Engage. Enrage. Enjoy.

The System Is (Not) Working

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Derek Chauvin got what he deserved.

He got a fair trial by a jury of his peers overseen by what seemed to be a very even-keeled judge all the while represented by a competent defense attorney.

George Floyd’s family and all of America got what it deserved- a guilty verdict on all three counts brought against a police officer who committed a very serious crime.

In other words, to use an old tried but true phrase, justice was served.  And, after forthcoming sentencing, Chauvin will serve plenty of time for this injustice.

So, as we look back, was all of the looting, burning, rioting, violence, and teargas necessary to get us to this verdict yesterday?  No, of course, it wasn’t.

But, the marching and chanting gone bad wasn’t about getting justice in court, was it?  No, rather it was about the outrage that such a crime, and particularly a crime against a black man by someone who is supposed to protect and serve happened in the first place.  As understandable as the outrage is, lighting the town on fire isn’t the answer.

What is the answer?  Well, for the young and naive, know that society has searched for that answer for centuries.  It matters not what the crime is, and who has done it against whom, we haven’t prevented anyone from doing just about whatever they, unfortunately, choose to do against their fellow man.

Call the previous statement defeatist if you wish.  It’s reality.   It’s much like the war on drugs. How is that coming along?

But, when you mix in a white cop killing a black man, you multiply America’s outrage by a factor of X.  It’s deemed social injustice.

Chauvin isn’t the first bad cop.  And, news flash, he won’t be the last.

So defund the police.  The fine line between civility and incivility would run amok in a matter of minutes.  It’s also reality.

If you look up the aforementioned “young” and/or “naive” in the dictionary you’ll likely see a picture of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (AOC) next to it.  Predictably she had a strong point of view.

“It’s not justice. I’ll explain to you why it’s not justice. It’s not justice because justice is George Floyd going home tonight to be with his family.  Justice is when you’re pulled over, there not being a gun that’s part of that interaction because you have a headlight out. Justice is your school system not having or being part of a school-to-prison pipeline.

So, no, this verdict is not justice. Frankly, I don’t even think we call it full accountability, because there are multiple officers that were there. It wasn’t just Derek Chauvin. And I also don’t want this moment to be framed as this system working, because it’s not working.”

When does any murder victim come home to be with his family?  Ever?

George Floyd had his share of run-ins with the legal system.  It in NO WAY justifies his killing, however.  But, remember, amongst nine crimes Floyd committed one was an armed robbery of a couple in their home after he impersonated a police officer to gain entry.  He held a gun to the women’s abdomen while his cohorts in crime took what they wanted.

He was tried, found guilty, and served his time.  What makes that different than the process that Chauvin went through?  Two things make it different.

One, we hold our officers up to a higher standard.  We should.  And, we’ll be disappointed again and again for doing so when one in a hundred goes bad.   Two, it’s different because Chauvin’s crime was white on black while Floyd’s crime was black on white.  If you are an equality purist that shouldn’t matter either.

AOC says that the system is not working.  Did your school have a school-to-prison pipeline by the way?

Depending on your view, it never has.

Or, it always will.

And that goes for the system and the pipeline.

Lemons. Lemonade.

Posted on by boom booms room staff

If there was ever a debate about which amendment in the Bill of Rights was most important the point would be made.

Debating is free speech.  And free speech is the most prominent part of the First Amendment.  Case closed.

But, alas, the case against Minnesota policeman Derick Chauvin isn’t yet closed.  It’s gone to the jury which is also a right guaranteed by our founding fathers.

So, while a jury of his peers speaks freely (we hope) about the merits of the charge he is facing inside, the posturing has been exacerbated and accelerated on the outside around further police interaction with the public that it is supposed to protect and serve.

After 26-year veteran, Minnesota Police Officer Kim Potter said she mistook her gun for a Taser when she fatally shot Daunte Wright after a traffic stop last week she faces second-degree murder charges.  Do you want to talk about bad timing for a bad tragedy?

