Gone Too Soon, A Michael Jackson Story

The day started with me tuning into Morning Joe towards the end of the show and hearing that Farrah Fawcett had passed away. I expected Fawcett to go and was relieved that she found peace in her long struggle. I left the television playing in the background because Obama was going to speak after his meeting with Angela Merkel and I wanted to catch the press conference. At some point I decided that I was going catch up on some of the stuff that I had on DVR. I watched “So You Think You Could Dance” and wondered why Vitiligo was not letting his spirit fly free on the stage, he was so handsome but so inconsistent, frustrated I turned it off. After arranging to meet a friend for dinner I went to the TV to catch the weather and whatever was breaking. I turned to MSNBC and saw the news banner stating MICHAEL JACKSON IS DEAD.

At first I could not believe my eyes, and thought that it was another case of the media getting it wrong, Michael Jackson didn’t DIE!! After the past eight years I was used to the media fouling up the facts. I thought to myself check out these idiots reporting Michael Jackson dead when it’s Farrah who died. So I went to CNN, they too were reporting the news of Michael’s death. I felt myself entering a full state of disbelief. Was he sick, I questioned openly. I thought of plane crashes and car accidents, telling myself and believing that maybe he was only severely injured that’s what they meant. They would come back to correct the report and say that Michael was injured in an accident and would be okay.

Another Stolen Election (BLOOMBERG)

“New York, New York big city of dreams, but everything in New York ain't always what it seems, you might get fooled if you come from out of town,”

Those lyrics are from New York, New York by Grand Master Flash and The Furious Five.  The next line to that classic hip hop song is “but I’m down by law and I know my way around”.  The reality is you might and will get fooled even if you are from town. If you dream of making it big in politics then New York is the city for you. New York City has a reputation of being progressive and that may be true when it comes to our vices but we are one of the most backwards states in the union. One of original thirteen colonies, we didn’t have an African American Governor until the Spitzer sex scandal, and New York City the most culturally diverse cities has only had one minority leading the city, Dinkins who was kicked out after one term because of antics from people like Rudolph Giuliani and NYPD. 

We are often fooled by those seeking to used the state to promote their political careers; the most recent is Hillary Clinton who used New York as her base to establish a political career that would potentially lead to the presidency. It didn’t work out for Hillary but New Yorkers didn’t seem to have a problem with her using the state and overwhelmingly voted for her during the primary.

Now we have the situation of Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg an extremely successful Wall Street businessman was a registered Democrat who many New Yorkers had never heard of before he decided to run for mayor in 2001. Bloomberg had no name recognition outside the Business community and it was clear that he would not win democratic primary or the support of democratic political leadership so he jumped parties and captured the Republican nomination. He spent over $75 million on the mayoral campaign and narrowly defeated the democratic candidate Mark Green. Bloomberg is now serving in his second and what should have been his final term except for one thing.