elonmusk

Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Donald J. Trump wrote The Art of the Deal in 1987, which sold over a million copies and was number one on the New York Times best-seller list for 13 straight weeks.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson was fifteen years old then.  Likely, The Art of the Deal was not on his high school English class reading list.  Perhaps it should have been, along with a speed reading course.

Though Johnson’s House Continuing Resolution blew up faster yesterday than he could have read it.  The 1500-plus page bill is was longer than three War and Peace novels.

When Elon Musk starts a Twitter war there is no peace.  Elon and Vivek dissected the bill.  In 280 characters or less, they told us that it was more Washington pork being force-fed to the American people who just voted to stop the DC hogs and their special interests.

Mike Johnson brokered a deal with the devil that offered everything from a Congressional member pay raise of 73k per public servant to a three million dollar study on molasses testing.

How about a new three-billion-dollar NFL stadium in DC?  If you have a House seat on the hill you get a sweet suite seat in the stadium.

All he needed and all America needed was funding to keep the government open till Trump got his feet under the Oval Office desk and some additional disaster relief for the two devastating hurricanes the southeast endured in September.

Instead, he chose to include Democrat-driven pet projects.  After the dawn of DOGE he should have known better.

Vote the straight party line on the lighter version of the bill and send it to the Senate.  The Senate is controlled by the Democrats until 1/2/25.  If they reject the bill and shut the government down it’s on them.  Government shutdowns aren’t shutdowns anyway, but politicians like to scare us.

Instead, he tried to please everyone which pleased no one once the richest and smartest man in the world spoke, er, tweeted.

Notably silent yesterday were the RINOs that would have voted with the Democrats to deliver the slab of bacon and run home for the holiday break.  Elon’s watching.  He has the money to primary you, fine folks, soon.  Don’t get him started.

Mike Johnson is gone sooner.  He won’t survive his 1/2 casting call.

Johnson didn’t read Trump’s book.  And, he wrote the wrong bill.

He didn’t read the will of the American people.  Enough already adding shamelessly to the debt.

Reading, writing, and arithmetic.

 

 

Droning On

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

It’s been a quick, but busy, 30 days since Kamala Harris stopped droning on about being “unburdened from what has been.”

Now we’ve got drones over New Jersey airspace unburdened by any American government department.  Yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense said they don’t know their origin or purpose, but there’s nothing to worry about.   Comforting indeed.

Perhaps the Chinese “weather balloon” that traversed across the sky high above us for days on end 18 months ago was deemed a trial success.  Before you know it Boeing 737 MAXs will be airborne again as well.  Hallelujah, we think.

President Joe Biden’s been flying high too.  His trip to Africa was a long but successful one.   Biden’s visit, the first to Angola by a U.S. president, is meant to promote billions of dollars of commitments to the sub-Saharan African nation for what he called the largest ever U.S. rail investment overseas.

“The United States is all in on Africa,” he said between naps in meetings.

This comes a day after his 50-billion-dollar loan pledge to Ukraine.  Hell hath no fury like a President scorned. Dr. Jill was back stateside openly mocking Kamala beginning her speech by asking everyone to have “joy.”  Hell hath no fury like a First Lady scorned.

Christopher Wray is wrapping up his tenure as FBI Director.  He knows that a new sheriff is coming to DC soon.  If Mickey Donovan had the same sensibility for his son Ray Ray a lot of hubbub could have been avoided.

Wray’s wrap is ahead of the parade.  When the Kings of DOGE hit DC the real towel-waving begins.

The “experiment” of lesser government wrapped up one year in Argentina. It should be viewed as a blueprint.

President Javier Milei announced a tax reform plan to eliminate 90 percent of existing taxes after slicing 18 government ministries to nine reducing the country’s inflation year over year from 25.5% to 2.7%.  It’s terrible to subject citizens to such bloat for so long.

It’s also terrible that more than a few zealots took to social media to cheer the murder of the head of UnitedHealthcare exclaiming that you have to challenge the medical establishment.  Weren’t some of them the same ones wanting you dead for criticizing Pfizer, the vaccine that wasn’t a vaccine, and the booster that wasn’t a booster?

