CAPTION SATURDAY.

I need a caption for this pic.

Example: If that's an Apple phone it won't take my pictures.

*Pic from usnews.com

Crime and punishment.

The beating of that Iraqi war veteran in Washington D.C. recently was a horrific and inexcusable, and the fact that the alleged thugs who attacked the poor fellow did it in the name of the Black Lives Matter movement made it even more reprehensible to me.

The victim said his attack was racially motivated, and I have no reason to believe that he is lying.

"Christopher Andrew Marquez — who attends American University and ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2014 in California — said in an interview that the attack occurred after several black youths asked him whether “black lives matter” and then called him racist.

Marquez, who is Hispanic, called the incident unprovoked. It occurred at the restaurant in the 900 block of E Street NW.

According to a D.C. police report, Marquez, 30, told officers that a group of at least four youths were loud and began to argue with him. The report says Marquez told police that one youth hit him in the face with a handgun and stole bank cards and his wallet with $400 inside. The incident was first reported by the Daily Caller, a conservative Internet news and opinion site.

Police could not verify the motive as described by Marquez and said they are continuing to look into the case. Dustin Sternbeck, the chief D.C. police spokesman, said detectives are reviewing surveillance video of the assault but it was not immediately clear what it shows." [Source]

This case has garnered quite a bit of publicity, and rightfully so, and hopefully they will catch these thugs and give them the punishment that they deserve.

In Western Pennsylvania there was another attack on an innocent man by another group of thugs.

This time, though, the races were reversed: The attackers were white and the victim was black.

"On the night of May 30, 2015, country music fans flooded out of Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pa., after a concert with Tennessee legend Kenny Chesney.

“The body’s a temple, that’s what we’re told,” the singer has famously crooned. “I treated this one like an old honky tonk.”

Outside, people were streaming into the nearby subway station. Among them was Kevin Lockett, an African American man who walked along the platform pulling a cooler in one hand.

That’s the last thing he can remember with absolute certainty. The rest, according to court testimony reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, only comes back to him in bits, pieces and violent flashes.
He thought he heard a racial slur from a group of men, and the next thing he knew, he was being thrown onto the train tracks.

After Lockett lifted himself back onto the platform, surveillance footage shows, 21-year-old Ryan Kyle started beating him. Another 21-year-old, Matthew Laplace, pulled his cooler away.

“I knew we’d find this [n-word],” he recalled someone saying. Then an onlooker called the police.
The attack was brief, but its impact has stayed with Lockett. According to WTAE Pittsburgh, he has undergone four costly reconstructive surgeries since the assault, but still suffers from impaired vision. More therapy awaits.

Four men involved in the incident — Laplace, 22, Kenneth Gault, 22, David Depretis, 21, and Christopher Laplace, 23 — were variously charged with aggravated assault, ethnic intimidation, theft, reckless endangerment and criminal conspiracy.

All four are white, as is Kyle. He is the only one who touched Lockett and the only one who could face prison time, as a result of plea deals.

Gault and Depretis pleaded no contest and were sentenced to six months probation, WTAE reported; Matthew LaPlace pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12 months probation. All are required to perform 100 hours of community service to benefit a minority community.

Christopher LaPlace, Matthew’s brother, will be sentenced on Thursday.

“There’s no punishment,” Lockett told WTAE with a shake of the head, calling the sentences “slaps on the wrist.”

“The way they would look at if five black guys jumped one white guy. Nobody would be going home. Nobody would get 100 hours of community service,” he said.

At the preliminary hearing last summer, the Post-Gazette reported, Assistant District Attorney Julie Capone called the men bullies and said they were “complicit” in Kyle’s actions.
“They all stuck together,” she said.

But the attorneys for the other four men argued that they were innocent bystanders.

“One of these young men was out of control,” Matthew LaPlace’s lawyer, Patrick Thomassey, told WTAE. “The others, for lack of a better word, was just sort of there.”

