Ten Piece Nuggets-Random

Easy question.  What’s better than getting your week started with a healthy serving of Ten Piece Nuggets?

Easy Answer.  Nothing, just like the content of Kamala Harris’ responses to questions asked of her.

  1.  Today is the last day to file your 2021 tax return.  It’s 4/18 this year, not 4/15, because Friday was Emancipation Day (a legal holiday in the District of Columbia) and the IRS observed it.  If you haven’t yet be sure you do file today as every country in the world other than the United States is relying on the money.
  2.  Speaking of money, why is everyone more worried about how Elon Musk is spending his money than how the US government spends our money?
  3.  We forgot.   Nandy Pelosi lectured to us that government overspending isn’t inflationary.  So, no worries.  Joe Biden did as well, but may not remember doing so.  Thankfully, Build Back Better is on the very backburner now.  Hopefully, he forgets about that, too!
  4. Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos purchased the Washington Post in 2016 for $250 million. Some of the paper’s columnists have vocally opposed Musk’s efforts. The left-leaning media outlet published a column from former CEO of Reddit Ellen K. Pao headlined, “Elon Musk’s vision of ‘free speech’ will be bad for Twitter.”  You can’t make this stuff up and sound this ignorant.  We now have visions of free speech.
  5. Do you know what Title 42 is?  On March 20, 2020, at the outset of the COVID-19 public health emergency, President Trump previewed a measure to curb “mass uncontrolled cross-border movement.”  That day, then CDC Director Robert Redfield invoked a World War II-era public health law to authorize U.S. border officials to promptly deport migrants. The law, found in Title 42 of the U.S. code, grants the government the “power to prohibit, in whole or in part, the introduction of persons and property” to stop a contagious disease from spreading in the U.S.  Now you do.
  6. To stop the contagious disease in Canada you must have had two Covid 19 vaccine doses at least 14 days prior to entering the country.  The Boston Red Sox have a series there starting next week and Manager Alex Cora said that they will be without multiple unvaccinated players.
  7. On April 1, now CDC Director Rochelle Walensky announced her agency would stop authorizing Title 42 on May 23, saying the expulsions of migrants are no longer necessary to protect public health.  Here comes the next huge illegal wave.  Even a Democratic candidate for the Texas Governorship opposes the move.  “It does not make sense to end this until there is a real plan and the capacity in place to handle those and address those that come over,” Beto O’Rourke said.
  8. Beto is fence-sitting a bit, but still, he at least wants a plan.  This administration has a plan.  The plan is to flood America with immigrants legal or not.  Texas has had it.  Bus no. 4 loaded last week and hit DC yesterday.  Oh, and Beto has no shot(pun intended) in Texas.  His opposition to guns is the deal-breaker.
  9. You can finally rest easy if you’re a pregnant man. Put your feet up like your female counterparts have done for centuries. Apple’s iOS 15.4 update, rolling out to all models of the iPhone since late March, recognizes you with an emoji of a pregnant man.  There is also a gender-neutral “person with crown” to go alongside the king and queen ones.  All are available in five skin colors, too.  So, to recap you can now be a pregnant male or a gender-neutral crowned person regardless of your skin tone. Inclusive indeed.
  10. Special Counsel John Durham is a deal maker.  He’s now giving immunity to up to five key witnesses in the Clinton campaign investigation of false Russian collusion in the 2016 election and prosecution of its lawyer Michael Sussmann.  Sussmann will wind up as roadkill for the Clintons.  There is a trail of it from Arkansas to DC and back and the stench covers decades.  Will the investigation result in more carnage?

You’ve been served.

 

A Rock Fight

In politics, 2024 is just around the corner.  But for aspiring, thought to be front-running politicians it’s light-years away.

After all, who thought an ACORN employee turned Illinois Congressman would walk in the room and crack the glass ceiling when Hillary Clinton was attempting to hammer it herself in 2008?

And, who thought a gritty NY businessman turned reality show star would walk in the room and crack eggs over the head of Jeb Bush in 2016?

And, finally, who thought a 77-year-old man four years removed from the lifelong political game could hide in his basement and garner the most votes ever cast in a presidential election?

If you type “politicians make” in the Google search bar in no time you get “make me sick,” “make strange bedfellows,” “make false promises,” and “make too much money” in short order.

Long Ago and Way Happier Times

So, while we agree on what they do, who in 2024 will turn our collective stomachs?  As of today, would you say it’s former President Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton?

Several corners on Las Vegas Boulevard do. So is the race to the bottom on?

Time will tell. But what good poker players know as a tell is the not too distant rumblings of the respective parties.

If people judged Donald Trump by what he accomplishes, not what he says or, most of all, how he says it, he would be a worthy candidate all over again.  But, too many people have had it with him and his ego, and that was prior to that January 6, 2021 dustup at the Capital Building now labeled as “Insurrection Day” by the left and their media shrills.

If he polls at 30% and the balance of the Republican field scatters the other 70% does that make him the front runner?  Yes.  But it also makes 70% of the likely Republican voters prefer someone else.

Hillary cannot help herself.  Every time she opens her yapper she proves it to the general public.  Also, she’s physically not up to the task.  She wasn’t well at the wire in 2016, how could she be in 2024?  She’s got more than just carry-on baggage.  Her email server has been on the fritz for years.

And, now she may have far bigger problems.  Special Counsel John Durham looked into Russia’s supposed ties to Trump.  And, in quite the plot twist he has tied Hillary’s campaign team to instigating, paying, and then spying on team Trump per his blockbuster report released Friday.

How bad is it?   The bombastic former President weighed in yesterday.  “​This is a scandal far greater in scope and magnitude than Watergate and those who were involved in and knew about this spying operation should be subject to criminal prosecution,” said Trump.  “In a stronger period of time in our country, this crime would have been punishable by death,” he said.

Death?  Maybe.  But, it is a good transitional word.  Maybe both of these candidates are dead to us as Tony Soprano might say.  Or, maybe they should be.

The only way the Democrats can get back in this race (and we know it is early) is if the Republicans let them back in.  And, if they nominate Trump it will be game on. They’ve taken getting their base riled up to a higher art form when they bellow about that Trump fellow.

For the Dems, Biden is 79 and doesn’t know if he’s President of the US or El Salvador.  There is no way he’s running again unless it’s to the nearest men’s room.  Hillary is 74 and has been shown the door one too many times.

Both parties can do better, can’t they?

Will they?  2024 in one sense is near, but perhaps there is still plenty of time for two fresh faces to appear.

America deserves better than a rock fight.