Category: 2010 and Beyond

There may be some confusion.  He may be the richest man in the world, but that doesn’t make him the smartest.  He is certainly not the most ethical nor the most honest.  He might not even be the most powerful, though buying a president may help with the power thing.

What is the end game?

Donald Trump’s executive orders have received a lot of well-deserved attention.  These presidential decrees could have significant impact on our economy, our culture, and even our standing in the world.  One of his first was to challenge birthright citizenship.  The “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship” limits citizenship to the children of U.S. citizens or those of lawful permanent resident status.  This could reverse what had been considered settled law and our understanding of the 14^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

This is not the only major challenge to the Constitution.

Congress has been sidelined.  What was once a co-equal branch of government now waits for its marching orders, incapable of setting its own path.  Court orders are being ignored.  Who can say whether the Supreme Court will hold their ground?

Trump is also ready to challenge the 22^nd Amendment.  Can he legally serve a third term?  No, at least not under our current law.  Will that matter?  Gosh I hope so.

Toadies, like Ohio’s Attorney General Dave Yost, will back all/any of Trump’s executive orders and wouldn’t dare stand in his way.  Without significant Congressional push back, we may be looking at the Supreme Court as our country’s last defense.

There is, of course, the other presidential challenge.  Twenty years ago we had “Amend for Arnold”, a push by Republicans to allow Arnold Schwarzenegger to serve as the President of the United States.  We have been here before.

Article II, Section 1, Clause 5:

No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

To be fair, the Arnold supporters were only interested in pursuing this through normal channels.  Normal channels may no longer exist.  It is one thing for Elon Musk to buy Donald Trump.  He has always been for sale.  Can Musk buy the United States?  Never say never.  Musk may have the money and the lust for power, but he would still need us to be very weak if he is going to close the deal and take over the country.

F. F. O. – The fight to save our constitution and our country is Far From Over.

Dave

www.againreally.com

Picture – The Current Rule Book – David L Cunix

 

My secretary said that I had missed a call from a very angry man.  I didn’t recognize his name and the area code was from the Toledo area.  I had no idea who he was or why he was so upset.  He started to yell as soon as he picked up the phone.  He wanted to know why I had sent a birthday card to his mother who had died months earlier.  He was truly offended by the “sales pitch”.  I didn’t know him, but I did know his mother.  She had briefly been a client, about ten years before in the early 1990’s, when she had been between jobs.  We had even gone out on a few dates.  But she couldn’t find suitable employment in Cleveland, so she moved to the Toledo area to be near her daughter and grandchild.  I didn’t know she had had a son.  I certainly didn’t know that she had died.  I saw no reason to go into too much detail.  I just let him know that she and I had been friends and how once a year I got to take a moment to think of her.  That seemed to resolve his anger.  We never spoke again.

I have been sending birthday cards to my clients since I started with Prudential in 1979.  I order them, a thousand at a time, from Posty Cards of Kansas City.  They are not pre-signed or pre-addressed.  The envelopes are preprinted with my return address.  I personally address every envelope.  I personally sign every card.  This is a point of pride.  It has always been important to me.  The marketing gurus call this a soft contact.  It is much more to me than advertising.  That card is the tangible evidence that there is a real person behind that policy number and an equally real person promising to service their needs.

This year’s holiday card, also from Posty Cards, included a very important annual letter.  This year’s letter let my clients know that I have decided to close my office at the end of July.  I still have a little over four months to prepare for this transition to my successors, Angela Elias and Carol Fyffe.  Today was an important part, at least emotionally, of this move.  I addressed and signed the last of the birthday cards today.  I had decided that when they ran out, they ran out.  Today is the day.  These last cards will be mailed in the next few weeks.  I have always tried to work a couple of weeks ahead.

I could see these people, every one of them, as I addressed their cards.  Some I’ve known for decades.  One of these last cards will be going to my friend, Rich.  He and his wife have always thanked me for their cards, one time stopping Sally and I in Beachwood Place Mall.  One of the last of these cards is going to someone I met in December.  Same card.  Same level of importance.

