SOTU … or the Jerry Lewis Telethon?

President Donald Trump

The man gave a good speech. He did, truly! Boring and predictable, and surely lacking in truth here and there. Still, competent. Wait. What? Pen•in-s(h)u•la? Eh! No BFD. Wait. What? “The Madero Maduro regime.”

Did some words piss me off royal? Absolutely. With respect, if someone I love gets shot, do I care about the identy of the shooter? Undocumented person, as opposed to someone whose gun comes courtesy of Second Amendment rights?

Talking about long wars, started by his party’s last president, without any acknowledgment that he knows Jacksh*t about the issues. Hello?

Does Wall nonsense infuriate me? Obviously, physical barriers in urban centers make sense. Just as clearly,

Obituaries … and the New York Times

Mark Rubin

Like many of us, I imagine, I have an early morning Internet drill. First up? Tucson obits. The functions suck (and don’t get me started on marginal newspapers and their lack of investment in tech infrastructure), but I need to know what’s up with my people.

Next? The New York Times. First, I glance at the headlines. Then, I read anything from Paul Krugman. (A few of my Wingnut friends have Econ degrees. I love listening to them spout off about why he did not deserve the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.)

Before I leave the Times, I always read the obituaries. Not, here, checking for people

Trump’s Ugly Reeks / Wreaks

President Donald Trump

On January 8, 2011, a few miles from where I lived, a D Congresswoman almost died. An R U.S. District Judge did, and five others, too. A dozen more suffered gunshot wounds, which they live with still.

In the aftermath of the horror, good people formed the National Institute for Civil Discourse. (Here’s a March 18, 2011 Washington Post story about its founding, written by 50+ year friend, former Tucsonan and Rock Star Reporter Sari Horwitz.) I knew this organization back in the day, for my former spouse volunteered there for more than a year, and through the Institute we met and remained friends with co-founder Brint Milward.

WTF?

A Concerned Man’s Rant

Mark Rubin

I thought about an old client today. He had a sweet deal. Too sweet, according to a wise man I knew from another life. “The other side can’t operate, with your client’s contract. Give the man a break.”

My client grew up believing in the sanctity of anything and everything which advantaged … him. “No way,” he told me. “In America, a contract matters!” Not so much, it turns out, with an executory contract and the Bankruptcy Court. (Executory contract? A contract which requires performance in the future.) A Chapter 11 proceeding terminated the contract, leaving my client in the cold, literally.

The old case came to mind on account of lots of talk