#military divorce attorney Florida

[yourreddancer]

My Story & Why I Switched From Republican to Democrat

It wasn't just because of Trump.

Ron Filipkowski

Jan 13

A few stories have been written by others about my journey from a former Republican Club President, attorney, and Rick Scott then Ron Desantis political appointee to activist Democrat and independent journalist. Although I thought those stories did a pretty good job covering the basics, I wanted to explain things more in my own words. I also don’t really like to talk about myself or promote myself - I prefer for my work to get recognition rather than me personally. But I think since so many of you follow me and read my work without knowing my story, it would be useful to tell it.

I was born in western Massachusetts - my dad was first generation born in Germany right after WWII to parents displaced by the war who were sponsored to come to America when he was a child. My mother is 13th generation American whose family came to the US in 1636 and was mostly Vermont farmers. Needless to say, there was quite a contrast between each side of my family - from the language spoken, culture, food, history, etc.

My parents married when they were 21 and 18 and divorced when I was 4. My mother took myself and younger brother to Cape Cod which is where I grew up. My dad was a welder and moved to Florida, where I ended up spending most summers until I started high school and decided Cape Cod was more fun in the summer than FL. We lived in a very small house in a rural part of the Cape and my mom stayed single and cleaned houses. On an income level, I was definitely one of the poorest kids growing up in my town - but that is something you don’t really notice much until you get older.

One of the best things about growing up in a place like the Cape is the public education. I’m so thankful for it, because it allowed a working class kid like me to be able to compete against kids later in life who grew up wealthier because I got the same education they did. My teachers in school growing up went to Ivy League schools, or colleges like UMass, Williams, Boston College, Amherst. They could have taken other jobs and made more money - but they loved teaching. It was amazing. It is also why I place so much value in our public schools and the dedicated people who work in them.

That said, I was much more interested in sports and girls growing up than school. Since academics was always pretty easy for me, I never had to work very hard at it, was frequently bored, and rarely applied myself. I also worked every job imaginable since I was 12 years old - delivering newspapers, shoveling driveways, chopping wood, washing dishes, waiting tables, landscaping, on and on. If I didn’t work those jobs as a kid I would’ve had no money, no car, no nothing. But those jobs taught me many valuable lessons - and also gave me a deep appreciation today for the people who do those jobs.

When it came time to graduate high school, I had no money for college and didn’t really want to go into deep student loan debt. I also knew at that point in my life I would have been pretty undisciplined and unfocused and would have underachieved. So I joined the Marines and went to Parris Island four days after I graduated high school at age 17. I never intended to make a career out of it - I mostly wanted the GI Bill for college - but I also knew it would give me an opportunity to see the world. I was also patriotic and thought everyone should serve their country in some way. Why the Marines? That’s simple - it was the toughest challenge!

I ended up in an infantry battalion at Camp Pendleton, CA and deployed to Okinawa and South Korea. The time that I was in (1986-1990) was pretty quiet relatively speaking for our military. Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait six months after I got out and was in college. So I didn’t do any of the Middle East stuff. I had two near-death experiences in training. I got bacterial meningitis when I was in a very remote area of Okinawa at Jungle Warfare School. They didn’t know what it was for quite a while before I was eventually rushed the hospital where I remained for 3 weeks and almost didn’t make it. Two years later, I had a lost HUMMV drive over the middle of my back at 3 AM while I was face down sleeping in some soft sand during a training exercise. I was flown by helicopter to a trauma center and luckily survived.

There wasn’t much to do in our down time at our camp in Okinawa. Most of they guys played cards or hung out in bars, but that was never my thing. I discovered a small but wonderful base library and started holing myself up there for hours and hours. I was 18 years old and had never been that interested in politics. But I began reading everything and gravitated to history and politics. This is when I self-educated myself. I read everything from across the ideological spectrum - from The Nation to National Review. From William F. Buckley to Noam Chomsky. I wanted to learn different perspectives on everything since I really didn’t know whether I was conservative, liberal, or something else!

Eventually, I gravitated towards conservatism and became a Republican. Why? That would be a topic for a separate article, but I think the most valuable thing is that I arrived there on my own without anybody pushing me or influencing me in a particular direction. I think that gave me critical thinking skills and also made me a very independent thinker when it came to politics. I wasn’t interested in dogma or indoctrination - only ideas. And I didn’t think that either side had a monopoly on good ideas. I think the best illustration of that is that I was fascinated and obsessed with the lives and ideas of both Gandhi and Churchill - although two people could not possibly be more opposite. But I saw value in many things both had to offer and say - while recognizing their shortcomings.

I jumped into night school. I took classes everywhere I could as much as I could - nights, weekends - all while serving as an active duty infantry Marine. When I visited our “Education Officer” to sign up for the tuition assistance program which paid 70% of your tuition, he didn’t know he was the battalion Education Officer because nobody had ever come to sign up for that since he had been there (officers wear many hats and have many titles). I thought that was odd - and sad that so many young Marines could go to college for nearly free but didn’t. I guess our daily jobs were so difficult they didn’t have the time, energy, or ambition. I did.

When I got out of the Marines, I was 21 years old and had 2.5 years of college credit. I got a job as a night room-service waiter at the Marriott, enrolled in college full time in San Diego, and had my bachelors degree a little over a year later. So I had just turned 23, had a bachelor’s degree, served 4 years on active duty in the Marines, and paid every penny of my tuition with my own money and the GI Bill. I also got 37 As and 3 A-minuses and graduated with a 3.97. I knew wanted to go to law school and go into politics by running for Congress someday.

While I was in the Marines, my mother and entire extended family also moved to FL. Now both sides of my family all lived in FL while I was in Marines and CA, so I no longer had any connection to Cape Cod. I also felt if I stayed in CA and went to law school there with student loans and no money, I would not be able to buy a home for a very long time. So I applied to Florida, Florida State, and Miami and was accepted to all 3. I chose FSU for politics - I wanted to intern at the state capital and I got a coveted legislative intern position where I had to work 20 hours a week in the House and they paid all my tuition. There was never a single time during my college career when I was not also working a job at the same time I was going to school.

But the summer before I started law school I decided to return to the Cape one last time. I rented a room in a big boarding house in Hyannisport and got a job scooping ice cream cones. I will never forget that job interview. The manager said - ‘you are a college graduate, did 4 years in the Marines, heading to law school, and you want to scoop ice cream cones? I can make you an Asst. Manager for the summer.’ I told him that this was my last chance to go back and be a kid a little bit after a lot of hard work and I wanted no responsibility. So I spent that summer making $8 an hour and had a blast.

That was also when I met my wife, Jackie. She was 20 years old, from Rhode Island, and had just finished a year of college while working at a nursing home. She was also from a working class family with a strict German-immigrant mother and it was her first time away from home and I was her first real boyfriend. It was one of those situations where we both just knew right away. Yes, we were very young at 23 and 20, but at the end of the summer I asked her to come with me to law school and we got married after the first semester. Five kids and 33 years later we are still very happily together.

I graduated near the top of my class but never wanted to work for a big law firm. We started having kids right away and I had 4 by the time I was 28. I often joked that I could walk by Jackie in the hallway and she would get pregnant! I wanted my kids to have a great childhood and do all the activities that I was never able to do growing up and wanted to be very involved in their activities, and working 60-70 hours a week as a junior associate at big firm wasn’t going to work. So I became a prosecutor. A lot less money, but mostly 9-5 and very rewarding.

I also got into politics and started hitting the Republican Clubs and chicken dinner circuit. But the things you had to do to claw your way up the ladder in politics when you have no family connections was time-consuming and not for me. It was also pretty slimy and so much of it was inauthentic personal relationships from self-obsessed climbers. I decided it was much more important to be a good dad and husband than it was to set myself up to run for Congress someday.

But I still did quite a lot professionally and politically. I was a state prosecutor, then a federal prosecutor, then a Police Academy Director. I was General Counsel for the Sarasota Republican Party. Little League President. Then elected twice as president of the largest Republican Club in our area. I was appointed by Rick Scott and then reappointed by Ron Desantis to the Judicial Nominating Committee. I had no higher ambitions for myself at that point.

