Hi Everyone:
Hope all is well. Onto the week that was.
POLITICS: 2018 Election Review
After I voted on Tuesday, I said I hoped that my votes would fare better than my football picks. Alas, it wasn't meant to be.
This should come as no surprise, as many of my votes were for the heavy underdogs. My friend Fran Becker lost to the evil Todd Kaminsky 62% to 48%. That alone was enough to put a damper on my night.
But I also went ahead and voted for Marc Malinaro over Andrew Cuomo. I figured Cuomo would win, but I was hoping that if the results were closer, that maybe he wouldn't try to rule as if he had a mandate from above. But nothing doing, Cuomo took nearly 60% of the vote. Interestingly to me, the third place winner was the Green Party candidate Howie (the Hawk) Hawkins, who, if we were voting based on most awesome name, would have won in a landslide.
My two winners were Kirsten Gillenbrand and Kathleen Rice, neither one of whom I'm particularly fond of, but who I figured we needed to keep Captain Orange in check.
I had mentioned last week some of the races I was interested in and they all pretty much ended up in the L column for me. Lyin Ted Cruz, Slimy Bob Menendez and Alexandra-Ocasio-Cortez all won, with the latter two winning bigly. Lying Ted won a relative squeaker against Democrat Beto O'Rourke, and some were calling that a moral victory. Ask Bill Parcells what he thinks of moral victories.
Also in Georgia, there was some funny business going on with the governor's race. The GOP nominee, Brian Kemp, was also Georgia's secretary of state, leading some to believe he was messing around with the voter rolls. Count me as someone who believes you shouldn't be allowed to oversee an election you are running in. That the Democrat candidate Stacey Abrams, is trailing by a tiny margin, makes the shenanigans by Kemp even more outrageous. Look, I find it odd that I can decide the leader of the free world without showing my ID, but have to show it to my bartender when I go boozing after I vote. But from everything I've read, it seems like Kemp is screwing around here. I'm hoping Abrams pulls it out and our nation gets it's first African American female governor.
And it wouldn't be an election without some bullshit from Florida now would it? Two races, one for the Senate and one for Governor, both going to recounts. (Actually Florida is also recounting the votes in the election for agriculture secretary-which I didn't think was that important till I considered the lives of millions of oranges could be at stake here. No morning OJ? No Screwdrivers?
It always cracks me up when there is a recount and the candidate who is winning asks the one trailing to stop the recount. A spokesman for Governor Rick Scott who is leading Senator Bill Nelson by 12,562 votes, (out over 8.1 million votes cast) said "It's time for Senator Nelson to accept reality and spare the state of Florida the time, expense and discord of a recount."
Oh please STFU!
First of all, Florida lives for this stuff, so don't act like this is a drag for the citizenry down there. Secondly, if the roles were revered, would YOU back out of a recount? Not a chance. So why waste your time? It's one thing if keep recounting, but at least one recount to see if they got it right? I got no issue with that, and if Scott is being fair, nether should he.
The race to replace Scott's successor, is also going to a recount. And Republican Ron DeSantis who is leading by a slim margin, which by law, necessitates a recount. Still, even though the machine recount is mandatory by law, DeSantis says "the election is behind us.." Well not quite.
DeSantis also caused controversy during the campaign when he urged Floridians not to "monkey this up" by voting for Andrew Gillum, his opponent who is African American. And if DeSantis is not smart enough to know that using that term is offensive to African Americans, he's not smart enough to run a state IMHO*.
To sum it all up so we can go on to more fun stuff,
1) I'm happy the House went blue, but what does that really accomplish? On CNN the other night Jake Tapper breathlessly stated that the House can bring articles of impeachment against President Trump, not mentioning that with Republicans strengthening their grip on the Senate, he'll never be impeached. I'm not seeing this blue wave I keep hearing about.
2) I wonder how many of my fellow New Yorkers who voted for Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez because they wanted change, also gave that loudmouth Andrew Cuomo a third term as governor.
and finally the most outside the box voting award goes to the people in Nevada's 36th Assembly district, who voted in Denis Hof, a brothel owner and reality TV star. If that's not far out enough for you, Assemblyman-elect Hof has been dead since October 16.
