Engage. Enrage. Enjoy.

Mormon? Moron? Senator? President? Where? Who?

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Were you already working yesterday at 9 AM EST and missed the Amy Coney Barrett(ACB) Supreme Court Justice initial nomination proceedings?  Understandable.

That’s why BBR is here for you.  We watched and are pleased to bring to you a quick recap below summarizing what took place.

Nothing.  That right, absolutely nothing.

ACB (no relation whatsoever to AOC) sat prim and proper, mask perfectly in place, and listened to Senate committee members bloviate for five minutes at a time.

Each Republican extolled her credentials, and that list is long and unopposed on the merits.

Each Democrat talked about how the world is ending due to Trump, COVID-19, his poor response to COVID-19, how great the Affordable Care Act(ACA) is/was, and how “Trump the Terrible” was going to take it away along with your chance at surviving this pandemic much less even a common cold.

We give the Democrats credit again.  Even when they have an empty hand they press on as if they have pocket aces.

They know at least four things.  One, ACB is a shoo-in.  Her credentials are impeccable.  Two, the Republicans have the votes to confirm her no matter what they say or do.  Three, therefore, when you have “free” air time use it to you and your party’s advantage.  And four, the road to the White House is paved by running over Trump and then backing up over him again and again.

They’ve been driving that bus since the days before he took office in 2016.  It’s accelerated when they realized Joe Biden is nothing more than a 77-year-old who wears Aviator sunglasses and stumbles through one teleprompter aided speech after the other in his quest to become Senator.

Senator?  Well, that’s what he said yesterday.  He also called Mitt Romney  “that Senator who is a Mormon.”  Well, that beats getting called “that Senator who is a moron,” which, while appropriate, might be insensitive in today’s word, but we digress.  He also tweeted out that he was campaigning in Pennsylvania while he was in Ohio.  And, finally, he directed folks at a “rally”(all 15 of them in person) to a website that doesn’t exist.

It’s all in a day’s work for the assumed frontrunner for President (not Senate) of the United States.

It’s no wonder that the Democrats are putting in extra work to tear Trump down while ACB gets appointed to the highest court in the land.

That former Senator from New Hampshire, um, Delaware, um somewhere, Joe Biden might win election to the highest office in the land.  He’s just not sure where that is, nor what it is.

2020.

 

The D.C. Boomerang

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Have you ever thrown a boomerang?  Rumor has it that if you throw it just right it’ll come back to you.

Shortly after the 2016 presidential election it now looks like one may have been thrown so hard and far on Capitol Hill that it’s just now making its way back to its rightful owner.

You remember back then Donald Trump, labeled Putin’s puppet by a few Democrats, was accused of colluding with the Russians to tilt the election in his favor.  And, quickly, right after Jeff Sessions recused himself as Attorney General, the Russia collusion investigation took flight.

On May 17, 2017, Robert Mueller was appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as special counsel overseeing an investigation into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and related matters.  The “and related matters” language is like having a blank check.  You can wander into a lot of file cabinets, subpoenas, and personal computing devices when you are investigating “related matters.”

And the investigation did wander as it wondered.  It wandered for 22 months.  We learned that “Crossfire Hurricane” was the code name for the FBI investigation into the Russian interference.    We learned that Michael Cohen didn’t pay his taxes.  He’s in jail now.  We even learned about porn star Stormy Daniels.  Her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, was famous for fifteen minutes, too.  He’s in jail now as well.  He faces numerous counts of fraud and extortion.  That’s how far the investigation wandered as part of that “related matters” opportunity it was afforded.

House Judicial Committee leader Adam Schiff appeared on CNN, Meet the Depressed, and MSNBC roughly 201 times stating “we now have direct evidence linking Trump to the Russians.”   CNN, Meet the Depressed, and MSNBC commentators then repeated roughly 2001 times “there is direct evidence linking Trump to the Russians.”  It’s what all well-trained parrots do.

