Stephen, Over the past week, 1,241,340 American patriots, like you, have signed petitions DEMANDING Democrats put America first and BUILD THE WALL…That’s why I am launching the most important membership program ever – the OFFICIAL BUILD THE WALL MEMBERSHIP.  email from Trump asking for money for his wall.

As I write this, our government is slowly shutting down because President Trump can’t get his border wall included in the budget. It reminded me of the hour, or so, Michele and I spent looking at a long-abandoned Wall. One of the most expensive walls ever built, in fact. All along the French side of what used to be the most protected border in the world, are the remains of a series of interrelated forts, the infamous Maginot Line.  On one of our trips across that border when we were in the Rhineland last summer, we ran into a small museum in one of those old forts.

I’d read of the Maginot Line every time I read a book on World War II but I was unprepared for how competent – and competent is not quite the right word, maybe beautifully conceived and professionally built – it was. Everything was thought of, from bathrooms to fresh air, from periscopes to overlapping fields of fire. And it was, in the end, worthless. In terms of both National Resources that could have been spent much better, and the National Attention which was distracted, it was hugely expensive, and, it was worthless.