Crane's Corner

The year was 1998 and Guramrit Hanspal became a homeowner. Taking possession of a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath home in East Meadow, N.Y,  a nice suburban town about 20 miles east of New York City. Back then interest rates weren’t as favorable as they are today so the best deal Hanspal could get was a 30 year adjustable rate mortgage at 7.3 percent.  After making the first payment of sixteen hundred two dollars and thirty seven cents, Guramwrit Hanspal apparently decided that mortgage payments were for suckers, because he hasn’t made another one in 23 years  and despite all the remedies at a banks disposal, ruining one's credit, foreclosure and eviction, the 2 story yellow house that Guramwrit Hanspal bought in ‘98 is still occupied by Guramwrit Hanspal, and from time to time, some friends and tenants who rent from him.

 As it happens, the first bank that agreed to give Guramwrit Hanspal a mortgage was Washington Mutual or WA MU, which by 2008 went belly up, one of the infamous lenders that gave us the mortgage money meltdown and a long recession. But if all of WA MU’s borrowers were like Guramwrit Hanspal, WA MU would have  gone out of business years earlier.

 Now, I know what you're thinking. If this deadbeat didn’t pay his mortgage why didn’t the bank foreclose? Oh it did. Sort of. One year after that first payment was followed by 12 missed payments, WAMU’s lawyers went to work and the property at 2468 Kenmore Street went into foreclosure. In most cases, it means moving out in shame with a  badly dinged credit rating, a choice of living with relatives or a very modest apartment. For Guramwrit Hanspal it simply meant a trip to court, which was actually in walking distance of the home he no longer owned, but still lived in.

 It was the beginning of a legal cat and mouse game that would see Hanspal file bankruptcy seven times and file lawsuits against three lenders, WA MU, CHASE which inherited the paper and Diamond Ridge Partners, an investment group that buys homes at a discount and quickly sells at a profit--that is until they ran into Guramwrit Hanspal, who found a legal loophole that says the homeowner and blood relatives can be evicted but any non owner legally living there, can’t be. So to recap, Guramwrit Hanspal rents rooms in the house to non family members who can’t be evicted, and through the kindness of their heart--they allow their landlord, old Guramrit to live there too.

 Now, the bank lawyers are starting to feel like the rich guys who get played by the Three Stooges. And for now, they’re not only being legally whipped, they’re being legally whipped by a non lawyer.

How did this game go on for more than 20 years? Well Guramwrit brought a couple of pals in on the con. First he transferred the title to the home to one Rajender Pal, who then filed bankruptcy, protecting him for eviction for  a couple years. He transferred the title to another buddy Boss Chowla, who in turn filed bankruptcy and sold the title to another character, this one named John Smith. 

 Chase was able to sell the property--even though who knows has the title to Diamond Ridge Partners. A couple years ago, they wanted to put the brakes on this real estate three card monte game, offering Guramwrite Hanspal twenty thousand dollars cash  money. He turned them down, because since NY State and Uncle Sam have pandemic triggered eviction moratoriums, Guramwrit Hanspal and his real estate rebels don’t have to leave. So the East Meadow House with two satellite dishes is home to some rent paying tenants and some scofflaws. For now.

 Oh about that mortgage Guramwrit Hanspal  took out in 1998? By not making the other 268 payments, he saved himself at least $440 thousand dollars..

 Well played Guramwrit, well played!

Joe Biden is a little confused. Apparently he mistakes the U-S Treasury for the overdraft feature that comes with his and Jill’s joint checking account. The government is operating with a 3 trillion dollar budget, but in one hundred days, Joe’s agreed to spend almost 2 trillion dollars for Covid relief, nearly 3 trillion for infrastructure repair, and last night another 1 point 8 trillion dollars, for the American Family plan, which sounds like a step up from Basic Cable, but is really a way to indoctrinate little Americans into socialism via all expenses paid pre school, where they’ll learn that every white male in history except FDR and the Kennedy boys were evil and as long as you vote democrat you’ll never have to work a day in your life.

As a card carrying member of the media for 40 years, I’m rather ashamed of my profession. Biden’s spending spree--the numbers and where the dough is going, is being unchallenged by the media. They accept at face value that President Robin Hood is giving to the poor by taking from the rich, through higher taxes on the richest Americans and corporations. Ignoring what history has taught us, that the rich will put their money into tax shelters and offshore accounts and corporations will re incorporate somewhere else and or cut jobs---all of which backfires on Biden twice. The initial spending isn’t covered by taxes and the government will have to spend more to replace lost wages with jobless benefits, welfare, food stamps and more.