Only, there was no direct evidence.  After a bevy of witnesses paraded before Shiff and his minions, Robert Mueller himself appeared and told them himself that there was no link.  Well, he really said, “that is beyond my purview” roughly 20,001 times, but we digress.  And, poof went the two-year waste of time and money balloon.

And with that, the Ukraine phone call took center stage.

So whatever happened to that pesky Russian collusion problem?  It looks like the boomerang turned for home yesterday.

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe on Tuesday declassified documents revealing that former CIA Director John Brennan had briefed former President Obama on Hillary Clinton’s plan to tie then-candidate Donald Trump to Russia — as “a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server.”  Whoopsie do!

The “foreign policy adviser” who allegedly proposed “vilify[ing] Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security services “was Jake Sullivan, now a top Biden aide.” Hillary OK’d his proposal on July 26, 2016, just days before the FBI opened the probe.  Whoopsie do do!

House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jim Jordan (R-OH) tweeted Tuesday: “We now know that John Brennan and Hillary Clinton conjured up the phony Russian hoax with the Obama/Biden Administration to distract Americans from the Clinton email scandal. The witch hunt was worse than we ever thought!”

And with that, the boomerang is rapidly heading back to those who originally launched it perhaps.

A wise man opined years ago that if you want to know what one side is doing listen to what they are accusing the other side of doing and you’ll know.  He was right.

It’s about power.  It’s always about power.  So, what becomes of all of this power grab sabotage?  That answer likely depends on who assumes power in the White House and on Capitol Hill in January.

After all, not all boomerangs are made to return.  Some are used for (witch) hunting.

 

 

 

 

 

Debating the Winners and Losers

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

So, who won the debate last night you ask?  We’d like to ask the question differently.  Who lost?  America.

So, you persist.  Who won the debate, you ask again.  We are at least willing to narrow it down to two people.  We have some obvious clues.

We think the winner was an old white angry male who hurled insults, lies, and zingers before, during, and after his allotted time.  The question is, was it the some of the time “interrupter” or the all of the time “interrupter?”

Spanish speaking broadcaster Telemundo asked it’s viewers an hour after the debate.  Those that hadn’t turned off the TV midway through the donnybrook, nor after it mercifully ended, nor took Pepto Bismal actually selected Trump by a wide 66-34% margin.

The score has little practical meaning, partly because Telemundo’s respondents were not a scientific sample and may have been organized themselves to skew the results.

In 2016, for example, “Hillary Clinton was deemed the winner of Monday night’s debate by 62% of voters who tuned in to watch, while just 27% said they thought Donald Trump had the better night,” according to a CNN poll of voters who watched the debate.  All that proved was who watches CNN.

In 2020, that same instant poll last evening has Joe Biden the winner by a 60-28% margin.  All that proved was who still watches CNN.

Moderator Chris Wallace had to feel like he was herding cats.  But, that stopped neither side’s supporters from criticizing him.

At one point the sometimes interrupter Biden exclaimed, “What was the question? I can’t remember because of all his rambling.”   Wallace retorted, “I’m having some trouble myself.”  And the left screamed that Wallace needed to regain control.

A bit earlier the incessant interrupter Trump spared with Wallace when questioned over the lack of a health care plan.   “First of all, I guess I’m debating you, not him, but that’s okay, I’m not surprised.”  And the right tweeted all night that Wallace was very left minded in his 90-minute task.

That task must have felt like trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube.

So how is a debate winner actually determined?  Ultimately, it’s by how many undecided voters or opponents voters they swayed with their performance.

What was said took a back seat to how it was said for the most part.  Policy, principle, and vision took a back seat to uppercuts, sucker punches, and low blows.

Because of that, we strongly doubt that any MAGA’s or never Trumpers were so moved.

How about the undecided?  Who, in this unraveled, strongly divided country, is undecided?

Our call?  Wallace lost. He had no chance.  Trump didn’t convert anyone.  He missed a chance.  Biden held serve.  He needs to stay upright twice more.

