If current events and political discord leave you scratching your head or shouting at your TV screen, “What the hell are you fighting about?,” you are not wrong in your common sense.   Some things are so obvious that one is dismayed there is any disagreement.   Yet there seems to be a point/counter-point on every single issue facing us and our elected leaders today.

In our lives, we would have figured it out. Yet, those people on the other side of the Potomac, and the salivating media that makes money through the discord, seem stymied by it.  They pontificate, and sit in stalemate.

Our current border situation is such an issue.   No matter what you want to do with MOSTLY kind, opportunity-seeking immigrants who have chosen to jump the line and enter our country illegally, no matter what your compassionate heart strings say, I think only those in denial would choose to suggest  we are talking about LEGAL immigration to this country.   We are talking about ILLEGAL immigration.   To conflate the two is disingenuous, if not downright deceptive.   So, I am setting that aside, giving every reader here the benefit of the doubt.

Only those in denial, or complete unawareness of events around the world before and since 9/11, would ignore the obvious.   Bad guys will hide amongst good guys.  It is called infiltration.   It is called undercover operations.  It is a fact that drug cartels are moving their product and their distribution channels into the US–killing tens of thousands of Americans every year.  It is a fact that MS13 is infiltrating the US. It is a tragic fact that slave traders–otherwise known as “human traffickers”–regularly bring the slaves into the US.   It is a FACT that Al Qaeda and Isis and others infiltrate our country across that border.

Why then would anyone not want to put in a barrier system that prevents bad guys from entering, respects the legal process with people waiting in line for immigration, sorts out legitimate asylum cases, and prevents ILLEGAL entry by the decent, AND the far-from-decent, people from various parts of the world?  The question is not whether you want more people here.   The question is do you want to reward legal behavior, or reward illegal behavior?

Long ago, a business mentor of mine taught me a valuable lesson–a lesson all Americans I believe would be well off to learn right now.  He said, “Lee, it is all about money, and always about money.  So, just follow the money and you will find out the who and the why.”  Continued conflict and divisiveness will never be about principles, ideals, philosophies, humanitarianism.   They are the cover story, the camouflage. It will always be about money.

Therefore, I think we all would have a lot more peace of mind, and not be so vitriolic towards each other on this admittedly difficult problem, if we asked ourselves a question.   Every President before this one has faced that border problem, and begun a solution.   Then, mysteriously, every one of them has backed away.   The question you should have asked is, why?  Why did they change course?   Why, even now, are politicians in Washington who a few years ago wanted to have, and voted for, a barrier now reversing course and digging in for a fight?

It’s all about money.   Ask yourself:   Who benefits from drug cartels operating inside the US?   Who benefits from tens of thousands of people illegally entering and overloading the public services areas–education, law enforcement, medical, judicial etc?   Who benefits from people being dragged across our border and sold into all kinds of horrific slavery?  Who benefits from terrorists entering surreptitiously, forming cells in cities across the US?    Who benefits from the ensuing political chaos?

Someone is fighting this current President with everything they have.   His “crime?”   He did not back away.   He stayed on course.  Perhaps he was naïve, or perhaps he was bold.  But that “course” has put him on a collision course with the men and women who are the “answer” to the questions I asked above.   They are the “Who.” They are corrupt people, whose only motivation is money and power.   And We the People, the Press, and Politicians are being manipulated.

This begs another question, a really tough one:  Are those people IN the Press?   Are they IN Washington?  This should keep you up at night.   It does me.  (It is why I wrote “White King and the Doctor” and “White King Rising.”)

Follow the money.   Who stands to gain financially from this?  Who gains from us being divided? Who gains by stopping the President from fulfilling what other Presidents also promised? Look, just look.

And while you are at it, look at Reid Hoffman and his latest “project.”   He is the subject of the next Blog.