This election is about hope.

I am utterly astounded that the media and most of those running, never mind the consultants, just don’t get this. They believe this is a game, a known quantity, and he or she with the most experience and expertise wins.

But they are wrong. A tsunami has already wiped out that game, but the people with the most money and the most power are somehow unaware of this.

The people have been left out. Of not only the decisions, but the spoils.

Elizabeth Warren K.O.’ed Mike Bloomberg early, when she said he supported Lindsey Graham in his Senate run. Is there anything else you need to hear? Isn’t Graham public enemy #2? A weasel with no backbone who does what is expedient? No amount of support for good causes makes up for that and the other heinous candidates Bloomberg has supported over the years. As for stop and frisk…he said it was 95% wrong. Can you enlighten me as to the 5% where it was good? The guy’s been hammered over this policy for months but he still doesn’t get it, or maybe this is a wink to the racist who will sacrifice anything for law and order. The same people who are worried about online privacy, who pay lip service to people of color, but don’t want them living in their neighborhood, who are afraid whenever they’re out of their element.

But it’s too late for Warren. She displayed fight too late.

As for Mayor Pete…the more he talks, the less you like him. He’s a young ‘un who’s a traitor to his class. He keeps talking about gradual change, a return to what once was, while his brethren are paying off student debt and can’t afford to buy a house, never mind get a job at McKinsey.

Klobuchar has the same problem. I did it before, give me your trust. But that’s not what we want. We don’t want incremental change, we want revolution. Yup, despite Pete sneering at the concept as a relic of the sixties. This is what Trump delivered to his acolytes, a revolution. And all the left can do is say his supporters are wealthy or white supremacists. When the truth is blue collar voters pulled the lever for Trump because they wanted change. Forget that he’s a phony, forget that he’s not as rich as he says, forget that he got all that exposure on TV, Trump promised a right wing revolution, a return to what once was, and it may not be that great but he is certainly pulling the country there, what part of this does the media and the left not understand?

Trump promised to shake it all up. Don’t dig into the details of the tax cut for corporations and billionaires, look to him giving the middle finger to said media and the left. Meanwhile, those he scorns just laugh, and believe they’re better than his supporters, never mind those less fortunate who are still members of the Democratic Party.

Biden doesn’t get it. We’re not concerned with what you did, but what you’re gonna do! Barack Obama’s tenure was more a failure than a victory in the eyes of Bernie’s supporters. They believe Obama did not do enough to press their case, that he tried to negotiate with the right while it stonewalled him, that he just did not exercise his leverage. Trump’s credo was hope by jetting us to the past. That’s the Republican ethos. The Democratic ethos is just the opposite, we want to be jetted into the future!

Let’s forget Tom Steyer, everybody else has. It’s like a bad movie, no one from nowhere gets accidentally placed somewhere. Steyer comes across like Gomer Pyle in Mayberry, lacking sophistication and experience. Get off the stage, now!

So that leaves us with Bernie.

Even when the moderators teed it up the other candidates couldn’t deliver. Bloomberg couldn’t come up with an aphorism describing him, he just quoted himself!

Bernie quoted Nelson Mandela.

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.”

A black man elected President?

Check!

Gay marriage?

Check!

Legal marijuana?

Check!

But Medicare for all no. Why?

Oh yeah, the insurance companies and the medical establishment don’t want it, and they own D.C. Most people want it, it’s doable, it’s been done not only in Denmark, but Canada and the U.K.

But it can’t happen here because of fear.

That’s what all the candidates other than Bernie were selling, fear. And we don’t need any more fear, it’s bad enough for us already, how much worse can it get?

We don’t want business as usual! We don’t want a return to what once was!

And it’s not only the lower classes and the millennials, it’s the boomers too.

Let me see…

You go to a good college and get a graduate degree but you find out you’re at the end of the line, the billionaires and the rest of the rich have bought up all the tickets and have got all the reservations at the restaurants. They employ not only their money, but their connections to make this happen. People kowtow to the ultra-rich, that’s the way it goes. Whether you’re an individual hankering for a ride on the private plane or Emily’s List. The playing field is not level for nearly everybody!

But those who are advantaged by this system are too blind to see this.

Credit the rich Republicans, they vote their pocketbooks, they do what’s right for them, they make no bones about it.

