Me, Back in Time on TV

So MY BOY Chris Ford in Austin texts me last night saying “I just saw you on TV!” I promptly respond with “Liar!” He casually replies with a pic that he takes of his TV. I was like holy shit!

It was the day after Kay Bailey Hutchison (currently U.S. Ambassador to NATO) had been elected U.S. Senator in a special election to replace Lloyd Bensten, who had become Bill Clinton’s Treasury Secretary. The year was 1993. Oy vey!

You can see the pic below. The link is to the story that ran last night on the ABC affiliate KVUE in Austin about the history of Senate elections in Texas.

https://www.kvue.com/mobile/article/news/politics/vote-texas/texas-elections-senate-republicans-democrats/269-c020b657-8b49-4af4-bb4f-d6f83c692c2e

BULWORTH 2020

Tom Steyer pandering for his LIFE last night and doing his best BULWORTH at Allen University (an HBCU).

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryancbrooks/tom-steyer-juvenile-south-carolina-yolanda-adams

The Root.com: Every Democratic Candidates’ ‘Black Agenda,’ Ranked

This amazingly candid and straight forward description of all eight remaining Democrats as the voters of South Carolina go to the polls. I will say I do sense a tad of bias, but I will let you figure it out. H/t to Monica Alexander and David Perruzza for first posting this on FB yesterday.

TheRoot.com says, “We asked policy experts, legal scholars and political pundits, all of whom were black, to help us devised a policy matrix. Then we graded each plan on a scale of 1 to 10.”

I’ll just say that you will surprised that Joe Biden is NOT ranked #1 and that Pete Buttigieg is NOT ranked near the bottom. I will let you peruse it yourself.

https://www.theroot.com/every-democratic-candidates-black-agenda-ranked-1841959166

Last Polling Out of SC…

Looks like Biden’s firewall will stand. What’s impressive, is Buttigieg sudden rise in the state. Klobuchar and Warren are in trouble — especially Warren. In a recent poll, she trails Sanders IN HER HOME STATE OF MASSACHUSSETS! More on that this weekend.

Bloomberg creeping up in Florida poll

A month ago, a St. Pete Poll had Mike Bloomberg surging into second place behind Uncle Joe 41% to 17%. The sample size of likely voters was 2,590, with a Margin of Error of 1.9%.

What a difference a month makes! The same pollster conducted a new poll over the last two days of 3, 047 likely Democratic voters. With an MOE of 1.8%

Florida votes two weeks after Super Tuesday (March 2nd), so there is still time for anything to happen. But one must admit that the trajectory for both are in opposite directions. I’m not writing off Uncle Joe…yet. Blacks in South Carolina are his firewall. And the Culinary Union in Vegas not endorsing anyone doesn’t help his campaign either. Let’s see how Klobuchar and Mayor Pete do in Nevada, which caucuses (minus the app!) next Saturday.

After NH, now what?!

So, now what?! Does Stella Biden get his groove back in time for South Carolina? There are no recent meaningful polling from either Nevada or SC, so any talk is just hot air. Do blacks stay with Biden in SC? Does labor push Bernie over the threshold in NV where he lost by 5 points to Hillary? Do Amy and/or Pete get any traction with minorities? And what’s all this crowing about Bernie getting 40% of the Hispanic vote last night? NH has a Hispanic population of 4%. So that’s what? 1,200 votes out of 290,000 that were cast last night?

If Biden under performs in SC, that will definitely create a lane for Bloomberg on Super Tuesday. But only if Mayor Mike can quickly make himself the principal alternative to Sanders. Keep that spending up.

RIP to the campaigns of Andrew Yang and Deval Patrick. Was Patrick really running? And why?! Oh, and I’m calling it now. Warren is done! Thankfully.

#ChewonThis: Lunchtime Links

A ‘very credible’ new study on Seattle’s $15 minimum wage has bad news for liberals
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/06/26/new-study-casts-doubt-on-whether-a-15-minimum-wage-really-helps-workers/

#FlashbackFriday – Higher Ground

This is a new idea I recently had to write a little about covers of popular and favorite songs of yesteryear. I’ll try to steer clear of obvious choices (I Will Always Love You, Nothing Compares 2 U, etc.), and focus on songs people didn’t know were covers or that a certain artist actually covered a song by X. Below is the first installment of #flashbackfriday.

Red Hot Chili Peppers (Stevie Wonder)

Before they were giving it away under the bridge, the Red Hot Chili Peppers reached for “Higher Ground,” a Stevie Wonder cover. Released in 1989 on their fourth studio album, Mother’s Milk, the George Clinton-inspired Chili Peppers saw their first cross over hit as they were paying homage to Stevie Wonder and the important role he played in popular music.

