National

iPods, Smoking, and Combustion Engines

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Did you or do you own an iPod?  Did you ever smoke cigarettes?  Will you trade in your gas guzzler when the time comes for an electric vehicle(EV)?

Yesterday the mother of all companies in tune with what people want/need, Apple, ended production on the tunes machine that changed how we listened to music-the iPod.

Why did they discontinue the iPod?  It’s pretty simple.  Apple and its competitors innovated.  You can listen to music, podcasts, etc. right from your phone from a variety of sources better known as apps.   The sound quality is amazing.

The life span of the iPod was a short but successful 20 years or so.  Innovation changed the game.

Cigarettes, regardless of brand, went from “smoke them if you got em” during WWII, to sexy in the ’60s, to the surgeon general warning us in the ’80s about how bad they were for your health, to frowned upon in the ’00s, to almost extinguished in the ’20s.

The lifespan of Winston, which “tastes good like a cigarette should,” was multiple generations.  Medical science changed the game.

In 1886, Carl Benz began the first commercial production of motor vehicles with internal combustion engines. By the 1890s, motor cars reached their modern stage of development.

The gasoline-powered car stands as one of the great inventions ever.  It revolutionized how we got around, how far we could go, and who we were.

And, a quick 130 or so years later it’s in the fight of its life.  EVs cometh.  And so does the government.

Sure, EVs are innovations to gas-powered cars and trucks like the phone is to the iPod.  Sure(we presume), EVs are healthier for our planet like not smoking is to smoking.

But this one feels forced.  Shouldn’t we let nature, innovation, education, and consumer preferences take their course?

“Biden admin’s new NEPA permitting rules will basically stop new oil and gas production,” wrote renowned economist Larry Kudlow yesterday.  “The Keystone XL pipeline is gone.  Alaska drilling is gone. Other smaller pipelines are gone. Those decisions have already been made by Biden’s Energy and Interior departments and his EPA.”

And, now new leases in the Gulf of Mexico have been canceled.  Additionally, Russian oil is off-limits and gasoline at the pump is already at an all-time high.

These new NEPA rules are so restrictive that they will slow down the $1 trillion infrastructure bill they passed including the green infrastructure (windmills, solar).  All projects will be subject to direct, indirect, and cumulative environmental impact reviews.

So while we are in a rush to go green, far-reaching regulations were passed that will now make us inspect the government-funded (read as you funded) green infrastructure projects to ensure they’re green.  We’re spending a lot of green for all of this.

Are you seeing red yet?  Your eyes are fine.  It’s probably just all of that government red tape that you are seeing.

Like baby formula, we’d like to see the supply of gas catch up with the demand for gas.  It would lower prices.  That would allow us to keep a bit of what we earn so that when taxes are raised to pay for all of this that government can’t afford, we’ll be able to afford to do so.

Eventually, won’t EVs win out? Capitalism drove us this far so to speak.

Until then, we’d like to “fill er up” a time or two more without going into what’s left of our savings accounts.

 

 

 

 

Basic Common Sense

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

A make-believe President Andrew Sheppard (actor Michael Douglas) interrupted a press conference in the movie An American President filmed in 1995 and said, “You cannot address crime prevention without getting rid of assault weapons and handguns. I consider them a threat to national security, and I will go door to door if I have to, but I’m gonna convince Americans that I’m right, and I’m gonna get the guns.”

“Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47,” shrieked Beto O’Rourke to roaring applause from a crowd at Texas Southern University during a Democratic Debate for a want-to-be President in 2015. “We’re not going to allow it to be used against our fellow Americans anymore.”

Yesterday, our real president, though some would argue in title only, Joe Biden told us that he wants to rein in the use of untraceable firearms known as ghost guns that turn up frequently at crime scenes.  This attempt targets privately made firearms that can be assembled from purchased do-it-yourself kits.  The weapons lack serial numbers, which makes it difficult to trace the owner.

Commercial manufacturers of the kits will have to be licensed and must add serial numbers on the kits’ frame or receiver.  Commercial sellers of the kits will have to become licensed and will be required to run background checks on potential buyers.  It makes some sense as conventional retailers must do the same.  It just won’t stop anyone who wants a gun to find a way to get one.

