Engage. Enrage. Enjoy.

When the Game Stops

Posted on by boom booms room staff

The get rich quick crowd gathered on Reddit and was having quite the party.  There was no stopping the game that they were playing with stock in GameStop.

But, like at the stroke of midnight, if you don’t pay the band the music stops.  And, yesterday it got quiet.  Quiet like the inside of GameStop stores during this pandemic.

Just last Thursday shares in GameStop were bought for as high as they were sold-it always takes two to dance.  And the price to get on the floor was $483.  The stock was a much cheaper date in mid-summer at $4.  That’s no typo.  And, yesterday the stock retreated to $84 just four trading days after the $483.  That’s again no typo.

If you’re a retail investor and you wanted to show old school Wall St. that there was a new kid in town, you did.  Briefly.  The short-selling hedge funds got squeezed a bit.

If you wanted to get rich quick, hopefully you bought low and sold high.  Because as it was quickly learned again, value never goes out of style. Stock is always only worth what someone will pay for it.

However, if you bought high and sold low maybe it’s time to get off of Reddit.  If you did so with margin money you might need to see a bankruptcy attorney.  If you did so with your stay at home stimulus money, as many on Reddit bragged, maybe you should go get a job.

But, if you live in Long Beach, CA, and want to get into the grocery business you’re looking in the wrong place.  Yesterday, Kroger announced that it was closing its two stores at the end of this month in response to the mayor’s mandated “hero” pay of minimally $15 an hour for those “workers on the front lines.”

And, we are reminded again, value never goes out of style.  People are always only worth what someone will pay for them.  And jobs are valued for what people will accept them for unless you are the government and want to cause some market disruption.

Government has its eye on this stock market disruption.  They’ll start hearings next week on what we can learn from it.   That should be good for a few laughs.  Do you notice how the government always reacts, it never acts?

Political opposites Rep Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Senator Ted Cruz were in full agreement that the bad guys in this were the old Wall Streeters who were trying to blame the up and comers for making the market rattle.

In other words, “let the free market decide what a stock is worth.”  Hmm.  That seems like the polar opposite of what the government is trying to do with wages.

Reddit user benaffleks (really) says “This is a big moment.  Hedge fund managers live in the past.  They believe that average retail investors don’t know anything about the market(which may be true) and we’re just gambling our money away.  This was the past.”

One never really knows when the game stops.

But, when it does fair market value is always the winner.

Always.

 

 

Serious Problem Solved

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Four days into the Joe Biden presidency and we can already feel what true leadership looks and feels like.  Gone are the petty arguments this same time four years ago that were being played out by the Trump team v. the media over how many people attended his Inauguration Parade.

“We’ve got serious problems, and we need serious people,” said President Andrew Shepard in the movie The American President.  He went on castigating his reelection opponent Bob Rumson, “This is a time for serious people, Bob, and your fifteen minutes are up.”  There.

So some serious people have been weighing in on a serious problem in the last few days.  The serious problem is Covid-19.

It got serious in March of 2020.  By mid-October of 2020, Biden had seen enough.  He tweeted, “We’re eight months into this pandemic and Donald Trump still doesn’t have a plan to get this virus under control.  I do.”

Amongst other jewels on his platform, he promised 100 million vaccinations in his first 100 days in office!  Bold goal aiming for 1 million injections a day don’t you say?

His advisers advised the press that this would be a tall hill to climb but they would do everything they could to make it happen.  How tall?  His senior advisor Cedric Richmond spoke to CNN’s Pamela Brown on air about the Covid vaccine distribution.  “The sad part is the last administration didn’t leave anything.  They didn’t leave a plan.”

The funny or not so funny thing about that is America has been averaging almost that for the last 15 or so days before Biden took his oath under heavy security.  It might be over a million a day if California, ranked dead last in the US in percent of vaccines administered versus shipped, could roll up more sleeves.

Now, this conflicts with another Biden tweet this past week.  @JoeBiden: “There is nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months.”  Say it ain’t so, Joe?  What happened to your plan?

But for some, if you follow the science, apparently the situation is getting better after nearly ten months of stay at home orders.

