News

Robin Hood Rides Again

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Politicians make strange bedfellows.  What’s old is new.

Do you know what you get when you cross-breed two old-school famous sayings?  You get Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez(AOC).

Old Bernie turns 80 this coming September.  He’s been doing all of the Vermont people’s business since 1991 in one or the other Halls of Congress.  That’s a smooth 30 years.

NEW YORK, NY – OCTOBER 19: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) endorses Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) at a campaign rally.

Young AOC turns 32 this coming October.    She’s been doing some of the New York people’s business since 2019 in the House of Representatives.  That’s two years and counting.

President Joe Biden revealed his $2 trillion-plus infrastructure plan late last week shortly after the $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill two weeks prior.  Never mind that the relief bill only had 9% of the money earmarked for direct money to the citizens nor that that infrastructure plan (dubbed the American Jobs Plan) has only about 25% for traditional (roads, bridges, airports) infrastructure repair or improvements.

A BBR staffer bumped into a U.S. Rep Saturday who will remain nameless.  That Congressperson summed the giveaways up perfectly,  “you can sell anything you want when you use the words ‘Covid relief.’  And who can possibly be against ‘jobs’?”  Indeed.  Sounds like a chicken in every pot and pork for all.

But wait, there’s more!  Or at least AOC and Bernie wish it to be so.

AOC applauded Biden’s “vision” on the infrastructure plan but exclaimed that it is not sufficient and “needs to be way bigger.”  She went on, “we’re the richest country in the world, it should be $10 trillion.”

Senator Sanders said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that he was working to include “human infrastructure” into President Joe Biden’s infrastructure package.  “One of the areas that I am working on right now is the need to expand Medicare in order to provide dental care and hearing aids and eyeglasses for the elderly. Is that infrastructure? I think it is. Look, Jake, the truth is, in so many ways, we are behind many other countries throughout the world in providing for working families and the elderly and the children. And I think now is the time to begin addressing our physical infrastructure and our human infrastructure.”

Who knew infrastructure had so many definitions?  And, if you can’t hear people blowing horns at you nor see the red light in front of you how can you take advantage of all that new infrastructure?  We digress.

Is it any wonder that AOC backed Sanders’s latest failed bid to reach the Democratic nomination for President?

AOC called us rich and therefore we snap our fingers and can afford it. Oh, to be young and naive all over again.

Sanders makes it overtly simple.  He is a Socialist.

Biden said no one making under $400k will have to pay for any of it.  Well, the corporate tax of currently 21% recommended returning to the previous 28% might cost the consumer a titch we suppose.

“No president has ever raised business taxes to recover from an economic crisis,” Rep. Kevin Brady, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee, said. “This couldn’t come at a worse time.”  Details, details.

In 13th Century England, Robin Hood robbed from the rich and gave to the poor.  Supposedly.

Robinhood.com, the investor website, got in trouble playing games with GameStop stock a few weeks back.

And now this young (AOC) and old(Sanders) Robin Hood duo are playing a different game that needs to stop.

Margaret Thatcher knew as much many, many moons ago.  She said, “the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”

 

 

10 Bagger

Posted on by Jim Carlton

Independent Investment Management designed to protect and grow your wealth.

JIM CARLTON
Managing Director
Chief Investment Officer

Friends

 

With the S&P 500 getting very close to the 4000 level, I saw a note today that remembered that the first time the S&P closed above 400 was in December of 1991. That’s a 10 bagger as we say in the biz, over a 30 year period. It’s another great illustration as to how wealth is created in the stock market. If an investor simply would have bought “the market” 30 years ago, she would be up 10 fold today. That is how wealth is created. Not jumping in and out and buying Gamestop after it’s gone up 1000%. Ok, I sound like the “get off my lawn” guy now, don’t I?

 

Let’s briefly review the last 30 years. We’ve had 2 evil Democrat Presidents (Clinton and Obama if you’re a Republican) and 2 evil Republican Presidents (Bush and Trump if you’re a Democrat). Of course, now we have a 3rd evil Democrat President in Mr. Biden. In the late 90’s we saw the collapse of Long Term Capital Management and the Asian currency crisis in subsequent years. Then in early 2000 we saw the bursting of the dot-com bubble and Nasdaq drop 80%, followed by the horrific 9/11 attacks. Of course we saw fraud rear its ugly head with the collapse of Enron, Stanford Financial and of course good ole Bernie Madoff.  Just about when we had recovered from that we saw the housing crisis and the near collapse of the developed world financial system. In recent years we’ve seen budget battles, Brexits, Flash Crashes and heightened trading volatility fueled by easy money, technology and leverage. But, when all is said and done, the S&P 500 is up 10 fold. $50,000 invested in the S&P 500 30 years ago would now be worth approximately $500,000. Your honor, I rest my case.

