Tom Faranda's Folly

Friday cocktail: The Last Word

Another delicious drink. It was "invented" before The Paper Plane which I posted several weeks ago and which modeled itself after The Last Word, not as far as ingredients, but as equal parts design. You may wish to cut back slightly on the lime juice.

 

Note the gin below; Farandaville has used Gordon's in the past but are looking forward to making it with The Botanist.

As per the video, it's shaken not stirred.

THE RECIPE

3/4 oz. (22.5 ml) The Botanist Islay Dry Gin

3/4 oz. (22.5 ml)  Green Chartreuse 3/4 oz. (hard to find but they frequently have it at Van Wyck in Croton.)

(22.5 ml) Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur 3/4 oz.

(22.5 ml) Fresh lime juice(I'm not up to squeezing limes  but I'm sure that improves the drink over the bottled lime juice I get at Shoprite!)

Cocktail cherry for garnish

Thursday wordle

How Democrats lost; good summary from USA Today (of all places)

As with all USA Today features, it's a quick read. Below the link I've pulled out some of the lowlights - if you're a Democrat. Not mentioned below but my opinion - she didn't help herself with her VP pick. And - see below - she under-performed Biden with women.

WASHINGTON – When Kamala Harris appeared on ABC’s "The View" last month, it was supposed to be a friendly forum to introduce herself to Americans unfamiliar with her story. The Democratic presidential nominee instead struggled to explain what she would do differently than President Joe Biden. “Not a thing that comes to mind,” Harris, the incumbent vice president, told the hosts.

Following President-elect Donald Trump’s lopsided election victory over Harris, that television moment underscored a fatal flaw of Harris’ campaign that doomed her election bid – an inability to separate herself from an unpopular president whose approval ratings have hovered around 40% for most of his four years in the White House.

David Axelrod, former longtime adviser to Barack Obama, called the exchange − which became a Trump ad − “disastrous” for Harris as he recapped the election outcome on CNN early Wednesday morning. “There’s no doubt about it. The question is: What motivated it?”

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Harris underperformed with voters of color − particularly Latino voters − but also Black voters in urban centers such as Philadelphia, Detroit and Milwaukee. Harris carried Black voters 86%-12% and Latino voters 53%-45%, according to CNN exit polls. But in the 2020 election, Biden won Black voters by a wider 92%-8% margin over Trump and Latinos 65%-32%.

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In the final weeks of the campaign, Harris escalated her rhetoric, calling the former president a fascist, warning that he is "unhinged and unstable," and highlighting the assessment of Trump's former White House chief of staff, John Kelly, who alleged Trump made past admiring statements about Adolf Hitler.

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“Kamala Harris lost this election when she pivoted to focus almost exclusively on attacking Donald Trump,” veteran pollster Frank Luntz said on X, formerly Twitter. “Voters already know everything there is about Trump – but they still wanted to know more about Harris’ plans for the first hour, first day, first month and first year of her administration.

“It was a colossal failure for her campaign to shine the spotlight on Trump more than on Harris’ own ideas,” Luntz said.

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Harris, who campaigned aggressively on restoring abortion access, won female voters by a sizable 54%-44% margin, according to CNN exit polls, but it was a slimmer margin than Biden's 57%-42% performance with women in 2020. Trump won male voters over Harris by the same 54%-44% margin as Harris won women.

The abortion issue ended up not being the galvanizing force it was in 2022 when Democrats exceeded expectations in the midterms.

Harris' loss marks the second time in three election cycles that Democrats have fielded a female presidential candidate in hopes of making history − only to both times lose to Trump.

CNN's conservative commentator explains things to his colleagues

Scott Jennings.

 

Wednesday wordle

Amazing popular vote flip + tears from Robert Reich

So - Trump went from losing the 2020 popular vote by 4.5% to winning it (so far) by 3.5%. An 8% switch.

Here's the former Clinton Labor Secretary, who has  popular - 890K followers - youtube channel.

 

Worth remembering today: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1978 Harvard Commencement Speech

I was living in Jamaica at the time but remember the reactions to this speech. Expecting to hear him denounce the Soviet State the survivor of the Gulag Archipelago instead called the West to a return to moral values. It did not sit well with liberal elites. Go here Harvard Commencement Address - A World Split Apart  if you want to read or see the whole speech.

