Claims And Issues

AN EXAMPLE OF FOCUS ON THE ONE ISSUE THAT DECIDES.

(LexisNexis)

Here is an example of the point I was making in yesterday's blog article, FOCUS ON THE ONE ISSUE THAT WILL DECIDE THE THING.  In today's article, I fought to stay on one topic and one topic only, namely, the story of how Mary Jean Bradham's death resulted in cases decided by judges and argued by a lawyer from Florida Trial Courts to Florida Appellate Courts, over to Federal Trial Courts and then to Federal Appellate Courts (whew!) and, finally, to the Supreme Court of Florida.  It was hard, but I think I succeeded in keeping focus on the one issue that will decide the article.

This may be a longer blog post than many readers are accustomed to.  There is no getting around the length to illustrate the point, I am afraid.  Readers are advised to use their own discretion in visiting this one.

THE ROUGH DRAFT OF HISTORY

for Claims and Issues Blog, Wednesday, January 13, 2021

by

Dennis Wall

©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

When I try to write fiction, I often end up writing nonfiction.  Not "creative" nonfiction, but nonfiction without the whipped cream.  No accumulation of a little substance with a lot of air whipped up for taste.  "Just the facts, ma'am," as someone fictional often said.

           I would like to begin with the story of Mary Jean Bradham and malicious prosecution.  The story begins with this fact:

Mary Jean Bradham died.

           She told the State Attorney that when her husband got out of jail on his latest arrest charge that he was going to kill her when he was set free.  The State Attorney apparently did little or next to nothing.  There probably was not much the State Attorney could do.

           But the State Attorney could have asked for bail.  That is what the local police chief did.  When Mary Jean Bradham told the local police chief that her husband would kill her if he were not kept locked up, the chief told the judge at the husband's bail hearing that the judge should set bail very high.

           The State Attorney was speechless, saying nothing.  The judge shrugged and wrote, "ROR" on the husband's charge sheet.  "ROR" meant and means that the husband was released on his own recognizance.  No bail whatsoever.

           Released from jail, the husband made good his threat to kill Mary Jean Bradham.

           Her father, somewhere between his late 60's and his early 80's, talked to a lawyer.  The father couldn't pay for a lawyer, but he could agree to a contingency fee so that if there was any recovery, the lawyer would get paid something for his work.  The lawyer sued the State Attorney for negligence in the wrongful death of Mary Jean Bradham.

           The lawyer would never get paid, as it turned out.  The case against the State Attorney was dismissed.

           The next step was taken by the State Attorney.  He sued the lawyer, the lawyer's law firm, and Mary Jean Bradham's elderly father because they sued him.  The State Attorney sued them for malicious prosecution.

           The law firm turned to their errors and omissions carrier -- in other words, they turned to their malpractice insurance company -- for a defense to the State Attorney's malicious prosecution lawsuit.  The carrier accepted the defense, and not just for the law firm but also for the lawyer.  Their  carrier also offered a courtesy defense to Mary Jean Bradham's father.  A courtesy defense meant that they didn't have to give him one, but that he wouldn't have to pay for it either.

           The defense was loaded with political implications, some of which I knew from the beginning.  As a very young associate in the defense firm that defended the law firm sued by the State Attorney, I knew from the beginning of course that the State Attorney was a politician.  I knew, too, that the State Attorney had a tremendous amount of pull in that county.  That meant that anyone opposing the State Attorney's lawsuit had better get it right, or not at all.

           I can also see today from the better vantage point of a road that has climbed a little higher in the distance between now and then.  I can see now that when the State Attorney sued for malicious prosecution, that Mary Jean Bradham's lawyer and his law firm, and Mary Jean Bradham's father, all needed a defense to the State Attorney's lawsuit and they were each and all defended by some of the heavy hitters in the bar.

           And then there was me.  Some of the heavy hitters had built up decades of reputations as trial lawyers who could argue facts to judges and juries resulting in defense verdicts too numerous to count, even then.  Others among the heavy hitters were used to suing people, not defending them, resulting in plaintiff's verdicts in favor of injured people suing for their injuries, also in cases too numerous to count, even then.

          Some were recognized throughout the State as lawyers who could argue the law to judges in all the Courts in the land.  One of them had even argued, successfully, for a major change in the law so that injured people could sue their tormentors even if they, the victims, had also caused a relatively small amount of their hurt.

           All of them left the defense of the State Attorney's case to me.

           My research convinced me that I could make a strong argument that the lawyer and the father had an absolute right to sue the State Attorney.