Gault’s attorney, Robert Del Greco, said: “In each of the offensive acts, my client’s back was turned, walking away from the fray, toward the exit.”

A police officer testified in court, however, that Gault had said to him shortly after the incident, “Don’t know why you’re making such a big deal over a crackhead [n-word].”

When the men were found at a nearby bus stop, according to a police complaint obtained by WTAE, they “were very upset and wanted to know why they were being stopped.”

The complaint further stated that Kyle admitted to police that he hit Lockett, saying ‘Who cares, it was only a [n-word].”

Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey A. Manning said on Wednesday he was unhappy with the plea deals, the Post-Gazette reported, but felt compelled to accept them.

District Attorney Stephen Zappala said in a statement that the trial court had not seen the surveillance footage when the no contest and guilty pleas were made. The tape will now be provided, he said, and they expect “that the most culpable defendant, Ryan Kyle, who was the lone participant in the assault of Mr. Lockett, will face a sentence in the state penitentiary.”

Kyle admitted to aggravated assault, ethnic intimidation and other charges in a plea deal for dropping attempted homicide charges.

Out of the five defendants, only LaPlace had apologized to Lockett.

“No, ‘I’m sorry?'” Judge Manning prodded Depretis. “No, ‘This shouldn’t have happened?’ Nothing to say?”' [Source] 

What's up with these Kenny Chesney concerts bringing out the worst in these young white men? 

These thugs (at least the ones who have pled so far) seem to have gotten off lightly.

Let's hope that the thugs in the D.C. do not get similar plea deals.

I am sure that my white friends will agree with me on this one.

Bringing the sleaze.

I swear I can't keep up.

Now the Pope is feuding with the leading republican candidate for president.

The Pope says that trump's behavior, as it relates to the Mexican border, is not a Christian.

Now if you  happen to be a Catholic who also happens to be a trump supporter, what do you do?
Do you support the leader of your church? Or do you support the man you want to lead the country?

"After the pontiff’s remarkable contention that Mr. Trump “is not Christian” in proposing deportations and a wall with Mexico, the candidate said Francis’ criticisms were “disgraceful” and “unbelievable,” and he contended that the Mexican government had hoodwinked the pope into criticizing him."

If you are standing next to trump, now might be a good time to step away. You don't want that lightening strike to hit you.

Then there was Ted cruz calling the president "faithless". This, after he and his campaign fraudulently and nefariously photoshopped the picture of his opponent in a campaign ad. Man this guy has some serious cujones.  I am not sure how he thought that he could get away with doing a silly photoshop from a stock photo in this Internet age. *[See pic above]

Anyway, such is life in politics, the sleazy people will do anything to win. And this guy has the nerve to rip the president's morals.

But things are getting down and dirty in the republican primaries (the dem primary as well), and trump and cruz are going at it, hard. 

Cruz is peddling the narrative that trump is a secret liberal to the base, and trump thinks that cruz is a lying duplicitous scumbag. (Ok, he didn't actually say scumbag, but you get the point)

Of course this could all be because there is a new national poll showing that cruz is actually beating trump. Fortunately for trump, it is the only one, and the word among pollsters is that it is an outlier. We will see.

I just had a scary thought: What if trump wins and chooses cruz as his running mate? Don't laugh. Crazier things have happened. Did you think, for instance, that a self-promoting game show host who has been named in almost 170  federal lawsuits would be on the verge of being the GOP nominee for president? 

Exactly.

Living with hateful symbols.

Well we know that Donald Trump has the support of at least one family here in Pistolvania.

"The place: East Huntingdon Township, Pennsylvania. The problem: A Confederate flag display with a black baby doll hanging from a noose with a knife in its back.

Rachel Szolek was driving through West Overton Village when she saw the racially offensive display on a fence near on someone’s property.

“We actually turned around because we had passed the house,” Szolek told Pittsburgh’s Action News 4.  “And there it was, and the first thing was shock.”

