Are we having fun yet? - family court judicial candidates concerns …plaintiff litigation for money damages dilemma … county government credit card intrigue … homeless, secular and cosmic collisions … symptoms of massive “y chromosome” deficiency … and our dear African friend, Ebola, visits Texas - Key West forum

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Add more to two prior reports on the race to fill the judgeship Tegan Slaton held until he came in third in the primary, leaving local attorney’s Bonnie Helms and Jack Bridges vying for that judge seat …

At Harpoon Harry’s yesterday, someone told me that he’d read my report of my conversation with Bonnie immediatley after Hometown PAC’s candidate forum this past Monday evening, about Bonnie completing my sentences for me, and he hated it when people do that, and he’s voting for Jack Bridges.

I said I didn’t know if Bonnie behaved that way with me, because she was nervous being around me, I make some people nervous, or if that’s how she is generally. If that’s how she is generally, then that concerns me, because a judge is not suppose to make up her mind before hearing all the facts, and Bonnie was making up her mind before she even knew what I was going to say, and she was mistaken every time about what I was going to say.

I said it was more bothersome than that. I am concerned, if Bonnie wins that judgeship, the job will eat her up, because of just how horrible some family law cases are. I don’t think she will be able to stand up to a steady diet of horrible family court cases. In a couple of years she might start breaking down, drinking, going to a psychiatrist, taking meds. She might come down with a medical disease, which her doctor does not associate with her being a family court judge.

I said I handled some terrible family law cases when I practiced law in Birmingham, Alabama. In Birmingham, judges handled either criminal, or civil, or domestic relations (family law), or probate cases. We had a domestic relations court judge, who had practiced law for many years. He was a fine lawyer. He was a gentleman. He was a Christian. He ran for and won a judgeship. The judgeship which handled only domestic relations cases. It chewed him up, and finally he had to resign, he could not cope with the steady stream of horrors over which he was presiding. The judge who replaced him, and the other domestic relations judge, were getting chewed up, too. You could see it when you handled a case before them.

The judgeship Bonnie Helms and Jack Bridges seek traditionally is the domestic relations (family law) court judgeship.

That said, there is one other part of this story, which I feel should be told.

The other day, a friend told me that Jack Bridges, with a friend, came and looked my friend up. They said they had been sent by Rosemary Enright. Rosemary is our Public Defender. She also is Tegan Slaton’s husband. My friend said, while Jack stood nearby, his friend put on a hard sell. The hard sell included saying Bonnie would not make a good judge. Would my friend therefore support and campaign for Jack?

I said a lay person can do that for a candidate, even for a judicial candidate. However there are rules which prohibit judicial candidates from talking badly about their opponents, and, in my opinion, Jack violated the spirit, if not the letter, of that rule by being there. My friend said it was uncomfortable, since my friend’s personal lawyer was Bonnie Helms, and my friend was wondering what would happen if my friend did not support Jack, and Jack won the race, and then my friend ended up with a case in front of Jack? Would there be retaliation? I said that was a dilemma, but do not let that determine how to vote in that race. Vote for Bonnie, if that is what feels right.

Recapping, here are the two pieces I wrote previously about this judicial race:

The night following the Hometown PAC forum piece:

After speaking with Todd German, I wandered over toward Bonnie Helms, a judge candidate.

I motioned for her to mosey over to me. She was talking to someone else. I kept motioning for her to mosey over. She kept talking to the the person. I kept motioning for her to mosey. She slowly moseyed, as I kept motioning and backing way from her, to get her way from other people, because I wanted to speak to her alone. I told her that was my motive.

I said there was something I wanted to say to her. She said why not to her opponent, Jack Bridges, too? I said, because I think she will win that race, but if Jack was there with us, I would tell him the same thing.

During the forum, panelist Bill Becker had asked them both, which they felt was more important, if they were elected: to be feared, or to be loved? They both had wavered all around the question. I said that’s what I wanted to say to her, about being feared as a judge.

