Weekly Mail February 9, 2020

Hey There:

January is behind sand now we are that much closer to spring. Hope 2020 has been good to you so far.

Onto the news...


POLITICS: Rough Week

So, Monday was the Iowa Caucus. Something that is on my bucket list, but I'll probably never get to do, is to spend the month before the Iowa Caucus hanging out in Iowa, talking to the people. I wouldn't follow the candidates around, I'd go into the greasy spoon after the candidate left and talk to the diners. I'd just like to see how they feel about having their state inundated with candidates and media.

I say I'll probably never get to do this because 1) I'd have to quit my job and 2) there may not be anymore Iowa Caucuses. Not after last weeks debacle.

First of all, between Trump's impeachment trial and the sudden death of Kobe Bryant, I don't remember an Iowa Caucus having such little fanfare and news coverage. With the stakes as high as they are, you would have thought there would be more buzz. Again I understand there were mitigating circumstances here, but still.

And then there was the actual voting. They made some adjustments to the rules, which a) I'm not sure I understand, and b) don't think I could explain even if I did. But then they decided to have the votes reported through an app that didn't work properly. Mike Francesa's app was more successful.

Politics and technology don't seem to go hand in hand right? Wasn't one of the big issues with Obamacare was that the website kept crashing?  Two years ago, the state of Hawaii thought they were about to be obliterated by Kim Jong Un because the governor couldn't get into his Twitter account to alert his constituents that it was a false alarm.

And now a faulty app has thrown the Iowa Caucus into disarray. As of this writing, I still don't know who won. Right now, I'm calling it for Pete Buttigieg, with Bernie Sanders second, Elizabeth Warren third, Joe Biden fourth and Amy Klobochar fifth.

Because of this, and for other reasons, many are calling for the elimination of the Iowa Caucus, suggesting that either 1) they should just have a primary like the rest of us 2) not always be the first in the nation or 3) all of the above. I'm a traditionalist and like I said, I'd love to go to a caucus site or two to see how it all works. I really would like to see Iowa still kick off the primary season. And maybe instead of relying on apps, they should just count them the old fashioned way.

This wasn't the way to start this cycle of Election 2020. Especially with what happened the rest of the week.

On Tuesday, President Trump gave the State of the Union address. There were a couple of nice moments, watching Sgt 1st Class Townsend Williams reunite with his wife and young kids was a heart tugging moment, I don't care what side of the aisle you are on. The young girl getting the scholarship was also a nice touch, even if it seemed like it was turning the SOTU into The Price is Right.

But the rest of it was everything that is wrong with America IMHO. First of all, Captain Orange not shaking hands with Nancy Pelosi was bush league bull$hit. He also didn't shake hands with Vice President Pence, but the message was clear. Pelosi came right back at him by introducing him without saying, "It is my distinct pleasure to introduce..." she simply said Members of Congress, the President of the United States."

Then the Republicans chanted 4 more years as if this was the RNC. Lame.

He presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Rush Limbaugh. You know, on Saturday, a friend of mine posted that Gary Sinise had been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his work with veterans. I already had in my brain the scene in Forest Gump where Lt. Dan confronts Forest outside the studio where he was interviewed by Dick Cavett (along with John Lennon) and started giving out about Gump having won the Congressional Medal of Honor. I substituted Presidential Medal of Freedom for CMOH..



"They gave you, an imbecile, a moron, who goes on (the radio) and makes a fool out of himself in front of the whole damn country, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Well, that's just perfect! I have one thing to say to that. Goddam Bless America!




That's what was going through my mind as Melania was putting that medal around Rush's neck.

And at the end of the speech, Pelosi tore up her copy, sending Republicans into a tizzy, calling her all sorts of names. Once again forgetting that he dissed her in the beginning.

Now under normal circumstances, I would give the House Speaker all sorts of grief for a stunt like that. If Pelosi had done that to George W. Bush, or Paul Ryan to Barack Obama.

But these aren't normal times. And whatever you thought of Paul Ryan, or John Boehner or any other House Speaker, they were always respectful to the President during the State of the Union. And that's because the President was always respectful of the Speaker. Obama and Ryan couldn't stand each other, but they shook hands. That'w what normal people do.

I don't blame Pelosi for what she did. But that's not how things are supposed to be done. Trump has brought out the worst in everybody and that's not good.

And it only got worse.

On Wednesday, the Senate voted to acquit Trump on both articles of impeachment. A few thoughts..

