Walls have a dual purpose: To wall things in and to wall things out. In the Donald Trump and supporter world, this means walling out facts, walling in “alternative facts;” walling out equality, walling in discrimination by race, gender and religion; walling out government of the people, walling in government by the few and rich. In this Trumpian era, it all seems nuts.

Walnut Wawl-nut noun : the large wrinkled edible seed of a deciduous tree, consisting of two halves contained within a hard shell which is enclosed in a green fruit : late Old English wash-hnutu, from a Germanic compound meaning “foreign nut."

Of course, there is the homophonous term wall nut : a person or persons obsessed with walls of all kind: walls between religions, race, nationalities, cultures, genders. The one exception is the delusional permeability between factoid and fact. At the junction of alternative facts and truth, they see no distinction. Lies and nonsense are transmogrified into reality of a different kind that is simultaneously laughable and frightening all at once.

We share the planet, unavoidably tied to one another in fate from all the multiple cause and effect we generate. Every cause arising out of contrafactual ignorance, displaces the world that is with the world believed. Walnuts live in the real world of interdependent existence. Wall nuts live in a delusional world of separate existence, confining themselves within walls of their own making, disconnected, hateful, and fearful. 

I find the etymology of walnut humorous, being that White House resident, Donald Trump, is of the Germanic heritage assigned to the word's origin. “Foreign nut” is like a boomerang hurled by him on some poor *Dreamer or asylum seeker, returning in kind to its owner. An irony I can’t but derive great pleasure from. All apologies, of course, to walnuts, which I hold in great esteem.

—Carl

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*Dreamer: Plans to phase out DACA were announced by the Trump Administration on September 5, 2017; implementation was put on hold for six months to allow Congress time to pass the Dream Act or some other legislative protection for Dreamers. Congress failed to act and the time extension expired on March 5, 2018, but the phase-out of DACA has been put on hold by several courts.