Note: The Sunday podcast is back as a morning performance this week, but could shift back to evenings as needed until I get settled in the new place. There is a post about firing old white guys and post about rug merchants. Subscribe here or here.

If you are one of the many schemers in Washington, or you dream of becoming a schemer in Washington, this is a troubling time. By now Trump should be in exile, having had to quit the presidential race due to his many legal troubles and the collapse in his support due to those legal troubles. A more acceptable candidate was supposed to have emerged and pushed Trump out of the race. This was the narrative the schemers in Washington have lived by for over a year.

In what is becoming a regular feature of our politics, the narrative did not turn out as written and the scramble is on for a narrative update. There are still the court cases in Georgia, New York, Florida and Washington. The last two are in Federal court, but the Mark Steyn case tells us that we may all be dead before they get going. The Georgia case may fall apart due to racism. Apparently, racism made the DA turn the case into a chance to give her lover public money.

Of course, the big hole plowed through the narrative was the first two contests of the primary season, where Trump won easily. By the time Iowa came around all but three non-Trump candidates had quit the race. After Iowa it was the neocon offering, but she was trounced in New Hampshire, thus leaving Trump as the presumptive nominee, assuming nothing untoward happens this spring or summer. Few in Washington expected this to be the state of affairs at this point.

This is what makes the Texas border showdown an interesting thing. All of a sudden, we get word that Mitch McConnell is telling his party that the politics of immigration have flipped and they need to rally to Trump on the issue. Then Greg Abbott finds his inner confederate and defies the Feds with regards to the razor wire he had installed in a public park that sits along the border. Finally, we have every Republican governor rallying to his side in this fight with the Feds.

The first thing to consider here is that the Republican Party is the party of scheming perfidious finks, so whatever they are doing is not on the level. This is a party that selects for people who live to fink. They should just rename the party to “The Fink Party” but that would be a degree of candor no fink could muster. That also means that their sudden embrace of immigration and Trump’s position on it is not on the level. They are up to shenanigans because it is their nature.

One angle is that they suddenly realize that immigration is important to the voters despite the best effort of regime media to anathematize the issue. Voters in Iowa and New Hampshire listed immigration as a top concern. This never happens. Voters always put economic concerns at the top, because people are practical. This means immigration has leaked into the domain of the practical. All of a sudden, the Republicans have to pretend to care about immigration.

There may be something more perfidious afoot. Those court cases are still ongoing and one of them is scheduled to start in March. That means Trump is still in legal jeopardy and could be removed from the ticket. The issue is timing. They could not conjure an alternative in the primaries, so maybe they are looking to get a replacement ready, perhaps as his running mate. In other words, maybe word went out that there is a casting call for who will be Trump’s future replacement.

From the scheming weasel point of view, this is a good save to the official narrative that had Trump dropping out by the end of 2023. He cruises along winning delegates, picks a regime approved running mate and then is convicted in the summer. The party then does some hand ringing and decides to expel him from the party and tab his running mate as the party nominee. “We really hate to do this but with Trump facing jail time, we have to go with his top choice to replace him.”

It sounds like 4-D chess, but these are people who traffic in finkery. Shenanigans are like water to a fish or oxygen to a human. We know the collection of flunkies who ran in the primary did so becasue they were told Trump would be removed. They admitted as much during the debates. It is not unreasonable to think word has gone out to the governors that there will be a new casting call for players in the updated version of the Never Trump narrative that remains a hit in Washington.

Then you have the fact that what Texas is doing is mostly a show. This area they are walling off from the Feds is a tiny portion of the border. The park itself remains wide open to the Feds. If they wanted to do it, they could take down the razor wire, but thus far they have not done it. As for the states voicing support and sending national guard units, this is a cost-free gesture. They risk nothing in doing it, as even the national party thinks it is okay to sound butch on immigration.

One other factor suggests there are shenanigans afoot. There was the rumor that Trump might consider Haley as a running mate. This seems to have come from Washington and probably has a kernel of truth to it. The party may be offering to support Trump in his legal and political fights, if he agrees to a running mate that is on good terms with the regime. There has no doubt been discussions about this between the party and the Trump campaign.

All that said, Trump has proven to be one of the most resilient and lucky political figures to come around in generations. He is probably shrewd enough to avoid picking a running mate that could be his replacement. That just means the shenanigans will take another turn this spring. The regime hates Trump with the intensity of a thousand suns so they will never relent. What the first month of the political year tells us is that 2024 will be the year of the fink.

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