hidenbiden

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.

A Cure For What Ails Us

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Roses are tough to grow you know.   A green thumb helps.  And, watch out for those thorns.

In spite of those obstacles, everything seems to be coming up roses for the hottest political couple of the summer of 2020.  Joe Biden and Kamala (comma la) Harris are having the virtual convention of their lives.

Have you watched it? If you haven’t we can tell you that what you’ve missed is a lot of the “what Trump has done wrong, and why he shouldn’t be reelected.”  A couple of folks named Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton went so far as to say he shouldn’t have been elected in 2016 either.  Trump remains quite the thorn in their side it seems.

But, last night Harris actually shed some light on what Biden would do if he got to prune the roses in the garden on Pennsylvania Ave. for the next four years.  We probably shouldn’t use the words “Biden” and “prune” in the same sentence, but we digress.

“Joe will bring us together to end this pandemic and make sure that we are prepared for the next one,” Harris said during her VP acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) on Wednesday night.  We knew there was a doctor in the Biden home, but we thought that was Dr. Jill.

Biden must be quite the medical miracle worker.  It turns out that he vowed to cure cancer during a campaign stop in June 2019. “I’ve worked so hard in my career that, I promise you if I’m elected president you’re gonna see the single most important thing that changes America. We’re gonna cure cancer,” Biden said.

That campaign stop was before his campaign stopped traveling.  Maybe that doesn’t matter anymore either.  Joe has been slow to get to a few states, including a vital swing state, Wisconsin.  He hasn’t seen any Cheeseheads in person in the last 660 days.  The doctor no longer makes house calls.

But, there is only so much time in a day or week, or month or year or two.  Joe’s been doing yeoman’s work in his basement which must closely resemble the Johns Hopkins research lab.

He repeated this cancer cure vow during his Super Tuesday victory speech and also added that he would find cures for Alzheimer’s and diabetes.

“We’re gonna invest billions of dollars to find, and I promise you, cures for cancer, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes,” he said.  Who knew that you could throw money at a problem and fix it that easily?

Harris also has her eyes on a different virus.  It’s actually one that is so ugly that you can see it.  The first black woman to be nominated to a major party’s ticket, also described racism as “a virus” in her speech Wednesday night.

“This virus has no eyes, and yet it knows exactly how we see each other — and how we treat each other,” Harris said. “And let’s be clear — there is no vaccine for racism. We’ve gotta do the work.”

If Biden and Harris can cure COVID-19, cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and racism between now and 2024 they deserve our vote.

Period.

End of story.

Almost.

Hopefully they’ll find some time to stop the pesky climate change too.

 

 

The USPS Mess

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

The BBR staff has been rolling through some states in the Deep South for the last few days.   While there we managed to take only a glimpse at the news.  And, voila, it seems like the “deep state” is alive and well.

The quest to oust Trump is nearly four years old and going strong.  It sounds like the plight of the United States Postal Service is the latest raging problem that the left is placing the blame for at the feet of the President.

It’s so bad that Trump’s two months ago appointed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy will be beaten up like a USPS package by the time he is finished testifying before Congress next week.   Nancy Pelosi is so concerned about the Post Office all of a sudden that she decided to call the House back to Washington and back to order.  The House hasn’t been in order in years, but we digress.

TV networks will cover it like it’s the next Russian Collusion.  And, that’s because it is.  The Post Office’s problem isn’t Trump.  The Post Office’s problem is the Post Office.  And, it’s been that way for a long time.  Actually, it’s been that way for far too long.  A few facts, none of which will be brought up by the left as the excoriate DeJoy follow.

The Post Office, if it were a business would be out of business.  It’s insolvent and has been for a long time.  It lost 2.2 billion dollars last quarter to add to the 78 billion its lost since 2007. The government’s own Accountability Office wrote a May report and said that “the USPS current business model is not financially sustainable.

The Wall St Journal article last week called it a Blockbuster service in a Netflix world.  That about sums it up, doesn’t it?