Szolek took a photo of the display with her cell phone and posted the image to Facebook.

Action News 4 reporter Beau Berman got wind of the story and tracked down East Huntingdon Township’s supervisor Paul Hodgkiss.

Hodgkiss said that he was “definitely against anything like that in our township.”

Officials in a nearby community admitted that they have been hearing about the display for months but could not do anything about it because the area was outside their jurisdiction.

The display was eventually taken down minutes after Berman knocked on the homeowner’s door to ask questions. "{Story with video}

Not sure why this racist family took down their display. In truth, they have every right to have it there. I mean it is, after all, on their property.   

The fact of the matter is 70% of Donald's supporters in South Carolina want their confederate flags to fly freely, and they are hoping that electing the trumpster will free them from this PC world we live in.

I guess if trump was president that family in  East Huntingdon, Pennsylvania would not have to worry about being shamed into removing their display of bigotry and intolerance.

Look, I know a lot of racists believe it's cool show their confederate pride, but you can't just throw that symbol of slavery and oppression in our faces and expect us to be cool with it.

This poor family enjoying a Mardi Gras parade in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, did not deserve to be harassed by some racist while they tried to just have a good time. (*See pic)  And neither did some folks down in Georgia trying to celebrate a child's birthday. 

This kind of behavior will invariably lead to backlash:

"JACKSON, Mich. — An 18-year-old man has been found guilty of threatening several people riding in a pickup truck that was displaying a Confederate flag.

The Jackson Citizen Patriot reports Monday that a jury convicted Kantpreet Singh on Friday of felonious assault and weapons charges.

Jackson County Assistant Prosecutor Steven Idema says the 17-year-old driver of the pickup, a 13-year-old boy and a female were stopped at an intersection on July 24, 2015 when another motorist pulled alongside. The other driver brandished a handgun and verbally threatened the people in the pickup.

Idema says the 17-year-old driver had moved to Michigan from Alabama and “was showing his southern pride and his southern heritage” with the Confederate flag. A U.S. flag also was displayed on the truck." [Source]

Not cool young man. You have to control your anger. I know it's frustrating, but you can't go breaking the law because you get angry at ignorant people. Just go out and vote and make sure that you do your best to keep the kind of people out of office that would make it cool to display offensive symbols.

*Pic from facebook.





 

Conspiracy theories and a dead Justice.

Wait a minute now, these conspiracy theories floating around that someone murdered Justice Scalia's is getting out of hand. 

And of course wingnuts are implying that President Obama and his secret assassin army had a hand in the jurist's untimely demise. To them, he had this nefarious plot in place all along to totally transform America. All it took was a quick pillow to the head. "Check that pillow for Obama's prints". Don't laugh, someone actually wrote that.

Check out this headline from Drudge:

"BREAKING: Justice Scalia Found Dead WITH PILLOW OVER HIS HEAD at Ranch Owned by Obama Award Winner

…Presidio County Judge Cinderela Guevara, a Democrat, acknowledged that she pronounced Scalia dead by phone, without seeing his body."

See how they did that? They made a connection to Obama by saying that Scalia died in the home of an  "Obama Award Winner"

I mean even the leading republican candidate for president has jumped into the debate.

"Donald, I need to come back to the topic we’ve all been screaming about here, which is Scalia, was he murdered,” Savage said. “I know it’s pretty brutal to say that, and I’m not wanting to drag you into this, but this is going to be bigger and bigger and bigger.”

“I went on the air and said we need the equivalent of a Warren Commission, we need an immediate autopsy before the body is disposed of. What do you think of that?” Savage asked.....

“Well I just heard today… you know I just landed and I’m hearing it’s a big topic.”

“But they say they found a pillow on his face, which is a pretty unusual place to find a pillow,” Trump said. “I can’t tell you– I can’t give you an answer.” [Source]

You can't?! How about he died of a heart attack because of his terrible eating habits and the poor physical shape that he was in? It's not like we are talking about 40 year old man here. The man was pushing 80 for crying out loud!

