Hi Everyone:
So I'm posting this on Saturday instead of Sunday, because Saturday was a rare (as in once every four years) February 29, and why wait till boring March 1st when you can do something to commemorate Leap Day (sorry anybody born on March 1st). If I had posted this on Sunday, I was going to date it February 30th, just to see who was paying attention. But I figured the ones who would have called me out on it were the folks who I know read this and who are eagle eyed. So we're publishing early this week.
I'm hoping we have the results of the South Carolina Primary by the time we go to press. I'm also hoping to have a special after Super Tuesday, where I'm pretty sure we will have an idea who will be facing Captain Orange come November. If we don't know for sure, at least there will be some we know have no shot.
That's a discussion for Wednesday. For now, here's what we got.....
WALL STREET- Stocks get their bell rung...
I don't mean to make light of either the Coronavirus or the plunging stock market, but there's something that always cracks me up whenever there's a bad day on Wall Street, and since every day this week was a disaster, it came to mind more often.
When they report on the news about how the DJIA did that day, many of the newscasts show the closing bell being rung. And no matter how bad the Dow dropped that day, these people stand there smiling and clapping as if they're watching their kids graduating from kindergarten.
They plan this months in advance. You can Google up NYSE Bell Calendar and it will tell you who and what company is ringing the bell that day.
On Thursday, the Dow dropped close to 1,200 points, the biggest one day drop in history. Yet, there was Neal Froneman, CEO of Silbayne-Stillwater, along with some of his workers, ringing that bell with big smiles, like it aint no thang.
Silbayne-Stillwater was celebrating getting a new ticker symbol. I know nothing about stocks, but looking at their weekly chart, I see their stock price went from $11.30 on Monday to $8.46 on Friday. I don't know how bad that is, but even a dope like me knows it's better when the price goes up than when it goes down. In other words, I'm sure Mr. Froneman wasn't as happy as he appeared whilst ringing that bell.
I guess if you are into this stuff, ringing the bell on Wall Street is like throwing out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium. But to me this is more like having someone come out while Liza Minelli is singing New York New York after a Yankee loss and throwing the ceremonial last pitch. Who the hell wants to do that?
If I ever had the honor of ringing the closing bell, I'd hope it would be on a day where the Dow finished up. If I'm ringing it on a day where the stock market takes a dive like it did this week, I'd go out there with a paper bag over my head. I don't want anyone associating me with a bad day on Wall Street, it's bad enough I root for the Knicks and the Jets, I don't want to be the schmuck who rang the bell the day the stock market crashed.
On a serious note, I've lived through some serious pandemics recently, swine flu, bird flu, SARS, but this one is really scary.
Now normally, I would defend Trump's decision to make Vice President Pence in charge of the Coronavirus Task Force. Putting the Vice President in charge of anything to me shows that you are taking the situation seriously enough that you are putting (theoretically anyway) the person you trusted the most to help you run the country in charge of it.
To me, the issue isn't that Mike Pence doesn't have any medical experience or even some of his puzzling decisions he made while Governor of Indiana. It's that the administration has slashed numerous programs and agencies that would deal with pandemics.
According to Chris Morris in Fortune Magazine...
The cuts started in 2018, as the White House focused on eliminating funding to Obama-era disease security programs. In March of that year, Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer, whose job it was to lead the U.S. response in the event of a pandemic, abruptly left the administration and his global health security team was disbanded.
That same year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was forced to slash its efforts to prevent global disease outbreak by 80% as its funding for the program began to run out. The agency, at the time, opted to focus on 10 priority countries and scale back in others, including China.
The two words that jump out at me there are the last two...including China. China, where this whole thing started. That's what's got me nervous, that the people in charge have done such a bang up job with this in the first place.
I really hope someone comes up with a cure if not an actual vaccination. I just feel like if we do, it will,be in spite of ourselves.
POLITICS: The South Carolina Debate-
The South Carolina primary is going on as of this writing, so hopefully we'll have results soon. I watched some of the South Carolina debate on Tuesday, hosted by CBS News.
You know, I still read Mike Lupica's Shooting from the Lip Column every Sunday, and every once in a while he comes up with a good line. From last Sunday's paper...
