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Special Teams

Posted on by boom booms room staff

You’ve heard the old adage many times before, “defense wins championships!”   Maybe it does.

Try telling that to Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, or Matthew Stafford.  Heck, try telling that to the Old Gipper, Ronald Reagan, or even the want-to-be Gipper, Donald Trump.  They think the best defense is a good offense.

And, even before the leaves change, two different seasons are starting.  One is the battle for supremacy in the NFL, and the other is the battle for control of the two chambers of the Capitol Building.

You might say there is defense, offense, and offensive.  Sometimes the lines between the three blur.

Donald Trump won the Oval Office with an offense in 2016 that changed the old guard’s game.  On his way to victory, Democrats threw every name at the book at him.  He was a bigot, a misogynist, a homophobe, a womanizer, a Russian colluder, and a Putin lover amongst other atrocities they asserted.

They tried to make him play defense by labeling him offensive.  When it failed they impeached him a time or two while in office to force him to play defense.

They reached deep into their playbook.  And, Nancy even tore up Trump’s playbook on live TV once.

Enter Joe Biden.  After a decent start, Joe got picked off by Afghanistan. The constant Covid handouts and his stubbornness against drilling led to inflation.  And, quickly team Dem was defending.

Ah, but the Dems, too, think the best defense is a good offense.  And, they are quite accomplished on that side of the ball.

They started throwing money around like a well-oiled (or battery-charged) machine.

More covid relief, free shots, more covid relief, free testing, an infrastructure bill (meaning green for green new deals), another green new deal called the Inflation Reduction Act (it should be called the Manchin double reverse), and now some college debt relief has the base offense back in place.

Uvalde put gun control squarely back on the ticket.

They caught a Hail Mary when the Supreme Court ruled in one case that set aside Roe v. Wade after 50 years of women’s reproductive rights/wellness.  Make no mistake, they hate the ruling but love what it does for their November midterm playoff/run-off hopes.

And, now Biden, who ran on becoming the great unifier is taking a lap to drive the messages home. He’ll soon be tripping down the stairs of Air Force One in a blue suit in a blue state near you to hold pep rallies.  And, while gas is still expensive, the flight is a buck cheaper a gallon now than it was eight weeks ago.

The Great Unifier even called MAGA Republicans semi-fascists this past weekend.  And the Republicans deemed that offensive and want an apology.  They will need to wait for that as long as they have waited for the border mess to be addressed.

It’s time to rally the troops and get them to vote.  Maybe you’ll vote because you feel oppressed like multi-millionaire, MTV VMA winner, acclaimed singer, and eclair lover Lizzo does. She pleaded with fans to vote and “make changes to laws that are oppressing us.” “It means everything to make a change in this country,” she said.

Out of bounds is not out of bounds anymore.  You can be on offense, defense, offended, defended, offensive, and defensive simultaneously these days.  That is unless you are oppressed.

The (de)fenced-in Capitol Building awaits the winner.

 

The Great American Giveaway

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Several years ago Oprah gave away a car to everyone who attended her show.  Nice, but it wasn’t necessary to fill up the studio viewing seats.  People would climb over a  wall to get to see one of America’s great icons.

Several years later people are climbing over a wall, walking around a fence, and swimming across the Rio Grande to get into America in record numbers.

And, why not?  Like Oprah, the great American giveaway is full throttle.  It isn’t necessary to fill up the country.  But it does buy votes.

Just two weeks after the green new deal lite (aka the Inflation Reduction Act) lined donor pockets, Biden is closing in on a $329 billion dollar giveaway over the next ten years.  This audience is the college graduate/attendee who borrowed to attend and whose household income is below $125k.

Biden will sign off on a $10k loan forgiveness per person plan.  Then he can check the box on another campaign promise kept.  Forget if it’s good for the country, it’s good for voters that lean left.

Who pays for this handout now that the original signer of the agreement isn’t held to their promise?  You do, the American taxpayer.

