Everything Trump Wanted Has Failed

This week, the program that businesses trust (and the law demands in 16 states) to keep undocumented immigrants out of work has come to a screeching halt. E-Verify has suspended its operations due to the Government Shutdown.

NPR reports:

The government shutdown began with the president's demand for border security money. But it has also halted E-Verify, a federal program that's supposed to prevent immigrants from working here illegally.  If U.S. employers want to check whether their prospective hires are eligible to work, they can't. 

The E-Verify database is "currently unavailable due to a lapse in government appropriations," according to a note on the government-run website.

Trump wanted a physical wall to be built. Instead he had a digital one torn down. Irony abounds. But where does the status of Trump's wall stand, really?

There is no public funding that has been allocated for a wall and Mexico has refused to pay for it (as Trump repeatedly promised they would). Since public funding from either country seems unlikely for the foreseeable future, the idea of private funding has been raised.

The most successful advance toward that means of building a wall along the US/Mexico border is a GoFundMe page set up by a military veteran named Brian Kolfage. So far, he has raised just shy of 2% of his billion dollar goal.  That self-imposed goal is only 1/5 of the amount that Trump projects he will need to break ground on his wall.

Washington Post reports:

“It’s time to stop playing games with voters,” Kolfage said in an email. “If we are told we’re getting something, make it happen.” 

Could the government just take all the GoFundMe cash that Kolfage ends up raising? It’s complicated.

Republican lawmakers have introduced bills seeking to allow the Treasury Department to accept public donations for the purpose of funding the wall. Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) and Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) have both filed bills seeking to create a “Border Wall Trust Fund,” which Black’s bill specifies would be appropriated to the Department of Homeland Security. Black’s proposal would even create a “commemorative display,” honoring all the donors who chipped in. But those bills are just sitting in committee and would seem unlikely to have much chance once Democrats take control of the House.

Another promise that Trump made repeatedly on the campaign trail and other subsequent rallies is that department stores and other shops will stop saying "Happy Holidays" to their patrons and instead wish them a "Merry Christmas".  But Mawlid, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Years have all passed with most stores instructing their employees to parrot the familiar and consumer-friendly "Happy Holidays". Even Trump's own businesses failed to mention the word 'Christmas' at all and retreated back to 'Holiday' in his manufactured "War on Christmas".

Celebrity Sex Allegations - The New 'Moral Panic'

A moral panic is defined in Wikipedia as a feeling of fear spread among a large number of people that some evil threatens the well-being of society. A Dictionary of Sociology defines a moral panic as "the process of arousing social concern over an issue – usually the work of Moral Entrepreneurs and the mass media".

Some past examples of moral panics that have swept the nation are:
The Salem Witch Trials
McCarthyism
The Daycare Sex Abuse Hysteria of the 1980's & 90's
HIV/AIDS Panic
Muslim Terrorism Suspicion

Moral panics are usually spread by mainstream media in order to confuse or distract from larger or more tangible issues.  The tell-tale signs of a moral panic are the lack of solid evidence to back up claims and allegations that arise out of seemingly nowhere yet are highly publicized as a trend. Most moral panics are also political by nature and politicians quickly seek to capitalize on the two-sided morality coin.

Some of the accused in 2017 (clockwise): Al Franken,
George Takei, Mariah Carey, Kevin Spacey

The problem with a moral panic (aside from the fact that the claims made at the height of it are generally false) is that it has a tendency to spread like wildfire to the point where all citizens of the affected nation become retaliatory against & suspicious of each other.

Although there might be some truth to the accusations at first, those same allegations can become warped over time due to our human tendency toward exaggeration, hyperbole and our inability to remember things exactly as they happened. Before long, both the accuser & the accused are caught in a vicious cycle of mutual blame with the general public not trusting either. The aggrieved parties rarely call a truce... especially when the allegations involve sexual misconduct.

As a blogger/journalist, I can't tell you that I know for certain what sex crimes have been perpetrated by the elite celebrity class which includes everyone from Donald Trump to George Takei (political opposites).  But what I can do is share the warning that we could be in the midst of a moral panic.  It seems they happen every 20-40 years like clockwork.

Clockwise: Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein
& Bill Cosby have all been accused sex crimes. The crimes
that Mrs. Clinton was accused of were proven false, namely
that she supposedly operated a child sex ring out of a pizza
parlor. See also: PizzaGate

Some things to keep in mind during a potential moral panic:

• Are you making accusations based on rational proof?
• Are you contributing to events that have nothing to do with you?
• Are you making assumptions based on race, gender, sexual orientation, religion or politics?
• How devastating would it be if you were proven wrong?
• Is there another issue going on that you should be paying attention to?

Mark Burnett of "The Apprentice" Fame Was Also The Racist Who Did This:

Hmmm... Doesn't Satan look familiar here?

For Shame, Mark Burnett, For Shame...

The History Channel has some made some mistakes in the past but few come close to this one.  Mark Burnett came under fire when he elected to have Jesus played by a blonde-haired, blue-eyed white guy in his miniseries The Bible.

But the travesty (and historical inaccuracy) didn't end there.

"Satan" was actually played by a doppelganger for Obama!

Mark Burnett (a Trump supporter) says he felt powerless to do anything about the casting... But he was the shows only producer.

Now, he is co-producing another season of The Apprentice with Donald Trump himself... KellyAnne Conway, spokeswoman for the President-elect, says that what the President wants to do in his "spare time" should be up to him!