A Bill By Any Other Name is Still Bill

There is a saying, "you're one in a million," meant to convey you're unique. Well, if you're in a country with two billion plus people, like China or India, then that means there are 200 more people just like you. Just saying. (The population of these countries is a bit lower, so do the math yourself.)

I don't know the number of permutations of the human genome, but there are people who seem to be doubles of someone else without being related to them. And if they do look alike and share the same name, then confusion can take over. How does that happen?

Well, it does. And if you're from a Long Island family where your father is Bill De Blasio Sr. and you're Jr., and you have a cousin named the same, then confusion can be fairly hilarious if social medica is involved. And embarrassing for others.

The whole mix-up began when a Times of London reporter thought he had a scoop: Bill de Blasio saying negative things about New York City's mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, a polarizing candidate who has a excellent chance of winning the citywide election tomorrow.

He did have a scoop. Although it wasn't from the Bill de Blasio who was the former mayor of New York City, and it wasn't from someone purporting to be the firmer mayor of New York City, it was genuinely from a man named Bill De Blasio, a man who has had the name longer than the mayoral Bill de Blasio whose name from changed, for some reason from Warren Wilhelm Jr. The difference in the men? The Long Island wine importer capitalizes the "De" in his name. The devil is in the details.

The story spun into cyberspace when the Times of London story hit the ether and the ex-mayor Bill de Blasio denied saying any of the things the reporter was attributing to him. But a real Bill De Blasio did say them in a questionnaire, and who admits to having fun when he the mix-up occurs. 

It's not his fault the reporter, Bevan Hurley, was so anxious to throw shade on Mamdani that he didn't bother to check where things were coming from. This is called reporting by social media.

That the Times of London would be interested in the New York City mayoral race shows you the extent the powers that be are trying to influence the election. The Times of London is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who also owns the New York Post that is vehemently against the candidacy of Mamdani.

Zohran Mamdani is describing himself as a social Democrat and won the Democratic primary over Andrew Cuomo—and others—who is running on the  Independent/Third Party Fight and Deliver Party. Andrew Cuomo created the party.

The primary was a "ranked voting" affair that was meant to bestow the nomination on a candidate who succeeded in gaining 50% of the votes. Since there were numerous candidates, no one gained 50%, but the terms of the ranked voting allow the votes for the candidates with the lowest percentage to have their votes added to the leading candidate in the primary.

I don't understand this. It means if I voted for so-and-so who got few votes and wound up at the bottom of the ranking, my vote would be added to the leader in the ranking, in this case Zohran Mamdani, even if that person did not gain the majority and I didn't vote for him. Andrew Cuomo finished second in the ranked voting. I would have thought that if no one got 50% then the top two would be on another primary vote to see who won. I guess not.

This mayoral election is a doozie. The early voting, which closed yesterday, sits at 500,000+ across the five boroughs. That's a record. Tomorrow's turnout is expected to be large as well. This favors who? Who really knows until the votes are counted tomorrow and by midnight a winner will be announced. The boroughs don't span time zones, so there's no waiting for polls across the country to close.

There are three candidates, Zohran Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo, and Curtis Sliwa, a perennial quixotic candidate. The incumbent mayor, Eric Adams has withdrawn from the race, although his name appears on the ballots because they were printed and distributed prior to his announcement.

Mr. Adams is the first NYC mayor to choose not to run after one term. There have been three-term mayors who chose not to run, but never a one-term mayor.

His four years have only been remarkable by the numbers of investigations into his administration. Nothing proven against hum, and Federal charges were withdrawn by president Trump. Mr. Adams is packing it in, and going somewhere, but not yet disclosed, if it's even known to him.

Mr. Mamdani, a state assembly from Queens, has a thin political résumé, but has attracted wide appeal by his promises to change things. He is a good speaker, and says the right things well. A lot of what he says is being painted by his opponents as pure, pie-in-the-sky Socialism. Mr. Mamdani has no problem with that because he calls himself a Democratic Socialist, and is a member of the DSA, Democratic Socialists for America.

The "C" word has been flung at Mr. Mamdani. Communist. President Trump tells whoever will listen that if Zohran is elected there will be a "commie in as mayor of New York City"

The "commie" epithet doesn't carry the gravitas to those young enough not to be part of Trump's (and my) generation who grew up with the Cold War and McCarthy hearings and the stigma of being labeled a Communist. It was akin to being the worst of the worst.

In the 60s when I was growing up, there were animated speakers in Union Square Park by the 15th Street entrance, who were exhorting against capitalism. This was New York's version of Hyde Park's Speakers Corner in London, where similar orators held court. A New York law at the time required a gathering like that to always to have an American flag displayed. I always loved the irony of that.

I grew up around adults who were wary of anyone who was a Communist. The convicted spy Alger Hiss, who was  a Communist, lived in the apartment building where the last flower shop was located, 206 Third Avenue. The address 157 East 18th was the apartment house address. I remember my father commented on Hiss's appearance as he walked past the shop. Hiss didn't live in the building under that name. He attracted virtually no attention. Few recognized him at that point.

There was a retired N.Y.P.D. detective who hung out in the flower shop who told be the doorman across the street at 150 East 18th Street (The high rise that replaced my grandmother's place as well as the flower shop at 202 Third Avenue) was a Communist who attended meetings. He was plump fellow in his door man's uniform, who I always looked at funny when I passed him on my way in to deliver flowers. That's what a Communist looks like? I wasn't impressed.

All sorts of people are either endorsing Mamdani, or not saying anything about making a choice. Today's New York Post carries a front page that informs us that an aging, weary-looking former president Barack Obama is passing on endorsing Mamdani: "No Thank You Mam"

Why we should care what Obama says bewilders me. He doesn't live in New York. Sure he's a liberal Democrat, or what now goes as a Progressive Democrat, but does anything he says carry any weight anymore?

For me, I'm more interested in what Bill De Blasio has to say.

http://www.onofframp.blogspot.com