If you went to college and paid off your debt, you now get to pay your classmate’s debt too.  If your parents saved for 18 years to get you to and through college they get to pay for any parents who did not.  Native American Elizabeth Warren chuckled about this very inequitable reality yesterday.

If you learned a valuable trade and are now welding, plumbing, pipe fitting, etc. you’re about to learn that you can take a blow torch to an additional $2k that you take home to cover the lackeys.

But not even 87,000 new IRS agents can find enough money hiding between the 1040 lines to keep up with America’s spending appetite.  The reality is we spend WAY more every year than we send to Uncle Sam.  This loan forgiveness will just get added to the mile-high mountain of debt.

What lesson does this teach our young?  It teaches the opposite of doing the right thing.  Why bother paying for your car loan?  House loan?

Diversity, inclusion, and equality(DIE for short) are words thrown down like another round of drinks on Capital Hill.  Except, none of what this administration is doing approaches DIE.  It’s all divisive and unwise.

Give money to green, take it from oil and gas taxes.  Give big money to Ukraine almost daily to protect their border, but leave our southern border wide open.

Enter the country and get a free phone, free medical care, and a free plane ride to an American city.   No vax, no problem unless you want to remain in the military that will fight to protect those that just walked in illegally.

And now we give money to college kids who should be educated to a point to get a job, balance a checkbook, budget their take home, and pay their debt.

Biden says that inflation is zero.  He claims that there is no recession based on the new definition of recession.   He says that the economy is great.

And, in spite of all of that, college-educated young adults can’t be held to their promise to pay down their self-inflicted debt?  What would happen if the economy turned south?

A chicken in every pot gets votes.  But, it doesn’t pay for itself.

And the chickens are getting more expensive in spite of zero(so says the big guy) inflation.

What’s in a Name?

Posted on by boom booms room staff

It’s business as usual in Washington DC.  Except, unfortunately, it’s not business it’s government.

Falling one “yea” shy for over a year on the bloated Build Back Better boondoggle, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer negotiated directly with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va to no longer fall one vote shy.

So, without further adieu and with inflation running at a half-a-century high, the Senate will use a back door tactic to get around filibustering and present to you the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

What’s in a name?  “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet,” wrote William Shakespeare.

In this instance that which we call yet another spending bill would smell just as rotten to those who are willing to read all about it.  You see, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 has nothing whatsoever to do with combating the pain you feel at the grocery store or the gas station.

It’s the third wild spending bill in 18 months as the country stands at $30 trillion in debt and counting geometrically.  We printed money, gave it away, and devalued the dollar making us chase products and services with more dollars.  That’s inflation.

Rather than risking more inflation with trillions in new spending, this bill will cut the inflation taxes Americans are paying, lower the cost of health insurance and prescription drugs, and ensure our country invests in energy security and climate change solutions,” Manchin said.

One, someone needs to stick a microphone under Manchin’s chin and ask what “inflation taxes” mean.

Two, the unaffordable Affordable Care Act just got more expensive for those who pay for it.

Three, it’s a slimmed-down version of the Green New Deal, but it is by no means slim unto itself.   At least the summer heat wave will go away, won’t it?

But wait, this comes with a corporate tax increase and a minimum corporate tax as well.  Doesn’t that make it a pay-for-itself bill?

“It will ensure that the biggest corporations and the wealthiest few pay their fair share,” Pelosi said in a letter to Democratic lawmakers.  Can someone define “fair share for us?”  Tax laws are tax laws. Fair is in the eye of the beholder, period.

So, we just increased taxes on businesses.  Do you know how businesses will offset those increased tax burdens?  They’ll increase their prices to maintain their bottom lines.  That means you pay more.

The Inflation Reduction Act will cause more inflation.  What’s in a name?

It doesn’t sound so rosy anymore, does it?

Didn’t Romeo and Juliet have a tragic ending?

