Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

The Times Do Not Call for Subtlety

Posted on October 19, 2022 by Michael Froomkin

There is no subtlety in this campaign commercial by Reb. Eric Swalwell (D-Cal.), and that seems to me utterly appropriate for the time we find ourselves in.

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ROFL

Posted on October 19, 2022 by Michael Froomkin

Genuine fake email received today:

Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2022 09:58:50
From: The illuminati <{person I assume is not involved}@exprivia.it>
To: Recipients <{person I assume is not involved}@exprivia.it>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Join the illuminati.

CAUTION: This email originated from outside the organization. DO NOT CLICK ON LINKS or OPEN ATTACHMENTS unless you know and trust the sender.

Greetings, from the illuminati world elite empire. Bringing the poor, the needy and the talented to the limelight of fame, riches and powers, knowledge, business and political connections. This is the right time for you to put all your worries, your health issues, and finance problems to an end by joining the Elite Family of The illuminati!. Are you sick, Barren or having divorcing problems, finding it difficult to get job promotions in your place of work in order to excel in life just like you wish? If YES! Then join the illuminati empire you will get all this numerous benefit and solutions to your problems.

Note: that this email message was created solely for the purpose of our recruitment scheme which will end next month and this offer is for unique ones only; if you are not serious on joining the illuminati empire, then you are advice not to contact us at all. This is because disloyalty is highly not tolerated here in our organization.

Do you agree to be a member of the illuminati new world order? If YES!. Then kindly reply us back on our direct recruitment email only at: theilluminatirecruitment@hotmail.com

Please note, Kindly make sure all your response are send directly to the email stated above only at: theilluminatirecruitment@hotmail.com For more instructions on our membership process.

Note: Some email providers incorrectly place official Illuminati messages in their spam / junk folder or promotion folder. This can divert and exclude our responses to your emails.

The Illuminati.

Not adding this application to my to-do list…

Posted in Completely Different | Comments Off on ROFL

Puppies in Politics

Posted on October 13, 2022 by Michael Froomkin

It seems amazing, but one of the Senate candidates in Pennsylvania genuinely has a track record of killing puppies.

It puts me in mind of this 2008 Maryland Senate ad in which the (ultimately losing) candidate tried to make fun of attack ads against him by invoking his love for … puppies.

Somehow I remembered it with more puppies, though…

And then, of course, there was this one too:

Warnock won, and it wasn’t even his dog.

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Voter’s Guide 2022 Florida Judicial Retention Election: Four Florida Supreme Court Justices Do NOT Deserve Retention in November

Posted on October 12, 2022 by Michael Froomkin

Sadly, four of the justices on the current Florida ballot do not deserve retention.  I strongly advise voting to remove Justices Charles Canady, Ricky Polston, Jamie Grosshans and John Couriel.  I recommend voting to retain Justice Jorge Labarga.

I am not one to lightly suggest that judges and justices should not be retained. Indeed, I think that jurists come to the polls with a presumption that they should be retained. I don’t think we should non-retain a justice just because they have a judicial philosophy I disagree with.  But there are a few things that I think we need to look out for: lack of competence, lack of judicial temperament, ethical lapses, and a lack of due respect for precedent.

Four of the Justices on the ballot this year fail–really, horribly, badly–on the last point. They not only don’t respect precedent, they have gone out of their way, in a deeply non-judicial fashion, to reach out and change decisions they didn’t like.

I don’t have the time to write the lengthy screed this topic deserves, but in addition to the matters in the link above, I refer you the Florida Supreme Court’s recent and shameful death penalty cases in which the Florida court basically thumbed its nose at both Florida and US Supreme Court precedent.  The American Bar Association’s death penalty representation project offers a quick summary of this at Florida Supreme Court Overturns Precedent Throughout 2020 [link corrected – thank you to CC]. That right there should be enough to inform, and determine, your vote.

And the activism hasn’t stopped.  See, for example, the recent change to a long-standing practice regarding punitive damages in Florida Rule Of Appellate Procedure 9.130.

In all of this, Justice Jorge Labarga has been a principled and eloquent dissenter.  Vote to retain him please.

See also Voter’s Guide 2022 Florida General Election: 3rd DCA, Florida Constitutional Amendments, Miami-Dade Charter Amendments

Posted in 2022 Election, Florida, Law: Everything Else | 6 Comments

An Open Letter to Pretty Much Everyone I Ever Bought from or Donated to Online

Posted on October 11, 2022 by Michael Froomkin

Dear Online Retailers:

I am so tired of you punishing me for having bought from you by automatically sending me marketing emails, often only days after the sale — even when I don’t check “YES! Send me lots of email I don’t want.”

For the record,

  • I don’t want a follow-up email asking me to give you a high rating on Amazon or some other platform;
  • I don’t want a follow-up email asking how much I love the product, doubly so if the choices regarding filling in the survey are “Yes” or “Later”;
  • I don’t want to know about your new items on sale;
  • I don’t even want a reminder, after a decent interval, to buy more of your consumables, although this at least is more forgivable.

Your Former Customer,

Michael Froomkin

P.S. And please don’t get me started on all the punishment I’m getting for having made some political donations.  Candidates from all over the US are sending me appeals for funds that look like they came out of one of the same pair of cookie-cutters. All opt-out, never opt-in.

It’s so bad that I am ready to give to the first candidate who sends me an email, even an unsolicited one, promising never to email again unless I reply. Although, come to think of it, if I do that, I guess I’ll get more email anyway…

Posted in 2022 Election, Personal, Shopping | Comments Off on An Open Letter to Pretty Much Everyone I Ever Bought from or Donated to Online

Got My COVID Bivalent Booster Today

Posted on October 10, 2022 by Michael Froomkin

It seemed fairly busy at the vaccine station at the CVS; “it picks up in the afternoons,” the lady holding the wicked-looking syringe said.

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