But only on the left do you get rich and powerful people saying they’re doing it for everybody else when in truth they’re just doing it for themselves. It’s even worse, they’ve got no idea how the rest of us live!

We want opportunity.

So the economy is roaring. How’s that gonna help me get a well-paying job? Sure, I can work at McDonald’s, but I can’t feed my family on that.

The rich and powerful have hoovered up not only concert tickets and restaurant reservations but college admissions too. That’s right, they’ve removed the ladder those on the bottom used to climb to the top. Instead of ask what you can do for your country, it’s all about asking what you can do for yourself!

It didn’t used to be this way.

Tax rates were sky high under Eisenhower, a Republican.

FDR instituted social security.

Income inequality hasn’t been this bad since the Gilded Age, we survived that but we can’t survive, can’t get rid of income inequality today?

And all this anti-government, anti-tax stuff.

If you’ve got a business, you’re nothing without customers, no one makes it on their own, you’ve got to cough up your share.

And the government provides roads and schools and…

Yup, the Republicans have relabeled public schools “government schools,” this is a wedge they’re employing to get public funding for parochial and private schools. The Republicans have renamed the Democratic Party…they keep saying it’s the “Democrat” Party. What do the Democrats do about this? Ignore it and fight amongst themselves. Just like the Republicans labeled Hillary and she lost, the same way they define the debate.

So we need a leader. And it’s certainly not the DNC, the gang that can’t shoot straight.

As for centrists… Turns out there are not that many. As there are not that many independents. We hear this blabbering…from Bloomberg tonight that we can’t alienate those who voted for Trump who might come back. Reminds me of my phone call with a manager after his household name act left him. He was telling me what he was gonna say when the act wanted to come back. I told him the act was never coming back, and it never has!

For a minute there, it looked like Warren was gonna get traction. She skewered Bloomberg, but then got gun-shy, she didn’t talk that much thereafter, instead we got Klobuchar bloviating that we should trust her.

We don’t trust anybody.

And all of the candidates went after Sanders, hard. But he always escaped. By taking a moment and then explaining his position. He’s the only one who can go up against Trump. Certainly not Bloomberg, with his lame jokes. Also, if that guy mails me one more time…Bloomberg has crossed the line from marketing to spam.

And when Bernie said that our enemies can sometimes do something right…

This is anathema to the yahoos. It’s all America all the time. And the Democrats are afraid of alienating anyone, so they buy into it, whereas Bernie admitted the world was chiaroscuro, which every thinking person knows, especially millennials. Bernie was speaking English when everybody else was speaking gobbledygook.

It’s over. The other candidates just didn’t play their cards right. They dismissed Bernie and then fell back into their usual raps, I did this, trust me here, I’m thinking about you…but that hasn’t worked here since 1969!

This election is about emotions, not facts.

Come on, if it was about facts, Trump would have no chance, no President has ever lied so much.

How do you feel about somebody?

And in a world where there’s a rainbow of color on television, where “Black Panther” is a hit, our country is not open only to the tall and good-looking. That’s another thing the media has wrong. Sure, looks matter. Bernie looks like a guy more interested in his ideas than his appearance, he looks like a guy who’s trying to get stuff done.

As for all the criticism about what he’s achieved in Congress…

We believe he’s been thwarted.

As for being thwarted as President?

Trump hasn’t been too thwarted, the chief executive has a lot of power these days.

As for coattails…

How about Obama, who had some of the worst coattails of all time, losing both houses of Congress and many statehouses…yup, that’s what we want.

We are at an inflection point. Either recognize this and make change or get out of the way.

The old tropes don’t work anymore. Bezos pledges $10 billion to the environment and he gets crap. Amazon pays no taxes and why should Bezos control the disbursement of these funds rather than we, the people?

All of the above may seem like hogwash to you.

But it doesn’t matter.

Bernie’s winning.

And he’s gonna beat Trump handily.

Trump just doesn’t work for most people. And returning to the Obama years is not that appealing to most. Stop citing his name, it’s a disadvantage. It all went sour under his watch. This is another thing the media and the candidates have wrong.

The polls say Sanders is the best candidate to run against Trump and most of them say Bernie will beat the Donald.

