Author: thependulumswings staff

The Pendulum Swings

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

The pendulum swings.  Always.

How far left or right will it go?  As divided as the country is it’s doubtful that it will stray very far.  But, it need not stray far to dramatically tip the balance of power.

A few states could lead to a few seats in the House, Senate, or the one in the Oval Office.  One party might even utter the word “mandate” by sun up on Wednesday.

The choice is yours—or it could be yours if the right combination of Wisconsin, Michigan,

Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, or New Mexico fall your way.

How does one party WIN? Or, stated differently, What’s Important Now.  The contrast between the parties is stark.

Do you want a bigger government or a smaller one?

Do you want more handouts given, or debt forgiven?  Or, less?  Or, none?

Do you think these handouts, disguised as Inflation Reduction Acts, first-time home buyer credits, etc. increase inflation?  How about interest rates?

Do you want a lot more debt, or a lot, lot more debt?

Do you want border control or a border that is out of control?

Do you support continued funding of the Ukrainian side of the two-year-old war with Russia?  Or, do you back a man who says he’ll have a ceasefire agreement done before he takes office?

Do you fully support Israel and denounce Hamas and other Iranian-backed terrorist actions?  Or do you like a candidate who runs a commercial in Michigan pro- Gaza/Palestine and another in Pennsylvania standing with the Jewish population?

Is the right to abortion, disguised as women’s healthcare, the deciding factor when you cast your vote?  The demolition of Roe v Wade returned the decision to the state level.  It did not eliminate the right.

Do you want outsiders like Tucker Carlson, Elon Musk, and RFK to have a hand in significantly reshaping and downsizing DC?  Or, do you want more and more bureaucrats doing more and more of the same?

Do you want gender reassignment surgery to be paid for by the government for military personnel as well as federal imprisoned criminals?

Do you want a convicted felon who’s tough on crime or a former California DA and AG who’s not?

Do you want a former president who lost the last election or a current VP who didn’t garner 1% of her party’s primary vote in 2020 or 2024 for very different reasons?

Do you want someone who lost to Joe Biden or one who helped hide a lost Joe Biden?

Do you want someone whose words infuriate many or one who uses too many words?

Do you want someone who leads on policy decisions or one who leans on others to define policy?

Do you want the devil you know or the chameleon you don’t?

Is this a major pivot point in our country’s history?  Yes.

The polls are tight.

Will we know by late tonight?

Probably not.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have You Heard the One…?

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

With the election just three weeks from today, united is not where we stand.

The real-time debt clock shows the nation roaring to 36 trillion bucks in the proverbial hole.

The 30-year mortgage interest rate sits at 7.25%.

The nation’s indifference to illegal border crossings is causing harm from coast to coast to how we live and how safe we feel.

Israel, Palestine, surrogates for Iran, Ukraine, and Russia are playing ready, fire, aim.  China is itching to join the fray and Taiwan is squared up in the scope.

The Donald apparently won’t debate Kamala.  Either his camp feels comfortable with where they are, or they didn’t like his performance six weeks ago.

Kamala is venturing into the enemy’s den.  She’ll answer (insert word salad) FOX Nightly News host Bret Baier’s questions tomorrow night.  Either her camp feels uncomfortable with polling, or they liked her performance on the tele recently.

But the most important debate is whether or not Tim Walz is or is not a hunter and was or wasn’t a gun owner.  Did you see him and a few of his friends working the field for pheasants over the weekend?

It started with him not being able to load his gun.  His hunting gear looked brand spanking new and matched his fellow hunters down to the sock color.  Hmm.

This wasn’t a photo op aimed at rural Midwestern males, was it?

He didn’t shoot anything, or anyone for that matter, which makes him way a way more qualified VP candidate than Dick Cheney.  Dick lodged a few pellets in a then-78-year-old Texas attorney Harry Whittington’s jowls on a quail hunt.

The buckshot stops here!

Dan Quayle, thankfully, never shot a gun.  He did, however, take dead aim at his foot a time or nine.

And, the best news of all is that Donald J Trump hasn’t been shot at in weeks.

He needs to give the race his best shot with three weeks to go.  And what is he doing?  He’s holding a rally in Madison Square Garden in twelve days.

For what?

Ego we assume.  Does anyone on his team think he has a chance (not a shot) to pull NY’s 28 electoral college votes?

Maybe the million his campaign will drop for the joint will pay for itself in the coverage of it.  Maybe, it won’t.

Thankfully, we assume Kamala, who told us last week that she’s a proud gun owner, will pass through the metal detector on her way into the Fox News Building.

