News

Help Is On the Way

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Yesterday’s consumer price index(CPI) bolted across 4%. The stock market didn’t like that one little bit.   It’s due in part to surging gasoline prices.  The national average for a gallon crossed $3.00 this week.

Of course, this isn’t the real news on either coast.

On the east coast, there is a shortage. Colonial Pipeline was the target of a ransomware attack that forced it to shut down operations.  Long lines are the norm and will be for a few more days.

On the west coast, the average price already surpassed $4.00/gallon.  Fuel transportation costs, taxes, and more taxes always hit Cali and other left-leaning left coast states.

On the first day of Biden’s presidency, he issued an executive order canceling the Keystone XL pipeline making good on his promise to the climate activists who helped get him elected.

So, seemingly on our way to energy independence a few months back, America now waits in line (assuming the station has it) and pays the highest prices at the pump since 2014.

So what to do, what to do?  Let’s ask our government leaders for help.

At a Tuesday press conference, Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Jennifer Granholm was asked by a reporter about the “feasibility of using rail cars” to transport fuel across the country as the nation faces a gas shortage from a Russian cyber attack.  Her response was that they were looking into it, “but it’s – the pipe is the best way to go.”

Hmmm.  So why cancel the Keystone XL?  As stated above-politics.

Speaking of politics, remember when ole Mayor Pete Buttigieg suddenly folded in his quest to be the next President of the United States?  His newfound support of Joe Biden, and by extension the support of his supporters helped usher in the Biden presidency.

So what did the Mayor Of South Bend get out of it?  Voila, he’s your Transportation Secretary folks.

And he’s making a difference.  Just a few months back Pete was captured on camera hopping out of a government SUV caravan, putting on a bike helmet, and riding the last mile or so to the White House for a photo-op, oops, we meant an important meeting.  How environmentally friendly of him.

What’s he peddling now?  He’s speaking to the press about the $3 gas.

When asked directly by a reporter about his message to Americans who were facing the high cost of gasoline yesterday, Buttigieg replied, “My message is that we understand these concerns that we’ve seen in a lot of the impacted geographies, that this is a real issue.”

Anyone can tell you that step one of any good 12 step program is recognizing that you have a problem.

He also urged Americans not to hoard gasoline and to wait for future announcements from the federal government.  “I will say that this is a time to be sensible and to be safe,” Buttigieg said.

There you have it,  Be sensible, be safe, and wait for future announcements from your government.

The opposite of independence is, of course, dependence.

This situation is enough to make your hair stand up.

“Only in America,” Don King was known to say.

 

Back and Forth

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Question.  Is the political pendulum swinging again?  Answer.  The political pendulum is always swinging.  It’s just a matter of its direction.

Overlooked to some degree in the furor surrounding the defeat of Trump and the Senate runoffs was the ground that the Republicans gained as the 117th Congress (January 2021) took their seats in the House of Representatives.

For the two years prior, the Democrats controlled the House with a 233 to 196 margin after a midterm storm.  As it stands today the majority Democrats outnumber the Republicans by a considerably slimmer 218 to 212 count.

It should be noted that the totals seemingly always are in a slight state of flux due to resignations, seats being vacated, and even deaths.  

“They” say all politics is local.  “They” might be right.  Or, at least they might be leaning right as the race for the House will heat up again and sooner than you might imagine.  Four months of 24 have already passed.

The Census results released last Monday show that seven states will lose seats while six will gain. Texas will add two seats and Florida one. The fast-growing states of Montana and Oregon will each add one seat, as will Colorado and North Carolina.

Montana’s second seat comes after 30 years of having just a single at-large district.  Why suddenly are so many people moving there?  You know why.

At the same time, the big states of the Midwest and Northeast that historically have backed Democrats will lose congressional seats and the electoral votes that come with them. Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia will each lose one district. California’s loss of one seat reflects the slowing population growth of the nation’s largest state.

But, staying with the local theme, it may go deeper than the above states plusses or minuses.  It may go all the way down to the much-debated southern border.

South Texas Hispanic females are leading the charge to turn the Democrat stronghold of the Rio Grande Valley red.  How crazy does that sound considering the overheated rhetoric surrounding immigration both legal and otherwise in that region?

In 2016 Hillary Clinton lost elsewhere but captured the region by a whopping 39% points.  In 2020 Joseph Biden won elsewhere but his victory margin in the same district was but 15%.  The local pendulum might be moving against the Democrats in areas they have incessantly appealed (some might say pandered) to.