Now if Donald Trump had tried to play Santa Claus early in his term, the media would be tripping over one another to point out such foolishness.

Funny how everything Joe does is good for the country and everything Trump did was just this side of a felony.

Now I’ll stipulate that Trump has an ego just a little smaller than the Grand Canyon and that he has the morals of an alley cat.

But the guy got some stuff done. Like delivering a Covid killer in...well warp speed. He pretty much shut down the noise coming from the guy with the bad hair cut in North Korea. He took out Iran’s most prominent nuclear scientist, putting the mullah’s two favorite projects, building a nuclear bomb and killing Americans, on back order. He made America energy independent, rattling the sheiks and trimming their disposable income, cash they could use to hire suicide jet jockeys to blow up American skyscrapers. Oh and before Covid he had everybody’s 401 k appreciating and unemployment under 4 percent.

The media-ocrity never was much for history. Slamming Trump for his handling of Covid, they didn’t bother to check how Woodrow Wilson handled the Spanish flu epidemic. He didn’t. He ignored it, too busy getting Americans killed in World War I, Wilson did nothing as 600 thousand Americans perished from Spanish Flu. Twice the pandemic death toll from Covid under Trump, but ignore it….Woody was a Democrat.

If Trump announced a cure for cancer--the media’s headline would scream...Trump puts thousands of doctors out of work. But while Biden continues to spend us into recession or worse….all you get from the media is a smile and a golf clap.

Crane’s Corner, News and Comment, Sponsored in part by American River Flooring and Painting.

He married into the Heinz Condiment business, now John Kerry is in a pickle. The former Secretary of State, now a member of the Biden Cabinet, the President’s Climate Change Envoy, is taking heat after a leaked recording from Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, in which he tells an Iranian economist he learned more from John Kerry than he did from Iran’s own government channels. Specifically that Kerry informed him that Israel had attacked Iranian interests in Syria at least 200 times. Considering that Israel is one of our nations staunchest allies and Iran is the worlds largest sponsor of terrorism, Kerry’s disclosure, if true seems to be on the cusp of treason. Zarif didn’t say on the tape when Kerry made the comments--but if it took him by surprise, it had to have been before 2018, when Israel finally acknowledged the attacks.

Kerry has denied it, but his friendly relationship with Iran’s top diplomat is well known. The two commiserate after Kerry’s term as Secretary of State under Barack Obama. A term in which Kerry negotiated one of the great diplomatic weasel deals of all time. The US sending Iran a cargo plane full of cash, 1.7 billion dollars in foreign currency, the same day 4 US Prisoners were released by Iran.

No, the U-S doesn’t negotiate with terrorists, in John Kerry’s world, we just pay them off. The money may have come in handy, with Iran reportedly still working clandestinely on joining the World Nuclear Weapon Club. This is the same John Kerry, Mr. Climate, who flew a gas guzzling private jet to Iceland two years ago to accept an award for his work in protecting Mother Earth. Captain Climate explaining that quote “people like me” can’t fly commercial. But when they do, there’s always somebody trying to get a picture, like the passenger who snapped one of Kerry aboard an American Airlines flight last month, reading a book, while ignoring the on board mask mandate. No, he was not eating or drinking. 

Republicans have been piling on the criticism, Former U-N Ambassador Nikki Haley calls Kerry’s behavior disgusting, Senator Dan Sullivan says should resign. Others note his chats with his diplomatic BFF Zarif, between official jobs, is a violation of the Logan Act.

There’s more to come, but like a well grilled frank awaiting the Heinz mustard, put a fork in John Kerry, he’s done.

The Internet can take you to some interesting places.  Some places you search for and some you find by accident. Places can connect you to your past, take you on a tour of the future or, in this case, spoil a treasured memory.

Since I was a little boy, I have always been fascinated by commercial aviation. It came from Dad. I think this was a result of his travelling the world for business and sharing some of his experiences with me. There was also the location of our home. It was twelve miles from JFK International airport in New York.