The Dems incessant plea for gun control may not be such a bad idea.  Look at how well it works in Chicago.

Psst.  Have you heard the one about what a pheasant, a Dick, a jowl, a Quayle, an egomaniac, and a Fox interview have in common?

They’re all irrelevant to the bigger picture.

Something’s burning and it isn’t Rome.

Dirty or Dry?

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Four years ago Joe Biden said he was running for office because we were in a battle for the soul of our nation.

Shortly after he took office he instructed his VP, Kamala Harris, as Border Czar to get to the root cause of the border “problem.”

And four years later we have 15 million new souls illegally in our nation.  Biden was polling so well that he stepped away (was forced out) from his reelection campaign.

Enter the next anointed one.  Kamala said she is running to save our nation’s democracy.

She’s qualified based on the job she did at the border one would guess.  Or not.

As VP she’s recently intimately involved in federal disaster relief efforts.  Earlier this week she attempted to call Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to offer her and the nation’s assistance with fast approaching Hurricane Milton.  One problem.  Ron said she didn’t call this time or for past hurricanes either.

Right in the middle of football season, hurricanes became a political football.  Where’s FEMA?  North Carolina wants to know.  They’re there said Team Kamala.

Hurricanes hitting Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, and Florida twice might be god’s way of cleansing those heathen red states.  You know them as the ones who oppose abortions and love guns.

Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted that our government was steering those storms.  Life was simpler when we only thought that the Russians were seeding our clouds.

That sounds as preposterous as the accusation by Hillary that Trump staffers were meeting with the Russians to interfere with our elections when Team Hillary was. Or does it?

Cue the climate change zealots.  These severe storms are further proof that climate change is upon us.  It’s not proof.  They’re more intense.  Except, they’re not.  They are more frequent.   Except, they’re not.

They’ve been around longer than any trees we’ve cut down to put up windmills that need generators to turn them when the wind doesn’t blow.  Trees take away CO2 so now we’re building CO2 capture facilities.  But we digress.

In the early fall in the south, two things are a given- football and hurricanes.

Climate change would be a hurricane in Wisconsin in February.

Hurricanes even have a dry side and a dirty side much like how martinis can be made.  Kamala might like them after all.

Hopefully, God spared all of those souls in Tampa and Orlando overnight.

Politics aside, they must vote soon to ensure we save our democracy.

Kamala said so.

 

VP Hannibal Lecture

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Tuesday night it was JD Vance squaring off against Tim Walz.  Did you watch the possible VPs debate?

It’s debatable as to who won.

Ask most any Republican and they’ll go on camera, tweet, or tell you that it was JD Vance and it wasn’t close.  Ask almost any Democrat and they’ll explain in similar fashion that it was Coach Tim Walz and it wasn’t close.

These are the divided days that look at things in very different ways.

Perhaps most importantly did this debate sway many or even any undecided/independent voters in the few battleground states that inevitably will decide who the next President of the United States will be?

We’d venture a guess that lands between not likely and doubtful.  Why, you may ask.

When was the last time, if any time, that you voted for someone for the highest office in the land because of who their choice was for the second highest office in the land?

In 1861 Hannibal Hamlin served under Abe Lincoln.  He would have made a fine professor.  Hannibal Lecture.

In 1969 Richard Nixon had a clown named Spiro T Agnew as his right-hand man.  After months of maintaining his innocence, Agnew pleaded no contest to a single felony tax evasion charge and resigned from office.

Nixon was so damaged by his choice that he selected Gerald Ford as his replacement.  And, with a little help from perusing Watergate, he was reelected in 1972.  Maybe he was not so damaged. Nixon resigned from office also, reminding us on the way, “I am not a crook!”

Who could forget Walter Mondale?  Everyone.

Take J Danforth Quayle.  Please.  Who knew that he had trouble spelling potato?  Or is it “potatoe?”  George Herbert Walker Bush didn’t.

Quayle would have had no shot in 2020.  Biden vowed to pick a woman for VP and a black woman for Justice of the Supreme Court if he were elected.  How do you spell DEI?

Voila.  There was/is VP and Border Czar Kamala Harris.  Along the way, Biden’s diminished capacity was evident in 2020 unless you didn’t want to see it.

What’s the history lesson?

America votes for the first name on the ballot, not the accompanying one.

Speaking of debates, will Trump go another round with Harris?  It seems like she is desirous and he is hesitant.  Is that because the polls show America favors him?  Or, is it because she won debate number one in the eyes of the watching public and he wants no part of round two?

This likely will come down to never-Trumpers, abortion enthusiasts, and J6 disdain vs. the economy, border, and threat of WWIII.

