The Friday Files For October 14, 2016

The Friday Files is basically my reflection on some of the most significant stuff going on in my world. Who knows, maybe even in yours too.

The Post Season Baseball Extravaganza

Besides being the month that my lovely wife was born in, October only really means one significant thing to me.
Baseball. Specifically Toronto Blue Jays baseball.
I spent the month of August worried about the Blue Jays. They were not the Blue Jays of last season, although they were pretty much the same bunch of guys who came together in one of the most historic baseball deals made in the last decade.
This deal brokered by then Jay’s GM Alex Anthropoulous, created an absolute powerhouse that brought the Jays back from literally 15 games out of first place at the All Star break to firmly in first place at the end of the season to one of the most exciting playoff runs we had seen since1994.
If you gauge this as year over year, this was incredible. So this year the expectations were very high for the Jays to get all the way to the World Series.
But unlike last year, they are coming at it from a wild card position without home field advantage. They are also coming at it with a combination of home run baseball and solid fundamental small ball with the support of excellent starting pitching and defense as opposed to slugging prowess.
But this year, unlike last year when they tended to dominate teams, they are winning by toughing things out. This always makes for more exciting baseball and that’s what we have been seeing through the wildcard game with Baltimore and their totally unexpected sweep of the Texas Rangers.
Tonight they start their division series against the Cleveland Indians. I’m pumped. They have all the tools they need to be the World Series champs. All they have to is keep on playing like they have been playing.
My sister, whose hopes ride on the Cubs of Chicago might disagree. But then differences of opinion are what make the post season interesting.

RIP Donald Trump...Finally

This election year in America has been one of the saddest on record. A New York City real estate developer and probably the world’s foremost narcissist, Donald Trump, switched allegiances from supporting the Democratic party to running for the presidential nomination on the Republican party ticket.
He was actually reported as saying that he chose the Republicans because they were, as a lot, dumber and easier to influence than the Democrats.
This cynical tone became very much a part of his campaign, along with name calling, outright lies, obfuscation when it came to outlining specific policies, sexism, racism and misogyny all rolled into one massive ball of hate and division.
He worked hard to attract a base of disgruntled blue collar types and did in record numbers. He had huge rallies where these people, taking their cue from ringmaster Trump, turned the entire primary process into a sad circus of ignorance, violence, overt racist behavior…you name it, that’s what you found at Trump rally.
And this went on for the better part of a year until at the Republican convention, he had beaten down all his lame-ass opponents and emerged as the nominee.
On the opposition side, this created an absolute firestorm of activity the likes of which had never been seen before. Democrats, literally calling a spade a spade, were calling Trump every name in the book. And although the shoe fit like Cinderella’s slipper, all it did for his base was strengthen their resolve that Trump was the man who was going to make America great again.
This of course divided the Republican party more severely than even the Tea Party had done a decade earlier.
But last week, it all came to a head. The party found that Trump’s overt references to sexual assault was the lynchpin for many of them to jump ship and no longer feel obliged to support him, albeit with their noses plugged.
This coupled with his deplorable conduct at both debates with Hillary Clinton have turned the tide of the Trump campaign. The slide down the polls has begun, with Clinton taking her first double digit lead.
With only a little over three weeks to go until election day, you could argue that there is enough time to pull it out of the fire and revive it.
But you would be wrong. Instead of attacking Clinton, which would have been the sane thing to do, Trump has now started waging war with the Republican party. Like a spoiled rich kid whose dad just took his car away from him for reckless driving.
While this may have been fascinating from a cultural point of view, this entire election season has been nasty on a level not seen in US politics since the early days of the trade union movement.
And whenever anything like this happens you really have to worry more about the scars and open sores that it leaves, which are considerable.
America will soldier on, because that’s what counties do. But history will record this year as one of the low points in the life of that country, and it can all be chalked up to hubris, ego, selfishness and entitlement.
I sincerely hope the America, a country that I have a real fondness for, never has to go through something like this again.

"Something Is Happening Here…But You Don’t Know What It Is"….
BOB DYLAN

Today as I write this, I need to send another shout out to my hero Bob Dylan, who this week received the Nobel Price for literature.
This is a significant achievement because for the first time in the history of the Nobel prize this award was given to someone out side the traditional writing business.
But that doesn’t make it any less deserving.
Dylan is a genius in every sense of the word. He has been instrumental in influencing a huge number of writers, songwriters, poets, literary writers and lowly copywriters like yours truly with his profound observations, and absolute mastery of metaphor and allegory. All literary traits.So congratulations, Bob. This is a richly deserved award and a fitting tribute for someone who has given his life to art in several of its purest forms.
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