Chair of the Hidalgo County Republican Party and daughter of a Democratic state legislator Adrienne Pena-Garza is one example. She told the NY Times the Democrat Party has gone too far left on gun control and abortion.

Said Pena-Garza. “If someone’s going to tell you: ‘Oh, you’re brown, you have to be Democrat,’ or ‘Oh, you’re female, you have to be a Democrat’ — well, who are you to tell me who I should vote for and who I shouldn’t?”

Pena-Garza explained to the Times she was a victim of identity politics. “You can’t shame me or bully me into voting for a party just because that’s the way it’s always been,” she said.

The Times also spoke with Jessica Villarreal, a military service member who voted periodically before now pondering a campaign for elected office.

“There are more of us who realize our beliefs are Republican, no matter what we’ve been told in the past,” Villarreal told the Times. “I am a believer in God and the American dream, and I believe the Republican Party represents that.”

The Democratic Party poured big, big bucks into the state in last year’s elections.  The result?  Texas went ten for ten in reelecting sitting Republican Congressmen.  Ouch.  Now add two more seats.

That much bandied about, so-called Texas blue wave might just be a red tide after all.  And, it sounds like the brown community might have its crayons out to help color it that way.

The pendulum never comes to rest.

 

 

 

 

 

The System Is (Not) Working

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Derek Chauvin got what he deserved.

He got a fair trial by a jury of his peers overseen by what seemed to be a very even-keeled judge all the while represented by a competent defense attorney.

George Floyd’s family and all of America got what it deserved- a guilty verdict on all three counts brought against a police officer who committed a very serious crime.

In other words, to use an old tried but true phrase, justice was served.  And, after forthcoming sentencing, Chauvin will serve plenty of time for this injustice.

So, as we look back, was all of the looting, burning, rioting, violence, and teargas necessary to get us to this verdict yesterday?  No, of course, it wasn’t.

But, the marching and chanting gone bad wasn’t about getting justice in court, was it?  No, rather it was about the outrage that such a crime, and particularly a crime against a black man by someone who is supposed to protect and serve happened in the first place.  As understandable as the outrage is, lighting the town on fire isn’t the answer.

What is the answer?  Well, for the young and naive, know that society has searched for that answer for centuries.  It matters not what the crime is, and who has done it against whom, we haven’t prevented anyone from doing just about whatever they, unfortunately, choose to do against their fellow man.

Call the previous statement defeatist if you wish.  It’s reality.   It’s much like the war on drugs. How is that coming along?

But, when you mix in a white cop killing a black man, you multiply America’s outrage by a factor of X.  It’s deemed social injustice.

Chauvin isn’t the first bad cop.  And, news flash, he won’t be the last.

So defund the police.  The fine line between civility and incivility would run amok in a matter of minutes.  It’s also reality.

If you look up the aforementioned “young” and/or “naive” in the dictionary you’ll likely see a picture of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (AOC) next to it.  Predictably she had a strong point of view.

“It’s not justice. I’ll explain to you why it’s not justice. It’s not justice because justice is George Floyd going home tonight to be with his family.  Justice is when you’re pulled over, there not being a gun that’s part of that interaction because you have a headlight out. Justice is your school system not having or being part of a school-to-prison pipeline.

So, no, this verdict is not justice. Frankly, I don’t even think we call it full accountability, because there are multiple officers that were there. It wasn’t just Derek Chauvin. And I also don’t want this moment to be framed as this system working, because it’s not working.”

When does any murder victim come home to be with his family?  Ever?

George Floyd had his share of run-ins with the legal system.  It in NO WAY justifies his killing, however.  But, remember, amongst nine crimes Floyd committed one was an armed robbery of a couple in their home after he impersonated a police officer to gain entry.  He held a gun to the women’s abdomen while his cohorts in crime took what they wanted.

He was tried, found guilty, and served his time.  What makes that different than the process that Chauvin went through?  Two things make it different.

One, we hold our officers up to a higher standard.  We should.  And, we’ll be disappointed again and again for doing so when one in a hundred goes bad.   Two, it’s different because Chauvin’s crime was white on black while Floyd’s crime was black on white.  If you are an equality purist that shouldn’t matter either.

AOC says that the system is not working.  Did your school have a school-to-prison pipeline by the way?

Depending on your view, it never has.

Or, it always will.

And that goes for the system and the pipeline.

Lemons. Lemonade.

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

If there was ever a debate about which amendment in the Bill of Rights was most important the point would be made.