It was in the mid-2000s that my political views began to change, but it was a gradual process. I went into private practice doing criminal defense because I needed to make more money for my young family and I was coaching the sports teams of my kids, so I needed a job where I was my own boss and could make my own schedule. I was never going to get rich - but I had the right balance between work and family.

But in that job I started working with people every day who had struggles - growing up in abusive families and tough neighborhoods, drug addictions, mental health issues, stuck in abusive and dysfunctional relationships. I also worked with a lot of migrants because they were unable to get driver’s licenses in FL, which led to unnecessary legal troubles for them. I began to see with my own eyes the disconnect between how many of my fellow Republicans viewed people with these struggles and their reality.

I began to develop empathy really for the first time for other people. I was always one of those “up from your bootstraps” Republicans. My thinking was - if I could do it anyone can. Well, some people had it much tougher than me and were dealt a different hand of cards. I just needed to live that experience because it isn’t something you are going to learn from a book. Yes, I grew up in a family that didn’t have much - but I also got a magnificent education, grew up in a neighborhood with little crime, was healthy and not abused (although my mom did like the belt!).

Then Barack Obama ran for president in 2008, and that was another thing that was a factor in my eventual exit from the Republican Party. I was President of a huge Republican Club during that time - and I watched and listened to the things that were said in those meetings about him. I will just say that is when a lot of ugliness came to the surface. It mystified me why it was so personal and nasty. Although I disagreed with him on some policy issues, he was a family man, christian, scandal free, hard working - all the things Republicans promote and are supposed to admire. But their hatred of Obama was something visceral. Something different. It wasn’t about policy differences. I began to realize that race was the main reason why.

I have often looked back on my time as an active Republican pre-Obama and asked myself if the racism was always there and I just didn’t see it? Probably. Maybe I didn’t want to see it. But I saw it in 2008-09, and I didn’t want any part of it. When John McCain had that event where he told a questioner in the audience that he wasn’t going to go there on the birtherism and Muslim stuff and that isn’t what the party should be all about - that really hit home for me because I had many of those moments myself as a Republican Club president.

Eventually, I just simply had enough of it because it just kept getting worse not better during Obama’s presidency. I left my position and checked out of most political activities with the Republican Party. I still showed up for some things when asked out of obligation, but my kids were entering High School and I just decided they were a better use of my time than the GOP.

Then 2015 came along, and Donald Trump ran for president. Everyone who grew up in the northeast in the 1980s knew who Trump was, and most of us couldn’t stand him. I was also a fan of the USFL football league growing up, and I watched Trump come in as an owner and promptly wreck the league with his dishonesty, self-aggrandizement, arrogance and incompetence. I really didn’t think there was any way that the party was going to nominate someone like Trump - I supported Marco Rubio in that primary.

Trump was everything conservatives said they were against in every way. In his personal life, his business dealings, his character, personality - everything. He was obviously racist, pretending to be religious when he was not, pretending to be a brilliant businessman when he was not. Not a good father or husband. A draft dodger. Misogynist. You know the list. I simply could not reconcile how grass roots Republican activists could despise Obama and love Trump when one lived his life in every way how Republicans say it should be led, while Trump did the exact opposite. That is when I realized that their principles and ideals meant less to them than they did to me. They cared about power and winning much more than policies and ideas. So I checked out completely.

I did not vote for Trump in 2016. I voted ‘None of the Above’ for president and voted for Republicans down-ballot. In hindsight, I wish I had voted for Hillary, but I also still did not expect Trump to win - especially after Access Hollywood. So it was more of a symbolic protest for me. But I still sleep better at night knowing that I never once voted for him even though I was a lifelong Republican. One of the few.

I checked out until 2020 and covid. Up to that point, I avoided watching TV or reading news. I did stuff with my family and watched sports. I didn’t want to see or hear anything from Trump. What disgusted me even more than Trump himself was watching people I liked and respected, who I knew never liked Trump at all, sell out to him because of their own personal ambition. People I respected and thought I knew. I have often said that is why I ultimately left the party - not because of Trump, but because of what everyone else in the party did in response to Trump. They surrendered everything they believed in and stood for - or at least what they claimed to believe in.

But in February 2020, just like everyone else, I was at home not knowing how many of us were going to die or lose our jobs during lockdowns watching Trump conduct his covid briefings where I was looking for facts and information. And I was horrified. Day after day, when I wanted to hear from scientists and public health officials, I listened to this blowhard ramble on about his grievances, Hillary Clinton, Obama, North Korea, Benghazi, Russiagate, the Perfect Phone Call, how great he was - I was furious. I was screaming and yelling, throwing things at the TV. I absolutely could not believe this buffoon was in charge of our country at a critical time, and my friends helped put him there.

That is when I made up my mind that I was going to do everything I could to help defeat him, but I didn’t know how. I was watching CNN one day that March and a commercial came on from ‘Republican Voters Against Trump.’ It was started by Bill Kristol, Sarah Longwell, and Tim Miller. I knew who they were and respected them. They were asking Republicans who were against Trump to go to their website and make a video stating their reasons why. I was pretty stunned because I didn’t realize there were prominent Republicans out there just like me who couldn’t stand Trump and were still willing to stand up to him. Then I saw some of the people from Lincoln Project, who I also knew, on TV trashing Trump and I knew there was a small movement out there I wanted to be a part of.

But it was still hard. I stewed on it for 2 weeks. I knew once I did that, I would leave a lifetime in the GOP behind, burn bridges, lose friends. But I did it. I wrote out a script, listed 27 different reasons why I despised Trump, and made 4 minute video. A short time later, I was contacted by RVAT to do more. So I did. They put me on billboards and in some ads. I got on Twitter for the very first time - which I swore I would never do. I did it to try and convince as many moderate Republicans to vote for Joe Biden, and I did it tirelessly.

I didn’t have many followers and not that many people noticed me until the Rebekah Jones situation. Ron Desantis had agents raid her home. I didn’t know much about her or her case - we have never met. But I was appalled that he would use state law enforcement in an effort to intimidate someone. What I was most upset about was I felt he was hiding important health information from the public, and was using Jones to intimidate others inside the state government to keep quiet. So I sent him a letter resigning my appointment to the Judicial Nominating Commission, which I had held for 10 years, and posted that resignation on Twitter.

I had no idea that was going to result in huge national news. I had interview requests from national and international media from everywhere. Over the next two weeks I did as many interviews as I could - that also helped me go from 200 followers on Twitter to 10,000 and gave me a slightly bigger platform to get my anti-Trump message out to reasonable Republican voters.

My plan was to remain an anti-Trump Republican or switch to independent after the election. If Trump had conceded the election gracefully and walked away, that is probably what I would have done. But he didn’t, and I didn’t expect him to. I predicted he would never concede because he has never admitted that he lost anything in his life - despite many failures. What I did not expect was to watch a post-election press conference where Trump’s lawyers Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and Jenna Ellis were going to claim that there was an international conspiracy between people in Venezuela, Italy and China to flip votes in the machines to steal the election.

Then came the Stop the Steal protests, the lawsuits, the audits, the mania. All culminating in J6. That two month time period in November-December 2020 really set up where I am today and what I am doing now. Because when I heard the stuff Rudy, Sidney & Jenna were saying I was stunned. I just didn’t understand how far the Right had gone into the world of conspiracy theories and disinformation. I was just unaware. So I dove into that world - into different platforms, following different groups and people. Some tech and social media-savvy activists saw what I was trying to do and offered to help me - and they did. Tremendously.

That is why, leading up to J6, I repeatedly warned there was going to be violence and it was going to be very ugly. I saw what they said they were going to do. They talked about wearing body armor, bringing improvised weapons, wearing masks, coordinating with other groups - doing whatever was necessary to stop the electoral count that day. When J6 played out largely like I predicted, I then gained a much larger following on social media from people who figured I might be someone who was good at figuring these people out and keeping track of what they were up to.

