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Put Em Up!

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Growing up in Scranton, PA Smokin’ Joe Biden was quite the pugilist.

He won the high school state title as a middleweight seven times while only able to train on Saturdays.  Why?  Well, speaking of trains, on Monday through Friday he conducted Amtrack trains after school when he wasn’t driving an eighteen-wheeler

Sundays were reserved for giving thanks to the other “big guy” at the black church of his choosing.

And, he’s still got plenty of fight left in him.

In the last few days, Harry Callahan Biden responded to Donald J Trump’s call for a debate by one-upping him and asking for two in a heavily edited social media post. “Well, make my day pal.  I’ll even do it twice.  Let’s pick the dates.”

But, before Joe climbs into the ring his corner has a few demands.

First, they want the debates in June and September before early voting begins.  Get the vote out early and often.

Second, RFK Jr. is not invited.  Polls show in a three-way race that Jr. takes away many more votes from boxer Biden than Trump.

Third, Trump’s microphone must be silenced when Biden is speaking.   In other words, they want no counterpunching that could throw him off of his rehearsed game plan.  Trump should ask the same for the moderators, who were anything but moderate four years ago.

And, finally, there can be no live audience in attendance.  Trump is a bit of a showman, like Muhammad Ali, in front of a crowd.

CNN gets the first heavyweight battle, while ABC hosts the second one.  It’s an uphill fight as both rings lean to the left.

Trump, his team, and his ego have agreed to all the above.  Why? Ego.

Trump thinks he wins even when he loses.  He’s still demanding a recount after taking a standing eight count in 2020.

Smokin’ Joe’s schedule these days isn’t nearly as busy as it was in his formative years.  His day job is only a four-day workweek.  He’ll train every Friday through Sunday at his boxing camp in Delaware and any day his team calls a lid when he is in the White House.

Hopefully, Joe watches his step on his way into the ring.

You can almost hear Howard Cosell.   “DOWN GOES BIDEN!  Down Goes Biden!”

Get your peanuts!

 

 

 

You Can’t Be Wimpy

Posted on by boom booms room staff

What do you get when you mash up the following two expressions?

  1. When a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, is it sound?
  2.  That’s like shooting a BB at an aircraft carrier.

You get the elimination of the US Government Department of Education.

A few no-so-fun facts follow.

This federal-level department is money spent above and beyond the administration of schools for ages K-12 at the state and local school district level.  And, it’s budgeted by your president in fiscal 2025 at 84 billion dollars.

That’s nearly $1700 per child in attendance.  And, not a silver dime of it goes towards teacher compensation.  This is a Washington DC bureaucrat spend only.  When any president cries out on the campaign trail, “And I want to get teachers a raise,” everyone claps.  The reality is that he has zero control over teacher salaries.

If the average classroom head count is 20, this equates to 68k for every two classrooms in America.  Stated differently, if you wanted to continue to budget/collect the money but do so at the local level you could double the average US teacher salary.

We were doing just fine when there was a little red schoolhouse on the hill and no big brother watching over it.

President Biden has proposed a 7.3 trillion dollar spend in the 2025 budget.  His expected incoming tax revenue, per his Office of Budget and Management (OMB), is 5.5 trillion.

Don’t you hate the word “revenue” to describe taxes?  We digress.

This 1.8 trillion dollar deficit assumes an increase in the corporate tax rate from 21 to 28 percent.  It also assumes taxing the wealthy(over 100 million) at a minimum of 25%.  Good luck getting either of those passed.

Let’s get ready to mumble!  “In my first three years, I cut the deficit by 40 million, er, 800 billion, 34, um, well, you know what I’m saying.”

By year-end 2025 this would bring the federal debt close to 40 trillion up from 35 as of this AM.

So even eliminating the entire department reduces spending overall by just over 1 percent.  That’s the BB part.

That’s an outrageous idea you say?  Promising to pay you back Tuesday for a hamburger today isn’t?

We need to take a chainsaw to the spending.  A knife will no longer cut it.

The Department of Education would be a fine place to start.