 

As for today’s action, by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 85 points to finish the day at 32,981. The S&P 500 was up 14 points to close at 3,972. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 201 points to close at 13,246. Gold was up $23 to trade at $1,709 per ounce, while oil was down $1.35 to trade at $59.20 per barrel WTI.

 

The bulls were able to deliver another good quarter for stocks. Not all stocks were created equal though this quarter. Value soared while growth lingered. Nevertheless we enter the second quarter of 2021 with the bulls holding the high ground.

 

Have a nice evening everyone.

Jim

10200 Grogan’s Mill Road, Suite 340
The Woodlands, TX  77380 
(281) 298-2700 Phone
(877) 824-4299 Toll Free
(281) 298-2760 Fax

[email protected]        www.chjwealthmanagement.com

Investment Advisory offered through Carlton, Hofferkamp & Jenks Wealth Management, LLC (“CHJ”).

*Numbers and figures sourced from the following: Bloomberg.com, CNBC.com and Finance.Yahoo.com.
The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. To determine which investment(s) may be appropriate for you, consult your financial advisor prior to investing. All performance referenced is historical and is no guarantee of future results. All indices are unmanaged and cannot be invested into directly.

CHJ Wealth Management,
10200 Grogan’s Mill Road,
Suite 340
The Woodlands, TX 77380

Make A Run

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Taco Bell ran with a campaign for years back in the late ’80s that had the tagline “make a run for the border.”

We doubt that such a campaign would be considered in the overtly sensitive times that we live in today.

Although, Joe Biden seems tone-deaf enough to consider it.

The Democrats took every political bite that they could out of a Trump border policy.  Build a wall-how wrong and exclusionary!  House migrant children in cages- how horrific!  Deny entry to the poor, the tired, the sick- how downright unAmerican!

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez went for a first-hand look early on in the Trump presidency.  She stalked the area like a skilled coyote herself seeing how dutifully the press followed behind her every step.  She even stopped to yell through the fence to ask for humanity to be restored.

But now? Now?  Now Biden has a major mess on his hands and as a result of course, so does the U.S.  The party that starts with the letter D sent signals throughout the campaign to defeat Trump that tomorrow would be a good day if you wanted in.  And, those looking for a new start started marching towards the border when an election determined that Trump was now exiting the office in numbers not seen since way before Trump took office

In fact, Biden and his border chief Alejandro Mayorkas, have already dropped nearly all of Trump’s anti-migration policies. Those policies allowed officials to quickly fly nearly all migrants back to their home countries.

Under Mayorkas, officials have quickly reduced the share of family migrants who are rejected under the Title 42 anti-coronavirus measure to under one-in-six per day. Trump’s appointees used the Title 42 rule to block nearly all migrants.

The Department of Homeland Security expects roughly 500,000 to 800,000 migrants to arrive as part of a family group during the 2021 fiscal year that ends in September- a record.

But these record numbers may wildly underestimate the number of foreigners who push their way through Biden’s and Mayorkas’ half-open doors.

Roughly 42 million people south of Texas want to migrate into the United States, said a March 24 warning from Jim Clifton, the CEO of the Gallup polling company.

The result is not a strained but a broken border.  Egads, there are more children in those “cages” than ever.  And there are plenty more coming, COVID-19 or not.

Biden appropriated via executive order a few weeks back $86 million to “temporarily” house migrants in Dallas hotels.  That’s a drop in the proverbial bucket compared to the health care money that the US (read as you) will spend to care for the inflow.

So what is Biden’s midterm solution?  He put VP Kamala Harris in charge of managing the morass.

On March 24, Biden directed Harris to get the Mexican and Central American governments to forcibly block migrants moving towards the United States. Biden said: “The Vice President agreed to lead our diplomatic effort and work with those nations to accept returnees and enhance migration enforcement at their borders — at their borders.”