Unless the weather was bad, most nights Dad and I would watch the planes making their final approach, to the giant airport, right over our back yard. The planes were high enough, that the noise did not rattle the dishes in Mom’s china closet, but low enough that I could see their tail insignia. There was always a game trying to determine what kind of plane and which airline was the operator. Some were easy. Americans were all silver. Pan Am had the big globe on the tail. TWA was spelled out in large letters.  There were some tricky ones. The prop jets flown by Mohawk and Allegheny and the foreign carriers including BOAC, Qantas, Lufthansa and Air France were more challenging.

I did get to know them all and almost always guessed right. I also knew the difference between the 707, DC9, and the long DCA.  Later I learned to distinguish the bigger babies 747 and the DC10.

I had flown prop jets on National Airlines, Electra 224, when I flew to Orlando (pre-Disney) to spend a week with my Aunt Patsy.  She was a great lady. Bless her soul.  My first jet ride was a long and wonderful trip. More than 50 years later I can remember the thrill of boarding Pan Am’s Clipper, Glory of the Skies. Yes, I still remember the name. I was a long night flight to Germany, where I was met by another Aunt and Uncle. They were stationed there with the Air Force. We spent a wonderful trek through Europe for two weeks.

I had not thought about that trip for years.  These days it is hard to love Commercial Aviation unless you travel in first class. Even that is not quite the same, but what is?

In the middle of January, I started thinking about the chili that I always cook up for the Super Bowl. I have the recipe pretty much in my head. The recipe is one that my Dad passed to me. He had read it and clipped it from an Eastern Airlines magazine. Dad has passed on and whatever he did with the recipe, it was not in the will. We had yet to find it in all the treasures and recipes that he left behind. I thought maybe we could locate it on the internet.

I searched on Google ‘Eastern Airlines inflight magazine’. That was unsuccessful so I tried, ‘Easter Airline Magazine Recipes’, ‘Eastern Airlines Chili’, and ‘Inflight Chili’. In one of the searches, I came across Pan Am Memorabilia. A few clicks later I found an entry about the Boeing 707-320 delivered to Pan AM on June 30, 1967, two years before it delivered me across the Atlantic. There were pictures and two great stories. One story was quite interesting and the other I never knew.

The first story told about how, the year before I boarded that 707, it had already become famous. In the climactic scene of the 1968 movie Bullitt. Steve McQueen, or his stuntman, was running all over the tarmac at San Francisco International.

He was trying to catch a bad guy who was already on board the Pan Am jet, and the jet was rolling toward takeoff.

In February of 1977, that same jetliner, Pan Am’s Glory of the Skies, was sold to the Colombian National Airline, Avianca. It was flown with Avianca for a dozen years before meeting a terrible end.

Avianca Flight 52 was making a second landing attempt, on a snowy night, when it crashed into a hill in Cove Neck, New York.  This happened twenty miles from JFK and ten miles from my home, at the time, in Huntington New York.  It was a bizarre crash,&

Sometimes things just fall in your lap and they're compelling enough that you have to take a look.  This is one of those "things".  A gentleman by the name of Chris Todd, an investigative journalist, has done some interesting research on strange topics.  But one of the most popular of his projects was the notion that OJ Simpson didn't act alone on that fatefull day in June, 1994.  Could that even be possible given all the media attention the case was given.  Well, that's for you to decide after you hear what he has to say and how he's working hard to get his production released to share it with the world.  Possible bizarre, but also possibly true, Chris covers a lot of ground in his description including connections to the mob, drug and substance abuse and addiction.  High profile attorneys Johnny Cochran, Alan Dershowitz, Robert Shapiro, Robert Kardashian and others filled our screens night after night.  Were Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman really slated for death in the strange but true outcome?  And, in OJ's own words, "If I did it." did he do it alone?  Chris tells a story that will leave you scratching your head... 

The national collective sigh of relief, the sense that good had triumphed over evil, and the news that inner cities across America would not burn tonight, was over before it could begin. It was just a short time before the jury verdict, a trifecta of guilt for the killing of George Floyd, in the Derek Chauvin case was delivered, that another Black person was killed by police in another city. The two incidents were radically different, but both were tragic.

George Floyd was unarmed. He was no choir boy but he did not deserve the death penalty for his alleged crime of passing a bogus $20 bill to buy a pack of smokes. He was in trouble physically, with a heart condition that was worsening because he ingested a cocktail of drugs that experts described as lethal. He died gasping for breath and calling for his Mother as Derek Chauvin, a cop at the time, used his knee as a weapon. He placed it on George’s neck for more than 9 seconds, while 3 other cops inexplicably watched and allowed it to happen.

