I'm saddened and concerned about a close friend. We're both attorneys and have worked on several cases together. Almost a symbiotic relationship where one of us will see something the other has missed, whether it's law, fact, and/or analysis. We just work so well together. When she gets excited or passionate, I can wait for her to calm down and we continue.

Today, I got a phonecall from her and she was almost beside herself about Trump, voting fraud, and the Election. She doesn't believe it was a fair election (e.g., Pennsylvania and Michigan). She cited Giuliani, Powell, and Trump talking points. I asked where she got her information and she immediately decried Mainstream Media, CNN, MSNBC, NPR. She watches FOX News, Newsmax and reads them online. And believes it all. Well, not so much says they're factual, but she totally believes that the issues are unsettled and that Trump may be robbed of a majority vote.

As an aside, she is troubled by "undocumented people" getting Medicare, Social Security, student loans/grants, etc. And the thing is that she is an excellent adult school teacher of ESL (English as a Second Language). I mean, her students must be part of the demographic that she's criticizing. (By this time, she's nearly shouting into the phone.)

I am the polar opposite. I've watched/listened to ALL of the news since 1998. I decide whom to consider and whom to discard. I also confirm stuff from several news sources.

In short, I just can't talk to her anymore. I'm sighing. An attorney (with bachelors and masters degrees as well as law school) in a New York State county close to the City and she's literally drunk the Kool Aid. She won't listen or consider the other positions.

Show all your cards at trial or risk losing any chance of presenting evidence in the future.

You can hope that the Appellate Court will allow "new evidence," but it better be REALLY NEW, i.e., it didn't exist or it wasn't discovered at the time of trial.

I've tried for a Reconsideration (of evidence presented at trial) with a return to trial. That's even harder.

Once you're in Appellate Court, all you can essentially debate is the law and procedure. Facts are essentially recorded in stone.

There is the possibility that your case could have prevailed with the additional evidence at trial, but you failed to make it available for consideration. And you could be looking at a friendly new case of legal malpractice by your client.

was to make my brother and my sister turn against me. Specifically, he hoped they would blame me for their disinheritance. (If I hadn't been such a terrible daughter to Dad, then he wouldn't have to punish all of us. This was a theme during our childhoods)

Fortunately it didn't play out that way. My siblings and I have never been closer.

Sorry, I don't know who said it.

I'm referencing Donald Trump at this stage of his presidency.

I don't regret that we voted him (legally) out of office.

Am I apprehensive of what he could possibly do because of the shame, embarrassment, and fate that awaits him? Sure.

But he was a dangerous animal while in Office and he made no bones about staying there indefinitely.

So, that's essentially a dilemma where both options suck. At least with him leaving, the bleeding will eventually stop.

When our abusive father was still alive, my sister would warn me that if I "got Dad mad," I'd be disinherited. I figured, no matter what I said or did, I'd still be disinherited. While I didn't tell Dad what I really thought of him, I didn't hold back my opinions. Punchline: Dad died. His Will was read. He disinherited me and my sister and my brother. They didn't have my courage and still got caught up in Dad's desire to punish us from the grave. While I didn't get the money, I have the satisfaction that I fought back when I had the chance.

Our father wanted a dog. Our mother didn't. Dad wanted an Alaskan Malamute. Mom didn't.

Dad bought a Malamute puppy. And he wouldn't train her, period. How to eat, how to be housebroken. Mom refused to let the dog live in our house.

So Dad had an enclosure built outside. It had a cement floor, a dog house, wooden stakes with wire across, and a door for access.

Why am I telling you this? Because though I was eight, I recognized animal abuse and was helpless to do anything. The dog was fed dog food from a can, more or less thrown into the cage. The dog lived outside despite low, low temperatures, snow, rain, heat. Never brushed or groomed. Not even walked. Like a zoo animal.

Mom was fine with it; the dog wasn't living indoors with her or us. Dad had the satisfaction of owning a (neglected) dog.

The dog would occasionally howl, an unearthly howl. I knew she was miserable.

My siblings and I couldn't play with her as she instinctively turned wild under confinement. She could be vicious.

Fortunately, about four years later, either someone made Dad an offer to sell the dog or he was convinced to find another home. In either case, I quietly celebrated that the dog would no longer be living in misery during the winter. (Dad never believed she was in misery. After all, she was an Alaskan Malamute and bred to live outdoors during extreme winter weather.)

The video in the OP brought back a lot of sad memories. That dog suffered. Not that Dad was abusive as much as he was extremely negligent, perhaps reckless -- and he never should have been allowed to have a dog -- EVER.

1995 when Newt took over as Speaker of the House. Contract for America (more like Contract on America). He thought he was more powerful than Bill Clinton in the WH.