On Friday, Symone Sanders, Harris’s press secretary, redefined the request.

“The president asked the vice president to take on the diplomatic effort, with Mexico and countries in the northern triangle to address the root causes of migration,” she said. “There are many reasons that move these folks to make this dangerous journey.”

It took all of 48 hours for the enormous task to be redefined.

Is Biden a puppet?

Quote machine Senator John Kennedy(R-LA) answers that burning question.  “Either President Biden believes in open borders, or the people that he has put in charge of his immigration policy may be smart, but they don’t have any sense. They don’t have the sense that God gave a goose. I mean, reality calls, and they hang up.”

“And now President Biden has put Vice President Harris in charge of fixing it. I know the vice president. She’s a lovely person. I sat on Judiciary with her. But that’s like — that’s like putting a Lance Armstrong in charge — as drug czar, in charge of our drug programs.”

So far, the Biden admin has prevented US Congressmen/women and the press from seeing the mess.  So much for that much-promised transparency.

As a result, the diligent press is on the job like a lap dog on a bone as you can see from this exchange last evening.

The exchange between Biden and the unidentified reporter below as he was boarding AF1 for a short flight back to DC:

Q: Mr. President, what have you given up for Lent?

THE PRESIDENT: I gave up all sweets for Lent. You have no idea how hard it is for me.

Q: What’s the first sweet you’re looking forward to having when it’s over?

THE PRESIDENT: Ice cream.

There you have it.

Maybe Taco Bell should serve ice cream.  This just in, they once did but it was short-lived.

And, we once had a short-lived border policy that made sense.

No wonder everyone is making a run for the border.

 

 

 

 

Just Say No to Guns

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

When President Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, he vowed to crack down on substance abuse and reprioritize the War on Drugs, which was originally initiated by President Richard Nixon in the early 1970s.

President Reagan’s wife, Nancy Reagan, launched the “Just Say No” campaign as a part of the war, which encouraged children to reject experimenting with or using drugs by simply saying the word “no.”

In 1985, the percentage of Americans who saw drug abuse as the nation’s “number one problem,” was six percent. In 1989, that number jumped to 64 percent.

Now that we were all aware of it, how well have we succeeded in our efforts?  The word “poorly” is being kind.

Drugs today are as readily available, used, and abused as they were in the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, ’00s, and ’10s.  If you want to get high you simply make the buy.

On March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded by John Hinckley Jr. in Washington, D.C. as he was returning to his limousine.  He also severely wounded White House Press Secretary James Brady.

Rather than a Just Say No to Guns campaign, The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act was enacted on November 30, 1993.  Often referred to as the Brady Bill, it is an act of the US Congress that mandated federal background checks on firearm purchasers in the United States.  It imposed a five-day waiting period on purchases, until the National Instant Criminal Background Check System was implemented in 1998.

The bill was introduced by none other than Representative Charles E. “Chuck” Schumer back then.  He’s still doing the people’s business and carrying Nancy’s (Pelosi, not Reagan) water 28 years later.

And then there was the terrible Boulder, CO mass shooting that left ten dead Monday.  It’s the lastest of notoriety in a long line of gun killings before, during, and after the Brady Bill and other gun control “measures” taken to control the violence.

President Joe Biden is urging the Senate to take action on H.R. 8 and H.R. 1446, the former of which would create universal background checks and the latter of which would expand the length of time a background check can last.  Sound similar to the Brady Bill?   Also, Colorado adopted universal background checks in 2013.  Hmmm.

Biden also called for an “assault weapons” ban following Monday’s shooting attack at the Boulder, Colorado grocery store.

“I don’t need to wait another minute to take common-sense steps that will save lives in the future and urge my colleagues in the House and Senate to act. We can ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in this country once again.”

“I got that done when I was a senator. It passed. It was the law for the longest time. And it brought down these mass killings. We should do it again,” Biden remarked.  The Department of Justice released a report following the 1994-2004 “assault weapons” ban and noted that no real reduction in crime could be credited to the ban.  So maybe we should “Just Do It” again.  It sure sounds good.  It always does.

Ban everything new if you want to deny the Second Amendment Right and you would still have 375 million on the streets.

Guns today are as readily available, used, and abused as they were in the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, ’00s, and ’10s.  If you can’t get want one through conventional means you simply make the buy in the streets.