Then began a curious dance. When I started to say something, Bonnie completed my sentence, she knew already what I was going to say. I kept saying she did not know what I was going to say, let me say it. I started again, she completed my sentence for me. This happened several times.

Finally, I told Bonnie that I had been places and had things happen she could imagine, and I’d had experiences she had had. She tried to speak for me again. I said to let me finish speaking. I’m wondering what is wrong with her? Is she afraid of me? Or is she this way all the time with people. But I don’t say that.

I said I tried some awful domestic relations cases back when I practice law. Terrible cases. We called them domestic relations cases, not family law cases back then. I said, she tried to speak for me again, I said to let me finish.

I said, as judge, she very much wants to be feared in those kind of cases, especially when a child and/or spouse has been abused. I said she wants people who come before her to be terrified of what she will do to them, if they have abused a child or a spouse. I said she wants to be known in this community, as that kind of judge. It might might even have a prevention effect, if she is known at that kind of judge.

But that time, Todd German had drifted over and was listening. He said that was a very good point. I said to Bonnie, she should have been making that point at every forum, and she needs to make that point from now on. Todd said again, that was a very good point.

The back story is, this particular judgeship traditionally has been where family law cases tend to go. Bonnie has throughout the campaign said that, and that she has the experience in family law, and as a mediator, to be the best candidate for that particular judgeship. She has promoted and promoted mediation, and being sympathetic to people in enormous distress, who come into family court. But she has yet to convince me that she has the steel in her spine to deal effectively with the truly horrible facts family law cases are known to contain.

Yesterday’s piece:

One thing that happened during dream time last night was I spent a while on Key Largo, and the upshot of that seemed to be the angels prefer Jack Bridges over Bonnie Helms in the race for the judgeship Tegan Slaton held until he was eliminated in the August primary election. I think I agree with this assessment. I feel Jack is fluid enough to grow into this judgeship, which will be challenging. And I feel he has the steel in his spine the rough family law cases will require of this judgeship. I feel Bonnie is too set in her mediation ways, lacks fluidity, and does not have the steel in her spine this judgeship needs in the rough family law cases this judgeship presides over.

Moving laterally in the legal arena …

I seem to be getting bumps from the angels, that they are not thrilled with my position that plaintiff lawsuits for money damages, such as the federal lawsuit filed by the sons of Charles Eimers against 13 Key West police officers and the City of Key West, are not God’s way and create bad karma. I am bumping the angels back with, that’s what they drilled into my body, mind, emotions and soul for many years, and if they now are switching lanes, it looks to me they need to find someone else to speak for them in favor of plaintiff lawsuits for money damages. I suggested Naja and Arnaud Girard as my replacements. Arnaud is a French lawyer, and between them, Naja and Arnaud have filed a number of lawsuits, pro se.

In today’s issue of Key West the Newspaper - www.thebluepaper.com - Arnaud and Naja take on the Monroe County Administrator and three county commissioners, including incumbent George Neugent, who is seeking reelection this year. Here’s the teaser containing links to Arnaud and Naja’s article:

* FEATURED STORY *

AUDIT: County Administrator and Three County Commissioners / Misuse of County Purchasing Cards

BY ARNAUD AND NAJA GIRARD

Sometimes top County officials buy stolen County iphones. And sometimes, after they get caught with the iphones and the scapegoat has gone off to jail, they take County issued credit cards and pay for personal items and entertainment and … well, they get caught again.

Let us explain.

Monroe County issues Purchasing Cards [P-Cards] to its top officials. County Commissioners have them. County Administrator, Roman Gastesi has had 6 of them, sometimes three at a time with a total of $ 75,000 in credit capacity per month. He also has a tendency to lose them. […full article]

Moving even more laterally, yesterday brought further correspondence from a fellow currently living in a homeless sheltler in Santa Fe, New Mexico - his and my original correspondence was reported in day before yesterday’s more giant sucking and quacking and bleating and homeless and lightning and thunder sounds in Key West, Alaska, and beyond post at www.goodmorningkeywest.com.