           There was case law that good lawyers, the heavy hitters on the defense side included, believed would allow the State Attorney to bring his lawsuit.  If my argument succeeded, there would not be a lawsuit any longer.  So the heavy hitters stepped back, as it were, and let me have at it for the time being.

           Or, in retrospect, so they must have thought.

           The defense took longer to play out than they probably expected, and much credit has to go to the insurance company that funded the defense through all that followed.

           First, I filed a motion to dismiss in the State Trial Court where the State Attorney had filed his malicious prosecution lawsuit.  The State Attorney was represented by one of the premier lawyers of the Democratic Party, a figure who was nationally known and respected.  The trial judge agreed with his argument,  not mine.  Score in numbers of Judges:  1 to 0, against me.

           Next, I asked a Florida State Appellate Court to review the order denying the motion to dismiss.  They refused to review the case.  Score at the end of that case:  4 to 0, against me.

           Then, I filed suit in Federal Court asking a Federal Trial Judge to stop the State Attorney's malicious prosecution suit.  The Federal judge also ruled against me.  Score then:  5 to 0 against me.

           Undaunted, I filed an appeal of the Federal Trial Judge's ruling dismissing my Federal Court case.  The Federal Appellate Court, all three judges, unanimously wrote an opinion adopting the position I took on behalf of my clients.  However, they withheld adjudication, you might say, if this had been a criminal case.  They formally withheld their ruling while they asked the Supreme Court of Florida whether I had a point.  At that time, 5 judges had ruled against my position, and 3 ruled in favor of it.

           At that point, my position was in the lap of the Supreme Court of Florida with one proviso.  I had never been in this position before, whether looking at the substance or at the procedure of the thing.  Procedurally, I had an opinion from the Federal Appellate Court literally in my jacket pocket.  The opinion was squarely in my client's favor despite anything that the Supreme Court of Florida might do.  Come what may, my clients would prevail and not be sued by the State Attorney.  As one of the Florida Supreme Court Justices asked me, "Mr. Wall, you have come to this Court through a rather circuitous route, have you not?"

           Before I answered, I touched the outside of my jacket pocket that held the Federal Appellate Court's opinion. 

           When the Florida Supreme Court mailed out its opinion, I of course read it eagerly.  The Supreme Court voted unanimously in favor of my clients.  The final lineup of judges was now 10 judges in my favor, and 5 against.  That was double the number of judges ruling against me, as ruled for me, of course.  But as if that were not enough of a shock, I noticed something familiar about the Supreme Court's opinion.

           The Supreme Court of Florida adopted my brief word for word.  My words were now the law of Florida.  And so they remain the law of Florida to this day.

           That is where I would like to begin this story.

To be continued ....

-30-  The End.

©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

FOCUS ON THE ONE ISSUE THAT WILL DECIDE THE THING.

(LexisNexis)

I focus on the one issue that will decide the case.  I have done this for many years.  For me, it has been the key to persuasion, a very successful technique.

When I write, I focus on the one issue that will decide the piece.  This is natural enough, I can see, what with all that successful experience of focusing on the one issue that will decide the matter.

However, it is not a universally shared approach to cases, writing, or other matters.  This lesson came hard to me, but it came nonetheless.  Focusing separates people, whether they are writing or not.  But today, and here, I am writing about writing.

My observation in this blog article is a simple one.  Actually I have already made it:  Focus on the one issue that will decide the piece that I am writing.

For example, I originally wrote a poem about lawyers arguing cases and especially about judges deciding cases.  It was and is a poem about what it is like to experience the ways in which one group makes their arguments and the other group decides.   I wrote the poem as a villanelle and openly based it on Dylan Thomas's famous poem Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Night.  I even called my poem Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Fight.

Well, I must have lost sight a little bit of my overriding objective in writing the piece.  I did not know it when I wrote it, but based on reaction to it, I must have lost sight of the one issue that prompted me to write it in the first place.

Some people reacted to it as though I wrote an indictment of all judges or maybe all lawyers, or both.  Plus the tone was a little intense, perhaps, in the original version which is all right, of course, except that in this case it distracted from the reason I wrote the poem.

So, I tweaked it.  I used a couple of different words and edited some punctuation to make my meaning clearer:  I wrote the poem about judges who write overly long opinions about very little things.

Hopefully my edited version, now online here, reflects that.  And hopefully the edited version also reflects a little less intensity about the people in it, while preserving a real sense of enthusiasm for the subject of it.  It tells a story that in my view still needs to be told even if, in this case, it needed to be tweaked.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH JANUARY 17?