One believer is Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer(D).  She announced that her state would allow restaurants and bars to reopen for indoor service at 25% capacity starting early next week.  She stated, “The science around this is settled, and if we all wear masks and wash our hands while social distancing, we will be in a strong position in a few weeks.  And then we’ll even be able to do more.”  Groundbreaking really.

Did she learn this while attending Biden’s inauguration while not socially distancing?  Sounds like her husband can go clean his boat safely now, too.

Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser(D) found the science news refreshing as well.  She announced an identical plan to Whitmer’s on the same day.  The mad scientist, she is.

Both are timely, though both are a full week behind New York(D) Governor Andrew Cuomo’s pronouncement a week ago.  He brilliantly blabbed that New York can’t go on like this any longer.  “We must reopen,” he said.  The plan floated there is to use rapid testing administered at hundreds of government locations. Of course, it is.  Rapid testing has been available for about six months.  Let the government help you.

So, either we have a plan or don’t.  Either we reopen or not.  And, we need more vaccines that we don’t administer.  And then, there is our new leader who said there’s nothing we can do about the trajectory.

No wonder we need the government’s help to solve this.   Surely they’ll follow the science to get us there.  And, just in time we might add.

 

Do Not Pass Go

Posted on by boom booms room staff

“Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the rest of the play?”

The fallout continues from the storming of the Capitol Building last Thursday.  And it accelerates.  The siege didn’t last very long, but the damage in so many ways was done.

And, the door to reshaping America has blown more wide open than the courtesy shown by the Capitol Police to the not so peaceful of the mostly peaceful protesters.

Cancel culture is evolving like a revolving door that lost power.  Have you ever been in one when it came to a complete stop?  You try not to smash your face against the suddenly stationary glass.  Good luck.

Do you remember the decibel level of the media when an Oregon baker refused to make a cake for a same-sex couple wedding?  That was when the media deemed it so wrong for a private business to selectively not serve a willing paying customer.

Chick-Fil-a still doesn’t open on Sundays, but it takes some damn fine chicken to survive the cancel attempts of the culture of today.

Parler might be in the deep fry, however.   Surely you heard of them?  They are (or were) trying to build a Twitter-like platform for the right.   Amazon, Google, and Apple collectively pulled the virtual rug out from under Parler.

Every vendor for texting and email services and even their lawyers ditched them.  Poof!  It can be awfully dark on Al Gore’s internet in so many ways.

If you have no server, no app, and no search engine result, you have no social media business.  It’s pretty simple.  And, it should be pretty scary to all.

The PGA has had it with Trump too.   They exercised their right to cancel their agreement to play the 2022 PGA Championship at Trump Bedminister, one of his courses.  It’s their right after all.

Major corporations are running, not walking away, from members of Congress who voted against ratifying the electoral college results.  Some have stopped political contributions altogether.  And, altogether that might not be a bad idea.

BBR has long supported a business’s right to refuse service for any reason(s) including religious beliefs but not on prejudices.

Hate Trump all you want.  Hate the right all you want.  Hell, impeach him for a second time if you want.  But, we better start pointing some vitriol and arrows at big tech and now.

The monopolies that they have and the power that they wield should scare us all.   Try working your way down the fourth side of the Monopoly Board.  Pacific, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Park, and Boardwalk are all very expensive if you land on any one of them.

The war on free speech makes the storming of the Capitol look like a bunch of misguided, misfit amateurs, oogled on by a sore loser, which it was.  And both should scare all.

The right to burn the American flag has long been ruled as guaranteed freedom of expression.

You don’t have to like it.  You just need to respect it.

The same should go for freedom of speech.

 

(In)Civility

Posted on by boom booms room staff

The roads that lead to the corner of civility and incivility are but a few steps apart from one another.

Was yesterday’s mostly peaceful protest march that started just steps from the White House and ended up the steps of the Capitol Building a new low? Not at all.  The First Amendment guarantees it.  But.

Was the lowest of lows reached when a subset of the group invaded the hallowed halls of the Congress by breaking windows, brandishing a few guns, and carrying out artifacts from their conquest?  We can hope.  Or, we can do more than hope.

Trump was elected as the ultimate outsider and built his momentum by condemning all that Washington is (drain the swamp) and all that reported favorably on it (the fake news folks).  His base loved(loves) the idea.  His fringe zealots crossed a line that heretofore may have never been crossed before.  And, where the hell was the police?