 

 

Game On

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Yesterday’s four-hour, OT, very enjoyable Rose Bowl game and the well-into-last evening’s Sugar Bowl thriller gave most NCAA College Football fans what they want and need.  An escape.

But, make no mistake about it.  The toothpaste is out of the tube and, as you know, it’s awfully hard to put it back in.

Conference realignments, opt-outs, transfer portal entries, expanded playoffs soon, TV money, coaching carousels, coaching buyouts, more opt-outs, and maybe most of all NIL money have transformed the game at a dizzying pace.

Three unnamed Athletic Directors in a sit-down round table interview offered some quick takes recently.    One said, “Be careful what you wish for.”    A second followed, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”  The third one uttered, ” The only thing constant in the game is change.  Embrace it.  Adapt to it.  Or, die from not.”

Is it possible that they are all right at the same time?  Is it probable?

Is the third one ahead of the others?  Yes.

It’s likely the new normal will be like a fine wine- an acquired taste.

Unlimited transfers through the portal are the college’s equivalent to free agency.  There’s one big difference though.

In the pros, you sign a binding contract for a specified period of years.  You give, you get.   In college you only get.  And, if the grass(read as money) looks greener at the next U, you go get it.

There’s nothing wrong with capitalism, it just reminds us that there never has been and will never be an “I” in “team.”  The reasons for that truism have multiplied.

So who’s on your team next year?  There is no static answer to that question.  It’s who’s on your team at this minute to buckle up a chin strap.  Tomorrow is a ways off, we’ll have to see.  It makes games like Army v Navy even more appealing to purists.

So, who wins?  When it comes to money, seemingly everyone does.  TV charges more to advertisers.  Then it doles out more money for big conference alignments.  Schools make more that are a part of the mega conferences.  Coaches make more.  And, with NIL the kids now get a legal bag, too.

But who consistently wins on the field?  Perhaps it will be the programs that offer the best chance at future development and convince the kids and their entourage that a long-term plan beats a short-term dash for cash.  A bunch of good 21-year-olds usually beat a bunch of good 18-year-olds.

Recruiting great players is still the path to success, but now the above-the-table cash has to be there as well.

Maybe the NCAA will strengthen the transfer rules a bit too.  How?  That’s the difficult part.  Lawsuits will challenge any restrictions from where we are today.

it’s doubtful that TV ratings will suffer.  It’s doubtful that in-person attendance will either.

But.

Fans are the one who pays for all of this(NIL indirectly as well) by watching at home or in person.

Doesn’t it feel like everyone involved wins, but the fan loses?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Be Careful What You Wish For

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Burmese pythons in the state of Florida are classified as an invasive species.  An invasive is an introduced species to an environment that becomes overpopulated, enabled, and harms its new environment.  An introduced species is one which has arrived there by human activity either deliberately or accidentally.

This man-made (induced) problem has disrupted the process of natural selection.  Simply stated the harmony of multiple living beings is changed.

Similarly, the government has disrupted our harmony in the last decade as well.   That which we took comfort in and lived by is no longer.

Too many white cops killed too many initially thought to be innocent (or were innocent) black citizens.   Mostly peaceful riots, looting, burning, assaults, and theft in Minneapolis, St. Louis, Seattle, Oakland, etc. led to cries to defund the police.

Progressive cities, all the while, were decriminalizing previously criminal acts.  Even if you are arrested bail has been reduced or eliminated for multiple offenses.  Put criminals back on the streets ASAP.

Multiple retailers have now even trained employees to stand down as flash mobs invade the store and clear the floor of merchandise.  Downtown San Francisco is now a retail ghost town because of it.

And, city leaders such as newly elected Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have lectured us that calling the dozens of hoodlums gathered to commit crimes a “mob” is inappropriate.  They should be called “large gatherings.”  And, pythons should be called competition, perhaps.

Bought and paid-for prosecutors and judges are refusing cases or suspending sentences.

And, the law is so compromised by the new order that it’s walking away rather than being caught in the death squeeze.