He wrote:

Hi Sloan,

Thanks for your continued correspondence. Sorry for my delay in responding, but the past couple of days got a bit busy.

I am continuing to investigate the possibility of relocating to Key West soon. My stay at the St. Elizabeth shelter here ends on 10/22 and I will have to have an interim plan since I have some commitments that go into early November. So I plan to leave Santa Fe in early to mid November if that is possible.

I saw that you published our email correspondence on your blog. Thanks for that! I do see it doesn’t really leave me very anonymous though since my email address, which includes my last name, is published there. But that’s OK, I hope!

Please let me know if you know of any updates about the prospects of relocating to Key West as I would like to narrow in on some kind of decision over the next few weeks. The shelter would likely help me with transport of me to a new location via a one-way bus ticket or whatever. But I would like to find a place where there might be at least some prospect for work; especially if is some kind of human service or the like.

Keep in touch,

John

I replied:

Hi, John - sorry, I thought I got your last name out of what I published. I doubt it matters to anyone else that I inadvertently published your last name, it was for you that I tried to keep your last name out of it. But if someone who read what I published wanted to contact you, they had the means to do so.

There is a semi-policy here of giving homeless people one-way bus tickets to a friend or relative living on the mainland. I myself have given homeless people one-way bus tickets elsewhere, and some traveling money, when they were trying to leave Key West but had no means to depart. I never bought a homeless person a bus ticket out of here as an inducement to try to get him or her to leave. It came from them when I did it.

If you come by Greyhound, it won’t matter what the weather is if you can remain on the bus or in bus station. Winters here are very mild compared to Santa Fe, but it can get chilly, even cold if temps drop into mid-to low 40s F. at night, with wind blowing 20-25 knots, as a cold front comes through. That cold at night could happen here in latter November, but usually not before mid-December. I have seen low 40s here at night as late as March. Usually, though, mid-50s about as chilly as it gets down here in winter.

I have no help for your seeking a secular job here, unless someone contacts me after reading what I published about you. If you just come here, it will be on a wing and a prayer - faith, which is how I came here from Maui in early December, 2000.

As I was waking one morning, a familiar voice told me to go to Big Pine Key. I’d heard the same voice tell me the same thing in early January 1995, when I lived in Colorado. I had money then, and came to Big Pine Key, and a life-changing event occurred. But I was flat broke on Maui, and replied to the voice that I liked Big Pine Key, but had no money …

In three days’ time, the means had just showed up and I was on an airplane headed to Los Angeles, to see an old friend, who a few days later put me on Greyhound to Key West, with a little traveling money.

When the bus finally reached the outskirts of Tallahassee, the state capitol, I fell asleep and dreamed I was going to be getting into politics. I awoke in a start, I detested politics.

When I finally reached Big Pine Key, I heard to stay on the bus and go on down to Key West. So I did that, and ate that day at the soup kitchen, and slept that night on a sidewalk in front of a hotel just off Duval Street, the street where the action is in Key West. I got by, but just barely, for quite a while.

City Hall and the police don’t let homeless people sleep that way anymore. Either homeless people go to the shelter at night, or they take their chances being found by the police and rousted and told to move on, or just taken to jail. Homeless people caught drinking in public down here are taken to jail.

You appear still to be in the making plans mode. The angels broke me of making plans pretty quick after they came to me that night in Los Alamos, in early 1987. They provided the itinerary, which often was not visible to me until it was dead in front of me. Perhaps they will show you something, which steers you where to go next. Perhaps they already have shown you where to go next, Key West.

They knew I was here, your soul knew I was here, you found the “Are homeless people part of Key West’s One Human Family?” article I published back in 2003, and then you emailed me and here we are. The angels arranged all of that. And, no, homeless people are not generally viewed as part of Key West’s one human family, although some people here, and the angels and God, hold the contrary view.

