WiederLaw, 300 71st Street, Suite 545, Miami Beach, FL (2026)

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.

07/21/2023

Donald Trump in two years…….

Trump: “Well, boys, it sure is great making America great here in this fine minimum-security prison. The orange jump-suit matches my complexion. Happy to be sharing a cell with you great Americans.”

Proud Boy: “Yes, sir, Mr. President. You will always be our president and making America great again. It’s an honor to share a cell with you, too.”

Trump: “If you had been more careful, we could have been in the White House now, instead of the Big House. I told you to march peacefully. When I said fight like hell and stay strong, I did not want you to really hang Mike Pence. That was not good optics. After all he was loyal all the way, except when I told him to overturn the election. I told you to stand back and stay strong. That did not mean break down the doors and kill policemen.

Proud Boy: “Yes, Mr. President, maybe we should not have stormed the Capitol. And that hangman’s noose and gallows was not a good idea either. And we never got a hold of Nancy Pelosi. We would have surely hanged her. But I did get to put my feet up on her desk and take a video, so the deep state FBI could ID me.”

Trump: I forgive you even though this is all your fault. But that’s ok boys, we will get there in the next election. I am making arrangements to have the Constitution amended allow past presidents to pardon themselves. And Justice Alito even said he can interpret the law to allow me to pardon myself without an amendment. This trip to prison was all rigged. The jury was rigged, the Biden Justice department was rigged, just as this last attempt to get the GOP nomination was rigged against me. And I thought I would get away with it all until Garland finally appointed that mad dog Jack Smith, a war crimes prosecutor, a real inspector Jovert, to get me. I thought Garland was such a wimp he would wait until after the election to appoint Smith. Biden must have put a boot up his ass. Those RINOs in the party gave the nomination to Asa Hutchinson, that Casper Milquetoast. How is he going to make America great? He even told people that I was unfit to be president. What kind of Republican is that? The least thing they could have done would have been to give the nomination to Ron DeSantis. At least he was mean enough and cruel enough to send those migrants to Martha’s Vineyard. He even used taxpayer dollars to do it! He is trying to be just like me, but he’s just a poor imitation, like Hunt’s Ketchup instead of Heinz. And by the way, that’s what they are giving us here at the mess hall. They don’t even have a MacDonald’s here.”

Proud Boy: “Yes sir, Mr. President. You know as leader of the Proud Boys, I had your image tattooed on my back, just like Roger Stone had a tattoo of Nixon on his back. And I got the orange color just right. They had to use red number 4 to correct the skin tone. I sure am proud sharing a cell nearby you. I am really grateful that you pulled some strings to keep me out of that supermax prison, even though I clubbed some of those capitol police storm troopers.”

Trump: “Well anyway, I succeeded in getting Liz Cheney out of congress. Who needs goody two shoes there to inspire the people? It’s bad for business. Never mind though, I have an enemies list even longer than Nixon. And I have studied Putin’s methods of dealing with political opponents. I mean I would not order any poisonings or arrange for anyone to fall out of a window, but there are other things I can do like blackmail. I watched how Frank Underwood did it. Very inspiring, I’ll tell you. Believe me.”

Proud boy: “Mr. President, can I play golf at one of your courses after I get out of this hole?”

Trump: “Sure, I will give you the felon’s rate. But be careful going to the bathroom, I still have some classified documents semi-hidden there. I would not want Lavrov to see them. I only share them with club members and good-looking women, since Melania does not even come to visit.

12/23/2019

Drunk Drivers
WE CAN ASSIST IF YOU OR A LOVED ONE HAVE BEEN HARMED BY A DRUNK DRIVER
Injury or death caused by a drunk driver is perhaps the most upsetting and anger-provoking of all kinds of personal injury cases. The thought of an innocent victim suffering a serious or fatal injury at the hands of an irresponsible individual can evoke outrage among members of the community. At Wieder Law, we aggressively pursue claims against irresponsible drinkers and the bars, nightclubs, and restaurants that improperly serve them. According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, drunk drivers injured more than 250,000 individuals during 2005. Although the law can never replace a loved one, it does provide means of recovery for victims. Victims can sue the drunk driver under the general laws of negligence, but often the drunk driver is either uninsured or underinsured and has few if any, assets to support a lawsuit.

Call The Law Offices of David Wieder today!

02/13/2019

BE CAREFUL OF INSIDER TRADING!
Amy Howe Independent Contractor and Reporter

Posted Tue, December 6th, 2016 12:01 pm

Email Amy
Bio & Post Archive »
Opinion analysis: Court upholds “friends and family” insider-trading conviction
Bassam Salman, a Chicago grocery wholesaler, received stock tips from a friend, who had in turn received inside information from Salman’s brother-in-law, an investment banker at Citigroup. Salman made hundreds of thousands of dollars from the tips, but he was also charged with insider trading and sentenced to three years in prison. Today the Supreme Court upheld Salman’s conviction, rejecting his argument that he could not be held liable because his brother-in-law had not received any financial benefits in exchange for the inside information that he disclosed. The unanimous ruling – which came just over two months after the oral argument – was a big victory for the federal government, which had warned the justices that a ruling for Salman would lead to even more disclosures of confidential information by corporate insiders.

In a 1983 case, Dirks v. SEC, the Supreme Court ruled that a “tippee” – someone who receives confidential information from an insider and then uses the information to trade – can be held liable under insider trading laws when the insider violates his duty to shareholders by disclosing the information, which in turn depends on whether the insider receives “a direct or indirect personal benefit from the disclosure.” The court in that case noted that jurors could infer a “personal benefit” when the insider either receives something of value in exchange for the tip or “makes a gift of confidential information to a trading relative or friend.”