I also decided to switch parties, and registered as a Democrat on January 7, 2021. I felt the Republican Party was irretrievably broken and being independent was just straddling the fence when the Democratic party desperately needed clear-eyed leaders who were fearless about confronting MAGA. Although there are times when being a Democrat can be frustrating because there are different sensibilities in many areas I was not used to, I would rather have the occasional person scold me for my choice of a word than associate with insurrection apologists and habitual liars.

Throughout 2021-22 I started going to Trump rallies and events hosted by various MAGA influencers and activists. I mostly wanted to talk to the people, watch them, listen to them. I would walk through the parking lots and read all the bumper stickers on their cars. I checked out the merch booths to see what they were selling. I easily blended in because I came from that world. But I also saw that Trump brought a lot of new people into the party who were never Republican before 2016, had no loyalty to the party, and didn’t become Republican for the reasons I did - because of policy ideas. They were Republicans because they worshipped one man. And that man was repulsive.

One day I had a conversation with a very smart MAGA activist who knew who I was. Up to that point, I always believed that most Trump fans were just misguided, conned and duped and if you just gave them enough facts and reality about Trump they would come around. That was pretty much conventional wisdom among many who covered and observed MAGA from the outside looking in. But this activist explained to me that thinking was exactly wrong. He said that Trump fans were very well aware of most of the Trump traits and behavior that I abhorred - and those things are exactly what they loved about him.

I was really surprised by that take, but the more I thought about it and plugged it into my own experience with a fresh set of eyes it made perfect sense. He was exactly right. Although there are certainly misguided sheep in the MAGA movement, the vast majority are very well informed about Trump and they love all the obnoxiousness, boorishness and awfulness. They know that he lies but they don’t care. The way they see it - he lies to win and he has to do that to defeat his many diabolical enemies. Once you learn this simple truth about most Trump fans, you realize that you are wasting time trying to argue with them or convince them. You just have to defeat them.

I covered the right-wing mania at school board meetings and so many other places. Eventually, I realized that the mistake most Democrats make is that they thought they could defeat this phenomenon by defeating Trump - either in court or at the ballot box. But I felt that the focus needed to be on the movement behind Trump - the MAGA cult. The activists, influencers, media, grifters, podcasters, etc. These are the people who really drive the Trump train. And I saw in so many of them so many weaknesses - their checkered backgrounds and past positions, barely disguised racism and misogyny, lack of education, perversion of christianity, greed and shameless grifting, and how much many of them disliked each other.

So I devised a plan to combat and take on the MAGA movement heading into 2024. I put that plan in writing and pitched it to the same former Republican groups I worked with in 2020. While they saw the value in what I had in mind, they are PACs and political consultants. They make their money by raising huge sums from big donors and making ads. The project I had in mind to fight back against MAGA wasn’t going to make them any money - it was going to cost them. But I felt that the money they would have invested in my project would have been far more effective than throwing another million down the cumulative $2 billion dollar rabbit hole of ads during that cycle.

After 6 months of being unable to persuade any of them to invest in the team I wanted to put together to go after MAGA, I eventually expressed my frustrations on Twitter that I really had a great plan, wasn’t a grifter or trying to get rich, I thought that plan was a hell of lot more effective than anything else being done for a fraction of the cost, but it didn’t fit neatly into any box that would fit into a consultant’s business model. The main problem was that I was a busy full-time practicing lawyer and the only way I was going to be able to do it was to walk away from that after 29 years. I just needed someone to replace that income and hire the team I wanted.

A few months went by and Ben Meiselas called me. He said that he read what I wrote and had been thinking about it a lot. He also wanted to leave the practice of law and do this full time by starting a pro-democracy independent media company with his brothers. He had been thinking about a way to merge that idea with my plan, where the team would take on MAGA and do many of the things I had in mind, but also writing about it and chronicling our work hoping that people would support it and we could fund it with grass roots support.

I didn’t really want to work for a PAC or political consultants, because they have their own agenda that is a bit different from mine. Even though Ben’s concept wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, it was pretty close and made a lot of sense to me the more I started thinking about it. But the most important thing for me was knowing that the brothers were authentic and had their hearts in the right place. This was a big move for me and I was only going to make it if everything was right. I hate phonies, grifters and frauds - as you can probably tell from my writing. It is one of the reasons why I despise MAGA.

What I learned over time in watching them and listening to them was that the Meidas boys were the real deal. They were honest, extremely hardworking, dedicated, principled and fearless. I felt that I was those things as well and it was a perfect fit. I would not have gone to work for them if I ever felt they were any different. So we began to assemble a great team of similar people who brought different skills to the table, and got to work.

Eventually I seized upon the idea to focus on writing the daily bulletins after the election. While it is a tremendous amount of work every day, I felt it was the best way to give people a snapshot into the world that I have monitored every day since 2020 across many different platforms. I also did it because I did not see anyone else out there in any media company doing anything like it. With my column you really get such a broad spectrum of political news and events that you simply cannot find anywhere else. That was my goal.

I hope now you have a better perspective on where I am coming from and how I got here. We may not agree on everything, but I bet we agree on most things - the things that really matter. Hopefully, even when you disagree with something I write or say, you will also now recognize that it comes from a place of good intentions, and it is not that important that we agree on everything.

That is why I don’t necessarily make heroes or villains out of current or former Republicans who stand up to Trump because of their past positions. The political landscape in America continues to change rapidly. I believe that a serious realignment has been happening between the parties and will continue to happen. Some demographics and groups who have been taken for granted by each party continue to move away from them for a variety of reasons. The party that shuns people because of their past positions or current differences on one or two issues will be the party that loses this battle over time.

I think ultimately we are all trying to get to the same place, which is returning our country to some sense or normalcy and decency by relegating this toxic political movement called MAGA to a fringe party by relentless truth telling to discredit it. It is a long and difficult path, but one we at Meidas have chosen to take with you. Unlike many, I never viewed any one election cycle as being decisive in this struggle. It will take at least a decade, maybe two. But I’m in this for the long haul because I know we are on the right side of history.

[attorneycraigvigodsky]

Common Prenuptial Clauses in Pensacola, FL | (850) 912-8520

Common Prenuptial Clauses in Pensacola, FL

Craig A. Vigodsky, P.A. focuses on helping clients in the Pensacola area who need a divorce lawyer find balanced family law solutions. He assists clients in family legal matters including divorce, child custody and support, paternity, and modifications and relocations.

Craig Vigodsky, P.A. 221 W Cervantes St Pensacola, FL 32501 (850) 912-8520 https://pensacolalawoffice.com/

[brevardcountyduilawyer9]

Three Essential Things To Know About Hiring Legal Representation For Divorce In Cocoa, Florida.

The finish of a marriage can be a distressing and challenging time for the whole family. The more you've been hitched, the more resources you have, or having kids would all be able to make divorce significantly more confounded. Fortunately, there are capable experts prepared to help you through the present circumstance.

Here are three common questions we get from people who are looking into divorce proceedings in Cocoa, Florida.

The Subtle Difference Between A Lawyer And An Attorney

All through the US, the terms lawyer and lawyer are for the most part utilized interchangeably.

There are, nonetheless, some unobtrusive contrasts. Here are some straightforward realities you will need to know when you are Googling "divorce lawyer near me" or " divorce lawyer in Cocoa ."

 Standard Dictionary Definitions For Lawyer And Attorney

The standard word reference definition of a lawyer is "someone who offers legitimate guidance and addresses individuals in lawful issue." Meanwhile, the standard word reference definition of a lawyer is "an expert who has moved on from graduate school and who is authorized to address customers in lawful issue." truth be told, the word lawyer is really shorthand for the full term, "lawyer at law."

 Not All Lawyers Are Attorneys, Here’s Why

Did you realize that not every person who goes to graduate school winds up taking the BAR test or addresses customers in court? There are numerous approaches to utilize your legitimate degree without taking these extra advances. That is the place where the contrast among lawyer and lawyer comes into play. While the facts demonstrate that all lawyers will be lawyers, not all lawyers become lawyers. To become a lawyer, you just should move on from graduate school. To become a lawyer, you need to graduate school, beat the law knowledge review, and afterward you can address customers in court.

