Author: thependulumswings staff

The Buccaneers Are Leaking Oil

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

The answer is, “a small gift given to a customer by a merchant at the time of a purchase.  Something given or obtained gratuitously or by way of good measure. Used as a sentence, “The waiter added a serving of bread pudding as a lagniappe to the meal.”  The question is, “what is lagniappe?”  Forgive us, for we seem to have gotten caught up in the Jeopardy game, with all of the hype surrounding it these days, as James Holthauer closes in on the all time money winning record.

Our small gift, given to you today could have been given to you yesterday as lagniappe nugget number 11.  But, like great bread pudding, we wanted to cook it low and slow to insure that all of the butter and rum sauce would be soaked in, and there for the taking today.  And it is.

What is it?  It’s the story of the Tampa Bay(TB) Buccaneers and the British Petroleum(BP) oil spill in 2010, of course.  Of course?  Well, not really “of course,” but perhaps “par for the course” as to how the franchise is led.  The Bucs filed a $19.5 million claim for in economic damages from the Deepwater Horizon Settlement Program, but the suit raised a red flag with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth District. The appellate court denied the claim last week. No word on if the red flag looked as obvious to the court as the one with the skull on it that TB flies.  No word on if the skull shows how brain dead this franchise really is either.

Perhaps the frivolous claim was a salary cap issue?  If the TB Buccaneers had won their Deepwater Horizon settlement program claim, they would have received close to enough money to cover quarterback Jameis Winston’s 2019 salary of $20 million.  Surely two wrong ideas, in this instance, could make a right?

Why would the Bucs, valued near 2 billion bucks, make any claim of damages for a spill that occurred more than 300 miles from TB, let alone a claim of $19.5 million?    The court’s eight-page (it took that many pages?) decision stated the spill didn’t hurt the inept franchise’s performance more than they have hurt themselves. It pointed to the team’s record of 10-6 after the spill in 2010.  This record was achieved just a year after finishing 3-13, proving that even during catastrophic ecological events a blind squirrel can still find a nut.

“The Bucs have not had a 10-win season since,” the decision stated.  Yes, it really did allude to how much oil this franchise annually leaks on its own.  Pure comedic gold was achieved in one simple sentence within the eight long pages.  Great jokes are rooted in honesty.

The courts set up the settlement program in such a way that companies did not have to show a direct connection between the spill and financial loss. And why not?  Over 100,000 businesses throughout the Gulf region filed claims. Some actually were damaged.   Many were prompted by law firms who encouraged companies to stake a claim.  And why not?  If everyone is getting theirs, you might as well get yours.  The team based its claim on the formula spelled out in the settlement agreement BP crafted with the courts. The formula is based on whether a claimant’s financial condition worsened after the spill.

BP agreed to the procedure to avoid litigation in countless trials.  BP clearly was worried that it’s leaking oil defense was as leaky as the Buccaneers’ defense is on a yearly basis.

Claimants had to show a post-spill revenue slowdown of 15 percent or greater during a three-month period between May and July of 2010, and a revenue uptick of 10 percent during the same three months in 2011.  The court said the Bucs failed to substantiate the claim, but not necessarily the integrity of same.  We aren’t exactly sure what that means.   But, we can assure the courts that, by making the claim in the first place the Bucs have no integrity to begin with.

Tampa Bay has lost 97 games in the last ten years.  That’s very nearly an average of 10 losses per year.  The Hail Mary that their lawyers threw in court fell incomplete as well.

Tampa Bay lost in court, and in the court of public opinion.  Again.  The oil spill was a terrible mess.  So, too, are the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Pass the bread pudding please.

 

Ten Piece Nuggets-Sports

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

It’s time for your Tuesday edition of the Monday tradition of the Ten Piece Nuggets.  Enough of  baseball (never), hot dogs, apple pie, and sitting poolside.  Try some tasty ones below.

