David S. Wieder, P.A.

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10/31/2024

Do not worry about the Cats and Dogs. Vote.

It is manifestly inconceivable, yet here we are on the cusp of the election with the possibility of a depraved scoundrel who has perverted the American experiment with a good chance of being re- elected President of the United States of America.

I have voted in every presidential election since 1960, and I have never experienced America in such turmoil, existential angst, a mixture of rage and fear. Even during Vietnam. Even during Watergate. Nine years of Trump since he came down on the golden escalator. Enough already.

On the one hand, Trumpists believe that their cult of personality has the keys to saving the republic. That despite all the hate and fear mongering emanating from his supporters, that Kamala Harris, a woman, a black woman, represents more of a threat to the nation than Trump. Even if one thinks that Harris lacks the gravitas to be president, one must cling to the hope that she will be able to restore a sense of normalcy to our politics. Yes, Biden hung around too long and she was anointed without going through the primary process. And yes, they gaslighted us by saying old Joe was fine. And yes maybe there could have been a more perfect candidate. But those possibilities pale in comparison to the threat of Trump’s disrespect for the rule of law, for the constitution. No other argument need be advanced. For God’s sake, he tried to overturn the election, to provoke a coup d’etat.

Surreal that Trump, after shattering all norms of political and civil discourse, after demonizing half of America could be returned to the White House, threatening to deport 12 million people. No one can even understand what a disruptive force that would be to almost every walk of life. Trumpers do not dare talk about what a budget buster that would be. How many familial bonds would be shattered. Children would again be separated from their parents and watch their mothers who gave birth to them in America, be dragged away from their citizen children, while the Joseph Goebbels of Trumpworld, Stephen Miller, executes his heartless, compassionless agenda while “Haitian immigrants feast on cats and dogs.” That said, the border should be secured, and criminals should be sent packing. Harris has said she will correct that error.

Putin and XI and Kim Jong Un are rooting for Trump. Our NATO allies are not.

Apologists for Trump such as Ben Shapiro, divine that Trump will not do what he says, that he only says things to gain leverage. “Watch what he does, not what he says,” says Shapiro. The problem is that not believing a proto fascist is dangerous. 41 of the 44 high government officials who worked for him, including a four-star Marine general, John Kelly, and Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff say that he is unfit, dangerous and unhinged, unable even to understand a briefing. These are serious nonpartisan
people. And the advisors he selects this time will be sycophants. Trump will be unbound. Heaven help us.

10/12/2024

The election is only a few weeks away, it’s seven o’clock in the morning, and my thoughts are racing. I can’t sleep. I feel anxious like we are in danger. Flight or fight. Is America about to put a demented lunatic back in the White House? I live in Florida. I want to shout out “MY VOTE DOES NOT COUNT!”
Is the election going to be determined by a few thousand voters in “battleground” states, instead of millions of voters in the majority of states who have been effectively disenfranchised by a compromised electoral system from the 18th century? A system that recently gave us two minority presidents, one of whom invaded the wrong country and the other of whom is still filling the ether with grievance and hate in a quest to stay out of jail and further enrich himself? Are we going to persist in not correcting this antiquated, slavery-created monstrosity where a small portion of overrepresented people can undermine the will of the vast majority of Americans? A minority President? Citizens, PLEASE VOTE! Vote like never before. Vote in vast numbers. Vote as though your freedom depends upon it. It does.

