Happy (C)Hump Day!

Posted on August 7, 2019August 7, 2019 by thependulumswings staff

Happy Hump Day. You’ve made it this far into the week, you might as well stick it out now and go the distance. Joe Scarborough, MSNBC cohost of Mornings With Joe, made it far enough into his transformation to the Democratic Party that this AM he decided to stick it out and go all of the way over the cliff.

BBR, being fair and balanced, monitors all news outlets. This AM we tuned in to hear Joe, his sidekick and wife Mika Brzezinski, and others interview Nebraska GOP State Senator John McCollister. McCollister tweeted Sunday night, “The Republican Party is enabling white supremacy in our country. As a lifelong Republican, it pains me to say this, but it’s the truth.”

Ah, that’ll get you instant oxygen on MSNBC. Through out the 5 minute or so interview MSNBC had the large font, all caps, double high banner on the bottom quarter of the screen stating “REPUBLICAN STATE SENATOR IN NEBRASKA SAYS GOP IS “COMPLICIT” WITH WHITE SUPREMACY.” But, a funny thing happened in those five minutes. No one asked him about the “complicit” claim. No one.

But they did ask him why he was speaking out against his own party. Mika, “So where do you stand with your party affiliation? I guess the Republican Party kicked you out?” McCollister, “No. they can’t. Only I can kick myself out.” Nice try by Joe’s wife.

McCollister went on to say that “the GOP party under Trump has lost the values it used to stand for being free trade, legal immigration, and fiscal sanity.” Joe called Trump a “long time Big Government Democrat who only changed parties so that he could run” then asked, looking for leaks in the dam “if he had heard from or received any support from elected officials in Nebraska or around the country?” “No, no elected officials have reached out.” Nice try by Mika’s husband.

Willie Geist asked what his fallout could be for speaking out. “I term out in three years and we have no caucus, so the political fallout for me is very little.” BBR would have liked to have asked him, then, why it took all of this time to speak out. We think we got that answer. Nice try by Willie.

An unnamed commenter on the desk asked how “Nebraska farmers were holding up given the reckless and incompetent tariff and trade policies.” McCollister expressed surprise that no backlash had occurred from the farming community. He said “I guess that they are just hoping something will eventually get better.” Nice try by Mr. Unnamed.

Mika was thanking him for his time and said that she “really appreciated his voice” as the interview concluded, but Mika’s husband couldn’t help himself and jumped in. “Thank you so much Senator for standing up and being counted, sounding like actually a member of the party of Lincoln,” Joe said. “Yep!” Mika said.

So, to summarize Joe called they party he joined “big government democrats.” And, Mika and Joe yearn for the old days of the Republican Party when it stood for free trade, legal immigration, and fiscal sanity. So, isn’t Trump attempting to balance the trade field with China, Mexico, Canada, and others to make it truly free or at least a level one as opposed to one sided tariffs? So, isn’t Trump railing incessantly about his belief in immigration as long as it’s legal? Now, on the fiscal sanity, BBR wholeheartedly agrees. Trillion dollar deficits are no way to run a country. We wonder if they felt they felt the same from 2009-2016. However, Trump’s team insists that there is plenty of time to tighten the belt, just not now. And, they claim that they will when (2020-2024) they want to “Keep America Great.”

Joe’s wife should be so, so proud. Her transformation of Joe, former Republican Congressman, is complete. It’s complete in the sense that they both cannot accept that Trump was elected in 2016, and both spend 24/7 speaking out against anything he does. Russia, Russia, Russia. Racist, racist, racist. It’s complete in how he identifies his Democratic party affiliation.

But, but ideologically they sound so, so confused.

Happy Chump(s) Day.

Stocks Tumble 3% On Trade Tensions

Posted on August 5, 2019 by Jim Carlton

Independent Investment Management designed to protect and grow your wealth.

Friends

Well, that escalated rather quickly. After last week’s difficulties for stocks triggered by the President lighting the trade war tariff match, China’s threatened retaliations (and currency devaluation) along with unrest in Hong Kong sent stocks tumbling at the open of trading this morning. Tumbling turned into cascading by midday and continued into the afternoon. Though, we did recover some and closed off the lows of the day, it basically was a mess for the bulls. Interest rates around the world continue to tumble, adding to anxiety that the global economies are becoming less and less fixable, and central banks will have less and less effect on them.