Or, we could just point fingers, not guns.

Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) pointed one Tuesday on CNN saying Republican lawmakers were “complicit” in all the mass shootings that take place in the United States, given their opposition to gun legislation.  Old Blumey must feel like people don’t kill people, guns kill people.

In turn, Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) pointed another and questioned the wisdom of a push by congressional Democrats to enact legislation in the immediate aftermath.

“Look, these killings were terrible,” he said. But.  “We’re free, and one of the prices we pay for that freedom is that you’re always going to have some people who abuse it.  Freedom is a risk.  You’re not going to stop the killings until you stop the killers.  “In my judgment, we do not need more gun control,” Kennedy continued. “We need more idiot control.”  Old Johnny must feel like guns don’t kill people, people kill people.

“We regulate gun ownership in America. If you are convicted of certain crimes, if you have a tendency to violence, if you are mentally ill, and you want to buy a gun, your name has to run through a database. The problem is that the database has huge holes in it.”

“Republican Senators Grassley and Cruz had a bill to strengthen our national database.”  “Do you know why the bill didn’t pass?” he added. “Many of my Democratic colleagues filibustered it.”

Sounds like the Democrats just say no to what the Republicans say, and the Republicans just say no to what the Democrats say.

Meanwhile, relative to so many other enormously funded initiatives, this country still fails to vigorously tackle mental health issues. Ever talk to a homeless person?

It’s almost as taboo of a subject today as being openly gay was just a decade or two ago.  While we’re printing money maybe we could toss some at the need to control the “idiots” as Kennedy directly called them.

Or, we could once more Just Say No.

How’s that working out so far?

 

 

 

 

Old Dogs, New Tricks

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Just two months after the “aggressive behavior,” or “insurrection” if you prefer, at the Capitol Building the U.S. government faced yet another major uprising last week, this time in the White House.

According to a report, President Joe Biden’s German Shepherd named “Major” had a serious “biting incident” with White House security late last week.  As a result, Biden’s dogs were returned to Delaware after Major’s “aggressive behavior” incident, said the CNN report.

 This photo didn’t age well. None of it.

It’s usually only news these days when man bites dog, but CNN always takes you the extra mile.

Time heals all wounds, doesn’t it?

Maybe it doesn’t, at least not yet in the fractured, cracked, divided, tumultuous, unsettled Republican Party.

Donald Trump doesn’t like having his name thrown around by the RNC these days.

In a Monday letter to Trump attorney Alex Cannon, RNC chief counsel J. Justin Riemer said the committee while fundraising  “has every right to refer to public figures as it engages in core, First Amendment-protected political speech.”

He maintained that Trump had also “reaffirmed” to the chair of the RNC, Ronna McDaniel, over the weekend “that he approves of the RNC’s current use of his name in fundraising and other materials.”

Trump responded to the letter with a statement that put that agreement in doubt. “No more money for RINOS,” or Republican in name only, he stated. “They do nothing but hurt the Republican Party and our great voting base.  They will never lead us to greatness.”   He’s nothing if not “like a dog on a bone.”

Hmm.  One of the two sounds like a head fake.

The RNC wants to use Trump’s name for the good that he brings to the party-aka money and loyalty from his base.  Conversely,  Trump’s instinct must be to control the use of his name and image to position himself as the undisputed leader of the GOP.

Further, he wants to raise his own money to, amongst other initiatives, exact revenge by backing challengers to Republican incumbents who crossed him by voting to impeach him for inciting the Capitol riot.  Trump has the shock collar out.

All of this divisiveness in the RNC when the Great Unifier just took over the Oval Office seems tawdry at best.

But, Trump is Trump.  Remember, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

And, in the White House or in pursuit of the same, it’s a major mistake to bite the hand that feeds you.

 

 

Knuckle Scraping

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

President Joe Biden accused Texas Governor Greg Abbott of “Neanderthal thinking” yesterday after Abbott announced that the great state of Texas was now “100 percent open and a mask mandate was no longer in place.”

Mississippi’s governor did essentially the exact same thing on the exact day but nobody really cares about people in the great state of Mississippi, or so it seems.  Or, the electoral votes pale by comparison.

