Politics

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.”

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

Serious Problem Solved

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Four days into the Joe Biden presidency and we can already feel what true leadership looks and feels like.  Gone are the petty arguments this same time four years ago that were being played out by the Trump team v. the media over how many people attended his Inauguration Parade.

“We’ve got serious problems, and we need serious people,” said President Andrew Shepard in the movie The American President.  He went on castigating his reelection opponent Bob Rumson, “This is a time for serious people, Bob, and your fifteen minutes are up.”  There.

So some serious people have been weighing in on a serious problem in the last few days.  The serious problem is Covid-19.

It got serious in March of 2020.  By mid-October of 2020, Biden had seen enough.  He tweeted, “We’re eight months into this pandemic and Donald Trump still doesn’t have a plan to get this virus under control.  I do.”

Amongst other jewels on his platform, he promised 100 million vaccinations in his first 100 days in office!  Bold goal aiming for 1 million injections a day don’t you say?

His advisers advised the press that this would be a tall hill to climb but they would do everything they could to make it happen.  How tall?  His senior advisor Cedric Richmond spoke to CNN’s Pamela Brown on air about the Covid vaccine distribution.  “The sad part is the last administration didn’t leave anything.  They didn’t leave a plan.”

The funny or not so funny thing about that is America has been averaging almost that for the last 15 or so days before Biden took his oath under heavy security.  It might be over a million a day if California, ranked dead last in the US in percent of vaccines administered versus shipped, could roll up more sleeves.

Now, this conflicts with another Biden tweet this past week.  @JoeBiden: “There is nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months.”  Say it ain’t so, Joe?  What happened to your plan?

But for some, if you follow the science, apparently the situation is getting better after nearly ten months of stay at home orders.

One believer is Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer(D).  She announced that her state would allow restaurants and bars to reopen for indoor service at 25% capacity starting early next week.  She stated, “The science around this is settled, and if we all wear masks and wash our hands while social distancing, we will be in a strong position in a few weeks.  And then we’ll even be able to do more.”  Groundbreaking really.

Did she learn this while attending Biden’s inauguration while not socially distancing?  Sounds like her husband can go clean his boat safely now, too.

Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser(D) found the science news refreshing as well.  She announced an identical plan to Whitmer’s on the same day.  The mad scientist, she is.

Both are timely, though both are a full week behind New York(D) Governor Andrew Cuomo’s pronouncement a week ago.  He brilliantly blabbed that New York can’t go on like this any longer.  “We must reopen,” he said.  The plan floated there is to use rapid testing administered at hundreds of government locations. Of course, it is.  Rapid testing has been available for about six months.  Let the government help you.

So, either we have a plan or don’t.  Either we reopen or not.  And, we need more vaccines that we don’t administer.  And then, there is our new leader who said there’s nothing we can do about the trajectory.

No wonder we need the government’s help to solve this.   Surely they’ll follow the science to get us there.  And, just in time we might add.