As is now the new normal, there were so many things happening in the political world this week it is hard to keep track of them all. But what is currently in the center ring is the vote happening in the Senate on the continuing resolution to fund the government for the rest of this fiscal year.

Senate Democrats were put on the spot because the House Republicans actually managed to pass a bill on their own. Few expected that this would happen, since House Republicans have a terrible track record for being able to pass much of anything -- especially budget bills. So the Senate was caught kind of flat-footed on this one. They had expected to hammer out some sort of agreement between Senate Democrats and Republicans, pass it, and then jam it down the GOP House's throat (which is the usual way these things work out). Instead, they were jammed by the House (who, immediately after passing their bill, adjourned -- thus making it hard to call them back for any necessary vote, should the Senate pass their own version of the bill).

This put Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his Democrats between a rock and a hard place. The C.R. bill needed 60 votes to advance, and with Senator Rand Paul voting no it meant a total of eight Democratic votes would be necessary. Senator John Fetterman made it known that he was a "Yes" vote, and then yesterday Schumer himself decided to join him. This makes it likely that the vote will succeed (which happened as we wrote this -- the bill did advance, as expected) and the government will avoid shutting down.

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Senate Democrats are currently trapped between a rock and a hard place. They face a lose-lose situation, so it's no wonder they haven't figured out a viable path forward yet. Anything they do, at this point, is going to disappoint the voters in their base in one way or another (which is really just the natural result of being in the minority in both houses of Congress and not holding the Oval Office).

What's at stake is the federal budget for the rest of this fiscal year and an impending government shutdown. But the Republicans, led by President Elon Musk and his hapless sidekick Donald Trump, hold all of the cards here. The Democrats are looking at a pair of twos, to continue the poker analogy (or perhaps even worse -- a hand that's only ten-high?).

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Program Note: Today is the final day I was too preoccupied with real-life stuff to write a new column (new columns will resume tomorrow), so I conclude my little look back at the COVID pandemic with a much later article than the last two. I wrote this before we were all completely out of the woods (pandemic-wise), mostly because I was exasperated with the silliness of the baby boomers dictating to all following generations: "You shall be known by a single letter" (which wasn't true at the time, for most of us), and also with the silliness of merely drawing an arbitrary line on a calendar and declaring "This generation will end at this year, and the next generation shall begin here!" To me, a "generation" implies a shared event or a shared perspective that is outwardly defined (such as the post-World War II baby boom), and not by an arbitrary division of years.

In any case, the term still hasn't caught on (at least, that I am aware of), so maybe I'm still just trying to (pun intended) make it "go viral." So here is my rare foray into sociology (or whatever you want to call it), just in the hopes that people start using it one day.

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Program Note: I am taking some personal time off this week, so for today and tomorrow we will continue our look back five years, to the very earliest phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.

One interesting side-note is in order -- a memory from five years ago. After talking back then to a friend who had extensively reviewed the history of the Spanish Flu back during World War I, they were astonished at a number of parallels between what took place back then (all the efforts to fight the pandemic) and what was taking place during COVID. But one thing they mentioned hadn't happened yet -- a sort of vast amnesia that descended on the populace after it happened.

This is understandable enough, when you think about it. People tend to remember good things more than bad things. Happy memories are relived often, while unhappy memories are avoided or buried, for the most part.

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Program Note: I will be taking some time off this week, so for the next three days I will be running old columns. All will be looking back five years, as tomorrow is the fifth anniversary of the World Health Organization declaring COVID-19 to be a pandemic. The Washington Post ran an article over the weekend with a number of their staffers sharing their pandemic memories (including one from someone who was in high school at the time and was robbed of all the normal activities of her senior year).

Today I'm going to run the article I wrote almost exactly five years ago, which was written in the midst of the stock market collapsing and is full of speculation about what we could all expect in the near future (almost all of which eventually turned out to be true). Our political leadership vacillated from being non-existent to incredibly self-defeating and destructive during this time, as Donald Trump tried mightily just to close his eyes and wish us out of the crisis. And we all know how that turned out.

So here is the start of my three-day look back at the pandemic, starting right at the point it began spiraling completely out of control.

Originally published March 9, 2020

Roman Emperor Nero didn't actually fiddle while Rome burned. It's a myth. Violins (or "fiddles") wouldn't exist for another 1,500 years or so, making the very concept impossible. That's not to say Nero might not have blatantly ignored a flaming crisis, of course, it's just quibbling about the literal meaning of the maxim. Now, American Emperor-With-No-Clothes Donald Trump didn't fiddle while the country was hit by a pandemic, either. Instead, he played golf. Twice. That's right -- in the midst of a huge crisis, Trump spent the entire weekend playing golf.

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While the biggest political spectacle of the week was the president's big speech to Congress, the biggest political news of the week was actually the American economy reacting to Donald Trump's on-again-off-again, now-you-see-them-now-you-don't tariffs. The whiplash began at the start of the week and hasn't fully subsided yet. Taken together with all of Trump's other disruptive wrecking balls, economists are now starting to talk about the possibility of an upcoming "Trump recession."

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Is America headed for a "Trump recession" already? Economists are starting to get worried. So are consumers. And the stock market has been in a deep dive ever since the tariff threat became real this week. So the possibility now exists -- we could be headed for an economic trainwreck. And if it happens, there will be a big difference from normal business-cycle recessions, because this time the reason why it happened will be pretty obvious to everyone.

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I have to begin this review with the mandatory bit of pedantry which is required every four years. Last night, President Donald Trump gave a speech to a joint session of Congress. However, it was not technically a "State Of The Union" speech, since tradition dictates you have to have been in office for a whole year before giving one of those.

Nitpickery aside, let's do a quick review of how things went last night, shall we?

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It is time for Democrats to step up to the plate. President Donald Trump will address Congress and the nation tonight, and will doubtlessly boast about all the wonderful things he thinks he has been doing. In doing so, he will also doubtlessly lie about many of them in shameless fashion, since that's what he always does. But Democrats need to not get distracted and remain focused on one thing above all else. Call it a return to: "It's the economy, stupid."

From all indications, it looks like this is exactly what they are going to do, which is heartening news. Here's a good start, from an article today on the expected Democratic response:

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So is everyone ready to pay more for stuff? Because that certainly seems like what is next on the agenda for the American consumer. We'll be paying more for food in the grocery store, more for electronic goods, and a whole bunch more for cars, starting tomorrow.

Or maybe not. You never know what's going to happen, since American trade policy will now be decided on a whim. By a man who simply does not understand how world trade works. Isn't that a comforting thought?

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