It has been my experience, John, if the angels truly have taken a special interest in someone, then that someone is well advised to proceed as if he/she is the dumbest person who ever lived, knows not what is going to happen next, and depends entirely on the angels for steering, correcting and filling in the blanks, when the angels deign to do that. They do it to me ongoing. Daily and nightly. I isn’t anything like how I lived before they came to me in early 1987.

Perhaps one or more of these three poems have relevance:

“Heavy Wait”

I know what it is to love fully,
have my heart broken by death
and by loved ones’ rejections,
Over and over again,
So I can love even more.

I know what it is to be engulfed in pain,
Awash in evil,
Terrified, enraged, despaired,
Believing God has again forsaken me,
Then be given the truth
that again makes me free.

I know what it is to doubt,
Be lost and wandering
time and time again,
Then be rescued yet again
and my faith grows deeper.

I know what it is to blindly trust,
Then be destroyed by betrayal
time and time again,
Until I trust only God.

I know what it is to have much
and be completely of this world,
Then have it all taken away
and be in the world but not of it.

I know what it is to fail in this world,
And fail and fail and fail:
The world’s greatest failure,
I can serve only God.

I know what it is to give
and give and give and give;
I cannot stop giving
because giving is receiving.

I know what it is to explain God
time after time after time again.
Something demands I keep explaining:
Maybe someone will listen,
Maybe me.
(2001)

“I AM A MAN”

I am a man.

I said,
I am a man!

What means it,
being a man?

A man is a warrior:
he lives by a code of honor,
his word is reliable,
his actions confirm his words,
his commitment is holiness,
his enemies are welcome at his hearth,
he fears but moves forward,
he cries and gets up again,
he hates but forgives,
he loves and let’s go,
he doubts but trusts God,
he’s a good friend,
he seeks resolutions,
he demands nothing,
he risks everything,
he regrets his mistakes,
he seeks to make amends,
he puts others’ welfare first,
he accepts apologies truly made,
he expects nothing back,
he lives ready to die,
he laughs when he “should” scream,
he screams when he “should” laugh,
he sings just because,
he shrugs off insults,
he learns from misfortune,
he cusses God for making him,
he wishes he was done,
he loves children and animals,
he relishes a woman’s scent,
he smiles when he’s content,
he knows God’s his master,
he walks in rainbows,
his garden is the world,
his way is nature,
he loves fishing,
his wife is his soul,
his food is life,
his pay is whatever he receives.
Yep, he’s crazy.
(2003)

“SHANGHAIED”

A calling to serve carries its own wisdom,
which legitimates both the calling and the serving
so that the two are one:
Only the one called to serve
can know this wisdom,
and for some who are called
the knowing comes easily,
while for others the knowing is a fiery baptism.
Each calling is different,
and while some callings can be declined,
others cannot,
and those whose calling is without repentance
know they are in it for the duration of the calling,
and while others may try to persuade them out of it,
the calling for ones such as these always prevails;
thus is it advised to all called for keeps
that they view their calling as a blessing
even when it seems at times to be a curse,
and that they try to reconcile the loss of their captain status
and allow the Spirit of God to man the helm of their ship
and be glad and willing crew members thereon,
knowing that all sailing ships of souls
need a crew as well as a captain
to maintain and navigate the ship through
seas of many tones, depths and flavors;
so consider each league sailed
as part of the overall journey
going to where the captain deigns to go
by using whatever winds and sea currents available
to navigate the ship to the experiences
this ship and crew need to have
in order to fulfill their calling and its wisdom
revealed by the journey of many leagues,
many known only to the ship and its crew,
all of whom come to know,
some sooner than others,
that once conscripted
there is no safe jumping ship.
(2004)

Sloan

Jerry Weinstock, M.D., Psychiatry, replied to yesterday’s going off meds and other organic attempts to save humanity and the planet – Key West workshop post at www.goodmorningkeywest.com:

Sloan: you are unique in your drug free Zone; the world right now is being degraded and it is definitely not set up any more for human beings.