In Salman’s case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled that, following Dirks, the jury that convicted Salman could infer that Salman’s brother-in-law, Maher Kara, had breached his duty when he passed confidential information to his brother Michael, who then relayed it to Salman. In fact, the lower court ruled, Maher’s disclosures to Michael were “precisely the gift of confidential information to a trading relative that Dirks envisioned.”

The 9th Circuit’s application of Dirks to Salman’s case, the justices held today, was proper, although the justices took care to make clear that the issue presented by this specific case was a “narrow” one. Dirks, the court explained in an opinion by Justice Samuel Alito, “makes clear that a tipper breaches a fiduciary duty by making a gift of confidential information to ‘a trading relative.’” This is so, the court continued, because “giving a gift of trading information is the same thing as trading by the tipper followed by a gift of the proceeds.” Here, the court reasoned, Maher Kara breached his duty of trust and confidence to Citigroup when he gave information to his brother, Michael, knowing that Michael would trade on it; Salman then inherited that duty and breached it when he traded on the confidential information.

12/08/2018

Wagging the Dog versus the Rule of Law

Another year vanishes, it’s allegations of witness tampering, obstruction of justice, a resurgence of anti-Semitism, polarization of a restive public, promises of a new year to come of subpoenas, congressional hearings, a special prosecutor’s report cataloging misfeasance, mischief, sending echoes of “high crimes and misdemeanors “ rumbling through the capitol. Scoundrels never rest.

Ah, for years gone by when Democrats and Republicans came together, Watergate dominating the airwaves, the nation glued to its televisions on the three broadcast networks. Walter Cronkite and David Brinkley, trusted newsmen, just like Sean Hannity, telling us the facts, or in Hannity's case, alternative facts.

The president's acolytes and knaves face an ever increasingly frowning statue of Justice, the scales of which are growing more lopsided every day, weighted with each new incriminating tweet, revelation, indictment and guilty plea.

The president, increasingly frenetic, tweets tropes dedicated arguably to obstructing justice. Even Richard Nixon, although he had no twitter feed, was too smart (he never expected that his secret tapes would be revealed) to confirm allegations in public. But this president does not seem to understand about the ones to come, charges that will emanate from Bob Mueller's crew of tight lipped, eagle-eyed, OCD prosecutors zeroing in on them. Trump scurries about, tweeting and bloviating, like a steroid-injected chipmunk, now viewed as a meal for the eagle's newly hatched chicks. Mueller's reports, exponentially more incriminating, arrive just in time for a Merry Christmas. It is like watching "Love Actually" in reverse.

President Trump, seeking cover, attended the G20, formerly the G7, or 12 or whatever, suspends the Chinese tariffs that should not have been imposed in the first place citing a victory. Sending the army to the border to "protect" the nation from dispossessed, shirtless, starving migrants who were set to conduct an "invasion" across the Rio Grande and reclaim Texas for Mexico, or Honduras, take your scapegoat pick, did not reap the benefits he supposed. Those mothers whose children, armed to the teeth with AR15s supplied by Wayne La Pierre are ready to take on the 7th cavalry. "Play the Gary Owen,” shouts shout Trump’s minions,

Trump, our latter day Father Coughlin/ Hughey Long, apologizes for MBS whose bone sawing team brazenly tortures, murders, and dismembers a journalist in the Saudi consulate in Turkey. For Allah's sake, cries the despotic president of Turkey, Recip Tayip Erdogan, you are on my turf. Michael Corleone versus the Tatagglias. Erdogan spills the beans to the CIA, the director of which flies to Istanbul to listen to the rasping sounds of saw on bone and the screeches of a man who had gone into the consulate to get his marriage documents. Trump's CIA director, Gina Haspel reluctantly testifies before congress that the CIA has confirmed the responsibility of MBS, and Trump says. "Maybe he did and maybe he didn't." No smoking gun. No collusion. Witch-hunt.

Trump, despondent, because he cannot string up the entire staffs of the Washington Post, The New York Times, plus George Soros and Jeff Bezos. Even more despondent because now he will have to face an angry swarm of Democratic subpoenas, hearings and even articles of impeachment. Republicans, fearing the loss of their seats in 2020 will soon be jumping off the ship. One could argue that the tipping point is near, although many do not believe it. After all, two years have passed since Trump raged about "American carnage, " his dark vision of America, provided by the conspiracist Steve Banon, now relegated to internet malevolence.

Those of us old enough to remember know that Watergate took a long time. But there was, finally, a tipping point when Republican senatorial supporters told Nixon finally he must go.

"I'm a business man, why shouldn't I offer a $50 million penthouse to Vladimir? After all he strongly denied any interference in our election and that tower I never built in Moscow with my name on it is coming soon. "I just dream about all those oligarchs and plutocrats paying millions of dollars for a gold plated view of the Kremlin. Can you imagine the money I will make on the extras? Gold plumbing fixtures, Italian marble counters, high end appliances and toilets that wash your bottom before arising from the gold-plated toilet seat?
Of course, I place the interests of the United States first. After all, I want payment in dollars, not rubles."

Will the money trail finally be revealed? Will those tax returns be made public?
Will Trump’s felons need a new prison wing?

Come on Bobby three sticks,
I hope they are in time for Christmas.

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