Law And More

In The Year of COVID-19: Voodoo, Gratitude, Social as Suicide, Making a Living

There are 12 coronavirus hotspots in the U.S.

Ohio, where I have been based since I fled New York Metro's high cost of living, is not one of them. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

But, overall, the mindset here is one of inevitability. Yes, many of us will probably become infected with COVID-19. We just hope that our individual case won't be severe or, nonono, fatal.

Will ours be treatable at home? The medical bills could be the tipping point in trying to grab onto financial security. 

So, it's another day in The Year of COVID-19.

Turning to Zen, Magic, and More.

Position and package this as the intersection of science and the paranormal. Researchers explain the role of thought processes in providing health benefits. Those range from optimism to the belief that X intervention will have Y effect (even if a placebo is involved).

In 2003, after I had lost my nest egg, business, and mind, the universe smiled on me. It directed me to Amy Karnilowicz, based in West Hartford, Connecticut, Her specialty is cognitive therapy. She guided me to focus on my thought processes. Not yesterday. Not my mother. Within four months I was back. 

Zen does the same thing. It helps make humans aware of how their minds operate, empowering them to wrestle those demons to the ground. From 2012 until 2014, I meditated at the New Haven Zen Center in New Haven, Connecticut. There, I gained the wisdom and strength to depart the New York Metro area which was no longer a good fit for me. 

Magic is, well, magical. More recently, in Toledo, Ohio, I wandered into Once in a Blue Moon, 4348 Monroe Street. I was stuck. American Buddhist nun Pema Chodron, even in her 80s, admits she too gets stuck.

There, at Once in a Blue Moon, Shadow counseled me with a tarot reading. Raven helped me select stones to "wake up" my energy. Within days I had navigated out of stuck into creating platforms for The Next. I am reimagining my businesses for this new era. 

The "more" is ritual. I light white candles. I burn incense. I get on my knees and surrender myself to the universe.

If I contract a fatal case of COVID-19 what I do know is that I will pass on to another dimension with inner peace.

Saluting the front lines. 

Kroger, at least not here on W. Alexis, hasn't put up plexiglass to protect the check-out workers. Let's tell them that we appreciate their serving us in these precarious times.  

Movement in the direction of someone experienced as a threat. 

Yesterday was unseasonably warm. A neighbor was sitting out in front of her door. As I walked my dog in her direction, she hurried inside.

Coincidence?

Maybe. 

More likely, it's that each of us has become The Enemy. The courtyard of the residential complex is empty. Social is suicide. Neighbors rush to their cars. 

Since the virus can linger on our shoe we won't be allowed to cross thresholds. 

Just making ends meet.

Careerism could be taking it on the chin. In operating my boutiques the shift is to being able to bring in enough revenue to be able to pay my bills. The old-line Manhattan careerism is going poof. And not just with me. I chat online with my colleagues and even clients. The meme is: Working is about making a living. 

What used to be considered The Weekend will soon start. But, with working at home, shut down from the world, being the new normal the concept of The Weekend is becoming an anachronism.

Those in our professional loop know we are at home and will contact us.

However, I am determined to take the time to be out there in the almost-deserted Home Depot parking lot re-learning how to ride a motorcycle.

The tough nut to crack is to lean into the turn. Each time I ride I am able, though, to add five more miles onto what I am comfortable going at. When will I be ready for prime time, that is, actually riding on the street? Decades ago, with my Honda 90, that took a month. Now, as the Ok, Boomer, all bets are off if I will be able to be on the road this summer. 

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"I am the law!" Frank Hague Said

Many current progressives came of age after the era of the Big Urban Political Machines.

Therefore, they may be bug-eyed by contemporary national, state, and local politics. Much of that has taken on the attributes of the old machines. 

Let's cut to the chase: Reform is difficult. It could be years before there is a lessening of the hold of those machines on human beings. 

Essentially, those old machines had been well-oiled welfare systems.

They provided everything from emergency employment to the desperate to a free bed in a nursing facility for grandma.

Your side street needed for the snow plow to swing by?

The first step was to walk over to the Catholic parish rectory and talk to the priest.

He talked to someone.

That someone passed the message along.

The snow plow appeared just before sunset, the workers jubilant that they were earning overtime.

The system worked well for many folks in the loop.

During the 1950s, I grew up in the vestiges of the Frank Hague power structure in Jersey City, New Jersey. His welfare approach included building the amazing maternity hospital - Margaret Hague, named after his mother. That facilitated safe births for generations of residents of Hudson County, NJ. Mine was among them. 

