2020 US Presidential Election - Biden Wins and Trump Loses!

What a rollercoaster ride this election has turned into!  Absent a landslide victory, many people in the know "on both sides" predicted a long and protracted time during which the 2020 US Presidential Election would require ballot re-counts, audits and would be battled in courtrooms throughout the country.

With over 35 legal challenges by the Trump administration, mostly fabricated out of thin air, or whatever that stuff was running down Rudy Giuliani's cheeks, it seems that we have survived a fragile and tenuous time where Lord only knows what could happen: mass protests by Trump supporters?, violence in the streets and government buildings around the country?!, or even, civil war???!!!

Thankfully, although some of the elections were close, for those of us who believe in science and trust the calls made by the AP, there was never any doubt about the winner.  There was never any widespread voter fraud or even voting "irregularities" out of the ordinary minor issues to speak of...

Thank goodness that as of 11/23/2020, Emily Murphy, the Administrator of the GSA, has come to the incontrovertible conclusion that Joseph R. Biden, Jr. won the 2020 US Presidential election and, therefore, the transition towards a peaceful transfer of power has been started.

I want to highlight a few observations I've made about the election in my home state of North Carolina. 

NY Times results for the:

* Presidential Election in NC

* All 2020 Elections in NC

* In the Presidential race, 5,524,801 votes were cast, which is around 75% of the electorate. 2,684,292 were cast for Biden in NC, which is 209,785 votes more than were cast for Biden in Georgia, where he won.  2,758,773 were cast for Trump in NC, which is 296,936 more than Trump got in Georgia, where he lost.  Keep in mind that Georgia has a higher population - and one more electoral vote (16) than North Carolina (15), so I think this is noteworthy! Here are the voting results for Georgia for comparison.

* NC has a somewhat strange tradition of voters "splitting" the ticket, that is, voting for one party in certain races and the other party in other races.  So, Trump beat Biden in the Presidential race, but Cooper beat Forest in the Gubernatorial race, etc.

* In the Governor's race, the Democrat incumbent Cooper won by 4% (51% to 47%), which is by 248,186 votes.  That's kind of close considering over 5.4 million votes were case, but not nearly as close as the Presidential race.

* The Presidential election vote was close, but Biden lost by 1.3% (49.9% to 48.6%), or approximately 74,000 votes.

* The way that the Presidential election results are reported in NC gave a false sense of hope to the Biden campaign, that is, the early voting and absentee ballots received before the election were tallied before November 3rd and reported first.  Because Democrats use these forms of voting more than Republicans, Biden took a commanding early lead.  But because if appears that more people voted for Trump on election day, Biden's lead slowly melted away when 85% of the votes had been counted.  It remained somewhat close, but even with absentee ballots that were postmarked on 11/3 and received by 11/12, the results didn't change.

* The Senate race between the incumbent, Thom Tillis and Cal Cunnigham, was still close at 1.9% (48.7% to 46.8%), but not quite as close as the Presidential race.  Cunningham may have been able to upset Tillis, the incumbent, but shot himself in the foot by "sexting" a campaign contractor (not his wife).  It was PG rated stuff compared to many of the more recent scandals, but was still consequential, nonetheless...

I Remember Curly Neal

I saw this article about Curly Neal passing away in the NY Times and had a real moment of sadness.  Curly Neal brought so much joy into this world - and inspired a few generations of basketball players to do things that no one would ever have thought possible!

I remember seeing him perform his antics in Appalachian State University's Varsity Gymnasium in Boone, NC sometime in the late 1970s. As I recall, the gym (capacity ~7,000) was very full, or at least nearly as full as it was for the App State (then still know regionally as ASU) men's basketball games. 

This was during the tenure of Bobby Cremins as basketball coach and the connections he had to New York City - and the basketball talent there - was palpable for us.  Bobby was a kid of Irish descent from the Bronx who knew the places to recruit high schoolers who were eager to get an education and play ball (even for a small university in NC) on an athletic scholarship.  The things that Bobby accomplished at App State were amazing. 

But these were the Harlem Globetrotters!  The WORLD'S BEST players right in our own small town!

Everyone knew about Meadowlark Lemon and his extraordinary presence and influence.  In fact, I remember Meadowlark the best because he was the one making everyone laugh, doing gags with the refs and players on the opposing team, tossing out buckets of confetti, or feathers, or water! onto the crowd.  He had the place in his hand.

How strange and fun and exciting it was for a kid who was growing up in a small mountain town with a scarcity of African-Americans.  

The tricks and antics that Curly performed dazzled, amazed and made us all think he could do things that no one else could!  And he was probably among the very few who could at that time.