Debating is free speech.  And free speech is the most prominent part of the First Amendment.  Case closed.

But, alas, the case against Minnesota policeman Derick Chauvin isn’t yet closed.  It’s gone to the jury which is also a right guaranteed by our founding fathers.

So, while a jury of his peers speaks freely (we hope) about the merits of the charge he is facing inside, the posturing has been exacerbated and accelerated on the outside around further police interaction with the public that it is supposed to protect and serve.

After 26-year veteran, Minnesota Police Officer Kim Potter said she mistook her gun for a Taser when she fatally shot Daunte Wright after a traffic stop last week she faces second-degree murder charges.  Do you want to talk about bad timing for a bad tragedy?

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib weighed in from her 13th District (west side of Detroit, Mi) two states over.  She posted on her Twitter account Monday in response to the shooting death of Daunte Wright.  She tweeted “It wasn’t an accident, policing in our country is inherently and intentionally racist.” She ended the tweet with “No more policing, incarceration, it can’t be reformed.”

So, forget due process she says, just end policing, and then you won’t have this problem any longer. Voila!  That might cause a few more problems, but we digress.

Rep Maxine Waters decided to travel from her home in California to Minnie.  Then she took to the Brooklyn Center, MN streets this past weekend along with other protesters of Wright’s death.   Waters responded to a reporter’s question that if Chauvin is not convicted of murder, protesters must ratchet up pressure and get “confrontational.”

“We’ve got to stay on the street and we’ve got to get more active,” Waters said. “We’ve got to get more confrontational. We’ve got to make sure they know we mean business.”

But, that’s when free speech could get expensive.  You can’t yell “fire” in a crowded theatre.  And, in this political theatre that’s where old Maxine might have crossed the line.

Forget censure in Congress which is a distinct possibility after it is brought to a vote.  She might have given the Chauvin defense attorneys the oxygen to light an appeals fire.

Presiding Judge Peter Cahill in this George Floyd murder case spoke freely as well.

“I’ll give you that Congresswoman Waters may have given you something on appeal that may result in this whole trial being overturned. I’m aware of the media reports, I’m aware that Congresswoman Waters was talking specifically about this trial, and about the unacceptability of anything less than a murder conviction, talked about being confrontational.   This goes back to what I’ve been saying from the beginning. I wish elected officials would stop talking about this case, especially in a manner that is disrespectful to the rule of law.”

Whoopsie.

CNN host Don Lemon used his free speech pulpit to lecture to the ignorant and set the record straight.  He said that Rep. Waters  “Absolutely” should not have made the comments she did about reacting to the verdict in the Chauvin trial.  But he added  “everyone knows” she is “not calling for violence” and that “she makes a lot of white men uncomfortable.”

There you have it.  Who knew?  Everyone says Lemon.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

When life gives you Rashida and Maxine you get lots of chances to make a pitcher or two.

 

Just Checking

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

It’s fact-check time.  It’s truth serum time.  It’s an attempt at sanity in these insane times.  And, it starts now.

Are you for or against packing the U.S. Supreme Court?  Currently, nine justices preside.  The Democratic majority in the House of Representatives is champing at the bit to pack the court with four new appointees bringing the lucky number of black (can we still say that?) robes to 13.

If you are for it, would you also be for, say, four more to get to 17 if the Republicans retook control of both houses?  And, if that answer is a “yes,” which we doubt, how many would be too many in this race to stupidity?  What’s a good number to call it quits?  21?  27?  35?  51? 101? 1001?

Were you vehemently opposed to the cruel treatment of being placed in “temporary holding facilities,” aka “cages” that illegal minor immigrants that crossed our southern border were subjected to under the Trump Administration?

If you were, are you equally as outraged that the Biden Administration has not only carried on with that practice but seems to be putting more humans in even more cramped quarters?  Are you also disappointed that the temporary housing need has now invaded hotel chains in Texas at a cost to the US taxpayer of nearing a billion dollars and counting?

And, we presume that you are/were aware that the “cages” were built and first used under the Obama Administration.

And, what about that terrible, insensitive, prejudicial wall that Trump was building? Isn’t it great that Biden halted the construction?

If that is indeed a great dose of sanity and humanity we wonder if you were for or against any of the following?