By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 767 points to finish the day at 25,717. The S&P 500 was down 87 points to close at 2,844. Gold was up $15 to trade at $1,473 per ounce, while oil was down $.81 to trade at $54.85 per barrel WTI.

Very quickly, the S&P 500 is down 6% from the all-time highs, and if you look back exactly one year the S&P is basically flat. But, of course, we’ve had a lot of action between now and then, not to mention a lot of anxiety and a few thrills. Wow, this is just Monday! Buckle up for the week ahead. We’ll let you know how it all unfolds.

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

Ten Piece Nuggets-Debates

Posted on August 1, 2019August 1, 2019 by thependulumswings staff

The Fox Theater, which was certainly a fair and balanced venue, hosted night two of two of the second round of the Democratic Party Presidential 2020 debates.

You’ve likely had your fill of it, so the ten nuggets that follow are light, quick, low calorie, and priced just right.

Cory Booker wants to start impeachment proceedings now. Good idea except his speaker likely won’t allow it, a House vote would fail, and the Senate wouldn’t even bring it to a vote. He’s drinking the Kool Aid and he doesn’t even know which flavor.
Jay Inslee, the climate change candidate, is passionate and then some on this topic, or crisis if you prefer. He, and everyone else on stage, knows that America only produces 15% of the world’s fossil fuel emissions. If we change all of our “bad” habits, 85% remain. One candidate said we only have twelve years left. Inslee calculates it a mere ten. Surely by the next debate someone can get it down to eight.
Kirsten Gillenbrand dramatically asked white people how they would feel “if their son was walking down the street wearing a hoodie and was stopped by the police.” We wonder about the hoodie comment which is an obvious attempt at correlating it to black male teenagers. Do all black teens wear hoodies? Seems like she might be prejudging herself a bit there.
Candidate Yang wants to give every family $1000 a month every month, but two debates in we still aren’t sure why. Last night he decided to tell us that we should also pay people before they went to prison and pay them after they got out. He’s no Mary Williamson, but he’s a bit on the edge.
Mary Williamson was the most Googled searched candidate after Tuesday night’s debate. She is interesting. Being the most searched can be good or bad though. Her idea of creating a Department of Peace sounds so comforting though, doesn’t it?
Most everyone on stage last evening was for decriminalizing border crossings. Public opinion polls overwhelmingly are opposed. It’s a losing hand.
Many are for single provider healthcare effectively eliminating private plans. The over 150 million who have it are overwhelmingly opposed. It’s a losing hand.
Kamala Harris went from the hunter to the hunted. Tulsi Gabbard took her to task on her Cali Attorneys General decisions on marijuana, the death penalty, and other areas. It will be interesting to see how the polls shake out after this debate for both. Gabbard needs a few points to stay and Harris might have made a few available to her. Harris is borderline condescending and angry. It was a step backwards for her.
NY Mayor Bill De Blasio’s opening and closing statements featured him telling us that he wanted to “tax the hell out of the wealthy.” Ok. Then what Bill?
Sleepy Joe Biden, still the pole sitter, took over seventy percent of the attacks on stage. He handled some well. Some, not so much. At the end of the long evening, he closed by asking folks to visit his site at Joe 30…..3….30. It should have been an appeal to text Joe to 30330. Get some rest Joe.
One extra. So. Who won the two nights? BBR thinks it was Donald Trump. But, November 2020 is a long ways away. Say it ain’t so, Joe.

To Be or Not To Be a Racist. That is the Question.

Posted on July 30, 2019 by thependulumswings staff

President Donald Trump is a racist. If you don’t believe us, just ask MSNBC, or CNN, or The Atlantic, or Joe Scarborough, or Mika Brzezinski, or Bernie Sanders, or AOC and the three, or Elijah Cummings, or the Reverend Al Sharpton.

President Donald trump isn’t a racist. If you don’t believe us just ask fair and balanced Fox News, or Fox Business, or Rush Limbaugh, or Mark Levin, or cheerleader Sean Hannity.

Elijah Cummings took on what he feels is inadequate care for children at our border. And the House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Cummings put on a show Thursday screaming at acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan about the way illegal immigrant children are treated in detention centers. “These are human beings!” raved the Maryland Democrat. “Human beings just trying to live a better life!”

