To prognosticate or not to prognosticate

 Normally I would not prognosticate a presidential election this close but I will although not with supreme confidence as there will be millions of Americans default voting against Trump.  It will come down to the economy as it usually does.  Harris can point to this or that positive economic indicator but what people are paying for groceries is still too high.  Too many people still remember the Trump pre-pandemic economy when a trip to the supermarket was more normal.  This remains an albatross for Kamala Harris.  People also have been paying too much at the pump although I went to the station the other day and the cost took a remarkable dip.  What a coincidence!  Most voters are not academics and don't intellectualize that presidents don't really control the price of oil.  It was the Biden/Harris Administration during this time.  Correlation in the public mind and that's usually enough.  That the polling is still this close shows the defects in Trump's personality have had a negligible impact.  Disposable income trumps Trump you could say.  I want more disposable income to buy cigars.  To the undecideds Harris might be different than Biden but why take the chance?  If you vote wrong that's a long four years.  Trendy issues like climate change and trans issues those are more issues for the Left imo not bread and butter for most folk.  Abortion could have a significant but overall limited impact since people's views run the gamut.  It's the economy stupid.

Trump wins.  Not by a landslide but he comes out on top when the dust settles.  My somewhat shaky prognostication.

Last Tango In Yonkers

 Yonkers, NY.  Also known as The City of Gracious Living and the Sixth Borough of NYC.  Lots of movies filmed in Yonkers.  I may need to get out more as I haven't heard of most of these:

Who Made Tony Soprano, A Journal for Jordan, Halston, The Irishman (my friend told me about this one), Cruise, Ben Is Back, Breakable You, The Book of Henry, The Drowning, Chuck, Paterson, Meadowland, Freeheld, Get Ready for Ricki, The Adderall Diaries, Still Alice, Presto......I did see Freedomland (2006) though as I remember them filming here.  Starring Samuel L. Jackson they filmed parts in the Mulford Gardens Housing Project which was torn down years ago to make room for nicer townhouse style low-income housing.  Lots of TV shows filmed in the Big YO as well.  Not up on most of them either. 

Don't know if this has anything to do with the City of Yonkers' obsession with mow your front grass and keep your sidewalks clean at all times as the movie scouts may be driving through.  BTW the Yonkers property tax.  You're killing me.

50 Shades Of Diddy

 Not a whole lot to report on the culture front.  Actor Robert De Niro thinks Trump won't relinquish power if elected to a second term.  He needs to reacquaint himself with our system of government first.  84-year old actor Al Pacino now has a 1-year old son.  Don't play too rough and give Dad a hernia.  The T. Swift/Travis Kelce romance.  Pop star Sabrina Carpenter getting competition from upstart Chappell Roan.  I was driving to work this morning, stopped off and sent in my mail-in ballot for Trump/Vance then on the radio they were talking about the sad and tragic death of 31-year old One Direction member Liam Payne who jumped or fell from his room in a Buenos Aires hotel.  TMZ facing backlash over pics they posted of his. The Al Smith Dinner tonight.  Trump came but Kamala Harris didn't.  She sent in a pre-recorded video instead.  Who does this?  NY Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan disappointed.

Got anything? 

Trump is pretty fly for a white guy Part 2

 Apparently there's an issue with not enough black men who are automatically going to vote for the Harris/Walz ticket.  Heresies and blasphemies!  Obama has admonished them and now Kamala Harris has promised $20K in forgivable government loans for 1 million minorities to start businesses.  Harris also wants to legalize pot not an uncommon position but is also looking at it from a business potential angle.  I recently took out two loans through my union but nothing in the fine print about not having to pay them back.  On the pot front my neighbors are big potheads.  I'll be enjoying my fine Navy Flake MacBaren's pipe tobacco on my front porch and the smell of pot is always wafting over from the porch next door.  Modern-day Americana.  Norman Rockwell with a modern flair.  

So too many black folk have a nostalgia for the Trump first-term pre-pandemic economy.  Even the Trump loathing media admits the price of groceries was lower back then.  Black voters thinking out of the box.  A problem for the Dems.

Medical records I'd like to see

 Kamala Harris has released her medical records to goad Trump into releasing his.  Trump's physician said he is in excellent overall health.  Remember this is a man who once underwent a colonoscopy without anesthesia.  Kamala - Trump health nothing to see here.  RFK Jr.'s medical file might be interesting though.  Here is a man who once said worms ate part of his brain.  Sounds like a House episode.  Also and we don't know this for a fact but there is a good chance he has eaten roadkill sometime during his life.  He says you can get some sort of license for this.  Guess he keeps it in his wallet.  Is it laminated?  How often do you renew it and what is the fee?  He's driving home along the parkway somebody hits a deer and he's automatically thinking of the best recipe for venison.  His voice.  I don't know if he's given an official medical reason for this but people are curious.   The Jr. health file might be a treasure trove of medical esoterica.  A real rabbit hole.