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib weighed in from her 13th District (west side of Detroit, Mi) two states over.  She posted on her Twitter account Monday in response to the shooting death of Daunte Wright.  She tweeted “It wasn’t an accident, policing in our country is inherently and intentionally racist.” She ended the tweet with “No more policing, incarceration, it can’t be reformed.”

So, forget due process she says, just end policing, and then you won’t have this problem any longer. Voila!  That might cause a few more problems, but we digress.

Rep Maxine Waters decided to travel from her home in California to Minnie.  Then she took to the Brooklyn Center, MN streets this past weekend along with other protesters of Wright’s death.   Waters responded to a reporter’s question that if Chauvin is not convicted of murder, protesters must ratchet up pressure and get “confrontational.”

“We’ve got to stay on the street and we’ve got to get more active,” Waters said. “We’ve got to get more confrontational. We’ve got to make sure they know we mean business.”

But, that’s when free speech could get expensive.  You can’t yell “fire” in a crowded theatre.  And, in this political theatre that’s where old Maxine might have crossed the line.

Forget censure in Congress which is a distinct possibility after it is brought to a vote.  She might have given the Chauvin defense attorneys the oxygen to light an appeals fire.

Presiding Judge Peter Cahill in this George Floyd murder case spoke freely as well.

“I’ll give you that Congresswoman Waters may have given you something on appeal that may result in this whole trial being overturned. I’m aware of the media reports, I’m aware that Congresswoman Waters was talking specifically about this trial, and about the unacceptability of anything less than a murder conviction, talked about being confrontational.   This goes back to what I’ve been saying from the beginning. I wish elected officials would stop talking about this case, especially in a manner that is disrespectful to the rule of law.”

Whoopsie.

CNN host Don Lemon used his free speech pulpit to lecture to the ignorant and set the record straight.  He said that Rep. Waters  “Absolutely” should not have made the comments she did about reacting to the verdict in the Chauvin trial.  But he added  “everyone knows” she is “not calling for violence” and that “she makes a lot of white men uncomfortable.”

There you have it.  Who knew?  Everyone says Lemon.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

When life gives you Rashida and Maxine you get lots of chances to make a pitcher or two.

 

Just Checking

Posted on by boom booms room staff

It’s fact-check time.  It’s truth serum time.  It’s an attempt at sanity in these insane times.  And, it starts now.

Are you for or against packing the U.S. Supreme Court?  Currently, nine justices preside.  The Democratic majority in the House of Representatives is champing at the bit to pack the court with four new appointees bringing the lucky number of black (can we still say that?) robes to 13.

If you are for it, would you also be for, say, four more to get to 17 if the Republicans retook control of both houses?  And, if that answer is a “yes,” which we doubt, how many would be too many in this race to stupidity?  What’s a good number to call it quits?  21?  27?  35?  51? 101? 1001?

Were you vehemently opposed to the cruel treatment of being placed in “temporary holding facilities,” aka “cages” that illegal minor immigrants that crossed our southern border were subjected to under the Trump Administration?

If you were, are you equally as outraged that the Biden Administration has not only carried on with that practice but seems to be putting more humans in even more cramped quarters?  Are you also disappointed that the temporary housing need has now invaded hotel chains in Texas at a cost to the US taxpayer of nearing a billion dollars and counting?

And, we presume that you are/were aware that the “cages” were built and first used under the Obama Administration.

And, what about that terrible, insensitive, prejudicial wall that Trump was building? Isn’t it great that Biden halted the construction?

If that is indeed a great dose of sanity and humanity we wonder if you were for or against any of the following?