In a sense, the machine was a form of voodoo, casting spells. 

What I know from back then is what I wish I didn't. That way of seeing the world and making decisions about behavior is a closed system. There was the saying: You can't fight city hall. 

From the get-go, that instilled a compulsive suck-up culture. My immigrant family sought out opportunities to be of visible service to the powers that be. Of course, they pulled in those of us born here.

Vividly I remember transporting whatever on the bus to some power player. Yes, I went alone, a grade-schooler. Catholic families were too over-burdened with children to be protective. In our neighborhood, little ones tumbled out of tenement windows w/o bars. They disappeared under moving cars. 

Unlike many of my relatives, I wanted a ticket out. I got that ticket punched through academic excellence. That consisted of a full scholarship to an out-of-state college.

There were years of being a free thinker and a free spirit. That scared my family.

Now they are mostly all buried in Holy Name on Montgomery Avenue. So, they aren't around to hammer me with "I told you so." In the current political climate, I have surrendered to the harsh adage: You don't fight city hall. 

Reflection: The evolutionary fundamental of adaptation ensured the survival of the species.

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Legal Marketers - The Art of Nudge

Language, even in this visual era, is everything. Of course, lawyers have that down cold. Their legal marketing teams already struggle over each work for promotional content. 

Then, totally obvious: Be they the words used at dinner during a new-business-development pitch or for search engine optimization, the terminology remains a work horse.

Both commercial and personal rhetoric now includes the language as well as the mindset associated with "nudge."

A headline in The Wall Street Journal contains the term "nudge." That, of course, reinforces that it is okay for business types to use the nudge word. 

A human resources client was playing with the idea of titling a future book on networking "Nudge." That idea was shelved when it seemed more marketable to do a book on how recruitment already is being overhauled by artificial intelligence.

And, way back in 2014, my executive coach gently recommended  that I had to "nudge" myself out of relationships which no longer served their purpose, including my own personal growth. (Here is that story.) Yes, very much the sticky thinking of Henry Cloud in "Necessary Endings."

The magic of the language of nudge is that it is both direct and indirect. 

The direct part is the lawyer informing the prospect shopping around for representation during a transactional service how many moving parts there are and how many things can go wrong. You bet, the fear imperative. Nudge conceals the hammer in a velvet glove.

The indirect part is praising the prospect for entering that space, along with an invite to a dinner at a posh restaurant to sort out ideas. The old-line Dale Carnegie approach of how to win friends and influence people.

However, nudge is an art. Not everyone has the talent to be on the front lines of nudging. That includes some parents who need to parachute in trained nudge types. 

The implications are huge. Legal marketers in-house/outside firms have to retrofit much of the promotional language.

Ditch "the law."

Replace with "consider this narrow passageway through your problem." 

Obviously, this represents a migration of selling to what isn't selling. 

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The Former Lawyers in the U.S. Senate Should Have Known Better

The ABC Evening News with David Muir dominates the category.

That's because those behind and in front the camera know how to conjure up drama.  Yes, all the world's a stage. 

Those in the U.S. Senate lack that theatrical know-how. Yet, as the New York Post reports, the Senators are baffled that the Senate spectator gallery is half empty.

Their back offices, which should be filled with public relations types, can't put together what should have been the Greatest Show on Earth for 2020.

That is weird since many of the Senators have a lawyering background. Lawyers are socialized to put on show, be it in the courtroom or across the negotiation table.

 Here are 4 tips to reverse this failure to engage.

Create mystery. Everyone anticipates an acquittal. To derail that mindset senators should posture voting for conviction. A wonderful side benefit of that is that they will receive lots of coverage in the media. The media is the most powerful institution in the world. 

Stop being so repetitive. The American people feel reduced to being a child whose adults in the loop continue to nag about the same things. Even in search engine optimization (SEO), Google is punishing posters who get stuck in one message phrased in an infinite number of ways. 

Raise the Emotional Intelligence (EI) double-digit points. The ugliness of extreme polarization is turning people off. Ranging from Dale Carnegie to Dan Goleman, those smart about how to win friends and influence people hammer the importance of being tolerant, respectful, and willing to listen. Actually that dates back to St. Francis of Assissi who preached the value of struggling to understand rather than being understood. Here is his iconic prayer. 

