Trail Mix – Page 649 – User-Supported News Commentary Hosted by Craig Crawford

Vote Counting Time, The New York Showdown

Here is your thread for watching NY election returns.

VotingSexy Thanks to the good folks at Vox.com, a brief rundown:

Who’s voting: Republicans and Democrats

Republican delegates at stake: 95, most awarded by congressional district; winner-take-all with a majority

Democratic delegates at stake: 247, awarded proportionally

Voting ends: 9 pm Eastern. (Polls open at 6 am in New York City and surrounding counties, and at noon in the rest of the state.)

The Republican outlook: Donald Trump appears poised to cruise to victory in his home state of New York. The only question is how many places he manages to hit the 50 percent threshold. If Trump gets more than 50 percent statewide — and given that he’s polling 30 points ahead of his closest rival, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, according to RealClearPolitics, that’s not impossible — he’ll take all of New York’s 14 statewide delegates. In every congressional district where he hits over 50 percent, he’ll get all of that district’s delegates as well.

The Democratic outlook: Hillary Clinton has a comfortable lead in the polls of about 10 points, according to RealClearPolitics. But the polls have been wrong on Sanders before, and he had a strong debate on Thursday night. New York is make or break for Sanders’s campaign — although he’s climbing in national polls, he still trails Clinton significantly in the delegate count. And the next run of primaries, including New York, aren’t held in states where the demographics favor his campaign.

New York New York

It has been a long time since the Big Apple mattered in a primary on either side of the aisle. Bring it on. Vote counting today.

For the record, this was Liza’s song before Sinatra pilfered it.

Is The Pope Catholic?

By Blue Bronc, a Trail Mix Contributor

PopeBernie So this is how the worm turns. A Jewish Socialist goes to Rome to visit a Catholic Pope. Just the sentence sets off days of late night jokes. And that is nothing to what is happening in politics.

“What the hell is he doing? No Jewish politician will ever meet a pope!” Overheard outside someone’s office whose initials might be HRC. “He might as well be selling wiernerschnitzel in Bethlehem.”

And so another episode of the “Bernie Loves Hilly” program begins. It seems they might be nearing a divorce or at least a separation. The last show sounded like the Trump warming up in the shower radio hour. Not that he would yell at himself in the shower, maybe just in the car and only at the hired help.

Although my time has been spent on things not politic, I have tried to find a daily diary from which to catch up on the various raging super egos. The best I have come across is a brief read of the TrailMix.CC. The rest of the world is filled with too much . . . let’s just say wiernerschnitzel.

Of more interest to me is my found family member. My third cousin once removed. Please do not ask what that means. I have no clue. We do know our great-great-great grandmothers were sisters. That makes us cousins. We found each other in the Great Salt Lake City DNA match, or one of the Great Salt Lake City ancestry companies. That’s okay. They will save what’s left of my sole.

It is so exciting. We most likely met in the 1950’s or early 60’s, but did not know the significance of those meetings other than meeting another kid my age. Iowa farm life, lots of cousins roaming around.

I wonder what the Pope got out of meeting the Bern? A “feel the burn” T-shirt? An offer of free college if he moves to Vermont? Maybe a Senate gallery pass.

All I know is that whatever he did it was nothing compared to the high school debate teams refusing to go to Liberty “University”. Those kids did something incredible and brave. My hat is off to them and if I was ever in a position to hire one of them it would on the spot.