Just Because There’s Snow On The Roof
Good morning, y’all. Winter has arrived. We’ve got snow and the promise of temps staying low enough to give us some freezing rain on Monday, oh joy! We are fortunate that the power has stayed on, and that folks are able to travel to their daily destinations without impediment. Fingers are crossed that the conditions don’t worsen. Even though we’re prepared for the worst, we’d like to avoid it.
We had a good turnout tonight for the Democrat Debate potluck. I suspect the tenants felt like they were willing to act hospitable for a while to enjoy a good meal and a warm room. No matter how much you spend on a mobile home, they are susceptible to temperature extremes. Spending the evening eating a home cooked meal, with your neighbors in the warmth of the Rec room, is not the worst way to spend an evening. Even Yuri Stinkherr was on his best behavior, if you don’t count getting “thirds” on his plate. Yuri even seemed to be generally interested in what Bernie had to say, which is weird because I think they’re on opposite poles of every issue. Well, maybe not guns, Bernie seems to favor the gun manufacturers. Maybe Yuri is acting on a N.R.A. directive. I’ll have to follow up that thought.
What confounds me to a degree is the widespread following that Bernie is getting. Bernie is the “anti-establishment” candidate as much as Trump is. Maybe right wing anarchists have a lot in common with left wing anarchists. I don’t know if that’s true, but Bernie does seem to be shaking up a lot of interest in change. He seems to be proving that old adage, “Just ’cause there’s snow on the roof doesn’t mean there’s not a fire inside.” Don’t get me wrong, I love him, I just don’t think he has the chops to be president.
Hillary pointed out Bernie’s shortcomings again and again tonight. As fun as what was going on on the screen, were the things going on behind the scenes. Both candidates are now concerned with the black vote, and Bernie is needing his creds to be pumped up. While Bernie traveled to Harlem for the endorsement of Al Sharpton, Georgia congressman John Lewis was publicly asking the question, “where was Bernie”? “I never saw him, I never met him. I was a chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee for three years from 1963 to 1966. I was involved in the sit-ins, the Freedom Ride, the March on Washington, the march from Selma to Montgomery, and directed the Voter Education Project for six years. But I met Hillary Clinton. I met President Clinton.”
Now, to be truthful, Bill Clinton has already been described as our “first black president”. I guess that makes Hillary our “first black first lady” by default. The Clinton’s bonafides with the black community are going to be hard to challenge. Coupled with the fact that Hillary is now wrapping herself in the cloak of Obama, it is going to be hard to separate any black voters from Hillary, in my opinion. Bernie is a tough old bird though, and he’s giving it a shot.
Once the candidates got away from playing to the minority voters, they ruminated in the weeds of foreign policy, campaign contributions and how all of their proposals would get paid for. Bernie had a great line about Hillary and Wall Street money, “Let’s not insult the intelligence of the American people. People aren’t dumb. Why in God’s name does Wall Street make huge campaign contributions?” “I guess just for the fun of it, they want to throw money around.” Hillary delivered a great zinger to Bernie when she was confronted about her friendship with, and receiving advice from, Henry Kissinger, “Well, I know journalists have asked who you do listen to on foreign policy, and we have yet to know who that is.”
A spirited debate, and no one called anyone a loser, or stupid, or weak, etc. There was a fun piece of news from the party that espouses “family values”, though. Ted Cruz has suspended running a commercial against Marco Rubio that features porn star, Amy Lindsay. Like their candidates, the Republicans seem to have a hard time vetting people that live up to the stated standards of the party. Not so with the Democrats, we’ve got a couple of good ones.