Here is a news flash: Old conservatives can die of natural causes like everyone else.

I think it's the Dick Cheney effect, though. The man has had all kinds of heart issues and his ticker just keeps going. These wingnuts believe that all of their leaders should be like Dick Cheney.

But back to the Drudge Headline for a minute:

"That incredible reach turns downright scummy when you consider which “Obama Award” Poindexter won. Contrary to apparent conservative belief, there actually is no “Obama Awards” show, where the New Black Panthers win “Best Ensemble” and the Best Picture award always goes to “The Whitey Tape.”

No, John Poindexter was presented a very different sort of award on October 20, 2009 at The White House:

 

President Obama was presenting the Presidential Unit Citation to Alpha Troop, 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry for heroism during the Vietnam War, an award that dates back to its establishment by executive order in 1942. That makes it an “Obama Award” only if Obama has a really tricked-out DeLorean.

Justice Scalia’s death has only ever been attributed to natural causes, and Poindexter’s account doesn’t change that. It Doesn’t even say the pillow was covering Scalia’s face, although having had a heart attack, I can understand why a person might do that to mitigate the pain.

The sad part is that there’s zero chance people like GP‘s Jim Hoft actually think that President Obama or anyone else had anything to do with Scalia’s death, but they’re happy to smear him and a Vietnam war hero in order to get some cheap, unhinged traffic. Shame on them"

Wrong Tommy. They absolutely believe it. You give these people way too much credit.

 It's called Obama Derangement Syndrome, and it can have that kind of effect on the brain.


*Pic from mediaite.com

When your college tour turns ugly.

  Imagine, if you will, you are a hardworking high school senior, and you are looking forward to your college tour and possibly being admitted to the school of your dreams in the fall.

Imagine going to said school only to have the following happen to you:

"Texas A&M University officials are expressing the requisite shock and disappointment after a group of white students reportedly yelled racial slurs at a group of black high school students visiting from Dallas’ Uplift Hampton Preparatory. A woman wearing Confederate flag earrings also reportedly approached two high school girls on the tour to ask if they liked them.

 

About 60 Uplift students were touring A&M’s College Station campus, which in 2014 was 62 percent white among undergrads. One of the Uplift students, 16-year-old Terquarie Wilson, told CBS DFW the incident began with a stupid sports rivalry and escalated hideously: an A&M student spotted one of Wilson’s friends carrying a University of Texas-branded bag. They yelled “Go back where you came from!” The Uplift student responded something to the effect of, “You do realize we’re all black, right?” and walked away; faculty supervisors say they heard the A&M students use a racial slur as the group walked away. The woman with the Confederate flag earrings approached a few minutes later." [Source]

One of the scary things about this whole incident is that when it was reported to the proper authorities on campus, the students were told that the A&M kids were just exercising their First Amendment rights. 

I wonder if Kevin Sumlin, A&M's high profile African American football coach, will address this issue or speak openly about it.

It would be nice, but I won't hold my breath.

Finally, just when you thought that the GOP candidates for president couldn't be more bizarre, comes the following story.

"During a radio interview, Mrs. Cruz went all in when she promised that the Cruz campaign will show America “the face of God.”

Talking with South Carolina radio host Vince Coakley Wednesday, Cruz noted that even if she weren’t married to the man, his political and faith-based credentials would be reason enough for her to work for his campaign anyway:

“We are at a cultural crossroads in our country, and if we can be in this race to show this country the face of the God that we serve — this Christian God that we serve is the foundation of our country, our country was built on Judeo-Christian values, we are a nation of freedom of religion, but the God of Christianity is the God of freedom, of individual liberty, of choice and of consequence.” [Source]

Heaven help us! If Ted Cruz is actually "the face of god", the reservations for hell just went way up. 

