Engage. Enrage. Enjoy.

All D, No O

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

As 1980 turned to 1981, Carter was on his way out and Reagan was on his way in.

Jimmy’s welcoming gifts to Ronald were the mess that Iran was, a hostage crisis, an energy crisis, inflation, and a newly created Department of Education.

As 2024 turned to 2025, Biden was out and Trump was back in.

Joe’s welcoming gifts to Donald are the mess that Iran is, a hostage crisis, restrictions and bans on oil production, inflation, and a 44-year-old Department of Education.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

After 1980 it took the Democratic Party 12 years to recapture the White House.  And, it was helped greatly to get there by George H.W. Bush in year 10 saying loudly “Read my lips, no new taxes.”  Then he raised taxes.

Will it take the Democratic Party 12 years to recapture the White House this time?  Will they need a goof-up the size of Bush’s, a new identity, or both?

Why is a new identity needed?

The reasons are numerous.  The origin is debatable.

But it says here that it started in 2018 when the first four members of the squad were elected to Congress.  Young, eager, and diverse the four had grown to eight strong by 2022.

They came in loud and proud.  Nancy Pelosi tried to put them in their place in the Party but they’d have little to none of that.

By 2020 Joe Biden sold his soul to the far left to help get him elected.  He promised a female VP.  He promised a black female Supreme Court Justice.  He promised diversity, equity, and inclusion in his cabinet and administration.

Meritocracy was out.  Skin color and race-baiting were in.

He opened the border near and far.  He forgave student debt.  He brokered the Green New Deal.  He supported men in women’s sports.  He supported men in women’s bathrooms and locker rooms.

In short, he catered to the far left.  He was run by the far left.  He was beholden to the far left.  He even told us “They want me to leave the stage now and not answer your questions.”

And, out of that was born the party of common sense.  Imagine thinking that DJT would be looked at as the leader of the Common Sense Party.

Who’s leading the Dems these days? Maxine Waters screams daily into a bullhorn.  Take Chuck Schumer, please.  Nancy’s still leaning left, but is now supported by a HurriCane.

What’s the message?  Is anyone listening?

If you’re yelling you’re losing.  And, they are yelling “bigly” as 47 might say.

The current strategy is to tie Trump’s executive orders up in court and scream “Constitutional Crisis!”

But that’s defense.  Where is and what is the offense?

Meanwhile, Trump is about to put Iran and her proxies in place.  He’s gotten some and is about to get more hostages home be it the USA or Israel.  Drill Baby Drill!  And, DOGE is descending on the Department of Education.

Somehow it feels like 1980 all over again.

It’s not over for the Dems, not at all.

It’s always the darkest before dawn.

But, it sure is dark for now.

 

 

 

 

The Party’s Over

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

There’s not much difference between the word “dodge” and the acronym “DOGE.”  Capital letters aside, drop the letter “d” and voila.

But the USA that we lived in yesterday when four presidents consecutively dodged facing the burgeoning deficit and government waste is very different than the present.

George W started the reckless spending by exceeding the taxes collected by 4 trillion.  Barack followed, and in two terms rang up an 8 trillion dollar tab.  Trump 45, saddled with COVID bailouts ran through 7 trillion more than collected.  And Joseph Biden was sound asleep at the wheel as another 5 trillion piled on top.

Donald Trump 47 got elected and put Elon Musk in charge of finding and eradicating excess, fraud, duplication, and other unnecessary government waste.  DOGE, the unofficial non-paying Department of Government Efficiency, was born.

Warren Buffet once said, “You can tell who is skinny dipping when the tide goes out.”  Apparently, a lot of politicians and government agencies prefer au naturel.

The screaming is so loud that it hurts.  And that’s a good thing.

Imagine if the government treated the money like it was our own.  It is.  They just needed a stark reminder.

Musk has the blueprint in his hands.  He bought Twitter, then walked around the downtown San Francisco headquarters and found out what people there did for the organization.  He quickly realized a lot of them had no idea and provided no value.  Pink slips.

Why should the government be run any differently?

Last week his team uncovered 151 projects that received special funding whose expiration dates had come and gone as long as a decade ago and were still being funded.  Remember that trial subscription to Peacock?  You need to cancel it.