  1.  The Indianapolis 500 was Sunday.  Did you watch?  No you didn’t.  Pole sitter Simon Pagenaud held off Alexander Rossi and Takuma Sato to win his first career Indianapolis 500 on Sunday. The 2016 IndyCar Series champion finished just two-tenths of a second ahead of Rossi in a very exciting run for the checkered flag.  And, the pair traded the lead several times in the final 10 laps.
  2. Quick Indy quiz for you.  Part one.  Is there part of a golf course located inside the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway?  Yes.  Four holes of the Brickyard Crossing Golf Course are situated inside of the track.  It’s voted time and again as a top 100 American public course.  Careful.  You are responsible for broken car windshields.  They aren’t cheap.  Part two.  Is Bobby Rahal still driving Indy cars for a living?  Nope.  His son Graham Rahal is.  Graham finished 27 after crashing.  Bobby is a smooth 66 already.
  3. Super Bowl two time MVP and winning quarterback of the first two Super Bowls, Bart Starr, is dead at 85.  Green Bay Packer Starr has the highest postseason passer rating (104.8) of any quarterback in NFL history and a postseason record of 9–1. His career completion percentage of 57.4 was an NFL best when he retired in 1972.   It was a different game back then.
  4. Quick Bart Starr quiz for you.   Part one.  Bart Starr played QB in college for what school?  Roll Tide Roll.   Alabama.  Part two.  What round did the Packers take Starr way back in 1956?  It was the seventeen round and he was the 200th player taken.
  5.  Quick Super Bowl MVP quiz for you.  Part one.  Five players have won more than one Super Bowl MVP.  Starr is one.   You get no credit for guessing Tom Brady who is two as he is the only one to have won four.  Who are the other three?  Joe Montana has won three.   Terry Bradshaw and Eli Manning have won the award twice.   Part two.  Who are the only two to have won it in back to back years?  Starr and Bradshaw are the only ones to have won it in back-to-back years.
  6. Quick MLB quiz for you.  Part One.   America’s pastime has completed roughly three innings of their nine inning regular season.  Which team has the best record?  It’s the Minnesota Twins.  They have a gaudy 36-17 record, a very gaudy 10 game lead over second place Cleveland in their division, and have hit a seriously gaudy 105 home runs.  Part two.  Who is the hottest team of all?  It’s the Oakland A’s.  Quickly and quietly they’ve won ten in a row.  Despite a very modest payroll they wouldn’t go away last year winning an impressive 97 games.  It looks like they want in again this year.  Their pitching staff has an MLB fourth best 3.35 ERA.  Real estate is about location, location, and location.  Baseball is about pitching, pitching, and pitching.
  7.  When a minor leaguer makes his major league debut it’s a special moment no matter his pedigree.   Hundreds of thousands have tried and come up short.  When a “journeyman” finally gets a chance it’s very special.  Twenty eight year old, and seven season minor leaguer, Jack Mayfield got his chance yesterday.  Multiple injuries to the Houston Astros left virtually no one to play second base.  Up from Round Rock AAA came Jack.  Yesterday, Memorial Day, before a sellout home field crowd of 42,000 fans, Mayfield roped a stand up double off of the left field wall in his very first at bat.  An astute cameramen and director had a camera on his wife and mom of his seventeen month toddler in the stands.  Want to see what unbridled joy looks like?  You can see it right here.  MasterCard used to call moments like this “priceless.”
  8. Bill Buckner died yesterday at the way too young age of 69. His “ball through the legs” moment v. the New York Mets in game six of the 1986 World Series unfortunately dominates most people’s memory of him.  Too bad. Loved by teammates, he was one of the good ones on and off of the field.  On the field Buckner slugged over 2,700 hits in his career that spanned 22 seasons with five teams.  He won the batting title in 1980.  And he had a mustache, eye brows, and coif of hair for the ages.
  9. The Boston Bruins scored two unanswered goals in the third period and won game one of the Stanley Cup finals 4-2 over the St. Louis Blues.  It’s only game one, but it might have Blues fans singing the blues.  In 77.6 percent of all Stanley Cup Finals the team who skated to victory in game one has taken home the Cup.  But, this is no ordinary St. Louis Blues team.  Stay tuned.
  10. The Golden State Warriors are heavy favorites to win yet another NBA Championship.  They get after the Toronto Raptors in their own game one on Thursday night.  The Warriors are -300.  What does that mean?  It means you have to bet $300 to win $100 on Golden St.  However, game one is in Toronto and the Raptors are favored in that game by one.

It’s already Tuesday.  It’s just 24 hours to Hump Day.  You got this.

So Have Those Who Served Us.

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

It’s the start of a long weekend.  It’s time to take some time off.  You’ve earned it.  Enjoy.

