Author: thependulumswings staff
It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over
Ten Piece Nuggets-NFL
We miss sports. A week from tonight the NFL gives us a respite from the drudgery as their annual draft begins. It’ll be different for sure in a virtual sort of way. If you’ve kept your social distance from the NFL recently we have Ten Piece NFL Nuggets for you. We are running low on vegetable oil at the virtual world headquarters, so we oven-fried them instead.
- No one has cleaned their house more this offseason than the Carolina Panthers. Incoming head coach Matt Ruhle, OC Joe Brady, and QB Teddy Bridgewater are a change to the look and culture of the franchise. BBR expects them to be bold and active in the draft as well.
- Yesterday they tore up the old and wrote the new contract for Christian McCaffery. It’s now an eye-popping 4 years for a total of 64 million Panther bucks. Joe Brady will get him isolated on a linebacker much the same way he did with Clyde Edwards Hellaire at LSU and how Sean Payton does with Alvin Kamara at New Orleans. Good luck stopping that.
- Last year the Panthers went 5-11 in Ron Rivera’s last year. It was also Cam Newton’s last year. In the upside-down NFL they could reverse that W-L record if the ball even gets snapped in 2020.
- Who knew a QB that started 25 games in college, threw 30 TD’s against 17 interceptions would become the greatest QB in NFL history? Bill Belichick, we guess. That was Tom Brady’s resume coming out of Michigan in 1999. Though even clairvoyant Bill B. would only invest a 6th round pick on him at the time. What did Mel Kiper think then? Kiper wrote, “He’s a straight dropback passer who stands tall in the pocket, doesn’t show nervous feet, and does a nice job working through his progressions.” That was pretty accurate, just like the QB himself. He had a fifth-round grade on him then. His complete writeup from 1999 is here.
- The Patriots likely will be looking around the draft for a QB. Jalen Hurts anyone? Belichick is great at using the best of what someone has and building around them as opposed to the opposite. No doubt he has looked around the league and seen what Westbrook, Mahomes, and Jackson have done. If the shoe fits?
- The annual head faking is going on as teams jockey for position in the draft to get to the QB they may really covet. Rumors abound and one has Justin Hebert (Oregon) now considered ahead of Tua Tagovailoa. Doubtful, but you never know. Miami has more draft pick capital than anyone in the draft and sits at #5. They could move the board or move around the board if they so chose.
- If/when Tua starts for the team that makes him their choice he’ll be the first lefty to do so since 2014. The last one? Michael Vick. Who was he playing for then? If you guessed the J-E-T-S you’re in midseason form in the offseason.
- Tom Brady’s new address in Tampa makes him an NFC South Division resident as well. Vegas has the win total for the Bucs season at nine. If New Orleans is the favorite to win the division again, and if the Panthers are poised to rebound it’ll be a tough division for sure. Could the Atlanta Falcons be in for a long season? There are only so many wins to go around when you play everyone twice inside the division.
- The Dirty Birds are but one of seven teams with new uniforms or tweaks of old ones for 2020. It’s always a good day to obsolete old unis and sell new ones if you are in the apparel biz. You can see a good bit of the changes or the hints at the yet to be revealed ones here.
- The draft will be very different this year for many reasons. Scouts haven’t had the pro workout days they covet. Individual interviews were kiboshed. Team management will not huddle in the war rooms. And, most of all, when Roger Goodell gets ready to announce the first pick of the entire draft he won’t be drowned out by the annual booing. Too bad.
Cincinnati you’re on the clock.
Way Back When
Way back when there were actually newspapers printed and delivered to your door yesterday’s presidential endorsement would have been front-page news. President 44 endorsed his former VP to become President 46 by beating sitting President 45. But 44,45, and 46 cannot find space “above the fold” when 19 is dominating the news.
COVID-19, Fauci, the WHO, and wet markets are getting cover to cover coverage. And, that makes sense.
Someone who doesn’t make much sense these days is getting plenty of cover from the enemy we cannot see. Because of it we can’t see that someone very often. Joe Biden is “hiden.” Actually most of us are.