There has to be a better way to pick a Presidential nominee than having a bunch of 70-year old men and women raising their hands and nearly begging moderators to pick them
It came to mind again as I watched seven candidates, Mike Bloomberg, Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Amy Klobochar and Tom Steyer, waving their hands like Arnold Horshack. I love Norah O'Donnell and Gayle King, but they really had no control over this thing. If I were moderating these debates, I'd tell them all to "put their f-cking hands down and wait till I call on you. You wanna act like a bunch of spoiled brats, that's how I'll treat you."
Years ago, Imus moderated a debate between the Senator Al D'amato and Robert Abrams and when the two of them refused to stop talking over each other Imus screamed "That's it! Shut up!"
I guess you can't do that on national TV, and yes I realize the stakes are high here, but knowing that, as a viewer, I really want to hear the candidates views and hear the answers to the questions. This seemed to be all about who could yell the loudest. As I've said before, there was a time in my life I may have enjoyed the fireworks. Not now. There is too much at stake.
BTW: (And h/t to David K. Li for bringing to my attn.) remember 4 years ago when I wrote about how Nevada used high draw cards to break caucus ties? It happened at one caucus site in Vegas last week. There was a tie between Buttigieg and Sanders that was broken when a Mayor Pete supporter drew a 3 and a Bernie supporter drew a 2.
ABC recently brought back the game show Card Sharks with Joel McHale taking over the hosting role from the late Jim Perry. Maybe that's how they should break the tie next time around.
THIS JUST IN..... With almost 0% of the precincts reporting, former VP Joe Biden has been declared the winner of the South Carolina primary by most news outlets. Go figure. They couldn't call Iowa with 99% of the precincts reporting, and they didn't call New Hampshire until the wee hours of the next morning, but they called this one 7 minutes after the polls closed. I'm not saying they are wrong, (or that I'm not happy about this-because I am) but am I the only one who finds all this strange?
HOCKEY: SMH
It figures that almost as soon as Chris Kreider signs his huge extension with the Rangers, that he goes out and gets his foot broken on a slap shot, coming just a few days after their star rookie goaltender was hurt in a car accident. (In Brooklyn-go figure) My former colleague at the Post, Billy Gorta once went through a list of Ranger injuries that he convinced himself cost them the Stanley Cup in a particular year. The famous ones are obvious.. Jean Ratelle in 1972, Ulf Nilsson in 1979 (Potvin Sucks!) but there were ones even I had forgotten about. The Mets have had them too. I still think if Bobby Ojeda had hired a gardener or if Duaner Sanchez ordered in delivery, we would have won the World Series in 1988 and 2006 respectively.
The kicker to all this is that the Rangers weren't expected to make the playoffs this year and there was some folks thinking they may have benefited from another trip to the draft lottery. But lately they have been on fire, and with two 30 goal scorers already and Krieder possibly joining them before he got hurt, it was beginning to look like they could make a nice little run.
And they still might. It's just going to be a lot harder without their star goalie and one of their better scorers.
UPDATE- OK now 50% of the precincts are reporting and Uncle Joe had a commanding lead, I think WM will join everyone else and put SC in the W column for Biden, with Bernie coming in 2nd. From what I'm seeing it looks like Tom Steyer is going to finish third, with Buttigieg fourth and Warren fifth. Now I'm hearing Steyer is dropping out. I thought this unusual being that he finished ahead of Buttigieg and Warren, but after consulting with my political expert and reading some articles, it seeems like Steyer was counting on a stronger showing in SC. So now we are down to Bloomy, Mayor Pete, Bernie, Warren, Biden, Klobuchar and Tulsi Gabbard. It's onto Super Tuesday.
RANDOM NOTES- The Islanders are officially done with the Barclay's Center, as they will now play the rest of their games at the Nassau Coliseum till their new place at Belmont Park opens up in 2021. Hockey in Brooklyn was an experiment gone awry.
Plastic bags will now be considered a relic here in New York. I told some of my Post co-workers about this old Bud Light commercial which is now a reminder of days gone by. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDZB6W71-f4
OK, if this isn't one of my better ones, it's because I didn't give it it's usual Sunday editing.
Hopefully we'll post a special Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.
either way Have a Great Week
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