Well, dear reader, it has been a while since I put thoughts to paper so to speak. The world hasn’t gotten any better and my hiatus because of other interests has waned so here I am, back at my computer, trying to make sense of what is going on in our world.

At least the government shutdown is over. I believe the motivating factor for the President was that Speaker Pelosi was denying him a stage for the State of the Union. And while he thought about doing it as a rally in Oshkosh, he decided the ratings would be better from the Congress. So, he said, “sure” let’s let those little people eat again and the other stuff will be taken care of later. As to his wall, perhaps the Mexicans will build it since they sure won’t pay for it.

There won’t be another shutdown. Even the Republicans know it is bad for them politically. So now the search is on for a fig leaf for the President. He won’t get his wall, but he will call whatever he gets a wall. Remember, this is a guy who talked about Muslims cheering in New Jersey when the towers fell on 9/11 so there is nothing that will keep him from claiming that fences are walls and he really meant an electronic wall all the time and he meant that Mexican-Americans would help pay for the wall when they pay their taxes.

As the Presidential campaign begins we have two narratives with echoes from 2016. The Democrats want anyone but Trump and the Republicans want anyone named Clinton. While we will have around 20 candidates on the Democratic side, by the time of the South Carolina primary in February, we will be down to three, at most. The real dilemma for the Dems is do they go with Biden, the most likely to attack moderates, or with someone like Kamala Harris or Beto O’Rourke who may motivate young people and people of color, or Sherrod Brown or Amy Klobuchar who may bring back the industrial Midwest and aren’t too old. Hopefully, Bernie will end his campaign sooner rather than later, but we will see what unfolds.

Meanwhile, the Republicans have to decide what to do with the President. If they stay with him, they will lose more House seats and perhaps the Senate. If they abandon him, the base will be out for blood. Perhaps their best hope is to have the Democrats in Congress do their dirty work for them and impeach him. Then they could say they really liked him while they couldn’t stand him. Sounds like politics as usual.