“These guns are weapons of choice for many criminals,” Biden said in a Rose Garden ceremony attended by victims and families of gun violence. “We are going to do everything we can to deprive them of that choice and, when we find them, put them in jail for a long, long time.”  Sounds like we’re not as interested in defunding the police as we were pre election.

Biden called the not call to arms “basic common sense.”  Except, it’s not.  Or, at least it’s not enough.

Well, it makes as much sense as Twitter employees who worry that Elon Musk, now Twitter’s largest shareholder, may turn their free speech platform into a platform that actually allows free speech, but we digress.

All together now- guns don’t kill people.  People kill people.

Adding serial numbers to parts will make illegal gun owners take a bit longer to file down the additional numbers to make them untraceable.  Also, stolen guns are stolen guns regardless of who cleared a background check originally.

There are over 330 million guns in this country that we can count. It’s the second amendment right.  If you don’t make another one, or file down another serial number, that’s enough for every man, woman, and child, regardless of their choice of pronouns, to pack heat.

Illinois and New York have the strictest gun control laws in the nation.  Ask the residents of Chicago’s south side or the Bronx how much that helps.

Criminal behavior starts way before someone puts a gun in their hand.  Once Veep Kamala figures out the root cause of illegal immigration maybe she can turn her attention to the root cause of criminal behavior.

Until then we can continue paying lip service to the problem as we do with China, Russia, inflation, debt, and the border.

 

The Sky Is Falling

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Know why Chicken Little crossed the road?

We’ll give you a hint.  It’s the same reason why John Kerry flew to Houston this week and spewed out all of those carbon emissions behind his plane.

It was to tell the uninformed that “the sky is falling, the sky is falling!”

President Biden’s climate czar, John Kerry, said that while the Ukraine refugee crisis is a “problem” amid Russia’s invasion, it pales in comparison to the wave of migration that will come if climate change is not addressed.

“We’re already seeing climate refugees around the world,” he said. “If you think migration has been a problem in Europe in the Syrian War or even from what we see now, wait until you see 100 million people for whom the entire food production capacity has collapsed.”  Climate refugees, who knew?  See the sky really is falling.

And as fictional character Carrie Bradshaw on Sex and the City would say, “and just like that” the great reset has revved up its political engines.

President Biden told reporters Tuesday that he “can’t do much” about rising gas prices and blamed the situation on Russia’s war against Ukraine.  But, what we can do is send out the machine that the Democratic Party is and preach climate change.

Wise politicians always say, “you never want to let a crisis go to waste.”  And, unlike the Republicans, the Democrats all come to roost behind a common cause like the wise owls that they are.

Never mind Afghanistan, worthless boosters, late covid tests, the stock market, Ukraine, China, and rampant overall inflation.   Change the national narrative.

Specifically, do you want to fix the gas price problem?  Go green.  Now.

With Kerry running point for Biden, Jen Psaki said yesterday about drilling permits, “what additional permits do they need?  I don’t think that they need an embroidered invitation to drill.”    Does that sound smug or dismissive?  There are 4600 permits to drill pending approval on Biden’s desk as of this AM.  Tick tock.

We could ask Saudi to help, but they won’t answer Biden’s calls.  How about Venezuela?  They’re as bad as they come to humankind but never mind that.  Why would we help increase domestic production a day after cutting off Russia?

Maybe if we all just don’t drive for two weeks straight we could flatten the gas demand curve.  Follow the science.  Like wearing worthless masks what a fracking mess this is.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was ripped by critics Monday after he argued that more Americans should purchase electric vehicles so that they “never have to worry about gas prices again.”

The former South Bend, IN mayor claimed on MSNBC’s “Sunday Show with Jonathan Capehart” that families who own electric vehicles would see a “$12,500 discount” in transportation costs.

Conversely, AAA has estimated that owning a new, compact electric vehicle costs about $600 more per year than a gas-powered compact vehicle despite lower fuel and maintenance costs.  Never let facts get in the way of a good narrative.  And, this estimate is given with the full knowledge that electricity prices would likely climb significantly as demand soars.  Never let, well, never mind.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed giving state residents some relief in the form of a tax rebate, as rising energy costs have led to the Golden State having the highest gas prices in the nation.  How nice an idea is that?  At an average of $5.75 per gallon in Cali the good governor might give you back some of which you shouldn’t need to pay in the first place.