But, first take a moment to really, really remember why we “celebrate” this weekend.  It’s to honor those who have served this country and died.  They protect our rights for us to have weekends like this one.  And, they protect us so that we may live a life that is filled with freedom.

If you’ve never been to a Veteran’s Administration Hospital(VA), consider yourself lucky.  That likely means that you have never had a loved one from your group of friends nor family spend time healing from one of the many, many maladies that war causes.

If you’ve never been to a VA Hospital consider yourself unlucky.  That likely means that you have never had a chance to see how many, many veterans who gave it their all now have to hope the doctors and nurses give it their all every day to care for them.  It is quite moving.  Quite moving.

Take that moment to remember.  And, we suggest that the next time you can recognize someone who is currently serving or did serve, go out of your way to say thank you for that service.  You ‘ll be glad you did.  And, they’ll be glad you did.

Get the work done today.  Then enjoy the good life.  You’ve earned it.  So have those who served us.

Happy Memorial Day weekend.

(Don’t)Take the High Ground!

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Recently this writer took a one hour guided tour of the Battle of Franklin (Tn.) that took place in the very late stages of the American Civil War on November 30,1864.  When asked who won, the tour guide responded, “it is always said that the side that stands on the ground the next morning won. So it was the Confederates who won.”

Last evening and well into this morning the Mississippi St. Bulldogs and LSU’s Fighting Tiger baseball teams fought for 17 innings before the (damn) Dogs prevailed 6-5.  The teams combined for over 600 thrown pitches,35 strikeouts, 30 hits, and 40 men left on base in the 6 hour and 43 minute “war.”  Afterwards, the Bulldogs ran off into the night with victory while LSU stood silently on the “battlefield” wondering what hit them.  It was the Tigers who stood on the ground, but it sure wasn’t victory.

The Confederates lost over 6,000 brave men while the Union lost over 2,000 in the five hour battle that at times was savagely reduced to hand to hand combat.  The Union’s main goal was to build a bridge to allow them to cross the Harpeth River to get to Nashville where warm food and warmer beds awaited. And, in the day before and day of the conflict, build it they did.  The Confederates stood on the high ground on December 1st, but it sure wasn’t victory.  The Union (damn Yankees) was in Nashville by then.

When real wars, or bombings, or tragedies hit we are correctly reminded to not compare sports contests to the actual. “It was a war out there.”  “We fought and fought.”  “It was just going to be the last man standing.”  We ugly Americans cannot help ourselves though.  We marvel at the intestinal fortitude, authentic passion, and unyielding desire of our teams and their opponents.  Along the way, we drink cold beer and eat warm food.  Then we go to sleep in warm beds (sometimes at 3:15) wondering in amazement how our battalion won or lost.  Make no mistake though, we always feel better when we are on the winning side and hold the high ground.

Which brings us to General Pelosi and General Schumer and Commander in Chief Trump.  Yesterday, minutes before they were scheduled to meet to further discuss a big spending bill on American infrastructure, General Pelosi threw a very public, verbal, hand grenade at the Commander.  “We believe that no one is above the law, including the president of the United States. And we believe that the president of the United States is engaged in a cover-up,” she said.

President Trump, enraged, countered by “blowing up” the planned peaceful meeting saying that when they wanted to end the phony investigations and work with him they could go about repairing the nations highways, airports, and bridges.  And so the war for power in DC had quite the battle yesterday.

Somehow LSU has to pick themselves up by the boot straps just 10 hours after they lost, and play an elimination game at 1 PM today.  Elimination?  That sounds permanent.  There is that war/sport comparison again.

Permanent too was the loss of the hundreds of thousands of soldiers from the north and south who fought and died like the 8,000 did in the Battle of Franklin over 150 years ago.

Washington DC could learn a lot by watching young adults play baseball into the morning hours.  Washington DC could learn a lot taking a one hour Battle of Franklin tour as well.

It isn’t always about the high ground.  Sometimes its better to lose the battle and win the war.  Washington DC continues to lose the war trying to win the battle.

 

 

 

Roger, Roger, Roger

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

This week NFL teams hold their “voluntary” Organized Team Activities(OTA’s).  The NFLPA’s bargaining agreement with the NFL insisted that the three day non cntact camps be voluntary.   Don’t miss one though like Antonio Brown is choosing to do in Oakland where his new team hoped his controversial self wouldn’t follow him from the right to the left coast.  If you do, you’re big news for at least 48 hours being labeled anything from a disruption to a malcontent.

