Author: thependulumswings staff

What’s in a Name?

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

It’s business as usual in Washington DC.  Except, unfortunately, it’s not business it’s government.

Falling one “yea” shy for over a year on the bloated Build Back Better boondoggle, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer negotiated directly with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va to no longer fall one vote shy.

So, without further adieu and with inflation running at a half-a-century high, the Senate will use a back door tactic to get around filibustering and present to you the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

What’s in a name?  “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet,” wrote William Shakespeare.

In this instance that which we call yet another spending bill would smell just as rotten to those who are willing to read all about it.  You see, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 has nothing whatsoever to do with combating the pain you feel at the grocery store or the gas station.

It’s the third wild spending bill in 18 months as the country stands at $30 trillion in debt and counting geometrically.  We printed money, gave it away, and devalued the dollar making us chase products and services with more dollars.  That’s inflation.

Rather than risking more inflation with trillions in new spending, this bill will cut the inflation taxes Americans are paying, lower the cost of health insurance and prescription drugs, and ensure our country invests in energy security and climate change solutions,” Manchin said.

One, someone needs to stick a microphone under Manchin’s chin and ask what “inflation taxes” mean.

Two, the unaffordable Affordable Care Act just got more expensive for those who pay for it.

Three, it’s a slimmed-down version of the Green New Deal, but it is by no means slim unto itself.   At least the summer heat wave will go away, won’t it?

But wait, this comes with a corporate tax increase and a minimum corporate tax as well.  Doesn’t that make it a pay-for-itself bill?

“It will ensure that the biggest corporations and the wealthiest few pay their fair share,” Pelosi said in a letter to Democratic lawmakers.  Can someone define “fair share for us?”  Tax laws are tax laws. Fair is in the eye of the beholder, period.

So, we just increased taxes on businesses.  Do you know how businesses will offset those increased tax burdens?  They’ll increase their prices to maintain their bottom lines.  That means you pay more.

The Inflation Reduction Act will cause more inflation.  What’s in a name?

It doesn’t sound so rosy anymore, does it?

Didn’t Romeo and Juliet have a tragic ending?

Ten Piece Nuggets- Random

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

It’s been a minute.