  1.  The first barrier built by the U.S. was between 1909-1911; the first barrier built by Mexico was likely in 1918, and barriers were extended in the 1920s and 1930s.
  2.  President Bill Clinton approved the initial 14 miles of fencing along the San Diego–Tijuana border.   Construction began on this section in early 1993 and was completed by the end of the year.    Further barriers were built from 1994 under the presidency of Bill Clinton as part of three larger operations while he was president.
  3. The Real ID Act, signed into law by President George W. Bush on May 11, 2005, brought the total man-made built miles to 75.
  4. The Secure Fence Act of 2006, signed into law on October 26, 2006, by President George W. Bush authorized and partially funded the potential construction of 700 miles of physical fence/barriers along the Mexican border. The bill passed with supermajorities in both chambers.
  5. Construction continued and in May 2011, President Barack Obama stated that the wall was “basically complete”, with 649 miles of barrier constructed. Of this, vehicle barriers comprised 299 miles and pedestrian fence 350 miles. Obama stated, “We have gone above and beyond what was requested by the very Republicans who said they supported broader reform as long as we got serious about enforcement.”
  6. And, finally, in 2017, post the Trump win came funding for a wider, taller, and more structurally sound wall.  Trump would say, “a very beautiful wall.”

Joe Biden was in a political office for all of the above, repeat all of the above, except border wall point number one and six.

Would you support the idea of the District of Columbia (Washington, DC) being granted statehood?

If so, would you also support US Territories, such as Puerto Rico coming on board?

Would it be ok if Texas split into five states?  Its state constitution had provisions written in it to facilitate such a move when the Republic thereof was admitted to statehood.  It should be noted that federal law may supersede that one though.  But, stranger things have happened deep in the heart of Texas.

Fifty existing plus DC plus PR plus five in Texas would equal 57 states.  Coincidentally that is the exact same number Obama said he visited during the 2008 election.   What a visionary he was/is.

Did you get a vaccine?  Are you still wearing a mask afterward?  What good is the vaccine if there is any fear that you can still a) catch the damn thing, or, b) spread the damn thing?  Was the mask worthwhile, then, in the first place?  Variants, you say?  Two masks?

Should Americans be forced into showing a vaccine ID card?  Would it suffice at polling places for those damn conservatives that still think you should need a valid ID to vote?

Maybe every time we vote we should get vaccinated for or against what we put in office.

Just checking.

 

Dinner Is Served

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Guess who’s coming to dinner? Well, the answer depends if you are talking about short-term or long-term.

In the short run, it should be your family and close friends.

In the long run, it could be your new neighbors.

Should be, we said, family and friends in the short term.  But, the honorable Dr. Fauci weighed in on Sunday.  “It’s still not OK” to gather indoors. He cited the “level of infection” as “still really disturbingly high.”

“So, if you’re not vaccinated, please get vaccinated as soon as vaccine becomes available to you, and if you are vaccinated, please remember that you still have to be careful and not get involved in crowded situations, particularly indoors where people are not wearing masks,” he stated.

“And for the time being, until we show definitively that a person who’s vaccinated does not get this subclinical infection and can spread to others, you should also continue to wear a mask.”

Who knew?  Now the vaccinations might not work.  All of this free government advice (coercion) comes from a man who just over a year ago said wearing a mask was not necessary.

But if you can wait for the $2.5 trillion infrastructure bill, which has little to do with infrastructure, to pass you could invite your new neighbors over for some indoor mask-wearing chow time.   Neatly tucked inside of the bloated bill is a measly $20 billion designed to turn current single-family dwelling neighborhoods upside down.

You’ve heard of Section 8 housing, haven’t you?  Stated simply, if you don’t have enough income to afford a certain home or apartment for rent, the government will provide the difference based on income or lack thereof qualifications.  The new bill would take that concept into a neighborhood near you.

The infrastructure bill, also known as the American Jobs Act, would remove the zoning that exists for single-family homes across the nation and allow tear-downs of them to build multi-unit apartments next to them or to convert existing single-family homes into multi-family dwellings.  Anywhere, anytime.

What a concept it is.  The government hands out money.  Jobs are created in the construction industry.  Landlords get paid.  Renters get better housing in any neighborhood of their choosing.  Corporations get taxed at a higher rate to pay for some of this plan.    Consumers pay more for what corporations make. Debt continues its climb.  And, you get new neighbors and plenty of them.

Viola!  Easy peasy.  No wonder it’s called the American Jobs Act.

And, now you can have all of the new neighbors that you want, or don’t want, over for dinner.  Hell, throw a block party.

The fact that we don’t choose our neighbors (and now not our neighborhood either) doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be good neighbors.

Invite Dr. Fauci too.  But, insist that he wear a mask, dammit.

 

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?