At least you wouldn’t be labeled as a convicted spousal abuser, convicted and imprisoned aggravated robber, and acquitted as a suspect in a double homicide.  That honor belongs to Orenthal James Simpson, aka OJ, aka The Juice.

There were no OTA’s the last time OJ wore number 32 on his Buffalo Bills jersey way back in 1977.  Then again, there has been no one to wear number 32 in Buffalo since 1977 either.  That is until yesterday when Senorise Perry, one of seven running backs attempting to make the roster, wore it at the Bills’ day one OTA.

The Bills decided to retire number 34 in honor of running back Thurman Thomas and did so last October.  Number 32?  They decided to put it into moth balls from 1977 to 2019.  OJ’s name remains on their office walls as inducted into the Bills’ Hall of Fame.  His jersey number was never retired.  And now,  42 years after it was last worn, it’s being worn again.

Why now?  Why not?  It’s anyone’s guess we suppose.  It’s really a no win for Buffalo.  Or is it a loss?

With the very image conscious NFL taking hits left and right for stumbling through the mishandling of domestic abuse and outright assault, subsequenst penalties, suspensions, or bans why now?  Why ever?

In the early nineties OJ was arrested, tried, and acquitted of double murder.  In the early nineties the Bills went to four straight Super Bowls and lost all four.  The only time either OJ or the Bills have been in the news since, the news has been about a bad actor or a bad team.

There is no upside to bringing back number 32.  No one on the field wearing 32 will ever be as good as Juice on the field.  No one off of the field will ever be as bad.  The number should have been retired, without being retired, forever.

Can you picture a pink 32 Bills jersey in October for Breast Cancer Awareness Month?

Roger, if your officials couldn’t throw a pass interference flag on the Rams in the NFC Championship game, maybe at least your public relations team could have thrown one on the stupidity of the Bills’ front office.

 

 

Crazy Names All

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

If you’ve been an avid BBR reader from way back in fall of 2018, you might recall a virtual trip that we took around the US discovering some unique names given to towns all across the U.S. of A.  Today we take a look at five more.

Waterproof, Louisiana 

Waterproof long ago was the one place in the immediate region that managed to avoid devastating floodwaters from the Mississippi River.   Tired of the annual Spring floods, residents move to the spot and named it Waterproof.  Unfortunately for farming community of Waterproof the 2008 crops were lost due to an unprecedented drought.   Maybe a flood every once in a while is a good thing.

Bald Head, Maine

Bald Head is named for the cliff of the same name. Does Bald Head Cliff look like a bald head? Nope. Sometimes town names don’t have a unique meaning to match the unique name.   The neighboring town’s name is just as odd.  Ogunquit (which sounds like “a-gun-quit”) is it’s strange handle.  Bald Head Maine is a personal favorite of this writer.

Accident, Maryland

Legend that dates back to the 1700’s has it that two surveyors, Brooke Beall and William Deakins, Jr., both claimed the same piece of land in the then-colony of Maryland. Friends they were as well.  The dual claim occurred by accident.  Deakins let Beall keep the land as he actually filed first.  No word on the safety of attempting to drive though the town.  Can you imagine explaining to the Geico lizard that you “had an accident in Accident?”

Frankenstein, Missouri

In 1890, Gottfried Franken donated land for the community to build a church.  The town then named itself after the donor.  Sorta.   Franken was not a mad scientist either.   Weird.

Worms, Nebraska

Worms was not named for the wildlife.   The name’s origin might follow from the city of Worms, Germany.  That one would be pronounced “vorms” and comes from a nickname for a Roman emperor.   Why did Germany give a name to a town after a Roman by the way?  We have no clue.  It might be a better story if it was just named after the earthworm after all.

Waterproof, Bald Head, Accident, Frankenstein, and Worms.  That’s five odd names for five odd reasons.

 

 

Ten Piece Nuggets-Sports

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Back in the day, Monday was known as “wash day” in New Orleans.  It became popular to slow cook red beans, lots of seasonings, and rice that day while moms cleaned the house and washed the clothes.  Yum.   Monday on BBR is becoming known as Ten Piece Nuggets day as multiple sports in the late Spring season gives us plenty to season ourselves.  Help yourself below.