  1.  The first barrier built by the U.S. was between 1909-1911; the first barrier built by Mexico was likely in 1918, and barriers were extended in the 1920s and 1930s.
  2.  President Bill Clinton approved the initial 14 miles of fencing along the San Diego–Tijuana border.   Construction began on this section in early 1993 and was completed by the end of the year.    Further barriers were built from 1994 under the presidency of Bill Clinton as part of three larger operations while he was president.
  3. The Real ID Act, signed into law by President George W. Bush on May 11, 2005, brought the total man-made built miles to 75.
  4. The Secure Fence Act of 2006, signed into law on October 26, 2006, by President George W. Bush authorized and partially funded the potential construction of 700 miles of physical fence/barriers along the Mexican border. The bill passed with supermajorities in both chambers.
  5. Construction continued and in May 2011, President Barack Obama stated that the wall was “basically complete”, with 649 miles of barrier constructed. Of this, vehicle barriers comprised 299 miles and pedestrian fence 350 miles. Obama stated, “We have gone above and beyond what was requested by the very Republicans who said they supported broader reform as long as we got serious about enforcement.”
  6. And, finally, in 2017, post the Trump win came funding for a wider, taller, and more structurally sound wall.  Trump would say, “a very beautiful wall.”

Joe Biden was in a political office for all of the above, repeat all of the above, except border wall point number one and six.

Would you support the idea of the District of Columbia (Washington, DC) being granted statehood?

If so, would you also support US Territories, such as Puerto Rico coming on board?

Would it be ok if Texas split into five states?  Its state constitution had provisions written in it to facilitate such a move when the Republic thereof was admitted to statehood.  It should be noted that federal law may supersede that one though.  But, stranger things have happened deep in the heart of Texas.

Fifty existing plus DC plus PR plus five in Texas would equal 57 states.  Coincidentally that is the exact same number Obama said he visited during the 2008 election.   What a visionary he was/is.

Did you get a vaccine?  Are you still wearing a mask afterward?  What good is the vaccine if there is any fear that you can still a) catch the damn thing, or, b) spread the damn thing?  Was the mask worthwhile, then, in the first place?  Variants, you say?  Two masks?

Should Americans be forced into showing a vaccine ID card?  Would it suffice at polling places for those damn conservatives that still think you should need a valid ID to vote?

Maybe every time we vote we should get vaccinated for or against what we put in office.

Just checking.

 

Dinner Is Served

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Guess who’s coming to dinner? Well, the answer depends if you are talking about short-term or long-term.

In the short run, it should be your family and close friends.

In the long run, it could be your new neighbors.

Should be, we said, family and friends in the short term.  But, the honorable Dr. Fauci weighed in on Sunday.  “It’s still not OK” to gather indoors. He cited the “level of infection” as “still really disturbingly high.”

“So, if you’re not vaccinated, please get vaccinated as soon as vaccine becomes available to you, and if you are vaccinated, please remember that you still have to be careful and not get involved in crowded situations, particularly indoors where people are not wearing masks,” he stated.

“And for the time being, until we show definitively that a person who’s vaccinated does not get this subclinical infection and can spread to others, you should also continue to wear a mask.”

Who knew?  Now the vaccinations might not work.  All of this free government advice (coercion) comes from a man who just over a year ago said wearing a mask was not necessary.

But if you can wait for the $2.5 trillion infrastructure bill, which has little to do with infrastructure, to pass you could invite your new neighbors over for some indoor mask-wearing chow time.   Neatly tucked inside of the bloated bill is a measly $20 billion designed to turn current single-family dwelling neighborhoods upside down.

You’ve heard of Section 8 housing, haven’t you?  Stated simply, if you don’t have enough income to afford a certain home or apartment for rent, the government will provide the difference based on income or lack thereof qualifications.  The new bill would take that concept into a neighborhood near you.

The infrastructure bill, also known as the American Jobs Act, would remove the zoning that exists for single-family homes across the nation and allow tear-downs of them to build multi-unit apartments next to them or to convert existing single-family homes into multi-family dwellings.  Anywhere, anytime.

What a concept it is.  The government hands out money.  Jobs are created in the construction industry.  Landlords get paid.  Renters get better housing in any neighborhood of their choosing.  Corporations get taxed at a higher rate to pay for some of this plan.    Consumers pay more for what corporations make. Debt continues its climb.  And, you get new neighbors and plenty of them.

