American Idol- Top 20

I never do things this way, but this is a post I may just keep  adding on to to over a longer period of time. I may need to do that with the American Idol commentary for all the upcoming episodes this season. If I want to be able to cover this season, I may either need to do that or just wait until it all ends and watch recordings and enter the posts in the late spring and summer.

Long story short, I have been having and will continue to be having a lot going on, that just happens to correlate with many hours of Idol on Sundays and Mondays, at least for the next few weeks. I had a flood at my home and thus had to be elsewhere for a few days and have been trying to catch up with stuff at my job too. There is also a family Passover gathering on Monday that will be going on while an episode of Idol airs.

With all this stuff on my mind during the past crazed week, I did manage to watch Idol live last Sunday and Monday as an evacuee. I comprised rankings (which is extra difficult to do when there are 20 contestant performances each night) and as I usually do, also took a gander at predictions.

It is now Thursday night and I am going to begin watching Thursday's three hour episode again, so I can give some brief thoughts on each performance, pausing as I go, as if I were seeing them for the first time. Assuming I can find the papers I wrote them on though, I am going to stick to the rankings I made when I watched the show live and also my on the fly predictions.

 

Very possibly, my "second listen" could have me reaching some different opinions on the performances than I first thought but at the end of recapping all the songs, I am going to post how I initially ranked them and also my predictions, even though I now know which ones were wrong.

This all seems quite complicated but I have been doing this for years and do not want to quit just because of a little homeowner turmoil as I wait to see how much of a "good neighbor" my insurance will be. If I am going to do this though, it is going to be in chronological order, so after I finish the Top 20 which aired on Sunday, 4/14, which I may not be able to do in one sitting,  I will then have to do the same for the next episode, whenever the chance presents itself, and so on and so on. The bottom line is that these posts may not appear until weeks after the episodes air.

 

I will say I am quite pleased that my DVR somehow managed to still record these episodes even though it and my television were both unplugged at the time. This means I can watch them at home and be able to fast-forward through commercials at least.

The episode featured 20 out of the 24 remaining contestants getting a chance to sing for the first time in the Idol studio. The bottom two from each of the previous week's Hawa'i episodes are out of luck. I posted those rankings and predictions at the time, so no need to copy them over here now. As it would turn out, the next night would reveal the "Top 14." However, four of those picks would be the judges' selections, so even though Seacrest kept referring to who did and did not "make the Top 14", I have to assume, that the Top 10 vote-getters were just that.

1. Jack Blocker- "You Don't Mess Around With Jim"

There is a joke to be had regarding the contestant's name and Speaker Mike Johnson's use of cell-phone technology but I will not go there.

This was a really out of left-field song choice for American Idol. Jack switched up the arrangement though and made it sound like a more modern type of jam session, That seems to be his vibe. I always think I am going to dislike his performances when they begin but I guess I did not hate it. Always a good reminder to not pull the mask of the ol' Lone Ranger. I am remembering that I briefly went to grade school with the grandson and namesake of one of the radio voices of the Lone Ranger.

2. Mia Matthews- "Wildflowers and Wild Horses"

This will be the first of a plethora of songs performed over the next two nights that I have simply just never heard before. My parents seem to really like what Mia is doing on Idol, but while I think she is talented, I did not find much star quality in this particular performance.

As I am watching Idol, there seem to be reports that Israel is conducting bombings in both Iraq and Iran. Sounds like a sequel to a 1980s movie or something.I will turn on the news later and see what is what. If I am going to commit to Idol blogging tonight, I should stick with this though.

3. Mackenzie Sol- "I'll Never Love Again"

We learn that Mackenzie has a ton of followers from the slapstick comedy videos he posts as the soon to be banned Communist Chinese Spy App but has really been focused on a music career, ever since he jokingly went before Sharon Osborne and company at an X-Factor UK audition at age 4.

Will all these TikTok followers constitute a new "Sol Patrol" and keep him around longer than he deserves? That was my first impression. This particular performance had some hits and misses I believe in terms of his vocals. He started off an the piano and then stood up. It sounded like some of the low notes were rough but he was able to barely pull off some falsetto ones.

4. Roman Collins- "Never Would Have Made It"

I had ranked him 10th out of 12, so while I cannot say I never thought he would have made it, I did predict he would be one to not advance, because of the presence of other Gospel singers. However, Roman made it to the Top 20 and America heard of how he overcame a near death experience as a young child.

Gospel music is not something I know much about, but I have to say I just prefer the voices of Odell and Quintavious. There is no doubt that Roman is filled with the Spirit but his voice just sounds gruff a lot of the time and portions of the song he is just speaking rather than singing. This sort of thing might definitely be a moving experience inside of a church but I just am not feeling Roman as a singer on television.

There is no way I am going to be able to watch and blog this entire show tonight if I am going to be up to work tomorrow.

5. Kennedy Reid- "Love Can Build A Bridge"

At first I forgot if this was the night I thought she was good or the night I thought she was really bad. It turns out to have been the latter. However, there is some unfortunate irony about a Kennedy singing a song about a bridge.

For this performance on Sunday, Kennedy, who we are assured is really just 23 years old, performed sans wig. I do not expect to ever see a politician show up for a big debate without their toupee. Her video package featured her narrative of having her feelings hurt by online haters. That seems to be a little manipulative on behalf of the Idol producers but perhaps the ever so influential Melania Trump "Best Best" campaign against cyber bullies is paying attention.

Anyways, I think Kennedy performed this country ballad in a very solid and dignified way. There was not much exciting about it but she sounded good.

6. Ajii- "Like A Stone"

Upon looking it up, I see that this song was from 2002, but everything about it seemed '90s grunge,and Ajii was dressed the part in flannel. This was never my favorite style of music and Idol viewers may either be too old or too young to get it also.

This contestant can definitely sing but I think Ajii would better showcase himself doing soul and R&B or perhaps some well know ballads. He did seem a bit "angry" and while it is not fair of course, a lot of voters may not react so kindly to an angry Muslim dude singing a song.

7. Jennifer Jeffries- "Grave Digger"

During the auditions, she seemed like someone who could grow in the competition and go far. As this song started out, I was impressed by Jennifer's unique tone and delivery. Then, somewhere around the first chorus, if this song even has a true chorus,things went off the rails. It just started to sound really bad and young Jennifer clearly lost some confidence. The bottom line is that this was just not an appealing song to win votes and she should have chosen something different, and of course, sang it better.

8. Emmy Russell- "Want You"

Emmy is dressed up a bit more than she has been at times during this season (and more than she would be the next night) and for some reason, it makes her seem younger, which is probably a good thing for her.

She is the first contestant on the evening to perform an original song and I also believe this is the first time we have seen her without a piano or a guitar. The song may not have been exciting, but I appreciated her tone and the soft quality of her voice. It is very much a coffee shop type vibe though. Even if she is not great on television, she probably has one of the most studio- ready voices of the season.

9. Triston Harper- "H-O-P-E"

There was no surprise that Triston made it to the next round The 15 year old performed a song he wrote about how would should Hold On because Pain Ends. At least it was not about a small town in Arkansas that produces unprincipled politicians from both parties.

I think I have found Triston's other performances to be better, but there is no doubt he has a great voice for country music and whether his personality away from the actual performances is genuine or playing up to the cameras, I think he is succeeding very well at the Idol game. His mother Hattie Mae should probably be careful though to not sing along too emphatically on camera.

Three singers in this Jelly Roll Group remain. I remember thinking how much of a travesty it would be if the last one to advance was not Odell, but I was not too worried.

Who should have been eliminated from Group B: Elleigh Marie and KBlocks

Who I predicted would be eliminated from Group B: Elleigh Marie and Roman Collins

Who was eliminated from Group B: Elleigh Marie and Kblock

Rare current day political W for America. 

 

Go Israel. Beat Iran

Go Ukraine. Beat Russia

 

10.  Odell Bunton Jr. "The Door"

How could anyone not want to vote for him after the on camera endorsement from his five kids? However, I notice that Odell seems to be wearing thousands of dollars worth of jewelry. Did the show lend it to him? If he really owns all that bling himself, one would have to ask if that is really the best decision while his family has been struggling financially. Did the kind of religious people he is trying to get votes from have those kinds of thoughts?

Anyways, this was not a gospel song, but Odell can sure make anything sound like one. I really enjoy his voice and his performance style. My thought was that he definitely deserved to stick around this competition for several more weeks. The original artist of this song, Teddy Swims, who had previously performed as a guest, was strategically placed in the gallery with the contestants and seemed to be enjoying it as well.

Odell is in major tears as he gets praised after the performance. Knowing now that he did not get enough votes to advance, even understanding that the Gospel vote was split three ways, is still hard to comprehend.

11. KAYKO- "Over You"

Idol now moves on to Group A, having finished with Group B. Why not just go in order?

There is no surprise to me that KAYKO has advanced. He is singing the 485th song he ever wrote, along with an electric guitar interlude. While he is billed as hailing from South Florida, he speaks about living in Boston, which possibly means having attended Berklee College of Music and then also working in Nashville. . I liked the first 20 seconds or so I suppose. He certainly sounded "current." Then, it got a little weird. There was so much jumping around and vigorous yelling of the lyrics, that his voice suffered. It probably came across better in person. I think KAYKO is probably going to go pretty far this season. He seems like he would have belonged on "Glee."

Approaching Midnight now. I am going to "Save" this post and add to it until I can get through this episode.

I remember now that Group A was better than Group B overall in Hawai'i. That is probably why they went in the second half of this episode and indeed, things did get better at the end.

12. Jordan Anthony- "when the party's over"

Oh great. It is another one of those boring lowercase Billie Eilish songs.

 

Jordan seems like a nice bloke, but I just think he was really out of his depth on this evening. He has to be compared somewhat with Mackenzie, as they are both young, tall singers who were born as subjects under the British Crown. Unlike, Mackenzie, Jordan stayed seated at the piano the entire time, and had a slight microphone deflation.