Maybe permanent social distancing isn’t a bad idea.

 

 

 

 

A Political Joke

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Do you know what George Washington and Joseph Biden have in common?  Nothing.

George Washington told his father he could not tell a lie, “I did cut down that cherry tree.”  Hunter Biden’s father repeatedly told the US he would not pardon his son.

There is no truth to the rumor that Joyless Behar defended Joe by saying on The View yesterday, “Well, he didn’t say which son he would not pardon.  Maybe he was talking about Beau.”

Too soon?  In today’s world, it’s never too soon.

What’s really curious is the fine print.  The Big Guy took out the Mont Blanc.  He absolved Hunter “For those offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024, including but not limited to all offenses charged or prosecuted.”

In other words, he went back eleven years and covered any crimes Hunter may have committed but hasn’t yet been charged with.  Hmmm.

Does this make one curious about the Burisma “work” Hunter did?  It shouldn’t.  After all 51 public servants within the DOJ and the CIA swore that Hunter’s laptop which may contain incriminating evidence of “pay for play” didn’t exist.  They wouldn’t lie either.

If you believe in the Deep State you can see why so many folks around DC are a bit edgy as Donald Trump’s inauguration looms and new sheriffs will be in town snooping around.

Yesterday, a tweet trending on X concluded, “Joe Biden did what any loving father would do by protecting his son and giving him a second chance.”

The problem is that only one loving father in the US would have such a chance.  You have to be President.  Talk about white executive privilege.  Also, Hunter has had way more chances than two.

Did Hunter celebrate by making snow angels on the WH lawn until the wee hours?

Biden handed Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy another two billion yesterday.  But the clock on the ruse is winding down.  Biden’s reelection got short-circuited.  Biden publically endorsed a laughing hyena before the Dems in the shadows could anoint their next puppet.  That ensured Trump got reelected. Trump already has Putin publically saying he wants a peaceful resolution.  The laundering stops here.

The no-pardon lie wasn’t Biden’s first.  He had to withdraw from his first Dem presidential nomination race back in 1988 for lying.  His incredible run as a public servant, train conductor, and 18-wheeler driver has included another falsehood or three.

Do you know how a politician is lying?  See if his mouth is moving.

The funny thing is the joke’s on you.

And only Hunter is laughing.

 

 

Ten Reasons to be Thankful

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

It’s that time.  It’s time to be thankful for all of our blessings.  Below we count 10 of them.

  1.  We ugly Americans complain a lot, but who has it better than you? Maybe Canada does. Several Hollywood types threatened to move to Canada if former President Trump was reelected.  Thankfully no news outlet has reported that the traffic at the northern border going out is similar to the traffic at the southern border coming in.
  2. However, Ellen Degeneres and her wife said thanks for the memories and flew over the pond to the UK.  She says the move is permanent.  TPS is attempting to clarify if the memories referenced were days in America or nights at P Diddy’s.
  3.  Covid 19 is no longer.  Walgreens is still advertising COVID-19 vaccination shots.  Or, are they called boosters these days? They should be thankful that they ar closing only 500 stores next year.
  4.  About 4 million illegal immigrants from 2020-2021 will celebrate Thanksgiving here because the pandemic was never bad enough to shut down the border.  Will it be their last here?
  5.  Thankfully no legacy media outlet will need to interview James Carville for another four years.  Hopefully, his LSU sweatshirt will have dry-rotted by then.
  6.  Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski have made nice with Donald Trump just in time to pass the gravy.  They say they will call it right down the middle from here on.  Weren’t they before?  They’ll be thankful if NBC still owns MSNBC in a year and Elon Musk doesn’t.
  7.  The tariffs are coming!  The tariffs are coming!  Thankfully Donald Trump understands the Art of the Deal better than most.
  8.  On Turkey Day while watching America’s Team (how bout dem Cowboys?) you won’t be interrupted by a message from a cackling hen dressed in a pantsuit.
  9.  Donald Trump will sleep way better in the cozy White House than a penitentiary cell.  “Now even Jack Smith admits the Left’s lawfare against President Trump has failed,” David Bossie, president of Citizens United, said.  Both federal cases are being put on ice.
  10.  Speaking of sleeping, turkey does not make you so.  While the big bird does contain tryptophan, there isn’t enough in the gobbler to have an impact. You would have to eat about eight pounds of turkey to have a high enough level to make you sleepy.

