News

Ten Piece Nuggets

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Quick and easy peasy today.  We’re working remotely from the deep south, Florida coast style.  But, you’re hungry and we’re here to serve.

  1. There’s “why,” but there’s “what.”  “Why” might be/likely is/is/has to be in large part politically motivated.  Would anyone deny that?  The “what” is the purported theft of classified documents?  Please.
  2. Remember when Adam Schiff had irrefutable evidence of the Trump collusion with Russia fairytale?  We’re still waiting.
  3. “And, just like that,” as Carrie Bradshaw used to say, the country split a tad bit deeper as the deep state descended on Mar-a-Lago.  Wasn’t there a better way to extract either documents or a pound of flesh?
  4. There are growing concerns Wednesday about the safety of FBI agents, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Garland following the search of Mar-a-Lago on Monday.   Judge Kavanaugh can relate.
  5. We’d like to share what California Rep Eric Swalwell said about the dastardly Republicans encouraging violence after the raid, but pond scum deserves no attention.  MSNBC disagrees.  They let him rant and whine and lie straight into the camera for 10 minutes an evening ago.
  6. Eighty-seven thousand new/additional IRS agents (greater than the capacity of the University of Oklahoma’s football stadium) are headed your way thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act which isn’t an act that will reduce inflation.  We’ll get those billionaires to pay their “fair share” now.  Although it should be noted that there are less than 750 billionaires in the US.  Doesn’t it seem like not too long ago that Kevin Brady, Republican Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee under Trump, triumphantly tell us that the tax reform act would make millions of people eligible to file their taxes so simply that it could be mailed in on the back of a postcard?
  7. Just for perspective, NYC Mayor Eric Adams is calling for federal help because he says around 4,000 migrants have arrived in NYC in the last three months since May. Texas averages 4,000 migrants crossing its border every single day, and so far, has sent less than 200 migrants to NYC.  So much for that “sanctuary city” blabber that was popular when Trump was president.
  8. The Los Angeles City Council voted 11-3 to extend an existing ban on homeless encampments within 500 feet of schools and daycare centers last evening.  Protesters claimed the initiative would further isolate and negatively impact the homeless community and disrupted the meeting.  We can negatively impact the schools but not the homeless.   Hopefully, the protests were mostly peaceful.
  9. The torrid pace of inflation slowed in July for the first time in months, but prices remained near the highest level in 40 years.  The Labor Department said Wednesday that the consumer price index rose 8.5% in July from a year ago, below the 9.1% year-over-year surge recorded in June.  Time for a Biden victory lap.  The Great Reset remains expensive.
  10. The Major League Baseball game pitting The Chicago Cubs vs Cincinnati Reds will be played tomorrow night near Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa, a site popularized by the 1989 baseball film Field of Dreams.  It will be a great escape to simpler times for a nation that needs simpler times.  If you’d like to get lost in the corn fields we understand.

Till soon.

18 Doses of Common Sense

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Do you know who John Kennedy is?  Nope, not that one.  Senator John Kennedy from Louisiana.

Senator Kennedy graduated Magna cum Laude in political science, philosophy, and economics from Vanderbilt,  and was president of his senior class. He received his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law where he was an executive editor of the “Virginia Law Review” and was elected to the Order of the Coif. He earned a Bachelor of Civil Law degree with first-class honors from Oxford University in England.

Sounds impressive, doesn’t it?  It is.  But, what is more impressive is the written and spoken words that emanate from his cranium.  Add a dose of that slow southern drawl and the cat that swallowed the canary look, and you’ve got a bonafide “man of the people” personality.

Oh, and two more things.  He doesn’t bite his tongue, and he’s as funny as they come.

Sample a dozen and a half of his gems below.  Pure gold.

 

PERMIT ME TO TELL YOU WHAT I BELIEVE.

* 1. I BELIEVE AMERICA WAS FOUNDED BY GENIUSES BUT IS NOW RUN BY IDIOTS.

 

* 2. I BELIEVE YOU CAN’T FIX STUPID, BUT YOU CAN VOTE THEM OUT OF OFFICE.