Did every client appreciate or even care that I sent them a birthday card?  Did they all realize that the cards were intentionally mailed 10 days prior to their birthday?  Of course not.  That’s not the point.  The point is that I cared, that this was just another part of the way I felt that I should do my chosen profession.  And as so many of us grew old together, the thought that this could be the last birthday we celebrated “together” was inescapable.  It has been over twenty years since I received the call from the angry son.  Relationships and even the act of contacting someone can have both risks and rewards.

Today was my last business birthday card.  I will miss these moments.

Dave

www.againreally.com

Picture – The Last Cards – David L Cunix

To my readers:

These blog posts tend to reflect my views on politics, religion, and, in general, life in suburban Ohio.  My focus is on domestic politics and policies.  I try to stay in my lane.  And though I pay attention to world affairs and have opinions, I have shied away from international topics.  There was even a post extolling the three magic words, “I Don’t Know”.

Silence is no longer an option.  Each of us must find our voice and use whatever platform is at our disposal.

At the risk of sounding overly dramatic, I believe that we are witnessing an upheaval of the world order.  Not only will the alliances created to provide relative stability post-World War II be shattered, but I also believe that the goal is to redraw all of the world’s maps.  Renaming the Gulf of Mexico is nothing compared to renaming entire countries.

Let’s imagine a world, like in 1984, where there are three superpowers.  We can use real names in this scenario – China, Russia, and the United States.  We recently greenlighted the Russian conquest of Ukraine.  There really will be no reason for the war to end at the Polish border.  They are celebrating in China.  We will not save Taiwan.  We probably won’t save Japan.

And the U.S.?  I fear that we are months away from the 2025 version of the Gulf of Tonkin incident.  Sadly, this skirmish will take place in Lake Erie or Lake Michigan.  We will use this event to attack Canada and no one can / will stop us.  There is no real interest in making Canada the 51^st State.  It would have too many representatives in Congress.  Canada would become a territory, as would Greenland, and every other country located between us and the Panama Canal.

There will be justifications for every one of these actions.  You can almost hear Lyndsey Graham’ denunciation of the vicious Canadians.  I can already feel Marco Rubio’s shock and silence.

Europe will need to invest all its money and weaponry to defend their core countries.  The leaders in Paris, Berlin, and London will watch helplessly as the Baltic States are picked off one at a time.  What will India do?  What will happen to Australia or South America?  I don’t know.  In truth, I’m really more concerned about what is happening to us.

My father, the child of immigrants, enlisted in the U.S. Navy to defend his country.  It was World War II.  He and his peers were fighting for an America that did not always live up to its ideals.  They would not recognize today’s United States.

Some of you were voting for cheaper eggs.  Some of you imagine that we now have a “strong” leader.  But Donald Trump’s strength is us, the military he refused to join, the public service he disdains.  If we allow his greed and avarice to prevail, we will have sold our principles for nothing, our grocery baskets empty, the soul of our country gone.

Dave

www.againreally.com

Picture – A Good Place To Replant Our Values – David L Cunix

 

Sir, the people want to know about your casino.

Casino?  I don’t have a casino.

The property at 1200 Cunix Way is in your name.

Well, I have a lot of properties. 

And there is a casino on that property.

That would probably be a grand place for a casino.

That’s the name!  The Grand Cunix Casino.

Really?  I don’t know anything about that.

And there is a huge picture of you in the entrance.

You’ve seen this and been in the casino?

Yes.

So you frequent casinos and have a gambling problem.  You should be ashamed. 

How many times were we told last year by Donald Trump and his apologists that he knew nothing about Project 2025?  This is a link to his statement during the Presidential Debate.

He was clear that he knew nothing about Project 2025, had not read it, and wouldn’t.  He put as much distance as he could from the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise.  And now we are moments away from one of the authors, Russ Vought (page 23 of 922) becoming the director of the Office of Management and Budget.

It is obvious that some people like being lied to.  I’m just not one of them.

