If nothing else during the next eight or nine months, Bernie Sanders is going to do away with some of the stigma people in this country associate with socialism. Legitimately large and enthusiastic live audiences are going to see Bernie’s hour-long stump speech in basketball gyms and arenas in key primary states. Eighteen months out from electing a new President, the palpable Bernie buzz is advancing a simmering movement not unlike what Bill de Blasio and Zephyr Teachout gained favor from during their most recent runs here in New York.
A segment of the left is distressed about the Democratic Party leadership’s double-talk and inaction on wealth, power and the gap. The top elected Dems don’t seem to mind the gap. Bernie’s putting it front and center as his eyeglasses slip down the bridge of his nose.
Bernie’s authenticity as a speaker and credibility as a public servant and citizen make him a more formidable candidate than what our old friends Kucinich, Dean and Rev. Jackson could muster during their left of what‘s left efforts during my days following this racket.
It’s exciting. I wasn’t expecting more than a blip from Bernie. But it’s definitely a buzz.
Bernie’s not going to attack Hillary personally. For now, he’s running an “informational campaign” that doesn’t shy away from taking positions on any issue of the day. You ask him a question, he answers it specifically. You ask Hillary a question, she’ll duck if it means she may turn off the up-for-grabs voter in North Carolina, Ohio or Pennsylvania.
Bernie doesn’t own stocks much less take campaign money from the big boys. The average contribution to his campaign is less than 40 bucks per. He’s 73 but feisty and super articulate with no need for a prompter. He means it when he says wants nothing to do with people from Wall Street and corporate America. Big money’s firm grip on the political establishment would loosen under a Sanders administration and might even open the way for progress on two glaring national needs that will eventually be addressed out of necessity. True blue access to health care (taking profit out of it) and higher education (with government swallowing the cost in the name of progress) are cornerstones of the Sanders agenda.
The longer he sticks around, the better it is for the future of the party. A walk in the park for Hillary would only leave the gap unminded. Rather than send out attack reps (as she has with Claire McCaskill who embarrassed herself with a Bernie bash-job on MSNBC recently), Hillary would be well served to listen to what Bernie’s saying and and try to understand why they’re coming out in droves to see him.
-It’s always been made clear by those who know and play the game of baseball that sliding into first base is a bad idea. Not only is it said to slow one’s forward momentum, it’s dangerous. Dee Gordon of the Marlins did a low trajectory swan dive into the first base bag during Saturday’s home win over Cinci and dislocated his left thumb. Like he’s been doing all season, Gordon ripped a 1-2 pitch from Manny Parra to the right side. It appeared headed to right field but Reds first basemen Joey Votto made a great, backhanded stop and tossed to Parra who was on the move to first base. Gordon’s slide was intended to evade Parra’s tag – which he did. But as Gordon’s body flew past the base, his thumb got briefly hooked on the bag. Gordon immediately got up, told the ump he was done for the day, and walked to the dugout shaking his head. He flung his helmet toward the rack and walked straight into the clubhouse. Luckily, there was no broken bone or damaged ligaments. Gordon will not play in the All-Star game as a result and might miss some action next week. Evading the fielder’s tag really is the only legitimate excuse for sliding into first and I would not fault Gordon’s decision-making in this instance. But I’ve cringed a hundred times or more at this play over the years and am amazed guys keep doing it. It often does not end well.
-I just finished reading Kim Gordon’s memoir “Girl in a Band” and was a bit disappointed in its lack of detail about the element of rock and roll that most interests me. There’s not enough anecdotal reflection on Sonic Youth’s career on the road. The book is thin on show/stage/travel stuff. Gordon talks about how rotten the women’s bathrooms are at some of the venues they’d play at – and her growing intolerance of that as she grows older. I wanted more of that kind of stuff. Gordon seems to backtrack from criticism of Neil Young in a wonderfully written 2013 profile of her in the New Yorker. Perhaps it’s just clarification, but in the book, Gordon goes out of her way to pinpoint the disrespect of her and Sonic Youth on a Young tour employee rather than Young himself. Gordon tags the woman she blames for breaking up her marriage to Thurston Moore as bat-shit crazy but goes out of her way not to name her. You don’t learn much about Lee Ranaldo until the very end when she slips in a little something that isn’t all that glowing. What kept me glued to the book was Gordon’s observations about the places she lived: Los Angeles, New York City and then Northampton. Perhaps she forgot the day-to-day on-the-road parts of being in one of the great all-time rock bands – or maybe she’s saving those for the next book.
-There’s a big picture in the Times business section today (page B2) that I found remarkable. The boss at General Motors and the president of the United Auto Workers are standing together with large smiles sharing a photo op with a small group of the rank and file in advance of negotiations on a new contract. Everybody looks happy and the top dogs of both the company and union are wearing shirts that match the regular workers. Contrived or not, it seems like a nice way to launch collective bargaining. It really caught my eye against the backdrop of company/union relations at the airline I work for. Never could I envision the guy running my outfit posing for a photo with any of the major union bosses trying to gain contracts with the company. I can’t picture it.
-I went to the famous Randazzo’s Clam Bar on Sheepshead Bay with Brent on Sunday and totally loved it. We split two dozen clams – a dozen little necks and a dozen cherry stones. Incredibly fresh and flavorful. And then I had a broiled filet of scrod. Loved it. Great vibe in the place, too. Everybody seemed to be eating the calamari with the red sauce. Next time.