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Days of Awe / Personal Reflections

October 1, 2017

Days of Awe / Personal Reflections

Mark Rubin

The Days of Awe aka High Holy Days—the days which encompass Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur—ended at sundown on September 30. Ten days, for reflection and repentance. Jews look back, of course, for reflecting and repenting demand that perspective, but our most important 10 days are very much about going forward.

Reflecting, in a blog, leaves me totally comfortable. Repenting? Not so much. No big confessions here!

During the last several days much has been on my mind. The sorting process leaves me focused on Luck* and Openness. (There’s also a trial in eight weeks, moving, PredictIt –my new cool distraction, etc.)

Luck and I know one another well. A better

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Obamacare Repeal, and Free Labor and Employment Markets

September 21, 2017

Mark Rubin

Oh my G-d, have I written about the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare! More than 700 posts, and almost 10% mention the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare. Here are a few of my favorites:

Health Insurance: Getting Personal

Who Called the Viruses and Bacteria?

On Turning 60

September 16, 2017

Mark Rubin

On Turning 60

On the High Line, Days Shy of 60

So, 60 I am. First, the day.

September 14 arrived as most days do. Early. There must be some Upper Midwest stock in me, for I live a little like a Norwegian Bachelor Farmer might. (Actually, nothing about me matches the link, but I rise early, I work hard, I go to bed early, and I’m not married. And I am planning a vegetable garden at my new home.)

Thursday rocked on. Lots of Facebook greetings, and I responded to all of them. At least I think—and hope—I did.

Facebook has its detractors. I understand some of the issues associated with FB, and I know many who don’t like

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Arizona Football: Time to Say Bu-Bye!

September 11, 2017

Mark Rubin

Arizona Football: Time to Say Bu-Bye!

I will celebrate 21,915 days on this Earth on Thursday. That’s 60 years, for those who don’t focus on each and every day! During those many days, the University of Arizona Wildcats have played 681 or 682 football games. (The 1957 Ed Doherty team went 1-8-1, and I suspect one or two games were played before September 14.*) And from 1957 through last Saturday’s Houston fiasco, the Wildcats have won 52% of their games.

More stats? In 60 full seasons Arizona has been ranked nationally at the end of the season 8X. Our teams were Western Athletic Conference champions twice, and PAC-10 champions once. (The U of A has been in the PAC-10 /

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Postcard from New York

September 3, 2017

Mark Rubin

Postcard from New York

New in Town, with Guitar

“Where’s Union Square? I just got into town a few minutes ago.” So asked the young fellow with the guitar over his shoulder (just to the right of the traffic signal post), to the guy standing next to me a few blocks from Union Square on Friday, September 1, 2017. My thoughts wandered back to 1961, when a future Nobel laureate from Hibbing, MN—the Zimmermans’ boy—wandered into town.

As prior posts—here, here, here, and here, and, gentle readers, thanks for indulging me—reflect, I like New York City. Lots. Borrowing from the opening lines of Manhattan, “Chapter one. ‘He adored New York City. He idolized it

Get Over Yourselves About Impeachment

September 3, 2017

Mark Rubin

Get Over Yourselves About Impeachment

impeach

The New York Times reported, on September 1, that Mueller Has Early Draft of Trump Letter Giving Reasons for Firing Mueller. Political Wire linked to the story, with the headline Pence Linked to Decision to Fire Comey, and wrote: This is a pretty big deal.

No, it’s not! I’m sorry, but the people who focus on a legitimate basis for impeachment are so “decades ago.” But not even, for future President of the United States of America Gerald Ford said, on April 15, 1970, “an impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.”

Impeachment won’t likely be in Donald

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I’m So Vain, and Other Stuff (the Bee)

August 25, 2017

Mark Rubin

I’m So Vain, and Other Stuff (the Bee)

Totality

You’re So Vain by Carly Simon—every thinking man’s “you know what” (13, 9, 12, 6, and you figure it out)—includes in its third stanza the following words:

Then you flew your Lear jet to Nova Scotia, to see the total eclipse of the sun.

So we had a total eclipse of the sun on August 21, 2017, in the United States of America. No, Donald Trump gets no credit for it. And when Hari Sreenivasan mentioned on the NewsHour last week that the total eclipse was scheduled for Monday, I thought he might have “special knowledge” about end times. Maybe I’d be “done for” in South Carolina.

South Carolina. I’d

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Mr. Joe Arpaio, President Donald Trump, and the Pardon Power

August 14, 2017

Mark Rubin

Joe Arpaio, President Donald Trump, and the Pardon Power

What a Pair!

Trump says he’s considering pardon for Joe Arpaio by Matt Zapotosky for the Washington Post gives you today’s disgraceful news.* And it’s our jumping off point!

I wrote Pardon! and No Egos at Mark Rubin Writes. Pardon? in June and July, respectively. When I wrote the pieces I really expected President Donald Trump would give his family his first high-profile pardons. No matter, for those pardons will surely follow. For now, the Arpaio pardon raises some interesting issues.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio was sued several years ago.** The suit involved racial profiling. Judge Murray Snow, a U.S. District Judge in Phoenix, held the sheriff and others in civil

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Law, The Rest of Everything

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Cacophony of Crap: The Trump Decades

August 3, 2017

Mark Rubin

Cacophony of Crap: The Trump Decades

cacophony crap

Cacophony of Crap, Mess of Merde, Superadundance of … well, you get the idea! The man has been in office for just about 194 days. Roughly 16.693 million seconds. I’m exhausted, and not shy about fessing up!

Remember when President Donald Trump fired James Comey, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Within a day or so the president said, about the firing: “I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.” We all screamed obstruction of justice. Remember? Wait. What? “Who’s James Comey?” Feels like eons ago!

There’s good stuff happening in the Time of Trump, for sure. Check on your retirement accounts. You’ll smile. For me, at

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You Can’t Go Home Again

July 28, 2017

Mark Rubin

You Can’t Go Home Again

mark hat

In April 2012—more than five years ago—I wrote You Can’t Go Home Again. (Truth be told, and I only note this because I read the piece again, I wrote the piece, mostly, in April 2011, when my daughter enrolled at my and her mother’s alma mater.) Alas, I had more Can’t Go Home experiences this week.

Two-day strategic planning conference. “Show up!” I did, and I gave myself a mini-staycation at our venue, Loews Ventana Canyon Resort. The resort sits less than a mile from the home my former spouse and I built and first slept in on Friday, March 13, 1992. The place our daughter called home for almost 24 years.

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