Anyway, I bet you all thought that I was referring to that crazy debate Saturday night , the one where Donald trump became totally unhinged and blew his cover with republicans by telling them how he really feels about them. (My man was right about W and 9/11.) And where the two Hispanics in the race continued with their attacks on each other. At one point they even went at each other in Spanish. (Oh the irony.) Can you imagine Mr. and Mrs. Bubba watching the debate from their double- wide in Georgia?  "Honey, did dem two Heeespanic candidates just talk in Spanish? What da hell? This is America. Speak English, damn it! They just lost my vote."   

I hope that we can all get through this election cycle with our sanity intact. Lord knows it won't be easy. The candidates seem to have already lost their minds.

  

Sudden impact.

     I think it's quite interesting how when some famous people die folks are always quick to say what a good person they were, and how influential and important they were in their chosen field, regardless of how hurtful and offensive their actions were to some people while they were alive. "You might not agree with his positions, but you can't deny that he was a giant in his field and a scholar and a gentleman".

Muammar Gaddafi was a heck of a dictator; you might not agree with his methods, but you can't deny his results. He was a giant among dictators.

I think you all know where I was going. Antonin Scalia passed away in his sleep Friday night, and it has left the American political world  in turmoil. Wingnuts are losing their collective minds and they drew a line in the sand before the man's body was on the coroner's slab.

To them, this means war. No way will this bi-racial Socialist get to choose yet another Supreme Court Justice.

This is all compounded by the fact that the court has five* so called "liberal" Justices and five*so called "conservative' Justices. This next appointment will shift the balance of power on the highest court in the land for years to come.

I am still not sure where republicans are coming from when they declare that the president should not even appoint someone to replace Scalia. "He needs to wait until after the elections and let the next president decide", is what almost all the republican candidates for president are saying.

I must be missing something.  Is the president supposed to stop being president with almost 11 months left to go in his presidency? He would be failing to live up to his constitutional responsibility by not appointing a new Supreme Court Justice. Why should Americans have to live with a divided court for the next year and maybe more? That is not the American way.

Republicans are saying that this matter should be decided by "the people" and not this president because of his ideological leanings. But there is one problem with this argument: This same president was elected TWICE by "the people", so what is the problem here? Rhetorical question. We know what the problem is, this is politics as usual, and it is compounded by the particular individual who is sitting in the White House at this particular time in our history.

Still, I am glad to hear that the president is going to be moving forward with his appointment. It would have been very disappointing if he allowed himself to be bullied by these demagogues and political agitators on the right.  Now, at least, there will be a fight, and it is one that he should be relishing.

To use a sports metaphor; scoreboards don't lie, and the scoreboard says that President Obama is winning this battle. 

"..these are responsibilities that I take seriously as should everyone" that are "bigger than any one party." "They are about our democracy, and they are about the institution to which Justice Scalia dedicated his professional life in making sure it continues to function as the beacon of justice that our Founders envisioned..."

Swish.

 
*(There are nine justices on the court, and there is currently a 4/4 ideological split;not 5/5 as the post incorrectly stated. Not sure where mind was.
 Getting ready for the NBA All-Star game,maybe)

 

Caption Saturday.

I need a caption for this pic.



Example: FOX NEWS pilot: They are all looking up at me. Should I continue the fly over?


*Pic from rollingstone.com

Open thread.

Tonight is open thread night, and I want to know how you feel about the direction the country is going in.

If one of the outside the mainstream candidates are elected president, how do you  think their presidency will impact the country?

Will all black people be put in internment camps if trump is elected?

Will Bernie follow through on his promise to try and make college free for everyone?

Your thoughts.

The bigotry of paternalism.

   I have couple of things on my mind, so I m going to get right to it.

Let me start with these elections and what has been happening in the democratic primary as the candidates head towards South Carolina.

It's no secret that there are more African American democratic voters in South Carolina than there are white ones, and so, as politicians tend to do, the pandering has begun.