Viola!  Easy peasy.  No wonder it’s called the American Jobs Act.

And, now you can have all of the new neighbors that you want, or don’t want, over for dinner.  Hell, throw a block party.

The fact that we don’t choose our neighbors (and now not our neighborhood either) doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be good neighbors.

Invite Dr. Fauci too.  But, insist that he wear a mask, dammit.

 

Robin Hood Rides Again

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Politicians make strange bedfellows.  What’s old is new.

Do you know what you get when you cross-breed two old-school famous sayings?  You get Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez(AOC).

Old Bernie turns 80 this coming September.  He’s been doing all of the Vermont people’s business since 1991 in one or the other Halls of Congress.  That’s a smooth 30 years.

NEW YORK, NY – OCTOBER 19: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) endorses Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) at a campaign rally.

Young AOC turns 32 this coming October.    She’s been doing some of the New York people’s business since 2019 in the House of Representatives.  That’s two years and counting.

President Joe Biden revealed his $2 trillion-plus infrastructure plan late last week shortly after the $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill two weeks prior.  Never mind that the relief bill only had 9% of the money earmarked for direct money to the citizens nor that that infrastructure plan (dubbed the American Jobs Plan) has only about 25% for traditional (roads, bridges, airports) infrastructure repair or improvements.

A BBR staffer bumped into a U.S. Rep Saturday who will remain nameless.  That Congressperson summed the giveaways up perfectly,  “you can sell anything you want when you use the words ‘Covid relief.’  And who can possibly be against ‘jobs’?”  Indeed.  Sounds like a chicken in every pot and pork for all.

But wait, there’s more!  Or at least AOC and Bernie wish it to be so.

AOC applauded Biden’s “vision” on the infrastructure plan but exclaimed that it is not sufficient and “needs to be way bigger.”  She went on, “we’re the richest country in the world, it should be $10 trillion.”

Senator Sanders said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that he was working to include “human infrastructure” into President Joe Biden’s infrastructure package.  “One of the areas that I am working on right now is the need to expand Medicare in order to provide dental care and hearing aids and eyeglasses for the elderly. Is that infrastructure? I think it is. Look, Jake, the truth is, in so many ways, we are behind many other countries throughout the world in providing for working families and the elderly and the children. And I think now is the time to begin addressing our physical infrastructure and our human infrastructure.”

Who knew infrastructure had so many definitions?  And, if you can’t hear people blowing horns at you nor see the red light in front of you how can you take advantage of all that new infrastructure?  We digress.

Is it any wonder that AOC backed Sanders’s latest failed bid to reach the Democratic nomination for President?

AOC called us rich and therefore we snap our fingers and can afford it. Oh, to be young and naive all over again.

Sanders makes it overtly simple.  He is a Socialist.

Biden said no one making under $400k will have to pay for any of it.  Well, the corporate tax of currently 21% recommended returning to the previous 28% might cost the consumer a titch we suppose.

“No president has ever raised business taxes to recover from an economic crisis,” Rep. Kevin Brady, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee, said. “This couldn’t come at a worse time.”  Details, details.

In 13th Century England, Robin Hood robbed from the rich and gave to the poor.  Supposedly.

Robinhood.com, the investor website, got in trouble playing games with GameStop stock a few weeks back.

And now this young (AOC) and old(Sanders) Robin Hood duo are playing a different game that needs to stop.

Margaret Thatcher knew as much many, many moons ago.  She said, “the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”

 

 

Make A Run

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Taco Bell ran with a campaign for years back in the late ’80s that had the tagline “make a run for the border.”

We doubt that such a campaign would be considered in the overtly sensitive times that we live in today.

Although, Joe Biden seems tone-deaf enough to consider it.

The Democrats took every political bite that they could out of a Trump border policy.  Build a wall-how wrong and exclusionary!  House migrant children in cages- how horrific!  Deny entry to the poor, the tired, the sick- how downright unAmerican!

