When you woke up a week ago today were you feeling jilted?  Maybe a week later you still do?  Don’t despair.

Why?  That’s an easy one.  For one, you’re still alive.

“No, not enough,” you say.  “Give us another reason.”  Rather than give you another reason, you could talk to 10-15 million whose names we may or may not know, and they’ll explain why they fled parts unknown, jumped fences to get in, and entered our country illegally for a better life.

“But, but, it’s the end of our democracy.”  Is it?  Can someone explain how DJT’s election will end democracy and why it didn’t end in 2020?  Far too many buy into hysteria that never materializes.  Do you remember Chicken Little who said the sky is falling?

Speaking of chickens, every potential voting block was promised one in their pot.  Student loan forgiveness, increased child care credit, 50k to start a biz, 25k to first-time homebuyers, one million “forgivable loans” to black entrepreneurs, and no tax on tips were all side dishes to the chicken.

What a feast.  But, Kamala didn’t get a chance to serve that Thanksgiving spread.

It’s ok.  There are many government agencies here to help- for now.

The departments and their public servants(reminds us of jumbo shrimp) will need to dodge DOGE.  What’s DOGE?  It’s the Department of Government Efficiency.

Perhaps these ground-shaking last seven days sent you to bed early last evening.  If so, you missed the smoke spewing from the Mar-a-Lago chimney.

DJT anointed Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy as “department heads” of an independent initiative to recommend to President 47 where waste can be cut from the bloviated government.  This leaves more than a few career DC folks jilted as well.  Take the Department of Education, please.

The hope is to cut two trillion from yearly spending and finish the surgery by July 4th, 2026.  That coincides with our nation’s 250th happy birthday.

Still not happy?  You have 36 trillion reasons and counting to be.

Maybe all of this caused you to turn off FOX News years ago.  If so, you may not know Pete Hegseth, a weekend anchor.  Former President Trump will nominate him as Secretary of Defense.  WHAT?

Before you say that’s not fair or balanced, realize he’s an Iran and Afghanistan veteran with two Bronze Stars, a National Defense Service Medal, and a Global War on Terrorism Medal recipient.  He holds degrees from Princeton and Yale.  He believes in merit-based assignments, not DEI.   DC doesn’t like outsiders but loves DEI.

If all this upheaval leaves you feeling like an outsider, remember midterms are just two years away.

Because there is NO threat to your democracy you’ll have a say again then.

It’s beach time for Dr. Jilted and Joe.

America has spoken.

Give it a chance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tune in to almost any NFL game since the George Floyd riots and you’ll see the friendly reminders in the back of each endzone.  One end has “END RACISM” in all caps.  The other reminds “IT TAKES ALL OF US.”

When you put them together you get “It takes all of us to end racism.”  Indeed.

This past weekend, one message was simplified to “VOTE.”

Last Monday the Harris/Walz team was doing their part.  They unveiled an “Opportunity Agenda” plan for Black men, which includes a proposal of forgivable loans of up to $20,000 to Black entrepreneurs.

But, wait, there’s more.  They also pledged to support federal marijuana legalization, a big step beyond the Biden administration’s current stance. Harris “will break down unjust legal barriers that hold Black men and other Americans back by legalizing marijuana nationally,” her campaign spokesperson articulated.

Pollsters in the field in early October found that roughly 15% of Black likely voters planned to vote for Trump in November. This is 6 percentage points higher than Biden’s final margin with Black voters in the 2020 race.

But, politics likely has nothing to do with this.  This is about righting a wrong or two.

Could you be more racist than offering a handout to a specific race and gender while excluding others?  Maybe.  Try specifically offering to make an illegal substance legal cause Black men are disproportionately using said substance.

BBR attempted to contact the Harris Campaign to see if they have any plans to better working conditions at convenience stores for Indian Americans.  At press time, we had not received a response.

Even Joe Biden, way back in 2008 was sounding the alarm bells.

“In Delaware, the largest growth in population is Indian-Americans moving from India. You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m not joking,” Biden said.

It takes all of us.  No joke.

What’s a forgivable loan anyway?  Think 10k for an EV.  Think 5k for increased childcare credit.  Think 25k for first-time homebuyers.  Think student loans.  Think handout.  And, there’s no better time to promise yet another handout than two weeks before an election.

But, don’t think American debt.  It’s called forgivable for a reason. It sounds so nice. If you called it a handout or a government subsidy it doesn’t sound as appealing.  It reminds us of the transformation of “abortion” to “women’s healthcare.”

Remember, Donald Trump is a racist.

A vote for him is a vote to return to the Jim Crow days.

Wouldn’t you rather have a chicken in every pot?

