To “pwn” somebody is classic Internet hacker slang for “own,” meaning domination or control over another. It is equivalent to the modern usage of the term “cuck” (so “He got pwned” also can mean “He got cucked.”).
President Trump built a substantial campaign base around the idea of building a giant wall to separate the US from Mexico in the name of fighting illegal immigration. This idea, which is referred to in the collective mind as “The Wall”, has shown absolutely no progress at all. This is not a surprise, for as it has been pointed out many times, the US government’s claims about stopping illegal immigration are false because the government relies on a constant labor flow from Central America that functions outside of the convoluted labyrinth of labor law in order to support her foreign policy objectives through agricultural control as well as to have a political lever to justify the expansion of government power for both political parties.
Trump’s actions early in his presidency indicated that his promises of “building the wall” were a lie, yet many defended and insisted he would build it. However, a recent announcement has confirmed that “The Wall” is not going to get built:
The Senate prepared Wednesday to pass a short-term spending bill that would keep the government open through the New Year but deny President Trump the money he wanted for his border wall — a stark retreat for Republicans in their final days in control of Congress.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced the deal on the Senate floor Wednesday to extend government funding through Feb. 8, when Democrats will be in control of the House. Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Democrats would support it.
The outcome would temporarily break an impasse that threatened to shutter large portions of the government this weekend and send hundreds of thousands of federal workers home without pay just before Christmas.
Trump has signaled his support for the plan but “can change his mind if he wants to,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the No. 2 Senate Republican. A senior White House aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the administration’s position, said the plan is for Trump to sign the legislation McConnell is introducing.
That would represent a major defeat for Trump on his signature issue, the U.S.-Mexico border wall he long insisted Mexico would pay for but has demanded $5 billion in taxpayer money to fund. And it’s an abandonment of his stance from a week ago, when he claimed he would be “proud” to shut down the government to get his wall money.
Trump has oftened changed his mind or threatened to veto bills at the last minute, so a shutdown is still possible.
Trump continued to assert over Twitter on Wednesday that the wall would be built, insisting Mexico would pay for it via the renegotiated North America trade deal and that the military would build it.
The legality of such an approach is in question, and Schumer insisted Democrats would not let it happen. It’s also unclear how the trade deal would mean Mexico is paying for the wall.
McConnell blamed the outcome on Democrats after they turned down a GOP offer on Tuesday that would have provided $1.6 billion for border barriers and another $1 billion for Trump to spend on other immigration priorities.
“Faced with this intransigence — with Democrats’ failure to take our borders seriously — Republicans will continue to fulfill our duty to govern,” McConnell said. “That’s why we will soon take up a simple measure that will continue government funding into February: So we can continue this vital debate after the new Congress has convened.”
Schumer spoke on the floor shortly thereafter, saying: “I’m glad the leader thinks the government should not shut down over the president’s demands for a wall, and Democrats will support this CR.” A CR is a “continuing resolution” extending government funding.
The Senate could pass the measure as soon as Wednesday and the House by Thursday, marking a humbling end to the 115th Congress and two years of unified GOP control of Washington. About 25 percent of government funding would run out at the end of Friday absent action by Congress and Trump.
“One way or the other, we will win on the Wall!” Trump said in a morning tweet. In another, he sought to make the case that because of “large scale criminal and drug inflow” the military would be justified in building a border wall.
Just last week, Trump told Democratic congressional leaders that he’d be “proud” to shut down the government to get his wall money. But in recent days, Democrats have held firm against his demand, and Republicans have appeared increasingly eager to avoid a partial shutdown heading into the Christmas holiday.
During a television appearance before McConnell’s announcement Wednesday morning, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway insisted Trump had not softened his stance on the wall but said the White House wanted to see what Congress would produce.
“The president has said he’s willing to do what he has to do to get that border security, including a government shutdown,” she said on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends.” “Now we’ll see what the Senate and the House, what they come together and present to the president. We don’t know what’s going to make it to his desk.”
She said that while Congress had worked successfully with Trump on other issues, lawmakers seemed to be “walking away” on border security.
She also reiterated the White House’s view that it could redirect money from other areas, a strategy that has limits given congressional powers over appropriations.
“There are other ways for him to get that money,” Conway said. “He’s not going to back down.”
Multiple budget experts said it would be illegal for Trump to take money from the Pentagon and redirect it toward the construction of a wall. At a minimum, such a change would require the approval of at least four congressional committees, two of which will be controlled by Democrats in two weeks.
“If Congress did not appropriate money to build a wall, you cannot just use other unrelated appropriations to do that,” said Todd Harrison, director of defense budget analysis at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Schumer said Democrats would not allow it to happen.
“Let me be very clear. The administration cannot reprogram funds appropriated by Congress for the full wall without our assent,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “To do so would violate Congress’ Article One powers. They cannot do it on their own and the House and Senate will not approve a wall from reprogrammed funds or anything else. It won’t happen.” (source, source)
Is it possible that Trump may be able to “get the funding” for “The Wall?” Yes, it is. It is also possible that a meteorite could strike the Earth, North Korea could fire a missile at a US military base, or Trump is actually a Christian who believes in God.
