Author: thependulumswings staff

The Softest Mask You’ll Ever Own

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Yesterday, right in the middle of the 5PM EST Coronavirus White House Briefing, CNN cut away.   They decided that they weren’t going to give complementary advertising airtime to the airiest, make that “the softest pillow you’ll ever own.”  You know the jingle, ‘for a great night’s sleep and a whole lot more, it’s MyPillow.com.”

Donald Trump introduced Mike Lindell, Founder of My Pillow, to the assembled and those watching worldwide.  Trump was trumpeting another private enterprise that has redirected its production to help fight the enemy that we can’t see.  Lindell’s company is in the sleep business, but by Friday expects to be producing 50k protective hospital masks a week.

And therein lies the divide.  Make that, therein lies the canyon.

The Democratic Party wants the government to do more in this time of crisis.  And, it should.  And the Democrats want to point out all of the shortcomings of the Trump leadership during this terrible time.  And, it is their right.  The party also has willing media to carry their water.  CNN, MSNBC, and others almost gleefully report the negative and spin it south 24/7.

It wasn’t too long ago that the Republican Party wanted the government to do more in a time of crisis as well.  And, it should.  The Republicans endlessly pointed to the Bengazi Embassy fiasco that resulted in four Americans’ deaths.  And, it is their right.  The party also has willing media to carry their water as well.  FOX led the endless cry of the need to investigate Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s role in the disaster.

But to the right of Republicans, conservatives want the government to do even less.  They believe in capitalism as religiously as a Mike Lindell ever-present cross hanging from his neck.  And to the left of Democrats, socialists want the government to do it all.  They believe in the redistribution of money as crazily as Bernie’s coiffed hair flails in the spring breeze.

So, CNN has staked out a position of left of center to appease its audience.  It’s the Democratic base actually.  Trump is bad.  Private enterprise is bad.  Mike Lindell is bad.  Lindell advertises on Fox.  Fox is competition.  Cuomo ranting for more federal aid and ventilators is good.

And FOX has staked out a position of right of center to appease its audience.  It’s the Republican base actually.  Trump is good.  Private enterprise is good.  Mike Lindell is good.  Lindell advertises a ton with us.  CNN is competition.  Trump ranting about bad media and fake news is good.

So, here comes the 2020 CARES Act.  It’s $2.2 trillion.  Republicans at the trough wanted more for business and less for individuals.  Democrats wanted less for business and more for individuals.   In the end, they both got what they wanted.  They aren’t conservatives nor socialists.  They’re just big spenders.

Oh, and they both approved the $25 million for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. just like they both approved the Solyndra money.  Three days before Obama departed he appointed Susan Rice and Valerie Jarrett to the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees.

Pigs get fat.  Hogs get slaughtered.

And, CNN and FOX will be there to tell you all about it.  And, it’s either news, or fake news, or fair and balanced, or not, depending on who you watch.

America should try a pillow from MyPillow.com right about now.   We could all use a good night’s sleep.

 

 

 

 

 

16 innings, 2 pitchers

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Baseball should be in full swing by now.  As you know, it’s not.  And, it’s might be a while before it is.  So, in its absence, inspired by a Super 70’s Sports tweet, we went digging and found box score gold.

It also took a while to complete a regular-season ballgame on July 2nd, 1963 when the San Francisco Giants hosted the Milwaukee Braves (they moved to Atlanta in 1966) at Candlestick Park.  All told the game lasted 4 hours and 10 minutes.   That’s not crazy long by today’s standards, but it was back then.

What took so long?  It was a 16 inning game.  Why didn’t it take longer?  It didn’t take longer because there were zero pitching changes and likely very few trips to the mound.  Additionally, our guess is that very few batters stepped out of the box for very long either.

Loser Warren Spahn’s record dropped to a still sterling 11-4 when his screwball offering was accepted by Willie Mays in the bottom of the 16th.  Mays hit it over the left field fence for a walk-off 1-0 victory.  It was starter Spahn’s 201st pitch!  It also was his 42nd year on earth!

The winning pitcher was Juan Marichal (13-3).  Marichal threw 227 pitches!  Somewhere right now Tommy John’s left elbow is deep in a bucket of ice.

Fifty-nine times a Brewer stepped to the plate.  Eight got hits, four walked, and one reached on an error.  None scored.

Feared hitters Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews from Milwaukee and Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Felipe Alou, and Orlando Cepeda from San Fran went a combined 4-31 before Mays ended it.

