COVID-19

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.

 

Abby Takes Down Vegas, Yr 3, Wk 10

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Vegas wins when you tie.  It’s called the vig (also known as juice, the cut, the take, the margin, the house edge).  Abby won three (including a fun parlay) and lost three bets last week.  One was a brutal, slim 1/2 point non-cover.  So close. So far.   She won five bones and lost five bones.  The hunch bet game got “Covided out” yet again.

Viola.  Vegas loves a week like that.  It keeps you coming back for more.  And, more is below.

The season stands even at 24-24-1, the bones are still good at 41-32, and the hunch is stuck at 2-4.

  1. Notre Dame at North Carolina +5 1/2 –  A straight up win would not shock Abby Roux.  She’ll take NC to cover but suffer a heartbreaking last-second loss.  One bone.
  2. Oregon at Oregon St +14 1/2–  Home teams are a theme for her this week.  An angry home team in a rivalry game formerly known as The Civil War (that’s insensitive to say now but we digress) is even better.  One bone.
  3. Iowa St at Texas -1 – She takes yet another home team, and this one is nothing if not inconsistent.  Tom Herman has to win games like this in year four, doesn’t he?  Two bones.
  4. Kentucky at Florida under 61 and 1/2 and LSU at Texas A&M under 63 –  Alabama put 63 on Kentucky by themselves. Over is an easy peasy cover here isn’t it?  Abby always loves a good zig when others zag.  It’ll be raining cats and dogs in College Station.  Half of that is always one of Abby’s favorite weather events.  One bone to win three.
  5. Auburn +24 and 1/2 at Alabama – The Iron Bowl always has a surprise or two within the 60 minutes.  Bama wins but as Lee Corso always says, “It’ll be closer than the experts think.”  Abby doesn’t think it’ll be too much closer, but enough to cover.  One bone.
  6. Miss St at Ole Miss -9 1/2 – The Egg Bowl features the two newest and biggest coaching personalities in the game today.

    Points will come quicker than playing a pinball machine.   Kiffin is going to run up the score if he gets a chance.  Two bones.

There you have it.  Four home for the holiday’s teams in five games, and two under the total score tied into a parlay.  That’s eight bones wagered with a chance at winning 10.

On a hunch, bet the opposite of all of the above.  It’s a novel approach in the year of the novel virus.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Woof!

 

Take a Stand.

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

The NFL 2020 season kicked off last evening.  But, before it kicked off there was hope that our summer of disease and discontent could turn nicely into fall like a green leaf turned red, yellow, and orange.

Afterall there has been only one positive test in the league for COVID-19 in over 8300 tests to date. Wowza! And, the NFL has not only allowed, but encouraged players and teams to express their concerns against racial inequality and for social justice.  Wowza!

Well, that didn’t go so well.  Prior to the visiting Houston Texans v home Kansas City Chiefs, players from both teams locked arms in unity.  And the fans booed.  Not all of them booed but enough to be heard did so.

Prior to that, the Texans stayed in the locker room for both the National Anthem and for Alicia Keys’ performance of “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” otherwise known as the Black Anthem.  The Chiefs stood on the field as a team for both.  So much for unity until their arm locks.

Benjamin Watson is a former NFL player.  He had a very successful stint as a tight end for 15 years in the league and was on the winning NE Patriots team for the Super Bowl in 2005 as well.  He was known as a great teammate, hard worker, intellect, and leader both on and off of the field.

Following the events in Ferguson, Missouri, Watson wrote a Facebook post on the issue of race in America that was “liked” on Facebook more than 850,000 times. The post received national attention.

On November 17, 2015, Watson released a book, Under Our Skin: Getting Real About Race–And Getting Free From the Fears and Frustrations That Divide Us.

Watson took to Twitter last evening. He wrote “Don’t kneel.  Don’t lock arms.  Don’t love each other.  Don’t care about your country.  Don’t seek social justice and equality.  Just play.  Sad.”

And we wonder.   Where did free speech and freedom of expression wander off to in the anything but United States?

It went to a spot that only allows it if you agree with what is being said.  Maybe some fans just want pure sports.  Is it ok for them to express that?

We used to frown upon kneeling for the anthem but recognized the right to do so.  Now we frown upon objecting to kneeling.
The right to kneel or lock arms is equal to the right to boo that very act.  Or it should be.

Did you notice the word “equal” in the last sentence?  It stands for equality.

Well, it used to stand for equality until it was frowned upon to want all to stand for the Anthem.

School Daze

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

America is back in school, be it virtual, part-time virtual, or full time in person.

We’ve been told to “follow the science” so many times in the last six months, though, that it seems like we never left school.  It might be wise to “follow the math” while we are back at it as well.

But, the teaching methods change as fast as The Movement moves.   It would be wise to keep up with the “new” science and “new” math.

Louisiana Tech went back to school and the university’s football team was following the old science quite well. Tech athletic director Tommy McClelland said that the Bulldogs had only one positive COVID-19 test in the three weeks before the Hurricane Laura as they huddled and studied together.

But, along came a bad storm, and the new science took a turn for the worse.

“It is obvious that the impact in our community a few weeks ago really sparked our significant increase in numbers,” McClelland said. “With 95 percent of our city losing power for days our student-athletes were forced to find places to stay, and some even had family from south Louisiana that came northward to stay with them. So many things that we were able to control for the month of August became out of our control.”

The count of positive tests within the team soared to 38 yesterday.  The season opener v. Baylor has been postponed, and likely will be canceled.

Seems like the science favors playing football and staying together based on the above.  Although the Big 10 and PAC 12 still seem to think otherwise.

