Biden

The Nationals Won. The Senators Lost.

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

If you didn’t get a chance to tune into the Democratic Presidential Debate broadcasted live last evening, worry not.   It’s roughly only the fourth of 12 scheduled debates.  You can catch the next one or the next one.   Maybe the same tired answers to the same tired questions will grab your interest then.  We doubt very seriously that last night’s did.  And, worry not because we have the winners and losers all sorted out for you below.  Schmeer the bagel while we schmeer the debate.

Winner — Elizabeth Warren.  She spoke for a total of 23 minutes which was a strong 7 minutes longer than the presumptive, but maybe no longer, favorite Joe Biden.

Loser —  Everyone.  Everyone who listened to Elizabeth Warren for 23 minutes must feel like they need to go to their happy place this morning.  There is no way that every second of every minute of 23 spoken can be so terribly important about things that are so terribly bad that she must use the octave of shrill that she incessantly does.  Take a breath every now and then.

Winner —  Joe Biden.  Biden spoke for 16 minutes and didn’t really have a memorable “gaffe.”  He said “expidentially” instead of “exponentially.”  He mistook Iraq for Afghanistan.  But, that’s a good night for him these days.   Win one for the old gaffer is still in play, barely.

Loser  —  Joe Biden.  If Uncle Joe thinks that his topline response to his son’s foreign dealings is the end of it he’s sadly mistaken. “My son’s statement speaks for itself.”  “My son made a judgment. I’m proud of the judgment he made.” His party will take Trump to the mat from now till 2020 for his foreign affairs and Trump will tweet about Papa Joe and Son Hunter along the way as necessary.

WInner — Tulsi Gabbard.  Every time Gabbard speaks she sounds well thought out and mostly logical.  It’s a breath of fresh air on a very stale stage.  She isn’t afraid to call out her party or the other one when she feels the need, but does so in a respectful manner.

Loser — Tulsi Gabbard.  Gabbard was afforded only eight minutes of oxygen to breathe new life in the old party.  She lashed out at CNN last evening after the debate for the lack of time.  This may be a reach, but if Trump reached out to her after her campaign gets snuffed out by the DNC, he could make major hay if she accepted a role in his administration.  She seems like the type that if she felt like she could make a difference regardless of their differences she would give it her all.

Winner —  Bernie Sanders.  Two weeks after having what is now being called a heart attack, Bernie was back on the attack.  With his hair out of place, his hands and arms flailing about, and with his far, far left ideas being bombastically presented, all seemed well again.

Loser — Bernie Sanders.  His campaign is boxed in.  His radical left perch has many birds of the same feather.  They all look stuck together.   His stint as the left ideas leader was further slowed by the need for a stent in the arteries.

Winner — Kamala Harris.  Harris used a good bit of her 12 minutes telling America, once gain, that she was plenty experienced as the AG for the State of California.  She reminded us that aside from the US Department of Justice, that department is the second largest in the US.  She also told us, once again, that she went to more funerals of slain innocent children and gunned down cops than she wanted to tell us about.   It was a great refresher course on who she is we guess.

Loser — Kamala Harris.  Harris used a good bit of her 12 minutes telling America, once gain, that she was plenty experienced as the AG for the State of California.  She reminded us that aside from the US Department of Justice, that department is the second largest in the US.  She also told us, once again, that she went to more funerals of slain innocent children and gunned down cops than she wanted to tell us about.  It was a great refresher course on who she is we guess.  Or, it wasn’t.

Winner — Tom Steyer. The retired billionaire who bought his way onto the debate stage had the bright lights shining on him for a full seven minutes.  It must have felt like he was running out of a tunnel onto a playing field for the first time with his favorite JV team.  Cost per minute was rather steep, however.

Loser — Tom Steyer.  Now the retired billionaire can go back to sending money to the candidates he stood next to.

Winner — The Washington Nationals.  The Nationals probably gained TV eyeballs by the minute as America switched the debate off, and their sweep in the NLCS of the St. Louis Cardinals on.

Winner — The Washington Nationals.   Once upon a time there was a team in Washington.  Their nickname was the Senators.  They moved to Texas in 1971 and became the Rangers.  When the DC area regained a team (the Montreal Expos) in the 2005 season they didn’t rename them the Senators.  After last night’s debate snoozer, who can blame them?

Winner — Donald J. Trump.  Regardless of your party affiliation, hopes, and dreams, you had to be disappointed in the debate.  It was a rerun of a rerun and it lacked any suspense, drama, plot twists, or excitement.

