A number of things have happened since I stopped quipping daily, but nothing has fundamentally changed. To many, it may be a relief that the federal government has stopped turning itself inside out to prove how much more effective it can be compared to the Biden team – even when effective equals destructive. To others, the fact that there has been no mitigation of the divisive, racially-biased, and frequently unconstitutional choices is a reason to mourn. But before complacency or ire deepens, it seems worth noting changes on the horizon, the unhappy meals that the country may soon be digesting.

First, the Department of Homeland Security, flush with more than $75 billion for ICE alone, is recruiting for 10,000 new agents, enticing applicants with a $50,000 signing bonus. Potential recruits are being called to “Defend the Homeland” and help “get the worst of the worst criminals out of our country,” despite the fact that day workers at The Home Depot and cooks at various restaurants have not been the worst of the worst criminals at all. Some of them haven’t even been illegal migrants in the first place.  

Who do you think is going to apply for these jobs? What can we expect the mindset of potential law-enforcement officers to be? How many will have any experience with anything like the duties they’ll be asked to perform for their $50,000 signing bonus and student loan forgiveness? (Wasn’t this administration opposed to student loan forgiveness?)

It’s already the wild west out there, especially in and around immigration courthouses. Now, thousands of new zealots or bribed converts will be joining the mission to remove from the country one million people per year.

Second, it’s not enough for the federal government to target Latin migrants who are not hardened criminals and not gang members. It’s not enough to attempt to erase 60 years of progress in attempts at racial equity. No, now the federal government must also add insult to the injury of the overturning of Roe v. Wade and further assault the dignity of women by pardoning sex criminals. For there is nothing that could shout louder from the rooftops, “You are completely unimportant, and predators can do with you as they wish,” than to pardon either Ghislaine Maxwell or Sean “Diddy” Combs of the crimes they were found to have committed. But Donald Trump appears poised to do just that.

Yes, there’s a lot happening: More sky-high tariffs; U.S. submarines deployedin response to online comments by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev; the president firing Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer for jobs reports revisions that show a softer economy than the administration wants to claim. There’s also the president implying he knew more about the criminal behavior of Jeffrey Epstein than he previously let on.

So, there’s that. Largely empty movement distracting from potentially bracing change. But for another day at least, the Republic is still here. There’s that, too.