  1.  Brooks Koepka owned the largest 54 hole lead in PGA history after three rounds.  After four consecutive back nine bogeys, and a three under (at the time) round going for Dustin Johnson, the lead shriveled to two.   Was Koepka on the verge of a Greg Norman 1996 Master’s meltdown?  Perhaps.  But the brutal Bethpage Black course and gusts to 35 mph late in the afternoon didn’t discriminate.  It  handed out bogeys to all from punishing places the course over.  Koepka held on, as DJ faltered, to win his fourth major in his last eight starts.
  2.  Koepka boldly spoke before the PGA about winning ten or more majors.  He has openly told coaches and players that he’s better than Tiger was and he might win 18 or more.  Koepka doesn’t rhyme with confidence, but it may be a synonym for it.  At the current pace of winning every other one he’ll have ten down in early 2022.  “Not so fast my friend,” Lee Corso just said.  Regardless, with the win Koepka moved to the number one ranking in the world.  He becomes the first golfer ever to hold two back to back major titles simultaneously.
  3.  Koepka’s former coach at Florida St. weighs in like a heavyweight.   Doug Malloy, now the head coach at his alma mater, Ole Miss, believes Koepka is upset nobody is taking him seriously as a threat to Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 major titles.  “It pisses him off that he isn’t asked that question,” said Malloy. “That will make him feel great if you ask him about Jack. I promise you he absolutely thinks of both Tiger’s 15 majors and Jack’s as targets. That’s not 99 percent, it’s 100 percent. Guaranteed.”  We need to order some of whatever supplements he is taking.  The US Open starts 6/15 at Pebble Beach.
  4.  From good golf we turn to good baseball.  Good baseball is exactly what the Yankees have been playing for the past month. Since April 19, they are 20-7, earning the best record in the big leagues across that span.  The Yankees have notched that record while a bevy of key players have spent time on the injured list. In all, 17 Yankees have landed on the IL this season.  They took two of three from the AL East’s division leader Tampa Bay over the weekend and also took over the division lead.
  5.  More good baseball was on tap this weekend as the Houston Astros took two of three from the once slumping, suddenly hot, defending 2018 World Series champs, the Boston Red Sox.  Until yesterday’s loss the Stros had won ten in a row for the second time this season.  Houston’s month of May to date, winning 13 of 14 starts, is the best record in the big leagues across that span.  The Astros own the best record in the AL at 31-16.
  6. Good baseball wasn’t limited to the East either. Hyun-Jin Ryu, pitcher extraordinaire for the LA Dodgers, pitched seven shutout innings to lower his season ERA to 1.52, or half of his career ERA of 3.03. In his nine 2019 starts spanning 59 innings he has given up a stingy ten earned runs.  They have scored game by game as follows, 1,2,2,2,2,1,0,0, and 0.  He extended his scoreless streak to 31 innings.  Hyun-Jin Ryu doesn’t rhyme with Cy Young Award, but it may be a synonym for it.  The Dodgers own the best record in the NL at 31-17.
  7. The Dodgers lead the NL West by 5.5 games over the Arizona Diamondbacks.  It’s early, way early, but will they even look back at the division want to be’s?  The Astros lead the AL West by 8.5 games over the Angels of LA.   It’s early, way early, but will they even look back at the division want to be’s?
  8.  We think that run differential in MLB is a telling stat.  It’s simply how many total runs have you scored season to date minus how many runs have you given up.  If the difference is in the black, you likely have a winning record.  If it’s in the red, you likely have a losing record.  The MLB leader at plus 92 is Houston.  The surprisingly good, and in first in the AL Central, Minnesota Twins are second at plus 74.  The LA Dodgers are third at plus 65.  Somehow Pittsburgh has a 24-20 record with a minus 39 runs scored.  We guess they win close games and lose blowouts.  That doesn’t sound too good for the long summer nights ahead.
  9. A week ago we liked Golden St. in six or less over Portland in the NBA West Conference Championship.  A week ago we liked Milwaukee in six or less over Toronto in the East Conference Championship.  A week later we like what we liked.  Golden St. is going to close out Portland in four tonight.  Milwaukee will take Toronto in five, or six at the max, by week’s end.
  10. We don’t follow boxing.  We think fewer and fewer do.  Therefore we wouldn’t recognize Deontay Wilder or Dominic Breazeale if they were walking down the street next to us.  That said Deontay introduced himself to Dominic in their bout in round one Saturday night in Brooklyn.  It’s as vicious of a one punch TKO as you’ll ever see.  Want to see it?  Click here.  Be forewarned.  It’s brutal.  Want to see it in slow motion?  You can in that same link.  Be forewarned.  It’s even more brutal in slow mo.

