Happy Friday, Gentle Readers,
Allow me to wish you a restful and peaceful weekend. This was quite the week, wasn't it? Super Tuesday was not a surprise to anyone, including Nikki Haley. Things were a bit dicier here in the Beehive State. The normal precinct meetings were replaced with caucuses, for which one signed up using an online portal that has been plagued with bugs ever since I used it two years ago. This reportedly resulted in a certain level of chaos for the Utah GOP caucuses, which is out of the norm.
Usually, those things are snooze-fests, necessary but boring. And now reports are trickling in that Democrats infiltrated the meetings to throw monkey wrenches into the works. That is hardly surprising. Democrats did the same thing back in 2022, and a clutch of them even made it to the nominating convention to try to unhorse Mike Lee. I'm sure this year's convention will be entertaining, to say the least. Nihil sub sole novum.
Donald Trump: Lord of Hades
Did you know that Donald Trump is Satan? I know, I know. It seems just like yesterday that he was literally Hitler. Now he is the biblical Satan. They grow up so fast, don't they? Where does the time go?
As it turns out, Trump was dubbed the Prince of Darkness by none other than the late Sinéad O’Connor. Trump's campaign occasionally uses her song "Nothing Compares 2 U," which Prince penned.
American Wire notes that in 2020, O'Connor gave an interview in which she called Trump the biblical devil. She added:
Nobody should think he’s doing this just so he can get elected. He is devilish enough that he believes in this stuff. They should have dragged him out of the White House at the point he separated the first child from their parents at the Mexican border.
O'Connor's estate and her label, Chrysalis Records, stated they were outraged over the Trump campaign's use of the song. It read in part:
It is no exaggeration to say that Sinéad would have been disgusted, hurt and insulted to have her work misrepresented in this way by someone whom she herself referred to as a ‘biblical devil,'” the statement continued. As the guardians of her legacy, we demand that Donald Trump and his associates desist from using her music immediately.
"Nothing Compares 2 U" is not exactly a foot-stomping, fist-pumping, stand-up-and-cheer, anthem-like conservative call to action. It's more like the song someone plays while they are on their fifth drink after getting dumped or sharing their last dance with someone right before they get dumped. Either way, it's a song you play when you get dumped. Not when you run for president.
Ben Shapiro Is a Racist Rapper
By now, you have probably seen the video of Tom McDonald and Ben Shapiro rapping. If not, then submitted for your viewing pleasure:
I'm no rap expert, but...well, I have nothing to add to that. I'm no rap expert. But I know it went to #1 on the iTunes charts and made the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100.
And cue the complaints. The College Fix reports that A.D. Carson, who is an Associate Professor of Hip Hop at the University of Virginia, accused Shapiro of being racist and repeating the tropes that right-wing politicians have used against rap since its inception. He added:
By performing over a popular-sounding trap-style beat, Shapiro and MacDonald might lead listeners to overlook their heavy reliance on Black vernacular speech, which toes the line between minstrelsy and abject cultural appropriation.
Because it’s delivered in the form of a conventional rap song, a listener might even be convinced that the racism and sexism the artists are performing are expectations, and Shapiro and McDonald are just doing what all rappers do.
The takeaway here is not that Ben Shapiro is racist. He's not. And it isn't that Shapiro is not a good rapper. I guess he is; I don't know. After all, he was doing it for kicks, and no one took it seriously.
The takeaway here is that a university spent money to employ an Associate Professor of Hip Hop. That is all well and good for an elective or cultural enrichment course, I suppose. I'm not here to knock rap or Hip Hop. But if your progeny thinks majoring in rap will lead to a career as a superstar, you had better get their old bedroom ready for them and stock up on Hot Pockets.
Wine Recommendation
Because what else are you going to do when a Ben Shapiro rap pops up on your Spotify playlist?
The liquor store finally got a shipment of Bordeaux in. I'm not sure what happened, but for a week or so, it appeared everyone in my town must have been drinking Bordeaux, which seemed out of character for a city mostly comprised of Mormons. Maybe I need to get out more.
In keeping with my pledge to suggest nice wines that will not require a second mortgage, I picked up the 2019 Mouton Cadet Bordeaux.
It was a good find for $13, especially since the next bottle over was going for $54. At $13, give or take, it isn't the finest Bordeaux available, but unless you are worried about impressing someone, you won't be throwing your money away. It is 87% Merlot, 9% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 4% Cabernet Franc, giving it just the right amount of dryness and tannins.
It has a good, deep, garnet color and starts off well with a good bouquet. You can catch a little tobacco in the nose, and it has a well-rounded flavor with plums and dark cherries. There is a good dose of oak from the aging process. My bottle had a bold finish that landed well across the palate. Reviewers usually score it in the upper 80s, giving you a nice little wine for the price.
Like many reds, it will go with beef, but it would work better with a more savory type of meat, like lamb or even duck.
That's it for me. Have a great weekend, and I'll see you on Monday.
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