Noise alone brings people way down—-solitude -where and when people create —and reflect is belittled —-self -affirmation being pushed aside for consumerism on a scale to barrage- the conscious and unconscious and it is ultimately less than worthless. Look at the Jet Skis a momentary high-a drug-and what semblance does it reveal -to “absorb” the beauty and magnificence of our incredible natural environment—our natural food for the soul.

Highs and greed are our contribution—-drugs to dampen the clamor of an inhumane —pollution laden -soiled air world — whose chief -center stage act is “radicalism and war”- people crazy to kill; -beheadings !!!!!!! Wisdom and friendships and mutually rewarding relationships —we go out to eat and people are playing games on their computer -hand held —later they walk right into us -don’t even know where they are at. Enough -this is true. Jerry

I replied:

Hi, Jerry - you name symptoms of massive “y chromosome” deficiency, humanity has no clue how to restore that deficiency, nor any interest, it doesn’t seem. I told the angels tonight, they are messing around; what they are doing to try to help humanity isn’t working.

Below is an article, with video, of the Ebola case in Dallas, Texas. A Liberia man came to US on an airliner after helping a woman in Liberia infected with Ebola. He went into a hospital in Dallas, told them he was from Liberia, and they let him leave. Now they have him back, in isolation/quarantine. He had contact with over 100 people in Dallas. His Dallas relatives now under court order to stay in their home for 21 days, after they kept trying to leave. School attendance down where the Liberian man’s school age relatives attended. The entire city of Dallas is on pins and needles. Apparently, Ebola is not infectious until symptoms onset. This man’s symptoms supposedly appeared after he arrived in Dallas. CDE saying they are certain they can stop it in its tracks. I have heard, back in the old days, they stoned prophets whose prophesies did not pan out. And they even stoned prophets whose prophesies did pan out, when the prophesies were unpopular.

Stopping the Spread of the Deadly Virus From the Ebola Hot Zone to the United States

NEXT VIDEO

NEW DETAILS ON THE 1ST US EBOLA PATIENT

AUTO START: ON | OFF

The family of the Texas Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan have been ordered to stay in their home after violating official’s initial request not to leave.

“There were violations of the request to not leave their premises,” Dallas judge Clay Jenkins said of the breach that prompted the Texas Department of State Health Services to order the quarantine.

Duncan was staying with family members in Dallas when he became ill and is now confined to an isolation unit at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. His family members, including five school age children, were told to remain at home.

The order came as authorities track all the people who Duncan is believed to have come in contact with since his arrival in the U.S. The circle of people who have come into contact with him has grown rapidly from 18 Wednesday night to 100 today, according to Texas health officials.

“Out of an abundance of caution, we’re starting with this very wide net, including people who have had even brief encounters with the patient or the patient’s home,” Texas Department of State Health Services spokesperson Carrie Wilson said in a statement. “The number will drop as we focus in on those whose contact may represent a potential risk of infection.”

The entire apartment complex is being power washed today. On top of that, a cleaning crew has been contracted to go into the family’s home and disinfect all of the surfaces that the patient could have possibly touched, Jenkins said during a CDC-hosted press call this afternoon. He said that the man’s clothes and sheets have been “bagged.”

“We have delivered several days of food to those people in that apartment. those people in that apartment are part of Dallas County and they are going to be treated with the utmost respect in this unusual situation,” Jenkins said at a later press conference today.

First Ebola Case in U.S., But CDC Vows ‘We Will Stop It Here’

What You Need to Know About the Ebola Virus

Face-to-Face With Patients in the Ebola Ward

Officials also said that police are stationed at the housing complex and that the five children have been enrolled in homebound school program.