It was a far different story in Columbus. The story is told in about 13 seconds of video from a police officer’s body cam. It is chaotic and sad and a bit shocking to watch.

Police were called to a Columbus neighborhood as a chaotic scene was unfolding. Several teens were involved in an altercation. One is thrown to the ground by a young woman, later identified as Ma’Khia Bryant. In her hands she held a knife pointed in the direction of another young woman. Police yelled “get on the ground” and then shots were fired. Lethal shots were fired that prevent a young woman from being stabbed while ending the life of her would be assailant.

As I tell this story it has been just 24 hours. It is not enough time for a full investigation. It is not enough time to determine right or wrong. Not enough to determine if it was justified police work or criminal behavior. It just enough time to see that it is a tragedy and a horrible chain of events.

What we need to do is to calmly ask a lot of questions. What compelled this sixteen year old girl to grab a knife and to try to use it? This happened in a Foster home, under the control of Franklin county protective services. In this case little was offered in the way of protective services. We know from listening to the interim police chief and from other tragedies, that police use force to stop deadly force. They are trained not to aim at the arms or legs or the hands. The odds of bullets missing those targets are high. The odds of bullets missing a small target and hitting an innocent person are a consideration. Could the girl have been tased instead of shot?

Would a firm strike of a police night stick, inflicting injury but not death, have accomplished the mission? Why did we not hear police yell drop the knife, or drop the knife or I will shoot, or I have a gun in my hand? Was there anything that might have registered with Ma’Khia Bryant, who had adrenalin coursing through her veins, and emotions or fear or maybe anger, not to mention the roller coaster of feelings that come with being a teen, a Black teen, abandoned by parents into the rough and tumble world of foster care?

It is too early to play Monday morning quarterback. It is not too early to mourn the loss of a young life or withhold judgement on a public servant who made a difficult decision. It was a no win decision to save a life by taking another, made more difficult because the officer was white and the victim was black. Some will file this one as another example of a racist cop killing a black perp. The view here is it is a multilayered tragedy and why being a police officer can be of one of the most draining and difficult jobs in the world.

By Ed Crane

Nearly a year after the death of George Floyd, there is justice. Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis cop, who inexplicable kept his left on Floyd’s neck for more than 9 minutes, has been found guilty on all counts for second- and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Unlike George Floyd, who committed the crime of passing a bogus bill at a food and liquor mart, and faced Derek Chauvin as judge, jury and executioner. Chauvin got a fair trial. While the precise cause of George Floyd’s death was the subject of some debate, he had a pre-existing heart condition and was under what one expert considered a lethal cocktails of street drugs, Chauvin’s knee on the next was the thumb on the scale. It was the unnecessary and cruel incident that certainly hastened Floyd’s death if not a direct cause of it.

Why, especially on a holiday evening, was a man who committed an offense that probably required nothing more than a ticket to appear in court, treated like an armed serial killer, finally captured by the law? Why were there multiple officers needed? Why wasn’t Floyd, on obvious distress, not rushed to a hospital? Why did three other officers who must have known better leave Chauvin to his deadly choice of tactics?

Those officers will have their day in court, and unlike Chauvin, who chose not to speak for his own defense, will get a change to explain themselves.

As an American I am proud that the justice system worked, but there is still something troubling about this case. How it was hijacked before the justice system could act, but those who would detour around peaceful demonstrations to burn and loot and injure people and t he livelihoods of people who were innocent. People who nothing to do with George Floyd or Derek Chauvin and the demonstrations continued for weeks. How so called “leaders” of the black community like Representative Maxine Waters, could fly to a city she does not represent, and by her words, all but promise there would be hell to pay if the verdict went the other way. The same Maxine Waters who wanted impeachment for a President she blamed for inciting a riot last January. The hypocrisy was unmistakable and indefensible, but that’s exactly what Nancy Pelosi and the other left-wing leaders are doing. It’s only a crime if the other guy does it. The Chauvin verdict is a win for American justice. The behavior of Maxine Waters and her ilk is simply a disgrace.