Render public service back home. The impeachment trial is typical inside the beltway, that is, looking inward. Break that spell by reaching out back in the home state and do good. Are the supplies for the food pantry running low? Organize an initiative to solicit and collect food from local restaurants and grocers. Part of the popularity of the ABC version of the news is the "American Strong" snippet at the end of the broadcast. It melts our hearts. Yes, 21st century humans still have hearts. 

Place your sponsored content on this blog. Here are 6 tips for search engine optimization (SEO) in 2020. Coaching on SEO and Ghostwriting for sponsored content also available. Sliding scale fees. Please take advantage of a complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.

As Lawyers Know: StoryTelling Serves Agendas, Not Struggle for Truth (if such an entity exists)

Since early civilization, human beings gathered around the fire and told stories.

Probably then as now few or any of those stories disclosed much truth.

They were shared with an agenda. Not to make the definitive statement about whatever. When law was shaped as systems, lawyers functioned to help their clients put together the right story and have it hold up under a society's version of cross-examination. 

In caveman times, the agendas ranged from showing off and reducing their own anxiety to helping the clan survive and bring home bigger and better food for supper for all.

In the 21 century sundry legal systems, the strategic narratives focus on strong or lame contentions of innocence, pile on of examples of mitigating circumstances, and/or suffering endured. For the latter, juries are all ears, with their nuclear verdicts. 

Yet, currently there persists, especially in tabloids like Daily Mail and New York Post, claims that X or Y has access to the "real story" and is spilling the beans - on an exclusive basis. There are plenty of those, of course, in the megxit loop. Who doesn't have the real story about why half of the Fab Four bailed! 

The reality, as anyone who has studied or observed human psychology understands, is that probably not even H & M fully understand the drivers for their decision.

The unconscious and subconscious are complex entities. Even after years of psychoanalysis those screwing up might still be mostly clueless why. Great art such as the dramas of William Shakespeare and novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald hammer the memes of the struggle for self-awareness.  Deceased pop author and former lawyer at Boies Schiller Elizabeth Wurtzel, I have a hunch, didn't know who she was.

That supposed real story represents little else than a clever striver having fun connecting some dots. Yes, media subscribers do also have fun reading all that. But, it's reductionistic to apply the "findings" to anything as convoluted and messy as a human life.

What could have been the real motivation in Timothy Banowetz's alleged murder of lawyer Randy Gori? He likely will never find out himself. 

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Authority in Play - Lessons for Lawyers from Megxit, Iran, France, and the American Revolution

With a very American perspective in The New York Times, columnist Maureen Dowd reflects on the "corgi-and-gin-loving racket." That is, the very wealthy reign of the House of Windsor. 

Essentially, ranging from Prince Andrew's alleged sexual misconduct to Megxit, this is yet one more institution in which trust is lost.

Actually those in the new land went to through that crisis of belief and support about two and a half centuries ago. What was to evolve into the headquarters for global capitalism, the colonists' mindset was about money. The British form of taxation was siphoning off too much of it. 

Windsor's moral authority on everything and anything has blown up.

It would be no surprise if in a future Edelman Trust Barometer there is an allusion to the collapse of belief in the need for the British monarchy.

There is a push-back on the leadership in Iran.

And, in France, Everyman and Everywoman are saying "nonono" to the government's big idea about upping the age of retirement. 

Obviously, Megxit is a microcosm of an extreme paradigm shift in values. That mirrors the intensity of rebellion of not only the American Revolution, but also the French and Russian ones. Of course, lawyers have to pay heed. Law is a man-made institution. The human intersects with all those rules.

The world is bearing witness to that in how Judge James Burke has decided to oversee the Harvey Weinstein trial. Sure, his interpretation of the rules could give ammo to the defense to appeal a conviction. However, currently, it's a kind of "woke" for how judges impose common sense in the convoluted entity that the legal system has become. In time, SCOTUS could decide on the side of simplification: It's that simple that Weinstein shouldn't have been using his cell phone in the courtroom.

With the Barbarians at the Gate, all those with any authority will have to revisit what they consider their "core competence." The question is: What are you best at, what value does that create, how to communicate that, and what is an appropriate reward for all that? 

That type of comprehensive review includes lawyers, both litigation and transactional.

Law.com keeps presenting evidence of the disruptions in the legal sector. Actually, what could be happening is one of those Big Bangs. Law firms, courts, trade associations such as the US Chamber of Commerce, and clients have the opportunity to be proactive on this one.