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez went for a first-hand look early on in the Trump presidency.  She stalked the area like a skilled coyote herself seeing how dutifully the press followed behind her every step.  She even stopped to yell through the fence to ask for humanity to be restored.

But now? Now?  Now Biden has a major mess on his hands and as a result of course, so does the U.S.  The party that starts with the letter D sent signals throughout the campaign to defeat Trump that tomorrow would be a good day if you wanted in.  And, those looking for a new start started marching towards the border when an election determined that Trump was now exiting the office in numbers not seen since way before Trump took office

In fact, Biden and his border chief Alejandro Mayorkas, have already dropped nearly all of Trump’s anti-migration policies. Those policies allowed officials to quickly fly nearly all migrants back to their home countries.

Under Mayorkas, officials have quickly reduced the share of family migrants who are rejected under the Title 42 anti-coronavirus measure to under one-in-six per day. Trump’s appointees used the Title 42 rule to block nearly all migrants.

The Department of Homeland Security expects roughly 500,000 to 800,000 migrants to arrive as part of a family group during the 2021 fiscal year that ends in September- a record.

But these record numbers may wildly underestimate the number of foreigners who push their way through Biden’s and Mayorkas’ half-open doors.

Roughly 42 million people south of Texas want to migrate into the United States, said a March 24 warning from Jim Clifton, the CEO of the Gallup polling company.

The result is not a strained but a broken border.  Egads, there are more children in those “cages” than ever.  And there are plenty more coming, COVID-19 or not.

Biden appropriated via executive order a few weeks back $86 million to “temporarily” house migrants in Dallas hotels.  That’s a drop in the proverbial bucket compared to the health care money that the US (read as you) will spend to care for the inflow.

So what is Biden’s midterm solution?  He put VP Kamala Harris in charge of managing the morass.

On March 24, Biden directed Harris to get the Mexican and Central American governments to forcibly block migrants moving towards the United States. Biden said: “The Vice President agreed to lead our diplomatic effort and work with those nations to accept returnees and enhance migration enforcement at their borders — at their borders.”

On Friday, Symone Sanders, Harris’s press secretary, redefined the request.

“The president asked the vice president to take on the diplomatic effort, with Mexico and countries in the northern triangle to address the root causes of migration,” she said. “There are many reasons that move these folks to make this dangerous journey.”

It took all of 48 hours for the enormous task to be redefined.

Is Biden a puppet?

Quote machine Senator John Kennedy(R-LA) answers that burning question.  “Either President Biden believes in open borders, or the people that he has put in charge of his immigration policy may be smart, but they don’t have any sense. They don’t have the sense that God gave a goose. I mean, reality calls, and they hang up.”

“And now President Biden has put Vice President Harris in charge of fixing it. I know the vice president. She’s a lovely person. I sat on Judiciary with her. But that’s like — that’s like putting a Lance Armstrong in charge — as drug czar, in charge of our drug programs.”

So far, the Biden admin has prevented US Congressmen/women and the press from seeing the mess.  So much for that much-promised transparency.

As a result, the diligent press is on the job like a lap dog on a bone as you can see from this exchange last evening.

The exchange between Biden and the unidentified reporter below as he was boarding AF1 for a short flight back to DC:

Q: Mr. President, what have you given up for Lent?

THE PRESIDENT: I gave up all sweets for Lent. You have no idea how hard it is for me.

Q: What’s the first sweet you’re looking forward to having when it’s over?

THE PRESIDENT: Ice cream.

There you have it.

Maybe Taco Bell should serve ice cream.  This just in, they once did but it was short-lived.

And, we once had a short-lived border policy that made sense.

No wonder everyone is making a run for the border.

 

 

 

 

Just Say No to Guns

Posted on by boom booms room staff

When President Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, he vowed to crack down on substance abuse and reprioritize the War on Drugs, which was originally initiated by President Richard Nixon in the early 1970s.

President Reagan’s wife, Nancy Reagan, launched the “Just Say No” campaign as a part of the war, which encouraged children to reject experimenting with or using drugs by simply saying the word “no.”

