NYC News Round Up Late October 2021

CoVid Vaccination Rates NYC, NYS & USA, Supply Chain Backlog Should Begin Easing Soon, NYC Cultural Institutions are Back in the Business of Welcoming World Travelers, Early Voting has Begun, Sliwa vs Adams, and Will One ill-considered 10 Second Comment Sink a Very Competent Governor Phil Murphy?

October 25, 2021 / NYC Neighborhoods / NYC Things To Do Events / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC.

Weather. The temperature highs will range from about 60, while the lows will range from about 50 throughout the week. Winds will range from 10 - 15 mph Monday and Tuesday, rising to 10 - 20 mph Wednesday, before dropping back to about 10 mph on Thursday and rising again to about 15 mph on Friday. A heavy rain will fall Monday night and most of Tuesday [total 3.5 inches], fading away in Tuesday night. Wednesday and Thursday will be cloudy, but dry. And then another inch of rain returns Friday, decreasing throughout the day Saturday.

The photo at right was taken at the Sunnyside Queens farmers market on Saturday. Fresh air, fresh food produced by local farmers and the opportunity to make some fresh friends in the community. How's that for a recipe to cure those CoVid pandemic blues?

The following is a bit of a news round up the past couple of weeks, and a small look into what's coming.

Why is it Necessary to Legislate Common Sense? Because Rupert Murdoch Controls Far too Much of America's Media.

Mayor de Blasio has issued an Executive Order mandating most NYC municipal employees must have received at least one dose of the CoVid vaccination by November 1st. As of an October 20, 2021 Newsweek report, about 69% of the NYPD were vaccinated, and an ABC News report on the same day said that about 60% of the FDNY has been vaccinated.

It's so sad that here we are in what should be the 'Information Age', and yet because of the dominant share of daily national news media controlled by Australian born billionaire, Rupert Murdoch, we are instead living in the Age of Disinformation. Make no mistake about it - Rupert Murdoch's mass media propaganda outlets [Fox, WSJ, NY Post, Harper Collins Books & ABC News] are at least - if not more - dangerous than anything that happens on Facebook.

Nationally 58% of the population has been fully vaccinated and about 67% has received at least one dose. In both NYC and NYS 66% have been fully vaccinated, while 73% have received at least one dose. Neanderthal Governor Greg Abbott's Texas by contrast, has 53% fully vaccinated and 61% have received at least one dose. When I look at the vaccination rates state by state in the U.S. I see two things - one is what is essentially a state by state comparative I.Q. test and the other is a state by state prevalence of Fox News TV stations. The two generally go hand in hand. The lower the I.Q., the higher the prevalence of Fox News. I could be wrong, but based on studies done in the past, I don't think so.

• CLICK here to read the rest of our report on legislating common sense for those who don't seem to have enough to get vaccinated on their own, separating reality from Murdoch Fox News WSJ & NY Post hype regarding U.S. Supply Chain Bottlenecks, NJ Governor Phil Murphy's close gubernatorial race and Broadway has fully opened in NYC [began in September 2021].

NYC News Round Up Late October 2021

CoVid Vaccination Rates NYC, NYS & USA, Supply Chain Backlog Should Begin Easing Soon, NYC Cultural Institutions are Back in the Business of Welcoming World Travelers, Early Voting has Begun, Sliwa vs Adams, and Will One ill-considered 10 Second Comment Sink a Very Competent Governor Phil Murphy?

October 25, 2021 / NYC Neighborhoods / NYC Things To Do Events / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC. Continued.

Are the Ratings Driven TV Media Hyping, Amplifying & Distorting the Supply Chain Blockages? Buy Now and Pay High Prices, or Buy Later at Discount?

Predictions are generally about going out on a limb, which I tend to avoid, because as often as not, one can be dead wrong.

But that said, based upon what I've observed, of the data versus the hype in the media, I'm going to say that by Christmas time retailers will have enough - if not too much inventory - of which they'll want to rid themselves. This means you can pay heed to the knucklehead teleprompter readers on TV News and pay a lot for something now because you're 'afraid' you won't be able to buy it later, or you can wait and buy whatever it is, at a discount later - say around or shortly after Christmastime. It's a bit of a gamble, but so is everything else in life.