Give it a go!

Gobble, gobble.

Night, night.

In Plain Sight

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Two political campaigns culminated two weeks ago today.  One spent roughly 1.5 billion bucks and is 20 million in the red. The other spent about one-fourth of that and is headed to the White House.

How did we get here?  Perhaps you should saunter down your driveway this AM to retrieve your newspaper and “read all about it.”  It’s chilly.  Be sure to double-cinch your robe and put on the furry slippers first.

Maybe you don’t “take” the paper anymore.  “Anymore” might mean 20 years or so.  Maybe you don’t even watch the evening news anymore.

Each quarter Nielsen ratings show fewer Americans watch than the previous one.  Combined ABC, CBS, and NBC reach about 18 million views nightly these days.

And for two months if you turned on your TV you saw a Harris/Walz political ad.

How many views on YouTube did Joe Rogan’s three-hour podcast with Donald Trump have in the three days following its cast?  Thirty-eight million.  As Joe Biden would say, “Not a joke, folks!”

Harris was offered “free” airtime with Rogan and declined.  But, Saturday Night Live called and she was there in a New York minute.

Donald Trump and his team aggressively used social media platforms to refute Kamala Harris’ claims at her rallies in real time.  While Walz was waltzing on stage Team Trump was typing.  Social media posts cost very little.

Share research shows 46% of young people aged 19-29 voted for Trump, up from 36% in 2020.  That’s yuge.  They’re dancing the “Trump dance” from coast to coast nonstop.

Dour MSNBC reported this morning that nearly one in five Americans consider social media their first source for news.  In the important 19-34 age bracket two out of five do too!

MSNBC show anchors spent weeks calling Trump a fascist and comparing him to Hitler.  Morning Joe with Mika in tow spent last Friday at Mar-A-Lago making nice with President-Elect 47.  They say they want to call it down the middle now even if they still differ with many of Trump’s policy initiatives.  They won’t say if they kissed the ring or bent the knee.

Morning Joe’s producers woke up and smelled the coffee.  What’s brewing is a viewership shift from one platform to another and a philosophical shift from far left to some normalcy.

As usual, all of this was hiding in plain sight.

As usual, Musk saw it first.  He bought Twitter.  Free speech was unburdened from what had been.

Trump mastered the media manipulation game way back when.

Together they took down all seven swing states.

They may have taken down the legacy media with it.

Next, they tackle DC.

The WH press room will never be the same.

 

 

 

It Swung Quite a Bit

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Whether your “team” won or lost last night it’s time to go to work for all of America.

America spoke.  Once when Barrack Obama spoke he said elections have consequences.

Speaking of work we hope this website’s glitches are behind us.  It’s beginning to feel like Arizona ballot counting around here.  If you’ve read this far we’d love a comment below from you saying that you “got the email” from The Pendulum Swings directing you here.  It’s important to our crack IT staff.

Below are ten random thoughts about last night.  The new TPR deadline mandates brevity.