09/15/2024

Recently, having received an invitation to attend, can you believe it, a 64th Miami Beach High School reunion, I was struck with the dilemma of whether I would be super depressed to see all these old people, excluding, of course, myself, who is stuck at age 64, not 64+18=80f**king2.
So when I dithered about attending the event and did not respond to the first invitation, Bobby Hauser, a good guy despite being a Trumper, who is organizing the event called me to inquire whether I had received the invitation. “ Yes,” but “send me another, it’s most likely in my junk mail,” (somewhere between a Trump email or a solicitation to buy some more headphones or, in my case, hearing aids.)
I do remember enjoying the twentieth reunion, where everyone bore some resemblance to how they looked as they marched down the aisle at the then Miami Beach Auditorium in 1960 to hear our graduation speaker, FDR liberal Congressman Claude Pepper. And I think the thirtieth was ok also, although I do not remember it as well as the 50th which was in 2010, for god’s sake. People were beginning to look not so good.
At graduation, Claude gave a fiery oration, mostly impressing my political ju**ie New Deal admiring father. “What a great speech,” said Dad, who was sporting his JFK campaign button. OMG how he hated Nixon.
I don’t remember having a very good time in High School, nor having the social skills even to navigate the perils of the beautifully early 20th century constructed, naturally cool corridors, thick stone walls, open courtyards, and gardens south of Lincoln Road to schmooze with my classmates, many of whom went off campus to smoke ci******es and are now either dead or wearing an oxygen mask connected to a tank on their wheelchair.
That year we were forced to schlep books and items to the “new Beach High,” up on Dade Boulevard. The new structure was not air conditioned until later and we were suffocating in the opressive classrooms. Fortunately, we were only there for one month until we graduated. But the Dade school board saved money using students as movers.
That brings me back to the dilemma. Do I really want to go to this reunion, this last vestige of people clinging to their memories, either misbegotten, well-spent, or glorious? Octogenarians gasping and wheezing about their medications and ailments? Nah.
I imagine it all depends upon one’s present state of mind. Regretful? Wistful? Nostalgic? Delusional? Happy to see people whom you had not seen in years or who did not like you and you did not like in the first place?
Then there were those to whom you could have been friends but never got to know. You realized it too late. “Sh*t, we could have been friends.” Or “She was so cute, why didn’t I have the courage to ask her out?” Now she is an old hag. And I am an old geezer.
Just a lot of regrets engendered by these reunions. A lot of things long gone. “Glory days. Pass you by, Glory days. Glory days…”
Many who you were happy to see at the twentieth or even the thirtieth, because there might have been some hope of adventure, some promise of romance rekindled, some smattering of excitement, all of which has now been foreclosed by age and time.
So I don’t know if I want to go. I really don’t. I want to go to a reunion of CNN anchorwomen instead.

07/16/2024

Those who say that we must reduce the rhetoric of violence causing further acts of violence, must ask themselves the question of what has exacerbated the violence of an already violent and gun infused society. Seems like we need a new form of governance—a more enlightened form of governance. Smarter, more humane leaders. Not necessarily humans, though. I’ll get to that in bit.

No one individual has done more to stoke the fires of hatred than Donald Trump. He has sowed the wind, but by a turn of his head, missed reaping the whirlwind. If he is re-elected, as he now almost certainly will be, strapping on seat belts will not be enough to be sucked from the improperly bolted airplane. He’s the orphan pleading for mercy after he killed his parents.

Some say the dysfunction of our government and political system is on the verge of dealing with chaos of unspeakable magnitude and is no longer capable of governing.

Those who believe the demagoguery of “leaders” who recently said that Democratic persecution of Trump is responsible for the heated political climate, must look to themselves. JD Vance says it is the Democrats fault for calling Trump a threat to democracy. (JD wants to write another elegy—this time as vice president.)

That truth is not forthcoming in social media, in the mainstream press, nor in the heated oratory of political office seekers. We are losing the battle for effective leadership.

The struggle between good and evil, the moral battles of mankind are no newer than humanity itself, and it is just the present moment that makes it seem most acute. It must have been just as urgently felt in 1861, in 1941, and in 1968.

If it is true that the evil that men do lives after them and that the good is interred with their bones, the potential assassin’s poor aim will have made no difference. If Trump had been killed, as many of those baser instincts of his enemies desired, it would have magnified his martyrdom although it is an open question of without their dear leader they would have had as much cohesion.

Trump does not belong in the pantheon of martyrdom: Abraham Lincoln, JFK, Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy—all victims of the American malaise, violence and a frontier mentality that still accommodates the expediency of evil. The same ruthlessness that built our country yet saved Western democracy. The contradictions of humanity as reflected in the American psychosis, all corrupted, anachronistically governed by a failing political system and anchored by decrepit institutions and gerontologic leaders.