In 2006 mail volume peaked at 213 billion pieces.  It’s down 33% and counting as of last year from that high.  But, during that same time frame, the number of delivery points (addresses) served by them increased from 146 to 160 million.   In other words, costs continue to rise while revenue shrinks.  Hello?

Walk-in retail customers are down 23% from the 2010 all-time high.  During that same time, USPS locations shrunk only 4%.

They have an exclusive right(monopoly) to your mailbox that carries a universal obligation or promise to carry a letter anywhere for 55 stinking cents.

One route in Montana serviced 6 days a week like all others, covers 191 miles to hit 272 mailboxes.  In extreme northern Arizona, mules take mail down an 8-mile path to the base of the Grand Canyon.

The USPS workforce is 600k people strong and organized by seven different unions.  Congress in 2013 rejected a proposal to save 2 billion a year back then and in every subsequent year by stopping Saturday regular service.  And, remember next week, this will all be the current administration’s fault.

The USPS retiree health care plan has billions to invest but is mandated to invest those Washington’s only in U.S. Treasurys.  Ten-year Treasury note returns have been falling for years and return about 1/2 of 1% per annum currently.  Do you think health care costs only rise by about 1/2 of 1 percent per year?  If so, we have a jackass to sell you that walks 16 miles a day in the Grand Canyon.

DeJoy reassigned 23 top-level managers while citing a substantial decline in volume, a broken business model, and a management strategy that has failed to address these issues.  It sounds like he is doing his job, so it’s no wonder Congress is mad.

Let the conspiracy theories begin.  Former President Barrack Obama said last month that “those in power are undermining the Postal Service in the run-up to the election that is going to be dependant on mailed-in ballots.

The Democrats, in their latest House relief bill, want to give the Post Office $25 billion to compensate for “revenue forgone due to coronavirus.”  The sickness of the financial state of the post office isn’t due to coronavirus.  It’s due to Al Gore’s invention called the internet.

What the USPS needs is major reform at a minimum.  Would you mind if your mail only came three days a week as but one example?

That will be lost in the name blame game next week.  The House will kick DeJoy around, blame Trump, and kick the mailbox down the road.

 

Ten Piece Nuggets-Sports and Life Intertwined

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Sports and the real world are joined at the hip these days.  And that is unfortunate.  The escape has escaped us for now.   Hopefully, it will return.  Ten Piece Nuggets return below and reflect on just that.

  1.  The wokest (auto correct wants to turn wokest into weakest, hmmm) of the Power 5 college football conferences, the Pac 12, has a problem/opportunity on its hands.  Football players believed to be numbered in excess of 100 across the conference authored what they call The Players Tribune, and presto #WeAreUnited is born.  It’s a rapidly evolving set of demands.  That’s how The Movement works.   For now, know that they want a lot more than just a stinking full-ride scholarship to a great university.
  2. Their leverage, at least in their minds is to opt-out of playing this fall if their demands are not heard.  The Movement gives them the microphone to try to advance these causes at this time.  COVID-19 provides further cover.  It always sounds logical to demand “player safety” needs to be met if not exceeded.
  3.  Why should they risk exposure if schools aren’t assembling in their traditional manner this fall?  Actually, it’s a lot safer for the players if the regular students aren’t on campus.  They’re getting tests and test results a lot quicker than the general population too.
  4. They’ve asked for 50/50 percent revenue sharing.  Best of luck there.  The football teams underwrite the other sports programs and acutely the female sports teams.   Some colleges even siphon off the excess to subsidize the out of control costs of the college itself.
  5. “They see all of this clearly through the lens of racial justice,” said Ramogi Huma, the founder of a college athlete advocacy group called the National Collegiate Players Association.   Apparently free room, free books, free education, free health care, free tutors, free food, positional coaches, strength coaches, nutrition coaches, and head coaches aren’t enough.  It’s exploitation they say.  Why did they sign the scholarship papers to begin with?  It must have sounded like a good deal until it didn’t.  Justice dammit!  It’s never enough.
  6. The NBA tipped off.  Did you watch it?  The ratings will be interesting to watch to see how many decided to watch.  MLB entered week two.  At least 30 teams did.  Miami is still in time out.  Philly was.  St. Louis might be headed that way.  Shortened and late start seasons, no fans, opt-outs, virus concerns, and social justice concerns make for a less than desirable product we think.
  7.  Hey Joe.  Hey Joe!  Wake up.  It’s time.  Who is your VP nominee? You promised us an answer in the first week of August.  Will it be a minority candidate like Kamala Harris?  Or, will it be a minority candidate like Native American Elizabeth Warren? The suspense is killing us.  No, it’s not.  Have you seen one, just one, yard sign in your town that promotes Biden for President?  The election isn’t about electing him.  It’s about ousting Trump.  It’s the only way the Democrats can sell this lipstick on a pig candidate.
  8. In a Facebook post on Sunday morning, political commentator Dan Bongino wrote:  Not a joke and not hyperbole – I’m hearing from people close to the situation that Biden’s cognitive decline is rapidly worsening and is becoming increasingly difficult to mask. The Democrats are going to have to make a decision soon.  The excuses (Trump lies, so don’t waste your time) to get him out of debating The Donald are flowing.  Like him or not Trump is a young 73 in many ways.  Like him or not, Biden is an old 77 in many ways.
  9.  Biden’s been hiding for months.  Looks like Bill Clinton has gone underground as well.  Or did he go to a remote island?  Well actually according to some flight logs released in court documents emanating from the pending Ghislaine Maxwell case Willie did head to Epstein’s island 11 times.  What’s weird is that he opted out (not like the Pac 12 kids) of Secret Service coverage for seven of the trips.  Slick he is.
  10. And finally, Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters issued “social justice” and “black liberation” demands regarding “diversity” to a restaurant owner in Louisville, KY, including a directive for “donations” to organizations run by non-whites.  Sounds like a shakedown.