Get money, get high, get in that booth, and vote for Kamala.

Touchdown!

A funny thing happened last night on the FOX News Channel.  After the Bret Baier interview with VP Kamala Harris aired the remainder of the nightly lineup took turns running excerpts of it and picking apart what Kamala said and didn’t say.

It’s as if they captured the villain queen and walked her about the town square showing the faithful that better days lie ahead.

The funny thing about the entire trial, conviction, and sentencing is that most people who watch FOX regularly and repeatedly greatly dislike Harris.  And most people who like Harris greatly dislike FOX.

Baier exposed many of Harris’ flaws, flip-flops, and falsehoods.  He insisted that her word salads only be served in small portions.  But did it move the needle 19 days out?

This brings us to the question, “Who is the worst US Presidential Candidate in our lifetime?”

George McGovern, Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, and John McCain come to mind.

If Madame VP loses will she join the list?  Maybe.  She had little time to prepare for this and her long suit isn’t preparation.  Her stance on most any issue is greatly determined by which way the wind is blowing.

If Donald J. Trump loses will he join the list?

For the record, William J. Bryan is the only three-time loser.  Who?  He lost in 1896, 1900, and 1904.  Trump would join a short list of other two-time losers.

But has anyone ever faced two weaker candidates than Biden and Harris?  Opinions vary, but they would be tough to beat, meaning they should be easy to defeat.

Ok, ok the media is biased, the DOJ is weaponized, and the ballot boxes are supposedly stuffed.

Trump has run a terrible campaign pure and simple.

First, women are mad.  And when women get angry they get even and then some.   His failure to clearly and loudly articulate his stance on abortion might be a fatal flaw.

Should he have picked Tulsi Gabbard as his VP nominee and women’s health czar?  A woman talking to headstrong women about women’s things usually goes better than any man on earth attempting the same.

Trump himself has had a few struggles with the female population along the way.

His deficit with white female voters offsets his lead or relatively good position in every other demographic.  Sure he’s losing with blacks and Hispanics, but his percentage of likely voters is enough for him to win when you combine it with old, white, angry men.

While that could be his biggest undoing, his inability to succinctly articulate why he’s the answer and her radical left positions aren’t is another.

Amazingly in this divided country, there are/were undecided voters.  Holding rallies and droning on about the past isn’t how you win them over.  He could have used a drone at one rally, but we digress.

Further, he habitually insults factions with name-calling and derogatory comments.

With Michigan very much in play, this week he called out car factory workers, “They just assemble parts “out of a box” and says children could do their jobs: “We could have our child do it.”

The UAW was unimpressed.

How childish.

Childish might describe his inability to let go of the 2020 election results.  Ego might describe it too.  That allows the “our democracy is at stake” nonsense to hit the airwaves.

But the biggest reason he might join the list of bad candidates is that he’s running against one who is worse.  The bar is low.

Even the Dems know that.

 

At multiple recent campaign stops Kamala Harris has appealed to the crowd, ” They have pledged to carry out the largest deportation, a mass deportation, in American history.  Imagine what that would look like and what that would be.”

Predictably her supporters clap and wave signs.  If you’re tolerant of illegal immigration you’re probably against deportation.

Donald Trump and his zealots see it quite differently.  He used the exact video of Kamala’s anti-deportation callout and added his name and approval at the end.   In other words, I am Donald J. Trump and I hope you not only imagine it but get to see it.

What would it look like? Millions of people and the government would be involved, so imagine a yuge mess.

It would look a lot like the unfettered illegal immigration of the last four years- a great big mess.

Eleven million (Trump says, “more, some would say many more, many many more”) aren’t going find the backpack they dropped walking in, pick it up, and head south.

Mexico let them walk out, but they aren’t going to let them walk back in.   Who would want the mess we’ve endured?  Not Mexico.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles anyone?

Here’s a one-way ticket back to your country of origin.  We hope you enjoyed your stay on our dime, here’s another to fly back from whence you came.

JD Vance says we should take little bites out of deportation.  He’d start with any who have criminal records.  He’d move on to organized gangs, etc.

Make no mistake about it, the Border Czar has no plan to deport any just like she had no plan to prevent any from walking in.

Election season is here so now she wants to solve the border problem.  The polls tell her so.  Could someone ask her what she thinks the problem is at the border?  Would she be dumb enough to indict herself?  Maybe.

And, the irony of all ironies is her campaign is hooting and hollering about border crossings being down 55% last month, to the lowest since she took office.

Could it be that everyone who wants in is?   Did we make our bed and now get to lie in it?

