Day 757 Saturday February 2, 2019
639 Days to the 2020 election and 717 Days to Inauguration Day
Our remote clicker has a undocumented feature and that is that if you press the DVR rewind or forward button, from time to time, it will take you out of what you were watching and bring you back to live TV and move you up one channel from what you had been watching previously on live TV. (I guess I could have written “it changes the channel.” Oh well. Ever onward.)
When it did it to me last night I found myself watching Stephen Colbert. He announced that his next guest was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or as all of us old folk who think we are being cool say, “AOC,” and besides that’s easier to remember how to spell than her name.
I watched. Let me say anyone who messes with her does so at their peril. She is personable, engaging, and genuine. She is well spoken and what she says is practical and easy to understand. Watch out in six years when when is old enough to run for President. When she walked out from behind the curtain the crowd greeted her with a roar and a standing ovation, which didn’t stop right away. There is great affection for her. I was struck by her size. She is petite, like Ariana Grande petite. I had no idea. She has tweeted about her life, so far, as a Congressperson. One shot was a picture of her snuggled in bed eating ice cream after a long day. Somehow, I can’t see Mitch McConnell or any other politician doing that, nor would I want to see the pic. There is a level of genuineness that I have rarely seen in someone in political life. She was asked by Colbert about her being told “to wait her turn” and how many Fs did she gives about that. She looked down, laughed, and held up her hand with thumb and forefinger touching to form a “zero.”
She was asked about the shutdown. She said that because of that she couldn’t get her office set up. She couldn’t get to work on the things she was sent to Congress to do. There was therefore “more time to get in trouble.” She recounted how she and her colleagues went over to the Senate building to look for McConnell. Not being able to find him, (she didn’t know, I suspect, about the Senator’s unmarked “hidden” offices), she started a hashtag “Where’s Mitch?” Oh boy. You in trouble Mitch-ey!
Asked about her 70% tax plan. She pointed out this is not a new idea. This wasn’t taxing all of a person’s income at that rate, only that portion over $10,000,000.00 that a person makes in a year. She and Stephen talked that under Eisenhower the rate was 90%. The talked about her being called a socialist. “I’m not. Democratic Socialist – big difference.” Oh boy. Are you going to force the right wing, Fox and Friends to try and ferret out the difference?
Kids today: millennials, Gen Xers, Gen Y, whatever don’t give a damn about the tag Socialist. Got it? No? You will. Bye-bye.
Then we get to the freak out over Ralph Northam. OMG. The guys who ran Roy Moore’s campaign found a picture of Northam in his medical school yearbook It’s unfortunate. It’s insensitive in today’s world. So what are the Dems doing? Like they did to Franken, they are invoking a purity test based on today’s standards. Yes, it’s unfortunate, but has he shown any tendencies or behavior that would bolster the idea that Northam is racist? I haven’t heard of any, but I’m sure if there are any such evidence we’ll hear about it now. I can’t figure out how much of this is about Northam, and how much about certain politicians ganging up to appear to be in the “my poop don’t stink” camp, and how many want the Lieutenant Governor who is a black man to become Governor based on his race.
I wish Northam would just say, “Yup, I was stupid when I was younger. Sorry.” and get on with it.
Speaking of stupid…Donald Trump…
Need I go on?
639 Days to the 2020 election and 717 Days to Inauguration Day
PS Went downtown to a small theater to see Red Velvet. The story of Ira Aldridge a black actor in the 1800s, who went to Europe to avoid the discrimination in the U.S. The play itself is about whether a black man should play the part of Iago in Shakespeare’s “Othello” in London in 1833. Powerful stuff. The theater where it was held is the small theater above the Carpenter Theater part of the Dominion Theater (ie the Altria) Group. It plays through Feb 9th. (pictured is the actor Jamar Jones in lead as Ira Aldridge in the play “Red Velvet.”)
https://www.dominionenergycenter.com/events/detail/quill-theatre-presents-red-velvet
PPS The Super Bowl is tomorrow. I forgot. I thought we had another week. Who’s going to win? The Patriots. Don’t bet against Tom Brady. People wrote him off at the beginning of this season and I think it really pissed him off. I think he’s got this Super Bowl and maybe another in him. Just sayin’. The other team? Who cares? Now maybe he gets skunked. Maybe. Don’t bet on it. Patriots by 1, 7, 3, 2 or 38. You heard it here first!
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