We’re opting out to a remote island now.

Lights. Camera. Action!

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

It takes one to know one they say.

You know who James Woods is, don’t you?  He’s an accomplished actor.  You know who Donald Trump is, don’t you?  He’s an accomplished actor, too.

Woods played the character “Sully” on Ray Donovan.  Sully was #1 on the FBI’s ten most wanted list.  Trump’s been in a very similar role for four years himself.

Yesterday, Woods tweeted the perfect line to capture the video he embedded in his tweet.  He wrote, “the moment a largemouth bass takes the bait.”  The video was a 1:48 rant by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.  In it, Schumer admonished President Trump for suggesting that the November 3rd election be postponed as we combat the coronavirus.  He told Trump and fellow Senate Republicans that they should stop deflecting and go solve all of the nation’s ills, not the least of which is the one we cannot see.  He bellowed that the election would indeed take place as scheduled.

If there was a director he (or she) would have said, “cut, that’s a take.  let’s wrap it up.”  Trump acted and everyone watched, listened, and roared.  Trump doesn’t want the election postponed.  He had everyone make his intended point that if you can vote on 11/3 when the second wave (whatever that means considering we just had one) might be lurking you can go back to work and school today.

Twitter has put Woods in time out a time or three. He’s too outspoken and too right-leaning for their taste, not in that order.  Kamala Harris, a fine actor in her own macabre theatre, called for Trump to banned from Twitter as well.  The best guess VP nominee of the presumptive Democratic nominee for President knows how to put on a show as well.

We need to postpone in the classroom school, sports, dining out, and work for now.  Physical sickness and fiscal mayhem makes for an angry voter.  Come November 3rd, we all need to line up and vote.  We need to stay at home now unless we need to peacefully protest.  Stay off of the beaches too, dammit!   We need to stay out of church unless we need to honor the heroes of our time.  George Floyd and Rep. John Lewis are two that come to mind.

Come to think of it, why do we even need to vote?  The polls show Biden leading by so much, we could all stay safe by staying home.

Then it could be the Joe Biden Show.  He’s been rehearsing in his basement tirelessly for just this moment.  He could act like he was the President all the while suffering from rapidly advancing dementia.  Now that would be some fine acting!

Lights.  Camera.  Action!

 

 

It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over.

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

It’s over!

A Quinnipiac Poll released Wednesday showed Joe Biden leading President Trump nationally by double-digits, widening his lead over the last month.

