Ex-CTLawyer

Dr P
There have been many threads about ACA and I don’t think this thread should go off topic.

When ACA came into being I bought through the CT exchange. Rates and rules differed by state so I cannot know how people in a particular state were affected.
I was/am self employed and pre-ACA coverage was very expensive. We had been subject to preexisting conditions exclusions and $1,000,000 lifetime cap.
In 2016 Mrs. CTL had $2,300,000 in covered medical expenses. A lifetime of savings and investment and our primary residence might have been gone if the $1,000,000 cap was still in place. If the preexisting conditions exclusions were in place from 2016 to her 65th birthday (Medicare eligible), we would have lost everything and all my earning would still be going to pay the bills (and we were never uninsured).

@anonymous
Nowhere did I endorse or support any particular candidate. I President an analysis.
President Biden would not be my first choice for President in 2024, but if we wants the nomination I believe he will get it. As I delegate I voted for his nomination at the 2020 convention. I have already stated I am giving up my seat in 2024 to a younger person and would like the President to do a similar thing.

@Chaim87

This post is asking for predictions. I can say with certainty that this is my prediction under the parameters I set forth.

I have been involved in Democratic Party politics for a lifetime. I attended my first National convention 55 years ago in Chicago.

Many in the CR may not agree with my political views, but many will vouch for my insight, history and analysis of the political situation.
I have never attempted to change anyone’s mind or ask tha they support a particular candidate.
I am old school Social Liberal, Fiscal Conservative, non-radical

I applaud the OP for his frankness. Yes there is a stigma against divorce, but it should not be applied to the children of parents who divorce, they were not one of the parties who could not continue in an untenable marriage.

I practice family law and have handled divorces for many decades. Children of divorce often turn out much better than children whose parents remained in a bad marriage.

Readers of the CR are aware that Mrs. CTL died over a year ago. I now am considering who I might spend the rest of my life with. Originally, I thought I would be amenable to a widow between the ages of X and Y. I immediately realized I was using some of these same prejudices against divorce. I am not a kohen and have no galactic restriction. I revised my search to include divorced women.

It is hard to undo centuries of bias against divorce, but HaShem gave the laws of Gittin in Torah shel Beal peg for a good reason.

@AAQ
Sorry, but your suggest of 3-4 hours of work plus food stamps allowing the learner to support his family at any level is nonsense!
As soon as the learner is accepting Foos Stamps he is not supporting his family, all the American Taxpayers are supporting his family.

@aAQ
Working 3-4 hours a day plus food stamps

So the general population should support/feed him and his family?
In many places those in school/learning would be ruled ineligible for assistance.
It is called ‘poor by choice’ able bodied adults are expected to get a paying job

BTW: the Republican Party who do many in the CR hold dearly would do away with this benefit or make Mr. Kollel work 20-40 hours each week to qualify for assistance.

@EEEE
Secretary job? Not in today’s world. Employees are expected to be proficient on a keyboard and do their own typing/filing.
The CTL Law firm has offices in three states and we don’t employ a single secretary.
I’m the principal and have never had a secretary. I do have a paralegal who does some research and court filings, but that is a position that requires specific education and licensing in many states.
I also have an administrative assistant who answers and screens my calls, greets clients coming in to see me, settled them into the correct conference room or my office and might even bring coffee or water. In between she handles our banking and insurance.

I know almost no professionals who have secretaries anymore. Occasionally, there will be a clerical worker who does some typing, billing, copying and filing, but that position does not have the skills and smarts a legal of medical secretary would have had 40+ years ago

@AmilZola
I cringed when I read about dissecting sentences. This is not biology class.
Seems they needed a year with Warriner’s English Grammar and Composition as I had in 7th grade in a Chassidische day school

@Daniela
Yes, much of what you mention is covered in my course, however it is designed to work in a class of at least 12 students.
Without giving away too much, each student reaches into the hat and draws a pre assigned persona. This gives age, gender, marital status, dependents, education, renter, owner, live with family, profession, wages, etc.
We explore the banking system, loans, mortgages, all types of banking and investment accounts, leasing a dwelling, buying a dwelling, application process, credit ratings abc reports, credit cards, consumet protection laws, taxes, retirement income, etc.
Without a mix of statuses and class participation the course does not function. It is not suitable for homeschooling with few students.