That was a lot to chew on.  Be sure to brush regularly.

 

The Final Table

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

With all due respect to Sumo wrestling, does the competition, strategy, and drama get any bigger than when the World Series of Poker’s final table gets down to the last two players?  The chips are stacked high for both contestants and the stakes are higher.  For the winner the financial reward is great.  For the runner up the financial reward is good.  For the ego, winning trumps everything.

So at the final table in the World Series of Trade Negotiations (aka tariffs) we have President Donald Trump from the United States and President Xi Jinping from China (you know the country with the name that Trump pronounces “Chiii Nna”) going heads up.

The final table has been down to these two for several months now.  The hold (pocket) cards were dealt decades ago.   The US, in a sense, holds the advantage as the Chinese imports to the U.S. far outweigh the U.S. exports to China.  Plus, the U.S. economy is larger than China’s, hence its chip stack is bigger.  The Donald knows this.

Onto the board came the flop (the first three of five community cards).  And for months verbal threats about raises were bantered about.  But each player checked. And checked. Manufacturers eyes began to have that “I’ve been in Vegas too long” look about them.  Then, Trump check raised.  Last weekend, tired of the slow play, he threw down a 25% pot sweetener on about 200 billion worth of imports.  Xi Jinping didn’t blink.  He quickly called that with an import penalty on $60 billion in U.S. goods.

Now the turn (community card number four) card is exposed.  Trump immediately, showing strength, pushed further.  His administration on Wednesday slapped a major Chinese firm with an extreme penalty by adding Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. to the Commerce Department’s “entity list.”   This is effectively a death penalty for a foreign company to survive as it blocks its attempt to do business in the U.S.  You can get off of the list, but the cost is more painful than mucking a winning hand.

The department said that it reached this decision because Huawei “is engaged in activities that are contrary to national security or foreign policy interest.”  Perhaps and probably, but why now?  Why not?   Who cares as who is Huawei you ask?  Well, they are only the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker located in, you guessed right, “Chiii Nna.”   The ramifications to Google, chip makers, the 5G platform itself, and many other global entities is huge (or yuge if you will).

Evidently, Trump isn’t bluffing.  He sits confidently sipping his favorite beverage ( “just for the taste of it, Diet Coke”) staring at his opponent.  He knows that his political base is standing right behind him yelling words of encouragement and even holding up signs in support.  “Go President Go.”  Meanwhile, Xi Jinping considers calling in a back masseuse while he ponders just how strong his hand might be compared to The Donald’s.

Next month the river (the final community card) presents itself.  The two leaders plan to meet in Japan.  President Trump often speaks to the great relationship that he has with Xi Jinping.  Hold your friends close and your enemies closer and your cards closest of all.  By then some economic damage will have been done as the world’s two biggest economic powers are under the gun but seem content to hold em for now.  The stock market has side bets pending galore.

The buy-in for the tournament was steep.  The pot has grown considerably steeper.  Both men and the countries that they represent are now pot committed.

Will we see more raises?  It sure looks likely as we see no fold from either in sight.

 

Boom Boom’s Life Lessons #15

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

One of the many gifts that Boom Boom gave us was the torrent of quips about how one leads one’s life.   He could say so much by saying so little.   A statement at just the right moment resonated in my young, eager eardrums.  How I interpreted or applied it was up to me.  No more words were spoken because no more words were needed.

Out of nowhere (out of wood actually) my friend and neighbor across the street had a great two story fort built in his backyard by his dad.  It was cool!  Everyone wanted to play with Timmy and at Timmy’s house.  I needed a fort too, then.  I wanted everyone to want to play at my house.  One Saturday after work Boom Boom, with reservations, built just that for me.  I proudly announced as much to all of my friends late that afternoon.  Boom Boom went back to his weekend chores usually within earshot of my new play area.

Soon many wanted to play in my fort.  I was the king of my castle.  I was the commander in chief of our neighborhood army. Even Timmy came over.