But the left wing elite, the cognoscenti, are selective in their use of facts, just like the right.

I’m worn out with the process. There’s nothing new here. The election should be June or July 1st, so we’re not subjected to inanities for nine more months.

But we all can’t take our eyes off the race because it’s the only thing that matters.

We cannot retreat into our lives. Music may soothe, but it’s out of touch with what’s happening. Movies too. Occasionally TV gets it right.

But the truth is life in these United States is a train-wreck. We know it, we feel it, there’s nothing you can say to change our minds. We’re sick and tired of it, we’re not gonna take it anymore. We’re all in on Bernie because he’s the only one speaking directly to us.

You’re just on the wrong side.

Train Playlist

“Train Song”
Wendy Waldman

It’s got the rhythm of a train, just like “Midnight Rider” has got the rhythm of a galloping horse.

This is the opening cut from Wendy’s debut album “Love Has Got Me” which got a stellar review in “Rolling Stone,” which boosted her career.

They don’t make records like this anymore. Maybe because there’s no money to and anybody with a computer can upload their acoustic music and spam the public saying it’s great.

Wendy’s had a lot of covers, Robert Smith, yes, of the Cure, covered “Pirate Ships” from this LP.

And, of course, Maria Muldaur had her huge breakthrough hit with “Vaudeville Man.”

But as much as I like “Train Song,” I’d recommend you begin with the second side and “Old Time Love.” Which blends into “Vaudeville Man” and then my absolute favorite from the album, “Lee’s Traveling Song”:

Hitch a ride on a plane to California
My mind won’t let me be
Whoa, whoa, what will be my destiny

“Riding On A Railroad”
James Taylor

From “Mud Slide Slim,” the follow-up to “Sweet Baby James,” which contains the huge hit cover of Carole King’s “You’ve Got A Friend,” but I never cottoned to that.

There were three tracks I loved on this LP, and when CD players arrived in the eighties I’d program them and put them on endless repeat.

The above, “Machine Gun Kelly” and…

“You Can Close Your Eyes.”

Funny how decades later album tracks that were the best but did not get mainstream traction are acknowledged for their greatness. Like the Beach Boys’ “Til I Die.”

And James Taylor’s “You Can Close Your Eyes.”

“Hitchcock Railway”
Joe Cocker

From the second album, with “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window,” “Delta Lady,” “Something” and “Dear Landlord.”

I’d say it’s a crime that Joe Cocker is not in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but that institution has lost all credibility.

You probably don’t know this, you should!

“The Panama Limited”
Tom Rush

From Tom’s 1965 album, when many boomers were enamored of the Beatles and were unaware of the coffee house folk/blues music that had started on college campuses and had flourished amongst those just a bit older.

The original song is by Bukka White, but Tom Rush popularized it along with songs by James Taylor, Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne.

Seek out and go to a Tom Rush show, he performs “The Panama Limited” just as well as he ever did, it’s a treat.

“Train Ride”
Rhino Bucket

The right band at the wrong time.

1990 was the year of Mariah Carey, pop was making a comeback, MTV was steering away from the hair bands to pop and rap. And this music was not rare back then, but it is now.

Then again, some of the lyrics wouldn’t work in the #MeToo era. Like the opening cut, “One Night Stand.”

If this is your sound, and it appeals to many, you’re gonna dig this.

If it was released today this album would be a smash. It seems like this formula has been lost, pull it up and listen to the first four tracks, “One Night Stand,” “Beg For Your Love,” “Train Ride” and “Going Down Tonight.”

“Can’t You See”
The Marshall Tucker Band

Seems like more people remember “Heard It In A Love Song,” but this cut, the second from their debut, was their absolute best. Back when songs were long, went through movements.

Toy Caldwell passed over a quarter century ago, but he’s an unheralded writer/player/singer, truly great.

“Two Trains”
Little Feat

From “Dixie Chicken,” the title track of which seems to be the only cut which has survived. Even Bonnie Raitt’s cover of “Fool Yourself” seems to have been forgotten.

This is Lowell George’s pinnacle, and when it didn’t instantly go gold, it seems like he got further into drugs and…he slowly retreated from his own band, at least in terms of songwriting.

Yes, Billy Payne turned out to be an all-star, but Lowell George was a member of the pantheon, a god.

