Friends, poor Mike Johnson probably should have gotten a job herding literal cats. It would have been easier and less stressful than serving as Speaker of the House. Nonetheless, efforts are underway to find a spending formula that can stave off a government shutdown. We've been here before, after all, and the sky has never fallen. I'm confident that any shutdown, if it even happens, will be brief and easily survivable. Heck, maybe it would even be a good start, from a DOGE perspective, to shut down everything that isn't "necessary"?
Meanwhile, Trump's cabinet nominees are making the rounds, and surprisingly little focus has so far been on RFK, Jr., who you would think every Democrat would be clamoring to vote against. Not so, but neither is every Republican brimming with enthusiasm for his candidacy. At the end of the day, the betting markets like his chances, and so do I, which is an amazing thing to say given the contempt that the establishment has for the man.
https://polymarket.com/event/which-trump-picks-will-be-confirmed?tid=1734714007018
Finally, Mexico's attitude to illegal immigration has always been ambivalent, at best. Once in a while the country makes sympathetic noises about border control, but realistically Mexico will only crack down when its own interests are at stake and/or it is forced into line by a proactive American administration. Thus, there's no doubt that Mexico will "play ball", to some extent, while Trump is president, but what's to stop there from being another record-setting avalanche of border crossers once a Democrat takes office again? Not much. Thus, there's only one way to secure the border permanently: ensure that no Democrat ever is president again, or force the Democratic Party to change its spots and become a centrist, rather than a leftist, organization. The former feat might be easier to accomplish than the second! All we have to do is make the Dems unviable as an opposition party. They're doing their best to make it happen on their own, needless to say. All they need is a little "push"...