President Biden’s immigration policy is working magnificently. A record 260,000 immigrants were counted and sent into the country in September. At that pace, the president can claim an additional 3,000,000 potential future Democrats this year as he gears up for the 2024 campaign.

So, let’s imagine a possible outcome of the future envisioned by the Biden Administration. Twenty-five years from today, October 1, 2048, Venezuela President Carlos Hernandez frantically calls our President, Juanita Perez, with an urgent plea.

See, President Perez is the fifth Democrat in a row since 2020 to be the U.S. President. The U.S population has ballooned to 850,000,000. A new third party, the Libertads, finished second in the 2044 election, dropping the Republicans to third place.

What does the Venezuela president ask our President Perez?

Does he want help plugging old oil wells? Does he need more corn? Is he asking the U.S. to build a railroad across the Caribbean? No, none of these. Instead, he is pleading, “Madame President, will you please send a few thousand Venezuelans back home. Way back in 2020, we had 30 million people. Now, we have only 20. Not 20 million, 20! Here I am the President of a vast country, and only me and 19 others are left!”

Add Honduras, Guatemala and several other countries losing people in droves to the U.S. and this 2048 tale doesn’t seem so farfetched.

Back to reality, this week California Senator, Diane Feinstein, died. The former mayor of San Francisco (1978 to 1988), Feinstein was elected to the Senate in 1992 and was the longest serving woman.

The vacancy presents a quandary for Gov. Newsom. He announced months ago that if she resigned or died, he wanted to replace her with a person who matched the previous senator and current VP, Kamala Harris. But he’ll have a difficult time finding a California woman whose dad is from Jamaica and mom from India. Plus, she must have an unusual laugh that irritates Republicans.

Seriously, announcing a commitment to select a person of a particular race and sex, whether Republican or Democrat, is shameful. In the U.S. Senate, America deserves the most qualified persons available. We already have enough barely qualified members of Congress elected by misinformed or uninformed voters. When a governor is given the opportunity to name a Senator, pick the best one available. Problem is, the best ones often don’t want to deal with the hassles.

With the bribery charges facing New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez, Governor Murphy may have a similar opportunity. Of course, he would name a Democrat. But not likely one who stashed gold bars in a bedroom closet.

The Federal Government shutdown was avoided, at least for 45 days. A “Continuing Resolution” was passed by Congress and signed by President Biden, but only because it increased spending. Cutting spending was hopeless. Like millions of federal employees, I spent time preparing. I wrote a couple of paragraphs about the perils of a shutdown that I’ll hang onto until the next deadline. Or the one after that.

Meanwhile, with or without a shutdown, farmers across the Midwest are starting to harvest corn. Last year the average price was about $6.80 a bushel. This fall they’ll get about two dollars less. Yes, that’s down. But $4.80 is not a bad price until you read the Successful Farming magazine headline, “With inflation, $4.80 a bushel is the new $4.00 a bushel for corn.”

I wonder what the inflation rate is in Venezuela.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

          “Say that Venezuela is quite a country. They have a fellow [dictator] named Gomez… and he really runs it.” DT #1477, Apr. 17, 1931

“Funny thing about being a U. S. Senator, the only thing the law says you have to be is 30 years old. Not another single requirement necessary. They just figure that a man that old got nobody to blame but himself if he gets caught in there.” DT #2770, June 21, 1935

“There is two things that a dumb guy knows as much about as a smart one, and that’s art and inflation.” DT #2114, May 14, 1933