There are his vocals, so mellifluous, and he never oversang.

And his slide…

And his ability to fade into the woodwork yet not be forgotten. He added subtleties to so many of your favorite records.

Start with the totally forgotten “Juliette.” You need know manual, no key to get into it, to understand it.

Then “Fool Yourself.”

Then go to “Roll Um Easy,” of which J.D. Souther does a great cover.

And, of course, “Fat Man In The Bathtub.”

And finally the definitive take of Allen Toussaint’s “On Your Way Down.” This is not made for a party, to bump your asses, it’s to be played long after dark, maybe in darkness, maybe when you’re alone.

And, remember:

The same dudes you misuse on your way up
You might meet up on your way down

“It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry”
“Super Session”

From the second side, with the legendary eleven minute cover of Donovan’s “Season Of The Witch.”

A completely different version than the Dylan original, all the focus is on Mike Bloomfield’s contribution to this album, but Stephen Stills holds his own, but somehow he’s been labeled difficult and doesn’t get his due.

“Downbound Train”
Bruce Springsteen

My favorite cut on “Born In The U.S.A,” it was never a single and no one ever talks about it, but it evidences a feeling, of losing, of being a cog in the system, of believing the game is rigged against you.

“The City of New Orleans”
Arlo Guthrie

Does anybody remember this was written by Steve Goodman? Does anybody remember Steve Goodman?

“Night Train”
Steve Winwood

Right smack dab in the middle of side two of “Arc Of A Diver,” an album that sold prodigiously, but at this late date people only seem to talk about the hit, “While You See A Chance,” maybe “Spanish Dancer,” but this is the essence for me, genius, I never burn out on it, I listen to it on a regular basis.

This is another cut that’s got the rhythm of a chugging train. And it feature’s Winwood’s stellar guitar playing (go see him and hear him perform “Dear Mr. Fantasy”) as well as his keyboard and vocal chops.

“Trans-Europe Express”
Kraftwerk

“Autobahn” was seen as a novelty. Little did the hoi polloi know Kraftwerk would end up the most influential act in electronic music.

Now if you lived in L.A., you ultimately heard “Pocket Calculator” on KROQ, from the act’s best album, 1981’s “Computer World” (talk about being ahead of your time). But the essence of that album is not “Pocket Calculator,” seen as a novelty itself, but “Computer Love.”

Kraftwerk ran out of gas. Only one original member is still in the act. It seems just when people were waking up to the influence of Kraftwerk, they lost the inspiration and stopped making new music.

“Trans-Europe Express” sounds like you’re on the train, in the middle of the night, wide awake, watching the cities go by.

Tune in tomorrow, Tuesday February 25th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

Phone #: 844-6-VOLUME, 844-686-5863

Twitter: @lefsetz or @siriusxmvolume/#lefsetzlive

Hear the episode live on SiriusXM VOLUME: HearLefsetzLive

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app: LefsetzLive

I’m rationing it. And lamenting the bottle I gave to my physical therapist.

Judy Tint hooked me up with Scott Goldshine of Zabar’s and he sent me a care package last week. There were bagels, rugelach, pastrami and nova.

And a babka.

Yes, that delicacy featured in “Seinfeld.”

To tell you the truth, prior to last week I don’t think I could pick a babka out of a lineup, or at least a pastry case. But when it arrived, memories came back.

Actually, Thursday night I was at dinner at Amy’s house, and she’d purchased a babka, but it was a pale imitation of the real thing, a loaf of cake with some chocolate swirls, that looked better than it tasted.

Unlike Zabar’s babka.

Now this is the tip of the year. I want you to run online immediately and order this babka, you’re going to experience a treat, your mouth will water, tears will come to your eyes as you slice bite after bite, unable to help yourself, at least I wasn’t.

So the package came.

Two hours later I returned to find almost all of it in the freezer.

My father froze bagels, but this stuff is best when it’s fresh.

But Felice did not grow up in a family like mine, where food was a highlight, along with travel. My dad constantly said we may not live in a big house, but we experienced the finer things in life. Everybody else had moved to Skytop Drive, everybody else had graduated from their cookie-cutter domicile to a custom home. But my father just added an addition, built by a cheap contractor, the ceiling tiles were constantly falling, but when it came to food, nothing was off the table, nothing was too expensive, nothing was too good for our palates.

