Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Last Day to Register to Vote in the March 17 Florida Primary

Posted on February 18, 2020 by Michael Froomkin

Today is the last day to register to vote in the upcoming Florida primary, or to change party registration in order to vote in a different party’s primary. Go to www.registertovoteflorida.gov to register to vote or to change party affiliation.

The Florida primary is on March 17, two weeks after ‘Super Tuesday.’ If you’re already registered to vote, you may choose to enroll in vote-by-mail. Go to www.votefromhome.miami to request a vote-by-mail ballot. Note that this request will remain in effect until you countermand it.

Florida is very free and easy with postal ballots, which I think undermines democracy in several ways, notably that it makes ballot fraud easier (e.g. ‘ballot harvesting’ — a South Florida specialty — and forgery), and that it undermines the secret ballot (e.g. making it easier to sell votes since the seller can prove how he voted, and also enabling pressure from family members demanding to see the ballot).  But postal voting can be very convenient.  Whether they count the ballot is of course a matter of faith.

Remember: Florida has closed primaries, which means you must be registered as a Democrat to vote in the Democratic Presidential Preference Primary, or a Republican to vote in Republican primaries. If you are registered as an independent (or no party preference), you don’t get to vote in any party’s primary.

There is a state constitutional amendment making its way through the system to require open primaries, but I’m not a great fan of it.

Posted in 2020 Election, Florida | 6 Comments

Biden is Losing It (and Also Losing)

Posted on February 11, 2020 by Michael Froomkin

Skip ahead to the 4:00 minute mark on this video, and keep in mind that despite the source the footage of Biden is real:

“Lying Dog-Faced Pony Soldier”??? Stick a fork in him. Please. Before it’s too late.

Posted in 2020 Election | 1 Comment

Dogged Campaigning

Posted on February 10, 2020 by Michael Froomkin

My mother relays to me this tidbit about Elizabeth Warren:

At a town hall in Lebanon, New Hampshire, on Sunday, a voter asked the presidential hopeful if she ever whispers to her golden retriever Bailey’s ear at night, “Who is going to be my Mike Pence? Who is gonna look at me with adoring eyes?”

She said, “I already have a dog.”

Indeed, Bailey Warren has his own Twitter feed.

Posted in 2020 Election | Comments Off on Dogged Campaigning

Did You Get Your Money’s Worth?

Posted on February 5, 2020 by Michael Froomkin

If this claim is correct, then the U.S.’s war in and occupation of Iraq will soon have cost us about $2 trillion (including projected future costs of veterans’ care and increased interest on the debt).  That works out to about $8700 for every man, woman, and child in the US.  Did you get your money’s worth?

Another way to look at this number is that $2 trillion is more than eight times Iraq’s GDP.  Those two trillion work out to, in round figures, about $50,000 for every single Iraqi.  I remain of the opinion that there would have been a better way to spend that money.

Posted in Iraq | Comments Off on Did You Get Your Money’s Worth?

Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award

Posted on February 4, 2020 by Michael Froomkin

The Faculty Senate here at U.Miami has awarded me the Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award for 2020. There will be an award ceremony on Monday, April 13, 2020, at 5:00 p.m. somewhere on the Coral Gables Campus, details TBA.

The letter notifying me of the award says that,

The Faculty Senate created this award on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Faculty Charter. This prestigious award acknowledges outstanding contributions to scholarship by individual faculty members.  …

As a true visionary scholar in the law profession, your striking record of achievement has paved new paths significant in our current legal and social fields.

And there’s a medal, too.

Posted in Personal | 3 Comments

Apps are Dying?

Posted on January 31, 2020 by Michael Froomkin

Two long-time Android apps that I used to use a lot bit the dust recently: Hipmunk, the airfare aggregator is just dead.  Tapingo, the skip-the-line-order-ahead app for campus dining, has been subsumed into the Borg that is Grubhub.  (Weirdly, most people around here pronounced it “tap-ingo” while I perhaps wrongly said “tap-n-go”.  Guess that’s totally academic now.)

Coincidence?  Or have we reached a new stage in the lifecycle of even established apps?

Posted in Android | Comments Off on Apps are Dying?