The frustrations and rage of Americans seem particularly strong at this moment. To those who think that the rhetoric from both sides is morally equivalent, perhaps the “threat to democracy” cries are overwrought. To those who think that the threat to democracy is very real, must ask if speaking out against the perceived evil of our fellow Americans will aid our nation recover and glide past the current crisis. Edmund Burke to the rescue.

While it is true that political assassinations have altered the course of history, the effects of those assassinations have caused wars, changed the political dynamic of nations, but mostly not for the better. The boils and blisters remain. Poverty, ignorance, prejudice, and hatred.

The technological changes occurring now have increased exponentially both the processing speed of AI and the degradation of human dialogue, people no longer communicating with each other, looking at screens for instant gratification, and listening to shallow snippets of misinformation, incomplete information, or siloed opinion.

So, finally, is it worse now than in the past? Optimists think not. Statistics contradict the perceptions. Less poverty, a higher literacy rate than 100 or even 25 years ago. Each of us carrying a supercomputer in our pockets, medical advances extending human life, science working to combat climate change, new sources of renewable energy.

All the contradictions of humanity, religion, tribalism still remain, but are we on a better path? Depends on your point of view. If as Stephen Hawking predicted, humans are engineering their own demise, if AI will replace most professions, are we headed to a Faustian end? Maybe not.

All this anger and argument reminds me of McEnroe violently arguing over the line calls; this was eliminated by electronic line calling. Why not the same result for political discourse, clearly not capably handled by people?

Could properly designed algorithms replace Congress? Certainly, the combined intelligence of those in Congress cannot compete with a computer that can defeat the complicated board game “Go.” The luddite Supreme Court could be replaced by a more enlightened AI to render more humane, well-researched, enlightened decisions. Most certainly the office of the President of the United States could be better served by an ageless cloud-based decision maker not subject to cognitive decline, narcissism, self-enrichment or gilded toilets.

10/19/2019

Memories of Presidencies

The first memory involving a president of the United States was when I vaguely recall my mother saying, "Roosevelt has died!" Of course, I thought nothing of it except the pain expressed in my mother's solemn voice. I was three years old and it was April 12, 1945.

Not having been a follower of American politics after that until I reached the ripe old age of 10, in 1952, when my father, a new deal Democrat and a deep admirer of Harry Truman and Harry's honesty and liberalism, supported the candidacy of Adlai Stevenson in 1952. Dad disliked Republicans and even went so far as to denounce Dwight D. Eisenhower, "he wasn't even a good general, so how could he be president?," George Marshall was the best general and responsible for guiding the Allies to victory, not Eisenhower, Dad maintained. Dad was wrong about Eisenhower, a man of great character and one who contributed to holding together feuding Allied commanders and as supreme allied commander in Europe, and who worked well with FDR, Churchill, and even the prima donna Charles de Gaulle.

In 1952, Dad thought Stevenson was much smarter than Ike. "The only good Republican president had been Abraham Lincoln. Not one good one since," Dad said.

We watched the political conventions together on a small TV and Dad evinced no respect for any of the candidates who were not Democrats. Dad loved the Kennedys and especially John Fitzgerald Kennedy. When JFK was assassinated, we sat in front of our black and white 16-inch TV for three days, in a state of catatonia, our Irish housekeeper by our side, tears rolling down her face.

We were so glad that he had beaten Richard Nixon, whom Dad suspected had arisen from Dante's seventh circle of hell and had Dad not predeceased Nixon, probably would have thought Nixon returned from whence he came.

I have, therefore lived through many Presidencies: Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush II, Obama, and now Trump.