Vocally, I did not think it was good at all. There were a lot of missed notes. At least Mackenzie was able to pull off a few good notes. At another time, I will ask what in the world the judges/producers were thinking on Monday night, but I will save that for the appropriate time.

13. Quintavious- "Hollow"

After making it to the Top 20, Quintavious sings the Tori Kelly song he almost sang in Hawai'i. Among Idol viewers, for now at least, he is not Q Anonymous.

I take it that this song has religious undertones (perhaps not even subtle ones) ant thus right up the alley for the worship leader. He sang it very well and as usual, did a lot of bouncing around on stage. In some ways, Quintavious, Odell, and Roman are different kinds of black church singers, yet were obviously competing for the same slice of the vote. I expected only one of them would make it to the "Finals" this season. I still think that O and Q are better singers than R.

14. Kaibrienne- "girl i am now"

Well, she seems to have settled on a new stage name, which I sort of saw coming, and for this performance, did an original song at the piano,with apparently is in all lowers.

I thought she would advance to the Top 20 but did not think she deserved to out of her group. We saw in Hawai'i, how she seemed really on edge and dealing with nerve issues. Believe me, I can relate to the stresses of life these days, but it seems like she had a major meltdown during this performance, stopping and pausing at least twice. It sort of reminded me of Brooke White at the piano over a decade and a half ago.

KB or Kaibrienne, or whatever she is calling the girl she is now does indeed have the makings of an interesting voice, but to me it sounds like she is misfiring far more often than not. Was she messing up on this performance or were the contents of the lyrics she wrote just so emotional to perform without breaking down? I think one of the songs she sang in Hollywood week was even more personal and raw and she got through that better. In any event, there was a chance she would gain a lot of sympathy votes for being vulnerable.

 

15. Nya- "Georgia On My Mind"

 

My father seems to like Nya and watched this performance a bunch of times. The week before I had her ranked 9 out of 12 but had predicted she would be eliminated. That was not the case.

 

I am surprised that someone is now singing a song I actually sort of know. The guest performance of "Little Boo Thing" by some singer I have never heard of  that I kept dozing off during on my replay is messing with my brain also. I think Nya is a good singer but I find it hard to envision her as an American Idol finalist. This performance just seemed a little too showy for me as she tried to do runs and whatnot. I think Nya is more in line with being a very good lounge singer than someone who could compete with Beyonce on the charts or even being anywhere near as good as say We Ani from last season. I am at a loss for how Katy Perry compared her to Jennifer Hudson. Nya sounds absolutely nothing like J-Hud.

 

16. Janya Elise- "My All"

 

When Jayna's name is called, she is congratulated by fellow contestant Julia who is dropping multiple f-bombs that the pre-recorded show bleeps out. Looking far less happy is young Hailey Mia, who is probably looking at who is left on the couch and has done the math in her head.

A very ambitious choice for Jayna to do a Mariah Carey ballad. I think she pretty much pulled it off. Towards the end, some notes may have not been completely in tune, but I think she is a heck of a singer and a performer. With so many of the contestants having direct competition in their various musical "lanes", I cannot help but compare Jayna to Nya, and think that Jayna is a lot better for Idol.

17. Abi Carter- "Welcome to the Black Parade"

I do not know this song by My Chemical Romance, but I assume it is not about the Bud Billiken Parade in Chicago.

This is a very emotional performance by Abi, who dedicates it to her recently deceased grandmother. Katy Perry is in tears from the start. Abi has very strong vocal and talent and she brought a lot of dynamics to this performance, from starting off softly to hitting some big notes near the end. I take it that Abi will play the piano a lot during her time on the show. With that in mind, while she probably does not sound a ton like her, she sort of looks like and reminds of Sara Bareilles.

I notice that there is a Kennedy and a Carter competing for the vote as if it were 1980. It is just too bad we do not have a Reagan or a Bush.

Next will be a guest performance by Lauren Spencer-Smith. I sort of remember that back in 2020 I thought she should not have been eliminated as soon as she was during the pandemic "sing from home": season. I recall that her family seemed to have a huge house in Canada. Maybe she was eliminated because she was the first American Idol contestant to actually perform from foreign soil. She seems to have made it in the music industry now though. Nobody else that season has. Unfortunately, that season's winner Just Sam, is more likely to be singing again in the subway to be invited to the Idol stage.

18. Will Moseley- "Makin' Me Look Good Again"

On balance, the ladies seem stronger than the guys this season, but a male usually wins, and I have to peg Will as the early frontrunner

 

The recent (ok something freaky happened with Blogger and I am just glad I did not lose this entire post) biology degree grad said he would give himself a year to make it in the music business and it seems likely he can extend that effort. Will is a very good singer and seems incredibly chill and unaffected by this whole television thing. While he is a country artist, his voice also has influences from Southern Rock, which should make "Big Mo" appealing to non-C&W fans.

"Big Mo",. along with Kennedy and Carter, is also something that comes from the 1980 Presidential primary season.

Two spots left for four singers. It seemed pretty obvious which two deserved it and it just so happens that both were adopted.

19. McKenna Faith Breinholt- "Both Sides Now"

The final segments of this episode were going to be pretty good. McKenna seems older than she is (which is not meant to imply she looks old or anything) but she just seems like she should already be famous in the music world.

I am not really a Joni Mitchell fan, but I very much enjoyed what McKenna did with this song. Her playing at the piano will probably earn her some comparisons to Abi, but it is hard to see what more McKenna could have done. Her lower register is just superb when she sings. Her speaking voice however seems strained.

As I have said before various times over the years, I cannot stand when contestants perform barefoot. If I had the ability to subtract points for that I would (call it the Paul Kim Rule.)

 

Who should have been eliminated from Group A: Blake Proehl and Kaibrienne

Who I predicted would be eliminated from Group A: Blake Prohel and Nya

Who was eliminated from Group A: Blake Prohel and Hailey Mia

Blake has been cut from teams before so he seems to take it in stride. The disappointment is very evident though for Hailey

My internet is being weird and I am trying to take steps to make sure I do not lose anything I have typed on this post.

20. Julia Gagnon- "I Believe"

I take it that Julia likes to sing Diva covers. Taking on Fantasia's winner's song from a literal generation ago is pretty bold. Other Idol contestants in the years since have probably regretted doing so.

From all the other times I can recall, this is perhaps the best showing of this song since Fantasia. Julia can really belt and do lots of other things with her voice. Just like Fantasia, she also broke down at the very last "I believe." I am not convinced that was not planned. As good as Julia is, I think that some Idol viewers may be a bit turned off by her.

 

Rankings:

 

20. Jordan Anthony

19. Roman Collins

18. Kaibrienne

17. Jennifer Jeffries

16. Mackenzie Sol (predicted Top 10 vote finish)

15. Nya

14. Ajii

13. KAYKO (predicted Top 10 vote finish

12. Jack Blocker

11. Mia Matthews

 

10. Emmy Russell (predicted Top 10 vote finish)

9.   Quintavious

8.   Kennedy Reid

7.   Abi Carter (predicted Top 10 vote finish)

6.   Jayna Elise (predicted Top 10 vote finish)

5.   Triston Harper (predicted Top 10 vote finish)

4.   Will Moseley (predicted Top 10 vote finish)

3.   Odell Bunton Jr (predicted Top 10 vote finish)

2.   Julia Gagnon (predicted Top 10 vote finish)

1..  McKenna Faith Breinholt (predicted Top 10 vote finish)

 

White House Race- April 13, 2024

This last month has been full of surprises and challenges for me. Yesterday morning, I had a sudden household emergency involving a water main break and a lot of damage. So for now, I am displaced and do not feel much about the Presidential race. Hopefully, I might be able to be back home sometime this week. I may have to delay my blog coverage of five hours of American Idol tomorrow and Monday. For now, I am just trying to keep perspective.

Things definitely have to be scarier and more full of uncertainty for the citizens of Israel as compared to whatever personal inconvenience I am currently going through. It is difficult to watch coverage of Iran's attack on Israel. It reminds of me Saturday October 7, when I was literally feeling top sick that day to peruse news. Israel seemed well prepared for this attack though and thankfully the United States is playing a role in defending Israel as well. Hopefully, our alliance will never be fractured the way many on the fringe left and the isolationist right want. It is vastly important to both of our nations. A CNN interview this week of Independent Presidential candidate Cornel West and his equally radical professor running-mate was almost too outrageous to believe. This ticket seemed to bend over backwards to literally defend Hamas. Joe Biden and Democrats are worried about losing votes to these folks.

So, next weekend, or perhaps in the near future, I will go into more detail about all the events shaping the 2024 Presidential election. This Monday, as I will be awaiting updates on how to get my home fixed, Donald Trump will become the first former President and first presumptive Presidential nominee to be the defendant in a criminal trial. This is the one in New York City.

We will also look more closely into issues like abortion and how the national debate over the contentious issue as well as the fights in the states, such as Florida and Arizona, are expected to play a big role in this race. We know that Democrats are promising to protect abortion at the federal level, despite knowing they will not have the votes in the next Congress to ensure any such thing. Donald Trump has taken a variety of positions as a political candidate on this issue, and most recently refused to even say he is personally Pro-Life. After having been expected to call for national legislation to limit abortion (for which there would also not be the votes), he looked at the polls and said "leave it up to the states" after all.  There are political ramifications to that. Democrats would prefer to paint him as someone who wants a national ban and he sort of took away their ability to do that, by basically taking the Nikki Haley position. Some social conservatives are dismayed at Trump over this, yet it is hard to see how they are going to abandon him in large numbers, at least the folks who have stood by his thus far.

One thing is certain though, Trump's repeated narrative that "every legal scholar in America" wanted to see Roe vs. Wade overturned is so patently and ridiculously false, it is amazing to see how there is a single American who does not view him as a complete and total laughing stock.

