Today is Saturday, September 21, 2024. Reading myriad articles on the upcoming election and its potential consequences for this country, I was struck by one recent op-ed written by Richard Robbins for the Daily News entitled “Trumpism comes right to NYC’s doorstep.” Robbins owns Upper West Strategies, a NYC-based small business that runs internship programs. In his column, he reports on attending the latest Trump rally right here in New York City, at Nassau Coliseum, on Wednesday. He identifies himself as a never-Trumper, but thought this was a golden opportunity to see the repugnican candidate at one of his Nuremberg rallies first-hand.

Robbins reports that what he saw and what he assumed about the rally and its supporters didn’t match the reality of what really went down. He admits he went to the rally with several expectations, namely, that the arena would be half filled, attendees would be nearly entirely made up of working-class whites, and that Dump would ramble on incoherently, as he is wont to do at most of his rallies.

In the next paragraph, Robbins claims all of his assumptions were wrong. Oye! Do we need to be frightened somehow? This is quite scary, in my opinion. And here we all thought New York was a blue state, certainly not a red one. As for Robbins’ assumption that the arena would not be filled, he writes, there was an overflow crowed kept outside after the venue was filled to capacity.

As for Robbins’ next assumption concerning the composition of the crowd, “there were plenty of women (though fewer young women), African-Americans, and a surprisingly diverse range of other attendees.”

Regarding Trump being incoherent, Robbins writes that he was the opposite: he “seemed perfectly coherent in speaking for approximately 90 minutes, though The New York Times did report that he stuck to his teleprompter more than usual.”

The writer’s largest wrong assumption was that New York City and its surroundings were safe from the ravages of Trumpism. They were not, according to the large crowd attending this rally right here in our backyard. Here Robbins concedes, “The Long Island rally showed me that the metastasis of Trumpism is pervasive even on New York City’s doorstep.”

Robbins goes on to admit that he and many others live in a bubble on the Upper West Side, as they all view Dump as a “dangerous charlatan”; however, his many fans “have a near messianic fervor for him.”

In conclusion, Robbins believes that despite all of these troubling signs of Trump’s hold even on this ostensibly blue state, Harris is still certain to win New York and, hopefully, “will prevail in enough of the seven states that matter to win the presidency.” His concluding line is so spot-on and downright scary, as he writes, “But knowing that so many of our neighbors are drinking Trump’s Kool-Aid, with a worldview that is so opposite of the progressive bubble in which we live on the Upper West Side is eye opening – and terrifying.”

I just thought I would share this piece with you since not many of those in the mainstream media really reported on this event this Wednesday. I think many of us wished it never happened, though.

Also, as you know if you read my daily blog, you gather that I disparage this inflammatory con man to no end, but it is illuminating to be exposed to the other side of the story, even though I will never, ever understand Dump’s grip on these people. To repeat from Robbins’ piece, these supercharged supporters of the former president have all just drunk the Kool-Aid and will never desert their Golden Idol, no matter what. You cannot sway them away from Dump; we just have to hope that there are enough undecideds out there who will eventually see the light and will be convinced not to vote for him in November.

Today Elliot and I drove out to Rockville Center to meet “Emily” for lunch at a restaurant called Press 195 on North Park Avenue. We had dined there before, and Elliot knows Long Island very intuitively since he lived on the Island for many years when he was first married. Me, I have no knowledge of the Island and what even constitute the five towns and where things are. Anyway, we left around 11 because of potential traffic.

This was the day we were going to raise the issue of the car with Emily, and we did. We made very good time; we arrived at the restaurant at around 11:45. There wasn’t enough time to grab a coffee, though.

For our rendezvous today, I brought the koala bear picture with our cousin to show Emily. After discussing Emily and her husband’s progress in their relatively new house, we discussed the Australian trip at length. Then it was time to raise the issue with the car. Elliot took the helm here and narrated what happened to us in the parking lot of Green Acres Mall that July 10. As backup, I showed Emily the pictures I took of the damage to the vehicle. Then we waited for Emily’s response to taking the car from us after paying for repairs to the Nissan. Basically, she said she and her husband were still interested in receiving the car from us as long as the car gets a good clean bill of health from our mechanic. I also mentioned that we were waiting for the settlement to come from Travelers, and that it could be arriving sometime next week.

Then we ordered lunch: Elliot ordered the burger, Emily ordered the sfina salad, which consisted of Romaine lettuce, grape tomatoes, carrots, red onions, feta cheese, and bacon (served with Ranch dressing), while I originally ordered some sort of pancake, but our waiter let me know that it was not really that filling, so I ordered a veggie knish instead.

When it was time to pay the bill, Emily scooped up the check and proffered to pay for us. Elliot demurred, but Emily persisted, so we thanked her very much. Then Emily walked back with us to the lot to see the car; she made a mental note of the marred side of the car and took pictures of other dents and dings. We then said goodbye to Emily in the parking lot and drove back to Queens.

I thought of going into Manhattan, but it was too late. I might do it tomorrow: see a play in the afternoon or evening. So I went to the gym instead.

This is the week – oye! – when I undergo a colonoscopy, folks. It’s scheduled for next Thursday, September 26, at 8 a.m. As you can imagine, I’m dreading the preparation the day before. As for the procedure itself, I’m not as apprehensive of that since I know I will be in the arms of Morpheus for twenty minutes or so. It’s the shitty (pun intended) preparation on Wednesday, September 25, that I truly dread. I won’t be able to do much before 3 on that day.

So if Elliot doesn’t want to venture to TKTS tomorrow to pick up tickets for a Broadway play, I might do it myself. I just read that most Broadway shows have one performance on a Sunday, and it’s usually a matinee.

I’ll keep you posted as to what I intend to do tomorrow.

Have a good Sunday.

Stay safe and be well.