San Fran manager Alvin Dark called it “the greatest game he ever saw pitched.”

“I said to myself three times, ‘This will be my last inning’,” a weary Juan Marichal said quietly. “Each time I went out there again.”

Who needs relief pitchers anyway?

If you’re a baseball geek, or if you remember getting your baseball news in the next day’s paper, the boxscore is below.

Take a look.  You’ve got plenty of time on your hands these days.

Baseball Almanac Box Scores

Milwaukee Braves 0, San Francisco Giants 1
Milwaukee Braves ab   r   h rbi
Maye lf 6 0 0 0
Bolling 2b 7 0 2 0
Aaron rf 6 0 0 0
Mathews 3b 2 0 0 0
  Menke 3b 5 0 2 0
Larker 1b 5 0 0 0
Jones cf 5 0 1 0
  Dillard ph,cf 1 0 0 0
Crandall c 6 0 2 0
McMillan ss 6 0 0 0
Spahn p 6 0 1 0
Totals 55 0 8 0
San Francisco Giants ab   r   h rbi
Kuenn 3b 7 0 1 0
Mays cf 6 1 1 1
McCovey lf 6 0 1 0
Alou rf 6 0 1 0
Cepeda 1b 6 0 2 0
Bailey c 6 0 1 0
Pagan ss 2 0 0 0
  Davenport ph 1 0 0 0
  Bowman ss 3 0 2 0
Hiller 2b 6 0 0 0
Marichal p 6 0 0 0
Totals 55 1 9 1
Milwaukee 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 – 0 8 1
San Francisco 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 – 1 9 1
  Milwaukee Braves IP H R ER BB SO
Spahn  L (11-4) 15.1 9 1 1 1 2
Totals 15.1 9 1 1 1 2
  San Francisco Giants IP H R ER BB SO
Marichal  W (13-3) 16.0 8 0 0 4 10
Totals 16.0 8 0 0 4 10
  E–Menke (12), Kuenn (5).  2B–Milwaukee Spahn (3,off Marichal), San Francisco Kuenn (6,off Spahn).  HR–San Francisco Mays (15,16th inning off Spahn 0 on, 1 out).  Team LOB–11.  IBB–Mays (2,by Spahn).  Team–9.  SB–Maye (5,2nd base off Marichal/Bailey); Menke (1,2nd base off Marichal/Bailey); Cepeda (2,2nd base off Spahn/Crandall).  CS–Crandall (1,2nd base by Marichal/Bailey).  IBB–Spahn (2,Mays).  U-HP–Ken Burkhart, 1B–Chris Pelekoudas, 2B–Frank Walsh, 3B–Jocko Conlan.  T–4:10.  A–15,921.

baseball almanac flat baseball

It’s ICYMI Friday

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

It’s in case you missed it Friday.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson tested positive for COVID-19.  Why do we act so surprised when a celebrity, dignitary, athlete, or any other big who hah contracts the virus?  The virus doesn’t know who’s who.  It practices the diversity that we preach.

New Orleans Saints head football coach Sean Payton tested positive two weeks ago.  He announced that doctors “cleared” him yesterday.  If you had it and are now clear does that mean that you can do as you please without fear of reoccurrence? We guess so. You can only get the measles once.  Is there a doctor in the BBR house that can set us straight?

Harlem Globetrotter legend Curly Neal passed away yesterday at a too early 77.  The baddest, baldest dribbler on the globe was a great showman.  He played (performed) in roughly 6000 games and won every one of them.  He also won over millions of fans on five continents.  Check out the one-minute highlight video here.   Do it.  You’ll still have 23:59 of stay at home time to fill afterward today.

Isn’t Sweet Georgia Brown the greatest theme song for a show ever?  Close your eyes and whistle it.  It’ll take you back to your childhood in a Harlem, NY minute.

From the Monday close to the Thursday close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose over 20%.  It’s the largest three day gain percentage-wise for the average since 1930.  Based on this morning’s opening a four-day winning streak looks dicey.  Let’s not get greedy.

Boris Johnson’s news aside, the path chosen today was to lighten it up a bit.  It’s been another long week. So for today, that’ll do it.

We’ll keep it short and sweet.  Sweet like Georgia Brown.

 

(Almost) Ten Piece Nuggets

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Welcome to the next day of your shelter in place life.  The canned soup blues got you down?  Worry not.  We’ve got some fresh nuggets, heavy on opinions, for you.