 Other Legal Representatives You May Hear About

Knowing the contrast between a lawyer and a lawyer can be fundamental on the off chance that you anticipate that your divorce should raise to court hearings. Not all divorces become messy or convoluted battles. Here are some different terms for lawful portrayal that could assist you with divorce or other lawful issue for the duration of your life. 

• Advocate – Sometimes, this term is just utilized equivalently for a lawyer since it means an individual who can lawfully argue the case for an individual in an official courtroom. Notwithstanding, some promoters have less instruction or testaments than a lawyer and normally serve underserved networks. 

• Counsel – Your advice can allude to at least one lawyers and lawyers that address a single customer or business. It tends to be identified with only one individual or an entire gathering of individuals. 

• Esquire – You may see Esquire, contracted as Esq., after someone's name every now and then. It is an English expression for a man who positions just under a knight, yet somehow it became utilized by those in the US's legitimate calling quite a while in the past. 

You don't see it all the time nowadays however may run into it at some point. 

When getting a divorce, you will likely work with a family law lawyer or attorney.

While family law workplaces handle a wide scope of legitimate issue, divorce is the most well-known. Notwithstanding divorce, family law workplaces can assist with pre and postnuptial agreements, authority issues, appropriation, and the sky is the limit from there. When handling the delicate subject of divorce, you ought to pick portrayal from a confided in firm with numerous long stretches of involvement.

 When Should You Hire A Divorce Attorney?

When you’re thinking of getting a divorce, it helps to know the rules and laws in the state of Florida to let you know when if and when you need to hire an attorney.

Here is a little overview of information about obtaining a divorce in FL.

• Eligibility To File For Divorce In Florida

One individual involved probably lived in Florida for in any event a half year. This specification is postponed for military families in some cases. The divorce should be documented within the area of FL, where at any rate one gathering lives. In the event that you live in Cocoa, Florida, for instance, you will document there.

• Grounds For Divorce In Florida

You don't must have a particular explanation or allegation for divorce in Florida. It is a no-shortcoming state for divorce.

• Florida Divorce Process

The individual requesting divorce will record a structure called the "appeal for the disintegration of marriage." The papers should be served to the next party, called the respondent. They will round out a "waiver of administration" that should be legally approved. It becomes more confounded if the respondent doesn't wish to get divorced, or the gatherings can't concede to the division of resources, or there are youngsters involved.

The means sound basic enough, and with the internet, everybody needs to attempt to go the DIY course when they can. Divorce, nonetheless, is a convoluted lawful matter and is truly best taken care of by a family lawyer with skill.

Assume you envision a care question, a protection from the divorce, or you have in excess of a couple thousand dollars in resources for divvy up. All things considered, you'll need to talk with a Brevard County family law office prior to getting begun. You can get a free lawyer meeting with The Law Office of Gutin and Wolverton.

 Here are a few reasons why it’s a good idea to have your own divorce lawyer or divorce attorney working for you:

You need master counsel from a committed proficient that has experienced this previously. There will be numerous subtleties you may miss all alone; having a specialist close by will ensure nothing gets lost in the noise and offers you someone to get guidance from all through the proceedings.

You could maintain a strategic distance from conceivably expensive slip-ups by hiring lawful portrayal from the beginning. While you are pushed and, grieving isn't the best time to make troublesome, sometimes muddled legitimate choices all alone.

Leave with a reasonable agreement that is binding and precise. The courts may support a divorce agreement you set up yourself, yet it probably won't interpret it the same way you do. You need the capacity to express your arrangement in a manner that sounds good to the court to abstain from agreeing to something you didn't intend.

Finally, hiring lawful assist will with ensuring that the divorce is taken care of as fast and proficiently as could be expected.

n the occasion you have a battle on your hands, having a forceful preliminary or guardianship lawyer in your corner will be useful.

The Cost To Hire Or Retain A Divorce Attorney In Florida

The cost of your legal representation in a divorce will depend on the length and complexity of the case. In Florida, the average hourly range is between $260 – $330. The total cost of an average divorce could be between $11,000 and $14,000. Now, the fees could be considerably smaller if the divorce is quick and uncontested. It could also cost more if there is a lengthy custody battle.

 A firm will determine their hourly rate based on the average in the area and their level of service and expertise. You will pay more for a legal team with many years of experience or one that specializes in difficult or high-profile cases.

 What Is A Divorce Lawyer Retainer Fee?

Requiring a retainer charge is a commonplace practice by many divorce lawyers. Think of it as a downpayment. In Florida, the normal retainer charge for legitimate administrations in divorce proceedings can be somewhere in the range of $1,000 to $5,000. The cash is held in a trust, and assets can be removed depending on the situation for hourly rates, filing charges, and so on Extra assets after the divorce is final might be returned. You will go into a trust agreement that will unmistakably outline how the cash is to be utilized and in the event that it is refundable or not. The retainer expense will likewise ordinarily cover all the immediate counsel your lawyer will give you all through the cycle. This holds you back from having to pay-out an individual expense for consistently or each telephone call.

 Actions You Will Typically Be Charged For

Besides an hourly rate and administrative fees, here are some individual things retainer money could be used for.

• Research • Phone Calls • Drafting petitions and motions • Emails and other correspondence • Court appearances • Travel

 How To Get The Best Legal Representation For Your Money

Try not to settle on any choices, including choosing your legitimate delegate, when you are exceptionally passionate or pushed. It could help for you to take a confided in relative or companion with you to interview law offices you may employ.

Make certain to ask a lot of inside and out inquiries and focus on how they are replied. On the off chance that your conference feels hurried or you are caused to feel insignificant, don't pick that firm. It is your entitlement to pose inquiries prior to hiring a lawyer. You might need to get some information about their schooling, long stretches of involvement, and specialization. You can likewise demand references.

It is significant for you to comprehend in full what sum you will be charged and how payment will be made. A careful gauge may be hard to give at the principal meeting, yet they ought to have an overall thought of the expense and time the divorce will take.

 Choosing To Work With Gutin & Wolverton

Assume you are facing a divorce or paternity activity or have inquiries regarding Florida provision law, youngster backing, or authority issues. All things considered, you should meet with our Family Lawyers to talk about your circumstance. Gutin and Wolverton offers customers talented and exhaustive family law lawful administrations at entirely sensible rates, including payment designs and accepting Visas.

For a free discrete consultation about your family separation or divorce, options contact us today at (312) 633-7337 or stop by our office in Cocoa, Florida most anytime.

[massielandnetwork]

Thriving in an Economic Bubble during Anarchy

3. The Christian Succession – Watching God at Work

When I learned of the new national holiday my initial reaction was a combination of laughter and crying. The good news is that there is one more day each year that we peasants cannot be abused by our government bureaucrat overseers because they will not be working, or water coolering, or whatever they do during normal work hours.

When one considers the fact that they enjoy almost perfect job security, excellent pay, phenomenal retirement pensions, and health care insurance superior to anyone in private industry, it becomes obvious that they really needed another national holiday. The Bad news for us peasants, we get another day we cannot go to a bank or get an answer from a bureaucrat.

Have you seen the foreign media’s reports on Biden’s trip to the G7, NATO, and meeting with Putin? No wonder Congressman Ron Jackson, former White House Physician, has asked for Biden to take a cognitive test. The foreign media has already passed judgment without a test. They also picked up on Putin apparently intimidating Biden into reneging on military support of the Ukraine. Was it quid pro quo regarding cybersecurity attacks? No more Russian bombers in US air space? Does Biden even know what he agreed to do? More important, what level of confidence do you have that Mrs. Biden knows what she is doing?

