Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

I Saw This Ad Just Before the Heat Game Started

Posted on October 17, 2018 by Michael Froomkin

This ad by VoteVets about Rick Scott is a lot better than anything I’ve seen by the Nelson for Senate campaign:

Of course, Scott has more money, and has been flooding the airwaves with warm and fuzzy stuff.

Posted in 2018 Election, Florida | Comments Off

Push Here to Sue

Posted on October 17, 2018 by Michael Froomkin

New App Lets You ‘Sue Anyone By Pressing a Button’ was the headline. I thought it was the Onion, but it’s apparently real.

Do Not Pay, a free service that launched in the iOS App store today, uses IBM Watson-powered artificial intelligence to help people win up to $25,000 in small claims court. It’s the latest project from 21-year-old Stanford senior Joshua Browder, whose service previously allowed people to fight parking tickets or sue Equifax; now, the app has streamlined the process. It’s the “first ever service to sue anyone (in all 3,000 counties in 50 states) by pressing a button.”

Can’t test it though, as it’s only available for the iPhone, not Android.

Posted in Onion/Not-Onion | 1 Comment

John Major on Brexit

Posted on October 16, 2018 by Michael Froomkin

Former UK PM John Major unloads on Brexit:

We know the post-Brexit world will be very different from now. It cannot be otherwise, because no form of Brexit will remotely match up to the promises made by the leave campaign in the referendum: they were vote-gathering fantasies, not serious politics.

I have no constituency vote clouding my view of Brexit. I have no ambition driving my support for it. I have no party whips demanding loyalty before conscience. I have made no false promises about Brexit that I must pretend can still be honoured, even though – in my heart – I know they cannot. I am free to say absolutely and precisely what I believe about Brexit. And it is this:

I understand the motives of those who voted to leave the European Union: it can – as I well know – be very frustrating. Nonetheless, after weighing its frustrations and opportunities, there is no doubt in my own mind that our decision is a colossal misjudgment that will diminish both the UK and the EU. It will damage our national and personal wealth, and may seriously hamper our future security. It may even, over time, break up our United Kingdom. It will most definitely limit the prospects of our young.

And – once this becomes clear – I believe those who promised what will never be delivered will have much to answer for. They persuaded a deceived population to vote to be weaker and poorer. That will never be forgotten – nor forgiven.

Yet the train rolls on.