Racist Trump took to his favorite avenue to express himself. He tweeted “As proven last week during a Congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient & well run, just very crowded. Cummings District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous & filthy place.

And so, predictably, yesterday friends and foes lined up on both sides of the attacks and counter attacks. Haven’t you watched this movie before? And, haven’t you watched it before that? And, won’t it be playing soon all over again, and over again, at a theater near you? You bet it will. It will be live on stage at the Fox Theater in Detroit tonight and again tomorrow night.

The debate’s debaters will no doubt take turns trying to one up one another talking about just how racist The Donald is. But, there is no real debate within the party about how to beat Trump in 2020. Democrats have to win over Trump voters in swing states like Michigan, a crucial plank in the party’s 2020 strategy in luring its own traditional supporters back to the polls. And, like a made in America in Detroit, Michigan Ford, they’ll start the engine tonight in The Motor City.

Boosting turnout in majority African-American Detroit as well as in some of its Democratic-trending suburbs where the party found success in last year’s midterm election should do the trick, state party leaders say. State party leaders in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Wisconsin say much the same.

Nationwide, the black turnout rate fell to roughly 60% in 2016, down from a record high of nearly 67% in 2012. It marked the first such decline in 20 years among African-Americans in a presidential election. Democrats, who typically win an overwhelming majority of black voters, now have just over 15 months to try to reverse that slide.

Trump won Michigan by only about 11,000 votes. Turn out 15,000 more black voters in 2020, and insure that the traditional 94% of them vote for the Democrat, any Democrat, and voila, the 16 electoral votes goes back to where it usually goes. Take that strategy to the aforementioned three other states and the rust belt flips. And, with that, the White House has a new rent free renter for the next four years.

Do you wonder why they chose Detroit for the debate site? Do you wonder why the attack on Trump for his attack on Elijah’s district is labeled racist?

Cummings has been in Congress for 20 years. Did the temporary living conditions on our southern border somehow just now deteriorate? Did the living conditions in some areas of his Baltimore district somehow just now deteriorate?

The answers are of course no and no. But, the Democratic Party is only interested in your answer to one question. Is Donald Trump a racist?

Better Than Expected

Posted on July 27, 2019 by Jim Carlton

Independent Investment Management designed to protect and grow your wealth.

Friends

Despite a slight earnings miss by Amazon, there were many
other good earnings releases, not the least of which was Alphabet’s, which
helped push market averages to new all-time highs. Today’s GDP number, which
showed 2.1% growth in the 2^nd quarter, was actually a little better
than expected, but not so hot as to deter the Fed from cutting rates next week.
That expectation of a rate cut along with a reasonably good earnings season is
fueling the market advance.

For the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 51
points to close at 27,192. The S&P 500 was up 22 points to finish the day
at 3,025. Gold was up $2 to trade at $1,417 per ounce, while oil was up $.18 to
trade at $56.20 per barrel WTI.

It was a very busy week for corporate earnings, and with
nearly half of the S&P having reported, EPS growth is actually showing a
positive number, which is definitely better than expected. The earnings deluge
will continue next week, and of course, we will have the FOMC meeting on
Tuesday and Wednesday. With today’s market action, it appears that market
participants are getting more comfortable with the corporate earnings picture,
and most certainly are expecting an interest rate cut next week. It should be
another fun week ahead. We’ll keep an eye on it all for you.

Have a great weekend 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”).

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

Rumors of His Death……….

Posted on July 23, 2019July 23, 2019 by thependulumswings staff

Way back in 1876 Samuel Clemens, under the pen name of Mark Twain, penned the American classic novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Tom was an irascible one, just ask his Aunt Polly whom he lived with. One day for his misdeed(s) she punished him making him whitewash(paint) her picket fence. Tom convinced his friends to do it for him selling it as a privilege to do such work and admire it as an accomplishment. And paint it they did. It’s an amazing accomplishment unto itself, even if it is fiction.