1) Mitt Romney was the only Republican to vote to convict Trump. He voted to convict on Article I, abuse of power.  Because I'm a registered Republican, I get e-mails all the time from Republican sites, namely people looking for campaign contributions. But on Friday, I got an e-mail from Tea Party.org breathlessly reporting that when Mitt Romney was at Bain Capital, he helped bankrupt millions of American workers. I pictured the Tea Party sending the following e-mail:

Dear President Obama:

Can we borrow your 2012 Campaign playbook?

TIA

The Tea Party. 


2) Susan Collins, who likes to portray herself as a Republican with a conscience, voted to acquit on both articles even though she admitted she thought what Trump did was wrong.

"I believe that the president has learned from this case," she told CBS News earlier this week. "The president has been impeached — that's a pretty big lesson . . . I believe that he will be much more cautious in the future."


My question for Collins would have been, What makes you think he's learned his lesson, when he admits he did it, and said he'd do it again? I mean shoot, even OJ had the good sense to tell Judge Ito he didn't do it.

But because of spineless senators like these, he could say he did it, because he knew he'd get away with it. I swear, the most honest thing the man ever said was "I could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue and people would still love me."

3) Yeah, I called them spineless. The whole lot of them. Because they were afraid of what, getting called names? Losing their seats? I would have asked Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, "Marco, he called you little Marco, Ted he said your father was involved in the Kennedy assassination, but you were willing to look the other way with all that?

I have tried to consider the argument that while what Trump did was wrong, it didn't rise to the level of removal from office. I can't do it. More importantly, how can he get away with defying subpoenas? That to me is just as bad. Again if you are I ignored a subpoena, they'd toss us in the slammer.

And in case you thought I was being too harsh on Susan Collins, one only needed to watch Trump's press conference on Thursday afternoon to realize he didn't learn any lesson. Instead he bragged about being acquitted, insulted Pelosi, Romney and Adam Schiff amongst others and vowed political payback. At one point he sounded an awful lot like Robert DeNiro's version of Al Capone in 1987's The Untouchables......

"Now I have done nothing to harm these people but they are angered with me, so what do they do, doctor up some income tax for which they have no case."

Sounds just like Trump right? Substitute impeachment hoax for income tax. It's scary.


Just one more thing before we move on from politics for now... not that I ever didn't take a Presidential election seriously, but I have always also tried to have fun with it, to almost treat it as another sport. And to crack jokes along the way.

But after the last election in 2016, when I heard Bob Schiffer compare it to a banana republic, I'm having a hard time getting into the fun stuff.

Part of it is that there is so much as stake. There hasn't been an election yet that I haven't heard is the most important in our lifetime. This one is that times 100.

I still want to enjoy it and still want to have some fun with it, but please understand that I know what the stakes are here. There probably won't be as much joking around as I write and I promise I will discuss the positives of the candidates when appropriate and the negatives when I need to.

But the endgame for me is to have someone win in November who will bring some decorum back to the White House. Who will make sure that he or she reaches out and shakes the hand of their opponents, who won't sling insults and act like the whole thing is an MTV reality show. There hasn't been a President yet where I have agreed with everything they did. But never has there been one that I felt lowered the dignity of the office. When all this is said and done, I really want to look at whoever is sitting there in the Oval office and knows what THAT represents.

That's all I want.

The New Hampshire primary is Tuesday. We'll update our board when (or if) the results come in.


SPORTS: It was nice while it lasted...

From WM December 15, 2019- I'd love to get excited about hedge-fund honcho Steve Cohen buying out the Wilpons. People were going bananas comparing it to New Years Eve. And look, I'd love to send those three bozos (Fred, Jeff and Saul Katz) packing. But shoot a LOT can happen in 5 years. The three stooges could change their minds, Cohen could end up in the slammer (apparently his company has been investigated by the Feds) and according to Forbes, there's a chance MLB wouldn't approve the sale, though I find that hard to believe. My point is 5 years is a looong time. Tell me this is the last off-season I have to worry about those idiot Wilpons running the Mets, and then maybe then I'll celebrate. 

So word came down this week that the Wilpon's deal with Steve Cohen has pretty much died. There was much handwringing over this but again, should anybody really be surprised?

I never understood the idea that Cohen would invest all this money and still not have the final say in baseball matters for 5 years.