I read Charles Blow's excellent article on "Bernie-Splaining", and his take on progressives and their penchant for treating us black folks like their children was on point. Let's call it the bigotry of paternalism. Trust me, I am not new to this rodeo. I have called out white progressives for this before. In fact, I was one of the first so black bloggers to do so, because it is something that has always bothered me about progressives. 

Bernie and his people have fallen into that trap, and I couldn't get that image of him and Rev. Al posing at their breakfast at Sylvia's for all the word to see, out of my mind. Taking a picture with Rev. Al (a man who most black folks will tell you does not represent us) just reinforced the perception ---by those of us who are in on the joke--- that progressives really don't get it.

I feel for Charles Blow when he says the following:

"I cannot tell you the number of people who have commented to me on social media that they don’t understand this support. “Don’t black folks understand that Bernie best represents their interests?” the argument generally goes. But from there, it can lead to a comparison between Sanders and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; to an assertion that Sanders is the Barack Obama that we really wanted.... If only black people knew more, understood better, where the candidates stood — now and over their lifetimes — they would make a better choice, the right choice.

 

The level of condescension in these comments is staggering.

 

Sanders is a solid candidate and his integrity and earnestness are admirable, but that can get lost in the noise of advocacy.

 

Tucked among all this Bernie-splaining by some supporters, it appears to me, is a not-so-subtle, not-so-innocuous savior syndrome and paternalistic patronage that I find so grossly offensive that it boggles the mind that such language should emanate from the mouths — or keyboards — of supposed progressives.

 

But then I am reminded that the idea that black folks are infantile and must be told what to do and what to think is not confined by ideological barriers. The ideological difference is that one side prefers punishment and the other pity, and neither is a thing in which most black folks delight.

 

 

It is not so much that black voters love Clinton and loathe Sanders. Indeed, in The Nation magazine, the estimable Michelle Alexander makes a strong case in an essay titled “Why Hillary Clinton Doesn’t Deserve the Black Vote.” For many there isn’t much passion for either candidate. Instead, black folks are trying to keep their feet planted in reality and choose from among politicians who have historically promised much and delivered little. It is often a choice between the devil you know and the one you don’t, or more precisely, among the friend who betrays you, the stranger who entices you and the enemy who seeks to destroy you."  

 

 

The truth is, until we as black folks get our own political house in order, we are stuck with choosing between the two dominant parties in America.  History shows that none of them have been particularly beneficial to our cause. It's just that sometimes we have to hold our nose and support the party ---or the ideology--- that will hurt us the least.

 

I, like Blow, will use an extensive quote from the brilliant James Baldwin to drive home my point.

 

'Of all Americans, Negroes distrust politicians most, or, more accurately, they have been best trained to expect nothing from them; more than other Americans, they are always aware of the enormous gap between election promises and their daily lives. It is true that the promises excite them, but this is not because they are taken as proof of good intentions. They are the proof of something more concrete than intentions: that the Negro situation is not static, that changes have occurred, and are occurring and will occur — this, in spite of the daily, dead-end monotony. It is this daily, dead-end monotony, though, as well as the wise desire not to be betrayed by too much hoping, which causes them to look on politicians with such an extraordinarily disenchanted eye.
This fatalistic indifference is something that drives the optimistic American liberal quite mad; he is prone, in his more exasperated moments, to refer to Negroes as political children, an appellation not entirely just. Negro liberals, being consulted, assure us that this is something that will disappear with “education,” a vast, all-purpose term, conjuring up visions of sunlit housing projects, stacks of copybooks and a race of well-soaped, dark-skinned people who never slur their R’s. Actually, this is not so much political irresponsibility as the product of experience, experience which no amount of education can quite efface.

“Our people” have functioned in this country for nearly a century as political weapons, the trump card up the enemies’ sleeve; anything promised Negroes at election time is also a threat leveled at the opposition; in the struggle for mastery the Negro is the pawn."'

Church!!!