We all had to feel violated.  The White House and the Capitol Building are more than architectural masterpieces.  They’re our home and our workplace.  They are uniquely Americas to cherish.   They are the envy of the world for what they symbolize or did symbolize.  Freedom.

But maybe, just maybe we’ve taken these freedoms a bit too far.  And, like it or not that goes for both sides.  We’d rather argue and stand our ground on every item of our agendas no matter how big or small.  “Leaders” would rather tear up a speech behind the President’s back than meet with him face to face to try to advance the quality of the American way of life.

If you protest longer, yell louder, destroy more, burn hotter, and loot till you can’t carry anymore loot maybe you’ll be heard.  Or, maybe you’ll be ignored and despised. Kill a few cops while you’re at it too.  Feed your base and your fringe will carry your water.

If you claim repeatedly, and petulantly, and incorrectly that the election that you lost was really one that you won in a landslide somebody will believe you and you can still sit in the wooden chair in the Oval Office.  Feed your base and your fringe will carry your water.

Yesterday the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat issued a joint statement prior to their game.  “2021 is a new year, but some things have not changed,” the statement read. “We play tonight’s game with a heavy heart after yesterday’s decision in Kenosha, and knowing that protesters in our nation’s capital are treated differently by political leaders depending on what side of certain issues they are on. The drastic difference between the way protesters this past spring and summer were treated and the encouragement given to today’s protestors who acted illegally just shows how much more work we have to do.

You might have missed the news(understandably) that no Kenosha officers were charged in the Jacob Blake shooting that left him paralyzed.   They weren’t charged because eyewitness and video accounts showed the repeat offender of the law carrying an open knife disobeying the lawmen who feared for their lives.    Why would you have a heavy heart about that?  Nevermind that Kenosha was burned down as it doesn’t fit the narrative.

The Celtics and the Heat then knelt together pregame protesting the Washington protest.

What’s next?  Could some group protest a protest of a protest?

What Trump said to his supporters was wrong.  What they did inside of the Capitol Building was criminal.

When the peaceful protesters in the summer of love burned down the Minneapolis Police Precinct Three Station it was wrong and it was criminal as well.

Two wrongs don’t make a right.  And ten wrongs don’t make five rights.

Yesterday wasn’t a civil war, but it was far from civil.  But, if we keep justifying lower lows of uncivil behavior we’ll get there.

In less than two weeks President-Elect Joe Biden will take the oath of office on the same steps that the protesters occupied for hours yesterday.

Donald Trump issued a statement last night saying that the transition would be orderly.  He’s a funny guy.

Joe Biden said he was running for office because “the soul of the nation was at stake.”

It sure seems so.

 

 

Tic Toc Goes the Clock

Posted on by boom booms room staff

In 2009 newly elected and inaugurated President Barrack Obama told Republican Congressional leadership that “elections have consequences.”  And, indeed they do.

In 2017 newly elected and inaugurated President Donald Trump told America that “we are going to win, win, win.  We’re going to win so much that you’re going to get tired of winning.”  And, apparently, indeed America did tire.

With one seat still undecided in Georgia this AM, the Democrats are so close to their own win, win, win.  They have a slim majority in the House, they won (stole say some who remain in denial) the Presidency, and they are on the doorstep of the slimmest of margins in the Senate.

In 2009 when the Democrats last controlled all three, Obamacare was born. It turned healthcare into a right, not a need, for all practical purposes.

But remember, “if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.”  Well, not really, but we digress.

So, assuming Georgia delivers two peaches to the Senate from yesterday’s runoffs, what “consequence” or “consequences” will they deliver? The world is their oyster thanks to the presumptive peaches.

Well, what’s on the menu?  Is Washington DC headed for statehood?  Are higher corporate taxes on the way?  Surely there is some further social and justice reform coming.

How about more black robes for more black Supreme Court justices.  Nine is such an odd number anyway.  How about a lucky 13?

And, it’s cold (too cold) outside now, but it’ll soon be warm (too warm) this spring.  Climate change needs to change.  And, all of those windmills that you’ll soon see won’t cool us down enough.   The car battery business is very good, and it just got better.

And, finally, Twitter’s “disputed claims” department can reassign a few workers.

