Since practically the beginning of its run in 1979, I’ve been a massive fan of CBS Sunday Morning. It is the network’s weekly magazine on the air.
Several of the segments on this past Mother’s Day made me a bit melancholy. They weren’t all sad, but many were reflective. Motherless daughters: Coming together involves “a global support network for women” who, like author Hope Edelman, were “young when their mothers died.” The women also experienced “laughter, sisterhood, and affirmation.” What caught me unawares was that the reporter, Faith Salie, was one of those women.
Every story I saw about the SCOTUS ruling ushering in a new era of gerrymandering made me heartsick.
CBS correspondent “Jonathan Vigliotti, who wrote about L.A.’s reconstruction efforts in his book ‘Torched,’ discusses how rebuilding after a disaster should include steps to prevent future catastrophes.” One fears that speed will win out over safety and strength.
Martin Short: Facing tragedy with joy is a heavy-duty piece in anticipation of Lawrence Kasdan‘s Marty, Life Is Short, a 101-minute tribute to the comic. It’s amazing and touching, given his sometimes difficult experiences – a brother and both parents died within an eight-year period in his youth, his wife of 30 years died in 2010, his daughter died earlier this year by suicide — how well put together he appears to be. Here’s an extended interview.
News
Remembering Ted Turner, an American original, reminded me of what we’ve lost since we had a reasonably straightforward, even boring, 24-hour news. I wonder if he knew whether FOTUS was limiting access to the bison on lands in Montana. (Here’s the CNN take on its founder’s passing at the age of 87.)
But I was most melancholy about the story of CBS News Radio, a beacon of broadcast journalism, as it signs off. “Founded nearly a century ago, [it] set the standard for radio news coverage, featuring legends such as Edward R. Murrow, Robert Trout, and Charles Osgood, and created the template for broadcast journalists. But on May 22, CBS will end its heralded radio service. Mo Rocca celebrates the long history of CBS News Radio, and talks with current and former staffers, including ‘Sunday Morning’ correspondent Martha Teichner (who reported on radio for decades), and Dan Rather (here’s an extended interview), a veteran radio correspondent and former anchor of the “CBS Evening News.”
So, CBS News did a credible job of explaining how it continues to decline.
It’s now coming out that a Republican who won a NY Congressional seat seems to have COMPLETELY fabricated his personal life story during his campaign. To what extent does this reflect VERY poorly on the state’s Democratic Party apparatus, which appears to have completely failed to do any opposition research at all?
It’s actually weirder than that. The Democrats DID spend $22,000 on opposition research in this race. Moreover, according to several sources, some of the fraud surrounding George Santos (NY-3) was known.
From City and State: “People associated with [Democratic opponent Robert] Zimmerman’s campaign and the Democratic Party [said] that they tried to get reporters to write about Santos, but that they were ignored. Zimmerman campaign consultant Jason Kaplan tweeted that “we’ve been screaming it from the rooftops since September.” He and others referenced a DCCC memo that offered details about Santos’ ties to Harbor City Capital, missing financial disclosures, and an allegedly fraudulent nonprofit Santos claimed to run that rescued animals as evidence that proof of the Republican’s purported malfeasance had been available but ignored by the media at large. “
But here’s the kicker: “Much of that so-called ‘opposition research’ had appeared in various news outlets prior to the election. No press release from the Zimmerman campaign, the state Democratic Party or the DCCC referenced the bulk of the [New York] Times reporting, which focused on the many alleged fabrications…” There’s a lot of finger-pointing but no good answer as to why.
Pooched it
The broader issue is that the New York State Democratic Party has continually messed up this election cycle. The Times Union notes: “An expert at the progressive-leaning Brennan Center called the Democrats’ political maps a ‘master-class in gerrymandering.'”
From Bloomberg Law: “The state’s redistricting process, marred by partisan politics, resulted in Democrat-drawn maps. The congressional and state Senate maps were then thrown out by the state’s highest court.” And rightly so, IMO.
This meant a special August primary for the Congressional and state Assembly races after the regular June primary. There was a lot of jockeying for which district some of the candidates would run in.
Would Sean Patrick Maloney run in the 17th or 18th District? He ran in the 17th and lost. His colleague Mondaire Jones ran in the 10th but lost the primary. Two incumbents, Jerrold Nadler and Carolyn Maloney, ended up running in the primary in the 12th, with the former winning.
This process ultimately meant that NYS Democrats had a net loss of four seats in the Congressional delegation, even as the party made gains in other states.
