Civil Commotion

As you may have heard, the Trump administration proposed yesterday that the wall along our southern border be paid for by imposing a 20% tax on goods imported from Mexico.

President Trump’s decision to build a wall along the length of the United States’ southern border with Mexico erupted into a diplomatic standoff on Thursday, leading to the cancellation of a White House visit by Mexico’s president and sharply rising tensions over who would pay for the wall.

With the conflict escalating, Mr. Trump appeared to embrace a proposal by House Republicans that would impose a 20 percent tax on all imported goods. The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, told reporters that the proceeds would be used to pay for the border wall, estimated to cost as much as $20 billion.

This is so ridiculously childish it’s difficult to believe anybody actually said it aloud. To their (very modest) credit, the administration quickly downgraded the proposal to one of many under consideration rather than a likelihood.

Businesses don’t pay taxes; the consumers of their products pay them. What this proposal amounts to is pressing Mexico into service as a special purpose tax collector; the Americans who want Mexican goods will find themselves paying for a barrier between the two countries.

Remember that when you’re dipping into the guacamole during the Superbowl and some witless yahoo gets to grumbling that it’s time to show Mexico who’s the boss.

Jeri Massi takes a look at George Orwell’s novel 1984, and notices how similar it is to fundamentalist Christianity. Since Jeri has an IFB background, she might as well be talking about the conservative end of the Southern Baptist world, too.

When I first read 1984 by George Orwell, about 8 years ago, it gave me a better grasp of Christian Fundamentalism. Any authoritarian system has to rely on the same basic protocols of maintaining control, whether that system is Winston Smith’s native Oceana (Europe), or Christian Fundamentalism.

Yep.

Sheesh. Trump went to the GOP retreat in Philadelphia today and — Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! — his remarks, posted on his own twitter account, were all about … him.

Well, what do you know? The President of Mexico has just cancelled next week’s scheduled meeting with Trump.

We will never again live in a world where people don’t laugh in the face of American mewling about ‘exceptionalism.’ THANKS!, Values Voters.