American Idol- Top 24 Part 2

Monday was the day of the big eclipse, which people literally freaked out and cried about over television. I thought we had one of those just a few years ago. Either way, there was no chance I would try to look at it. The Men's NCAA Championship game was also on Monday night, and after that was over, I watched a recording of another two hour episode of American Idol from Hawai'i.' While I was watching that late on Monday, I was aware that the Cubs were blowing an 8-0 lead out on the West Coast and would lose, so that was a bit disconcerting but I still ranked all the performances and now, nearly 48 hours later, I will try to remember my thoughts.

For this group, the mentor was Jelly Roll. A year ago, I would not have heard of him and if not for his appearance on Idol's Finale last season, I might not still know much about him. My mother seems to know about all his life and career though from prison to stardom. I will say that he sure knows how to talk and despite his appearance, could be a heck of a politician if he wanted to be. Many people will have been impressed by what they viewed as the sincerity he demonstrated while mentoring these kids.

All things considered, I thought the first group was better than the group that followed.

1. Odell Bunton Jr.- "Uptown Funk"

 

I cannot hear try to come name and not immediately think of Odell Beckham Jr. He was very impressive in the auditions and won a Platinum Ticket. He also has a ton of kids (although apparently with the same wife). Maybe Nick Cannon should be his mentor.

This was an interesting song choice. Odell has an extremely good voice and can probably knock it out of the park doing Gospel or R&B but instead picked a well-known pop song. Perhaps, it was not the best showcase for his voice, but he definitely put his own spin on it and proved he can work a stage also.

2. Elleigh Marie- "Forget You"

 

I thought I could forget all about this song (which also has an alternate title and version) and never have to hear it again. I am not sure why she chose this one for her one chance to win over America. She also looks a little bit younger than 20.

From what I recall, she was a bit off-key at parts. The narration of it is weird also. Is she singing it to the dude who cheated on her or to the other woman? Maybe it made more sense when Cee-Lo sang it. Maybe not.

3. Mackenzie Sol- "Jealous"

I was somewhat surprised when British transplant Mackenzie was chosen as the winner of the final "sing-off" in the last Hollywood episode against annoying Dutch reality star Ziggy. If anything, Ziggy would have made for better television and I envisioned he could have played the polarizing role Nutsa had last season. Also, Ziggy probably won that sing-off, but he did not get the chance to duplicate his sixth place finish from Dutch Idol eight years ago, or whatever it actually was.

Vocally, I thought Mackenzie was alright on this Nick Jonas song and might have done what he intended to do on the falsetto note but it was perhaps not quite exactly American Idol quality. I think Mackenzie is more of a TikTok star than a pop-star in the making, at least until TikTok gets banned.

4. Jennifer Jeffries- "Bruises"

During the auditions, I sort of had mixed feelings regarding the voice of 17 year old Jennifer. She is a very stylized singer and I cannot really think of anybody she sounds like.

For this performance, she debated whether or not she should put the guitar down for the first time, but ultimately she played it. I have to say thought, that I sort of "got" from a vocal standpoint for the first time. She probably does not have a lot of musical versatility and a lot of her performances may wind up sounding very similar, but there is a lot of substance to the grit of her voice. Jennifer will probably not win this show, but she is likely to get better as she gets older.

5. Emmy Russell- "Beautiful Things"

Her backstory is that her "Meemaw" is the country legend Loretta Lynn who passed away in 2022. Also, that Emmy is fighting extreme shyness, despite being around stages and audiences her entire life.

In truth, she sounds nothing like her famous grandmother and the coal miner's great-granddaughter should  not be mistaken for a country singer. Emmy has her own singer-songwriter vibe and I have been very impressed by the tone and purity of her voice. I do not think she would do very well if she tried to belt out a power ballad or sang an upbeat dance number, but what she does, she does very well, and I liked how she sounded on Monday's show.

 

6. Ajii- "Higher"

 

I believe the Brooklyn native Ajii is the first Pakastani-American semifinalist in Idol history. He also comes across as a very genuine guy who has been supportive of his fellow contestants.

His voice and persona also reminds me a bit of another New York, Christian Guardino from a couple seasons ago. I do not know this song that Ajii did but as he started off, I was very impressed by the soulful vocals. Then, it sort of went into a reggae thing that I did not like as much, but he proved he can entertain an audience.

7. Kennedy Reid- "Fancy"

This mortician from Indiana has a name that reminds me of a couple of my least favorite Democrat Senators from years gone by. I was doubtful that Kennedy Reid could get enough votes to break the Idol filibuster, but I may have underestimated her, wig and all.

This was a pretty impressive karaoke-like country performance of a well-known song. I sense that Kennedy pulled out all the stops for this opportunity, and it may be enough to send her to the Top 20.

8. Jack Blocker- "Rainbow"

His whole singing vibe reminds me of a cross between Kris Allen and Phillip Phillips, both of whom won Idol. Jack did not make out of the audition room with two yeses, until the "crew" supposedly intervened and he was given a ticket to Hollywood after all. Now, he is probably going to stick around for at least a couple more weeks.

People will have to get used to the crazy facial contortions he pulls out when emoting vocally. I think he sings decently enough and might be improving at this stage in the competition, although I do not really remember much about this particular song.

9. Roman Collins- "How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You"

Roman definitely tried to appeal to older fans in the Idol audience, perhaps with an emphasis on African-Americans by singing this well-known oldie. He has gotten a lot of praise from the judges for being another gospel influenced type of singer. From what I remember, I did not really get the sense that he really "took it to church" on this song.

There is a fine line between being a very good wedding singer and someone who can score big on a singing television competition, and for me, Roman might be more of the former.

10. KBlocks- "Harleys In Hawaii"

I did not know Katy Perry had a song like this. Perhaps, I was better off not knowing. One thing is for sure, KBlocks is very unique (although the night before featured another KB)

She will clearly be a polarizing contestant. Some may love her style and her energy and others may just be very turned off by her whole thing. I might be somewhat in the middle. I tried to find some good things about her vocal performance but large parts of it just sounded very rough. She sort of resembles a young Whoopi Goldberg so maybe KBlocks could do something in the acting world. Being able to sing (for those who think she can) cannot hurt her future ambitions either, but I do not think she will be around for too much longer.

11. Mia Matthews- "Daddy's Hands"

I vaguely remember her, her younger sister, and their mother being a country trio on "The Voice" a few years ago. This year, both sisters tried out for Idol, with their momager close at hand, and made it to Hollywood, although Mia is now the only sibling remaining. 

She was another contestant this season who went for the emotional heartstrings by dedicating a performance to a deceased parent. Vocally, I thought it was kind of mid, as the young folks might say. Others may disagree with me. I believe my mother thought she was the best one in this group. For some reason, I just think she is talented but not quite someone I see as a country star. I actually think the idea of going back to a trio with her sister and mother could work out better.

12. Triston Harper- "God's Country"

One cannot help but be impressed by 15 year old Triston, even if you are not a country music fan. The young Alabama singer is going to be the first really prominent Idol contestant from a Native American background, although it is likely he is also part African-American. In any event, it is hard to see him as anything other than country, from his mature musical stylings to his humble background and earnest demeanor.

There is definitely a Scotty McCreery like chance that Triston will go very far this season. I was pretty impressed by his vocals on this Blake Shelton song, which I had never heard before. He will get a ton of votes for now, although I cannot really see him doing great if he attempts other genres.

Rankings: 

12. Elleigh Marie

11. KBlocks

(should be the two eliminated)

10. Roman Collins

 9. Mia Matthews

 8. Mackenzie Sol

 7. Kennedy Reid

 6. Jack Blocker

 5. Odell Bunton Jr.

 4. Ajii

 3. Triston Harper

 2. Jennifer Jeffries

 1. Emmy Russell

 Predicted Eliminations: 

Elleigh Marie and Roman Collins

American Idol- Top 24 Part 1

About 15 years ago, the Internet was full of American Idol blogs and I was one of the people doing them, as I first began back in 2007. These days, I do not think there is any amateur blogger in the country who still covers this show in as much detail as I do. If nothing else, it is a diversion from politics.

So, once again, I will be watching the show and offering performance reviews, weekly contestant rankings, predictions, and voting analysis. However, I have been fairly busy the last few days as I type this late on a Tuesday night. I managed to catch up on all four hours of Idol by watching recordings after the shows had already ended airing "live" on Sunday and Monday evening. At the time, I made my rankings, which are pretty much based on vocal performance alone, as well as my predictions for the bottom two for each group, which are supposedly supposed to be eliminated during a three hour episode next Sunday night.

Tonight, I am going to stick to the Sunday night episode and tomorrow, I will plan to blog about the Monday night show. With the passage of time, my memory of the performances will have faded a bit, and thus, the critiques will be a bit short, but I think I will get some basic points across. Later on in the season, I can try to "live-blog" each performance, pausing after each song, or at least get the write-up done on the same night, but that was not possible this week.

Once again, the kids, host, and judges are at the Disney report in Hawai'i. On Sunday, the guest mentor was Tori Kelly, who  is now a Grammy winner, but was once a young Idol hopeful herself. She never made it past Hollywood Week however, so she is now mentoring contestants who have already gone further on the show than she ever did.

1. Hailey Mia- "she's all i wanna be"

I am not even going to be familiar with many of these newer songs the contestants are doing, especially the one that are stylized in either all lowercase or all caps. I suppose a TruthSocial musical would only feature songs in all caps.

From what I recall, 16 year old Hailey sounded very competent but also came across as fairly young and inexperienced.

2. Jordan Anthony- "Titanium"

This song I know. Jordan is a singer from Australia who as far as we have been told has never lived in the United States. In recent years, the ABC version of American Idol has been open to foreigners, or at least those from the "nice countries"

Not a bad effort on a big song from Jordan, but as I recall, he seemed maybe a little bit behind the beat and maybe attempted too many runs.