From Taxi: Season 1 Episode 19.
Louie DePalma: Um Ben Goretski is the shop steward. Ben? Ben Goretski to the cage.
John Burns: I never heard of him.
Alex Rieger: That's because he's been dead for two years.
Louie: Never mind, Ben.
Bobby Wheeler: Wow, looks like we're going to have to elect a new one.
Elaine Nardo: Oh, I nominate Alex.
Alex: Oh, come on, now, Elaine.
Louie:All right. All those in favor of Alex being our new shop steward say "aye.
ALL: Aye!
Alex: Wait a minute! Look, I don't want to be the shop steward.
Louie: We can't force him into it.
Tony Banta: Well, why don't we just let Ben Goretski keep doing it? He's been doing a good job.
Louie: All those in favor of keeping Ben Goretski as our shop steward say "aye.
ALL: Aye!
Louie: The ayes have it. Ben if you can hear me, congratulations.
CRIME: Alec Baldwin busted
I didn't mention this last week as I wanted to keep last week's blog strictly on the elections, but a week ago Friday, Alec Baldwin was arrested for allegedly assaulting a man in front of his East Village home over a parking space.
I don't get it with this guy.
His Donald Trump impression is not my cup of tea, and I never really watched 30 Rock, but this is a guy who really should have the world on a string right? He's a multi talented actor, married to abeautiful much younger woman, and wealthy beyond most of our imagination.
Yet, all he seems to do, when not performing, is get himself into trouble. Either with his fists or his big mouth.
There was a time a few years ago, when I was starting to feel sorry for the guy. I felt like maybe the press in this town (especially my beloved Post) should back off of him. He was a loose cannon, just let him be. He wrote a full length story in New York Magazine about how he had had it with New York and was looking to leave. Honestly, I kind of felt for him. He was protecting his wife and young kids right?
But just like he threatens to leave whenever a Republican gets elected to the White House, we New Yorkers and my fellow Americans are still stuck with his a$$. And now he pulls this stunt? For crissakes put your car in a garage like most Manhattan residents do. I mean was getting into this fracas with some nobody worth it? This one's not on the paparazzi, this one's on you.
Jackass.
Maybe SNL can get Donald Trump to play Baldwin beating someone up. Now that the elections are over, Trump's not going to have anymore of those Saturday Night Rallies for a while, so he's got the
time on his hands.
BASEBALL: New Mets GM
Also from last week, the Mets hired Brodie Van Wagenen to replace Sandy Alderson as their GM. Even for the Mets, this one's a head scratcher.
Van Wagenen is not only a former player agent, he represented perhaps the two most important players on the roster; Jacob DeGrom and Noah Syndergaard.
Van Wagenen has stated that when it comes time to negotiate their deals, he will make like Jeff Sessions and recuse himself.
Huh?
So these two important deals are going to be left to the Wilpons to sort out? Yeah that will work out well, because it always does when those two dopes are involved.
I watched a replay of his press conference and he talked a good game, but I don't see how he's going to pull it off. Obviously, I hope I'm wrong. I thought Sandy Alderson was a good hire, but one trip to the World Series and one trip to the play-in game around 6 losing seasons wasn't anyone's idea of a great success story. I'm just not seeing it with this guy. There's too many loose ends.
Finally with today being Veterans Day, Id like to say how blessed I have been to have had several veterans in my life. Both of my grandfathers and several uncles fought in WWII, I was lucky to marry the daughter of a Bronze Star winner, and of course, my all time favorite veteran, the bravest man I know, my dad. To all who have served, from the bottom of my heart.
Thank you.
Everyone else,
Have a Great Week
And again, I'm someone who usually gives the benefit of the doubt to people when they say stupid shit like that. Ron Darling was forced to apologize after he used the term "chink in the armor" when talking about something Mashahiro Tanaka did during the ALDS. Anyone who thinks Darling who has Asian Ameircan roots, would slur Tanaka has to be a moron. DeSantis using the term monkey anywhere near Gillum though is just plain racist.
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