Meanwhile, God was working:

1. The high-level defector from China has been identified as Vice Minister of State Security Dong Jingwei who was in charge of counterintelligence efforts. Reportedly, Mr. Dong brought with him terabytes of files including –

a. Data about the Wuhan Virus and the Chinese projections of the impact on the USA and world. Oops, there goes the pretense of an accident.

b. How the Chinese gained access to CIA files which led to the death of the Chinese working for the CIA in China.

c. Financial records showing US businessmen and public officials who have received money from the Chinese Communist party;

d. Additional details about Hunter Biden’s pornography problems and business dealings with the CCP (and Joe’s) including the sale of American stealth technology to the Chinese via the Henniges Automotive deal and how that deal was approved (first disclosed in the report last fall by Senator Ron Johnson’s Homeland Security report and discounted by the “media”).

e. One-third of the 60,000 Chinese “students” in the USA are actually spies from the Chinese military.

f. AND MUCH MORE

g. Which is why the “intelligence community” and some others here in the USA are reportedly “scared sh**less”.

h. Reportedly the Chinese demanded that Secretary Blinken return Mr. Dong to the Chinese and Blinken replied that we did not have him because the DIA had not shared with the State Department, CIA, and FBI that the DIA had Mr. Dong.

i. It is a shame we do not have a real news media.

2. Governor Abbot declared Texas would finish building the wall on the border of Mexico and requested other governors send police to Texas to help. Governor DeSantis of Florida announced Florida would help Texas. The Governor of Arizona has activated the Arizona National Guard. It is interesting watching Republican Governors address this national crisis while the Demented Marxists (DM) do nothing. Virginia has no adult leadership which is amazingly sad.

3. Buckhead announced it is divorcing itself from Atlanta because crime has surged in response to Atlanta defunding the police. In cities that have defunded their police the serious crime rates have surged. A trend?

4. Moms are organizing and becoming more vocal and organized in their opposition to the Critical Race Theory and the LGYBQ agenda. Too many events to list. An entire generation of children are at risk because school systems are more concerned with chasing the phantom of “social justice” than with actually teaching math, science, and western history.

5. In an amazing demonstration of self-delusion, the Democrats appear to be attacking the Catholic Church on Christian values.

6. As many as 20 states have expressed interest in having an audit done of the election and have sent delegations to Arizona.

7. A great awakening is happening before our eyes. Satan is being exposed and confronted. Hallelujah.

On the economic front, last week confirmation was received that the peak of this real estate cycle was back in January or February, 2021, because The Fed’s Chairman Powell announced that they may begin to increase interest rates in 2023. What received less coverage is that The Fed is expected to announce in September 2021 that they will begin to taper their buying of Treasuries in 2022. By the end of this year that announcement will drive 10-year Treasuries up to at least 2% (from 0.7% at the election) probably higher and mortgage rates will likewise increase up to 3.5% to 4%. The actual tapering of purchases in 2022 will increase interest rates further.

In 2023, The Fed expects to begin to increase the Federal Funds rates thus increasing the interest rates that correlate with the Federal Funds rate such as “Prime”. But the impact on housing from higher mortgage rates is already being felt and the slow down will become more severe this year and next. Some have questioned why the 10 Year Treasury has declined while inflation rises, etc. The answer is that The Fed now owns so many Treasuries they bought to distort the mortgage market moving those interest rates down that The Fed controls the Treasury Market. We will experience the reverse as The Fed exits the market. That will be brutal economically.

Supply chain disruptions are everywhere which is creating havoc as the world is trying to reopen. A variant of the Wuhan Virus is currently running rampant in China and has shut down one of China’s major ports further exacerbating the supply chain distortion. The lack of parts is causing manufacturers to raise prices reflecting demand being greater than supply. Similar events are happening in service industries as needed employees can earn more money by NOT working. Even when supply gets closer to demand, prices will be “sticky” going down.

Watch gasoline prices. The most recent forecast is that oil will hit $100 per barrel by the end of this year. That means $4 per gallon gas. This is a direct result of Biden destroying our energy independence and returning the USA to being energy dependent on OPEC and Russia. I am still looking for the Demented Marxist (DM) that can actually explain why I want my electricity supply to be much more expensive and much less reliable.

I am reading an excellent book on the so called “Climate Crisis”. The title is “Unsettled” and the author is Steven E. Koonin, Former Undersecretary for Science, U. S. Department of Energy in the Obama Administration. Basically, the media and seem politicians have created a pseudo crisis. The problem is the bad decisions that are being made on erroneous information.

In my career I have been through recessions caused by each of the following – (1) increased energy prices, (2) interest rates being raised to combat inflation, and (3) increased taxes. The recession next year will be the result of a combination of all three of those forces. Get prepared.

163 days into the DM’s coup, each day more details emerge regarding the fraudulent election last November. Eventually we will know all of the facts. The patriot attorney in Antrim County, Michigan has called for the Secretary of State to resign or be impeached and the election to be De-Certified. The Arizona Audit is on pace to be finished with their report issued in July. In Georgia, the Secretary of State decided to investigate the chain of custody of some of the mail in ballots, probably CYA. Election audits and Mr. Dong - can you smell the fear of the DMs?

A great piece of land remains The Best investment long term. Capitalism builds wealth, Marxism/Socialism consumes it in self destruction. Pray for a return to honest elections in the USA. God is in control. Men make plans, but God ALWAYS wins.

“But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him.”

(2 Timothy 1:7) New Revised Standard Version, Oxford University Press)

Stay healthy,

Ned

June 24, 2021

Copyright Massie Land Network. All rights Reserved.

[alex-hamilton-jr]

Yeah, well this 5'6 man sailed to Spain during a period of political conflict, and joined the Duke of Wellington's forces, then fighting against Napoleon's army in Portugal. After acquiring some military and strategic training with the British Army, I then returned to America to serve in the War of 1812, receiving a commission as Captain of the 41st Regiment of Infantry in the United States Army. And then I became an aide-de-camp to Papa's friend General Morgan Lewis. And began practicing law as a member of the 42nd New York State Legislature for a one-year term, as one of eleven representatives to the New York State Assembly from New York City. And in May of 1822, the President James Monroe appointed me as a United States Attorney for East Florida. Then later I was appointed to be one of three Land Commissioners for East Florida, and while there, I received the military rank of Colonel. And returned to New York, where I became successful in real estate transactions, and for many years was one of the leading names in Wall Street!

*inhales dramatically* And last but not least- as a lawyer in the New York Court of Chancery, I got to represent Eliza Jumel against her husband, and Papa's cold blooded killer, Aaron Burr during two years of divorce proceedings, which were finalized in 1836 on the day of scumbag Burr's death.

So. Hah.

Pipsqueaks getting a blow to his ego rn

wait- *takes a tape and measures themselves* 5'9 something, still far taller then both of them!

[morganbelarus]

Rich robbers: why do wealthy people shoplift?

Evidence suggests the rich actually do steal more than the poor and shoplifting is only the first layer of the onion

On 6 April 2019, a man was arrested at the Kmart in Key West, Florida, after returning purchases for refunds. There was just one problem: the packaging he returned didnt contain the original products.

According to the police report, his bait-and-switch scam included two coffee makers a Keurig ($153.99) and a Hamilton Beach ($54.99). But inside the returned Keurig box was a deflated basketball, and a heavily used coffee machine was stuffed into the other box.

Reached by phone, the man denied the charge he was booked on first-degree petit larceny, a misdemeanor that covers a theft of property valued between $100 and $300. In a rambling, vague explanation, he stated: Theres an attorney, and I believe that hes found some other people, relating to the store, who are involved. Thats all I can say right now. The case is pending.

interactive

Theres nothing unusual about this type of shoplifting. A 2018 National Retail Federation study pegged the cost of return fraud at a staggering $18.4bn. What is unusual is that this shoplifting suspect, Andrew Francis Lippi III, is rich. A week before his Kmart arrest, he paid $8m for an island in the Florida Keys.

Kabinet Bangoura, the Kmart loss prevention manager who scanned hours of surveillance video to build the case, is blunt about Lippis motivation: Millionaires think theyre above the law and can get away with anything.

While its impossible to profile shoplifters the crime transcends gender, age and all socio-demographic strata, and about one in 11 people commit it evidence suggests the rich actually do steal more than the poor. The paper cited most often to support this theory, Prevalence and Correlates of Shoplifting in the United States (American Journal of Psychology,2008), states that people with incomes of $70,000 shoplift 30% more than those earning $20,000 a year.