In 1985, the percentage of Americans who saw drug abuse as the nation’s “number one problem,” was six percent. In 1989, that number jumped to 64 percent.

Now that we were all aware of it, how well have we succeeded in our efforts?  The word “poorly” is being kind.

Drugs today are as readily available, used, and abused as they were in the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, ’00s, and ’10s.  If you want to get high you simply make the buy.

On March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded by John Hinckley Jr. in Washington, D.C. as he was returning to his limousine.  He also severely wounded White House Press Secretary James Brady.

Rather than a Just Say No to Guns campaign, The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act was enacted on November 30, 1993.  Often referred to as the Brady Bill, it is an act of the US Congress that mandated federal background checks on firearm purchasers in the United States.  It imposed a five-day waiting period on purchases, until the National Instant Criminal Background Check System was implemented in 1998.

The bill was introduced by none other than Representative Charles E. “Chuck” Schumer back then.  He’s still doing the people’s business and carrying Nancy’s (Pelosi, not Reagan) water 28 years later.

And then there was the terrible Boulder, CO mass shooting that left ten dead Monday.  It’s the lastest of notoriety in a long line of gun killings before, during, and after the Brady Bill and other gun control “measures” taken to control the violence.

President Joe Biden is urging the Senate to take action on H.R. 8 and H.R. 1446, the former of which would create universal background checks and the latter of which would expand the length of time a background check can last.  Sound similar to the Brady Bill?   Also, Colorado adopted universal background checks in 2013.  Hmmm.

Biden also called for an “assault weapons” ban following Monday’s shooting attack at the Boulder, Colorado grocery store.

“I don’t need to wait another minute to take common-sense steps that will save lives in the future and urge my colleagues in the House and Senate to act. We can ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in this country once again.”

“I got that done when I was a senator. It passed. It was the law for the longest time. And it brought down these mass killings. We should do it again,” Biden remarked.  The Department of Justice released a report following the 1994-2004 “assault weapons” ban and noted that no real reduction in crime could be credited to the ban.  So maybe we should “Just Do It” again.  It sure sounds good.  It always does.

Ban everything new if you want to deny the Second Amendment Right and you would still have 375 million on the streets.

Guns today are as readily available, used, and abused as they were in the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, ’00s, and ’10s.  If you can’t get want one through conventional means you simply make the buy in the streets.

Or, we could just point fingers, not guns.

Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) pointed one Tuesday on CNN saying Republican lawmakers were “complicit” in all the mass shootings that take place in the United States, given their opposition to gun legislation.  Old Blumey must feel like people don’t kill people, guns kill people.

In turn, Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) pointed another and questioned the wisdom of a push by congressional Democrats to enact legislation in the immediate aftermath.

“Look, these killings were terrible,” he said. But.  “We’re free, and one of the prices we pay for that freedom is that you’re always going to have some people who abuse it.  Freedom is a risk.  You’re not going to stop the killings until you stop the killers.  “In my judgment, we do not need more gun control,” Kennedy continued. “We need more idiot control.”  Old Johnny must feel like guns don’t kill people, people kill people.

“We regulate gun ownership in America. If you are convicted of certain crimes, if you have a tendency to violence, if you are mentally ill, and you want to buy a gun, your name has to run through a database. The problem is that the database has huge holes in it.”

“Republican Senators Grassley and Cruz had a bill to strengthen our national database.”  “Do you know why the bill didn’t pass?” he added. “Many of my Democratic colleagues filibustered it.”

Sounds like the Democrats just say no to what the Republicans say, and the Republicans just say no to what the Democrats say.

Meanwhile, relative to so many other enormously funded initiatives, this country still fails to vigorously tackle mental health issues. Ever talk to a homeless person?

It’s almost as taboo of a subject today as being openly gay was just a decade or two ago.  While we’re printing money maybe we could toss some at the need to control the “idiots” as Kennedy directly called them.

Or, we could once more Just Say No.