@Daniela
My Personal Finance Course, written for high school students, is not an on line course.
As it is licensed to schools at a per pupil charge I regret that I cannot provide it to you, nor an on line link.
One warning, avoid the Prager U on line course that is out there. It is not very good and full of political bias.

BTW, my course was written specifically for Connecticut anc deals with its tax laws and wages.

@147
Most women wouldn’t know if their husbands were putting Tephillin on Chol HaMoed, they aren’t at minyan with them.
In more than 4 decades of marriage the late Mrs. CTL A”H never once saw me daven shacharis on Chol HaMoed

@SACTS
There is no congregational push about politics and voting.
I know the political affiliation 2 ways:
#1 chit chat
#2 I have been Asst. Registrar of Voters in my town for more than a decade and am very familiar with the voter registration lists.

@ujm

Please change the word are to were in your post. The PEW poll was back in 2021.
Many people who may have been very supportive of former President Trump no longer are.

Says a Democrat whose politics you may disapprove but a person of whom you don’t disapprove. That is a very important difference.
I feel that way about you

@Coffee Addict
My extremely low opinion of Trump was formed long before he entered politics. I admit to a prejudice…My bias is based on actual business experience from when he beat my elder brother’s company for more than $300K on a telephone system installation for one of his operations in NJ.
I know him to be dishonest. I have no respect for the thrice divorced, serial aldulterer…period.

BUT, I await trials and conviction, he has been indicted.

Lastly and most importantly…Hunter Biden should face the music for his own doings. He was never elected to public office and there is no public expectation of ethical performance of the duties of any such office. We don’t visit the sins of the children upon the fathers, rather we visit them upon the sons up to the third and fourth generation as it says in today’s aliyah (revii) of this week’s parsha Ve’etchanan (Yes I know Hashem was talking about prostration and worshiping other g0ds, in these cases that other deity is money and power and goyim are not bound by the commandments, But Jared might be along with Trump’s grandchildren though Ivanka<should her conversion be valid>).

@Neville
I never would have called for beheading Trump. I oppose capital punishment.
I have at times called for his trial and conviction. Now that there are indictments, I await his trial(s) and if proven guilty his conviction(s).

After President Biden is no longer in office and Presidential immunity ceases, should he be indicted for specific crimes I would also expect a trial and if found guilty conviction.

@coffee
So big deal, Hunter phoned the VP for help with a business deal.
It will be a big deal if:
The VP actually rendered the assistance and if doing so broke some laws or regulations or code of ethics.

As for Cohen and Avenatti they are typical of those Trump chose to associate with including the knofkah he is currently married to….lowlifes associate with lowlifes. Those with integrity avoid them.

……………………
Nothing in my comments should be construed as an endorsement of President Biden or excusing any behavior as VP that can be proven to have crossed the line. My standards don’t change according to party affiliation

During Christie’s first term as Governor Mrs. CTL (A”H) was very impressed with him and spoke with me saying that if he ran for President we should consider supporting him. Unlike me, she was registered unaffiliated.
That ended with Bridgegate when he showed his true colors. Then the support of Trump and Beachgate made him forever banned in our home.

The days of a sane or with reason Republican are gone. None of the current candidates could get my vote

@HaLeivi
I am proud of protecting the school system and taxpayers from paying out on this frivolous lawsuit. I did not label it baseless and frivolous, the judge did in ruling against the plaintiff and admonishing her lawyer,

@HaLeiVie
Why shouldn’t the plaintiff who filed a baseless and frivolous lawsuit (having suffered no injury) be forced to pay half defendant’s legal fees? Why should the taxpayers foot the bill?
In this case the plaintiff’s attorney who brought the case is awaiting disciplinary action by the State Bar.

