.
Loss of face.
Shame.
Other Confucian societies (Korean, Japanese, etc) would go koo-koo as well for a shot at owning a block in The Wall to honor themselves, their families and venerate their ancestors.

'Gorgeous' is a businessperson (i.e. a businessman without the 'Y' chromosome). She sees a business opportunity and builds a plan.
Market and sell the blocks in 'The Great American Wall' to the Chinese.
Finance the building of The Wall with the sale of blocks.
Build The Wall with Chinese contractors and engineers using American laborers.
'The Great American Wall' becomes an instant 'Wonder of the World' and a tourist attraction more than 2,000 miles (3,218 kilometers) long and 30 feet high (9 meters).
Set up all-included tours for Chinese to visit and spend loads of cash in the US and in Mexico.
Invest in hotels, motels, transportation systems, helicopter tours, restaurants (authentic Chinese, of course) and rafts and reams and stacks and heaps of gee-gaws, gimcracks, what-nots, tchotchkes, and tawdry tourist trash to commemorate the pilgrimage.  

Gorgeous is a businessperson; unlike the poseur who is sitting on his bed at 6pm eating cheeseburgers, yelling at the TV, scheming to get somebody else to pay for his febrile pipe-dream.

Russia and the Electoral College

Drumpf won the US presidency with less than 50% of the vote - 46%, actually, which amounted to 62,985,105 votes. Yet, despite having less than 50%, he won the election.

Yes, we're picking that old scab again - for a purpose.

Truth be told, HRC won less than 50% of the votes cast as well; 48% or  65,853,625 votes. HRC garnered nearly 3 million more votes than Drumpf, yet lost.
... old news, water over the dam, under the bridge and time marches on...

(n.b.There have been 10 other times when the winner got less than 50% of the popular vote in American history.)
http://www.toptenz.net/10-presidents-who-won-with-less-than-50-of-the-vote.php

The discussion regarding the effect of Russian interference has included whether or not Russian interference swayed voters either to vote for Drumpf or to stay home and protest the perceived lack of proper choice.  After all, 48% of the electorate did not vote at all in the presidential contest; 94,977,814 sat on the sidelines in disgust, disaffection or simple apathy.  7,804,213 other voters chose to protest by voting for Stein or other candidates.

However, it was not the popular vote that decided the election in Drumpf's favor, as is well known.  The election was decided by the Electoral College - that mystifying cabal of 'super-delegates' who, in spite of the popular vote, awarded the presidency to Drumpf.

It was a deep distrust of democracy amongst the more conservative Founding Fathers that spurred the creation of the Electoral College.  The Electors, it was determined, would serve to off-set and over-ride a misguided general voting population should a populist demagogue and possible tyrant be chosen.

There have been five times that the presidency was won by the candidate who lost the popular vote; three in the 19th Century, one in 20th and one in the 21st.
https://www.factcheck.org/2008/03/presidents-winning-without-popular-vote/

In 2016, the Electoral College, counter to its raison d'être, chose to adjudge the election in favor of the populist demagogue, Drumpf.

To the point...
It would be interesting to know if Mueller and his investigative team are examining the effect of Russian interference on the members of the Electoral College.
That was where the election was won and lost.
How the Russian interference might have influenced the woeful 25% of American voters to choose Drumpf as POTUS is of less importance.
The more germane question is; 

'Did Russian propaganda and  interference  influence members of the Electoral College?'

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-pol-electoral-college-20161110-story.html

The Dunning-Kruger POTUS

Drumpf is a con-man.
(No, this isn't a reprint of the previous post. It just cannot be stated and emphasized enough.)

He has skirted legality all of his life. His mentor was the notorious Mafia lawyer, Roy Cohn (of McCarthy Red-Scare infamy). He's never been on the 'up and up' when it didn't suit him and he has a well-deserved reputation amongst his fellow oligarchs for dishonesty and fraud.

It has puzzled me ever since his announcement to run in 2016; a decision which was seen as farcical, promising a 'Grand Guignol' of gruesome political buffoonery.

Why?
Why would Drumpf run?
Why jeopardize a gaudy, opulent, vain-glorious, vacuous life-style of extravagant ostentation so as to win the presidency?

Certainly, such a win would bolster his over-inflated ego. That is completely understandable; as a malignant narcissist and poster-child for the Dunning-Kruger Effect , Drumpf would be forever eager for yet another self-aggrandizing achievement. A defeat, on the other hand, would be devastating to mere mortals of overweening ambition.

My puzzlement remains this: with his host of high-priced and assumedly loyal attorneys, did none of them - or any of his cadre of advisors - point out that his disreputable past and his under-handed and out-right criminal dealings would come under scrutiny?

The Oval Office was designed to insinuate transparency; there are no dark corners to hide in. Skeletons in the closet are 'outed' and made to dance in the glare of public scrutiny. Special investigators over-turn every rock and sift the soil for corruption. Examples of such investigations are easy to reference. Heading the list are Nixon, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Gary Hart, etc.

Did not the extensive (and at times pathetic and comedic) interrogation of Hillary Clinton about the Benghazi tragedy and "her damn emails" give the Drumpfen-putz pause?
It should have.
But it didn't.
(Was he prompted by an agency other than his bloated, manic ego?)

Before even attaining the office of POTUS, he had hit his first legal obstacle; Mike Flynn as National Security Advisor. With juvenile contempt of all-things-Obama, Drumpf seemingly ignored the warnings by the out-going administration about Flynn's acting as an registered foreign agent. Drumpf, in truly Drumpfian fashion, then exacerbated that error by firing FBI Director Comey which drove him deeper into the rabbit hole from which emerged Robert Mueller's appointment as Special Prosecutor.

Mueller, the man who brought down the 'Teflon Don', John Gotti, is hot on the trail and has sniffed out the corruption and criminal conspiracies on which Drumpf has based his sordid and unscrupulous life. As a New Yorker who has rubbed elbows with the Mafia, Drumpf is keenly aware that his days are numbered. Let's hope that number is a small, rational one.

https://www.alternet.org/muellers-wide-ranging-indictments-have-trump-co-pinned-down

(p.s. That the GOP did not vet this bilious sack of offal before the RNC convention is one that leadership will rue until the party ceases to be.)