Mass deportation likely isn’t the realistic answer any more than our  “no border” border policy of the last four years.  Two wrongs don’t make a right even if the right says so.

Perhaps there is a sensible solution that strikes some balance with who is here and gets to stay or go.

Future clarity is needed on who and how many will come here.  This country isn’t in the same place as in 1492 when Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

We have laws.  Or, we did.

 

So, who won the debate?

Stated differently, who accomplished what they set out to do.   And, was the performance good enough to sway the few voters still undecided in key battleground states?

For Trump, the objective was to expose Harris for what she is, not the candidate “for change” she purports to be.  For Harris, the objective was to show that she was capable of holding the highest office in the land and to goad Trump into being Trump.  For ABC, owned by liberal Disney, the objective was to help Harris.

The BBR scorecard has it Trump 0, Harris won, ABC 4.

Trump unevenly attempted to attach Harris to her recent Biden/Harris past.  The economy, the border, and the world ablaze were ripe for the picking.  His message didn’t pin the mess on her.

He took the bait each time she tossed it.  “You have small crowds at your rally and they leave early.”  “We have big crowds, great crowds.  Some say the biggest crowds ever. They don’t leave early.”   Who cares?  Trump’s ego cares.  And, it always gets in the way.

His MAGA platform from 2016 has changed very little.  On substance, that might be fine.  On style, it seems tired and more importantly, it doesn’t bring fence-sitters to the right.

“I had the greatest economy some say ever.  Most say ever.  Putin wouldn’t invade if I were in office.  The war will be over if I’m elected before I take office.”

I.  I.  I.  Ego. Ego.  Ego.

People want to see a better tomorrow for themselves not argue about the past.  Tell us how you’d end the war.

Don’t you have a plan to enlist influential business leaders to help you shrink government?  Not a peep last night.

Trump’s wandering unscripted diatribes are old.

Harris is scripted because she’s an actress playing a role.  Low-information voters like style.

She’s played many to get here because she has no defined principles.  She’s for or against defunding the police.  She’s for or against gun confiscation.  She practically eliminated the border and now she’s for a tougher border.

She’ll tackle inflation on her first day in office.  She’s in office now.

If her presidential bid fails she can pocket some big coin doing a commercial next summer for flip-flops.

Her Opportunity Economic Plan is one big government giveaway.   Expand child credits.  Give first-time homebuyers down payment money.  Forgive the student’s debt and hand it to you.  Low-information voters like handouts.

ABC did its part to try to move the needle left.  They repeatedly “fact-checked” Trump even if he spoke factually.  CNN counted four times.  They didn’t fact-check Harris once even if she didn’t speak factually.

There was not a single question about the 35 trillion dollar debt.  Ms. Harris, how do you plan to pay for all of this?

Did this debate matter?  It’s doubtful that Trump gained any undecided nor took any from Harris.  Surely some undecided folks decided to move Harris’ way.

How many?  Is it enough to push her over the top?

Eight weeks ago, thank goodness, Trump dodged a bullet.

Last night he shot blanks.

There are eight weeks to go.

 

 

 

 

 

Two months away from the general election and one month after she became the presumptive nominee, Kamala Harris will sit down tomorrow afternoon for an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash.

You won’t be able to see Harris’ first interview until primetime.  Why?  It will be prerecorded.  Why prerecorded?  It gives CNN the time to gussie up the interview to put them and Harris in the best light should they choose.  They’ll choose.

Coach Time Walz will be at Kamala’s side.  Coach doesn’t coach anymore but he’s turned into a hell of a cheerleader.

Is it odd that they are both sitting down to interview?  Yes.   Handlers must think it better to ham and egg it than for Harris to go it alone and wind up with egg on her face.

Hopefully, we get to know more about the Democratic candidate.

In 2020 she left the stage so soon.  That happens when you are polling less than 1% right before Iowa, the first primary.

That was after she accused Biden of being a racist by saying he wasn’t a racist.  “Not a joke,” as Joe would say.  And that was before Biden selected her to be his VP mate, racism claims be damned.

Since then she’s been very busy with Venn diagrams, solving the root causes of illegal immigration, and covering up Biden’s failing physical and mental health.

But don’t we know a lot about her already?  Of course, we do.

She was tough on marijuana criminals while Cali’s Attorney General.  She also said she smoked dope in college listening to music that wasn’t yet written.

She assisted in getting Minnesota’s arrested protesters bail money.  And, she supported defunding the police which she now says she didn’t support.

She also supported Medicare for All and banning fracking — proposals aides say she now is against.  Times are changing.