  1. Charles Barkley once said, “poor people have been voting Democrat for over 50 years and they’re still poor.”  Inflation hits all, but it hits the lower income tier hardest.  November midterms are about 100 days away.  It’s also said people vote with their wallets, or how they feel financially.   We will see.
  2. Speaking of the economy, some economists believe that we are already in a recession.   But what is a recession?  On WH.gov, the official White House website page it seems the traditional definition two consecutive quarters of falling real GDP) is getting a whitewash.  We quote, “That is neither the official definition nor the way economists evaluate the state of the business cycle.”  Changing times.  It goes on, “it is unlikely that the decline in the first quarter of 2022 if followed up by a second-quarter similar result indicates a recession.”  Is someone trying to move the goal posts?
  3. Dozens of incoming University of Michigan Medical School students walked out of a pro-life keynote speaker’s address, after a previous petition to get the speaker removed failed.  Students petitioned the school weeks prior to remove Dr. Kristin Collier as the keynote speaker over her support for the unborn.  Why did they show up to begin with?  Attention seekers?  How many want to become a Pediatrician?  Free speech anyone?
  4. If you travel to Mexico these days you need not wear a mask on the plane nor into the country throughout the airport including customs.  But when you depart when entering their version of TSA and until you board you do.  Makes sense?  But wait, there’s more.  Signs and announcements throughout the Aeropuerto remind you to socially distance by maintaining a space of five feet minimally.  We guess with inflation being so bad that five feet is the new six feet.
  5.  When you head through the security another difference or two becomes obvious.  The x-ray machines are the old ones, not the full-body scan ones.  Also, you need not remove your shoes.  Shoe bombs aren’t a threat exiting Mexico, just entering we guess.
  6.  Speaking of Covid, as you know fully vaxxed and fully boosted President Joe Biden tested positive late last week.  But, because tennis great Novak Djokovic isn’t vaccinated he cannot enter the US to defend his 2021 US Open title.  Last year no covid shot was necessary to compete.  This year it is.  Do the nuts have the keys to the insane asylum?
  7. Speaking of Covid, can we please, please, please stop calling the shots “vaccinations?”  Vaccinations provide immunity.  These shots that are making Pfizer and Moderna lots of money don’t provide immunity.  The only people that think that they do are the ones you see driving alone in their car with a mask on.
  8. The chief of the World Health Organization General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus isn’t monkeying around.  He said the expanding monkeypox outbreak in more than 70 countries is an “extraordinary” situation that now qualifies as a global emergency.  It’s a declaration that will spur further investment in treating the once-rare disease and worsen the scramble for scarce vaccines.   Pfizer’s ears just perked up.
  9.  Climate change became a national emergency last week Joe Biden told us.  Except, he didn’t officially declare it a national emergency.  Maybe someone can explain why.  NBC’s Meet the Depressed trotted out good old Al Gore yesterday to help the “climate activists” further scold the “climate deniers.”   Gore said that time is running out or may have already run out.  Which is it?  Hard to tell.  Of course, he said way back in the ’80s that the year 2000 was the turning point.  Is somebody trying to move the goalposts again?
  10. If you like baseball, you have to like the comeback from Tommy John surgery that Justin Verlander is having.  He’s 39 years old and hadn’t pitched in two full seasons.  He sports a gaudy 13-3 won/loss record with a razor-sharp 1.86 ERA this year.  In his last five starts, he’s 5-0 with a paltry 0.59 ERA.  And on Saturday in a high leverage seventh inning v the Mariners his 103rd and final pitch hit 100 mph to get out of a jam and secure the win.  He said that he wants to pitch until he’s 45.  Why not?

You’ve been served.

 

Boom Booms Life Lessons #4

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

When we checked in on Boom Booms Life Lessons #2 we learned of his early departures and late returns six days a week to and from his workplace.  We also mentioned the Saturday yard work after that, and house repair after that as needed.  Well, it didn’t stop there actually.

On a couple of weeknights each week he finished dinner and headed to our spare bedroom that housed his desk, his adding machine, my mother’s exercise bike, and most of all an undersized pool table.  Yes, it was crowded.  He needed to do some “book work” he said.  He struck the adding machine keys so quickly that it was not possible to follow.

His one and only son loved playing pool (competition and geometry combined is a tasty combo) and asked for him to”crack em” almost every night that his own homework didn’t get in the way.  Boom Boom would finish his book work first.  Always.  He expressed it as follows.  Always.

“Work before play son, work before play!“

Once the heat generated by his fast fingers on his adding machine cooled, and his pencil entered its last numbers in the ledger, it was time for a game or three of 8 ball, or 9 ball, or…

“Let’s play one more game Dad.”

“Sleep before school son.  Sleep before school!”

And with that, we would leave the spare room and turn out the lights.

If you tend to put the need last to enjoy the want first, try the reverse.  The satisfaction of a job well done first leads to greater joy in the leisurely pursuit of your choice later.

The sound of the crank on the adding machine still echoes.  So does “Work before…………”

 

 

Boom Boom’s Life Lessons #2

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Born into a family with a strong work ethic, Boom Boom learned quickly that working hard didn’t guarantee success, but it went a long way towards providing warm meals and a roof over one’s head.   At 12 years of age The Great Depression brutally started.  At 22 years of age, The Great Depression mercifully ended.  It left a lasting, yet positive mark on him.

He worked for the same company for over 32 years.  His “white-collar” management job started early for him.  He was gone every morning by 6:30 AM for his 15-minute commute.  He rarely returned prior to 6:30 PM.  He worked every Saturday too.  He left by 7:00 AM and returned around noon.  He chose to work on Saturday.  It was far from mandatory.  Then, he worked in the yard meticulously trimming, mowing, or fixing what might be wrong with the house till near dark every Saturday evening.