3. Jayna Elise- "Confident"

This Demi Lovato song is probably kind of polarizing to some viewers. Jayna delivered it with big vocals and big attitude as well. Appropriately enough, she seemed very confident on stage. That is basically what I remember about 48 hours later.

4. Julia Gagnon- "Rumour Has It"

Adele has a lot of great songs, and I am not sure this is one of them. One thing for sure though, is that Julia is crazy talented, which is why she was one of the three people to get a "Platinum Ticket" this season.

I think she can probably outbelt anybody in the competition this season and while she seems like a nice person, it is also clear that she recognizes that she is very good at what she does. I enjoyed the way she showed off her powerful voice but some may think she was overdoing it a bit. It is very possible she will cement herself eventually as my personal vocal favorite this season.

5. KAYKO- "How To Live Without You"

During the auditions, in what felt like a complete pre-arranged productions, this particular person was a piano player for a friend who was auditioning. Then, Sam was "convinced" to sing for Luke, Lionel, and Katy himself and blew them away and big surprise, was off to Hollywood. I recall thinking during his piano driven performance that he would go very far this season.

Now, he has the stage name of KAYKO (in all caps) which I am surmising comes from his last name(s) of Kelly-Cohen. (Too Irish or too Jewish?") The singer formerly known as Sam sang an original tune about missing his deceased mother and for that reason alone will get a ton of votes. The winning Iam Tongi narrative of last season about a deceased parent is going to be used by more than one contestant this season.

KAYKO is a very good singer but I do not think his vocals were as stellar as the judges thought.

6. Nya- "The Best"

Idol has presented Nya as your not so typical Broadway singer, who has a chance to also be a mainstream pop star. To me, she feels like someone who they are not expecting to actually be around that long this season. Critics might use the political parlance "DEI"to explain her presence in the Top 24. I do not know if I would go that route, but I was a bit underwhelmed.

Nya is of course a good singer, but singing a Tina Turner song, especially this one, really opens up a lot of room for comparison and it is hard to hear anybody cover this without hearing what the late Tina Turner brought to it.

7. Blake Proehl- "Anyone"

I was definitely surprised they put him in the Top 24. He seems to be out of his depth. Blake is the son of prominent retired NFL Wide Receiver Ricky Proehl, who spent one season with the Chicago Bears and then went on to greater fame with the Rams team that was once in St. Louis. So, Blake joins Nikko Smith and Joe Magrane in being Idol contestants who had fathers who played professional sports in St. Louis, although baseball was the case for others. What is more though, is that Blake himself is a former NFL player, sort of. Also a WR, he was signed by the Minnesota Vikings, but apparently never got past the practice squad, and decided to leave football due to injury. Still though, as someone who was at least making the NFL minimum for one season, I wonder if he went into Idol as technically the "wealthiest" contestant in the show's history, I am not considering the fact that he obviously grew up in a very rich family. (An older brother, has also had some stints on NFL practice squads as a WR)

Anyways, Blake sang a Justin Bieber song I do not know, and while he looks like a generic mid 20s pop star, and seems like a nice guy, it was not very good vocally. I will say that as far as football players go, Blake can probably outsing Travis Kelce, although the latter would probably easily win the show these days based upon a certain connection.

8. Abi Carter- "Oceans  (Where Feet May Fail")

Abi is another platinum ticket winner, although I am struggling to remember much about her audition. From what I recall, she sounded good on Sunday night. I think I was struck by the fact that she was singing a song from "Hillsong" UNITED, which I did not know was a thing. I am just familiar with Hillsong having been a very large mega-church out of Australia, that later became very controversial, with allegations of abuse, and considered by many to be a cult. Clearly though, this was a worship song.

9. Quintavious- "Something In The Water"

Which brings us to an actual worship singer. For this performance in Hawai'i,  Quintavious went with some Carrie Underwood. Taking on country seemed like a bold choice, and for the first few parts of the song, it seemed like he was going to sing it as a country song. Then, he broke into full gospel mode and was very impressive. That particular genre of music might be all that he will really do well on the show, but it will get him a lot of praise from the judges every time.

10. Kaibrienne "KB" Richins- "Heaven"

This is how her name is presented on the show. I do not really see the point and have to think she will just transition to KB if she sticks around. KB Richins would also be a good compromise, although it sounds a bit like the Governor of Illinois (and his wife) who both use two initials as a first name.

"Heaven" by Bryan Adams has been done many times in Idol history and female singers have historically struggled with the classic. If I am not mistaken, KB sang a particular arrangement of the song which was first done by her fellow Utahn David Archuleta in live performances after his season of Idol was over. I think she has real potential but I do not think she pulled off what she was going for. KB also seemed extremely nervous and out of sorts over this whole experience and that does not bode well because the pressure will only increase.

11. Will Moseley- "Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay"

Why does his name remind of something from the Star Wars saga? Maybe one of those fanatics can figure out why. While he did not play in Division 1, as Blake Proehl did, Will is another former college football player and while Blake was cut by the Vikings, Will looks like he could actually be a Viking.

I also think Will might be the early frontrunner to take this season. The Georgian is pretty much the epitome of a "white guy with a guitar" and has the everyman quality that older female voters tend to like. He was pretty much the only true country singer in this first group of 12, which would have him easily advance, but he also played it smart by doing an old soul song from the 1960s that people from my parents' era are definitely familiar with.

This was a very impressive, almost effortless vocal and Will made it fit his style very well. I probably will not be really into the country ballads he is likely to perform during his run this season, but I can envision him sounding like a seasoned pro every week and winning a ton of votes.

12. McKenna Faith Breinholt- "The Story"

Another female singer with a long name, and like Guatemala born Julia, also an adopted daughter. McKenna's particular story involves her now deceased birth mother having been a moderately successful singer in the past.

We have seen McKenna perform at the piano but this was the first time with guitar. There is no doubt she has a very appealing quality to her voice, especially when she hits lower notes. It will be interesting to see how she can adapt her unique tone to a wider variety of musical choices, but this performance was really good. She sounds like someone who should also be famous.

Rankings:

12. Blake Proehl

11. Kaibrienne "KB" Richins

(should be the two eliminated)

10. Jordan Anthony

9.  Nya

8. Hailey Mia

7. KAYKO

6. Abi Carter

5. Jayna Elise

4. Quintavious

3. McKenna Faith Breinholt

2. Julia Gagnon

1. Will Moseley

Predicted Eliminations:

Blake Proehl and Nya

White House Race- April 6, 2024

It is another Saturday and we have reached a new Major League Baseball season and I have reached another birthday. Yet, the Presidential candidates are the same as four years ago. Every event in the news is hyper-politicized from an accident causing a bridge collapse, to an east coast earthquake to Monday's upcoming eclipse.

 

I will avoid taking the time to go off on a rant over the ridiculous brouhaha and fake outrage on the right over the fact that this past Easter Sunday on March 31 just happened to coincide with International Transgender Day of Visibility. Let me just briefly say, that if the latter somehow prevented you from having a meaningful former, there is probably something wrong with you and your own religious identity that you should try to rectify.

On Capitol Hill, there are still conflicts regarding aid to Ukraine. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor-Green is threatening to make House Speaker Mike Johnson go the way of Kevin McCarthy if he brings a vote to the floor. This time, Democrats might vote to save the job of the new Speaker. House Republicans continue to be a mess and an embarrassment..

Incumbent Joe Biden is unpopular due to his job performance and even more Americans worry about his age and ability to serve another term. He ought to be extremely vulnerable to be defeated this November, and indeed he may, but he is running against Donald Trump. so he might win, but the country will suffer either way. In what is already the post-Presidential primary season, many Americans are tuning out this campaign until at least the summer, and there is some indication that Biden is making a bit of a comeback in the polls. I think it is more accurate to describe those results as buyers' remorse over Trump. once again. The longer this campaign goes on, the crazier and more unhinged Trump will act and that is what Democrats are counting on. I really do not know how else to describe it.

As could be expected due to recent events and numerous candidates passing up the opportunity, the No Labels effort will not put forth a ticket, despite having ballot access in a bunch of states and a lot of money.To me, this is a lost opportunity, both in terms of who I might vote for and for the sake of the country, but the bottom line is that nobody wants to do anything that might help Trump win. Biden is that weak politically that it is seen as too big of a risk. Thus, anybody in anything considered a "swing state" will feel a lot of pressure to vote for Biden in order to save America from another Trump term. I cannot argue with that perspective. However, I do not live in a swing state. I voted for Biden last time and while his campaign is said to be trying to reach out to "Nikki Haley Republicans" or others who once made up a large portion of the party, the fact of the matter is that the Biden-Harris Administration has squandered their opportunity for three years now. It is hard to really take them seriously.

Robert Kennedy Jr is running as an Independent and is getting a lot of media attention. It is hard to underestimate just how crazy he is. Most people associate him with the anti-vax cause but we may forget that he has an extensive written and spoken record of saying that 9/11 was maybe an inside job and that both the 2000 and 2004 elections were stolen by Republicans. Now, he is making comments that minimize the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. This Kennedy nonsense is really nothing new, yet Democrats chose to overlook it for a long time, at least until Covid started and being anti-vax was a weapon to be used against Republicans (perhaps appropriately so.) Democrats wanted RFK Jr to run for office in the past. Even after he said what he did about 9/11 and the 2004 election, Barack Obama wanted to make him EPA Administrator. He remained a sought after campaign fundraiser and surrogate for Democrats until 2020. Now, he poses a threat to them politically. In many ways,they have themselves to blame. The "Myth of Camelot" means that some anti-Biden Democrats will vote for him just because of his last name.

