Hey There:
This past Tuesday, in addition to being Election Day, also was Mom and Dad's 53rd Anniversary. It was the first of the milestones/holidays that we are going to have to get used to celebrating without her.
Scott Shannon, who built the Z-100 Z Morning zoo back in the day, and later was the morning DJ/program director at WPLJ, started his own internet oldies radio station called the True Oldies Channel. (TOC). You can get it here in NY at 92.3 HD Channel 3. Anyway Katie e-mailed Scott and asked if he could play their wedding song, Never My Love by the Association, and dedicate it to Dad and in memory of Mom.
Sure enough at 11:20 on Tuesday, he read a little dedication and played the song. I played it at work and my co-worker started crying.
It made a tough day a bit easier to get through.
And now as promised, our Election Day Wrap-up. We'll start in the city
NYC MAYOR'S RACE-You Don't Mess with the Zohran
In a hotly contested 3 way race that really was a two way race, 34 year old Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani overwhelmingly defeated Democrat turned independent former governor Andrew Cuomo and Guardian Angel founder/radio talk show host Republican Curtis Sliwa by a wide margin to become the next mayor of New York City.
I've lived in Nassau County now for over 16 years, so I didn't have a vote in this mess, but if I had, my vote would have gone to Andrew Cuomo. Somewhat reluctantly, but nevertheless.
I'm less concerned that Mamdani is some global jihadist sent here to finish off what al-Qaeda started 25 years ago, than I am that at age 34, Mamdani might not have the requisite experience for a gig as big as mayor of one of the world's most important cities. I'm guessing the same folks who think Mamdani is the second coming of Osama Bin-Laden, probably felt the same way when Barack Hussein Obama was elected POTUS. All Obama did was take Bin Laden out in his own house in Pakistan and dismantle what was left of al-Qaeda.
Mamdani has his work cut out for him. I don't agree with outgoing Mayor Eric Adams on much, but Adams suggested that Mamdani visit every police precinct in the city to assure the cops that he has their back. He is also going to need to appoint a FDNY commissioner who will command respect from the rank and file.
I'm nervous about Mamdani's youth, but on the other hand, does a 34 year old who has never been, give NY a better shot at prosperity than a pair of 70 somethings that are has beens or never were?
Like I said, I would have voted for Cuomo. I called for him to resign after the allegations of misconduct came out against him as governor, but.in the meantime, the country decided to re-elect a 34 times over convicted felon who is keeping the federal government shut down in part to stop the release of the Epstein files. To say nothing of that fact that he organized a terrorist attack on our nation's capitol in 2021. If you have a problem with my saying I'd vote for Cuomo, but you giddily voted for Convicted Felon Captain Orange, a man who was legally found liable for sexual assault, you can sit down and STFU thank you very much.
As for Curtis Sliwa, honestly, I don't really have anything personal against him. He's been married four times, which is one more than CFCO and twice more than Cuomo, (Mamdani is still on wife number one). To me he's as much of a carnival barker as our current President is, with not nearly as much baggage. There had to have been someone in the Republican party in NYC more qualified than poor Curtis was, no?
Curtis never had a chance, despite some folks on my social media feeds breathlessly screaming that the polls were unreliable. After they said, all the same polls had Kamala Harris waltzing (no pun intended) to the Oval Office, only to see Captain Orange sweeping the swing states. The polls here in NY pretty much had it dead on. If I have one regret, it's that Curtis did so poorly, I can't even blame his supporters for giving Mamdani the keys to City Hall. The final score was 50.4% for Mamdani, 41.6% for Cuomo, and 7.1 % for Curtis. Cuomo and Curtis combined votes still wouldn't have caught Mamdani.
Shucks.
NJ GOVERNOR'S RACE-Mickie Sherril flies to victory
Living in NY, we are unfortunately inundated with political ads from New Jersey that makes one feel the need to shower after they are done. If I thought moving to Oceanside was going to cure me of that I was sadly mistaken.
As bad as it is in NY, I feel like those New Jersey races are the ultimate in mud slinging. This last race between Democrat Mikie Sherrill and Republican Jack Ciattarelli was no different.
Ciattarelli's commercials made Sherill out to be some dingbat, while Sherill's commercials made Ciattarelli out to be a MAGA't along the lines of JD Vance and Mike Johnson. Sherrill was a Navy pilot and combat veteran. Ciattarelli, at one time a Trump critic, does appear to have embraced many MAGA talking points.
The race was thought to be a tight one, but Sherrill pulled away, winning by 450,000 votes. To both of their credits, despite the fugly campaigning, Ciattarelli told his supporters that he called and congratulated Sherrill and wished her luck, while Sherill acknowledged Ciattarelli's concession and called him a "stand up guy" If Ciattarelli used the MAGA playbook to run his campaign, he must have skipped the chapter where they tell you not to admit you lost.
NASSAU COUNTY RACES-
If the GOP was looking for a place to hang their red MAGA hats, they could come out to my neck of the woods. Bruce Blakeman was re-elected County Executive, Anne Donnelly was re-elected District Attorney, Elaine Phillips was re-elected County Comptroller and John Ferretti was re-elected Town of Hempstead Supervisor. I of course voted against all four of them, making my ballot look an awful lot like my NCAA Tournament bracket.
