Has the Electoral College outlived its usefulness?

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer has introduced legislation aimed at eliminating the Electoral College. The California Democrat was strangely silent on the subject in her career until the Democrats lost the electoral vote and the White House a couple weeks ago. Would the lack of the Electoral College spell victory for Hillary Clinton? Probably not, as the campaigning would have been dramatically different if the race was decided on popular vote. Donald Trump concentrated on the states that paved the way to an electoral victory. Had the rules been different, the concentration would have been only on populous states like Florida, Texas and other large, conservative states. Trump played by the existing rules, and you can’t change the rules when you’re trailing with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. A final thought, if you would enjoy California and New York determining who your President will be for the balance of your lifetime, by all means, abolish the Electoral College.

Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

1. Unfortunately when Donald Trump takes office on January 20^th, a lot of his early efforts will be devoted to undoing some bad things Barack Obama cobbled together unilaterally. The good news is Trump can unilaterally undo them but it will be time consuming and will draw away from his efforts to move ahead on the breakthroughs he has promised the American people.

2. Vice-President Elect Mike Pence acted with distinction in response to the classless actions of some actor when Pence was attending Hamilton last week. During the presidential campaign, Pence consistently acted more presidential than any of the other three candidates on the major party tickets and continues to do so.

3. Technology: of which we know little. Trump administration is planning to crack down on international hackers. We would also like to see them get heavy handed with punks who spread viruses, etc. A dozen or so well publicized jail terms would probably get these miscreants’ attention. What they do is no different than a thug taking a hammer to an automobile.

4. Give Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn credit. As the city ponders razing its outdated downtown library, Buckhorn is advocating for a higher use of that precious property – rather than a library – a lesson lost on other bay area communities.

5. You’ve lived in Tampa Bay (or anywhere else) a long time if you remember NBC Radio’s Monitor – one of the great programs in radio history – a forerunner of what you hear on NPR today. It aired locally weekends on WFLA – then an NBC Radio affiliate.

The diamond, the media and other stuff:

6. Your HB (Humble Blogger) is a huge baseball fan but not a collector. We own only two autographed baseballs – one from the 1960 Pirates World Championship team and the other of Ralph Branca who gave up the “shot heard round the world” in the 1951 playoff between his Dodgers and Bobby Thomson’s Giants. Branca, who was also a very accomplished amateur golfer, passed away last week at age 90.

7. Another iconic loss this past week – The Brady Bunch’s Florence Henderson, who along with Barbara Billingsly, Donna Reed and Marion Ross, were the “American Moms” of the 60s and 70s, passed away at age 82.

“7 ½”. We would be remiss in not noting the passing of Fidel Castro at our deadline. There was little middle ground with Castro. Depending on your viewpoint, we was either a hero or a despot.

8. From the publication that can make even a Cleveland Browns fan smile, the 5:05 Newsletter: Rumors are that Sarah Palin may be appointed Secretary of the Interior and oversee the National Park Service. When they heard that, bears were like, “Well, we had a good run.”

9. Factoid – if you were born 100 years ago this year, the population of the United States was roughly 100 million – pretty much the same number of Americans who will be traveling this holiday season – amazing!

10. Speaking of the holiday season, it is the most wonderful time of the year for the late artists Bing Crosby, Vince Guaraldi, Bobby Helms and David Seville. Each of these artists’ biggest hits was a Christmas tune – White Christmas (the biggest selling single of all time), Linus and Lucy, Jingle Bell Rock and The Chipmunk Song respectively.

Your call is NOT important to us

Back in the dark ages when your HB (Humble Blogger) operated a business, one of his operating canons was “If I am unable to provide a human being to answer my customers’ calls and queries, I will close the doors”. Fortunately, that never transpired. Your HB, now semi-retired, has another canon – if I have a choice in providers or vendors and they cannot answer my call with a human being, I will go elsewhere. Unfortunately, in some areas such as medical specialists, power companies and government entities, you don’t have that choice. Those entities know it and treat you accordingly.

SNEAK PEEK AT NEXT WEEK: IS THE U.N. THE BEST CAREER MOVE FOR NIKKI HALEY?