I should say, by way of a preface, that it is a very dark day in America, as those in power actively shred the Bill of Rights right before the nation's eyes. But I decided to wait until tomorrow to talk about all of that, to give myself another day to let it all sink in. So today I am choosing instead to write something positive, because I think we could all use some good news right about now.

The state of New Mexico just announced that, beginning in November, it will become the first state in the nation to offer universal free child care to all parents. Here's the basic story:

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Will they do it? Will congressional Democrats actually force a shutdown of the federal government at the end of this month? While plenty of other political stories are currently swirling around, this is the big question that wonks who still pay attention to Congress are asking right now. So far, it seems like Democrats actually are preparing for a shutdown strategy, mostly because they got so much pushback from their own rank-and-file voters when they refused to do so earlier this year. So let's take a look at what's in play, heading into the next few weeks.

Where things stand

Where things currently stand in Congress is that the Republicans are offering up a continuing resolution that would essentially put the government on autopilot for a few more weeks. It would kick the shutdown deadline from the first of October to late in November (right before Thanksgiving). Donald Trump has apparently blessed this plan, and most Republicans seem to be on board.

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Republicans, led by Donald Trump, now apparently want to rewrite the First Amendment's guarantee of the freedom of speech. Their interpretation of it seems to be that conservatives should be allowed to say whatever they want -- no matter how vile or vicious or hateful -- about whomever they want, while liberals should be locked up if they ever say anything negative about conservatives. That's how they want to define "free speech" these days: free speech for me, but not for thee.

This comes, of course, from the top down. Donald Trump was asked about the idea of the Department of Justice "going after" liberals for their "hate speech," and he told the reporter: "We'll probably go after people like you because you treat me so unfairly. It's hate. You have a lot of hate in your heart." Got that? This is a White House reporter from ABC, and Trump is flat-out warning him that the government might "go after" him because he is not sufficiently loving towards the Dear Leader.

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Remember when people on the right side of the political spectrum were so incensed about the left's "cancel culture"? It wasn't that long ago. Conservatives railed at how people were being held accountable for things they said by being "cancelled" in one way or another. They called the lefties "snowflakes" who couldn't take what they saw as merely robust and unbridled free speech. Any rightwing free speech should be consequence-free in the real world, they argued at the time.

Well, times have changed. Now it is the right who has fully embraced cancel culture and (because they are in power now) are apparently about to put it on steroids. After the brutal assassination of a conservative activist last week, the right has been cancelling people with a vengeance. Anyone who posted any comment even slightly opposed to Charlie Kirk and what he stood for (some of which was pretty odious and downright racist) is being ferreted out and exposed publicly. People have already lost jobs over such posts. So much for "free speech," eh?

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This week, scientists revealed what they feel is convincing evidence that life previously existed on Mars. But, rather astonishingly, "Life On Mars!" headlines weren't the story of the week.

What should have been the political story of the week is also largely being ignored by the media as well. Vladimir Putin launched almost 20 drones into Polish airspace, which is a serious escalation since it's hard not to call this an act of war. The drones reportedly weren't armed with explosives, and Russia isn't taking any responsibility; but even so, invading another country's airspace is still a hostile act. Especially when that country is a member of NATO.

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While the biggest story in the political world right now is the manhunt underway for the Utah assassin, there doesn't seem to be much more to say about it yet, so I decided instead to highlight two other stories today, on two of this week's developments in Congress. It's not exactly a "three-dot Thursday" column, since it only has two completely unrelated stories, but it's at least something else to pay attention to as we all wait for developments from Utah.

Epstein files discharge petition only needs one more signature

This is somewhat of a curveball. Last week, Representatives Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie introduced a discharge petition which will force the speaker of the House to bring up a bill for a floor vote that he really doesn't want to. The bill would force the Justice Department -- with a hard 30-day deadline -- to release all the remaining Epstein files (with victims' names redacted, of course).

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A horrific act of political violence happened in Utah today. The leader of a group of young conservatives was assassinated, apparently for his political viewpoint. I say "apparently" since (as of this writing) the shooter is still at large, so for the time being all we are left with is assumptions as to motive.

For once, the condemnation of this political violence has been admirably universal. Politicians on the left and the right, Democrats and Republicans, are all denouncing the shooting in equally strong terms. Which they should, of course. It shouldn't matter the ideology of a perpetrator of political violence when issuing such condemnations.

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Due to me being busy all day running errands, there will be no new column today. I apologize for the interruption in service (but at least I got a few "real life" things done here...). Regular columns will reappear starting tomorrow. And again, sorry for playing hooky today.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant

You may not have noticed it, what with all the other distractions in Washington, but we're fast approaching the possibility of another government shutdown. The federal fiscal year begins in October, and there is no budget in place yet. The two parties in Congress aren't even talking to each other yet about what to do about it, and they don't have a whole lot of time to get something passed. For Democrats, the question is whether they should shut the government down in what essentially would be an act of political protest, or whether they should just bargain for a few of their issues and accept pretty much everything else Republicans want to do.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer holds the cards in this game, since the Senate has to pass a bill that can be filibustered. So the Republicans will need at least seven Democrats to vote for it. Schumer has already faced this dilemma before, and he came down on the side of keeping the government open. It is unclear what he's planning to do this time.

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Donald Trump is driving the American economy straight into a ditch. That's a pretty simple concept, and it's (just barely) short enough to fit on a bumpersticker. Which makes it a dandy political slogan for Democrats to start hammering out relentlessly.

Doing so is pretty easy, since you can connect all sorts of dots to it: A soft jobs market. Inflation rising. Hamburger prices up. Electricity prices way up. Trump's tariff war, which has created a "Trump tax" on a whole bunch of products. Trump took hold of an economy that had achieved a "soft landing," and now he's driving us all right into a ditch. Everything he does seems to make things worse. See how easy that is to do?

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