But, he too is against increasing that nasty domestic production.  “At a time when we’ve been heating and burning up, one thing we cannot do is repeat the mistakes of the past by embracing polluters, drilling even more oil, which only leads to even more extreme weather, more extreme drought, and more wildfire,” Newsom said.  Drilling leads to extreme weather.  Again, follow the science.

But the coup de grace was delivered by US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm yesterday in Houston with Czar Kerry at CERAweek (the global energy conference) yesterday.  She said, “we are on the cusp of the most important transition that human society has ever seen.  And, I hope that we’ll look back on 2022 as the year that the world took giant steps to improve energy security and tackle climate change.”

Fourteen months ago America was producing more gas than it consumed.  MORE!

We had all of the security we needed.  It was called energy independence.

But, that was so 2020.  And, now the script is flipped.  And the party in power can follow a script like no other.

 

 

 

 

Tourniquets No, Transfusions Yes.

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

To us, 100 years seems like a long, long time ago.  To historians, it is just the wink of an eyelash.  So, the proper perspective is always key.  And we need plenty of the proper perspective right now.

Our decade of the 20s in the 21st century is off to quite the rocky start.  A century ago, it was quite the opposite.

Our 29th President, Warren G. Harding

The Roaring Twenties refers to the decade of the 1920s in Western society and Western culture. It was a period of economic prosperity with a distinctive cultural edge in the United States and Europe, particularly in major cities. In France they were having so much fun they called it the crazy years.   Jazz blossomed, the flapper redefined the modern look for British and American women, and art deco peaked. In the wake of the military mobilization of World War I and the Spanish flu, President Warren G. Harding “brought back normalcy” to the United States.

This period saw the large-scale development and use of automobiles, planes, telephones, films, radio, and electrical appliances in the lives of millions in the Western world.

Nations saw rapid industrial and economic growth, accelerated consumer demand, and introduced significant new trends in lifestyle and culture.  Cities rooted for their home teams and filled the new palatial cinemas and gigantic sports stadiums.

And, in many major democratic states, women won the right to vote.  Democratic states then v now were very different, but a win is a win.  We’re still arguing about the right to vote, but we digress.

Well, where are we now?  Where we are is in some stage of the process to bring back normalcy.  “What stage,” you ask?  “We have no clue,” we answer.

It sure doesn’t feel like we are in some stage of getting back to normal though, does it?  It does feel like we are in limbo.  Limbo as in, “how low can you go?”

We’re about to find out.

Spanish flu then, covid-19 now.

Economic prosperity returned back then.  We were on our way up prior to covid, but now we face supply chain issues and runaway inflation.

Our government in the last 14 months turned quickly, insistent upon meddling in capitalism.  What do you need?  Whatever it is, it’s free!  Except nothing is free, it just creates dependency (isn’t that the end game for some?) and debt.

And, there is the most important one.  There was WWI then, and hopefully not WWIII now.

Maybe this Warren G. Harding gentleman doesn’t get enough credit in our history books?  And, if Joe Biden wants any he better start looking out for America, not his fringe left.

Do you want solutions?  Yesterday our esteemed Transportation Secretary Peter Buttigieg had one.  He suggested that if America wanted a quick fix to higher gas prices they should go out and buy an electric vehicle.  Oh, yes he did say that.

Meanwhile, we are buying about 500k barrels of Russian oil per day while sending billions of dollars to Ukraine to fight the Russians.  It sounds like we haven’t yet hit the bottom of the barrel yet after all.

Real solutions are on the horizon, or even closer.  Start drilling.

This brings us to one word-leadership.  America needs leadership right now in the worst way before we get to the worst way.  But we don’t have it.

Biden, Harris, Pelosi, Buttigieg, Schumer, Rubio, Graham, McConnell(times 2), Swalwell, Romney, Cheney, Bernie, and The Squad all need to go.  There are others, plenty of others.

And, one named Donald Trump needs to not come back.  Make that two.  Her name is Hillary.

We need that new blood now, and we need a lot of it.

Midterms are exactly eight months away today.  That makes the 2024 election(s) 32 months out.  In some ways that seems like forever.

History teaches us that it’s way less than a wink.  It just doesn’t feel that way.

The pendulum always swings. Sometimes it just has to reach the bottom to get to the other side.