Michael Moore is a freak

 Left-wing documentary filmmaker Michael Moore has urged Biden being a lame duck president to sign off on some far-left action items with the stroke of a pen.  Point 1 Joe Biden has always been a moderate-liberal Democrat his whole political career.  Point 2 Kamala is putting off progressives for now to appeal to the more centrist middle-class.  Point 3 Biden probably wouldn't know what he's signing anyway.  Moore should instead compete in a doughnut eating contest with Chris Christie.  Meanwhile Obama who fancies himself some sort of elder statesman is advising black men to not stray off the Democratic plantation and to vote for Harris/Walz.  I don't know about you but I've had enough of this election cycle.

If Trump wins on Nov. 5

 It would have been better off if he had won the last time around against Joe Biden.  He would have been nearing the end of his full presidency by now and the era of MAGA would be coming to an end.  We could all be talking about other subjects.  The trend lately has been to give most recent presidents two terms.  Clinton, Bush Jr., Obama.  This is why at the time I thought the American people would reelect Trump.  This gives the president the opportunity to finish the work he started  and gives his foreign policy a certain stability.  World leaders are used to dealing with him.  Instead we got Sleepy Joe.  IF Trump wins now there's talk of riots.  Why I don't know.  If he had won against Biden we wouldn't be going through this.  I make no case that the election was bad just that the American voters should have reelected him the last time for practical reasons.  Not voting for him this time because his personality has reached a critical mass for me.  Other conservative bloggers have said this is not the way to go but to each his own.

This was a tentative blogpost of mine since if Kamala Harris wins on Nov. 5 this thread will have little to no value.  However if I'm reading the polls right she just might come out on the losing end.  IF Trump wins but the election is close he clearly has no mandate and will govern a divided country.

The feral cat that liked people but hated his own kind

 

Many years back.  Would come around come in the house and sit on my father's lap while they were watching Judge Judy.  Loved people but hated other cats.  I don't recall him meeting another cat and liking him or at least tolerating him.  He felt the whole property belonged to him.  Did he pay the mortgage?  We named him Smokey.  He always had some sort of digestive problem and eventually passed away.  We never took him to the vet because of his anti-social attitude towards the other cats but took care of him as best we could.

A quick tip regarding cat rescues.  Another cat was trapped up a neighbor's tree once for a couple of days.  Maybe chased up there by a stray dog.  Called the Yonkers Fire Department and explained the situation to the lady.  She said just open up a can of cat food and leave it at the bottom of the tree and he'll eventually come down.   Nope.  I guess fire departments don't do cat rescues anymore.  At a loss I said to Dad I have an idea.  I got their big comforter from upstairs and we went next door into our neighbor's yard and we stretched out the blanket good and wide and held it right there underneath where the cat was sitting on a branch and we gradually coaxed him to fall into the blanket like a trampoline.  He was slightly bloodied from being scratched by some twigs on his way down but not the worse for wear.  We never officially adopted him but named him Lucky.  Would've been a nice YouTube video but nobody was around to record it.

From the Cat Diaries.

Hurricane season is upon us but debate season is over

 As we all know during a recent campaign stop in Wisconsin Trump called Kamala Harris mentally disabled from birth while talking about the Biden/Harris approach to dealing with illegal immigration.  He didn't say she lost her critical thinking skills but said what he said and took it to another level.  Conservatives have memory-holed this since they're default voting for Trump anyway.  A debate with a mentally disabled person should be a cakewalk for him.  Why wouldn't he go for it?

Trump may well win.  The polls show a clear horse race but if he loses the political autopsy of MAGA won't be hard to figure.

I got 99 problems but 'gators in the floodwaters ain't one of them

 There's always people worse off than you.  Back to back monsters Helene and Milton.  Hurricane Milton wreaked absolute havoc as it made landfall late Wednesday knocking out power to millions of Floridians as expected and spawned at least 150 twisters!  At least four deaths.  Tampa wasn't hit straight on by the Category 3 system though.  The fabric roof of the stadium used by the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team, Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg was completely ripped off.  Rather than be a Captain Google you can just surf the rest of the details.

I can't wait for the politics of this.  Marjorie Taylor Greene.  Trump.  Gotta put a spin on everything.