We wonder. Why did Obama take so long to endorse old Joe? On one hand it likely makes a lot of sense to just let the process play out and endorse the last man or woman standing. Afterall all it’s not as much who, but it’s whoever faces Trump that needs the push.
But we wonder. A New York Times report reveals Obama’s decision may have been rooted in deep concerns about his former vice president’s chances of defeating President Donald Trump. “You don’t have to do this, Joe, you really don’t,” Obama told the 76-year-old before he jumped into the crowded Democrat primary field, reported the Times. The Times also revealed an anxious Obama huddled with Biden advisers last spring to ensure that the former vice president does not “embarrass himself” or “damage his legacy.” Donald Trump calls the NYT “failing” and “fake news” almost daily. Is the above fake news too? Or, does Barrack think Joe is failing?
Way back when (1992) a Biden staff member claims to have been sexually assaulted by Biden in the hallowed halls of Congress. She filed a report then she claims. That wouldn’t have been front-page news, shamefully, back then. But, if the hundreds of thousands of pages that detail Biden’s long, long government career are exposed, will Biden be as well? The day prior to his announcing that he was running for president he amended the University of Delaware agreement on these papers so that they would remain sealed until he finished “serving in the public arena.” Previously the agreement was that they were to be made public on 12/31/19. Hmm.
Eventually, man (and woman) will emerge from our caves when the all-clear signal is given. It’s like way back when a man had to wait for the dinosaurs to pass to safely hunt and gather. Joe remembers. He actually named a son Hunter. He’s been serving in the public arena that long. And, then the scrutiny will intensify. Joe tied to sexual misconduct allegations and Hunter tied to China (of all places) will entertain us for so many hours that we’ll forget that we watched Netflix for so many hours.
Meanwhile, we suspect that in Joe’s basement office there’s an old school wall calendar. Each morning one more “x” through one more square means one less day that the glare of the public light will shine on his candidacy.
And we suspect that is very good for Joe for now.
And we suspect that President 44 knows as much.
And we suspect that President 45 will be lurking just outside of the man cave.
Neither Snow nor Rain nor Bailout
Every time the sky is falling our trusty government steps in to help. It means well we assume. But, we should expect so much more. Shouldn’t we?
After 9/11 we got an entirely new department. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was born. And nearly 20 years later we have tables that look like they were purchased at Walmart that have tubs that look like they were purchased at Walmart lined up to take an image of our belongings. We have see-through machines that can see through our clothing as well. And we have TSA employees that would struggle to be hired at Walmart telling us what to do.
Every time they run a security test on their own various screening methods they fail miserably. Do you feel safer? Isn’t there a better way?
After the financial crisis, driven largely by dicey mortgage loans packaged as investments, we got the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Dodd-Frank reorganized the financial regulatory system, eliminating the Office of Thrift Supervision, assigning new responsibilities to existing agencies like the FDIC, and creating new agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The CFPB was charged with protecting consumers against abuses related to credit cards, mortgages, and other financial products. The act also created the Financial Stability Oversight Council and the Office of Financial Research to identify threats to the financial stability of the U.S., and gave the Federal Reserve new powers to regulate systemically important institutions. Did you get all of that?
The interest rates on credit cards remain 18% plus ten years later. How is that for protecting consumers against abuses? Apply for a mortgage and you’ll see at least three times the paperwork to get to the same spot. You sign and you owe. You owe and the bank collects. You default and they take your house.
Now here comes the enemy that we cannot see. And here comes the United States Postal Service(USPS) with their left hand on the mail and their right hand out. USPS has lost $69 billion over the past 11 fiscal years. USPS’s total unfunded liabilities and debt ($143 billion at the end of the fiscal year 2018) have grown to double its annual revenue.
“The Postal Service is in need of urgent help as a direct result of the coronavirus crisis. Based on a number of briefings and warnings this week about a critical fall-off in the mail across the country, it has become clear that the Postal Service will not survive the summer without immediate help from Congress and the White House,” House Oversight and Reform Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) said.