And we gorged. Especially my dad. I didn’t find out he had gastric bypass surgery until two years ago, when my older sister Jill told me. He constantly exclaimed that they cut out two-thirds of his stomach as he grasped his belly and ran to the bathroom, but I thought the operation was for something else, it was way before my time.

And we were not dainty eaters. We did not hold back. You could never run out of food and you enjoyed what you ate, knowing that eating enveloped the essence of life. My mother may not have been a great cook, but when my father bought the food, when we went out to dinner, we were gourmands.

I freaked out. Reached into the freezer. Extracted all the goodies.

I waited for the bagel to defrost. Then I toasted it, which I’ve learned is anathema, but when it’s golden brown and the top is crunchy, mmm… I spread the cream cheese upon it and took bite after bite, being brought back to my youth, marveling at how good it was, how it lived up to my memories.

But then I attacked the babka.

I waited for it to defrost, at least a bit, it had only been in the freezer briefly. Bu I couldn’t really hold back. It was staring me in the face, ALL THAT CHOCOLATE!

That’s why you want this babka. You slice it and don’t see veins of chocolate, but entire minefields! Sometimes it’s chocolate all the way through. It’s the best thing I’ve eaten all year.

As for the mustard…

Mustard was never a drippy, yellow gunk in our household. As far back as I can remember, it was Grey Poupon. We didn’t need no man in a Rolls-Royce to convince us. Mustard had to have zing.

And when the seventies hit, we added Pommery, with its red wax atop a cork seal and its grains in the mustard.

Stunningly, in the foodie twenty first century you can buy Pommery on Amazon:

Pommery Meaux Mustard

To tell you the truth, you can eat Pommery straight from the jar, it’s just that satisfying. But it’s not good on everything. It overpowers too much food. And even though Grey Poupon is even sharper, it’s a quick bite that does not sustain, and it’s easier to spread.

And those two were enough until I experienced Zabar’s Deli Mustard.

I mean that’s why I gave one away, who needs this stuff? You know, a variation on what comes out of the pump at the baseball game. Or that crap they put on the table at delis. Declasse, not for me.

Yup, Heinz ketchup is definitive. The alternative when I was growing up was Hunt’s. If you went to somebody’s house and they served Hunt’s, you wondered why their parents didn’t get the message. Heinz was thick, Hunt’s was runny.

And along with the Heinz, in most houses you saw French’s mustard. You even see it in plastic packets at drive-ins. It’s yellow like you don’t see in nature and it’s got the tiniest of zings. It’s mayonnaise on a pastrami sandwich.

But Zabar’s Deli Mustard…

It doesn’t look like much in its plastic bottle, it seems unnecessary, but it makes meats COME ALIVE!

I kid you not, I don’t know how it does it. I was always into the exotics, like Pommery above. But now I can’t live without Zabar’s in the house.

It’s thick, not runny. But unlike Pommery, it’s easily spreadable.

And unlike Pommery and Grey Poupon it never drowns out what it covers, it just accents it. It’s not exactly subtle, but it’s far from harsh. You will never put French’s on a hot dog again. And pastrami that often goes naked, to experience its full, pepperized taste, gains new flavor with Zabar’s Deli Mustard. The sauce brings out something hidden in the pastrami, they go together like husband and wife, bagel and cream cheese.

So here’s you assignment for today. It must be completed. You must go online and order Zabar’s babka right now:

Zabar’s Homestyle Babka

I don’t care if you’re Tara Westover who grew up in a Mormon household far from Jews.

I don’t care if you think most Jewish food is heavy and oftentimes dry, which it frequently is.

I don’t even care if you’re anti-semitic. Because after eating this babka you will be unable to hate Jews. That’s right, Zabar’s babka could engender peace in the Middle East… Well, I don’t want to get carried too far away, but it sure would bring us closer together over here.

And when you get it, cut a slice.

Now don’t be on a diet, don’t be one of those people who say something can be too rich. Don’t be thinking about calories. Just dig in, savor. And keep slicing and keep eating. This is a peak experience, what you live for. Trust me.

And while you’re clicking order the deli mustard too, it’ll make you smile every time you use it:

Zabar’s Deli Mustard