How’s that working out so far?

 

 

 

 

Old Dogs, New Tricks

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Just two months after the “aggressive behavior,” or “insurrection” if you prefer, at the Capitol Building the U.S. government faced yet another major uprising last week, this time in the White House.

According to a report, President Joe Biden’s German Shepherd named “Major” had a serious “biting incident” with White House security late last week.  As a result, Biden’s dogs were returned to Delaware after Major’s “aggressive behavior” incident, said the CNN report.

 This photo didn’t age well. None of it.

It’s usually only news these days when man bites dog, but CNN always takes you the extra mile.

Time heals all wounds, doesn’t it?

Maybe it doesn’t, at least not yet in the fractured, cracked, divided, tumultuous, unsettled Republican Party.

Donald Trump doesn’t like having his name thrown around by the RNC these days.

In a Monday letter to Trump attorney Alex Cannon, RNC chief counsel J. Justin Riemer said the committee while fundraising  “has every right to refer to public figures as it engages in core, First Amendment-protected political speech.”

He maintained that Trump had also “reaffirmed” to the chair of the RNC, Ronna McDaniel, over the weekend “that he approves of the RNC’s current use of his name in fundraising and other materials.”

Trump responded to the letter with a statement that put that agreement in doubt. “No more money for RINOS,” or Republican in name only, he stated. “They do nothing but hurt the Republican Party and our great voting base.  They will never lead us to greatness.”   He’s nothing if not “like a dog on a bone.”

Hmm.  One of the two sounds like a head fake.

The RNC wants to use Trump’s name for the good that he brings to the party-aka money and loyalty from his base.  Conversely,  Trump’s instinct must be to control the use of his name and image to position himself as the undisputed leader of the GOP.

Further, he wants to raise his own money to, amongst other initiatives, exact revenge by backing challengers to Republican incumbents who crossed him by voting to impeach him for inciting the Capitol riot.  Trump has the shock collar out.

All of this divisiveness in the RNC when the Great Unifier just took over the Oval Office seems tawdry at best.

But, Trump is Trump.  Remember, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

And, in the White House or in pursuit of the same, it’s a major mistake to bite the hand that feeds you.

 

 

Knuckle Scraping

Posted on by boom booms room staff

President Joe Biden accused Texas Governor Greg Abbott of “Neanderthal thinking” yesterday after Abbott announced that the great state of Texas was now “100 percent open and a mask mandate was no longer in place.”

Mississippi’s governor did essentially the exact same thing on the exact day but nobody really cares about people in the great state of Mississippi, or so it seems.  Or, the electoral votes pale by comparison.

You see the real prize for the group that lives to divide (they call it unifying) is Texas.  They thought they had a shot with Beto v Cruz four years ago.  Somewhat close.  They thought they had a shot with Biden v Trump four months ago.  Somewhat closer.

Biden, we are mostly sure, didn’t think this way when the teleprompter and/or notes told him to utter “Neanderthal.”  He was looking out for the citizens of course.

After all, he flew in just last week to survey the land and the snowmen that had frozen the week prior.  Why he even assembled almost all of the “leaders” for a quick photo op and some words of unifying encouragement to help out with the thaw.

He recognized Congresswoman Shirley Jackson Lee for her help.  He meant Sheila Jackson Lee surely.  And, don’t call me surely.

He stumbled terribly over another name or two as well.  Then, he stopped himself and asked himself, “wait, what am I doing?”  Abbott was six feet from Biden and surely (again) wondered the same.

Biden didn’t mention the governor in his “pat on the back, mispronunciation, obligatory before I board Air Force One gathering.”  Hmm.

Maybe the third time is a charm.  Let’s gang up on Abbott.

Was Biden’s assessment of Abbott’s Neanderthal thinking right on?  Yes and yes seems to be the two answers depending upon who you ask.

Back when man scrapped his knuckles along the ground he could choose to come out of his cave when he wanted.  If danger lurked he could choose to stay put.  That sounds about like what Abbott has opened back up.