The election is expected to be close. Each Electoral Vote may count and Maine and Nebraska choose their electors in a slightly different way from the other 48 states. In 2020, Trump easily won Nebraska as a whole, but lost the Omaha based 2nd Congressional District. Now, Trump and his allies wanted the Republican dominated government of Nebraska (though the Legislature is officially non-partisan) to quickly change the rule so that Trump could take all five votes when he wins the state. If this were to happen, Maine might follow suit, rendering it all a wash. However, it looks like despite pleas from Trump and the public support of the state's Governor, the Republicans in the Nebraska Legislature who really matter are not going to move forward. This is essentially a big middle finger to Trump from people in his own party. It is not worth going into all the reasons they may be reluctant to change their state's electoral vote law at this time, but if the final vote winds up being 269-269.everyone will be talking about Nebraska.

Moving on to the final topic, it will now have been six months since the horrific Hamas attack on Israel, Many hostages, including some Americans, remain captive. Many Jews and Muslims have been killed in this conflict, not just between the warring sides, but as collateral damage in Gaza. Hamas seems to want it that way and the pressure remains on Israel in a way that pressure has never been put on any other country in world history defending itself.

There was a horrible incident recently in which Israel mistakenly fired upon an aid convoy of foreigners who were involved in getting food into Gaza. Innocent people died and there has been outrage around the world. Israel has admitted what they mistakenly did, apologized, and have moved to fire those responsible for this loss of life. Needless to say, a full accounting of what happened and why is crucial so that such a horrible mistake can never happen again. This is what differentiates Israel from its enemies. They actually feel bad about the loss of innocent life, even when it can be claimed that "war is hell" and things like this are sometimes unavoidable. Indeed, there might even be a contrast to how the United States in 2021 sort of shrugged off a mistake our military made in which innocent Afghans were killed.

One of the most unfortunate aspects of this election year is that Democrats and indeed anybody who wants to see Biden beat Trump are basically being held as political hostages by the anti-Israel left. I have written about this a good deal over the last six months. The bottom line is that many people who will cast votes Biden needs are threatening not to do so in November, even if elects Trump. They are continuing to interrupt mainstream Democrat events in protest and this summer's Chicago convention is likely to be ugly, both outside and inside the United Center, as left-wingers will protest and denounce the Biden Administration in harsh terms.

Yes, Biden is in a tough place. I wish he and his party had the moral fortitude to stand for what is right and as Harry Truman once said, "let the chips fall where they may." He is not the kind of politician, and Democrats are not that kind of party,  and these are not their times. So, they are going to try to have it both ways by trying to privately reassure Israel (and Jewish-Americans) that they support the nation's survival but yet they should be quiet as Biden and his surrogates will also go out of their way to make various negative or threatening statements about Israeli policy or Benjamin Netanyahu in particular.

Who is the winner of all of this domestic political maneuvering? Well, Hamas of course. Also, Iran, whom the United States believe is about to launch attacks on Israel. All of the focus on Israel in a negative way is exactly what they want. It is far easier to forget about the hostages and the brutal murders and rapes that occurred six months ago, when Israel makes a war-time mistake and kills civilians. Clearly, Hamas wants as many civilians dead as possible. In America, Democrats are very divided over Israel and this war, but even those who might sympathize with Israel privately are having to keep that to themselves because the tunnel vision is in getting Joe Biden reelected. I understand the political reality, but that does not make it right. At this point, I also want to salute two particular Democrat Members of Congress who have stood unflinchingly by Israel and thus have demonstrated tremendous political courage. They are Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Congressman Ritchie Torres of New York. Neither is Jewish. Both are well, well, well to my left politically, but my respect for them continues to grow.

 

Will some pro-Israel Americans switch their votes from Biden to Trump over this issue? Perhaps. However, Trump sounds like those leftists himself when he rambles about the conflict. He is saying that Israel is "losing support" and needs to "finish their war very very quickly." Trump's Evangelical Christian base thinks he is pro-Israel, but is he really?

White House Race- March 30-31, 2024

I have covered every Presidential cycle since 2008, always posting on Saturday, the year before, and the year of the election. Last Saturday, I had to miss a post though and provided a brief entry on Sunday. Now, I think I may just leave the option open to do it on a Saturday or a Sunday. After all, Saturday is supposed to be the day of rest for my people.

Anyways, I am not going to write much this weekend. The latter portion of March has had me dealing with some stuff. Dwelling on the sad state of national politics is not really the best thing for me right now. Plus, there just is not all that much consequential happening in this Presidential race. I still hope to keep this blog going after nearly 18 years. I just have to get some things dealt with this upcoming week, and if all is well, I will be in a better mood about everything next weekend. Then, I can go back to writing about a Presidential election, where the good news is that at least one of the parties will lose, also cover another season of American Idol, and hopefully do write-ups as usual of all this year's Gubernatorial and Senate elections.

A quicker than normal recap is to follow. Very shortly after I finished writing on March 16, we learned that Aaron Rodgers would not be RFK Jr's running-mate. Instead, it was clear, and indeed came to pass that he named Nicole Shanahan, a tech attorney millionaire, who has helped finance his political efforts. Despite the double Irish names of Kennedy and Shanahan, the would be Vice President is a 38 year old with a mother who was born in China. Like Bobby Kennedy Jr,, she is also twice divorced, most recently last year from the co-founder of Google. She has a lot of money though and thus might be able to help the ticket gain ballot access. She also appears to share Kennedy's wacky left-wing views on a variety of things.

Some thought that Kennedy might take votes away from Trump on the wacky right, but it has been said that this selection actually upset many disaffected conservatives who were open to Kennedy. The kickoff event they held in Oakland seemed to have people in the crowd who were firmly in the wacky left. Even both Donald Trump took over the Republican Party, there was a burgeoning movement of Ron Paul supporters and the like who found it easy to latch on to Trump. Democrats have their own issues with crazy folks on their side, and a lot of them seem to be willing to support Kennedy, or Cornel West, or maybe Jill Stein. Thus, these parties are all likely to take votes from Biden, and not Trump. The Centrist No Labels organization has suffered some major blows as of late (which will be expanded on later on) and seems unlikely to run any candidate. Most recently, Chris Christie was said to have been giving a run a very hard look before determining he would not want to do anything that might help elect Trump. So, the inner thinking of so many of these folks seems to be that as bad as it would be for the country in the short-term, Biden needs to win, because Trump winning would be far worse in the long-term. I get it and I would hope everyone in anything closely resembling a swing state will vote accordingly. I do not live in a swing-state and thus can hold on to my conscience as best possible.

That leads me to the Illinois Primary which was held on March 19. Despite being a lifelong Republican and former party activist and precinct captain, I took a Democrat ballot, as I did in 2020 when I wrote in Mitt Romney for President. My motivation four years ago and this year was to vote in the Democrat Primary for Cook County States' Attorney. We have a horrible incumbent in that office but my vote against her four years ago was for naught. This year, she declined to seek another term, which was good news, but the County party backed another candidate who would have basically followed the same path. Another, at least slightly tougher on crime Democrat ran against him, and I voted for her. This time, the person I voted for won! So, it was indeed smart to declare myself a Democrat, at least for a day. This candidate had a modest lead on Election Night, but the final was not confirmed until just a couple of days ago. Mail in ballots, mostly from Chicago, kept chipping away at her lead, and I started to get a bit pessimistic, but was not enough and she prevailed in a 50-50 race. So, the good news is change will be coming away from a Soros like prosecutor mindset, at least hopefully. In November, I will probably cast a "protest vote" for the even tougher on crime Republican nominee for this office, but of course, that election will not be close.

What did I do for the Presidential race? Lots of states have had people voting for Uncommitted because they are mad at Joe Biden for what they see as too much support for Israel. I was glad he was supporting Israel right after October 7, and I choose to believe that is where his heart really is, but I am disappointed by the pandering he has been doing to the anti-Israel left because he is scared of losing their vote. In Illinois, Democrats were encouraged to write in "Gaza" instead of voting for Biden and indeed there was a huge undervote in the Presidential election in Cook County as compared to the States' Attorney election. I was once of those undervotes. I did not write in "Gaza" although I obviously care about the innocent people being killed and harmed there. I know that sole reason they are being killed and harmed is Hamas though. My 2024 Presidential Primary vote was to write in "SUPPORT ISRAEL JOE."

The campaign has gone on for the past two weeks plus regardless of how much attention I have been paying to it as compared to usual. Some polls show a modest Biden comeback. Buyer's remorse is often a real thing when it comes to Presidential nominees,and there should be a hell of a lot of remorse over Trump. The day to day optics of the Biden campaign continue to be weak but they are raising a ton more money than Republicans and will have far greater advantages in infrastructure and organization in the swing states. Those things will probably matter, but the election is very close and America should have a better option. As we see day by day, and for specifics that I am not going to bother getting into this weekend, we can all see that Donald Trump is an unprincipled grifter and a general menace to society. Some people think those are some of his better qualities however. If he sells a lot of his Bibles, maybe it would be a good idea for the purchasers to try to actually read some of the book.

I was very saddened this week to learn of the unexpected death of Senator Joe Lieberman. Going back to the 1990s, I knew that I was in a different political party and that we had many different views on domestic and social issues, but I always saw him as someone worthy of respect, and my respect for him only grew as the years and decades moved on. Of course, he came very close to being elected Vice President in 2000, which would have been a very upsetting thing to me, but it was a proud moment for all Jewish-Americans when he became the first, and thus far only, member of the Tribe to become part of a national ticket. I believe this factor nearly won Florida for Al Gore. I did not happen to catch Gore's recent eulogy to Lieberman at his funeral which may have provided a contrast to what I first observed. Gore's initial statement was very nicely said but nowhere in it did he refer to Lieberman as a "friend." Indeed Lieberman lost a lot of friends for standing by his principles. At one point, he even had to win reelection as an Independent. I "supported" him in that 2006  race, even as Republican also ran, and in the first year of this blog, wrote a very corny and hasty online letter to him asking him to run as an Independent. I mused that maybe one day he could be come the Republican Vice Presidential nominee, and indeed that is said to have almost happened. In 2008 he supported John McCain over Barack Obama and was never really welcomed by Democrats again. Perhaps, he was ok with that, as his former party has changed a lot since when he was a young man. In many ways, I can relate as to what has happened in my party and that only makes me admire Joe Lieberman all the more.

