Months or Years:With the government shutdown dragging on over his demands for a border wall, President Trump said yesterday that he could declare a national emergency and build it anyway.

  “We could call a national emergency and build it very quickly. That’s another way to do it. But if we can do it through a negotiated process, that’s better,” he said.

  Short of national emergency, Trump told Democratic leaders yesterday that he’s prepared to let the government stay closed for “months or even years” if he doesn’t get money for his southern border wall.

  Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer came out of what was described as a “contentious” meeting and said, “We told the president we needed the government open.” Schumer reported that, “He resisted. In fact, he said he’d keep the government closed for a very long period of time, months or even years.”

  Trump later confirmed that he said it.

  With Democrats in control of the House, the subject of impeachment is getting batted around. Freshman Rep. Rashida Tlaib declared Thursday night at a private event that the  Democratic majority in the House will “go in there and impeach the motherf—er.” Not a good way to start, but Donald Trump, of all people, expressed shock that anyone would use such a word.

  The President tweeted yesterday asking, “How do you impeach a president who has won perhaps the greatest election of all time, done nothing wrong (no Collusion with Russia, it was the Dems that Colluded), had the most successful first two years of any president, and is the most popular Republican in party history 93%?”

  The NY Timesreports that, “Although surveys at first showed more Americans blaming him for the shutdown than Democrats, later polling showed the fault more evenly split. And the voters he cares most about, his core conservative supporters, are more enthusiastic than the public at large. He has told people that ‘my people’ love the fight, and that he believes he is winning.”

Flight Flu: President Trump said yesterday that an increasing number of people not getting paid during the government shutdown are supporting his stand. He didn’t say who is telling him that.

  At the same time,an increasing number of TSA employees who aren’t getting paid are calling in sick or saying they can’t work their shifts. Those are the people who screen passengers for weapons. More than 150 called in yesterday at New York’s JFK airport. Call-ins are also up at Dallas-Ft. Worth. The TSA says security is not compromised, but what else would they say?

Big Bounce:The Dow Jones closed up nearly 747 points yesterday, about 3.3 percent, after an encouraging jobs report and word from the chairman of the Federal Reserve that he’s not dead set on hiking interest rates. The economy added 312,000 jobs in December, far more than expected.

 Yesterday’s spike came just a day after a 660-point dive so whatever’s going on isn’t over.

The Women’s Wall: On New Year’s Day,  Indian women in the state of Kerala formed a “wall” to demonstrate for women’s equality. The wall of women stretched the length of National Highway 66, which runs about 385 miles. Indian authorities say somewhere between three and a half and five million women lined up and held hands for 15 minutes while reciting a pledge for equality. 

The Roundup: A federal judge has extended the term of the Special Counsel Grand Jury for another six months. Robert Mueller is still digging.— ANavy Seal medic and sniper who served eight combat tours has been accused of randomly murdering Iraqi civilians in 2017. Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher has been in the service 19 years.He faces possible life in prison — “Tuna King” Kiyoshi Kimura paid $3.1 million for a 612 pound  bluefin tuna which he plans to carve into expensive bite-size pieces. Bluefin is an endangered species. 

 It’s Just Noodles:The owners of a French-Vietnamese restaurant planned for opening this March in Keene, NH have been ordered not to hang the name of their restaurant outside because the city considers it offensive. The name is “Pho Keene Great” after the popular Vietnamese dish and the name of the town. The problem is that “pho” in Vietnamese is pronounced “fuh,” and you get the rest.