Winner — Adam Schiff.  If you are the DNC your best hope for now of beating Trump is impeaching Trump.

 

One Love That Is Shared by Two

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

In a interview with the Washington Post earlier this week noted progressive Barbara Streisand described the United States electoral college system as “antiquated” and advocated replacing it with a system that allows the winner of the popular vote to win the election.

She went on to say, “If I could, I would end the antiquated electoral college. Twice in the last 20 years the popular vote winner was denied the presidency. This is an assault on our democratic principles, where the dictum should hold true: one person, one vote.”

And she isn’t the only voice from the left touting a change away from the now 243 year old way of electing presidents.  South Bend, Indiana mayor and announced Democratic Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg suggested making the reform as well calling it undemocratic.  Streisand would change it now if she could as she said, while Mayor Pete would do so down the road a bit.

We wonder if of the above is exactly why our founding fathers put the process in place at the outset.   We submit the following counterpoints.
  • That is, they had the foresight to realize that a ground swell could occur.  And when it did a simple popular vote taken on the matter could eliminate the electoral college vote and replace it with, well, a simple popular vote.  Stated differently, over the course of time, this would open up the opportunity to repeatedly manipulate how the president was elected.
  • What Barbara should know, and likely does, is if one person could do anything unilaterally in our union it would not be a democracy.
  • Citing twice in the last 20 years as a reason fails to speak to the fact that a) its happened only five times in 243 years, and b) it happened in a span of 12 years when in 1876 Rutherford B. Hayes won the electoral college and lost the popular vote and again in 1888 when Benjamin Harrison did the same.  The logic sounds much like two bad hurricanes in 20 years proves climate change, so we must change and now.
  • And, we’re supposed to be United States, not necessarily always united people.  States, as an entity all to themselves, have rights in our union and therefore each have two senators with equal say to senators from other states.
  • Buttigieg says that we won’t know in the 2030’s which party would benefit.  One, yes we do Pete.  Two, if we don’t know which would benefit why change from the current, unless you don’t believe in states’ rights.
  • Buttigieg hails from Indiana.   It’s a state that could be the poster child for why the electoral college is in place.  It has a) below average population making the two electoral senate seats important to them, b) is driven by farming creating a need for perspective that is anything but urban (ask them right now if they want a voice in who is the next president considering the effect on the state that tariffs are having).

The 77 year old Oscar winning Streisand might be an expert on “antiquated.”  It looks more and more like her party’s current front runner sure does.   But she is no expert on democratic principles.  She should  know that what she and other left voices are advocating to eliminate this “assault on our democratic principles” is actually an assault on our democratic principles.

Aren’t the real experts our founding fathers?

“How” and “Why” Matter.

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Journalism 101 teaches to insure that the “who”, “what”, “when”, and “where” is included in every lead of a story.  Optional, but also important, is the “how” and the “why.”  Getting the first four “w’s” in is relatively easy.  Figuring out the how and the why is harder as it sometimes requires some interpretation.

Take late last week as an example.   In a span of 48 hours on Thursday and Friday (when) President Trump (who) castigated (what) Fed Chairman Powell (who)
on Twitter (where) of not being aggressive enough with rate cuts and economic commentary.  He barely took a breath, then he ORDERED American companies importing manufactured goods and the like from China (he pronounces it as CHII Nah) to find a way to bring the manufacturing back to the U.S.  By mid Friday morning he announced further tariffs(import taxes) almost across the board on goods coming from across the Pacific from said China.

The result of his actions and words seems, at the outset, that Powell said nothing, American companies did nothing not already planned, and China said “we’ll see your bet, and raise you one or five.”  The other result is again, at least for a day, the American stock market and those still open abroad, tumbled hard.

We think his political base added the to the story by questioning “how” he did this?

How he swung three times seemed almost petulant, petulant like a child that is.  In the Trump Tower when you hold the decisions as to who gets massive building contracts and what your expectations are and when they get paid is one thing.  When you ORDER (we use all caps because he did in the Tweet) American companies around you cross way too far into government attempted control on free enterprise at a minimum.  At the maximum you sound like a second grader who doesn’t get his way on the playground.  Plus, it’s the exact opposite of the many government regulations that he has pulled back to free businesses up.

In the tariff tiff he seems to think that he can bully China like he bullied Mexico.  Maybe.  Maybe not.  It seems to have not worked so far.