Communications specialists such as myself are already busy bees recommending:

The new language of authority. Bring on the "we." That's why diversity is so important. With all the current challenges, it's necessary to be inclusive of all points of views and backgrounds. No secret, the legal sector suffers a diversity-challenge. 

Toned-down tone. Authority must sound like it recognizes the unknowability of so much. A Zen mantra is: Clear Thinking, Don't Know.  On "Criminal Minds," there is often an overhaul of the profile. A great moment in broadcasting had been when superprofiler David Rossi had to wrestle with ambiguity.

Confidence in the ability to try on ideas and experiment with solutions. That's how law firm Motley Rice became a respected brand. It put out there and kept refining the traditional concept of public nuisance apllied to product liability. In the California lead paint class action litigation that had resulted in a seminal win. SCOTUS wouldn't review the conviction. 

Connecting. For centuries, the model for that has been how Jesus Christ reached myriad constituencies. Harvard, Stanford, and Yale law schools can launch seminars analyzing the persausive genius of the early Christians. Lawyers have to achieve, metaphorically, eye contact in new business development and all other constituencies to generate positive outcomes for those clients. 

Meanwhile, the 2020 campaign provides a platform for wrestling with the issue of what kinds of leadership are a fit for times of such change. Lawyers should have lots to say about that.

Takeaway: Underneath all the rules is the human need to trust. 

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Should Tiffany Trump JD Replace Meghan McCain on "The View?"

How long does the nation have to defer to the daughter of an American Hero?

Maybe that question is getting answered with the uptick in support of the two-year petition to oust Meghan McCain from "The View." Her late father had been John McCain.

Now, reports Daily Mail, there are 2,300 signatures. It's proposed that another female conservative should replace her. My vote would be for Ivanka Trump or even Tiffany Trump who will finish law school this spring. The latter deserves a big exposure break. 

Why that may never happen is that verbal fireworks on network television - in this case, ABC - brings in eyeballs. If a surge in the number of eyeballs occurs in the 18 to 45 demographic, then advertising revenues can increase. Network television lives for another day or two or three. At 6:30 P.M. ET David Muir can continue to conjure up his magic. 

But, salvation for the nation's eardrums may only come if Fox News offers McCain a slot of her own. That can be positioned and packaged as her taking on the on-the-air personalities such as Tucker Carlson or Lou Dobbs. Who wouldn't tune in for the daily clash of the conservative titans? A good time will be had by all during a time when so many have already wearied of Election 2020. 

America is saved because McCain won't last long. She doesn't have down cold and lacks the talent to do The Conservative Everything like Carlson or Dobbs. She won't be able to land another slot.

And we can return to the normal platitudes on "The View." Along with those, Tiffany can introduce points of law.

Smart global ghostwriting, with niche social networking know-know. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

So Pre-#MeToo - Women Such As Wallis Simpson Who Knew How to Cast Spells on Men

Her story still fascinates - even though it flies in the face of the values of #MeToo.

The Guardian just published a feature on what it took for Wallis Simpson to get out of her marriage in order to marry Edward VIII. Lawyer Robert Egerton provides the details. Back then, divorce, since it undermined society's family values, was not easy to navigate. 

Simpson symbolizes the type of woman who seemed to make it her business to please men. Some describe it as casting a spell. 

No, it wasn't prostitution. The goal, instead, was a financially, socially, and emotionally comfortable marriage. 

Often, through those marriages they acquired professional status and power in their own right. The classic example of that had been Pamela Harriman. Her three husbands had been Randolph Churchill, Leland Hayward, and W. Averell Harriman.

What those kinds of relationships might "cost" the woman, though, is chronicled in the new biography of dramatist Eugene O'Neill. That's "By Women Possessed," with authors Arthur and Barbara Gelb. 

Actress Carlotta Monterey had already bagged one catch. But then she set her cap for O'Neill. Oh, she sure got it, along with his alcoholism, need to be mothered, and bouts of insecurity about his capacity to write.

According to the Gelbs, there seemed to be real love between the two. But the issue is that maybe Monterey would have had a better quality of life, on all levels, had she not become involved with O'Neill. 

In contrast, the #MeToo movement is focused on women who want to succeed professionally without having to please men through old-line play-outs of sexual and emotional tactics. 

