Let me begin with President Donald Trump, for he is on the  cover of the current  Time  magazine . His biggest problem today?   Says he won't be extorted by Democrats to end the government shutdown, which tomorrow will tie the record of 35 days his administration set in 2018-2019. His record will also be tested tomorrow when several states vote. His unpopularity in these races has kept him away, but his funding assistance will be helpful to Republicans.  He does have a tele-rally for those governors races tonight at 7PM EDT.  Interesting that, while he has endorsed Ciattarelli, he has not quite officially said so for Earle-Sears. The most watched is for Mayor of New York City. Pits 34-year-old state Democratic lawmaker Zohran Mamdani against former state governor 67-year-old now independent Andrew Cuomo and 71-year old Republican Curtis Sliwa. At last check, Mamdani held a  +14.7 point lead  over nearest rival Cuomo. Two are for governor. In...

I am into fantasy baseball, but I have no fantasy teams for this World Series.  Usually, I don't care much about these games after the regular season ends because I have no players to follow.  Plus, I'm almost always on a world journey in the Fall.  This year, I just returned from a short trip to California to search for Petite Sirah in Paso Robles, and won't do my end of the year spectacular until November 21, when I embark on what looks to be an incredible adventure through the Orient, where I won't return to Honolulu until January 24.   While I know that my global readers couldn't care less about American baseball, there is something about the World Series this year that has fully captured my interest.   I spent around 8 hours, for example, glued to my TV watching the pre-game, Game 3 and post-game of the 18-inning victory by the Los Angeles Dodgers over the Toronto Blue Jays .  I enjoy sports watching, but this was kind of ridiculous. But firs...

 But first, two sports matters: About that  NBA gambling problem , won't say much, except to just be aware of further developments. The World Series games begin today.  They open with the Los Angeles Dodgers at Toronto Blue Jays at 8PM EDT.   Not to worry about the change in daylight savings time, for this will occur Sunday, November 2 at 2AM, where most states will set their clock back to 1AM so some of you can get one hour more sleep. All games will be on Fox, FS1 and Fox Deportes, also streaming on Fubo, Fox One, DirecTV, Sling, You Tube and Hulu....if you subscribe to them. First team to win 4 games will become the champion. Starting pitchers in Game 1 will be Blake Snell for the Dodgers and Trey Vesavage for the Blue Jays, a rookie. Here are the details of other games. Game 2:   Saturday, Oct. 25, 8 p.m. ET in Toronto. Game 3:   Monday, Oct. 27, 8 p.m. ET in Los Angeles. Game 4:   Tuesday, Oct. 28, 8 p.m. ET in Los Angeles. Game 5 (if necessary): ...