JD and Coach won’t have another go.

America doesn’t have enough interest.

 

 

 

Mass Mess

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

At multiple recent campaign stops Kamala Harris has appealed to the crowd, ” They have pledged to carry out the largest deportation, a mass deportation, in American history.  Imagine what that would look like and what that would be.”

Predictably her supporters clap and wave signs.  If you’re tolerant of illegal immigration you’re probably against deportation.

Donald Trump and his zealots see it quite differently.  He used the exact video of Kamala’s anti-deportation callout and added his name and approval at the end.   In other words, I am Donald J. Trump and I hope you not only imagine it but get to see it.

What would it look like? Millions of people and the government would be involved, so imagine a yuge mess.

It would look a lot like the unfettered illegal immigration of the last four years- a great big mess.

Eleven million (Trump says, “more, some would say many more, many many more”) aren’t going find the backpack they dropped walking in, pick it up, and head south.

Mexico let them walk out, but they aren’t going to let them walk back in.   Who would want the mess we’ve endured?  Not Mexico.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles anyone?

Here’s a one-way ticket back to your country of origin.  We hope you enjoyed your stay on our dime, here’s another to fly back from whence you came.

JD Vance says we should take little bites out of deportation.  He’d start with any who have criminal records.  He’d move on to organized gangs, etc.

Make no mistake about it, the Border Czar has no plan to deport any just like she had no plan to prevent any from walking in.

Election season is here so now she wants to solve the border problem.  The polls tell her so.  Could someone ask her what she thinks the problem is at the border?  Would she be dumb enough to indict herself?  Maybe.

And, the irony of all ironies is her campaign is hooting and hollering about border crossings being down 55% last month, to the lowest since she took office.

Could it be that everyone who wants in is?   Did we make our bed and now get to lie in it?

Mass deportation likely isn’t the realistic answer any more than our  “no border” border policy of the last four years.  Two wrongs don’t make a right even if the right says so.

Perhaps there is a sensible solution that strikes some balance with who is here and gets to stay or go.

Future clarity is needed on who and how many will come here.  This country isn’t in the same place as in 1492 when Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

We have laws.  Or, we did.

 

Shooting Blanks

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

So, who won the debate?

Stated differently, who accomplished what they set out to do.   And, was the performance good enough to sway the few voters still undecided in key battleground states?

For Trump, the objective was to expose Harris for what she is, not the candidate “for change” she purports to be.  For Harris, the objective was to show that she was capable of holding the highest office in the land and to goad Trump into being Trump.  For ABC, owned by liberal Disney, the objective was to help Harris.

The BBR scorecard has it Trump 0, Harris won, ABC 4.

Trump unevenly attempted to attach Harris to her recent Biden/Harris past.  The economy, the border, and the world ablaze were ripe for the picking.  His message didn’t pin the mess on her.

He took the bait each time she tossed it.  “You have small crowds at your rally and they leave early.”  “We have big crowds, great crowds.  Some say the biggest crowds ever. They don’t leave early.”   Who cares?  Trump’s ego cares.  And, it always gets in the way.

His MAGA platform from 2016 has changed very little.  On substance, that might be fine.  On style, it seems tired and more importantly, it doesn’t bring fence-sitters to the right.

“I had the greatest economy some say ever.  Most say ever.  Putin wouldn’t invade if I were in office.  The war will be over if I’m elected before I take office.”

I.  I.  I.  Ego. Ego.  Ego.

People want to see a better tomorrow for themselves not argue about the past.  Tell us how you’d end the war.

Don’t you have a plan to enlist influential business leaders to help you shrink government?  Not a peep last night.

Trump’s wandering unscripted diatribes are old.

Harris is scripted because she’s an actress playing a role.  Low-information voters like style.

She’s played many to get here because she has no defined principles.  She’s for or against defunding the police.  She’s for or against gun confiscation.  She practically eliminated the border and now she’s for a tougher border.

She’ll tackle inflation on her first day in office.  She’s in office now.

If her presidential bid fails she can pocket some big coin doing a commercial next summer for flip-flops.

Her Opportunity Economic Plan is one big government giveaway.   Expand child credits.  Give first-time homebuyers down payment money.  Forgive the student’s debt and hand it to you.  Low-information voters like handouts.

ABC did its part to try to move the needle left.  They repeatedly “fact-checked” Trump even if he spoke factually.  CNN counted four times.  They didn’t fact-check Harris once even if she didn’t speak factually.

There was not a single question about the 35 trillion dollar debt.  Ms. Harris, how do you plan to pay for all of this?

Did this debate matter?  It’s doubtful that Trump gained any undecided nor took any from Harris.  Surely some undecided folks decided to move Harris’ way.