So, what happened? Trump threatened to veto the CARES Act if it included USPS bailout money. Instead, the government granted them a $10 billion loan. Nevermind that the USPS has failed on numerous occasions in the last several years to repay a nickel of it’s current $13 billion U.S. government loan.
So should we expect so much more from the government? Or in this instance should we expect so much less? The virus is only yet another symptom of the illness that plagues the post office. Al Gore’s internet created multiple avenues to reach consumers that used to get the solicitations in the mail. Magazines, catalogs, and newspapers are more virtual than printed. Bills? Try online banking, please. What’s left that Amazon Prime, FedEx, UPS, or countless other delivery services can’t handle?
At a minimum can the USPS deliver three times a week vs. the current six? If your “revenues” are cut in half why not cut your expenses in half? If your mail comes to a box versus to your house, how often do you go get it anyway?
Why not? If the government continues to bail out a very tired business model is “why not.”
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” Nor a lack of government funding.
Just this one time, when the sky is falling, could we do better by doing less?
Clueless
How about Colonel Mustard with the revolver in the Conservatory? If you’re bored these days and have resorted to board games perhaps you dusted off the old one called Clue.
Clue has six characters and six weapons to consider when deciphering who did it and with what. It’s played out in nine rooms of a mansion as well. So who, what, and where give us 6x6x9 or 324 combinations of correct possibilities when trying to solve the mystery.
The mystery of who knew what and when about the where and how of the nasty enemy that we cannot see might have as many combinations.
Just last week President Trump accused the World Health Organization(WHO) of being the “who.” He basically said that WHO gave cover for China as they misrepresented the cause and severity of this. And, they still do. He also said that the monetary price for WHO made the games that they were playing on the world stage far too expensive. WHO countered as it’s president told Trump that playing political games would only increase the body bag count.
For months now rumors have abounded that this virus was world espionage at its highest and most corrupt level. Did a Chinese lab accidentally or purposely cause the spread? Repeatedly we were told emphatically, “NO!” While looking for the “what” we’re told that their open-air wet markets offer bats for human consumption and that was the culprit.
China released an email last evening that warned the WHO on December 31, 2019 about seven atypical cases of pneumonia in the Wuhan Province. But, now it’s learned that only 13 of the original 21 cases can be traced back to the market. Further, the US has been contributing to the research of the lab for highly infectious diseases located a few miles from the market to the tune of $3.7 million per year. Who knew? WHO knew? You’ve heard of the grassy knoll?
Trump wants and asks repeatedly for credit for shutting down the air service to and from China early on. He feels strongly that this saved many lives. Yesterday, no less of an expert than Barbara Steisand said that Trump alone was responsible for 20,000 deaths. She feels strongly otherwise.
Meanwhile, no less of an expert than Dr. Anthony Fauci went on CNN (not Trump’s favorite) and said that Trump could have been more aggressive locking down the country earlier and saving lives. That sounds a lot like Professor Plum with the rope in the studio to us. Of course, as late as leap year day, February 29, 2020, Fauci was telling the public that there was nothing to worry about as it posed no threat to the US public at large.
So, in the blame game we are approaching 324 combinations as well. Yet, we don’t even know who has had it or who has it, yet finger-pointing has reached hot spot levels. And, the curve is either flattening or not.
In the game Clue if you take a guess at the who, what, and where, and you get it wrong you’re eliminated. The fictitious victim of foul play is Dr. Black.
In the real world, our guess is the next nonficticious victim will be Dr. Fauci. And our guess is President Trump in the White House Oval Office with verbal blunt force. “You’re Fired!” Our clue comes from Trump the master tweeter who added a #FireFauci to his last evening’s barrage.
Meanwhile, we are being asked to stay in our room. At least the game has nine rooms to move around in.
Perhaps the game should be renamed Clueless. Of course, this is no game.