Lt. Jessica Taylor, formerly of the Seattle Police Department, retired on Aug. 1.  On local Seattle radio she lit up the city like a post George Floyd Minneapolis night.  “The toxic mix of the Seattle City Council’s absurdity, the spinelessness of the Mayor, the leniency of the prosecutor’s office, and your failed leadership has accelerated this city’s downhill slide straight to rock bottom,” she opined.  “It’s been a free fall into anarchy & chaos.”

Washington DC Councilman Trayon White, Sr. voted for lowering punishment for major crimes like armed theft and carjacking. Now he’s on TV crying that the city has become “a war zone ” and the National Guard should step in.   Feed the python, then complain about it coming too close for comfort.

There were 16 homicides in DC in just the first week of August.  But, the NAACP sent a travel advisory to black people visiting Florida.  When they say something is not about politics, know that it is always about politics.  Gin up the base.

In metro New Orleans, the total number of uniformed police fell below 900 for the first time since the 1940s.  The city budget calls for 1800.  You read that right.  Why work for peanuts in a city that needs a circus tent placed over it?

Illegal immigration will only add to a city struggling with rampant crime in a new world order.  New York proudly proclaims(or proclaimed) itself as a sanctuary city.  That lasted as long as it took for the first bus of illegals to hop out onto Fifth Ave.  Now Mayor Eric Adams says that the care needed for the influx of migrants threatens to bankrupt a $9 billion dollar budget.

Pythons are constrictors that coil around their victims and squeeze the life out of their prey.   They have no natural enemies in The Everglades.

The government has to pay python hunters a bounty to help control the problem.  It’s gotten that bad.

Slither on.

 

 

 

 

Oh, Snap

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Back in November 1980 Roberto Duran and Ray Leonard were in Round 8 of their rematch for the Welterweight Championship of the world.  Duran, known as Hands of Stone, stunned the boxing world by quitting in the middle of the round, uttering “no mas,” meaning no more.  Leonard’s flash, panache, and right hand beat Duran into submission.

Fast forward to today and many Americans feel like Roberto.  No more they say when it comes to expanding our bloated national debt.  Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy went a few rounds themselves before pounding out a deal to extend the debt limit and spending more money but supposedly less than they would have otherwise.

It’s inaptly named the Fiscal Responsibility Act(FRA).  Remember the Inflation Reduction Act that didn’t have anything to do with reducing inflation?  New Bills coming out of the government are keeping pace with bills that are due from previous Bills that caused this circular reference.

The FRA, unlike the rematch of Hands of Stone v Sugar, allows both sides to claim victory.

But ringside, aka Capitol Hill, the judges are grumbling.  Will there be enough yes votes this week in the House to get this through?  Twenty Republican conservatives(about the same number as there are left in the House) are publicly hands down like Roberto’s were 43 years ago.  No mas spending irresponsibly they said.

This bill allows the debt to rise another 4 trillion from 32 by 2025.  Got that?  But that might not be enough to garner the far left.

“The Republicans did not win any major concessions on spending,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., chair of the 100-member Congressional Progressive Caucus, said on a call with reporters Tuesday.  Could someone ask Rep Jayapal if that is a good thing or a bad thing for this country?

Cori Bush said she is undecided but is “leaning no” on the debt ceiling bill “As somebody who was a food stamp recipient, there is absolutely no way I can see myself green-lighting something that will take food from people’s mouths.”

Cori Bush Supporting Another Worthy Cause
The Congressional Budget Office said that the changes to work requirements for food stamps, officially known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), actually increase the cost of the program by $2.1 billion over the coming decade. The net result is more individuals qualifying for SNAP benefits and a higher price tag, the CBO said.  Oh, snap, Cori.
Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) stated that communities are worried about the clawback of COVID money in the debt ceiling bill because “they thought they had until 2024 to spend that money.” And that she has been telling communities, “If you need that money, you should be spending it now.”  BLM is more fiscally responsible than Dingbell Dingell.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told reporters on Tuesday that she will vote against the bill to lift the debt ceiling as well.  She gave no reason, but she’s above it all really anyway.
And, low and behold there is Speaker McCarthy’s slippery hold on to the speakership position, the championship belt,  at stake here.  He sold his soul to get the spot and now he sold his party down the street to strike the deal some say.  The threshold for a “motion to vacate the chair” is just one member, down from a standard of five put in place under former Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
All the while, the stock market is watching this carefully.  A “no mas” vote would send the indices tumbling down like where Roberto was going in round eight if he didn’t quit.
The government needs a standing eight count and some smelling salts ASAP.