A federal lawyer proved that point last year when she was caught swiping $257.99 worth of cosmetics from a military base store in Quantico, Virginia. This unnamed FBI employee later confessed to that theft and several previous shoplifting sprees in the area. More recently, in September, Sgt Eva Pena of the New York police department was suspended from her job after she was allegedly caught stealing clothing valued at $359 from a Macys store. This wasnt a crime of poverty. Pena, whose 2018 salary was $107,809, drove to court in a white Mercedes to enter her not guilty plea.

So why do otherwise law-abiding (and well-off) citizens ignore their better angels and go full Winona Ryder? The answer depends on which expert you consult. Every psychiatrist, substance abuse counselor and social scientist has a theory to explain this counterintuitive behavior.

Stealing is just the first layer of the onion, explains Terrence Shulman, the founder of the Shulman Center for Compulsive Theft, Spending and Hoarding. Beneath that are all the unresolved losses, traumas, abuses and repressed memories. He emphasizes that these psychic scars arent always rooted in the past. Tragic events like a recent divorce, a bankruptcy or death in the family could trigger a shoplifting episode. These people are self-medicating. Theft becomes their drug of choice, he says.

Psychologists have a label for this maladaptive behavior: nonsensical shoplifting, or shoplifting not apparently motivated by need or desire. Depression and trauma, stressors and triggers are often brought up when a celebrity shoplifting bust hits the newsfeeds. Not everyone, however, believes that nonsensical shoplifting is a layer of an onion or a coping mechanism.

Psychologist Stanton E Samenow, the author of The Myth of the Out of Character Crime, is convinced wealthy people shoplift because, as he puts it: Why buy it if you can steal it? He disparages all the exculpatory data: Theres always an attempt to ascribe criminality to circumstances outside the individual or some psychological disability. Its the unconscious cry for help or the person is seeking psychological punishment. These theories are old and shopworn.

Samenow recounts a case study, a patient that he treated several years ago: He had more than enough money to buy the item. He took it for the thrill of it, to outsmart the establishment. He enjoyed every aspect of shoplifting: scanning the aisles for the objects, looking for the exits, trying to outsmart the surveillance and store personnel, the theft and the getaway. This was all about excitement and building up ones self-worth.

Psychiatrist Jon Grant, a University of Chicago professor, agrees that shoplifting may often elicit a sense of euphoria. But hes quick to add that once the adrenaline rush subsides, a darker side of this compulsion manifests itself. I see shoplifting as an addiction, he says. The people I treat really hate the fact that they steal. They enjoy the thrill but then almost instantly beat themselves up for the behavior. They have lots of guilt and frequently think about and attempt suicide because of their behavior.

Social hierarchies is an established field of psychology that focuses on the effects of wealth, power and privilege. The study results in this area are remarkably consistent: the rich tend to be unethical, and are more likely to cheat and steal than the poor are. In one experiment, the drivers of luxury cars were less likely to obey the right-of-way laws at a busy four-way intersection than the drivers of cheaper or older model cars. Then theres the grim and troubling candy experiment, where researchers observed wealthy people remove twice as much candy from a jar that had been earmarked for children than people of more modest means did. Experiments have also shown that wealthy people are more likely to cheat on their taxes and their romantic partners.

One theory to explain this contrast in behavior is that low-income people are less likely to cheat and steal because they are more invested in their communities and fear being publicly humiliated. Conversely, the rich harbor feelings of entitlement and self-interest, which destabilizes their moral compass. Heres another factor that may apply: the poor have a heightened fear of authority figures, and the rich do not. Theres a Kmart security guy in Florida who could have told you that.

Original Article : HERE ;

Rich robbers: why do wealthy people shoplift? was originally posted by MetNews

[jtlawoffice-blog]

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[attorneycraigvigodsky]

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[quantum-displacement]

Trumps Cabinet

Secretary of State

Rex Tillerson (Oil Tycoon)

He broke the law by illegally doing deals with State Sponsors of Terrorism.

He broke the law by illegally doing $50 million dollars worth of deals with Iran and selling their military "chemicals" while they were under sanctions.

He bragged about being a personal friend of Putin and estimates put that he has spent more time with Putin then any other American citizen.

He lied under oath to Congress when asked about him lobbying against Russian Sanctions.

He was sued for anti-gay discrimination.

He was Director of a Russian Oil Firm in the Bahamas that helped companies use offshore tax haven loopholes to avoid paying taxes.

When the threat of rising sea levels due to climate change were brought up his response was, "We'll adapt to that."

He is being sued for ignoring environmental regulations.

He was fined after he ignored safety regulations and that resulted in 2 people being killed and another 13 injured.

He refused to agree that Saudi Arabia violates human rights or Putin has committed war crimes.

He has been investigated for fraud.

He was personally mentioned in court documents where at least 14 different witnesses have testified private military security forces employed by Exxon Mobil working in Indonesia had engaged in serious human rights abuses, including murder, torture, sexual violence, kidnapping, battery, assault, rape, arbitrary arrest, detention and false imprisonment. Instead of denying these things occurred his lawyers have argued he shouldn't be held responsible for the actions of employees even though he directly was involved in the management.

Secretary of the Treasury:

Steven Mnuchin (Worked for Goldman Sachs)

He has been accused of racism by enacting company policies to refuse to give loans to minorities and giving Latinos higher mortgage rates than whites.

If you were a Latino who didn't pay your morgue to Steven Mnuchin's bank you are 20% more likely to be foreclosed on than if you are white and in the same situation.

The bank he headed broke the law numerous times with unethical and illegal foreclosure practices. Such as trying to evict an elderly couple who had already paid them $525,000 in mortgages for a house that was only worth $200,000.

He has been sued dozens of times and settled or was found guilty in multi-million dollar lawsuits on several separate occasions.

He has been forced to testify and received subpoenas from the Department of Housing and Urban Development multiple times during government investigations against him.

He tried to take a 90 year old woman's house because a clerical error made it seem like her payment was 27 cents short.

Secretary of Defense:

James Mattis (Former General)

He says it's fun to shoot people.

He's been implicated in committing war crimes.

After his own soldiers were hit by friendly fire he refused to send rescue and left them to die.

He is on the board of executives of a medical company currently going through bankruptcy after they committed fraud and misrepresented their products.

Attorney General:

Jeff Sessions (Alabama Senator)

He said he supported The K.K.K until he learned they smoked pot.

He admitting to making racist jokes during the investigation of two Klansman whom had kidnapped, beaten, tortured, slit the throat and murdered a young black man in 1981 before hanging his body in a tree at a local park in Mobile, Alabama.

He called an attorney a "race traitor" for defending a black client in a voting rights case.

He was considered by the Reagan administration to racist to be a Judge 30 years ago.

He called the ACLU and the NAACP "un-american" and "communist" for forcing civil rights down Americas throat.

He used racial slurs to address black co-workers. And told one Black Attorney, "You best be careful how you talk to white folks, boy."

He referred to the only black commissioner in Mobile Alabama as "the n*gger"

Dozens of former co-workers allege he is a racist and when asked about racist comments he has refused to give a straight answer.

Q: "Did you refer to him as the N-Word? Yes or no?"

A: "I am not the Jeff Sessions my detractors have tried to create."

He tried to fight against the passage of the violence against women act and fought against laws to make spousal rape a crime.

He said if a person is gay it should automatically disqualify them from getting a job as a judge.

He attempted to pass laws that would defund any school that allowed gay student groups or clubs such as the Gay-Straight Alliances. "An organization that professes to be comprised of homosexuals and/or lesbians must not receive state funding or use state-supported facilities to foster or promote those illegal, and sexually deviate activities that break the sodomy and sexual misconduct laws."

He voted in favor of laws that would make it legal for the U.S military to perform torture.

He supports seizing peoples homes without due process.

He has received a 0% rating from The Human Rights Campaign.

Secretary of Interior

Ryan Zinke (Former Congressman)

When he was in the military he was caught in a pattern of fraud.

He used techniques thought up by Stephen Colbert as a joke as part of a campaign money scheme to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations.

He repeatedly voted in support of logging, drilling, and mining on federally protected land.

He tried to make it legal for hunters to be able to hunt endangered species.

He fought to give federal park land to a coal company who donated $160,000 to his campaign.