 

 

 

 

 

Ten Piece Nuggets-Random

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

If you’re waiting anxiously at your door for a block of ice delivery from Canada it might be a while.  But, if you’re waiting for your delivery of some tasty nuggets, we’ve got ten on your virtual doorstep below.

  1.  The contrast between the summer of 2020 discontent in America and the Canadian Freedom Convoy protest approaches polar opposites.  Up north it’s mostly peaceful while south of the frozen Canadian tundra it was said to be mostly peaceful.  Americans lit cities on fire.  Canadians are lighting wood in barrels on fire to stay warm.  America allowed the destruction and took little to no action against the instigators.  PM Trudeau has invoked the Emergency Act in an attempt to freeze banks accounts, take gas away, and tow trucks from the streets.
  2. Trudeau’s temper tantrum seems a bit harsh. But, it is two separate countries on one continent.  To each their own.  Still, no one remembers Antifa nor BLM having funds frozen in 2020.  But, you might remember certain politicians (Kamala Harris), corporations, and actors donating money to the causes or the rare need for bail money.  And, now a lot of that money has gone missing, but we digress.
  3. As Special Council Durham
    Durham Means Business It Seems

    continues his journey into purported spying, lying, and trumped-up Russian ties/allegations against Trump, the so-called mainstream media remains eerily quiet.  How the world of journalism has changed from by the book factual investigative reporting to cheerleading for one side or the other in the last 40 years is fascinating and terribly disappointing.  Deep Throat, if we knew who he or she was, would have a sore throat trying to get someone to listen to them.

  4. If there was even a hint that Trump spied on the Biden White House can you imagine the fervor?  Maybe this is a big nothing burger.  But indictments are coming in the dozens and soon.  Better to cover what turns out to be a non-story than to not cover a story you would think.
  5.  On 10/31/16, just seven days prior to the general election Democratic Nominee Hillary Clinton tweeted out, “Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank.  This secret hotline may be the key to unlocking the mystery to Trump’s ties to Russia.”  Did she omit the part about her operation trumping up the charges and paying for the head fake?  We will see.
  6.  You can vote early (today) in Texas for their 3/1 primaries setting up the November elections.  The gubernatorial primary comes down to incumbent Greg Abbott getting 50% plus one vote to advance to meet Beto O’Rourke from the left in the general.  O’ Rourke has already announced that he wants no part of Biden in Texas to “help” him.
    Lost to Cruz and Biden. It’s Abbott for the Hat Trick.

    Yesterday he walked as far away from his 2019 attack on gun owners (we’re going to take away their AR15s and AK47s) when he said “I’m not interested in taking anything from anyone.”  Why the sudden change of heart deep in the Heart of Texas?  Polls.  He trails Abbott by about 58-42% in most polls.

  7.  Get ready to roll up your sleeve every year from now till death.  A high-ranking US FDA Officer on a hidden camera revealed the government’s future Covid policy.  “Joe Biden wants to innoculate as many as possible.”  “You’ll have to get an annual shot.”  The FDA is not going to not approve it.”
  8. Dr. Fauci couldn’t agree more.  He was on MSNBC last evening with Chris Hayes and said, “You may be done with COVID, but COVID is not done with the US, nor is it done with the world.”  He went on, “the protection with boosting is profound.”  This contradicts a Pfizer news release last Friday that showed their booster’s efficacy diminishes greatly after four months.  Maybe it’s three shots a year every year till death do us part.
  9. NBC is strutting its peacock feathers as viewership of its conventional broadcast and streaming of Super Bowl LVI totaled 112.3 million viewers.  That was up 13% from last year and nearly an all-time high.  If you thought Kapernick and his knee would break the NFL think again.  It’s a marketing and brand machine the world over.
  10.  Well, it is except in Los Angeles who hosted the party/game and had the hometown Rams playing and winning it.  LA didn’t make the top ten markets in viewership per Nielsen.  Cincinnati lost the game but won the Nielsen’s as it had the highest audience share in the country.  It was 80 plus degrees in LA and sunny.  Isn’t it always? There were better things to do.

You’ve been served.

Churn and Burn

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

If it’s Breyer’s, it’s got to still be good!  Any ice cream company founded in 1866 and still churning today has to be good.

But, with FDA government regulations, even good goes bad when it gets old.  Use by this date or discard the label says.

Yesterday, someone somewhere in the government decided that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer’s discard date had come up as well.