Or, will the Democrats have trouble group ordering from the menu?  Can’t decide?  It’s happened before.  Can’t share?  It’s happened before.   It happened in 2009.  Indigestion and heartburn aren’t ever far away if one gets gluttonous.

Two years seems so far away.  But, in two years could the Republicans recover from so much winning and whining and take back the House?  The Senate?  Both?

Sure they can.  The pendulum always swings.  At least it always has.  Obama found out the hard way in late 2010 just as Reagan did back in 1982.

Stacking on two more Senators by granting statehood to DC would make the Senate tough.  But, don’t forget that politics is always local, and the “on the ground” House seats that the elephants gained in November is a modest but significant move countrywide that could make landfall in the Capital as early as 2022.

As for the now?  One of our staff members fielded a question from his soon to be 32-year-old son this AM.  “Now what do we do, dad?” the young businessman asked.  “Go to work, son,” came the reply we’re told.

While two years seems like an eternity to reshape America, it’s but a New York minute in our history.

And, the clock never stops ticking.

 

Diversify or Get Delisted!

Posted on by boom booms room staff

While one eye was looking at CNBC early this morning the other was fixated on the coffee being brewed to get it fully open.  And suddenly there it was.  Breaking news delivered to you by none other than Andrew Ross Sorkin.    The news was enough to get the other eye open even without the much-needed caffeine.

In bold font, it rolled.  Nasdaq will require boards to have at least one woman and one director who self-identifies as an underrepresented minority or L.G.B.T.Q.

Sorkin read on, “Companies that don’t disclose diversity information face potential delisting, while those that report their data but don’t meet the standards will have to publicly explain why.”  Cancel culture?

And he read on, “Nasdaq lobbied the S.E.C. to make diversity disclosure a rule for all companies. “The ideal outcome would be for the S.E.C. to take a role here,” said Adena Friedman, Nasdaq’s C.E.O.  Or,  she could have said, “let’s get big brother to make it so!”

“Nasdaq cites research showing the benefits of board diversity, from higher-quality financial disclosures to the lower likelihood of audit problems.”  In other words, men cheat, but when women or minorities are present they are less inclined to do so.

This was all quoted from this morning’s New York Times.

Do you know who was the lead writer recognized in the byline for the story?  Andrew Ross Sorkin.

So, to recap, an avowed liberal writer of a left-leaning paper, delivered breaking news on a left-leaning CNBC and quoted his own story in doing so.

And, to further recap, a public company that profits from every trade

that the public makes on its exchange of listed public companies wants to dictate how their boards are constructed.

Does it at all smell like another public company named Twitter deciding what is right for the public to read or not to read?  Well, it doesn’t smell like the freshly brewed coffee that is still sitting there as we type.

Is it a coincidence that this breaks just less than a month after the Biden election?  Much like the “let’s impeach Trump”  bellows less than a month after his election, the left is on offense yet again.  They always are.

And, to quote many a late-night infomercial, “but wait, there’s more!”

Not only would it be the first time a major stock exchange demanded more disclosure than the law requires, which Ms. Friedman described as “an unusual step.” It raises questions about whether exchanges could use their listing rules to force action on other hot-button issues, like climate change.

And there it is!

In the selling world you can always ask for two “orders” hoping to get one.

Make no mistake about it the left is always selling.  They’re quite good at it.

And more than ever before they have major organizations in the media, and now in the previously free marketplace, carrying their PowerPoint presentation and samples for them.

My oh my, how the business climate has indeed changed.

 

Hanging Around

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Do you remember Chad?  Unknown prior, he hung around in the year 2000 from Election Day till December 13th.

Democratic nominee Al Gore, who had already invented the internet, insisted that he remain on the final stage until then as the presidential election results were in deep dispute deep in the state of Florida.

It was his right.  And, for a while, it was the right thing to do.  It’s better to wait and get it right than to rush and get it wrong.

George Bush waited in the wings.

Twenty years later President Trump has the very same rights.  Some recounts are available to him due to the close results in that particular state.  Some he’ll need to prove the need by providing lower, then higher, courts of law substantive evidence that Biden’s folks have been hiding ballots of his or stuffing ballots of their like.