 

* 3. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU HEARD OF ANYONE TRYING TO SNEAK INTO CHINA?

 

* 4. AMERICA IS SO GREAT THAT PEOPLE WHO HATE IT, REFUSE TO LEAVE IT.

 

* 5. LET ME SAY SOMETHING ABOUT THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION.  SO FAR, THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION SUCKS.

 

* 6. I DON’T LIKE TO BRAG ABOUT THE EXPENSIVE PLACES I’VE BEEN TO, BUT THIS MORNING I WENT TO THE GAS STATION.

 

* 7. I BELIEVE EXERCISE MAKES YOU LOOK BETTER NAKED. BUT SO DOES ALCOHOL.

 

* 8. WELFARE SHOULD BE A BRIDGE, NOT A PARKING LOT.

 

* 9. WEAKNESS INVITES THE WOLVES.

 

* 10. WE DON’T HAVE A GUN CONTROL PROBLEM. WE HAVE AN IDIOT CONTROL PROBLEM.

 

* 11. FREE ADVICE FRIENDS, IF GOVERNMENT TELLS YOU NOT TO BUY A GUN, BUY TWO.

 

* 12. I BELIEVE IF YOU HATE POLICE OFFICERS, THE NEXT TIME YOU ARE IN TROUBLE, CALL A CRACK-HEAD.

 

* 13. HERE’S A FREE TIP, COPS WILL LEAVE YOU ALONE IF YOU DON’T DO STUPID THINGS.

 

* 14. I BELIEVE WE NEED AN ELECTION DAY, NOT AN ELECTION MONTH.

 

* 15. I BELIEVE YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO PROVE WHO YOU SAY YOU ARE WHEN YOU VOTE.

 

* 16. I BELIEVE 400,000 BODIES BURIED AT ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY IS THE REASON YOU SHOULD STAND FOR THE NATIONAL ANTHEM.

 

* 17. I BELIEVE THE WATER WON’T CLEAR ‘TIL YOU GET THE PIGS OUT OF THE CREEK.

 

* 18. I BELIEVE LOVE IS THE ANSWER, BUT YOU SHOULD OWN A GUN JUST IN CASE.

 

We could use about 99 more like him in that chamber of Congress if you ask this writer.

Pure gold, we say again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It Says Here

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Someone never once said, “Opinions are like fingers.  Most everyone has ten.”

  1.  It says here that the nontransitory inflation that was called transitory led to the recession that is no longer called a recession.  Biden told us so yesterday and then refused to take any questions on the word salad game his administration is playing.
  2. It says here that these word games serve no positive purpose other than leading the less informed down the wrong rabbit hole.  Remember in 20 years or less we got from “abortion” all of the ways to “woman’s reproductive rights,” a misnomer if ever there was one.  A few stops along the way included pro-choice, woman’s health, and women’s wellness.
  3. It says here that Joe Manchin is the savviest politician in Washington DC.  And, that is saying something.  West Virginia, are you watching?
  4. It says here that the Dems and a dozen and a half Republicans gave away 52 billion yesterday to the American chip manufacturers.  Fifty-two billion hardly is a blip on the screen when 800 billion went to green deals, West Virginia, subsidized health care, and more.
  5. It says here that calling the bill the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 takes conviction.  You have to be a skilled and indifferent liar to stand at a podium and tell America that the handouts will reduce inflation.
  6. It says here that Hunter Biden’s laptop content is going to get much more attention from the mainstream press after the November midterms.  If a red wave comes ashore, the “Big Guy,” aka Joe Biden is neutered.  Dems will officially begin the campaign to replace him before the campaign.
  7. It says here that the Democrats have to have two things happen to keep the White House in 2024.  One, Joe can’t get the nomination.  And, two, Trump must get the nomination.
  8. It says here that with 75% of polled Democrats saying that Biden should not run for reelection that behind the curtains a think tank is playing out and polling out alternatives.  Think Buttigieg, Newsom, etc.  Thankfully, don’t think Beto again.  Abbott will use him to mop the floor this fall.
  9. It says here that Kamala Harris’ obedience will need to be in hand to have this occur.  She was a lapdog in Cali before, so she does understand the commands.  Speaking of word salad, no one can match her jibberish.
  10.  It says here that the weekend is upon us.  It might be a good idea for one of our staffers (and maybe you) to turn off Fox, CNN, and MSNBC and enjoy the heat wave.