You see the real prize for the group that lives to divide (they call it unifying) is Texas.  They thought they had a shot with Beto v Cruz four years ago.  Somewhat close.  They thought they had a shot with Biden v Trump four months ago.  Somewhat closer.

Biden, we are mostly sure, didn’t think this way when the teleprompter and/or notes told him to utter “Neanderthal.”  He was looking out for the citizens of course.

After all, he flew in just last week to survey the land and the snowmen that had frozen the week prior.  Why he even assembled almost all of the “leaders” for a quick photo op and some words of unifying encouragement to help out with the thaw.

He recognized Congresswoman Shirley Jackson Lee for her help.  He meant Sheila Jackson Lee surely.  And, don’t call me surely.

He stumbled terribly over another name or two as well.  Then, he stopped himself and asked himself, “wait, what am I doing?”  Abbott was six feet from Biden and surely (again) wondered the same.

Biden didn’t mention the governor in his “pat on the back, mispronunciation, obligatory before I board Air Force One gathering.”  Hmm.

Maybe the third time is a charm.  Let’s gang up on Abbott.

Was Biden’s assessment of Abbott’s Neanderthal thinking right on?  Yes and yes seems to be the two answers depending upon who you ask.

Back when man scrapped his knuckles along the ground he could choose to come out of his cave when he wanted.  If danger lurked he could choose to stay put.  That sounds about like what Abbott has opened back up.

But, no mask?  Wow!  Maybe Texas could have opened back up and at least kept the mask mandate in place.  Some people think a mask helps while others don’t.

At least a mask makes it appear that you care.  And,  appearances count for everything.  Ask Biden.  He appeared in Texas and thinks he somehow helped warm it up while others don’t.

Heck, even Dr. Fauci who surely(and again) is old enough to remember his first cave thinks masks are important.  Now.

Although, the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the chief medical advisor to the President said almost a year ago today(3/8/20) as we first got into his mess “that there is no reason to be walking around with a mask.”  Then.

So now and then we change our minds.

But, for those that eye Texas as the ultimate prize, they can only think Abbott has lost his.

Biden can relate.

Has the governor created another of those dreaded super spreader moments?

Time will tell.

But for the left, now’s the time to use every bit of it as political capital.  They do it well and they do it often.

 

 

 

 

Hot Air

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Opportunity.

When one sees it, one must capture it.

So it goes on the national political scene where an opportunity is rarely missed.  As Henny Youngman might say, “take last week, please!”

With so much cold air blowing down into Texas, the hot air emanating from all comers was coming from all corners.  Hot takes were aplenty on the existential threats that plague us so.  Climate change and coronavirus were topics 1 and 1a.

Al Gore invented the internet and became an authority on climate change.

Bill Gates one-upped him and gave us the programming language software to run the microchips that run the internet and now is following in Gore’s nonfossil footprints.

Gates weighed in Sunday on his latest endeavor.  “The changes in the wind patterns are allowing those cold fronts to come down from Canada more often,” Gates explained. “There’s a pattern of wind that, … as it gets warmer, that breaks down. There’s no doubt that we’re putting CO2 into the atmosphere. There’s no doubt that that increases temperatures and that affects the weather. ”

So warmer winds made the colder winds blow in Texas.  Who knew?  Ted Cruz did.  Apparently, the wind change stopped at the border though as Cruz took a fossil-fueled jet down to Mexico to avoid the resultant freeze and snow if only for a day or so.

Gates continued, “You know, there’s no magic date that it’s all great until then, and it’s terrible once you cross that threshold. It’s pretty linear as far as we know. 2050 happens to be the soonest realistic date for the world to change all of these source emissions.

Luckily we have more time than some of those also-ran politicians that fell by the wayside told us we have left.  Remember when Liz Warren, Andrew Yang, Cory Booker, and Julian Castro one-upped each other with the time left to save our planet?  Eleven years said one, eight years said the other. Five years anyone?

Castro said it was already too late.  Dammit.

Thankfully Sheila Jackson Lee and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez rushed down from Washington to help in the present while we debate the time left for this planet.  They handed out thousands of free lunches and warm blankets to those without in the deep south during the deep freeze. Fix the grid already and you don’t have to have to fill brown boxes.

How did they get from Washington DC to Texas so quickly?  Our guess is on a fossil fuel burning 737.

Say it slowly, pho-to op-por-tun-i-ty.  Where were you, Ted?