Newt's MO: Remake the Republican Party. Only hyperpartisan Republicans. Moderates and Liberals would be primaried out, to be replaced with younger Conservatives. And this new block of Republicans would follow Newt off the proverbial cliff. And that was the House. Newt's program would extend to the Senate, where every single Republican would vote as their Leader commanded, no matter what their constituency wanted or public opinion. (The House and the Senate would become indistinguishable.) Lemmings. They would repeat their talking points, even knowing they were wrong. Even admonishments to Republicans to stop socially associating with their democratic brethren. No lunches. No drinks. No dinner parties. And above all, no bipartisan compromising. Republicans would legislate without a single democratic vote indefinitely.

And here we are: Republicans denying their leadership and running away from Trump like the plague. Publicly denouncing him, not asking for Trump's endorsement. Openly stating they will vote for Joe Biden, a Democrat. Heresy.

Newt is watching his dream of permanent partisanship fall apart. From the Vatican, no less.

If/When Joe Biden is elected, there will be no definable role or space for Newt. He will be in the same place as Trump. A footnote.

During 2016, during his rallies, Trump had the trappings of Hitler with his exaggerations, his lies, his appeal to the masses. And we were told, no, Hitler is sui generis. Nobody is like Hitler. When Trump starts shoving bodies into ovens, THEN he's Hitler.

Well, here we are. Trump has concentration camps for refugees searching refuge from the horrors of their countries. He has removed children, some who were breastfeeding, from their parents and "lost" them, never to be returned. He had women in these "detention centers" undergo hysterectomies without their informed consent, leaving them sterile -- and by a man without a medical license and training. Trump has corrupted a political party which has endorsed and enabled him. Trump has taken over the federal courts. Trump has targeted and urged his followers to persecute African-Americans, immigrants in this country, anyone who isn't a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant, anyone without money. Trump has urged his followers to arm themselves for a coming civil war that he created. Trump has allowed 200,000 people to die of a deadly virus that he initially called a "democratic hoax."

If Trump wasn't Hitler four years ago, he certainly appears to be Hitler now.

I have my cadre of Facebook friends. But one stands out for me.

A woman in her 80s. I've known her for 40+ years. My mother's age. She was a secretary in my high school. And a loyal Republican.

She "friended" me after losing touch with her for decades, and I accepted.

She's gone 180 degrees. Not just a Democrat, but an activist. No matter how inflammatory my posts are (usually sharing articles), she endorses them. She "saw the Light," so to speak.

I'm a substitute teacher and have been employed until Covid for all five days of the week.

One of the schools that I really like called me today and asked if I could work as a temporary substitute starting next week until November. I don't know what subject or grade level. It pays $100 (maybe more) a day. And at the same school with the same class. Plans would be done for me and all I'd have to do is execute the plans, practice modest discipline, and protect the kids during Covid.

I've already had Covid. I work as a cashier in a supermarket and found out I have antibodies when I donated blood in July. I don't know when I had it as I had absolutely no symptoms. Could have been in June, or even in January. We can't tell.

There's always the risk of catching it again. But that's not too much of a concern as I'm staying at my job as a cashier and it's likely a Petri Dish of Covid there despite our masks and gloves.

I declined the job as my chances are doubled between the school and the supermarket. And while I don't grandstand, and I'm not a member of the state's teachers' union, I support the teachers. I feel that taking the school job would be like crossing a picket line and working as a scab. And I also don't believe the schools should be in session with in-person/classroom education while there's a pandemic going on.

Trust me, this was putting my ethics on the line. If I had the two jobs, I'd be working 10+ hours a day (been there/done that) and making an extra $50 with the cashiers job. I'm working part time as a cashier right now and money would be welcome.

I feel I made the right decision for me. I won't judge someone else making another decision.

Maybe one good thing about the scandals reigned upon Jerry Falwell Jr. and his wife, Becki, is that Lynchburg may be free of the Falwells as unelected local government.

I went to school at Sweet Briar College, graduating in 1979. I've watched as for 40+ years, the City has been in the grips of Jerry Falwell and then his son via their college/university and to a lesser degree, their church, the Thomas Road Baptist Church.* The school has been incrementally buying up land and taking it off tax rolls, thereby raising the municipal taxes borne by local residents. Jerry Falwell had so much influence that when he died in May, 2007, the public schools made an announcement over the public address system. (My goddaughter leapt up and yelled, "Yay!" ) I went out for take-out that week-end in Lynchburg and the local Pizza Hut had a Jerry Falwell and black crepe on the computer screen-saver when I went to pay.

As it is, Liberty University is the biggest employer in the City, if not the region, and calls a lot of shots as far as ordinances and zoning, again, without the precondition of elections.

I don't know in which direction Liberty University will take, but at least it won't be for the financial benefit with power that has been given to the Falwells. For all I know, it might become a true Christian college. (Naaaaaaaaaaaaah!)


* Lynchburg has about 100 Baptist churches. Thomas Road is the largest and wealthiest.