An SPF of 50 or more is recommended.

If You Fall Off of a Horse

Posted on by boom booms room staff

During one of the Democratic Party’s nomination debates, then-candidate and now President, braggadocious Joe Biden claimed that he was the one that Vladimir Putin wanted nothing to do with.  “I’ve stood toe to toe with him and looked him in the eye,” he said, or words similarly intended, but a bit garbled.

He also told us that he had a plan to combat the coronavirus while the sitting president did not.   Though for better or worse, Trump’s Operation Warp Speed was full speed ahead by the fourth quarter of 2020.

Soon enough thereafter, also for better or worse, 81 million votes were counted for Joe.  “The most ever,” we’ve been told.

Fast forward to today, 18 months after he took office, and take a look around.

Shaking in his boots, Putin invaded Ukraine right away.  Biden has sent well over $40 billion in aid and weapons as he continues to stand toe to toe with Putin. Then, in a late Friday news dump, the Biden administration said that it will send another $400 million in military equipment to Ukraine, including four more advanced rocket systems.

What’s the end game?  “I don’t know how it’s going to end, but it will not end with a Russian defeat of Ukraine in Ukraine,” Biden said last week.  Eye to eye, this guy is.

Just wait till we get the bill to build Ukraine back better.

On the virus front, it seems like the man with the plan has seen the plan go awry.  He’s weirdly whispered into the mic a few dozen times, though not recently, “Get vaccinated, get boosted.  Now!”

We wonder if it works, why do we need to keep taking it?  If it doesn’t, why do we need to keep taking it?

Apparently, mothers (you can still use that word in the safe space of BBR) are questioning it as well.  The approved vax for 6-month to 5-year-olds has plenty of supply and little demand, unlike baby formula.

Will we have another variant creep into our lives before the midterms?

Old Joe swears that he’s running for reelection in 2024.  Given the above and throwing in Afghanistan, Wall St, and crime he has a tough hill to climb.

An in-depth Civiqs poll now has Biden with a historic low 29% approval rating.  Only 63% of Democrats and 36% of Hispanics approve of the job he’s doing.  Artificial intelligence aside, getting back to 81 million is going to be a stretch.

But, never count the career politician out.

As the old saying goes if you fall off of a horse, you get right back on it.

It’s the same as if you fall off of a bike, you get right back on it.

Joe remembers the old saying.

He’s living the new one.

 

 

 

 

Island Getaway

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Oprah really knew how to capture an audience.  Way back on December 22, 2010, her spell may have reached its zenith when she shouted out to her live audience, “you get a car, and you get a car!  Everyone gets a car!”

Just about a decade later our president channeled that giving feeling as well.  President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan(ARP), a coronavirus relief package, in the Oval Office of the White House on March 11, 2021, in Washington.

It was a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package passed without one “yea” vote from the stingy Republicans.  The Democrats, fresh off of a Capitol and Oval Office sweep felt compelled to give back.

Not everyone in America got a car to help beat that pesky virus.  But, some institutions and good citizens got more, way more, after having to shove a Q-Tip halfway to some remote island.

Take the Oral History Association for example.  They received $825,000 in ARP funds for a grant-making project titled, “Diversifying Oral History Practice: A Fellowship Program for Under/Unemployed Oral Historians,” which provided eleven year-long fellowships of $60,000 each for oral historians “from communities that have been historically marginalized in the field,” such as “Indigenous peoples, people of color, people with disabilities, and working-class people.”

Are you wondering what exactly is an Oral Historian?  Let Google be your friend.  Oral historians document the past by preserving insights not found in printed sources. The skilled practitioner must remain impartial, listen, and stay in the background.  Got it?