Meanwhile, an estimated 99,763 people in the U.S. have died due to complications from the coronavirus during Biden’s first month in the White House, according to statistics provided by Johns Hopkins University.

When he was campaigning he told us Trump had no plan to combat the virus, but that he (Biden) did.  Maybe that was a bit of hot air unto itself from now Prez 46?

“There’s nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months,” said Biden last month, after being sworn into office.

New Yorkers beg to differ. The U.S. Department of Justice has reportedly launched an investigation into New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s (mis)handling of the state’s nursing homes and other long-term care facilities during the pandemic.  This can’t be true, can it?   Cuomo wrote a book patting himself on the back about how he handled it so well.

NY City Mayor Bill de Blasio blew in to weigh in.  He thinks that Cuomo is bullying all of his lieutenants into toeing the company line about how well he handled the crisis.  “A lot of people in New York State have received those phone calls,” continued de Blasio. “The bullying is nothing new.   No public servant, no person who’s telling the truth should be treated that way.”

We actually need to eliminate bulls to halt climate change, but we digress.

However, de Blasio might have a solution that the rest of us, including Dr. Fauci, overlooked.

“Of all the things that we’ve learned in this crisis, maybe the most profound is the power of a mask,” said de Blasio during a Thursday press briefing. “What we’re saying today is, time to double up.”

“Two masks are better than one,” the mayor added. “Make it a double.”

Who knew that the solution all along was right under (or over) our nose?

Meanwhile, it will be 70 degrees in Texas today.

Like in politics the hot winds are blowing again.

 

 

 

 

Stocks Stumble

Posted on by Jim Carlton

Independent Investment Management designed to protect and grow your wealth.

JIM CARLTON
Managing Director
Chief Investment Officer

Friends

 

If you want to understand why the financial markets are difficult to oversee and why Congress has such a difficult time designing legislation to do so, today’s Committee on Financial Services zoom testimony with the GameStop situation players was essential to that education. Simply put, very few of the folks asking questions have a clue as to the workings, much less the purposes of financial markets. But I digress.

 

Stocks slumped mightily in early trading but did recover some of those losses as the trading session wore on. By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 119 points to finish the day at 31,493. The S&P 500 was down 17 points to close at 3,913. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 100 points to close at 13,865. Gold was up $1 to trade at $1,773 per ounce, while oil was down $1.15 to trade at $59.99 per barrel WTI.

 

I know it’s been a difficult week for us here in Houston and in Texas in general. Hopefully you have your power back by now and your water is running. We have all been in this together and after tonight it looks like we will start to thaw out. Stay strong, the week is almost over.

 

Have a nice evening everyone.

Jim

10200 Grogan’s Mill Road, Suite 340
The Woodlands, TX  77380 
(281) 298-2700 Phone
(877) 824-4299 Toll Free
(281) 298-2760 Fax

[email protected]        www.chjwealthmanagement.com

Investment Advisory offered through Carlton, Hofferkamp & Jenks Wealth Management, LLC (“CHJ”).

*Numbers and figures sourced from the following: Bloomberg.com, CNBC.com and Finance.Yahoo.com.
The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. To determine which investment(s) may be appropriate for you, consult your financial advisor prior to investing. All performance referenced is historical and is no guarantee of future results. All indices are unmanaged and cannot be invested into directly.

CHJ Wealth Management,
10200 Grogan’s Mill Road,
Suite 340
The Woodlands, TX 77380

Talent on Loan From God

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Yesterday God called back the talent he had loaned out to Rush Limbaugh.

“With talent on loan from God, it’s Rush Limbaugh,” part of how the intro to the daily conservative three-hour show went.  And, went.  For three hours a day, for 52 weeks, and for 32+ years the solo voice behind the golden mike, comfortably ensconced in the EIB(Excellence in Broadcasting) studio, offered lectures in advanced conservative studies as he put it.  Over six hundred stations globally offered his “course.”

His reach and his resilience are unmatched.

Limbaugh is regarded far and wide as the savior of talk show radio regardless of your political preference or party affiliation.

But, he was so much more than that to so many.  The charitable donations of his money, time, or airtime were far too numerous to count and far too generous for even a man of his wealth.