The former vice president leads Trump 52 percent to 37 percent.  That’s up from the eight-point lead he saw in the June 18 poll.

And, it gets worse for Trump when you look at the underlying responses.  Biden even overtook Trump according to respondents as best to handle the economy 50-45%.  And, that’s the best of the worst.  For handling a crisis it’s Biden 57-38.  For COVID-19 it’s 59-35.

And, the worst of the worst is when it comes to addressing racial inequality.  Biden gets the nod by a whopping 62-30.  Of course, he does.  Trump is a racist.  Everyone has been telling us that for four years and counting.

But, is it over?  Is the poll as accurate as the August Quinnipiac 2016 poll that showed Clinton dominating Trump by double-digits as well?  Trump hopes so.

“We are starting to hear the faint rumblings of a Hillary Clinton landslide as her 10-point lead is further proof that Donald Trump is in a downward spiral as the clock ticks,” Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy said at the time.

Malloy still has a job with Quinnipiac.

Yesterday he said that the survey provided a “very unpleasant real-time look at what the future could be for President Trump.  There is no upside, no silver lining, no encouraging trend hidden somewhere in this survey for the president.”

If you take a deeper dive it turns out that Quinnipiac surveyed 1,273 self-identified registered voters across the country.  Republicans only made up 24 percent of the respondents.  Democrats were 34%.

He pondered in the late summer of 2016, “wow, is there any light at the end of this dark and depressing chapter in American politics?”  Given where we are in 2020, he at least was prescient on that one.

It’s Biden’s election to lose.  We heard the same about Hillary.  There are conventions (maybe virtual), debates(maybe very bad for Biden), stump speeches (where Biden always stumps himself), and the sheer rigor (Biden would be older entering the presidency than any other predecessor when they left it) of conventional state to state campaigning left.

Singer, not pollster, Lenny Kravitz might have it right.  It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over.

Pollster, not singer, Tim Malloy might have it wrong.

Again.

 

Ten Piece Nuggets-Summer

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

The weekend has come and gone.  But the Summer of Love rolls on.  Ten Nuggets that range from this to that await.