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It is amazing how many people find themselves in possession of protected health information. It is not just every insurance agent and medical professional.  And since 1996 we have had strict regulations detailing how that information must be stored and how it can be shared.  It is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).  What can be shared and with who has been strictly delineated.  Failure to comply can result in fines.   There are both civil and criminal penalties for individuals who OBTAIN or USE Protected Health Information without permission.  Has Elon Musk breached the CMS computers?  Here is the truth – we don’t know.  I often tell my clients that “We don’t have any privacy.  You are undressing in front of the window.  Smile and wave.”  Who knew Elon Musk was peeking through the window?

##########     ##########     ##########

Change is inevitable.  Our health care system is about to change.  Perhaps the changes will be subtle.  Perhaps we will see a radical remaking of our health insurance system, the way Americans access and pay for health care.  I don’t know.  We shouldn’t fear change, but it is reasonable to be concerned based on who is currently driving (us off a cliff…).  I was finishing an application with a client last week.  We were down to the last questions.

Are you feeling Anxious or Depressed?

She hesitated and laughed uneasily.

OK, let me ask this differently.  Are you feeling Anxious or Depressed when you aren’t watching the news?

Dave, yes, I’m worried all of the time.  He is going to screw up everything!  Can you guarantee that we are going

to keep our Medicare Supplement policies, that our Social Security won’t be touched?

No, I can’t.  I can only hope that we will be grandfathered.

Then my answer is “Yes”.

I will be in Washington the week of the 23^rd.  I knew what to expect in 2017.  I have no idea what my peers and I will encounter this year as we meet with member of Congress and the administration to discuss the rules, regulations, and goals of our health care system.  Please call or email me if you have any questions or topics you would like me to discuss while I’m there.

I promise to avoid all government computers and I won’t be peeking through any windows.

Dave

www.againreally.com

Picture – Dark Skies – David L Cunix

And though it seemed as if 2024 was really 20 months long, I fear that many of us are already missing the relative calm and stability of last year.  Sadly, I fear that many of you are only waking up to the changes that are about to overtake us.  But that is for another day.  Today we celebrate the winners of my quadrennial “I told you so” contest – Everyone’s A Genius In Hindsight 2024.

I added an extra question for this contest, “What will be the big, unexpected story of 2024?”  The answers fell mostly along partisan lines and I wasn’t sure if these were predictions or a wish list.  Several predicted that Donald Trump would be sentenced to jail, or worse.  Putin’s demise was a close second.  Rob A. earned a ½ point with his guess that both Trump and Biden would drop out of the 2024 race.  A few guessed (hoped) that the Russia / Ukraine war would end.  Jennifer K., who came close to pitching a shut-out, predicted that Hillary Clinton would come out of the closet.

As always, no one scored 100%.  And that is the point.  We may be experts in our particular area of interest or profession, but we are guessing when it comes to other topics.  A little humility goes a long way. Twenty brave souls joined me in guessing the outcomes of last year’s major competitions. Twenty!   You could find more “experts” in just a few minutes on Facebook or Linked In.

1. The President of the United States December 30, 2024 _______________________.
2.  The Democratic nominee will be__________________________________.
3. The Republican nominee will be_________________________________.
4. The winner of the 2024 Presidential election will be________________________.
5. The winner of the Ohio Senate election will be ___________________________.
6. There will be ____ justices on the US Supreme Court on December 31, 2024.
7. The winner of the February 11, 2024 Super Bowl will be _______________________.
8. The Cleveland Guardians will win ______ regular season games.
9.  The Cleveland Browns will win _____ regular season games.
10. The Academy Award for best picture will go to _____________________________.
11. The Dow Jones Industrial Average will close December 31, 2024 at _____________.
12. A gallon of milk will be $_____ at Heinen’s Mayfield Village on June 30, 2024.
13. Wild Card – The big, unexpected story of 2024 will be _______________________.

Sixteen of the participants had Joe Biden as still the President on December 30^th.  And though eleven had Trump as the nominee, only two of us, Mendy G. and I, had Kamala Harris as the nominee for the Democrats.  The predictions for the winner of the presidential race were all over the map.  Only three guessed that Donald Trump would win, Angela E., Carol F., and David P.  Angela and Carol finished in a three-way tie for second.

