Far back in time when I was doing vectorial mechanics we played around with quantifying the resistance to a rolling wheel in order to better calculate the distance a wheeled object could move before stopping, given initial impetus and/or declining energy input (an electric motor running low on battery power for example). It was all good fun developing the physics equations from first principles, and more sophisticated than my physics classes where zero resistance was just assumed so existing equations could be applied.

That last is not the case in the real world, not even in deep space where there are particles. All resistance has a cost, and that’s something the Democrats are only just starting to realise in the US as they decided whether or not to shut down the government in a fight over a Continuing Resolution – a CR is a bill that keeps the government rolling along until a real budget can be decided, this one with minor cuts of a few billion out of $6 trillion of spending.

Having lived through the biggest government shutdown of recent times, the 1995-96 fight between Bill Clinton and the new GOP majority – I’m well aware of all the bullshit games the Democrats play. In that case Bill made sure that the most public of services, like the National Parks and monuments, were closed first, while keeping all the backroom stuff running as usual. It was the same in 2013 with the shutdown under Obama as he fought another new GOP majority in the House. It happened again in 2018-19 as Trump fought the new Democrat majority.

But Trump 1.0 didn’t play that very well. Trump 2.0 is a different story and unlike those previous shutdowns the Democrats control nothing. It’s actually been a source of amazement to me that they would even try this bullshit in their current, weakened state, and is yet another example of how they still have not got their crap together in the wake of the 2024 election losses.

Their problem is even worse than the fact that this time Trump will mirror Clinton and Obama; shutting down all those backroom jobs that provide the Democrats with juicy support, while keeping the national parks and monuments open.

No, this time their choice is as follows:

  1. Pass the CR and suck up the small budget cuts – while also keeping DOGE and ICE funded and running, even as Elon Musk and Tom Homan continue to rip apart the two big Democrat supports of state spending on their pet ideas and illegal immigrants, OR…
  2. Vote against the CR so that it doesn’t pass (the Senate majority the GOP has is not enough, they need 60 votes) – which automatically hands over spending control to the Office of Management and Budget, now run by one Russell Vought.

Who is he you may ask? Well he’s rather obscure, as is the OMB, but the Democrats fought harder against his nomination than almost any other of Trump’s picks, for good reason:

Democrats believe that the mild-mannered, self-described devout Christian nominee for budget director, Russell Vought, is “the most dangerous” Trump nominee.
…
As a principal author of Project 2025, Vought — Trump’s pick to direct the Office of Management and Budget in his first and second terms — wrote a chapter outlining plans to overhaul the executive branch and refocus federal agencies to serve the president’s agenda, NBC News reported on Wednesday.

“In his chapter, Vought referred to OMB as ‘the president’s air-traffic control system,’ with its director tasked with serving as ‘the keeper of “commander’s intent.” “Vought wrote in the section that the next administration would require ‘boldness to bend or break bureaucracy to the presidential will’ and ‘self-denial’ to send power from Washington back to the hands of American families,” the report continued.

Right now Trump and Vought are practically begging the Democrats to shut down the government to enable this. No matter what the Democrats do, they’re doing it while holding the rope that Trump will hang them with.

What a dilemma for Chucky Schumer, minority leader in the Senate. He’s been talking tough for a few days but that’s just to try and placate their radical left-wing base (photo above), which is demanding resistance at all costs. According to one of the Democrat media arms, Politico, Schumer’s tough talk about Democrat unity against the CR is about as genuine as a Biden family business. Behind closed doors, Senate Democrats are already negotiating their surrender, they just want a symbolic vote and talking points so they can pretend they put up a fight.

I may not even have time to finish my popcorn before this is all over.