My Wife had a successful Democracy Day. It was nice seeing my friend Steve Schlissel who is working with Barbara and participated even on his birthday. Participants did not seem to be deterred by 310 calorie bagels with 500 mg of salt. I remember consuming multiple bagels at one sitting, mostly from Barney Greengrass.
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In the “who gives a double shit” department, Kareem Abdul Jabbar has pronounced that he, Jabbar, thinks Will Smith’s apology to Chris Rock is sincere. Once I read that, I knew all the other problems in the world would be quickly resolved.
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Communicating with Democratic friends in Arizona, I asked what the hell was wrong with Sinema. The response was that she receives a lot of money from people in the private equity industry, and they are putting a lot pressure on her with respect to the carried interest tax loophole.
I think it is important and understandable to give large contributors an open ear and every benefit of the doubt. It is flat out wrong to do what these contributors want when the entire rest of the country suffers significant maybe irreparable harm.
Just a minor example: when I was first elected to the Board of Governors of The Florida Bar, I asked the President-Elect for a place on his Budget Committee. He asked me if I would vote in favor of his budget requests. My response was that I would give all his requests the benefit of the doubt but would not vote in favor of anything I thought was clearly wrong. I would not grant funds so he could open a Swiss bank account in his name. He understood and I got the appointment. The next year I became Chairman of the Committee which opened the door to my becoming President of The Florida Bar.
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Marlins were shutout again but they did a team that, among other things, started a third baseman with no major league experience. Beth, Walter and Walter’s sister Linda accompanied me. Very good crowd and the Mets fans were on their best behavior.
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Unfortunate that President Biden tested positive again. Man already has more than enough on his plate, including the most dysfunctional government in our country in my lifetime.
In 2019, my Wife and I took a180-day trip around the world. We often arrived in what I would label a "banana republic”. We would hire a local driver/guide to take us around for the day. Many times, our guide told us how terribly corrupt the politicians were. Everything was done with bribes etc.
I recall thinking that, yes, we had some bad apples, but that our government was not corrupt. That may have been wrong then; it is certainly not wrong now. What is going on with the Secret Service clearly stinks to high heaven and appears to be the tip of the iceberg. I must say I am surprised.
Now the big questions are, “What are we going to do about it?”, “Can we do anything about it?”, “Do we want to do anything about it?”, and ,"Who the hell is going to cleanup this mess, assuming that is the objective?” Could it be our entire political system is corrupt? I am no longer prepared to deny the possibility. When I look at people like Ted Cruz, I really feel like just annihilating him. I do not own a gun, but I will hide yours if you shoot him
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Go Ukraine and vote as if your life depended upon it.