However, daily, less soldiers followed my commands.  And, then less friends were in my army.  I had to get the remaining ones in line.  Soon my fort was all but abandoned.  Everyone went back to Timmy’s fort.

I sulked.  Boom Boom asked me why I thought everyone had deserted my army despite my commands.  “I don’t know,” I whined.  “I do,” he said.  “Why?”  “Because bosses aren’t bossy, son.”  What do you mean?”  “Leaders ask, they don’t demand.  They show the way.  They don’t force the way.”  I sulked.

“What do I do now, Daddy?”  “Go be a good soldier at Timmy’s fort.  You’ll get another chance another day.”

 

 

Oxygen, It’s What’s for Dinner.

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Oxygen, as you know, is most essential to living.  So, when last Friday’s monsoon passed by and brought fresh air to Saturday morning, this BBR staff member decided more was better.  After a week of incessant buffoonery in the political arena a short but brisk run would be the(non political) ticket to even more fresh air to clear the head and pump the lungs.  But, the favored outdoor trail was still swamped.  Plan B took us to the treadmill in the gym.

Many others had the same idea.  The one we quickly took had, you guessed it, MSNBC on the monitor ten feet in front of us.  Evidently, there is no rest, nor exercise, for the weary.   And there they were, all of them.  It was five guests and the very partial host Joy Reid.  A split screen of six in total had each of them screaming about AG Barr’s refusal to appear again before Congress, a “Constitutional Crisis,” Trump’s tax returns, etc.  We couldn’t hear it, but the closed captioning told all.  There isn’t enough oxygen on a show to support six “experts.”  We wondered, how many people across the US would be watching at 9AM Central Time on a Saturday?  We wondered, did the six “experts” out number their entire audience?

After a commercial break, the panel shrunk to a mere four.  Those four discussed the merits and opportunities for the crowded field of 21 Democratic presidential nominee hopefuls.  There isn’t near enough oxygen for all in a race of 21 is there?  The four discussed how Senator and announced candidate Amy Klobuchar had performed on rival Fox News’ town hall last week.  Would you know Senator Amy if she was on a treadmill next to you?  Qunnipac polling shows Amy trailing nearly everyone except Michael Dukakis.  Oops, he’s not running is he?  We think he tanked in his race a while back.  She’s polling at 1.3%.  One point three percent.  And four panelists wondered how she did.  You need a lot of O2 to keep a 24/7 newsroom humming all day when CO2 fills the air.

When Joe Biden entered the race a lot of “want to be’s” started gasping for air, too.  Biden’s playing ping pong.  How far to the left will he need to serve to gather all of the minions necessary to give The Donald a good go?  Well, last week he decided to tell America that Trump was making a mistake in this trade war dance with China.  This came just a week after he seemed to express the opposite.

“China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man!” Biden exclaimed at the time. “The fact that they have this great division between the China Sea and the mountains in the East — I mean in the West. They can’t figure out how they’re going to deal with the corruption that exists within the system. They’re not bad folks, folks. But guess what, they’re not competition for us.”  East, west?  Tomatoe, tomato?  Next thing you know the Germans will be blamed for bombing Pearl Harbor.

The campaign trail is long and the job is tough.  Ask Hillary.   “Sleepy” Joe, as at least one has called him, might need some O2 along the way himself.

Meanwhile it seems like President Trump feels the fresh air.  With one huge post Russian Collusion exhale he seems invigorated.  In his ping pong match he just took five serves from every angle the Democrats could slap at him.  Now, it’s his turn to serve.  We think that he thinks that  Biden is his only competition worth worrying about.  Trump also knows that China is good at ping pong too.  Actually they are very good at it.  Yesterday, they volleyed back with a few tariffs of their own.  The stock market was watching the match from Wall St.  They don’t like long unpredictable matches.  Trump doesn’t like what Wall St. doesn’t like.

The farmers and others in the mid west are watching too.  They played a huge (yuge) roll in Trump’s 2016 election.  China’s tariffs are aimed strategically right at them.  Trump quickly announced yesterday that some of the tariffs that the US is collecting from China will go directly to the farmers in these tough times.   It’s never to early to pump some oxygen into the rust belt.

It seemed like a good time to take a deep breath and go for a run.

2020 is so far away, yet so near.