Joe Biden is waiting in the wings.

It’s highly likely that at some time in the future the fighter that never quits will hear the final bell ring and realize that the gloves need to be cut off of his bruised hands.

When exactly will the right thing to do outweigh his right to dispute the results?  Time will tell.   It always does.  You see Time’s father, named Father Time is undefeated.

Donald J Trump was elected to be the anti-Washington DC President.   He filled that part of his role admirably.  And, Lord knows he did it his way.

He burned bridges on the way in, and he’s going to burn them on the way out.  We loved him lighting the fire on the way in.  We may or may not like it as much on the way out.

Hell hath no fury like an orange-faced President scorned.

Trump never loses.  Ask him.  We’re going to win, win, win he said over, and over, and over again.  He tweeted out Saturday that he got more popular votes (71 million and still counting) in 2020 than any other standing President.  He even wins in his mind when he loses.  It’s a character trait that is admirable until it isn’t.

Chad had no dog in the fight.  Chad was the dog in the fight.  He hung around for a while by a paper-thin thread until he didn’t.

Trump, too, is the dog in the fight.  And, there is a lot of fight left in the dog.

You hired him because of that.  And, he’s still doing his job he thinks.

Meanwhile, China is laughing all the way to the bank.

Till then.

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, and Friday

Posted on by boom booms room staff

A funny thing happened on Election Day.  No one got elected.

And a presidential race precedent or two was set.  We take a stab at those and give other random observations below in our Lucky 13..

  1. Has there ever been a contest so hotly contested that five or six states are too close to call getting on to 12 hours after the polls have closed?
  2. Has there ever been more lax voting procedures and subsequent vote-counting in our country’s history?
  3. Allowing ballots to be postmarked by midnight of the election night and counted in the several days and even into the next week is a dumb idea.  We repeat it’s a dumb idea.  It’s the further softening of America unfortunately.  Take your time, we’ll wait.  Deadlines are so yesterday.
  4. A few states haven’t fully counted early balloting yet, hence the hesitancy of the networks to call the state for one or the other candidates.  Does it make sense to count early balloting earlier than late balloting?  Asking for a friend.
  5. One state (we cannot remember which as this writer fell asleep on the job) stopped counting at 10:30 last evening.  They’ll be back at it this morning.  Hopefully they took their union-mandated coffee breaks along the way yesterday.  Um, come to think of it, why drink coffee if you don’t want to work late?  Pennsylvannia said they’ll pick it back up on Friday.  Friday!  Punxsatawney Pete must have seen its shadow again.
  6. What happened in Arizona?  Long a red state bastion, it skipped over purple and used a dark blue crayon at the ballot box.  The Senate seat flipped too.  Cindy McCain didn’t help the Republicans cause dragging Trump through the desert.  Trump didn’t help himself dragging John McCain’s legacy down either.  Trivia question- How many Californian transplants can move one state due east in four years?  Plenty.
  7. It took almost thirty seconds after the polls closed in the Pacific Time Zone for every cable outlet to project California, Oregon, and Washington for Joe Biden.  What took them so long?  At least there’s no mystery of early votes, lost votes, or absentee votes on the left voting left coast.
  8.  The countrywide popular vote counted thus far is 6 million more than the final tally in 2016 and we’re still counting, and counting.  It looks like both parties got their vote out.
  9. It looks like the House of Representatives will see a few (maybe six) more Republicans but not near enough to take the majority.  Madame Speaker Pelosi can continue her magical broom ride.
  10. The Senate seems safe for the Republicans.  A few races are yet to be determined, but the Elephants lead in enough of them.  The seats were 53-47 going in and might be 52-48 coming out.
  11. Why did Wall St rally yesterday and why are the futures up today?  Did they smell a split government- Biden wins and the Senate stays red? Maybe.  Why did the social media, internet heavy NASDAQ futures head up last evening?  Does the smart money think that Biden and the Democrats give them cover to continue their unabated monopolistic and censorship ways?  Is a repeal of the China tariffs in the offing for the country that gave us the China virus?  Will you miss Trump saying “Chii nah” if the outcome boots him from the White House?
  12. As we go to Al Gore’s virtual digital press, Biden leads by the slightest of margins in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nevada. Let’s assume Trump wins Georgia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania as he leads each by a bit.   It’s a fluid situation to say the least, but if that holds up Joe Biden is President of the United States.  Someone once told us to “expect the unexpected.”
  13. Will Donald J. Trump take his fight all the way to the Supreme Court citing voter fraud, irregularities, and the like if he is deemed the loser?  Yes, he will.  It’s his right.  Would we expect anything less in this unprecedented, new normal, Covid pandemic, year of the never-ending Zoom meeting?