If you jump to 2019 in the adventures of Donald Trump, himself a bit irascible, it looks like he too has passed out the paint brushes. It looks like the President has convinced his “friends” on The Squad ( Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan) to do his work for him as well. The Squad has repeatedly attempted to paint Trump as a racist among other non flattering accusations. Meanwhile the media cannot get enough of the four congresswoman giving the feud much air time. He has portrayed them on the canvas as the new faces of the ever further leaning left Democratic Party. Green New Deal, free healthcare, free tuition, and a free for all are promised. He purposely helps them get even more oxygen. Aunt Polly, aka Nancy Pelosi, is beside herself. She can’t decide if she wants to punish Trump, or her freshman legislators, or both.

Meanwhile the 2020 cattle call of 23 Democratic hopefuls to gain the nomination has far too little oxygen in the room. Each candidate is trying to find their way. In the crowded herd one has tried to go further left than the next. Free this and free that is promised for all but the wealthy. For the wealthy pay for this and pay for that is promised. Heck, Cory Booker piled on over the weekend and told America that Trump was even worse than a racist. “The reality is, this is a guy who is worse than a racist,” the Democratic presidential contender from New Jersey told Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “He is actually using racist tropes and racial language for political gains, trying to use this as a weapon to divide our nation against itself. We aren’t sure what that is called. Is that a racist’s racist? Booker took a harder left turn than The Squad.

Trump has made the race (at least for now) a binary decision. Vote for me, or vote for the new Democratic Party, the face of which is The Squad. He has plenty of paint brushes to go around. And, he has plenty of Democrats and media folks lining up on the drop cloths.

Is there one person left in America who hasn’t come to their own conclusion as to whether Trump is a racist (whatever definition of racist one may have) or is not? And, isn’t this the theme every four years? Reagan, Bush, Dole, Bush, McCain, Romney, and Trump have all been painted with the same whitewash. Isn’t it time to let the paint dry and move on to another chore? Infrastructure, medical care reform, drug costs, and immigration come to mind.

Tom Sawyer went missing in another stunt that Aunt Polly didn’t approve. Eventually town members had a funeral, for he was presumed dead. Tom got wind of this and decided to show up at his own funeral. “Rumors of his death,” he said, “were greatly exaggerated.”

Try as the Democrats might, rumors of Trump’s political career being dead are greatly exaggerated as well.

And, he gave out plenty of paint brushes to eager “friends” as proof.

Big Earnings Week

Posted on July 22, 2019 by Jim Carlton

Independent Investment Management designed to protect and grow your wealth.

Friends

Buckle up. This is a big week for corporate earnings as
we’ll hear from Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Facebook, Travelers, Caterpillar,
Lockheed Martin, Kimberly Clark, Harley Davidson, United Technologies, Coca
Cola, AT&T, Boeing, Ford, 3M, Intel, McDonald’s, and Colgate-Palmolive-
just to mention a few. Then we’ll have another big week for earnings next week
while at the same time an FOMC meeting is happening. So, by the end of the
month, we’ll have a good read on corporate America and we’ll know whether the
Fed has begun to lower interest rates again. It should be a very interesting
couple of weeks.

Other than some strength in the Nasdaq, stocks were mostly
quiet today, perhaps in anticipation of a lot of fireworks coming the next two
weeks. For the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 17 points to close
at 27,171. The S&P 500 was up 8 points to finish the day at 2,985. Gold was
up $1 to trade at $1,427 per ounce, while oil was up $.46 to trade at $56.09
per barrel WTI.

So far it’s been a difficult earnings season to figure out.
Expectations were lowered coming into this earnings season, but stock prices
were sitting at all-time highs. This somewhat confusing set up has led to
market participants wondering just how stocks will react to the releases, and
so far the reactions have been mixed and somewhat muted. Let’s see if anything
breaks loose over the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned, we’ll keep you apprised
of the developments.

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”).

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

Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity

Posted on July 17, 2019July 17, 2019 by thependulumswings staff

The Wall Street Journal reached out yesterday. They asked us to comment on rumors that boomboomsroom.com, aka BBR, was contemplating going public. We directly squashed the rumor. We have no plans to IPO now nor in the future.

Our rationale is simple. We want our sole focus on delivering the best content day in and day out. To do so we need to hire the best people to do their best at the job that they are qualified to do. Our deep and talented staff shakes it’s collective head at the daily outcry for diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. Don’t misread our position. We are all for all people, regardless of race, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religion, or whatever group we forgot, to succeed in the business workplace. We just think that the best/most qualified should be the final determination.

