As of Thursday, Jan 29th 2026, we're still here.

i have fallen ill.

i’m going to assume normal ill, and that this isn’t some portent of a terminal illness that makes everyone sad, me most of all. but i thought it would be better to write something short than nothing at all.

there is a senate funding deal that’s been hashed out by democrats, republicans, and the president somehow — which is both “the most normal washington thing that’s happened in a year” and also “suspicious as hell.”

basically, there are 6 bills packaged in a “minibus” (that’s smaller than an omnibus) that would fund the government until next fall. and the plan that’s come together is that the democrats will agree to pass 5 of those 6, but not the one for DHS and ICE and CBP. that one will get a 2 week “cr” for them to hash out what they’ll do.

i am, as the great old internet video says, “le tired" so this is just bullet point time¹

• many many professional social media posters are mad at chuck for this deal. but (1) you don’t know he thought of it, he’s feckless and senile enough that he may have just been presented it by a congressman with functioning organs and given it a sign-off. and (2) there are ways it could work if chuck’s signature cowardly folding is kept away from it