@UJM
This be politically involved lawyer (who has never taken a plaintiff in any of the types of tort actions you post) can tell you with certainty that state legislatures and Congress that have lawyer majority memberships will not pass meaningful tort reform.
They will not vote to cut their incomes or the incomes of their contributors.

@ujm
With the exception of the post put up for me last Elul when Mrs. CTL was niftara no one in the family or the firm knows that I post on the CR or my user name. I trust completely that the poster of that notification can keep the confidence.

As the expression says since last Elul this has been a schartz yahr for CTL. First Mrs. CTL passed, I had hand surgery in one hand before Chanukah, discovered a cancerous tumor Purim time which required surgery during Pesach. Now awaiting surgery on my other hand (which accounts for many typos).
B”H I feel fine and can keep a full schedule, these are merely bumps in the road of life to be negotiated.

Also, I always own my errors and mistakes, no man is perfect.

@UJM
George Eastman didn’t start Eastman Kodak until 1892. That’s 59 years after spread of modern photography.
Think Mathew Brady photographing the acivil Ear in the 1869s or Queen Victoria and Prince Albert being photographed in the 1840s.

Edited

@AvraminMD

As I mentioned in a comment, I had never seen or heard the term SNAG until reading it in this thread. It is not a derogatory term uttered aloud in the OOT communities I’ve lived in. In about 7 decades of life Misnagid has only been used as self description and see when reading Jewish history.
Never has local Chabad used the term aloud I. My presence.
As I have repeatedly commented: in small OOT communities all types of Jews support all Jewish institutions. Since the Chabad Day School is majority funded by both Litvish and non-orthodox Jews, the local Chabad would not public use those terms about their donors.
The true infighting that I see, hear abc read about is I. The major Jewish communities and EY

I grew up in New Haven. I think we belonged to (and paid dues each year) to 4 shuls. I left for another CT Town 35 years ago , but still belong and pay dues to 2 of those that are still operational.
My big city Jewish friends did/do not understand the obligation small town Jews take upon themselves to make sure all Jewish communal organizations can survive and fund them.
Federation makes Chabad, Litvish and Solomon Schecter schools all constituent agencies and allocated funding. Thus wealthy Reform Hews knowingly fund Orthodox education through Federation donations as well as responding to individual fundraising.
As I said we self identified as Misnagid, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a bronze plaque with our family name on a classroom at THS Chabad Day School. I also spent two years as President of a shul which because of mergers davened Nusach Ari using Tehillay HaShem sidfurim

@Rso
I must live a really sheltered OOT life. Until this thread I never came across the term: SNAG
OOT all Jews must live in harmony

@Neville
I guess I am a nobody by your logic…..
A multigenerational Litvish Jewish American, I was brought up to proudly use the term Misnagid when describing myself. In fact you will see me use it in some comments I have posted in the CR over the years.
My familial and personal opposition to Chasidus is not to its individual adherents but the practice of establishing a ‘court’ ruled by a dynasty. Just being the son or son-in-law of a leader does not make one a Talmud Chochem or a leader or anyway qualified to take over control of Millions of dollars of assets and direct the votes of followers.
I particularly object to a Chasidus where a Rebbe dies and multiple sons take the title of the XXXXer Rebbe followed by a geographic location such as Boro Park, Monsey, Yerushalayim, etc. In affect setting up Cadet branches of these non-Royal Dynasties.

AND>>>>>>I may oppose (be Neged) the Chasidus for the above reasons, but still support their Yeshivos, Hospitals, Kollelim, Bikur Cholim, Food Distributions for the poor because They are Jews and I support all Jews to the best of my financial ability. I also have cordial social interactions with members of Chabad, Satmar, Ger, Sanz and Bobov.
Here, OOT, when I was growing up the Day School choice in New Haven was Chabad. Otherwise it was public school or be shipped OOT. Never was any of the Melech HaMoshiach sentiment expressed, but The Rebbe was alive for many years after I was out of school.