 

Ten Piece Nuggets

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Git yersef sum.

  1. President Biden visited the border in El Paso yesterday and not a single homeless camp nor any illegals were trying to cross.  It’s amazing what he can accomplish when he puts his mind to it.  He actually said he needs the Republicans to help solve the situation as well.  Oh, yes he did.
  2.  Who possibly buys into this?  A CBS poll said 47% of Americans are “hopeful” for America with Biden as president as they see the country today.  That’s who we guess. “There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics,” said Mark Twain.
  3. All of that said, the Biden camp is dropping hints that he is gearing up for an April announcement to run in 2024.  A recent Rasmussen Reports survey taken during the last week of the year found that only 33 percent of likely voters in the United States want to see Biden run for a second term in 2024.  As Don king used to say, “Only in America.”

  4. The Mars candy company said Thursday it will debut all-female M&M’s packages for a limited time to honor women.  The company’s feminist-themed candy wrappers will feature only its female characters.  Isn’t that moving?

  5. 4. Virginia Tech denied any wrongdoing but settled with soccer player Kiersten Hening for 100k.  Hening claimed she was removed from her starting position and pressured to leave the team after she declined to kneel during a reading of a “unity statement” before a game against UVA on Sept. 12, 2020, during the height of the BLM movement.  Good for her.

  6. Speaking of BLM, can anyone, and we mean anyone, tell us what the organization did in any community to better it with the money that poured in from Johnny-come-lately, suddenly for the cause companies?  We’ll look in the comments section for the answers.
  7. Pittsburgh Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin ran his streak to 16 seasons of .500-or-better as the man.  It is the longest in NFL history to begin a coaching career.  The Steelers’ winning organization is the epitome of stability in the NFL.
  8. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the Houston Texans fired HC Lovie Smith after just one season.  This comes after they fired David Culley last year after just one season as their leader.  If you count Romeo Crennel, who was the interim for 12 games in 2020 after Bill O’Brien was fired, the next coach the Texans hire will be their fifth in four seasons.
  9. Mattress Mack is at it again.   His customers who buy mattresses ranging from $3,000 to $10,000 or so will get double their money back if TCU wins Monday night’s championship game.  McIngvale hedged the promo with a $1.5 million bet on the TCU moneyline +370 at DraftKings – a wager that would net $5.55 million in profit if the Horned Frogs win.
  10. Vegas is begging you to take that bloated TCU +13.5 line.  Makes one think that the game won’t be close.  TCU has confounded the “experts” all year though.  We’ll take the plunge along with Mack.

It’s the first five-day work week of the year for everyone but Joe Biden.  Enjoy!

Boom Booms Life Lessons #10

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Last week’s post about the negotiated old floor mats drew a large and loud response.  We trust it brought a smile to Boom Boom upstairs.

We decided to offer another of our well-worn and well-learned lessons below.  It’s an easy read.  We hope that you do your best today.

One of the many gifts that Boom Boom gave us was the torrent of quips about how one leads one’s life.   He could say so much by saying so little.   A statement at just the right moment resonated in my young, eager eardrums.  How I interpreted or applied it was up to me.  No more words were spoken because no more words were needed.  Today we share a tough one and it’s quickly our 10th.

In the spring semester of eighth grade the PA announcement was music to my ears.   JV and Varsity baseball tryouts would begin that Friday afternoon and continue on that Saturday morning.  His years of hard work with me had reached a pivot point.

The ninth and tenth-grade competition would be tough.  I was confident, however.   I had been running, hitting, fielding, and pitching for weeks prior.  I was pumped.  Perhaps secretly so was he.

After Friday about a dozen were told thanks but no.  After Saturday’s practice, the herd was thinned again, and I was one of 18.  Fifteen would be kept.  So far so good.   Coach had settled me into first base more than anything else.  The competition there wasn’t too strong if you asked me.  As I hopped into the Jetstar 88 for the ride home I wanted to compare myself to others.  He didn’t.   “Did you do your best?”    I said yes.  “That’s all that you can ask of yourself,” he assured me.  “Do your best every day!”  “That’s what you can control.”