The original, was released in 1973 on Stevie Wonder’s Innervisons album (which also included Living for the City, All in Love is Fair, Don’t You Worry ‘bout a Thing). It reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. In an interview with the New York Times, Stevie said the song lyrics addressed the issue of reincarnation.

Rolling Stone ranked the original song #265 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Will the Real Corey Booker Please Stand Up!

Picture it. Summertime, 2018. Democrats beginning to line up for the chance to take on the incoming President. The liberal left – progressives, as they like to call themselves – can’t wait to find their next savior. Now that President Obama is riding off into the sun set (or is he?), who’s next to take up the mantle of hope and change?

The Democrat’s, err, the progressive’s bench is fairly old and predominately (lilly) white. There are few “stars and rising stars,” but each come with their own set of circumstances.

Deval Patrick, the former black Governor of Massachusetts was a strong supporter for Mr. Obama when he first ran in 2008, to the chagrin of the Clintons. But he’s been out of office for two years and needs to find a way to stay relevant to the Left.

Enter Senator Jeff Sessions’ nomination to head up the Justice Department. Having intimate history with Senator Sessions, per the Boston Globe, Mr. Patrick sent a sternly worded letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, recommending against Sessions’ nomination as the U.S. attorney general. Back in 1985, then-federal prosecutor Sessions had brought voter fraud charges against three black civil rights leaders. Patrick and the NAACP fought the case and won.

Newly minted California Senator Kamala Harris is brand new and not well known outside of her state.

And then there’s New Jersey Senator Corey Booker.

Corey Booker is running for President. How else can you explain his actions today? Since his entry into the Senate mid-way through the 113th Congress, Senator Booker has advanced himself as someone who was willing to reach across the aisle to find bipartisan agreement. Mr. Bipartisan he’s called.

Today, that changed. Today, he became the first Senator to testify against another currently sitting Senator. While that in and of itself is astounding, an eleven-month-old quote popping up on the interwebs is even more so.

Less than one year ago – on February 27, 2016 – Booker heaped praise upon Senator Sessions, saying that he was “blessed and honored” to work with Sessions. While receiving an award for crafting legislation to award the Congressional Gold Medal to civil rights leaders:

“I am humbled to be able to participate here and pay tribute to some of the extraordinary Americans whose footsteps paved the way for me and my generation. I feel blessed and honored to have partnered with Senator Sessions in being the Senate sponsors of this important award.”

Will the real Corey Booker please stand up!

Twelfth Night, Time for Mardi Gras

Twelfth Night is more than just a play written by William Shakespeare. It marks the coming of the Epiphany – the day the Three Kings arrived to witness the Baby Jesus. It is highlighted by the song “12 Days of Christmas.”

Most people know that Fat Tuesday, the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday represents the end of the Mardi Gras season. But many don’t realize that Twelfth Night – January 6th – marks the beginning of the Mardi Gras season.

You see, Mardi Gras, like Christmas, is a whole season – not just one day.  That being said, Fat Tuesday is the biggest day of celebration, and the date it falls on moves around. You’ll find that Fat Tuesday can be any Tuesday between Feb. 3 and March 9. Mardi Gras, or its more Pagan name, Carnival, starts its celebration on January 6th, the Twelfth Night, and picks up speed through midnight on Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday.

The origins of Mardi Gras in America go back to 1699, nearly twenty years before New Orleans was established, and can be traced to medieval Europe, passing through Rome and Venice in the 17th century to the French House of the Bourbons, hence Bourbon Street.

By the late 1830s, New Orleans held street processions of maskers with carriages and horseback riders to celebrate Mardi Gras. Dazzling gaslight torches, or “flambeaux,” held by slaves lit the way for the krewe’s members and lent each event an exciting air of romance and festivity. By the way, a krewe is an organization that puts on a parade or ball for the Carnival season (more on parades later).

There is one tradition that you will see throughout the entirety of the Mardi Gras season, and that is the king cake. The most simple version, said to be the most traditional, is a ring of twisted cinnamon roll-style dough topped with icing or sugar, usually colored purple, green, and gold (the traditional Mardi Gras colors) with food coloring. King cakes may also be filled with additional foodstuffs- the most common being cream cheese, praline, cinnamon, or strawberry.

Traditionally, a small plastic or porcelain baby is hidden into the king cake. Originally, the baby was placed into the cake to symbolize baby Jesus.

Today, the baby symbolizes luck and prosperity to whoever finds it in his/her slice of cake. In some traditions, the finder of the baby is designated “king” or “queen” for the evening. That person is also responsible for purchasing next year’s cake, or for throwing the next Mardi Gras party.

We are now 52 days until Mardi Gras 2017…

Laissez le Bon Temps Rouler!!

* Some excerpts taken from mardigrasneworleans.com