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Top Three Takeaways – September 21st, 2021
- Aiding and abetting. Under Florida law it’s a crime to knowingly assist anyone who’s committed a crime. The statue reads: 777.011 Principal in first degree.—Whoever commits any criminal offense against the state, whether felony or misdemeanor, or aids, abets, counsels, hires, or otherwise procures such offense to be committed, and such offense is committed or is attempted to be committed, is a principal in the first degree and may be charged, convicted, and punished as such, whether he or she is or is not actually or constructively present at the commission of such offense. The threshold with which one must cross in order to be found guilty of this offence in Florida... The State must prove that the accessory either knew or was provided sufficiently reliable information that would give a reasonable person sufficient basis to believe that the crime was committed by the person who is being assisted. For many who’ve been shocked by the willingness of Brian Laundrie’s parents to stay silent and to shield Brian while he was silent during the search for Gabby Petito, there may well be a price they pay for that silence based upon their house being considered a crime scene by the FBI. Should this case unfold the way it appears likely to, with Brian Laundrie responsible for Gabby Petito’s death, and if any evidence turns up indicating the parents knew more than they let on, there’s the possibility that frustrations could be met with justice. For the parents to not even contact the Petito family immediately after Brian came home alone and then for them to lawyer up...there’s a case potentially waiting to be made.
- Credibility Crisis. When you’re Joe Biden and NBC’s Chuck Todd says you have a credibility crisis there’s really nothing left to be said. That’s because at that point the failures are so pervasive that even an unobjective observer can’t ignore the reality on the ground. There’s literally no major issue with which Joe Biden retains credibility. Take inflation. Months ago, Biden said it’s temporary. How temporary has it been for you? Border. Joe Biden self-created a crisis by allowing an open border. When migrants spiked to record levels in March, he said it’s cyclical and it happens every year. Then he appointed VP Harris to fix the self-created crisis and here we are in late September with the worst humanitarian and migrant crisis our country has ever seen. On Afghanistan, in June he lectured those who dare suggest the Taliban could take on the Afghan Army as the country’s Army outmanned and outgunned them. In the mist of the country falling, he said it wasn’t inevitable. And during the final days of the pullout, after he’d already left Americans to fend for themselves behind enemy lines and after we lost 13 service members in a terror attack came the drone strike. What was hailed at the time as a successful targeting of ISIS-K terrorists turned out to be a normal family of ten, including seven children. How about pandemic management? First, he said 70% of eligible Americans would be vaccinated by July 4th. They weren’t. Then he declared success on July 4th anyway. How’s that worked out? It’s truly stunning how wrong he has been on every major issue and so quickly. If your goal was to set out to be wrong, you’d have a hard time doing better than Joe Biden has through eight months as president. We’ve never seen anything quite like it. So yes, Joe Biden has a credibility crisis which is why you should never take his predictions or policy at face value. In fact, to date, if you were to listen to what’s he’s said and assumed the opposite – you’d be more informed. Robert Gates said he’s been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past 40 years. Check that. He’s remarkably just wrong on everything now.
- Meme stock to dream job? For 99% of successful businesses and industries good fortune has to be earned by creating a good product, service or experience (the most successful companies do all three). These days though, there are rule breakers. Social media and technology has allowed companies and industries to be willed into existence. Take cryptocurrency. All invented out of thin air (or blockchain as the case may be). Or the meme stocks. Now don’t get me wrong, GameStop once built a successful business based on the big three, but with the ability to download games or play in the cloud they’ve been on the slow decent towards being the Blockbuster of video games. But viola, they became the original Reddit meme stock, billions of investor dollars poured into the company for no valid business-based reason and now their realities and fortunes have changed too. As the company is using some of the windfall of investor dollars to reinvent itself, it’s going to be doing some of it here in South Florida. That’s because GameStop is ramping up customer service, one of the big threes, and they’re doing it by adding a new call and operations center in Pembroke Pines with 500 new jobs to start. You’re familiar with Bitcoin millionaires, now we have a meme stock creating dream jobs for gamers in South Florida.