But, no mask?  Wow!  Maybe Texas could have opened back up and at least kept the mask mandate in place.  Some people think a mask helps while others don’t.

At least a mask makes it appear that you care.  And,  appearances count for everything.  Ask Biden.  He appeared in Texas and thinks he somehow helped warm it up while others don’t.

Heck, even Dr. Fauci who surely(and again) is old enough to remember his first cave thinks masks are important.  Now.

Although, the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the chief medical advisor to the President said almost a year ago today(3/8/20) as we first got into his mess “that there is no reason to be walking around with a mask.”  Then.

So now and then we change our minds.

But, for those that eye Texas as the ultimate prize, they can only think Abbott has lost his.

Biden can relate.

Has the governor created another of those dreaded super spreader moments?

Time will tell.

But for the left, now’s the time to use every bit of it as political capital.  They do it well and they do it often.

 

 

 

 

Talent on Loan From God

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Yesterday God called back the talent he had loaned out to Rush Limbaugh.

“With talent on loan from God, it’s Rush Limbaugh,” part of how the intro to the daily conservative three-hour show went.  And, went.  For three hours a day, for 52 weeks, and for 32+ years the solo voice behind the golden mike, comfortably ensconced in the EIB(Excellence in Broadcasting) studio, offered lectures in advanced conservative studies as he put it.  Over six hundred stations globally offered his “course.”

His reach and his resilience are unmatched.

Limbaugh is regarded far and wide as the savior of talk show radio regardless of your political preference or party affiliation.

But, he was so much more than that to so many.  The charitable donations of his money, time, or airtime were far too numerous to count and far too generous for even a man of his wealth.

But he was so much more than that.  His passion for his country, his vision for how it was, and how it could and should be, was unwavering.  Guiding principles never go out of style.  You might disagree with the “how” but you’d be a fool to disagree with the “what” and the “why.”

Rush shaped lives.  Rush changed lives.  Rush was bigger than life.

And, yet, he had his missteps and faults.  Prescription drugs and a few wrong turns down the racial rabbit hole were all too well documented.  But, we’d guess God just gave him a fast pass ticket through the pearly gates.  Life is after all a roller coaster, isn’t it?

Fox News commenters, a video of him receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor at President Trump’s State of the Union(SOTU) in February of 2020, and President Trump himself all intersected on the Fair and Balanced network yesterday shortly after his passing.

And, that confluence is an example of where America got it all right and yet all wrong.  Rush would tell us so in comical and wise detail if he had but one more day to use his fine audio pipes.

Bill Hemmer asked Trump to watch along with the audience the SOTU moment when he awarded Rush the medal.

As Trump spoke directly to Rush and his wife seated in the balcony, behind the Prez was the one and only Nancy Pelosi.  She thought so little of the moment that she turned her body and therefore her view well away from Trump and even further away from the about to be anointed Rush.  She rifled through the paper that her SOTU copy was printed on like Amazon’s Alexa’s best shuffle.  So childish, like Trump.

Should anyone turn their back on Muhammed Ali, Bill Clinton, George Clooney, or countless others if they were getting a lifetime achievement award regardless of your beliefs about their beliefs?  No. No.  No.  Respect is earned and should always be recognized.

The Republican congressmen and women roared.  The Democratic ones sat in silence.  Maybe you didn’t like what he stood for, but at the very least you could have stood up for the presentation out of the respect you had (or should have had) for his place in American history.  Shameful.

And then Hemmer made the mistake of asking Trump what Rush told him after the November 3rd election.  Trump immediately launched into saying that Rush thought he won, and Americans thought he won, and Trump himself thought he won.  So childish, like Pelosi.

You take the low road and I’ll take the high road.

Even on his last day Rush would have dissected his own moment, found a way to make sense of it all, pointed us in a better direction, and stayed mostly above the fray.

America lost a great one yesterday, all of America that is.

So, who possibly can take Rush’s place?

The answer is no one even if you have considerable talent on loan from God.