  1.  Do you think nearly eight years ago that Barrack Obama was vulnerable in his reelection bid?  He was.  Do you believe that Mitt Romney was a below-average candidate from the right to knock Obama off?  He was.
  2.  Do you believe that it took a candidate as weak as Hillary Rodham Clinton to lose to Donald J. Trump?  It did.  Even so, she carried the popular vote.  Trump was in the right place at the right time.  The middle of America was very tired of the same old, same old from an old and tired candidate.  And he smartly milked that for every vote that he got and she didn’t campaign hard enough for.
  3. Do you believe that Joe Biden looks like a very tired same old, same old candidate?  He does.  Is President Trump in the right place at the right time again?  He is in spite of his shaky Coronavirus leadership missteps. If it were Biden we would call them gaffes.
  4. Do you believe as bad as Biden is he still has a chance?  He does.  He does if he even gets to the general election, that is.  The #WhereIsJoe isn’t going away soon.
  5. It’s still 222 days till the general election.  What’s all of this sudden talk about Cuomo coming in on a white horse to steal the White House?  Crazy times make room for crazy twists and turns.  The DNC has shown great willingness over multiple election cycles to bend or break the rules to get to the candidate of their, not the people’s, choice.
  6. Cuomo bashed Trump for a lack of ventilators just this past week.  Where do a state’s responsibility end and the federal governments begin exactly?  CNN and MSNBC called his NY handling of the crisis very presidential like.  What do DNC, CNN, and MSNBC have in common?  Everything.
  7.  Mayor Latoya Cantrell of New Orleans bashed Trump for his poor handling of the spread of the Coronavirus as well.  He could use some help, no doubt.  To that end, we hope that the mayor and her husband will get around to paying the 90k they owe from several years of back federal income taxes soon.  It’ll help offset some of the $2 trillion that we are about to give to jumpstart our economic system.
  8. Would it have been a good idea to cancel Mardi Gras, Ms. Mayor?  For financial reasons probably not.  For political reasons probably not.  For medical reasons probably so.   Citizens from all over the world partied and stood toe to toe watching parades for 14 straight days through 2/25.  NOLA’s parish (county) is the sixth most infected one in America behind the five boroughs of NY on a percentage basis.
  9. Breaking news!  Nugget 10 was just traded for a four-pack roll of Charmin.  We’ll take a four-pack for one nugget any day.  The BBR Board of Directors will meet today.  A vote to approve the move is expected to pass unanimously.

Post digestion you should get on your Peloton bike for a bit.  Ride in place rhymes with shelter in place.

 

 

The Show

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

For the NBA and the NHL, the regular season quickly became the suspended season.  For MLB, the regular season that was about to start became the delayed season.  For the NFL, the offseason goes on.

The NFL really doesn’t have an offseason though.  One of the greatest marketing machines that the world has ever known, the NFL has turned the offseason into a continuum of events and news stories all perfectly designed to hype it’s players, about to be players, teams, schedule, and league.

The scouting combine is followed by the free agency frenzy.  Individual workouts, mock drafts, more mock drafts, rumors, and then the real draft is next.  Offseason voluntary OTA’s (organized team activities) are numerous and anything but voluntary.  The preseason gives way to the regular season which gives way to the post-season playoffs.  And the grand finale, with two weeks off to build the hype, is the Super Bowl.

The year 2020 is threatening to be different though due to an overtly obvious 500-pound gorilla in the room.  The NFL draft is a three day made for TV extravaganza.  It’s so big that two productions, ESPN and the NFL’s own NFL Channel, cover it.

Yesterday by a 6 yay to 1 nay vote the GM committee that oversees the draft process voted to delay it.  How can we properly conduct individual workouts, administer physicals, and administer psychological exams they wondered?  And, what if teams in “hot spots” cannot conduct the draft from their headquarters?

The NFL office said thanks for the recommendation.  And then they said, the draft will go on April 23-25 as planned.  They already put the planned Vegas draft pick flotilla to the middle of the Bellagio Fountains on dry dock.  It’s being moved to a studio for all to see.

GM’s work for the owners.  Owners like revenue then publicity then GM’s.  Some like publicity then revenue then GM’s.

Will the draft go on as scheduled?  Could it be a bad look for the league to showcase itself in the middle of the global pandemic?  Or, would it be viewed as a very welcome relief from the replay boredom that a sports starved world craves?

It’s a big decision.  It’s why Roger Goodell makes the big bucks.  Actually, he makes the big bucks because the owners pay him so.