Secretary of Agriculture

Sonny Perdue (Former Georgia Governor)

His solution to a drought was to organize a group to go outside the capital building and pray for rain.

He cheated on his property taxes by avoiding to include any mention of his vacation homes to the IRS.

He appointed people to government position in exchange for them selling him land for a cheaper price on at least two separate occasions.

He snuck a bizarre measure into a state law bill about State Safety Regulations that said people don't have to pay property taxes if they buy properties in other states. This saved him $100,000 in property taxes.

He moved all of his money to Florida so he wouldn't have to pay state taxes in Georgia.

He diverted $4.3 million dollars that was supposed to go into building a reservoir into buying massive amounts of land for himself.

Even far right websites managed to create a 22 incident long, 3 year timeline just of scandals involving Perdue either unethically buying or stealing land. Or Perdue trying to use his political power to find bizarre ways to not pay taxes.

Secretary of Commerce

Wilbur Ross (Billionaire coal mine owner, his nickname is "the king of bankruptcy")

He was fined $2.3 million dollars by the SEC for swindling over 10 million in unnecessary fees out of investors.

He killed a dozen miners by knowing violating safety regulations that he was warned would lead to deaths.

He once bailed Trump out of bankruptcy.

Secretary of Labor:

Andrew Puzder (CEO of Carl’s Jr)

He had been accused of beating his wife, medical records prove it was long term and the police were called on atleast two separate occasions.

When asked about the domestic violence charges in court while his wife was trying to get a restraining order he gave bizarrely worded excuses.

Instead of saying:

"Yes I shoved her to the ground so she couldn't call 911."

He said:

"I didn't shove her, I grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her back I don't know if her foot caught or what happened.”

A year before this incident when he was in court again and asked to describe what happen when he was driving drunk, crashed his car and then punched his wife.

Instead of saying:

"I don't remember what happen that night, I did have a minor accident but it wasn't because of my wife it was because I was driving drunk."

He said:

"I recall no such incident. I do recall going up on a curb but it had nothing to do with my reaction to Lisa. I think it had to do with the liquid refreshment we had with our dinner more than anything else."

At the time of these Domestic Violence allegations he was chair of an anti-abortion task force created by the Governor of Missouri.

When asked if he would resign he said:

"This is a personal matter and has nothing to do with issues I'm speaking out on. The fact that I was appointed to the task force, I don't think is relevant to these issues. This is what normally happens in a divorce case. You're blowing it way out of proportion."

He later was forced to resign from the state run Anti-Abortion task force...

Neighbors called the police on another occasion when he started breaking furniture and plates.

The U.S. Department of Labor found that more than half of his restaurants were committing wage violations.

He was sued and found guilty for discriminating against the physically disabled.

He was sued and found guilty for refusing to pay employees overtime.

He was sued and found guilty for refusing to pay employees overtime again. This time he was forced to pay $9 million dollar.

He was sued and found guilty for refusing to follow safety regulations.

He was sued and found guilty in a class action lawsuit for refusing to compensate employees for work expenses.

He was sued and found guilty for allowing sexual harassment to continue.

He has been accused of racial discrimination.

His company is one of the highest ranked in the country in terms of employees reporting gender discrimination or harassment.

He hired Illegal Immigrants and paid them below minimum wage.

He is against there being a minimum wage.

He argues overtime pay shouldn't exist.

He blames poor people for being in poverty while he earns more money every day than employees at his fast food restaurant earn in an entire year.

He wants to replace employees with machines.

Secretary of Homeland Security:

John F. Kelly (Former General)

He doesn't believe women should be allowed be in the military.

He argues Guantanamo Bay, "Isn't as bad as it seems."

He supports Trump building a wall because Terrorists might sneak in through the Mexican boarder, aided by illegal immigrants.

He lied and said Narcoterrorism have killed 500,000 Americans since 9/11.

Secretary of Energy:

Rick Perry (Former Texas Governor)

He was indicted on Felony Abuse of Power charges.

He promised to abolish the Department of Energy before being picked to lead it.

He allowed the execution of a man later proven to be innocent and stalled the investigation to clear the mans name until after he was executed. Then fired all the people who warned him the man was innocent from the start.

He carries a semi-automatic handgun while jogging, “because he is afraid of snakes.” and for the past several years has bragged during interviews he used it to kill a coyote with a single shot. Though everytime he retold the story there were more inconsistencies.

He has told blacks that racism doesn't exist anymore while at the same time having owned for 33 years a hunting camp named simply, N*ggerhead.

He made sexist comments against the former Governor and then argued against a woman who said she was insulted by them by arguing she wasn't really offended.

He said income inequality isn't a problem because there are poor people in the bible.

He proposed a plan to lower taxes on the rich and raise taxes on the poor to compensate, when a New York Time reporter brought up how this would create massive levels of income inequality his response was, "I don’t care about that."

He gave a lengthy speech about how Atheists deserve hell and will go there when they die, and how they have to much power in society.

A whistle blower discovered that state juvenile detention facilities had employed sex offenders and had been covering up complaints of abuse in what may of been the largest child sex abuse ring in U.S history, the whistle blower contacted Governor Perry and spoke to him numerous times but Perry refused to do anything about it. Three years later in 2007 the FBI determined that at least 750 girls age 10-17 had been sexually abused by guards and several high ranking administrators who either covered up the abuse or participated in it were arrested. Many of these administrators were personally appointed by Perry himself.

He said the BP Oil spill had nothing to do with poor safety regulations and was actually caused by god.

In college he got a D in a class titled, "Meats."

He vetoed a bill saying the state can't execute the mentally ill.

He has threatened that Texas can secede from the United States more than once.

He said drugs were the cause of the Charleston Church shooting not racism.

He compares being gay to alcoholism.

He suggested Immigrants trying to cross the boarder should be drone striked to keep them from getting in.

He signed an executive order making it so all girls over the age of 12 had to receive a vaccination against sexually transmitted diseases. Then it was revealed his chief of staff was an executive for the company that made the vaccine.

He threatened the Chairman of the Federal Reserve and accused him of treason.

Secretary of Education:

Betsy DeVos (Billionaire private education advocate )

She wants creationism taught in public schools.

Her family made their fortune through a literal pyramid scheme.

She wants to get rid of Child Labor Laws.

She owes millions of dollars in government fines for election fraud.

She lied during Senate Hearings.

She illegally omitted anti-union donations on disclosure forum.

She wants to use American Schools to "Build Gods Kingdom."

She hired a Felon to run her school lobbying group.

She thinks schools should be armed in order to protect themselves against bears.

White House chief strategist:

Steve Bannon (CEO of Breitbart News)

He was arrested for three counts of domestic violence in the 90s.

The charges were dropped after him and his attorney threatened his ex-wife into fleeing the state.

He choked his ex-wife and smashed her phone so she couldn't call 911.

He was accused of sexual harassment by female co-workers. “Saftey Regulations? I’m going to ram those Safety Regulations down her fucking throat,”

“There are some unintended consequences of the women’s liberation movement, the women that should lead this country would be pro-family, they would have husbands, they would love their children. They wouldn’t be a bunch of dykes that came from the Seven Sisters schools up in New England.” ― Bannon during interview when asked about women in government

He was outraged when he found out that Jews were allowed at his daughters school and complained to them over it.

He helped promote the white supremacist novel The Camp of the Saints which depicts non-white immigrants as barbaric invaders whoes goals for moving to Europe and America is to bring forth the downfall of civilization.

He was a member of a Facebook group that produced racist rants and death threats against President Obama.

He complained about there being to many Asian CEOs.

National Security Adviser:

Michael Flynn (Disgraced former General)

He says Islam is Cancer and it's irrational for people not to be afraid of Muslims.

He ordered female Defense Intelligence Agency employees to "dress sexy" and wear short skirts and makeup.

He was fired from the Military for trying to demand too much power and authority. Though he says the reason was, "political correctness."

Leaked Bush Administration emails show he show he had extreme anger issues, refused to follow orders, went against policy and became, "physcially abusive with staff."

He wants to bring back torture.