  1.  Speaking of mandates, with a divided country, this strong move to the right of the center is about as close as you can get to one.  When it’s all counted Trump will be over three hundred electoral votes.  The Senate might be as high as 54-46, and the House should stay red.
  2. The country decided to be unburdened by what has been.  The border and inflation “trumped” abortion.  Men voted in droves.  The black vote was stronger for Republicans than in 2020 and the Hispanic vote was much stronger.
  3. Elon Musk might be this century’s Ben Franklin.  Additionally, his purchase of Twitter paved the way for noncensorship and was the anti-mainstream media.  His campaign work and campaign donations were significant.   He went into PA Amish Country and got the vote out and it was red, red, red.  Who would have thought it?
  4.  There was not a single county (parish if you’re talking Louisiana) in America where Kamala outdid Biden by 3% or more.  She was tied to the last four years as she should.
  5. Oklahoma has seventy-seven counties and every one of them is red.
  6.  Donald Trump has been called every “ist” in the book many times.  The most common one that Dems try to pin on him is “racist.”  His team’s performance in the Black and Hispanic demographic was amazing.
  7. Two former McDonald’s workers squared up.  At least we think it was two. The orange octogenarian grabbed the golden arches.
  8. Joe Biden gets to play president till 1/20.  Joe is done as a politician. Is Kamala done as a politician?  You’d think so.
  9. Trump has taken down Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris.  He’s now neutralized Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell(sort of), Liz Cheney, and George Bush.  And, suddenly even Barrack Obama seems less relevant.   That’s an outsider doing inside work.
  10. Speaking of outsiders, or at least peeps who think outside the box, Tulsi Gabbard, Megyn Kelly, Elon Musk, Ron Paul, Tucker Carlson, and Danica Patrick have some work to do.
  11. Rand Paul needs to be the Senate Majority Leader.  He’s even-keeled, open-minded, and steady.  Mike Johnson might keep his gavel.

Hopefully, they all hit the ground running and use Argentina as the blueprint.

The debt clock alarm is screaming.  Wake up America.  Yesterday you did.

The pendulum swung quite a bit.

 

 

Good Evening! And Welcome to….

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

A visionary is someone who can see further down the road or higher in the sky than the next.

An example of the road analogy is Tesla.  When you combine an environmentally friendly great ride with soon-to-be driverless-ready capability fostered by a huge helping of cash from your government you’ve got an industry changer.

An example of the sky analogy is SpaceX.  Its stated goal is reducing space transportation costs to enable the colonization of Mars and eventually other planets.  Last month a forty-story-high rocket flew beyond the company’s expectations.  That’s not huge that’s YUGE.

Can Elon Musk go three for three?  He bought Twitter to ensure that there was at least one platform where free speech was indeed free.  Noble.  But, it’s doubtful that he bought it for just that or to lose money.

You’ve heard it uttered before.  “He’s playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers.”

Once upon a time, people gathered around a radio in their living rooms to hear their news, sports, and entertainment.

The television changed that. Three black-and-white networks became three colorful ones.

Cable changed that.  Three networks became hundreds of channels and even some premium ones like HBO.

Satellites changed that.  And soon the choices were too many to choose from.

Enter Al Gore’s internet and streaming started.  Now you can stream any platform on many platforms.

Watch what you want, when you want, how you want, and on whatever you want.  Jump into your La-Z-Boy and click on an app, any app, or many apps.

There’s vision and there’s television.

And then there is Twitter and Elon.

After cutting dead-weight employees and charging for blue check marks, the next shoe is dropping.  Enter Tucker Carlson.  And, with that, we enter yet another new era.

Will it be called a podcast?  A live stream?  Premium content? Pay-per-view?  It matters not.

Can you imagine Twitter on TV?  Of course you can, it’s already there.  You can watch live programming from Twitter on Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV. Xbox and Android TV users can enjoy Twitter by launching their web browser and going to twitter.com.

So, is Twitter TV, or is TV Twitter?  Yes and yes.  Or for that matter call it whatever you want.  There is content and there is distribution.  And there is a vacuum when it comes to unfiltered content.  The free market gets to decide what misinformation and disinformation is.

The “networks” will soon remind you of the pay phone.  Once upon a time, you could make a long-distance call on a pay phone thanks to long-distance providers.  ABC, NBC, and CBS soon will have much in common with Sprint, Cingular, and MCI.

Twitter has the distribution, subscribers, tweeters, followers, and advertisers, and now has its first piece of serious content worth taking from the old world.  It won’t be its last.

It must have promise.  CNN wrote yesterday, “Who will fact-check Tucker now that he is on Twitter?”  AOC tweeted (oh the irony), “Twitter, brought to you by MyPillow.”

Wait till Don Lemon signs on with Elon.

Checkmate?  Not yet.

But content is king.