Monday, coach approached after practice.  I got the bad news.   As I hopped in for the drive home my face told the story.  Silence filled the car.  After a few minutes, Boom Boom asked, “Did you do your best?” I didn’t want to hear that at that moment.  “But, I was better than David.”  He didn’t want to hear that at that moment.  He asked again.  I finally mumbled a weak “yes.”  “That’s all anyone can ask son.  Do your best!  And let the chips fall where they may.”

Next spring’s tryout was but 362 days away.

 

 

Abby Picks, Week Eight, Year Five

Posted on by boom booms room staff

What kennel cough?  That was now two weeks ago!  And, Abby is got a little pep in her step and a little bite in her bark after following up week six winners with a fine week seven.

She won five games while losing four.  Importantly, she put the right bones on the right games including hitting a parlay.  She gathered ten bones while only giving away five!

Week Eight looks tricky.  She’s taking a road less traveled.

         UAB +1 1/2 at Western Kentucky– Take the road dog if you need a little Friday Night Lights action.  UAB is the better team.  One bone.

         Texas A&M -3 at South Carolina- Everyone is writing off the Aggies at 3-3.  Maybe so for the national picture, but they still have plenty of talent to handle a pesky Gamecock.  One bone.

         Houston -3 at Navy – This line almost seems like a steal for the Cougars.  Abby will bite, well not in real life.  Two bones.

         UCLA +6 at Oregon -6 –  This is where it all started for Chip Kelly.  And this is where the Bruins’ 7-0 start is left in last-minute ruins by a FG.  But, nonetheless, they cover.  Two bones.

         Ole Miss + 2 1/2 and under 67 1/2 at LSU –  Abby is making this road trip this AM.  LSU has trouble with mobile QBs as well as stopping the run.  Ole Miss does both well.  One bone to win three bones.

         Memphis +7 at Tulane –  Tulane is ranked for the first time since 1998.  Memphis has lost two straight heartbreaking buzzer-beaters.  A straight-up win would not shock Abby.  One bone.

         Purdue +3 at Wisconsin-  Purdue is pretty good this year for Purdue.  Wisconsin is pretty bad this year for Wisconsin.  A straight-up win would not shock Abby.  Two bones.

Abby is feeling frisky enough to drop a hunch bet as well.  Bama is a big 20 1/2 point favorite over Mississippi St.  It won’t be enough.  Saban is rabid after the Vols scored 52 a week ago.

Holy Schmolly seven roadies.  Five dogs, two chalks, one under, and a hunch.

Woof!

 

 

 

Lemon Aids The Cause

Posted on by boom booms room staff

CNN’s evening lineup was doing so poorly when new ownership took over that they decided to revamp it in its entirety.  It’s been BBR’s belief for a good while now that a move to the center will pay dividends.

MSNBC reads directly from the DNC and WH playbooks like a dutiful second-grade child desperate for an A on their report card and a pat on the head.

FOX is anything but fair and balanced.  They would carry more water for the elephants to drink if only the lead RINOs had sense enough to tell them where it is.

The middle should have plenty of viewers and plenty of willing advertisers.  But, first, they have to get there.  And, the rebuild is on.

CNN”S carnage is everywhere.  John Harwood, Jeffery “Zoomin” Tobin, Brian Steltzer, and the lovely Chis Cuomo are a few of the more high-profile, on-camera ones to exit stage far left of the daily Democratic theater since new management entered the building.

But, there is one interesting survivor.  And he’s headed to a morning 6-9 AM EST co-host job and soon.  That’s Don Lemon.

And, until he turns from night to daytime you can count on him to continue to turn left-hanging lemons into lemonade. Last night was the latest example.  With Ian bearing down on southeastern Florida, it was time to take a climate change “Lemon aided” stand.

Not once, not twice, but three times did the Don turn the tide back to climate change as a scientist was attempting to inform the viewers of the particulars of this one. Finally, he lectured the expert himself saying “he grew up down there and the storms are intensifying.”