Boom Boom said it often, “no one can outwork or outthink you.”   “You can work as hard as you want as long as you want.  And, you may not be smarter than some others, but you can think longer and harder if you choose.”

No one outworked or outthought Boom Boom.  Perhaps no one can outwork or out-think you.

Viva la Mexico

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

BBR is headed south to the Yucatan Penisula in Mexico this morning.  We’ll return on July 22nd.

We’ve scheduled a couple of best of Boom Boom’s Life Lessons to tide you over till then.  They’re timeless, quick, and thought-provoking reads for you.  Enjoy.

One of our staff members swore the country off over 18 years ago due to comfort and safety reasons.

We’ll give it one more go.

Till then, stay cool.

Over Eight Easily in the Big Easy

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

The average gambler is always amazed at how close Vegas comes to getting betting lines so close to real outcomes. But, the reality is that they get them  wrong as well.

The smart money, as they say, recognizes the miss before the game/season.  The rest of us bet either side, mostly on emotion, and Vegas gets the juice. Lines are made to evoke that collective response.  Vegas always gets the juice.

This brings us to season-long NFL wins bets.  We’ll have three (maybe four) for you in the next month or so.  Today is our first.

The New Orleans Saints’ win total in Vegas is 8.  It was 7 1/2 when it rolled out in March.

In the last five seasons only the Kansas City Chiefs have more wins than NOLA by a count of 55-53.

So, what’s changed?  Drew Brees (in 2021) and Sean Payton(now) are no longer.  Those are two BIG changes.

But another thing changed last year.  The NFL went to a 17-game schedule.  Therefore, Vegas thinks that the Saints will have a losing record in 2022.

BBR feels strongly otherwise.  Below are a litany of reasons.

  1.  Dennis Allen is now head coach.  He’ll call the in-game defense just as he has for the last six seasons.  He’s a steady and heady guy.
  2.  And the defense was very good the last two seasons.  We expect it to be even better. Two first-round picks (Payton Turner and Marcus Davenport) missed all or a big portion of the season.
  3. The defense has a chance to be elite this year.  Cam Jordan and DeMario Davis are true leaders.  The secondary might be the deepest in the NFL.  It added Tyrann Matthieu as well.
  4. Jameus Winston must 1) stay healthy, and 2) have a strong season as one expects of a former first pick of the first-round guy.  The constant change of personnel and coordinators in his NFL life combined with his immaturity has held him back.He’s saying and doing all of the right things this offseason.  He was 5-2 as the starter last year with only two picks before the season-ending injury.
  5. He’ll have weapons.  The team has positively transformed its weak wide receiver group.  In this one off-season, Marquez Calloway drops from the #1 wideout, which he never was, to a #4 which he’s more than capable of succeeding as.   Michael Thomas returns.  They drafted Chris Olave in round one.  They signed FA Javis Landry for the slot.  A weakness became a strength.
  6. Laugh all that you want, but N.O. signed a very capable backup should Winston face plant.  Andy Dalton became a punching bag in Cincinnati.  But, he’s a nine-year starter and an 11-year veteran in this league for a reason.  Quick, name two legit weapons he had while a Bengal.  He’s thrown for over 35k NFL yards.  If he wasn’t good he’d be long gone by now.
  7. The Saints’ special teams rank in the top 10 in most categories.  They put an emphasis on it.  Will Lutz is back to health and kicking this fall.  The team missed seven extra points and eight field goals in his absence.
  8. The law of averages says that this team will be healthier than last year.  Four QB’s started and 66 players started one game or more in all.  Sixty-six!  66!  The injury bug landed in The Crescent City and stayed there all of the fall.  Covid visited too.
  9. The division should provide 4 wins at a minimum.  Stated simply, Carolina is weak.  Atlanta is awful.  And the Saints have the Buccaneers’ number.  They’ve beaten them in the last four regular-season (Brady-led) games.
  10. Take those four and you need five more to cash.  So, can the black and gold go 5-6 against the rest of the schedule?  We think so and then some.  Watch for Alvin Kamara’s pending suspension though.  Courts move slowly.  He might not be suspended until late in the season, or even 2023.   When announced, how many and when the games are played is key.