And, America took it on the chin yet again in 2020.

 

The Gamble

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

It was way back in 1978 when Kenny Rogers was singing and Democrat Jimmy Carter was President.

Rogers song, The Gambler, advised us to know when to hold ’em, and know when to fold ’em.   Carter advised us to raise our thermostats to 78 degrees to help overcome the global oil supply shortage caused for the most part by the Iranian Revolution.

Carter misread his hand and the American people as well.  America wanted a solution to the problem, not a bandaid.  Ronald Reagan steamrolled Carter in the 1980 election.

And now we wonder if the Democrats are overplaying their hand in their effort to remind us of all that is wrong with America today, and blame it all on wretched Donald Trump.

If you believe the polls, it’s working.  Biden is leading Trump in the overall likely popular vote and in several key electoral college swing states.  If you believed the polls in 2016 Hillary Rodham Clinton was doing the same.

But if you believe the recent polling data on a few key issues, you might wonder if they are doubling down on the wrong hands.

The first was the “defund the police” cries from the citizens and woke mayors going along with city budgets aimed at doing the same.  Polls told the Dems that this was a no-no and even Joe Biden realized that he needed to get out of the basement to speak against it.  But, some damage surely was done.  Police unions nationwide agree.

The more recent was Jerry Nadler speaking out loud about what the Dems should do if the Senate Republicans approve Amy Coney Barrett and then the Dems reclaimed the Senate in November.  Nadler’s handlers tweeted under his name, “Filling the SCOTUS vacancy during a lame-duck session is undemocratic and a clear violation of the public trust in elected officials. Congress would have to act and expanding the court would be the right place to start.”  If you don’t like the game, then change the rules.

Pack the court he screams.  But a proposed “Keep Nine” amendment popped up last week.  It’s objective is in its name.   A survey, conducted by McLaughlin and Associates from Sept 23 – 27 among 1,000 registered, likely voters, found that 62 percent favor the amendment, as opposed to the 18 percent who do not.  Oops!

And, lastly, a mom of seven with a sterling bench record, a strong constitutionalist view, and an even stronger belief in her Catholic faith is about to get grilled by Senate Dems over those very beliefs.  But a Scott Rasmussen poll might give them pause.  The poll found that 37 percent of voters favor Barrett’s confirmation by the United States Senate, while 30 percent oppose her confirmation, for a net approval of plus seven for confirmation. Thirty-three percent were undecided.

It should give them pause, but it won’t.  The grilling will be bigger than a Nadler barbeque.

Polls, polls, polls.

The only one that ultimately matters is the November 3rd election day polling booth.  Well, actually you can mail it in before, during, and after as well, but we digress.

Are the Dems reading the cards right?  How loud will the so-called “silent majority” sing?

“You gotta know when to walk away, and know when to run.”

 

Peek a Boo

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Driving over 3000 miles in four days gave us plenty of windshield time to see it more clearly.  But, to see it more clearly you need to close your eyes.  No peaking.  Ready?

Pretend that you had absolutely no idea who Joe Biden was running against for the highest office in the land, and therefore, in the world.  Would you vote for him?  Eliminate your emotions of the moment.  You’ve had it with COVID-19.  You’ve had it with Trump you say?  You just cheated.  Remember, you have to play along and pretend that you have no idea who the current President is.

Try once more.  And, when you do honestly ask yourself if you can mail in, write in, pull the lever for a man that his own party is hiding.  Can you vote for a man who actually cannot even read from a teleprompter without messing it up and then telling you he is reading his lines?

Further, he’s a career-long politician telling you what’s wrong with government and that he’ll fix it.  He’s been at it for almost a half a century.  How long does it take? America cast aside Bush, Rubio, Graham, Romney, and Sanders before it pushed Hillary out of the door four years ago.  Do you want to go back to the future?