The Republicans made crime the primary issue in these suburban districts. Governor Kathy Hochul could only get 52.43% of the vote as she was elected to a full term.
So yes, the state Democratic Party is a mess.
What to do
What will the party do to get its mojo back? One incumbent Democrat has thoughts about it. “After acknowledging the fallout from the Cuomo affair, the usual Democratic messaging issues, and the antipathy of the Democratic establishment towards the party’s leftwing, AOC arrived at the biggest problem, the lack of party organization. Referring to the debacle on {Election Day], here’s what she had to say:
“‘I don’t feel caught off guard. I don’t feel like my reality has been upended. Others may feel more surprised with this. I feel very clear-eyed about what the path should be ahead. We should rebuild the New York State Democratic Party, and if that is a structure that refuses to be reformed, we rebuild and replace.’”
Voting has become a complicated act in 2022. I’m not talking voter suppression, which I’ve mentioned before.
First, congratulations to Sarah Macinski, a member of my church, who was elected to the Board of the Albany Public Library Trustees on May 17 in a ten-person race. The five-year terms of the three candidates with the highest number of votes begin in July. But Sarah, as the fourth-highest vote-getter, starts her four-year term immediately.
On the same day, school boards across the state were elected. The issues are more urgent than ever. Sandi Sonnenfeld from the board of the Mid-Hudson Arts Education Alliance sounds the alarm. “Of the 1,145 novels and nonfiction books currently banned in one or more public schools in the United States, 74 percent of them feature protagonists of color or LGBTQ protagonists? Another 22 percent examine racism and other forms of social injustice.”
While only a handful of candidates won on anti-Critical Race Theory, and anti-LGBTQ platforms locally, two people won on Manhasset, Long Island, as Alan Singer reports.
ALSO: Albany Public Library names new Executive Director, Andrea Nicolay
VOTING-New York State
As Daily Kos noted, “a Republican judge in upstate New York ordered the implementation of a new court-drawn congressional map that radically redraws the state’s existing districts and has already sparked widespread political upheaval.
“The final map is in most respects similar to the draft proposed earlier… by court-appointed expert Jonathan Cervas, who appears to have prized compactness and competitiveness above other considerations, such as preserving communities of interest.” I must admit that, as an old poli sci major, I too support “compactness and competitiveness.”
Moreover, the Democrats had chosen to approve “maps that were shameful in their egregious bias. They overreached, with hubris both obvious and ugly.” The gerrymandering of certain districts, especially in New York City, was terrible.
Thus, New York State will be having 2 primaries this summer, at double the cost. Well, unless a lawsuit consolidates them. The second primary on August 23 will just be “for Congress and the state Senate, which saw its map struck down on the same grounds. Candidates for the Assembly and statewide office, however, are continuing to run in the original June 28 primary.”
One of the candidates in NY-10 downstate may include Elizabeth Holtzman. Should she succeed in her comeback attempt, her 42-year gap between periods of service in Congress would be the longest in history by far.
Go to Catskill, NY’s adventurous Bridge Street Theatre and see Joy Gregory and Gunnar Madsen’s acclaimed Off-Broadway hit musical “The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World”. Based on the true story of three sisters from rural New Hampshire whose father forced them to form a rock band, and who recorded an album back in 1969 which has since become a cult classic. I saw it last Thursday and it is a revelatory experience. Yes, it features one of my nieces as one of the sisters.
“The Shaggs” will play for four more performances, Thursday through Saturday, July 18-20 ant 7:30 p,m. and Sunday, July 21 at 2 p.m. in BST’s intimate 84-seat Mainstage.
If you’re going to the New York State Fair August 21 – September 2, 2019 in Syracuse, NY, check out Sheila E. on Sunday, September 1 at 2 p.m. Backing vocals by Rebecca Jade, my first niece.
I’ve known Larry Shell since at least since 1981 when he put together the Alien Encounters package for FantaCo. He’s doing a GoFundMe campaign to get work on his house repaired before July 20. “Failure to comply could lead to heavy fines or even the condemnation of the home I’ve lived in for 44 years. The house is livable, it just needs a lot of fixing up,” which he can’t do himself because of health issues.
I keep seeing references to crushed Doritos in recipes, e.g. replacing bread crumbs on fried chicken, or as the crust for mac and cheese. Have YOU used them?
Since practically the beginning of its run in 1979, I’ve been a massive fan of CBS Sunday Morning. It is the network’s weekly magazine on the air.
