Barbra Streisand broke a 13-year absence from the stage when she returned to Madison Square Garden in New York City Saturday for a concert performance complete with lots of other celebrities and politicians in the audience to cheer her on. Her performance included some new material and even a remix of ‘Send in the Clowns’. The twist is that Ms. Streisand is so Trump-obsessed that she turned her appearance into a political rally.

It’s no secret that Streisand is not a Trump supporter. Her tweets against him all but drip venom. She has a long history of publicly criticizing Republican presidents and Republicans in general. So, when she used her concert in New York as a vehicle to attack President Trump, she was in her element. She even warned the few Republicans in the audience to cover their ears as she launched into a new rendition of ‘Send in the Clowns’, complete with a photo unveiled of the White House under a circus tent and Trump’s 2016 Person of the Year award from Time magazine photo altered to show his face in clown make-up. The photo carried the wording “Clown of the Year”.

We know that the majority of the concert-goers were Democrats because, in an unusual move for a singer, she asked the audience, “How many Democrats are in the room tonight?” It is reported that only a few people booed as she sang.

The query came after a rendition of “Send in the Clowns.” Streisand had a sly smile on her face after finishing the song, telling the audience, “We were going to fool around with another version of this. But we decided not to do it because it’s not nice.” But once she had established that the sold-out arena was largely populated by cheering Democrats (and a few Republicans, to whom she jokingly advised, “Cover your ears for a couple of minutes”), she proceeded to reprise the number, this time with very different lyrics.

“He says he’s rich/ Maybe he’s not,” she sang in her usual gorgeous voice, to the melody of Sondheim’s classic. “Until he releases his returns, who can be sure?/ Who is this clown?

“Something’s amiss, I don’t approve/ Now that he runs the free world, where can we move?

“This is no farce, it’s not just smoke/ Is this the art of the deal, or some awful joke?/ You’ve got to admit, this fraudulent twit, is so full of….”

“I can’t say it, I can’t say it,” Streisand laughed, as she cut herself off. The audience erupted into cheers and a standing ovation (and a handful of people loudly making their displeasure known) as a mocked-up picture of President Donald Trump wearing clown make-up appeared on the giant video screen behind her.

Plenty of well-known Democrats were in the audience, including Bill and Hillary Clinton, Al Sharpton, New York Rep. Jerry Nadler, and former New York City Mayor David Dinkins. She described her pal Sharpton as someone who’s bearing “the brunt of Trump’s wrath these days”, and thanked Nadler for “fighting to uncover the truth and for all you’re doing to protect our democracy.” She saved her most glowing praise for the Clintons – “two people I deeply admire and am proud to call friends.” Poor Babs still isn’t doing well with the fact that she didn’t get to sing at Hillary’s presidential inauguration in 2016. She was sure to remind the audience that she sang at Bill Clinton’s inauguration. Some of the entertainment world celebrities included Whoopi Goldberg, Billy Crystal, Rosie O’Donnell, and Sally Field. Streisand’s long-time friend, fashion designer Donna Karan was there, too.

“A great president needs the compassion that would never let children by separated from their parents,” the singer declared. “A great president tries to inspire us and in times of distress make our nation heal.” She never mentioned Trump by name, but the comparison was unmistakable.

Turning to Hillary, Streisand went on. “In addition to being a magnificent first lady and secretary of state, you gave our allies confidence and our foes unambiguous clarity,” she said. “Needless to say, three years ago, I was greatly hoping to sing at your inauguration.”

She admitted to the audience that she has no self-control when it comes to commenting about politics. At the age of 77 years old, no one should expect her to mellow out after decades of partisan political attacks. She incorporates politics into her music concerts because she can. She doesn’t suffer a backlash from any conservatives who may be in the audience. Her performances are sold-out.

She lectured about climate change. Then she lectured about the need for truth and diplomacy. Streisand proves the point that there is no bigger hypocrite than an aging limousine liberal. She’s all about peace and love, you know.

“We’re living in divided times, but I think there are some things we can agree on,” Streisand commented during her encore. “The antidote to lying is truth. The remedy to war is diplomacy. And the solution to hate is love.” She then proceeded to sing “What the World Needs Now Is Love” as the audience whipped out their cellphones to provide what another, very different Republican president would have described as “a thousand points of light.”

Her audience laps up her political rants interspersed with musical interludes. At her age, she has nothing to lose. There are no consequences for Streisand, as she’s in her retirement years. Streisand acknowledged the ‘Clown’ parody is meant to be funny but isn’t. Her very unoriginal message is Trump lies.

“You know, that was meant to be a funny song,” she added. “But what’s going on just isn’t very funny, because it would take me all night long to recite 11,000 lies. You know what I mean? But there’s a line by Oscar Wilde that kind of describes this person. The line is: ‘He’s a man who knows the price of everything, but the value of nothing.’”

Good thing her good friends Bill and Hillary don’t have reputations as lying politicians. That would make Streisand’s words ironic, right?

This YouTube video is from the Rolling Stone story:

https://youtu.be/D6VlzX7DtQ0

If President Trump wins re-election in 2020, the mental breakdowns from both coasts will be epic. The unhinged reactions we saw in 2016 will look like just a warm-up act.