"I Gave Them Candy And They Still Wouldn't Do It My Way. Waaah!"

I saw a news item about some guy employed in the federal prison system who has been working without pay due to the partial government shutdown.  He and his family are on the brink of financial disaster.  He's angry and desperate.  Who wouldn't be?  But he places the blame for his absent paycheck, irrationally, on "all of them" -- all politicians, R's and D's alike.  That's easy, lazy thinking, and it's not even close to true.  That poor bastard's undeserved financial woes were caused by the Dictator-Tot, with a big assist from many wing-nut Republicans.

Shall we review?

January 2018.  Trump publicy agreed -- "I'll sign anything!" -- to the bipartisan Durbin-Graham bill to provide ongoing protections for DACA/Dreamers in exchange for $18-$20 billion in funding for border security.  Then he promptly reversed course and refused to continue the DACA program.  This flip-flop led to a brief government shutdown.

December 2018.  Trump met publicly with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi and told them that if he didn't get $5 billion in funding for his border wall, he'd be "proud" to shut down the government, would take responsibility for doing it, and wouldn't blame the Democrats.

He and Republican supporters immediately began blaming the Democrats.

The Senate passed a short-term government funding bill by unanimous voice vote, but the measure did not include $5 billion for a wall.  The House, still controlled by the lame duck GOP at the time, countered with a bill that did include the money, knowing that their bill would be DOA in the Senate, and therefore nothing would happen until next year with the arrival of the new Congress.

December 22, 2018.  As threatened/promised/owned by Trump, the government shut down, leaving 800,000 people without their income.

January 4, 2019.  Trump said he's still "proud" of his shutdown, still "proud to be doing what I'm doing."

January 8, 2019.  Trump gives a ten-minute televised national address devoted to blaming Democrats for not giving in to his demands.

January 9, 2019.  Trump met with Schumer and Pelosi for a closed-door "negotiation" on his self-created impasse.  He began by handing out candy (WTF?) and then asked Pelosi if she'd agree to fund his wall.  She said no.  (Wrong kind of candy?)  So Trump said there was nothing to discuss and immediately walked out the meeting.  "Bye-bye."  What a spoiled, rotten brat!

Mr. Art of the Deal believes that negotiation means having it all your way, getting everything you want.  And if that doesn't happen, you take your ball and go home in a huff.

Blame Trump for the shutdown.  No rational person could do otherwise.

Some say his next move move will be to declare a national emergency giving himself the legally dubious authority to siphon off (steal) $5.7 billion from various sections of the government to pay for his stupid wall.

We'll soon see.  But I think what he wants more than anything, more than the money, more than the wall, is the fight itself.  When he prolongs it as he has, the lack of resolution allows him to keep using it as a distraction to appeal to his block-headed base.  He ran on "The Wall" in 2016.  I think he wants to do it again in 2020.  What else has he got?  And if he actually gets a wall built, he can't use it to fire up his foamy-mouthed followers again.