How many?  Is it enough to push her over the top?

Eight weeks ago, thank goodness, Trump dodged a bullet.

Last night he shot blanks.

There are eight weeks to go.

 

 

 

 

 

Yes and Yes

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Here are two simple questions, but they come with one qualifying request.  The request is to put politics aside to answer them.

Question one: Do you believe freedom of speech is one of our most important rights?

Question two: Do you prefer a smaller but more efficient government than we have today?

Would anyone answer “no” to either question?

We strongly suspect that Elon Musk would answer with a loud “YES” to both. He’s at the center of both questions as the 2024 presidential election draws near.

Once upon a time, Musk was loved by the left.  Then he bought Twitter.  Now he’s not loved so much.

What happened?  What happened goes to the very core of both questions above.

Musk quickly ended the imbalance of censorship from the left on Twitter and in the process unwound the one-way definitions of disinformation, misinformation, and hate speech.

Ex-employees of the company now known as X

Along the way he kept asking employees at Twitter what they did for the company.  What is your job?  Incorrect was the answer “Umm.”

He quickly slashed a ton of dead weight on the payroll.  The social media platform now has only 1,500 employees, down from the 8,000 employed at the time of the acquisition.

Late last week he was drawn even nearer to the crux of the questions.

VP and Prez want-to-be Kamala Harris told CNN’s Jake Tapper that “he has lost his privileges and it should be taken down.  You can’t have one rule for Twitter and another for Facebook.  These social sites have to understand their power.  They are directly speaking to millions and millions of people without any oversight and regulation and that has to stop.”

Isn’t freedom of speech a right, not a privilege?  Who has oversight and regulates what Kamala says to millions and millions?  Maybe she doesn’t like Musk’s resistance to conform to government-approved narratives?

Marc Zuckerberg admitted last week that he wished that Facebook would have more overtly pushed back on the Biden/Harris administration’s multiple requests for FB to censor jokes or dissents to be published about the government’s position on Covid 19 back in 2021.  Well well.

Former President Trump is reportedly eyeing a plan to involve prominent business executives, including Elon, in auditing federal agencies to identify programs to cut.

Elon’s blue checkmark tweet response was,  “I can’t wait.  There is a lot of waste and needless regulation government that needs to go.”

Back up the Waste Management trucks to DC and start managing the waste.

Real free speech and real government cuts.

New Texas resident Elon Musk says “Giddyup!”

 

 

 

Kamala and Coach-Primetime

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Two months away from the general election and one month after she became the presumptive nominee, Kamala Harris will sit down tomorrow afternoon for an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash.

You won’t be able to see Harris’ first interview until primetime.  Why?  It will be prerecorded.  Why prerecorded?  It gives CNN the time to gussie up the interview to put them and Harris in the best light should they choose.  They’ll choose.

Coach Time Walz will be at Kamala’s side.  Coach doesn’t coach anymore but he’s turned into a hell of a cheerleader.

Is it odd that they are both sitting down to interview?  Yes.   Handlers must think it better to ham and egg it than for Harris to go it alone and wind up with egg on her face.

Hopefully, we get to know more about the Democratic candidate.

In 2020 she left the stage so soon.  That happens when you are polling less than 1% right before Iowa, the first primary.

That was after she accused Biden of being a racist by saying he wasn’t a racist.  “Not a joke,” as Joe would say.  And that was before Biden selected her to be his VP mate, racism claims be damned.

Since then she’s been very busy with Venn diagrams, solving the root causes of illegal immigration, and covering up Biden’s failing physical and mental health.

But don’t we know a lot about her already?  Of course, we do.

She was tough on marijuana criminals while Cali’s Attorney General.  She also said she smoked dope in college listening to music that wasn’t yet written.

She assisted in getting Minnesota’s arrested protesters bail money.  And, she supported defunding the police which she now says she didn’t support.

She also supported Medicare for All and banning fracking — proposals aides say she now is against.  Times are changing.

In February 2020, Harris wrote on Facebook that “Trump’s border wall is a complete waste of taxpayer money and won’t make us any safer.”  In her nomination acceptance speech last week she said that she would sign a bipartisan bill if elected that would refund building some more of that wall.

A month after Trump proposed no federal taxes on tips so did chameleon Kamala.  Or is it “Khamaleon” for short?

Her “rizz,” that’s charisma for all you Boomers, and her joy can only take one so far when substance, or lack thereof, might get in the way.

The wheels on the EV campaign bus have been churning hard to remake her into something other than the furthest left-leaning candidate in this country’s history.