Finally, Canyon Boykin and Dick Cheney have some things in common. I am sure you have heard of Dick Cheney, but you have probably never heard of Canyon Boykin.  

Boykin is the Mississippi cop who shot Ricky Ball to death and is now suing to get his job back because he alleges that he was fired because he is white.

Check out the two links above and tell me if you think that Mr. Boykin deserves to have his job back, or if he should be sitting in jail.

Then there is Dick Cheney. Remember that hunting buddy he shot in the face some ten years ago? Well, as luck would have it, he has still not apologized to the poor man. 

"The Texas lawyer Dick Cheney sprayed with birdshot during a traumatic 2006 hunting trip recently bagged his first quail since the terrifying rifle mishap 10 years ago — but there has still never been a vice presidential apology.

Harry Whittington still has pellets lodged into his right cheek and neck from the Feb. 11, 2006 quail hunting trip, which went awry when the former vice president accidentally shot him in the face, he told the Daily News Thursday.

The 88-year-old lawyer said his son-in-law and some friends took him quail hunting last month in his hometown of Goliad, marking the first time he fired a shotgun in a decade....

Cheney’s shot sprayed as many as 200 birdshot pellets into Whittington’s face, neck and chest during the 2006 hunting trip at Texas' Armstrong ranch. While the then-vice president admitted that he was “the guy who pulled the trigger,” he never said a public “sorry” to his wounded co-hunter"
[Source]

Yep, I would say that Dick and Canyon have lots in common. I will let you figure out what it is.  

*Pic from npr.org.

 

 

 

 

 

 

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  


    

Bye bye Chris and Carly.

 And then there was six. Goodbye Chris and Carly, we hardly knew ya.

Poor Chris Christie must be kicking himself for two things: Bridgegate and Donald Trump. Let's face it, Christie was trump before trump. He was that brash shoot from the hip straight talker who hated political correctness.

Carly was just a liar who thought that she would be the republican's version of Hillary. At times she seemed to know what she was talking about, and she actually did a good job at some of those earlier debates, but her blatant lying to score political points was a bit much, even for a politician in 2016.

So anyway, now it's on to South Carolina, and trump is clearly in the driver's seat. Fortunately for him,  there are still enough candidates in the race to make his 30% of the voters enough to give him enough delegates to leave Cleveland as the republican nominee. If he wins the plurality of the votes in all those winner take all states, he will be hard to stop. Chris and Carly can do the math, so they hit the road.

On the democratic side, last night Bernie beat Hillary like she stole his Larry David autographed baseball hat. It was ugly. If you are in Hilary's camp you have to be wondering how you are going to get all those young people to start voting for you. 

Hillary and her peeps couldn't wait to get out of New Hampshire and head to South Carolina. This is where she has her so called "fire wall" propped up with black support.

But not so fast. Bernie has made it known that he will be going after the black vote, and he met with Rev. Al today in Harlem to show his Negro cred.

"I've asked him very bluntly about Flint. I've asked him very bluntly about affirmative action," Sharpton said of the conversation. "I've asked him very bluntly about the issues of police brutality and police misconduct, things I want to hear."'

The meeting was arranged at Sanders’ request, according to The Washington Post."

OK then. I am not sure how many black votes this little trip to Sylvia's will get Bernie, but it's nice to see that he is reaching out. Although he might consider someone else from the black community to reach out to. I know that to white folks Al Sharpton is black America, but you have to believe me when I tell you that he is not.

"Observers said the meeting is Sharpton’s way of telling the Clinton camp it should not take his endorsement for granted.

Bronna-Helm said she supported Sanders over Clinton because of her husband’s harsh policies in the 1990s that led to a surge in people of color behind bars. Bill Clinton has since said the legislation that led to a surge in new prisons and tougher sentences was a mistake.

“Her husband's policies effected my community in a very negative way,” she said. “I think the Clintons have taken the African-American votes for granted.”'

Oh ohhh. This could be a long primary season on the democratic side as well.


*Pic from abc.net.au