Some of the categories appear to have been easier than others.  Almost everyone, even Howard N., had the answer 9 for the number of Supreme Court Justices while only Mike L. predicted that Bernie Moreno would be the new Senator from Ohio.  That answer helped Mike finish tied for second.

The sports categories presented a real challenge for this year’s participants.  No one predicted that the Kansas City Chiefs would win the Super Bowl, though eight of us did have the 49ers.  Close but no points.  The Guardians won 92 games!  Mike L. and I had the closest guess at 88.  The Browns were an abysmal 3 – 14.  Football fanatic Bill M. came closest with his prediction of 7.  Eleven of us predicted double digit wins.  We really should know better.

The Academy Award for Best Picture was awarded to Oppenheimer.  Six contestants had the right answer.  The price of a gallon of milk on June 30^th was $3.19.  I awarded points to the four participants, Angela E., Carol F., Ivan G., and Linda M. who were within 20¢.  No one else was close.  The Dow Jones closed at 42,573 on December 31, 2024.  Our winner, Ivan G., predicted 42,000!  That answer propelled him to the top with 6 ½ points.

Second Place with 5 ½ points were Angela E., Carol F., and Mike L.  Since Angela and Carol will be taking over my business in August, it is also up to them to take over this contest in December 2027.  I hope that all of you, whether you participated this time or not, will enter to predict the elections of 2028.  I know that some of you are already wondering IF there will be a real election in 2028.  Start writing down your guesses now in case you end up in a gulag somewhere in Greenland. (Too soon?)

As for the tie breaker: Recorded at the Agora on June 18, 1979, it became an anthem and was later covered as the theme song of a popular TV show ______.  I expected everyone to know that Ian Hunter was right.  Cleveland Rocks! .

DAVE

www.againreally.com

Picture – At The End Of Our Rope – David L Cunix

“…Oceania was at war with Eurasia and in alliance with Eastasia.  In no public or private utterance was it ever admitted that the three powers had at any time been grouped along different lines.  Actually, as Winston well knew, it was only four years since Oceania had been at war with Eastasia and in alliance with Eurasia.  But that was merely a piece of furtive knowledge which he happened to possess because his memory was not satisfactorily under control.  Officially the change of partners had never happened.  Oceania was at war with Eurasia: therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia.  The enemy of the moment always represented absolute evil, and it followed that any past or future agreement with him was impossible.”  1984

The Russian Immigrant was almost giddy as he discussed his possible vacation plans for 2025.  He wants to visit Canada and Panama, and he might even take his son to Greenland.  He wants to see what Trump has gotten us.  Boris (name changed) has been here for a couple of decades, long enough to forget the hardships and dangers of living under an oligarchy. All that he has left is a fuzzy memory of an orderly society.  And now, now he is going to be on the right team.  He hates the same people the leader hates.  It is all so black and white.  His family did not escape Russia to live in a different Russia.  His family overcame the challenges of moving halfway around the world to live freely in the United States.

Oligarchies and strongmen offer simple answers to questions you didn’t know you had.  And if you aren’t focused, you might find yourself caught up in the mob.

The news has stories of Trump threatening Panama, trying to buy Greenland, whether or not it is for sale, and insult our two biggest trading partners, Canada and Mexico.  Trump treats sovereign countries as if they are as weak and feckless as Ted Cruz.   Is this a negotiation gambit or a distraction, a way to deflect our attention from his questionable Cabinet picks and Project 2025 domestic programs?

I think that we are suffering from a failure of imagination.  It isn’t the fake hyper masculinity of the foreign policy or the embracing of the culture wars.  It is both.   The goal is to overwhelm, to create the sensory overload that would allow all of this to become possible.  We are blindfolded and swinging at a Piñata while it is being moved just outside our reach.

