The Sackler family has been rightly criticized for making billions from the manufacture and marketing of opioids. Its Purdue Pharmaceuticals has been hit with hundreds or thousands of lawsuits.
Recently, New York State’s aggressive new State Attorney General Leticia James has been targeting individual members of the family, perhaps to claw back some of those billions and use them for victim compensation.
Museums and universities are rejecting their (future) donations.
The New York Post reports that two members of the billionaire Sacklers have decided to vacate New York and move to Florida.
Roger Stone, Trump’s friend, described Florida as a “sunny place for shady people.”
(Did Somerset Maugham say it first?)
Many of the shady people seem to be members of the GOP in the Florida Legislature.
Florida will welcome all the Sacklers!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Welcome to Bob’s Florida Strip Mall. We got 1) a massage parlor, 2) a shooting range and gun shop, 3) a “pain treatment” center, 4) a church, 5) a charter school, 6) a tort and divorce lawyer, 7) and a Bible bookstore, and 8) a pawn shop, all conveniently located between a strip club and a megachurch, depending on which pole of human fantasy you incline toward.
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I cannot help but recall a trip to Florida I took when I was a young teacher in a North Carolina school for troubled youth. I had become interested in a school like that in a place called Howey in the Hills, not far from my cousins in Winter Haven. On my way from my cousin to the school, I saw a huge sign with a comic character duck of some sort, juxtaposed with a banjo. There was a huge caption advertising some attraction: “you’re in luck! a banjo playing duck”
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And, a bail bondsman
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Well, we had one of those, but he’s in jail now, so that spot’s open if you want it, Linda!
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Bad karma.
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Ah, excellent, Bob.
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Bob Now THAT’s funny. CBK
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It’s not really funny, because it happens to be the sad truth. Remember Diane’s post of a few years ago (it’s seared into my memory) that a psychologist sent about a charter school in a FL strip mall, that mall containing some of the occupants Bob refers to? (I believe it was a gun shop, but a porn shop instead of a strip club.)
The receptionist/registrar had one other job (don’t recall), but for which she was totally unqualified. The “playground” was a no-playground-equipped alley/parking lot behind the school.
If it’s now non-existent, I’m sure there are plenty of others that have opened in FL &, in fact, nationally (remember the article–w/pictures–that was in The Sunday New York Times Magazine last year? (I still have it.)
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Catherine thinks that I am exaggerating this. LOL. Come on down, Catherine and get the full cultural experience AND a visit to the Weeki Wachee Mermaids and some fine dining on gator tail to boot!
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Bob I get it. CBK
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I do know that, Catherine. A failed attempt at humor.
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Florida. . . a cultural junkyard where human dignity, even humanity itself, goes to die. CBK
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Maybe politically, but there are a lot of good birds there for us ornithologically inclined.
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Roy Turrentine No such thing as a “pure” junkyard, I guess. CBK
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Yes, the Roseate Spoonbills have made something of a comeback after having been driven almost to extinction during the 1920s-40s for feathers for ladies’ hats.
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http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20140711-a-sunny-place-for-shady-people
According to this bbc link, Maugham used that line on the French Riveria. I think I will suggest something dangerous, that people in hostile climates in general have something on those who live in more gentle ones. Something about adversity can bring people together.
The irony of Florida’s conservative bent in recent years is that the state used to be more left leaning years ago.
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Yes, Florida has the largest concentration of grifters outside of Washington, DC., but it is truly wonderful to see how people come together in adversity–in the aftermath of a hurricane, for example. We’re going to see a lot of that in the not-so-distant future, as climate change accelerates storm production. But maybe I’m wrong about this. After all, Donald Trump’s intuition is so much better than science is.
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I read an article in this morning’s paper that Florida leads the nation in cases of fraud. It is no accident that the devious and dubious flock to the Sunshine State. All the charter fraud and profiteering are part of a much larger picture. Florida leads the nation in identity theft. Millions of confused, elderly people present an open invitation of “easy pickins” to grifters and con-artists from all over the world. The Sacklers will fit right in. https://www.browardpalmbeach.com/news/study-florida-leads-nation-in-fraud-identity-theft-everything-shady-6912596
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What happens is that they run from the law until they hit an ocean and can’t go any further.
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A southward migratory route long favored by aging east coast families whose season in the sun has passed . . .
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These people are not unlike Nazi war criminals. They will spend the rest of their lives on the run.
All their billions will not buy them peace.
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SomeDAM: I’m sure they have nooo trouble sleeping at night.
If they do, there are pills for that…
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LMAO
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I’m pretty sure they won’t take their own pills.
They know how addictive they are.
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Good…there are a lot of SINK HOLES in Florida. May they get swallowed up by Mother Nature.
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Yvonne–now this is a good one!
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The rich go to Jupiter
to get more stupider.
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This just in: physicists and psychologists issue joint study of Trump’s fMRIs indicating that the rate of entropy in the universe is accelerating.
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After “all” the shady people move to Florida, maybe Global Warming will cause the oceans to rise faster and Florida will be underwater. Will all the shady billionaires that live in Florid to hide from justice build waterproof glass houses and live underwater?
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There is no shortage of shady characters here in Jersey. One even has presidential aspirations.
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Yup. The New York-New Jersey mob nexus. Can anyone on this blog name one substantive difference between Donald Trump and John Gotti?
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“Can anyone on this blog name one substantive difference between Donald Trump and John Gotti?”
Three differences:
One: Trump is still alive
Two: Trump tweets … a lot
Three: Always Trumpers think he was sent from God
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So the Sacklers should have moved to New Jersey, not Florida!
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That one was worth a good laugh. Still smiling.
The Sacklers could seek asylum from Chris Christie or hide out at his house … whatever works.
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Maybe we can get them to move to Florida too before the state is under water.
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Just one of the shady characters in New Jersey has Presidential aspirations?
That’s actually encouraging.
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Bravo Bob. My family drove from Toronto to FL years ago (80s) and I still remember the “Weeki Wachee Mermaid Flip” and also an inordinately large number of greyhound racing venues(?)
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Callisto: The people of Florida recently ENDED, via a referendum, the obscene nonsport of greyhound racing! This was truly a grassroots effort. I was on the board of Florida Voices for Animals, and when spent a long time working toward this–standing in front of Greyhound torturing venues with picket signs and lobbying the legislature. People listened and learned.
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cx: and we spent
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Forgive me father, for my sins…
…and allow me to relocate to Florida
I promise to open my heart, to those who cannot resist what I have to offer…with compliments from, and the blessings of, the Sunshine State
And that you grant me that I may keep my wealth…
and continue unhindered in pursuit of fulfilling my dream
Your most humble and wealthy servant
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