(Manuel Balce Ceneta / Associated Press)

January 17 is the date reportedly set for Capitol Hill Riot Part Two.  That date is the choice of  the same people who staged the Capitol Hill Riot Part One, on January 6, to do it again.

January 16 -- the date before Capitol Hill Riot Part Two, or shall we call it Capitol Hill Coup Part Two -- is the day that the current chief of the Capitol Police says that he will leave office.

If you believe in coincidence, you are living in the wrong time and place.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

HAVE FAITH, ABIGAIL SPANBERGER,* NOT FEAR.

(Doug Mills / New York Times)

The victories of Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock in the U.S. Senate runoff elections in Georgia surprised many people.  But their victories did not surprise Mr. Ossoff or Reverend Warnock.

And their successes were certainly not surprising to Ms. Stacey Abrams, whose approach to politics is a successful contrast to Democratic Party politics nationally.

    The two Democratic Senate candidates were a striking shift from previous recruits, who tended to be white moderates, and stepped gingerly, and sometimes awkwardly, around the God and guns issues crucial to white voters who had become disenchanted with Democrats.

    Mr. Ossoff, with his degrees from Georgetown and the London School of Economics, speaks without a hint of Southern twang; he could hail from Santa Monica, or Portland. He would also be the first Jewish person to be elected to the Senate from Georgia.

    Mr. Warnock is the kind of preacher who sees activism as central to the mission of the Black church. As pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once preached, he has embraced Dr. King’s philosophy of economic justice as a corollary to racial justice.

    In effect, the two men ran as themselves. As unabashed liberals. In Georgia.

Lisa Lerer and Richard Fausset, Republican Bulwark is Confirmed as an Election Battleground, NEW YORK TIMES, Thursday, January 7, 2021, at A18, online with the headline and subhead, For Democrats in Georgia, ‘There’s No Going Back’ / The two Democratic victories in the Senate runoffs confirmed that Georgia’s metamorphosis from conservative bastion to battleground state was complete.

*You may be wondering about the name of Abigail Spanberger in the headline of this blog article.  Ms. Spanberger is the person who exemplifies the national Democratic approach to elections.  She famously melted down during a telephone conference call among Democratic Members of the House of Representatives, blaming Progressives for the loss of Democratic seats in the House in 2020.

It seems that the national Democratic party needs to look at how it does things just as much as it needs to look at how things are now done in Georgia.  Not a single Progressive lost a House seat in 2020.  Not one.  Now, two Senators are coming to Washington who ran "as unabashed liberals.  In Georgia."

Faith Over Fear, Ms. Spanberger.  Faith Over Fear, Democratic National Committee.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

INVESTIGATING "TRIAL BY COMBAT": THE CAPITOL HILL RIOT

"Pro-Russian insurrectionists in Ukraine in 2014 had a look similar to what was seen on Wednesday."  Caption to this photograph published in The New York Times, Friday, January 8, 2021:

(Mauricio Lima / New York Times)

Possible Putin connections or directions are compared by Andrew Higgins in the accompanying article, Moscow Dispatch / Scene in Washington Recalls Images of Post-Soviet Uprisings, NEW YORK TIMES, Friday, Jan. 8, 2021, at A16.

Nothing should be off the table for investigators of the Capitol Hill Riot. 

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

THEY GOT INSIDE, BECAUSE IT WAS AN INSIDE JOB.

(Manuel Balce Ceneta / Associated Press)

The Capitol Hill Riot did not just happen.  The Capitol Police did not just make a mistake yesterday, January 6, 2021.

Law enforcement showed a very different face yesterday from Black Lives Matter protests and since June, when border guards and prison guards and the D.C. National Guard all showed up equipped for riots, although there were no riots.

I am not sure about the involvement of the Capitol Police or for that matter the involvement of the Metropolitan Police Department (D.C. Police) on those earlier occasions.  I do not know if they were among the people who showed up in riot gear, although there were no riots then.

There was a riot yesterday at the U.S. Capitol.  The Capitol Police were not equipped in riot gear.  They were not equipped for riots, although even civilians could see that a riot was coming their way.  That was true for days beforehand.  Any fool could see that a riot was at least possible and, more likely, that a riot was probable.

History has this lesson about riots, not a hidden lesson either but one that is well-known:  Historically, police either allow riots or they join them, when they don't put them down.

The Capitol Police did not put down the Capitol Hill Riot of January 6, 2021.  If history is our guide, that leaves just two options.