Take the Saints over eight wins.  We see their record as 10-7 or better at the finish line.

If You Fall Off of a Horse

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

During one of the Democratic Party’s nomination debates, then-candidate and now President, braggadocious Joe Biden claimed that he was the one that Vladimir Putin wanted nothing to do with.  “I’ve stood toe to toe with him and looked him in the eye,” he said, or words similarly intended, but a bit garbled.

He also told us that he had a plan to combat the coronavirus while the sitting president did not.   Though for better or worse, Trump’s Operation Warp Speed was full speed ahead by the fourth quarter of 2020.

Soon enough thereafter, also for better or worse, 81 million votes were counted for Joe.  “The most ever,” we’ve been told.

Fast forward to today, 18 months after he took office, and take a look around.

Shaking in his boots, Putin invaded Ukraine right away.  Biden has sent well over $40 billion in aid and weapons as he continues to stand toe to toe with Putin. Then, in a late Friday news dump, the Biden administration said that it will send another $400 million in military equipment to Ukraine, including four more advanced rocket systems.

What’s the end game?  “I don’t know how it’s going to end, but it will not end with a Russian defeat of Ukraine in Ukraine,” Biden said last week.  Eye to eye, this guy is.

Just wait till we get the bill to build Ukraine back better.

On the virus front, it seems like the man with the plan has seen the plan go awry.  He’s weirdly whispered into the mic a few dozen times, though not recently, “Get vaccinated, get boosted.  Now!”

We wonder if it works, why do we need to keep taking it?  If it doesn’t, why do we need to keep taking it?

Apparently, mothers (you can still use that word in the safe space of BBR) are questioning it as well.  The approved vax for 6-month to 5-year-olds has plenty of supply and little demand, unlike baby formula.

Will we have another variant creep into our lives before the midterms?

Old Joe swears that he’s running for reelection in 2024.  Given the above and throwing in Afghanistan, Wall St, and crime he has a tough hill to climb.

An in-depth Civiqs poll now has Biden with a historic low 29% approval rating.  Only 63% of Democrats and 36% of Hispanics approve of the job he’s doing.  Artificial intelligence aside, getting back to 81 million is going to be a stretch.

But, never count the career politician out.

As the old saying goes if you fall off of a horse, you get right back on it.

It’s the same as if you fall off of a bike, you get right back on it.

Joe remembers the old saying.

He’s living the new one.

 

 

 

 

Island Getaway

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Oprah really knew how to capture an audience.  Way back on December 22, 2010, her spell may have reached its zenith when she shouted out to her live audience, “you get a car, and you get a car!  Everyone gets a car!”

Just about a decade later our president channeled that giving feeling as well.  President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan(ARP), a coronavirus relief package, in the Oval Office of the White House on March 11, 2021, in Washington.

It was a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package passed without one “yea” vote from the stingy Republicans.  The Democrats, fresh off of a Capitol and Oval Office sweep felt compelled to give back.

Not everyone in America got a car to help beat that pesky virus.  But, some institutions and good citizens got more, way more, after having to shove a Q-Tip halfway to some remote island.

Take the Oral History Association for example.  They received $825,000 in ARP funds for a grant-making project titled, “Diversifying Oral History Practice: A Fellowship Program for Under/Unemployed Oral Historians,” which provided eleven year-long fellowships of $60,000 each for oral historians “from communities that have been historically marginalized in the field,” such as “Indigenous peoples, people of color, people with disabilities, and working-class people.”

Are you wondering what exactly is an Oral Historian?  Let Google be your friend.  Oral historians document the past by preserving insights not found in printed sources. The skilled practitioner must remain impartial, listen, and stay in the background.  Got it?

