thependulumswings

If you like your sports straight or neat like you like your whiskey, 2020 is producing bad barrels to pour.  Sadly, the two are intertwined far too much.  But, at least you can enjoy the Ten Piece Nuggets below where we give the zaniness to you straight if not neat.

1.  Joe Biden, months back when asked, said the most important thing that he was looking for in a VP candidate was “the ability to take office on day one.”  It didn’t sound like a ringing endorsement of his own longevity.  Kamala Harris got the job and apparently is taking his concern to heart.  Yesterday on the stump she said, “A Harris administration together with Joe Biden as President of the US will provide 100 billion dollars in low-interest loans and investment to minority business owners.”  Biden’s hiding low and Kamala’s riding high.
2.  Will the VP candidate, or based on the above the Presidential candidate, take time to visit the two LAPD officers who are recovering from the blatant assassination attempt Saturday?  She visited Blake and his family in Wisconsin and even had effusive praise for him.  Cali’s her home state.  Wisconsin wasn’t around the corner.
3. Trump visited Kenosha, WI last month and met with law enforcement officials, but not Blake nor his family.  Do you think the battle lines for 11/3 could be drawn any more clearly on the above the law and total disorder front?
4. Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva on Monday challenged NBA star LeBron James to match the reward money being offered for information on the gunman who ambushed and shot two deputies over the weekend.  Villanueva said the reward money reached $175,000.  “This challenge is to Lebron James. I want you to match that and double that reward,” Villanueva said. “I know you care about law enforcement. You expressed a very interesting statement about your perspective on race relations and on officer-involved shootings and the impact that it has on the African-American community.  “And I appreciated that,” he continued. “But likewise, we need to appreciate that respect for life goes across all professions.”
5. Speaking of Cali, the record heat forced Governor Newsom to ask for thermostats to be raised or in-home power to be turned off altogether to minimize the widespread brownouts.  You wonder what happens in a year or three when millions more battery operated cars will need recharging in the citizen’s garages.
6. Today is 49 days or exactly seven weeks till election day.  Do polls mean anything anymore?  If so, President Trump is doing better by 4% points with probable Jewish voters at this moment than how they exit polled in 2016.  He has the support of 30%.  It’s the highest since George Herbert Walker Bush in 1988 for a Republican.  The Jewish community has supported Democratic nominees every four years since Calvin Coolidge.  They are nothing if not very consistent.
7.  Turning to sports, if you missed it, 54-year-old golfer John Daly announced Sunday that he has bladder cancer.  He’s quite the optimist about his recovery, saying that it was identified early.  BBR identified early on that Daly was one of our staff’s favorite people.  He’s plenty flawed like all of us, but he owns who he is and rarely apologizes for it.  We often say the same about Charles Barkley.  They put the “real” in keeping it real.
8. “Caddyshack” turned 40 years old this summer. It’s abundantly quotable and features a cast of 1980s comedy titans including Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, and Rodney Dangerfield.  But Academy Award nominee Michael O’Keefe played the main character, Danny Noonan, a caddy at the fictional Bushwood Country Club.  Last week, O’Keefe wrote an open letter on Golf.com asking to be allowed to return to his caddying craft and be on a bag at Winged Foot this week.  O’Keefe got his wish Monday. He caddied for Danny Balin during practice rounds. O’Keefe even wore a Bushwood CC hat.
9. Here comes the Tom Brady “can’t play any more stories.”  One week does not a season make.  With no preseason games it’s hard with a new cast assembled to have live bullets coming at you in week one.  In our overreactive media world, who must fill 24 hours everyday, it’s what they do.  And they do it poorly.  Brady is definitely not who he was, but let’s give it a few weeks in Tampa before we are convinced his world is ending shall we?
10. Here’s more unsolicited advice.  A local respected NFL analyst noted that 12 of 14 teams that won through Sunday had the more mobile quarterback.  He went on to say that you cannot win in the NFL anymore without one.  Dropback passers are so yesterday.  Sure.  Like Brady’s missteps in week one, let’s let the season progress a bit before we head down every rabbit hole that can be written or spoken about.

You’ve been served.