In February 2020, Harris wrote on Facebook that “Trump’s border wall is a complete waste of taxpayer money and won’t make us any safer.”  In her nomination acceptance speech last week she said that she would sign a bipartisan bill if elected that would refund building some more of that wall.

A month after Trump proposed no federal taxes on tips so did chameleon Kamala.  Or is it “Khamaleon” for short?

Her “rizz,” that’s charisma for all you Boomers, and her joy can only take one so far when substance, or lack thereof, might get in the way.

The wheels on the EV campaign bus have been churning hard to remake her into something other than the furthest left-leaning candidate in this country’s history.

Would Dana get bashed if she advanced the questions to Harris?  Only Donna Brazile knows.

If you want to watch the curated interview find CNN on your TV guide or stop by any airport terminal.

 

 

 

 

Growing up in Scranton, PA Smokin’ Joe Biden was quite the pugilist.

He won the high school state title as a middleweight seven times while only able to train on Saturdays.  Why?  Well, speaking of trains, on Monday through Friday he conducted Amtrack trains after school when he wasn’t driving an eighteen-wheeler

Sundays were reserved for giving thanks to the other “big guy” at the black church of his choosing.

And, he’s still got plenty of fight left in him.

In the last few days, Harry Callahan Biden responded to Donald J Trump’s call for a debate by one-upping him and asking for two in a heavily edited social media post. “Well, make my day pal.  I’ll even do it twice.  Let’s pick the dates.”

But, before Joe climbs into the ring his corner has a few demands.

First, they want the debates in June and September before early voting begins.  Get the vote out early and often.

Second, RFK Jr. is not invited.  Polls show in a three-way race that Jr. takes away many more votes from boxer Biden than Trump.

Third, Trump’s microphone must be silenced when Biden is speaking.   In other words, they want no counterpunching that could throw him off of his rehearsed game plan.  Trump should ask the same for the moderators, who were anything but moderate four years ago.

And, finally, there can be no live audience in attendance.  Trump is a bit of a showman, like Muhammad Ali, in front of a crowd.

CNN gets the first heavyweight battle, while ABC hosts the second one.  It’s an uphill fight as both rings lean to the left.

Trump, his team, and his ego have agreed to all the above.  Why? Ego.

Trump thinks he wins even when he loses.  He’s still demanding a recount after taking a standing eight count in 2020.

Smokin’ Joe’s schedule these days isn’t nearly as busy as it was in his formative years.  His day job is only a four-day workweek.  He’ll train every Friday through Sunday at his boxing camp in Delaware and any day his team calls a lid when he is in the White House.

Hopefully, Joe watches his step on his way into the ring.

You can almost hear Howard Cosell.   “DOWN GOES BIDEN!  Down Goes Biden!”

Get your peanuts!

 

 

 

What do you get when you mash up the following two expressions?

1. When a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, is it sound?
2.  That’s like shooting a BB at an aircraft carrier.

You get the elimination of the US Government Department of Education.

A few no-so-fun facts follow.

This federal-level department is money spent above and beyond the administration of schools for ages K-12 at the state and local school district level.  And, it’s budgeted by your president in fiscal 2025 at 84 billion dollars.

That’s nearly $1700 per child in attendance.  And, not a silver dime of it goes towards teacher compensation.  This is a Washington DC bureaucrat spend only.  When any president cries out on the campaign trail, “And I want to get teachers a raise,” everyone claps.  The reality is that he has zero control over teacher salaries.

If the average classroom head count is 20, this equates to 68k for every two classrooms in America.  Stated differently, if you wanted to continue to budget/collect the money but do so at the local level you could double the average US teacher salary.

We were doing just fine when there was a little red schoolhouse on the hill and no big brother watching over it.

President Biden has proposed a 7.3 trillion dollar spend in the 2025 budget.  His expected incoming tax revenue, per his Office of Budget and Management (OMB), is 5.5 trillion.

Don’t you hate the word “revenue” to describe taxes?  We digress.

This 1.8 trillion dollar deficit assumes an increase in the corporate tax rate from 21 to 28 percent.  It also assumes taxing the wealthy(over 100 million) at a minimum of 25%.  Good luck getting either of those passed.

Let’s get ready to mumble!  “In my first three years, I cut the deficit by 40 million, er, 800 billion, 34, um, well, you know what I’m saying.”

By year-end 2025 this would bring the federal debt close to 40 trillion up from 35 as of this AM.

So even eliminating the entire department reduces spending overall by just over 1 percent.  That’s the BB part.

That’s an outrageous idea you say?  Promising to pay you back Tuesday for a hamburger today isn’t?

We need to take a chainsaw to the spending.  A knife will no longer cut it.

The Department of Education would be a fine place to start.