Breyer’s retirement was reported by the press before he himself made it.  This led to speculation that it had been leaked by a White House eager to appease left-wing critics after its recent legislative failures and court defeats.

Might the party in charge be worried about Republicans winning the Senate in 2022?  Might the party in charge be worried about another Ruth Bader Ginsberg situation?  Out with the old and in with the new.

Multiple sources told multiple members of the press that Justice Breyer was not planning to announce his retirement yesterday. They describe him as “upset” with how this has played out.  Breyer prides himself on not being partisan.

Apparently, the White House prides itself on not caring what Breyer cares about.

Did Demand Justice, a left-wing group formed to oppose Trump’s Supreme Court picks have a hand in forcing Breyer’s hand? The group proudly launched a “Breyer Retire” campaign just weeks after Biden took office.  Demand Justice is quite open about its goal of seeking to overhaul the federal court system to advance progressive goals.

Both WH press secretary Jen Psaki and Paige Herwig, Biden’s point person on judicial nominations, previously worked for Demand Justice.  Coincidence?

Breyer was good until a new flavor, but with similar tastes in thinking, can head to the Supreme Court.  And the new appointee needs to head that way before November.

The White House had little to say about Breyer’s retirement because they said it wasn’t “official” yet.   Odd?  Though they did quickly add that the Biden Administration would follow through on his campaign promise to add a black and female jurist to the highest court.  Odder?

Why not choose whomever they thought was most qualified regardless of gender and skin color?  As a Senator Joe Biden voted against the nomination of Judge Clarence Thomas, probably because he thought that he was unqualified.  Oddest?

Will the administration throw Breyer a retirement party?  If so, will they let him in on when it is?

And, most of all, will they serve Breyer’s Ice Cream with the cake at Justice Breyer’s going away party?

It’s likely, but only if the use-by and discard date hasn’t come and gone like the justice’s has.

Because remember, it’s got to still be good!

 

 

Toothless Crime Enforcement

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

For over forty years the one constant in fighting crime on a national level is McGruff the Crime Dog.  He debuted in 1980 with a series of public service announcements educating citizens on personal security measures, such as locking doors and putting lights on timers, in order to reduce crime.

McGruff did and continues to serve loyally.  But, by 1994, America felt the need to take yet another bite out of crime.

Democrat President Bill Clinton signed HR 3355-Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 into law.  The bill was sponsored by Democrat Representative Jack Brooks out of Texas and Democrat, now Socialist, Bernie Sanders even voted yes along the way to the president’s desk.

The bill is better known as the “three strikes and you’re out” law.   It provided funding for tens of thousands of community police officers and drug courts, banned certain assault weapons, and mandated life sentences for criminals convicted of a violent felony after two or more prior convictions, including drug crimes.

Over time, studies and sentiment have deemed certain aspects of the stringent guidelines with the law too harsh.  Judges, states, and DA’s have eased up on its presumed punitive measures.

The slippery slope to lower bails, lighter sentences, plea bargains, and outright indifference to certain crimes has accelerated in the last decade.  NY and its mayor Bill DeBlasio told cops to stand down time and again.  It stopped its “stop and frisk” policy.

Social injustices and Soros’ money created movements in the streets.  Mostly peaceful protests weren’t mostly peaceful.  Cities, like Portland, worked by day and burned by night.

And, then George Floyd was killed.  And, the US was incensed and nearly incinerated.

Defund the police became the cry heard around the world and measures in some of the US blue states did just that-defund the blue.

So, now where do we stand?

Well, if you’re Cali Governor Gavin Newsom you stood in the trash of the opened boxes of stolen property on the rails of the Union Pacific railroad late last week.  There you took to the microphone (for the photo op) and blamed these railroad robberies on gangs.  Then you apologized in the next sentence, called your words pejorative, and said that you should have called them “organized groups of people.”  That’ll show them.

If you’re the newly elected NY DA you go down the rabbit hole of outlining in a penned memo that most crimes in his jurisdiction wouldn’t be prosecuted and if they were, criminals wouldn’t face jail time except for offenses committed with a gun.

Over the last two weeks, an LA officer was shot and killed, two cops in NY were shot, leaving one dead and one severely injured, a Houston officer was gunned down, and a border patrol agent in Texas was murdered.

And countless others, out on light bond money or none at all, have committed more serious crimes than their last offense.

So, now where do we stand?