It was six months ago that the forecasts called for a dozen storms to hit mainland America. Ian makes it one.  One.

Intensifying?  Do you think Ian is the first cat four storm to hit Florida?  Since we have been able to measure, six of the seven most intense occurred between 1919 and 1960.

Most intense landfalling tropical cyclones in the U.S. state of Florida
Intensity is measured solely by central pressure
Rank System Season Landfall pressure
1 “Labor Day” 1935 892 mbar (hPa)
2 Michael 2018 919 mbar (hPa)
3 Andrew 1992 922 mbar (hPa)
4 “Florida Keys” 1919 927 mbar (hPa)
5 “Okeechobee” 1928 929 mbar (hPa)
6 “Great Miami” 1926 930 mbar (hPa)
Donna 1960
8 Irma 2017 931 mbar (hPa)
9 “Florida” 1948 940 mbar (hPa)
10 Charley 2004 941 mbar (hPa)
Source: HURDAT, Hurricane
Research Division

Such unfounded speculation by a rank amateur that happens to have a microphone should be squashed by any and all networks.  But, unfortunately, it often isn’t.

It was just a week ago after the Queen of England had passed that Don was asking a British royalty expert on air if her family’s wealth and colonialism should make her realize that reparations were in order.  Lemon was taken behind the school and spanked by her.

Agendas long ago replaced straight facts.  Lemon says what he wants when he wants and how he wants to say it.  Good for him.

And, speaking of straight, the openly gay black Lemon isn’t.  Of course, neither his skin color nor his sexual orientation should have anything to do with his perceived value as an anchor going forward for CNN.

Or, should it?  Ratings talk and all of this blabber about diversity, inclusion, and equality walks when you get down to it.

Harwood, Tobin, Steltzer, and others can attest to that.  Can’t they?

No, they can’t, especially if they aspire to another job inside the cesspool once known as journalism.

So as CNN moves to the center, Lemon’s anchor chair will remain on the far left.

It’s good work if you can get it.

Does Lindsey Play For the Other Team?

Posted on by boom booms room staff

The old adage that a tie is like kissing your sister rings true in politics this AM.

Heretofore, this site has long held the belief that the best thing going for the Democrats in DC is the lead Senate Republican in DC, one Mitch McConnell.

He looks old, he sounds old, he is old(80), and he sells out always willing to send two bucks the Democrats’ way if he can send one home to Kentucky.  He inspires few.

But, yesterday, another RINO pulled into a first-place tie with old Mitch.  That senator’s name is Lindsey Graham.

In basketball, you feed the shooter.  In other words, you pass the ball to the man, or woman, who has the hot hand and can score.

Old Lindsey(67) fed the hot hand yesterday.  Except he threw the ball to the other team.

Graham announced yesterday a bill to ban abortion after 15 weeks as debate rages over the issue after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade earlier this year.  President Biden jumped all over that ruling in the early summer saying Roe v. Wade was on the ballot come this November.

And, it is.

And fan-boy Graham just fanned the flames.

Titled the “Protecting Pain-Capable Unborn Children from Late-Term Abortions Act,” (word salad that would make VP Kamala proud) the legislation comes as Democrats hammer the GOP on the campaign trail over state laws restricting abortions.  Apparently, allowing the states to make their own laws wasn’t enough for him.

Graham said Tuesday morning that his bill is similar to laws in other developed countries and could actually help Republicans running in the midterms.  Seven weeks out from election day and he pokes the bear.

You cannot be this stupid naive, can you?

“I don’t know what Democratic candidates in these contested states will say about a bill such as mine,” Graham said.  Our guess is plenty, loud, and often.

Polls show that the Democrats have made up solid ground in house races since the ruling that effectively overturned Roe v. Wade this summer.  In fact, over 60% of all Americans favor abortion.  That number reaches 73% when it’s women only polled.

The Republican’s playbook is paper thin compared to Democratic strategists.

Lindsey just added a page to it.  The play is called “throw the ball right to them.”

And, make no mistake, they know how to shoot it.

We can’t help but ask, “does Lindsey like kissing his sister?”