But he was so much more than that.  His passion for his country, his vision for how it was, and how it could and should be, was unwavering.  Guiding principles never go out of style.  You might disagree with the “how” but you’d be a fool to disagree with the “what” and the “why.”

Rush shaped lives.  Rush changed lives.  Rush was bigger than life.

And, yet, he had his missteps and faults.  Prescription drugs and a few wrong turns down the racial rabbit hole were all too well documented.  But, we’d guess God just gave him a fast pass ticket through the pearly gates.  Life is after all a roller coaster, isn’t it?

Fox News commenters, a video of him receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor at President Trump’s State of the Union(SOTU) in February of 2020, and President Trump himself all intersected on the Fair and Balanced network yesterday shortly after his passing.

And, that confluence is an example of where America got it all right and yet all wrong.  Rush would tell us so in comical and wise detail if he had but one more day to use his fine audio pipes.

Bill Hemmer asked Trump to watch along with the audience the SOTU moment when he awarded Rush the medal.

As Trump spoke directly to Rush and his wife seated in the balcony, behind the Prez was the one and only Nancy Pelosi.  She thought so little of the moment that she turned her body and therefore her view well away from Trump and even further away from the about to be anointed Rush.  She rifled through the paper that her SOTU copy was printed on like Amazon’s Alexa’s best shuffle.  So childish, like Trump.

Should anyone turn their back on Muhammed Ali, Bill Clinton, George Clooney, or countless others if they were getting a lifetime achievement award regardless of your beliefs about their beliefs?  No. No.  No.  Respect is earned and should always be recognized.

The Republican congressmen and women roared.  The Democratic ones sat in silence.  Maybe you didn’t like what he stood for, but at the very least you could have stood up for the presentation out of the respect you had (or should have had) for his place in American history.  Shameful.

And then Hemmer made the mistake of asking Trump what Rush told him after the November 3rd election.  Trump immediately launched into saying that Rush thought he won, and Americans thought he won, and Trump himself thought he won.  So childish, like Pelosi.

You take the low road and I’ll take the high road.

Even on his last day Rush would have dissected his own moment, found a way to make sense of it all, pointed us in a better direction, and stayed mostly above the fray.

America lost a great one yesterday, all of America that is.

So, who possibly can take Rush’s place?

The answer is no one even if you have considerable talent on loan from God.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No Doubt, Game On

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Ten days into month two of year 21 of century 21 you have two serious doubts.

One is, you doubt that you’ll ever watch a movie on one of the super big screens inside of an American Multi-Cinema (AMC) Theatre again.  Two is, you doubt that you’ll ever watch another hour of the American political theatre again.

AMC theatres are closed.  It’s a virus thing you know.  Political theatres never close.  It feels like a virus thing as well.

AMC has no choice right now.  Politics chose basically to rerun the Trump Impeachment.

It’s a slightly different plot but all of your favorite characters are there.  It’s got a catchy name too- The Second Impeachment of Donald Trump.

They had a choice.  They could choose to let the darkest days of his Presidency stay that way.  Or they could choose to “buy” airtime on all of your favorite channels like MSNBC, CNN, FOX, ABC, CBS, or NBC to shine more light on the darkness.

So while America watched one Super Bowl commercial after another that spoke to unity and coming together, the newly sworn-in Congress decided to further unify us by making their first order of biz in the new year with a new prez a docudrama about the old prez.

How many times can you watch Jason hack someone up in Friday the 13th?

Super Bowl parties can leave you hungover.  American politics can as well.

But you wonder if the sequel has and the prequel had ulterior motives.  Did the prequel have everything to do with getting 45 out of office and 46 in?  Does the sequel have everything to do with the 2022 midterms?

You see to “unify” you can always divide to conquer.  And, forcing a Republican to vote for or against Trump being impeached and/or convicted gets him/her on the record.

Vote to acquit him and the Dems will run against you on that very point.  Vote to convict and you risk alienating the very people that may have put you in office last time or for the first time.  It’s a win/win or a lose/lose depending on the color of your uniform.

We highly doubt that America is watching this anymore closely than they were watching the last five minutes of the Super Bowl.  The outcome at the game’s end was no longer in doubt, only the final score was.  And, breaking news, Trump isn’t going to get convicted either.

Meanwhile, for AMC, it’s at least the two-minute warning.

But in American politics running up the score never ends.

And make no mistake about it, the game never ends either.