When did hiring the best and most qualified go out of style? It’s when political correctness became the style. It’s when capitalism was first assaulted by socialism.

Take Uber. The newly public company released on Monday its latest diversity report, which included a breakdown of its US workforce by race or ethnicity and gender. White men still make up most of its staff (30.1%), a pattern that is even more evident in leadership, tech, and leadership in tech roles. Black women make up 5.3% of its overall workforce in the US, black men 4%, Hispanic women 3.7% and Hispanic men 4.6%.

Diversity is defined as each person is unique. And, each person may have a different point of view that should be considered. It certainly can be due to different upbringing, background, education, race, ethnicity, etc. But, it’s about each individual.

For the first time, Uber is setting some diversity and inclusion goals for 2022 that will be tied to the compensation of several of its senior executives — CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, chief financial officer Nelson Chai, chief legal officer Tony West, and chief people officer Nikki Krishnamurthy. Chief People Officer! What the hell?

Want to guess what percent of the US 2018 census best estimate of the American population is white and male? It’s 37%. Should they focus on hiring more white men? It would be equitable, but not politically correct.

“While these numbers are an improvement, they are not where they need to be,” wrote Megan Rose Dickey of the Tech Crunch website. Project Include’s Ellen Pao has previously said the numbers need to be at 13% black and 17% Latino in order to reflect the demographics of the U.S. population. So, employee demographics need to match our population. If everyone is employed (nearly the case right now) don’t they in the macro?

So, how do you get there? Ah. What isn’t being said is that nearly 33% of the Uber employees are of Asian decent. So, is that good or bad? Aren’t Asians a minority too? Of course they are. Every race is except white. But apparently there are too many of them working at Uber for Megan and Ellen. How else can you say it? If you need to have more blacks and Latinos you must need less Asians. Isn’t that racist? Isn’t that prejudiced?

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in May that his league had done a poor job hiring females as referees. Currently there are three female officials in the NBA, and he wants that number to rise. “The goal is going forward, it should be roughly 50-50 of new officials entering in the league,” he said. “Same for coaches, by the way. We have a program, too. There’s no reason why women shouldn’t be coaching men’s basketball.” Sounds politically correct. Except, maybe they don’t want to referee in the NBA?

Someone should ask Adam how many female refs applied for the job in the last twelve months. If it was way more than the three that they have whose fault is it that they only have three? It’s the NBA’s. If the number that applied is way less than men, how do you fix that? Should you even try to fix that?

And, most of all, someone should ask Adam why there is such an imbalance in the league’s players. According to racial equality activist Richard Lapchick, the NBA in 2015 (the most recent info we could find) was composed of 74.4 percent black players, 23.3 percent white players, 1.8 percent Latino players of any race, and 0.2 percent Asian players. If I were an Asian Uber employee I might declare my eligibility for the 2020 NBA draft.

Diverse? Sure. Inclusive? Yes. Equitable? No. The most qualified? For sure. Ah, now we are getting somewhere.

No Consensus on the Census

Posted on July 12, 2019July 12, 2019 by thependulumswings staff

So, in today’s America, we cannot come to a consensus on the census. Why not? President Trump and his Attorney General are at odds with Congressional Democrats and a few Obama appointed judges over the right to ask a basic question on the 2020 census. The question is “are you a US citizen?”

That leads to another very basic question, “why?” Why would those opposed to the question of citizenship on the census be opposed to it? And, that leads to yet another question, “why was it taken off of the census questionnaire to begin with?”

The answer to why the opposition to the question itself seems rooted deep in the Democratic Party strategy doctrine. They would prefer the word “residents” these days over citizens. It sounds so much more inclusive you know. Remember “illegal aliens” morphed to “illegal immigrants.” Then it softened to “migrants.” Soon migrants became “undocumented.” There are even “dreamers.” Doesn’t “dreamer” sound so much better than “illegal?” How can you be opposed to dreaming? Join our party.

Way back in 1974 a lower court’s ruling on Roe v. Wade was upheld by the United States Supreme Court. The result made a woman’s right to have an abortion legal. A woman’s right to have an abortion morphed into a woman’s “right to choose.” Choose what? You know. So, it was still too descriptive. So, it is now referred to by the left as “woman’s healthcare.” It’s headed to “woman’s wellness.” Doesn’t “wellness” sound so much better than “abortion?” How can you be opposed to wellness? Join our party.