And, soon Elon will be wearing a crown.

 

 

Ten Piece Nuggets

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Spring is in the air.  It reminds us of spring chickens.  Spring chickens remind us of nuggets.  Ten are waiting for you below.

  1.  Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calls for regulating conservative news.   She opined on Sunday’s MSNBC, “When you look at what Tucker Carlson and some of these other folks on Fox do, it is very, very clearly incitement of violence. Very clearly.”  Free speech and the First Amendment say otherwise.
  2. Say what you want about Ted Cruz, but every January when the new Senate convenes he puts forth a bill calling for strict term limits.  And every January it finds the round file in the corner of the room.  AOC on one end and Mitch McConnell on the other are two prime examples of why term limits would help us all.
  3. It won’t happen until the American public demands it though.  You can’t get 60% of Congress to agree on anything much less eliminate their job(cash cow).
  4. A poll revealed on NBC”s Meet the Depressed that voters are depressed having Uncle Joe in the White House four days a week and in Delaware three.  53% of Biden’s 2020 voters say he shouldn’t run again in 2024, and a whopping 75% of Biden voters under 35 think likewise. Will Joe Biden be the weakest incumbent president running for re-election in any of our lives?
  5. “Stunning he didn’t get a major primary challenger,” says Clay Travis.  Or, is it?  “Stunning that he got 81 million votes” is more like it.  Not stunning is that he and his handlers will do anything to minimize his exposure to questions, debates, news conferences, etc.  The basement awaits.  Time to order up another pandemic if you are a conspiracy theorist.
  6. Travis was on a roll on the weekend.  Another tweet,  “DC public schools are requiring all students and staff to provide a negative covid test in order to return to school after spring break. These people are batshit insane. Covid broke whatever functional brains they had.”
  7. That tweet reminded us of watching Morning Joe about three years ago.  They interviewed visionary Bill DeBlasio in the middle of the covid paranoia.  He suggested that we all wear two masks. He really did.  Maybe he was educated at the aforementioned DC public schools?
  8. “Today proves yet again that you can’t buy class but you can buy a blue check mark,” said Dan Rather.  We wonder if Dan knows that his salary was paid by those watching him by watching ads every five minutes.  Multiple sites believe that Rather’s net worth is north of 70 million.  You’d think he could afford the $8 bucks a month.  Or maybe he could just stop complaining while you’re still tweeting without it.
  9. Alyssa Milano wonders with the blue check removal, “Does that mean Twitter and @elonmusk are liable for defamation or identity theft or fraud?”  The DC public schools must have been very crowded.
  10. Exxon Mobil isn’t going all in on green just yet.  Near the Gulf Coast just east of Texas’ oil-rich Permian Basin, nearly 2,000 ExxonMobil contractors are making sure the company’s latest project – which includes 26 miles of piping, 35 miles of electrical wiring, and 875 tons of steel is pumping oil at full capacity.  Fill er up.

And we hope that you are filled up after the nuggets.

O Say Can You See?

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

From the Stone Ages until about 20 years ago we were politically incorrect as a society.  But, like a spy balloon or three, political correctness floated across the nation as century 20 turned to century 21.  And, we were better for it, weren’t we?

Some disagreed.  They started calling those that they felt were over the top “woke.”  Then “woke” was deemed offensive by the politically correct.

If you watched the Super Bowl you might have a new question down this rabbit hole.  As of last evening has “woke” given way to “joke?”

As the San Francisco City Council debates raising money for reparations, the NFL raised eyebrows with the inclusion of the Black National Anthem leading up to the National Anthem(no color or race assigned) that led up to kickoff.

Joe Biden said he would unify our country if elected.  He even hired the (her words) “first openly lesbian black female press secretary.” That she cannot construct a sentence aside, that’s progress.  Don’t get us started on the luggage bandit.  You can only do so much in a short two years.

Does having two anthems unify, or does it segregate?  Unify means to come together as one.  Having two anthems sounds like one more than one.

If you are an Asian American do you feel left out?  Well, if you feel like the national anthem covers your need to feel wanted, you don’t.  If you don’t feel that way then we might need a third anthem.

