SATURDAY NIGHT JOE JACKSON, PIXIES.

Joe Jackson with Real Men. Album Night and Day (1982).





There's bass, there's violin, but - correct me if I'm wrong - there ain't no guitar, electric or otherwise, on the entire album!



Pixies with All Over The World. From the album Bossanova (1990).





In my not so humble opnion, Bossanova, with its typical surf rock/space rock blend, remains Pixies' best album.


Goede nacht.


MFBB.

RECOMMENDED READS: JAMES MCCOY "IS AMERICA'S MELTING POT BECOMING A FRAGILE MOSAIC?"

Decent article by James McCoy over at Townhall:

"Editor's note: This column was co-authored by Dr. Loyd Pettegrew.

The melting pot metaphor applies to a society where many different types of people blend together as one. A national identity bouillabaisse if you will. It is essentially an environment in which many ideas, religions and races are socially assimilated. Since its inception America has prided itself in being a melting pot. While some countries are composed of people who are almost all the same in terms of race, religion, and culture (Scandinavia, the Middle East, Asia and India come to mind), the United States is a nation of many different types of people.

This concept was recognized with the gift of the Statue of Liberty to America back in 1886. In recent years, however, it seems that the assimilation of peoples and cultures has become more of a distant memory than a present reality.

....

In 1892, the U.S. government opened a federal immigration station on Ellis Island, located near Bedloe’s Island in Upper New York Bay. Immigrants were greeted by the Statue of Liberty as they arrived in Ellis Island for processing. Between 1892 and 1954, some 12 million immigrants were processed on Ellis Island before receiving permission to enter the United States. Lady Liberty carries the saying: “Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free/The wretched refuse of your teeming shore/Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me/I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Now some 124 years later, many Americans are wondering if we remain a melting pot or if we have become simply an incoherent mosaic of difference. If we have departed from our early melting pot ambition and identity, it is because many of our most prominent politicians have promoted societal, cultural and religious division to advance their own political careers over the best interest of the nation. Bi-lingual K-12 education is but an example.

This purposeful fracturing of American society for political gain was plainly evident in the Democratic Presidential Primary in South Carolina on February 25, 2020, as presidential candidates groveled for the black vote before Super Tuesday. Tom Steyer even went so far as to claim he was the only candidate on stage in favor of reparations for the black population. He also proposed the establishment of a race commission to retell the story of discrimination and injustice towards African-Americans. It is hard to imagine the political, social and cultural chaos that would surround efforts to enact such legislation. Nonetheless, each candidate seized their opportunity to convince the listening audience why they were the best candidate to represent the black population despite South Carolina being a melting pot, like America.

Each candidate similarly courted the Hispanic vote in Nevada. The identity of an American electorate seems to be blindly lost in the fervor for tribal voting blocs. The two largest minority voting blocs are firmly rooted in race and culture. Consequently, you have the political promises and pandering. Since the civil rights movement in the 1960s, democrats and the left have perpetuated a social tension between minority groups, which are quickly approaching a majority level, and Caucasian populations as a political lever to garner support for federal social programs which disproportionately benefit those minority groups. This in turn increases their appeal to those same groups. The loser in these divisive tactics are the American middle class taxpayers. The one candidate who seems to advocate most often for an all-inclusive American electorate is President Donald Trump. He believes that the best way to realize the benefits of a true blending melting pot is a prosperous economy for all groups.

Pew Research documents that there are nearly 11 million illegal immigrants in our country. Unlike previous years, many are actual family units, not individuals. Some believe this is good for America and support open borders. Others believe America has both a right and obligation to control who enters our borders and that our safety is at risk with unbridled illegal immigration. The reality of the immigration issue is that the United States economy simply cannot afford open borders. The flood of immigrants from Latin and South America, and quite possibly elsewhere, will overwhelm the social safety network programs that the Democrats and the left are so willing to extend to them to further expand and consolidate their political base."

A functioning melting pot America is possible with these people:





It is most definitely NOT with cockroaches like these:





Which faction will be dominant and will either mold together a strong nation... or else fracture it beyond repair?

The upcoming elections will be a lithmus test.



MFBB.

CANDACE OWENS AT CPAC 2020.

From this side of the Pond it's incredibly difficult to gauge the effect of Candace Owens' campaigning on behalf of the GOP and its effect on the black vote. One reason is, of course, that coverage on Owens in our media is nonexistent - for obvious reasons. An accomplished, intelligent, attractive black woman who is a Conservative? The horror!!! So I have to make do with tidbits like this. Via ABC11:

Friday, January 24, 2020

"RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- Danielle Robinson is a newly registered Republican in Raleigh. But the bold choice has been met with concern from her family and online backlash and name-calling from strangers.

"There's coon. There's Uncle Tom. It's just sad that as black people, we limit the expression or the journey of other black people," Robinson said. "I'm tired of the idea that the Left thinks that they can have black people in their pocket."

"There's coon. There's Uncle Tom. It's just sad that as black people, we limit the expression or the journey of other black people," Robinson said. "I'm tired of the idea that the Left thinks that they can have black people in their pocket."

Nearly 1.5 million black voters are registered in North Carolina, and nearly 80 percent of them are Democrats, according to the State Board of Elections.

But there's a movement afoot to get black voters to leave the Democratic Party, one that has fueled voters such as Robinson to abandon politics as usual.

It's Blexit -- also known as Black Exit.

Robinson is state director for Blexit North Carolina. The group launched this month in Charlotte with a rally on MLK weekend.

"That rally signaled that black people, we are ready to have that discussion," Robinson said.

Blexit NC said it will hold forums to discuss candidates on the left and right running for local and state races. The group also plans to encourage people of color to consider new ideas without influence from Democrats.

Democrats are dismissive of the idea.

Robert Howard is the state's Democratic Party spokesman. He released a statement critical of the organization and the media, saying: "Blexit is a fringe organization started by a far-right provocateur. It's embarrassing any news outlet would lend credibility to this organization when they deserve none."

Robinson disagreed. She said Blexit NC is not getting funding from Republicans currently, but it is not opposed to accepting funding from anyone who supports its mission. Right now, Blexit NC is self-funded.

"We don't need to worry about Candace Owens," Robinson said of the woman who started the Blexit movement. "She has found the end of her journey. We've got to worry if we are on our correct journey and on our correct path."

Dr. Hasan Crockett is a political science professor at St. Augustine's University in Raleigh. Crockett said blacks have consistently supported Democrats ever since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a move signed into law by a Democratic president, Lyndon B. Johnson, but also fiercely opposed by many Democrats in the Senate, particularly in the South.

Crockett said controversies around voter suppression and gerrymandering will be challenges for Blexit.

"The fact that they are looking at African-American issues and to empower the black community -- fine. But when you talk about moving into the Republican Party that has a historical agenda that opposes black leadership, suppresses the black vote, that has minuscule presence in the black community -- I think you're going to run into so many problems," Crockett said.

Robinson said Blexit NC will be targeting millennials.

"Many of us as an organization are conservative or unaffiliated, but that's because we did the work. And so when you think about it, only people that have walked away can help others figure out if they should make the same decision," Robinson said. "We're invested in that process. And black people need to be invested in that process."

The group has another rally set for next month at Appalachian State University.

Well, time will tell.


MFBB.