“When he fails to tweet for even a few hours, Trumpologists search for meaning in the silence. Hours are devoted on cable television, each and every day, to examining the entrails of his most recent utterances. Has there been a day in the past two years without a Trump-related story on the front page of every major U.S. newspaper? How does the president lie to us? Let us count the ways. And we do, endlessly, meticulously. Do you believe for a moment that Americans are ready to give that up merely because, for one reason or another, Trump has been obliged to reoccupy Trump Tower full-time?” In WaPo, Ted Koppel shares a few thoughts about Trump, the media, and us. Don’t expect Trump to go quietly.

+ “Trump was seeking to begin peeling away some Democrats representing competitive districts from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.” No one bit. And so the shutdown is where it was yesterday, and the day before that… But the weight of the shutdown is increasing. From Bloomberg: In a Month You’ll Wish the Shutdown Were Only as Bad as Today. “Shutdowns don’t get bad linearly; they get bad exponentially.” (Exponential badness seems to be in vogue these days.)

+ Meanwhile, the Pentagon has extended its troop border deployment as Trump warns of “big new caravan.” (Gee, didn’t see that one coming…)