Tough, Trump, Crypto Thoughts, and Elizabeth Holmes
I published my book (finally).
After six years of talking about it, writing it, and living it, I finally published this book. It’s called TOUGH.
If you enjoy coming of age novels that explore political, socioeconomic, and relationship issues, TOUGH may be perfect for you. It’s largely inspired by my own personal experiences after graduating law school unemployed, in a relationship, and 3,000 miles away from my family. I had to find a job in an oversaturated legal market still recovering from the financial crisis while facing heaps of student loans with exorbitant interest rates.
President Biden’s administration may have forgiven many student loans recently, but nobody talks about the interest rates (which the Department of Education is still charging). For years, some student loans underwritten by the federal government were almost twice as expensive as most conventional mortgages!
TOUGH explores issues like this through the story’s protagonist, Hank Parsons. My hope with the book is not that you’ll agree with all of Hank’s decisions and opinions. Or that you’ll completely empathize with him either. Not many people agreed with Holden Caulfield, after all. But J.D. Salinger made most readers think.
I hope to do the same. I hope TOUGH challenges any preconceptions you might have of the millennial coming of age experience. For better or worse.
If you do not want to purchase it, you can also find the book on my Medium profile where I plan to release one chapter per week starting next week. Charles Dickens style. If you are not a Medium subscriber, you can become one here and enjoy not only more of my writing, but work product from other fantastic writers too.
Trump v. DeSanctimonious
As you undoubtedly heard, not only did Trump announce his 2024 candidacy for President this past week, but he also was released by Elon Musk from Twitter jail.
Trump of course said he’s staying on his own social media platform, Trump… er… “Truth” Social:
Elon, for his part, is trying to bait Trump into using Twitter in his own uniquely mature way. Let’s face it: he knows Trump will be good for business. Few people can avert their eyes from a car crash.
But this isn’t even the most interesting Trump story from the past week! That award goes to Trump’s treatment of Ron DeSantis and his (untimely) announcement immediately after most of his candidates got walloped in the Midterm Elections.
DeSantis has been smart not to take the bait. Bullies want you to engage with them. To react. Then they know they have you. Just talk to Ted Cruz.
Stay tuned for an upcoming article on how the Republican Party can dump Trump for good.
And in the meantime, let’s see if Trump can ignore Elon’s Twitter bait.
Crypto thoughts…
More crypto thoughts this week on the top 3 cryptocurrency market reforms that should be implemented post FTX. Listen to the following podcast for more:
Elizabeth Holmes
The woman who was once revolutionizing the blood testing industry finally received her just desserts this past week. She was sentenced to over 11 years in prison.
Elizabeth Holmes tried to show remorse to the judge, and she even appeared before him pregnant, just as she had during her trial. The cynic in me thinks that was part of her overall leniency strategy.
If it was, it didn’t work.
We previously wrote how she was different from other founders. There’s a big difference between failure by fraud and moonshot failure. One involves misrepresentation and deceit. The other is mere puffery and hyperbole. For those who don’t quite understand the difference, I recommend reading this article (although it’s not legal advice).
Keep in mind though, Elizabeth Holmes’ fate is far from over. She will likely appeal and that could take years. To be continued…
On a lighter note…
In the mood for some Black Friday consumerism? We recently went shopping at some fun outlets a little over an hour from Manhattan. We used to make the pilgrimage every year in the fall. It had been three years since our last visit (stupid pandemic!).
Although our trip was cut short by bad weather (the shops are not all indoors), it was a great time. Hope you enjoy:
Have a great week. And for those in the U.S., Happy Thanksgiving!
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