What is Biden running on?  Besides fumes, it’s “here’s what’s wrong with Trump.”  It’s not what’s right with him.  He’s flip-flopped more times in his political career that Jimmy Buffet has worn a pair.

If you still say yes we think you cheated again in our pretend test.

It must be because you hate Trump.  It has to be.  Don’t feel bad, he gives you plenty of reasons to hate him.  His demeanor and loose tongue are but two.  And, he was/is lost at times trying to guide the country through the ongoing pandemic.  Although given the medical community’s ever-changing advice, maybe we all were/are lost.

But what if?  What if you judged him on his accomplishments?  Do actions speak louder than words?

If they do, he’s done a bunch of good all the while having the other side of the aisle impede his every step, or impeach him altogether.  Pre COVID-19 was the economy great?  Was the lowest unemployment regardless of your gender or race since post-WW II good?  How many manufacturing jobs did we add?  Were his new trade agreements good for America?

Is his continual push to get China straight the right thing?  When he signed the “Three Strikes” program out of law was it a good step?  How quiet is Kim Jong Un?  He’s withdrawn tens of thousands of American troops from foreign soil.  ISIS, who?  And, now with his son in law running point, he’s forged agreements in the middle east the likes of which are previously unheard of.

Did you think he spent too much before the China virus sprung loose?  We did too.  Bush I, Bush 2, and Obama did too.  But, now is not the time to tighten.

Next Tuesday is the debate that will be heard (and watched) around the world.  Trump can’t wait to get into the ring.  The Democrats hope Biden can walk and not be carried out after 90 minutes.  That unto itself is telling.

It’s hard to hate Biden. You almost feel sorry for him.  It’s hard to like Trump.  He’s an acquired taste at best.

We asked above for you to pretend for a minute.  Is Biden capable of leading the U.S now, much less for the next four years?  What is the logical answer to the previous question?  It’s beyond obvious.

You can stop now.  Open your eyes.  Please.

 

Don’t Shoot the Messenger.

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Any sophomore student majoring in communication can tell you that there are many parts that need to work together for there to be good communication.  But, two of the most important are the message itself and the messenger who delivers it.

After all, it’s who is selling, what is being sold, and how.

The Movement was selling social justice, race equality, and police reform at the outset, just shortly after George Floyd perished in Minneapolis.  Some criminal behavior, when you look back on the outset of it probably could be understood or at least overlooked.  Emotions were running as hot as the fires that the protesters were setting.

Buring cars in March and spray painting walls in April seem like so long ago.  It seemed like the nation was listening then or at least trying to.

But, what good became of it?  The message seems lost now in the continued bad behavior of a few but of a few too many messengers.

How bad is it?

Rochester, New York, police officers have received permission to cover their name tags in an effort to avoid harassment from far-left protesters.

Rochester Police Chief La’Ron Singletary who is set to retire soon, approved the move after protesters targeted a number of officers who shouted out their home addresses, the names of their children and their schools, and made phone calls to their parents.

Bad.

As you know by now two LA police officers, sitting in their marked patrol car were targets of a seemingly random assassination attempt.

What else can you call it but an assassination attempt?  So, you might ask, “could it be totally unrelated to The Movement?”  “Don’t jump to conclusions,” you say?

The “jump to conclusions” ship sailed long ago.  What America sees on video suffices for judge and jury, unfortunately, today.

Bad became worse.

But worse was about to become the worst.

Word spread in the LA community of Compton of the attack and of where the officers were taken.  Outside of Lynwood Hospital “peaceful protesters” shouted, “we hope they die.”  They chose the up ramp to the emergency room to deliver the less than positive well wishes.  This blocked the path for other emergency transport vehicles and their very ill occupants, utterly unrelated to this crime, to quickly and safely enter the hospital.

Indeed, worse behavior became the worst behavior.

And with it, logic left the conversation once more, and perhaps forever.

The message has value.

But, the messengers have no values.

 

School Daze

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

America is back in school, be it virtual, part-time virtual, or full time in person.