The Powell undressing is tired.  Take the repeated rants indoors already.  You hired him Mr. President.

We think even his political base questioned “why” as well.

Why did he do all of the above?  Well, we admit that every time he seems to have face planted off a newly built tower he actually has packed a parachute and landed just fine, and ready to fight for the American people for another cause on another day.

And, just this AM he is tweeting that China is ready to come to the table.  Maybe Powell will cut again and again and sooner.   And, maybe more American companies will build or rebuild factories here.

But, when how Americans feel about their investments (401k, education, house) turns south, they stay home if they voted for you prior, and turn out if they voted against you prior.  The very recession talk (at this point talk) that you are trying to squash becomes self fulfilling.

The tightrope that is being walked is high, higher than most Trump Towers built.  The fall would be unpleasant for all.  How you walk across, and why you walk across matters greatly in the next 15 months.

On Thursday you anointed yourself as “The Chosen One” to combat the decades long China advantage in import and export tariffs.  China seems to have chosen too.  Their choice looks like they want to see if  “The Chosen One” is chosen again in November of 2020.

A small fracture in the Trump base and someone else will need to “Keep America Great.”  Perhaps there will be another “Chosen One?”  Although that seems as cloudy as the smoke created from last week’s outbursts.  The lead candidate against Trump was in New Hampshire, was asked about New Hampshire, and sung the praises of Delaware.

It’s another week.  Can the American political leaders gaffe meter possibly keep up?

 

Lefty and Shorty Debate the Debate.

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

If Lefty and Shorty were still with us their early morning banter might have gone like this.

Lefty and Shorty sat quietly in the still, humid, summer night air.  It was after 2 AM on their graveyard shift and cars were nowhere to be found.  Lefty- Why did we stay open 24 hours Shorty?  Shorty- So that we can discuss how the first of two Democratic Party debates went last evening.  It was a graveyard for many nominee hopefuls.

Lefty sat to the left of Shorty.  Imagine that.  Shorty sat on the shorter of the two “halves” of the 55 gallon drum. Imagine that.  Each were cut down to size and retrofitted with a soft cushion top.

Lefty- So you watched the two hour debate?  Shorty- Most of it.  I was flipping back and forth with the Commodores.

Lefty- What do you mean?  You were watching an old school concert, too?  Shorty- No.  The Vanderbilt Commodores won the NCAA Baseball National Championship.   Lefty– Oh.  OK.  I guess two straight hours with ten wanna be’s is indeed taxing.  Shorty– Don’t bring up taxing.  I heard it enough last night.  And, “straight” is an insensitive word.

Lefty- What did you think of the MSNBC and NBC broadcast?  Shorty- It was fine except when they had technical difficulties and had to cut away.  That was weird.  Lefty- The hot mics went cold and the cold mics ran hot.  Shorty-Climate change?  Lefty- Oh please.  Shorty- Was it the Russian interference they have all been talking about for two years?  Lefty-Oh please.  Shorty-Maybe Nadler can add it to his list of questions for the July 17 Mueller testimony.

Lefty- Ahem.  So what did you think of the polling leader in this first group, Elizabeth Warren?  Shorty- Well, at least when she spoke she did so in her native (American) tongue.  Lefty- Huh?  Shorty- Well Beto and Booker decided to spend half of their ten minutes of fame practicing their Rosetta Stone Spanish.  Lefty-It was televised on Telemundo as well.  Shorty– Don’t they have closed captioned translating English to Spanish?

Lefty- Good grief.  Moving on, how about Ohio Rep Tim Ryan?  Shorty- If Tim Ryan fell in a forest and no one heard it, would it be sound?  Lefty- This is going well. Shorty-Saving Rep Ryan isn’t coming to a theater near you soon.  Lefty- Did you like any performance?  Shorty- I thought NY Mayor Bill DeBlasio stood tall.  Lefty- Interesting.  Shorty- He must be at least six foot four, and he proved that he is no paper straw man.

Lefty- Former Maryland Rep John Delaney seemed reasonable.  Shorty- He did.  He just looks too much like Tim Conway.  Dorf on debate.  Lefty- You’re irascible Shorty.  Shorty- At least I don’t look and sound angry about everything like Booker.

Lefty- Did anyone do well through your jaundiced eyes?  Shorty- Former HUD Secretary Julian Castro did.  Lefty– Finally some progress.  Shorty- Progressive.