The whaling reached a crescendo yesterday when Musk suggested that USAID be abolished or greatly reorganized, and Trump nodded in the affirmative.  Be honest, 48 hours ago you had no idea that there was such a creature lurking in DC named USAID.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is the principal U.S. agency assisting countries recovering from disaster, escaping poverty, and engaging in democratic reforms.  It sounds nice, and it uses 40 billion of your tax dollars to assist.

The developments come after USAID’s director of security and his deputy were put on administrative leave after reportedly denying Musk’s cost-cutting task force access to its secure systems Saturday.  Translated, “We don’t want to show you who we’re funding and what their ’cause” is.

When Schumer, Warren(Pocahontas), Sanders, and AOC are upset, you know you’re onto something.  They’ve called Elon some unsavory things recently.  Wait till next week when the Department of Education goes up in smoke like the signals emanating from Warren’s teepee.

The questions are simple.  Do you want a bigger government or a smaller one?  Do you want to reduce debt or add to it?  Do you want to balance the budget or exceed it? The correct answers from here are smaller, reduce, and balance.

Do you want the service on the debt to surpass the entire Department of Defense budget?  It is this year for the first time.

It was a heck of a party.  But it’s past midnight on the debt clock.  Maybe the Cristal Champagne for $400 a bottle wasn’t a great idea after all.

Now the bill is due, and the hangover has already started.

Musk isn’t handing out any aspirin.

 

 

 

 

 

All Systems Go

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

If you’ve lived for a few decades or more you’ve seen a few things come and go.  In the last ten years, the comings and goings have come and gone at an accelerated pace.

Fast forward to the last few months and we’ve hit SpaceX speed.

DEI isn’t DEAD, but the Grim Reaper is in hot pursuit.  It’s hard to take the most divisive policy in a long time and use it to make America less divisive.  Meritocracy makes capitalism great again.

Misinformation and disinformation are getting missed and dissed to bring back good old information.   With a big assist from Elon Musk, we get to decide what is or isn’t factual.

The southern border is well on its way to being a border(a line separating two different geographies, philosophies, or countries) again.  Trump 1.0 lost a battle with Congress back then for $5 billion to finish a wall already started by his predecessors.  From then to now lives lost, children trafficked, and fentanyl smuggled collectively cost the US a price that you can’t put a tag on.

The “undocumented” are illegal aliens all over again.   The border czar from 2020 through 2024 loves a good word salad.

Law and order is pushing back hard on lawfare.  Biden and Trump pardoned enough criminals, whether charged, or not, convicted, or not to help take the fair out of lawfare.

Swiftly, bathroom use is returning to biological ID for entry.  Dress how you wish.  But when it’s time to go choose the door you open carefully.

Big Pharma might be in for a downsizing.  RFK Jr would like to help with the root cause of illness, addiction, and disease.  What you put in your mouth now causes the need to put a pill in later to rectify the wrong.  Did you know that in its history Pfizer has never made any medicine that cures what ails you in its entirety?

Binder sales have taken a hit.  Karine Jean Claude Van Damme Pepe Pierre made it a fashion piece or two around the White House attached firmly to her arms.  Twenty-seven-year-old Karoline Leavitt’s first press room briefing ushered in a new binderless era and laid down the rules for the legacy media assembled.

CNN’s Jim Acosta accosted any staff member of Trump 1.0.    Yesterday Jim resigned before financially-strapped CNN said the quiet part out loud.  Legacy media is listing badly from leaning too far left for too long.  Podcasts are in and broadcasts are out.

Like the weather wait a minute and we’ll soon learn what else has changed.

The fires are mostly out in LA, but DC is lit.

Nonsense is out and common sense is back.

For now, Trump 2.0 is all systems go.

 

 

 

If Not Now, When?

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

First thing first.  The loss of 14 lives in NOLA on 1/1 and the loss of an unknown number of LA lives, animals, and property damage a week later are devastating tragedies.

Second thing second.  Realistically, perhaps the only thing harder to prevent than a determined radicalized terrorist from driving a truck through a crowd is stopping a high wind raging wildfire.

But.

Third thing third.  Prevention might be out of reach at times.  But, anticipation, preparation, prevention, and planned reaction can at least minimize the carnage.

Priority one for elected city officials and their hired teams is public safety. In both cities(and states) their leadership failed them.  And, this isn’t the first time for either.

In NOLA long, long ago broken bollards were recently sent out for repair leaving the city vulnerable.  Forty million dollars worth of mobile archers that could have prevented an approach onto the sidewalks lay unused.  The NOLA police chief publically stated, ” I didn’t know these existed.”