There have been pictures and videos of Capitol Police easing the way of the rioters into the Capitol.  Only 52 people as of this writing have been arrested.  Along with much of the rest of the country, I watched the Capitol Hill Riot on television.  There were thousands of rioters to choose from, but only 52 were chosen.  That says something about the enthusiasm behind making arrests following the Capitol Hill Riot.

The performance of the Capitol Police was not confined to just grunts.  More were implicated than just frontline police officers.  What happened is beyond the power of grunts.  It is within the power of their leaders.

Don't always assume negligence as the cause of things.  For four years now, negligence seems to be the default assumption about the cause of such events as we witnessed yesterday. 

When the Capitol Hill Riot is investigated, perhaps it will instead be investigated by experienced people who doubt the easy assumption.  Perhaps, at long last, it will be the Capitol Hill Riot investigation that works on inductive reasoning, which is the same tool that police officers use when they are tasked with investigating crimes:  Inductive reasoning reasons from the specific to the general.

In the case of the Capital Hill Riot, we pretty much know that there was a riot and that the Capitol Police were nowhere to be seen preventing access to the Capitol (although there is a now-famous photograph taken at the time the rioters reached the House Chamber, showing some of the police inside the Chamber who pulled their guns but by then the rioters were already inside the building), and the Capitol Police were definitely not seen slowing the flow of any rioters coming in, let alone turning the rioters back.

That is what we know, all we know, at this early time in our investigation.  Now, without assumptions, let's look all the way to where this leads.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

"BEHAVIOR FOLLOWS MONEY."

 

Tropical Bank (Photo by Dennis Wall)

I think there is a certain wisdom in this saying.  I like it almost as much as this quote, rephrased from a saying by Mr. Upton Sinclair:  'It is difficult to get a person to recognize a fact, when their salary depends on them not knowing it.'

 

GEORGIA MAY HAVE JUST SAVED THE UNION.

One Hundred, Fifty-Five+ Years after the Civil War ended.

Warnock wins Ga. runoff, bringing Democrats closer to control of U.S. Senate / Jon Ossoff has narrow lead over Republican David Perdue (Washington Post, online Wed., January 6, 2021) (subscription required by the Washinngton Post, but even without the subscription, their headline says everything anyone needs to know).

GEORGIA, THIS IS THE DAY AND THIS IS YOUR HOUR

Georgia, this is the day and this is the hour, beginning at 7 AM and going through 7 PM.

Vote!  Elect Democrats Ossoff + Warnock for Senate and Daniel Blackman for PSC.  If you have your Absentee Ballot, drop it off at a drop box or at a polling site.

Or vote in person!  But vote! 

Your Vote = Your Voice, make sure you are heard!

AN OPEN LETTER TO DEMOCRATS IN VALDOSTA, GEORGIA

(John Amis / Atlanta Journal Constitution)

Elect Democrats Ossoff + Warnock for Senate and Daniel Blackman for PSC.

The Georgia Secretary of State says that Friday was the last day both to Vote Early and to ask for an Absentee Ballot.

So, plan to vote in person on Tuesday, January 5 OR if you have not dropped off your Absentee Ballot yet, the SOS Website says you can drop off your Absentee Ballot by Election Day!

Your Vote = Your Voice, make sure you are heard!

AN OPEN LETTER TO DEMOCRATS IN SAVANNAH AND RICHMOND HILL

(John Amis / Atlanta Journal Constitution)

Elect Democrats Ossoff + Warnock for Senate and Daniel Blackman for PSC.

The Georgia Secretary of State says that Friday was the last day both to Vote Early and to ask for an Absentee Ballot.

So, plan to vote in person on Tuesday, January 5 OR if you have not dropped off your Absentee Ballot yet, the SOS Website says you can drop off your Absentee Ballot by Election Day!

Your Vote = Your Voice, make sure you are heard!

AN OPEN LETTER TO DEMOCRATS IN ATLANTA AND STONE MOUNTAIN

(John Amis / Atlanta Journal Constitution)

Elect Democrats Ossoff + Warnock for Senate and Daniel Blackman for PSC.

The Georgia Secretary of State says that Friday was the last day both to Vote Early and to ask for an Absentee Ballot.

So, plan to vote in person on Tuesday, January 5 OR if you have not dropped off your Absentee Ballot yet, the SOS Website says you can drop off your Absentee Ballot by Election Day!

Your Vote = Your Voice, make sure you are heard!

LET THEM KNOW THEY ARE PLAYING HARDBALL. THIS ISN'T SLOW-PITCH.

(John Amis / Atlanta Journal Constitution)

Let the objectors know that they have chosen to play hardball.  This is not slow-pitch softball.