We’ve been told to “follow the science” so many times in the last six months, though, that it seems like we never left school.  It might be wise to “follow the math” while we are back at it as well.

But, the teaching methods change as fast as The Movement moves.   It would be wise to keep up with the “new” science and “new” math.

Louisiana Tech went back to school and the university’s football team was following the old science quite well. Tech athletic director Tommy McClelland said that the Bulldogs had only one positive COVID-19 test in the three weeks before the Hurricane Laura as they huddled and studied together.

But, along came a bad storm, and the new science took a turn for the worse.

“It is obvious that the impact in our community a few weeks ago really sparked our significant increase in numbers,” McClelland said. “With 95 percent of our city losing power for days our student-athletes were forced to find places to stay, and some even had family from south Louisiana that came northward to stay with them. So many things that we were able to control for the month of August became out of our control.”

The count of positive tests within the team soared to 38 yesterday.  The season opener v. Baylor has been postponed, and likely will be canceled.

Seems like the science favors playing football and staying together based on the above.  Although the Big 10 and PAC 12 still seem to think otherwise.

Meanwhile, there is some new math out on the campaign trail.

A few new polls from both the national level and prime swing states indicate President Trump is outperforming his 2016 numbers among Latinos, and sits currently at the highest share of the demographic for Republicans since 2004. The trend has increased over the past week in two different polls.

The first, conducted by Emerson University found that in a head-to-head matchup, Trump was favored by 37 percent of Latinos, compared to 60 percent for Biden. Similarly, a poll conducted by Quinnipiac University has the commander-in-chief taking 36 percent of the Latino vote v 56 percent for Biden.   Both were taken shortly after the Republican Convention.

But their results closely mirror those found in a Pew Research study released in mid-August well before the convention.  At the time, Pew found that Trump polled at 35 v 63 for Biden.

35,36,37.

If accurate, the results do not bode well for Biden and Democrats. In 2016, Hillary Clinton received 66 percent support among Latino voters, compared to Trump’s 28 percent.  The drop-off in support, coupled with Trump’s populist appeals to blue-collar voters, was significant enough to deny Clinton victory in the electoral college.

Maybe the stay at home and/or work from home suburban moms will provide even more “new” math when they vote.  They’re getting an over their kids’ shoulder look at the two subjects daily via Al Gore’s internet.  And, they seem to be leaning Biden’s way in 2020 as they did for Trump in 2016.

The COVID-19 science and the 2020 election math are quite intertwined at a minimum, or a tangled mess if you prefer.

Biden’s and Trump’s GPAs are hanging in the balance.

The final exam is scheduled for November 3rd.

A Cure For What Ails Us

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Roses are tough to grow you know.   A green thumb helps.  And, watch out for those thorns.

In spite of those obstacles, everything seems to be coming up roses for the hottest political couple of the summer of 2020.  Joe Biden and Kamala (comma la) Harris are having the virtual convention of their lives.

Have you watched it? If you haven’t we can tell you that what you’ve missed is a lot of the “what Trump has done wrong, and why he shouldn’t be reelected.”  A couple of folks named Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton went so far as to say he shouldn’t have been elected in 2016 either.  Trump remains quite the thorn in their side it seems.

But, last night Harris actually shed some light on what Biden would do if he got to prune the roses in the garden on Pennsylvania Ave. for the next four years.  We probably shouldn’t use the words “Biden” and “prune” in the same sentence, but we digress.

“Joe will bring us together to end this pandemic and make sure that we are prepared for the next one,” Harris said during her VP acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) on Wednesday night.  We knew there was a doctor in the Biden home, but we thought that was Dr. Jill.

Biden must be quite the medical miracle worker.  It turns out that he vowed to cure cancer during a campaign stop in June 2019. “I’ve worked so hard in my career that, I promise you if I’m elected president you’re gonna see the single most important thing that changes America. We’re gonna cure cancer,” Biden said.