Hey, it could happen.
But that is not the reality of what one sees.
What one does see is the classic American political game both parties play so they can justify their pay, act like they hate each other while creating excuses for not dealing with laws the public actually wants dealt with, pretend they did something, and then blame it on somebody else. However, the real actors in finance and the military-industrial complex always secure funding, because they are part of the lobby that controls US policy. It is the SAME story with each issue every year without fail.
As such, it does not come as a surprise that while Trump says he cannot “get the funding” for “The Wall,” he is able to give even more money in foreign aid directly to Mexico:
The United States, joining an effort by Mexico, will commit to investing billions in Central America in hopes of ending the poverty, violence and drug-trafficking that are driving thousands of people in the region to undertake the difficult trek to the United States, the State Department announced on Tuesday.
Mexico’s new president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, introduced what he called a “Marshall Plan” last week to address the root causes of Central American migration: a $30 billion initiative to invest in the region and welcome migrants into Mexico with visas, health care and employment.
On Tuesday, the Trump administration signaled its support for the plan, saying it was committing $5.8 billion in private and public investments in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Much of that amount, however, was previously committed or contingent on the identification of “commercially viable projects.”
The promise comes amid tensions between the administration and Mexico over a caravan of migrants traveling from Central America, with President Trump pushing Mexico to allow those seeking asylum in the United States to remain in Mexico while they wait.
The United States “welcomes the historic commitment by the government of Mexico to development in southern Mexico and to promote our shared goals with the countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras,” the State Department said in a statement. “Furthermore, the United States also wishes to recognize Mexico’s willingness to develop a framework to ensure migration occurs in a legal, orderly and safe manner.”
Although Mr. Obrador’s goal of getting $30 billion in shared commitments to regional development remains far-off, Mexico welcomed the United States’ announcement.
“This appears to us to be a very positive step,” said Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico’s foreign minister and one of the chief architects of the regional development proposal.
The Obama administration invested heavily in Central America, hoping that economic development, police training and a shared sense of commitment would stem a growing tide of migrants — children in particular — traveling through Mexico to get to the United States.
The programs are widely seen as successful, and American diplomats posted in the region consider them vital. (source, source)
“Trump is doing this because he has an amazingly high IQ and knows what he is doing.”
“Trump is playing 4-D Chess with Mexico.”
“Trump has a secret plan worked out to Make America Great Again ™(r) and this is part of it.”
These hackneyed responses, echoed by his supporters, always were vacuous and unproven and this current situation only proves it again.
If Mexico is such an “enemy” that is “destroying America” with “hordes of illegals,” why isn’t America doing to them what she does to Iran, such as actual sanctions and threatening total war?
It is because Mexico is not the enemy of the US. To the contrary, she is the labor backbone of US foreign policy as she provides all the workers that enable the US to sell food at below-market prices to foreign nations and at significantly reduced prices to Americans, thus creating food dependency of foreign nations of the US and forcing them to submit to America’s demands while suppressing rebellion domestically because of the Roman policy of panem et circenses. A population of fat and distracted people seldom attempt to revolt against their government, and it is in part why for all of the talk that people have on the street about their hatred of government they will not do anything to change it, because they are either in too poor a condition of health or too interesting in trivial pursuits that they do not care.
Trump’s greatest success as a president has not been the advancement of “American” interests or the people, but rather those foreign and domestic lobbies in finance, industry, and the military which control the nation to give them more power and license at the expense of the common man. If his objective as a president was to expedite the conditions for creating the possibility for a major and future foreign conflict as per the objective of US policy for the entire last century as evidenced by his dedicated and increased support of the Israeli lobby, his support of nationalism, his encouragement of German and Japanese militarism, his anti-Russia reversal of previous promises made during his campaign, his continued and increased occupation of Syria, his making his first presidential pardon to the known Jewish racist, fraudster, criminal, and serial abuser Shalom Rubashkin, his admiration and reverence for the anti-Christian dictator Erdogan, his use of migrants as a political force to encourage nationalism as well as his flippant, rude, and derisive marks and behaviors and then to that his association with supporters of eugenics and national socialism (such as Steve Bannon), then Trump has succeeded as a President.
Trump did Make America Great Again- for the lobbying groups that control her.
It is a great day for weapons companies, missile defense companies, military subcontractors, and those people who buy stock in them or other kinds of defense corporations, especially American, German, Israeli, and Japanese, since they will likely make heavy returns on profits because they are going to sell their wares to the government as the prospect of war increases since that is the intended purpose of US foreign policy. The same can be said about the petroleum industry because they are highly influential and central to any war, and those who invest in them will make major profits.
Likewise, the banks who funded the National Socialists in World War II, as well as those who had a direct philosophical in creating National Socialism will stand to benefit.
Unless you are in one of these categories- an owner, a financial investor, or even a common average stock holder with a few stocks in one of these companies -you have nothing to gain. To the contrary, you have everything to lose, because it will be the individual person that will be forced to subsidize the profits and practices of these corporations as is common practice in American history, be it with money or blood.