Category Archives: 2022 Election

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

Give ’em Hell, Joe

Posted on August 27, 2022 by Michael Froomkin

A ‘Dark Brandon‘ meme.
Source: Know Your Meme

In the early days of the Biden administration, news articles suggested that the Biden gang was dreaming big, of having a tenure as consequential as FDR’s, or if not FDR then at least LBJ.

Didn’t happen–due to the filibuster, and then Joe Manchin.

But a week is long time in politics, and the Biden admin has now had two good ones. They passed some bills and issued some executive orders that look consequential and, equally importantly, sound consequential.

And Joe Biden is taking his show on the road. Listening to the new, or rather renewed, feisty Biden, I don’t hear much FDR. What I do hear is echos of Harry Truman. Truman may have had the “do-noting Republican Congress” to rail against; Biden can say–and has started saying–that for large and popular parts of his agenda, “[N]ot a single Republican — not one single one voted for it. Not one.”

I bet Biden, even though he was only 11 or so when Truman left office, is conscious of those echos too. “Give ’em Hell, Harry,” worked for Truman, and a similar kind of talk might well work for Biden too.

Posted in 2022 Election | Comments Off on Give ’em Hell, Joe

This is Different: Democrats Bragging about “Winning”

Posted on August 12, 2022 by Michael Froomkin

I can’t recall the last time I saw an upbeat ad like this from national Democrats:

Bet no one puts it on TV….

Posted in 2022 Election, 2024 Election | 2 Comments

Summary of Voters’ Guide to the August 2022 Miami-Dade Ballot, Judicial Elections

Posted on August 11, 2022 by Michael Froomkin

Circuit Court
Group 3: Line 91 Judge Lody Jean
Group 20: Line 93 Judge Robert Watson
Group 34: Line 95 Ariel Rodriguez
Group 52: Line 96 (former) Judge Jason Bloch

County Court
Group 5: Line 99 re-elect Judge Fred Seraphin (this one is important!)
Group 19: Line 101 Judge Jeffrey Kolokoff
Group 42: Line 103 Judge Scott Janowitz

If you’d like to know why I’m recommending these judicial candidates, see Voters’ Guide to Miami-Dade Ballot, Judicial Elections (Part 1: Circuit Court) and Voters’ Guide to the August 2022 Miami-Dade Ballot, Judicial Elections (Part 2: County Court)

FWIW, in the School Board race in District 6 I’m supporting Maria Rojas (line 134). I’m not a fan of this long-time Republican, whose voting record is at best wishy-washy (for a mask mandate at the height of the pandemic, but also for banning what I gather is a perfectly ordinary age-appropriate sex ed textbook), but her opponent is far, far worse; if you love Trumpist takeovers of school boards, you’ll probably like her opponent.

Posted in 2022 Election, Miami | Comments Off on Summary of Voters’ Guide to the August 2022 Miami-Dade Ballot, Judicial Elections

Accountability, Perhaps

Posted on March 6, 2022 by Michael Froomkin

Accountability has rarely been a key feature of US politics (see, e.g. Kissinger, Henry), at least not in a sensible way (see, e.g. “Who Lost China?”).

But Priorities USA is trying to gin up some accountability with this pair of new videos:

There’s Off the Hook:

And there’s the even more blunt Chosen a Side :

Posted in 2022 Election, Trump, Ukraine | Comments Off on Accountability, Perhaps

Latest Wrinkle in DeSantis Plot to Kill More Floridians

Posted on October 24, 2021 by Michael Froomkin

DeSantis COVID PolicyI so wish I were making this up. Our glorious Governor, Ron DeSantis (R-Covid), has hatched a new plot to spread the pandemic in Florida: he’s inviting all the law enforcement officers from other states who got fired for not getting a COVID vaccine to come on down and infect us here.

The reasons why cops and other first responders need to be vaccinated are obvious: they come into contact with a lot of people, which makes them higher risk to contract and then spread the virus. Plus many of the people police come into contact with have no choice about the contact, be a stop for questioning, a stop-and-frisk, or an arrest. Vaccinating police officers vastly reduces the chance they will become both ill and if ill, seriously ill, which is good for public safety because it means they are far less likely to be infectious and because it means they are available for duty.

In hopes of attracting these viral vectors to Florida DeSantis stated that he’ll ask his the state legislature to pass a law giving a $5000 bonus to any out-of-state police officers who relocate to Florida.

As to the argument that vaccinated police officers might be dangerous to our lives, DeSantis has an answer, albeit one utterly detached from reality:

“On a scientific basis, most of those first responders have had Covid and have recovered,” DeSantis claimed without evidence. “So they have strong protection and so I think that influences their decision on a lot of this that they have already had it and recovered.”

DeSantis delivered this fantasy on Fox News of course.

(It’s true that five times as many police officers have died of COVID as have been killed in the line of duty, but that’s a far cry from saying they all have natural immunities. It is also true that the evidence of the relative merits of natural immunity and vaccination immunity levels and reinfection rates are confusing and even contradictory.  But where the idea that cops have all had COVID comes from, I have no idea.)

Posted in 2022 Election, COVID-19, Florida | 2 Comments