One of the recipients of the 60k giveaway was Elizabeth “Beth” Castle, a “Shawnee-ancestored anti-racist educator.”  This inspired her to create “A Collaborative Oral History of the Fight Against Mineral and Uranium Mining in the Black Hills, the Origins of the Global Indigenous Movement, and the Ongoing Struggle to Protect the People who Protect Mother Earth.”

We kid you not.

Want another? And, another?

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) received $135 million from the plan and proceeded to hand out half of the handout.  The NEH awarded $50,000 in ARP funds to a nonprofit organization in the Northern Mariana Islands called 500 Sails for “reopening programs that teach Indigenous canoe-building and explore pre-colonial sea life.”

The NEH also helped the Science History Institute in Philadelphia.  They were awarded $359,097 by the NEH to create a “multiplatform project exploring the historical roots and persistent legacies of racism in American science and medicine.”

As inflation hit 8.6% in May some economists, including former Obama administration economic advisers, have blamed the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package for overheating the economy.

President Biden didn’t feel that way when he signed the bill.

“We need Congress to pass my American Rescue Plan,” the president said at the time. “Now, critics say my plan is too big, that it costs $1.9 trillion. So that’s too much. Well, let me ask them: What would they have me cut?  What would they have me leave out?”

Where are the Northern Mariana Islands anyway?

Here is a hint.

Five dollars per gallon of gas and a free car from Oprah can’t get you there.

And, the freebies should have been electric vehicles.

 

A Country Divided….

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

In the divided country that we live in does anything divide us more than our stances on abortion?

National elections come close.  To go to or not go to war might come even closer.  Might.

But, reproductive rights, formerly known as women’s wellness, formerly known as women’s healthcare, formerly known as pro-choice, formerly known as abortion is the greatest divider of us all.

A SCOTUS ruling in 1973 in Roe v. Wade effectively made abortions legal in all 50 states.  Almost 50 years later the SCOTUS majority opinion returned the decision on its legality to the individual states.

And the for abortion crowd roared its disapproval.  And, the for abortion crowd will continue to roar its collective throaty disapproval.

President Joe Biden said last week, “Roe is on the ballot come November.”  Unfortunately for Democrats, his job performance is also on the ballot come November.

The right to a peaceful protest is guaranteed by our First Amendment.  Protest away.  Elect who you want to help shape the future going forward.

What isn’t necessary are emotional train wreck-type people suggesting emotional train wrecks.

Take Maxine Waters, please.   We ask in our best Henny Youngman voice.

“You ain’t seen nothing yet. Women are going to control their bodies no matter how they try and stop [us]. The hell with the Supreme Court. We will defy them,” said the far-too-long in power Ms. Waters.  She continued, “Black women will be out in droves. We will be out by the thousands. We will be out by the millions. We’re going to make sure we fight for the right to control our own bodies.”

It took her about 20 seconds to suggest we ignore the Supreme Court and injected obvious racist overtones into the good fight.  She’s quite the leader.

A few pro-life centers got torched this weekend in the mostly peaceful protests.  A few more are sure to follow.

Former President (and some say current) Barrack Obama called the move an attack on “the essential freedoms of millions of Americans.”  He also famously said in 2008 that “elections have consequences.”  In 2016 America elected President Trump.  Trump nominated three new Justices.  You know the rest.

If you’re old enough or studied history before it was revised, you’ve seen a few laws and rulings fall in and out of favor.

Alcohol was once consumed freely until 1920, prohibited from then until 1933, and legal again thereafter.

The war on drugs has gone so well that we have hoisted the white flag and either legalized or decriminalized marijuana in most states.

Heck, if you read enough opinions you know that breast milk, raw eggs, mercury, and ivermectin are either good or bad for you depending on the decade the opinion is written and how the wind blows.

Oil and gas went from one of the main drivers of the industrialized and now advanced standard of living we have, to a nasty fossil fuel that’s going to end the world very soon.

Windmills are in.  Exxon is out.

Obama said climate change is a fact.  We cannot even debate its merits anymore.