One of the recipients of the 60k giveaway was Elizabeth “Beth” Castle, a “Shawnee-ancestored anti-racist educator.”  This inspired her to create “A Collaborative Oral History of the Fight Against Mineral and Uranium Mining in the Black Hills, the Origins of the Global Indigenous Movement, and the Ongoing Struggle to Protect the People who Protect Mother Earth.”

We kid you not.

Want another? And, another?

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) received $135 million from the plan and proceeded to hand out half of the handout.  The NEH awarded $50,000 in ARP funds to a nonprofit organization in the Northern Mariana Islands called 500 Sails for “reopening programs that teach Indigenous canoe-building and explore pre-colonial sea life.”

The NEH also helped the Science History Institute in Philadelphia.  They were awarded $359,097 by the NEH to create a “multiplatform project exploring the historical roots and persistent legacies of racism in American science and medicine.”

As inflation hit 8.6% in May some economists, including former Obama administration economic advisers, have blamed the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package for overheating the economy.

President Biden didn’t feel that way when he signed the bill.

“We need Congress to pass my American Rescue Plan,” the president said at the time. “Now, critics say my plan is too big, that it costs $1.9 trillion. So that’s too much. Well, let me ask them: What would they have me cut?  What would they have me leave out?”

Where are the Northern Mariana Islands anyway?

Here is a hint.

Five dollars per gallon of gas and a free car from Oprah can’t get you there.

And, the freebies should have been electric vehicles.

 

Very Interesting

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Way back when people now in their seventies watched a #1 rated TV show in the early 1970s called Laugh In.  The fast-moving, one-of-a-kind show featured never-ending quick skits, one-liners, and brief physical comedy performed by a troupe of talented actors.

One such actor was Artie Johnson.  Like the others, Artie played a wide range of characters.  But, without doubt, his two most famous were 1) a soldier who emerged from a bush to utter the line, “very interesting, but stupid!” and, 2) a grown adult on a tiny tricycle who “biked” briefly until he always unceremoniously crashed.

This brings us to the 46th President of the United States- Joseph Biden.  How?  Well, he’s in his seventies.  Sunday while biking at roughly two miles per hour he fell down.  And, later that day safely away from the bike he uttered something very interesting, but some say stupid.  Actually, he uttered some things, plural.

When doting reporters following his every Delaware vacation move asked about inflation and the economy, Biden bristled.  “A recession isn’t inevitable.  We have a chance to make a fundamental turn toward renewable energy, electric vehicles, and not just electric vehicles but across the board,” Biden countered.

Inflation is at a 40-year high.   The national average of gas prices crossed over the $5/gallon threshold, the highest ever.   Second place was $4.11 back in 2008.

Post-Covid transitory inflation that transitioned to Putin’s price hike is now not leading to an inevitable recession.  Unless we are already in one we suppose.

Biden followed up this exchange in Delaware by telling a reporter that “his team” would sit down with oil executives to demand they produce more oil and question their high profits.

The great unifier, who suspended multiple domestic oil leases, is now blaming greedy oil companies. So, while none of this is his fault, at least it gives us a chance to buy an electric car with batteries made from fossil-fueled plants.

But wait!  There’s more!

The President said Monday he is considering creating a federal gas tax holiday, which could save Americans as much as 18.4 cents per gallon.  His ex-boss, former President Barack Obama, was against such a move on the campaign trail back in 2008, the last time prices were near this high.

Obama said at the time that a gas tax holiday was a “gimmick” to save Americans half a tank of gas over the summer so that lawmakers could “say that they did something.”

With gas at five bucks a gallon, the tax is not even 4% of the total cost to Americans to fill up.  Gimmick indeed.

It also suspends the collection of said tax money that is supposed to keep up the nation’s roads and bridges.  There go the roads that we can’t afford gas to drive on!

At least we printed a trillion a year ago that we don’t have to repair our infrastructure.  That trillion wasn’t inflationary either, was it?

We have windmills to fall back on.  We do unless the wind isn’t blowing.

Not to worry, in Washington the political winds are always blowing.  At the moment they’re straight out of the left.