The city has purchased some new bollards to replace those that are not repairable.  A city spokesperson said, “The new bollards are made to stop only lighter vehicles traveling at speeds under 10 miles per hour.”

The state told NO repeatedly that the French Quarter was a high-risk target.  The “City That Care Forgot” didn’t care enough to heed all the warning signs.

In Cali high winds over dry areas are very predictable.  Tens of thousands of wind turbines capture some of that wind and harness its energy.

The southern half of the state has had a water supply problem for half a century.  Millions of gallons of water from the north are diverted into the Pacific Ocean that could be used to fill reservoirs and/or saturate the land itself.

An environmental study said the life of a fish called a Smelt could be jeopardized by an overabundance of fresh water flowing south.

How about cleaning out the underbrush?

The Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2014 (Proposition 1) authorized $7.545 billion in general obligation bonds to fund ecosystems and watershed protection and restoration, water supply infrastructure projects, including surface and groundwater storage, and drinking water protection.  It sounded good.

The LA Fire Department is 300 firefighters short of its needed number.  Its current DEI hiring policies and termination of any firefighter who refused the COVID-19 jab didn’t help with recruiting.

All of the above screams out that our government takes our money, spends it foolishly, or reroutes it, forces dumb law to contradict original intents, and fails to come close to achieving its clear number one goal.  To label it as incompetence is being kind.

That goal is YOUR safety.

Is it too soon to point fingers, assign blame, and demand real change?  It’s never too soon.

Politicians don’t fire politicians.  Citizens do, but only at the ballot box and not nearly often enough.

In NOLA if the mayor or the police chief had any shame they’d be gone already.  In CALI when the smoke clears the governor, the LA mayor, and the police chief should step down.  They won’t.

It’s time to ask for resignations.   And, it’s time to be loud about it.

What would that do?  It would serve notice that we the people run the government.  We own it.  The government doesn’t run the people.

Big picture the swing from lunacy to objectivity feels like it has already begun.

If not now, when?

 

 

2025 Has Arrived

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Twenty-twenty-four is all but out of the door.  Our fearless 2025 predictions have arrived.

The first six months follow.

January

Mike Johnson retains his House Speakership.  The Oregon Ducks capture Natty #1 in their school’s history beating Georgia 34-28.  Joe Biden wishes Jimmy Carter luck for the next four years on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration.   Dr. Anthony Fauci warns that the H-1B Visa is a variant of the Covid-19, SARS-CoV-2 KP.2.3 virus, that must be taken seriously.  Taylor Sheridan signs on with Paramount Plus to develop yet another series, this one tentatively titled New Jersey Drones.

February

Philadelphia and Buffalo send Super Bowl LIX to overtime before the Bills win their first Lombardi Trophy 34-28, oddly the same score as the CFP Championship.  President Trump begins the deportation of illegal immigrants and is forced to call out the National Guard in Chicago.   Troublesome interest rates sink the Dow Jones under 40,000.

March

Doug Emhoff and Kamala Harris announce their pending divorce declaring they both wish to be “unburdened by what has been.”  Florida beats Auburn to capture the NCAA March Madness Basketball National Championship in an all-SEC final.   Canada agrees to become a US Territory and is renamed North of North Dakota.

April

An EF3 tornado rolls through northeast Oklahoma causing 10 million dollars of improvements.  The World Health Organization recommends the removal of all birdhouses as the bird flu caseload reaches nearly 200 worldwide.  Mitch McConnel abruptly resigns from the Senate.  After spring practices conclude the NCAA transfer portal has more players in than out.

May

Donald Trump says that the US is exiting the WHO calling its leader Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus a bird brain with a long name.  California Angels OF Mike Trout is placed on the 60-day disabled list with a chronic hangnail.  Ukraine signs a treaty with Russia ceding Crimea over to Putin.  When Joe Biden was asked to comment from his Delaware beach chair, he says “ah, Crimea, crime,a, ah, crime” was already declining in the US under his watch.

June

Hollywood, CA one way UHaul rentals surpass all previous records as the Epstein List is set to release on June 25th.  The OKC Thunder beats the Boston Celtics 4-1 to capture their first-ever NBA Championship.  LeBron James retires and concludes his presser by saying “I diddy the best I could.”  Elon Musk, feeling the power from his non-government, government position says Mars is not the final destination.  He wants to launch a rocket aimed at Uranus.