The number of Justices on the Supreme Court changed six times before settling to the present total of nine in 1869.  Recently we wanted to stack it.  Now we want to abolish it.

Some women are so incensed that they are marching in Washington exclaiming that they are going to go on strike and abstain from sex because of this ruling.  Inadvertently, they brought logic into their emotional eruption.

Right about now we could use more logic in the country, inadvertent or not.

The only thing that is constant is change.

And, a lot can change in a quick 50 years.

 

 

 

 

 

Ten Piece Nuggets-Sports, Guns, Rants

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Ready?  Set?  Chew!

  1. When Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll spoke highly of quarterbacks Drew Lock and Geno Smith during this month’s mandatory minicamp, you knew it was on.  What’s that?  Let the Baker Mayfield to Seattle trade watch begin.
  2. Meanwhile, the speculation revolving around how long and when DeShaun Watson will be suspended intensifies.  Watson, through his attorney, has settled 20 of 24 civil suits.  Watson admits no wrongdoing.  He is shelling out about 100k per suit for each instance of doing nothing wrong.
  3. If, and it’s a big if, Watson got a year-long suspension it would be over two full years in 2023 since he put on pads for a real game.  Adam Schefter and Ian Rappoport both think the league will hit Watson with an all-of 2022 penalty.  Does Cleveland regret mortgaging their future for a guy without an immediate future?
  4.  Some years teams just have “it.”  The 2022 Yankees have “it.”  Sporting the best record by far in the major leagues, they overcame a 6-3 deficit last evening in the ninth to send the Houston Astros and their closer Ryan Pressley back to their Manhatten hotel as losers 7-6.  A late June game doesn’t mean much you say?  The Yankees thought otherwise.
  5. How hot are the Yankees?  They’re 52-18 for a 74.3 winning percentage.  That torrid pace extrapolates out to a 120-42 record.  What’s the record for the most regular-season wins in a year?  The 2001 Seattle Mariners won 116 and lost 46.
  6. Rob Gronkowski is retiring. Again.  “I will now be going back into my retirement home knowing I gave it everything I had, good or bad, every time I stepped out on the field,” Gronkowski wrote.  Tom Brady said the same about 6 months ago, then “unretired.”   “It would not surprise me if Tom Brady calls him during the season to come back and Rob answers the call,” Gronk’s agent Drew Rosenhaus told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.   Why sweat through training camp when the GOAT can drop a dime at any time during the cooler regular season?
  7.  There was a lot to keep up with on the gun ownership front yesterday.  The Senate passed a safety bill including red flag provisions and more extensive background checks.  Meanwhile, SCOTUS handed down a 6-3 opinion that New York’s regulations that made it difficult to obtain a license to carry a concealed handgun were unconstitutionally restrictive, and that it should be easier to obtain such a license.  So, it’s harder to get a gun, but it’s easier to open carry once you get one.
  8.  The SCOTUS ruling didn’t sit well with washed-up, bitter Keith Olbermann.  The far-left, ex-MSNBC host tweeted it has “become necessary to dissolve the Supreme Court of the United States. The first step is for a state the ‘court’ has now forced guns upon, to ignore this ruling. Great. You’re a court? Why and how do you think you can enforce your rulings? #IgnoreThe Court.”  Dissolve the Supreme Court?  Wasn’t the idea just months ago to pack it with more robes?
  9.  Once upon a time, the US was/is a rule of law country.  The rule of law is the political philosophy that all citizens and institutions within a country, state, or community are accountable to the same laws.  Olbermann’s immaturity at 63 years of age is not a good look.  If you don’t like stopping at stop signs, don’t.  Make sense?
  10.  Olbermann wasn’t flying solo. The ruling represents “a middle finger to New York,” Whoopi Goldberg said on ABC’s The View.  “Truly a disgraceful ruling,” Barbra Streisand tweeted.  Do you wonder if Whoppi and Barbara’s bodyguards are packing?  No need to wonder, you know they are.

Speaking of packing, get out of the heat and head north.  Bring your firearm if you wish.