Maybe we should all just try to ride bikes from here on out.  How about that idea?

Very interesting.

But………….

 

 

Get Your Popcorn

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Lights!  Camera!  Action!

That’s what is going down tonight up on the hill.  The curtains go up at 8 pm EST.  It’s a political play directed by James Goldston, a former president of ABC News.  Prime Time.

It’s not really very different than what happened on 1/6/2021- a day that will live in infamy according to some.  It’s been compared to Pearl Harbor, Watergate, and 9/11 as one of the darkest days in our country’s history.

The House convenes tonight for its committee hearing on Insurrection Day.

What happened on 1/6 was bad for America.  It was ugly, too.  But, insurrection?  Busting through the doors and windows of The Capitol Building was dumb and unlawful.  But, it wasn’t an insurrection.

Usually, malcontents bring guns to an insurrection.  You know the ones- weapons of war as the Democrats now collectively and harmoniously call an AR-15 and the like.  And, they usually put up more of a fight.  Often they try to stay longer.

Nonetheless, it was stupid when it crossed a line.  And, tonight’s hearings, led by the Dems and Dem wanna-be Liz Cheney will cross a line or two as well as they try to deliver a line that makes it to the evening news as a favored sound bite.

Grab the remote, relax in your favorite recliner, and pop some kernels.

Cameras will roll just like the body cameras on the police officers did during Paul Pelosi’s DUI arrest.  The difference is that you’ll see today’s video.

All of this has but one purpose.  It’s to take center stage and tell you how our democracy is at stake here and Donald J Trump is a bad guy.

Trump was a bad actor on that day as he could have done more to ensure that the crowd did less.  But, it was bad acting, nothing more and nothing less.

There will be more of that today-bad acting.

The further you suppress/impeach/impugn Trump and his followers the more likely you are to remain in power you see.  Dems fear people like Trump and DeSantis.  Why?  It’s because they actually appeal to what a lot of Americans want, not what the gullible are told what they want.

Dems embrace people like McConnell and Graham.  They’re really Dems acting like Republicans. They are necessary, good, obedient bit-part actors of a great production.

And they enjoy a good show.

Get your popcorn.

Swim Fast

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Here at the world headquarters of BBR.com is a rather attractive 175-gallon fish tank.  Mature fish of all shapes and colors are plentiful.  And, now we have the tiniest of babies.

It’s so small you can see straight through it.  Peril awaits behind every rock and plant.  So far so good for the young un.  You watch in wonder with each passing day as the odds are quite slim.

The odds for the average American human baby born in 2022 aren’t as slim, but you have to wonder if the big fish are out to get them as well.

The first obstacle is, of course, being born at all.  In 2019, the most recent year that we have a semi-accurate count, nearly 1 million abortions were performed in the U.S.   Apparently we count abortions as expeditiously as we count votes in Pennsylvania.

And, now we have a baby formula shortage.  President Biden, responding to questions yesterday about how quickly the administration acted, claimed: “I don’t think anybody anticipated the impact of one facility — of the Abbott facility.”

Pressed by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on the comments from manufacturers that they knew immediately what the impact would be, Biden responded: “They did, but I didn’t.”  Apparently we react to formula shortages as quickly as we do oil and gas shortages.

When the infants reach school age at least they can begin to learn which gender they are, aren’t, might be, or want to be one day when they grow up.  Our public school system sees to it.

That public school system, which you pay for, does not allow you to choose which school your children attend, however.  Apparently pro-choice and school choice have little in common in these 50 United States.

At least we took the worthless masks off of the little ones(except NY which knows better than the rest) late this spring semester.

We teach them science.  We follow the science.

And, we have a better science-based solution right around the corner.  News broke this AM that both Pfizer and Moderna have applied for final approval of their three and two-shot vaccine series for children aged 6 months to five years.  Science tells us that they aren’t actually vaccines, but we digress.

How timely?  How worthless you ask?  It’s estimated that 0.001 percent of children under 12 have any serious symptoms from the dreaded Covid-19.  That’s 1 in 100,000 if you do the math of the science.