  1.  The Summer of Love rolls on, but the occupied zone CHOP had some rough weather roll in.  Tent city had yet another shooting overnight.  One person was dead and one injured on Saturday.  All of the wounded from last night were transported to the hospital via private cars.  The front gate guards and others prohibited the police to come in.  And, the police stood down.  And apparently the city leadership either ordered it so, or complied.   Astonishing really.  We wrote a week ago that you could watch it implode soon.  And, here we are.
  2. Donald Trump’s Tulsa rally fizzled badly Saturday when so many before it sizzled.  What went wrong?  Waining interest?  Doubtful, but not out of the question.  Covid-19 fears?  Maybe.  The racially charged threat of violence?  Maybe.  The arena looked empty and more often than not sounded subdued.  Trump sounded tired.  So did his act.
  3. The differences between him and hiding Joe Biden are so great it says here that he should pivot a bit and take the country through why he thinks his approach is better.  His base is as secure as the anti-Trump base is.  Both are fighting for the very few who claim to be undecided.  Maybe he was rusty like his hair color.  With no rallies in months and months was Tulsa like a warm-up band?  If so, he was singing out of key.
  4. With Mrs. Butterworth still on life support, Eskimo Pie got a terminal pie in the eye.  That’s right, no more Eskimo Pies.   Eskimo was a term that was mostly used for a handful of Native American tribes that lives in Alaska and other Arctic areas including Canda and Greenland.  In 1977 the reference was replaced by “Inuit” people or “Native Alaskans” depending.  A quick 43 years later Dreyer’s Ice Cream Company realized it was offensive.  Eskimo meant “eaters of raw meat.”  Raw meat has vitamin D in it to help with the long winter months.
  5. At least they can still enjoy their igloo’s for now.  But, should the Igloo Corporation change its namesake product as well?  If so, then the Inuit’s might then be homeless vegans.  Well, at least CHOP city isn’t too far away.
  6. Yesterday before the NASCAR Cup Race at Talledega Speedway in Alabama a plane carrying a Confederate Flag and the slogan “defund NASCAR” flew overhead.  While everyone was looking up someone slipped into Bubba Wallace’s garage and left a noose.  The  Washington Post’s Liz Clarke, who has extensively covered NASCAR, noted how closely the organization restricts access even when there isn’t a pandemic. It “controls entry into its garages,” she wrote. “Not just anyone can get into a garage stall.” The Speedway, as of Monday morning, has not commented on the incident, but there are cameras in the garages.  Something doesn’t add all of the ways up here.  Roll the tape.
  7.  The North Face is threatening to pull ads from Facebook and Instagram if Zuckerberg doesn’t agree to their demands to censor “hate speech” and whatever other types of posts it doesn’t agree with.   Other brands are expected to follow.  Facebook is a private company.   It can do as it pleases.  The North Face is a private company.  It can do as it pleases.  We heard that The Tucker Carlson Show has a few ad slots open up recently if The North Face wants to spend its advertising dollars elsewhere.  Every mountain has four sides.  Recognizing only the north face doesn’t seem inclusive.
  8. With so much attention being placed on the COVID-19 crisis and ending “systemic racism” do you worry that the biggest existential threat to our globe is being forgotten?  Experts Cory Booker, Liz Warren ( she didn’t check the “Eskimo” box on her Harvard app, she checked Native American), Bernie Sanders, and Jay Inslee told you all about it a few months, that seem like years, back.  It’s climate change, of course.  Suddenly talking about it seems so 2019.  Fear not, it’ll be important again before November 3rd.  It’s only a matter if it gets oxygen before or after another “war on women” crisis.  Miami is taking on water dammit.  At least CHOP was founded on high ground.
  9.  Will the NBA or MLB play again in 2020?  Meanwhile, the NFL seems like it’s full steam ahead.  Something doesn’t add all of the ways up here either.  MLB  has millionaires arguing with billionaires as an added eyesore to COVID-19 problem.  If the NFL mandates social distancing in the stands will it also mandate it on the field?  Spread offenses will have never looked so spread.  Huddles will be anything but.  Should the referees wear a mask?  Or, would you prefer that they wear a muzzle?  CHOP might field a team.  They want no referees at all!
  10.  Golfer Nick Whatley tested positive before round two of the RBC Heritage PGA event on Hilton Head Island Friday.  But the tournament played on as it should.  Even if you aren’t a golf fan you have to love the way the island and the course looked on HD TV.  It was a peaceful escape.  It’s a beauty, and it’s unique.   It’s so Pete Dye.  And it has stood the test of time quite nicely.   So will we.

Keep your head down.  It’s but two weeks from the Fourth of July.  That’s only 25 Zoom calls from now.

You remember it.  It’s when we celebrate our freedom and independence from oppression.

The Silence Is Deafening

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Monday afternoon’s BBR staff meeting provided a look back to give us a look at what might happen going forward.  One staff member told us his story about the 2012 and 2016 elections.

In early October 2012, he moved into his new (old) home.  Driving down the street in the UHaul he realized that 14 of 22 homes had Romney/Ryan yard signs.  One had an Obama sign.  It almost sounds like this neighborhood enjoys white privilege, but we digress.  Obama won.

In 2016 that same street had but one Trump/Pence sign.  Just one.  One neighbor had a Hillary/Kaine sign.  Just one.  Trump won.  Did the silent majority speak back then?  We don’t know because they are silent.  But we have a hunch.

And now 2020 arrives at the doorsteps of this very same street and streets all across this fruited plain.  The fruited part is being bolstered by the “guerilla gardening” inside of the compound formerly known as CHAZ, but we digress.

What do you have to say silent majority?  Oops.  We forgot.  The silent majority doesn’t speak.  It watches and listens.  And we have another hunch or five to share.

Putting Russian collusion, impeachment, Covid-19 handling, lockdowns, and other attacks (from the right’s point of view) or deep concerns (from the left) aside do they see a picture being painted along the road to November 3rd, election day?