Lefty- How did Washington Governor Jay Inslee do?  Shorty- Who?  Lefty- I guess not so well. Shorty– Was he the one near the far right end of the stage that kept raising his hand?  Lefty- That’s him!  Shorty-  He must have wanted to be excused to go to the genderless bathrooms provided.

Lefty-  This is your last chance.  Did you find it odd that in two hours not one shot was taken at front runner Joe Biden?  Shorty- He likely would not have heard it anyway.  He was probably sleepy eyed by then.

Shorty– One debate in, and America is so done with seven or so of these hopefuls.  Lefty- And, for now, I am so done with you.

Down Goes Biden, Down Goes Biden!

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Yesterday we offered up our four best runners-up for the top five countdown of Donald Trump’s best (from the right) or worst (from the left) nicknames on his road to, and now, as President of the United States.  In the era of “play nice in the sandbox”  The Donald never shies away from a good jab or a right (saw what we did there?) cross.

Today, below, are our top five in ascending order of punch strength.

5.  Low Energy Jeb Bush– The Republican old guard and its committee for election in 2016 mostly had aligned its effort and huge money behind the brother of one and the son of another former president.  Hey everyone, get excited about another Bush!  The problem was twofold.  One, America was screaming for less of the same and wanted a fresh feel.  Two, Jeb’s a nice guy, but Jeb doesn’t exactly energize.  Then candidate Trump sensed all of the above and labeled him Low Energy Jeb.  Republican’s from near and far collectively agreed that Jeb didn’t exactly light up a room.  Soon, he wasn’t any longer in the room.  It was a Trump TKO.

4.  Pencil Neck Adam Schiff–  The newest nickname is only a week old.  It makes its debut at number 4.  We were quite tempted to place it higher, much higher.  It was the impetus for this post actually.  It’s not higher because of the significance of the remaining three, but like a fine wine (or whine if you are Schiff) it will only gain more character with age.  Schiff, Chair of the Intelligence Committee, has put himself on the front burner as one of Trump’s biggest critics.  When one sticks his (pencil) neck out attacking President Trump one might get burned.  No further explanation is needed.  It’s as if a flyweight stepped into the wrong ring.

3.  Crooked Hillary– As Secretary of State under President Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton had a small problem with too many phones in hand, and way too many emails erased.  After Trump stumped his way past Lil Marco, Lyin Ted, and Low Energy Jeb, he focused his energy on the highest office in the land.  Clinton’s Bengazi problem and use of personal technology while conducting official and perhaps top-secret US business was under investigation.  Trump decided that she was guilty, naming her Crooked Hillary.   America, almost silently it seemed, had grown tired of the same old, same old Washington mess.  Jeb Bush had no energy and the wrong last name.  Hillary was labeled crooked and had the wrong last name.  Drain the swamp Trump said.  He hit her right on the nose.

2.  Pocahontas- Like Pencil Neck Adam, we were tempted to put this one higher, meaning number one.  It easily could be.  Elizabeth Warren, senior Senator from Massachusetts, claimed many times in her past that she was of Native American heritage.  She did so repeatedly on college entrance applications and law bar applications alike.  Being a minority helps in such pursuits.  As she rose in recognition and importance the lie, exaggeration, or stretch (however you wish to look at it) grew in stature.  Her outspoken opposition of The Donald caused him to drop the name Pocahontas on her.  Politically incorrect, said many.  Racist said many more.  But, now Warren has had to say she was sorry about that more and more.  With a one word nickname Warren, now an announced presidential candidate for 2020, has a handle that she will struggle to shake.  It’s a shot to the body by The Donald that takes the wind away.

1. Rocket Man–  A ripple of shock rolled through Twitter and the global media when President Trump called North Korea’s Kim Jong Un “Rocket Man” on the floor of the United Nations.  How dare he inflame an already very strained relationship with a dictator who sent a few nuclear test missiles over South Korea and Japan?   Heck, we even heard that North Korea’s capability had reached a range that could target the left coast of America.  Undeterred, on a world stage, Trump pressed on.  Perhaps he knows when he has the better cards?  Two years and two summits later Rocket Man has not yet been completely neutered, but the rockets haven’t glared red in a long while.  And, Trump and team continues to press hard for complete disarmament.  Given what was and is at stake on a global stage, this nickname is the knockout.

It’s only a matter of time before Trump recognizes another exposed chin and takes a swing.   The BBR money is on Joe Biden.  With accusers aplenty, Biden might wear himself out before he ever gets into the ring.  Trump is just bidding his time before he jabs.

Say it ain’t so, Joe.