In recent months, I would see the older looking 82 year Lieberman on television in the capacity of the leader of the "No Labels" group talking about the need for a centrist alternative if the choices were once again Trump. If he were 20 years younger, he might have been an obvious option. Things just do not seem meant to be for that group to put forward any candidate this year though and the unfortunate death of the Senator, after a reported fall, only leads to that sadness. 

 

Still, Joseph I. Lieberman had a remarkable and consequential life. I will have continued to disagree with him on many policy matters, but the man was truly the definition of a "mensch." In this age of social media cruelty and rising anti-Semitism, it can be tough to reconcile just how vile some people can be. In this case, it seems to mostly come from liberals.

Senator Lieberman will be well remembered in history for being uncommonly principled and uniquely American. May his memory be a blessing.

White House Race- March 23, 2024- delayed

I had an unexpected detour this weekend on covering the road to the White House. It is disappointing to see a streak broken for this feature after many years but things happen.

Hopefully, I can just get right back into it with a new post on Saturday, March 30.

White House Race- March 16, 2024

So many items in the news. So many random thoughts. So difficult to find a format to present them all cohesively, and thus, something will probably be forgotten as I zip through this.

Well, the Presidential election nobody wants is finally set. On Tuesday night, both Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. and Donald John Trump Sr. clinched enough delegates to officially receive a nomination at this summer's in-person conventions. Both men have political problems with many in their own party, let alone Independents. Both are pretty despised by partisans of the other party. It is going to be a dark, dirty, ugly campaign. The side that loses, whichever side, will likely not concede, if the election is close, as it probably will be. That will lead to even bigger concerns in this country. Both men are old and have many questions surrounding their health, competency,and ethics. Both have been President for at least three years and both have been pretty unpopular ones. In spite of all this, I must repeat that nobody, again nobody, is less worthy of the Oval Office than Trump. Even people like me who cannot bring themselves to vote for Biden, should be rooting against Trump.

I will have to try to bring myself to vote in this coming Tuesday's Illinois Primary. After all, there are local races too, but I am not excited about the prospect, especially considering that I will have to select a primary ballot associated with one of the two political parties, that I find so distasteful these days. Assuming I actually do vote, which I think I will, I will talk about that next week.

We can look at the big picture though and prepare ourselves for the first Presidential re-match since 1956. Trump will become the first Republican to be nominated three times for President since Richard Nixon. He will be the first to be nominated consecutively three times in a row by any party since Franklin Roosevelt, and if it is up to him, he would be nominated a fourth time also. The last person to receive three straight nominations, including as a non-incumbent for any was Grover Cleveland. Trump is also hoping to duplicate something he did.

One big story this week was the testimony of Special Prosecutor Robert Hur before a House Committee on the report he wrote in which he determined that charges were not warranted against Biden regarding classified documents. In his testimony, he explained the reasons why, but upset Democrats by making it clear that he was not "exonerating" Biden of wrong-doing. Hur also upset Republicans in this hearing, but refusing to use the word "senile" in regards to the President, and making it clear that Biden cooperated far more thoroughly than the situation involving Trump and classified documents.

From what I saw, I came away a fan of Mr. Hur. Anybody who can piss off the preening politicians in both parties is doing something right in my view. He may be one of the few honorable people left in Washington. He seems like someone who does his job by the book regardless of might develop politically and is very thorough.  At the time of the report, I surmised that Biden was the one who brought up the death of his son Beau and the transcripts showed I was correct. It was pretty shameful for Biden and his allies insist that Hur brought it up as some sort of cheap shot. That was an outright lie. The narrative that Biden was so distracted and focused on dealing with the Middle East on the day of the interview on October 8 also seems to be a pretty poor excuse. In the transcript, Biden, as he is apt to do, spoke at length on many topics, and was chatty and jovial. He even made car noises, because he went on a bit of a filibuster about the vehicles he has seen as President.

 

Democrats continue to insist that Hur's language about Biden's memory in the interviews was inappropriate, although clearly the transcripts speak for themselves. Had Hur not included that consideration in the report, it would have come out this past week, with the transcript. It would have been a huge firestorm. Republicans would have accused Hur of "hiding the truth" in an attempt to protect Biden. Democrats should be glad the story got out when it did and that it was addressed then, as the State of the Union performance is said to have helped alleviate some of the fears about Biden's brain, at least in regards to Democrat loyalists.

With the exception of the soon to be resigned Colorado Congressman Ken Buck, the committee members on both sides acted in a lousy manner. It was all about Presidential politics. Democrats tried to make it about Trump, when the hearing was not supposed to be about Trump, and Republicans tried to make it about other Biden matters, when it was also not supposed to be about that. Some Democrats accused Hur of being a partisan Republican who was only interested in perhaps being nominated to a federal judgeship if Trump can win another term. Obviously, they did not read the report or listen to the testimony. There is no way Trump would ever hire Hur for anything.

 

I am not even going to bother this week with an in-depth look at all of the Trump legal matters. Last week, I might have forgot to mention that the Supreme Court, as expected, made it clear he cannot be kicked off of ballots due to "insurrection." The vote was 9-0. Maybe I did talk about it, I mention so many other things. Yesterday, there was major news out of Fulton County where the judge there tried to play things down the middle by ruling that District Attorney Fani Willis can continue to prosecute Trump as long as she fires her top attorney and ex-boyfriend. Of course, that is what happened. Trump fans were hoping she would get thrown off altogether, but the Judge was unwilling to go that far, although he was pretty damning of Willis in his ruling. There could be serious political damage to her career moving forward, but it might not matter for most of her constituents. She will now have to find a new special prosecutor who probably will be more experienced and better equipped to try the case than the guy she was going on vacations with.

Another story this week was that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, long a staunch ally of Israel, and the highest ranking elected Jewish official in American history, made a speech on the Senate floor, with the advanced knowledge and approval of the White House. What Schumer said was nuanced and seemed even tortured in the rhetoric at times. The gist of it was that he wanted Israel to hold new elections and for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be replaced.

As Schumer knows very well, Israel is a democracy that does have elections. Sometimes they get messy, but Israel has always had free and fair elections and will again. The people there will decide if Bibi should stay or go and if they want someone else, (and they probably will) , just how different that person will be. Schumer received a tremendous amount of pushback for these comments, not just from Republicans, but from centrist Jewish organizations, who felt he crossed a line in criticizing a democratic ally and involving himself in their electoral process. After all, we in the United States rightfully get upset when other countries try to meddle in our elections. To be expected, Trump also attacked Schumer and Biden over this, but based on what he said,it was pretty clear that Trump continues to equate "Israel" and "Jewish Americans" as one in the same, and that is also an anti-Semitic trope (just like Biden's "come to Jesus" jab.)

This is mostly about politics for Democrats. Schumer knew he was in a difficult position, and Biden feels the same. I really do not doubt that those men and so many others know for a fact that Israel are the good guys and Hamas are the bad guys. The problem is that a lot of Democrats seem to think the opposite. If they cannot get those folks fully onboard for this November, the result for Democrats across the board can be bad. So, they are pandering to extremists and misinformed individuals. I get the politics but that is certainly not leadership and certainly not right, as I have been saying for years now about how Republicans have been acting in pandering to Trump and the extremists in his base.

Moving back to Trump, he flip flopped this week on TikTok. He probably could have shot a dance video doing so.  When he was President, he said he wanted to ban the Communist Chinese spy-app for national security reasons. This week, the House voted in a large way, along bipartisan lines (which almost never happens anymore) to force TikTok to sell to an American company or be banned in the U.S. Only a collection of the most far-right and most far-left Members of the House voted against it. Trump said he opposed banning it, not because he feels that the bill was wrong, but because if TikTok goes away, American companies, such a Facebook could do a lot better filling that void in the market. Trump is so pissed at Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg, (whom he called a stupid, vaguely anti-Semitic name on social media) over the 2020 election, that it colors all his thinking. With Trump, it never is what is best for the country or the world, but what is best for Trump. In honest moments, he all but admits it.

With the Presidential nominees basically in stone, the talk moves on to Veepstakes. Democrats, for better or worse, will pick Kamala Harris once again. A wide range of Republicans are continuing to audition on cable tv and online for Trump's blessing. It is said that he is so leery of losing politically on the abortion issue, that he might stay away from someone seen as staunchly Pro-Life, such as Tim Scott or Kristi Noem. The latter had her old little weird story this week about an infomercial the Governor recently did for a Texas dentist and whether or not that might have violated South Dakota ethics laws. In the weeks ahead, we can discuss the Republican VP hopefuls in more depth, I do not know if I have mentioned this or not, but all the talk about Floridians being on Trump's short-list is really dumb, for Constitutional reasons. Trump is already a candidate from the State of Florida. He cannot change. If he picks another person from Florida, they would have to change their voting state quickly,and there is simply no way that a sitting Governor Ron DeSantis or a Congressman Byron Donalds could do so. The latter would all but hand the House over to the Democrats immediately since he would have to resign by effect of "moving" out of state.