Since they choose to make objections and challenges, fine.  Challenge them back.

The best defense is an offense whether in war, in football, or in politics.

Challenge Tommy Tuberville of Alabama who also stood for election in 2020.  Oh, you say, that was an election to the U.S. Senate and January 6th is only about the presidential electors?  Okay, then Democrats challenge the certification of presidential electors from Alabama.

Then after starting with the letter "A," challenge the certification of electors from every other State which voted for anyone other than Biden-Harris.  Object to certifying electors from each and every one of those States.

If the objectors in the Senate and House are going to make their challenges, let them know that they have opened up everything to objections and challenges including the elections that elected or re-elected them.

There is no reason to let them have the inevitable microphones to themselves.  There is no good reason to let them hog the TV coverage that is coming, either.  Share the air time.  Give the corporate media their sound bites and videos.

And for good measure, remind the people of this country every chance you get that these federal challengers, these federal objectors in the Senate and the House, are attacking democracy itself.  They are trying to have the federal government tell the States what to do.  They want the federal government to overturn the will of the voters in America.

There is no such thing as a free lunch.  Make them pay a price for what they themselves have chosen.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

AN OPEN LETTER TO DEMOCRATS IN ATHENS, GEORGIA

(FreePhotos)

Put that University education to work for your State and your Nation!  Elect Democrats Ossoff + Warnock for Senate and Daniel Blackman for PSC.

The Georgia Secretary of State says that Friday was the last day both to Vote Early and to ask for an Absentee Ballot.

So, plan to vote in person on Tuesday, January 5 OR if you have not dropped off your Absentee Ballot yet, the SOS Website says you can drop off your Absentee Ballot by Election Day!

Your Vote = Your Voice, make sure you are heard!

AN OPEN LETTER TO DULUTH, MACON, AND PERRY DEMOCRATS

 

(John Amis / Atlanta Journal Constitution)

Elect Democrats Ossoff + Warnock for Senate and Daniel Blackman for PSC.

The Georgia Secretary of State says that Friday was the last day both to Vote Early and to ask for an Absentee Ballot.

So, plan to vote in person on Tuesday, January 5 OR if you have not dropped off your Absentee Ballot yet, the SOS Website says you can drop off your Absentee Ballot by Election Day!

Your Vote = Your Voice, make sure you are heard!

 

AN OPEN LETTER TO ALBANY, AUGUSTA, AND COLUMBUS DEMOCRATS

(John Amis / Atlanta Journal Constitution)

Elect Democrats Ossoff + Warnock for Senate and Daniel Blackman for PSC.

The Georgia Secretary of State says that Friday was the last day both to Vote Early and to ask for an Absentee Ballot.

So, plan to vote in person on Tuesday, January 5 OR if you have not dropped off your Absentee Ballot yet, the SOS Website says you can drop off your Absentee Ballot by Election Day!

Your Vote = Your Voice, make sure you are heard!

LEGAL VILLANELLE. 010121.Update 01.03.21.

DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD FIGHT.

©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

To those judges, not all judges, who write big opinions that do not say as much as they seem to think they do.  They share every one of their thoughts.  They shall not be named.  They also serve.

 

Do not go gentle into those good fights,

Authors should write and write all they can say;

Page, page before they turn off the lights.

 

Though it's clear wise people leave others their own lights,

Because their words never righted any wrongs, they

Do not go gentle into those good fights.

 

Good people, on all sides, crying how bright

Their frail rights might have danced in a fair court,

Page, page before they turn off the lights.

 

Wild ones who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into those good fights.

 

Grave claims near death, are seen in glaring sight,

Blind eyes blaze and hearts no role to play,

Page, page before they turn off the lights.

 

And you, your honor, there on the sad height,

Some judges, not all, write more than they say;

Do not go gentle into those good fights.

Page, page before they turn off the lights.

 

Inspired by Dylan Thomas who urged rage against the dying of the light.

 

HAVE A HEALTHY AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Have a Happy New Year, and a Healthy one, all year through!

We shouldn't ever forget 2020, but we shouldn't dwell there any longer.  We live today not just for today, but in this case for tomorrow as well.  We owe nothing less to the people who cannot be here with us today.  So, in their name and ours, let's lift up a toast to all our tomorrows!

Happy and Healthy New Year in 2021!

THE VACCINES ARE COMING. AND WE'RE STILL HERE FOR NOW.

COVID Christmas FaceTime (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

The good news that vaccines are on the way is welcome.  Welcome, even though the good news is tempered by the news that inoculations are not moving very fast at all, and as usual, there is no plan.  So 2020.