 

July through December prognostications will hit Al Gore’s internet by week’s end.

Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Donald J. Trump wrote The Art of the Deal in 1987, which sold over a million copies and was number one on the New York Times best-seller list for 13 straight weeks.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson was fifteen years old then.  Likely, The Art of the Deal was not on his high school English class reading list.  Perhaps it should have been, along with a speed reading course.

Though Johnson’s House Continuing Resolution blew up faster yesterday than he could have read it.  The 1500-plus page bill is was longer than three War and Peace novels.

When Elon Musk starts a Twitter war there is no peace.  Elon and Vivek dissected the bill.  In 280 characters or less, they told us that it was more Washington pork being force-fed to the American people who just voted to stop the DC hogs and their special interests.

Mike Johnson brokered a deal with the devil that offered everything from a Congressional member pay raise of 73k per public servant to a three million dollar study on molasses testing.

How about a new three-billion-dollar NFL stadium in DC?  If you have a House seat on the hill you get a sweet suite seat in the stadium.

All he needed and all America needed was funding to keep the government open till Trump got his feet under the Oval Office desk and some additional disaster relief for the two devastating hurricanes the southeast endured in September.

Instead, he chose to include Democrat-driven pet projects.  After the dawn of DOGE he should have known better.

Vote the straight party line on the lighter version of the bill and send it to the Senate.  The Senate is controlled by the Democrats until 1/2/25.  If they reject the bill and shut the government down it’s on them.  Government shutdowns aren’t shutdowns anyway, but politicians like to scare us.

Instead, he tried to please everyone which pleased no one once the richest and smartest man in the world spoke, er, tweeted.

Notably silent yesterday were the RINOs that would have voted with the Democrats to deliver the slab of bacon and run home for the holiday break.  Elon’s watching.  He has the money to primary you, fine folks, soon.  Don’t get him started.

Mike Johnson is gone sooner.  He won’t survive his 1/2 casting call.

Johnson didn’t read Trump’s book.  And, he wrote the wrong bill.

He didn’t read the will of the American people.  Enough already adding shamelessly to the debt.

Reading, writing, and arithmetic.

 

 

Droning On

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

It’s been a quick, but busy, 30 days since Kamala Harris stopped droning on about being “unburdened from what has been.”

Now we’ve got drones over New Jersey airspace unburdened by any American government department.  Yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense said they don’t know their origin or purpose, but there’s nothing to worry about.   Comforting indeed.

Perhaps the Chinese “weather balloon” that traversed across the sky high above us for days on end 18 months ago was deemed a trial success.  Before you know it Boeing 737 MAXs will be airborne again as well.  Hallelujah, we think.

President Joe Biden’s been flying high too.  His trip to Africa was a long but successful one.   Biden’s visit, the first to Angola by a U.S. president, is meant to promote billions of dollars of commitments to the sub-Saharan African nation for what he called the largest ever U.S. rail investment overseas.

“The United States is all in on Africa,” he said between naps in meetings.

This comes a day after his 50-billion-dollar loan pledge to Ukraine.  Hell hath no fury like a President scorned. Dr. Jill was back stateside openly mocking Kamala beginning her speech by asking everyone to have “joy.”  Hell hath no fury like a First Lady scorned.

Christopher Wray is wrapping up his tenure as FBI Director.  He knows that a new sheriff is coming to DC soon.  If Mickey Donovan had the same sensibility for his son Ray Ray a lot of hubbub could have been avoided.

Wray’s wrap is ahead of the parade.  When the Kings of DOGE hit DC the real towel-waving begins.

The “experiment” of lesser government wrapped up one year in Argentina. It should be viewed as a blueprint.

President Javier Milei announced a tax reform plan to eliminate 90 percent of existing taxes after slicing 18 government ministries to nine reducing the country’s inflation year over year from 25.5% to 2.7%.  It’s terrible to subject citizens to such bloat for so long.

It’s also terrible that more than a few zealots took to social media to cheer the murder of the head of UnitedHealthcare exclaiming that you have to challenge the medical establishment.  Weren’t some of them the same ones wanting you dead for criticizing Pfizer, the vaccine that wasn’t a vaccine, and the booster that wasn’t a booster?

Maybe permanent social distancing isn’t a bad idea.

 

 

 

 

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.