The Time Line

45* lives in SmarmSpace - the tiny little void between your promise to do something and your actions to fulfill that promise.

I can put my signature on a contract, but if I don't feel obligated by my own ethical standards, then when it comes time for me to deliver, I can choose any other option I care to think about.

Donald Trump has made his whole life about living in SmarmSpace.

The Wall is the perfect example.

Philip Bump, WaPo:

Back in April 2015 — an era so distant in American history that it barely shimmers in and out of view, cloaked in the haze of everything that’s happened since — Donald John Trump promised the United States that he would build a wall on the border with Mexico and that Mexico would cover the cost.

It was at an event in New Hampshire covered by Paul Steinhauser of NH1 News, targeting the state which, as it turns out, would provide Trump with his first victory in electoral politics. But at the time — despite Steinhauser’s accurate assessment that it wasn’t — it seemed like a joke. The TV guy was going to build a wall for free, huh? Okay. Good luck.

The point, though, is that Trump's insistence that Mexico would pay for the wall is, in fact, older than his campaign itself. At that New Hampshire event, he even said how it would happen, in broad strokes.

Follow the string of events thru the WaPo piece and watch how the thing "evolves". Because of course it does. It goes from a straight up statement that this thing is definitely going to happen no matter what - to a vague suggestion of something that he might think about mulling over sometime down the road or whatever, we'll see, maybe.

That's typical 45* - finding the SmarmSpace, or manufacturing some as needed.

But now he's in more of a panic than usual because even Limbaugh and Coulter and Ingraham and Hannity have been making noises about how he's a big loser and a total liar if he doesn't come thru on it. He won't survive without his Wranglers to keep the Rubes in line, and he's making all the noise he needs to make it look like this shitty impotent response is really a brilliant move on his part, because it's exactly the way he planned it all along.

BTW - the shutdown may in fact be part of the plan. He's been pimping the bullshit about a crisis, and an invasion, and bad guy Muslims streaming across the border blah blah blah.

Meanwhile, there are stories coming out about TSA (and other security folk) not bothering to do their work because they don't get paid even though they're required to show up on the job. TSA. FDA. Coast Guard and and and. That's a lot of people looking the other way.

Don't think for a minute 45* won't welcome something horrible happening because of his shutdown. It gives him his Reichstag Fire by way of a tidy little variation on Stochastic Terrorism.

And then we're off to the races.