WWJJS?  What will Jerry Jones say?

The NFL never takes a knee unless it’s lining up in victory formation.   Ask Colin Kaepernick.

The show must go on!

 

Pork. It’s Worth the Wait.

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Isn’t the amount of negativity surrounding us today darn near overwhelming?  You bet it is.

So, today BBR has chosen to stay positive.  We see the glass of warm water that you should be drinking multiple times a day as half full.  We’re positive that if you add a squeeze of lemon in it that you can 1) lose weight, and therefore, 2) preserve your dwindling food supplies.

Feeling better already?  But wait! There’s more!

We’re positive that Madame Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi means well in this time of need.  Nancy came to the rescue with a visionary bailout/entitlement government stimulus plan all of her own.

While crazy Bernie just wants “Medicare for All” paid for by the taxpayer, Pelosi offers way more in her economic stimulus bill.   A six-pack sampling below unveils just a few of its probable positive effects.

  1.  a bailout of all USPS (that’s your post office) debt.
  2.  $35 million for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
  3.  a regulation that greenhouse gas stats are provided going forward on all flights
  4.  $15 minimum wage at all companies receiving assistance
  5.  1/3 board members chosen by workers for assisted companies
  6.  required early voting and required same-day voter registration

One should never let a good pandemic crisis slip by without slipping in a truckload (or $#%@load if you prefer) of barrels of pork and regulation.  Of course, a lot of our grocery stores could use a truckload of pork right about now.  The meat is so juicy it’ll be worth the wait.

We do think that Trump’s decision to not shake her hand before the State of the Union address, as well as her hand recoil, turns out to be a positive as well.   They were practicing social distancing before most of us had ever heard of “social distancing.”  How woke of the two?

And, when the Madame Speaker tore up the printed address she was prescient as well.  The virus tests positive (there’s that word again) on paper for a long while as you know.

Her examples of visionary leadership will have a positive effect on generations to come.  Here is but one example.  Senator Rand Paul was physically assaulted by his neighbor in 2017.  Injuries were significant.  And, four days ago Senator Paul tested positive for the Coronavirus.  “Rand Paul’s neighbor was right,” Pelosi’s daughter Christine tweeted yesterday.  That’s a multigenerational, passed on, bipartisan goodwill gesture if you’ve ever heard one.

Lastly, how about her warp speed ability to deliver the 1400 page proposal in such a short time?  Did she have such a measure ready to take advantage of a desperate time just like this one in her top desk drawer?  Like a lot of things these days, we’re positive about that as well.

The American economy is getting slaughtered by the day.  The pigs are soon to follow.

 

 

 

 

 

How?

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

How long has this been going on?  VP Mike Pence said last evening that we were crossing on to day eight of 15 of our national stay at home recommendation. Stay tuned.  It feels like a month already.  And it might be just that if the proverbial curve doesn’t start to flatten soon.

How many people are/were sick?  Globally we went from 200k to over 300k documented cases in an eyelash.  The world’s population is estimated at 7.7 billion.  So, 300,000 divided by 7,700,000,000 is .000039.  Stated another way it’s 4 in every 100,000 or 4 hundredths of one percent.  Got that?  It sounds like a very small number.  But it doesn’t speak to the recent past very well due to misdiagnoses, misinformation, no testing, etc.  It also projects very poorly in the near future it seems.  The short answer is we didn’t know then, and we don’t really know now.  And, that’s the worst nonanswer answer possible.

How many industries are getting crushed by the day?  Many.  The worst are the airlines, cruise ships, bars, casinos, and restaurants.

How many businesses are actually doing fairly well? Maybe not many, but a few certainly are.  Chlorox is one.  Amazon has to be another.  Their business model was built for tomorrow, and as it turns out, we need it for today.  Walmart is awfully glad that they invested billions into building out a virtual store as well.  Proctor and Gamble markets Crest, Dawn, Charmin, Bounty, Tide, Vicks, and Pampers.  Amazon, Walmart, and overrun grocery chains must be selling a lot of all of those.  Netflix and Verizon also come to mind.

How much longer do we need to wait for the children in Washington to provide a very much needed stimulus bill?  Apparently a bit longer.  After negotiating all weekend the Democrats voted against their own proposal.  Nancy Pelosi flew in from Cali, a state of emergency, to persuade colleagues to vote against what they constructed.  That’s not very constructive.