Still, it is good news that vaccines are on the way.  And in the meantime, we're still here.  Pundits pundit -- isn't that what pundits do, namely, pundit? -- that it may be Spring, it may be Summer, or maybe they don't really know when large numbers of people in the United States will get inoculated.

And in the meantime, we're still here.  We can do this.  We have been waiting so long that a few more months of waiting will not kill us.  Reports continue of deaths and hospitalizations even as we wait to receive the vaccines.

COVID Coffins (Associated Press)

We hope and pray.  For ourselves and for one another.  So help us God.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

NURSING HOME WORKERS FIGHT TO PROTECT PATIENTS.

(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

Nursing home workers fight to protect patients.  They fight the pandemic, they fight conditions, and they stand up to nursing home management to protect patients.

 

Nursing home workers are heroes.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

 

 

See Joe Mozingo, Surrounded by Death, Nursing Home Workers Battle Management and Fear to Protect Patients, LOS ANGELES TIMES (online Dec. 27, 2020).

 

Please read the disclaimer  ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

LOTS OF MASKS, DISTANCING, ISOLATION IF WE'RE ALL IN DENIAL.

The truth is we are not all in denial.  Most of us in America accept wearing masks, social distancing, and isolation for the good of the country.

Some do not.

Guess who ends up getting the headlines?  The ones who wear masks, or the ones who don't?  The ones who socially distance, or the ones who don't?  Or the ones who isolate themselves from public congregations as much as they reasonably can, or those who don't even try?

Well, the good guys are actually and overwhelmingly in the majority just as they were in the presidential election regardless of the reports driven by fear.

The stories of "pandemic denial" are the stories that are told in the corporate media.  Pandemic disruption despite compliance by the vast majority of people in America is the real story.  See Jacob Hale Russell, Associate Professor at Rutgers Law School, and Dennis Patterson, Professor of Law and Philosophy at Rutgers, Let's Put the Straw Man of Pandemic Denial Out of His Misery, STAT (December 23, 2020), Let's put the straw man of pandemic denial out of his misery - STAT (statnews.com).

Please read the disclaimer.  This blog article ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

HAPPIEST HOLIDAY NEWS: NOT ONE, TWO VACCINES & NEW ADMINISTRATION!

(Louis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

The good news is in the title of this article.  Happy Holidays to All, and to All a Happy New Year every day throughout the year to come in 2021!

P.S. OUT-OF-NETWORK: END OF some SURPRISE MEDICAL BILLS?

(Andrew Burton / New York Times)  The reports are dribbling in.  Congress included legislation in the coronavirus relief bill that may be good even after the pandemic is past.  The legislation is in the details, which still have to be released to the public.

In the meantime, the reports offer some valuable information.  First, rather than charging patients, "health providers will now have to work with insurers to settle on a fair price."  Sarah Kliff and Margot Sanger-Katz, Surprise Medical Bills Cost Americans Millions.  Congress is Finally Set to Ban Most of Them.  NEW YORK TIMES, Tuesday, December 22, 2020, p. B4 (headline enhanced online as shown here).

Second, the new changes will take effect in 2022.

Third, the out-of-network "health providers" that cannot 'surprise bill' patients from then on include "doctors, hospitals and air ambulances, though not ground ambulances."  Id.

In other words, ground ambulances will still be able to send their surprise medical bills to patients to pay even though the patients were not conscious or had no idea that insurance would not pay for the ambulance.

This is a good law.  But there is more work to do.  That too is all to the good and should not take away from what good this law will do.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

OUT-OF-NETWORK: END OF SURPRISE MEDICAL BILLS FOR PATIENTS?

(Andrew Burton / New York Times)    Congress included legislation in the coronavirus relief bill that may be good even after the pandemic is past.  "It contains a ban on surprise medical bills that happen when patients unexpectedly receive care from an out-of-network health provider. Instead of sending those charges to patients, hospitals and doctors will now need to work with health insurers to settle the bills."  Emily Cochrane, Congress Reaches Deal on Virus Aid, Ending an Impasse, NEW YORK TIMES, Monday, Dec. 21, 2020, p. A1.

This new piece of legislation may have little to do with the pandemic, but we do not want to give it back.  This is probably the last legislative package that this Congress will pass.  A new Congress takes its seats on January 3d.  So, this may have been now-or-never legislation.

We will see how the reporting and thinking about this plays out over time.  For now, we should be happy it is in the bill that Congress is likely to pass and send to the president for signature to become law.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

THE CURRENT OCCUPANT OF THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE.

