Death to False Metal
I went down a rabbit hole this week reading about how New York’s old Proportional Voting system, backed by Fiorello La Guardia and intended to break down Tammany Hall, anticipated our new Ranked Choice voting system, and how the powers that were, including Robert Moses, finally managed to put the kibosh on Proportional Voting even after New Yorkers had repeatedly voted for it, the courts had okayed it, and Albany had been convinced not to tamper with the city’s home rule.
It’s uncanny how closely the fight against proportional representation in NYC, as in this 1941 cartoon, lines up with the fight against ranked choice voting today
Politico NY’s Sally Goldenberg joined FAQ NYC for a conversation about what to expect from an Eric Adams administration, and over the next six months while he’s in effect a shadow mayor with a big platform but no power yet.
Speaking of Eric Adamses, I just learned that one of them has been the lead singer of Auburn, NY band Manowar (slogan: “death to false metal”) since 1980.
Shifting to virus news, on CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor, I looked at Bill de Blasio’s not-quite-a-mandate plan to coerce thus-far resistant public sector workers to get the jab.
And at the Daily Beast, I interviewed Dr. Irwin Redlener about the Delta variant, the surges still to come, and how the CDC is eroding what confidence in science remained after Trump.