Listen to Trump talking about Canada and you hear Putin talking about Ukraine.  Are there only three countries, the U.S., Russia, and China?  Read Project 2025 and you find the remaking of society.  Control.  Your choices are no longer yours to make.  It is important to keep us off balance, our focus on threats, real or imagined.    Fears of Haitians eating house pets will soon be forgotten as the next caravan of migrants come marching towards our border.  But the next caravan might be amassing along the northern border!  We must prepare ourselves.  Who will protect us?

1984 ends with the protagonist, Winston, overcoming himself.  It will not be so easy to get 300 million Americans to overcome themselves, to get us to willingly accept the equivalent of 1984’s:

WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

The battle has already begun.  It is up to each of us to stave off the transformation of the United States of America to the Trumpian version of Oceania.

Dave

www.againreally.com  

Picture – Stay On The Trail – David L Cunix

 

Theresa is a long-time Trump supporter.  I have known Theresa (name changed) for decades.  I wouldn’t have described her as a Republican in the 70’s, 80’s or even the 90’s.  But now, now she is not only a Republican but she also delights in pointing out the apostates who aren’t sufficiently Republican enough. They are RINO’s, Republican In Name Only.  Of course, for those of us who have been following politics for decades, the idea that fealty to Donald Trump is what makes someone a real Republican is both depressing and amusing.

I was talking with Theresa last week.  Somehow we started to talk about Project 2025 and how it could impact health care.  She was quick to note that Trump had disavowed any involvement with Project 2025 and the Heritage Foundation.  I laughed.  First, there are plenty of interviews showing the close connection between Trump and the authors of The Heritage Foundation’s Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise.  Secondly, and more importantly, no one really thinks that Trump spends any real time thinking about policy.  I reminded her that Trump had subcontracting out the selection of judges to the Federalist Society.  His focus is on the money.  Who will ignore the Emoluments Clause?  Who will ignore his Washington Hotel, his self-dealing, his graft?  He and his family got what they wanted while the Republican establishment got a big tax cut and judges, including three Supreme Court Justices.

Theresa still wanted to distance Trump from Project 2025.  I mentioned the 199 times the word “Abortion” appears in the document.  She reminded me that a member of her family was involved in a car ride to New York State in the mid-70’s to terminate an accidental pregnancy.  So wouldn’t this ban on abortion bother her?  “No David”, she said.  “I’m glad that it went back to the states”.  “What would have happened if this was the law in the 70’s” I asked.

“I’m Catholic” she replied.  “I’m against abortion.  And there will always be an option.”

Theresa is a safety valve girl.  She is happy to stand on principle.  She is fine taking away YOUR rights as long as she, her cousin, or even if G-d forbid her daughter needs reproductive care, they will have options.  She or they will be able to hop on a plane or take a long car ride to needed medical care.  Not just abortion, but the full spectrum of female reproductive care would be available to them.  Theresa is positive that the laws may change, but people like her will always have access.

Theresa may or may not be right.  Do you want to live in Theresa’s America?  I think we can do better.

Dave

www.againreally.com

Picture – The Only Real Safety Valve – David L Cunix

 

My last name is not difficult to pronounce, if your elementary school taught phonetics and you were paying attention.  If you know how to pronounce cucumber, you know how to pronounce Cunix.  I have, of course, had my name mangled by countless people.  Kids in school would tease me with variations of my last name.  Each of them would applaud themselves as if they had created a new insult.  It wasn’t.  The moron in seventh grade wasn’t even a tiny bit more creative than the jerk in second.  Some people have difficulty properly pronouncing Cunix the first time.  Once corrected, they never have a problem again.  Others will never pronounce my name correctly because they don’t care or they don’t respect me.  I’m not cowed by their ignorance.  In truth, a schmuck is just a schmuck.

Our current vice-president is Kamala Harris.  For many years she has been telling people her name is pronounced “comma-la, like the punctuation mark”.  There are people who mispronounce her name because it is uncommon.  That is understandable.  But you will hear people knock her name because it isn’t Jane or Mary.  And you will hear people mispronounce her name intentionally.  She will not be intimidated by this.  She heard these slurs on the playground in second grade.  Why would she be frazzled be a 78 year old second grader using the same slurs now?