Can anyone find a tent big enough to cover this circus?

 

Today

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Today either marks the end of the wildest and whackiest four years in Washington D.C. or it begins the second and final four years of likely the same.  We have a few observations and a few points to ponder.

  1.  No one outworks The Donald.  His campaign stops (rallies) in the last 10 days have been far, wide, and far too numerous to count.  At the age of 73, he ended his last one last evening in Grand Rapids, MI at about 11:45 pm.  After an Air Force One ride back to D.C. he tucked himself into bed at 4:00 AM.  He’s already yapping this AM on Fox and Friends.
  2. The Biden campaign, or more accurately the strategy to minimize it, is the oddest in this writer’s 60-year memory.  And, second place isn’t close.  Trump in 2016 was unconventional.  Biden in 2020 was unseen.  Having a few cars show up while you pontificate into a microphone on a stage is, well, weird.  When he asks them to blow their horns if they agree is, well, very weird.  Could the contrast between the Trump rallies and the Biden hornblowers be more overt?
  3. Crystal clearly the DNC’s strategy has been to minimize Biden’s gaffes/weaknesses all the while consistently pounding on Trump.  It was the plan since the day he took office.  It will be written about for years to come.  And, it may very well succeed.  Trump’s words, more than his actions, around the COVID pandemic played right into the DNC playbook.
  4. Do people really understand that if Biden is elected, Harris could be President in the very near future?  All jokes Biden jokes aside, it’s a very real possibility, isn’t it?  Maybe that’s ok with the “get Trump out at all costs,” or “anyone is better than what we have” crowd.
  5. Polls can tell you almost any story you want to hear if you dig deep enough into the numbers behind the numbers.  No matter the side you favor, the results will be fascinating.  How many of the “silent majority” chose only to be heard today?  How many first time voters were there?
  6. It would be a major surprise if Trump won the popular vote.  He lost it by 3 million four years ago.  But, elections are determined by electoral college votes.  And that sets up major announcements tonight as state by state results roll in.
  7. It seems that Pennsylvania is the lynchpin.  Both camps have spent a lot of time there recently.  The path or paths to victory are for either side tighten dramatically with a loss there.  It’s not for his health that Biden is stopping in Scranton and Philly today on Election Day.
  8. Put California, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Washington in the Biden win column.  They are done deals and won’t be close.  That means Trump needs the obvious three of Texas, Florida, and Ohio.  If any of those three go blue Trump goes home to Mar-a-Lago, not Pennsylvania Ave.
  9.  Trump could win without Penn, but it’s very uphill.  He’d need the entire rust belt to fall his way.  And, Arizona, Nevada, and North Carolina are toss ups to boot.
  10.  Businesses in many major cities are boarding up then closing up early today for fear of civil unrest (read that as peaceful protests) in the streets this evening.  The White House is getting a scale proof fence surrounding it finished up early this AM.  Is anyone concerned what the populous might do if Biden wins?  Of course not.  It’s all about the hate for Donald J. Trump.  It has been since day one.

Get your popcorn ready.

And, buckle up.  It’s going to be a wild ride.

2020.

Tomorrow

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Tomorrow is Election Day.  You already knew that though didn’t you?

Have you already voted?   Good for you if you did.   It seems like it’s more than your right.  It’s your civic duty.

It is estimated that over 80 million mostly U.S. citizens have voted early in these unprecedented, Covid 2020 times.  In 2016 rounded numbers, Hillary Clinton garnered 66 million of the popular votes while now President Trump got 63 million.  So, have 2/3rds of us already voted, or will the 2020 turnout smash 2016?

We’ll mostly know that answer late Tuesday night.  But first, long lines are expected from sea to shining sea tomorrow as well.  Add six feet between us in the lines and, well, pack a lunch.

