Weekly Mail August 16, 2020

Hey Everyone:

Sorry we got this out late.


Lots to discuss this week.


POLITICS: Joe picks Kamala

To me, it's the coolest thing about running for President, choosing your running mate.

With COVID-19 disrupting the primaries, and turning the conventions into high priced Zoom Meetings, we still had the thrill of watching Joe Biden choose his VP nominee. He chose Senator Kamala Harris of California.

While I think this was a solid, safe pick, my gut was telling me that he was going to choose former NSC Director Susan Rice. I'm glad he went this way though. Harris is plenty smart, has a solid record, and has shown she can go toe to toe with anybody. Last time around, I thought Mike Pence won the debate against Hillary's running mate Tim Kaine. Harris should wipe the floor with Pence this time around.

In discussing this with my WM co-editors, I pointed out that the Trumpsters will probably have a field day with that first Democratic debate where Harris essentially blamed Uncle Joe for trying to keep Kamala from going to a good school. OK, not quite, she said that he voted against school busing, and that he bragged about working with segregationists. Of course there are a few morons who are questioning Harris' place of birth. Those a-holes I can't take seriously.

But there is something about how Harris went after Biden at that debate. I realize that this goes on all the time, all the way back to when George Bush called Ronald Reagan's tax plan "voodoo economics" while he was campaigning for the top of the GOP ticket in 1980. Reagan somehow got over that knock and tapped GHWB as his VP. it's part of the game.

And so it goes here. Bygones are bygones. It goes from "Joe Biden almost prevented me from going to school" to "Beau Biden and I were good friends." It's all part of it yes, but it's also part of the reason people get fed up with politics.

But at this point we have to get past all that. This was a good choice by Joe Biden, she's a solid person and has been a very good Senator for California.  She'll be an excellent VP.


CRIME: Murder in NC

I was very hesitant to touch this story, but I felt like I needed to say something about it.

Last Sunday, a 5 year old boy was shot in the head and killed by his next door neighbor in Wilson, NC. The 5 year old boy, Cannon Hinnant was white. the 25 year old neighbor is African-American.

All over social media, conservatives accused the main stream media of ignoring the story, suggesting that while George Floyd's murder at the hands of a white cop made national headlines, the story of this boy being executed was buried or ignored.

"Where's the Outrage?"  "Where are the protests?" That's what I keep hearing.


OK, so let me start by stating what should be obvious...There is not a single right-minded person, White, African-American, or any other persuasion, that is not outraged and heartbroken about this. There is not one right minded person of any persuasion, who wouldn't want to see the animal who did this either locked away for life or given a lethal injection. I don't believe that anyone either left wing or right wing who doesn't want to see justice for this poor baby.

But also, ask your self this.. If this killing was captured on video, do you really believe that the networks would ignore it?

I don't think this was ignored, I think the media didn't have enough info to go on.

And look, I'm not for a second saying that I want to see a video of that, I'd shut the TV off if they showed it. But there was footage of what happened to George Floyd. That makes a HUGE difference. I've read several reports from all different news outlets that are saying that the police in Wilson, NC have released very little if any information about what happened.

And where are all the protesters? Hey, you want to go out and protest that little kids shouldn't get shot to death,  go for it, who's going to stop you? Who's going to counter-protest that message?

Maybe it's just that 99.99% of all Americans don't need to be told that what happened to Cannon Hinnant in Wilson, NC was wrong. But can we honestly say that 99.99% of us believe what happened to George Floyd was wrong?  I've said it before, most cops I know thought that was excessive force, but more than a few people I know have said otherwise, that Floyd was a career criminal or something to that effect.

And one more thing... If you want to go protest about Cannon Hinnant getting shot, but you didn't protest when 20 kids just a bit older than Cannon were gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary School,  you might be more of the problem than the solution.




All right, lets get to some good news here, or at least some less serious stuff.



HOCKEY: Rangers win the lottery.

Again, one of my fearless sports predictions came true...


And many of my glass half full Ranger fans tried to take solace in the fact that now we have a shot at the number 1 pick in the draft. It's a 12.5% chance, so I'm not holding my breath on that  either. 
---From Last Week's Blogpost

Whats worse, after the Rangers were booted from the bubble two weeks ago, I went on a Ranger fan board and told people not to console themselves with the thought of winning the draft lottery.

So when that ball popped up with the Rangers logo on it last Monday, my second thought was that I'd have to go own up to what I had posted. (My first thought of course was surprise and joy).

And I have to say, the folks I spoke to were really cool about it. Didn't give me a hard time. And the funny thing is, on my way home from work Monday night, I heard that the Penguins and Maple Leafs also had ping pong balls in the hopper, so I was even more convinced that the Rangers weren't going to win.

So the consensus number 1 player is Alexis Lafreniere a French-Canadian who starred in the Quebec junior hockey league, considered to be one of the top jr leagues in the world. The older I get, the harder it is to get super excited over draft picks and prospects, but if this kid is as good as they are saying he is, well, I guess we'll have to wait and see.


Meanwhile, the hockey series that are still going on have been classics. The Lightning and Blue Jackets played a 5 OT thriller the other night, and a couple other games went into Double OT. These afternoon games have been great. Something to look forward to on the way home instead of more bad news.

BASEBALL:

Baseball writer Jon Heyman was on the FAN with Joe and Evan the other day, and they were talking about what might the solution be for teams that lost games due to COVID-19, if they can't make them up in doubleheaders.

Both the Marlins and Cardinals missed a substantial amount of games because they had multiple players test positive for COVID-19. Heyman seemed to suggest that in the event that a team can't complete their 60 games, their qualification for the playoffs would be based on winning percentage.

That doesn't seem fair.

If the Cards finish 25-15, and the Brewers finish 30-30, would the Cards make the playoffs because they won 55% of their games as opposed to the Brewers 50%?  That can't be right.

And I'm very tempted to just tell the Mets to have Jacob deGrom opt out and just bring everyone up from the farm system and forget about this year. But I can't see any of the other teams running away with the NL East, and if they stop freakin leaving guys on base, they could run off a nice winning streak. This weekend would have been a good time for that to start. They play the Yanks next week.


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OK folks that’s it. Our season finale. Thank you all for reading, writing and supporting.

Have a Great rest of the Summer






Weekly Mail returns in September