Viva la Mexico

Posted on by boom booms room staff

BBR is headed south to the Yucatan Penisula in Mexico this morning.  We’ll return on July 22nd.

We’ve scheduled a couple of best of Boom Boom’s Life Lessons to tide you over till then.  They’re timeless, quick, and thought-provoking reads for you.  Enjoy.

One of our staff members swore the country off over 18 years ago due to comfort and safety reasons.

We’ll give it one more go.

Till then, stay cool.

TEST POST

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Sorry to have to do this, but yesterday’s post (which we thought was an important one) did not get out to many/all subscribers via the normal email notification.

We’re sending this one today as a test.  We are hopeful that it was a one-time glitch in the system, but we have our doubts.

Please drop us a comment on the site if you received an email notifying you that we published this AM.

You can always check the site daily for new posts as well, email or not until we get our xxxx straight.

Thanks for your loyalty as always.

That Pesky Swamp Thing

Posted on by boom booms room staff

Have you ever heard anyone say, “OMG, why would anyone ever have voted for Donald J. Trump?”  We thought so.

Why?  “Why” was on full display yesterday in Washington DC, otherwise known as The Swamp.

Current president in name only Joe Biden addressed a few important issues.  On one, inflation, he was asked what his plan was to combat this runaway train.  His answer was that it’s 1) covid’s fault, and 2) Putin’s fault.

He went on and asked what the GOP plan to fight inflation was. “How about spending less?” Ted Cruz tweeted back later.

Finally, Biden went for the kill shot.  His teleprompter prompted him to exclaim that his spending policies help lower inflation not make prices go higher.

In short, assign blame elsewhere, make it political, ignore the problem, and spend more money.

Meanwhile down the street another pesky Swamp Thing, Mitch McConnell, took the podium in the Capitol Rotunda.  He proudly stated that he contacted the President directly last week and told him that in order to get more aid for Ukraine, they should rush a bill through that had nothing extraneous attached to it.  Let’s get $40 billion directly to Ukraine ASAP.

He went on to say that he thought all of us could agree that the war in Ukraine was the most important issue facing Americans today.  Out of touch, much?

This is the same Senate minority leader who helped usher in Obamacare after the Democrats greased his old sweaty palm with $2 billion inside of that “affordable healthcare act” earmarked for infrastructure spending in his great home state-Kentucky.  If you like your interstate you can expand your interstate.

This is the same Senate minority leader who said last month that if the Republicans regained control of the Senate that he would indeed be the majority leader all over again.

This is the same Senate that has 50 Republicans that didn’t offer one scintilla of objection to his power grab before the Republicans possibly grab the power again.

Meanwhile, down at the virtual ink press, The Washington Post ran a story titled George Washington University Needs to Change Its Name.  Do you notice any similarities in the two bolded words in the previous sentence?

That’s journalism 101?  What’s important now?

Meh.  What’s $40 billion anyway?

  1. A LOT of money.
  2. The same amount that a citizen is paying for Twitter when everyone flipped their non free speech lid.  It’s his money. He can do what he wants.
  3. This $40 billion is your money. Washington thinks they can do what they want.
  4. Except, it’s money that you don’t have.
  5. As a matter of fact, you don’t have the $30 trillion that you (the U.S.) owe to creditors and counting.

Is the $40 billion a part of a NATO aid package?  Doubtful.  How much combined have the other NATO nations provided.  Our guess is that it’s in the very few millions with an “M.”

Can Volodymyr Zelenskyy turn the $40 billion into tanks, bullets, or guns anytime soon?  We’ve heard of Carvana, but not Tankvana.

Have you ever heard anyone, or everyone, at a Trump rally chant harmoniously “Drain the Swamp, Drain the Swamp?”

We thought so. We hope so.  Like a bankruptcy sale, everyone must go.

Maybe The Washington Post should change its name to The Swamp Post.

It should.