Roaring ahead to middle and high school we have a safety problem that no one wants to address with any old school logic.  We have gun-free zones where only criminals have guns.  And, we have armed police officers who want no part of criminals with guns.  Uvalde wasn’t the first time for the men and women in the blue.

Well, at least we can take comfort that if the very young adults make it all of the way to and through college that they can emerge from the other side debt-free and ready to contribute to society.

How’s that you ask?  Prez Biden, “I am not considering $50,000 debt reduction, but I am in the process of taking a hard look at whether or not there will be additional debt forgiveness.”

That’ll usher the new graduates into a world of even higher inflation.  Biden’s plan to cancel student loan debt could lead to higher inflation and perceived inequality, several experts warned.

Inflation?  It’s likely transitory.

Inequality?  Jeez.  We’ve done so much good there, haven’t we?  Haven’t we?

If you paid off your loans you get nothing back except a pat on the back.  If you didn’t go to college but learned a valuable trade, you get to pay off the debt of those who did but haven’t paid it back.

If you haven’t paid a silver dime back, or are delinquent, you get a free pass.  That’ll teach them responsibility, won’t it?

That little fish has a lot of swimming to do.

At least fish swim in schools that aren’t controlled by the government.

Not yet, anyway.

 

Just Stand There!

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Don’t do something!  Just stand there!

We admit it.  We borrowed this line from an avid reader who borrowed this line from Jack Bogle.  Bogle is a sage old-school investor and founder of Vanguard Investments.

A lot has happened in the last week after Uvalde.  Nothing has happened in the last week after Uvalde.

A few examples of the diligence and inertia follow.

President Biden and the First Lady flew to Uvalde and said something like this can never happen again.  Then they flew back to Delaware to enjoy some fine BBQ and a day on the beach.

Second Amendment proponents hid behind the Second Amendment and like Puxatawny Phil seems content to stay underground for six more weeks while the rancor subsides.  Should an 18-year-old be allowed to buy a gun?  The argument that we send them to war with guns doesn’t justify individual ownership unto itself.  Eighteen-year-old sane males don’t make good decisions daily.

The Uvalde police were exposed.  The very ones with the guns that are supposed to protect the ones without failed miserably ever so slowly.  And, they lied about it as well.  Protect and serve they did not.

America actually has bigger murder number problems than mass shootings on school grounds.  They stem from too much domestic violence, drug-fueled violence, armed robbery, mental health issues, and on and on.

Frankly, as a society, we’ve failed miserably in addressing all of those issues.  The War on Drugs is a multidecade loser.  We spent two years yelling in city council meetings to defund the police. Three years ago we ended the three strikes and you’re out punishment for serial criminals.  Homelessness is near or at an all-time high.  Locking people out of their daily routines for two Covid-19 years has put more than one flying over the cuckoo’s nest.

But, one that we could address is the in-school one like Uvalde.

But, our leader Joe Biden has put forth no plan to help ensure “that nothing like this ever happens again.”  How about at the least forming a blue ribbon, bloated government committee to examine the cause and effect, and suggest a remedy or three?

Yesterday through his press secretary, the Biden administration shot down (bad pun) any desire to “harden” our schools.  What does that mean?  It means that he doesn’t support arming anyone on school grounds as a means to prevent anyone from coming onto school grounds armed.

Apparently, gun control is the problem, not controlling the behaviors of people who are armed.  He dove deeper yesterday.  He wants to ban “high caliber” 9mm handguns. “There’s simply no rational basis for it in terms of self-protection.”  Somebody should tell him that it is the gun of choice for the Secret Service.

Last week we wrote comparing the changes in the airline industry post 9/11 to make it safer vs. the “just stand there” mentality of the on school grounds problem.  There are some layups to be had.  America just has to take the shot (damn, again).

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is doing something.  Yesterday, he announced the introduction of a bill that would place a national freeze on handgun ownership across Canada.  Way up in our nation’s attic he’s riding on the tragic coattails of Uvalde. And, he’s after the handguns, not the long guns.

Trudeau subscribes to the “never let a good crisis go to waste” mantra.