That campaign stop was before his campaign stopped traveling.  Maybe that doesn’t matter anymore either.  Joe has been slow to get to a few states, including a vital swing state, Wisconsin.  He hasn’t seen any Cheeseheads in person in the last 660 days.  The doctor no longer makes house calls.

But, there is only so much time in a day or week, or month or year or two.  Joe’s been doing yeoman’s work in his basement which must closely resemble the Johns Hopkins research lab.

He repeated this cancer cure vow during his Super Tuesday victory speech and also added that he would find cures for Alzheimer’s and diabetes.

“We’re gonna invest billions of dollars to find, and I promise you, cures for cancer, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes,” he said.  Who knew that you could throw money at a problem and fix it that easily?

Harris also has her eyes on a different virus.  It’s actually one that is so ugly that you can see it.  The first black woman to be nominated to a major party’s ticket, also described racism as “a virus” in her speech Wednesday night.

“This virus has no eyes, and yet it knows exactly how we see each other — and how we treat each other,” Harris said. “And let’s be clear — there is no vaccine for racism. We’ve gotta do the work.”

If Biden and Harris can cure COVID-19, cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and racism between now and 2024 they deserve our vote.

Period.

End of story.

Almost.

Hopefully they’ll find some time to stop the pesky climate change too.

 

 

The USPS Mess

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

The BBR staff has been rolling through some states in the Deep South for the last few days.   While there we managed to take only a glimpse at the news.  And, voila, it seems like the “deep state” is alive and well.

The quest to oust Trump is nearly four years old and going strong.  It sounds like the plight of the United States Postal Service is the latest raging problem that the left is placing the blame for at the feet of the President.

It’s so bad that Trump’s two months ago appointed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy will be beaten up like a USPS package by the time he is finished testifying before Congress next week.   Nancy Pelosi is so concerned about the Post Office all of a sudden that she decided to call the House back to Washington and back to order.  The House hasn’t been in order in years, but we digress.

TV networks will cover it like it’s the next Russian Collusion.  And, that’s because it is.  The Post Office’s problem isn’t Trump.  The Post Office’s problem is the Post Office.  And, it’s been that way for a long time.  Actually, it’s been that way for far too long.  A few facts, none of which will be brought up by the left as the excoriate DeJoy follow.

The Post Office, if it were a business would be out of business.  It’s insolvent and has been for a long time.  It lost 2.2 billion dollars last quarter to add to the 78 billion its lost since 2007. The government’s own Accountability Office wrote a May report and said that “the USPS current business model is not financially sustainable.

The Wall St Journal article last week called it a Blockbuster service in a Netflix world.  That about sums it up, doesn’t it?

In 2006 mail volume peaked at 213 billion pieces.  It’s down 33% and counting as of last year from that high.  But, during that same time frame, the number of delivery points (addresses) served by them increased from 146 to 160 million.   In other words, costs continue to rise while revenue shrinks.  Hello?

Walk-in retail customers are down 23% from the 2010 all-time high.  During that same time, USPS locations shrunk only 4%.

They have an exclusive right(monopoly) to your mailbox that carries a universal obligation or promise to carry a letter anywhere for 55 stinking cents.

One route in Montana serviced 6 days a week like all others, covers 191 miles to hit 272 mailboxes.  In extreme northern Arizona, mules take mail down an 8-mile path to the base of the Grand Canyon.

The USPS workforce is 600k people strong and organized by seven different unions.  Congress in 2013 rejected a proposal to save 2 billion a year back then and in every subsequent year by stopping Saturday regular service.  And, remember next week, this will all be the current administration’s fault.

The USPS retiree health care plan has billions to invest but is mandated to invest those Washington’s only in U.S. Treasurys.  Ten-year Treasury note returns have been falling for years and return about 1/2 of 1% per annum currently.  Do you think health care costs only rise by about 1/2 of 1 percent per year?  If so, we have a jackass to sell you that walks 16 miles a day in the Grand Canyon.