 

 

At What Price Free Speech?

Posted on by boom booms room staff

It’s all over but the shouting.  Paperwork pending, Elon Musk has bought Twitter.

And, the shouting is all over the place but far from over.

It’s shaping up as a bad couple of weeks for the left side of ideology.  First, it was masks off.  Now, it’s Musk on.

Elon Musk used the platform he is buying to provide insight into what likely will be his guiding principle.  He tweeted, ” I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter because that is what free speech means.”

But a lot (and we mean a lot) of “open-minded” citizens see it differently and came to Twitter and TV to tell us as much.  Even the ones that announced that they were packing their Tesla and moving to Canada if Donald Trump won had something to say.

Let’s start with the esteemed senator from Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren.  “This deal is dangerous for our democracy.  Billionaires like Musk play by a different set of rules than everyone else, accumulating power for their own gain.  We need a wealth tax and strong rules to hold big tech accountable.”

There is so much to unpack in that statement.  Was she speaking about herself?  If Elizabeth Warren identified as a man her pro(per) nouns would be Bernie and Sanders, but we digress.

News flash, free speech isn’t dangerous to our democracy.  See the very First Amendment for confirmation.

What some try to define as hate speech is indeed free speech.  You might hate what they say, but it’s their right to say it.  It’s just like burning an American flag.  You might hate seeing someone do so, but it’s been judicially ruled and subsequently upheld as freedom of expression.

Former Presidential Democratic “want to be” nominee Howard Dean tweeted that he was out.   Thousands commented back that they were as well.   The irony of using the platform to boldly announce that you’re leaving the platform is palpable.

None other than former VP Dan Quayle jumped in and tweeted, “at least seven people will miss you!”  Hateful.  True.  Quayle even spelled seven correctly!

Well, maybe the next stop for Dean is CNN+.  Come to think of it, it’s been a really bad run for those that lean left.

Press Secretary Jen Psaki, “The president has long been concerned about the power of large social media platforms, and has long argued that they must be held accountable for the harms that they cause.”  Likely he’s just been too busy to tackle this cause just yet.  After he fixes the harm caused by Russia and inflation though, lookout.

A study by The Center for Responsive Politics of political donations for the midterms by corporate employees, and published by Vox shows that 98.7% of the money donated went to the Democratic party from Twitter employees.

Want more?  Netflix 99.6%.  Apple 97.5%.  Google 96.0%.  Facebook 94.5%.  You can see why Biden is concerned, can’t you?

People who have preached that men can get pregnant are now concerned with misinformation on Twitter.  How timely?  How noble?

An African American who nearly single-handedly brought electric cars to the market to save the planet is now the bad guy for wanting free speech to truly be free.

Only in America could all of this happen concurrently.

After all, it’s the land of the “free” and the home of the “brave,” depending on whom you ask of course.

 

Russia, China, GoFundMe, and Spotify

Posted on by boom booms room staff

You only have two eyeballs.  If you’re looking globally at the Russia/Ukraine border buildup with one and the Communist China Oppression and Olympics with the other you might be missing something.

Big Tech has entered(yet again) into its own global border buildup and oppressive tactics.  And, when you consider the long-term consequences the stakes might be higher than Russia and China combined.

Let’s start with GoFundMe.com.  Apparently, the fundraising website has applied to the FCC for a name change and a new domain address.  It’s called Go F@#$ Yourself.com.  They really haven’t applied but the newly suggested name would be quite apropos.

Surely you’ve heard by now that a GoFundMe fundraiser for the Canadian Freedom Convoy that crossed over 10 million dollars was closed down by GoFundMe. Then they announced that instead of the money going to the truckers protesting the vax mandate, they would “redirect” the donations to “credible and established charities” verified by GoFundMe.

The justification offered by GoFundMe was that it had turned into an occupation.  They went on to say that there were “police reports of violence and other unlawful activity.” Both are against GoFundMe regulations to conduct a fundraiser.