They are few and far between – but they are the moments…we will never forget. You can count them on one hand and depending on your age – you can remember where you were and what you were doing when you heard the awful news…

JFK assassinated…Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy…also shot dead. The Challenger explosion. The day the Twin Towers fell and for sports fans, the moments when tragedy ended the lives of world class athletes. Plan crashes that killed Roberto Clemente in 1971, Thurman Munson in 1979 and yesterday Kobe Bryant.

It’s too early to know for sure what went wrong, but it appeared the pilot of that doomed Sikorsky helicopter…flying too low…in dense fog…had no way to see the Calabasas elevation ahead…slamming into the terrain at nearly 200 miles per hour.

There is so much irony…in the deaths of all 9 aboard. Kobe Bryant loves to fly, and a rented chopper was his preferred way of beating the traffic in congested L.A….He was also a family man…a generous man who gave 6 fellow coaches and teen players a ride back from a girl’s travel team basketball tournament. It was the “Mamba” tournament…the name derived from Kobe’s nickname…Black Mamba. Bryant dies just hours after another Laker, Lebron James, would pass him as the NBA’s 3rd leading scorer.

How good was Kobe Bryant? So good the Lakers plucked him from a suburban Philadelphia High School, becoming the youngest man to play in the NBA. So good…he was an All Star 17 out of the 20 NBA seasons. So good…he led the Lakers to 5 NBA titles. Off the court, there were other numbers. 1 for the Oscar he collected for producing a basketball documentary. 200 for the number od wishing Kobe Bryant granted to children in the Make a Wish program. Millions…the number of NBA fans who adored him…and perhaps booed him…while secretly wishing he were on their team. And 41…the incredibly young age at which this talented athlete, mentor, role model and American icon…stepped out this life. Much too soon.

One of the few things you can count on in this life is that sooner or later it will end. We all learn this lesson early and usually with a lot of tears. Grandma leaves us. Or our pet. Maybe a good friend gets sick or hurt in an accident.

We grieve and we move on, because death turns us all into Scarlett O’Hara. We’ll think about that tomorrow, or if we’re lucky, never again. Then you reach a certain age, and like it or not, death starts elbowing into your thought pattern. Your forget that Aunts, Uncles, your parents friends, sadly your parents too, are older. Do the math and it’s logical, but when those folks have been in your life for so long, it’s hard to let go. Reach that certain age, oh maybe north of 50, and even your inner Scarlett O’Hara can’t put the Grim Reaper into the Tomorrow File.

It hit me the other day when I heard that Aretha Franklin had stepped out of here. Aretha?! Last Sunday morning, I opened the Tasting Room at a winery where I pull occasional duty and started blasting Aretha Franklin’s Greatest Hits. I paid her some R-E-S-P-E-C-T and caught the next train to Nostalgia. I forgot how many hits she really had and how those songs had become a soundtrack that blended into my life. Some reminded me of a certain time, a certain person or a certain movie and it struck me that while I may not have been the biggest fan of Lady Soul, her music was so evocative of our times.

In that next hour before the thirsty came calling for Zin and Syrah it occured to me that my weird music taste profile was about 75 percent DOA. Frank and Sammy and Dean. Waylon Jennings and Patsy Cline. Buried Beach Boys and Beatles and fewer Allman Brothers. RIP Pavarotti and Basie and Orbison. The list goes on. They may not be on the fast track to sainthood. Some were truly flawed. But everyone of them left us a legacy. Music that will be played till our own lights go out.

What about the rest of us? If we don’t hit the charts, will we leave a mark? I think we can. By calling time out and making some halftime adjustments. Do we treat people the right way? If we’re really comfortable can we write more checks to make others less needy? Do we get the old Irish saying that “the shroud has no pockets”?

Red Smith, the great sportswriter who lived into his 80’s, was asked by a younger colleague what he had learned on life’s journey.

“Death is no big deal, the least of us will manage that. It’s living that’s the trick.”

If we touch one life or many before the clock runs out, we can check the success box. No one will blast our hits through the speakers, but we can treasure something neither money nor fame can buy. Self R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

It's baseball season and what an appropriate time to talk to one of the sports stars.  Steve Sax, former LA Dodger and New York Yankee shares stories of players, umpires, General Managers like Tommy Lasorda and Tony LaRussa and a whole lot more.  Like the Baseball Hall of Fame and even a look into the future.  
To learn more about Ed Crane, visit www.edcranemedia.com