How many times can President Trump stand in front of his assembled crisis team, grab the mic, and tell us how great of a job they are doing by citing polls?  The answer is every day for the past seven and likely every day for the next seven or more as well.  Many in his base are willing to look past what he says and how he says it in favor of relishing in the results achieved three years to date.  But in a world of what have you done for us lately, he seems out of his league on this one.  His best move would be to move to the side and let his team tell the tale.  He never moves to the side, however.  And PS, didn’t he tell us three years ago that polls were inaccurate?

How can Joe Biden be the best alternative for the never Trumpers or non-Trump crowd?  He’s been seen a total of eight minutes in the last six days due to supposed telecommunication issues.  That probably helps him actually.    It does lower his gaffes per day average.  He does have a captive audience though.  We’re all sitting home, not working, and complaining about everything.  And, now we’re all waiting on a stimulus check.  That sounds like a crowd tailor-made for him.

How did we get here?  This is China bat $#@% crazy.

Stay tuned.  Stay home.  Stay strong.  Stay safe.

 

MAHA

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

We doubt that you missed it.  But, if you did, here it is.   The Governor of California issued a statewide  “stay at home” order last afternoon.

“We need to bend the curve in the state of California,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in an announcement. “There’s a social contract here.  People, I think recognize the need to do more. They will adjust and adapt as they have.”

Newsom also sent a letter to President Trump with the presumption that over half of California’s 35 million residents will contract the virus in the next 8 weeks.  Probably not.  Maybe.  Who knows?  He also requested that Trump dispatch the USNS Mercy hospital ship to the Port of Los Angeles through September 1, 2020, to assist with expected cases.  The visual of that would be, dare we say it, 9/11 tower-like.  But, are we past trying to look good?

With the a) the number of cases in the U.S. rising sharply by the day, and b) the number of deaths geometrically increasing in Italy, it is understandable to take this action.

Won’t the other 49 states get there at some point?   Aren’t we almost there, save for a few morons who decided to party on South Beach this week, anyway?  And, the sooner the better so sooner we can get better, please.

The local golf course did the following.  Four weeks ago it was business as usual.  Three weeks ago all of the carts and tables were getting wiped down after each use.  Two weeks ago there were no more condiments on tables and no more scorecards and pencils on the carts.  This week the restaurant and halfway stand are closed, and the sand trap rakes and divot fill sand containers gone.  Next week there will be no more holes cut in the greens, rather a small pot with a small flag will sit somewhere on the green as a target.

We kid you not on the above.  And, yet, if the increasingly safer measures taken by the week aren’t enough, what is?  What’s next, a sign saying keep off of the greens and tee boxes?  What’s left?  And, that’s the point.

On 2/26 San Francisco’s mayor declared a local emergency to make it easier for the populous city and international travel hub to combat novel coronavirus if it comes — even while stressing that it isn’t there yet.  It sounded Draconian just 23 days ago,  Not one case, not one case we repeat, had hit the city at that point.

What would Italy do if it had a do-over?

A national “stay at home” order would be a bold stroke.  It’s time to combat this invisible monster with a bold stroke.  Newsom is attempting to do just that.

Trump, if nothing else, is bold and combative.

MAHA- Make America Healthy Again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sure Thing

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

The year was 1999.  As a Patriot did you do your part and party like it was 1999?

Patriot fans should have.  And they should have, not because the world was about to dive headlong into a new century, but because an afterthought 6th round draft choice named Tom Brady was selected by New England.

“They” say that nothing is a sure thing except death and taxes.  Tom Brady was anything but a sure thing.  You might have been smarter to withdraw money from your local ATM to stuff under your mattress than to bet on Tom making the club, much less staring in the Patriot’s patriotic red, white, and blue uniforms for 20 years.  He won a few Super Bowls, too.

Remember the world was going to end back then when the clock struck 12:01 AM on day one of the year two thousand.  Computers were going to be rife with viruses and forever disrupt our lives.  The experts told us as much.   It might feel the same way now if you insert the word “humans” for the word “computers.”

Back then Kurt Warner, coached by Dick Vermeil, led the St. Louis Rams to a thrilling Super Bowl XXXIV win.  Who did they beat?  The Tenessee Titans. It was year one of them being known as such.  The prior two years they were the Tenessee Oilers and before that the Houston Oilers.  The Houston Texans didn’t yet exist.  Feel old?

The next sure thing, say the NFL experts, is Joe Burrow.  Comparisons abound.  The one that is bandied around most often is that Burrow reminds the “experts” of Tom Brady.  Funny thing is, the “experts” all overlooked Tom Brady, who turned out to be the surest thing.  Have you heard that nothing is a sure thing?

