Too Hard To Cover: Kelly – Rihanna

By Lynnette M. Booker

Musical artists covering other musical artists’ work is sometimes disappointing. On Friday Kelly Clarkson covered Rihanna’s “Love on the Brain” during a live performance on Facebook. The Facebook Live event was in celebration of Kelly’s new release of live covers on her website.

Even though Kelly is an amazing singer and talented song writer, she should stay in her musical lane. Some artist can murder it, transitioning musical style from one end of the spectrum to the other. In this case, Kelly’s performance is an unjustified slaughter that is arid and stoic.

 Rihanna’s soulful ballad is all about showing one’s feelings or complaining about them so grotesquely that it makes others uncomfortable to watch. Rihanna howls her dirge in an intoxicating tone. She slurs her words and itch her wounds. There is hate and love and forgiveness, and the song entirely is a slow upbeat that leaves one entrenched in its somber. To the feeler (singer), it is pain beyond one’s understanding, and it is a pain too understood to the listeners.

Which Trump Card Is Trump Pulling, And On Who?

Which Trump Card Is Trump Pulling, And On Who?

Lynnette M. Booker

              Donald Trump accuses the media and White House of election-rigging when everything he does conspires to exacerbate his own campaign. To echo President Barack Obama, Donald Trump is not fit to be president, and Trump knows this. He is not fit to become president because of his casual and hyperbolic statements and divisive language to corral a crowd, but mostly because he doesn’t have a clue about domestic and foreign policy. Trump is incapable of comprehending the responsibility to perform and delegate as the leader of the Free World. Yes, the election is rigged; you and, yes, Hillary Clinton are doing the rigging.

The only possible explanation for Donald Trump’s rants and unconscionable bigotry is that he is sabotaging his own campaign to bolster Hillary Clinton’s presidential election. Why else would he publicly extol Vladimir Putin’s tactics except excoriating them, or insult America’s allies. He proudly disregards words when words as a president matters to the people he will be sworn to serve and protect. Now, a man who has so much to lose (over the words that vomit out of his mouth) should filter and focus on election-winning objectives. He needs to focus on persuading the American people that he is fit to be president over Hillary. Apart from his divisive rhetoric, stoic facial expressions, conductor’s hands, pugnacious eyebrows, and his fan-over mane, his positions scream please don’t vote for me.

Trump’s true convictions are not aligned with what he actually spews at his rallies. I hope. However, a portion of Americans are easily manipulated by the billionaire scion whose interest lies in his reflection in the mirror. I strongly believe that Trump doesn’t agree with the things that come out his mouth, but he needs to sympathize with those Americans that are capable of voting for him—those hillbilly ideological nuts. And they see him as a champion for their cause, their convictions, and their pursuit to make America white, oops, I mean great again. But what he has exposed, to not only the portion of Americans who believe in equality but to the rest of the world, is the intolerance of race and religion. Trump will sell his soul for white vanity while buying a VIP ticket to Hillary Clinton’s presidential inauguration.

Why all off a sudden change of heart?

For a man who writhes and stutters in poisonous venom against Hillary: “She’s the devil; she’s a liar…” Yet, Trump has made money contributions to Hillary Clinton’s senate campaigns on four separate occasions and a donation to her 2008 presidential campaign. She must have not been that much of a devil to invite her to his wedding. In fact, Trump has had the upmost respect for Hillary and Bill Clinton. In 2012, Trump told Fox News that Hillary was a “Terrific woman…she really works hard and I think she does a good job.” He has been the Clintons’ advocator and crusader during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. A friend and supporter. In the end, Trump does and say things to get people to do things in return. The relationship with the Clintons could have been just another manipulated tactic from his play book, “The Art Of A Deal.” But what phony relationship is he building with American people to turn his back on them when his interest no longer suits him.

On the other hand, there is a chance that Trump will not forge his presidency if nominated. He will make America Great Again. But Trump is a businessman, a real-estate mogul, and profoundly smart when it comes to making deals, and he has not acquired such achievement without accessing every deal and whether the loss or risk is worth the cost. It is perceivable that he has assessed the risks of actually becoming president. The grueling task to govern, the loss of privacy, and constant vulnerability of public attacks and criticisms around the world, they all must have crossed his mind. And if he is a terrible president which this outcome is extremely high, he is risking the vanity of the Trump legacy.