But, don’t stop now.  Make it four.  Hispanic Americans need an anthem.

Who else?  What about Lesbians? Gays? Bi? Trans?

Do even those who question who they are need one?  “O Say Can You Question?”

Oh, so you think that all LGBTQ peeps identify as one race or another so they would not need one?  Only the close-minded would stop at race when composing and singing anthems.

The Naval flyover as the National Anthem was ending showed historic progress on the diversity, equality, and inclusion front as well.  For the first time in flyover history, it was an all-female pilot team.

Navy Lt. Catie Perkowski was one of them, and she doesn’t seem as impressed.  “What it boils down to is that we trained to do this job together,” she said. “I didn’t join the Navy to be a female fighter pilot. I joined the Navy to be a fighter pilot, so to me, it makes no difference.”

She’s entitled to her opinion, especially since Elon Musk reinstituted free speech.  But, surely men everywhere are offended.  Alas, there is still work to be done.

And, what about changing the name of the area where the pilots sit?

Cockpit?

Not yesterday. At least we think not.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lefty, Shorty, and SOTU

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Last evening Lefty and Shorty just came on at midnight for the graveyard shift at the Gulf Station.   Rain was falling from the heavens at an accelerating pace, cold air was rolling in and cars were not.  Shorty- Why do we stay open all night?  Lefty- So that you and I can discuss President Biden’s State of the Union(SOTU) Address.

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 was cut down to size and retrofitted with a soft cushion top.

Lefty-Surely you watched it?   Shorty- Nope.  Lefty- Well, you missed a 75-minute ramble. Shorty- What did our Prez have to say?  Lefty- He said we’ll only need oil and gas for ten more years.  Shorty- Then what?  Lefty- It will all be electric. Shorty- I guess we’ll be known as the fossils of fuel then.

Lefty- Maybe the government will retrain us, but shouldn’t all Americans have a right to choose?  Shorty- Women do.  Lefty- Not that kind of choice, the choice between electric and gas.  Shorty- My car, your choice.  My body, my choice.  My vax, your choice.

Shorty- Will they at least wave the non-compete clause in our contract?  Lefty- He said he was going to get that done for the fast food workers. Shorty- He said that?   Lefty-Yep.  Shorty- What did the Republicans say about that? Lefty- They laughed.

A peaceful pause. Then.

Shorty- Did Biden address the cows? Lefty- No. But he did say “make no mistake, if you try anything to raise the cost of agmananpklmagathpolcod, I will veto it.” Cows? Shorty– Easy for him to say.  Yes, are they done for too due to their bloated gassy emissions.  And, Bill Gates is buying up all of the farmland.

Lefty-This took a wrong turn.  Shorty- Bill Gates has the right to choose. Lefty- Choose what?  Shorty-Choose how he identifies.  Lefty- Um, ok, I’ll bite.  Why?  Shorty- He looks a good bit like a bloated gassy cow himself these days. Maybe his new pronouns are how, now, brown, and cow. Lefty- Lord. Shorty- Kamala said the root cause of that spare tire he carries around might be the 43 fossil-fueled jet trips he took to Epstien’s island just to have those dinners with Jeffrey that he doesn’t regret.

Lefty- Ok, moving on.  Shorty- Did he attack gas-burning stoves?  Lefty- I don’t think…  Shorty- We won’t need them anyway if there are no more farms or red meat.

A not so peaceful pause.  Then.

Lefty- Well, do you want to know how the bipartisan evening ended?  Shorty- Let me guess.  Viewers from the western tip of Alaska to the southeast Atlantic Coast watched it go poof into the night much like the Chinese Spy Balloon.

Lefty- No, well, maybe, but Sarah Huckabee Sanders gave the Republican rebuttal.  Shorty- So she shot it down?  Lefty- Um.  Shorty- Are rebuttals gassy, too? Lefty- She said that we have a choice between normal and crazy and at this moment I can surely relate.

A long pause.  Then.

Lefty- I’m going to refill the soda machines.  Shorty- Need help?  Lefty- Yes, you do.