Tuesday wordle

The classic ELECTION LATE NIGHT cocktail

For later in the night as the votes come in, as you've already had this one Election night cocktail(s)  at your cocktail hour. And the late night one is easy to do.

Election; how I voted & who I think will win

Just got back from casting my ballot. Here's the short version -

I did a write in for President - voted for my friend Theresa B. and also voted for her for state senator. And did the two write ins in the local trustee election here in Croton. See Croton rinky dink politics: "Nobody is forced to live here" for the explanation on local vote.

Who I think will win - I expect after the dust settles we will be calling the president "Madame President."

Here's the long version -

I did a write in because despite voting for Trump in the past two elections and being broadly in favor of his policies while he was in office, he is such a bloviating blowhard - his own worse enemy - and since NY State won't be close in the presidential election I decided to write in Theresa. I have voted for her in the past in several elections, a couple of governor races when Cuomo was running & I couldn't stand the republican opponents.

HOWEVER had my vote been meaningful - if it was the deciding vote for president - Kamala Harris is just appalling. Her main campaign issue is there are not enough abortions in America, She's inarticulate - Without a teleprompter she's an airhead - and I can't imagine her negotiating with China, Russia, North Korea. OMG. It's a shame that the republicans nominated Trump; they had half a dozen candidates who would have united their party and crushed her.  And it's a shame that Harris amen choir said things like this NY Governor Hochul video - "basically anti-American" to vote for Trump and this NY Times editorial: "Harris the only Patriotic Choice for President." Way to unite the country...

Just like in 2022 when the republicans thought they were going to sweep the senate and the house and did not win the senate and barely got the house they are way overconfident about this election. They never learn. Good article: "The Chronically underestimated Kamala Harris".  In national elections the Democratic party machine starts with 40% of the vote; the Republicans only have that kind of blind loyalty from about 29% (Pew poll, 2019).

The silver lining - the Republicans almost a certainly to take the senate which until at least 2026 will stop any of her bizarre social and economic policies coming to fruition. Although as my friend JD points out "what about foreign policy?" And then there's this - the problem of the massive debt we've run up NR - Making America Greece Again: "No Matter who wins We're Fiscally Doomed". Regardless of who wins, we better grow the economy like crazy or we are in for very tough times.

End of homily. We will see. Maybe Trump will eke it or Kamala and the Dems will win everything in a landslide but don't bet the farm on either.

 

 

 

 

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Monday wordle

Election night cocktail(s)

Two, depending on who you are voting for... Very easy to make and to do substitutes on the ingredients. Of course Farandaville will use Jamaican rum. And since I'll be doing a write-in, I'll just mix the two cocktails. If the election runs to the early morning hours, then I suggest a morning Harvey Wallbanger, or a Screwdriver.

"Nicki Haley: Trump Isn’t Perfect, but He’s the Better Choice"

In the Wall Street Journal today. Haley was my choice to be the presidential candidate and it"s a shame she isn't.

"If you like his policies but are put off by his tone or his excesses, consider the cost of the past four years."

Millions of people love Donald Trump, and millions hate him. Each group will vote accordingly.

But there are also millions whose views on Mr. Trump are mixed. They like much of what he did as president and agree with most of his policies. But they dislike his tone and can’t condone his excesses, such as his conduct on Jan. 6, 2021. This third group of Americans will determine whether the former president returns to the White House.

To that group, I’ll point out that Mr. Trump isn’t the only one on the ballot. This election isn’t a referendum on him. It’s a choice between him and Kamala Harris.

I don’t agree with Mr. Trump 100% of the time. But I do agree with him most of the time, and I disagree with Ms. Harris nearly all the time. That makes this an easy call. Here are the facts most relevant to me.

Americans today on average face some $13,000 in higher annual costs than they did four years ago. Prices on nearly everything—food, gasoline, utility bills, insurance—have gone up. This is the direct result of the Biden-Harris agenda, which stoked inflation and stuck families with the bill. Americans are stuck with another bill, too: the national debt. It has reached nearly $36 trillion, thanks in part to Ms. Harris’s tie-breaking votes on the grossly misnamed American Rescue Plan and Inflation Reduction Act. Despite its title, the latter is still boosting inflation...

Then there’s national security. The Biden-Harris agenda has made the world far more dangerous. Our southern border is our most pressing security threat; Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris have made it dramatically worse. Their debacle in Afghanistan not only created a new terrorist state; it also signaled weakness that sparked Russia’s war against Ukraine. Their appeasement of Iran has enriched that despotic regime and emboldened it to pursue war with Israel through its terrorist proxies. And the administration’s weakness toward China has done nothing to impede the communist power’s expansion at our expense. This is the world that Biden-Harris failures have given us in four short years.