Our thoughts, hearts and prayers;)

The only problem is Woodward isn't a trash writer

 I'd sooner trust him than Tom Selleck trying to sell me a reverse mortgage.  Woodward's new book War - According to the book Trump and Putin had at least seven private calls since Trump left office.  Also Trump allegedly sent Putin Covid-19 test machines during the peak of the pandemic when there was a shortage.  Trump calls Woodward "a storyteller who has lost his marbles",

POT - KETTLE - BLACK

Steven Cheung Trump's communications director said Woodward's book is "the work of a truly demented and deranged man" who suffers from TDS.  Did he make up Watergate too?

There's other stuff in the book.  Lindsey Graham calls visiting Mar-a-Lago like visiting N. Korea everybody has to clap when Trump enters the room.  Biden's complicated relationship with Netanyahu and his angry tirades over the Israel/Hamas War yada Yada.

I'm no fan of the media by any stretch but it ain't Maury Povich writing.

The Democrats and their hurricane-making machines

 Latest conspiracy theory being peddled by Marjorie Taylor Greene.  I'm beginning to think she might be a left-wing plant to make conservatives look bad.  The Democrats can't even make health care affordable for most Americans how are they gonna control the weather?

On to Trump.  The New York Times is taking his latest campaign rambles and rants, lies and misinformation very seriously indeed but they're missing something big time here.  Let me illustrate with an anecdote.  Back in the day we lived close to an older couple.  The elderly husband eventually developed Alzheimer's.  The wife asked my sister for a favor if she could just take him out and walk him around the block.  Nice day and a group of black guys hangin' on the corner.  As my sister and her ward got closer he started using the N-word.  Why this even came out in an Alzheimer's state is itself an interesting question.  I mean why not "look at the pink elephant"?  Anyway he was like "look at the (N-words)" etc. etc. They were naturally getting a little upset, just a tad mind you until my sister explained to them he had Alzheimer's.  They completely understood and let it go.  Last time my sister took him out for a walk btw.  Now my point about the Ole Gray Lady and the mainstream media in general.  IMO Trump has some cognitive issues.  Something is off.  Don't think it's weed.  Might be pre-Alzheimer's, dementia or something else.  DO NOT treat Trump's pronouncements and latest utterances as you would a normal person.  You don't fact-check some old guy in a nursing home say who's rambling on about when are the elves gonna bring in his food.  You let it ride but that's the problem with the msm they're missing the bigger picture.

Having said that I don't know what the problem with MTG is.

Why doesn't Oprah fund Planned Parenthood?

 Planned Parenthood is not a self-reliant organization.  They suck heavily from the teat of government.   I mention this because I see on my newsfeed that Vance said Trump would take a chainsaw to PP if elected.  Oh the humanity!  Nobody is saying PP would cease to exist however and it's almost as if the headlines are conflating the two.  St. Jude doesn't suck from the teat of government but relies heavily on private donations.  But PP is a public health group you say.  OK but a mainstay of their business is performing abortions.  Abortion is arguably the taking of a human life etc.  Maybe Taylor Swift can run the whole operation.  Not understanding why it's axiomatic and morally obligatory for taxpayers to fund them in the first place.  Just my view.

Cap'n Crunch causes cancer?

 RFK Jr. is making all kinds of claims about the food we eat.  This seems to have caught fire in conservative media which is usually wary of the potential for a nanny state.  Apparently the federal government is still after him for cutting the head off a dead whale back in the day.  Isn't there some kind of statute of limitations for whale head cutting?  Actress Cheryl Hines is reportedly looking to divorce him over an alleged affair he had.  Maybe it has more to do with the lack of junk food in the house.  Personally I will risk cancer for a chocolate Twinkie.  Meanwhile Melania Trump wrote some book and disagrees with her husband over abortion.  Couldn't this wait until after the election?  Hasn't she ever heard of put it in the 'fridge it'll keep?  Melania your husband is trying to run a campaign.  At least I think he's trying to run a campaign.  Raspberry Zingers are to die for.  Is that to be taken literally?

House ferals - Misty

 Went from squirrel meat to Fancy Feast.  We began putting collars on them.  Always preferred the breakaway kind in case the cat gets snagged on something.  They always lose them.  The engraving on the tag isn't cheap either.  Misty was a favorite of the toms in the neighborhood until my sister finally took her to the vet.  No trapping involved.  Misty would make herself right at home in a nook of the house and simply put the critter in the carrier is our strategy.  Some vets now offer 3 year rabies shots but you have to ask for them.  All vets are big on gums and teeth.  They ALWAYS check out the mouth and usually recommend dental work which can run well over $1,000 in some cases.  Not saying they're wrong but most folk probably can't afford it.  Don't have pet insurance but it's worth considering.  My folks were in a pet food store once.  Another older couple shopping for their cat.  The wife was very finicky about what to get.  The old guy grumbled you don't even care about my dinner like that.  It's a cat thing you wouldn't understand.