If you count “residents” isn’t the next step to count them in on all things that “citizens” rights provide. Free healthcare was just approved in California for illegals aged 19-25. Why stop there? You can start by redrawing the congressional districts around residents. And, when you do the party that panders to the illegal immigrants in every which way gains more votes. More votes means gaining and holding power. Why do you need an ID to vote anyway? Come one, come all. The party that panders dreams about the dreamers putting them in power permanently. And, make no mistake about it, the Democratic party has a vision and a strategic plan and does a great job marketing itself to achieve it.

So, why and when was it taken off of the census to begin with? It was taken off by the Obama Administration after the 2010 census. When you count citizens you also count non citizens don’t you know? It’s better if your opponents do not know the size of the opportunity (if you are from the left) or the problem (if you are from the right). The question has been on every census, taken once a decade, for over 160 years. When it was removed the hope was that it would never be placed back on it.

At a minimum it takes a fight to get it back on. And who looks bad in the fight in the eyes of the press? It’s the folks that call illegals illegal. It isn’t the former president and his agenda. He was trying to be inclusive. So the narrative has shifted. The press writes and talks about “why does the president want this on?” The press doesn’t or didn’t ever question why the former president took it off. So the right siders have to play defense.

President Trump comments often about how important it is to finish building the wall that previous administrations started. It might seem easy now compared to building a consensus around the census. Of course if you had the wall you would need no census consensus.

Border Fireworks Make For Good TV

Posted on July 3, 2019July 3, 2019 by thependulumswings staff

Happy Fourth of July! Happy Independence Day!

Independence? What exactly is that? Merriam Webster defines it as “the state of independent.” Independent is defined as “not requiring or relying on others (as for care or livelihood).” It’s also defined as “showing a desire for freedom.”

Two hundred and forty three years ago tomorrow America declared it’s desire for freedom. And two hundred and forty three years later we have a crisis at several entry points into our fifty United States on our southern border. It seems that the desire for freedom from those in other countries has outstripped the supply of well meaning people (border control, government workers,and volunteers) to manage the situation. Managing it is very tricky of course. There is the attempt to stop illegal entry, and the attempt to process those caught, and the process of housing them while they are being processed.

Apparently this crisis wasn’t a crisis though when President Trump called it just that as 2018 turned to 2019. Back then the press and Democrats in positions of congressional leadership said that there is no such thing. Well, well, well. A funny thing happened from then until now. It’s a democratic process unto itself, and a way every four years that we take advantage of our rights that the very freedom provides. It’s the election process.

And, with that process comes the opportunity to express opinions and outrage over problems and opportunities the nation over. So, the non crisis is now a crisis. Ask any Democrat running for office. Each in the last week or so has expressed disbelief and outrage over the governments failure to adequately house the immigrants and care for the children caught in the fray. One even shrieked that the compound had run out of toothpaste. Oh yea, and it’s better to call them “undocumented” than illegal, too.

We’ll start investigations into it as soon as next week. Congress is very good at that. They investigate, castigate, and threaten to jail wrong doers. They remind those drug in to testify that they are under oath. The truth must be told!

The problem is that the truth was told and it has been told over and over. Those crossing are doing so illegally. They have swamped the border and have been for many months now. But, now, elections are near. TV time is expensive.

But, but, but. What if a candidate can get a hungry and gullible press member or 50 of them to follow their every step? They can walk right up to the fences (cages as the outraged has called them) and lament about how bad a job America is doing. Those “cages” were built several years ago under the Obama administration for all of the right reasons. It was one part of an attempt to control an out of control border situation. Then President Obama spoke into TV cameras and said, “don’t come here and don’t send your children here alone.” He continued,” If you do, you’ll be sent back.” It made sense then. It makes sense now.

Record numbers are attempting to get into the country that the party out of the White House tells you how many wrongs exist in it.

You might spend time in a “cage” and you might have forgotten your toothpaste. But, it must not be such a bad place after all. People are climbing over walls in record numbers to get here. Just don’t turn on your TV till after November 2020. It seems that a few folks have a different opinion. It’s another freedom. Freedom of speech.

Enjoy the baseball and the fireworks. And, please pass the hot dogs and apple pie this way.