Would Dana get bashed if she advanced the questions to Harris?  Only Donna Brazile knows.

If you want to watch the curated interview find CNN on your TV guide or stop by any airport terminal.

 

 

 

 

Swing and a Miss

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Joe Biden closed the first night of the Democratic National Convention late Monday evening, or early Tuesday morning on the East Coast.  The Dems didn’t want him to be the starter with all the bright lights and eyes focused on him.  Say it ain’t so, Joe!

It would be even worse if he were a Major League Baseball pitcher.  MLB remembers when starters used to be stars and wants to make them great again.

How do they propose to do that?  They want anyone who starts on the mound to pitch six or more complete innings.

The Man Himself-Tommy John.   Elbow not included.

Why wouldn’t they trial balloon that idea out loud during a season that has seen more pitchers shut down for surgery than ever?  MLB leadership has a fever again.  Don’t catch it.

Tommy John on line two.

You’d think they have as much chance to institute this rule as Joe Biden has of getting reelected right about now.

But it is the MLB.   Remember, the designated hitter rule was adopted by the American League in 1973 and by the National League in 2022.  In other words, it was so good in the AL that it only took 49 years to implement in the NL.

Joe Biden was but a freshman Senator in 1973 at the tender age of 29.  Just half a century later he was President and the NL had its DH.

Keep hope alive.

Ever diligent to prevent injuries or arm fatigue, MLB would of course make a few exceptions to the mandatory six innings.  An injury would be acceptable to take out the starter.  If he reached a hundred or more pitches he could exit too.   Finally, if the starter gave up four or more earned runs he could shower early.

Thoughtful.  It’s thoughtful except a great source tells BBR that the game has changed greatly with GMs green lighting managers to instruct starters to empty their tank early and often and let the next man up pick up the ball. Why force a hundred pitches or six innings?

Should MLB senior management have term limits?  Should US congressmen?  Does a Cub play in Wrigley Field?

Control.  The pitch clock is working so well, ailing arms aside, what next?  Let’s eliminate creativity in getting the other team out.   Tampa Bay pitching backward says hello.

We need stars and we need them now.  Take Kamala for example.  Please take Kamala.

Soon they’ll decide to juice the ball with more elixer than Biden ever got before any speech.  Homeruns will be back in style.

They’ll call it “Ballz over Walz,” or something like that.

Keep pitching.  Like the DNC, someone late into the evening might still be watching.

The six-inning starter idea is a swing and a miss and should not see the light of day.

What’s weird, not like JD Vance weird, is that Joe Biden’s last pitch was almost in the light of day.

 

Want a Tip? Reduce Spending.

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which does a lot of things but reducing inflation is not one of them, provided the IRS with an additional 80 billion dollars to hunt down tax cheats.  With the loose change, the IRS planned to hire up to 88 thousand additional agents.

They said they were going after the rich folks.  But, it also gave the green light to tighten the efforts against workers who primarily earn their income from tips.

The bill passed when Vice President Kamala Harris voted “yay” to break the 50-50 Senate deadlock and was signed into law in August of 2022.

The bloated IRS, chasing tip earners, reminds us of a lion who runs down a field mouse, a tasty treat.  The problem with doing so is that he burns more calories than the consumption of the mouse provides.  But, we digress.

Fast forward to the 2024 campaign for President.  A month ago, former President Donald Trump announced that he would eliminate taxes on tips if he were reelected.  Nevada’s casino industry cheered.

Last week, VP Harris addressed a Nevada rally that numbered in the tens of thousands or tens of hundreds depending on how much or little AI was involved.  Surprise, surprise.  She announced that she would eliminate taxes on tips if she gets elected.  Nevada’s casino industry cheered.

That is a direct reversal of the Act she voted for just two years ago.  This wouldn’t be about winning the swing state, would it?

Does that make her a flip-flopping copycat?  It’s a rare combo.

Take a politician at their word at your peril.  But, one of them will take the Oval Office.   Plenty of bartenders, waitresses, and blackjack dealers will be happy.

But, will it cause plenty of IRS workers to lose their job?  After all, you won’t need to chase the underreported tips of those chasing tips for a living.

It won’t.

The government never “cuts” anything. They only throw the word around like a $5 casino chip.

It’s like the Act.  Spending doesn’t reduce inflation.

In short, Congress decided it had a collection problem. Then it funded a “solution.”  Now the two candidates don’t think it’s a problem.  And, when/if it’s repealed there won’t be a single government job cut from those added.  Has there ever?

The real problem is spending.  But cutting spending doesn’t win votes, it only loses elections.

That’s why we can’t talk about that.