We submit they do.  And we submit that they have been watching all along and were listening and open to meaningful reforms as well.  In order to listen you have to be silent.

And, now, we surmise that the silent ones have stopped listening because The Movement won’t stop screaming long enough to listen.  And, it was going so well at first.  But, burning down cities aside, it’s now gone too far.  Arson wasn’t enough.  Looting wasn’t.  Beating innocent people wasn’t either.  Making death threats against Drew Brees and his family wasn’t enough.  The hell with free speech.   Coast to coast cries of “defund the police” wasn’t enough.

Even actual murder and attempted murder on the police that started weeks ago isn’t.  And, now you’ve armed yourself and taken over six square blocks of Seattle in this Summer of Love.  Now you’re the police.  Good luck.

Don’t use excessive force or maybe the silent majority will come and riot in your new city(named CHOP as of this AM).  Actually, they won’t.  They’ll just watch it self implode.  And self implode it will.  It’s only a matter of when.  Then, they’ll vote.

CNN had a weekend poll that showed Joe Biden had a 14 point lead on Donald Trump.  Didn’t Trump trail Clinton by 11% per the polls in 2016?  How did that turnout after the voters turned out?  Polls, schmolls.

The silent majority doesn’t speak to pollsters either.

But they’ve listened, learned, and likely become disgusted.  They’ll hit the voting booth in record numbers.

The election could be held today.  Is anyone in America undecided?

Peaceful

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

“Never underestimate the strength of an opponent.”  Clearly those are smart words of advice.  They come in handy in the boardroom, on the playground, at the office, onfield, in the gym, or in the court of public opinion.

Ask Hillary.  She found out the hard way about Donald Trump.  He outworked her.  She slept while he flew tirelessly to the Rust Belt again and again.  Dare we say that the result “shocked da world?”

It was an upset in more ways than one.  The Democratic Party and the DNC, its right arm, are master strategists.  One of their tried and true, bread and butter, plays is to constantly make the Republicans play defense.  It’s hard to score when you are always on defense.  Trump stole that page from their playbook and executed it masterfully.

Never again cried the Democrats.  They’ve been on offense the last three-plus years.  You know, racism, Russian Collusion, racism, Quid Pro Quo, racism, Impeachment, racism, and Coronavirus mismanagement come to mind.   America was just starting to get healthy.  And now, tragically George Floyd has fallen and look what has fallen into their laps.

We have to stand together for social justice.  We need to end racism.  It’s time for real change.  We doubt many disagree with any of that at all.  One cop should spend the rest of his life in jail it seems.  Three others should pack a toothbrush for a while too.

But, a funny thing happened over the weekend.  The party that turned “abortion” into “women’s wellness” went on the offense.  You watched America burn, get looted, get knocked unconscious, and get rocks thrown at it over the weekend.    CNN was comparing the “violent” protests a week ago (that violated social distancing and were sans masks) aimed at governors and asked to end the lockdown to go back to work to the “peaceful” ones that spread across America mourning the loss of George Floyd.

The playbook said to say “peaceful.”  And CNN did.  MSNBC did as well.  Half of America laughed at the mischaracterization and cried watching flat-screen TVs being stolen live on their flat-screen TVs.

When will Pelosi and Schumer and company come out and denounce the “peaceful” violent protests and the thugs that continue to commit breaking and entering, theft, assault and battery, and attempted murder crimes?

They showed up yesterday.  But, surprise, they caught the pass from the media and ran further down the field.  In a joint statement Pelosi and Schumer stated, “At this challenging time, our nation needs real leadership. The President’s continued fanning of the flames of discord, bigotry and violence is cowardly, weak, and dangerous.”  Jim Acosta(CNN) asked Trump if this is still a democracy.

And so did Hollywood.   Samual Jackson, “Did we just get Martial Lawed??! So, he just Declared War on The Public??!! It’s not 1807 this is not Rebellion!!”  Ice Cube, “Will Trump be the first President to nuke a U.S. city? Stay tuned.”  Stephen King, “Trump is politicizing the protests. ANTIFA? Give me a break. Those look like apolitical hooligans and smash-and-grab artists to me.”  He does write great fiction.