At the end of the second week of October [October 14] President Biden changed the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports operating model, from closed at nights and on weekends, to open 24/7. While it may take a while for all of the attendant infrastructure to ramp up to handle this capacity, I am betting that good old fashioned American ingenuity and entrepreneurship will win the day. And that the Australian born Billionaire Grinch will only be able to steal Christmas from the members of his audience who believe his mass media outlets present the news - not Murdoch's views.

Culturally NYC is Back & Open for Business

I believe nearly all - if not all - Broadway shows have reopened. Lincoln Center has been open since the Spring, and Carnegie Hall reopened on October 6th. The Javits Center hosted Comic Con three weekends ago - which I believe was the first major event they hosted since the pandemic - after having aborted the Auto Show in August because the Delta variant was driving another wave of CoVid resurgence last summer.

On November 8th, travel restrictions on foreign visitors will be lifted, if the visitors have been fully vaccinated and can prove it. This will be a significant boost to airline travel, hotels, restaurants and hospitality related businesses. Manhattan was fairly hard hit by the pandemic, as it is the epicenter for NYC tourism, which pre-pandemic had attracted over 60 million visitors per year.

Early Voting Began Saturday - Sliwa or Adams?

This is the election year for municipal offices, including the Mayor. Democrat Eric Adams is facing Republican challenger Curtis Sliwa. We did a report on Adams back in May and unfortunately don't have the bandwidth to do a full report on Sliwa in time for the election. BUT ... a few things worth mentioning about Sliwa that you may not know are ...

Reportedly Sliwa's been married four times and it's reported that he's the father of two children with Queens County District Attorney Melinda Katz via in vitro fertilization. That assertion of in vitro was contested by one of Sliwa's ex-wives, who reportedly alleges that Sliwa cheated on her and was having an affair with Katz. A fight over finances ensued.

Sliwa is the Founder of the Guardian Angels, but most folks know that - as that is how he came to fame. What most folks may not know, is that Sliwa reportedly hyped unfounded stories about the Guardian Angels' subway heroics, and pushed a phony story about how three off duty policemen kidnapped him.

But the fictions above aside, Sliwa did also face real dangers, due to backlash because of one of his radio broadcasts, which apparently discussed mobster John Gotti. Allegedly associates of the mobster, then made several attempts to kill Sliwa, which failed. But Gotti never lost a court battle regarding his alleged involvement in this matter.

Sliwa has spent most of his life / career in radio / media, and overseeing the volunteer organization, the Guardian Angels, which as noted above, he founded. It appears that Sliwa has not had much experience managing an organization with a significant amount of financial wherewithal. He also appears to have no experience in government. So, if one thinks that relevant experience is an important requirement for the Mayor's office, then it may be ill advised to hire Sliwa for the top spot in NYC government, as it is an approximately $90 billion government organization, where saavy organizational and political skills are required.

Here's a link to the information you'll need for early voting in the NYC municipal elections.

The photo at right was taken last weekend showing the fall foliage coming of age. It seems more of a dried out autumn, than any sort of explosion of color.

Will Phil Murphy Lose the NJ Gubernatorial Election over one Ill Advised Comment, Repeatedly Replayed to Millions, in one Fifteen Second TV Spot?

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, at one point, realistically acknowledged that taxes in New Jersey are higher than in many other states. The same is true of New York and many northeastern states. But NJ Governor Phil Murphy isn't the main reason New Jersey taxes are high, as New Jersey taxes have been high for a long time, through the governorships of many Republicans, as well as Democrats. Murphy's comments were just an acknowledgement of that reality - that you don't move to New Jersey to avoid taxation - for low taxation you move to states like Missouri.

Why do blue states, with higher taxation rates, pay more into the federal government than they get back? Because they are higher performing socially, culturally, educationally and economically. Why are they higher performing in these areas? Because they have significant infrastructure in these areas as well as and in transportation. All of the wealth in these states doesn't get trapped at the top, where only a few benefit, as some of it is channeled into infrastructure institutions in these states.

One of the reasons our country has as many of the problems it currently does, is that the 'New' Republicans, the Rupert Murdoch Republicans, don't believe in investing in the people or infrastructure of the nation. Murdochian selfishness is good for only a few [like the Trump tax breaks for the super rich], not the people in the middle nor the collective whole. I hope the voters of New Jersey don't let a fifteen second TV sound byte, provide them with all the decision making information they use to cast their vote.

Have a good week.