Hello:
Happy 4th of July weekend, and happy surviving halfway through 2025.
I hope all of you enjoyed my dispatches from out west, that was truly an amazing experience. We spent two days in LA and three days in Solvang, and that was perfect. I had a blast in LA, but Solvang was awesome too. We had diner at the Hitching Post which was featured in the movie Sideways. There were pictures of Paul Giamatti and Thomas Hayden Church all over the place. And the food was outstanding.
I'm really glad we got to do that trip. With my two buds whom I've been friends with since kindergarten. I may never get there again, but at least I can say that I did it.
But as Soul II Soul once sang, back to life, back to reality.
Well first there was some good news. Tim got asked to a prom. It was a co-worker from his camp who asked him. It was the Lynbrook high school prom. And I have to tell you something, they do it up!
They close down one of the main streets in Lynbrook (Atlantic Avenue between and Merrick Road*) and have the kids walk out on proverbial red carpet then parade up and down Atlantic Avenue before getting on the party bus.
Fun, fun night.
And as I mentioned above, last Tuesday was July 1st, marking the halfway point of 2025, a year I feared would be a complete $hit$how. And while there have been a few personal highlights, see the first part of this post, the rest of the world has pretty much gone the way I figured it would.
Karl, Ray and I were sitting at a wine bar in Solvang watching the Mets-Phillies Fox Game of the Week, when a Fox News Alert interupted the game. It was 7 PM where we were and I had gotten some alerts that Captain Orange was going to address the nation about the US bombings of Iranian nuclear sites.
The bar didn't ask the band to stop playing and they never turned up the volume on the TV, so I had no idea what he said at the time. All 3 of us had been either flying or about to fly during an international incident. Ray and his wife had been on their way back from Hawaii on 9/11 when their plane was forced to land in the Midwest. I was in Disney World in 1979 when the Iranian embassy had been overtaken at the hostage crisis began. I was also in Ireland when Bill Clinton went after Osama Bin Laden by firing cruise missiles in Afghanistan and the Sudan in 1998.
Look, no one thinks Iran having a cache of nuclear weapons is a good thing. But I'm more than a bit skeptical that their entire nuclear program was wiped out by this airstrike. I wouldn't believe CFCO if he told me the sun set in the west, and obviously I don't believe anything coming out of Iran. For now, all is quiet on that front. But my guess is that this is far from over.
On June 24, the democratic primary for mayor was held in NYC. Former governor Andrew Cuomo was the favorite, but in ranked choice voting, he was defeated by Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani. When all was said and done, Mamdani took 56% of the vote. It was almost 100F in NY that day (which coming from Solvang, where it got down to 48F one night, didn't help my jet lag any-but I digress) and Cuomo seems to think that the older folks he was counting on to get him over the top stayed home in the air conditioning. I don't know, that looked like quite a statement from where I was sitting.
I don't know much about Mamdani to be honest, but to hear some people all bent out of shape over his victory made me chuckle, a lot of the same folks who were giving me $h-t on November 6, 2024.
Unfortunately, I think this is the way of the world now, folks. I'm sure there were some people who didn't vote for Cuomo because of the reasons he was forced to resign as governor. More likely, it was that he was viewed as the establishment. Much like when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated my friend Joe Crowley in 2018, and much as I hate to admit it, the way CFCO defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016. Some may argue that his 2024 win over Kamala Harris was the same thing. It wasn't. (And if you voted that way, once again, you got played by the conman.) Being the establishment candidate is now the taboo. Don't be surprised if AOC tosses her Yankee cap into the ring in 2028. And if you think her fibbing about where she grew up is going to derail that train, you need to pay attention more.
Then we have the big beautiful bill that was voted on July 3rd and signed into law on July 4th. Two things I'm going to say about it.
1) What gets me about this bill is not the die hard MAGA's who voted for it, the one's who think CFCO can turn water into wine. They are going to do what they do. No, I'm more upset with the ones who said they had reservations about the bill, who read it and saw that their constituents were going to suffer, and who said they would consider voting no, but caved in and voted for it anyway, fearing reprisals from the big guy. Nobody wanted to get rid of Obamacare more than John McCain, but he knew that there was no bigger better plan, so he voted no to the repeal. That took guts. Those who said they would vote against it and changed their minds? Gutless, the lot of them.
2) The cuts to Medicare and Medicaid are going to have ripple effects, and I don't understand how people don't see this.
It’s bad enough that millions of people are going to lose their health insurance because they won’t qualify for Medicare or Medicaid anymore. But also, funding to hospitals and clinics will also be dramatically cut. Hospitals are going to be forced to cut staff that includes nurses, physician assistants etc. In other words the people that make hospitals work more efficiently so that doctors can do their jobs properly. That is all at risk now.
And that’s just the hospitals that won’t be forced to close.
Just a total disaster.
BASEBALL: Subway Series.
Sure, I would have loved to see the Mets win on Sunday and sweep the series at Citi Field. But let’s be honest this was the way it sort of had to end, right?
The fact of the matter is the Mets and Yankees are pretty much the exact same team. Both of them are good enough to be close to the top of their divisions with enough flaws to make you think that there is absolutely no shot either one of them have a chance to win the World Series as presently constituted.
Both teams have been rattled with injuries, especially to their starting rotation. The Yanks have lost two of their starters to Tommy John surgery and the Mets have been without Kodai Senga, Frankie Montas and Sean Manea for large parts of the season.
While I was away, I was spared having to see the Mets get swept by the Braves in Atlanta, while the Yanks went three straight games without a run. WFAN must have been going bananas that week.
So yeah, Mets 3-Yanks 3 kinda tracks. We’ll see what kind of moves they make at the deadline.
Sorry this one is kinda short.
Stay Safe
and Have a Great Week
No comments:
Post a Comment