See how easy that was?  What you’re seeing on TV are peaceful protests.  Don’t worry about what you think you see, listen to what is being said.

Last night a rioter in Vegas peacefully shot a cop in the back of the head.  He’s in critical condition.  In St. Louis four policemen were shot peacefully.

Violence is the new peaceful.  Tranquil and calm are soon to follow.   Voila!

 

Ten Piece Nuggets-2020

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

After a long weekend, and a tough Tuesday that felt like Monday times three, you need your strength.  Time for Ten Piece Nuggets.

  1.  The Brood IX Cicadas are coming!  The Brood IX Cicadas are coming!  Periodical cicadas(locusts) are expected to come out in early summer across southwest Virginia, parts of North Carolina, and in West Virginia.  The last time the cicadas emerged in many of those regions was in 2003.
  2.  As many as 1.5 million of the insects can emerge per acre of land.  While they are some of the longest-lived insects in the world, periodical cicadas spend almost their entire lives underground as what entomologists call “nymphs”.  They’ll last above ground for six weeks at most.
  3. This reminds us of Joe Biden who emerged from his basement Monday long enough to place a wreath at the base of the monument that honors fallen soldiers from the great state of Delaware.  His better half, Dr. Jill was at his side.  Both were sporting facemasks.  Vain Donald Trump and wife Melania did the same in DC without a mask.  Cynics and critics are plentiful.
  4. We doubt that the cicadas will bother with a mask.  And, they’ll go back to shelter in place by late June.  We’ll know when they reemerge in spring 2037 if that process actually works.  Timing is everything.
  5. If you looked at the news on the weekend it looks like the majority of America is pretty much done with sheltering in place.  The parties were many, the locations numerous, and the crowds were large.
    Party On, Lake of the Ozarks

    But the Lake of the Ozarks pool party pic takes first prize for gross indifference to the cause.

  6. Which brings us to the great mask debate of 2020.  Now that all of the “science and data” has allowed some but not all states to restart, that same “science and data” is pulling us in two directions about the request/need/mandate to wear face masks.  Never let a crisis go wasted to score political points as well.  As usual the country is divided on a subject and has some strong feelings on it.
  7.  We wonder if Biden suddenly discovered its benefit?  It’s 50/50 if he knows whether it benefits him or those around him.  Black wasn’t his facemask color of choice for any particular reason was it?  “If you ain’t wearing a black facemask it ain’t a black facemask man!”
  8. Meanwhile, Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon has apologized for a skit he did on “Saturday Night Live” in 2000 during which he portrayed Chris Rock while wearing blackface.  According to CNN, video of the skit resurfaced recently on social media channels.  Fallon apologized on Twitter yesterday saying he “made a terrible decision.”  “There is no excuse for this. I am very sorry for making this unquestionably offensive decision and thank all of you for holding me accountable.”
  9. Using Twitter to apologize is the “new normal” these days.  Don’t you hate the phrase “new normal?”  When did what you did before COVID-19 become the “new normal?”  And, before that was the old, old, then new normal, correct?  We digress.  What’s weird is that Fallon has known that he did the skit since, well, since he did the skit. That’s 20 years.  The cicadas have come and gone and now about to come again since then.   Yet, he only apologized yesterday.  Hmm.  The cicadas shed their old nymph skins (ecdysis), expanding their wings, and changing to their adult coloring.  Sounds similar to a 20-year-old Twitter apology.
  10. MLB 2020 has yet to throw out its first pitch.  Now league officials and the player’s union are trying to get together on a plan to launch an abbreviated season.  When, where, who plays who, how many times, and who gets to watch are but some of the questions they face in their “new normal.”  Yesterday, the players union balked at the compensation that the teams want to shell out.  Fewer games, how many fans, and what is the TV revenue all goes into the budget equation.  They’ll get it together.  But, with unemployment fast approaching 20% it’s not a good look when billionaires argue with millionaires.  It never is.

The cicadas swarm is very loud.  It’s like getting mask shamed by an angry crowd at Walmart.  Eat your nuggets and stay away from both.