Tom Brady is going to be a Tampa Bay Buccaneer.  Sure thing.  Joe Burrow is going to be a Cincinnati Bengal.  Sure thing.

The rest of this is history yet to be written.

A lot can happen in 20 years.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 1999 at 11,497, then an all-time high.  In mid-February, the DJIA closed at 29,472, then an all-time high.  Some “experts” think we might be going back to 11,497.  Others think we’ll get back to 29k.  Who knows?  Maybe we should ask Bill Belichick.

With panic at all-time high levels itself, good health is foremost on our minds. The alternative is not an option.   Taxes are still due, but Trump’s going to delay the inevitable for some time.

Perhaps there is no such thing as a “sure” thing?

Maybe we should be partying like it’s 1999.

 

 

 

 

 

Ten Piece Nuggets-Drive Thru Only

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

It’s time for a serving.  But, in an effort to help slow the spread of the Coronavirus,  BBR’s executive team met well into the evening.  We decided that in order to best serve you and the broader community’s need to slow the virus that you cannot call “Wuhan,”  all nuggets going forward will be available at the drive-thru window only.  Shortly thereafter McDonald’s followed BBR’s lead and announced the same.  It’s a tough time.  Have some not so tender nuggets.

  1.  President Trump took to Twitter yesterday and called COVID-19 the “Chinese Virus.”  This was an obvious retort to the noise emanating out of China over the weekend that attempted to pin the origin of the virus on the U.S.  The sensitive side of the press came out and condemned the name game blame.
  2. Meanwhile, Joe Biden referred to Ebola as “what happened in Africa” in his debate on Sunday.  The difference between the insensitivity of Trump and the Biden geography lesson is obvious.  Trump was doing it on purpose while Biden had one of those pesky gaffes.  It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.  Or, it’s not what you say, it’s who says it.  Or, it’s both.
  3.  Then there was Hollywood director and “Meathead” character Rob Reiner’s tweet.  “We will get through this. But unfortunately not with the help of this President.”  Reiner is one of the president’s most outspoken Hollywood critics. “First he must be removed from the public square to let competent experts take over, then he must be removed from office to allow US to heal.”  He capitalized “us.”  Sounds inclusive (for all of those who agree with him) to US.

  4. The NBA announced that if it doesn’t play again this year, it will cost the league nearly $500 million in revenues.  That’s in addition to the substantial revenue loss the league already experienced earlier this year after the controversy surrounding Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey’s pro-Hong Kong tweet.  This global relationship, er partnership, is getting trickier and more expensive by the day for them.

  5. On Sunday, Nashville Mayor John Cooper led an emergency meeting of the Metro Nashville Board of Health. After the meeting, Cooper called for restaurants and similar businesses to serve only at 50 percent capacity or to allow no more than 100 customers through the doors.  On Monday owner Kid Rock thumbed his nose at the mayor.  The GM of his joint called the mayor’s edict unconstitutional.
  6. Speaking of mayors and speaking of unconstitutional, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell signed a coronavirus emergency order last week allowing her to ban the sale of firearms.  She signed a follow-up proclamation yesterday, further emphasizing her emergency powers to “suspend or limit the sale, dispensing, or transportation, of alcoholic beverages.”  No guns and no drinking will make NOLA hardly recognizable.
  7. The order stands “zero” chance in court and will be challenged.  After Katrina, Mayor Ray Nagin tried the exact same and had the edict struck down in court. He later lost an unrelated personal criminal case and wound up in jail for about 8 years.  Mayor Cantrell and her hubby haven’t paid their federal income taxes to the IRS in the last six years.  But, they were/are just trying to do the right thing for the people.
  8.  And yet another mayor called for some action.  New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called for the nationalization of certain parts of the supply chain, and stated that “we’re getting close to a reality where the government has to ensure that the food supply, that it is not only available but that it’s equitably distributed.”  Crank up the printers.  Food stamps are on the way.
  9. So to recap, Nashville’s Mayor wants the bars closed.  New Orleans’ Mayor wants the sale of guns and booze shut down.  And, the NY Mayor wants us to stand in a bread line.
  10. Oh, and Trump said yesterday that we might be falling into a recession.  Ya think?

BBR’s drive-thru is open 24/7.  The nuggets aren’t in short supply.   But, if you want a happy meal or a Happy Meal, they are getting hard to find.