DeJoy reassigned 23 top-level managers while citing a substantial decline in volume, a broken business model, and a management strategy that has failed to address these issues.  It sounds like he is doing his job, so it’s no wonder Congress is mad.

Let the conspiracy theories begin.  Former President Barrack Obama said last month that “those in power are undermining the Postal Service in the run-up to the election that is going to be dependant on mailed-in ballots.

The Democrats, in their latest House relief bill, want to give the Post Office $25 billion to compensate for “revenue forgone due to coronavirus.”  The sickness of the financial state of the post office isn’t due to coronavirus.  It’s due to Al Gore’s invention called the internet.

What the USPS needs is major reform at a minimum.  Would you mind if your mail only came three days a week as but one example?

That will be lost in the name blame game next week.  The House will kick DeJoy around, blame Trump, and kick the mailbox down the road.

 

Impossible Is Nothing

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Over 25 years ago a very famous man very nearly severed his ex-wife’s head from her body while savagely killing her, killed a man who was in the wrong place at the wrong time while he was there, and left an unmistakable trail of his own incriminating blood at the crime scene all the way back to his residence.

Can you imagine getting a jury of 12 of your peers that would unanimously agree that, upon further review, you were innocent?  “Only in America,” Don King would have said.  “Only in Los Angeles,” former NFL great Orenthal James Simpson said.

It’s also been said by many on many occasions that his innocence was payback to a police force and a city (supposedly of angels) that used excessive force in subduing Rodney King after a prolonged car chase captured on camera.  “Enough of this police brutality,” they screamed.

Now, a quarter of a century later, L.A. is still determined to fix that problem.  The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a proposal by a 4-1 vote on Tuesday to amend the city’s charter to remove $880 million from law enforcement and “reinvest” the money in “direct community investment” and “alternatives to incarceration.”   Minneapolis has more in common with LA than sharing the Lakers it seems.

Like the jury vote to acquit, the general population will have their say on the proposal on November 3rd.

Titled, “Reimagining L.A. County: Shifting Budget Priorities to Revitalize Under-resourced and Low-income Communities,” the proposal includes language frequently used by Democrat politicians and the broader left. It alleges the existence of “systemic discrimination, exclusion, and inequity” targeting blacks and yielding “racial injustice” and “racial inequity.”

The $880 million is 10% of the current law enforcement budget.  It would “strictly prohibit any of these funds to be used in law enforcement.  Rather it would provide  “access to capital for small minority-owned businesses, with a focus on Black-owned businesses.” It also prescribes the use of “community-based restorative justice” among its “alternatives to incarceration.”

Usually, when big government has identified a problem, they want to throw more money at it as a solution.  In this instance they are taking it away.  But, in this instance, they are also throwing it, just in a different direction.  Don’t cut taxes, just spend it differently.

Are fewer cops, or less well-paid cops a better idea?  Or would the same amount of them, but better trained, supervised, and evaluated be a better idea?

Or, is community-based restorative justice be a better idea than incarceration?  What does community-based restorative justice mean anyway?  Is there a social worker who can work with us on this explanation?

And what is this “access to capital for small minority-owned businesses, with a focus on Black-owned businesses?”   Does this sound like a hand up or a handout?  And, is there a direct correlation between more money government money for minority businesses and less crime?  Is there a social worker who, hell, nevermind.

The city that has run away from supporting NFL franchises faster than OJ, finger cut and all, exited 875 South Bundy Rd.  It will now try to support minority businesses while defunding the police.  Or, will it?

Will 51% of the city’s registered voters will go for this?

Would you have thought that 12 jurors would agree after a mere four hours of deliberation that OJ would benefit from “alternatives to incarceration?”  Alternatives might have helped Rodney King as well.  He was arrested and jailed at least 12 additional times after the 1991 incident.

In 2020 nothing is impossible.  Or, given the state of the times, should we say “impossible is nothing?”