Blakeman interestingly enough was once married to Nancy Shevell more commonly known as the third Mrs. Paul McCartney. Blakeman and Nancy had a son, Arlen together before going splitsville. If I had it my way, I'd have Paul as Nassau County executive and send Bruce out on tour with whosever left in Wings.
In Virginia, the governor's mansion was flipped blue, and in California, a proposition to redraw the congressional map to give Democrats more seats passed. I'm not a fan of gerrymandering, but sometimes you have to fight fire with fire.
While I felt a lot better about the results this year than I did on November 6, 2024, I can't say I was as giddy as some people were. Did it do my heart good to see people losing their $h-t because NY elected Mamdani? Yeah it did. But there is no guarantee that the gains that the Democrats made are going to carry over to next years midterms, a year is a long time. (just look what a difference a year made this time) It's going to take years to fix what was broken last year. This election was a band aid where stiches was needed. A good start? Yes, but also, a long way to go.
DICK CHENEY- 1941-2025
When getting into debates over the state of our union, one of the toughest positions I have defending is the idea that "you're saying the same things about Trump you said about (George W) Bush. You called him evil too.
Well I didn't. But yeah, they called him a lot of things. And let's face it, even myself, a guy who defended that administration more than occasionally, had to admit that things weren't going well by the time Dubya shuffled back to Texas.
Dick Cheney was the VP in the Bush 43 administration, and more than perhaps any other VP, helped shape much of his boss' agenda. As people are fearing that NY just elected a pinko commie for mayor, and Captain Orange has said more than once he'd like to be a dictator, Cheney was someone who really wanted to expand the power of the executive branch.
And here's the thing... I didn't always agree with the man, I probably disagreed with him more than not. I watched the report of his death on the CBS Evening News the other night, and one of the clips they showed was Cheney saying "It's clear that Saddam Hussein is in possession of weapons of mass destruction." The reporter, Major Garrett, quickly reminded us viewers that no WMD's were ever found in Iraq.
But I also felt that Cheney did what he did, and believed what he believed, because deep down he felt it was best for the country. He himself never ran for the top job, but he served as White House Chief of Staff under Gerald Ford at age 34 (hey there's that magic number again), defense secretay under George HW Bush (and the first time we went after Saddam Hussein) and of course Vice President under George W Bush. I'm a checks and balances sort of guy, so consolidating power isn't necessarily something I think is a good idea, but I also don't think Cheney wanted to be a dictator. Not even for a day.
He leaves behind two daughters, one, herself a Congresswoman, was one of the few Republicans who didn't kiss the Orange ring, and who had the guts to call January 6 what it was, an attack on our democracy. His other daughter, Mary was the center of some controversy in 2004. During their vice presidential debate, when they got the "say something nice about your opponent" question, Senator John Edwards complimented the Cheney's on raising two successful daughters and being loving parents to a gay daughter. Couple weeks later, when the subject of homosexuality came up, John Kerry once again pointed out that Mary Cheney was gay.
My $0.02 was that Edwards was sincerely trying to complement the Cheney ladies. Kerry was trying to make a point, and came off as gratuitously dragging Mary Cheney into the debate that wasn't necessary.
In any event, Dick Cheney passing away a day before Election Day got him back in the news for what was probably one of his favorite times of the year. RIP.
FOOTBALL: Jets trades
I decided to go have lunch in my car on Tuesday when Brandon (BT) Tierney and Sal Lacotta broke the news that the Jets traded Timmy's favorite player Sauce Gardner, to the Colts for the Colts next 2 number one draft picks. They later on traded Quinnen Williams to the Cowboys for the Cowboys 2027 number one draft pick.
BT & Sal were estatic over the Sauce deal, and later Joe Beningo came back with his former partern Evan Roberts to praise the two deals going so far as to say both Sauce and Williams were overrated. The next morning Boomer Esiason said "Any Jet fan in their right mind has got to be thrilled about these deals."
I'm not necessarily in my right mind so there's that, but I'm not as over the moon about these deals as the FANdroids would like me to be.
For starters, while Sauce may not have been as spectacular as he was in his rookie year, he is still a very good corner, and good corners are hard to come by. As Roberts pointed out on the FAN, the Jets let Darrele Revis go to the Patriots and then drafted a highly regarded cornerback to replace him. You guys ever hear of Dee Millner? No? That's because he was another in a long line of NYJ draft busts.
We’re trading guys we drafted who, in an occurrence more rare than Hailey’s Comet coming around, actually worked out, for draft picks were more likely than not going to screw up.
Now the Jets won the other day, (speaking of rare occurrences) without Sauce, without Williams and with little output from Garrett Wilson. They play the Patriots on Thursday which will probably be another loss. Maybe I’m being too negative, maybe the guys on the FAN are right. I just don’t see it.
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It is always a horrible day in New York when we lose a firefighter or a cop in the line of duty. The loss of Patrick Brady hits harder because we’ve known his family for a long time. That was horrible news to wake up to on Sunday morning. May God Bless Pat and the entire Brady family, and as always, for all of those who protect NYC.
And of course Happy Veterans Day to all who served to defend our nation. Especially my dad, my father in law and my brother in law Brian.
Thank you all.
Stay Safe
and Have a Great Week
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