McGruff has proven quite loyal, but right now his bark is far worse than his bite.  Our law enforcement has no teeth and the outlaws sense it.

If the three-strikes bill long ago was too far one way, is today’s mess too far the other?

The pendulum always swings.  Doesn’t it?   One can hope.

Free and Freedom Aren’t Cheap

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

There’s free and then there’s freedom.

And, free is getting more plentiful while freedom is getting harder to find.

But, aren’t the best things in life free? That depends on where you look.

It costs nothing to catch Omicron, but that’s not the best thing in life.  But, at least our government is doing all it can to help prevent it and all of that is free.

There are free vaccines and free boosters and more free vaccines and more free boosters.  Stand in line.

If you think you might be coming down with a “rare” breakthrough case, there’s free testing too.  All that you have to do is wait in line for one assuming you can find somewhere that has any.

The US government has ordered half a billion on top of another half of a billion tests making its availability for immediate purchase nil and reminding you of your local grocer’s empty shelves.

We are told that the supply chain issue should resolve itself in a week, and then just another 7-12 days beyond that to ship right to your door!  Think Feb 8th or so and all will be well.  And, likely you’ll be well by then, too.

But wait, there’s more!

The government has ordered an untold number of N95 masks and close replicas and will be distributing those soon and free as well.

All of this is an extra good safety net in case your Affordable Care Act, aka ObamaCare didn’t keep you well during these troubled times.   Remember Bernie Sanders has told us repeatedly that healthcare is a basic human right.  Don’t try claiming Ivermectin on your insurance though.

He also has told us that college tuition should be free.  The avowed Socialist and almost every one of his colleagues from the left is a big supporter of Build Back Better which provides free preschool, darn near free child care, and child tax cuts.

Have a child and you can pay less tax for you and yours to live here.  Makes sense to you?

What about bread? Shouldn’t that be free, too?  If you were willing to stand in line for it, would this government attempt to provide it for you?

If only the wealthy would just pay their fair share, whatever that means.

Freedom, on the other hand, is getting harder to find.

Well, it isn’t if you’re an illegal alien (sorry, migrant) that walks in and gets shipped to, say NY.  Free healthcare and voting rights await your jet’s arrival.

If you fly to Pennsylvania you can even get a free puddle jumper to Delaware as the Penn Governor says that Joe Biden’s home state ought to have some new neighbors as well.

But, don’t write or say the wrong thing on any social media platform.  You’ll be suspended for some time, or if you’re a serial misinformer like Donald Trump you’ll be banned for life.  Freedom of speech isn’t free.

Let’s not get started on attempts to control guns.

You can still have a “mostly peaceful” protest at least.  It’s even a protected freedom to burn the American Flag.  Although, we don’t think the damage done to property gets fixed for free.

Where did all of those protests go by the way?  Is everything that we were mad about getting fixed?  Wait till Summer 2022 and/or Summer 2024 and we’ll see.  We digress.

And, don’t go try to earn a living, or go out to eat unless you follow the mask, social distance, vax, and testing protocol mandates we need to flatten the two-year-old two-week curve.

Freedom is out of style.  Free is trending.

Both are going to cost a lot more to keep this the land of the free and the home of the brave.

 

 

 

Big Stage, Bright Lights

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Be careful what you wish for.  Sometimes the big stage and the bright lights are too big and too bright.

Ask the Kenosha prosecuting attorney if he agrees with the above.  He’s either smart reaching for a mistrial or real dumb at his job.  We’re picking plum dumb.

The Rittenhouse case is going so poorly that you would think the witnesses he called were defense witnesses.  The judge has all but tossed him from the courtroom.

If you got behind a microphone and asked “why was Kyle Rittenhouse even there?” should you also ask yourself why were the protesters there?  Ah yes, they were protesting (rioting and burning down the town) because of perceived social injustice.

However, the video proved otherwise, and it’s not even debatable.  The DOJ investigated and declined to press any charges against the officer.  It was deemed a necessary shooting.

But, never, ever let facts get in the way of a good narrative, especially in an election year.

Well, if you can’t make a case against the officer, try the “white supremacist” AK-toting teenager. Somebody has to pay.

We would ask LeBron James, but we already know that he isn’t afraid of the bright lights.  He tweeted after Rittenhouse took the stand and broke down, “what tears?????”  There are plenty King, you just aren’t looking in the right place.