This is the same platform that allowed and even gave its backing to fund the lovely new residential (tents) development in 2020 in downtown Seattle called CHOP (Capital Hill Occupied Protests).  If you want to talk occupation, how about cordoning off six square blocks in the middle of downtown?  If you want to talk violence, the mostly peaceful community was closed down three weeks after it broke ground after numerous 911 calls for burglaries, rapes, four shootings with two of them being homicides.  Thirty new neighbors and its “civic” leader in all were arrested.

Six states, all red by the way, had aggressive Attorney Generals who filed or threatened to file suit alleging “fraud and theft” by GoFundMe of the promised money.  It should be downright scary to all that we’ve gotten to this spot.

And, then there is the Spotify/Joe Rogan arm wrestle.  Former hippy musicians like Neil Young have taken their music off of the platform that gives the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast a platform that over 11 million people tune in to regularly.  Once upon a time, hippies sang for freedom from government intervention, now they apparently embrace it, but we digress.

First, it was “misinformation” as the culprit as Rogan brought one or two docs on that told us the entire approach to the pandemic was upside down.  How dare they exhibit their right to free speech?

Cancel Joe Rogan for this misinformation (misinformation is slang for “I don’t agree with you”)! How dare he ask questions that allowed the docs to step outside of the test or vax lines?

Shouldn’t we revoke the docs’ licenses to practice while we are at it? Nah, they’re not the real threat.  Rogan’s common sense and growing listenership are.

But the campaign to cancel doesn’t stop there.  Now it’s “Joe Rogan is a racist!”  He used the dreaded “n-word” a time or two too many in previous podcasts, the context of which is apparently immaterial.

Do all of these cries of misinformation and racism sound like a Joni Mitchell, Graham Nash, Failure, or Nils Lofgren song that’s old and tired?  They left Spotify, too.

Barbara Streisand even threatened to do so as well.  Woah, scary, or not.  If you’re Spotify, what to do?  What to do?

So far Joe Rogan apologized for what we aren’t sure about.   And Spotify has now quietly deleted over 110 of his older podcasts and we aren’t sure why.  You can’t be half pregnant and you can’t have some free speech.

Whoppi apologized last week and two weeks from now all will go on as usual.  Rogan and Spotify should easily be able to do the same, but it won’t be easy.

GoFundMe should be ostracized to the point of going out of business, but it won’t.

Hey, did you hear that Putin has more tanks headed to the Ukraine border?

Who just won gold in the women’s downhill skiing?

 

 

Ten Piece Nuggets-Random

Posted on by boom booms room staff

There’s some good news and bad news in our world as we know it on 1/19/22.    And today you’ll need to take the good with the bad.  And in a marked departure from our inflationary times, you’ll get 12 for the price of 10.   Yum.

  1.  Good news-  Pfizer said its Covid-19 pill approved by the FDA, Paxlovid, was effective against the Omicron virus in three early but promising tests.
  2.  Bad news-  The treatment will not be available till June when the next variant, if there is one, will be prevalent and Omicron will be long gone.
  3.  Good news-   At least the pill will be free.  Your US Government has already cornered the market, as it purchased 20 million courses of treatment.
  4.  Bad news-  The pill will be free to you, but not our government.  That really means that the pill won’t be free to you any more than all of these other handouts that aren’t free.
  5.  Good news-  Bill de Blasio announced that he would put every fiber of his being into fighting inequality in the state of New York, but would not be running for governor.
  6.  Bad news-  Real estate prices in Florida just took a 5% haircut.
  7.  Good news-  CNN is going to create a “team dedicated to covering misinformation.”  Will episode one cover the Chris Cuomo coverup?
  8.  Bad news-  No new hiring or flights are needed to cover it and bolster our economy as all of the misinformation is already in-house.
  9.  Good news-  In 2021 the stock market fared quite well in spite of supply chain, inflation, Afghanistan, Covid-19, and southern border problems.
  10.  Bad news-  It’s 2022, and the stock market taketh what the stock market giveth.
  11.  Good news-  President Biden will hold a rare press conference today surely giving us hope for tomorrow, one day short of the first anniversary of him taking office.
  12.  Bad news-   Three years to go.  Does he know?