We are about 100 days away from the election.  Don’t be distracted.  There are serious issues.  This blog as well as my other blog, Health Insurance Issues With Dave, will be detailing the way Project 2025, the Republican Study Committee, and legislation pending in both Columbus and Washington could impact our lives.   Ignore the juvenile insults.  Focus on the issues.

We’ve got work to do.

Dave

www.againreally.com

Picture – It’s A Race – David L Cunix

 

I enjoyed watching Miles Straw play center field.  Straw came to the Guardians in 2021.  He earned a gold glove for his exemplary fielding in 2023.  Unfortunately, he was as bad at the plate as he was great in the field.  He hit one home run in 2023.  His last one had been two years earlier.

I have enjoyed having Joe Biden as our president.  And I know that he is still more than capable of serving our country.  Does he have four more years in him?  I don’t think so.  And this Sunday Joe Biden formalized his decision that even if he had the ability to hold the office for another term, what he didn’t have was the ability to campaign effectively for the job.  The debate and his subsequent press conferences proved that he was all glove and no bat.

Did you watch his speech?  If you did and you appreciated it, cool.  If you did and you found it lacking, well that is OK, too.  If you didn’t watch the speech, here is the link.  It is only 11 minutes long.  This is history-making.  You have time.  But if you didn’t watch it but are sharing your opinion, then you are only parroting the talking points from Rachel Madow on MSNBC or the disgraced former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, on FOX.  Or are you getting your information from a Russian troll toiling in a meme cubicle farm in Drekestan?

There are people who enter public service to do public service.  Some of them are Democrats.  Some of them are Republicans.  That means that they may see how the government should function differently, but their goals, a successful United States of America, are the same.  Let’s take a moment to appreciate a true public servant, Joseph R. Biden.

We can resume the political fight in 3, 2, 1…

Dave

www.againreally.com

Picture – The Numbers Are The Numbers – Sally Cunix

 

I posted pictures of this cheesecake and immediately received several requests for the recipe.  I was also told that no one wants to hear the story behind this creation or even how the cherries at $3.79 per pound were irresistible.  “Just print the damn recipe.”

Cherry Layer:

1.75 Lb.            Cherries

2 t                      Splenda

1/8 t                   Vanilla

1 T                     Potato Starch

¼ C                    Dark Rum

Cream Cheese Layer:

16 oz.                Cream Cheese, softened

2                         Eggs

1/3 C                 Splenda

2 t                      Vanilla

½ t or so           Lemon Zest

Crust:

2 C                     Almond Meal

5 T                     Melted Butter

2 T                     Liquid Sweetener

1 t                      Cocoa

1 t                      Cinnamon

¼ t                     Vanilla

1                         Egg

Butter for 9 inch glass pie pan.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Preparation

1.          Wash and pit the cherries.  Careful with the pits.  Place in big pot
2.          Cook the cherries on low to medium heat.  Stir occasionally.  Goal is to get the juices released.
3.          Mix the dry ingredients for the crust in a big bowl.  Add the egg and liquid ingredients.  Mix with your hands and then put into the greased pie pan.  Make sure that the pie pan is totally covered.
4.          Stir the cherries.  Add the vanilla at the 20 minute mark.  Add the Splenda a few minutes later.
5.          Combine the rum and potato starch. Once enough liquid has been released, take the pot off the heat and stir in the thickener.  This can be dumped into the crust in a few minutes.  The goal is to have a nice layer of cherries.  If there looks like too many cherries, enjoy a couple now.
6.          Put the cream cheese into a big bowl and beat with an electric mixer to get it started.
7.          Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until it is fluffy.
8.          Put cream cheese layer on top of the cherries.
9.          Put pie into oven.  Turn temperature down to 350.  Bake for 35 minutes.  I like the center firm.  If you are concerned, check this at the 30 minute mark.

Enjoy!

Dave

www.againreally.com

Pictures – Cherry Cheesecake – David L Cunix