A little of this and a little of that

 If you live here in the 518, as ye scribe does, you've probably heard the radio ads for Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin touting his efforts to combat COVID-19 in the county since the pandemic began, as he's running for re-election.

What McLaughlin isn't touting, however, is something that should run him out of office.

Two years ago, you might recall, McLaughlin, and GOP operative Richard Crist, essentially turned on GOP mayoral candidate Tom Reale in his effort to unseat current Mayor Patrick Madden, opting for former city councilman Rodney Wiltshire as their candidate of choice. The strongarm tactics of Crist & McLaughlin led to Reale suspending, then restarting, his campaign, but it was too late. Madden, who could be separated at birth from vacuum cleaner salesman David Oreck and Dr. Phil McGraw, rolled to his 2nd and final term. City Hall will be up for grabs in 2023. Wiltshire, oh, by the way, is running for county legislature this year.

Thus, it falls upon the Democratic Party in the county to remind voters of McLaughlin's duplicity, with nine days to go before Election Day.

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To her detractors, Charlotte Flair is the WWE's Golden Girl. Perhaps, not so much anymore.

Photo courtesy WWE.

Flair (Ashley Fliehr), drafted to Smackdown while still Raw women's champion earlier this month, was to exchange belts with Becky Lynch (Rebecca Lopez), who is going the other way, after Lynch retained the Smackdown title at Crown Jewel on Thursday. What transpired at the end of Smackdown on Friday has only fueled the fire for Flair's detractors, as she now comes off as being more self-centered than ever. Her fiance, Andrade El Idolo, now wrestles for All Elite Wrestling. Her father, legendary Hall of Famer Ric Flair, lost his endorsement deal with CarShield after an episode of Vice's Dark Side of The Ring revealed some obscene outside-the-ring behavior by the elder Flair in 2002. Charlotte has lost the respect of the locker room, even though she had actually wanted to drop the Raw title to Bianca Belair, whom Lynch beat for the Smackdown title at Summerslam two months ago, but was turned down, which of course suggests to her critics that Chairman-CEO Vince McMahon has given her preferential treatment since she was first called up 6 years ago.

Moving over to Raw, Lynch will defend her title vs. Queen's Crown winner Zelina Vega at some point. Flair, meanwhile, renews hostilities with Sasha Banks, but it would be best for business if they gave the other women were given equal opportunities.

Stay tuned.