One candidate who is said to have selected someone for Vice President already is Independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. While he has reportedly been turned down by others, his choice is said to come down to former Minnesota Governor Jesse Venutra, whom like Kennedy is a certified crackpot, and current NFL Quarterback Aaron Rodgers of the New York Jets. As a Bears fans, I have hated Rodgers for years (he played many seasons for the Green Bay Packers and usually beat us twice a year), and I can only hope America can join me in despising the punk. Like Kennedy, Rodgers is a rabid anti-vaxxer,and many right-wingers have come to like him. If he actually gets picked it would be an interesting story to say the least.This week, Rodgers had to repudiate the claim that he told a CNN reporter that the horrific Sandy Hook massacre of 1st Graders some years ago was "fake" and involved actors. He may not want people to think he believes that now but he seems to have said it. Interestingly enough, Rodgers did not denounce any interest in running for Vice President with Kennedy. It would have been pretty easy for him to do that. Maybe he just likes the attention, or maybe it could actually happen. Could he actually play football and run for Vice President at the same time this year? The Kennedy announcement is scheduled later this week in Oakland, California, which is near where Rodgers grew up. Very interesting.

Finally, someone who will not be picked for Vice President this cycle is Mike Pence. I have had many justified frustrations with him ever since he signed on with Trump, but I need to salute him for his political courage at this time. In an interview yesterday, he said he could not "in good conscience" endorse his former running-mate's campaign to regain the Presidency. I was a bit surprised. I thought Pence would give a perfunctory, terse acknowledgement of support for Trump, but instead he joins every living person to have been President or Vice President not named Trump, to not support Trump, with one possible exception. While the list includes Republicans. George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and now Mike Pence, we are not sure about Pence's fellow Hoosier Dan Quayle. I will note that perhaps Pence might possibly be leaving himself some wiggle room between "endorse" and "vote for" but the effect is basically the same. This was a gutsy move and likely drove Trump crazy. I will be similarly surprised, but pleased if Nikki Haley follows this path.

For now. Pence is the only 2024 Republican candidate to join Asa Hutchinson and Chris Christie in having ruled out supporting Trump. Needless to say, that Trump's own Vice President is doing this speaks volumes. Pence will be excommunicated by many Republicans, to a greater extent than he already was, for this. While there is clearly bad blood between the two men over January 6, 2021, the day Trump thought it was reasonable for his supporters to want to hang the Vice President, Pence did not cite this as his rationale and that has confused and even upset some pundits. I think they are missing the big picture.

Plenty of people, including plenty of one-time Republicans, speak frequently about the kind of danger to democracy that Trump is. It cannot be understated. He is out there today saying there will be a "bloodbath"in America if he is not elected. Pence likely believes all of that, but he said that Trump has turned his back on conservatism, and even the record of his Administration, in this current campaign. Pence is definitely correct that Trump is not a conservative, and frankly, conservatives need to hear it. Pence talked about Trump waffling on the debt, abortion, and China as examples. I think it is worth someone taking a different anti-Trump approach to the public square.

Months ago though, Pence said there was no room in the Republican Party for apologists for Vladimir Putin. To me, that is reason enough alone to reject Trump. It is clear and also scary how much he admires dictators and those who aspire to be dictators. Look at the way he spoke about Victor Orban at Mar-A-Lago recently. Listen to his former Chief of Staff, who says Trump would sometimes praise Hitler. Look at the fawning he does over Putin and Kim Jung Un. Donald Trump may no longer be a Democrat, but he is certainly no democrat.

As distressing as these times are politically, I feel good that Mike Pence was willing to put his conscience and his personal faith (at long last) above the path of political least-resistance.  The former Vice President may have a complicated legacy for historians to debate, but clearly, he is doing an honorable thing in 2024.

Academy Award

"I dedicate Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar to the brave and brilliant men and women of the IDF and to the State of Israel. Don’t stop till the enemy is defeated."

 

Abe Greenwald on Twitter. (I originally included the link but it is messing up my formatting.)

White House Race- March 9, 2024

It has been a long and eventful seven days and every week, there are always items that could be covered that I forget to write about. I had a lot of thoughts about politics during the course of this past week,but it is difficult to remember them all on Saturdays. These posts are definitely an unhappy chore, that I try to zip through as quickly as possible.

The main development is that the general election is now all but set. There is not a huge surprise in that but it is going to be a perilous eight months for the country. The first primaries for Congressional and state offices were held this past Tuesday and those will be the only remaining contests until November that might contain any drama. There could be surprise results on both sides, as polarization within ideological bases of both parties increase. Republicans face it over Russia and Ukraine and Democrats face it going Israel and Gaza.

Looking back first to this past Sunday, I did not even realize that Washington D.C. would be holding a primary. The news was that Nikki Haley beat Donald Trump by a solid margin. Beating a former or current President in any Presidential primary is pretty unheard of, at least since 1980. In achieving this victory in D.C. (which probably irked Trump to no end), Haley became the first ever Republican woman to win a Presidential primary. Also, unless I am overlooking something, I am pretty sure she is also the first Asian-American to ever win a Presidential primary in either party.

This would pretty much be the highlight of the week for Haley though. On "Super Tuesday", Donald Trump romped to large victories almost everywhere. The one footnote was that Haley narrowly took Vermont, in which she was certainly helped by Democrat voters wanting to vote against Trump. The results though from the other states made it clear that Republican Primary voters either really want Trump or had just come to the conclusion that the race was over and voted accordingly trying to officially end it. Still though, one cannot ignore the exit polls which showed that so many of Haley's voters were saying they did not plan to vote for Trump in November.

On the Democrat side, incumbent Joe Biden took all of the states by very sizable margins. Voters in Minnesota were even more vocal though in picking "Uncommitted" than Michigan was a week earlier, showing some warning signs for Biden's party. The one true historical oddity came from American Samoa where the President of the United States lost the Caucus 51 votes to 40. No, not to Dean Phillips, or Marianne Williamson, or a write-in for Oprah or anything like that. He lost it to someone named Jason Palmer, whom I had never even heard of. I would have guessed Jason Palmer was a former backup quarterback or a relative of the fictional President on the old show "24." Instead, he is a Maryland businessman,who never stepped foot in American Samoa, but campaigned there virtually, and the investment paid off. Palmer will now be one of the hardest ever to answer political trivia questions for all eternity. Fifty-one votes to forty.

The Wednesday after Super Tuesday had some headlines. The lesser of which was Dean Phillips ending his quixotic campaign and strongly endorsing Joe Biden, whom days ago, he was saying could not beat Trump. The bigger news though was on the Republican side.

It seemed clear that Nikki Haley was viewing Super Tuesday as the end of the road. She held no events on primary night, and stayed home in South Carolina. There was nothing planned for her campaign in regards to further campaign spots or ad buys. So, on Wednesday morning, she appeared before some supporters and gave a relatively brief statement in which she suspended her campaign. In this statement, she did not endorse Trump, but wished him well and said the onus was now on him to earn the voters of her supporters. She also said, "I hope he will." Well, to say the least that disappoints me but does not surprise me. It seems pretty inevitable that she is looking for a reason to endorse Trump for the general election sooner or later.

Before she spoke, but after it was clear she was dropping out, Trump issued a typical nasty statement attacking Haley. Since then, he has taken no steps to extend any sort of actual olive branch to Haley's voters. Such a thing is just not Trump's style. So, it is clear that he is actively missing an opportunity there and it could be a very harmful one long-term. I will hold out hope that Haley keeps that in mind.

Reportedly, Joe Biden spoke to Nikki Haley via phone on Wednesday. The President's campaign released a very complimentary statement about the former Republican candidate and made it clear that despite differences that might be had, there was a place for Haley's supporters in his campaign. To say the least, this was a very different tactic than Trump took. Such talk from Biden was the reason I actually did what I once thought was unthinkable in 2020 and actually checked a box to vote for him, even though it was a means to oppose Trump. As President though, Biden and his party have shown to me very little inclination to include Republicans, former Republicans, or center-right folks as part of what they consider important. So, it is hard for me to think that Biden and his party actually mean it this time. You know the old saying, one bitten, twice shy. Still, it would be foolish for them not to at least try. I note that the DNC went out of its way to attack Asa Hutchinson and Chris Christie when they dropped out, even though they made it clear they were not going to back Trump.Now, they are following Biden's lead and taking a very different tone in refusing to dance on the political grave of Nikki Haley, even though she will probably wind up endorsing Trump.

With contested Presidential primaries now over, attention turned to Thursday night's State of the Union Address, always an anticipated event, but especially so this year, with an incumbent seeking reelection, and dogged by low numbers and serious questions about his mental and physical health. It was clear that it would be a very political speech, designed more towards the Democrats' activist base than the country at large, but it was even more of a "convention type" speech than I even imagined, just with half the room being the opposition. I realize that the political environment of today basically gave Biden little choice, but still I think it is was sad for the country that our politics has gotten to this point. Now, I will offer some thoughts on the evening.

Biden took his time making it to the rostrum. For one thing, he had to contend with attention seeking Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Green, who violated House rules by wearing a Trump 2024 hat. All of this made for some interesting television. As he approached the front of the chamber, Biden encountered two retiring Senators who happen to be good friends of each other. After shaking hands with both, Biden was caught speaking these words to Joe Manchin, in regards to Mitt Romney. "This guy has total integrity. That's a fact" I agree Mr. President, Mitt Romney is a politician with actual integrity and I am glad you said it. What a departure though from 2012, when he was running against your ticket and you told a black audience that he would "put y'all back in chains." Comments like that contributed to the poisoned political environment that basically radicalized conservatives and led to the emergence of Trump.

In my view, Biden started off the speech strong, He led off right away with Ukraine and then went into shaming Republicans over January 6, 2021. On these parts, I agreed with pretty much everything he said. Speaker Mike Johnson, someone nobody expected would have been in his chair a year ago, looked entirely uncomfortable having to stay seated and silent as others in the House Chamber (mostly Democrats) stood and applauded in regards to supporting Ukraine and opposing Putin. I do not know what Speaker Johnson was expecting, but he looked pained and uncomfortable for much of the speech. I cannot say I felt any sympathy for him, and I will include the part about immigration in which Biden pointed out that Republicans had helped draft a conservative bill that they later jettisoned because Trump would rather have an issue to run on than trying to solve a serious problem.If these were the only portions of the speech, I might be tempted to vote for Biden again.