Joe Weeks, who identified himself as Duncan’s nephew and lives in Kannapolis, N.C., told ABC News today that Duncan spoke today with his mother and sister. Duncan told his family that he was in “great pain” and that he is weak.

A team of 10 experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have arrived in Dallas and will be helping the local health officials “find, assess, and assist everyone who came into contact” with Duncan, according to a CDC news release. Disease detectives, a public health adviser and senior scientists are included in the team.

“We are stopping Ebola in its tracks in this country,” CDC Director Tom Frieden said in the release. “We can do that because of two things: strong infection control that stops the spread of Ebola in health care; and strong core public health functions to trace contacts, track contacts, isolate them if they have any symptoms and stop the chain of transmission. I am certain we will control this.”

Thomas Eric Duncan/Facebook

PHOTO: Thomas Eric Duncan, identified by a former employer and seen in this undated Facebook photo, is the first Ebola patient to be diagnosed in the United States.

Dr. David Lakey, Texas health commissioner, talked addressed the control order.

“We have tried and true protocols to protect the public and stop the spread of this disease,” Lakey said in the statement. “This order gives us the ability to monitor the situation in the most meticulous way.”

Authorities say the family members do not currently have symptoms of Ebola, which include fever above 100.5 degrees, headache, nausea, diarrhea or abdominal pain. The order will continue until at least Oct. 19.

Thompson said he was aware of news reports that Duncan had been vomiting before being admitted to the hospital, but said he was not concerned about the vomiting.

Mike Stone/Getty Images

PHOTO: A medical transport van moves past Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas where a patient has been diagnosed with the Ebola virus, Sept. 30, 2014 in Dallas, Texas.

Duncan flew from Liberia to Brussels on Sept. 19. He continued to Washington’s Dulles Airport, before flying to the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport on a United Airlines flight.

Authorities with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said airline passengers and flight crew members aren’t at risk for Ebola because Duncan wasn’t exhibiting symptoms until days later, but his diagnosis has left residents in Dallas on edge, with scrutiny for Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, which allowed the man to leave after he told a nurse he had come from West Africa.

Duncan returned to the hospital by ambulance two days later. He remains in an isolation unit, listed in serious condition.

Mark Lester, the executive vice president of Texas Health Resources, said a communication issue was responsible for the lapse.

“Regretfully, that information was not fully communicated throughout the full team,” Lester said.

LM Otero/AP Photo

PHOTO: A police car drives past the entrance to the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas

Duncan spoke on the phone Wednesday with family members who live near Charlotte, N.C.

“We talked today (with Duncan) and we prayed together with his mother and sister here,” said Joe Weeks, who lives with Duncan’s sister Mai.

James Gathany/CDC

PHOTO: This undated photograph shows a CDC scientist pipetting specimens in the Biosafety Level 4 Influenza Laboratory, Atlanta, GA.

Duncan’s former boss in Monrovia, Liberia, said the patient had been his driver for the last year or two until he abruptly left his job in early September.

“I really don’t know,” why he left, Henry Brunson, general manager of Safeway Cargo, told ABC News. “He didn’t resign. He just left the office. He just walked away.”

Brunson didn’t know where Duncan went until he saw him on the news as the Ebola patient in Dallas, Texas.

LM Otero/AP Photo

PHOTO: The stairway seen leads to the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, Sept. 30, 2014.

Although American Ebola patients have been treated in the United States prior to this diagnosis, they all contracted Ebola in West Africa. Ebola has killed more than 3,300 people, with nearly 7,200 cases reported since the outbreak began in March.

Also, saw this on www.bigpinekey.com’s Coconut Telegraph forum today, the article is comprehensive. There is no vaccine. The experimental vaccine used to treat the 2 Ebola patients at CDC in Atlanta, and is said to have saved them, was a from small stock and will take a long time to mass produce.

Sloan Bashinsky

keysmyhome@hotmail.com