We are now entering Week 4 of the government shutdown, with no end in sight. There aren't any compromise solutions on the table, the two sides aren't even talking to each other in any noticeable way, and Donald Trump is getting ready for a weeklong trip outside the country. This has so far been the second-longest shutdown in American history, and it certainly looks like it is on track to top the record and become the longest.

So far, neither side has been willing to budge. Trump has held one fruitless meeting with the Democratic leaders and then turned his attention to other issues. The Republicans continue to insist that they won't even negotiate until the government is reopened, and the Democrats continue to insist on striking a deal on healthcare subsidies before they will allow the government to reopen. This stalemate shows no signs of movement yet.

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Alas, I had too much real-life stuff to deal with today to write a column. My apologies for the interruption in service.

If I had written something today, I would have been tempted to write about Vladimir Putin yanking the rug out from under Donald Trump by now refusing to even consider a summit meeting any time soon. That seems to prove the point I was making yesterday, at any rate.

But in any case, regular columns will resume tomorrow, and mea culpa again, for not writing a new one today.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant

Donald Trump now seems to now be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Russia's Vladimir Putin. That's an extraordinary thing to say, but it is the inescapable conclusion to what the world has witnessed over the past week. Trump started off firmly on the side of Ukraine, musing about allowing European countries to provide American-made Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, which could strike deep within Russian territory. But by week's end, he had essentially become the chief negotiator for the Russians, trying to force the Ukrainian leader into the exact terms dictated by Putin.

A summit meeting between Putin and Trump is now being arranged, but one wonders what the point of it really is. After all, Trump has completely rolled over and accepted the Russian point of view and is arguing for all the Russian demands. So the summit meeting will take place so that Putin can personally deliver marching orders to Trump? That seems like the most likely outcome, at this point.

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Tomorrow could be the biggest day of mass protest America has ever experienced. The "No Kings" rallies planned for Saturday could, collectively, add up to more than the five million who turned out earlier this year for the same reason: to protest that America was founded on the idea that we do not want to be ruled by a king who holds himself above the law, but instead by laws that all people -- even the country's highest leaders -- have to follow. That's a pretty basic premise, really. And the organizers of the rallies have reportedly gotten a much larger signup than occurred at their earlier rally, so the signs are pointing to tomorrow breaking records as well. There will be over 2,500 locations of these rallies across all 50 states, so go to their site and check out where the closest one to you is!

The funniest commentary about this protest movement we have yet seen came in the form of a political cartoon. It shows the bottom of the Declaration of Independence, with John Hancock and all the rest of the signatures, and it has a small caption at the bottom which reads: "NO KINGS PROTEST (original version)" -- which sums it all up very nicely. America was founded on the concept of "no kings."

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Donald Trump ran on the slogan "America First," but more and more it is looking like he's morphing his foreign policy into the second coming of the Monroe Doctrine. The United States meddling in the politics of Central and South America has a long and mostly ugly history, and Trump seems to want to write a few new chapters of that history. This is already causing some blowback among his MAGA supporters, since it runs so counter to what he promised them on the campaign trail.

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On the National Mall, with the United States Capitol as a backdrop, democracy is dying. Or... well... melting, to be more pedantic and less poetic. A brilliant art installation funded by Ben Cohen (of "Ben and Jerry's" fame) was erected this morning and unveiled at noon, consisting of an ice sculpture spelling out "DEMOCRACY" in capital letters five feet high. They lucked out on the day chosen, since it is reportedly a sunny 70 degrees in Washington today, which means the sculpture is not going to last very much longer (there's a live feed of it available, which at roughly 5:00 P.M. Washington time had been reduced to the "D", the first "C", and the "Y", with a portion of the second "C" and nubs of a few other letters still hanging on). The message is as simple as it is brilliant: Democracy is melting away before our very eyes. Or, to rework the now-laughable banner slogan of the once-vaunted Washington Post: "DEMOCRACY" dies in broad daylight.

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So far, the people who own the biggest news media outlets in the country have not been doing a notable job of standing up to Donald Trump. The television and cable networks have largely knuckled under, with several of them paying what can only be called multimillion-dollar medieval tributes to the king. Print journalism has had its exceptions -- organizations which are still standing firm and suing Trump in court (and being countersued) -- but some have also adopted "go along to get along" policies (most notably the Washington Post, which has seen an enormous exodus of longstanding journalistic talent leave, after the paper decided their editorial board had to be more friendly to Trump). But today, virtually all of them stood together and said "No!" to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

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Donald Trump is doing a victory lap in Israel and the Middle East, as all the hostages held by Hamas are released in exchange for thousands of Palestinian prisoners. The ceasefire has taken hold, and although this is just a first step it is indeed a big one. There's no guarantee the war is over -- the ceasefire could end and Israel could continue their attacks, if no agreement can be reached over the ultimate status of Hamas, but at least if the war does eventually continue it will do so without hostages being at the heart of it. Which is definite progress.

But there is another war still raging, and there are developments with regard to Ukraine and Russia that are worth discussing, so while everyone else is reporting on the Middle East I thought it'd be a good time to take a look at where things stand.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has bogged down. It has become just as much as an intractable standoff as World War I, in fact, with the same trenchlines and miniscule progress on the battlefield. It is a meat-grinder for both sides, but neither side has made huge territorial gains and probably won't. This war has changed warfare forever, since the drone technology in use (on both sides) has made things like tanks almost obsolete. The technological advancements in weaponry in Ukraine will soon be copied by all nations (all nations that don't want to get easily beat in their next war, at the very least).

The biggest "front" of the war, however, is the relentless air attacks from both sides. And on that front, Ukraine is having some successes that might actually be instrumental in forcing Vladimir Putin to the bargaining table. To build on these successes, Trump is now considering providing Tomahawk misses to Ukraine to use on targets deep within Russia, which would be an escalation -- but not a huge one, since Ukraine already has drones and missiles capable of hitting targets hundreds of miles into Russian territory.

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Donald Trump actually achieved something worthwhile this week. A ceasefire deal that will result in all the hostages being released was hammered out between Israel and Hamas, and the guns have gone silent in Gaza. Whether this results in a long-lasting peace deal remain to be seen (there are a lot of details that are still "to be determined" in the deal), but progress has definitely been made. However, Trump did not achieve what he really wanted in all this, as the Nobel Peace Prize was announced today -- for someone else. Maybe he'll be considered next year, but so far the petulance and anger from the MAGA crowd has already begun.

It was impossible not to read between the lines of the Nobel citation, which stated in part:

Democracy is a precondition for lasting peace. However, we live in a world where democracy is in retreat, where more and more authoritarian regimes are challenging norms and resorting to violence. The Venezuelan regime's rigid hold on power and its repression of the population are not unique in the world. We see the same trends globally: rule of law abused by those in control, free media silenced, critics imprisoned, and societies pushed towards authoritarian rule and militarization. In 2024, more elections were held than ever before, but fewer and fewer are free and fair.

So at least the Nobel Committee did mention Trump, in a way, since that list seems awfully familiar, these days.

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Jay Jones, the Democratic nominee for the office of Virginia's attorney general, should immediately withdraw his nomination.

That's a tough thing for me to say, less than a month from Election Day and with early voting having already begun. But I feel it is necessary at this point, even if it means the Republican candidate would win.

Some old text messages from Jones surfaced late last week, and they are absolutely disqualifying for anyone seeking the office of the highest law enforcement officer in the state. Because they explicitly talk of Jones wishing for violence and death to not only a Republican politician, but also for the children of Republican politicians. As I said, to me this is nothing short of disqualifying.

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