On one hand, President Trump and Democratic leaders suggested they made some progress in their meeting to discuss what it will take to re-open the government. On the other hand, during that meeting, both sides say that Trump indicated that, under certain circumstances, the shutdown could continue for months, or even years. Here’s the latest on the shutdown that could go on forever, or end quite soon. (Instead of shutting down the government, we should have tried unplugging it for 30 seconds and then plugging it back in.)

+ One (obviously intended) outcome of all the fights over immigration is that Americans now list the topic as one of their top concerns. “Overall, 49 percent mentioned immigration in an open-ended question as one of the top five problems they hoped the government addresses in 2019. By contrast, 27 percent mentioned immigration in December 2017.”