FRIDAY 'ROUND-THE-HORN.

See first item below

•  At the Old Firm's latest Pazz & Jop poll, Robert Christgau says something I took to heart:

One reason I’m so glad Pazz & Jop still exists is that for all of its flaws, it does provide kind of a consensus, so that if you go, if you’re still interested in albums, you go down to 300, you find stuff that you’ve never heard of, and every once in awhile, you find something that’s really good... You don’t just look at the Top 40: you go down to 300 and you make a list and hear most of it in one place or another. It’s better than checking out the track of the day on fifteen different blogs.

Thus, our F'RTH videos this week: Pile, "Mr. Fish" from You're Better Than This, #265; Joanna Gruesome, "Last Year" from Peanut Butter, #287; Carol Lipnik, "Almost Back to Normal" from album of same name, #309; and Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats, "Waiting for Blood" from The Night Creeper, #330. I look forward to more spelunking.

•  Jonathan Chait thinks he sees the GOP capitulating to Trump:

Indeed, Trump’s numbers have not only risen, but the entire backdrop of his position has changed. The percentage of Republican voters who could see themselves supporting Trump has grown from 23 percent last March to 65 percent now. Trump could now beat Marco Rubio (a popular figure within the party) in a head-to-head matchup. He remains far from inevitable. The first vote will still not be cast for weeks. Yet those of us who believed Republican elites would kill Trump’s candidacy out of self-preservation have to face the increasingly plausible prospect that, for whatever reason, they may lay down their arms before a shot has been fired.

I said in December, and believe to this day, that while some prominent conservative propagandists have learned, let us say, a strange new respect for Trump lately, Trump will not be the nominee. For one thing, no one really knows if he even has a get-out-the-vote operation. "Trump campaign officials declined to provide information about its GOTV effort" to the Washington Times, a not-unfriendly organization, though those officials do tell WashTimes "Mr. Trump has taken steps to set up a robust operation." Smells like bullshit, don't it? Also, look at his fundraising. This is a Potrumpkin campaign! But the main thing is: The RNC is not a bunch of assholes. I mean, they are, but not in that sense; history suggests they have their best shot since 2004 this year; they know it, and they're not about to blow it by letting a TV buffoon (who owes them nothing) represent the GOP to an electorate which -- and people keep forgetting this -- is not entirely comprised of Republicans. This ain't a student council election, hell, it ain't even the Golden Globes. If there's a threat they'll find a way to block it. I suppose I can only afford to be so definite because if they do nominate Trump I will no longer care even as little as I do about being embarrassed, because I will have become emotionally prepared for the End Times.  But there you are.

•  The whole Ted Cruz "New York values" thing is beyond idiotic, but the duh-prize goes to Todd Starnes at Fox News, who near the end of his sub-literate yak says New York values are "the kind of values that would compel someone to use a national tragedy like 9-11 to score cheap political points." Man, someone hasn't been paying attention, or at least hopes no one else has.