All of these men were flawed. None was perfect. Some were better than others, most were men of character, probably the most important feature of a president. Some were better at foreign policy, some were better at domestic issues, and two inserted and kept us in wars that were essentially unnecessary. One was a man, severely handicapped that saved our capitalist system from a great depression and elected four times, guided the nation through its greatest war. One was a President who kept a his own roll of postage stamps in his desk to use for his personal correspondence. One was a general who presided over peace and prosperity of the 1950s. One was of such character that he never lied to the American public and put solar panels on the White House, which were only later to be removed by his successor who presided over illegally selling arms to rebels in Central America, but who went to Berlin and demanded that Gorbachov " tear down this wall." One was African-American, a thoughtful, transformative president, dignified and calm, who enacted the Affordable Care Act so that the uninsured could have access to health care and was not touched by scandal, one was a Texas dealmaker, a Senate majority leader, Vice-President and political genius whose presidency, destroyed by a war in Southeast Asia, chose not to run in 1968, paving the way for Richard Nixon who sabotaged peace efforts in that war so that he could be elected in 1968, promising "peace with honor in Viet-Nam, but only later to resign in disgrace. But even Nixon had a dignified persona and respected court rulings that devastated his presidency. He had opened the door to China, but his ethical compass was missing and harbored a paranoia that brought his downfall.

During my witnessing of history, living through crises, observing presidents and observing national traumas, I have never, ever seen the Presidency of the United States brought so low. I have never seen a US President, serve up over 12,000 documented lies, a president enriching himself and his family at the expense of the American taxpayer, making false promises to farmers, coal miners, steelworkers and auto workers, attacking our dedicated institutional civil servants at the FBI and national intelligence agencies, cozying up to dictators and totalitarian leaders, giving aid and comfort to our enemies, betraying his allies and people who have served him loyally, failing to disclose his financial misdeeds and violations of his Constitutional oath of office, his decimation of the State Department, his abandonment of alliances, his conspiracist peddling, his false claims of birtherism, his vulgar manner of speech, his fulminations and ravings against journalists who guard us against tyranny. Never in the history of this storied Republic, have we seen such a grifter reach the presidency. Oh yes, there have been similar characters, Huey Long, George Wallace, Father Coughlin, Joseph McCarthy, demagogues all. There has been PT Barnum, whose business depended upon the public's gullibility, but there has never been a person like Donald J. Trump, a man who demanded the death penalty for innocent men, whose racist dog-whistling appealed to a large segment of the American public that perceived that both parties, Democrat and Republican abandoned them. They were ripe for the picking.

And Donald Trump is their pied piper.

Whatever your legal problems, we have the expertese and experience to help you.
03/15/2019

Whatever your legal problems, we have the expertese and experience to help you.

02/20/2019

The Constitution will ultimately prevail over a President who disregards it.

11/22/2018

I suppose that gratitude should be on my agenda today, and it is. Of all the things I am grateful for that I listed in my blog of 2010, most still apply. Read them again if you like. (www.wiederlaw.blogspont.com) I have a great wife and family, and four grandsons who would make anyone proud. I even have a semblance of health at my ripe old age. Knock on wood.

In 2010, President Obama had taken a beating in the midterms, and there has been uninterrupted Republican majorities in both houses of congress until now. Democrats are about to launch a plethora of investigations. Let’s hope they do not overplay their hand.

It seems like the current president is about to face some accountability issues, and his paranoia grows daily, attacking federal judges and rant-tweeting about judicial bias based upon who appointed them. Moreover, he is attacking many people whom he appointed, including the heretofore poodleish Jeff Sessions for rightfully recusing himself from the Muller investigation, which, I expect will presently rain down indictments, probably paralleling the 40,000-word New York Times investigative report of Trump’s business finagling. Now with Matt Whittaker at Attorney General, Trump thinks he will be able to obstruct the investigation. But it is too late; look for Muller to be testifying before Adam Schiff and the house judiciary committee if that happens.

As for the Saudi Arabia fiasco, the Machiavellian implications of Trump’s distorted analysis of how much we need them is clearly tied to the monies he has reaped from their oil sodden coffers. The notion that they will go to the Chinese or Russians for spare parts for their wholly US produced aircraft, a risible interpretation of the evil Chauncey Gardner inhabiting the White House, his bleached blonde Marie Antoinette daughter at his side, a useless creature created by a President who has emerged from Dante’s inferno.

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