(Brennan Linsley / Associated Press)

Jeffrey A. Rosen is his name.  He is the Current Occupant of the U.S. Department of Justice now that Bill Barr has announced his departure.

Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen has accomplished many things in his tenure as Mr. Barr's Deputy since April 2019.  Among them are four things worth highlighting (forgive me for going beyond a list of just three things, there are too many to ignore here once you start learning about them):

1. He intervened to have Convicted Federal Felon Paul Manafort serve time awaiting his criminal trial in State Court in a more pleasant place than Riker's Island. Riker's is the jail that anyone else would have been assigned in Mr. Manafort's situation.  In fact, Mr. Manafort was actually assigned to serve time in Riker's Island until Mr. Rosen's timely 'intervention.'
2. Rosen overruled career prosecutors to try to indict Andrew G. McCabe for crimes, the former Deputy Director of the FBI. As an indication of Mr. Rosen's prosecutorial judgment -- like Bill Barr, he has never prosecuted --the grand jury did not return an indictment.  Perhaps the grand jury refused to indict; perhaps Mr. Rosen ordered the matter to be taken away from the grand jury because they would not indict.  It is a mystery to some, so far, but it is clearly a failure of prosecutorial judgment on Mr. Rosen's part.  His background is as a corporate lawyer at the same firm as Bill Barr.
3. In another famous failure of judgment, Mr. Rosen "unsuccessfully asked a judge" to order the recall of John Bolton's book from the public after the book had already been printed and, as I recall, after some or many copies had already been released to the public domain. First Amendment questions aside, the timing was also undesirable, to say the least.
4. Rosen took the position that Black Lives Matter protestors should be charged with violating sedition laws, although he later wrote a memo to prosecutors apparently minimizing the suggestion that protestors against the current federal government were attempting to overthrow it, i.e., were 'seditious.' It is unknown what statements if any he has made about White Supremacists in Michigan, for example, and when, if at all, they should be criminally prosecuted.

There is another issue pending right now, and that is the issue of appointing a "special prosecutor" to investigate Hunter Biden, son of the President-Elect, for alleged violation of unspecified federal criminal laws.  Mr. Barr refused to do this.  One ground of Barr's refusal was apparently that there is no "special prosecutor" law that would justify the appointment of a "special prosecutor."  Mr. Rosen's present position is not known in the sense that he has not said what his position is on this issue, but of course we have a long list of Mr. Rosen's accomplishments from the time before he took over for the Current Occupant.

What has been said here is not a frightening warning as in the corporate media, for example, to "Be afraid, be very afraid."  This is an article saying instead, "Be aware, be very aware."  As of this writing, there are more than 30 days to go in the Current Occupancy.  As was said in the movie, Gettysburg, "Keep a clear eye."

"The Justice Department has not provided a statement about Mr. Rosen's intentions in response to a request."  NEW YORK TIMES, Wed., Dec. 16, 2020, A18.  Parenthetically, by the time this print article made it online, the sentence I have just quoted was removed.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

THE CAPTION SAYS IT STRAIGHT.

The caption to these two photographs in Tuesday's print edition of The New York Times says everything that should be said and is not being said often enough:

(Victor J. Blue / New York Times)

(Victor J. Blue / New York Times)

"Supporters of President Trump gathered at the Washington Monument for one of several rallies in Washington on Saturday.  The crowd at Freedom Plaza, left, was far smaller than the one that gathered there shortly after Election Day."

NEW YORK TIMES, print edition, p. A18, Tuesday, December 15, 2020.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

THE POWER OF THE UNKNOWN.

(Image by NASA)

One of my Aunts was a person to behold on Ouija.  She could make it go so fast you could hardly keep up reading what it was spelling out.  And in her hands it always spelled out something.

One evening at a time when my brother was in the Air Force and there was a War in Vietnam, Ouija spelled out "sea" while my Aunt was at the Ouija Board.

"Sea?," we all asked.  I recall saying that my brother was not very likely to enlist in the Navy and serve at sea.

Sometime later our consensus take on what Ouija spelled out that night was that my brother was going to Southeast Asia.  "SEA" became a widely known acronym later, but it was not widely known that night, in fact, it was hardly known at all then.

Without telling his family, my brother re-enlisted in the Air Force.  Soon after, he got orders sending him to Vietnam in, yes, SEA, Southeast Asia.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

P.S. THE PROMISE OF THINGS UNSEEN.

 

In yesterday's article I asked a question.