Meanwhile, there is some new math out on the campaign trail.

A few new polls from both the national level and prime swing states indicate President Trump is outperforming his 2016 numbers among Latinos, and sits currently at the highest share of the demographic for Republicans since 2004. The trend has increased over the past week in two different polls.

The first, conducted by Emerson University found that in a head-to-head matchup, Trump was favored by 37 percent of Latinos, compared to 60 percent for Biden. Similarly, a poll conducted by Quinnipiac University has the commander-in-chief taking 36 percent of the Latino vote v 56 percent for Biden.   Both were taken shortly after the Republican Convention.

But their results closely mirror those found in a Pew Research study released in mid-August well before the convention.  At the time, Pew found that Trump polled at 35 v 63 for Biden.

35,36,37.

If accurate, the results do not bode well for Biden and Democrats. In 2016, Hillary Clinton received 66 percent support among Latino voters, compared to Trump’s 28 percent.  The drop-off in support, coupled with Trump’s populist appeals to blue-collar voters, was significant enough to deny Clinton victory in the electoral college.

Maybe the stay at home and/or work from home suburban moms will provide even more “new” math when they vote.  They’re getting an over their kids’ shoulder look at the two subjects daily via Al Gore’s internet.  And, they seem to be leaning Biden’s way in 2020 as they did for Trump in 2016.

The COVID-19 science and the 2020 election math are quite intertwined at a minimum, or a tangled mess if you prefer.

Biden’s and Trump’s GPAs are hanging in the balance.

The final exam is scheduled for November 3rd.

Last Call

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Several years ago responsible breweries changed their messaging.  “I’ll have another” was replaced by “please drink responsibly.”  Suddenly you needed to “know when to say when.”  Party poopers.

A couple of months ago a virus, with ironically a beer brand given name, shut down the bars altogether.  It shut down a globe actually.

Governments here, near, and far quickly became experts on the enemy that we cannot see.  They continue to tell and told us when and why we could or could not do what, and for how long we could not what.  Did you get the idea that for the most part they meant well but were clueless?  Do you get the idea that, for the most part, they mean well but are still clueless?

Medial experts have attempted to help our leaders understand what happens if we behave in certain ways.  Medical experts have historical, learned, trialed, and anecdotal ideas and possible remedies.  Apparently, none are definitive.  Meanwhile, we needed to flatten the curve through social distancing they said.  Most say we still need to do so.

But now our president has turned the keys over to the governors of our united 50 and encouraged them to turn the economic engines back on as they seem fit.  He really didn’t have the keys to begin with, but was attempting to be a good designated driver for a while.  After all, the states either shut the engine down or kept driving all along.

Today, in very round numbers, a third of the states are past their expected peak in cases, a third are at their peak, and a third will reach theirs next week.

So the very same people who shut down our party are now the same ones charged with making a decision about throwing the next one.  That should make us all confident, or not at all confident.

The need to get back to work and get back to a “new normal” has begun to pull at our purse strings.  You can’t afford beer and pretzels if you can’t work.  The government is doing it’s best Bernie Sanders impersonation.   It’s giving out free money like the last call drinker gives out advice.  And, like Bernie, we need a hair cut too.  But, as Margaret Thatcher once said, “socialism is great until you run out of other people’s money.”  The government printer has to be running low on ink soon.

So, isn’t it time?  One governor who’s state makes a lot of cars even reprised the role of Mother Hen.  She knows best and the answer is “hell no.”  One governor opened up the beaches and a party broke out.  He knows best and the answer is “hell yes.”   Offices, parks, retailers, eventually restaurants, and finally bars will reopen coast to coast.  Like any good office party, it might not be a good idea to be the first one there, nor the last one to leave.

When will we see you again?  Do you know when to say when?  Does anyone?

Perception May Not Be Reality

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Yesterday we labeled “Tough Monday.”  One week ago most everyone agreed was “Super Tuesday.”   Joe Biden was at first the lone dissenter to that mantra, but after the results came in from about 15 states he quickly changed his mind about the public perception of him.  What will today bring us?

There is perception and there is reality.  When the perception becomes so strong that it changes behavior, a new day has dawned.

Once upon a time it was considered in style, even sexy, to smoke cigarettes.  The surgeon general told us enough times that smoking will kill you.  Our perception of smoking changed to the point where we frown upon anyone who smokes.

Stated plainly, if everyone thinks the COVID-19, aka the Coronavirus, will do them great harm or even kill them, then human behavior is dramatically changed.  If you don’t believe BBR, then head to your local food or drug store.  Try buying hand soap, cough or cold medicines, or egads, toilet paper.  When is the last time you shook hands with anyone?  Check your 401k lately?

Human behavior has dramatically changed until our perception changes.  We cast no judgment.  It’s better to be safe than sorry we heard.

However, we cannot help but wonder if this has reached the point of being a bit overblown at least in the U.S.  We highly recommend that you take three minutes and read this link.  We’ve found it to be the most unemotional, fact-based, and intuitive piece on the virus that we have read.

In the meantime, we cannot help but wonder as well that people would actually (on TV and Twitter yesterday) find the time to debate the “insensitivity” of calling COVID-19 the Wuhan Virus.  Chris Hayes, MSNBC’s resident word policeman, called it a social injustice.

Good Lord people, get over yourself.  What about Peking Duck?  If you don’t want the blame for the virus, you don’t get credit for the duck anymore either.

Was your perception of that insensitive?  We hope it wasn’t.  But, if it was, so be it.  It’s our perception.

Please wash your hands to help keep the virus away.  And, please wash them again of this overblown politically correct BS.