Lefty And Shorty-Gas, Horse, Beer
If Lefty and Shorty were still with us last early evening might have unfolded like this.
Lefty and Shorty sat quietly in the cool but nice spring air. It was only 6:30 PM, and cars were nowhere to be found. Lefty- Why do we even stay open this late? Shorty- I guess so that we can discuss this crazy gas station business world that we live in today.
Lefty sat to the left of Shorty. Imagine that.
Shorty sat on the shorter of the two “halves” of the 55-gallon drum. Imagine that. Each was cut down to size and retrofitted with a soft cushion top.
Lefty- Why do you even say that? Shorty- I don’t get it. Lefty- You don’t get what? Shorty- I don’t get why nobody’s getting gas anymore. Lefty- Maybe it’s because nobody’s driving anywhere right now? Shorty-Why do you move my chair every time I get up? Lefty- Social distancing. Shorty- Antisocial huh? Lefty-Yep, you don’t get it. And, hopefully, I won’t get it because you don’t get it.
Only two cars passed by during what should be a busy time. Shorty looked a bit sad.
Lefty- Do you miss the NBA? Shorty- Like a grease monkey misses an oil change. Lefty- The NBA might be going to H-O-R-S-E. Shorty- Great, even fewer people driving. Lefty- Wow. NO! I mean they might start playing one on one games of Horse as they did way back when. Shorty- Really? Cool. I remember. Lefty- The best was Pistol Pete Maravich and nobody was even close. Shorty- Do you think he could have beaten Curly Neal? Lefty- We’ll never know. Shorty- Who had the better hairdo? Lefty- Um. Shorty- One had a mop and the other had a cue ball.
Lefty- Pistol died way too young and Curly just passed. Shorty- Curly was a ball hog. He dribbled a lot more than passed. Lefty- wha…
Shorty- I’m going to restock the cooler before we lock up. Do you want anything? Lefty- Beer to go. I need to forget this conversation as soon as I can. Shorty- What one? Lefty- Anything is fine, but none that begin with the letter C.
The Headlines Are Bold
The headlines are bold. Opening lines and quotes from articles around the US tell us all we need to know this morning. Here they are. We follow with a question or comment about them as we go.
During an interview on Wednesday Vice President Mike Pence stated that if people continue to follow guidelines, “we could be in a very different place by the end of April.” Hopefully that means a better place because the current “different” place isn’t too good. And, can anyone explain how way lower numbers then mean that we just don’t start climbing the bad hill all over again? Hydroxychloroquine anyone?
The president commented on Bernie Sanders’ exit from the Democrat presidential primary during the White House press briefing. “That’s a weird deal that’s going on,” he said. What’s weirdest of all is that the man that we don’t see anymore (Joe Biden) basically wins the nomination while a virus that we don’t see derailed what was left of the race. The best thing for Biden is less exposure. Plus, he coughs into his hand. He’s got great cover right now.
The Pope weighed in yesterday as well. Pope Francis said he believes the Chinese coronavirus pandemic is “certainly nature’s response” to humanity’s failure to address the “partial catastrophes” wrought by human-induced climate change. “Fires, earthquakes … nature is throwing a tantrum so that we will take care of her,” he said. We have to wonder if human-induced climate change is also the reason that the Roman Catholic church has now spent billions of parishioner’s donations on covering up thousands of priest’s child sexual abuses. Think of the financial contribution that the church could have made to the Green New Deal with that kind of dough.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday continued his criticism of the World Health Organization’s handling of Chinese coronavirus pandemic. He pointed to a statement from the WHO as late as January 14 insisting there was no human to human transfer of the virus, echoing propaganda from China. “Well, there was,” Trump said shortly. The USA has paid for it in more ways than one. “Last year, it was $452 million, and China paid $42 million,” Trump said regarding the funding of the WHO. World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus responded, “Please quarantine politicizing COVID. We will have many body bags in front of us if we don’t behave.” Sure Tedros. Thanks for the visual too. The next thing you know the WHO will be telling us that climate change led to this mess.