Much has been written and said about the Occupant's behavior dampening the enthusiasm of voters for Georgia's Republican Senatorial candidates.

The question I posed yesterday was about the behavior of the President-Elect and whether his behavior dampens the enthusiasm of workers for Georgia's Democratic Senatorial candidates.

My answer is that I will continue to work as hard as I can to elect Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock, the Democratic candidates for U.S. Senator in the Georgia runoff election.

My answer is the promise of things unseen.

Please read the disclaimer.   ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

HOW DO YOU THINK YOU GOT HERE, JOE?

I have been putting in quite a few hours since November 3rd working to get the two Democratic Senate candidates elected in the Georgia runoff.

I stopped and listened to an audio tape of Joe Biden this morning.  He was giving a speech which was not public, but which was recorded anyway.  He was asked if he would 'advance the Progressive agenda by executive action,' and he replied that he would not because he would only exercise the powers of president that are granted by the Constitution.

Fair enough, as far as it goes.

Then Joe added something he did not have to say.  He attacked Progressives, saying that the other side (apparently meaning his opponents) had 'smeared us' with the charge 'that we were saying, "defund the police,'" and said that's why Democratic Senate and House candidates were not re-elected or elected as he and many of the rest of us had hoped.

I call BS.

Joe, your opponents used the same "defund the police" claim against you, and you won. 

More than that, Joe, your opponents called you a "socialist," and you won.

You were fortunate in the choice of your opponent, as they say, Joe.

The Democratic candidates for other offices lost more than they should have, or at least more than many of us expected, because they did not have a message.  They could not respond to charges that they wanted to "defund the police" and that they were "socialists" because they didn't have a message.  That is why they lost.

Progressives did not lose their seats.  They too were accused of wanting to defund the police and being socialists, but they did not lose. 

Instead, Joe, Progressives turned out in numbers to support you.  Progressives and the choice of your opponent gave you the win, not rich people who want a return to power.  None of us long for the return of the Clintonistas or, for that matter, for a third Obama term.

We have been hoping for fresh faces and new programs.

But if all you have to offer is the same tired people and their programs, then why should any of us work to elect a Senate that will work with you to restore the same tired people and their programs to power over us?  They did not do such a good job for people who are not rich and elitist.

They are responsible for the Occupant you ran against.  But they are not responsible for the fact that your race was successful.  Get your stuff together, Joe.  The face of your party has changed, the policies your party wants are different from the past.

If you think differently, there may be no reason to work so hard to elect the Democratic Senatorial candidates from Georgia.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

FOLLOW THE VACCINE MONEY.

(Bernat Armangue / Associated Press)

 

Vaccine distributors Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca are the Big Three in the race to promote vaccines.

Pfizer and Moderna are pretty certain to make the most money.  They have the inside track on having their vaccines purchased from governments.  Already, Pfizer's vaccine is now being bought by Britain for some form of distribution in the U.K.

Here's what the Big Three have reportedly said and contracted to do with regard to their vaccine sales in the U.S. and across the world.

PFIZER

The current U.S. federal government pre-ordered doses of Pfizer's  vaccine.  The federal taxpayers are paying, but for what price remains to be found.  Additional charges:  Free to the first 100 million doses, $20.00 charge to each user, added on to the contract price Pfizer charged to the American administration.

As is now being widely reported, Pfizer's vaccine treatment requires two (2) doses.

MODERNA

Moderna also contracted with the current federal government relative to its vaccines.  The amount Moderna is going to charge will depend on how much is ordered, but the range Moderna announced is $10.00 to $50.00 per dose, apparently after the lower-cost doses purchased by the current federal government are administered.

"The U.S. has secured 100 million doses for Americans at the cost of $15 per dose."  Higher prices are expected as the government programs come to an end. 

Moderna too requires two (2) doses of its vaccine.

AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca has agreed that the current U.S. regime can buy its vaccine for something less than $4.00 per dose.

Less effective than either Pfizer or Moderna report in press releases so far, AstraZeneca has done something that neither Pfizer or Moderna has done, or will do:  AstraZeneca announced that its vaccine will be sold at cost "in perpetuity" to the developing world.

AstraZeneca belongs to a group called Colvax which aims to distribute Two Billion doses to 92 low- and middle-income countries with a price cap of $3.00 per dose.

Pfizer has not joined the Colvax vaccine distribution initiative.

Neither has Moderna.

See Sissi Cao, COVID-19 Vaccine Prices Revealed From Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca, OBSERVER, posted online Nov. 23, 2020.

Profits are priorities for many people, even in a business that affects the health of the rest of the world's people.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.