We hope you enjoyed the nuggets-  short and sweet.

 

 

Ten Piece Nuggets-Random

Posted on by boom booms room staff

The last thing you need after four days of overindulgence is more.  We’re air frying the nuggets again today to keep them light.

  1.  Black Friday really was.  The world learned of yet another unwelcomed foe.  Omicron.  It’s been said that it’s anywhere from 2x to 10x times more contagious. Maybe it has different symptoms.  And, supposedly it’s milder in its attack on the body.  The stock market didn’t react too mildly.
  2.  Joe Biden shut down travel to/from eight African nations due to this new variant.  This measure is 100% opposite of the position Biden had as a candidate when then President Trump did the exact same.  Biden said then, “this new ‘African Ban’ is designed to make it harder for black and brown people to immigrate to the US.  It’s a disgrace, and we cannot let him succeed.”
  3. Maybe we should just follow the science? The trouble with that is we can’t figure out exactly what the science is.  Dr. Anthony Fauci seems to know more than any skeptics.  He said Sunday, “But if they get up and really aim their bullets at Tony Fauci they’re really criticizing science because I represent science.”  When people talk about themselves in the third person they usually have a high opinion of themselves.  Tony “Science” Fauci.
  4.  Well, will the “vaccines” which maybe aren’t vaccines work against this latest round of virus mutation?  National Institute of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins said Sunday that current coronavirus vaccines will “most likely” be effective against the newly-discovered omicron variant, but that it is too soon to tell for sure.  Sounds like a yes, a no, and a maybe if you follow the science.
  5. Down under in Australia where no one without a vaccine is allowed to enter nor leave the country, Omicron has been detected in multiple cases.  Either their border is leakier than they would like or the vaccine may not be all that they think it is.  If you follow the science it sounds like science fiction.
  6. Speaking of leaky borders, we assume that the Biden Administration feels like the variant can travel by air, hence the ban, but not by land, hence the continued policy of allowing illegal aliens (we’re pretty sure that you can’t use that term anymore, but we didn’t feel like looking it up in the new rulebook) into the US without a jab or two.   It’s hard to follow some of the science.
  7. Did you know that the White House and Congress have no vaccination mandates in place?  Working for the government must create some form of natural immunity.  At least all employees in companies of 100 or more have to get the poke. That includes the USPS, though the employee union is fighting it.
  8. Levi Strauss has well over 100 employees.  And, some might have concerns in addition to ole Omicron.  They are offering employees the opportunity to engage in a “fireside chat and Q&A” with a “racial trauma specialist” following the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse on November 19.  The email stated, “pain and trauma of race, identity, and belief-based tragedies is a reality that many of us are struggling with on an ongoing basis. It can feel physically, mentally, and emotionally draining to continue to relive these moments and I want you to know, it’s okay not to be okay.”
  9. Making matters worse, the jean maker is headquartered in San Francisco, home of the homeless, the addicted, and flash mobs that steal lots of Levi Strauss jeans.  Maybe a corporate name change to reset is needed?  How about Levi Stress?
  10. On an only slightly lighter note, did Lincoln Riley run from the SEC competition, or does he see a golden opportunity to do at USC what three coaches since Pete Carroll have failed to do?  Ole Petey got out of the City of Angels just ahead of the probation police crackdown on giveaways to parents.  In a dozen years since, coaches Kiffin, Sarkesian, and Helton led the once very proud program to three Holiday, one Cotton, and one Rose Bowl, and little else.

Post-holiday Mondays are always stressful.  We hope that our fireside chat helped.