James Carville said, “The Wisconsin Primary proved that Republicans will kill people to stay in power.” Sure James. Well, either social distancing works or not. BBR wonders, ” Are liquor stores open in Wisconsin as necessary businesses?” Sure, booze is optional. You can choose to stand in line or not for your Miller Lite. But if the government knows best shouldn’t it either keep both liquor stores and voting booths open, or both closed? If you closed liquor stores in Milwaukee you’d have real civil unrest. This one is a tough call.
Linda Tripp, the Pentagon staffer who blew the whistle on President Bill Clinton’s illicit relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky in 1998, leading to the first presidential impeachment in more than a century, died on Wednesday at age 70. We didn’t know it then, but apparently it was the birth of “fake news.” In her words, “Most whistleblowers stand alone. For all practical purposes, life as they know it ceases to exist. I was not protected. I was eviscerated. Not only by President Clinton and his wife but also by the mainstream media. A concerted effort began to decimate my credibility. The effort gave birth to what we now call fake news.” They don’t make whistleblowers like Tripp anymore. Isn’t that right Adam?
Mayday. Mayday. May is only 21 days away.
Emotion Recollected in Tranquility
The start of April 2020 has been tough. But, April is National Poetry Month, and it’s worth celebrating. Isn’t it? We don’t have too many choices otherwise.
Could there ever be a better name for a poet than William Wordsworth? Wordsworth, the old wordsmith, wrote: “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.”
We have lots of powerful feelings these days. And, if you can keep your mind in a great place there is ample time for tranquility too.
With that as the backdrop, we present a poem so skillfully penned you would think it was carved from the edge of a surgeon’s scalpel. It comes courtesy of an avid reader.
My Corona
We all had great jobs and unemployment was so low.
The market was way up, as we watched our retirement grow.
The U.S. was great again, and impeachment was a dud.
K.C. had won the Super Bowl, and Patrick Mahomes was a stud.
March Madness was starting. Who would be king of the hoop?
Instantly, life changed when a Chinaman undercooked his bat soup.
But The Masters was starting soon. We can’t miss Sunday’s back nine.
And baseball too? But that’s America’s favorite pastime!
Social distancing is the CDC’s rule to observe.
All the models say we’ll flatten the curve.
What about Biden and Bernie and the democratic race?
6 feet apart, wear a mask and shelter in place
Corona is novel and like nothing we’ve ever seen.
Get in your house and serve a 14 day quarantine.
“Hydroxychloroquine and ZPak might help”, says the president.
Dr. Fauci says “No”, because there is no precedent.
Can’t we just try? It might save our neck!
“No!”, says the Government. We’ll send you a check.
Well done. Bravo. Amen.
Play Ball
Is the stock market trying to tell us something? The Dow was up over 1000 points yesterday. In premarket trading it’s up another 750 points this AM.
We hesitate to even speculate. We will, however. But, we suggest that you keep hoarding toilet paper, if you can find it, in the meanwhile.
Does Wall St. see light at the end of the tunnel in the fight against the enemy that we cannot see?
President Trump said last evening that he can see it. Is President Trump trying to tell us something? He always does. In a way it’s part of his job. He sees it that way for sure. Jimmy Carter told us in ’79 to use less energy and examine our lives when energy was in short supply. Barack Obama told us that the manufacturing jobs were gone forever. Trump is a tad bit more of an abrasively aggressive solutions-oriented president.
He said this on the same evening that he brokered a few deals. He talked to two companies that must have some very advanced medicines or medical procedures in an effort to help Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Great Britain. Johnson is now an ICU patient. He also talked to India. They are major producers of a drug that is rapidly gaining traction in the fight.
Have you ever heard of hydroxychloroquine? It’s the same drug that Trump mentioned two weeks ago as hopeful and was taken apart by the media for a) giving medical advice when he wasn’t a doctor, or b) giving false hope. Soon “hydroxychloroquine” might roll off of your tongue as easily as “social distancing” does today.
