MAGA

MAGA, MAFA, MOFO

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

It seems unlikely that we can Make America Great Again(MAGA).  Elections, 81 million voters, election denials, impeachments, insurrections, and classified documents seem to have derailed the Trump train like the one in East Palestine, OH.

Maybe we could at least Make America Fun Again(MAFA).  It would be nice to wake up with less stress and have a thing or two to smile about.

Cause right now and for the better part of three years it’s been MOFO-no further explanation needed.

If you head to the grocery store and hit double-digit purchases the cash register hits triple-digit costs.  This assumes that what you want is in stock.

Of course, the cost of funding Ukraine’s war makes grocery shopping look like a bargain.  If you oppose the funding half of the citizens label you a Putin/Russia lover.  Never mind that NATO requirements far surpass the way Ukraine is run to consider them joining.

At least Biden is waging war on banks that charge too much when you fail to pay on time.  Never mind that a few are failing.  Bailouts cost depositors beyond 250k nothing when the bank has run out of money.  Rules used to mean something.

Did you want to buy a house?  Interest on 30-year money is 7.3% or about double what it was a year ago.  Did you want to sell your house?  Read the sentence two back from this one.  But, banks can’t make money cause short-term rates make borrowing too expensive apparently.

Minnesota Democrat Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan on an executive order “protecting” access to “gender-affirming care” said, “When our children tell us who they are, it is our job as grown-ups to listen and to believe them.”  Remember when it was a child’s job to listen to their parents and believe them?

At least that sounds fun.  You can be whoever you want to be.

If you’re nearing retirement age you can enjoy the fruits of your labor by supplementing the social security check with your 401k savings and earnings.  Well, you can enjoy half as much fruit anyway.

Be happy if you were/are a supporter of the southern border wall that the Trump Administration was building.  The good news is that sections of it and supplies to build it are still there, just resting rusting on land that our government is leasing at a cost of about 130k a day, or just about 50 million a year.  No supply chain shortage there.

The global demand for cocaine has reached record levels as use rebounds following coronavirus lockdowns. North America leads the way in demand for the illicit substance.  Are you surprised?  It flows pretty freely across the border and gives one an escape from all of the above we presume.

At least the China virus that you can’t call the China virus is done.  Isn’t it?  If not, vax and boosters are still free.

Some of the best things in life are free.

Right now, they just aren’t much fun even if Kamala is cackling daily.

Hey MOFO, lets MAFA!

 

 

 

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.

 

What’s Old is Old

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Do you remember the Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker Show back in the eighties?  His relentless pursuit of money through the guise of religion was so tiresome.  Claims made by him and his minions of miracles answered for contributors to his church were endless and far fetched at best.  But, it was a narrative that kept his lovely wife Tammy Faye in mascara.  Jim eventually served hard time in jail for his sins.

Undeterred, he’s been at it again.  Contacts have replaced thick glasses.  Thin white coiffed hair has replaced thick brown coiffed hair.  Tammy Faye passed away.  He has a new female Fatale beside him as he continues to spread the good word.  Recently he brought on an “expert” who stated that for a small contribution she could send you some medicine that would destroy the coronavirus in just 12 hours.  It’s a miracle!

Find a narrative, swear to God by it, and collect money.

Which brings us to MSNBC.  Lawrence O’Donnell reminds us of the Rev. Jim Bakker.  Find a narrative, swear to God by it, and collect ad money.

Ole Larry made the Putin and Trump connection again.  O’Donnell said, “The president is a Russian operative. That sounds like the description of a bad Hollywood screenplay, but it is real. It is Vladimir Putin’s greatest achievement, decades after America’s victory in the Cold War and collapse of the Soviet Union, the president of the United States is now helping the president of Russia help the president of the United States to get re-elected. So that the president of Russia will have four more years of the president of the United States who he wants in the Oval Office, this is one of those shocking news days if you retain the capacity to be shocked in the Trump era by the Trump regime, which might be better labeled the Trump-Putin regime.”

You know.  Russia bad.  Trump bad.  We’ll be back after these revenue-generating messages.

So what if Putin prefers Trump over, say, a socialist that Bloomberg called a communist?  What would O’Donnell screech if Putin, as crazy as it sounds, came out in support of Crazy Bernie?

What would Lawrence say then?  Would he blame Trump for contacting Putin to get him to do it?  After all, who would want Putin’s endorsement?  Remember Russia bad.  Trump bad.

The narrative is beyond tired.  The collusion and all of its Mueller investigating (and striking out) is as old and tired as Jim Baker and snake oil.

Trumps’s approval numbers have improved over his time in office to a new high this past month.

How much is due to Putin? Not much.   The real question is how much is due to America growing more tired of a tired narrative.  Much.