Experts, pundits, pollsters, news anchors, hired guns, and hacks will tell us who and where voted for whom and why.   Will you, Lionel Ritchie, and your party of choice be able to party all night long?  

For the 50-60 million who haven’t yet voted, we have a dozen sincere questions.

  1.  Why haven’t you?  If you haven’t made up your mind we’re tempted to criticize.  Have we ever been this divided?  Maybe the choice isn’t so clear to you.  If so, we would like to know why.
  2.  Is it because you feel like you’re choosing between the lesser of two evils?  We’d understand that to some degree.
  3.  Four years ago, the ultimate outsider was chosen.  Four years later he’s running against the ultimate insider.  Forty-seven years in one elected office or another is a long time.  If America wanted to drain the swamp four years ago, does it, in a pendulum-like manner, want to fill it back up again?
  4. Can you judge Trump only on his accomplishments?  If you are objective the list is long and productive.  If you can’t look past the bombastic, sometimes crude, sometimes acerbic way of 45, then Biden is your man.
  5. Can you envision Kamala Harris as President?  If you vote Biden, and you live in the real world, you have to know that this is a real possibility.  And, it’s very possible sooner than later, isn’t it?  Is that the plan all along?  It’s a conspiracy theory as crazy as 2020, which means it’s possible.
  6. Biden himself said that the number one qualification he needed in a VP running mate was that she be ready day one to assume the highest office. Is the bait and switch set to roll in 2021?  Hillary once famously uttered about Slick Willie, “if you elect him, you get me!”  If America elects Biden do you get Kamala in the Oval Office?
  7. If you are considering Biden tomorrow, are you willing to put someone in the office who very, very clearly has diminished and further declining faculties?  Do you honestly think that he is fit mentally for the office?  “Neither is Trump!” you scream?  Trump is a lot of things, but you won’t outwork nor outthink him.  Four hours of sleep is his norm.
  8. Speaking of work, does the contrast of the last three weeks mean anything?  Trump’s rallies are far, wide, well attended, and frequent.  Biden’s are few, far in between, and actually have people honking horns in their cars.   How long do you want to feel like the world is ending?  Enough already?  Trump.   More time in the mental basement?  Biden.
  9.  What about Covid-19 and Trump’s mismanagement of it?  Do you honestly think Biden has a magic potion?  What about more lockdowns, even a national mandate you scream?  What about it?  What did the first wave of lockdowns do?  Germany was supposedly a model for how to work through this.  It’s November and their country is raging with new cases as is ours.   It’s a virus.  You can slow its roll, but you can’t stop it.  A vaccine can and Trump is pushing hard.  Too hard?   Cases should not be the barometer, should they?
  10. How was the economy before COVID?  The honest answer from any corner is that it was roaring.  Trump should get some of the credit for that, no?  What is Biden’s plan to maintain, if not grow it?  Raise marginal tax rates?  Raise the capital gains tax?  End fracking!  Transition (his words) out of the oil industry?  None of that sounds like growth. It sounds like government intervention into our lives and the regulation of industries.  Maybe that is a good thing?  Biden is your choice.
  11.  Little has been spoken about foreign policy this cycle.  You know why?  Because on balance, the world is a quiet place.  Nope, it’s not perfect.  It never is.  North Korea is quiet.  ISIS is neutered.  Russia, Russia, Russia you say?  BS, BS, BS Trump says.  China (spreading the China virus aside) is on notice on trade and behavior.  Do you find it odd that China would strongly prefer Biden over Trump?  Do you see any problem at all with Hunter, his dad, and a compromised situation when it comes to interacting with China?
  12. How about our troops?  More are home out of harm’s way, meaning fewer are abroad in harm’s way.  Trump saber rattles, but he doesn’t want war.  Veterans are thankful as well.  Trump’s mandate to his staff was to greatly improve post-service medical care.  It wasn’t good when he took office.  There is work to do, but the progress is real.

Every poll predicts an outcome that is different from the other.   Most have Biden ahead.  Almost all of the 2016 polls were way off.  Most had Hillary ahead.

If America doesn’t like the outcome (assuming we have one) hopefully the protests will be, ahem, peaceful.

Tomorrow will be fascinating.

We’d expect nothing less from the year 2020.