He retweeted anti-semetic Tweets.

He is a Board Member for what The Southern Poverty Law Center considers the largest Anti-Muslim Hate Group in America.

His son and top adviser is famous for posting online Conspiracy Theories and racist memes.

Leaked 2010 memo reveals he shared Top Secret Information without permission.

He facilitated the murder of civilians in Afghanistan.

Domestic Policy Adviser

Ken Blackwell (Former Ohio Secretary of State)

He says, "Gays can be reformed, just like arsonists."

He works for an anti-gay hate group who wants gays deported.

He advised Trump to change the laws so youth Homeless shelters could legally refuse to help gay and transgender youth.

He believes mass shooting are caused by America's lack of morality which stems from the country allowing gays to exist.

He wrote an article saying Mosques don't have a right to exist in New York City.

He was accused of rigging the 2004 election in Ohio for George Bush. After he was called to testify in legal hearings by Congress he just refused to show up.

During his term he had 18 major lawsuits.

He accidentally published a list of 1.2 million Social Security numbers of Ohio citizens.

He fought tooth and nail to move too electronic touch screen voting machines instead of paper ballots, after it was discovered the machines had a backdoor software "glitch" it was revealed that Blackwell owned the company that made the voting machines.

A group of 31 pastors contacted the IRS alleging that a number of Churches in the state had been secretly funding Blackwell which violates laws prohibiting charity groups involvement in political campaigns

Blackwell sent an email claiming he had never heard of any of the churches that he was accused of getting illegal donations from. But after media outlets traced the I.P address of the email it was revealed he sent the email inside of the church that he was claiming he had never heard of in the email he was sending from their building...

Click here to vote who you think is the worst pick.

[ericfruits]

Florida Roundup

The Florida Bar News has its monthly disciplinary summaries that includes a sanction for misconduct in the attorney's divorce

Gregory Alan Crutchfield, 5575 U.S. Highway 1, Rockledge, suspended for 30 days, effective February 11, following a February 2 court order. (Admitted to practice: 1994) Further, Crutchfield is ordered to attend ethics school. Crutchfield filed a motion in his marital dissolution proceeding making allegations about his former wife. Crutchfield was later called as a witness in an unrelated matter involving the former wife and questioned about the allegations. He testified that they were “overstated and misguided.” Crutchfield denied intentionally making false statements and blamed his perception on stress, heartbreak, and lack of sleep. In a second matter, Crutchfield made inappropriate and unprofessional comments to a client, while representing her in a serious criminal matter. (Case No. SC16-1655)

And 

Marlon Alphanso Smikle, 709 Secret Harbor Lane, Unit 307, Lake Mary, disbarred effective immediately, following a February 9 court order. (Admitted to practice: 2014) Smikle pleaded no contest in circuit court to practicing law without a license, a felony. He had been suspended previously in October 2015 for three years for his plea of no contest to the third-degree felony of conspiracy to introduce contraband into a county correctional facility. (Case Nos. SC15-2317 & SC16-949)

The Florida Record reports on some of the dispositions in depth

Teddy Sliwinski, a Florida licensed attorney practicing in Cleveland, Ohio, has been disbarred by the Florida Supreme Court. 

The order was a result of the attorney’s alleged frequent misappropriation of client funds and usage of those funds to pay for his personal expenses. 

 The 65-year-old attorney was disbarred following a criminal conviction in Ohio in which he pleaded guilty to stealing over $300,000 from his clients. According to a Cleveland.com report, Sliwinski, with the help of his then-wife Irene Patkowski, swindled four clients out of their funds, one of whom was a Korean War veteran.

Sliwinski stole money through a trust he set up under false pretenses and created several phony corporations to make payments to out of his client’s estates to give the illusion he was handling their affairs, according to Florida Supreme Court documents. When questioned about the nature of the trust, Sliwinski allegedly claimed that the funds were all “donations” from clients. 

Sliwinski used the stolen money to pay for upgrades to his farmhouse and to a Florida condo, the Cleveland.com report states. The attorney exercised power of attorney to steal “$150,000 from the estate of Jane Awin, a deceased Polish immigrant, and $90,000 from Edward Cook, a disabled Korean War veteran who lived off his military pension," according to the report.

A criminal court in Ohio convicted Sliwinski to over two years in prison. He was also ordered to pay $327,000 in restitution to the clients or their estates.

Sliwinski was admitted to the Ohio State Bar in 1976 and was admitted to the Florida State Bar in October 2003. He is a graduate of Cleveland State University Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. He has been disciplined several times in Ohio but has no prior record in Florida. Sliwinski has resigned from the practice of law in Ohio. The attorney was once a candidate to be the United States Ambassador to Poland but did not get the nomination. 

Also this case

The Florida Supreme Court recently ruled to publicly reprimand Fort Lauderdale attorney Anthony Joseph Alfero in light of the disparaging remarks he made to opposing counsel in a divorce proceeding. 

Over the course of the proceedings, Alfero sent several pleadings and correspondence to opposing counsel which contained statements meant to “embarrass, belittle and humiliate” her, according to the court’s consent judgement. The document lists examples of the harassment and specified two instances in April 2015 and May 2015 when he allegedly told the woman that she was “ignorant” and advised her to “get a dictionary.” Alfero also criticized her legal abilities and called the attorney “a liar.”

 In addition, the attorney’s legal assistant mimicked his behavior without his knowledge, according to court records. The assistant sent correspondence to opposing counsel that began with a salutation of “Dear Stubborn” and later referred to her client as an “idiot,” the consent judgment states. Alfero allegedly failed to admit that the actions of his assistant were inappropriate. 

(Mike Frisch)

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[marquez-kellylaw]

Who has custody of a child if there is no court order in Cape Coral, Florida?

The custody of a child depends on the status of the parents, whether they are married or not. In the state of Florida, it is assumed that at the birth of a child, if the mother is married, then the father of the child is the husband even without court order paternity acknowledgement. This means that if the parents are married and there is no court order for the custody of the child, then the parents both have the equal rights for the custody of the child. However, if the married couple cannot agree on where the child will live, they may file for divorce or a custody action to get a court order on the custody. And if the parents of the child are divorced, custody of the child should be stated in the divorce order. The most recent court order on custody is the one that should be followed. In the event that the parents are not married, paternity can be established as soon as the child is born in the hospital. Paternity or court order paternity acknowledgement is a legal document that identifies the child’s father that is usually completed at the hospital after the child is born. This document establishes the child’s father without the need to go to court. Establishment of paternity is important and can be used for the mother to receive child support for every child she shares with the father. The establishment of paternity is also important for financial reasons. The established father may be able to assist with personal health insurance benefits or other governmental support, such as disability or military benefits if applicable. It is important for visitation rights and the child’s upbringing .The child would also be able to have legal right to the inheritance of the father. The mother of a child born outside of marriage has sole legal custody of the child unless a court has issued an order giving someone else custody. But if the father would like custody of the child, the father will need to establish paternity and ask the court for a custody order In the state of Florida, shared parental responsibility is strongly advised unless the parents are unable to agree, in which case a judge will decide. Ideally, the court wants both parents to be involved in their child’s upbringing and life. A parenting plan is advised to be agreed upon by both parties. A parenting plan is a document agreed both by the parents of a minor child and approved by the court. If the parents cannot agree, then it is established by the court determining the custody, parental responsibility, and visitation rights. All in all, the custody of a child must always be at the child’s best interest. Maintaining a close, loving relationship with both parents is generally in the child’s best interest, however the practicality of this type of relationship can be challenging. So in order to identify the child’s best interest, the physical and mental health as well as the entire stability of each parent should be considered. The custody of the child depends if the parents are married or not. If they are married, both have equal rights to the custody of the child. But if not, a court order paternity acknowledgement should be established in order for the father to receive rights and responsibility to the child in terms of visitation, financial support, among many other issues. Are you struggling in filing or determining child custody? Call Marquez-Kelly Family Law Attorney at 239-214-0403. Contact today and get a free half-hour consultation. Or, message us here: https://www.marquezkellylaw.com/contact-us/. We serve Fort Myers and Cape Coral in Florida.