Alas though, on the substance, from his stance on abortion, to massive new federal spending proposals, to typical left-wing anti-rich class warfare, I did not like so much else of what was part of the speech, After all, I am a conservative and always have been one.

The "style" mattered more than the "substance" though in this speech, as people were curious to how Biden would perform. Sure, there were some minor gaffes and flubbed words, but the political reality is that Biden, who spoke in a very loud voice (which understandably can lead to coughing fits at times) "performed" very well and likely did a lot of damage to the Republican narrative of him being in sharp mental decline. Yes, he looked old, but he seemed to enjoy the stakes of the occasion. Nobody in serious mental decline could read a teleprompter and get at least about 95 percent of the words right. In watching the speech, and hearing and seeing the reaction of Congressional Democrats, I realized that many panicked activists in his party would wind up feeling better about Biden, at least for one night. People, especially young ones, tend to have very low attention spans.

Republicans had been cautioned to be on their best behavior during the speech, but some, like MTG, could not resist themselves and played into Biden's hands. On the way to the podium, the President took a button about Laken Riley, a nursing student recently murdered by an illegal immigrant. That is a tragic story all around. Democrats try to ignore it and Republicans try to exploit it. Many did not think Biden would mention her name, but when MTG started shouting, he held up the pin and said her name, albeit perhaps as "Lincoln Riley."  He said yes she was killed by an "illegal" and his heart went out to her family, and then also tried to point out in somewhat garbled way that many Americans are also killed by "legals." The main takeway was that Biden was lucid and quick enough to have what was seen as a spontaneous moment. He spent so much of the speech openly goading the Republicans and trying to get them to react. In that regard, he got the best of them.

Some on the left were angry though that he used the term "illegal" instead of "undocumented." Pressure from within the base of the party was strong enough for Biden to say today that he wished he did not use that term. I wish he had more backbone.in standing up to his party.

Everyone knew Biden would speak about Israel and Gaza, a huge story that has gone from us largely forgetting what actually happened on October 7 to dealing with the reality of Israel's campaign to eradicate Hamas. I could go on and on about that but it is very clear there are a lot of people in America and around the world who simply cannot accept the fact that Israel allows massive attacks on Jews to go unanswered in this day and age.

The Biden-Harris Administration now uses the word "ceasefire" as a sop to the left, but substantively, they do not seem to actually mean it. They know that realizing hostages and things of that nature are not something Hamas is going to be willing to do. They know full well that the impediment of a ceasefire is Hamas, and not Israel, but yet they have to pander to the anti-Israel crowd. It is all very unfortunate. I think Biden could do himself a favor by positioning himself as a principled leader who is willing to stand up to extremists on all sides. However, he only stands up to the right and not the left. All things considered, the specific words he said in criticism of Israel in the speech were fairly mild, and many on the left were disappointed. I am disappointed he said not one word about all the rising instances of anti-Semitism we have seen in America the past few months. Of course, he would have had to include Islamaphobia as a counter in that as well, but it should have been said.

Benjamin Netanyahu is the long-time (with some time out of office as well) Prime Minister of Israel. He has done so much for his country in his career, but long before October 7, I thought he should be replaced. Term-limits are a good thing everywhere, and I wish they would have applied to him. He seems to have a lot of personal interest in staying in office and has had to do a lot of political things to maintain his office. He will not be Prime Minister forever though and the thought that people only dislike Israel because of him is an incorrect one. No, some folks are going to hate Israel regardless of whom the Prime Minister is. They simply do not think Israel has the right to exist and the bottom line also is that any Israeli Prime Minister will realize they have no choice to fight Hamas for the country's own survival, even if there are unquestioned civilian suffering on the other side as well, because Hamas has put those people in that position. I continue to insist that while thousands have obviously died in Gaza, accepting a specific number directly from Hamas is a very bad precedent.

So, Biden and Netanyahu have been having conflict. I think it is far less of Biden thinking "Bibi" is actually in the wrong, than the realization of what angry anti-Israel leftists might mean to Joe's political coalition and ability to win reelection. Thus, Biden wants it known publicly that he is "mad" at Bibi. After the SOTU was over, Biden hung around forever, chatting with friends and former colleagues who stuck around, largely to congratulate him. He was also still mic'ed up. At one point, he told a Senator and a couple Cabinent members to "don't repeat this"but that he planning to have a "come to Jesus meeting" with the Israeli Prime Minister.

Some think Biden said this intentionally to get out over the hot mic. I do not. I think he intended to say it as a private joke and as a Jewish-American, I definitely found it offensive. Whatever one thinks of Netanyahu, everyone obviously knows he is Jewish and Jesus should have nothing to do with our diplomacy. Had Donald Trump ever used a phrase like this in regards to a Jewish leader, there would have been massive outrage. For that matter, let us consider the international firestorm that would have developed had George W. Bush been caught saying that about a Muslim leader. However, Biden saying it about Netanyahu has largely been shrugged off by everyone in the media. When asked about it, Biden refused to offer any sort of apology, which is far different than what he was forced to do over the use of the world "illegal."

 

I do not think Biden is an anti-Semite, but this was a very inappropriate thing for any American President to say, whether "eavesdropped" or not. A Christian saying a Jewish person needs to "come to Jesus" might seem like a metaphor, but it has historical meaning and has been used to harm Jews for generations.  This is not the time for anybody to be engaging in anti-Semitic tropes, even in a joking or symbolic way. I will note that some Evangelical Christians on the right who criticized Biden for this probably should check themselves, because they happen to openly believe that all Jews must "come to Jesus" or face eternal damnation. Speaking for myself, this off-hand comment from Biden really soured me on any inclination I had to be happy about him giving a kind of speech that might help him against Republicans,. Our politics is very confusing these days for someone like me though.

Bizarre is the word that can best describe the official Republican response given by 42 year old freshman Alabama Senator Katie Britt. Official responses to the SOTU usually get panned. It is a tough assignment to do, but this one was really weird. Republicans always trot out a female for this role (there has been some talk that Trump himself might be the one to give it), but in this case, they literally had Britt deliver it in her kitchen, which is some unfortunate symbolism.

The weird thing is that Britt is actually very respected. She is clearly the smarter Senator from Alabama and was seen as a rising star in the party. She has very deep "establishment" credentials and when I have seen her speak before, she sounds absolutely normal. Clearly, she was going to be very harsh on Biden in this speech in terms of the substance but it was the style that generated all the attention. I will also note that I do not believe she mentioned Donald Trump's name a single time,and I have to think that is something that really upset the former President. If Britt was auditioning for the VP slot, she did herself no favors.

I believe tonight are the annual Razzie Awards in Hollywood signifying the worst acting jobs of the year. Britt would quality. It was just all so weird. In any form of communication, political or otherwise, a speaker is more respected if they are at least seen as speaking in an "authentic voice." For this big moment, Senator Britt did not play her actual role as a U.S. Senator, but instead debuted two characters in what felt like a horrible off-Broadway one woman show/YouTube rant. If she was a YouTube character, she should have at least played the ukulele as she spoke or something.

There was so much that a Republican elected official could say in response to the policy matters discussed by Biden in his speech, but the Republican Party no longer seems like a serious party, so we got a farce like this. Britt spoke in not one, but two inauthentic voices, alternating between them constantly. She went from sounding like a cheerful, perhaps even ditzy housewife to an angry "Karen" on the verge of tears, back and forth. Whomever Senator Katie Britt actually is, neither one of these characters were her, and whomever decided this was what she needed to do with the country watching did her and her political career a disservice. Saturday Night Live probably cried tears of joy. Tonight, there is no doubt their cold open will a take on Britt's response. She was basically doing their job for them. They will not even need to make fun of Biden on tonight's show.

This weekend, both Biden and Trump are on the campaign trail. The most tribalist of supporters on both sides are probably feeling pretty good or at least better about their guy at the moment. However, this is the matchup that about 80 percent of Americans said they did not want to happen. Soon, the biggest topic of discussion in America will be about if there will be debates or how debates might occur or who is dodging debates, who is scared to debate, etc. This is going to be everywhere, very soon, and it is going to be nauseating. The only thing more nauseating might be an actual Trump vs. Biden debate. If I had to guess today, I would say that it will never occur and that both sides do not actually want one to occur although they will claim, especially Trump's side, that they do.

With Biden vs.Trump symbolically etched in stone (and a lot less talk for now about Democrats dumping Biden), will there be another option for America, not counting weirdos like Cornell West and RFK Jr? It is getting close for "No Labels" to come to a conclusion. People from Joe Manchin to Larry Hogan have already taken themselves out of any consideration. The people within that organization had a meeting yesterday and it is said they are planning to indeed run a bipartisan ticket, but who knows if it will actually happen?

I was pretty happy to hear the name of Geoff Duncan, the former Republican Lt. Governor of Georgia mentioned yesterday as now being a real possibility. Some will scoff because he was only a Lt. Governor, but I would be beyond enthusiastic to support him for President. Ideologically, he is very much my kind of Republican and I think he could do a world of good for advocating the views of center-right Americans who despise Trump but also fear Biden and his party.

No, he would not win the Presidency in 2024, but despite the hysterical worries of the Democrats, I actually think he would hurt Trump more than Biden, especially in the key battleground state of Georgia. The tribalists always go to the place of assuming that people like me are dumb because we think a third party candidate can win. It is really not that at all. We just want to be able to vote for someone and feel good about it. Obviously though, America is hungry for a different choice beyond picking between the two cranky old men.

If Democrats were smart, they would want Duncan running (at least in Georgia) because there are people who would vote for him that would otherwise vote for Trump there and elsewhere. Do they really think that a conservative, Pro-Life Evangelical is going to take more votes away from their party? If so, they probably should re-examine their whole party. I am in the position of believing No Labels will actually nominate a candidate when I see it. There are a lot of reasons why they may not, but in my dream world, America could "Run on Duncan."