There are now more than a few doctors in a few countries that are treating coronavirus patients with the drug and in many instances in combination with one or two others. We suggest that you read it for yourself. We make no medical claims here.
IS MLB trying to tell us something? Major League Baseball and its players are increasingly focused on a plan that could allow them to start the season as early as May and have the support of high-ranking federal public health officials who believe the league can safely operate amid the coronavirus pandemic, sources told ESPN. Can you almost hear the crack of the ball off of the wooden bat off in the distance?
One thing is for sure. We can’t live like we are for too much longer. The world is built around commerce. No commerce for too long means 1930’s bread lines that stretch too long.
The road to recovery on Wall St. has many potholes and left turns in front of it. The medical road to recovery mandates that we drive six feet apart and is somewhere on some hill that might be flattening.
Trump is in the on-deck circle. When the medical umpires think it’s safe enough he wants them to bellow “PLAY BALL.” Don’t we all?
It’s a Fine Line
There’s a fine line between civility and incivility in this U.S. of A. Have you ever been stuck on a crowded plane for an extended period of time? If so, you know.
And, the line seems to blur by the day these days. It was there in the White House Press Room for all to see again on Sunday.
Reporters at the briefing repeatedly asked President Donald Trump why he chose not to wear a medical mask after he and his task force recommended that America start doing so just last Friday. Nevermind that the reporter was not wearing a mask at the time he asked the question. At least they don’t mask their disdain of the president that ended daily press briefings well over a year ago.
Trump used the backdrop of the loud whirling blades of his Marine One helicopter to “control” these scribes, especially the ones who are “fake news.” But, the enemy that we cannot see forced Trump to confront the enemy that he can see all over again.
Another reporter, who also was not wearing a mask, noted that former Vice President Joe Biden said he would start wearing a mask outdoors. That’s going to be difficult for Biden though. The mask-wearing won’t be difficult, it’s the verification part. No one has seen Biden outdoors or indoors in quite some time. The #WhereIsJoe continues to trend on Twitter.
When we do see old school Joe indoors on his disastrous live feeds, he coughs straight into his hand old school style. By hiding is he attempting to mask his rapidly declining cognitive/communicative skills? Here is his latest. If you can decipher the message, please share it in the BBR comment section today.
Could a Cuomo write-in nomination happen? The NY mayor is getting plenty of airtime from the non-Fox channels. His leadership during this existential crisis (far greater than climate change right now) is lauded daily. He’s asked, begged, and demanded more masks, like the ones that no one in the briefing room wears, for New Yorkers. Ventilators are in short supply as well. New York didn’t put many of the above away for a rainy day.
Then he asked all hospitals in NY to share their equipment and supplies. In other words, late to the social distancing need, NY got federal help and now he wants upstate to bail out the boroughs as well. Have you ever been stuck on a crowded subway train for an extended period of time? Too many Yanks were until not too long ago.
CNN doesn’t mask its affection for Cuomo. 
They haven’t been this enamored with a possible candidate to take down Trump since Michael Avenatti appeared nearly nightly prior to his multiple run-ins with the law. We forget. Who (er, how many) exploited Stormy?
And then there’s a not-funny irony to all of this. In the City That Care Forgot, no one forgot to put on their masks for Mardi Gras. And the result of putting on a costume and a mask and partying in the streets in NOLA has been a disaster. Latoya Cantrell who has masqueraded as a mayor there for one year said that she received no federal warning not to “laissez less on temps roulet” (let the good times roll).
Do Cantrell and Cuomo play the federal help card, or bash the intervention of same for their political gain as necessary?
It’s the civil thing to do.
Another reporter asked Dr. Anthony Fauci why he was not wearing a mask. Trump grinned as Fauci responded that the main reason to wear a mask was to protect sick individuals from spreading the virus.
Nevermind that the CDC Saturday advised us all to wear masks. It’s the civil thing to do.
Heck, if President Trump was wearing one we would have been spared from seeing the grin.
It’s a fine line.