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I agree with Mr. Trump that America should be strong—far stronger than we are today. When he was president, Russia didn’t invade another country, Iran was on its heels, China received serious pushback for the first time in decades, and our southern border was more secure. The world is unsafe under Biden-Harris, and we shouldn’t expect that to change under a Harris administration.

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Will Mr. Trump do some things I don’t like in a second term? I’m sure he will. If that was the question before voters, then I imagine Mr. Trump would lose. But that isn’t the question in any election. No politician gets everything right. For those of us clear-eyed enough to see Mr. Trump’s flaws and honest enough to acknowledge them, the question is whether we’re better off with his policies or his opponent’s. On taxes, spending, inflation, immigration, energy and national security, the candidates are miles apart. And Mr. Trump is clearly the better choice.

Ms. Haley was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (2017-19), and governor of South Carolina (2011-17) and a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

NY Governor Hochul video - "basically anti-American" to vote for Trump

The article is from National Review Online - her comment is in the first 25 seconds as she is on MSNBC. People who approve of this trash are the true Blue Democrats - the volunteers, the online commentators, etc, etc. That's who this kind of commentary is aimed at  Maybe she'll retract it but don't hold your breath?

“If you’re voting for these Republicans in New York, you’re voting for someone who supports Donald Trump, and you’re anti-woman, you’re anti-abortion, and basically you’re anti-American because you have just trashed American values and what our country is all about,” Hochul said.

 

Sunday wordle

Croton rinky dink politics: "Nobody is forced to live here"

That from the dopey Mayor Brian Pugh, who also is on Senator Harckham's staff, or running his campaign. So he's got bigger aspirations than the part-time mayor's job in my village. See the commentary below the write in picture.

Croton is a one party - village, there is no organized republican party. I was never interested in local politics UNTIL the last couple of years as the five elected officials decided what Croton needs is urbanization. This has spawned a serious write - in campaign for the two trustee positions that are up for election. There are actually vastly more yard signs up for the write - in candidates than for the two incumbent Democrats - including signs in yards which also have Harris / Walz signs. Nevertheless a very long shot for them to win - I will be writing in.

Thanks to MC for the link to this  commentary on the friendly Croton political scene.

This is a depressing note to end on, but the reality is that we get the community that 51 percent of us vote for. Mr. Pugh can ignore us and tell us that we are not being forced to live in Croton. Mr. Murtaugh can accuse us of being racists. Ms. Shatzkin can flip us the finger and return to her $1.3M Tudor City co-op while lecturing us about how we need to fill Croton with low-income apartments.

We want to be accepted by our tribe. In Croton that means we go in lock-step to the polls and vote “Row A all the way.” We might want to reconsider our unwavering devotion to a group of elites who literally give us the finger and tell us nobody is forcing us to live here.

But wait, there's more!

BACK ONLINE---A LETTER FROM PAUL STEINBERG ON THE ...

Rugby: New Zealand v. England

Played yesterday at Twickenham, a suburb of London. New Zealand All Blacks dressed in black (duh...).

 

Saturday wordle

Under 40 seconds. Luck!

 

Stossel debunks former Labor Secretary Robert Reich

John Stossel is a former ABC  and  FOX news commentator. Many years at both networks (Not at the same time!). He's a free market guy with libertarian leanings. I like his youtube channel. I also subscribe to former Labor Secretary under Clinton, Robert Riech's channel. He's just a nitwit who makes Bernie Sanders look like a Goldwater conservative.

 

Friday wordle

Friday cocktail - the Brooklyn!

UPDATE: Yes, a 5 out of 5 cocktail! As per the recipe below the video, with a cherry.

This is really a great tasting cocktail. The ingredients we used at Farandaville below the video. 

 

Our recipe - slightly different from Anders.  As above we stirred but then poured into three martini glasses.

2 oz. Jim Beam bourbon, instead of rye whiskey

1/2 oz. Martini and Rossi dry vermouth

1/4 oz. Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur

1/4 oz. Luigi Francoli Amaro

3 dashes orange bitters

Next time we will put in a cherry!

It was delicious! 3-0 unanimous consent on that!

Thursday wordle