To summarize: bad people have guns, police don’t use theirs when needed, good people rightfully aren’t letting go of theirs, Canadians are screwed, and Biden has no plan.

Don’t do something!  Just stand there!

 

 

 

Two Worn Out Boxers

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Mass murder.  Senseless.  Horrific.

It happened again.  And, it will happen again.

The terrifying truth of the matter is that it can’t be stopped.  But, it could be reduced in frequency and severity if significant, important, and immediate steps were taken.

The most important step might be the first one.  We need new, better, and different dialogue about its root cause and possible preventative measures.

In Uvalde 19 innocent young children and two school teachers trying to protect them are dead.  So is the killer.

But, predictably, law enforcement officials had barely pulled the sweaty palms of the deranged gunman off of his weapon(s) of choice and the blame game began. To the airwaves and virtual airwaves they went.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz(R) tweeted that he and his wife were praying for the victims and their families.  Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego(D) tweeted, “Just to be clear f— you @tedcruz you f—ing baby killer.”

Cruz also said that he was “closely monitoring the situation.”  Worthless words.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a Democrat whose city is notorious for its high violence rates commented, “Now more than ever, we must push our legislators to pass sweeping and effective gun control measures. Our children’s lives depend on it.”  The right quickly swept in to defend the Second Amendment.

In 2021 Texas was second only to California in new gun purchases.  CNN showed Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott’s year-old tweet in retort.  It read “come on Texas, we can do better than that.”  A retort to the retort exclaimed, “don’t ever forget where Abbott stands on guns!”  “We must elect Beto and defeat Abbott.”  Abbott didn’t pull the trigger yesterday.

How odd that California, of all places, outgunned Texas.   How odd that Californians by the thousands are moving to Texas monthly.  How odd that four weeks ago the mass murder of the week took place in California.

Sadly, it’s like two old boxers emerging from their corners.  They possess passionate energy for a round or two, tire soon, and limp away.  It’s another draw.

Speaking of old, the nation turned to President Joe Biden’s address on the tragedy early last evening.  We were hoping that he could seize the moment and offer a new course.  We were hoping the Great Unifier would unify.

He shuffled out to the podium wearing a mask while the First Lady followed without one to stand behind him.

About two minutes in he angrily asked, “When are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?”  Check another talking point box.  Later, he told the nation that the victims, their families, and the city of Uvalde were going to need a LOT of help.

After a “God Bless,” he shuffled off this time mask in hand while Dr. Jill somehow found hers and walked off with one on.

It was a short play.  It was bad theater.  It was a rerun, actually.

The Unifier visited Buffalo and talked about white supremacy, racism, and gun control.  Will he visit Uvalde?

What should we do?  The answer lies in large part to stop doing what we’re doing.  A full-on examination by open-minded thinkers is past due.

Before you board a plane, you pass the “no-fly list” test.  Then you head to the lone public entrance to the terminal.  You’re identified.  You take your shoes off.  You empty electronic contents from your belongings.  You are body scanned.  You, or your bags, might be randomly checked further.  You might have a dog or two sniffing around. Police are overtly present.

Once onboard you are more often than not accompanied by an armed US Air Marshall.

All of this is done in the interest of public (your) safety.  It’s not easy getting on a plane.  It’s not fun.  A lot has changed in 20 years.

Compare that to school.  How do unwanted outsiders get into a school?  They walk in their choice of multiple doors.  It’s that easy.  Not a lot has changed in 20 years.

The plane/school comparison is just one small part of the much bigger aforementioned examination.  And, it does little when murderers enter grocery stores and movie theaters.  But, is it better than standing still?

Mental health issues might be the biggest need to tackle somehow.  Identifying, tracking, and denying access to weapons for dangerous folks is yet another.  Does 18 seem young to be able to buy a gun?  There are others.

It’s true, guns kill people.  But they only kill people when people pull triggers.  It’s true, cars kill people.  But, it’s only true when lunatics run over innocent people waiting for a Christmas parade.

It happened again.  And, it will happen again.

Widely known are the words from Albert Einstein: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.