Of course, the Simpson et al. model is not dead. There remain women who embrace that but currently for higher stakes. Along with the wealthy lifestyle could be the contacts which open the doors to great professional opportunities. Pragmatists, even if they are feminists, probably wouldn't censure such behavior. In capitalism, all its various forms, the game is about spotting and seizing opportunity. 

Smart global ghostwriting, with social networking know-know. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

Did Angels Hack Google? A Christmas Story

Google Maps, the Directions Part, got it wrong. Or maybe the coders don't factor in headwinds and uphill terrain on streets of Toledo, Ohio.

But, based on the time Google indicated it would take me to travel to from Point A to Point B, I decided against going by a cab. Each way, the cab service informed me, would have cost 23 bucks. Plus tip, since I am a former New Yorker wired to tip.

Instead I headed out on my bright blue trike.

I purchased the beauty, with a back basket over the top adorable, in mid September at Wersellsbikeandskishop.com, Toledo, OH.

That was after I had donated my car to Kars4kids - after State Farm had more than doubled my rates after I had had a minor accident in no-fault state Michigan. Also, I couldn't shake off the trauma - not of the accident, not of the rates shooting up, not of the power insurance companies have in America.

Of course, it turned out: I shoulda taken the cab, to and from the whatever. But, I didn't. Hold onto that.

Back in my residential complex, I found out the elderly woman next door, awaiting heart surgery, had to eat her Meals on Wheels stuff cold. Her microwave had gone kaput.

That afternoon, I did the microwaving for her in my place. She was so over-grateful that I had that moment of clarity: No life should be this hard.

I leaped out onto the trike. I went in search of a microwave. I found it: Christmas red. I transported it in that adorable basket. 

Of course, the cost to me was, according to one way of calculating, a wash. According to my own accounting system, hadn't I "deposited" almost 50 bucks earlier in the day into a special Christmas account?

Reflection: Maybe the Christmas angels had hacked Google, tampering with directions. Otherwise, a woman in Toledo might still be dining on cold Meals on Wheels. 

Smart global ghostwriting, with social networking know-know. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Trial Lawyers & The Paranormal

In public, many do an eye roll when any paranormal phenomenon is mentioned.

This is especially the situation with trial lawyers.

After all, they are trained to focus on empirical data (aka evidence). Some of that may be lousy for a particular case. That's a no-changer.

Also, they are aware how many variables can affect the outcome of their case. Those include the venue, the law itself, the quality of the opposing lawyer, client demand, the judge, the jury, and, now, the tendency for juries to perceive themselves as change agents reforming through nuclear verdicts. 

But, when unobserved (except by all those collecting data about us) on the internet, those same lawyers are likely exploring what the future might bring for them. That could be in a specific trial or their overall career.

For example, for New York Magazine, among the popular columns is "Madame Clairevoyant."

Today there is a detailed projection for every astrology zodiac sign for the week of November 11th. 

Since New York Magazine has no paywall, anyone can click on "Madame Clairevoyant" without charge.

If that were to be done on an internet site such as Psychic Interactive, the fee, paid with a credit card, is $19 for 15 minutes. At Angelica of the Angels in Salem, MA, the fee is $30 for 15 minutes for a phone or in-person reading. For lawyers involved in high stakes, the best option at Angelica would be to book a reading with the founder Rev. Barbara. That costs $40 for 15 minutes. 

So, what do you get for free at New York Magazine?

More than is disclosed through fortune cookies. But not much, at least for me, a Taurus (May 3rd).

I was warned about chasing after the past, including what I had lost. Yeah, a lot like what executive coach Henry Cloud's book "Necessary Endings" is about. 

The irony is this: More and more of us no longer have a past to chase after.

For instance, the place I grew up in - Jersey City, New Jersey - no longer exists. No, it wasn't bombed out. It was gentrified. Not far from where my family paid $30 monthly for five railroad rooms, a studio apartment runs between $2,973 and $3,198 for that same month.

So many of my enemies are dead. The end of a feud through death can represent a significant loss. 

And, the love of English and American literature which plunked me into a doctoral program (unmarketable) becomes increasingly a non-share. I mentioned "The Great Gatsby" to a Millennial client. I will never do that again. I could see myself fading into old before her eyes.

With less and less past to chase, there are only current possibilities. Maybe that has been Madame Clairevoyant's message to me: Spot potential and go after it. 

For trial lawyers, the message, direct or indirect, could be: Work way harder than the opposition.

Smart global ghostwriting, with social networking know-know. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.