Blake is paralyzed.  Two protesters are dead.  Shop owners lost their place of business.  Employees lost their jobs.  All for nothing.  Nothing.   Maybe King James should devote more time to furthering his expertise on human relations in the People’s Republic of China.

There is blood on the hands of more than Rittenhouse in this one.

Ask Kamala Harris if she agrees with the above.

The VP, her nervous laugh, and “cringe-worthy” moments travel together.  This time she descended on France for whatever reasons that pale compared to the mess that this side of the pond is in.  Undeterred, Harris broke into some drivel about “The Plan” in front of worldwide cameras and decided now was a good time to throw in a bad attempt at a French accent.

You can run, but you can’t hide.  And, she can’t run for any office again and be taken seriously.  And, the race is on.  She’s trying to run from the Biden Administration and the Biden Administration is trying to run from her.  Ten months into the second-highest job in the land and her approval rating sits at 28%.

As a reminder, she was so popular in the party that she withdrew from the presidential nominee process before the first primary with a less than a 1% poll number.

Ask Joe Biden, when he wakes up if he agrees with the above.  His approval rating stands at 38%.

Why? Afghanistan, border chaos, vaccine mandates, out-of-control social program spending, decades high inflation, a November 2nd ballot box wake-up call, and Senator Joe Manchin comes to mind.

Sunday his Department of Energy Secretary took to the talk shows.  Jennifer Granholm said oil is a global market “controlled by a cartel, the cartel is called OPEC.”  To think that just a dozen months ago America was darn near energy independence.  Asked if she would ask the US producers to ramp up production, she laughed loudly and said, “that is hilarious.”

Folks paying $4-6 a gallon don’t get the joke.  Inflation is the biggest tax on the low to middle-income families you can assess.  They spend all that they make to provide for their families.  The more things cost, the less they can buy.

Be careful what you wish for.

 

 

Yin and Yang

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

If America had a nickel for every time a politician said “we need to come together as a nation and move forward,” America wouldn’t be in debt.  Well, it still would be actually based on the “free” for all mentality we have in place now.  But, go with it anyway.

The truth is we never come together in the absolute sense of the phrase.  We aren’t even built that way as the checks and balances that our founding fathers (can you still say that?) put in place some 245 years ago create what used to be a purposeful debate.  And, we should thank them for that.

But, way back when we did a much better job of putting the country first and the agendas of factions thereof second.

Remember when House Majority Leader Tip O’Neill and Ronald Reagan would top off Tip’s glass of Scotch and hammer out a deal while Tip got hammered?

Bill Clinton’s tenure at the top produced nearly balanced budgets and a budget surplus once or twice.  He signed into law the three strikes and you’re out legislation.  The border was ours and we protected it well.   As a friendly reminder, Clinton was a Democrat.  But most all Americans saw these policies as effective, not just the more moderate left back then.

No more, and close isn’t close.

So, what to do?  Well solving it on just one quick dip of the pen in the ink well is far too ambitious.  But, with an early eye on 2024, we have an idea to try on.

Biden has no shot unless you count his three and counting “vaccine” shots.  Kamala will be off creating a new gameboard phenomenon called “Where’s Kamala?”  She’s practicing and perfecting it now.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the President and Vice President of the United States, Ron DeSantis(R) and Tulsi Gabbard(D).

Did you see the R and D inside of those parentheses?  Of course, you did.

Forget if you like DeSantis or not. The pendulum always swings and it’s swinging right now.  The Republicans will return to the highest office in the land, mail-in ballots or not. It’s him or someone else from the right.

The point is, what if he used his Floridian stones to go where only Abe Lincoln and Andrew Johnson have gone before?  Nominate the opposite party as your running mate.  He’s not afraid to make bold moves and take chances.

At a minimum, for the Republicans, it would(should) neuter the every four-years “war on women” nonsense that the Dems drag out.  The cries of misogyny would be dampened.  And it reaches across the aisle like never before.  It might even make Morning Joe happy, or infuriated, or both.

She seems very even-keeled, intelligent, and moderate in her views. She could be the yin and Ron the yang.  Her actions (military service) and her words always seem to try to put America, not her party, first.

And, most of all “we could come together as a nation and move forward.”

Couldn’t we?

Sure, probably, maybe, doubtfully, no chance.