Fact-checking the fact-checkers

 I've always felt the so-called fact-checkers come to the conclusions they want to come to.  A lot of people know the fact-checkers are biased.  They always seem to be helping the liberal cause if you notice.  Confirmation bias.  One of my issues is the sheer speed with which they come to some of their conclusions.  Let's say a Bigfoot was spotted in Central Park.  Less than a day goes by and Snopes will authoritatively pronounce it false.  Yes a ridiculous example for levity's sake but as usual don't take their word for anything.   Do your own research.  If your conclusions dovetail with those of the fact-checkers all well and good.  If you feel as Joe Rogan does that they're full of shit that's fine too as you've probably done more homework than them anyway.

When it comes to hard objective news the msm is great.  The horrible human tragedy of Hurricane Helene they can be relied upon for giving you the most basic facts of the situation.  Our hearts and prayers.  Other stuff however the social and the political area I find myself gravitating more towards independent media.  Sure Russell Brand is big on clickbait but you get more on your plate.  Everybody's biased but you're a grown adult you can figure it out.  You don't need everything handheld for you by the fact-checkers and the strained puree of data they give you.

Have a good day.  Don't be lazy.  Do your homework. 

Does your vet need to know Shakespeare?

 Does your gastroenterologist need to know calculus?  How many existentialists does it take to change a light bulb?  You do not need to be a well-rounded individual unless you're Chris Christie.  Many conservatives like Charlie Kirk are now making the case that you do not need a liberal arts college education to get ahead in life.  Worked under a young and talented chef back in the day.  He had a little higher education under his belt but he preferred to dive into the labor market at an early age.  You learn by doing.  Teach kids how to make money.  I vastly recommend trade schools over college unless college is your thing.  I'll never forget the tour our chef friend took us on at the famed Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park New York.  Young people zeroing in on their passion that's what it's all about.  In France our chef friend said chefs are practically revered.  He also said if you're a chef you'll never be out of a job.  College graduates on the other hand often have trouble landing their dream job right away.  Paying back student loans another current issue although the CIA costs a pretty penny too.

College.  What a racket.

A political ramble through the workplace

 This is going to be counterintuitive.  Democratic bosses and Republican bosses.  The people I'm about to describe were very open about their politics of that there was no doubt.  Now you would expect a Democratic boss to be very pro-the worker but......Many years back I worked under a Democratic head chef very anti-Trump and very pro-Hillary.  We're not talking the restaurant scene here either which can be highly stressful by its very nature but food markets.  This man however despite his politics was universally disliked by the workers under him.  Numerous complaints to HR.  Unfair to the workers.  Made a woman cry once.  FF to now and the current head chef an avowed and hardcore Democrat is similar.  Both taskmasters.  You already have a lot on your plate and here's a few more scoops.  Current chef hard to have a rational discussion with.  Guy at work had cancer since passed away but at the time Chef became impatient because he was out a lot because the doctors were trying to get a handle on it.  On the other hand I've had Republican bosses who were nice and fair-minded.  Few years back when my father passed away the young head chef at the time a pro-Trump Republican said if there's anything we can do and take as much time as you need.  Very family oriented.  Said the same thing to another co-worker whose Dad had passed sometime before mine.  I thought the Trumpublicans were supposed to be horrible people.

All this is highly anecdotal on my part and I'm leaving the broad brush aside.  Studies have been done showing a fairly high percentage of bosses are mentally ill in the first place and this cuts across party lines so there can be many explanations.  What stands out in my own personal life experience though is how counterintuitive political affiliation can be when it comes to bosses in the workplace and what you would expect.  I welcome your anecdotes.

Trump thinks he can swagger his way into the WH

 Last night's VP debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz was a fairly civil affair.  At the end my impression was I'd rather have Vance as president than Trump.  Vance acknowledged having an erroneous belief and making a mistake or two in the past.  Imagine Trump saying this!  Vance and Walz sometimes agreed with each other.  By the time they got to child tax credits I was fully under the influence of the Christian Brothers.  They covered a lot of ground and it was a long debate.  Everyone including wives shook hands at the end.  I rather enjoyed it gotta say.

I seriously can't vote for the man at this point

 I'll have to sit out the most important presidential election of our lifetime.  Don't they say that about every election though?  If Trump wins it'll be without my help.  Trump's reverse strategy of turning off voters - as I'm sure you've heard at a campaign stop in Wisconsin last Saturday he called Kamala Harris mentally disabled from birth because of the admittedly horrible Biden-Harris immigration and border policy.  Talk like this can only throw sympathy in Harris's corner.  I don't expect any presidential campaign to be totally softball but I don't remember any presidential candidate talking like this.  There is something seriously off about Trump.  While there was still time the GOP should have gone with somebody else.  Might be a good time to blog about other stuff.