Tales from The Social Club: Future of the Union Discussed in Union Square
Meeting Date and Time: Tuesday, November 5, 2024 from 5 PM to 7 PM
Meeting Location: Urbanspace, 124 E 14th St, New York, NY 10003
Website Link: Urbanspace
Before delving into this blog entry, here is an update from my prior blog entry. Juliette, our group leader, did attend Game 5 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium between the Yankees and Dodgers in which the Yankees lost the game and the series. Juliette is a Mets fan, by the way, and the Dodgers beat the Mets in the National League Championship Series (the playoff round before the World Series). Yankees and Mets fans ended their seasons disappointed.
Transitioning into this blog entry, this is a story of a Social Club discussion of great importance. So, come one, come all, welcome to the Election Day edition of Tales from The Social Club! With the Nation on Edge (literally a newspaper headline I observed), our group had a lively discussion on the U.S. Presidential Election at Urbanspace, a food hall in Union Square.
Rather than get into politics, I'll focus on how Americans, regardless of party, hear about politics--the media. One group member brought up what I think is a salient point that the media was driving a narrative that the election would be extremely close when in reality that would not be the case. Adding my own analysis to this point, I think the media had no clue as to who would win the election. However, saying that does not sell newspapers, get clicks, or drive ratings. So instead, news organizations continually report the election to be extremely close so that more people will follow their story. To analyze this point critically, let us look at the Presidential Results. The popular vote (simply who got the most votes) is as follows, Donald Trump (77,269,255 votes or 49.9% of the vote) vs. Kamala Harris (74,983,555 votes votes or 48.4% of the vote). While this was a close election, the 2 candidates are still separated by over 2 million votes or approximately 1.5% of the vote. Sure close, but hardly too close to call or a photo finish. Note the percentages do not add up to 100% as they were several third party candidates. Also, note the results are as of 12/16/2024 at 1:10 AM EST and are sourced from The Associated Press (AP). The final count will be certified by US Congress on January 6.
Now because this group and blog are in the United States, the popular vote does not decide who wins presidential elections. Why? Well, for some light hearted humor, the USA is not at all concerned with being popular. I am kidding of course; the USA seems to try to be on top of the world rankings at nearly every metric I can think of, with mixed results. No rather, the USA's use of the Electoral College and its founding traces its roots to slavery that existed when the USA was founded in the late 1700s. In an effort to keep slaves from voting, instead of having US citizens vote directly for President, they would vote for a slate of Electors who would then cast their vote for President. If you're confused, join the club. This is a confusing system which you can read more about here as explaining it in this blog would be an extremely difficult, long, and complicated exercise. In terms of the results of the Electoral College, Trump (313 electoral votes) has an even greater lead over Harris (226 electoral votes). The result was not even close. The Electoral College has yet to meet to vote and finalize this result.
Shifting gears away from politics and towards food, I got my food from Summer Salt, Baja California Seafood & Grill.
I ordered a burrito with shrimp, rice, and beans which tasted great. Other members of The Social Club also ordered food from an assortment of different places. As I do not remember who ordered what and from what place, instead of describing that, I will share with you a few pictures I took of the different places to order food in the food hall.
Several Eateries in Urbanspace Food Hall
The pictures show that Urbanspace offers a wide variety of food. For example, in the upper left hand picture, Bob White offers fried chicken tenders and sandwiches while Mysttik Masaala (shown in the upper right hand photo) offers an assortment of Indian Food. Additionally, Playa Bowls offers smoothies (lower left picture) and Irving Bar & Grill offer an assortment of alcoholic beverages.
In terms of where we were sitting, we actually were able to eat outside in an area behind the food hall.
This area was preferable to eat at as opposed to eating inside as it was quieter. That being said I would still recommend bringing noise cancelling headphones (which I was wearing that day) or earplugs as there was background noise from heating units at a neighboring building. The weather that evening was cool and dry as well.
After eating and concluding our political discussions, we spent the last 15 minutes of the outing playing lightning round UNO. The rules we played by were we were each dealt 3 cards a piece, if you did not have a card you would draw one card (and play it if the player could), and if someone got down to one card they had to say Uno before anyone else or they had to draw 2 cards. To win the game, you had to have 0 cards. UNO has many variations and you can learn more about the rules here.
It just was not my night as I came in last place but, hey, it happens. Grantland Rice, an early 20th-Century American sportswriter, was the one who originally came up with the quote, "it is not whether you win or lose but how you play the game" and I felt like I played the game well. I was particularly good at extending the game by saying Uno before an opponent did when they were down to one card to make it harder for them to win. That being said, while you can improve your odds of winning with some skill, UNO is mainly won or lost based on luck.
After the game concluded and we went our separate ways, I passed a Kalshi Bet on the Election sign that, although I did not know it at the time, coincidentally ended up showing the winner of the presidential election before the results were revealed. Kalshi is the first regulated predication market in the United States. Kalshi allows someone make a predication on the outcome of a real world event by placing a wager on their guess. While I am not a proponent of gambling, I did find it interesting that the wagers ultimately aligned with the election results.
--
Sources
You can find out more about The Associated Press (AP)'s role in elections here.
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/electoral-college-explained