It reminded me of about 20 years ago, when George Steinbrenner was in discussions with the Dolans to sell them most of the Yankees. Steinbrenner insisted that part of the deal included that he would remain as Yankees President. James Dolan heard that and said, "No no no, the idea is that I get to ruin yet another New York sports franchise." (If I was a Yankee fan the thought of Dolan owning the Yanks would cause to wake up in a cold sweat every once in a while.) Steinbrenner thought the better of it, and instead started the YES Network.

According to several sources, the hangup on this deal is that Fred Wilpon wants to make sure that Jeff Wilpon would be involved in the new ownership. According to the Post's Thornton McEnery

At the late stages of his agreement to buy 80 percent of the franchise for $2.6 billion, Cohen was informed by Fred and Jeff Wilpon that their plan was for Jeff to maintain total operational control of the Mets throughout the pre-agreed-to five-year transition period and then maintain a senior role within the organization even after Cohen took over.

While it is unclear whether the Wilpons, who said Thursday night they still plan to sell the team, sought to keep the COO title for Jeff after the transition, sources uniformly agree Jeff wanted to be part of the decision-making under Cohen’s ownership.

But in the same story, this is the quote that burned my ass.

However, one former Mets employee told The Post that it was almost inconceivable to think that a deal would have been struck without a role for Jeff.

“This guy has never done anything in his life other than play a week of minor league baseball and work for his dad,” said the former Mets staffer. “The Mets are his life. He can’t do anything else.”

By all accounts, Jeff’s current leadership of the organization is extremely hands-on. Every facet of the team, from baseball operations to marketing, is known to be under his purview.

“He is the owner and the de facto general manager,” said one source close to the team. “He does not want to give that up, even if everyone around him does. 

Jeff Wilpon is 57 years old or so, and is about to collect the better part of $2.5 billion. He doesn't need a job. And the fact that he's the "de facto GM" of a team who has had so little success this century should tip him off that maybe he's not cut out for this. To me he has no discernable skills except he was born into a wealthy family. he's no better than Dolan.

No better than Trump.

If I'm looking to buy the Mets, I make it implicit in any deal that all the Wilpons and all the Saul Katz people are out. If Fred wants to be stubborn and hold on, than MLB needs to step in. I can't have another one of my teams run by a ne'er do well son of privilege. It's bad enough my hockey and basketball teams,  as well as my country is being run by one.


ROCK AND ROLL- Another Stones Tour..

"We have to get tickets. This is going to be history!" Karl (the Ace) Ludwig was insisting that we get tickets to see the Rolling Stones. "You never know man, this could be the last time (no pun intended) that we get to see them. This might be their last tour."

That was during their Steel Wheels tour. 31 years ago.

And now word comes out this week that Mick, Keith Ronnie and Charlie and planning another trek through North America. The 2020 No Filter Tour will start in May and conclude in July. They won't be coming to NY, the closest they'll be is Buffalo.

But to me the big news that came out about the Stones this week is that Keith Richards hasn't had a cigarette since October. Can you imagine that?

I have rarely seen Keith without a smoke, either in his hand or his mouth. The man is a human chimney. He had to have smoked a couple of cartons a day. He has single handidly kept the economy of North Carolina afloat.

But he did indeed tell Q104.3's Jim Kerr that he quit back in October. "Done that, been there" he said.

Listen I'm happy for him, I detest smoking. I support anyone who quits. He told Kerr quitting smoking was harder than kicking heroin. I believe him. I really thought the only times Richards didn't smoke was when he was asleep. (if then). I hope he can keep up the good work.



RANDOM NOTES-

Very happy the Chiefs won the Super Bowl. Very enjoyable game. It really looked the 49ers were going to win it. I know the Chiefs made it their MO to have come from behind wins in the playoffs, but that Niners defense was tough. Pat Mahomes a die hard met fan, may be the closest I'll come to having a Super Bowl championship.

Much was made of the halftime show, starring 43 year old Shakira and 50 year old Jennifer Lopez. can you believe a 50 year old can look like that? yeah I can, when she's worth hundreds of millions of dollars and is engaged to a man worth hundreds of millions of dollars, you have time to work out and stay in shape.



Have no interest in the Oscars. The last movie I saw was The Rise of Skywalker and I didn't even get to see the end of it because right in the middle I got up and yelled..   Where the hell..


If you are watching the Oscars, enjoy. I'll be fast asleep when the best picture award is announced.

and Have a Great Week